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solarpunk City layouts, street patterns, and the main transportation system
Terring posted a City Journal entry in Welcome to Fairview
@frayer, @Elitejohnson, @Honolulu, @mitsos, @Daeris, @Kuba138, @CaptCity, @Mr. Jay, @Propfam, @TogaMasterJohn, @Golan0, @Barroco Hispano, @Dead_End and @hugues aroux: Thank you very much for your likes and your comments RIP, Odainsaker It's been a year, right? Damn. Time for some updates, I guess. Today we'll have a look at the transportation system of Fairview and the layouts and patterns of our cities. How our cities will look like and how our Sims could go from point A to point B with the minimum carbon and environmental footprint possible? Let's find it out. I wanted every city to have its own layout and identity, in order to study various patterns and make Fairview a more interesting place to visit. As I like to say, variety is the spice of life. So we have organic-grid fusion for Green Eden, radial design for Arcosanti-3000, nazcanian pattern for Venus City, and city clusters for Lys. As well as a few avenues and one-ways "randomly" placed here and there In Green Eden I used a mix of organic layout with the classic grid. The grid pattern is simple, elegant and straightforward, based on order, efficiency, and problem solving. Finding an address here is very easy, and emergency and delivery vehicles can reach any location without the fear of getting lost in an irregular, chaotic pattern. Building infrastructures is also very easy thanks to the orderly design of the grid. The city plots in the grid pattern share some standard sizes, which promises some form of social equality. However it has some drawbacks. It looks very cold and mechanic, and it's not very flexible according to the local terrain. For those reasons it can become very boring and repetitive very fast, as if it was designed by a machine that puts logic over anything else. In larger cities, it can also form strong wind corridors between tall buildings, although it can be utilized by small vertical-axis wind turbines for extra energy. The organic pattern, on the other hand, is based on necessity and geography, making it look more ecological and humane than the orderly grid. For those reasons, it's more flexible according to the terrain and can lead to the construction of more interesting and diverse cities, providing a better and richer visual, social and cultural variation than the griddy cities. Tourist and even locals may get lost in those organic cities, which however is part of its charm because it encourages them to explore the city and drive them to beautiful surprises. This may sound like a perfect pattern for a solarpunk city, but hold your ponies! Infrastructure development can be very challenging and expensive here, especially when we're talking about bigger and vital projects such as building universities and hospitals, and navigation can be so difficult it's very easy to get lost, which can be very catastrophic in emergency situations such as floods and earthquakes. The last thing you want is having fire trucks and ambulances wasting vital time while trying to reach the victims in a chaotic road network during a disaster. Both organic and grid patterns have their advantages and disadvantages. So, how about mixing them to get the best of both worlds? This is why Green Eden uses a loose-grid pattern, which is a fusion of organic and grid designs that mixes order with diversity. It's design is simple enough to ease traffic and navigation, and comes with more than enough forms of variations to make it look interesting and humane. Here, there is something for everyone. In fact, some of the blocks the city already has could eventually be redeveloped to form superblocks, neighborhoods that functions like smaller autonomous cities with their rules and identity. The smooth turns from NAM are so satisfying, by the way Since the main body of Arcosanti-3000 is located in a peninsula, picking a radial pattern is just a non-brainer. The radial arrangement makes it easier to construct and maintain the city while using far less energy and materials than any other pattern, making the radial cities more efficient and effective than griddy and organic cities. Furthermore, it's possible to get direct access from the center to the entire city and vise versa under this pattern. Since all the roads lead here, the center becomes the heart and the brain of the city and each district get fair and equal access to it, which is vital if the center houses important infrastructures such as hospitals and fire stations. Managing traffic can also be easy, especially if you have a good public transportation system with busses and circular tram lines. If you start from one end of the city and go through it without visiting the center, you'll always return to the same place. You don't have to waste energy and time in backtracking, thus making the radial design even more efficient. Overall, the radial design is both practical and awesome looking, making it the perfect pattern for a futuristic city, but it comes with its own challenges too. If there are no direct connections, moving between neighborhoods can be difficult and you'll have to go through the center. Because of this, the center can become even more crowded and traffic congestion can get serious, resulting to high levels of air pollution and car accidents all happening in a single area. This is why ring roads providing direct connections are so important for radial cities. Seriously, can you blame me for using this pattern? The Venus City uses a fusion of radial and organic pattern. Instead of been a big radial city, it has been broken into a medium-sized city and 2 smaller ones, all touching each other to form a bigger city with a specific design. This is something I like to call a nazcanian pattern, because it's heavily inspired by the Nazca Lines that form figurative designs of animals and plants if you look at them from a high enough altitude. The design of the Venus City resembles a drawing of planet Saturn made by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei back in 1610. Because of the crudeness of his telescope, he couldn't determine what the rings were, and he incorrectly guessed that Saturn was a 3-body system with 2 very large moons on either side of the planet, thus drawing Saturn as if it had ears or arms. Oh, remember when I said that the Venus City uses a mix of radial and organic pattern? This is what I was talking about. I didn't want to destroy the hill, so I decided to build a detour in order to preserve it. This is why Saturn looks like it has been bitten. Better sacrifice the design than the environment. Of all the cities in Fairview, Lys has the most unique pattern. Which is... no pattern at all! This part of Fairview has so many inaccessible natural features such as hills, cliffs and islands, that the only way to build a big city here is to essentially destroy the entire area. Which is out of question! For those obvious geographic and environmental reasons, Lys is not a big one-piece city like Green Eden, but a cluster of smaller ones connected together to form Lys. This city is as decentralized as it gets. None of these mini cities is more or less important than the others, like a group of people who have no leader but can still cooperative just fine. Lys is, generally speaking, a city made by satellite cities. However, each city in Fairview has at least one satellite city in various shapes and sizes, from mini neighborhoods to actual towns. Those cities work both as expansions for the larger cities and as autonomous settlements, with their own rules and personality. This, however, is the biggest satellite city yet. It's inspired by the City of Zakynthos, the capital city of Zakynthos island, at which I used to be a university student 20 years ago. The City of Zakynthos has plenty of pedmalls and you could explore it and go through the entire city on foot. For those reasons I decided to make something different in this city. Instead of the classic streets, this city comes with plenty of pedmalls and bike lines. You can say that this satellite city is my tribute to my university years. Maybe I should provide all of my cities with more pedmalls and bike lines too. And speaking about bike lines and pedmalls, I think it's time to talk about Fairview's transportation systems. In most solarpunk scenarios and eco-cities concepts, people are using anything but cars to move around. In those scenarios and cities, cars have even been entirely banned, and any roads there are only for pedestrians and cycling. This is a common form of reaction against our current car-centric cities, with all those space-wasting parking lots and those highways cutting entire neighborhoods and replacing green with asphalt, giving nothing but air pollution and traffic jams and contributing to climate change. In our cities the car is the ultimate ruler, because this is what lobbies and car industries demand, and we, the people, are just some worthless pests who only live to work and pay taxes until we die. So, it's no wonder why more and more people want car-free cities. I don't like car-centric cities either and I'd like living in a car-free city like the above, but there is a problem with having no cars at all. Some people just can't walk or use public transportation for various reasons, such as disability. They need a car to transport themselves, and outright banning cars would be catastrophic for them. Besides, cars are tools and they can be useful in various situations, such as transporting supplies in isolated areas or injured people to the nearest clinic. This is why we're going to pick a slightly different strategy. Fairview will welcome cars, but will not worship them. Here, cars are not the rulers. People are. Here, cars are just a way to move around. Not the only way. To achieve this, Fairview strategy is to invest in public transportation and encourage walking and cycling, by having mass transit stops everywhere, schedules so often you'll not have to worry about missing a bus, and a better zoning strategy in order to make the cities walkable. Cars will still exist, but they'll not been prioritized above anything else anymore. If you can encourage walking and using the bus, what's the point of banning the cars anyway? Let them be. Just don't put them above anything else. And no, replacing all cars with EVs, while a good idea, will not fix traffic jams and prevent car accidents. The easiest and probably the most obvious and straightforward (and cheapest) way to create a car-less city is by building such an extensive network of bus stops, preferably in every corner, that most Sims will simply have no reason to use a car. Why spending so much time driving in busy roads and finding a parking space, when you can just pick a bus from the nearest bus stop that will go wherever you want, whenever you want? Sure, buses are slow and make a lot of stops, but can transport a very large number of Sims, putting the "mass" in mass transit. In fact, an average bus can take 30 cars off the road, a full double-decker bus over 70 cars, and a large articulated bus can replace 80 to 100 cars, thus drastically reducing traffic jams, air pollution, and the need of space-consuming roads and highways. But the real innovation here is the subway system, with a sub station also in every corner. Instead of ordinary trains and railroads running under our feet, Fairview's subway is essentially an underground and extensive version of a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). PRT is a public transportation system that features a network of specially built guide-ways, on which ride small automated pod-cars that can carry a few passengers per vehicle. In other words, a system that combines the efficiency and the safety of a train with the flexibility and the speed of a taxi. In this system, Sims can get on a pod immediately upon arriving at a station (which station can be literally under their house), and can take more direct routes to their destination without stops, unlike buses. Pods can carry much less Sims than buses but they're way faster, and can transport their passengers exactly to the destination they want, like a taxi. So, which is better? A slower but bigger bus, or a smaller but faster pod? Based on my experience, I believe that the bus is the best answer because of the high number of cars it can replace. But to be honest, I also find attractive the idea of something as flexible as the PRT. So if we can have both of them, why not? Buses and PRT could work together and Sims could either choose a bus or a pod, depending on their needs. Both buses and pods can be used for both inner-city and intercity commute. But if you need something that combines the high capacity of the bus with the high speed of PRT, the Magnet-O-Train is your best friend. The Magnet-O-Train is a monorail train that, as its name suggest, travels on magnetic levitation (maglev), reducing resource waste and shortening the average travel time. Why maglev? Because compared to the ordinary heavy trains, maglevs can achieve higher top speeds, superior acceleration and deceleration, lower maintenance costs, improved gradient handling, and lower noise. Furthermore, as a monorail, the Magnet-O-Train actually hugs the rail, eliminating the danger of deadly derails. However, maglevs are more expensive to build, cannot use existing infrastructure and conventional railroads, and use more energy at high speeds. To reduce its energy needs, the Magnet-O-Train is equipped with solar glasses that generate electricity with transparent solar panels. That's right, the train's glasses generate energy too! As about the cost, we'll talk about it in a future entry. The Magnet-O-Train is an obvious and brilliant choice for both locals and tourists because it's fast, safe, and environmental friendly. And if that's not enough, its terminal at the Venus City connects the Magnet-O-Train to the Fairview's extensive bus and PRT network. As soon as the tourist arrives here, the rest of Fairview becomes accessible. Alright, so we have pedmalls, bike lines, buses, pods, and a monorail. You think that's enough? Nope! Now it's getting even more cool, because now it's time to have a look at a regional transportation network unlike any other. A highway. Not a land highway for electric cars and hydrogen trucks. Oh no. A marine highway! That's right, a highway for water vessels that uses magneto-hydro-dynamic drives for propulsion, such as cargo ships, ferries, and even submarines. A highway over the river. Because of the river that crosses Fairview, this region is ideal for water transportation, but ordinary seaports are out of question because of the heavy environmental damage they could cause. So what's the next best thing? Offshore aero-seaports! That's right, seaports and ferry ports located in water, connected to the the rest of Fairview by underground roads. The idea of a water highway is based on the Alaska Marine Highway. Alaska is the largest state of USA, but only a dozen highways serve the state, and more than 80% of Alaska's communities can't be reached by road. So for food, freight, and people to get to those secluded towns, Alaskans invented a highway over the high seas, with ferries working around the clock to connect 33 coastal ports. Fairview's marine highway is similar to AMH, but it services not only ships and submarines, but also aircrafts, helicopters, and even spacecrafts. Fairview's seaports functions as vertiports too. A vertiport is a take-off and landing site for Vertical Take-Off and Land (VTOL) aircrafts, helicopters, airships, drones, and even VTOL aero-spacecrafts. Unlike ordinary airports, they don't need runways, making them ideal for Fairview, especially if they're constructed on water. This is a Silver Arrow, a modular passenger spacecraft that uses ion thrusters to fly. Silver Arrows consist of detachable sections that can be rapidly loaded or unloaded with passengers. When a Silver Arrow arrives at its destination, the selected passenger modules can be gently disconnected from the spacecraft's main body and land to the nearest pad of the vertiport by using smaller ion thrusters attached to the modules. And if that's not enough, we have something even more cool, even more futuristic, even more atomic-jet-techno-radio-synthetic-robotic-cyber-nano-pico-femto-quantum-photonic-solar awesome! Mountain trails. Yes, mountain trails! Mountain trails brings Sims even closer to the natural environment and are perfect for hiking, exploring, and for both educational and recreational activities, such as stargazing and bird watching. But they can also connect different cities if they're close enough, allowing Sims to commute and visit another city simply by walking through Fairview's wilderness. So we have mountain trails, pedmalls, bike lines, buses, PRT, Magnet-O-Train, ferries, submarines, VTOL aircrafts, helicopters, airships, and even spacecrafts. With all those choices available, do we really need bigger roads than we already have? We have some avenues and one-ways here and there, but that's all. No highways, not bigger roads, no huge intersections. Nothing else. We have the "basics" and we're happy for that. Only 2 bridges have been constructed so far, and both of them are just simple road. No highway bridges, nothing else. Having an extensive network of roads in Fairview is not only unnecessary thanks to all the above alternatives, but also detrimental to the local environment. Sure, roads brings cars, and cars brings air pollution and contribute to climate change, unless they're electric or hydrogen fueled. But roads are also the most common culprits of habitat fragmentation by penetrating and dividing wildlife habitat. Roads are necessary for transportation, but they can also decrease habitat amount and quality, increase mortality due to wildlife-vehicle collisions, prevent access to resources on the other side of the road, and subdivide wildlife populations into smaller and more vulnerable sub-populations. A common solution to this problem are wildlife crossings, structures like green bridges and wildlife tunnels that allow animals to cross roads safely. Wildlife crossings are indeed awesome, but do you know what could be even more awesome? Entire underground roads! When possible, of course. This is how we solve the problem of habitat fragmentation, combat climate change, and prevent roadkill. By having entire roads under the ground! See? This is how regional roads should look like. And yes, in this photo there is a road. Don't believe me? Try to spot it. Madness? Madness? This! IS! FAIRVIEW! Sorry, I couldn't resist And yes, you can use the underground roads to connect the seaports with the mainland. There are still some gaps that haven't been filled yet, though. In Arcosanti-3000 and the Venus City there are still some empty areas that haven't been touched yet. I'll keep them as they are for now, because they're perfect places for possible future expansions and developments. Satellite cities? Farms? A university? Who knows what we'll need someday. This is why it's very important to leave some room for future improvements, because you never know what you and your Sims will need. There is no perfection, no utopias. Only an endless road of constant changes and improvements. Be flexible. Be adaptive. Or, as Bruce Lee said, "be water, my friend". The next new entry will hopefully not take me that much time to prepare it. With the patterns ready, it's time to begin the construction of our utilities and civic infrastructures, prepare the zones, and start the fun. Follow Fairview Or follow this guy's fate- 8 Comments
