The Straight Seas Region

[IsaacTham 0]

Hello all viewers of Simtropolis,

Welcome to the Straight Seas Region!

I named it that because the seas play an important role in the region, an they are all STRAIGHT! (straight as in the coastline, not the curves in the river)

This is my first City Journal so I apologise if my CJ Skills are not up to a professional's.

I am building the region alongside updating the CJ, so what you see in Update 2 may not have been there at the time of Update 1. (for example)

I welcome you to suggest how I can improve in terms of city-building or CJ-making! Please comment!

Without further to do, here's the contents.

Contents

Note: 'M' means mini-update (less than 3 pictures) or non-picture update.

Page 1

Update 1: Introduction and First Pictures

Update 2: Improvements of the City, Airport and Downtown

Update 3: Mass Transit Network and Dense Developments

Update 4: Mini-Update (M)

Update 5: Night Pictures to celebrate the Christmas Spirit / A little competition

Update 6: Parks, Beaches and a Rural Highway

Page 2

Update 7: Reconstruction of the RHW interchange, New Financial District and New Subway Line

Update 8: Statistics of Keppel Bay (M)

Update 9: A High Resolution Update

Update 10: GLR and more...

Update 11: December Economic Report (M)

Update 12: A 'Rail' of a Time and Multi-RHW-ing

Page 3

Update 13: Financial Review of 2009 so far (M)

Update 14: RHW 3.0 Tutorial Part 1 (M)

Update 15: What's Going On in Keppel Bay

The Current Competition

I am starting a little competition. Every time you reply in my CJ (can be positive, negative or neutral, I don't care), I will count that, and we will see who replies the most in this CJ! Also, points can be added for answering a question correctly! No prizes, though. Just a small game. So come on! Comment on the CJ! But, the rules are...

1. NO spamming.

2. NO breaking up messages. I will count them as 1 message anyway.

The leaderboard will be shown HERE and will be updated everyday.

Posts Competition - Leaderboard

Updated -- 4.30am 9 Feb 2009

1. jacqulina -- 10

2. ComputerGuy890100 -- 8

3. Raysfan16 -- 6

4. Hawkeye9 -- 3

4. SirUnger -- 3

5. Tomasneto -- 2

5. fabsies55 -- 2

Update 1 Pictures

The first pictures of the CJ are below, and I hope you will enjoy yourself!

Picture 1: I start with laying out the roads and the transportation modes, such as Elevated Rail, Ground Rail and Ground Light Rail. Also, I make the highways so that I keep it organised, the 'skeletons' of the city.

Picture 2: The construction work has started!

Picture 3: The beauty of the city, the two skyscrapers Bank of China and Chrysler Building.

Picture 4: An overview of the city, with nearly 7000 people living here. (told you it's new, but number is set to rise dramatically soon)

Again, feel free to comment about the city and the CJ, I will be waiting!

Sneak Peek for Update 2 (coming tomorrow): A look at the Industrial area and more on the downtown, which will greatly improve!

Isaac on 1/12/2008 at 6.45pm

[kingdiz_55 12]

I suggest you get more custom content and increase the graphics a little bit.

[flyinbird93 2]

good start! little griddy but im sure youll come around i too start off with a skeleton of my road network when building.

[Schulmanator 5,807]

A grid is an efficient way to start. But, you will want to create some distinctive public spaces and let the town develop a character as it develops.

[IsaacTham 0]

Replies:

kingdiz_55: Thanks for the suggestions. Maybe I will try to download more BATed items. And for the graphics, hmmm...let's see what I can do.

flyinbird93: Thanks! I use 4 x 4 grids because if you use 6 x 6 for Residential and Commercial, the zoning will end at one side and it will require you to make another street there or else you will get a 'no car' zot. I'll show you what I mean in the next update.

Schulmanator: Thanks for the suggestions I'll try to make some parks and beaches etc. What do you mean by the 'character'?...

