Cities Designed with Acurate Historic Origins

[flyers70 2]

I love studying urban design and renewal and so of course I have always adored sim city throughout my life. However the idea of creating a perfect city from scratch bores me. All of my favorite cities are old cities. I love studying how cities have evolved and changed with the times. Sure it's easy to lay out a public transit system when you plan the whole thing out before there's even a single person living in your city... but what interests me is adapting a new transit system to a centuries old city. Being forced to try and build highways and highspeed rail lines through dense centuries old urban neighborhoods in cities that were originally designed in a time where a high speed train wasn't even fathomable.

To make sim city more appealing to my very particular interest, I start of building my cities using a street grid and public transit system reminiscent of turn of the 19th century American cities. From there I add trains, and suspension bridges, and air ports and etc as my city grows through time. My favorite thing to do is to actually look at an old map of a city like Boston and Philadelphia from around 1800 and do my best to build that city, then convert it to what the city looked like in 1850, and 1900 etc, until eventually I get the city in its present form, with all of its infrastructure and history and baggage and try to further update it to my vision of what the city should be doing in the future.

Is there anyone else who builds like this? Is there anyone else who finds the unique pleasure in undertaking massive public works projects in your already existing cities?

The biggest problem with building like this is that it's not totally possible. Although I could be laying out a believable 1800s city my sims will still drive cars and build modern buildings. Would it be possible for a mod to limit the amount of technology available at any given time in the game?

[packersfan 666]

I would suggest checking out New SorGun. SimCoug has built a very nice 1800s style community...and he had no cars! My play style is similar to yours. I try to build a city without thinking of the bigger modern picture...forget about leaving space for future freeways. I recently added freeways to my region and it is a pain in the butt, because the city was not designed with space for them, so I have to tear things up, make the freeway avoid other things, etc. It makes for a much more interesting city than pre-planned.

[flyers70 2]

I would suggest checking out New SorGun. SimCoug has built a very nice 1800s style community...and he had no cars! My play style is similar to yours. I try to build a city without thinking of the bigger modern picture...forget about leaving space for future freeways. I recently added freeways to my region and it is a pain in the butt, because the city was not designed with space for them, so I have to tear things up, make the freeway avoid other things, etc. It makes for a much more interesting city than pre-planned.

wow, new SorGun is incredible. Is there any place where I could find a tutorial on how to build a city that doesn't use cars???

[PaulSawyer 219]

I also love building cities in such a way. Once I even tried to make a historical CJ where main idea was to show the city growing and developing through the history. It's really interesting and not so impossible as ST and SC4D are full of historycal modds. But it needs a lot of time wich I don't actually have, and this is the main problem I think.

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

wow, new SorGun is incredible. Is there any place where I could find a tutorial on how to build a city that doesn't use cars???

There's unfortunately no way to make it so that you can make a "completely" carless city; Residential zoning requires it, otherwise they'll become abandoned.

Although there's this, it just hides much of the main transit systems by using Subway instead.

[packersfan 666]

Well, you could turn off automata...get some street mods that change the looks...and get lots of lots that don't have cars parked on them.

[Hieronymus 42]

I like that way of playing Simcity. Couple of weeks ago, I started rebuiliding Manhattan, NYC, beginning in the early 19s. It's easy though, cause of the grid system. But there are still some difficult things, like the tram system in combination with the elevated system. (NAM does not including all the parts i need) Right now, I'am round the 40s with beautiful highrise coming up. Soon I have to demolish some great buildings for the FDR East River Drive which was build in the 50s.

So, yes I also build like you. And the changing urban landscape has always attracted my attention. That's why I like this game.

BTW, love the CJ's of New Sorgun, just like the District of Wenzel updates

[grstudios 188]

Hi flyers70, I also have a CJ to tell you about: It's called "Boston v2" and the builder is CSGDesign. Although that CJ is defunct, it's still lovely tolook at it and draw some ideas. On the contrary to your style, CSGDesign did not focus on modding the city to have an older look, yet followed the natural development concept. You can find "Boston v2" at CSGDesign's site and at SC4Devotion.

Secondly, I too build in that style, even though I find it very time consuming. Only for the real devotees!

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

Hi flyers70, I also have a CJ to tell you about: It's called "Boston v2" and the builder is CSGDesign. Although that CJ is defunct, it's still lovely tolook at it and draw some ideas. On the contrary to your style, CSGDesign did not focus on modding the city to have an older look, yet followed the natural development concept. You can find "Boston v2" at CSGDesign's site and at SC4Devotion.

