Welcome to Condor Bay

[vitorhnn 0]

ohhh a update (i'm crazy or what)so beatiful palms and i like the cartoon pictures

mantendo a tradição hehe

boa sorte com o cj!

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

Holy cow, you weren’t kidding when you said a lot of pics! Is taking like 5 minutes to download on DSL. (I like to write in real time! ) Doesn’t look like you held back today on pics lol. My most is like… 15.  I like to keep em wanting more. Lol.  Well I think we all “borrow” a little bit from journals that we like, I get ideas from other journalists then add my own spin to them…so it’s not technically plagiarism, right? Heh, well, I wasn’t even in high school when sc4 came out, much less know about sc3k.  Yeah, I need to update bad, I was going to last Thursday!  But I wasn’t in a photoshopping mood, plus I was busy.  Bad combo.  Poor Señor sim is just hanging, not knowing how it will end.

2/18: those are really dark. But I love the colored palm trees, they are so cool. I don’t have them, but I’ve seen them in other journals. 2/18 big update: For 6.11 maybe a park??  Haha I would say that.  Or maybe plop some little commercial business (sorry, Maxis needs to die.)  Or maybe put commercial next to the avenue, because I mean do your sims really want to live next to all that traffic noise?  Then again they build houses right next to highways in RL, so maybe so... But then you could put the houses next to the walls and sell them for ridiculously high prices.    6.12 picture: That is an awesome hotel. I need to check out the LEX more.  (Im assuming that’s where you got it)  Tons of detail in that pic too, I love it.  Man, that beach looks good, almost makes me wanna go and make a beach of my own  I’ve never made one before. You’ve given me an idea actually.  6.15: Cool mosaic, I like the effects, and that sand is really white, lol.  6.16: Oh dear that is a lot of unemployment.  That’s why I plop with jobs…Errr…wait you did!  Well now I am wondering how you will fix it.  6.18 is AWESOME, I don’t know what you did to that, but do it more! Oh wow this is a long comment…Lovely update!

[jacqulina 162]

hi my friend i do love your daytime pics too i think there beautifull you are doing amazing work with those beaches and shorelines and the building is awesome.

[masochist 111]

Just a couple of things before we start here...

First of all, thank you guys for all the comments!  I cannot express how much I appreciate them, I just can't.  It's impossible.  So thank you!

Second thing, if you haven't yet, check out the [awesome review] that patriots_1228 wrote about Condor Bay (towards the bottom of the page)!

Next thing, the actual update will come later today (hopefully...if I don't end up playing Brawl too long ).  This is just in reply to all these comments you guys gave me!

Last thing...in the previous update, I mentioned all the buildings that were along the boulevard of Condor Beach.  There was one building, however, that I couldn't remember the name of.  Well, mightygoose of SC4D has informed me that it's called Carlton House, and it was produced by onlyplace4.  I sincerely apologize to OP4 for not remembering the name of the building.  I've changed it in the original post, and I'll offer a link to it as compensation.

[Click here to download OP4's Carlton House]

That's about all I've got...now on to business!

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edmonton_stinks -

LOL, yeah I kinda packed 'em in, didn't I ?  If you break up the mosaic into the eight pictures it really is, there were 44 pictures or so in that update.  I hope I never have that many in a single post again, but I definitely won't promise anything!  I'm glad you liked it, though...makes it worth it to me .  Guess we'll see how this joblessness is solved.  Thanks for the comment!

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ky72x -

You think so?  SC3K Fordville is one of my favorite SimCity creations ever, so I guess that's a good thing!  Yeah, I'd hope glitzy resort hotels would dwarf a line of small shops !  Thank you for the comment about the editing.  That's really the first time I've ever tried to photoshop (or rather, GIMP) SC4 pictures to create a certain mode (obviously in this case: a bright, sunshiny summer's day).  That was something I really hoped would shine through in the last update (no pun intended, if you can believe that).

As for the unemployment situation...well, we'll see what goes down this update, eh?  Thanks for taking the time to comment!

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gabry85 -

LOL, thanks!  I'm glad you like it...right now, it's my favorite part of the city

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KingTitan -

Ahh, that I have!  It's a lot to take in, I realize, but I'm glad you did!  But...what do you mean by graphs?  I don't really have any graphs here...or in any updates (except for maybe the second).  Either way...thanks for the comment!

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rusummer1 -

Thanks!  I'm glad you like it so far...come back in, eh?

