The Principality Of Tantico Entry 36: The Rubic Incident: Nearing a Verdict!

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

 

Schulmanator: Thanks, though extensive may be pushing it a bit but it's certainly better than before.

 

Rd.Bppm: Thanks and I'm glad I can make vanilla sim city look awesome as I'm having tonnes of fun with it. The sprawl is slowly, well sprawling outwards, may have to show some suburbs of the built up areas again soon as several areas have seen a suburb boom lately.

 

Dannibee: Glad your loving the vanilla journal and you feel that I've got natural growth done correctly as its definitely my favourtie growth style.

 

 

Entry 19: Bus Trip (Part 2)

Hey guys, back again for part two of our bus journey through the region, next stop the Lady Francis Hospital. Not the busiest station in the city but still a rather useful one.

The next stop takes us out of the harbour area and into the town area. Pulling up at the Wytun Road stop which backs on to a small low rise neighbourhood in a sea of mid rise buildings. Interestingly it's also one of the busiest stations on route due to its positioning on a busy T-junction.

Then we reach the third of our main stops on the route, College Road Com. District. As previosuly stated this is the largest concentration of commercial in the region, the small bus stop hidden in amongst the offices and stores.

Next up we reach the end of the development with the second of our College road stops. As you can see the development hasn't gone as vertical as the college end of district.

Then we move out of the town out of the town but before we leave there's the Chilton Industrial Park Road stop. Placed just outside the redeveloped industrial estate this image shows how the town has grown around the estate which once sat away from residential development.

Ellington Road is the next stop. Situated on the edge of the growing town, this isn't the busiest stop mainly due to the fact that its pretty close to the next stop which is the main one for Ellington and  therefore, more central.

(Please also note that there's a error on the Bus Route image which says that this stop connects to the TCL which is wrong as it obviously connects to the ECL being in Ellington and all)

Finally our last stop for this update is Ellington Central. This area has just received water after being connected to the Tantico Town pumps and as such, looks a lot different to when we last looked at it.

That's all for the second leg of the bus journey. Join me next time when we finish up the route to Salen, but till then, I'll leave you with this image of some mostly low wealth row housing with the mast for the Tantico FM broadcasting building in the foreground.

Till next time

Jay Goodrick

 

[tshirt23 75]

Good job on this CJ!  I really like how that last pic looks - the Tantico town row housing .

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

tshirt23: Thanks, I'm glad your enjoying the city journal. I also like that last pciture as well with all the row housing. I think it has a very urban feel.

Entry 20: Bus Trip (Part 3)

Right today we complete our leg of the National Express bus journey, concentrating on the rural side of the trip. First off today we leave Ellington via the Market Road where another two stops are located. The first as you pass the farmers market.

The second at the end of the road where houses meet farmland.

For the next stop we leave Ellington behind and head off to the sleepy village of Heltan which, despite its size, actually contains two stops. The first is this one just outside the village.

The other one is this truck stop outside the village on the road to Riverbend. As you can see the motel business seems to be rather profitable going by the look of the motel rooms.

Travelling through the countryside we reach our penultimate stop in the form of Riverbend Ferry Terminal. This is also the first stub on the route, with the bus having to turn around and go back on itslef for the first time int he journey, however it was necssacary to provide a practical stop.

Finally the last stop of the journey, Salen Road. Here the bus drops off the last of its passengers and then uses the circle road (just off the top left of the picture) to turn around and start the whole journey in reverse.

Well that's it for the National Express. Obviously thats not all the bus stops in the region, next time we'll take a look at some of the city links, probably in the form of labelled overviews  but for now, as its entry 20, here's a look at the regional view so far.

Till next time

Jay Goodrick

[Benedict 3,119]

Great to have another active vanilla CJ in this section. Some great neighborhoods can be created with patience and care. The region view is great.

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

benedict: Thanks and yes, vanilla is fun for me so I'm happy posting about it.Yer I enjoy the look of the neighbourhood's as they've grown and I'm glad you like the expanding region views.

 

Entry 21: This and that

Right Jay back with several bits and pieces for you all from Tantico. Firstly as I stated last time here's some of the bus stop maps and a little bit about how the bus system works in Tantico.

