Re: Santa Barbara County - Update: The End.

[daryl7478]

Hi there! Nice update! Happy to be your 100th post.

[seminole_fan93]

This MD is absolutely amazing. The one thing that I really like about your MD is that you show the construction process of the roads/highways. I can't wait to see your next update.

Cameron, the Weather Freak of FWB

[rooker1]

It gives me great pleasure to move your MD to the next level, a very well deserved move for sure.
Welcome to "The Best Sellers" section!!


Congrats from myself and The SC4D Staff!

Robin 

[Nanami]

Congratulation!

[Tomas Neto]

Welcome to The Best Sellers !!!     

[seminole_fan93]

Congrats on your MD being moved to the Best Sellers!   

[citybuilderx]

Great update as usual, keep it up. You have a very good use of the new NAM components & congrats to your best sellers entry! 

Just out of interest, what terrain mod are you using?

[RickD]

Yay! I had some play time again! Not much but enough to revisit this industrial area. When I first built it I did not pay much attention on how it looked. I needed to provide jobs quickly. But now it is time to revisit the area and pay more attention to detail.

Here is where the area is located:


10.1

This is how the lower section (south of the rail line) looked before.


10.2

I bulldozed everything and levelled it for easier placement of larger lots.


10.3

And here is the result. What do you think? Better or worse?


10.4

This is the before picture of the upper part of the industrial area. This is also where I cheated chuted the trash away.
Now bring on the bulldozers!  


10.5

Oops, seems like I bulldozed the power lots. Need to get that fixed before hitting the unpause button.


10.6

But first let's get things nice and level, eh?


10.7

Reconnecting the main roads. I also bulldozed the shops along the avenue. They did not fit in there.


10.8

Overview of the rebuild area.


And now some close-ups:

10.9



10.10

The rebuild commercial strip.


10.11



10.12



10.13



10.14



10.15



10.16




Replies:

ecoba:
Thanks for your support, Ethan.


Tomas Neto:
Thanks for your kind words.


daryl7478:
Hey Daryl, glad you like it. And thanks for making the 100th post!


seminole_fan93:
Thanks, man. I try to put everything into perspective to give the viewer a sense where everything is located. Good to hear that this is appreciated.

rooker1:
Wow, Best Sellers. Way cool!


976:
Thaaaanks!


Tomas Neto:
Woohoo!


seminole_fan93:
Thank you!

citybuilderx:
Hey, you sneaked in there while I was preparing the new update!
I am using the Missouri Breaks Terrain Mod with Ennedi's Sandstone HD Rock Mod.

Thanks to all commenters for bringing my MD to Best Sellers!

[ecoba]

Beautiful, just beautiful, Raphael. The industrial sector definitely looks much, much better now that you have revisited it.

The whole area is actually quite, well, nice now. I wouldn't mind living near it as I would the ugly Maxis industry.

Ethan

[Tomas Neto]

Interesting development of your city, very well done!!! Great update!!!

[canyonjumper]

Great industrial area Raphael! You really improved it

          -Jordan

[seminole_fan93]

Your city is coming along very nicely. I like the industrial complex and the way your transportation is set up. Very nice!

[threestooges]

Nice re-work of your industrial areas. I like that you left plenty of room for parking. If you're interested, there is a quicker way to level large areas of land rather than staggering the road plops like that. just plop a line of tile down the length of the area you want levelled, then drag a road parallel to that strip. It'll auto level the whole bit, and will do so strip by strip down the line. It's a nice time saver. I like the relot of the freight station in 10.13 too, and the lone diesel engine is a nice touch.
-Matt

[io_bg]

Nice reconstruction shots! The industrial area looks great now! Just of curiosity, what terrain mod are you using?

[Haljackey]

Looking good! I like all the road and highway improvements. Excellent use of TuLEPs!

[EDGE4194]

Raphael- Fantastic updates! My only suggestion is that you should fill in the empty tiles between the industrial lots and the freeway with some generic 1x1 growables or parking lots. Congrats on moving to the Best Sellers.

[Nexis4Jersey]

Very Nicely done.

[sumwonyuno]

Heh, it's my first time here!  The region view is amazing!   

Be careful with that bulldozer!  I think the rebuilt industrial areas are better.  I have the same situation in my regions where all those filler lots take up space instead of larger industrial buildings and lots.

[Nardo69]

Hello Raphael!

Congratulations for Santa Barbara County being a Best Seller now! 

Now to today's Update: Especially industrial areas are rather thankful if you redo them!

Nice idea to place that first industrial in the triangle between highway and the two railway lines. I also love that tramway line on the grey street crossing the avenue - I usually do them quite the other way round but it looks really fine here!
I just would could shorten those dead end streets at the RHW by one tile maing them end with the factory lots. These prolonged cul-de-sac just disturb my eyes a bit.
I also don't like the water tower in the loop, I would have placed some scrubs there. But that's my personal preference.
Those bigger lots do suit better to the second area. And they are the kind that usually don't depend on a rail connection. For curiosity: Is the avenue connected to the RHW by an interchange, exit ramps etc? If not you should connect the industrial area to the RHW at the road bridge.

