corryzahn

OK, so I lost interest in SC4 for a long while... but a couple of weeks ago, I was really bored at work, and spent some time catching up on the CJ's here. They have inspired me to play again It started out as trying some of the things I had seen in other CJ's, so I was just messing around with the Maxisland region... I had originally started playing on this region when I first got the game, so I didn't really care what became of it. What I found, is that it's really actually a cool map to play. I don't have a region view, but hope to get one with the next update. We'll start with the business district of Georgetown. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Georgetown-Mar.%2029,%201471110935616.jpg align=baseline> due to all the ideas that were spawned by looking at things Marrast has supplied, I have built the Marrast Causeway. This is a highway that connects all the cities along the shore, providing a protected coastline, and a quick, direct route through the region. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Haru-Jun.%2028,%20321109713440.jpg align=baseline> Next is Haru. The town located at the opposite end of the causeway, and mostly a sleepy little bedroom community to the larger cities along the causeway. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lawrence-Aug.%201,%20111110173417.jpg align=baseline> Lawrence is a tiny town East(?) of Georgetown. It is carved right into the side of the mountain. Although there's not a lot there, the citizens love their little town. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-May.%207,%202181110251689.jpg align=baseline> Lustral is where you'll eventually find the epicenter of the region... Right now it's a lot of sprawling suburbs. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Mancini-May.%204,%201031110858734.jpg align=baseline> Finally Mancini. You get the best view of the Marrast Causeway in Mancini. I would like to be able to create a great, and interesting story like some of you have, but for now, it's just pictures of what I've RE-done after looking at all the great CJ's here. Any comments would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, M

and is there a way to turn this into an actual City Journal without having to reenter it all?

and is there a way to turn this into an actual City Journal without having to reenter it all?

would it be weird if I started up on this CJ 5+ years later? I found the link to it on my computer and I've been playing this city for all this time. Granted, there have been very long periods that I haven't played, but I still have this region and I still play it. I think I will.

would it be weird if I started up on this CJ 5+ years later? I found the link to it on my computer and I've been playing this city for all this time. Granted, there have been very long periods that I haven't played, but I still have this region and I still play it. I think I will.

So I finally just bought the mac version of SC4. I was tired of having boot camp installed JUST to play this game. I know there are things that people say don't work as well in the mac version, but I'm fine with that. I don't use a lot of mods or custom stuff. The isssue that I'm having, is that I change some of the video settings (like screen resolution, uncheck "clouds", lower the shadows, etc...) and then I get a popup that says the settings will take effect next time I start the game. So I shut down the game and restart, only to find that the setting are UNCHANGED! I've tried this a bunch of times, and still get the same thing. Any thoughts?

Ok, time for update #2... I've not had a lot of time to play, so I'm going a little more slowly than some, but still making headway. First shot is of the region. I've started really playing 4 tiles. Vandi in tile 11 Winehouse Peak in 12 Marshall in 16 Sommerville in 3 The first thing we'll look at today, is the village of Marshall. It was a planned community, that centered around the Tiniest synagogue ever... Although I don't know that I like the industrial at the bottom of the picture... Since this is one of the villages that cannot spill out to another tile, I think I'll have to move the industrial stuff somewhere else. Otherwise it will look silly on the regional map. And here is a bigger overview of Marshall. Next we'll look at Winehouse Peak. This was originally meant to be a "bedroom community" to Vandi, mostly suburban... but that's really not working out the way I had hoped. It's quickly taking over as the center of the city... There are even a couple of small highrise apartment buildings going up in the center of town. AND, I'm doing much better financially than in Vandi (I got rid of the HUGE money cheat, and am playing with NO money cheats at the moment... it's much harder than I recall... ) That's all for this update. I hope to have more time in the next couple of weeks to get a bigger update going. I'm really enjoying looking at how everyone else is doing this region. The only issue is that it's then hard for me to not look at things, and think "Hey! That's a great idea!" and then want to do it. So what I've taken to doing, is not really reading the thread until AFTER I play for a while. That way I usually have in my brain how I want things to work out.

