ST City & CJ school

[nathanthemayor 1,261]

Interesting topic....

[hijodecordoba 74]

oh i defenitly will link this topic to my favourites. sounds very promising, as measured by the teachers. you are all really great cj'ers.

[TekindusT 3,809]

I think that Towerdude has said nearly everything I was thinking of, but I'd like to add a couple of things...

1) Try to avoid absolutely flat cities. It's usual and OK to see some terraced zones, or districts, but not full cities. Try to add some hills or lakes and you'll see how this ariation invites you to make some creative stuff with them...

2) RHW. First of all, I need to say congrats because it's quite difficult to see a relatively new user using such a "complicated" mod like the RHW. I think the growth you've made in the City of Glendale is very organic and it can work pretty well, the RHW will enhance more the city. Just let me suggest you to use the wide RHW-4 curves, they look smooth and far more realistic than these abrupt orthogonal-to-diagonal transitions.

[Evillions 552]

What i want to learn is how to create a more diverse n unique transportation network like those seen in cj's... i want to learn how to create better all together. thanks

sn: these are fairly new cities thanks to the crash of my old computer

Bayside

City of Glendale

Good things:

- Varied high-rises

- Good use of custom content

- Sunken Highway

Bad Things:

- The images has to be 800x600 so I can see them clearly.

- UDI icons

- Flat land

- Too much maxis

- No seawalls

- No custom trees, terrain, and water

- UI present

Although this is just a start, there's still more things you need before you could graduate. I'm a picky person, I know my work isn't perfect like Antigone at SC4D by Badsim. However, I know most of the realistic things that a city needs. Try to download more custom content because it would vary the amount of buildings that would appear. Also, zoom in and enlarge your images, I can't tell anything from your cities. I'm sorry if I sound like a bad person, but I'm just stating the facts.

-Best of luck!

[lukeallyn 3]

@Evillions

Any suggestions with the custom content? I've only downloaded buildings so far. The shear size of STX can be daunting for a $%&^!. Maybe if I had just a couple MODS, BATS OR LOTS that you use, that would help me understand what I should be looking for and what I should be avoiding.

[Evillions 552]

@Evillions

Any suggestions with the custom content? I've only downloaded buildings so far. The shear size of STX can be daunting for a $%&^!. Maybe if I had just a couple MODS, BATS OR LOTS that you use, that would help me understand what I should be looking for and what I should be avoiding.

Depends what type of style of city you're trying to go for. But, the esstentials to all cities are:

- NAM

- SAM

- Columbus Terrain Mod

- Columbus Tree Control

- BSC Esstenitals

- BSC Textures Vol. 1 thru 3

- A decent water mod

- A mod that blocks Maxis buildings

- A realistic Slope Mod

Keep in mind this is just a basic list, you need to search for the buildings you want. It all comes down to what you want. If you some more help, go to SC4devotion and there's topics that cover city building.

Here's something that I made that might help you.

=====================

Notice how I kept the images at 800x600 and there's no maxis buildings. There's alot of other things that a good cityscape would have, just I'm not going to discuss everything. If you want to see more of my work, you can check out my CJ here or at SC4D. It's called : Onubis Federation (AIN).

  Edited March 21, 2011 by Evillions  

[hijodecordoba 74]

*Pupil with his hand lifted*

the use of costum content was pointed out and i do use it, but when i look at my cities (more closely) i always thing that the buildings not fit together, or the alinement is wrong. especially my downtowns seem crowded without any order. this might have to do something with the street layout as well. do you have any hint for the alinement or the street layout in generell?

right now i suppose that i lay down to many short but big roads (short avenues) to cover the amount of traffic, but that may destroy the optic... just guessing.

thanks

  Edited March 21, 2011 by hijodecordoba  

[lukeallyn 3]

@Evillions

Thanks for the suggestions. It took me a few minutes to understand where I was suppose to find these files since I'm a rookie but once found I realize how they will help me develop cityscape style cities. I look forward to posting my work on here and I'll be hitting the STX for more and more add-ons. One final question to anyone. Why block the maxis buildings?

  Edited March 22, 2011 by lukeallyn  

[TekindusT 3,809]

@Hijodecordoba: I think I can answer this question...

It is always said that the "traditional" approach is to have grids in your downtown, a more disogranized distribution in your inner-city areas and absolutely no grid in the suburbs. You can have the feeling of "misalignment" because you may rely a lot on diagonal and FAR roads, as far as I've seen in your CJ. Diagonals and FARs are always cool to see because they increase the realism, but when it comes to "newly planned" zones which are designed to be downtowns/CBDs I'd go with the orthogonal grids.

