Buckleberry (cxl 2009)

[zwr100 2]

Getting started:

The goal of this journal is to show my steps of transition from vacant land to big city, with each step of growth being self sufficient and somewhat believable as real development.  I'm not going for extreme realism since I'll use no mods cheats or exploits and I want each step and the final product to be aesthetically pleasing.

We begin our look at Buckleberry as a pastoral town of almost 5,000 residents.  The pristine piece of land and picturesque lake shore in the northwest corner of the city ("The Volcano" map) were suited for holiday hotels and farming:

There is one cluster of buildings that is generally considered 'town.'  The town center and a few commercial shops are the only jobs and services available in the city (just two and their little 'sidewalk sale market area' are visible on the east side).  A few blocks of unskilled and skilled laborers in mostly single family homes give the appearance and feel of a small town, though in reality most are employed on farms or hotels a short commute away:

I try to make my streets transcend the zoning tools if I use them.  I don't like cities that use the square zoning tool, and end up with roads around zones, with no buildings ont he other side of the road.  I also like to select each building so there's some consistency in housing style.

Farmers here almost always try to incorporate cereal grains as one of their crops, but for the sake of productivity and conservation they use alternating contour strips (strips and grain fields are more apparent in the first photo).  Where the land is best, fruit farmers capitalize with large efficient fields.  Many of the laborers live in the immediate vicinity of their fields, and some have beautiful park-like backyards.  Large grain silos and water towers provide support.  Simple roads intersect and divide the farming region then lead into town or to neighboring cities.  The farms more than fully supply the agricultural needs of the city, and excess is sold on the market.

Again, I don't like the farm zoning tool, so I build roads and add buildings and fill before I zone the farm.

The lake shore is perfectly suited for holiday hotels, especially given the complete lack of pollution.  Bed and breakfast style high-end inns line the coast consuming the demand to it's fullest.  The nicest homes that house the unskilled and skilled laborers who run the inns share the simple road along the coast and blend nicely.  The quaint forested park complete with plaza style paths and squares was built in an effort to bolster the tourism and satisfy residents.

Between the farms and B&Bs there is room for an avenue, which would ease traffic, allow for growth, provide connections to neighboring cities, and possibly support traffic flow to the lake's island.  Developing the oil and/or tourism resources will require more than a simple bridge, so a plan to tap the island's resources is needed to justify the costs of a sufficient bridge.  Once the avenue is constructed, the feasibility of a bridge will be considered.

5k population

Comments are always welcome!

Next update to come by 9/13/10.

[jazyje 1]

Awesome first update --- I like that you don't rush towards skyscrapers right off the bat!!!!

[zwr100 2]

jazyje - I'm glad you like it.  I might have stumbled into some inappropriate high density in my next update without your comment.  Thanks for the reminder about delaying gratification!

I'm excited to keep building and posting, but I'm letting ideas gel before I get ahead of myself.  In that spirit, here is a little teaser:

The avenue will support unprecedented traffic, and bridge costs will require justification via new revenue.  While plans are being submitted for resource development, housing will be needed for unskilled and skilled laborers regardless. Here are the housing locations being considered. 

R1 = unskilled laborers

R2 = skilled laborers

a, b, c, d simply refers to the locations

low/mid refers to density

The inhabitants of the small town fear that new residents will overwhelm their small town.  Developers and the mayor would like to truly take advantage of the new avenue as a primary access.  Furthermore, locating new residents near the proposed bridge will provide workers for new industries across the bridge.  Low density may prove insufficient unless vast areas of open land are consumed, and the first mid density in the city will emphasize coming change.  For practicality it's ideal to create one new intersection with development on either side.  Based on those concerns two locations have been chosen, but not yet revealed. 

[jazyje 1]

I love the detailed analysis of your development strategies.... This said, I pose this semi real world challenge / question to you: would development even be considered on the island if the availability of land on the 'main land' is not constrained? Why build an expensive roadway connection and a bridge across to the island and invest in expensive infrastructure network (power grid, water lines, waste etc.) when land is widely available elsewhere.... ?

