tungate (newville)

[mightygoose 92]

well, this is me doing a city journal, to be honest i didn't think i would, too much effort(SC4 is on one computer, internet on another, ergo lots of disk juggling). i live in the UK and i thought as all you guys do it i might try a rural CJ. of course downtown in the region will be big, i love my skyscrapers. it won't be a story so much as a guided tour of the various towns and villages of the newville river valley. as there were some elevation glitches upon terrain import(all the terrain is twenty lower the land clicks too high) so you won't see the region for awhile yet. first off is brentford. a town sorta modelled on my hometown ashford kent.

this is an overview of the first town we visit brentford. the dual freeway is the M20 and is part of an extensive highway network regionwide.

this is a view of the RCI chart, as you can see im grooming a very high wealth region, this is further evident in one of the towns two mid rise developements.

here you can see college road and the university. there is a well used junction on the bypass in the top right.

as we move clockwise around the ringroad we see the council flats that were put up merely 2 years ago the additional motorway bridges are for future developement, as is common in britian.

moving on again we come to the orbital park industrial estate. these are only a five minute drive from the main motorway junction for the town

about 5000 commuters pass through that motorway junction either going into town, to the industrial park or to the train stations, (they will be replaced by a stex one at some point)

this is the town centre based on my very own town centre.the two inside roads are both bus only so encouraging the townsfolk to use mass transport. it has worked suprisingly well as all 6000 odd residents in the council estate bus to work lol

i'll leave you with an image of the ringroad in action. diverting traffic to leave a tranquil and relaxing town centre pedestrian zone

i am proud to say that in this town there are more pedestrians than car drivers. i hope these pics arn't too bad, this is my first attempt at this kinda thing, i think i might have to download ill tonkso style to make it look slightly more british but hey its my best rural work to date.. more soon cheers for viewing

[Nardo69 51]

Good start! But you should convert ypur pics to jpg, those png just take too much for loading!

Nice work with the MT, I guess this bussing pays off a lot ...!

I a m curious where it will leed to!

Bernhard

edit: Yay: First Post! /edit:

[mightygoose 92]

cheers for the jpeg tip off, although you cant see it this town is in a small valley with the M20 running up the middle. there is another town north and to the south well, that would be telling

[GMT 389]

well, the naming is in deed very original... rofl

but what you showed is very very cool work so far

keep it up!

[cityhawk 12]

I can't see the pictures...

Edit: I can see them now due to downloading Firefox. You have some nice pics there, but I would suggest downloading the noonewayarrows mod to get rid of the one-way arrows b/c it just looks better IMO. I'm looking forward to more.

[patfirefghtr 160]

 i cant see no pics at all

[Sam 163]

Great idea making the town centre bus only.

[SC4Noobie 5]

There is something weird going on. When I refresh the page, I can see them for a moment, and then they dissapear. From what i saw, it looks pretty good. I wonder why the pics are not working. I will check back...

[mightygoose 92]

maybe if i change the pics from png to jpeg

that might help everybody, this problem seems to be recurrent around simtrop, whoknows why??? i'll repost them later today hopefully

[GMT 389]

your feeling inferior?

why?

[RiverCocytus 0]

Nice, goose! Its more convincing when you have all of the commerical clustered in one area. As I develop my current CJ, I am going to do a similar thing.

[mightygoose 92]

here are the images of brentford in Jpeg format i hope they show up there will be another update later

there we go, sorry about the delay, comments are more than welcome

[mightygoose 92]

hello i told you there would be an update so there is an update. today we will look at two villages. high halden and tenterden. high halden first.

this village is a smaller version of brentford. it has a similar central commerce theme with spidered residential layouts. no motorways here however. high haldens only contact with the rest of the region is via trian. making it the perfect backwater cosy retirement spot.

this is the village high street with the water tower, the library the church and the stations all in close proximity. as with brentford there is alot of medium and high wealth residency within the village. out of 2,500 residents 700 commute out of town on the train every day.

these are the two platforms used by the villagers to come in and out of town. (unfortunately i couldn't get the street to cross the lines into the carpark so that looks abit wierd.)

before the line leaves the area it passes through the biotech business park. the enitre park is owned by salvardan biotech corp. they employ over 500 workers in there genetic research

many of the workers there live on the northern slopes of the village. this is the richest area strangely considering its proximity to the windfarms.

we leave high halden with an image of where all those rich cats hang out after work remmington suites hotel and bar. this swanky place has a very exclusive guest list and are trying to buy out the housing behind to extend their plaza space.

on to tenterden, an even quainter village with a mere 120 residents

less than a mile north of high halden tenterden is just about a farmstead. the main road is the only link the village has and runs right through the town

the village is so small in fact it is ran of of three gas generators that are supplied by the mains like the residents, here you can see dave glover and richard heath having a cigarette next to a propane tank, safe!

