Vicky's sound - update #8 - port and industry - DONE + tourism

[iviaarten 534]

Hello everyone,

 

I've played Simcity 4 a long long time ago (probably just after its original release), but recently (mostly due to the disappointment of Simvillage 2013) I went back and repurchased the game after seeing some great stuff on the youtubes.

Mostly the incredible modding community makes this game better than it ever was. There's not many 10+ year old games I still play. Credit where credit is due - you guys and girls - the modding community, you're simply AWESOME!

 

Most of the time I hate grids. In certain sections they might be good (downtown city centers mostly), but even then I like some variation besides endless grids. So I'll attempt to create something reasonably realistic.

Also, apart from an occasional cash injection to build things that I find necessary I try to run without mods that will unlock demand caps/rewards before I've deserved them. This is still a game to me. I like the challenge of planning and managing a city/region, so I want to keep that challenge in there.

 

Anyways, I've downloaded a reasonably small region (Vicky's sound) since I enjoy regions with some water and elevation to make for an interesting game, but not so bumpy en canyon filled as to make a realistic town/city impossible. I've already done quite some work on it. I'll use this as a city journal, but also feel free to give tips and tricks on how to improve my region, or point out really nice mods/lots/bats that might fit in.

 

Enough babbling, I'll introduce you to the region:

 

Here is a satelite view of the region as it is currently. As stated, it's still a WIP. In this first episode I'll take you through the tiles in the south (from east to west) and show off some of the work I did in the central (main) tile. But again, mostly the souther parts.

 

Here is the current transportation mapmode. I have no clue why on some tiles the roads and streets show up black (as highway).

 

And to close off the region introduction; here are the currently named tiles.

 

The story behind the region (to give myself some guidance in how to develop it) is that it consisted of some farmlands and a fishing village. Nothing much ever happened, untill a main north/south railway was built. The new railway gave the farmers better ways to export their goods, enticing them to expand their business into the hills to the east. The old fishing village got an impulse as well, and a couple of new villages were created near the new railroad.

 

a quick note here before we go to the first tile; I found that my shadows display weird occasionally. Some of the screenshots will not have them, some of them will. Let me know what you like.

 

First we'll be taking a look at Sllih Htuos. The edge of where the farmers were able to get to before the hills got too steep

 

Overview of the tile

 

They tried looking to the north for more lands, but had to build a road to get over the hills

 

A look at the main farming area and the road connecting to the more inhabited lands to the west

 

 

The next tile over to the west covers more farmlands and the edge of the main new village that has sprung up due to the new railway. Welcome to Egdir Htuos:

 

This is the connection to the previous tile. As you might see I dislike it how the edge of roads get coloured when they reach the farmfields. I like to keep an extra space there giving me room to plant some trees:

 

Here they also looked north for more farmland:

 

Finally we reach the more residential area. Here you see the railroad coming out of the only rail-tunnel in the zone. It was a lot shorter to go through the hill here than to snake it all along the coastline:

 

Here we see the entrance of the rail tunnel. It's some rough terrain:

 

I think I'll leave it here for the first post. In the next post we'll take a look at the main new settlement; Tsaoc Thuos.

[89James89 1,169]

I like it.

 

Some nice winding roads and farmland with a bit of commercial and residential development.

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

 

James

[iviaarten 534]

89james89: thanks, and you won't have to wait long since I have some pictures on backlog.

 

Off we go to Tsaoc Thuos, the main new village born from the new railroad.

 

Here's an overview:

 

Here's the main vilage, centered around the passenger station:

 

The local farmers can bring their good to the farmer's market. And since kids tend to get bored while their parents try to paddle their wares, some recreational facilies were built. There's also some paths connecting to the farms, fields and residential zones close to it:

 

Some of the farmers produce requires it to be canned up or it will go bad quickly. A small industrial zone was planned and connected to the railroad. There's also the main power plant for this part of the region:

 

The farmers on the other side of the hill took shortcuts regularly. Over the years those paths have been expanded, and currently the hills is used as a sort of park.

 

The coast in this area is currently not used much. The smell of manure seems to keep sims away for some reason.

 

 

Now it's time to take a look at the main tile in the region. it's called Yab eht.

