The "You Be the Critic" Thread

[Alek King of SC4]

Since this seem like a community of people who can handle a little constructive criticism, I decided to start this thread so that people can ONLY post things they
would do different.  Please do not post "looks great".

Think what would you do different, what seems odd, what could be made more visually appealing, more effective.  If you are afraid of people picking apart your cities this is not the place for you.

oh yeah and as for my pic, it is half of a large tile, i will take your suggestions and post again a full large tile mosaic when i finish the other half. (Sprawl Alert)

My Start

[beskhu3epnm]

Heh, well since you asked!!

Your road network layout is flawless. The building locations could not be any better for this type of layout. The parkland is very realistic. Building selection is amazing.

It's tough to be critical of this work. But if I had to mention something, there is the matter of the "big dig" lot tunnel entrance. It appears to travel under the river, however it is real close to the seawall. This would make the angle of the roadway a little extreme, especially considering that roadway in the lot piece is on not that significant of an angle...

If the water is only 2m deep, then you can disregard. So that's all I can really see. This was like trying to criticize planet earth! How am I supposed to do that?

[wouanagaine]

Good ideas AK

Hard to find something on your pic that I'm not jealous of , but I tried hard:

Honestly I would not have put that many goldiva marina all arounds. I would have reserved an area for a 'big marina' where I would have put everything marina related

I'm not sure about the walled elrail in the downtown,  but that is because I'm accustomed to Paris elevated subway

I do not see much avenues, maybe it is because of the skyscrapper forest, but it looks strange to not have avenues in that kind of city

Hope it is not sound too rude, and enough constructive :p

[dedgren]

If I could do it different...

...I would have been born rich!
Good luck, Alek!

[Alek King of SC4]

Good ideas AK

Hard to find something on your pic that I'm not jealous of , but I tried hard:

Honestly I would not have put that many goldiva marina all arounds. I would have reserved an area for a 'big marina' where I would have put everything marina related

I'm not sure about the walled elrail in the downtown,  but that is because I'm accustomed to Paris elevated subway

I do not see much avenues, maybe it is because of the skyscrapper forest, but it looks strange to not have avenues in that kind of city

Hope it is not sound too rude, and enough constructive :p

nope that was perfect all things that i consider great suggestions and what i think we should strive for, and it should really help the community. 

In reply yeah I could not agree more about the marinas looking at it not and then comparing to real like, it would look way better in one area or a couple clusters i should get some more BATs for that too.  (Good thing i have another side of the canal).

The walled L train is kinda a compromise for me, and i will be the first to admit it is lacking in realism, however the L over road just doesn't seem to work right and is far from flexible and the bright green grass textures that show up underneath the L tracks is way too out of place in an urban city, so I try to fake it.  Maybe i should learn how to make a lot with an overhanging prop to go under the tracks?

you are also dead on about the avenues, but the way i see it the commercial zones love to be along
high traffic zones, so if my sims have a quick commute along a highway or rail line and then all deposited in one
place it seems to fit the game engine well, but looks quite fake indeed.

[Serkanner]

Dedgren ... 

Alek ... the only thing really bothering me about the picture is the use of the fishing harbours. The entire picture looks realistic enough, except for the repetative fishing harbours.

[Giligone]

Wow, Alek King Great downtown. I would have put in more parks, thats just my preference and not really a problem with your city.

Here's my cities CBD. I was wondering what I could do to better it.

[Alek King of SC4]

first off i have to go and get that tower in the middle.

First the big issue i have is that for a city with such large towers, it seems to have very little infrastructure.

I see a rail line but only a handful of small maxis stations, how about a large central station? 

It would also be strange to see a city with skyscrapers like that and no highway access (maybe it is off screen?)

The residential zoning seems overly $$$ in just about every large city you have way more $$ and even more $.  Obviously $$$ looks nices, however it messes up your demand and you will have issues with abandonement, which are starting to show along the bottom.

The last issue is that the zoning seems a little crazy, $$$ boutiquesm next to industrial parks and rail lines?

oh yeah and way too many repeats, get the SC4 DAT packer and get your download on.

[ACEfanatic02]

Giligone - Do something with that shoreline.  Seawall, park, anything but bare sand and grass in downtown.

-ACE

[Menotyou]

Okay, I have one.


