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From Schmotenton to New Portland - the rise (and possible fall) of Bran Castle

Started by siemanthepieman, August 05, 2016, 10:21:29 PM

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art128

Absolutely great work on the last couple updates. As per usual the story telling is simply fantastic, and to think that it's all mostly naturally grown. The city is getting bigger and bigger... I wonder when the first skyscraper will be built. :)
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

brick_mortimer

Quote from: siemanthepieman on February 13, 2017, 03:13:35 AM...11.5 – You can see a little remnant of the old dirt road that the highway replaced in the bottom left!...
It are these kind of details that make a city look realistic :thumbsup::
Bendy dirt roads are converted into paved straight roads and small stretches of the old road are left behind.

I try to do the same in my cities, imagening where the roads "used to be" before I lay down my roads ;)
Busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest
Me no coffee function without so good

kbieniu7

Quote from: brick_mortimer on February 14, 2017, 12:00:57 AM
Quote from: siemanthepieman on February 13, 2017, 03:13:35 AM...11.5 – You can see a little remnant of the old dirt road that the highway replaced in the bottom left!...
It are these kind of details that make a city look realistic :thumbsup::
Bendy dirt roads are converted into paved straight roads and small stretches of the old road are left behind.

I try to do the same in my cities, imagening where the roads "used to be" before I lay down my roads ;)

Agreed! That's one of those points that shows the attention to layout details and historical continuity  :thumbsup:
Thank you for visiting Kolbrów, and for being for last ten years!

siemanthepieman

REPLIES: Thank you all for the kind comments (and the 'likes' too). I am glad you liked the road remnant (I almost bulldozed it) and are enjoying the MD. I am having fun building and creating it.

I apologise in advance for some of the low quality pictures in the update that follows (eg; 12.2). Back when I took some of them was a while ago and I hadn't realised that the 'print screen' function was a much better way of taking pictures than the in-game camera.

UPDATE 12
For almost 40 years the fervour of the town's development, the rapid industrial expansion and the general excitement brought by the people who were moving there was enough to keep the King's subjects (and, indeed, the King himself) just happy working hard and living somewhere 'new'.

But of course nearly all of the industrial work was dirty, labour intensive work and there was nowhere to shop. The 'well-to-doers' soon demanded a downtown – or a commercial centre at least. 10 years after the idea was first floated, the location of a new city centre was agreed upon – curiously not near the centre of anything. It was, however, a lovely location with potential for beautiful views across the river.  It was also very conveniently located to the wealthiest neighbourhood of Bran Castle (where many of the residents having made their fortunes in the industrial boom were now living) and close to the road that came down the hill from the King's castle.  And that made sense, they were the ones with the well-educated children who would refuse to work in the dirty industries at the port and they were the ones with the money to spend on shopping trips and various commercial services.

12.1 - The little group of workers engaged to build the new commercial centre built up a small little community half way between the new construction and Bran Castle itself – sure to become highly valuable real estate in no time!


12.2


12.3 – No sooner were the first workers settled than work began.


12.4 - It wasn't long before big business (by Bran Castle standards at least) settled in and the dirt roads were relaid with cobblestones.


12.5 – Cobblestone plazas followed. The King insisted that the downtown be fairly open to start with so that glimmers of sunshine could still manage to get through and hit the pavers even once much taller buildings populated the city skyline.


King Schhmo, having made his way to the Port and built his kingdom thanks to the power or rail travel, wanted to ensure the new business district was well served by rail. In fact, he wanted to ensure that his whole kingdom was well served by a wide spanning rail system well in to the future, and so commissioned a rail station (two in fact) and a city loop far in excess of what was required of the business district at that time.
12.6 -


12.7 - Such was the power demand of the new station and the ongoing contruction across the banks that the district was plagued by power shortages for a short while.


