Boston 2.0 - finally most of the snowfall related issues solved

[Simulanten 681]

So here I am - my first attempt for a CJ about one of my recreations of real cities.

BOSTON

I picked Boston for a series of reasons:

- I don't know the place too well (I'm in Europe and spent only 2 hrs at Logan years ago) that gives me a little freedom of design and less frustration if I don't get it right (or the game / assets are too limited)

- Boston is all about traffic. C:S is a traffic simulator (I feel like city management and development is a lukewarm joke in C:S) and therefore it's fun to recreate the Boston traffic mess like the Big Dig. And there is public transport.

- There is a big variety of districts, harbors, a centrally located airport, and it's not too big

I started with a custom map from terrain.party and downloaded the main highways and railway as a reference through cimtographer. The 25 tiles would include the area I wanted to work with

From now on I will try to document the process of this recreation and share my thoughts about Cities Skylines and all those wonderful mods and assets.

I started at the bottom, near the JFK / UMass train station and worked myself up through South Boston. Now this part is mainly done and next I will move on up north i guess.

This was the first big challenge. The I-93 / I-90 intersection close to South Station. With the C:S roads being too large it was a pain to construct. It apparently looks similar IRL - hard to believe.

I really wish there was an update on the American Roads mod....

More to come soon, Cheers

Dominic

 

[dedgren 830]

Dominic hey!  Very cool.  The desaturated pics and apparent attention to detail really make your CJ stand out.  I'm presuming you've seen Roadman20's CJ City Development Journals: Seattle, Washington, USA- you two are developing  your cities in a very similar and fascinating manner.  Five stars and followed- it's easy to see that Boston 2.0 will be a journal to watch.

I'm also (im)patiently waiting on the American roads mod.  Having been at that end of things, though, it'll come when it comes.

Best of luck!

 

David

[benvoliothefirst 36]

WOW! That is an ambitious project. As a resident of Manchester NH who frequently visited Boston and actually lived there for a few years, you've certainly captured the clusterfoulup that is the Big Dig at least in spirit! Keep up the great work!

[cmdp123789 710]

Boston.. my sweet and extremely cold Boston! Love it.. good start, though I wouldn't only focus on traffic and transport, the essential part of Boston is the looks.. you know that classic American colonial look mixed with New England styled shops and homes.. anyways, keep it up, and I will be watching.

[jesper107 113]

Wow, two CJ's doing the same thing! Will be great to follow the different choices and outcomes.

Very great pictures.

And also: a big warm welcome to this community. It's been around since approximately the Victorian era and will probably be sent in a cached version to the first manned missions to mars. In normal English: it's a great community and it's great to have you here with us. 

I realize Simtropolis sounds like a sect. I guess it is!

[Roadman20 601]

Two very ambitious projects building two vastly different American cities on Simtrop.  I'm pulling out the popcorn.

[Simulanten 681]

Hey all,

thanks so much for the warm welcome here @ simtropolis. David, Roadman and Jesper actually inspired me to give it a try with a CJ. Like Jesper I won't be able to be posting updates continuously - there are moments with time and inspiration and long periods of other stuff. I'm not a PC gamer - but I definitely like to sit in a sandbox and play from time to time...

I'll continue with some images about South Boston (or Southie as it is called obviously). Maybe later I'll be able to extract a list of mods and assets with that brand new mod.

And please bear with the quality of the screens - I use Dynamic Resolution cautiously and don't have the LOD toggler on - running the game on an acer Nitro notebook I want to keep it cool...

Here we go with Boston under bleak skies (no offense to any Boston residents - I'm aware it can be sunny and colorful but I like the noir feel of it sometimes)

South Boston I  / Castle Island, Pleasure Bay and Conley Container Terminal

Another overview:

This is the area that I have covered so far. Pretty much the whole of Southie and a little bit around Washington St. in the background. Logan would be on the right and Downtown behind the harbor area (the Artery is not underground yet - I just downloaded it via Cimtographer for the reference).

Castle Island:

Actually I haven't been to Boston except for a couple of hours at Logan Airport. So I depend on Google Earth and images to get it similar. But at some point too much accuracy gets tedious and I choose to make things just to my liking or depending on the availability of assets and stuff.

