Welcome to Condor Bay

[kimcar]

Wow ! A lot of work over here.    Very good port you have done , very complete.  Looking forward for sure.

[bat]

Two fantastic updates there, Masochist!
That's a great harbor! A lot of wonderful pictures!

[sauron620]

the port is amazing 
the region views too. 

I like also the waterfront with Peg's marina 

[thundercrack83]

That port is amazing, Isaac! I've always found that when I make ports like that, they take up a ton of space, and they don't look half as good as yours does! Great work, my friend! You're doing an excellent job!

Dustin

[Masochist]

Sorry, Guys!

This isn't a real update...I'm just replying to some of these comments you guys gave me, then I'll ask a few questions, then I'll give you just a couple of pictures to tide you over until a real update.

Heblem -
I'm sorry for not replying to your message last time !  I absolutely did not do that intentionally...it just seemed to slip my gaze .  But...thank you for your comments!  I hope you enjoy the next update...whenever it will be...


Nardo69 -
Wow, nice comment!  At the time I discovered SC2K, I didn't have a computer of my own.  Even though I played that one first, SC3KU was the game I played the most out of all of them so far.  I did the most on that game, as well (I have at least 5 cities from that game that I consider "successful")...so it would only be natural that I tried to replicate them on SC4.  I hope this re-creation is as successful as its predecessor...

I lived 6 years near Houston, TX (which is a major port/industrial city for the US), but I was on the opposite side from the port, so I had no idea how ports were set up (before Houston, it was Las Vegas...not really a port town...).  Still, I know this city needed one (because the Ace River is an important river in the country), so I needed to throw one down...which is where emilin came in

LOL...I can't help those rail crossings.  That's a habit I kept around back when I was doing U-Drive-It missions.  I need to make sure I could travel to every track in every direction to get where I needed to go...so I had to make those things.  I don't particularly like them either, though.  Don't worry...I might end up redo-ing the entire area.  We'll see...

Thanks for your stupendous comment !  I wish I got more like yours...it would take hours to reply to them, but I'd enjoy it!  I hope you come around again!


warconstruct -
Thanks!  That effect is something you'll see quite often in here; I seem to do it more and more to different pictures as I go along.  We're going to hope my city ends up looking something like that...we'll see ;-).  I'm glad you like it so far!


Pat -
LOL, yeah, it's been a while coming I suppose, hasn't it ?

Actually...I can't seem to find it!  And I'm not on my own computer right now, so I can't just look in the game to find out.  I'm sorry...as soon as I figure it out, I'll let you know...

Hope to see you back in here, though!


kimcar -
Thank you!  Heh heh...I tried to use all of emilin's advice when making it, which resulted in a lot of stuff in not-a-lot of room .  Glad you liked it, though!


bat -
Thanks!  I'm glad you like the harbor...I hope I took enough pictures of it !  Come back soon!


sauron620 -
Thank you!  I was just lucky that as I was planning this port, PEG just kept chugging out all of these puzzle pieces for his marina.  Why not use them, right ?  Heh heh...hope you like the next update, as well!


thundercrack83 -
Hey, Dustin!

I was really afraid that my port would be too big (because this is such a small region), but it actually came out just fine, size-wise.  I think the secret is more coastline wrapped around itself.  It reminds me of intestines, actually: they develop wrinkles to increase their total surface area so they can suck up more nutrients at one time, but not have to grow too large. 

I'm happy you stopped in, and I'm glad you're liking it so far!  I hope you come back to visit again!

All Right!

I just want to thank you guys for all the comments you've left so far.  You guys are really helping this thing grow faster than I ever thought it would.  Thank you all!

I did want to ask you a question or two, however.

Do you guys like the presentation of the pictures?  I mean, do you like the border, the captions, etc.?  I'm still rather new at this whole CJ'ing thing (in case you forgot), so any bit of advice that might help it succeed would be greatly appreciated.  Nardo69, for example, suggested that I number photographs if I have quite a few (as I did last update) to help identify a picture when someone comments, so I'll start doing that.  Any sort of advice like that would also be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

As it is...I have a bit of a problem:



I've heard from Mrs. Hayman around the block that there were vandals around TP'ing trees in the neighborhood.  This is the sort of thing you'd expect in, say, The Land of Darkness...not here in Fordville!  The Watch Group (the Neighborhood Watch Group, that is) is getting restless, because they can't ever seem to catch these guys in the act.  The problem is...these guys have such a large area they could spread out to.  Observe:



If you have any information on any future Toilet Paper bandits, please let us know!

