Port Matthew and Vicinity

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

First, thanks to all the BATers out there who have created incredible buildings and train stations and water and rock mods and trees and anything else non-Maxis you spot in my cities.  You guys are just awesome.  Also, I use the NAM mod and have applied the "fightthepower" cheat just for one thing to not worry about.

Welcome to Port Matthew.  The region itself is up over 2 million people.  At last check, Port Matthew has exceeded 500,000 residents.  It is the high-tech and commercial center of the region.  PM even has its own superhero team, brought together after the Great Powers War raised a lot of land in the Pacific in unnatural ways, resulting in PM's unique geographic features, most notably Defenders' Cliffs jutting up right in the middle of downtown.

A few other nice places in town, the East Bank:

And East Bank Beach, from another angle:

And, Stranahan Hill

More later.  Maybe even some region shots.  Constructive criticism welcomed!  Thank you for looking!

[anarchy0029 2]

I like the color of the water. It looks very tropical. Your city is really creative and modern.

[bbfan02 23]

I like the water color too. That mountain is very weird lol. Great start on this cj!

-bbfan02-

[Callbat 8]

Hey this is great! nice water colour choice!

Just some criticism: your city looks a bit empty/incomplete, might wanna zone up all those empty spaces!

Great Job here though!

[2nerdy4u 1]

Good start. The transportation networks look excellent. I see good potential here.

[jacqulina 162]

great start my friend allready looking good

[Godzillaman 21]

Hmm...looks good. Just a suggestion, if you want tropical water mods, download some here from pegasus.

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Nice start on your new city.

[Za 164]

I second what nerdy said, though I'm not so sure about the water...but other than that it's a great start

[Smarty218 2]

The water looks cool. Very imaginative. The towering cliff is sorta random.

[suplado! 23]

well -- the water is really cool! really like the look of it! the town looks nice...

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

REPLIES:

Well, thank you everyone for the replies.  10 is 10 more than I anticipated!  I promise to become more interesting as this progresses.  Maybe I'll even have some eye candy in here somewhere!

Anarchy0029: Hey, thank you.  I can't remember who created the water mod, but I dl'ed it here at the STEX.

bbfan02:  The mountain, although seemingly random, has a backstory.  Hopefully I'll stay motivated long enough to tell it!

Callbat: Thank you!  Of course, this is a work in progress.  I have a number of things planned and a huge budget to work with, so we shall see continued improvement.

2nerdy4u: First, great screen name.  And thank you.  One of my favorite things about SC4 is the transit options *damn you, SCS*  Coming soon, a region view...

jacquilina: Haha, thank you.  I have been lurking for years here and now I have the guts to post my creation.

Godzillaman:  I will keep that under advisement.  Although it's entirely possible that I have dl'ed some from Pegasus and it's hopelessly lost in my plugins folder.

Schulmanator:  Thank you!  It's not really new though...  Just hidden from the embarrassment of being compared to some of the awesome cj's here (like yours, you Trixie Award winner you!)

Za:  Let the water grow on you.

Smarty 218:  The cliff has a backstory!  I'm telling you, it's great!

suplado: Thank you!  I hope to keep you interested...

WITH ANOTHER UPDATE!  TWICE IN TWO DAYS, AW YEAH!

Anyways, check out The Cliffs.

 This particular area has been tough to develop.  There was essentially only one way in and out due to the peninsular nature of the random cliff formation.  A pair of roads fed into the Cliffs around the university and the final stop of the PM Flying Rail (Cliffs Station, how creative, right?) limited the permanent development and hampered commute time.  The addition of the I-399 spur across the bay at the tip of the peninsula and the extension of the PMFR across the river to East Bank significantly improved the Cliffs' area to sustain large apartment buildings.  It took me some time to figure this all out.  Defenders' Tower now anchors the Cliffs as we shall see in a later update.

I mentioned the university earlier.

University Station is the major mass-transit station.  The Thunder Bowl is home of the PMU Thunderbolts.  In my NCAA 07 Dynasty the PMU 'Bolts are an SEC team, but that's impossible for this cj since we're talking about the Pacific Ocean.  Instead, they are a midpack PAC10 team, capable of the occasional upset and league winners when USC has an off year.  Academically, it is very strong, notably its Asian studies programs (international business, East Asian history).  Eventually I hope to develop some phat BATing skillz so that I can BAT Northern Michigan's Superior Dome or Ohio State's Ohio Stadium to use instead of the ubiquitous soccer field everyone loves so much.  I'll let you know how that goes if I can ever figure out how to use the darn program.

Now, onto Blue Village.

Called so because of the blue hue of the many (read: REPEATING) condos that sprung up around the area.  People decided they kind of liked the name and it stuck.  The Blue Village has three PMFR stations and some luxury homes mixed in with the high density highrises (well, I suppose these are more like midrises, but anyways).  I happen to be quite fond of the Blue Village myse

[jacqulina 162]

you lurker you lol,glad to see you out of the shadows,very nice building there my friend,great planning and details.excellent pics,the water mod looks great btw.

