Araynon

Greetings and welcome to my second City Journal. Unlike the first, this is a real region using Screwballl's Toronto map from the MEX. (I was originally going to use the other Toronto map, but found it a bit too large for my purposes.) I call it Neo-Toronto because I'm not going to attempt to recreate the real city; I'm using the terrain, and I might recreate some specific sections of the city, but by and large it's going to be a custom city that develops on its own, piece by piece as I play. I'm using a mod setup very similar to that which I used in Burksville - the same transit bugfix and pathfinding mods, but no speed or capacity change mods. A lot of custom busses, custom trains, custom bus stations and whatnot should add to the graphical diversity. I've removed most other custom lots from my game to unclutter my menus, and will slowly add some of them back in on an as-needed basis. I haven't yet begun building any cities in the region, so all I have to show at the moment is a region view. That said, here it is. I'm using the water colour graphic mod and the snow-capped mountain mod (though Toronto has no mountains, so that won't play into this region at all). And finally, yes, the region name shows as Toronto. I took the screenshot before renaming it. I actually have Toronto as it is here, and a (currently) identical region named Neo-Toronto; I'm running a very slow computer and it took hours to convert the MEX region image into a playable region, not to mention all the time fixing the river paths, so I'm keeping Toronto as a backup so I don't have to do it again any time soon. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/2.gif' border='0>

Here's the sat view of the region. Most development has centred around the Donburgh and Parkvale areas for the past few days. Parkvale in particular is becoming a great place to live, although the industry there is likely to contribute to the region's resemblance to the real Toronto - it's gonna pollute the Don River something fierce.

Yet another quickie update. I've worked on a few areas of the map lately and started another few cities in the region. Today I share the transit map; there have been some significant upgrades to the network of late. Sadly it looks like I may have to abandon the river ferry idea, though I haven't given up all hope yet. The rivers may be just too small for the ferry terminals to work properly. I could terraform them to be larger, but I don't know. I will have to see. The highway system is roughly following the path of Lakeshore Blvd. and the Don Valley Parkway, though in keeping with the theme of the city, I'm making no attempt to be 100% accurate. The majority of the system is ground level highway, whereas the real life highways are elevated, and there are variations in location as well; the real DVP follows the river more closely, if I remember correctly. The regional population is growing considerably, as you can see. Centreville is up to almost 30,000, and Parkland Bay is approaching 20,000.

A quick update with pictures this time! I'm working on another full update for later, too. Growth in Centreville is phenomenal, for me at least. My glacial play style has not left me accustomed to having cities of 20,000 in 40 in-game years... heh. I've got a lot of mid-size tower apartment complexes, and transit is going through some growing pains, but the new Neo-Toronto LRT subway is growing at a rapid pace (as the budget allows), and has just barely surpassed the 'ol reliable bus system for usage. I started the LRT line when two large buildings were constructed at East Point with over 2000 sims each, and the bus stations in the area went red in protest. (not literal protest, of course. I'm being metaphorical.) This is a screenshot of the subway line at East Point (partially hidden, sorry) and transit usage when the LRT was almost brand new and consisted of only 3 stations. It's now a lot closer to the year 40 than 26, and the NTLRT services the vast majority of the developed areas of Centre Island. As you can see my budget is quite thin; I am making money steadily, but the slow pace has made LRT expansion a slow process. Also of note in this shot: Industrial demand is actually fairly high, but only for I-HT. Dirty and Manufacturing don't seem to like it here so much anymore. Since this isn't a full update, I don't yet have a full set of shots to show off Parkland Bay. I did however notice something I'd been waiting for; a BAT-created Wendys location opened up! Yes, I'm easily excited. heheh. It's a growable lot, not ploppable, which makes me quite happy. More shots of Parkland Bay and the rest of Neo-Toronto to come.

Just to let folks know, I haven't forgotten this; I'm still actively working on the region. Centreville's population is getting close to 15,000 now on its own, with more in surrounding regions. I haven't updated in a while because I'm in the process of upgrading to a new machine which will run SC4 a lot faster than what I've been using up till now. Updates hopefully soon!

---------------- On 2/15/2004 3:04:21 AM zeke12 wrote: I'm just saying, if you see something that needs fixing, and you can't afford it, god will not strike you down if you cheat. .... Nope. Didn't happen. ---------------- Heh, maybe not, but it isn't god I worry about - it's myself. I've found no need so far to cheat anyway, so it's pretty much a non-issue for now. Minor update: Centreville's population has passed the 5,000 mark and progress continues. Updates later, perhaps tonight.

---------------- On 2/15/2004 12:59:12 AM zeke12 wrote: I can see a nice city sprouting up. Don't be afraid to use cheats if you have to! ---------------- Nah, not in this one. Burksville, maybe, I would have as it was a sandbox... cheats shouldn't be necessary at all for this though, unless you count the transit bugfix and pathfinding mods. The way I see it, I already started at Easy difficulty, so I really have no excuse for cheating, and it would kill the sense of accomplishment for me.

---------------- On 2/15/2004 1:47:06 AM wraith90 wrote: This is an amazing region. I like how you started it on an island. Keep up the great work. I'll be following this one. Oh, by the way I don't know if you have noticed or not by know but you car ferry isn't connected to your avenue. You have to connect it with roads.---------------- Really? Doesn't appear to have affected ridership any... three of the four ferry terminals in that city are adjacent to avenues and they all get pretty extensive use. I'll keep an eye on it though, just in case. Thanks for the feedback, folks! Part two sometime soon, tomorrow hopefully.

Okay, time for part one of my update. Part 2 will be later when I collect some decent images of other areas of my region. As you can see, my population is still quite low. This suits me quite fine though, I rather like the slow pace and growth, the buildup of neighborhoods and watching them unfold. Let's focus in on Centreville again for a bit. This gives a much clearer idea of the shape of the region and the direction I'm going with it, but you can't see a lot of detail here so I'll focus in a bit on the highlights. Comparing this to the earlier shot of the same area shows a lot of changes; the wealth of the area has increased considerably, there are mansions popping up in many locations. The addition of a water system helps there, as does the hospital, located where the unused parking garage was. I'm building this area up as a sort of principle commercial zone for the island, with others planned or already laid out. This is the eastern-most end of the island and features the passenger-only ferry terminal which links to the industrial area on the mainland and also with the city of Parkland Bay to the west. Another commercial centre is in place around the avenue to the terminal, though it's only very recently built and therefore still undeveloped. I'm still not sure exactly what those two busses think they're doing in that intersection... took quite a while for the traffic mess that caused to clear up. We've been east, so let's go west to the spiritual heart of Centreville. The local house of worship can be found here, as can the graveyard. I have it on good authority from one of MySims that odd things happen there at night, though I have not yet checked it out for myself. That's about it for the island, at the moment. The industrial heart of Centreville, located across South Bay on the mainland. Here you see both ferry terminals, the avenue intersection, and just to the north, the Centreville segment of Parkland Bay's rail system. As you can see, I've started playing with terraforming in a more precise manner - I didn't want to stick a rail crossing on the avenue, so I dug the rail line under it. It's easier than I thought, just takes a bit of practice I suppose. That's it for this time, folks. As always, comments, questions, opinions, constructive criticism is always welcome. Next time I'll show some of Parkland Bay to the west, and Yorkfield to the north. I'll also get some screenshots of my transit stats; pedestrian and bus traffic dominate in all regions, just as they did in Burksville, and ferry traffic is giving car traffic a run for its money too. Rail isn't seeing a LOT of use yet, primarily because it's competing with the ferry I guess, and it's slower than the ferries according to the transit speed tests I've been reading in other forums.