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Version 1.0.0
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Well, everybody and everypony. It's official. It's the year 2025, the first quarter of the 21st century. Welcome to the future! Wait, what? OK, remember when dates such as 2000, 2001, 2015 and 2020 used to sound futuristic? Pepperidge Farm, and me, remembers. It was awesome back then and we couldn't wait to get cool space stations and high-tech cities by the year 2001, flying cars by 2015, genetic engineered people by 2019, and Olympics on the Moon in 2020. Well, we don't have flying cars, fusion reactors, robotic butlers, Moon bases and global peace yet (and instead we got terrorists, global warming, economic meltdowns, pandemics, the return of fascism, microplastics in our blood, nuclear threats, and buffoons who believe that Earth is flat ), but we still got some awesome futuristic stuff such as pocket-size multi-purpose supercomputers, smart TVs, on-demand video streaming, electric self-driving cars equipped with GPS that look like stylized versions of their 1970's counterparts, industrial robots, a robotic helicopter on Mars, reusable orbital rockets, relatively inexpensive DNA tests, real-time language translation, virtual reality headsets, robot-assisted surgeries, AI art, the I.S.S., 3D printers, The Internet (which nobody back then had even thought of, although some came pretty close with the concept of The Cyberspace), and of course SimCity 4. Speaking of which, unlike SimCity 3000 which came with a convenient loading bar that visualizes the progression of loading a city, SimCity 4 only shows some silly texts when loading a city with a very strange sense of humor, such as Aligning Covariance Matrices, Gesticulating Mimes, Depixelating Inner Mountain Surface Back Faces (wait, what?), and Reticulating Splines. To be honest, I just don't get this kind of humor. Maybe I'm just as stupid as a Flat Earther. Anyway, these texts have been around for almost 20 years, so I think it's time for a change. And... OK, you know me. Some of you know me well. I build futuristic cities, with Space Age houses and flying cars. And loading texts like the above are just not my cup of tea. So I took Craig-Abcvs Text Loading Mod and I used it as a template to make my version. My version contain 120 futuristic themed loading texts that replace the Maxis ones. Some of them are based on real life emerging and proposed technologies that are under development like nuclear fusion and green roofs, other have been inspired by futuristic but seriously proposed concepts such as geoplanes and Dyson Spheres, and other are references to beloved science fiction stories like Star Trek and Deus Ex. And of course a few of them are just silly jokes based on SimCity memes and not only. I just wanted to make something more sci-fi and futuristic, without removing the overall wackiness of the game we know and love. I originally made this mod for myself but I decided to share it with everybody, just in case somebody of you want it. Loading futurization guarantee. Or your money back Installation is so simple, even a Flat Earther could do it. All you have to do is unzip the file and put it at your plugins folder. And that's all. Next time you load a city, you'll see what the game is working on in order to prepare your urban empire, such as printing modular buildings, replacing advisors with AIs, covering Ceres with computronium, and nano-assembling mimes. If you want the Maxis text back, just remove the .dat file from your plugins folder. If you wish to suggest some new loading texts, go ahead. I'm always open to new ideas. Have fun- 1 Comment
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@Kuba138, @Golan0, @sejr99999, @Girafarig, @CaptCity, @hugues aroux and @juguesal: Thank you for your likes and comments I know, this is just a small entry, but hopefully the next one (which most likely will be about regional transportation and city layouts) will be more interesting. Today we'll be naming our sectors and making plans and ideas about how Fairview may (or may not) look like. The new Fairview region has 4 large tiles instead of lots of mini ones, so we could treat them as sectors. Each sector has a unique name: Green Eden, Arcosanti-3000, Venus City and Lys. Of course if you feel you have better names to suggest, fell free to do it. I'm always open to new ideas If you're looking at the Green Eden sector and for some reason you feel familiar with it, that's because it's the area which originally contained all of our tiny villages, such as Dawnville and Coriville. Now that we have more building space, the plan is to construct a bigger eco-friendly city with everything the citizens need, while keeping its environmental and carbon footprint as low as possible. So, instead of highways, heavy polluting industries, huge airports and fossil fuel power plants, expect a lot of green zones, natural preserved areas like the hills and the lakes, and minimum disruption to the local environment, while using cutting-edge futuristic technologies such as synthetic phyto-mining and nano-recyclying. I named it Green Eden as a reference to my very first CJ experience, Eden: The New Frontier. Named after Arcosanti, an experimental town in central Arizona which aims to demonstrate how urban conditions could be improved while minimizing the destructive impact on the Earth, Arcosanti-3000 will most likely be a little more futuristic and technological than Green Eden (that means slightly less solarpunk and slightly more post-cyberpunk), while still keeping its environmental footprint as low as possible. This could be possible with the introduction of one or more arcologies, larger buildings that can house an entire city with all its citizens and necessary amenities under the same roof. Hmm, a seaport could be useful here. But that would require some heavy terraforming and disruption to the environment. Maybe I'll come up with something better and more both futuristic and environmental friendly. For Venus City I'm thinking about building a circular city on the large landmass with a central tower in it, just like what I did in Hazelfield but in a larger scale. i can also imagine some smaller development at the other site of the river. I wonder if I can build an observatory too. The name of the sector is a homage to The Venus Project and the man behind it, Jacque Fresco. It's also a reference to a city I used to play with in SimCity 3000 named... Britney City. No joke. I still have it, saved and well Because of the river, the abundance of hills, and the limited amount of flat enough building space, I think that Lys will most likely be the least populated sector in Fairview. In fact, it's more likely to have a cluster of mini cities connected to each other instead of a bigger one. This sector has been named after one of the two cities that managed to pass the test of time (the other is the highly technological advanced Diaspar) in The City and the Stars, a novel written by Sir Arthur C. Clarke in 1956. In this book, Lys has chosen to reject Diaspar's reliance on high technology in favor of a more pastoral lifestyle, believing that over-reliance on technology cheapens human relationships. One lesson that all mayors have to know is that if you want to build something nice, first you'll need to plan it ahead instead of just building it randomly, because that would safe you and your cities from a lot of trouble. So here is a very crud plan of what I'm going to do and how Fairview may eventually look like, with gray color being the developed areas, blue the monorail, and black the main road. Of course we can't predict what ideas, challenges and solutions would emerge into the future, so keep in mind that this plan and this map are subject to changes and final results may vary. Suggestions and ideas are always welcomed, but remember that this is not going to be a "realistic" region with "realistic" cities and "realistic" designs. We're going futuristic, "utopic" and solarpunk. So, expect magnetic trains and flying cars with ion engines instead of highways, vertiports instead of airports, wind turbines instead of coal power plants, AIs instead of mayors, vertical farms instead of ordinary ones, and nano-tech recycling centers instead of landfills. We're going to the future, babe. And this future is going to be awesome because we're going to make it awesome
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Wait, what? Rebooting?! After 2 years of nothing, you're talking about rebooting out of nowhere? Well, yes OK, let me explain. I've really missed playing SimCity and building my solarpunk cities, but 2 mayor things have happened since my last post 2 years ago. The first one is that I've finally gotten a job. Not something epic, but the co-workers are fun, the job itself is OK, and the salary is decent. Also, I'm not unemployed anymore! But also less free time. Thanks to my job, I can even support things that I've always wanted to do, such as going to the gym and online studying astrophysics, which however means even less free time. The second one was the CJ itself and the goals that I've had put back then. Developing Fairview was getting so big and complicated that it was beginning to be less and less fun. The main reason of that was the region itself. Fairview have a lot of small tiles and only a few medium ones, so filling the entire region with solarpunk cities villages was getting tiresome and not that fun anymore. The same thing happened 12 years ago in Eden: The New Frontier and I don't want it to happen again. But lately I've been seriously considering the possibility of making a reboot of Welcome to Fairview. Bigger, greener, and better this time. And even more futuristic. Not only because I missed my CJ, but also because @Cyclone Boom uploaded 2 years ago a newer version of Fairview with 4 large tiles this time. That means 4 bigger cities instead of lots of tiny ones, with more open space to support larger projects such as universities, natural parks, and even arcologies. More open space means more freedom of construction and more efficient way to manage those cities. No more wasting resources to build and maintain tiny schools and power plants in every single corner. Now it's time for fewer but bigger and more efficient schools and power plants. Less is more. It also allows me to build in both locally and regionally scale. In my last post I asked how I should develop Fairview. City by city (one individual town per entry) or layer by layer (totally regional play-style, with a different type of infrastructure per entry)? Most people voted for a mix of both of them (sometimes regionally, sometimes locally). And by having more building space than ever, I can do both of them at the same time Another reason to reboot Fairview is to include new awesome stuff, such as draggable PedMalls with RCI support and draggable diagonal streets. If our cities weren't solarpunk enough, now they'll be. And this time, they'll be even more walkable than ever. We're in the future, babe. Cars are so 20th century Rebooting the region could also be a good opportunity for new challenges, experiments and goals. What would happen if we add more apartment buildings and less family houses? How many Sims can our region handle without ruining the environment and dropping the quality of life of our people? Is it possible to build a green, solarpunk metropolis of the future? Let's find it out. So, welcome to Fairview. Actually, no. Welcome back to Fairview
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Version 1.0.0
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Specs: Thanks to @sejr99999 for the support This DLC contains props. Does not include lots. AGC_Props_SShips_ I will update this DLC constantly so you must be on the lookout. Does not include night lights (at the moment). Scale of the models: 133% on all axes. Installation: Unzip the "Barroco Hispano DLCs" in your Plugins Folder (I highly recommend respecting my folder system because I plan to export or update thousands of BATs). Now you can make voluntary contributions to support me in continuing to create more content for SimCity 4 (I decided to use Paypal instead of Patreon because I want everyone to have access to my content). https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=WF9FDNHXCHDVU Thanks to the few people who have donated to me. -
Show off your futuristic cities or homages to classic sci-fi films. Waterworld
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Version 1.0
2,843 Downloads
The Utopia (UP) Collection is a collated package of all of the previous Utopia downloads released by Pegasus Productions. Rather than download and install a large number of packages, it is now possible to get everything you need in just one single self-contained download, including all required dependencies. The installer package allows you to simply select those parts of the Utopia theme you want, then it will smartly install only those dependencies that are required to use them. After making your selections and letting the installation complete, you can go straight in game and just play with all the fantastic content, no need to mess with anything further. The installer handles everything automatically, so say goodbye to the stress of installing such modular sets and tracking down dependencies and hello to a modern futuristic utopiaian side to SimCity 4. A huge thank you to Pegasus for giving permission to repackage everything in this manner, helping to make content more accessible into the future. Every Utopia package, previously over 30 separate downloads, has been organized by their themes, for example the Mall Canals, Sky Farms and so on. You can customize exactly which specific parts of each Utopia theme you want and select from any relevant options. The installer will then install your choices and automatically handle all related dependencies. Literally the Utopia in its entirety is now installable in a small fraction of the time it used to take. Better still, we've ruthlessly optimised the process, ensured no duplicate files exist and made everything more consistent, so the installation and your Plugins folder is kept neat and tidy. Note that because this package was taken from what were originally many separate downloads, rather than try to merge all the Readme's into one place, we've kept them separate, but all the included options are are installed for reference. Please note all the Readmes are located inside of \Documents\SimCity 4\PEG Readmes, so they don't clutter your Plugins folder. This package requires no external dependencies. All discussions and support for this product are now hosted on the PLEX on the STEX - Community Support thread at Simtropolis- 1 Comment
- 4 Reviews
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@TG24, @TogaMasterJohn, @raynev1, @franyer, @carlosmarcelo, @Dead_End, @CaptCity, @hugues aroux, @TheMurderousCricket, @mitsos and @Golan0 , thank you very much for your likes, comments and follows Originally, my plan was to build 2 different small towns and show both of them in my next entry. Well, change of plan. This entry is going to be a special one because it's a tribute to a very special friend, @CorinaMarie. As you know, Corina has been absent from Simtropolis since 15 of July, with terrible implications about her health. Our mind was with her all that time, and still is. A few days after those worrisome news, I decided to build a city dedicated to her. Cori is more than just an administrator, you know. She's a friend to everybody. Her contribution was so big and important and she's such a helpful and kind friend that... Well, let's just say that Simtropolis without her would not be the same. The city is ready, and thanks to the miraculous news that Cori is alive, I think it's time to show it, while celebrating for her. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Coriville. A special city for a special friend. The city is inspired by Cori's unique building style. Instead of following a hard set of rules that removes all the fun and creativity that the game generously offers, Cori preferred tons of experimentation and free-styled building, leading to some really beautiful and cozy towns with lots of farms, railroads and apartment buildings surrounded by those farms. I tried to mimic her style, but since Coriville is also in my futuristic version of Fairview, I also tried to make the town a little more green and solarpunk. The result is a town which is both rustic and high-tech I usually use my reloted versions of the classic SimMars civic buildings, but for Coriville I've made an exception. All civic structures are Maxis-made, just like in her towns. This gives Coriville a more rustic style, advanced but still cozy. You can say that this also gives Coriville some past, a touch of history, that this town was always here. I tried the same thing with the farms as well. Instead of vertical farms and futuristic labs, Coriville uses a more simple and old school agriculture style that still uses the land with smart and efficient ways. In fact, the only piece of actual futuristic technology is this exotic turbine, which produces electricity by creating an increased magnified vortex. During operational service, the blade rotation is rapidly accelerated around the 42nd factor angle. This then establishes perpetual motion that allows power to be exponentially produced from the internal hyper-generator. The dynamic quantification of this occurs so swiftly, meaning the minimum wind speed for optimal runtime is equivalent to a calm, gentle breeze. Right now, the only connection Coriville has with the rest of the world is by this railroad, which is used by both freight and passenger trains. This railroad ends up to an underground hangar, which also works as a transition to the underground transportation system that Fairview already uses. One day, Coriville will be connected with the rest of the region, giving this railroad an even more important role in Fairview's development. And in case you're curious, yes, some Sims are actually using this transition... which includes a 90 degrees turn and a crazy U-turn! I can see fanatic seekers of realism crying and screaming in agony But just because something looks classic and old-school, doesn't mean it can't be more than meets the eye. We could imagine that this manor houses an ordinary, biological mayor. But you know what? No. We're into the future, so we need something better. Instead, let's imagine that it houses a sophisticated central AI, called Central Operator of Rustic Installments n. 16, or just CORI-16. As the most advanced AI of the CORI series, CORI-16 is the only so far that thinks more like a human and less like a computer. This makes her the friendliest and most cozy AI ever made, full with human-like personality and always eager to help everybody. It's actually a habit of her to begin any conversation and statement not with "Dear humans" or something like that, but with "Hiya!". To honor her, a local artist build a statue of a human version of CORI-16, made by self-cleaning materials to keep it clean and shining. And yes, that plate actually says "Hiya, everybody!". But of course Coriville in not only the town itself but also what's around it, including a beautiful forest with lots of flowers, bushes, rocks and animals roaming around. This time I tried something new. I tried to give some extra life to the shores of the town by recreating underwater "forests", with fishes swimming around underwater plants. What I tried to make was something like this: And this is the result. Of course that's my first attempt, so ideas for improving are welcomed. This was my tribute to Cori. I tried to make it something special and I hope I did it. Let's finish it with some night pictures of Coriville, while keeping in our mind our beloved heroine