Basically you can alight at any of the designated stops but can get off anywhere. Just ring the bell you'll find all over the buses and the driver will stop at the nearest and safest place. This provides a handy stop to door service that the Tanticoans seem to enjoy and due to the way the system works, it has very little impact on the congestion so its a win all around.

The other bit of news that I have regarding the buses is these two photo's of several areas of the large fold out bus stop map that cna be picked up almost anywhere in the region (mainly at bus stops,  tourist information centres and hotels)

First one show the industrial harbour area. As you can see the rings mark all the bus stops where you can baord a bus.

This image shows the area around the Tantico Harbour Ferry Terminal.

That was it for the images I took from the fold out map. The rest are pretty much all the same just coded as thier colours dictate.

--------------------

The other bit of news is regarding the redevelopment of the old cattle market in Tantico Harbour area.

With the market sat in the middle of the band of mid rise residential and commercial buildings (the stretch from the Ferry Terminal to College Road) this real estate prices had gone through the roof and with the decrease in cattle being brought to market each week it was sold off to make room for further commercial development. Below are the images taken of the redevelopment of the area.

First showing the area in question for redevelopment. As you can see surrounded by mid rise buildings.

The area after the cattle market was cleared and new roads and zoning laid down.

Finally the area as it stands now, as you can see four news businesses have taken the opportunity to make the nice piece of land their own. Hopefully though higher buildings will develop soon.

Thats all for now though. Next time I think we'll take a closer look at some of the suburbs around the region.

Till then

Jay Goodrick

[Schulmanator 5,815]

They have a very thorough bus service. That's a great asset to the community.

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

 

 

Schulmanator: Well at the moment were still finishing up the implementation in our smaller villages and towns but yes, it is a lot better than it used to be put it that way.

 

 

 

 

Entry 22: Housing Time!

Hello people, Jay Goodrick here. Thought we'd take a look at some of the different sort of housing and residential areas that you can expect to find here in Tantico. These range from the small single family dwellings all the way up to mid rise buildings with hundreds of people in them. Now although you've probably seen most of these in the previous entries we've yet to do a entry dedicated tot hem. Also seeing as we've just reached a region population of 100,000 I thought it'd be rather fitting.

------------------

Right, starting from the smallest type of housing in the smallest settlements we have our villages. This one in particular is Ilting outside of Salen Mines. Usually a cluster of farm workers around a couple of shops, these scattered communities are springing up all over the growing region. Housing here is fairly cheap due to lack of services but you can still find cheaper.

Another example of the growing villages here in Tantico is Shoreside. Although large by normal village standards, this coastal village situated to the east of Ellington is a definite place of continued growth as rich city dwellers move out of enjoy the peace and quiet and seaside living. Prices here are rather high due to the demand and quality of living and quickly rising.

Moving back inland we come across our first look at suburbs in Tantico. This picture came from the Ketin district of Tantico City and show the usual cul de sac approach to planning and growth that our developers and council have taken all over the region. As you can see, there's a mixed level of wealth in the suburbs, mainly due to people rebuilding and expanding their homes as they earn more and can afford to. These suburbs probably have the highest variation of prices in the region.

Another look at a suburb in the region, this time the former village of Chilton, which, due to continued growth has now become a suburb rather than its own village. Also note the graveyard. When the graveyard was originally sited it was on the edge of the town. Since then it has been surrounded by growth.

More housing, this time in Salen Mines. This housing was different to that in other places in the region due to it being built by a company rather than any government led council planner. As such the housing was row housing and crammed in as tight as possible. Although a number of these homes are llarger than many in the suburbs of the other towns, due tot he lack of space and the pollution from the nearby coal mine and plant, the house prices here are some of the lowest in the region.

Now we'll move into urban living and the some row houses common to what you can find in the low rise areas of town. Lots of the same designed row houses next to eachother to provide cheap and affordable housing. Not the nicest places to live in the region but its not the worst either.

The next step up in housing was more dense living in the form of apartments. Seen here surrounding the statue of Lord Admiral Holt (the Admiral of the fleet that discovered Tantico who was chosen from a list of important Tanticoan's to be immortalised after he passed away several years ago.) these apartments come in all shape and sizes as well wealth level as this image shows. The prices will depend on what sort of condition you want to live in but rest assured, the nice ones are somne of the most expensive in the region.

