17 Regions of Wonder, Terror and Craziness

[emgmod]

It's possible to make the SPUI more compact by not making the slip lanes go diagonally from the highway. Also, we Americans get amazingly confused at roundabouts.

[smileymk]

Part 25 - Challenge Large 2

I do believe this is now a quarter-century of updates, and that we've grown a 4th page! Thanks for your continued support.

Replies

@ emgmod: I thought that after I made the SPUI it could be smaller... but it would still be bigger than the roundabout, and I still hate it! And as for roundabouts, well, it's time you Americans learnt how to use them. Maybe I should do a tutorial on how to drive round roundabouts...

(This is gonna become an "our road system's better than yours" thing, isn't it?)

Challenge Large 2 - Part 3

OK, let's focus now...
This time around we focus on the newest 2 cities to come into existence in this region - Liberty, a residential city, and Authority, a commercial city. The names do make sense - at home you have Liberty to do whatever you like, and at work Authority tells you what to do!
Let's see Liberty first, as that was first to be built. Here it is:




Yeah, I know, it's pretty boring - although not as bad as Life. You might have noticed that interchange in the centre however - let's take a look:


I think I'd call it a diagonal diamond - an interchange on a bend. As you can see from the picture, two diagonal overpasses provide a means to cross the motorway, and two bypass roads provide a method to avoid the junction, which make the interchange more functional.
But in truth, this whole tile was rushed to get Authority built to provide jobs for these workers, so let's check out Authority:




Whilst we're on the subject of interchanges, Authority connects to the motorway with a roundabout:


Note the roads on either side of the roundabout, which give access to 2 more roads whilst keeping the junction compact. Being a commercial city, it is important that transportation like this is provided.
That happens to give rise to a local commuter airport served both by road and an impressive station:


This happens a lot in real life, especially at the bigger airports - often roads just aren't enough to serve them, and rails are required.
To conclude, I want to show you a street. Not just any street, mind. The one I'm showing you has to be the world's most pointless and futile street ever built. Here's why:


Face the facts, street. Buildings facing it: 0. Cars using it for commuting: 0. I guess the only real purpose it has is being demonstrated by that green pickup truck - as a rest stop for lorries and goods vehicles that is conveniently close to the motorway.

And that, my friends, is that for this time.

Next week we'll go back to one of my favourite regions - Silver Lake.

I shall see you there,
smileymk

[sumwonyuno]

I really like the non-grid nature of your roadways!

[emgmod]

Americans really need to use roundabouts more. And yes, those are some absolutely useless roads.

[smileymk]

Part 26 - Silver Lake

Big update this time... I guess if you have a whole uninterrupted week to work on a city then you get more done...

Replies

@ sumwonyuno: Great to have you back, but I thought that Challenge Large 2 was pretty griddy... or are you referring to some other region? Anyway, you'll see plenty of non-grid action this week.

@ emgmod: Ha! Victory is mine! Long live the roundabout! La la la la la... (OK, serious mode now) Glad you've finally seen sense. Thanks for agreeing with me on those two points.

OK, without further ado, let's see the third instalment of Silver Lake.

Silver Lake - Part 3

Much of the new development this week has taken place around the outer edges of the city, in the flatter bits of the mountains. Several new estates have sprung up - we'll start with this one in the east:


This I call the Peninsula Suburb, owing to that street that sticks out at the edge, like a peninsula.
Going slightly north, we hit a valley, which is home to another residential - commercial area, called Pass Valley (the reason for which you will soon find out):



Somehow, this estate manages to be served by a station on the top of a hill, connected to the valley by a gravel street. The station is particularly interesting, as it is built on a rail loop:


The rail network in Silver Lake might be taking pains and ridiculous routes to access as many districts as possible, but, to the north of Pass Valley, there is an area that can only be reached by road:


This is known as the Pocket. In fairness, why should I connect this to the rail network? It would be very difficult, and I quite like that 'tucked away' nature that this part of town possesses.
Going there by train would also spoil the fun of getting there, at least from the west. Who could resist the adventure of driving down this road?


