Indica Hills

[Dubya 0]

Welcome to my first city journal, Indica Hills.  I first created this city back in Sept. of 2004, and at times updating the city.  The city itself is well over 300 years in the game, and is almost fully developed.  The development of the city itself is very European in style, you won't see any low density development, and is very "organic" in layout imho.  Also this city is only part of a massive region that hasn't been developed yet, Indica Hills is currently the only major city at the moment.

I'll continue to update this thread with more pictures, but heres a few for now...

This is a view of most of the city, the sea is in the most northern part of the city (use the compass on the top right corner of pic) and the most southern part of the city (top of pic) where there isn't any trees will be the site of further development of the city.  Plans are that sports venues will be built, university, and various other city service venues.  Also planned are more rowhouse style suburbs, and more commercial development.

Here is the CBD, though it wasn't the original CBD for the city.  In the background you can see parts of the old city, and the old city hall, which is now a shopping mall.

Another view of the CBD, part of the Southern suburbs and Midtown Industrial park can be seen in the background.

A wealthy neighborhood, one of the oldest, located on the northern end of the city, and the Library, and City park to the right.

This is one of the far western suburbs of the city, it houses mainly the Middle Class, and is surrounded by the Sea to the North, the Western commercial district, Westside Industrial park, and Midtown Industrial park (not pictured).

To the right is the Western Commercial district, to the left is part of the western suburbs, and to the north is part of the southwestern suburbs (seperated by the west by the city zoo) and part of the Midtown industrial park.

[Dubya 0]

Eight more photos added, more to come.

Various ariel views:

In this view, you can see the historical district or old city almost surrounded by hi-rises.  The neighborhood to the south of the historical district in this picture, is the uptown district, which houses the upper class, like the historical district, just higher in density.

This photo shows some of the preserved historical buildings that border the CBD.

This view is just a little bit above along the tracks from the photo above.

Here is a view of parts of the uptown district, and views of the city park and library.

To the left of the photo is the southern most original part of the CBD, in the top of the photo you can find the current City Hall.  Also about the traffic congestion, I disabled the traffic mods temporarily.

[eggie99 6]

WoW MaN!

Very nice pics, especially from the rowhouse-streets!

Looks very fine

Keep on with this nice start!

[Dubya 0]

Thanks Eggie!

Also forgot to mention that I used cheats, and the blackhole waste management lot, and the fountain that gives you alot of money.

This photo shows the layout of the city's streets and highways.

This is part of the southern suburbs of the city.

Southern Suburbs

Southern Suburbs

Parts of the CBD, Midtown industrial park, southwest suburbs, southern suburbs, and also Monument Roundabout.

This view shows the original CBD of the city, which is now the entertainment district.

Further to the right from the photo above is another part of the original CBD, you can find the new city library here along with the main police station.

This view shows the original city hall which is now a mall, and parts of the Historical district.

More updates to follow, later during the day.

[mayormommy 8]

Wow, so you've been working on just this one city tile for 300 sim years? No wonder you haven't been posting very much! It has unique style, very interesting.

[Dubya 0]

Thanks for your comments mayormommy, yeah I've been tweaking this city for quite some time now, though I've been giving it more attention these past few days then I have in months.  Oh and about me rarely posting here, I'm just lazy.

[hamsterTK 93]

dang, howd you grow all them rowhouses? It looks so perfect. Dont tell me you cheated and those are all CS$ plops you made in LE like some other ppl around here i noticed have done.

im having a terrible time trying to redo my city, im clearing my ugly neighboorhoods to replace them with rows and rows of terraces, but they dont want to grow

[Dubya 0]

Thanks hamster, about the rowhouses, when I do the zoning, I just usually zone 1 tile or 1x2 tile in Medium and High density residential.  You have to make it kind of like a checkerboard, don't have the Mediums touching other Mediums, same with Highs.

[hamsterTK 93]

thats a great idea. One of the problems ive had is 2*2 mega mansions popping up, and me having to stop the simulation to rezone. Since Gascookers terraces are pretty much the only thing that will grow one 1*1 Res high density at the high stages i have going now, maybe that'll do the trick.

[Battlecat 14]

Very cool!  The city looks great!  You must have spent a lot of time on those row houses.  Your downtown area look superb as well.  Building over the hills sure has given this town a lot of character.  Looking forward to your next update!

