[CSGdesign]

You are NOT the mayor any more...

Custom Content built for this CJ includes:
CSGdesign's Basic Concrete Seawall
CSGdesign's Basic Ferry Pontoon
CSGdesign's Small School House
CSGdesign's Cleared Earth Set v1
CSGdesign's Exposed Bauxite Set v1
CSGdesign's Chainlink Fence Set v1
(Please note these are all available on the Simtropolis Exchange, and I'll upload them to the LEX once I've got time to.)




Time Lapse animation of city from start till currently (the graphic will be refined once I get some time).

<a href="http://www.csgdesign.com.au/uploads/SC4/TIMELAPSE/TIME-LAPSE%201985%20(slow).swf" target="_blank" class="new_win">http://www.csgdesign.com.au/uploads/SC4/TIMELAPSE/TIME-LAPSE%201985%20(slow).swf</a>

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is NOT a remodelling of the actual city Boston.
This is a completely fictional city based on terrain of Boston only.  I just named it Boston cuz it was sitting on that region and at the time of starting this city I had no intention to CJ it, so I didn't put any imagination into the game.  Get over it. 
This CJ is about free development, not controlled and planned development (like copying an existing city, for example).

This Journal depicts the natural development of a city, as dictated to you by your Sims and natural Sim development in a free-market.

Be warned - this is a very time-consuming method of development but the end results are natural and rewarding if realism is what you want in your region.  If a quick path to grand sky-scrapers and grids is what you want, then this is probably not the best region development strategy available to you.

This method of city development has only a few key rules to follow:
1) Don't plan ahead any more than generally, and in a role-playing state of mind.
For example, you can plan that nice cleared area over on that shore might make a good new settlement, or that the hill off to the north might be a lovely place to build a quarry because it's rich in Bauxite, or this dense patch of woodlands here won't be cleared because the SimNation Government has declared it is a natural resource, so Sims must build around it, and so on.  But don't plan to the level of "that peninsular will be my new industrial zone, from there to there" or "I'll put my airport over there, and some harbours in here, and a big seawall all the way along this shore, with low-density covering that quarter of the map".  That's too over-view.  You have to think down several levels - right down to a small-scale two-or-three-block development.  Smaller even.  Think as small-picture as you can with every step you take, and FORGET about what else is around that area.
2) Do EVERY move as though you were a developer, not a mayor.
Mayors might want everything all pretty and nice and organised and grand, but at the end of the day it is the developpers and contractors that do the work, and they don't do a damn thing unless it's cost-effective.  Even though your coffers are paying for everything, things must be as cheaply done as possible so that the developpers can make the biggest coin out of it.
3) Everything starts off small.  And grows as demand requires.
This means that a path from the CBD to the other CBD two regions away starts as a tiny winding street (or even a dirt track) and then as demand requires, it gets upgraded at intersections, then entire stretches until it's a road.  Then as demand out-grows that, it becomes an avenue, and eventually is either upgraded or completely bypassed by a massive network of highways and rails.  River crossings start off as pedestrian ferries, then if the river isn't too wide a street bridge, then a road bridge next to that or a bit upriver.  Everything is done only as demand requires it, and with absolutely no "but in the future I'll want a huge highway crossing here" in mind.  How often in your local town do you see a huge dual-carriage bridge go over a creek because in 50 years the roads will require it??  Never I'll bet - things are always upgraded as required, or LOOOONG overdue.
4) Keep a realistic balance of Sims in your region.
Don't try to keep all your sims super-educated and super-healthy.  Let large swathes of suburbs sit in squalor and even have rolling black-outs from time to time until you get around to upgrading that pesky Deisel Generator to something a bit larger.  If you have a lot of low-wealth sims then your city will grow rapidly and randomly and dirty, just like the real deal.  Then developpers can come in and tidy up that nice little coastal out-cropping and sit some parks in it, offset by the cost of selling off the housing areas to medium-density residentials.
5) Work only small amounts at a time in any one map or area.
Then save and move on to another area, and keep doing that, working your region bit by bit, then coming back and re-working it.  This not only keeps things interesting because you've got such a massive area to play with, but allows the entire area to grow and develop together, maintaining a realistic development to the region.

If you follow those ideas when you're developing a region, then it should look very natural and random and realistic pretty fast, and keep it no matter how you develop later on (unless you abandon the technique and bulldoze whole areas and rezone and start again, of course).

