Terring

A special city for a special friend. Coming soon in my CJ.

Why?

I really, really, REALLY hope that what happened was that Cori had a huge mental outburst and now she's taking her time to relax. I really hope it was words of the moment and that she'll be back. Simtropolis without Cori's enthusiasm and friendliness will not be the same again

@carlosmarcelo, @edaramx, @kschmidt, @mitsos, @TheMurderousCricket, @TogaMasterJohn, @whiteshark365, @Chappington, @Tarkus, @TG24, @Dead_End, @hugues aroux and @Golan0, thank you very much for your comments, like and follows I've been busy with my post-graduation studies and exams. Now that the exams are over (and I've passed all of the classes ), it's finally time for those night pictures. I even replaced the blue lights of @Kodlovag's Uniform Street Light Mod with red. If you have ever been on an astroparty, where many astronomers gather together to enjoy the night sky, you might have noticed that they use red light instead of white. This is because red light helps with maintaining night vision, the ability of our eyes to see better in night. Colored lights are anti-glare and still serve the purpose of night lighting very well. Yellow, red and amber lights can reduce the negative effects of lighting during the night because they don’t affect night time vision. On the other hand, blue-rich white light sources are known to increase glare and compromise human vision, especially in the aging eye. These lights create potential road safety problems for motorists and pedestrians alike. In natural settings, blue light at night has been shown to adversely affect wildlife behavior and reproduction, particularly in cities, which are often stopover points for migratory species. Outdoor lighting with strong blue content is likely to worsen skyglow, because it has a significantly larger geographic reach than lighting consisting of less blue. However I have a mod that adds lots of trees in my main roads and comes with its own white colored street lights, which is not exactly what I want to keep light pollution low. I'll see what I can do. So, behold! Olivia-4 in night! Most futuristic visions and sci-fi stories picture a very bright future, full of cool but unnecessary neon lights just for decoration, and excessive holographic ads everywhere you can look. In fact, the city lights of the future will be so bright and many that there will be no night at all. Just a nightmarish landscape of light pollution. But obviously we're not talking about this kind of future here. Instead, we have fewer lights in places that are actually useful, without being overly bright, and without all those ads ruining the night. Futuristic decorative lights are still here. They're just fewer and more cool. When I make night pictures and landscapes, I always try to make them look cozy and safe to walk around and enjoy the moment. There are just enough lights to let you see where you're going and just enough darkness to lose yourself into the moment and your thoughts. Nobody is hiding in the shadows to attack you, you have no reasons to wake up early, nothing to worry about. Just enjoy the silence and the stars and be one with the night. This however doesn't mean that you can't have some activities during night. The machines in factories are still working, robots and drones are still maintaining the town, the automatic transportation systems are still working, and the central AI is still monitoring the town to find any problems to fix. There is still some action but mostly from our synthetic assistants. Because of this, live is still active even in night, although not like during day. There is still activity in night, but way more relaxed... unlike cities like Las Vegas where you feel there is no night anymore. People in Olivia-4 can still play sports, have some parties, read books (both physical and digital), get food from the vertical farm, swim in the pond etc. You can even have children in playgrounds even as late as 3:00 am! Holy cow, what's this? Ghosts and zombies? Is this the result of crazy scientific experiments? Nah, it's just kids playing around with holographic ghosts and robotic zombies. They're just too impatient to wait for Halloween But Olivia-4 is not only the town itself. It's also the natural landscape around it. Beyond the civilization, your wild part awaits you. You can explore the wilderness, listen to the owls and enjoy the night sky. Just try not to trip over any logs or wake up any hungry bear. Oh, and please ignore this unnecessarily bright bridge. I didn't give access to electricity to those ATEX pieces, and yet they're still illuminated. Don't know why For the next entry I'll try something different. Two small towns instead of one. So small that it's better to have them in one entry instead of two different ones. See you there