You'll see how, if you keep control of your buildings to avoid annoying building repetition and you plan fine where to put your mass transit stops (for example, don't put a bus stop in a 4x4 lot where a difficult-to-grow 4x4 building may grow); the results look nice.

  Edited March 22, 2011 by TekindusT  

[Evillions 552]

@Evillions

Thanks for the suggestions. It took me a few minutes to understand where I was suppose to find these files since I'm a rookie but once found I realize how they will help me develop cityscape style cities. I look forward to posting my work on here and I'll be hitting the STX for more and more add-ons. One final question to anyone. Why block the maxis buildings?

Maxis buildings tend to be pretty flavorless because we seen it too many times for too many years. All of us like to see something unique, something that stands out from all CJs. Personally, you see a CJ, it's going to be something about Eastern Europe or America because it's the easiest to build and get comments. I do a Middle East region, that's much harder considering how there's barely any Arabic buildings. Yet, I still was nominated for Best CJ Detail. However, I'm nowhere as good as marsh, he's much better than me and most of my inspiration comes from him.

In brief, it all comes down to what your city building style is. If you're looking for a European city, I highly recommend not using Maxis buildings because most of them aren't from East Europe. Although I can teach you more how to use Maxis building effectively, you must first improve your skills before you can start lot editing so everything can fit like a puzzle.

Best of luck!

-Evillions

[Jazzmaster 716]

@Evillions

Thanks for the suggestions. It took me a few minutes to understand where I was suppose to find these files since I'm a rookie but once found I realize how they will help me develop cityscape style cities. I look forward to posting my work on here and I'll be hitting the STX for more and more add-ons. One final question to anyone. Why block the maxis buildings?

Maxis buildings tend to be pretty flavorless because we seen it too many times for too many years. All of us like to see something unique, something that stands out from all CJs. Personally, you see a CJ, it's going to be something about Eastern Europe or America because it's the easiest to build and get comments. I do a Middle East region, that's much harder considering how there's barely any Arabic buildings. Yet, I still was nominated for Best CJ Detail. However, I'm nowhere as good as marsh, he's much better than me and most of my inspiration comes from him.

In brief, it all comes down to what your city building style is. If you're looking for a European city, I highly recommend not using Maxis buildings because most of them aren't from East Europe. Although I can teach you more how to use Maxis building effectively, you must first improve your skills before you can start lot editing so everything can fit like a puzzle.

Best of luck!

-Evillions

Don't mean to jump in uninvited just wanted to add something...I agree/disagree with these points. I think there's more than just European/American varieties available (assuming by America you mean USA)...there's also plenty of items available to build Latin/South American or Asian cities.

I do think that your point about the amount of Western European/United Stadian cities is correct...but, it's not just the composition of your deck, it's how you assemble and use it that counts...if that makes any sense...

I've seen the same buildings and such time and again, but I've never really seen two CJ's that are exactly comparable...everyone has their own style.

[Jamaicanrunna 0]

Okay guys heres my city that needs some work. My goal is to model it after NYC. I first started on the coast on each side of city, but Im not sure how to make a beach or finish up the point of the city (skyscraper commercial district). Any suggestions?

Beach:

Skyscraper Commercial District: any suggestions?

[AtulKesarkodi 0]

Well, at least i've gone from this:

to this:

So I don't need any basic tutorials. However, I'll watch this topic to see if I can find some tips, and maybe add some of my own experience.

Good luck with teaching!

Best,

Maarten

Hi there,

I am not totally new to Simtropolis , been here for a long time now,but just lurking around and watching forums and the general talk..

I love those type of buildings,is there anywhere i can get those and more of that type of buildings? Euro-retro or older types.

I am planning to start a CJ(my first CJ ever), so yeah i ll keep a watch on this thread for a week or so and then see what help i might need with this.hopefully, I'll have a pretty decent city going up by then .

The biggest problem right now is, getting the buildings(above mentioned types) into my city, I am kinda bored of the same maxis buildings,any suggestions are well appreciated.

thanks for this initiative guys!

Atul.

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Hello Atul,

Over at the STEX there are a lot of old-style European buildings. Search for "W2W" (Wall-to-wall) and "Paris" and you'll find a lot of old-style european buildings.

[hijodecordoba 74]

@Hijodecordoba: I think I can answer this question...

It is always said that the "traditional" approach is to have grids in your downtown, a more disogranized distribution in your inner-city areas and absolutely no grid in the suburbs. You can have the feeling of "misalignment" because you may rely a lot on diagonal and FAR roads, as far as I've seen in your CJ. Diagonals and FARs are always cool to see because they increase the realism, but when it comes to "newly planned" zones which are designed to be downtowns/CBDs I'd go with the orthogonal grids.

