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Simtropolis Returns! 05/26/2026
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Showing results for tags 'metro area'.
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Hello, I've been playing SimCity games on and off for years—going all the way back to SimCity 1 and 2. Yep, I'm one of the old-timers. While Simtropolis was down, I downloaded SimCity 4 and managed to find a few of the tools that this fantastic site has provided. I’ve spent some time tinkering with them, building little cities that—if I’m honest—are kind of disasters. Lots of pollution, some crime, and a handful of cool buildings thanks to your resources. But the truth is, I have no real idea what I’m doing, and my experiments have resulted in a lot more misses than hits. Now that the site is back up, I’m hoping I can wipe the slate clean, clear out all the junk, and finally build a city I can be proud of—something more cohesive than the six neighboring cities I currently have, none of which really interact and together only total about 130,000 people. What I really want is to create a true metro area, complete with industrial, commercial, residential, airport, tourist, and seaport districts. (You might have guessed—I used to work in city government, and I loved every minute of it.) If you’ll have me, I’d be grateful for guidance on how to get started with a fresh region, and how to use (or even find) the incredible tools this community offers. I noticed the donation disks when I logged in and I’m interested in contributing, too. Right now, though, I honestly have no idea what I’ve downloaded, how to run it, or what any of it really does. Thank you for any help you can offer. I’m eager to learn—I just need a little direction. Thanks again for considering my application. Rick
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Arcadia Metro II - Good Golly Suburbia
kingofsimcity posted a City Journal entry in Exploring Onyx-Avalon
Replies @Ln X: I really wish I didn't lose all of my really old screenshots of this region during its infancy in early 2011. Would've been great to see the transformation between then and now. Thanks! @kschmidt, @takemethere, @feyss, @raynev1: Thanks a lot for your comments! @nos.17: That feeling when only freight traffic uses your highways... traffic generations to the rescue ! Thanks! @Dreadnought: Much appreciated. Figured it would've been nice to have a more natural shoreline for the less urbanized areas. As an LA native I too love building sprawl but alas, skyscrapers have always been the "pinnacle" in terms of gameplay achievement for me, even if it throws aesthetics out the window (night shots notwithstanding). @fdjw88: Thank you! 200,000 people is no easy feat. Once you've gotten on board the custom content train you'll be building crazy stuff in no time! Cities of the Avalon Valley II: Attack of the Suburbs It's time to explore the second half of the Arcadia Metropolitan Area, namely the cities of Arcadia, Harmon Lake, Sundry City, and Lansing. For the area overview, please check out the first screenshot on the previous entry. We begin by viewing some of the less remarkable (and very incomplete) outlier cities: 1. This is Lansing. Population: 36,000 2. And this is Sundry City. Population: 64,000. Both are fairly unremarkable cities that serve as the surrounding communities for New Arcadia and Arcadia. 3. Harmon Lake is slightly more notable that the previous two by virtue of well... having a lake. Population: 46,500 4. You might find some middle class suburbs. 5. A LOT of middle class suburbs. 6. There's some occasional low wealth ones as well. 6. Harmon Lake is the other end of the spectrum. Very nice neighborhoods with marinas. 7. The other side of the lake is even better with small and large mansions alike. 8. Even the interchanges boast some considerable greenery, even if it's just wild grasses and flowers. 9. Main street through downtown Harmon Lake is a poplar tree lined feast. 10. On the opposite end, Sundry City's principal road runs parallel to an unsigned freeway. Along this corridor are fresh new office parks home to many different companies. 11. The MacroHard (R) Corporate campus was one of the first to be established alongside this corridor and dominates the block. Large gleaming midrises tower over acres of asphalt. 12. Now we finally enter (old) Arcadia. Population: 110,000 13. Arcadia is home to two major interchanges. This first windmill was one of the earliest constructed and crosses A-10 with Azura Loop 267. Safety was definitely considered when designing those level 2 flyovers (these are the old < NAM 32 depreceated flyovers). 14. This bridge crossing is part of the second major interchange that connects loop 267 and bypass A-310. 15. The Arcadia Exchange marks the boundaries between Lansing, Sundry City and Arcadia. 16. Arcadia Gas Power Generating Station provides a respectable amount of electricity for the city and surround communities. 17. Heavier industry also surrounds the plant. Future plans have been in motion to provide rail access for this area. 18. What is suburban life without wide avenues and some more office parks? 19. Arcadia Lake is a quiet little hillside lake that's popular with the local communities. 20. The largest K-12 school in the city services a majority of the area. 21. For those looking for higher education, the University of Avalon, Arcadia campus lies just a few blocks off loop 267. 22. Plenty of attractions exist closer to downtown, including a racetrack and a museum. 23. Arcadia's downtown core. 24. Of course, what would life in these cities be without more suburbs... 25. Endless suburbs! 26. Even gated communities get in the action. 27. Hopefully I haven't bored you all with these mind-numbing shots of endless suburbia. Here's one last overview for Arcadia at night. That concludes the Arcadia Metropolitan Area! Mosaics will return in due time. For Next Time Catch-up is almost over. We'll be exploring the cities of Herring Point and Jericho, two more recent cities (started July 2015).- 12 Comments