@TogaMasterJohn, @franyer and @carlosmarcelo, thank you for your comments, likes and follows Are you ready for more than 80 pictures of a futuristic, eco-friendly town? Well, ready or not, here they come Olivia-4 (a very solarpunk name, don't you think? ) is south of octagon-shaped Hazelfield, closer to the main river of the region. Here is Olivia-4 from high above. Let's get a little closer. Olivia-4 is mostly a bedroom community, with lots of houses, some shops and offices, and only a few factories. It's also next to a valley that leads to the Fairview's main river, and the only town that the regional magnetic railroad doesn't cross it entirely. See the train leaving the town? This is the only picture that shows the train. Let's have a closer look at this town. This area houses the Olivia-4's college and a small pond that works as a water source as well. It's also the only area of this town that the regional magnetic railroad crosses. Here is the main bulk of Olivia-4 which houses most of the town's necessary facilities, such as the hospital and the power plants. Wait, power plants? Where are they? They're just in front of you and we're going to visit them soon. The southern area holds the graveyard, the local market and important cultural structures. Time to explore Olivia-4, and there is no better way to start our tour... by visiting the town's power source Any town we've been visited so far has a big, central power plant outside of them, such as a big thermal plant or a big wind turbine. Olivia-4 uses a different strategy. It utilizes wind energy, but instead of using big, industrial-scale wind turbines, this town generates its power by smaller, tree-like structures build in the town center. Those structures hold wind micro-turbines with vertical blades on their branches, which are silent, durable, and can exploit even the slightest of breezes and turbulent winds from any direction (and source, even from the passing cars), allowing them to transform all strengths of wind into green electricity. And yes, this technology already exists. Since those wind turbines are placed across the east-west main road, this road has been named "Aiolos Road", named after the ancient Greek god of the winds. "Windy Road" was also a good suggestion, but it was also a bit too mainstream and predictable. While this tower is not the water source of the town, it cleans it by using various techniques, such as nano-scale filters. Notice that this tower was made not by brand new materials fresh from the factory, but by reused materials which otherwise could have ended up to the nearest landfill as waste. This is actually a good example of upcycling, a form of recycling where instead of transforming waste into new materials, you can take a product that you would otherwise throw away and give it a new use in life. For instance, why spend resources and energy to recycle an old bottle, when you can just paint it and turn it into a beautiful vase for your plants? Recycling, upcycling and reusing are some of the most important parts of a circular economy, an economic model that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible, to the point of having no waste anymore. Sounds "utopic" but it's possible. If there are no waste materials in Nature, why our technological civilization should have them? Speaking about recycling, next to the tower we'll find a specialized waste collection system that eliminates the need for garbage trucks by using underground tunnels and flying robots, just like what we saw on Everret Green. If you have something that you just can't reuse it, you can still bring it to those automatic "waste" collectors. By using underground pneumatic conveyors for the smaller and lighter materials, and flying ion-engine drones for the bigger and heavier ones, this system ensures cleanliness, safety, space and energy savings, while increasing waste sorting and recycling, obsoleting garbage trucks, and minimizing odors, pests and emissions related to waste collection. Why having the utilities far away, when you can have them right in the middle of the town? Here are the police and fire stations that keep the town safe and free from problems. Here is Olivia-4's clinic, with underground garage and extra rooms. Behind the police station and the clinic we'll find the primary and secondary school, as well as the library of the town. We'll also find a playground for both indoor and outdoor games and activities. Good weather? Get out and enjoy the Sun. Bad weather? Get in the pyramid shaped dome to be protected from the elements. Something for everyone and every time. On the other site of the town you'll find the town college, surrounded by student homes and larger houses. The college is next to a tranquil pond, which also acts as the water source of the town. There is also a small park close to it, surrounded by tall trees and only accessible by those paths. Those paths are for walking and cycling, hands down the most eco-friendly ways to move around. And just like in every town, Olivia-4 also have cycle paths under the main magnetic railroad. Of course you'll still have access to buses, underground pods and the magnetic train. Speaking about roads and transportation, you might have noticed a wavy street crossing the town. This was my attempt to create a road with chicanes as a mean to slow traffic for safety. Chicanes are usually installed in the form of plantings, built into roads near schools and inside residential neighborhoods. Those chicane narrow the road and create a tight curve on an otherwise straight road, forcing drivers to slow down and pay attention to oncoming traffic. And yes, we're in the future and most cars are autonomous, self-driving. But some people just prefer manual driving for various reasons. What I was trying to build was something like this: But the result was this: Here is the vertical farm of Olivia-4. A vertical farm like this one can produce far more food than a traditional farm, while using far less land, water and energy, having a far less environmental impact, and it can be constructed even right in the middle of big cities, and provide fast and direct access to fresh food for everybody. This one has a farmer's market next to it, to make food even more accessible. And yes, this is a small skyscraper in a small town. Oh my goodness, a tall building in a small town