Trenton, NJ

[Jacob Rock 0]

Trenton

Creating the Region Map

I am preparing to begin creating a SimCity4 version of New Jersey's capital city, Trenton.

Below is a map of the region:

The region should end up looking something like this:

Updates to come.....

[Jacob Rock 0]

Trenton

Creating the Region Map...Continued

Region has been created, now the building begins.

Snapshot of the region:

[penguin007 27]

Looks a great region to build on. Do you have any water mods as this would improve the region shot imensely. I would suggest Brigantine by pegasus

Good luck

Will

[tomdapom 79]

Good luck with this project!

[jacqulina 162]

good start and great region,i think a water and terrain mod would look excellent on your region my friend and perhaps a tree mod too

[Schulmanator 5,812]

Cool beans! Eager to see this one start up!

[patriots_1228 51]

looking forward to it. will you be doing saucacus, where the NBA draft lottery was held? as a celtics fan, i would like to see that city burned to the ground, it causes so much pain lol

[AceofSpades 1]

the region looks awesome cant wait to see more

[Cleaner475 150]

looks good - I advise any water mods - can't wait for the first pics

good pic - keep it up,

Richard

[manman99 2]

ughghghgh Trenton! LOL sry its not you, its just thati live in New jersey, and I know that Trenton really isnt one of the finest, to put it in a nice way, but good luck, the region looks promising!

[Abc987 3]

I love CJs that recreate places, because if there done well, they have to be realistic because its after a real place lol!!

[Jacob Rock 0]

Thank you for all of your support! I have been working on adding mods to the game; however, I am a Mac user and am just learning how to do it properly. I'm pretty sure I have Pegasus's water mod finally working, but I cannot tell if the other ones have kicked in...I don't remember what the region looked like prior to me adding the .dat files! haha I have a paper to write for my summer class today, but I'll try to get some more snapshots up. And for those of you who were wondering, "Why the hell would he pick Trenton of all places to recreate!" haha I totally agree with manman99. I am from Jersey as well, and I frequently find myself in meetings at the State House and various other locations around the city - I am a triple major in Political Science, Planning & Public Policy, and Economics - and since I am very active in student government and so forth, I thought it would be an interesting hobby for the summer.

Again, thank you for your comments! I'll be sure to check our your CJ's right after I hand this paper in!

[Jacob Rock 0]

Trenton

Picking a Starting Point: Rotary Island

I decided to start near the water in a place where I could start with residential zones to secure a decent cash flow.

You guys were absolutely right - the water mod definitely changes the water's look!


Can't tell if other terrain mods aside from the water are working, but this is what Rotary Island looks like:



I need to stop procrastinating with this paper!


(Edit: The snapshots should work now, I had forgotten to switch them to JPEG format.)

[Schulmanator 5,812]

I was in Trenton last year. Looking forward to seeing it.

[jacqulina 162]

looking forward to seeing those mods working my friend

[patriots_1228 51]

cant see the pics make sure they are JPEG. sounds nice though. Will this be a accurate recreation or just a city built on the trenton region?

[Hester 700]

As someone who knows the area extremely well..I could not be more pleased. You have a fan right here. Good ol' Delaware River.

[Jacob Rock 0]

Thanks for pointing that out, Pats. I knew I was forgetting something when I uploaded the new ones. This will be an accurate recreation to the best of my ability, so Hester, you need to be a harsh critic for me. Point out all the things I make up!

[Hester 700]

I am just pleased as I can be. I was not born there but I lived just a couple miles away in Hunterdon County. And made with a MAC too? I just think I have died and gone to heaven!!! Trenton and a MAC!

[waldner 0]

Very nice!!

[IDS2 3,429]

Looks good so far. Region rendered, water mod installed. All ready!

[Jacob Rock 0]

Trenton

Starting Small: Rotary Island

Wow - this stuff is harder than it looked! Your CJs make everything seems so easy! I underestimated you guys, of course. I started two things in this update; the first, filling Rotary Island up with trees (should have been done for free in God Mode... I know, I know... but I'll know for next time), and the second, building Pennsylvania's River Road.

Littered the island as best as I could with the tree tool in Mayor Mode. P.S. - How long will it take for the trees to grow and fill in like in the satellite picture? Is there an easier way once you're in Mayor Mode?
     

River Road is definitely not this curvy! Looks like this job isn't going to be as easy as I anticipated! Out comes the terrain leveler tool....




Better, better, but not good enough. The thing I should have done first was printed out the satellite pictures and have them next to me while doing this as opposed to doing it all from memory after looking the satellite picture up really quick. I'll do that tonight. Obviously, River Road is a very straight, flat 45 degree road. Also, there is no real shore on the Pennsylvanian coast or on the island itself. I'll have this fixed by next update.
       

A slow start, but at least I got my hands dirty this time! I know what to expect as I delve deeper into this project. Those trees better grow faster!

[Hester 700]

Sorry...one more comment for now and that is River Road??? Be still my heart! :-) I'll shut up.

[Jacob Rock 0]

Trenton

Starting Small: Rotary Island

After searching the forums, I found out a neat Mac trick!

Holding down the "Option" key during startup enables you to open SimCity 4 in a window rather than full screen! Looks like I won't have to wait to print out the satellite pictures after all!

[Jacob Rock 0]

Trenton

Starting Small: Rotary Island

Finally getting used to the job. Having Google Earth next to the screen helps a lot. Looks like there will be a lot of things that  were lost in translation between the greyscale and the region. I'll have to use the terrain editing tools a lot more than expected.

Making the edge of the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River as straight as possible to match it up with the Google Earth image.



The river is straighter now, but not complete. I'll go back to this later, let me play around a little bit more and get used to things.



Rotary Island doesn't look exactly how it should. I added this smaller island there and I'll have to make another one next to it (the long, skinny one). I guess the islands were too thin for the game to pick up when converting the greyscale image into a region.



So much to do, so much to do........



If you haven't noticed yet, this is the first time I've ever played SimCity trying to accurately recreate something! Looks like I picked a hard place to start out with after all! But it's coming along. I'll be on the hunt in STEX for roads that can help more with the angles the region map has provided. Let me know if you have any ideas!

[tomdapom 79]

Nice terraforming, good work!

[Amerikaner 42]

ohh wow my friend that is looking quite neat... seems you have quite a bit of work to do lol good luck but it seems your able to handel it quite well those little island look nice (an easier way for trees is to download some from Cycledogs collection there come out much more grown and give you a better option)

[Jacob Rock 0]

I'll look into that, Amerikaner. Thanks!

[Cleaner475 150]

cool - I love the way you have comparisoned them - It tells you nare doing a great job so far,

i'm really liking this CJ, good work, keep it up,

Richard

[IDS2 3,429]

Very nice! It's starting to take shape. Don't fear if things aren't 100% accurate--Simcity4 does have limits. Also, you can plant trees in god mode again anytime y usiong the god mode cheat, ctrl+alt+shift+click on god mode. It works for windows, anyway...not sure about mac.