Girafarig

Welcome to a new format: Quick Updates, for new features in towns already featured in this guide. Anclaje was the very first city featured in this journal and, as such, it has experienced the most transformation. From changing flora to growing over the nearby hills, the city has expanded in size and scope. From the very start, Anclaje featured Highway 3, a link from its downtown core to its upvalley neighbour to the north. H3 cut through some of the most important neighbourhoods and was, to put it mildly, a eyesore. It also took up a substantial amount of land, so much so that it could be feasibly replaced by an 8-lane avenue without losing much ground. The starting point: the intersection of Highways 3 and 2 Nevertheless, some clearing was necessary. This provided an opportunity to upgrade old El Valle rail station with something worthy of a city anchoring a 3-million-people metro area. The area before (looking South) The new train station (looking North) And here's a couple more pictures, including the final result. Cutting through downtown The end result: Avenida de los Laureles (Laurel Avenue), the Anclaje River and the rest of the city Regularly-scheduled city features will return… soon.

Guess who did a bit of urban renewal (and downloaded quite more than a bit of new content)

It depends on the mod, but it's mostly the former. Oil power buildings are paid for from your budget, you don't need to supply oil. Having said this, there's a bunch of oil mods that give you cash for having them on your city (sometimes in exchange for a polluting lot or something). So, in a way, you can have an oil rig in your city and have that pay for your oil power plant.

I recently got a new tree controller and I've been diligently replacing the old Maxis flora with the new trees. And one of the towns I'm playing with has a very tall hill… So tall, in fact, that its summit is above the tree line. What better place for a ski resort? The hotel was there before the rest, but it fits really nicely. The damn summit is so high I had to do a rock cut for one of the ski lifts. And finally… I had actually built the church and tunnel quite some time ago, like some sort of grotto church. But the new flora really makes it happen, doesn't it?

