Show us your Downtown!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I can't seem to get the super-tall skyscrapers yet, there's a demand for commercial and lots of 4x4 lots, low taxes, but they don't seem to be building up yet.

Looks like you got some stage 8 buildings already, so your city is probably mature enough for skyscrapers. The "lots of 4x4 lots" part may be the problem: it enables demand to "spread out", with many smaller buildings being constructed instead of a handful of skyscrapers. Try restricting the offer of high-density 4x4 lots.

 

For reference and orientation, Wu Blue Denim HQ and Ajanagadde, Inc. (you got at least 15 of them in your city) are pretty much the tallest commercial office buildings that can grow on medium density. So you can stick to medium-density lots except for the spots where you really want skyscrapers. If you proceed this way, the commercial zones will max out eventually, i.e. the biggest building that can grow on them will already have grown. Now, when demand continues to increase (where would it go if all available zones are maxed out?), you can zone a nice 4x4 high-density lot and make it desirable by adding some plazas nearby - all available demand will be channeled to this lot, and you habe a fair chance of getting a nice fat skyscraper. Don't despair if you get one of those obnoxious drive-in cinemas - just bulldoze and try again. You can also plop lots of trees over the empty lot to increase desirability further.

 

When there are lots of repetitive mid-rise buildings such as Ajanagadde in my city (let's pretend I got 10 of them, and I only want to keep 2 because they look spot on where they have grown) one thing I sometimes like to do is I will bulldoze/dezone the remaining 8 buildings. This will free up demand for roughly 8x800 = 6.400 CO$$$ jobs! Then I can pick a nice 4x4 zone for a good skyscraper and use the remaining 7 free spots for other stuff - maybe residential so I get more Sims and, hence, even more commercial demand? This way you can condense a city without consuming additional space.

[elew4too 77]

 

Here's midtown Hippopolis with the historic downtown to the west.

 

[super tiny pic]

I can hardly see that! Could you post a higher-resolution image, please? I'd actually like to be able to see your city.

 

Of course!  Let me know if you have any difficulties viewing these:

 

Here is the southwest quadrant of midtown with Central Station to the west and the Pantheon to the east.

 

 

Here is the Pantheon District with the monorail going from Central Station to North Station

 

To the west, we have historic downtown

 

 

 

And east of midtown there's the rest of the business district, East Station (next to the freeway), the reservoir to the north and the conservation area to the south.

 

 

[Derr1 9]

Update for mine: replaced the ageing elevated highway with a sunken RHW, been using RHW for about a week and I've gotta say i like it. Still in the process of upgrading the highways and infrastructure such as the viaduct rail system which cuts down on car crashes and looks pretty damn cool.

[henrys1996 127]

Downtown Oak Ridges

 

I watched you build that, LOL. I think you're one of the few users who can build a skyscraper city and make it look good (and it's really inspired my building style, too)!

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Don't think I've posted this here yet, fairly old but hopefully I can come up with something new soon. 

New Duveland's second largest city, and capital of the New Ulster province, it's home to 2,652,298 people.

Once I figure out why my launcher is broken, I hope to start work on some rural towns, away from the metropolitan areas. keep a look out!

[jmsepe 2,039]

Yay, the host of the next AIN Games?

 

@CM, I challenge you to the hosting rights competition.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Hmmm, we'll see.  

[henrys1996 127]

I leave you all with this close-up on the intersection between N Meridian Blvd. and W Madison Ave., just crossing the Redmund River from downtown Redmund, the city I'm focusing on (which has reached a population of 1.3 million already). More updates on the western commercial district of Redmund soon to come. NOTE: Madison Ave was recently widened to an AVE-6 after being a AVE-4 that was WAY over capacity. I also want to show a few more pictures of downtown Redmund here.

 

 

A little look at E Lexington Ave.intersecting S Arthur St. in downtown Redmund:

 

And a nice view of Grand near S 5th St. (also in downtown Redmund).

[MissVanleider 1,850]

 

[CaterpillarKing 52]

Looks like a bomb went off in the parking lot I really like that spherical structure, what is it?

[MissVanleider 1,850]

Looks like a bomb went off in the parking lot I really like that spherical structure, what is it?

if you mean the skyscraper in the foreground with the smaller and smaller spheres then its a sim mars building. I have the mod which 'earthifies' the colours, adds some green etc. So it looks like earth. It has a few really interesting buildings in it if you dont care about strictly realistic

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Downtown Playa D'Ariana. I think I've posted the same city before, but meh. New pics are fun. A trained eye might even see the differences and improvements.

 

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the fact that there are still places that I haven't completely finnished yet, as well as the rows of row houses. They may look boring, but it's a common sight in urban areas of the Midwest, such as Chicago or S:t Louis.

[1131989 223]

 

Take your pick. Also threw in some condo towers because they are as tall as many CBDs.

