cyrus1979's City Journal

Hi there. You're off to a great start and congrats on getting back in the black. That is always tricky!

I'd recommend a few things to help your region become more natural and ultimately, help you enjoy the game more. Regarding the game, I'd suggest picking up a water mod and terrain or rock mod. This will help your land look much better. You also may want to consider Euro Textures for your roads.

Regarding your city, I think you're on the right track with the high-rises near the water. I'd try to level out the land a bit to make it look better. Along the avenue, you may want to re-zone that to commercial to give it a more realistic feel, and maybe re-zone that farm to industrial with some nice parks to get high-tech, clean energy jobs in there.

One big thing I noticed was your lack of rail-based mass transit. If you were to somehow incorporate a rail line, you would help commute times and if the rail is built along industrial zones, freight times as well. If you're looking for a fast win, go with Monorail. Its expensive, but its fast!

I absolutely agree with JGellock. For one, you've placed pictures, which is something many beginners don't or forget to do. There are amazing mods and BATs on STEX and other sites which can help you create wonderful entries. I'm going to be following this CJ.

ok, so should I ever bother with farms? or they irrelavent? also, as far as modds, ive avoided thus far out of fear really, so if you could point me to some good ones id appreciate it. now on leveling, how do i do that at this point without destroying the city?i do have road top bus stops, and to bus/subway stops (got tired of the guy freakin out over there only being one) you think i need raised rail? on the far left i have freight station that is not being used very much, how do i raise that? i have a city that is by far a bigger industrial center to the north and to the west is my commercial city of over 140k with a bunch of high tech.