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

[pekeboo01 3]

Nice pic of Droespolder. I hope I spelled it right. I like the farming communities and the village is very quaint. The use of Pegs canals really sets the scene. Well done!

[Bluefrog 0]

This CJ has inspired me as well as taught me many things, such as, to separate my buildings and not to have massive blocks of construction.  Im now going to experiment with open spaces. 

What sets did you use for:

Paths/Cycle Lanes

Making E-L at ground level

 

Also can you direct me to a ground digging tool that gives steep sloping sides.  Ive seen it used in cities before for highways and rails.

 

Keep inspiring me  

[pikatchoum 2]

WOW!!

Your city is very nice...!I love

I'am agree with your vision of how a city should look.

A lot of green spaces and detail,that's just amazing.

The work you made with the rivers is incredible!!

How could I missed this Cj before

Keep up,please keep it up,

[aasim45 1]

Nice Update!

[NicolaiS 8]

Here we are again ... update number 19 ... and its a huge one, but as always first the comments.

 

 

To Sloppet, Dutchdragon, cjah, Fullstrenght, Pekeboo1 and aasim45,

 

Thank you all for your support and nice comments. I hope you all are enjoying this as much as I enjoy building the city's and this city journal.

 

To Bluefrog,

 

I am sorry that I can not answer your question about the cycle lanes ... I have absolutely no idea where I got them from. I have tried to find them on the STEX and on Maxis' site, but was unsuccessful. Whenever I figure out where I found them I will let you know.

 

The question about the Ground Rail is easier to answer. Go to this thread and you will know everything there is to know about it:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=64341

 

The hole digging tools can be found here:

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=Lot&Str=hole digging lots

 

To Darmok,

 

I myself am not a big fan of the looks of the real VINEX locations. In my view they are far to artificial. I live in a neighbourhood of Den Haag that was build in the 1930's. The houses and streets are more organic, more real in my view. VINEX is a very popular though, especially with young families. VINEX profides a save place for children to play, large houses and a quiet neighbourhood. Its basicely the long streets with exactly the same houses  and the general archtecture of the houses that bothers me most.

 

I am also a big fan of Railroad Tycoon ... I have played all three versions, and still like the first one best

 

To Kwakelaar, 

 

criticism is never a bad thing, it makes me be critical of my own work too. I appreciate any comment, either positive or negative. I interpretated your criticism as positive, a signal that my VINEX location could have been better ... and I agree with that.

 

To Mickebear,

 

Welcome to Graafsticht and thanks for the compliments. I understood your Dutch ... its no bad at all. Since when do you live in Vlaanderen?

 

To Pickachoum,

 

Welcome to Graafsticht ... and isn't the saying: Better later then never? I hope you are enjoying this update and will see you again in Graafsticht.

 

 

---

With Droespolder we visited a rural area ( Dutch influence ) for the first time. When we travel to the east we will arrive in Schaarveen. This is also a small rural village. The village itself isn't that important. The position of the village is of more importance.

As most people know, The Netherlands is a wet country. With the North sea nearby and being the delta of the Rijn and Maas rivers, not to forget the hundreds of canals, the Dutch have a love-hate relation with water.

one of the special things of this country is that large parts of it are below sea level. Meaning that without our dykes and dunes large parts of the country will be flooded. The pictures here will show what I mean:

Holland with dykes and dunes:

Holland without dykes and dunes:

Our dunes are a natural phenomenon and we take good care of them. The dykes though are man made ... Dutch made. Untill the 16th century large parts of Noord- and
Zuid-Holland en Utrecht were lakes formed by the rivers Rijn and Maas when they overflowed. It was an annual happening ... rain and melt water filled the rivers with to much water and large parts of the country flooded.

Something had to be done about it. The Dutch wanted to protect their villages and farm land from the water. The solution was to stop the rivers from flooding. As you can not stop the water from coming, the Dutch figured that they had to control the way of the rivers. They started building dykes beside the rivers. When the water rose the dykes protected the lower land beside the wild rivers.

In these pictures we can clearly see that the water in the river is higher then the land beside it ... the dykes protect the land.

The next drawing makes it even more clear:

Were the Dutch content with the dykes and the protection of the land against flooding? No ... of course not. We still had hundreds of lakes in the western provinces ... underneath those lakes was valuable agricultural land ... or land to build city's. But how the H*** do you get the water from the lakes into the rivers or the sea for that matter?

