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update.1
the city scattered with crime,corruption,oppressive police,and gang member just spread looking the name and base operation of gang member's from police records this is the name spanish lord gang member's just based on the poor west part of city and the russian gangs named rascalov family just rule the industrial district,the gang base is on old abandoned factory on the sanitary facility there is drug dealers named tunnel rat drug dealers and the gang base is on the dirty tunnel just near the home base of spanish lord gang member and last the rocco family just rule tenements at the east part of the city -
Latest Entry
Welcome to the New World
So you've heard of Annex, you know its the Last Stop City and you've had some cookies (stale oatmeal), now it's time for a little formation followed by some education. This CJ will be based around the city of Annex. You will be following Annex in it's journey from being a simple city along the way, to being the city everyones heading too. It's ups and downs, from finding Gold and Iron, to losing the TRC award and being denied metropolis status. But before you can see all that, your gonna need a little education on the history of the planet, country and province we find this city in. The first and most important thign I need to say, the Earth and New World in this history lesson are in a a parrallel universe almost indentical to ours. We first take you to year 1776, a year that was previously high lighted by the birth of a great new nation, until everything changed, on the strange night of July 15th 1776. Many recall the event simply as bright light or a big booming noise. Many recall seeing the skies light up, and the world go dark, but mostly, people recall feeling a strange falling sensation lasting up to 2 hours. Many argue over the fine details, but one thing is clear, the entirety of mankind had been teleported to a new planet. But was it a new planet, it seemed just like earth, the trees seemed the same, the water was still clear and it was still cold in the north and hot in the south. But this was in no way the beautiful world, everyone had come to love, this was a New World. Unfortunately a new world with no landmarks, all former buildings and wonders gone. The pyramids, The Castles of Europe, The religous wonders such as Meca, The vatican or any church of any kind and very few copies of the Bible or Quran made it. This devastated the very foundations of humanity. Thankfully, there were some positives, as many nations were left with only the basics of religion, they decided to unite with others, while keeping religion seperate, as the ownership of religion/religious land was no longer relevant. The people were left with the clothes on there back and whatever they were holding at the time, some men were lucky to have there rifle, some women had whole meals, and baskets of clothes. Lucky children had there favorite toy, but those were the lucky ones, most had nothing but clothing. Some were had the bad enough luck of bathing, or skinny dipping at the wrong moment. There was also the amazing story of a man wrongly accused of murder in Brittain being hung, who came into the new world with a neus around his neck with the rope no longer suspended, he found his family and built one of the first homes in what is now the city of Kingston, in the English Republic. For the most part of the first 3 decades, (from 1776 to 1806) there was a devastating loss of life through out all nations, as the world was in a territorial race war. Goverments were trying desperately to reclaim there people and find new borders in which to start new civilizations. The human race was split between those trying to pioneer the New world and others still grieving over the loss of the first. Then split again, by those trying to unite and others trying to segregate. This made electorial procedure pointless as it seemed too many were just in too much of a emotional state to have proper judgment. There also was quite the sufficient loss of life, due to the pandemonium of the move, and the lack of stable resources on the new planet. In 1811, most war had settled down, and many new nations started to appear and some began working together as they had done in the past. The human race was lucky (despite it all), for whatever had caused them to teleport, had made sure to keep people of the same country together and seperated from other countries. Many of the nations and borders still respected today were founded between 1806 and 1811. At this time there were 28 nations, but in the next 14 years, that number would drop to 18. By 1824, the seperation of lands and creation of new nations had pretty much come to completion. Unfortunately many nations were still trying to make claims on others land, especially on continents with multiple countries. To insure, no further claims could be made, the nations united, on October 1st, 1825 to sign a treaty, declaring all land rights final. Nations without sufficient territory united with others of a simmilar and culture in order to assure protection from other, much larger Nations. Since 1825 the same 18 nations (countries) have existed, though borders have been disputed regularly and still are today. In 1965, scientists discovered, that this new planet, had appeared in the same spot earth once stood, many believe, the world reproduced itself, much in the way they believe the universe created itself out of nothing, this is called the Reproduction Theory. Other believe the old planet traded places with the New World, sending the old planet to another galaxy far, far away where the world were on now came from, this is referred to as the Replacement theory. Many religious sims still prefer to believe in the creation theory, in which everyone and everything was created by a sole creator (spittball33). As for the change in planets they believe the world was replaced by a new one, to cleanse the world of sin, this has been named the recreation theory. None of these theories can be proven right, but no one can stop either side from trying to convince the undecided which theory to chose. Also in the sixties, scientists discovered the planet was sitting on an angle, like earth, but was even more tilted, this meant in the south there was no Antarctic, only warm empty ocean, but to the north there was a more stable and colder Arctic circle, covered by two thick glaciers. Dont worry, one of them has penguins. But anways... thats enough about the new world, now to hear about its countries As I stated earlier, there is a total of 18 countries in the New World, They are: 1. The United Republic (Canadian - American) Originally a British scout colony, formed alliance with Exodian Reupublic and went to war with English Republic from 1789 to 1811, won and gained independence. The French were in no position to attempt to regain control on its former colonies and never went to war. (Speak English, French, Spanish) 2. The New english Republic (Brittish) Essentially a New England, sent out ships to scout out other nations and resources in 1780, found new land home to natives, it lost its new