Show us What you're Working On

[matias93 7,535]

I've been working on making my harbor more realistic. I have a lot of industry in a big city. To cope with all the cargo getting out of the city I have a lot of rail and four harbors. I just plopped the harbors on the coast without paying much attention to them. As a result one harbor (the third one) is at maximum capacity while the first and last one use half capacity. There is another harbor at the right which isn't used at all, the second harbor is new.

This new realistic large harbor I'm trying to create is giving me quite some headaches. First of all the coastline is very steep, the coast itself might be a bit more realistic than before (ergo, the right side of the picture) but I still have to find a way to include this harbor in the surrounding area, this could be quite difficult considering the fact that I use a slope-mod (which I didn't at the beginning). It might even be a bigger challenge to split cargo streams equally between the five harbors.

Well, first of all, if you need inspiration, you should consult this topic: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/9971-show-us-your-seaport/?page=22

And you can also search in skyscrapercity and google maps (two important tools) how are ports laid out and how do they blend with the surroundings.

You can download some port pack to make it more realistic imo.

Finally, you should download a slope mod.

 

SOrry if i sound harsh or something, is not my intention, i just dont dominate english language. PS i like your railroad and the top of the lines.

Thanks for the advice! I will look into it. I already have a slope mod by the way. Just didn't have it when I built the port the first time. Now I've made the hill a little bit less steep than in this picture, I've also zoned some industry next to it. It's much better than it was before but there are still some challenges I have to face if I want to make it perfect. Even though the hill is less steep than it was before it is still too steep. I especially notice that when connecting roads to the road below, it keeps messing with the coastline, this is the reason why I use FLUPS at certain places or why roads don't connect to each other. I'm thinking about fixing this problem by making terraces seperated by nice industrial embankments.

Below the situation how it is at the moment. I'm quite happy about the harbor itself but the connecting area still needs a lot of work. Eventually I want to get rid of the FLUP and find a way how to connect the rail to the seaports. This was one of the problems I encountered. Maybe the only way to connect the harbor properly is to rebuild the whole area, this would however cost a lot of effort and I would have to demolish a lot of buildings, at the moment the demand in this city isn't really great. There is a lot of abondonment in the commercial buildings and a declining population, hence the new industrial zone as temporary solution.

I've been working on making my harbor more realistic. I have a lot of industry in a big city. To cope with all the cargo getting out of the city I have a lot of rail and four harbors. I just plopped the harbors on the coast without paying much attention to them. As a result one harbor (the third one) is at maximum capacity while the first and last one use half capacity. There is another harbor at the right which isn't used at all, the second harbor is new.

This new realistic large harbor I'm trying to create is giving me quite some headaches. First of all the coastline is very steep, the coast itself might be a bit more realistic than before (ergo, the right side of the picture) but I still have to find a way to include this harbor in the surrounding area, this could be quite difficult considering the fact that I use a slope-mod (which I didn't at the beginning). It might even be a bigger challenge to split cargo streams equally between the five harbors.

Well, first of all, if you need inspiration, you should consult this topic: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/9971-show-us-your-seaport/?page=22

And you can also search in skyscrapercity and google maps (two important tools) how are ports laid out and how do they blend with the surroundings.

You can download some port pack to make it more realistic imo.

Finally, you should download a slope mod.

 

SOrry if i sound harsh or something, is not my intention, i just dont dominate english language. PS i like your railroad and the top of the lines.

Thanks for the advice! I will look into it. I already have a slope mod by the way. Just didn't have it when I built the port the first time. Now I've made the hill a little bit less steep than in this picture, I've also zoned some industry next to it. It's much better than it was before but there are still some challenges I have to face if I want to make it perfect. Even though the hill is less steep than it was before it is still too steep. I especially notice that when connecting roads to the road below, it keeps messing with the coastline, this is the reason why I use FLUPS at certain places or why roads don't connect to each other. I'm thinking about fixing this problem by making terraces seperated by nice industrial embankments.

Below the situation how it is at the moment. I'm quite happy about the harbor itself but the connecting area still needs a lot of work. Eventually I want to get rid of the FLUP and find a way how to connect the rail to the seaports. This was one of the problems I encountered. Maybe the only way to connect the harbor properly is to rebuild the whole area, this would however cost a lot of effort and I would have to demolish a lot of buildings, at the moment the demand in this city isn't really great. There is a lot of abondonment in the commercial buildings and a declining population, hence the new industrial zone as temporary solution.

Well, it looks much better imo.