(Heh heh...sorry, but these pictures don't really show anything that important... ).

Until next time!

[Grneyes]

Great port! It seems to me that most ports do kind of twist back on themselves, need to make the most of the land you have. Can't wait to see the rest of your cities. I had most of my stuff in SC3K too, but lost it all, it's good you have stuff you can recreate in SC4.

MaryBeth

[thundercrack83]

TP Bandits, eh? That neighborhood watch group better stay on their toes or else the whole town is in trouble! TP'ing is the gateway to harder crimes, like...throwing eggs!

Great teasers, Isaac! Keep up the fantastic work around here!

Dustin

[Haljackey]

Wow!  You have some city planning skills!

Everything looks very well placed, connected, and most important: alive!  Your city is bustling with all the good stuff, which makes a great MD!  Excellent job Masochist!

Best,
-Haljackey

[Masochist]

Grneyes -
Thanks for the comments!  That was the basic idea of my port: get the most land in the least amount of space.  And if I didn't have SC3K to base my cities off of, I have no idea how I would build in this game....  Come back soon!


thundercrack83 -
LOL!  TP'ing does seem to be the crime to pull in my town right now...but that may be because I don't have a statue of myself for them to throw the eggs at yet !  Thanks for the comments...glad you're liking it so far!


Haljackey -
Thanks!  I'm trying my best to maybe keep it realistic...don't know if I'll pull it off as I go along.  Still, we'll see, right?  Thanks for the comments!

UPDATE 2 - Building the Rest of the Town
This should be interesting...hopefully...

First, I'd like to apologize.  I'm about to break a promise that I made last update...you know, that one where I said that this update wouldn't have near as many pictures?  Well...as it turned out, that was a lie.  This update has almost the exact same amount of pictures, although not so many showcase pics.  Still...it might be a lot to take in, so read slowly...

Now then...to start out, I have a few SC3K photos to share:

1.)


This is the area that I will be transposing to SC4 right now.  Mainly, it's just a strip of low-density residential that connects the seaport with a square of Mid-density commerce.  And there's a beach.  And the beach has a Mayor's Statue on it.  Why? Simple: in SC3K, I used Mayor's statues as markers to name certain places that I couldn't otherwise name.  Because of that statue, that beach is actually known as Royal Beach.  As you can see, it's the beach with the classic lighthouse at one end of it...that's something I wanted to bring out in SC4.

2.)


This is the seaport in relation to the residential.  That...that's it.  Yeah.

In the previous version of this region, Royal Beach was one of my favorite areas (see "Greetings From Paradise" photo of Update 1).  I tried doing something like the same thing here:

3.)

The grid was purposely left on...

That's a double-tile slope, there...didn't quite work for me.  Neither did the grass and trees at the base, there.  So I ran into the Lot Editor to try my hand in creating my own...

4.)


5.)

Repeat after me: Goldiva is my friend...

A little better, eh?  Maybe...but it'll actually pose a problem later.

Enough of that, for now, though.  Since the beach was set up kinda the way I wanted it, I could make the rest of the town.  We've got some progress pictures for this:

6.)


This is almost the entire town.  It was sooo much smaller than I expected, actually...oh, well.  North of the seaport will be industry; to the east will be residential.  Also, notice how the beach goes off into the next town...

7.)


Just threw down some streets in my wild suburban way.  Something interesting happened when I built that street going up the east side of the hill.  Usually I hate cliffs made by streets, but for some reason, that one looked all right.  You'll see close-ups of that area in a second, and you'll see me try to replicate the effect in a (not-so-distant) future update.

By the way, at the time, I didn't know how to turn off that graphical glitch with the beach without leaving and re-entering the town.  I know how to now...but by the time I learned, it was too late to re-take these pictures.

8.)


