The Commonwealth of Paradise (USNW): March 27: A (late) Most Heartfelt Thanks

[psander5 198]

I like the way this has progressed!

I was pleasantly surprised at that wide shot of the city!  I liked the closeups, but i'm an overview/region shot man myself.   That skyscraper does look a bit odd, but I'm sure development is doing to fill in around it.  I did a similar kind of thing myself actually.

A building for me?  really?  I'll get my thinking cap on and wait until your city is ready for my choice, if you don't mind!

Suggestions... you said you wanted some!  A water mod would look help, in my opinion.  My favourite (and most others') is PEG's Brigantine mod

[wishfulanthony 3]

My gosh, it's a great CJ you got there, my friend! Really nice little towns, great farming communities, superb scenery... I really love it! Looking forward for more!

[Tomasneto 20]

Yeah..., great CJ!!! I like this kind of houses...

[kj3400 178]

Page 2 and 500 views! This CJ's moving up in the world!

Psander5: Thanks! I can wait for you. Don't forget though. Thanks for the suggestion as well, I'll see how it looks.

Wishfulanthony: Thanks! I'm glad you like it.

Tomasneto: Thanks!

Ok, update 3 should definitely be here tonight.

[kj3400 178]

It's time for Update 3!

Update 3: A Suburb! A Suburb?

Crownsville

So the pro-industry settlers got what they wanted. But people did not exactly want to live in a noisy downtown. So a suburb west of Paradise City was established, named Crownsville. Some interesting history: the downtown was supposed to be on Rt. 1/10, which would split on the west side of the city, but some fool had the wrong road extended through the small downtown. They eventually realized that was not Rt. 1/10, but they decided to give it the designation Business Rt. 1/10. Because Rt. 1/10 skirts along the northern edge of town, it essentially acts as a bypass. 

It was decided that a large shopping center would be built in between Rt. 1/10 and Business Rt. 1/10. The Crownsville shopping center was a success. 

Remember that intersection I showed you? Well here it is, just north of the shopping center. In the bottom left hand corner of the picture you can see Business Rt. 1/10.

A look at one of the sides.

It seems the Kmart is pretty busy, even though all the parking spots are not full!

Here's Rt 1/10 just north of the city (pic facing west) cutting through some neighborhoods.

Because of the mistake made with the main drag, Rt. 10 does not connect directly to the route which continues westward. Instead one has to head north on Business Rt. 1 to join back up with Rt. 10. Rt 1/10 is the avenue in this pic.

So you thought you'd get away from farmland, eh? It's everywhere though!

Here you see development backing up against it.

Recently Business Rt. 1/10 was converted into two one way roads from the shopping center to alleviate traffic heading to the town’s train station and downtown.

The town's train station. It and the tracks were surrounded by greenery to lessen the noise pollution.

Crownsville has industry as well. It's not as developed though.

I just liked this picture.

A graveyard in a nice neighborhood

A local high school in another nice neighborhood.

Overview of Crownville. Note Rt. 1/10 and the new development in the northwest.

And a bigger overview. Look at all that space.

This area will be very important to the region’s success later on. By now you may have noticed the region’s missing some things most regions have. If you guess what it is, I’ve got a surprise for that lucky person.

Next update will have us passing back through Paradise City, but not stopping, and heading north.

I hope you enjoyed this update!

Comments, questions, and constructive criticism are welcome! I'd love to hear your opinion!

[kj3400 178]

Ok, this CJ's hit page 3 in 2 days, so I'll post a little teaser to keep you entertained until update 4 and to prevent the Commonwealth of Paradise from falling in the dark abyss of forgotten CJs.

Two for one! More bang for your buck!  Until update 4!

[Lyhoko Leaci 770]

Looks good! Interesting interchange in the last update...

[JoystickJunkie 0]

Love alot of stuff about this CJ. The suburbs look great, and the night shots look really good too. However the Night Shots are very very dark, and its kinda hard to make out anything. Still I love what you have going on here.

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull updates my friend,excellent farming and countryside.everything is looking very nice

[Patricius Maximus 236]

It really does look like a paradise .

I liked the continuous flow intersection.

[dfnva 34]

Wow, that's an awesome at-grade intersection where Rte. 1/10 and Bus 1/10 cross. Not sure if I remember the term, I want to say 'Michigan Left' but I could be wrong.

-Dan

[kj3400 178]

Leech10: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

JoystickJunkie: Thanks! The night shots are dark because of a night mod I installed. I'll try to make it a bit brighter next time.

Jacqulina: Thank you!

Patricus Maximus: Thanks! There'll be more where that came from.

Dfnva: Thanks! Well actually, as Patricus Maximus said, it's a continuous flow intersection. I might try a Michigan left though and see how it goes.

Just 2 things today.....

In case you didn't read the bit under update 3, I'm beginning sometime which you'll probably see throughout this CJ. I'm going to open up a contest involving this region. The lucky person who wins this contest will get something really interesting, shall we say.

The contest to figure out what the Commonwealth is missing is now on. I'll just give a hint that you've already saw pretty much all there is of the Commonwealth so far, so tell me, and you'll get a surprise! The 50th post is also coming up, and that lucky person will also win big.

Also update 4 will be here soon, but update 5 may be delayed a couple of days as I get the selected area together. Please be patient.

Cheers!

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Prizes?? [activates greed... plots to obtain prize] hehehehe

[kj3400 178]

Schulmanator: Now, now, play nicely with the other children!

Though you didn't provide a response about what the region's missing.

Update 4 is coming along steadily and will be here before the end of the week, but update 5 won't be made until I get someone to solve the mystery of what the Commonwealth's missing. Come on, tell me what you think is missing. There's a reward in store....