Soon the district became more settled and, for the first time, office work was a real and viable alternative for the working classes of Bran Castle and its surrounds. For a long time the city was troubled by some group called the Nintendo Corporation. It would purchase a tiny block of land, seemingly with the intention of building a small, low rise office block and then build a behemoth office tower, much of it encroaching beyond the boundaries of the land allotted to it. It was always, of course, out of place, no one liked it and it could not support itself servicing the relatively small communities in which it set up shop. It would eventually fail to pay its taxes and the King would order that the building be demolished (ahh, the perks of being royalty). Of course, the company itself was convinced that there was a market for these things it called 'gaming consoles' and kept puchasing land under various similar but different corporate identities and building its bloody office tower. For a while there, the King felt like he was demolishing a Nintendo tower every week or two.

12.8 -


12.9 - By 1962, downtown was finished and the region looked something like this ...


12.10 – Transport map.


Initially the commercial businesses that came to fill downtown actually had some trouble sustaining themselves – there just wasn't the population to fill all of the industrial positions in the Port, the commercial jobs around Bran Castle and downtown and have enough residents left over to actually fill the shops and offices with customers.

12.11 - The King soon realised he had become too enamoured with the space that the vast region he had conquered provided. His city felt big – and it was in terms of its footprint – but it just didn't have that many people in it and all of its various components (industry, agriculture, business and residential) were very separate and too spread out  (turns out he should have listened to that damned advisor that was always warning him about spreading his city too thin!)


... and he decided to start to focus on filling up his region with residents.

Nanami

Interesting update! apparently the king encourage the citizens to use the rail instead of road, seeing how the road connection outside the commercial district still made by dirt as I see in picture 12.11

siemanthepieman

REPLIES

Nanami: Thanks for reading and commenting. Yes, the King is miserly with his heavy materials and compounds such as coal, tar and ashphalt.

UPDATE 13

Such was his love for rail transport, King Schmo developed a novel method of suburban expansion. He would commission the construction of new terminus stations in areas that he thought were ripe for development and then offer land and handsome tax concessions to entice his subjects to build there.

13.1 – Donnington Station (to the left) and Peko-Wallsend Central (to the right) were your typical example – both circa 1964


And it worked quite well.

13.2 – Port's Corner Station (station built 1963, photo circa 1965)


13.3 – Blackforest Terminus (station built 1962, circa 1966)


13.4 – Peko-Wallsend Central (circa 1967) – this area, along with Donnington below, was one of the real successes with this method of regional development. Indeed Peko-Wallsend was the first area in the region to have any really substantial high rise residential development.


13.5 – Donnington Station (circa 1967/68)


13.6 – East Crossington Station (station built 1972, photo circa 1976)


13.7 - This method of suburban expansion saw Bran Castle and its surrounds go from this in 1962 at the completion of downtown ...


13.8 – To this in about 1968 ...


13.9 – To this in 1976


And the King wasn't finished there ...


art128

The natural growth of your region is splendid. The King is really doing good work with all the railways.
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

brick_mortimer

You region is coming along nicely.
This will be a massive city when everything starts filling in / rising up  :)
Busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest
Me no coffee function without so good

siemanthepieman

REPLIES: Thanks art128 and brick_mortimer. I certainly plan to fill in the region. I am not sure that it will ever get super high density or 'massive', at least not by comparison to some.

UPDATE 14 (Warning: text heavy)
In 1972, King Schmo issued three Orders – 1, the construction of two rail lines, one each side of the Simoleon River, to run to the north east edge of the realm and beyond, 2, the construction of a highway from the downtown business district, south across the river end then east to the edge of the realm and 3, that all agriculture be strictly confined to 'Designated Agricultural Zones' to the west and south of Goose Island and the Knoll, or east of the Lesser New Portland Ridge. The King's permission was required for townships to expand beyond  500m on any given boundary and for all medium and high density development inside an agricultural zone (and permission was unlikely!). Knowing that the zone the south-west of Goose Island and the Knoll would be much harder to fill than that east of the ridge, the King offered to waive the fees for planning approval on all new homesteads and 12 months of no tax and free rail freight to Bran Castle and the Port for those who settled in Settington Inlet or on 'the Flats'. 