Below is a few visual indicators of my own city - Boston.
The region is Boston v2 from STEX - a very nice and very large natural map.  You will need to populate each region with trees before you can build your city but that's easy with God Mode.

Below is a good cross-section of how I build using the "Natural Growth" technique.


















My city region is still only small-town, but it has grown so much in 80 years.
The most time-consuming aspect of this type of city development is ensuring that the growth has a knock-on effect.  Which is when one out-lying region becomes a bit more developped, the next most out-lying region that was previously untouched wilderness needs to have a road wind it's way through it and some grazing properties and coastal communities develop.

Mods used - please visit THIS ENTRY for a complete list, including links to each of them.

My city region now covers 76 Largest Possible Maps, which is 76% the available area to me, and is still quite sparsely populated, relatively speaking.
Total population of R1,052,568 / C409,577 / I280,309.
It has been produced largely without any mods except those listed above, and without any cheats at all.
Jointly (not counting unstarted city regions) I have excess funds of $85,154,030, the largest single city excess funds is the north-eastern most city "Altroy Cove, with $23,287,035 excess funds.
All cities have excess and I can't spend it fast enough without getting unrealistic.  I have found that by decreasing taxes it doesn't have a very noticeable effect on RCI (it's always high) but it reduces income significantly, so in this way I'm balancing out my funds so that the profits are increasing only moderately, rather than stupendously.

Growth of my city region is captured regularly and is being compiled into growing layers of screenshots, which I have used to date to create a time-lapse animation (see above in this entry), and which will be used in other animations and movies as time goes on.
 

Current Region Views:



CLICK THE BELOW LINKS TO VIEW ENTIRE REGION AT FULL SIZE:

Game-year 1980
(Satellite View) 1980 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.11mb
(Transportation Map) 1980 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 653kb

Game-year 1981
(Satellite View) 1981 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 958kb
(Transportation Map) 1981 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 543kb

Game-year 1982
(Satellite View) 1982 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.23mb
(Transportation Map) 1982 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 813kb

Game-year 1983
(Satellite View) 1983 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.23mb
(Transportation Map) 1983 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 820kb

Game-year 1984
(Satellite View) 1984 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.23mb
(Transportation Map) 1984 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 824kb

Game-year 1985
(Satellite View) 1984 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.25mb
(Transportation Map) 1984 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 929kb

Game-year 1985
(Satellite View) 1985 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.25mb
(Transportation Map) 1985 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 929kb

Game-year 1986
(Satellite View) 1986 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.25mb
(Transportation Map) 1986 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 937kb

Game-year 1987
(Satellite View) 1987 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.30mb
(Transportation Map) 1987 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 950kb

Game-year 1988
(Satellite View) 1988 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.27mb
(Transportation Map) 1988 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 959kb

Game-year 1989
(Satellite View) 1989 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.27mb
(Transportation Map) 1989 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 970kb

Game-year 1990
(Satellite View) 1990 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 1.25mb
(Transportation Map) 1990 - 4724 x 2409 pixels - 971kb

Any questions or comments are welcome.

Everyone builds differently - this is what I find enjoyable.  Simulating the growth of a city as realistically as possible.  I'm in no rush to meet the clouds with sky-scrapers.  They'll come with time as demand allows.

[adroman]

Awesome work CSG,

you have some excellent talent, glad to see it showcased here 

Keep it up, this is already looking like an MD to watch...

Havva good one,
Adrian.

[joelyboy911]

Those are some very impressive region shots, CSG!

[emgmod]

Congrats on coming over to SC4D! I was watching this on Simtropolis since the start.

Those region shots are one of my favorite shots ever.

[thingfishs]

this is looking really good, I LOVE the time lapse shot.  It's awesome to be able to see a whole region slowly developing in such a fashion. Also I very appreciate your philosophy of playing. I also play without cheats. (except industry quadrupler & such that make things more realistic) The one time I tried to play with free money I lost interest quick and didn't play the game for a few months. I am occasionally tempted to try & recreate a small area exactly which will require a different approach but until then... Personally there has to be a logical progression to my region. Initially the first settlement was made, which remains a small outpost. A better location was found, farms and small communities start going up. Different resources are located and necessary infrastructure must be developed etc, but all within budget and with only a few exceptions, all grown (though sometimes that involves demolishing the building until something more appropriate develops-but that still costs money). It's the controlled chaos nature of SC that is it's most appealing aspect to me and without the element of surprise I lose interest. I'm surprised by how many people play it with money cheats, but SC has long grown to be many games to many people.
I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this, inspiring work.

