Vanilla Town

[mayormommy 8]

Well, I debated back and forth with myself about whether to turn this city into a CJ. It has nothing special to recommend it, not even a story. It’s just a region my 12-year-old son and I have been working for the past year. But in light of the recent angst over custom content and calls for people to just get back to playing the game, I thought, hey, we’ve been doing that for quite awhile. I don’t mean to offend anyone - custom content is great and makes the game more interesting and beautiful. But you can’t let it rule your life, or how you like to spend your time, or even how you like to have fun.

This is just the basic Maxis New York region. My son liked it because it’s fairly large and flat, and has plenty of water. He laid out most of the cities, and then asked me to step in and “fix” some of his transportation problems. As time went on, I began to add connecting cities, dress up parts with more trees and parks, and finally filling in blank spots with some suburbs.

When I say “vanilla,” I should add “with sprinkles on top.” There are a few custom lots in play, most notably an outdated version of the NAM, Brenda Xne’s monorail stations, Goldiva’s water taxis, Peg’s random woods, Fredval’s Mediterranean row homes, and Simgoober’s Hooters and Toy R Us bats (only natural when a city is started by a 12-year-old boy). There may be a few more escapees from my bloated plug ins folder that somehow stowed away in my son’s rather Spartan version of the game. Financial stability is provided by “Click for Cash trainer parks,” but no transit or demand cheats have been used.

So what’s the point? The point is that I turned to this Plain Jane region because I could no longer deal with waiting forever for my all-custom region to load, plus I no longer had time to keep up with the latest content on the STEX, much less on other sites. After a stressful day, I’d often sneak off to tinker around with Vanilla Town, when the thought of doing work on my “serious” CJ was just too much to be bear. This became a region I just played with for the fun of it. Imagine that!

So, if you are willing suspend disbelief at landmarks in the middle of cornfields, ignore lumpy roads, and pretend that you didn’t just see that same building twenty times in one picture, come along and let’s play!

Here’s the region view. As you can see, we have a long way to go getting the city edges to blend together. If the transportation system seems nutty, don’t blame me--it was primarily laid out for U-Drive-It purposes (please excuse the occasional UDI icons). We use a lot of monorails because monorails are cool. Same for airports.

Let’s start at the beginning with the oldest city, Animal City. It has 27,000 souls, and a whopping 25,000 industrial jobs, but pathetically, only 8,000 commercial jobs.

Here’s the downtown, and you can see it has an abundance of high density residential, but little commercial.

To the north is an area dominated by military bases. I’m having trouble getting sims to move into the residential areas located at the ends of the runways. Sims aren't that dumb, I guess.

To the east is the massive industrial area and airports (did I mention we like lots of airports?). 

Okay, today we’re going to focus on my new obsession: getting rid of grade crossings. But only when it’s fairly easy though, remember we’re just playing, not working.

Here’s a rail line cutting through a small neighborhood. 

A quick application of some tunnel digging lots... 

and voila, no more dangerous grade crossing!

This neighborhood has a little more realistic treatment of the rail line, obviously having been built around it, more like what you see in real life.

We can still fix that grade crossing though.

Yes, I know there’s another grade crossing up in the corner, but that one is too tricky to fix so we’ll leave it alone for now.

Another issue I’d like to address is this unused loop on the el line. It has exactly 0 passengers at present. 

I’m going to add a couple more stations, and extend the avenue while I’m at it. Eventually, I’ll probably have to carve this avenue even deeper into Animal City.

There, that’s better. Looks we’re getting a whopping 20 passengers now, whoot! At least we get to watch the little trains making the cute little loop though. The guy in that building with the no job zot must have some kind of seasonal employment, because it seems like he is laid off every winter.

Phew, okay, that’s enough work for one day. After all, this is a hobby, not a job. Next time we’ll look at Animal City’s neighbor to the south, Monster City. Cya!

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Cool! I still have several full regions of plain ol' vanilla. Always funto build a place; vanilla, chocolate, or even strawberry! Looking forward to more.

PS: The Jr. Schulmanator tries his hands at cities once in a while too... also primarily for UDI!