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CarmineHilton -

Okay, one: having that much to show in one update can be a pain in the a$$; and two: you show so much more in few pics than I can in 36 pictures and a mosaic!  Still...I'm glad you liked it

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bbfan02 -

Thanks!  Cool that you liked the night shots, those are sort of underrated...at least, I think they are.  Anyways, thanks again for the comment!  Do come back!

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Ntq$310 -

LOL, that's genius!  That makes me feel good, thank you !  And thank you for the compliment, as well !

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vitorhnn -

Thanks!  Those were some of my favorite pictures, too (especially the cartoon of the entire beach).  LOL...nice "maintaining the tradition..."  Thanks for the well-wishes, hope you come back soon!

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BlondeTwiggy -

15 pictures max?  Really?  Is this normal ?...I think it is.  Maybe I'm over-doing each update ?  I mean, I haven't had an update with less than 20 pictures since before the Seaport one (which was the first "official" post).  I just have so much to show...but especially with this update, ,maybe I do too much at once?  I don't know...what do you think?

"Borrow"...I like that word, think I'll use it more often .  I think you'll start seeing more influences in my actual city-building as I go along (especially once I cross the river).  But that's weeks away.  As for Señor Sim, it was good ending for him.  Do you do those Silly Stories often, or was that sort-of a first-time thing?

LOL..."Maxis needs to die"...actually, I dedicated myself to downloading some nice small commercial shops after seeing your latest update.  I think I'll throw down a park next to the seawalls, and replace those houses with some small commerce (good small commerce, that is).  Yes, I got that hotel from the LEX...sort-of followed its progress, actually.  [st. David's Hotel], in case you wanted it.

Is that tropical island the result of you wanting to create your own beach, or were you going to develop a beach somewhere else?  I'm eager to see what you create when you try your hand at it !  It's great fun, too.  You know...I actually only sort-of liked the mosaic, but it seems like everyone else liked it a lot more than I did.  Strange...then again, 6.18 isn't even in my Top 5 favorite pictures of that update, but it's the one that's singled out the most.  Maybe it's just me and my strange tastes .  That unemployment...oi!  I'll tell you this, you'll see my attempt to deal with it.  Attempt...

Hmmm...this reply is a tad too long, I think.  Oh, well!  Thanks for the gigantic comment!

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jacqulina -

Thanks!  I tried really hard to get a particular feeling to this batch of daytime pictures (that feeling, of course, being "bright and sunshiny"), so I'm glad you like it!  This is my favorite part of the city so far...I'm rather proud of it.  Thanks for the comment...and by the way, congrats on 30,000 + posts !

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Well, that it!  Stay tuned for the next update, to come really soon (hopefully)!

[ky72x 13]

Well, I think you should keep up your excellent editing job. I can just envision the possibilities when you start to construct downtown. Now that's something I'm really looking forward to! Can't wait for the next update, Mas.

- Kyle

[masochist 111]

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ky72x -

Oh man, I can't wait for that, either!  Actually, that's Project 3 (4?).  But I've got quite a ways to go before I get there .  Thanks for the comment!  New update now!

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UPDATE 7 - Mayoral Duties

And the frustration they cause...

Well, this update was loooong overdue, wouldn't you say?  It's been 20 days since the last one...but better late than never .

In the last update, somewhere in the middle of all those pictures, I left you guys a teaser of what was to come because of my careless plopping.  Well, if you've actually been reading what I write in each update, I've also been dropping hints at another side-effect of my unfortunate city-building skills.  But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself...supposing I should actually build the afflicted area first, eh?  So here's the construction of the northern part of Condor Beach:

7.1)

7.2)

This is the transportation area of the yet-to-be-built area north of the freeway (the top picture is facing south; the bottom one is facing east).  Take note of the blue pavilion near the beach--that'll come into play later.  For now, notice the absurd amount of avenues, and how the zones for this area so far are all mid-high density res.  The reason for this is because I'm trying to raise my population.  The regional population at this point is about 50,000.  I wanted to try and fit as many Sims as possible into this city tile.

Oh, what a fool I iz.

I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the original zoning plan for this area of town...but alas, I didn't .  So here's the entire area developed:

7.3)

YES!  The town is finally completed, and it's looking so...whoa, what the heck !?

Ahh...something's not quite right here...

7.4)

Another view.  Nice rampant unemployment Condor Beach is facing right now, eh ?  Geez...allow me to explain how I landed myself into this situation.

