sstyrnol

Re the colour, I think it depends on the ambient light. A look at Google Images showed me colours ranging from the same "porky pink" to a darkish brown-red. I guess I'd make it a bit darker and maybe add a hint of rust/brown into the colour...

Looks good. I have a few questions, if you don't mind: How do these bike networks behave on slopes? I hope better than the stock bicycle paths? Are those crossings possible with every road (stock and modded)? Would it be possible to change the colour to a less "porky pink" (schweinchenrosa)? Thanks for making these!

Thank you for this. Already subscribed and I am currently planning to plop this down in my current city...

That port looks very good! Love that long jetty!

Work on the transport network continues... The last week saw continued progress on the designing the road layout and the various other transportation facilities. Also work started on adding city services. Near the river, just behind the cut-off from the mainline, the first light rail station was added. This line will in the future be named "Beach Line", as it will track the coast line for quite a bit. Behind, a water pump was added. The fence around it is the only detail so far, more to come. To the south of the downtown area, the light rail leaves the station tunnel. This will be the Innercity Shuttle. This I built 'old school' with the stock quays. I will most likely change this to match the building style of the other stations I added so far. Another view of the sunken train station. Here the focus lies on the reworked on/off-ramps for the highway. This way continuation of the roads beyond the highway is possible. Of the light rail lines coming out of the main station, one is crossing the river to the north-east, in the future connecting the eastern suburbs to the downtown area. As there will be a small industrial area (mostly city services and logistics), I added a more industrial looking elevated station. As you can see, I already plopped down some buildings in the future downtown, these are just to get a feeling for scale and may be replaced or removed soon. Some of the buildings also are already final, where I detailed the exit of the tram line, which will serve the downtown area (I decided to use buses only in the suburbs). Here I used the new networked retaining walls in combination with the ploppable pavement by @Ronyx69. Further details such as planters, fences, lights etc. are yet to be added. Following is another view of the downtown area, subject to change. Now, let's return to the "Beach Line". After leaving the Riverside station, the line arcs below the highway bridge and the reaches the first shoreside station. Before there is a small underpass to allow for a grade-separated crossing of a roundabout. Again, I used the retaining walls network, in combination with the ploppable grass and some vegetation to hide any imperfections. The "bridge" is made by using some of the dock pieces, again by @Ronyx69. Here is a view from the other side: This looks quite good, I have to employ some protection against the river. Whenever I do terraforming upstream, the subsequent "tsunamis" flood the underpass... The line now follows the shore, until we reach a larger station (I may add an intermediary station). Here the InnerCity Shuttle meets the Beach Line again. There are a few sidings to store unneeded trains. The Beach Line will continue follow the shore line, the InnerCity Shuttle moves to the left (east). Moving back across the river (yeah, we're all over the place today...), let's have a look at the small industrial / logistics / services area: A branchline comes off the mainline, and enters a small yard (remember: the main yard is on the other side of the river). Here we have access to a distribution center (one of @Avanya's masterpieces if you ask me), accompanied by an assortment of other warehouses. The siding just on the left will have some tanks for unloading oil cars. Moving down the line, we see a small container handling facility. I need to "pave" the siding and place a reach stacker for loading containers on well cars. This - in my mind - is just a small facility, where domestic containers are placed on trains to be transported to the next logistics hub. View from a lower angle. The smaller warehouses behind are dedicated in my mind to less-then-carload cargoes as well as everything that is not containerized. Here we see a local train spotting some cars in the siding. I need to subscribe to some cargo handling assets. Further upstream we find the Genoa City LNG powerplant (also still mostly undetailed). And finally, the cities main water treatment plant. I still need to sort out my mod list, which is way too full, remove a ton of skyscrapers which are too big, add some more cargo handling equipment, more warehouses and then I can start plopping down buildings to get a working / viable baseline city, so that I can find out if my roads and other transit stuff works... Until then, have a good one!