I actually had some time tonight to get a little bit of play in! I started in Tile 11, with the first settlement of the Grand River Valley, Vandi Village. Here are a couple of close up shots of the "downtown" area... I'm really trying to model it after some of the small towns I've lived in (and trust me, there are some SMALL towns in Utah... ) And one a little further out, showing pretty much the extent of what's going on in Vandi so far... and finally some statistics.... I will admit that I have a money cheat installed, and to be honest wth you, forgot that it was even there, until I was rereading the rules, and looking at my pictures... So i know I will get penalized for that one. I also usually use a couple of other cheats (like a windmill that I changed the properties on, and has NO polution, and provides all the power you'll need, and the black hole garbage dump and water purifier... but I'm going to try and refrain from using those during this game. I don't typically play with a lot of custom content, and I know that everyone is really hip on having a ton of that... but it's not really my bag. Also, I'm not a great story-teller. I'm a skimmer... I like to look at the pictures, although I had to stop myself from doing that in this thread, as I didn't really want anyone else's ideas to "taint" what I have in mind.... I did see a few that were great ideas, and I had to stop myself, and just go play.

I think I'd like to get in on this, it's a very cool idea. I hope to have my first post up by weeks end!

I downloaded the Middle Earth map about a hundred years ago, and have been playing on it off and on for some time now. I have only a couple mods, transit and bridge height are the only ones I can think of. I have some custom lots that I use A LOT. I don't remember who I downloaded them from, but most are off this site. I just wanted to post a few pictures from this city to see if there would be any interest in seeing more... The first picture is a bunch of cities that have all grown together. This picture actually shows pieces of 7 or 8 cities. as you can see, I have terraformed the CRAP ouf of the map. I do love the sea walls... I think they are Marrast? The little island makes me think of Miami... The next picture is of the second large city in Middle Earth. This one is called Bowie. The last picture is of the final decent sized city in the region Perry Lake. any thoughts? is it worth continuing the pictures? I'm not much of a story-teller, but I do like to show off my cities every now and then.

I figure I'll update the cities in the order I built them... (assuming I can actually REMEMBER the order I built them). So I'll start with a small map right in the middle of it all. Imogen. I've pretty much decimated and restarted most of the cities in this region at least once, but Imogen has been obliterated 3 or 4 times. It's so small, and right in the middle of everything, so it has to be just right. As of right now, I like how it's working, but I'm sure I'll find something wrong with it and start all over again. First, an overview of the entire city. Even though the piece in the bottom corner is TECHNICALLY in Imogen, I consider it part of the next town over. Next is a close up of the middle of the city. There is a lot of High density commerical and residential. It's kind of a skyscraper hell. But I don't think it looks TOO bad. And a better close up of the only real park in town... Somehow I planted tress in the middle of the baseball field. I know I could clean it up, but it's just funny to me. The last picture is of the university. There is quite a bit of housing around it, but the one that makes me laugh most is the ONLY single family home I can find in the entirety of Imogen... Guess it's the one crotchety old man who refuses to sell his house to developers no matter how much the offer, or how out of place his house becomes... That's all for Imogen. Again, I don't have time for story telling, just want to show off my cities... Any helpful hints/constructive criticisms would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have 15G for WinXP and 40 for Mac. I'm only running two programs on the windows side, and the speeds beat my old windows machine hands down.

I just moved to mac, so I've had it on PC since SC4 came out. I've installed boot camp and I'm running under windows... mostly because I didn't want to start my cities all over again... And I have too many mods from the PC side to start all over again.

the only thing I can't figure out, is what key do I use to rotate a building? It's END on the PC, but there IS NO END KEY on my macbook. It's the only thing that doesn't work... otherwise, it actually runs better on my new macbook than it did on the old laptop.

I seriously wish that work wouldn't get in the way of having fun.... and now that it's summer, I get to do all sorts of yard work stuff too. Whoever said that yardwork was rewarding was HIGH I tell you! I have just a small update, but hey, at least it's an update, no? We start with some pix of Balligomingo... you can see the new Catholic School that the sims built... and this is the area BEFORE the school was built... Next are just a couple of pix from the small suburb of Friburn... A change in Latanza Waters... I added a park where it used to be all industry... I think it looks nice. BEFORE AFTER The last city I've been playing is New Haru. It's New Haru because I messed something up REALLY badly with the old city of Haru, and ended up having to obliterate the whole thing and start over. I've been playing with the canal set in this town, and I think it looks REALLY cool... but then I'm biased, it's my city... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New%20Haru-Aug.%2029,%201151117200535.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New%20Haru-Dec.%205,%201311118978874.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New%20Haru-Jan.%2030,%20611116733695.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New%20Haru-Jan.%2030,%20611116733730.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New%20Haru-Jan.%2030,%20611116733791.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New%20Haru-Jul.%2029,%201311118978841.jpg align=baseline> that's all for now, I hope I will get to play more this summer now that I have all the flower beds planted and the lawn reseeded... as usual, I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on what I'm doing...

