Awakening After a Long Sleep
Hello everyone, I'm Daeris. 
I'm a kid at heart, gender-fluid ENFP Leo with a love for cinema, video games, and outer space (Hi!). Some of you perhaps have seen me a bit active on the site in recent weeks, and I'm very happy to be back. I have played nearly every SimCity game, including SimCity 4 on launch, but like many builders I moved on to other things over the years. However, as tumultuous a year that 2020 was, one good thing it did was encourage me to finally play some old games had I never experienced, as well as to dive back into my favorite city-builder of all time! I'm so thrilled this community is still growing strong, with mods still being released. The warm and welcoming community indicates to me that SimCity 4 has as many years left as we want it to!
When I was a kiddo and originally played, I basically would just create epic downtown sectors with skyscrapers dominating the skyline, which of course looked cool as all heck. However, it always frustrated me to then return to my region view and realize it didn't really look realistic to have a giant megacity, with nothing else around it. I recall stumbling upon a concept that was taking root, called the Natural Growth method, in which the development of the whole region is not something you as the player pre-plan. Instead, you try to play more as an observer, making logical and realistic decisions about the direction the city grows. You build and expand slowly, naturally, and only introducing services when it feels realistic and right to do so based on necessity. Part of the magic of this method is the fact you haven't pre-planned the region, so it very much takes on a life of its own! As you progress and look upon your railroad network, your first highway, and your downtown sectors that spring up in their destined locations, you can easily be filled with wonder as YOU are the creative vessel for which the region came to life and developed on its own!
I won't bore you anymore with minutiae on the Natural Growth method, but -- if you care to learn more -- I started a thread where many of the most talented modern minds of Simtropolis chimed in to preserve this playstyle. Give it a look if you might want to try this method yourself (and who knows, perhaps you too will have some advice to share on the thread):
This City Journal will be my first city journal ever (so I must admit I'm a little nervous 
), however I decided it would be fun to document my journey, even it it's just mostly for myself! For those who do check in from time to time, I appreciate you and I hope you are both entertained and that you perhaps find some inspiration in some way (and then pass that on to others). I will always be open to suggestion, constructive criticism, and fun ideas, so please don't be a stranger! Also, I have plans to perhaps make this CJ a little interactive in some capacity, but I'm still brainstorming the best ways to do it (more to come). Lastly - and I literally just had this idea while creating this post - I'm going to toy around with a fog-of-war mechanic in this CJ, because for new settlers discovering a new land, they wouldn't immediately know what the region looked like in its entirety (we'll see how this works out).
Anyways, lets get this CJ started...
Very much like my re-awakening from a long hiatus away from SimCity 4, my settlers also suddenly found themselves awakening from a deep slumber. They resided on a small beach that was calm, but not too calm, with deep blue water that also had a glimmer to it.
They had no surefire recollection or memories of how they ended up there, nor where they had come from previously, but they knew they needed to work together to survive. And so they did what anyone would do, they started building shelter and working towards improving their lives.
After many years of cooperation, cultivating the land, and domesticating nearby fauna, a small port town had formed...
Port Novel founded:
^Families settle into mostly shacks in Port Novel, where they farm the land, fish, hunt, or explore the surrounding land to better understand their region.
^After the community is established, the leaders decide they need to expand and map the land, however populace is an issue (there are not many settlers to spare). One ship is sent to begin mapping the coastlines, while small parties are also sent in various directions... on foot.
^North of Port Novel is overgrown with a dense forest the settlers have long avoided, and not much flatland. 
The settlers also swear to their Simgod that these woods must certainly be haunted. Perhaps these woods even have something to do with their mysterious arrival in this new land? Probably not, but they are spooky just the same.
^East of Port Novel, while dense with trees, there is additional tillable land for farming, as well as what appears to be a traversable ravine between two rough hills. It's too irresistible to our explorers, and our leaders send them to settle these flatlands to the East, and explore the ravine.
^To the south of Port Novel, the shipbound explorers quickly find curious coastal outcroppings with enough flatland for more ample farmland. They hastily return to Port Novel share the news! They report that the peninsulas look just like sharks teeth ! Afterwards, they depart yet again to return to their task of mapping what they can of the nearby waters.
^Northernmost "shark tooth" peninsula, which Port Novel decides to expand to.
In the coming weeks & months... a trail is beaten down along the the coastline south of Port Novel.
^The path is simply known as Southpath. Easy enough. =p
^In time, villages are nestled into the aforementioned peninsulas. The path in these parts receives the moniker "Sharktooth Trail."
"Are there actually sharks in these waters?" wonder many of the settlers. =p
Northbite founded:
Midfin founded: (that's right, the settlers on the southern peninsula were stubborn and decided that their peninsula looked more like a shark fin instead of a shark tooth ...how particular of them)
Eventually, the shipbound explorers return, and with them they bring their best estimation of the waterways and coastlines of the unknown region they have all awoken in...
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A closer look at the immediate area, and known features:
Updates of Uncovering Junon Vale:
- Settlers have awoken in this strange new land.
- Port Novel is founded! ~ Families farm and hunt and fish.
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From Port Novel: Explorers were sent by ship to map the waterways. Explorers were sent by foot south to settle coastal flatlands. Explorers were sent east to settle flatlands and explore a ravine. The haunted forest is clearly much too haunted for exploration !
- Northbite is founded!
- Midfin is founded! ~ They are stubborn and think their peninsula is a shark fin not a shark tooth!
- Southpath connects Port Novel to Northbite.
- Sharktooth Trail runs through the southern sharktooth-like peninsulas
- The ship of explorers has returned on their monthslong journey, bringing a mindblowing map of the region and all its waterways. Of course, there is no way to know what awaits inland... until we go explore and settle those lands! ~ A new hidden lake is discovered relatively close!
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