Also, it seems the proposed avenue could either serve as a future 'Main Street' OR typical bypass with sprawl development surrounding it... I'll wait to see the choices Buckleberry will be forced to make!

[zwr100 2]

jazje: an expensive bridge and development on the island are being considered because all of the resources in the northwest have been consumed.  I guess the city could develop offices and industry, but ultimately that would require a variety of support industries and importing resources.  I mentioned the idea of self-sufficiency in the very first post...elaborating on that - I intend each step I show to look somewhat realistic, but I'm also refusing to import anything I can produce (even if I can't at the moment), though I am willing to export ~ especially the clean industries (but I'm not sure I want to build endless low density office and skilled laborers sprawl before moving on).  I'm assuming that since my city has zoning, I can embrace the concept of sustainable growth.  As such, the city won't have large offices until I can provide all of the supporting industries (though I may build however many offices I can without high-tech).  So, my idea of realism is within the constraints of the game, and some of my personal objectives. 

tl;dr - my budget supports a bridge, and I want to develop the island

For now the avenue will have no buildings immediately adjacent - so it's looking more like a bypass with sprawl.

On to the update!

If you read the little word puzzle in the teaser you can guess that R1c mid and R2b mid were the only option that fit the requirements.  Both areas are mid-sized apartment or condominium complexes each using a single building style to keep costs down, and complete construction quickly.

The unskilled laborer housing is densely packed in and hugging the new avenue.

 

A similar but larger area houses skilled laborers, allowing a little more breathing room.  Can someone help me find my home?

 

The arable land, water, and holiday areas are consumed, employment satisfaction is dropping.  The city cannot support medium or large offices since they require high tech, and ultimately all industries are supported by oil which is currently out of reach.  With a glut of skilled workers, plenty of vacant land, and a nice new avenue, a small office park filled with low density offices of all kinds makes its debut:

The decoration filling the office area looks reasonably close to parking lots, which is nice since I'm using no mods =)  Additional plaza squares flank the entrance.

The excessive workers, cheap land, and healthy budget allowed the construction of a bridge to the resource rich island.  The bridge construction was planned such that resorts, and some high density executive housing would generate immediate tax revenue.

The expressway bridge might be one of the biggest road construction projects the city ever undertakes.

Finally, an overview of the new construction:

12k population

[Damastius 5]

Great - I like how you consider your next steps.

About the bridge, I would start with a small avenue bridge as this one looks too big - it doesn't really fit into the 'small town' scenery.

Good city!

[Androv 6]

This looks like a very planned city. I like the skilled workers district

That bridge is massive for such a small town, I'm building on this map currently and have started in a similar area, but until there's a big population on that island I won't be building bridges to it... although it's awesome that the simulator lets you do it from the start

However, I imagine that this town will grow rapidly to the point where that bridge is vital, so looking forward to it!!

[zwr100 2]

Originally posted by: Androv

That bridge is massive for such a small town, I'm building on this map currently and have started in a similar area, but until there's a big population on that island I won't be building bridges to it... although it's awesome that the simulator lets you do it from the start quote>

Originally posted by: Damastius

About the bridge, I would start with a small avenue bridge as this one looks too big - it doesn't really fit into the 'small town' scenery. quote>

Originally posted by: jazyje

Why build an expensive roadway connection and a bridge across to the island and invest in expensive infrastructure network (power grid, water lines, waste etc.) when land is widely available elsewhere.... ? quote>

You're all absoultely right.  Since realism was an objective, I genuinely appreciate your honesty.

So eager to believe that a bridge to the island was feasible, the mayor not only believed it was possible, but also that it had happened.  Satellite imagery shows that there is no bridge, there are no resorts, and elites have not moved in.

Perhaps the southwest corner of the island will be a more practical bridge location?  The mayor must find ways to employ the residents, and create infrastructure allowing access to the city's resources.

8k population

[Damastius 5]

I would start developement near the mid density appartements, and expand to the island when the town is really big.

