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CSGdesign's NATURAL GROWTH

Started by CSGdesign, November 20, 2009, 12:50:42 AM

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CSGdesign

#40


Miller Road, one of the very first roads to have been laid in Boston, heading north along the then newly developping coastline upriver.
Conjestion has forced council to upgrade the entire stretch of Miller Road, from Boston Harbour Bridge to just north of Industry Way Rail Bridge.



Step 1) - Identify the area that needs to be upgraded.  Notice all the annoying buildings in the way.  Since sims develop their structures at their own expense and will always move back in, don't worry about existing buildings, let's just blanket re-develop the entire zone to better suit future requirements.



Step 2) - Bulldoze the entire region to the ground, giving you a clear view of the area and allowing you to create a new and better infrastructure in whatever way you think works best.



Step 3) - Create a new, larger road up the guts of your new area.  Make it nice and straight and pretty, because it will afterall be the hub of your new mega-plex.



Step 4) - Connect roads to your new avenue at regular tidy intervals.  Keep it nice and neat and your new area will look suitably planned and pretty.









































.... Okay if you believed that's how I'm going to upgrade a conjested road in this city, then your IP has been logged and you are hereby forbidden from ever reading this City Journal again.

That is exactly what you are NOT to do if you want to develop a city in the "natural growth" method.
You NEVER, EVER, EVER do things easy and tidy and let the sims come and enjoy your work later.
You work AROUND the sims and WITH the city, and to hell with how difficult that is, that's what it's allllll about.

So.
Let's start this again shall we?


Right.

Now.
This is the area we've identified as being heavilly conjested and requiring re-development.
It needs to be done as cost-effectively as possible, and at every stage we need to limit the amount of public upheaval and inconvenience.  If possible we need to ensure that at all times during construction works traffic can still flow, even if its in a limited way.



Area's 1 and 4 (and 5, which is not shown in the above map, but is a little further to the north in Poshland) are the areas that are least conjested.  But if we're gonna upgrade the whole area, we might as well do it all now to prevent us having to upset sims later anyways.  If we upgrade just areas 2 and 3 now then the resulting traffic flow will only ensure areas 1,4, and 5 become rapidly more conjested, so we'll treat the entire thing as one big project.

Area 2 is the most conjested through-flow road (Miller Road).
Area 3 is heavilly conjested with bus and car traffic taking sims to and from the rail terminal and the ferry (immediately next to the rail station, between Cove Park and Outlook Park).

So let's begin.

Step 1) - Rail crossings (especially with realistic slope mods) are the most difficult to work with because rails have such a slight incline allowance.  So where-ever possible I work with the crossing FIRST and make everything else fit to that road-works.



Step 2) - Use the bulldozer tool and hover over the various buildings and structures in the area you want to upgrade, to get a feel for what costs what.  Always choose to upgrade and build infrastructure in the least-expensive way possible, so that means spending as little as possible bulldozing as well as building.  Notice how public structures and commercial buildings are always more expensive, and how higher-density buildings are more expensive than lower-density buildings.  This gives you a good idea of where to place your new roads.




Step 3) - Having identified what buildings you'd like to issue a "Compulsory Acquistion" notice to, let's begin at the rail crossing, and work through the road upgrade from there.



Step 4) - Surgically bulldoze individual structures that are in your way, and especially road intersections and street to road tiles, as these can make dragging a new avenue difficult.  It's much easier to drag an avenue and then connect roads and streets to it, but remember you're trying to be cost effective AND disrupt traffic as little as possible, so dont bulldoze unless you are having difficulty dragging your avenue.



Step 5) - Drag your avenue rail crossing.



Step 6) - Repeat the process for the next stage of the development.  Take the time to delight in the number of phonecalls and meetings that are being disrupted by the jack-hammers and earth-moving machinery's noise.



Step 7) - Continue the development carefully, one stretch at a time, always choosing the least expensive direction, but without letting your bean counting make your avenue start heading off into low-density suburbs... remember what point A and point B that you're trying to connect is and ensure you're always choosing an efficient route between them as well.  It's a balancing act.  Nobody said it was gunna be easy.



Step 8) - As you create new roads, try not to interrupt existing roads' traffic flow.  All this development can and should be going on while the simulator is running.  Roads never just pop into existance overnight.  They shouldn't in your city either.  If you're a real nutbag like me, build them slowly over months of game time, for that added realism.  Traffic will NOT thank you for it and sims will almost certainly move out, but sacrifice for the greater good, eh.



