The Land

[scba 180]

I'm not just starting a CJ to focus on a single city, or a single region. I'm starting on an entire NATION. Yes, bold, eh? Probably not, but I'll be updating this frequently, so it's something to do at least. Here's the overview/map that I drew in about seven seconds.

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[bobinator 0]

Looks very interesting. I'll be watching this one.

[scba 180]

Here's where we're focusing today.

 

Or close up more,

 

 

The small desert/harbor hub of Sands Port! Yes, it says Sand Port, don't mind that.

 

Current Population: 997

 

Built several miles below the major metro area after the docks and harbors of it were filled in or converted as the tourist value of the city grew. Not much to see here, though. The city is mainly one street, on the small stretch of fertile land between the sea and the desert.

 

 

A glimpse of the ports

 

 

The main residential street was originally a bypass for the town traffic for folks making a jaunt across the desert, until job flows from the city stopped.

 

 

The piers, carved out into the sea

 

 

And a big final overview

 

 

This is one of the last stopping points on the north south highway. And though the hue of the picture may give off the

idea that the area left of town is a grassland, don't be fooled, it's a trick of the eye. It's the desert. Please, just bear that in mind.

[bobinator 0]

That port looks awsome! I have a few suggestions too;

1)surround that tennis court with different parks and/or trees- try Pegs plobable random woods, they work merricals!

2) Make your roads closer together so all the houses are right next to each other- more realistic.

 

Good luck with this city journal and all be watching it!

[scba 180]

Date: 3/11/2005 4:24:34 PM Author: bobinator

That port looks awsome! I have a few suggestions too;

1)surround that tennis court with different parks and/or trees- try Pegs plobable random woods, they work merricals!

2) Make your roads closer together so all the houses are right next to each other- more realistic.

Good luck with this city journal and all be watching it!

quote>

 

Thanks a bunch. But the tennis court is purposefully sort of stark, because the town is supposed to have the look of being built in a couple of months. And the trees? Don't got em in this one, it's an arid coast.

[scba 180]

All right, another update! Here's where we're going now.

 

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Alta, the valley lake region!

 

Alta: 1,340

Oatbry: 65

 

Located north of the major city and high up in the mountain cliffs, it's on the fringe between fabulous alpine homes and rugged unknown. The larger lake town, Alta, is quite old and full of history, though it still is only reachable by a windy, treacherous road. An enormous wire bridge was recently built nearby, but still doesn't provide access.

 

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Town Center:

 

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The drops down:

 

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The other establishment, Oatbry. Not much happening here.

 

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Several artists built houses out on the cliffs near the dam

 

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And several wealthy from the city built winter homes up on a mountain plateau

 

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View from the top ~

 

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And a map overview-

 

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[RadioheadFan 1]

Wow, this CJ is really cool. This'll be one to watch, wait and see.

RHF

[oroen 0]

Nice little shore settlement. It'll be nice to see how this all develops in the long run. And the rough map is nice too.

[wickert III 0]

Do you have a region shot?

looks pretty good so far btw

 

[jarcher 0]

Nice idea.  I'll definitely be watching this.

[scba 180]

Where are we setting sail today?

 

The narrow semi-tropical resort coast of the big city!

 

 

Keakon - pop. 1,970,200

                Keakon Beach - 137,000

 

This is the 'big city' between the other two areas already posted here. Built on the mouth of the small but wavy Flame River, it sprawls upwards at every point downtown, and is currently home to almost two million people. Here's a teaser at the main city center, which isn't what this update is focused on.

 

 

The resort beach starts right at the lip of downtown....

 

 

....and continues for miles, all the time being seperated by a city forest, setting the area to three blocks wide at the widest point. The area in front of this huge building cluster used to be a rocky beach, but was converted into an ocean overflow zone after a devastating flood swept through 15 years ago.

 

 

A wide parkway runs most of the beach's course, but it splits into a smaller road and highway near the commercial zones~

 

 

The landmark 'Beach Stadium' where the majority of the fans hang out on the beach or in the water, hoping to grab a ball or an exhibition baseball game. Also the only stadium/field on the shore strip.

 

 

There once was a five-star hotel waterfront, several streets down from the stadium. But it caught fire and was left a skeleton eyesore, prompting it to be torn down 8 years ago.