right next to wilderness. This is so unrealistic However, some people prefer to cultivate their own food from their houses, either by home gardens or by advanced greenhouses and hydroponic tower farms. There is also the option of neighborhood farms. Small areas dedicated to grow food for everybody living next to them. But wait a minute. Can a small area feed so many people? If you increase its space efficiency by growing more plants in the same area, it's possible. One way is by hugelkulturs, which are no-dig raised beds that hold moisture, build fertility, maximize surface volume, and are great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs. Another way is the 3 sisters gardening, a planting technique developed by Native Americans where they would plant corn, bean and squash crops close to each other. The corn provides a structure for the beans to climb, the beans give nitrogen to the soil, and squash spreads on the ground to prevent weeds from growing. Of course technological ideas such as hydroponics and genetic engineering are always awesome, but sometimes the best ideas are the simplest Speaking about technology, you know we're into the future, right? And one of the most futuristic ideas is having an AI managing the city instead of an organic mayor. Obviously we don't talk about evil AIs that want to control mankind, but a network of computers that collect data, monitor the city, provides vital information to the citizens, and solve problems immediately when they occur. We need factories to produce whatever we need, but those factories doesn't have to be nasty machines that devour resources and human lives in exchange of pollution and consumerism trash. All factories here uses robots and automatic systems to keep working 24/7 without the need of human presence, and they're also equipped with anti-polluting protocols and technologies that either totally prevent or eliminate any type of pollution hey could emit. Then those products become available to the stores across the main roads. OK, I know that many mayors tend to have their commercial and residential zones right next to each other, but this is something that I never liked. In these cases, I always separate my zones with something, such as parks and trees, at least one tile wide. This has nothing to do with the CJ. It's just my way of playing We're material beings and we have material needs, such as food and clothes. But we're also spiritual beings and we have spiritual needs as well, such as peace, respect and friendship. And the future is not only about high technology, but also high living standards and ideals. Not far away from the central AI we'll find the Temple of Peace, the Statue of Friendship, and the Dome of Dialogue. In those sanctuaries of the mind and spirit, nobody is rejected. Christians and Muslims, lefts and rights, Americans and Mexicans, Greeks and Turkeys, Pakistanis and Indians, Chinese and Japanese, Ukrainians and Russians, gays and straights, blacks and whites, everybody is welcomed here to talk, to disguise, to share ideas, to agree, to disagree, to politely argue, to come with agreements, to discover each other, to respect each other. We're all brothers and sisters, children of Mother Earth, and any war in between us for any reason should be considered as civil war. "The old appeals to racial, sexual, religious chauvinism and to rabid nationalist fervor are beginning not to work. A new consciousness is developing, which sees the Earth as a single organism, and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet." Carl Sagan And of course we can't ignore the Martian-styled graveyard of Olivia-4, which is (at least for now) the only place that the people can meet eternal peace. And since we're here, let's have a look at this area. Initially, the only ways to access Fairview were a regional road, a regional magnetic railroad and by underground pods. But now that Fairview has been developed a bit more, it's time to introduce a new way to visit the region. Olivia-4 is officially the first town with a vertiport, a facility specialized for Vertical Take Over and Land (VTOL) aircrafts. This vertiport comes with a air terminal, a maintenance facility, a service center, and even a small hotel, and the aircrafts it services are either electric or hydrogen fueled. We're in the future, so of course we'll have futuristic VTOL aircrafts The vertiport is a vital part for the transportation system of Fairview, since it's the fastest way to transport people and cargo right in the middle of the region. But since it's next to a valley, there was a need for shortcut to avoid taking the long way all around. Building road bridges could heavily disrupt the landscape, so it was out of question. Instead, engineers and robot builders construct a tunnel-bridge for the flexible underground pods, which was designed to have its environmental impact as low as possible. Even its pillars have been covered by rocks to reduce aesthetic pollution and restore any damage produced by its construction. However, there have been reports for animals climbing on the tunnel-bridge and using it to cross the valley easier than ever. So, the engineers had to cover the tunnel-bridge with a rough panel that allows the animals to grip on it, preventing them from falling from deadly heights. And yes, I know it's possible to make the base transparent, but I was too lazy to even give it a try While it's not the only town with access to water, Olivia-4 is the first that has reached the main river of Fairview by this valley. Despite the tunnel-bridge, the valley has not been disrupted too much. It's a great place to see wild animals, watch the buzzers flying around, enjoy the flowers and let your soul be one with Nature. And just like any town in Fairview, Olivia-4 is also surrounded by green space of wilderness, which is also utilized for recreational activities with the construction of mini parks and watchtowers. The aim of the outermost perimeter is to bridge nature with civilization, while providing free space for the animals to move and immigrate. Here you can smell the flower, have your breakfast, befriend with deer and foxes, watch the butterflies sharing the same skies with futuristic aircrafts, and enjoy the view of the valley. And here the tour on Olivia-4 comes to the end. Next time we'll see the town in night. See you there

