Schulmanator

I have gotta say, I have given CS2 a go and I have not been pleased. It's not really fun to play and there are way too many small details to ge a city up and running. Trying to get city services to work correctly is a full-time job in itself. Electricity and water won't get to zones with or without wires and pipes. How can a town of 10K have traffic jams on a 10 lane highway?! Why on earth would it take me to an underground view when I am trying to build a road?! I can't even see where it is going! Too much work and not enough fun. And it crashes a lot. It's been a disappointment. SC4 is still the gold standard for city building...

I do enjoy well-designed and detailed landscape features. Good work!

Impressive facilities!

Nice beach town!

So, this corpus wouldn't be from Queensferry, would it?!

Delightfully frosty!

Advent It’s the holiday season. And, since 2020 has been, well… 2020, Santa is putting everyone on the nice list just for putting up with The Longest Year. Ponies for everyone! And, when you live on the small Planet B-612, the best place to get in the holiday spirit is the northern mountain town of Tillyland. Let’s see what festivities they have going on this year. Nothing says Christmas like a ride on the Griswold Family Holiday Train! It’s a family tradition. This year, Cousin Eddie is driving the train. Katzenzungen Market has a lovely outdoor skating area very festively decorated. Inside, you can warm up with Busscastle hot chocolates and katzenzungen. This year’s winner of the ice sculpting contest is Roscoe P. Coltrane III, who carved an enormous stag to put you in the holiday spirit. And also to remind you of who is eating your flowers in the garden. Neighborhood kids built a giant snowman. And I do mean giant! Anything to avoid reading that assignment for literature class! Santa’s Christmas Village is a hotbed of winter shopping. Lots of little shops, each staffed by elves who like to make toys and other stuff. It’s next door to Tillyland Arena, home to the planet’s only professional ice hockey team. The Ice Cats are hosting the Springfield Isotopes today. The Busscastle Chocolates holiday candy store is (conveniently) across the street, adjacent to Snackasaurus Rex, the snack food store. You probably heard of those hotels or restaurants or bars made of ice. Ice Capades Chalet is a full-service hotel made entirely of ice. It has several winter sports activities available on site. It’s cool fun that won’t melt your wallet! Tillyland always has a holiday tree out to make things more festive. And a tree farm so you can bring home the magic with you. Hurry! Buy now while selection is best. There is skating al fresco and don’t forget snowmobile rentals available if you like outdoor fun. If you skate as well as me, they have skates for rent with training wheels too! The area looks like a fun place to spend a cold winter’s night out. Be sure to take a lot of selfies by the Festivus Pole in the center of the skating rink! Need some more natural fun? You can always hang out with the polar bears at Gentle Ben’s Bear World. As you can see, Tillyland has just about everything you could want to get your holidays going… and a great way to kick 2020 to the curb!

Almanac Planet B-612 Facts & Figures Flag and Coat of Arms: Diameter: 1,270 km Surface: 5,065,259 km2, 64.7% of which is covered by an equatorial ocean. Most land is in the northern continent. A southern polar continent is uninhabited, primarily due to the waters in the far south being the breeding ground for krakens. Squidward the Kraken got a boat Henry the Octopus got one too. Henry is of course a kraken, but he uses a clever friendly octopus disguise to sneak up on unsuspecting boats… Atmosphere: Nitrogen, oxygen, trace elements- primarily the aroma of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies Gravity: 0.97 atmosphere, due to the high density of the planet. The core and mantle contain large amounts of beskar and vibranium, allowing B-612 to have a similar gravity to its parent planet. Natural Satellites: B-612 has a dark matter moon 1.63 km in diameter. Technically known as B-612a, it is called the “Neon Moon” because of the dark matter’s influence on solar rays at night. The Neon Moon has two scientific outposts – Brooks Station and Dunn Station. More about the Neon Moon... Natural Resources & Economic Activity: Beskar and vibranium mining, farming (foodstuffs and roses), fishing, plastics recycling, textiles, tourism. Transportation: Airports: 1 - Saint-Exupéry International Airport Spaceports: 1 – Starbase Hornet Seaports: 3 – Little Princeville, Fox Run, Novo Timor Rail: 1 line - Little Princeville to Tillyland Monetary System: 100 renards = 1 rose. B-612 is part of the Feline Monetary Union, so coins are minted to FMU specifications and are convertible 1:1 with FMU states Schulmania and Harar. Government: Representative democracy. There are six districts on the planet. Strict urban planning requires very high population density, leaving over 80% of the land as natural areas or low intensity agriculture. Region 1: Little Princeville Region 2: Bharat Valley Region 3: Big Orange Desert Region 4: Novo Timor Region 5: Fox Run Region 6: Tillyland Capital: Little Princeville Population (Nov 2020 census): 4,514,124 Military: None. The local police have been called in multiple times to handle the threat caused by Queensferry launching genetically modified baobabs at B-612 in an attempt to destroy it and create a ring around its parent planet.

