boredtodeath

Update 9: About A Loan Unfortunately it seems that only two people got around to vote, but both wanted a loan, so a loan you got: Mayor boredtodeath decided to take out a loan for $50,000, as it had a handleable monthly fee in comparison to the city budget, but would still buy some development. Eltonville Landing has now gotten its first high-rise residental building, harbouring over 2000 people, in Central District (to the right in the picture). Mayor boredtodeath was a bit blinded by all the money in the coffers and, unfortunately for some, spent a third of it erecting a stadium in the middle. That and adding more zoning and transport soon made the loaned money disappear. Now an overview of Eltonville Landing, with some new names thrown in for different parts of the city: You can see quite a bit of zoning development in and around Poor, that has even got its own light rail service. Next time I will try and focus more on the out of Eltonville Landing development.

You have a very nice and interesting region. Good work. It does look a bit weird to have normal rail-crossings instead of overpasses over the 6-track rail. I'm suprised that nobody else has mentioned it, by zug is actually the german word for train, which is very fitting for the CJ. In fact, that's a big reason for me to check it out.

Update 8: Yellow Brick Delta The new thing now is a few additions to the rail network in Eltonville Landing and some more zoning. Here you see the first addition to the rail network. A shorter route to get from the industrial area to the small residental are in the middle of Eltonville Landing, though it is now beginning to be indistinguable from the area that creeps inwards from the coastal settings. OK, it may be time to try and start naming things so people know where things are. Feel free to suggest things or it will all be music-related. Oh, and Eltonville Landing has gotten it's first midcal facility, a large hospital, with about 500 patients and no ambulance funding... The rail has also been extended to the Eltonville/Eltonville Landing border in expectations of more people moving into the area. You can also see the State Fair in the background in this and the last picture, and also in hte last update. Meant to mention it then, but totally forgot. There has also been some zoning on the Eltonville Landing of the 4-Way Island (partly named so because it is split between four tiles). The population in Eltonville Landing has passed 20,000 after just 14 years in exsistence, which mayor boredtodeath takes as a good sign of his success. Now I feel it's a good time to take a second look at the regional view: There has been a new break-through, a third tile has been opened up for civilization, named Yellow Brick Delta, though it so far only has a few bridges, but more will come. Thanks to the two people that has already voted, but I would prefer to get some more opinions, so it will close now on thursday, and then the next update will come sometimes after that. I just first have to play a few more years or something. Because I tend to micromanage everything and tries to get roads and rails etc. as exactly as I can, it takes quite some time to go forward enough to have soemthing new interesting to show.

Update 7: Filling The Blank This time it's all Eltonville Landing. Residental, industrial anc Commercial areas are spreading as more and more people come here. Firstly, we see that there has been more industrial zoning in the previously blank area near the second power plant, and as the sims has became smarter, there is now manufacturing industries in addition to the old dirty ones, without cheating with tax codes or anything. This is what mayor boredtodeath calls progress. Here we can see the extension of the rail line down to the harbour, something I could have shown already last time, but didn't think of then. Unfortunately the passenger station near the harbour has seen very little use, so it was moved a little bit after this photo was taken (to provide easy access from the residental areas. The last image shows how more and more is built up aroud the rail line. It also shows the general view of traffic usage in Eltonville Landing. Car usage has dropped quite a bit as more and more bus stops has been added, so that there are now more people walking than driving to work. Unfortunately train and ferry ridership hasn't been quite as popular, but that will hopefully change as time goes by. And don't ask, because I have no idea about the spike in the middle of the graph. The poll from last update is still open, so please vote (at the top of the page).

