Cloud Strife

Hi everybody! Long time I'm not postng anything, I've had so few spare time lately I couldn't play SimCity 4 as much as I wanted! Just think that it took more than 7 months to complete this city because I had very few time to play. Just before I start this CJ, I would like to remind you of my old CJ's: - City Of SPIRA - My very fist CJ here! Final Fantasy X Theme I'm planning to update it soon, because I want to update that city with the many plugins and techniques I've got lately! - City of MIDGAR - My second CJ! Final Fantasy VII Theme A city I really liked, small but nice and with no unemployment nor major problems! Here I'm going to make you tour my last work, CITY OF BALAMB GARDEN, built of course on the Final Fantasy VIII Theme!!! As for Midgar, this city is controlled by Shin.Ra Corporation, that has his second headquarter here, and gave the control of the city to Major Squall. The ShinRa palace is on the ShinRa Hill. As seen for Midgar, also in Balamb they choose an elevated place to build their headquarter, maybe to have a better view and control of the city and to make more difficult to reach their domain for attackers or enemies of any kind. Before beginning the detailed tour of the city, I want to show you some of the most important places to see in my city. They're just a few of the many things to see. So I placed some numbers on the map shown here, to give you a better glimpse of where the following places are located on the city. Balamb Garden once was a militar city. The SeeDs were trained here, and as a consequence it is build on a higher level, as if it was on a small large hill. It's artificial however! The city is built on a higher floor, bypassed and fenced by walls. There are few roads that enter the city passing through the wall. Once the city was yet smaller, with many space for training, and enough small-suburbs where the SeeDs, their families, and people working for ShinRa lived. The access to the city was not allowed to anyone else. This is why the city is bypassed by a ring of walls and is placed on an artificial hill. Next post I'll show you how particular the road-network is in this city! You'll see underground freeways and particular ways to access and leave the city. You'll also learn that ShinRa is going to build pay-tolls for people exiting and accessing the city! We'll see even the public transport network in next post. 1 - THE BALAMB GARDEN The place that gives name to the city! This is the biggest garden villa of the simnation! And this is the place that gives the name to the city! Just an aerial view of the enormous garden of balamb! I'm not going to give you details yet, because the Garden contains so much stuff to see that would require too much space and words. Better look at it in one of the next postings! 2 - The ShinRa Hill Tower Headquarters of Shin.Ra Corporation Here's where the ShinRa Tower is! In Midgar it is built in a central position. However keep in mind that ShinRa (that is the big corporation that owns the entire nation) built Midgar from scratch and could plan from the origins of the city where to place its headquarter. Balamb was a later adding to the ShinRa domain. And at the beginning it was a militar city closed to anyone except for SeeDs and ShinRa workers, so the company had its headquarter in the Garden in the heart of the city. So many years have passed, no more wars, ShinRa became also a commercial company. The city has opened to everyone and the original garden (the militar building where SeeDs were trained) was destroyed. So ShinRa had to move their headquarter to another zone. First of all because they don't like to be among "common people". And because they want an exclusive location for their affairs, and security measures just in case of war or attacks of any kind. Another look at the ShinRa Hill. As you can see, their area is entirely closed by walls. Access to this area is strictly restricted. This statue represents the Guardian Force Quetzal. It has been built on Major Squall's request. 3 - The QUETZAL AIRPORT Big international airport of the city The pic is self-explainatory. This is the big airport in Balamb Garden. It is built on the eastern side of the area, out of the city walls. A militar airbase is build just next the airport. Once here there were only war planes. As soon as the city became more populated, opened and more quiet, ShinRa transformed half of the old big militar airport in a civil airport. Front of the airport entrance there's a big bus terminal that grants a public transport connection between the airport and the city and the nearest suburbs. In the above pic you can see the other half of the airport too! It's still used as militar airbase. 4 - BALAMB CENTRAL STATION This is the big Balamb Central Station, built in the very heart of the city, it provides connection to all the public transportations: bus, subway, tramway, taxi, railway. Even in Balamb (as seen in the other cities), the railway system is managed by F.S. Incorportated, a ShinRa Company that manages the entire simnation railway network. They built also this great big station, that we will see later with higher details expecially when we'll look at the Balamb public transport network. 5 - A.R.C.O. Inc. Gated Community Advanced Researchs and Commercial Offices Incorporated A ShinRa Corp. Company A.R.C.O. is a ShinRa company that owns and builds commercial and industrial districts. They provide so much workplaces to the city, and so much money to ShinRa. Here in Balamb they've got a very big gated community, full of offices, research centers and industrial labs. You can see on the map how big their gated area is (since it's an aerial shot, I drew a red line to give you a better idea). We'll see it better later. Access to the area is restricted to people that work in one of the buildings placed inside. However not all the employees are allowed to enter. There are also some parkings for their cars inside. A closeup pic of the area. The entrance is along M. Barambani Street, in the Carbuncle District. There's also a subway station in front of it. The McDonalds you can see is "out" of the Arco borderline. It's in a good position so many Arco employeers can have lunch there, as long as many other people that work around there. This entire area is full of hi-tech industries and offices. 6 - THE CENTRA RUINS This is an historical area. Here there are the old centra ruins. Many of there historical buildings and monuments got destroyed in the last war many many years ago. Bottom of the area there have are many clubs and pubs. It's not so nice to see the clubs in front of the ruins, but that is a great place for them because they can be open all night long without bothering sleeping people (nobody lives in the ruins!). This is the old Centra Castle. This is the only building that has not been destroyed in the war. The nightlife area! The better place for all night long opened clubs, between the ruins and the freight area! 7 - THE HEROES' SQUARE Out of the city walls, in the southern area, there's this beautiful square, with a monument to the heroes. You can also see the terminal of the Elevated Metrorail service that serves this area. Unfortunately the trains don't enter directly the city, so people arriving here have to leave the station and cross the road just to access an F.S. Railway Station to jump on a train that will bring them inside the walls. Left of the Heroes Square there's the Lunagate Area. The main thing to see here is the artificial lake. You can also see the elevated rails that connect this area to the Heroes Square. 8 - LENAN CASTLE AND ST. KATHERINE CHURCH Still out of the walls, in the south-western area, there's the huge giant medieval castle of Lenan. This area is nice, full of small houses, parks, trees, and has got an high historical value. It's connected to the Grandidieri industrial area and then to the city. Going west, you can tour also the St. Katherine Church. Even if far from the city, this area is often toured by many many people because of its storical value. 9 - MATSUMOTO CASTLE and THE SALT LAKE This is the Matsumoto area, where you can see this ancient oriental-style castle. This is mainly a fishing area. The castle is on top of the Salt Lake. The area looks quiet and nice. There's also a small bus terminal in front of the castle, that is served by just two local bus lines. It's called "Old Station" (stazione vecchia). Above here's a view of the Salt Lake, bottom of the Matsumoto Castle. A - NEW ESTHAR, STUDIOS, LUNATIC PARK This area is bigger than we expect. Maybe I should have placed more letters because the places in the pics I'm going to show are not so close. However this is the Horizons area. Here there are two commecial big malls where people are free to shop, and some offices. There are also the TV studios, and the local radio station. It's an area where you can easily see and meet VIP, actors, politicians, and so on! Top-West there's the "New Esthar" area. This is so called because it is built along Esthar Street that entirely cross the city. The northern area is known as Esthar district, so this recently built zone has been called "New Esthar" district. You know Luna Parks? You like'em? Ok ,this is the LUNATIC PARK!!! Its full name is "Lunatic Pandora Park" because it's along the Lunatic Pandora Avenue, however people call it "Lunatic Park" from so many years. Fairs, concerts and many other activities are organized in this area. B - ULTIMECIA CASTLE This scary and big castle is the Ultimecia's Castle, where the sorceress Ultimecia used to live in. C - WINHILL AREA and ST.NICHOLAS This is the Winhill Medieval Village, a small area out of the city walls in the northern corner of the map. This zone is protected by ancient walls. In the Middle Ages this was closed and access-restricted. Now it looks like a nice place to live in, and is often toured by people interested in the history of Balamb. On the left there's the Winhill Waterfall. The roads here are very small and rural. Houses are small too. Inside the Winhill walls there's the St. Felice church and its cloisters, along with a small cemetery. It has got high historical value, and archeologists are still working in order to discover more stuff from the past. Going west there's a large rural area and a road overpass that goes over the freeway (unfortunately there are no ramps). It reaches the St. Nicolas area, where there's its Church and a connection with the FS Railway. D - THE STADIUM East of Ultimecia Castle there's the Stadium! This is a very rich area, crossed by a tramway. There are two stadiums. One of them is also used for concerts. There are also training fields. E - MOUNT THAR This is MOUNT THAR, top of north-western corner of the map. Nice and quiet area, its only problem is it has bad connections with the city: only one road that gets full of cars at rush hours, and the bus system isn't able to heal this situation. Welcome to Mount Thar! The Church of Thar and a small cemetery. F - SCALAMANGA AREA Eastern corner of the map and out of the city walls there's the Scalamanga Area, where you can see the Scalamanga Castle, a lake, and some nice houses. There's also railway connection. Above this area there are some agricultural fields and the Obel lake. G - THE LAKE OF OBEL North of Scalamanga, down the Shinra Hill and East of Winhill there's the Obel Lake, with a fisherman village. Here people come to fishing on Sunday but also on other days of the week. Some rich people have also small boats here. That's all for now, more updates soon in the afternoon!! Hope you like the beginning of my CJ!

