Forkton - Update #24.1 - Work work, and some inspiration maybe

[iviaarten 534]

Hello everyone,

So incredibly excited to get my hands on this game I thought I might as well show you around in the town I've made sofar.

Welcome to the fresh new little town of Forkton. Named after the fork in the river that's the lifeblood for this new development. With the recent construction of a new highway, and Dutch style water-engineering to make sure the river doesn't flood anymore, these flood plains are prime real estate!

edit: Decided to add a list of all the custom assets I've personally made for this city here in the first post for easy reference:
- irrigation ditches set (of 4) for the farming area: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410391936
- 8x8 median park (works great when plopping a few in a row): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=408366479
- 4x4 parking lot for industrial zones: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406213099
- 8x8 parking lot for the Stadium: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=408733322
- 5x1 waiting area for bus stops: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410372973
- 7x2 waiting area for train station (next to pedestrian overpass): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410373233


Here's an overview of the town:



and the intersection that connects the town to the highway.




The main route leading into the town. As you can see, Forkton is a perfect place. No sign of trouble at all here... nope... that's just the eeehhhmmm, firworks.. yes the fireworks




Let's take another look at the glorious fireworks that were organized to thank the wonderful mayor of this town. Also, the farmlands in the back.
The industrial section in the front has been called 'Stink Strip' by the local of Forkton. I guess they have their reasons.




The farmlands here on the fertile flood plains are the lifeblood of this town. The farmers were fighting over the land so much. The mayor decided to dig ditches between the fields. Only one case of 'attempted landgrab by drowning the other farmer' has been reported sofar.




You can also see the railroad and the river in the back. Our scientists are currently trying to figure out how to take advantage of these things. We're not too smart here in Forkton....




This strip of prime real-estate along the riverfront has been called Riverfront Road. We don't have too much imagination here either




Here are some pictures of 'Old Forkton'. A pleasant place to live in.




Also note the pedestrian overpass. It was constructed after an unfortunate accident involving, a tractor, a chicken, and for some strange reason a rubber duck.




Here's a look at 'New Forkton'. The fact that the newer people arrived at least 2 weeks later warrants the difference between old and new Forkton clearly.



A different angle on the central commercial and park section.




And another of the little neighborhoods.




The population doesn't seem to mind that the rich people on the cruise liners seem to gawk at them like they were in a zoo




_________

OOC: i'm SOOOOOO happy to be playing this game! Currently enjoying it a LOT. Thanks CO and Paradox for a great game. I think it can only get better from here

[stenol 0]

Great city ! I hope you will continue your journal

[wallacet 336]

This actually looks very nice. Very suburban. Keep it up! You're one of the first pioneers of the Skylines CJ's, blazing a trail across the interweb!

[89James89 1,169]

Lovely little town you have here ivaarten, even if it is a bit backwards lol.

 

I love that centre of the town espicially!

 

Looking forward to more!

 

James

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Very beautiful town, a lot of trees, I like it

[iviaarten 534]

Replies

 

Stenol: I'm pretty sure I will thanks.

Wallacet: thanks. Sharing is what makes city builders fun for me. Show what I've built, look at what others have built. What's the fun if you're the only one seeing it right?

89James89: Hey.... backwards is the new forwards!

JP Schriefer: Thanks, I love trees. I think I'm going to run into the 250k tree-cap though

 

Update

Well, it's release day, so can't fart about now can we, so here we go

 

Since we're not too intelligent in Forkton, we go with what worked for our forefathers... well actually, we go with what we did yesterday, but you get the point. This means.... MORE FARMS!

 

 

some of the farmers decided it would be smart to go live right next to their farm. "The town is getting too busy", they say. "Last week I knew all my neighbors, these days... I don't", they complain.

Pff, we'll see them back soon I'm sure.. they're not getting a clinic out there!

 

 

It does look rather peaceful though... I have to give them that.

 

 

Overview of the farming area

 

 

 

The roads seemed to get busy as well. Our scientists found the solution though... BUSSES. Lines and lines of glorious shiny busses!

 

Now the town can expand again... and it has.

 

 

Two whole new neighborhoods were added. The original populace of Old Forkton can't keep up anymore. They're still thinking about what to call these two new zones....

