Welcome to Condor Bay

[politicman 1]

I like your planning for your city and I like your beginning too !!!

[politicman 1]

Welcome to the third page of this CJ

[Ntq€310 1]

This is a very Wonderful C.J, I really like the planning of the city.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Wow, this looks great. Heh, I was just playing SC3K during winter break! My old cities are long since gone though... But this is an excellent cj. It took me a while to read, but it's well worth it!

[masochist 111]

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bbfan02 -

HA!  Made sure not to make the same mistake again!  Anyways, glad you liked the beach...there's another one coming up soon (see banner).  Maybe that one will be enjoyable, too?  We'll see...thanks for the comment!

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edmonton_stinks -

Yeah, it was huge...didn't mean for it to be that big.  I didn't expect there to e so many pictures.  But I'm glad you liked it, I did take quite a bit of time to see how many different homes and housing packs I could download, just to try and get some variety in my communities.  Good to know that it's paying off!  And of course, I was hoping people would find it funny, but I was kind of afraid that no one would....

Anyways...thanks for stopping by!

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ky72x -

Thanks!  I thought that would happen when I zoned on that hill, but it came out all right, I think.  The lumpiness is because of the way the land was contoured when I plopped down the diagonal street...I thought it looked a bit more organic, so I stuck with it.  And as I said to edmonton_stinks, I'm glad that my efforts in gathering different res. BAT's is paying off !

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crazyyaya -

LOL, I do, don't I ?  Geez...I didn't really mean for it to be that long.  I'll have to be careful in future updates, I suppose.

I'm glad you're liking the SC3K aspect of the journal.  It's sort of the backbone of the whole project: I liked the city so much on that game that I'm trying to (loosely) transcribe it to SC4.  Of course, SC4 allows for much more flexibility when it comes to things like building on hills, etc., so I can update the city as I go along.  With regard to the jagged beach...are you taling about the water texture bug?  That's a problem I had, and at the time, I didn't know how to fix it to take pictures without leaving the city and coming back...now I do.  Hopefully when I do another beach (which will be soon), it'll be more satisfactory....

Thank you for that elaborate comment!  I do hope you'll stick around, eh?

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vivydu29 -

Thank you!  Hopefully you'll enjoy what's coming up, as well!

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CarmineHilton -

LOL, thanks!  They are sexy, but thank goodness they're not raunchy!  I don't know what I'd do if they went around exposing themselves: opening the front (and back) door for anyone, letting everyone see their pipes, etc....

Yeah, I know...I'm sorry...

Either way, thanks for the comment!

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Geronimo -

I'm glad you liked the suburbs...I think out of everything I've built so far (other than one thing), the suburbs are my favorite part of the region.  LOL...good thing someone laughed at the Krispy Kreme thing; I though people would get all "PC" on me .  And the TP thing was what I was worried about.  It's a gateway crime...it's like, Toilet Paper:Arson :: Marijuana:Heroine, you know?  That's actually why I looked at the crime data view in the first place (and noticed the assault).

Of course...now I know why there are so many cases of TP in my cities, but that's a story for another update...

Thanks for the comment.  Do come back in again!

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politicman -

Third page, all right!  Glad you took the time to start at the beginning!  I really appreciate that .  Thanks for the comments!

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Ntq$310 -

I'm glad you like it!  I'm kind of cheating, having a city to base it on ...still, I appreciate your comments!

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NMUSpidey -

Ahh, I'm glad you went back to the beginning!   As I told politicman, I do appreciate that you took the time to do that.  Heh heh...it's hard for me to play SC3K on my computer.  Vista isn't compatible with a few of the components of the game; I can't save my cities anymore, I can't import buildings...it's kind of frustrating, but it's all right .  Anyways, I do hope you pop on in again in the future!

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UPDATE 3 - Lots of Information, and Some Small Developments

And by info, I mean stuff I should've said at the beginning...

First off, I'd like to apologize again.  I really should've shared the information I'm about to give at the beginning of this City Journal.  Oh, well...better late than never, right ? Anyways...where to begin?  Hmmm....