Yards, yards, yards! Welcome back to my CJ guys! Before beginning the viewing of the next opening yards in the city, we've got a few replies! Criquette: thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment. I love these seasonal trees so much, can't avoid using them in my cities. Jill Jacobs: thanks for your comment, I'm happy you liked my CJ! About the Church, Sainte Marie-des-Bois Friary Ruin, you can find it on the STEX. Benedict: thanks for leaving a comment, yes the Church (I think it's the same that also Jill Jacobs was referring to) is a ruin. It looks a bit odd to me too, but it has got something that makes me like it... a bit of gothic. Twenty20: thank you for your reply too! BACK TO THE CJ... As a consequence of the expanding of the south-eastern suburbian area (the mall, the airport, the highway...), the time has came for building that direct connection between the Elevated Lightrail network (that serves the south-eastern suburbs) and the blue subway network. As seen before, the lightrail network ends up at the Station of the Heroes, just out of the city walls. Commuters have to jump on an F.S. train in order to enter the walls, and then leave the train and take the subway after one stop only at the Brothers station. The elevated lightrail network and the subway should be connected in order to avoid the interchange at the Heroes station, and strongly reduce the commute time of the passengers. The "Brothers F.S. Station" This is the BROTHERS F.S. STATION: it's an important interchange node built in the southern corner of the city, just above the Quistis Bypass. It allows connection between the F.S. Railway network, the blue subway and some bus lines. People coming from the southern suburbs reach this station by train (after interchange at the Heroes station). They have then to raise the stairs and take the bus or the subway, depending on their destination. On the left, there's the DOLLET INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT. On the right, there's a commercial area, with many malls and supermarkets. More works are required along the GBR (Great Bypass Ring) Down the MOUNT THAR