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@carlosmarcelo, @edaramx, @kschmidt, @mitsos, @TheMurderousCricket, @TogaMasterJohn, @whiteshark365, @Chappington, @Tarkus, @TG24, @Dead_End, @hugues aroux and @Golan0, thank you very much for your comments, like and follows I've been busy with my post-graduation studies and exams. Now that the exams are over (and I've passed all of the classes ), it's finally time for those night pictures. I even replaced the blue lights of @Kodlovag's Uniform Street Light Mod with red. If you have ever been on an astroparty, where many astronomers gather together to enjoy the night sky, you might have noticed that they use red light instead of white. This is because red light helps with maintaining night vision, the ability of our eyes to see better in night. Colored lights are anti-glare and still serve the purpose of night lighting very well. Yellow, red and amber lights can reduce the negative effects of lighting during the night because they don’t affect night time vision. On the other hand, blue-rich white light sources are known to increase glare and compromise human vision, especially in the aging eye. These lights create potential road safety problems for motorists and pedestrians alike. In natural settings, blue light at night has been shown to adversely affect wildlife behavior and reproduction, particularly in cities, which are often stopover points for migratory species. Outdoor lighting with strong blue content is likely to worsen skyglow, because it has a significantly larger geographic reach than lighting consisting of less blue. However I have a mod that adds lots of trees in my main roads and comes with its own white colored street lights, which is not exactly what I want to keep light pollution low. I'll see what I can do. So, behold! Olivia-4 in night! Most futuristic visions and sci-fi stories picture a very bright future, full of cool but unnecessary neon lights just for decoration, and excessive holographic ads everywhere you can look. In fact, the city lights of the future will be so bright and many that there will be no night at all. Just a nightmarish landscape of light pollution. But obviously we're not talking about this kind of future here. Instead, we have fewer lights in places that are actually useful, without being overly bright, and without all those ads ruining the night. Futuristic decorative lights are still here. They're just fewer and more cool. When I make night pictures and landscapes, I always try to make them look cozy and safe to walk around and enjoy the moment. There are just enough lights to let you see where you're going and just enough darkness to lose yourself into the moment and your thoughts. Nobody is hiding in the shadows to attack you, you have no reasons to wake up early, nothing to worry about. Just enjoy the silence and the stars and be one with the night. This however doesn't mean that you can't have some activities during night. The machines in factories are still working, robots and drones are still maintaining the town, the automatic transportation systems are still working, and the central AI is still monitoring the town to find any problems to fix. There is still some action but mostly from our synthetic assistants. Because of this, live is still active even in night, although not like during day. There is still activity in night, but way more relaxed... unlike cities like Las Vegas where you feel there is no night anymore. People in Olivia-4 can still play sports, have some parties, read books (both physical and digital), get food from the vertical farm, swim in the pond etc. You can even have children in playgrounds even as late as 3:00 am! Holy cow, what's this? Ghosts and zombies? Is this the result of crazy scientific experiments? Nah, it's just kids playing around with holographic ghosts and robotic zombies. They're just too impatient to wait for Halloween But Olivia-4 is not only the town itself. It's also the natural landscape around it. Beyond the civilization, your wild part awaits you. You can explore the wilderness, listen to the owls and enjoy the night sky. Just try not to trip over any logs or wake up any hungry bear. Oh, and please ignore this unnecessarily bright bridge. I didn't give access to electricity to those ATEX pieces, and yet they're still illuminated. Don't know why For the next entry I'll try something different. Two small towns instead of one. So small that it's better to have them in one entry instead of two different ones. See you there
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@TogaMasterJohn, @franyer and @carlosmarcelo, thank you for your comments, likes and follows Are you ready for more than 80 pictures of a futuristic, eco-friendly town? Well, ready or not, here they come Olivia-4 (a very solarpunk name, don't you think? ) is south of octagon-shaped Hazelfield, closer to the main river of the region. Here is Olivia-4 from high above. Let's get a little closer. Olivia-4 is mostly a bedroom community, with lots of houses, some shops and offices, and only a few factories. It's also next to a valley that leads to the Fairview's main river, and the only town that the regional magnetic railroad doesn't cross it entirely. See the train leaving the town? This is the only picture that shows the train. Let's have a closer look at this town. This area houses the Olivia-4's college and a small pond that works as a water source as well. It's also the only area of this town that the regional magnetic railroad crosses. Here is the main bulk of Olivia-4 which houses most of the town's necessary facilities, such as the hospital and the power plants. Wait, power plants? Where are they? They're just in front of you and we're going to visit them soon. The southern area holds the graveyard, the local market and important cultural structures. Time to explore Olivia-4, and there is no better way to start our tour... by visiting the town's power source Any town we've been visited so far has a big, central power plant outside of them, such as a big thermal plant or a big wind turbine. Olivia-4 uses a different strategy. It utilizes wind energy, but instead of using big, industrial-scale wind turbines, this town generates its power by smaller, tree-like structures build in the town center. Those structures hold wind micro-turbines with vertical blades on their branches, which are silent, durable, and can exploit even the slightest of breezes and turbulent winds from any direction (and source, even from the passing cars), allowing them to transform all strengths of wind into green electricity. And yes, this technology already exists. Since those wind turbines are placed across the east-west main road, this road has been named "Aiolos Road", named after the ancient Greek god of the winds. "Windy Road" was also a good suggestion, but it was also a bit too mainstream and predictable. While this tower is not the water source of the town, it cleans it by using various techniques, such as nano-scale filters. Notice that this tower was made not by brand new materials fresh from the factory, but by reused materials which otherwise could have ended up to the nearest landfill as waste. This is actually a good example of upcycling, a form of recycling where instead of transforming waste into new materials, you can take a product that you would otherwise throw away and give it a new use in life. For instance, why spend resources and energy to recycle an old bottle, when you can just paint it and turn it into a beautiful vase for your plants? Recycling, upcycling and reusing are some of the most important parts of a circular economy, an economic model that involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible, to the point of having no waste anymore. Sounds "utopic" but it's possible. If there are no waste materials in Nature, why our technological civilization should have them? Speaking about recycling, next to the tower we'll find a specialized waste collection system that eliminates the need for garbage trucks by using underground tunnels and flying robots, just like what we saw on Everret Green. If you have something that you just can't reuse it, you can still bring it to those automatic "waste" collectors. By using underground pneumatic conveyors for the smaller and lighter materials, and flying ion-engine drones for the bigger and heavier ones, this system ensures cleanliness, safety, space and energy savings, while increasing waste sorting and recycling, obsoleting garbage trucks, and minimizing odors, pests and emissions related to waste collection. Why having the utilities far away, when you can have them right in the middle of the town? Here are the police and fire stations that keep the town safe and free from problems. Here is Olivia-4's clinic, with underground garage and extra rooms. Behind the police station and the clinic we'll find the primary and secondary school, as well as the library of the town. We'll also find a playground for both indoor and outdoor games and activities. Good weather? Get out and enjoy the Sun. Bad weather? Get in the pyramid shaped dome to be protected from the elements. Something for everyone and every time. On the other site of the town you'll find the town college, surrounded by student homes and larger houses. The college is next to a tranquil pond, which also acts as the water source of the town. There is also a small park close to it, surrounded by tall trees and only accessible by those paths. Those paths are for walking and cycling, hands down the most eco-friendly ways to move around. And just like in every town, Olivia-4 also have cycle paths under the main magnetic railroad. Of course you'll still have access to buses, underground pods and the magnetic train. Speaking about roads and transportation, you might have noticed a wavy street crossing the town. This was my attempt to create a road with chicanes as a mean to slow traffic for safety. Chicanes are usually installed in the form of plantings, built into roads near schools and inside residential neighborhoods. Those chicane narrow the road and create a tight curve on an otherwise straight road, forcing drivers to slow down and pay attention to oncoming traffic. And yes, we're in the future and most cars are autonomous, self-driving. But some people just prefer manual driving for various reasons. What I was trying to build was something like this: But the result was this: Here is the vertical farm of Olivia-4. A vertical farm like this one can produce far more food than a traditional farm, while using far less land, water and energy, having a far less environmental impact, and it can be constructed even right in the middle of big cities, and provide fast and direct access to fresh food for everybody. This one has a farmer's market next to it, to make food even more accessible. And yes, this is a small skyscraper in a small town. Oh my goodness, a tall building in a small town right next to wilderness. This is so unrealistic However, some people prefer to cultivate their own food from their houses, either by home gardens or by advanced greenhouses and hydroponic tower farms. There is also the option of neighborhood farms. Small areas dedicated to grow food for everybody living next to them. But wait a minute. Can a small area feed so many people? If you increase its space efficiency by growing more plants in the same area, it's possible. One way is by hugelkulturs, which are no-dig raised beds that hold moisture, build fertility, maximize surface volume, and are great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs. Another way is the 3 sisters gardening, a planting technique developed by Native Americans where they would plant corn, bean and squash crops close to each other. The corn provides a structure for the beans to climb, the beans give nitrogen to the soil, and squash spreads on the ground to prevent weeds from growing. Of course technological ideas such as hydroponics and genetic engineering are always awesome, but sometimes the best ideas are the simplest Speaking about technology, you know we're into the future, right? And one of the most futuristic ideas is having an AI managing the city instead of an organic mayor. Obviously we don't talk about evil AIs that want to control mankind, but a network of computers that collect data, monitor the city, provides vital information to the citizens, and solve problems immediately when they occur. We need factories to produce whatever we need, but those factories doesn't have to be nasty machines that devour resources and human lives in exchange of pollution and consumerism trash. All factories here uses robots and automatic systems to keep working 24/7 without the need of human presence, and they're also equipped with anti-polluting protocols and technologies that either totally prevent or eliminate any type of pollution hey could emit. Then those products become available to the stores across the main roads. OK, I know that many mayors tend to have their commercial and residential zones right next to each other, but this is something that I never liked. In these cases, I always separate my zones with something, such as parks and trees, at least one tile wide. This has nothing to do with the CJ. It's just my way of playing We're material beings and we have material needs, such as food and clothes. But we're also spiritual beings and we have spiritual needs as well, such as peace, respect and friendship. And the future is not only about high technology, but also high living standards and ideals. Not far away from the central AI we'll find the Temple of Peace, the Statue of Friendship, and the Dome of Dialogue. In those sanctuaries of the mind and spirit, nobody is rejected. Christians and Muslims, lefts and rights, Americans and Mexicans, Greeks and Turkeys, Pakistanis and Indians, Chinese and Japanese, Ukrainians and Russians, gays and straights, blacks and whites, everybody is welcomed here to talk, to disguise, to share ideas, to agree, to disagree, to politely argue, to come with agreements, to discover each other, to respect each other. We're all brothers and sisters, children of Mother Earth, and any war in between us for any reason should be considered as civil war. "The old appeals to racial, sexual, religious chauvinism and to rabid nationalist fervor are beginning not to work. A new consciousness is developing, which sees the Earth as a single organism, and recognizes that an organism at war with itself is doomed. We are one planet." Carl Sagan And of course we can't ignore the Martian-styled graveyard of Olivia-4, which is (at least for now) the only place that the people can meet eternal peace. And since we're here, let's have a look at this area. Initially, the only ways to access Fairview were a regional road, a regional magnetic railroad and by underground pods. But now that Fairview has been developed a bit more, it's time to introduce a new way to visit the region. Olivia-4 is officially the first town with a vertiport, a facility specialized for Vertical Take Over and Land (VTOL) aircrafts. This vertiport comes with a air terminal, a maintenance facility, a service center, and even a small hotel, and the aircrafts it services are either electric or hydrogen fueled. We're in the future, so of course we'll have futuristic VTOL aircrafts The vertiport is a vital part for the transportation system of Fairview, since it's the fastest way to transport people and cargo right in the middle of the region. But since it's next to a valley, there was a need for shortcut to avoid taking the long way all around. Building road bridges could heavily disrupt the landscape, so it was out of question. Instead, engineers and robot builders construct a tunnel-bridge for the flexible underground pods, which was designed to have its environmental impact as low as possible. Even its pillars have been covered by rocks to reduce aesthetic pollution and restore any damage produced by its construction. However, there have been reports for animals climbing on the tunnel-bridge and using it to cross the valley easier than ever. So, the engineers had to cover the tunnel-bridge with a rough panel that allows the animals to grip on it, preventing them from falling from deadly heights. And yes, I know it's possible to make the base transparent, but I was too lazy to even give it a try While it's not the only town with access to water, Olivia-4 is the first that has reached the main river of Fairview by this valley. Despite the tunnel-bridge, the valley has not been disrupted too much. It's a great place to see wild animals, watch the buzzers flying around, enjoy the flowers and let your soul be one with Nature. And just like any town in Fairview, Olivia-4 is also surrounded by green space of wilderness, which is also utilized for recreational activities with the construction of mini parks and watchtowers. The aim of the outermost perimeter is to bridge nature with civilization, while providing free space for the animals to move and immigrate. Here you can smell the flower, have your breakfast, befriend with deer and foxes, watch the butterflies sharing the same skies with futuristic aircrafts, and enjoy the view of the valley. And here the tour on Olivia-4 comes to the end. Next time we'll see the town in night. See you there
