Rise of Rivergem

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

This started as a full test of my main two mods Realistic Population and Consumption and Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance. I've always tested in short bursts here and there, but never a full city from scratch. I've set the lifespan multiplier to 1 instead of the default of 3.

So, here we go.

 

Riverrun.

A location where two gentle streams merge to form a wide river. It also appears to be a location where many highways converge upon, a perfect place for a town, although no knows why a town wasn't built there before.

I have been tasked to build a new settlement, or settlements with instructions to preserve the forest.

 

Given the starting area, a small town was constructed. It was easy enough, with the land being flat enough to lay down a grid. Industry on one side of the highway, the majority of the residential on the other side. A total population of about  2500 at this point and the name of Rivergem was assigned.

 

 

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

As the settlement grows, the boundaries expand to include more land, expanding across the highway and up the river.

It takes many years to have a town of 8000 people and it was tough going because finances were always tight, never having a surplus of $4k a week.

 

The regional government probably started to wonder if I was fishing in the river and lake segment which was cut off from the river.

I wouldn't want to fish in the lake where the water level is dropping, so I put an outflow pipe to the take to keep the water level up and a do not fish or swim sign.

 

Surprisingly though, I was given permission to zone high density and with that I immediately got to work making what would be a new town center.

The regional government was a lot happier with my progress, however they are wondering if the traffic would cause problems.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

The Great Upgrade

The regional government came back after half a year and asked why the industrial zone was making boxes when there were so many educated employees around.

I was looking at the zone wondering why they were not updating, then saw that they had very few services at all. Fixed that with three bus routes, a tram connecting industry with the residential and a new clinic for those who are unfortunate with the failure of work safety.

And volia , the majority of the industrial zone upgraded within months.

Of course... once the brand new bus service was in... it turned out to be extremely popular and the poor bus could not keep up. Nor does it look like it could ever keep up. Back to the drawing board I guess.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

I'm glad that the commercial buildings are upgrading. The downtown district does look fantastic during sunrise.

The regional government has tapped me on the shoulder and started asking for some of that tax money.

I had to toss them a bone or two as scraps to keep them happy, mentioned something about a long way to go and that I was preserving their forests before leading them to the elevator and out of the building.

 

The federal government took interest in the city and thought it could use a real big boost and really wanted a big as possible city.

"Three quarters of a million people", they said, "Become the jewel of the river. Make the nation proud."

It looks like I will have some long and difficult planning to do.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

Unemployment was getting a little high at around 18% and social security was quite displeased with me and I was getting phone calls from the federal government telling me that I was failing in my duty of providing enough zoning for business.

So I started to build a new office block, but it had the unfortunate effect of attracting every available worker from all areas, my industry was hardest hit. Thankfully a few of them started to switch to become high tech and thus were able to attract the appropriate educated employees. I suppose I should think about supplying a freight station so that they can transport goods a lot better. The highway is doing it's job for now.

 

In keeping with the federal government's wishes for a gem of a city, I encouraged high tech housing in a district named the inner core and those houses were starting to look a little shiny, but if that's what the government wants, then who am I to complain. I do hope I can push out those city boundaries again. I am so itching to create towns.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

Both regional and federal governments are pestering me about the high tax revenue and I said that I will start giving tax cuts and more than a fair share once I have reached 100k. The federal government said alright, but afterwards suggested something else to be done and upon looking at a design they had for another city which was falling behind, I had to agree.

Allocated a small space in the corner, although I feel that I will need to reconfigure the area to make it fitting for a momument.

I was given approval to build an airport, so I built one out in the outskirts of the city and in keeping with the green theme, I have started to sink a few of the highways to enable the forests to connect better.

Also installed a train station to give the high tech industry a boost.... ignore the nuclear power plant, it's still green.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

I gave the go ahead for the federal government's plan for a nice tower to help showcase the city. It took a few years, but it certainly looks very nice. The shadow is far reaching as it sweeps across the land and it certainly caused a "few" traffic issues, but the city overall is holding up, so that is a relief.

Also expanded the lands to create a few small outer towns, so I shall finally get onto that.

The regional government was stunned by the progress made since they last asked for some tax money. They were also quite surprised that I built a tax office for them without having to be prodded for it.

Upon looking at the Rivergem Tower, they asked, "What about a north tower?"

I could only blink and go 'Umm...' at that, then pondered...