Sightseeing in Finisterra Being somewhat removed from the centres of population in Isla Bonita, Finisterra is not teeming with tourist attractions like its neighbours. Nevertheless, it offers a few sightseeing activities -- and some of the most breathtaking natural views in the entire island. De Gracia Parroquia (church) and Avenue De Gracia Avenue extends for about a kilometer on the foothills of the Finisterra Massif In the midst of the Flatlands skyscrapers stands the Nuestra Señora de Gracia church, a small remnant of a once much more modest town. From its entrance, the Avenida de Gracia extends -- once the pilgrimage route south, to the sea, and now still a pedestrian area, open to the public 24/7 (the church is open from 8:00 to 20:00, and it holds regular Catholic services). The modest church and its surrounding gardens Some of Finisterra's attractions can be found along this route, most notably the local chapter of the State Fair, where agricultural products from all over the island can be purchased. The avenue ends at the aptly named Avenida de Gracia station, served by Tramline 5 (the Coast & Mountain tram). The station itself is located on a vantage point with views to the sea and Isla Sur, across the sea. The city ends alongside the station How to get here The easiest way is to hop on Line T5 and get off at Avenida de Gracia station. The State Fair is served by Danforth rail station to its west, though services on the Finisterrra -- Pueblo Simón scenic branch are sparse. There are plenty of bus lines that serve the general area, and while traffic tends to be pretty heavy during peak hours, the nearby highway (crossed by Avenida de Gracia) allows for decent capacity and speed. Catania Beach and Peninsula Located in the far northwestern part of the city, Catania neighbourhood is wedged between the sea and the mountains. Originally farmland, it has now become one of the most attractive spots to settle in Isla Bonita, thanks to its cool, maritime weather, its gorgeous views, plenty of canals and substantial nightlife. The main attractive of the area is its namesake beach, over 1 kilometer of sandy yellow coastline starting all the way in neighbouring Cuerno de Águila. Catania Beach is open all week long for as long as there's light out, while the nearby shops open until midnight. Catania Train Station, just across the avenue, sits on a branch of the Anclaje Northeast railway (despite its western location) and has regular service from Anclaje Keleti Speaking of shops, the Catania Marina extends all over the Peninsula and features plenty of shops, stores and even cinemas. Seaside properties are open until midnight, while most land stores close around 10 pm. For the best in fine dining, head… elsewhere. The Peninsula has Burger King and the Hard Rock Cafe The Cosmos has been declared a Historical Building and offers a wide selection of auteur films For something slightly different, head inland and you'll find the famous Catania Park alongside the Catania Cerebral Cathedral (or the "Triple C", as the locals know it), the Main Library and a few more shops and pubs. How to get here? Catania is the best-connected neighbourhood in the entire city. It is served by two Line 1 subway stations (Avenida del Parque and Cosmos), part of its latest extension. It also features the Catania Rail Station and a ferry station near the Marina. As usual, there are plenty of local and express buses, with the latter usually taking Highway 1 (seen next to the park). Old Town The aptly-named Old Town is the first part of Finisterra to have been founded. Despite being integrated into the rest of the South Bay metro area, it retains its character as a quiet suburb with single-family homes and tranquil beaches, and it remains very popular for day trips amongst South Bay denizens. The Old Town: red streets, two-story housing, small quays. The fanciest part of town, undoubtedly, is the Finisterra Hotel, combining the luxury of an all-inclusive with its location, right next to the local beach and some luxury stores. The beach is free to access, but it's closed at sundown and loud music is strictly forbidden. How to get here? The original way to get into town was via the Anclaje Northeast railway. The Union Pacific station serves this part of town, is a Historical Building in the Art Decó style and sits right across from the Fishermen's Wharf (great restaurant place) and the Old Town beach. Sightseeing buses are another popular option for tourists Union Pacific is also the terminus for the scenic railway, more on that later. Depending on where they're staying, most tourists choose one of two ways to arrive. Tramline T5 and Monorail Line A finish at Finisterra station, across town. Obviously, the monorail is the fastest way to get here (and it comes straight from the Bahía Medusa airport), but the tramline arrives here after some street running, so it offers more value for sight-seeing tourists. Either way, Finisterra station is a great shopping hub, both within the station and in the