Great natural areas - makes me want to go outside and stroll!

Well done. And with good attention to detail!

Looks cool! after a year of 2020, I'm ready to launch!

Cool concept. I look forward to seeing how you develop it.

Having been to Guatemala, I can say you captured its feel well! Great job!

I'd like a little mountain cabin too. We need to win the lottery so we can build out mountain estates!

SCBI does its own thing as it is a very simple version - more game than simulator. But, it still has some of the quirky things we all like about SimCity... including Dr. Vu and llamas... but I do wish they had more fun names for stuff too. When I do these I like to make it a little more creative. I am glad you like it.

Grand Strand The shoreline along the south since of Little Princeville, the largest and capital city, is referred to as the “Grand Strand.” The road which runs along the shore is the Schulmalecón, featuring vehicular traffic as well as a maglev train line. Schulmalecón runs the entire distance of the city limits, from the western to the eastern urban growth boundaries, with the exception of the seaport at the southwestern corner of Little Princeville. The south side of Schulmalecón is lined with high-rise apartments, condos, and hotels. The sandy shore is packed with all sorts of beach attractions. Pretty much everything you could ask for, save for surf shops selling junky trinkets on every block and of course miniature golf. Let’s check it out. The giant sandcastle is the tourist trap Cap’n Kirk’s Galactic Funhouse at the Beach. It has an arcade with Space Invaders and Kal-toh and many other favorites. Got any money left over? Just head next door to get a luxury yacht day cruise from Davy Jones Tours. Davy Jones Tours has the biggest tour boats in town. And if your tour gets interrupted by krakens, you get 50% off on your next tour! Boaty McBoatface Marina is always bustling. And fun is close by. The Dizzy Turtle Carousel is next door, as is the scenic shopping at The Outlets at Brosnan Pier. Indoor shopping with a view is available at the Darth Mall. Darth Mall has three levels of shopping and restaurants and two levels for a casino. Be sure to visit Siths ‘R us on Level two near the food court! If the force wasn’t with you at the casino, be sure to head next door to see the sea lion show at Joey’s Dinner Theater. Don’t worry; they don’t serve the sea lions! Need to get back to nature, why not hike out to the lighthouse located on Ugottagood Point? Another location of Cap’n Kirk’s is found right in the middle of the beach near Hasno Pier. You can fish off the pier for 10 renards an hour or 1/2 rose for the day. The feline tourists really like this attraction. You can also climb Mount Wirdlehead and enjoy the waterfalls. Just watch your step – it’s a long way down! The east end of the Grand Strand is a little quieter. At the urban growth boundary is the floating hotel Lodges at Montevideo Place. The seaside Bandit Lincoln Theater provides a great show for a great price. Today, it’s an encore presentation of Cats. “Memmmmmmries….” One of the ancient wonders of Planet B-612 is the Great Tower of Wiley, built many centuries ago during the reign of King Wiley Coyote IV, as a part of his defenses against the piratical band of roadrunner ships raiding seaside towns for seeds. Wiley had many castles and watch towers built as part of his Kingdom of Acme, but few survive today. Night fishing off Hasno Pier is kinda fun. You aint gonna catch nothing, but it’s a great place to hang out with your friends. Sure beats hanging out with your enemies! You could of course enjoy a day of fun on the beach just hanging out on the golden sand, The humid, temperate, continental climate is comfortable most of the year. The Schulmalecón is lined with high-rise hotels and residences. They all have a great sea view and correspondingly high rents! The lighthouse on Ugottagood Point is helpful for the night hang gliding group. Not sure how they would do it without the light… they’d have to have everyone in town leave their fridges open I suppose… The distinctive DQ Twistycone Hotel has a great view of the Great Tower of Wiley. The triangular shapes of the twin condo buildings have a similarly impressive view. Can you tell which one is Buggs Tower and which is Elmer Tower? Like any Sim, residents of Little Princeville love their plumbobs. This one cats its errie, yet alluring, green glow across the Schulmalecón. The eastern end of the Schulmalecón is the urban growth boundary, where Little Princeville makes an abrupt halt. Preserving cast tracts of open space results in a shockingly high population density. If you are ready toe visit the shore, contact your local travel agent. Reserve a suite now and get a free buy one get one free coupon to Zoidberg’s Lobster Shack, located in the food court of Darth Mall. See ya there!

