Graafsticht ... my vision on how a city should look

[NicolaiS 8]

I have started a new region, especially for this CJ on Simtropolis .... completely flat and I will do all the terra forming myself.

I will not post large stories about this region. It is just some, I hope, nice pictures of what I am doing in the few hours I have during a week to really play the game.

I use a lot of modds as I don't give about running the gaming as a real mayor. I have done that often enough and is not a real thrill or challenge anymore. Building nice and beautiful and hopefully realistic cities is.

 

Before we can see the first steps of building Graafsticht I would like to take the opportunity to thank everybody who added all those great BAT's, LOT's and MODD's for Simcity. Without all you people this game would not have been as great as it is now. Thank you.

Now it is time to present you: Graafsticht, a typical Dutch name for a city, although I think it doesn't exist ... hmmm ... must look that one up ... hold on ... nope, its all mine.

Here are the first pictures of the city after creating a large river.

 

01.01

01.02

01.03

01.04

01.05

As you can see I started building the line-out of the city ... this medium sized city tile will hold the center of the city. The surrounding maps will be used to build the suburbs, and the maps surrounding those for farms ...

Hope you like it.

[____----____ 37]

real nice planning so far

 

AK

[oroen 0]

I like typical-sounding names that may or may not exist...

Looks like you've definitely got a vision here, and it'll be interesting for us to see where this takes you.

[NicolaiS 8]

Lucky me ... I had some spare hours to kill today and build a bit on Graafsticht. Here are some eye-candy pictures from area's in the city I really think turned out well. Especially the combination between Marrast'  river walls and PEG's Sea Village plaza's look pretty awesome to me.

 

Enjoy.

02.01

02.02

02.03

02.04

02.05

 

 

[homer2 3]

nice details of your city . I like the second and the last picture. Keep up this great work

[fredval 26]

Nice start !  Your CJ on Peg's site is a must-see

[____----____ 37]

really really cool city this is great

 

AK

[Bart_Betrwrld 0]

hey same style as my city...

looks promising

 

Please read the rules, you're not allowed to annonce your CJ in someone else's Cj.

mrbisonm

 

maybe share some ideas?

 

 

[lookinin 2]

Looks great so far! I especially like all of the downtown walkways between the shops, but I'm curious about the shops in your last picture. I am not familiar with those lots. Are they sunken or is that just an illusion?

[Lyhoko Leaci 770]

Looks good, I like the waterfront areas.

[6underground 11]

Very nicely done Nicolai, as you know i also follow your Journal over at peg's, and i know you like to pop in on New Rhodesia here and over at Pegs, i think i'll subscribe to you here, i like the look of the city so far. Hope you do the same. Nice work buddy, pretty inspirational, especially the placement of the bridge and the trully European feel.

[Alakazam 3]

Oh my! I simply love the detail! Keep it up! I really want to se more!

[mrbisonm 1,622]

Nice start, looking good so far, very european. I love the way you use the diagonal parklots. May I steal the idea?....lol

Keep it up. I'll be back.

 

mrb

[NicolaiS 8]

During the initial lay-out of the city I took some more snap-shots. Before I continu building ... indeed, all the Paris buildings are plopped and not grown ... I also have to do some residential zoning. The city has commercial jobs enough, but not a single soul to do them ...

Here are some left-over shots I took earlier:

03.01

03.02

03.03

03.04

03.05

03.06

03.07

Thats all ... everybody is up-to-date again.

[ExiL3 10]

Wow, that is a very nice city! Reminds me of many big european (central european) cities, so yes this is really realistic!
Great job, keep it up!

Take care!

edit: I see that you have the old european street textures, you should update it so that your diagonal roads become european too!

[lilou 1]

Wow ! I love it! It's 100% european style

[mtbrocket 2]

Nice CJ so far.

-Dan

[aasim45 1]

Great City you have created there. I like your road systems. You have a good eye for detail. Keep it up !!

[NicolaiS 8]

First of all: Thanks to everybody for the compliments and the replies.

 

To Bart_Betrwrld:   Sure I would like to exchange idea's .. all the better for our cities and skills building them. Drop me a line any time.

 

To lookinin: The sunken malls are made by PEG, you can find them here:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=BAT&Str=peg%20subterranean%20mall%20v205

 

To 6underground: Thank you, its an honour to have you subscribed to this CJ ... and indeed I do visit your CJ both on PEG's site and here ... I also subscribed to you so I will not miss anything.

 

To mrbisonm: Most certainly you may steal my idea. I am not sure it is my idea in the first place and all credits should go to Marrast for building them. It is an honour to receive a compliment from the founder of Nexis.

