Parkland - adventures in realism

[RON-E 0]

Welcome all to my MD! I have spent A LOT of time working on this one. It took me a near two weeks just to get the trees layed out in the region due to it being so large. There are over 256 cities in this region. The largest I have ever worked with. Most of the tiles are for aesthetic purposes only though, so don't go thinking im trying to populate all those tiles.

My style of region design is built around the principles of realism. Which are sometimes very hard to come by when it comes to Sim City. I spend a lot of time and effort and meticulous detailing on each of my cities. I may do things over and over again just so it looks right in the city. For this reason, sometimes updates may only happen once a week. This is for the sake of quality over quantity. I am not going to post a ton of pointless entries just to get views.

I spend a lot of time laying out my designs in my mind and on paper, long before they hit the mouse in-game. The layout i have now, took me several days just to map out the rail and highways. I always start with the highways, rail and major infrastructure before i do anything else. This way it creates borders for the growth to hit and it make it more realistic. I measure out the distance in miles it is in game so it can be more realistic that way too.

OK! enough blabbing... Here is Parkland!

click on image for larger picture (10mb, you have been warned)

This is a heavily modded version of motina's Greater Vancouver Region that was originally intended for use in the now dead realism project. You can find the original map for download here : https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=5840

I am using several mods for this region, they are noted below, all of which can either be found here at SC4D or ST :

-American Traffic Mod

-Andreas'  BART Bus, El, Rail automata

-Bridge Height Mod

-BSC Funding Mod

-Clean Air Ordinance

-Columbus Terrain Mod, with Elm trees as main tree planter

-Commercial Cap Mod

-Crime Doesn't Pay Ordinance

-Diagonal Jagged Edges Mod

-Extra Terrain Tools

-Sydney Transit View Mod

-NAM

-No Palms

-No Rail Dirt (pegasus)

-No One Way Arrows Mod

-Radical Ordinances Mod

-Water And Power Conservation Mod

-Residential Cap Mod

-Slope Mod

-Street Light Mod

-Streetside Mod

-Uni-Desnity Streets

-Water Mod

-Asphalt Texture Highway Mod

-Zebra Avenue Mod

-Zoning Mod

As you can see, I use a lot of mods, some would consider some of those cheats. But since SC4 does not allow for realism on its own, you have to incorporate outside help to get to the point where you can make a visually appealing, realistic city.

If you have any questions as we go, just let me know! I will try to respond to every post!

Enjoy...

I am carrying over this MD from SC4Devotion, another great SC4 site. So the first 6 updates all come at once, but want you guys here to see all the cj too. so here it goes!

[RON-E 0]

Page 1 :

Major Infrastructure Layout (2 images)

Some general info/plans (5 images)

Street Layout (2 images)

Street Layout Update (2 images)

Close Ups (15 images)

Region View Updates (2 images)

Page 2 :

Region View (2 images)

[RON-E 0]

UPDATE 1

This took me a long time to place the layout of this city's major infrastructure to where i thought it looked realistic.

click image for larger version (10mb) you have been warned!

As you can see, it consists of 2 major highways. The East/West highway, and the North/South highway. Beyond that, there are 2 major loops and three other parkways that provide access to major destinations inside the city (airport, downtown, suburbs).

There is still some improvement to be made on the end pieces on the very south of the region and the very west of the region. they al of the sudden go very straight. i am still thinking about terraforming these areas into something more than just plains. Or i might leave them and create farmland on them.

The highways and loops labeled.

As you can see, the main East West Highway is I55

The Main North South Highway is I24

The Southwest loop is I455

The Northeast loop is I255

The main parkway that links the east bank across from downtown, all the way the the west side of town to the airport is State Highway 90

The little spur that leads off of I55 is I155, a little spur parkway that link the I55 to the airport

[tomdapom 79]

Hey, I have been looking at this over on SC4D, and it looks great! Glad to see you started it here as well !

[RON-E 0]

UPDATE 2

OK, so i have compiled a few pictures of the region showing where i intend to place certain things that are necessary for a real city to work.

parks, airports, malls, and military base. along with an extra. ok, i put the military base in there myself, cities don't need them to function, but bring growth and money into prospering cities.

ok, first i will start with the extra pic i was talking about. it is the direction of growth planned out. from there we will let natural growth take hold, but to build up the city to the point of natural growth, i have to layout the planned growth.

they all stem from downtown, circled in yellow, and uptown, circled in blue/purple. where the line ends, the growth and density fizzles out as it goes down that line.

all growth is outward from downtown.

next, the military base location

next, the locations of the malls

next, the location of the airport, international airport

next and last are major parks in the region, smaller ones will be built accordingly

some of this stuffs placement is tentative depending on growth and future plans and adjustments i might make, but i will keep you up to date!

enjoy!

[RON-E 0]

There is a new update coming soon! RL has gotten in the way this week. I am going on vacation next week from work and will have 11 days to tinker with the city and layout all the transit. That is what I have been working on, laying out all the transit and major developments that are common in cities.

Before I make any city, i go thru my plugins folder and see what i have downloaded. Then I make a list of all the major developments i want in the city, where i want them to be, then i make them in the region, then let the development happen naturally around them.

