sully

I would like a scale map of the Twin Cities Metro Area, if possible... The USGS mapping isn't being too friendly to me. The map should include, at the least, all of Hennepin and Ramsey County. Maximum boundaries: N - Midpoint of Anoka County/North Border of Washington County (w/Chisago County) S - Midpoint of Dakota County (State Highway 50 E of Highway 52 for reference point) E - Minnesota/Wisconsin Border W - West Border of Hennepin County (w/Carver and Wright Counties) If possible, I would like to have all of the major lakes (Minnetonka, White Bear, Prior, Chain of Lakes in Minneapolis) as well as the rivers. I can't seem to get both to show up.

Here's my update. Sorry so late, but I was far too busy at the end of the week to get on and do so. When we left off, I mentioned that there was a traffic issue in my cities. The roadway indicated in the shot below is experiencing major traffic problems - It's in the red on the data map! For those that like lots of lines, here's another picture of that road, with all the routes on it: Similar issues have come up on major roads in Luminaire. City officials have proposed a couple of solutions to the problem: The picture shows options for expanding the roads in question, and both feature the introduction of passenger railroads to the city. The top plan shows avenues and railroads built alongside each other. The bottom option shows a railroad surrounded on each side by one way roads. SimTropolis members and Citizens of the two cities are welcome to offer their input on the plans. The next item on the docket is the third city in the area, Ivalice. Ivalice is located due south of Luminaire, across the Minnesota River. All cities involved contributed to the construction of a long bridge across the river: Ivalice is also heavily dependent on agriculture: In their early tenure, the citizens have come very attached to their mayor. So much, in fact, they paid for a statue in his honor: Below is a shot of the Ivalice Police and Fire departments, and the Mayor's house: An overview shot of the growing residential commmunity: And finally, an overview shot of Ivalice. At night, no less! The last item on the schedule is to mention the solution to the trash problem. Tried out first in Ivalice, and then implemented in Luminaire and Marisol, PEG's Black Hole! Before I go, a couple of quick shots from Marisol and Luminaire. The first is of the growing commercial development in Luminaire, which is the first city to start seeing large commercial demand: The last shot is of some development in Marisol, where the city is starting to wrap around the small bay in the river: And lastly, a population update on each of the cities: Luminaire | 20,969 - 6,176 Commercial Jobs - 4,093 Industrial Jobs Marisol | 13,776 - 2,326 Commercial Jobs - 3,462 Industrial Jobs Ivalice | 5,912 - 739 Commercial Jobs - 1,025 Industrial Jobs Enjoy!

Thanks for the tip, palmgurl. I did download that mod for my game. I'll have an udpate here in about 10-15 minutes!

Spiffy, responses! simster6 | You'll see more before the end of the week, either Thursday or Friday. Thanks for the kind words! sloppet | Thank you! The start has always been the most difficult part for me getting these cities off the ground, but things are going better this time around. As far as updates, I'm not sure what a typical amount of time between updates would be, so I think I might plan for updates on the weekend (Either Saturday or Sunday), then maybe once in the middle of the week (Tuesday/Wednesday) and once again before the weekend (Thursday/Friday). I think I can pull that off. In my next update, anticipate some of the following: 1] Traffic boom in Luminaire/Marisol! Have we finally reached the point where roads don't have the necessary capacity? Stay tuned to find out what action the city may take. 2] A village is born. Sims from the area have migrated south to form Ivalice, the third city which will form the Tri-Cities area. Check out the progress of this young town. 3] Trash issues a thing of the past? See what the area has planned to rid themselves of unsightly landfills. Those stories plus your local weather and sports in the next update!

Thought I'd give this a bump after a couple of days, as it looks like my update got drowned out in a mass frenzy of updates.

Here's the update, as promised! Luminaire has transformed from a young town to a promising young city. Her population has blossomed to 15,033! Not to be outdone, the neighboring city of Marisol is coming along quite well. In the first couple of years, Marisol has amassed a population of 4,230, and in the early going looks quite similar to Luminaire. A look at the main residential area: Like Luminaire, Marisol has adopted a 15% tax on dirty and manufacturing industry, causing it to be highly dependent on its farms for the economy: Marisol also extends into Luminaire's city tile, occupying the small area just across the river. It features some residential and a decent sized commercial area, hoping for lots of new business: Because of the rich farm economy, Luminaire and Marisol put their collective produce together and started their own Farmers' Market! Over in Luminaire, things have grown outword rather quick! Housing construction has moved in the direction of the river, and there have been plenty of takers: The Mayor of Luminaire liked the area so much, in fact, he built his house there: Furthermore, noticing the growing community by the riverside, the Luminaire Parks & Recreation Board approved the construction of the Luminaire Athletic Complex featuring a softball field, tennis court, basketball court, skateboard park, ranger station, and a playground! Remember the boo-boo the mayor made in the city's infancy? The one that created a seemingly bottomless abyss right in the middle of the residential community? Well, with heaps of manpower, dirt, and simoleons, it has been fixed! Also, the citizens, seeing the large amount of farm in the city's outskirts, expressed concern regarding the cleanliness of the water. Hearing those concerns, the mayor approved construction of a new Water Treatment Plant: And finally, for those wanting to see the big picture, here is a current overview map of Luminaire: I'll try to update again sometime during the week. My goal for the next update is to expand Marisol and Luminaire even more than they are right now, and possibly break ground on Ivalice.

