ThomasSimpson

Ace of the Thirteen: Thank you! That's very kind! Forthwall: Thanks, so do I. ggamgus: Haha, well let's try. 100 was a dream to reach and I don't have a target number or anything... I'll update until I lose inspiration or can't find the time. The latter will probably happen first. Fox: Thank you my friend, that's nice of you to say. Hazani Pratama: Thanks! RepublicMaster: Yes, it's quite a milestone and at some points if you'd asked me I would never have thought I'd reach it. NMUSpidey: I don't know about that, I'm sure your cities are very nice. I didn't go all the way back to the pre-Cattala days of my Simcity work. That would make me very embarrassed! Huston: Thank you! I'm not sure which building you mean, but the first white building is the Edifcio Banmedica. The stadium is the Orwell Arena and the art gallery is an SFBT one from SC4D. I think you probably meant the white curved building, so here's a link! http://descargas.capitalsim.net/?sitio=csc&descarga=1505 Welcome back to Cattala. Today we're visiting Iralli, a suburb of Calora. Iralli is one of the larger towns that forms part of the Calora Metropolitan area, and is also where the InterCity lines from Celeste to both Calora Central and Calora Harbour divide. Therefore, it's another important railway town and is close to the M2 as well. Here's a view of Iralli from last autumn. Iralli serves predominantly as a commuter town, with little industry and some commerce basing in the town. It's prime location means it is much denser than many other dormitory towns, and resembles the urban Marcillera district of Calora more than it does neighbouring Cydonia. It is, however, home to the headquarters of the Spar group in Cattala. They weren't mentioned in our commercial update but do have a small presence in the Cattalian market, mostly in Fieranti. When they built their office they also paid for the fancy new fire station the other side of the bridge. Iralli, because of its inland location, lacks a major tourist industry but sometimes travellers from Celeste or Calora do stop in the town to visit its cafes and see the brightly-coloured apartments that line the roads in the city centre. Before the railways came, Iralli grew as a farming community clustered around the numerous streams that flow down towards the sea. Today, some have been dammed to allow for house building and most now flow into rivers that lead into Calora or towards the coast. Flooding can be a problem, especially in winter - right now, the water level is quite high. In summer, the streams will almost definitely dry up. Iralli has several Elementare schools, but only one Secondaria for all the students in the town. It was rebuilt and extended in the 1970s but is overcrowded. Many children have to travel by train or car into Calora to get to school these days, much to the frustrations of their parents. One of the few older buildings in the town is the church, which has its humble origins in the old farming village. Most of the Church's land in Iralli has been sold off - now, just the pagoda and the chapel itself remain. For many years there have been plans to build a bigger, modern church away from the town centre but none have come to fruition. To end today, a view of the town at night. I hope you enjoyed this update, and have a nice weekend!

Personally I like it a lot, and it's more of an update than I've seen from some people. It's the sort of development you expect in that region and I think you've done it very nicely. 

It's very grey - a nice colour tone for Shushtrepistaz.

