#20yearsSC4 Challenge - Vanilla + NAM Lite

[Ulisse Wolf 4,438]

#20yearsSC4 Challenge
A tribute to the creativity that gives us to SimCity 4

The new challenges will touch on various aspects of the game with and without NAM. Some of the challenges will be very challenging and that is why they will last longer but other challenges will be easier and last less. The main purpose of these challenges is to engage the community in a fun way and at the same time have them learn new gameplay styles and specific building techniques. New challenges will be announced over the months that you can participate in, but now let's go over the first challenge in detail and especially a tribute to 20 Years of SimCity 4.

 

The Challenge

The challenge we have decided to give is very simple but at the same time challenging. The challenge is: Creating a beautiful city/landscape using creativity to celebrate 20 Years of SC4

The main purpose is to use the creativity that SimCity 4 gives us to create beautiful cities and / or beautiful landscapes. Here are some examples that you can take inspiration to understand the meaning of competition:

Spoiler

 

Image created by @TheEstGuy

Image created by @TheEstGuy

 

Requirements

The only requirement to participate in this challenge is the use of NAM Lite and a Slope Mod. Images with other mods will not be accepted, as there is already a dedicated competition for players who make extensive use of mods.  Images already posted will not be accepted as we are looking for new material created by you to celebrate 20 Years of SimCity 4.

Instructions 

To participate you must post your images within this thread by February 14, 2023. All images received from February 15 onward will be excluded. From February 15 until March 15 there will be a voting phase and on March 16 the names of the winners will be published and they will receive a medal in their profile. 

 

DEADLINE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CHALLENGE: FEBRUARY 28, 2023

 

If there are any other questions do not hesitate to ask them here and the scrutineers will be able to answer your questions immediately. I also recommend using hashtags #20yearsSC4 for your creations to celebrate this important birthday of SimCity 4.

Have fun and good building mayors!

[xDEFCONx 14]

This is the region of Pugietta & Suono, meant to bring the most vintage aspect of SimCity 4 to modernity by using its own advertised style.

Deeply inspired by the release art for the original, Rush Hour and Deluxe versions of SimCity 4, this region embraces it and expands upon it as much as it can with what is originally given to the player. It plays upon the fantastical and intriguing examples that Maxis itself provided as a display of this game's capabilities for the store shelves by recreating box-art screenshots with tasteful, current infrastructure and detailing. Nominally, this region is humorously based off of Pudget Sound. It wouldn't have been as interesting to use such an obvious real-life landscape like Seattle, for artistic liberty's sake.

Outside of NAM Lite and slope adjustments, this is patently vanilla.

Spoiler

Tilesette

An urban landscape with a tongue-in-cheek name, meant to exude what SimCity 4 is all about.

It contains box-art replications done entirely through extensive historical markings and referencing, and is meant to give a viewer a far better sense of scale and context to the places that got us to buy the game. See the Comparisons and References spoiler if you want more information on this.

The heart of Tilesette, a place that once left everyone guessing, had a distinct lack of road connections to many of its buildings at one point, and contained a radioactive-blue Yates Real Estate. Thankfully, things have changed over the years.

Eastern Tilesette is known for having a handsome amount of transportation modes, and intriguing diagonal networks in an oddly feature-flexing fashion.

South Tilesette is just very fun.

Tilesette's sound is dictated by a land crossing, which connects the heart to more waterfront locations.

Rowhouses are a favorite throughout the region, promoting healthy neighborhoods with a balance of comfort and activity.

Ports and industry are also important, especially when they aren't dirty.

Spoiler

Lowre Lake

A tile that contains a very mountainous landscape, with comfortable and expressive slopes in all the right places.

Modest commercial district with lots of style diversity, showing off how much vanilla has to offer.

Of course, there's Lowre Lake itself, a cozy water hole that has money beside it.

Spoiler

Northpass

A tile entirely dedicated to connecting Tilesette to another unfinished city. Features just about every single transit type available, and a whole lot of garbage processing.

Naturally, there has to be a prison somewhere, and this island is the perfect place! People who are released end up living on the island, too. Something something, where the heart is, and all that.

Yeah... and there's this... We can at least marvel at the invention of couple-able cargo ships.

Brightcorner Coasts

A strange large tile that connects itself through lots of ferries.

Animals love spamming themselves at random on some of these islands, so that's just part of the lore now.

Spoiler

Hard to mistake release art, isn't it? In case you haven't seen the box-arts in question, here is a spectacular reference for it.

