What things should I improve?

[Propfam 2,286]

Hello,

This will be the ultimate topic for all feedbacks regarding to my cities, much like @Daeris and @Raymond7cn.

Thanks.

[Propfam 2,286]

What do you think about my cities layout?

[Ducio 285]

Thanks for sharing! One thing I like to do is to use diagonal streets to create the appearance of more natural roads. So for example, you could try using diagonal roads around the university and on the residential island after the bridge to make the roads seem a bit more fluid rather than the 90 degree corners. 

[Daeris 1,116]

It is hard for me to provide constructive criticism unless I know particularly what aspects/areas you're wanting feedback on. Perhaps share a bit more about your goal with this city/region, or explain more about your gameplay style (your methods and philosophies perhaps).

I don't see anything inherently wrong with your cities. It does seem like perhaps there are many redundant buildings lining some of the avenues/major roads? Is this what you want in those areas? Also, I don't see use of many trees in the undeveloped land. Is this also something you prefer, or are you leaving undeveloped land treeless because you plan to expand development to those areas? Me personally, I love using MMP trees as well as god-mode tree brush (or lately, flora blasting!) to make it look like my cities are nestled into nature. To me, using flora can go a long way to make a city look more realistic, and it also can help break the grid.

[Propfam 2,286]

My philosophy of building city is currently efficiency to achieve goal faster and gaining feedback from others, because feedback makes perfect, not the innate sense of being perfect. I think, developing those cities isn't enough. They must be jam free, have lots of profit to continuously build the city, and possibly a reasonably sized market so at least 100m+ skyscrapers can be build there in the busiest area, not too small airport, and quite advanced seaports. The former is so important because I hate placing landmark in my city because I think it's cheating against the demand. Also currently, I'm focusing on the planning side of the city, not the landscaping. So, being a landscape architect is a good thing to me, especially if I can do the landscaping in the macro scale.

Speaking of the tree, I wish I could. But, planting trees are painful to me. So, I need scripts or hire someone to do so.

Hopes it clears. Suggestions are obviously still welcome. Thanks.

[Daeris 1,116]

30 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

Speaking of the tree, I wish I could. But, planting trees are painful to me. So, I need scripts or hire someone to do so.

Well if you're going for more of a urbanized NYC feel, you might want to consider creating a section similar to Central Park (or maybe a couple sections like that). I understand getting too particular with MMP trees might become a daunting task, so if you don't like to do that it's understandable. However, I would still suggest you try to challenge yourself to use tree brush to add some trees along waterways or by highway interchanges perhaps.

This mod here I believe will give you the god-mode tree brush while in mayor mode (I use this): 

 

Or try out flora blasting sometime if you haven't already (though you probably don't want to do that on an already developed city-tile).

 

[Propfam 2,286]

Sorry, but I can't post my CJ right now because my city isn't polished yet. I think text based story telling isn't for me. I think videos are fine but I need to learn Premiere and After Effect first before come back.

The border plan even isn't finished yet. Even, the island names aren't decided yet. Districts aren't named. The market size isn't really enough for great works like airports or advanced seaports. Infrastructure across unfinished border aren't built yet. No trees are planted yet. I think the attraction isn't there yet.

What do you think about my decision to not post CJ? Do you have any tips about making appealing CJs? Also, do you like this format of one topic doing all thing as opposed to specific problem per topic format?

But this isn't really the end of the post. A couple months ago, I found something called Andea City. This is a city on Minecraft but we're not talking about the game. What we're gonna talk about is the planning process. I think only @Daeris comes close to this type of planning. Unfortunately, I can't locate the exact location of the documents. But it seems like it's a well planned city. Should I adopt their planning process? Are there any benefits to make a planning document to existing cities? Should I make it later in the next regions?

[Daeris 1,116]

7 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

Sorry, but I can't post my CJ right now because my city isn't polished yet. I think text based story telling isn't for me. I think videos are fine but I need to learn Premiere and After Effect first before come back.

The border plan even isn't finished yet. Even, the island names aren't decided yet. Districts aren't named. The market size isn't really enough for great works like airports or advanced seaports. Infrastructure across unfinished border aren't built yet. No trees are planted yet. I think the attraction isn't there yet.

