Komodo Bay

[danielout 0]

Hey everyone! Welcome to Komodo Bay!

This is going to be my first city journal, and maybe a bit unlike a lot of the wonderful CJs I've spent (far too much) time reading. I've been playing the SimCity games for quite a while (since the original!), but I am greatly humbled by the talent found here at ST. So my hope is by posting this CJ, you all can point out the stupid things I do help in me in my quest to be a better player. As a bit of reward, I plan to post occasional polls to determine what directions I take the region! So let's get started!

I'd like to start off saying that I'm running NAM with better pathfinding. I'm using a neighbor city to provide ID and IM jobs, and power. If you all want to see this city, just let me know! I've downloaded a ton of wonderful user-created items, and if you have a question about anything you see I'll be happy to let you know what it is. (Thought I'm sure most folks already have all this stuff!) Right now I'm trying to ebb my normal grid-based playing style and create a some prettier cities. Its a slow process, but I'm breaking the habit slowly.

Enough talk! Let's look at the pictures! The first city in the region will be Gold Coast, a town founded on a bet (!!) from one friend to another. Mayor Daniel's long time friend and business partner placed a bet that he couldn't make a profitable, respectable town with an inital investment of only $500,000! Mayor Daniel is determined to prove him wrong! Daniel's company (Sim Copter One Flight Industry) owned a bit of land they had refered to as Komodo Bay, and he elected a beautiful coast spot to begin his little settlement...

He sends a survey team to build initial road access and start layingout markers for the first subdivision...

Aaaand there we go! Our first neighborhood, just waiting for people!

And soon we've got people to live there! Our small little subdivision (which looks kind of like a crab! ) has grown!

As time goes by, Mayor Daniel adds a bit of commercial land to the town and allows for more residents to move in...

Not long after, the city gets its first church and first graveyard. We're starting to grow now!

And some large aparents are built to accomdate the number of works the nearby Sim Copter One Industries factories require. (By the way, I realize I'm missing someone for these streets but I can't figure out what it is... I'm in the process of double and triple checking things.)

My Gold Coast sure is popular! We've grown quite a bit, with a school and hospital to accomdate our sims. Not to mention we've got some wealthy folk moving in to our lovely little coastal town. I think our city deserves something new and exciting...

And so,let the terraforming begin!

The first step is to keep our land where it is, and so Gold Coast installs some seawalls that will later serve as a beautiful seafront for commercial business.

Then, as the terraforming continues, the Bay View Tunnel and Ridgecrest Tunnel are finished...

And in the Ridgecrest Valley, the pumps installed in the seawall are activated, pumping fresh seawater past the Bayview Ridge and into the canal in the valley. This has proven to be a very expensive venture for the Mayor, who was doing quite well with his profits before...

And the canal development continues, installing a small paddleboat park for sims to come relax in the calm waters of the canal.

And there we go! We've made it to 20,000 sims! What will happen next? Will the Mayor's expensive canals bring a boost of business, or will his wealth-hogging waterways wreck his wonderful plans? Tune in next time to see what happens in KOMODO BAY!

[Menotyou 0]

Wow! Great job!

[Goin2Chicago 4]

great start!

[Gaston 0]

danielout,

      An excellent start to a new CJ.     I will look forward to seeing more of this journal in the near future.      Only one comment.      You should think about using a slope mod like BRF's*.   It is difficult sometime to get the roads to go where you want um but they look much better.    Well to me they do anyway.  LOL    Just a suggestion for you to think about.     Good luck with this journal.    I wll be checking back to see how it is doing.

*BRF = big red fish

[edipo_rey 0]

wow! that map is imponent

i will come to se your avances!

^^

[owenluby 1]

Nice work!

Try to add a bit more variety in the way you build things... It pays off

[jacqulina 162]

great start nice region,great work with the seawalls,great pics

[mayormommy 8]

Nice little town - appears to be well thought out. I would suggest filling in any open grassy areas with trees.

[danielout 0]

Mini-Update!

