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Islands: Wainós, Maratazzo, Marila, Marioca and Lazaretto
Don_Pato posted a City Journal entry in Metzú Republic
"Islands: Wainós, Maratazzo, Marila, Marioca and Lazaretto" Metzú Republic has many small islands, perfect places for local and international tourism. Crystalline water, picturesque villages and 5-Stars Hotels are a good offer in the Pacific ocean. Full Map Wainós Islands (1.077 pop.) Maratazzo (114 pop.) Marioca (325 pop.) Marila y Cabo Lao (1.250 pop.) Puerto de Lazaretto (2.589 pop.) We hope you visit our islands, See you on the next article, Stranger. -
"Puerto Nero and Varisio" Puerto Nero is part of Punta Retolk Metropolitan Area. Is a touristic point, serene and calm, with ferry connection to Varisio, Isla Klei, Isla Marila, and others. In this place is the International Airport. Varisio is a beautiful town, part of Wainor Metropolitan Area, with connections to Puerto Nero and Tiyi by Route 6. Is a historic place. Full Map Population: 8.083 (Puerto Nero) Metropolitan Area: 130.100 approximate (includes Punta Retolk Centro/Downtown, Punta Retolk Industrial, Isla Marila and Cabo Lao) Main activities: tourism, low density industry Transport: by route: by ferry: to Varisio, Wainor, Isla Klei, Cabo Lao, Puerto de Lazaretto by airplane: Yuti, Serenísima Costa de Laga. Population: 6.400 (Varisio) Metropolitan Area: 58.350 approximate (includes Wainor) Main activities: tourism Transport: by route: by ferry: to Puerto Nero, Wainor, Isla Klei, Puerto de Lazaretto, Tiyi Industrial by train: to Punta Retolk Centro/Downtown, Tiyi Industrial, Tiyi, Jalai, Vento, Yuti. We hope you visit our towns, See you on the next article, Stranger.
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Hexagonal Grids
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
While trying to come up with creative ways to use up the virtually infinite industrial demand, I stumbled upon the hexagonal pattern that I felt looked "futuristic" and appropriate for the spaceport I placed on the easternmost tip of the island. That prompted me to ask the question that city planners from nearly a century ago also asked themselves: could hexagonal urban grids work? I actually started with the bigger hexagon pattern covering ~3 large cities because industrial zones are far easier to place for reasons I've described in previous entries; I only did the smaller hexagonal neighborhood a little to the south much later because the diagonal/non-grid residential/commercial spaces are a pain to layout, although the hotkeys help somewhat. At first glance the hexagonal grids with 3-way intersections do appear to perform better than the conventional rectangular/square grids with 4-way intersections, but I can't definitively say because I hadn't developed the hexagonal areas enough to bring them to a high enough traffic volume for a fair comparison with the rectangular/square neighborhoods. Either way, the one big thing the conventional rectangular/square grids have going for them is that they are so much simpler to lay out: for the hexagonal neighborhoods I had to painstakingly count and measure road segments for hours, in contrast for the rectangular/square grids I could lay straight roads all the way across the map to form the grid layout within minutes. The hexagons are not really regular hexagons but still I was pleasantly surprised with how well they fit. In some screencaps further below, it starts off with a normal four-way junction as a "seed", with the hexagons fanning outward from it kinda like a snowflake. Another criticism levied at hexagonal grids is how would it approach street naming and addressing? For rectangular grids it's literally straightforward: you just need the street name and lot/building number. For hexagonal grids I imagine instead of locations being anchored to street names, they would designate a certain center block or blocks, then number each hex block radially around it, either clockwise or counterclockwise. Then the lots/building numbers within each block would also be assigned radially in a similar orientation. They could get away with nameless streets - instead of street signs they could have signs displaying the block numbers at regular intervals on each side of the streets and at each 3-way junction. Still might be disorienting because the travelers could lose their sense of the cardinal directions (NSEW) -
Insatiable industrial demand
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
Another one of the more noticeable quirks of playing vanilla is the abnormally high industrial demand due to the relatively high occupancy of residential lots compared to the relatively low employment numbers in factories, which I put to good use to fill out the region, and to go wild with the road layouts, since industrial areas generally don’t get as congested as residential areas, and like I mentioned in the intro, unlike residential or commercial lots which have to face a road, industrial lots only care about the distance to the nearest road. This allowed me to lay roads into practically any shape, then just fill in the block with medium/high-density industrial by clicking on one tile inside the block and holding it for 1-2 seconds while holding shift to disable the interior streets. Works with the dezone tool too. This can be used to fill in a 15x15 area at a time with industrial zones, but my irregular industrial city blocks were often much smaller than that so this was more than adequate. The following screencap shows the sprawling manufacturing areas of Trost in a composite image with three of its neighboring cities. I was naively hoping the alternating checkerboard of industrial and greenery blocks would somehow temper the air pollution, but it did not seem to help at all. Transitioning to manufacturing and especially high-tech industry is still the most reliable way to reduce air pollution. -
Shepherding the vanilla commuters
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
Whether playing in vanilla or with NAM, but even more so in vanilla, it really does help to think of cities/regions as a superorganism with the transport network as an analog for plant xylems, blood vessels, or lung bronchi - transporting people instead of water/blood/oxygen throughout the body. The key difference with real life is that people are independently capable of planning their own routes, while mindless water/blood/oxygen/ particles follow the path of least resistance. Then again SC4 is not real life, which is especially the case in vanilla, where the commuters act more like mindless particles, arguably even stupider since the vanilla commuters insist on taking the absolute shortest path despite the congestion, whereas water/blood/oxygen particles “know” to use alternate routes where available if the pressure at the main/shortest route gets too high. Using the "biological superorganism" idea, I started off trying tree-like layouts that could be later adapted for medium/high density development with more transit options. It worked reasonably well initially but I found it kinda limiting, so I reverted back to the standard grid but kept the hierarchy of transit options as in the following screencaps. The Dauper-Ragako metropolitan area’s high-density mixed-use residential and commercial districts Buses plying one-way street grids undergirded by diagonal subway lines, serviced by a monorail trunk line and elevated highway. The bus stops are placed with offsets on every other city block so they’re not all stuck travelling in the same direction lol. Diagonal subways underground to complement the orthogonal street grid above ground Brzenska city’s unconventional “fractal grid” plan, inspired by the real-world Barcelona city grid. Basically the tree layout described above taken to the extreme, rolled up and folded alongside each other. The idea was to selectively remove some of the interior four-way street crossings to force vehicles out onto the exterior higher-capacity roads. Then continue up the road hierarchy with more roads/avenues/highways in a sort of fractal pattern, with diagonal subways as shortcuts to discourage road congestion & encourage mass transit usage. Put another way, we’re sacrificing fast commute times to minimize congestion at intersections. Default view of one corner of the city. The inner->outer road hierarchy I ended up using was street, road, avenue, avenue, highway. I think I could have gotten away with street, road, road, avenue, highway Zone view. Alternately we could have tried using under-/over-passes for some of the avenue crossings instead as a middle ground Subway volume. The thing about square grids is that it lends itself well to having subways cut across the diagonals Traffic congestion. For the inner streets I tried to micromanage the 3x3 res plots so that they point away from each other and have a dedicated street for themselves, but then they went through the sides and back of the buildings so that didn't work -