here we see breton view, one of the two residential closes in the village as you can see it is perched on a hillside and virtually everyone here works on the farms

the village is soooooo pituresque even deer can be seen frollicking in the woods

however a church meeting is soon to be called to discuss the latest commercial property. fargo's pizzas have opened a delivery store next door to the parish church. the vicar is disgusted and turned purple during sermon. he prays that god smite the place with glorious redemption.

here is the graveyard that takes the dead from both the village and high halden down the road. it sits perched above the village pond. the locals love their village and love to walk their dogs

how many dog walkers can you spot???

and so we leave the sleepy hollow that is tenterden to go rest it's weary legs and i will leave you to comment.

i think i should explain quite how green i am at this rural lark. my last region to be fair was less than pretty. although saying that it did bring out the most amazing downtowns i ever created. in fact heres a wee peek at the region, i started when i first got the game and have spent 1-5 hours a night on for 8-9months sentria

there is very little i didnt experiment with in this baby this region is 90% full and has a population of just over 6.5million.

comments are welcom and next time we will look at a little riverside town called nebington

cheers for reading JD

[pickled_pig 7]

Not bad. I especially like the apartment towers in the second pic. For the fact that it's the Chicago tileset (which I barely use myself) - with no BATs - your suburbs look quite realistic. You seem to be English; you might want to look at the "UK Suburbia Pack" on the STEX. Although a bit more American, Justanothersim's houses are exceptional as well.

Also, nice work with the PEG ponds. That cemetery reminds me of a New England village sitting there above the pond.

[cityhawk 12]

You had a lot of water pollution in that last pic, MG. Overall, you're doing a good job; just watch those slopes, unless that's the feel you want.

[Cjah 15]

Wow I like the pictures in some of the first updates best,but all around a really good looking CJ.Great start btw....

I like your tranist system most and the green trees throughout the cities.Good housing and it loooks really peaceful.

Can't wait for more updates!

[GMT 389]

yea, apart from the water pollution, the region shot stunned me a little. it's so... full!

can't wait to see more.

and, btw: your cj is not as bad as you think ;-)

[mightygoose 92]

@pickled_Pig, thanks, they are the bradbury towers lot on the stex... yeah ijust downloaded the suburbia packs, so hopefully it should start to look even more british.

@cityhawk, thanks, in britain, slopes are nothing, if you've ever bee here we englishmen will build into pretty much any hillside, we don't have mooch , i said we doon't 'ave mooch mountains you know. lol

@Cjah, thanks, yeah jeronjis seasonal trees should feature soon, next update includes part one of my dual motorway tutorial: an alternative to the multilane, so i hope peeps will like it.

@gmt, thanks, well as i said thats months of work there... heres a few more picks of it

the south containing my penultimate work

the western seaboard, where i gained five ong condos in half an hour lol

and the orient, my most recent stuff, complete with tapei light

but hey i don't wish to distract from my sleepy towns that are about to get rudely awoken by the noise of motorway madness...

[Cjah 15]

My thats quiet a polluted part of that river,but all in all the region looks nice and I csn't wait for the next update!

[SC4Noobie 5]

The region does look nice, just get a slope mod. The pics look great, though. Flatten out the farm land, in general, would be a suggestion. I think that the water pollution looks realistic, because in almost all CJ's there is no pollution. Keep the updates comin'!

[Darmok 34]

Not much time, I'm on my lunch break, but had to comment!

Very nice start, I like the idea of a small beltway around the small downtown! Original!

And it looks like it's effective!

Lot's of green, (by now you know I'm VERY partial to trees! LOL )

I also like the quality of your pics, nice mix of overviews and closeups.

The onlly gripe would be the sometimes high grades of your roads and streets slopes!

But as I often say this is a matter of personnal preferences. And I know that working with the slope mod can be frustrating at times.

All in all good beginning MG

Take care

[Battlecat 14]

Very nice indeed!  I really like how your suburbs are nestled amongst trees.  Tenterden is a pretty little area. I like the terraforming and your use of ponds.  

As for your most recent updates, Wow!  That is some impressive city construction.  I've never managed to get a region over 1 million people, let alone 6.5 million.  That's an effort you should be proud of! 

[mightygoose 92]

update.3. a region of motorways, part 1.

@Darmok, thanks for gracing me with your presence, yeah the slope mod is starting to annoy me. normally i wouldn't bother with such things but i will pay more attention in the future.