Update 2 will come tomorrow or maybe tonight so see you!

Isaac

[fabsies55 5]

gonna help you out a bit. go into the graphic options and put your city detail on high.

next you need better city layout make diagonal roads make it more complex it may take longer but it will look a lot better

AND FINALLY as people have said get downloadin!! lol.

[Chappington 131]

IsaacTham: If you hold shift, you don't need to make another street in a 6x6 grid. Also, if that doesn't work, then zone half of the block at a time.

Anyway, a few suggestions:

- Make sure we can't see any of the interface, just the city.

- Give us a few close-up shots (if and only if you increase the graphics though--it'll look ugly otherwise).

- Those two skyscrapers look a bit out of place. Most users expect some form of realism in CJs, and two huge skyscrapers in a town of 7,000 doesn't quite make sense.

With some more work, this could be good, but it'll take quite a bit.

[IsaacTham 0]

Replies Part 2:

fabsies55: Thanks for the suggestions. I already downloaded 400MB of plugins into the 'Plugins' folder, but just haven't used them yet. Next update will be more 'custom'.

Splime: Thanks for the tips. For the interface, I just wanted to show you all the stats of the city so far. I will also increase the graphics, and after more development then the skyscrapers will be realistic.

Thanks for your replies and suggestions. Wow! Within 15 hours of creating the CJ it has more than 120 views already!

Isaac

[blue sinjid 7]

Welcome to the world of CJS! It looks like a good start. Remember the images can be at a max of 800x600. By maximizing that,we will be able to see your pics the best!

[Haljackey 17,388]

A decent start, but I have some suggestions for you:

1. Why are your pictures so small on-site? And why are they compressed? Their natural resolution is 1024x768, and if you simply resized them they would look excellent on-site.

2. Remove the UDI icons. The last button on the UDI menu should disable that.

3. Try not to take pics with the pause screen running.

4. Try not to take pics with the menu at the bottom.

5. Try not to show zots. If you have zots in the are you want to take a pic of, simply use the "tastyzots" cheat to temporarily disable them

6. Don't respond to comments without an update, especially if you're replying to them in the same day (in this case, twice in the same day ). They will come, just be patient. If you build it, they will come.

Best,

-Haljackey

[tahill79 13]

get rid of those 2 skyscrapers.

[Raysfan16 5]

Hey, way to go on starting a CJ. Experience is the best teacher.

Follow the tips above in order to creater a much better CJ, and viewing other ones will help.

[IsaacTham 0]

Replies:

Blue sinjid: Thanks for the encouragement! I have made the pictures 800 x 600, like you asked.

haljackey: Thanks for your suggestions! I have corrected all the mistakes you pointed out!

tahill79: Thanks for your suggestions! I have destroyed the skyscrapers!

Raysfan16: Thanks for your encouragement!

Update 2 is here!

The mayor of Keppel Bay (the city i'm currently working on and in the pics), the downtown of the Straight Seas Region (forgot to tell you in Update 1) has decided to tear down the two skyscrapers as he felt they did not belong in a city with 7000 people.

But now the city is thriving with about 80 000 Sims! Without further ado, picture time! his update is a mega one with 15 pictures!

Picture 1: The second neighbourhood to the right of downtown is made and is developing!

Picture 2: A look at my industrial part of the city. Generates A LOT of pollution, and the water pump shut down FOUR times because of high water pollution!

Picture 3: The power plants that powerED the region. There is a new one, coming up in the later pictures.

Picture 4: The new and improved downtown!

Picture 5: The new airport of Keppel Bay! I used the default one to save time. Also, my third neighbourhood which is very big, is zoned.

Picture 6: the airport main station, an interchange linking High Speed Rail, Elevated Rail and Ground Rail together.

Picture 7: The airport and its surroundings after development.The population of my city has reached 75 000!

Picture 8: The HSBC Tower is built in the airport district!

Picture 9: The Downtown Athletic Club.