And of course, here are some comparison .gifs that alternate between the originals and the replications.

 

Seriously, there's buildings with no roads attached to them! How bizarre is that?

I was rather unsure of what limitations there'd be for screenshot quantity, as I felt the depth of the creation would be strangled by just one rigid perspective of the wider whole. If one screenshot is the demand, then the first picture of Tilesette under the spoiler will suffice.

Enjoy.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,438]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

We have decided to postpone the closing date of the challenge to 28 February 2023. If you want to participate you can do it safely by February 28th, after that date the thread will be blocked. 

Have fun and good building mayors!

[HTFS 9]

I Made a city called Salmonville! I haven't played sc4 for a few years but have been thinking about it a lot recently.

Spoiler

After playing again without anything besides NAM lite I am certainly itching to get some more plugins going soon!

I really like this downtown area with the little bridge over the highway:

I tried building a nice park area, but as you can see it is a little goofy, I had to re-learn all of the tricks for terrain shaping. also the NAM hole diggers are pretty new to me too. Please excuse the ugly shadows, I play on software rendering mode because hardware rendering lags really bad when I pan around...

I actually got a building to grow that I've never seen before, or at least don't remember seeing ever before!

And here is an image of the region, It is just the vanilla San Fransisco! The other cities are mostly industrial wastelands, though I did make a bit of a rural area over in the corner.

I probably will not continue building on this and instead I think I'll go find my old plugins folder then start something fresh on a custom terrain!

 

[korver 27,685]

The Region of Shasta | Population: 1,734,955

 

Full size 4096 x 3496 resolution images: 4MB jpg here| Higher-res 21MB jpg here

 

Located on the shores of the Northern Pacific and nestled between the towering Great Coastal Range and the Condor Mountains, The Region of Shasta holds over 1.7 million people alongside some truly breathtaking natural landscapes. The region's most important urban center is the the Four Cities Metropolitan Area - consisting of the biggest city in the region, Columbia City (Population: 1,156,357) as well as the smaller cities of Sierra Beach, Prospect City, and Bridgeport.

The sprawling metropolis of Columbia City is the beating heart of the region and was named after it's impressive collection of Washington D.C. inspired architecture. Today, it's home to some of the region's most popular dining, nightlife, and entertainment venues - and it's impressive skyline is home to 8 of the world's 100 tallest skyscrapers.

On the opposite shore of the Shasta River lies Sierra Beach - this small beachfront city has been the capital of the region since 1941 and its beachfront promenade is said to offer some of the region's most beautiful views.

Just north of Sierra Beach lies Prospect City - which originally gained recognition in the 1860's as an important gold mining outpost. Today, it's best known for its movie industry in the "Little Hollywood" district and has produced countless critically acclaimed films over the decades.  

Finally, there's the aptly named Bridgeport - a city that has sadly seen better days. This heavily industrial seaport city has been in a serious state of decline since the late 1970's when many of the major factories shut down - but still serves as an important hub in the region, exporting much of the surrounding rural area's agricultural output from the nearby Diamond Valley.

Aside from it's cities, the Region of Shasta is also well known for it's many amazing natural wonders. Towards the top of the scene, we can see a view of the impressive Great Coastal Range - and the tallest peak in the area is the 11,172 ft tall granite peaks of King's Mountain (seen in the top right of the scene). Alongside the mountain lies one of the world's deepest canyons - the almost impossibly-steep Devil's Canyon, which drops down nearly 9,500 feet. Cutting through the heart of the Great Coastal Range is the famous Diamond Valley - bordered by the Grizzly Peaks, it's known for it's rich volcanic soils which have made it a popular wine-growing destination. Shasta is also home to variety of beautiful natural parks and state monuments - towards the bottom right of the scene in the Shasta River we can see the start of the sprawling Two Thousand Islands National Park, which were formed by several explosive volcanic eruptions over the millennia. Additionally, the entire length of the Great Coastal Mountains in this area are bordered by the protected wildlife sanctuaries of Arcadia National Forest, preserving some of the Pacific's oldest natural rainforests.

Many features of the NAM Lite were also incorporated extensively throughout this vanilla, hand-terraformed SC4 creation - most notably the smooth highway corners, diagonal streets, and roundabouts.

Additional views and images from this scene for further reference:
 

Spoiler

 

Downtown Columbia City

 

Sierra Beach at Dusk

 

Bridgeport

 

Prospect City

 

Diamond Valley's Wine Country

 

Great Coastal Range & King's Mountain

 

Two Thousand Islands Archipelago & Hidden Gorge