[Fischbob 9]

Hmm, when you said "vanilla", you weren't kidding. I can spot a few instances of custom content, but for the most part, this city reminds me of my days before discovering Simtropolis.

Not that that's a bad thing. If anything, the vanilla-ness keeps things simple, and that's what I really like about your region. It's not a big pile of eyecandy or a painstaking recreation, it's only some casual gameplay, just like in the good ol' days.

I think I'll follow this one.

[Frankie_Grove 32]

Well..i also tried playing vanilla, worked great fast game..just great, and i love the wonderful job you are doing here

[IDS2 3,344]

Cool! you can definitely tell whose cities are whose...I like the amsterdam lots used and the grade crossings. Not bad!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Hehe, I remember playing Vanilla, it was quite fun doing it without custom content.

[vab423 8]

I recently cleaned my plugins folder a little too well and ended up rebuilding it.  Just for laughs I started playing without any custom content at all.  I've since added some terrain and water mods (and NAM) but my plugins folder is no longer bulging at the seams, my game loads and scrolls really fast and you know what? It's actually been kinda fun not stressing out over why certain lots aren't growing.  I've just been letting it unfold to see what happens.  Thanks for sharing this; those really great CJs with lots of eye candy make me feel inadequate.  This one's just plain fun.

And thanks for the reminder that it's just a game.

[football_fever 6]

Do you know how long it's been since I've seen normal water? Very unique thing you've got here. We don't see vanilla CJs on ST because once someone discovers ST their city suddenly is full of BATs and whatnot. Thanks for sharing

[RushHourFreak 1]

Quite interesting to see how this goes on. Particular names and well done landscape.

RHF

[Voulpiotis 4]

Interesting!

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull to see the older game again and very nicely done,fantastic layout

[Narya 14]

This is beautiful!!! Ok, let me tell you what I love the most: The part I like the most is you explaining how you helped your son and how wcctualy you both had done this. I simply love to see cooperation between parents and childrens in such game.My advisors are my 4,5 and 7 years old sons but believe it or not they have a taste. Ok, back to commenting: The pics look great! The layout looks nice and wow, even original water can look nice. I will definetly follow this cj. Looks great! =)

[mayormommy 8]

Replies

Wow, replies! I thought if I got any replies, they would be along the lines of, "Your city is ok, but you need to download some stuff from the STEX." So you guys really get it!

Schulmanator - That's the fun thing about CJs, they come in all flavors. 

Fischbob - The good ole days of solving little problems for the sims in your little city is exactly what I enjoy.

Frankie_Grove - No doubt the game is fast - when I fix a road, bam! the traffic simulator is updated. No waiting around wondering if it worked.

IDS2 - I assume you mean the city names? Actually, my son founded and named all the cities except Mommy City , Another Mommy City , Winnieville, Fiddlerburg, Crawford, and Puffer Cove. Those I just added as "flyover" cities to get some connectivity. The "Amsterdam" buildings are actually Mediterranean rowhomes, which like the CSX yellow South African homes, will so thoroughly infest your cities that you will never get rid of them. Good thing they're so darn cute.

S_A - This whole region revolves around fun.

vab423 - I've thought about putting some terrain and water mods back in, and especially a slope mod, but I've kind of gotten used to it this way. Glad you're enjoying it.

football_fever - Exactly, I was trying to get away from that whole notion that you can't have a CJ unless you've got a plug-in folder stuffed with content. 

RHF - Yes, the names are particular to this little region. We'll see how I manage the updates when we get to "huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuh."

Voulpiotis - Thanks!

jacqulina - I thought people might enjoy a little trip down memory lane, thanks.

Narya - Yes, I'm looking forward to my son getting done with wrestling season, so we can spend some more time together on this. Sounds like you're having fun with your advisors too.

Monster City

Okay, let's move on to Monster City. As you can see, it's a little bigger yet more whimsical than Animal City, with 60,000 residents but only 8,000 commercial and 8,000 industrial jobs. It still has a lot of open space but I think we'll wait to fill that in until we get some more neighbor cities set up. I forgot to take an overview picture before I started on these rehabilitation projects, so you'll have to wait until I'm done to see the whole city.

