Crystal Junction

[+Guest]

Looks great WhiteShark, really unique terrain.  I prefer realistic regions to scraper forests most of the time so don't worry about scrapers until you think the region is ready.  Btw, you realise that you can turn the grid off right?  Press G, it makes the pictures more realistic.

 

 

[whiteshark365 563]

Update Status:  I will try to give more constant updates of the city as it grows. I've been busy playing Diablo 2 a lot so thats why I havn't got arround the playing simcity much or updating this journal. The next update will be later on this evening, It's going to be a rather big update.

 

Answers to questions.

I used one of pegs rock mods for the cliffs, the limestone rock mod.

 

As far as the commute is concerned. I have the max commute time set all the way up to 400+ minutes, that way I get sims to travel across maps, and have easy access to downtown. I also have a rail system for commuters in the town as well as an extensive bus system. I didnt make much of a mass transit system with Ridge Point because I didnt implement it during the early stages of the city, but since Ridge Point is only 1.25 million, it doesnt require an extensive system. Crystal Junction will because of the terrian layout, and the useage of highways and roads will be limited by bridges. But as far as commute complants, I dont have any road jams, and also have the highway speed set at nearly 5 times normal speed, which maximizes the use of highways.

[whiteshark365 563]

City Update 14 (Small City Status):

 

Crystal Junction has finally reached small city size with 100,108 residents living within Crystal Junction City Limits. Massive growth in the north and east pushed the town into the 100k mark offically making it a small city. Already the city's departments are reorganizing to accomodate future projects and a small interregional airport is in the planing stage. Crystal Junction is a desert city with most of its jobs being provided in commercial services and industrial manufacturing, production, and processing facilities. The recent discovery of gold and uranium will result in a larger number of industrial jobs, pushing Crystal Junction to be more of a processing city, then a commerical city.

Even inspite of the great desert heat, which has procuded several major heatwaves for the city, the city continues to grow. Surronding towns are starting to develop, and predicted expansion in the east is expected now that new industries are being developed. Crystal Junction itself is odd in that when compared to other population centers arround the planet it has no algucultural industry at all, which is because of the extreme heat, and low water sources. Smaller towns have had to dig nearly a 500 to 600 meters to reach the water table, and the city itself has a high capacity pump which has reduced water folow downstream in the Crystal River by almost 10%.

The new Crystal Junction Metropoliton area was established on Janurary 1, 3004 and includes the following areas. Crystal Junction, Maplewood Village, and Madrid.

Statistical Information for Crystal Junction Metro Area.
Crystal Junction:
Population: 100,108
Commercial Jobs: 34,735
Industrial Jobs: 21,879
Maplewood Village:
Population: 2,784
Commercial Jobs: 258
Industrial Jobs: 4,693
Madrid:
Population: 637
Commercial Jobs: 195
No Industrial Jobs

 

Statistical Information for nearby towns.
Sandy Ridge:
Population: 5,892
Commercial Jobs: 1,517
Industrial Jobs: 1,090
Quartz City Temp:
Population: 1,112
Commercial Jobs: 85
Industrial Jobs: 865
Granite City:
Population: 1,038
Commercial Jobs: 296
Industrial Jobs: 29

 

Satallite View of Crystal Junction.

Transportation Map of Crystal Junction.

 

Feel free to leave any comments.

[whiteshark365 563]

January 1, 3004

Crystal Chronicles

35

[The_Dalai_Llama 15]

Mods can be a good thing for a journal.

 

The desert city looks very good.  It looks similar to a place like Santa Fe or Yuma or any mining city in the southwest.  Excellent work!  I can't wait to see more.

[Alakazam 3]

Very very very gooood CJ!!! Good Work!

[rewright 804]

Very unique and well done. I like the B&W pics in the newspaper...nice touch. You've also done a great job working with the unusual terrain.

[thatmonkeysim 8]

wow still very pretty.....

[Llama_Sim 0]

Very Nice! When can we expect the new airport?

[edwtie 0]

Propesal:

Freeway 348 will be changed to Freeway 11.
And another part of Freeware 11 on East Crystal Junction will be Freeway 110.

[whiteshark365 563]

March 30, 3006

Crystal Chronicles

35

[Alakazam 3]

Want to say we can vote? ok ok : mine is : location 2 ! good luck whit that

[K3ITH 0]

I vote for location number 2, it would add an interesting element to Crystal Junction's south side.

[Djohaal 121]

Vote to Location 2, since with an airport in that southern side the growth will surely increase

[Ded 30]

i Say neither, Crystal Junction seems to be a sprawling city, and i'd advise moving the Airport back a bit.

[Chappington 131]

Location 2, away from the main city, planes won't crash.

[whiteshark365 563]

I'll probably be taking votes on the location until midnight saturday, and then I might decide on an airport design vote as well.

[davidhogan 1]

location 2 or farther west than 1.  (other side of the bridge maybe?)

 

dave

[Llama_Sim 0]

I vote for #2. It's more suited for an airport. #1's location will soon be prime property as the city expands. It's closer to downtown, so regular development will be ideal there. But #2 is the way to go. Will there be a new expressway to connect the airport to the existing freeways?

[peterkl 3]

2

that will make more land on the dowtown and no problem on residents complaining air/noise pollution from the airport

[sc4ky 1]

I go with #2 as well, in case the plane lands before the runways and smashes into the cliffside . When are your going to start putting medium density around your downtown area? or have you already and it's just my eyes?

[77FurryBeagle 0]

Location 2 Seems a little remote. Go a little closer in (just a bit closer to those trains) and you'll be perfect.

[wraith90 1]

I would chose o the other side of the road by location 2.  That way you could extend the highway with a cloverleaf to the airport.

[whiteshark365 563]

It looks like location 2 is unanimous with 10 votes being cast, 11 including my own. The airport will probably be in the second next post, at least the possible designs for it. As far as medium density zoning, that has started to occur. Commercial Medium density has been present since Crystal Junction was about 30,000 residents in the downtown area, that is still limited to downtown. There have been various small sections of medium density residential scattered across town, but more has been constructed just north of downtown. That will be present in the next update.

 

In case you were all wondering when any high density is going to be zoned, I am going to wait until the city reaches a population of 225,000 before placing any high density in. And it will be very limited in where the high density is located at, at least until the city reached upwards of 350,000 to 500,000.

 

On just a side note, I had to experiment with high wealth residential zones in Crystal Junction, the grid that has downtown in it. I have had high wealth taxes set as high as 15%, limiting the amount of high wealth to about 3,000 but I decided to lower them to about 12.5% and the high wealth population increased to about 6,000, with some new medium density buildings appearing. I have been spending an inordinate amount of time bulldozing abandoned high wealth homes so that there is little or no abandoned buildings in town, so far I've been very sucessful at there being little to no abandonment in existing high wealth structures.

 

Netx update will be sometime tomorrow.

[whiteshark365 563]

January 1, 3008

Crystal Chronicles

35

[K3ITH 0]

Looks great Shark. . . I'm enjoying the slow-growth of the downtown area. It adds to the realism!

[Llama_Sim 0]

What great growth! I'm glad you added a new expressway, it's pretty logical for an airport. When it's all finished, could we see a more zoomed-out pic?

[villarule 2]

i havent seen this cj before, its great i like ur style!!

[Smurfer2 7]

I like where you picked to put the airport.

 

What has always amazed me is how well you use the cliffs. It really improves your city, not to mention the bridges.

[xiziz 11]

Loking forward to seeing your town grow, ive been hanging around in your thread for quite a while, it looks great

 

Good work!

 

Cheers