While carelessly plopping the the resorts along the actual beach, I forgot to take into account the fact that most of what I was plopping had jobs.  Oh, I was fully aware of the fact, of course...in fact, I thought it would help me!  I thought that with me plopping these hotels with jobs, I would easily be able to fill up the rest of the town with high density residential.

Oh, what a fool I iz.

My commercial demand for services crashed faster than SC4 on Vista.  Because I needed jobs, commercial offices tried to take up the slack.  All those nice little shops were replaced with Ill Tonkso's and SG's small offices.  For example, remember Market Street back in the Seaport town?

7.5)

Well...nowadays, it looks like this:

7.6)

Offices abound now.  Hardly any shops are left...which means that hardly any of its original charm is left .

In fact, this whole office epidemic gets pretty bad:

7.7)

Why yes, that is an NDEX BUILDING trying to build next to my beach .  A tall one, at that...in fact, if I'd've let it stay, it probably would've been one of the tallest buildings in town even after Downtown was built.  That's how desperate they are for jobs.

So this is a side effect of my poorly planned plopping.  It's going to be something I'll deal with for a while...especially since my next large commercial area doesn't come until pretty far into the next city.  Still...it does have it's upsides:

7.

This area is finally developing as I wanted it to.  Nice mid-rise commercial buildings .

Anyways, back to the unemployment situation.  I noticed something in the middle of the pandemic: my residential demand didn't go down.  How did I figure this out?  Well...it became sort of obvious when they tried to build these along the freeway:

7.9)

Nice huge towers...immediately plagued by unemployment.  Gotta love my citizens : even when all around it, all the high wealth apartments are being abandoned:

7.10)

7.11)

...they still build those things.  Unbelievable . 

Time to fix this....

My plan of action for this was...contradictory, so to speak.  I needed to get rid of the unemployment, so I had to...ahh, desaturate the residential zoning while trying to alleviate the lack of jobs by building industry.  Doing so, however, would do nothing to help drive the demand for commerce back up...I'd need more residential to do that.  Which means I'd have to hurry up and move on to the next town so I could take advantage of the abundant amount of suburbs and apartments I was planning for that part of town.

Some people might ask why I didn't just make the commercial area I already had more dense.  The reason for that is simply because that's not what I wanted for that area.  I didn't want any large towers in this part of town except for the resorts on the beach (hence why I got rid of the NDEX building that tried to grow).  In fact, I didn't want to touch that commercial area at all...I thought it was perfect as it was.  My stubbornness left me in a tight pickle, I realize, but I wouldn't budge on it .

Anyways...I built up some industry and desaturated the area.  Here's some of the industry (mainly along the western edge of the region, along the avenue that connects this town with the seaport):

7.12)

7.13)

And here's how northern Condor Beach looked post-desaturation:

7.14)

Yeah, I left those res towers there.  I didn't want to delete them because I was afraid of their effect on my population.  They'll be gone after a while, though...in fact, there'll be a few different things that'll take their places before I find something that I like (courtesy of Maxis, no less!).

Hmmm...I had a couple of things more to show with this town, but actually I think I'll leave it off here.  The rest of what I was going to show was going to be me fixing things here and there...you know.  I guess I can save that for another update, though.  Teaser:

7.15)

Ugh...St. Ritzy's...

Heh heh...15 pictures .  Thanks for reading !

[Andronicus22 1]

very nice bay area, seaport looks great too! keep it up!

[ky72x 13]

Ever heard of "Make Historical?" Maybe you should've hit that button in the query boxes for those small shops before you pressed play. Sorry I had to be a smart-aleck about that, but I couldn't resist! I always press "Make Historical" on buildings that I don't want to fall prey to unwanted ones.  The game's way of deciding what to build is very strange, and sometimes so terrible that I just feel like giving up because it's taking too long to get something different to grow.  But never will I resort to completly plopping an entire city.

Yikes. The situation seems pretty bad. Maybe you should've stuck to medium residential to begin with. But after all of that excellent-looking industrial (despite the lumpiness) that grew, hopefully those finicky high-wealthers will finally take that unemployment sign off of their buildings. I definitely can't wait to see the improvement take place, because it's bound to happen. That last teaser picture look very nice! Great assortment of development there, expect for the St. Ritzy.

- Kyle

[nihonkaranws 88]

Nice job! This is getting good!

[edmonton_stinks 5]

I hate St. Ritzy's so much...

Sucks about all the abandonment, but it's good you were able to resolve it. The end result looks pretty good.