Step 9) - To minimise the amount of cleanup and risk of "isolated streets" and other misfortunes from your development, re-zone and reconnect roads as you go.  This is a great opportunity to make zones near the new (and what will become very heavilly trafficked in the future) road into commercial (loves traffic) instead of residential (hates traffic).



Step 10) - Try to go around commercial buildings if you can, because a single commercial structure can cost as much to bulldoze as building 100 or 200 meters of avenue through low-density residential.  That beige scraper above this stretch costs $700 to bulldoze, and those smaller ones to it's right cost about $500 each... the decision to go around them is easy.



Step 11) - Dont forget to connect your roads and streets as you go!  It'll be a shame if you come back in a few game months and find enter suburbs that were "cut off" from the new development being abandoned because you forgot about one lousy street connection.



Step 12) - When larger buildings are demolished, they leave their "driveway points" in the direction the entire structure had faced, which can often be different to the smaller constituent zones you had originally laid which it had amalgamated to build onto.  Make sure these are re-zoned to face their neighbouring streets or of course they wont develop.



Step 13) - If you thought rail crossings were hard, try rail crossings close to rail bridges.  Make sure you dont build right up to this sort of crossing and then find out too late your road needs to cross two or three tiles to the left.



Step 14) - Build your crossing first, and then connect to that - it's SO much easier that way.



Step 15) - Admire your handiwork.  The fewer buildings you've knocked down, the better the job you've done.  Of course unless you have reserves near your road then some buildings WILL be knocked down, but try to minimise it.  Now let the simulator run while you work on other areas and when you come back this area should be developped as well or better than when you started, and should have zero road conjestion problems for many, many game years to come.



Okay now all you people who thought I'd actually bulldoze half a city to lay a road, your IP is not actually logged and you can keep reading if you want to, but srsly if by this entry you haven't realised that I don't take the easy-way-out like that, then maybe this journal isn't really yer cuppatea.  Try Quake.  Or CounterStrike.

CSGdesign



Public Transportation is a valuable and necessary addition to any city, even a low-density sprawl.  Perhaps especially.
Arguably the most cost-effective method of public transport is buses, as they both relieve the traffic flow (increasing development) and earn fares.  Cars don't generate revenue without tolls (which impede transit), however buses do collect fares and therefore generate revenue, and can be an absolutely essential method of taking your city from breaking even to turning a profit.

Boston Central, Boston Central South, Central South East and Central East are the most populated city tiles in the region at the moment, so we'll focus on them for this entry.

Below is an overview of a typical suburban area (this cross-section is in fact Boston Central) showing the spacing of bus-stops.  Every citizen is within comfortable walking distance of a bus-stop, making choosing a bus as transit instead of a car as transit a perfectly valid transit choice.  In turn this relieves traffic, which in turn allows more sims to move in and more revenue to be generated both in taxes and in fares.




The larger render of the four central city tiles can be viewed here.  It is 1mb in size, and the same scale as the image above.

As you can see, every city is turning a very reasonable profit from it's transit network.  The subways tend to be an expensive addition which is why the more populated cities (where the subways have more lines and stations) have a lower profit for their fares vs transit costs.

BOSTON CENTRAL


BOSTON SOUTH CENTRAL



BOSTON SOUTH EAST CENTRAL


BOSTON EAST CENTRAL


In future entries I will show the location of train stations, ferries, rail and will also show the primary routes taken by buses in the network.
I believe the key to a successful bus system is to ignore the cost of placing and maintaining each bus-stop, but rather think about your sims and what they need.

Placing stops in work-zones like CBDs and industrial hubs, within walking distance of every house and home, and very close to all R$$ and R$ apartments, is essential to convincing your sims to Hail and Ride.  Putting bus stops near other public transport options like train stations, ferries, or subways can further increase the transit options available to your sims, and further reduce commute times and traffic.

Don't bother putting bus stops near R$$$ structures (either residential or commercial) since R$$$ citizens hate public transport and would rather take their nice shiney car to work.  Snobs.  What's wrong with being sneezed on and rubbing up against the sweaty guy with stubble?  So what if he's got swine-flu and some kind of fungal infection...


UPDATE SINCE THIS ENTRY WAS FIRST CREATED
Some of my cities earn more from the profits on bus fairs than their entire expenses, now.
Which effectively means I could not tax them AT ALL and still turn a profit.

CSGdesign

#42


Want to take a road trip?
Tired of going to the corner store and back?
Let's get out of Boston altogether, and visit the northern city of Orthanc Quay?