First problem is this big hole in the middle, curently occupied by a space port, city hall, garbage dump, community college, casino, and secret military base. Quite a combination. The strange road layout isn't helping, plus the commercial area to the north seems to be stagnating. 

Part of the rules of playing with my son is that I can't just say, "Space ports don't belong in downtown," and tear it out. Maybe the mayor is really proud of that space port and that's why they put it right across from city hall. I need to work around the vision of the mayor, since I'm just the transportation and beautification advisor. But I did add some recycling and black hole plants to try to eventually reduce the pile of garbage.

The next problem is this slum on the southern shore, which is very uncharacteristic of our cities.

Further investigation revealed that this area lay on the edge of the school district. A couple new schools later, and construction went crazy.

Now, there's still one thing missing...Oh yes, a monorail. Wouldn't everyone be happier if they had a monorail to ride to work? I know I would be. Did I mention monorails are cool? But how to get it there. First we need to deal with crossing the highway and going around yet another landfill.

Then we'll need to cut through the low wealth commercial area and hook around the solar plant.

Wait, that just looks dumb. We're going to have the sacrifice a couple tenements and the brand new hospital, ugh.

There, that's better! Look at how all those tenements were suddenly replaced with middle class buildings. I told you people loved monorails.  No, don't try to tell me it has more to do with the schools, forget it.  A few God-mode trees later and now we're all ready for new construction once this city actually has some neighbors.

Next time we'll visit the Big Kahuna, Skull Island (slightly less creepy than the one in King Kong). Cya!

[Benedict 3,119]

Great stuff - now Ellis Valley isn't the only vanilla CJ on here. I also like the fact that this is something you are working on with your son. Amazing how simcity appeals to all ages.

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Fun! My son and I make some cities much like these!

[Fischbob 9]

Neat stuff! I know I mentioned simplicity in my last comment, but you can also tell that a great amount of detail went into these cities. Who knows what the story is behind that space port, or that secret military base? I remember revisiting my vanilla cities and just spending time looking around at all the special buildings and places I'd made or had grown.

We really need more CJs like this one. It's all too often that we forget what SC4 is really all about.

[quito 0]

This is definitely refreshing. It's all about being creative and having fun, with or without custom content. And it's so awesome that you're working on it work your son. I wish my parents had helped me with SimCity when I was 12! (I'm 20 now).

Does anyone remember paletexan's Carthage? An inspiring city before the boom in custom content. http://485group.com/sc4/index.php

[collgab 10]

Cool!!!, best pluginless CJ i have ever seen!, keep it up, cant wait for more =D

[IDS2 3,344]

Lol I get what you mean with infestation and yes I did mean the names they're very creative. I downloaded Porkie's Paris rowhomes and they're all over...no going back hehe.

[Mulefisk 15]

Well, for a 12 year old boy these cities are very good!

As people have already said, it reminds me of back when I started playing the game.

Personally, sc4 vanilla is abit lacking for me, since it's basically made for creating american cities.

Being a European, that's not too much fun.

Oh well, a breath of fresh air nonetheless

[homeandaway 1]

i bet you that if two planes take off from each airport at the same time - they will bang and blow up in each others fronts. LOL

Apart from that, i think Vanilla is okay.

~Alex~

[IDS2 3,344]

Lol I started young like this kid...with SC4 even! And look at me! After years, I'm at thiis stage. Give him time and he'll rise even farther.

[mayormommy 8]

Replies

Benedict - You've got a great rural vanilla CJ going, which is pretty impressive given the limited choices in farms.

Schulmanator - Right, the whole idea is to just have fun.

Fischbob - The secret military base in the city cracks me up. You can just imagine the sims going through life pretending that it isn't there. 

quito - Carthage was just a bit before my time, but I do reminisce about those early days of city journals. 

collgab - Thanks for the compliment!

IDS2 - It would be nice to go back through and get rid of the few plug-ins that are in here but it would be a monumental task at this point, and probably would crash the cities. In my plugged-in cities, I never had too many Porkie rowhomes but maybe I never had quite the right conditions for them.

Mulefisk - I suppose vanilla is pretty American, that's true. Don't get me wrong, I love all the European buildings I've downloaded over the years, but right now I'm more interested in game play than game looks.

homeandaway - The air traffic controllers in Monster City are currently on combat pay. Airport placement is one thing everyone can do better even in vanilla cities, but those decisions are not made by me.