 

One of them sports a giant greenhouse. There are whispers about what they're farming there in the back corners. It smells funny... but good.

 

 

 

The other new zone has a large plaza. Here you smell mostly BBQ.

 

 

 

Our scientists found out that they're not as intelligent as they though. We had a need for more smartery scientists. This means new schools!

 

 

 

So this is where we stand right now. A bit over 3.500 population. For the people of Forkton (who mostly still count on their fingers), that's also called 'a whole lot'.

 

[47ply 1,100]

I like I like it a lot

[Paulobergonci 673]

I dont get those farms, i dont understand the size of it, and whats that blue "road" around them?

[WALLIEDIRT 1]

I dont get those farms, i dont understand the size of it, and whats that blue "road" around them?

 

Blue "roads" are irrigation

[feyss 1,981]

Nice to see some rural areas in this game.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Loving this! The core game is so solid and pretty looking!

[wallacet 336]

I think one of your farmhouses is on fire..!

[89James89 1,169]

I love your farms. Very clever way of doing it and that core is growing nicely!

 

Cheers

 

James

[TheeLord 42]

Very nice!  Keep it coming

[Dazzyls 576]

Nice game. Nice update.

It's funny and looks good!

(I'm currently in doubt if I should buy CXL (cheaper) or CSky (nicer, maybe?). What would be your choise?) 

[AgeKay 10]

This looks very nice, well done!

The ditches / irrigation canals between the fields are a cool idea, but the light blue color looks a bit odd. I think if you would choose a much darker blue/green color, they would look much more realistic.

[iviaarten 534]

Replies:

 

47ply: Thanks. I really enjoy making these updates. It's nice to know people enjoy them.

Paulobergonci: Well, I'm sort of faking it. The farms themselves are 4x4. I just try to create the illusion that they're bigger. The blue is supposed to represent irrigation canals.

WALLIEDIRT: Yep

feyss: I was so disapointed after I found out the farms were limited to 4x4 tiles maximum as well. As soon as I saw the footage of the asset editor, I knew I could figure something out After I did my farms, I also saw a video by Skye Storme. He's done something a bit similar. Might be of interest to some other readers here:

Ln X: The core game is simply amazing. And the asset editor is a really nice boon. So far I've used it for the irrigation ditches and an industrial parking area (should show up in this update). Still got plenty of ideas I love that the asset editor gives people with 0 experience with modding the option to stitch something together rather quickly. I love that.

wallacet: No it's not! It's... fireworks... in honour of me.. the mayor... it was all planned!

89James89: Cheers. I was expecting more diifculties, but things are going quite well sofar. Only was on the brink of bankruptcy twice so far

TheeLord: Your wish is my command

Ultimate727: Go for C:SL, hands down, no question. I'm not a fan of metacritic, but this gives you a global idea: http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/90day/pc

C:SL is #1 with a score of 89/100 from critics, 96/100 from users, Cities XXL is #66 with a score of 49/100 from critics and a whopping 13/100 from users. Spend the few extra dollars, you'll be happy you did.

AgeKay: I wish I could pick the colour I'm currently using the 'clip' option from the asset editor. I think it basically cuts a hole through the world and shows the base background colour which is bright blue. I hope more option (or even realistic water textures are added).

 

Anyways... Update time!

 

Forkton has been growing steadily. We also found out that the funny smell coming from the greenhouse was from a particular green leafy plant that apparently makes you go whooooo when you smoke the dried leaves or something like that. Our scientists are currently looking to this. But the people seem to like it, so I've decided to allow it for now. The whole neighborhood is now called Weedville by the locals. The new section of town closer to the river has been lovingly called Pumpington by them, for obvious reasons (it seems our new edumacation system isn't that effective yet.

 

 

It has had some effect though.Some people now refuse to work on the farms. Our scientist have thought of something called In-Dust-Try. I'm not sure what they're trying to do with all that dust, but I gave the ok for it. Apparently it gives off foul smells, so we had to place it quite a distance away. This also called for a new road. It had to be fast though. Our scientists came up with this (The roundabout has been nicknamed the Raging Roundabout):

 

 

 

 

This is now the main route going out of town (well, if you disregard the highway that is....)

