Scandnakja

[Kevin1a]

Hello SC4D and welcome to my first mayor diary.  I am a lifelong SC player and a self proclaimed SC3000 expert   I have been lurking the forums for a while and I figured it was time I give back to the community that has given me so much in a relatively short time.  A little about me.  I am a college student currently residing in Colorado Springs, CO USA though as a military brat I have lived a great many places, perhaps the most influential of which is Germany, where a significant portion of my family resides.  Though W2W is a little beyond my skill level right now, I try to give my cities a European feel through my traffic engineering.  Traffic engineering is perhaps my biggest passion, though I am studying philosophy.  One of these days I may share with you some of my sketches and city designs on graph paper where I am not confined by the rules of any games, merely my imagination.  If you want to know anything else about me, feel free to ask.  I have never been good at making small towns and cities look good, so I will be starting with a medium sized city.  I welcome criticism, even if it may be harsh at times.

Anyways, on to the MD.

Skandnaja is a medium sized city situated on an earth-like planet colonized by a diverse group of people with one common goal: to live in harmony and provide for the common good.  The government is a lot like those of the average Scandinavian country, the only difference being that everyone, even the most wealthy (though not by much) citizens, aids with the menial and demeaning jobs of society for several days each month.  The citizens of Skandnakja are thrilled to participate in the democratic process since many of them came from places where they were not able to do so freely.  They regularly take to the streets in a peaceful manner to protest even the most mundane of occurrences.  Most businesses in Skandnakja are organized as co-operatives with all employees holding a stake in the company and receiving equal votes at company meetings.  Because of this, class strife has not been a significant issue, and Skandnakja has had a relatively peaceful history and an uninterrupted economic development.  It's citizens place as high a value on art, music, and learning as they do on physical labor.  A wide variety of languages are spoken, though people are not segregated by ethnicity, and almost all speak English as a second or third language.  Taxes are surprisingly low for the amount of public work projects undertaken, because once a month all citizens lend their labor to the construction of such projects, and workers are hired specifically for these tasks only when specialized skills are required.  The democratic process in Skandnakja is conducted primarily through an open source computer system that records opinions and desires of the people.  All records are public and the state holds no secrets.  There is no military, though the citizens are permitted to own firearms in the interest of the public defense and crime prevention.  The climate is chilly though it rarely ever snows and the city is green year round.

I will attempt to keep the images no wider than 1024 and 800 when conditions permit.

Anyways, on to the images:



28/04/2010: .png image removed. 5mb is way too large and the pic needs to be posted as a .jpg as per site rules. Pic can be accessed thru link pending conversion to .jpg by author. tooheys - moderator

29/04/2010: .jpg image added.  I hope the size is acceptable now.  I am using MS Paint, so I do not have quality options available to me.  If I am still in violation of the rules, please let me know and I will attempt to further reduce image size and quality using some other program. - Kevin

[marsh]

Looks great man. Youve managed to use the Maxis buildings to your atvantage and made it look great too! Good luck with your MD here and I hope you update soon. 

[vester]

Looks good.

You can use IrfanView to convert the images to jpg. If you set the quality settings to 70-75 %, you get a good size images and with only a little to no visual quality loss.

Your image in png is 5,5 mb, but save in jpg at 80 % its 905 kb and at 70 % its 715 kb.

[canyonjumper]

Looks good so far! I'll be back

           -Jordan

[Kevin1a]

Bah!  I accidentally deleted the update the first time, so I get to write it all over again. 

@CanyonJumper I hope you do come back, also leave me a link to your MD and I will bookmark it and stop by from time to time.
@Vester I'm using paint, and upon converting to JPEG I've been able to reduce file size significantly, but I will look into your solution for future reference.  Thanks.
@Marsh I'm glad you like it.  I do have the CAM installed, but I only installed a few starter packs.  I am reluctant to add more CAM buildings until I sort out all the blasted brown boxes I have so far.  (not complaining, just saying)  I hope to add more custom content as time goes on and if you would like to recommend any particular buildings, that would be stupendous.

Welcome back to Skandnakja!  Since it is a city in progress I would like to do a multipart overview of the city to familiarize you with what already exists.  Today's update will be the oldest part of town, the CBD (Central Business District), East End Residentials, Skandnakja Industripark, and surrounding areas.

Once upon a time the CBD was occupied by large farms on the western edge of the city limits.  Now it is filled with skyscrapers and other businesses.  Most workers in the city work in this area, and transportation is a huge issue.  It also contains the Skandnakja Creativity Centre an art museum dedicated to displaying the works of local and amateur artists.  It also contains the Skandnakja Platinum, the cities only casino.  It is a popular destination for some residents, though betting limits are relatively low and no one is likely to win or lose a fortune.  Major East/West Routes include Kropotkin Ave and the River Street Ring.  North South access is provided via the A1 Limited Access expressway which is notoriously congested despite the construction of a subway line and an HSR line.  The subway enjoys ridership in excess of all estimates, while the HSR line is relatively unused and is slated for demolition.  The A1 is unlikely to be expanded because it is lined with large trees and buildings for most of its length.  Traffic engineers are currently accepting public comment (that's you ) as to whether they should undergo the dreaded expansion or come up with an alternative.  The most popular proposal involves converting East River Street north of Kropotkin Ave into a limited Access Highway to serve the east side of the CBD.  Solidarity Field, the old commuter airport boarders the CDB to the north and is bordered to its north by a small nature reserve and the university. (some potential for messing with plop water and nature landscaping here)  The East End Residential are a collection of newer residential towers that replaced an older low density neighborhood that was declared an urban renewal area.  It also contains the city beach though it is usually to cold to bathe.  Friederich Meinhof, a resident of the area says: "I love living so close to downtown.  The traffic is sometimes frustrating, but since I stopped driving and started taking the subway it has been less of an issue.  I just wish those d*mn helicopters would stop flying over my house at night.  I'm seriously contemplating buying an RPG "

The next update will either be a transportation project or an overview of the North End Residential District.