You have two simple solutions regarding the rail: either you expand the Port inland, or you make the rail go next to the coastline. If you have trouble with the slope, just use god mod and smoth the terrain to some extent.

After, you can either  use residential walls to mascarate the slops, or (my favourite), built parks with mayor menu flora. It looks more natural and blends in nicer. Download some flora in that case.

Anyhow, it looks way nicer, congratz

Well, there is another option: you could isolate the port as a lowland border, along a cliff, and connect it with transversal tunnels (keeping a reasonable slope, I use a '1 vertical x 8 horizontal' ratio) or longitudinal slopes. Sure, you won't have avenues going right to the port, and it will look as added after the city, not as part, or even origin of the town. Clearly, you will weight those trade-offs when playing with realism as objective.

I'll uploading some images of my fluvial port, which is also a work in progress, to show the idea I've exposed.

[SUPERMESSI 294]

Matias93, and btw, congratz on living on a beautifull city irl.

 

Hope you loose  against Argentina, also xD

[matias93 7,535]

Matias93, and btw, congratz on living on a beautifull city irl.

 

Hope you loose  against Argentina, also xD

Against the desires of all my connationals, I think is fairly probable a defeat against Argentina, and also think that Perú is not so easy as the press is showing us, so we'll have to see all of that tonight and the next saturday.

And @Ltw, I'm finishing my semestral exams, so the promised photo is not available yet, but I'll try to upload it this night.

[SUPERMESSI 294]

Matias93, and btw, congratz on living on a beautifull city irl.

 

Hope you loose  against Argentina, also xD

Against the desires of all my connationals, I think is fairly probable a defeat against Argentina, and also think that Perú is not so easy as the press is showing us, so we'll have to see all of that tonight and the next saturday.

And @Ltw, I'm finishing my semestral exams, so the promised photo is not available yet, but I'll try to upload it this night.

Sorry to derail again xD

Chile is a good team, SAmpaoli is a good coach, and you have that dude from Paradigma Guardiola also. You are probably the most stronger colective in Copa America (well, Argentina also, Patata Martino is not that bad). But it will be hard even against Peru.

 

Good luck with your exams!!:)

[MushyMushy 3,618]

In the process of making a coal power plant for one of the multi-tile cities under construction in my region. Frankly, I never thought it would get this large...

 

  Edited June 30, 2015 by MushyMushy  

[matias93 7,535]

In the process of making a coal power plant for one of the multi-tile cities under construction in my region. Frankly, I never thought it would get this large...

 

Wow, that looks amazing and very reallistic. It rectifies totally the absurd sizes of the maxis power plants.

Just an observation: I don't get why containers would be used in a coal power plant. 

[stevyloh 45]

In the process of making a coal power plant for one of the multi-tile cities under construction in my region. Frankly, I never thought it would get this large...

 

I would remove most of the containers and use the space to add another "heating building" (I think the green one?!).
Since the most Coal plans have at least 2. Also an cooling tower for each plant would help to get rid of the unsued heat.

[matias93 7,535]

Well, here are some of the 'photos', of one of the fluvial ports where this approach has been done.

In the first image, the northeastern access to the port (land is here southeast of water). Its a zig-zag ramp done with a RHW-2 slope mod and then redone with a normal road. The altitude diference is around 30 meters (the minimum diference to make ferry-compatible bridges). I haven't finished the cliff covering, but it's a detail.

 

In the second image, we move to the right (west) and have a view of the rest of the port: there is the freight rail terminal in the upper right side of the image, and a rail tunnel in the upper left side connects it to the port (in fact, that short line is operated more like a freight funicular). Also, there is another pair of road accesses, done in the same way the first one is: with a slope mod. The difference is that there are no curves.

 

The third image shows the same focal point, but rotated: the road access pass over the rail terminal and connects itself to the normal road network. The scope of the image cannot show us the beggining of the freight funicular, but is around 120 meters at the south (here, left), and is connected to the normal rail network.

 

  Edited July 3, 2015 by matias93  

[peperodriguez2710 138]

Good work Matias! I like how you managed to build the harbor in that hilly terrain.

¡Sigue así y saludos desde España! 

[nos.17 5,245]

Currently under development: Another mega lot! 

See more in my lot thread!

  Edited July 4, 2015 by nos.17  

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Stevyloh: Please remove images when quoting. It takes up a lot of space. 

matias93: Looks good, but please, do something about the on-slope pieces.

[matias93 7,535]

Good work Matias! I like how you managed to build the harbor in that hilly terrain.

¡Sigue así y saludos desde España! 

