NAM 47 and NAM Lite 3 Now Available

After a mere two-and-a-half months of development, NAM 47 has been released, with some pretty revolutionary features, on two completely different ends of the transportation spectrum: 12-lane highways with 3-lane ramps, and Draggable Classic PedMalls with RCI access.

For those looking for a more minimal NAM experience, we’ve also updated NAM Lite to Version 3, restoring the Maxis RUL2 code that went MIA, and adding the FLEX Road Overpasses to the optional Additional Network Features section.

The RHW-12S network was originally planned to be part of the notorious NAM 31 release, almost exactly 10 years ago, but was cut during that version’s final month of development, in large part because no ramps or width transitions had been developed for it at that point–which meant there was no way to get on or off the network, making it effectively useless. A decade later, however, it’s been revived, complete with support for the FLEX Width Transitions and an extensive array of supported ramp types. Among those ramp types are the mythical Type A3 and Type D3 ramps, which allow one to have 3-lane exits and entrances to and from not only the RHW-12S, but also its smaller brethren, the RHW-8S and RHW-10S. While the Type A3 and Type D3 ramps are ground-level only at present, many of the other orthogonal ramps for the RHW-12S do have L1 and L2 elevated forms, thanks to the model-making efforts of my colleague Flann.

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, my colleagues Lucario Boricua and Ulisse Wolf have managed a “holy grail” modding effort, by not only adding the Draggable Classic PedMalls to the NAM’s transportation toolkit (with 8 different styles, no less–two more than the old puzzle pieces), but by also working out a solution to allow full access to RCI zones with them. The game normally operates with a hardcoded requirement for Car access to get most zones to develop–especially Residential zones–but some special pathing work resulted in a functional solution, without having to get into the wild world of DLL modding.

You can check out both in the “Secret Weapon” videos that Ulisse Wolf produced for this release cycle:

Here’s a full list of NAM 47’s features:

