SC4 Devotion Forum Archives

Antario

Welcome all to our fast growing town of Antario. Located in Norway this small coastal port has been struggling in the last few years, with the town funds dwindling as it tried to keep itself alive. Recently however, the town has been the subject of a large of investment by a group of rich investor who used to live in the town itself eager to not see their childhood disappear.
The idea was simple. To retain the old wall to wall feel that the town already had but to grow it to become a bustling centre of commerce with the sustainability to survive by itself.
As such we'll follow the development of the town as they strive to achieve the aforementioned goal starting with several years into the investment process and what the work currently looks like in Old Town.

Entry 1: Old Town

Starting with the view that greets most of the visitors and new residents of the growing town we have Old Town Main Row. A large street full of shops, both new and traditional with room to live above them. These buildings form the staple of what the town will continue to look like for the most part, with influences from a lot of old European cities.

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As for the residents, as well as living above the shops in the many shopping arcades you will probably find most of the inhabitants in the blocks like this one. The layouts are a bit all over the place due to the multiple developers that are investing in the town and lack of any real town planning officials but they work. Plus it stops it being a completely square blocks all over the place.

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Along with the new developments occurring all over the existing town we have several buildings that have always been here, one being the old town hall and the public parks in front of it forming this oddly shaped green space. In the background though this can see the beginning of what will hopefully be a modern and bustling financial sector, currently in its infancy at the moment though.

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Unfortunately not all of the old structures are that nice. Below you can see several photos of the existing small docklands with its Coal Power Plant, the cities current source of power. As for the docks its obvious that they just built whatever was cheapest and easiest at the time with a lot of the same building being used to store goods ready fro shipping.

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You can also see the rather low capacity docks, concrete ones are newer and still used whilst the wooden ones are much older and using them as actual shipping docks would probably be more dangerous than useful, something we definitely need to take a look at in the future.

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Speaking of new things we've recently managed to get a national rail connection to the town so have had this new central station built. Not quite as fancy as other stations in European cities but it does the job and ferries people in and out of the town. You can also see a freight train heading towards the new freight train station in the harbour area, reducing the need to use the old and tired docks.

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Finally for this first look at the town we have this overview of the growing settlement of Antario. From here you can see the continued developments that we are currently underway on with the empty roads branching off in various directions. You can also see another of the towns issues and that's pollution. Something we will probably have to take care of at some near point in the future before it gets too out of hand.

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Anyway that's all for today, currently our little town sits at a population of 13,400 which is an increase of about 5k since the developers started investing, so something must be going right with things. Still lets wait and see before we get too confident.

(OOC: So I've decided to come back to my bellowed city building games with a new attempt at an European styled city. As with my other cities in the past this will no no Custom Content or unofficial mods and unlike my other cities (despite the impression this first entry may have given you) this will be more about natural city growing than a story or grand planned city. I mean it'll still have a loose back story but it wont take itself as seriously as they have in the past.
Anyway I hope you all enjoy the city as it grows and as usual comments and criticisms are always welcome.

Cheers

89James89)

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Replies:

compdude787: Thanks glad you like it and hope you pop back in from time to time to watch the growth!

threestooges: Yes, there mostly roads with some After Dark ploppables thrown in for good measure. The custom avenue was more for the lack of traffic lights that this method produces over using the avenue but its also had the fun side effect of giving me the median to play around it so I'm glad you like it. Still have to finish beautifying it though.

Jmouse: Thanks, the wall to wall cities are definitely my favourite type of city and now, witht he new update allowing me to use the vanilla buildings on a Europe map I can get some variety in to break it up. As for the terrain I'm glad you like it, I really need to get around to releasing this map at some point lol.


Entry 2: A bit of everything

So yes, as the title suggests this entry is about looking at various issues and items that have sprung up around the growing town as the investors have continued to do what they do best, invest.

Unfortunately as your about to see what they don't do best is plan ahead and we've had several traffic issues throughout the growing town, the worst being these back ups in the centre.

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So yes, this caused a slight issue as they didn't want to have to redesign and destroy large swathes of buildings to widen the road. The solution, however came with making the majority of side street splits into one ways heading away from the road and creating this rather elongated round about thing.

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Right problem 1 solved (for now anyway), what's next?

Turns out it was power outages. You see while the city had been steadily growing the coal power plant had been steadily struggling. However no one actually bothered to keep track of this until we started getting some black out complaints.

Now we also apparently needed some sort of rail facilities now that the city had bought itself a rail fleet, so why not use the smallest amount of space possible to build a new Oil (because who likes dirty old coal?) power plant and a railyard. (OOC: Please note I have no idea what a oil power plant is meant to look like and google was useless so there you go, I winged it).

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So, moving onto the next issue that were having is a bit of a case of expanding to fast, you see up until now, this Primary and Secondary schooling facility and another Primary school are the only educational facilities in the entire town.

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Which was fine when the town was small and no one paid it any attention, However, when you have people investing in expensive offices all over the place, the limited pool of educated people quickly cause a slight issue and lead to investors pulling out and situations like this dilapidated building popping up over town.

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Now space in the town at the moment is at a bit of a premium so we'll have to look at building a university outside of the current city limits. Now, however for this rather random entry of mish mashed problems and solutions, we'll take a look at some random images showing various things like the newish local hospital (health is more important than education).

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A look at the growing financial district (or at least our attempt at one).

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Some new housing, trying to use up all the space in front one of the many mountains in the area.

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A panorama of the wall to wall architecture that makes up the majority of the city with the Hospital and some fire breaking the skyline (don't worry I'm sure they were fine).