Picture 10: The Best Western Hotel is open in the second neighbourhood!

Picture 11: The SHARK Hotel in the second neighbourhood.

Picture 12: An advanced waste disposal plant was built in the industrial area.

Picture 13: An overview of the city so far. As you can see the city is only 1/4 zoned and already has 80000 Sims, when the whole region is completed the city will surely prosper!

Picture 14: I decided to change the power plants to natural gas ones to reduce pollution. Also, my mayor rating is in tip-top 100%! Sorry for the pause screen! The menu is meant to be there, so don't complain. Same thing for the next photo.

Picture 15: The commute time of the Sims is only 6 minutes thanks to my Pubic Transport! The last picture!

That concludes Update 2. Update 3 will showcase the city's public transport system and more on downtown and new developments. Update 3 will come either tomorrow or Thursday.

Hey! 200 views of my CJ just 25 hours after starting the CJ!! Thank you for your continuous support, you all 200 people. Hope you can comment!

Please continue to comment and support the CJ!

Isaac

[De Ja Vu 117]

It looks really nice! Kinda reminds me of my old city in SC3000. Keep up the good work!

[Vegetarian-Dracula 3]

Gridy cities rules  

[Raysfan16 5]

Wow, that is a great improvement.

I'd love to see it grow more.

[Hawkeye9 0]

Wow, nice start, looks like a very dense city!!!

Looking forward to more!!!

[CapitolAnarchy 5]

I'm really liking it. My only suggestions would be to locate your airport to a suburb or to the waterfront. Airports are never located inside or just outside of a downtown area unless they are near a huge body of water. Real estate is simply too expensive, and the likelihood of a crash into surrounding buildings is just too great.

Also, you should consider expanding your mass transit system more into the city itself, not just on the outskirts. Locating El-Rail/HS Rail networks next to avenues and highways should be avoided. Instead locate beside streets and roads which are much more likely to reach over-capacity.

Besides these two minor things, I'm really loving it. Great job.

[jacqulina 162]

nice start and intro my friend,good first pics

[IsaacTham 0]

Replies:

 De Ja Vu: Thanks for the support!

Vegetarian-Dracula: Yeah! Gridy cities rule! Thanks for the encouragement!

Raysfan16: Thank you! The 'grow more' has grown. But no update today, and i'll tell you why later.

Hawkeye9: Thanks! Are you sure it's dense? The city is only 10 years old!

CapitolAnarchy: Actually the airport IS near the waterfront! But I will try to relocate it. And actually there are no such thing as plane crashes in SC4 so never mind. For the mass transit part, I have! Just that in Update 2 I have not built it yet. You can see them in Update 3 when I showcase my mass transit network!

jacqulina: Thank you!

Update 3 is delayed!

I'm very sorry, but my computer is down!! So I can't play SC4! :-( But my father has a software that can copy out all my files inside to my other Philips Computer! Then I can play there! But don't expect an update until next week, or even after Christmas, because I'm going overseas from 12 - 23 and 29 - 30 December so no updates then. But I WILL have at least one update before the new year! Sorry for the inconvenience! Update 3 will showcase the transport network that has kept my commute times below 6 minutes and some expansions to the city. Also in the update are my first few tunnels! OK let's hold the suspense till next time. Please continue to comment and support my CJ!! Thank you to everyone who has seen my CJ as it has passed 300 views in 5 days! Please do not leave as it is only a short while that my computer will be down. :-)

Isaac

[SounderBruce 173]

So far, so good. Glad to see your expanding city.

[Hawkeye9 0]

When I said dense i meant... compact, but your city definatly will become dense with a little more time!!!!

Anyway.... sorry to here your computer is down, but glad to here you will still be able to update!!!!

Lookin forward to see your transportation network!!!!!

[IsaacTham 0]

Replies:

ComputerGuy890100: Thank you! I hope you will like Update 3!

