My first city: Silvan City

[CrossSide]

Dear readers,

I read this forum for about two years now. I really like all the journals which are posted here and felt in love with the most of them. I know that I will never get the skills to create such beauty, but I do like to start my own journal.

Only there is one problem: I actually never got far with playing SimCity 4 and I didn't even saw scyscrapers in my created cities. So you can say this is my first city ever build.

'So why would you start this journal' most of you will think. Well, since I downloaded the 'Bordertown' region (from the challenge) from GRVII I got really inspired to make my first big, but especially 'nice looking' city. I do like the progress so far, but I'm always afraid to make big mistakes which will ruin my game. So that's why I created this topic, not only to show my city, but also to make this some kind of interactive topic where the more experience players maybe could advise me about creating a nice city.

My idea is that those who will read this journal can be critic at my city and give some helpfull hints, tutorials and different kinds of downloads I can use. I don't know if a journal is supposed to be like this, if it isn't this thread can be deleted.

When I was a little boy I did play SimCity a lot and really liked it. But I lost the touch with it since Simcity 2000 which I for some reason never bought. Instead of playing SimCity I played Transport Tycoon a lot, because I like trains. At this time I have the same feeling I had with SimCity and Transport Tycoon, so I hope something nice will develop.

At last, I want to say sorry for my bad English. I can read English, but when I write it I have some difficulties because I'm from Holland. So I apollogize for that, I hope it will improve



Ok, then some pics from the start of my city. I am not a great talent with naming, so I choose the simple name of Silvan City. Silvan City was created in this nice forest/mountain region:




This nice looking forest area hadn't had any inhabitents at all. It was only used by some people who like to go in the wilderness and some woodcutters and fishermen:



This area was also used by some High School. They could rent the little inn to go to schoolcamp with the low classes. The kids can swim at the lake and the little pont above the lake. They can also play games in the big forest which surrounds it.




But what is this? Settlers in the Bordertown region?! Why would they? Because of the nice area?



And also in this area came settlers and some farms along with them to provide the food:




Ahhh, this was the reason! Some valueble resources where found in the hills. Iron was of great use in this time and so the national government decided to fund some villages to provide the mines for workers:



And how the map looks while I'm playing at the moment:




I hope you like it this far. Feel free to comment.

Thank you,

Cross

[CrossSide]

Ah, sorry for the large pics, editing at the moment. Posting it was a misclick 


And some questions:

My downloaded Iron Ore mine and Coal mine are $$$ industries, does that mean I have to have some $$$ residents as well?

[nedalezz]

For someone who hasnt played SC4 much and hasnt tried his hand at making an MD before, Id say thats a good a start as any. The camp site looks great.

As for your question, I believe R$$ can be employed at $$$ industries, as well as R$$$.

[CrossSide]

Nedalezz: Thank you for the first reply in this topic  and thanks for answering my question.

This day I finish with two last shots of Silvan Bay:

Freighttrain start at Silvan Bay's first station:



After this I had a crash, so I had to rebuild much. So seek the differences in the next picture


Freighttrain enters the newly build woodcutting (?) fabric:




and the train leaves again!

[kwakelaar]

Nice going on your first MD and first city in Simcity4. It is looking nice, but I would recommend turning off the grid and U-drive-it icons before making snapshots.

[CrossSide]

Yes, how do I do that?

[Schulmanator]

You have some nice rural pictures for us. And, welcome tot he MD section. I look forward to seeing your work here.

[jmyers2043]

Hello CrossSide

You do a good job with the placement of trees, rocks, and assorted shrubs. I'm never satisfied with mine.

Good Luck with your diary.

- Jim

[dedgren]

Hi, Cross.  Not to hijack your nice start at an MD, but here's how you fix the U Drive It and grid stuff.

Mouse click on the "My Sims" button



then click on the "U Drive It" button



the click on the on/off toggle button.  All done- no more mission indicators.



To get rid of the grid



press the [ G ] key



and that's it.