[CSGdesign]

Thankyou so much for such a warm welcome to SC4Devotion.
I've always wanted to be more a part of this community but for some reason kept putting it off.

I will over the next week or two translate my journal entry by entry here, and then will continue to update it both here and on Simtropolis.

adroman
I'm not sure there's talent involved - I just spend a rediculous amount of time on things that could be done much faster if I wasn't so focused on making it look real.  I enjoy the role-play of letting my imagination control where a road goes rather than getting from A to B.  For example a new road will always follow the "path of least resistance" by clearing smaller and fewer trees rather than trying to smash its way through a thick dense area of tall trees, which results in natural winding roads.  Little things like that I enjoy role-playing as I go.

Joelyboy911
Thanks man, I'm still trying to get my head around that ppl seem to like them.  They're the end result of a style of play where every move is done role-playing how it would be done in real life.  The end result, satisfyingly, is a reasonably realistic region.  I'd like to be able to spend much more time doing details, for example lining farm edges with trees, but there comes a time when if I did every single thing I wanted to do the entire region would grow so slowly it'd be almost real time.

emgmod
Yes you have made comments a couple of times in the Simtropolis version I noticed.  I'm hoping that my region will become much more complex and interesting as time goes by.

thingfishs
I'll update that time-lapse from time to time and I'll include game-years and also real-time spent playing it as a counter in the corner or something too, once I get a moment.  I only get a limited amount of time each night to do this, so it's split between playing, journaling, and other things, and can get frittered away pretty quick.  The region is actually making so much rediculous surplus that I might as well have a free-money mod.  I literally can't spend the money faster than I earn it, despite super-low tax rates.  I'm not sure yet if that's a result of the NAM mod I'm using (z ultra) or if it's because my simulator reacts well to this style of play and somehow I'm working "with" the grain of the simulator rather than "against" it...?  In any case, I have some cities now that are being taxed at 6% and are earning a rediculous $17k per month with a cost of $4k.  I might as well be taxing my sims at 2% but I dont want demand to go through the roof because then it's not realistic enough for me.  The depth of sc4's simulator wins me over too.  It's easilly the best game for long-term playability of all time, for me.





Extract of the proposal presented to the Honourable Lord Mayor Geoff Lincoln of the Middleflats City Council, Boston City, dated 11/07/1967:

[beginning of document not included]

...Childers Rail and Hotdog Additives is pleased to present the current Daegon Rail Link proposal, which will connect the existing Curry River line [running from Boston City Central Harbour from WestGate Station (3) to Curry River Connect via Compton Station (7)] with the proposed Daegon Eastbank Station (12) via four proposed stations on the Daegon Rail Link.

The four stations are as follows:
#8 - Franklin Industrial Park Exchange
#9 - New Pimpshire Industrial Park Exchange
#10 - RiverForestLakeBreezeHill Estate Station
#11 - Daegon Central Industrial Complex Exchange
#12 - Daegon Eastbank Station

The full product disclosure is written in rediculously small type on the last 843 pages of this proposal, please ensure you read it carefully - we have included a cracked loupe to assist you in this task. We kindly request that the loupe is returned in good working order within the next twenty minutes.

The total cost of this project is estimated to be exactly $25.30 less than our competitors quote which you were good enough to provide us with in exchange for a free ride on the Pimpkenbar Express, however please be advised that when you are sufficiently committed to the project and we are nearing completion of the first stage that costs will increase approximately 500% or we will be forced to declare bankruptcy and leave you with the mess.

We trust that this proposal meets your satisfaction, and look forward to your incredibly over-inflated upfront 100% deposit being made into our bank accounts, the details of which are provided below in large red letters, and which we have also SMS'd, emailed, and sky-written above your office, all of which are being billed to you of course.

[rest of document not included]

This proposal is currently under scrutiny and will be ammended or approved in the immediate future.
The aerial photography plans are provided below for public viewing and comment.

[Nardo69]

New railway lines? Improving the railway net? That's music in my ears ...   

Take care!

Bernhard 

[dobdriver]

That's very understated CSG, sc4 is certainly many things to many people. There is probably more custom content for this game than most others put together and is more playable as well with a total open-endedness that is rarely found in other games.

Also I like your area and your style of play is refreshing, but deep down you've got a plan 

Take it easy
dobdriver

[Tomas Neto]

Awesome start!!! Fantastic MD!!! 

