Show us your Downtown/CBD

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Welcome to the bustling CBD core of Esperance, Lapérouse, New Duveland

Still a work in progress, still got the airport to make out in the empty area on the edge of the city as well as filling the rest of the suburbs with many, many more trees. 

[Koesj 659]

That's... really big! Might I interest you in some more skyscraper assets for your giant-sized downtown? 

 

In my test/asset showcase city the proverbial manure has really hit the fan. There's been a major rebalancing in the way I want to distinguish the old downtown from the financial district, and with a changed layout in towers I'm trying to go for the 1980s plaza feel. Also, I think the sunken freeway bordering it is about done, so now I only got to decide on more parks, parking, and mid-sized uniques:

 

[Koesj 659]

I've started to add growable towers; you can plop these from the search box mod!

[Judazzz 1,936]

Looks amazing! Love the non-descript glass 'n steel boxes, the make the skyline looks so much better (and more realistic) than one that is littered with attention whoring, neon-belching marvels of engineering. In fact, the more 'standard' buildings you have, the more those that are intended to catch the eye actually do so!

One thing: if you really want to put the 80's icing on the cake, I'd add a bunch of large parking spaces in and around the downtown core, as well as plots of undeveloped land and some warehouses and other semi-industrial constructions. Most mid-sized American cities in the (mid-)eastern part of the country and the Rust Belt (especially those that depended on local heavy industry, places like Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and smaller ones like Flint, Gary, etc. - but also those on the Eastern Seaboard like Baltimore, Boston and Philly) have suffered badly from loss of employment (production/manufacturing being moved abroad - not just Detroit and its car industry) and subsequent population decrease (ranging from 10 to almost 50%), abandonment and urban decay in the city centers, and are only starting to regain their footing since the last 10 or so years (although some are still shrinking today). Many of the traces of that decay are still very much visible today.

One more thing: since I had to re-install the game (I basically destroyed it by taxing it too much, and it took my save game with it), I make extensive use of Forkboy22's Various Props collection, in particular his low density residential/commercial assets. These are basically empty plots of land that are filled with a number of randomized props (benches, construction stuff, parking lots, vehicles), and look superb in combination with Feindbold's Brooklyn/Manhattan buildings and all the other wall-to-wall Americana goodness from the Workshop.

[Koesj 659]

Fantastic tips, IMO the most important one (surface parking out the wazoo) I had already considered and was planning on doing anyway  

I'll definitely check out those props!

[clhigh7 583]

[USA Patriot 49]

So many awesome downtowns and skylines!  I am greatly impressed.

 

I don't have a whole lot to share at the moment.  One would barely classify as a skyline.  

]

The first city shown here is Evern City.  It is a bigger city with a major port.  It has a population of about 330,000 in this photo.

 

]

This is Rennington.  I like this downtown, as it is a heavily office oriented downtown.  It is a small/midsized city, and far more suburban then others.  I like the mix of low and mid rise buildings.  The population of Rennington is 130,000.  

 

[Matthias King 348]

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2015 at 3:58 PM, Judazzz said:

Just came back from holiday today, dying to try out Bofo's LOD Toggler mod, and the results really blew me away! The mod'll probably kill my laptop within the foreseeable future, but I guess that's the price to pay for such mind-blowing graphics!

So without further ado, a few pics of Fairview's downtown area:

Your city is very impressive.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Thanks   Unfortunately I no longer works: had to reinstall my laptop, and I wanted to kick the Traffic++ habit (not because it's bad, but because it is mean to your save games), so I cleaned up my asset list and started anew. It'll probably refuse to start anyways: the game can be a bit finicky with re-installs.

So I started a new world, called it New Netherlands, and so far managed to conjure up this here:

[Judazzz 1,936]

Downtown progress:

[Matthias King 348]

Sorry to hear about your save. That's one of the reasons I avoid T++ and mods like it. Your new downtown shot looks very good. You manage to create very realistic looking cities. Excellent work.

Question: What's that tall building just right of center. It's reddish brown brick with amber lights at the peak. It looks really nice.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Thanks

I think the building you mean is the this one (Nelson Tower), right?

[Matthias King 348]

I think that's it. Thank you.

I may post some pics of my downtown, though I don't think they compare to yours.

[Judazzz 1,936]

6 hours ago, Matthias King said:

I think that's it. Thank you.

I may post some pics of my downtown, though I don't think they compare to yours.

Sure do, would love to see some!
And don't forget, this is a city builder, not a p*ssing contest

[hbn 244]

Curious but do you guys go for 1:1 or 1:1.5 scale buildings? Some of the 1:1s stick out like a sore thumb at times because the vanilla growables don't grow high enough to at least transition in the heights.

