Prespa - We almost got rich!

[Connor]

Just read through the whole page and I am very impressed. The natural growth is interesting and also believable. Great use of custom content, and you have chosen a fantastic map too.

Really looking forward to seeing how this develops...

[strucka]

Nice work

[Lowkee33]

Welcome Back Everyone!  Thanks for the replies.
@ Luke09:  This is all lot making and editing.  I learned the extent of CC about 4 months ago.  Until then I was only using NAM.  I have not got into BATing yet, as I am constantly amazed by the things I see on the LEX.

Lot Making is a slow process.  I wanted to make a bigger update than usual, but maybe I have gone a little over board.  I put a lot of thought into this city, but next update will be shorter, and maybe I will explain more about my SC4 past/thought process then.

"Prespa A Self-Sufficient Farming Town" and "What do we do with all of this money?"
                                                                Update 5

Part One:  A Farming Town

With education on the rise the amount of food that each farming job makes has increased.  With a Farm Job amount of about 1100, and an average education of 30,  Rooted can feed 8800 people, which is 500 more than the amount who live there.  Our first picture is a newly renovated housing complex in downtown Rooted where the people enjoy a communal playground.



A new farm stand has opened up on the outskirts of town to relieve some unemployment.  However, more jobs will be needed quickly.



The people of Rooted were tired of their churches being smaller than there houses.  They called on their masons to show the world what Rooted was all about.



A new elementary school was built to help more food come from the farms.



Part 2:  What do we do with all of this money?


The seaport is now at capacity and Industry is not happy.  The small factories want a seaport that is closer to them.  Big plans commence upon this small area that will encourage growth for all of Rooted.



The city board, who must all cram into the only office downtown, started to plan the build.  The first step was looking at the results of a survey, which displayed the undeveloped areas that are above sea-level and points of slope



  Different companies made arranged contracts to what architecture to use, and how many lots the job would require.  This is an artist rendition of one of the first layouts on the auction block.  It also depicts the cliffs that God will have to make
   


  The contract become intertwined with solving unemployment and the lack of offices.  After many heated debates this was the picture placed in the newspaper.



  The diagram has been split into commercial zones and residential zones so that the people of Rooted could better understand how their tax dollars were going to be spent.  The commercial zones are, starting from the left, a new dock area that will be completed post-haste, the most likley site for the Town Offices, and finally the seaport all of the way on the right.  The residential zones illustrate the lots that will be needed to complete this task.

Overall, the job is expected to Cost $40,000 dollars (500 for each tile plus terraforming) and take four years to complete.  Let us see how they do.

An Apologetic Tribute to Newman Inc Where's the Fries? (next time we'll wash your mouth out with soap) vol04!!! WFK Vol01








The builders were right on schedule.  Here is a mosaic that shows the coast from farmland to the almost complete building site.  I apologize, it is about 250 pixels wider that it aught to be.



Finally A picture from the North showing the (almost) completed docks.




Thanks for viewing.  I hope you enjoyed.  You may have noticed I used some God terraforming.  I did this only for the eye candy.  All of the necessary leveling and flattening was done at the cost of the taxpayers.  Don't ask me about that picture without water.  I have switched over to taking screen shots with my graphics card program and that is what it looks like before water loads.  Some of the docks are not seemless in these pictures, and for that I am sorry.  The problem is that I made this with pieces that were not meant to be formed like this, and I had to make them go on top of each other.  It was a large process making all of these props line up and I am happy (for now) with the results.  Things are going to be a little less serious next update as I figure out exactly how I am going to lay out all of the buildings as these Landmarks become grow-able with jobs.  Thanks PIMX!

I almost forgot... Rooted needs your help!  There is a small gap that I am going to have to fill...



Looks like a nice place for a 3x2 lot.  I want something tall (ish), or at least taller than anything else in that area.  I was thinking an overseeing office, or perhaps a park.  The problem is the slope.  there is really only 1x2 area of flat which can be on the top left (as it is), or on the bottom right.  Any suggestions as to what could possibly go there?  See you Soon!

