Yes, I know that we are supposed to end roads with intersections and that to NOT do that can cause routing issues. However... in the world I'm working on, I want for the residential lots to be situated a few squares away from the road. My questions is, how problematic would it likely be to have a 3-way road intersection with the main road continuing on as normal, but a small section of road that comes off of the intersection and dead ends without an intersection, like shown here (simple mockup using base roads)?

Definitely a don't do? I've read most guides on CAW that say to always end a road with an intersection, but I've also seen people state that "raw" dead end roads (without an intersection) don't always cause routing issues and that it can be done.

Maybe some people with more expertise than me can weigh in, but my opinion is to not do it. This is what it says in the official EA guide:



So, this is why those end pieces are needed. It's precisely so sims can make U-turns on dead end roads.

Incidentally, I'm a little confused by what effect you're going for with this. Are you trying to make driveways?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm wanting to do. I figured out a way around it using sidewalk pieces and terrain paint. It will just annoy me that sims will stop in the road in front of their house and then walk onto their lot, but there's no way around that.

I have done that for many lots in my Greek world. I put a sidewalk at each side of the lot and have terrain paint in between and use that paint into the lots a bit also. I have the roads and sidewalks and terrain paint as the same in many places of the world so you really cannot even see where the roads are. I like the look for that world.

I have seen tutorials on this in an old place somewhere, but I didn't see the point in those days, now I do. It's one of those things I guess

Have you tried using road textures on sidewalks. It will probably be tiled, but then you might be able to make 1/4 of the texture for each part of the driveway, or actually you only need 3 bits. Start, end and middle. Rounded ends to sidewalks can also be made. I have found newer tutorials for that.

Would you mind showing us what you have done?

Yep. I combined Grande Lama's curb+gravel sidewalk texture with Missy's tarmac, which is what I'm using for my road texture, to make a custom sidewalk texture with the curb on the outside edge. I used that sidewalk on each side of the "driveway" and then used the tarmac texture paint between them. All I have to do now is make a custom sidewalk corner texture to fill in the little corner on the curbs and tinker with the normal map a bit, and it will be good.