Minthal - A Mountain Town

[Fry3k 0]

Hi everyone!

Since I'm spending so much time for the german Simzone multiplayer region, i decided to present it as a CJ here. Although the whole region has nearly two million inhabitants in one week, i planned to build a realistic city.

Here is a picture of the region, my city has the number 11 and is nicely located in a wide valley in the northwestern mountains. This region is an accurate skaled map from Lissabon, the capital of Portugal, which is offered here at ST.

I first started with a small town where about 5,000 sims found a new home for living. I hope you don't mind the german descriptions in the pictures, if you have questions, just ask. Here is a overview at the first city i build called Mintahl-Ruppertsberg:




Here are now some close-up views from the little town:



















As you can see, i tried to give the town a strong rural outfit with all the farms surrounding the small houses. I especially like the embankmets/walls, it makes cascading so simply and good looking. The street names are a mix of fantasy names and real names. I needed to name the streets to make a fictional bus plan which you can see here



Because of a little room i had left between the city and the gentle hills, i terraformed the landscape for two new suburbs. You can see the developement in the following pictures:







The last picture is the forest walkway between the suburbs Weilerbach and Weidengraben



With all new Sims moving to Ruppertsberg, traffic between the town an the industrial zone nearby increased so the major decided to upgrade the 2 lane road to a 4 lane wide one. Also, the railway crossing was replaced with an tunnel under the new avenue. Here is a picture where you can see the difference before and after:





So, that's all for the first start. I will upload some new pics tomorrow (i think it will be thursday morning in the US timezone) from the main town Minthal. So the last pic is a teaser from the actual build-up area with names of the towns and suburbs:



Tomorrow you will get to see some close-ups...

[Micah 16]

Really great start. This looks very promising.

[Nardo69 51]

Nice to see another german rural cj here! Looks like some areas I know in Germany. These gridless streets in the Neubaugebiet look beautiful too.

Just ... why don't you try some sloped farms in these lovely hills?

Ist ungew

[Vitruvius 0]

This looks great! Very realistic! I love the piecemeal patchwork blend of towns, villages and farms! It looks a lot like much of Southern England. Really good work. I can't wait to see more.

[NoMercyx2k3 1]

nice start

[SamFlash 0]

Looks great.  I build a lot of small towns and rural areas myself and it's nice to see someone else's work.  I hope you don't mind if I steal some of your idea's.

[jasperdeman.nl 1]

Cool! Great start, Ostnachbar!

[Superchan 23]

looks cool.

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Great job. I especially like a) the names, and b) the map you've done for the buses. Keep it up.

[NightlinerSGS 1]

A really nice one =)

I am trying to make a rural town too, but it doesnt look as nice as yours... I'll take yours as an example!

(Sieht so aus als h

[Fry3k 0]

Thanks for your comments so far, i will now show some pics from Minthal but first i want to reply your comments.

@Nardo: I try to make my city to look very european. Thats rather difficult in SC because of the limited directions for the roads. I think American citys are more grid like which is easier to build.
I know, sorry again for the german descriptions, but it would be strange to add english text in my pics at a germen mp contest

@Vitruvius: Yes i think it could also be in England. It should look like the villages (suburbs) surrounding my hometown in west germany. I think it's normal that you build like something you knew the look before.

@SamFlash: No problem but don't forget to show the pics, i'd like to see some other rural areas. In fact, i stole some ideas two is saw in screenshots from the game.

@jasperdeman.nl: Well, since my hometown is near Luxemburg, it would be more accurate to say Southnachbar

@Shadow_Assassin: There is already a new map planned uniting the bus lines vom Ruppertsberg and Minthal

@NightlinerSGS: I think it's all about experience. The more often you build citys, it will become better with every new one. I work rather long on planning and zoning and i always try to make things a little bit nicer, even in already build-up areas. It is nothing you can build in 30 minutes.



But now, some close-up pics from Minthal (even with english text now )


^^ Community gardens at the railway line in Minthal-Nordstadt



^^ Tenements in the city's center



^^ hm... that's impossible for me to translate



^^ Freight Train Station of Minthal, at the background the ghetto at the Mannheim Street



^^ High School of Minthal with soccer field



^^ recreational area north of the town center



^^ new infrastructure concepts at the border of the new industrial park (which will be build soon)

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I just had a d

[MrVegetable 2]

This is beautiful work! Wunderbar! I love the freight station! and the train lines! Super job!

[Slowhand 0]

Nice work! The rail skin looks pleasing.

The town square is charming, too. Any chance of some region shots?

[louisville327 0]

Your use of canals, streams and rock beds is very creative! I especially like your variations in elevation and how you've worked small bodies of water in and around them.

Keep up the excellent work!

[silentbreaker 6]

This looks very interesting!

Mach weiter so...

[Fry3k 0]

@T Wrecks: Nobody forces you to look twice at the pictures. You should now whats in the Thread if you read the CJ's name. But it's nice to know that you took a second look although you know what will expect you. Or maybe you'd like to laugh at my translations...

@MrVegetable: I think the screenshot with the railway is one of my faves too. In my hometown, there's also a railway line between a river and a steep hillside with only one street going parallel to that railway line. It looks very realistic if i compare that part of the town with my screenshot.

@Slowhand: I could upload some region shots, but i don't think you would like them because it's a patchwork of different water textures and totaly different citys. The map is built up by actually over ten players and everybody performs a different style of city developement. But if you still want a look, i can upload it soon.

@the others : thanks for your positive replys, that makes it even more worth to go on with my town

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Wow, I like it. Still. I especially like the way the roundabout's designed.

[GMT 389]

wow!

sieht gut aus.

un das da was in deutsch steht... mein, gott, SCHOEN!!!

keep it up and us updated!
i expect much of this cj here

[swesim 1]

Sehr sch

[djrules5454 5]

If you keep updating this, it is bound to be one of the top 100 CJs of all-time on Simtropolis.

[Deathtoall 28]

Nice work. I love your mountainous approach to building your city. The surounding farms ad a nice touch.

[jacqulina 162]

really great start love what you have done so far nice pics too

[Fry3k 0]

Minthal's back - i have a few new pics from the city. It is not much because i didn't have much time the last days. I know some of you wanted to see a region pic, but at least i have an overview of my towns (yes, I've got a second one) and the surrounding maps:





The upcoming town of Zweibr

[mayormommy 8]

Nice. The region and the towns work well together.

[Nardo69 51]

That freight station is one of the best I saw on ST (and since I LOVE RAILWAYS I always look for nice railway stations and railyards.

Great Region view!

Nardo

PS: Mannheimer Stra

[GMT 389]

mannheimer stra

[oroen 0]

I've missed this until now. I like the streams meandering through the towns, and turning into canals through the commercial and industrial areas.

Nice sign.

[Simworld 056132 1]

Thats a cool town, I want to see more!

[Fry3k 0]

Thanks again for all your inspiring comments, i was very busy the last days with my two cities. But not only for building, i terraformed a lot for roads&rail. Since i've got two real neighbours now, it is very importand for Minthal to become a part of the over 4 million sims region. With this, the small town lost a little of his rural character. I needed to get more sims in my towns to have money for highways and neighbour connections. So i decided to found a new town on the Minthal-Map. Its called Haching and has the first high density zones on this map. With all the new infrastructure, the north corner of the region looks like this:



The blue numbers indicate (ground level) highways (german Autobahn) and the yellow ones are our Bundesstra