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Description: Buildings and plazas can become more modern but there will always be human vice. Commissioned by the local casino, a risk management firm, and a factory that pumps out foam versions to dudes who drive 70s American classics while wearing colorful suits, it's a landmark for any occasion. The artist snuck in a customization of their own - can you catch it? Stats: Plop Cost (bulldoze): 4400 (100) Maintenance: 150 Landmark Effect: 21 over 52 Pollution: 0/0/0/0 @ 0/0/0/0 Power: 3 Water: 0 Dependencies: The likelihood the house is not going to win. -
@TheMurderousCricket, @TogaMasterJohn, @carlosmarcelo, @mitsos, @Chappington, @raynev1, @TG24, @Golan0, @whiteshark365, @CaptCity, @MissVanleider, @ByeByeBayou, @Dead_End and @Kuba138, thank you for your likes, comments and follows Time to begin the construction of a new solarpunk city, this time named Olivia-4. Olivia-4 was supposed to be another linear chain city, just like the previous ones, with only 2 road connections. However if you see closely at the east part of the city, you'll find a third road connection too. Olivia-4 is going to be connected with 3 cities, with Hazelfield already being one of them. This city is going to have many futuristic surprises. See the wavy street? Notice that the main road is expanding into an empty area? In the next entry you'll see why. We have the roads, we have the magnetic railroad, so now it's time to prepare the ground for our city. For once again, no excessive terraforming. Just let the landscape as it is. This is also a good time to build our public transportation systems, with bus stops in every corner and underground pods stations in the main roads, which will be expanded later. And now we can plant our trees... ...and begin the construction and the landscaping of the area. Right now the town has some parks, some neighborhood mini farms, a vertical farm, a market next to it... ...a police station, a fire station, a clinic which expands underway as well, a primary school, a secondary school, a library, a museum, some playgrounds... ...a college and a lake. But this is just the beginning. How the town will like is something we'll see in the next entry. And let's not forget the landscaping, making the area as beautiful as possible. The construction has begun. Sims are coming to the town to build their houses and infrastructures, but we have to wait to see how Olivia-4 will actually look like. The only thing I can say for now is that after taking those pictures I made some progress and many things has already been changed. This teaser is a little small because, as I said before, Olivia-4 is going to have some really cool futuristic surprises. Can't tell what, can't show you now, just be patient. Right now I'm reading and making some homework for my postgraduate studies, but hopefully the next entry will be ready soon. See you there
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@Michi, @AtkinsSJ_, @Dead_End, @Dominic1 , @Sinister, @ThizGamer24, @TogaMasterJohn, @TheMurderousCricket, @luklitzke, @mitsos, @ByeByeBayou, @chick3n, @carlosmarcelo, @Chappington, @MissVanleider, @CaptCity and @Golan0, thank you very much for your comments, likes and follows I'm participating in a program of postgraduate studies about environmental technologies and politics, which means more time for studying but also better cities, because I can use and apply some of those new knowledge to my incoming towns. I already have some neat plans for my future cities, so watch this space Now, hopefully you wear pajamas and have some hot chocolate, because we're going to visit Hazelfield at night. This time I don't have a lot to say, so just enjoy the pictures. All AI-controlled transportation systems are in 24/7 service. No matter when and where, you can always take the train or the subway pods to go wherever you want. And yes, some of the benches have neon. We're in the future, we want unnecessary but cool Tron-styled futuristic stuff There is still some activity in the night. Many people prefer to sleep, but others are what we called them "night owls", who prefer to sleep at day and get active and productive at night. We need both day and night people, so mocking night owls is bull crap. James Rolfe, the creator of Angry Video Game Nerd, has something to say about it in his You Know What's BS series. Warning, lot's of bad words What? No lots of light? Well, yes. The more trees you have to hide them, the less lights you see. After all, don't you hate it when you try to sleep and some external lights are disrupting you? Humans need sleep, but robots, drones and AIs doesn't. If you need something you can still get it even late at night. Make your order and a drone will bring to you whatever you need. Just respect the owners and don't wake them up. Unless they don't sleep too. Insomnia? Don't worry. Take your time to enjoy the night view of the forest from your apartment, or visit the forest and go stargazing. Be careful though, you don't want to disrupt a bear or fall and break a leg. As we said before, robot's doesn't sleep, so they can keep the factories and laboratories ruining even in night. The machines do all the job, so humans can enjoy the night however they wish, like having conversations and swimming in pools. Daytime can be very busy. This is why some people prefer to pray at the church late in midnight. Cyan Tron-like lighting. Welcome to the future Wanna play chess and feed the ducks in 3:00 am? Go ahead. Meetings in 2:00 am? Why not? This is why we invented artificial lighting, to expand our circle of activities and do whatever we want whenever we want. Fountains of clean water in night. A beautiful sight to see and a wonderful sound to hear. Now that Hazelfield it done, we can keep expanding our futuristic solarpunk civilization... ...by building a new town, which is coming with a neat surprice. See you there
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@Michi, @Spaceblaze, @Dead_End, @JulioC, @Dgmc2013, @mattb325, @mitsos, @MissVanleider, @tomz16, @Chappington, @Kloudkicker and @TogaMasterJohn, thank you very much for your likes, your follows and your comments. I hope I didn't miss anybody. That has been a heck of the time, being busy with so many stuff in my real life and meanwhile putting my mayor skills to the ultimate test and challenge myself to build the best and most detailed city I could have ever build, but I think I made it and I think I deserve to feel a little proud for my work So after so many months on hiatus, it's finally time to explore Hazelfield. 80 pictures come ahead! Named after my favorite nuts, the design and building selection of Hazelfield are based on two actually proposed urban plans. My first inspiration was the Circular Cities of the Venus Project, designed by the American scientist Jacque Fresco. The circular scheme offers maximum efficiency, bringing each radial sector closer to the center of Hazelfield. Also, citizens traveling within the town could easily return to the same place from where they started, without having to take the same route back like in most linear cities and waste time. My second inspiration was an old Japanese urban design known as M.O.T.H.E.R. project. Designed by Sumitomo Mitsui Construction in 1991, a 1.321 meters tall tower with 220 floors would house all the necessary services, such as offices, civil services, communication centers, hotels, and even an observatory. All the mentioned facilities would be accessible to the one million citizens that would surround the tower, all living in neat houses with plenty of green spaces. The citizens of this city would be connected with the Mother Tower by computers and communication systems, and could even work from the safety of their houses. Teleworking before it becomes cool . Because its conception predates the modern Internet, you can't find a lot of information about this project. I learned about this by an old book. Never underestimate the power of the books. So, we have two concepts, a circular design and a big central tower. Mix them together and you'll get Hazelfield OK, it's not exactly circular. It's octagon. And yes, I know that I could do better with the NAM FAR roads, but let's make some baby steps for now. The city is divided by the regional magnetic railroad into two main sectors. The west sector is mostly residential, while the east sector has a larger variety of building types, such as shops and most of the city's industries. You can also see that in the city corners there are the most important utility services that provides power, water and food, and take care of the trash. Before we explore the town, let's have a quick look at these utility facilities. We have already solar and wind energy, so this time let's go geothermal. Readily available in various geographical regions throughout the world (like Iceland and Greece), both on land and under the sea, geothermal energy uses the hidden warm of our planet to produce energy, and this power source alone could provide enough clean energy for the next thousand years. Fairview has a small pocket of geothermal energy source, making it the perfect opportunity to build our very first geothermal plant. This small pond has gathered some raining water, making it a hot spot for ducks, swans, deer, flamingos and other wild animals. The water tower next to it pumps water from both underground sources and the small pond, purify it, and then send it to the city's thirsty citizens. Citizens needs food too, and those hydroponic and aeroponic vertical farms are used to grow a wide variety of organic plants, without the use of pesticides and too much land. And here is where the trash ends up, in a state-of-the-art recycling center and a very clean waste-to-energy incinerator. This incinerator is so clean that it doesn't bother the citizens living close of it. Believe it or not, an incinerator can actually be that clean, and there is already one in Denmark. Amager Bakke is billed as one of the cleanest waste-to-energy plants in the world, thanks to technologies that filters its emissions. This facility burns trash to boil water and produce steam, to produce electricity and provide heating to 72.000 houses. It uses a series of advanced filters to keep it clean, and it even has its own ski slope. Hazelfield's incinerator doesn't have a ski slop, but its even more advanced filters and incinerating methods make it even more clean than Amager Bakke. But is clean incineration an actual clean solution? Many environmentalists say no, claiming that it's better to reuse and recycle than to burn stuff that you could use them for something else. It's still better than dumping trash in landfills, but better and cleaner solutions are always under research and always welcomed. Just because solution A is better than solution B, doesn't mean that solution A is the best ever and we must stick to it forever. And now, after so many months, it's finally time to explore Hazelfield. This is the central sector of the city, and you can't get more central than a central tower and a central plaza with a central transportation hub. Oh, did I say "central"? I don't remember. Central, central, central... Every city in Fairview has its own identity, its own personality, something that makes it unique. And what makes Hazelfield unique is being the first city with a central hub that has everything you need. Instead of having police stations, fire stations, schools and hospitals in individual buildings scattered across the city, the central tower houses the healthcare, educational and public rescue facilities, all under the same roof, easily accessible for everybody. The central tower also houses the computerized communications, the networking systems, and even the central AI of the city. That's right, instead of mayor and advisors, Hazelfield in under the supervision... of an Artificial Intelligence! Don't worry, though. This AI is not going to control your life and tell you what to do. Unlike SHODAN from System Shock, Skynet from Terminator, and Grigor II from Empire Earth, an AI doesn't have to kill you or conquer you. The central AI of Hazelfield monitors everything in the city, from the power plant and the vertical farms to the trains and the educational computers, and when the AI finds a problem it will immediately try to solve it. Why an AI supervisor instead of a human one? Because even if you put in the office unquestionably kind and reasonable mayors and advisors, it's only a matter of time before something bad happens. The biological human brain is the most complex object we know, capable of creativity, imagination and other incredible things, but it still has some serious limitations. It's not perfect and it's just can't do everything. On the other hand, an electronic brain, a computer, can deal with even the most complex systems much easier, faster and more reliable than a group of human brains. But since the central AI has to deal with humans and not with machines, every one of its decisions goes under the knowledge of the citizens and a group of carefully selected scientists from differed fields. So while the "mayor" here is the AI, the "advisors" are the citizens themselves and the civic scientists. An alliance of humans and computers. In other words, there is no central authority here. Nobody controls the city, and at the same time everybody controls it. Kind of like mixing direct democracy with technocracy and anarchism. And this is the central plaza with the central transportation hub. From here you can take the bus, a bicycle, the subway pods, or the regional magnetic train. Green cities and central AIs. Welcome to the future! Flying cars and nuclear fusion are coming soon The west sector of Hazelfield is the mostly-residential district of the town. This area is full of houses, trees, parks, recreation spots, and paths to encourage walking. It even has some of the very first high-rise residential buildings in Fairview, which they look a bit like chocolate bars. Mmm, I love chocolate. With hazelnuts Another pond Lots of parks and quiet corners to spend your time. And look, lots of trail paths for walking or cycling. And yes, some in-game Sims actually use them. I always plant redwoods and other natural skyscrapers. The "problem" is that I've had spend so much time in this city that they grown up to their final height. Now they might look a little silly, but the view from the top of those trees will be fantastic And as you have noticed in some of the pictures above, not all houses have to be directly connected to the roads. Some of them are along the trail paths or inside of plazas and parks, forming mini neighborhoods and communities. Let's go now to the east sector. Here we'll find shops, offices, factories, the central tower, and some extra homes and small apartment buildings. And of course lots of parks and gardens. This is the Hazelfield's spiritual temple, which functions as a spiritual sanctuary and a dialogue forum. Citizens doesn't have only physical needs to cover, you know. They also need some form of socialization and communication with each other, always in a polite and civil tone of course. A neat example of how factories can coexist with parks and trees. Is this a flying truck parked in that factory's launch pad? Yes, it is! I told you that we'll get flying cars very soon Even a futuristic solarpunk society can welcome something rustic and old school, something that adds a nice touch of history. Like this bus stop, designed by the architectural AI R7. Both east and west sectors are divided by the regional magnetic railroad, under of which there is the main bike road. Not all parks and recreation spots have to be inside the city. Some of them are outside of it, in the borderline between nature and civilization. So go ahead, sit on those benches, eat something tasty on those tables. Feel free to use the observation towers to watch the deer and the birds, or use the cabins for whatever you want. Be closer to the nature. Feed the animals if you want, even though it's not recommended. Animals must be free and independent, being able to take care of themselves. Feeding them once in a while it's not that bad an idea. You may even end up with a cute little friend. Just don't overdo it. And please, don't feed them with junk food. I took some important lessons from my first attempt to make a realistic natural landscape while making Everret Green, and I think the result now is better than ever. A better variety of plants and other landscape features, and more flowers and animals than ever. So leave the city behind you, explore the nature, watch the animals from safe distant, listen to the songs of the birds, and be careful with the bears. The tour is over, as well as my job on this city. I hope you enjoyed it... and I hope the next city will not take me that long . The next entry will have night shoots of Hazelfield. See you there
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So several years ago on another forum I asked if there was some type of futuristic looking transport I can use in my cities like a hyper loop system. Someone pointed me to one but I was never able to find it. They said someone made a bat and that I could find it on this site but never did. So I'm asking here if anyone knows of a futurist looking transport system like a Hyperloop I can have running through my buildings? If possible I would like to find something that easy to place as I use NAM but don't know how to use all the different pieces to make good-looking networks. Secondly I just reinstalled the game, and before I had a mod which has bus/subway stops that you can place on the sidewalk but I dont remember which one it was or if there was a better one. So which is the best mod for that? Again I would like something thats easy to place the one I had before had different ones for each of the types and stree sizes. -