surrounding area. Finisterra zoo and vantage points One of the newest attractions in the city is the Finisterra zoo, located near the top of the Finisterra Massif, right next to the local LDS Temple, at the bend of Dorsal Avenue. The zoo sits atop a small plateau, with great views to the recently inaugurated Playa Ancha wilderness zone. The Zoo opens Tuesdays-Sundays, 11 am to 8 pm in the summer, 6 pm in the winter, and a regular ticket is §1, while the Temple is usually closed to the public. The hills are teeming with wildlife, so much so that some people have wondered if the zoo isn't a bit pointless Following the ridge of the mountains, the Finisterra Buddhist temple sits nearby. Styled after the Sungrye-Mun gates of Seoul, the temple offers some of the best views of the entire island and you can book a tour of the place. Speaking of great views, the aforementioned Playa Ancha wilderness zone is open during daytime, Tue-Sun. The entrance is located not far from the Zoo, close to where Transversal Avenue currently ends, and the road gets you all the way to the Playa Ancha scenic point. Entry is free of charge. The faux-Roman arch signals entry to the Wilderness area Catalina Restaurant holds a concession to operate the vantage restaurant. Reservation holders can enter the wilderness area at night How to get to all these places? While they're all nearby, your transportation needs may vary. For the Zoo: Meudon station on Tramline 5 is right across the avenue. There are plenty of buses running along Dorsal Avenue, with most stopping at either Meudon or nearby Parada Zoológico. The Buddhist Temple is not well-served by transportation. Your best chance is to get off at Dorsal Avenue station on Tramline 5, and from here, take a local bus to Templo Budista stop, which is across the street. You can also try walking from the station, since it's about 400 meters, but you'll be walking uphill and you need to take Corea street. There is a bus line that takes you from Meudon or Dorsal Avenue stations (it stops at both) to the vantage point. Frequency is about 15 minutes, though so be ready to wait. Scenic routes More than any other city or suburb in Isla Bonita, Finisterra features plenty of regular commuter lines that offer stunning views for the price of a regular ticket. Here's our favourites: Tramline T5 Coming from Pueblo Simón to the east, and after a bit of street running, Line T5 starts climbing from Ferry station along the coast to Avenida de Gracia station, and from there, it's a steep climb to Meudon, before crossing the entire massif and coming down the other side. While not featuring such breathtaking views as other routes in this list, line T5 does go through a fair amount of wooded wilderness. Line T5 sees heavy usage during peak hours and weekdays, so please, refrain from riding it then. There has been talk of walling the area around the line to avoid hitting wildlife Monorail Line A The Monorail route in its final stretches is probably the best option for the transit-savvy tourist looking to take good pictures. After Final de Valle station, the monorail digs deep under the Massif to come out… here. Watch out for the curve! Sit on the left on your way to Finisterra station to get the best views of the ocean as you climb uphill before going into the second tunnel. It's no more than a couple of minutes to travel this section, so keep your camera ready! And into the Earth we go Scenic railway The Pueblo Simón-Finisterra branch railway links Union Pacific station in Finisterra to Calle Alta station in Pueblo Simón. There are rail connections linking this branch line to Catania station and Cuerno Águila, on one side, and the mainline to Providencia Island on the other, but the line itself does no longer feature any passengers connections. And for good reason: while both Tram and, to an extent, Monorail connections are pretty direct (Monorail is helped by its greater overall speed and lack of stops in between), the rail (already the slowest means of transportation) features several long tunnels, steep climbs and close curves. The now tourist-oriented 30-minute trip sees you starting on Union Pacific station and entering Finisterra Rail tunnel. Don't be fooled by the catenaries. This is going to be a slow trip Emerging on the other side of the massif, there's short coastal section with great views of the nearby ocean and Isla Sur. The train does stop here for pictures, but the nearby beach is off-limits Finally, a second tunnel leads the train into the hillside, on the Flatlands side, and into Danforth station. You can get off here to go to the nearby State Fair, as mentioned beforehand, or you can continue your trip into Pueblo Simón. Plenty of wildlife here, too! The trip costs §5 one-way, whether you get off on Danforth or Alta Calle, and it runs on weekends with an hourly frequency. Tickets can also be bought, and trains ridden, on the other stations – though for obvious reasons, passengers are discouraged from doing only the Danforth to Alta Calle leg.