For the remains of the castle I used some sunken wall assets and compiled them to the pentagon. Pleasure Bay is on the left. See that little building up front on the left? It's a UK public toilet. One of the assets that I'm really greatful for - nothing fancy, no hi-rise solitaire building, just a plain little thingy that cities are made of.

Conley Container Terminal:

This was desperately needed to get goods to my South Boston commercial buildings (I reopened the rail freight yard too for that purpose). It's a busy port for the East Coast and the access goes via small neighborhood streets (there is a plan for new road access IRL) but so far it handles the traffic quite well. Used one of the toll booth assets for the entry. And the container yards are the best ones on the workshop IMO.

In the back there is one of the cruise ships that has just left the cruise terminal on the other side of Reserved Channel.

A closer view from the castle to the container terminal. After some practising I got more familiar with placing seawalls. In the background behind Pleasure Bay there should be the University of Massachusetts but so far it's just trees and outside the 25 tiles. (I might expand on the 81 one day...)

The park at the lower end got a bit too large. I use the in-game landscaping tools for different shades of green and beach - but it would be nice to have a similar tool like a paint brush without adding ore  - or did I miss something?

On the pier on the other side of the channel there is a warehouse (that I made out of 5 ploppable loft buildings and a parking garage). There is a severe lack of this kind of buildings in the workshop (and in the vanilla game anyway).

I don't think the big warehouse on the left exists like that IRL. But I like the industrial feel of it. Same goes for that plate-covered building on the right that is part of the end pieces of the container yards. The large chimneys in the background are part of the power plant in South Boston.

Sea approach to the terminal at nightfall. You can almost smell the diesel...

And this is the last one. Murphy Skating Rink in the foreground. It's one of the university assets that came in handy for this.

So much for now. Next we will move on to Telegraph Hill.

Cheers

Dominic

[jesper107 113]

Excellent light and layout of the pictures! My favorite is definitely the fortress ruins. Very creative indeed! Which asset is that blue warehouse building?

Jesper

[Simulanten 681]

8 minutes ago, jesper107 said:

Excellent light and layout of the pictures! My favorite is definitely the fortress ruins. Very creative indeed! Which asset is that blue warehouse building?

Jesper

It's one of the "Dream" series. There is an entrance booth and offices to it too. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=558459945

[dedgren 830]

Quote

You can almost smell the diesel.

The essence of good realism-based CJing, captured in a few words.  

The best of this sort of work, like this and our friend Roadman's, doesn't slavishly try to duplicate RL, rather it just seeks to be accurate enough to evoke it in the mind of the reader.  Great stuff!

 

David

 

[Turjan 1,048]

Good luck with this. It's already looking very good.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Looking really good so far! Very nice port and the map work is excellent.

[Fox 1,444]

Really enjoyed exploring all your pictures. Love the detail on the port and the castle, some great ideas to go and attempt in my own cities.

 

Keep up the inspiring work and hope you show many more pictures.

[Horus_Kol 118]

15 hours ago, Simulanten said:

I love these shots - the colour saturation and detail make them look almost real - I had to do a double-take

[Simulanten 681]

South Boston II  / Telegraph Hill and City Point

I really like the look of the real Southie neighborhood. Feindbold's buildings (and the American 1900 series with a few others) helped a lot to get it somehow convincing in C:S.

Again the single-cell streets and alleys are desperately needed for this kind of area. Can't wait.

We approach Southie across the Reserved Channel:

I tried out different assets to represent the big ol' power plant - but everything is too small except for the Forsmark nuclear plants. I like those although it's not the real thing...

Here's an overview across Telegraph Hill and City Point. With all those great assets it's getting easier to find a good mix of buildings:

The popular park on top of the hill:

I wan't able to recreate the L-Street Bathhouse at this spot:

I like the mix of buildings a lot in the next pic:

At city point there is the terminus of a lot of bus lines (5, 7, 9, 10, 11). The bus drivers have a little facility for their needs:

A quiet morning:

I'm really greatful for the ability to change the vehicles and their colors in C:S with the respective mods and assets. That adds a lot to the realism and feel of a certain place. When I see screens of the vanilla game with all those cartoonish cars I realize how awful that looked initially...

Two ambulances racing down East Fourth St:

The view from Telegraph Hill. Very popular for watching the fireworks on 4th of July. Hopefully we'll see the Downtown skyline one day...

And another quiet corner:

Happy New Year everybody!

Dominic

 

 

[Turjan 1,048]

I have no idea how the real Boston looks like, but your Boston definitely looks atmospheric. Well done.

