Mikimoto26

Hi Simtropolis Folk! I am trying to get back into SimCity 4. I was really into it, but got bored because my cities always looked like big squares and I couldnt fix them - I always wound up with a big square. I have NAM, a bunch of downloaded content - houses, commercial buildings, etc..., water mod, sea port pieces, canal pieces, and the list goes on This tutorial: http://www.ezlink.ca/~jwinterton/BasicTutorial/BasicTutorial.html was GREAT! But I just cant seem to break away from the ugly square city/town/village. While I havent come close to conquering the "grid" style city, I'd still like to start thinking of designing my cities. Do you have an suggestions for creating cities with more flair? And on an extra note: Do you have any tips for combining parks to make them look better? Like arranging different types and different sizes to create one big, unique park?

I'm experimenting with road placement in terms of traffic flow: I took lots of pictures to show the progress of each zone placement and road extension The First development: After some time, no more houses came in, so I laid out where the next pod of residential would be. I figured I would have more success if I knew where the residential would go and then I could just base the commercial along the main roads To the right of the zoned residential, I planned for all commercial, but it didn't look good, so I took it out and made a smaller area To keep the areas separated, I added parks and plazas. I don't like the result, and I doubt I'd do that in the future, it looks weird. The other area would be on the other side of the main road. I thought ping ponging back and forth over this main road would lead to even development. But I didn't want to do square swirl residential for all the pods, so I made a terrible shape instead Commercial demand started to taper off, so I held off on zoning along the main road to the left of the new residential area above. Not sure what I wanted to do next, so I killed time and planted tons of different trees. Not realistic by any means, but I'm not worried about that I began to put in a sea port and harbor stuff.... and the game crashed....... but I got something out of this: Create residential pods off main roads, with 2 -3 connections to that main road.

[quote name='JGellock' timestamp='1324091840'] Hey there. I checked out some of your past entries to get a general feel for what you're trying to accomplish here. It looks like you are building and looking for feedback on how to be a better city developer. Let me know if I'm wrong there. There's a few things I noticed with your journal and the biggest thing is a lack of identity. It doesn't appear to have rhyme or reason to things you're doing. Try to have a theme or concept with your region and build from that. For example, one journal I did was on modern design with an emphasis on rail. The other journal was a journey from history to the present, with readers watching towns and cities develop. If you want to go for more of that European look, I'd suggest switching to euro textures by SFBT. With a nice slope mod, you can use your existing infrastructure and add in some tram lines as well. Some plazas would be a nice addition as well as a city center. Finally, take some time to study Google maps and get a better grasp on European city design. Use that knowledge to help your road layout better. I hope this helps! [/quote] Feedback is exactly what I need. I find my cities all develop the same and never reach full potential. I'm not really going for a European design, I just liked those building downloads best. I'm really just experimenting

Slope mod.... I like that idea How can I make the buildings work together. (All the custom stuff is hard to make work together and I'm running out of things I like to download)

This is my first time playing a large tile. I typically avoid them because I found that all that empty space was overwhelming and I didn't know what to do with it. For this city I began in the way I used to, a large grid that would allow 3x3 buildings to come up. The left edge is connected to Lion's Beach by road and rail. The majority of this city is made up of commercial development. And there is still demand for more. Though there is industry - No one really works there. It's just for freight Most residential areas (apart from the original large grid) are shaped in 1x1 tiles around a center square. Traffic can become heavy, but it's nothing too serious now. Though I am worried about it. If you notice how the residential and the commercial (where everyone works) lay next to one another, there is no room for rail. Should I be thinking of subways at this point? Or should I really have thought ahead to plan for high traffic from these residential pods. Out of all areas, this one turned out the best. Again, it is my typical L shaped 1x1 residential around a cemetery The little European apartments look great! (IMO) Though I promised I wouldn't do this, I did it again and laid down double roads in preparation for 2 avenues that would run through the entire town. Every time I zone for more commercial, it seems like every single sim at the opposite end of town wants to work there! Also with the photo above, I was planning residential expansion with more of those round pods. They would be placed on either end of that area of commercial that juts out. Would you recommend any building strategies to keep the area free of bad traffic? Or perhaps I should put new residential elsewhere on this tile..... HELP!

