Xannepans creations

[xannepan]

In my never ending attempt to create a 'playable' Simcity Paris set I am creating a word document with a list that shows growth stage, zone and wealth properties + a small picture for each building. Currently, I have limited my effort to "Haussmann style" residentials and commercial growables and commercial ploppables. Included are my own buildings, porki's and SBFT buildings. Civic and reward, landmark buildings remain to be done. Although not completely finished yet, it is amazing how rich the Paris set is already.

To achieve a playable set I have started modding the existing buildings (with PIM-X) to get a "correct" and consistent distribution accross growth stages, wealth levels and zone types. (the modded DESC/exemplars are not on the STEX or LEX!).

I could use some help and advice. If someone feels up to it, please have a look at the document and give me your opinion + your motivation on where there are gaps, and which properties (stage, wealth, zone) you think would be good to change.

Some additional remarks:

Obviously, you will note that most buildings have growth stage properties in the range between 4-6. One thing I'm trying to figure out is how to deal with lower growth stages (that is which "type" of buildings stage 1-3/4 would fit a Paris set.)

Two options have crossed my mind: (1) buildings such as those you find in Montmartre, or (2) Medieval timber frame buildings (Paris style). In the latter option the development of a city through growth stages would be a kind of historical development through time. In any case I would need to start creating new buildings. Let me know what you think, or if you have alternative thoughts and ideas. Personally I prefer option two because next to Paris buildings I enjou creating medieval buildings too.

One more remark/thought about growth stages: I'm struggling how to deal with the number of stages (8). It seems a bit much for dense W2W european cities (even for medieval ones). Therefore, for many buildings I have created two growable lots for a single building (eg one for stage 5 and a similar one for stage 6). (Effectively, this means that I combine two stages into 1).

One additional thing I have started is to 'disable' all buildings from the Maxis set which (imo) do not fit with the Paris set (in terms of size proportions). On top of that I have excluded the buildings that remain from the Europe set. This way the Europe set will be completely attributed to Hausmann buildings (including perhaps someday the lower stage buildings).

Finally, please feel free to post pictures of buildings + adress (residentials, commercials, civic) that you think would be a nice addition to the set as described above. Please limit your input to residentials or commercials (services/offices) Paris buildings. Civic buildigns are okay too. I have plenty of ideas for landmarks buildings ;-).

-Alex

[DebussyMan]

I love the idea of making medieval buildings the first growth stages and then going up to haussmann style; that's pretty much the type of evolution I've always wanted for my cities.

Regarding suggestions, these might be useful if properly converted to Residential, perhaps located in "transition" stages between the timberframes and the haussmanian: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2302

[philipp3108]

first place that came to my mind was Place Francois in the 1st arrondissement when you mentioned lower growth stages.
dunno if this is what you meant but i like the 3 or 4 story high buildings pretty much.
especially i would like to see some buildings that fit into roundabouts.



i really adore the rue maurice utrillo in montmatre but i doubt the buildings are do-able..

[xannepan]

Good idea carlos.

And philipp: suchpictures are exactly what i meant. Certaintly the firs one is do-able.

-alex

[Lowkee33]

I think about how Paris is a city already, and the lower stages are meant for the rural/per-city life of a region.  If you're going to try to simulate the growth of Paris you will need some non-W2W buildings (a whole bunch of miners too) to be the buildings that get replaced by W2W.

But if you want to simply crank out W2W buildings, it might not be too hard.  Make your whole block one lot, but only give it a corner building or something (stage 1).  This would be technically lower density, and PIMX will adjust stats correctly.  Stage two would be the with the other corner, and then the next stages get denser and denser.  Maybe you need to make something with four corners if you run through the stages too fast.  I could post some images if you want.

I'm going to go off on a tangent here.  I find my block very interesting in terms of growth.  We live very close to the harbor in a brick building.  Our apartment shows it's age in many places, an original bathtub (with faucets like one would attach a hose to), a marble fireplace (non-working now), and a wood stove exhaust vent in the kitchen.  We also have two doors leading to the stairwell, which makes us think this apartment was a shared-bathroom sort of place.  The additions to the building are very clear, two rooms on the first floor, one room and a porch on our floor, and nothing on the 3rd.  We can see the original windows in the bricks, but ours are much nicer now.  All of the buildings on the block are about a foot (or less) apart, and from the back porch we can see all of the little additions that have happened to each separate building.  At one point, life in this area got better, and someone came along and put a new front on all of the buildings and connected them.  From the front this is a W2W block, but the fact is that the buildings are all really separate building blocks.  I think that type of growth would be the ultimate in a SC4 growth simulation, representing spans of density and wealth.

[vortext]

Two options have crossed my mind: (1) buildings such as those you find in Montmartre, or (2) Medieval timber frame buildings (Paris style). In the latter option the development of a city through growth stages would be a kind of historical development through time. In any case I would need to start creating new buildings. Let me know what you think, or if you have alternative thoughts and ideas. Personally I prefer option two because next to Paris buildings I enjou creating medieval buildings too.