This is the saddest thing with this. You never know when it will be the last time you see somebody In a more futuristic mood, Craiyon (originally DALL-E mini) is an AI system that can create images from a description in natural language. Put "SimCity" and you'll get SimCity 3000 with NAM

That sucks, and it's a very nice city I too hope you're gonna make a Eureka 2

No, the project is not dead. I'm just very busy right now with my postgraduate studies and exams. I'm not saying that I'm going to put the project on hold, but that the updates will not be as often as I'd like to. Right now I'm updating the stage 3 CO$$$ lots, which will have only Maxis buildings but heavily futurized. Here is a small taste, with domes, arrays and green roofs. More hopefully soon.

RIP, Vangelis

Vangelis Papathanasiou, Oscar-winning composer and my all-time favorite musician, passes away at the age of 79 by COVID-19 RIP, Vangelis

@TheMurderousCricket: And this is why teleworking rules

More in my CJ

More in my CJ

Very beautiful pictures. The last one is my favorite

Thank you for all your comments, folks The logs and branches buried under the beds act like a sponge. Rainwater is stored and then released during drier times. Actually you may never need to water the hugel bed again after the first year, except during long term droughts. We have speed bumps in Greece too, usually next to schools. This city, as well as most of the cities in Fairview, required some time to be designed and constructed. If we also add the time I needed for researching about new ideas and technologies to introduce in my cities, the amount of detailing I want to add in my cities (like lots of MMP work), various real life stuff like my post-graduation studies (and the fact that I'm a little lazy ), that's a lot of time. I guess you can say that I spend many days doing this city

I'm attending a season of ΙΤ courses for unemployed people with the ultimate goal of finding a job from this process. We're learning programming, making data bases... and Photoshop! That's right, I'm finally learning how to play with Photoshop These are my very first pictures, after playing around with filters, liquify and mixing photos together. Of course this is just the beginning, but I can't wait to use all those new knowledge in my upcoming pictures of my cities of the future

I recently made two banners for my Welcome to Fairview CJ with the valuable help of my sister. I used a cool NASA style font I found here, a futuristic ball I found here, and two beautiful images of Fluttershy and Princess Luna made by Russian artist RacoonKun. Yes, he gave me his permission for as long as I indicate his authorship. What do you think?

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" Mario Savio, 1964

Klaus Schulze, ex member of the Tangerine Dream and electronic music pioneer, has passed away on April 26, 2022 at the age of 74 after a long disease but all of a sudden

I think your Sims play too much GTA

Thanks, I'll check it out

Very nice. Where did you find those dark grey buildings? I've been searching for them.

My Fairview region of my CJ has right now 5 small cities and a main magnetic railroad that is expanded to future city sites. I have plans of buildings more cities and using MMPs to customize the untouched areas. Pictures of my new city are coming soon. And I've just discovered that Fairview could easily support 4X4 city tiles. If only I knew that earlier. That could have had made my CJ easier and more interesting, but it could have also had removed the fun and the challenge of making my green cities.