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Finally for today we have an up to date overview showing the city as it currently stands, population 21,404.

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As you can see there's still a lot of growth going on with roads leading nowhere at the moment. Hopefully you can also begin to see the slight attempt at a mainstreet sort of thing emerging. We definitely need to start spreading out a bit more though as things are beginning to get a bit cramped (OOC: I need to buy more than 1 2x2 square basically)
Anyway that's all for today's entry, join us next time when hopefully we'll have some sort of approved educational facility to show you all!

(OOC: As you lot have probably noticed, I've started messing around with the theme editor in the new DLC, hence why the roads, ruined ground, mountains and water have all changed a bit from what were used to. I'm not sure they're going to stay this way in the long run but for now they'll do (though the mountains do look rather weird in the rain though I'm not sure if this is due to the rain or the colour adjustments I've made).

Cheers

James)


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Replies

compdude787: Thanks, I'm glad your enjoying the progress and growth, its my favourite part of city games, watching things grow on a large scale.

Jmouse: Thanks for the suggestion, there now numbered as from this entry. Thanks, the city is growing nicely. The CDB is off to the side because that was the limit of the existing town when the investment started flowing in. As such, rather than destroying large swathes of the Old Town and replacing it with tall glass buildings, the decision was made to build the financial district off to the south of the actual town. As for the traffic flow its fine at the moment. The only issue's we've had crop up was the one in the previous entry and one that came up in this following entry.

art128: Thanks glad you like the city and the map. I should really upload it to the workshop.

threestooges: Thanks and while were planning immediately ahead, were trying to get to detailed with future projects and expansions, preferring to just build up naturally. I have started to add a list at the bottom of each entry to highlight potential future projects or issues that are arising in the city as it grows. Not all of these will be addressed but it should give a small idea of the heading of the city for the next entries.

As for the powerplant it didn't take all that long once I'd figured out what buildings I wanted to use. The most annoying part was trying to get the place fenced off and the tanks to all grow as the same model rather than different ones. I've also taken into account your advice on the bridge and turned it into a tunnel as you'll see in this entry.

As for the parking lots, there my creation. I spend a fair amount of time in with this city creating my own lots to use, such as the fences surrounding the powerplant and rail and the harbour edge lots. These are probably the closest thing to custom content in the city, although I'm allowing it as its only using props produced by CO in their editor. I might start uploading them to a steam workshop collection if anyone is interested. They're fully thumbnailed and labelled so shouldn't be too hard to use.



Entry 3: Religiously Educational Industrialisation!

So, were back with this confusing title that just about covers everything that's been going on in Antario since the last time we visited starting with this shot of the end of the Old Town highstreet, showing the new Cathedral dominating end of the road, which , along with the new University were about to see has cemented Antarios status as a city rather than a town (OOC: Being a bit British here with settlement classification, I have no idea how they classify settlements in Norway but oh well, a Cathedral and University is good enough for me).

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Speaking of which here is the new seat of learning and education for the city of Antario, the Antario Academical Institute. You can also see some of the dorms that make up the University campus, built in keeping with the style of Old Town Antario, mainly to tie them in with the actual main university building.

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As you can see from the following picture the actual campus is located directly next tot he new cathedral and is made up of the main university building, four dorms, a large glass botanical and related studies building and several recreational facilities. In stark contrast to the cathedral and the university you can see the low income housing projects built in response to a spike in residential demand. These also mark the end of Old Town and are the beginnings of the spread of the city eastwards.

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Next up we have some large scale industrial expansion, mainly based around new university graduates wanting to try their hands at running a business of their own. Unfortunately as you can probably imagine this spread has come quite quickly and isn't all that organised meaning that the limited dock space in the harbour has become a bit crowded, you can see that they have tried to help alleviate the problem with some additional piers and wharves but eventually we may have to look at a more organised solution.

Anyway, the actual pictures are below with the first showing the expansion of the existing industrial waterfront to fully encompass the natural harbour and the second showing a new industrial waterfront to the south of the city entrance., where a much more restricted access harbour has been built to handle small scale shipping.

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Other than this we have the normal for any growing city and that's this shot of the Old Town Hospital, with the growth of the financial district in the background.

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And the inevitable traffic issues that come with a growing city, this time with the main entrance roundabout. A lack of a dedicated entrance into the growing industrial waterfront meant that trucks and lorries were causing huge backups trying to navigate the narrow streets into the waterfront.

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Some quick brainstorming later and we came up with this solution before the issue ground the city to a halt. Firstly, unless your delivering to a shop in Old Town you now can't drive a truck or a lorry through. To provide a working traffic solution we dug out several tunnels, the first leading as a exit from the highway into the city to a tunnel exit to the left of the railyard. The second was replacing the awkward bridge over the oil power plant railway with a underpass and a connecting tunnel to the new industrial sector allowing for a much improved flow of traffic.

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And finally, after you've suffered this wall of text we get to the end of the entry with the obligatory overview image, this time with the population of the growing city standing at 31,940 people.

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Future plans/citizen requests on the table:
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Provide housing for the increasing number of people wanting to move to the city?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?

(OOC: Here we are for another entry. As you can see I tried to create some sort of university campus and built the cathedral to cement the place as a city. Pretty damn hard gettignt he cathedral though without using and cheats. Took my bank balance from 5.4million down to just above 1million before it started improving.