colony in war, due to lack of resources. (Speak English) 3. The Exodian Republic (American) Essentially the New U.S.A, formed alliance with United Republic, to reinssure independence from the Brittish. Civil war broke out amongst the nation from 1819 to 1823. The confederate parties lost and were allowed to choose between fleeing (within 6 months) or mass execution. (Speak English, Spanish) 4. Europia (Several european nations combined) The New european union, as many of the smaller nations were left devastated by the move, they decided to form a union for protection from war. France used also used it for protection, but decided it was better off on its own after thigns started to settle down. (Speak various languages including English, French, Dutch, Greek) 5. Resistance (French) Essentially New France, originally part of Europia, became independent in 1822. (Speak French) 6. New Scotland (Scottish) The name says it all, allie of New Ireland, but not the English Republic. (Speak English) 7. New Ireland (Brittish) Originally brittish, gained independence, but retained alliance with English Republic. (speak English) 8. New Germany (German) Name says it all, went through civil war from 1801 to 1822, Nazi parties left New Germany and joined forces with confederate nations. (Speak German) 9. Rome (Italian) Essentially New Italy, was denied alliance with Europia. (Speak Italian) 10. The New Arabian Empire (Arabian) Originally independent, signed peace treaty between muslim and hebrew nations, to form one super nation. Then formed alliance with Persian and Armenian Nations. (Speak Arabic, Hebrew) 11. The New Indian Republic (Indian) The names says it all, formelt Brittish, gained independence, as the English Republic was occupied with war with its newest colony. (Speak Hindi, English, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, other dialects) 12. Los Parados (Spanish and various latin american nations combined) Originally a new Spain, formed alliance with many latin nation. (Speak Spanish, Portugese) 13. New Mexico (Latin American) The name says it all, was denied alliance with Los Parados. (Speak Spanish) 14. New African Republic (Various African nations combined) A union between many nations, regained independence form brittish due to move. (Speak English, French, whole bunch of dialects) 15. The New Confederation (Confederate states and various communist nations combined) Alliance between communist parties from many nations, Basically the most dangerous nation in the New World. (Speak English, French, German, Russian) 16. The New Russian Union (Russian) Essentially New Russia, went through civil war from 1810 to 1818. (Speak Russian) 17. The New Chinese Republic (Chinese and various asian nations, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan) Originally only Chinese, aqquired many smaller Nations through war from 1801 to 1824. (Speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Japonese) 18. Neo Korea (Korean) Name says it all, Unfortunately totalitarian goverment took control in a war in the mid 20th century similar to the Korean war in our world, except the North won. (Speak Korean) Annex is located in the United Republic, in the Province of Exodus. Now that your history lesson is done and you've been properly educated, you can keep an eye out for the introduction to Annex coming in the next few days! BTW in the map of the New World, it says at the bottom, that each square is 125 sq km, this isnt true, the squares are actually 15 625 sq km, or 125 km x 125 km. Just though i'd clear that up. -
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The Yarra River - Melbourne's famous heart
The Yarra River cuts through Melbourne and its suburbs, running between the Melbourne CBD (Hoddle Grid) and the newly redeveloped area of Southbank. Crown Casino, the largest entertainment venue in Australia is located on the banks of the Yarra, along with Eureka Tower, Australia's tallest building and Southbank, an up and coming residential area often considered an expansion of the Melbourne CBD. Although the river has a distinctive brown colour, for the purpose of this CJ I have decided to portray it in a nice glowing blue. - 2
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Greater Terran #3: Oil Expansion, Density, And RAGE
I am going to start this entry with the video component because you've got to see me RAGE over this game. -This is the first time I've played SC13 in over 3 weeks... Waiting for cheetah speed to be brought back and other issues to be fixed. 1 month after release and many of the game's components are still broken. -I admit most of these are minor issues, but there's just so many of them that they get on my nerves Full playlist: (this update is parts 12-14) Ok now with that of the way, let's move to the 'happier' pics part As always, click the images for full resolution! One of the first things I'm greeted with is the simulation deciding to have vehicles drive in the centre of the avenue. WHY??? Traffic and protests in front of city hall Density Another corridor of my city is turning into Brooklyn The (now vast) oil fields These oil wells occupy about 20% or so of the city tile so they better work they way they should! Oil data map: And a scenic view of the fields Many of my city services have been fully expanded now Including new services like a library and police station: I've also built a makeshift train station through the use of the debug tool: While it doesn't look like it, this actually connects to the regional rail system through the use of a flooded tunnel or something.... ...And lastly an overview of the western edge of the town. The coal plant has been expanded to generate enough power for the growing city's needs. Anyways that will do it for now, hope you enjoyed! -Sorry it was so long between the updates! -Haljackey - 4
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Latest Entry
The Stats
And here's some lovely stats to show you how this city is functioning. As you can see there is good bus coverage, however the wait time is high. It doesn't seem to be a problem though as traffic is flowing fairly smoothly. The City is making just under 400k a month. This is comfortable. I can live without making millions a month, since this city has no specialization. It is only a small region at the moment though, but no-one needs to commute out, and only a few commute in. As the region grows, I can definitely see a need for streetcars! Zero unemployment!! Businesses aren't closing down due to no workers, so they get by. Shoppers seem happy too. There's a few unsold goods, but it's not really a problem. There's even a slight surplus of desks at the City's schools and colleges. Happy days! As you can see, there's a healthy mix of demographics. Generally people are happy too. Most of the complaints are about boredom etc. If only I could fit a Pro Stadium or an Expo Center! Still Plenty of room to expand. The workers at the Power Plant are getting worried! Happy and loaded? Maybe not quite be the Sims in my city certainly aren't poor! There seems to be a bit of a financial sector booming. There are enough shops though. Industry is not particularly big, but they pay their way. There's not many of them but they are good at what they do. I could maybe do with plopping a few parks inside the street zones to get that land value up. At the only parks are around the avenues.- Read More