Don't beat yourself up, your city is developed nicely (especially since you're going for more of an urbanized feel). You don't necessarily need to name everything. I only name things as I go in my regions and city-tiles (unless something really really stands out to me). Most of my names are just silly word combinations (like a recent village I named Pebbleplum, a combination of the words "pebble" and "plummet"). Many of my rivers are not named, same as islands, mountains, forests.... all sorts of stuff. Naming can be fun, but it's completely optional, and don't feel like you need to name everything all at once, or right away. If you like to plan the layout of your whole city first, then build it, that's entirely fine!
 

11 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

What do you think about my decision to not post CJ? Do you have any tips about making appealing CJs?

I thought I noticed you may have deleted your CJ. Hmmm, well the option to do one or not is up to you of course. I asked Cori and CB the same thing, and they basically reminded me it's up to me, and all things first and foremost should be fun for me! And I 100% agree. So, if starting a CJ and moving forward with it is what you want to do, and it will be fun for you, you should! I even told Cori and CB that I don't think my stuff is up to snuff yet, but the truth is, it doesn't matter.... it'll be fun to document my process, and how I grow and learn. It can be educational for not only myself but others. So I would say, do whatever you think will make you have the most enjoyment out of the game. Don't worry about others or what they think... just put your fun first.

I don't have any super duper tips on how to make an appealing CJ yet, since I'm just starting myself. The approach I took was to try and keep my CJ focused on the Natural Growth method that I'm attempting to learn and get more proficient with (and also help encourage and teach others). I also wanted to introduce a few unique things I hadn't really seen yet, so luckily that fog-of-war idea came to me while I was starting the CJ. I'm not sure how it will really play out yet, but it could be fun. If I learn any surefire tips about CJs as I continue, I'll share with you, but I'm definitely still learning myself.

 

16 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

A couple months ago, I found something called Andea City. This is a city on Minecraft but we're not talking about the game. What we're gonna talk about is the planning process. I think only @Daeris comes close to this type of planning. Unfortunately, I can't locate the exact location of the documents. But it seems like it's a well planned city. Should I adopt their planning process?

I've not heard of this, nor am I familiar with the planning process you're talking about. But this certainly sounds like a compliment so I thank you (and humbly am surprised, because I am but a newbie apprentice when it comes to the planning many SC4 seasoned vets are capable of). I thank you all the same. Can you try to explain more about the planning process for this city? It sounds really interesting, but I'm just not familiar with it. Share more if you can!  

[Propfam 2,286]

1 hour ago, Daeris said:

Don't beat yourself up, your city is developed nicely (especially since you're going for more of an urbanized feel). You don't necessarily need to name everything. I only name things as I go in my regions and city-tiles (unless something really really stands out to me). Most of my names are just silly word combinations (like a recent village I named Pebbleplum, a combination of the words "pebble" and "plummet"). Many of my rivers are not named, same as islands, mountains, forests.... all sorts of stuff. Naming can be fun, but it's completely optional, and don't feel like you need to name everything all at once, or right away. If you like to plan the layout of your whole city first, then build it, that's entirely fine!
 

I thought I noticed you may have deleted your CJ. Hmmm, well the option to do one or not is up to you of course. I asked Cori and CB the same thing, and they basically reminded me it's up to me, and all things first and foremost should be fun for me! And I 100% agree. So, if starting a CJ and moving forward with it is what you want to do, and it will be fun for you, you should! I even told Cori and CB that I don't think my stuff is up to snuff yet, but the truth is, it doesn't matter.... it'll be fun to document my process, and how I grow and learn. It can be educational for not only myself but others. So I would say, do whatever you think will make you have the most enjoyment out of the game. Don't worry about others or what they think... just put your fun first.

I don't have any super duper tips on how to make an appealing CJ yet, since I'm just starting myself. The approach I took was to try and keep my CJ focused on the Natural Growth method that I'm attempting to learn and get more proficient with (and also help encourage and teach others). I also wanted to introduce a few unique things I hadn't really seen yet, so luckily that fog-of-war idea came to me while I was starting the CJ. I'm not sure how it will really play out yet, but it could be fun. If I learn any surefire tips about CJs as I continue, I'll share with you, but I'm definitely still learning myself.

 

I've not heard of this, nor am I familiar with the planning process you're talking about. But this certainly sounds like a compliment so I thank you (and humbly am surprised, because I am but a newbie apprentice when it comes to the planning many SC4 seasoned vets are capable of). I thank you all the same. Can you try to explain more about the planning process for this city? It sounds really interesting, but I'm just not familiar with it. Share more if you can!  