Next Update:  Taking out the garbage in Rooted:  A look at crime and trash.

[Luke09]

Very nice Docks!And i liked your homes in the shore.Well for the 3x2 area,why not a city hall?

[Skimbo]

Wow, I like thoose pics, especially the first five and the mosaique are great

[travismking]

wonderful, Ill add this one to the MDs i keep an eye on

[Battlecat]

Great work here!  I quite like what you've done with the diagonal housing!  You're building up a very aesthetically pleasing city here. 

Where did you pick up those diagonally oriented houses? 

[frostwolf]

That port is sweet!  This city is looking great. I really like the fire station. Did you lot that, or is that on a collection somewhere?

[Lowkee33]

Hi all.  Welcome back to my Mayor Diary.

@Skimbo:  Thanks for all of the comments.  This is my first Mayor Diary and I am new to the SC4 community.  I am trying to get a feel for what people like to see, and perhaps I will have less Work-In-Progress pictures (although they do explain why the updates are so small).

@Luke09:  The wealthy folks in town are far too elitist to want to smell fish all day.  Perhaps they will send some upper management down there to make sure the proper pockets get filled.  Do you know of a specific model/building that could go there?  I am also looking for a good way to make steps without having to use an extra tile with a see-wall/embankment lot.  That will be for the future though,  I may just make steps out of individual stones that are packed with the stone walls that I use.

@BattleCat:  Those are the C.P. early 19th century houses that can be found here -http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=241.  I have re-lotted them as needed.  There are four lots that I use.  C.P. has uploaded quite a few houses that have 45 degree angles.

@Frostwolf:  I lotted the fire station, as well as the police station that you will see in this post.  I really want this city to blend with itself.  When I downloaded Lots I would change around textures and trees, and soon it just made more sense to just get the buildings and Lot from scratch as I would also be tweaking stats.  The building can be found in -http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=397

@Travismking:  Nice to have you aboard.

  Taking out the garbage in Rooted:  A look at Crime and Trash













The people of Rooted are sick of living in fear.  Seems like just yesterday they were putting up the first farms, and now their cars are being stolen.  They have all joined together to build Rooted's first police station.



      Trash is also starting to pile up.  So far the solution for this was to build houses on fresh space.  Now that commute times are starting to be an issue, people want to build bigger houses.  This means that the trash must go.  50 years of throwing trash on the street has make the problem a little more complicated.  Although Rooted does not make much trash per month there is trash everywhere.  A landfill that could hold all of the trash will put Rooted deep into debt, and a landfill that is affordable will simply not solve the problem any time soon.

      The first windmill is starting to get old, and this gave Walter Clarke an idea.  "What if we burned the trash for power?"  He said, and everybody was amazed.  A rather sizable waste-to-energy plant was designed.  It will do the work of 6 windmills, and have the streets clear in ten years.  I will be suitable for the growth that is expect to happen as it can burn 100 tons of trash per month.  The plant was built in a not-too-remote area.



Now all we need to do is make some power lines

    The plans for Rooted's new town offices are way behind schedule.  Therefore there has been no progress in planning large scale manufacturing plants.  A few entrepreneurs have built smaller factories that use the land that farmers did not want.




I hope you all enjoyed this update.  It was a little small, but that is because I am still figuring out these docks.  Trash quickly became a real issue, but we'll see how it goes.  The ten years it will take to clear out the trash may be a good time for more plop-ables.

Thanks for viewing.  Have a great day.   

[RickD]

Excellent update. Those little houses look good without a base texture on the lot. It makes them blend in very good.

[kodlovag]

I like the self lotted content. And the mosaic in the previous update is a masterpiece. I'm going to come back to see more.

[nedalezz]

Having read the last couple of updates, I am thoroughly impressed! This is a great start to an MD, and I especially love your custom lots. The city looks great from a distance

[Lowkee33]

   The citizens of Rooted have an average education of 40 and that means that each farmer can feed 10 people.  With 1350 farmers and 10500 people the leaders of the town have decided to stop building out and use the already developed space as best as possible.
   Everybody was relived to see the last of the fields cleared and walls built.