ggamgus: I'm glad you liked my... slums. Forthwall: Yep, that was the idea! LoonyMan: Thanks Seth! I enjoyed making Tamer. Ace of the Thirteen: Thanks, I do tend to use more plazas in these urban environments than I do in my rural communities. SC4LOver: Thanks - it was a bit of a mix-and-match update. I'm not experienced at all with urban slum work so it was a bit of a trial. Hazani Pratama: Thank you, loyal commenter! Jesus: God wasn't either, so he decided to use less of them in the future. Hellken: Thank you, that's very kind of you to say. TayMay27: Yes, I'm looking forward to reaching triple digits! It'll be a momentous occasion. westy177: Hope they weren't too nice! I'm glad you liked them though. Huston: That wasn't part of the plan! Haha, thanks! Welcome to Cattala, and today we're doing a special update which was actually the brainchild of a random comment about Cattala's shops by a commenter in the forum section. See, you guys really do influence what I do. Welcome back to Rene, in Jennai. This neglected wasteland has benefited of late from upgrades in its railway services - although it isn't connected to the Jennai Metro, it now has more regular InterCity rail services, along the Southport branch line. This has fuelled some new development in the area. Rene's role as a transport intersection mean it has attracted commercial interest too. One of Cattala's largest supermarket stores, Tesco Rene, can be found in the borough. Tesco once dominated the Cattalian urban market, after it was granted a trading licence in the 1990s to operate in the three metropolitan areas of Celeste, Jennai and Calora. However, it has seen its market share slide sharply after a series of ethical scandals and price disputes with local suppliers. In efforts to shore up its business in Cattala, against rising local competition, they began building new homes and businesses on adjacent land to their stores, claiming to provide low cost housing for Jennai's poorest. This backfired when it emerged that Tesco's was making tidy profits off every sale. Local rivals, such as Cooperativa, have taken over the market from Tesco. Multinational rivals such as Carrefour and Auchan have made efforts to muscle in on Tesco's downwards spiral, but failed to gain licenses after public campaigns to stop the multinationals forcing out local suppliers and shops became mainstream. This small convenience store in Rene is an example of their efforts; it is a joint venture between Carrefour and Cattalian chain Rammoza. These ventures are highly restricted and limited only to Jennai and Calora. The general public have been suspicious of supermarkets since the Tesco scandal began in 2004. Efforts by regional governments to loosen the laws have been met with fierce opposition, even in cities. Rene is an example used by the anti-supermarket campaigners. Since the Tesco opened, six local shops have closed and fifteen other stores have seen profits fall by at least 33%. The last of our series of my most favourite updates is Elloria, in northern Jennai. This was one of my first opportunities to explore the woodland of rural Amosseri/Monte Calida/Jennai's borderlands, and also where I experimented with truly rural, undeveloped territory. I really like the result of this update and hope you did too. So, all ten pre-100 images are now done. That means one thing only - the next update, is the big one. I hope you all enjoyed that insight into the reasoning behind the lack of supermarket chains in Cattala. As you've seen in past updates, there's a lot of local shops and Cooperativa alone has around 400 partner shops throughout the country. Tesco's now has just six stores in Cattala, down from a peak of 32, after losing its trading licenses in Amosseri, Lessito, Roumeli and Monte Calida. Monte Calida and Lessito provincial governments were scathing of Tesco after it attempted to create 50 local shops across the provinces, and were the first to revoke its licenses in 2003 after public protests in major towns and cities throughout the country. Apologies about the lack of updates through January - my exams really did take priority and drained me of time. Unfortunately updates will continue to be in short supply probably for a while now - but I do have a very exciting plan in prospect for after we pass 100. See you then!

dubaidude303: Thank you! Ace of the Thirteen: Haha, well, we'll have to see about that. Forthwall: Thank you, that's very kind. ggamgus: Mission. Failed. No, not really - thanks! Fox: It needs a million dollars to make it a bit more affluent, that's certainly true. The update that that picture is from is number 69, so you can find that from the dropdown menu at the bottom of this update or from the links in the forum section. Huston Number One: Thank you! Huston Number Two: As I said to Ace, we'll have to see. Although, Llithustania will need to take a keener interest in Cattalian affairs before it gets to infiltrate our economy! Hazani Pratama: Thank you for two positive comments! NMUSpidey: Well looking back a lot of the big stuff was taken by the 2 year update, which was only 12 updates ago. However, I do hope you like what I've got in store for you today. A bit of a story, perhaps. SimCoug: A Cattalian would ask, what's Walmart? And thank you! ioh969: Thank you, and welcome to Cattala! Welcome back to Cattala. It's been a long, long time coming - and I've been very excited about making this update for quite a while now. Triple digits. Just... wow. To start, a mosaic from Celeste, a city that has made up 25% of the Cattala updates so far, if you include Vittoria. Please do open it in a new tab to see the full size version. 99 updates ago, we were introduced to Cattala. A small island in the Mediterranean sea, that probably ruins the boot concept of Italy. Now not so long ago I did show you that first update overview, so I won't show that to you again, but here's Calora. The original. Celeste was a focal point of early updates. The capital was a melting pot of many of my ideas - a Mediterranean vista, modern architecture and historic imperial citadels all in one. Today, the city is a bit less diverse as I've spread those styles out across the rest of the country. However, many features that originated in early Celeste are being explored and improved today, 100 updates on. As the first summer came around, the journal moved focus. South-east Lessito is the breadbasket of Cattala and was my first opportunity to explore the rural fringes of the journal. Each summer since then, I have continued to add to Lessito and now more than 14 settlements in the province. Seina was part of the triumvirate of original areas for Cattala. Alongside Calora and Jennai, it was supposed to stand out as the natural growth element of the journal. From this stage, it grew into quite a reasonable sized town over the course of 13 updates. It played a very important role in the background development of Cattala, especially the way I build my cities and the functionality of them. As well as the updates from major areas like Calora, Celeste, Seina and Lessito, numerous other places have also added up to the landmark we reach today. Jennai, the largest city, has featured seven times, whilst smaller provinces like Hellas (3) and Roumeli (1) have contributed as well. Each settlement, each community, has built up to the Cattala you see today. The Cattala of diversity; unity; individuality; similarity; history; modernism; and ultimately, contrast. This city journal has been built not just by me, but by its readers, its supporters and its partner journals. Without the inspiration I have received from dozens of other Simcity creators, there is no way that this journal would have reached where it is today. So I'd like to thank everyone who has supported, criticised, loved, loathed, commented and lurked on Cattala for the past 100 updates. For the one hundredth time, thanks for viewing Cattala and I hope to see you again very soon.

