Jacob Rock

I'll look into that, Amerikaner. Thanks!

Trenton Starting Small: Rotary Island Finally getting used to the job. Having Google Earth next to the screen helps a lot. Looks like there will be a lot of things that were lost in translation between the greyscale and the region. I'll have to use the terrain editing tools a lot more than expected. Making the edge of the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River as straight as possible to match it up with the Google Earth image. The river is straighter now, but not complete. I'll go back to this later, let me play around a little bit more and get used to things. Rotary Island doesn't look exactly how it should. I added this smaller island there and I'll have to make another one next to it (the long, skinny one). I guess the islands were too thin for the game to pick up when converting the greyscale image into a region. So much to do, so much to do........ If you haven't noticed yet, this is the first time I've ever played SimCity trying to accurately recreate something! Looks like I picked a hard place to start out with after all! But it's coming along. I'll be on the hunt in STEX for roads that can help more with the angles the region map has provided. Let me know if you have any ideas!

Trenton Starting Small: Rotary Island After searching the forums, I found out a neat Mac trick! Holding down the "Option" key during startup enables you to open SimCity 4 in a window rather than full screen! Looks like I won't have to wait to print out the satellite pictures after all!

Trenton Starting Small: Rotary Island Wow - this stuff is harder than it looked! Your CJs make everything seems so easy! I underestimated you guys, of course. I started two things in this update; the first, filling Rotary Island up with trees (should have been done for free in God Mode... I know, I know... but I'll know for next time), and the second, building Pennsylvania's River Road. Littered the island as best as I could with the tree tool in Mayor Mode. P.S. - How long will it take for the trees to grow and fill in like in the satellite picture? Is there an easier way once you're in Mayor Mode? River Road is definitely not this curvy! Looks like this job isn't going to be as easy as I anticipated! Out comes the terrain leveler tool.... Better, better, but not good enough. The thing I should have done first was printed out the satellite pictures and have them next to me while doing this as opposed to doing it all from memory after looking the satellite picture up really quick. I'll do that tonight. Obviously, River Road is a very straight, flat 45 degree road. Also, there is no real shore on the Pennsylvanian coast or on the island itself. I'll have this fixed by next update. A slow start, but at least I got my hands dirty this time! I know what to expect as I delve deeper into this project. Those trees better grow faster!

Thanks for pointing that out, Pats. I knew I was forgetting something when I uploaded the new ones. This will be an accurate recreation to the best of my ability, so Hester, you need to be a harsh critic for me. Point out all the things I make up!

Boot Camp works well; however, if you don't have a copy of Windows XP with a serial number that has not been used already then you'll be out a few hundred bucks. I find it's also annoying flipping back and forth between XP and Mac each time you want to play SimCity or use another one of your programs, as you will find that none of your Mac programs will run on Windows.

I didn't know how to start a region either and was also very anxious to start a CJ - but I found Rebel13's website and decided to try out one of his greyscales. At first I thought I would create an imaginary city on one of these maps, but decided it would be cooler to recreate the actual city the greyscale is of. www.rebel13.com/SimCity/Home.html Hope this helps give you some ideas. Can't wait to watch you start your CJ!

I originally had Boot Camp, but found that it was annoying switching between Mac and Windows and constantly rebooting the computer. I always had to go back to Mac to use any other programs because they were not installed on Windows. I couldn't put those Mac programs on Windows because they would only work on a Mac! So to stop wasting time switching back and forth, I decided to suck it up and play the Mac version. Also, if you don't have a copy of Windows laying around, it could be very costly to do if you were only going to use Windows to play SimCity. I, fortunately, had a friend across the hall that had a spare Windows XP install disk. Who brings something like that to college! Honestly!

This is by far the best looking region I've seen on Simtropolis yet. Way to go!

Great job on the census - I don't know if I would ever think to do anything like that. Definitely shows your devotion and interest, though. I wish I was able to relax enough and get as involved in my region as you have!

Interested in seeing some game play snapshots! What kind of lot mods will you be using?

Zelgadis, Being rather new to Simtropolis, I was under the impression that the Mac and PC versions of the game were identical as far as mods and such were concerned until I did my research. I totally felt like I had wasted sixty-some-odd dollars because I felt as if the Mac version that I had bought was completely crippled due to the lack of modding geared toward Macs. Very frustrating! I did a lot of researching today and thanks to help from your topics and replies in this thread and many others, I am feeling a lot better about the Mac version and am modding away. You really know how to make the disgruntled Mac user feel at home at Simtropolis! Just thought I'd throw some public recognition out there to you! Thanks for everything, can't believe I didn't find your stuff sooner! -Matt

Trenton Picking a Starting Point: Rotary Island I decided to start near the water in a place where I could start with residential zones to secure a decent cash flow. You guys were absolutely right - the water mod definitely changes the water's look! Can't tell if other terrain mods aside from the water are working, but this is what Rotary Island looks like: I need to stop procrastinating with this paper! (Edit: The snapshots should work now, I had forgotten to switch them to JPEG format.)

Thank you for all of your support! I have been working on adding mods to the game; however, I am a Mac user and am just learning how to do it properly. I'm pretty sure I have Pegasus's water mod finally working, but I cannot tell if the other ones have kicked in...I don't remember what the region looked like prior to me adding the .dat files! haha I have a paper to write for my summer class today, but I'll try to get some more snapshots up. And for those of you who were wondering, "Why the hell would he pick Trenton of all places to recreate!" haha I totally agree with manman99. I am from Jersey as well, and I frequently find myself in meetings at the State House and various other locations around the city - I am a triple major in Political Science, Planning & Public Policy, and Economics - and since I am very active in student government and so forth, I thought it would be an interesting hobby for the summer. Again, thank you for your comments! I'll be sure to check our your CJ's right after I hand this paper in!

I have a City Journal for a Mac-made region, also! Click the link on my signature! -Matt