General/Replies Hmm, it seems to be bad luck to try to predict a faster update, so I won't do it this time. I do however always appreciates more comments. Benedict: Thanks for the comment. I, too, like CJs that in some way grows as time gets by. It makes them seem more alive. I really like the intrigues in Ellis Valley, as I already said in a comment in your CJ, so it is a pleasure to link to you. xV.I.N.C.E.N.T.x: I'm not saying totally no to custoom things, it's just that a lot of them have dependencies, and are only eye candy. Not totally sure what you mean, but I generally put down streets when I know approximately how to zone around them and where to have gardens and stuff, then updates to roads and avenues as needed. For the railroad I obviously had to do some destruction, but that I knew from the beginning, just thought it would fit better to the story if there weren't some conveniently placed spaces, but that you had to compromise just as in real life. Also, I think this is mostly an european thing, but I like my railroad to sort of divide a town, like a river or highway, because that's how it really is like here. Update 6: Deportees / Poll For A Friend In update 6 we will take a first look at the to be city of Eltonville inlands from Eltonville Landing, and the planned centre of the region with the same name: As you can see, right now Eltonville is mostly farmland, there is, however, enough people for mayor boredtodeath to place his second house here, but this time away from the main resident. The electricity is mainly imported from Eltonville Landing (except for the mayor's mansion with its own wind power plant). And now a close-up: Here are some seasonal workers picking fruit or something. I haven't really noticed that they did it before. Things are also looking good for boredtodeath back in Eltonville Landing, the mansion is now surrounded by more and more middle and upper class houses, as it was originally visioned. The city is still making a decent profit each month, but its coffers is very empty, hindering a fast further expansion. Since mayor boredtodeath is a politician, he just wants all the glory and none of the tough decisions, therefore he has opened the first poll in this CJ. The question is simple, should Eltonville Landing take out a loan to help expansion? The poll will be open a week or so.

Hello Benedict! I've been meaning to write this for a few weeks, but haven't gotten around to do it until now. I found Ellis Valley from your sig. in some thread, and read through (almost) all of season 1 and 2 in a week. It has a tendency to draw you in, just like a real soap... One thing that I thought about was that the narrating voice felt very much like the voice-over on the TV-show "S.O.A.P.", with it also being a "parody" of soap operas. The monorail map is really beautiful, but is there any chance to see an EllisRail map?

Replies Sorry about the long wait, but I had planned to do the replies with this update, and then Sim City locked up during my rail-building phase, and I hadn't saved in a while, so I had to do it over, but it's finally time for replies and a new update. First, thanks to your comments. Appreciate it. xxbydesign: I only use the few things mentioned in the first post, and there is actually a few 'Pumpkin Acres' somewhere in there. That doesn't mean that the farms aren't repetetive, look at the left corner in the last post on the last update. About hte long roads: it's so easy to just create grids, or semi-grids, so I'm trying to build things a little more irregular and different to try and get a more spontaneous look. Not sure exactly how well it's doing... Update 5: All I Need Is Rails The first picture is actualy from before the crash, but it's very general and it was about the first thing I did. What we have here is a highly suspicious farm. Mayor boredtodeath was thinking of taking a riding lesson, but was suprised to see that Barthelet Stables, didn't have any horses, just cows. Ha calls it falls marketing. Also the mystery of the Harvester seems to continue, is this perhaps the same one that was seen near the seaport before (see update 3)??? Mayor boredtodeath gave the police some hints that they should maybe keep it under close watch instead of fighting real crime. Mayor boredtodeath did however feel better when he soon after that got at least another of his wishes granted, a rich neighbour across the street. It's not the whole neighbourhood, but at least a step in the right direction. Now to the promised first phase of the railroad in Eltonville Landing: The area to the right is old, while the area to the left of the railroad is all newly built, with midrises taking advantage of the close proximity to the train stations. The developer of the area also created a allotment gardening area, near the railroad with a pedestrian overpass for easy access, as a way to make the area more attractive and at the same time get some additional rents. On the right the area around the Farmers Market has became more of a pure business centre. As you can see the railroad is already quite popular here. Here the railroad continues to the industrial area. So far it only reaches to the power plant (which is getting near its top capacity), bbut the plans is for it to reach all the way to the harbour, but for that it needs some more road abandonment or costly demolishing. Eltonville landing is generally getting less and less rural, not only rail, but also road overpasses and roundabouts. I guess it is only time before the first avenue comes. Is it just me or does the elevated normal rail (to the left) look really pretty and british? Finally a general overview of the rail line: In the graph can you see the average educational level, mayor boredtodeath likes to think of his sims as at least somewhat educated, because of the two grade school. That's all for this time, and the next update will with any luck be faster, and may just have a hospital.