@TogaMasterJohn, @tomz16, @korver, @Schulmanator, @mitsos, @Kloudkicker and @ByeByeBayou, thank you very much for your likes and follows. I'm deeply sorry for the lack of new entries since January, but real life can be so annoying even (or, especially) during lockdowns. I also wanted to take my time and use it as an opportunity to improve my mayor skills and raise the bar, by making the next town even better and more detailed than ever. Hopefully I've achieved it. The next town is named Hazelfield and is south to Everret Green. It's on a mostly flat area, so building a big town here will be very easy. The regional magnetic railroad is already crossing the area, so let's build a main road next to it. And yes, there is a good reason why I made a specific, flat building block right in the middle of the town. Building a big town is very easy, just fill the entire area with roads and buildings. But this was not my goal when I started the construction of Hazelfield. My goal was to do something better, to build a big and unique town, one that would be an evolutionary step of the green futuristic towns already existed in Fairview, while still following the aims and philosophy of the region. In this case, an ecological octagonal town of the future! Octagonal cities sounds awesome on paper, until you give it a try and attempt to build them. Then it's pain in the butt, because you'll need a mathematical formula to make the necessary calculations to build the octagonal city, and even then is almost guarantee you're gonna mess things up. 7 years ago I discovered that the best formula to will help you making almost perfect octagons is s/1.4, where s is the length of the octagon you want to build. Example below. If you want to make your own octagonal cities, give this formula a try to calculate the diagonals and don't forget to make the rounding. Oh, and keep an eye for any miscalculation results. Making the octagon is only the one half of the challenge. Filling the octagon is the second half. I tried to come up with a beautiful and futuristic layout without disrupting the landscape too much, and I think I've got it. The overall design and the general idea behind the octagonal shape of Hazelfield is based on an actual concept, more information of it coming in the next entry, when the city will be ready. Don't worry about the roads, most of them will be replaced by streets. These are just placeholders that function as guidance map and as a way to make our road network smooth enough. Now it's time to prepare our landscape for our urban infrastructures, by "terraforming" our area to make small flat terraces. We don't want to flat the entire area, but we don't want to just blindly build stuff to make a chaotic ugly mess either. We want a middle ground, there the town is developing nicely while respecting the environment. Every city needs power, food, water and trash management, and Hazelnuts is not an exception, with all the necessary facilities being outside of the town. We have already build solar plants and wind generators, so let's try something different for once and pick a different type of energy source, geothermal. Hazelfield will be running with geothermal energy, and in our next entry we'll learn more about this type of energy and its fully potentials. Sims need food, but why wasting too much land and resources while polluting the environment with pesticides, when we can grow our food inside tall skyfarms? A new generation of waste disposal is in our hand, this time based on advances in genetics to manage garbage. How? Next entry. At first in this area is where I was thinking about building my skyfarms, until I discovered a small dent in this area. So I expanded this dent a bit and turn it into a small lake for Hazelfield's water needs. More of it soon. Now that we have all the above needs covered, it's time to prepare the town by planting trees, replacing a large portion of the roads with humble streets... ...and building a tower in the middle of Hazelfield! Remember when we had to built individual police stations, fire stations, schools and hospitals? Not in this town, and maybe not anymore. Instead, we'll be using the Small City Facilities Central made by @happyapple to pack everything under the same roof. Now, I'm sure that some of you will find a tall tower in the middle of a small town unrealistic, but A) it's based on an old Japanese concept, more info about in soon, and B) are you still obsessed with realism in a futuristic landscape? I'm sorry that my towns doesn't have castles and coal power plants And of course let's not forget the abundance of bus stops, underground pod hubs and magnetic train stations, so our Sims could go anywhere they want without the limitations of cars. Everything is set, so it's time to remove the rail tiles and fill those gaps with zones, parks and other stuff. The problem is that in many cases I just couldn't came up with something good, and I don't know how the town and its needs will evolve during the development. Will my Sims need more houses that I've zoned? What about the rewards? If I cover all the gaps, I will probably face a situation where important improvements are required, but no empty space to do them. So I think it's better to fill some gaps, let the town go, and fill the rest of them as needed. Some work has been done though, such as lakes, paths, and tons of diagonal parks made by @mattb325 In Everret Green I tried to make a landscape as realistic and detailed as possible. But since my terrain mod changes per month, I'm going to paint the landscape based on those changes this time, hopefully to get an ever better result with even more details. The construction of Hazelfield was a heck of a challenge, and it's not finished yet. I hope the next entry will be ready faster than this one, where the town will be fully finished and we'll take a tour in it. See you there
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From the album Great York
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Hello there! I'm kindda new here and I'm having a bad time finding some good futuristic pluggins, so far I've only found about 10 buildings that I liked enough to download. What I'm especifically looking after are some buildings with an cyberpunk architecture, and also some solarpunk and general futuristic stuff would be great too. I'm trying to build one futuristic city that have a bit of a design mix, like poor areas with an cyberpunk aesthetic and richer areas with an more Utopian solarpunk style, honestly, the end result will look way worse than what is on my mind now, but I at least want to give it a try! Also some pluggins with futuristic vehicles (especially flying ones) would be very nice! I would gladly accept any suggestions and ideas if someone could help me, thanks anyway and hope y'all have an nice day!
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Version 1.0.0
1,770 Downloads
Green Canopy Road, Avenue and Pedestrian Lane Canopies, by Mattb325. --------------------------------------- One of the things that is quite difficult to achieve in SC4 is roads and areas of a city tile that convey a 'sense of place'. In almost all cities and large towns the main shopping streets, cultural precincts and prominent thoroughfares usually have their own immediately recognisable style; whether it is from architecture or street trees and street furniture. That is the genesis behind this series of canopies: to denote a stronger sense of place at street level while being functional. This third set of canopies copies a real world design. As the world warms and the warmth of large cities, already exacerbated by the urban heat island effect (where large areas of concrete, asphalt and other hard surfaces raise the temperature of a city by 1-3C higher than the surrounding countryside) many shopping and pedestrian areas are becoming hellishly hot. For instance, during the 2019 European heatwave, the air temperature in Paris was 43C but in built-up, unshaded pedestrian areas, the temperature was closer to 70C on the ground. These green canopies, covered in quick-growing vines, provide more shade over the dark (heat absorbing) asphalt than street trees alone and can mean pedestrian streets remain lively even during extreme heat events. Plus, they look pretty! There are 3 lots in this download, and each is functional. * A road-top bus stop. This lot occupies a 1x1 tile and is overhanging so that canopies can be placed adjacent to eachother all along the roadway; * An avenue-top bus stop. This lot occupies a 2x1 tile and is overhanging so that canopies can be placed adjacent to eachother all along the avenue; * A functional pedestrian-only laneway. This lot is 1x4 tiles long and must be joined to the road/street network and/or the NAM ped-mall pieces. --------------------------------------- IT IS IMPORTANT TO TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING POINTS: * While road-top/avenue-top bus stops can be safely placed next to a commercial building without any issues, they cannot be placed adjacent to a residential lot or you will get a no-car-zot. This is limitation of the game and I cannot do anything about this. The exception to this rule is where the residential lot is wider than the road-top bus stop: so for instance, if you place a 1x1 road-top bus stop next to a 4x4 apartment block, the apartment block will be fine, but if it is next to a 1x2 row house, then the row house will abandon because of no car access. * The functional pedestrian laneway is NOT a ped-mall; it is simply a pedestrian enabled lot. If you connect two of these lots directly together, SIMs will be unlikely to cross them (that is why a ped- mall piece is used to connect lots). --------------------------------------- The bus stops are found in the misc transit menu and have a capacity of 50,000 (and support all types of vehicles: pedestrian, bus, car, freight). The pedestrian laneway is found in the Landmark menu and provides a few jobs. --------------------------------------- STATS PEDESTRIAN LANEWAY: Lot size : 1x4 Bulldoze Cost: § 40 Plop Cost: § 100 Capacity Satisfied: CS§ 4, CS§§ 3 Pollution: 1 (Air)/ 1 (Water)/ 4 (Garbage ) Pollution Radius: 5/6/0 Power Consumed: 1 Mwh Water Consumed: 4 Gal/Month Occupant Group: Medium Wealth CS; Landmark --------------------------------------- STATS BUS STOP: Lot size : 1x1 (Road), 2x1 (Avenue) Bulldoze Cost: § 10 Plop Cost: § 150 Jobs: § 2 Capacity: 50,000 Pollution: 1 (Air)/ 1 (Water)/ 1 (Garbage ) Pollution Radius: 1/1/0 Power Consumed: 1 Mwh Water Consumed: 0 Gal/Month TSEC: 0.02 Monthly Cost: § 5 Occupant Group: Transport, Bus, Strikable Transit, Bus Stop, MiscTransit --------------------------------------- NOTE ABOUT DARK NITE vs MAXIS NITE: This is simply a canopy covered in thick vines which will allow some of the street light details through the many layers of leaves: therefore only one model is required. --------------------------------------- DEPENDENCIES: here are no dependencies required for this lot. --------------------------------------- To install, simply unzip the contents of this file into your plugins folder. -
Ultra Modern Road, Avenue and Pedestrian Lane Glass Canopies
mattb325 posted a file in Transportation
Version 1.0.0
1,904 Downloads
Ultra Modern Road, Avenue and Pedestrian Lane Canopies, by Mattb325. --------------------------------------- One of the things that is quite difficult to achieve in SC4 is roads and areas of a city tile that convey a 'sense of place'. In almost all cities and large towns the main shopping streets, cultural precincts and prominent thoroughfares usually have their own immediately recognisable style; whether it is from architecture or street trees and street furniture. That is the genesis behind this series of canopies: to denote a stronger sense of place at street level while being functional. This second set of canopies is based on a striking ultra modern, layered and tinted glass panel design. There are 3 lots in this download, and each is functional. * A road-top bus stop. This lot occupies a 1x1 tile and is overhanging so that canopies can be placed adjacent to eachother all along the roadway; * An avenue-top bus stop. This lot occupies a 2x1 tile and is overhanging so that canopies can be placed adjacent to eachother all along the avenue; * A functional pedestrian-only laneway. This lot is 1x4 tiles long and must be joined to the road/street network and/or the NAM ped-mall pieces. --------------------------------------- IT IS IMPORTANT TO TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING POINTS: * While road-top/avenue-top bus stops can be safely placed next to a commercial building without any issues, they cannot be placed adjacent to a residential lot or you will get a no-car-zot. This is limitation of the game and I cannot do anything about this. The exception to this rule is where the residential lot is wider than the road-top bus stop: so for instance, if you place a 1x1 road-top bus stop next to a 4x4 apartment block, the apartment block will be fine, but if it is next to a 1x2 row house, then the row house will abandon because of no car access. * The functional pedestrian laneway is NOT a ped-mall; it is simply a pedestrian enabled lot. If you connect two of these lots directly together, SIMs will be unlikely to cross them (that is why a ped-mall piece is used to connect lots). --------------------------------------- The bus stops are found in the misc transit menu and have a capacity of 50,000 (and support all types of vehicles: pedestrian, bus, car, freight). The pedestrian laneway is found in the Landmark menu and provides a few jobs. --------------------------------------- STATS PEDESTRIAN LANEWAY: Lot size : 1x4 Bulldoze Cost: § 40 Plop Cost: § 100 Capacity Satisfied: CS§ 4, CS§§ 3 Pollution: 1 (Air)/ 1 (Water)/ 4 (Garbage ) Pollution Radius: 5/6/0 Power Consumed: 1 Mwh Water Consumed: 4 Gal/Month Occupant Group: Medium Wealth CS; Landmark --------------------------------------- STATS BUS STOP: Lot size : 1x1 (Road), 2x1 (Avenue) Bulldoze Cost: § 10 Plop Cost: § 150 Jobs: § 2 Capacity: 50,000 Pollution: 1 (Air)/ 1 (Water)/ 1 (Garbage ) Pollution Radius: 1/1/0 Power Consumed: 1 Mwh Water Consumed: 0 Gal/Month TSEC: 0.02 Monthly Cost: § 5 Occupant Group: Transport, Bus, Strikable Transit, Bus Stop, MiscTransit --------------------------------------- NOTE ABOUT DARK NITE vs MAXIS NITE: This is simply a tinted, layered glass canopy which will allow some of the street light details through the many layers of glass: therefore only one model is required. --------------------------------------- DEPENDENCIES: here are no dependencies required for this lot. --------------------------------------- To install, simply unzip the contents of this file into your plugins folder.- 6 Reviews
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- bus stop
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Version 1.0.0
4,043 Downloads
Banmedica Insurance, by Mattb325. --------------------------------------- This unusually shaped skyscraper was first posted in the BAT request thread. The Banmedica Health Insurance building (Torre Banmedica) is located in Las Condes, Santiago. I liked the unusual shapes and massing of this modernist building as well as the eye-catching brise-soleil that grace an entire elevation and exentuate the curve of the building. It is offered as a high wealth, high density Commercial Offices Building on a 4x4 corner lot. This should help ensure that it doesn't become too weedy...but weediness of course depends on what else you have in your plugins. It grows on all tilesets and employs 2,229 sims. It is suitable for CAM and non-CAM cities alike. If you want to make this a ploppable, I would suggest using Buggis extra cheats which will enable you to select this (and indeed any other building in your plugins - including maxis content) from a drop down list. --------------------------------------- STATS CO$$$: Lot size : 4x4 Growth Stage: 6 (High Density) Bulldoze Cost: $1,337 Capacity Satisfied: CO$$ 3,186; CO$$$ 2,229 Pollution: 13 (Air)/ 13 (Water)/ 5 (Garbage ) Pollution Radius: 5/6/0 Power Consumed: 90 Mwh Water Consumed: 970 Gal/Month Building Style: Chicago, New York, Houston and Euro Occupant Group: High Wealth CO --------------------------------------- NOTE ABOUT DARK NITE vs MAXIS NITE: There are two model files in this download. You must select the appropriate file from the download. The file suffixed with 'DN' is for those users with a night-time darkening mod installed. The file suffixed with 'MN' is for users who do not have any such mods installed. If you are unsure whether you have a night-darkening mod installed, then choose the Maxis night version. If you use the dark nite version, you will need a dark nite mod. (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/23089-simfox-day-and-nite-modd/) --------------------------------------- DEPENDENCIES: There are no dependencies required for this lot. --------------------------------------- To install, simply unzip the contents of this file into your plugins folder.- 12 Reviews