Jan Adriaanszoon Leeghwater, born in 1575 had the solution. One day he noticed a windmill used for cutting wood into planks. Wind power was an important asset to the Dutch industry. The mills were mostly used for grinding grain and wheat. Leeghwater had a vision.

On his orders a number of windmills were build next to the lakes. Dykes were build next to the lakes and a canal was dug from the lake to the sea or nearby river. The windmill was build between the canal and the lake. With wind power water was pumped from the lake into the canal and flowed to the North sea. A complete set of these windmills dried the lakes in the west part of the Netherlands.

Here we see a picture of such a windmill:

Getting the lake dry is one thing, keeping it dry is another thing. In order to keep the land in the west dry hundreds, perhaps even thousands of windmills were build to dry land, keep it dry and control the influx of water into the now dry polders in dry periods. The Dutch had invented water management.

Leeghwater became quite a celebrity and build projects in Belgium, Germany and France. He died 75 years of age in Amsterdam.

With the arrival of the Industrial revolution the steam pump was introduced. It gave the Dutch even better control over their land.

These are to pictures of a steam pump ... one is the housing and the other one the engine.

Nowadays the pumps are electric and are still an important part of our country. During all those centuries we learned to live and die with water. An old saying tells us: God created the earth ... but the Dutch created The Netherlands. Without all those thousands of people who build dykes and dams we wouldn't have the country we live in today. This post is an homage to them.

Of course I tried to recreate the above story. I designated a small city tile to build Schaarveen .... and the river Schaar.

Here is a picture which shows that the river lies above land level. The dykes keep the water in the river and the surrounding land dry.

River ... and a bridge.

Close-up of the bridge

The dyke profides a nice cycle route

The village at the bottom of the dyke

The Farmer can reach his/her land via these dirt roads and small bridges over the ditches. Those ditches are important. As I have told the land is kept dry by pumps. These ditches are all connected to the pump. From there the Water Management Institute ( in Dutch: Waterschap ) controls the water level for the surrounding land.

Overview of the ditch system

The waterpump

Aerial picture of the city tile

Thats it for update 19 .... hope to see you all next time.

[rodeschouw12a 0]

Great update! Especially those dikes, typical Dutch.

[Mickebear 2]

NicolaiS,

I can see why you are proud of your country, you should be! Without your dykes and dams, 90% of Dutch population would die... makes you think really what power we can have over the nature when we want.

 

And of course your update amply demonstrates how you can do it in SC4 !

 

I live in Brussels since the year 2000, which, eventhough technically in Flanders, is really a French-speaking city. And because I work in an international company in English, I haven't a lot of opportunities to practice my 3-year-old level Dutch

 

I enjoyed reading your CJ, I hope I can offer something in return.

 

Hugs

 

Mickebear

 

EDIT: Indeed, I didn't notice that either (and because I have similar situation on my CJ), how did you do the bridge? I suppose you used Teirusu's rain tool to create body of water, then the bridge, but HOW did you get the PEG's Pond lots UNDER the bridge?

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

WOW, i just now saw this CJ for the first time. Great JOb!!!

[FullStrenght 74]

Thanks for this update, it is very realistic and I bet a lot of people will learn about the Dutch thanks to you! I am glad to see I won't drown when the flood comes

[flrscf 0]

Wow, NicolaiS! This is the most Dutch looking update sofar! Specially the aerial pic looks very Dutchie! And how on earth do you make that bridge?? I must have taken hours to do that. Keep it up!

[jacqulina 162]

wow this cj is very good,love the pics,great work

[____----____ 37]

your building style is so great I just love this CJ

 

keep it up

 

AK

[Dutchdragon 74]

Leuk die dijken, typisch Nederlands!!!

[garfiedude 2]

Best dyke job i've seen on Simcity4 so far, well done/

One suggestion, some of the major rivers have not just the one, but other additional dykes along the river, as sometimes when there is a flood, there is simply too much water in the river to be contained between the standard dykes, so the secondary dykes come into play, let the first one over flow and the river is contained by the secondary one, which allows for a much larger river, and thus more water flow. The land between these dykes wil typicly only be used for grazing cows and what not.
This is especialy true allong the Rijn (actualy the Lek) in Utrecht province, where i saw a flood and the defending dykes in action near Wijk-bij-duurstede, the swollen river was so wide that you could hardly see the otherside, but the flood was contained and thus controlled, and not a problem.