The first paragraph is to clarify is the planning itself not the execution. The execution is fine, except for the trees. But no planning makes inconsistent results and ambiguity* so I wait until I finished my planning first. Also making text based story isn't my preference. Videos are more streamlined to me. Not to mention the ability to live stream. Sure it needs some skill and there are scripted videos but I think it's a better format and I'm more like impromptu (or close to it). I can change my mind, tho.

There are some parts that I lacked. For instance the walkability of the city is out of question but it requires me to use pedestrian as traffic mod and it can change my gameplay so for this region I deliberately choose not to do so. It also requires densification of my existing neighborhood and the close proximity to commercial which can only be done sustainably thru densification of residential. Another are biking path, mass transit, dedicated park, beach, airports, CDK/BSC seaports, and the most famously flora. If you've another, list them here. For the problems that tied to the region, I'll fix them later in another region.

For the Andea thingy, I can't find the necessary document in the web. Maybe, I have to join the server first. I may try again to find it, tho.

*It's quite long to say the northern coast of The Origin, southern tip of The Origin, for instance. Most importantly, what if the same name is also applies to completely different places? It just makes ambiguity.

Thanks for all compliment!

[Propfam 2,286]

Also, how do I build these underpasses in this airport? Are they build using good old Maxis tunnel? Or, the new FLUPs? Since the old FLUPs can't passthrough the AC Airports, my airport mod, pieces.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/dauXF7mAy7iPKm4p7

And when should I build the airport? Again, in the context of AC Airports.

[Propfam 2,286]

Should I bring back my CJ again with the current format? Or should I make a video? Let me know below!

[Propfam 2,286]

Okay, I'm finishing up my first formal high-wealth neighborhood. They do appear in my cities but they're informal neighborhood so I made one, marked red. There will be my mayor house here. I'm waiting for WSSNCOPFL to completely finish the project but since the project download is kept secret for obvious reason, I can tolerate that. Also, I'm finished an airport marked green.

Marked red is the border of The Origin. What are names you suggest for these islands especially within the border? Also, can you help me establish another cities? Let me know the names and the borders. Named and cleaned up version of the map are included for those who need them.

Help would be appreciated not only for this reply but for all thoughts here in this topic. Thanks.

[Daeris 1,116]

20 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Should I bring back my CJ again with the current format? Or should I make a video? Let me know below!

10 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Help would be appreciated not only for this reply but for all thoughts here in this topic.

Hi @chfzdn

I feel that I personally already did give my thoughts on if you should restart your CJ, or even make a video. Basically, if it will increase your fun with the game to do so, go for it!  If it sounds daunting and sounds like it will be a chore, don't feel like you need to start a CJ or video based on what others think.

 

10 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Marked red is the border of The Origin. What are names you suggest for these islands especially within the border? Also, can you help me establish another cities? Let me know the names and the borders.

I appreciate seeing more pics of the planning from you like this, with markings and such. As for the names, that's something in my opinion that should also come from within. What do the islands make you feel inside, or do they remind you of anything in particular? Perhaps think about the type of sims that live there (are they lazy, rich, partiers, hardworkers, fishers, miners, etc). Sometimes, imagining who lives there will help you come up with a great name for the city or island. Or perhaps the shape of certain land features remind you of something. Take a look at my city journal and how I come up with names... it's really kinda lame and silly, but I love it. Basically I just combine simple, but fun-sounding words that help set the tone for that village. The names you use can help the area take on a life of it's own. For example, my village Slyside Lake.... I named it that at first because it was a small village on a hidden lake off to the side (Sly + side).... then, as I continued playing I starting thinking of how funny it might be that all the residents there are perceived by other villagers to be lazy or just very relaxing and leisurely type of people.

[Propfam 2,286]

7 hours ago, Daeris said:

Hi @chfzdn

I feel that I personally already did give my thoughts on if you should restart your CJ, or even make a video. Basically, if it will increase your fun with the game to do so, go for it!  If it sounds daunting and sounds like it will be a chore, don't feel like you need to start a CJ or video based on what others think.

It looks like chore right now since I've no future plan and uploading pictures to ST is a pain for reasons. (I did, but not as detailed to even include future cities name and border). Help me by drawing the borders and name the cities. Let's go!