 

Here's an overview:

 

As mentioned in the first post, we'll be taking a look at the south part of the zone first (shown in the top of this picture). The larger developments in the north part (bottom of the picture) are still a work in progress. We'll take a look at them later on.

 

As mentioned before, there was only a small fishing town in this area. Since the construction of the railroad some industry has developed, and the fish have long since moved out of the area. The old dock area's of the vilage have been renovated a bit, but the fishermen have moved out. (really, I would love to find some sort of marina that would work with the canal mods, but have been unable to find anything sofar).

 

Here's a look at the old village:

 

and a close-up of the main lock:

 

Here's another close-up of the village from another angle:

 

On the other side of town a ferry service was started to have a shortcut to the bigger new developing town on the north of the lake:

 

Across the lake to the east was another smaller group of fishermen, their settlement could hardly be called a village. They were age old rivals.

 

But since this village had some more land area available, and was closer to the new railroad, it got the bigger benefit. The state fair was placed there by a mayority vote:

 

Here's a look at the more recently developed area:

 

Here's the windy road through the hills that connects to the farms in the south:

 

 

The old airstrip south of town got renovated as well. The old grass strip was replaced by concrete. Previously it was mainly used by hunters going to hunt for game in the hills to the east. Now it serves some smaller commercial craft and local recreational use.

 

Since the landing strip was lengthened a bit, some trees had to be cut down in the take off and landing directions (hehe, I was actually bulldozing the trees since I like to keep things semi-realistic, so I figured, why not stick down some tree stumps and logging equipment as an analog of what I was doing with the bulldoze tool )

 

That's all for now. Next time we'll look into some of the newer developments. This part of the region really is what kicked off the whole thing.

 

Sadly, since I've already started on those new developments, agricultural demand had dropped completely. I think I'll try to find a way to get it back, since I would like some more farms in the future.

In other tiles I'll make sure to get all the agriculture in that I want before going into more development.

[89James89 1,169]

Loving the area with the locks looks really nice and your foliage is lovely too.

 

Cheers

 

James

[MushyMushy 3,618]

It looks really nice! Looking forward to more.

 

I would highly suggest turning off the UDI mission "bubble" things though (it's somewhere in that menu; I think it's bunched together with the sign creation buttons).

[iviaarten 534]

thanks for the tip MushyMushy. I've actually been looking for that option, but haven't been able to locate it sofar. I'll look in that sign menu thingy. It'll be fixed for next time. Also I noticed that in some shots the grid wasn't hidden, that too will be fixed.

[RipRap 4,400]

I like the surrounding areas and the MMPs you have chosen for this update

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Very interesting towns you have!  I'm looking forward to seeing more!

 

The staff member part of me must remind you that it is probably a good idea to put some more time between your replies.  Replying to everyone as they post comes across as rather spammy.  .

[iviaarten 534]

Tonraq: thanks! My library of MMP's keeps growing, the flexibility it gives you is great.

 

NMUSpidey: gotcha, I'll keep updates regular but will try to keep the ammount of posts in check. As far as looking forward to see more, here goes;

 

First of all, the old fishing town got a bit of a face lift. Can you spot the differences from up here?

 

First of all, and probably most notable - being slightly annoyed that the state fair went to the competition across the water, the locals started a petition to be able to build a marina. With the fisheries gone, and a bigger town developing further south across the bay they felt that this would give the town a commercial boost.

 

To be honest, I really don't like the basic maxis marina, but I added it in there to get the animated boats. I think I managed to get it to fit in quite nicely.

 

It didn't take long for the first nouveau riche of the region to buy a ship and test out the waters

 

They also managed to get plans approved to repurpose the old fishing dock inside the lock. A second smaller marina was constructed there.

 

the other end of the old dock got some new renters as well. Around luch time you can see them trying to beat eachother's lap times around the village

 

You might also notice a new texture set for the canals. These new lots required quite a bit of reconstruction in the whole area.

 

Also, I got rid of the mediterranian farms I had in the region, they felt really out of place. But since Agricultural demand had dropped to 0 in the past couple of years, I ran into a bit of a problem. I'm very happy to have found the solution with the 2009 edition of SimGoobers irrigation ditches. They up the agricultural demand cap. So after building a basic irrigation ditch around most of the area I got my farms to regrow so I could keep the region as I like it. Also, they have diagonal pieces

 

 

I'm really loving the looks of these, here's another shot.

