I thought I might start a showcase of my cities here as well, and I say "showcase" because I'm not really that creative to create a "real" MD here. Quite often, I don't play SimCity for weeks, and then there are days where I'm glued to the PC for many hours and build half of a whole city at once. ;) I'm a rather slow player, and I can spend hours over a tiny detail. Since the release of the game in january 2003, I'm slowly developing one of the four or five regions that I have, and none of them is finished so far. I jump between them, and often come back months or even years later when I have some new ideas, so I will use this thread as a showcase for all my regions. Some of you might have seen my CJs/MDs at SimForum, and I also posted some of the pics at PEG's forum, and there are even one or two threads buried at ST's CJ section.
Anyway, let's jump right in to my most current region, "Perth", which is based on an actual map of Perth that I found at the STEX. I only used a part of it and took quite some liberties when terraforming it to my liking, but the general shape should be recognizable. The cities itself aren't shaped after the real city, though. My Perth map consists of four large cities - not more, as it would take years to fill them with my slow playing style. ;) As a start, here's a screenshot of the transportation map (I'm using ImageShack thumbnails, so the pages don't take that long to load):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg154.imageshack.us%2Fimg154%2F9180%2Fperth00jb5.th.jpg&hash=91516e7467b9f327009938bd0c95231ff18a3d28) (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth00jb5.jpg)
As you can see, there was quite some development; the region already has 373,000 residents, about 300,000 are living in Perth alone. Cannington and Stirling have about 20,000 inhabitants each, and Freemantle 30,000 at the moment. The commercial jobs are located in Perth (100,000) and Stirling (10,000), the industrial jobs also in Perth (80,000) and in Freemantle (37,000). The Swan River is crossed by several bridges, and there are also a few ferry lines. Freemantle has a seaport, and the airport of the region is located in Perth (I know that the airports only influence the city they are localized in, but hey, I wanted to create a realistic city ;) ).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg88.imageshack.us%2Fimg88%2F3736%2Fperth13ld2.th.jpg&hash=1d3115db3d27504963d1ab391c408a146e4c409a) (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth13ld2.jpg)
So let's start with the first city, Perth. As in my last regions, I already started with a regional transit network with the most important highways and such, and in order to push the demand levels in Perth a bit, I started the other cities as well, up to the figures I mentioned above. Of course, I'm far from done, and therefore, they don't look that great so far. As you can see, the skyline shows quite some "holes", and there's lots of undeveloped land that's only crossed by some avenues - my future planning axis.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg154.imageshack.us%2Fimg154%2F360%2Fperth01gu2.th.jpg&hash=e5f5195f6a97d3459aa8d4d85da2ac86f4b37044) (http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth01gu2.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg101.imageshack.us%2Fimg101%2F5898%2Fperth02ey9.th.jpg&hash=39673856a9f7ebe00f48d8e2ff1f1f3ffd4f1ded) (http://img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth02ey9.jpg)
Nevertheless, some areas have developed quite nicely already, here are two pictures of the historic downtown, which is entirely consisting of Chicago and New York tileset buildings. The tallest buildings are Wren Insurance and Futa Consulting - and I don't really intend to go even taller here, since the skyscrapers are supposed to be reserved for the modern downtown (I'll come back to that later). At the upper border of the picture, you can see the GLR network, which I used extensively for the very first time.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg98.imageshack.us%2Fimg98%2F3413%2Fperth03hh0.th.jpg&hash=317fa098c4da6b2eb22f246be639b5760212713b) (http://img98.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth03hh0.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg155.imageshack.us%2Fimg155%2F6796%2Fperth04my8.th.jpg&hash=9beb6b1ffb6939d74b4df23b3379aa012e296b32) (http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth04my8.jpg)
I always wanted to have such a large "box" like SimGoober's Monkey Wards Department Store - somehow, you always find something like that in any downtown. Actually, it's pretty ugly, but on the other hand, not every building of a city can be nice. ;) It creates a nice contrast together with the modern Summit Building B as well. The residential development in the neighborhood also lives from the contrasts, as you can see on the right picture.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg66.imageshack.us%2Fimg66%2F1522%2Fperth05ck1.th.jpg&hash=4e4935f0229ecb33aa51b2acb2b28165dab54d95) (http://img66.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth05ck1.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg87.imageshack.us%2Fimg87%2F7329%2Fperth06pr5.th.jpg&hash=e646965864c6369e7c968b8fe984ca5e81974da2) (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth06pr5.jpg)
Of course, Perth has also a waterfront, and it has developed rather well so far. One bend of the Swan River is reserved to residential development, the other will feature my commercial downtown. This is the only place so far where I used the Houston and Euro tilesets intensively. The airport can be found just across the river, connected with a nice modern bridge. At the moment, the downtown looks a bit out of place, but I'm planning to put the highway below the surface with blahdy's "Big Dig" lots. The adjacent residential quarter will be bulldozed again to obtain more space for the downtown. For this plans, I'll have to expand the city even further, though, since the commercial demand (CO§§§ in particular) isn't that great so far.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg87.imageshack.us%2Fimg87%2F4871%2Fperth07fk8.th.jpg&hash=a55c6340d725545ca06b9b99533fcc52b7b94655) (http://img87.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth07fk8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg153.imageshack.us%2Fimg153%2F2015%2Fperth08ap3.th.jpg&hash=1aa98cb2e5c6ec813f93133b1ce802c1d65074de) (http://img153.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth08ap3.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg145.imageshack.us%2Fimg145%2F9113%2Fperth09xt0.th.jpg&hash=05e6047ba9e765beaf325d7fe8a6c09259557e4b) (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth09xt0.jpg)
As usual, I also placed some parks in Perth, either rather small ones between the skyscrapers, or a bit larger, surrounding some civic facilities. Unfortunately, stephenhh's Hamburg buildings are quite "active", once you activate the Euro tileset, and drive out all other rowhomes, but on the other hand, you'll get some nice uniform rows of buildings, esp. along the GLR lines. Nevertheless, I'll have to "clean out" some of the other row home districts a bit later.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg95.imageshack.us%2Fimg95%2F731%2Fperth10fv2.th.jpg&hash=ff0f44284e0b091bf653dcb240021b2bde1ce6da) (http://img95.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth10fv2.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg83.imageshack.us%2Fimg83%2F4175%2Fperth11uz6.th.jpg&hash=29481acc244ce62180e798eb43757f464fb85ea6) (http://img83.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth11uz6.jpg)
Here are two screenshots with the rowhomes from the other tilesets, as mentioned above. I already weeded them out a bit, but with some patience, they'll grow back eventually. They look especially nice at the slopes of the hills, I'd say.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg88.imageshack.us%2Fimg88%2F9376%2Fperth12tm1.th.jpg&hash=e29e404395bd90d7708036b46b60abd47a42899b) (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth12tm1.jpg)
This is my current suburb development program. At the moment, the whole thing is still rather separated from the rest of the city, but the general appearance has become really nice already. In this quarter, about 80,000 sims found their home within a very small space, and towards the left border of the pic, the development turns from high to lower densities really nicely. The future center of the quarter has been filled with several civic facilities, and I made good use of some modern BATs, rather than the Maxis buildings I use all the time.