And if the risk of driving next to a huge cliff that could send earth tumbling down on you without warning for half a mile isn't enough of a thrill to you, try driving down this next road. Remember Pass Valley? The reason for the name is that to the west lies the North Bowl Pass, a mountain road forming a vital way in from the east to the central bowl:


Good luck not crashing!
Talking of hills, two estates sprung up in the west and the east that are on hilltops that give a great view of the central bowl. The western one is a residential suburb, which as a result of its location has very high property prices:


In the east, however, it's a little more mundane. It's farmland:


Lastly for the outer areas, I decided to connect two commercial areas that were close together but separated by a steep hill with a funicular railway using rural GLR, partly to free up the ring road (in theory) but mainly as something to make the city more interesting. A lack of slope-tolerant and appropriate GLR stations, however, coupled with my new-found ability to texture BATs, meant that I made my own stations for the job. As you're about to see, it's fair to say that this failed:


Yeah, I must confess that BATs and lot-making are not my fortes. There is a Mark 2 version planned, though, so don't concern yourselves too much.
On a brighter note, let's move into the central bowl, where some medium density zoning has been laid down and the area near the main station has developed:


Some eyecandy has also been added for fun, and, believe it or not, one of the buildings in that picture is rather special.
Upon looking at my Regional Population Report this morning (available with the Regional Tracking Mod), I saw, at the bottom, the text 'hi-tech: 55 jobs'. Eh? Hi-tech industry in a city of only 14,000 and a tiny little patch of medium-density industrial? An investigation was conducted with the Query tool, and, sure enough, there it was:


This will probably change the way I play my game - I always thought you needed high density for hi-tech - that's what my experience taught me - but obviously not!

That was just one of many discoveries I made this week. Another was the Snow cheat, which makes it snow in your city during the winter months. As in real life, higher elevations get snow for more of the year, so this cheat is an accurate way to turn boring and ugly cliff faces into realistic peaks (unlike snow mods which permanently put snow everywhere, which is stupid):


In winter, lower elevations are covered as well (up to a point). This creates an interesting effect in Silver Lake, where most of the city is about 500m above sea level, in that most suburbs get completely covered in snow:


And that's that for this week.

Next week we're returning to Challenge Large 2. Again.

Until then, all the best.
smileymk

[emgmod]

Snow cheat? What is it? I only use snow during one day of the year, and it snows everywhere.

[smileymk]

Part 27 - Challenge Large 2

As the World Cup is kicking off in one and a half hours (!) (at the time of writing), I'll do my best to ensure this is short so you can spend more time watching the games. So...

Replies

@ emgmod: OK, I'll try to explain. Press CTRL + X, type in "Snow", and press Enter. Providing your terrain is high enough, a certain amount of your city will become covered in snow. The height at which the snow starts depends on the time of the Sim year (i.e. your system time is irrelevant) - in winter, snow will appear at lower altitudes (up to a point), whereas in summer, only the very highest peaks will see snow. Although this is very realistic, it disappears when you leave the city, so I'd only use it for pictures. Hope that helps.

Challenge Large 2 - Part 4

2 weeks ago, you saw two rather underdeveloped cities - Liberty and Authority. Given another week, though, they have been focused on and regionally played to the max. As a result, they've grown quite a bit:


That's Liberty, population 152,000 - not bad for a small city. Let's see Authority:


The growth in Authority has much to do with landmarks as well as Liberty. Landmarks like this brilliant shopping centre by Tonkso:


Transport also plays a part, for a high-capacity (total 90,000) rail station is provided for commuters:


The result is this fantastic scene at night:


Unfortunately, I don't think these cities will get too much bigger, as the demand caps in Liberty have maxed out. That's what happens when you squeeze over 150,000 citizens into an area of just under 0.4 square miles.

How beautiful. The next city is down south, and it's known as Work (because it's a commercial city, and therefore you work there). Let's see it:




At the centre of this lies, predictably, the city's motorway junction, and, true to form, it's a roundabout interchange. But this one is considerably more compact, and has a very nice 'squeezed-in' appearance as a result:


I'm thinking about putting ploppable commercial in the centre of that roundabout to emphasise that squeezed-in feeling to it. Might look interesting.
Also, I'd like you to pay attention to the slip roads. They're made from RHW-4, and thus have two lanes. This is far more realistic, as most motorway slip roads here in the UK are two lanes, and this also improves the capacity of the junction as you now have separate lanes for left and right turns.

The capacity is also improved by the use of a bypass, created using the FLUP pieces, that allows all-purpose traffic to cross the motorway without using the junction:


Again it looks pretty squeezed-in with those buildings.
Next to be shown is the next city, also commercial, also to the south, and known as Pay, owing to what you get from your work:




Admittedly this is underdeveloped, but that's because it's new. Most of the development is concentrated around the important places - like the motorway, which here continues the theme of compact interchanges, this time with a diamond:


And that concludes this update.

