Astropolis - City of the Stars

[unholycowgod 0]

 Welcome all! This is my first attempt at a CJ in many many years, and my first in CXL ever, so we'll see how this pans out. Oh, and note: I used the sandbox mod and a few others to alleviate the monetary constraints associated with story telling. Enjoy!

Welcome to Astropolis! This small but quaint rural town is home to just a few thousand inhabitants and is located along the Gulf Coast. For a long time Astropolis was hardly even remembered on maps and the residents liked it that way. Recently, however, a university research team discovered a rare choral reef system that has developed over thousands of years just off the shore of Astropolis. This, along with the university students realizing how nice the beaches are, has created a flurry of interest in this small oft-forgotten town. 

This interest has sparked a massive project by the state to connect Astropolis with the surround region by building an interstate extension through Astropolis and on further west. When the news of this project reached Astropolis there was an outcry of protest, most notably by the reclusive Pinkerton clan, who live in a remote forested area to the east of Astropolis.

The highway project was greeted enthusiastically by a few however, most especially, the newly elected mayor of Astropolis, Mayor Thomas Clout. Mayor Clout has made bringing Astropolis a bustling city his main goal and has therefore pushed through an aggressive series of building plans and proposals. These include, the building and extending of downtown avenues to create new building sites. The construction of a school, police and fire headquarters, and, most notoriously of all, a new deluxe hotel to entice out-of-region business to come to Astropolis.

Mayor Clout has borrowed heavily against the town's charter portfolio and is confident that the long-term payoffs will be more than worth it. So long as he can weather the storm of complaints and criticism that is!

State's Highway Project:

In the next post: Astropolis passes 10,000 citizens and the voices of dissent are gradually being quieted as Astropolis is modernized. The highway project continues unabated despite fierce backlash from the farming community. Astropolis City Council is formed to help Mayer Clout with the planning and running of this now much larger town.

[Damastius 5]

nicely done!

[jazyje 1]

Nice story --- I like how you tell the story.... reminds me of SC4 journals!!!!

BTW, Personally, I wouldn't build highways at this stage since your city has onyl around 10k residents... I would wait a bit....

[unholycowgod 0]

Thanks for the comments!

@jazyje: Yeah I wouldn't normally have either but I wanted to use the hwy as a story piece. It won't actually be implemented as a major piece of the city plan until much later.

[unholycowgod 0]

Update!

At the end of the introduction Astropolis was just beginning to experience growth such as it had never known. All thanks to the discovery of an extraordinary reef system along it's pristine coastal area. A research team was dispatched and set up a permanent station in a remote portion of the coast while the state government has been busily discussing creating a wildlife refuge to prevent development.

Additionally the State proposed building an interstate extension to, and past, Astropolis to enable easier travel to the research station. As this project continued several of the existing farms had to be cleared in order to make space. This only further intensified the city's wariness of Mayor Clout's ability to govern through the epic period in the city's history. 

Mayor Clout, meanwhile, has been furiously pushing applications for development through the City Zoning Commission in hopes of building up the city. Already several arterial roads have begun to be expanded and several city blocks have been cleared to make room for new developments.

As the city has grown there have been frequent shortages of available housing. Several outside construction companies have already set up offices in Astropolis to bid on new contracts. Several new neighborhoods have been built in response to the needs of the growing city.

 

A new development of executives and skilled workers has sprung up along the river.

meanwhile a new neighborhood of unskilled workers is being built up further inland.

To support the growing city several new resources have had to be cultivated. Not the least of which are water and oil reserves. Water towers and pumps now dot the river coast and prospectors struck oil in the mountains to the northwest of the Astropolis. A mining town was quickly erected to support oil drilling operations in the remote area.

Also with the city growing, several of the old industrial sites in the downtown area were asked to leave and find new areas of operation. The thinking was that if the downtown landscape could be cleaned up then perhaps new businesses could be enticed to come to Astropolis. Lacking any real legal grounds to force the industrial businesses to move, Mayor Clout is rumored to have hired a gang of thugs to "persuade" them to leave. The fact that he quickly offered lands just outside the developing area at extremely low prices didn't help his cause any unfortunately. However his tactic seems to have worked as not long after four city blocks were level a large hotel sprang up seemingly overnight and quickly the surrounding area was filled with new office towers.