The trees also look a bit funky at the moment but apparently its a bug that CO are aware of and are planning on fixing. The harbour is also an area that's a bit odd. Having just finished developing it I unlocked the harbours, however not wanting to have to redo everything before the entry I just built some eye candy piers and will have a look a real harbour as a future project.

The other thing I've added is the further plan list to give you an idea of where we might be heading in future entries. We definitely won't be covering all of these in the next couple of entries there just some sort of vague plan or idea of where I'm heading.

Cheers

James)

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Replies:

threestoges: Thanks, I'm glad you like my attempts at the harbour and thanks for pointing out the duplicate images.

c.p.: Thanks, hopefully it'll look even nicer now that they've fixed the super shiny mountains!

Jmouse: Yep, there's a load of custom content on the steam workshop and you can use the asset editor in game to make your own with the in game props. Yer, unfortunately I accidentally duplicated them two images so sorry about that. As for the growth of the city I kind of part planned it part just built it up as I went along. For example I always knew that I wanted a large harbour area where the current one is but I had no plan for the university, cathedral or the growing financial district being where they currently are, they kind of just slotted in there as I expanded.

catty: Yup, I would definitely check it out if you like custom content.

No worries about real life, I know how that is at the moment. Looking forward to your views when you do pop back in though!



Entry 4: Well that's a slight issue!

Welcome back to Antario all, where currently it seems that we are having a bit of a wet and windy day (OOC: So glad they fixed the super shiny cliffs when it rains. I've also changed things up in the theme editor again, let me know what you think)

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However this isn't the only issue that has cropped up since the last entry with the latter being slightly more pressing than bad weather in the form of rolling blackouts caused by a rapidly growing city that may have forgotten to expand its power capabilities.

Rather luckily though we also found several oil fields while carrying out surveys on the islands surrounding the one that the actual city is built on located close to a spit if land that would make a perfect area for a larger oil power plant.

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Firstly however we needed to sort out a temporary solution for the rolling blackouts so had a small wind farm built on one of the ridges overlooking the city.

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Our next step was to then provide some sort a road connection to the oil fields and future power plant project. For this we had a single lane highway run out from a trumpet interchange temporarily terminating in a roundabout and diamond interchange for the time being. You can also see that we choose a small wind farm over here for the time being as well, what with needing to get the actual oil fields set up.

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Then we allowed industries to buy up each of the oil fields and set up shop like this smaller one belonging to Oil Be Damned Inc, nodding donkeys and all (OOC: Don't expect to see a lot of nodding donkeys. Apparently the damn resources run out really really fast in vanilla). We did think ahead though and made sure the largest oil field was reserved for a city funded drilling operation, with a view to powering the planned station.

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Anyway with the stage one of the new plan implemented and stage two about too get underway were still seeing developments in the city like these wall to wall buildings with new high rises in the background providing yet more cheap housing in a small space and more reasons to get on with the power plant construction.

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Anyway, here we'll leave you with the usual overview of the city currently, this time also showing the new oil fields as well as small pockets of growth throughout the city with a current population of 32,090. Not much growth, but then again we can't cope with it at the moment.

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So here's the updated list of things that were looking into, obviously with it all being superseded by the power issue.

Future plans/citizen requests on the table:
-Powerplant construction
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Provide housing for the increasing number of people wanting to move to the city?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?

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Replies:

Jmouse: No worries, the Theme Editor lets you change the textures of the map as well as water colour, position of the sun and moon and several other thongs and came with the last DLC for the game (though the Theme Editor was actually a free update released at the same time as well).

As for the winding road to the wind turbines I hope you weren't too attached to it as its gone now as the wind turbines are no longer needed and hopefully, if all goes to plan we'll find out if our idea of suburbs are similar in the next few updates!


carlfatal: Thanks glad you like the look of it. We've built a new power plant now so lets hope this one lives up the standard of the old one that seems to be quite popular. Thanks for the big compliment regarding the harbour as well. I'm sure there are some lovely harbours in CSL out there (though maybe not all that many done without mods admittedly). It should also be getting a lot easier to build them with the next free content update coming this month!


threestoges: In all honesty I haven't looked at any workshop stuff in ages as this city is vanilla (or at least everything in it has been made by Colossal Order) and yes the oil depletion rate is annoying.

As for the harbour unfortunately I can't terraform due to not using mods (though this may all change alter on in the month with the free content update). Also I kind of imagined that most boats are brought into dock by tugs. I also don't imagine that the long docks facing the mountainous island in the channel are used much if at all anymore as they're the old wooden ones, just no ones seen fit to remove them yet.


vester: Yes I agree. It has its flaw for certian but I enjoy the game all the same and am glad that you lot seem to enjoy seeing me play it as well!


kelis: Thanks, I'm glad your enjoying the CJ!


Entry 5: Power Plant stage 1

So as the title and last entry suggests this one is going to be centred around the construction of our new power plant, an Oil fed facility designed to replace the older less efficient oil one in the city as well as eventually replacing the coal one.

Diving right in here we have how the power plant looked as they finished laying out the roads and constructing the first two turbines. As you will see, even at this point design revisions were being made as they went along.

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.
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So, fast forward a bit and here we have Phase 1 of the Antario Oil Power Plant finished.

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As you can see not a hell of a lot changed from the original layout but there was still a few tweaks here and there. Anyway lets take a closer look around.

Starting at the entrance to the new plant we have this security checkpoint. Together with the perimeter fence you can see this helps protect what is arguably going to be the most important building in the entire city. (OOC: This was another custom asset that I made. I think it works though)

In the background you can also see a large brown area where Turbines 3 and 4 are currently having the groundwork done.
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Next up we have the administrative heart of the plant where all the paper work and overall plant control is carried out. You can also see the water outflow system for the plant as well and the very edge of the oil dock with Antario sat in the background.

