Orwell1984

Sad news. While preparing a big update for this CJ, a bug crashed my game and when I returned to the region, the city I had been working on vanished entirely. This region officially died in 1775 with a total regional population of around 44,000. Thanks to all of you who followed and offered me encouragement. I hope to start another CJ, just perhaps with a region that uses fewer Modds and custom buildings. Orwell1984 R.I.P. Keorgan Federation

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//historical%20spotlight.jpg align=baseline> All Roads Lead to Palitzbeurg http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/5634/veltkoenjan216011200923369qt.jpg align=baseline> View of Palitzbeurg (c. 1760) It was with great deliberation and careful planning that Prince Breuno Cxeuk II organized the city that was to become the hub of the first Keorgan empire. Breuno I crowned his young son in 1754 to ensure that he could help defend his young dynasty from their political enemies in the Velt. Completing his plan to make the city the hub of all commerce and travel across the center of the island of Gohrn, Breuno I completely encircled the city he founded with a protective fence, constantly patrolled by his personal guard, the Veltrakkr (Velt rangers). Breuno I allowed only four gates to be opened in the fence so that travel could be strictly controlled. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/153/veltkoenmar316111202008057pe.jpg align=baseline border=5> A view of the fence which completely surrounds the town, save the four gates. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/1548/theprincelypalitzveltdec286012.jpg align=baseline border=5> The Palitz Gate Due to the situation of the city right at the northern exit of the Palitz Pass, the only way to enter the pass is by entering the city and exiting through this gate, after paying the tax, of course. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/6779/theprincelypalitzveltdec286011.jpg align=baseline border=5> The Velt Gate While people from nearby villages from the Velt once could wander in and out of Palitzbeurg easily, with the construction of the fence, they can now only enter through this gate. This was no accident--Prince Breuno can now control the financial situation of the Cxeuk clan's former rivals on the Velt by permitting them entry from the city at will. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/6303/veltkoenmar316111202007359es.jpg align=baseline border=5> The Huss Gate While once virtually unknown by the people of the Velt, the Hussian farmers are now beginning to trade more and more with the city. It is through this gate on the northern edge of the city that connections between the Huss and the Velt are made. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/9519/veltkoenmar316111202006878ua.jpg align=baseline border=5> The Empire Gate From this gate the army and the political families of Palitzbeurg are scattering villages and farming settlements across the previously uninhabited slopes to the west of the city. This area is seen by Breuno II in particular as the perfect place to expand the royal influence and power. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/7691/theprincelypalitzveltmay160112.jpg align=baseline border=5> In the center of Palitzburg lies Prince Cxeuk I plaza, the centerpiece of the city's most important business district. Opposing each other on the east and west end respectively are the Market House, from which taxes are levied and collected and from which trade on the Palitz Pass is closely monitored; and the Prince's Palace. On the north side of the plaza is the city's belltower, completed in 1758. The bells announce the noon hour, the opening and closing of the city's gates, and special events. This tower is the tallest building in the whole of the Keorgan Archipelago and it's shadow passes imposingly over nearly the entire city during the course of the day. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/5135/theprincelypalitzveltjun461112.jpg align=baseline border=5> To give the dynasty even more stature, Breuno I, as his last great project erected a family Mausoleum at the corner of the city cemetary and moved his ancestors remains to it's crypt. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/7451/veltkoenmar316111202006026lw.jpg align=baseline border=5> Despite his father's objections, Breuno II granted Geurg Hegno, eldest son of a Hussian couple that emigrated to Palitzbeurg in 1752, the title of Imperial Governor and gave him a mansion of his own on the west side of the city. Hegno was charged with establishing and presiding over a new imperial army. Immediately to the north of his mansion are the twin towers of the imperial barracks and military academy and the smaller military apartments (for the Generals). Immediately to the south of the Governor's mansion is the military parade grounds for reviewing the troops. http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/9436/veltkoenmar316111202007655lg.jpg align=baseline border=5> The Church of Saint Barbara The robust commercial activity of the city requires a new class of laborers, porters, and other lower-class workers. Many of these people live in the southwest part of the city, where the Church of Saint Barbara (patron saint of Warehouses) is located. With a permanent population of roughly 6,000 in 1760, the city became the largest in the whole of the Keorgan Archipelago