@BattleCat, thanks, that original was built before i found simtrop, so is entirely vanilla, no nam, no traffic mods, no crime mods, and it was an absolute pain to get it that far, but hey it was worth it. anyway back to the matter at hand.

dual highways, intro.

what is a dual highway you might ask? well ill tell you it is quite simply two highways side by side. it is not however a multilane highway.

i never have liked multilane highways and im not sure why, i think it was the inflexibilty of them. with duals however you gain the ability to do considerably more.

feel free to gasp in awe at the amazing dual highway. now apart from the visuals there is only one major difference between these two styles of multiways....

directions. the multilane has two left and two right side by side. the dual has left right left right. this is both useful and confusing at the same time. right to change between the two for those who have multis but no duals. two ways of doing it. both relatively condense but require both the NAM and smoncries hole digging lots. also give credit to lakeboy for his wonderful multi tutorials.

this method is twelve tiles long. as you can see one side bulges out. this is unavoidable as otherwise there is no room for the overpass. i'd also advise making sure the area is flat first. the picture shows pretty clearly how to lay out the OWroads. i think this is a more city centre kind of transfer as this arrangement is far more obtrusive than the next. feel free to overlay some of the arrows with road to get rid of them. like the main straight on the far right. although it is best to maintain arrows at the ends near key points such as the overpass ramps and the highway changes top and bottom.

all that remains to be done is to complete the overpass and decorate to taste. here it is done with the vanilla flower gardens to make a nice 12x6 changeover.

now here is another layout used for the more tricky of the two methods. the tunnel method. it is tricky because of the space required for the entrances to the tunnel. once again lay the road out roughly as displayed. i say roughly because you end up demolishing it and rebuilding it  many times before it works properly. id also advise laying the surrounding area with single road tiles to prevent any unwanted elevation changes. after this use the mayor mod height tool to beef up the central divider, destroying that cross over road.(it's only there to show you where it goes). dog the holes with the lots and create the tunnel. use single tiles to lower the overpass bank to normal levels and revamp the surrounding OWroads.

as you can see with the vanilla trees it is a much more subtle change and not quite as economical weith space either. but none the less it does the job. if you have the highway raised in the middle i did at the last minute come up with a way of changing to dual for you too. its surprisingly net and i thing it looks rather cool.

meet the claw.

but i don't have any multilane highways, what am i supposed to do?

well i thought of you people two because i only have three multis in my region at the mo.

starting. this is not the way to start and is wrong so nobody try this. well some people will but it doesn't work. honest it doesn't...

the reason this does not work is because the traffic has not swapped direction and those avenuse and dual lanes are effectively one way. which defeats the left right left right orientation pupose of a dual highway. from a single freeway the start i've come up with is pretty but bulky, any better suggestions please post them i'd be very interested.

meet the heart. it allows for the correct directions and even has some built in on ramps in the shape of those roads. it can also be very nicely decorated. but by far and away the easiest way to start and finish dual highways, to to go off the edge of the map..... no kidding  aside it is...

just use two single motorways and link them up. it allows sims to turn around, go left, go right. do whatever they please.

anyway. thats how to start and end them for now. but what can you do with them. thats the question. well ill start with the simplest of the simple. an overpass and an underpass. the overpass of an avenue is the most common so is first.

this is it. using the NAM. simple as pie. the underpass.

a bit more complicated but not too bad. now your probably wondering, what about the inside lanes.... but you could do this as well... what if.... don't worry. there is at least another three parts to go yet so don't get in a fuss. i'll probably cover it in the next few days but if i don't ask me. also if you do come up with any clever dual interchanges or dual junctions or dual transfers please post them.im always open for new ideas.

thankyou and goodnight JD

[patfirefghtr 160]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeet awsome updates im soooooo happie that now i get to see the pics, keep up the good work....

[mightygoose 92]

sorry about the oversized last pic ill fix it soon

[andymcnab666 4]

Very good... but can I ask... what is the one tile highway / motorway?

[mightygoose 92]

what the multilanes search multilane on the site to find out about those.. of something else could you state which picture please

[purpledaddy 6]

It looks like you have a major plan with the motorway system to combine (or separate?) your rural and urban areas.  I'm looking forward to more.

Also, I always named my first Sim Cities and Sims neighborhoods stuff like "Beginnerville" or "Starter Town" as a way see how I improve.   It sounds like you're already off to a good start. 

[spikeydarren 1]

your CJ looks really good so far, I love the detail!.... but can I just ask two ?'s, how did you get your streets to go diagonal and how did you get ordinary roads to connect to hightways? These are things that have always annoyed me

[BlackJackal 0]

I'm interested to see how you handle the inside lanes. This is fascinating stuff, especialy since I like the IDEA of collector/distributor highways, but their implementation in SC4 with occasional one-way road connector pieces is ugly.