[Kwakelaar 92]

Wat a great update, first of all the story about the Dutch fight against the water, and then the transformation to SC4.
I must say you have done this very well. The bridge with the roads along the dykes and the dykes themselves look excellent.
At first glance I thought it was a Ringvaart but it could indeed also be a river. It is almost real life. You have made good use of the different puzzelpices made by different people to fill up around the roads and dykes.

I'm glad you don't have any hard feelings regarding my comment. It is sometimes easy to forget all the time and effort it takes to make a CJ, even more so if it is a good looking one like yours.
Waiting for the next update!

[comdude21 6]

How could I have missed this? That last update is amazing, great job. This is a great, newer CJ, and the Dutch style is really cool. Excellent work.

[screamomatic 14]

I'd have to say it quite cool, the dykes make it look interesting. I never got the point of building a city under the water when it can get flooded so easily. But whatever, at least you made it look good. I think your doing a great job.

[raindog 4]

Date: 6/7/2005 1:50:09 PM
Author: garfiedude
Best dyke job i've seen on Simcity4 so far, well done/

One suggestion, some of the major rivers have not just the one, but other additional dykes along the river, as sometimes when there is a flood, there is simply too much water in the river to be contained between the standard dykes, so the secondary dykes come into play, let the first one over flow and the river is contained by the secondary one, which allows for a much larger river, and thus more water flow. The land between these dykes wil typicly only be used for grazing cows and what not.

quote>


I like that saying: the best dyke job. Sounds very funny.
So Garfiedude is talking about our famous three dyke system: de waker, de slaper en de dromer (the watcher, the sleeper and the dreamer as they are called).

This is a great CJ, NicolaiS. I really feel at home here. (makes sense for being Dutch)

I just notice that little detail in 19-06. You even got the right buses (Arriva I believe), and the Oppie trainset as shown earlier.

[pikatchoum 2]

The river and the cylce routes are great!

The bridge is very nice and original too (i think)

 

[petriknl 15]

Wow cool love the dykes with the lovely village at the foot of it, can we expect some 'uiterwaarden' to? maybe with a brickfactory...? And Brussel = Nederlands/Vlaams...

[theblademaster 1]

Still going strong i see, a really good job on making the polders.

 

I would like to quote garfielddude,

One suggestion, some of the major rivers have not just the one, but other additional dykes along the river, as sometimes when there is a flood, there is simply too much water in the river to be contained between the standard dykes, so the secondary dykes come into play, let the first one over flow and the river is contained by the secondary one, which allows for a much larger river, and thus more water flow. The land between these dykes wil typicly only be used for grazing cows and what not.

quote>

 

With this he is right, the river is containd in between 2 dikes, the first one, called a summer dike, contains the water, as the name says, in the summer when there is not much water.

In the winter and spring however, there is much more water that has to be pumped away. This is beacouse of a combination of factors, ill keep it simple....,it rains much in these periods, and the lands polders are low, so they gather a lot of water. Also a lot of water comes from the great rivers.

Anywho, when we couldnt contain the water as good as now, in the winters the water was permitted to rise, for this there was a area of sevral (hunderds) meters, where the water may stand dring the wet period. during this time you could travel over the winter dike. The land in between the dikes was mostly used for cows, or the production of grass, becouse they where to wet to be in agricultural use.

 

most of these boezems are build full with houses, but some are used for recriation, kows, or as nature reserves. The endagered blue grasland can be found here. This is a typical kind of nature for wet boezems....

but if you are still reading now, i won't bore you with explaining those...

 

besides my little comment anex explenation, i would like to say, Great work

keep it up.

[Spitfire656 0]

Where did you get that highway? It looks so cool.

[NicolaiS 8]

Date: 6/9/2005 4:10:35 PM Author: Spitfire656

Where did you get that highway? It looks so cool.

 

Those are part of the Euro Roadtops Modd ... you cab find the modd here:

 

  https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?mode=viewtopic&topicID=59577&num=30&pageNo=4

 

For all those who are wiating for update number 20. I am currently working hard to understand both the LE and the reader in order to make some custom made lots for the journal. I am almost there though and I expect that within a couple of days the next series of updates of Graafsticht will see the light.

