Prespa - We almost got rich!

[Lowkee33]

Welcome to Prespa!

This region was created by Cogeo.  This is an actual place on the world, although this natural growth MD will not be recreating it.  I owe a thanks to all custom content creators on the Lex, as I have begun to understand the magnitude of making lots and mods that blend with each other.  Thanks also to the maintainers of this web-site.  Without further ado...



Euclid was a enterprising man.  He maintained a farming business in Alexandria where, after his drawings had gone unnoticed, bought a large piece of land and called it Prespa.  It was a rash buy, as he did not know the land very well.  After buying the land he was left with $450.  He did his best though, and decided to set roots in the most ideal place for trading.



After making a path he saw this scene, and decided to start his farm there.





A farm and a windmill later he was broke.  Euclid decided to name this piece of Prespa "Rooted".  The farm was making some money though, and after a year of making fences and walking around he had enough to build his house



The next year he built a butcher shop, business was booming



A few things started to happen.  People were complaining about the smell of cow dung, and felt that Euclid should build a shed for it.  However the planned shed would also come equipment with a tractor.  Euclid stood on a box and spoke reality, "In order to make a shed, we will need a welder.  The welding shop spends more money on power than it makes selling metal works.  In order for this to make any sense we need to plan to grow this town."  The welder and manure shed were built, as well as paths for the planned development.



A few years later and it was done.



Rooted was making considerable money at this point.  A forge would be needed to keep up with the welder's demand for metal.  The placement of the forge would be a problem though, and after a long debate it was decided that a house would have to be demolished to make room for the road to the forge.



The forge was done.  A BBQ place was built.  Rooted was becoming a destination, and farms would be needed.  Euclid made plans for development that dwarfed the previous one.  He walked the nearby ridge and showed everyone what would happen next.



Postscript:  I had been playing this map for a few days and found it rather fun.  However, I felt that $100,000 was too much money to start with (especially for every city!) and trimmed it down a tad.  a $450 start sounded good to me however, the windmill originally cost $500.  I dropped the price of the windmill.  I needed enough money for 16 farm spaces and two roads squares.  However, I found that I needed 17 farm squares to make this farm grow, and the price of the windmill was changed again.

I have also taken liberties with the pictures.  For the first few I have deleted the roads.  I also found that deleting the extra square when using the SAM costs $100.  So a post-save loan was taken out and pretting up commenced.  By the time I took the picture of the forge "Rooted" was making enough money that the $100 did not seem so bad. 

Stay tuned for the results of this development.  Hope to see you then!

[CrossSide]

Cool, that's a nice idea! I'm curious if you will hold on this long with so little money!

Your houses look very good btw 

[slinkyhead]

Lovely setting, I like the dense forest.  What terrain mod/tree controller are you using?

[Skimbo]

Loveley startup



Let's see how it develops

[RickD]

That is a very interesting region you have chosen. And I like MDs that start from zero and show how things develop. You've got me hooked up. Looking forward to the next update. 

[kwakelaar]

This is looking very good, will be interesting to follow

[frostwolf]

I like the idea of starting off poor and building up slowly. I should try that in one of my own cities sometime.

This looks like it's going to be interesting.

[Lowkee33]

Thanks for the replies everybody.  So far it has been very fun.  The game is mostly paused as I figure out the best way to do things, but otherwise I play on slow and it is relaxing.  The money I make is spent so fast that most of the time all I have to do is make things pretty.

I am using the Meadowshire terrain mod with lower snow with Brigatine water and a cliff mod.  The map has a water level mod as well as a no erosion mod (which I believe I have used correctly.)  The trees are the Italia controller.  They are so dense because I basically spent about 2 hours in God mode.  In fact, cities that I have not built in yet are only about 50% done, but the region looks coherent enough for now.  There are no trees in the higher elevations, and I may add them later.  I have found that the controllers that come from the Cycledog install are compatible with the more complex tree controllers (at least, they don't make the game crash more than I can handle).

   Well then, let's see how things are 20 years into the game...

   Can anyone guess what's wrong with this picture?
   The lack of commercial growth at the dock on the right (western dock, as we are looking from the north) has made an ideal space for the necessary industry.  City growth was once a community effort, but the forge has let some companies specialize.