• Pedestrian Revolution Mod Features:
  • The NAM Team is pleased to present the Classic Draggable Pedmalls, courtesy of Ulisse Wolf and Lucario Boricua. These come in 8 styles, 6 of which are equivalents to the Pedmall Puzzle Pieces, and introducing 2 new designs: the Retrowave Red Brick, inspired in the old brick texture used for the U-Rail in earlier NAM versions, and the Industrial Style, using the concrete surface typical of industrial lots. The initially supported features of these pedmalls include:
    • Multidirectional draggable starter pieces using the Street network, supporting all orthogonal, diagonal, intersection and roundabout configurations, with the exception of wide radius curves.
    • Intersection support (OXO T and 4-way) in the form of mid-block crosswalks. These support Road, Avenue, and all two-way Network Widening Mod override networks (TLA-3, AVE-2, ARD-3, NRD-4, TLA-5, RD-4, RD-6, TLA-7 and AVE-6). These draggable pedmalls are also compatible with the FLEX mid-block crosswalk pieces.
    • Special underground paths enable residential zone development, while crossings discourage car traffic through restricted car paths.
  • In addition, some enhancements to existing functionality have been implemented:
    • The override code for the size 3 mid-block crosswalks for TLA-7 and AVE-6 have been overhauled, enabling these to be overridden from one side.
• RealHighway (RHW) Features:
  • RHW-12S A new, 12-lane quadruple-tile RHW network (separable into two dual-tile halves, carrying 6 lanes in each direction) has been added, with the following features:
    • Three height levels are supported: L0/Ground, L1/7.5-meter elevation, and L2/15-meter elevation. Transitioning between these height levels is supported by the ramp-style FLEX Height Transitions (FLEX-HT), as well as the FLEX OnSlope Transitions (FLEX-OSTs), by connecting them to the RHW-12S networks.
    • The RHW-12S features the same network crossings presently available to the other S-Type RHW networks, including crossings in all orientations for all Maxis base networks, all other RHW networks, Draggable Ground Light Rail, and Draggable Road Viaducts (L0-under-Viaduct-only), plus Orthogonal x Orthogonal (OxO)-only support for Network Widening Mod networks, Elevated RealRailway (ERRW) Viaducts, Tram-on-Street, Tram-in-Road, and Tram-in-Avenue. Limited Hybrid Railway (HRW) support also exists.
    • Extensive ramp interface support: supported ramps using FLEXRamps and Draggable Ramp Interfaces (when applicable) include Orthogonal Type A1 (all levels), Type B1 (all levels), Type D1 (all levels), Type E1 (all levels), Type A2 (all levels), Type B2 (L0 only), Type D2 (all levels), Type E2 (L0 only), Type A1-Inside (all levels), Type B1-Inside (all levels), Type D1-Inside (L0 only), Type E1-Inside (L0 only), the new Type A3 (L0 only) and Type D3 (L0 only), plus Diagonal Type A1 (L0 only), Type B1 (L0 only), Type D1 (L0 only), and Type E1 (L0 only).
    • FLEX Width Transition (FLEX-WT) has been added, to support width transitions between RHW-12S and RHW-10S at all applicable height levels.
    • FLEXFly over and undercrossings are supported with the RHW-12S (orthogonal-only, as diagonal undercrossings for FLEXFly do not presently exist for any network).
    • Several bridges have been added (see Bridge section).
    • Support for FlexSPUI is presently limited, and Three-Level Crossings are not yet supported.
  • RHW X3 Ramps: The first two FLEX 3-lane ramps, in A3 and D3 configurations, have been provided for RHW-8S, 10S and 12S. At present, only L0 support is available.
  • General Improvements:
    • Some enhancements, courtesy of memo, have been made to facilitate FLEXFly-over-FLEXFly functionality.
    • Some enhancements, courtesy of Flann, to elevated RHW network models have been added.
    • Various adjacencies involving RHW x RHW crossings next to the base orth-diag curve on the smaller networks (RHW-6S and smaller) have been addressed.
• Bridges: A multitude of new bridges have been added, courtesy of IDS2 and Kitsune:
  • New viaduct bridges for L0 RHW-8S, L0 RHW-10S and L0-L2 RHW-12S.
  • A pair of new Steel Arch bridges for RHW-10S and RHW-12S.
• Base Network Features: A new 5×5 90° Wide Radius Curve FLEX piece has been added to the Avenue network.
• Miscellaneous: A huge number of bugfixes have been done for this release, including:
  • Various RHW situations involving “tile drops”, such as the RHW-8S-to-6S FLEX Width Transitions, the RHW-8S Type D1, E1, and B2 ramps, and the RHW-10S Type D2 and E2 ramps, have received considerable stability upgrades.
  • The orientation of the Road end-T on OWR-1 intersection has been corrected.
  • The orientations of certain NWM intersections involving the OWR-1 network with Euro textures have been corrected.
  • Stability improvements have been made to the Ground Light Rail crossings with various wider RHW networks.
  • The Dual Type 230 QCXs with L1 Dual Type 230-over-RHW-8C/6C and RHW-10S/8S have been improved.
  • Issues in which lane drop arrows appeared in the wrong places on the S-to-C FLEX Width Transitions have been corrected.
  • The ramp textures for the RHW-10S Type D2 and E2 ramps, as well as for the RHW-8S Type A2-Wide and B2 ramps have been improved.
  • Orientation and stability issues have been fixed with the Avenue-based AVE-6 and its Thru-T-intersections with Street, Road, and One-Way Road (both Short-T and Long-T).
  • Orthogonal x Diagonal slip lanes involving Road and One-way Road (OWR) have been re-implemented.
  • Several hundred path files across all areas of the NAM have been fixed by memo and Tarkus.
  • More SAM Street crossings with the Rail network have received crossing gates.
  • Euro wealth textures have been added to the Avenue-based AVE-6 network.

Once again, it’s worth noting that despite EA using pictures of the NAM on the EA App and on the game’s official page, the version sold on the EA App (and also offered up via EA Play and Xbox Game Pass) is the same as the infamous Origin retail edition (Version 1.1.610), and is not supported by the NAM (or NAM Lite). If you’re on Windows (or Linux) you’ll need at least Version 1.1.638 (and preferably Version 1.1.640 or 1.1.641) in order to run the mod.

For those worried about the safety of the mod–especially in light of Windows Defender’s recent updates, which have been erroneously flagging Microsoft’s own software, among other things–NAM 47’s installer has been given a clean bill of health by VirusTotal.

We hope you enjoy the new version, and I look forward to seeing what everyone can do with these features. Rest assured, we have no plans of slowing down, and we’re already planning what kinds of transportation goodies we can bring to the table for NAM 48.

-Tarkus