jishnu

Fantastic CJ, I love the look and the airport (along with everyone here, it seems!)...one question though, I'm wondering if you made the lots with the other aircraft yourself (I have the ones for the airport pack with the 747s). Do you know where I could get the lots you have? I looked on the STEX and they don't seem to be there... Anyway keep up the good work! I'm going to Dubai in December and this looks exactly like all the pictures...a crazy metropolis springing up out of the sand

I usually go with two approaches: 1) places I've been/names in the real world that I like, or 2) fictional sci-fi locations. Examples from option 2 (bonus credit if you can point out the origin of these names): 1. New Avalon 2. Hadley's Hope (don't look at my signature) Examples from option 1: 1. Verona Beach 2. Port Jefferson 3. Lake Turkana 4. Sainik Farms 5. Council Bluffs 6. Ludhiana There's nothing wrong with naming your city something exotic. Just realize that naming a city Wang Chung just because you want it to be Chinese may not be the best course of action. - Everybody Wang Chung tonight

This might have been asked already but ShadeSlayer, droopie - where did you get the lots for parked aircraft that aren't 747s like the Iberia and Air France jets? I looked on the STEX and can't seem to find them.

This is like The O.C. of city journals: trash with style that you totally want to come back to and watch for unfathomable reasons. Okay, the reasons are perfectly obvious: it's entertaining, and it's trash. Don't judge me, even you dudes who pretend like you don't watch it think Summer and Marissa are hot. I think you should put in some jails and schools next to each other, but don't fund the schools or anything, after all we don't want our kids learning there now do we? Love the irreverent humor and the family guy reference, keep it coming

Hi, I'm new to Simtropolis. This is my first CJ. I've been a fan of Simcity since the original and I've been playing SC4 since a couple of days after it came out. I got Rush Hour soon after it came out as well. However, I quickly reached its limitations and my cities in this region stagnated. Then I discovered Simtropolis and STEX and went insane, reworked half my cities, started a few new ones, made them look somewhat prettier, and now I want to share them. My cities were built from the ground up without any God-mode terraforming. If I wanted to alter the landform, I did it with money and a bulldozer. The cities are messy and uncoordinated with an uneven road grid and an mass transit network that depended more on which apartment buildings or boutiques I was willing to blow up than making traffic flow efficiently. My central high-density city is congested, overcrowded, and polluted. In other words, it's like a real city. This isn't really supposed to be a replica of San Francisco. It's just using the terrain that came with the game. This is also nowhere near as pretty as some of the custom stuff I've seen on here. For example, marrast's transit networks in his Eladremme and Etsaw cities are works of art. (I really have to ask why you'd name a city WASTE spelled backwards, though.) But I think there is something strangely appealing about the in-your-face nature of my cities. Some of the mods and lots I went crazy with: 1. PEG Brigantine water texture 2. PEG gold sandstone rock texture 3. Major Urban PRS 4. BSC King's Cross PRS 5. Marrast 1x6 and 2x6 PRS 6. High Capacity Elevated Stations (Diagonal and Straight) 7. BART Talent commuter trains (since this is the Bay Area, I only thought it appropriate) 8. DC Metro subway and elevated trains (I go to school in College Park, MD; the DC metro and I are intimate friends) 9. numerous NDEX skyscrapers (I'm really blown away by these) 10. Beaches for Irregular Coasts 11. Oppie canals 12. Marrast avenue dividers 13. Memorial Hospital So, without further ado, I present you with the San Francisco Bay Area: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_san%20francisco%20-%20actual.jpg align=baseline> And here is the transit map: The first cities on the tour shall be the central high-density region, Tierranueva, and its suburb of Bayside Point and its faraway companion town of Tierras Bajas.

The next city on the tour, Tierras Bajas, is fairly young. I started it after I discovered Oppie's canals and went crazy. This is the only city built on the Easy difficulty setting, because I needed the money to lay out the canals before I started building. As said earlier, this city also made extensive use of God-mode terraforming. The coastline was extended and land reclaimed. However, it is low-lying, and when I tried to build a marina the dock actually appeared underwater. It is divided into four sections: the western island, the southern island, the middle island, and the mainland. The East Coast Main Line's Tierras Bajas daily service ends here. (My rail network is pretty complicated.) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierras%20bajas%20-%20high%20altitude%20shot.jpg align=baseline> This grid is a lot more orderly; because I had the money, I laid out the roads before I started zoning. I-95 runs along the eastern end of this city. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierras%20bajas%20-%20main%20exit%20and%20IPR%20station.jpg align=baseline> This is the main exit off I-95; that avenue turns into Main Street. Industrial Park Station is the rail stop on the mainland. Curiously, more than a quarter of the passenger rail traffic embarks here. They actually drive all the way out here to hop on the train. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierras%20bajas%20-%20north%20maidan.jpg align=baseline> Heading west, we come across Middle Island and South Island. This is where I used marrast's avenue divider. The street is known as Maidan Avenue, after a road in central Calcutta, India with a gigantic grassy median nearby called the Maidan. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierras%20bajas%20-%20maidan%20avenue.jpg align=baseline> This is the North Maidan, a poorer section of town. To the west is the Grand Canal and to the East is the East Branch Canal and the mainland. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierras%20bajas%20-%20west%20island%20and%20towers.jpg align=baseline> This is the West Island and its apartment buildings and office towers...and a cruise ship port. The Grand Canal and its bridges can be seen to the south and east. That is all for Tierras Bajas. Next, we move to Bayside Point.