    Budgets have been made according to monthly income.  Rooted's cement facility is in charge of making roads, and can spend $50 a month as well as pour any foundations.  The tractor facility is in charge of terraforming, and has also been alloted $50 per month to be used when necessary.  Finally, the garden committee was established when city development left some neighborhoods covered with tree stumps.
    In order to organize these efforts a small office was built, along with a library and a church (Euclid was getting complaints that he was making too much money and so laid down the $1000 dollars for it).  The library was given a budget of $30 per month.  Downtown Rooted is the place to be.

   After 20 years of working the butcher shop and being considered in charge of everything, Euclid has retired and built himself a more comfortable living area.  Nobody has taken his place in the bureaucracy, so his name remains as mayor.


    Rooted has grown to a population of 1,000 residence.  Once again there are not enough farms, and so efforts are being made to solve this.  The population is rather uneducated, so each farmer can only feed 5 people.  One of Euclid's last efforts will be to make 300 farming jobs, and then more as those farms make demand for more people.  Then there are the stores to sell the food...  There is no more flat space in the industrial zones, but for now the budget is the limiting factor, as zoning farms requires no terraforming or roads.  20 years and no fires, we are holding our breaths.
    Progress is slow at this point.  I don't want to bog down SC4D with everything that happens.  My next update will be when money starts to stockpile as growth is limited by the $50 per month spent on roads, or when Rooted has finally become self sufficient as far as food goes (whichever comes first).  For now I basically make an estimation about how much land can be developed in one year, and focus on developing the land that will give the best returns.  At the time of these pictures Rooted was making $170 per month, so about $2000 per year, which means for year 21 I developed about 200 tiles.
    Until we meet again, happy playing!

[Luke09]

Hum,nice MD(CJ) style you have here,i loved your slow sprawling of the city,and also the good use of custom content.I would recomend to you to check mattb325 houses and commercial buildings.I think some of them will fit nicely in your region(or not lol).I hope you continue this fantastic MD 

[Skimbo]

You seem to be a good MD writer, I like it

Pics 3 and 4 are the best ones of this update.

[cogeo]

Just saw this. What can I say? Feel flattered!

So you're making an MD with this map. The terrain is really harsh (little flat space) but with good landscaping potential. And as far as I can see, you are doing an excellent job here! And you have chosen the "natural growth" way, which makes things even harder (as you have to build profitable, self-sustainable cities) but really much more interesting (most CJs/MDs are based on the broad use of... money trees).

So your region looks really gorgeous, and so does your (initial) city. I especially like the use of custom content, the theme is really nice, and the style of builings and lots consistent (I guess you have used some "Maxis buildings blocker Mod", haven't you?). Only gripe the cobbled streets; in Europe at least, these are mostly used in urban areas, and basically in the "Old City/Town" part, or in preserved quarters or neighbourhoods. They just look a bit out of place in my eyes. But anyway, you can make your MD the way you like. And if the town develops further (esp gets more dense), they will look OK, I think. A hint: you don't need to spend $100 to bulldoze the SAM starter puzzle piece, if you bulldoze the 2nd tile instead of the 1st you will only need $2 - only make sure that your street is long enough, otherwise it will tend to revert to normal street. And a question: where did you find that windmill? I remember these in mod that made them appear in the countryside (aka "trees"), but not as power plants (link please?).

You will need to make a more dense town, with more people and higher land value, to make more money. You are going to need it, to develop your ciy further.

About the map:
- The "no erosion mod" is no longer needed, this is meant to prevent "erosion" effects during rendering. It does not cause any problems though, only if you go to an (undeveloped) city and (in God mode) apply the erosion tool, no erosion will take place, because it's disabled. This is the only thing it affects now. So you can safely remove it. Instead, the "Height Mod" is needed, as long as you are working in this region; the custom sea level (50m instead of 200) saves us 150m of (height) range, much needed in 8-bit maps.
- You can try playing a little with the MaxNormalYForCliff property, this determines how many tiles will be considered "cliff" (and cause the "rock" textures to be displayed. There are also properties controlling the size and appearance of the beaches (the "sandy" ones), if you are not satisfied with them. You can eliminate them completely, make them narrower or wider, or change the maximum height (above water) that makes a tile considered beach.
- Mountains are currently bare, as you said; try planting some sparse trees or clusters, nowhere close to the forests at the mountain bases. With the Meadowshore mod this will looks OK I think, even in close view, as it has many features like grass, flowers and even trunks (or branches?) included in the textures. Also the transition from the forested to bare or almost bare areas could be more gradual, but this is a matter of taste (both examples really exist in nature).