If my YouTube is a success, should I collaborate with for instance, City Beautiful? Let me know.

[Propfam 2,286]

The opulence doesn't stop there. I officially announces the High Hills, the residence for the wealthy (I wish I can make for the ultrawealthy too, but SC4 doesn't support R$$$$, R$$$$$, etc). The residence is partially inspired by the famous Bel Air and Beverly Hills. The mansions sit on top of a hill marked in the previous post. We start the journey from the southern side, home for ~4,000 wealthy people.

Here's the cul-de-sac.

The mansions are again sitting on the hills.

The road to the northern side. Wish I have WSSNCOPFL.

The northern side is probably the largest one. Home for 8K sims and even with city museums and libraries, accounting for the tile's 3K profit.

There's an eternal attraction out there.

There are 2 options. Left or right. But they're jammed due to the attraction.

If you choose right, you go to the entrance. There are 3 luxurious offices here. Hidden is the mayor statue.

If you choose left, you're in the northern side of the northern High Hills.

It also makes the middle-class envy. Look at the distance. They're so close to each other. The middle class pointing those houses and said, "Wish I can live there."

Here's the neighborhood that the middle-class envied. Cul-de-sac rocks!

Additional benefit of living in High Hills is you will pass over my house. I mean, the mayor house. The pictures of my house is sadly uncaptured. It blends seamlessly with the other wealthy residences.

Hi everyone! That's it for the tour. One of incredible wealthy complex. We have very modern architecture here and there. The cul-de-sac adds as a bonus for this beautiful complex. The lack of tree is killer, though. The location is simply stunning. In terms of the spacing, it's enough for a mansion. This isn't a complex of ultra-high-end mansions so we don't have 4x4 or 4x6 lots here. For that, I want to congratulate the mayor for the great job of this development. Also, I thank the Department of General Affairs, Neil Fairbanks, and the homeowners association to allow us to visit this exclusive place. Thank you for watching. If you enjoy the post, hit the like button. Follow if you haven't already. And, we'll see you guys in the next week.

 

Not so fast, I also done an airport. Let's take a look. It starts from an avenue to a highway.

This is the airport. No parking lots since, no one is needing a parking lot. Just kidding, I need to place some parking. But for now, parking lots in the buildings are fine.

And ends with an avenue, possibly connected to the next phase of High Hills development.

Oh, that secret street goes to a bridge.

Which then go to another bridge.

And that's the end for now. The poles are used to delivery the power from the neighbor.

What do you think? Let me know. As always, thank you.

Side note: the Windows (or part of Game Bar to be exact) video capture is in error. So, making videos would be after the fix, but not necessarily immediate, tho.

[Propfam 2,286]

Reinvented will be probably come back. I have some discussion with some figures on how should the series will be run.

Update: I have to do my borders and naming myself. The cities may be revamped. Reinvented may also come back. But, don't necessarily take my words because I may be late.

[Propfam 2,286]

After some unneeded replies, I have 3 questions:

1. How do I remove the poles leaving only the NC while still carrying power from/to the neighbors?
2. If I can remove the poles, can I zone residential or place parks in the NC area?
3. How do I make an OWR NC with obviously a workaround?

Thanks.

[Daeris 1,116]

1 minute ago, chfzdn said:

• How do I remove the poles leaving only the NC while still carrying power from/to the neighbors?
• If I can remove the poles, can I zone residential or place parks in the NC area?
• How do I make an OWR NC with obviously a workaround?

Hi @chfzdn,

I personally use zoning to expand power. When there is too much land for the zones to cross, or I don't want to zone a certain area, I instead just use the Aussie windmill which is a 1x1 lot that produces a small amount of power. There are many other 1x1 or 2x2 lots that produce some good amounts of power to provide power to an isolated pocket that you don't want to run power lines to. Let me try to find some links.

 

 

 

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=485

 

Some of those are very useful for powering a small isolated pocket you don't want to run powerlines to. Some don't produce much power, but I think you might fight the 2x2 transformer helpful for more of an urban feel (it's in the SM2 Power Pack).

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

A couple of other ways to get power to remote locations:

• Control Zoning Adjacent to Streets or Roads for Sidewalks and Power Transmission
• (Nearly) Invisible Underwater Power Connection Lots

With the second one allowing you to cross water or other terrain. If using it across other terrain you can then plant flora on the invisible part to fill in the empty parts.

