Greenland

[Spaceblaze 194]

After rediscovering SC4 and some play around on another region I decided to give it a try and fill a complete region with cities and areas and see if I can get my population into the millions

This is the start, a medium city with low residential and high commercial, surrounded by 2 areas of high industrial activity.

 

The region

 

The center city, called Center town

 

One of the two industrial areas, called Maasvlakte

 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

That's the first time I see SC4 in Dutch. I absolutely love how your language looks and sounds! 

Good attempt at creating specialized zones. I like how low-key the living area looks (and how well-off financially it is.)

[Spaceblaze 194]

A nice, tiny, city in my project. This city is called called Aardappelland (potatoland in English)

There is no school yet, or hospital, firestation or police station.

The power for the town is made by two windmills and there are 2 water towers for the thirsty and needy.

 

(btw, I have no clue how to upload to my album propperly, the first picture should be from Aardappelland, the next a road map of the complete region and the last picture is the satellite view. So this is some kind of a test)

 

 

[Spaceblaze 194]

Potatoland some 270 years later...

 

When I started to add hospitals, schools and fire stations I almost went bankrupt and had to think of something to get in the positive income again, so I added some low residential areas. Thing I didn't add yet is the police, peeps can live without to much hassle it seems

 

I have a question and I hope some one knows an explenation.  What do I have to do to get churches? And why do I sometimes get a church and right after it a cemetary, and another time I only get a church? In Aardappelland I have 4 churches but no cemetary.

 

 

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

Your cities are developing nicely.
 

8 hours ago, Spaceblaze said:

What do I have to do to get churches? And why do I sometimes get a church and right after it a cemetary, and another time I only get a church?

There's an article from the SC4Devotion Wiki which lists the requirements for naturally unlocking them both. See this section and keep scrolling down. Also I did a search and came across this guide that presents the info a little differently for another perspective. Perhaps that might help as well.

Also it might be useful to view the pages describing the House of Worship and the Cemetery (multiple lot) variations respectively.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

Good to see how healthily your towns develop! I like how the region view gradually fills up.

One suggestion if I may - consider breaking up the rectangular shapes with a more irregular development of individual cities/boroughs. Might look interesting too!

[Spaceblaze 194]

@Cyclone Boom

 

Thanks for the links to the requirements for rewards. I used to have a book with my CD-rom and if I remember correctly, the data was in the small booklet that came with the box of SimCity Deluxe(but not all of them)

I haven't been playing SimCity for, maybe, 10 years(or more) or so and I get some deja vu feelings and things that where once created in my mind in the past pop up again

Your links have been bookmarked and maybe I should download the game manual and read it in full, maybe there is more in the back of my mind that I have forgotten about.

 

@TheMurderousCricket

 

I understand your point and when I get some more grip on how to build and when I get more grip on how to make sure to have a positive income I will get rid of the American style of planning, for now the 9x9 grid makes it's more or less easy for me to continue to keep building and have a decent income.

For now I will continue to experiment with different regions and make sure industrial is in another part of the map then residential/commercial. In my latest region(Aardappelland) I realised there is more the then 2 sides of the residential scale. Low residential gives a nice income, but won't go anywere in the big picture. high residential gives much more money, but also much more problems with welfare, education, crime, and fire protection. I just have to figure out how to deal with this and so far the 9x9 grid works best for me.

 

In the future I would like to add some regions to the game with water and mountains and really go wild on building, but I have to downlaoad them because I suck at terraforming

(Can I just download regions into my Maxis folder?)

 

Here is a picture from Aardappelland and the peeps are already complaining because they want a bigger airport..

 

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

4 hours ago, Spaceblaze said:

(Can I just download regions into my Maxis folder?)

If it is a complete region, yes. But nearly all region maps on the STEX (and prolly the LEX) are either a grayscale image to be rendered in the game or a .SC4M file from which the region is created using the Mapper program.

Let us know which map you are considering and we can provide more specific help.

[Spaceblaze 194]

The start of a new , medium sized, area. This time I am going to try to use medium residential. I think I get the hang of it but high residential is a bit difficult for now and low residential is easy..

Let's see how this works out

(Btw, I see some promising regions in the STEX I downloaded)

 

[Spaceblaze 194]

Ehh, now I have two pictures of the same area

How do I delete the png one?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

5 hours ago, Spaceblaze said:

How do I delete the png one?

Click the Edit linky under that post then click the little trashcan icon of the PNG image.

