Dubai (UAE) Vision Based

[Kartracer087 0]

This is my current undertaking, Dubai based off of the real world terrain (I can't remember whose map I used, but I'll give credit).  The downtown I am currently working on and I am almost finished with this portion of the map.  My goals for this project are to make a realistic Dubai with some nice pieces put in place to make it look more like a dream city and to build one of the largest populated regions out there (it is a 3000X2000 ish sized region, lots of space here, all large city spaces).  After all, this real world city seems to make the impossible possible!

Here are the initial screenshots, gameplay has been about 5 hours, using the super demand ordinance (to help it grow fast because my time can be limited folks), and no money cheats or other cheats.

There are some areas where the buildings are being downgraded to RSS instead of RSSS, so I will probably clean those up in the future by adding more mass transit and ammenities to increase desirability.  Apart from that, this piece of land is just about finished, I may just fill in the rest for this large tile with medium/light density zones.  I plan to gradually step out of large construction into medium in the surronding tiles and then light for about 80 percent of the rest of the huuuge region map.  This will certainly be a city of the future, and as I mentioned earlier, I may put in some nice touches to make it a surreal city of dreams.

You may recognize some of the landmarks placed in the city, I used the BLaM tornado building (which looks a lot like the Chicago Spire in Chicago), I also have the Emrates Building Construction by Skyscraper (which mysteriously appears as a blank brown tile from far above (notice the final screenshot near center).  I also plan to put the princess towers in their proper place in the region.  I did some quick number crunching and if I were to complete this at this rate, it would probably take me about 3 months to complete this project, which won't likely happen, so I would say about a year to a year and 3 months total build time for this.  Like I said in the summary, its a looong project!!

[Somebody 12]

looks really maxisy. is it supposed to be a recreation, or a dubai-esque city?? nice start. there is a lot of potential

[sims co. 0]

Excellent start and great work! May I recommend turning the UDI icons off and minimising the toolbar and use "Print screen" to take pictures. I also have to agree with somebody. Other than that it's looking really impressive! By the way have a Merry Christmas!

[ccecill 52]

Yeah, I agree... I will say it will be VERY hard to re-create Dubai w/o a bunch of Maxis buildings without also downloading a bunch of bats... but I'm sure you can do it.

[bbfan02 23]

Yeah, I double-agree. You can always get some more custom content in there. There are a lot of good apartment buildings on the STEX that comes out of that area. Good start though.

-bbfan02-

[Kartracer087 0]

Well,

This is about it for now in the downtown section.  I plan to expand to the north and build up the seaside condominiums and make a mostly residential section. The population of the single city tile alone is over 500,000 with over 500,000 commerical jobs.  Like I said, I am sort of making it realistic with some dream city touches (i.e. more big buildings than there are in real life.)  With the way construction is going over there, it wouldn't surprise me if it looks like this in 100 or 200 years.  I figured too that starting out making the first tile the largest would help feed growth and help lift the stage caps so I could develop the coastal portions of the city (I.E. Hotel and Condo development).

And yes, it was very hard to find a complete collection of buildings in the downtown region so it does look Maxisy at this point, but I will try to mix it up a bit with other buildings as they come out.  It appears that the princess hotel (the tall building with a dome on top) was a plopable and developable building so it ended up being built in this city.  I'm not sure if I should destroy it or leave it where it is because I will put the tower in its correct location (which is not on this city tile, it is actually probably about 2 or 3 cities tiles away).  Its a bit glossy, but my vision is to create a Dubai of the future.  I will replace the Burj Dubai Building with its fully finished counterpart (also thanks to skyscraper) when the on the very day that the very last phase of construction on the real building is complete.

Heres the latest SS (I didn't close out the sidebar in this one, sorry guys.  My next SShots will have it out!)

P.S. I can't wait until I get to work on the palm island portions, it will be interesting to say the least heh.

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

I'm sorry for being rude, but this looks nothing like Dubai. You should check out "Jargeah" or "Emirate of Khaled" for some ideas, there's a large number of middle-eastern and Dubai Bats in the STEX, and other websites available.