Fordville is the capital city of a state called Willow (so you'd call it Fordville, Willow).  Willow is in a country that doesn't have a name yet; I have, however, drawn plenty of maps of the nation...too bad they all end up lost somehow.  I'm planning on drawing another one for the sake of this CJ, but I'm procrastinating on it....

Anyways, the country in question has about 20 or so states (and unlike the country, all of them are named).  It's about the size of...ahh...well, I haven't really thought of a scale for it yet, but it's pretty large.  The average state is about the size of Georgia; the largest is about the size of Montana, and the smallest is about the size of South Carolina.  The country is bordered on the north and northeast by a country, and on the west and southwest by two other countries.  The northwest, eastern, and southeastern borders are formed by two large bodies of water, of which the most important is Willow Bay.  Willow Bay forms the eastern coastline of the country, and is end of almost all major rivers in the country, including the Oasis, the Wonderline, the Isaac (yes, I did name a river after myself !), and of course, the Ace River.  Fordville lies in the valley where the Ace River flows into Willow Bay.

This country also includes almost every single city I've ever built in a SimCity game.  In some cases, I build the city in the game, then decide where to place it in the country; other instances I'll decide which city I'm building based on it's position on the map.  Power City is an example of the former; Fordville is an example of the latter.

Fordville itself is in the southern part of the country.  As it is on the mouth of a rather important river, it is fairly large; the city proper has about 500,000 - 600,000 people, and the metro area extending beyond my region has much, much more.  It enjoys a pleasantly mild climate most of the year, but it also gets snow in the winter (strange, eh?).

Here's the layout of the region again, this time with the city tiles numbered:

3.1)

City Names

1. Fordville International Seaport

2. Condor Beach

3. Western Fordville

4. Condor Mountains

5. Condor Bay

6. Willow Beach

7. Fordville

8. Northwestern Foothills

9. Northwestern Foothills

10. Ace River

11. Northeastern Foothills

12. Northeastern Foothills

13. Crystal Rock City

14. Crystal Rock Mt.

15. Eastern Fordville

16. Ace Mountain

To build this city, I'm using 2+ gigabytes of plugins.  I could never list them all, but the more prominent ones are NAM, SAM, Gascooker's lots, much of Jeronij's stuff, lots of NDEX BAT's (which haven't been seen too much yet in my city), Cobb's towers, PEG's things, lots of Fukuda things, SimGoober's stuff...well, let's just say that I have a lot of BAT's .  As for mods, I'm using Cycledogg's Columbus Terrain Mod, PEG's Brigantine Water Mod and Limestone Rock mod, and the Asphalt Texture mod.  I don't use money parks, nor do I use in-game cheats much (unless there's a city that will never have enough people/meet the requirements for a reward I want to use), but I do use the Lottery Program ordinance (which basically adds $5000 to your income every month), as well as the GeoThermal Power Plant and SimGoober's Modern Waste-To-Energy Incinerator (if you count those as cheating).  I plop RCI buildings only when I need to get a certain look or feel to a city (and you'll see soon enough the trouble I get into when I do so without care )...otherwise, it's all growable.  I'm really trying to make Fordville into a World Class City...whenever I get things right, I want it to be good enough to perhaps make a bid for the Simlympics.  We'll see what happens, eh ?

Oh, and if you didn't know this, the city is much further along than this update in terms of what is built.  It's not done, though...not by a long shot (I haven't even crossed the river yet).

Enough about that, though....

Recent Developments

So, we've gone through the seaport, we've built along the mountain, and we have one unfinished beach.  Where were we, then?...

Ah yes, that small commercial district that somehow fell upon 4 different city tiles.

To refresh your memory, here's the SC3K picture of it:

3.2)

All right...notice how that freeway goes over the water there?  We'll tackle that one in a second.  first, let's do some touching up first.

The beach from the last update goes into the next town, Condor Bay.  This town also holds part of the commercial district...obviously, I can't just ignore it.  Still, there's not much to it, so:

3.3)

Here are some more shots, for you:

3.4)

3.5)

3.6)

Yes, that's the entire city tile.  Check map 3.1...it's #5 on there, and it falls right at the entrance to Condor Bay (hence its name).  The other side isn't developed yet...that won't happen for a good while, but we'll get there one day .  For now, just the right side is important.