Good Evening and Welcome to a New Installment of Genoa City! A lot has happened during the last few days, so let's jump right into the action! First of all, I have changed the map theme to use @Ronyx69's Springwood map theme. I did this because while being an awesome set of textures, I thought the Colossal Hill map theme to harsh in its colors and having a too arid character for my liking, especially with the river going in the map. Secondly, I did a major overhaul of the pre-existing road and rail network in the map. I basically removed the rail line coming from the top of the screen and relocated it to the shore line, adjacent to the Coastal Highway. This way, in my mind, it makes a lot more sense going through the city. Also this way, the hillside behind the rail line can serve as a better backdrop for those long freight trains! Right now, I am working on the road network. First of all I redid all the major highway intersections to look more realistic. This is still a work in progress. In the following I am showcasing, what I got so far. I subscribed to a bunch of prototype intersections from the workshop, especially those awesome intersections made by CreativeDEX. As with all premade intersections, the might not always fit the pre-existing situation, hence I merely plopped them somewhere as a guidance and then designed my own intersection based on the local situation. The first intersection is on the northern edge of the map (remember, in my mind, on the image above, north is on the left!). The Coastal Highway diverges to the right, with the main highway transitioning into the City Bypass. The City Bypass takes a sharp left turn to skirt the edge of the hillside to merge with the Inner City Highway further east. That interchange still has to be built. Just after the intersection above, there is an exit into the city, mainly serving the neighborhoods on the northern side of the river. You also can see the new train line, as it skirts the hillside and crosses the river. After the river bridge, we reach the first main exit into the city. This one is a bit confusing, as several roads criss-cross each other. The on- and off-ramps each merge into one-way roads that pass through what will once be the downtown area. These one-way roads end at the roundabout which can be seen on the right side of the image, which provides access to the beach boulevard and the beachside neighborhoods. The boulevard has been moved back from the shoreline a bit to make way for a beachside park with a few restaurants and such. I have yet to fit the light rail line under the bridge and the intersection as well. It will probably (not decided yet), dive under the one-ways and the go up to run parallel to th boulevard. This interchange further south connects the Innercity Highway with the Coastal Highway and also provides access to the downtown and the coastside neighborhoods. All the interchanges above have yet to receive final terraforming and detailing. This interchange is a work in progress. It will most likely (like 99%) be demolished. I am looking for a prototype, where I can have the on-/off-ramps merge into the one-way roads (these are the same ones from the interchange described above!). Furthermore, I did some work on the remaining infrastructure and road layout. The redesign meant that I could move the trainstation to a much more sensible location in the midst of the future downtown area. West of the station will be a larger park, what you see here is just temporary, I played a bit with the park life assets... As before, the station is being served by three tracks, two light rail tracks and one intercity track. All go underground to enter the station, saving valuable real estate. There is also an underground bus terminal, the entrance can be seend above as well. The relocation also means that the whole trackage can be made much more realistic. Here we see the main "intersection" for the rail network. In the front is the mainline; the diverging track leads to the main station, the straight track is for freight service only and will lead to the freight yard / industrial area. Behind the front track is the light rail line serving the beach area, which will go under the Coastal Highway bridge as seen above. On the left, crossing over the mainline, we see the light rail line serving the eastern suburbs. Behind, we can spot a s small rail yard, which will service light rail trains. The service yard has a few storage tracks, a balloon track and will get all the other facilities found on such locations. This is all for now, until next time, I will leave you with a small impression of the coastal rail line, with some retaining walls installed! Have a good one and see you next time in Genoa City! Assets highlighted in this entry: Springwood Map Theme by @Ronyx69: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=921636136 Workshop of CreativeDEX for some awesome intersections and other cool stuff: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045291352/myworkshopfiles/?appid=255710

Welcome to Genoa City! This is my first city journal, so please bear with me, while I get the hang of it. I just got back into Cities: Skylines after a lot of other diversions, but yeah, this game is so addicting. I have the feeling I am on track of creating a nice city, so I thought, I'd share it here... Couple of notes up front: If you guys have any suggestions for improvements, hints or tips, these are most welcome. I post my progress here, because I am looking to improve myself. So, if you see anything that can be improved, let me know! Any assets, mods or so I specifically mention in any of my posts, I will try and add a list of links to the Steam Workshop at the end of my post, so if you want to grab the asset, you can go right ahead. So without any further ado, let's dive in! Introduction to Genoa City Genoa City is a fictional place, maybe located somewhere on the west coast of the United States. It is a lovely place of steep cliffs, a colossal hillside, sweeping beaches and a mighty river flowing into the see. The relatively flat area by the river mouth has been selected as the place for a grand city. The basis for the city is Owl's Colossal Hillside map. I am modifiying the prebuilt roads and rail network somewhat to suit my build style and envisioned city layout. In the above map, I highlighted planned / existing highways in blue. Planned major arteries in orange. The light blue polygons are planned neighbourhoods as followed: Main downtown area with shopping, offices and some heavy residential (condos); Seaside hotel / casino complex Shopping center with restaurants etc. Seaside upscale residential Powerplant, utilities Residential Industrial Seaside hotels, shops etc. Suburbs Suburbs Suburbs The main characteristic of the map is the highway going from north to south (Coastal Highway) and a second highway going inland (Eastbound Highway). The Eastbound Highway branches off into a city bypass, which allows northbound drivers to avoid any innercity traffic jams. There is an intercity rail line, serving both freight and passenger services. Primary suburban transport will be done by a light railway network and a bus service. If the need arises, I may complement that with other modes of transportation later. I also have no plans yet for an air- or seaport. Both may come, but have not been planned yet. Current Work Currently I am in the process of getting down the basic road networks, starting with the primary arteries and major roads first. This involves a lot of putting down roads, deleting them again and relaying them until I am satisfied. As this is not yet finished, I'll just leave you with some impressions of the work done so far. This is the interchange from the Coastal Highway onto the City Bypass. It also offers a way down to the shore and further on to some coastal suburbs (eventually). Planning stages for the cities main transportation hub. To save on real estate consumption, rail lines dive underground. It allows easy interchange from intercity rail to the cities light rail system as well as buses. This will eventually become the city's main freight rail hub. Don't mind the kink in the bridge in the back ground... And last but not least, an overview shot, of what will become the sea front. In the back, you see the river, in front of it the rail yard and the transportation center. In the middle, there is the Coastal Highway. The neighbourhoods in the front will be dominated by upscale residential, commercial and leisure developments. In the center we see a light rail station, where two lines will meet. So, that's it for this entry, I'll see y'all next time! Looking forward to your comments! Mods/Assets Highlight Owl's Colossal Hillside Map: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=670806933