Hi guys and welcome back to my CJ jacqulina: thanks for your comment! It's always much apreciated to read your opinion, even more after I looked at your wonderful CJ Kiwi n Grapes: thanks! I always try to be as much realistic as I can while building or modifying the city. It would be easy, maybe too easy, to destroy buildings to raise a roadway. But would it really happen in real life? In my country, I never saw anything like that! I find also interesting to see how the simulation goes on when I change the routing or add/close preferred paths. Joetropian1: thank you very much for leaving the comment! I'm really glad you like my CJ and are still looking at it! thanks!! Now let's see what happens in Balamb now that the works on the new bypass line are complete. This is the point we left in the previous update. As you can see now, instead of the workers, there's the new raised bypass roadway, that is called Lunatic Bypass from that point on. As seen in the Laguna district, even in the Trabia District the elevated roadway passes through the buildings. The citizens here are upset as well. Another aerial shot of the Lunatic Bypass, here near the Trabia Station. Here's the point where the Lunatic Bypass ends and connects to the already existing Trabia Bypass, in the south-western corner of the city. To provide access from and to the local roads, two ramps have been built. Look at those electronic signs. They have been placed at any entrance to the new raised bypass road, because due to the compliants of the local residents, Mayor Seifer decided to prohibit people to access the raised bypass at night, due to the noise produced by the cars running on the elevated roadway. So, from 22:00 to 7:00 the bypass is "closed", which means that cars must not access it. They have to use the local roads as they did before the new bypass line construction (transiting along Lunatic Pandora avenue, and New Esthar district). On saturday, police cars park themselves in front of the bypass entrance to verify that cars do not access the raised roadway. If caught, they will have to pay a huge fee and may be stopped by the police. Unfortunately, often some drivers ignore the denying and run on the raised roadway at night too. The electronic signs are activated at night to inform drivers that they must not access the elevated bypass. A night shot of the electronic signs at the entrance of the elevated bypass roadway, with a clear message informing the drivers that they must not access it and use the local roads instead.

Now that we've toured the New Esthar district, we're ready to have a look at the works in progress to complete the GBR Project. Its aim is to complete the missing roadway line required to connect the Laguna bypass to the Trabia bypass. As a result, there will finally be an unique roadway running around the city, just like a ring. This is why this bypass roadway will be called GREAT BYPASS RING. However, the project is not only concerned on the construction of the missing bypass road. Many works are required in so many lines of the ring in order to improve it. For instance, in many areas there are very bad crossings between the bypass (that should be turned into a fast roadway) and the rails or other local streets. Often the buildings face directly the bypass, that could be dangerous for pedestrians that may want to cross the road. Pedestrian overpasses should be built, as long as ramps for connecting the local streets. However, we're going to have a glimpse of the works that have just begun. They're building the missing bypass roadway in the Laguna and Lunatic Pandora areas, crossing New Esthar and heading straight to the Trabia district. Here's a look of the first line of the new bypass, that is Laguna Bypass. It's raised to avoid the crossing with the local streets, allowing cars to run faster and straight. No buildings have been demolished, because they're all occupied by people living there, so the bypass had to be passed through the existing buildings. In the pic above you can see that the works have already built the ramps in order to access the new bypass line, just nearby the canal. A closeup shot of the new raised bypass roadway. Citizens are complaining! People living in the Laguna district are complaining about the construction of the elevated roadway! "It's scandalous. Our children used to play in the gardens and yards of our buildings, and now we find them playing under that ugly roadway, near grey pillars, and without the light of the sun!" "I'm renting my house along Ward Street. The renters used to pay 950 § per month. They now went away, and I'm unable to rent the house at that price. The housing costs lowered down due to the construction of that bypass. It seems that I will have to rent it for about 650 §. I'm loosing 350§ per month!" "Smog and noise are breaking our calm! There's too much noise even by night due to the cars running on an elevated roadway! The windows of my house do vibrate each time a car run too fast on that ramp." "Once I used to go on my balcony and relax there. Now it's impossible! It's facing right on the bypass roadway! If a driver throws something out of his car window it would seriously risk to jump on my balcony!" What you read above are just a few of the complaints of the citizens living in the buildings that now face the bypass. How would you feel if an elevated roadway was built just in front of the windows of your house? The workers reached the already existing ramp of Ward Street, and connected the bypass to it, leaving the ramp alone as an exit ramp.

Hi guys, thanks for the replies! Glad you liked the update. Time for the second part! Along Esthar Avenue Way to New Esthar Here we're still along the Esthar Ave, in the Industrial District of Dollet. There's also the Balamb rail depot in this area. A view of Balamb Rail Depot for trains, in the Dollet district. Vinzer Deling district In this pic, we're still along the Esthar Avenue, that is crossing the Deling district. You can see a modern art museum along Vinzer Deling street. Still the Esthar Avenue, that passes underground the internal highway. You can see two subway stops in this area, both connecting to the blue subway line. Here the avenue crosses one of the many "star" crossings that put in connection the many avenues that run in the city. The St. Marie Church along the Esthar avenue. We're in the middle-western side of the city now. Laguna district Just before approaching the New Esthar district, the avenue passes nearby the Laguna District. In this pic we can see the Laguna Station, that is a terminal for both some bus lines and the red tramway. It has also a parking building and depots for bus and trams. In the Laguna district we can also see the ending of the bypass roadway. "Laguna Bypass" ends up in the "Lunatic Pandora Avenue". A closeup view of the last line of the bypass roadway. It ends up in this area, and begins again down in the Trabia district, at the very south-western corner of the city (we're going to see it later). The downcoming lane of the laguna bypass continues one-way only for a few hundred meters ahead, providing connection to the nearby buildings and access to the Ward Street elevated ramp. Lunatic Pandora district The very ending of the last little one-way lane of the bypass. That's a very bad crossing, there are often crashes between cars due to the very bad way it crosses the Lunatic Pandora ave. Moving down, we're in the LUNATIC PANDORA DISTRICT. New Esthar is few kilometers ahead (moving south).

