soldyne

Date: 2/12/2006 2:04:43 PM Author: 5gotowar Thanks for your help. But if you read what i said, i don't think it's me thats looking at things wrong, it's the game. quote> ha you are quite right. there are many aspects of the game which do not reflect real life. it is very difficult to simulate a real city. I think we need to stop and look at things from an overall view point and realize that maxis has done a great job so far with their city simulations. but if you want to manipulate wealth levels the best way to do it is with taxes.

ah, I did not know this thread was out there or I would posted to it a while ago. My CJ, Newtopia Valley (see sig below), is still in its infant stages to have much of a large city center but here are a few pics of downtown Rive Creek which is currently the unofficial suburb of Downtown Newtopia. http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/5842/rivecreekdt12lj.jpg align=baseline> http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/8651/rivecreekdtns10lq.jpg align=baseline> http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/1949/rivecreekdtns25sh.jpg align=baseline>

ah an Island CJ. you have a very nicely terraformed city so far and a bit of drama thrown in too. I wonder what perils the storm with bring? keep it up and good luck. <edit> oh beautiful park btw </edit>

botania seems to be aptly named like a giant botanical garden. that interchange looks a bit scary to me but I guess it could be nice for scenic drive. keep it up and good luck.

very impressive. this is more of an experimental CJ with all the restrictions and goals you gave yourself. it will make for a great tutorial CJ for those who want to see how to develop viable large cities. you have done a great job so far with terraforming the region. it should look fantastic when it is all finished. good luck. oh, btw, I enjoyed the helicopter tour, especially the part when you almost ran into the planes. lol!

making money is the easy part of the game. I actually have trouble NOT making money. after about 50 game years I usually have 1mill or more in the coffers and cant spend it fast enough. the key is knowing how to save money. only spend what you need. I actually compiled a mini tutorial a while ago about MONEY SAVING TIPS but the disscussion kind of went off course and the thread became a topic about the philosophy of cheating (which I dont like to do). so, after reading the mini tutorial, if you still need some help with making profitable cities I may be persuaded to post a mini tutorial about how to start and maintain a profitable city. but, only if a lot of people ask. there are so many tip guides and tutorial already on this site in various places I dont want to clutter things up. hope that helps. for some inspiration about how to design a city or two with profit in mind try visiting and commenting on my City Journal, Newtopia Valley, (see link in sig below). every city I showcase in the CJ is making a profit. many of them have over 1 million simoleans in the bank and growing. I dont use money cheats.

make sure the game is not running when you do this. go to MyDocuments/SimCity4/Regions folder and then select the folder of the region you want to configure. there will be a config.bmp file somewhere in the folder. edit this file in MsPaint. when in MsPaint zoom into the closest zoom (800% i think). turn on the grid. at this point you have some options: 1) if your region is new with no cities yet founded, you can create your own region size from scratch. one red square is a small city, 4 green squares is a medium and 16 blue squares is a large map. only those colors and sizes will work. any other color or size, shape will create strange holes in your region map. 2) if you have cities already established you can add more city squares but only to the south and the east as Dusktrooper has said. changing anything else in the config.bmp file at this point will most likely destroy any cities in the region. hope that helps.

Storms991, I like the look of your low res homes. I have trouble keeping my zones from growing together. for example if I have the following: S=street R=res SRRS SRRS then I will sometimes get a 2x2 lot instead of four 1x1 lots. this is annoying for me which is why i put the tree fillers inbetween my lots. good work though, thanks for posting.

thanks for the compliment Superbeber! I used to think and build like that too. but these pics are just from a single city within a very large region. when I started playing regionally I quickly lost my desire to build sardine cities. I do have some skyscrapper forests in the works however. what great region would be without those? Thanks for starting this thread as there are many great canals being posted for everyone to see and learn from.

