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CSGdesign's NATURAL GROWTH

Started by CSGdesign, November 20, 2009, 12:50:42 AM

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Battlecat

Great pair of updates this weekend.  That was an interesting discussion on agriculture there, and a very interesting look at the different zoning characters around your region.  I really like how the major urban portion of your region pretty much hugs the coastline, it's a neat effect. 

CSGdesign

#81


Quote from: Tomas Neto on November 29, 2009, 05:38:01 AM
Yeah, I love this game too!!! My friend, That's a giant update, wooowww!!! Awesome, really awesome work!!! Fantastic!!!  :thumbsup:
Thankyou so much! There are some much larger ones in the depths of the journal, and to come in the future too I'm sure...  I love mosaics - it's just a pity 800 pixels wide is as big as it is practical to get.

Quote from: Battlecat on November 30, 2009, 09:50:47 AM
Great pair of updates this weekend.  That was an interesting discussion on agriculture there, and a very interesting look at the different zoning characters around your region.  I really like how the major urban portion of your region pretty much hugs the coastline, it's a neat effect. 
You noticed the coast-hugging tendency?  That ties back to where sims would rather live - near water and hills... so they're always the first to develop and then the development spreads out from there... the end result is what you see.  Since Boston v2 is largely without hills, you dont see pockets developing on or near hills as you would for another more hilly map if I was to be developing that instead, using this method.



COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
RESULTS ARE SHOWN IN ENTRY #45.



Ok and now we play a little game.
Sorry for the length of time it took to write this entry - I borked my ftp and it took awhile to figure out what was wrong.

So - you know what an "Easter Egg" is in terms of design right?
It's a little something that is hidden in the design somewhere that you only find if you either stumble across it, are a nosy little bugger, or one of the above tells you about it.

We're going to have an easter egg hunt now, but since it's closer to Christmas than to Easter I figured we'd theme it as presents instead of eggs...  Enjoy.


Santa does the pre-christmas drill, training the reindeer and making sure everything is in good working order for "the night".
But something goes horribly wrong!  Oh no someone slipped a few bottles of JD into his mouth... how irresponsible!!



Well, as you can imagine, flying upside down while.. um... happy... isn't really working "with" the grain when it comes to presents in a sack in the back of the sleigh and the concept of gravity...

So yeah a whole bunch of presents fell out, all over boston, and the problem here is that they're the actual presents that need to be delivered on Christmas night (this was a final rehersal)... so we've got real live presents scattered around and real live kiddies that are gonna miss out unless we find them all.

Unfortunately there was a post-war communist russian in charge of choosing the wrapping paper this year, so some of the presents are a bit drab.



The game is simple.

You have until the next update is submitted (update #45) to find as many of these presents scattered throughout the previous entries of the journal as possible.

The winner is the person or people (if there's a tie) that find the most presents, and the winner will have a choice of ONE of the following prizes:

1. The PDF Vector Map of the map used in Entry #28 "Councillors Meet"


2. Naming Rights for the next three newly created outlying city regions.

3. Co-Author (even if you have zero BAT or lot-making skills) on the next CSGdesign BAT, and full credit shared for it.  BAT will be a single lot of my choosing but the winner(s) will have full say in what it looks like and how it functions, within my abilities.


In addition to the winners choice of one of the above three prizes, the winner will be permanently announced in this thread.




There are a few simple rules:

(Please note if I discover I've forgotten some rule that someone brings to my attention by trying it on, I'll change the rules to include it.  Play fair is all I ask.)

1. Submissions must be made before Entry #45 is made by me, in around 5 day's time.  The end date and time will be announced in red bold type at the start of this entry when it is drawing close, with 48 hours notice.

2. Submissions must be made to me by personal message ONLY ONCE per person.
Multiple entries WILL earn you a disqualification from the competition, so BE CAREFUL and ONLY SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY WHEN YOU'RE SURE.
Your entry must include in a simple list form the entry number, the image name, and the colour of the present or the location in the image of the present, PER PRESENT to be an eligible guess.