Unfortunately things aren't all rosey here in Tantico in regards to housing. With a lot of growth early on in Tantico Harbour as Tanticoans made more and more money, a number of high wealth mid rises were built to accommodate them. However rising pollution levels and the previous congestion problems meant that a lot of them moved further into Tantico Town itself leaving their mid rises behind. These were then occupied in greater numbers by lower wealth residents. As such a number of buildings have become slightly run down as the residents can't afford the upkeep. However due to how many people the buildings house, the government have yet to come up with a suitable solution to re-housing them so they've left them there, at least until they start the Harbourside Redevelopment Project.

Finally, so we don't end on a bad note, here are the Terrace Towers. The housing of the rich and famous here in Tantico, these two towers have the most expensive property prices in the entire region. Situated near the football Stadium and College Road Commercial District, together with their rooftop pools these two buildings are currently the place to live.

With that however, this update on housing comes to an end. Hopefully you've enjoyed this little trip through Tanticp' housing options and maybe even some of the properties have piqued your interest in considering a residency in Tantico. Next time we'll move onto the commercial areas of Tantico and take a closer look at some shopping.

Till then however.

Jay Goodrick

[kj3400 178]

A nice update. It's interesting to see what they build in different situations.

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

 

 

kj3400: Thanks and I agree its interesting to watch them build what they want. I just let them build all styles and step back and watch, occasionally making certain buildings that I want to weave into the storyline historic so they stay.

 

 

 

Entry 23: Retail Therapy

Right lets see, last time was all about the housing so this time lets get some shopping done. As you'll see from this entry there's no shortage of places in Tantico to spend your cash and get a little retail therapy done.

Starting off as ever, with the smallest stores we take a look at the village shops. Here in Tantico its very rare to find a village or group of houses without at least a small corner shop to provide for the residents. One such place is the village of Elmston outside of Riverbend with its licensed cafe and a corner store, perfect for a quiet drink after tending the fields all day long or getting the weekly groceries.

Moving on we take a look at some of the retail you'll find in the smaller towns around the region. This one in particular is Henrick Bay beach and as such, contains some of the nicest boutiques and restaurants in the region.. However due to zoning laws in Henrick Bay and Henrick Point, they are set to be kept this way as vertical construction is restricted. Still that doesn't mean you can't come and enjoy a nice day at the beach with some delicious local ice cream.

The towns that don't have such restrictions however are slowly growing upwards. This can be clearly seen in Ellington where the recent connection to Tantico City water board has meant that denser buildings are starting to grow. Also note that Ellington is well known for its strip malls lining the main roads through it. This is in common with many of the seaside towns and villages but not in common with the larger more nucleated settlements in the region. This area is probably set to grow the most over the coming years as more and more of Ellington gains access to mains water.

Now to what is probably the best known and definitely oldest concentration of commerce in the region, Gregory Square. With its many shops and cafes this area held the title of CBD of Tantico City right up until the soaring land prices and limited space pushed further development into College Road and what is now the CBD for the city and region. With the new CBD developing across the city and some work being done to the Ferryside area,land prices dropped enough for new business to move into the area and homes were gradually replaced with shop until Gregory Square and Ferryside met creating one single commerce district that you can see below.

Why not come and enjoy a days shopping around the square and quay side before booking a expensive table at the top of the newly opened Raymnar Building (named after the architect, Charles Raymnar and the tall building in the centre of the mosiac) where you can enjoy the views from the regions tallest building. You can even book a stay in several small hotels and b&b's in the area if one day isn't enough

Now we move onto the CBD of Tantico City, College Road. Stretching from the newly unveiled statue of Princess Andrea (Olivers wife) all the way down to Tantico Cities (and indeed the region) premier and oldest entertainment establishment, Stout Cinemas (the cinema at the very bottom of the mosaic facing away from us), this nearly unbroken stretch of commerce includes all you'll need for a day or two spent shopping and caters for everyone, no matter the size of your wallet or purse.