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Next up we have the unloading dock for external oil deliveries and several refinery buildings with storage tanks for the oil. In the background you can see the dock for the tugs to help bring the oil tankers safely into the dockside.

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Finally we have an view of the actual generator as they currently stand. Here you can see all the parts including Turbines 1, 2 and the distribution pipes in the middle of the plant. Plenty of parking for the large amount of workers needed for the plant and some railway sidings for rail deliveries of oil.

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In other city news we've decided to attempt to provide more spacious living in the form of some suburbs on the other side of the waterway surrounding the city. Currently its a interchange and roundabout but we hope with a increased interest in the city it'll be a quick project to get underway.

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Unfortunately we've still had apartment buildings go up on the university side of the city but oh well. It houses people who pay taxes so its all good even if they do look a bit different to the surrounding and expanding wall to wall buildings.

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Anyway that is all for this entry so as usual here's our current overview of the city currently sat at 34k population and slowly expanding outwards. You can see the new power plant in the overview as well as the planned area for the suburbs. 

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As usual we also have our list of current city issues and objectives, obviously topped by the finishing up of the power plant and the beginning of the suburbs. We also plan on expanding the oil drilling operations as there are still several fields we haven;t exploited yet but as you all know, plans don't easily survive very long when it comes to implementing them.

Future plans/citizen requests on the table:
-Powerplant completion
-Provide housing for the increasing number of people wanting to move to the city?
-Oil fields expansions.
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs07.flagcounter.com%2Fcount2%2FjbnT%2Fbg_D4C9FF%2Ftxt_000000%2Fborder_0F0F0F%2Fcolumns_3%2Fmaxflags_12%2Fviewers_visitors%2Bto%2BAntario%2Flabels_0%2Fpageviews_0%2Fflags_0%2Fpercent_0%2F&hash=41017b987eb5828dca59213fe74533cfe3ae6d2f)


(OOC: So here we have my attempt at an vanilla Oil power plant (which also serves a dual heating purpose with the heating buildings used to represent different parts of the complex). I had to turn off the harbour as it was getting by swamped by tonnes of lorries despite trying to stop the traffic with policies but oh well, it'll have to act as eye candy.

We also have the exciting news that the developers are releasing some canals and quayside pieces for CSL's 1st birthday so hopefully, by the time we have the next entry we will have them available to work with. Anyway I hope you all are enjoying the CJ as I'm really enjoying working on it.

Cheers

James)

Replies:

Jmouse: Thanks glad you like the power plant. I should be able to upgrade it with at least a couple of more turbines but we'll have to see. Yer the apartment buildings are  slightly out of place but I like them, just gives the city a slightly varied look and gives it a bit more realism in my opinion. As for the suburbs, I hope you'll enjoy this entry!

As for the tunnelling you can yes. As you said though it would be a bit pointless in my case. Terraforming has just been released officially for use outside of the editor but it has this (in my opinion good) mechanic where you don't have unlimited ability to terraform, but is based on a certain amount of soil that you have to get from somewhere to fill in elsewhere.

kbieniu7: Thanks for taking to time to have a look through my CJ and I'm glad you liked it! I wanted to created a London/Paris look to the city with a gridded but angled look to the blocks of wall to wall. Some places look a bit awkward but for the most part I'm really happy with how its turning out.


Entry 6: Suburban beginnings
(and Power plant stage 2)

So as the tilte suggests since the last time that we've taken a look at the city we've seen some development other than wall to wall and industrial buildings. With the demand for city living that might just have enough room for a drive and a small garden on the rise several developers won bids on the land that we saw the motorway exit for last entry and begun in earnest to try and build houses that they could charge more for thanks to a possible garden and drive.


Although not named yet we do have some pictures form the steadily growing suburbs ready to hopefully entice you to some suburban living starting with this image of some row houses in the centre of the suburb. These are the least expensive land wise with not a lot of land to go with the mostly fairly large houses. You can also see the centre of the suburb with some offices and commercial buildings as well as services. So far schooling is limited to a primary school but there are plans and funds to build upon the commercial and services available in the future.

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Of course its not all straight blocks in the suburbs with a number of less uniform roads around the outside of the blocks. This is where your likely to actually get a fair bit of land with your purchase, depending on location.

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Finally for this quick look at the beginnings of the suburban development here's what the current suburbs looks like in is entirety. Pretty compact but with plenty of room to grow. As you can see the developers are also trying to fill in the foliage so as to block the noisy motorway from the quite houses alongside it.

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This suburban growth did however cause us another traffic issue with the entrance roundabout for the city when the volume of cars from it, not helped by the industrial trade trying to either leave the city or get across to the main harbour, caused the roundabout traffic to grind to a halt.

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As such we built an overpass to allow industrial traffic to exit the city without using the roundabout and implemented a suburban bus line which travels from the main station in the city itself to various roads in the suburbs, cutting car use by almost a half what it used to be and relieving the roundabout some what.

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In other news we've also decommissioned the old Oil Power Plant in the industrial harbour and moved the turbines to the new Power Plant to finish off phase one of its development. So far the old site sits derelict but there has been some interest in the site.

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And that's all for this suburban entry (well mostly). As usual we'll leave you with a overview of the city as it currently stands, complete with new suburbs and a list of projects completed and still to do.