[zwr100 2]

Damastius: There's certainly room for low-mid density housing, offices, and commerce.  I'm already running a slight deficit on dirty industries which the city will eventually be able to support ~ we'll see how it goes!

The quaint park and plazas were appealing for more office development, and a good solution to the lack of jobs.

A new motel with a few low quality rooms at the south end of the office park, and the old 2 star tourism hotels nearby, fill the demand for 'off shore' prices in their respective markets.

Meanwhile, the development around the office park reflects the original park supporting the high quality rooms of the luxury hotel and nicer low density office space.

The town center has grown to match the small city.  A hospital, sheriffs office, and a small elementary school provide basic services, and few offices have moved in as well.  All types of low density commercial buildings are spread around town, and a bowling alley is the first and only recreational building.

A new mid density development for skilled laborers along the avenue mirrors the first one, but not quite as ambitious, yet new construction is also underway for additional housing.

I built another city just to see what each building type actually looks like.  I try to take advantage of buildings that can be placed side by side like these to give the appearance of one long building.

...traveling for work this week, I'll check for posts, but it may be 9/18/10 before I can post the next update.  Keep the comments coming ~ they've truly been constructive!

12k population (again)

[Damastius 5]

Good update - see you soon.

One tip: You can use higher graphics settings when making pictures of your cities. Just for screens, looks much better.

[Androv 6]

Looks like it will be a very green city

I'm watching to see how it will develop!

Regarding graphics, I always try to take the pics with high graphics settings but it can be troublesome if your computer is a bit old (pre 2008 in my case :-/ )

[hotChocolate 95]

Looks nice... However, I agree with Damastius - turn the settings to medium when taking pics. I do it too - sometimes it can be bothersome to find the right angle with a slow computer, but you'll get used to that too. Also, the 4th screenshot of the 1st update is at medium settings. Why that one and not the others? Just curious.

[zwr100 2]

I guess the difference between low and medium is noticeable. My PC is slowing down as population increases, but I'll give it a shot

[zwr100 2]

Here's a flashback to the first planned development along the avenue:

And here's a similar shot with four new mid density unskilled laborer apartments added (to the north), and a bunch of new housing with wooded parks and plazas for skilled laborers filling the free space ...and of course more new construction.

A closer shot of the new apartments and public spaces:

In the last update we saw some new mid density housing and more new housing planned:

The bulk of the new low density housing development is complete, more mid density apartments were built and undeveloped land is disappearing:

New residents and free space are perfect compliments supporting low density offices between the shore and the avenue:

Of course the nicest low density offices are lakeside:

A couple of the office buildings chain together nicely too

Notice the ongoing residential growth to the east, and the road construction project underway to the west.  All resources currently within reach of the city are consumed, but a small bridge will allow access to more farm land and open space, especially the coveted lake side.  There are also oil resources far to the south.

The offices are supplying jobs, but demand is low.  Farms and resort space are currently inaccessible.  There's farm land reasonably close, but it's unlikely to provide significant income or growth.  The polluting petroleum industry is anticipating road access, but there's no demand yet, and the city is largely based on tourism and farms.  However, the city has shown its first heavy industry deficit, and jobs are needed.  Some medium density heavy industry chemicals factories and ammonia storage facilities move in on the outskirts of town, keeping the pollution away, providing excellent freight and jobs for some of the rural unskilled residents. 

The industrialists have begun construction as the city is running a manufacturing deficit.

I think repeating the same industrial building but facing it towards different streets, and using a different building in a row created an interesting look.

The city is sprawling across the landmass consuming all resources as it spreads.  How far can it go before the city needs to import resources or becomes unsustainable?  With the introduction of industry and demand for electricity a wind farm takes root on the hill to the northwest to calm air pollution concerns.  Meanwhile the shoreline is rapidly developing.

The windmills are less than impressive.  I'm not using any custom content, so I may just avoid showing additional windmill shots.  I may push the pollution to the limit, but not until after I consume the holiday areas.

18k population: no high density buildings, and no executives or elites.

[Damastius 5]

Good job - you seem to take your time to build and plan.