As I said, this is still a construction site in many places, esp. the downtown doesn't look that great so far, but some nice spots have developed already. Let's see how the city develops later... Feel free to comment on certain details, and don't be shy to make suggestions or point out weak spots - I'm not looking for praise, but for valuable input in order to make my cities even better. :)
Very nice, proud to be the first visitor!
It looks very "maxish", but neverless I like it , looks kinda retro :)
Yeah, nice to see you in the MD section :thumbsup:
I specially like the building selection you used in your last picture. Very similar to the one I am using actually ;D
Andreas,
There are some really nice shots here, but I was blown away by the high-rise residential development in the last shot. I have been trying to make one of these in my own city without a great deal of success, and you have given me inspiration. Thanks!
Stewart
Andreas, this region looks splendid and you have some very cool and interesting developement going on there, espacially like that bigger park and your rowhomes on the slopes :thumbsup:
Will be one to follow, definatly
Great to see you here, too!
Great region and fantastic pictures of that region! :thumbsup:
Great start Andreas! Really a nice looking city you have.
I especially like the cast that you're not scared of a bit of slope... the GLR over the hill looks great!
&apls
Nice start Andreas! Is there any chance you could use full size images next time around, I find it takes ages for imageshack to load them when you have to click them like that, its pretty weird actually considering how fast they load when full size ()what().
Fred
I knew your beautiful work with the BAT and the LE ... but I didn't know your city
Il's very nice, very spaced even in downtown area and I like that :thumbsup:
Bravo &apls
Thanks for the feedback, everyone! :)
@metasmurf: Well, I really like the Maxis buildings, that's why you still find a great number of in-game content, rather than custom BATs and lots only. Nevertheless, my plugins folder is almost 1.5 GB now, but I'll try to find custom stuff that integrates well with the Maxis models.
@stewart_garden: I'm somewhat proud of the suburban highrise quarter as well. I guess it's the first time where I was really able to build a large suburb with those - but it also caused some serious traffic problems, which I will cover below.
@Owen Luby: Yeah, I'll try to use the natural landscape and integrate it in my cities. I don't like flat cities with no topography whatsoever, that's why my maps are always based on some real geographical data.
@freedo50: Unfortunately, I can't change the pictures right now - I've already uploaded over 80 screenshots to ImageShack and saved the thumbnail links (as well as the text, so I can post more stuff over the next few days). In addition, you'll have to scroll horizontally if your screen resolution isn't higher than 1024x768, and that's something I'm trying to avoid. What I do in such cases is opening all thumbnail links in background tabs, and then I can look at them one by one, without having to wait too long.
@Snaper: Actually, I don't BAT - it's the other SFBT members who are doing the BAT work, and I'm responsible for the modding and publishing part.
As mentioned before, I did some planning for redesigning the downtown, which obviously shows my usual tactic to slap a few rectangular blocks onto the map, for making my first money without too much effort. Sometimes I'll leave these blocks, if it turns out well as some kind of "historic district", but in this case, I decided from the very beginning that I won't keep those ugly grid structure.
The highway is supposed to sink below the ground to make room for a modern downtown, and the monotonous midrises are going to be replaced with taller residential buildings, which will push my commmercial demand on the one hand, and assure short commute times due to their proximity to the commercial downtown on the other hand, even if I don't implement a vast public transportation system. Well, enough words for now, here's an outline of what I have in mind (please apologize the German captions, I made this for the German SimForum in the first place):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg78.imageshack.us%2Fimg78%2F6176%2Fperth14dk8.th.jpg&hash=577f9454d5995a834a3fccd69f25842876d7a6a6) (http://img78.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth14dk8.jpg)
In the first step, I'll concentrate on the yellow and blue areas, the green area will follow sometimes in the future. The old and the new downtown won't be separated by the highway, and the "hole" in the skyline will vanish eventually. Apart from that, I'll surprise myself; as usual, you can't plan every detail if you rely on growables, rather than ploppables. ;) Here's a short translation of the captions:
Autobahn-Tunnelportal - highway tunnel entrance
Tunnel-Ein-/Ausfahrt - tunnel onramp/offramp
historische Altstadt - historic downtown
Erweiterung - extension
erweitertes Planungsgebiet - extended planning area
So let's start right away and show the first results:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg99.imageshack.us%2Fimg99%2F748%2Fperth15aj0.th.jpg&hash=72f5add7f3470c3d2e7a2b6581bee5126e0e45ce) (http://img99.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth15aj0.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg75.imageshack.us%2Fimg75%2F2985%2Fperth16kc5.th.jpg&hash=d2b53b03f98adc5878755129fc1de6e512173bbf) (http://img75.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth16kc5.jpg)
left: before - right: afterwards
Quite a difference, huh? As you can see, the highway disappeared below the surface, and the space is occupied by skyscrapers now. As I said, I used blahdy's "Big Dig" lots to accomplish this. For those who are not familiar with these: They're basically "subway stations" that convert incoming car traffic to subway passengers and the other way round. With this trick it's possible to route commuters below the ground, saving valuable space.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg157.imageshack.us%2Fimg157%2F708%2Fperth18ej6.th.jpg&hash=bdc65345c6de188fc0cd91b345cc35df82f8ccd3) (http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth18ej6.jpg)
This is the underground view. Actually, I wouldn't need doubled tubes for proper functionality, but I'd say it looks better this way. The lots are still in beta stage, but as it seems, they work fine, and they are definitely a great help in dealing with traffic in downtown situations.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg112.imageshack.us%2Fimg112%2F9053%2Fperth19le8.th.jpg&hash=8a80b923892f9191a19c7b151e65dc9d2990042b) (http://img112.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth19le8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg70.imageshack.us%2Fimg70%2F7715%2Fperth20vh2.th.jpg&hash=20f806f88a3b580461ad48bf150a91c33508bd08) (http://img70.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth20vh2.jpg)