[dedgren 830]

That's some of the most RL-looking Cities: Skylines I've seen yet.  Incredible pics.

A question- are you desaturating them in post-processing?  If so, what program are you using?  Thanks in advance.

 

David

[Simulanten 681]

1 hour ago, dedgren said:

A question- are you desaturating them in post-processing?  If so, what program are you using?  Thanks in advance.

Thanks David, your compliment means a lot.

I use the Bloody Penguin mod for AD plus a LUT that is called "Realistic Warmer" - no post procedure. And it's set in the boreal biome - this also might add to the depressing look...

[Vals Loeder 27]

These pictures are great. You have done a great job on getting a real city atmosphere in them. Well done!

[Judazzz 1,936]

Sweet mother, that looks absolutely amazing, so realistic!
It's a real pleasure to watch this unfold, can't wait for the next update!

As I'm currently working on similar-looking neighborhoods in my city (and use pretty much the exact same mix of custom and vanilla buildings), could you tell us a little about how you created Southie? Do you just zone and let things happen, or do you zone each plot individually? Do you use building themes? Any special tips or tricks?

[Simulanten 681]

EDIT: It works again - see below

(Ooops - now it happened. I can't restart the game anymore. On the initial screen before choosing NEW / LOAD / CONTENT MANAGER etc. the loading gets aborted and that was it. Crash.

Just before I subscribed the fixed ARIS mods and unsubsrcibed the old ones. And I cleaned the Network Skin / prefab hook setup.

Anybody quick on spotting the problem here https://gist.github.com/anonymous/a3c8027f534e3eba1e11 ?

I would like to build on... :-(

Thanks in advance)

[Simulanten 681]

48 minutes ago, Judazzz said:

Sweet mother, that looks absolutely amazing, so realistic!
It's a real pleasure to watch this unfold, can't wait for the next update!

As I'm currently working on similar-looking neighborhoods in my city (and use pretty much the exact same mix of custom and vanilla buildings), could you tell us a little about how you created Southie? Do you just zone and let things happen, or do you zone each plot individually? Do you use building themes? Any special tips or tricks?

I usually do the road layout first and then I use custom building themes (they include Brooklyn, American 1900 and a few more like the American Colonial theme plus a few vanilla buildings). It takes a lot of time to moderate the growing, controlling building levels, reshaping intersections and filling backyards with trees and so on. No special tricks. I usually have google earth open while building - the 3D rendering for Boston is amazing and I like to get inspired looking at google earth and jumping over to C:S and try to get it similar.

Now I only need to get the game back working... (see above)

[Judazzz 1,936]

1 hour ago, Simulanten said:

I usually do the road layout first and then I use custom building themes (they include Brooklyn, American 1900 and a few more like the American Colonial theme plus a few vanilla buildings). It takes a lot of time to moderate the growing, controlling building levels, reshaping intersections and filling backyards with trees and so on. No special tricks. I usually have google earth open while building - the 3D rendering for Boston is amazing and I like to get inspired looking at google earth and jumping over to C:S and try to get it similar.

Now I only need to get the game back working... (see above)

That's pretty much the same approach I use as well (including Google Maps)! It's pretty work-intensive (for example I cap all building levels at 1, and only allow certain buildings to progress further), but it gets you very nice results.
Would be nice to see a list of assets you use, to see whether I may have left out a few gems. I realize it's not easy to get a list of all subscribed assets, so no pressure!

As far as your error: my game has been spluttering as well, often crashing back to the desktop after reaching the main screen or when clicking on the 'Load City'-button. Usually I manage to get it to work after restarting the game a few times, and instead of loading a save I simply continue (no idea whether it makes a difference - just a little digital rabbit's foot).

Hope you'll be able to sort out your (game's, obviously ) issues!

[Roadman20 601]

I've been suffering the crashing issue as well once getting to the menu.  Looks like you're not alone in this issue.

Btw, great looking update.

EDIT: Started up C:S in No Workshop and Disable Mod to stabilize, so figuring on a mod making the crash occur.  Not sure what mod(s) are doing it atm.

[Simulanten 681]

Until I've sorted out the crash while loading issue I have a few screens stored for another update.

Yesterday I watched "Black Mass" - it's set in South Boston and gave me a lot of inspiration. I'd like to redo parts of Southie (like the projects around Carson Beach) but this will have to wait...

