Tarkusian Cities (Update 107-08/23/2020-West Chemeketa Reconfig, Part 1)

[Aaron Graham]

Lovely region, looks realistic with the farms in the outer areas of the towns.

[kbieniu7]

Truly American view (for my European eye )!  I love this small bending river flowing to the east.

[benedict]

Great to see your MD selected for the 4-in-1 OSITM. Region looks very nice, and it's been very interesting seeing the older pictures.

Edit: Congratulations, Tarkusian Cities was number one on Ben's Top Ten for the week ending 22 November!

[vinlabsc3k]

Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year!!

[sebes]

Was lurking a bit on the site today and ofcourse HAD to see your MD. Good to see it's still going on, awesome pictures!   I realize i missed a lot of updates and its too much to read all...   Did I get right that Old Argentum and the Drunk Engineer Section are gone?

[SimCity V6]

Hi everyone-

Thanks for the warm welcome to OSITM--I have a brief update here, in which I'll show you some things I rarely show here in Tarkusian Cities.

But first, replies:

Noah (noahclem): Thanks for the kind words--I'm really glad you enjoyed seeing the peek back at old Argentum and its original RHW setup!  As primitive as that was, I remember I had a good bit of fun building it, and thinking to myself, "what if" on the feature side.  I'm glad you liked the new Argentum as well--it's a map with a lot of really interesting challenges to it, which aren't super apparent until you load up a city tile, though I felt that particular style of development fit like a glove there.  I think I have a lot better sense of how to handle that region now, compared to when I started building the original, some 6 years ago.  And I've since snazzed up that waterfront--I'll be showing it in either Update 98 or 99.

Gugu3: Thanks for the compliments on the update, and I'm glad to hear the new Argentum is an improvement on the old!

Ivo (ivo_su): Thanks for the kind words on the update and on the RHW development side--it's really quite shocking now, looking back at those old ad-hoc interchanges.

Wiimeiser: I can't remember what all I had in there in the early days of the region, but I do know I had pretty much all the old Bobbo662 Lots that were removed from the STEX due to immortal lot syndrome, and a few other issues.  There were more than likely other lots of that same vintage (2005-2006) off the STEX that suffered from the same issue.  I completely started over with my Plugins prior to starting Chemeketa (after an HD crash), so I haven't seen anything of that sort since.  Thanks for asking a great question!

Willy (Swordmaster): Yeah, it really is a blast from the past, on all fronts.   It's really crazy how much things have changed in the past 6 years in this community, and it's been good playing that map again, as I'm finding I can take better advantage of it now.  Maybe I'll have to release the map one of these days . . .   Thanks for reminiscing about old interchange workarounds and long-forgotten tools with me!

sunv123: Thanks--glad to see you enjoyed the "retro" installment.  The new Argentum is a lot different in many ways, beyond the obvious fact that the slopes aren't ridiculous.    Argentum might not be the only region making a comeback, either.

Durfsurn: Hehe, thanks, though I actually haven't unleashed too much on the transit mod side yet there.  There's not really a functioning RHW in sight there yet (well, at least in the downtown tile), as I started it while the RHW was transitioning between the different specs. 

Sam (samerton): Thanks, it's good to be here, and I'm glad you enjoyed seeing old and new Argentum!

Eric (EDGE4194): Hey, it's great to see you!   I still remember that road--back in Update 17, when you made post #200.  Glad you've been enjoying the updates, and hope you enjoy this one, too!



There's been one big thing here that I haven't shown with respect to Chemeketa--a full region view.  So, without further adieu, here it is--you can click it and get the giant version:



Also, if you're curious to see my transport layout overlaid onto the terrain, here's a full blast version of that.  You can actually see Update 98's end product on there, so it serves as a bit of a teaser, too.