[Twenty20 28]

very nice city ! good work, it looks great

[jacqulina 162]

thanks my friend,wow your sure doing some awesome work here,everything is so fantastic,excellent work and pics.

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

Oops sorry didn't see this update earlier...

Yep that is normal most peoples do less than 20 pics each update I'm pretty sure...   But hey nobody said you have to be normal!    I think a bunch of pics are fine, the only thing is long loading times. So yeah it's up to you... If you have a lot to show then go ahead.

I "borrow" all the time, my citybuilding style is probably like a conglomeration of a bunch of people's... Yeah Señor Sim got married so it's all good...and no,  I don't torture my readers with those silly stories often   I'm not much of a story-CJ person.  I mean, I enjoy them, but they're a pain to review, especially when you have like 40 pages of text to read  

Anyway... Umm, I was gonna tell you this on my CJ, but most of those little commercials in the Señor Sim update were Maxis (I say after my comment that "Maxis needs to die"....... )  But I was going for a slummy/run-down look, so I used all Maxis.  (That shows my regard for them haha)  Well, the LEX is fine and has great stuff but I find it slightly irritating that all the dependencies are listed in the readme and not the actual description...(sorry If I mentioned that already I feel like I did)  Not complaining, just saying..

Oh you saw the beach...Well ironically I am just about to head over to Tierra and update with a beachy update (that is... If photobucket ever starts working.. I think I'm gonna have to use.... Imageshack for this one) so yeah, I have been trying my hand at it   Mostly a combination of going on Spring Break & looking at your beaches here have inspired me...

Haha you think your reply is long look at mine.. and I havent gotten to the update yet... Eek that is pretty bad... I don't see what is wrong with office jobs taking commercial services tho?  Hmmm I don't understand game mechanics...I just pretend I do...well anyway looks like you fixed the problem... For now lol.  I look forward to seeing more!

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

Everytime I grow a city [which I never tend to show anymore ] I always get the same problem as you do. After a while, I get so fed up with it I just plop 10 4000 job skyscrapers next to each other so my stupid sims shut up I think your cities look much better than mine, I like the natural flow, the mix of buildings is great. Very nice update, glad you're still working on your journal

[waway625 72]

really like how your city is growing

it seems you have the same problem as me with the beaches though (the underwater textures show up on surface)

[vitorhnn 0]

hey masochist where are your power plants (i like this part) but you need of luck you are doin a sc3 city in sc4 but i can't play sc4 now I don't now where are but i'm using sc3.My new project 

Simterra (in english simland)

[Benedict 3,119]

I really like how your neighborhoods cut into the forested area on the hill - very natural-looking.

[Mike the Mayor 51]

Great pictures all round there, the close up shots are very nice indeed.

[vitorhnn 0]

where's the update?

[s_olah 87]

That's a lovely beach you have there...

[masochist 111]

Hi, everyone !

First off, I'd like to apologize profusely for the long wait between updates.  I didn't mean to keep you guys waiting for so long (over a month!).  I just got a bad case of RLS and need a bit of a break from SC4 for a while...but I really should've at least replied to you guys sometime between there .  I didn't, and for that I'm sorry.  Now I'm back, though, and hopefully that won't happen again anytime soon.

Anyways, for this update, I'm going to number the pictures as if they were a part of the previous update (starting with 7.16).  I'm doing this so that I don't get ahead of the SC4D Condor Bay (where I posted the two updates as one gigantic one).  Just letting you know....

All right...on with this!

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Andronicus22 -

Thanks for the comments!  I'm glad you took the time to go back through my CJ and take it in...I really appreciate it.  I hope you like what's coming up!

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ky72x -

Ahh, you seem to have that smark-aleck thing down !  LOL...I like making buildings historical (like those two towers in the middle of the commercial area), but then again, I like to see what else I can get my city to grow for me.  Sometimes I'll find things I didn't even know I had !  And I could never plop an entire city...just areas that I have a very specific vision about (like that beach).

Yeah...I shouldn't've been so focused on trying to get a big population.  That was my downfall.  At least I know now what my priority should be (or rather, what it shouldn't be ).  I hope you enjoy this update, though!  Thanks for the long comment!

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nihonkaranws -

Thanks!  I'm glad you're liking it...hopefully you'll like this update, as well!

