Super Island region

[d2f 4]

My regional journal is based directly from the Super Island map:

First thing first. I've been using a heap of mods, lots, and plops. The money cheats come in the form of Starting Money and Radical Ordinace mods. I used to use a trainer but have since stopped using it, and absolutely NO clicking-money lots.













As you can see from the above pictures, one of the cities is not yet converted to RH, while another city needs to have its terrain updated. (I used to have an arctic/snow-covered land mod, but tossed it out; it's impossible to see any parks that way.) The midwestern side of the island is relatively underdeveloped compared to the mideastern ones. Recent city developments are concentrated on the midwestern side, those with the transportation conduits laid out in advance.

[GingerBlokey 30]

Well that is one hell of a big region. It is certainly going to be interesting to see some close-ups

 

[hackinosa 29]

Weird city names, lol

[d2f 4]

Date: 9/30/2004 4:36:31 PM
Author: GingerBlokey

Well that is one hell of a big region. It is certainly going to be interesting to see some close-ups

quote>
Yes it is. Even with the number of cities I've set up, I'm only using a quarter of all that is available for development. So far only two of the cities have been built on man-made land, and you'll see it if you compare my version with the original in the MEX.

[M-SIL 2]

I never seem a region with so much weird name; but creative though and not bad transportation layout (like highways, avenues, airport and etc).

[d2f 4]

The city names are currently chosen in three ways:

1. d2f = drippy's 2fort (HL-TFC) on WON. I've stopped naming cities from those that played on the server because, simply, I've stopped playing TFC for many months now, what with Everquest, GTA3 and whatnot.

2. spf = stile project forum. I'm definitely not going into detail here, and you might not like what you'll see if you do go to SPF (now named The Forum). Wee|Away is one of the users from spf.

3. ayu-nation = the cities' names are actually song names. If you go to my homepage http://printerboyweb.net/ you should know who I'm referring to.

In this post we're looking at Floorgasm, a rather hastily unorganized part of the Mideast.


Ok this shouldn't happen, a couple empty lots in an upscale neighborhood. This despite demand for R$$$ housing is maxed out. I used ground highways here to smooth out the slope. Easier to manage than Soften in god mode.


Another view of the neighborhood.


A route query superimposed in a busy transit intersection. The train mods come from oppie (ICE) and a Japanese modsite (ASTRUM).


The very first community of Floorgasm. It's barricaded by highways, the huge commercial zone, and the city limits, so there is practically no room left for development except densification.

However, City Hall decided high-density development is strictly forbidden in this section, so all the residential high-rises have moved uptown.


Little Tokyo. Everything here are ploppable lots and landmarks.


The high-rise community is experiencing high vacancies due to unbearable commute times. The two Twin Peaks towers are being demolished because they have been long deserted by the wealthy, who prefer living in the aforementioned upscale neighborhood. The city zoned some high-density industrial lots near the high-rises. It will be interesting to see if these folks would march on the streets demanding surgical masks.


Finally, this is the prison. All the unlucky souls who committed petty crimes in Floorgasm are transported to this maximum-security prison barracks. There is virtually no chance of successfully escaping this prison with the following features:
1. Each prisoner is slapped with an indestructible RFID tag on the forehead, and can be removed only by prison commandos when they are released. The GDV toll doubles as a massive RFID scanner and closes all prison walls if the escapees get caught by the inmeasurable number of sensors throughout the walls.
2. Any prisoner that manages to escape once or twice (sorry, they never make it outside the walls) are locked up at the research facility for human disease tests. The federal government of Super Island has been mum on alleged abuses of human rights in this facility ever since it was established.
3. Any prisoner that escapes for the third time is subjected to the Three Strikes Law: the prisoner is immediately jailed for life. No, not inside the prison or the facility.

Instead, the prisoner gets hooked up to the Matrix generator, its limbs shackled with cattle prods. It will stay there until it expires. In the meantime, the energy generated from this power plant is diverted to civilian use.

p.s. I should add: The Matrix plant was originally intended as an experiment, and mayors across Super Island were so impressed at its effectiveness in dealing with hardline criminals, they too have constructed such plants in various sizes.