Now that that's out of the way, we can get to the heart of this update: Fordville.  Fordville is the name of the city tile that lies directly in the middle of the region; i. e., the only large city tile.  The tiny-yet-troublesome commercial area fall on this tile as well.  The thing about this one, however, is that before I can even begin to touch that tile, I have something else to deal with: the Condor Bay Bridge.

The Condor Bay Bridge is the stretch of freeway that spans the straight that leads into Condor Bay.  The problem with just building a straight bridge is that I needed it to be high enough to allow ships to pass underneath, but I didn't want to deal with the hills that would result (because I needed some exits pretty quick).  The inspiration for the solution came straight from Filasimo (though I'm not sure he's aware of it): have a flat bridge to an island in the water, then raise the bridge high enough for water vessels to pass under (and then lower it back down on the opposite side).  I'm sure many people have done it before, but I specifically remember thinking of his examples when deciding how I would go about making it, so I'll credit him for this bridge.

I've got a few process pictures to show for this:

3.7)

3.

As you can see, I chose the spot where I wanted the bridge and began leveling the land right all the way across.  Here's the entire span:

3.9)

Why did I level the land right there?  Two reason: one, I wanted the islands to be the same height, and two, I needed to know just how far to make the islands from the coasts.  I figured out the latter by marking the span with road tiles:

3.10)

3.11)

96 tiles across.  Good to know...so I lowered the land back down into the water except the areas where I wanted my islands:

3.12)

Next came terraforming the islands.  I had to figure out how large they needed to be, then I had to make sure that the freeway had room to transition from low-level to high-level spans.  Here's the result of that:

3.13)

3.14)

Here's the final bridge span, after all that:

3.15)

Grr...looks like I put the islands a bit too close together.  Good thing I didn't decorate them...

Anyways, with the bridge "done", I decided to lay out the streets, as you can see in the previous picture:

3.16)

Hmmm...not half bad.  Except, you know, there;s nothing there.  Zones:

3.17)

Don't worry, those windmills are only temporary...

Okay, waaaaaaay back on picture 3.2 (the SC3K picture), did anyone notice the marina sticking out of the corner?  No?  Didn't think so.  Well, that's Condor Beach Marina.  It's sort of a well-known place in the city, so I had to fit it in.  Time for PEG to give an encore (in more ways than one):

3.18)

I had to move that roundabout out of the way to account for the wall, but it's worth it to get that look!  The town, all built up:

3.19)

Anyways...that's pretty much all for this update.  Just some teasers left.  A note about these, though: I have two pictures.  One of them I'm certain I'll explain next update, but the other I wasn't so sure...that, though, was supposed to be the true teaser.  So now you get both !

3.20)

Taken on December 26th...tricked my computer, I did!

3.21)

We'll see if I'm nice enough to spare you guys this one next time...

That's all I got.  Thanks for reading, and do stop in next time!

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I'd like to issue an apology to all those who have CJ's that I haven't visted.  I realize I haven't been doing my part in returning the favors that you have all given me.  I'm trying to get better about it...but do know that I absolutely appreciate you guys leaving me all those comments and such!  Thanks so much !

[bobinator 0]

Really nice looking bridge-I might have to try my hand at one.

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Great job on the bridge. That sure is one troublesome commercial district. You certainly are dedicated; I'd have just moved it.

[gabry85 2]

Wow, I like your tip on that bridge! Great Christmas image!

[vivydu29 60]

Wow, It's very beautiful, great work.

[bbfan02 23]

Excellent update! I like the islands and great region view! I like the zoning. Looking forward to more!

-bbfan02-

[Minister of Silly Walks 0]

I love your city design. It's much better than other, more popular CJs I've seen.

[Joetropian1 1]

Nice city. Looks realistic. The raised level golden gate bridge is really cool. It makes my CJ look boring!

Good luck!

JT1

[Peng74 1]

Cool looking cj and i like how you made the bridge. Any plans to cover over the two islands, or you leaving them as they are?

Nice couple of shots at the end there 3.21 looks amazing.

