A Gap Abridged
Replies
- Thanks to everyone who replied and/or read this journal. We made number 17 in the CJ Section last week, which is my best ever opening to Journal, and you are all part of the reason. Thank you.
Now to the comments section. By the way, if I simply say thank you, it just means I could not think of something better to say. This doesn't mean I value your comment any less, it just means that I couldn't find a better response.
- jmsepe- Thank you. Soon is largely dictated by RL at the moment.
- MariusMR-Thank you.
- Schrifer-Thank you. MMPs are one thing I plan to focus a bit more on this journal.
- tankmank-Thank you.
- sarthakknight-That's actually been my problem in the past. It'll be a while before I have any fully developed areas, but they are coming
- Johan-Thanks. It's good to know I'm not alone in my journaling troubles.
- rewright-What's a city without an interesting map. The skyscrapers are coming, once I get to where they will grow.
- pingpong-I was kind imagining this city might look a bit like Rio with development on almost all of the buildable terrain, but also sharp rocks along the coastline.
One of the reasons I wanted an island city is for bridge building. Maxis may not have a lot that it's still got a claim on in this game, but the bridges are still great. Plus, bridges generally have to be built around which makes them a logical opening to the development of the city.
Bella Vista is rather small in terms of area, so we can't have too many bridges, especially with the terrain lining up as it does. Initially, I started with the Avenue bridges. These were part of the ring road so they made sense. Unfortunately, that left very few options for other crossings. This meant that all my other crossings would be single-tile bridges. Full disclosure, I still don't like most of the options for these bridges, so any additional bridge had to look exceptional.
The results:
This causeway exemplifies why I like bridge building. It was a challenge to build, as all diagonal bridges are, but the end result looks spectacular even before development spices it up. This causeway is lightly used at the moment because it is away from all my current development, but it could become heavily used as development spills eastward.
As much as I hate the Maxis Road Bridges, this one actually fit perfectly here. Sure it's a bit redundant, but seeing how good it looked I couldn't resist. Besides, who hasn't seen an old bridge that runs parallel to its larger, more modern counterpart. Such is the situation I see here.
No Maxis Bridge works quite as flexibly as this Cable-Stayed Bridge. It looks good at just about any length and any height.
This is the Rocky Pass Bridge, a Bella Vista landmark. Built in the early 90s to alleviate congestion on the older Merlin Point Bridge, the Rocky Pass Bridge is part of the Bella Vista loop. The Loop, as its locally known, serves as a higher capacity thoroughfare for the southern islands. It is the only divided highway in this portion of the city, and stands out when compared to the cities narrow corridors.
The Merlin Point Bridge owes its name to Jacob Merlin, one of Bella Vista's early investors. Merlin started a real estate business that eventually took a position as one of the regions most prominent companies. His influence on the local economy was huge and has led to numerous things being named after him. The bridge actually lands near his historic mansion (not pictured). Though, it has since been superseded by the Rocky Pass Bridge, the Merlin Point bridge remains popular with people who swear the loop is too busy.
Bonus picture
This island is in a weird position. It's too small to develop and thus would need to be uninhabited. Of course, I'm trying to develop a city, and things like this can be difficult to fit any update. So this is just a bonus, something completely unrelated to the update, but might be worth sharing.
Overview
You can see that I've started building the city. Currently, it is home to about 3,000 sims, which means it will be a while before any development reaches a satisfactory stage. Thus, the next few updates are likely to focus on little infrastructure projects like parks and such.
That's all for now. RL has chewed up my next couple weekends so I may not have very large updates, but I do intend to have one each week. Until next time...
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