Some more detail shots of the setup. The large tunnel entrance is clearly visible, but do you spot all the onramps and offramps between the buildings? The picture on the right shows two Richmand B towers, where I was really lucky to get them in this configuration (remember, I don't use ploppable RCI lots). They form a really nice portal to the new downtown. :)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg161.imageshack.us%2Fimg161%2F8725%2Fperth21dt4.th.jpg&hash=0a40d43c5417359a944f76fab399e84e576dff27) (http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth21dt4.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg161.imageshack.us%2Fimg161%2F9667%2Fperth22ey2.th.jpg&hash=cde6ddd09ff2fc8a16a8f53d1e7743f27ffd44c6) (http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth22ey2.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg68.imageshack.us%2Fimg68%2F2361%2Fperth23ip7.th.jpg&hash=14628b0b28796257f79d655649a5537a33c7fe57) (http://img68.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth23ip7.jpg)
The Hatfield Courthouse (left picture) is really one of sparkythepenguin's masterpieces, and it looks wonderful in such half-open situations. The other two pics are showing some of the tunnel on- and offramps around the stock exchange plaza.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg58.imageshack.us%2Fimg58%2F4681%2Fperth24ah4.th.jpg&hash=86ba0cbf405459f1372be9c57432aa3445e91c3a) (http://img58.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth24ah4.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg161.imageshack.us%2Fimg161%2F5098%2Fperth25xe1.th.jpg&hash=ca5dc779df76fe5951809df4fb6ca4631332e496) (http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth25xe1.jpg)
And since the downtown is so colorful and dense, here are another two shots of the tunnel ramps between the skyscrapers. Buses, trucks and emergency vehicles can't pass the tunnels unfortunately, but they are used by the car through-traffic, and that's basically their main purpose anyway.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg161.imageshack.us%2Fimg161%2F2590%2Fperth26po9.th.jpg&hash=ae829fbd1bc5bbb58dffa8224ab9bf16bfecaf54) (http://img161.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth26po9.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg123.imageshack.us%2Fimg123%2F6267%2Fperth27ro3.th.jpg&hash=8e0baf61b1206d065adc4e4479ad5a74ed70bef3) (http://img123.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth27ro3.jpg)
Another two screenshots of the waterfront, one with the commercial part, and one with the residential part. The street on the last picture is quite heavily used, as you can imagine, but fortunately, I'm using my slightly modified "better pathfinding" traffic plugin, where I tripled the capacity of the streets. Of course, there are a couple of bus stations just around the corner, in order to ease the traffic. Since the downtown is in the vicinity as well, it doesn't affect commute times too severely.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg99.imageshack.us%2Fimg99%2F4933%2Fperth17oj4.th.jpg&hash=d6e26cfaa735bafc56e98cbcdfae4d27805bce7e) (http://img99.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth17oj4.jpg)
Finally, an overview from another perspective; as you can see, the "hole" in the skyline has almost vanished, and the transition between the historic downtown and the modern one is rather smooth. The residential area next to the waterfront connects to the commercial part very well, too.
Maybe I'll change the highway bridge a bit, so I can move the tunnel entrance closer to the river, this will close the ugly gap right around the PDA Headquarters. Another possibility would be to relocate the convention center to the other river bank, next to the airport. The Marrast embankment lots also feature some overhanging props, so I can close the river bank walkway (the ferry port could be relocated as well, if necessary).
Great work Andreas :thumbsup:
I must say, that I've seen better cities but yours look so fresh. Brings memories when I played the game instead of creating pics to my CJs ;D
A lot of fantastic new pictures you have there, Andreas! :thumbsup:
@Bengt: Well, yes, I don't try to build "better looking" cities, but I'll try to keep it realistic. There are surely some ugly areas, but I've taken care of those, as you can see below. ;)
@bat: Thanks again! Don't be afraid to point out what you like in particular, though - and if you can't express yourself in English that well, feel free to post in German. :thumbsup:
Ok, let's continue with the tour across the city, starting with another pic of the historic downtown, which has been extended by a few new attractions. :) The Chicago Tribune Tower I already showed you didn't fit in that well, so I bulldozed it again - together with the huge and rather ugly Eastland Grand Tower. The replacement, SimGoober's Omni Hotel, isn't a really beauty as well, but it's a nice connection between the historic buildings and the new development.
A new Chicago Tribune Building has grown in the vicinity, right next to a massive Fisk Insurance. The Reamon Plaza just around the corner is another addition that closes the gap in the skyline, and the old Chicago Tribune lot has been overgrown with McClellan Inc., which fits in nicely.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg429.imageshack.us%2Fimg429%2F5057%2Fperth28zk5.th.jpg&hash=dc56e25213cf0f1e7125626971ab85074471f254) (http://img429.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth28zk5.jpg)
I also created a small "waterfront park" by joining the two embankment stretches, creating a continuous walk along the Swan River - only at the ferry port, the sims have to cross a road.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg225.imageshack.us%2Fimg225%2F6416%2Fperth29qv7.th.jpg&hash=d021cde64eef3a71228135f98f4eb88b48e719f4) (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth29qv7.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg225.imageshack.us%2Fimg225%2F2426%2Fperth30bo8.th.jpg&hash=7ce6842f762578ae23eed75717c8bfa01254dec1) (http://img225.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth30bo8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg242.imageshack.us%2Fimg242%2F8859%2Fperth31dn3.th.jpg&hash=fec34ea660fae8285eed06fe6e49541d90c05278) (http://img242.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth31dn3.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg221.imageshack.us%2Fimg221%2F2479%2Fperth32vr7.th.jpg&hash=04c6bc961133bd7f48e490d1d74c23ba006f9b13) (http://img221.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth32vr7.jpg)
The "Big Dig" tunnel was extended a bit as well, so I could add some buildings right next to the park. At the moment, there isn't enough demand for really tall buildings at this place, though. I like the walkway below the "Harbor Bridge" in particular, and I'm also glad that the ferry port uses the same base texture as the embankment lots. As you might have noticed, I had to "cheat" a bit, since the height of the terrain isn't equal, but it almost looks like there could be some stairs or something like this, at least from this perspective.