Is… is that a uterus?

After a long hiatus brought about by political turmoil and lack of time, I finally bring you the newest entry in the Online Isla Bonita Tourism Catalog: Finisterra! Finisterra some 50 years ago Finisterra today, plus parts of Cuerno de Águila (north, right) and Pueblo Simón (east, down) Finisterra is the southernmost suburb in the South Bay area, home to 200,000 people, at the very southwest corner of Isla Bonita, south of Cuerno de Águila. General information City name: Finisterra Date of foundation: XX century Population: 274,857 Size: 16 sq km. Land area: about half Average income: §35k/person/year. History Early years What is now known as Finisterra was little more than farmland overlooking the South Bay, the final remnants of the Cuerno de Águila massif and a small strip of land on the western side of it. The railway opened in the early 20th century, turning was is now the Old Town neighbourhood into a seaside resort where upper-middle class Bonitoans could buy a second house. The Hotel de Finisterra, at the far right, was seen as the most luxurious place to enjoy the summer breeze The integration of Finisterra to the South Bay metropolitan area came gradually as the urban area expanded west, then south. The flatlands were the first to be taken over: just a municipal border away from the burgeoning Las Granjas district in nearby Cuerno de Águila, and close to the already-established Pueblo Simón to its east, they were quickly turned into a large, dense residential neighbourhood, linked by monorail and highway to the main city. The Nuestra Señora de Gracia church stands at the center of the new residential development, with a road stretching from its gates southward into the sea (pictured 50 years ago) Same neighbourhood today —white-roofed houses have given way to more European-style constructions and some buildings have been renewed The monorail enabled the Las Granjas business district to spill into Finisterra, to the west of the former picture As essentially a peninsula jutting into the ocean, Finisterra has a long south coast. However, most of it is rugged and lacks natural bays. Only a small sliver of land right next to its border with Pueblo Simón allows for a ferry terminal (pictured 50 years ago) The same area today, with a small boardwalk The second big growth spurt came, like the first one, as built-up area in Cuerno de Águila spilled over, this time on the narrow western sea shelf. This side of the city was much difficult to build in, owing to less area and the waterlogged conditions, but market pressures eventually prevailed in building up a new neighbourhood. Catania train station lends its name to the surrounding seaside neighbourhood, built on reclaimed land and with several canals Closeup of Catania station and beach. The latter extends into neighbouring Cuerno de Águila The final, and current growing stage of Finisterra came as flat land is running out in the very hilly South Bay area. New residential developments have sprung up over the Massif, greatly helped by the fact that the geography of Finisterra is not so steep as that of its neighbours to the north. Still, development has required a series of complicated holding walls and the abandonment of any sort of grid. Dorsal quartier, straddling its namesake avenue and on the side of the Finisterra massif, was the first hill development in the city The seesawing climb of Transversal avenue is characteristic of the compromises made to deal with the complicated geography of the area The top of the hill is occupied by the Mormon temple of Finisterra, Meudon station (underneath Dorsal avenue, which takes a 90° turn to the west here) and the Finisterra zoo. Beyond that, this photo shows what was then wilderness The same area today, with new single-family housing, schools and even a new church Since the first edition of this Finisterra brochure, development has continued over the hill, to the south, through what has come to be known as the Russian quartier, though the to-be-named quartier of Playa Ancha, on the seaside, remains undeveloped. The Russian quartier extends to the south of the zoo (bottom left), beyond the Roman-style portal that once marked the start of a protected nature area So, this is supposed to be the next residential area…? Geography and climate Finisterra juts out of the southwesternmost extremity of Isla Bonita. Its maritime location greatly tempers temperatures in summer, with a constant seabreeze keeping daytime temperatures hovering in the 20s (celsius), especially on its westernmost reaches. In common with the rest of Isla Bonita's mediterranean climate, there's a dry(er) season around July, with December seeing the most rain, but just barely. That being said, the hills and the westerlies combine to form a number of microclimates. Flat coastal lands see moderate amounts of rain and humidity, while west-facing hills endure increasing amounts of precipitation on account of their geography. East-facing sides of hills, on the other hand, are particularly dry -- an area which includes most of the new developments and some areas near the southern coast. Precipitation in June. Note the drier western side, which can see some June Gloom but nevertheless is missed by the rain. Compare the December graph, which is wetter throughout but shows essentially the same rain patterns, with marked wet and dry stripes dissecting the Massif Besides precipitation patterns, Finisterra features an extremely mild Mediterreanean climate. It has only registered snow once and it has never seen freezing temperatures, while summer temperatures have never reached over 30°C. There's a reason why it remains so popular as a day trip retreat from Anclaje and the South Bay area -- and in the second part, we'll feature how to get to this suburb and what to see. See you then!

The act of compact intakes is one that must be learned, but there's always a way to gain one more square. Hint: use the network delete feature as much as possible.

§1,000,000 to stay here for a whole night:

I haven't updated my CJ in quite some time, but I've been working on my cities alright. This is a new development in Cuerno de Águila, right next to the border with the next city to be featured in my CJ… sometime. Soon. I love suburban hill neighbourhoods. Church + Cemetery combo, abandoned houses… I'm saving this image for Halloween

£100 is a month's salary here. Well, if you make minimum wage, that is. And I don't think using mods on a Mac is a particularly terrible experience. Sure, EXE files are a pain and locating the Plugins folder is an adventure, but once you have located it, drag and drop will take you all the way to… well, to when you need to use JDatPacker. But it takes a long while to get there, and in the meantime, you have enough time to learn about those things. The game's halfway there. Which is why it's sad that Aspyr won't do anything but the bare minimum so people won't ask for refunds. Alas, that's their business model and we can't do much about it, now can we?

Hey, that's my city! Like they mentioned before, those are Hybrid Railway (HRW) catenaries. For the ground rail, try plopping monorail (one at a time, don't drag it). You will need to use puzzle pieces for curves. Viaduct HRW is a bit tricker, but it more or less follows the same pattern. That particular line is a now functional HRW line, which cost me a lot of blood, sweat and simoleons -- but the catenaries are neat so sometimes I just plop them in regular railways. If you have the money ($100/segment), then it's worth it.