Hi guys, thank you so much for your replies! Mine is going to follow: jacqulina: as usual, thank you very much for visiting and leaving a comment on my CJ. Simtastico: thanks for your comment too! You can find and download that mall building on the STEX, just search for Willow Mall (this is why the street that the mall is facing is called Willow Street... eh eh) edmonton_stinks: thanks for your visit and reply! Dsrwhat316: thanks for stopping by to you too! Benedict: thank you for the reply. I usually describe the work in progress in my CJs but to be honest this is the first time I describe it through the seasons. I'm happy that you paid attention on that and liked it this way. zelgadis: thank you very much ! bbfan02: thanks for your reply too. Some sims noticed that the curve is also requiring them to slow down their run. I don't think that drivers like it as much. A first tour of the ESTHAR DISTRICTS Back inside the City Walls There are two "Esthar Districts" in Balamb: the real so-called ESTHAR DISTRICT and the NEW ESTHAR area. They are both born along the Esthar Avenue (Viale Esthar), a long ave that runs diagonal from the nothern area to the bottom-western corner of the city. However many more districts are built along that. The Esthar district is also connected to the northern "out-of-the-walls" suburbian area through the Aerial Roadway of Esthar, that originates from the avenue and leaves the city running out the walls, straight ahead to the neighborhood. Some small suburbs are built along that. IN THIS VERY FIRST PART OF THE TOUR WE'LL VISIT THE NORTHERN AREAS: the suburbs and the Esthar District. The bypass line that runs nearby is called "Esthar Bypass" (Circonvallazione Esthar, on the map) of course. Both the districts have a huge hub of the transportation network: - ESTHAR: there is the Esthar F.S. Station that allows interchange between the FS railway, the blue tramway and the bus lines. It offers even (very) small parking facilities. - NEW ESTHAR: there is the Trabia Station just down the New Esthar district. It allows interchange between the red subway line (running from Trabia to Carbuncle), and the bus lines since it's a depot both for subway trains and buses. It has even got a big parking building. The SHUMI Village The SHUMI VILLAGE is a small suburb that is born just in front of the city walls, along the Aerial Roadway of Esthar. It's small, quiet and yet nice. Another shot of the entire Shumi Village. You can see also the central square. A closeup view of the Shumi Square.

Thank you so much for the replies guys nihonkaranws: I really like the seasonal trees, they make the pics much more colorful and realistic. They are also a great way to have an immediate glimpse of the season of the year without the needing to go to check the date I really wonder why Maxis did not added seasonal trees bundled in the game, since they developed some time routines. I remember that even in the first SimCity (that I played on Super Nes) there were seasonal trees! gabry85: thanks for the reply, I'm going to try soon to use the Oppie Canals instead of the ones I'm using right now, because they seem to have been more used and consequently developed. I saw in other CJs many more plugins and stuff for the Oppie Canal Set instead than for the ones I'm using right now. jacqulina: thanks for your reply, I'm glad to have you among my CJ readers, you signed all my CJs and hope that they will continue to be interesting to yours. Mike the Mayor: thanks for your comment too! I like to describe even the intermediate steps of the works because it adds some realistic touch in my opinion. I also like to look at what really happens in the game, for example what happens to the routing when a road get closed for months due to works. Twenty20: thanks for your comment! Joetropian1: wow, I'm really proud to be the author of one of the first CJs you visited! I'm really happy you're still reading it! The works on the Elevated Lightrail are complete! There was just the last station to be completed in the last post. It's finally there! It required some workings around in the Quetzal Square, but they did it. First of all, an aerial view of the Airport area and the new station in front of it. Some more shots. The bus station as long as the terminal have been moved back of the new lightrail station, that cuts the Quetzal square. This is the bullettin that the BTS Company is giving to its customers in the stations. Now that the works on the lightrailway are completed, they suggest a new path to commuters that need to reach the airport from the city. A few post before, we had a tour on a bus from the city to the airport. There were just 2 bus lines connecting the city to Quetzal: 76 (from Carbuncle station) and 77 (from Galbadia station). The new route is suggested just to the commuters that used to arrive at the Galbadia Station, because it's based on two interchange between the blue subway line and the railway and then from railway to lightrail. People arriving at Carbuncle would have to do another interchange between red subway line (that serves the Carbuncle area) and the blue line, and that interchange would be possible only at the Balamb Central Station, requiring some more commute-time in order to reach it from the Carbuncle Terminal. So now people from Galbadia Station may choose between two routes: - T

Work in progress on the elevated light railway Built the highway, there are still some works to do in order to improve the connection with the Quetzal Airport. Now that should be easier to reach it by car, thanks to the large lanes of the freeway, it's time to look at the public transport system. Being too expensive yet too difficult to draw normal rail tracks, due to the few available space and the connecteable stations, Mayor Seifer decided to use the already existing small elevated lightrail network that serves the Lunagate area in the southern suburb of the city. It is going to be prolonged up to the airport. The "Raven" Station The first of the two new elevated lightrail stations has been built a very intelligent way. It's double-sided, allowing access both from its front and its backside. On the back, it has been connected to the Raven area, that we toured in our last post. On the front, it's connected to the Quetzal Roadway. So now it's possible to reach the New Convention Center also by lightrail trains! However a roadway connection between the Raven area and Quetzal Roadway has NOT nor WONT be established! At this time, the Raven area is accessible only by the Highway (that is also paytoll). Building a street connecting the Raven avenue to the Quetzal roadway would cause a HUGE traffic jam, due to cars that would prefer this "free" path to the "pay-toll" highway. So the only possible connection between the two sides of the rails is pedestrian through the just built lightrail station. And now, just some few more shots of the Lunagate area There is no special purpose for the following pics, just wanted to show some pics of that area. Next update you will see... - The completion of the lightrail to the Airport - Some shots of the traffic improvements in the areas that have been recently worked on

Originally posted by: Mike the Mayor Wow - so many awesome pictures. I like the bus journey and the congestion on the roads is simply amazing. Looks all very realistic. Keep up with all these fantastic updates!quote> Thanks for your comment As for the congestion, it's real in the game, I obtained such amount of cars messing around in the NAM automata.dat file, and changing some values. Unfortunately, the best effect is obtained in UDI mode. In normal mode I've been able to obtain more cars/sims simultaneously too, but not as many as in UDI mode. And we made it to page 4.. Next Update - The works on the lightrail from Paradise Island to Quetzal Airport

The New Convention Center and the completion of the highway The new area has been finally completed, the new convention center has been built as long as a big mall in front of it, in the historical area of Raven (so called because of the ruins of the ancient Raven Tower). The highway to the airport has been finished as well. You can see the Willow Mall an the backside of the new convention center. This convention center is not going to replace the old one (that is built in the heart of the city), it's simply an add-on to the existing one. The entrance of the Convention Center. It's quite modern, and it's nearby the airport, so it can be very useful for national and international meetings and conventions. There's even a bus station on the back of the Convention Center, to provide connection by public transport system. Even a few residential buildings are being raised. The matter for the residentials here is due to the fact that the only way to access this area is the new highway, that has a pay-toll at any exit/entrance, so they would have to pay each time they exit or enter the area by car. Using the bus won't require the toll payment of course. Two shots of the Raven Tower ruins, the first one just to show you its location, the second one is a closeup with more details. An eye on the new Highway An eye on the Garden Subway Station Do you remember the building of the new Garden? It required the closing of the old subway station, that had to be moved on the other side of the avenue because it would have been in the new militar area. The works are now completed, the yard is closed, and the Garden Subway station is open again.