Amazing and precise work! Love it. Looking especially forward to seeing how you realize the actual city building!

Images are gone for me as well...

Amazing work!

I concur with @Avanya. It produces a handy HTML file, where you can find links to almost all assets on the workshop.

Hi there, some great suggestions. Regarding beach assets, there are some in the workshop already, though the topic could be expanded further. Regarding your other suggestions, of course variety is always good, but one should IMHO always see to it that the game does not get too crowded with options. Seasons would be awesome though, even if it places an even bigger workload on modders, I guess. But it would add an interesting gameplay mechanic into the game like having to dimension your power supply for increased demand in the summer (due to air conditioning) as well as increased heat demand in winter (due to low outside temperatures). Traffic flows might also change, like in the summer, your beach areas get flooded with tourists whereas your skiing areas get their main workload in winter.

In principle probably yes. I guess my point is that it still is finicky and takes a long time to get right. Of course, once you get a piece, section or even a whole interchange "just right", you can save it and use many times over. I guess I am not that patient after all...

Hi, haven't posted here much, mostly lurking in awe at what some of the people here achieve with C:S. A few years back, I have been playing a lot of SC4, have tried out other city builders and never been really satisfied. For sure, there are still things in C:S, that are lacking. What @zimmie is pointing out is one of my major gripes: I find the whole process of designing highway interchanges tedious and finnicky. It would be awesome if one could combine the flexibility of the current highway "drawing tool" with some fixed pieces for on- and off-ramp sections or highway mergers. Regards, Sebastian

Well, if you want to make a map which is true to scale, you first need to make a greyscale map of your desired region. Then, based on the city squares within SC4 (1, 2 or 4 km square side length), you need to measure how many squares of which size you need and select them accordingly. Once you have done that, it is "simply" a measure of scaling the map and importing it into SC4. A good tool to measure and select the square you want to get into SC4 is IMHO Google Earth. Just to see how much space realistic cities take up, I have attached a screenshot of Google Earth with a marker of 12 km length (ie. 3 large city squares). Best regards, Sebastian

1. About me First of all I would like to issue a warm welcome to all readers. In this space I will have you take part in the development of Genoa City, a fictional modern metropolitan area, somewhere on the eastern seabord of the United States. My name is Sebastian from Germany. I have been following the developments around SimCity for a while and have gazed with wonder at what all these talented people are able to get out of such an old game as SimCity. Developments such as NAM, RHW, SAM, RAM, but also the countless BATs and LOTs are a monument of this. My main interest in SC4 is transportation in all its facets, especially ports, railways and airports, followed by the development of US-themed cities. 2. About Genoa City Genoa City is a metropolitan area on the eastern seabord of the United States. While fictional, the area modelled in Sim City, resembles the area around Norfolk and Hampton Roads, Virginia. The area stretches from the Atlantic beaches (RL Virginia Beach) to Arlington Roads Bay (RL Hampton Roads Bay) with the towns of Geno City on the south side and Arlington on the North Side. The following map shows the an overview on the shorelines as well as the principal roads and geographical features. The grey numbers highlight the following items, which amongst others shall be described in the upcoming entries in the CJ: The Genoa City Naval Station The Genoa City Navy Docks and Air Station The Genoa City Container Terminal The Lynnhaven Bulk and Breakbulk Terminal The Arlington Roads Container Terminal Thats all for now, the next entry shall feature some first ingame pictures... Best regards, Sebastian