...and zoning.  Light most of the places, medium along the avenues.

Don't know if you've noticed, but I'm trying to use as much custom content as possible.  Because of space restraints, I could only use the Maxis High Schools, but I ended up throwing down a few custom buildings and parks that you'll see in a second.

BUT FIRST!  Let's see what develops, eh ? (Wow...that's the second-worse pun I've come up with this week...).

9.)

Forgot to adjust the contrast of this one...oops...

Not bad!...to me, anyways.  Closer look, eh?

10.)

Just love that justanothersim library!

11.)

The local pig sty...I mean, Krispy Kreme...

12.)

Ahh!  Gascooker!

You have no idea...right before I started this CJ, I went on a MASSIVE residential BAT hunt, looking for mainly large packs of nice, somewhat-generic-looking modular homes (and by generic, I simply mean that they'd look fine in any neighborhood).  Mixed with the small Maxis homes, it's actually kind of hard to find two houses right next to each other that are exactly the same.  Let's compare, shall we?

13.)


One of my earlier suburban communities...

14.)


Suburbs in this town.  Can you notice any difference?

That was a trick question.  I'm actually trying to build more suburbs like (13) in Fordville.  But this is a good sign...at least there's more variety in what I have now...

Anyways, let's take a look at that hill, eh?

15.)

Look on the right side of the hill...yeah, right there...

16.)

The TP Bandits strike again!

So this is the Vista Hill home community.  It is from this uniquely positioned housing area that I got this picture:

17.)

Ahh, there's my beloved border!

Might be familiar to some people...

Well...I've been neglecting one area of town, but I suppose I can't any longer.  So how about we go back towards the seaport and visit that industrial area...

18.)


This is the layout.  Nardo69 said he didn't quite like it...but that's what I've got for now.  So I'll work with it.  By the way, you like that hospital I randomly added there ?

19.)


Added a nice residential area...need to find out what to do with the undeveloped coast there.  I tell you now, that industrial area just gets worse and worse as time progresses ...

BREAKING NEWS!!!

After scanning the area for any more signs of the TP Bandits, I've uncovered something much worse:

20.)


ASSAULT!  We'll zoom into the affected area...the seaport:

21.)


So that's where it happened.  Maybe the perpetrator is still around...let's get a closer look:

22.)


Look!  That's gotta be him, there's no one else around!  Someone call the police, go nab that guy!  Hurry up!!!

...

...

Where are the police!  This guy could walk away at anytime, where is my police force!?

23.)


Oh, yeah.  Oh, brother....

Now back to  your regularly scheduled update...

(Just so no one skins me alive, contrary to what people might believe after reading this update, I actually have the utmost respect for Police Officers.  Don't take the previous the wrong way...it was just a pretty un-funny joke... )

But while we're on that side of town...

24.)


Just some random picture.

All right...this update's coming to a close soon (finally!!!).  I just have to show a few more things...

Here's the commercial area mentioned 3 miles ago at the beginning of the update:

25.)


And here's how it translates to this region:

26.)


Small area...but it falls right on the corner of four different city tiles.  Bothersome, to say the least.  Still, I can't ignore it.  This particular commercial area is home to the nationally known Market Street, where they host many parades and where many mid-level stores have started and grown from.

27.)


Unfortunately, it won't look like that for long...

Here's the entire city as it looks at this point:

28.)


Notice how the beach was never quite finished.  It was supposed to be lined with resorts, but I decided against it, because that job went to a certain other beach...



...but now I don't know what to do with it.  If anyone has any suggestions as to how I can fill that space, let me know (because it's still there...).

Here's the city from the region view:

29.)


And finally, here's a teaser picture for next update:

30.)


Straight from Filasimo's bag-o-tricks...I'll have to consult him on how to actually do this properly .

Next time, I'll give you guys information I should've given at the very beginning, and figuring out what to do with this bridge.  I'll expect it to be a small update, but I'm not promising anything anymore....

Congratulations!  You made it to the end.  I can't believe it, either.  But hey...you've read this all the way through...why not try War and Peace next ?

I'm done typing .

[Godzillaman]

That was pure good old sc4! I This is one of my favorites now!