It seems like a bit much to ask Apple Silicon Mac users to download and use a whole OS (in addition to WINE, mind you) just to run a single game. We just lost the ability to install Windows on the new chips, I very much doubt that installing Linux is going to be very easy (especially for a beginner, non-tech-savvy user). Now, there used to be WINE for Mac, which I used extensively but barely works at all on Apple Silicon. The paid version, Crossover, which is essentially someone crafting you a custom wrapper to run a videogame, does list SC4 on its compatibility database. But it's a pretty terrible "Installs, Will Not Run" two-star rating, so it's gonna be a while before that idea, which I find more feasible, gets off the ground. Also, mind you, Crossover is still setting you back US$64, which doesn't sound like a lot but it's three times the cost of the actual game. And all this for something that it's not even guaranteed to flawlessly run SC4 plus however many DLLs we end up getting (WINE is kind of fiddly when it comes to DLLs and the like). I think this is the death knell for SimCity 4 on the Mac. Which, I guess, I'm not complaining –I got a lot of fun out of 20 bucks spent 10 years ago– but it's still sad.

Aspyr has been a real sore spot for us Mac players since… well, probably the very start? I should be grateful that they even patched SC4 to work on Apple Silicon (though just barely), but the matter of fact is that they're not a very good company to deal with. EDIT since some people are confused: I've used Macs all my life. Many Mac ports (I'd say, at least for a period of time, this meant "any game not made by Blizzard") were not handled by the developer or the publisher, but by Aspyr, who were founded specifically to cater to that market segment. I have played a lot of Aspyr-ported games, especially during my teenage years, but Aspyr ports are… not good, to be honest. We all know (I think) that SC4 was unplayable for SEVERAL years, and that's just to name one. The transition from PowerPC to Intel chips was both a blessing and a curse, in that Universal Binary ports were really bad, but it allowed Aspyr to cut a lot of corners by essentially porting games as fancy WINE containers, which of course worked great(ish) until Apple switched back to Apple Silicon. SimCity 4 got ported again (though I'd argue version 1.2.2 is still a bad port), but many other games weren't so lucky. You want to play Modern Warfare 2? Tough luck and thanks for the 20 bucks. But hey, they have Civilization 5, so that's something, huh?

Why not add some sort of resting spot there? you have plenty of elevated highways, you can probably run a few streets under those

I have a couple of Hybrid-Rail-related requests. I know tunnels –and to a lesser extent, bridges– are hard-coded, so tunneling with HRW requires two tunnels, one of which is monorail. I can live with this, but could there be any way to make some sort of cosmetic piece in front of the tunnel, so it would at least look like it's rail instead? For now, I've resorted to covering the entrance with trees, but everyone can see what's going on here. This was a nightmare to achieve, and I'm still not sure heavy rail can use it properly I'm thinking of something like the STR Tunnel Mod, which is just a cosmetic piece but does the trick: As for bridges, I'm making do with the available GHSR bridges, but a monorail bridge that resembled HRW (and, for that matter, a rail bridge with catenaries) would also be very nice). In the same vein, I'd like to ask for switches that make it easier to establish the one-square gap required for both tunnels and bridges. As it stands, the available HRW switches either lay the two tracks side-by-side (like in the picture below, or the 5x2 default piece) or on a diagonal that requires a two-tile gap for a straightening curve. There are some workarounds to get the required one-tile gap (as seen in the first picture) but, given the prevalence of paired tunnels and bridges in any HRW network worth its salt, there should be at least a couple of easy-made switches, IMO. An S-curve and then a 6x3 switch, a sure way to give whiplash to any poor rail passenger There are also no Y-shaped switches, which is very uncomfortable for T-Intersections and would also be a possible (if not the simplest) solution to the one-tile gap issue.

It's unlikely that someone other than Jenx will upload that file, but maybe it'll show up in a compilation at SC4Evermore. I, for one, would hope so, since Jenx's files are gorgeous.