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edmonton_stinks -

I know!  Probably the worst Maxis building on any SimCity game thus far .  I'm glad the worst part of that whole situation is over, but there'll be residue carried over all the way until the next town.  I'm glad you liked what came out.  Thanks for the comment!  Hope you enjoy this one!

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Twenty20 -

I'm glad you like it!  Thanks for the compliments...feel free to stop on by anytime!

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jacqulina -

LOL, thank you!  Glad you liked it.  Maybe you'll like this one, too?  Not sure...it involves a museum on the beach and random pictures of TP'd trees .  No, really...I'm serious!  Anyways, I hope you like it!

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Blondetwiggy -

Wow...I like how you keep your replies all nice and succinct !  LOL, actually I really like long comments, because I usually learn the most from them.

Being normal is nice every once in a while, but I talk waaay to much to be normal all the time .  Most of the time, it's usually me trying to show how I do this or that, and that's what takes up so many pictures.  But still...36 pictures is a ridiculous amount to post in one update (which is what I did on SC4D today), so maybe I'll...ahh, cut back on the number of how-to's I show?  Hmm...seems I still have a bit of things to work on .  Oh, well...

That's me, as well; I find more and more "influences" in each and every one of my updates.  And I was happy to see Señor Sim find love...I thought he deserved it.  You say you don't do so many of those stories, but might there be any chance of seeing any of those characters again in a future update?  Maybe...lounging about on Leech Beach on honeymoon ?  By the way, I'm glad you found inspiration from my beach.  It's cool that something I do actually does help someone in one way or another !

Yeah, I can definitely see where that can get annoying...but I usually don't worry about it, because I firmly believe that with 1 of the 2 GB of plugins I have being dependencies, I'm probably not missing anything .

Oi...I can definitely say that your reply was gigantic!  But I'm thankful for it, because I'm still trying to learn how to do this whole city journal thing (I've only had 7 official updates so far, you know).  I've still got a lot of experience to gain....

So you can't see what's wrong with offices taking over that commercial area?  Well...technically, there's nothing wrong with it.   The sims wanted offices, so they built them...but they built them over Market Street !  They tore down a semi-famous shopping area to build offices and banks in a town that, at the time, had 12,000 people in it.  I would've thought that you of all people, as a self-proclaimed shop-a-holic, might be slightly outraged by that ...I know I was (Market Street had a lot of charm, you see...in fact, that whole commercial area did before the offices came in).

Anyways, I think that's all I can fit in this reply (it's already a novel as it is).  Thanks again for the long comment!  I really hope you enjoy this update!

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ilikehotdogsalot -

LOL...I don't know if I've ever seen a picture of a whole city by you, now that I think about it.  That's cool, though, because what I do see is always amazing!  Yeah...sims never know what they want, they just like to complain (I guess that makes SimCity 4 more realistic than I thought ). 

Heh heh, that's funny, because I always get an inferiority complex looking at your CJ; I'm always thinking, "How the heck did he do that?!" or "Is that even possible in SC4!?" And then I find out that it's not possible in SC4, and that somehow makes me appreciate your work even more.  Oi...your last sentence makes me feel bad......but I'm back now!  I hope you enjoy this update.  Thanks for the comment!

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waway625 -

Hey, waway!  Yeah, sometimes that plagues me, but I just do the "Zones Dataview" trick and it doesn't bother me so much anymore.  But I'm glad you're liking this so far; hopefully you'll like this one too!  Thanks for the comments!

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vitorhnn -

My power plants are usually hidden in my heavy industrial areas.  All the factories hide them pretty well...so that's where I put them.  Yeah...it's a bit of a challenge moving a city from SC3K to SC4, but it's growing nicely!  Where is Simterra?  I'd like to see it .  Thanks for the comments...and thanks for putting my city journal in your signature !

vitorhnn (2nd) -

Sorry for not posting in so long...a lot has been going on in real life.  But here's the new update...hope you like it!  Thanks for keeping up with my CJ, I really appreciate it !

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Benedict -

Thanks!  I rather like that hillside neighborhood...it's different from most of the stuff I've done.  I've never managed to get one to look quite like that.  I'm glad you liked it, too...hopefully you'll like this update, as well.  Feel free to stop on by any time!

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Mike the Mayor -

Thank you!  I'm glad you liked them...did you happen to have a favorite, by any chance?  I'm doing a bit of research.  But anyways...thanks for the compliments.  I hope you like this update!

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s_olah -

Thanks!  I'm glad you like it!  Do come back in, maybe you'll enjoy some other parts, as well!