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Peak Oil
Hohenburg Shores experienced tremendous growth as an oil specialized city, but reached peak production a few years after the first wells were drilled. Luckily we took a few steps to prepare for this. 1. Set up a processing facility to convert crude oil into plastics and fuel 2. Lay the foundation for tourism as our next specialization Crude is now 100% purchased on the open market, processed, then sold back on the market for a sizable profit. Tourism is proceeding nicely and our Expo center holds an event every other day with a sell out of about 80%. The drilling / crude oil specialization has left quite a wound on Hohenburg Shores. While our coffers ballooned the health of our citizens has suffered leading to crime and high mortality rates. If the problems aren't resolved soon I'm afraid we'll have to declare the city as too polluted for our current population size and start rezoning on a mass scale.- Read More
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Hiatus
For the time being, this CJ is going on hiatus. I have greatly enjoyed bringing you the nations of Gharbiyya, Mahibadhoos, and Dhahran; and the trixie for most awe inspiring CJ was a highlight. I will be back over the summer most likely with a new CJ, perhaps another middle eastern one, but also perhaps an entirely new part of the world. It is also possible in the future that this CJ returns. Thank you all for your support, comments, and visits. - 33
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Time travelling - a snapshot of the past
After some discussion on the forums and having seen what happens when you spectate from another computer it's apparent that this game does not work in real time. When you look at another city what you see is a snapshot taken at some point in the game, regardless if you're looking at it from the same computer as the one that created it or from another computer. One experiment I did with my husband was I logged into a city and let it run while he spectated from another computer. What he saw was different to what I had. The structure of the city was the same, but the number of residents, hourly budget, and current simoleans was far less than what I had. I even bulldozed an entire road, dropped in a dinosaur and let it raze half the city, yet he saw nothing change. This is because what he was seeing was nothing more than a snapshot taken at some point in the past. This is true when you are viewing the cities in region view. The figures and graphs means nothing. It's a predicted estimate, the numbers are bollocks. You could have a city in the region fully capable of educating an excess of 10,000 students, however according to the snapshot they have a population of 6,000 uneducated students and now they're on their way to fill your own schools, leaving you short of desks for your own students that your factories are whining about uneducated workers. On top of this the huge flock of sims are now jamming your roads, consuming more power and water, and producing more sewage and garbage than you can normally handle that you're having to tune up all your services, your uneducated sims are frequently injuring themselves or setting their breakfasts on fire and putting immense pressure on fire and health services, and crime rate is going through the roof as uneducated kids are creating a crimewave bigger than your poncy little police station can handle. It's a massive flaw in the game, and quite honestly it's a region destroyer.- Read More
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Jago Bay at Night
Journal Entry #12 - Jago Bay at Night CJ Comments - Bridgeport Entry J-Gellock: Pretty decent shots here-I like it! Thanks for the comment! Much Appreciated Back at Journal Entry 6 we did a detailed tour of Jago Bay when it was a small bustling high wealth town of just over 7,000. About 8 months have passed since we last visited the town, and it has grown into a small city close to 30,000. Residential high rises and hotels now occupy the skyline as Jago Bay flourishes as a destination for medium and high wealth individuals. With such expansive growth, city managers quickly needed to establish some mass transit options for people to move around. Pictured above you will find our new metro bus terminal and the new expo center that was built in record time. This shot shows City Hall and the Jago Bay clock tower basking under the full moon. Construction continues upward, as seen here, as crews finish work on another residential tower. If you look in the background of the photo, you can see the Antelope River bridge off in the distance which is part of the Northwest region of JB-RR. Here you will see the Mayor's house dwarfed by the high-priced condos and apartments of South Beach. A couple mansions remain on Money Street, but most owners have opted to sell their property to make millions in the high-rise market now. Not all of Jago Bay is for the "well-to-do". Here you can see the "Average Hotel" providing low-medium wealth sims a place to stay as they go to their favorite concert, catch a basketball game, or watch some monster trucks at the expo center. The Jago Bay Jaguars basketball team is a minor league SBA team that plays here and has a great regional following. This wraps up our quick night tour of the city of Jago Bay. Stay tuned for some more night shots from neighboring communities soon. - 13
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Latest Entry
02. Lightwood
Great news! Lindar has grown up really quickly, finally reaching 300,000 residents! Maybe for most of you it's nothing, but for me It is a success, as I usually give up early due to rising unemployment... Anyway, I'd like to show you how many things have changed (not in whole city of course!). I'll start from Lightwood - Lindar's district that contains High Woods and Laurence City. So let's get it started, shall we? (Lightwood's borders with tawdry signature and tram lines marked) I was going to make an entry about communication, but unfortunately it's not finished yet; I realised that I need to work on it, improve it. One of these improvements involved changing railway connections. There were two railways tracks going through High Woods, what allowed me to send my residents to Asgard where large offices are located. However, due to decreasing commercial demand, these railway connections became less profitable. I decided to delete a line and make a tram connection instead, because: a) it would be easier for second major (and me as well) to place tracks, e.g. on streets or avenues; b) creating tram routes is easier than spreading railway tracks throughout the city; c) trams are awesome. And so I made four tram lines, three of them going through Lightwood: Central Line connecting upper parts of the city with Laurence City's area, Greenhill Line enabling easy access to west parts of Lindar and another unnamed