And another thing I haven't shown, which I may start doing more often given the transportation focus of this MD, is Congestion and Volume DataViews.  This is actually in the central city tile, which has a game population of 332,308 (the largest I've ever built, actually), and for the record, I'm running the NAM Medium Simulator, and the only mass transit is a barely-used stretch of commuter rail.



Given the large population and the general lack of mass transit, it's holding up surprisingly well.  Two of the extended yellow/red spots are along Wallace Road on the west side of the map, one at the top, and one just south of the bridge.  Update 98 will largely take care of that top one, and mitigate the red spot there at the start of the Chemeketa Parkway.

-Alex

Oh my bosh, where did this thread go??? 

[Tarkus]

Hi everyone-

Well, it's been a rather busy 6 months since Tarkusian Cities last saw some action.  RL's been good, but hectic (finishing my dissertation and finally seeing light at the end of the Ph.D. tunnel, plus teaching this spring), and my SC4 time has, for much of the past several months, been consumed with NAM 31 and its "point-x" releases.  My updating here will continue to be sporadic, going into the future, but in the meanwhile, as I have a little bit of content prepped, I figured I'd drop Update 98 on you all.

First, some replies, at long last:

Willy (Swordmaster): Thanks for the kind words on the region view, and the retrospective.  I also miss the desert terrain as well, and hope to bring it back in some fashion in a future update.  As far as Lenox goes, the region is, unfortunately, a bit worse for wear after my first hard drive issue and plugin rebuild a few years ago, so aside from the "lost" update I was preparing when that crash occurred (which I have recovered), it's unlikely it'll be making a comeback.

Raphael (RickD): Thanks--glad you enjoyed seeing the whole region at long last!  The ANT was actually the pre-RHW reintegration of the "Dirt Road" network, which was included in the NAM installer as a plugin, way back when.  The average user didn't really know what it was, though there were a number of different things people in the transit modding community wanted to do with this "new" network.  The NAM "default" for the ANT was as a "Super Road"--a concept which eventually morphed into the RHW-2 once the RHW had been established.  I still remember building my first stretch in Argentum, and thinking, "this really has potential".

Maarten (MandelSoft): Thanks, Maarten--and coming from a fellow highway geek, I take that as a great compliment!  Hope you enjoy this brief return to activity.

mike3775: Thanks for the kind words on the region!  After dealing with more hilly regions like Argentum and Los Endos, the relatively flat (well, at least east of the river) valley terrain of Chemeketa was a nice respite.

Jim (Jmyers2043): Indeed, it's a great way to spend an evening (I could say the same about some of the region shots of yours I've seen)--thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad you enjoyed seeing it "full blast"!

Kenny (kj3400): Yes, that is indeed the full Chemeketa--and I can't blame you for expecting more freeways.  I suspect a lot of people had a similar impression, seen as how I've been on the frontlines of the RHW for so long, but I'm generally able to accommodate all that traffic just by building and maintaining a solid network of surface arterials and collectors, and being careful where I develop.  There's usually more NWM content than RHW content in my regions.  Thanks for the compliments on the update, and the interesting insight on the region.

Noah (noahclem):  Thanks!  I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the "satellite view" (to borrow from Google) of the region.  And I hope you enjoy the return to Chemeketa for more construction.

sunv123: Thanks for the compliments on the region view, and there's almost always at least a little something with respect to traffic problems in my cities--that's why I do the construction projects.  They're not just for eyecandy purposes.  Rather, they are basically a creative elaboration on my normal process of playing the game as intended (more or less), and constantly trying to milk the efficiency out of my regional transport networks.  As far as seeing unreleased RHW stuff, well, you may at some point again.

Mauricio (figui): Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for all your support of Tarkusian Cities over the years!  Glad to hear you found the region realistic, and hope you enjoy seeing a bit of how I work Chemeketa out some of the traffic problems in that immediate area for this update.

Durfsurn: The next time I get on a roll of putting things together for updates, I may just have to include those as well--thanks for the suggestion!

Gugu3: Thanks--I'm thrilled that you enjoyed it!

