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Tsutenkaku tower, located in the Japanese city of Osaka. Information: The Tsutenkaku tower appears in the game in the Landmarks menu. - Plop Cost: 20000$ - Bulldoze cost: 15000$ Installation: Copy/extract the content of this folder into your Plugins. Dependencies: SC4D LEX Legacy - NOB Dependencies Pack V2 Version 2 JENX-Porkie Expanded Porkie Props - Dependencies - Simtropolis In addition, the nightlighting of this model only suits for SimFox's Darker Nite mod Credits: Created by Kelis. All rights reserved. ( I am especially proud of this model. I hope you enjoy it. )- 2 Reviews
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This is the Wilhelminatoren, located in Rotterdam. Information: It is a ploppable landmark with Co$$$ jobs. The Wilhelminatoren appears in the game in the Landmark / Commercial Plop buildings menu. - Plop Cost: 15000$ - Bulldoze cost: 5000$ Installation: Copy/extract the content of this folder into your Plugins. Dependencies: JENX-Porkie Expanded Porkie Props - Dependencies - Simtropolis JENX-Porkie Expanded Porkie Props - Dependencies - Simtropolis In addition, the nightlighting of this model only suits for SimFox's Darker Nite mod Credits: Created by Kelis. All rights reserved.- 3 Reviews
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Chapter 01 -- Trade & Cruisers
Dreadnought posted a City Journal entry in IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
Introduction: After a two-year-hiatus, the IMPERIAL DOCKYARD series has returned with a new map and harbor named “CUXHAVEN”. This is a continuation of my City Journal dealing with battleships and the era in which they flourished. The plan is to publish a new chapter every two weeks. “Cuxhaven” will, primarily, highlight the battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy – how they came to be – their evolution – and their operational history. The Imperial battlecruisers were brilliant in their conception, handled with skill and audacity in battle – and have fascinated me for many years. In many ways, this “CJ” is an “homage” to a unique group of ships that existed for only a few years at the beginning of the last Century. It is also my ongoing mission to highlight just how versatile and flexible SC4 really is. Much of my new material is (Thank The Gods) custom modeled, and allows me to create lots and scenes with much more realism. But the original project was undertaken with far less custom material and forced me to be creative with re-lotting and re-purposing the props and lots already in the game. SC4 does have limitations – but you need to “push the envelope” to find them! I wish to reiterate my THANKS to the members of this community without whom this project would never have seen the light of day…… @Cyclone Boom& @CorinaMarie for their guidance and advice – given promptly and cheerfully. @mattb325who readily contributed models and technical advice when problems were encountered. @Tyberius06for lending his expertise and knowledge as well as rushing some of his “re-release” packages to keep me going. @Barroco Hispanogets a “super-thumbs-up” for ALL his hard work providing me with the quality ship models so critical to this effort – and for all his patience. AND LAST – BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST…...@AP. He and I have formed a true “collaboration” of effort. We are both fascinated with the period of the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) and this project has become a “labor of love”. I could go on and on about his skill level and imagination, but he has contributed well over 400, High Def, 3-D models – from full-sized battlecruisers to individual sailors – and made it possible to construct some of the most detailed and complex vignettes ever seen in SC4. It has totally amazed me, and we hope it will do the same for you. I would like to remind the readers that "AP" will begin releasing his prop packs along with installments of “Cuxhaven”. Again – these are “prop packs” to be used by “lot makers” – be SURE to read the attached documentation – “READ ME” files and tutorials. Due to AP’s busy “real life” schedule, we will not be able to release a prop pack with every CJ entree – but we will publish them as frequently as possible. If you lot-makers have any questions about how to use them, simply drop us a message and we will be happy to help. Here is Volume I of HISTORIC NAVIES 1900 -- Lighters Lying hove-to off the shallow harbor of Cuxhaven is a Hamburg-America Line steamer most likely bound for New York. The steamship line built a departure terminal in the small port around 1900 and it became the primary point of departure for thousands of immigrants bound for the New World. The harbor was too small and too shallow for ocean liners, so this paddle-steamer was built as a “tender”. Passengers were loaded onto the tender and ferried out to the liner. Picture circa 1905. NOW -- let me say right up front -- this harbor bears no resemblance to the real-world Cuxhaven. The port city of Cuxhaven is located at the mouth of the Elbe River and has always hosted commercial shipping and a modest fishing industry. The port’s value was considerably enhanced by the completion of the Kaiser Wilhelm I Canal in 1895. The canal’s western locks are just 20 miles up-river from Cuxhaven and were vital to the strategic deployment of the Hochseeflotte (High Sea Fleet) in either the North Sea or Baltic Sea. In 1906, Cuxhaven was “officially” selected as an alternative naval base – mainly because warships had been sent there for many years to relieve congestion in the Jade Estuary and at Wilhelmshaven. About 60 miles up-river from the canal is the massive port of Hamburg. In the early part of the 20th Century, Hamburg was the second largest port in Europe. Part of Hamburg’s industrial growth included one of the finest shipyards in all of Europe – Blohm & Voss – much favored by the Kaiserliche Marine. For our purposes, “Cuxhaven” is “home port” to the scouting forces of the Hochseeflotte -- four scouting groups made up of a variety of different cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats. This map shot gives you a pretty good idea of where everything is and how it fits together. Along the north edge is the main anchorage, or roadsted. On the left side of the map is the original small anchorage that was in use when ships were smaller and less numerous – the West Loch. This is an overview of the Main Anchorage. The large enclosed area behind the breakwater is referred to as “the roadsted”. The piers, quays, wharves, and mooring points are all “assigned berths”, whereas the roadsted is only a “temporary” anchorage. Most of the harbor area was dredged out of a shallow bay and wetland to build a more spacious and modern harbor for the increasing numbers of new cruisers joining the fleet. Work was completed in 1893. There is sufficient berthing available to accommodate the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Scouting Groups, though the breakwater mooring points were added in 1904. This location was first used in 1881, and was not much more than a small bay with two fishing piers and a few buildings. But Wilhelm II took the throne in 1888 and work began on the new, main anchorage, as well as expanding and modernizing what came to be called the West Loch. The construction was pushed ahead with great vigor, and by 1892 everything was in place. Though a bit crowded, there is sufficient room to comfortably host the 3rd Scouting Group in the old West Loch. The 3rd Scouting Group is composed of the protected cruises and armored cruisers built between 1895 and 1909. And everything on this map is, in one way or another, directly related to the origins, composition, and operations of the Hochseefleet’s First Scouting Group – the battlecruiser squadron. SMS Seydlitz - 1913 - The Battlecruiser that was “too tough to die”. BATTLECRUISER !! The very term “battlecruiser” bespeaks speed and power, and is unique to the Great War Era. The ships were things of beauty -- low and graceful, with the unmistakable aura of menace in their lines. Sailors wanted to serve on them, Captains wanted to command them, and thousands of pages have been written about them. The Imperial German battlecruisers are both enigmatic and fascinating, while the courage of the men that manned them is indisputable. And if there is truly any romance to be found in modern naval warfare – it is to be found here. In the time before the advent of machine guns and tanks, an army used horse cavalry to scout enemy positions and raid supply lines. They could also launch themselves into the heat of battle to unsettle their opponents at a critical moment – or -- to press their advantage and put the enemy to flight. In World War I, the battlecruisers were the “cavalry” of the “Hochseeflotte”. They were fast, powerful, and when properly handled – deadly. As a type, they existed