Well fortunately now we can, since the newly installed Great Northern Bay Road that stretches the entire distance from Crystal Bay to Orthanc Quay (we'll visit that town later in the journal, not for awhile yet).



Previously the only way to travel between Boston and the northern cities was by ferry, aircraft, or to a much lesser extent bashing your way through the forest with a pack llama and 6 little kids that didn't speak your language carrying yer gear.

Now, thanks to the ... not at all modern ... invention of asphalt and the efforts of a few over-paid civil engineers, Great Northern Bay Road is now available and at your disposal.

Let's take a trip.






The traffic is still very small traveling between neighboring cities but this small, winding, and very scenic little road is now the highway north from Boston.


CSGdesign



Tunnings Quarry, the first of many proposed projects by Grimey Earthscars Pty. Ltd, has been operating for 5 and a half years now and is well and truly establishing itself as an industrial power in the region.



The mine has now excavated a total of 2,595,840 cubic meters of Bauxite, with the majority of this material being shipped directly out to SimNation by trucking it to the port in Boston Central.  The new Southern Rail Link (funded entirely by Grimey Earthscars Pty. Ltd. only because it was significantly less expensive than buying Boston City Council) is more than 30% complete, which will take the material into Tellequin Beach, where it will either be shipped to SimNation via a new port that will be constructed in late 1985, or will be processed into Aluminium in a proposed (but not yet approved) Aluminium Electrolysis plant that will be erected in Tellequin Beach around the same time.

The industry required to support this massive operation, as well as the personnel required to man it has created it's own mining town, collectively known as Tunnings Quarry.  This mining town has a population of slightly over 2000 residents, all of whom work locally.  There are around 150 sims that travel from nearby regions including Kelly Bay and Tellequin Beach.



The material removed from the lode in Tunnings Quarry is only between 0.25% and 0.48% of the estimated lode, so Grimey expects to make a LOT of money, and Tunnings Quarry (the town) will be alive and kicking for close to another 80 years before the lode is depleted.  This is the larger of two prospects.  The other is several kilometers west of Tunnings Quarry.




The site office has expanded into a complex now, housing site managers and even with it's own pub.  The rail station will eventually be setup to efficiently take material out of the site, but for now is used only to ship in small amounts of materials from the industry in Tunnings Quarry (the town).




The majority of the local industry is dedicated to the manufacture and maintenance of machinery for the mining operation, as well as the manufacture and distribution operation for the Southern Rail Link.  There are several smelters working overtime to extrude rails, and concrete sleepers are being produced at the rate of 320 per week.  (That's 8 per hour!)



Some more advanced industrial buildings are also involved in the research and development of the proposed Electrolysis plant, as well as the advanced surveying and geo-mapping required to estimate and plan the most efficient procedures for the extraction of the Bauxite.  This means planning every scraping carefully to allow a clear way for the following scrapings without (for example) machinery having to struggle up out of large holes that could have otherwise been much flatter for much longer while the scrapings proceeded closer to the surface.  This reduces fuel costs as well as wear and tear on machinery, and ultimately equates to a much higher profit margin.



Because the entire town is owned and operated (and is in fact on private property) of Grimey Earthscars Pty. Ltd., the town planning reflects the "segregation" that occurs in big-business.  Elite and middle management even live separately, with the working class being provided (the mine pays for housing for workers) with much smaller and less fancy housing much closer to the rail line.

The mine is still only young, and hasn't even begun it's rail operations yet, which is expected to increase production by almost 750%.  And yet already it has created its own small town and is having a very noticeable impact on the region at large.

Why live in expensive apartments with a long commute when you can move to Tunnings Quarry and have the mine pay for everything and all you need to do is take your pay and spend it at the pub every night?  God Bless Grimey.

CSGdesign



Ol' Djohaal Pontoon, erected in 1968, had seen many useful years.
But at 14 years old and with a very different community using it, the pontoon was simply no longer as useful as it once had been.



The community of Portsmouth Island owed much to the little pontoon built all those years ago, but the small island was now almost entirely covered by suburbia. Only a small farm remained as part of the rural spread that took over the island a few years after the pontoon was built.
As a result the island now housed almost 7000 sims, many of whom both lived and worked on the island, but many more that traveled to and from the mainland on a regular basis.



The tiny pontoon simply couldn't keep up, and queues of sims would stretch out into the road every morning.