For example, a submission might resemble the following fictional entry

Hi CSGdesign, my guesses are:
Entry 03, NG03b.jpg, green with white ribbon
Entry 12, NG12c.jpg, red with brown ribbon
Entry 12, NG12d.jpg, brown with red ribbon



3. Any reply or entry in the thread hinting, suggesting, or otherwise giving away the location of presents will earn the poster an instant disqualification from the competition and all future competitions I hold.

4. No asking me for hints, no discussing possible finds or anything else that gives you an unfair advantage over other players. Favouritism will NOT be entered into, and if you try it you'll be warned and then you'll be disqualified.

5. Have fun people, it's a game!!

COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
RESULTS ARE SHOWN IN ENTRY #45.

metarvo

#82
This is a very interesting MD, CSGdesign.  It brings a whole new perspective to city building.  There have been many times that I have carefully planned out a city to the city tile, complete with different shades of green, blue, and yellow for RCI zones, and I often build roads first.  However, natural growth is a good example of another building style.  The mixture of zones seems quite realistic, as it brings houses and businesses closer together, just like in RL.  Keep up the good work!
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

Battlecat

Interesting competition idea!  Should be interesting to see how many you've hidden away here!

Tomas Neto

Yeah, very good idea!!! Nice update!!!  :thumbsup:

CSGdesign

#85


Quote from: metarvo on December 08, 2009, 07:42:44 AM
This is a very interesting MD, CSGdesign.  It brings a whole new perspective to city building.  There have been many times that I have carefully planned out a city to the city tile, complete with different shades of green, blue, and yellow for RCI zones, and I often build roads first.  However, natural growth is a good example of another building style.  The mixture of zones seems quite realistic, as it brings houses and businesses closer together, just like in RL.  Keep up the good work!
Thankyou for your support.  I much prefer this method to pre-planning a city. It has the added benefit of looking complete at every stage, rather than a big city with skyscrapers having a big empty patch to the north that the author hasn't gotten around to putting farms or suburbs in yet, for example.

Quote from: Battlecat on December 08, 2009, 01:38:42 PM
Interesting competition idea!  Should be interesting to see how many you've hidden away here!
33 in total were hidden, and many of those were guessed by Benedict.
Thankyou for your entry, I look forward to seeing what prize Benedict has opted for.

Quote from: Tomas Neto on December 09, 2009, 04:35:49 PM
Yeah, very good idea!!! Nice update!!!  :thumbsup:
Cheers Tomas... where was your entry? Huh? Huh?   :satisfied:

Image names can be obtained by right clicking on them and selecting "properties" from the menu.
Below are the published results of the Presents competition.

Shadow Assassin
Guessed - 14
Number Correct - 14

Benedict - WINNER
Guessed - 23
Number Correct - 21 (one disallowed and the other was the banner of #44 which wasn't included in the competition).

metarvo
Guessed - 16
Number Correct - 16.

Battlecat
Guessed - 9
Number Correct - 9.

aiumkastarkius
Guessed - 11
Number Correct - 10.

NG01c

Correctly found and identified by:
Nobody


NG01o

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict


NG01p

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin


NG03a

Correctly found and identified by:
Nobody


NG04a

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG05a

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict


NG06d

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin


NG09c

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
aiumkastarkius


NG10e

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict


NG10e #2

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict


NG10f

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict


NG14d

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG14d #2

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG14d #3

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat


NG15c

Correctly found and identified by:
Nobody


NG15d

Correctly found and identified by:
Nobody


NG16j

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG20b

Correctly found and identified by:
Nobody


NG20g5

Correctly found and identified by:
Nobody


NG20s

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict
metarvo


NG23f

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict
metarvo


NG31e

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG31e #2

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG31e #3

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict found this but said "but it doesn't look like a present" - so I'm not allowing it as a valid guess.
metarvo


