Californian Cities- Update 3.5: Back Into the Swing of Things - 6/22/11

[Exla357]

PROLOGUE (It's Not Just For Books!)


Well, this is my first crack at a Mayor Diary here on SC4Devotion. I was going to hold off but I decided there is no time like the present. Please bear with me as I hone my MD skills.

I've said once, I've said, I don't know, seven times: I am not a afraid of criticism. If you don't like something, and have a better idea, please tell me. I will have numerous polls as well, and you're answer doesn't have to be one of the options. Just don't be too mean about it.
Anyway, lets talk about this Mayor Diary. It will mostly focus on the areas outside of the city, the vast expanses of houses clumped around low density zoned CBD's, namely north of the 2nd or 3rd alternate universe San Diego. We will see development of middle and high class neighborhoods, all handmade, along with the rail systems (when appropriate). With inspiration from RickD's MD Santa Barbara County, living in north San Diego for 6 years, and a lot of other MD's and CJ's, I give you The Uptown.

SOME PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

The area which is now San Diego County has been inhabited for more than 10,000 years by Kumeyaay (also called Diegueño), Luiseño, Cupeño and Cahuilla Indians.
European settlement in what is now San Diego County began with the founding of the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, by Spanish pioneers, in 1769. This county was part of Alta California under the Viceroyalty of New Spain until the Mexican revolution. From 1821 through 1848 this area was part of Mexico.
San Diego County became part of the United States as a result of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, ending the U.S.-Mexican War. This treaty designated the new border as terminating at a point on the Pacific Ocean coast which would result in the border passing one Spanish league south of the southernmost portion of San Diego Bay, thus ensuring that the United States received all of this natural harbor.
San Diego County was one of the original counties of California, and it was created at the time of California statehood in 1850. San Diego County was named for San Diego Bay, which had been rechristened in 1602 by Sebastián Vizcaíno in honor of the Franciscan St. Didacus of Alcalá, known in Spanish as San Diego de Alcalá de Henares, and whose name was borne by Vizcaíno's flagship.
As originally created in 1850 San Diego County was quite large, and it included all of southmost California that was south and east of Los Angeles County. As such it included major parts of what are now Inyo County and San Bernardino County, and all of Riverside County and Imperial County.
During the later part of the 19th century, there were numerous changes in the boundaries of San Diego County, when various areas were sliced off to form the newer counties mentioned above. The most recent changes were the creation of Riverside County in 1893 and Imperial County in 1907. Imperial County was the last new county to be established in California, and after this division, San Diego no longer extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River, and it no longer covered the entire border between California and Mexico.
Source:Wikipedia

Despite the ravaged housing market, San Diego is still a great place to live. With a fantastic train system, awesome beaches, and temperate climate, it really is a great place to raise kids, live, or retire. If downtown isn't your thing, there are plenty of areas a short distance away, like the aforementioned San Marcos, Carlsbad, Encinitas, La Jolla, etcetera. With great access to Amtrak trains, and a wonderful freeway system, it seems like you can live anywhere n San Diego and still work in downtown. Enough of that, on to the update.

THE UPDATE

I'm using Blade2k5's NHPSanDiegoMetro map from the STEX as my platform. In no way at all is it rendered



Well, that's all I have for right now, I'll hope to get an update done soon. i'm still figuring stuff out, like region shots, etc, so bear with me.

Best,
Alex

[RickD]

Nice start of your MD. I liked reading the background information. It is nice how you used the diagonals to follow the terrain. This is quite challenging in SC4. 
You could use some more custom content, though. Just look through the LEX almost everything there is great. For american style suburbs I recommend Mattb325's houses.

Keep it up. 

[Dylan7Keck]

&helpO k like the Walls around the rail and theres a glitch thing with your roundabouts with the bus stop you should show a map of California and show the boundary's or eve the whole America boundary's

[Terring7]

Welcome to the world of Mayor Diaries, where everything is possible
I can feel the California air in your city, even if i notice some European buildings
Keep it up

[ricardomiranda]

Good start, keep it up

[Exla357]

Thanks for your support and suggestions, everyone. I regret to inform you that I may not be able to fulfill my commitment to you good people of SC4Devotion by starting a Mayor Diary. I understand that it is frowned upon to go on hiatus after one update, however I feel this can be justified:

-Some RL stuff has come up, limiting my play time, and my free time to change those darned png's up there to jpg's.
-Whenever I do have SC4 time, I experience numerous CTD issues when I do something as simple as drag a railxdiagonal avenue crossing, or plop a Diverging Diamond Interchange, etc. This is stressful because it is often caused by innocent things and my high amount of plugins coupled with an old computer, causes me to see a splash screen for 6 minutes whenever I start the game, discouraging me from restarting.
-Tracking down the conflicting plugin(s) is also difficult, as I don't know where in my 2 GB to begin.
-I am low on inspiration

The low inspiration bit is normal for me, I go through cycles with SC4, about every 2 months I have a week or so of no inspiration, this normally goes away, but it is a pattern. Again, I am sorry for leaving after the first post, and hope to be back soon once I get these problems cleared up. I will still be around SC4D and Simtropolis from time to time, however. I am not ending this MD, it will just be on Hiatus until I can build enough to put together an update.