What a great CJ, your city is really awesome! I take some time touring around it, your building skills look impressive to me It's not just the lots you use (many of them I've got and so I recognize), but the way you place them, it seems that you really know which is the right place to build and the right lot to use, being so eyecandy and keeping it fully functional as well. I also like the way you draw the roads. With such a structure, even the Maxis Gift Buildings look better. Great use of canals as well. Wonderful parks and marvelous plazas. Keep up the good work!

Route to the Airport A bus tour to the Quetzal Airport This update we will look at the actual route required to reach the Airport from the city. The lack of a large and efficient highway to the airport, as well as the lack of a railway makes the route to the airport very time-consuming by car and public transport as well. The only way to reach Quetzal by public transport is by the bus service departing from the Galbadia Station and the Carbuncle Station, both on the eastern side of the city. The journey by car would be pretty much the same, since there's only one roadway to reach the airport from that side of the city. We choose to jump aboard a bus from the Carbuncle Station terminal. The bus bench is on the northern corner of the station. If we reached the terminal by train, taxi or subway, we must raise the stairs to reach the bus. We sit in and sign the ticket. The bus gets full soon, then the doors close and it begins its journey. The digital display on the front of the bus shows the destination and the path: QUETZAL AIRPORT Carbuncle Station - Carbuncle Bypass - Nafmis CD - Selphie Avenue - Quetzal Roadway The first line of the bypass is free and the bus runs at approximately 100Km/h speed. As soon as we reach the backside of the ARCO and the lanes turn into one the bus has to reduce the speed as some traffic starts to show. Then the bus turns left on the Nafmis CD Ramp, in order to reach the Selphie Avenue that will bring us out of the city walls. Out of the City Walls, we're along the Selphie Avenue, in the Scalamanga District. The bus turns right to access the Quetzal Roadway. After a few kilometers on the Quetzal Roadway, the bus reduces its speed as a long traffic queue shows. It's about 30 minutes that we're queued on the roadway, the cars proceed so slowly. We see many people asleep on their sits. They must be commuters that has to reach the

Thanks for the replies guys! This is going to be a small yet quick update, more concerned on the work in progress. The new highway is being built. It is connected to an existing national freeway that enters the city from the south, crosses it in the underground (do you remember that the freeways in Balamb are all running in the underground?) and then exits the city heading to Midgar. A new cloverleaf is being built. Due to the available space, it suddlenly turns 180 degrees and passes over the existing freeway and the F.S. railway. Then it continues between the trees heading to the Quetzal Airport. You can easily identify the new highway because it's surrounded by green lines. The highway goes on and passes over the Siren Avenue. After a few hundred meters, there's a cloverleaf allowing cars to leave the highway and access the avenue. It can be useful to easily reach the nearby Siren Lightrail station and the Lunagate residential area. I'm pretty sure that citizens living in that suburb will apreciate the availability of this highway entrance/exit, because this offers an alternative route for reaching the city avoiding the traffic jam of the local Lunagate Roadway that we saw two posts above. Once completed, there will be built also some Pay Tolls. Moving east, we reach a point where the works are still in progress. This is due to the fact that, according to the plan, the freeway has to cut and cross the elevated railways and the Lunagate Roadway here. That roadway is the only direct route available to connect the Paradise Island suburb to the city and the nearby suburbs. However, in order to allow the freeway to pass there, the roadway must be raised. Since it's not possible to close it down (to allow the workers to raise it), it has been built a surrounding street, called Lunagate Variant Street, where cars will be routed while the yard workers raise the roadway lane. This is going to produce much traffic at rush hours, however there are no other ways to solve the matter. The Old roadway is closed and being raised. Cars are routed on the Lunagate Variant Street, that runs nearby the yard and then connects back to the old path. This pic is on the other side of the yard, where the Lunagate Variant connects to the old roadway path. The route of the light trains running on the railway is not affected by the working in progress. Next update is coming soon, containing also an evolution of the plot.

First of all thanks for the replies, guys! As for the size of updates, I'm going back to smaller ones. Those two posts were so big because being away for so much time I had a very large amount of informations queued from long time, and decided to send them all in very few posts. I'm also going to celebrate my 100th post around here! Quite emotioning eheh The New "Garden" Building Let's have a look at the new "Garden" that Seifer built inside the Balamb garden. The "BALAMB GARDEN", as militar training academy, has been restored! New wannabe SeeDs are going to be trained in this special "college", and only the best ones will pass and graduate, being able to access the SeeD Army, that at the time of writing is no longer under ShinRa's control. On both sides there are two mako fountains, that seem to be there just for aestethical purpose, but rumors say that they've also got some special function for the defending of the garden (someone says that they are there to activate a sort of energy shield around the building, but it's thought that those are just rumors). B.T.S. Company is building the new subway station inside the garden. The older one has been demolished because it was in the Garden Building area, and being a militar zone it could no longer exist there. It is being re-built in the place that you see in the pic. At this time, people that need to reach this area by public transportation network should use the tramway or the F.S. railway. According to the initial plan, the stage should have been moved in the north-eastern corner of the Garden. They left it there, even if it's just in front of the Garden Building, and left also the south-western corder of the garden open to people. The stage is directly connected to the "Zell" F.S. Station, so people coming for live concerts and shows (expecially in summer time) can easily reach it by train (and even by subway as soon as the station will be restored). The plan for the SOUTH-EASTER SUBURBIAN AREA In the previous post, we seen the problems of the sout-western suburbian area of Balamb Garden city. Seifer ended up with a plan whose works will begin soon. It will be built a freeway to easily connect the Quetzal Airport to the City. In the meantime, the Lightrailway will be prolonged to the airport, in order to provide an easier connection to the Airport with the public transport system, since at this time it's connected only by bus (that are often late due to the traffic jam