Finally the council could justify building a larger ferry operation.  But since they were going to go to the effort of building a ferry terminal, council decided to build one that would allow vehicles to travel to and from the mainland, one of only a few in the entire region.



This greatly increased the traffic flow in the streets leading to it, with many sims making the trip across the water purely for the novelty of it!
As a result the streets were upgraded, lights were installed, and the entire Portsmouth Island community had finally come of age!


CSGdesign



Meet the Greggory family.
Johno Greggory is an Environmental Scientist ("Possum Counter") currently working in Peninsula Fair Industrial Park.
Svetlana Greggory is a stay-at-home mum looking after their young child.
Tsiana Greggory is 2 years old and cute as a bug.

The Greggory family live in a pleasant little house in Boston South East Central, on the Boston Harbour Peninsula.



Johno's job at the Grimey Deer Squishing Facility paid well but wasn't exactly high in the job-satisfaction area.  There was only so many deers a man could squish before he wanted something more.



So the Greggory's took a punt, and accepted a new job up at the Colorado Lumber mill, in a very tiny town about as far west as Boston Region stretched.  The new town, called Carver Hills, was barely more than a fly sneeze on a map, with a population of 71.  Yes, that's right, 71.  And most of them were related to each other.

The Greggory's sold their pleasant house, got a fortune for it and stuffed it in the bank, piled all their remaining posessions into their all-wheel-drive sedan hatch, bought a caravan, and set off on their road trip!

The first small township they entered after leaving Harbour Peninsula was Shangreelahville - a cozy little town that serviced the surrounding rural community.



After entering the south-eastern most suburbs of lower Boston, the Greggory's paused to admire one of the most beautiful homes they'd ever seen.  Johno temporarilly flipped out at the idea that he had thrown everything he had worked for away and was about to start a new life in the unknown, about as far from the rest of society as it was possible to live.



Soon the road trip entered some of the heaviest traffic the Greggories had seen in their lives.  Not one but TWO sets of traffic lights to pass through in one stretch, and several complex turning lanes.  Lucky they had arrows on the bitumen or there'd have been a few problems.



As they continued west into the more rural areas that existed between the shore-hugging suburbs, one of the largest high-tech industrial parks in the southern parts of Boston was adjacent to a range of farming blocks... it was a striking contrast.



Traveling up the Da'Angular highway, the Greggories passed by the Mathshampton Soccer Field, where the Mathshampton Pi's were having a home game against the Shumachaville Soles.



Traveling almost into the heart of Boston South Central, the Greggories stopped for a break from their trip while having a look at the university.  The Graduation Day was useful in that the university was having an Open Campus day, so the Greggories could stroll about without raising any questions.  The architecture was grand and inspiring.



After driving for hours through suburb after suburb, eventually the Greggory-mobile passed by another noteable landmark - the Saxtonvale Smelter.  One of the largest smelters in Boston, this monstrous building was responsible for the conversion of up to 15% of Boston's iron into steels and alloys.



Heading south the jouney took the family past the region-wide famous Da Wagatta Hotel, known for having the largest steak in town.  It was rumoured that only one man had ever been able to finish one of Da Wagatta's steaks in 1924, and that he was to this day still digesting it.



On the way out of town, heading inland away from the river, Johno, Svetlana and Tsiana passed by the huge Natural Gas Power facility that powered most of South West Central Boston.  An impressive structure and reasonably modern technology.



Leaving Boston South Central behind, the roads head back away from roads, lights, and signs, and into winding rural pitted and cracked bitumen roads.  A much more familiar drive for the Greggories, and a welcome change to the chaos and stress that the traffic can bring.



Shortly into the rural trip a brief pie and drink stop-over in Eskvale.  Such a beautiful little town.  So many porches to porch on.



And here it was.  Head north and you come back into Pulmott River and civilisation.  Head south and you get further and further away from everybody else.  Johno turned south.



This isolated country road stretched seemingly endlessly, and it was easy to switch off and drive on "autopilot".  Look out!  A rabbit in the middle of the road!  Fortunately Johno was paying attention.  Were you?



Jerrycan Town - a very small rural community and pretty much the last place that you can fill up on petrol before heading inland.  Hence the name.



Now THIS is where it gets interesting.  Say goodbye to the bitumen because here's where it stops.  All-wheel-drive comes in mighty handy when you've got no road, no phone, and no way of even walking to get help.  Take it easy and DONT try to plow through a mud hole - go around it.