Jon (bakerton): Thanks--I take that as a great compliment! (Hope I didn't cause it to drop too far )

Aaron Graham: Thanks for the kind words, Aaron--I'm glad to hear it looks realistic.  I could probably build some of those farms out even a little further to heighten the sense there.

kbieniu7: Indeed, it's pretty reflective of what I've seen growing up here in the western US.  What I've seen of your work looks quite European, too.  I think that really speaks to the great part about SC4 with custom content--it allows us the flexibility to build what we see.  And I know that river quite well from RL.  Thanks for the support!

Ben (benedict): Thanks for the congratulations on OSITM, and I'm just in shock at having finally hit #1 off of that exposure.  Thanks to all who have supported Tarkusian Cities, even in the "low" periods, and thanks to you for all your great work with BTT!   I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the whole region and going back to see the really old stuff.

Vincenzo (vinlabsc3k): Thanks, Vincenzo--I know it's May now, but I hope 2013 is going well for you, too!

sebes: It's so great to see you around here!   I'm thrilled to have you stop by as always, and I hope you enjoyed catching up on things here.  I still have the "original" Argentum laying about somewhere--the drunk engineers were fortunately fired by the city back around Update 11.  Time will tell if they'll show their faces in "Argentum Reloaded".  Might just be a small cameo (fortunately for the residents of that place).

SimCity V6: Life happened to this thread--but fortunately, I've managed to sneak in an update.  Might be awhile before Update 99, but thanks for your support, and I hope you enjoy getting a little fix of TC.


Chemeketa: 15th/16th Ave NE Couplet Extension

With the increased popularity of luxury waterfront condos along the Willamette, both in Chemeketa and Vivien Heights, traffic in the northern CBDs of both cities has become a bit onerous, particularly along Division Street N and Wallace Road NW.

In order to mitigate some of the ongoing issues, and further regional interconnectivity, the two cities have acquired funding to extend the 15th and 16th Avenue NE couplet from Chemeketa, across the Willamette, to line up with 15th Avenue NW in Vivien Heights.

This is the existing intersection of the 15th/16th couplet on the Chemeketa side, with the Highway 215 couplet (Division St N/Commerce St NE), facing north.  As you can see, 15th currently extends farther west as a two-way local street, and a pathway extends out of the end of 16th.  In order to accommodate the improvements, the pathway will be re-routed, and the section of 15th to the west will be appropriated and converted to the eastbound part of the extended couplet.



This image is a little bit north, past the point where Division and Commerce converge into a two-way roadway.  As you can see, there's been quite a building boom here. (facing north)



This is a little farther north yet, at Division and 24th Ave, just before Division turns into the Chemeketa Parkway.  Quite a bit of development here, too. (facing north)



This is on the Vivien Heights side of the river, at the intersection of Wallace Road and 15th Avenue NW, the western bounds of the project. (facing north).  As you can see, this is a pretty busy little stretch of road, too.  Much of it is traveling between Chemeketa and Vivien Heights over the Wallace Road Bridge, which is currently the only such bridge south of the Northern Crossing (Highway 221/52nd Ave).



Work is underway on the Chemeketa side (facing north).



And on the Vivien Heights side (facing north).  The wider street going north-south here is Water St NW.



The 15th Ave span has been constructed (facing north).



The work extending the couplet on the east side is mostly finished (facing west).



And here's the west side (facing north).  The intersection of 15th/16th with Water St has been designed such that Water splits in two, and straddles some buildings, minimizing conflict points.  As the speed limit on the westernmost portion of the couplet is only 25mph, the sharp curves along 16th as it merges onto 15th should not prove problematic, though it is likely that this particular intersection will be tweaked further by city engineers.



And here it is facing west.



The redesigned intersection of 15th and Wallace.  As you might expect, a few buildings had to go to make way for the wider roadway (facing north).



And a map of the finished product.