The Keorgan Lands Mature.... The first half of the Late Pre-Agricultural Revolution Period was marked by few political changes, however the region fully recovered from the economic slowdown of the previous few decades. More land than ever was opened up for farming and individual farms became larger and larger. Older developed areas started to show their age and a fledgling aristocratic class took root. http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/8773/ceibljun224911199958594xb.jpg align=baseline border=5> A nearly five-decade old windmill collapses on the western edge of the Ceibl. http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/5466/lutifandreisenbajfeb6521119855.jpg align=baseline border=5> The town of Bajgreuwn (Green Bay), the second largest in the Reisenbaj, erects a new windmill to replace the aging one atop a hill overlooking the port. http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/752/sxrenov224911199381951yv.jpg align=baseline border=5> The first inter-island bridge in the Keorgan Archipelago was built in 1749 linking the island of Sxre to the northeastern edge of the island of Bastia. This link enabled the development of the first successful settlement on Sxre.

Hey, it's cool to see that you've been able to get RH up and running. It seems like you've been getting a lot of nonspecific suggestions recently. I might help if you add some updated maps and cityviews (if you can get them uploaded of course). You said that your biggest problem is traffic, right. I'm glad you started using one-way roads, but I think the main problem is that your city is too well connected, that is every road is connected to every other road so that no matter what networks you use, sim commuters will have ways of avoiding your new one-ways or whatever. The RH commute query tool is very powerful for planning traffic networks. Use it on some of your most congested intersections to figure out exactly where and how your sims are getting to work. Once you have some idea about this, build some high capacity network (like an avenue, for example) and start channeling sims into it by eliminating the alternate routes they use. It's perfectly fine to have dead-end streets and roads that don't really go much of anywhere. You could also consider adding some diagonal roads or more curvy roads that run directly from sims' homes to their workplaces. Sometimes this is enough to break up a very grid-y system and provide some interest. Also, don't worry too much about the folks in here; most mean well, but some can be vague, easily annoyed, or just plain rude. I'm not trying to be as patronizing as I'm sure I sound. I really like your city, I think it offers a breath of fresh air from all of the cities and CJs that rely almost entirely on MODifications, B(uilding)A(rchitect)T(ool) creations, and all of the other fancy distractions. If you are ever really stumped by something, feel free to send me a Simptropolis email; I may not have a lot of posts racked up, but I've been here a long time and been with SimCity since the beginning.

I can't really tell what might be causing your industrial zone in the southeast to go vacant from the screenshots. I hope your got RH installed and running well. I'm really curious to find out what, if any, changes it will cause in your city. Maybe consider starting a City Journal? (My mistake--it already is one!)

I like what's going on with your city, it looks like it has a lot of potential. Here are some things I might change if I inherited it: -Along the southern border (the bottom of the screenshots you showed us) it looks like you have a long strip of commercial zones that aren't doing a whole lot. In the northeastern corner you've got what looks like a promising downtown/business district. I would de-zone some of the commercial zones from the south to the northeast and add some residential zones in the south to make up for what you would lose expanding the business district. The way you have small sections of commercial zones amonst your residential areas is a nice touch and probably one of the reasons your traffic levels are so low. -Your traffic seems fine--a little red is nothing to be too concerned about. It seems like you probably have more highway than you really need and you could demolish some of it for more zoning space. Your subway system seems more than adequate, so there's really no reason for the full highway loop. -I really like how you still have some empty space near the center of your map, but you could be making this space work for you more. Try filling some of it with trees and parks. In the southeastern corner there is a little upside-down T with a hospital in the center. This would be the perfect spot for a city park; it would provide a nice buffer between your coastal industrial area and the residential zones in the middle of the map. -Although I know a lot of people avoid pollution in their cities at all costs, real cities inevitably have some pollution somewhere. The area of your map with the coal plants is definately a slum, but I think it gives your city a lot of character. The only think I would watch out for is the garbage situation--it piles up fast and is hard to get rid of later. Some of these things may change if and when you get RH, but overall I really like the city thusfar. Good luck!

My region uses a made-up local language that is mostly a combination of french and dutch with some strong influences from german and nordic languages, particularly in proper names.