Then I started with redesigning the western part of the city center, which I marked in green in the plan above (http://img78.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth14dk8.jpg). I wasn't really sure if I could turn the monotonous R-$ development into something more appealing, but after looking at the transformation process, I'm quite delighted how it turned out.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg471.imageshack.us%2Fimg471%2F2908%2Fperth33an8.th.jpg&hash=09faac8abd6f9f438729169f2c95bc6dec9c1a88) (http://img471.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth33an8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg471.imageshack.us%2Fimg471%2F6913%2Fperth34ca3.th.jpg&hash=0dd3e47c454f0c36c80037cad1b91a8c501a935b) (http://img471.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth34ca3.jpg)
After tearing down the whole quarter, I placed a large park in the center (and if you know me, you know what I mean with "large" ;) ), then I added high density residential zones around (left picture). I upgraded the road towards the downtown to an avenue, which supports the highway that runs into the same direction (right pic). I also added some sound walls to the highway.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg340.imageshack.us%2Fimg340%2F503%2Fperth35qu4.th.jpg&hash=0ee5e056b5506651163bbc808ea54188cde29380) (http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth35qu4.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg340.imageshack.us%2Fimg340%2F4039%2Fperth36tb2.th.jpg&hash=3520480d4c0d158df2ec12f273536f273945008a) (http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth36tb2.jpg)
I also made some changes to the outskirts of the Westend, creating a transition to the pre-existing commercial service area. This time, I developed a large suburban area with Dusktrooper's loft buildings. As you can imagine, it was a huge amount of work, but now you can find the impressive amount of 47 Belton and Jacinto lofts here. Admittedly, it looks quite overpowering in the bird's eye view, but if you zoom a bit closer, a nice urban flair is developing. And compared to Hong Kong or any other large city with huge amounts of skyscrapers next to each other, this quarter is rather harmless, I guess. ;)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg340.imageshack.us%2Fimg340%2F3484%2Fperth37qy6.th.jpg&hash=910ceace8e08357d936f11053a5c3bc923af2665) (http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth37qy6.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg323.imageshack.us%2Fimg323%2F5088%2Fperth38ub9.th.jpg&hash=e88c1a563c22da0cbcde2d52427997c31183fad7) (http://img323.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth38ub9.jpg)
Finally, a screenshot of the airport, which got a decent connection to the city at last, and a picture of my current public transportation system. In the city center, the traffic becomes unbearable, although I placed huge amounts of bus stops, so the development of a subway system is inevitable. I left out the tram from the city center completely, since it takes too much space there.
I'm planning three different subway lines, although the U3 towards the airport is rather cosmetic, since the game doesn't simulate traffic to and from an airport. But I hope that some commuters will use it anyway and switch over to the rail at the modern station, heading towards Cannington in the south. Here's a small translation of the map:
LEGENDE - LEGEND
Eisenbahn - railway
Straßenbahn - tram
U1 (geplant) - subway line U1 (planned)
This is quite the Metropolis you have created here, the names do remind me a bit about Frankfurt, maybe not a coincidence? :)
The last transportation map is very nice, and great to be able to follow your ideas how to develop this city futher. I am also quite impressed by the way you have grown al the DT lofts in the same neighbourhood, I am guessing the developers wet dream to be allowed to put down so many of the same buildings.
That's another great update, Andreas!
The "downtown" looks fantastic! Also nice picture of the bridge! and the roadmap! :thumbsup:
My, but you have created some impressive CBDs there, Andreas. I especially liked the photo with the tall red building on the center right ("perth05ck I believe"). You have a flair for creating imposing shoreline cities too, a talent I sorely lack.
Hope to see more soon ...
Joan
Nice work!
I like that map!
I am following this one for sure! &apls
As usual, thanks for the compliments, much appreciated. :)
@kwakelaar: You mean "Westend" and stuff like this? Hehe, true, that was somewhat influenced by Frankfurt indeed, and generally speaking, my building style is somewhat affected of what I'm used to see in Frankfurt (which is the nearest capital from here, and obviously the one I know best). My downtowns/suburbs/... aren't exactly a detailed reproduction of the real world, but I'll try to implement real-world ideas into my cities, an it's surprising how well it works sometimes. And boy, that DT loft quarter was somewhat hard to get. I had to bulldoze countless buildings that grew on the 3x3 lots I zoned, but in the end, it was an interesting experiment that turned out quite well.
@bat, Owen Luby: The "roadmap" is more of a "railmap", but I thought it is a good way to plan (and explain) certain things. Basically, I "stole" the idea from paletexan (Anyone remember this guy? He was one of the very first players who created a city journal, setting up a dedicated webpage for this. It's still online at http://www.485group.com/sc4/index.php (http://www.485group.com/sc4/index.php)! :) ), so I can't take credit for that. ;)
@Joan: That red building is "Central Park West" by cob32118, and I like it a lot as well. I always envied the waterfronts I saw in other CJs/MDs, so I tried to get something equivalent as well - and it didn't turn out too bad, as it seems.
As mentioned above, I'm always experimenting with new ideas how to enhance the city, and how to create stuff in a certain way. One example is the suburban development "Perth North-West", which rapidly turned into a major traffic nightmare. Below is a diagram of the situation, and what I did to improve the traffic flow:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg118.imageshack.us%2Fimg118%2F6012%2Fperth39sk0.th.jpg&hash=d1f462ebed0cef3f37c1def4d5e3b2a8f599a5f5) (http://img118.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth39sk0.jpg)
Currently, there are about 100,000 residents living in Perth North-West, and all of them either communte into the neighboring cities, Stirling and Freemantle, to the downtown, or to the large industrial area east of the city. As usual, the sims are beyond stupid by always using the shortest route, instead of using the well developed major arteries. Therefore, I had to use some tricks to keep them out of my residential areas.
To achieve this, I built a monorail line that connects the quarter to the industrial area in the east (right border of the screenshot), and to Stirling in the west. It's always the shortest route, so a large amount of commuters actually use the monorail. The stations by Brenda_XNE have a capacity of 10,000, but are still maxed out hopelessly (at least 300 or 400%). Fortunately, the monorail doesn't suffer from congestion, that means, it won't add up to the communte time.
The curved avenue marked in red has been there before, and is also well used. There's a new shortcut next to SimGoober's large mall, that fits very well on this lot, surrounded by avenues. I also had to create a bypass for the croweded one-way roads along the tram line, and since a high-wealth residential area was "in the way", I simply decided to build a tunnel beneath it. To my surprise, nearly all commuters actually use the tunnel, rather than looking for shortcuts through the residential area. :)
Translation of the legend on the pic:
Hauptverkehrsströme = Main traffic flows
Allee Richtung Stirling = Avenue towards Stirling
Allee Richtung Innenstadt = Avenue towards downtowm
Allee Richtung Industriegebiet Ost = Avenue towards industrial area in the east
Straßenbahn = tram line
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg175.imageshack.us%2Fimg175%2F6990%2Fperth40kc6.th.jpg&hash=e75e7aa923b2d0604e2cdd78e7ded4fca08c5d48) (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth40kc6.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg175.imageshack.us%2Fimg175%2F5515%2Fperth41pi0.th.jpg&hash=2798e1a70fd3fc1c73e90e91a1190e1ec347ccaa) (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth41pi0.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg313.imageshack.us%2Fimg313%2F1002%2Fperth42pq6.th.jpg&hash=d152069889d76d96718895c11ee0f6fc37be82c0) (http://img313.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth42pq6.jpg)
Between Perth North-West and the low density residentials in the hills north of downtown I built the Mediapark and the Köln Arena, created by bandito (those are both well-known landmarks from Cologne, Germany), which serve als cultural and recreational facilities. The Mediapark provides about 6,000 CS-$$ Jobs, one of the rare occasions where I used a ploppable with jobs. I'm planning to convert it into a large growable soon, thanks to BarbyW's discovery how to create growable mega lots.