only for a few years in the early 20th Century, with the first launched in 1907 (HMS Indomitable), and the last in 1919 (HMS Hood). There were a few built prior to World War II – the French Dunkerque Class, and the German Scharnhorst Class. But the type had largely fallen out of favor by that time. So the various portions of the Cuxhaven map will be used to explain how the battlecruiser was conceived, how the “concept” evolved, and how the Imperial German warships were designed and employed. And all of this will be accomplished within the format of the ever-changing possibilities of SC4 – a twenty year old game that continues to survive & thrive! “AP” and I, hope you will be pleased. This is the “London Pool” circa 1900, where shipping waits their turn at the docks. Seaborne trade was the source of Britain’s greatness. The sharp-eyed among you might spot the dome of St. Paul’s in the right background. IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 01: TRADE & CRUISERS TRADE!! Liza Minelli and Joel Gray sang it in 1972…...”Money makes the world go around...the world go around...the world go around”. And NEVER were truer words spoken. But it all started about 500 years before that…... Around the dawn of the 15th Century, Europe discovered “national wealth” was a finite thing. There was a limit to the amount of tax money a sovereign could extract from the people. This, in turn, meant a monarch’s ability to project power across oceans and borders was limited by how many ships they could afford to build and how many troops could be paid. (Poor Princes have no influence – wealthy Princes have big armies and navies.) The time honored solution to this problem was to invade a neighbor and take their wealth. But even if you were lucky, a military campaign often cost more than you could steal. So rulers began looking for an easier way to make a buck. Henry VIII, for example, spent a great deal of time and energy trying to get English wool into the Flemish Market. But the Continental traders (Walloons-?) were a cagey lot and refused to relinquish their dominance. Other monarchs had similar problems finding sources of income, and by the end of the century (The Age Of Discovery, no less.) they were desperate for markets. But when the Spanish got a handle on what Columbus had “discovered” -- that was all she wrote! Other nations looked at the mountains of gold and silver the Spaniards brought back from the New World and decided “colonization” was the way to go. It was at this point that TRADE on a semi-global scale was born. (Though the British hung onto the nasty habit of intercepting Spanish Treasure Fleets when it suited them.) I won’t bore you with the mercantile details – they teach that in school. But Europe -- certain that they were the “civilized” part of the world -- spent the next four centuries carving the globe into “spheres of influence”, while grabbing vast tracts of land as “colonial possessions”. The “mother country” was able to cheaply extract raw resources from the colony (virtually slave labor) and ship them home. The resources were then manufactured into finished goods and sold at home and abroad at extravagant prices. Merchant’s purses began to bulge, enabling rulers to raise taxes, build a bigger navy and army, and begin throwing their political weight around. This led directly to “empire”. Thus is established a direct link from colonial possessions to wealth AND power -- two things no government would give up without a fight. So once acquired, a colony had to be defended against internal unrest (bad for business) or rival European incursions (even worse). Occasionally, troops and ships would be sent for serious problems, but the usual guardian was a single warship stationed in a nearby colonial port. A single ship-of-the-line (the early equivalent of a battleship) might be home-ported in the region, but she would be augmented by several “frigates” that did the patrolling and used landing parties to deal with small disturbances. The frigates were the workhorses that kept the peace and “showed the flag”. Frigates were wooden, three masted, full-rigged ships (square-rigged on all masts) ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 tons with a single gun deck. Armament was 28 to 32 guns, with the heaviest guns being 18 pounders. They were built with clean hull lines and carried a large spread of canvas, making them fast and highly maneuverable. A frigate, well handled, could hold it’s own. But frigates were NEVER designed or intended to stand in the “line of battle” against ships-of-the-line. The USS Constitution – a large frigate at 44 guns – and perhaps the most famous of them all. Picture taken in 2012 under easy sail. Small, fast, and cheap to build, frigates required a comparatively small crew. Two-deckers and three-deckers were much more expensive, required huge amounts of seasoned timber to build, took 600 to 900 men to operate (lots of gun crews), and were vastly more expensive to maintain. It only made sense to scatter “cheap” frigates around the edges of a far-flung empire for policing duties. And that is how the modern “cruiser” and “gunboat diplomacy” came into being. Time passed and the wooden frigate of Nelson’s Age evolved to accommodate new technologies. In the 1850’s steam propulsion began to take over from sails. During the 1860’s rifled cannon and armor plate appeared. And by the 1890’s, the frigate had finally taken on the aspects of a modern “cruiser” – all steam and steel. USS Galena – 1869 -- Still wooden-hulled, but sporting a steam engine and rifled cannon. Oddly, the Americans did not feel the need of a modern navy and relied on Civil War relics for decades. USS Olympia – Commodore Dewey’s flagship at the battle of Manila Bay, 1898. All steel construction, triple expansion engines, and revolving armored gun turrets. A remarkably fast jump into the 20th Century. Before the 1880’s, Germany had no colonial possessions, largely because there was nothing that could seriously be called “Germany”. Prior to the 1870’s what passed for Germany was a loose amalgamation of Kingdoms, Grand Duchies, Duchies, City States, and numerous small principalities. Only in 1871 did Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck engineer the Franco-Prussian War and create an excuse to unite all the “Germanic” states under Prussia’s leadership. In a single stroke, the “Iron Chancellor” crushed French opposition, played mid-wife to modern Germany, had his King declared an Emperor, and catapulted the newly-minted “Empire” into the realm of major-player politics (Weltpolitik). Prussian steam corvette Augusta in action against the French – 1870. Proclamation of the German Empire – 18 January, 1871. Within a few years, the new nation had taken stock of their assets and an industrial boom started that would push Germany to the forefront of European manufacturing and scientific development. Factories, railroads, steamship lines, optical firms, banks, chemical plants, and shipyards changed an agrarian nation into an industrial powerhouse. Exports of German goods and machinery soared, producing large trade profits and a greatly increased tax base for the government. Soon enough, ambition caught up with profits, and in 1882 the Colonial League was started by a group of prominent businessmen, industrialists, bankers, and politicians. The group financed pamphlet publications, public meetings, and newspaper articles, while their political members applied pressure in the Reichstag (parliament) – all to acquire overseas territory. They could see the wealth and power an empire had brought Great Britain, and they wanted their “place in the Sun”. When Wilhelm II took the throne in 1888, colonial possessions became a matter of Royal prestige. If his uncle, England’s Edward VII, had colonies, then so must he. Between 1883 and 1885 Germany obtained territories in West Africa, South West Africa, East Africa, half of New Guinea, and the Marshal, Solomon, and Caroline Islands in the southwest Pacific. Later, in 1898, on a pretext, the German East Asiatic Squadron was ordered to seize the strategically located port of Tsingtao, China – and later negotiated a 99-year lease from the Chinese. The original idea was that Tsingtao would provide a lucrative gateway for increased trade with China. But the squadron commander, Kapitan zur See Otto von Diederichs, knew – despite what the politicians said -- Tsingtao would be a dagger aimed directly at British trade routes to Australia, China, Japan, Malaya, and even the Indian Ocean. As mentioned in previous chapters, overseas colonies provided friendly coaling stations for warships, and your “political influence” – in peace or war -- was limited to how far a warship could go on full coal bunkers. The collier SS Gotha taking on coal at the Cuxhaven Coaling Station. Gotha is a commercial collier leased by the Navy from the Norddeutscher Lloyd Steamship Line. (You can just barely