First I'll respond to my replies, then I'll post an update for tonight. sirgeoj2 | It seems to be a plan liked by many. It'll mean a lot of rezoning when my region grows larger, but I think I'll eventually be up to the task! SkyTearer | Fair enough. Nobody's going to force you to read or comment on my CJ, but hopefully you do enjoy what you see now and in the future. gurrgkud | Yes, I've heard a lot about breaking the grid. That's my plan for in the suburbs, as I'd like to keep what will become the downtown area primarily grid-like. As a result, the road maps for the early runnings will look rather bland. I'll make up for it though An update is coming shortly!

Some responses to my recent replies: MayorTim | Believe it or not, I'm not using the auto zone feature. When I started, I was debating between 4x6 and 6x8 grids for that area and settled on 6x8 in the end. That said, I'll remember to turn off thoes zots in future updates. As mentioned before, once I get out of the main cities, it's my goal to go for more of a suburban, Breaking the grid look. The grids will dominate Marisol and Luminaire for sure, but I'm thinking Ivalice might have a bit of that grid breaking look to it (Outside of the downtown area, that is). tag_one | I saw your advice in my initial thread. I'm considering it, and I think I'll make a final decision on that once I get closer to building in that area. For those eager to see an update, I think I will end up posting one later tonight. Luminaire is gradually expanding outward, and you'll get to see the first shots of our new town, Marisol!

Wow, responses! Well, I suppose I should give some feedback to those. BarbulaM1 | That's my final goal there, to have the region set up like you see in the first picture. Thanks for the comments! Nardo69 | Well, I had every intention to build more farms. My I-AG demand is through the roof right now, so I just keep building them, but the demand doesn't go down! In response to my being griddy, the area you're seeing will eventually be the downtown of the city, so IMO it should be griddy. I'll have the chance to let my creative juices flow once I get out to some of the suburban cities. cammo2003 | As I mentioned, my plan is to break the grid once I get to the suburbs. As far as highways, look at the very first post. The picture in there has some blue, orange, and green lines. Those denote freeways I plan to use in my area. The colors will have no effect on the game, they just tell me which ones are interstates, state highways, and US routes. I would like to get another update rolling either tonight or tomorrow, as I will begin development on Marisol shortly!

Here is the region overview of Luminair - Marisol - Ivalice. If it looks familiar, it's probably because it is familiar... It's the USGS map of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area: Anywho, settlers of the region have big plans. Not only do they have a map of everything zoned out, but city boundaries have already been planned: However, only three of the cities currently bear names. City 1 is Marisol, City 2 is Luminaire, City 3 is Ivalice. The remaining cities will come as the region expands out beyond the initial 3 cities. This CJ starts in the infancy of the area, peeking into the newely found town of Luminaire. While barely two years old, the city is already showing promise: At the end of year two, the city currently has a population of 5,401, and crowned its passing of the 5K mark by building both a police and a fire station! It hasn't been all joy and happiness, though. While trying to get the city in tip-top shape, its rookie mayor found some of the items included in a box labeled Network Addon Mod - DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS. The mayor opted to ignore that advice and opened up the box to find roads to his heart's content. After seeing pieces he liked and didn't like, he decided to lay down a One way puzzle piece. It didn't really work, as it destroyed a few houses and was also set up rather haphazardly. Upon trying to demolish the mistake, a pond formed that was deeper than any point in the adjacent river. Attempts to level the terrain were deemed unsuccessful. As a result, the town was decided to leave the pond as is, which can be seen here: Even that hasn't stopped the town from becoming a bustling little community. The economy depends heavily on agriculture and whatever dirty industry can survive the 15% tax rate: The farmlands and small commercial area have a healthy crop of workers to feed from in the below residential area: The early success of the town shound continue on, as construction continues to increase: In the meantime, my current plan is to get Luminaire to grow to around 10,000 and start working on either Marisol or Ivalice. Comments are welcome!

All right, folks, here's my first City Journal, and combined with my relative inexperience with SC4, it pretty much equates to the $%&^!'s CJ! How this journal idea started: I came on here looking for advice on a city plan I came up with, pictured below: After some comments, I decided to move forward with the creation of a CJ. My next post, coming in about 5-10 minutes, will set up the region as well as show the early progress of Luminaire, the first city to get built.