14.1 - By 1980, the two rail lines had been completed and highway ran across the river but only as far as Ambleside. The regional transport map looked like this ...


Before we follow the transportational expansion and agricultural revolution of Bran Castle, let's have a closer look at some of the suburbs as they had developed of the first 60 years of King Schmo's reign.

But before we do that even, let's get ourselves properly acquainted with Bran Castle as a whole and learn a little about its somewhat curious divisional structure and system of government.

14.2 – Region wide map showing the named Shires, the metro area, designated industrial and agricultural zones, proposed development, 'unassigned' land and parts of the great unknown. The major geographical features are also labelled.


Obviously, King Schmo was the monarch and ultimate ruler of his kingdom. And up until at least the 1960's he ruled in the form of an absolute monarchy – what he said went. There were no other rule makers or law makers in the land and he ruled his kingdom as any king does. And up until the 60's at least the Shires were little more than name-holders for the areas the King passed through on his initial journey to the Port. As the agriculturalists settled following the three Orders of 1972, the King appointed a Shire Reeve to each shire, primarily to collect taxes but also to keep a little law and order beyond the metropolitan area. There were no mayors, nor any form of local or regional government in the Shires. The King made the rules (including the tax rules) and the Shire Reeves enforced them – and usually kept a little extra stipend for their troubles in doing so.  As the King retained absolute control of the state forests and the Designated Port Industrial Zone (basically New Portland but encompassing small parts of the Shires of Port's Corner and Portsview as well), there was no Shire Reeve appointed to either area. Instead a number of well-paid ranger's positions were created for the Royal Rangers who patrolled the state forest and there was a Royal Reeve appointed to collect all industrial taxes, rates and levies in the region (including those within the industrial parks which were notionally also within the governance of the relevant suburban mayor). The Royal Reeve was the highest paid Crown employee by quite a margin and had a right of residence in substantial quarters within Bran Castle itself or one of many other Crown residences. He (or she in more contemporary times) was also traditionally granted a 99 year lease over a block of developable Crown land of their choosing (up to 48 by 64m) upon their forced retirement at age 50. The Royal Reeve's was a fiercely sought after position!

The Shires within the metropolitan area also did not have a Shire Reeve appointed. This was partly because these Shires were sub-divided into suburbs (some suburbs actually extended across the boundaries of more than one shire) and were much more densely populated.  Instead the King implemented a two tiered system for metropolitan Bran Castle whereby a level of governance existed within each suburb and then one across the entire metropolitan area. Of course the King retained the right of assent to all rules and laws (although there was also significant and well utilised rights of delegation) and the Metropolitan Reporting Council (the metro wide tier of governance) had the King as a member. The King's involvement enabled the MRC to act as a sort of third tier, region wide level of governance as well because the King would advocate for and consider and agree (or veto) proposals that would have affect beyond the metro zone.

The local government of each suburb was headed by a mayor and deputy mayor and had an official shield, crest or seal and a flag. This means that every suburb within metropolitan Bran Castle has a splendid Mayor's House and often an almost as splendid Deputy's House. Most of them also have an official motto and a distinct 'vibe' (at least they like to think they do).

The mayor and deputy of each suburb are supported by 8, 16 or 24 councillors (depending on the size of the suburb) although not many suburbs have a separate council chambers.

The King elects the councillors, who then elect the mayor. The King then appoints one of the councillors as deputy mayor (basically to keep tabs on the mayor for him). Every five years an 'election' is held, where the people elect whether to disband their local government or to keep it. The King usually follows the wishes of his subjects but is under no obligation to do so. If the local government is disbanded, the King selects new councillors (some or all of them different from before), the councillors must elect a new mayor and the King appoints a new (or the same) deputy. 

The suburban councils, and ultimately the mayor, are responsible for the provision of all civic services within their suburb – this includes education, police and fire as well as things like churches, movie theatres, playgrounds and the like.  They are also able to designate zoning types (residential or commercial only – industrial requires permission from the King) but must seek planning approval from the MRC to designate any particular zone for anything more than low rise development. Some mayors also provide local health clinics and small hospitals (some are also run privately, of course) although there is a large, public Royal New Portland Hospital in the CDB that provides free medical treatment to all who need it.

