ST City & CJ school

[Evillions 552]

He might be looking for something a bit more "natural" looking. Both are good choices, just download one of PEG's water mods and see what you're looking for.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

I have a question! I don't how to use nature tools. My cities look badly cause I haven't used them before but trees.

[Evillions 552]

I have a question! I don't how to use nature tools. My cities look badly cause I haven't used them before but trees.

So I guess you're trying to go for something like this?

(Excuse the lifeless road. )

What you could do is download some mayor mode flora plugins. From there, you can "paint" anything from that menu such as flowers to cars (still waiting for VIP to release them!). Try looking at real life terrains and recreating them. In this case, I did something a bit more on the tropical side. What I did is using a couple of varied plam trees and some of Helbem's floras. They're excellent for any climate!

If you start mayor mode flora painting, here's something to get you started.

Basic flora

If you want something a bit more in-depth, Marsh had an entry specifically for flora detailing.

Flora Work in Al Aauim

[Treka 28]

Um...Could I be a student .

[Evillions 552]

Um...Could I be a student .

Anyone is welcome to be a student, just post a picture of your city and we'll be happy to post some points of improvement (if any).

[Blakeway 211]

lol evillions you pro!

How can I improve this pic? The bridge has been replaced, don't worry about it...

As SC4 isn't working for me, I'm planning tons of things to improve my "skills".

Thnx in advance!

[Jazzmaster 716]

I really like this picture, it sort of reminds me of Stockholm.

Imo, you could replace the grey concrete walls above sea level with something 'older' looking, like a brick wall.

[Evillions 552]

I really have no problem with the picture, but I agree with the seawalls. You need something a bit more older, perhaps something more gray like?

OO yea, lol...

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

Hi, I'm considering becoming a student so I can learn some more ways to make my Matinenda and Shayden CJ's better.

Shayden Pictures:

Matinenda Pictures:

So what ways can I improve my CJ?

P.S Yes I did just take these from my last CJ updates, but I'm not on my SimCity 4 computers.

  Edited June 7, 2011 by Sirron Kcuhc  

[Evillions 552]

For Shayden, the suburban houses doesn't feel right next to a downtown. Try making more realistic suburbs such as developments and cul-de-sac endings. And try to variate some of your buildings, it kinda gets repetitive at times.

[TekindusT 3,809]

@Sirron Kcuch: I would add that you can try to add "something else" to your CJ updates. I've visited your Shayden CJ (as it's the one you'll be working from now on) and I think the photoedition is very nice and I think you have a good variety of buildings; but I also think it lacks an extra that would definately stick visitors to your CJ.

IMO, you could try adding a kind of description about what the viewer is watching at; or an small introduction on what are they going to see; which district are we seeing or a prominent building you want to highlight. I think it helps to create a familiar environment and helps the viewer to build up the whole puzzle. There's no need to write a seven paragraph essay on each pic, just a couple of sentences could be fine...

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

What about Matinenda? And for my defense all of the Mediterranean things that I could find are in Matinenda. But I will look to improve Shayden.

Also I will working a majority of the time on Matinenda. Matinenda is my Union nation so I'm kind of forced to focus more on it. But I will add on to my CJ's and will see how it turns out.

  Edited June 7, 2011 by Sirron Kcuhc  

[Treka 28]

Um..How could I improve my City of New Tradil Town?

Um..How could I improve my City of New Tradil Town?

[Evillions 552]

@Sirron Kcuch: I would add that you can try to add "something else" to your CJ updates. I've visited your Shayden CJ (as it's the one you'll be working from now on) and I think the photoedition is very nice and I think you have a good variety of buildings; but I also think it lacks an extra that would definately stick visitors to your CJ.

IMO, you could try adding a kind of description about what the viewer is watching at; or an small introduction on what are they going to see; which district are we seeing or a prominent building you want to highlight. I think it helps to create a familiar environment and helps the viewer to build up the whole puzzle. There's no need to write a seven paragraph essay on each pic, just a couple of sentences could be fine...

