Traffic question - are mods cheating?

[Leander.quest]

After seeing some Youtube videos the traffic flow is much better with mods BUT is this cheating? Was this intended? If you have a goal to reach something but use mods everything becomes easier.

Or is the vanilla traffic system just too buggy and mods are essential?

Which mod do you recommend? I read somewhere that you can control traffic lights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yITr127KZtQ

Vanilla just looks horrible.

[onezerorising]

There is no possible way to 'cheat' in a single-player game. Yes, you might get some achievement that you 'don't deserve', but seeing as the only person that will know is you, the only question then is whether or not you can live with that. Either way, cheating simply isn't a thing here on Cities: Skylines.

All of which said, traffic isn't strictly buggy. What it is is single minded and those of us who understand that do not have problems with it - or we do and quickly resolve them.

Currently the only worthwhile mod to deal with traffic is itself a bit broken (unless it got fixed already while I wasn't looking), and that is Traffic manager, President Edition, usually referred to as TMPE.

For myself I recommend searching for OneJasonBradly's excellent videos on traffic management alongside this guide :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410236188

Hope that helps :)

[Phoenix C64]

I always liked that video, but I don't know why most of those roads are labeled as "NExt & TMPE" ... you can just download thos interchanges from the workshop and use them without any sort of mods whatsoever and they work just fine and efficient.

example: I use the turbine and pinavia a LOT... making small adjustements with TMPE or leaving it "as is" downloaded from Timboh's collection and they work almost the same.

in my opinion, people abuse mods like TMPE to try and fix traffic, when the cold truth is that they need to l2p and learn to deal with traffic in a vanilla way before they start using TMPE

i only use TMPE for parking AI and no car despawn. plus the ocasional small adjustements here and there like removing parking from a road or changing the vehicle restrictions or speed limit in a couple of places. i do not relay on it to "fix traffic magically"

[ancienthighway]

Using mods in a single player game is only cheating if you feel like you're cheating. It's really up to you whether a mod is acceptable or not.

[CyberVibes]

Originally posted by ancienthighway:

Using mods in a single player game is only cheating if you feel like you're cheating. It's really up to you whether a mod is acceptable or not.

I agree, play the game the way you want to, gaming is supposed to be about pleasure and enjoyment.

[No4b]

C:S is mostly a simulation game and most of the features of TMPE allow better simulation. For example parking /Lane /speed restriction etc is often done in order to improve traffic.
So if u play for simulation it's just game improving mod, that allow u to simulate better.
If u play for achievement or speedrun or something, than well that might be considered as cheat. So if u feel like it, play without mod.

[Ualdriver]

You can use Better AI at the trade off of disabling despawning if you feel like its cheating. Disabling dispawning causes actual traffic jams to form

[Leander.quest]

Thanks for your replies! Why does vanilla look so bad? The video in my first post shows how ugly traffic is. Cars don't wait and line up in queue but ... everybody drives like in some cities in India or other crowded ones.

I just don't understand why a game that does a lot right doesn't have better traffic tools.

[Phoenix C64]

vanilla traffic tools are more than adequate. you just need to learn how to work with them, just you need to learn the system in any other videogame. how to jump that one platform in super mario? how to win races in forza? how to become a fortnite god? practice and learning.
it's a videogame, it's not real life, so it has it's own rules and physic laws. yes, it tries to simulate real stuff, but with current processing power you can only do so much.

[Leander.quest]

But vanilla traffic looks ugly. Cars seem to go through each other. Please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yITr127KZtQ

0:42...6 lane roads without lights... WTF!

[Phoenix C64]

so what? don't make that one intersection, problem solved.

[Leander.quest]

But don't care behave the same elsewhere? (vanilla) I have some hours in the game but just playing around without big cities or much traffic :)

[ancienthighway]

Originally posted by LeanderAT:

But vanilla traffic looks ugly. Cars seem to go through each other...

Let's start with TM:PE is current broken. While lane and traffic management are working, it breaks all public transportation. Not recommended for use at this time.
Much of what is demonstrated in those videos can be done in vanilla as well. Network Extensions 2 will provide some additional road options, but no traffic options other than road selection.

With or without mods, if you don't enable traffic lights at an intersections, cars "go through" each other. Traffic lights and stop signs will lessed that some, but it still happens.

If you want "pretty" traffic, whatever that is, you need to plan zones with traffic in mind. You need to plan street hierarchy with traffic in mind. You need to plan traffic lights and signs with traffic in mind.

[Leander.quest]

Thanks! So I shouldn't bother anyway if TM:PE is broken, should I? By the way, I have all DLCs.

[Yan D]

TMPE increases game realism and provides tools that already exists in real life. Cities skylines a simulation capable of a moderate degree of realism that just happens to be a mass market game with low barrier to entry - you can treat it as a videogame and beat all the "levels" and get all the achievements by vanilla rules... or you can mod the game, make it more realistic, treat it as a simulation and explore the wonderful world of traffic engineering.

[Owlchemist]

TMPE balances in both directions - it theoretically makes the game easier with improved AI, yes, but it also can make it more challenging by enabling road maintenance having a greater impact (that is, maintained roads bring it up to base speeds vs how vanilla gives it a bonus), realistic speeds, reckless drivers, and disabling traffic despawning.