City_Master: Oh no - but Rene isn't meant to look nice! Oh well - I'll have to go find some proper slums. I'm pleased you like Santa Cecilia though. That was my first effort at a tourist resort town on the coast of Cattala. Algis: Thanks again! Vivapanda: Exactly what I think I was going for. Thank you! Darth Apple: I love your name, that's great. I'm glad you like Cattala. Welcome to Cattala, and today we're doing a special update which was actually the brainchild of a random comment about Cattala's shops by a commenter in this section. See, you guys really do influence what I do. Welcome back to Rene, in Jennai. This neglected wasteland has benefited of late from upgrades in its railway services - although it isn't connected to the Jennai Metro, it now has more regular InterCity rail services, along the Southport branch line. This has fuelled some new development in the area. Rene's role as a transport intersection mean it has attracted commercial interest too. One of Cattala's largest supermarket stores, Tesco Rene, can be found in the borough. Tesco once dominated the Cattalian urban market, after it was granted a trading licence in the 1990s to operate in the three metropolitan areas of Celeste, Jennai and Calora. However, it has seen its market share slide sharply after a series of ethical scandals and price disputes with local suppliers. In efforts to shore up its business in Cattala, against rising local competition, they began building new homes and businesses on adjacent land to their stores, claiming to provide low cost housing for Jennai's poorest. This backfired when it emerged that Tesco's was making tidy profits off every sale. Local rivals, such as Cooperativa, have taken over the market from Tesco. Multinational rivals such as Carrefour and Auchan have made efforts to muscle in on Tesco's downwards spiral, but failed to gain licenses after public campaigns to stop the multinationals forcing out local suppliers and shops became mainstream. This small convenience store in Rene is an example of their efforts; it is a joint venture between Carrefour and Cattalian chain Rammoza. These ventures are highly restricted and limited only to Jennai and Calora. The general public have been suspicious of supermarkets since the Tesco scandal began in 2004. Efforts by regional governments to loosen the laws have been met with fierce opposition, even in cities. Rene is an example used by the anti-supermarket campaigners. Since the Tesco opened, six local shops have closed and fifteen other stores have seen profits fall by at least 33%. The last of our series of my most favourite updates is Elloria, in northern Jennai. This was one of my first opportunities to explore the woodland of rural Amosseri/Monte Calida/Jennai's borderlands, and also where I experimented with truly rural, undeveloped territory. I really like the result of this update and hope you did too. So, all ten pre-100 images are now done. That means one thing only - the next update, is the big one. I hope you all enjoyed that insight into the reasoning behind the lack of supermarket chains in Cattala. As you've seen in past updates, there's a lot of local shops and Cooperativa alone has around 400 partner shops throughout the country. Tesco's now has just six stores in Cattala, down from a peak of 32, after losing its trading licenses in Amosseri, Lessito, Roumeli and Monte Calida. Monte Calida and Lessito provincial governments were scathing of Tesco after it attempted to create 50 local shops across the provinces, and were the first to revoke its licenses in 2003 after public protests in major towns and cities throughout the country. Apologies about the lack of updates through January - my exams really did take priority and drained me of time. Unfortunately updates will continue to be in short supply probably for a while now - but I do have a very exciting plan in prospect for after we pass 100. See you then!

