kkffoo

Thank you very much for your kind comment. I would normally find myself making stories, just in my own head, but tidying these up and making sense of them to share here has really added to my experience of the game. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read these journal entries.

Bindy Saige “They’ve stolen the Taj Mahal!”. This mysterious phone message left us at the Ballina Files both intrigued and puzzled, but paying a visit would give us the chance to interview the new Farnham Mayor, and that was an opportunity too interesting to miss. Bindy Saige, niece to that unforgettable grand dame Edwina Saige, had stormed to victory in the ensuing election, after the notable lady, forty years the Mayor, had passed away in a fit of apoplexy brought on by a dispute with an overcharging window cleaner. Apparently the deceased Saige Senior was still clinging to the soapy bucket as the medics stretchered her away. We know little about Bindy's early life, apart from the information in her web profile, which states she gained a degree via a postal correspondence course with the Hawaiian Institute for Modern Farming, and that her ambition is to ‘own a lot of horses’. Maybe our trip to Farnham would allow us to learn more? Farnham After a long trek on bumpy country roads, at last we saw the sign for Farnham. Finally reaching the Saige ancestral home, we were greeted at the door by a domestic servant wearing a torn apron and carrying a duster, which she used to usher us into a comfortable sitting room. Ms Saige, sat at an overpiled antique desk, spun around to greet us, the well used office chair squealing in protest as she did so. Saige Mayoral Mansion in Farnham Seeing nowhere else to sit, my sound recordist Myrtle and I pushed some of the document folders from a previously elegant sofa, and tried to find a spot to sit where the springs hadn’t yet broken through the fabric. From this lower angle we could see more signs of neglect in this once beautiful room, missing chunks of plaster and obvious damp patches were mixed with peeling wallpaper and chipped paintwork. The empty fireplace competed with a taped up window to see which could produce the coldest draft. We shivered in our city clothes. ‘That’s where they broke in’. Ms Saige used a chewed pencil to indicate the broken pane of glass. ‘Levered open the window. The only thing stolen was this.’ We had to jump backwards suddenly, to avoid the young Mayoress swooping to grab at a mouse nibbled cushion from behind our backs. She proceeded to fight with the zip, setting off great clouds of dust as she did so. Eventually Ms Saige found what she was looking for, a crumpled photograph hidden in the upholstery. She leaned over to show us the image. A group of pink-faced women gathered around an incomplete model of the Taj Mahal. They were in the process of sticking paper pieces to the exterior. ‘That’s the Rural Ladies Events committee, creating the centre-piece for the international themed harvest festival supper. The whole thing was made from papier-mache. ‘Why would anyone want to steal that?’ We shook our heads dumbly, and took the chance to wriggle about to get a softer spot amongst the hazardous upholstery. ‘We burned most of it, you see.’ ‘Burned what?’, we asked, through chattering teeth, and wondering whatever it was whether she could set fire to some more and warm the place up a bit. ‘Of course Mrs Diddingcot saved some of the larger pieces, she said we might as well use them for something, that’s how we ended up making the Taj Mahal.’ ‘Saved larger bits of what??’, we asked. ‘The paper for the papier-mache! We got it from those stupid tin-tack houses they tried to build at the edge of the village. They were made of paper would you believe?, Of course they fell to bits in the first bit of wind.’ Myrtle had been studying the photo, ‘The Taj Mahal, there’s writing on it’. ‘Oh yes,’ replied Bindy, ‘we noticed that. We were going to paint over it, it spoils the look really. I was cross with Mrs Diddingcot for showing that photo round. The break-in happened the day after that. Some idiot obviously saw it and was trying to ruin our Harvest Festival. Maybe if you get the word out, someone might know something, and we’ll get it back?’ We promised to share her dilemma from our pages, and wished her luck with the upcoming event, before scurrying out as fast as our frozen limbs would allow. My sound recordist was very thoughtful on the drive back. ‘I can’t see anyone wanting to steal that monstrosity of a model’, she said. I tried to agree but my jaw was so busy rattling over the potholes due to the unkempt roads I could hardly speak. ‘Maybe’, she continued, ‘it wasn’t the model they were after, but the writing on the paper?’ I wasn’t sure, but everything about our visit to Farnham had been either puzzling or uncomfortable. I needed to get back to our warm office and get my brain cells working again with a hot cup of Ovaltine. Site of the destroyed construction site, this recent satellite image shows no trace of the previous buildings..