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UPDATE 7b - Guess Who's Back

Back again...

So last update (the one that happened over a month ago) saw me trying to fix a rather costly oversight and the chaos that ensued; if you remember, I left you guys off just as I had gotten the problem fixed at least a tiny bit.  Well, after getting my city on the road to recovery, I thought it was high time for me to try and fix a few things here and there...aesthetic things, mainly.  First thing's first: there's a certain road bridge over the freeway that has been irking me more than all the others ever since I built it.  You can see it clearly here in this picture of the mosaic that I posted last update:

7.16)

See that nice jagged downslope?  What to do about it, then?  Well, Nardo69 of SC4D had the answer: using the underground road pieces by buddybud to take that road out of the picture.  Because one side is higher up than the other, I figured I'd use the downsloping tunnel on the commercial side of the freeway and the level tunnel on the beach side...so I did:

7.17)

Looks nice!  YES!  But does it work properly?  Can cars still get to the beach?  Well...:

7.18)

I'd forgotten about that little bug .  If you place a transit-enabled lot (like a bus stop or these tunnels) next to a freeway or bridge, the transit types that are allowed to use it can do so to get onto that bridge/freeway where they would otherwise not be allowed to...and that's what they're doing here.  I didn't put an offramp there because I didn't want freeway traffic on that road...so this doesn't fly with me.  So I place the tunnel on the commercial side one tile away from the freeway...and this is what happens:

7.19)

Give me a break!  I didn't change the other side because no one was using the other side...and now they do .  Well, easily remedied:

7.20)

Much better!  That's how it's supposed to work!  Here's a better view (with a better tower on the side):

7.21)

Teaser from a month ago....

So now that's done, and it looks a thousand times better.  What's more, while I was working on that, the town was further trying to right itself.  Those two tall towers were replaced with what was really needed, and the dilapidation seemed to be on the out and out:

7.22)

Nice!

Now it's time to tackle another little project: the beach museum.  The thing about this museum is that it's been in the city for a little while now...in fact, it's been there since the beginning of the update.  Remember the blue pavilion I told you to remember?  No?  ...go back up to the previous update and check out picture 7.2.  There's a blue pavilion at the top of the picture, see it?  That's actually Havoc Art Museum, and until threestooges said something about being interested in which museum I would choose, that was the beach museum.  How lazy of me....

But thanks to threestooges, I decided to give a it a bit more love and care, and put it in its rightful spot.  Here's where it's going:

7.23)

You can see it there at the top of the picture surrounded by houses and things like that

Let's see how it will fit, then mold the land to it.

7.24)

Check the LBT single-road-tile parking textures...

Now to level out the land...:

7.25)

...and fill it back in...:

7.26)

And voila!  T. S. Museum and Pavilion is now open for business !  (Actually, I was thinking of naming it the LCM museum, as well.  Which one do you think is better)?  The parking lot is connected to the road that leads down to the ferry.  Ahh...oh, yeah...I added a ferry a little while ago to compliment the one on the other end of the beach.  Heh heh...guess I could've mentioned that before .  Oh, well.  Anyways, the land where the museum used to be was developed into more houses:

7.27)

7.28)

Diagonal grid!

That's most of what I did.  A few more random pictures, then:

7.29)

This is an industrial zone in the northeast part of the city tile.  I don't know why it hasn't developed (because it was made to help with jobs during the unemployment scare), but it didn't.  I'll keep it around to help alleviate potential future problems, should any arise.

7.30)

This is just a random neighborhood I found in Condor Beach.  You see this?  In one picture, THREE TP'd TREES!  But don't worry, I think we're close to finding the mastermind behind all the vandalism.  It was reported that he goes by his underground pseudonym JJ...

7.31)

Facing north

The significance of this picture is the direction of the avenues.  The one going off the eastern side of the map (towards the large central city tile called Fordville) is the beach boulevard.  I thought I'd point that out, because the beach avenue is actually one of the most important thoroughfares in the city (running along the Ace River all the way to the northern edge of the region) and I thought you guys would want to keep up with it.

So after all of that, here's the northern part of Condor Beach:

7.32)

Upgraded the towers that used to be next to the freeways, you see.  Thanks, Maxis!

...and the entire city as a whole:

7.33)

So there we are!  It took a few months, but the second city tile, Condor Beach, is finally done! 

The city population right now is somewhere around 55,000, and the region population is about 67,000 sims.  Here's a transportation view so far:

7.34)

Still a long way to go...