Definitely the centre of attention here however is the Harring Department store. This building (the tall one just above the high school towards the bottom) is Tantico's premier shopping experience. Bought  a little while ago by Tantico's richest businessman, this former office block had it's lowest seven levels converted into a large department store for Tantico's rich and famous (OOC: think Harrods on a slightly smaller scale). Here you can find a personal shopper to help you with your retail therapy and many high class cafes as well as a restaurant or two to take a break in while exploring the huge store, maybe before heading out to Stout Cinema for the latest shows and films.

If films aren't your cup of tea or you can't afford to shop in Harring there are still plenty of shops in the main part of the CBD to do some shopping so no matter your style or needs there's something for everyone here.

Well that's it for this update. I'll leave you planning your days of retail therapy here in Tantico and if your undecided maybe this complimentary fudge from Harrings famous food hall will help?

Anyway from the glamour of shopping to the grind of the industrial engine. Next time we take a look at the heart of the country and its financial backbone, industry. Love it or hate it you can't run a country without it and that's where were heading next.

Till then let me know if you would like any complimentary fudge and I'll see you next time.

Till  next time

Jay Goodrick

 

[Shortsonfire 67]

Really like Gregory square. Looks like some place I'd actually like to hang out in real life. The lower part near the dock, with the curvy road.

Really like the highschool in the second mosaic. With the basketball and football fields it really looks natural.

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Nice place... I think I could go for some beachside shopping right about now!

[MissVanleider 1,851]

nice and tidy, got that maxis stuff looking gooood!

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

 

 

Shortsonfire: Thank, Gregory Square and Ferryside is probably my favourite commercial area in the whole region as well. Glad the school came out well as well though it's beginning to look a little dwarfed by the buildings around it.

 

Schulmanator: Thanks and if you really wanted some beachside shopping we'd be more than happy to accommodate you and the Supreme Wildre via a state visit if you ever have the chance and fancy a break. All expenses paid of course.

 

MrVanleider: Thanks, it seems that the Maxis stuff can indeed look good (well in my opinion anyway).

Entry 24: Industrial Heart

Well this will be the final one of our focus on Tantico mini series. We've had residential and commercial so that leaves us with the industrial heart of the small nation to explore.

-----------------

Now it should be no small suprise that industrial jobs make up most of the jobs on Tantico, what with its heavy emphasis on farming and exporting. True, more and more people have begun seeking employment in the many businesses and offices around the towns and Tantico City as they continue to grow but at the moment its mostly industry that employs the Tanticoans.

As for the actual employers nearly all of them are small scale factories and farms owners with only three major employers in the region. These are the Tensea Power Distribution Company who own the large natural gas power plants that provide power to Tantico City as well as a small number of the wind turbines dotted around the region. Then there's the Salem Mining Company. Headed by Prince Gregory, Prince Olivers brother, this company owns nearly all the factories and mines in both Salem and Riverbend (as well as Salem Coal Power Plant) and is the biggest employer in the region. Finally of the big three we have the quickly emerging Sustainable Forestry Inc who are quickly purchasing land to enlarge their plantations. All of the three will be seen in the update along with the rest of the industrial might of Tantico so lets begin.

Starting small as ever we take a look at some of the smaller holdings and one of the trial plantation, not of the usual Blue Fir but instead a small Oak with favourable properties, around the recently settled village of Jepin (probably the smallest village in the region) and Farwill . As you can see in the previous updates many small farms like these dot the countryside around the region, usually owned by small families.

Moving on we can see farming on the other end of the spectrum with these huge farms around the Heltan Cross junction. These large farms aren't as prolific as the smaller ones at the moment but are slowly increasing in number as the rural spread develops. Another note for the agriculture in that we mainly produce food stuffs for ourselves, relying a lot on home grown produce rather than imports. Favoured among the farmers is corn and cattle along with the usual wheat and apples. Unusually though is the few native llama farms where the llama's native to Tantico are reared to provide the Tantico delicacies of Llama pate and llama pizuers (basically a Llama steak in a folded pizza) without hurting the native population.

Moving on from agriculture we take a look at Salen Mines and the SMC's holdings. Currently the mines are still gorwing and now have seven open shafts rather than the original three. Unseen in the image below is also the continued growth of the compnaies processing area and power plant both of which are also set to grow int he comin years.

the other side of the company can be found here in Riverbend. Consisting of one of the three harbours in Tantico (here, the city harbour and a small harbour to the east of hte city) as well as the only freight line in the region. This port is a fairly busy one, shipping the coal not being used to Tantico Harbour to be exported.