Augustine Osbourne, Mayor of Deighton Deighton sits at the head of two major rivers, within the tidal range of the Ballina Sea. Mayor Osbourne said he would be delighted to meet and talk to us for the Ballina files, but he laid down some strict conditions. There would be no queries about his personal life, and he would only talk to us after midnight, in a deserted part of town. Although the pre-conditions seemed a little odd, the politician was perfectly charming by phone, and said he would be glad to openly answer any other questions we might have, and that still left us plenty of scope for an interesting chat. Our sound recordist Myrtle had a slight cold, so we were concerned that the GPS coordinates given led us to a rather windy graveyard, overlooking Deighton’s main port on the West River estuary. Nevertheless we kept ourselves warm with a flask of Ovaltine and were fascinated to watch the shipping, which obviously continued visiting even throughout the night. Eventually our interviewee appeared, as if from nowhere, and was most concerned for our welfare. We were glad to be invited into a small stone building with marble slabs inside, which at least kept us out of the wind. Apart from a little soil, which must have blown in from outside, the building was well kept, and we felt a great deal more comfortable. Myrtle joked that she hoped we weren’t disturbing anyone, and the Mayor reassured us that the building was not occupied, at the moment. Osbourne then launched into what must have been a pre-prepared speech, detailing all the improvements made in the district since he had been voted into office. We won’t repeat that information here, except to remind readers about the second port the Mayor had commissioned on the North Shore of Deighton, as this becomes relevant in a moment. Eventually we were allowed to ask our questions, the first of which concerned an incident with a government official, namely Utility Chief, Jonas Sparks. The red arrow shows the location of the wind farm, location of the alleged incident concerning Jonas Sparks, and the purple arrow points to a new coal power station, built recently using government funds. Was it true, we asked, that Osbourne had discovered Sparks, clinging to a wind turbine, wearing nothing but his hard hat, and shrieking about the public abusing the power network? The Mayor confirmed that this had indeed been the case, that it had happened during the construction of the new dock, but that he felt people made too much of it. “Human beings are but fragile vessels, blown so easily off course by the winds of fortune. It is important to be kind, don’t you think?” We asked what the Mayor thought of the statement made by the Sparks family, claiming a negligent optician had caused the problem, and that the government official had mistaken the new port area for a naturist beach after being issued the contact lenses of another client. Osbourne considered this for a moment, then suggested that if that is what the family believed he was willing to leave it at that. Then, making it clear he considered our interview was now at an end, he disappeared back into the darkness, leaving us with many unanswered questions. Such as; Is Osbourne really related to European aristocracy as rumours suggest? What leads him to forbid questions about his personal life, does he have a mysterious secret, or is he just shy? Why does he refuse to meet the residents of Deighton face to face, and will only answer their queries by email? How is it that Osbourne is able to access government infrastructure grants so easily? Can it really be as simple as ‘being able to fill the forms out properly’ as he has previously claimed? Last, but not least, where on earth does he live? The residents of Deighton have no idea. Our investigations continue!

This looks like such an interesting project. I'm impresed that you are able to keep all the parts of the city in the same state of development. 'Crime ridden' sounds fun to do. I look forward to your updates!

I've just looked at all the journal entries for these cities, and they are so beautiful. Your use of water, and the detailed placement of decorative objects, your buildings, I could go on! Thank you for sharing.