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-Powerplant completion
-Provide housing for the increasing number of people wanting to move to the city?
-Oil fields expansions.
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs07.flagcounter.com%2Fcount2%2FjbnT%2Fbg_D4C9FF%2Ftxt_000000%2Fborder_0F0F0F%2Fcolumns_3%2Fmaxflags_12%2Fviewers_visitors%2Bto%2BAntario%2Flabels_0%2Fpageviews_0%2Fflags_0%2Fpercent_0%2F&hash=41017b987eb5828dca59213fe74533cfe3ae6d2f)

(OOC: Well I hope you all like my a attempts at suburbs. I know there not exactly as uniform as most of the suburbs in the world but that's what you get for providing services for them.

I'm pretty excited as well for the upcoming entries to this vanilla CJ as CO have just released a whole load of free content including quays, canals, ploppable rocks, terraforming and some more asset editor props so I have some new toys to play around with. Not sure how much actual city development I'll get done with these new beautification tools released but oh well hopefully I can get some of the old views to rock a new look (pun intended).

Cheers

James)

Replies:

kbieniu7: Thanks, the railyard is pretty small scale but I'm glad it looks believable. As for the suburbs they are pretty dense but don't worry, there's plenty of greenspace in amongst the houses and with the parks.

threestooges: Thanks and yes, quite a bit of new content in the form of draggable quayside's and canals and rocks and terraforming in game. Loads of new options have opened up now! As for the suburbs they seem to have gone a bit I want what my neighbour has mad at the moment but theres still some variety in there.


Entry 7: General growth


So, being entirely honest not a lot has happened in Antario since our last visit to the sleepy city, just some small areas of growth and the city landscaping team deciding to step up the pace a bit with their many unfinished projects.

We'll jump right in though and start off with the suburbs which have been growing at a steady pace since last entry, though not in the direction that one might expect them to have.

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Yup we've had some vertical suburban growth. Brought on by a sudden need for a large amount of housing in a short amount of time the developers went for cheap and plentiful on the outskirts of the city. Were not sure if the local suburbanites appreciated the apartments but they didn't really get all that much say in the matter.

On the otherside of the suburbs you can see some shoring up of the coastline and some riverside properties right agaisnt the new quay. Lovely location you would think but maybe not so much. That fog you see isn't so much early morning mist as it is all day smog. We really have to start looking into these issues but at the moment growth seems to be the cities sole focus.

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Finally for the suburbs we have this overview of how the area currently looks. As you can see the projects although tall don't really occupy all that much space in the suburbs themselves.

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Moving further outside the city you see the current issue we face industry wise. Apparently when the surveys were done on the oil deposits it wasn't noticed that they didn't exactly go down very deep and rather worryingly this has led to the removal of most of the pumps on the old fields, being replaced with refineries instead.

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As you can imagine this isn't really helping the economy as most of the oil now has to be imported and  a number of refinery owners are already looking to sell their sites as its just not profitable to import the oil from elsewhere. Luckily however we still have several fields left but were not holding out hope for these lasting a lot longer than the last ones.

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While over by the powerplant we may as well take a look at the improvements to the drainage system that have been installed where a new channel and rip rap walls help to push the waste water out into the harbour area rather than up the small river. Or at least that's the intention.

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Moving back to the the city island now we yet again have some improvements to show for the entrance roundabout. Experts don't think it'll be long until this has to be replaced with a 4 way interchange but for now this new exit lane and roundabout are coping.

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Nearby to the new traffic improvements you'll find the old powerplant site where renovation and redevelopment has led to a small industrial office park where several companies now manage their industrial assets found in the city. As you can also see, we've begun our shoring up of the coastlines project here, a costly and lengthy project that we have planned for the foreseeable future, hopefully also allowing us to actually install a proper harbour at some point (although with this cities track record for keeping on track this may take a very long while).

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Ending on something slightly more pleasant though we have this updated photo of the ongoing project to beautify the high street. As you can see were still trying to create an island of green in a sea of wall to wall buildings.

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And as usual here's the current overview and census data for the city, currently sat at 39,133 and our currently growing list of projects.

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-Provide housing for the increasing number of people wanting to move to the city?
-Oil fields expansions.
-Find new avenues for the old oil fields.
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs07.flagcounter.com%2Fcount2%2FjbnT%2Fbg_D4C9FF%2Ftxt_000000%2Fborder_0F0F0F%2Fcolumns_3%2Fmaxflags_12%2Fviewers_visitors%2Bto%2BAntario%2Flabels_0%2Fpageviews_0%2Fflags_0%2Fpercent_0%2F&hash=41017b987eb5828dca59213fe74533cfe3ae6d2f)

(OOC: Bit of a random update here with it all basically being an excuse for me to play around with the new content that CO have given us. I also need to have a look at my LUT as its a bit dark in places and as you may have noticed I've changed the texture on the mountains and the grass again. Anyway I hope you all enjoy the entry and I'll try and decrease the amount of time there is between them, its just that life is a bit hectic at the moment.

Cheers

James)

Entry 8: More Growth

So today we have a report on the general growth of the city and its surrounds, including the first satellite settlement and the issues with the oilfields where we'll be starting as since last time they got even worse.

Caused mainly by the halt in production of raw materials as the wells dried up meaning that everything had to be imported for use by the refineries we had this rather large issue.

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This, coupled with the rising costs of running the refineries now there were no resources available locally led to a slow decline in the number of refineries trying to hold on. Below is the original oil field that is little more than a few stubborn refineries and some empty dirt plots, with nature already trying to reclaim the land.