[2nerdy4u 1]

Good update. The hill-building is pretty good, just needs a little work. Other than that, excellent work.

[Cleaner475 150]

weird but nice water texture, i like the massive mountainy bit on the bit that sticks out

could do with some more custom content but other than that its looking good

Richard

[Smarty218 2]

Great update, lotta repetition there, but good use of maxis overall. Very nice highway by the way.

[suplado! 23]

yeah -- the highway looks nice!!

[Schulmanator 5,787]

That is some serious sunken highway! Rock on!

BTW, do you know the origin of the "palm tree"?

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Schulmanator,

Actually I do not. Would you care to enlighten me? Is there a thread explaining that I somehow missed?

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I may actually get around to making a fancy shmancy "Replies" picture eventually.  New update of another part of the city Friday (my day off).  Look for some close up shots of people actually DOING THINGS in Port Matthew!

[Amerikaner 42]

That is looking nice my friend, I like how that japanese temple (palace?) fits on the hill. The city is looking nice a little too much maxis for my taste but that is okay, your sunken highway is amazing I love how it looks.

[Smarty218 2]

Ah, a seat of power from which you can efficiently manage your dictatorship and spread propaganda. Or just a place to see old buildings and gardens.

[suomi2005 52]

I like the sunken highways and the water and the temple looks awesome. You could improve the look of those palm forrests by useing GDVs tropical tree set.

[2nerdy4u 1]

Nice teaser. Temple overlooking cliff.

[Skram 4]

nice temple!i like your water colour, keep it up

[bbfan02 23]

Great teaser! The temple looks great in there.

-bbfan02-

[Cleaner475 150]

lol, you couldn't make it more obvious that was a teaser theres lot of palm trees and nice temple

keep it going

Richard

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

REPLIES

jacqulina: Thank you!  Needless to say the beautiful cities you have all created on posted have inspired me to a certain degree.

2nerdy4u: Thank you.  The more I build, the more difficult it becomes, especially with train and monorail lines.

cleaner475: I've been slowly expanding my usage of non-Maxis stuff.  This isn't Hong Kong, though, so I probably won't have any massive skyscraper districts.  There's a good amount of sprawl in my region, as you'll soon see.

Smarty 218:  I know.  Darn Maxis.  Thank you.  Took me hours to get it right.  Still no satisfied though...

suplado!: Thank you!

Schulmanator:  TELL ME ABOUT "Palm tree"!

Amerikaner: Thank you!  The palace didn't fit quite right when I first plopped it.  It took some time to get it right.  Next post it should look better.

Smarty218: Something like that...

suomi2005: I'll be working to improve the palm trees in the near future.

2nerdy4u: "Ooh, your powers of deduction are exceptional. I can't allow you to waste them here when there are so many crimes going unsolved at this very moment Go, go, for the good of the city."  It took some time searching for the exact quote.  Thank you, Google!

skram: Thank you!

bbfan02: Thank you!

cleaner475: "Ooh, your powers of deduction are exceptional. I can't allow you to was-" No, no just kidding.  Thank you.  I have come to like that particular font, so much so that I had to blow it up!

UPDATE:

This is one of the coolest buildings I have found on the STEX and LEX.  I just couldn't resist putting it in my city.  This is very close to Stranahan Hill and is a major attraction to Port Matthew.  There is the 5-star Omni Hotel very near it to accommodate the wealthy tourists who come here to shop and party.

Two developers got into a bidding war over these properties and they ended up haphazardly splitting the land unevenly creating odd sets of modern row apartment buildings.  This is a neighborhood ideally situated between high-paying high tech jobs to the south and the beach and ocean to the north.  East Bank is farther to the south from this area.  Port Matthew and vicinity is home to some beautiful beaches.

The Port Matthew TV Building.  It is in the Financial District and has a fabulous view of Defenders' Cliffs and PMU across the river.  Many of PM's famous celebrities are often seen here.  Because the city is the major entertainment and commercial center of the region they are often seen all over the city.  The office tower in the foreground is the PM Trading Center, home to dozens of different corporations and trading firms.  It is the business anchor of the Financial District.

Tech Park is in the western part of Port Matthew.  PM, in addition to being the commercial powerhouse of the region, is also the technological center with tens of thousands of high tech jobs within the city's boundaries.  Near North Park is another tech center.  This particular area spreads past the frame of this picture.  To the east of Stranahan hill is yet another large high-tech area, and yet another one is east of the Blue Village!

And now, region view, first the satellite image:

[bbfan02 23]

Great update! The town looks great. I like the transportation map and the overall region view.

-bbfan02-

[Shanna 1]

Great update! I like your water mod!