Thank you, I wasn't sure whether this fell foul of stretching too far beyond the original game, in my mind all this did happen in Ballina though! I don't want to spoil the fun by confirming or denying whether this character is based on somebody real

Cale: Population 1860 Mayor: Willy Ember The Backstory: Willy’s defining moment was a weekend of passion spent with the love of his life, a voluptuous Mexican side order cook. As a penniless farmhand at the mercy of his bigoted father, the relationship was inevitably doomed. By returning home, and following family tradition by marrying his second cousin, Willy gained enough paternal approval to gain a small loan, which he used to purchase a failing food truck business. To the horror of his whole community he named the new venture in tribute to his heartbroken ex lover , and so the now legendary Cecilia’s Greasy Taco franchise was born. Ember’s wife was not best pleased, but enjoyed the financial rewards enough to weather the storms of their difficult relationship, and so bore, and raised five children. However, family relationships finally boiled over when remarks were made at a local pie eating festival, which led to a shootout between Mrs Ember and the wife of the local police chief (first cousin: ten pies : three minutes: gold medal). Willy quickly sold his business, and they left town within a week, with just enough cash to purchase some acres of run down farmland in the remote hill-top district of Cale, County Ballina. Elvira sadly perished on the journey, attempting to leap to shore from the rear of their not yet docked ferry, and into the jaws of a passing shark. Eye witnesses stated that she could have saved herself still, if her sandals had been fastened, or if she had thrown aside her knitting to grab a hand-rail. Ember remarked that she ‘always was an impatient woman’. The newly made widower, with his children all grown up, now found himself living alone and in charge of a cabbage farm. Luckily for him, his eldest granddaughter had recently lost her home and job, and was happy to move into the second bedroom of the rickety, leak prone bungalow. ‘Pappy just needs someone to keep an eye on him’, she told us. Soon after this, the young ceramics artist invited her long term girlfriend to join the household. Willy’s upbringing had not prepared him for this situation, and despite his kindly nature, tensions arose, especially when the newest arrival adopted a squadron of cats from a local shelter. Eventually Ember resolved his inner conflict by being ‘nice as pie’ to anyone he knew personally, and spewing bile remotely towards various media personalities. He now spends his days tripping over felines, accidentally breaking hand-painted tea-cups and shouting at the television. The Mayorship was almost accidentally gained, when he turned out to be the sanest candidate on a very worrying list. Local business man, Bob G Pit, said, ‘it was either him or the nut job who wanted to blast half the mountainside away to make a salmon farm. I’m not counting that woman from the ‘tidy up the hedges’ group. Littering should never be considered a hanging offence, not in this town anyway’.

I'm sure there are plenty for me, but at this stage the one thing that I got completely upside down was so called 'dirty industry'. We are supposed to replace this as the game goes along, it is a goal. It took me a while to realise this. Whereas, in kkffooworld, my thoughts were, OMG how exciting I can make a really, really, huge chemical works / steel industry / power / ship building / large manufacturing base and, and and..... Allied to this upside down thinking, there's definitely a part of me that gets a bit disappointed when I see high-rise buildings developing, my tendency has been to abandon that bit of the build and move on to another area which I find more interesting, such as farmland. I'm sure this is down to what I can relate to, as I am very unfamiliar with cities, and live between an enormous heavy industry complex and farmland. However, I absolutely don't find farming sim games appealing, and I'd probably not like some sort of 'build your own chemical plant' game either. I think this is about enjoying having the thing as a whole, and focusing on those bits that I'm interested in.

@rsc204 Keeping a good percentage of R$ sims would feel like a natural option to me, with pockets of wealthier sims in better housing. If I can achieve that kind of mixed population that would feel like a good end goal for me. I have kept my plugins folder small, as I didn't want to hit any incompatibilities from lack of knowledge, but I do already have Cori's no kick out lower wealth mod, which states that it plays well with CAM so this is something I will certainly look into. @TheMurderousCricket Subpar health is an unfortunate hazaard for many in our local area, so that also would make sense in my game. I really haven't got my head around those different kinds of developer types yet. This game feels like it is 'opening out' in terms of interest and depth, I'm so surprised and delighted. Thank you both for your input and ideas.

I've just read through all the journal entries for the Dornelles, what an amazing amount of complexity in terms of transport links and the sheer number of people. Thank you for sharing your frustrations too, as someone who is still at the stage of trying to get an actually round roundabout it's good to know that even experienced players get perplexed at times. In one of your previous entries you were commenting on repeated buildings, and I certainnly notice these in my own game but they didn't seem so obvious in the large scenes you presented. Maybe we always focus in more detail on our own creations? I really like the rhythm of open spaces amongst high rise buildings, and the swathes of diagonals cutting though (talking about previous screenshots now). This particular entry really intrigued me, the idea of having a small tile dedicated to power production is such a good idea!