make out the blue and white “house flag” of the Norddeutscher Line flying from the second derrick mast.) It was not uncommon for the Imperial Navy to lease civilian colliers – especially on long voyages – because there were never enough government-owned colliers. This one will be joining a reinforcement convoy of cruisers and destroyers bound for Tsingtao, China. The warships will coal from Gotha first, and when her holds are empty, she will set course for Hamburg, and home. Everything in the basin – the collier, tugs, coal lighters, and the mooring dolphins – were all modeled by @AP. The coaling piers were modified and re-lotted from the “PEG-SNM Naval Series”. This is a detail shot of Gotha. Note the dingy, worn texture of the weathered hull and the rusty look to the metal decking on the forecastle. The aft bunker hold is full and waiting for the hatch covers, while the fore hold is receiving the last few buckets of coal. Crewmen are moving around the deck, working on the forward winch, and “working coal”. The cargo booms are wonderfully detailed and realistic -- complete with the rigging to work them. “AP” put a great deal of effort into perfecting the art of rigging his models – very fine lines that do not overpower the model. And if you look closely, you will see a difference in thickness between the boom rigging and the “rat lines” reaching to the top of the mast – a distinction unique to his skill and technique. AND – “AP” does his research -- the rigging is all functional, not decorative. The texture colors on the ship blend quite well with one another and the white awning spread on the fantail is an excellent touch. The level of detail is unbelievable – you can even see the individual oars in the ship’s boats! You will also note “AP” has given the same level of detail to the tugboat Thor and the lighters in the foreground. Gotha was modeled from the Prometheus Class colliers built for the US Navy just prior to WW I. We chose that particular ship because she resembled many of the colliers of the period, incorporated all of the best innovations, and had been designed with clean and graceful lines – unusual in any collier. Having obtained colonies, more as an afterthought than a coherent plan, the “Kaiserliche Admiralitat” (Admiralty) came to the conclusion their aging collection of sailing frigates, steam frigates, and corvettes, were of minimal combat value and inadequate -- even for overseas duty. The recent explosion in German industrial exports and maritime trade only added to the dilemma. Not only were the colonies in need of protection, but the trade routes to and from them, as well. Germany’s sworn enemy, the French, were known to favor commerce raiding. And the far more numerous ships of the Royal Navy were a potential threat to trade routes everywhere in the world. The publication of Alfred Thayer Mahan’s “The Influence Of Seapower Upon History” (1890) merely printed what everyone already knew – but he solidly drove the point home. The book could be summed up in a single sentence...If your fleet was not strong enough to control the seas, then your commerce would be swept from them and your warships bottled up in harbor. Accordingly, the first “modern” protected cruisers and unprotected cruisers were commissioned into the Imperial Navy in 1888. Cruiser development in the Kaiserliche Marine, like other navies, followed several threads, and was much debated in the offices of the Reichsmarineamt (Naval Office). But it eventually came down to just two types: a small, cheap, unprotected cruiser for scouting ahead of the battle fleet, and a slightly larger protected cruiser to provide strength and support for the scouting elements, as well as being strong enough to support colonial stations and hunt down enemy commerce raiders. Over the next two decades, these two types would evolve into the light cruiser and the armored cruiser. UNPROTECTED CRUISERS The “Unprotected” cruiser is just what it says – unprotected! The only thing between you and an enemy shell was the half inch steel skin of the ship. This type of warship was common to navies the world over as they transitioned from wood and sail to steel and steam. Designers knew cruisers, like the early frigates, would have to be fast in order to perform their scouting duties in advance of the fleet. They also understood they would have to be cheap enough to make it practical to deploy them on distant patrol and police duty. The head of the Kaiserliche Marine, General Leo von Caprivi, decided the two requirements were incompatible and ordered ships specifically designed for duty on foreign stations. The result was two Schwalbe Class unprotected cruisers commissioned in 1888. Unprotected Cruiser SMS Schwalbe – 1888. The operational requirements on distant duty stations largely defined their final form. The need to operate close inshore and up winding river estuaries resulted in a shallow draft and shorter hull length. An auxiliary sail rig (barquentine) was provided since engine repair facilities were scarce in the colonies. The sail rig also allowed the cruisers to escort merchant vessels over long distances while conserving coal. Finally, the absolute necessity to conduct police actions in the colonies required a crew large enough to spare a landing party. These ships were about 220 feet long by 30 feet wide, and weighed in around 1,100 tons. The stem and stern portions were constructed of wood, while the center section of the hull was half inch steel. The whole hull was covered in wood and sheathed with copper to reduce marine fouling, and a bronze ram was mounted on the bow. Schwalbe could make a respectable 14 knots on twin shafts with a cruising radius of 1,600 kilometers. Caprivi wanted the overseas cruisers to be able to take care of themselves and insisted on an overly heavy armament – eight 4.1-inch guns. Two were mounted forward in sponsons overhanging the sides, with two similar guns aft, and two guns either side amidships, mounted in the hull. She carried a crew of 9 officers and 108 enlisted. They proved to be good sea boats and their deployment overseas allowed Caprivi to retire five old sailing frigates. In all, nine unprotected cruisers were built, ending in 1895 with Gefion – much improved at 4,275 tons, mounting ten 4.1-inch guns, and capable of 20 knots. And – her armor protection had increased to a full inch! Unprotected cruiser Gefion - 1895 But the idea of only building “unprotected” cruisers for foreign service was quickly seen as too “specialized”, and the Reichstag was not exactly free with their spending. Caprivi realized he was going to have to have ships that could multi-task. The naval architects of the Reichsmarineamt began design work for more versatile cruisers capable of performing fleet duties. But the unprotected cruisers provided valuable experience in both design and operational service and formed the basis of future designs that would become what we know as light cruisers. The modernization of the German cruiser force had begun. LIGHT CRUISERS Light Cruiser Gazelle - The first modern light cruiser built for the German Navy - 1901. General Caprivi’s next small cruisers would have to operate with the Hochseeflotte in home waters, and be able to fulfill the policing duties on “colonial” stations. The designers needed something small, with a bit of armor protection, and an optimal combination of speed, armament, and the stability to handle the nasty North Sea weather -- as well as the endurance to operate in the colonial empire. The naval architects were so successful, the Gazelle Class became the template for all the light cruisers designed through 1914. Gazelle was the lead ship of a ten-ship class, commissioned between 1901 and 1904. She was 344 feet long with a 40 foot beam, and displaced 2,600 tons. Her twin shafts generated 19.5 knots with a range of 3,570 miles at cruising speed. (A speed of 19.5 knots might seem slow, but was satisfactory in an age when most battleships made only 18 knots -- or less.) Her crew consisted of 14 officers and 243 enlisted men. The cruiser mounted ten 4.1-inch guns in single mounts with shields, capable of firing 15 rounds per minute. Two guns were placed on either side of the forecastle, three on either side amidships, and two more on either side of the fantail. There were three 17.7-inch torpedo tubes – one submerged in the bow and one on deck on either broadside – with eight reloads. Under various Naval laws passed by the Reichstag, the Gazelle Class would, eventually, be followed by 37 additional light cruisers built and commissioned prior to the end of the First World War. And each successive class was a little bigger and a little faster because the naval architects were determined to produce better ships – ship for ship – than their English counterparts. DRESDEN CLASS LIGHT CRUISER – 1909 The Reichstag Naval Law of 1898 called for the construction of 30 light cruisers beginning with