Realism Project / Mod Development

[+Guest]

I think Seattle would be a good choice. Being in the Northwest, it's fairly isolated, and its got just about every type of transportation (hopefully subways could be modded to simulate Seattle's bus tunnels). It's the only major city i can think of that has a monorail.

[+Guest]

I don't think it would be possible to realisticaly simulate New York without making the entire Northeast megalopolis.

[Ryan B 35]

This sounds like a really good project.  I have a couple cities I'd like to nominate, both in the same state: 

Houston, TX

Austin, TX

Both of these cities would be very good for this project, IMO.

[davidhogan 1]

it seems the most obvious answer to me would be phoenix - it's laid out on a grid, which for SC4 reasons would make things a lot easier.  it's isolated by the desert, which means you don't have commuter problems, and it's still one of america's top 10 largest cities.

 

as for Austin, it's too close to San Antonio, at only 40 miles there'd probably be a lot of cross-commuting.

 

dave

[dolphin66 5]

Does anyone know when this might begin? I think it's a wonderful idea and am excited to get it started.

[Zeddic 3]

Hmm... I don't have much skills, if this project is meant to simulate city as realistic as possible, so I'm not coming. But anyway, I'll vote Seattle as the city you're going to make. But about that water levels thing, there are three options, I think.

- Canal set by oppie
- PEG Pond Kit
- Rain tool, which I think is the best, if there isn't coming a river/stream down to ocean/lake.

[whateverwhatever24 0]

a great city would be one such as Perth, Adelaide, or Brisbane Australia. Sydeny and Melbourne are too large. The capital city would definitely be best for a suburban paradise, and thats Canberra. its got about 400k in the metropolitan area. Its mostly suburbs as well. Perth and Adelaide both have about 1 million, and Brisbane has 1.5

[Motina 77]

This is my annalysis .. or well the lack of .. The Austrailian cities seem like a good idea. Toronto would not be a bad choice either (can't believe I'm saying this). Placed on a grid, and contains train subway and bus all at on central staiton. This will see how well simcity is made. If the mass transit systems do not work in simcity, simcity has quite frankly failed.

[Edit: Ah yes, Toronto would not quite work when concerning commuters from outside the city, such as Aurora and Milton and such .. so scrap that]

[+Guest]

I would like to nominate Gainesville, FL. Though not laid out on a perfect grid, this is a fun city nonetheless. It's nearest neighbors are Newberry (20-odd miles away), Archer (10 miles away) and other minor outlaying towns. We have I-75 running through the western commercial area, the University of Florida, and other great attractions.

It'd be great to see SimGainesville... but I don't do real-life cities. I prefer to take matters into my own hands.

Just a note (if it hasn't been noted yet...) Someone is working on Birmingham, AL. I think I saw the thread here, or at another SimCity site. Don't remember where. This was a few months ago I saw this.

Anyways... whoever does this cities... best o' luck!

-- tjbryant@cox.net --

[Zhatt 0]

Here's yet anouther vote for Vancouver, BC, Canada.
It has nearly all the transportation options, downtown fis nicely on one map, and almost everyone commutes to or thu downtown once a day. One major problem would be that Vancouver's Downtown is almost compleatly diagonal. Unless we can mod the game enough as buildings can grow on the 45 degree Vancouver wont work.

As for maps, I have a great one if we do choose Vancouver:

VanMap

It has every building, lot, street, lamp post and sewer main on the map. I also have a map of zoning information somewhere. I'll see if I can find it

[ert90 8]

Why don't you guys make a poll to vote for the best city for this project?

[davidhogan 1]

What about Fresno, CA?  It's got a grid for the main streets, lots of freeways and trains, and most of it's suburbs/nearby cities are under 20,000 people.

 

It's population is large enough to make it interesting, but small enough that it's not trying to re-create a metropolis.

 

Just tossing another idea out there...

 

Dave

[Trolca 15]

What about Wichita Kansas? It's mainly a grid pattern. Around 350,000 people. Surrounded by farm land.

[mamax 0]

Vancouver[bC]! Not overly developed, but in a boom. Pretty easy for some pros. Stretches for a long distance, but at very low development, it would take an hour per mile outside town if you wanted it perfect.

[Smurfer2 7]

I think Simcity is fine as is, but you never know what might come out of this. I just wanted to throw my support behind this program/project. I can't wait to see what this mod will do. I'll try to read through most of this thread.

[davidhogan 1]

Trolca: That's the best idea I've heard so far, from the maps i'm seeing.  It's surrounded by nothing, has tons of trains, freeways, a toll freeway, and it already looks like it was built in SC4.  (No bizzarre freeway interchanges, slanted neighborhoods that i've seen, etc)

 

dave

[+Guest]

The only problem I see with Wichita is that, with only 350k people, it doesn't really have a skyline or much else, and would probably be a bit boring to build.