Point 1: Agreed, I remember seeing this style like this in Sirron's AIN application. There was some type of natural grid growth with a park right in the middle. I guess he could add a special district where its themed on like nightlife. Perhaps some type of arch over the entrance like China Town's. For example:Credit of Hiigarar. Some of his works are great examples of districts.

Point 2: Also agreed, no need for lengthy descriptions. Most of us like looking at the pictures, small captions doesn't hurt. But adding like a giant paragraph turns readers off (including me). Just be clear and to the point.

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

Treka: You gonna need a load of improvements such as custom content and less repetition. Try starting a fresh city and take your planning one step at a time. Try to make it look realistic.

  Edited June 7, 2011 by Evillions  

[kakado_to_save 514]

Can i attend to be a teacher?

Well i made some improvement in my city

From:

Before

To:

I can help student who try to build:

- prefab cities (Commie style).

- Dutch cities.

- Euro cities.

So.. is it good enough

[Terring 6,473]

I would like to be a teacher as well. I can help anybody who wants to build a cool futuristic city or a Martian colony

[Samerton 833]

@ kakado_to_save: You have improved your area lots, it looks great with the pieces added over the cliffs. Great improvements

[kakado_to_save 514]

Thank you

wait.. does it mean i can be a teacher for euro and prefabs or not

  Edited June 10, 2011 by kakado_to_save  

[Evillions 552]

Thank you

wait.. does it mean i can be a teacher for euro and prefabs or not

Yep.

[WillR116 60]

Ok, so I understand that I am improving overall, I've joined the usnw and that has been helpful, but came across this while browsing the ain forums and have thought it might be helpful to try.

Now this is something i've done i've understood is pretty good, now its not grown, nor is is populated, but it is aesthetically pleasing mostly, its "little insulo" and is like little italy, its a spanish town where expatriats and immigrants from spanish like places can live in my country, however, mostly I do Appalachain and American styled cities, like Winford here, i'm still looking into filling in the wasteland with various things but haven't yet (pop 223,000)

One of my small towns, like I usually tend to do more of:

If ya'll need more I should be able to provide it.

Also, since I talked about it and to show what I can do, since I don't want to fill the whole page nor do I have a good picture of the entire area:

http://usnw.forumotion.com/t228p6-calman-city-journal

It directly links to the Little Insulo post.

Any help would be much appreciated,

Will

P.S. Would like any help in making any sort of Western cities, Euro (including commonwealth nations) or North American. Not too interested in Asian.

  Edited June 12, 2011 by Simsamerica  

[quicksilver991 37]

Hello all. In a rural town, I have a rail bridge and a road bridge right next to each other. I am at a loss as to what I should put between them.

I tried this, but I don't think it really looks right.

Could anyone give me some advice?

Thanks

[Joe 90 358]

My comments for you to take or leave as you see fit, from the top

Blake: I don't actually mind the bridge. Yes its just a little crazy, but it fits in with your aesthetic so it doesn't look out of place (actually takes you a second to notice exactly what it is!). I do have an issue with that giant green sculpture though. Its twice as big as the buildings around it and rivals the domed hall in size. The hall is your centrepiece, so it should stand out and dominate the scene, yet its being shaded by a giant green woman. Replace it with a smaller historic office/opera house type building like you have in that area and the rest of it is fine.

I also think the retaining walls should be more in keeping with the historic nature of the area. The seawalls look good, but plain concrete doesn't really cut it there. I'd go for something thats a little brickier, and probably in similar tones to the seawalls so it all fits together.

---

Sirron Kcuhc: The Shayden pics look great. You've got a good handle on small towns and suburbia, something that isn't easy to replicate realistically. On the third pic, I'd try and separate the R from the C zones. You very rarely see a street/road that is C on one side and R on the other - its usually one or the other. On the fourth pic, perhaps replace some of the roads with streets. Unless you're having massive traffic problems (unlikely given the size of the buildings) I'd replace anything thats road for less than 3-4 blocks with streets. Main roads should stay as roads, obviously.