Superstar's Riverside College looks wonderful as well at this place, and I had the rare luck of getting a KOIN-Center and Nordstrom's right next to each other. Both are using the same brown wall texture, therefore, it looks like they really belong together. :) I also used the BSC park set for the very first time; I think, it looks pretty well next to the modern Mediapark lot.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg175.imageshack.us%2Fimg175%2F3519%2Fperth43bd3.th.jpg&hash=4ae6ca9d99a17236328b5ce9d8f7dffdd8e9550c) (http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth43bd3.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg115.imageshack.us%2Fimg115%2F4528%2Fperth44tm7.th.jpg&hash=9c77ba3cdb4b0dac364aa29de91148139b0e6dff) (http://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth44tm7.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg179.imageshack.us%2Fimg179%2F6031%2Fperth45nt8.th.jpg&hash=f320a8d69c9eaf5c9c92db099a7d70dc3bf24804) (http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth45nt8.jpg)
The hills north of downtown are covered by a large low-density residential area, where I used all kinds of streets and roads with diagonals, roundabouts, cul-de-sacs and what not. And although some lot foundations show up now and then, I think the whole area looks pretty well, considering that it's built entirely on a large slope.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg149.imageshack.us%2Fimg149%2F5698%2Fperth46gg7.th.jpg&hash=55eebb18463fcfd43d38f4711df4641b14e29ff5) (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth46gg7.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg149.imageshack.us%2Fimg149%2F2596%2Fperth47de3.th.jpg&hash=02d56792eae1f3e8b4d0bbb8002dff755f77b550) (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth47de3.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg149.imageshack.us%2Fimg149%2F8718%2Fperth48qr2.th.jpg&hash=fa9da17710eb0381e8c871bf7029692b95e1f70b) (http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth48qr2.jpg)
Here are a few pics from the area of the tunnel I mentioned before. The left screenshots shows some of Dusktrooper's lofts that do pretty well, considering the highly populated avenue in front of them. The center pic shows the complete avenue setup - lots and lots of asphalt here, but the loads of cars and buses have to find room somewhere after all. ;) Very important are the large number of trees and greenery, which reduce the air pollution and raise land values.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F308%2Fperth49bu4.th.jpg&hash=1b698c948ffa337c557099cbb9dc4b5e87b35557) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth49bu4.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F1346%2Fperth50zo2.th.jpg&hash=c942726011fbe87537fb8693aa62ab951b00dfb0) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth50zo2.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F1802%2Fperth51em6.th.jpg&hash=bb708050dda38378066f1a722fff76e71c5f7239) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth51em6.jpg)
These pics also show that the tunnel was a major success - the residential area above has developed into one of the fanciest areas of the whole city. I think I should finally install my street tree mod, which certainly would look very well here... :)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg232.imageshack.us%2Fimg232%2F398%2Fperth52gu1.th.jpg&hash=1f2492768644da91ac8aab675e013461e16a5545) (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth52gu1.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg232.imageshack.us%2Fimg232%2F9030%2Fperth53wl5.th.jpg&hash=d3acc29cb815e5c6eb98da3cf2175214ba1e7d62) (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth53wl5.jpg)
Finally, another two pics of the area north of the downtown. I bulldozed the somewhat failed rowhouse development again and re-grew it with the older and then with the newer (Euro-) tilesets. And although the zoning is the same (checkerboard pattern with medium and dense residential zones), they look completely different. SimGoober's townhomes are rather suburban, but the Hamburg Hoheluft houses by stephenhh create a wonderful urban situation, which also frame the plaza very nicely.
Another wonderful map, Andreas! Also fantastic new pictures of your great city! Nice "road-layout"! :thumbsup:
Looks like you have mastered the art of creating pleasing neighborhoods as well. I love the way you use diagonals in a realistic way. I use them, too, but mine always come out looking unnatural, and they're a traffic nightmare.
Here's hoping you keep the photos coming.
Joan
Nice work Andreas!
I love that tunnel that goes under the suburban area... very subtle but effective! :satisfied:
;D wen
It's very beautiful, I love your city ... There are much diversity, it's very well done :thumbsup:
But I don't know if there is that me, but I have much evil to open your images &Thk/( ... 3-4 minutes each one &mmm
But I am not disappointed to have put time to see the images (sorry for my bad english :P)
Bravo Andreas &apls
@Joan: Well, as a matter of fact, the diagonal streets exist because I pestered frimi (the creator of the Euro Road Textures Mod) to modify the ANT from the NAM in order to get diagonal streets. Shortly after, Teirusu (I think) discovered a method that doesn't use the ANT, so we can have fully functional diagonal streets in the game - and I'm glad to hear that I put them to good use. :)
@Snaper: As I said earlier, I've already uploaded about 80 screenshots (from this region alone) to ImageShack, so I'm sorry that you'll have to wait so long for opening them. Obviously, I didn't create Perth within the last few days, but rather post the developments of several months which I have collected and translated into English (the original German showcase can be found at SimForum.de). As suggested, try to open all images in new background tabs at once, and then go through them one by one - this should eliminate most of the waiting.
Nevertheless, thanks everyone for the nice comments! :)
Since Perth has developed quite well so far, I moved over to the port town Freemantle in the south-west corner of the region map. At first, I wasn't really convinced about the city structure, but then I had the idea to create a "former seaport area" that has been converted for residential usage. There never was an actual seaport at this location, but at least we can pretend it, can't we? ;)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg352.imageshack.us%2Fimg352%2F3509%2Ffreemantle01om6.th.jpg&hash=e4f8bf8fd3723797deec8403bf42a780919cbad6) (http://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle01om6.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg352.imageshack.us%2Fimg352%2F9521%2Ffreemantle02sq1.th.jpg&hash=ede83e04c3d43013a1c3db19f538bb4552b98116) (http://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle02sq1.jpg)
As usual, the overview about the whole city and a downtown shot. The arial pic shows the Indian ocean in the lower left corner, and the Swan River comes from the top. The industrial area in the upper left corner has been built first (including the small seaport). The city itself has been spread out from the downtown across the whole peninsula.