[Fairlane500 8]

I personally like the idea of the Seattle-Bellevue area. You could use the ideas from the Tunnels Forum to creat the underground part of the railway. Also, two of its buildings, the Smith Tower and the Columbia Seafirst Center are already in the game as landmarks, and there is a ferry system that could be created. Seattle even has a monorail, which is in development to be extended. You could limit it to Federal Way in the south, Mountlake Terrace in the north, Vashon Island or Alki in the west, and Issaquah or Snoqualmie in the East. Once you pass those threshholds, there seems to be abount an even distibution of commuters with other cities. The local railways, including the Sounder commuter train, have even been created already, and I believe there may even be designs for the local bus service out there. The only problem is the afforementioned water level difference, and the fact that powere comes from out of region. (Grand Coulee and Bonneville dams on the Columbia River) Maybe a mod could be created to deal with the out of area power problem.

 

Denver, Colorado could also be a suggestion.

 

-Fairlane

[BauerME 2]

Date: 5/23/2004 7:45:37 PM
Author:
... One major problem would be that Vancouver's Downtown is almost compleatly diagonal. Unless we can mod the game enough as buildings can grow on the 45 degree Vancouver wont work.
...

quote>

But in setting up the map, we could simply rotate it 45% so that the diagonals become straight verticals and horizontals (or close to it).

[dolphin66 5]

I was just wondering if there is a start date for this yet? If we are going for realism then wouldn't we need to know all the buildings, street names, interstates, bridges etc? That will take alot of research. I would be willing to start that kind of research if that is what is needed but we need to decide on a city first. Should we turn this into a poll? Maybe we should start with something farily simple and if it works out then tackle a major city? What do you all think? I don't want this idea to die out. I can do research and build cities but no modding or batting. So, let's get this thing started....

[b007 0]

Also, I can help with researching and such. This is a good idea. I think an good city to make would be cities that are urban, and are known, but are not huge. Indianopolis and Cleveland come in to mind and also Portland. As a matter of fact, here's a list

Jacksonville
Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg(this would be great because of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge)
Omaha
Salt Lake City
Hartford
Seattle
Columbus
Cinncinnati
Kansas City
St. Louis
Memphis
Little Rock
Nashville
Louisville
Milwaukee

That's just in the U.S.

Hope this helps!

[newyorkrunaway1 110]

NASHVILLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

thats where i live, i could help out like crazy on that one, i could get detaild maps and pics and help with the detailed specifics on that because i know this city back and front, from the uperclass to the well, lower class ones. I think this would be a great idea. its not that big of a city, but big enough to be very interesting.

 

check out :

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=51023&pageNo=2

[carson775 10]

Date: 5/25/2004 5:06:02 PM
Author:

What about Fresno, CA? It's got a grid for the main streets, lots of freeways and trains, and most of it's suburbs/nearby cities are under 20,000 people.

It's population is large enough to make it interesting, but small enough that it's not trying to re-create a metropolis.

Just tossing another idea out there...

Dave

quote>

I think Fresno, CA is a good idea, it does have a good skyline, and its surrounded by farmland, and the population is 420,000+

[+Guest]

Even though it really does not tie into this thread, i'd like to see someone make tokyo, japan(kinda hard seeing how it's metro area is over 20 million people)

[Fairlane500 8]

Fresno sounds like a good idea, another would be Reno, Nevada. Reno has a skyline of multiple tall casinos (chance for mod buildings?), does not take up much area (approx. 200,000 people), and only one real suburb (Sparks), with a few outlying small towns. Could be a beggining project.

 

-Fairlane

[brett_131 0]

Edmonton Alberta Canada has a population of about 1 000 000 people. It has a good amount of industry, a good skyline, and mostly middle class residents (with a fair amount of wealthy, and some poor).

It is fairly isolated except for a few satellite communities, and doesntblend in to other cities like New York does to the whole Northeast. The largest city close to Edmonton is Calgary, about 300 km south of Edmonton.

VOTE EDMONTON!!!

If you wanna see some pics, check out TJD's thread in the CIty Journals The City of EDMONTON

[BarbulaM1 38]

If you want a tottaly grid city go I would use the capital of Arazona, Phinox (pardon my spelling). For realism I would recommend small cities with big city features, such as Oklahoma City or Denver, Colorado. 500th post finnialy I shall smile for my self

[nutty111 0]

Well, this is going to sound a little crazy to everyone, but what about Indianapolis. Its a town about 1 million, not to many outsiders coming to work. It does not have subway, or monorail, but its got everything else.
I vote for Indianapolis. Figure this could be a starter city to an even bigger one if this works?

[xiziz 11]

Rio, Honkong, Shangai, singapore, sydney(seeing as we probaly want a city with skrapers i wont even list any euro towns.

 

I dont know much about these towns but they all looks cool. i thnk they all have subway at leas the last 3. shanghai has monorail. rio just looks cool.

what do you think???

 

Cheers

[b007 0]

Date: 5/27/2004 3:08:43 PM
Author:
Also, I can help with researching and such. This is a good idea. I think an good city to make would be cities that are urban, and are known, but are not huge. Indianopolis and Cleveland come in to mind and also Portland. As a matter of fact, here's a list

Jacksonville
Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg(this would be great because of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge)
Omaha
Salt Lake City
Hartford
Seattle
Columbus
Cinncinnati
Kansas City
St. Louis
Memphis
Little Rock
Nashville
Louisville
Milwaukee

That's just in the U.S.

Hope this helps!

quote>