First, let me say I'm really flattered by all the great replies! Very unexpected!

menotyou - Thanks! Nice userpic! I grew up about 20 minutes from where they did some F22 test stuff. They're beautiful planes!

Goin2Chicago - I appreciate it, and hope I can keep it up!

Gaston - Thanks. I couldn't find BRF's slope mod on the STEX, but I did find another. I'll try installing it after work It would be great if it did help; I hate those jagged roads.

edipo_rey - Yeah! I know the map is small. I like smaller maps for some reason.

owenluby - That is one of the things I'm working on for this city, Hopefully the stuff I'm about to add will help with that... stayed tuned!

jacqulina - thanks!

mayormommy - Thank you! I keep telling myself I'm going to go put all those trees down, but get distracted with something else before I do. Maybe this afternoon I'll actually break out my tree tool and get some planting done.

I came to check the thread at work and saw the replies, so I thought I'd reward the faithfulness with a little mini-update. A real update will come late tonight or maybe tomorrow. For now, enjoy these two little pictures!

Just before the terraforming began, Mayor Daniel had a brand new highschool built. He wanted it to be large enough that he wouldn't have to expand for quite some time. (Note the funds here... next update you'll see how much money I've spent on the canal and coast so far... ouch!)

And here is another little canal teaser, nothing amazing.. YET!

[szarkoz 8]

Good start.

I see you've got a potential. I would recommend you getting a slope mod to increase overall quality of your cities. Really, not bad job!

[sc4portugal 10]

Nice village but mabye you could fit in some more commercial areas

Great Plains CJ soon to come to Simtropolis

[jacqulina 162]

looking out for more updates

[patriots_1228 51]

you really have some low confidence. i have tried really hard but have never been able to get my seawalls to look like yours do. your city making is great!

[RushHourFreak 1]

Great start mate! incrdible region shots and nice housing development, add some trees to your spaces, hope suggestions are welcome, with politeness and prudence needed of course, Keep this up and mantain us updated

[Bhargaj 0]

I know this is a stupid question but how'd you take the pictures with the menu still on

[danielout 0]

szarkoz - Thanks a lot! I downloaded a slope mod, but as far as I can tell it doesn't change the roads I've already put down; no matter, I'll just have to go back and fix them sometime.

sc4portugal - I'm glad you like it, and there is plenty more commercial area for you now!

jacqulina - here is another one!

patriots_1228 - The seawalls are a pain sometimes! I often put down the wrong piece, bulldoze, try again. Eventaully you start learning which piece fits where (but I still almost always put the wrong one down first when doing othogonal-diagonal changes! When will I learn?) and things become easier; keep at it!

rushhourfreak - I always forget the trees! If I can pull myself away from the xbox for a bit (just got a new hockey game) I might post some updated pics later, with trees. And I welcome and and all comments!

Bhargaj - Hey, thanks for stopping by! I usually use Ctrl+Shift+S to take my little screenshots. Hope that helps.

Honestly I'm really surprised I pumped out an update tonight. I've got a busy weekend coming up, though, and I wanted to post before I was going for a couple of days. Don't worry, though. I'll be back on Sunday, hopefully with another update!

Already some business are moving in near the canal. This is wonderful, and I'm sure the citizens are curious as to what all the landscaping is going to be for...

And finally the canal is done! Now we can get to work laying down the roads to make this a truly beautiful commercial center.

And the mayor has finally decided to move in....

And business is really taking off near city hall! (Right now this is my favorite part of the city.. )

Terraforming begins for the new high tech industrial park...

Also, as more and more of the seawall is finished, the development spreads along the coast. When the minor league team asked to have their stadium in Gold Coast, Mayor Daniel knew the perfect spot for it...

Sims are jumping at the chance to live on the 'Gold Coast' itself!

The industry boom attracts a wealthy business owner who askes the mayor for permission to make his own neighborhood, which he names Hillview Terrace.

All this wealth and business has prompted the construction of a main library, university, and research center. Gold Coast is quickly becoming a technological powerhouse! The name of the university is currently undecided...

And our commerce center is bustling!