Here is my list for this region :

• Freight Yard
• CR Yard (in distant future when popualtion garners it)
• Bus System
• Greenways
• Large Parks
• BRT and LRT (in distant future when popualtion garners it)
• Tollway
• International Airport
• Regional Airport
• Power Facilities
• Water Facilities
• Jail
• Fire Airport
• Universities
• Colleges
• Schools
• Aquarium
• Medical Center
• Marinas
• Baseball Stadium
• Army Base
• Zoo
• Malls
• Suburban Office Parks
• Farms
• Bikeway
• Golf Courses
• Theme Park
• Water Park
• Cemetaries

[RON-E 0]

UPDATE 3

the long awaited street update. i have begun to layout some of the streets and avenues, etc in the region. click on the images for larger views. be warned, they are large images!

[RON-E 0]

UPDATE 4

sorry for the delay, got some more updates on the region area in the inside loop. slowly but surely filling the streets in. trying to make them as realistic as possible.

don't mind the boxes. a little secret i have, well, probably not a secret, but when i am doing things like post region rendering terraforming and street layout, i take out everything from my plugins folder except my mods. (i keep them very organized) this make the cities and region load a tone faster for mundane things like this. quick tip i guess.

[RON-E 0]

UPDATE 5

I know close ups have eben requested, but i have just now begun to develop the land. These are very early pictures, and much will change. but just to give you an idea of what to expect.

broadway exit off of I80 that lead directly through downtown

I like to make plantings around green, un-devlopable land around exits and where streets come together

Marlow University, still under development

This are will be Midtown. an area just outside of downtown with skyscrapers and large scale developments

Just on the other side if I80, this is considered Hillsboro Village. A few high rises adorn this part of town. This is also known as the gay district

A cemetery right outside of downtown

This is the big blank area you see in the transit maps. This is Highmont Park. A vast urban park in the heart of Parkland

Here is a close up of some of the village

A broader view of the village

West End exit on I24 in downtown

A close up of some of downtown

Convention Center and Arena area. Also known as the hotel district

Downtown at night with what is developed so far

Some more of downtown

The skyline.... for now..... the only thing that will really change here is infill.

[CarmineHilton 6]

OMG, You are a heavy guy!

Maybe you could have linked to the MD, instead of posting everything? héhé

But the pictures look good So good luck!!

[RON-E 0]

UPDATE 6

OK! good news, new update on the region view, made some more roads, there is one satellite city beginning to develop too.

you can click on the images for larger views, but be warned, they are very large files!

[RON-E 0]

Originally posted by: CarmineHilton OMG, You are a heavy guy!

Maybe you could have linked to the MD, instead of posting everything? héhé

But the pictures look good So good luck!!

quote>

check out the first post in this thread, at the bottom, in big bold orange, it explains it

<edit>   i see you did by the time i posted this, i want everything over here too. and i know the rules, i have been around since the begining, had to get a new user name because my other one got highjacked, man, it sucks losing 2500 posts...     </edit>

[2nerdy4u 1]

Hey, great work. Very impressive region.

[suplado! 23]

great updates....the region shot is really awesome!!

[Skram 4]

holy crap that looks awesome!Its super realistic!keep it up nice region shot

[bighaben 0]

O_O woah...

[connorc24 2]

Wow!!! Great!!!!

[bbfan02 23]

Wow, a lot of quick updates! Many of your pictures look amazing! Keep up the good work.

-bbfan02-

[KingTitan 6]

Looks great, looks promising. great start friend.

[Abc987 3]

Crazy road layouts, your pictures stun me!! I can honestly say that is the most amazing work I've ever seen accomplished in SC4.

[RON-E 0]

wow, that is a compliment!!!! thank you, you dont know how much i appreciate that!

[dosomthin90210 0]

great work so far

I realism

[Ace_F15 16]

Ron your pics are fantastic, as far as realism, and amazing screenshots goes. The layouts are perfect, and you've really got a keen eye for design in city layout. I'm definitely going to be checking back.

[.soapy 127]

That map is rather large, but the mountain range is quite realistic. your city so far is really nice, as well as the road and transit networks, I find it hard to get that certain look but I will say you pulled it off nicely.. the overall presentation of your CJ is very well done, most of us just post pictures and wait for comments, so its nice to see some time and effort into this... I predict a great CJ in the making, but I'm not a Psychic. hahaha. 

[Cleaner475 150]

looks really good so far, great road layouts and nice suburbs they look cool

this will be great, can't wait for more

Richard

[jacqulina 162]

wow nice region there my friend great start and intro coming on great

[Teeparex 6]

Sweet! 'I'm lovin' it.' lol. That region map is absolutely huge, and stunning. It would take 4 or more generations of your family to fill it!

[penguin007 27]

You look very skilled cant wait for more

Will

[Abc987 3]

You're very welcome RON-E! And I really meant what I said, I wasn't overreacting or telling little white lies, I'm serious.

[gabetx 1]

How do you do this?

Where you made that ground highway elevated?

Great job by the way. Very realistic!