jorday

If they could do this it'd be amazing.

Hey Guys! I've decided to remake Sydney, Australia. Its where I live, and there are always things I think could make it better. However my first goal is to recreate it as much as possible. I plan to use google earth along side to guide me with an accurate recreation of as much as possible. I'm yet to *actually* start, but I will post as soon as I can (prob edit this post). Just wanted to get peoples quick opinions on weather I should start with a blank map or go for the Sydney map on the stex? I'm thinking scratch as I can just mimic the satellite photos for the water outline. Post more soon!!

I got hullabaloo! Nice one with the ALT/title attributes. I'm kicking myself that I didn't see those earlier!

I can't get a key from that German site :S The field is just blank, even after I've logged in and subscribed to their newsletter!!

Thanks! Yes, I also like Melbourne's roads, so much more sensible!! But Okay, here is the beginnings of my home town on north west Sydney... Here is where it is located in Sydney: This is the google earth map of Pitt Town: and this is what I have so far in Sim City: (had some stray trees... Anyone know if its possible to knock out individual trees without killing the lot underneath?) Overall I'm happy with the progress. I don't have too many custom lots, I'm going to need to search around for some nice ploppable houses I think... Area isn't growing the same as you can see the lots are larger in the sat picture. I've had to use farms for some of the houses on larger lots, so its not fantastic, but I think its coming along well! Next is the centre of Pitt Town which is just below this picture. One issue is trying to find some churches like I want.. There are 2 churches in Pitt Town, right next to each other, both old small sandstone churches. I found 2 on the stex, but one is too big and the other is a reward where I need a larger population :S So I might have to settle for something that is nothing like them. I'll see what I can do.

Thanks to all your comments and encouragement, its very much appreciated! Yes, this will take a long time, probably be slow going, but with some patience and endurance it should work out. Well I got a start to it, I was playing around manly area as I said. I probably chose a bad area to start, the "deep end" if you will. Lots of complex roads at all different angles, and its a built up area, so obviously I can't just start with lots of apartments from nothing! While it wasn't as accurate as I hoped, it was going well, until I decided to play around with the config.bmp. I found you can add maps to the right/east. But putting them on the left/west causes existing cities to move over to the left as they obviously have an x,y coordinate based from the top-left... Well after playing around, I someone ended up erasing my manly that I started! Not to worry, it was just streets, some zones, trees and coastline at that point. However, because of what I've learnt, I think I'm going to change course and start from the west and work my way east as I can easily add new maps that way without any trouble. Now, because *I* live in the north-west, I will make a start from my house and work my way in. This is my "shallow end". I live in a spacious area with lots of land and roads are far apart, also farms around here, so it seems perfect to start with! I hope I don't disappoint those above who were eager to see manly! This also gives me time to suss out the stex some more as I need different things, as in manly I needed a lot more (walk ways, beaches, forest/bush walks, coastline stuff, college buildings, unique buildings, etc.). So as I move through the suburbs, it should be a more "gentle" ride. The only problem here is its going to take me a LONG time to get to the CBD, so I hope you guys aren't in a rush to see the bridge and opera house anytime soon! I'm going to make a start now, so I will post pictures up in a few hours hopefully! =)

Hey guys, Sorry, no in-game pics yet! Hopefully tomorrow... But i've got some others below. I've been playing around with a few things, trying to work out scale and such. I've decided I'll make the map as I go, it'll be easier and hopefully more accurate! I won't be making the CBD first, I want to get some practice in with the outer lying areas before I jump into that. I'm going to start with manly and work my way down to North Sydney Then the CBD. Manly is probably the most far right/east part of sydney, so I'm going to work my way from there to the west. I just want to say I'm in love with google maps. Not only am I using google earth (more updated sat pics than google maps!) I can use google maps street directory mode thing to cross reference and see what buildings are... e.g. see what are schools, hospitals, etc. Here as you can see, manly is up on the right, then sydney city cbd in the lower middle. =)

Sydney, Australia shots (also posted these elsewhere)... Click for larger images! =) Please note the maximum image size is 800 x 600 - MM

Hey guys, As I mentioned I went to Melbourne, and as Sydneysider this was definitely a new experience! I actually agree with bearaxiom about the architecture. The two main things I did appreciate about Melbourne was the older buildings and the roads (so wide!!). I took a few shots of the skyline which I will post up soon, unfortunately the day I went into the CBD I forgot my camera, so no close ups. =( In response to the title of the thread, I still think Sydney, probably because of the landmarks and the Olympics publicized it more globally then the commonwealth games have for Melbourne. In response to someone above saying Melbourne had no landmarks, they do have the MCG, which is huge. I believe it was even in Sim City 3000? Perhaps that was a localized version? Not sure. Back onto the city vs city, Melbourne has a lot more room for growth, it seems a lot more friendly to non-car transport (e.g. bike lanes, trams, buses, trains). Sydney is taking the wrong direction with a lot of things, tiny land lots, roads are built without consideration of the future, new highways/main roads/motorways are only dual carriage (like an avenue in sc4), while in Melbourne and even Brisbane (3 times smaller than Sydney!!) they build them with 4 lanes each direction. (as bearaxiom mentioned, greedy developers who just want cash now and not care about the repercussions). They take advantage of the fact Sydney was unplanned and just grew, so the original roads were never big (or straight!), so the excuse is why make the new ones bigger. Each city definitely has its pro's and con's... If only they could learn from each other! On another note, I'm going to be recreating Sydney as closely as possible in sc4 (using google earth to help). New pet project, look out for it.