[rooker1]

 Hello CSG,

 Great to see that you have started transfering your MD here.
I love the Time Laspe Animation.  What an incredible region view, super work and it is absolutely obvious how long it took to get to where you are today.

I look forward to your next update.

Robin 

[Earth quake]

Really nice and impressive Start CGdesign.
Your region it's just splendid.

[Battlecat]

Welcome to SC4D!  Approaching the region from a developer's point of view is a very cool idea!  It's an interesting case study and accurate to a certain extent.  Would I be correct in assuming you're effectively assuming every aspect of your region is under the control of a development corporation? 

That time lapse shot is very cool.  Looking forward to seeing more!

[CSGdesign]

Nardo
As the diary progresses many new lines will be added, including tram lines.
Rail is a very very efficient means of moving sims about, much better than highways, simolean for simolean.

dobdriver
No seriously this diary is basically a recording of how I play.  I role-play as I go, because it makes it more interesting for me than just laying lines and zones and robotically upgrading a city.
The diary that will appear here on SC4Devotion is a translation of the diary I currently have been creating on Simtropolis for the last six months or so.  It is up to entry #38 (not counting the spin-off diary which isn't allowed here), so until this diary is fully up to date with that one then yes I know about it in advance, but I promise you that every action taken in game and every entry made in the diary is completely without warning and a reaction to the circumstances.
This really is about building a city according to how your sims need it done.  The only things I do with any kind of pre-planning at all, is follow the 5 steps shown at the top of the first entry.

rooker1
The Time-Lapse can't be shown in my other diary so it's nice that this forum allows it rather than forcing it to be an external link.
Yeah it's taken awhile to get to game-year 1984.
Actually I'm up to 1986 now and the population has just cracked 670k, but I haven't created any entries for the last couple of days so there'll be a bit of a leap.

Earth quake
Cheers for the support. In retrospect I wish I'd time-lapsed the entire region rather than just the central CBD section but that can be done much, much later since I backup and archive the entire region from time to time, so I'll be able to pull them out and do it like that - except with bigger gaps between frames. But that wont be for many game-years yet.

Battlecat
Not necessarilly a development corporation.
You'll see as the diary progresses what I mean, but its about all the various parts of society, rather than just the government, the developers, etc.  For example a stressed farm running into financial trouble might privately sell off the bottom nine acres near the main road, forming a new row of housing.  Or some private business might buy out some run-down industrial area and convert it into an upmarket commercial zone near that trendy residential area.  It's not about just one aspect of sim society, it's about telling short stories about as many different aspects as possible, and how they all interact to form a complex web of events that forms the overall city.




The sprawling west shores of Greenlip Lake, spanning the two shires of Clarke's Valley (to the south) and Manchester Lake (to the north) is quickly becoming an attractive place to settle, moving from a sleeping grazier's township to a small industrial orbit to the west of Boston Central.  It is the west-most point where sims can settle near water, and one of the few natural bodies of freshwater anywhere in the entire region.



The citizens of Clarke's Valley side of this community (the only side with any industrial strength at this time, and by far the most organised council) approached the local waterworks utility, which until that time focussed mainly on snow-cone production for the local exhibition once a year (not very profitable).



Tiddalik's Waterworks was pleased to provide a contract to erect a large water tower on the west banks of Greenlip Lake, and fund the building of the piplelines that would distribute town water to the local community, including the newly released industrial zone which was expected to be the hub of growth for the next ten years.



Now you can have a cup of water come out of your own taps in Clarke's Valley (which includes the suburbs of Crikville and Jelly Cup Bay).  Yes that's right, Clarke's Valley only.  At Donaster Street, on the northern edge of Clarke's Valley City Limits, the drink stops.  Houses to the north of that in Larson (in Manchester Lake Shire Council) are welcome to drink from water tanks, the gutter, or their toilet... (which is filled from water tanks or the gutter using plastic cups).

Manchester Lake Shire Council and Clarke's Valley Shire Council have been unable to reach an agreement about the cost of building a network of pipes into the north shores of Greenlip Lake, let alone how much to charge for the water, and so northern shore residents must go without.

Clarke's Valley Council was quoted in the local paper as saying "Guess the West Side's the Best Side", which didn't help reach a diplomatic solution at all.

Stock up on plastic cups guys, this turf war isn't going to end any time soon.

Meanwhile the rest of the region barrels onwards.

