Yes! It's Possible!

[Catchin22 299]

Many people have been wondering, "Is it REALLY possible to build a realistic town on 2k x 2k map sizes?!"

 

I set out on a mission to find out, the results are in!

 

 

 

The answer is YES! Welcome to the town of Pie Hole! Named after the first phrase uttered here by our current mayor to his wife "Martha! SHUT YOUR PIEHOLE!"

Here we can see Pie Hole Town Hall, Pie Hole Police Department and the Pie Hole Fire Department. Sleepy Pie Hole has its problems with Arson, we average about 6 fires a day! Sims always have something to entertain them here! Grab a Bud Light and head on down to a local house fire, don't forget your lawn chairs!

 

Welcome to Pie Hole park, a great place to send your kids... to pick up your drugs.

 

 

Appropriately named.

 

Very photogenic. Don't worry about finding a gas station, we got 10 of them right on Main St.!

 

 

The local train station is a great way to get away ASAP.

 

Pie Hole is a great town which 8,067 people call their home, but most people call it "A great place to buy Meth!" The only thing missing is a Walmart to supply us with wife beaters.

So yes, you can build a realistic typical small town America. And although I would have liked to have a bit more space so my sims didn't have to breath toxic industrial fumes, that's just the price they have to pay to live here.

Seriously though, I did have fun building it and enjoyed watching it grow. But I really think I should be able to build 5-6 of these towns with space for a city on a single lot.

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Mod Edit: Please refrain from using mask swearing or abusive language, as stated in the site rules. Thanks

[frdrcklim 139]

That was a nice town. You should post that in the city journals section.

[Board_Marshal 104]

It looks nice despite your description of it being a backwoods, meth manufacturing cesspool.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Nice one Catchin22, the most realistic settlement I've seen in this game!

[idcaf 65]

Town looks gorgeous. Realistic? I don't think so. You'll have to make a lot of serious explainings to do as to why there are no farms in nearby grass-lands. No, meth is not the right answer. Yes, there exist many open grassy/forresty plains, just not in the vicinity of towns/cities.

[commanderkai 38]

Reminds me of Harlan County on Justified. The city looks great.

[Catchin22 299]

Reminds me of Harlan County on Justified. The city looks great.

Thanks. I have to say I am actually enjoying playing this game more as a Town Builder. It also starts to make more sense and I am really starting to think they started the game off this way as well and at some point said "lets give it sky scrapers and call it SimCity, that will help sales"

 

I still see giant potential in the game if they can get their act together. Map sizes need to increase 4x at MINIMUM. Under / Over passes, bridges need added. Modding needs opened to the community. I don't care if EA / Maxis has a micro store and sells models / add-ons I will gladly buy good stuff, but the community should be able to fully mod everything as well. All the little glitches need fixed, somebody needs to redesign nearly every single park because they look AWFUL. It seriously feels released way way too early in a lot of respects.

 

Here are some more photos of my town. I'll probably build mostly only towns from now on since it's the only way to make anything realistic looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kosh22 4]

Love Piehole. Fab and a nice look to it too.

 

If you play this as SimTown then this works fairly well. As a person who does live in a town rather than city I am quite happy to build 10k-20k towns in this sim. Others prefer skyscrappers. Each to their own I guess.

[TuPhat 27]

I love it!   That's the most realistic looking 'city' I've seen.   I want to buy a house there.  

[jpsurratt2005 4]

EA/Maxis should really consider a building exchange where creators can upload their creations and sell them to players for around $.25, letting EA/Maxis make 5 cents or so per download.  The creators could make money, and so could EA.

 

I'd buy it all day!

[RodFlanders 4]

Great thread. I'm totally going to give this a shot!

[ItsShane 18]

I love this little town you made. It's not a city though, but it's still really nice.

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Regardless of what the OP has said... yeah, those are, hands down, some of the best SC2013 screen shots I've seen to date. Thank god for that photo filter...

 

Pics like that give me hope that with enough modding and 3rd party re-engineering we could, one day, get an awesome game out of this.

 

Free and open modding is essential to achieving this though. Hopefully, after Maxis's DLC revenue has all dried up, they'll have the common sense to release free to use BAT-type tools. Paying 25c on some sort of official exchange for a building created by a 3rd party modder will only lead the game to a premature death.

[jacksunny 741]

Easily some of the best SC2013 pictures I have seen yet. Terrific job!

[MandelSoft 2,769]

SimCity 2013 seems to do its job well when it comes to town building as you've demonstrated. However, when you start to think bigger, things go wrong and as you said, you most definitely need larger maps to make that work...

[max22 5]

Nice looking town and city!

 

I am really enjoying this game.

[Snacko 5]

Love this city.

[Catchin22 299]

Thanks for the comments, did not expect that but it made my day. I am a semi-pro photographer so that probably helps a bit (rule of thirds and all) though no control over DOF and such. Anyhow, thanks! I think I am going to make a lot of towns. Maybe we can get a "show us your town" thread going.

[Snacko 5]

Which Region map did you use for this Catch?

[Tameron 8]

This is beautiful. Did you plan it in advance or did you just build it out of your head? I always try to build something more curvy and realistic, and still end up with a pretty basic square road layout...

[Catchin22 299]

This is beautiful. Did you plan it in advance or did you just build it out of your head? I always try to build something more curvy and realistic, and still end up with a pretty basic square road layout...

 

Thanks! I didn't really plan anything in advance. I wish there were a nice valley map so I could make a tucked away village.

 

Which Region map did you use for this Catch?

Traviata Knoll on Viridian Woods region.

[mtb324 3]

Stupid question probably but how did you get all those trees tucked in there like that?  Is it with that one tree tool in the parks menu?  I tried that and for 50 sims per I got it to lay down virtually nothing in terms of trees...

[Catchin22 299]

Yeah, that's using the same tool. They really need space, if there's not enough space you don't get a single tree. I don't really like the tool, you should be able to lay down trees one by one wherever you want.

[Cottoncandy Cyanide 145]

Absolutely wonderful! It's nice to see such a cute little town~.

[moaku 74]

not that realistic...

Your town looks like a small village...

In real life, how many small villages of that size have you seen with an avenue? or even with more than 2 lanes roads ?

And how many small villages like that have you seen connected to the highway irl ?

And how many are ONLY connected to the highway and has no other exit to another town ?

just sayin...

[donpost 17]

That is brilliant

[XGundam26X 2]

not that realistic...

Your town looks like a small village...

In real life, how many small villages of that size have you seen with an avenue? or even with more than 2 lanes roads ?

And how many small villages like that have you seen connected to the highway irl ?

And how many are ONLY connected to the highway and has no other exit to another town ?

just sayin...

Umm.....Have you ever been to America, There are plenty of small towns with avenues, I live in a town of a little over 6,000 with an avenue and one stop light. And here we don't call any villages unless it's apart of the actual name of the town, or atleast in Alabama, everything is either a town, city, metro

[Phenom Anon 3]

Long time reader, first time poster.

This post was the shot of creativity I've been looking for. I'm not one to play by raw numbers alone and this strikes the balance I've been looking for. The aesthetic is as as beautiful as it is stunning. Incredibly pleasing to the eye. 

I created this account to say, Thank You! 

 

:-)

[RodFlanders 4]

Thanks to this thread I've created a region that includes multiple small towns like this, each serving a unique purpose within the region.

Mine doesn't look as cool, but trying to keep a town small yet efficient certainly adds depth to the game!

[jamn69 5]

Great pics, and lovely town, What kind of graphics card are you using? My game doesn't look that good at all!