Update 4: My religious sims I played the city some more yesterday evening, so it's time for another update. The sims does primarly expand their housings along the coastline, causing another population increase, and a plead to mayor boredtodeath for a second church, and who can say no to the cute little people: While the city coffers is dropping, due to ever more expansion, mayor boredtodeath is not worried, because Eltonville Landing is raking in more than $1000 each month, even with the newly added busstops, designed to take some of the load off the roads: There are a few jammed spots left, but it will soon be taken care of: The region inland of Eltonville Harbour, simply called Eltonville, has just started with a few farms. No pictures now though, maybe next time if I find it any interesting. Eltonville landing now also has a minimal landfill, and a population close to 10,000. The city is currently working out the best plan on how to build a railway in order to best complement the roads, buses, and ferries. At least a first phase will be seen in the next update.

Update 3: International Harvester First the shot that inspired the title: This harvester stood in an industrial yard near the harbour, now at least 20-30 squared from the nearest farm. What was it doing there, I don't know. Maybe a farmer needed some spare parts from a factory or something. Mayor boredtodeath has given permission to shoot Eltonville's first movie, a remake of Speed 2: No, seriously, its just a beauty shot of the newly started ferry service, and at least the two stations in the middle see quite a bit of usage: As you can see, Eltonville has now gotten its first tenemant buildings. And yes, roboo1, more roads. Things are changing. Eltonville Landing is indeed growing, and has gotten elementary schools, watered buildings, a second firestation, lighthouse and some police coverage. The sims also seems happy about my health coverage, though there are no hospitals or clinics yet. And agnostic mayor boredtodeath even granted free land to a church and a cementary, although grudgingly. But what can you do when your sims are demanding it... Next time Eltonville Landing will get its first neighbour connection and it might be time to start looking into the increasing amount of garbage. Perhaps also a bit of rail. 'Till then, have a good time.

Replies/Update 2.5 Thanks for all the replies. nihonkaranws and generally about custom content: Yes, SAM is the only thing seen, but more traffic-related modds will be seen as the population increases. Also, everyone has different expectations from a CJ, I'm not here to showcase how beautiful a city can be (there are a lot of other CJs for this, and they can in my opinion be a bit boring), but instead to follow the dynamic changes from unoccupied to well, we'll just have to see. I don't really see any need for water modds or more varied buildings, no offence to anyone. TimeMaster: Thanks for remembering. You shound like a harsh mayor. I like to give my sims what they want, within budget constrains, and see my popularity increase.... Anyway, Eltonville has done well, and mayor boredtodeath's ads for more immigrants, has led to a population of nearly 3000 and the monthly income now being positive after llittle more than two years, so the little sims has gotten thier beloved fire station, and water is just around the corner. There are also two new living areas, one for easy access to the farms: That is all for now, next time will be a real update.

deathtopumpkins: Sorry if I came off as rude. That wasn't my intention. And PM defently deserves respect for this CJ. I guess it was just that it didn't look like what I associate with maglev. In my opinion the default Monorail-tracks looks much more like how I see maglev than what the HSRP does. It also looked like the tracks went from one system to another in the transfer system, but I guess that could very well be a hastened conclusion on my part. About maglevs in the real-world, so does wikipedia list the Hampton Roads project as under construction. They also mentions a commercial line in Japan, Tobu Kyuryo Line, but it has a line speed of 100km/h (~60MPH), that I haven't heard about before, and which opened one year after the Shanghai line. All other completed lines mentioned are, at least formally, called as test tracks. Maglev has gotten quite a lot of press, and has sometimes been one of several alternatives, but it hasn't really taken off commercially yet. Well, I can pretend that it is a maglev, it just helps to suspend ones disbelief by actually stating that we should interpret it as something other than what it looks like. If I call a street for an interstate highway, then it helps if I tells people that they have to pretend that it is an interstate, because otherwise they may think that I made a mistake or something. Well, rants over, and I guess we just saw it from two different angles.

