Welcome to Aurieshire County!

[Sabretooth78 808]

Welcome to my newest endeavour in City Journaling, Aurieshire County - A bit of New England, SimCity style!  The region is entirely fictional - many, but not all names are from the real-life Northeastern US.  The terrain and terra-mapping is custom, adapted from a real-life area.  Let's see how long it takes for someone to guess where!

 

For the sake of my computer and my sanity, there are only 5 large maps in the region, and they will probably never be developed much past farmland.  69 Medium maps and 44 Small maps round out the region.

 

For some overview, it should be fairly evident which mods and BATs I use, so I won't go into great detail.  I am using the NAM, with double-capacity, 10x speeds on the transit network (I would prefer to use 4x as I did in my Buffalo CJ , but alas it's not an option).

 

Overview:

Census Figures:

Residential Pop:   7,335

Commercial Pop:  1,313

Industrial Pop:      8,396

Location: 

Aurieshire County lies at the confluence of the Wannisquatausett (north-south) and Pembroke (west-east) Rivers.  The landscape is densely forested and rugged.  Auriesville, the county seat and largest village (Pop. 3,550), lies about a mile upstream from the confluence.

Infrastructure:

Roads and Highways:  The automotive infrastructure is a relatively crude system which loosely connects all areas of the County.  Approx. 70% of the mileage of the system is in the form of low speed (30 mph) streets, with the remainder being 40 mph roads.  There is no access control anywhere, with the exception of many locations where the landscape precludes any type of access.  Divided highways and grade-separations are also non-existant.  The Wannisquatausett Valley (and hence Auriesville) is included as a mid-priority corridor in the Federal Government's Master Surface Transportation Plan (MASTIP) (aka Interstate System).  Roadway mass transit is non-existant.

 

Rail:  Aurieshire County boasts a superior, state-of-the-art railroad network.  Some connections are as yet missing, but all major population centers have easy access to the system, and there is room for expansion.  Most importantly, the system was completed with no steep grades, and only required the construction of two tunnels to do so.  Currently the system is only equipped for freight handling, although studies are in progress towards the implementation of passenger rail.

Economy: 

The regional economy is largely based on agriculture, accounting for approx. 95% of the industrial base.  Tourism is a growing portion of the economy, with the development of villages such as Pembroke and Wiscassett Lake.

 

 

 

Pictoral Overview:

(click on the images to open full-size images in a new window - caution: large files ~400kb!)

 

Satellite:

Transportation:

Regional Views:

The Village of Auriesville, County Seat of Aurieshire County.  The village has recently undergone a population boom, tripling it's population in about a two-year period.

Zoning plan for Auriesville.  Note the total lack of development within the river floodplain.

Just off the beaten path is the small resort town of Pembroke (Pop. 482), 5th largest in the region.

A typical scene in the region:  The Pemboke River winds it's way through the unincorporated chunk of land known to the locals as simply Klingmann's Gap (Pop. 30), smallest of the populated places (15th).  Note the transportation corridor hugging the riverside.  (One of only 5 large maps in the region)

Zoning plan for Klingmann's Gap.  Visible is the shelf built in the mountainside for the railroad corridor pictured above, one of the more impressive engineering feats in the region.

Fertile farmland in Thetford (Pop. 0).  Farming is the backbone of the region, both economically and culturally.

Another typical view, this time of Lempster (Pop. 0).

Typical character of the regional roadways:  Rough and rollercoastery.  This one was recently reconstructed due to an inordinately high amount of accidents (see below).

More to come eventually - keep in mind with my BATing and all, it may be a while between updates.

-Chris

[jbizzle 9]

Looks good, i'm not sure where you will go w/ this futurewise.. but it looks to me that you will be using agriculture for a while.

 

I'm just wondering if you are using the Rural Setting Mod? 

[mentarman 14]

An interesting change of pace from the more urban journals out there. Very nicely done. It'll be interesting to see how this one develops.

[PhatPhish 0]

Looking good. I would have to say your names are from England as I live in Cheshire and you have a few other recognizable names on there, Manchester and Bradford to name a few.