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

(Was doing a bit of worker and household editing with buildings. So the Rivergem Tower is now 10.5k workers. I am finding that high density feels a little too low for spamming citizens, accounting for the fact that children always move out of home, leaving two people at most for long periods)

I was being petitioned by a few companies who wanted to set up shop within the city and I took a look over their designs and plans and thought that a few had potential so I agreed. It took a while to build and plan out more residential areas, but it looks okay from the coast line. (Total workers from the unique buildings in the image is 35k)

The regional government called in one afternoon and took issue with my planning for the other side of the office block since it takes out that patch of trees. I did argue with them for a bit and then pointed out that they wanted a north tower.

They did grumble about that, but they let that slide for now and they said something about marking me down for it.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

Had a small population influx with the creation of office towers on each side of the river and the results look nice at night time from the outer town that is now named Susi Ympyrä (Finnish for Wolf Circle). It looks awful during the day. Also ended up creating a few levels of buildings towards the river to capture the land value and squeeze in more people to preserve the dense tree covers.

The federal and regional government visited again and were amazed as soon as they came over the hills as the towers were quite visible. The entirety of the city blew their socks off.

Someone suggested reassigning me to a quieter town since I wasn't obtaining too much of a surplus. They laughed at that and someone else agreed, but I am sure it was all in jest.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

(Sorry for the delay. I was attempting to edit the effects of the High Rise Ban to be height based, but I haven't yet gotten it working too well yet)

 

I wasn't too happy with the industrial area, so I decided to move it all down to the first town plot in the far south of the city.  Had to create a highway tunnel into the town to reduce the traffic killing sprawl. I am also regretting the tram system and that might disappear later on.

 

I also needed to add a few more people in the Lofty Green district so I increased the density, keeping it sort of medium density.

Before

 

After (with a small district rezone to give housing next to the highway to the inner core)

 

I am still not getting the population I am really after, so I will have to continue to push out the residential areas. I haven't heard from either higher governments, so I wonder if they have forgotten about the city.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

With so many changes, I had forgotten to write about the experiences. However, the forest connection in between the urban area to the river has been removed, replaced by ultra high density.

It was my fault. Really. It was.

I set aside a spot for the Eden Project which was graciously given to me by the federal government's enviroment and science department. Once that was placed down, it cleaned up my city and caused a terrible side effect. I was hit hard by lobby groups and the wealthy all petitioning me to open up the land around it.

I had to give in. Took several years and it was a construction boom, drawing in companies and people from all over the region.

The regional government representative burst in while I was looking out the window in my office which was located on the 221st floor. Immediately shouted and demanded to know why the forested area near the river was gone. I only turned around, then walked to my desk and took out a prepared letter before handing it over to her.

"Here you go, I am authorising a small weekly payment to the regional government. I believe it will be enough to ease the pain for the lost forest and hey, I am also spreading the forest outwards over the mountain range. Not to mention I am keeping the lake supplied with enough water now and that area is starting to flourish."

The representative took a look at the letter, "Wait... I... 52 million a year? I... this changes nothing though. I need to talk to my superiors." She did leave and I resumed my gaze out the window again. I went outside to talk to the secretary and was told the representative left. Wonder what will happen now.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

I recently turned 100 and a new stadium was built, so it makes a nice addition to the city. The youth training program is costly though pushing the city into a small deficit. I was so glad that the first five games were wins!

Talking about deficits. I was in a meeting with other mayors and they mentioned that there were online and VR classroom tech available which would really cut down on the costs of education and in a few small pilot cities they appeared to work nicely. I should give it a try.

On the development side, more tourism trails were created, reaching out to the old ruins. Unfortunately, someone landed a hammer into the long wall and made a puncture through it. It was unfortunate, but it happens and it was decided to let the stones roll down the hill.

Oh! As for that regional representative that left abruptly? I got a vidmail saying that everything was okay and that they are coming down soon to allow me to retire.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

2093 and I'm been told I can retire. Finally. Been in this seat for waaay too long. The score card I got gave me a C for enviromental preservation, budget and a B for everything else, which I am not happy with, but I did what I could. I want to enjoy my retirement, whatever is left of it.

The retirement party was somber, with a few others and my replacement who is looking over the city and discussed plans to spread the city out to fill all the spaces, thinking that they could house in another two million, to which I agreed and wish her luck.

I head home to plan my holiday and while asleep, join the queue for the black wagon at the age of 108.

----

And here ends the series and my testing. Fixed a bug in the mean time for the population mod and there's a new feature for citizen rebalance which will probably go out next week.

The following screenshots are a select few of the city. I have squashed a few together to save on space.

Land value, noise pollution (land pollution is effectively 0%), traffic.

[Whitefang Greytail 45]

Squashed down info panels, graphs and population info panels of districts.

If I need to resize them to be smaller. Let me know.

Thank you for reading through this thread.