South Boston III  / From Carson Beach along the I-93

This is where I started the whole project: Carson Beach, Old Colony Ave and around Andrew Square.

Carson Beach features a nice park

For the Old Harbor Projects in the background I used some (Dutch) brick buildings - but I'll try to redo them as soon as I have access to the game again. Stupid repetitive beach texture...

Another view across Joe Moakley Park as it is called:

That's the tracks close to Newmarket Station next to South Bay Mall. The tall buildings in the back are recent developments in the Southie harbor area:

There are a few mall assets around but definitely not enough variety (for U.S. cities at least).

I like the next shot - I wonder what the ambulance, hearse and stretch-limo are heading to. Apparently Southie hasn't been gentrified completely and there might have been some mobster action going on..:

The building on the right is part of the UK industry theme. This is the stuff that we need!

Andrew Square Station on the right. Up front is one of the main I-93 exits into Southie:

Again, cars and trucks add a lot to the specific atmosphere!

One exit closer to downtown - that's where the South Boston Bypass starts - a truck exklusive road into the harbor area / convention center. After closing some local streets for truck traffic it's being used now...

Oh, and another hearse patrolling the streets (those C:S undertakers have no navigation skills at all - this is one of the flaws of the game that should have been fixed months ago).

One of the bridges across the South Boston Bypass.

Nice mix of cars. And another hearse.

An incredible mass of concrete around the I-93:

The ambulance is heading for the Boston Medical Center.

The industrial area along the tracks:

I'm grateful fpr the industrial assets like the harbor pack warehouse and the UK industrial growable assets. I find the vanilla industry too cartoonish on those small plots.

The Acela rushing into South Station. And one of the two bridges across the rail yard close to Broadway T station:

Sharp junction, more tracks and ground textures make it much easier to create realistic train yards...

One bridge closer to Fort Point Channel:

Still lacking the downtown skyline in the left background...

That's it for now - hopefully I'll get my game running again soon. Can't wait to develop more...

Cheers

Dominic

 

 

 

 

 

[Simulanten 681]

5 hours ago, Roadman20 said:

I've been suffering the crashing issue as well once getting to the menu.  Looks like you're not alone in this issue.

Btw, great looking update.

EDIT: Started up C:S in No Workshop and Disable Mod to stabilize, so figuring on a mod making the crash occur.  Not sure what mod(s) are doing it atm.

I'm back in Boston!

It was definitely an issue with mods. Got a m_SteamUGCRequestMap error: 15 error and it started without problems when no workshop / disable mod settings. I used my little panic attack to clean my mods and assets - finally unsubscribing the rather new mod for making lists about mods/assets did the trick. Maybe you check in your steam account which of your mods has been updated most recently. This might be the bugger. But you never know...

Ok - on we go!

Sorry for using my CJ for crash reports...

Dominic

 

[jesper107 113]

Yes! You make all swedes proud of your city-making skills (and your crash-solving capabilities!).

If I ever stop plopping trees and start building cities instead mine will look like yours - or I'll at least try!

Jesper

[Simulanten 681]

12 minutes ago, jesper107 said:

Yes! You make all swedes proud of your city-making skills (and your crash-solving capabilities!).

Secret: Jag är inte svensk - men jag känner Sverige ganska bra... ;-)

And believe me: getting landscapes looking right isn't easier than zoning and plopping buildings...

 

[FullStrenght 74]

Nice CJ, very inspirational! I am happy to read the error was fixed, had a similar problem as well. I am looking forward to see more, develop towards downtown. From what I know it has an interesting character.

[Simulanten 681]

Instead of just ranting & whining about the direction C:S obviously is taking with the next DLC I thought I'd rather post a teaser pic of the progress my Boston 2.0 is making. C:S is still a more than decent "city maker" as Roadman20 put it.

I hope to have time to complete the Downtown area and around Charles River Basin and make more detailed shots about it all soon. The "Big Dig" highway system is quite a challenge to recreate... the combination of bridges, tunnels, railway, public transport etc. around North and South Station gave me headaches but traffic is smooth... Thanks so much to all the modders and asset creators - without you this would never be possible and I wouldn't play C:S at all. Still I miss good medium sized office / downtown assets and of course Boston's "brick-feel" stuff .... ;-)

Stay tuned for more...

Dominic