Shieumer & Likkyn, Ceibl (c.1748 ) Although the Ceibl has no official centralized government or capital city, with the coming of a centralized church and burial ground the closest villages of Shieumer and Likkyn swelled with residents and soon merged with each other. The two villages soon came to function as one larger city, becoming the most important conglomeration in the Ceibl. Rei-B-j'vil, Reisenbaj (c.1748 ) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//R1748.jpg align=baseline border=5> The leaders of the newly-founded aristocratic republic of Reisenbaj chose a small collection of villages near the central part of their region as the site of their new capital. They built houses, a burial ground, a trade school, and a church to help lure citizens to the new town. They dissolved the local village councils and gave this new unified town the not-very-creative name Reisenbajvil, but this was slurred by the locals into Rei-B-j'vil (pronounced RYE-BEE-shuh-ville, for you American English speakers). Jutreux, Rhychenia (c.1745) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//1745.jpg align=baseline border=5> Long the most culturally and economically developed town in the Keorgan lands, Jureux was particularly hard-hit by the economic decline of the 1720s and '30s. It was essentially re-founded by Yan Maelmo, son of the city's most immenent forefather Villip Maelmo. Yan convinced the local leaders to consolidate the city under one person, given the title Lord of Rhychenia. The city began its slow return to prominence aided by increased farming of the surrounding area, which reduced the city's reliance on imported fish from Picyeura. Palitzbeurg, Palitzvelt (c.1750) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//1750.jpg align=baseline border=5> Palitzbeurg was created essentially from scratch by Breuno Cxeuk, a large landowner who had possesion of most of the land at the northern outlet of the Palitz Pass. Recognizing the unharnessed potential of trade through the pass, Cxeuk bought out the rest of the land along the pass and constructed a paved road from Ceibl and Daven to his home village of Jrxrj. He then donated his land holdings along the pass to the village. Impressed by his generousity, the villagers declared him the sole member of the village council. Cxeuk immediately set to work to turn the village into a hub for trade and commerce from the south. The village swelled with trade revenues and became a formidable town surrounding Cxeuk's impressive manor and a newly-constructed market house. Cxeuk was able to convince the rest of the villages in the Palitzvelt to come under his direct control. Cxeuk immediately began to reorganize the countryside, forcibly moving people to houses in the renamed city of Palitzbeurg and streamlining all farms and fur-trapping outfits to feed directly into the city's economy. With no economic competition left on the northern outlet of the Pass Cxeuk began imposing tolls and fees on traders from the south to further enrich the city and himself.

http://img209.echo.cx/img209/3146/latepreag3rw.jpg align=baseline border=5> Political Map of the Keorgan Archipelago at the start of the Late pre-Agricultural Revolution Period (c.1745) http://img209.echo.cx/img209/1753/thekoerganfederation17458sh.jpg align=baseline border=5> The shaded regions on the map indicate areas on the Keorgan Archipelago that are politically and economically active during this period. Regions shaded in yellow are areas with fertile potential farmland recently freed for development due to the sudden end of costal pirate raids in 1738. Regions shaded in blue are areas with closely associated villages and settlement but no formal political connections. Regions shaded in red are areas with formal political associations or city-states. 1 ) This area is known as Rhychenia. At its center is the town of Jutreux, itself a conglomeration of small villages-turned-districts. Surrounding the town are smaller villages and farms with close economic ties to Jutreux. 2 ) This is the Husse, the wide plain on the center of the main island of Gohrn. The Hussian villages are largely isolated from the rest of the Archipelago's settlements and are economically weak with small populations. 3 ) This area is known as Picyeura The land of Fishermen. It is a network of small, prosperous fishing villages across from some of the Archipelago's most productive fishing area. 4 ) This area is the Palitzvelt, a region that developed on the wooded northern slope of the Gohrn Mountains. It became a city-state surrounding the emerging town of Palitz. 5 ) This area is the Ceibl. At the beginning of this period it contained roughly a third of the total population of the Archipelago. 6 ) This area is Daven, a small collection of vilages and farms settled near valuable tin mines. Tin is used across the Archipelago for roofing material and other important uses. 7 ) This area is known only as Western Ruggel (it is located on the western and of the island of Ruggel). It is a very loosely-connected conglomeration of mining and farming villages. 8 )This area is the Reisenbaj, the first real national entity on the Archipelago, constituting a number of villages, mines, farms, and ports. 9 ) After sealing their channel off from pirate raids the people of the islands Idt Ga and Jle are now situated on a potentially important sea trade route. The bright green lines indicate the major routes through the Palitz Pass, which were paved at the beginning of the Late pre-Agricultural Period.

