Ross Fox

Oooh this'll be fun... Glasgow: -bring the tower blocks to the ground. -stop suburban expansion by banning all non-essential malls, retail parks and housing developments in the surrounding towns and concentrating development on the gaping wastelands within the city itself gradually rebuilding it's population and density. -stop the M74 extension and in the areas where the M8 passes through the city centre (Charing Cross in particular) bring them underground and form public spaces over the motorway itself -expand the subway by adding a second loop serving the east end and commonwealth games site. -slap the dust from the brains of all who think any new architecture is ugly and all tall buildings are the same as 60's tower blocks. -tram/light rail running along the river. -stop the Buchanan Galleries expansion and change the plans to create a more urban, open environment. -completely re-do Queen St. train station. -increase connections from the new Glasgow Harbour development to the rest of the West End and add more shops, workplaces, etc... it looks too much like an overpriced council estate. -add some colour and aesthetics to new (and existing?) buildings. No reason architecture can't be cheerful. ....unfortunately this is the stuff I think about when I should be doing actual work.

Originally posted by: Mulefisk There's nothing inherently wrong with tower blocks, they've just fallen into the hands of poor poeople. Once the middle class moves in and takes over, and the poor people are shipped off somewhere else, no-one will complain. (Except the poor people).quote>I wouldn't say it's because of poor people (in fact they tend to be "owned" by local government and rented out to poorer residents) it's cause they are big, ugly soulless boxes, often poorly constructed, seperated by poorly maintained green space, wasteground, and parking areas and planned out in dull, sprawling estates with little in the way of local services, businesses or mass transport and a lot in the way of crime, economic depression and social depression. If anyone is to blame it should be the government for not maintaining and updating the blocks themselves and the urban area around them. But it's unlikely to happen, I won't shed any tears when these blocks come crashing to the ground.

Ah good ol' Le Corby. Where would Glasgow be without his inspiration to 20th century planners and architects? Well it wouldn't be the tower block capital of the UK for a start... Oh and it probably wouldn't have a whopping big motorway ripping through the middle of it, cutting off the west-end from the city centre. I still love Glasgow though. I guess the poor planning left over from the '60s adds to the city's unique urban chaos. Still, it's hard to remember that when your bus is crawling at snails pace gradually along the motorway toward one of the busiest bridges in Europe. At rush hour.

Some of the names I've half-baked since I first got the game... Greenbank (my bestest city eveeer ) Dune Harbour Safe Haven Crater Island Cucumber Hill (no i dont know what I was thinking ) Ocean Bay Suburb names.... Fir Ridge Woodvale East Fog Magma Wood Autumn Ridge More recent UK themed names... Peebsbury Port Ellinmouth Ogdon Nettlebrae Kilonyss

Well I voted realism. Little things like parking that actually connects to roads, or a better variety of lot shapes, or curved, higher capacity, roads with better variety of lanes and sizes- they would make a big difference, but I personally would prefer it if some of the challenge was kept in the game. I'm not sure if I would buy it at all if it was nothing more than an eye candy machine. Of course eye candy rocks sometimes, but I played simcity 4 for years without downloading anything, because I thought it was a good game, even without the amazing additions and mods and buildings being created now.

Yay they need to be doing this more in the UK. There are a lot of old 60/70's relics that could look fine with a good facelift. I think it helps we're not making the same mistakes as planners of the 60's anyway, who tore down Victorian buildings and charming sandstone tenements to make way for massive grey blocks. Although I could nominate *a lot* of grey blocks to be flattened, its nice to see a different treatment of past architectural disasters

not a city (still trying to get anything of decent size in asian style) but heres an industrial town

OK, tis changed Nice work everyone

Originally posted by: Voulpiotis Ross Fox: Can't see pics. Resize in 800x600quote> Um...they are 800x600 >.> at least they should be. Thats what I'm seeing on image properties anyways

The best skyscraper district I can grow (other recent attempts have died on me) Nearby dense residential area EDIT: changed to JPEG, sorry

Some of my ideas, I may be repeating others but meh.... -Make lots more flexible, no more rectangles, they can be triangular, or polygonal. -Tourism as a separate zone type, with its own demand and desirabilities, for example, a city established in a warm climate located on the coast could see huge Meditteranean style resort hotels built along the beach. -When playing games such as rollercoaster tycoon, theme park, etc., the rollercoasters are tracks, laid on pillars, looping round, over and under each other, with adjustable heights. Perhaps something similar in SC5 can be done with highways, el rail, and so on, with buildings able to develop underneath, given enough height. -Mixed use! I want the retail space underneath apartment buildings to be functional. -Advanced planning controls. For example, controlling almost exactly what develops on a lot. It can still be low/med/high density, but with optional, more advanced options, like choosing the exact densities to build at (for large cities to bypass the brick walkups and go straight to the apaprtment towers) -Oil fields, or mining deposits, to fuel rapid expansion for "boom cities" -Definitely the ability to define neighbourhoods, changing their names, planning and architectural style -On that note, more architectural styles. For example, I would have; Old North American Modern North American Old European Modern European Old Middle Eastern Modern Middle Eastern Old Far Eastern Modern Far Eastern with the ability to edit and create new architectural styles, and moving certain buildings into it, or creating an entire new setting for custom and downloaded buildings Theres more than that going on in my head, but I'll leave it there :3

Ah well, my own attempt at suburbs. Kinda modern UK/ European style

Hrm, first post, may as well say something smart...>.> I live in Scotland, and although suburbs haven't exactly developed like they have in the US, they seem more and more like them each time. The town I currently live in was once an important industrial centre, and at the height of the industrial age, was at one of the most important manufacturing centres in the country. But when industries declined, and schemes to try and improve the economy of the area failed, suburbanisation took hold. Now, the town is a failing retail centre, with appaling concrete "shoebox architecture" from the 60's and 70's, surrounded by acres of suburbia. Suburbs may be clean and safe for kids in the US, but in this town, and many other places, they are dirty, covered with litter, and mostly grey, and built in the 60's, so when it rains, it looks incredibly depressing. On the very edge, new developments are being built, which look worrying like the the cookie-cutter McMansions of America, in giant, planned developments, with repetitive low density architecture and concentrating traffic on a few roads leading in and out the area. Traffic is bad and getting worse, and yet more houses go up, trying to pull people from nearby Glasgow (I live in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire in case anyone was wondering) I'm trying to do the opposite, as soon as I go to university, I'm outta here to move to the city, and after I graduate and settledown, I'll either stay there or go to the country, cause I am never coming back to this place again, or any like it (as there are a lot of similar towns in the UK) Er, so yeah...against