You'll see how, if you keep control of your buildings to avoid annoying building repetition and you plan fine where to put your mass transit stops (for example, don't put a bus stop in a 4x4 lot where a difficult-to-grow 4x4 building may grow); the results look nice.

gracias amigo, I'll definitely try that on my next CBD! but what about smaller towns? there should be no grid, or less like you said, but still i sometimes get the feeling, that something doesn't belong there... is it the style of the houses? I wouldn't bother this thread, but my cj seems to be between good and evil (it has no theme), so I don't get many (constructive) replies.

thanks

[TowerDude 2,186]

For Jamaicarunna

Your beach seems to be very rough!

If you don't want to use the maxis beach then,I would suggest you to soften it up, you could add the HBS beach huts, and the rivit coast mod, it can give good results

otherwise your coasts are ok, maybe try and add more variety

Here is a plan of the typical american city, it can maybe help

Concerning your CBD

- You need BATS!!! try NYBT's for that type New York or Art Deco in the stex, you should find great stuff! for the lower rises type W2W, you can get cool american stuff! Spa has some,

-Seawalls, → JS Seawalls are exellent and will be fine

-Nature, I don't see a lot of tree's nor nature in your city → Simfox trees for uber quality, but the CPT assorters work too

parks are capital!! and transit is too, NAM is good, and for american cities the NWM is very useful,

But have fun finding your stuff!

When your done with that, you can post pics here and I'll or someone else will tell you what to do

Good Luck and have fun!

[Evillions 552]

@Evillions

Thanks for the suggestions. It took me a few minutes to understand where I was suppose to find these files since I'm a rookie but once found I realize how they will help me develop cityscape style cities. I look forward to posting my work on here and I'll be hitting the STX for more and more add-ons. One final question to anyone. Why block the maxis buildings?

Maxis buildings tend to be pretty flavorless because we seen it too many times for too many years. All of us like to see something unique, something that stands out from all CJs. Personally, you see a CJ, it's going to be something about Eastern Europe or America because it's the easiest to build and get comments. I do a Middle East region, that's much harder considering how there's barely any Arabic buildings. Yet, I still was nominated for Best CJ Detail. However, I'm nowhere as good as marsh, he's much better than me and most of my inspiration comes from him.

In brief, it all comes down to what your city building style is. If you're looking for a European city, I highly recommend not using Maxis buildings because most of them aren't from East Europe. Although I can teach you more how to use Maxis building effectively, you must first improve your skills before you can start lot editing so everything can fit like a puzzle.

Best of luck!

-Evillions

Don't mean to jump in uninvited just wanted to add something...I agree/disagree with these points. I think there's more than just European/American varieties available (assuming by America you mean USA)...there's also plenty of items available to build Latin/South American or Asian cities.

I do think that your point about the amount of Western European/United Stadian cities is correct...but, it's not just the composition of your deck, it's how you assemble and use it that counts...if that makes any sense...

I've seen the same buildings and such time and again, but I've never really seen two CJ's that are exactly comparable...everyone has their own style.

I don't mind anyone giving more points.

Yes, I do mean by America by like the States.

You're true about how one makes the city, but it's just when you see people at SC4D make a European city. It looks way too similar in my opinion because you know people at SC4D are usually top of the line city builders. Therefore, you know they're going to make the same thing you would see in European cities such as the city center. With that being said, it just looks too linear at one point when the updater(s) just keep doing city centers.

Your last point, we all seen it and if two CJers just keep build everything in a grid like and maxis style, then they can be pretty similar.

Again, don't take this the wrong way, I really don't mind your commentary.

[Terring 6,473]

I begun my SimCity odyssey with S.C.3000, building many funky cities. Soon i discovered that playing the game is like painting in an empty canvas. Both painting and simciting allows us to express ourself, showing a bit of our personality to everybody. Simciting is art. In art we have cubism, impressionism, surrealism e.t.c.. In simciting we have northamericanism, ruralism, realism, classiceuropianism, futurism e.t.c.. The possibilities are endless

I'm not a teacher of this interesting topic (and trust my, I'll be a terrible teacher ), but the most important advice from me is to build you own playstyle before start building any city. Be original and be creative. Let your imagination free and built anything you wish.

However suggestions are always welcomed. Many of my cities improved thanks to suggestions and "stealing" somebody's great idea. I'll watch this topic often to "steal" interesting ideas

By the way, here are 4 of my cities. The design of them looks odd, but whatever i built is based on philosophical theories, futuristic plans e.t.c..