I would love comment on possible transportation projects to expand North/South mobility. 

Till next time!

[canyonjumper]

Looks good! The links in my signature

          -Jordan

[RickD]

I like the background information you give. And your road layout is well done. However, the slope up to the bridge is definitely too steep. I recommend you to get the bridge height mod.

[Kevin1a]

@RickD  Thanks, I will check it out.  The bridges have always bin a source of frustration for me.  I'm considering doing tunnels under the river, but my sims are not going to like those traffic disruptions.

Hello and welcome back to Skandnakja.  I know I said I wanted to finish giving an overview of the general layout of the city, but I got caught up in some transportation projects, so I will detail those instead and perhaps next time I will continue with the overview.  As I stated last time, a subway and a HSR line where constructed in order to alleviate crippling congestion on the A1 leading into the Skandnakja central business district.  These systems were already in place at the time of the last update, nevertheless the A1 remained congested and traffic engineers were seeking to implement some new solutions.  Through the electronic polling system they put the proposals to a direct vote of the residents and workers in the effected areas.  Here are the results.

Option A: Expand the A1 to accomodate additional traffic.
Pros: directly addresses the problem areas.
Cons: trees and buildings in the proposed right of way, some of historic value.
Result: 20% of vote.

Option B: Upgrade East River Street north of Kropotkin Ave. into a limited access expressway with some grade seperated intersections and no buildings facing the highway.
Pros: May move some traffic furthur east off of the A1
Cons: Some buildings may need to be razed for the construction of soundwalls.  May have an effect on pedestrian facilities for buildings bordering the new expressway.
Result: 36% of vote.

Option C: Pursue additional mass transit related options such as expansion or upgrading of existing lines in the target area.
Pros: Little effect on surface developments since all construction would occur on existing right of ways or underground.
Cons: Construction would disrupt regular transit operations in the effected areas.  Additionally HSR ridership was never viable in the first place.
Result: 40% of vote.

4% of eligible voters abstained. (Skandnakja has an unusually high level of public involment and voter turnout is usually excellent)

Eventually, traffic engineers decided to pursue both options B and C.  The upgrade of East River Street was uneventful apart from causing some construction related delays. (no photos)  In a public address traffic engineer Rudolphus Jameson commented on the upgrade of mass transit facilities serving the A1 corridor and beyond:

"It was decided that the surface right of way provided our best opportunity for increased capacity at minimum cost to the tax payer.  Several planning studies showed that we could utilize existing structures to some degree and change only the tracks and system utilization should rise.  The original HSR lines ran on a magnetic levitation system, and while it was a high speed, high capacity system, it's inability to tie in with the subway system and proposed light rail extensions crippled it in comparison to other transit options.  The system was overhalled with standard gauge tracks, and supports and stations were renovated to give the system a new image."



2-2
The west side (no overview for this area yet) HSR Terminus (Integrity Station).  The fate of this building is unknown.  Some would like to see the retrofitted to support the new trains, however others argue that such a high capacity station is not needed in an area that is relatively blighted and only getting worse.  Note how the retrofitted rail has not been expanded into the station yet.


2-3
Parking Garages were erected all over the city.  Recent polls showed that 66% of workers said they spent over 10 minutes a day searching for parking.  All the new garages are linked to an electronic "Parkleitsystem," that tells drivers how many spaces are available in certain areas, and provides turn by turn directions to the available space.  The image shows one of the larger garages this one build on the northside of the East End Residentials.  This area is becoming more dense as you can tell by the dichotomy between the residential towers and the scattered high wealth, low density housing.


2-4
Construction on the rail system shut down most routes for days at a time, though commuters were not severely impacted since most construction took place on the rail right of way and off the street.


2-5
Some subway lines in the CDB and a few other parts of the city were remodeled to encourage mass transit use.  The picture shows one of the new stations on the white line, the cities original subway line.  These stations were long overdue to be renovated.

2-6
Located across the river in the newer business district, the heavy rail terminus enjoys high usage by workers coming from the low density northern suburban areas.  Some of the local stations are at 80% capacity.


2-7
Another new shelter on the white line.  Surrounded by residential towers.

The renovation of the elevated rail system was accompanied by a public awareness campaign.  System maps were published by various media outlets and placed in the stations.  There are three primary colour coded routes, though some subway routes briefly leave the underground and terminate in these stations to ease the process of transfers and integrate the systems.

Harry Langton, a regular mass transit commuter said: "The old system was faster.  They ought to change the name from RAPID to "kinda fast."  Of course transfers are much better now.  I used to have to run two blocks from the HSR station to the subway to catch my train on time.  Now they stop in the same station!" 

I guess the question for this update is: "What do you think of the system map, should I make one for the subway network as well? (I'm dreading this undertaking   I don't mind building the lines, but planning the routes is going to get complex)

[RickD]

Hello and welcome back to Skandnakja.  I know I said I wanted to finish giving an overview of the general layout of the city, but I got caught up in some transportation projects, so I will detail those instead and perhaps next time I will continue with the overview.

This sounds so very familiar to me. 

The HSR wouldn't have been my first choice but your explanations are very reasonable and give a logical explanation why it was chosen. It is interesting to follow the construction. Looking forward to more.

[canyonjumper]

Great update Kevin! Where did you get the station in the fifth pic?

                   -Jordan

[Haljackey]

A very nice start! I like that mosaic, and your work with RHW and rapid transit.

I'll be keeping my eye on this one. Nice job!

[Tomas Neto]

Great start with nice mosaics!!! Nice work!!!