yet line linking Asgard with Lindar. In the future I will expand this by adding another line going to Silure, but for now it must be enough. There are another means of transport of course. Over ten thousand residents travel to and fro Laurence City by subway and about six thousand inhabitants take bus to get to Lightwood. No wonder this district is really congested, since the most important offices are located here, along with modern high-tech fabrics. (View of High Woods and Laurence City during the daytime) The most important buildings in Lightwood are: a) Walton Plaza - massive building with teal windows, where the most important offices are located; b) Lindar Stadium - the only stadium in whole city, where most of OC League's matches are played; c) Darklight Corporations - darkish building where many companies reside; d) Blue Sun Technology - medium-sized high-tech office centre, gathering all informations from nearby industrial cities Besides that, there are other significant constructions, e.g. hospital, elementary school or OCBS (Online City Banking Service) building, though commercial ones play the biggest part in life of this district. No wonder that major has put over two million simoleons into Laurence City's developement! (Night in Lightwood) However, living in Lightwood isn't perfect as it may seem. First of all, due to heavy traffic, roads are almost impassable. Also many people get injured in accidents that sometimes make entire street blocked for whole day! Subway and buses are overloaded as well, so it's not so easy to get to your workplace. Punctuality here is very important - time is money and nobody wants to lose profit. If you want to keep your job, you have to be five or even ten minutes before your work theoretically start. Another thing that threatens Lightwood is crime. Robbery is a common thing there, so you should better take care of your wallet or mobile phone. Assaults and battery are on a daily basis as well. Authorities are helpless, as none of actions taken improved the situation. Even the most guarded banks are being robbed or top secret plans are being stolen. Maybe in the future things will change for better, but for now it's not safe to go outside your workplace... -
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Chapter 3: Two Kilometer Island
Personal Replies: SimCoug: I guess when the page loaded, it was about as exciting as the announcement for "Star Wars VII". Ace❤: Thanks a bunch, Ace! Glad you enjoyed the reference, as well. dubaidude303: Thanks a bunch!! The last image is so ominous, isn't it?? As Seen In Chapter 2. . . But the nuclear power plant had other plans. . . Chapter 3: Two Kilometer Island Unfortunately, I didn't ever get to see the nuclear power plant's plans perfectly pan out because I skipped town that very night. I apparently started some trend of a Newport exodus, though... apparently all these people started getting some serious sickness shortly after I left. * sigh * Guess, I'll never know what happened to that good ol' town. Important author's note: Radiation happened. Of course I went to the largest city the taxi driver knew of: Roumeli, our region's "City That Never Sleeps". Except, ours typically dozes off a little after midnight. Details, details. I quickly learned, though, that I, myself, would never sleep in this city; it was so confusing. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, I wish I could have planned this city." And I sure wish I could have. That city's biggest budget expenditure was transportation, and they were doing a crappy job allocating it, I'd say. Too many roads, too many buses clogging up the roads, not enough rail or streetcar lines. Oy. It bugged that heck out of me, to be honest. But I digress. After my silent rant of the transportation system... I seriously needed a break. I stopped by at a pub on the East shore to see what I could find... to drink. I overheard the bartender and a man discussing some of the folklore of the city. Really, now? This city's like 5 years old. Nonetheless, I listened: Bartender: Ay, they say that if you find the sun nestled on the top of Centennial Tower, you'll get a century of good fortune. Man: A century?? Bartender: Would I lie?? Come on, now. Seems easy, right? Well, the only way to get an unobstructed view is to go due east to the top of Mount Kylon. I, myself, I'm not much a mountain climber myself, so you can count me out. My bar's been doing just dandy, anyway. Man: Same, here. My mortal fear is racoons. I hate 'em. I shriek every time I see one. Other than that, I'd be down, but as there are probably racoons, you can count me out, anyway. Well, I sure wasn't afraid of racoons, and since I'd pretty much grown up in a forest, I was determined to put this legend to the test. Why not, right? Well, I'll skip the whole climbin' up the mountain saga. Honestly, it wasn't too bad.... although now, I am petrified of racoons. But, I guess you could say it was all just right place at the right time, or some of that fairy tale stuff, because as soon as I got to the top of the mountain, I collapsed on the nearest boulder that was not sharp and pointy. Except the nearest one had a snake under it. So, I shot off the rock onto the next closest one, snake-free, I might add. But, anyway, yeah, right place at the right time.... well, screw it, this, this very skyline is what I saw: ==================================================================================================================================== Thanks for viewing and commenting, guys!! This entry sort of catered to those of you who love to read, but the next chapter will have lots of pictures for you guys! ~ B-more4 P.S. Go O's!! - 3
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Part One: Dirt Roads and Industry
Replies: Alex_1210: sounds nice Why thank you good sir. Luiz P. Romanini: The way you introduced the characters reminds me of the SC4devotion diary "The Winding River Project". So I got a good feeling about this one... I'll have to look that diary up. It seems like something I'd like to read. Part One: Dirt Roads and Industry Webb: Thank you all for coming to the first meeting of the City Council. I realize that some of our seats are yet filled, but we shall continue on bravely without them. Savage: I don't think that its brave really. Just more of a way to avoid wasting four more months between meetings. Herron: Lets get on with meeting already. Webb: Our city was founded this year, and within four months we have a population above 7000. To get there however we had to go through some stages. Webb: This avenue dirt road system worked well for our beginnings, and may I say it is so very quaint, but it was no good once we gained a few people. Webb: And so, through many road constructions, we have made many of our streets paved! Thompson: Yeah, but you left clearfield for last. Miller: We still have traffic problems too. I have people calling in sick cause their stuck in traffic. Webb: I gave you a school, and a bus depot. What else can you expect me to do? Everyone else: Fix it. Herron: I mean come on Webb, you spent thousands on that city hall upgrade before you even