How do you begin your region?

[alexm309 0]

When I want to begin a new region, I head on over to the STEX, and look for a really nice region to download. Then i put trees everywhere. Thats right! I go from city to city putting trees, its tedious, but it looks great! (Especially with cyclerdog's tree mod! Props for that!) When i first begin, i usually pick small cities, and make farming communities, or very small suburbs. If possible, I'll connect those small cities together, and to a Central medium sized city with rails. I always put down rails first, and with the NAMS wide curves, the trains flow smoothly, and they're looking good! The medium sized city usually becomes.. just that, a medium city with both suburbs and a nice little downtown (No sky scrapers usually)  and eventually, the combined demand of all the medium cites and small cities will lead to a nice big large city! Although I've only done it this way a few times, and i kinda failed a few times, when i did it correctly, the results were great!

I'm  just curious, about how you start your regions. I know lots of people grid it up, and go for big sky sky scrapers! But frankly, i think thats quite ugly if you have a huge metropolis... surrounded by flat emptiness... 

How do you start your regions?

Also, a picture of my current region at its earlyest stages (hehe... havent quite finished the trees... i'll get to them tho)

(Region curtious of Bizarboy)

[jmusacha 2]

When I start a new region from scratch I play it traditionally, trying to simulate a city's historical growth from the beginnings of industrialization.  Therefore, I start with a good rail system and create my first city as an industrial city, but with plans to develop it into the commercial center of the region as time goes on.  I provide a well funded educational system immediately to facilitate the growth of this city into a high-wealth commerical city.  In the early stages I will develop the neighboring cities as either farm towns (along my historical model) and create two residential suburbs a la European cities during the inustrial revolution -- a "West End" city that's developed for the higher-wealth sims, with many amenities and all the city services that I can afford, and a "East End" city that I try to cram as many low-wealth sims into, and provide them no services at all except for education.  I'm a true believer in the adage that a highly-educated low-wealth sim population is a necessity for the region, as they can work anywhere in neighboring cities, including in high-wealth Commerical and high-tech industry.  Their living conditions are of no concern to me as long as they are able to work dilligently at their sim-jobs in the main cities of the region. 

Additionally, I like to mix it up a bit as the region develops, creating your "leafy suburb" type middle class city with only low density residential and light/medium commerical on the main roads.  I put lots of trees, ball parks, schools, and churches in those.  As the region grows and the main city transforms from industrial to commerical, I will need to create new industrial cities on the periphery, then create new farm towns on the outskirts.  The new industrial cities are perfect candidates to handle all the waste and energy production of the region as well, or sometimes I designate my early "East End" low-wealth suburb as the garbage/power city.

[thepokemaniac 18]

I like to just pick how I want to make a city an make it specialized. Like, if I want my capital to be big with skyscrapers and gleaming glass buildings, then from the start I just start improving my education systems and supply utilities and stuff. Or I just go in randomly and start zoning. Whatever I feel like.

[Sim1013 1]

Wow! Your region looks great! The trees are a really nice touch!

When I start my regions I usually form the terrain as I go and typically use a custom flat region with city boundaries that I have designed myself. Until I have a few cities the arial view of my region is pretty ugly, but I like to adapt my terrain to my different city styles and transit networks as I go. I also start with suburbs or farm communities at the beginning, but I quickly switch over to clean high-tech industrial zones. My commercial zones do not develop into anything huge until much later.

Good idea for a thread!

[thepokemaniac 18]

Wow! I didn't notice the picture! Looks great, but it would look really awesome if those mountains had snow!

[alexm309 0]

I know! Snow would be sweet! Is there a mod for putting snow on the mountains?

also @jmusacha, i would love to start a region and pick a date, say 1650 (yay New York!), and build a historical city, and as time goes on more things (such as cars!) are unlocked, kind of like simcity 3000 (from what i remember), but unfortunatly, theres no real 'time' in simcity... such a shame

[+Guest]

i usualy just get a flat region and build the highways power and dump towns then letting the citys start shooting up

[MTA3479 0]

I always make a map first, just whatever comes to mind in my imagination.

[tonymustang302 0]

Where can I find the tree mod you used from cyclerdog.

[zurrabear 20]

Originally posted by: alexm309

I know! Snow would be sweet! Is there a mod for putting snow on the mountains?

quote>

There definitely is...just search for "snow" in the STEX, I'm sure you'll find it.

[mayor_brando 8]

I always start with what's going to be a neighbor city of my main city, throw a couple of zones down, build it up a bit, then I have increased demand for my main city, and I can quickly build it up. After the main city is built up a bit, I go into the other neighbor cities and build them up, too. Then I go back into my main city and the cycle repeats. I usually don't terraform much until the cities are built up, then I terraform the area around it and expand from there.