I know that you just love this region, so next week we'll stay with Challenge Large 2 - because I'm nice.

Oh, and, as for tomorrow night (England v USA), hmm, how to be patriotic to my country but respectful to the vast American community here...
I'm sure you'll give us a good game (you Americans are actually pretty good at football), but come on England!

Enjoy the match and the update.
smileymk

[smileymk]

Part 28 - Challenge Large 2

My god, you Americans were lucky on Saturday... completely outplayed and only got a result because our keeper can't catch a football...maybe I should try out for England goalkeeper...

At this point I'd normally do the replies, but there aren't any to do this week (too busy watching the footy?), so we can jump straight in with the update.

Challenge Large 2 - Part 5

The 'Commercial Column' (as the column of Authority, Work and Pay has become known) was completed this week with Commerce, again appropriately named. Here it is:




This is vastly underdeveloped as well, mainly because the residential city below it, Suburbia Junction, hasn't got going yet, and hasn't yet developed on that side. I'll show you the central interchange - this has something different about it and links to the image afterwards:


Part of the interesting bit comes from the approach roads - grade separated semi-derectional T's feeding off parallel alternate one-way roads. Certainly unusual, but it seems to work.
The other is that security camera in the centre of the roundabout. You might be wondering why I'd put this in a city designed deliberately to be as big as possible. This is the reason:


Yes, that car is going around the roundabout the wrong way. That's not the only vehicle to have committed this act of dangerous driving - the security camera is there to crack down on frequent incidences of this madness. There have even been cases of cars leaving the motorway from the north, turning right to go round the wrong way, and then turn right onto the northbound entry slip road! Well, they're all getting automatic fines through the post now, so that's alright.

I did mention Suburbia Junction, so I'll talk about that city now. This pre-development shot shows the origins of the name:


Yep, a trumpet combined with surface-street access from all three sides, and a railway Y-junction. Impressed?
This unfortunately is not quite as developed as I hoped, mainly due to a CTD getting in the way. I did manage to re-do this bit in time though:


Most of the people here work in the industrial city to the south, duly named Industria. Well, here it is:




Being in a separate utility zone (with Suburbia Junction), the city has to provide utilities for the 7 square km zone. It elected to put them all in one place:


The city also needs connections for its industry. It made no sense to not extend the new highway to the region's end, but there was no space in Suburbia Junction for a 4-way interchange. So a staggered design was decided upon - one half of that being the Suburbia Junction trumpet, the other being this Triangle interchange in Industria:


A parclo was also constructed in the south to give the industry access to the orbital motorway. Because space was at a premium (you can see the end of the acceleration lane from the Triangle in the upcoming image), it was built in a very tight manner:


Railway facilities were also required - and, like the utilities, the city planners followed an 'all in one place' strategy:


That'll have to do for this week.
Now I've had enough of this region for now, so next week we'll return to somewhere we haven't been to for a very long time - Lego City.

See you there,
smileymk

(PS - Good luck to the US, who kick off against Slovenia in 8 minutes (at the time of writing), and, of course, for tonight, come on England. You guys have gotta beat Algeria, for god sake!)

[sumwonyuno]

Heh, I stand corrected.  Suburbia Junction is much more non-grid!   

[smileymk]

Part 29 - Lego City

Well, it's that time again. I'll make this short - there happens to be a game on...

Replies

@ sumwonyuno: It is at the moment - but you wait until the city is full of zoning... it should still be quite non-griddy though, to fit with your love of random street patterns.

Lego City - Part 4

A residential drive has taken place in Lego City this week, and that has gained the city about 4,000 residents.
Three suburbs came into existence, each with their own benefits - this one being remote, with only one road in:


This one is a prospective buyer's dream - close by schools and jobs, with very good rail and motorway access - what more could anyone want?


And this one is well-served by the city's light rail system, being near two of its stations:


The 'Block of Blocks of Flats', as it has come to be known, has given profitable service to an otherwise neglected GLR system that previously wasn't utilised - but this train indicates things are now very different!


Light rail expansion has also caused some problems, however. Problems like this, where a rail line is to be converted to el-rail, on a curve, and on a steep hill for good measure:


As you can see, a straight transition was attempted, but it just won't work here.
Fortunately a specially-designed lot to make the connection is in the works - it's not ready for implementation yet, unfortunately. But the model is there.
Would anyone like to see a sneak preview?


