Final Fantasy Tribute

[rpc180 9]

Travelling on the lonely railroad up through a desolate pass. 

 

 

 

 

Eventually, additional railroad tracks converge into the hillside for a long trek through the tunnels.  The tracks emerge on the other side onto a great plain before approaching the imposing wall crowned by the airship fueling station.

 

 

 

 

The rail network enters the first transportation sector before branching out in all manner of directions to service the remaining areas of the city. 

 

 

 

 

Panning out further it starts to become apparent that this is not some sparse Shinra outpost ... but rather the seat of defacto world power itself - Midgar.  

 

 

 

 

There is no relief to the stifling presence of industry without mercy while travelling through the sectors. Almost every inch is slammed with factories, substandard housing, and even hovels.  90% of the space is occupied by industrial zones.  Massive pipe works provide transportation for the Mako energies that drive this huge machine. 

 

 

 

 

 

Midgar's construction is evident everywhere; the massive plate which is planned to banish all of the lower sectors to darkness is still being built ...  The upper platforms along the perimeter and along the central highway systems service the elite of the city.  And as expected, all roads lead to Shinra’s headquarters at the center. While not immune to the choking conditions or spectacle of industry they are content to sacrifice comfort in the name of profit.  They are also prepared to sacrifice municipal services; relegating education and health to a select few to maximize the unskilled workforce to toil in its factories.  Crime is rampant in this city of almost 100,000, especially in the hovels abutting railroad tracks where the poorest lay their heads.  About the only concession is a sizable fire response force to safeguard the factories.

 

 

 

 

The ring-like city is perpetually obscured by a dense cloud of smog and steam underscoring its focus on heavy industry, mining, and military endeavors.  Regular intervals on its perimeter are interrupted by towers dedicated to cooling the massive energies created by Mako reactions.  

 

 

 

Midgar is the fictional city where most of the beginning action in Final Fantasy VII is set.  The first scenes when the player is introduced to Midgar are pretty memorable (youtube link, starts about 1 min in) – and the inspiration for this build.  While not perfect I think it captures the feel of Midgar’s scale, size, and imposing setting.  As it’s impossible to build a circular road with this diameter in Simcity 4, I opted for heavy use of God Mode terraforming to replicate the circular perimeter and upper plate.  I chose to leave the underlevel sectors “exposed” as I think it was visually more interesting than building at the same grade.  One aspect that I was toying with (but would have driven me insane) was to use seawalls to mimic the actual section walls of Midgar.  I decided on keeping the cliffs instead as each seawall segment would have to have been precisely set and slope done all the way around and inside each sector.  BTW, in FF7, Midgar is only ever depicted at night – so this tour emulates that - it also lessens the impact of areas where I cut obvious corners J

 

Heavily used mods: NAM, Paeng’s Grunge Concrete, Gridbuster Warehouses, Murimk’s Diagonal Industry Fillers, El Burrito’s Nuclear Plant (Paeng’s Modular Nuclear Plant), Paeng’s Industrial Facelift, IRM Industrial Fillers, Murimk’s Industrial Prop Pack, NOB Waterpipes, Slumset, TGC Highway Light Towers, HTIN Industrial Tower (Shinra HQ), and HerbSt’s Pipepline Sets.

 

Anyway – I hope you like it, this is sort of my tribute to two games which meant a lot to me in the late ‘90s (Simcity 2000 and FF7).  Simcity 2000 would never emulate Midgar with any satisfaction.  I just started playing SC4 in late February after upgrading to a 21:9 monitor so I figured I’d give Midgar a shot.  I'm excited and quite proud of the outcome!  I’m moving some of my attention to Cities Skylines but will definitely be back because of the terraforming in SC4.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

this looks awesome!

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Intriguing. Nice to see your work.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

That's a really good representation of that city.  Great job!  I'm looking forward to more of this, for sure.