Welcome back to my CJ Thanks for the replies and the interest in my city. I'm really happy to read your comments! Zelgadis: you're quite right, I understand that those were two huge updates, talking about number of pics and informations. That's maybe because I had so many ideas and had not worked on it for so long time, due to lack of spare time, so I sent them all in a row It took much time even to prepare that update eheh.. By the way, this makes me think about how much time do you guys spend in order to prepare and send an update to your CJs. I'd be very interested to know your times in creating an update to a CJ, and if you want also the "steps" you pass through (for example: shoting pics in the game, changing their names, resizing, editing them, adding comments, building the plot etc etc..). However... let's return in the city! This will be a shorter but more plot-oriented update. So you will have less pics to see, and more text to read! Now that it's Seifer on charge, the city is called "The NEW Balamb Garden". He changed also the logo pic of the city into the one you can see above. The "GARDEN" Project The first thing that Seifer wants to build is the new Garden, meant as a militar building for training a special group of SeeD's. It will be built inside the big Balamb Garden area. It is a re-building in fact, because the Garden building already existed but has been damaged in the last war. Mayor Squall decided to bulldoze the ruins of the old garden in order to create that big green park area. This is the project that Seifer is going to realize. The western side of the garden wll be closed to people and changed back into a militar area where SeeDs will be trained, a sort of college for the Army. Seifer won't forget what Squall built there, because he knows that people like to spend their time in the garden expecially from spring to autumn, and all the summer long. So he will move the stage for live concerts and the museum to the north-eastern corner of the Garden. In the meantime, the western area will be fenced. The pedestrian overpasses will be demolished because won't longer be needed (since common people won't be allowed to access the new militar area). The red subway station will be moved on the other side of the avenue. The works will take up to 10 months. The new subway station will be available in about 8 months. In the meantime the old subway station will be closed down, to allow the workings to go on. So the subway trains will no longer stop at the "Garden" station. Instead they will go on from Irvine straight to "Guardians" station. People that has to reach the Garden area should take the FS Train and get off at the ZELL F.S. Station, or a Red Tram and leave it at the "Garden" stop. B.T.S. - Balamb Transport System This is the name of the new company that has been created by the actual city government for managing and taking care of the Public Transportation Network of the city, since it was maintained by ShinRa Corp as befor

The beginning of Seifer's independent government The SEED Army recognized him as their new leader The citizens recognized him as their new mayor So it happened. ShinRa Corporation has been banished from Balamb Garden, the ShinRa Wind Tower has been given to flames, and Seifer Almasy (the leader of the riot) is now the new mayor. Squall and the ShinRa people in the tower did successfully escape through a secret passage underneath the hill, and are now in Midgar (the capital city). What ShinRa is going to do we will see in the next post. At this time, Seifer SEALED THE CITY by placing the SeeDs (the Army of Balamb Garden, once under ShinRa control) at every gate to the city. No one can enter or leave without being stoppend and acknowledged and identified by the SeeDs, that are ready to fight with their weapons. As you can see, particular attention is paid to the ShinRa hill: they won't be able to easily access the tower until it perimeter is occupied by the SeeD Army Troops. In this post, we're going to follow Seifer and the beginning of his plans. First of all, Seifer decided to have a tour around the city in order to understand what are the main problems of the city and so the first improvements to commit. In fact, being the new mayor requires that he shows immediately to the people some of the aspects of his politics, in order to consolidate the his rating among the citizens. Seifer is giving particular attention to the SOUTHERN AREA of Balamb Garden. Let's have a tour with him! The following pic shows you the area that Seifer is going to examine. As you can see in the pics above, the south-eastern suburbian area of the city is full of important points of interest for the city and the communications as well. In this area we can see: - The Quetzal Airport - The SeeD Army Airport - The Scalamanga Waste Dump - The Lunaside Water Plant - The Lunaside residential area - The Paradise Island residential area - The Heroes residential area - The Lenan Castle - The Lenan village - Grandidieri District - Cactuar Hi-Tech Industrial Area One of the biggest problems of this suburbian area is the bad road network. This area has grown without following any kind of expansion plan. It grew in the time according to the needings. Mayor Squall never did plan for future expansion, expecially in the suburbs and satellite districts. He never gave proper importance to the areas outside the city walls. And surely he was wrong. Also the public transport network here shows the lack of any kind of plan. There's a lightrail elevated network, that is not connected to the city! Light trains arrive to the Station of the Heroes terminal. There people have to leave the terminal, and then jump aboard an F.S. Train or a bus in order to reach their destination. Look

Originally posted by: SimRabbit great story, and pictures. no job zots are no no's you should get rid of them.quote> uh, you're quite right... I didn't notice them when I uploaded the pics they're annoying indeed! I'm going to better check the next upcoming pics! Thanks for the comments guys! The story is going to be continued soon!