Living in a hilly country, I tend to replicate it in the game, ending with this kind of complications when trying to use tools designed to represent flatter terrains (like the ones of the eastern United States or Northern Europe).

  Edited July 3, 2015 by matias93  

[crushproof 103]

So after years of lingering on Simtropolis, I hope to shortly start my City Journal. I've been slowly building up a copy of Dublin, Ireland. 

It'll probably be another while before I start posting my CJ.

But I'll post a starter package here of a few spots. The old docklands, which have been in decline for decades, are being transformed into a modern business zone. I've got plenty more to do, more realism etc but I wanted to post this anyway to show my progress so far. 

[SUPERMESSI 294]

Very nice! You should start now your CJ imo.

 

Btw, sorry to aks, but what construction cranes are you using?

[crushproof 103]

Very nice! You should start now your CJ imo.

 

Btw, sorry to aks, but what construction cranes are you using?

Thanks very much. I've had SC4 for years but never had the courage to begin a CJ. Can never find the time either! Will hope to get started soon. Takes a long time getting the right bats to grow etc. so it's a long process!

The construction is an excellent set by deejay, really beats all others. Found on http://kurier.simcityplaza.de/details.php?file=51 

[cmdp123789 710]

crushproof, that looks amazing! I've started a CJ some time ago, but never updated it. Mine is about recreating London, but all the roads and the madness in the roads is hard to recreate in the game. I would love to see how you do it, I love this kind of architecture and city development! I say go for it!

[crushproof 103]

crushproof, that looks amazing! I've started a CJ some time ago, but never updated it. Mine is about recreating London, but all the roads and the madness in the roads is hard to recreate in the game. I would love to see how you do it, I love this kind of architecture and city development! I say go for it!

And that's the key issue, the roads and the anti grid layout!! Especially in the city centre. I'm hoping I have enough diagonals to make it look realistic.

I'm finding the suburbs difficult as well, as Dublin is very spread out and low rise, so managing to provide enough jobs within a commutable distance is difficult. 

I'll post a CJ tomorrow with a few teasers

[cmdp123789 710]

crushproof, that looks amazing! I've started a CJ some time ago, but never updated it. Mine is about recreating London, but all the roads and the madness in the roads is hard to recreate in the game. I would love to see how you do it, I love this kind of architecture and city development! I say go for it!

And that's the key issue, the roads and the anti grid layout!! Especially in the city centre. I'm hoping I have enough diagonals to make it look realistic.

I'm finding the suburbs difficult as well, as Dublin is very spread out and low rise, so managing to provide enough jobs within a commutable distance is difficult. 

I'll post a CJ tomorrow with a few teasers

Well I can offer you a solution to that. I've been trying out different ways of doing so and I managed to never again have problems with suburbs and work. If you are interested, PM me and I will teach you how to do it, or in fact, work with you to offer different solutions. I've been playing since 2003 and there are some tricks that even the old dogs can learn, and I could probably learn some from you.

Anyways, PM me if you are interested, if not, Im pretty sure you will find a way too =)

[Ltw 401]

Well, here are some of the 'photos', of one of the fluvial ports where this approach has been done.

In the first image, the northeastern access to the port (land is here southeast of water). Its a zig-zag ramp done with a RHW-2 slope mod and then redone with a normal road. The altitude diference is around 30 meters (the minimum diference to make ferry-compatible bridges). I haven't finished the cliff covering, but it's a detail.

 

In the second image, we move to the right (west) and have a view of the rest of the port: there is the freight rail terminal in the upper right side of the image, and a rail tunnel in the upper left side connects it to the port (in fact, that short line is operated more like a freight funicular). Also, there is another pair of road accesses, done in the same way the first one is: with a slope mod. The difference is that there are no curves.

 

The third image shows the same focal point, but rotated: the road access pass over the rail terminal and connects itself to the normal road network. The scope of the image cannot show us the beggining of the freight funicular, but is around 120 meters at the south (here, left), and is connected to the normal rail network.

 

That looks really great Matias! This really gives me inspiration for my harbor. I have a question, what kind of embankment set are you using in the second and third picture? I am looking for some nice industrial ones for a while.

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

Played a little bit during the July 4th weekend.

On a side note, my post count seems to have decreased by about 300 since the site overhaul. Wonder what happened there?

[matias93 7,535]

Well, here are some of the 'photos', of one of the fluvial ports where this approach has been done.

In the first image, the northeastern access to the port (land is here southeast of water). Its a zig-zag ramp done with a RHW-2 slope mod and then redone with a normal road. The altitude diference is around 30 meters (the minimum diference to make ferry-compatible bridges). I haven't finished the cliff covering, but it's a detail.