Digging it up again.. I had some pics of Sydney I just had to post! Click on them for much bigger versions... Please note the maximum image size is 800 x 600 - MM I have to say I *LOVE* Sydney to death (born and raised!). Inly sucky thing is the traffic, its so bad at times. =( Everyone else in my family prefers Melbourne. I'm actually goin to Melbourne over the weekend so I might post my impressions after!

Looks really neat. One to watch!

bradleybaggins: with your example, it is possible for them to use cars instead of walking is it not?

Signed... Almost a 1000! I think this might stur more interest as I believe more people have joined simtropolis since 2004...? If maxis aren't doing a patch, what ARE they doing? Surely they have to have either a sim city 5 or second expansion in the works...

Hey all, This is my new city journal for my new region Nih-Joria. ( I shall explain the name later) New logo added 10th Jan 2006 I did have a crack at a city journal before, but got lazy and ended up building too much between updates. So that went down in flames... BUT I have been given a second chance. I accidently deleted my sim city 4, so I decided I'm going to start affresh, and this gives me a new chance at a new region. I believe I have learnt a lot from reading other CJ's and so will try my best to make this one awesome. I decided i'm going to make the entire region in-game, or perhaps make a rough guideline in a jpg and import it then modify it. We shall see. Here is a pic of what I think the region will roughly look like. Excuse the rough edges, but its a very very early mock up. blue = water green = land dark green = mountains While i'm not 100% happy with this rough one, I think I will work on it until I get a good idea of what I want to achieve. Love to get some input on suggestions to the region layout. What I do know is that I'm going to have 2 major centres. As I tend to have 2 playing styles. One where I just built and don't care about planning, the other where I like to precisely plan everything. Depends on my mood! So i decided I will have 2 major city centres, with perhaps some outer smaller ones. One major centre will just be built, no major planning, things will just be put it and made to fit, while the other will try to be planned out as much as possible. (I'm Aussie, so I guess to me this somewhat reflects sydney and melbourne. Sydney really just grew, not planned out very much while melbourne was more planned.) Hope people will be interested and I know I haven't posted much but I would be really interested in feedback if anyone has any! Cheers.

jacqulina & chocolatemax285: thank you for you comments! they are appreciated. pickled_pig:thanks for your kind comment. I expect it to be fairly large, i want to get some decent country side happening too! A note on my progress: It turns out I can't reinstall sim city yet! I left the original cd at my mum's place (i moved out a couple of months ago ) and so only have rush hour cd here. I'm going to have to wait until wednesnight or thursday until I can look at getting a start. Until then I might work on a config.bmp for the map and perhaps a grayscale image to import.

Uh, when I said very very rough, I mean really really very very rough. It is like a basic sketch, an idea. I have a tiny bit more detail here now. I have the basic layout of the region, (trust me, it will look ALOT better in game =) ) I have developed the region's logo, still working on a motto however. This is what I came up with: Comments? Anyways, here is the more-so developed region layout. I have decided where the main 2 cities will be and the border of the 2 states that comprise Nih-Joria. This is displayed here: New Jordlan will be the one that 'just grows' while Nihcropolis will be fairly planned out. Quick backstory: New Jordlan was the first colony in this great new land. It was named after the home country 'Jordland'. Although somewhere along the way, the people of of what was New Jordland City decided to drop the 'd City' in order to distinguish themselves from their the fatherland, but still keep some sort of connection. Nihcropolis was originally a small farming town settled by the Nicions, neighbours of the great nation of Jordland. They numbered few, but soon joined together with disgruntled citizens of New Jordlan who felt their city was not becoming what they wanted. So Nihcropolis was founded in unity of two cultures and the idea of well thought out planning and zoning. Now, I have the Territories within each state. They are layed out here: I don't have much time to explain each territory, I have to get to work! But here is a quick outline: Greater Nihcropolis and New Jordlan are both the city centres with large growth areas. They both have CBD's with additonal outer-lying centres. In the State of Nacrin we have: Eastern Region: Farming regions with some suburbs Nacrin Highlands: Some farming with little towns scattered across the range. Small population, largest town centred around the local Mining Operation. Southern Nihcropolis: Industrialised area. In Amanland we have: West City: Outer lyring city centre, major trade route point between the two major cities. North-East Region:Suburbs and in the coastal area we have the industrial areas and ports. Manjo Islands: Basically lots and lots of suburbs with high-tech industry sections. Contains a large number of high-wealth near the coast while the inner island sections have a more dense and lower wealth population. Jordlan Heights: High country, with smaller towns. Contains the larger population half of the shared mountain range. I would love some feedback. Tell me what you love and what you hate please! Cheers! edit: fixed broken image

Sydney for sure... Thats prob cause I'm looking at it outside my window right now.....