the ten ship Gazelle Class. This was followed by 7 ships of the Bremen Class between 1903 – 1905. Next were 4 ships of the Konigsberg Class of 1905 – 1907. Following that came SMS Dresden and her sister ship SMS Emden, comprising a two-ship class commissioned in 1909. Dresden was built at Blohm & Voss Shipyard, Hamburg, while Emden was constructed at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard), Danzig. There were some minor visual differences, but the basic pattern set by Gazelle was closely adhered to. The chief improvement was an additional boiler to increase speed to 24 knots. In the picture above, you see Emden and Dresden “nested” against a pier taking on provisions. When finished, Dresden has been ordered to join the 4th Scouting Group in the main anchorage. Emden will be moved to the repair docks to have her engines overhauled for a long voyage. His Majesty, the Kaiser, has approved reinforcements for the East Asiatic Squadron and Emden will be joining a small convoy of warships and colliers bound for Tsingtao, China. The very fine cruiser models are provided by @Barroco Hispano. The piers were modified from the PEG-SNM series of naval lots, with the addition of 100 ton crane models by “AP”. Wooden caissons (WMP Seawalls) were added to the front of the piers to act as “bumpers”. The roads are Paeng’s Grunge Concrete lots, while various buildings were re-purposed as workshops and warehouses. The warehouse adjacent to the pier is borrowed from a “PEG Seaport” – and since I wanted a long warehouse, I simply butted two ends together. The crane alongside the rail siding is from the PEG-SNM Dry Dock lot and was patterned after a crane commonly found in US Navy yards from the late 1930’s through the 1950’s. You will also note two excellent Odin Class tug boats tied up along the seawall. This is a close-up of the tugs in that grouping. The white harbor tug in the picture was gifted by “WolfZe” and is reminiscent of steam tugs in the port of New York from the 1880’s into the late 1940’s. The remaining tugs are by “AP”. From lower left to right, they are a Midgard Class, A Passat Class, and two Odin Class, alongside the seawall. The Midgard Class is an older, low horsepower tug, suitable for harbors, rivers, and inshore coastal work. The Passat Class are modern (1910), state of the art tugs, with high horsepower, and capable of operating at sea. The Odin Class are a slimmed-down, slightly more modern, increased horsepower version of the Midgards. These beautifully modeled little boats are patterned after real tugs and have a dingy, overworked, weathered look that really brings them to life. If you examine these models closely, the level of detail is absolutely astonishing. Scratch-built -- they are courtesy of @AP. The Dresden Class was, at 3,660 tons, much heavier than the earlier Gazelle, and just a bit larger with dimensions of 388 feet in length and a 44 foot beam. The armament remained the same with ten 4.1-inch guns – 6 mounted on the deck in shields and 4 mounted in the hull. They kept the original arrangement with two on the forecastle and two on the fantail and the remainder on either broadside. There were also two 17.7-inch torpedo tubes mounted on deck amidships. Since Gazelle’s time, armor protection had been increased in each successive class until Dresden sported a 3.1-inch deck, gun shields of 2 inches, and a 3.9-inch conning tower. This is an excellent view of the bow -- very fine lines -- but short. Note the water barriers curving around the guns. Those guns would have been nearly impossible to work in any sort of seaway. The bridge structure has also been raised one deck and the wheelhouse fully enclosed, with spray shields on the bridge wings. This is another indication of the amount of spray and water coming across the bows at high speed or in rough weather. STRASSBURG - MAGDEBURG CLASS LIGHT CRUISER – 1909 Strassburg was one of four ships of the Magdeburg Class laid down in 1910 and commissioned in 1912. This class included a number of innovations -- a new longitudinal hull framing system with a minimum of 14 watertight compartments, a cleaner and more efficient hull form, and a “clipper” bow rather than the usual ram bow. These ships were also designed for easy conversion to fast minelayers, with a cut down quarter deck providing space to install mine racks. More significantly, the Magdeburg’s were the first Imperial light cruisers with an armor belt on the waterline. Model courtesy of "Barroco Hispano". The improvements to the class raised displacement to 4,570 tons and lengthened the hull to 455 feet and a breadth of 45 feet. With a length-to-breadth ratio of 10 to 1, the cruiser took on the shape of a “pencil” – making it much easier to push through the water. As clearly shown by the placement of the funnels, fully one half of the ship was occupied by her 16 boilers. Combined with the installation of steam turbines and a three shaft propeller arrangement, the ship was easily capable of 27.5 knots. All ships of the class were originally armed with twelve 4.1-inch guns, but when war broke out, it was found that the small guns were no longer sufficient to stop newer and larger destroyers. During the course of the war the armament was upgraded to what you see in the picture – seven 5.9-inch guns. There were also two 17.7-inch torpedo tubes mounted on deck, one on either beam. You can just make them out at the edge of the deck between the third and fourth funnel. (It should be noted that between the World Wars, the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 limited all cruisers to 10,000 tons, while The London Naval Treaty of 1936 officially divided cruisers into 6 inch gun light cruisers, and 8 inch gun heavy cruisers. From 1922, this was the standard classification of cruisers – until the advent of the “missile cruiser”.) The Magdeburg Class was armored with a waterline belt of 2.4 inches amidships, tapering at the bow – the stern was unarmored. The deck armor consisted of 2.5 inches of plate forward, 1.6 inches amidships, and 0.70 inches aft. She had a protective armored deck of 1.6 inches sloping down and connecting to the belt armor. The conning tower was 3.9 inches thick and the main battery guns were protected by 2-inch shields. All in all – a vast improvement over Gazelle’s meager protection. (Chapter 2 will have a full explanation of the principle of the protective armored deck.) Three of the four ships in the class had rather eventful careers: Magdeburg was deployed to the Baltic where she fired the very first shots of the Great War when she shelled the Russian port of Libau. In late August, 1914, she participated in a sweep of the Gulf of Finland and while steaming along the Estonian coast, she grounded off Odensholm Island and could not be re-floated. Soon, a pair of Russian cruisers arrived and seized the ship. The Russians recovered a pair of naval code books, one of which, they passed to the British. For the remainder of the war, this code book enabled the British to read much of the Hochseeflotte’s wireless traffic and alerted the British to the planned operations in May, 1916 -- allowing them to ambush the Imperial Fleet at Jutland. Though there were suspicions that the German codes had been “broken”, no steps to change them were ever taken. Breslau, upon commissioning, was immediately assigned to the Mediterranean along with the new battlecruiser Goeben, to form the “Mittelmeerdivision” (Mediterranean Squadron). This squadron was sent to look after German nationals and government interests in the Balkan region during the Balkan War of 1912. After evading British cruiser forces in the early hours of WW I, the two ships steamed up the Bosphorus and dropped anchor off Constantinople. Berlin arranged a deal to transfer them to the Turkish Navy – whereupon, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia. (There was a great display of the German crews parading on deck, removing their Imperial headgear, and donning the famous red Turkish Fez.) Both ships remained active in the Black Sea, laying minefields, bombarding ports and installations, and even ferrying troops and supplies for the Turks. Breslau (renamed Midilli) was mined and sunk in 1918, during the Battle of Imbros, while Goeben (Yavuz Sultan Selim) survived the war and was sold for scrap in 1967. (The shame is that no one thought to preserve the last remaining battlecruiser from World War I!) SMS Goeben proceeding on final sea trials – 1912. Strassburg was assigned to the Scouting Forces of the Hochseeflotte in 1913 and went on to see action at the Battle of Heligoland and the Bombardment of Scarborough, Hartlepool, and Whitby in 1914. In 1917 she saw action against the Russians during the operations in the Gulf of Riga. After the Armistice in 1918, she served briefly in the Wiemar Republic’s Reichsmarine before being ceded to Italy as war reparations in 1920. She served as Taranto in the “Regia