Beautiful region, your use of pastural fields and dirt tracks is excellent!

As the others have said, lovely road network, snow creation and another great Airport shot.

Congratulations on making it to number one, and I really like this newspaper. Why do you have a minority government?

This is an amazing journal - why did I not see it before? Really superb work, and I hope to keep following it and exploring your beautiful country in the future.

SC4L0ver: Thanks! You're welcome. Hazani Pratama: Thank you very much! Forthwall: Thank you. I really like those trees. Ggamgus: Just. Thank you. dubaidude303: Thank you, I'm glad you liked the fireworks! raynev1: Thank you, that's very kind. Fox: Happy new year to you too, especially for two comments! Johan_91: Thank you. Kruness: Haha, thanks! I'm glad you liked it all. SirLegoZach: Thank you, and welcome to Cattala Sir! NMUSpidey: Well I'll never reach a million in game. I've done the centre of Celeste and at the moment the region is at around 140,000 yet Celeste is supposed to be around 300,000. But Celeste has lots of parks like your cities! Cyclone Boom: Thanks, I'm very pleased that you like it. It's always a joy to hear from new fans of Cattala, and I do hope to see what you think of today's work! Ottoh11: Thank you! It's a shame you preferred the other ones, these ones are much more flexible and actually come up on the rails automatically, whilst the other ones had to be plopped alongside. So I'll probably stick with the new ones. Efkin: Thank you Welcome to Cattala, and our first 2013 update. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Now today I'm going to show you Jennai. Of course, I haven't even begun building Jennai yet, as I explicitly said last update. So, here's some countryside outside Jennai: it's Tamer. The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted my little lie there. Tamer is in Fieranti, and is north-east of Cydonia. So... if we're in Fieranti, why did I say we were in Jennai...? Because we are. This is Rene, in Jennai. The actual city. Rene isn't the nicest part of town, that's why we're in the car with the blacked out windows today. Despite government expenditure on new housing projects to try and improve the housing stock and the lives of residents, this borough remains one of the poorest in the city. Just yesterday five men were arrested for the murder of a teenager in a gang shooting outside Rene Elementare. With government cuts beginning to bite, it seems unlikely that this part of the city will be turned around any time soon. Thank you for visiting Cattala today - perhaps next time we'll visit a nicer place? Somewhere sunny, like Santa Cecilia maybe. That would be nice.

Wow! What amazing mosaics - I really like the spooky style of the first image. Makes me want to make a military base right now!

Congratulations to Forthwall, a most excellent number one!

Very nice! I'd like to see more personally - it's a lovely town.

The Parisian style is wonderful and as others have said the W2W have worked excellently. I think a different water mod would make the coastal shots even better.

Thank you very much, it's a great privilege to be alongside such amazing City Journals. I'd like to nominate Can We Pretend that Airplanes in the Night Sky Are Like Shooting Stars? by Atlantsia for Transportation. http://community.simtropolis.com/journal/2974/entry-19415-can-we-pretend-that-airplanes-in-the-night-sky-are-like-shooting-stars/

I like the lighting a lot! And congratulations on being the most rated CJ of all time!

Wonderful city my friend!

Wow! My first ever number one - thank you to everyone who comments on Cattala! I've been wanting that one for a while, I have to admit. Thanks!