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//historical%20spotlight.jpg align=middle vspace=10> The end of the Early pre-Agricultural Revolution Period http://img229.echo.cx/img229/6979/bigview9gs.jpg align=baseline border=5> The only settlements to have developed on the eastern coast of the Keorgan Archipelago were two small villages on the islands of Jle and Idt Ga. The narrow channel between the islands provided the pirates who ravaged the eastern coast with an effective chokepoint from which they could control the waters of the eastern Keorgan lands. These waters were also ice-free all year round and provided a suitable wintering port. In exchange for free food and ale, the pirates permitted these two settlements to be established and built a dock and storehouses on Jle. The pirates brought fir trees from their native homes and settled in comfortable in the winters from the dangerous northern seas. http://img229.echo.cx/img229/323/night3nl.jpg align=baseline border=5> These arrangements worked well for a time, but eventually the cruelty, drunkeness, and excessive demands became too much for the villagers to bear. On December 17, 1737, just after dusk, the villagers on Jle trapped the crew of the Grey Sea-Wolf in the Windmill Tavern where they were having a bawdy evening. The villagers then crept en masse down the hill and suprised the guards, who they then overpowered. http://img229.echo.cx/img229/4852/shipburn7yz.jpg align=baseline border=5> The villagers then ransacked the ship and the pirate's storehouses and sent the Grey Sea-Wolf to the bottom of the port in flames. Now armed, the villagers marched back up the hill and took the whole drunken crew prisoner. http://img229.echo.cx/img229/5836/fort8ga.jpg align=baseline border=5> With help from their cousins across the channel on Idt Ga, the villagers hastily constructed a fort on a bluff overlooking the port. Stocked with the cannons from the Grey Sea-Wolf, the fort could disable any ship that entered the channel before it could return fire. Come March 1738, when the ice melted and the rest of the pirates learned of the Grey Sea-Wolf's fate they could do little to retaliate. Although they merely wanted to free their own villages from pirate harassment, the villagers of Jle and Idt Ga liberated all of the suffering people along the eastern coast of the Keorgan Archipelago. After the channel had been closed to pirate raiders, development of some of the archipelago's most fertile and productive land began in earnest. Many historians consider this to be the critical event that changed the course of development in the archipelago and it is considered the event that marks the end of the Early pre-Agricultural Revolution Period.

Something I've found that can be effective is to relistically recreate the feel of a particular area without recreating every single street. If you have say, 12 parallel streets of rowhouses in the real city, scale down the map so that you can fill up that area with 4 or 5 streets. If you have a particular real-world cities in mind and you are fairly familiar with them you should be able to identify individual districts and recreate them without having to built every street and rowhouse. Maxis used this method in the cities that came with SC2k and SC3k and I think they were pretty appealing.

I'd like to apologize to everyone who had been following my CJ, I know it's been a very long delay since the last update, but history marches on.... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Ceibl.jpg align=baseline border=5> Untouched coastline and a characteristic village view from Ciebl, a region on the southwestern coast of the island of Gohrn. Ceibl was the the most heavily-settled region of the Keorgan archipelago during the Early Pre-Agricultural Revolution Period. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Lutif%20and%20Reisenbaj-Mar.%2031,%20231113088896.jpg align=baseline border=5> The great majority of settlements on the archipelago are clusters of small family farms. Few goods were produced in the Keorgan lands and most village shops simply sell goods from the European mainland to the Keorgan farmers. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//revillage.jpg align=baseline border=5> During the last decade of the Early pre-Agricultural Revolution Period widescale crop failures and changes in trade routes from mainland Europe, due at least partially to pirate attacks, starved many regions. Villages dissapeared off the map. Many larger towns underwent a phase of revillagization, during which the population dropped so dramatically that the town could no longer function cohesively and broke apart into vilages. Above is the most dramatic example of this--on the left the town of Jutreux in 1718, the left is the same area in 1733, after several neighborhoods became individual villages no longer associated with the town. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//graph.jpg align=baseline border=5> This graph shows the change in total population of the Keorgan Archipelago during the Early pre-Agricultural Period.

Woo-hoo! The CJ broke through the 500 view barrier. Thanks again everybody for your feedback. I feel honored to have both SC4 meister's 100th and Ducio's 1st post gracing its pages. I've recently picked out a water mod to make things seems a little more realistic, so I'll look forward to seeing what people think. The next full update should bring the region up to the year 1738, just before the beginning of the late pre-agricultural revolution period. If there's anything specific anybody would like to see before time marches forward, be sure to let me know and I'll gladly stick up a picture of it.

Thanks for the imput, it really helps to keep me motivated to work on the region. MayorTim--you must have been reading my mind because I was looking at water mods right as you were typing your response. Maranello575--I should have a region pic that includes the most recent development in my next update. Thanks again!