 

 

 

Back to Graafsticht:

 

Every city ( region ) needs power. To accommodate Graafsticht with power I used a small city tile directly South of the city to build an industrial area ... small, but sufficient. In the pics shown you can see I first used Jeronij's sea walls to spice up the Graafse Kanaal a bit.

When I realized I also have a Japanese sea wall set, I experimented with those. I must admit I do like them. They are not perfect, but I think they are the best ones available at this time  ( Marrast sea walls do not fit in an industrial area )

Here are the pictures of sculpting the Graafse Kanaal area. Later I will show the river's port and industrial area.

04.01

04.02

04.03

04.04

04.05

[FullStrenght 74]

Sweet. I'm really looking forward to see more!!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Looks great. I might borrow some ideas from here. Look forward to future updates.

[NicolaiS 8]

Just South of downtown I have finished the small industrial area, complete with freight rail and a river port. Hope you like what i have done.

This is an aerial shot after i finished the pain-staking job of building the port.

05.01

The tunnel entrance ... I love building tunnels ... and the port.

05.02

Close-up of the port ... notice the nice smooth entrance road to the port.

05.03

Bridge crossing Graafsche Kanaal.

05.04

Freight Station finished!

05.05

The area is finished:

05.06

[aasim45 1]

Nice Update.

[mambomumba 8]

Wow!

 

I found this CJ today and I think it is very interesting and of course very beautiful!

My favourite CJ is, of course, jeronij's Sculpting Columbia River and your CJ reminds

a bit of his. Nothing can be better than CR but you're pretty close!  '); height=15 alt=Insert smilie src=https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif width=15 border=0>

 

I also see you're kind to your CJ's visitor. That's a good thing a makes more people come

here and visit. Keep it up!

 

 

 

                                mambomumba|mambomumba

 

 

 

 

[godwin1020 1]

Wow, what great city

[pekeboo01 3]

I like the Ports and the way you have terraformed everything so nicely. That takes a great deal of time and effort. Where did you get the little overhead rail lots on your railway? Is that a japanese BAT?

I love the elevated rail lots also. Very good!

 

[andreharv 1,197]

I always judge a simcity by its similarity to a birds eye view of your average city.  When I fly to and from school, I always look at the layout for ideas but your style is the best representation that I have seen yet.  I like your style and I like your moves!

[FullStrenght 74]

Awesome, a great attention to detail and great design. I'll be watching this one!

[Cjah 15]

Excellent port area!That is how a realistic port should be....

Maybe I'll look for these walls....

 

Great C.J.!9/10

[NicolaiS 8]

Hello everybody,

 

Because of the very nice comments received on this CJ I have decided to present you another update. First of all some responses to various people:

 

To mambomumba: A comparison with Jeronij's SCR is a very welcome compliment. I have been inspired by SCR and Elladremme by Marrast. I think those two CJ's show the great things that are possible with this game and all the extra's made possible by all those talented Batters. I am not trying to imitate those great CJ's but do confess they have a big influence on my vision how to build a great city.

 

To pekeboo01: Terraforming does consume a lot of time and effort ... but terraforming is one of the things I like most about playing the game. When terraforming I can almost see how the end result will be and how it will fit in with the rest of the city.

 

The underpasses I have used are made by Marrast. I know you can find similar ones on one of the Japanese sites, but I don't remember which one. The ones made by Marrast can be found here:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=BAT&Str=marrast%20eyecandy%20underpasses%20as%20is

 

Now, lets get back to Graafsticht ... the South Bank this time.

 

Again I have used the enbankment set by Marrast to dress up the river. One of the things I hadn't tried in any city yet was the use of the Ground Rail Mod ... this time I wanted to see how good it really is. I must confess .... its absolutely perfect and beautiful. I can recommend everybody to start using them.

 

First Picture, a temporary lay-out of the road network.

 

06.01

 

 

Second picture, a close-up of a road area and I have no idea yet how I am going to implement this junction in the network.

 

06.02

 

 

Third picture, the Ground Rail mod in action with the gorgeous station build by Brenda. Isn't that tram the cutest thing you have ever seen?

 

06.03

 

 

Fourth picture, A close-up of some history of the South Bank. Before Graafsticht became a real large city the South bank of the river Graaf consisted of numerous small villages. This picture shows some of the remains of the old village of Zaaldrecht, which is now an integrated part of the city of Graafsticht.

 

06.04

 

Fifth and final picture, lets get back to the North Bank for a second. Remember the first post of this CJ? Well this is how the onramp of the Graafbrug and surrounding area turned out.

 

06.05

 

 

See you soon.