Marina”, which is why our picture shows her flying an Italian flag. When Italy surrendered in 1943, she was scuttled by her crew. The Germans quickly occupied Italy to take advantage of the easily defended mountainous terrain, and took the time to raise their former warship from the bottom of the harbor. She was bombed and sunk by Allied aircraft in late 1943, raised again by the Germans, and bombed and sunk yet again in September, 1944. A somewhat dubious honor, but she must hold the record for the number of sinkings by a single ship. She was broken up for scrap in 1946 – 1947. Stralsund, alone among the class, served a, more or less, mundane existence. She was assigned to the Scouting Force for the majority of her career, seeing action in the raids on the English coast and at Heligoland in 1914, and Dogger Bank in 1915. She was in the dockyard during Jutland, but served in the Reichsmarine (Wiemar Republic) after the war, before being ceded to France, where she served as Mulhouse until 1925. She was eventually scrapped in 1935. KARLSRUHE CLASS LIGHT CRUISER – 1914 SMS Rostock – The last light cruiser to join the fleet before the outbreak of war in 1914. SMS Karlsruhe and Rostock constituted a two ship class and were the last light cruisers to join the Kaiserliche Marine prior to World War I. These ships were virtually identical to the preceding Magdeburg Class, but were slightly heavier at 4,900 tons, a bit longer at 466 feet, and capable of making 29.3 knots – a considerable improvement achieved largely through slight alterations to the hull lines that gave the ships a smoother form and more “rake” to the “clipper” bow. They carried the same armament as the Magdeburg’s – twelve 4.1-inch guns. KONIGSBERG CLASS LIGHT CRUISERS – 1916 - 1917 This four ship class was composed of Konigsberg, Karlsruhe, Emden, and Nurnberg – all named after light cruisers lost earlier in the war. (Which can cause some confusion.) They were commissioned into the Kaiserliche Marine in 1916 and 1917, which was rather late in the war. Konigsberg and Emden were built at the AG Weser Shipyard in Bremen – Karlsruhe at the Imperial Dockyard Kiel – and Nurnburg at the Howaldtswerke Shipyard, also in Kiel. In the picture above, the beautiful and detailed cruiser models speak for themselves, and they are courtesy of @Barroco Hispano. The breakwater in the background is by “Uki”. But the small, details may be of interest as well. For many years I have seen period pictures of battleships at anchor, with boat booms extended from their sides, and swarms of small boats coming and going. But I was never able to depict this very common and somewhat mundane activity which has everything to do with the realistic portrayal of life in the fleet. Here you see the boat boom out and a cutter tied up – the crew unloading boxes to the ship. Ships riding at anchor are small, tightly packed worlds unto themselves. Communication with the ship was strictly for “Navy’ business and could only be accomplished by flag hoists, shore semaphore, wireless telegraphy, or a “dispatch boat”. Ship’s business errands could only be run by boat. Reports and messages had to be sent ashore. Mail had to be ferried out to the ship. Food had to be brought out in lighter barges towed by tugs. Nearly everything we take for granted had to be accomplished by small boats. Harbors and anchorages were, literally, alive with small boats plying back and forth between ship and shore. Thanks to “AP” no detail of realism is too small to get attention. The boat boom extending out from the ship is a prop, as is the cutter unloading. They are placed on a 1x1 lot, carefully adjusted to mesh with the side of the ship. They can be placed alongside almost any ship and provide an entirely new degree of realism. You will also note the two cruisers are moored at the bow to a “battleship buoy”, also sometimes referred to as a “barrel buoy”. These are permanent, floating mooring buoys anchored to the seabed with heavy chains and concrete bases. Ships pull alongside and “fish” the buoy toward the hull so a mooring hawser can be tied off, or they send a small boat to “tie off”. These have been around for centuries, in one form or another, in every corner of the world. And courtesy of “AP” – now you will see them in SC4. This one is also a free-standing 1x1 lot plopped as close as possible to the ships. As the last “full” cruiser class commissioned into the Imperial navy, and just an incremental improvement over the preceding Wiesbaden Class, these ships were still quite impressive for their day. Their length was 496 feet, with a 46 foot beam, displacing 5,440 tons. Their design incorporated eighteen watertight compartments with a double bottom over 45% of the length of the keel. The cruisers were manned by 17 officers and 458 men and were generally regarded as good sea boats -- highly maneuverable with a tight turning radius. (Note: There were, in fact, four more cruisers commissioned before the Armistice, but two of them were minelayers, and the very last two saw no actual combat.) Karlsruhe was fitted with two sets of high-pressure geared turbines, while the other three ships received direct-drive steam turbines, and all were powered by ten coal-fired and two double-ended, oil-fired boilers. The turbines drove a double shaft arrangement and reached a trial speed of 27.5 knots. However, the trials were conducted in shallow water due to war time dangers, and in deep water the ships could have exceeded 29 knots. Armament consisted of eight 5.9-inch guns in pedestal mounts with shields. Two guns were placed side-by-side forward, two on either broadside, and two more, centreline, and super-firing aft. The rate of fire was 5 to 7 rounds per minute. Four 19.7-inch torpedo tubes were installed, one on deck on either broadside, and two more submerged in the hull. Eight torpedoes were carried. The ships were also equipped to carry 200 mines. Armor protection was virtually the same as the Magdeburg Class cruisers. Konigsberg and Nurnburg participated in the Second Battle Of Heligoland in November 1917, when they were providing close escort for minesweepers clearing channels through British minefields near the island. They were ambushed by a group of Royal Navy destroyers and light cruisers escorted by the battlecruiser HMS Repulse. During the engagement, Konigsberg was struck by a 15” shell from Repulse which did no serious structural damage, but caused a large fire. The outnumbered German ships immediately fell back on their advancing support units. The British pursuit was broken off when they identified the topmasts of the dreadnought battleships SMS Kaiser and Kaiserin approaching. And that was the last action by the Hochseeflotte that could be called a “battle”. The blueprints for Konigsberg would later be used as the basis for the initial design work on the Emden, built for the Reichsmarine in the 1920’s. The design department had suffered severe budget cuts under the Wiemar Republic, and the Versailles Treaty had closed the Navy’s Ship Testing Institute, but the original Konigsberg blueprints had survived the chaos following the Kaiser’s abdication. Consequently, the architects saved time and money by taking a proven design and building upon it. All in all, the pattern of the little Gazelle had led the way for those that followed. By 1914 the Kaiserliche Marine had, by process of evolution, built a solid force of fast, well armed, and reasonably armored light cruisers. Light Cruiser Dresden II – Last cruiser commissioned into the Kaiserliche Marine - 1918. NEXT TIME…… PROTECTED CRUISERS: A BRIEF EXPERIMENT Once gain…... MY MANY THANKS to @Barroco Hispano for his generously given time and talent creating so many beautiful warships. MY SPECIAL THANKS to @AP for his collaboration in this shared project. It is his considerable skill and talent, and much valuable time spent creating so many wonderful props that have added so much variety, originality, and “life” to the dockyards. If you enjoyed anything you saw – please punch the “like” button so I will know. A comment would be even more informative. Comments and critiques requested and gratefully accepted. All questions answered promptly to the best of my ability. THANK YOU for your visit. You may wish to visit these CJ’s as well…… SERIES I: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: WILHELMSHAVEN SERIES II: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN Appearing – Work In Publication SERIES III: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: BREMERHAVEN Appearing -- ??? And please feel free to drop in at… THE SIMTROPOLIS SHIPYARD https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/761469-simtropolis-shipyard/?tab=comments#comment-1766496- 14 Comments
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Hi all. I'm new to SimCity 2013. I'm looking to build a cool new city with awesome bridges. Suggest me some cool designs, or layouts for that.
