Grand River Valley

Diggis · June 12, 2008, 02:58:11 AM

Great update Barby. Good to see you are keeping those eco warriors on their toes.

BarbyW · June 27, 2008, 10:37:00 AM

Final challenge of GRV and final update.

Update #14

Grand River Valley now has its highway. Highway 17 begins as a rural highway in Upper Lindale (tile #1) and flows through the region to end in Low Wastwater (tile #8). (Note rural highways do not show in region view). There are now a number of small ports in the region transporting various goods to the main port in Estuaire (tile #7) or to other towns on the river. There are three airports serving the commercial interests of the region. There is still a lot of undeveloped land but much of it has been designated an area of natural beauty and will not be developed. The total poulation of the region is 350K with most of the jobs in the commercial sector.

Highway 17 crosses the river at a number of points but in Twin River (tile #9) the bridge lands briefly on the island in the middle of the river and it is the longest crossing point on the whole of the highway. The bridge engineers debated whether to make this one bridge but decided in the end to make a short stretch on the island to allow for possible connection to any further development. This is unlikely as the Kwakelaar family who live in the estate on the island are not very happy about further building there.

The highway passes through many built up areas including Riverbend (tile #10) where it has connections to the commercial centre. The commercial buildings are mid rise at this time with the Nettan building by sandrasim and several by jmyers2043 and debussyman in evidence. It is thought that this area will develop further now the highway is complete.

Upper Lindale (tile #1) sees the start of Highway 17 from the next region. It starts as a rural highway but developed into a ground highway when the bridge engineers were unable to construct a bridge over the river. This is a very rural village and the highway has made little difference to the area which is filled with meadows and hot springs. There is only one connection to the highway system and the inhabitants are quite happy with that. The population of 2305 works mainly in agriculture and they really do not want to see the area spoilt by much further development.

Some other places of note are the low lying Low Lindale (tile #13) and Plainfell (tile #16).
Low Lindale is a swampy place that has little other than agriculture. It has good alluvial soils, however, and supports a variety of agriculture. There are a few essential commercial services and in the bottom right of the picture you can see the small port that the farmers demanded to help get their produce to market quicker. It has geothermic power and for some reason best known to the mayor ( a big under the counter payment is suspected) gshmails' was asked to build his waterworks here. This is a great help to the farmers as it cleans all the pollution in the village and so keeps the river in pristine condition. There are 3591 inhabitants who work mainly in the farms. Highway 17 cuts through the very top of the village but has no connections and is just a small and insignficant cut through from Felldeep (tile #12) to Low Fell (tile #14)

Plainfell(tile#16) has a small population of 3600 who mainly work on the farms. It is interesting as it has the first diagonal bridge in the region. Unfortunately although it looks very good the bridge is just an experiment and no cars can pass over it. The power for the village is provided by wave power from the river. The main industry in Plainfell is agriculture although there is a small tourist industry and in the bottom right of the picture you can see the Harden (GooberGen group company) iron ore mine. This is hidden from the main village and has its own housing estate so the workers do not have to commute a long way.

And so we finally leave Grand River Valley. Who knows what the future will bring for this region but I am sure it will prosper and last for a long time?

BarbyW · June 30, 2008, 11:26:18 AM

I have some more pictures to show and shall be doing them in groups of 6 tiles. Here are the first set of 6 towns.

As a tribute to the custom content providers I would like to give you a flying tour of Grand River Valley to show some of the variety that have been provided especially from BSC members. I block all Maxis growables and only use the Maxis ploppable rewards. The game is no longer recognisable as the original SimCity4 thanks to BATters too numerous to mention here but I shall try to give the names of the creators in with the pictures. Daeley has given us custom queries and a variety of useful tools such as the Regional Tracking Mod. He was also instrumental in working out the OG system for rewards and the latest menu applications. Ripplejet has changed the whole game by his discoveries that led to CAM and upgradeable seaports and airports (functional without CTDs);

(Buildings by citynut, jestarr and cerulean)

jeronij and the SFBT have given us a wonderful street mods; jplumbley and the NAM team have given us SAM and of course the NAM team have revolutionised the transport system. ChrisAdams has now given us lovely flora to add to our cities along with the other trees and terrain bits and pieces from jeronij and cycledogg - whose terrains have changed the game forever. As a lot technician I am especially appreciative of the X-Tool by wouanagaine (it will be released eventually). Other programs provided by wounagaine have changed the way maps are made.

To my BSC friends, I give my thanks especially for giving me the opportunity to work with so many great BATters. The group are always seeking to extend and improve the game in different ways and they are a grand bunch of people.
To all the other custom content providers who are featured in the following - thank you for sharing your work with the community.

I apologise if I have left anyone out.

tile#1 Upper Lindale

Houses by rp200x(Zero7) and Jen_p provide the accommodation for the middle and working classes who mainly work in the farming sector.

Upper class housing by swi21 alongside a small house by simgoober. The richer inhabitants are the local commercial shop owners.

tile#2 High Fells

A vineyard by tag_one alongside housing by Colyn and mattb.

D66's Lamplight Inn by the side of citynut's rural canals. A small part of the town that has been designated as a heritage area thus preventing any changes to it.

tile#3 High Pass

Housing by tag_one, gascooker, mattb, jen_p and D66. Many of these houses have special foundations to allow for growth on slopes.

