17 Regions of Wonder, Terror and Craziness

[smileymk]

This thread is now CLOSED. There will be no more updates. Please do not post any further comments.

Last Updated: 17/7/2010 - The Megacity Part 3

This is, as the title suggests, 17 regions of wonder, terror and craziness. In this journal are documented some of the greatest successes and crushing failures that I have experienced during my time as an SC4 player.

The 17 regions, in a nutshell are:

The Challenge Regions - 7 regions created through STEX-downloaded configs and played to complete challenges set by the uploader (sorry, can't remember who they are...)

Fairview - My random take on the Maxis-created region.

Lego City - No, it's not made out of Lego, but instead is inspired by a Lego town I created a few years back.

Milton Keynes - An attempt to produce a to-scale (1:1) replication of my hometown.

Quicksilver City - The new, less random version of my earlier CJ city. Trust me, it's better this time, but there's still a little craziness in there...

The Silver Hills Regions - The 3 regions that formed the Silver Hills City Building Contest; here's how I went about them.

Skaledale - A pre-planned region that awaits the Great Construction Project...

Test Region - The place where I go to check out new stuff, or stuff I've created. If I do this one then I'll show you some of my latest mods.

The Megacity - The capital of Sim Nation - follow the story of how this city becomes great.

There you go. 17 regions. I wasn't lying. Links to the updates are provided below.

As for updates, they will take place every Friday. If I don't update then please feel free to give me the roasting I deserve...

I will work on 1 region per week (to give it time to significantly progress), and the most significant developments will be shown in the update. At each update I will tell you what region I'm going to work on for the upcoming week. Does that make sense?

The first update, for the record, will be on the region of Skaledale.

Anyway, here's a little taster of what's to come:

(Sorry, this is in 800x600 because it was supposed to be on ST... all future image posts here will be in 1024x768 (full res.) so don't worry.)

New (as of 13/7/2010) - Links to Updates
I'm sure none of you want to have to scroll through 4 pages to find the post you want, so here's some links to all of my updates so far, in the order in which they were posted.

Skaledale Part 1

Challenge Medium 3 Part 1

Challenge Medium 1 Part 1

Fairview Part 1

Challenge Large 2 Part 1 (Plus Double Roundabout Tutorial)

Lego City Part 1

Quicksilver City Part 1

Lego City Part 2

Milton Keynes Part 1

Lego City Part 3

Challenge Medium 3 Part 2 (Plus Double Magic Roundabout Feature)

Milton Keynes Part 2

Silver Lake Part 1

Silver Lake Part 2

Milton Keynes Part 3

Skaledale Part 2 (Plus Multiple SAM Tutorial)

The Megacity Part 1

Fairview Part 2 (Plus link to my Free Grass Park Mod)

Challenge Small 1 Part 1

The Megacity Part 2

Challenge Large 2 Part 2

Skaledale Part 3

Challenge Medium 2 Part 1

NAM Special

Challenge Large 2 Part 3

Silver Lake Part 3

Challenge Large 2 Part 4

Challenge Large 2 Part 5

Lego City Part 4

Challenge Medium 1 Part 2

Challenge Small 1 Part 2

The Megacity Part 3

Oh, and feel free to comment! I promise that serious comments WILL be taken seriously.
Until Friday,
SmileyMK

[wouanagaine]

Looks like we will be shown various playstyle in the same MD 

[emgmod]

This is a great way to introduce yourself to the community. Welcome, and I wish I kept my old regions.

[Connor]

Interesting MD - its always nice to see something a little different. Looking forward to seeing how it will progress.

And you said your hometown was Milton Keynes - I live in Aylesbury about half an hour drive away, and I've been to MK many times so it'll be interesting to see a simcity version of it.

[sumwonyuno]

I, for one, am interesting in seeing those 17 regions. 

[smileymk]

Part 1 - Skaledale

It would seem that this has got quite a bit of interest going for it! Very pleased. Much better than Simtropolis!