[Mikeaut1 261]

Very nice creativity!

I'll try and follow this!

[d2f 4]

Osaka's Kansai International Airport is possibly the world's only airport built on its own island (I might be wrong though). Such a development meant nobody would live there. At the same time, the airport can provide service 24/7 without worries about resident protests. Here, I'm attempting to duplicate it with a few changes.

Obviously, Kansai looks nearly rectangular, and the only ways to access the airport are by ferries and through the bridges.

I've made this zone to service nearby cities in the Midwestern island.


Aerial view of the main airport.


Aerial view of the freight yards. In reality, this section is contained inside the same rectangular island, not extended like this.

LINK
Kansai features a few commercial buildings and an observation tower. This one is linked because I didn't adjust the size down to SVGA (800x600). Below is another view.

[d2f 4]

Speaking of the airport, maybe I should follow with the adjacent city, Heartplace.




This is how Heartplace and the airport is connected to the rest of Super Island: bridges. Lots of bridges. Ordinary roads run parallel to the main highway, so they can be used if the highway is closed for repairs or accident cleanup.


Development in Heartplace is admittedly one-sided. There just isn't enough land to support a full industrial park or a commercial district. The federal government refuses** to expand existing (reclaimed) land due to cost overruns*, so the city has to resort to more mid-rises.

*This is written by a disgruntled former government staffer and does not accurately reflect the government's position.

**The government thinks all experts that claimed otherwise are really walking Bambis in disguise. One of them was last seen pushing a bill recommending Bambi dung as the choice of road paving material of Super Island.

[d2f 4]

The city of Connected consists of lots of avenues and highways crisscrossing each other over a shallow river. The river is only five feet deep, so the only ferries that operate here are flat-bottomed cruise boats. Photographing them is next to impossible because they are constructed entirely of injection-molded clear Plexiglas.


Do not mistake the white-blue building at the foreground; it is actually a hospital lot. For some reason these are counted towards business deals...






Currently more than one half of the Connected population lives in this area of medium- and high-density buildings. Both the University Connections and the high-tech industries are located here. Readily available leisure labor, they say.




The southeastern corner community of Connected has been created for easy access to nearby cities in the Super River delta. It also houses the easternmost rail terminal in the city.


The avenues in this picture leads to...

...an ultra-dense commercial district to the south.


Many of Connected's mid-rises -- and an overcrowded strip of LeTourneau Architects -- occupy the northwestern portion of the city.


A jam-packed monorail train is seen here racing towards mideastern destinations.

[Mdz1001 0]

I really like the re-creation of Kansai. It looks great. As for the pic with all of the bridges, I suggest you destroy the power lines, because bridges carry power anyway and they look ugly.

 

Otherwise, pretty good job.

 

P.S. For some reason, the name Floorgasm makes me laugh. I don't know why...

[d2f 4]

Date: 9/30/2004 10:14:18 PM
Author: Mdz1001

I really like the re-creation of Kansai. It looks great. As for the pic with all of the bridges, I suggest you destroy the power lines, because bridges carry power anyway and they look ugly.

Otherwise, pretty good job.

P.S. For some reason, the name Floorgasm makes me laugh. I don't know why...

quote>
Really? I don't know highways can carry power. Perhaps you can show me an example of that case.

[d2f 4]

The city of shalena is like a melting pot, combining some Eastern elements into a mainly Western layout.



This is only part of the industrial zone called Toyota City. So where did the dirty industries go?


At the northeastern edge of the city, alongside a jail column and a water treatment row. These are constructed before I downloaded newer utility lots.


Communities in the eastern stretch of shalena are named after the cars Toyota makes.


This city gets the first application of Japanese-style highway sound barriers in all of Super Island. It looks far more attractive than the clunky grayish walls on STEX.



The Pathfinder community has its own small commerce center and the terminus for elevated rail.


