Welcome to Ionica - Big City, Small World
Welcome to Ionica - Year 2198 - Population 5.5 million
I would like to start out by thanking all the people and groups whose buildings and mods helped make this city possible. Simtropolis is an amazing community and it has brought SimCity 4 to a whole other level. I'm learning new ways to play the game every time I come to this site and every time I download new add-ons, it is amazing. I've seen so many fantastic city journals and they inspire me to design better and more beautiful cities, thank you.
The designing principle behind this city was to make a very dense Metropolis and I was inspired by cities like Hong Kong and anime films like Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and Metropolis (2001). However, Ionica isn't as dark or dystopic as those cities. It still has an east meets west kind of feel because western cultures also have a very rich history of architecture and art that I just couldn't ignore.
- Avalon, Ionica's 2nd densest Zone. Veritas is the densest, but I'm not ready to show it yet.
Unfortunately SimCity 4 has it's limitations and I don't think it is actually possible to design a city like Hong Kong because in SC4 the buildings can't have residential and commercial in one. It has taken me a while to figure out how to get a city working really well and to make sure that residential and commercial buildings aren't abandoned due to long commute times. I also feel the transportation system is messed up in SC4 because the sims seem to have a lot of problems commuting long distances and they prefer employment that is local. It seemed that no matter how I built my transportation systems I would always have places that would get abandoned. I've since managed to create a balance and more efficient transportation and now all the zones in my city are fully sustainable. Most of the zones are designed to be very dense, however there are pockets of serenity here and there. A few areas and zones, especially those closer to the ocean have low density housing; it is where all the rich people have their mansions.
- Feasson, a more relaxed way of living at the outer edge of Ionica
I didn't use a customized region to build my city, I'm kind of just making it up as a go along. Most of the city is built on very flat terrain just because that makes thing easier to build. SC4 didn't really figure out how to build stuff on uneven terrain and it is very difficult to build cities with steep slopes. There are some zones that have hills and valleys and it certainly gives them more character, but most of the time it is more practical to build on flat surfaces. Each zone I've built have been kind of an experiment and I've been gaining experience as I've been building. My first mega zone (1of 3) does not have any GLR and it took me the longest time to figure out how to set one up properly. Now i'm using tram-in road in almost all my zones. The one big thing I haven't really tackled yet is canals and that is the next thing I want to get into, but I still have a few more zones to build that need to have continuity with the rest.
Lately I've been beefing up my zones and trying to get rid of as many ugly Maxis buildings as possible, as well as making the best use of space as possible. When I first started downloading buildings I downloaded Kelly's Escort Service thinking it would be funny but now there are just so many Escort Service buildings everywhere. The problem is just that the building doesn't fit in with the rest of the city, so I have to get rid of most of them. Once and a while there are Zones that I am totally not satisfied with and I've given them 'total makeovers'. I recently gave Feason such a treatment and the photo I posted was the result of that process. Most of the time when I re-do a zone I call it 2 for some reason, with the exception of Walden II which is draws it's name from the Utopian novel written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. (I just thought it was an interesting name, not as much because of the content of the book)
Each zone is powered independently by Infusion Corp's Thermal Ionizer 2.0, a geothermal power plant, which also purifies water and air. After the discovery of goethermal and invention of this powerplant city planners thought it would be best to not draw the earth's energy from a large centralized location but rather to distribute them amongst the zones and allow them more control over the power they consume. The water is pumped by the conventional SC4 pumps and is purified by the Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Pant which each zone also has. The garbage is disposed of by The Black Hole Waste Management Corp.'s Core Incinerator which disposes of garbage by burning it in the earth's core.
Most of the Agriculture is done in large hydroponic facilities. Ionica recently contracted Pegadyne to manufacture Sky Farms in the industrial zones of the city. It also has Aothe Massiv Hydroponic Farms which are underground.
- Sky Farms in Avalon's industrial area
Ionica is currently composed of 58 zones, here are a few examples:
Avalon
- Avalon was recently surpassed by Veritas as the densest Zone in Ionica, but it is still considered to be the heart of the city.
Acropolis II
- Acropolis II is the center of post secondary learning in Ionica. The University of Acropolis is considered to be the best in Ionica.
Caliphate
- Home of the 12th Imam. Glenn Beck warned us, did we listen? Nope. This zone actually doesn't have anything to do with Islam, however there are mosques in Ionica.
Prince Five Weapons
- A zone Dedicated to the brave Prince Five Weapons who defeated the Ogre Sticky Hair
Magi
- Not pronounced Maggy. Home of Ionica's space program, Military Industrial Complex and the IIA (Ionican Intelligence Agency). It is like Cape Canaveral meets Langley Virginia. You are looking at the industrial side.
Ganymede 2.0
- Come watch Blitzball in the replica of the Zanarkand Blitzball Stadium
Paragon
- The center of communication technologies in Ionica. The zone of Paragon is also home to Fulcrum island, a place where the rich and famous can have summer homes.
Well that will do it for now. Next post I'm going do get more into the government of Ionica and how I think the cities work. Also, Avalon is approaching it's bicentennial and I hope to do a feature on it so I am hard at work revising and further modernizing the city.
Thanks for visiting, hope to see you again soon.
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