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Meanwhile at the end of the oil fields in a small cove we saw the settlement of our first village outside Antario itself in the form of the fishing village of Skjar.

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As you can see this village has mainly grown up around the small cove and its fishing trade. This also gives Antario its first source of food that isn't imported as, up until now it has been entirely reliant on food imports. Sure the small fishing fleet isn't going to feed everyone but at least its a start.

The actual village is also a lot different in looks than the city itself with only the main street through it and the rest of small houses springing up along dirt tracks wherever there is space for them. Despite the whole low income of the area, it does support some lovely views out over the bay above the fishing harbour.

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Moving back into the city now, as there's not that much else to show you in the small village of Skjar we stop by at the suburbs where they have grown a little bit more since last time and have also had a large highschool finished in the centre of it.

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We also have some larger parks popping up throughout the suburbs in an attempt to break up the large swathes of houses that dominate the growing suburbs.

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Finally we head into the actual city where growth has continued in the financial sector as more highrises have popped up due to continued interest in the city. You can see it here behind the recently named Prosperity park, a hopeful sign for the cities future.

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We also have had some investment put into the expanding city, behind the financial district in the form of this Stadium for general sporting events. Its not exactly all that popular as we haven't completed any developments around the stadium yet to bring people in, but hopefully it'll help with future investment and growth.

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Finally as usual, we have an overview of the city as it currently stands at 41,963. You can see the new village in the far west past the oil fields..

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And as usual we have the list of things we want to do with the city. Not that a lot has changed since last time.



-Provide housing for the increasing number of people wanting to move to the city?
-Oil fields expansions.
-Find new avenues for the old oil fields.
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?


(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs07.flagcounter.com%2Fcount2%2FjbnT%2Fbg_D4C9FF%2Ftxt_000000%2Fborder_0F0F0F%2Fcolumns_3%2Fmaxflags_12%2Fviewers_visitors%2Bto%2BAntario%2Flabels_0%2Fpageviews_0%2Fflags_0%2Fpercent_0%2F&hash=41017b987eb5828dca59213fe74533cfe3ae6d2f)


(OOC: Again apologies for how long its been since the last update, the little one is a bit demanding with time and well, as interested as he is in C:SL, his attention span is shorter than mine. Anyway I hope you like the entry and it makes up for the amount of time its taken for me to actually get it done. I've also changed the theme to go back to the original grass as you can see in the overview and image 6. The road has also changed to a more speckled look though I do need to change the sewage colour after looking at the overview. Anyway, I do hope for the next entry to not take so long so will hopefully see you some time this week rather than next month.

Cheers

James)

Replies:

compdude787: Thanks! Yes it does seem to rain quite a lot. No idea if that's like the climate in Norway where Antario is meant to be located.


Entry 9: Sticks and stones

So unfortunately growth has slowed down a bit here in Antario, mainly due to trying to come up with a solution for the whole oil industry collapse that has happened, as such today's entry is going to be a bit more relaxed than the previous ones focusing on the many areas of relaxation and greenery that can be found throughout the city.

Starting with the entrance to our city, you can see that we have really gone a bit mad planting trees in the area. Hey landscaping is always a plus and doesn't cost anywhere near as much as funding a new neighbourhood or housing block projects. The city council has also stated that they want to take away from the feel of a concrete jungle with a heavy sprinkling of trees throughout the city, hopefully giving it a less built up and more green feel.

Taken from the industrial overpass at the entrance you can see this greenery project in full swing.

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Moving further up the mainstreet you can also see that we have finally finished off beautifying the median. You can also see the oldest shopping centre in the city to the left. Kerrings Department Store. Part of the old town, here you can find pretty much anything you like, though, with the development of the city the quality of the goods here, and therefore the prices have rose quite a bit since the Old Town times.

2.
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Moving into old town now we come across the oldest park in the city, standing in front of the old City Hall. This photo really does show the case of old and new, with the much more modern and current heart of the administration rising above the old City Hall in the background.

3.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2F5sp0r7ptj%2Fentry_9_Old_town_hall.jpg&hash=3893593a33294cffd82f8a51fb2c853069259f88)

Not quite a green space but still somewhere you can relax and pay your respects is this old chapel and graveyard at the other end of the City Hall park. You can also see some of the lovely wall to wall architecture in the background that's so prevalent throughout the city.

4.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Fatweskx9z%2Fentry_9_random_old_town_view.jpg&hash=e210ffa79c641b55a01e201ea3ddc5634f3cb588)


Of course its not only in the old areas that there are green spaces to enjoy. This photo taken from the top of the new Administration tower shows a green space with a modern art plaza, nestled in amongst the high rises that make up the cities financial district.

5.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2F6m1mjtvuf%2Fentry_9_View_from_council_building.jpg&hash=348292159f9bbb4ead8b8427b83fc42af412b88a)


Despite the cities financial stagnation though, there has still been some small growth in the areas around it in the form of the small village of Froska, located on the edge of the fresh water lake fed from the old volcano that makes up the centre of the island that Antario sits on. This small village also has a focus on fishing, though due to it being carried out in the lake the amount of fishermen are a lot smaller than in the coastal village of Skjar.

6.
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Finally for this short entry we have the ever present overview of the city as it stands. As I said there hasn't been much in the way of growth with the exception to the small village of Froska on the edge of the lake Antario. The population as it stands currently at 44,267.