I shouldn't need to elaborate on this picture. The intersection houses the best shopping amenities this side of Super Island.


Highway chokepoints like this is everywhere in shalena. Their primary purpose is to force everyone to use public transit. Freight trucks would still use the highways nonetheless, and they're the last folks to complain of toll fees.

Tip: If tolls are installed everywhere, the residents would be unable to complain, and the city will earn a lot of money. This shot is taken at a Kobe toll gate during my trip to Japan last year.



Are they nuts? What is Target Corp. doing right across Wal-Mart's turf? I mean, the traffic couldn't be more jammed as it is.


A handful of mid-rises.


The city of Voyage has set up a satellite community here in shalena until its construction at home is complete.


Here we can see parts of downtown shalena. The industry zone connections are unique in that they are one-way roads into it. The only way out is to use the highway or take a train/monorail ride.

[ryleeys 1]

Target across from Wal-Mart isn't that uncommon...

In my hometown, there are three consecutive shopping center / strip malls... the first is a Target, the second is a K-Mart, the third is a Wal-Mart...

I'm intrigued by this region.

[mayormommy 8]

This is an impressive amount of work! I'm not all that fond of Kansai, having been stranded there for several hours a few months ago, but your recreation is great. Funny thing is, even though they can stay running 24-h, they basically shut the airport down by 9 p.m. that night, just leaving a few security guards to make sure we stayed coralled in our gate area. This is great region, have some bunnies:

[d2f 4]

Date: 10/1/2004 9:13:55 AM
Author: mayormommy

This is an impressive amount of work! I'm not all that fond of Kansai, having been stranded there for several hours a few months ago, but your recreation is great. Funny thing is, even though they can stay running 24-h, they basically shut the airport down by 9 p.m. that night, just leaving a few security guards to make sure we stayed coralled in our gate area. This is great region, have some bunnies:

quote>
How did you get stuck? Your plane got delayed?

[mayormommy 8]

Yes, delayed by stupid United... On the brighter side, the airport has an excellent selection of reasonably priced sit-down restaurants (<---having eaten in most of them). If I had seen that documentary about how the airport is sinking back into the sea I might have been a little more anxious. 

 

I've tried building airports on artificial islands in Sim City and it's a lot of work. So I appreciate your version of Kansai.  For the sake of accuracy, however, you should know the Kansai terminal is a single very long building, there is only one runway, and it is connected to Osaka by one of the world's longest bridges, not a causeway. And there are no amusing tourist things to do. At all.

[d2f 4]

Date: 10/1/2004 11:03:43 AM
Author: mayormommy

Yes, delayed by stupid United... On the brighter side, the airport has an excellent selection of reasonably priced sit-down restaurants (<---having eaten in most of them). If I had seen that documentary about how the airport is sinking back into the sea I might have been a little more anxious.

I've tried building airports on artificial islands in Sim City and it's a lot of work. So I appreciate your version of Kansai. For the sake of accuracy, however, you should know the Kansai terminal is a single very long building, there is only one runway, and it is connected to Osaka by one of the world's longest bridges, not a causeway. And there are no amusing tourist things to do. At all.

quote>
It's not much of a stretch to make artificial islands; one way is to start on an adjacent city and set the land to the height (elevation) you want. Then return to the city where you want the island created, and hit Reconcile Edges to get the piece of land from the other city.

This is where it gets crucial: use the level tool in god mode at the VERY edge of the city map with the land. Remember to keep a small section of this land at the edge for connections, and plenty of it if you intend to build bridges here or ferries cannot pass through. Once you're satisfied with the island, simply level out the excess land and round out the edges if desired.

I'll be posting pictures from the city of Hawkeye this afternoon. I terraformed the large island in a similar fashion, but there is some land at the southern part of the city to begin with. The semi-developed part of Heartplace, though, is terraformed in the middle of the ocean: 1) plateau or hill tool and then 2) level tool.