Skull Island

Okay, now we're going to visit the only large city tile in Vanilla Town, Skull Island, population 177,000. As you can see, it has a lot of open space yet to fill, but I'm waiting for the mayor to decide what to do here when he gets done with wrestling season in a few weeks.

Let's start our tour with the old downtown, an area that has been pretty stable for a while.

Most of the wealthy sims live in this northwestern neighborhood.

Meanwhile, the poor sims live just south of downtown in these tenements.

Every day, they travel east on badly overcrowded subway lines to this industrial area for work.

The middle class has fled to this suburb to the south. Darn, I should have known we couldn't finish this tour before dark.

This new commercial area on the southern border with Animal City is giving the downtown some stiff competition. Please remind me to never again use a highway interchange as the centerpiece of a downtown.

Well, it wouldn't be a real Vanilla Town update if we didn't do a little tinkering as long as we're here. One thing I don't like about the city is how it seems to be confined within the highways. Here is Triangle Park, a recent attempt to breakout out of the Beltway.

Let's make it a little bigger, shall we? That next highway exit doesn't see a lot of usage, so I think we can convert it into an avenue overpass without any traffic disruptions.

Next, we need to connect up these two avenues near the new CBD. Common sims from Animal City are cutting through these rich sims' neighborhood. We need to get them on the highway and on to their miserable jobs as soon as possible! But how can we preserve those fancy white apartments?

There, that will do it. Ack, what happened! One of my beautiful white apartment buildings has been "upgraded!" 

Egads, that thing is scary ugly. Oh well, that's what you get when you're too slow clicking the "Make Historical" button.

Okay, next time we'll visit jgjgjjggjjgjgjgjg.....well, you get the idea. Cya!

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Nice tour! I always liked the little golden domed commercial buildings. Once my region got enough $$$, I got a ton of them. Still a fave though!

[Kelton 0]

This is a great region. I am really enjoying reading it.

[mayormommy 8]

Replies

Schulmanator - Yes, those St. Ritzy's tend to grow in clumps, though why they chose that avenue by the tenements is a mystery to me.

Kelton - Glad you're enjoying it!

Sorry for the long delay in updates, but I was out of town last week. Today we're going to visit...

jgjgjjggjjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjjgjgtjtjgjgjgjgjgjgj

Or just JG for short. 

Okay, here's an overview of JG, a town of 27,000 with 13,000 commercial and 12,000 industrial jobs. Still lots of open space to play with.

It has a fairly dense old residential area, which is a bit dilapidated right now.

The commercial downtown is only mediocre in scale.

A newer high tech industrial area on the east side is surrounded by sprawly suburbs. It sees just a little bit of rail traffic passing through from Animal CIty to Skull Island (just a wee bit, really).

A country club area to the north has been experiencing some unemployment, probably because the commercial base has not been expanding much.

Let's expand the commercial development near the monorail station. You can tell this is the country club set by all the Euro-Luxe Boutiques. Solved the unemployment problem, though.

This area south of downtown is in pretty sorry looking and in need of some serious help.

First off, the rail line now tunnels under the avenue, and a plaza has replaced the old freight rail yard. Then, using the university as the anchor, I've added an art museum, housing and a stadium for the university, and some suburban development. The landfill has been covered in forest; only the seagulls still know about the garbage heap in the middle, shhhh.

Next time, we'll skip over the fly-over farming towns and jump to Summervill, a city divided (united?) by a river. Cya!

[jacqulina 162]

hi my friend,i think people are loving the trip too,but are you enjoying playing it,wonderfull updates yet again and some fantastic building work,awesome pics

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Nice update. It looks like things are coming along well in Vanilla Town!

[Narya 14]

Darn, missed update! Looking good. I believe that changing things are even harder that starting to build it up. You are doing it good.

Yes, we have much fun creating cities... and I am happy to hear that others have a share-time-computer-together-plays also. =)

BTW. Our childrens finds as cool. =)

[homeandaway 1]

WOW my friend, you certainly know how to place your transport factilities!.

Loooking forwards for more!.

Take care

~Alex~