[Propfam 2,286]

To clarify, I mean is the pole used to carry power from/to the neighbor, not to the city. BTW, thanks.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

2 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

I mean is the pole used to carry power from/to the neighbor, not to the city.

I believe this could be modded by changing the reference to the power tower model to a null value. However, the minimum of two cells would still be needed and could not have zones or other plops on them. Flora could be planted to cover them.

[Propfam 2,286]

6 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

I believe this could be modded by changing the reference to the power tower model to a null value. However, the minimum of two cells would still be needed and could not have zones or other plops on them. Flora could be planted to cover them.

That's the problem. I want the pole to be like just NC, much like (diagonal) street workaround aside from WSSNCOPFL by plopping some road tiles then disconnect them with the Disconnector then plop the diagonal helper tool to create a seamless yet functional street NC.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

I'm not sure if I understand.

Is the idea to make a Power Pole electrical connection to a neighbor look as if it were a street yet still carry power for a neighbor deal?

[Propfam 2,286]

I mean this: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7350.0. But what confusingly is street although they technically have the NC, there's no dialog popping up. You have to upgrade to road to see the query. It looks like that the NC is unaffected even with residential plopping there, again it's proved by place a road tile in the NC. I however didn't test the traffic though.
 

After clicking,

When there are road tiles, (the piece doesn't connect for weird reason but the query says there's an NC)

It still works. Again, don't know about the traffic.

Update: NC won't work if there's no suitable network tile in the NC. It means that you can't functionally hide an NC using houses etc. Further testing both from myself and others is needed though.

 

[Propfam 2,286]

Also, the closest thing to hidden pole would be just have a single tile no-model pole camouflaged with overhang buildings. Have anyone made the mod (of the no-model pole, if it isn't clear enough)?

BTW, how do I make overhang buildings using existing models? Or better, how do I adapt Maxis lots into overhangs?

Side note: I really interested with infinity city since it's more realistic than capping a city within tiles. I'm also considering infinity screenshot so the end of the map is gone in my CJ.

[CorinaMarie 29,569]

34 minutes ago, chfzdn said:

I mean this: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=7350.0.

Ah. See this post which contains a linky to this:

(Thanks to @Cyclone Boom for digging up the linkys for me to post.)

[Propfam 2,286]

So, I decided to completely revamp the city. Here are the criteria:

1. You can shop and work within 5 minutes of walking (@ 5 km/h or 1.4848 m/s). Which means that shops and offices should be available within 27.8409 tiles of radius.
2. The city will be densified to please the commercial (aka high customer).
3. Car isn't always efficient. One person in a car is so unefficient. So, the city will have 3 modes of transport: walking, bus, and car. I know regardless of transport, 1 vehicle is 1 sims. This is for realism.
4. How about the industry? Industrial zones maybe separated. But when they're clean and relevant (for instance in port settings) I may mixed them together with residential.
5. The city is also beautified by improving the layout. Trees are unfortunately not the focus since the effort needed.
6. Some places are exempt from this rule though, like high-end residential zones, some industrial zones, and utilities zones.

Inspired by this:

But that's my ideal city. I don't know if I can do it or not.

[Daeris 1,116]

1 hour ago, chfzdn said:

I don't know if I can do it or not.

Definitely worth a try. I think striving for this style would be really cool to see! Some of your main roads already pictured resemble a bit of this, so I think you may be able to quickly build your skills with this look. Good luck, and hope to see more when there is progress.

Quote

How about the industry?

What is the industry like in Barcelona? Genuine question. I would study up on the industry there, or perhaps in neighboring areas, and perhaps try to duplicate that type of industry with your setup.

[Propfam 2,286]

How do I stitch my zoom 1 (the furthest zoom you can in the game without sizeof) images I taken with the EPIC technique by @CorinaMarie together to make an infinity (or edgeless) map using Photoshop? I found an old article (though it doesn't use EPIC since EPIC wasn't a thing back then) about it in the past but I don't know where. I guess is in either Simtropolis or Devotion. There's also an old article:

But, the info aside from obviously the max size of tiles is quite a bit outdated. At that time, terabyte drives were extraordinary things. But now, they're readily available. Also, there are now assets that worth tens or even hundreds of GBs. The later is famously held by Call of Duty Warzone and GTA 5.

[Propfam 2,286]

Reinvented is back again with solid plans.

It also features the stitching of photos.