7.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Feozsv5gfr%2Fentry_9_overview_44_267.jpg&hash=666b49ee52f1448e14fb458706c584cadd9b0248)


And the ever present to do list currently sat on the city councils table. As you can see, any thoughts of oil based ventures are currently off the table and the whole housing boom seems to have finished for the moment as well.


-Find new avenues for the old oil fields.
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs07.flagcounter.com%2Fcount2%2FjbnT%2Fbg_D4C9FF%2Ftxt_000000%2Fborder_0F0F0F%2Fcolumns_3%2Fmaxflags_12%2Fviewers_visitors%2Bto%2BAntario%2Flabels_0%2Fpageviews_0%2Fflags_0%2Fpercent_0%2F&hash=41017b987eb5828dca59213fe74533cfe3ae6d2f)


(OOC: once again apologies for the small entry despite how long its been since the last update. I really do hope to get them a bit more frequent but work, parenthood comes first. That coupled with the fact that my computer time is shared with my attempts at art mean that there's not as much time to play the game as I would like. Rest assured though that I have some ideas for the future of the city and no intention of stopping it any time soon.

Cheers

James)

Entry 10: An axe and a Plow


So were back in Antario today where we can happily say that the industry is beginning to get back on its feet after the oil crash, mainly thanks to diversification in the industries that exist in Antario. Started in Froska, plots of land have been bought from the local government with the intention of agricultural use where they are currently growing the usual crops that you'll find in Norway aided by being in the south of the country with the likes of berries, potatoes and some crops backed up by some livestock, mainly pigs.

Below you can see some of the farms surrounding Froska.

1.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Futy7bn4on%2Fentry_10_riverside_farming.jpg&hash=a2165b4d0d95fb719baaa6f06c68c665a784e363)

2.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Fkccqtmt87%2Fentry_10_vapple_farming_and_berries.jpg&hash=8fbce2a9355869caaf4da9a5482cb41d947dedc5)


The boost in farmland has also resulted in another small community, Vanberg popping up at the tip of the area where the lake that Froska sits on joins its rivers. You can also see the rail halt here, where occasionally freight trains with collect agricultural goods bound for the city and the rest of Nowray.

In the background you can also see the pumping stations that have been implemented to help with the water supply for the city. Not exactly the nicest of sites but the freshwater lake that feed them cuts down on the cost of water purification over using salt water.

3.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Ftlex3r247%2Fentry_10_village_of_Vanberg.jpg&hash=25a6e1ada683e57da4d7863335364acec3dad2fd)


Alongside these farms we also have the usual Norwegian practise of supplementing the agriculture with other industries, in this case forestry to take advantage of the large swathes of forest that cover the area.

4.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2F9mz21dhfb%2Fentry_10_small_scale_forestry.jpg&hash=715ca6ff0fbc698f00a6b632cf29623999d93048)


This boost to the economy around Froska foes have its slight issues though with the small intersection that could easily cope with the population of the small village now swamped by farm traffic and lorries. Don't worry though plans are currently being looked into to solve this issue,
(OOC: Whilst this may look dangerous and weird I'm basing the junction on a number of similar junctions that can be found near where I live in the UK. They're easily the scariest junctions ever especially when things get busy and you have to cross two lanes of national speed limit traffic, but they do work).

5.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2F5ju8x2j5j%2Fentry_10_problematic_intersection.jpg&hash=81a7d2e30d14229d377b76cd43ac2cf6bba3321a)


Meanwhile the oil fields have completely ground to a halt, and a lot of the buildings have fallen to ruin with nature and planting, taking the old oil fields back. As such the city council has decided to scrap the rest of the oil fields completely and start ti reinstate new industry in its place. Hopefully this will become a reality in the future.

6.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Fr92bsf053%2Fentry_10_oil_no_more.jpg&hash=09d1eee7d9269ec83c6303c4dbcbe0d65a89a4b7)

7.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Fnfdgx086v%2Fentry_10_ruin_and_abandonment.jpg&hash=215afe96b8201a5908a716173e248c925b229a03)


Meanwhile, in the centre of town the decline in population growth has meant that a few of the commercial enterprises in town have not been able to compete and a number of business like this one below are being replaced with offices.

8.
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Meanwhile the out of town shopping centre project has finally gone ahead (which has probably contributed to the decline of in town shopping as well).  Although not yet finished, this area has already become a centre for shopping in the city and has promoted some further high rise development around it.

9.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Fa10e0z1iv%2Fentry_10_suburban_shopping_centre.jpg&hash=ff67a20482d01c72f956a93d4d3d3807ddcea449)


Which brings us to the end of this entry and the obligatory overview that we always finish with. Currently the populatiom stands at 40,998 but is set to rise substantially in the near future if the cities expansion plans go ahead.

10.
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Finally as usual we have the list of proposed  plans for the future of the city. It hasn't changed much though.

-Find new avenues for the old oil fields.
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Look into new avenues of industry, maybe forestry?
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?
-Agricultural expansions
-Housing expansions

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs07.flagcounter.com%2Fcount2%2FjbnT%2Fbg_D4C9FF%2Ftxt_000000%2Fborder_0F0F0F%2Fcolumns_3%2Fmaxflags_12%2Fviewers_visitors%2Bto%2BAntario%2Flabels_0%2Fpageviews_0%2Fflags_0%2Fpercent_0%2F&hash=41017b987eb5828dca59213fe74533cfe3ae6d2f)

(OOC: Again guys I really do apologise for the amount of time that's between the entries. I do really wish I had more time to spend on the game and the CJ but I have my family, work and other hobbies that come first. Still I hope that you lot are still enjoying the entries despite how sparse they are and I do have lots of plans for the city in the future, lets just hope I can get some more time to make the entries more frequent.