I haven't made a field in some time, so I thought I would do that.  I think I went a little heavy on the grass.


The Town Office has finally been built, and as the trash gets cleaned up the electorate hope to finalize construction of the docks.






Here are some pictures of various neighborhoods that I have been working on.










I will end with an overview of the way Rooted is now.  We are looking from the West, as this gets the most info in that zoom.



Now that Rooted has a government and trash is being cleaned up, people can start to guess at the future.  Electricity is going to be an issue.  The government has already staked a claim at a section of the docks to be an exploration harbor.  There the people of Rooted will learn about the coastline and the various raw materials that will be available to them.  A dock will also be made of the south side of town to explore the vast lake.

Farmers are a little upset that they don't see a future in Rooted.  What upsets them more is that the Town Office was built on farmland.  Although they were compensated financially for the land, the farmers feel that their lively hoods are not being taken into consideration.  There has been talk of moving to some distant place, but for now they sit and watch as the value of their land goes higher and higher.

   I will say some more about the custom lots now.  I have been playing this game for quite a while now, but I did not learn about custom content (beyond NAM) until the beginning of this year.  I got close to the LEX in 97, but that was only because I was trying to download the SC4mapper.  I was confused as to why there was no download link, but everybody was commenting about what a great tool it was.
   My biggest gripe with SC4 was the lack of farm fields.  I downloaded a few, but they still did not grow (I did not know that I only downloaded lots, and not fields).  However, after getting some custom fields to grow I was still unhappy with the maxis ones.  That is when I learned about the maxis blocker.
   At first I blocked the farms, but then I learned about the Reader, and I began to block everything unless I wanted a certain lot to grow.  I dabbled a little in MaxisPIM, but then learned about PIMX (which is why the library got renovated).  I don't use the blocker anymore though, I simply took the building exemplars out of SimCity1.dat!
   I have been doing some work with mods that are apparently un-makeable, but other free time is spent on cleaning up the various dependencies I have.  One project is separating all of the props into files that are named after what they have in them (...trees, cars, houses).

Thanks for stopping by. 

[cubby420]

Wow...very nice development. I love your style and custom creations. I too am planning a reorganization of my sc4 files and dreading every second of it. Oh, how it pays off though? 

[fe_lipe]

Beautiful city, 

[dossenaandrea]

Hi!
Great city! where did you get those diagonal houses in the residential zone?
thanks

[gorbag]

I've just noticed this. That's a lot of work you've put in. It looks very, very nice and you've clearly thought about trying evry hard to keep to the NG spirit with your budgeting.

[kwakelaar]

Nice work with some try and error. When you start out with the different tools available, there really are a lot of possibilities. And I see a lot of really interesting things happening here.

[Lowkee33]

Hi all,

@Cubby420:  Thanks....yeah...

@Fe_lipe: Thank you.

@Dossenaandrea:  Thanks.  These are C.P. 19th century r$ houses.  On the LEX you can also find other types of c.p. houses.

@Kwakelaar:  Thanks for the compliments.


Update 8:  The New Docks

The first order of business for out new electorate was selling the lots to prospective business people.  More shops would be needed, but also space for some manufacturing and the exploration harbor.  Once the plans included a fire and police station a restaurant was built.  The new seaport was also a high priority.

The government wanted this to be a nice place, as they hope more businesses will want to use this space.  For now the harbor is rather empty.



The restaurant has privatized part of the docks.  On the  right you can see the last of the customers at a Farmer's market.



The Exploration Harbor has set up shop, as well as more stores to provide for the fishermen.

   

An overview of the New Docks!



While panning through Rooted I found this nice view:



People are starting to get wealthy (I may have to change the title soon) and are looking at the area near Euclid's Estate as prime building zones.  They just have to buy out the farmers.

Thanks for viewing!

[cubby420]

Excellent update. The docks are coming along nicely and as usual your lotting is top notch.