ST City & CJ school

[Evillions 552]

Welcome aboard wacky! I'm pleased that you finally took the step to improvement! Now, I'm just going to list the basics that are required. (I won't go into detail, let's take this one step at a time.)

Improvement Points:

- Get rid of the repetition, it looks ugly and unrealistic.

- Get rid of the airport, airports belong in the outskirts because they have more room to land and room for expansion. Better yet, use a modular custom airport instead of Maxis remakes or airports.

- The transition from low-rises to high-rises are horrible! Fix this! Add more mid-rises before going into high-rises.

- Get rid of the sport stadiums because you only need one per sport.

[wacky32 0]

I'll get to work.

[Frdm920 50]

Photoshop anyone?

@ wacky32

As Evillions said the airport should be more on the outskirts (although some cities such as London have minor airports closer to the city-centre) and I would highly recommend using the RMIP and Custom terminals/jets instead of the unrealistic and ugly single-lot airports

[TowerDude 2,186]

@ Frdm

You photoshop is good, but, your cloud are to small, make them bigger and you'l have nice rain

[TekindusT 3,809]

@Wacky32: Looking better in the "not having stuff in the planes way" issue, but still looking not very good in my humble opinion. I don't know if it's the fact of having that airport so close the urban area, or simply because it is a Maxis airport, but I'm still far of being convinced about it.

@Frdm920 & @TowerDude: I think Frdm has followed ilikehotdogsalot's photoedition tutorial; but there is nowhere you can choose the size of clouds. I would be happy to know where this can be adjusted if such option exists.

  Edited April 16, 2011 by TekindusT  

[Jazzmaster 716]

Welcome aboard wacky! I'm pleased that you finally took the step to improvement! Now, I'm just going to list the basics that are required. (I won't go into detail, let's take this one step at a time.)

Improvement Points:

- Get rid of the repetition, it looks ugly and unrealistic.

- Get rid of the airport, airports belong in the outskirts because they have more room to land and room for expansion. Better yet, use a modular custom airport instead of Maxis remakes or airports.

- The transition from low-rises to high-rises are horrible! Fix this! Add more mid-rises before going into high-rises.

- Get rid of the sport stadiums because you only need one per sport.

I do have some 'challenges' for your critique...you do have many good points and I don't think you're at all 'bad' at your job I just wanted to raise a few points

Repetition...well I completely agree that you should go for more diversity and I couldn't possibly argue against that lol

For the airport: time and again I've seen posts on here that airports should only be located on the outskirts of town and while that is ideal it's not always the case. I remember flying into Midway airport in Chicago many many years ago and what I recall vividly is feeling like our plane was getting so close the buildings below we would land right on top of them lol. If you don't believe me look here:

Of course, there also exists Chicago's O'Hare airport and the last time I visited THAT one it certainly had all the attributes you described, and seemed a lot better planned out if you ask me.

I definitely think that the transitions from low to high rises should be neat and gradual, however if you look at Los Angeles's skyline you'll see that there exists a cluster of dominant high rise commercial buildings, all towering over much lower ones. HOWEVER you should work on your transition regardless because it's a little bit too extreme, and it definitely shouldn't go from huge towers down to little tiny suburban housing.

Stadiums, I might not be looking hard enough but doesn't he only have on stadium per sport? I see Safeco Field which is a baseball stadium and I also see a football (well, 'soccer' if you're American d:) arena, which are two entirely different sports.

[TowerDude 2,186]

Tekindus T, in GIMP you can ? don't you use GIMP ?

[Evillions 552]

@Yoshi: You're right about the sports part, my bad. As well everything else....

[MN121MN 11]

I agree on the sports part, though I haven't seen indoor soccer building...

Anyway, I promised a while ago to post a picture of my power plant, hope u like it...

Sorry 4 the small pic

[Jazzmaster 716]

I agree on the sports part, though I haven't seen indoor soccer building...

Anyway, I promised a while ago to post a picture of my power plant, hope u like it...

Sorry 4 the small pic

Your pic doesn't seem to work at all I'm afraid...

I just get this message:

"This photo is private.

Oops! You don't have permission to view this photo."