The bay with the "former seaport" has been partially created by raising the land above the sealevel, which created almost the entire space for the residential highrises next to the city center. The downtown itself is rather compact and not that spectacular, but there was enough demand for a number of CO-$$ skyscrapers. Currently, Freemantle has about 175,000 inhabitants.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg352.imageshack.us%2Fimg352%2F6241%2Ffreemantle03he6.th.jpg&hash=397773467e8583f28131e7ac216ebe61d19e75b6) (http://img352.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle03he6.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg301.imageshack.us%2Fimg301%2F3286%2Ffreemantle04wq0.th.jpg&hash=251c46903ec2ff306f0bda486e14091cc05d5fd8) (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle04wq0.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg301.imageshack.us%2Fimg301%2F2984%2Ffreemantle05ma3.th.jpg&hash=c4cdc34a176fa5372181c2d9d03d61c5d44ba06b) (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle05ma3.jpg)
Let's have a closer look at the Harbour District, where I used Marrast's embankment lots again, like in Perth. This time, they are supposed to be the old quay walls. :) Most buildings are R-$$ from the Houston tileset, but there are also a few older buildings from the Chicago and New York sets, among them the castle-like Cobb Emperador (it's the very first time I got that one in one of my cities :) ). Of course, a few parks to raise the desirability have been placed as well.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg301.imageshack.us%2Fimg301%2F7753%2Ffreemantle06xt3.th.jpg&hash=36a84278f84f2c3beb2d1cc2a69b651ea7657f77) (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle06xt3.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg301.imageshack.us%2Fimg301%2F8176%2Ffreemantle07ik7.th.jpg&hash=f47e5feeb7f8c4ae62f0f32b2c01bc181d9322e1) (http://img301.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle07ik7.jpg)
Towards the east, the development changes to smaller buildings, with the NDEX Riverside College and a few stores as center. The filler lots that are included in Marrast's embankment set can be combined with the sandstone pedmall puzzle pieces, which is really neat. The fancy loft buildings and luxury apartments suit the waterfront very well, too. :)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg157.imageshack.us%2Fimg157%2F8158%2Ffreemantle08mm6.th.jpg&hash=1355ce0e0f966d57dc3e33d7d095091696203680) (http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle08mm6.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg157.imageshack.us%2Fimg157%2F2241%2Ffreemantle09ht5.th.jpg&hash=ce83727bc1e6b5cb0920db5c78b7757a2d686077) (http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle09ht5.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg157.imageshack.us%2Fimg157%2F426%2Ffreemantle10yy4.th.jpg&hash=de590b52ecf6cfdc16463e9e4bd99d593dfb1fce) (http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle10yy4.jpg)
But also in downtown some nice spots have developed, such as the stock exchange plaza that has been created on a former unused triangular space within the block. Right next to the downtown, the central station has been placed, providing a direct rail connection to Perth. At the western artery towards Perth, I created a small R-$ highrise quarter that filled my R-$ demand quite nicely.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg166.imageshack.us%2Fimg166%2F4589%2Ffreemantle11rs8.th.jpg&hash=5ea007027c4f368fdd9d74986749f67b6972a095) (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle11rs8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg166.imageshack.us%2Fimg166%2F8659%2Ffreemantle12wm0.th.jpg&hash=cff95c28557d0b204fc6d8bd23d9631242b31094) (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle12wm0.jpg)
The aforementioned arterial road also leads to the stadium, surrounded by some commercial service buildings and another commuter rail station. Up to now, I didn't develop any large commercial service areas with large retailers like in Perth, so most of the residents either work in the industrial area, in the downtown, or the neighboring cities. The seaport is rather humble, but I think it still looks nice together with the adjacent freight yard. Commuters can take the ferry to Perth and Cannington here as well.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg166.imageshack.us%2Fimg166%2F3688%2Ffreemantle13cw2.th.jpg&hash=efa589b1ecb7013487b59d7ffc289468d77b5238) (http://img166.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle13cw2.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg110.imageshack.us%2Fimg110%2F7812%2Ffreemantle14rj8.th.jpg&hash=2ec1859abc0a5a46f2f2e2d2f61ffb9a4ec64289) (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle14rj8.jpg)
West of downtown, located on the peninsular, there's also a small city park next to the hospital and an elementary school. The start of the waterfront also marks the location of the city museum and one of the libraries. Towards the south, the development changes into single-family homes and villas.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg110.imageshack.us%2Fimg110%2F1545%2Ffreemantle15fn6.th.jpg&hash=11c4abe0615243f135b6340adc89e78a0f6b32b8) (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle15fn6.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg110.imageshack.us%2Fimg110%2F4937%2Ffreemantle16tz5.th.jpg&hash=c8d3c9863b58ee174243330a2e794a3eaccea13f) (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle16tz5.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg110.imageshack.us%2Fimg110%2F6880%2Ffreemantle17sd1.th.jpg&hash=9c51a12b758caf77374244d6b05fece065b2eeef) (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle17sd1.jpg)
Obviously, the location on the elongated peninsula, covered with lots of trees, has lured the rich and famous, who have erected their fancy mansions here. A golf course and a private school are just around the corner. At the far end of the peninsula, the Freemantle lighthouse can be found.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg110.imageshack.us%2Fimg110%2F8346%2Ffreemantle18dp0.th.jpg&hash=bc2324a734c8de8badb2d60fbb99460ec932a361) (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle18dp0.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg110.imageshack.us%2Fimg110%2F9760%2Ffreemantle19sx1.th.jpg&hash=31e14bd64c6779eb54bac353c10fa052f7c37b8f) (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle19sx1.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg110.imageshack.us%2Fimg110%2F9536%2Ffreemantle20kh5.th.jpg&hash=80ddfe0dce93814ef500eccd64862dc5de9134be) (http://img110.imageshack.us/my.php?image=freemantle20kh5.jpg)
Nice update!
I love your suburbs... especially how they are surrounded in trees...
Very nice...
()stsfd() wen
Well, thank you for pestering somebody, Andreas -- I'd have downright nagged if I'd known whose ear to bend! :D
Are those longnecks in Freemantle's CBD plops or growables? Either way, they look very natural. I got my fill of skyscrapers as a native of Houston and later a resident of the greater Dallas area, but I like the way you have laid out your CBD. You have achieved a nice balance of small, medium and large without going overboard in any area.