Nice to be back in Franklin instead of in outer space, Patricius Maximus! Especially for a transportation geek like me. I highly doubt that the HSRP is a maglev. Maglevs are usually founded upon monorail "designs", and I think that a grade-crossing with just about any monorail-based system would be impossible (because of the distance between when the rail stops and where the road can begin and probably a lot of other factors). What makes maglev special is that it floats above the monorail, instead of resting on it, like conventional monorail systems. All mentions of maglev that I've seen, assumes that maglev trains can't run on conventional rail, and sees this as one major drawback of the system. If anyonw had constructed a functional way to switch from maglev to conventional rail, then it would have been more known. Maglevs don't need wheels, and has magnets underneath, and generally don't have a motor (it's in the rail instead), which will make it very complicated to even construct a train that can use both maglev and conventional rails. The only commercial maglev in the world, is the line from Shanghai airport to downtown. The well-known high-speed lines in countries like France, Japan and Spain are on conventional rails, but newly built routes with fewer curves (trains have to slow down in tighter curves) and instead more gradient differences, and is normally designed with only passenger trains in mind. See the following Wikipedia links for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_levitation_train http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monorail

Update 2: Now with Mayor's House About a year has passed since the first pictures, and the population has grown from 125 to 1500. The town has gotten a small bit of paved road, the demand for power increased past the limits of what a windmill produced, so mayor boredtodeath decided that an upgrade was needed and now there is an ugly coal power plant instead. Eltonville Landing has also gotten its fiirst few commercial buildings since the last time and one farm has already been converted into dirty industries (expect many more farms to relocate during the life of this CJ, as the demand for city land increases). In the first picture, you can unsuprisingly see that most of the immigrants are young people looking for a better life: Now a bit more overview: As you can see, Eltonville Landing's income is in the red. In fact it has been red since the first day, thanks to the $500/month harbour maintance, although it is steadily getting closer to breaking even point, but then again, soon people will start to demand fire stations and schools and water. Mayor boredtodeath has in addition to running the town also been busy constructing his very own beachside mansion, in order to life the good life, as seen below: He is however starting to regret putting a public beach so close to his home. He thought it would help the land value and getting rich neighbours, but alas it only seems to bring a lot of uninvited guests, and he can't even take a solitary morning swim. I know it's just early in the growth-phase, and therefore maybe not so beautiful or interesting yet, but feel free to comment.

Update 1: Introduction Welcome to Eltonville. It is a semi-fictionous landmass somewhere on the earth. I like to think in western Canada. Anyway mayor boredtodeath made a deal with the government in question, that allowed him to develop a country in an isolated and uninhabited part of the country, but is not allowed to have a military presence in the land. He did get a garantee that the country in question would preotect Eltonville. The first thing built was a harbour, in order to allow goods and people to get to and from Eltonville. The tax rate was set to 8% uniformly, and Eltonville has generous immigration rules, in order to attract some citizens and business. I think it is time for the regional view now: As you can see it consists of four big tiles. The harbour is in Eltonville Landing. The land is basically terraformed to my satisfaction, using only the in-game god mode. Here is a close-up on Eltonville Landing: It has just been started up, noone has had time to put pavement on the streets yet, and the buildings have sort of been placed haphazardly (Eltonville has no building/zoning restrictions, at least not yet). Beacause of the limited contact with the outside world, Eltonville's farms produce most food necessary to keep the small town alive. Expect Eltonville Landing to grow a bit untill the next update.

This is mostly a placeholder, as I might want to add some sort of index or similar if the CJ takes off. Modds & similar in use: NAM April 2008 Rural Highway Mod Street Addon Mod v3 Roadtop Mass Transit v3.50 Interurban Station (railroad station placed on top of the tracks) Freight Station Mod (enables trucks to pick up goods from freight stations, mostly useful when you wants goods to go from rail to seaport) The CJ will not be the most beautiful, but will instead focus on the growth of a region, nad the fun of building a good transportation system. I have just recently started to use the modds above. I am not interested in comments like, "you need more STEX buildings", because I don't really care about how the buildings look like, and is more or less satisfied with the Maxis ones. I am however interested in: GLR stations, that can sit on a normal GLR piece (RTMT only has a GLR-on-avenue station) Preferably items that have no or at least little dependencies (preferable none outside ST). Other realistic traffic/utility-modds might also be of interest. Read the next post for an introduction.