Hello everyone! Some of you know me and many of you do not. I am the author of the City Journal Newtopia Valley . I and other CJers like me have begun to notice a stark decline in the amount of comments we are recieving on our CJs. My theory is not that people are commenting less but that there are too many CJs to comment on. Essentially I am arguing that the CJ forum as it is now is quickly becomming overcrowded. This is not to say that the CJs that are there are in poor quality or should not be there. on the contrary, every single CJ that gets started has every right to be there and everyone should have the opportunity to create a CJ. What I am suggesting though, is that with all the active CJs and all the old juggernaught CJs with huge fan followings out there it is becomming increasingly difficult to keep a newer, younger CJ from falling to the back pages before anyone even knows that an update has been made. I made a series of 4 updates over the last 2 days and at one point it was so bad that I made an update at 2am and my CJ was already on the second page of the forum by 4am. after 2 days and 4 updates I only recieved 5 comments. I am very grateful for the comments I got but once a CJ gets pushed back so far no one even knows its there. I am not here to complain though, I have also brought a solution. What I propose is a humble and very enthusiastic request of Dirk and his webmaster team that the CJ forum be expanded and resdesigned to accomodate the growing number and varieties of CJs. I also open this thread up to a disscussion on the CJs in general and if others agree with me about my perception of overcrowding. please post your comments and suggestions and keep the discussion alive at least until Dirk himself gives his two cents on what he thinks of the situation. My Ideas are as follows: Turn the CJ forum into a main forum with subforums just like the SimCity4, Custom Content, SimMars, and other main forums. The sub forums can be catagories like: Real World Recreations (simply all those CJs which are attempting to recreate real world cities such as NYC, Houston, Madrid where ever) Story Driven Journals (the CJ is mostly about developing a story with characters, historical and political background and less about building spawling city scapes and terraforming) New City Creations (the CJ is mostly about showing the development of a city from ground breaking to megalopolis or just giving a tour of an already developed region. these CJs may have some story or fictional background but the focus is definately about the city and its development.) Fantasy and Beyond (These CJs are the ones like the Human Body CJ which were just fairly odd and yet very interesting) Experimental (there have been many CJs started in other forums about game experiments and I think it is time we give these CJs a place of their own) City Sagas (these CJs are the ones which have proven to be more than just a simple tour or short story. they have a minimum page count, perhaps 10 or more pages of comments and updates, must still be active, and can only be inducted into the forum by an adminstrator.) Other (these CJs dont quite fit anywhere else but are still very fun to read) of course these are just rough ideas and of course many CJs fit into multiple catagories. most of the work at first will be to reorganize the current CJ listing and deciding where a particular CJ will fit. once the forums are up and running it will be up to the individual CJer to determine what kind of CJ they wish to start. if a CJ starts in the New City Creations board and ends up with a great involving story then a moderator may (after discissuing with the author) move the CJ to a different forum. again I want to express my purpose for proposing this and why I think it will be a benefit. right now there is only one outlet for CJs. There are currently 2500 CJ listed in the forum and perhaps 1000 of them are still active. that is 1000 CJs all competing for a very small amount of space on the first page or two of the forum. The smaller newer CJs are being over shadowed by not only the juggernaughts of the older CJs which have a large fan following but also by the many new CJs which are being posted every day. As I have shown already frequent updates are not a fix for the lack of exposure. Comments are the main reason people keep updating thier CJs and with a lack of exposure comes a lack of comments. I beileive that by spreading out the CJs into multiple bins we can reduce the overcrowding and thus increase the exposure of many of the CJs which are here now and will be here in the future. We all cant have a sticky CJ always on page 1 but we can try to share our time on page 1 more evenly by having multiple page 1s which attract the specialized interests of many readers. I think I have posted enough of my thoughts on this subject and I now open the floor to disscussion. I hope that Dirk or someone else who has the ability to modify the website will be able to comment on this and please know that I understand the amount of work I am suggesting and will do what I can to help.

Thank you very much for your response Dirk (and everyone else of course). I am humbled by your presence and am very pleased to hear that ideas are in the works. I can't help but feel a warm fuzzy feeling inside that I am helping to shape the future of this wonderful site. I never would have suggested a personal blog idea, but it sounds most intriguing. as long as there is a viable vehicle for giving new and old authors alike a way of gaining the exposure they need (like some kind of searchable index) then it should be a wonderful idea. this blog concept could help alleviate one of the problems with CJs being in a Forum and that is that currently there is no way to distinguish a comment from an update. with a blog that may now be possible. I completly understand that you have your hands full with the 2006 tech upgrade. as long as plans are in the works I am happy.