But the lighthouse is the cherry on top of the parfait! :thumbsup:
Looking forward to more inspiration.
Joan
Another beautiful update, Andreas! :thumbsup: Great residential areas!!
Well, I guess this is some proof that I'm the slowest city builder ever, but after having David asked to resurrect this showcase from the death, here's another update, that somehow didn't get posted last time I've updated my German showcase at SimForum...
First, a small update from Perth, that has changed quite a bit since the last update. The city has grown to 618,000 residents, accompanied by 336,000 commercial and 140,000 industrial jobs. It won't grow much larger, though, since almost all areas are developed now (apart from some minor remnants that will stay this).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F5711%2Fperth54sq5.th.jpg&hash=dc4950e566e747c9bafcc05ed6a3e4a663848346) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth54sq5.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F23%2Fperth55uf8.th.jpg&hash=b366a639cf36027e0d6332d8e44182f6a24181ab) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth55uf8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F1208%2Fperth56ql9.th.jpg&hash=7161d16461ba4153a5e5c069d1af2452307f7af0) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth56ql9.jpg)
The downtown has developed really well, ten more skyscrapers have grown. On the left pic, the city park is shown again, now with a nice lawn instead of the dense grove that didn't look too well for a park right next to the city center. But now, the situation has changed to the better. :)
Scrolling up a bit reveals the full beauty of the downtown, apart from one or two exceptions, the tallest buildings of the city are located here. For some reason, I wasn't able to grow the Nitron Center that I modded from the original capacity, now I've adjusted it again, and it worked fine (note: I don't use the CAM so far, that's why any building with more than 7,000 occupants is extremly hard to grow).
The pic on the right shows the same situation, rotated by 90 degrees. This area also shows quite a few skyscrapers that I got for the first time. The original Ellington Tower also had 7,000 jobs - no wonder why it never grew for me! The City Tower Hotel was quite hard to get, because the 7x4 lot got occupied by those pesky 1x4 small commercials - I really need to restrict those to low density. BTW, the block with the Nitron Center provides more than 28,000 CO-§§ jobs in total - and that without CAM! :satisfied:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F5853%2Fperth57dl9.th.jpg&hash=d0d58108f43b08df39b35516a0a85194a142bb53) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth57dl9.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F840%2Fperth58yk7.th.jpg&hash=f321d403ceed629586399db952b6120edb2eee40) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth58yk7.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F7215%2Fperth62tk8.th.jpg&hash=d3622e9d5f7bba9c999a58d277f479c28b3894f7) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth62tk8.jpg)
The left pic shows the old city center again. At the southern end of the plaza in front of the rail station, IMO the most beautiful building ensemble has grown: Dusktrooper's Skychase Bank Plaza and Seven56 right next to it. Initially, I planned to grow a Nitron tower there, but it didn't happen (as explained above) - but I guess I was really lucky to get this combination, which fits ideally to Skychase Bank Plaza, and of course as well to the surrounding buildings. :)
The pic in the middle shows a place, where a Key Tower grew right next to a Juneau Bank Plaza - in between of a low density commercial area. Of course this didn't look right, so I replaced the low density commercials with medium and high density residential buildings, as well as some more commercial lots. The result came out rather well, I think. Finally, another park on the pic on the right that doesn't look too bad, either.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F1706%2Fperth61fb1.th.jpg&hash=fb9d32453700ecef0d4f728d13390a0b7900be0f) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth61fb1.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F3006%2Fperth59bn8.th.jpg&hash=82ff491c873f59ab898e01fb0b645f0303260024) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth59bn8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg106.imageshack.us%2Fimg106%2F9559%2Fperth60fw0.th.jpg&hash=c8a4d2b3c8210d6671a588b3cefe280c19782694) (http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=perth60fw0.jpg)
The aforementioned park can be seen on the left pic as well (rotated by 180 degrees), with a high wealth quarter in the vicinity that is protected by sound walls and a highway tunnel. The doubled highway intersections might be a bit over the top, but the traffic is quite heavy in this area, so I'd say it's justified. ;) I also enlarged the Dusktrooper loft quarter a bit, now featuring about 50 loft buildings.
The screenshot in the middle shows the TV tower, erected on a hill north of the city. The hill itself is covered densly with low density residentials and counts to the more wealty areas. At the foot of the hill, the city zoo and the tram museum are located. It's the first time I actually built the museum, due to the lack of extended tram networks in my cities before. It's really great to zoom closer and watch the museum tram that starts at the museum tram stop, circles the loop, stops at the exit to the citie's tram network again and then turns left or right. :)
Wow, great showcase Andreas. &apls
I do wonder though why anyone would like to have a big tv tower in their backyard. :D
Welcome back, Andreas! I'll be awaiting more of your progress!