The last few pictures of Tierranueva present a different character to the city. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20power%20and%20waste%20centre.jpg align=baseline> This is the most unrealistic portion of the city. It used to be a messed-up junction of roads and power lines that I was too lazy to clean up (as power plants were built and aged and replaced with different kinds, the grid was practically destroyed). This was also the original site of the Tierranueva landfill. Now, power generation is provided by 5 Waste-to-Energy Incinerators and 3 Hydrogen Power Plants (running at about 80%). There are no landfills and there is one Recycling Center for every 25,000 citizens. The grid is clean and orderly and the incinerators tucked into the corner of the map so about a quarter of their air pollution blows off-screen. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20elevated%20junction.jpg align=baseline> This is the Old Northern Business District. A lot of the buildings are dilapidated as the jobs have migrated to the southern end of this commercial area (near the NDEX Vanadium Tower, the Chrysler Building, and Lind Entertainment). It now serves mainly as the confluence of four major subway and elevated lines as well as avenue and highway links to Rocky Flats and Hillside Terraces. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20minor%20league%20stadium.jpg align=baseline> Who knew that rich people liked minor league soccer? https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20seaside%20residences.jpg align=baseline> The richest of Tierranueva's elite live along the seaside, with a GDV yacht club and multiple marinas for their rich-people boats. If I could afford an apartment here, I'd probably have a boat too. And we say goodbye to Tierranueva and say hello to Tierras Bajas.

Some explanations of the city names: Tierranueva - means New Land in Spanish. Since this was the Bay Area, I really didn't know what other language I could incorporate. Powelton Village - A residential area of Philadelphia's Center City between 30th and 39th Streets / Spring Garden Street and three blocks south. I used to live there. Rocky Flats - that's what the landform looked like. In reality, it's the location of a U.S. nuclear material production plant somewhere in Utah. Tierras Bajas - means Lowlands in Spanish. That's because this was the only map that I terraformed extensively in God mode. I extended the original shoreline and made a lot of flat reclaimed land. If the Bay flooded, this place would be wiped off the face of the Earth. Aldea Vieja - means Old Village in Spanish. It's the oldest unchanged community in this region. Lincolnshire - it's a northern suburb of Chicago, about ten miles south of Libertyville, another northern suburb. I used to live in Libertyville. Homestead - named after one of the hardest disaster scenarios in SC2000. Sainik Farms - named after a super-rich gated community of mansions in New Delhi, India. A few of my relatives live there. Ludhiana - my current work-in-progress. Ludhiana is a city in northern India. It used to be the forward-most garrison during the British occupation. Hillside Terraces - that's what they are. Hongshan Park - It's a park in Urumqi, a city in the Sinkiang (or Chinese Turkestan, western China). To continue the tour, let's take a look at Tierranueva, my pride and joy: https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20CBD%20at%20night.jpg align=baseline> This is the western end of TN's business district. You can see an NDEX skyscraper and the Empire State Building. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20central%20business%20district.jpg align=baseline> This is the southern end of the Central Business District. You can see a couple of NDEX skyscrapers. I think it's awesome that there are so many buildings that I can't even see the roads. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20I-95.jpg align=baseline> This is I-95, the highway which cuts the Central Business District in half. There's another NDEX skyscraper on the right. It just worked out that all the buildings that grew here LOOK THE SAME. Also, I-95 is a real highway that runs up and down the east coast of the US. It's the bane of my existence; whenever I drive home from DC to Connecticut, I have to use it, and it can drive anyone to insanity. Or maybe that's just the New Jersey Turnpike. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20north%20business%20district.jpg align=baseline> This is TN's North Business District in the (you guessed it) North part of the city. You can see the Chrysler building and another NDEX skyscraper. In the upper left corner you can see the bottom part of the Lind Entertainment skyscraper, the biggest and tallest naturally grown skyscraper in TN (all the taller buildings are NDEX or landmarks). https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20nueva%20stadium%20in%20play.jpg align=baseline> As mayor, I have taken an idea from Oriole Park at Camden Yards and made every Friday night $5 for student seats in the upper deck. Oh, and free beer. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//New_tierranueva%20-%20cruise%20port%20and%20tenement.jpg align=baseline> And my final picture.....this is SC4's engine screwing with you. Who decides to develop a TENEMENT right next to the Cruise Ship Port? That's just cruel. Hey, you MIGHT make enough money in your entire life to get a cabin on one of these! More to come later....