Matinenda pics also look good, but I'm not a fan of the lightning though. Sorry

---

Treka: Almost like a flashback to 2004! I'll bulletise everything to get you upgraded to 2011-spec

• I can see by the first pic that you don't have the NAM. Get it. Now.
  
• Spend an afternoon trawling the STEX for custom buildings and stuff you like. It won't make a difference immediately (unless you blow everything up!) but as the city upgrades itself over time, the variety will really help.
  
• Hide the menus and UDI buttons. Use ctrl-shift-S to get the camera to take pics.
  
• Wind turbines are never found inside a city. Your city should be powered by one or two big power plants buried deep within an industrial area where noone minds them.
  
• You have two parallel motorways within about 10 tiles. That's overkill, even in a really crowded city. One of them can safely be bulldozed. You probably don't even have to replace it with anything. Use the space for housing or something.
  
• Elevated highways are so last century! Have a look in the Omnibus for a sunken highway tutorial and try that there instead. You already have the corridor laid out between the two roads so you won't have to demolish much.
  
• Not sure what purpose the toll booths have in the bottom left of the first pic, especially when you can get around them so easily! They're probably just sucking money from your treasury like that, so get rid of them. I'd also take out that short piece of duplicate road, perhaps as part of the sunken highway works?
  
• Turn off/delete the signs. You can put them on a map, but they just clutter up the picture.
  
• Fill every square with something. Small parks or concrete will do in an industrial area like the third pic, but pretty much nothing looks worse than empty space in an urban area. Also, hit G to turn the grid off before you take your pictures.
  
• If there's much traffic on the rail line in the fourth pic, I'd consider grade separation (overbridges/underpasses). If its entirely passenger trains, I'd probably investigate a GLR tram line instead.

That's going to be a hell of a lot to take in, but its best to load up all the plugins and just have a play around with it until you get something you like. That is the point of these sandbox games after all

---

simsamerica: Plopping is the best way to create a city that looks sterile and lifeless. Nowhere are you going to find a city that is so perfectly one highrise per block. Yours is by no means the worst plopalopolis I've seen, but it still looks too neat and too clean to be a real place.

In the small town, the river looks like its flowing uphill in a couple of places, which is obviously not a good thing! I'd also look at lining the side of the river with rocks or trees or something to hide the jagged edges of the ploppable water. I'd also make the farm fields smaller so you get more of a patchwork effect. If you're worried about having too many farm buildings you can either bulldoze them after the farm grows, or cluster them together by restricting road access until after they've grown. Farms are really easy to manipulate like that There is a whole "Show Us Your Farms" thread if you need ideas.

---

The00guvna: I think part of the problem is there is too much space between the bridges. Bring them closer together and you don't have to fill so much space! Here, I'd have the bridges only two tiles apart, on separate embankments, and fill the gap with as many trees as I could fit. It will also take out most of the dogleg in the road.

As an aside, the rocks you're using have very hard edges on them - there is no merging from water into rock or rock into trees. There are ploppable rock mods out there that allow you to put trees/water in between the rocks, and I'd look at one of those if the one you're using doesn't let you do that. I think the final effect will be a lot better - I tried to find an example but couldn't in 5 minutes. There are plenty in the more scenic CJs though.

Good god that turned into a lot of words! Apologies if you actually read it all!

[WillR116 60]

Thanks Joe, i'll see what I can do with say, Peg's Flora? I've got about 160 tiles left in the region I can do that manipulation for, thanks, If I get what your saying, which may just be the early morning getting me.

Thanks,

Will

[AtulKesarkodi 0]

@Kakado_to_save:

Amazing cities man! i really like your Euro/Retro style buildings in the city. I even got through your whole CJ "Medina" and particularly got my interest by this screen.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/topic/40117-medina-update-49/page__view__findpost__p__1155988

where to get those type of buildings? any specific plug-in you used there? shall be a nice addition to my cities too, since i am too onto developing Euro styled buildings in my city.

Thanks!

[kakado_to_save 514]

@AtulKesarkodi: To find good plugins you need to get out of the box

of course you have the STEX, but if you will search for different sites you can really increase the size of your plugin folder. I bet you, and many other people don't know about a site called Sim City Polska... this is the main place for euro W2Ws and blocks. So you need to search a lot to find good BATs.