That's it for this update...next update, we venture into the first (and perhaps only) city tile without a significant hill, mountain, or body of water to hinder development...which means the entire thing gets developed!  Here are a couple things to look forward to:

7.35)

7.36)

7.37)

Man, it feels good to be back !   I'll try not to take so long with the update next time....thanks for reading !

[gabry85 2]

Wow, great update and welcome back! The region looks cool, especially with that hill in the middle! Impressive beaches!

[ky72x 13]

Great to see CB back, again!

As I've said before... that road underpass is awesome. Even though it took a little bit of tinkering to get those annoying commute kinks out, the work sure paid off in the end. The city looks much better now with a more varied (and functional) skyline. The museum is quite nice, as well! I really like how you did the area... with the addition of the parking lots, the side street leading up to it, the clean slope downhill, and those walls, it's all there! Too bad about the ugly jagged edges along the avenue, but it always seems to be unavoidable, sadly.

I hope you made all of those industrial buildings/lots historical, because they all match each other perfectly! (Thanks, Tag_One!) It's a shame the rest of it didn't develop, but hey, who cares when it looks that good? The rest of the pictures are all nice and reveal your building variety pretty well. Excellent overview of the whole entire city, and the region shot is equally impressive.

I'm really anxious to see the next city tile after those amazing pics. All in all, this was one fantastic update, Mas!

- Kyle

[CarmineHilton 6]

Good to see that it's back! I really like(d) this CJ

And WOOW, what an update.. Huge as usual, but soooooooo beautiful!! =)

It's HOT! xD

[AceofSpades 1]

Ooooo... can't wait to see the update!

[masochist 111]

---

gabry85 -

Thanks, it feels great to be back!  I'm glad you like that city...that mountain range does look interesting cutting through it now that I see it from afar.  LOL, it's good to hear that you liked the beach, as it was slightly your fault that it exists !  Anyways, thanks for the comment; I hope you enjoy this update!

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ky72x -

Thank you!  I'm glad I had time to come back to it!

I really hate that transit-lot bug; it really gets me when I place bus stops along tiny streets next to the freeway.  That's when unexpected traffic problems come about...terrible!  But I'm actually pretty pleased with the way this underpass came out...it actually looks better spread apart from the freeway like they are (at least, I think so...).  Thanks for the compliments on the museum!  That was done for threestooges, but then it's also just one more thing about that beach .  I wish there were a way to get rid of those jagged edges...well, there is, but I don't know how...

I think I made a couple of them historical, but some of the repeats I didn't.  I've been becoming a fan of dirty industry lately; I don't really know how to build industrial areas, so I've been trying to find inspiration with it.  I'm glad to hear that you liked it, though !  LOL...yeah, I've got a whole lot of BAT's, though I'm trying to get a few of them to grow in certain places (and cut down on those ITS TerraCotta Mews...).

Anyways...thanks for the long and detailed comment!  I really hope you like this upcoming update, as well !

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CarmineHilton -

Thank you!  I'm really glad to hear that you're enjoy it so far !  LOL...actually, that was one of my smaller updates , but nice to know that you liked it anyways!  Thanks for the comment!

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AceofSpades -

Hey!  Glad you stopped by...I really hope you like this one, it's actually (relatively) small, though.  Oh well...

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UPDATE 8 - A Blank Canvas

Mas's mille-post milestone!

And now, for my 1,000th (actually 1,001st) comment on Simtropolis, I'd like to introduce you guys to the third city tile of the region Condor Bay, known as Western Fordville. 

8.1)

Outlined in red...

Western Fordville lies to the north of Condor Beach, and to the west of the big Fordville tile.  It has perhaps the largest amount of development real estate of all the tiles in the region (except for the aformentioned central city), yet ironically it has perhaps the least amount of interesting landmarks . 

8.2)

Western Fordville as it appeared in SC3KU

Most of it is just industry and residential, though there is a major satellite commercial office district here (The Rigel District) that landed there because of the traffic generated by the meeting of Continental Highway 50 (the east-west expressway) and Beltway 450 (the freeway that goes 3/4ths the way around the region).  Still...nothing really noteworthy was planned for this tile...so I had to just go with it .

The first thing I did was get the freeways laid out, and start with some of the avenues:

8.3)

So many avenues...

The industrial area on the west side of the beltway is the first thing that gets developed.  It won't look so good to begin with, I'll admit to you, but it'll get better over time.