Replies

I'd be failing you guys if I failed to reply to the wonderful comments I've received. Seriously, I do appreciate it. Keep 'em coming!
@ wouanagaine - Absolutely right. There's my usual style, my random style, and my realistic style. And like I said on Wednesday, there will be various degrees of how well this works out!
@ emgmod - Thanks, do appreciate the kind welcome. Although I must admit I have been lurking for a while... mostly raiding the LEX...lol
And these regions are new, I do change things quite often (usually when they fail.)
@ Connor - Should be good. When I get to Milton Keynes, if you know of any discrepancies (i.e. where I've got it wrong), do let me know! They'll be fixed ASAP.
@ simwonyuno - Good things come to those who wait. You won't see all of them at once, and probably won't see all of them for a while... but good things come to those who wait.

And, without further ado, let's get on with the update!

Skaledale Part 1

This was meant to be a pre-planned region that I planned on squared paper (tile-by-tile instead of city-by-city) after documenting all the lots I had (one heck of a lot...) and then built according to the plan, as with Lego City and Quicksilver City. But I miscalculated how much lowering the terrain by just one click would lower the terrain! This terraforming map says it all:

See the NW corner city? That's the one I'd planned, without realising that the bit I had planned would be submerged, and thus redundant. This forced me to change tactics to 'plan-as-you-go' - i.e. constant building.
As for the rest of it, well, let that be a lesson for all of you to NEVER let a dice decide your terraforming!
However, in this city (known as Trevellyn Bridge - all cities here are named after model railway layouts appearing in magazines), it has worked out quite well:

In a blind gesture of going out of one's way to save the environment, the city got solar power a little early:

This has proved popular with residents, who have come in and populated the town to a level of about 1,100, mostly with this nice little suburb:

Notice my failed attempt to create a canal culvert on sloping terrain to the north, the bridge to nowhere (yet) and my successful attempt to use PEG's locks! That's better.
The power plant, along with the good transport links, has attracted businessmen too:

See the highway? We'll get to why that's there in a minute. But first I want to share with you another way of naming cities: pluck 'em out of a street index. In this case it was London's that got used for estates and roads, resulting in some interesting names:

Crazy, eh? And now for that highway. With Trevellyn Bridge accidentally isolated from the outside world (in regional terms), the town planners approved a one-off highway link to the north using an artificial island. A regional law was then passed saying that this could only be done with highways, only in edge cities isolated from their regional boundaries, and only once per relevant direction, for cost-cutting and realism purposes.
Now, you'd think that such important links would be worthy of a spectacular bridge, wouldn't you? Not here. They wimped out on cost-cutting grounds with this link:

Not awesome, but I actually quite like the look of it! Especially with the lorries. Here's a night shot (expect at least one per update!):

Very nice. And a fitting way to conclude this update.
Next week, you will see Medium Challenge Region 3 (I know, imaginatively named...). And as a little hint, you might want to pay attention to that image I showed you on Wednesday...
Ok, gotta go now. See you next Friday!
smileymk

[Battlecat]

Quite the scary looking little town there!  Those terraces your industrial parks are on are quite intimidating! 

[sumwonyuno]

Some of the landforms in the region shot look random. 

[smileymk]

Part 2 - Challenge Medium 3

Massive contrast this week. We're going from suburbs to urban mania, and from 1,100 people to 322,000 people. You have been warned.

Replies

As promised.
@ Battlecat: OK...interesting interpretation...suppose you won't want to be living there then! (lol)

@ sumwonyuno:That would be because they are random. They were decided by, of all things, a dice (one of my most useful tools in life.) As I said, never let it do your terraforming!

Again, thanks for the comments, keep it up.

Challenge Medium 3 - Part 1
And here we step into a world of urban hell... ruralists look away now.

Before I show you my stuff let me tell the story of how the Challenge Regions came to be.
A few weeks ago a file appeared on the STEX. It was 7 config files, of 3 sizes, small (8x8km), medium (16x16km) and large (32x32km). Downloaders were asked to use these to create metropolises and meet certain targets, whilst keeping the mods down to an essential minimum.
The target for the Medium regions (as depicted here) is to reach a residential population of 30 million.
Currently I stand at 1% towards that, but it will go up as time goes on...