Take care

Bernhard

[RickD]

Welcome to Goleta!

Like the real County of Santa Barbara my fictional county does not only consist of the city of Santa Barbara. To the west there is also the City of Goleta. The approximate city border is marked with an orange line in the region view below. As you can see I have not built much of Goleta, yet. But this is gonna change now. Usually I prefer to build my cities inside-out, from center to suburbs. With Goleta I am doing this the other way round.


Warning! Full size is about 3 Mb.
The yellow line (I don't know how to make arrows in Gimp  ) points to the area I will develop in this update.


11.1

A closer look at the area. I will rebuild the whole stretch between San Marcos Pass Rd., W Turnpike Rd., Interstate 5 and the rail line to the south.
This involves finding a final route for the little stream that I only roughly plopped down. The industial area will be bulldozed and rebuild. And Caltrans is finally widening I-5 to six lanes. A badly needed upgrade. When asked why this wasn't done before, a representative mumbled something about "new puzzle pieces being available". Whatever that means. 


11.2

Legal disclaimer: May not be actual dragons. Could be rail yard.

I called my good friend Mr. Dozer and he went right to work. The river has been straightened and the new thoroughfares are in place.


11.3

Placing some railside industry along the short spur line. I wanted to place more but my slope mod does not allow a steeper grade up the plateau.


11.4

The industry (and some commercial) moved in.


11.5

I'd like to have some more of those houses there. Let's see if the simulator is kind to me.
San Marcos Pass Rd. is now an MAVE-6 instead of a RHW-4.


11.6

While I am waiting for the houses to grow I placed some more big box stores to get some badly needed jobs. My R§§ demand is in the negative here.


11.7

Adding more housing, commercials, and a indoor sports center.


11.8

Even more zoning going on. This neighborhood also has an elementary school and a fire station. No tenements have grown yet.

The main roads are arranged in a grid. But within the grid I was inspired by New Urbanism with its Filtered Permeability and Fused Grid approach.
In short: Do you see those paths where the streets end? Cars can not drive through there, making the neighborhood unattractive for through traffic. But pedestrians and byciclists can pass and have short direct ways of getting around. This makes walking and biking more attractive also for the people that live there. Instead of having to drive through all those streets to the shops, they can take the shorter direct route and leave their cars at home.
This does not work in game as the paths are not transit enabled for pedestrians.


11.9

Letting the simulator do its magic. Meanwhile I expand the neighborhood to the rail line. I also built a High School and a football field for the high school team.


11.10

And here is the finished product. I needed quite some patience until those tenements grew.


11.11

And this is the complete area. You can compare it to the first pic, if you like.

But there is still so much to do. I need to detail the stream up in the hills, and in one of the next updates I am going to improve the area to the west, behind the shopping centers. I already have several ideas for it. And the rail yard will come soon!

I saved the close-up pics for the next update. I think it would be too much for one update. And I need to stretch things a bit because I probably won't play much during summer but I do not want to put my MD on hiatus.



Replies:

ecoba:
Thank you for your kind words. What always bothered me about maxis industry is that it is too dirty. In reality many people live near industrial areas and don't mind it.


Tomas Neto:
Thank you!


canyonjumper:
Glad you like it.


seminole_fan93:
Thanks, Cameron.


threestooges:
Hi Matt, thanks for the tipp with the faster levelling method. In this case I was not shure how many levels I'll have to make so I did it tile by tile to see how it works out.
The diesel engine was an accident. I didn't notice it until you mentioned it. I should really pay more attention to show some more trains instead of empty tracks.


io_bg:
Thanks, the terrain mod is Cycledogg's Missouri Breaks. It is on the LEX.


Haljackey:
Thank you!


EDGE4194:

My only suggestion is that you should fill in the empty tiles between the industrial lots and the freeway with some generic 1x1 growables or parking lots.

Good idea. I'll do that when I widen the freeway.


Nexis4Jersey:
Thanks!


sumwonyuno:
Welcome to my MD! Great to have you here.


Nardo69:
Thanks!

I just would could shorten those dead end streets at the RHW by one tile maing them end with the factory lots. These prolonged cul-de-sac just disturb my eyes a bit.

I will widen the freeway to six lanes. Maybe I will have to move it down one or two tiles. This is why I did not complete the tiles near it. I probably would have to bulldoze them anyway.

I also don't like the water tower in the loop, I would have placed some scrubs there. But that's my personal preference.

I wasn't sure about it, too. Probably you are right.

For curiosity: Is the avenue connected to the RHW by an interchange, exit ramps etc? If not you should connect the industrial area to the RHW at the road bridge.

It is not directly connected. But the next interchange is not far. If you want to see it, take a look at pic 2.3 (and the ones above) in this update.