built roads into Oxford Junction. Webb: I gave Clearfield a park. That wins me something right? Thompson: A cheap field and playground set. Thats a park I guess. Webb: I increased land values in Madison did I not Mrs. Gonzalez? Gonzalez: For some of us. But less because of you and more because of the school. Webb: Well. I see how it is. None of you even care about the good things then. Savage: Nope....What, you were all thinking it. Webb: There were some row houses constructed. I guess you all knew that already though. Webb: I challenge you all to travel the city and tell me its not pretty. What are the citizens doing? Well the Kastrelis family from Madison thought all the city buildings were great. But they disliked all the road construction and traffic that went on. They also disliked that they didn't have any parks, but that was rectified. March of this year they updated their home into a new two story three bath worth twice that of their old one. They love their location near the school, but dislike the disparity in wealth they've experienced in the city. They also don't like that there is a fire every other day. Some photos from the Kastrelis family: Whats life in Clearfield like? Ask the Patterson family. They loved the shopping, and liked that they had a short commute. The hated all the fires that broke out just as they moved in, but liked that they were given such a great bus system. They liked that they could walk to two different parks, and loved that they could send their kids to school. But they hated that in March the man of the house managed to fall and break his arm. Some photos from the Pattersons: Oxford Junction is still young, but the Underwood family feels like they've caught the market at a good time. They loved the shopping, hated the fires, and hated the traffic. They had the longest commute and were at their core the most unhappy. They rejoice when several parks were placed within the Junction, but soon they were back to their grumpy old selves. They also hated they they live on a dirt road while the rest of their neighbors have paved ones. They plan on taking this to Ms. Herron. Some photos from the Underwoods: Thank you all for reading the first installment. Any constructive remarks are welcome as well as comments on how to improve the journal or the city. Thanks ahead!- Read More
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Basic Street Layout
Street layout for me is important. It's the basis for traffic management, zoning and aesthetics. I personally don't appreciate blocky, cluttered grid layouts. It's hard for me to concentrate on a given problem, causes traffic issues and lacks form, function and creativity. I'm not criticising those that use the grid format. Those that do, actually tend to do better than me in terms of raw numbers and maximum output. Even if it means zoning and building considerations, lack of maximum population or "waste of space" (as others would be quick to point out), I won't sacrifice aesthetic, form or function in order to get the biggest bang for my buck. I play to think, plan, organise and challenge myself. I prefer to govern smaller cities that for me, are more manageable. Right then, on with the city structure; the basic street layout. Petrol Bay has Oil, lot's of it. Laying out roads to exploit this resource and provide a living, breathing, working city on the periphery would be challenging, fun and (hopefully) rewarding. The first consideration I had to take was the massive oil reserve in the middle of the map. <a href="http://imgur.com/GjbwD8L"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/GjbwD8Ll.png" title="Hosted by imgur.com" alt="" /></a> Considering this huge swath of precious Oil (that I've ultimately wasted), I need to block it off from the rest of the city. Mainly, it serves as a good template to lay out my first road; my future high density Avenues. For now though, simple dirt roads save money and lay out the groundwork for my future city. Everything will be built around this area and will present a few interesting challenges as I grow, namely, the industrial zone, which I will touch on later. The primary artery I started with was a dirt road in the middle of the map that followed the outer edge of the proposed drilling site area. After that, I boxed in the initial area of early growth. This entire section, from here on in will always be dedicated to Low Income ($) residents. After laying out these simple roads, I had determined that making separately zoned areas of wealth would be more manageable in the future. Starting off with small roads and upgrading them as I need them would prove to pay off in spades later on. Notice the road going through the map and off to the corner. This follows the future proposed drilling site border and winds it's way to the designated industrial area. Next came the interior of the ($) area in the corner. Firstly, it's close to the regional highway and allows me to lay out some quick zoning. I extended the main artery up to the Industrial area, which turned out to be incredibly small and challenging. Even now, It's very difficult to manage but more on that later. With Wind power in place, sims start to move in in the areas displayed. For quick and rapid income, I made large, sweeping zones. Typically, I prefer to go in small increments, however, since the roads are acting like a border for my ($) area, this generated some income while I designed the interior of the ($) section. The interior section of the Low Income Community ($) was next. First, I laid out a road that contours the main artery (future) Avenue and then I split the long road on the outer border of the map with another road that goes right out to the artery bordering the proposed drill site. Here, on the outer edge of the map, I extended the road up into the future Medium Wealth ($$) area and added some Industrial buildings in the other corner to get the sims working and provide some goods for my shops. Now, I have 3 horizontally laid streets from the edge of the map out to the main artery. The intention here is strictly traffic control. No zoning will be permitted on these streets and will later serve as high density traffic filters (in the future) to and from the main artery. The only buildings I've allowed here are the Town Hall and Emergency Services. Another street was added to the interior that follows the contour of the main artery. This is considered an interior arterial road for the ($) residents and is also there for aesthetics. I think I could have done better but for now, it's a start. A few more roads were added in a quasi grid style fashion for zoning, expansion and future planning; should the need arise. Next up, I needed adequate coverage for emergency services. All fire, police and medical services are located strategically and intentionally on the middle interior traffic controlled road. As mentioned, this road will be high density (medium to start) with no zoning to allow for faster response times. It turns out that this decision has so far paid off with zero criminals, deaths and buildings burned in my current, much larger and busier city. It's pleasantly far exceeded my