[Battlecat]

Ahhh, I understand now.  Thanks for clarifying your approach there!  With all those opposing factors involved, you're going to wind up with a fairly chaotic region, which from my experience is very realistic.  This dispute you've presented about water supply between two municipalities is a pretty typical example based on my experience in local government.  Should be interesting to see what comes up next. 

[Shadow Assassin]

Oh, nice to see you bring your CJ over here - it'll be handy for when ST goes down, which seems to happen more often than not nowadays... well, I've seen all your updates thus far (I think), so just gonna wait for the catch-up.

[CSGdesign]

Battlecat
There are a lot of different groups, organisations, businesses and government bodies that struggle and battle for what they want in my city, as realistically as I let myself imagine it.
It's not ALL about that, but it's one of the key parts of it, rather than an above-down view of how it's all gonna turn out and then connecting the dots.

Shadow Assassin
Oh no.
I thought I could escape you by coming here.
Yeah ST is frustrating me these days - its down so often now.  Such a shame too.
Don't give any of the story away for new readers or I'll send ninjas.   



Portsmouth Island.
One of the very eastern most islands in Boston Bay that currently has residents, and one which all shipping passes to and from the Port of Boston.
Until recently it has been little more than wilderness, but with the state government lotting it off and selling it to investers, people are moving in fast to snap up such a unique piece of real estate.



The only problem is that there is absolutely no access whatsoever to the mainland except with resident sim's own water craft.
So while this land is a wonderful opportunity to build a home away from home, it is not a very succesful community as far as permanent living goes.  It has little chance to develop without access to the mainland, and will remain nothing more than a struggling infant community.



What Portsmouth Island really needs is ferry access, but the city simply isn't going to invest in such an expensive piece of infrastructure for such a tiny community, and such a tiny community isn't going to grow without SOME kind of ferry access.



Submissions are being drafted to Portsmouth District Council for small piers, pontoons, jetties and other means of access to the ferries, but with as low build and maintenance cost as possible.

Because while the cries of the sims on Portsmouth Island become more insistent, the sims scattered across the other 32 islands are joining the chorus.  Something MUST be done, and must be done NOW.

A few submissions have filtered to the top of the list and are being considered for development.

[naftixe]

Looks like time for a Ferry Transport Authority to be born.

[calibanX]

Your approach in growing the region from the viewpoint of a developer is a great one. The region views show an area that's growing organically. The roads even resemble arteries and veins. I wish I could do what you're doing. I get too caught up in the details.

I must also compliment you on those fantastic banners. You certainly are not new to Photoshop.

Geoff

[CSGdesign]

naftixe
The city of Boston v2 has many ferries in place already, the problem is that this particular community is just too small to justify a full size ferry service.
That's why the local shire council has put out tenders for the development of a smaller public transport ferry option.

calibanX
I am not at all a fan of grids, although they DO have their place from time to time.
Especially in much denser areas, and downtown, etc.
It's not at all hard to do what I'm doing - try it on some of your newly zoned areas.  It just means winding roads instead of making them straight and gridded, and the rest sort of flows from there.
It also means developing regions away from the main region and "filling" the areas in between over time.  Intersections are an excellent starting point.  As you'll see further into this journal, I'm also very very caught up in details... in fact the macro-region is a direct result of being caught up in micro-details but on a large scale.
I'm glad you like the design style of the banners and style manual of the journal - I use a combination of software.  Later on in the journal you'll see a lot of 3ds Max work as well as Illustrator and Photoshop work.  I really love this medium because it allows me to express my passion for 3d and design in a flowing public forum which is very recreational for me.




Skate Park comes under fire, located on the west banks of the Kholi Creek inlet, Boston North Central.


The centre of the debate is how to prevent the local skate-park from being a gathering-point for bored teens looking for trouble.



At one end of the debate are parents and citizens stating that the skatepark doesn't generate crime, it is simply a rally point for those already inclined to vandalism and the like, and is a very important recreational facility for their community... after all not every teen is a bad apple.
At the other end of the debate are local residents that are tired of having their environment graffiti'd, their homes stoned, and their cars broken into.

Council was at its wits end - afterall surely there are far more important issues to deal with than one skatepark and five or six disgruntled residents.

Council has pro-actively tackled this issue, and rather than take down the skate-park they decided to install a police kiosk to patrol the area.



This not only keeps the local residents happy, but keeps the parents and citizens happy too, knowing that their teens are hanging out in a much safer environment.


The seawall shown above is available to download here.

[Earth quake]

Its' a nice update.
This seawalls are just stunning and nice history about the skate-park.