I've caught up now on all the entries for this exploration adventure, and it has been much fun to follow the story. I love your map idea, to uncover as you go, and the thick tree cover makes for more mystery as to the nature of the underlying terrain. Suddenly rising mountains, could that be volcanic activity, those settlers had better watch out! I'm impressed with the naturalistic look of your village layouts, with the curving paths and houses facing in multiple directions, and the way you have used mods to reinforce your theme. Having a 'city' with meaning, story, and a sense of history must give more engagement and connection while playing this game. Also the sense of uncovering as you go means the outcomes surprise you (and we readers). I am interested to see what happens next, and how the focus on early development influences the look and feel of the region as time goes on.

I hesitated to view this journal entry, because even from this distance in the UK the terrible events leading to the destruction of these towers felt traumatising. I can't imagine how locals must have felt. Your tribute is beautifully done and I am glad I did venture in here to take a look.

These images are mesmerising. It is hard to imagine how much dedication went into this creating this build. I saw a small building with the 'simtropolis' logo, and now I can't find it again, maybe I dreamed it. Thank you for sharing your images, astonishing work!

Beautifully done, and so much detail!

What a beautiful city, I am amazed what people can make with this game. This is so far beyond my current skills level that I'm just looking at it as if this were a real place, and letting go of the 'how does this work' game thoughts.

I have just read back through many previous posts, and I am already amazed at the scope of this project. The real life photos and trivia really add interest to the journal entries. This whole area is obviously a very beautiful part of the USA, and I'm impressed how you have dealt with scale issues, capturing the essence of towns without getting bogged down in reproducing every building.

I'm glad you enjoyed this @SIM-ple Jack, and that you found it funny !

Thank you everyone for the feedback, I made a start, as evidenced in my signature link. See also here if you have sigs turned off; I have also started reading through journals submitted by other users, and I'm finding these both entertaining, and full of ideas for enhancing my own game. So thank you also to the site members who take the time to record and share their thoughts and experiences.

I have just finished a mega catch-up reading through all the entries in this city journal and I am so impressed with many things. Your standard of presentation is really high, and you are good at explaining your decision making process based on the different philosophies of the tribes. I love the before and after shots. I imagine they were quite fiddly to do! Your idea of having polls is really good and helps the readers feel involved. The various cities are so individual and attractive in their own ways. There must have been a huge amount of work behind the scenes to present your journal and it shows.

Wow that's some challenging terrain, interesting build!

Thank you @TheMurderousCricket that makes a lot of sense. I will give the format some thought.

That's really interesting @SIM-ple Jack . Coming back to city builders after a long gap I'm working out how to play, not just the mechanics but how to interact with my own cities and feel involved without getting overwhelmed. I was diverted from SimCity 3000 by the sims, and when playing the various forms of that game I always wanted to be able to step back and look at the whole district like we can in SC4, it is so satisfying to do. Before coming here, I was playing around with running cities skylines and sims3 in parallel, using the little people as inspiration to make families in sims 3, and having a section of my CS city with the same streetplan as a sims 3 town. It turned into an overwhelming project though, especially getting the timelines to work together. I realise that most people here have a long running relationship with city builders and it makes me wonder what would have happened if I had stayed on that path and not been distracted away!

Thank you @CaptCity I am indeed using windowed mode and flipping back and forth. Another quick query for the SimCity gurus! Wind turbines, I have been attempting to place them where I think they would pick up the most wind, like on hill ridges, I thought this was just for the look of the thing, but now I am wondering if there is a hidden game mechanic for wind? I'm saying this because different placements cost slightly different sums of money. Maybe this is to do with the cost of digging out the plot though?

SimCity 3000, just vague memories of farms, watching traffic and shipping, wanting the streets to look as organic and real as possible. It was my favourite game at the time.