So now we have about 37,000 sims, and this is what the city looks like!

Okay faithful readers, I need your help! I've got to name the university, so submit your name ideas!

[Gaston 0]

Very nice update danielout.    I like the area you created inside the canal system.    What slope mod did you get?   I was probably wrong about who made it.     But I swear it was Big Red Fish's tunnel and slope mod.    I most likely picked it up using a link given out in anther CJ.       I am almost sure it was in 3RR (Three River's Region).   I spent alot of time reading that one from the beginning because it has some fantastic tutorial type pages!   Definately taught me quite a bit.

   Anyway, you are doing an excellent job with this CJ.    Keep up the great work.

---Gaston

[bat 6]

Great start! Great pictures!

bat

[Menotyou 0]

Cool canals!

[jacqulina 162]

awesome so far keep up the great work and pics

[Blazerhawk 162]

Great CJ. For pics try using ctrl+shift+s instead of the take pictures button. It removes the necessity of having the city tools bar open.

As for the university...hmm... Hoyton University.

[RushHourFreak 1]

great canals, and awesome terraforming, it is getting nice, hope you still on them, keep on ding thew good job!

[WorfoSAUR 0]

The new areas are really awesome. I don't care much for the older sections, (they seemed a bit griddy) but the new stuff is good. BTW what seawalls are you using? I am in need of some seawalls that actually look good placed in commercial or residential areas.

[Tommy_Vercetti3 3]

Nice shore. The canals look cool too, great work!

[ccecill 52]

@danielout: Awesome. I love to see good mid-sized cities. I also love the commercial area on the 2nd to last pic. Keep it coming.

Im sorry, but I always see people making those canals like the one in Gold Coast, great job, btw, and I have no idea how to make them. If someone can tell me all the things I need or give me a link to a tutorial or cj where someone shows how to do it, that would be great. Thanx.

[jacqulina 162]

i just popped back in to have another look at your canals,beautifull work my friend i like how you designed the canals so they fit around everything,awesome pics too

[danielout 0]

Hey everyone! I've been so busy this weekend; I was out of town attending EPP5 (a Puzzle Hunt in Auburn, AL) and just didn't have time to get around to updating tonight;, but I will have one for you all tomorrow. However, I did want to respond to all the great comments I recieved!

Gaston - I downloaded this slope mod. And, on your advice, started reading 3RR. It is really amazing, and I've learned so much already just in the first few pages. Thanks for the tip! I hope this allows me to make my cities better.

bat - Thanks for the kind words!

menotyou - I appreciate it. And everytime I see your username, it reminds me of the band 'mewithoutYou'; any connection?

jacqulina - Thanks; I'm so glad to see you enjoying it and coming back. I actually didn't design the canals to fit around things; I laid out the canals and made everything fit inside of them! (Except the mayor's house; I wanted that to be a special place.)

crushedcar - Normally I only use a portion of the screen for my shots anyhow; the ones where you can see the toolbar are really just me being lazy. I'll try to avoid it in the future! And since you're the only name suggestion I've seen... Hoyton University it is! Thanks!

rushhourfreak - Thanks so much! I really hope everything lives up to your expectations; what's your favorite part of the city?

Worfosaur - I agree with you; the older sections do look a little dumb... any suggestions on how to avoid that when I've just got a flat landscape? I'm having trouble with it still. As far as the seawalls, I have installed jeronij's and marrast's walls; I believe the ones in the shots are Marrast's walls. I love them!

tommy_vercetti3 - i love your userpicture... the cat is awesome. I appreciate the kind words, and I hope to see you around Komodo Bay more!

ccecill - I'll try to include a canal tutorial in the next update, just for you! I had a tough time learning them (you should see my test city where I played with them for the first time; it is really weird looking!) as well, so don't feel bad. I used simgoober's canals, but I want to try some others, so don't be surprised if a different canal set shows up in another city in this region!

Okay, thanks for the comments everyone! I'm going to go play the region a bit so that I can give a good update tomorrow

[connor_v 3]

This looks pretty nice! Good work!