City Skylines
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
The central district of the Eldian capital Mitras, with the Royal Palace at its heart. The circumferential beltway marking the boundaries of the modern district traces the ancient Wall Sina. Panoramic night view of Mitras’ skyscrapers using the 3d camera mod. That mod is actually what inspired me to return to this region after a long pause. Later I’ll come back and take alternate angles of my other older screencaps. I’ve been playing SC4 on-and-off since 2008 I think: I would forget about it for several years then mess around with a few regions for a short while before forgetting about it again, yet I keep coming back to it even after all these years. This region is where it finally clicked for me how to reliably encourage those nice-looking commercial skyscrapers to grow, even on vanilla and hardest (3-star) mayor difficulty settings. Pick a central city tile that will host the skyscraper district, then go to its neighboring cities and ramp up the CO$$ & CO$$$ taxes all the way up to 20 while maintaining or even lowering the same taxes in the central city, effectively concentrating the CO demand in that one city. In hindsight this would work better if the neigboring cities are staggered such that the central city will have 6 neighbors; in this region the city tiles are configured in a perfect grid without offset where each tile only has 4 neighbors. Optionally, you could also do the opposite to the dirty and manufacturing industries: maximize the taxes in the central city to push them out to the neighboring cities, to keep the central city clean and pollution-free. In all of the cities (central+neighbor), get as many sims - especially highly educated sims - as you can. At first they will look for high-paying high-tech industry jobs, then eventually when their spoiled children grow up and graduate from college/university they will start demanding for higher-paying cushy office jobs. This process will take a while, you can play this by the numbers - I believe there is a specific regional population threshold, but regardless of the exact value, the key here is patience. If I remember correctly, I started seeing commercial skyscrapers in the central city when my regional population reached 1M+, with significant percentages of highly-educated high-wealth sims in the central city and its 4 neighbors. Once you’ve accrued a pent-up regional demand for CO$$ and CO$$$, pick a spot in the central city for the skyscraper district with all the amenities: water, public transport, police, fire stations, hospitals, schools parks, rewards, landmarks, the whole package. As you can tell this will take some hefty initial startup cash on top of recurring monthly expenses, so it helps if the central city is already moderately developed by this stage, with a sizeable treasury and healthy net monthly income. Mix in some high-density residential zones so the office workers have the option to live in nearby high-end housing if they can afford it. But hold off on spamming high-density commercial zones just yet: now that we’ve concentrated the regional CO demand in this central city, we can concentrate it further within this city by zoning just a few plots of small high-density zones, so the CO demand will be forced to build upwards. You’ll know you’ve done it right and you’ve waited long enough if they immediately sprout up, if not that just means you’ll have to wait a little longer: most likely the regional population is not yet high enough to meet the threshold. As the CO demand is replenished, continue zoning small pieces of high-density commercial zones around the starting cluster. Then when the commercial space in the central city is all used up, lower the CO taxes in the neighboring cities, or repeat the whole process in other groups of central+neigbor cities across the region, like what I did for the following screencap. The city of Zacharius, where the southern terminus of the national high-speed railway loops around to “lasso” the central cluster of financial skyscrapers of what was once a frontier ranching town. Where their grandparents once wrangled market bulls, now their grandkids are chasing bull markets. Zacharius city also hosts the country’s largest meat auction, ensuring a stable supply of affordable meats. -
Making huge circles
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
As for the huge circles which could span multiple large cities - I made a prototype in MS Excel that I've converted into the Python code snippet linked here. The inputs that can be edited are the values of r for the radius, and show_plot to either True/False to show/hide the plot. The output is the sequence of road segments to lay out a 45° half-quarter arc, or one-eighths of a circle, that can then be rotated and flipped to make the full circle ... 10:1 4:1 4:1 2:1 2:1 2:1 2:1 2:1 1:1 1:1 2:1 1:1 1:1 1:1 1:1 ... which has been condensed into the below format. The left number is the length of the 1-tile wide road segment, while the right number is how many times that segment is repeated: 10, 1 4, 2 2, 5 1, 2 2, 1 1, 4 The compressed output can be saved as a picture, a text file, or on pen & paper like a compact "cheat sheet", instead of having to visually count off tiles on a diagram. Nevertheless, the plot can still be useful if only for double-checking the placement, using $10/segment roads as a "tape measure" of sorts as described in a previous entry. A fun mini meta-game is to try to memorize part or all of the sequence while laying down the arc and seeing how big of a circle you can make without peeking at the cheat sheet. One subtle but important caveat: since we're quite literally squaring the circle. there's bound to be some distortion, so the output is not perfect, especially towards the end of the 45° arc where it becomes diagonal. Simply reversing the sequence and continuing on from that point will not always yield the desired results, instead it is more reliable to start the other half from the opposite direction, e.g. if you started at the 12-o-clock position towards 1-o-clock for the first half, start the second half from the 3-o-clock position towards 2-o-clock until they meet in the middle. Try it out first with smaller circles before committing to bigger circles. These can then be paired with the angles to draw almost any kind of shape, from "wavy" sinusoids to DNA double-helixes. The spirals can be approximated by generating a series of circular arcs with increasing size: Constant width similar to an Archimedean spiral, using semicircles whose radii are multiples of 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on Logarithmic spiral using quarter-circles whose radii are multiples of some constant, e.g. 2: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, … Fibonacci spiral using quarter-circles whose radii are multiples of the Fibonacci sequence: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... Natural-looking curvy roads can be created by appending arcs of varying radii. Then the road segments can be connected together with combinations of FAR segments, reverting back and forth to the curve as needed. Though since SC4 is still a grid-based game, there’s really not much benefit to using curved roads aside from aesthetics. Usually I treat them just like a natural barrier like a steep slope or water line, and just build/zone stuff around them, then demolish the roads once the shape has been filled in. I tried it out again on an empty region of 5x5 large flat cities with 256 tiles on each side. The table on the left is the generated outputs of the script for the largest/outermost circle down to the smallest/innermost circle, which is itself larger than and completely surrounds the central large city tile. For the Circlejerk city, I made concentric circles whose radii are multiples of 10 tiles: 10, 20, 30, and so on. For the Kurôzu-Cho city, I used semi-circles with radii of 10, 30, 50, 70, and so on. For the Galactic City, I used quarter-circles with radii of 10, 16, 26, 42, 68, 110, and so on (Fibonacci sequence x2). crop-circle.xlsx isengard.xlsx spiral.xlsx -
