My Cities: Skylines CJ Scrapbook -- The Night Cometh...

[iviaarten 534]

dammit Ln X, stop tempting me to go to high density without high rise bans!

[Sanshy6544 42]

As usual Ln X, nice angles of shots.

Nice city and organization.

You and Iviaartem are really my two favorite CJ of the forum right now.

Keep going :-)

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Replies:

 

coolwiththecool2: Cheers!

 

89James89: Thank you.

 

iviaarten: Do not underestimate the high density side of the force of CS.

 

Sansha: Thanks and I will keep going, there is so much to do and the game keeps on expanding with the growing array of available mods.

 

 

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Entry 16: Downtown in Brendon

 

At last the proper update.

 

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Downtown Brendon. The CBD is just above it in the picture.

 

 

 

Taking a leaf out of iviaarten's book, I decided to decorate my roundabouts.

 

 

 

I'm surprised I did not do this sooner since I am such a stickler for symmetry.

 

 

 

 

Downtown also contains a few administrative buildings to.

 

 

 

Razor Tower.

 

 

 

All of those neon signs and protruding shop fronts remind me of East Asian shopping areas.

 

 

 

 

 

My bulging mods folder is finally starting to pay off with more building variety.

 

 

 

 

 

Smoree Green- the park area.

 

 

 

The city hall.

 

 

 

 

 

Many of these RCI buildings look almost W2W. I can't wait for proper W2W buildings!

 

 

 

Smoree House, which holds various administrative branches of council and government departments such as police, social care, education, etc.

 

 

 

And now for the money shot.

 

 

 

The more recent unique buildings have cleaner models and better textures.

 

 

 

Galadriel's Square.

 

 

 

The Chirper Store. What does it sell? Beats me.

 

 

 

Floating bushes... Someone give these bushes stems!

 

 

 

The sleek Tower 42, now if only its name was as snazzy.

 

 

 

The always lovely Emerald Plaza- in the bottom centre of this picture.

 

 

 

 

The busyness of the urban scenes is always great, but add in some Ambient Occlusion to throw in a layer of subtly dirtier textures.

 

 

 

Ambient Occlusion is most prominent in short to medium range shots. It brings out more differentiation to the textures and when turned on you will see new texture patches appear everywhere. It can be subtle but it is one of the best visual realism mods available.

 

 

 

I also paid more attention to the roads and avenues by marking out which of these should be tree-lined and grass-lined.

 

 

 

For some reason I find myself mesmerized by this picture.

 

 

 

 

Later on in the afternoon...

 

 

 

I used LiQUiD's Sunny Afternoon colour filter to achieve that afternoon effect where the day seems to drag on and the clouds develop the distinct tint of faded yellow and/or mild orange.

 

 

 

I used this (no) fog mod to remove unwanted clouds but it made the sky too indigo and violet so I used the Sunny Afternoon colour filter to fix it.

 

 

 

 

The Baleout Bank Tower.

 

 

 

 

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Mod Links:

Ambient Occlusion- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=410329674&searchtext=.

(Note: colour filter) LiQUiD's Sunny Afternoon (Contrast)- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=412551606.

 

[Sanshy6544 42]

Wouaww

I love your customized park.

The way you added sidewalk to streets.

Your roundabouts decorations give even more charm to this lovely city.

So bad I can't play because I am away from home for work...

You gave me some ideas.

Great stuff as usual Ln X :-)

[iviaarten 534]

Amazing selection of buildings, I need to visit the workshop more often

 

This city is already becoming fantastic in just a few updates, and I agree with you on the filters and other optical enhancement mods. It really shows off in the pictures.

 

p.s. I approve of your roundabouts

[Gadfly 7]

That is what I call a proper CBD. Couple of very tall buildings surrounded by mid and low rise.

[max_13 128]

Nice mixture of modern and historic architecture. There seem to be a lot more historic buildings in the workshop for the old town I'm currently building, good to know. Some of your streets really do look Asian, I like it.

[89James89 1,169]

Nice. We decorate our roundabouts in Gabtoria but threw the whole symmetry thing out of the window and the main decoration is usually a watertower and some random barrels or a excuse for a sandpit.

 

Love the whole stepped CBD (by which I mean that you haven't just gone two story house skyscraper but actually gone through the stages.

 

Very good job!

 

Cheers

 

James

[mb1.0.2 193]

Dang...quite possibly the best downtown I've seen thus far. I mean...it's so well composed. Love everything about it. Fantastic work.

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Replies:

 

Sansha: Thank you!

 

iviaarten: Those roundabouts are about to get a bit better with some two-lane highways.

 

Gadfly: Thanks, I like to create a gradual transition in average building height and density.

 

max_13: That mixing of modern and old is far more pronounced in European cities, I guess that's where I get my inspiration from.

 

89James89: I am very conscientious about making sure CBDs, and downtowns, in my cities are stepped. With more mid-rise buildings the stepping can be spread out even further.

 

mb1.0.2: Cheers!