[jacqulina 162]

awesome work my friend,excellent building skills,i love the snowy pics,awesome work and pics

[masochist 111]

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bobinator -

Heh heh, thanks!  Do try it, it helps solve a lot of problems, but you still have a bridge to show off (as opposed to a tunnel, which you wouldn't be able to show off at all...).

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edmonton_stinks -

Thanks!  I'm trying to keep the most memorable things accurate with the SC3K version.  I think, though, that it would look better if I could have the entire thing in one city.  Oh, well...you'll see it finished today, and then it's only touch-up work .

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gabry85 -

Thanks for the comment!  I like that picture, as well...that's the first and only time I've ever taken a close-up picture with snow, real or not!

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vivydu29 -

Thank you!  I'm trying to do things I've never done here before, so I appreciate your comment !

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bbfan02 -

Glad your liking what I'm showing so far!  I'm finally going to start really getting into the city itself, so hopefully you'll like what's coming up, as well.  By the way, thank you for your support so far...I really appreciate that you take time to come in here and comment on my updates (I think you've done so on every single one, right?).  Yeah...so thanks !

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Minister of Silly Walks -

LOL, thanks!  I'm glad you feel that way, although I could never say the same.  There are a lot of journals that I take inspiration from...most notably those in my signature.  Still, I'm glad you feel that way...it makes me think that maybe, just maybe, I might be doing something right !  By the way, I don't know if it has any specific meaning, but nice screen name !

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Joetropian1 -

LOL !  For some reason, I doubt that!  But thank you for the compliment, anyways!

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Peng74 -

Well actually, I'll probably have to redo them, because they're not...they're not quite where I want them yet.  Once I'm sure that I'll leave them alone, then yes, I'll decorate them.  And thanks for the compliment!  Unfortunately, that area won't be seen until the update after this one...but that might be better for you ;-)!

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jacqulina -

Hello!  I'm really glad you're liking the pictures right now.  I've got a few more things to show, I hope you like these, as well!  Thanks for the comment!

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Heh heh...yeah, I know these usually come at the end of the CJ, but I thought I'd put it here. 

I went and got myself a new graphics card!  It's an Nvidia 8600 GT with 512 MB of RAM (might've got the 8800 if I were absolutely certain that my computer could actually handle a card like that).  With that card, about have the games on my desktop became playable again...games like Civ IV, The Sims 2 (up to Seasons), Guitar Hero III, and my newest one: MS Flight Simulator X Deluxe (I didn't actually notice too much of a difference with SC4).

As it is, all of these games (and a fair few others) are now fighting for my attention.  Usually SC4 wins out, but sometimes that doesn't happen (most often when FSX is in the running).  This doesn't mean that updates will come slower, or that this CJ is in any danger (because I am, as I stated last update, farther along in the city than in this CJ), but it does mean that you guys might catch up to me quicker than I expected.

On the plus side...I GOT A NEW GRAPHICS CARD !!!  And I also got a Photobucket Premium Account.  After seeing what happened to suplado! (sorry, man..., I checked my own bandwidth and sure enough, I was at 94% usage for the month.  So impulsively, I spent $25 to get a premium account.  All my pictures are now safe for the next year!

Also, I'd like to once more thank everyone who's been following this city, even if you've only commented once.  I really appreciate it!

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UPDATE 4 - Comin' 'Round The Mountain

Now things start getting interesting...

4.1)

Let's see...at this point, Condor Bay has a regional population of about 12,000 Sims.  Going back to this numbered view of the region, City #1 (Fordville Int'l Seaport) is essentially completed.  I've been trying to lay down a commercial area that falls right on the corner of cities 1, 2, 5 and 7...that will be completed in this update.  And also...wait a minute...

Oooooh...

You guys get your first look at what will be Project #2 in this update!  Cool!

Yes, this is where the city starts to get interesting.  Going around Vista Hill brings you right into the main valley of the metro area.  The freeway comes in full force here, and  you'll start to see some true city-building efforts from me (as well as me trying to deal with problems that come about as I let the game kick my behind for being careless).  This city tile, called Condor Beach, will be completed in four updates (hopefully).  Let's get started, shall we ?

