Santa Lucia.... revisited

[Dargor 17]

Welcome here and thanks for your interest!

 

This is my new old CJ...   I guess most of you are familiar with my project because I started this in september 2003...  

 

I decided to give my city a new thread for several reasons. 

 

• On the first 4 pages of the other City Journal, there are no pictures anymore - and I can

[SkyTearer 10]

Looking good so far, i'm glad it's good, seeing i'm still sad over jax...

[Citilicious 0]

Happy Birthday!!

Sorry to hear of your tragedy, its the kind of mistake I would and probably will make sometime. On the other hand, your downtown at night is beautiful so I'm sure you find solace in that.

[Dr. Neitchskrimfrauwnmoya 7]

First thing : Happy Birthday

 

Second thing : I've always loved your CJs and your impressing cities.

 

Third thing : I can't wait to see more!

 

Fourth thing : What a coincidence!  I was playing SC4 just before and I was messing with the disasters and destroying one of my best city. When I wanted to exit the game, it told me that the game can't save during a disaster. Then, I thought it was a good thing they did that in the game because I remembered back in the time when I was playing SC2k, I destroyed my main city and saved it by mistake and went .

Trust me Dargor, I'm sure you won't ever do that mistake again, like me, everytime I destroy my cities now, I make sure I click the stupid Quit and don't save button and not the other one!

[Dargor 17]

Thanks!   No, I will never make that mistake again... But fortunately it happened in a region that needed a lot of improvements in realism. I changed the landscape there completely now.

 

I just wanted to post a link to my first Santa Lucia-journal, for those interested... The link leads you directly to page 4, where you see screenshots of how it all was... And later on you see there how I created what you see now. It's a very long proces to make such a downtown, lol  And I am a perfectionist.

 

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?mode=viewtopic&topicID=40119&num=30&pageNo=4

[Chris M 406]

Happy Birthday 

       Your Skyline looks awesome. All those Skyscrapers look great.

[Dargor 17]

In my second update I will show you the new region   As I said, it looks different than the region in my first Santa Lucia City Journal. Because I want to create a Santa Lucia Beach, I decided to use my mistake in my own advantage by making the bay larger and adding some more water as well. Here are three screenshots from today:

 

 

This is all I have for now... But soon it will be bigger  Right now I am searching for a good location to build a centre of sports... With two big stadiums and a mall. I think I will build that on the water-side, somewhere on the next map.

 

 

For the people that followed my other journal, I think you see where I made my mistake  It's on the left side of the bay... I plan to zone only low-density residential on both sides of the bay, and I expect some $$$ to grow there. It's not complicated or hard to develop those area's, so I think I will make progress pretty fast.

 

 

This is the southern part of the city's peninsula... The coastline is not in it's final shape, since I am not satisfied with it... I want to have a lot of small creeks on the sea-side, with woodland, nature and recreation. Maybe the peninsula will be a lot longer and thinner to make it look more natural. That's what I want to achieve, all should look natural.

 

Right now I am busy with some reconstruction of already developed parts. I'll show that tomorrow! 

[MayorTim 16]

Dude, you are the best city builder ever. Period.

[Dargor 17]

Date:1/13/2005 4:23:18 PM
Author:MayorTim

Dude, you are the best city builder ever. Period.

quote>

It makes me smile to read such a compliment, but I don't think that's entirely true... At least I am the slowest city-builder!   But thanks a lot!

[Yajimari21 0]

looks really nice... did u intentionally name this city after a swedish holiday?

[Dargor 17]

No...

 

If I would have liked to name my city after a holiday, my city would be Santa Claus!

[MayorTim 16]

 

Date:1/13/2005 4:46:29 PM
Author:Dargor

At least I am the slowest city-builder!

quote>

Sorry, but that title belongs to MV.

[jay_allen1978 0]

The night shot is awesome. it is a very lovely city, and happy b-day

[Superstar 69]

WOW! very cool city looks defenetly awesome+ can't wait to see this CJ grow out bigger and bigger and bigger, good luck

[The Great Chozo 34]

Dargor,

 

I have eagerly been awaiting the return of Santa Lucia, and I must say I am very glad you have brought it back into the light.

 

I liked it before, and I like it after.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

TGC

 

Oh here, I have a late B-day present for you ----

 

 

Take this image and edit it to your hearts content. Maybe now Katie won't be so pixelated in your avatar anymore !!!!

[Dargor 17]

Thanks a lot! And it seems Katie is happy as well...