godwin, I really like the region you chose. The only change I would make is to mix some high res in with the tourist area (light blue). The port looks really cool! I wouldn't want to be piloting one of those ships though, I can barely back my car out of the driveway without hitting the hedge on either side... Looking forward to seeing more!

next is Godsmack Flats. I don't think I've posted anything from this city, and it was one of the first ones I started playing in SC4. I think it's because I haven't changed much, since I think this one is just about perfect. you can see off to the left where I evened out the highway and put in retaining walls. I think they are jeronij's? I can't keep all the cool stuff I've downloaded straight... super rich neighborhoods in Godsmack Flats. and a close up of the new stuff over by the highway. There is a park, which I think shall be Jeronij Field... Latanza Waters had a major overhaul of Central Park. It has been renamed Pegasus Family Sports Park (PFSP). The Marrast Causeway underwent some overhaul. I straightened it out a bit, and widened it. Now all the Shipping docks in Latanza Waters are on the Causeway. The housing boom is hitting Latanza Waters. Property costs are still low, so there has been a lot of development all the way up the hills. and an overview of the whole city. a close up of the new residential development in Latanza Waters. Next is a picture of Ligaya. You can see how the residentail has spread all the way up the hills to meet Balligomingo (the AVENUE goes to Balligomingo). Now I have 5 pix of Lucrezia. I still don't know if I really like this city at all... any input you have to offer would be greatly appreciated. A few changes in Lustral... The red line shows where the shoreline USED to be... with the NEW part that I added because I could... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-Aug.%2011,%204111116529542.jpg align=baseline> Pay special attention to the neighborhood in the middle... it goes from light residential... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-Nov.%206,%204111116529614.jpg align=baseline> to rezoned Med-Dense Residential in a matter of moments! https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-Mar.%2021,%204171116530341.jpg align=baseline> and a couple of updated region shots. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Maxisland-1116527043.jpg align=baseline> and finally the St Germain-Brahms bridge... I wanted a bridge, and as both GOD and MAYOR of all my cities I am able to create cliffs where I need them. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//st%20germain-brahms%20bridge.jpg align=baseline>

long overdue update. I've been away for work. At least I can take SC4 with me since it's on my laptop! We'll start with some building going on in the city of Ananda. Here we have the first housing development in town, the Ananda Project. A few of the old white condos have been torn down and replaced with newer buildings. I imagine this will continue, but for now, it's pretty cool to see... Next is Ananda Bay. I've built a small business area, along with a ferry terminal and an Entertainment Pier. I don't remember where I got this, but it was the very first add in I ever downloaded for SC4. and a close up of the Monorail bridge over the bay. and another close up of the Entertainment Pier. I should think of a name for it... anyone know who made this? That's what I'll name it if I can find the creator... Next is Anastacia. It's just a tiny little corner of an island... so this is the only picture of it. This is from Brennan Island. Why are my sims total gits? Why are the just not crossing the street? Next there's a whole CRAP-load of pictures from Georgetown... because I didn't like it anymore, so I pretty much redid most of the city. The first thing I did was demolish the monorail that ran through town, and changed it to a commuter rail... just because I had these kick-butt Marrast Underpasses... I like the way this looks, but the sims don't really like living here... the NEW Georgetown... looks much better... no? Next picture shows where I added more city. The red line is KIND OF where the shore line used to be. As a part of the Lustral-Georgetown coastal reclamation project, there is now more city. Just because I wanted it. I like being in charge of my cities... Do you think I should just change the name of this town to Marrast? I just like this off-ramp. It looks way cooler than I thought it would. and the re-routed monorail line that goes directly to Lawrence through the new industrial park in Georgetown. OK... end of update 1 for tonight. I don't want to type too much and loose it all again. I think I messed something up earlier...