8.4)

This is how I laid out the streets at first.  Then, after a visit to [AK's CJ "AK"], I noticed how a lot of the warehouses and factories had their own block, and that was the look I was going after.  So I decided to try and optimize it so that certain sized buildings would grow in certain spots, while also allowing for different sizes to be zoned:

8.5)

Only slightly different, but it will work.  Between the beltway and that first avenue I put commercial zoning to separate the industry from the residential. 

The railroad bothers me, though...it's just there.  I ended up just running it off the edge of the region because I was so dissatisfied with it...but I'll see what I can do with it (and how to make up for it for Nardo69) later.  For now, though, here's a bit of what grew in that industrial area:

8.6)

Well...I like it, at least .

Anyways, why not take a trip across the beltway, then?  This is a large area of relatively flat land, ideal for residential planning...which is what will go there.  It's actually a good thing that I won't get any commerce for while: my CS$$$ demand is still in the negative from the resorts on the beach.

8.7)

Have to fill in the streets between the avenues.  As you can see, however, I left a few gigantic blocks empty; one will be a park, one will be filled with a big lot that I hadn't decided on yet, and one is perfectly fitted for one gigantic lot to come.  But that comes later .  Notice the gridded area where the commercial zoning will go.  That will be filled in in a future update...haven't figured out which one yet .

8.

Streets, bus stops and necessary civic services, including yet another of JBSimio's schools (and I'll use another one in this town, as well).

I think now would be a good time to show some specific examples of how exactly I zone suburban residential zones.  It's usually one tile at a time along winding streets.  I'm trying to get back to the way I used to zone inner-city suburban areas...I don't know how I managed those without thinking, but I can't seem to do them anymore and its slightly frustrating.

Here's an example of how I used to do it:

8.9)

I'm trying to emulate that style, but it doesn't quite come out how I want it .  Nowadays my suburbs seem too...unnecessary, actually, with all the winding streets I randomly throw in:

8.10)

8.11)

Meh...it's only a small gripe ...and with the Street-Side Mod in place, it's hardly noticeable anyways.

Here's what the neighborhood looks like so far:

8.12)

Already almost half-way done with the entire tile !  I started zoning just a tiny bit of that northern commercial area (near the freeway).  It looks terrible now, but just you wait - it'll end up being a high-wealth residential area with nice looking towers, you'll see.  But that's a bit later.

Did you notice that one of the three big blocks was filled in?  No?  Well, one of the three big blocks was filled in...with the in-game university.  Oh, how I despise that thing!, but it was all I had.  But since one was filled in, why not fill in another?

8.13)

What's...what's that in the corner there?  Why, it's the LBT Mall!  That's right: you can't call it suburbia until there's a shopping mall .  And look at what that 1300-CS$$$-jobs-creating building did to my commercial service demand.  So then, why did I plop it?

Maybe I'm cra-zay?  Possiblyyyy....

Of course, it could simply be that it seemed like a good place to plop a mall, what with the freeway wrapping around it and its extreme proximity to an abundance of homes and (in the future) commercial offices.  That might be it .

Whatever the reason, it's there, and it killed my demand.  Doesn't matter; it didn't stop me from zoning more commercial areas anyways (they do really want offices, after all):

8.14)

Why is that toolbar in the picture!?  Oh yeah...it's a zones picture.  Nevermind...

8.15)

Ah, ha!  There are some nice towers popping up along that freeway (just as I said) !  They'll help alleviate the CS demand crisis I'm experiencing.  I also streamlined the last "big block" (which, if you use process of elimination, will become a future park) to make room for even more housing.  Here's a nice, random overview shot for the suburban area:

8.16)

So who remembers this picture when I posted it before UPDATE 2?

(That's about the third or fourth time I've posted that picture in this CJ so far).

I do believe that's all for this update.  Next, I'll work on that park a bit, and then we'll go north of the freeway where some interesting things develop :

8.17)

Oh, it's MURDER!

That's it!  Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone !  Thanks for reading !

[jjune4991 1]

very nice work. and you are quite the character if i may say !

[Ntq€310 1]

Wow, ive been gone for a while.one thing is for sure, this Region and Cj is getting better and better and better.

[luker91 0]

very cool cj!i really like how you step back before building on a new tile and decide what major features you want to place... i'm really looking forward to the park! i also liked the relocation of the museum in the last update! and i think the museum and pavillion sounds nicer and fits into the beach... great stuff!

[masssc4 3]

Great Work!! Very Creative