 

In the second image, we move to the right (west) and have a view of the rest of the port: there is the freight rail terminal in the upper right side of the image, and a rail tunnel in the upper left side connects it to the port (in fact, that short line is operated more like a freight funicular). Also, there is another pair of road accesses, done in the same way the first one is: with a slope mod. The difference is that there are no curves.

 

The third image shows the same focal point, but rotated: the road access pass over the rail terminal and connects itself to the normal road network. The scope of the image cannot show us the beggining of the freight funicular, but is around 120 meters at the south (here, left), and is connected to the normal rail network.

 

That looks really great Matias! This really gives me inspiration for my harbor. I have a question, what kind of embankment set are you using in the second and third picture? I am looking for some nice industrial ones for a while.

Those are the marvelous Marrast Enbankments (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1700), revamped for industrial purposes by Barbyw (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1773). Just check to download ALL the dependencies, or you will be losing a lot of nice pieces, and getting some ugly huge brown boxes in your ports instead.

  Edited July 7, 2015 by matias93  

[SUPERMESSI 294]

Played a little bit during the July 4th weekend.

On a side note, my post count seems to have decreased by about 300 since the site overhaul. Wonder what happened there?

Amazing Far!

[Artimus 485]

It never ceases to amaze me how much creativity you guys seem to put in your city works. All round good job guys! 

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

In the process of making a coal power plant for one of the multi-tile cities under construction in my region. Frankly, I never thought it would get this large...

A pylon with a 'no power' zot is the definition of irony if I ever saw one...

[citycowboy 183]

[Ltw 401]

I've put my harbor-project on hold for a while. I thought I should get some more experience with hills and embankments before coping with the large height-difference in my harbor-city. I'm doing this with some residential projects and commercial projects in a neighboring city. I've built this city a long time ago and I didn't quite like it. The atmosphere in the city was quite nice and I liked the different building-heights but it lacked a bit of realism. Mainly the steep hills in this city were the problem. I didn't use a slope-mod either. This way it was easier to cope with the steep hills but it didn't look very great. Now I'm reorganising a lot of neighborhoods in this city. The result is quite nice I think.

This residential neighborhood is almost finished. On the left side of the image there is still some work to do. I'm putting that on hold for a while untill I know what to do with the HSR, I might connect the HSR to other parts of the city which could cause a lot of trouble or I could leave it the way it is. I'm not quite sure which option I like better.

I've just started with this neighboring area (the image is rotated 190 degrees). This is quite challenging because the hills are much steeper. Roads and streets need to be replaced and walls need to be placed properly. The two projects above are the most urgent but there are still some areas in this city that could be reorganized.

  Edited July 12, 2015 by Ltw  

[Artimus 485]

That is some serious hill grades to build structures on! I cannot imagine trying to drive up those steep hills without having my car breakdown midway!  I think a slope mod could suit you, if you are trying to smooth the rough hillside (highly recommended). Also, I see there is some repetition of the same buildings, something that could be worked on, if you have the means to do it, as it would look much better in a aesthetic/realistic sense. Otherwise, it is a good build! 

[Ltw 401]

That is some serious hill grades to build structures on! I cannot imagine trying to drive up those steep hills without having my car breakdown midway!  I think a slope mod could suit you, if you are trying to smooth the rough hillside (highly recommended). Also, I see there is some repetition of the same buildings, something that could be worked on, if you have the means to do it, as it would look much better in a aesthetic/realistic sense. Otherwise, it is a good build! 

That's true, there is still some room for improvement. I usually choose to let the city grow in a dynamic way. This could lead to some repetition, maybe I could download some more buildings on the STEX to avoid that. I'm already using a slope-mod by the way. The roads that are very steep were built when I didn't have one yet.

Anyway, I have made some process with the area in the second picture in my post above. This is the result:

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Some good approaches here! Using embankments near stations and at the absolutely steepest spots makes sense IMO, while simple forested slopes are a good choice for residential areas. Remember that you can also draw roads alongside a slope, right on the sloping row of tiles. This will automatically create a road with a vertical embankment and a guard rail along the slope. 

That HSR station (or more precisely, the way you integrated it into the surroundings) is wonderful! I'd use one set of embankments coherently, though, but that's just me, of course.

In any case, thank you for sharing these pictures! They show some interesting building going on, and I enjoyed looking at them a lot.

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

Shameless rip-off of nos.17's wider, more realistic parking lot style . Going to take some time to get used to it.

  Edited July 13, 2015 by kingofsimcity