Making odd angles
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
For the odd angles, we use the same principle as the NAM Fractionally Angled Roads (FAR): any slope can be approximated using a fraction of "rise" vs "run". For the plain old 45° diagonal, we do something like "move 1 East, move 1 North, then repeat as far as needed". Alternately we could also go "1 West, 1 North" or "1 East, 1 South" or "1 West, 1 South". For brevity we will omit the cardinal directions and express the angles as pairs of tile movements along the latitude and longitude, e.g. 1:1 = 45° For the FAR angles: 2:1 ≈ 26.565° 3:1 ≈ 18.435° 4:1 ≈ 14.036° The general formula is tan(X degrees) - this can be entered directly into google after substituting for the angle. For example if we'd like to approximate a 20° or 70° diagonal 1/tan(20 degrees) = tan(70 degrees) ≈ 2.747 ≈ 2.75 ≈ 11:4 That is, "for every 11 tiles in one direction, move 4 tiles in the other direction". One way of laying this out would be ... 2:1 xx 3:1 xxx 2:1 xx 4:1 xxxx ... ... then repeating that pattern for as far as needed. Other angles commonly found in regular polygons: Triangles, hexagons: tan(60°) = 1/tan(30°) ≈ 7:4 Pentagons, stars: tan(72°) = 1/tan(18°) ≈ 3.08 ≈ 77:25 (aka very close to the FAR 3:1 angle of 75:25, but sprinkle in precisely two of the 4:1 segments every 25 tiles moved in the other direction to bring the ratio up to 77:25. Though in most cases it doesn't have to be that perfect, especially if kept within city boundaries) For example, to create Captain Middle America’s shield as shown in the previous entry, Starting from the middleNote1 of a "flat" edge of the circle, this will be the "top" of the star shape, in the conventional orientation as seen in the above pic. From that point, dezone a series of 3x1 tiles going in either direction Then when those lines touch the edge of the circle it becomes an alternating series of 1x1 and 2x1 tiles to make the slope 2:3Note2 When those lines touch the edge of the circle, connect them with a straight line, aka a road or street since this will be the only road connection to the central pentagon. Optionally, start a volcano disaster in the central pentagon to complete the vibe and to eliminate the need for a road/street running through the inside of the circle Unpause to let the farms pop up, then use mayor mode trees or god mode trees (ctrl+alt+terraform in mayor mode) to fill in the dezoned tiles - might have to zoom in real close and/or hold ctrl while planting to be precise so the trees don’t leak onto the farm plots Note1: The exact number of tiles can be counted by dragging $10/tile roads, noting the total cost, then dividing that by 10 i.e. dropping the rightmost digit. The measurement is more accurate if you pre-build the roads before measuring, because building new roads on bare terrain has an add-on cost depending on the ruggedness of the path Note2: I actually made a mistake here, step #3 should have had twice the count of 1x1, to make the slope 3:4. I compensated for it in step #3a by nudging the straight line in #4 slightly higher -
Non-grid Farms
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
Non-grid farms using the dezone sculpting method described in the previous entry takes up significantly more time than the conventional grid farms, but in my opinion, it makes the satellite view look so pleasing and much more “organic” & realistic and well worth the extra effort. As you can see, I had way too much fun with the unconventional farm layouts that it eventually circled back (pun intended) from looking realistic to looking unrealistic and downright impractical. In my regional headcanon, the unhinged farm designs are an unofficial/informal competition between towns, to honor the Royal SimFamily’s farming heritage: Queen Historia I, the forerunner of the current Reiss dynasty, was raised in a farm and was known affectionately as the “Cattle Farming Goddess” early in her reign. Captain Middle America: The Winter Wheat Seller Wood Man Brown Widow Harvesters: Infinity Farm Cider Man: Far From Hoe Guardians of the Granary Again, I sincerely apologize for the inverted star pattern as well as the unintentional naughty symbol formed by the trees in the middle of the Celtic knot - at first it wasn’t apparent but looking at it now when zoomed out I can’t unsee it (>~<) For the circles in #1 through #4, I used the following: Build a school/police/fire station with the circular coverage, then turn on the education/police/fire/coverage overlay. Hospitals/clinics don't work because the health overlay only shows residential areas Adjust the funding to tweak the radius of the circle Zone agricultural areas to cover the circle, then dezone the parts inside/outside the circle For the DNA farms in #5 I used the above together with diagonal roads tangent to the circles For the spirals in #6, using trigonometry and MS Excel (or any other tool with scripting) it gets reduced to a pixel art kind of deal. This also works for making larger circles and other shapes beyond a civic building's coverage, even spanning across several city tiles – we’ll come back to it later in another entry. One final note about irregularly shaped farms: often the farm tiles along the edges/far ends will display a "no connection" zot. This can be remedied by placing small bits of streets right beside them on the dezoned tiles, unpausing the game, then demolishing the temporary streets. The zots may or may not reappear when reloading the city; in that case either permanently dezone those tiles, or maybe calm down on the designs a bit This was particularly a problem with the spiral farm, the first time I unpaused the game, my beefy gaming laptop froze up for several seconds, then showed no connection zots for virtually every single tile in the spiral. I had to painstakingly place then demolish temp streets to remove them just so I could take the screencap. D'oh! 😵💫 -
Regional Transport
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
I crammed lots of easter eggs on the map, but they are more apparent on the transportation view: both AoT and non-AoT easter eggs, some are pretty obvious, and a few that are not as obvious. Among the most notable, starting from north to south: “Hexagonopolis” inspired by the article Hexagonal Planning in Theory and Practice, which is a fun longread btw – there’s also this video by City Beautiful on YouTube dissecting the linked article. The elevated highway snaking through the adjacent hexagonal neighborhoods on the satellite view resembles the hallucigenia “source of all living matter”. Nearby we have the sinusoidal waveform, Celtic knot, universal ‘S’, feng shui bagua inside the massive crop circle, hypercube/tesseract, DNA double-helix, and spiral farms. That northern grid city where the highways intersect is one of my more ambitious attempts to shepherd the dumbo vanilla commuters – we’ll go into it in more detail in a later entry with better zoomed-in screencaps. For the inverted 5-pointed star, I would like to pre-emptively apologize for any unintended unfortunate meaning. I had originally wanted it to resemble Captain America’s shield and put it that way just so it would look better on the isometric regional view, not for summoning lemons or anything like that. Moving on with the rest of the northern landmarks, there is a 3x3 Rubik’s cube and a smaller version of Hexagonopolis with diagonal neighborhoods on its outskirts. One of the most striking landmarks is the huge circle inspired by the concentric zone model of city planning as well as of course the three walls of Maria, Rose, and Sina from the series. I was planning to develop it more to build a cluster of skyscrapers in the innermost circle around the John Hancock Center, but never got around to doing it so it ended up looking like Isengard and Orthanc from Lord of the Rings. Lastly, we have the giant Star of Eldia composed of farm lots subdivided by streets, and an industrial area that resembles the wings of freedom (or Eren’s founding titan) along the east bank of the southern river as it flows south through Shiganshina. Which is quite fitting now that I think about it, I had the most freedom with laying out industrial zones, since the individual lots within the zones don’t require direct road access and only care about distance from the nearest road. I could just construct diagonal road grids then do the click-and-hold zoning shortcut to fill in the diagonal blocks, while also holding the shift key to suppress street creation within the block. Likewise with farm lots, which can be sculpted into any shape as long as they have at least one tile touching the street. By “sculpting”, I mean laying out a huge rectangular farm lot all at once while again holding the shift key to remove streets, then using the dezone tool to remove 1-tile wide segments of agriculutral zones, and the click-and-hold dezone trick to remove large non-rectangular areas after sculpting, to whittle down the edges and to carve the partitions between farm lots, then optionally filling in the dezoned tiles with mayor mode and/or god mode trees to conceal the janky corner tiles. That is also how I got the “center-pivot irrigation” circle farms: zone a large area, place any building with a radius, adjust the funding to the desired size, then toggle on the radius while de-zoning tiles along the circumference. That trick works for small-medium sized circles, but for large circles of arbitrary size - as in extending across multiple city tiles like Isengard described above - we’ll go back to it later. If dezoning agricultural zones is not your thing, I believe there is a mod that removes the minimum size of agricultural zones enabling you to zone farms as small as one tile for this same purpose, but they still won’t develop until they reach the minimum size of at least 4x6 I think. Similarly, there is a “Pedriana killer” mod that prevents the ugly-looking Pedriana’s Plants building from appearing, but this can be worked around without the mod by strategically de-zoning every fourth 1x1 tile along the side of the agricultural zone where it touches the road, such that there is no 4x4 area for the building to spawn since all farm buildings require a road connection, but this also blocks the larger farm buildings from appearing. -
Regional Overview
SimNationalist posted a City Journal entry in Paradis Island from Attack on Titan [WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS]
Introduction Originally it was intended to be a free region where I can experiment with layouts whichever way I liked, and to help me relax before sleeping. As I was building it up over several months, it slowly got wrapped up in my modern alternate-universe headcanon/fanfiction. To that end, this city journal will serve a dual purpose: to showcase the wacky unconventional layouts, and for me to geek out about AoT so I can finally move on I’ve posted the map files for rendering the bare map previously, as well as the pre-built region which like I said was done in pure vanilla - I invite you to download and have a look, though you might need the 4GB patch to load it since it is a large-ish map (12x7 large city tiles). To recap, I took someone else’s Madagascar map, flipped it vertically, flattened the southern half, then added navigable rivers for ferries. For most of the southern half I tried going for that “organic” look inspired by an often-reused aerial shot of the walls as seen in the city journal description and banner image; I like to imagine the southern half was the historic heartland that grew organically over the centuries, while the northern half was haphazardly developed within a few decades on a wave of rationalist progress. Regional Lore and Backstory (skip this part if you want to avoid spoilers, or simply don't care and are just interested the gameplay bits) Referring to the country info sidebar - which I edited from the Wikipedia entry for Madagascar - the story takes place in the Year 1000, about 150 years after the canon events of the series, which occurred around the Year 850. It’s not really explained in-universe what exactly happened in the Year 0, but I digress. Continuing from the events leading up to the ending, the rumbling was 80% completed and the Yeagerist faction dominated the island, adopting the Scout Regiment’s wings of freedom and the Star of Eldia on the national flag and seal respectively, along with “Dedicate your hearts!” as the motto, quoted from Commander Erwin Smith whom the Yeagerists revered. Personally, I think the main theme of Vogel im Kafig could work so well as the Eldian national anthem, if going off of the translated lyrics. Perhaps they could have used a shorter abridged version though instead of the full six-minute track. Just like the regional map, the globe map is flipped upside down, while the borders of the outside world have been erased – the rumbling was so destructive that even now 150 years later, the former nations have struggled to recover. The central district Mitras retained its governmental and royal functions and served as the capital for the new nation. However, in the decades of rapid growth that followed, the historic southern district of Shiganshina closest to the ports eclipsed it in both size and population to become the nucleus of the country’s largest metropolitan area. The primary ethnic group still consists of the native Eldians who were born and raised on the island. The largest minority are the descendants of Marleyan volunteers, captives, and refugees. The remainder consists of other ethnicities along with some Eldians born in the former internment zones on the mainland, as well as people of mixed Marleyan-Eldian descent who refuse to identify as either. To establish firm political control over the island, the Yeagerist faction founded a new religion called Yeagerism, praising Eren as the savior of Eldia, though in more recent times religious practices became less relevant in daily life and the number of its adherents have steadily decreased. Among the minority religions, the wall worship cult has all but disappeared along with the walls themselves, meanwhile intelligence services are monitoring the activities of so-called “Marleyan Restorationists” in the underground. The population figure of over 4 million is lifted straight from the in-game regional population. Considering it was at 1 million 150 years before, a four-fold growth is quite realistic compared to our real-world global population quintupling over the same length of time: from ~1.2 billion in 1850 to ~6 billion in 2000 The GDP figure of 139.5 billion Eldian Marks is a reference to the 139.5 chapters, while the HDI figure of 0.845 is a caiiback to the in-universe year when the main story started. The GINI coefficient of 34.5 is from the 34 volumes, though I forgot why I added 0.5 there. Taken together, these economic statistics put our modern Eldia in the same league as many of the post-Soviet Eastern European countries like Poland or Czechia. -
Version 1.0.0
343 Downloads
Since this is a large region, the total size of the zip file was 240MB, so I had to split it up into 3 zip files. Download all of them then extract all into the same folder inside your Regions folder. This was all done in pure vanilla without any custom buildings nor mods (not even NAM Lite, though the 4GB patch might be needed), so it should work right out of the box. Disclaimer: it's not that I dislike mods; I was just too lazy to setup my plugins folder at first XD. This is more of an experimental "sandbox" region where I played around with the layouts - as far as vanilla would allow me anyway - rather than optimizing traffic or maximizing population or anything like that. I'm thinking about posting screencaps and my rationale for the layouts along with my regional headcanon "lore" in a city journal at some later point. (PS I crammed tons of both AoT and non-AoT easter eggs on the transportation view See if you can spot them all hehe). I noticed way too late that the region folder I had saved after replacing my laptop was not the 100% completed save from which I had taken the regional screencaps. Though it is still close enough, I would say this was at 95% completion. Of course, I'm using "completed" here in a subjective sense - there's still lots of underdeveloped & unbuilt areas that can be used. Note (2026-05-28): original files were wiped and the file upload function is still wonky after the Simtropolis unintentional shutdown, just send me a personal message if ever. -
Version 1.0.0
112 Downloads