[simmax 0]

That's a VERY hilly city! Some roads are unrealistically steep, and I think that you should use walls (like those by Jeronij) in some places where there are small cliffs, but I still love this! Good job.

[pickled_pig 7]

Many people - including myself - that have used hills (you don't even want to know about my experience with a hilly terrain) usually mess them up with ugly results. But you seem to have created a very attractive city out of a steep terrain. I like how the row houses look on top of those hills - I wish I could get big rows of row houses like that, but it never happens.

This is a CJ to watch in the future!

[bat 6]

Good updates!

bat

[Dubya 0]

Thanks Battlecat, and Bat.

Simmax, I've tried my best to keep the steepness of the roads as realistic as I could, some areas I could've done better by laying diagonal roads, but I know what you mean about some roads looking too steep.

Pickled pig, when zoning your residential or commercial areas that you want rowhouse type developments to occur, use a checkerboard type zoning style.  Mix the medium and high density residential and commercial zoning, don't have two of the same density touching each other if at all possible.  You can also mix in commercial zoning into the residential area, which I should've done more of, but oh well.  I've included a photo for example below:

Here are some more photos of the city at night.

Some more updates to follow in the coming days.

[patfirefghtr 160]

wow awsome city 300 yrs in the making dannnnnnng i wish my computer was fast enough to get that high in years lol but great job i look forward to more updates

[cityhawk 12]

I tend to avoid very hilly cities (unless I make them myself using smoncrie's hole digging lots), but you're really good at beautiful city-building on that very hilly terrain! I look forward to more!

[Nardo69 51]

Interesting town, I do like those oceans of midrises. Interesting zoning layout - I liek to do mixed commercial and residential yoning too, it is just more realistic IMHO.

I do believe that this town is more than 300 years, the biggest town in my CJ is now around 285 years, too.

Those "old" towns just have a better, mature(?) atmosphere.

Keep it going like that!

Bernhard

[Mikeaut1 261]

Wow, interesting indeed. I like the midrises, midrise development is some of my favorite development. It seems like you have a handle on how to make a realistic city. Excellent work!

[Sisu 1]

Wow, 300 years. But the city looks awesome. Those rowhouses fits so well in hilly terrain you have used. I usually avoid building in hilly terrain because the end result doesn't look so good. Anyway, Keep up the good work.

[tomdapom 79]

I like your hill building its like San Francisco.

[Caddielook 1]

quite a nice style

[sloppy182 2]

Nice CJ. Good job building on hilly terrain. One of the hardest things to do in this game is to develop on a hillside and make it look good.

[Dubya 0]

Replies:

patfirefghtr - Thanks, my pc isn't as fast as you may think, I've been working on this city off and on now since Sept. of 2004.

cityhawk - Thanks, though its quite easy, just have to have patience when laying streets, and zoning.

Nardo69 - Thanks, I agree somewhat on the age contributing to the atmosphere, it could be a factor, but I've seen some CJ's here in the past few days that have really impressed me, not sure if the age of gameplay was a factor though.

Mikeaut1 - Thanks, though there are some stuff that I'd like to incorporate into the city to make it realistic. Like a main train station, though there isn't much room, and I want to be careful on changing anything thats already developed.

Sisu - Thank you, I agree that the terrain helped the asthetics of the rowhouses.

tomdapom - Thanks, though the idea of trying to create this city as large as San Fransisco is interesting, since this city and neighboring cities are part of a peninsula like SF.

Caddielook - Thank you.

sloppy182 - Thanks, it takes patience.

Again thank you all that have commented on the city, I appreciate it... I'll be adding some updates in a couple of days, in that time I'll add further development to the city.

[sloppet 3]

nice wor so far! Keep it up man!

[tjperry88 24]

Interesting city. I am moved on how you incorperated the city into the landscape, I can never get it to look as good. Also you should try using the shortcut to snapshots instead of incuding those menus. I do believe it is Ctrl + Shirf + A or S. Try both, one is bound to work. Just remember to put the menu hidden before snapping photos'.

[Energy Monkey 0]

Nice City so far. I love your rowhouses and the fact that you built on a hilly type region.

[wouanagaine 86]

Good work on the hills !

Keep it up

[Fabiocb 1]

very nice work there, the townhomes on the hills is simply great, keep on working.