PS: SimcityPolska has some places with english translation below, so it is easy to det to what you want

[Evillions 552]

@AtulKesarkodi: To find good plugins you need to get out of the box

of course you have the STEX, but if you will search for different sites you can really increase the size of your plugin folder. I bet you, and many other people don't know about a site called Sim City Polska... this is the main place for euro W2Ws and blocks. So you need to search a lot to find good BATs.

PS: SimcityPolska has some places with english translation below, so it is easy to det to what you want

Just most of SCP's W2Ws and buildings are based off Poland and not just general Europe. (idk, it could fit in certain cities.) But yes, they have great BATs over there and worth the download.

[Jeffmaster223 24]

hey, i've been playing SC4 for a while, but i've always had trouble making

a realistic-looking city. vdo you have any good tips?

[TowerDude 2,186]

@Animaniacs : inspire yourself from real ones, and have a good amount of BAT's, from a same geographical style,

for example do not mix Asian and American, take care for detail

[TekindusT 3,809]

Custom content isn't "compulsory" but it is recommended. We all know excellent CJs and cities filled with Maxis stuff; but if you want to add an special feeling to your city, the way to do this is through CC.

Oh and lots of patience. SC4 is a game for the patient...

Perhaps taking a look to this thread [link] in SC4D gives you more tips on realism...

  Edited June 15, 2011 by TekindusT  

[Evillions 552]

Lets add another entry to this, we're going to start basic lotting which uses the SC4 Lot Editor.

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

Basic Lotting

For those who want a good CJ, you might as well take up on custom content creation. For example, you're building a Middle Eastern city and want a filler for the empty spaces such that it fits the environment. Before we start making growable lots, lets start something smaller.

First, I used the grass green lot provided by maxis.

Let's change up the base texture, I don't want a grass lot in my Middle Eastern cities especially if its somewhat far from a water source. I'm going to make this a concrete texture by going to the Base Texture tab and click Add Item. From there, pick a concrete texture. Remember this, use a base texture so that it fits with the surrounding environment such as other building's / lot's base textures.

I want a dirt path, but you might be wondering how if I just selected a texture. The answer to that is going to the Overlay Texture tab. Then, you need to look through the menu for a dirt texture. Don't worry, this won't delete the base texture as this type overlaps the base texture.

See? No harm done to the base texture. But I want to add more than just that, maybe a prop (object) or two?

A prop is basically your objects where things like cars, streetlights, and other things that can be placed on the lot. In order to place a prop, you go to the Prop tab and click Add Item. Although the pop-up menu has no object viewer like the textures. You can go through each prop and select them to see what they look like. Besides that, there's a type-in box above the menu. From there, you can type an object you want such as a car. Remember, the results will be highlighted and you can press the Enter key to see more results. Pick a prop, any one. Don't worry, if you don't like it, you can always delete it by pressing the Delete key while selecting that prop. Alright, I picked my car (junker) and now able to place it on the lot.

Like so, after I selected my desired prop such as this junker.

I don't want to end there, I want this to be gritty as possible. If you downloaded a couple of prop packs, your prop menu will be much larger than the original Maxis' one. If you play around with the props, you are able to make something like this.

Complex? Nope, I just added a few props such as Shanties (by onlyplace4), Maxis garbage and a few street lights and that's it! Don't worry, you can overlap props and even make them out of bounds if a prop allows it.

I'm done my lot and ready to save this, (and edit for the future). Click Save As and name it whatever you want. I'm going to call it Slum_1.

Congratulations! You completed your good looking lot and ready to plop wisely in your cities. Look how much gritter it looks with some lotting.

Hope this helped you out!

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

Notes:

If you want to get more serious with your lotting, I recommend using the SC4 Plugin Manager and make buildings suited to your liking. You can use this tool to even create growable custom lots by using a building. I haven't covered this because I just want to get the basics down before I can move onto more advanced things.

  Edited June 29, 2011 by Evillions