[Kusajika Yachiru 9]

I always start in the corner (I'm going to try to get away from that) use farms and keep the zones low for as long as I can/feel like then go to medium and keep it at that for as long as I can/feel like and well... haven't really got the HUGE downtown yet, I normally quit or something happens...

[CTMandR 9]

wow, i'm considering putting more trees down after seeing that region!

I usually download a custom region from the STEX, take a good look at it, and indentify where a downtown would look best, I start at that city, making it a small community, and then from there, work on the cities surrounding it. After theres enough demand, I slowly start building upwards, which sometimes means re-zoning areas to fit better and changing roads. But in the end, I always come out with a nice gradual region. Suburbs, then midtowns, and then finally downtown. I never develop on hills or mountains unless I can think of a reason why, like super-high demand or if theres mining or logging operations. Doing this seems to create a pretty realistic city to me, but of no particular regional style

[jacqulina 162]

i terraform first,and then add rivers / lakes ect

[MTA3479 0]

Originally posted by: jacqulina

i terraform first,and then add rivers / lakes ectquote>

Yea, same here. it's better than getting a pre-made map, really. Also, is there any way to increase the amount of large city squares in your region?

[redrummage 9]

I use pre made maps.  I'm on a mac so no terraformer.

I start with a dirty industrial city usually it also is my power supply too. I connect highways to the neighboring cities, build up the cities, and add tram or elevated train. Repeat process over and over, until I get up enough demand for C$$$ run my highways through the city along with mass transit. Repeat, repeat, repeat!

Mta3479 here is an all large config

i dont know if this is want your looking for but swap with the config.bmp in you region before you start anything.

[scifanata 1]

Okay, I usually start with a small town, just simple/basic houses, shops and farms. I would consider saving a nearby town for mainly top-product factories, because once you get into the game, the Industry on the RCI meter will go sky high. Other than that, make a map in your head, make transitions from farms to suburbs to city, and there you have it.

[stan10solt 0]

I usually make a custom bitmap. Mostly medium cities and a couple of large cities. Then I add trees and I make all the medium cities suburbs or farmland and the large cities endup the best cities I ever make!

[Aldender 15]

I make a custom map... and then I just go for skyscrapers. I have an idustry area at the start but start developing in my good cities when I know high-tech will develop.

I don't make small cities either in my map. Mostly large and medium. I don't do square regions either. They look to... square.

[francispacheco 0]

I follow the socialist inspired planned cities. no room for organic growth. everything should be guided by the state, and for the state.

[Soulchaser 1]

I'm going for realism and organic growth....like here: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=8456.0

[Philadelphia 25]

I go from city to city connecting rivers and when I'm done that, I go from city to city terraforming (mountains, craters, etc.) then I pick a large tile and build as a small town and expand it into a large metropolis. But sometimes I run into an old enemy called the CTD

[primaryemu 0]

I usually start out by finding a region with LOTS of water but enough land to start building my metropolis of nothing but skyscrapers,other times i like to get a really mountainess region and just make lots of houses going on and around the side of the mountains with the river at the bottom.

[Fee_Nicks 7]

I try and make my own greyscale maps of my new regions nowadays. It's far faster this way than just terraforming manually.

When I actually start building the cities, I try and start to build it at a coastline - preferably a bay or an inlet, but to be honest any coastline will really do. I just start with some residential and industrial development - and then zone like crazy for a bit. Sadly my current computer can't really take really big cities so I kinda stop building after a little bit - but not all cities are as tall as the Burj Dubai and as dense as Tokyo, right?

[Fee_Nicks 7]

I try and make my own greyscale maps of my new regions nowadays. It's far faster this way than just terraforming manually.

When I actually start building the cities, I try and start to build it at a coastline - preferably a bay or an inlet, but to be honest any coastline will really do. I just start with some residential and industrial development - and then zone like crazy for a bit. Sadly my current computer can't really take really big cities so I kinda stop building after a little bit - but not all cities are as tall as the Burj Dubai and as dense as Tokyo, right?

[Fee_Nicks 7]

I try and make my own greyscale maps of my new regions nowadays. It's far faster this way than just terraforming manually.

When I actually start building the cities, I try and start to build it at a coastline - preferably a bay or an inlet, but to be honest any coastline will really do. I just start with some residential and industrial development - and then zone like crazy for a bit. Sadly my current computer can't really take really big cities so I kinda stop building after a little bit - but not all cities are as tall as the Burj Dubai and as dense as Tokyo, right?