It might not be the most spectacular BAT ever, but it should do the job. I expect this to be ready for next time (barring unforeseen issues that will probably throw themselves up), so watch this space.
Also one to watch is my elevated bus stops, designed to work with the NAM road viaducts, which have been re-modelled upon my discovery of the art of texturing BATs - well, here is Version 2:


Size was adjusted, textures were added, and so was a lift to give access to surface transport.
Amenities for the influx of residents aren't just limited to transport, however. The city has also demonstrated its commitment to sport by building this baseball stadium:


You won't be surprised to know that the team that plays here has the highest rate of balls, beanballs, and balls hit into swimming pools, as well as the lowest home run rate, in the league. I wonder if it has something to do with that hill...

The city has also demonstrated its commitment to science by building its own particle accelerator for all to see. Inspired by the Large Hadron Collider, but limited by the city budget, they came up with an unusual landmark - the Small Hadron Collider:


Lol... and that concludes this week's update.

Next up it's back to the Challenge Regions, but before you groan, it's not that one. It's Challenge Medium 1.
Best wishes for this week, both in life and in South Africa,
smileymk

[Terring7]

Very funky cities
With so many... irregular roads and rails, you don't need the airport. Just have a car or a train overspeeding and it will be an airplane in no time

[smileymk]

Part 30 - Challenge Medium 1

Welcome to July!

Replies

@ Terring7: Thanks. And the airport will be necessary eventually, when the place starts developing.

Challenge Medium 1 - Part 2

Yes, this is Part 2. We covered Part 1 27 weeks ago, so that might be why some of you won't remember.

With Eastminster completed in Part 1, it was time to move on and complete some other cities in the region, in the crusade to get a total of 30M Sims in the region.
One of these cities has been finished, and, following the regional practice of ripping off London suburb names for naming these cities, is known as Camdon:




Camdon is an unusual city, as the residential districts are home to taller buildings than the commercial buildings - it's normally the other way round. To prove it, this is one of Camdon's 3 residential districts, home to over 130,000 Sims out of the city total of 275,000 (in a medium city I might add):


Compare this to the biggest commercial district in the city, which somehow doesn't seem to have 130,000 commercial jobs:


Rewards are a big part of this megalopolis - all of them are used when they're unlocked. Not only that but they are placed strategically, which lead, in this case, partly by chance, partly by inspiration from 2 schools in my estate sited right next to each other, to the 2 Maxis stadiums being placed next to each other, separated only by a road. Unspectacular - until you turn on the lights and give the 2 stadiums games, at which point these lots suddenly look a lot better:


I have to say that's one of my favourite images. Hard to say why, really - it's probably down to the enclosed atmosphere and the sheer impressiveness of the image. You can't say it doesn't look good.

Camdon was finished in 2 days - I do have a lot of time on my hands - and that meant that the next city, Oslington, could be started:




Admittedly it's unfinished, but it already has 130,000 Sims, giving a total regional population of just over 668,000 - now by far my most populous region ever (beating Challenge Medium 3, population about 357,000).
Already established as well is the city's manufacturing industry, which takes up most of the space and is the main focus of the city:


Space for the workers and retailers is therefore limited, and the city planners were forced to build up rather than across (for now):


And with that bombshell, it's time to end.

Next up it's Challenge Small 1 (aka Middletown).
Have a nice week.
smileymk

[smileymk]

Part 31 - Challenge Small 1

It's all quiet on the MD front... so let's get on with the update.

Challenge Small 1 - Part 2

Somehow I managed to finish the 3rd city in this small region, which, following the convention of naming towns geographically (hence Middletown and Town o' the North), was named North Eastown (there will be a South Eastown, but next time):




This city, as you might have seen, is about 85% industrial, as that was what the city demand demanded (zone types for new estates are decided by the strongest demand). This means that only 54,000 live here - but about double that work in the smoggy, seemingly unregulated factories that sprawl across town like this:


With all of this industry dominating the city, ancillary areas like the town's retail outlet for all of these factories have no chance:


If this doesn't look too small to you, take a look at the southeast corner of the now-finished Town o' the North:


Now that's more like it. Now North Eastown looks small. And now I'll show you the finished Town o' the North to complete this week's update, as it came before any factories in North Eastown were even considered:




And that's it. Yes, it's short this week, but, oh well...

Next week we'll go back to a proper region rather than an urban sprawl - The Megacity. (Alright, The Megacity's pretty urban, but it's done properly!)

See you there.
smileymk

[smileymk]

Part 32 - The Megacity

Hey, I'm still here! This MD's not dying yet!
I've even put links to all of my updates in the first post for you guys (finally found out how to do that), so you don't have to trawl through 4 pages of this to find the post you want. I do care.

