Peyto: From wheat fields to skylines

[Ovidiu 0]

This is my second City Journal. My first was a wash, as I didn't really have enough time to play Simcity. I enjoy the planning and building alot more than the economics, so I use the grandfather project cheat, super-demand mods, and no-pollution mod. None of these are necessary, but make it easier for me to concentrate on getting my hands, er, dirty

One city is developed so far; I take the longest time to work on regions:

[oroen 0]

Looks like a nice start, and I can see some interesting usage of canals from here. I like the little power plant thing by the river... seems like an appropriate place for it. And I haven't played the game for economics in ages...

[Ovidiu 0]

The little town of Jackson (upper left): a favorite among flower growers. Several commercial operations grow tulips and roses here; daily tours woo and awe the tourists...The brisk flower business has made Jacksonites very prosperous. Several mansions are nestled in the fields.




Elsa is a working class town east of Jackson. Its proximity to the busy (and noisy) airport and poor road access means that Jackson Valley's poor scratch out a living here....




Peyto is mostly medium-density development. Cornered by angry farmers who saw their fields gobbled up by the Never Enough LLC group, the city council adopted a strict growth boundary. Builders retaliated by reaching for the sky.

[Ovidiu 0]

Thanks for the comments I haven't played in awhile and am by no means an expert; any comments are appreciated!


Moving forward to the large plant on the shores- This is the Petro Works of Peyto. When PW first showed up and got a permit for construction of a distillation facility of undetermined size, farmers thought they were talking about 90 proof, not 89 octane. Their eager approval turned to sullen dismay when the facility took shape on the Peyto River. Secretly, Peyto contracters blame PW for the backlash against development.





They're not saying much, however. Petro Works commissioned Never Enough LLC to build a transfer terminal on the Peyto Canal. Barges take on gasoline and light oils here and run them to far-away markets.




The locks are the secret to prosperity in Jackson Valley. Constructed in 1957, they gave farmers a cheap way to transport their produce to those far-away markets. There are two levels to be run, and passing through them is terrifying for even the most experienced captain.

[Ovidiu 0]

Jackson junction, after the main canal heads for the Peyto River:

The narrow channel makes boaters nervous......after visiting senator Mark Polk fired his lunch into the water while touring the system on a yacht (!), Peyto Water Authority prohibited any craft longer than 30ft from travelling out of the commercial lanes. Oops, there goes the dinner on the water. Although Mark was very much in support of the petro-terminal at Peyto, he's not about to sail in the commercial channel and eat lunch with a flare-tower in the background.



Fall is my favorite season.....just north of Jackson, Bloomington Road crosses another canal that allows small pleasure craft to lay anchor just outside city limits.

[Ovidiu 0]

There will be no updates today; I'm at school until 10 I will be posting alot more tomorrow. Please leave comments/critiques if you view my journal.

Thanks!

[Nardo69 51]

Hey, the overview and the farms areas look great! A really nice rural area! And your use of the Channels and PEG's seasonal trees is just great.

However I can see some basic things to improve. The first, most cha(lle)nging one is get a slope mod. Look especially at the street and the railway in that industrial area.
Especially railways are VERY sensitive to slopes and have ALLWAYS smooth slopes. Your roads and steets will look better, too. If you don't find one, there is a link to the BRF TunnelAndSlope Mode on page 7 in my CJ, just check my sig.

Next step is do some necessary terraforming in your towns and your industrial areas. Let the area be hilly, I like it, too, but flatten out the seddlements a bit. And with a slope mod terraforming will show better results.

Last one for today: railways. I don't know if I mentioned it before but I LOVE RAILWAYS!
Trains need switches at terminus statıon so that the engine can go to the other end of the train. While this has changed a bit with modern passenger trains freight trains still need to change the ends of the trains at terminus statıons. And trains need space. Look on the omnibus for meinhosen's great railyard tutorial and you know what I mean.

I hope I could help you making your nice CJ a little bit nicer!

Nardo

[Pixelrage 34]

very nice stuff....do those lights along the canal edge come WITH the canal? I haven't played around with it yet, but it looks cool.

[Mikeaut1 261]

Looks like a nice start. Love the ruralness.

[jacqulina 162]

great start love the farms great canal and nice pics

[Ovidiu 0]

@Nardo69

Thanks for the suggestions....I downloaded those files (as well as a bunch of other enhancements) and will play with them tonight. The petro-works rail lines look that way because they use a NAM bridge across 2 sunken pipelines. I don't like the look either; maybe I will run the pipes level. Good point about the switches....this gives me an excuse to run another bridge across the canal


@Pixelrage

Yes, the lights come with the canal....these are PEG's canals. Absolutely brilliant work, if you ask me. I think I will try the (I think they were BSC) canals in the more urban areas. They seem to have alot of built in bridge options. Working with NAM crossings in urban areas might look a bit out of place.


I started out playing really mountainous regions, and I've got to say that it's really tough, especially if you want canals and such. After trying PEG's set, I'm hooked

[texanpride786 2]

this is an awesome start.....keep it up and lets hope you get time this time that you can actually finish this and most of the people on simtropolis use cheats....dont they?