expectations so far and I couldn't be happier. Next up, I quickly dispatched some roads in the Medium Wealth ($$) area. Just like real life, I wanted this area to be a little more expansive, more wealthy and generally better off than the ($) sims in my early town. The first thing one might notice is the spacing in residential zones. This is intentional so that I can add parks when the demand is there for more ($$) sims. This method works two-fold. First, I add ($$) parks to add value to the area then, if I want a larger, higher capacity building somewhere or if my city is screaming for more growth, I simply upgrade a road to the next level, as needed, in the area that I want. For now in the early game, it's obviously basic and simple. Next up was the (far off) future ($$$) area. This was just a matter of simply closing off the outer borders and finishing off the arterial Avenue that will encircle the proposed drill site. The main purpose was for this was to finish off the Corporate land grab for Oil. In the later game, this shortsighted move presents me with some unexpected challenges, but for the time being, this area sat untouched for a long while. And there we have it! All in all, the over all road development and planning stages went really well. Although I rushed the ($$$) area, I could have planned it better to use it right away with ($) and ($$). I was fortunate though, in that the area has been hit with a couple disasters; first a tornado and then a meteor shower. Rather fitting, considering I called the region Crater Isle! Larger versions of these images and a small amount more can be found<a href="http://phenomanonx.imgur.com/"> here.</a> Next up in this series, we'll see some small city growth and the first oil rig. Thanks for reading! PAX -
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Sandboxing Trinity Point
I decided to make Trinity Point my casino city, it originally made sense since it had 2 entrances from the highway, a rail track, and plenty of spots for a ferry/cruise port. Only thing that was a letdown was the layout of the map, it was way too circular which meant making a circular city. Problem with circles is that buildings don't adjust well to circles and much of the land is wasted. From what I learned about casinos is that there's many things that result in their success and failures: Placement by transport
Placement by tourist attractions
Design based on tourist visitations and stay overs
No nearby commercial lots (especially hotels)
Population and wealth of residents
Traffic density leading to and around the tourist areas
Because of the land layout even with almost every residential lot being a *high wealth high-rise I was only capable of getting 55k population, which is far too small to support a casino city. Commercial buildings are good for attracting tourists, however you need to keep on top of them and blow up the hotels that appear. From what I noticed high wealth commercial buildings are more likely to become hotels, or they could be being influenced by nearby tourist attractions. Best thing to do is keep them away from the casinos altogether, you don't want them distracting your tourists, or if you got a supporting city with jobs and commercial lots you might get away with having no commercial lots at all. I'm testing to see if a city will cope without any commercial or industrial lots. I noticed tourists saying they got bored and leaving the city, I'm doing some observations to see whether it's traffic congestion stopping them from getting to the traps or if the lack of commercial lots is why they're leaving. Positioning of the casinos, tourist attractions, and types of transport is very important also. For example the Sydney Opera House greatly attracts high wealth tourists, so placing a nearby casino that has accommodation and entertainment suitable for high wealth tourists makes more sense than placing a nearby casino that only accommodates and entertains low wealth tourists. At the same time you want to place those buildings close to the ferry with a cruise port since high wealth tourists are more likely to arrive by cruise than by bus or train. This is what I observed from tourists: High wealth tourists usually come by cruise or car
Mid wealth tourists usually come by cruise, train or bus
Low wealth tourists usually come by train, bus or car
Design of the casinos makes a difference. Watch who enters and try to accommodate for their needs. If you got lots of mid-wealth tourists entering then try plopping some mid-wealth attractions and rooms. You may have to bulldoze and rebuild casino modules regularly until you get a good balance. Normal casinos have modules that attract low and medium wealth tourists
Sci-fi casinos have modules that attract low and medium wealth tourists
Sleek casinos have modules that attract low, medium and high wealth tourists
Elegant casinos have modules that attract medium and high wealth tourists
Ideally you would want your sci-fi casinos to mostly attract medium wealth since these are pretty expensive to run, and your sleek and elegant casinos need to try to aim towards high wealth for the same reason. The sleek casino can only accommodate so many high wealth tourists since you are required to plant at least a low or medium wealth room in order to plant a high wealth room, the same goes for the sci-fi casino which can only accommodate so many mid-wealth tourists. However the elegant casino is capable of hosting lots of high wealth tourists, so you need to make this very attractive for high wealth tourists to stop by. The Sidney Opera House and the Statue of Liberty makes a good trap for high wealth tourists, and having a cruise port nearby is also a good idea so that high wealth tourists coming off the cruise go straight for the opera house and then to the casino when finished. Your population of residents is just as important as everything else. If your town is a low wealth town with barely a handful of residents then they themselves won't be visiting the casinos, so make sure they're happy, being paid well, and plentiful. In the end my casino test city is proving a bit of a failure even with close to 22k tourists. It's all trial and error on making sure I'm profiting from both the casinos and the tourist attractions, which means a lot of bulldozing and repositioning, which in Trinity Point is not that easy. I need a bigger map, one that isn't circular at least. Trinity Point isn't big enough to support the massive tourist traps on top of the residents. I may go back to Clearwater and try to get things rolling there again. *One of the dangers of having nothing but high wealth residents is that any of the grotty jobs get looked over such as sewage treatment, water treatment, garbage disposal. They may be miserable but you need to have mixed numbers of different wealth type residents with just enough low wealth to operate all the dirty jobs and enough high wealth to run the shops and big businesses, leaving the majority as mid-wealth for factories and pokey little shops that didn't quite make the high wealth spots.- Read More
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Simcity Ep 29 - The End...