* * *

While I'm not big on use of a lot of those curved fencelines, that field with the paths in the first pic is a work of art.  I'll be back for sure.


David

[CrossSide]

You have some nice rural pictures for us. And, welcome tot he MD section. I look forward to seeing your work here.

Thank you!

Hello CrossSide

You do a good job with the placement of trees, rocks, and assorted shrubs. I'm never satisfied with mine.

Good Luck with your diary.

- Jim

Thanks! I'll try!

Hi, Cross.  Not to hijack your nice start at an MD, but here's how you fix the U Drive It and grid stuff.

Off course you don't hi-jack my topic. This kind of things this topic is meant to be. To help me evolve my SC4 skills So thanks al lot with you're help. I'll promise my next pictures don't have and 'u drive it' and grids any more


question

How do you guys handle Industrial areas? Sylvan Bay, from the last pictures, I would like to keep rural and clean with some high wealth citizens, but the people need to go to work don't they? So can I create a Industrial park in the next area (under the mountains?) so the sims will travel there? And how far will they travel to work?

Thanks alot!

[calibanX]

Hi Cross. First, I must say you're doing a fantastic job given how little you mentioned you have played the game. Your farm fields are great, and the livestock pens are a great touch. I'm enjoying what you're doing immensely.

Also, no need to apologize for your English. You're doing very well.

As for your question regarding placing an industrial park in the adjacent square, the simple answer is yes. Your Sims will travel to get to those jobs. Be careful though, your high wealth Sims will not tolerate long commute times. The easiest way to build a healthy city is to mix your zones within the city itself. Equally important in maintaining high wealth populations is to make sure you have elementary, high school, and college education for them. Medical services and police and fire coverage is a requirement too. If you have all of the services in place you sould be able to grow a high wealth population and keep them happy. Oh, and don't forget to have water and trash removal for them, as well as clean air. 

Take care.

Geoff

[CrossSide]

CalibanX: Thank you for your positive comment and advise! But when I place industrie in my city the enviroment decreases rapidly and I want to keep my city nice and clean. When I use the polution view there aren't any clouds above my city, so this I don't understand?


This weekend was a weekend of first timers for me, so I will also place my first mosaic. It didn't turn out great, but at least it is a start! Enjoy

[Battlecat]

Fantastic start here, I really like the rural shots you put together.  You really do have a good eye for details, I love how the terrain looks in your first few shots!

Let me see what I can do to help here:  The graphs beside the RCI indicator, including the environment graph are aggregate data indicating the overall impact of all things in your city.  Even if there isn't a huge amount of pollution dirty industry is still considered noisy and unpleasant to look at by the simulator.  As a result, your city's environment rating will drop.  It can be counteracted in several ways. 

You can put the industry on a separate tile from your main city and allow people to commute across the border.  Also, you can build parks and other green space to counteract the environment impact.  Also, if you get your education levels up in the city high tech industry will start to grow which doesn't have such a high environment impact. 

Oh hey, if you feel it might be valuable to post screenshots of your user interface along with any questions you have, Ctrl-Shift-S is the shortcut to take a screenshot at any time.  You can use that to take pictures of graphs and maps in your city which might help illustrate problems you're having. 

[Tomas Neto]

Nice start of your MD!!! 

[CrossSide]

Battlecat: Thank you for your positive comments and help!

Thomas Neto: Thanks!

Not an update right now because I hadn't much time to play this week because school and girlfriend. But I've a question. This week I have downloaded some residential buildings, European style such as the Dutch buildings from Haarlemmergold and Vanderaap at simtropolis along side with some other growable buildings. I downloaded the maxis blocker aswell. But now my resident buildings don't grow any more. The tiles stay green. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help

[penguin007]

What an awesome start here I love the rail and fields. Take off the grid and u-drive it icons and it will look even better!!

Will

[M.M.Malwin]

Very nice pictures. I like the atmosphere that is rural with the industries and careers.   

[planetechef]

Looking good  love the railway, nice start.