I am happy you guys are interested in the future of my city  I'll show some detailed screenshots of my downtown tonight.

[Dargor 17]

Tonight seems to be now...

 

The total population in my Santa Lucia-region is 1.247.421 today. It was almost 1.5 million several weeks ago  I destroyed some unrealistic parts with $-residents apart from the accident I had...

 

I am busy these days with reconstruction in each of my 4 developed regions. That means I look at all in detail, and simply destroy buildings where they are out of place, of where I have ugly or unrealistic parts. I still zone most of the time, so I have to demolish quite some residential and commercial in order to keep it realistic. Most of the times I plop a replacement... but with residential that's hard.

 

Here is another screenshot of my downtown, from a different angle:

 

 

This is my favorite screenshot...

 

I will have a story here eventually, but creating that takes time... Time is a precious thing for me these days, with the busy job I have  I do have 4 more detailed shots of my downtown... Especially of the improved parts.

 

 

 

This is a very expensive neighbourhood  Only the happy rich can afford to live so close to the river and the city centre... What's new here is a little park on the waterside, a diagonal metro-station and more modern housing. It looked a bit chaotic before, and the riverside was not realistic. I hope it looks better now!

 

 

This part also is improved, especially to the right of the WTC... I used the NDEX rail-elevated rail transition and a combined monorail-station by Vlakhaas. Oh, and the coloured trees on the background are from Pegasus

 

 

In this area I had a lot of skyscrapers before... But somehow it didn't look right. So I removed most of them and placed those on the other side of the highway. Instead, I made a business district with hotels and mid-rise commercial. If I ever make a city with only 200.000 Sims, this is how my downtown there will look like...

 

 

 

A picture of my historical downtown shouldn't be missing here...   This is where the city was grounded. Ever since the 18th century this place is protected by the city. There are mostly small stores on the hill, with a couple of museums and old churches. 

[frogface 354]

looks very realistic, especailly the mid-rise business district area i like
and the historical downtown

[Dargor 17]

Update 3

 

In this update I will show a huge traffic map of my region, with usage of the new mod - and I will show some pictures of the finished reconstruction in my East Santa Lucia-region. That reconstruction was necessary because I wanted to use Pegasus' Seasonal woods and I had changed the city on the other side of the map.

 

First the traffic map, for the ones interested... You can see clearly how I developed this city. The picture is 1200x900 in size, for a better look. You can click on the link below. Clicking on the picture itself will result in the 1200x900 shot.

 

http://img63.exs.cx/img63/1426/trafficmap1514nq.jpg

 

East Santa Lucia

East Santa Lucia will have many faces once it's finished... The part I show below has a business district, because it's close to downtown and it's huge skyscrapers. But you can also find the other side of Central Park here (other part is in Downtown Santa Lucia. Then there is a lot of industry, a harbour-side, and in this region you will find the biggest concentration of $-homes later on. I don't try to make it look beautiful, but realistic.

This is my business district in Santa Lucia. It's in a corner of the map. The monorail leads to Santa Lucia Port (to the right, where the system ends near a convention centre. In the far left corner you see one of the mosques in the city, there will be 3 totally.

 

 

Here you a part of my Central Park already. In the left corner I extended my Zoo with a convention centre from the STEX. I think the building could be a perfect entrance, with housing for tropical birds, snakes, spiders, some monkey's and other small animals. Outside the people can enjoy elephants, zebra's, giraffe's, lions and rhino's

 

Santa Lucia Port

Tonight I want to show one screenshot of some reconstruction in my Santa Lucia Port-region. It's a monorail-to-elevated rail transition I created with usage of two stations. One is a Japanese station with a part sticking out of the lot. The lot is 4x1 in size, but the structure is 6x1 in size. I simply connected the two lots to create a building that looks as one unit. It functions as a station where people can change from monorail to elevated rail and vice versa. The usage is extreme  

You can also check this thread I started about this: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=59085

Here is the screenshot:

The monorail-system ends here. Trains that leave here are going to downtown Santa Lucia and my airport. People that leave the train here only need a little walk to board another train, that will take them further south.

 

[K_m_H 0]

*sees the Globe arena* YAY

The city looks very nice, I like the look of the roads leading out int othe suburbs and East SL.

[MayorTim 16]

Looks great Dargor!

 

I have a question. What are your computer specs and how does your game preform on such large cities?

[Dargor 17]

 

Date:1/15/2005 6:22:11 PM
Author:MayorTim

Looks great Dargor!