ggamgus: Thank you! Ace of the Thirteen: Thanks - that was exactly what I was going for! daybreak: Munich eh? Cattala isn't based on Germany but I'm glad it reflects not just the Mediterranean. Flavio01997: Thank you, I always like to include some nature in Cattala. RepublicMaster: Thank you again! GuildWars2: I will keep my eye out for it, thanks! Ottoh11: Yes. Except as you will see in this update, they've mysteriously changed again... Wiecher: Thank you, and I'm glad someone spotted it. hasbullah: hello, saya gembira anda suka Cattala (I think?) Hazani Pratama: Thank you for the kindness. dabadon5: Thanks! Eytan: That's interesting, quite a lot of people have said that. I personally think Vittoria is my best city, but this one was definitely one of the hardest to grow so far. Forthwall: Thank you! There's elevation change throughout the city and you can see more in today's update. It was nice to use a hilly tile this tile, rather than the flatness of Celeste. SC4L0ver: The luxury homes are R$$$ from the LBT housing pack, which can be found on the LEX (creator search LBT Team) or on SimCityCapitol, which is a Spanish site. NMUSpidey: Thank you very much, that's very kind of you. I think it's a combination of the original Calora, some of my rural works and the knowledge I gained from Vittoria. It's a Mediterranean sprawl equivalent of Vittoria, actually. And I needed good roads to make the city work paeng: Wow, thank you for commenting! I've followed your journeys for a while now and they are spectacular. I'm so glad you liked Cydonia. raynev1: Thank you for rating, your feedback is most valued. Efkin: Thank you! Phew that was a lot of replies. I am very grateful for all your ratings, +1s and comments. Each one is valued and it pleases me a lot to see that so many people liked Cydonia. Now on with the show! Buongiorno and Felice Anno Nuovo! Welcome back to Cattala, and today's special update from two cities. Calora and Celeste have been centrepieces of this City Journal over the past two years and 97 updates, so I thought it fitting that we see off 2012 with fireworks from both. But first, an autumnal mosaic of Cydonia. The annual fireworks displays in all three of Cattala's main cities is a rivalry that dates back for decades. Once upon a time they went to war over small things - now they fight with fireworks. Jennai always has the largest budget, but Celeste and Calora have a fierce battle over who can produce the best display with a smaller budget than the country's largest city. Alder Hill has always been a focus for Celeste's displays, but in recent years the glistening steel of Azien's skyscrapers, and its two huge stadiums, mean that many of the displays now end over the modern quarters of the capital. This year, for the first time, the Calora display will be held over the historic bay after the Church of Cattala agreed to allow fireworks near the city's cathedral. You can catch a glimpse of what has been built since the Advent update. Perhaps some suggestions about the slummy houses were listened to? The mythical Jennai has been mentioned many times over the past 97 updates - back in September 2010 I was asked when it was going to be built. I did begin building the city, home to 1 million of Cattala's 4.2 million people - in summer 2011, but abandoned it soon after. I have skirted around the city, with border towns like Santa Cecilia, Confini and Elloria, but the metropolis hasn't emerged yet. If it does get built, it will be an enormous project and perhaps it will happen once Celeste and Calora are done. Aziens is the only modern urban CBD I've built. Maybe it will turn out to be a dry run for the jewel in the crown. Thank you for reading Cattala today and I wish you all a wonderful 2013.

Fox: Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. vivapanda: Yep, Cattala's cities always go full-on for New Years celebrations. Celeste now has its own viewing platform over the coast just for these celebrations! wwetom1: Thanks! I know you like using trees a lot so I'm pleased you liked what I did with some amazing MMPs - thanks go to girafe and the VIP team for those. SimCoug: Thank you; those Girafe trees are wonderful and I love using them. Everywhere. Welcome to Cattala, and our first 2013 update. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year! Now today I'm going to show you Jennai. Of course, I haven't even begun building Jennai yet, as I explicitly said last update. So, here's some countryside outside Jennai: it's Tamer. The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted my little lie there. Tamer is in Fieranti, and is north-east of Cydonia. So... if we're in Fieranti, why did I say we were in Jennai...? Because we are. This is Rene, in Jennai. The actual city. Rene isn't the nicest part of town, that's why we're in the car with the blacked out windows today. Despite government expenditure on new housing projects to try and improve the housing stock and the lives of residents, this borough remains one of the poorest in the city. Just yesterday five men were arrested for the murder of a teenager in a gang shooting outside Rene Elementare. With government cuts beginning to bite, it seems unlikely that this part of the city will be turned around any time soon. Thank you for visiting Cattala today - perhaps next time we'll visit a nicer place? Somewhere sunny, like Santa Cecilia maybe. That would be nice.

Now that is an airport! I love all of it - your custom lotting especially. Why is that German building (SFBT police station I believe?) hanging around there though?

This is going to be fantastic... I've been waiting to see what this was and it looks incredible!

That stadium is fantastic, it fits in perfectly to what you've got around it. Wonderful!

What a superb top ten. Congratulations to all of them, every single one is a fantastic journal. To think that this quality of work, let alone the competitiveness, would still be possible with a game that is 10 years old in just over a week, is amazing. Let's wait and see what next year will hold, with the new game and whatnot. All I can say for sure is that next year's Top Ten will be even more competitive than this years.