[thundercrack83]

War and Peace isn't half as entertaining as that update, my friend!

I thought that the transposition from SC3K to SC4 here was my favorite part of Condor Bay, but the work you're putting into makes any picture you post outstanding! Keep up the great work, my friend! You're doing a wonderful job!

Dustin

[warconstruct]

really splendid these sights! I like the effects of several images , and your development of the zones residential has low density . Your port is very quite carried out! Its situation on the area is quite selected . To finish your beach is without defect !

cheer 

[sebes]

Great new (well, for me still) MD Masochist!  You realy did a very good job on the port. I'll have to try myself as well one day copying our master Emilin on that  .  Also the beach you made is lovely - especially because of that cool stairs that you use (see pic 3.3) (In what package comes that?)

[bat]

A fantastic new update there! A lot of great new pictures of your city! Wonderful work!

[Grneyes]

So are most of those houses growables then? What residential packs are you using? I love the beach, how did you do it? Can't wait for the next update!

MaryBet

[BigSlark]

Excellent update, Masochist. I like what you're doing with this city, its hard to get a balance of industrial and middle-class residential to grow AND look right in my experience.

I really like the beach, I'm terrible at them myself.

Cheers,
Kevin

[jeronij]

--- I cant paste the link.... I mean number 17   ---



One of the best pictures I have seen lately ¡¡¡. Great to see your MD healthly developing my friend 

[Masochist]

Godzillaman -
Wow, thank you for such accolades!  I'm glad you find such pleasure in the gameplay...that says a lot to me, and it's nice to see someone who doesn't need fancy pictures to appreciate this game.  Thanks so much for your comment!


thundercrack83 -
Thank you !  I really appreciate hearing that, because it makes me think that maybe I'm doing this CJ thing right.  You know...sometimes I don't know if people really "dig" what I'm doing...but then comments like that make me forget any such things, and keep going .  So yes...thank you!


warconstruct -
Thanks!  I'm glad you're liking the effects of my pictures...I do a lot of those quite often, so hopefully you'll like what I have coming up, as well !  Do stop on by again!


sebes -
Yes, emilin's tutorial is amazing!  Don't go thinking I did that myself...that was basically all him with a different layout.  I'm glad you like the beach, though.  The stairs in that picture come in [this pack by MAS71].  What you see is actually two of them stacked together.  I simply went into the Lot Editor and changed the wall texture to match the ones I was using.  It was really, really easy...took no more than five minutes (most of which went to actually loading the thing).  It's really nice, though, right?  He did a really nice job!

Anyways, thanks for the comments!


bat -
Ahh, thank you!  Glad to see you've stopped in again ...do come back, won't you?  Thanks for the comments!


Grneyes -
Heh heh, yeah, all of those houses are growable .  I can't even list all of the housing packs I'm using: JenP's stuff, c.p.'s homes, Gascooker's, all of NDEX's McMansions, SimGoober's homes, Ill Tonkso's homes...just too many to list!  I went on a scavenger hunt for all of them.

That beach...well, I used a certain beach pack that I can't seem to find anymore.  It made making custom beaches really easy...as for the walls, I just went into the Lot Editor, found a texture I liked, and made them.  It took all of 10 minutes...but they came out all right, I think.

Anyways...sorry I couldn't be of more help.  Usually I'd give links to everything, but I can't seem to find anything tonight .  If I find anything, I'll come back and give links for you.  Thanks for the comments, though!


BigSlark -
LOL...I'm glad you like it!  I don't know...that industrial area isn't too hot right now.  I'll have to go back and fix it up...

To tell the truth, I don't have too much experience in beach-making.  You'll see in a future update what happens when I try and go all out on a beach...

Either way, though, I'm glad you dropped in!  Feel free to come back any time !


jeronij -
Hello!  Very nice to see you in here!  I'm glad you like that picture, that might be my favorite picture of this entire thread so far....  Nice to see you helping it grow, too!  Thanks for stopping by!

UPDATE 3 - Lots of Information, and Some Small Developments
And by info, I mean stuff I should've said at the beginning...

First off, I'd like to apologize again.  I really should've shared the information I'm about to give at the beginning of this Mayor's Diary.  Oh, well...better late than never, right ? Anyways...where to begin?  Hmmm....