Now we take a look at the one of the regions many industrial estate. This one in particular is the Chilton Industrial Estate. Originally situated on some farmland outside of Tantico City, this former manufacturing estate has seen growth both around it and in it over the last few years as more and more advanced indutries have redeveloped the previous plots to become Tantico's leading High Tech Industrial Estate. Beside this one most of the others concetrate on manufacturing .

Finally no update regarding Tantico's Industry would be complete without a look at the regions major eyesore and governmental headache, Tantico Harbour.  A huge mess of individual docks, factories, pollution and the Tensea Power Distributions largest power plant, this area has been the biggest industrial concentration since the regions settlement. However plans are being finalised too clean this area up and add proper docks for ships to use and maybe even government owned freight lines. All this is at the top of the governments priorities list so will probably be addressed very soon. For now though it'll continue to provide the headache it is.

That however is all for now. Join me next time for a slightly different type of update.

Till then

Jay Goodrick

 

[Schulmanator 5,815]

They have plenty of industry. I hope they have pollution controls in effect so they do not impact the quality of life.

[Dannibee 138]

Wow, I would not want to live anywhere near that harbour; the poor local wildlife have probably been annihilated too. I hope they can clear up that pollution soon!   

[Luiz P. Romanini 132]

Maybe if the dirty industry was placed inland...

 

Anyway, nice updates, bro!!

[Benedict 3,119]

It takes a lot of effort to give vanilla cities distinct neighborhoods. Nice work.

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

Schulmanator: Well it depends. Environment is fine if you don't want to look at the Harbour lol.

 

Dannibee: Unfournately neither do a lot of Tanticoan's, hence why we need to solve the problem and fast.

 

Luiz P. Romanini:  Thanks and there is plenty of industry inland it's just that the harbour was the original sight of Tantico's industry and due to pollution and overcrowding just never got the chance to develop meaning things continued to get worse.

 

Benedict: Thanks and I'm glad your enjoying looking at the neighbourhoods. Just scrolling around looking at areas of the city imagining that I'm in a sims perspective is one of my favourite things and some of the housing estate I imagine wouldn't look to bad.

 

Entry 25: 25th Special

Welcome everyone to what will be Tantico's most eccentric and diverse update yet. To celebrate the journal reaching 25 entries (OOC: Quite good considering I've only ever got about 5 updates in till now) I've got a number of different things for you so without further ado let's begin.

------------------------

Having reached both entry 25 and 100k in population, Prince Oliver has announced decreed that the nation needed a flag to proudly fly. As such a number of Tantico's finest art students and artists contributed a number of flag designs for the nation and although all were appreciated, it was this design by Jose Heltin that was chosen, what with Oliver and his ministers feeling it reflected Tantico best, the blue of the important coastline and brown for the important agriculture. The star was also important to the Kerin family line so it fitted perfectly.

As such were proud to present the flag of Tantico.

Also, on the subject of flags, a variant was designed for Tantico CIty, bearing a ships wheel rather than a star represented here.

Also apparently in the pipe line is the redesign of the Kerin family crest to be used by the royalty of Tantico but apparently no design has been agreed on yet.

-------------------------

Now for the second and smallest part of the update.

Having realised that I hadn't mentioned much about Oliver and his family since his succession, I'm pleased to be able to present the Kerin's family tree (since they settled Tantico). As you can see there's been births that I haven't actually mentioned but this will bring you up to date.

-----------------------

And now the biggest and most exciting part of the update. What with it being update 25 and all we've decided to do something a bit different and have a animated image of the growth of Tantico since entry six via a animated image.

As you can see the region has grown quite a bit since then and this we decided was the best way to show it. Underneath will then be another population list with all the new settlements and areas on it.

