ScarcticCG

Allow me to throw my point of view in to the ring, as somebody who's been playing SC4 for moderate bursts of time over the past 5 or so years. As somebody who's been playing Sim City since I saw my old friend playing Sim City 3000 on his amazing Windows 98 rig, there's always been one way or another that I've played the games. Usually these are 'arcade' style and 'Utopian' style. 'Arcade style' as I've always called it, is when you build a city as fast as you possibly can with a clear goal: Get your city as big as possible. The result is a heartless, yet impressive city that is functional without braking any bounderies or pushing any envelopes. Essentially, you're building an ungodly mass of skyscrapers., and in its own right it can be beautiful. The other style, 'Utopian style' as I've been calling it for the past year and a half or so (i.e. when I found the Simtropolis community) is when you strive to make the most awe inspiring and lively city possible. There are no goals, with the only rules being set by your own limitations. You envision a city; perhaps a great pinacle of modern engineering, an industrial smog filled hell hole, perhaps even a real city that you know; and then you build it. Now, you could just paint a city to much the same effect, however SimCity offers something different. It offers you the opportunity to build as close to as possible a living, breating masterpiece of a city as you can get. It is, if you like, a blank canvas for the artist to create his vision. And unlike a painting, the city will respond to your actions; it allows you to create something truley realistic; a city built both on vision and real demands. This isn't to say that it doesn't come with flaws: Every city needs a power station of some sort, you have thousands of people living in what in real life would be horribly cramped conditions (12 people living in a bungalo?), the air will become polluted with even the slightest hint of smoke. But even then your cities will still be living, breathing creations. And when you are done either creating your mass of skyscrapers, or your perfect masterpiece, you can breath it in. You can explore your city. You can almost feel the life in your city. And of course, you can destroy it with a meteor shower, much like how a child smiles as he watches the tide destroy his perfect sandcastle. Usually, I'll get bored of SimCity for a while, only to have my imagination sparked by the world around me; I could be traveling or watching a film, and see a city that makes minds' my jaw drop. And I'll always come crawling back, ready to fire up the canvass again and to draw my latest work of art. Now, that's enough artsy fartsy talk for one day... It's starting to make my head hurt...

Originally posted by: EpsilonIV Yeah I got the fever to build up some kind of mega city today, so I just installed in on my W7 64bit system, and runs pretty good. I was hoping on downloading a bunch of crap too, but at those speeds I probably wont get anything.quote> Haha, me too. I was watching They Live, and just got the sudden urge to build the ultimate utopian nightmare I'm thinking lots of open space, large white skyscrapers, plenty of modern mass transit and of course, the staple for any utopian nightmare, plenty of suburbs! Here's hoping I don't get bored half way through like last time!

Originally posted by: EpsilonIV**They said its slow right now because its a high traffic time and its just a busy day for some reason.quote> I suppose that makes sense, but I've been having these problems since yesterday :/ I'm sure It'll all be sorted out soon though; at least before my SC4 fever goes away!

Originally posted by: EpsilonIV If the problem is related to the website then they will have to fix this, but all I can suggest to you is maybe use different browsers, if you have any. If this doesn't work then it may be something on your end in which I suggest clearing your cache and cookies, then try try again! (If you are still having trouble or have tried all of these, it may be your router settings, or how your computer treats the incoming data, then you'd have to fix that, system info? IF none of the above works for you.)quote> Well, I've tried all of the obvious technical options as deleting cookies and cashe, so I'm pretty sure it isn't a fault on my end. This is entirely unique to this website though; I can download anything else from any other website without any trouble, but on here it either goe excruciatingly slowlly (about 10 kb/s) or usually it doesn't move at all. I never had this problem back when I had a collosal plugin folder, so I'm not sure if it's something that's started happening recently or not...