After traveling for many hours the forest gets denser, and you absolutely do NOT have your hands outside the vehicle or a passing drop bear will bite it off as you drive past.  No kidding.



Eventually, much to everyone's delight, the track itself becomes so difficult to see in the undergrowth that you lose it completely. Just keep heading west and avoid the big logs and axel-breaking holes and she'll be right mate.



The Lake! On the other shore the Greggories could just barely make out the smoke of wood-fires in houses.  Exciting but they still had to bash their way through a couple of kilometers of bush to get around the Aquifer-fed lake to their new home town of Carver Hills.



Carver Hills!  Civilisation!  Hot meals and showers!  Very exciting.



It didn't take long to meet all the people.  After all there's fewer of them than relatives at a wedding.





For now the Greggories would camp out in their caravan, but they had a contract on a block of land and would be building as soon as they'd settled in.  And forget about going home, there's no service stations out here and they were out of fuel.  All the vehicles in this town run on Tripple A Batteries, which is great news for the Battery Hut.  Better get that All-wheel drive hatch converted or it's gonna be a paperweight!



Work tomorrow!  Colorado Lumber's boss is expecting Johno to turn up drunk so he can fit in with the other lumberjacks. New life, new responsibilities.

wouanagaine

Fantastic MD

I'd like to play like this

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CSGdesign

#47


wounanagaine
Quote from: wouanagaine on November 24, 2009, 12:04:35 AM
Fantastic MD

I'd like to play like this

Thanks for reading!
Playing like this is awesome fun but very, VERY time-consuming.  I've been playing this same city for over half a year now, pretty much every night for 4 - 5 hours.  Sure beats watching the garbage on TV, though...  %wrd




Copper-Rock, a small node town built on the main road between Foggy Inlet and Boston North East Central.
Due to being inland away from most of the region's water pumps, and isolated from most other communities by distance, as well as being too low in population to justify it's own water tower, most Copper-Rock citizens have lived off rainwater and bore-water for the last 65 odd years.



The small town has grown quite slowly, mostly due to having no particular attractions or reasons to move there besides property prices.  However as urban sprawl has reached out towards it from the more prosperous communities (in particular the west shores of Foggy Inlet) it has come closer and closer to the rest of civilisation.  With this sprawl has come water lines, bringing cheap, chlorinated, flouridated water to the masses.




So it was that in August of 1982 Copper Rocks was finally connected with underground water pipes, and the citizens had the option of installing town water plumbing in their homes.  Three residents took up the offer.  The others were all dead of lead poisoning from drinking rain water that had collected pollution from the industrial parks a few kilometers east in Foggy Inlet.



But the good news is that now there's a lot of vacant homes with access to town water!

Build it and they will come.

CSGdesign

An extra 12,000 sims have moved in.
There's no pics.

This has been the worst City Journal update ever, proudly brought to you by CSGdesign.
Mmmk bye.

CSGdesign



Time to discuss the growing traffic concerns of East Central Boston.
Sims travelling to and from East Central Boston and South East Central Boston into Central Boston are causing wide-spread chaos.
The bus networks are working so well that the roads are becoming conjested with streams of buses, usually taking sims to other forms of mass transit such as ferries and train stations.

So we're calling on YOU, councillor (and all our councillors) to help us brainstorm a solution for this before it becomes a complete disaster.
Please, have a seat... there's water in front of you and against the far wall you'll find an assortment of cakes and biscuits...

Shall we begin?

Ok, we splashed out and bought a $4.50 map from Sonya's corner store on the way in, and the Wilderness Warriors were good enough to provide us with a photo of one of the major areas of concern from one of their choppers.



Ernie, put the duster down, we'll let you know when you can clean up ok... just have a seat.  Good boy... want another coffee?  Bert, do you mind? Thankyou.

Okay as I saying, there is one major area of concern, being in South East Central Boston, particularly through Smokeyton and Nameless Suburb.



That picture is taken looking west towards Boston, by the way.  Yes that's right, it's where we installed our Botanical Gardens a few years ago now.  Quite the make-out spot now I hear.  Right so those avenues, while effective, are very quickly falling behind the growth we've been experiencing in the east of boston in the last 5 or so years.

Most of the traffic is travelling through this area and to the pedestrian and vehicle ferries in Boston Harbour, and then traveling upriver into Boston, rather than taking the main road in north of Yuppyville and down over the Carlson Esanda Memorial Bridge.  The trip is clearly more efficient, despite the traffic conjestion.