The single hardest thing about terraforming for me, though, is to get the land to the absolute lowest level and still be able to construct a city on it. The bridges come in a close second: the game system would assume this is the height to build bridges, and they would be so low, not even a dolphin and jump across. Hence the raised land sections in Heartplace.

edit: I've been to Kansai myself, and I think it resembled the setup in the pictures if the airside light rail system is not included.

[d2f 4]

Most people that attend this class (IS Security) don't actually watch the lecture, so it doesn't matter much to me either.

Without further adieu, here is the city of Hawkeye:



Raising the land just won't do it, so the city island is created by flattening parts of the shoreline, leveling the island area, and then demolish, er, fill the shoreline with water. The rest is done smoothing out the island edges.


The federal government has limited the primary zones on this island to be all high-density residential and high-density commercial. BUT, any industry veterans will tell you, the regulation is rarely enforced.


Kenner Dinner Theaters Limited is the dominant upscale eatery franchise in Hawkeye. Even Ronald McDonald must bow to Their Highnesses.


Smokey's Shoppes, the most popular shopping district in Hawkeye, with easy access to an efficient transit system.


The industry is almost non-existent in Hawkeye, as its primary employer all hails from the bustling commercial sector.



Hawkeye is blessed with the first northern cruise ship port. All is well except one: it is also suffering a rash of Peanut Butter Cherries' Disease. Ironically, peanut butter cherries turned out to be the second most-requested delicacy on the island.


drippy-, the Mideastern Super Island's most prominent mayor, originally planned to push this elevated rail line to the edge of the city. It was shelved so quickly, local cafe shops feared a giant herd of revolting sheep gnawing away at their peanut butter cherry sandwiches.

A few months later, the word finally got out. The sheep were too busy eating cashews to ever bother working on the el-rail.


This residential community didn't fare so well. Every sheep is seen taking a poopy break on top of the air conditioning ducts after a particularly sweet cherry meal. drippy- insisted sheep dung is beneficial for people with wrinkled skin.


And no, the sheep doesn't sleep in barns. They sleep here.

[andrew george 0]

Wow, what a terrific region! It looks really good, the pics are great!

 

On the city engineer-side of things - bridges carry power across water. Don't worry you're not the only one, I didn't realise that until I read it here on ST!!!

 

Keep it up!

 

A

[d2f 4]

Q: How do you go through the city of Chief-Loco?
A: By taking a ride on a Loco-coaster.


There are really two separate sections of the same highway with a wavy structure. In fact, interregional traffic always get blocked to no tomorrow with an ever-increasing number of folks who deliberately crash their cars to experience low gravity effects. On both directions.


The city enjoys brisk growth in commerce due to the generous beaches adjacent to the district.



Hardly a poor soul would bother living in a sea of riches. Rather, low-income housing is very much discouraged due to their perceived shoddy state in terms of crime and health.


The business community voted against it.

The municipal government voted against it.

The Feds voted against it.

FEMA sent in lots of military troops and vowed to shoot on sight.

Ahem, they all came a few days too late. The rich in Chief-Loco have so many connections, it was able to build a small airport out of banana peels and fresh vomit-laced diapers. RADDAD Nightly Digest once wrote the composite structure was both remarkably flexible and basically functioned as a giant slingshot.

[d2f 4]

I have a few design principles regarding cities. ::A:: Some of them have a dedicated utilities zone to deal with power, water, trash, and criminals. Homer's not gonna like this one bit, he missed the landfill pizza very much.



The city of You started life as an intensive farming community. Its main export commodity is the flesh-eating black pepper beans.


The beauty of You's countryside isn't lost to city dwellers everywhere looking for a simpler lifestyle. A thriving community took root here.


Very soon, demand for low-cost housing has outstripped supply, so Mayor ayu-nation rezoned some residential buildings along the main road as medium-density.


Heavy industry is considered as an afterthought. Besides, who in You likes to process their prized produce with their bare hands?

But local demands and a rising educated townsfolk forced the town to become a city and create a industrial zone. Unfortunately, its zoning style is also an afterthought. There are some good news though: a new bypass is constructed to accommodate the growing freight traffic.