[zwr100 2]

Thanks for the support Damastius!


There has been a lot of in-filling and a little new expansion since the last update.  This time I'll start with a wide shot of the developed portion of the city for you to compare to the wide shot that concluded the last update:





Looking closer at the northern  shore line we see a new park area, a large office area with lots of ongoing construction, and some expansion of the old office area since we last saw it.





Just south of there (including some overlap in the image) we see lots of residential in-filling, and our humble old town center.

I'm very happy with the bypass going between the old town, and new offices, and how it's filled in.  



A little further south we've reached the early residential planned developments (again with a bit of overlap for reference), now crammed with as many buildings as possible, and of course another new development, and expansion where space allows.

[medium image quality isn't quite loading all the way, the 'wooded parks' in the low density residential area aren't showing up at all]  Again, I'm very happy with the appearence of residential neighborhoods between the bypass and farm land.



Moving west along the shore we have find the new office park from the last update filling up, and expanding.

This will fill in nicely as well.



The road construction project crossed the little stream with a simple road, and allowed another new office park, and access to lots of new land.

The lone office park is a bit stark, but it made sense to use the first land available...



New warehouses have been built by the chemical plants, and a few pesticide factories compliment the nearby farming, while providing jobs for some of the least skilled unemployed.


30k population

[zwr100 2]

I'd appreciate some input regarding development strategies.

The city will not import anything it can make itself until the resource is totally consumed.  The city will export freely, holidays, farming, and offices so far, but I'm not a fan of exporting workers.  Currently the city needs almost nothing - just 1 manufacturing.

The bridge to the south has created access to more resources.  The most accessible resource is farming.

The island has tourism potential, which generates great revenue, and the nice resorts create jobs for executives.

The island also has oil, and there's additional oil further south.

With limited resources on the map, it makes sense to develop as much of the tourism resource as possible since pollution depletes it.  A bridge will be necessary to reach the island, and far to the south on the shore with the newest development there is a narrower gap.

I'm thinking the simple road should continue down the coast towards the narrow gap.  The road can also lead to farm roads away from the coast.  A bridge to the island will allow the city to fully develop all of the tourism potential.  The oil on the island may never be tapped, but some oil to the south will eventually need to be developed to support industry and offices.

Ultimately, I see polluting industries on the city edges, all of the farm land consumed, and unskilled and skilled laborers nearby.  The island will be the home to the pollution sensitive tourism, high tech, offices, executives, and elites.  To accomplish that, city services will be centralized on the island, and a few expressway bridges and/or avenue bridges will be needed.  Meanwhile I want the growth to look somewhat natural and believable - though admittedly idealized.

[Damastius 5]

I agree with the bridge, You could let a simple road run towards the gap and make the bridge a small avenue, so you can plan ahead. It is a difficult map to build on - I had it too and I reached to about 300.000 inhabitants, then it went bankrupt due to bad road planning and the lack of farming, so watch the roads when the city grows further. You could leave some space around the roads so you can widen them later.

[Cob92 360]

Yeah, you should build your roads overland as much as possible and only construct a bridge to the island at the narrowest point possible. No city planner would build a bridge over the widest point of a lake when a smaller crossing is available simply because bridge construction costs a LOT more than surface roads in real life.

[zwr100 2]

Damastius - I think I'll start with a simple road to the nearest gap, building offices and residential as I go.  I imagine I'll run into traffic issues relatively quickly.  I may still bridge the gap with the simple road, and add an avenue bypass, or leave room to bulldoze and rebuild the road later.  I actually have a good idea of what the final product looks like, but the easist way to do that would be to start with high density, and big roads that seem unnatural - like my dream bridge   My cash flow has been very healthy since I have no elites which allows me to provide few services.

Cobhris96 - I think that's the real challange of the game.  I can easily build a big wealthy city, but it's difficult to keep it realistic, especially when you want the stages of growth to be real as well as the final result.  Working within the 'rules' of the game isn't too tough, but adding your own limitations makes it interesting.