Congrats for your MD, I'm gonna watching it with great interest!

[CrossSide]

Nice update again, good to see how your little village is growing!

[Lowkee33]

Welcome back to Prespa!  Thanks again for the support.

@ Luke09 : Mattb325 does indeed to very nice work.  I took a quick look at some of his props and they are large .  Rooted's big problem is that I have started with small buildings and I want to make smooth transitions.  I have some good houses in my dependencies that I will be using for now.  Small COs are hard to find though, JENX (whos models I have used for the current r$$) are the closest thing I can find, but any help there would be appreciated.  However, I do plan for Prespa to be my baby, and during the course of region development you will see all types of different styles.  Matt's buildings will be there somewhere, if not in Rooted's next update  .

@ Cogeo :  Now I am flattered.  I will consider your suggestions about the map.  I can see where the MSTM has changed textures, and I may use those lines for dense tree placements.  I may change the cliffs too, but for now the beaches stay.  You will see considerable waterfront development as Rooted grows, and at that point there won't be beaches anyway .  I couldn't get your SAM suggestion to work.  No matter what I do the tile with white borders costs me $100.
     The Windmill is the Deadwood's Aussie Windmill - http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=485.   There is also a Water/Windmill that I am using.
      I agree with you about the Cobblestone.  I live in New England, USA, and only our "old ports" maintain the cobblestone.  However, when the main streets get worn down we can see that below the asphalt is more cobblestone.  While gardening I found a row of cobblestone about 10 inches below the ground.  I will be playing around with this too.  Cobblestone is the darkest street compared to asphalt (that I know of) and I want to hide the line between textures.
      I hope I do your region justice!

      Nobody guessed at what was wrong with that picture.  There are no shadows on the Cobb Harbor.  They glitched the wrong way and I had to use some Paint skills to edit them out.  There is also a discrepancy in the Library picture.  I had to make the Tag_One TF house's fence a little longer to match up to the CP 19th Century.

On with the pictures!

      The citizens of rooted have been working hard.  They spend their days making roads, farms, and houses.  1922 is when it all came to a head.  The town was growing so fast that the cobblestone roads could not be built fast enough.  The terraformers lent a hand.  They had been crushing so many rocks that Rooted could spent $100 dollars per month on gravel roads provided that they did not do any terraforming.  Large scale farming continued.

      In 1925 Euclid's goal of 300 farmers had been surpassed.  However, he had noticed less and less food coming from the farms.  The farm owners said it was because they had no exporting capabilities.  Euclid did not understand because all of the food was to feed the citizens.  "Doesn't matter" they said.

      So Rooted needed a functional seaport, and they are hard to come by.  Anyway, the terraforming needed for a port was well beyond the scale of Rooted's industry.  Plans were made to get hire some Earth Movers

      A passenger ferry would be needed to cross the river, but soon the work was done.  Work could then begin on the Docks.  A few stores found life at the ferry to be profitable.





      Planning the Docks would take some skill.  Not only do the Farmer's want a way to export, but the fishermen want a way to import.  This is a Work in Progress picture.  At this point I have plopped the Functional seaport, and know what it is going to look like next to a Landmark with 250 IR jobs that I have made with PIMX (I keep track of IR jobs for the amount of people my region can support).  I use the paths to count tiles when the grids are off.  This is a picture that I used as a reference when I was creating the lots for the area around the docks.

     

     ...Docks!








        There are now many things to attract the Middle Class.  Some want to live on the back side of the pond, some want to live along the coast, and others want to take the space that already belongs to other people.  here is a picture of Rooted as it stands.  I hope you all enjoyed.