Delightful! One of the most awesome places I ever visited is the South Island of NZ. Simply a spectacular destination. It brought back some happy memories seeing this. Cheers!

Excellent work! Very well done

SCHI is certainly no SC4. But, it does let me keep in the SimCity spirit without a huge commitment. It is limited in many ways, but they have added some things to keep me engaged... luckily, right about when I thought I had seen and done all it had to offer. It has six little geographic regions now and they have added some landscape features and some different styles of housing. It doesn't have commercial or real industrial buildings, nor does it have demand for such. I did try out SC Deluxe back in the day, but it was frustrating because of its limitations. SCBI is easy game play- too easy. All you do is expand and build. All things being equal, I would rather have a new-for-2021 version of SC4. But, if you haven't tried it in a while, give it a try and see if you agree that it has improved somewhat.

SCBI is on my phone... gives me a chance to do a little sim when I get the chance. It's no SC4, but it's actually improving. I was going to say something about the 3 hour tours... I'll challenge you to a game of 3D chess...loser pays for a round at Quark's!

Looking good!

Nicely done! and cool details -- you captured the look and feel well.

Well done! Makes me want to go visit!

Great work! You captured the spirit of the place well!

Orientation This city journal is crafted in SimCity Build It (SCBI), a sim platform which may not be familiar to many Simtropolis viewers. Before I show you B-612, I will give you a glimpse of the game and how things work. There may be some snarky commentary included as well. Gameplay is on tiny regions. The six regions combined may total one or two square kilometers. Everything is way smaller than SC4. Unless, of course, SCBI is like a Tardis and is bigger inside the game than outside. And, if this is the case, then each region is comparable to a SC4 large tile. Or a continent. You start with the Capital City region and have to reach population goals to unlock additional regions. The first few are not too hard to reach. But, to unlock the last region (in my case, the Cactus Canyon desert), you need a regional population of 10 million. This is only attainable if you have a monotonous grid of skyscrapers everywhere. I’m not even 20% of the way toward unlocking the last region. I don’t think I ever will; which is a shame, since I really wanted to pretty it up with Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote images. I have unlocked the Limestone Cliffs, Frosty Fjords, Sunny Isles, and Green Valley. The process for expanding cities is very time consuming. You have to accumulate a mass of expansion thingies to unlock a parcel of land barely larger than a football pitch. Transportation is by car. The only options are building roads. Well, there is a streetcar you can upgrade to. And, you can use special simoleons to convert the streetcar line into a maglev line. That’s it. There is a rail line, but that runs outside the city if there is a mountain region you can build on. The rail line is outside the city, in the adjacent mountain zone. You can build mountain-exclusive things in the mountains. The mountain-exclusive stuff… There’s also beach-exclusive stuff, also just outside the city. The other transit is roads. All roads start as two lanes. You can get up to six lanes before they upgrade to avenues and boulevards. There are no highways. Traffic is very light, but they will complain about congestion. I think just so you upgrade roads. I don’t know why they complain; they don’t ever go anywhere. Residential zones are like 90% of every town. It’s pretty much all you do. They have expanded the options in the last few months to include the Old Town zone (something Schulmania would definitely appreciate) and the Latin America zone. Zones are free to build, but then you have to craft supplies to earn the upgrades. Residents have nowhere to go because there is virtually no business. There is a handful of factories and a tiny number of stores. In the six regions, the maximum of any store type is one. So, I guess everyone works from home and that’s why they don’t have anywhere to go or much to do. Personally, I think the lack of commerce and industry is due to the fact that money magically appears above residential zones every day. Bronze turtle coins, silver llama coins (shown above), and gold cheetah coins just float above people’s homes. If I had these at my house, I’d stay at home and play Xbox all day too. Trixie would be proud to see her regal image on a giant silver coin floating about homes everywhere. To keep the SCBI sims happy, they need services and such, just like in other SimCity games. The shocking part is how underpowered these services are for such a tiny area! This is the service area for a basic fire station. Seriously?! Their service radius implies they fight fires with a long garden hose attached to the front wall of the fire station. And they want 12,000 simoleons for it! The deluxe fire station has a bigger service radius, but it is still the equivalent of a bucket brigade in its reach. All for 46,000. You can trade with other places, buying and selling the stuff you need to upgrade your residential zones. This concludes our orientation of SCBI. It lives on the iPhone or the Android equivalent and is subject to the limitations of the small screen. But it is a handy quick sim game that’s easy to build with. And, they have added enough new features to let there be an element of custom look and feel to it. When you can’t park yourself in front of the PC and you need to get your SimCity on, SCBI is a good option. In the following chapters, I will show you what I have created on B-612.