Very nice to see your MD again, Andreas! :thumbsup:
Knowing your experience in many SC4 aspects I'm very curious of your new ideas... :)
Thanks, guys! :)
@LoneRanger: Yeah, some folks might not like it, but on the other hand, their view across the hills in the vicinity isn't obstructed by a hideous TV tower. ;)
Anyway, since Perth is more or less finished, I moved over to Cannington, the southern neighbor, and the former industrial city that mainly served as job supply for Perth has developed quite nicely. The city now has 300,000 residents, there are 114,000 commercial and 67,500 industrial jobs. First, here's an overview shot:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg462.imageshack.us%2Fimg462%2F8903%2Fcannington01ag9.th.jpg&hash=c725ffd15b9402f242492e29742c4a92b06f3fd3) (http://img462.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington01ag9.jpg)
Perth is located north (top), and Freemantle to the west (left). Cannington is divided by a river, and the industrial area is restricted to the north-east part. The oldest parts of the city are the industrial area in the north, and the narrow, elongated development along the shore of the peninsula in the west. After that, I started to build at several places at once, and over the time, the quarters are growing together. The transportation network consists of a highway, several avenues, a couple of bridges, an extensive bus station network, one railway line that loops the city in the shape of a large question mark through all quarters, and several passenger and car ferries. I guess I'll create a detailed transportation map later. :)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg462.imageshack.us%2Fimg462%2F171%2Fcannington02cr3.th.jpg&hash=ebb6c825019e581928fe19e43daaebd01ef4621e) (http://img462.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington02cr3.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg462.imageshack.us%2Fimg462%2F8854%2Fcannington03iu1.th.jpg&hash=546b1ed4eee9d30f39dd5f9c682a9f1c39275fe8) (http://img462.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington03iu1.jpg)
Other than usual, the commercial downtown (left pic) grew on a completely blank space, the dense residential development next to it was developed later. Only across the river (see pics below), some taller buildings had grown before. Commuters from other quarters mainly use the highway bridge in the east (left), the avenue bridge in the west (right), the railway bridge and the ferries.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg526.imageshack.us%2Fimg526%2F2842%2Fcannington06nd8.th.jpg&hash=4c89fe0023ed432784c13ae5ed6508d048945b7d) (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington06nd8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg530.imageshack.us%2Fimg530%2F3604%2Fcannington05an4.th.jpg&hash=c66c828b1329f1a6d1e30cecc070699a9de10cd3) (http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington05an4.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg530.imageshack.us%2Fimg530%2F3917%2Fcannington04nk2.th.jpg&hash=7774ced51894ebc1897b69b7e545aaf77bb15bcc) (http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington04nk2.jpg)
Here are three screenshots of the buildings across the river, they basically induced the first boom in the city. At first, only residentials were located here, the small commercial area developed later, in order to lower the excessive usage of the railway bridge, and to lower the commute times from the surrounding quarters. Two railway stations and two ferry ports are handeling the majority of commuters across the river.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg386.imageshack.us%2Fimg386%2F6208%2Fcannington07jt1.th.jpg&hash=186b8a729aa8f40d2809ea6fa5497495f35bd50e) (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington07jt1.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg386.imageshack.us%2Fimg386%2F6024%2Fcannington08ie9.th.jpg&hash=132704f5741373a5e9704906437e7073743f3540) (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington08ie9.jpg)
Let's rotate the view by 180 degrees and look at the oldest part of Cannington. Although Houston and Euro buildings have replaced some of the older buildings, the charme of the "old narrow streets" (ok, in SC4, all streets have the same width, but one can dream...) has been preserved. In order to keep the traffic out ouf the city, I built a bypass avenue along the hills in the west (left), which has been placed either in a tunnel (three in total) or behind a sound wall. The avenue is used heavily, also by commuters from Freemantle on their way to Cannington's city center.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg386.imageshack.us%2Fimg386%2F5606%2Fcannington09ng3.th.jpg&hash=26b2923654060f337ebaff390320e61cde2b19ff) (http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington09ng3.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg338.imageshack.us%2Fimg338%2F8266%2Fcannington10ir7.th.jpg&hash=261b2d16e51f3517ba9ce4ef81ac22cf9574238a) (http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington10ir7.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg338.imageshack.us%2Fimg338%2F5248%2Fcannington11mm5.th.jpg&hash=14146513424a95032dae94e3205b202d33b53ecf) (http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington11mm5.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg338.imageshack.us%2Fimg338%2F7344%2Fcannington12ib1.th.jpg&hash=8a5b8434540c1c82c9bb3f5ec120d277daa1c843) (http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington12ib1.jpg)
Here's a portrait of the four bridges across the Swan River. On the left, the large highway bridge that leads towards Perth. Since the traffic is rather low here, the highway is continued as avenue, with a distributor roundabout at the end of the highway. I built this shortly after the NAM June 2007 release, and I think it looks really well at that place. :) The avenue bridge (second pic from the left) connects the old Cannington with the city center. Below the bridge, a small harbor village is located, which has been erected as a tourist trap. ;)
The railway bridge that connects South Cannington with North Cannington is used heavily, but also the ferries show heavy usage. I modded the Goldiva Water Taxi stations to a capacity of 10,000, but they are still overloaded by 500%. It's the first time I use them to a greater extent, and I think they fit in very well here. :) The pic on the right shows the highway bridge in the east, which is also used heavily, mostly by commuters towards the nearby high-tech industrial area.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg338.imageshack.us%2Fimg338%2F7833%2Fcannington13yk9.th.jpg&hash=8e4e5d89c6c7a9400dde98fd1ce96280a227dab6) (http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington13yk9.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg373.imageshack.us%2Fimg373%2F8026%2Fcannington14jt7.th.jpg&hash=3489ef4c565d9954ade781652f29d7932aaa3657) (http://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington14jt7.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg373.imageshack.us%2Fimg373%2F4408%2Fcannington15zb6.th.jpg&hash=97085bbf015575f7def76857416be44a2ea867c2) (http://img373.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington15zb6.jpg)
The I-HT area is located at the border of the map in the east, connected via an avenue that has a direct highway access. West of the industrial area, a large low density residential area is located. It's one of the oldest developments, grown together with Old Cannington. It's a typical suburban development with lots of green, curved streets, and some civic facilities in the center.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F5536%2Fcannington16gm0.th.jpg&hash=5362db591079563281432a9b9ffbf51c0cfe71e3) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington16gm0.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F9348%2Fcannington17ub7.th.jpg&hash=dda13985eb0eac52ec59304876dee74559050cc6) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington17ub7.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F5076%2Fcannington18ls6.th.jpg&hash=df4855a443715b403efd589a1c70665c72bdac85) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington18ls6.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F6779%2Fcannington19nj3.th.jpg&hash=dd8e13fdfc65717b0fc8938b9cbd4d0575be21a8) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington19nj3.jpg)
Next to the city center, a small commercial area is located at the western shore, along with the harbor village that I mentioned before already. Another ferry port handles the incoming commuters from Old Cannington and Freemantle. Also, the industrial center of the city is located here, along with a large freight railyard, a powerplant (the rest of the power is imported from Perth), a large seaport and countless factories and warehouses.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg523.imageshack.us%2Fimg523%2F6858%2Fcannington20dk1.th.jpg&hash=e5e04ba2a3e56d8dcf5b97105210321e0d42fcb1) (http://img523.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington20dk1.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg518.imageshack.us%2Fimg518%2F5232%2Fcannington21wy8.th.jpg&hash=0607a3a08f2efcaa4ce44ffb03985a97a0cabc79) (http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington21wy8.jpg) (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg518.imageshack.us%2Fimg518%2F8066%2Fcannington22tb6.th.jpg&hash=2b0d3923df975de2c95400907c5d68bcd6dc4aca) (http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cannington22tb6.jpg)
The left pic shows another view of the western bridgehead towards Perth and Freemantle, as well as two shots from the southern suburbs of the city. As you can see, I connected every quarter with avenues that serve as major arteries in order to reduce commute times. Once I get a chance, I will show those areas in detail, but for the time being, enjoy the ones above. :)
More excellent pictures here, my friend! My favorite ones are of the port and the industries, but my favorites are always ports and industries! Everything looks great, and I'll be coming back to see more!
Dustin
What a City Show-case ! Like thundercrack83, the Industrial pics are awesome !
You show a lot of nice ideas and developments.
Another row of inspirations.
Also the Big Dig lots look really nice.