[CltcDrgn 0]

Totally awesome rural areas!  I have recently begun redoing some of my rural towns, and I love what you are doing.  Keep up the GREAT work!

[Ovidiu 0]

Petro Works

Petro-Works of Peyto
(From the company information pamphlet)
Founded in 1946, Petro-Works is about innovation..... to enable our customers to find solutions to their problems.

The refinery complex at Peyto River Locks.



Main fraction towers and power plant complex.



The pipe plant. Nearly a hundred people work here, controlling the numerous plant pipelines and the line that transfers petroleum to the mini-refinery at Port of Peyto.

[Ovidiu 0]

Yes, it's the CEO's condo. After successful political maneuvering and skillful PR won him the right to build his plant in Peyto, Mr. Edward Pollock decided to reward the city again, this time with the gift of himself. He bought the last vancant spot in Peyto and commissioned a mid-rise condo with clear views of his empire and much cleaner air than his workers enjoy. Local hawkeyes comment occasionally on that fat white man sunning himself by the roof pool.



Never one to sit on his laurels, he also hired Never Enough LLC to build the Port of Peyto Petro-Works terminal. Note the two Abrams tanks and troop carriers in the parking lot. Mr. Pollock wants Peyto residents to know that Freedom

[Ovidiu 0]

Where: Petro-Works, Peyto Canal Refinery Complex
When: 1AM at night, when the fat guards are asleep


Hand me those wire-cutters, John. I don't want to be up here forever. John shakily handed the tool to his companion. He hated heights, and at 300ft above the ground on the plant's main exhaust tower, ground was faaaar away. No matter. After Jacob and he were done with tonight's chemistry in action, Mr. Pollock would have more to worry about than whether to take the stretch Hummer to the grocery store.

Jacob cut and stripped the wires and handed back the wire-cutters to John. The bomb was nearly finished. In about 2 hours, it would blow the top of the stack into smithereens, destroying the stack filters and forcing the plant to close until repairs could be made (at least three months!). With the last wire attached to the timer, John said, We can go now. They took 15 minutes to climb down the ladder and sneak past the guards (still asleep).

[Ovidiu 0]

It didn't go as planned, of course. At 3am that morning, the bomb exploded and not only blew the stack filters, but ignited the gases that were absorbed by the filters. A huge fireball took out the whole exhaust stack and jettisoned burning debris for a quarter mile radius. Plant fire personnel quickly extinguished several small blazes set off by burning debris. This farmer was not so lucky:




Fire engines on their way to douse the last hot spot:

[Ovidiu 0]

The news the next day:

[DarkLoki 0]

Nice rural area you have there!

[toxicpiano 125]

i like a lot!

[le_harv 4]

Good start mate but not sure i want to ride that rollercoaster train you got going there lol

[Micah 16]

Great use of the seasonal trees with the farms and canals. For some reason your CJ reminds me of Main-Danube. Interesting news!

[Abc987 3]

Kinda cool. Nice story, nice picture qaulity, oh great industrial. Suites me! Keep up the good work my friend

[choco1 4]

Beautiful city, the area looks delightful adn I will definately follow this CJ!

[Fabiocb 1]

quite interesting, the rural areas look really nice, I'm waiting for more.

[Ovidiu 0]

Glad you guys like it. I fooled around a bit today with diagonal streets (didn't know for the life of me how to use them until I read another post, hehe)

Now a Highway 2 Photojournal. Highway 2 crosses into Jackson Valley at the beginning of the canal system (north of Jackson) and currently terminates just south of Peyto Warning: this Photojournal has approx. 3/4MB of images....Dialup users please be patient:

The journal was shot at night and proceeds from the north end to the south end at Peyto:






Here you can see the pumping system that fills irrigation ditches from the canal.



Truckers hate the abrupt corners on those bridges, but the only other option is a bumpy ride through Elsa:



I love those flower fields





Jackson Valley Fire Station......they maintain an airstrip at Port of Peyto ever since Petro-Works moved in and donated $50,000 toward the construction costs. Note the rather abrupt end of the canal against Peyto.....I haven't decided yet where it will go from here. I warned you at the beginning of the journal that I like to go slow and easy





Current Highway 2 terminus:



Your journey today:

[jacqulina 162]

great work love what you have done so far,the pics are great especially the night pics

[jacqulina 162]

great work love what you have done so far the night pics are very nice

[jacqulina 162]

very nice what you have done so far love the night pics

[Ovidiu 0]

Thanks for your comments; glad you like it!

New city, Deer Park. Currently at ~7000 population. This city is more suburban than Jackson or Peyto.

Business district. I installed the tar-sealed streets mod. Wonderful stuff, but no textures for the diagonal streets or NAM roundabouts, so I have yet to decide if I like the patchwork look:


Suburbia:








Started working with PEG's stream kit:


Highway 2 East just before the Wilson Hill passing lane.



I've been trying to emulate the tree-line streams we get in the valleys: