The City of Triventa

[NorthStars 66]

Introducing Triventa

 

Okay, so I've been a leech.  I've been coming into these forums, and on the Paradox CSL forums, happily checking out other people's awesome stuff, and I haven't really "given back" much of anything, besides a few posts over on Paradox.  So, I figured it's time for me to be a bit more productive, so please allow me to introduce the City of Triventa...

 

Current Date: April, 2060

Population: 48,533

Cash Reserve: 1.9 million credits

 

Triventa is my third city, but the first two were just quick experiments to learn the basic controls, so it's the first 'real' city.  My aim in building Triventa is to create a beautiful city that has grown entirely organically.  My main strategy in doing that is to (normally) build small areas at a time, added to existing areas all over the city.  In other words, instead of building an entire new district, and then moving on to another district to build, I only add little bits and pieces to each of my districts gradually, and keep moving around from one area to another to find new things to add.  The result is that my city isn't nearly as 'neat' as some other ones I've seen.  I'm still trying to create something that looks nice, but by only building small areas a little at a time, the overall effect is that Triventa is more irregular (and sometimes more chaotic!) than it could probably be.  I like it that way, but sometimes the Triventans feel otherwise.

 

So, let's start with a poster brought to you by the Triventa Tourism Board:

 

 

The good folks at the Tourism Board shouldn't feel too comfortable in their jobs... the TTB's motto right now is... "74 tourists last year... a jump of 58%!"

 

A couple of more shots to give you an idea of the overall skyline:

 

 

 

On the motorway coming into town:

 

 

And closer to the middle of town:

 

 

I love seeing the downtown from this angle below... it shows some of the green spaces that are close to the heart of the city.  And yes, you do spot TWO fires raging in the middle of my Central Business District while I'm happily snapping pictures of my creation...

 

 

More shortly...

 

[NorthStars 66]

Triventa's Message of Appreciation

 

I would be remiss if I didn't thank so many of you for all of your ideas (and mods & assets as well!) that have made their way into Triventa.  In particular, IVIaarten provided some serious inspiration for me.  My gratitude for that, THANK YOU! 

 

Of course, I've tried to make Triventa my own, but in shots like the ones below, you will probably see the influence of others on this forum...

 

 

 

[NorthStars 66]

Triventa Transit's East Terminal Hub

 

When I started running into some traffic congestion issues, I decided my public transit was lacking, so I decided to build a major train-bus-subway hub in my east city district of Jathen.  Jathen is more planned than the other ares of my city, so it's also got a really strong network of skywalks, which of course lead right into the East Terminal.  The result seemed to have a really good impact on traffic in that area, although there's still a lot more I can do with it!

 

I am really pleased with the sign I created for leading into the East Terminal area:

 

 

The bus terminal building itself was only my second blender creation, so it's okay, but I would do it differently next time:

 

 

But, I'm still mesmerized watching all my little buses stopping in the terminal.  I don't know why I'm so fascinated by it, but I love the fact that my "Norven Green Line" buses all know to stop in the green lane, and then they go on their merry way to Norven!  It all works!!!     OK, I'm a geek!!

 

 

Alright, that's all I can post for now... time to get to work and earn some RW $$$ so that I can come back and spend more hours playing CSL...

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Woah slow down! Your road network is excellent and those road signs are super cool!

[max_13 128]

Bah, now I want these signs!

[Mymyjp 1,052]

What an amazing city!!! And your signs...definitely something to be proud of!!!

Excellent entry!

[iviaarten 534]

I love the idea of those, they're just too oversized for my taste. Nice concept though

[NorthStars 66]

I love the idea of those, they're just too oversized for my taste. Nice concept though

 

I'm glad people like the signs.  I agree about your point on the scale... I really struggled with that... to be big enough to read effectively, they have to span the lanes going in both directions, which in RL an overhead sign would almost never do.  I just decided I liked the idea enough that I was okay with 'fudging' that little bit of real scale issue.  :-) 

 

The one thing I gain by the 'full width' approach is that the back side of the sign is actually a separate sign for the traffic going in the opposite direction... so I get the value of two road signs for one imported asset.

[89James89 1,169]

Looks really nice! I love the postcard image and the amount of detail and custom work your putting into the city, very good job!