Originally posted by: mimolay I totally agree with you Jasoncw. Take for example on the actual SimCity 4 website. The site has not really been updated ever since 2004 or 2005. The only thing that was updated this year on that site was the copyright. I love SC4, don't get me wrong and it's my favorite game, but the only places that keep SimCity 4 and in fact the whole frachise alive is Simtropolis, SC4 Devotion, and other 3rd party websites. I think that it's a shame that EA and Maxis have just turned everything to profit rather than actual gameplay. These gaming corporations know that when you break the Security seal on the case of your game, you can't even return it, unless if you sell it on Ebay. quote> This kind of reminds me of MS Train Simulator. It is a 2001 vintage game with an aged DX7 graphics engine, but it has still a solid - if slowly shrinking - following. Some dedicated artist have been able to churn out incredible assets for that game, some where I think were not considerable right in the beginning. The game has survived two failed successors and one EA debacle. The same with SC4! It has incredible depth, people are still expanding the game and I think it still is the best city building game around! However I doubt there will ever be a worthy successor: With the current design philosophy of the gaming industry and their perception of todays gaming community attention span, they will only do more "shallow" games! But just THINK, what kind of SC game could be done with todays computing power and graphics engines!!! But then again, it would rapidly become "too complex" for the core target group of teenagers and thus only attract a small group and thus would not generate the returns expected by the major game companies...

First of, I doubt it will be a fully fledged OS on which all software will run satisfyingly. As far as I have read on several sites, it will be a stripped-down Linux distribution with a new GUI. Moreover, I am quite wary of Google's "Big-Brother"-approach. Already Chrome reports quite a bit about your browsing behaviour (Firefox by the way does too). Now Google throws an OS on the market, which may be also able to monitor your overall computer usage behaviour (maybe even moreso than Windows is able to right now?)? No thanks!

That is amazing! I do not want to guess how many hours you must have poured into this! Keep up the good work there, dude!

As a German, I found this thread partially embarrassing for the posters and partially entertaining. My suggestion would be that some people should read up on their facts about other countries before making weird statements! But that's just my personal opinion...

Originally posted by: Shadow_Assassin It has never been said though that these will share track, because this would inadvertantly lead to a strong competition between slower trains and HSR.quote> ... and if they shared track, the HSR would not be utilised to its full potential. HSR needs to be kept separate from normal trains due to the high turbulence that the trains generate when they pass other slower moving trains - which is especially dangerous for freight. BTW, your link is broken. quote> @ShadowAssassin: I fully concur. This whole discussion sounds to me a lot like when the construction for the first newly built dedicated high-speed routes began in Germany in the 1990s. Back than, the first line was constructed between Hannover and Würzburg, enabling first intercity trains and later on ICE trainsets to go at speeds of 250 kph (155 mph). There was quite some heated discussion between abutting residential zones and of course also environmental organisations due to the immense changes this line would mean to the landscape (ie. large bridges, tunnels and cuts). One could also compare this to the plans of implementing a highspeed maglev route between Hamburg and Berlin, which ultimately was cancelled due to the connected costs. Now, unlike the maglev train, Germany meanwhile possesses a quite extensive HSR network and nobody really is complaining anymore. One of the reasons the maglev was cancelled was because a completely new network of transportation would have to be constructed. Quite the similar applies to California HSR: While the technology is still very much the same wheel-steel rail technology, the specifics of the right of way and operation still call for a completely new routing and way of constructing it. Ultimately this has to be the aspect of being critically discussed. Personally I think that the constructions necessary to take the train overland are not the aspects to be so critical about. IMHO, I would be more worried what this means to the cities. Yes, while there might be some trigger effect to the economy, it also means quite some construction dissecting the cities (ie. trenches, concrete constructions etc.). EDIT: Link fixed!

As far as I understand and also suggested by the videos is that yes the route will use existing rights of way as far as possible, ie where there are long stretches of straight track. It has never been said though that these will share track, because this would inadvertantly lead to a strong competition between slower trains and HSR. Regarding the route chosen through the coastal mountains. I think for a HSR route, the civil engineering that will be required is fairly straight forward. Here is an image from Wikipedia that shows how HSR climbs over mountains in Germany [linkie].

It may be easier and cheaper to go through flat land. However, where there is flat land, there are also many other competing uses as well. If you look at high speed rail in Germany, you will find that even quite steep grades are no problem for trains at those speeds because of the momentum.

Well, from the building part of things it looks awesome. However I think at the end of the day two aspects will decide whether this bird flies or not: The actual city simulation bit and how easy or not it will be to modify the game and add your own bits and pieces to it, since this is what SC4/RH kept alive for all these years!