More Hybrid-Railway-related shenanigans! Now it's the turn of the next town over, Ciudad del Arado, which will feature in my CJ… I don't know, not for a while (?). There's a main line, not pictured, that was supposed to be turned into HRW, but I got carried away and also converted not one but both entrances to Ciudad del Arado, which is at best a 3,000-pop town, with a small port for grain shipments and whatnot. Now, ordinarily, this wouldn't be an issue, since HRW lines can also carry freight. But, uh, I was in a bind for space. Since the main line through town now had a station (bottom left, next to the park) I needed a new, freight-exclusive line and the only way was through the town. So, it was time for the good ol' cut-and-cover railway! All this meant, of course, that freight trains now have to take the long way around, so all the farms prefer to take trucks out of town. But hey, at least they have a way to get to the port, should they choose that. And I'll get a new, more central rail spur at some point, or something.

After a short break on account of the holidays and running out of uploading space, I'm back with hybrid rail-related shenanigans. The city of Bahía Herradura, soon to be featured in my CJ (but already shown in the Railroad Showcase thread) is going to be the starting point of an actually-useful high speed rail line. The thing is, it needs substantial upgrading. First: I actually need two neighbor connections to make HSR work. So there's a bit of upgrading needed. The next town over has an already-upgraded line, so I just need to make the connection work… in this small piece of available land. The road needs to go, and probably the rural station, too (at least, for now. Maybe I can rebuilt that lot later on, if need be). I could just merge the two lines (I did that on the other side) but since I have a bridge and there are no hybrid rail bridgers (will there ever be?), it's best to simply add some switches and prepare for a double bridge. I had also considered a causeway for this section, but the lake, as it turns out, is a bit too deep for my liking. (Yes, there's a spot there that needs monorail fixing) Now I need the bridges: one for regular railway, and another one for GHSR, which I have never used so far and looks… a bit wonky, to be honest. But it'll make do. Finally, it's time to upgrade the station. Even though it would make sense to have more than two platforms, this is a small town and the rail line is only headed towards other, smaller towns – so a smaller station right next to the ferry terminals makes sense. Now, this rail line extends to the right all the way to Anclaje, the actual big town in my region. But to get there, it has to go through another, taller bridge and a tunnel. I can probably replicate the bridge technique seen here, but the tunnels are going to be far trickier because monorail tunnels are vastly different than rail ones. Not to mention the fact that, on the other side, the rail actually looks like this: And there's a second tunnel after that: But if I manage to pull this, I'll be able to have… a rather redundant line to connect a bunch of small seaside towns with the main metropolis. We'll see.

I'm looking for a Hybrid Railway terminal station – ideally a smaller one like matt325b's terminal set (one of those pictured here), but any will do as long as they're terminals and enabled for Hybrid Railway (so they work both for monorail and heavy rail)

Here, I just happen to have a trenched railway in my city. I started by adding two on-slope ramps on each side. I usually have 7.5 m in here, but I've picked 15 m just to make sure they both work. I then dragged the avenue all the way to right before the ramp. I did not attempt to cover the ramp tile with the avenue. Instead of showing the circling road (like when avenues just end), the preview changed to a straight-through. It ends up looking like this: Note that the ramp builds itself over the rail. I did not drag the avenue over the ramp nor over the rail. Then I did the same thing on the other side and ended with a regular bridge. No attachment since I seem to have run out of my attachment quota, blame that picture-heavy CJ. I don't know why your road doesn't continue all the way to the ramp, but if it fails to do, you can try the alternative viaducts. I use the stone viaduct for some 7.5 m roads over rails, it works wonders, and (crucially) it adds a piece of road before the ramp proper that you can pave over with your own road. Give it a try and let me know.

You should only extend the avenue to the onramp, and you may have to do the final section as one-way roads. If you give me a couple hours, I can check myself –or you can see the manuals others have quoted in here.

Hey! They've just released a Reddonquixote compilation at SC4Evermore and it includes St. Pauls cathedral. So now, after two months, you can get it too: https://www.sc4evermore.com/index.php/downloads/download/21-other/206-sc4d-LEX-legacy-reddonquixote-compilation-maxis-night