 

 

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Entry 17: SAM and 2-lane highways

 

In this entry I showcase the first proto-SAM of Cities Skylines, the actual mod is called Some Roads and it was created by some danny. This mod adds new road types which were sorely needed in the vanilla game. For the non-SC4 players or those who never used the Network Addon Mod, SAM stands for Street Addon Mod and the SAM added ten new street types in SC4. For hardcore players of SC4 SAM is a big deal.

 

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The most important item some danny has created are two-lane highways.

 

 

 

In terms of textures the 2-lane highways blend in reasonably well with the usual 1-lane and 3-lane highways.

 

 

 

And now one can split highway lanes in 1-2 or 2-1 layouts. Of course I'm still waiting for that merge lane mod to finally allow for proper highway entrance and exit lanes.

 

 

 

Finally I can build that two-lane expressway which runs right through the centre of Brendon.

 

 

 

And yes this 2-lane highway lets the vehicles drive at highway speed limits.

 

 

 

It also allowed me to replace that ugly 3-lane highway roundabout, now its 2-lane brother takes its place.

 

 

 

 

And the mayor looked upon his expressway and saw that it was glorious.

 

 

 

Now one can upgrade their highways so as to incorporate two-lane highway exits and entrances.

 

 

 

 

Now comes the SAM part of this entry.

 

 

 

The coolest SAM option is of course the black asphalt road. It makes areas appear super smart.

 

 

 

The speed limit for this road is the same as the usual grey road.

 

 

 

The second SAM type is what I call sandstone paved roads. The slightly purple texture reminds me of those sandstone blocks in Pharaoh.

 

 

 

But beware! The speed limit of these streets is very slow. Do you see the police car and the lady in olive green walking past the cemetery gates? Well let's see how far the police car travels.

 

 

 

The police car has not even gained any distance from that lady. So there is your speed limit: 5mph, pedestrian speed!

 

 

 

What about intersections between SAM streets? Well the transitions at intersections are a little rough.

 

 

 

All in all I would say to use these sandstone paved streets in moderation because those slow speed limits are going to cause clustering of service vehicles: police cars, fire trucks, hearses, garbage trucks, etc. And fires! Buildings bordering these streets are far more likely to burn down because the fire trucks are crawling along to get there.

 

 

 

The third SAM type is rural asphalt roads.

 

 

 

These are great for farming and forestry areas because these rural roads are devoid of street lights and other props. While the pavement is a thin gravel track.

 

 

 

Compared to normal roads the textures of these rural roads are that of a lighter shade of grey.

 

 

 

Cars will park on the verge which is nice.

 

 

 

Bus stops work normally but you won't see a bus stop extension to the road.

 

 

 

If roads are the arteries and veins of cities, then changing their appearance will radically alter the city's appearance.

 

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Some Roads- http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=413687519&searchtext=.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Thanks for offering us so many previews of new mods and stuff! Nobody like you to showcase them!

[iviaarten 534]

Interesting entry. I've been looking forward to 2 lane highways.

 

Looking at it though makes me think they're 'just' one way streets with a modded speed limit and the sidewalks removed? (especially since it still shows the pedestrian crossings. If he manages to get those modded out, I'm totally going to use it )

[tankmank 853]

This city is great, it is a small city, with some reasonable sized buildings and not a load of skyscrapers in the CBD. And i like the showcase of the mods, looking forward to more from you 

[Haljackey 17,403]

Wow! So much contrast in such a small area. You are a master at diversity!

[mb1.0.2 193]

Wonderful look at a neat mod. Are you experiencing any memory issues? I keep getting Low Memory warnings on my desktop which then causes C:S to crash. I'm trying to figure out if it's my computer, the mods I'm downloaded (either quantity or quality) or something else. You seem to use a lot of mods. How many assets do you have? Just so I can get a handle on where I stand, I'm curious. Also, what are your computer's specs? Thanks for any help you can provide!

[89James89 1,169]

Loving the expansion and the city views (even if it is mostly a grid lol ). Them roads look cool as well, will be fun trying the mod out when its released though I don't really like the look of the purple one to be honest.

 

Cheers

 

James

[coolwiththecool2 827]

Very very nice. Black asphalt always improves any area whether its in a game or real life.

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Replies:

TekindusT: Thanks!

iviaarten: Those expressways of yours would be so much cooler with some two-lane highways.

tankmank: Thank you, this year is going to be a very busy one with CS mods.

Haljackey: Cheers!

mb1.0.2.: I have not encountered this low memory problem. In fact CS, ingame with the city building, has never crashed on me. Now I use about 4.3GB of mods and aside from longer loading times to open up save files, I have not noticed any significant drop in performance. As for my computer specs they are: Intel Core i7 2.8Ghz 4-core processor, 6GB RAM, 12GB virtual memory, 1.024GB of graphics RAM with a ATI Radeon HD 5800 graphics card, 64 bit system and a Windows 7 operating system.

89James89: The purple road texture is not as good as the other ones, but a little more variety can never hurt!

coolwiththecool2: Black asphalt is nice and all, but in the UK most of the roads come in varying shades of grey- just like Cities Skylines! So the default road textures never really bothered me at all.

 

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Entry 18: Interchanges, RAM and a bit more SAM.