This means that the one developed city here, known simply as The City, is by far and away the biggest and most successful city I have ever made.
Not all of it is skyscrapers, but those areas that do possess these beasts are the pride of the city:




They look even better at night:




With a residential population of 322,000, a need for services is great. This leads to some interesting situations, such as this baseball club who have been sued many times over broken windows:


It also creates problems. Certain rewards don't go down well with The City folk. The solution is to surround them with grass parks. The cost is met by my little mod which makes them absolutely free to use. It's one of my simplest yet my most vital mod. This little helper is exploited enormously in The City:




A transport system is also vital. The railways are key to the continued functioning of this urban conglomeration:


But they're nowhere near as important as the subway, which, thanks to its strict grid system, has over 5 times the usage:


The City, like Trevellyn Bridge, wants to show off its environmental capabilities and attract the bankers. They do this with a hydrogen plant:


And finally, I decided to show off the growth of the city by showing the RCI figures both before and after the work done this week:
Before:


After:


Massive growth. And that concludes this update.

Now, there will be an update next week, and it will be on the 1st Medium Challenge Region, but it won't be on Friday (do you seriously expect me to do this on Christmas Day?). It will be as close to that day as possible, probably Boxing Day.

A Merry Christmas to you all, and see you next week,
smileymk

[FrankU]

Wow, this is really a hell of a job you have planned here. I am really curious.
What you showed until now is interesting enough. Go for it!

[sumwonyuno]

Those first two pairs of pictures show a contrast between the rich and the poor areas of The City.

Heh, free parks are awesome! 

[FrankU]

Anyone can make free parks!
Just use the LotEditor to make some parks (or just "save as" the game parks) and then use LEProp to edit the plopcost and maintenance cost to 0.
On the other hand: it is even easier to use the parks, pay for them, but donate yourself a lot of money with the extracheats.dll (the Moolah cheat).

[smileymk]

Part 3 - Challenge Medium 1

Hope you all had a good Christmas. I'm sure you're all busy enjoying your presents (or exploiting the Boxing Day sales!) so I'll try to keep this short.

Replies

@ FrankU (part 1): It's not that hard. It'll take a long time, yes, but it's not gonna be hard. Keep showing your support and it will get me through this job. It's never finished though!

@ sumwonyuno They do! I didn't realise that until you pointed it out. Well spotted. And about the FGPM (free grass park mod), it's not that special, but it does help one heck of a lot!

@ Frank U (part 2): If you're interested, I used iLive's Reader program to do it... but there's no point in telling me how to make a mod I've already made, so please refrain from that kind of thing in the future. Thanks in advance.

And now without undue delay, let's get on with the update

Challenge Medium 1 - Part 1

Basically, this is just another Challenge Region - i.e. develop a region to certain standards to meet a goal. Like the 3rd medium region (which was showcased last week) the objective this time is to get 30M Sims by developing from the centre outwards.

This centre city is now pretty much finished; say hello to Eastminster, population 257,000:


The same city by night:


The city is a great contrast of rich and poor, tall and small, all in one medium tile. Here is the more developed part:


The slightly less developed part:


And the not-so-developed part:


Once again, free grass parks have been used to offset the bad effects of NIMBY lots:


Keeping such a complex city going requires an imaginative transport system, especially where roads have to be converted into avenues and dumped at either end back onto roads. The need to distribute traffic resulted in this:


Like The City, the rail system is important:


But the subway rules the roost:


And no wonder. The city's full of blinkin' poor people!


And that's it for this week.

Next update will be on New Year's Day (or at least it should) and will be on the region of Fairview. Time for something a little different methinks.

As this is my last update of the decade, I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year and New Decade.
See you on New Year's Day!
smileymk

[FrankU]

Hi Smileymk,
We both hope that other players also read this forum and my remark about making free parks could be useful to someone who reads this and does notyet know how to do it. So my remarks are not only meant for you in person but also to anyone else. You wouldn't know how much I picked up about this game just by reading discussions on sometimes very off topic seeming subjects.