Created this back in mid-2021 when I felt compelled to skip ahead to the manga ending after the anime tricked me as it did many others that it was supposedly completed because it already had "The Final Season" (only Part 1 as it turned out, Parts 2 & 3 would come out in the years following. Talk about crappy planning haha) I modified someone else's Madagascar map, flipped it upside down, flattened half for more buildable areas and added navigable rivers. I like to include at least one relatively flat large city tile in my new regions so I can lazily start with a dumb grid to overcome procrastination and analysis paralysis, while at the same time giving the regional demand a quick initial boost. Note (2026-05-28): the region can still be rendered using the in-game CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+R hotkey: In the game's Regions folder, create a new folder then copy config.bmp into it. Download the grayscale topographic image shown below - this can be placed wherever, but for convenience it can be placed in the same new folder. Load the new region named after that folder in the game: it should show as a blank flat region with city boundaries defined by the config.bmp Press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+R, then select the grayscale image downloaded along with the config.bmp earlier. Note that it has to be converted specifically to a black-and-white grayscale image if it hasn't been already. The terrain rendering will take several minutes especially for larger maps. -
Version 1.0.0
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Added rivers, modified config.bmp to better reflect the location of real-world cities on the island, and finally, correcting the title of the original upload which has been nagging me for 20+ years now: it's part of the Philippines, not Indonesia, although the two are pretty close geographically and culturally so I understand the confusion. Note (2026-05-28): the region can still be rendered using the in-game CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+R hotkey: In the game's Regions folder, create a new folder then copy config.bmp into it. Download the grayscale topographic image shown below - this can be placed wherever, but for convenience it can be placed in the same new folder. Load the new region named after that folder in the game: it should show as a blank flat region with city boundaries defined by the config.bmp Press CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+R, then select the grayscale image downloaded along with the config.bmp earlier. Note that it has to be converted specifically to a black-and-white grayscale image if it hasn't been already. The terrain rendering will take several minutes especially for larger maps.-
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Porphyri islet is a mini project that makes our area to get that med vibe. The how to build tutorial is available on youtube and you are more than welcome to have a look of the process: A slender strip of land separates Argento village from Porphyri Island. 1. 2. 3. Porphyri, considered one of the most beautiful islets in the region, is home to the ancient Temple of Neptune and lush orchards. Just a short walk from Argento’s cafés lies a stunning pebble beach with crystal-clear waters. 4. 5.6. Nearby, the old fishing harbor now stands abandoned, adding a touch of history to the landscape. The breathtaking views make the journey truly rewarding for visitors. 7. 8.9.10.11.12.13.14. I hope you enjoyed another Agrophilia V2.0 entry !
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Specs: - 6x7 lot (It can be placed in water or on land) Ubication: Water transportation Icon: You can find them in the props section as: AGC_Buildings_Army_GM_Flakturm_ Scale of the models: 133% (Z Axis) Dependencies: - Darknite Only. 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). If you like my work, you can make a donation to fund my other projects! https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=WF9FDNHXCHDVU Thanks to the few people who have donated to me. -
Chapter 50: The Photo Tour 06
Dreadnought posted a City Journal entry in IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN
IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN By: Dreadnought & AP Chapter 50: THE PHOTO TOUR 06 THE WEST LOCH – Part 06 This chapter will wrap-up our tour of the West Loch – with a look at the permanent berths along the breakwater. There are, basically, two types of harbors in the world – “natural” and “man-made”. The natural harbor is just that – a terrain feature created by nature that is large enough and deep enough to accommodate large ships, while sheltering them from the ill-effects of stormy seas. Examples of a natural harbor might be Oslo, Norway, the Thames Estuary, or New York. A man-made harbor is usually found on an open, exposed stretch of shoreline with no surrounding land features to block the wave action caused by heavy seas. An offshore breakwater has to be constructed to provide an area of calm water behind it. That is exactly what was done in the West Loch. The original shallow bay was too small to accommodate numbers of large ships, so the breakwater was constructed offshore to create a sufficiently large safe anchorage. This is a clear view of the breakwater constructed to form the renovated West Loch anchorage. The engineers saved a few Marks by using the only natural island as part of the breakwater. It was later decided to add permanent mooring points along the breakwater to accommodate the growing numbers of armored cruisers. The Kaiserliche Marine traditionally favored permanent mooring arrangements, usually at quays and docks, but could not afford the expense of building numerous new docks – so “mooring points” became the alternative. (By contrast, the Royal Navy, long before Nelson’s day, chose to anchor far offshore -- in the Solent and the Thames Estuary. Unbelievably large numbers of British tars could not swim, so it was a simple means of preventing sailors from “jumping ship”.) Here is a closer look at the join between the breakwater and the island. As already mentioned, these breakwaters are by “Uki”. It is a Japanese website, but the lots are in common usage in SC4 and should be readily obtainable. I tested every available breakwater set and settled on these because they were (for the most part) easy to work with and are certainly the most realistic available. You will notice two light cruisers have been moored at a temporary buoy just off the island. Moored at the buoy offshore of the island are the light cruisers SMS Karlsruhe and her sister ship Konigsburg. They were commissioned in 1915 and were among the most modern in the Hochseeflotte. German light cruisers were widely known to be handled aggressively, and at 27.5 knots and packing eight 5.9-inch guns – they were fast with a formidable “bite”. The cruiser models were generously provided by @Barroco Hispano. This is the same scene from a different angle. This gives you a close-up detail shot of how the island has been put together. The basic land mass was created by raising the land level some 15 meters above sea level (about 45 meters above the seabed). I gave the island an irregular shape to make it more “natural”, then used the “God Mode” tools to lower some of it below sea level. Once the rough shape was achieved, I used the “softening tool” to give it a smooth, rounded look with gently sloping sides that ease down into the water. I then applied a scattering of various bushes and ground cover. This was followed by MMP trees by @Girafe. The “earthen” areas were painted with “Heblem” brown sand, and the light gray sand – which actually looks more like loose gravel. Finally, I dotted the underwater areas with “Girafe” cattails and feather grass. It took the best part of an afternoon and evening to finish the island – very tedious and a lot of “trial and error” – but I think it was worth it. The most difficult part of building the island and the breakwater was finding a way to bring the breakwater ashore. The “Uki” set does not include a specialized piece that merges the breakwater with the shore line. Apparently he thought offshore breakwaters were sufficient and there was no need to attach them to land. The “Uki” pieces are placed at sea level – no higher, and no lower. If you try to bring it ashore on a raised land area – it jumps up and towers over the other breakwater pieces out in the ocean. So the secret is to lower the land below sea level (like digging a small trench) where it comes ashore – while matching the height of the offshore breakwater pieces. Then you can cover the “watery ditch” with large rocks, small stones, and overhanging trees that will cover up the “join area”. It’s not a perfect solution to the visual problem – things always look different when you change camera angles – but it was the best I could do. The rocks and stones are by either “PEG” or “NBVC” – I think – I could be wrong about that. One last view of the island. This is the armored cruiser SMS Yorck (not to be confused with the later battlecruiser class). You will notice there is a “change-of-command” ceremony in progress on the forecastle deck. You will also notice the boat boom and small boats deployed on the port quarter. The boom and boats were lotted as a stand-alone lot designed to be plopped alongside any warship you like. Model by AP. (Complete details on the armored cruiser can be found in Chapter 06.) The armored cruisers SMS Prinz Adalbert and Friedrich Carl. (For full details on the armored cruisers – see Chapter 05.) This beautifully rendered model of SMS Furst Bismarck is being nudged into the berth by two tugs – Nordwind on the left – and the more modern Passat on the right. All three are the meticulous work of @AP. (Details on Furst Bismarck are in Chapter 03.) SMS Hertha and Hansa, both painted in “foreign station” livery. The two protected cruisers spent most of their service life on the China Station. You will note Hansa is lowering a manned cutter over the side, while a small dinghy is unloading boxes of supplies up forward. Cruisers by “AP”. (Details can be found in Chapter 02.) Another view of the protected cruisers. NEXT TIME…… CUXHAVEN: THE PHOTO TOUR 07 MANY THANKS to @Barroco Hispano for his beautiful warship models. SPECIAL THANKS to my friend and partner, @AP, for his talents, meticulous models, colorful imagination, and extreme dedication. If you enjoyed anything – please punch the “like” button so WE will know. A comment would be even more informative. Comments and critiques requested and gratefully accepted. All questions answered promptly to the best of our ability. THANK YOU for your visit! You may wish to visit these CJ’s as well…… SERIES I: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: WILHELMSHAVEN SERIES II: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: CUXHAVEN Appearing – Work In Publication SERIES III: IMPERIAL DOCKYARDS: BREMERHAVEN Appearing -- ??? And please feel free to drop in at… THE SIMTROPOLIS SHIPYARD https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/761469-simtropolis-shipyard/?tab=comments#comment-1766496-
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From the album Beaver Island
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An Island archipelago in Lake Michigan. start SimCity 4 create [New Region] exit SimCity 4 navigate ~/Documents/SimCity 4/Regions/[New Region], replace config.bmp start SimCity 4 load [New Region] press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R, open beaver.bmp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Island_(Lake_Michigan) -
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Back again with another map, this time it's Villingili (in Huvadhoo), Maldives (for SimCity 4). Situated in the Indian Ocean and part of the Gaafu Alif Atoll and located approximately 235 miles from the capital city of Male, it is home to less than 3,000 people. It is known locally for its small fishing industry and its tourism industry, specifically, some of the world's most exclusive and exquisite tropical resorts, almost all of which feature "over water" villas and many occupying the entirety of their own islands. The map is 20 x 20 large city tiles and is accurately scaled based on DEM data. In order to install the map you will need wouanagaine's mapper or terraformer as the file is in SC4M format. I hope you can put this map to good use, enjoy! -TCC View My Full Map Catalogue Here:-
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Party like there's no tomorrow!
TheMurderousCricket posted a City Journal entry in SimCity: Tribalism
Now that exploding fireworks went silent, the New Year's Eve seems like a distant memory. However, the Slackers and their Gridlayer friends have found a way to keep their people and foreign visitors entertained throughout the rest of the year... and probably many more years to come. A new town has been established on Eylaquin Archipelago in Y.O.U.S 37. Passenger boats and yachts are currently the only means of transport available to reach these islands but it is well worth it. The city that was built there is a very special place if excitement is what you want... This unassuming speck on the map of New Udanani is the Mecca to any tourists which crave for wild, spicy and carefree entertainment far from the bounds of their everyday lives. The city of Hedonist Cove located on the archipelago is a place dedicated to those who can't live their lives too fully... First arrivals to Eylaquin Archipelago are always organized and follow a strictly designed travel route. All first-timers are delivered to a small, quiet marina at the Southwestern tip of Greater Eylaquin island. This way, newcomers to the island don't see any landmarks too soon and their anticipation is maintained... The only significant standouts that the guests can see from this side of the island are Xinuma Peak and Sunray Waterfall which flows out of its rocky bowels. After disembarking, the tourists are packed onto shuttles which take them to the city center through a dark, 3 kilometer long tunnel. As shuttles approach their destination, the tourists are greeted by a colorful light display installed over the final parts of this underground road. As the vehicles reemerge to the surface, the visitors are swept off their feet by the lively, untamed entertainment district which pulsates with life and noise... Here, one can find some of the most popular entertainment venues in Hedonist Cove. A local chapter of Hard Rock Cafe, the Atom Danceclub, (the architecture of which clearly indicates a Gridlayer hand) numerous pubs, eateries, gaming halls, cheap lodging options and plazas where random people meet to drink, laugh or play silly party games. Within downtown, one can also find a classy 4-star Arabica Hotel with adjacent Tunis Game Hall which has a selection of simple gambling games. A local, fashionable drink bar named"Lucky's Hang Ten can also be found close by. West of Arabica, there are various shops and rentals stocked with sporting goods - anything from beach volleyballs to jetskis and climbing equipment. There is even a motocross rental point with a cross-country track. New tourists usually stay in the rented rooms and apartments which are located in the Eastern part of Greater Eylaquin and close to the entertainment district. This area is also close to the bright and balmy Kalamris Beach. But all of the visitors, regardless from where they came, are always, invariably hypnotized by the sight of the largest night club the Island (and probably entire New Udanani) has to offer and which is built on the slope of Xinuma Peak... Every night, the Volcanic Club resonates with the sounds of wild music and the primal heat of the bodies hustling through it. Nights inside are long and hot. If three dance floors above and five below the ground does not satisfy your party apetite, then I don't know what will... Those who wish to cool down after the night's events (or those who want to actually warm up before the next evening) can do so in the thermal baths which are located right next to Volcanic Club... The venue is popular among all types of tourists due to its soothing waters and fantastic views of the Greater and Smaller Eylaquin islands. Before we move on, just one piece of useful advice - if you have already been to Hedonist Cove before, you are no longer required to participate in the "ceremonial arrival" described above. On your next visit, you can choose to disembark directly at the so-called "VIP Marina", which is located just steps away from the downtown. Those who'd like to experience the wonders of Hedonist Cove but, at the same time, are not into barely controllable parties, can book their rooms on Smaller Eylaquin. This island is more orderly and quiet but still quite exciting due to numerous pubs and small entertainment businesses all over. Smaller Eylaquin has several good lodging options which are close to beautiful beaches and hidden away from the chaos of the main island. If you are rolling in dough, you can book rooms at Champion's Victory Palace - the 5-star hotel and luxury casino. If your funds are limited, pick one of the guesthouses or comfy 3-star hotels. Of course, Smaller Eylaquin is also home to some permanent citizenry who decided to live in Hedonist Cove. If you fancy some statistics, there are 7338 residents living in the city. In order to provide these people with employment opportunities, an industrial zone has been built on Southern Eylaquin - the last island in the archipelago. There is really nothing interesting out there unless you like soot and steelworks. It is also perfectly understandable that some people simply do not wish to work near or with rowdy tourists... Hedonist Cove is a crazy but equally tempting place to visit. With Udananians and internationals swarming into the city, one should keep in mind that tickets to visit should be booked at least eight months prior to the planned arrival! All lodging options support approximately 6500 tourists at any given time so it is important to plan one's stay in advance. To conclude today's episode, have some more images and impressions of the unusual Slacker-Gridlayer island city. Comment replies: @JulioC - Thank you for nice words. I'm happy you like my "gardening"! @Honolulu - I'm really flattered and glad you liked the cities presented in the previous episode. Thanks! @Tarkus - Thank you @Tarkus! I have to say GLR is my favorite type of transport. It seems it is also very popular among commuters. @TogaMasterJohn - Now that I'm on sick leave I have too much time on my hands and this is why the episodes appear so quickly. I would like to be busier, trust me... It's great that you enjoyed both the Coastline Summit and the new Businesspeople cities! Dollar Grove indeed feels like walking the line...- 3 Comments