Settlement size by population:

Tantico Town

 (including Chilton Suburb):

Pop: 32,381  Com: 7,674  Ind: 4,419

Tantico Harbour area

 (including Henrick Point, Tepin Point and West Ketin):

Pop: 28,831  Com: 8,454  Ind: 8,661

Ellington:

Pop: 13,105  Com: 3,904  Ind: 2,310

Tantico Southern Seafront (Ketin)

 (not including West Ketin):

Pop: 7,204  Com: 2,512  Ind: 1,583

Salen Mines:

(including Ilting, Linham)

Pop: 4,756  Com: 1,021  Ind: 2,971

Clearwater

(including Tepin West, Jepin and Farwill):

Pop: 4,366  Com: 804  Ind: 2,172

Riverbend

(including Gidon)

Pop: 3,999  Com: 1,208  Ind: 1,812

Henrick Bay

(including Olham Hamlet):

Pop: 3,161  Com: 970  Ind: 664

Tantico City Bay:

(including Cty Bay Suburbs and Stredan-on-Sea):

Pop: 2,286  Com: 1,245  Ind: 905

Shoreside

(including Blackrock and Garton):

Pop: 1,878  Com:270  Ind: 303

Heltan Corridor

(including Tinby, Stran, Chelm and Dowling):

Pop: 1,733  Com: 233  Ind: 1,095

Tantico's Marshland's Nature Reserve

(including Marshton and Jenkin):

Pop: 1,319  Com: 482  Ind: 863

Wellridge:

Pop: 221  Com: 40  Ind: 441

Oldwood:

Pop: 187  Com: 9  Ind: 996

Arlingbury Wood's

Pop: 16  Com: 0  Ind:246

Totals

 Pop: 105,443  Com: 28,816  Ind: 29,111

---------------------

Now, with the update out of the way its time to announce my retirement. I've enjoyed documenting our small nations growth over the last updates but its now time for me to let someone younger take over the role. As such from the next update onwards your journal author will be my nephew Jamie Felding while I move out to my nice retirement house in Shoreside.

Apparently he's managed to get his hands on he plans for the harbour redevelopment so that should be good to look at.

For the last time

Goodbye from me

Jay Goodrick

[SimCoug 5,977]

You've done a great job nurturing this vanilla region!

[Schulmanator 5,815]

I like the flags. And the gif. You have made a lot pf progress. Happy 25th!

 

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

SimCoug: Thanks, lets hope I can continue to make it grow.

Schulmanator: Yay cake! I'm glad you liked the flags and GIF. I was worried the GIF wouldn't work as planned but I think it turned out pretty well.

 

 

Entry 26: Plans and Exploration

Hi Jamie here for my pleasure of my first blog entry and boy is it a important one. As my predecessor mentioned last time I'd managed to finally get my hands on the long awaited and much needed Harbour Regeneration Plan which I'll show you in a moment. Other than this I've got some images from the activity surrounding the release and announcement of the plans and also of a entirely new and fast growing town.

Most importantly though and the part of the update that we'll look at first though is that the Principality has increased in size. What with the population slowly spreading outwards from Tantico City and filling up the initial island our small nation called home we would need more land soon. As such Prince Oliver had several exploration teams head southwards, with a stance towards increasing our coastline . As you can see below they came back reporting several more islands, one of which is probably nearly the same size as our existing nation.

As such Prince Oliver had the lands claimed for the Principality and is at this moment organising trips to several of the islands that were discovered.

I'll have to link you to the governmental website for the image as I don't have a copy myself (OOC: its to large so I'll have to link it). Also as it doesn't mention it the white line marks the national boundary. Now as of yet none of the islands have a name but I sure that is currently being looked into and I'll reveal more information as and when I get it for you.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1808/zhv5.jpg

----------------------

The second part of the entry will focus on the actual plans for the harbour area.

There's not that much to say regarding it seeing as the image is annotated but I know that most of the business owners are fairly happy that they're carrying out the redevelopment in stages as this will hopefully help drive down the spikes in unemployment as various areas are worked on. Also of note is that the land reclamation, being the most expensive part of the redevelopment, will add around 75% more available space to the rather cramped harbour.

Other than that the most prominent features are the transit ones. Mostly the development of the regions first bridge to link Tepin Point and its suburbs to the rest of the city, alleviating long waiting times for the ferries. Another prominent feature is the lack of a railroad. Having no clear direction as to where the railroad should travel out from the harbour area it was cut from the final product with hopes that increased road networks will help alleviate any problems the increased amount of room will bring.