 

 

Replacing it is the even more vast and tall hotel hub, simply named 'The Grand Hotel.'

 

 

As you might be able to tell, the beach side of the highway is where the high rises and plazas are. The opposite forest side is where you'll find your motels and shops of every sort.

 

 

 

After about four miles, the buildings begin to dwindle in height, and the line is instead littered with normal, small vacation homes and condominiums.

 

 

Random close up ~

 

 

Not much farther after that, the road finally makes a noteworthy turn, and the resort ends, starting up the small houses towards the west edge of town.

 

 

The final shot, as the city starts to unravel at the edge. The ferry and cruise ship port is here, as well as a unique housing design that could soon be seen covering most of thie screen, now appearing in the top of the photo.

 

 

Not that much far below this is Sands Port - about 20 minutes from the cruise ship terminal. From Beach Stadium, it's about 45 minutes to Sands Port and 75 minutes to downtown Alta.

 

[RadioheadFan 1]

Keaton looks great! I love the beachfront, all the mid-rise condos fit in great with the beach setting. Can't wait to see more of the smaller towns, though.

RHF

[SC4 meister 7]

*hits self for not seeing this CJ yet* Wow this is some CJ that you have here can't wait for the next update!

[college_emt_dinger 0]

gotta say that i'm really a big fan so far! looking great..

..btw i'll work for your fire department to solve that fire problem!...

[juantrev 0]

Those beachside projects have to be the in the best location for a ghetto...hehehe

[jacqulina 162]

great port and beaches

[jimbob10 0]

Great downtown! Not to big, not to small!

[Sim_Idiot 10]

Wow... a whole nation.  This should be interesting.

 

I like how we traveled from the smaller towns first, then into the big city.  The descriptions of the towns and areas were well done too.

Good job.

[sloppet 3]

Nice, very nice i'd say

but could you place in this topic some more pictures of the whole region?

oh and you should consider palcing more parks in your city..

keep up the good work!

[scba 180]

In response to those asking for region shots - I'm sorry, but if I were to show you them, I'd have to kill you.

Nah, it's just that I have many different regions, and I get embarrased when there's huge blank squares everywhere.

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(Areas already covered are now in green)

 

 

 

 

 

Today we take a short trip down the lane from Keakon Beach to sunny, sandy Gardenia!

 

Gardenia - Pop. 7,800

        South Keakon U - 3,430 on campus

Gardenbry - Pop. 400

 

The road leading from the resorts of the last post follows the track of the coastline and forest, making a brief stopover in Gardenia before rolling on to Sands Port.

 

 

Gardenia is definitely the 'college town' of people looking to stay near the big city, only a fifteen minute drive away. Here's a look at the main area of SKU. Pictured is the football/soccer field, baseball field, main hall, main building, and some on-campus homes.

 

 

The west - the rest of the buildings, dorms, and parks. The largest building over to the left side is where most of the dorms are.

 

 

Other than the campus area, there isn't much else of interest in Gardenia. No big landmarks, not any very tall buildings.

 

 

The middle class, single family homes in the SE of town.

 

 

High class homes in the SW, and the ferryport.

 

 

Now, immediately to the West and Northwest of town is the vast Red Desert, abruptly ending the forest. Remember, green = sand. Please.

 

 

Not much exists in the hundreds of square miles of desert. One oasis town, miles and miles from here, and nothing else but bushes and connecting highways. Here's one split from the main shore parkway that leads northward.

 

A while back, twenty or thirty years ago, the town of Gardenia proposed logging the electric green forest to a small point, carving out a small fertile area next to the the tall hills that concealed the desert winds. What came was the farming communities known as Gardenbry.

 

 

Unfortunately, due to tight laws on logging the forest, and the sheer cost, there isn't another road exit to the area. A train line leads north out of it, but takes quite a while to reach anything. Here's a close up of a typical area in Gardenbry.

 

 

That's all for Gardenia; more stuff soon!

[scba 180]

Just another little 'thang. When I build cities, I don't usually intend to make perfect, sculptured utopias. I try and go as realistic and by the book as possible, and I hope that it shows.

[RadioheadFan 1]

Your cities are very realistic! Gardenbry looks exactly like the farming communtities near my hometown...interesting place to put a private school, though. Where did you get the soccer field with stands on 2 sides, I love it!