I liked the look of strips, and big fields in my farm area, but struggled to avoid too much of a defined shape, without wasting the resource, and I've been reluctant to tackle farms again.

I'm not a fan of the well defined round shapes for farmland since I live in Pennsylvania, where all of the flat land seems to be farmed or developed:

However, I did some playing around on Google Maps and found an area that looked similar to the unnaturally rounded farmable areas in cxl.

And, after zooming in, I may have found some inspiration.

[Damastius 5]

Great!

[zwr100 2]

The simple road that crossed the stream and ended in a office park, now continues along the shore into another large low density office park, almost complete.

The available land along the road on both sides is also home to new skilled laborer housing developments.

The short commute is ideal, and keeps traffic from the old part of town to the newly developing west shore to a minimum.

However, the little stretch of road between the new housing and new offices is already over congested, and the dust from construction hasn't yet settled.  The residents and offices seem to be getting by with what they have for now.  A bridge to the island will surely have similar problems, but for now a simple road does the trick.  Perhaps another avenue bypass will be appropriate soon?

In my last post I shared my inspiration for farms, but I found it impossible to mimic, especially with no mods.  However, it was still a source of inspiration...

The scale seemed to be a huge obstacle, so to give the feeling of more complex fields I created strips within the fields.  I also made an effort to delete extraneous roads - which can cause 'building not connected to town..' challanges.

 

I've been looking at it so long, I'm not sure it's any different than randomly filling the space with normal full field farms enclosed by roads.  Is the detail worth the effort?

48k pop

[Damastius 5]

I don't find the farms very good to be honest, I'd rather use full fields. The new town looks good though!

[zwr100 2]

I really appreciate your honesty.  After a lot of time and effort, I wasn't impressed with my result either.  I was hoping it might look better to someone who wasn't frustrated by the building process   Regardless, I'm happy I tried and shared something different.

The google maps image was Collomsville PA.  I had a hard time finding any other farms areas that were contained as they are in CXL.  It seemed that most farm areas were sprawling everywhere, or mixed with forest and also sprawling.  Looking at Collomsville, I thought it would take ~100 cxl farms to mimic the image.  The farmland in my city has enough room for <30 farms, so I'm not sure it's possible to make realistic small farm areas. The farmland in my city has enough room for <30 farms, so I'm not sure it's possible to make realistic small farm areas. 

The individual farms in the satellite image have long alternating strips that I thought I could mimic by braking the farms up with blank spaces.  Using whole CXL farms to make strips similar to one real farm would take tons of space.  Perhaps, my problem is with the look of the farms we're given?   I certainly have not figured out how to get a nice  overview in a city with one star for farming.  Admittedly, it would probably be easier to make the big square fields typical of the flat midwest, but again, I think you'd need three stars for farms to do that.

So here's a close-up in google maps of Collomsville PA:

I think it would be possible to make a reasonable imitation of that close-up, but the strips still present a challange.  And when you zoom out a bit, you find that you'd need a lot more farm land around it for it to make sense in the landscape:

And when you zoom out a bit more, you find that that you'd really need a WHOLE LOT more farm land for it to make sense.  And the funny thing is, the farming area around Collomsville is actually exceptionally small and isolated by comparison to anything else I could find in google maps.  I'm not sure it makes sense to even try to imitate reality, given the tools we have.  I'll have to see if I can find either better satellite imagery for inspiration, or better use of farms in cxl.

Thankfully I'm out of farm land to work with for now, but perhaps I'll revisit later...

Hmmm. I spent some time on google maps, and I think I should have been looking a lot closer all along.  Outside of Philly I found some small patches of farmland that may have been more imitable.  The farms in the center of the photo have the striped look.  The area just northwest of Tyler State Park has sort of odd shapes and strips and also some in tact forest land.  Again, I'm not sure the tools in CXl can really imitate those areas, but they would have been better references from the start.

So here's an attempt at imitating the diagonal rectangle of farm land I made in another city...just to satisfy my own curiousity - please comment:

[zwr100 2]

Back to city growth in Buckleberry, forgetting about the farms for now A new avenue bypasses the most recent residential development allowing more growth, and new development begins on the island.