[hackinosa 29]

I live in Massachusetts, and i don't think i have a Yankee attitude! I find that geralization very rude in fact...i recognise some local city names though, Pembroke, Haverhill, Fairhaven, could you add a town named Sandwich? that's my hometown!

[Sabretooth78 808]

I updated the region pics last night, you'll notice a few more towns, and the railroad trunk lines have been continued to the southern regional border.  Some considerable development in the northeastern towns has occured as well.

 

No guesses as to the real-life location of this map??

 

No rural settiings mod, it's just my way of starting out a city.  Unfortunately I usually get bored with them (or start using a new mod or something) requiring me to start over again.  As for the future of this journal, what I'm intending is for some cross between the Digby and Cremont journals.  I've never really worked with hilly terrain before, and I decided to give it a crack!

 

As for city names, to be honest I've never looked at a map of England to come up with names.  But given the colonization of the northeast US, it shouldn't be surprising that alot of the names in this area are the same as names in England.  I got Chesire, for example, because it's the name of the southwesternmost county in New Hampshire.  And there are a few I've made up on my own (at least I haven't knowingly seen them before) but which fit the overall naming character.  Still others are not town names in and of themselves, but simply tiny, unincorporated villages.  For example, Auriesville and Purmort.

 

As far as the Yankee attitude comment, I wasn't singling anybody out, it's more or less an observation on my part based on my 3 years of living in New England, but it wasn't meant to be offensive.  But I guess that's unavoidable.  I get offended when people make the same generalization of New Yorkers being snots, and how just about everyone you meet who finds out you're from NY asks so which part of the city are you from?

 

BTW, I was thinking about the name Sandwich today, as I just drove through Sandwich, NH.

 

-Chris

 

[ert90 8]

This CJ is really nice sarge!

[ACEfanatic 7]

Date:8/16/2004 4:36:52 PM
Author:sargeantcm

No guesses as to the real-life location of this map??

quote>

Buffalo?  or somewhere in western New York?

As for the region, it looks nice... Sorta reminds me of places out in West Virginia and Pennslyvania, towns so far off the map that they seem frozen in time.

-ACE

[dudyconstructor 46]

Nice region you got there. i liked the terrain lanscape!

Keep the good work!

[riffsyphon1024 4]

It's New Hampshire. The name Manchester got me started there, then on the map I saw Northumberland and Lancaster. I also see Sandwich, NH (Hackinosa's town).

[subedei 3]

Very nice CJ you have here. I like the rural character of it. looking forward to more updates.

 

Subedei

[alt+tab 2]

Wow this is a great lookin citeee journl GREAT JOBBBB

[andrew george 0]

Another nice rural CJ, I like these, although there is much building to do in Norwich before I reach that stage.

 

Keep up the good work and let's see some more from Aurieshire County.

 

A

[Sabretooth78 808]

Date:8/17/2004 1:38:11 AM
Author:riffsyphon1024

It's New Hampshire. The name Manchester got me started there, then on the map I saw Northumberland and Lancaster. I also see Sandwich, NH (Hackinosa's town).

quote>

You're on the right track, but not exactly.  While you're correct about the first three towns, they're there in name only, there's no locational relevance.  And I haven't actually named a town Sandwich yet!   I should do that and name it's neighbor Hamburg (my hometown, the alleged birthplace of the hamburger) - kinda fitting.

Anyways I'll throw out a clue to the terrain - it's at a point where two double-digit interstates intersect, and the interstate numbering system is violated to the east of that interchange.

I'll be posting a few updates in the coming days before I switch back to full-time BATing.  I find taking breaks like this help keep me from burning out.

-Chris

[baldy 0]

Nice CJ Chris!  I can't believe I just spoted this now.  I like how you have developed through out the region and started out small.  That's a discipline I haven't quite figured out yet .  I'm looking forward to the liberty building showing up in one of these cities soon (prior to the STEX), along with many of your other Buffalo wing projects.

Your clues are giving me no ideas about the real life terrain

 

Keep up the good work and I'll be checking back often for updates!

