Welcome to the Coastal Plains

[sharkbait16 0]

Having played Simcity through a couple of cities and regions, I decided it's about time I tried my hand at a city journal, or more appropriately a region journal.  While it's named after the coastal plains in South Texas (where I'm from), the only similarity is the flatness of the region, but I'm hoping to add some hills and other random changes in the future.  For my region, I'm not quite aiming at realism, but simply something different than my traditional cities; hopefully it will be a lot more exciting and better on the eyes than the typical grid system.  Here's the region from the begining:

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Coastal%20Plains-beforehand.jpg align=baseline>

 

Most of the cities are the largest size possible, though there are a good deal of medium sized one stuck in there, and sorry for the poor quality of the picture, it took a while to piece it all together.  I started my first region where that long pennisula is, and it's appropriately named after my Spring Break destination: Panama City.  Naturally it is going to be a resort town, though I kinda wished I had started off with some suburbs or a real city first, cause it's hard to get meidum and high wealth to appear in the first city, but it'll grow in time.  I startd off with a lot of beaches and a nice little harbor:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Panama%20City%20Beach.jpg align=baseline>

 

As nice as that looks, I think I'm going to change some of the beaches, with that beach mod set.  But till then, I had some more changes to put in place.  I added a nice historical plaza at the tip, with a fancy dock, a missionary and a Fort, here's an update:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Ft%20Hood%20and%20Missionary.jpg align=baseline>

 

Just North of the missionary, I tried to put in a flea market, some kind of pedestrian area for shoppers, but I didn't leave enough room, so that'll need to be changed but I'm very happy with most of it, I'll show you what I did with some of the beaches later. 

 

Any comments or suggestions are welcome, let me know what you think!

[Simguyuk 0]

wow, nice, I like the historical plaza.

[Mikeaut1 261]

Nice so far.

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 1: the beachfront beauty

 

 

With so much of Panama City being the beach, I wanted some nice looking beaches.  I tried a general version of the beaches at first, simply trying to pack as much beach and parks into it as possible.  Here are some befoe and after pictures from the beaches I had at first, and the new beaches after I got creative and had a little help from the beach mods.  The biggest differences are the addition of parking lots and a lot better cohesiveness.

This first before/after pic is of the South Beach where I have some Pee-Wee sports fields overlooking the beaches.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Beach2-before.jpg align=baseline>

 

And here's the after pic:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Beach2-after.jpg align=baseline>

 

This second beach is right next to the tip of the penninsula on the North side.  At first it was just a little bland, this is suppose to be a huge touristy area and needs to appear so.  The before pic:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Beach1-before.jpg align=baseline>

 

Not much to it, some plaza space right next to the flea market, which I'm going to change soon, and also a lot of basketball courts.  If you've ever been down to Venice Beach near LA, you'll know where this inspiration comes from.  I wanted the beach to be very pedestrian friendly, the changed version really emphasizes this:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Beach1-after.jpg align=baseline>

 

Hmm, I can already see from the picture that I forgot to fill in sand somewhere, I guess it helps to wait before you take pictures.  But from the above picture, you can see the beach volley ball courts, the rows and basketball and tennis courts which can be rented (on Venice beach they have an outside gym right on the beach, though didn't know what exactly to do for that).  There's also a duplicate of Trafalgar's Square and several plazas for whatever and of course parking. 

 

This final picture is of the downtown Panama City, which ought to be mostly tall hotels, most of them were plopped along there (Texas natives can spot the Dallas reunion Center gracing the skyline), though there's still alot of work to be done.  I really just wanted to poin out the boardwalk downtown.  This area is actually just across from the little gulf between the penninsula and the mainland.  and would probably look really nice lit up after a moonlight stroll across the South Beach, but till then, here's a screenshot:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Downtown%20Boardwalk.jpg align=baseline>

 

Once again, any suggestions are welcome.  SPeaking of which, there's once problem I've been having with my beaches, the big beaches seem to create some kind of rippled effect in the coast as you can see in the first screenshot above.  It's really kinda wierd and I don't know what to do about it, it was perfectly flat before the beach was placed and afterwards, it looks like a cheese grater.  Eh, oh well what can ya do?

[jacqulina 162]

nice so far

[aldara6166 109]

Looks good.  Keep up the updates.

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 2: Galveston sprouts

Not everyone living in Panama City is an old folk wanting to retire apparently, and many are looking for work.  After adding a lot of commerical zoning, there's was a huge demand for Industrial jobs, plus I need to export the trash somewhere, so Galveston is born. 