Hawkeye9: Thank you for your kind words! Update 3 is here!

By the way, Update 4 in your CJ Ampton County is very good! And I already got the dependencies for the Marrast Train Stations.

Time for Update 3!

My computer was fixed by my dad yesterday, and I took the chance to play SimCity4. This update will showcase my city's transport system (which keeps the Commute Times under 6 minutes for 15 years), my fourth neighbourhood, and my downtown. Also a sneak preview for Update 4, where something special will be planned for you! My city has become DENSER, thanks to the Radical Mod I downloaded just now.

Stop delaying, show the pics!, you must be thinking. Here they come!

Picture 1: The zoning of my fourth neighbourhood, at the north-east of the city.

Picture 2: Aye, why are there so many trees, and why is a train track going inside?

Picture 3: It is actually a tunnel to get past the highway onramp! Also note an avenue tunnel to its north.

My Mass Transportation System

Picture 4: My mass transport system. Yellow is elevated rail, blue is ground rail and pink is high speed rail. Many bus connections to those places without a transport line serving it.

Picture 5: Rail map continued.

Picture 6: Industrial Area Transport Map.

Close-ups

Picture 7: Highbury College from Portsmouth built in the fourth neighbourhood.

Picture 8: Keppel Bay's Stock Exchange is up and running!

Picture 9: Intercontinental Hotel.

Picture 10: Funny pic. Many buildings of the same type?!

Overviews of Sections of Town

Picture 11: The dense but still improving Downtown.

Picture 12: Airport District.

Picture 13: The subrubs.

Picture 14: The whole city from bird eye's view.

Picture 15: The city population has reached 150 000! Also note the high demand in the RCI bars, thanks to the Radical Ordiance Mod.

Picture 16: A teaser shot for the next update. The beauty of Night pictures!

Update 4, coming tomorrow or Thursday, will be the last before my vacation. It will show night pictures of the city, and more close ups and development of the city.

Please continue to comment on the City Journal! I appreciate both positive and negative comments, so feel free!

Isaac

[starrychelx 0]

nice

[IsaacTham 0]

Reply:

starrychelx: Thank you!

Mini - Update 4!

Sorry guys, I promised you on night pics and others, but I was clueless because while playing SC, I wanted to use the Prt Sc method to copy pictures from the screen, but when I click the Windows key, nothing happens! I could only take one pic, and that was before the problem. All that I can tell you is that my city has passed 200000 people in population and more than 150000 commercial jobs, and the Downtown is filled with skyscrapers, certainly NOT like the photo in Update 1!  Just one photo.

I am going to Paris and London for vacation from tomorrow to 23 December, so I can't update the CJ then. Update 5, showing the night pics and others, will (hopefully) be on 24th December or Christmas Day. Happy Holidays!

I can tell you man the night pics are GORGEOUS, but you will have to wait to see...

OK, where's that lone pic? Here!

The first (and last!) picture: I have changed the highway separating Downtown from nighbourhood 3 to an avenue, and the best thing is that there is an avenue roundabout in the middle! Nice huh. I also used Pedestrian Mall Tiles to fill up the remaining gaps, but the problem is that there are no 'half' tiles, so the railway bends cause holes in the Ped Mall Tiles. Can anyone help? NAM Team? Also note the particularly DENSE downtown! Not so in the picture, but in Update 5 you will see.

That's all folks, bye bye. I'm on holiday!

But please continue to comment!

Isaac

[jacqulina 162]

great updates there my friend,glad you were able to get your computer sorted out,your city is coming on well,keep up the good work.

happy xmas

[IsaacTham 0]

Reply:

jacqulina: Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too!

A New Competition

I have a little competition for you. Who replies more to my CJ (positive, negative and neutral replies are all counted) will win this game! The leaderboard is on the first update, and the rules are up there too! Go see! And I hope this will motivate you to reply to my City Journal more!

Merry Christmas! Update 5 is here!