NG36c

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo


NG36f

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG36f #2

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict
metarvo


NG38e

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict


NG39b

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict


NG41e

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
aiumkastarkius


NG41e #2

Correctly found and identified by:
Shadow_Assassin
Benedict
metarvo
Battlecat
aiumkastarkius


NG42j

Correctly found and identified by:
metarvo


NG43j

Correctly found and identified by:
Benedict
metarvo

Congratulations to all entrants, and a special congratulations to Benedict who put in a fine effort, getting 21 out of 33 presents, including some really tough ones.
Benedict can now choose from one of the prizes offered in the previous entry.
All hidden presents will remain in the journal for a few weeks, and then images will be replaced by their originals minus the presents.

Thankyou for playing, and I hope you enjoy the continuing publication of this journal, which now resumes the ab?normal entries.

Battlecat

You did a great job of tucking those away!  I knew I hadn't found all of them, but I've always been really bad at this type of game.  Waldo is hiding from me for all eternity!  It was a fun excuse to go back through and re-read all your posts anyhow.   :)

Congratulations Benedict!

CSGdesign



Quote from: Battlecat on December 14, 2009, 09:08:45 AM
You did a great job of tucking those away!  I knew I hadn't found all of them, but I've always been really bad at this type of game.  Waldo is hiding from me for all eternity!  It was a fun excuse to go back through and re-read all your posts anyhow.   :)

Congratulations Benedict!
Haha I had a great time creating all those hidden pics.
I'll do this again sometime but with easter eggs or something else... but not fer awhile.
Benedict has chosen Naming Rights for the next three newly released regions.






The Boston Central State Fair was erected in 1931, and for almost 60 years has been a traditional exhibition grounds for the annual Boston Ekka, showcasing the growing diversity and quality of produce from around the region.



Photo provided courtesy of Edgar Elektralucks, taken from hot-air balloon approximately mid 1938, shows Boston Central when the Ekka Showground was in some of its first years of operation.
Photo was taken during an off-season period, so the grounds were probably closed at the time.


As Boston City developed and grew, it began to envelope the Ekka grounds, becoming part of the actual CBD rather than a showgrounds near the middle of a bustling township.  This didn't interfere with the Ekka itself, and it didn't really affect Boston CBD either, although Ekka time could be a very problematic time for parking in the CBD area... parking lots sometimes nearly doubled their rates which often hit headlines but was perfectly legal.  Public transport was very heavilly peaked during these times.



Photo provided courtesy of Winston Chapelcliffe, taken mid July 1968, and shows Boston Central and the Ekka Showgrounds again during off-peak season.  It clearly shows the city has begun to encompass the showgrounds.  Interesting to note in particular is the deforestation of the western and eastern ends of town, and the incursion of suburbia into farmland.

Over the last two decades the city's growth has continued unrelentlessly, increasing in both density and sprawl, and in early 1986 the showgrounds were quickly becoming nearer and nearer the centre of the CBD, rather than the outskirts of it.


Photo provided courtesy of Boston City Hall, taken February 12th, 1978.  While it doesn't show a huge amount of difference from the previous picture in 1968, this 1978 shot does show that much of the growth has been in wealth.  What this photograph does not show is the massive outwards sprawl that Boston had witnessed in the 60s, 70's and in particularly later on, in the 80's.


Photograph provided courtesy of Boston City Hall, taken February 12th, 1978.  This photograph clearly shows the structure of the State Fair at that time, and was taken as part of a Natural History Documentation project initiated in the early 1960's and continues to this day.

This was widely considered the Golden Era for the organisers of the Ekka, and represented huge profits, low costs, and a wide participation from the rural community.  But like all things, a Golden Era must eventually end... usually as a steady decline rather than a sudden ending.



Photo provided courtesy of Krizpey-Shikken Architectural Group, September 9th, 1986.  This recent image clearly shows that the showgrounds are now right in the heart of the CBD, which is spready rapidly through the surrounding suburbs and is now completely surrounding the Ekka Showgrounds.