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Galveston-beforehand.jpg align=baseline>

 

 

After a lot of industry zoning, Galveston's famous oil refineries begin to appear (must to my dismay, I was really hoping for something like Silicon Valley's High-tech industry, but nothing a few trees can't fix).  Naturally Galveston needs a port worthy of it's famous namesake:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Galveston-harbor.jpg align=baseline>

 

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the blue building in the upper corner is a Toys-R-Us, apparently everyone's stopping off there on their way back to Panama City cause there's no housing in Galveston, all Industry and commerce.  This next picture is off Galveston's Highway interchange, it's nothing too fancy, but I'm really interested in finding out how everyone else deals with highways and on ramps and just getting around them, here's how I'm doing it, I really like the feeder lane on the side, but the onramps are two laned while the feeder road is 1way street, hopefully that doesn't cause any issues.  I also added a oneway road circling the cloverleaf, but it's a little tricky getting people on and off the feeder roads through the circular drive, here's how it looks:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//highways.jpg align=baseline>

 

 

After building up Galveston a bit more, I'm probably going to add a connecting city that'll be pure suburbs, it'll be fun to add all those shopping centers and duplicate homes.

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 3: Panama City summarized

Well after all these close-ups of Panama City, I felt it was time for you to get a good glimse of the whole picture:

 

 https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Panama%20City-overview.jpg align=baseline>

 

The barrier penninsula is where all the beaches and resorts are located, while technically it ought to all be commericial hotels, it's kinda hard to force commercial zoning be service oriented, and not just service but hotels too.  I made up for it though across the bay where all the high density office zoning is and a variety of large hotels as well.  The rest of the mainland will eventually be all suburbs, but that'll be ahilw from now.  Right now everything is pretty much in grid fashion with a few exceptions, but it's kinda hard to not have a long grid when you're dealing with a long penninsula and lengthy coasts, but long for sme interesting suburban layouts in the future. 

 

Earlier I mentioned a new revamped flea market area, you can't see it on the map, but it's in the far north west corner where 3 avenues intersect.  The flea market has a farmer's market in it, several small shops, and an impressive column right in the middle of the intersection.  It's located right next to a Cathedral, but I don't know if it looks a little out of place in Panama City, lemme know what you think:

 

 

This is a very earley flea market area and I don't know if this is really the right area for something like this, so I'm still not completely happy, though I really like how I brought the three avenues together and then used the other end of one as an entrance to the cathedral, though I don't know how to get the surrounding road of the cathedral to connect to the avenue.  Tell me if you have any suggestions, cause I'm at a loss for how to finish this area up, besides the fact that it really needs more surrounding it.

 

 

[bobinator 0]

Very nice! I like the downtown area!! One thing: when you take pics, turn off the UDI icons. They kind of take away from the pic. Other than that great, looking forward to seeing how this develops!!

[jacqulina 162]

nice update

[sharkbait16 0]

I know how to minimize the icons, but then I can't take pictures, how do you do that?  I guess it's just a shortcut key, but I don't have the manual, can anyone fill me in?

[Superchan 23]

Looks awoesome.

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 4: the move to Suburbia

I decided to expand the region and add a new city, specifically a nice suburban city, appropriately named Plano. 

Here's a preview:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Plano-overview%201.jpg align=baseline>

 

Plano has the traditional suburbs, though right now most everything is centered around the coast.  Downtown was fun to make, though a little compact. 

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//downtown-Plano.jpg align=baseline>

 

Downtown's still waiting for those big skyscrapers, or atleast a couple of tall commerical buildings, but if you plan it, they will come.  I'm gonna have to spice up the coast a littel bit downtown though.  For the high wealth residential areas, I added a boardwalk.  I don't know what it is, but I always like the look of boardwalks on the coast, and I try to outdo myself everytime.  Here's a look at this boardwalk, complete with a kicking marina:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//boardwalk.jpg align=baseline>

 

Lemme know what you think.

 

[jacqulina 162]

good so far take your time

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 5: the Region overview

A real short update here, just wanted to give everyone a glimse of what the entire region looks like now:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Region%20-%20sat%20view1.jpg align=baseline>

 

The city just North of Galveston and Panama City is going to be a giant commerical center, or atleast on that land sticking out next to Galveston.  Right behind Galveston, there will be a small farming town, and then another Suburban city just north of that.  All of it will have industry and commerical mixed in, but just Galveston right now will not have any residential.  Next time I'll give you a glimse at Panama City and what I hope it grows into. 

 

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 6: Panama City revisted

Panama City is coming along nicely but I have some great plans for it:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//preview.jpg align=baseline>

 

As you can see, a lot of it wil be suburbs.  Around the pond and park will be a lot of high wealth condos and what not.  All around the highways, there will be commerical regions and maybe a couple of other clusters of commerical zoning.  In the southern part of the city is the Industrial district.  I really need to hook up some better mass trasportation to link the region up, but that will take some time.  Plus I think I made the land too low depth cause I can't make any tunnels.  Well, here's a night pic to wet your apetite:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//nightview.jpg align=baseline>

 

[nealos101 20]

Your city is looking good - keep up the updates man.  2 turn off the icons there's two things you do.

*Go to where you plant signs and click the bottom button where it shows a cross and signs.  Your signs and lables should vanish.

 

*CLick my sim mode, U-Drive it and somewhere should be roughly the same-looking icon but instead it has automa-type symbols.