[AtulKesarkodi 0]

Ok, I started playing with a fresh region yesterday, and only after getting past 9 years of city formation, i am seeing following stats:

residential:21,797

commercial:9,857

industrial:20,043

how can the total employed sims in my city be more than total living in there? Sorry but this is the first time i am facing this situation in my game-play,hence asking here. May be some of them dropped by from Mars?

just so you know, i only got one neighbour connection to a city and that city is not developed at all, only the transit networks are laid down.(without simulating). I have CAM & NAM installed.

thanks for any help!

Atul.

PS: forgot to add the demand for both residential and industrial is still on the rising level.

  Edited March 24, 2011 by AtulKesarkodi  

[Terring 6,473]

how can the total employed sims in my city be more than total living in there? Sorry but this is the first time i am facing this situation in my game-play,hence asking here. May be some of them dropped by from Mars?

Those numbers are the total number of the jobs in your city, not how many Sims are working right now. No need to worry, this is normal

[Evillions 552]

Keep in mind that this is just old work, not recent work. Don't judge on outdated pictures because my city building skills are much better than what you see here.

Alright, for those who wanna see my crappy works. Here it is:

Then went to this:

[AdoxxBE 289]

I can use some training too I've also started a CJ but it's hard to get a audience that replies with suggestions..

So add me to the student list please

[TekindusT 3,809]

@Adooxx: You can always ask directly to the audience what are their suggestions, or starting a poll. As far as I've seen, the regulars are always happy to take part in a poll.

[AdoxxBE 289]

@ TekindusT : Thanks for the tip, I'm planning to do so next update. It will make it easier to see what they want

[hijodecordoba 74]

@ evillions: now you proofed yourself as a teacher (although it wasn't really neccesary ) is it a lot of work to edit a picture like the last one? What do say (and the other teachers a well) about repetition of buildings (to make somehing look like a unique quartier i.e.) and what would you say about the gaps between offices in a CBD. is there a golden rule, or does it depend?

  Edited March 24, 2011 by hijodecordoba  

[AdoxxBE 289]

Do you guys hae some tips on creating mosaics?

[TekindusT 3,809]

@Adooxx: There used to be a tutorial on the Omnibus talking about how to make proper mosaics. If I remember well, it showed how to make them with Photoshop, but you can make them with GIMP too.

Remember you can have a vertical combination of pictures (a mosaic) or an horizontal combination (panorama). In both cases, what I do is to take the first pic, scroll down until I reach a feature of my city I can easily remember; take the second pic, scroll down again and so on. It's not difficult but you'll need to practice your technique for some minutes.

Then, in your image edition program, you'll have to stick the pics together, making them fit exactly in order to not to ruin the mosaic. Finally, when you have your large mosaic made, you choose between two ways of showing them.

1) Hosting the whole mosaic in an image-hosting site like Imageshack and, when showing it here cropping it to the maximum 800x600 size and linking it to the real pic in order to the users can see them in all its glory.

2) Splitting your whole mosaic in 800x600 pieces, uploading them and pasting them altogether in ST. (this was more useful with ST 6.0 than now, though)

Both methods have its pros and cons you only have to experiment a bit and see how you feel more comfortable with.

[Evillions 552]

@ evillions: now you proofed yourself as a teacher (although it wasn't really neccesary ) is it a lot of work to edit a picture like the last one? What do say (and the other teachers a well) about repetition of buildings (to make somehing look like a unique quartier i.e.) and what would you say about the gaps between offices in a CBD. is there a golden rule, or does it depend?

Glad you asked!

To answer your question, I suggest keeping your CBDs and downtowns free of repetition. For each noticable building, I only allow one of that structure to be built in my city (or region or your trying to go regional) because it would look more realistic.

As for the gaps, it really would depend on the surroundings, like if you have a medium sized office park, most of the offices would have some type of gap between them. Unlike the city center, there would be less gaps. Think of it this way:

- The more the outer of the city it is, the more gaps there will be.

- The more inter city it is, the less gaps there will be.

However, it does have it special cases and that is something is based on your mind and not the rules.

=======================================================================================================

I know this is like an update, but I think my update could help a lot of the viewers. It's a sandbox update and I think it would go perfect with this topic.

--------------------

Lets start something like this, a blank canvas.

HHhmmm... Needs more stuff, lets add roads!

I'm going for a rural scene, so lets add some dirt paths and stone walls.

Still needs more things, canals anybody?

Popcorn!

More popcorn!

Where is all the construction tractors and government cars?

Problem solved... (sort of)

Zoom out, but this scene is still naked.

Better! We reached to the final product!

Now for the eyecandy:

  Edited March 25, 2011 by Evillions  

[hijodecordoba 74]

thanks evillions. your absolutely right. i should more think about the RL. it's obvious that the CBD is more crowded. just have a look at the soil prices and you only buy the ground you gonna build on

[TowerDude 2,186]

haha evillions this will even help me! I'm not a specialist in small villages