 

That's it for this update. Working with those irrigation canals got me inspired for a second region as well. I think that one will be a massive undertaking. But I love this little region, no way I'm abandoning it

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Great pictures and a really good style.

[packersfan 666]

Am I the only one noticing this?  Your names are all backwards.  Clever.  This crossed my mind JUST after naming my new region.  Maybe I can use the idea for some street names.

[jt11 7]

Can anyone tell me what mod is being used for the terrain/trees?

Thank you

 

The cities look fantastic as well, very well done and creative

[iviaarten 534]

Ln X: thanks

 

packersfan: yep, you got it right. I'm normally terrible with naming my cities/regions. So I just took my generic names and reversed them. I've been using this for a while and I like the fantasy vibe it gives

 

jt11: the tree controller is the Pacific North West tree controller by Blunder, you can find it here:  I'm using a LOT of plopped trees though, mainly seasonal Maple and some varied coastal PNW plops.

as far as terrain mod is concerned, I'm not entirely sure. I think it's base Maxis terrain, but when I reinstalled the game I copied over my old plugins folder and started updating some. Might be a terrain mod there. I'll look into it and edit the post as soon as I find out.

The water mod is Brigantine from pegasus:

[89James89 1,169]

Looks lovely I espicially like the marina in the second image.

 

Cheers

 

James

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Yes, you have a very good start to a very good-looking city journal.  Is that canal marina of the Morris persuasion?  If so, I hope they are ensured for when it rains pianos.  I understand that happens from time to time around Morris Marinas.

[iviaarten 534]

89James89: I'm really in love with that marina as well. Took a long time to find something that worked nicely in that town.

 

NMUSpidey: You have a sharp eye good sir. I was surprised at the size of the download, but there was about 20MB worth of PDF documents with the legal clauses and insurance papers included in the download. Sofar the weather has been clear though

 

Now for the next update.

 

It hasn't rained piano's, but there has ofcourse been rain of the regular type in the hills. I decided to give the little lake in Yab Eht a reason for existing; the flow of rainwater down from the hills (it's so logical if you think about it.

 

Welcome to the (very tiny) village of Sllih Erom! The town itself is basically the few houses they were able to stick into the only really flat corner bordering Yab Eht, but the district is home to the source of the lake, the little stream called the Maerts.

 

 

It springs from the mountains far to the east, and enters the map in a pretty steap area

 

A bit further down it crosses the road leading to the two towns further down south.

 

which ofcourse has to be crossed.

 

Lower down the hills it crosses through some lovely meadows, connecting it to Yab Eht.

 

It crosses straight through the newer neighbourhoods of the rival village with the state fair (I really need to come up with names for the individual towns tbh )

 

Some details:

 

And another:

 

Of course, you can't let water flow into a lake forever, it needs to go somewhere.... Sadly, there's a lot of infrastructure between the lake and the sea (mainly the lifeblood of the area, the railway). So they had to come up with a solution, else everyone would have to wear boots all the time!

 

 

on the other side of the railway track the stream finally reaches the sea. Over decennia a lot of the sand and earth has built up at the outflow, creating a very nice swampy area.

 

which grew......

 

and grew......

 

and grew even more....

 

 

This was a very fun project.

I'm just not 100% content with the end product of that marsh. It's just not suble enough. I might have to look into changing the opacity of the sea (using brigantine by Pegasus), or maybe getting the transparency up on the ploppables from PPond. Any tips/help will be very appreciated.

 

Hope you enjoyed this update, I had a blast building this.

[89James89 1,169]

That delta looks really nice and the transition to game water is really well done. Good Job!

 

Cheers

 

James

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Subtle or not, that is beyond my capabilities.  I wish I could offer more help than just saying, dang I thought it looked good already.

[iviaarten 534]

89James89 and NMUSpidey: thanks for your comments. Must say that I've recently found new water textures, and I'm almost tempted to start the whole thing over again. Not sure though.

 

As far as the CJ goes; apparently I've burned through my 10GB/month bandwith on Photobucket in 2 weeks..... I'm amazed at that. Guess I'll have to convert the files from .PNG  to .JPG for size reasons and find another image hosting service. As far as I've been able to find out sofar it seems imgur is the best option? they don't seem to have a bandwidth limit.