Secondly, I too build in that style, even though I find it very time consuming. Only for the real devotees!

Was just about to mention this. He builds out at a rate of +1 tile radius every 30 game years, so there is a thriving city, suburbs encroach only on the virgin forest when needed.

As a result, there is little regional road structure, but it does get regularised over time.

[jwsteele 77]

This is how I like to play as well. I am currently working on a city with an alternate historic origin, that started as a British fur trading settlement off the coast of Northern California. I am up to about 84,000 residents across the region, although I sort of half it mentally, to 42,000, because Sim City building capacities are wildly exaggerated. Roads that were formerly cut throughs in the woods are now streets, and farms are subdivided into neighborhoods. Not only do you have to be more creative with public transport, but the public transport also happens naturally....instead of putting, say, a large commercial zone at the end of the rail line, the rail line ends up at the large commercial zone because that's where everybody needs to go...hope that makes sense!

The early street patterns are based off of Sydney, a contemporary British settlement, and as the city becomes Americanized and undergoes the gold rush, the streets will become more grid like.

[robloxkiller 25]

im working on a city that has another alternate historical milestone, the construction of the interstate highway system and its influx of new advancements

as the interstate moved through the city the population shifted to the outskirts and suburbs of my city,bayview

[SimCoug 5,972]

Thanks for the kind words packersfan, flyers70 and jeroentje.

@flyers70 - It is very possible to recreate a period in history - it just comes down to how much time and effort you want to spend. All the sims in my towns use cars and walk (it's just part of the simulation) but you can get around that by turning off the automata, and re-loting the parked cars away. The SAM can help turn paved roads into believable pre-automobile transportation networks, and there are plenty of great BATs to simulate 19th century buildings. Maxis blockers can remove any modern buildings you don't want, but be sure you have plenty of custom buildings to take their place, or you will have a tough time growing a workable town/city.

Hope that helps a bit - I'd be happy to answer any more questions. As it has been pointed out, there are other great CJ's to get inspiration from as well - that's what I did before I decided to start New SorGun. This community is incredibly creative, so if you are running into problems, chances are somebody else has already figured out a solution.

[Cob92 360]

wow, new SorGun is incredible. Is there any place where I could find a tutorial on how to build a city that doesn't use cars???

There's unfortunately no way to make it so that you can make a "completely" carless city; Residential zoning requires it, otherwise they'll become abandoned.

Although there's this, it just hides much of the main transit systems by using Subway instead.

What about putting the NAM in Park and Ride mode, and then not building any parking structures at all?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I just love the way people like to push boulders uphill. The game is not designed for this, and you will expend rather a lot of energy finding this out. The basis of transportation in this program is the automobile. Love it or hate it, that's the way it is. Have fun.

[jns 3]

wow, new SorGun is incredible. Is there any place where I could find a tutorial on how to build a city that doesn't use cars???

There's unfortunately no way to make it so that you can make a "completely" carless city; Residential zoning requires it, otherwise they'll become abandoned.

Although there's this, it just hides much of the main transit systems by using Subway instead.

What about putting the NAM in Park and Ride mode, and then not building any parking structures at all?

I've tried this while ago. Well yes, it works. Meaning that you will indeed get rid of cars, but it seems to cause some major issues...

At first everything worked just fine, until population reached 20,000 and development stopped completely. I ran simulation few years after this happened, trying everything I could possibly think of. I was able to get some growth by plopping parks, but at the same time noticed abandonment elsewhere. Population stayed roughly the same. So clearly it got something to do with traffic (or lack of it).

Next I did a little test and opened traffic simulator exemplar in reader. Switched 'travel type generates traffic' for pedestrians to 'true'. After this population increased within a game year by 2000 without any new zoning. So, my conclusion is, that theres correlation between amount of traffic and population.

Also found out that pedestrians don't count as customers. This seems to be the case even when they contribute to traffic.

In a nut shell: carless city = bad idea

[Fadoobada 0]

I enjoy building like this, and watching cities develop over time, comparing screnshots.

I don't go for the 1800's style, I just like to build a small rural village, and watch it develop, spead out, and slowly go high rise. As new roads are added, old roads are revitalised.

I enjoy realigning roads, so there is a visible history of the previous route, if you know what I mean (eg. re routing an avenue around a budy shopping area, and placing a large pedestrian mall.

I also keep plenty of remnants in my city.