RHF

[scba 180]

Date: 3/18/2005 7:51:12 PM Author: RadioheadFan Your cities are very realistic! Gardenbry looks exactly like the farming communtities near my hometown...interesting place to put a private school, though. Where did you get the soccer field with stands on 2 sides, I love it! RHF

quote>

 

The school was just put there so that people would shutup about not having education and not moving in. I made the soccer field out of props, though the smaller top stands are just an extra prop that I dropped in to make it larger, since the one I made is for high schools. Might upload it to simcity.com

[RadioheadFan 1]

Date: 3/18/2005 8:09:13 PM
Author: scba

Date: 3/18/2005 7:51:12 PM Author: RadioheadFan Your cities are very realistic! Gardenbry looks exactly like the farming communtities near my hometown...interesting place to put a private school, though. Where did you get the soccer field with stands on 2 sides, I love it! RHF

quote>

The school was just put there so that people would shutup about not having education and not moving in. I made the soccer field out of props, though the smaller top stands are just an extra prop that I dropped in to make it larger, since the one I made is for high schools. Might upload it to simcity.com

quote>


Upload it here! Better here than simcity.com..... yuck. Love the stadium, hate the website you're uploading it to.(I mean simcity.com, not Simtrop.)

RHF

[scba 180]

Date: 3/18/2005 8:15:19 PM Author: RadioheadFan

Date: 3/18/2005 8:09:13 PM Author: scba

Date: 3/18/2005 7:51:12 PM Author: RadioheadFan Your cities are very realistic! Gardenbry looks exactly like the farming communtities near my hometown...interesting place to put a private school, though. Where did you get the soccer field with stands on 2 sides, I love it! RHF

quote>

The school was just put there so that people would shutup about not having education and not moving in. I made the soccer field out of props, though the smaller top stands are just an extra prop that I dropped in to make it larger, since the one I made is for high schools. Might upload it to simcity.com

quote> Upload it here! Better here than simcity.com..... yuck. Love the stadium, hate the website you're uploading it to.(I mean simcity.com, not Simtrop.) RHF

quote>

I've put a bunch of things on here, it's just that I get a bunch of flack when people see lots as nothing but jumpled up Lot Editor props and tend to point me in the direction of there. I'm making a pacakage with a bunch of stuff like that for schools soon, watch for it.

[scba 180]

This won't be a normal update, as it's out of the chronological order. More of just a chance for me to show off some landscaping ideas that I have.

Port City, the gleaming metro in the sky, largest in all the land. Unfortunately, it's not quite finished yet, and I'm very bashful, meaning this is all that you'll see of it for quite some time. It already has a population of just over 500,000, and my dream is to reach over a dozen million by the time the region is completed.

 

 

I jumped ahead in the building out to the outer, almost entirely residential area of Yellow Hill, which has run into problems in the recent years.

 

 

North of the city is a vast system of marshes, dams, reservoirs and rivers mixed in with the forest, cutting sprawl to an abrupt halt, leaving a visible fringe on the city shape, just as planned. But it one certain area, upper Yellow Hill, flooding from the above areas was devastating. After the third major flood in thirteen years, city planners called a series of long meetings to determine the area's future before immediately rebuilding. The solution- to dig the streets down.

 

 

A wide drainage river was dug into town, and the streets were all sunken down, leaving areas inside the blocks for residential homes ones again, free of the dangers of washouts. If ever an enormous flood was to come, the water would collect in the deep streets, the nine or so city blocks dug this way.

 

 

And if those ever overflowed, they spilled out into two large drainage ponds south of the development.

 

 

 

And it worked beautifully. In the eight years since construction ended, two possible disasters have been avoided after powerful storms hit the north areas.

 

 

Big overview-

 

 

I should have made an arrow on the nation map pointing to where this is, but you might be able to determine it.

[scba 180]

The next 'real' update will probably be.......eh, Wednesday.

[RadioheadFan 1]

Looks great so far, but when can we expect an update?

RHF

[sloppet 3]

nice very nice city...great update!!

[scba 180]

Today, there isn't much of a story to tell, just an album of pictures from a place far, far away from the seashore - the great Aprigo Valley, the northern rim to be exact.

 

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Aprigo Valley - pop. 176,510

        North Aprigo - 15,700

                Singer Town - 12,000

 

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