[riffsyphon1024 4]

Date: 8/17/2004 4:07:44 PM
Author: sargeantcm

Date:8/17/2004 1:38:11 AM
Author:riffsyphon1024

It's New Hampshire. The name Manchester got me started there, then on the map I saw Northumberland and Lancaster. I also see Sandwich, NH (Hackinosa's town).

quote>

You're on the right track, but not exactly. While you're correct about the first three towns, they're there in name only, there's no locational relevance. And I haven't actually named a town Sandwich yet! I should do that and name it's neighbor Hamburg (my hometown, the alleged 'birthplace' of the hamburger) - kinda fitting.

Anyways I'll throw out a clue to the terrain - it's at a point where two double-digit interstates intersect, and the interstate numbering system is 'violated' to the east of that interchange.

I'll be posting a few updates in the coming days before I switch back to full-time BATing. I find taking breaks like this help keep me from 'burning out'.

-Chris

quote>

I think I have it now. No town names of relevance show up here, but the terrain looks interestingly similar. It is the intersection of I-89 and I-91 at White River Junction, Vermont. THe rivers that split here are the Connecticut and the White. And the interstate numbering system numbers exits unlike they do here where the exit number corresponds with the mile marker. (In VT, Exits 1 and 2 may be 10 miles apart.)

[intestinalvomitbreeder 0]

Nice terrian but it looks like bath maine where the androscoggin and the kennebeck rivers empty into the gulf of maine ............from northern new hampshire about 45 min from the real northumberland in a town called berlin,..................

[intestinalvomitbreeder 0]

Nice terrian but it looks like bath maine where the androscoggin and the kennebeck rivers empty into the gulf of maine ............from northern new hampshire about 45 min from the real northumberland in a town called berlin,..................

[Sabretooth78 808]

riffsyphon1024 is correct, the terrain is my version of the White River Jct. - Lebanon area of Vermont and NH.  The Wannisquatausett is the Connecticut River, the Pembroke is the White River, and Hadley Brook is the Ottauquechee River (say that one ten times fast!).  Wiscassett Lake is roughly the equivalent of Mascoma Lake, I had to force it in there due to the whole surface water thing...  I'm not horribly familiar with the area, besides going out there once a year to catch the Clarkson-Dartmouth hockey game.  But I thought it offered a good blend of hills and flat land, decent enough to learn how to work with terrain!

 

On a technicality, several northeastern states number their interchanges in that way (NY, VT, NH, MA, CT that I know of, PA and ME used to), that wasn't the violation I was looking for.  What I was going for is this - interstate numbering is supposed to increase from west to east  (I don't want to hear any I-99 arguments, I think that's silly too).  When I-89 passes through the I-91 interchange, it technically becomes farther east of I-91.  I'm not sure about the technicalities of my argument, maybe the numbering system only cares about the western terminus of the highway, in which case I don't have an argument.

 

Sidebar - Interstate mileage (and hence exits) are supposed to progress from west-east or south-north, depending on the orientation.  You could argue that the exit numbering on I-89 in both Vermont and NH voilates this because the numbers progress largely from east to west, however I-89 is a north-south interstate.  The New York State Thruway is the only system in the US to my knowledge that violates this, progressing from 1 on I-87 in NYC (southeast) to 61 on I-90 in Ripley at the Pennsylvania line (west).

 

Unfortunately, you win nothing for that guess!

 

I've gone through and named most of the remaining tiles, all but 12 of them so far.  I'll be updating the pictures tonight sometime.

 

-Chris

 

P.S. I also never knew there was a place in NH called Hell Hollow...

[riffsyphon1024 4]

That's ok if I win nothing. It was just fun searching for the right answer.

[jbizzle 9]

Date:8/16/2004 4:36:52 PM
Author:sargeantcm

 

No rural settiings mod, it's just my way of starting out a city.  Unfortunately I usually get bored with them (or start using a new mod or something) requiring me to start over again.  As for the future of this journal, what I'm intending is for some cross between the Digby and Cremont journals.  I've never really worked with hilly terrain before, and I decided to give it a crack!

quote>

well... all the rural settings mod does is give you an overview of how your harvest is doing

.. but back to commenting..

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

I've always wanted to do something like this but i can't get it look rite.. i love the way your region looks

 

[rewright 804]

sargeantcm

Is it posible to download that region somewhere? I grew up just down the river from that area, and I wouldn't mind building my own region on it.