I'm very much in favor of the second option too. In fact, it's what I try achieve myself and you're right, there're very little stage 1/2/3/4 buildings that fit an European, w2w enviroment. I also like the suggestion from Carl to create expanding lots, which I've also done myself with these BATs from TCS. Admittedly they look a bit .. erm . . silly shall we say?  I do enjoy watching a city block develop though.

Maybe you could try to create an expanding BAT. That is, start with a simple model for stage 1, add a floor for stage 2, another one for stage 3, an addition on the backside for stage 4 etc. This is also how it was done in RL and would create the typical 'overhang' most tudor buildings have, like so.








Sure these are English examples but it's only to convey the idea most medieval buildings were not created in one go but evolved over time instead. It would be awesome if this could be recreated ingame with corresponding stages. My two cents. 

[Lowkee33]

Sure these are English examples but it's only to convey the idea most medieval buildings were not created in one go but evolved over time instead. It would be awesome if this could be recreated ingame with corresponding stages. My two cents. 

For the sake of clarity, this was what I was trying to convey in my tangent

[philipp3108]

nice to hear that
there are some buildings with a similar size at place francoise

http://maps.google.de/maps?hl=de&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&q=1+Rue+Fran%C3%A7ois+I,+75008+Paris,+%C3%8Ele-de-France,+Frankreich&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47e66fdb4ed2a337:0x130b82c349e737e0,1+Rue+Fran%C3%A7ois+I,+75008+Paris,+Frankreich&gl=de&ei=J0aIT8-GEszBswb3kPiwCw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CCMQ8gEwAA

do you have plans to do some modern buildings as well?
i really like the citroen showroom and the louis vuitton store at champs elysees.
i know it's totally different from what you've did before but...



-philipp

[Girafe]

Check google street Paris: http://maps.google.fr/

Around Rue Saint Jacques you have interesting buildings whic are a good compromise with Haussmann archi:

[Paul 999]

Today i have get a closer look at the Quais de Seine pack. But i don't understand how i can use it, look at this picture:



The wall have a hight of 40m and it looks not so nice as i have see in a MD. What do i wrong?

[philipp3108]

there are two versions. one version with a pedestrian walk and one with a street tile. you just mixed them up.
and the wall is not steepy enough.. you've got to use the terrain tool to fit the perfect size.

[toxicpiano]

The Quais de Seine pack is wonderful, however my one gripe is that none of the pieces have icons in the parks menu 

[Paul 999]

there are two versions. one version with a pedestrian walk and one with a street tile. you just mixed them up.
and the wall is not steepy enough.. you've got to use the terrain tool to fit the perfect size.

How can i make my ground steepy enough? i use the ground tool at the original game and it don't work.

[xannepan]

Icons for quais de Seine can be found in the seaport menu.
For terrain modelling use the mayor mode modeling tools... it will require some practice but it can be done. Also make sure your ground level is not too high...

I'm working on some new Medieval buildings for the lower stages of the 'Paris' set. These are all inspired on screenshots that can be found of medieval worlds.com.

Plenty of variation.. and more to come

[MandelSoft]

You've taken another direction... and yet again you show you're a modeling-master   This will be very usefull for old city centers.

Best,
Maarten

[vortext]

Looks great so far 

Are you also making some corner BATs as well, with a small tower or something? In any case, think I'll leave some room to spare in my city centre 

@Paul 999, with the use of a 15m groundlifter, the walkway will be just above waterlevel. If the cliff still shows through the quay wall, the water is too shallow. Use the terraforming tools to deepen it a bit. Like Alex said, it takes a bit of practice.

[Girafe]

Good work Alex,

It remembers me one of the most beautiful city center in France / Europe, called La Petite France in Strasbourg 

You have begun a nice set, color variations could be fun, and more variety of details like flowers boxes at the windows, lamps... too 

[xannepan]

color variations could be fun, and more variety of details like flowers boxes at the windows, lamps... too

Yep... I think for the high wealth versions I will add flower boxes, lamps etc..
I also will add some civic buildings...
I'm in doubt about varying roof colors (orange maybe).... Personally I like a uniform look, but some variation may be fun.

[rooker1]

Today i have get a closer look at the Quais de Seine pack. But i don't understand how i can use it, look at this picture:



The wall have a hight of 40m and it looks not so nice as i have see in a MD. What do i wrong?

  The perfect depth is about 45 meters. 
  If you use the "zero sealevel dat" to temporarily get rid of all water you than can decorate the river bed and make the wall exactly how you wait it using the hole digging lots.  If you are unhappy with the land height and want to lower it than you lower the river bed by the same amount to be sure you keep that 45 meter difference between the two.  Once you have the hang of it, it is an awesome set.

Robin

[Girafe]

I'm in doubt about varying roof colors (orange maybe).... Personally I like a uniform look, but some variation may be fun.

I think the changes should be "light" maybe more brownish textures for the beams, slight variations for the roofs.

IMHO, the idea is that people could have enough buildings which are close and enough different to buld a small "medieval" village 

In you I trust