Animaltown: The Iron Forest

[Josh6 873]

Yea I use the Super Demand Ordinance Mod and a boat load of 1x1 parks. Those parks make sims move in like crazy

[Pipcard 20]

Because if there were no demand mods, there would probably be a giant industrial sector spanning an entire large city tile.

[Josh6 873]

I do have an industrial city that makes up the sea port in my city. But yea you're right and another problem is that its very hard to sustian a city of just residents. I have a couple tricks that I use to get that in some of my large city tiles to get around that problem that I'll explain later though

[hamsterTK 93]

Many big airports with satellite terminals have small automated subway systems to connect them. Houston's airport actually has two separate automated train lines, one is inside security so you can transfer from one gate to another quickly, and another is outside the security so you can go between baggage claims and different parking garages.

In Atlanta it's called the Plane Train and goes underground in that picture you posted. Here's a video of someone using it:

  Edited August 11, 2012 by hamsterTK  

[Pipcard 20]

Is there any process/method to building your city?

[Josh6 873]

Ding Ding Ding! You've asked the million dollar question!

I was going to explain this later but I guess I will now.

So the back ground of my city is that it forms a triangle with Philly and NYC on the east coast. Its in a real life location and has over 18 million people. Because of this story I created, everythnig in my city is placed for a reason- so that it would be believable in todays world.

Heres a pic of my region so you know what I'm talking about.

First, I decided my city is going to be a buisness hub of the United States so it would need to have a pretty awesome array of skyscrapers. So even before I knew of SC4 I was planning this out so I had an idea already. Once I got the basis of Mane Island completed I moved to transportation.

I'm an aviation enthusiast so I jumped to the airports. They need to be for enough from the center city to avoid disturbing residents (except my VAT airport) but close to transit and highways so travelers can get to the city. After I built those I started thinking of highway networks that will lead traffic flow to the focal point of Animaltown which is Mane Island. I live in between Philly and New york so their transit networks inspired me because I spend alot of time down there. Basically I needed to have one focal point and that is Ani Grand Station that you'll see in the map I posted. Basically, through the subway, regional rail system and light transit (trams, light rail, ferries and busses) a traveler is able to travel anywhere in the city. Alot goes into my city outside of the game of SC4 as far as planning things out so not much is random.

As far as everything else, the residential neighbor hoods are modeled like NYC. Some places are delipidated and crime is bad, but that adds to the realism of a large U.S. city. Pretty much I view the transportation network (mass transit and highways/major roads) as the bones of a city. After that is layed down everything els can be placed around it. Think of if you were living there, what would be the least complicated way to commute to work and find recreation. I was sure to place lots of large parks for recreation and even an amusement pier.

I have a couple tricks to get North AT and Lions looking like that.

The point of my transit is for people outside of Mane island to hop on a trian and work there. Unfortunaley, SC4 doesn't simulate a long multi city tile commute. So there has to be jobs and they have to come from somewhere. So a while back I made these things called job lots. Its basically a compact world trade center made to look like an apartment. It solves the problem of jobless sims and theres no giant skyscraper in a residential block. I always place them at a plae where sims will have easy acess to it. For example, next to a train station or near an exit for a highway.

I made a bunch of them. I was thinking about uploading them but I never did. Maybe I will.

Last one. Pretty much if you stripped down the residential part it would look like this.

A 4 by something block with maybe a corner store on the end if it was near an important road. Most apartments on STEX are either 2x1 or 2x2 so a 4xX block works. Thats how the my grandparents' neighborhood in West Philly is. If theres no construction taking place even with the demand mod, placing a 1x1 park green will almost automatically draw growth. You can find it in the "Pavement don't breath, we need trees" complaint in the news feed. But after that you would need to put in some jobs to sustain the residents. When multiple apartment blocks are put together, the region view looks great.

So anyway is there a process or method? Yea. Plan out everything so it would make sense in real life. A way to do that is observing real cities. And a sound transportation system.