A CRACK IN THE BALAMB GARDEN GOVERNMENT Seifer is going to take over the city. No one would have wondered what happened that day. No one could expect to see ShinRa escape the city. No one would bet on Seifer at the time of the college, when he and Squall were mates. Great changes are going to happen in Balamb Garden, the second biggest city of the nation just after Spira. The story begins with the celebration of the new HYDROPONIC FARM that Shin.Ra Corporation built in Balamb Garden, by the willing of mayor Squall. That could seem a good idea to build that farm in the Scalamanga area: it would provide high wealth workplaces and grant the workers the solidity of working for a great company such as ShinRa. A great inauguration party took place in the new Hydroponic Farm, along Idroponic Street (yeah it took the name after the building of the farm). Unfortunately, ShinRa did not think of the many many farmers around! Building that farm, and providing so well paid workplaces, causes much troubles to local farmers, who saw their workers to leave and sign up for ShinRa. So the farm owners had to increase much the payment of the people they really needed to keep, such as specialists and skilled workers they had. Less specialized workers and the ones who did lower-paid works however left their old workplaces and signed for ShinRa. This great company could pay even a cleaning-man much more than a local farmer could. You can have a better glimpse of the situation by just looking at the picture below: it shows a shot of the area where the hydroponic farm has been built. As you can see, around Scalamanga there are many farms. The building of the ShinRa one caused the troubles I said before, and increased the competition for selling the products. ShinRa is even a good mark to sell a product under. At that point the farmers began to complain. Shinra of course ignored their protest, as long as mayor Squall did. He thought they could do any damage, and they would calm down soon and get back to their work. They had farms. They were few. They couldn't go anywhere else. He thought. Unfortunately, there was a person in the city that was more interested than Squall in hearing the farmers' complains. That person's name is Seifer. SEIFER ALMASY So who is him? Seifer attended the same college of Squall, the "Galbadia Garden". They were mates. Or, at least, let's call them mates. They've never been friends. They were almost rivals. Two strong guys with high ambitions, both aiming to join the ShinRa troops. However, Seifer was an undisciplined, arrogant, cynical, drastic guy. After a fight with Squall, he was expelled from the college. He then created a small military troop in the city. Or I should call it a creek. However they've never had a chance to get any kind of power, being the city controlled by a such big entity like ShinRa. As soon as Seifer heard the farmers' story, he began his search. He thought this could be his moment of glory, the right time to find something for blaming Squall and get his place in the ShinRa government pyramid. He had many friends and knowledges, being at the same garden as Squall. He was then able to obtain restricted informations about the project, and knew that the Hydrophonic Farm has been built with the money granted from the new taxes once announced for the works to the city road network. Squall increased some taxes to get enough funds in order to complete some previously unfinished works. Instead of doing so, he used those money to build this farm that would give profit to Shin.Ra only. Moreover, there was the famous GBR PROJECT: GREAT BYPASS RING. That project is one of the most important ones, since it is about turning the actual bypass road that runs around the city into an high speed highway ring, just like the one we saw in SPIRA. CLICK ON THE PICS IN ORDER TO OPEN THEM FULL SIZE IN ANOTHER WINDOW. :-) As soon as Seifer broadcasted the news through the local independent television, the citizens began to protest, and strike and riots were all around the city! A group of rebels, guided by Seifer, attacked the Shin.Ra Wind Tower and burned it up! The people that were in the tower were able to escape through a secret tunnel that connects the tower to the base of the hill it's built on. SEIFER reaches the troops on the hill, and began his project to burn up the Wind Tower, that has ever been a symbol of the Shin.Ra power in the city and the entire nation too. Here Seifer is giving the signal to the troops to open the fire against the Shin.Ra Tower.

Originally posted by: edmonton_stinks Nice update, but maybe in the future you could have fewer pictures and more updates. I think that might have been too many pictures.quote> edmonton_stinks: I'm glad to hear that, since this means that you like also to read descriptions and updates instead of just looking at pics. I did an update with more pics that the previous ones because I wanted to avoid to make people bored of reading much text. This is why I'm happy to read your critics, so I'm going to provide again much more text descriptions and updates, as long as a new storyline. In next post we'll see a crack in the Balamb Government that will lead to unimaginable consequences. Simfan34: yeah that has to be a tough guy! I'm sure that the Mayor would be happy to have him stay in the city for an holiday, providing him a suite in the Shinra Tower. Thanks to everybody else for the comments! Next update is coming soon .

Finally I got some spare time to update this CJ. I had also to spend some time trying to fix a curious problem with the game, since it was no longer giving me nightlights, not even on the maxis buildings. I tried various solutions, removed plugins, removed and installed the game again, but nothing seemed to fix the problem, until I entered the options menu and put all the game details to LOW. Then entered the options menu once more and set the details back to HIGH. Then I changed from night to day then again to night and... night lights were back! Still wondering what kind of issue could this be... some matter with the video settings, just as if the game lost them. From now on I decided to place descriptions inside the pics, instead of under them. I think it's more immediate to understand what the pic describes this way, instead of looking the pic and have to read the comment/description under it. Back to the CJ then.. this will be a huge update, many pics, and many tours. The works along Carbuncle Bypass are in progress We left the CJ looking at the works in progress along the bypass. It's time to build the overpass and the street connecting it to the inner area. It is going to be called Nafmis C.D. Overpass and Nafmis C.D. Street, according to the name of his creator that is a Simtropolis user (ShinRa still thank him for the support and the project idea!). A larger shot of the area. In the meantime.. some shots of Balamb Garden by night! Let's have a quick tour of the city centre by night! Just to show some pics. Mayor Squall is going to drive us around the centre, after having diner and watching a film at the Odeon Cinema, that is just nearby the Central Station on the centre avenue (that is called Odin avenue). This is the central ODIN AVENUE. It's just in front of the Central Station and as you can see, a tram line runs on its middle. This is the BALAMB GARDEN F.S. CENTRAL STATION. It's a huge and beautiful station, that we will look closer at daytime with better lights. Many many rail lines transit along here. It provides also hub interconnection between F.S. railway, both the subway lines, and three tram lines. It has also a bus terminal, a taxi terminal and a huge park buiilding. The station has been build by F.S. Corp., and is still maintained by it. It's a company that manages the entire rail network all over the nation.