Mayor Clout also petitioned to the Department of Transportation to see about having an exit built onto the new and unfinished interstate. Such is his desire to see his city grow that a substantial amount of money went missing shortly before road crews stopped their existing projects and built an overpass and exit system in just a few short weeks. With this access now available people, money, and businesses began pouring into Astropolis. Indeed the City Council and Zoning Commission were so overwhelmed that they simply began throwing roads down and building homes without much real forethought.

Also as the population has ballooned to more than 75,000 residents many new-comers began to get vocal about the lack of serious medical care. They were not satisfied with the urgent care clinic that had operated for decades. So, once again, Mayor Clout jumped to action and called for the construction of a brand new medical center.

And to top it all off, the island that had long sat pristine and untouched, was finally reached with the construction of a new bridge. Shortly after, the construction of the first vacation hotel. Newcomers rejoiced at having a place to relax on the beach while locals shuddered at the thought of "Spring Break Astropolis" coming.

Next update: population reaches 130,000. Elites  move in. The vacation island is quickly settled. Several new neighborhoods are built including a luxury plat featuring a large man-made lake.

[jazyje 1]

Awesome update... I really like that medical center, very realistic!!!

[Damastius 5]

Good job. I also like the medical centre man. The parking lots fit well!

[mentarman 14]

Cool, I like this more and more as it becomes more urban.

[unholycowgod 0]

Thanks for the comments!

@jazyje & Damastius: Glad you liked the medical center. I def showed my OCD there... spent a while making sure the pattern of the parking lots fit precisely with the roads.

@mentarman: thanks! it'd definitely starting to develop more into an urban environment which means... suburbs will start popping up. You should like the next couple posts as the city center develops further

[unholycowgod 0]

When we last left off the first vacation hotel had been built right along the newly-cleared beachfront property. This was followed, not surprisingly, by a massive buildup of expensive condos and homes as well as some finer restaurants and touristy shops.

The first elites move in!

the now-built-up vacation island as well as the now-completed interstate tunnel under the river

As the city has grown a large portion of the interior that had remained undeveloped was seized upon by builders and several new neighborhoods have sprung up. One, a higher end low density area features a lake, walking trails, and large wooded area for recreation. Additionally, citing a need for more workers in the city, Mayor Clout zoned and had built a large subset of city blocks as denser apartments and condos. However, at the mention of "towers" the City Council and citizens present for the meeting screamed in protest and the mayor was forced to keep the development to shorter-storied buildings.

closeup of the lake properties

seen here are some of the new denser neighborhoods as well as the much-despised "bridge to nowhere"

Mayor Clout at least managed to save some face by going to great lengths to avoid unnecessary destruction of homes

Not everyone, however, has enjoyed living in the now-bustling city center. As such a large, and growing everyday, contingent of citizens flocked to the outskirts of the city in hopes of building a smaller, and quieter, community.

And as a treat, an overview of the city center, total population now 183,000.

Hope you all enjoy! Coming next: Suburbia! The city expands outward to ward off the cost of rebuilding the interior vertically.

[patriotizzy 0]

Your city's starting to look amazing!

[Skimbo 304]

Great, I especially like the forth pic of your last update

[unholycowgod 0]

 Thanks for the comments and kudos!

I've been really busy the last week or so but I should have another update ready sometime tomorrow. Look for it!

[jazyje 1]

Great update!!! BTW, I see in the last picture - overview of the city center - there is a tunnel (lower right), but I don't see it coming out on the other side anywhere.... Where does it lead to?

[unholycowgod 0]

that's actually the new interstate that's being built. initially it was going to be a large bridge but a large percentage of citizens felt that a tunnel would be better as it wouldn't obstruct the coastal views. i'll get a better picture of that area in my update later today.

[jazyje 1]

Originally posted by: unholycowgod

that's actually the new interstate that's being built. initially it was going to be a large bridge but a large percentage of citizens felt that a tunnel would be better as it wouldn't obstruct the coastal views. i'll get a better picture of that area in my update later today.quote>

OK, I just noticed the tunnel emerges on the other side of the river.... Good work!