All of this is just my opinion

Thanks for asking

oh and you need lots of patience. This whole city has been in the makes for about 8 years. I just like cities lol

  Edited August 15, 2012 by Josh6  

[Liszak 48]

Too bad you are not making CJ from this city anymore. It's so awesome...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wow your right.

[RepublicMaster 428]

Yes this is a nice CJ

[Josh6 873]

Thanks for keeping with my CJ!

Its been hard to make progress on SC4 beacsue of college and how I don't have my desktop there.

But I have made some progress over my Christmas break and I hope to get alot done.

First off lets finish the Airports of Animaltown

Queen City Lehigh Valley Airport

This is my first attempt at a recreation airport. The actual ABE has a smaller terminal and is not as close to water. I tried to stay as true as possible to the highway structure.

ABE is located in the Borough of Allen in the South Western section of the city

Queen City Lehigh Valley (Allentown) Airport opened in 1929 and is one of the very few in the nation that still serves its community from its original location. Scheduled airline service began on September 16, 1935 by United Airlines with Boeing 247 service. At the time, the airport hangar served as the passenger terminal. The first terminal building at the airport was built in 1938 as a Works Projects Administration (WPA) project.

During World War II the U. S. Navy V-5 flight training program was conducted at the airport in conjunction with ground training held at Muhlenberg College. In addition, Headquarters of Group 312 of the Civil Air Patrol was at Allentown-Bethlehem Airport. One of its activities was to provide a courier service for cargo defense plants. Allentown CAP pilots also patrolled the Atlantic coastline, and was active in recruiting young men for the air cadet program of the Army Air Force.

Wikipedia Source

Not much variety of flights leave ABE as it is the 2nd smallest of the commercial airports in the region

The Terminal

ABE consists of a single terminal that is acessible to passengers via underground tunnel

Cargo

ABE has a small cargo facility that handles DHL and FedEx flights

General Avation

Transportaion

The ATTA Ani West 3 train is stops at the terminal entrance along with various bus routes

The main terminal is connected by highway route 22

What I have been able to do out side of the game is create some transit maps. Here are two I've been working on:

KATCH

ATTA Regional Rail

So done with the Airports!

More updates on the urban areas to come! I'm gonna try to fit as much in as I can before I end my winter break

[Josh6 873]

And from now on I will be posting an updated region shot on my 1st CJ post from time to time. Heres the latest

And happy belated two year aniversary of reading my CJ!

[tshirt23 75]

That airport and highways are amazing! And that's some region view.

[vivapanda 422]

Great region, looks like a spraling city!

[Josh6 873]

Feedback

tshirt23: Thanks a lot!

vivapanda: Thank you!

Woohoo another update

I have been working on Phillipsburg New Jersey alittle bit.

Unfortunatley I don't have any old pics, but I bulldozed what I had previously built and added a large train station.

Phillipsburg Light Rail crossing route 78- eventually route 78 turns into the Holland Tunnel in NYC

One Phillipsburg Place. A multi-million dollar upscale office place

This

Turned into this

My project this week

I plan to work in the Allen area of my city.

I'm going to start on a HUGE cemetary and a park the outline the river. Also I might start on some suburban city tiles to the south

More updates to come soon!

[Josh6 873]

From now on there will be a table of contents on the beginning of the first post. Just click on the pictures if you want to see the update.

The pictures are kind of big so I'll maybe make them smaller in the future.

-Josh

[vivapanda 422]

I l ike it the complicatedness of all the transit networks together

[packersfan 666]

So awesome! How did you get those diagonal runways / taxiways, etc? I love it!

[Josh6 873]

Hey folks! Long time no see

 

I have had some time to play recently and there's an updated region view on the bottom of the first post

 

Full update coming soon

[Josh6 873]

I finally found some time to get back into SC4! When I came back I really took the time to analyze the makeup of my highways. I looked to see if I could travel from one point to the general vicinity of another without having to hit a stoplight. Overall, the connections from Borough to Borough are pretty good, but I will need to add at least 2 major extensions to the system.

