how do i center the camera? so i can make straight roads

[Tides]

like make the camera face north or something. the straight roads seem to point to your view so your roads will be slanted if your camera isnt centered

[Stealth]

There's a snap button along the toolbar on the bottom when you have the road type selected. That'll make them snap to proper angles. Make sure it's enabled.

[Dailusional]

If you are taliing about rotating your view. Hold down the middle mouse button then move your mouse.

[Tides]

the snap button doesnt snap it to proper angles, it snaps them to the ideal distance. u can try this out yourself.
im not talking about rotating my view, i'm talking about making it snap to north or a fixed angle so ican make straight roads

[Stealth]

Well they snap perpendicular or parrallel to existing roads. Do you mean you want the very first road to go north? IDK if you can do that but they will all be parallel or perpendicular with respect to eachother using the snapping button.

[kylania]

If you stick with the large boxes it snaps to, then yes you can line it up very nicely with roads as you place them. However it won't snap to nearby roads, it'll just merge/overlap slightly with them.

Seems curves and craziness is the order of the day though from screenshots!

Arumba's reboot videos show a very efficient grid pattern that seems to work nicely for his areas though.

[Tides]

Originally posted by kylania:

If you stick with the large boxes it snaps to, then yes you can line it up very nicely with roads as you place them. However it won't snap to nearby roads, it'll just merge/overlap slightly with them.

Seems curves and craziness is the order of the day though from screenshots!

Arumba's reboot videos show a very efficient grid pattern that seems to work nicely for his areas though.

i want to make a box city to be space efficent. however i cannot do this because the road doesnt snap to make it 'straight'

u can try this by starting a new map and making a road as long as possible. count the squares between the road and the city boundary from the start to the end. you will realise that it isnt straight because your camera isnt straight.

[Tides]

Originally posted by Stealth:

Well they snap perpendicular or parrallel to existing roads. Do you mean you want the very first road to go north? IDK if you can do that but they will all be parallel or perpendicular with respect to eachother using the snapping button.

ya, north. so i can make a box city

[m]

Originally posted by Tides:

Originally posted by kylania:

If you stick with the large boxes it snaps to, then yes you can line it up very nicely with roads as you place them. However it won't snap to nearby roads, it'll just merge/overlap slightly with them.

Seems curves and craziness is the order of the day though from screenshots!

Arumba's reboot videos show a very efficient grid pattern that seems to work nicely for his areas though.

i want to make a box city to be space efficent. however i cannot do this because the road doesnt snap to make it 'straight'

u can try this by starting a new map and making a road as long as possible. count the squares between the road and the city boundary from the start to the end. you will realise that it isnt straight because your camera isnt straight.

Short answer: You can't (to my knowledge)

Long answer: you can choose a starting point for a road close to the border, draw it as long as possible, parallel to the border and end it with the same distance to the border. This is an unguided visual approach, not a 100% solution. By making it as long as possible, you'll minimize diversion.

Consolation prize: In this game, you don't have to use every tiniest bit of space since you aren't that hard pressed for it. With the above approach, you will have a road from which you can arrange a grid that covers all squares with absolutely minimum waste of space.

You'll propably want a rock solid solution, old SC style. But then again, this isn't realistic at all. Look at real cities, they all have minor variations here and there. Not trying to tell you how you have to play the game, but diversions from a super straight 90° pattern make cities much more interesting. Manhattan wouldn't be better off without Broadway (and it doesn't have strict north/south-orientation to begin with).

Regardless, I don't think it would hurt if a method to get a straight solution would be added. Make it Shift-Key while drawing roads or whatever. I would still force myself not to use it though, even though I tend to be totally OCD about these things. But I simply realized that this doesn't improve the gameplay experience for me.

[Tides]

so um, not playing the way i want is okay? okayyyyyyyyyyyy m8.

[m]

Originally posted by Tides:

so um, not playing the way i want is okay? okayyyyyyyyyyyy m8.

What's so hard to understand about "Consolation prize", "Not trying to tell you how you have to play the game" and "I don't think it would hurt if a method to get a straight solution would be added"?
I thought it was more than obvious, but apparently it wasn't: What I wrote is a suggestion how to cope with the current situation, not telling you that your concern is invalid. Happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy m8?

[One Sharp Marine]

Wow, I just found this and it's 3 years after the thread. So, I will state a "cardinal road" answer for those who are seeking to achieve the same cardinal direction goal that Tides seeks::



1. If you first place a prebuilt intersection, such as the cloverleaf or three-way intersection, they are automatically snapped to the cardinal directions.

2. This means that when you select it from your menu, by default, the intersection is snapped with a North/South and East/West orientation.

3. If you right-click (without holding the right-click button), the intersection will rotate at 45 degrees per click, which equates to going from N to NE to E to SE, etc, etc, etc.

(NOTE: If you hold down the right-click button, while an intersection is selected, moving the mouse will result in a specific orientation. So, don't hold down right-click if you want cardinal orientation.)

4. After placing the intersection with the desired orientation, continue the road from the intersection with the "straight road" option selected.

(NOTE: when you get close to the map's edge, the snapping stops working. So, stop the road as close to the map's edge where it still snaps, and finish the road manually from there using the 180 degree indicator when placing the last bit of road.

5. Returning the other way is a little more time-consuming. My method is to work backwards from the intersection the same way I did before, so the roads run parallel at the same width of the intersection's first placement, then reverse the direction of the road using the upgrade tool and right-clicking to reverse the road's direction.



Enjoy! I hope all this helps.