Fordville is the capital city of a state called Willow (so you'd call it Fordville, Willow).  Willow is in a country that doesn't have a name yet; I have, however, drawn plenty of maps of the nation...too bad they all end up lost somehow.  I'm planning on drawing another one for the sake of this MD, but I'm procrastinating on it....

Anyways, the country in question has about 20 or so states (and unlike the country, all of them are named).  It's about the size of...ahh...well, I haven't really thought of a scale for it yet, but it's pretty large.  The average state is about the size of Georgia; the largest is about the size of Montana, and the smallest is about the size of South Carolina.  The country is bordered on the north and northeast by a country, and on the west and southwest by two other countries.  The northwest, eastern, and southeastern borders are formed by two large bodies of water, of which the most important is Willow Bay.  Willow Bay forms the eastern coastline of the country, and is end of almost all major rivers in the country, including the Oasis, the Wonderline, the Isaac (yes, I did name a river after myself !), and of course, the Ace River.  Fordville lies in the valley where the Ace River flows into Willow Bay.

This country also includes almost every single city I've ever built in a SimCity game.  In some cases, I build the city in the game, then decide where to place it in the country; other instances I'll decide which city I'm building based on it's position on the map.  Power City is an example of the former; Fordville is an example of the latter.

Fordville itself is in the southern part of the country.  As it is on the mouth of a rather important river, it is fairly large; the city proper has about 500,000 - 600,000 people, and the metro area extending beyond my region has much, much more.  It enjoys a pleasantly mild climate most of the year, but it also gets snow in the winter (strange, eh?).

Here's the layout of the region again, this time with the city tiles numbered:

3.1)


City Names
1. Fordville International Seaport
2. Condor Beach
3. Western Fordville
4. Condor Mountains
5. Condor Bay
6. Willow Beach
7. Fordville
8. Northwestern Foothills
9. Northwestern Foothills
10. Ace River
11. Northeastern Foothills
12. Northeastern Foothills
13. Crystal Rock City
14. Crystal Rock Mt.
15. Eastern Fordville
16. Ace Mountain

To build this city, I'm using 2+ gigabytes of plugins.  I could never list them all, but the more prominent ones are NAM, SAM, Gascooker's lots, much of Jeronij's stuff, lots of NDEX BAT's (which haven't been seen too much yet in my city), Cobb's towers, PEG's things, lots of Fukuda things, SimGoober's stuff...well, let's just say that I have a lot of BAT's (and as I said in an earlier update, I'm trying my hardest to use as many of them as I can ).  As for mods, I'm using Cycledogg's Columbus Terrain Mod, PEG's Brigantine Water Mod and Limestone Rock mod, and the Asphalt Texture mod.  I don't use money parks, nor do I use in-game cheats much (unless there's a city that will never have enough people/meet the requirements for a reward I want to use), but I do use the Lottery Program ordinance (which basically adds $5000 to your income every month), as well as the GeoThermal Power Plant and SimGoober's Modern Waste-To-Energy Incinerator (if you count those as cheating).  I plop RCI buildings only when I need to get a certain look or feel to a city (and you'll see soon enough the trouble I get into when I do so without care )...otherwise, it's all growable.  I'm really trying to make Fordville into a World Class City...whenever I get things right, I want it to be good enough to perhaps make a bid for the Simlympics.  We'll see what happens, eh ?

Oh, and if you didn't know this, the city is much further along than this update in terms of what is built.  It's not done, though...not by a long shot (I haven't even crossed the river yet).

Enough about that, though....

Recent Developments

So, we've gone through the seaport, we've built along the mountain, and we have one unfinished beach.  Where were we, then?...

Ah yes, that small commercial district that somehow fell upon 4 different city tiles.

To refresh your memory, here's the SC3K picture of it:

3.2)


All right...notice how that freeway goes over the water there?  We'll tackle that one in a second.  first, let's do some touching up first.