I hope to see you all soon, and thank you for your continued support.
On a lighter note, I have some major planning in the works, including a remodding of the default gray Maxis street to something a bit wider and darker, like you see in Californian Suburbs, a strict No-Maxis Policy, adding much-needed realism, as well as, well, I won't spoil it. Let me just say that you will not be dissapointed! 

Your Pal,
Alex

[rooker1]

 Sorry to hear this Alex.  Changing pics from png to jpg is really not that hard, there are programs out there that will help as well as a program that will actually take pics from game as jpg, I believe.  As for your updating, you do realize that you only need to update every 45 days or less to keep your MD active.
Anyways, I hope to see you around sooner than later.

Robin 

[FrankU]

For making images of your gameplay, or, that said, making images of anything you can see on your computer screen, I advise you to install Wouanagaine's Clip2Pic, see the LEX. It is fabulous! The simplest but best screendump image saver around.

[Exla357]

REPLIES:
Raphael (RickD): Thank you for your comments. It is an honor to have you here! I get a lot of my inspiration from your Santa Barbara County. Hope to see you back.
Dylan7Keck: Welcome to SC4 Devotion. Your suggestions are appreciated however irrelevant as I have scrapped Isla Trenta
Elias (Terring7): Thanks for stopping by, it's good to have you here! You are doing a fine job yourself with Eden: The New Frontier.
ricardomiranda: Thanks! 
Robin (rooker1): Thanks for your support. I have (mostly) gotten back to normal LOL. Your doing a great job with Mindscape, too!
FrankU (Frank): Thanks for the suggestions, I'll get to it!
Thank you all for your comments, suggestions, and support. It is a nice thing to have.

UPDATE TIME!
I just have two teasers from a city I am working on right now. They are both clickable for full resolution! Also, this MD will get a new name, Californian Cities. This fits better as I will be showing cities from all over California, not just San Diego. The two teasers below are from subdivisions in a city I am working on, located in Santa Barbara. Enjoy!

Click me for full resolution!


Click me for full resolution!
This is my first attempt at a Mayor Mode lake. Do ya like it?




Remember, any comments are greatly appreciated!
Till next time!

-Alex

[RickD]

Great interchange. 

[GreekMan]

represent!! great work so far

[noahclem]

Nice city and very well-made interchange! 

The lake looks nice but maybe a bit rural for the middle of a city

[kelis]

Great interchange, Looks so go, Keep up the good work 

[Ol.S / Benoit]

Nice suburb here ! I'll watch the next upadates, i wanna see more !

I was in San Diego last summer and i really love this city, how much time i spent on mission beach... keep up this good work !

[samerton]

Looks good, Alex! I really like the interchange! 

[Terring7]

Thank you for your kind comments. Looking forward to see more

[bat]

Two great pictures and nice start.
Looking forward for more shots...

[Nanami]

Looking great! want to see more! 

[Exla357]

REPLIES
Raphael (RickD): Thanks, I tried to make it as efficient as possible so it wouldn't need upgrading when traffic got higher and I run out of space. Hint hint 
GreekMan: Thank you for taking the time to comment!
Noahchlem: Thanks! Actually, I come from California and there are random irrigation/creeks often running through the middle or edge of subdivisions that flood when full.
Kelis: Thanks, Kelis!
OI.S / Benoit: Thank you for stopping by. It really is a great place, eh?
Sam (samerton): Nice to see you here! Thanks for your kind words!
Elias (Terring7): No, thank YOU!
bat: Thanks, glad you like it.
976: Here you go!

Everyone, I can't tell you how much these comments mean to me. Keep 'em coming!

UPDATE TIME!
Hey guys, sorry I've been absent. RL's been pressing with the last weeks of school but now school's out for summer, and my plugin issues are just about cleared up. I don't have time to get an update in today but I will do my best to get one later this week. Hopefully I'll be able to get weekly updates going. Thank you all for your kind words and understanding. 

All the best,
Alex 

[noahclem]

Glad to hear you've mostly resolved your plugin problems Alex. One thing that might help you with your old computer/slow startup time problems would be running the game in windowed mode. For example, my SC4 shortcut reads like this:

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -intro:off

adding  -w  makes the game run in windowed mode and you can probably guess what  -intro:off   does. One of the nicest things about windowed mode is you can do anything else you want on the computer while SC4 loads.

Anyway, hope that helps.