 

I have a question. What are your computer specs and how does your game preform on such large cities?

quote>

Hi MayorTim,

I decided to get new hardware last summer, especially for Sim City 4 and games like Half-Life 2. Right now I have an AMD Athlton 64 Processor 3000+ CPU speed 2.0 Ghz, with 1 GB DDR Ram and a Geforce FX5900XT videocard.

My game runs quite smoothly, even with 400.000 Sims. I play on Cheetah-speed, and sometimes the time (dates) are going a bit slower, but for instance scrolling in my downtown is possible with no problem. It's just that if I do it too fast, the landscape is empty  The game will build up everything once I keep the screen as it is. I have most settings on high.

I have to say that the 1 GB of DDR Ram is an absolute must for Sim City 4... By now and then people ask this on the board, but I still have to see a game that is more demanding for my PC as SC4. Loading and saving cities takes a lot of time still.

[jacqulina 162]

excellent very pretty

[Dargor 17]

Update 4

My city's population has increased again  I know that most people here work the other way around, but it's a logical consequence of the phase I'm in... I am very critical on my own city. All regions should have the same style, same quality, all should be as realistic as possible... etc, etc. I am more critical now than I was in the past, so that's why I am looking at everything again... and see where I can make improvements to make it better.

Latest progress:

1. Location defined for Santa Lucia naval base
2. Changed the shoreline of the peninsula
3. New low-rise $$$ neighbourhood in Downtown Santa Lucia, on slope terrain
4. New highway-junction constructed, to connect the city with a neighbouring region more directly
5. Reconstruction finished of my harbour district in Santa Lucia Port. New $-homes build and new rail-track opened.

This 4th update will concentrate on Santa Lucia Port, but first a new regional screenshot. In my updates I will from now on start with a regional screenshot, to make clear where the detailed screenshots were taken... This makes it easier to know where a specific city-part is located.

The part I want to present to you now is marked

I first want to show you a pic from the archives to show what the area looked like before the reconstruction...

I won't bore you all with telling what was right and what was not... Just have a look and compare this neighbourhood with the next shots (although taken from another angle)

This is the area from above as it looks right now:

What I used as an inspiration are some English harbour districts... where shipyard-owners build low-income neighbourhoods for the workers close to the harbours. I love how it looks now, and I can say this part is finished and will not touched by me again

Somy's new fishing harbour just came on the right time for me... It's an awesome piece of work!! I think I gave it a nice spot...

My harbour is full of activity... Santa Lucia is a big city, so the cranes are busy all the time. You see the new railtrack in the top left corner... with a lot of Japanese harbour-lots. You can find download-links in the Japanese thread on this site.

This is the last screenshot for today... But this whole week will be about my SL-port region, so there is more to come. And this will not be the only harbour-area. This is only the old harbour of Santa Lucia... I still have to construct the big one, in the south-east side of the map. I live near Rotterdam (Holland), one of the biggest harbours in the world. I will build some with the original harbour in my mind

I'll be back on thursday with update nr. 5.

[flrscf 0]

Dargor, i'm speechless. The port is looking fantastic. And that realistic low income neighbourhood is perfect. Keep it up!

PS: het is echt jammer dat de Rotterdamse Haven niet meer de grootste is sinds 2 weken. Singapore EN Shanghai zij nu groter.

[Dargor 17]

Date:1/17/2005 10:34:16 AM
Author:flrscf

Dargor, i'm speechless. The port is looking fantastic. And that realistic low income neighbourhood is perfect. Keep it up!

PS: het is echt jammer dat de Rotterdamse Haven niet meer de grootste is sinds 2 weken. Singapore EN Shanghai zij nu groter.

quote>

Thanks for your compliments!  Yup, jammer inderdaad...

 

[jasperdeman.nl 1]

Yes indeed it is avery nice port! As is the entire city!

En ja het heeft inderdaad Rotterdamse/Engelse trekjses Ik woon in Capelle a/d IJssel btw.

[comdude21 6]

I'm definately liking the looks of this. Realistic, just how I like it. Those ports are neat...some inspiration for my cj.

[MayorTim 16]

Time to add somthing else to this awsome cj.....

 

   MY 1,000th POST!  

 

In hopes that you continue this cj for a long time to come!!!   

 

MayorTim

 

[Simbourgeois 139]

The harbour area really looks impressive  Though I wouldn't like to be one of those fishermans everyday trying to maneuver amidst all those large merchant ships...

 

Simbourgeois

Mayor of Belleville