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TMC's Drawing Board - plan first, build later
TheMurderousCricket posted a topic in SimCity 4 General Discussion
I have to admit that I haven't accomplished much in SC4 yet. So far, I have only developed 11 tiles (4 of which were in San Francisco) and had barely any plan in my mind when building them up. I mean, sure, central square, shops, NIMBY but that's it. This time, I'd like to try something different. I'd like to build some of my cities according to a proper plan. This is why I would like to ask you for your comments and invite you to make ammendments and suggestions to my newest city plan which you can find attached below. There are many players who are more experienced than I am, so it will be very nice to hear your opinions on the matter. It will be a form of public consultations. Consider my plan below for a new municipality of, oh let's call it, city "E". Generally speaking, it will be a coastal city with a seaport, some industry and (demand willing) commercial offices. A few words of explanation... The jerky line is the approximate area of the city. The upper half of the page is a blank sketch which you can use to draft and share your own plan for city "E" if you like. The "C" districts are just some sort of commercial development. I have no particular preference which type will it be - just some sort of business. "P" stands for seaports of course. I'm somewhat undecided as to the placement of R$$ zones. Perhaps they should be more condensed, (like the R$ and R$$$ zones) to create a better sense of community between the residents. Please note that the plan does not contain any civic buildings or parks but of course they will be taken into account. I just did not want to clutter the drawing too much. Of course, I do plan to put them in later - once I find out where they can do the most good. Hmm, is there anything else that needs to be explained... I guess not. Now I'll leave it up to you. You are kindly invited to revise, redraw and review my plan. If you prefer to just leave a comment instead of sketching, that's absolutely fine as well. I am eager to see where will this discussion take us.- 31 Replies
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Building Design Methodology: Using Lidar Imagery and GIS?
MekkA posted a topic in Cities: Skylines Modding - Open Discussion
I am completely newb to 3D software and asset creation but am starting to fall into the deep rabbit hole of learning. Given the accuracy I'm sure most creators adhere to for matching their assets to the real structure, I was wondering if anyone here has utilized this path to extracting building data? As I work for a major municipality using GIS daily, we recently released a major set of satellite imagery and some googling showed me that extracting accurate building footprints and 3D dimensions is a huge benefit of LIDAR. If someone has gone this route for their building designs, what methodology could be used to then migrate that data into a usable base for 3D modeling software? Thinking about this also makes me generally wonder: If this is not a common method in getting accurate data for a future building asset, what are some of the more common ways in which creators ensure their designs are in fact "accurate?" Thanks everyone! -
Hello, How to make this in SimCity 4. I heard NAM can do this in extreme stability, confirmed by @rsc204 (or mgb204 in the Devotion for some reason) using WRCs. Also, what networks are supported by the latest and greatest WRC?
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Hello, The Maxis way to embrace region play is to build a city then build another cities that connected to the first city using the neighbor connection. But, the experts here says to preplan the entire region with networks, zoning, and utilities. The answer is, is preplanning a region a good idea? Also, is there a better version of Regional Budget Mod? I mean, it should support regional reoccuring payment, better data saving (the previous one is using the city name as the storage so if there are 2 cities with the same name, it won't work well), etc.
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Does anyone know why this happens (Cities Skylines)? I lay out my path normally, save the city, and when I return to the city, some sections of the path are sunk on the map. It's a pedestrian path of our own design, created from the Vanilla pedestrian path. As far as I know, it has happened to someone else, but not to everyone. How can I solve that?
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Hello, What if we visualize cities in real life? Here my example: I govern Fourth Experiment City (4EC). It is built in a medium city tile (or 128x128 blocks). The city has 275,330 people or 65.644 people per square km. It's denser than Dhaka and Singapore and yet all its citizens are high-wealth. It also has 1,420,753 high-end commercial jobs or 338.734 jobs per sq km, though it only has 10K of high-paid commercial services. What I can't visualize is how I see the city in real life as a standing person. Looking at Hong Kong is already quite impressive and huge. Experts of 3D modelling/BAT should be able to do this. Thanks.
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Back in Cities Sklyines because of DLC
BlitzPackage posted a topic in Cities: Skylines General Discussion
So....after a few years off, the Campus, Park Life, Sunset Harbor and Industries DLC drew me back in. I love how Campuses, Parks and, to some extent, industries can be customized and not just placed down with one square plop. It adds so much to the game. I also bought the Snowfall only for the Trams. This game is really, really fun now. I can't wait for Cities Sklyines 2. Rumors are it comes later on this year. -
Question, if I wanted to mod, what software would I need in order to edit the SimCity files? I do have photoShop and I have been a 3D artist since 1999 so this end is covered, need to know software files used to make the mods work in SimCity. I am sure there is a learning curve and I am willing to do it, at least for as long a this virus quarantine for the ENTIRE planet is in effect. Any help would be a huge thanks... R.C.
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New cities and highway designs Let's play
perafilozof posted a topic in Cities: Skylines City Journals
Hi all! While my other Let's play, Road to 1 million population is on pause as I am trying the fix the problem of being stuck on 950,000 population I have decided to use all I have learned to start a new Let's play. This one is all about designing, making and testing new cities, highway and road designs in cities of up to 100,000 population with lot's of traffic of all kinds. This video is the first episode, with the name Best Highway designs for Cities Skylines, and represents just the first of many new designs that I will be making and testing. Everyone is invited to add suggestions and ideas about this and all other next designs and concepts. -
Does anyone watch the youtube channel City Beautiful. Its a channel that covers issues related to city planning. Check it out. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGc8ZVCsrR3dAuhvUbkbToQ Its one of my favourite channels.