I dontated about $30 a while back but I plan on giving more later. I just got hired into a new job but my start date is not till the end of the month. I should get my first paycheck by the start or middle of march. it may be too late to help with the upgrade but I am sure any donation at any time will be most valued. If I get some tax refunds back earlier I'll see if I can send some cash to help out. While I am here, I must say that a redoing of the software seems very apropos. I dont know if Dirk has seen my other thread in this forum called Addressing a Growing Problem with the CJ Forum , but this seems like a great opportunity. if the CJ forum is ever going to be revamped at all this would be the time to do it i guess. all that I ask is that Dirk look at the thread and see what he thinks about it. I am sure that the upgrades are going to be time consuming enough but if he thinks it can be worked in then great. Or better yet, has an idea that he has been keeping on the back burner all this time. Anyway, this is one of the best sites I have become a member of and I am glad to be a part of it. Thanks Dirk for all your hard work. (BTW: will this upgrade be Simtropolis 5.0?)

ok, so it seems that after much diliberation that subforums, although having potential in theory, seem to have more negatives overall than positives. It was, afterall, just a single, initial idea. but, my original concerns of new CJs needing enough exposure still stand. Thank you MrCinatit for your insightful comments on the subject. your thoughts on this subject are priceless. you are afterall the Unsinkable City Journalist! so now the situation stands at needing a new idea. This CJEX intrigues me. I am still not certain as to how it will work or how it will help new journals to gain the exposure they need to attract a fan base. I am also beginning to understand why some of you think that subforums would be counterproductive. but with the analogy of putting particular art into different museums would it not be better to have many different museums with more floor space to showcase more artists than for only a handful of artists to share the space of a single museum? not only that if a particular patron goes to a museum they already know what kind of art they are looking for (most of the time) and they will ignore the kind of art they dont want to see. as for CJs this means they need to go into all CJs and figure out what type it is and if they dont like it they leave without comment. if they do like it they comment (hopefully). without catagories they have to go through all CJs to find the ones they like, spending much of their time looking and downloading the ones they do not. this is the main reason why most people do not bother going to the second page of the forum. it just takes too long to search through every single CJ looking for something they like. with catagories a person with particular tastes can go into subforum: Real City Recreations and he knows right away that every CJ in the forum will be the kind of CJ he is interested in commenting on. he knows that his time reading, searching and downloading will not be in vain. this is why I think subforums or at least a list of catagories would be a good thing. now of course, MrCinatit being an adminstrator has already said that subforums will not be likely. so I am comming up with a new idea. this idea may be in line with the CJEX but since I don't really know how that is supposed to work I'll detail my idea anyway and others can comment. We should have a sticky post at the top of the CJ forum which acts like an index. yes, I know that there is already such a topic there, but induction into that post requires that a CJ be of sufficient size and popularity. that post as it is, is more of a honorary index of juggernaught CJs which really dont need to be listed. That post is kind of like what I am looking for but it needs to list all CJs and not just the popular ones. This index will list all the active CJs currently on the forum. The index can have catagories. since being on the index is simple, a CJ can be listed in multiple catagories without much problem. This will help people to catagorize their CJ and not have to decide whether it is strictly story based or stricly a New City Design CJ. it can be listed as both. This index can also have a small description of the CJ and any other pertinant info. ordering in the index could be listed by age of the CJ (since its first posting) or by number of pages, but in acsending order starting from newest CJ to oldest. I say this since it is the younger CJs who need to have exposure, people already know about the older ones and thus they wont really benefit from an index. if a person decides to have thier CJ listed in all subcatagories (perhaps trying to take advantage of the system by gaining more exposure) then a moderator can look over the CJ and make a judgement call. it is kind of hard to claim you are making a unique city design and a real world recreation at the same time. For those of you who still dont like the subcatagories idea the index can also have a master listing of CJs by either date or page count so if a person wants to look at random CJs he can look at the main index, where as if a person knows what they want they can take a tour of the subcatagories. Getting into the index will need to be done by having the CJer contact the moderator of the CJ forum and having his CJ inducted into the index. His first CJ post should already be on the forum at this time. If a CJ is closed or ended it can be removed from the index to reduce clutter. Obviously this idea is still in its infant stages and needs to be thought out and disscussed with everyone here. the advantages of this index are that it would require no reprogramming of the site and it will not affect the sites bandwidth to any great degree. The CJs will be organized and indexed and everyone can more freely choose how to catagorize their CJ plus there is the master listing which reduces the need for a CJer to catagorize his creation at all. The downsides of course will be that some group of people will need to spend a lot of time and energy getting the initial list together and some time will need to be spent on maintaining the list. although it is the individual authors responsibility to have his/her CJ added to the index once the index has started. I have some other ideas which may or may not be able to be incorporated into this Index idea, but I want to see what others have to say about this first. <edit> wow, I talk a lot dont I? </edit>