It's been a while since I've been on here; I think that I lost interest in SimCity 4 some time back in October last year, while I was making some CJ as a side project during some illness I had. I can't remember the specifics, but regardless I've recently regained my interest in SC4... for the fourth time. Long story short, I'm using a new laptop now and as such I have none of my old plugins or mods. This is quite annoying because I had a lot of plugins, but I suppose it gives me the opportunity to make a far cleaner and better maneged plugins folder. Right now I'm in the gruling process of getting all of what I concider essential mods, and also getting mods for my plan of making a region that resembles some sort of utopia that would make even George Orwell quiver in his boots. But I digress... I am however having some trouble with this. When I download a mod, It will download for about 5 seconds before 'freezing' (i.e. the speed will drop to about 15 kb/s, but the download bar won't move even on the smallest of files), at which point I have to pause and unpause the download. Ths can be extremley irritating when I try to download a file that is larger than a couple of megabites. This problem is exclusive to this site, so I have no idea whether it's a unversal problemor just me. Is there anything I can do about this? On a side note, it's nice to see that the community is still alive after all this time! (Oh, and if the topic is in the wrong place do say so; like I said, it's been a while)

First of all I'd like to say that I have updated all of my past entries with grammer and spelling checks. I have also made them more coherent and generally more fluent. If you've already read through them, you may want to flick through them again; although I doubt you will notice much difference. Before these updates I realise that I sounded like somebody who had only just begin to speak English, or as if I were some total moron. This is pretty embarrising on my part, seeing how Ilive in the country that gave said English language its name! You see, I've been very ill the past week or two, and have only just recovered. In that time It was pretty hard to get my head together and think straight, but now I feel I can write with at least an acceptable level of grammtical correctness. Really this update is to tell you that I will not be updating for about 4 days(ish). I'm having a late summer holiday, but I will be bringing my laptop for when it undoubtably rains, so be prepared for a mega-update on tuesday/monday! After that however, I will be away for another 5days(ish) to see my unbearable grandparents up in the worlds-worst-city-ever-in-the-world-in-the-history-of-time town, Mansfield. I will DEFINATLEY be bring my laptop there, so expect another Ultra-update the Monday after next! In other words, what I'm saying is I wont be updating for a few days. I will post another of these the day before I have to go on that most dreaded of trips up t' north t' see t' Grandparents...(seriously, I hate how Northeners do that t' thing.)

Crazy stories in local papers are the least of the many Romascan problems... Newtville is showing signs of extreme abandonment and building dilipidation: People just can't afford to run such small farms anymore. It looks like if Newtville carries on as she does, she'll be the first of the settlement to fall victim to the recession. Reddton on the other hand is niether growing nor shrinking; the area attracts a small amount of tourists, and the industrial core that Reddton is built around still provides enough money and jobs to supply everybody with their needs'. It looks like Reddton will just about ride out the storm. However, monopoly owner Bill Texan has recently shown interest in the area. As the big cities to the east and west grow, as does the traffic between the two cities through Romascus.Bill wants to make a propositon: he wants a massive multi-billiondollar super mall to be built on the main road that cuts through Romscus: The red are is the proposed site Building the mall would be free, and would attract much needed tourism to Romascus. but on the other hand, the mall would probably cause a massive surge in immigration to the area, with people looking for jobs. Does Reddton sacrafice her beauty to clear a sure route through these dark times? What do you think? (Bear in mind that the mall would look pretty awesome... just sayin' is all...) But what bout the smallest settlement on the River, Rostbury? Well, the mayor of Rostbury saw potential in the old scenic view spot which climbs up the slope of the Romascus Ridge: What people want in these economic times is cheap holidays; sightseeing that doesn't cost a fortune. And what better way to exploit the regions natural beauty than to build a full scale double platform viewing area? More shops have flocked around the base of the area. The coffers of the little burg are growing; and so is the town itself: On top of this resounding tourist promotion sucess, industry has just begun to expand on the river for the first time in decdes. One of the two companies stationed at Rostburg saw potential in being in such close proximity to cheap labour. The company hs expanded its factory estate (bottem of pic). And as every good mayor knows, people go where the work goes. Many financial experts predict that this source of cheap labour could show Rostbury through the tunnel, and in to the light at the end...

It's interesting seeing how everybody has different ideas' on hwat suburbs look like. I think that these are my best (from my CJ) : I will try to get a more zoomed out version for this thread...