[unholycowgod 0]

ok... soooo owing to a bizarre glitch in the game this is only a small short update. i spent about 3 hours clearing out every single plaza and tree on the map that was added using patches to finally figure out what was causing the graphical error... so CAUTION! don't use the tree planter mod. that was the culprit. the extra plazas and larger plaza mods work no problem.

so with no further ado...

this is a small island to the NE of the city center. it was bridged and populated with elites and executives

 

the city's first exclusive office tower arrives! elites jump for joy as they finally have a decent place to work. two more have been unlocked and added as well, pics with the next update.

as promised here is a better pic of the southern portion of the city highlighting the interstate tunnel under the river fork

to the north of the city new suburbs have begun to crop up along the mountains. this one is a new one comprised mostly of skilled workers however executives and unskilleds are moving in as well as the suburban areas expand. also the 'bridge to nowhere' has finally been connected to something!

the citiy's lone highschool has finally managed to save enough money to procure a football stadium and thus form a team. however to fit it in on the school grounds the district was forced to reclaim some adjacent leased properties as well as bargain with the city to adjust the avenue nearby.

here is before:

and here is after:

as i mentioned before i've been experiencing a graphical glitch whenever i zoomed out all the way to satellite view. i also found that if i went into 1st person view and looked at the city from a mountain it did it too. it finally aggrevated me enough tonight to fix it... thus not a lot of progress and a short update. here's a pic of the glitch in 1st person mode:

so that's all for tonight. the city is up to just under 300k residents. a large number of suburbs have popped up along the north and west sides of the city and some more office blocks have been created in the 'new downtown' grid across the river. more to come hopefully next week!

[mentarman 14]

Fix it? How did you do that?

It seems like a problem I and some others had related to our graphics cards, esp high end ATI cards... Check the technical subforum...

[Damastius 5]

Lol, wouldn't be surprised if your city was located on the planet of Pandora with such big trees in the surroundings

Nice update.

[Chiverito 11]

Ha, Just Finished Half Life 2 Episode 1 and your "Graphics Glitch" looks like the Citadel in City 17 blowing apart Great City Journal unholycowgod! Like the car park and lake textures... I need to download some mods!

[unholycowgod 0]

well i read through the technical notes. i am running dual ati hd5770 so it takes a while but i do experience the slowdown in performance. there's got to be a memory leak somewhere in the code that was never patched...alas. but for this it was definitely related to the tree mod. i haven't had any other graphical issues before mods or since deleting all the placed trees.

chiverito: haha nice visual! i love the HL games

[jazyje 1]

I'm running 2 x 5850s (crossfire) and haven't had any issues -- but it takes forever for the tree mod to load up each time I start up the game.... (~5 minutes...).

BTW, that last photo looks like a 'tree cloud' (instead of 'mushroom cloud... ...

[unholycowgod 0]

Ok so here we are at update 4!

First up, the research team, which is what started all this massive growth, has started to complain that the city growth has gotten too close. As such a perimeter road was built around the protected area to prevent developers from "accidentally" building on government land.

Also, as the population has blossomed to beyond 400,000 people, several groups began murmuring about the lack of a major post-secondary institution. So... a large college was built.

the Quad:

the dorms and student recreation areas:

the campus police and student health services offices:

the new engineering and biomedical research labs:

classroom buildings and faculty offices:

campus administration offices and the environmental engineering dept's windmill project:

the bookstore:

commuter and faculty/staff parking:

new suburban neighborhoods:

the single hwy interchange has been revamped to accommodate more traffic to the city's east:

and another top view shot:

[jazyje 1]

I love the university --- your parking lots look great as well since they tend to be aligned so nicely.

[unholycowgod 0]

Thanks! I was a bit upset to find that the game's coding only allows for 2 of the 3 available labs and university-looking buildings to be built. They unlock as you expand the utilites and agriculture but if you build 2 the 3rd disappears.... *sigh*

[Cob92 360]

The university complex is quite impressive. How long did it take to build it? And those suburban roads are really something else.

[Aspire 3]

This looks Great! I Like your Roading, your downtown, and your suburb Area! More! More!