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@mitsos, @ulisse, @mattb325, @ByeByeBayou, @mrsmartman, @Schulmanator, @Manuel-ito, @Raymond7cn and @TogaMasterJohn, thank you very much for your likes, comments and follows I was born in 14/12/1984 and I've been a Simtropolis member since 13/12/2008. Yes, I tried to coincide them when I was singing up, but I missed it for a day . Anyway, being 36 years old and a Simtropolis member for 12 years (which membership covers the one third of my life! ) is still a big day for me, so let me celebrate it by giving you a gift. A very special entry of my city journal. What makes it special is the amount of time and details I put on our new town, including a more realistic (I hope ) and with more variant landscape. The two previous entries had only two kind of flora, the Maxis deciduous trees and the @Pegasus pines. Those trees are back, but this time we'll also have bushes, flowers, other small flora, rocks, logs, and even dead trees. From now I'll try to make my landscapes more detailed and realistic and I think I'll need your help to do that. Consider it a team project Now, let's go back to Fairview and meet our new town, Everret Green. Named after the German word eber which means "wild boar", Everret Green is right next to Daphnerose, and its layout, which is a mix of organic and grid style, makes it look more like something between a triangle and a heart. Don't forget that the shapes and the layouts of our towns are shaped by the topography of the local landscape, in order to reduce their environmental footprint and even make good use of the local environment. Why removing a river, when you can let it work for you? Why fighting something, when you can use it for your benefit? And this is the transportation map of Fairview, with Dawnville, Daphnerose and Everret Green for now. I use the Transportation Map Modd For Color Blind by @BannanaPeppers, because I like the bright colors and the addition of the streets on the map. For now the only transportation systems we have are the main road (yellow), streets (white) and the magnetic railroad (blue). And of course the flexible underground pods system (more for it soon), which is obviously absent from the map. No avenues, no highways. As you can see, I've expanded the magnetic railroad to the rest of the part of the region which is going to be colonized (purple), because building the railroad at the same time with the towns increases the probability of making a huge construction error, leading to a big mess. This is why it's so important to think forward and plan ahead, as I said before on our previous entry. And, this is it. Welcome to Fairview once again. Welcome to Everret Green. A small town of the future, with advanced computers, Artificial Intelligence (AI), holograms, vertical farms, flexible public transportation systems, 3D printers, solar-powers smart homes, and a lot of trees everywhere. Who said that the cities of tomorrow should be like Night City from Cyberpunk 2077? Let's get closer. That's a lot of trees, don't you thing? So many tall trees that you need to see the town from every angle, or else you'll miss so many small buildings overshadowed by pines and redwoods. But look more carefully. This time you can also see a lot of flowers and other details outside of Everret Green. Just like in Dawnville and Daphnerose, not the entire area has been colonized and developed. A very large part of it is part of a hill and a large body of water, so the only way to colonize it is by excessive terraforming and natural destruction, which is out of question. There is no reason to do that. We don't want to choke nature. We want to coexist with it. We want islands of civilization in a vast ocean of wilderness, instead of the opposite one. We want cities to think, nature to breath, and animals and humans to be free. Besides, don't you love it when you can get out of your house and explore the forest, smell the flowers, breath some fresh air, feel the grass on your feet, watch the bears from safe distance, listen to the birds, sit on a rock to think, and just relax under the shadow of a tree? Of course spending time with friends in cyberspace and having fun with holographic games and virtual shows are always welcomed, and Fairview has something for everyone. But nothing beats the joy of feeling one with the nature. Let's go now even closer and have a better look at Everret Green's districts. This is the main, central area. This is where all the civic services, the spiritual temple, the central computer, the skyfarms, the domed parks, and most of the commercial and industrial buildings are located. This is one of the two mostly residential areas, with the water tower, the mayor's house and some shops and offices. And here is the other residential area, with some shops, factories and trail paths. Ready for a little tour to Everret Green? Alright, let's go. First, let's explore the central district of the town, at which we'll find so many things to see, so we'll need to stay here for a while. When entering the town from Daphnerose, the very first thing you'll see is the very first commercial tower in the region, located at the central commercial zone of Everret Green. This zone provides most of the goods and services that the citizens need, and you can get them on foot, with bicycle or any other futuristic personal transportation system, by bus, by your electric and autonomous car, or by the underground transportation network. You can hit the road or the street, or the trail path you can see behind of the tower, that connects homes with shops and provides a neat way to walk and go exercise. You can also see some small parks at some of the sides of it. Alternative, if you're sick or out and about, just check their cyber-shops and make the order. Soon, a drone with small ion engines (more info for it soon) will pay a visit at your house or wherever you are right now with whatever you have ordered. The workers at the tower must have a very beautiful view to the Fairview forest Another view of the central commercial zone. Here you can see some homes, a part of the magnetic railroad, and the trail path of that area. Trail paths are not uncommon. They're a more healthy and eco-friendly way to move around, decreasing the need of cars. Look closely under the elevated magnetic railroad and you'll see a trail path too, with some bikers riding their bicycles, while having an AI-controlled magnetic train traveling right above their heads. More and more jobs in Fairview are under the guidance of Artificial Intelligence and operated by robots to free men and women, to liberate them from enforced servitude and slavery, to allow them pursuing the meaning of life and higher things and ideals, and live a life rich in spiritual and physical experiences. Who said that the meaning of life should be working on a boring and meaningless job? And another view of the trail path. We can also see here a domed park, the police and fire stations and the cultural museum of Everret Green. We'll be visiting them very soon. Right next to the commercial zone is the primary (or "elementary") school, using augmented reality holograms and interactive tele-education systems, not only to fill the children's minds with up-to-date and free-from-bias knowledge with fun ways, but most important to teach them how to think, how to use their mind to become active and responsible thinkers, instead of passive and irresponsible idiots. As Jiddu Krishnamurti said, "education is not only learning from books, memorizing some facts, but also learning how to look, how to listen to what the books are saying, whether they are saying something true or false". Next to the school is the Everret Green's library, which has both physical and digital books for everyone to read. Digital books are always available at the Cybernet (the future evolution of the Internet) and can be downloaded and stored even in a small nanochip, so an entire and always up-to-dated encyclopedia of knowledge, full of images and interactive multimedia, can fit on your little finger. However, physical books have not been thrown away. They are always kept and stored safely like a treasure, as a heritage for the next generations to enjoy them. Each library on Fairview has its own collection of physical books, so not all of them are in one single building. For instance, Daphnerose's library has plenty of old astronomy and science fiction books (like A Brief History of Time and The War of the Worlds), while Dawnville's one has a great collection of environmental books and fairy tales (like Silent Spring and Aesopica). Books are a link of the evolutionary chain of information. From genes to brain, to books, to computers, to who know what's next. But books are here to stay. Even if something apocalyptic happens and all advanced technologies fails, the heritage of the books will still stay alive, functioning as storehouses of our past memories and future visions. Recipes that, if used wisely, can change the world. Besides, nothing can beat the smell of an old good book Another view of our educational and commercial corner. From here we can also see some homes, the spiritual temple, the central computer, the clinic, the domed parks, the two skyfarms, and a small part of our main industrial area. And another view of this area. Look closely and we'll see a small trail path between the homes and the factories, and the secondary (or "high") school. The black building is the secondary/high school, that teaches more sophisticated things to teenagers. Now, we all know that a human's brain become more and more capable of understanding more advanced concepts as it grows up, so we tend to teach very simple things to our kids when they're very young. However, children are smarter and more capable to learn more sophisticated concepts and ideas than we believe. Jacque Fresco can gives us an example of how to teach a little babe to use buttons and switches to communicate with his parents. So with the right tools and strategies of actual, honest and scientific education, even the youngest children can learn everything. Heck, we can even teach general relativity and quantum physics to a babe! And I'm not kidding! So, if a modern baby can learn quantum physics and general relativity at the kindergartens of today by books, what a teenager of the future, with access to interactive tele-education, holograms, robotics and quantum computers, can learn at the secondary/high schools of tomorrow? We can't even imagine! But what we should imagine and hope is learning not only how our world and ourselves work, but also how to use those knowledge to better themselves and become free thinkers, questioning the authority, and protecting their minds and souls from the darkness of fear, hate, control, power lust, and stupidity. And the secondary/high school of Everret Green, which is just next to this domed playground with the small basketball court close to it, can help with that. Dawnville and Daphnerose have plenty of open space parks, but Everret Green is the very first town in Fairview that introduces enclosed domed parks. Originally made for the Martian colonies, those parks (like this one on the main road and right next to the covered by the trees clinic) provides an alternative, safer, and more technological way to spend some time relaxing and having some fun. Having their interiors warm in winter and cool in summer, those parks provides a nice place to sit and talk to somebody, have a picnic or play a game, all in a controllable environment, instead of being exposed to the elements of nature. Kids can play football without losing their ball every single time, and adults can telework there without having the wind blowing their recyclable papers all the time. It's even possible to have an underground enclosed garden right under of a domed playground. Those parks are also equipped with very realistic holograms, so they can also be used for festivals or outdoor gaming. You can't fly a kite or feed sparrows inside of those parks, but you can do other things. For instance, imagine yourself being a kid, paying a visit to the domed park, only to find one of your friends having a hologram of the Solar System inside the dome, calling you to play the astronauts. You agree and the entire interior chances into a virtual spaceship or a planetary surface. Have fun Hmm, I wonder how playing SimCity, Super Mario or Doom would look like in those domed parks And this is the Everret Green's central computer, with a small domed garden right next to it. You've read before than human brain is more sophisticated and flexible that we usually tend to think, but the world and the systems that consist of it are so complex that even the most advanced biological brains can't deal with all of this information and calculations. It's just too much. This is why we need each other, but sometimes even that isn't enough. What we need is a powerful ally, an assistant. And there is no better one (aside from each other) than Artificial Intelligence. The central computer of Everret Green houses a sophisticated AI, that replace most of the mayor's work and brain power with electronic equipment and a network of quantum computers, which examines and manipulates multiple concepts at the same time, and gives instructions and solutions far more efficiently than all of the city advisors together. This is the beginning of Cybernation, the linking of computers with robots, AIs and other automated systems, that coordinate most of the machinery and equipment that serve Everret Green, like the magnetic train we saw before. And to ensure the efficient operation of the city’s various functions, all of the processes and services are equipped with electronic environmental feedback sensors. These sensors are coordinated with redundant, back-up systems that operate in the event of failure or breakdown of the city’s primary systems. And the aim of this powerful tool is not to control the citizens by telling them what to do and what to think, but to help people (including the mayor and the advisors of the town) to make better decisions based on actual data, while liberating them from filthy, repetitious, boring, dangerous and mind breaking jobs. Why working hard, when you can work smart and with friends, both physical and digital? Cyberpunk paints a horrible future with a very high technological level but also a very low spiritual one. Solarpunk totally disagrees with that, but it's not the total opposite of it. It's not about high spirituality but low technology. It supports that a responsible use of a high technological level should be used as a powerful tool to live in harmony with nature and obtain a high spiritual level for everybody. New technologies can increase free time, unlock the mysteries of the Cosmos, and bring people together in a big global family. Temples like this one provides a quiet place for everybody to pray, to medicate, to let her/his spirit relax and relief. Those temples doesn't belong to any organized religion, so don't be surprised if you find Christians and Muslims pray together like friends. Religion fundamentalism has no place here. Next to the temple we'll find the town's clinic, equipped with futuristic technologies like robotics, tele-medicine and genetic therapies, to cure the body, the vehicle of the soul. We don't know what exactly the soul is, but one day we'll find the answer. Let's hope that we'll use this knowledge wisely and responsibly, to improve our life and help each other, physically and spiritually. Of course we can't talk about spirituality with empty bellies. We just can't. Food is vital, but the modern ways of agriculture doesn't have the high efficiency and the low environmental footprint we need to feed the people. The ordinary flat farming belongs to the past. What we need is vertical farming. Vertical farms, like this one, are indoors and provide a fully controllable environment to the plants, without being exposed to illnesses, pests and bad weather. The plants are planted at the outer part of the levels of the building to receive enough sunlight from big enough windows. When necessary, the entire levels can rotate to ensure that the plant will keep receiving all the light they need. Robots and drones of different sizes can test and grab fruits and vegetables, and move them where they’re needed. The AI of the skyfarm collaborates with the vertical farmers and the AI of the central computer of Everret Green, to provide and receive feedbacks, and manages all the variables of heat, light and water, continually optimizing, and even learning by itself, how to grow faster, bigger, better crops. Nothing is wasted here. Water lost by transpiration is recaptured and reused. Since all the action takes place inside a tall building, vertical farms can be constructed even in the middle of a city, and produces better fruits and vegetables while using 95% less water and 99% less land. All the above, while using solar energy from a big panel the farm has at its roof. Another view of the skyfarm. Look closely and you'll find buzzards flying around above our green futuristic town. By the way, there is also a building in between of the domed playground with the basketball court and the main road. I have no idea what this building is suppose to do and I plop it just to feel this gap, so feel free to give it a purpose and imagine what this building could be. And look. Another trail path Across the main road are the police and the fire stations, keeping Everret Green safe and secured. Today we still need the police to keep the peace, but police brutality and racism is the last thing we need. This is why more and more people suggest to defund the police. But defunding the police doesn't mean eliminating the police, that would be catastrophic in a modern society than actually allows and even encourages crime. It means a reassessment of law enforcement methods and priorities, emphasizing accountability, enacting reforms ("He who opens a school door, closes a prison" as Victor Hugo said) and redirecting resources where appropriate, thereby refocusing (and even increasing the efficiency) on the mission to help and protect. In the future, with so many radical changes in our social and technological structures that are going to be happening, with a complete redesign of our culture and an immediate upgrade of our way of thinking (because even the most stubborn ideas can't last forever), nobody will have reasons to kill, steal and sell drugs, nor will be there homeless people and terrorists. In the future we are right now at Fairview, the police of Everret Green and the entire region doesn't have the role of the boogeyman, but the role of the rescuer, the diplomat, the advisor, the friend, the cool big brother who helps his family. Somebody you can trust, like a close friend and family member. And if we take this trail path... ...we'll find the cultural museum of Everret Green, where local artists can put on display their creations and talk about them. Those creations can be anything, from paints with natural colors to sculptures made by nanosynthetic materials. If we keep exploring the central district by going south this time, we'll find the industrial zone of Everret Green. Robots and 3D printers, all directed by AIs and human technicians, produces a variety of useful goods, such as tools and furniture. All the factories at Everret Green are efficient and environmental friendly, creating useful items without using too much resources and without producing smoke and waste. The industrial zone also houses small laboratories and warehouses, and there's also a second skyfarm, this one made to experiment with new technologies and goals, such as using aeroponics to produce high quality vegetables that taste amazing while eliminating all plant stress. At the outskirts of Everret Green, where nature meets civilization, we'll find