[smileymk]

Part 4 - Fairview

Very sorry this is late, haven't had much chance to get on the Web lately... shouldn't happen again.

Replies

@ FrankU: Look, sorry for the misunderstanding, I have a nasty tendency to take things the wrong way and sometimes need someone to stop me implementing the consequences! Thanks for making your point clear and I'll stop moaning in future.

And now, I'm sure you're sick of waiting, so here's Update 4:

Fairview - Part 1

You will remember from Skaledale that I said you shouldn't randomly decide your terraforming. In this update, you'll learn why you shouldn't randomly decide your city-building either.
Fairview, one of the Maxis regions, had already been terraformed (thank God!) and it was decided to make use of a random number generator to completely control the region (within reason.)
This means that it is more interested in playing with the Building Style control (which I usually never bother with) than actually developing and expanding. This makes the region not too big or populous (just 3,500):


It has produced 7 cities, with names chosen by me and keeping to the theme of UK television programs.

The first of these is Simpson Rocks (after The Simpsons) (duh!), and it likes farms, factories, and not a lot else:


To the south is Future Ridge (after Futurama), which seems to reflect its name in trying to build for the future, but doesn't manage to do it very well (note the motorway junctions that would quite easily get on CBRD's list of cruddy interchanges):


Next we head east to News Summit (I'm not going to tell you what that's after...) which seems to get in the news a lot for car crashes caused by drunk drivers falling down the hills:


Heading back north we enter town number 4, Golden Village (after UK game show Golden Balls), which has hit the jackpot through a glitch putting 2,500 people into an area the size of the Golden Balls studio:


If it looked good by day, it's something else at night:


Continuing north we enter Copmouth (after all those police chase shows), which likes its confluence so much it lays impressive bridges over it, but doesn't dare develop beyond it:


We can't go further north because we then run out of Fairview. So we go east again and enter Weaklink (after The Weakest Link), which has a clear agenda to remove its stigma as the weakest link and establish itself as the strongest:


Lastly we head south into the affectionately-named town of Bitchington (after The Jeremy Kyle Show (because that's all they do on that show)), a town which proves the world can be nice after all:


That's it.

Update 5 will be on Friday (if it isn't then give me that good roasting!) and will be documenting the 2nd Large Challenge Region.

See you then!
smileymk

[emgmod]

Interesting town names you got there.

I'm interested in that road roundabout in the update before this one. How does it work?

[sumwonyuno]

Futurama and the Simpsons are available on UK televisions?  I never knew that.

Golden Village looks nice!

[smileymk]

Part 5 - Challenge Large 2

Craziness over, now we're going back to something a little more mundane.

Replies

@ emgmod: Glad you're interested. As for the double roundabout, it essentially works like 2 separate roundabouts, with one coming after the other. Traffic travelling between them has to cede priority to traffic on the roundabouts, just as if they were individual.
As for making one in SC4, I've made a little tutorial about it which is in this update.

And we will be going to that tutorial now.

Double Roundabout Tutorial
As requested by emgmod, this will teach you how to combine 2 roundabouts into 1 junction, to satisfy more advanced or complex requirements than an ordinary single roundabout.
I found out about this through the readme on a roundabout texture mod I downloaded - just another reason why you should pay attention to those files!
You will need the NAM, which can be found at these two places:
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=851 (Windows version)
http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=852 (Mac version)

Once you've got everything sorted, it's time to make the junction.
Step 1: To start, create a road roundabout by drawing out a 2x2 circle of road:


Step 2: Now drag out another 2x2 circle of road, starting in one corner of the first roundabout. Drag so that the 2nd roundabout goes away diagonally from the first:


You should end up with this:


As I said, you have to go diagonally. If you ignore this and go orthogonally, it doesn't work:


Step 3: Once you've completed your roundabout, add the links. You can do this just like an ordinary roundabout, except you can now have up to 6 roads instead of 4:


This only works for road. Nothing else will produce the right results:


But done correctly, it has the potential to create solutions for odd or complex junctions, as well as more interesting junctions like this 'magic roundabout':


And that's it for the tutorial. Now it's time to see my latest update.