[TekindusT 3,809]

@TowerDude: I've looked on the Cloud Rendering options on GIMP to see if I could change the clouds size and actually you can. Can't remember if the tutorial author showed this option on the tutorial; but with GIMP you definately can change the size of the rendered clouds.

@Yoshiisland: I don't know the history of Chicago-Midway airport (have taken a look to it in Wikipedia), and, as I thought, it has been surrounded by urban sprawl after it was built; it wasn't built in the middle of a quiet residential district. Here's an old pic from it:

All airports in aviation history have been built in the outskirts of cities, but some of them have been invaded and surrounded by the cities' latter expansion (Chicago-Midway is a good example, London-Heathrow and Hong Kong-Kai Tak are some good ones too).

  Edited April 17, 2011 by TekindusT  

[MN121MN 11]

I agree on the sports part, though I haven't seen indoor soccer building...

Anyway, I promised a while ago to post a picture of my power plant, hope u like it...

Sorry 4 the small pic

Your pic doesn't seem to work at all I'm afraid...

I just get this message:

"This photo is private.

Oops! You don't have permission to view this photo."

It's fixed....

[deccy 0]

I would like to be a student. I am looking to make a region/city based on Egyptian or Ancient Egyptian ideas.

[Evillions 552]

I would like to be a student. I am looking to make a region/city based on Egyptian or Ancient Egyptian ideas.

Is this an idea of where you're going?

Although it's more European than Egyptian, I suggest you look at some Middle East CJers around here like those who pump out great updates (Marsh). Anyways, I do plan to make a revised version of that image because it was too Euro for my Middle Eastern tastes.

[MN121MN 11]

I would like to be a student. I am looking to make a region/city based on Egyptian or Ancient Egyptian ideas.

One thing you shouldn't forget about Middle East : Obelisk, temple, old and large university or library, large roundabouts

Something that's quite bothering me : I have never seen an irrigation system on CJs before..

[Dannibee 138]

I like this picture but it seems a bit, boring, how could I use GIMP it to make it a bit more exciting, like sun flares and stuff? Also is there anything wrong with the stuff in the picture itself, it just looks a bit odd

[Samerton 833]

@ Dannibee: Very nice picture! I don't think that there's anything wrong with the picture other than the rubbish that's starting to appear on the road towards the left of the picture. Maybe add a small landfill site or something similar on the tile just to get rid of it

I can't help you with the GIMP 'beautification' because as you can see from my own pictures, I tend not to edit them

[MN121MN 11]

I think your city will turn great, the picture looks boring somehow, if only you could add oh, I don't know, snow

(just kidding, nothing wrong with your picture, you should've seen mine...)

[MN121MN 11]

On another note, does anyone posting here have to make a page at the City Journals section?

[deccy 0]

I would like to be a student. I am looking to make a region/city based on Egyptian or Ancient Egyptian ideas.

Is this an idea of where you're going?

Although it's more European than Egyptian, I suggest you look at some Middle East CJers around here like those who pump out great updates (Marsh). Anyways, I do plan to make a revised version of that image because it was too Euro for my Middle Eastern tastes.

Yeah Something to that effect would be neat. ^.^ But we'll see how I do eh?

I would like to be a student. I am looking to make a region/city based on Egyptian or Ancient Egyptian ideas.

One thing you shouldn't forget about Middle East : Obelisk, temple, old and large university or library, large roundabouts

Something that's quite bothering me : I have never seen an irrigation system on CJs before..

Obelisks are Ancient Egyptian but yes I am looking into the Middle East for some ideas, they are useful.

Also you are correct. no irrigation systems, I am gonna try and work on one actually...

[EDIT :: Added some quotes and changed the commenting. ]

  Edited April 19, 2011 by deccy  

[The Wrench 24]

I'm very interested to join this school.

My cities will never make it past 100,000.

I'm looking for tropical island cities (dunno why- the ports, maybe?)

[MN121MN 11]

Obelisks are Ancient Egyptian but yes I am looking into the Middle East for some ideas, they are useful.

Also you are correct. no irrigation systems, I am gonna try and work on one actually...

[EDIT :: Added some quotes and changed the commenting. ]

You should, as Egypt have elaborate irrigation system during the early times...