The mayor of each suburb then gets to appoint 2 councillors (1 from a council of 8) to the Metropolitan Reporting Council. The MRC is, in large part, no more than a facilitator for service sharing amongst the suburbs. While most suburbs have at least one primary school, many of the smaller suburbs in particular do not have the funds, room or inclination to build a large high school or even full service police and fire stations. The MRC is the body that enables deals to be struck between neighbouring suburbs whereby mayors can effectively buy educational, police, fire, health and other civic services from their neighbours. It also plays and important role in metro wide (and even region wide) projects and developments, especially with respect to Bran Castle's transport (for example, the 2 lane highway from Bran Castle to New Port would not exist nor get maintained but for the work of the MRC) power and mains water networks.

Not surprisingly, the King retained much greater oversight and control of the Shires, the state forests and the industrial zones that he did of the suburbs.  But, to be honest, the King was a small town, rural fellow at heart and didn't care much for the provision of civic services to his urban and suburban subjects. In fact, the only reason he really cared for them at all was to the extent that they helped fill the jobs in the industrial parks he created and, in turn, his coffers.
14.3 – Map of metropolitan Bran Castle.


I hope that the metropolitan map is large enough for you to read. From the next update, we'll start working our way through some of the suburbs, starting with some of the older ones and come to some of the newer ones later on. Then we'll return to see what became of Bran Castle's agricultural districts.

kbieniu7

Hmm, the King indeed seems to reign with kind of absolute power if he even chose local councillors. Anyway his Kingdom seems to be well managed. I missed last updates, I see a very dense suburban rail network! And not so long ago there was just one straight line going trough the wilderness!

What is more, that are nice maps you have shown us, makes easier to understand the area  :thumbsup:
Thank you for visiting Kolbrów, and for being for last ten years!

praiodan

His Majesty King Schmo certainly has a sense of meticulously planning and organizing his kingdom, and with having an absolutistic rule until very recent he certainly had a lot to care of. Since it's good to be king anyway I think it was a good idea to get rid of some micro management stuff on the local level, so King Schmo again could focus on the grander scale of things.

Also nice maps by the way.  :P :thumbsup:

siemanthepieman

REPLIES: Thanks kbieniu7 and praiodan, especially for the comment on the maps. I'm no great user of Photoshop so it took quite some time and effort compiling them (all the layers for the metro map in particular!)

UPDATE 15 –BRAN CASTLE CASTLE

For our tour of the suburbs, let's start back at Bran Castle – by which I mean the castle itself. We'll come to the 'crown land' and the suburb of Bran Castle (which we have already briefly visited) later.

Ground was broken for Bran Castle in 1923 and construction was completed that same year. HRH King Schmo officially took up residence on 1 January 1924.

15.1 – Up to 1970, there was nothing but a simple dirt road leading to the Castle. It was strictly limited to those on 'royal business' and tourists, sightseers, naysayers, protesters and 'the people' in general were strictly forbidden from trekking up the hill to view the castle, bother the King or even just take in the views.


In 1971, the restrictions on access to the trail to the castle were relaxed (a little) and the castle was accessible to the public for the very first time. It was still, of course, impossible to gain access to the castle itself or its grounds, but you could venture to the top of the hill to get a close look at its formidable architecture and take in the views. To retain some of his previously viciously guarded privacy, the King had thousands of evergreen trees (a combination of common spruces, conifers and larches) planted along the road and around his castle.

But by 1982, the King actually came to have so many alternate residences (both within his own realm and beyond) that he was so rarely in residence at 'Bran' that guided tours of the castle were made available every fifth Thursday of the month (in the months that had a fifth Thursday that is, about four a year). They were, not surprisingly, incredibly popular.

It wasn't long until the nice crisp road up to the castle became very well-trodden and a couple of food stalls and other small vendors set up along the track.