small natural parks, tables for relaxation and picnics, parking lots for the citizens' electric autonomous cars, free-for-use cabins, and observation towers which can be used as fire watch towers and bird watching platforms. In this picture you'll also see a bus stop. One of the many we have here. There are plenty of bus stops on Everret Green, just like at the rest of Fairview, providing faster and safer transportation means while reducing the need of car. And, of course we'll have picnic tables in high tech industrial zones too. Workers need some rest too, you know. Another corner of the industrial zone, with an observation tower, warehouses, artificial photosynthesis laboratories, and a research antenna for studying the impacts of 7G to the local natural environment and public health under the most strictly standards. So far so good. By the way, 7G is the new generation standard for wireless communication technologies, which are even faster and with even larger range than 6G, even to the point of supporting extra-planetary communications with Lunar and orbital colonies, and even paving the road of researching Nicola Tesla's ultimate vision, wireless transmission of electric energy. Let me put it this way. If 5G was about high speed streaming of information and Internet of Things, and if 6G was about holograms and machine-to-mind interactions by satellites, then 7G right now is about global electric network and Earth-to-Moon communications. This is not the end however. A new generation, 8G, is right now under development, that aims to make possible new applications in Earth-to-Mars communications and even the under-development concept of cybernetic brain-to-brain telepathy for the new generation of cyborgs! Of course we have cyborgs. We're in the future! Most of the subway stations are located on the main road and at the magnetic railroad stations, but there are also 3 of them at the very outskirts of Everret Green, all of the next small parks like the ones we saw before. Those specific stations have a beautiful earthy color and design, and their base is surrounded by stones to make them blend with the natural environment, thus reducing the visual pollution they might cause. We'll find the rest two of them as we keep exploring the town. Oh, speaking about subways, don't expect big ordinary trains like those we have today. The subway trains of Fairview are more like personal rapid transit units, pods that work like taxi-train hybrids. In other words, imagine this... ...but underground. Let's go now to the west district of Everret Green. This area is mostly residential, with only a few shops and a couple of laboratories. As you can see, this area follows a more organic layout instead of grid, with smooth curves and diagonal streets. Sadly there are very few diagonal fillers to cover the jagged sidewalk, and non of them can be used on sloped terrain without having overhanged props diving below or flying above them. But this area also has some extra trail paths for walking and cycling. Don't you love it when you're going to your job or a friend's house on foot, surrounded by so many pines and redwoods? Not all of the homes are next to the streets. Some of them are in the middle of the trail paths. This is the second outer subway station, surrounded by rocks at its base and having right next to it a small park with a simple parking lot. This industrial building is a high enthalpy wind tunnel. Those buildings are used for the measurement of the aerodynamical behavior of spaceships during the re-entry in the atmosphere. For the wind tunnel experiment, a piston builds up a high pressure that is supposed to burst a metallic plate with a predetermined breaking point. Due to the shape of the wind tunnel, the shockwave that is created when the plate bursts is transformed into a uniform stream. When this shockwave reaches the model of the spaceship, it is possible to run a laser measurement for the tenth part of a second in order to study the aerodynamics. This wind tunnel is extensively used for fundamental and applied research applied to planetary atmospheric entry, such as fundamental research of high enthalpy fluid dynamic phenomena in non-equilibrium flows, plasma dynamics, experimental data base on planetary atmospheric entries, aerodynamic and aerothermal behavior of probes and models, and atmospheric entry of space debris like asteroids and other space junk. All those researches can then be used to provide useful improvements in safety and efficiency to interplanetary spacecrafts, hypersonic passenger airplanes and commercial spaceplanes. By the way, fancy playing some tennis? Let's go now to the second residential zone. We can get there on foot, by bicycle, by car, by bus, by subway pods, or by magnetic high speed trains. Just like every town we have visited, Everret Green has two central train stations. These are not simple stations, though. They're transport hubs that includes train station, subway pods station and bus stop, all at the same building and under the same roof. By the way, look closely and you'll find bikers moving around at the trail paths right under the magnetic rail tracks. So take your bike or the train... ...follow the tracks... ..and now you're at the other residential area. This area also utilizes a grid style of street network with bus stops in every intersection, and has so many tall trees that can cover entire houses, thus providing some extra privacy to the residents. Just like the rest of the towns at Fairview, all houses at Everret Green are made by synthetic materials with memory characteristics (no more bricks and cement), follow the modular and flexible Barsoomian utilitarianism for faster and safer construction, reconstruction and deconstruction (no more monolithic designs), and are equipped with sophisticated and environmental friendly technologies such as AIs, robots, auto-repairing systems, sensors, solar panels and solar windows, long-live batteries for emergency situations, rain water cleaning and recycling system, nano-organic composting devices, walls that act like monitors too, and advanced augmented reality systems, all providing the best level of comfort and safety possible, at the lowest energy and environmental cost possible. At this area well find the mayor's house, coming with a small park right next to it, and two statues that follows the Barsoomian sculpture style. And this is our third and final subway pods station at the outskirt of the town, next to a cabin and a small picnic field. Don't you like it when you disembark from your subway pod, get on the ground and take a deep breath of fresh air, in a mountain-looking station? Every town has to deal with garbage, but landfills and old school incinerators are out of questions because of the high amounts of pollution they bring. This is why Fairview needs enough recycling centers and green waste-to-energy incinerators to deal with the trash. Right now, only Dawnville has a sophisticated and integrated enough trash management facility to provide its services to Daphnerose and Everret Green as well. But deploying noisy and gazoline-powered garbage trucks, that contribute to traffic jam and air pollution in the time consuming process of collecting so many trash from an entire town, emitting reek and exposing the trash collectors in biohazards, is not a solution. What we need is an underground automated waste collection system, that uses vacuum pressure to move waste and recyclables from buildings and street bins to the trash management facilities. This system, also known as automated vacuum collection (AVAC), transports waste at high speed through underground pneumatic tubes to a collection station, where it is compacted and sealed in containers. When the container is full, it is transported away and emptied. It might sound a bit futuristic, but first, welcome to the future , and second, this system has already been tested, used and developed in various places on Earth. For instance, Council and the Sunshine Coast is installing Australia's first underground automated waste collection system (AWCS) in the new Maroochydore City Centre, so soon this... ...will become a reality Hmm, @mattb325 is from Australia and I think he's working on civic services or something like that. Maybe he's familiar with this project and can give us some extra information. Everret Green is the first town on Fairview that utilizes this new system, with two public sites of gathering and transporting the garbage, each one using a different strategy to deal with different kind of materials. The first one is at the middle of this residential zone. At this one, people can dispose their recyclable materials into portholes specialized for recycling, which from there will be transported by an underground pneumatic system to Dawnville's trash management facilities, obsoleting the need of garbage trucks. The second site is a yard located at the main road, specialized for larger and heavier materials to store and transport them. This yard can also work as an underground warehouse for temporary storing those materials, or send those materials to Dawnville's recycling center and plasma gasification plant by flying drones. By the way, the future drones of Fairview are ion-propelled (and yes, ion engines are not only for space probes anymore) which generate no sound at all, because unlike propels and jet engines, ion engines doesn't have moving parts, which also reduces the time and resources to repair and maintain them. Ion engines right now are not strong enough to lift an entire airplane, not even a flying car. But don't worry. This will be changed in the future. By the way, please ignore the fact that this drone looks like it's colliding with the branches of this tree After a tranquil night, when the Sun goes up, you open your smart window and what's the very first thing you see? In this part of Everret Green, you see trees, birds eating seeds, squirrels playing on the trees, and butterflies flying from flower to flower. And what's the very first thing you want to do? Why, eating your breakfast at those tables of course, becoming one with the nature, enjoying the moment and feeding those little animals, without being too far away from your 3D virtual television. Just like Dawnville, Everret Green is also close to a body of water and above underground water source. This tower pumps up and cleans the underground water and makes it available to the thirsty citizens of the town. The water tower is located in between of an observation tower and a small open area for parking our electric cars. There is also a small path beginning from there. Let's follow it. This path leads to one of the service/access hatch to an underground conduit. The ordinary (and very ugly) power transmission towers with the hanging wires are too dangerous for the local fauna and bring visual pollution to the point of making your eyes want to vomit. On the other hand, wireless transmission of energy hasn't been fully developed yet on Fairview. So the next best thing is using underground wires to connect our renewable energy sources with our towns. But what kind of energy source we use this time? This time we're using a wind turbine, equipped with room-temperature superconductors (and yes, they can already exist), to provide electricity to our civilization. Now, more and more people are concerned about the local problems the wind turbines bring, especially the noise pollution and the bird deaths caused by their blades. Those power plants are very important to decrease and hopefully even eliminate the need of burning fossil fuel, but the challenges they poses should be used as reasons to improve them, not as reasons to remove them. Wind turbines can be upgraded with sound-killing materials and mechanisms to minimize the noise pollution they bring. At the same time, simply by changing the color of a single blade on a turbine from white to black can result in a 70% drop in the number of bird deaths, according to a study ran for nine years at Norway's Smøla wind farm. This time I tried to make the landscape as realistic and detailed as possible, with plenty of types of flora and MMPs to see, such as rocks, weed and a lot of flowers. To do this, I used the ability of the terrain mod I have to display various details, such as flowers and logs, and paint accordingly. Flower above flower, rock above dirt. And then I discovered that this mod changes every month, removing the textured flowers from my prop flowers etc . Next time, I'll try to make it even better. Water is more alive than ever, with weed in it and birds flying around above it. Look closely and you'll see fish swimming around the weed. At first I was thinking about turning this place into a big natural park, but that would require some terraforming that would mess with it. So I decided to let it as it is and even enrich it with trees and flowers. As well as some logs and dead trees. Even more flowers. Some of the Everret Green citizens enjoy to get there (or at least deploy a drone with ion engines) to appreciate the flowers, without picking them up though. Because as Osho said: "If you love a flower, don’t pick it up. Because if you pick it up, it dies and it ceases to be what you love. So if you love a flower, let it be. Love is not about possession. Love is about appreciation." And some rocks too. But Fairview, and thus Everret Green, is a home for everybody. Not only for humans, but also for so many animals. Foxes. Even more foxes. Deer. Even more deer. Moses. Buzzards. And bears. And bees, and butterflies, and so many other wonderful creatures. We're all children of the same planet, breathing the same air and sharing the same evolutionary and cosmic origins. And if we can get along, if we can live and let the others live, the possibilities of the future will be endless. "When we talk about building an empathic civilization, we aren't talking about utopia. We are talking about the ability of human beings to show solidarity not only with each other but with our fellow creatures who have a one and only life on this little planet." Jeremy Rifkin Hope you did enjoyed this special entry. What new things we'll find in the next entry? There is only one way to find it out. See you there
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solarpunk Everret Green (under construction)
Terring posted a City Journal entry in Welcome to Fairview
@Raymond7cn, @Max4k, @mrsmartman, @ByeByeBayou, @tomz16, @Manuel-ito and @bobolee, thank you very much for your likes, comments and follows It's time to come back to Fairview by beginning the construction of our third town, Everret Green. Before that, (and that's a part you can ignore it) there are a couple of things that I'd like to announce, which will be changed and take place from this very entry. In the previous entries of Dawnville and Daphnerose, you may have noticed that their titles contain the name of the town and a (part n) right next to it, and each part had its own role. Part 1 was the teaser/trailer/first view of the town, part 2 was the completion/tour of the town, and part 3 was the night tour/night time of it. For this reason, I decided to replace the (part n) part of each title with a (short description) one. So, instead of (part 1) we'll now have (under construction) and so on. The second change I'm going to apply from now is about the second part of each entry. I've noticed that at the first parts in my previous towns I included plenty of information that they should be included in my second parts. The first parts are supposed to work more like teasers, so most of the fun and the information should be at the main body of each entry, the second part. And this is what I'm going to do from now. Less information at the first parts, unless necessary, and plenty of them at the second one. OK, enough with the boring stuff. Time for the good stuff. At the west of Daphnerose we'll build our new town. Its name is Everret Green. "Everret" from the German word eber which means "wild boar", and "Green" because... Do I really have to explain it? You might have noticed that the very first kind of network system I always build in my green towns is the magnetic railroad, the future evolution of the modern heavy railroads. This is because I follow some of the advises of @Nardo69, probably the biggest railroad connoisseur in the history of SimCity 4 community. In his topic Nardo's Thoughts About The Game, he gives us some useful advises to build realistic and beautiful railways, and one of them is to build railways first, before anything else. Here is why. Even though streets and roads are way older than railways, it's been railways that enabled the industrial revolution and changed the landscapes to its today's shape in Europe and America. Industry got kick started by the possibility of economic land transported, new industries expanded along railway lines, and long before the car was invented, the first commuting railway lines and subways (like in London) had been constructed and operated, to bring workers to the working places. Of course we're into the future now, but building railroads first is not only for historic reasons. While highways are more flexible and easier to access, they're also land devouring networks which cut off the natural landscape (which is catastrophic for many animal species, especially during the migration season) and bring a lot of sound and air pollution. On the other hand, trains are faster and more efficient in transporting goods and people and are more environmental friendly, especially when they're electric and run on elevated tracks. Another reason why I do this is because of the slope tolerance of the magnetic railroads. Cars and trucks and smaller and lighter, so roads and highways have a high enough slope tolerance. Heavy railways have less slope tolerance, because both passenger and freight trains are bigger and heavier. Magnetic railways are even less slope tolerable, because those trains need even smother railroads to run very fast. Of course we're into the future, so we can imagine that the trains of tomorrow will be made by lighter materials and have more efficient engines, allowing them to run at steeper slopes without losing too much speed. And this is how you solve a problem The magnetic railroad, the backbone of both Everret Green and the entire Fairview region, is here. Time to set up the rest of the transportation network. I decided this time to play a bit with the layout of the town. Grid is a very efficient layout in transportation and organization, but it's also boring and unresponsive to topography, so is no wonder why many concepts of