Also, when building coastal cities, I recommend putting lots of palms and fountains so as to look like an oasis in paradise...

Enlarge or make a very large pyramid in a place and maybe throw a couple of restaurants and souvenir shops near as to promote high tourism

And try studying more on Modern Egypt Architecture when making a CBD.

[MN121MN 11]

I'm very interested to join this school.

My cities will never make it past 100,000.

I'm looking for tropical island cities (dunno why- the ports, maybe?)

Try using the demand modifier here on STEX....

So you want to learn the ways of the tropical?

1. Don't make too many skyscraper that spans to 100 floor, tropical islands are called such because of volcanic activity, which means that earthquake would probably occur more than other terrain, so most tall buildings are usually 15-30 floors.

2. Find texture for rainforest trees and palm or banana trees, since they're so common. While you're there, soil texture on tropical places are different since they're humid. Also don't forget to find replacement texture for the beach.

3. Make a large port : since you're building cities, having a large port and ferry terminals are quite important.

4. Ancient colonial fortress : all tropical regions have colonial fortress (except Thailand maybe), so try making a large fortress to act as a ruin or tourist spot.

5. Build nice beaches, and maybe add a couple of marinas there.

6. Sometimes when you post photos of a more secluded part of the island without modern civilization, you could try adding rain effects on the photo to solidify your region as a tropical one....

That's all, sorry if I'm being too pushy or just writing plain nonsense...

[deccy 0]

Thanks for the advice. I will look into some of it. =D

[wacky32 0]

Heres some improvement, I move the baseball field over to make way for the planes, with the airport, I see the Chicago pic, I'm not sure which is the best idea. Those buildings in the Northwest (atheletes village), 2-3 of them may be demolished. The downtown area with the mid rises is still working on, I added grass plots to make it look nicer.

[Jazzmaster 716]

@Yoshiisland: I don't know the history of Chicago-Midway airport (have taken a look to it in Wikipedia), and, as I thought, it has been surrounded by urban sprawl after it was built; it wasn't built in the middle of a quiet residential district. Here's an old pic from it:

All airports in aviation history have been built in the outskirts of cities, but some of them have been invaded and surrounded by the cities' latter expansion (Chicago-Midway is a good example, London-Heathrow and Hong Kong-Kai Tak are some good ones too).

Interesting find...I didn't quite know that, actually. Well, it turns out all airports DO start out in the outskirts then eh...personally I like to plan and develop my cities already with a 'history' in mind, not like they are really starting out from the ground up...if that makes any sense

[TowerDude 2,186]

@Wacky32

Well, it's better, let me say that

the repetition is still quite disturbing and the variety can be still done better

Tell is your computer powerful enough, i remember how painfull SC4 could be on my old PC

Once Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe said Less Is More... never forget that !

Are trees banned ? I don't see any, all these blank spots could have trees, (Simfow or CPT assorters) and it would look much better.

The repetition of the huge towers can be good, gives it a futuritic feel, but then the whole city has to be like that, and that's much harder

[wacky32 0]

You can't see it, but I added trees on the grass.

[Evillions 552]

Well, here's something that could help other people.

This image shows the use of flora combined with water and lots. For example, look at the high-wealth grass lots I used (look closely). With the grass lots, I used RRP and SimFox flora plugins similar to what Marsh does. Follow the link below to get a better idea of what I'm trying to say.

Marsh's Work

See how the combination of grass lots with flora can really bring out the scene?

Onto my image, the use of reefs and rocks can create a more realistic water floor than just using PEG's water mods. Sure they're awesome, but you need something to add on to it.

Also, if you're using a beach mod that has that "wet sand" look, you could use Heblem's tropical flora pack which includes 4 different types of sands. What I used is the white sand, with that, you can create more realistic shores and beaches with his flora pack.

If there's anything I missed, please add on to it.

[TekindusT 3,809]

@Evillions: I think you've forgotten the "flipped pic effect". I think I've spoken about it before here, but I want to insist on it. I think it's quite awesome to have four more camera angles with a simple trick, giving the effect the pic hasn't been taken in SC4 and thus, increasing its realism. Excellent mosaic, BTW.