[d2f 4]

New construction at the city of Dolls

[d2f note] --- This post is LONG, with two cities and a theme park construction all in one.


Dolls is located next to the cities of independent, Free & Easy, and the island airport. This picture is outdated because the basic interregional transportation network has been laid out since the screen capture.

But first, here is some information about the city of independent.


The city is unique because it serves as a regional gateway for all cities of the Northwestern Super Island, with both land and sea transportation ready to go.


It's also a city where the commercial district covers the entire eastern coastline and is three blocks deep, with everything else set aside for residential zones and civic services.

Mayor ayu-nation decided to transform Dolls, with unfettered access to indpendent's Seaside Gateway, from a countryside into a tourist hotspot. Part of the plan involves digging out a swathe of land for a theme park.

[d2f note] --- Recall that you can build a land tunnel and then filling the middle section of it with water. The tunnel itself is not demolished, but UDI is impossible given the steep terrain often produced by leveling land.

[Real-world note] Between the Hokkaido and mainland Japan islands rests the longest underwater tunnel in the world, at some 58 kilometers long. It's also home to an underground-underwater attraction starring Doraemon, connected by the adjacent JR railroad station. For the sake of simplicity, we'll refer to this attraction as Doraemon Theme Park, just don't take it literally

URL in Japanese: JR-Hokkaido / Doraemon Theme Park


First, an enclosure is created in the ocean.




Land is filled inside the enclosure, and a land bridge is created between it and the mainland.

View from the mainland tunnel entrance.

A pair of railways and an avenue are constructed at each end:




Then the land bridge is leveled out; as you can see, though, the tunnels themselves are not demolished:



At this point I have to use the cheat you don't deserve it to unlock the Tourist Trap and Major Art Museum rewards to build the Doraemon Theme Park.


Finally, some beautification is done at the mainland end of the tunnel. A Ninja Boulevard Station (thanks Raphael) is built at the railway interchange because, just like real-life, there is a transfer station for switching from the main railway line to the one that goes directly to the Theme Park.


More updates for Dolls will be coming soon.

[d2f 4]

Update to Dolls


Yes, I know, the used car lot is out of place considering its proximity to the theme park, but that's what it's built first...

Development sprang up very rapidly to meet local tourism demand.



Dolls Shoreline Hospital has a full division centered on injuries at the beach. Hapless sims have been bitten by fish hooks, ants, and muddy sand, but others are too busy tending to their own affairs to give a hoot about their cries for help. The first patient ever admitted at this hospital is a volleyball player pierced with a large hula hoop.



Yep, mixing different train car sets can get you this hybrid.


The city has a new light-rail system that runs north-south. Currently its service covers from the northern shoreline to the highway interchange, and is expected to have an end-to-end service in the next few years.



Zoning laws in Dolls prevent high-density buildings to be built near the shoreline, since they would severely block the ocean view for everyone else.


The main highway and monorail have been rerouted to accommodate the light-rail system. It's not pretty.


A view at the Transfer Station.


The long shoreline has attracted a major tenant to the city: a chain resort hotel. Many visitors stay here and take advantage of its nearby beaches and easy access to the Doraemon Theme Park.

[smokey30 0]

I would love to see your pictures of the region, however, they are not showing in your thread. Please repost your pics so everyone can see your work.
thanks

[kingbob 0]

Speaking of this region, what ever happened to it on the exchange? My computer recently crashed and SuperIsland was one of my favorite regions. Is there anywhere online that I can download it?

[topcliff 1]

Don't bring back the dead. They're dead for a reason: the damn truck driver ran them over! Let this reast, please . . .

[lucky7 73]

Seems to be a great concept you haeve, if only I could see the pics... strange! Well, anyways, looking forward to more,

lucky7

[fern244 1]

Sounds cool. If only i could see the pics...

[un1 41]

The pictures are gone because they were deleted by the user on Photobucket or Photoshack...