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Nyhaven and Kendall: One Metro Area
woodb3kmaster posted a City Journal entry in Nyhaven, Lower Columbia (AIN)
For those of you who weren't aware, Nyhaven and Kendall are part of the same metropolitan area. In fact, they're the two largest cities in the metro area. The following animation shows my progress in building and merging the two cities over time (up to about a week ago): I've done even more work on the metro area since the date of the last region view here, but Photoshop refuses to export an updated GIF (probably due to a memory shortage or summat). EDIT: After shrinking the image and reducing the animation length, Photoshop finally exported a new GIF. I've edited it into the space above. However, you can see some of my latest work in the Kendall thread. At this point, even the two subway systems have merged, creating a 20-line monster that's so big, it would be a nightmare to try to name each line the way I'd been naming them. Hence my decision to replace the names with letters and numbers, as the latest subway map shows: My latest work on Kendall was almost lost due to the city contracting prop pox. Thankfully, after doing a great deal of reading on prop pox's causes and preventive measures, I was able to continue from a recent, pox-free backup, and my preventive measures have kept the pox from reappearing. Here's some of that work, which includes my efforts to merge Kendall and Nyhaven into a single metro area. The Lords of Parliament, Lower Columbia's two heads of government, now have a residence and office that suits them. The leaders of Parliament's two chambers live and work in separate wings of Columbia House, shown here. This executive mansion is right across Upper Columbia Avenue from Parliament House itself. Based on earlier comments, I've worked on reducing building repetition around Federal Circle. I've also begun expanding the business district that surrounds the circle, so it hasn't completely filled in yet. I also acted on comments regarding the proximity of the seaport to central Kendall and completely rebuilt the area. Now, housing projects rise where cranes and stacks of containers once stood. I also rebuilt Edmonds Junction, the rail junction connecting Kendall's Library Terminal to the port and points beyond, to take advantage of the new FlexTrack features in NAM 34. The rebuilt Port Brunsmjöd now sits on its own island, with many more berths for ships and greatly improved rail and highway access. Pacifica State Highway 32 (visible in the top-right corner) runs through the port areas next to the port's rail line. PC-32 begins at this rebuilt interchange with the R-50, where the latter highway turns south into central Kendall. Due to this interchange's proximity to another one, the R-50 widens to 10 lanes here. That other interchange is where the R-250 ends. This freeway gives Kendall access to Nyhaven International Airport and runs through a number of new suburbs. The R-50, meanwhile, continues east into midtown Nyhaven. The largest of those new suburbs is Clifton Mesa, a massive planned community near the formerly-small village of Clifton. Huge earth-moving operations leveled the hills that once stood here to collect land reclamation material for Port Brunsmjöd in the 1960s, and city planners took the opportunity to build a suburb that would serve both Nyhaven and Kendall. Clifton Mesa is home to one of the metro area's largest shopping malls, and is where several subway lines from both cities intersect.- 15 Comments
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Hello! This is SounderBruce, the CJ'er formerly known as CG/ComputerGuy, and I've returned to the SimCity community for the fourth (or is it fifth?) time! I'm here with a new CJ that will have some ties to my Republic of Puget CJ, without affiliation with any unions or groups, centered on a megalopolis known as the Greater Whatcom Region. My goal for the Greater Whatcom Region, which will be centered around two urban centers surrounding a world-class city in a similar fashion to Seattle, will be to showcase what I've learned regarding city design over my last hiatus and to show that I am back, bigger and better than ever. The base map I will be using for the Whatcom region is a made by mpetryni and skippydam73 several years ago. Many of the names for nearby cities and natural features come from around Western Washington and southwestern British Columbia. Many of the names do not correspond with real-life features in order to not encourage prospective readers from thinking that this will be faithful re-creation of Bellingham. I repeat, this will not be a re-creation of Bellingham. Now, with the disclaimer out of the way, we can start looking into what I've started planning out for the series, beginning with the names of cities and major natural features. As you can see, most of the cities' names are borrowed from the names of other cities and areas around Western Washington as well as some generic names that make geographic sense. The principal cities of the Greater Whatcom Region are (in order of decreasing population and influence): Whatcom, Baker, and Tahoma, all of whom have distinct and separate metropolitan areas of their own that are linked by various forms of transportation. Whatcom will be the primary focus of the CJ once some outlying areas, mainly in the far-off Salish Sea and Baker Valley, are worked on. The city will be analogous to Seattle in many ways, but will have a single grid and better rapid transit (hint hint, Sound Transit). Baker is far away from the core of the region, so it grew fairly independent until the completion of railroads and high-capacity roads across the mountains. Tahoma will have only recently stepped out of Whatcom's shadow and growing its own dense urban core around an existing port and low-density homes. I hope everyone enjoys this city journal! Suggestions and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.