First, I'm going to work on connection West and East Route 78

In Allentown PA (where my city would be located) Route 78 runs in from the west and out eastward through Phillipsburg NJ, eventually turning into the Holland Tunnel in NYC. The far ends of 78 are ok. Going East after leaving Lions is the problem.

The Proposal

I plan to extend route 4 through Mane Island and connect it to Redmond via the already in place Victoria Bridge

I already started working a bit

Crossing the River into Mane Island

Approaching Victoria Bridge

Secondly, and probably the most difficult, I plan to make a larger interchange at RAX Airport that branches off into the J.G. Fedilli Memorial Highway. That Highway is already there but its pretty sloppy and not fully completed

The Highway would then cross over to Mane Island across the river where the Caimbridge tunnels are (Look at my Subway map for exact locations I'm talking about)

78 Would then have to snake along the South Bank of Mane Island to eventually get to the 78 Tunnel in Birdtown

It will be very tricky Navigating around the piers that are already there especially around the Financial District

Well I have my hands full!

[Benedict 3,119]

Good luck working with your existing city to implement those changes - hopefully demolition of buildings will be kept to a minimum.

[Josh6 873]

Benedict: Thanks, it will be alittle tricky but the riversides of my region are pretty scrufty and need to revamped anyway.

 

PROGRESS

 

So 1/8th of the Riverside 78 is complete. One of the harder parts

 

 

 

 

 

Tearing up the old interchange

 

 

In other news:

 

 

 

I added Mikeseth's 8 level garages and my sims are taking the train all the way through from neighboring Riverside Heights to East Kings! That's something I always wanted to see

 

And I had to re-make the RAX sign

 

 

Making progress little by little!

 

Updated map

 

[Benedict 3,119]

Good freeway progress, and that airport is huge!

[Josh6 873]

@Benedict: Thanks! I don't think it will ever be really complete (the airport)

 

Some progress on 78

I've been really pressed for time with the start of school and the stress of auditions. But despite that I've found a couple hours here and there to post some more progress.

 

 

I've spent some time re-working the Caimbridge Tunnel system.

 

 

 

Route 78 along the river

 

 

 

The next tricky part will be winding the highway along this river bank. One of the downsides of terraforming the river is that I always need to reconcile in the neighboring cities. The next city over is medium tiled so hopefully it wont have much effect

 

 

That's a quick snapshot of my progress so far

[Calibancat77 3]

I just discovered your CJ and... WOW.  I'm going to take some time looking through it.  Just wanted to comment, this excites me because it is my home!  I live in Trenton but all my family are from Phillipsburg, NJ.  NEAT seeing a region based on my home area! 

[Snugies 91]

Dude very well done. The hapag Lloyd container on that semi was delicious and your airport is great. Good American city with the suburbs nice big downtown good freeways and some light rail. Good job I also really like how you are documenting it like a real city and show the areas and roads on map etc. I hope I can figure out how to do that one day too. Good Job!

[TekindusT 3,809]

Your progress with the use of RHW can be felt only just looking this page of your CJ. Great job!

[Josh6 873]

Replies

Calibancat77- Thanks for the kind words! Its always cool to hear from someone who lives in this region

Snugies- Thanks a lot! Hopefully I'll have more time on my hands in the future and I'll be able to document this more thoroughly

TekindusT- Thanks! Theres a lot of inspiration to go off of between here and SC4D

 

I was able to make some progress with the highway project this weekend

 

I was working on winding the highway along the river bank and trying to make an interchange with the bridge. 

 

 

 

 

Final result

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also!

Mike_Oxlong graciously created my fictional airline Cardinal Airlines

I think he did a great job!

 

 

 

 

That's all for now

 

 

[wwetom1 831]

Highway looks good, and I like the airport shots Nice work

[Josh6 873]

@wwetom1: Thanks a lot!

 

Quick teaser of an update to come...

 

 

 

Rt 78 and Rt 4 finally meet

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned!

[tshirt23 75]

Thats quite the road network in the first shot!  Great job!