While the showgrounds were still not having a massive impact on the city itself, the pressure was becoming evident in the land-value.  The land that the showgrounds occupied was over 2km^2, and was sitting on some of the highest valued land in the entire region due primarilly to its proximity to the CBD.




This put a great amount of pressure on the local council to sell the land and relocate the grounds to a new location in Boston.

The spin-doctors of course said it was benificial for a range of reasons, pulling out the parking argument often and throwing in some key phrases like "rates rises" to get sims talking. But the reality was that it was all about selling off a valuable asset to get some much needed funds into the city coffers to fund a range of new developments in the pipeline.  Projects like tunnels and bridges to connect the banks of the city in a much more cohesive manner.

So in 1987 Langley Simcorp Incorporated purchased the showgrounds from the council, as part of a development submission to convert the grounds into an integrated part of the CBD.


Photo provided courtesy of Langley Simcorp Inc., taken January 30th, 1987, showing the old Ekka Showgrounds after the redevelopment was completed and construction of the towers began.


Photo provided courtesy of Langley Simcorp Inc., taken January 30th, 1987, showing the old Ekka Showgrounds after the redevelopment was completed and construction of the towers began.  This image shows a wider view of the surrounding city for scale.

Provision for high-density residential and commercial areas were included, a small shopping area at the heart, a park and recreational zone, bus stop, as well as space allowed for the future development of a proposed subway terminal to connect to the existing nearby subway system when demand required it.  It was a bold endeavour, and a very costly investment for Langley Simcorp Inc., but ultimately one that paid off in Spades.



Photo provided courtesy of Boston City Hall, taken February 2nd, 1988.  This image shows the towers after construction was completed.  Note that roadworks needed to be done to cater for the traffic increase not only from this development but many other developments in the Boston Central area.

The new showgrounds were erected in East Central Boston (out of the entire Boston CBD area) and have reported a record profit for the last Ekka season... most likely due to a surge in sims eager to see the new grounds and experience history in the making.

Battlecat

It's always land value that's the killer, and more specifically the property taxes.  Glad to hear the fair found a new location. 

I also like the appearance of those older photos! 

emgmod

I like how the photos are in the exact same spot. I'm still figuring out how to do that.

Did I hear plans for tunnels and bridges in this update too? I want to see the demolition required for them.

CSGdesign


Quote from: Battlecat on December 16, 2009, 09:45:17 AM
It's always land value that's the killer, and more specifically the property taxes.  Glad to hear the fair found a new location. 

I also like the appearance of those older photos! 
I love applying different looks and feels to images.  My only one true dislike about sc4 is the limited vantage point of the viewer (from above).  That was the one thing that got me excited about CXL, but like all the other features of CXL, ultimately dissapointing.

Quote from: emgmod on December 16, 2009, 05:43:24 PM
I like how the photos are in the exact same spot. I'm still figuring out how to do that.

Did I hear plans for tunnels and bridges in this update too? I want to see the demolition required for them.
I lay the photos over each other in photoshop, then render them out one by one with the fade-out border.  That way they're pixel-perfect.  I'm in fact trimming quite a bit of image off the edges to do it.  The other way of course is picking a lot in or some other feature in one of the corners, and always lining up to that in-game before taking the snap.

Yes, there are many many things in the future, although I have no idea what or where until it happens... Afterall I simply follow what demand dictates.  However when the inevitable new bridge(s) and tunnel(s) are built I will certainly be documenting it.





After many years of back and forthing, of delaying in parliment, of licensing mishaps, and all manner of red tape, finally the almighty Simolean triumphed over the evil of bureacracy, and the Silica Mine at Executor's Bay was approved for development.

Located halfway between Whitesands Inlet and Orthanc Quay (Boston's northern neighbour), along the Great Northern Bay Road, the Silica Mine was a large expanse of nearly pure white sand buried only inches below the surface vegetation, and reaching down for many meters, forming a huge natural bowl of pure white fine-grain sand.