 

 

It's a blast to drive on! The new recreational smoking plants seem to have a bad influence on driving though. So I've banned all the use of this substance on the main roads.

 

So now to this In-Dust-Try. Man.. it's big, it's powerful, it's smoky... and above all... FOUL! (OOC: you can see the industrial parking spots I made in the asset editor here)

 

 

The smoking plants created some accidents here as well, so.. you guessed it.. BANNED!

 

We've also started burning all the thrash that was being stored. Might as well do it here, since it's smelly already.

 

 

It didn't take very long for our newfangled 'college gra-due-ates' to decide they didn't want to work in this hell hole (lovingly called Forkton's Furnace by the locals. The road is now called the Furnace Fastway). I've decided to build a new district right next to it. People were bugging me for extra housing developments anyways. But none of this 'schools' nonsense. They're not getting buses either. Apparently they don't only use them to go to work, but also use them to get edumacated! We can't have that... clearly!

 

A lot of the new inhabitants don't agree with all this edumacation business anyways. They kept singing and chanting "We don't need no education". The new district is now known as Floydside.

 

A picture of the church, and one of the parks:

 

 

One of the little neighborhoods with a playground:

 

 

Here's the main entry roundabout into the Floydside.

 

 

(OOC: I found out that highway-ramp roundabouts really work well, since they have right of way on the roundabout, no traffic-lights or pedestrian crossings on the main roundabout).

 

Here's an overview of Floydside

 

 

All of this gave a lot of new traffic. BIG traffic. All through wonderful Forkton proper. This had to be remedied. A new highway interchange was constructed, and all heavy traffic in the older more residential parts of town was banned.

 

 

 

That solved a lot of problems. Now we were sort of back to square 1 though. A lot of relatively stupid people (wait, did I say that out load), and a lot of demand for jobs. The people didn't like the new In-Dust-Try though, so yep, back to the 'old ways'.

 

OOC: yay, I managed to emulate turning lanes It works great as well!

 

 

Welcome to the Furnace Flats.

 

 

Yep, just the way we like it. Due to the lack of buses, quite a few people walk to work, which is fine. Good for their health I say!

 

 

Here's an overview of the City as it looks like when we tape a camera to a seagull (got to love new technology!)

 

 

And here's an overview of district and road names. Only one thing I haven't told you about. Because we don't like to mention it. It's called The Pit, since it is where we dump stuff... and $%&^!... literally.

 

 

 

Currently there are over 7.500 people who call Forkton their home... and for some reason they don't want to leave.

 

Now I have to read this paper my scientist gave me. It's about Off-Fish-She's. I don't know who she is, or why she went fishing, but I guess I'll have to find out.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

Damn this game looks good.  Lots of potential here.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Very, very, very good! Those tree-lined roads, that beautiful roundabout and the partitioned two-way road with electricity pylons running all the way through was so awesome!

[iviaarten 534]

Replies:

 

Indiana Joe: It sure has. I'm having so much fun playing around with the game.

Ln X: I'm quite happy with how my 2 lane rural highway idea has turned out. Not only in the looks department, it's functional as well

 

Update:

Trees, and the trouble they bring.

 

While our scientists have been busy trying to find out what these Off-Fish-She's can bring to our fair little city, I've been thinking about my grandmother. For decades she's had this little plot of land just out of town. It's just filled with trees... and her home. but that's it. I noticed quite a number of trucks on the road to the Furnace, just filled with logs. Logs are made of wood right? Let me call Granny.

 

It took some convincing, but she agreed to give up her home. The forestry license will pay for her brand new shiny apartment (and mine, but don't tell her).

 

Isn't it glorious!

 

 

Makes me wish there were more of them trees nearby.

 

 

But, what's this. I already commissioned a new Fastway to Granny's Grove didn't I? What's that? it's the interchange? Oh dear....

 

 

That is NOT good. I had no idea this new forestry business was going to bring all these trucks! That's... MENTAL.