Yesterday, I came back from my vacation. So, I could play SC4, and here are the night pictures I promised to celebrate the Christmas spirit.

Population Check of Keppel Bay (capital of the Straight Seas Region)

Residential: 194 270

Commercial Jobs: 108 079

Industrial Jobs: 0 (I have rezoned them with residential)

Now, sit back and enjoy the night pictures!

Picture 1: Downtown at night. Note I have added some lights to spice things up!

Picture 2: Another picture of downtown at night! There may be some buildings that are alien to you, but I will show them to you up close in Update 6!

Picture 3: Airport district at night.

Picture 4: New commercial district, south of downtown at night.

Picture 5: West side of city at night.

Picture 6: West end of the city at night.

Overview of City

Picture 7: Overview of city at night.

Close-up

Picture 8: The coastal casino, a beauty and a big moneymaker for the city, at night.

That's all folks! Remember to continue commenting on the CJ to earn yourself a place in the leaderboard of the competition! The current leaders are Raysfan16, jacqulina and Hawkeye16 with 2 replies each. Update 6 will come tomorrow, but I'm not revealing what they will show...

And, Merry Christmas to all Christian readers!

Cheers,

Isaac

Edit: ComputerGuy890100 has joined in too He's also first (tied with 3 other people) in the posts competition!

[SounderBruce 173]

Great update and Merry Christmas!

[IsaacTham 0]

Reply:

ComputerGuy890100: Thank you and Merry (belated) Christmas! Good news for you as you are also top in the Posts Competition! To find out more about it go to the top of page 1. I hope you can continue to comment and you will have a clear lead!

The Posts Competition so far...

ComputerGuy890100's second reply means that he also moves to the top of the leaderboard. The lead is shared by four people so far, Raysfan16, Hawkeye9, jacqulina and ComputerGuy890100. Any more comments from the four of you and you will have the outright lead! But more people can join them, as one more post from kingdiz_55, fliyinbird93, Schulmanator, fabsies55, Splime, blue sinjid, haljackey, tahill79, De Ja Vu, Vegetarian-Dracula,CapitolAnarchy or starrychelx will see them on top too! Please comment if you want to be the privileged ones at the top! Those who have not commented before, I truly welcome you! You can join in the competition anytime! Remember to check the leaderboard if you have commented and if I have not added a point to your name yet, feel free to PM me and I will put it up!

OK enough yakking about the posts competition...

Update 6 is here!!

This update will showcase the national park of Keppel Bay and my first RHW interchange in the Straight Seas Region.

Pictures are here! A round 10 of them today!

Picture 1: The region map. Sorry that the region name is Eaton... Blue parts are for future developments, yellow lines are for future highways and green lines are for future RHWs.

Picture 2: My national park. Cool huh. It's a trail park, with forests and two ponds.

Picture 3: The pond in the southwest square of the trail park. It is the PEG Stream Kit.

Picture 4: On the southeast square, handmade pond using Edmonton Surface Water and rocks and logs in the pond, by Goldiva.

Picture 5: The area to the right of the trail park - A football and baseball stadium and a large park green. Elevated Rail links the whole National Park (including the trail park) with the rest of the city.

Picture 6: The beach, also part of the National Park. Note the coconut trees, the boats on the shore and the rocks, they are all by Goldiva.

Picture 7: The trail park again, this time zoomed in more. For the forest, I used the PEG Random Woods Pack.

Picture 8: the whole National Park at night. I added lights to spice it up.

Picture 9: My first RHW interchange in Keppel Bay! Pretty simple, but that shall do the trick!

Picture 10: Look at the population bar. Keppel Bay has 200 000 residents!! Yay!!

That's it! Update 7 will come on Monday! Continue to comment if you want to earn a place in the leaderboard of the posts competition!

Cheers,

Isaac

[SounderBruce 173]

Great update, I like how you utilize PEGPROD's products and the lights. I can't figure out how to use the RHW right now though.