The transport network extravaganza continues!

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After spending so much time grid-busting, for Brendon I decided to go griddy big time.

 

 

This inner city highway is the M28.

 

 

One cool thing is to cram buildings between the highway and the off/on-ramps.

 

 

 

The two-lane highway comes in handy for off-ramps because the flow is more choppy on off-ramps compared with on-ramps.

 

 

At best two-lane highways cut down a traffic jam in half.

 

 

Here's a question for you all, upgrading from a one-lane to a two-lane off-ramp cuts a potential traffic jam by up to a half but no more (assuming said traffic jam isn't backing up into the highway), so why is that? Just a small logic problem to think about.

 

 

But it is an important factor because the only thing that matters in this game for the traffic is the flow. Traffic jams and busy roads are not a problem if the cars are moving.

 

 

Dayana Roundabout- my favourite roundabout highway interchange at the moment.

 

 

 

 

 

The elevated 2-lane highways also have nicer guard rails to.

 

 

 

 

The M28 has a glorious view of Brendon.

 

 

 

 

 

Waste not, want not- cram those buildings right up to the highway!

 

 

 

 

And now for the RAM part of this entry.

 

 

 

There's the usual gravel based rail tracks.

 

 

 

And now concrete based rail tracks, useful for industrial areas and heavily dense areas. The concrete based rail tracks come from the Some Roads mod.

 

 

 

Pamora Grove; mainly a commercial area with heavy industry to the West.

 

 

 

There is something about tree-lined avenues...

 

 

 

A very small drive-in theatre. Now showing?

 

 

 

Asphalt roads look super sharp in industrial areas.

 

 

 

One of the streets in Pamora Grove.

 

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[47ply 1,100]

wow awesome update I really like how thinking big shows off so well in this game the camera angles make it seem so vast and huge love it

[iviaarten 534]

Those are some very nice interchanges, and I agree, the two lane highways were sorely missed sofar. Having to resort to 2 lane 1 ways roads to make some turning lanes has been a pain. I'm going to install that mod very soon. Thanks for showing it off

[max_13 128]

The more pictures I see of the Some Roads mod the more I want to give it a try. Just don't want to lose another savegame good update! Although I don't agree with that random small house next to a highway exit

[89James89 1,169]

That concrete train line looks really nice!. Loving all your elevated highways and you've actually made the grid look good!

 

Cheers

 

James

[feyss 1,981]

I love motorways. Great

[tankmank 853]

Liking the roundabout/motorway interchange particularly.  Keep it coming 

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Replies:

 

47ply: Low angle camera views make large cities in this game feel gargantuan. I think Brendon is larger than Tamboria and I still have tons of room to expand Brendon outwards- 10km by 10km, it's scary!

 

iviaarten: Great! I want to see those fabulous interchanges of yours upgraded to have some proper 2-lane capacity.

 

max_13: The Some Roads mod is very reliable, and I think you lost a save file because of the botched patch of a week ago. As for the owner of that small house, he doesn't like it either!

 

89James89: Yes, the grid can look good!

 

feyss: Thanks.

 

tankmank: Thank you.

 

 

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Entry 19: The City Centre

 

The officially designated city centre of Brendon- known as Traple.

 

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The Council Hall.

 

 

 

The Museum of Abstract Art.

 

 

 

Traple Stadium, home of the Brendon Ravagers football team.

 

 

 

 

There's plenty of parking for home games and other footie matches held in Traple Stadium.

 

 

 

One block of pure mid-rise commercial.

 

 

 

That big black skyscraper is the OCM Headquarters, the OCM (Obsessive Compulsive Monitors) is the region's intelligence agency. They watch and monitor all communications, tap devices and track all online activity- rumour has it there is a torture dungeon deep in the headquarter's bowels.

 

 

 

 

The six-lane Bowlton Avenue- one of the first major avenues I laid down in this city.

 

 

 

The brick-faced building is the Traple Market Hall.

 

 

 

 

 

The Brendon Times Publishing building- the massive skyscaper.

 

 

 

 

///

 

I would have posted more pictures but the Dynamic Resolution mod, at 200% super sample anti-aliasing, finally managed to bring the frame rate to a complete stand still. Which is a shame because last night the mod was working incredibly smoothly.

[PK111 19]

Where did you get the times square building? Couldn't seem to find it in the workshop? Also enjoying your city! Love your info about the specific buildings, keep it up!

[Sanshy6544 42]

This city start to rock and roll. I love the CDB and your overflying highway passing trouh the city.

Definitely one of the best city I have seen so far with Forkton :-)

[coolwiththecool2 827]

Loving the New York Times building. And that intelligence agency looks very scary

[kingofsimcity 5,740]

I think I'm going through some spring break C:S withdrawal, since your city is making me super anxious to play.

 

Those dark asphalt roads look killer! Great use of grid, realistic building placement and growth, and perfect camera shots. Lovely work as always!

[89James89 1,169]

Wow the land value in that area must be astronomical lol with all them buildings. Very nice downtown there Ln X, very nice downtown.

 

Cheers

 

James