In addition to this we have nuisance drivers heading in to Boston Central from the eastern suburbs by traveling along the coast-line, rather than taking the main road up north and crossing Brackish Inlet and traveling west again north of Yuppyville.  These we can put a stop to by simply not allowing through traffic along the coast, and redirecting all traffic in and out of that area to be via the main road up near Muffy Outlook, on the southern shore of Brackish Inlet.  This might help to convince these stupid stuuuupid sims to just keep on rolling north.  Erhem.  Just an idea, but you guys are the councillors, let's hear what you have to say about it.



Now the only other area of any real concern at this time is the Franklin Clot Road, running along the west edge of Franklin State Forest.
This road is servicing traffic travelling between Daegon and other south western suburbs up into Wiggley Way, Crazyville, Sifolis, and further north, and is a bit of a choke point due to the development inhibitions currently in place to encourage a green corridor between Franklin State Forest and the Charleton River bend between Brenton and Spiffs Crossing.  Now that development has occupied this entire coastline, perhaps this green corridor is a waste of real-estate now?  It is 30 year old policy to protect it, afterall, maybe it's time to knock the whole thing to the ground?

No other roads or transport is causing us any real headaches, and the vast majority of this traffic is bus traffic.  Charlie do you have those figures?  Yes here we go, 97% of this conjestion is buses... the rest is cars and to a lesser extent pedestrians and skateboarders.

So councillor...
What do you suggest?


Can someone get Ernie off the ceiling fan please?  This happens EVERY time.

CSGdesign



Welcome back councillors.
I know that I promised that our Civil and Urban Engineers would have drafts of traffic calming designs however we had a slight problem when they escaped.  We've got rangers out looking for them now, and with any luck we'll have them back at work shortly.  In the meantime we have got a design proposal for a new train station as a potential solution to our traffic congestion problem.



While they were still strapped in our Engineers did suggest that the vast majority of our problems were occurring because our existing train station (almost 50 years old and with a very limited capacity of only 2,000 sims) was seriously congested with over 12,000 sims, forcing the remaining traffic to find alternative routes into Boston CBD.



They have therefore created a draft proposal of an upgrade to the existing train-station, bringing it up to speed with current capacity by installing extra passenger terminals and baggage handling areas, increasing the parking zones, and renovating the interior to make it much more streamlined.  This will increase the capacity from 2,000 to a very tidy 40,000 sims per month (that's 340 per day!).



Artist's Impression of Proposed Rail Station.

Models and prelimary surveys have suggested that this would redirect a lot of sims to our rail network since it's a very short (20 meter) walk from the station to the ferry terminal.  As a result almost all of the other congestion throughout the shire would be relieved because sims would choose rail since it's such a cheap and convenient solution.

This is an extremely inexpensive option to our traffic issues, and would pretty much solve them for another 25 years.

All in favour, say "Aye".

CSGdesign



Gilmore Llama grazing property goes under the hammer following Garry Gilmore's death at age 68.




14 years after the founding of Boston, one of the very first island communities to be set up was the rural farming community on Spanner Island, just south of the Harbour entrance.

The key founder of this was old Gary Gilmore, an immigrant from Madagascar that had come to Boston with his herd of 6 breeding Llamas.

In October of 1982, Gary passed away, after a series of nightmares about his beautiful Llama property being turned into a sea of houses (according to his diary).  Sad.  Let's all take a moment.  Okay moment's over, back to the story.



So his estate passed to his eldest daughter Sharron who lived interstate and had no desire to move to Boston, who promptly sold it to Haggerty Development Corporation.

HDC took no time at all clearing the land and laying the underground power, water and sewerage, and the asphalt cul-de-sacs for the new development.



The lots were sold off the plan, and in most cases were bought as soon as they were released for sale.  Gilmore Park was erected on the shores looking back at the Boston City lights.



As is usual with developments of this kind, the businesses and shops were the first to move in due to the high demand for good sites to set up business and with the gleam of expectation in their eyes for new customers and new business.



The first released residential lots were sold out completely within the first month.  The vendor's covenant stated that lots needed to be developed within three months of owning the land, but most houses were built within two.



The second release was a little slower to sell, but was still a massive rush, and the same covenant applied ensuring rapid development.



The third and final release was a lot more pricey and so slowed the rush, but none-the-less buildings went up within another two months.



Some months later when the suburb was fully developed, the rich folk moved in and added a bunch of class to the area.