wow, I am amazed that my topic got so much feedback and from many well respected simtroplians and CJers. First I want to comment on my own original post and say that about 70% of it was a rant as I was kind of dissapointed with the response I was getting with my CJ. After reading mayormommy's post I realize now that I may have been spoiled as was suggested and am now chastising myself internally. however, the other 30% of my purpose was based in logic and reason. I believe the heart of the situation lies in the unique nature of the CJ forum. in other forums people make posts to have a question answered or a thought commented on. rarely is a post in other forums meant to draw an audience and be examined as though it were some form of entertainment or piece of art. CJs are just that, artwork. and the point of artwork is to have it viewed and experienced by others. comments are the only way that a CJer knows that his art is being apprecieated. sure there is a view counter but this does not mean that the person actually took the time to appreciate the art. I play the game and build my cities because I enjoy it for my sake. I post my CJ for the audience. without comments I feel there is no audience and thus no reason for a CJ. those of us with CJs knows how much time and effort goes into making an update. even simple ones with little text or special effects take a lot of effort, and we want to know that our time was not spent in vain. so the problem now becomes exposure. letting people know that your CJ exists. this is done mainly through being on the first page of the CJ forum. those of us who are regular fans of CJs and this site inparticular will go beyond the first page looking for good stuff. but the majority of the lurkers and casual members only skim the first page and move on. Knowing this it is very important that a CJ be on page 1 for a decent amount of time (cant say what that is exactly but at least long enough to get some views). The way the CJ forum is now there are so many active CJs and new ones being added all the time (regardless of time of day) that any CJ on page 1 will get bumped to page 2 or 3 in a matter of hours. and this reduces the visibility of the CJ and thus makes it very hard for even a 5 or 10 page CJ to get many followers. regular updates dont mean much if the CJ is only visible for 5% of the time during which you need to hope that someone is online at the same time to see it. the older CJs which were on when the CJ forum was new and fairly empty have a very loyal fan base and their position on the forum is meaningless as the fans will look for it specifically by name regaudless of page position. it is getting a CJ to this point that is becomming the problem. it is like gardening, the established CJs are like old, large trees which over shadow the smaller saplings trying to get a foothold. the larger trees draw more sunlight, water and nutrients from the ground before the little seedlings can, thus stunting their potential growth. I understand that the key to getting good comments is to acquire a fan base, but what many of you old timers dont realize is that getting a fan base requires exposure early on. the way the CJ forum is going now this needed exposure is nearly impossible to get. even with frequent updates. without any exposure the new CJs have no hope of ever gaining even a small following, especially those of us who have not made a name for ourselves on the site. The reason I suggessted multiple subforums was to create multiple page 1s so that CJers could have more exposure. by moving similar CJs into their own forum we can help the newer CJs to grow as they will be complimented by the others. People will be drawn to the subforum which interests them. I prefer New City Design CJs as opposed to recreations or story driven. and by moving the larger well established CJs to their own forum they cant hurt the newer ones at all. but I dont know what is invovled with creating that. if more forums reduces the quality of the site as a whole then it is a bad idea (by drawing more bandwidth). Those of you who say that subforums would be counterproductive, I must say that I do not understand your comment. please explain why you think it would be counterproductive. one good counter to subforums i read here was the idea of increasing the size of page 1. even this would be helpful, but I think that it would just be a small bandage to growing problem. if ginchaels idea of a CJEX gets implemented then perhaps this is the way to go. although I am still not sure how a CJEX would work. if if works much like the STEX THAT would be counter productive. once a CJ got moved to page two it would never be seen or heard from again since updates of the STEX to a file dont change its position in line. so long as the new CJs get the needed exposure to the casual viewer then my concerns have been met.