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Now let me introduce the regions former biggest city palmdale pop 950k. This is the citys financial district this section of the city is known for its horrible traffic compared to the rest of the hoplessly congested city.It houses multiple major corporate headquarters. this section of the city also houses port palmdale a large sea port located just west of the financial district. .Area history this area was once a heavy industrial zone spewing horrible toxens into the palmdale skys,skys now dominated by highrise office buildings. This is Palmdales midtown this area is filled with highrise residential housing,offices towers and is also home to a section of port palmdale.This area contains the first section of the palmdale bay freeway system .Area history this area was once the center of downtown until its twin citys huge office market threated to turn the city into a huge residental area for it. Downtown was once much smaller than it is now most of this area was industrial in nature. Palmdale may have escaped becoming a residental area for its twin city but still a large percentage of its population work in the twin city. This is uptown palmdale this area of the city contains palmdales main tourist areas other that it contains large amounts of residential living space. This area contains palmdales most wealthy residents. .Area history although the highrise landamarks were not around this area has always been residential to downtowns industrial areas. This section of the city contains mostly abandoned high wealth condos although jobs of another borrugh of the city make some residents cling to the edge of city limits. .Area history This area is was once a heavly populated residential for the city financial district but when palmdales twin city stole most of its commercial economy most residents left for the twin city. further back in this areas history the area once contain 200k industrial jobs becoming palmdales biggest industrial district This area was once a populated residential zone for downtown palmdale.The area is now abandoned and home to palmdales most crime filled areas due to the loss of commercial industry to it twin city .Area history this area was once a hybrid between a heavy industrial area and a suburban area This is the palmdale industrial park pop 295k well atleast it was until downtown palmdales coporate collaspe. Since then the area has found a small coporate base a has become palmdales second largest business district.The area still holds on to a bit of its heavy industrial past. .Area history This area was once a industrial lightly congested area but when coporate companys knocked on the industrial parks doorstep palmdale government quickly let them in. Most of the companys were fleeing downtown palmdales horrible traffic and to improve commute time. palmdale also saw this as a chance to regain some of its lost coporate might. Yet p This is how the industrial borough would have looked back when it still really a large industrial area. This is palmdale north industrial district .Area history this area has always been a mix of low wealth residential and heavy industrial buildings a to preserve the industrial parks history may stay that way. This is The west creek condo projects it is a high density area built to for the areas close location to the central business district. .Area history the area was mostly a industrial area with medium density housing mixed in. This the south land entertainment district. It houses a sports center malls and multiple theaters/shops .Area history This area was heavy industrial mixed with housing This is Palmdale crossing another borough of palmdale pop 115k. Palmdale crossing has a medium sized port and is known region wide as palmdales leisure district. However if you believe that the croosing is that quiet little suburban stretch of the city you are wrong. Although this area does have the lowest density of any palmdale borough it still houses palmdales third largest financial district the crossing financial district. .Area history when the towns of new port and burlington decide to become suburbs of palmdale they found themselfs in need of a way to get to the city. Palmdale owned two strips of land on both sides of the palmdale bay and decided to run its freeway system to that side of the bay. The area at that time was not developed at all but the bridge and the investers riding over it would soon change that. Some investers saw potential in land to be a suburban area for the city. And so they bought the area and and built housing on the bay shores. The port of palmdale also saw a chance to expand the port. So they bought some land and built new facilitys. Port workers naturally would want to live near jobs so high density buildings started to appear in the waterfront area. At that time palmdales twin citys economy was booming and looking like a more promising place to have a coporate headquarters. Not to mention downtown palmdales growing crime issue. while most of palmdale coporate base migrated to its twin city some coporate businesss left for other boroughs of the city. This is how the crossing financial district came about. Although the area was always the boroughs central district the area consisted of mainly shops and food stops.One after one highrises begain to pop up in the central district until its present day skyline. Most residents agree if it were not for the boroughs new found economy in the financial industry the area would have become a abandoned wastland because at that time the main focus of area was to be as suburban as possible for downtown palmdale This is the lion creek residential projects. It is the highest density living area in the city. .Area history This area consisted of low density housing until the crossing finacial district boomed. This is the crossing waterfront district this area contains a mix of upper middle and lower class condos and apartments. Most who live in this area work at the port but those who dont live here for the beaches the fine dinning and location to the airport Area history The area has always been a mix of low middle and high wealths condos This is the crossing financial district. This scenic and productive area is also palmdales biggest tourist attraction unlike most central district this area has no living space at all due to the need of office space and limited land .Area history Although the area has always been the boroughs central district it didnt have any highrise office building or any office buildings at all total city pop 1.600 million