The Megacity - Part 3

Quite a bit of work this week has gone into re-working the city's road system to the standards of the new NAM and RHW, as well as to beef up interchange capacity (and to make them work as my MIS is screwed up), for reasons you will see later.
Let's start with one of the makeover projects - the addition of cosmetic lane drop markers to the A3 in Cosheete at its junction with the M2:


In addition to this, RHW 4.0 has allowed the main rail line through Cosheete to stay at 6 tracks when it passes under the M2 (previously a bug meant that I had to switch briefly to 4 tracks through the underpass):


These might not sound like much, but when creating a high-quality, realistic city, small details like that make all the difference.

Now I told you that the M2 interchanges were re-worked. This is due to the development of Yeats, a district 2km west of Cosheete:




First and foremost, let's look at that residential district - population 363,000 (making it my most populous medium city ever by some distance):


This helped the expansion of the commercial district of Belfast to the east of Yeats - but it expanded upwards, not outwards:


The regional population has now been pushed up to 708,000 - this is now my most populous region ever, by just 40,000 Sims. But look more closely at Yeats and you spot a lot of roads where streets would normally be. This is evidence of Yeats' big congestion problems.
Part of the problem is the rail line that runs through Yeats, through the residential and commercial areas, and into the commercial bit of Belfast where it ends. You'd think that because of where it leads, it would get a huge amount of usage, especially with the NAM simulator. It doesn't quite work like that:


That's right - one of the most useful lines in The Megacity is getting completely ignored. Everyone's using their cars and it's clogging up the roads like you wouldn't believe.
To deal with this, the council attempted to coax people into using the M2 motorway, thus freeing up the roads, by beefing up capacity at the Yeats interchange:


The Cosheete interchange:


and even the Menlo interchange:


The retaining wall transitions on the motorway were also changed from Buddybud's set to Jeronij's set - there is no difference in looks of the walls but Buddybud's transitions had an overhanging wall that ate into the motorway and looked ridiculous. Now I just have to convert the slip road walls for the same reason!
Also, you might have noticed that the one-way slip lanes on the B1 avenue in Yeats where it meets a C-road, which previously weren't great, have been replaced by the TuLEP system, vastly improving their appearance.

But these re-worked interchanges weren't enough for anyone, and so the 'Exit 10 1/2 For A 10 1/2 Out Of 10 Commute' formed, which has vehemently campaigned for an interchange to be built in Belfast, which would, if built, massively relieve congestion in both Yeats and Cosheete:


The 'Exit 10 1/2', if you're interested, comes from the Yeats interchange being Exit 10, and the Cosheete interchange being Exit 11. As the Belfast interchange would be in the middle, the number needs to be in the middle, hence Exit 10 1/2. It makes sense, doesn't it?

Some have even campaigned for an Exit 9 1/2, to be built in the west of Yeats:


This would be less beneficial than a Belfast interchange, but it is certainly more likely and more feasible than a Belfast junction, which is currently being put off by the council due to the number of buildings that would have to be demolished to make way for it.
Now to quote Jeremy Clarkson - "And with that bombshell, it's time to end."

Next week it's Silver Lake, a favourite region of yours, so make sure you're there!

See you in a week,
smileymk

[smileymk]

Closure of MD

I regret to announce that this thread is being closed due to it effectively dying - the interest is no longer here (this is pretty old I guess) and I'd rather see that server space used for new, interesting ideas, instead of an old MD nobody wants.

There will therefore be no more updates.

I shall shortly be asking a moderator to move this to the Inactive MDs section, in accordance with standard procedure.

I would like to finally thank you for your support over the last 7 months. This is my most successful MD to date, and it's all been down to you guys. I have to say that the MD experience here is vastly superior to the CJ experience at Simtropolis (though I stress that this is only my personal opinion.)

Look out for the following projects from me in the future:
The Silver Hills City Building Contest - Mark 2 (To start later today!) - A contest involving the whole SC4D community (or at least those who join in) to play a common one-tile region in their style and to a set of rules and challenges. Inspired by GRV, but nothing like it.

How You Can Build a Realistic City (Maybe December, probably January of next year.) - A step-by-step documentation of how even a beginner can make a cracking city, using a city I make with only basic mods - but it's tailored a bit above beginner level to encourage beginners to stretch their skills. (It might not be called this, but it should be something similar.)

Please do not comment or post below this.