With phase one set to begin almost immediately and then then sequentially the others over a several year period, it'll be an interesting and hopefully exciting project to follow.

-------------------

Now this part will concentrate on the fallout of the plans initiation. With a number of the businesses needed to be moved out of the city due to the construction and destruction work soon to commence, new factories and in some cases whole new industrial parks ahve been sited and constructed around the region. Shown below are some of the areas currently being built on in light of this.

Interestingly though regarding the factories, is that a lot of them are government owned (by the Tantico Department of Trade (TDT)) and built as multi-purpose buildings to accommodate the displaced businesses in turns, with the building being refitted once the old displaced business has moved back into the harbour to prepare it for the next wave of displaced businesses.

Also shown here is an increase in the size of Riverbend Harbour. Funded by the TDT this will help with some of the displaced shipping from the redevelopment (along with the much smaller Stredan Harbour).

---------------

The final peice of this update is a look at the new town of Alringbury.

Situated in the area known as Alringbury Wood's. What was originally several farmsteads (owned by the Arling and Bury families, hence the woods name), is now one of the fastest growing towns in Tantico. Careful not to ruin feel od the woods around them the town and its agriculture follows the paths of the tree-lines for the most part with as minimal forest clearing as possible. As such if it continues to grow as it is, it may soon be seeing vertical growth rather than ground level spread.

Also of note is that the Sustainable Forestry Inc company have also based themselves here. With the perfect condition to grow trees, the company has set up its sawmill and nurseries here and is set to increase plantations across the nation very soon, with new species trailing in the nurseries. Unlike Salem Mines where the company own most of the town though, here the company was built after the town rather than for it. There';s also currently talks as to joining the sawmill and nurseries to the Salem Mines railroad to make use of the expanding Riverbend Harbour.

---------------------

And that all for this update. As you can see plenty of things have been happening around here lately and they don't look like there about to stop up with several things on the horizon including:

 

• Tantico Harbour Redevelopment
• National Exploration and settlement
• Continued growth all over the nation

As such join me next time as I document things here as they happen.

See you then

Jamie Felding

[Schulmanator 5,815]

That's an ambitious redevelopment plan. I think the economy will thank them later...

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

 

Schulmanator: Yup, its in stages though and is set to be one over  a long period of time so it should be fine.

 

 

 

Entry 27: Plan's underway

Jamie here with a small update to show you that the plans for the harbour are being acted upon and finally something is being done about it and not just on paper. Luckily I managed to get some pictures of it as it developed to the stage its at now. Stage one is all but finished with the land finally going up for sale and the factory owners displaced looking to move back into the area. Below are the several pictures that I managed to get.

-----------------

As you can see from these images the plan was changed a little bit, what with the lack of the pier at the end of the land reclamation. Apparently their currently in talks about this but for now there happy to leave it as it is.

Another feature they were quick to install and set up was the seaport. Although the area was yet to actually be built on the port has been active since the roads were installed and has meant that the Harbour now has a dedicated port to ship out of rather than a series of separated docks, which greatly pleases the factory managers.

Other than that the area has developed as they said it would and is now surrounded and shored up by a natural looking seawall. Will be interesting to see it with development on it so will have to get some pictures of that for you next time.

------------------

Other than that the region has seen some growth around Tantico City mainly in the East Ketin area as coastal farmland is redeveloped into more and more suburbs (along witht he occasional shopping area). Here's and image of the designated areas being bought and built upon including in the middle, the seaside commercial strip. Interestingly enough there has been talk of some docks and factories being put into this area but being open to the elements nothing has been acted on as of yet.

-------------------

In keeping with the residential theme of the last picture, my final input for today is this random image of some low and mid wealth apartment blocks along Entan Road. Although not necessarily the ghetto this is probably one of the cheapest places to live in the city. I should know I live in one of the rooms in that large building in the middle. Want somewhere bigger but at the moment housing prices are rising too quickly in light of the development going on.

That's all I have for now though. Apparently the cartographers have found a number of sites for new settlements on the newest islands claimed by our small nation and there currently readying materials to start settling towns so I'll be sure ot keep on top of that, along with the continued harbour work.

All in all quite a lot to come.

Cheers

Jamie Felding

 

[Dazzyls 576]

Dude, why aren't you downloading the NAM? It's very usefull. Especially if you want to make skew street.