^ This has to be done in the Uploaded Images section because if you delete the image in the text editor portion, the board software will just re-display it when you save.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

On 12.12.2020 at 12:43 AM, Spaceblaze said:

I understand your point and when I get some more grip on how to build and when I get more grip on how to make sure to have a positive income I will get rid of the American style of planning, for now the 9x9 grid makes it's more or less easy for me to continue to keep building and have a decent income.

It's not what I meant exactly.

You don't have to get rid of the 9x9 plan to pull it off. What I meant is that you can leave some of your boroughs partially undeveloped. This will result in your city shape becoming irregular at the borders while retaining your planning concept. Consider the image below and, to paraphrase Dr. Emmet Brown, please excuse me for the crudeness of the image:

The colored tiles are the developed regions of your city, while the thick black lines are the city tiles' borders. By leaving some of the city tiles un(der)developed, you make the overall city a little less rectangular, because there are swathes of open space (white) around it that break this shape. Note that the grid pattern of each individual city is not disturbed - just limited in coverage.

Of course, this is your region and your vision Mayor.  If not for today, you might consider it for future projects.

[Spaceblaze 194]

@TheMurderousCricket

 

Doesn't this mean I have to combine industrial and residential in one and the same area? I want to avoid pollution(for now) in residential areas.

I think I could experiment with the commercial and residential areas and see if I can create, for example, an commercial area that goes over the border from one area to another

 

@CorinaMarie

Thanks!

 

Update on my Burcht

 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

@Spaceblaze - the colored tiles in my sketch are just an example, don't be too preoccupied with them.   You can zone any way you want. It's just the overall city shape that we discuss.

You are a photographer. I am a CG artist. I'm sure you know that things look better when they are not too ideal. 

Sims will usually look for jobs outside of a city, so you can easily build a residential-exclusive city and the people will simply travel to the next borough to find a job. This is one of the most interesting and powerful aspects of SC4.

[Spaceblaze 194]

This looks a bit like an English suburb, the only thing I am missing is a football stadium. It's a dull and boring part of town and all the houses look the same

 

Back to the region

 

I decided to start in another corner and see if I can add the the tips TheMurderousCricket gave about where to place the R.C.I

It's just a start and I am planning to work around the 2 small industrial lands and will try to set the commercial around it, and then the residential around the commercial

 

 

This is how the infrastructure looks, I just don't get a grip on the 9x9 blocks when connecting different area's

 

 

 

[Spaceblaze 194]

I am getting the hang of using medium residential areas

 

This is Poortland, 150K residents

 

Overall Greenland is growing nicely, I have almost reached the 1 million residents mark

 

 

 

[Spaceblaze 194]

Reached the 1M mark, next is 2M

 

I have a question though and I hope there is an answer to this because it is awkward

 

Whenever I screw up with my water or energy and disaster happens my income drops sharply, but the number of residents increases in the same manner

(I hope this is a correct English sentence)

 

Is there an explenation for this residential behaviour?

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

4 hours ago, Spaceblaze said:

Whenever I screw up with my water or energy and disaster happens my income drops sharply, but the number of residents increases in the same manner

It sounds like your higher wealth R$$ and/or R$$$ buildings get abandoned and then when the trouble is fixed, a lower wealth moves in. When this happens the buildings hold about twice as many Sims as it would for the intended occupants.

[Spaceblaze 194]

Thanks for your answer

It is a clear statement that all squatters and vagrants take possession of the high residential buildings, while also making use of the facilities in the city (hospitals, schools, etc.) This makes it extra difficult to get out of these kind of screw ups. 

(translated via google translate)

[Spaceblaze 194]

I am getting confronted with some bugs and it has to do with introducing highways

In Tokkieland I started with highways

 

 

When I created the intersection it is impossible there are 3 buildings I can't get rid of, whatever I do

 

To be honest, that's something I can live with, but the next bug bothers me and starts to make me to lose interest in this region. The connection to another area next to it isn't there in the other area

 

 

There is no connection to Westerwatering...

 

 

 

This makes me lose interest in this region because I had big plans on integrating a highway system... + these kind of bugs will happen again if I start another region

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

12 minutes ago, Spaceblaze said:

I had big plans on integrating a highway system...

I believe the trouble is that where the highway from Tokkieland needs to poke thru into Westerwatering is blocked from making the terrain changes it needs so it doesn't.

Try bulldozing this area in Westerwatering:

Then save, exit to the region, then load Tokkieland again and re-draw the highway connection. Save there, exit to region, and now check in Westerwatering to see if the highway stub is coming thru.

 

For those buildings in the middle of the cloverleaf, did you try using the dezoning tool on them?