Cheers

James)

EDIT: Just a catch up for the entry I posted over at ST while this site was down.


Entry 11: Recovery begins

So, were back in Antario and as the title suggests, were glad to say that the city has begun its recovery plan in regards to the failing industry that supported our city and has benefited from several knock on effects from this recovery which we'll show you in this entry.

Jumping straight in, you'll remember that the former oil sights were left like this as nature retook the areas they used to operate in.

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Well we've used some set aside money to offer grants for forestry companies to take up management of the area and bring some industry and jobs back into the city and am happy to say that the response has been promising indeed. True not all the land has been bought but at least its a sizeable start and ones that we have a number of plans for in the future.

2.
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Moving back toward the city you'll remember the intersection for the village of Froska was getting a bit clogged up and frankly, dangerous. Well we've gone ahead and turned it into a simple but much more effective diamond interchange.

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Which has a,lso allowed us to expand the growing network of villages that are popping up around Antario. In this case were In the new village of Londhei where farming and forestry are the main way's of life. There is also a cider brewery here as well that uses its own and other local orchards to produce several varieties of refreshing cider for the local area. In the background you can see just how close it is to the city, sitting just across the highway from the suburbs.

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Meanwhile we also have expansion in the aforementioned suburbs as the sprawl continues to spread outwards.

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Also more expansion in Skjar, which is fast becoming a little town in its own right, what with the new neighbourhood and the preparation to use the land around it for farming and forestry. We do however probably need to do something about the pollution that might be beginning to threaten the fishing industry that it was founded around.

6.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs5.postimg.org%2Fsdphv6kjb%2Fentry_11_Skjar_expanding.jpg&hash=ba2fdcc46e81c6e73a6f61273378e9a41ba01c86)


Finally for this small entry we have the obligatory overview, marking the moment that our city and its surrounds have hit the 50k mark, now showing no signs of stopping with the focus on new industries and, as usual the list of things on the councils minds.

7.
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-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Expand on the forestry industry.
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half done?
-Agricultural expansions
-Housing expansions

Replies:

threestooges: Thank's I like the traffic networks in CSL too. As for the suburbs, I've got an image of the dense part of it in this entry for you. I'll see about getting you some more of the rest of the suburbs in a future entry.

compdude787: Don't worry it's definitely on the books. We have a more pressing issue though.


Entry 12: Back to Business (hopefully)

So, today we're back in Antario where thankfully it seems that things are back to business. Today's entry is a bit of a mish mash of images without a real story behind them so let's just get right into it.

Further growth in the forestry industry has led to a boost in interest in the area.

(https://s5.postimg.org/59avp2l4n/(entry+12)%20more%20forestry%20growth.jpg)

Meanwhile, in the quiet suburbs, the higher earners continue to live in their cookie cutter tech homes.

(https://s5.postimg.org/e31s6683b/(entry+12)%20FHigh%20end%20suburbs.jpg)

In contrast to this, we have the hustle and bustle of the newer high-rise developments in the city itself.

(https://s5.postimg.org/rvg71syuv/(entry+12)%20dense%20financial%20district.jpg)

Bridging the gap the old town continues to expand with its wall to wall buildings. A faster pace of life but not one as hectic as the above.

(https://s5.postimg.org/rcfp69wtz/(entry+12)%20panoramic.jpg)

As the sun goes down over the city, it comes to life with the bright bustling financial and high-rise district in the distance.

(https://s5.postimg.org/6cv0115rr/(entry+12)%20night%20time%20panoramic.jpg)

Meanwhile, we haven't halted all work on the city, a lot of the roads have now become tree lined to further green up the city (and help with some noise issues).

(https://s5.postimg.org/qcpeakho7/(entry+12)%20tree%20lined%20roads.jpg)

However it's not all roses, as this traffic jam shows coming into the town, were definitely going o have to look at improving our public transport network but we have a slightly more pressing issue.

(https://s5.postimg.org/ubi0fngxj/(entry+12)%20ANOTHER%20DAY%20ANOTHER%20JAM.jpg)

This is the most pressing issue in the form of a large amount of sewage now contaminating all of the waters around the city needing rather urgent attention.

(https://s5.postimg.org/5ej8chhtj/(entry+12)%20sewage%20culprits.jpg)

Though this is all for today. As usual, we'll leave you with this overview of the city. Just above the 50k mark so not much growth overall but hopefully the recovering timber industry will see this change.

(https://s5.postimg.org/jif3kvp13/(entry+12)%20overview%2051,908.jpg)

-FIX THE SEWAGE ISSUE!
-Improve the lacking public transport network?
-Take a look at streamlining the harbour area?
-Expand on the forestry industry.
-Financial district substantial expansion?
-Get the city beautification projects finished instead of half was done?
-Agricultural expansions
-Housing expansions

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs07.flagcounter.com%2Fcount2%2FjbnT%2Fbg_D4C9FF%2Ftxt_000000%2Fborder_0F0F0F%2Fcolumns_3%2Fmaxflags_12%2Fviewers_visitors%2Bto%2BAntario%2Flabels_0%2Fpageviews_0%2Fflags_0%2Fpercent_0%2F&hash=41017b987eb5828dca59213fe74533cfe3ae6d2f)

(OOC: Again sorry for the lack of updates. I am still working on this though so here's a tide over entry that shows the current state of the city but hasn't really got a whole lot of expansion in it.

Cheers

James)