Thanks for the replies guys! Simfan34, ShinRa found your suggesiton plan very useful and interesting. It has been inserted in the GBR (Great Bypass Ring) project, and they're going to put it in action right now, trying to solve the traffic issues in that area. That seem a very good solution and one of the fastest yet cheapest to apply than the original GBR project (whose main aim was to change the entire bypass ring into a freeway system road, and complete the missing part of the ring in the southern-west area). ShinRa is going to use your nickname to give a name to the roads they're going to build. Zelgadis, eheh being some years I play SC4 I never read about that easter egg, even if I'm sure it has been discussed a lot on the forum. The effect was pretty cool, I'll try to search if there's a way to have it any day of the year BACK TO THE CJ... This time we're just going to see the beginning of the works along Carbuncle Bypass, as suggested by Simfan34. However, just before proceeding with that, let's see how that area was developed from the beginning. ShinRa gave us some old pics of the area. Here we are about 30 years ago, when the A.R.C.O. was not even complete. You can see the ARCO area (do you recognize it?) full of yards that was working on it. There were not even fences around it as you can see! On the right you can see the Carbuncle Bypass, how it was at that time. It was a simple single two way road. As soon as the works on the ARCO were getting to an end, ShinRa (well) thought that as the ARCO would open its gates and offer so many workplaces, the nearby area would soon get full of traffic and moving people. So they added a subway stop to the red metro line, just in front of the ARCO entrance. Moreover, they tried to do as much as possible to enlarge the bypass road. A larger shot of the area. You can also see raising buildings. On the bottom, you can see how even the Galbadia Bypass was a simple single two-way road. Even the Selphie Avenue was less used, because the Scalamanga Suburb (on the eastern corner out of the walls) did not exist. A close-up view of the workers building the ARCO. This is a shot of the area as of TODAY, before beginning the works. In BLUE you can see the roads that are going to be built. ShinRa has to modify a little the proposal of Simfan34 because they can't demolish buildings where people currently live in. Luckily there's a small building (where you see a red cross on) that is abandoned. It will be demolished. The existing streets will be turned into a larger roadway and connected to the Bypass. It will be called Simfan34 Street and will be two-way in the southern side of the avenue, and one-way road in the northern side of the avenue. CHANGES TO THE ROUTING - Cars coming from Galbadia Bypass will have to leave it as soon as it changes to Carbuncle, turning left alon

What a good lookig CJ! I really like those pics! And found really nice some ideas, such as to build and show the origin of the river that splits the nation. The choosing and usage of the plugins is really accurate and harmonious. And your pics look really good even without being photoshopped. Hope to see more! Cloud.

Great job so far! I really like your city, and the way you approach to this CJ! I like so much the Eye on Millennium news, and the way you show on the map the future projects. The yards are great, I like watching the works in progress of the new projects Would really like to see also the yards along the 51st street and the way the traffic is changed during the works. Keep it up! Cloud.

HI guys, thank you very much for the replies! zelgadis, I'm really glad that you like my tours around the cities. I really enjoy writing them! NOW WE'RE GOING TO LEAVE THE A.R.C.O. This is one of the ARCO badges. The guard gave it to the driver of the car.In fact we accessed the area heading to one of the buildings inside the ARCO that is owned by ShinRa: they've got some commercial offices in ARCO in order to manage their public relationships. On the badge you can see the name of the company it's assigned to, the name of the person (in our case, it's the generic "visitors" badge), and on the top-right area the number of the parking it's assigned to: BUILDING E8, park number 07. On the bottom, you can see the ID of the badge (4714). As soon as we approach the exit of the ARCO, we've to give it back to the guard in order to get our documents back. Approaching the exit, there's a long queue of cars. They're there because of the traffic along Barambani Street. There's what I mean as "long queue"! It took about 15 minutes to reach this point, the crossing with Selphie avenue. Many cars crosses it in order to turn left. We're lucky since we're going to do an easy right-turn, heading to the freeway on our way back to the ShinRa building. Here's our path from the ARCO to the freeway. Out of the freeway tunnel, we run among the Scalamanga area again. Out of the Freeway, even nearer to our destination. Back to the ShinRa hill. I FOUND THE TOP OF THE HILL FULL OF SNOW! I don't know why, maybe I've downloaded some plugin that makes snow over some altitudes in winter... I was playing the month of January. Or maybe it could be some special gift of some plugin since I shot this pic on December 25? I waited for the months to pass, and the snow slowly went away as soon as Spring came. Don't know what is the plugin that makes this, but I think it's just cool! If anyone here knows what it is, I'd really like to know ! Yeah, I'm the one who installed it, but don't really remember when and what! We're back to the hill! It's just evening! THE TRAFFIC ISSUES IN THE CARBUNCLE AREA This is the back of the ARCO. The road you see ther

Thanks for the replies, guys! I'm now back with a bigger update than the last one. It's now time for ... TOURING THE A.R.C.O. Center The ARCO Center is a large gated and fenced area that includes offices and hi-tech industries. It's the heart of the commercial and industrial activities in Balamb Garden. The owner of this large terrain gated it, and divided it in zones (C and I of course ) that sold to companies and rich entrepreneurs in order to build their own buildings. This is why there isn't a common architectural style inside the ARCO: each company raised their building according to their own needs. Soon more commercial and industrial building were built near the ARCO, along its perimeter, because it has soon become a very important area for offices and companies. The entrance of the ARCO Center is along M. Barambani Street. Its perimeter runs along the Selphie Avenue (and the artificial ponds); the Carbuncle Bypass and the Carbuncle Terminal Station. Soon we'll look close at this area, and we'll understand how the ARCO is the main reason for the high traffic levels of this district. The RED LINE shows you the perimeter of the ARCO area, just along its fences (so that it's more clear where this area begins and ends). As long as we continue our tour, we'll hear more about ARCO from Mayor Squall. Out of the restaurant, we're back in Mayor Squall's car. It has to turn right along Selphie Avenue, then at the crossing we do an u-turn and run along the avenue on the opposite direction, as shown by the yellow arrows. A close up view of our journey on the car. After a while, we turn right in a small street: that is Barambani Street. Look at the traffic! Here is our path along Barambani street. Look how much cars exiting the ARCO and waiting to cross the avenue. This is self explainatory about the huge traffic in this area. Just out of the ARCO fences we can see some free parkings: those are free. On the other side, parking inside the ARCO is not free and follow some rules that we're going to examine later. Just in front of the entrance, there's a Subway Station, useful for people that is not going to get there by car. Here we're approaching the entrance of the center. The area looks nice, with good looking fences, two big signs with the ARCO logo, and many parks and green terrain around. Being with the mayor, grants us access by car to the centre, otherwise we would have left our car outside. We can see a McDonalds on our left. It seems to be "outside" the center, because even if it's inside the fences, it's not required to pass the toll in order to access it. Squall says that McDonalds bought that zone of the ARCO and asked to keep it unfenced, so that it's easiest to be reached by people that<