Parkland - Adventures In Realism - Established 2004

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

10Time Trixie Nominated

2007: Best City Planner, Most Realistic City Journal

2008: Most Aesthetically Pleasing City, Best City Planner, Most Realistic City Journal, Best Attention To Detail In A CJ, Best City Sprawl In The City Journal

2009: Best City Planner, Most Realistic City Journal, Best Looking Parks in a CJ

Welcome all to my CJ! I have spent A LOT of time working on this one. It took me a near two weeks just to get the trees laid out in the region due to it being so large. There are 288 cities in this region. The largest I have ever worked with. Most of the tiles are for aesthetic purposes only though, so don't go thinking I am trying to populate all those tiles.

My style of region design is built around the principles of realism. Which are sometimes very hard to come by when it comes to Sim City. I spend a lot of time and effort and meticulous detailing on each of my cities. I may do things over and over again just so it looks right in the city. For this reason, sometimes updates may only happen once a week. This is for the sake of quality over quantity. I am not going to post a ton of pointless entries just to get views.

I spend a lot of time laying out my designs in my mind and on paper, long before they hit the mouse in-game. The layout i have now, took me several days just to map out the rail and highways. I always start with the highways, rail and major infrastructure before i do anything else. This way it creates borders for the growth to hit and it make it more realistic. I measure out the distance in miles it is in game so it can be more realistic that way too.

Since this question comes up a lot and I have answered it several times...lol... I am placing it here in the intro :

I grow all residential in my region. It takes a heck of a lot of patience and bulldozing until the right house grows, but thats how I do it. The only other thing I grow are creations from the stex that are grow only, ie commercial and industrial thats not ploppable. Everything else in my region is plopped. but all of it is functional.

OK! Enough blabbing... Here is Parkland!

click on image for larger picture (7mb, you have been warned)

This is a heavily modded version of raregrk's Accurate Scale Map Of Montreal

I am using several mods for this region, they are noted below, all of which can either be found here at SC4D or ST :

American Traffic Mod

Andreas Automata (various uses)

Bridge Height Mod

Columbus Terrain Mod

Diagonal Edges Mod

NAM

No Rail Dirt

No Palms Mod

No One Way Arrows Mod

RH Plopmodd Levels Final

Slope Mod

Street Light Mod

Streetside Mod

Water Mod by Peagasus

Highway Asphalt Textures Mod

Zebra Avenue/Streets/Oneway Mod

Zoning Mod

As you can see, I use a lot of mods, some would consider some of those cheats. But since SC4 does not allow for realism on its own, you have to incorporate outside help to get to the point where you can make a visually appealing, realistic city.

If you have any questions as we go, just let me know! I will try to respond to every post!

Enjoy...

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

 

 

Table of Contents :

Page 1 :

-Transit Plans (pictures)

-Transit Update, including mass transit long term plans (pictures)

-Major Development Updates, and region view updates, including transit views (pictures)

-Quick Little Update (pictures)

-Region Update Shots (pictures)

-Region UpdateShots (pictures) (not the same as above entry)

-City Pics (pictures) (tons of them!)

-Teaser (pictures)

-Region Update (pictures)

-Transfer Of Power (major announcement)

-newyorkrunaway1's Plans For Parkland (regions pics)

Page 2:

-Teaser (picture)

-Teaser (picture)

Page 3:

-Last Teaser Before Update Today (picture)

-Downtown and Interior Neighborhoods (lots of pictures)

Page 4:

-Teaser (pictures)

Page 5:

-Teaser (pictures)

-Teaser (pictures)

Page 6:

-North Parkland and Hunters Island (lots of pics)

Page 7:

Teaser (Parkland University) (picture)

Happy Holidays From The City Of Parkland!

Revisiting Downtown (pictures)

Teaser (picture)

Page 8:

Parkland University (large picture)

New Year Teaser (picture)

New Region Shot (picture)

Page 9:

Around Town (lots of pics)

Page 10:

Downtown @ Night (picture)

Region Shot (picture)

Theme Park (picture)

Zoo & Water Treatment (pictures)

Page 11:

Random Shots (pictures)

Region Shot (picture)

Airport (picture)

Region Shots (pictures)

Downtown Plans (pictures)

Region Shot (picture)

Highways (picture)

Light Rail Plans (picture)

Light Rail & Commuter Rail + Stops (picture)

Page 12:

LRT Stop & Convention Center (pictures)

Region Shot (picture)

Updated Highways (picture)

Stadium & Riverfront Park (pictures)

Convention Center & Marina (pictures)

Downtown Park (picture)

Page 13:

Theme Park & Some Extras (pictures)

Parkland University (picture)

Midtown Park (picture)

Page 14:

X-MAS in Parkland (picture)

Parkland Plans (pictures)

Pause Parkland

Parkland Transportation Progress (region pics)

Downtown Transit Teaser (picture)

Page 15:

Parklands Newest Tallest (picture)

Downtown Teaser (picture)

North Part of Downtown (large picture)

New Parkland Teaser (picture)

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

OK, I was able to catch a quick minute to update a little bit. As you have read, I plan everything well in advance. Transit is no exception.

Below you will find 2 pictures, one for initial transit, and the plans I have to grow it into eventually.