 

Cheers

 

James

[NorthStars 66]

Update #2: Usage of East Terminal Takes Off

 

Current Date: October, 2081

Population: 72,201

Cash Reserve: 2.2 million credits

 

21 years has passed in Triventa since my last post.  When I made that post in 2060, the major transportation hub that I showed pictures of, Triventa East Terminal, was fairly new.  As the name would imply, it was built on the east side of town, and at the time it was built, there was very little population to the east of it.  I knew I was going to slowly build in that direction, and I knew the airport would eventually be built to the east, so it made sense to build the hub there.  However, the problem was that the whole concept of "hub" normally means something in the middle of things, and it was built more on the edge, so it wasn't used very much to start off with.

 

Of course, it goes without saying that city planners were more than a little disappointed with the fact that their massive investment in this hub was used by so few people.  The metro station arriving at the terminal, for example, was the last station on the line at that time, and was only used by about 20 people per week.  And one of the two train terminal buildings in the hub stood empty for 20 years, because it was for a dedicated Airport Express train, and Triventa didn't even have an airport yet!

 

Flash forward 21 years, and here's a map of the main part of Triventa, and you will see that Triventa East Terminal is now very much in the middle of things...

 

 

The dramatic expansion of Stendehl Heights and Apremont to the east, along with the new airport being built in the south-east, has resulted in a new city reality that puts the East Terminal right at the heart of everything.  The result is that there is now massive usage of the terminal.

 

The metro station, for example, is the exchange point between two lines (one going downtown, and one leading to the eastern suburbs), and now has over 1000 people per week using it.  The bus lines are packed, the skywalks in the area are pretty heavily used, and the trains are now getting very well-used.

 

A screenshot of East Terminal in the afternoon:

 

 

The purple train on the far right platform is the Airport Express, the orange train in the middle is an intercity line, and the green train on the left is a local suburban line about to head east to Apremont.  The people on the platform across from the green train are waiting for the blue line that goes downtown and to west city.

 

The shot below is early-evening:

 

 

I totally love the Moving Sun mod by rmbackslash... I've got my day cycles set to about 12 minutes.  Sure, we'd all love to eventually have nighttime in the game, but in the absence of that, this mod absolutely makes me feel like the city has a daily pulse to it.  The early morning light, for example, casts a totally different mood over various neighborhoods than the afternoon, evening or nighttime.  The fact that I can actually set the length of the day cycle is icing on the cake... I never would have dreamed that I'd have that degree of control over my city this early on after the game's release.  Brilliant work, rmbackslash!!

 

Next project up: With the success of the East Terminal, Triventans have decided to build a North Terminal, which is the new direction of growth in the city.  The land for the North Terminal has already been allocated actually (you'll see it on the district map at the top of this post) and we expect construction to begin this year!

[iviaarten 534]

wow, that first picture looks like an actual picture if it wasn't for the UI Think I might try to moving sun mod again, last time I tried it it messed up my info views.

[NorthStars 66]

Informational question here... I noticed that most city journals update the main topic title each time there's an update.  I feel stupid, but even though I created this topic myself, I can't find where to change the title of the topic.  Anyone help pls?

[max_13 128]

Informational question here... I noticed that most city journals update the main topic title each time there's an update.  I feel stupid, but even though I created this topic myself, I can't find where to change the title of the topic.  Anyone help pls?

 

You need to edit your first post and use "more options", there you can update the title.

 

Btw, nice city!

[NorthStars 66]

 

Informational question here... I noticed that most city journals update the main topic title each time there's an update.  I feel stupid, but even though I created this topic myself, I can't find where to change the title of the topic.  Anyone help pls?

 

You need to edit your first post and use "more options", there you can update the title.

 

Btw, nice city!

 

 

Thanks on both counts!

[NorthStars 66]

And, now, the good folks from the Triventa Tourism Board would like to present their latest Triventa Tourism Poster:

 

 

Regrettably, the people at the TTB aren't very good at their jobs.

[charlesnew 262]

Wow! Great city. Looks realistic, and I'll be following this city grow.

[mutton noir 170]

Your custom road signs are impressive, now if some genius modder could create a series of road signs that we could customise "in game" adding our own text that WOULD be awesome- CO might even consider it as part of an expansion...