[SimFox 804]

Hmm

Came here because of the title... RealWorldBased...

Was really curious, normally when I read posts by all the Dubai Fans first thing that strikes me is that simple fact that they don't really know much about it...

And clearly this is another proof of this observation.

I don' want to judge the city built here , but one thing clear - it is nothing like real one. so no way can it be called Real World Based...

[Kartracer087 0]

Ok,

I'll admit it right here and now, It isn't real world based per say, so I renamed the topic "Vision Based" based on the vision I have of Dubai as a futuristic city.  This doesn't mean that it will nescesairly look like this, it just brings together the vision of Dubai as being a skyscraper city filled with wealth and power.  If I were to make this more realistic, there would really be only one line of skyscrapers running along the avenue, not like the way I have it.  However, I don't think this would be as exciting, so I decided to settle for the megalopolis look that I have now. 

[Callbat 8]

Yes, try downloading some of frogfaces middle east stuff and take a look at his and suplados CJ's because this looks too....unreal

[allez l'om 1]

your city looks like too much as a american city!!! try to make parks, very large avenues and download on simtro tipycal middle east houses!!!!!!!

[jayo 44]

And that is absoloutley not the correct dubai terrain

[siso43 13]

looks cool your city

[patriots_1228 51]

jayo-umm...actually it is. I think.

allez-umm..sorry, but when you find an american city that looks like that, pm me.

need more sarcastic/cold umm... statements

creator of this CJ-i agree with the majority above, I understand your not going for 100 accuracy, and more for a vision, but I think you should use more realistic buildings and more custom content in this.

[Kartracer087 0]

Well,

Looking at the way I have it laid out I have to agree with everything said above.  I will be working on creating a more realistic dubai now but I will still have some vision buildings in the downtown area.  Looking closely, I notice that there are a lot more row houses and developments like that (as mentioned) in the residential developments.  Since I may not be able to get a high pop out of this by making one city, I will certainly have to plop some of the downtown buildings to allow for a more realistic effect since it is difficult to get them to develop on their own.  Consider that everything in that picture above was sim developed, which lets face it, does not create a very realistic environment.  I may have to do a bit more manual placement of buildings in the downtown.

[penguin007 27]

Nice start there although I would recemend more custom content

Will

[Kartracer087 0]

I've totally restructured the city from scratch.  This is what I have now.  The city looks much more realistic now and I figured out a sneaky way to make the ploppable residential buildings from abandoning, which I will show in a tutorial later.  You may need some sunxcreen for these!

Dubai's Housing development

Highrises

[Callbat 8]

thats starting to look a lot better, try to download the block all maxis files from the STEX and don't blur the pictures too much, but overall it looks much better

[Cockatoo 2,257]

Okay, because most people here on ST are so friendly, they'll just tell you that you've made an "excellent start" and to "keep up the great work", but for the sake of you improving your city building skills and getting some much needed constructive criticisms, I'm going to be frank with you.

You need to improve your city building skills 10 fold before taking on a project of this size.

Now we can all see that you're not going for 100% accuracy but at the moment I can't see any resemblance to Dubai at all. Personally I would have called this CJ 'Maxis Ville'. If you want to re-create a realistic middle eastern city, basically you're going to need to spend the next two weeks downloading as many realistic BAT's as possible so you can get it to the point where you're not getting any Maxis buildings growing at all, or at least to the point where their not repeating themselves hundreds of times in a single city.

As far as you're city building is concerned, that needs the most work. In this picture, it's quite obvious that you've just gotten a flat tile of land and zoned the heck out of it, not really caring too much about where you zoned anything, and that's about it really. If you want a nice looking city that actually looks realistic, you're going to have to at least put in the basics. Start with a well thought out transportation network, go get Google Earth and look at where Dubai's Main Highways lead and then try to re-create them into SC4. Then connect the main avenues that lead off them and then down to roads and rail, el-rail and then down into the little suburban streets. Then start to grow you're new custom buildings. I try and start with the skyscraper district and work my way outwards. Always remember that it just can't all be ugly skyscraper's too, the main idea with re-creations is to make them as realistic A as possible. I like what you've done with the first picture of the last update, the suburban homes look great but I doubt that a super tall would be in right in their back yard. Try to think about where you're plopping in your buildings and think would this be realistic?

