mauder

Just doing my bit to get you up to 5000 views. Good looking CJ by the way... Mauder

Ponte Valley The Mechanics of Urban Development UPDATE 3 Farmwell - A Farming Village As more and more farmers decide to supply produce to the local Gatesbridge market, Farmwell becomes the ideal place to settle. As the population of Farmwell increases and a distinct residential area forms in the centre, shops are also bult at the crossroads. This mini settlement and the area around it is further boosted by the construction of several agricultural buildings: Farmer's Market, State Fair Flower Market, Kingston Market, Baltic Flour Mill - [by Gascooker] Farm Supply - [by Simgoober] align=baseline> Figure 16 - The crossroads, at the centre of Farmwell. [i have used the Sugar Cane Farms, BSC Farms SG Vol 01 and BSC Farm Fields SG Vol 01 mods amongst others. All were created by Simgoober .] Gatesbridge Developments Meanwhile, our first settlement has expanded, with a few notable additions: align=baseline> Figure 17 - Gatesbridge, as it stands so far. align=baseline> Figure 18 - Gatesbridge Docks - (A work in progress). [i have a horrendous amount of Pegasus' Coastal Mods installed in my plugins folder. A few of them were used to make these docks, along with Bigredfish's PEG CDK Seaport BRF Modded Mod.] The docks give the industrial sector another option when it exports it's goods, and will make it's future growth possible. align=baseline> Figure 19 - Gatesbridge's Minor League Stadium, and the CBD. A large increase in population was brought about by the construction of new medium rise tower blocks, on either side of the CBD. Along with these blocks, the local road system was also upgraded; the higher capacity avenues carrying the increased traffic to the centre of town. The system also includes an avenue giving access to a new sports stadium. With enough support to back the team, Gatesbridge can now compete in the Minor Leagues. align=baseline> Figure 20 - The Gatesbridge mansions, and hi-tech industrial park. Along with the increase in dirty industry, there has also been a slight demand for hi-tech jobs. This has mainly come from the R$$$ residents to the north of town. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Comments Thanks again for your posts. Martinb : I'm glad to hear you find this approach new. You've probably seen something better in another CJ by now, but I'll just keep plugging at it anyway. I completely understand your problem regarding city design. After literally hundreds of hours building cities on four different Sim City games, I found that I would repeatedly fill the screen with a giant grid, keeping residential and commercial zones in the middle, and placing industrial zones around the outside. While this tactic was very good at yielding high populations, I got bored of the symmetric chess-board feel every single one of my cities had. To that end I decided to think more about what drives a city in real life; how demand affects housing and jobs, and how a zone's location above almost everything else decides whether or not it is successful. Looking at real cities you can see how whole estates have been simply stuck on the side, how areas go through periods of renovation and change, and how things like high capacity transport have often been added as an afterthought. My aim for this CJ then is to not have an exact city/region plan, but to try and react to the changing demands of my residents. With any luck I should see some sort of resemblance to real life cities (possibly not to US cities, as they're all grids anyway!) and be able to draw comparisons between real life models and my simulation. Of course, all of this is easier said than done, and I've already slipped back into my old grid structure habit in some places. So we'll see how I get on... Dan : I agree. The smoggy affect was what I was going for as I wanted Gatesbridge to be an industrial town. As you say though it could still do with a bit of a variation here and there, so I'll try and put in some residential, commerical, and industrial-specific eye-candy where appropriate. Having said that though I was contemplating starting another CJ, to run alongside this one. The aim would be to make it as pretty as possible in the same vain as Green Depra et al, and I could use one CJ as a relisitic model, and the other to show off any good-looking ideas I might have. Hmmm. Maybe if time permits. Mauder

Ponte Valley The Mechanics of Urban Development UPDATE 2 As Gatesbridge continues to grow, and more people commute to work across the bridge, traffic becomes a problem: align=baseline> Figure 10 - The traffic problems on the Gate Bridge The council city planners decide to upgrade the bridge to an avenue road bridge, and extend the avenue along the river to the residential traffic hotspot. The high street was also upgraded as future traffic problems were predicted there too: align=baseline> Figure 11 - The upgraded road system. Farming Up to this point the market in the centre of town had been importing cash crops and foodstuffs from outside the region. Hoping to provide a cheaper (and closer) alternative, several budding agriculturalists have set up farms outside the city limits. Because of its distance from Gatesbridge, the available real estate is inexpensive: align=baseline> Figure 12 - Gatesbridge and surrounding farms. align=baseline> Figure 13 - The small farming settlement to the far west of town. align=baseline> Figure 14 - Two more small farms. align=baseline> Figure 15 - The larger settlement of Farmwell. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Comments Cheers for your replies, much appreciated. Equilibria : I

Ponte Valley The Mechanics of Urban Development UPDATE 1 Gatesbridge

I'll go along with the common consensus - looking forward to reading more.

I like your CJ, but admittedly I haven't read it all yet. There's too much to get through in one night! What I have read is fantastic though ...

Wow man, this CJ is amazing! Nothing else to say really that hasn't already been said. Its very ... green, isn't it?

Ponte Valley The Mechanics of Urban Development First, a bit of waffle: I have numerous mods installed, but none I