Starting at the natural lake, Lake Wannaswim, the top layer of vegetation was scraped off and piled up, ready to burn.


Tree-roots represented the single largest barrier between the sand and the miners, so it was important to remove all trees by dragging them over with heavy machinery, pulling as many of the large roots out as possible.
Once piled up the wood piles were incinerated.


The Site Office was located at the west, facing towards Whitesands Inlet which was the direction the bulk of the sand would be taken, to be sold to industry to make concrete, grouts, and other building materials, and to use in landscaping.


Once the top layer of sand was exposed the water sifting equipment could be moved in to process the sand into completely pure piles, ready to be loaded onto trucks and hauled to local industry and depots.


In only one short month the mine was ready for the sand-sifting equipment to be brought in, utilising the natural lake, and begin the sand trenching.

Industry licked its lips.

Battlecat

Interesting development!  A nice source of sand like that one is very unlikely to go untouched!

Tomas Neto

Wow my friend, really fantastic updates!!! Your region is growing fast!!!  :thumbsup:

CSGdesign


Quote from: Battlecat on December 18, 2009, 10:58:05 AM
Interesting development!  A nice source of sand like that one is very unlikely to go untouched!
There are a number of nice deposits around the region, as outlined in Entry #16 "Plenty Of Prospects"... these include coal, gold, uranium, iron ore, bauxite, silica, etc.
All of these will be mined eventually, using their various mining techniques.  Industry in Orthanc Quay is likely to benefit a lot from this particular lode.

Quote from: Tomas Neto on December 23, 2009, 01:45:11 PM
Wow my friend, really fantastic updates!!! Your region is growing fast!!!  :thumbsup:
Not fast enough ! Hahah.  It seems like I'm crawling my way towards the 1 million mark... I expect to hit it in the next few days.  I could zone medium or even high into grids and get there in an hour or so, but creating a realistic growth is very important to me and my satisfaction with the game.  It will make it that much more rewarding for me when I do hit that mark.




Crystal Bay has only been accessable by road up until now.  With the expansion of Boston's Rail system to the north, Crystal Bay is one of the first of the northern suburbs to be brought online.


Commuters living in the northern suburbs of Crystal Bay were becoming more and more in numbers, and often would make trips not only to the busy commercial district in Oogley, but even through the very heart of Boston and out to places like South Point and Jacobfarm.  As these commuters grew in number, the traffic become less and less tolerable.  "Highways!" screamed many parties, but in the end rails were chosen as the most economical and least invasive method of moving all these sims back and forth.  Highways involved very serious upheaval, while rails required only a few new connections and a few upgrades into duel-carriage lines.

And so plans were made, submitted, rejected, redrafted, and eventually proposals were turned into tenders, and tenders into contracts, and contracts came to be concrete, gravel and steel.



New dual-carriage outter ring-rail lines leading from Oogley up north through Copper-Rocks and west into Khole Inlet.  The new Crystal Bay line can also be seen running north from Copper-Rocks.



The successful proposal required that minimal disturbance to Copper-Rocks was incurred, as well as the lower cost, appropriate gradient, and a reasonably efficient route.


The Dual-Carriage Ring-Rail line was laid through mostly resumed farmlands, the cost of which was made back by rezoning and selling the land to developers as commerical, residential and industrial sectors hugging the new line.  Much of the pre-existing farmlands was left untouched, and the end result was a very minimal disturbance to Copper-Rocks.


The rail station used throughout the project was a new design by Sir Everon Marrast, a german architectural engineer.


The tracks also had to circumvent the budding township of Fargo, sitting between Copper-Rocks and Crystal Bay.  The successful proposal acheived this by running around the north of the town so as to avoid the slight but still too steep grade of the hill to its south.