<<phew>> thank god I back up my computer regularly... after finally recovering from a pretty heinous crash, I'm back. I lost a couple of cities in my region, due to the back up timing, but for the most part, everything is still intact. We'll start with some pictures of Agnelli. This city is really more like 2 cities. First there is the part on the river https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Agnelli-Apr.%2019,%201731115164583.jpg align=baseline> Then there is the part over the hills, that borders on Lustral https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Agnelli-Aug.%2012,%201731115164618.jpg align=baseline> and a city park, I just like this picture... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Agnelli-Jul.%207,%201721115164540.jpg align=baseline> Next is my favorite neighborhood from Balligomingo, I don't know why it reminds me of somewhere I've been... I can't say where though. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Balligomingo-Mar.%2018,%201191115166460.jpg align=baseline> and the new industrial park in Balligomingo https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Balligomingo-Jan.%2025,%201201115166535.jpg align=baseline> next is the newest area of Maxisland, Friburn. This borders Ligaya and Balligomingo. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Friburn-Jul.%2010,%20251114053443.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Friburn-Mar.%2026,%20241114053373.jpg align=baseline> And a few pictures from Ligaya... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Ligaya-Jul.%2019,%201811113831259.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Ligaya-Jun.%2018,%201821113831366.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Ligaya-Sep.%2022,%201811113831284.jpg align=baseline> And finally some pictures to show the growth in Lustral (The biggest city in the region as of now) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-Apr.%2023,%204001114557699.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-Apr.%2023,%204001114557724.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-Apr.%2023,%204001114557758.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lustral-Apr.%2023,%204001114557782.jpg align=baseline> sorry that there's no story, but I'm just not clever that way. As always, thanks for all the comment and feedback!

hirojukuguy: Yes, it's also called Timbuktu... and I am honored that I get your very first post! So keep posting! Nardo69: are you talking about the tracks in Gouryella? I know it's weird, but it's the only way I can get them to go where I want them. SO... in this case REALISM BE DAMNED! I want train tracks, so I'll just leave them that way... aldara6166: yes, it is the founders statue. I think it's pretty cool. Thanks everyone for your comments!

I've finally had a little time to play, and now some time to update First we'll start with Amuka. This is a weird town. There is quite a nice little city center building up on the peninsula, but the rest of the town is mostly just farmland. I've not had much luck with farms, but this town seems to be doing pretty well. The first picture is of the Amuka Municipal Aeroport (AMA). It's just been built, and quickly aided the city centers growth. Also there is some pretty good business springing up along the highway to the aeroport. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Amuka-Jan.%2018,%201131113765340.jpg align=baseline> The second picture is the City Center of Amuka. It's pretty cool, and I think I'll leave it just this way. I don't see any reason for it to get all out of control. I think that as it grows the farms will end up getting pushed over to the next town, and filling in with more residential... but we'll see. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Amuka-Oct.%2021,%201121113765311.jpg align=baseline> Next are a couple of pictures of Bj

Gryphonite: I took your advice, and downloaded PEG's granite rocks mod... YOU'RE RIGHT! It looks MUCH better!

I have to disagree with everyone about the Super 8 Motel. At nearly every airport I've ever been to, there are a variety of hotels/motels in the area. Remember, not everyone on an airplane can afford to stay at a Marriot or Embassy Suites. The area around an airport needs to cater to as many different people as it can, and I think the Super 8 adds a sense of realisim to the area. I say keep it as is!

<<sigh>> I have had very little time to play lately... that whole working and money thing to pay bills... I've really only played on 2 cities since I posted last. First there are some cool things going on in Latanza Waters. The city approved a major renovation of the City Park. This has spurred some commercial and residential growth in town, and has also brought in more High Tech business, while pushing some of the dirty industrial further out towards the airport and the foothills. Next is Lucrezia. Basically, I hated the way this city was going, so I just destroyed it and started over... I'm still torn on it... but we'll see how it turns out. Finally, there is Rubin. This started out as a town for industry only... but the residential demand got so high, I just couldn't help myself... as usual, any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated!

it's been awhile since I've had a chance to play, but I did get some region shots, both Satellite and Transportation, with and without city info. I'll have some time to update this week more... (I hope...) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Maxisland-1111462566.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Maxisland-1111462583.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Maxisland-1111462604.jpg align=baseline> https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Maxisland-1111462621.jpg align=baseline>