This is the last episode in this series. Due to poor planing, and not knowing the game mechanics super well, I found myself spending all my time trying to fix things, more then build thing. There will be a new series starting tomorrow morning. Like Gaming With Ryan on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and my personal website!- Read More
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Inner Cascadia: Carageenan Cove
Carageenan Cove is an industrial boom town of mostly dirty industry. Purposely formed for city spread and connectivity. A neighbor to White Rock which is currently the largest city in the region. Visitors from outer Cascadia stay in C.C. for its view of the Carageenan River. Interstate 320 and 40 create an artery in the northeastern part of the city connecting 4 cities resulting in an increase of industrial demand. Still a work in progress. Population: 50,000 Below we have a shot of current Inner Cascadia, Sister cities of Carageenan Cove (C.C.) are White Rock (Pop. 120,000) and Fairmount (60,000). Further development in White Rock and Fairmount are in progress. Current Region Population 218,000. - 2
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A Day in Downtown Manhattan
Downtown Manhattan is shaping up nice. Perhaps it's time to take a quick trip into the city... Driving up the BQE gives a great view of downtown and the Statue of Liberty in the distance (Real life view from the BQE) Taking a very reddish Brooklyn Bridge into the city (I guess the city's trying out some new paint!) Real life view from the Brooklyn Bridge, though angled more towards the southern tip of Manhattan 1 Broadway, right in front of Battery Park Real life view of Battery Park and 1 Broadway from State Street Aerial view of downtown Manhattan Aerial view of Downtown Manhattan A rainy night back along the Brooklyn Bridge- Read More
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Latest Entry
Mitsuru: Evolution of a Mining Town
Mitsuru In this Journal we take a look at the village of Mitsuru (Yes I looked on google for a good sounding name!, anyhow I like Japanese names as I feel they sound pretty cool). Reminding myself as I write Mitsuru means "full" or "growing" which is pretty suited to a Simcity name. Mitsuru starts its life as a small village on the fringes of Simnation, life is harsh for the pioneering sims. The towns facilities are practically non existent, whilst on the streets homeless people terrorize local people as they attempt to visit parks. Meanwhile for some unknown reason the town is a magnet to gangsters and crackheads who run riot on the streets stealing grandma's pyjamas. All in all its a pretty amazing place and many a people fight to live in a village where they live in they're own feces. Rough beginnings: An early aerial shot of Mitsuru: Not many dare brave the streets at night: The Black Rocks: The fortunes of those living in Mitsuru take a drastic turn when one helpless sim named Greg loses his job after his factory is burnt down. The fire started by yobs who thought it would be fun to set fire to grandma's underwear quickly spreads to the hazardous chemicals bay resulting in a massive explosion. Greg was lucky to be standing by a large window at the time as the force of the blast sends him crashing through the windows outside... Its a lucky escape as its well known throughout sim nation fire means certain death as fire trucks are prone to waiting in traffic and proceeding to emergencies at a leisurely pace, why rush after all? Keeping to the rapid response time of 16hrs later the fire department finally arrive via several scenic routes to other towns (the fire cheif needed some special goods from Yasaka). Greg over run with despair at losing his job ventures into the forest only to come across some strange black rocks, upon further analysis Greg discovers it is in fact an amazing substance known as coal which is formed from the remains of some strange ancient lizard things known as dinosaurs. Utilizing his amazing skills and compensation money from the fire department on the account of their ineptitude, Greg builds a coal mining plant and sets about giving the yobs and the Homeless people terrorizing the children in parks something to do... Work! Mitsuru Coal Mine: A New Dawn: With Gregs efforts Mitsuru becomes a wealthier safer town... There is actually a police force founded, headed by the former yobs (Who else in such a small town!). Outsiders flock to the trading facilities and the town's infrastructure gets a massive over-hall. There is even rumors of more dead dino residue known as black gold, a magical liquid substance of great value even more usefull than Gregs black rocks... In the meantime Mitsuru continues to grow into a prosperous and safe little town... Roads are improved: Continuing Evolution of a Mining Town Mitsuru Grows: Thanks for reading my CJ its the most fleshed out one I have ever done if a little long lol... thanks for reading -Lew1984 Sunset in Mitsuru:- Read More
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Teaser 1 | Relax in Arnhem
Welcome to Arnhem, Galloway Province! Situated on the shores of Lake Pelorus and nestled the middle of the Trend Ranges. Arnhem is the premier holiday destination from skiing to mountain hiking to lazing at the lake. Over the next few updates we will be exploring the City and Hinterland of Arnhem. Here is a teaser picture of the City Centre. This is the outlet where the Arnhem River flows from Lake Pelorus. It is a popular camping spot, even with town so close. Hope you enjoyed this small teaser! Forthwall: Yeah Thanks! Blakeway: Thank you, my lord Fox: Thanks! Please Comment, Rate and Like! - 2
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Sirachai Island