Before I do anything in this city, I have to terraform one certain area:

4.2)

This is the SC3K version of the famous (and infamous ) Condor Beach and Boardwalk (with the Condor Beach Marina sticking out of the lower corner there).  Condor Beach is undeniably the most famous beach in Fordville (and there are a few beaches around here) for a multitude of reasons, most of which I'll go into in a future update.  For now, however, all you need to know is that this is the defining feature of this particular city tile...and so I need to define it.  And yes--that is a museum on that beach !

I have to start where I left off last time: the Condor Beach Marina.  It continues into this town, so I defined how far it went, first.

4.3)

This is where the beach is going to be.  And, wow!, how coincidental that it falls exactly where I said Project 2 would fall in a previous update !  Yes, if you haven't figured it out by now (and you should've ), Condor Beach is Project 2.   We're not actually making the beach in this update, we're only terraforming where the beach will go so that I can mold the rest of the town around it.  Don't know why I said "we're," but I did, and I'll stick with it.

4.4)

The thing about Condor Beach is that it's a resort beach.  I have never made a successful, functioning resort beach in my life, but I've seen plenty of pictures (suplado! and gabry85 immediately come to mind, and they are, in fact, the examples I looked to when I planned it out).  I knew that I had to have an extremely low-lying area with a gentle slope to the water that was wide enough to accommodate the resort area, a three-tile-wide avenue, and the beach itself.  So I used the tried-and-true street leveling method to mold the land as I wanted, as you can see in the above picture.  Here's the result:

4.5)

Oooh...those are some nice cliffs and steep slopes, there !  Here's a wide-out shot:

4.6)

On the right side of the hill is where the seaport industrial area connects with this city tile.  Remember that...

Ugh...horrid.  Oh, well...nothing a little God-Mode smoothing can't fix, eh?

4.7)

Ahh, that's better!  As you can see, I left the cliff on the diagonal portion that connects the beach with the marina.  That was done purposely...but enough about that .

Now that the beach is  pretty much how I want it, I can finally start building in this town.  Here might be a good time to tell you that for me, the freeway is king.  It decides where I put satellite office districts, it decides where all my high density zones should go...it pretty much dictates how I build my city.  That's why I had to terraform the beach before I did anything else: so I knew where to place the freeway...

4.

There we go!  Got the freeway up and going, I've got the avenue running along the foothills...even have the avenue going down the beach (and yes, that's a split avenue and not two one-way roads).  Looks like we might finally be set to build!

In this city, what I did first was zone the last bit of the Bothersome Commercial Area (I'm thinking of making that the permanent name ).  Then I decided, after having success the last time I did it, to try my hand at making mountainside suburbs.  Here's the result:

4.9)

WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE BLUE THINGS!?!?!?!?

And here's the result.  Not too pretty.  Maxis seems to dominate the streets...and I, somehow, seemed to have forgotten to turn off the UDI icons !  Oi, how embarrassing!  Oh well.  As it is, that area gets a lot better as I let the game run.  How about we showcase some pictures, eh?

4.10)

Up on a mountain...

4.11)

More UDI icons...

Heh heh...I took some pictures on December 26th with my computer's clock set to the 25th so that I could take advantage of the snow Easter Egg .  It only appeared in the highest parts of the mountain, but I got some all right shots from it:

4.12)

4.13)

A white Christmas, indeed...

And finally, I offer a Deever/CarmineHilton-esque panorama shot of the suburbs on the mountain (although not so glamorous as anything those two might produce ).  Two options, depending on your preference:

[2.4 MB Panorama Shot (3530x768)]

[1.5 MB Panorama Shot (2758x600)]

Just so you know, I decided to stop building along that mountain because I was getting to close to the top, and I decided that I wanted to preserve at least part of the hills as they are.  Still, I hope you like those !

Ahh, but what about that industrial area I mentioned last time, eh?  Well, it's thriving, I'd say!  Take a look, why don't ya?

4.14)

Meh...kind of repetative as it is now, but still a lot better than the one across that city connection .  Some close ups:

4.15)

4.16)

Mmmm...smell that fresh city smog!

All right...that just about wraps up this update.  I guess I'll see you guys...

BUT WAIT!  What about that commercial area you've been complaining about???