 

Thanks

[Sabretooth78 808]

Population Update:

R Pop.:  8,231

C Pop.:  1,543

I Pop.:  13,736

 

Starting to get a bit unbalanced, it's probably time to start on some more population.  In my Buffalo region, I actually maxxed out the agricultural demand - don't want that to happen again!

 

I've also updated the regional shots in the first post.  There are only 12 empty tiles left, one of which is surrounded by named towns that I must have missed...oops!  Hopefully I'll get some more town-level pictures together to post tomorrow.

 

-Chris

[jbizzle 9]

i really like this CJ.. i hope it doesn't turn into another bland skyscraper ridden city w/ nothing to make it unique...

[Sabretooth78 808]

...i hope it doesn't turn into another bland skyscraper ridden city...

quote>

You don't need to get worried about that, it'll never happen.  I say that with confidence because I'll get bored with it before that happens!  My intent, once I finish filling out the farmland (consider the region to be frozen in time for the moment as I set the stage, so to speak), is to have the region very gradually develop into somewhat of a modern suburbia in parts, while still retaining alot of the rural character, especially in the outskirts.  One of the things I'm looking at is to recreate the typical American sprawl city, think of cities like Detroit, Buffalo, or Boston; the cities where 75-85% of the metro population lives in the suburbs.  In the center I want maybe a small, dense pocket of highrises, but not much outside of that.  I've seen some similar looking CJs in the past here, but in my opinion they seem to fall short on the expanse of the suburbs.  That, combined with that I've never actually attempted something like that myself, is why I'm interested in that end result.

As for the region itself, I know I promised an update but I still don't think there's much new to see at this point, all of the cities still pretty much look the same.  I have developed many more cities since my last update of the region photos, and I'm working on a few story lines to feature in my next update.  Sometime in the next few days I'll have something.  I may even try my hand at developing some of the Photoshop stuff you see in some CJs (Digby comes to mind).

-Chris

[subedei 3]

Very nice region so far. Keep up the great work.   

 

 

Subedei

[Superstar 69]

cool region, not to forget CJ, looks really real looking if you know what I mean

[Sabretooth78 808]

Latest Update:

 

Residential Pop:   12,572

Commercial Pop:  2,754

Industrial Pop:      22,041

 

The large images on the first post have been updated as well.

 

Aurieshire County Transportation Corridor Improvement Study:

 

A regional commission has recently been appointed to address safety and access considerations stemming from the major road corridors through the county.  Six US, State, and County routes have been chosen as the target of the study:

 

In order of priority,

Blue - US Rte 5

Red - US Rte 4

Yellow - State Route 10

Green - State Route 132

Orange - State Route 25

Pink - County Route 400

 

Of most concern to the commission is filling in the missing links on both US Routes 4 & 5.  Currently, there is only one roadway bridge over the Pembroke River (in Royalton), and only three roadway bridges spanning the Wannisquatausett (in Stockbridge, Pierrepont, and Quehassett).  The bridge in Stockbridge doesn't provide an alternate route within the county, however, it merely connects the village of Stockbridge to US Rte 5.  

 

Of secondary concern is upgrading the roads to newly adopted Federal Highway standards.  Despite no current need for additional capacity, this includes upgrading all streets to roads throughout these corridors.  Also of importance is the flattening of undulating grades and sharp curvature, and consolidation of intersections where possible.

 

Railroad Improvements:

 

The villages of Middlesex (Pop. 1130) and Sandwich (Pop. 192) are lobbying for a railway loop between Farnsworth and Thetford to connect their villages to the regional system.  Middlesex officials believe their inclusion into the system is key to sustaining growth as the Crossroads of Southern Aurieshire County.  Sandwich, situated on a plateau, has perhaps the mildest terrain in the entire county, and officials there believe a connection will be a boon to the already booming agricultural industry there.

 

Village of Middlesex

 

Village of Center Sandwich, Town of Sandwich

[andrew george 0]

I like the names you use - do you have any particular way of choosing them? There's a place called Thetford not far from Norwich, UK.

 

A

[comdude21 6]

I really like this region. What a great terrain! Can't wait to see how this develops, keep it up .