The beach from the last update goes into the next town, Condor Bay.  This town also holds part of the commercial district...obviously, I can't just ignore it.  Still, there's not much to it, so:

3.3)


3.4)


3.5)


And a wide-out shot:

3.6)


Yes, that's the entire city tile.  Check map 3.1...it's #5 on there, and it falls right at the entrance to Condor Bay (hence its name).  The other side isn't developed yet...that won't happen for a good while, but we'll get there one day .  For now, just the right side is important.

Now that that's out of the way, we can get to the heart of this update: Fordville.  Fordville is the name of the city tile that lies directly in the middle of the region; i. e., the only large city tile.  The tiny-yet-troublesome commercial area fall on this tile as well.  The thing about this one, however, is that before I can even begin to touch that tile, I have something else to deal with: the Condor Bay Bridge.

The Condor Bay Bridge is the stretch of freeway that spans the straight that leads into Condor Bay.  The problem with just building a straight bridge is that I needed it to be high enough to allow ships to pass underneath, but I didn't want to deal with the hills that would result (because I needed some exits pretty quick).  The inspiration for the solution came straight from Filasimo (though I'm not sure he's aware of it): have a flat bridge to an island in the water, then raise the bridge high enough for water vessels to pass under (and then lower it back down on the opposite side).  I'm sure many people have done it before, but I specifically remember thinking of his examples when deciding how I would go about making it, so I'll credit him for this bridge.

I've got a few process pictures to show for this:

3.7)


3.8)


As you can see, I chose the spot where I wanted the bridge and began leveling the land right all the way across.  Here's the entire span:

3.9)


Why did I level the land right there?  Two reason: one, I wanted the islands to be the same height, and two, I needed to know just how far to make the islands from the coasts.  I figured out the latter by marking the span with road tiles:

3.10)


3.11)


96 tiles across.  Good to know...so I lowered the land back down into the water except the areas where I wanted my islands:

3.12)


Next came terraforming the islands.  I had to figure out how large they needed to be, then I had to make sure that the freeway had room to transition from low-level to high-level spans.  Here's the result of that:

3.13)


3.14)


Here's the final bridge span, after all that:

3.15)


Grr...looks like I put the islands a bit too close together.  Good thing I didn't decorate them...

Anyways, with the bridge "done", I decided to lay out the streets, as you can see in the previous picture:

3.16)


Hmmm...not half bad.  Except, you know, there;s nothing there.  Zones:

3.17)

Don't worry, those windmills are only temporary...

Okay, waaaaaaay back on picture 3.2 (the SC3K picture), did anyone notice the marina sticking out of the corner?  No?  Didn't think so.  Well, that's Condor Beach Marina.  It's sort of a well-known place in the city, so I had to fit it in.  Time for PEG to give an encore (in more ways than one):

3.18)


I had to move that roundabout out of the way to account for the wall, but it's worth it to get that look!

And now for an SC4D exclusive !  I did a composite shot of that marina, seeing as how it goes into the next town.  It's a terrible collage; you can clearly see the line where the two pictures are separated .  That's because those two cities are not exactly reconciled (and they won't be, because I'll lose a lot more than just that if I reconcile edges).  It's 1024 px. wide, and I refuse to shrink it any smaller than that...so this is the only place I can post it .  So here you guys are, a bonus picture and a sneak peek at what's to come:

3.19)


Finally, here's a shot of the finished little spit of land:

3.20)


Anyways...that's pretty much all for this update.  Just some teasers left.  A note about these, though: I have two pictures.  One of them I'm certain I'll explain next update, but the other I wasn't so sure...that, though, was supposed to be the true teaser.  So now you get both !

3.21)

Taken on December 26th...tricked my computer, I did!

3.22)

We'll see if I'm nice enough to spare you guys this one next time...

That's all I got.  Thanks for reading, and do stop in next time!

I'd like to issue an apology to all those who have CJ's that I haven't visted.  I realize I haven't been doing my part in returning the favors that you have all given me.  I'm trying to get better about it...but do know that I absolutely appreciate you guys leaving me all those comments and such!  Thanks so much !

[wouanagaine]

Wow I've missed a couple of updates

Great & amazing job !

[bat]

Again a lot of wonderful pictures there!
Great work on the bridge and on the city!
And wonderful picture there with snow!!

Looking forward to more...