Ahh, yeah!  Almost forgot about that.  Well...that can be the teaser for the next update.  Observe:

4.17)

Not so bad, eh?  Aye, but somethin' be amiss, her'.  That's because this picture was actually taken pretty recently.  In a region with only about 12,000 people, there shouldn't be so many offices...but there are.  You'll see why that is in a future update.  For now, though, did you notice I have some custom schools in there?  Those are jbsimio's elementary schools...there are two of them visible, and a Maxis one peeking out from the very top.  Why so many in one tiny area?  I'll get to that next update .

That's really all I have for this update.  Next update, you guys will get to see what the rest of the town will look like.  Should have lots of pictures, and maybe you'll get a good idea of how I actually go about building cities.  'Til then, thanks for reading !

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Not really a notice...I should make another banner.  This is more of a question; I'll periodically ask these just to see if I can better my CJ'ing skills.  This time, the question is: do you guys think I talk too much or explain pictures too much?  I notice that people seem to respond more to the pictures than to my babbling...do you guys even read the stuff I type?  Be honest, now!  If you guys don't actually read it, then I can save a bit of time by cutting down what I type.  Thanks!

P. S. If you see a BAT that looks interesting to you and you want to know where I got it, feel free to ask and I will try and point you in the right direction..."try" being the key word

[DougOZ 0]

i wanna say your Cj is beautifull, nothing else to say, i was forgetting, please keep posting these nice pics, please...

[Geronimo 4]

Hey, I missed some great updates here! Nice developement goin on, those winter shots are really nice! The industrial areas looks very good as well. Too bad with that UDi-icon in pic 4.11 but except for that this CJ is fantastic. Keep it up mate, I`ll sure drop in later!

[jacqulina 162]

beautifull snowy shots my friend awesome details,great work you have done the star background is cool

[bbfan02 23]

Wow, excellent work! I really like those neighborhoods on the mountain and great job terraforming that seaport and that area! Looking forward to more!

-bbfan02-

[gabry85 2]

Wow, I like the developments on this spot of the city! Impressive panorama image, I think was a real challenge to build on those slopes! Best wishes for the upcoming beach!

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Bit of a bumpy update, but I like it nonetheless. Can't wait to see the bothersome commercial district!

I love your house selections, but I really don't like those foundations. I wish there was a way around them...

[Dsrwhat316 12]

i like the pic with the industries on top of the hill; a real eye-catcher.

nice work building on the hillside, as well, but you'd better have a good transmission in your vehicle to drive up that slope! see ya on the next update...

~ Dan

[AceofSpades 1]

My gosh! This is truly awesome! First off: the seaport is the best I've ever seen, and the suburbs and mountains are so beautiful I feel like I'm really there! Keep up this great work.

[nihonkaranws 88]

Very well done! I can't even begin to tell you how amazing this CJ is! Woohoo, masochist!

[cityhawk 12]

Wow, I missed about 3 updates, but I came back! The commercial areas and the beaches look good, and so does the mountainous suburbs. Three things caught my eye, though:

1. The higher part of Condor Bay Bridge just doesn't look high enough for some of the bigger ships to pass under. I could be wrong, though, because of the angle the pic was taken.

2. In your most recent update, the avenue running along the base of the mountainous suburbs is very very bumpy; I know I wouldn't want to drive along a main road that feels like you're running the track of a crazy roller coaster.

3. I can't pinpoint it, but there's something about the industrial area that makes the layout seem bland; but then again, it is an industrial area!

I know what you mean about highways dictating where everything is going to be zoned and placed because I construct my cities in a similar way.

Lastly, I don't know about you, but I really miss those yield lanes at intersections like the one in the middle right of the below pic:

Well, I look forward to your next update (or updates, depending on if I don't come back for a while).

Craig

[Shanna 1]

Great work! Nice closes up of the mountain village: i like the pics with snow!

[masochist 111]

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DougOZ -

Thank you !  I'm glad you appreciate it!  Don't be a stranger, feel free to stop by anytime, eh?

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Geronimo -

Heh heh, good thing my updates are short and easy to catch up on, eh ?  Thanks for the comments!  I hope you won't see too much more of those...things...anymore.  I'm glad you like that area, that's pretty much the best it gets in my region right now (I'm not so good at building industrial areas).  Anyways, I'll be waiting here for your next visit!