[kj3400 178]

Unfortunately, update 4 isn't coming tonight. 

On the brighter side I have been working on update 5. Remember all that space northwest of Crownsville in the last pic from update 3? Well that space is no longer empty. Just take a guess at what what might be there. It may give you a clue as to what is missing in the Commonwealth.

[kj3400 178]

Some good news! The Commonwealth of Paradise has been accepted as an observer nation in the AFDES! 

Once again, this CJ has managed to get itself a little buried. So how about we solve that problem with update 4?

Update 4: They’re twins! Sort of…

Bayview and Burgess

Now settlers started coming in by boat in droves from the US at this point, and as they realized the coastal areas were taken they started to move north. These are two of the first towns settlers built on their trek north.

Bayview is built on USp (United States Route in Paradise) 3. It’s a small town with only about 9,000 people. There’s a very small downtown and a hospital but not much else. Just northwest of the town is farmland. North of the town is the train station which was recently rebuilt to accommodate the increased train traffic to Paradise City. USp 3 was also widened for increased traffic to the train station.

This is the old CBD. It's rather small. Unfortunately the planners didn't plan for future development, and there's no way now that residents have moved in their homes.

This is the CBD as of today. It's still small, but higher density buildings have been established.

(Sorry about the command bar. I just noticed it was there when I uploaded the photos)

A typical neighborhood. You can see the fireworks from the city celebrating its 20th year. Local officials are trying to prevent erosion and a possible landslide by implementing the planting of trees on the hilly areas like this one.

You can see where they've started planting. Do you like the trees? I thought they would be better than the Maxis ones, though you can see I still have them around.

Development encroaching on farmland on the west side of town.

The old train station I mentioned before. It was too small so......

I put this one in its place. Looks nice doesn't it? Town officials are looking to add parking and create an overpass for USp 3,but finding the neccessary people to talk to is hard in a region that doesn't have a central government yet.

The Commonwealth tries to use renewable resources whenever possible. This hilltopwas the perfect place for a wind power farm. Plans for expansion are being drawn up as I speak.

A lonely rail winding through farmland. Notice some of the farms multitask when it comes to crops.

Burgess is more recent then Bayview, but it is slightly bigger than it. With about 7,000 people in just a few years, it has experienced a boom because of the amount of jobs that have become available in Paradise City. It also has a train station, but it is much smaller than the one in Bayview.

The center of town. It's much bigger than Bayview, with an opportunity to expand. I didn't include any pics of the residential areas. They're almost exactly like Bayview's. 

A lonely pair of not so empty roads (USp 3 (l) and Rt. 19 ®) converge on a roundabout at night.

An overview of Bayview.

And of Burgess. Some areas are still being developed.

An overview of the whole area.

I hope you enjoyed this update as overdue as it may be. The next update will be a special one.

A little teaser until next time....

Cheers!

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Nicely done. I like the region overview maps.

[dfnva 34]

Nice update, I like all the trees you're using. I stand corrected about a Michigan Left, I googled it and it's a 'u-turn' designed so one doesn't have to turn left at an intersection.

-Dan

[kj3400 178]

Schulmanator: Thank you! I think it's best to get a feel for the whole area.

Dfnva: Thanks! It would be nice if michigan lefts could be realistically represented, though.

Update 5 will be a special one. The Commonwealth gets something new! Find out tomorrow on Thanksgiving (American, that is)!!

Cheers!

[kj3400 178]

Just another teaser because I'm too full and tired from Thanksgiving to post the actual update. 

It also lets you know how far I've gotten.

Cheers!

[jacqulina 162]

very nice looking residential and farming my friend,great looking region view too.

[kj3400 178]

Jacqulina: Thank you!

So it's late night, and the day after Thanksgiving. What better way to unwind after bum rushing the stores on Black Friday than to see a brand new update for the Commonwealth?

The Commonwealth's population has finally reached 100,000! 

The region has recently realized that in order to get more people to come there, it needed a new port of entry. So I present to you my and the Commonwealth's first airport, Paradise International Airport.

The terminal is divided up into two concourses. Concourse A is for all North American flights.This concourse will also be used for regional flights when other airports are constructed.

Here we see a United 747 boarding passengers.

Concourse B is for all international flights.

An Singapore airliner getting ready to taxi to a runway.

The two runways.

The air traffic control tower.

The refueling area.

The terminal has a small rail station and a minimal amount of parking.

For those who aren't lucky enough to park at the terminal, extra parrking is provided a quarter mile away. Shuttles are available to take patrons to the terminal.

An overview of the airport and Crownsville.

I hope you enjoyed this special update. I'd like to have your opinion on the airport. Now it's my first one, so don't be too harsh, but I'd like to know what I can do to improve. Remember that all you lurkers in the shadows should come out and post.

Cheers!

[Hawkeye9 0]

Very nice airport, looks great!!!

Keep it up!!!

[starrychelx 0]

it is coming along well GOOD JOB!

[Haljackey 17,437]

Nice airport kj3400! Its looking amazing!

Keep up the excellent work,

-Haljackey

[dfnva 34]

Nice airport. I like how you've got the huge parking complex 1/4 mile away, sounds about right for a lot of airports (as the parking often seems incredibly far away).

-Dan

[Twenty20 28]

Wow, the overview is amazing ! Good farming and countryside, and your airport is really impressive, it's a very good work you made.

[psander5 198]

The airport looks great! More so since it's your first one. You should have seen mine! I like the shape of the terminal building. I also like your region view. I love region views!

[griffen_star 0]

Your airport is very nice, and I love the shot of the train with the autumn tree's in the earlier post.

Good work! Keep it up!

[SirUnger 13]

Really nice airport my friend! And the region shot looks amazing. I hope we will see more soon.