And I don't like all your industry and so many farms in other cities. Why aren't you making a big city with many skyscrapers?

[dlsni 156]

i really like the vanilla-ness of the CJ 

def one of the most interesting on this site good work

[katherman111 182]

 

Dude, why aren't you downloading the NAM? It's very usefull. Especially if you want to make skew street.

And I don't like all your industry and so many farms in other cities. Why aren't you making a big city with many skyscrapers?

 

 

Because he wants to be unique

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

For a natural growth CJ, you're doing very well. Plus, can't wait to see how those port development projects end up!

[89James89 1,169]

Replies:

Ultimate727: The NAM isn't being used as I choosing to play the game vanilla, so as it came (with the Rush Hour expansion though) hence why there are no mods at all.

 

There aren't any high rises as its a natural growth CJ starting right form the first few houses and seeing as the region in total numbers only 110,000 sims sky scrapers and high rises aren't needed.

 

The large amounts of industry and farming is also due to the natural growth and the fact that the nation relies on agriculture a hell of a lot to prevent having to import food. Also agriculture isn't uncommon in most free bits of free land around where I live.

 

Hiope the lack of these things doesn't stop you returning to look at the CJ though.

 

 

dlsni: Wow thanks high praise indeed and I'm glad your liking it even though it is vanilla. I hope you continue to enjoy it as we grow.

 

 

katherman111: Not so much unique as wanting to see what can be done with the base game but I suppose a little bit of me wants to be unique as well.

 

 

ROFLyoshi: Thanks, I'm glad its panning out as a natural growth CJ as I was worried as I started developing it it would lose that feel or I would get carried away with something and ruin it but so far it seems I'm doing ok.

 

As for the port I hiope it works too. I don't work ahead witht he updates so at the moment your at the same stage as me with these pictures. I'm sure hoping it works though as I'm not sure the government has many other ideas if any.

 

Entry 28: Stage one done!

Just a small update today looking at the completion of stage one of the redevelopment and a some recent Royal development.

----------------

Starting with the harbour here's how it looks now.

As you can revitalisation was can be considered a success for this part of the project at least given that this stage is now predominantly manufacturing businesses rather than the old dirty ones that were here, and there's even a significant amount of high tech developing towards the end of the land reclamation.

The seaport was a very welcome addition and is now used centrally by most of the factories in the harbour area to ship there freight out from one place. Now lets take a closer look at several key points in the stage.

Firstly the lighthouse at the end of the reclaimed land. Built to help guide ships past the new reclaimed land, this is the first actual lighthouse to be built in Tantico, with the other points still using their old beacons. This point is also the site of several high tech factories that

The other picture I have shows the large factories that have been built around the Tensea Power-plant TH. Several of the ones beside the actual power-plants are also owned by the company but a number the majority are privately owned factories eager to take advantage of the new seaport.

------------------------

Now for the next part of the update which takes a look at the new royal residency of Oldwood. Formerly named Oldwood Royal Castle, this beautiful castle has all the charm of a old building and all the trappings of a modern one.

Oldwood itself is a idyllic location and due to the age of the trees in the wood has become the second of Tantico's Nature Reserves along with the Marshes, thereby preventing any removal of trees from within the woods boundaries and presenting the perfect location for Prince Oliver and his family to build a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of Tantico CIty life.

Also being the single biggest home in the entire nation and also having the largest gardens, parts of this castle and its grounds can be rented for a steep price for weddings or parties, and also during select days you can take a guided tour of the royal families extensive art collection, containing pieces from Tantico as well as other nations on here on Smearth. This is also the planned residency for any state or royal guests, with half of the east wing as dedicated luxurious suites.

Below are several images of the castle during Princess Abigail's 25th birthday.

An aerial of the building from the front.

Looking at the gardens behind the castle, apparently a favourite place of the Princess Emille.

-----------------

That's all for now. Apparently there nearly ready to begin on stage two of the redevelopment and cartography and geology reports are being brought in regarding the other bodies of land in the nation.

Till then

Jamie Felding

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful work as always, keep it pumping.

[SimCoug 5,977]

Great work.  This just goes to show how creative one can get with just the base model.  Score one for SC4.