Challenge Large 2 - Part 1

Essentially this follows the same idea of all the Challenge regions. But unlike the 2 medium ones I've shown you already, this one is 20x20mi in size (that's 400 square miles!) and has a different strategy, as well as a different target.
The strategy is the complete opposite of the medium regions. For this one, I'll be doing the outside tiles first, going in, and eventually using the massive demand to build an enormous metropolis in the centre.
The goal is to use each tile for a good purpose (Zoning, Utilities or Transport) and get a population of 500M Sims. It's a big target, but anything's possible...
This means that this region uses specialised cities - residential for zoning, commercial for transport and industrial for utilities. Currently there isn't a commercial city yet due to lack of demand, but there is a residential and an industrial city.
This is the residential city by day - Friends, population 31,000:


And by night:


You will notice that the city is medium density. Even though the threshold is 26,000, I won't go high-density until 40,000 Sims is reached - this is to ensure that it passes the appropriate CAM growth stages (which I have) and also so that the demand is there for the skyscrapers.
My medium density threshold is 5,000, for the record.
Now, these 31,000 Sims need somewhere to work. That place is School:




This city supplies the utilities for its allocated area, and so makes quite a sum from neighbour deals. It has to supply a big area, so it has a huge area for its power:


It also has a big area for its garbage:


Because of the pollution caused by all of those stinky factories, the water has to be all on its own surrounded by a forest:


It also needs fire protection. I've failed to do this realistically. I found a Lego fire station on the STEX and just had to use it:


Sorry to all the purists (or whatever the SC4D term is) about that.
The plan is to connect the transport hubs with motorways and rail links.
It quickly became clear during planning that an orbital motorway was required. A decision was taken to use RHW-4 for all motorways - mostly because it allows me to create interesting junctions.
Being from Milton Keynes, the spiritual home of the roundabout, these versatile tools play a big part in my junction design. But pure roundabout interchanges are reserved for the commercial cities.
Other places that the motorways run through have to make do with dumbbell interchanges:


If they're lucky, they might also get a parclo. You can see the Milton Keynes influence in this one:


As for rail, the commercial cities get big mainline stations. Other cities get local stations on the side of the mainline - but they're well placed and well set up:


And that will do for this week.

Next week it's Lego City, and no, there isn't a Lego fire station there yet.
See you then!
smileymk

[sumwonyuno]

Heh, nice to see what you can do (and can't do) with the roundabouts.

Now, that is a lot of dump-into-the-abyss garbage chutes! 

[smileymk]

Part 6 - Lego City

OK, I'll keep this quick...

Replies

@ sumwonyuno: It is, but given the large area it needs to serve, it's kind of essential they're so abundant...

Time for the update.

Lego City Part 1

Another pre-planned region, with 4 large tiles. Only one city is developed, Border Hill. This name comes from the fact that it has a big hill on its border... still, works.
Here's your overview:


And at night:


Now, this district is very centred around an army base built very early on to provide jobs:


To the north of this, barracks exist for 300 people for the soldiers to live in:


To the west, munitions factories:


Note the tanks and army vehicles. Their presence scares the people into obeying the law, making this police station seem all lonely:


But, as a combined force, the police and army work so well together that nobody dares do crime in Border Hill. And no wonder. This is where those dumb enough not to get the message end up:


The base is well served transport-wise, with an MT station near it:


And an as-yet-unfinished motorway:


Finally, a blank strip of land exists to the west - the future site of a 'commercial landing strip' (or really, an air base in disguise):


The army looks after its workers when they're not fighting for their country in Afghanistan or Iraq. They get this rollercoaster for their enjoyment, and it's a due reward for their courage and bravery:


And that concludes this update.

Next week we're paying a visit to an old friend, Quicksilver City. Should be interesting!

Until then,
smileymk