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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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@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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@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