-Caleb

[emilin]

I'll just comment on Alek's pic this time around. I'll get back to the rest of it when I have more time, but right now I'm in a bit of a rush.

First off: residential spacing. All in all it looks great, but some of those midrise residential buildings that looks like they have windows on the sides of them has been placed like they were really w2w stuff. That looks a little cluttered.

Second: Marina repeat 2-3 Goldiva marinas I can live with, but isn't 14 a little much? I know there are not many optional BAT:s out there, but that's still to many in my book. Maybe some lot editing would solve the issue. And maybe you don't really need that many marinas?

That being said, I really have to add: 

That is one majorly INSANE downtown area!

[wouanagaine]

Menotyou => I think the trees are too much repetitive/dense. you may try download sorchin/goldiva rocks and put some instead of trees.
And someone really need to remake goldiva water flora to make it less flashy

[sam]

This looks like a good idea.

Ok starting with Menotyou:

I think the trees on the right hand river border could be merged better, at the moment there is a very sharp change between the light and dark trees. Mixing them a bit would look better. But I have this problem too.

On the lower left just above the pink script, there are some lots on the cliff. I love the rock texture you are using, but I think the lots could be merged with the rock a bit better here. Sometimes I find it better to only zone where there is some green patches on the neighbouring tiles to improve the merge, or you could add some sea walls, or possible some vegetation.

There is also quite a lot of road there with little or no zoning. While this looks nice, I'm usually careful not to put too much road without zones, as the roads are expensive to maintain, and need the taxes from the built on zones. If it works for you that's fine, I just like to keep my budget in the black, and this is one of the ways I do that.

Its a pretty picture though. Well done, and thanks for putting it up for critique 

Edit 1:

Next up - Giligone

Nice downtown I love the buildings you have there and the trees look great. However I think you could do better with the beach. I think it needs to be made less natural and more commercial. Perhaps a beach mod like the white sand beach and maybe some commercial recreational options that you might see on a city beach, eg people sunbathing, canoes for hire, maybe some piers and high speed ferries or a tourist attraction.

The merge between city and beach could be made a little less sharp, for example near the centre top, right where the tall blue building next to the beach is, there are some very bright green turf squares turning straight into beach sand with square edges. You could put some diagonal garden or wall lots to soften the transition.

Some nice palms would look good, especially some of the lighted ones by N7 (although smaller versions would be great). Perhaps also some commercial fishing and recreational boats? Marker bouys (for shark nets), patrolled beaches, surf skis, sailboards, para-sailing (I don't know if all of these are available but they would look great)

This would also be a great stretch of beach for a massive fireworks show, and a night shot could look spectacular, especially with lighted palms and lighted boats.

[MIncroabl]

AK,

Regarding your pic, I have mainly 2 thing I'd like to point out:

1. I have lurked around your many CJs and failed to distinguish one from the other. All your cities seem the same, with the same buildings, the same network configurations with the same kind of flat land where the only height differences come from either sunken highways, elevated railways or mountains that the development is surrounding. I would suggest that you tried to build your cities using more hills and terrain conforming development, as in my personal opinion quantity does not match quality in SC4.

2. When looking at this particular pic, one thing that really hurts my eyes is the usage of Blahdy's BigDig lots (and underwater tunnels in general). Many, including myself, fall to use them the way you have, putting them next to the shoreline. Why? I see two major drawbacks in this: It isn't very realistic. Cars travelling the tunnel either find out that the road under them descents rather steeply or hit a near vertical wall, depending on their direction. The tunnel literally sinks under the sea floor in a distance under about 96 metres. The other problem I fail to understand is why wouldn't you just place the tunnel portals way away from the shore to release the land for development? That's why they build those underground highways in real life, because highways tend to take a large portion of land.

Hope you don't find this aggressive, as I do realize the amount of work you have put into your cities. But nevertheless I think none of your cities stand out on their own.

[Alek King of SC4]

Some great suggestions everyone, this has tunred out great and just what i had in mind. I really can't wait to start on some of the great suggestions i got here, man just looking at those marinas is driving me crazy now 

Also i think this city might be a perfect place to try out some of the new highway bridges 

as for the flatness........I guess that is the Chicago influence shinging through 


ok onto menotyou-what is with the excessive extra roadage, is that i race test track or something?

and i can't really tell what is going on the upper left some sort of lot, looks like it is snow covered.  this just really seems like a work in progress to me.