 

Get the idea? Need any help I'll send u a few shots.

 

**Meh.

[sharkbait16 0]

Thanks, didn't know that.

[Ddeathtoall 0]

GREAT. KEEP UP TH GOOD WORK!!! and visit Monavale

[monkeylover2004 0]

Nice! The beachfronts in Panama look amazing! I like the use of the sports stuff

[bienefeldt 3]

Very nice idea. Looks like a sunny place to me! Awful lot of beaches...!

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 7: Plano's emerging mass tranist

 

As you might of guessed this is about the latest mass transit system in one of my cities: Plano.  I recently began experiementing with the sunken highway walls.  Here's a shot of where the sunken highway and sunken mass tranist intersect:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//showing%20off%20mass%20transit.jpg align=baseline>

 

There's still a lot of changes that I need to do.  I originally wanted it to only appear sunken between tunnels, but I found out I can't loop the rail and monorail underground because the ground isn't high enough, course I could create a giant hill but that would look silly, this looks pretty nice I think.  Similarly, along one of the highways I added a shopping center complete with Toy-R-Us, Red Lobster, and a whole ton of different restaurants and stores:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//shoppingcenter.jpg align=baseline>

 

Looks pretty similar to a real shopping center, cept maybe a whole ton of missing parking spots.  Thee really needs to be more car lots cause you see those all the time from the highway but almost never in Simcity.  Any who, here's a teaser of park I got for Panama City, I'll show some better shots later:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//park-night%20view.jpg align=baseline>

 

[jacqulina 162]

i like the night pics

[dhoppeii 12]

Everything is looking great so far....I really like you transit layout in that first pic of this last update...

[sharkbait16 0]

Update 8: Panama City's Central park

Ok, here's that park I showed you a glimse of earlier.  I'm probably going to update it again cause it looks way too compacted now that I look over it, and the lake is a big too large too, but I still think it works real well for the most part.  This park has all kinds of amendities and is meant to be a place where large outdoor concerts can be held as well. 

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//park%20overview.jpg align=baseline>

 

As far as planning goes, I probably ought to have placed the large stadium next to the smaller stages and added a nice grassy knoll.  The Imax and art Musuem and Planetarium should all be next to each other as well.  I really like how well the Gate works as a nice plaza.  Well, after all this, I'm definately going to revamp this but here's some other pictures, the front entrance turned out really nice:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//park-front%20entrance.jpg align=baseline>

 

It looks like I just tried to fit as many custom parks and landmarks into one little park area as possible, oh well, here's the big look:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//big%20park.jpg align=baseline>

 

Well if you have any suggestions for how to improve the park, let me know.

 

[jacqulina 162]

the park is maybe a little cramped in places

[sharkbait16 0]

update 9: Revisions galore

With suburban Plano growing so fast, the mayor felt it was time to take the iniative in the Coastal Plains region by begining a large mass transit system.  However, with the initial plan, there were many problems.  The original plan called for monorail and elevated rail side-by-side in a sunked basin to minimize it's conspicousy (word?).  However having both lightrail and monorail seemed a little redunant and confusing to many traveling Sims.  Instead the system was revamped and the lightrail was replace with a ground level train for longer region travel and to encorporate freight shipments as well.  The Plano region has gotten its mass transit system off perfectly and is looking forward to future expansion.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//mass%20transit-2.jpg align=absMiddle>

 

While the rail lines satisfy mass transit friendly sims, the commercial sector of Plano was clamoring over getting a new airport, so it was deemed necessary to hook up the new mass transit to Plano's new Municipal airport:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//mass%20transit-3.jpg align=baseline>

 

In other Coastal Plains news, the city of Panama was unsatisfied with the plans for its new city park and fired the city planner.  After going through many options the city councel chose a new design for the park that appeared less cramped and yet still encorporated many of the current facilities that supporters of the previous design were so fond of.  The new park broke ground three months ago and is looking glorious despite it's difficult construction. 

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//new%20park%201.jpg align=baseline>

 

In fact, large portions of the city pond had to removed to make room for a new parking lot, environmentalists regionwide came to protest the destruction at the park's new sound stage meant for outdoor concerts.  Remenants of the protests still litters the brand new park's previously pristine lawns.  That or my city just needs to take care of garbage better.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//new%20park%202.jpg align=baseline>

 

Following the park's opening the city of Plano announced similar plans for a city park, but with less stuff.  And maybe Galveston will get a makeover too.  That's the way the cookie crumbles.

 

 

 

[jacqulina 162]

great update

[mayormommy 8]

I like the city and your honest discussion of its successes and problems. For your next park, I would suggest more plazas, grass, and especially trees to make it more open and more natural. I'm really enjoying reading about how you're planning things and how you're not afraid to change things around if they don't work out.

[sharkbait16 0]

Thanks.  Yeah the park change didn't look as drastic as I originally thought, but then again I really didn't want this park to be wide open in the first place, so except for one too many fountains I like it.  Definately need a nice grassy knoll though for the next one.