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jacqulina -

LOL, thanks!  I have about 6 different backgrounds that I can switch in and out, but I like that one the best .  Glad you like my pictures so far, thanks for the comments!

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bbfan02 -

Thanks!  I think that might be some of my best hill work, although it's not near as good as some other people I've seen (jeronij, for example).  Still...glad you like it!

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gabry85 -

Thank you!  I've never really tried a horizontal mosaic before, but I thought since I have a better Photobucket account to upload it to, I'd go ahead and do it.  Heh heh...hopefully you'll like what I pull together for that beach...and hopefully it'll be easy to see how you influenced it .

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edmonton_stinks -

I know!  I think those non-slope-conforming homes ruin the community!  I'm just to lazy to go into the lot editor and change it for every single house, is all.  And as for that commercial area, I'm thinking of trying to put together a four-city mosaic to show off the whole thing...of course, that might come out really rough, too !

The update was kind of rough, but hopefully this one will flow a bit better.  Glad that you stopped by, though!

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Dsrwhat316 -

LOL !  That's true, some of those slopes don't seem very 2-wheel-drive friendly!  I'm glad you like the industry...but it's not exactly on top of the hills, more behind the crests.  You can't see them from the other side of those mountains....  Thanks for the comments!

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AceofSpades -

Wow, thanks!  I'm really glad you're liking it!  Thanks for the compliments...hope you come back in!

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nihonkaranws -

Thanks!  There might be a reason as to why you can't say my CJ is amazing ...</self-depreciation>.  Hope you stop by again!

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cityhawk -

Ahh, thanks for the criticisms!  I appreciate it, cause people don't give it out often !  I've got responses:

1.) It's barely the right height...and I do mean barely.  That's why the islands are so long, because I needed it to be that high.  But that might be why it doesn't look high enough...

2.) You're right...I fixed it as best I could in my game.  Doesn't look like that anymore (but the road above it still does...

3.) LOL!  Yeah, it's supposed to be bland, but not un-interesting.  You can have a grid layout in the industrial area but still have it look interesting (see AK)...something I have yet to learn how to do.

And yes, I do miss those yield lanes, although I think someone may be working on an SC4 equivalent.  Maybe.

Anyways, thanks again for the comment, I really do appreciate it!  Whenever it is you come back, you'll be welcome!

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Shanna -

Thank you!  I've never taken pics with snow before those, so I'm glad you think they came out all right.  Come back soon!

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UPDATE 5 - Down In The Valley

Reticulating splines...

Hmmm...I've noticed something slightly disturbing in this CJ.  I've been chronicling what I've built and how and why I've built it...but I just go from one to the next.  I seem to, for reasons unknown,

expect you to just kind of remember everything I've said about all that stuff, and yet I never let you guys get really intimate with what I've built.  What mean is, even with all the info I've presented, you guys actually know very little about my city, and that's totally my fault .

Every now and then, you get a taste of what life is like in my city (for example, Market Street), but for the most part, I just build and move on, build and move on...at least, that's how I perceive it.  I may be wrong.  Either way, you'll see me make an effort to prevent this in this update .

And now without further adeu...:

5.1)

North is towards the upper right corner

This is the SC3K version of the area I'm building in SC4.  This is the area around Condor Beach...as you can see, it's full of mid-and-high density housing, and also has another commercial area at the corner of the freeway.  I'm not exactly replicating the density of the zones, but I'm trying to semi-stick with the zone types as they're laid out in SC3K.

Here's the same area, just zoomed out to include Vista Hill and the seaport:

5.2)

There you go.  I've already got the suburbs on the hills built, so now I have to spread out into the flat-land along the freeway.  This will be the very first developments in Condor Valley (the actual valley, that is) .

5.3)

Just building out the avenues and roads, and trying to figure out which ones will actually cross the freeway.

A bit of progress:

5.4)

Griddy city...

Notice the griddy nature of the network, and the complete lack of streets.  This is a rather new thing for me...usually there will be streets having to fight the diagonal roads and avenues for space.  Also, I finally got the nameless beach avenue fully connected (using one-way roads).

So how 'bout them zones, then, eh ?