[Spaceblaze 194]

I have a blush of shame on my cheeks now, how could I not see the railroad...

About the real bug, I treid everything, dezoning and rebuilding the intersection, I am affraid those buildings are here to stay

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 hours ago, Spaceblaze said:

About the real bug, I treid everything, dezoning and rebuilding the intersection, I am affraid those buildings are here to stay

I've tried several ways and cannot get mine to mess up like that.   Seems something really odd has caused it for your city.

If you want to try something a bit destructive which might help, grab Cori's Flora Eraser Brush - v1.1.dat attached to this post. You will also need God Terraforming in Mayor Mode installed and then you can find the new brush under the Make Mountains God Mode tool menu. Select the blue Bulldozer brush and wiggle that around over the recalcitrant zones until they go away.

Ofc, this'll destroy other things nearby too, so only save if you are happy with the result.

[Spaceblaze 194]

Hi Cori,

I am not sure I can use this feature because I have an origin copy of the game. At this point I am very reluctant to use anything that hasn't been installed within the original game. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of a possible solution, when I am done shaping and building I will certainly have a look at your tool!(or when I get bored builidng and shaping in Greenland, there is still so much to do)

 

Having said this, I have another one and I think this bug comes with intersections and not clearing an complete area before building the intersection. Somehow there is a need to clear large areas before building this, simply bulldozering areas won't work

So here is another example and I guess the Sims have a bumpy ride on this intersection

 

 

Overall, the highway system is coming along fine

 

[Spaceblaze 194]

Small update on the highway thingy

The challenge will be on the left side of my map, everything is very dense over there and it will probably cost me residents when integration a highway system over there. That region has the highest population and makes most of my total population of Greenland.

Speaking of population, I still have some 25 medium areas to build on and with an average of 100 to 150K on the lands I have build so far I should be able to reach 4M total. The only big area will be saved for last and I hope to have managed high residential areas

 

[Spaceblaze 194]

Small update

Added some new regions and the pop has gone up to 1.7M

Here's the satelite view and my highway network

 

 

On the smaller region front, I tried something new. I build the infrastructure first.

 

 

Add residential next and have a go.

 

 

 

Expand some more

 

 

Expanding more, adding commercial and start to add schools and hospitals.

This isn't my top city when income is concerned, in fact, I thought this was going to be the first region to go broke on. But somehow I am still alive

 

 

Anyhow, downtown Marlborough looks nice, even when the peeps keep complaining that there is no police, there is no airport, schools are crowded and roads are filled with traffic

 

 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

"Stroop je mouwen op, burgemeester!" Is now my favorite sentence in Dutch. 

It looks like you manage your cities well. Having so many developed tiles requires skill, no doubt.

[Spaceblaze 194]

A  small update since I reached the 2 million peeps mark

 

 

 

The latest city I am working on is a treasure, given the number of peeps living in the city vs the amount of money I am making. In the city I have added a medium airport, a universcity and golfcourse. I think think this city will be my top city(for now) when I change the low residential to medium and after that to high.

 

 

 

[Spaceblaze 194]

Setting up a new industrial area and this is the area I am going to work on.

Next to it is a small industrial area and a medium residential and commercial area.

 

 

I have set up the area with road and a highway. Water supply and energy are ready and I have added a large fire station, commuters railway station and a cargo railway station.

Too keep everything up and running I need to make 1.176 simolians to break even

 

 

Next I am adding the industrial zones and a little bit of commercial

(I have raised the taxes on residential to a high level, so there will be no demand for residential zones)

 

 

Next I am going to press the fast button and see what happens. Notice that I didn't fill in all the zones yet, I have done this so I have some room left to play with the water and energy management. I also have to switch to the neighbouring area to create demands on this industrial city.

 

So let's play!

 

 

Switch to the residential end commercial area next to it and  return to this little "project"

 

Now I can safely return to the residential area next to it, I have created so much demand for houses the area next to it will thrive

(don't try this at home and when you have no neighbouring city's this way of working will fail )

[Spaceblaze 194]

I have tried something new

in my home town we have a "lake" because sand has been dug from a location to be used at another location (sand supletie?)

So know I have a hole in one of my cities and I used it to create beaches and peeps can swim in the freshley created lake.

This is something I want to work on in the future, raising and lowering the terrain. I can't get a hang on it and I wonder if there is a good guide to do so?

 

Here is my "lake"

 

Overall, Greenland is doing fine and I reached the 2.5 million mark. The city is getting so big I can't create one screenshot any more to show all off it

(but there is still lots of room for improvement, or to grow. Maybe I should try to add subways...)