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Hello, I have multiple questions about just general stuff in SimCity 4. 1-Actual tile sizes (small, medium, and large) 2-How many large tiles would it take to remake Los Angeles, or New York (major cities) 3-How many large tiles would it take to create that major city, but include area for parks, and recreation? (only around 3/4 to 4/5 of the city will be skyscrapers) 4-Can I successfully recreated Milford, Michigan (village) on one tile (any size, not sure how big they are) 5-Any recommended regions to download? Not 50,000 please, just one or two of your personal favorites. 6-Do cities affect other cities across a gigantic map, lets say about 50 cities away, if they are connected by transportation (highway, airport, etc.) 7-How big of a map would I need to try and recreated Oakland County, Michigan? Any recommended maps near this size? 8-How could I reduce highway traffic tension as my cities develop? I'm seeing, after creating 10 or so cities of about 100k or more people, that my highways are becoming jammed. I have a commuter airport, two international airports, and a landing strip in a far away city of around 10-20k people. Also, would this far away city be affected by my almost million population mega-city? (about 5 or 6 tile wide city) 9-Will people still choose car, even if all the different transport types are used correctly, and are more efficient than auto travel? 10-This one may seem random, but as I first played SimCity 2013, why are the cities so much more limited in size in 2013 vs 4? (for the computer nerds that know all the GHz and ram or whatever :P) 11-Any tips on creating a rural county/region place? I tend to get carried away and try to limit myself, but end up zoning skyscrapers in one region for jobs, then it looks weird and I just zone everything high density. 12-Has anyone actually completed a region? My computer seems to poop itself when I try to load my city of 360k+ people, and the large city tile isn't even full yet. It's my largest city yet. (mostly based on pc limits) I've started to give up, and just zone low density to fill up around the skyscrapers, to make sort of a suburb. What are the recommended specs to get a region of 10-50 mill people? Is that physically possible without skyscraper spamming? 13-What are some design ideas you have for cities? What are some hacks you have, to make cities seem more realistic, or fun design elements you put in your cities? 14-How can I make a realistic highway system? I have NAM installed, but got rid of real-highway, as it's just SUPER confusing, and almost made me through my PC out the window. I now just have the base highway, and extra stuff NAM adds to that. Any tips with basic highway stuff only? 15-I never really use ferries, as I find them slightly not worth the time. I use metro's only when I remember, and never mess with trains or monorails or anything. I'm mostly using airports and highways. Personally, I haven't had any fatal traffic issues, but can someone explain what each transportation does well/brings to the table, and what situations it would be used for? When answering these, please refer to the number of the question asked, thank you guys so much!
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I've seen a few badly designed cities in Cities; Skylines, but I know there's a lot more out there. So why don't you show us some terrible cities you've seen?
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Welcome Back to Harinsburg! I lied. I said this would be a weekly journal. I'm sorry. On the bright side, I finally remembered to turn grid lines off! Shameless plug alert!! Check out the corresponding build video to this journal entry! _____________________________________________ The Mighty Cowanthe River The Cowanthe River flows south through Harinsburg, cutting right by our new-and-improved downtown (more on that later). Every good American Midwestern city needs a river! __________________________________________ Downtown Harinsburg Standing proudly in the city centre are the beginnings of a decent-size metropolis. Any suggestions for W2W buildings that would fit this space are appreciated! Harinsburg au Nuit _______________ Weltham and Weltham Heights The main part of this nicer neighborhood, closer to the highway, is now simply known as Weltham, whereas the subdivision of our more wealthy residents retains the name Weltham Heights. The wealthy citizens of Harinsburg have been... elevated... in status. ^^ And now, to answer your burning question: why is it called the Cowanthe River? ^^ ___________________________________________ That's it for this week, but next week we'll be back with more (hopefully)! Thanks for taking the time to check out my little city journal, Follow to get updates on it every week (again, maybe). Link to the full Imgur album I've been uploading the creation of Harinsburg in video form to YouTube for the past couple of months. Check that out here.
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Welcome Back to Harinsburg! Harinsburg is back and looking better than ever! The crowning jewel of Weltham, its local Walmart. The popular restaurants of Weltham now include KFC and Dunkin' Donuts, trading parking for parks. Sandwiched between Weltham's commercial districts is a growing community of row houses... and that annoying 2-Story House. Weltham is expanding so rapidly that land developers are becoming lazy, and slipping back into using the grid for street layouts! Weltham Elementary has been re-relocated and upgraded. Weltham Heights is an exclusive community reserved strictly for Harinsburg's elite. The Downtown Tenements, or--as I affectionately call them--the slums, have more than tripled the population of no-longer-humble Harinsburg, from just over 6,000 to more than 20,000. The Grange District now sports a toll booth guarding its entrance, encouraging commuters to use Harinsburg's magnificent mass transit system. ___________________________________________ That's it for this week, but next week we'll be back with more! Thanks for taking the time to check out my little city journal, Follow to get updates on it every week. Link to the full Imgur album I've been uploading the creation of Harinsburg in video form to YouTube for the past couple of months. Check that out here.
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Welcome Back to Harinsburg! Quite a bit has changed in the rapidly-growing neighborhood of Weltham. Weltham's just a bit different from the last time we saw it. And by that, I mean a lot. (Check out my overview of Weltham in last week's post to get an idea) Gone is the beloved Weltham Loop. In it's place, Weltham Avenue gives us acces to Harinsburg SR 1. Friendly's and Chick-fil-A, two of my favorite restaurants. A new commercial area off Rose Boulevard has sprouted between downtown and the suburbs. The hub of Weltham: the suburbs. Weltham Elementary and the surrounding fields have been relocated. I had to make some interesting temporary fixes to solve some of our economic issues, but it's working well nonetheless. ________________________________________ Check out the full Imgur album here. I've been uploading the creation of Harinsburg in video form to YouTube for the past couple of months. Check that out here. Thanks for checking out my humble Harinsburg! There'll be update posts coming out at least every month. Hey, could someone give me tips on how to embed videos in these posts? -VintaGamer
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Welcome to Harinsburg! This is my first entry, so I want to tell you a few things about myself: I've played SimCity 4 for the past 7 years. I haven't played SC4 with mods until just this past year. I am by no means a good designer, so cut me a little slack when my cities look terrible OK, with that through, let's see what we have to work with. I've been working on Harinsburg for about 1 hour every other week since the beginning of July, and this is how far I've gotten: Yeah, so not very far. We can work with it, I think. Let's take a tour of each "neighborhood." Downtown Harinsburg Welcome to downtown Harinsburg, which currently house the majority of our city's population and employment. In the future this area will become a major commercial center. Our extensive train network runs all over Harinsburg and is constantly being expanded, The heart of Harinsburg, at the crossing of Burg Ave and 1st. Unemployment is a bit of an issue here in Harinsburg, but nothing to get too concerned about, I assure you. Weltham Heights Weltham Heights is a fantastic new development housing most of our R$$ citizens. Right outside the city center, residents have easy access to the future Hub of Harinsburg. Harold H. Weltham Elementary, with the Mary G. Weltham Soccer and Softball Fields in the background. Weltham Heights inhabitants currently commute to the city center on the Weltham Loop, (the one-way road), but the first stages of Harinsburg SR 1 are almost complete, offtering speedier transport. The Weltham Loop The Grange District Ah, Grange. The dreariest, tiniest, and most temporary of my neighborhoods. It has industry. Really ugly industry. A crossing of railroad and Harinsburg SR 1. SR 1 Cuts between Downtown Harinsburg and Grange District. Check out the full Imgur album here. I've been uploading the creation of Harinsburg in video form to YouTube for the past couple of months. Check that out here. Thanks for checking out my humble Harinsburg! There'll be update posts coming out at least every month.