 

Thank you for your patience.

[Mickebear 2]

I am looking forward to your next update, I am sure that it will be of good quality.

Mickebear

[jacqulina 162]

look forward to more

[Jerebannus XVI 7]

wow this city just keeps impressing me! i have to say that this is a real inspirational city. keep it up. and thank you for posting such a pleasing creation.

[NicolaiS 8]

Hi everybody ...

For those who are in anticipation for the next update ... sorry ... it isn't finished, not even close. But, there is good news. I have managed to create custom made lots, and even made them transit enabled. I needed to master this in order to be able to create the next step in this journal.

During my experiments with the Lot editor and the Reader I did start working on the update and therefor I can present a preview to Update series 20+.

 

Before we go to the Preview I would like to take the opportunity to address the comments made since update 19.

 

To Rodeschouw12a, newyorkrunaway1, jacqulina, Aleking, Dutchdragon, comdude21, screamomatic, Pikatchoum, spitfire656 and jerebannusXVI:

 

Thank you all for visiting Graafsticht and the pleasant comments. I hope to see you all again aftyer Updates 20+

 

To Mickebear: 

 

Thanks for your support and I am glad to be an inspiration. About the landbridge; I have not used the rain modd to create this. What I have done is dig a small hole to water level ate the exact spot where the bridge has to be dragged. It takes some tries to get it right, but it is worth it. With PEG's Pond kit I created the water. In that package is also a lot for the Stream going underneath the E-train. Basicely this is a lot which extends one tile ... showing an extra tile of water. With this lot I mask the hole in the ground. Et voila ... a land bridge.

 

To Fullstrength:

 

I am glad you like the cj and my Dutch influence in it. Good that you will keep your feet dry during a flood ... I am not that fortunate as I live in Den Haag

 

To flrscf:

 

Hi again ... glad you like it ... making the bridge was a real pain sometimes, but I know it can be done and i really wanted it ... in my respons to Mickebear I explained how I have done it. Of course I will profide additional info if needed, just send me a pm.

 

To garfiedude:

 

Good to see you again in Graafsticht. Thanks for elaborating more info about our dyke system. My original plan was to also create uiterwaarden, but when I realized that the map I was working on was to small to make it realistic enough I choose to build just one dyke. But of course you are right that there should be at least two, but usually three seperate dykes to control a river.

 

To Kwakelaar:

 

Hi again. You hit the nail on its head ... I did create a ringvaart, but decided that an explanation about poldersloot --> boezem --> ringvaart --> rivier/zee would become to long and people might lose interest. Therefor I decided to call it a river and give a more global explanation about why we have dykes in our country.

 

To raindog:

 

Thanks for the compliments. Indeed I used the right buses, but they are not Arriva, but Connexxion ... alhoewel ... thinking about it, don't both Arriva and Connexxion look the same? Its been a while since I have been in Groningen and see a Arriva bus.

 

To petriknl:

 

Hi, great to see the founder of Nassau in Graafsticht. Thanks for the compliments. About those uiterwaarden: ... I think they might pop-up somewhere during the next update series.

 

I know Brussel is Vlaams, unfortunately most Walloniers refuse to speak Dutch

To theblademaster:

 

Thank you for explaining a bit more about the dyke system. As you noticed I used basicley grass land polders alongside the dyke, with smaller looking farms to get some nice buildings. This area of Schaarveen could be seen as an entire area designated as uiterwaard. Meaning that the village will flood ... a lot of people in Brabant and Limburg know what that means. 

 

---

 

Preview time:

 

First of all ... a short trip back to Het Oude Noorden. Here we can see my accomplishments with Lot editing/building. This is also a hint in the direction of Update 20+

 

 

The next four pictures show the enormous amount of work I have to do before I can really start working on the update. I don't mind though, as building these ports sometimes has been great fun but mostly very IRRITATING!!! ... LOL ...

Thats it for now ... and see you all soon with the first update of the Twenties Series.

[jacqulina 162]

excellent work

[fredval 26]

Those dykes are splendid and particularly realistic !  What a good job you've done !

[MissTonya 2]

that is a very nice river so real if you ask me i like your farms this is the most realistic city i have seen so far!

 

Yo it's Tonya!