If you follow the basics and remember that you're trying to re-create a real city then this has the potential to become a great CJ like Jargeah or Emirate of Khaled. Keep at it!

Oh and remember to turn off you're mission thingies and the yellow paused border when taking pictures for your CJ. Good luck.

*And that wraps up my longest post for the year...*

[Kartracer087 0]

Ok, here are some pictures of the real Dubai, you can see that I haven't just zoned things without looking...

Look above, in my screen shots,  you will notice that the commercial district is mixed with other buildings, just as I have it.

Here is another one, with the roads diagonally with some mixed development, just as my first screen shot shows.

I do appreciate the feedback and your honesty.  Yes, I do have some work to do on my transportation network, and I agree with your method of building the city center (the larger, taller buildings) first.  That is exactly why I am working on this tile, it is the downtown area of dubai which is exactly what these screenshots are taken from.

[crazyarchitect 7]

First off, welcome to CJing, nice start on Dubai, it looks nice, but I have to agree with the other guys. Also, one thing to remember is to put your pics under one another instead of side to side, because it makes you have to scroll the page over, which is annoying IMO, but aside from that, great start, and looking forward to seeing more.

[Callbat 8]

I'm also anxious to see how you manage to keep the res. plopables from abandoning

[Joetropian1 1]

Nice start, I can see a few similarities with Dubai and the new city.

Just wondering, what's that HUGE mirror-looking building that was in the very first city pic? I have been looking all over the STEX for it.

Good luck,

JT1

[Kartracer087 0]

Hi again,

No pics in this update, but I am working very hard on this CJ because it would be great to build a City Journal of this difficulty and make it correct for my first chance at a CJ.  I will continue to work hard on this project, I am currently downloading more buildings from the stex, and working on revamping my transportation network.

If you ware curious to know how I plop residential buildings, I will simply tell you then later I will post pictures of how it is done (I am really busy tweaking dubai right now).  Basically, you just zone an area of residential, let it develop, then you simply plop the desired residential building where you want it in the zoned area and it won't abandon.  I think its a glitch but it works and it has been very helpful for me because of the fact that many of the middle eastern houses I am working with are awkward shapes, which is further adding to the challenge.

P.S. I will make sure my screenshots are free of clutter next time.

[Callbat 8]

Ahh thank you very much, also, please take my advice, download more custom content and block all the maxis buildings, I really look forward to what you can come up with

[jacqulina 162]

very nice start my friend allready looking great

[GMT 389]

3000x2000ish region? 3000x2000 what? kilometers? tiles?

anyways, a very dense development. interesting thing to follow.

get yourself region census, I wanna see the whole region!

[Schulmanator 5,812]

This has the makings of a very interesting project. Keep up the nice work.

[suplado! 23]

wow -- very populated tile...looks great in the region view!! anyway...hope to see more development soon..

[Kartracer087 0]

Here is my latest update, I have been working on creating the residential sections with some windy roads and palm trees.  My next work will be on the skyline, which I need to get some proper stex buildings for.

Many middle class and wealthy citizens continue to flock to Dubai mainly due to its corporate and tourist success and consequently, the development of middle eastern apartments is keeping general contractors and architects busy.  Many middle to upper class families have the luxury of living on one of Dubai's busy avenues just minutes from their corporate jobs.  Some of the changes in fortunes and the realization of the high cost of living has driven a few families from the region, but this neighborhood continues to go from strength to strength while the old is replaced with the newer more modern feel as the dry air and corporate climate continues to heat up the region.

Large Apartment and condo development has brought more prosperity and a modernization of the city.

Edited lots of times:  I'm having a heck of a time justifying the images so they look proper, maybe I'm missing something???