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Welcome back! Lets do this. To start of this year I'm going to show you a few works in progress. It's going to take a while to finish this stuff so I figured I'd get some feedback from you guys. In this entry I'll show you my CBD tile: Avalon Those of you that have followed this CJ are most likely familiar with this area, but things have changed quite a bit. This is an old gif I dug up that shows some the stages Avalon has gone through. Unfortunately there was an economic crash and mass exodus of residents so I was forced to start over. It wasn't a 100% blank slate as I had to keep continuity with the roads connected to the surrounding tiles. In a way it was a blessing in disguise because now I get to make quite a few improvements to the layout. However, I regret starting this tile before knowing much about RHWs so it still has a Maxis highway and I'm not going to go ripping things up at this stage. I've tried to keep many of the same elements from the original but things have shifted or expanded. I want it to be a very dense city but I still want to have more open spaces than it did before. I'm also trying to avoid repeating landmarks or skyscrapers and I'm carefully selecting where each one goes. Here you can see the central area of the tile where everything leads to and extends from. In the top left you can see Avalon park which is very similar to the original except now the walls are bigger and the castle is actually inside (before it was outside for some reason). I still need to do a custom lot of Riptide's Avalon Park so that it fits in better. I also need to make a Stonehenge custom lot with added trees rocks, as well as expand the width by 1 tile. The main focus is the Burj Dubai, or as it is known in Ionica: The Ziggurat. Next to it is the Ionican Chamber of Commerce. I need to make custom lots for both these BATs but haven't gotten around to it. I want to make a hover-craft landing pad but I'm not sure how yet. Here is a better view of the new train station. It is flanked by two museums and faces the St. Paul's cathedral (3 reddonquixotes). Below and to the right is a civics area with a hospital, fire station, police station, and schools. This is the sports district with an Olympic grade stadium and an indoor arena surrounded by banks and hi-rise condos and hotels. You can also see the high capacity ferry terminals in the bottom right. At the tip of the central island, skyscrapers huddle together vie for the best view. You can also see two ATEX Hyperloop stations that zip people from one end of the city to another. Further south down the river, still on the main island, is the Avalonian Center for the Performing Arts. The skyscrapers around it are the headquarters of some of the biggest tech companies in Ionica. On the second island is the Avalon Space Needle, probably the only landmark in the exact same place as the previous versions, except the area around it has now been expanded. I still need to make a new custom lot for it with seasonal trees and some props. To the left is a war memorial park. Further up we see skyscrapers lined up for a skyline war as well as another civic area. This is on the 3rd island. I'm planning for this area to be industrial but I haven't made up my mind yet. I need to make it fit with the rest of the city and I'm thinking of moving any major industry out of the CBD. I also had heliports and I'm not sure if I want to put them back as I believe they cause a lot of pollution. Comments, suggestions, and questions are always appreciated. Thanks for visiting. Quite a few of my older CJ entries are missing their pictures right now. I'll try to address that when I have the time. I'm thinking of doing an entry where I recap some of my best work instead of restoring all of my CJ. gviper: Amazing work! Love the use of diagonals and the various colors and effects added! A great place to spend Christmas! Thanks for all your support in 2015. Hope you had a good one. takemethere: You always just seem to know the exact right spot where to take a pic, or perhaps there simply are no bad spots to take a screenshot in your city. I'm banking on the latter. And seeing as how it looks like we're going to have a snow-less Christmas here in Toronto, I'll have to get my fill of it from Ionica. Definitely not a single bad spot in my city, ever . Thanks tariely: I can practically hear the sleigh bells... Bravo and thank you ! Happy New Year tariely. Thanks. Ln X: In picture 7 what is that wide, long building at the very centre of the picture? It makes a suburb mid-rise filler. I like how this entry has more of a concrete jungle feeling to it, all in all a great entry. It's Bixel's Primary School. Glad you enjoyed it, thanks. raynev1: Awesome entry. Do you know why your graphics card died ? I bet it was from creating all of those amazing images , and melted the circuits . Good thing you didn't have more time to do this entry . You would probably be shopping for another graphics card . Happy Holidays to you and all of Ionica . It was most certainly SC4 related. Thanks. GoKingsGo: It looks like it's FREEZING there! Great night lighting, great road network, great building selection, great entry! Thanks. MissVanleider: I liked this already, but I'll leave a comment too, really interesting as always, you think there are buildings everywhere because everything looks so dense, and then you realise just how much space there is, and not just an overgrown mess of buildings. Some of the buildings that I don't recognise are really nice as well. Happy holidays! Thanks for the comment. Hope you had a good holiday. Terring: Pure, epic win!! Merry Christmas, buddy Thanks a lot Terring. sejr99999: thank you I enjoyed visiting your city ditto on all the previous positive comments and also I like the use of some Asian BATs for their colorful lighting looks like parking is no problem either with all the underground parking. Gotta have good parking. Thanks. slickbg56: The colors and lights are really great. I bet everyone wears their sunglasses at night. Lol I hate people who wear sunglasses at night. Thanks.
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Feel the Charm of Old Times! Inspired by old european cities which preserved their reach history, this little town combines architectural styles of different time periods. Ancient, medieval and, most importantly, renaissance cultural heritages can be found all over this charming place, located somewhere in Northern Europe! The comments are highly appreciated! Steam Workshop - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=509964299
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I'm curious of how people go about their playing, or rather planning. All unlocked, unlimited money etc. No unlocks hardmode? Also do you build as you go or try to plan ahead? I've noticed that I'm getting trouble with my cities when they reach 40k pop. I tend to play without unlocks and I'm fairly proud of my neighbourhood and how my cities looks when <20k. But this leads to where I need massive population boosts to get more land which leads to me just cranking out housing projects and usually it goes downhill from there, uglier, less services and worse road networks. On the flipside I've also tried to playing god mode style to not having to bother with those constraints but find it much harder to either get a nice start or stick to my planned design.
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Intricate Town Hall Design | Cities XXL #1
CapTon posted a City Journal entry in Let's Play Cities XXL
What... something has to look nice in this game. -
After browsing the sad topic called "The ones that didn't make it to the STEX", about planned BATs that didn't quite make it to the public. Then started browsing the interweb for planned projects around the world that didn't happen. Well, when I say "around the world", what I actually mean is "Around Sweden", but never mind. This is a thread to post obituaries to lost greatness. Let's begin with some of my favorite picks from Sweden, or more specifically, Stockholm. First up, Thor's Towers. I love that name. Originally supposed to be taller and look completely different, they were scaled down and replanned because city residents thought the original suggestion was (this is incredible) too boring. I admit these look a million times better though, so I won't complain. Now people are instead saying they're too ugly. Yippie-ki-yay. And then, Tellus Tower. A pinnacle (quite literally) in architecture. At a planned 270m tall, it's supposed to become the tallest building in Sweden and 23rd tallest Residential building in the world (2nd in Europe). The plans are still being tossed around, but knowing the swedish people's taste for previous modern architecture propositions, I have a feeling where this might be heading. I know I'm making hasty premonitions here, but I have good reasons. As one strong example, here's the previously planned new building for Stockholm's central station. Right before construction was to begin in late 2010, someone said "You know what, this looks too good" and now instead there'a black box. There's also this. Slussen! The pride of Stockholm. The first cloverleaf interchange in Europe, at completion in the 1930's it was made to fill in it's duties several times over, have the capacity to handle three times as much traffic as it usually did on a normal day. Eighty years later however, that figure has changed. It now has to deal with around three times more traffic than it was originally made for, and that's on a good day. Politicians keep saying it needs to be updated, but ask the people and that's a no-no. "It's a cultural heritage, you know! We must preserve this honestly very ugly junction at all price. I shall do what I can by complaining about Stockholm't traffic situation until they come up with a better solution!" That's Sweden for you. Highly modern right-wing country in every aspect apart from city development.