 

A big problem, calls for a big solution. After finding out that a lot of the traffic was going directly between Granny's Grove and the Furnace, The Furnace Bypass was designed. It routes about 80% of the heavy trucks straight into the Furnace, and makes sure the people and emergency services can actually get where they need to go. It doesn't look half-bad either.

 

 

In fact, it works so well, that the factories in the Furnace were able to increase their production, and they were requesting to expand. Since more taxes are always good, of course we obliged.

The Furnace Fastway is also a lot less congested these days. I like this progress thing that we seem to be doing so much of these days.

 

 

Guess what... we need more poeple to actually work at all these new factories and wood mills..... Floydside was expanded by quite a bit.

 

 

And it still wasn't enough.

I decided to allow a whole new district to grow. This education thing is really helps, but it doesn't seem to be giving more creativity to the fair folk here. They've called it Groveside.In the top of the picture you can see Emerald Corner.

 

 

A lot more planning went into Groveside (it's not hard to do a lot more when previous neighborhoods weren't really planned at all). It's got a median park in the town center.

 

 

But for some reason the lots reserved for shops on either side of it aren't getting sold. What's that? A tax cut? That goes against everything.... what? You're sure? Fine, let's give it a go.

 

 

 

OOC: if you want to use this median park as well, it's a 8x8 lot, you can find it here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406617097&searchtext=median+park+8x8

 

Here's a closer look at the neighborhoods in Groveside

 

 

and before you ask; NO, that's not a fire! it's fireworks again. They LOVE me here!

 

 

We're also giving this education business another go here in Groveside. I've heard whispers about something called a university as well. I'm sure we can't afford that yet though.

 

 

Here's a closer look at Emerald Corner

 

 

We're still planning to expand Groveside, maybe even with one of them universities. We need to plan ahead though. We're trying to fix traffic problems before they start.

This new intersection in the Grove Fastway seems to work pretty well.

 

 

 

That's a LOT of new development in a short time. Here's an overview.

 

 

Time to go home to good old Old Forkton.

 

Wait... what?! I've been gone for a few weeks visiting Granny, and I can't even recognize it anymore. It's so shiny.. and expensive looking! Where did they get the money to do all this!

 

 

You know what this means.... MORE TAXES!

 

 

Hope you've enjoyed this update.

 

btw, it was actually true that I was surprised to see what had happened to Old Forkton when I was taking a break from the new area. A lot of stuff had upgrades, and I'm seriously contemplating taxing them more

[Dazzyls 576]

Ultimate727: Go for C:SL, hands down, no question. I'm not a fan of metacritic, but this gives you a global idea: http://www.metacritic.com/browse/games/score/metascore/90day/pc

C:SL is #1 with a score of 89/100 from critics, 96/100 from users, Cities XXL is #66 with a score of 49/100 from critics and a whopping 13/100 from users. Spend the few extra dollars, you'll be happy you did.

I meant Cities XL, not XXL, but thanks for your advice.

 

And it's a nice update as always. I like your interchanges!

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Yet more fabulous pictures.

[47ply 1,100]

I really like what I see in this game I think I must have it

[89James89 1,169]

Lovely updates here.

 

Looks like I may have some future traffic issues due to my forestry then (well ok more than my appalling ability to make interchanges already means I have lol).

 

Cheers

 

James

[AgeKay 10]

 

AgeKay: I wish I could pick the colour I'm currently using the 'clip' option from the asset editor. I think it basically cuts a hole through the world and shows the base background colour which is bright blue. I hope more option (or even realistic water textures are added).

Allright, I didn't know that. I don't have the game myself yet, so I just assumed you could pick colors and/or textures. So I stand corrected. 

Wonderful new updates again, love your road layouts and especially that 'Raging Roundabout'. Niiiiice!

It all has a touch of Dutch to it. 

[Mymyjp 1,052]

Your journal is fabulous. If you don't mind, I will be using that park...what a nice piece of art you created!!!

Looking forward to your future updates.

[stenol 0]

I really like your journal. Each day, I'm coming here to see your new pictures. It give me some idea for my city.

[wallacet 336]

My interchanges look like crap compared to this. Keep it up!

[TekindusT 3,809]

I like that interchange!

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I like what you did with the power lines in the highway. Nice design and nice journal.