15.2 – This vendor lucked in on location and ended up as an unofficial 'base camp' for those wanting to stroll to the top of the hill. On weekends, they couldn't stock the shelves fast enough such was demand for drinks and snacks by those who came unprepared for a day of walking up to the castle and back.


15.3 – Wine with a view, anyone? A bit past halfway up, Vinnie offered an overpriced tipple to those who wanted to stop and make an afternoon of it.


15.4 – Once the trees filled in the castle and the hill upon which it sat was a majestic sight. Here you can see the only other development in Bran Castle the small freight yard that helped start it all at the bottom of the hill. Of course, Bran Castle Castle didn't have a mayor's house or any other civic amenities, it was the King's domain (opened to the public for looking only) and he didn't need anyone else (other than his servants and, of course, the Royal Reeve) helping  to run his own little slice of the world.


You couldn't see it in 1982, but it become increasingly common for trekkers to want to get off the beaten track and trek straight up the sides of the hills. In a later update, you'll see the paths that started to snake up the side of the castle hill from the railway running below.

BRAN CASTLE CASTLE BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1982):

King: King Schmo.
Royal Reeve: Osulf Bamburgh.
Mayor: None.
Deputy Mayor: None.
Number of Councillors: None.
Population: 2 (plus servants and workers of course)
Median Age: 48
Average Household Income: N/A
Average Education Level: N/A
Jobs: 5
Council Jobs: 35 (all Royal servants and workers)
Primary Industry/Tax Division: N/A
Notable Features: The King's home.

Shield/Crest:
Motto: pro se quam pro populo

praiodan

Very nice update! Surely a view worth a king up that hill. But I wonder a bit, that there seems to be now shorter way from the town at the foot of the hill up to the castle but all the way around the hill and then following the dirt road leading to His Majesty. Wouldn't that also be rather bad for te courtly logistics?  $%Grinno$% (Or in short; would it not have made more sense to set up the town on the other side of the hill?  :D)

siemanthepieman

REPLIES:

praiodan - It might have made more sense - indeed the CBD when it gets built is built close to the foot of the road up the hill - but the King was initially keen avoid encouraging trekkers and visitors and the Schmotenton River runs close by, limiting space.

UPDATE 16 – BRAN CASTLE
Now let's take look at Bran Castle – by which I mean the suburb of Bran Castle at the foot of the castle hill. Those of you who have been following along have already seen a bit of what the region's first suburb looked like throughout 50's and 60's in Update 5.

There were no huge changes to the suburb after it became established, it just 'matured' a bit. All of the photos below are circa 1986.

16.1 – Bus stops were built next to 'Bran Proper' and a small bus service was established. The car parking and the trees around it filled in.


16.2 – As you can see at the bottom of this picture (and others to follow) the jagged edges left over during the early days of diagonal road construction were smoothed out.


16.3 – The workers' common, as it was known, grew in to quite a nice park to retreat from the sun on a hot summer's day. If you're desperate, it is apparently often good for a rabbit or two if there is nothing else in the fridge for dinner!


16.4  - The suburb becomes swisher and swisher as you work your way around to the main square.


16.5 – Here you can see the Medina Hotel to the right, facing on to one of the streets cutting through the old castle wall to Old Town.


16.6 – The Mayor's House is instantly recognisable in grey along Lakeside Drive, widely regarded as the nicest street in town.


16.7 – And here you can see the Grand Medina, overlooking the main square of Bran Castle. Two other very nice but more boutique hotels also face on to the square from either side, along with a larger, more affordable hotel in the bottom right corner of the square. The blue building across from it and the three rather non-descript buildings in the very bottom right corner house all of the suburb's government offices.