The large industrial sector of Crystal Bay, which was rapidly moving towards high-end and clean industry, needed a more efficient means of moving its product, as well as direct rail access to Boston's ports... this alone would relieve a great deal of road traffic.


Both a freight station as well as a passenger station were installed at the terminus, to encourage commuting to work by rail rather than bus, further releaving the burdened road system.


One of the more difficult parts of the proposal involved the rail passing either through a stretch of suburbia near Crystal Bay's west shores, or around it through a reasonably high grade hill that would need to be cut to make passage.


In the end cutting through the hill was judged most effective even though it was marginally more expensive than resuming the homes along the shoreline.


The proposed terminus of the Crystal Bay line... a Valencia Orange farm that was close to 35 years old.


A small line of commerce was placed near the terminus station - cafe's, hairdressers, and other small businesses would make good use of the traffic to and from the station.

Now that Crystal Bay was wired into the new Dual-Carriage line running between the outer northern suburbs, commuters had a fast and inexpensive means of moving between areas in the city, and almost no upgrade to the existing road system was required, beyond the normal upgrading of intersections and busier roads.

This in turn, paths the way for Crystal Bay and even Whitesands Inlet to become thriving coastal retreats...

Commerce descended like bees to a honey pot.

Battlecat

That was a convenient route, you really did manage to punch that through with minimal impact.  I'm sure the local industry will appreciate the rail line as well.!

Tomas Neto

Well developed rural area, and with well planned surburbs too! The Dual-Carriage Ring-Rail line also is a great idea!!!  :thumbsup:
Merry Christmas !!!

CSGdesign


Quote from: Battlecat on December 25, 2009, 07:37:02 AM
That was a convenient route, you really did manage to punch that through with minimal impact.  I'm sure the local industry will appreciate the rail line as well.!
I try to make upgrades as minimally impacting as possible, and leave the simulator running while I do it, simulating traffic disturbances to work commutes, etc.

Quote from: Tomas Neto on December 25, 2009, 10:20:03 AM
Well developed rural area, and with well planned surburbs too! The Dual-Carriage Ring-Rail line also is a great idea!!!  :thumbsup:
Merry Christmas !!!
Thanks Tomas Neto! You too! Hope you have a good New Year!



At exactly 4.15am, Thursday February 15th, 1990 Boston finally hit the 1,000,000 sim population count, according to census.

Such a huge milestone deserves a significant mark left by it, so let's take a moment to step out of our traditional view of Boston, and see what it's like from the eyes of the million digital sims that now inhabit the region.

Boston CBD as seen through traditional SC4 Wot Deity eyes:


A similar perspective as we move away from Wot Deity eyes and into the eyes of one of the landing jets coming in to Boston Central Airport:



As the jet continues to land, we approach the ground level, and can see Boston take shape for the first time ever outside of our own Wot vantage point:


Coming in for final approach at the Boston Central Airport, we leave our heavenly Wot vantage point, and become as one with our faithful and lovingly devoted sims:



Looking from the north bank of Boston across Boston River Main towards the CBD, with the Carlson Esanda Memorial Bridge in the foreground (this is a wide-angle shot to show much of the opposite bank):


I dunno about you but I think the Boston sims have a good view across the river, even while the CBD is still tiny and relatively low-density compared to what it becomes after the game-year 2010...  but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

mightygoose

aha these look fantastic and i bet lots of people are wondering how he did that, and yes those are simcity buildings in those perspective shots........
NAM + CAM + RAM + SAM, that's how I roll....

metarvo

#98
SimCity 4 has gone 3-D?

:o

My eyes just about popped out of my head when I saw that!  If I had seen that last picture anywhere else, I would have almost certainly thought it was from RL.  That's quite a view you've shown us, CSG, and it is one of my favorite night shots that I've seen.

&apls
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

emgmod

#99
That... is just awesome.

Something in my head is making me think that you used Google Earth to make this. It's my best guess until you tell us how you did it.
Edit: I found out how you did it. I should read your blog more.