KEY :

Yellow - Rail

Green - Highway

Black - Avenue

Initial Transit

Future Transit

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

As promised, and update. The first pic is the progress thus far in the development of the intial transit plan as shown earlier.

The second is the long term mass transit plans. More detail below.

Here is the mass transit plans for the future, and remember, as development happens, these are subject to change at any time.

Red line is phase one, blue phase two, and yellow phase three.

These are all planned as LRT right now, but that may change depending on development.

Enjoy! And thanks for all the comments so far!

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Just a quick minor update, since im bored, just to show how the transit from the initial plan is developing.  As you can see, it is changing a little from the original plan.

---------------------------------------------------------

edit, here is the final image of the initial transit project

Now, let the fun begin with the development! YEAH!

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Yeah! Now time for some city shots. These are the beginning stages of the major developments, that the city will be shaped around.

The first two shots are regional shots. They are small here, but if you click on them, it will take you to the large view. Be warned, these are very large images!

This following picture gives you an idea of where the following developments are placed in the region.

These are the pictures if these developments. These are prelimenary layouts, they will be grown upon

Hospital

Highschool

Municipal Airport

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Quick little update on some developments in the central city.

Town Square

One of the area elementary schools

flea market

Civic Center and rail station

minor league baseball stadium

small office park in the more expensive part of town

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

just couple of region shot updates

click on them for larger images, they are both about 3mb each

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

I know it is quick for a new update, but i changed a lot in the region, and wanted to show it:

click on the images for larger resolution, they are very large files, you have been warned

 

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

I have done a lot recently, here are some region shots, with city pictures farther down

Here are some city pics, with some captions

These are of the mall area just to the north of downtown:

These pics are of the subdivsion designs i have been using that you can see in the region shots, these areas have yet to be developed:

These are all of the downtown, and the immediate surrounding area:

Industrial area right next to the convention center, just to the north a few blocks of downtown

Convention Center

Downtown and neighborhoods surrounding

One of the subdivisions you see from the region shot developed

Farmers Market area

Another one of the subdivisions that you can see from the region shots just to the east of downtown

City Cemetary, and the retirement facility

Area to be developed as high tech industry and office space

Downtown Square

Fort Parkland across from downtown

Downtown

Apartment complex

Convention Center

Elementary School

Hospital Are to the east of town, on the outside loop:

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Hi! Big News! I have decided to take a different approach to the CJ!

No... I am not abandoning realism! I am fast forwarding 20 years into the future. After a little development and growth, so we can see some real growth, i will have the next update probably tonight, hopefully....

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Here is a teaser pic for you, for an upcoming update

click on it for larger view

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Here is a series of regions views 20 years into the future, still a lot to do though. enjoy!

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Transfer of Power

 

I have some news. Not bad news, but probably new to ST.

I am not going to be able to continue with this CJ myself for a while. I am going to be preoccupied with real life for a while, not sure how long. I am transferring this CJ over to my partner, who has been around ST for a long time now. newyorkrunaway1

He has been around here for a while now doing various things. He is the one who turned me onto SC and to ST. What an experience it has been. I have received most of my experience from his guidance, so I know he will be able to take over this CJ and continue with the realism.

I know this is kind of weird, but, hey, This CJ means a lot to me, and people have certainly showed interest in it. If there weren't any interest, I would have just let it die. But its a god CJ, no need to let it die.

He will update the table of contents still, and the title to reflect the latest update date too. So no real biggie....

So, for now, arigato gozaimasu! I will see you in TOKYO!

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

Here are some updated region shots and plans for what i am going to work on for parkland

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

OK! As you can tell, everyone;s comments are gone. I have consolidated the entire cj into this thread. It was easier to have me as the creator of the thread because i couldnt edit the table of contents or the update days.

Thanks beeb for helping on this one, its cool to delete the old thread now. This one is the one to look at now. please update your bookmarks or links back to parkland. it has a new home.

enjoy...

[feliwi 4]

wow, great CJ in here! Very realistic city layout. Can't wait for ports or airports

[jacqulina 162]

very nice my friend,great looking cj

[Meastro444 1]

looks very good!! i like it!

[Muck308 55]

Way to keep it going. I wasn't following it before, but I am now.

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

cool, newcomers... sorry for all the pics on one page, just had to transfer everything

[lacivian 0]

Cool CJ. I like the layout of your city, and the realism too. Keep up the good work.

Laci

[Dizastrow 4]

Cool City!!  Where do you get your ideas for your suburb areas?  Awesome CJ!

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

lots and lots of studying maps on google maps and other sources.... i love google maps

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

teaser update coming tonight................ oooooo........

[Equilibria 16]

Beautiful work. I suppose I should wait for more...

[memedoug85 36]

I love it

[+Guest]

Yeah great CJ man. Very realistic. I love me some realistic CJ's.

[Naryanna 0]

Wohoho, I love it! It took a lot of time before all the pictures loaded but heck, it was well worth it! The transportation network looks amazing. And the suburbs are breath taking.

I hope to see an update fairly soon!

[xV.I.N.C.E.N.T.x 0]

Looks fantastic.

I really like what u have accomplished....what i dislike is the repatition of region shots.

Keep up the good work.

-Vin