I have always used imageshack and have no problems with it. i have cable internet so speed is rarely an issue when uploading. If making such a rule will improve the quality of service for simtrop then I support it. I think it would also be a great idea so that the older pics dont get deleted all the time. I hate looking at an older CJ and seeing the first two pages with no pics. as far as photoshop goes. I like seeing the doctored pics from time to time, but I dont do it for my CJ. my CJ is mainly about SimCity city and region development and less about story and flashy art (just a style choice).

superb suburbs everyone. especially you Dusktrooper, the detail is so spectacular in those bats I could swear I was driving through that very neighborhood the other day. Here are a few shots of the suburbs from Rive Creek in my CJ Newtopia Valley : http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/2826/rivecreekr214gq.jpg align=baseline> http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/9445/rivecreekr224mj.jpg align=baseline> http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/4826/rivecreekthroughway5nt.jpg align=baseline> http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/383/rivecreekr2ns10rg.jpg align=baseline> http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6119/rivecreekov2vv.jpg align=baseline>

well at the risk of double posting I have some more pics to share which should help rekindle interest in this thread. The following pics all come from my CJ Newtopia Valley and specifically the city of Rive Creek. Rive Creek is a suburb of 94k sims many of which are wealthy and like to have their beach front property: http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/7477/rivecreekr327eo.jpg align=baseline> http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/5858/rivecreekr340dw.jpg align=baseline> http://img469.imageshack.us/img469/8121/rivecreekr319th.jpg align=baseline> http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6119/rivecreekov2vv.jpg align=baseline> for more great pics like these please visit and comment on my CJ, Newtopia Valley .

what can I say but very impressive work everyone. otherwise I am left speachless. Here is the latest state of my greatest Accomplishment, Newtopia Valley . A region of 400k sims with mostly industrial and farm jobs keeping everyone employed. http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/1480/newtopiavalleyoverview2vr.jpg align=baseline> here is a quick pick of the largest city in the region (by land mass not population). it is a suburb with a population of 94k. it houses the worlds first completely pedestrian comercial island shopping plaza called Poseiden's Reef. http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6119/rivecreekov2vv.jpg align=baseline> if you are interested in close ups of the suburbs or of Poseidens Reef please visit and comment on my CJ, Newtopia Valley .

Very nice malls everyone. inspiringly realistic. Check out Newtopia Valleys Mallard Lake Shopping Center and Vehicle free Commerical Island Shopping Plaza, Poseidens Reef: http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/3135/rivecreekmallardlakess5ip.jpg align=baseline> http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/5308/rivecreekcommisland28ut.jpg align=baseline> http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/9441/rivecreekcommisland12ox.jpg align=baseline> http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/4580/rivecreekcommislandns10ov.jpg align=baseline>

very cool Industry here people. Check out Newtopia Valleys new High Tech Industrial Complex: http://img310.imageshack.us/img310/9128/newtopiaindustrialcomplexov7vt.jpg align=baseline> http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8666/newtopiaindustrialcomplexthrou.jpg align=baseline> http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9382/newtopiaindustrialcomplexns3ig.jpg align=baseline>

this is such an impressive thread. I am humbled by the workmanship and creativity demonstrated thus far. I have just completed a small canal in my CJ Newtopia Valley . this canal is located on a pedestrian only Commercial Shopping Plaza called Poseiden's Reef and uses a combination of PEGs CDK OWW and variable width canal sets: http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/3883/rivecreekcommislandlocks8vd.jpg align=baseline> http://img386.imageshack.us/img386/5011/rivecreekcommisland47md.jpg align=baseline> http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/7696/concordians3mw.jpg align=baseline> http://img310.imageshack.us/img310/8835/concordialocksns6we.jpg align=baseline>

yes I agree it would be a major undertaking. But, I am hoping that once this topic gets going and more and more people post their experiences with the CJ forum that Dirk and others will realize that it is a growing problem that should be addressed. I really enjoy making my city and posting my udates. but without comments the updates are pretty much pointless (like talking to a wall).

sounds good, lets get some pics going!