And so, just like in the visions that Gary Gilmore had which killed him, the Gilmore Acreage was sliced and diced until only the older residents even knew a farm ever existed.  RIP Gary.

CSGdesign




At the end of August, 1983, the Tunnings Mine Scrape #3 was well over halfway depleted.



It was set at a higher altitude than Scrape #1 and #2 by some 15 meters, and would be scraped deeper later in the extraction plan.

As Scrape #3 reached the end of its lifespan, Scrape #4 was prepared, by clearing the forest on top of it and removing the top rubble.



The Top Rubble was piled on the eastern rubble piles, almost doubling their size.



While the western rubble piles, which have had no material added to them for some years now, have been reclaimed by weeds, bracken and pioneer plants... They've almost dissapeared.  Of course they'll be used later to help "rehabilitate" the huge pit left in the earth, but that's not for a loooooong time yet.



Industry in the area has increased, and the small township of Tunnings Quarry has increased by almost 30% in resident count.  Commerce too is booming in the small town, and the rail link to the new industrial port in Tellequin Beach is now fully operational.  Tunnings Quarry is rapidly becoming the industrial strength of the entire region.

CSGdesign



Nameless and Smokeyton in South East Central Boston are crammed to the gills with sims taking the car ferry into Boston CBD.



After a lengthy debate by Boston City Council it was decided that the best solution to this problem was both to upgrade the existing train stations to a much higher capacity, as well as introduce Ground Light Rail (trams) into the region for the first time.

To conserve space, it was voted that these tram lines ran up the middle of the existing conjested avenues, making good use of the median strip.



The most important station in this budding network was the Nameless Station, close to the ferry, rail and bus hub that already existed to make good use of these other forms of mass transit and encourage sims to walk between mass transit options.



Some modification of the existing avenues was required, especially at intersections, due to the engineering required for the new tram lines.
However by and large the avenues remained untouched by the development of the new network.



Two destination stations were installed, both in the northern shire of East Central Boston, one being in Hiccup (near the industrial centre of the shire).



And the other being to the west, closer to the harbour, in Derriton at the termination of the existing conjested avenue.



The lines were constructed first, with the stations being constructed and opened at the end of the project, in July 1983.
A massive swing in commute from buses and cars to rail and trams was seen, with the ferry being the key destination from both South East Central Boston and northern shires, travelling both into Boston CBD and further out into the bay.

Conjestion dropped to almost nothing in a matter of months, and as a result growth accelerated in the entire area.



Once again, Boston was booming unhindered, all thanks to the noisy little sardine cans called trams.  Sweet.

tooheys

Well from various chat I've read around here, I know this is going to be an MD to watch.

Welcome to SC4d and I hope you enjoy your stay. I'm guessing we will enjoy it too.

You've somewhat overwhelmed us with updates so those of us who haven't seen your MD/CJ at ST may take a little while to catch up  :) But from what I've seen so far, it's well worth starting from Update 1. :thumbsup:


Dave



joelyboy911

#55
All these updates copied over from ST are very interesting. I never looked at your (or any for that matter) CJs there, so had you not moved it here, I would never have experienced it.

These things have been very interesting, I especially liked the Bauxite mine. To be honest, I didn't really like the urban landscape with too many right angles, and it seems a bit too full of Maxis lots.

I look forward to seeing your latest works.
SimCity Aviation Group
I miss you, Adrian

CSGdesign

#56


joelyboy911
Quote from: joelyboy911 on November 24, 2009, 01:24:51 AM
All these updates copied over from ST are very interesting. I never looked at your (or any for that matter) CJs there, so had you not moved it here, I would never have experienced it.

These things have been very interesting, I especially liked the Bauxite mine. To be honest, I didn't really like the urban landscape with too many right angles, and it seems a bit too full of Maxis lots.

I look forward to seeing your latest works.
Thankyou for your support.
I avoid installing lots of custom stuff, so yes you'll continue to see a lot of Maxis stuff... even currently.
I usually either build my own or only install the really creamy good ones that I find.
I avoid right-angles as much as possible...? So I'm not sure which right-angles you're referring to.  In fact most roads and streets I go to quite a bit of effort to ensure they're all windy and natural looking.  Grids give me headaches.

tooheys
Quote from: tooheys on November 24, 2009, 01:17:45 AM
Well from various chat I've read around here, I know this is going to be an MD to watch.

Welcome to SC4d and I hope you enjoy your stay. I'm guessing we will enjoy it too.