future cities are using a more flexible and organic layout. So I tried to have the best of both worlds by mixing them. The central part of the town will be mostly grid and the outer parts of it will be mostly organic, with bigger and smoother turns. By the way, building smooth diagonal streets is such a pain. If you try it do it with the drag-able way (drawing the street in a zig-zag pattern), it will level the ground and destroy the topography of the landscape, which is not what we want. The puzzle pieces is the best way to build those streets, but they follow the topography so much that you'll end having plenty of "missile shooting ramps" instead of something smooth and safe. So the best way to build smooth diagonal streets is to drag a diagonal road first to make the ground there smooth enough, remove it, and plop some diagonal streets puzzle pieces there. From now you know the rest. Time to use the railroad tool to flatter the town. Not too much. Just enough to make plenty of small tablelands that respect the topography of the landscape. Now that the ground is prepared, it's time to start building our town, beginning with the two magnetic train stations, bus stops in every corner, and subway stations along our main road. And now it's time to cover the bare slopes with pines and build our civic infrastructures... ...which include the police and fire stations at the main road... ...the small and covered by trees clinic... ...the primary (elementary) school and the library, separated from each other by a playground... ...the secondary (high) school... ...and the museum. More info of those buildings on the next entry. A big problem with the modern cities is their tendency of trying to fill their current needs without having some empty room for future necessary improvements. This lack of flexibility is a very common problem for all SimCity players, like when you need to upgrade a road into an avenues but you have to demolish some skyscrapers to do that, or when you must build a new power plant immediately but you don't have the space to do that. Yeah, it's very annoying. Also annoying is when you don't know what to do with an empty space in your city. You want fill that big gap with something, but you're not sure with what. So, here is another change in our strategy that I'm going to apply from now. Don't build everything from the very beginning, don't try to fill gaps so soon. Develop the town and fill those gaps accordingly to the upcoming conditions and needs. Think forward. Besides, we have some rewards to build and we want some space to do that. For now we have zoned for peaceful residential areas, commercial zones along the main road, and some factories at the edges of the town. But wait a minute. Did we forgot something. Why, of course. Utilities! You can't have an eco-friendly town of the future without power, water and trash management. Everret Green is next to a big body of water, making it a perfect source of... you guessed it Remember when I said now annoying is to build and build and build, only to realize that you forgot to build something and you don't have enough space to do that? Yeah, this was the case of the garbage management facilities of Everret Green. I forgot to build them! But fortunately I solved this problem by utilizing an actual concept of an underground automated waste collection system. More information about this on the next entry. And of course we need power. It's a clean future, so we need a clean energy source. This time we'll go with wind energy, which nowadays is at the center of a controversy of how environmental friendly are the wind turbines. We'll talk about it... you know when This is it, folks. Everret Green is in a good shape, and this time with plenty of room for future improvements and upgrades. How the town will look like when it finished? We'll find it out on the next entry. See you there- 2 Comments
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@WolfZe, @JulianMIA, @Raymond7cn, @sejr99999, @Max4k, @_marsh_, @bobolee, @Kuba138, @mitsos, @ByeByeBayou, @mrsmartman and @Manuel-ito, thank you very much for your comments, likes and follows. I know that I don't make new entries as often as I'd like to, but making a new town as pretty and environmental friendly as possible is not such a simple task. A new town in under construction. For now, here are some night pictures of Daphnerose. I'm happy to see that night pollution has been reduced even more thanks to my trees
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@Dot, @WolfZe, @korver, @bobolee, @kschmidt, @tomz16, @mrsmartman, @Manuel-ito, @Kuba138, @mitsos, @ByeByeBayou, @MilitantRadical and @Raymond7cn: Thank you very much for your comments, likes and follows. One of the topics that this CJ is going to study in an upcoming entry is mining operations and how it could be possible to extract the minerals we need to build our electric vehicles and renewable energy power sources, without having to deal with further environmental damages and terrifying situations like this: Now that's a very interesting and important topic that needs further discussion, and we're going to do this soon. It would be a good opportunity to tell something about the "new technologies will fix everything" rhetoric. For now, let's keep on with the development of Fairview by exploring our new town, Daphnerose. Daphnerose is bigger and more populated than Dawnville because of its almost flat landscape and the general lack of major natural features at this area, such as bodies of water and large cliffs, thus giving the city a larger room to expand and develop without terraforming too much and damaging the environment. While all of our towns in Fairview will share the same environmental aims and principles, each one will still be different from each other, using different strategies for the same goals, having its own unique identity and its own story to tell, being a different kind of experimentation and expression. Different ideas can lead to a large variety of different solutions, and the more ideas you have the more likely is to get the one that will solve your problem. This is one of the reasons why free thinking and free speech, especially when utilize the scientific methodology, are so important. Daphnerose's larger size is not the only reason why it's not like Dawnville. Another reason is the existence of unique infrastructures, such as a farmer's market and a weather station, that we'll be having a look at them very soon. Another difference is the lack of an independence water source and a trash management in Daphnerose. This is because Dawnville's water tower pumps enough clean water from the underground natural deposits there are there, and its garbage management facilities have more than enough room, to support both Dawnville and Daphnerose. Now, the ideal strategy is to make each and every city as self-sufficient as possible, producing its own energy, water, food etc to cover its needs, in order to reduce the environmental footprint of transportation and the risk-bearing consequences of overly dependence on other cities. This doesn't mean that cities can't exchange and trade, or help each other in emergency situations. It means that each city should be able of take care of itself if things goes wrong and nobody else can help. Still there is a debate of how efficient and environmental friendly is giving each city its own individual utilities, like having plenty of small solar power plants in each city instead of fewer but bigger plants in the region to support multiple cities. While Daphnerose has its own power source, it still needs Dawnville to get water and dispose its trash. But what if something bad happens to Daphnerose, forcing the town to face a water or/and garbage crises? Maybe we'll find it out one day. At the south part of Daphnerose we'll find the agricultural and industrial zone of the town. At the north part we'll find most of the residential zones, the magnetic railroads and the central park of the town. South part again, this time looking at the central square, the farmer's market, the cemetery, some of the civic services, and the weather station. And back to the north again, this time looking at the mayor's house and the spiritual temple. Remember when I said that Dawnville is so green that sometimes it's not very easy to tell the difference between nature and civilization? Thanks to Maxis Tree Replacement Mod made by @_marsh_, we took this statement to the next level Let's go now to the agricultural zone. While Dawnville is reliant on a skyfarm, Daphnerose has deployed a variety of agricultural methods to produce a larger variety of food. This includes a smaller skyfarm, advanced greenhouses based on food production methods originally developed for the colonization of Mars, and seasonal food farms. Now, some of you might ask if those small farms are organic farms. Organic food is supposed to be more healthy, natural and ethical, because is farmed without genetic engineered seeds and without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Instead, organic farms use more traditional ways to produce food, like crop rotation, and use organic fertilizers, like compost and manure. All the above sounds awesome, but what you see is not always what you get. Organic farms uses less energy and pesticides than the conventional ones, but have similar greenhouse gas emissions and need more land to produce the same amount of crop. This, adding to the constantly rising demand, have already brought an environmental mess of less sustainable methods, greenhouses that uses too much energy, and even frauds. In a system based on money, competition and greed, of course you'll have frauds. Right now, one of the best solutions suggested to produce healthy food efficiently and as environmental friendly as possible would be a combination of the best features of both organic and conventional farms. But since Fairview is somewhere into the future, we can always imagine new, healthy and eco-friendly ways to produce enough food for everybody, such as hydroponics, genetic engineering, robotic farmers and skyfarms. See this big, white tower? It's a water purification system, that uses bacteria to remove any pesticide and clean the water. Those microbes produces enzymes that break down the pesticides into less toxic substances, which can later be removed entirely. This technique has been initially used to clean up the soil of Mars from perchlorate, making exploration and food farming safe. Regardless, all kinds of food can be accessible to everybody and anybody at the farmer's market here. Or, if you don't feel you want to get out of your house, just make your order and a drone will deliver to you anything you need. Close to the agricultural zone we'll find some small factories that produces various goods. You really think that factories must be big, dirty and ugly, right? Right close to the farmer's market is the police station of Daphnerose, that keeps an eye for any emergency situation. Dawnville has a SimMars fire station. Daphnerose has a more down-to-Earth fire station. Variety is the spice of life, I guess. At the main road and not very far from the police station, we'll see the clinic and the library of Daphnerose next to each other. The library houses both physical and digital books that hold the memories of the past, the status of the present, and the visions of the future. Next to it is the clinic, obscured right now by a tree. This clinic comes with a small dome with pharmaceutical plants for medicines, and a mobile medical center in a bus-like vehicle that patrols both Daphnerose and Dawnville and provides healthcare support when necessary. Flexibility is vital if we want to face the challenges of the future. Close to the above buildings is the town's elementary school, surrounded by shops, parks, and bigger trees this time. Actually, there are so many big trees this time that it's just impossible to see the paths that leads to the entrance of the Daphnerose's high school Next to the high school we'll find the Daphnerose's museum and a small plaza next to it. Man, those new trees really does hide my plazas And finally, for the first time in Fairview, a college. Daphnerose is right now the only town with a college, so students from Dawnville will need to take the bus, the magnetic train or the underground wagons to get here. Just like most of the buildings in Fairview, Daphnerose college's architecture is based on the Barsoomian utilitarianism, originally developed on Mars. But the college itself isn't just based on Martian architecture. Its theme is 100% Martian! And here is why. This is the energy source of Daphnerose, a solar power plant which looks very different from the typical solar plants like those in Dawnville. This is because this specific plant, instead of blue panels, it utilizes red panels, a new type of solar panels initially researched for the Martian colonies. The solar energy on Mars is roughly half as effective as on Earth, so the scientists on Mars invented the red panels by using new techniques in metallurgy, metamaterials and nanotechnology. Those techniques increases the efficiency and energy output of the Martian solar power plants, so it was only a matter of time before this new technology reaches and applies on Earth too. Add a smaller but still efficient power amplifier that utilities room-temperature superconductors, and you'll get solar power plants so effective and cheap that can finally obsolete the nasty fossil fuel power plants. Go red! Go green! Thanks to Daphnerose, Fairview now has its very first weather station. This station is linked to a global forecast network that provides accurate information about the weather and how it will be evolved into the next days. It's stations like this that has already saved many lives by situations like savage storms, and they'll become even more sophisticated and important because of the man-made destabilization of the global climate. Daphnerose is connected to Dawnville by road, subway and magnetic railroad. But one of the coolest features of the town is the abundance of trail paths and bike paths. Anywhere you see you'll find paths that encourages people to go anywhere they wish by foot or by riding a bicycle. There is a bike path even right under the elevated magnetic railroad. Just take your bike and enjoy the trees around you, the song of the birds, and the humming of the electric engines of the cars and the magnetic trains. That path crosses most of the town like the magnetic railroad, and connect the rest of the town to the central park. Paths are a neat way to connect various areas of the town together. They, along with the bus stops at every corner and the subway stations across the main road, encourages walking, biking, skating or using any other futuristic personal transportation system, thus reducing even more the need of cars. It's also a good excuse to build even more parks and plant even more trees. For instance, this path begins from the mayor's house... ...and ends up to the spiritual temple and the park around it, with a playground and a beautiful statue. And the central park has a statue too. Now, let's talk about statues. They are a nice way to honor important persons of the past, such as scientists, artists, philosophers and activists, keeping them and their legacy alive. But not all the people in the past were good guys, and some of them doesn't deserve any honor at all, although who deserves a place in the future Hall of Fame can be debatable even in the most extreme cases. For example, would you like a statue of Adolph Hitler? If yes, maybe that's because you don't want to forget the atrocities he made, hopefully never repeat. If no, maybe that's because you don't want him to get glorified for the atrocities he had made. There is an interesting debate about statues and whether they are pieces of history that must be preserved, no matter who they're honoring, or symbols of past shames that must be removed and destroyed, even if this could lead to a memory self-erasing. History is full of great and horrible moments. We should not forget it, we should not glorify it. And we can't change it. It is what it is, so it's better to learn from it and memorize both its good and its bad moments, if we wish to pick up the torch from our ancestors without repeating their mistakes. And yes, there is a bigger subway station at the north part of the town. Anywhere you look at you'll find trees, parks and other recreational facilities, such as this playground with a small basket field. Look closely and you'll find buzzards flying around the town. And now something very important. There is a problem with SimCity 4 on Windows 10. When placing props that require you to cycle through using left button mouse clicks, the game sees each click as a double mouse click, which in-effect makes half of the props in the cycle unavailable. That was a big deal-breaker to me, because I used to build mini parks and other details by using MMPs, which would be a great addition to Fairview. But one day I found the solution. I discovered that it's possible to play with MMPs on Windows 10 without skipping props. To do this however, you need to hold the right button of the mouse while placing the props. But by doing this, the game will not skip any prop. I've tested many MMP sets and all of those tests have the same result. When placing an MMP with only single clicks of the left mouse button, the game places the second, fourth, sixth, ... prop. But when pressing the right mouse button at first and then start placing an MMP with the left mouse button while keeping the right mouse button pressed, the game places the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, ... prop! And here is the prove. If you still have doubts, give it a try. Just hold the right mouse button while adding MMPs. Why this is so important to me? Because now I can finally do this! Mini parks at the outside of Daphnerose, where Sims can park their electric self-driving cars, relax, have picnics, and even feed the animals. Here is a little detail just out of the Martian-styled cemetery. A small cabin, some parked futuristic vehicles and... is that a zombie? Oh my goodness, so many trees and futuristic technologies. So many buzzards and drones flying around. So much nature and advanced civilization. This is crazy. This is unrealistic. This is madness! Madness? This... Is... SOLARPUNK! Right now, Daphnerose is connected to Dawnville only... ...but we're going to change that. A new town is going to be constructed very soon. See you there
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