[Rayden]

Hey this is a nice and friendly place where I finally get to critic AK.
Hum, let's see...

...hum..

...hummm....

...ah, maybe this...  nahhh...

...hum....

...humm.....

...hummm......

.... I hate you, I hate you, I hate you   

Nothing to critic, I'm gone and never come back

Now, seriously, the marinas it's the only weak point, but I'm sure you know that too and if you could bat that would had never happen This also a shout to all you batters out there, there is some good stuff out there for fishing and industrial ports, but hardly nothing to make a decent marina. Some nice props would be just nice to begin

[Menotyou]

Thanks for the comments.

sam: That is a older shot and I have redone that area, with better matchs of trees, and I'm going to get rid of some of those roads.

[Mulefisk]

Gilgone: While I appreciate that the pic in itself looks great (Match Color adds a nice effect:P) I have a few things to say. First of all, I think some new BATs could pull it up to a whole new level. Using mainly maxis buildings can be a style of building in itself, but as i'm sure many people will agree with, it's getting kind of old. Seeing how your style is very American, I think a few of spa, jasoncw and Don Miguels bats would really help.
Also, A city that can boast 2 skyscrapers is likely to have a highway-system, or atleast an avenue. Creating a coastal highway, or a main avenue would help make things more realistic. Third, I think that creating a main railway-station rather than just using the small, default maxis ones would be a good idea.
Finally, i'd like to see something done with the waterfront. Using one of the many waterfront kits available could really liven things up.
Good luck!

Mentoyou:  First of all, I want to say that the area is very well terraformed. My main complaint is that I think the road-network is perhaps a bit too "square", if you get what I mean. I think that if you made the roads move a little more organically, perhaps using some diagonals, that would make things alot better. Seccond, while this is a matter of taste, you should replace the maxis trees with cycledoggs trees. I think that the way you've done it now, using cycledoggs shore pines and maxis oaks, you get a very sharp contrast of colors that really doesen't look that good. Also, I think you should remove the "brick-street" mod, since the red color it gives doesen't really, in my opinion fit in with the environment.
Finally, I think that if you just add a little more development, some commercial perhaps, It would be perfect!
You've done a good job so far, and the area doesen't need more than a little work to look really good.


Here's a shot from me. This is a city that I created about a year ago, but I was never completely happy with it.



Fire away!

[Alek King of SC4]

first off welcome to the site 


the first thing i notice is the zoning seems off. the middle third and bottom third look switched up.  for a American stlye city you would have your dense CBD (top) then the dense  Res and then maybe some IND, midrise and finally small homes. The reason this is so key in the game as well is that if most of your sims are commuting into the CBD as in real life then as you get closer and closer traffic gets worse and worse so you want your most dense develpments not to have to drive along way through sprawl. In the middle you are lacking a lot of density and the dense apartments towards the bottom are showing abandonment.

I would have put the industrial area a little further away, or at least used some large Warehouses to give it sort of a docks kinda feel, instead of those bright yellow maxis HT.

The transportation network, seems to be layed out quite nicely, and the only major issue is the repitition in buildings, but you did say it was an older city.

[mjig_dudy]

AK: Well, first of all, Amazing as ever great work.
Most of the major problems have already been mentioned (the repetitiveness of the marinas being the main one). I found in some places the repetition of certain buildings close together didn't look quite right. I espically found this look un-realistic where you are using haarlemmergold flats. In real live you would probably have one long building instead of 7 placed exactly next to each other, which all look the same, Of course, there may not be much you can do about this, As i don't think there are housing estates like this available.
Once again, excellent work! 

Giligone: It really needs seawalls, You would not have the Buildings just ending like that straight onto sand and water.
You also have high wealth commercial fronting straight onto industry, not realistic. Also you would have a rail corssing a road in that situation, you only really get this in rural areas and small towns, In fact, in the situation the rail would probably almost all be raised, or underground.

Menotyou: The underwater flora around your river looks really weird like that, I would defiantly use some rocks and have some trees growing into the water. Not sure about the use of red brick streets. Also you need to use more variety of trees, The trees in your picture seem to repeat themselves an awful lot.

Mulefisk: First of all i really like your highway where it reaches the downtown, it just look so realistic 
In real life you wouldn't get a seaport that close to the downtown, It would be further away and be bigger, same applies for the industry.

Heres my first entry: