Show Us Your Suburbs

[Cob92 360]

Well, if it's a choice between having multiple cores or having the corporations take their tax dollars and jobs out of the city entirely, I know most mayors would choose the former over the latter. Otherwise you end up with something like the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where most of the jobs and population are outside of the City of Dallas. As for Manhattan, the sheer density of NYC means that you have to look at things differently than you would with other cities. An NYC "bedroom community" may be denser than most downtowns, but it's still a primarily residential area, not a core district like Midtown Manhattan. The way you consolidate development in SC4 is realistic in that cities generally use these zoning controls to keep the development in the downtown core rather than letting things spider out into the rest of the city; you have designated central business districts and commercial areas rather than a development free-for-all. In Houston we have no zoning (instead there is a patchwork of deed restrictions created by each neighborhood, ostensibly to keep people from building high-rises in residential suburbs, but these can be overidden with enough money or time), so there's nothing forcing all the businesses to pack into downtown.

  Edited April 28, 2012 by Cobhris96  

[srsgng 1]

Tract housing for my lower middle class residents:

[YUUU 65]

^^That's great housing! love it!

[srsgng 1]

Thanks YUUU, I really like your street pattern, though your sims must get crazy to find their way through

Here's a wealthier suburban neighborhood:

[simlink 1,098]

Looks amazing srsgng! In your first post, would you mind sharing where you got those houses that look like they are 1x1?(Second pic, top right.)

Love the flora in your city as well, looks very realistic and adds 'charm.'

[srsgng 1]

Thanks sim_link, apparently my sims like their cities green

Those 1x1 ones are from Kori's mid-wealth set, and they need modding/lotting:

http://hide-inoki.co...php?p=2895#2895

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Some urbanish suburbs, still a WIP.

[Texan 8]

@ion_cannon Great looking suburb! Looks like it has good access to it's city (metro area) with the train. Any plans for a highway to bypass the curvy roads?

[Piteri 17]

I'd not want a secondary core to outscore my main core... at least if i was mayor of some big city. For what regards New York City, to me Manhattan is one big core, i think it would be unfair trying to find a core in Manhattan, the whole island is jungle of hi-rises, perhaps the northern part is less commercial but there are the projects still. The game simulates the core thing decently but still could sprawl hi-rises in any point of the map where there's high palatabiltiy and traffic, this is not realistic, unless it's not an "only one core city". If you're making something look like Manhattan, oh well, there's no problem then. If you are not, well there's density choice .

Manhattan isn't metropolitan New York

NYMetro looks like this

[Jimmy Buzaid 53]

A richer suburb,

A quickly changing suburb

Slightly more dense

  Edited June 17, 2012 by Jimmy Buzaid  

[Legobuilder123 24]

Before

After

[Essex 322]

[wwetom1 831]

Legobuilder123 - Great job on your burbs!

[Jimmy Buzaid 53]

@Essex

What are those roads in the last picture? Great job, Essex and Legobuilder123.

[Haljackey 17,398]

I don't make a lot of suburbs but here's one.

Click for full size.

In this image you can also see a street transition all the way to an avenue.

[Essex 322]

@Essex

What are those roads in the last picture? Great job, Essex and Legobuilder123.

The ones in the centre are just 2 regular roads with a rail line in between them, later I upgraded them to one way roads. I use train stations that just plop on the rails so it looks like proper suburban transport. Hope that helps!

Just some more pics:

  Edited June 19, 2012 by Essex  

[Moonraker0 193]

Here are some pictures of a suburban area between two major cities. I don't know if I've posted any shots of these areas before; it's been a few months since I played this city.

[savevp 2]

Here is a shot of the. suburbs of my city, New Ontario. Enjoy!

[simlink 1,098]

@savevp: Nice suburbs, golf course looks cool.

[Jimmy Buzaid 53]

Ghetto Suburbs.

[Mithrik 562]

Looks very good, though I don't like too much that you shopped it to look that blurry.

[steelersfan95 6]

@savevp: Nice suburbs, golf course looks cool.

yes, indeed

[etahn54 0]

Good suburbs I need to upload soon thanks, for your thing!

[Rekk 3]

Here's a little bit of my suburbs.

[dohraymii 430]

@ Rekk: Nice picture. Maybe you can turn off the UDI indicators

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Seems I have quite a bit to comment on then.

@Texan - Thanks, there is a highway that bypasses the entire residential area, but its off screen on the other side of a river, now that I've set my rail up properly most of the commuters from that area use the trains now, which has significantly reduced congestion on the avenues.

@Jimmy Buzaid - Not bad, but I don't think the concrete paths fit in between the houses that well, I know the idea you were going for, so maybe this would suit it better?

@Legobuilder123 - I like it, the use of diagonals and the NWM is good, looks like you might need some diagonal fillers though. The first pic also has to much repetition of the maxis commercials - granted that was the before pic.

@Essex - Looks a bit to regimented for my tastes, and I can't stand maxis high wealth mansions - though mainly because they take over everything else! I would highly recommend you download all of Mattb325's houses, though if you're after high wealth you can't go wrong with http://sc4devotion.c...php?lotGET=2264, it's worth checking out pretty much his entire collection though

@wwetom1 - Looks great, but I didn't expect anything else - why don't you turn on shadows though? it gives things more depth, you could also be a bit more imaginative with your road layouts.

@Haljackey - To much maxis! But if you don't make suburbs often you can be forgiven I guess.

@Essex, again - Better this time, you've obviously put thought into it and there is more custom content. As before you would highly benefit by downloading Mattb325's houses. For a maxis dominated suburb though, it looks pretty good You should also turn off the UDI ^

@Moonraker0 - I like the variety of transport networks and the road layouts but instead of using the maxis university try this - http://sc4devotion.c...php?lotGET=2254 there are quite alot of dependencies but it's a fantastic set.

@savevp - You should use the smooth transition from maxis ground highway to maxis elevated highway included in the NAM. The golf course looks good, you could use more variety in the houses though.

@Jimmy Buzaid, again - I agree with Mithrik, I think you over shopped it. The composition of the picture is good however.

@Rekk - Pretty decent, you might want to invest in a street mod though and as dohraymii mentioned, turn off the UDI ^

This isn't technically a suburb, I class it as the urban fringe, the transition between the city bordering on the top (which is massive and very urban) and the city bordering the bottom which has small pockets of development interspersed with farms and woodland. Click for full size.

This is a hillside suburb which commands good views of the surrounding valley, it's fair the say the residents weren't very happy that the new bypass route of the town passed so near their property.

  Edited July 6, 2012 by Ion_Cannon  

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

Ion, you always make such fantastic suburbs.

And wwetom.. where'd you get that street texture?

  Edited July 7, 2012 by daTSchikinhed  

[Rekk 3]

@dohraymii: Thanks

@Ion_Cannon: Thanks and amazing work yourself :3

Noted on the UDI bit, a bit of a newbie with SC settings, I was always curious as if you were actually able to disable them, guess you can lol would've never even looked into the My Sims settings.

[SAVAGExPHOENIX 955]

another pretty little suburb from me.

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Thanks daTSchikinhed and right back at ya, the above picture is fantastic, add traffic and replace some of those maxis commercials and it's a 10/10.