5.5)

Facing west

It might be hard to tell from this shot, but the zones I added are all medium/high density.  The reason for this is because I really wanted this to be the point where my population really started to take off.  Successfully made and managed, this part of this city could be the foundation that carries the region in terms of population and growth.  So I built those higher-density zones, along the avenue, next to the freeway.

A few more interesting things about this picture: I built that hospital tower not only for my continuing effort to use more custom content, but also because that's about where I planned for my commercial area to be and I wanted it to help it look nicer.  The school...that's Washington High School, a school in jbsimio's School Pack.  More about it later, though.

Wow, I ramble a lot .  Moving on...

5.6)

Facing south

Commercial and industrial area zoned.  I put the higher densities along avenues, and the lower ones along roads; that's a trend that will continue for a while until my style evolves.

Let's see how this part of town develops, eh?

5.7)

Ahh!  Looks like it's growing nicely !  As you can see, I added a City Hall and the Newman Inc. Courthouse with a random fountain/park behind it.  Now, for the first time, my Sims have a place to sort out their civic problems, and a place to meet me in case they want to complain about stupid things like unemployment or traffic. 

Those two twin towers just kind of grew up by themselves in that position.  They've become somewhat of a landmark in that town because of their distinct shape:

5.

Diamond Dave's Car Emporium...

Here're some more showcase shots:

5.9)

Probably the most you'll see of the industrial area all update...

5.10)

5.11)

Mysterious parking lot up in the corner there...

5.12)

Look familiar, eh?

Hmmm...how about we take a closer look at one particular building, eh?

5.13)

Something happens to this picture in [CB at SC4D]...

5.14)

As I said earlier, this is Washington High School.  This is one of my favorite BAT's, because it's one of the few schools that's not symmetric.  I've never seen a symmetric school in my life; they've all had those weird angles just like that one.  As it is, WHS is the school for all the teens in this little section of Fordville...even those in the hills.  This (predictably ) causes some friction with the local neighborhood kids, and there have been a few reports of after school fighting and such.  Even still, the school is seen as fine, upstanding institute of learning for Fordville.

What about the younger folks, eh?  Well, they can't go to school right now.  Because my teachers are on strike :

5.15)

Why are they on strike?  Because that school is waaaaay too overcrowded.  So I built two additional elementary schools nearby:

5.16)

These two schools have picked up the extra kids, so neither of them were overcrowded anymore...but Little Red Schoolhouse is actually still barely under the line, while these two new schools only have the overflow students.  This got me thinking: what would happen if were to...:

5.17)

Little Red Schoolhouse is gone !  I left it gone for about 6 months...but the other two schools didn't gain any kids.  I put it back, and almost immediately it had the same amount of students it had before.  Are you kidding ?!

Anyways...a few more things before I go.  I've figure something out that I've been wondering a long time about:

5.18)

You see the entire town so far...

Apparently, according to this picture, Sims can travel from one city through another to get to a third city .  The bus route proves it.  Here's where I queried it coming into my city (in the industrial area on the other side of the hills):

5.19)

...and here's the same bus line leaving my city (out towards the freeway bridge):

5.20)

So now I know.  And if you knew already, well...you coulda told me !

Anyways, I do believe that's all for this update.  Next update is the actual CONDOR BEACH!

5.21)

Don't forget your sunscreen !

[Ntq€310 1]

awesome update  THe last Pic looks amazing, i cant wait to see the beach

[bbfan02 23]

Wow, excellent job! I like the road system and network. Great city pictures. Cant wait to see Condor Bay!

-bbfan02-

[ky72x 13]

Missed a few updates, darn it. Really nice job on the developments featured in the past few updates, most notably the industrial area. Anytime someone shows one in their CJ, the first thing I always look for is a good variety of buildings in the area. While some Maxis-only cities look alright, Maxis-only industrial areas look very bland, at least most of the time. Yours has a good amount of CC in it. Jestarr's lots are really useful, huh?

The commercial area looks great. I applaud your usage of those diagonal parks along with PEG's trails. They blend perfectly together, and a plaza like that is a nice change from the generic layout of squares. I see almost no flaws with this update, except for those zots. I can't wait for the Condor Beach update!

- Kyle