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Simple Jack's Maps from Scratch- Lisca Nera 4 Medium Tiles A small island some might like to play on! Ready to go, port-friendly, bridge and tunnel capable city or region maps. No extra terrain-ing required, unless you want it. Use any non-elevation altering terrain texture or water mod. Preview Pic Texture: CPT_TerrainMod_MissouriBreaks Barbados Water Pack - barbados03 - Side Water v2.0 by Cori DarkBlueishGreenish Monkeywater Tree Controller Stand alone or incorporate into larger regions. To Use: Unpack, re-name enclosed folder, place in Regions folder, play.- 1 Review
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Chapter Two: Harboring Change Spring, 1872 Port Washington, with the Naval Hospital (left) and Hotel Dubuque (right). Sunlight filtered into the dining hall of the Hotel Dubuque. Seated around a large table were a cadre of businessmen and important island officials, eating breakfast as they overlooked Port Washington. Leading the conversation was the former daimyo, Hosokawa Moritomo. The past two decades had not been kind to him. With the sudden death of his father in 1850, he had inherited a holding and given precious little time to enjoy it. With the shogunate handing away Kurofune in 1854, and the rest of his realm being stripped away during the Meiji Restoration of 1868, he was desperate to turn his fortunes around. At his lowest, he controlled only his old winter castle above Ishimura and a small sum of wealth pulled from the mainland, which he immediately deposited into a controlling interest in the Kurofune Quarry. Under his stewardship, he greatly expanded the quarry’s operations. By 1872, he had a respectable number of staff and a large stone masonry workshop on Ishimura’s waterfront. Kurofune’s black stone is a very heavy commodity, and transporting it from the edge of Ishimura to the deepwater Port Washington for international export proved to be time-consuming, challenging, and dangerous. Hence why he had called a meeting with the island’s appointed governor and a few business owners and landholders on a warm Spring day in 1872. He stood at the head of the table, speaking loudly enough to pull attention toward him, “Gentlemen, the island of Kurofune has grown greatly under American control. But there is a terrible...” he paused for a moment, looking for the word, “...bottleneck! Keeping us from expanding our industrial ventures. Who here knows what it is?” The owners of the disparate island industries, mostly small workshops and mills on the waterfront, mulled over the question, before Moritomo spoke back up, “It is too hard to move our goods between Ishimura and Port Washington!” He said, gesturing out the window. They watched as a large steamship was being pulled in, with a flurry of dockworkers assembling to unload the day’s cargo, and load up goods for export. The textile mill owner, a heavyset American with a large gray mustache, spoke up, “So what do you suggest, paving the road?” Kurofune’s famous black stone being transported to Port Washington for export. Moritomo’s mouth curled into a grin, “No, no... what I suggest is the construction of a railway, with a tunnel between Ishimura and Port Washington.” The businessmen conversed between each other, with the appointed governor interjecting, “This would be a big expense, I hope you’re not expecting the United States government to put out a bond issue just so your rocks can get shipped a few hours earlier. Besides, who’s going to oversee this project of yours? You don’t strike me as much of a railway tycoon.” Moritomo put his hands up in a display of acquiescence, “No, no, I expect this to be financed by our business community. This will be a profitable venture, after all. As for my chief engineer, I’ve recruited someone I’m sure you’re familiar with.” He said, gesturing to the other end of the table. Harold Miriam put a hand up, directing attention toward himself. Harold Miriam had been dismissed from the island governorship in 1862, as Port Washington’s construction was wrapping up, and the American Civil War was beginning. He had been recalled back to the United States to maintain railways for the Union Army. After the war, he retired from the service to come back to Kurofune, where he married and fathered a son. He spoke to the governor, “I wouldn’t call myself a railway tycoon either, but I know a thing or two about the process.” He said, eliciting a chuckle from much of the table. A few weeks later, Miriam was standing in Sakanaya with a small team of American engineers he had lured with the promise of decent wages and interesting work. The first step was to find the appropriate routing for the railway, taking into account terrain, placement of stations, and property to be purchased and built over. In the past twenty years, Sakanaya had stagnated, as nearly every new immigrant had moved into Ishimura or Port Washington. This was a relief to longtime residents, but it meant that there was plenty of space for the construction of a railway depot and terminus station. Sakanaya, looking south. The rest of the island had seen explosive growth. When he was governor, Miriam wanted to encourage the island’s self-sustainability, encouraging farmers from abroad to move and grow crops. By 1872, it was exporting a small surplus back to the mainland. With abundant food came low prices, encouraging American entrepreneurs to move in and construct factories. They had the ability to export into the Japanese market, without following foreign laws and paying favorable American taxes. This also encouraged Japanese citizens to immigrate to the island for work, creating a positive feedback loop. The farmers in the fertile plain between Ishimura and Sakanaya were encouraged to invest in the railway with the promise of a station dedicated to moving crops to port, meaning they could more easily and cheaply get their goods to the mainland. Farmsteads spread across Kurofune’s fertile plains. The largest population boom had been in Ishimura, as the price of large, new, Western-styled housing prevented Japanese immigrants from settling in the town of Port Washington. The population had increased approximately threefold, to around 1200-1500 residents. Ishimura had changed the most, and was nearly unrecognizable to longtime residents. It had established a small commercial corridor of Western-style buildings, capped off with a large government office for administration, mail, and policing. A Catholic church had also sprouted up, serving American immigrants and attempting to convert the local population. The urbanized area had expanded with the growth of the farming community, and construction of new homes was constant. The railway station was planned just north of the government quarter, allowing passengers to transit directly to Port Washington. This was a popular proposition, since Japanese immigrants could not afford housing close to the port, requiring a long walk to and from work each day. Ishimura’s government quarter and commercial corridor. The green 4 story building left of center serves as town hall. Church of St. Sebastian, Catholic, est. 1859. Along Ishimura’s waterfront, an industrial sector had rapidly grown, taking advantage of the local workforce and shipping finished goods over road or via barge to Port Washington for export. The barge shipping, however, was a point of constant