[Matthias King 348]

10 hours ago, Judazzz said:

Sure do, would love to see some!
And don't forget, this is a city builder, not a p*ssing contest

How do you get your screenshots to look so good? I took some, but I think they could be better.

[Judazzz 1,936]

1 hour ago, Matthias King said:

How do you get your screenshots to look so good? I took some, but I think they could be better.

I use the LOD Toggler and Dynamic Resolution mods, the latter set at 200% They really make a huge difference for the image quality, but I only use them when taking screenshots (otherwise my laptop would probably melt...)

@hbn - I use 1:1.5 (or 1:1.6) scale buildings, because they scale much better with the vast majority of assets, vanilla or custom.

[Matthias King 348]

Thank you. I remember you mentioning the DR when I asked about a particular building in one of your screenshots. I'm going to try both of those out and retake my screenshots and see how they turn out.

Thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll have some presentable screenshots soon.

@hbn - I have some 1:1 buildings, but not many. I try not to go too tall with the workshop buildings so they blend with the vanilla buildings better. I think my tallest is Koesj's Two Prudential Plaza. It's pretty tall, but it stands above pretty much all the rest. If I get some good shots, you'll see what I mean.

 

[Judazzz 1,936]

6 hours ago, Matthias King said:

Thank you. I remember you mentioning the DR when I asked about a particular building in one of your screenshots. I'm going to try both of those out and retake my screenshots and see how they turn out.

Thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll have some presentable screenshots soon.

@hbn - I have some 1:1 buildings, but not many. I try not to go too tall with the workshop buildings so they blend with the vanilla buildings better. I think my tallest is Koesj's Two Prudential Plaza. It's pretty tall, but it stands above pretty much all the rest. If I get some good shots, you'll see what I mean.

 

Yeah, Two Prudential Plaza is also the tallest one in my skyline (and very much the upper limit of what I'm willing to have in my CBD). It's the tallest, fattest tower in this screenshot:

[Koesj 659]

I think you mean Chirpigroup Center @Judazzz  

Probably my most useful asset to function as the tallest scraper in an otherwise growable downtown yeah.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Whoops, ChirpiGroup it is indeed... Humble pie will be eaten

[Matthias King 348]

I have both of those as well. Two Prudential, Chirpigroup, and 1000 de la Guach are three of my downtown cornerstones.

[Grockefeller 68]

City of Cairns, Nova Scotia.

 

 

[Matthias King 348]

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2015 at 3:58 PM, Judazzz said:

Just came back from holiday today, dying to try out Bofo's LOD Toggler mod, and the results really blew me away! The mod'll probably kill my laptop within the foreseeable future, but I guess that's the price to pay for such mind-blowing graphics!

So without further ado, a few pics of Fairview's downtown area:

I intended to ask and never did: what's that tank in the foreground at your docks? I don't recognize it.

Also, I got some screenshots I'm pretty happy with and uploaded them to IMGUR. I took quite a few. How many should I post on here?

[Judazzz 1,936]

3 hours ago, Matthias King said:

I intended to ask and never did: what's that tank in the foreground at your docks? I don't recognize it.

Also, I got some screenshots I'm pretty happy with and uploaded them to IMGUR. I took quite a few. How many should I post on here?

Do you mean the ship? Get this one if you want a functional vehicle, or this one if you want the ploppable version (which is the one in that screenshot).
If you mean those gas holders, they are L3 generic industry which you can find them here (Avanya has a lot more awesome industrial assets that look equally good, but unfortunately most are specialized industry).

Oh, and stop filibustering and give us some damn screenshots!   _{(as many as you want to share with us)}

[Matthias King 348]

I think those gas holders are what I saw. They look good.

And I'll post some screenshots later today. I hope they're good.

[Matthias King 348]

Greetings from sunny Santa Clara, the heartland of Southern California.

Looking out at the glittering nighttime skyline of Downtown from the foyer of the WLSC News building.

The beating heart of downtown

Overlooking Triangle Park

Just east of Downtown

Some shopping and a late dinner

A little nightlife

Back to the Downtown walking tour the next day

A stop for lunch

And back to the tour

Some sightseeing in Old Downtown

And back to the club again. During the day. I think I may have a problem.

 

 

 

 

 

[Koesj 659]

Great quality on those downtown shots!

[Matthias King 348]

Thank you. I'm glad they came out ok.

[Judazzz 1,936]

Wow, that looks superb!
Love it that your overall feel is quite different from the - by now quite typical - East Coast-style cities - you capture the more open, spacious West Coast layout very well, imo. Having said that, a slightly warmer LUT would work well with your city, I think.