Postscript:  I am looking for a more suitable Passenger Ferry.  I am using the CSG basic ferry pontoon.  There is a non-editing clause with that one, and PIMX LE wont open it anyway.  I have been having some trouble making my own passenger ferry.  I posted a help tread for the NAM team, but nobody responded.  Does anybody A: know a ferry that will fit my city (on water not canals) B: Know of a ferry I can re-lot the heck out of or C: tell me how to make a ferry that works.  I just can't seem to do it, and feel like it is some transit switch thing that I don't understand .  Ferry suggestions can be made here, but please PM me for the tech help as I don't want to have a question thread within my MD.

Thanks again!

Edit:  Is it just me or are these latest pictures taking too long to load?  They are Jpeg and 800x600.  My computer called them Jpeg.  Problem sovled.

Lowkee33, though there is the odd .jpg image most in this update are larger .png files. Please convert ASAP. In the interim I have removed the the pic's but the links remain so as they can still be viewed. tooheys - Global Moderator

[RickD]

Very nice docks. They fit perfectly into the village.

The pictures are taking long to load is prbably because they are PNGs, not JPG and as such over 2 MB large.

[Luke09]

Nice pictures,and nice docks.Well i cant help you with your problem,but why you dont ask CSGdesign?He has made his own ferry.And why not middle class in the north coast?I hope I see you soon

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic MD with nice images!!!   

[frostwolf]

This is a very fun MD, and I'm enjoying watching the town expand. Did you mention what the harbor and houses are and I missed it? I'd really like these in my smaller cities.

-FW

[chasespncr]

looks nice!

[Lowkee33]

Welcome back everyone.  Thanks for the compliments.

@frostwolf:  The harbor is two lots, both of which I made (lotted) myself.  I wanted to have something a dock that supplied IR jobs.  This turns out to have a major problem in that the land value along the coast is too high for IR desirability.  I hope to have the coast mostly docks, but that is a slow process.
       I have used three types of houses.  The smallest are CP's 19th century houses, and are the houses that appear on diagonals.  The "Pier Houses" as I have called them, because I lotted them specifically for the pier, are called Sespis, and can be found withing SG mega pack vol 01.  The other houses, that match the commercial buildings, are Tag_one's small timber frame houses.  They can all be found on the LEX.

@Luke09:  Well... about the middle-class...  you will see them in the following pictures, but even they have troubles with commute times.  Rooted is going to go through some major changes soon, and one of the biggest problems is the terrain.  None of the beaches have gentle slopes, and to build on them I am going to need to have higher stage lots.  We'll see.

Update #3 - Enter Middle Class.

The original townsfolk of rooted have decided to build new homes.  Although happy to be bosses, they don't have much stuff to fill their large houses with.  Manufacturing will be needed.  In an effort to prepare for this a new complex have been built that will provide Rooted with all of the building material necessary... bricks.  Until now, bricks have been made as they were needed, and by hand.  More farms, and more houses...

Let's take a closer look at the brick making complex.  A connecting road has been built to allow it to Export.

Rooted's first planned community was built up the hill from the factory.

More people have moved in across the river, taking up all of the flat space.

With all of the financial success of Rooted there has been the creation of basic Medium wealth houses

Rooted has been living in fear of fires for 35 years.  That is no more.  A slightly out of place fire department was built.  The sight was the only undeveloped area that it could cover the library and the middle class houses.  Plans have been made for this same complex to host Rooted's first police station and clinic.

Finally, we have a picture of Downtown Rooted, where the wealthiest of the middle class have moved in.  The library was given a renovation, and all was good.


Rooted's future is uncertain.  Space is quickly being taken up by farms, but the farms are still not making enough food.  There are whispers about new ways to plant crops, but for that to be implemented the people will need to be more educated.  Of course, the making, selling, and organization of middle class goods needs to be budgeted.  All of this with no mayor.  Euclid has been going for longer and longer walks.  Although people have a good idea about where they want to build things, nobody has a plan about how to do it.  A government needs to be established.

Until we meet again, happy playing!

 

[Luke09]

Great Update!Are you Batting stuff?Or just LEing some stuff?Anyway your custom content looks good,I liked the mid wealth class homes,and also the brick industry.I hope to see you soon