contention. The narrow entrance to Kurofune Bay meant that large, ocean-going vessels were competing with barges for space. These local mills and manufacturers provided ample financial backing for the railway proposal. A spur line was planned to connect them, providing a more convenient and less expensive method of transportation. Factories, mills, warehouses. The Customs Office is on the right. Ishimura’s waterfront is too shallow for large ships. To the east, the quarry had expanded with an office and a workshop. It was going to share a spur with the new sawmill further up the road. The sawmill was established after the closure of the original woodcutting camp, as farmland stripped away their forest. American investors moved in to take their place, constructing a set of modern cutting and planing equipment. The expanded quarry operation. The new, modern sawmill. The railway would then curve around the mountain, before tunneling through a short pass between Ishimura and Port Washington. This would be the toughest part of the project, but would provide an ample boost to the island’s fledgling economy. The island’s government was also happy with the fact that it would connect Camp Presley O’Bannon, the military center on the island, with its biggest population center. Should trouble begin to brew, a regiment of Marines could be transported quickly to where they need to go. The railway would pass through a tunnel between Ishimura and Port Washington. Port Washington, which is the name of the port and the town surrounding it, had sprung up as the Civil War came to a close. It housed most of the island’s middle class, including soldiers and their families, managerial and technical staff in the islands’ industries, and some of the dockworkers and foreman. The population numbered approximately 500. It would also be provided a station, and a rail spur along the length of the port to allow for seamless transfer of cargo to ocean-going ships. A naval office and hospital had been erected, as well as the luxurious Hotel Dubuque, meant to house traveling dignitaries, officials, and foreign travelers eager to experience the natural beauty of the island. View of Port Washington. Close-in of Port Washington and Camp Presley O’Bannon. Church of the Resurrection, Protestant, est. 1864. After a few weeks of surveying, sketching, and planning, the routing was finalized. A few months later, the capital had been raised from eager investors, and the newly formed Kurofune Railway Corporation was cleared to start work. In what seemed like no time at all, a railway front office and signage had been erected. Property negotiations followed. Most landowners had only settled in the last few years, which meant that they were happy to sell off a bit of acreage for a tidy profit. The rails, tools, and blasting equipment were placed on order and shipped from abroad, and work was set to begin... Kurofune Island Railway sign outside Sakanaya. The extent of development in 1872. Thus ends another chapter of Kurofune's story. Please feel free to leave any suggestions or things you'd like to see in future installments in the comment thread. Thank you for reading!
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Chapter One: Hail, Kurofune! Summer, 1854 The USS Canarsie approaches Kurofune at daybreak. The sun began to crest the horizon, and the sky burned from a deep twilight purple into orange. It gave Captain Harold Miriam his first view of Kurofune Island. Peaks and valleys were illuminated, turning a verdant green as sunlight spilled across them. He leaned against the railing and reflected atop the deck of the USS Canarsie, a large steam-powered frigate that served as the expedition’s flagship. It was nearly a year ago when Commodore Perry opened fire on the Japanese in Edo Bay when they refused to open up to American trade. After an engagement which lasted for nearly four hours, the white flag was raised from the smoldering ruins of a few seaside buildings. Negotiation quickly followed. The Kanagawa Treaty was signed and ratified. This allowed the United States trading access through Shimoda, and the nearby island of Kurofune was given for use as an American trading port and naval station. The village of Ishimura. The usually sleepy wooden dock at Ishimura sprung to life as the expedition unloaded supplies and equipment, crowded by locals watching the proceedings. The detachment of Marines assembled into neat lines, their band preparing instruments. An entourage of Shogunate officials prepared as well. Within two hours of landing, a column of soldiers marched up and down the central street playing a lively rendition of "Hail, Columbia." A young sergeant proclaimed in his booming voice that this territory was now the sovereign soil of the United States of America... to little fanfare from the Japanese-speaking populace. A moment later, the proclamation was repeated by a Japanese translator, to which the crowd replied with little more than murmurs and discussions amongst themselves. United States Marines assemble to raise the flag over Kurofune Island. Overlooking the settlement was Ishimura Castle, which seemed to brood in the background as the Americans assessed their new holding. It served as the winter home of Hosokawa Moritomo , daimyo of lands near Shimoda. He was away on the mainland administering his realm, but sent a short letter of congratulations to Captain Miriam. Despite the loss of political authority, the daimyo was able to retain ownership of the castle and the grounds. They would make for a powerful ally, or enemy, should they ever intend to influence the politics of the island. Ishimura Castle, overlooking the town. After a day of ceremony, the long work of making the island into American territory began. A detachment of bureaucrats walked the settlements with their translators, while a team of naturalists and cartographers explored the uninhabited forests and mountains of the island. The Captain considered it essential to have a full view of the island’s information. Within a few days, a report was filed at the temporary office aboard the USS Canarsie. The island was inhabited by approximately 300 residents in Ishimura, and fewer than 100 in Sakanaya. A further picture of the economy followed. Ishimura (left) and Sakanaya (right). The majority of households were employed in subsistence agriculture and fishing. There were a few stores in each town, providing a small bit of commercial activity. A small logging camp at the northern edge of Ishimura produced construction timber and firewood for the families of the island. The most prominent industrial venture was a small quarry on the northern edge of Ishimura. They harvested a beautiful black stone used by artisans to make statues, trinkets, and other types of masonry. This quarry had an outsized cultural influence, as it was the sole export of interest back to mainland Japan. In fact, this is how the town of Ishimura gained its name, with ishi- translating to stone, and -mura to village. If any mainlander knew of Kurofune, it was likely for their quarry and artisans. Quarry and artisan workshop. Logging camp, surrounded by freshly planted saplings. Kurofune's fishing fleet. Sakanaya was a small satellite village which grew to take advantage of a particularly good fishing bay to the east. It did not have any industrial development, but due to the proximity to Ishimura, some residents walked the short commute to the logging camp or even further to the quarry. The satellite village of Sakanaya. With this report in hand, Captain Miriam sat back in his chair. On the desk sat orders from the Secretary of the Navy. Included were detailed plans and requirements for the establishment of a naval base on the island. Fortunately, the Captain’s surveyors had located the ideal place. To the south of Ishimura lay a large, deep bay. The interior, while somewhat narrow, did provide for a parallel flow of water from the ocean, which would protect ships from choppy waves and bad weather. A small patch of flat land would provide sufficient room for warehouses, coal depots, and space for the settlement of maritime workers. Captain Miriam took a long draw from his pipe, and made a proclamation to himself. Under his watch, the island would flourish. Kurofune Bay (left) is the perfect site for a naval base and trading port. This concludes the opening to my first city journal. Any constructive criticism is more than welcome, especially in regards to formatting future posts. Thank you for reading, and I hope to have a new chapter out soon!