[APSMS 1,893]

Downtown Playa D'Ariana. I think I've posted the same city before, but meh. New pics are fun. A trained eye might even see the differences and improvements.

 

<img snipped>

 

Please excuse the fact that there are still places that I haven't completely finnished yet, as well as the rows of row houses. They may look boring, but it's a common sight in urban areas of the Midwest, such as Chicago or S:t Louis.

I can excuse the row houses. I still can't figure out how you guys get them to grow like that; It's something I'm trying to emulate for my midtown/uptown districts, but I can't get them to grow in such numbers. They aren't plopped, are they?

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

I can excuse the row houses. I still can't figure out how you guys get them to grow like that; It's something I'm trying to emulate for my midtown/uptown districts, but I can't get them to grow in such numbers. They aren't plopped, are they?

 

Thanks! And yes, of course they're plopped. Haven'y you got Buggi's extracheats.dll? Type "buildingplop" in the cheat box and you get an alphabetic list of all the Lots in the game. Then just pick your choice.

 

 

If you have a "no mod policy" or you find the list confusing or something, you could also wait for the buildings to grow and then make them historical. Takes some time, but it always works. You also don't have to worry about the houses getting abandoned.

[1131989 223]

 

I can excuse the row houses. I still can't figure out how you guys get them to grow like that; It's something I'm trying to emulate for my midtown/uptown districts, but I can't get them to grow in such numbers. They aren't plopped, are they?

 

Thanks! And yes, of course they're plopped. Haven'y you got Buggi's extracheats.dll? Type "buildingplop" in the cheat box and you get an alphabetic list of all the Lots in the game. Then just pick your choice.

 

 

If you have a "no mod policy" or you find the list confusing or something, you could also wait for the buildings to grow and then make them historical. Takes some time, but it always works. You also don't have to worry about the houses getting abandoned.

 

Just asking, is there a Mac version of this cheat? I use the App Store version and this plugin is solely a .dll, which Macs can't read.

[APSMS 1,893]

Thanks! And yes, of course they're plopped. Haven'y you got Buggi's extracheats.dll? Type "buildingplop" in the cheat box and you get an alphabetic list of all the Lots in the game. Then just pick your choice.

 

 

If you have a "no mod policy" or you find the list confusing or something, you could also wait for the buildings to grow and then make them historical. Takes some time, but it always works. You also don't have to worry about the houses getting abandoned.

 

Well, if you checked out my CJ (actually, do the MD, I haven't updated on ST in a while *shameless self-plug*), you'd see I'm no stranger to mods. I'm jusdt not a fan of plopping tons of stuff, which is why I'm averse to MMPs (despite using them).

 

Just asking, is there a Mac version of this cheat? I use the App Store version and this plugin is solely a .dll, which Macs can't read.

There is no Mac version. This is due to the file being procured directly from MAXIS developers, who found the Mac port an afterthought and developed/tested the game entirely on Windows. You'll have to grab the digital version and run it with Wine or in dual-boot to use the file.

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

 

 

I can excuse the row houses. I still can't figure out how you guys get them to grow like that; It's something I'm trying to emulate for my midtown/uptown districts, but I can't get them to grow in such numbers. They aren't plopped, are they?

 

Thanks! And yes, of course they're plopped. Haven'y you got Buggi's extracheats.dll? Type "buildingplop" in the cheat box and you get an alphabetic list of all the Lots in the game. Then just pick your choice.

 

 

If you have a "no mod policy" or you find the list confusing or something, you could also wait for the buildings to grow and then make them historical. Takes some time, but it always works. You also don't have to worry about the houses getting abandoned.

 

Just asking, is there a Mac version of this cheat? I use the App Store version and this plugin is solely a .dll, which Macs can't read.

 

No, there is not. Macs can't run .Dll scripts because Macs suck!

 

But seriously, I feel your pain.

[timmie 988]

 

Downtown Playa D'Ariana. I think I've posted the same city before, but meh. New pics are fun. A trained eye might even see the differences and improvements.

 

<img snipped>

 

Please excuse the fact that there are still places that I haven't completely finnished yet, as well as the rows of row houses. They may look boring, but it's a common sight in urban areas of the Midwest, such as Chicago or S:t Louis.

I can excuse the row houses. I still can't figure out how you guys get them to grow like that; It's something I'm trying to emulate for my midtown/uptown districts, but I can't get them to grow in such numbers. They aren't plopped, are they?

 

 

They're not too difficult to grow. I have downloaded plenty of rowhouses, and most of them are in the New York-tileset. If you make sure you zone like this (alternating medium and high density) so that the game will only grow 1x2 lots, it's not too difficult. Make sure you provide water, parks, schools, hospitals,... so that the medium and high density buildings can develop, if not, you will only get detached houses. I prefer growing houses, since they actually cause traffic (and of course, plopping residential buildings usually doesn't work very well). Don't forget to make them historical when they grow!