I was going to use Lion's Beach as an experimental city, but then I liked where it was going. The only thing, is that no matter what, there is always a huge demand for commercial. So I zone more commercial, and they want more. After a while I decided to ignore my sims and I made another little village off to the side and surrounded it by farms I connected the two sections of city by roads and rail. Few sims from the village commute into town because I began the little area with its own jobs nearby. Back in town, the mayor took the advice to use more custom content, and the results are ugly Also in this city, I tried using 2 separate rail lines that allow for freight and commuter lines to stay separate. Beyond that this city was just a stepping stone for it's only neighbor: Whistler's Coast

I detect sarcasm. What I mean is that it was helpful to lay out a network of avenues in what would become the heavily populated areas of the city instead of roads. There's nothing worse than laying out a ton of roads in your city, zone all the land around them, and when it gets crammed with people, you can't establish avenues without demolishing structures along the way. 'Course, it's a plus for commercial to have tons of traffic… Not sarcasm. I actually should try putting high capacity roadways around the city. Typically I've always put one avenue straight down the middle leading to the jobs.

This formerly little town south of Pegg Bank is the home to many of my experiments Here is an overview of my entire city of 18K sims so far: I have added an avenue going around my little city to experiment with the effect a high capacity road would have. My commute time went from 30 to below 4. (There are no busses or subways) One of the best residential areas is this here: It is right between two areas of commercial development, and there's quite a bit of traffic (hence the roads) but everyone seems to be happy living there The worst area is actually the old town center. This is the first development and it has the worst ratings overall: The best development really goes to the commercial area right by the new avenue. For some reason, all the traffic funneled right to these shops here, even before the avenue was built One area I am proud of is this area of residential. I modeled it after the area almost identical to this one that is located in Pegg Bank. Though this little areas has worse traffic problems. I am thinking it is because there is no bus system in this city And just for fun, here is a picture of my NAM disaster area:

Odeon is the town north of Pegg Bank. These two cities share connections by road. Though there are cities north, east, and west of Odeon, I am hesitant to connect them due to the infinite commuter loop that I always fall into. Want to see how much of a beginner I am: There it is, my glorious attempt at avenue roundabouts. Since city planning failed me before, I have been trying to avoid preplanning roads and avenues. I don't think it is working looks-wise. The town as a whole looks like this: It is a little city on a medium tile. There are roughly 12K sims here and a budget of 1.4 million simoleons. You can see my major roadways. There aren't too many of them. The majority of traffic flows down to get across the border to Pegg Bank (even though there are plenty of commercial and industrial jobs within this tile) I always have the problem of commuters when I connect cities. Even if both cities are the same size, and have the same jobs, the sims will commute to the other city to work. They WANT a long commute time. They're stupid. The only area I am proud of in this city is this: The residential streets are in an L shape around the cemetery. All the buildings came in nicely and there isn't much of a traffic problem here. Attempts at duplicating this system have not gone well That being said, most of the residential areas looks like this and have major traffic issues: This place needs a major face lift, but I'm not a licensed doctor. I just don't want to end up injecting cement into the wrong places...

Here is a view of the most recent addition to Pegg Bank As you can see above, the university was placed by the water in the narrowing of the land north of the river. If you look at the little overall map in the corner, you can see there is a little town on the south bank. They are not connected, though they do share power. I have kept them completely separate as an experiment in the 2 villages in the same city tile. Together they make a city of around 22K Sims. This was the original beginning of Pegg Bank. I started as I usually did with wider zoning and in a grid. As you can see, the majority of that land turned to mansions once water was introduced. The majority of traffic centers around this area: With sims commuting down to commercial or over to the high tech industrial area above the university. Traffic is not my strong point, though I would like to experiment with rail lines eventually. Here is the city overview: I'm not sure if I want to keep expanding or leave it for another tile...

Pegg Bank began as an experiment in city building using techniques that would prevent the Infinite Commuter Loop, an issue this Mayor has always dealt with. Named for the Star in the Reasonably Priced Car on the episode of Top Gear at the time, Simon Pegg. This coastal town began with 4 little towns in a surrounding region, only one being connected by a single road to the north. The town began along the coast, focusing on Manufacturing industry. Soon the growth spread to commercial and more people began to move in. Currently plaguing the city is the mass of commercial buildings that have taken over the majority of the coast. As seen in the photo above, it is the same time of building over and over. How can this city move beyond this sprawl of commercial? With hardly 20K sims living in Pegg Bank, upgrading to high density commercial is not an option at this point, even with the healthy budget with a surplus of at east a few thousand over expenses. Residential areas are compact, with the majority of buildings being constructed on a 1x1 tile. The residential developments are created in pods of 10x10 with roads or streets 2 tiles apart to lead the 1x1 homes to the main street down the middle. That main street will lead directly to the commercial (where the majority of sims work) How can this small city expand, knowing that the majority of land area will go to commercial builders?

So no matter the direction of expansion, place high capacity avenues in a ring around the outside so it can lead sims to the area with the most jobs? hmmmmmm I should try this