Commercial lots by jmyers2043, debussyman, simgoober, born78 and ILL_Tonkso add variety and interest to the town.

tile#4 Twin Peaks

A dairy farm from kwakelaar with extra cows by jestarr. Kwakelaar's European style farm is a stage 4 - made possible thanks to Ripplejet's CAM.

Lottie's Nursery - a growable stage 5 farm from BLS D66. This and the previous picture show that CAM does not have to mean skyscraper forests but also have neabled us to provide a wider range of farms up to stage 7.

tile#5 Wastwater

A building by kwakelaar modded and lotted as a town hall by BarbyW.

simgoober's large water tower sits by Colyn's natural gas plant and they provide the power and water for the town.

tile#6 Spinnaker

A small parade of shops by mattb, xannepan and simgoober. There are few shops in Spinnaker so business is good in this group.

kwakelaar's Farmers' Market on the edge of the town; this is a reward but does not replace the Maxis Farmer's market. Other buildings are by xannepan, simgoober, D66 and gascooker. The red brick street is from SAM provided by jplumbley and Diggis.

BarbyW · July 02, 2008, 12:50:55 AM

Second set of pictures from the middle row of city tiles - numbered from right to left.

tile#7 Estuaire

A really variety of housing with buildings by Colyn, callagrafx, xannepan, tag_one, jeronij, born78, jen_p, swi21 and rp200x.

A big double Fukitol production has been built by simgoober here alongside buildings by mickebear and jmyers2043. On the other side of the railway tracks are houses by ILL_Tonkso and an unusual appartment block by rp200x.

tile#8 Low Wastwater

Low Wastwater boasts the latest in medical facilities by callagrafx. swi21 built his Chateau de Sceaux here. The church is by debussyman, the small clinic is by praiodan and the mansion by Colyn.

tile#9 Twin River

Sometimes the residents want to live in blocks as they asked for here in Twin River.
Several BSC developers provided the small units seen in this image.

The housing here is centred around the church, the pub and the old railway station. The church and pub were kindly donated by gascooker. The old station has been renovated by Colyn and is now a gourmet restaurant.

tile#10 Riverbend

In the heart of Riverbend Colyn built Oliver Cromwell's House and the B. Winterton Theatre which hold plays and concerts regularly. Close by callagrafx renovated Constable's Cottage and The Old Coach House which are very popular with tourists.

A peaceful suburban street at night with housing by Colyn and mattb.

tile#11 Mid Fell

The centre of Mid Fell has grown since the highway was built. Blocks of appartments by tag_one, callagrafx, simgoober, spa and Eblem have grown around the beautiful villa by cobb32118.

The Radcliffe library built by Caliban is now stranded between the highway and the railway line.

tile#12 Felldeep

The colourful waterfront by Colyn is rivalled at night by the unusual fish market - known affectionately as the Fish Church - by sandrasim.

The port at Felldeep was assembled by barbyw from pieces by gascooker and jestarr with seawalls by jeronij. The industry includes some stage 7 - made possible by CAM as the growth stages for industry have been extended to 10.

BarbyW · July 04, 2008, 02:08:48 PM

Here are the final set of images as I say good bye to GRV:

tile#13 Low Lindale

Low Lindale's main claim to fame is its sugar production. This is sent through the region for general sweetening and also for the production of rum. simgoober built the farm and processing plant.

The centre of the town has a church and market by gascooker and the Lonaberger Offices by simgoober.

tile#14 Low Fell

In the army base the officers' mess is conveniently situated for the hospital and the fire station. The whole complex was built by ripptide.

gascooker's Kelvin Kold Store is now a stage 7 IHT building.

tile#15 Tumpton

Tumpton's CBD centres around dedwards' plaza area. This has underground shops and eateries for the workers. sandrasim placed her Nettan Building on the plaza as did tag_one and jbsimio. The town hall was built by mickebear with barbyw's help to make it work properly. At the side of the town hall is Hog's Distillery by ripptide that produces the finest tequila for the mayor and her guests.

dedwards built The Jordan Gallery that has exhibitions of art and books. It is a favourite place for the residents as its fountains cool the plaza.

tile#16 Plainfell

Mickebear's dairy farm is a stage 5 farm landscaped by BarbyW.

On the road to the diagonal bridge cycledogg built some houses. The residents are fed up with cars arriving at the bridge and then turning round again when they can't cross it.

tile#17 The Wast

spa built Kensington Plaza on the corner to stop further development of simgoober's Sainsbury's that seem to pop up on every corner. Simgoober built Captain Jack's Seafood Restaurant and the Wild Zebra Club across the road. born78 provided the Ritz Hotel.

Sainsbury's grabbed the corner lot once again and ripptide's Tapas Joint is squashed between that and mattb's hotel.

tile#18 Bay Peak

Virgin Trains run through Bay Peak bringing tourists and also commuters. Kwakelaar's Inn is very popular for drinks, meals and also accommodation which is reasonably priced.

On the island in the bay live Don Cornerliloni and Abuelo Al - houses provided by mickebear and ripptide respectively. The mayor has her seaside villa here as does the owner of the GRV Playboy magazine - villas by simgoober.

High in the hills an area was smoothed out for a small suburb - Bay Peak Upper. It has a variety of housing as usual and also its own school - building by cycledogg - and clinic - building by Colyn - both modded and lotted by BarbyW.

Diggis · July 04, 2008, 10:33:03 PM

I'm very sad to see the end of GRV for you Barby. You have done a wonderful job on this, and I've enjoyed your tales. Great work.