FIrst of all, id like to ask all of you to post what you think my cj's name should be. Im going to have you guys decide alot of the names for my towns, cities, countries, and mountains. evereything. downtown historical district of the boomtown called sirachai island. The condos, apartments, Hotels, and Time Shares. And here is the smallest island. It is said that one day, a fisherman, who was out farther than normal, caught a huge carp. it was so strong he thought it was a whale, but he had one of the strongest lines around, so he held on. The xarp kept trying to run away and pulled him even farther out. then a giant storm hit him. the carp got away , but then the biggest wave the fisherman had ever seen appeared. The carp was inside the wave! when the wave swallowed up his boat, the carp had hit him smack in the head and knowcked him out. he awoke haveing washed up on the shore of the below island, and eventually got back to teh mainland, bringing back more people to colonize the larger island nearby. here is the town hall Thanks for looking at my cj! make sure to post your ideas for my cj;s name down below in the cooments. MEOWBYE. -
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Sixty Plus Earth Hour in Great Brotany
Dear Respected Simtropolians, Today is 23rd of March 2013, it's already 8:30 pm in UTC+7 West Indonesia, Indochina, Krasnoyarsk, and Great Brotanian standard time! The Earth Hour just will be start soon. In a few minutes, some big cities in Great Brotany will coated in the dark for the next one hour. Republic of Great Brotany consumes over 100 Terawatt-hour of Electrical energy per year. The Salasatu Nuclear Reactor, in Salasatu, Northern Sawunggalih Province just 30 km from the Province Capital, Sukapadi is the most valuable power plant in Great Brotany. It produces over 50% of Great Brotanian energy need. The rest produced by Natural Gas, Biomass, Geothermal, and Water Power Plant. Government worried with the high level of energy consumption that always increasing every year. With the earth hour, Government can save tens to hundreds Megawatt-hour of electricity in a whole country. Government require the citizens and company owners to participate the Earth Hour, but not forced. Several landmark of the big cities also darkened. Bandar Raya, a moment before Earth Hour: Bandar Raya, during Earth Hour: By population, Bandar Raya is the largest city in Great Brotany. More population means more energy consumption. By participating the annual earth hour, Bandar Raya save energy for the future. "Our child needs energy, too. If we consume all now, how about our child and grandchild?" - Eka Putri Taswita, participants of Earth Hour on Area 24 Bandar Raya Apartement. New Jakarta, a moment before Earth Hour: New Jakarta, during Earth Hour: "As the largest city in Logawa, and capital of Western Logawa, New Jakarta needs Earth Hour. Less energy consumption means less pollution, means a better environment for New Jakarta itself, and for our beloved country, Great Brotany" - Basuki Widodo, Governor of Western Logawa Province on Earth Hour Festival, Fire Tower Monument Square Sukapadi, a moment before Earth Hour: Sukapadi, during Earth Hour: "Less power consumption means Less power production. With less power production, we produce less pollution. Less pollution good for earth, by participating Earth Hour, we do something good to the Earth. Less energy for the nation, Less pollution for the earth" - Dr. Marta Zurfkri Zukarnaen, Mayor of Sukapadi on Balai Kota Sukapadi. Adirejo, after Earth Hour: "60 minutes? not enough." - said some Earth Hour participants who continue turn off their electricity more than 1 hour. Thank you for your attention! Critics and Praise are open! I hope someone will delete my "Warning Points" sorry for my fault several months or years ago... - 17
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Welcome to the Socialist Federation of Alviantov!
Department of Peace Socialist Federation of Alviantov Hello comrades, welcome to the Socialist Federation of Alviantov. Alviantov Federation known as the richest country in East Europe by GDP per capita, also the AOWN's 3rd richest country after the Saudi Diyar and Unglonian Commonwealth. Located in Earth's northern hemisphere, border share with Russia and Finland. Cold climate make our country is bad for agriculture. Potato and beef is our national food, but we import vegetables from tropical countries. We are great in mine, Gold, Silver, Oil, Charcoal, Uranium, or anything you deserve is available in Alviantov Federation, including the world's newest matter, Alviantonium. The Alviantov Federation is one of the five AOWN's 7 founding members. 2 Alviantovian ever being AOWN's Secretary General. Today's president, Vladimir Nikola Yusakhrayem Alviantov , is a son of President Vladimir Alviantov, founding father of Alviantov Federation. People in the capital, Moksvi ussually live in a flat. Also the people of Vividolem, the largest city. because House is expensive and government ask for high tax for high-wealth house. Saint Iryanov Bridge is a Bridge that connect Mainland Alviantov Federation with the island of Novaya Zemlya, this is the East Europe longest bridge. Mine, Mine, Mine! Enormous Mining Vehicle is needed to mine the Federation's wealth. Just it, sorry if the picture is bad any critics and praise are open. Thankyou - Spasiba - Terima Kasih!
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Total City Journals3,963
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Total Entries22,822
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@Tyberius06
@monicadm
@TheMurderousCricket
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@911Diva Thank you all very much for your kind comments! -
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That's a lot of industry! Im curious, where are the commercial zones in the city? I couldn't spot them. -
By ilikehotdogsalot · Posted:
Lovely airport! Nice to see Pan Am made a comeback in your city! -
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By Tyberius06 · Posted:
Very cool images and nicely designed airport! Great work! -
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those patterns are really cool! You're a patient planner. congrats!
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