 

Other CJ authors here; what hosting service do you use, any recommendations?

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I use Photobucket, too, but... I don't think I've ever gotten anywhere close to my bandwidth limit.

[iviaarten 534]

It's finally time to show you guys the main city of the region; Ytic.

 

Most of the land where this city was founded was marshland. To be able to build a city here most of the water had to be drained away. This was achieved by building a canal system. It still remains as a centerpiece of the city. The city spans 4 tiles, so to be able to show it of entirely I had to stitch together a bunch of screenshots in a mosaic (which was quite a bit of work ).

 

Anyways, here it is.

 

(Please click it to see it in full resolution)

 

I've also been working on little improvements on the rest of the region. I'll show those next time.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Your MMP work and city design is top notch. I am looking forward to future entries.

[iviaarten 534]

Ln X: thanks a bunch. I never knew painting with MMP's could be so much fun

 

As I mentioned in my previous post I've been working on some detail on the existing towns as well. Here's an update on Tsaoc Htuos.

 

FIrst of all, I thought the train station that I had in the town was much too large. I found this really nice one that fits a lot better. I gave the entire area around the trainstation an overhaul as well.

 

 

 

I do think I need to find replacements for those trains though

 

*Ninja-edit, because screw Maxis trains!

 

 

There also had been a lot of traffic accidents with people trying to take a shortcut to the station over the main road. A lot of ditches were dug to make sure that the people couldn't jaywalk as much anymore.

 

 

Especially around the sports park and farmers market

 

 

 

Children playing in the woods also ventured into the industrial zone. Obviously this wouldn't do. Can't have children playing in the garbage incinerator now can we. The whole place was fenced off.

 

 

and an extra fence was placed around the power plant and incinerator. Sneaky kids are sneaky, have to make sure!

 

 

One of the main intersections in town was reconstructed as well. There were some traffic accidents because of dodgy lane shifts and lack of vision of oncoming traffic due to an overabundance of trees. With the new roundabout we hope we'll see less of that.

 

 

Hope you'll enjoy this update. There's more to come. Sneaky children are running rampant all over the region!

[TakemeThere 5,834]

Good job on the industrial area and I think you did an amazing job on that delta! I'm trying to figure out how you got some of those rich colors.

[iviaarten 534]

takemethere: thanks! The delta was a lot of trial and error. A lot of the colour comes from the PPond ploppables, mainly swamp, and several wild flowers. I've also added in a lot of grasses/reeds with different variations in colour. The basic theme is purplish/brown/dark green, but adding in a few bright purple/pink/yellow and white wild flowers really helps to make it pop. Glad you enjoyed it.

 

Today I'd like to show off some of the changes that were recently made in the region of Yab Eht. Mainly around the central lake area.

 

 

 

Some smaller businesses recently started up, generating a lot more traffic. Taking a tip from the neighbours, here too no effort was spared to make the direct roads more safe.

 

 

 

 

 

Crime was on the rise as well in this newly developed area. A new police station was constructed in a central location with great road access.

 

 

 

Some more industry developed nearby as well. It's a new R&D department. Company secrets have to be kept safe, so that means more fences!

 

 

 

There has to be room for some R&R as well. This is more of a quiet corner of the neighbourhood. A football field was added and supplied with parking lots for the parents (who are now forced to get out of bed early on a sunday morning to watch their son fail at football). In the bottom of the picture you can also spot the little rock-bridge that people built themselves......

 

 

 

It leads to this wonderful little island where you can find some true rest and maybe catch some fish.

 

 

 

Some more pictures of the quiet neighbourhoods.

 

 

 

And the lake

 

 

 

And the new church

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed this update. There's more to come.

[Benedict 3,119]

Great update. Love the yacht, and your shore transitions are beautifully crafted.

[jmsepe 2,039]

Lovely CJ, it looks very good. It gives me the Marinko magic. Hahaha.

[sirrus1980 41]

I like it. I love town's and city's with lots of trees. The river and marina they are awesome - so many details - good work !!!!

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Great shorelines.

[TakemeThere 5,834]

The shorelines are outstanding but I also like the layout of your road network i.e all the angles you use and those culverts make for a nice touch as well.