BRAN CASTLE BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor: Matthew Bourne, one of the original workers who helped lay the tracks to New Port. Appointed aged 24. Now 78 and due to retire.
Deputy Mayor: Tom Porter. Another rail worker. You can see his house with the grey facade on the ground floor in picture 16.4.
Number of Councillors: 8
Population: 800
Median Age: 48
Average Household Income: $85,000.00 p.a.
Average Education Level: Tertiary - thanks to the older residents with qualifications obtained back in Schmotenton.
Jobs: 25
Council Jobs: 85
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Residential
Notable Features: New Portland's first suburb, New Portland's first passenger train station (still in operation), the Worker's common. No industry, virtually no commercial space, nice hotels, historic residential centre of New Portland.

Shield/Crest:
Motto: qui est fidelis pro servitio


Akallan

Very pretty. One thing disturbs me ... You have in the last image the arrows of connections of the city that are side by side, did you take a picture of each part of the city to make one?

Because it seems to me that there is a mod that allows to play on a tile, and to see some tiles next to it (without being able to play on it).
My CJ :


My european road textures project : S N T - v.2.1

siemanthepieman

Akallan: Normally I wait for replies until my next update but the mod you refer to has me too intrigued to wait - I did indeed have to take a photo of each tile and join them together. If there is a mod that allows you to see the tiles next door while you play, do you have a link or remember what it is called so that I can download it please.

For those interested, I have added a shield and some fun facts and figures for both Bran Castle and Bran Castle Castle above.

Tyberius06

It's a very nice castle and neighbourhood! :)
My only and quite ridiculous question: have you noticed that you have some missing textures (or water bug effect) under the castle walls?

- Tyberius
You may find updates about my ongoing projects into my development thread here at SimCity 4 Devotion: Tyberius Lotting Experiments
or over there on Simtropolis into the Tyberius (Heretic Projects) Lotting and Modding Experiments.
I'm also member of the STEX Custodian and working on different restoration projects on behalf of non-anymore-active custom content creators.
Current projects: WMP Restoration and SimCity Polska Restoration.
Member of the NAM Team and RTMT Team.

Nanami

Nicely done area! the thing that a little bit bother me is the same problem Tyberius told above. some piece of wall lot seems have a little bit texture glitch... I think it because the lot itself has a transparent base while you put it in not level terrain as I had similar problem with several lot with transparent tile on the slope. (even just very small difference result in this problem)
Other than that nice work! I like the concept on put 2 tiles city in 1 picture...

siemanthepieman

REPLIES

Tyberius and Nanami: Thank you. I have noticed the water bug on the castle walls, but I didn't notice it was in all my pictures until you pointed it out! It is also a problem with ChrisAdams paths (I think that is who they are by). I am not sure if adding a base texture that matches my terrain mod will fix the problem? If it would, that might be a worthwhile exercise.

REQUEST FOR HELP
I am not sure I should post this here or elsewhere, but here I go anyway ...

I am trying to tidy up my menus using Reader and the Item Order property. Trouble is, once I change the Item Order number (I tried -1000000, -999999, -10000, 1 and 6 - letting Reader convert back to hex for me) three of the first four lots I tried have disappeared from the menu completely. They also don't show in the Lot Editor but the days are still in my plugins. Any one got any ideas?

The only other thing I can think of is I also used LEProp to change the lot name and description. Perhaps that is my problem.

Curiously, I tried with four lots and one worked fine. They are all very similar little filler lots that I made myself (with SPAM/SFBT props).

And is there any way to get the showing in menus/lot editor again or do I have to start from scratch and remake the lots (not too much trouble).

Nanami

Quote from: siemanthepieman on July 03, 2017, 05:48:35 AM
Tyberius and Nanami: Thank you. I have noticed the water bug on the castle walls, but I didn't notice it was in all my pictures until you pointed it out! It is also a problem with ChrisAdams paths (I think that is who they are by). I am not sure if adding a base texture that matches my terrain mod will fix the problem? If it would, that might be a worthwhile exercise.

Yes, adding a base texture will solve the problem based from my experience.

not really sure but as much I know, hex is from 0 to f which is 16 in one digit IIRC. I think if you really want to rearrange the menu, just use standard 0-100 or something like that not negative number.
Anyway that just from what I know, please correct it if its wrong. good luck hope it will help.