 

 

To give an example, most of this was grown in the Euro tileset:

 

 

This was grown with the New York tileset:

 

[1131989 223]

 

 

 

I can excuse the row houses. I still can't figure out how you guys get them to grow like that; It's something I'm trying to emulate for my midtown/uptown districts, but I can't get them to grow in such numbers. They aren't plopped, are they?

 

Thanks! And yes, of course they're plopped. Haven'y you got Buggi's extracheats.dll? Type "buildingplop" in the cheat box and you get an alphabetic list of all the Lots in the game. Then just pick your choice.

 

 

If you have a "no mod policy" or you find the list confusing or something, you could also wait for the buildings to grow and then make them historical. Takes some time, but it always works. You also don't have to worry about the houses getting abandoned.

 

Just asking, is there a Mac version of this cheat? I use the App Store version and this plugin is solely a .dll, which Macs can't read.

 

No, there is not. Macs can't run .Dll scripts because Macs suck!

 

But seriously, I feel your pain.

 

A shame, because I've actually created some neat stuff on the App Store version. 

 

Edit: I also would like to see Mac versions of modding tools like Lot Editor, Reader, and BAT.

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

A shame, because I've actually created some neat stuff on the App Store version. 

 

Edit: I also would like to see Mac versions of modding tools like Lot Editor, Reader, and BAT.

I'm afraid you're out of luck again. 

[9gruntsand1hammer 3,196]

Downtown Garden River. Voted the ugliest downtown in the whole region for the basic architecture, no thought of building placement, and horrible choice of materials on some buildings.

 

 

[MushyMushy 3,618]

Here's a downtown area I recently finished in the city of Promethia (soon to appear as a part of a CJ or something). It's actually the same town that I had in the works (with that port) before, but it's been updated to some extent (plus photo editing!  )

 

Notes

• I know some people aren't big fans of dark night images. I sort of am (realism much?), so I kinda did dark night images anyway. Bear with me, I guess.
• The jagged rocky shores were intentional
• I know there should be more traffic, I'm still working on the outlying suburbs in neighboring city tiles, which should add to the traffic since most of the port's jobs are filled up
• I'm still perfecting my reflections (only shown in one image because they would only appear in said-image), so be kind please

 

CBD

 

 

(night time pic is a mosaic, actually)

 

 

South CBD

 

 

 

Downtown

 

 

 

[Derr1 9]

Update from me again, you may notice some differences, you may not. still not a very impressive downtown, i've reached about 220k pop now.

[1131989 223]

Looking good, Derr1. One suggestion is to download more buildings from the STEX and SC4Devotion. While Maxis buildings aren't ugly, the game doesn't ship with nearly enough to create a realistic city, and the repetition gets really glaring with skyscrapers as 1) they're big and 2) while you may see the same house plan repeated all over the place (ever since the days of Sears houses), you will rarely have two identical skyscrapers on opposite sides of a city.

  Edited December 9, 2014 by 1131989  

[jmsepe 2,039]

Where is MushyMushy's city journal!?? 

[Fox 1,444]

Here's a downtown area I recently finished in the city of Promethia (soon to appear as a part of a CJ or something). It's actually the same town that I had in the works (with that port) before, but it's been updated to some extent (plus photo editing!  )

 

Notes

• I know some people aren't big fans of dark night images. I sort of am (realism much?), so I kinda did dark night images anyway. Bear with me, I guess.
• The jagged rocky shores were intentional
• I know there should be more traffic, I'm still working on the outlying suburbs in neighboring city tiles, which should add to the traffic since most of the port's jobs are filled up
• I'm still perfecting my reflections (only shown in one image because they would only appear in said-image), so be kind please

 

CBD

 

 

 

Looks great, reminds me of Doha in a way, but on a smaller scale, very pretty and love the night pictures.

 

Update from me again, you may notice some differences, you may not. still not a very impressive downtown, i've reached about 220k pop now.

 

Love the layout, could do with more trees and parks in the open areas and through the down town too, instead of just plazas. I'd also consider lowering the elevated rail to the same level as your sunken highway? Would improve the views across that open area.

 

Keep up the great effort, you are certainly improving with every picture you post.

 

Here is another picture from Triton, capital of Asgard.

 

[Huston 5,799]

Nice pic Fox. Love the atmo and ambience that city has. Always a fan of your lakes and canal work too

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Downtown Rourke, Capital of Maricopa. Of course it's not finsihed What I need most is a large government-y building for the lot by the split avenue. 

 

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

I like it, but that's a dangerously low bridge. Should the tide rise, or rough storms cause waves, that bridge would certainly be flooded. Not to mention hardly a canoe could fit under it, and I'd bet a river that wide should accommodate quite a bit of boating traffic. Here's my take on a possible fix.


(click for full sized image)