The bridge is complete, medium density skilled laborer housing has continued, and construction is ongoing... including the foundation of an avenue bridge.

...not sure how I feel about the bendiness of the small road bridge - will probably straighten it out.

Large luxury resorts move to the pristine island and the first executives follow!

I used an "all in one center" as a sneaky way to keep the executives happy for now, and since the budget is fat.

Ultimately the island will be the center of the city, but getting it there smoothly, without jumping to tall buildings will be a challange that may require absurd repetition of the lowest height high density buildings, and lots of bulldozing to create a skyline later.  Some CJs do a great job of growing out before up, and I hope to follow that pattern.

The objective of selling excess only, and not importing anything is starting to create a challange.  Oil, energy, waste, heavy industry, and manufacturing are all needed (I built some windmills, eventhough I'm not a fan, so energy appears okay - we'll see).  Since holidays depend on good environment the city will develop that resource to its fullest before destroying it with pollution.

59k population

[zwr100 2]

The latest additions are the avenue bridge to the island, some growth in existing developments, the beginning of a new industrial park, and new resorts hotels and residents on the island.

The road that connects to the south border of the city is an ideal location to keep polluters far away from farms, resorts, and residents, and allows easy transportation out of the city.  The first fuel extraction makes it's debut, complimented by a high density heavy industry refinery, the first high density manufacturing demands elites which the city odes not yet have.  There's huge potential for more fuel extraction, which would support power plants and dirty industries, and ultimately High Tech - which is also now in demand.  The mayor allowed fuel extraction here to keep pressure off the island, and at the same time keep polluting industrial development to a minimum.

The island has had the most visible growth.

The northwest half in particular.

Ideal for resorts, simple roads continue around the perimeter.  Straight simple roads create direct routes, and spawn clusters of executive housing.

The taxes provided by executives and resorts justify a new multiplex supplemented by a nice mall and restaurant.

82k population

[zwr100 2]

At the very southern border of the city industries have taken hold, spurring residential growth.  The Unskilled and skilled laborers live neaby, but any executives and elites commute from the island - far from the pollution.

The skilled laborers are closest to the coast which is the center of city services, and less polluted, while unskilled laborers are further south.

The center of the island is the center of city services, with room to grow.

Here's an overview of the island so far.

120k population

[zwr100 2]

At the very southern border of the city industries have taken hold, spurring residential growth.  The Unskilled and skilled laborers live neaby, but any executives and elites commute from the island - far from the pollution.

The skilled laborers are closest to the coast which is the center of city services, and less polluted, while unskilled laborers are further south.

The center of the island is the center of city services, with room to grow.

Here's an overview of the island so far.

120k population

[zwr100 2]

First we'll look at the latest overview.  The bridge to the east of the island allowed more skilled and unskilled laborers to move in, and accessed also another map 'edge' to build polluters, who can still draw laborers from the island.  The industry on the southern edge of the map has really expanded creating a close interface with the unskilled residents.  I never did get back to redoing my farm land

I'm relatively happy with this image as a 'completed' area of the city...  However, the mainland to southwest is notably empty since it was going to be low density residential after redoing to farms.  Also, the southeast corner of the island has an expressway that could be another bridge to the other unconnected piece of expressway on the mainland to the east.  I like the fact that there was an obvious area ready for more residents and industry, and another connection.

The island filled in nicely, with space and capacity to grow.  In addition to services, elites and execs, the southeast corner of the island is home to some high tech industry, and a few offices can be found around the perimiter.

You can see there's plenty of room to grow, and a functional and somewhat realistic layout to build upon.  There is no bus or metro, so there would be room to improve traffic and support growth!

My trade balance is almost 0 across the board (exporting 10-15 holiday / office / farm total to Omnicorp still), with no significant token deficit, and my income is very healthy.

Alas, I deleted all of my cities before downloading CXL 2011.  I may be starting a new CJ in the CXL forums under the username Simaril.  Hopefully you found my attempt at showing balance and growth enjoyable!

200k population