You've somewhat overwhelmed us with updates so those of us who haven't seen your MD/CJ at ST may take a little while to catch up  :) But from what I've seen so far, it's well worth starting from Update 1. :thumbsup:


Dave
What chat do you refer to?
I've only ever posted in the pictures competition and once a long time ago to get a custom-texture ID range...?

Sorry for the information overload of all these posts - it's just a catchup, it'll be online and documented soon, and then we can continue updating it with current stuff as per normal.
This is not simply a copy-across of an existing diary that has finished, this diary is active and being updated, and the history of the stories are directly relevant to the new stories, which is why copying across all this history in as short an amount of time as possible is important.  Otherwise it would take MONTHS (no exaggeration) and that's just not practical.

Currently I'm up to Entry #41 on the other diary, so once this one is caught up it'll be a nice juicy read for anyone that wants something to do over a coffee.





Smokeyton has for decades been one of the major industrial polluters in the entire region, which even lead to a mutant backwards foal at one point.
So it was important that the Shire Council moved away from this disturbing trend and towards a greener and more environmentally friendly approach.  This started with the first Botonical Garden, and in September of 1983 led to the completion of two new Solar Power Generators.



The aging Natural Gas Generators in Smokeyton were a major powerhouse for many years, and had provided many jobs to both a skilled and unskilled workforce, but were well past their use-by-date and had to go.



Demolition charges were laid on Complex A, B, and C, with B being the first to be detonated.

(Warning: Graphic Violence - 3 pidgeons and a foot-stool were harmed during the making of this entry. CSGdesign wishes to advice that this entry is only suitable for audiences over the age of 3 months.)





When the dust had settled medium density commercial and some snappy parks were discovered underneat the rubble.
What a happy coincidence!



Perdie.
/ entry#33

CSGdesign




In November 1983 an alarming event occurred.
For the first time in Boston's history, a pyromaniac deliberately set fire deep within Franklin State Forest, one of the few preserved natural forests within the city's borders.



The forest was primarily coniferous, and the fire spread very quickly.



As the fire burned out of control fire crews were called in but couldn't reach so deeply into the forest.
The air brigade was called in and commenced water bombings, but couldn't keep up with the rate at which the fire spread.



As the fire grew and spread north it began to threaten the neighbourhoods surrounding the forest, especially the northern suburb of Honk.



The Honk Fire Brigade evacuated people from the bordering houses and shops, because there was a very real threat that by the time the fire emerged from the forest it would be an inferno that overtook the neighboorhood very quickly.



The firey's did their best to keep the flames at bay, but their priority turned very quickly to one of preventing the fire jumping the road and engulfing Honk.



They were far too small in force for such a massively fueled blaze, and the ahes raining down from the wall of flames ingnited Bickmore Real Estate, which rapidly drew the attention of the Firey's.



After a long battle for over 4 hours the Franklin Forest Fire of 1983 was finally doused, and attention quickly turned to how it was set and what to do about it.



By studying video footage from the security cameras of businesses surrounding the forest, it was quickly identified that a man had entered the forest immediately before the blaze and exited very rapidly imediately after it had been set.

The man was identified soon after as the local nutjob Garry Whackmore, who was later questioned by police, leading to charges of arson, attempted murder, vandalism and destruction of property.



Garry will appear in court in three days time.

CSGdesign

#58


I downloaded this mod some time ago but haven't had a chance to install it and experiment with it up until now.
I found a regional view mod that showed me streets as well as roads, which would better display the complexity of the road network in the regional view.
The one I downloaded was Edmonton Transportation Map Mod, but in its raw form the Edmonton Transportation Map Mod has streets as white, same as roads, so it's very hard to tell the difference.

So with the help of Shadow Assassin and iLive's Reader, I editted the value of the streets to be a much lighter shade so it was easier to tell which was streets and which was roads.

The original Regional View used up until game-year 1983 is this:



The Improved Regional View installed at the beginning of game-year 1984 is:



I've been rendering full-size region views of both satellite view and transit view since game-year 1980, and have uploaded all of them in Entry #1 at the base of the entry (under the pictures of the region views).

I'll continue to upload these as they're generated.

If you would like to download this file please personal message me and I'll provide a private link.

joelyboy911

Hello again  :D

I guess I was meaning all those windy bits in the road. They look really nice in maps and on region view, but the compromise is, that they look quite sharp and as though they take an indirect route. Myself, I do like grids. But, that's fair enough that you don't.

Anyway, keep it up.  &apls
SimCity Aviation Group
I miss you, Adrian