Something's got the local papers buzzing recently. Rumors are spreading, housewives are gossiping, and conspiricy nuts are raving. Something big is going down on the Romscus ridge... A huge portion of land on the rocky Romascus Ridge (the range of mountains to the west of the river) has been bought up by private investors. It's all been very hush-hush, without explanation or warning. A local newspaper has been doing some investingating, and sent a chopper over the mountains to see just what they're doing there... That photograph shows the only current development on the purchased land. The photograph clearly shows some sort of settlement, however there were no recorded setlements on the ridge prior to the investors' purchase. Hell, the settlement isn't even connected to any form of transportation network. so just how they managed to get the required building materials up their in the first place is the biggest mystery... And oddley enough, ever since the land was bought up, the men in black suits all seem to have disappeared. Maybe they were working for the investers, trying to find a suitible location for the town... or maybe something stranger's going on... Replies Mars250 and mgmg14 - The farmwalls I believe are called "dry stone wall" or "dry stone farm divider". Well, something along the line of that anyway. They're on the STEX (obviously) Mars250 (Overview pt.1) - Most of the buildings' are indeed Maxis buildings, but I pulled a few off the STEX. You'll see more STEX buildings in later updates. Also, it takes a ground mod as well as a tree mod to make them look good! Gagwee - I can't see anything wrong with your English actually... Plyplay665 - I couldn't agree more. You need at lest a little bit of drama in a CJ, other wise it isn't unique! And it would probably be faster to say... Everybodyelse who commented - Thanks . I ws expecting at least little bit of negative feedback, but all posotive is good too! Edit: Higher quality image uploaded, with location map attatched. Also, clearer details were added.

This particular shot is what inspired me to turn this region in to a CJ: There's just something about it that makes me feel like I've done a really good job Although, in retrospect I could of gone a lot less overboard witht he smuged border... Also, if you haven't guessed yet, that's an image I used in my CJ. Sorry I couldn't find the origional. I may keep my SC4 pictures organised, but sometimes they just go missing.

Rostbury is the newest of the settlements in Romascus, and like Reddton is founded around an industrial estate.. Rostbury is the least effected of all of the settlements, because of it's ability to produce cheap labour, and ts close proximity to the Newtville farms. The residents may be poor, but as long as they have work they're happy. Demand from the porrest people of Romascus to live here is always risng slightly, due to its close proximity to work and cheap housing projects. But then again, what could possibly come out of such a small insignificant burg? Being sheltered from the global recession, does she have the potential to become a fullyfledged town, or maybe even a city? Only time will tell... Authers Note Well, just my luck to end up with a nasty cold. I'm off work today, and as such have bugger all to do other than watch terrible daytime TV, and SC4. I'm going to be updating the CJ all day, so you may want to keep tabs on this CJ. I'll be adding new screenshots to their respective parts, adding more detail to each of the towns, and adding a new update later on (don't worry, the actual storyling is coming soon ) if you read this CJ, please comment, and give constructive critisism! After all, this is my first CJ, and I need to know how I'm doing. I hope you like what you see! Oh, and I'll be doing a replies section every 5 updates, so don't worry if it seems like I'm ignoring you... (Also, there are always at least 4 pictures for every entry. If only 1 or 2 show, try refreshing the page. It seems to work for me anyway!)

While Reddton needs tourists desperatlry, this little farming community of 8000 people looks like it'll need a miricale... Newtville is the oldest settlement on the river, and eats up what little fertile land there is to be found there. The farms were made hundreds of years ago, and still have the old fashioned wall dividers. They produce some income, and provide food for the residents; not much of an living, but at least its something. However the village is in a state of decay; the farms are losing out to the ever expanding industrial scale farms to the East, and without the farms people are leaving en-mass Can Newtville chip in on what little industry Reddton has? Can she find new life in the tourism industry? Will she be able to expand her ancient farmland? And what of her neigbour over the river... (Note that most of the screenshots aren't showing here for some reason. Shame really, because most of them really show the abandonment problem)