That does it for Update 98.  As I mentioned before, with life in flux, I can't say when I'll be able to post additional material, but thank you all for your patience over the years with the intermittent nature of Tarkusian Cities, and I hope you enjoyed this brief spring back into action.

-Alex

[sebes]

As usual, I love it!  Thanks for making the time to post it.  I was so thrilled by this Willamette Chronicle update that I wanted to have a look myself, took my car, and drove via 15th Ave with the desire to make the turn on to Water Street, only to find out that the engineers missed a section! I had to cross the congested new 15th Ave bridges back and forth, in order to make my turn to Water Street....  Major Turkus, tell those engineers to make a connection from 15th to Water, preferrably with a overpass to not hamper the 16th Avenue bridge traffic flows into the West part of town     

[Schulmanator]

Nice work and an impressive map.

[metarvo]

The one-way couplet is a fixture of many medium-sized towns in my area.  It's a feature that you would expect to see more in SC4 with the ability to build OWRs, and yet it doesn't seem to be done that much, so it's a nice change to see it here.  It's good to see some TC action once again after the hiatus.

[Swordmaster]

Always great to see this one return, Alex. You don't seem to run out of ideas either. Wonder if you base them off real life examples or if you go more by your imagination. As always, the map is the best part here.


Cheers
Willy

[vinlabsc3k]

Welcome back from your hard work in RL and on NAM 31

It's a fantastic update!!

Only a little critic: you could use an AVE bridge and on CHEMEKETA side split into two OWR.

[Gugu3]

Well done Tarkus!!always nice to see you're still enjoying playing the game!!!

[Haljackey]

Very nice work Dr. Tarkus!

[Durfsurn]

Along with the others Well Done!

Maybe some diagonals at the Vivian Heights end could be made to increase speed and reduce congestion?

[Tarkus]

Hi everyone-

Well, I'm back with the first "post-doctoral" update.  We'll be getting a close up on the New Argentum this time around.  Appropriately enough, today also happens to be the birthday of one especially loyal Tarkusian reader, our Amsterdammer friend sebes, who created the "drunk engineer" term to refer to the quacks who built the original Caldera Lane/Barnaby Drive interchange in Old Argentum.  For those who don't remember it:



Yeah.  That wasn't pretty.  Fortunately, New Argentum's hiring practices tend to be much better at screening out the intoxicated candidates, so the illustrious J. Ron Error, former Capital Projects Engineer for the City of Argentum and the original "drunk engineer", won't be back to stick another "masterpiece" like that in there. 

But first, some replies:

sebes: Thanks for the kind words, and I'm glad you enjoyed it--and happy birthday!  Yes, that one turning motion is missing there--of course, that's not too unlike Burnside Street in Portland, where one must often cross the Burnside Bridge headed eastbound, across the real Willamette River, in order to make left turns onto the Northwest streets in Old Town/China Town.  But that situation is a rather big pain.  The Chemeketa situation will probably end up being revisited at some point, however--which will likely entail tweaking how the slope mod I'm using interacts with the Bridge Height Mod.

Schulmanator: Thanks!  Glad you enjoyed the map and the update.

metarvo: Thanks for the compliments on the update, and on my use of OWR couplets.  They're absolutely ubiquitous here in Oregon, with major arterials often fanning out into couplets upon entering CBDs, so it's been something that's been part of my building style since I started playing SC4.  It's kind of surprising that they aren't really focused on that much.

Willy (Swordmaster): Thanks for the very kind words--and it's a bit of both.  There's definitely a very heavy Western US influence, not just from Oregon and Washington, but also from California and Nevada.  Beyond the aforementioned Burnside Street example in Portland (there's even an OWR couplet split with a sharp jog on the east side of the river), there's some similarities here with other Oregon locales, including Albany (US-20 splits into two OWR bridges to cross the Willamette), and the home of pesky rodentiae, Corvallis, where the OR-34 Business Route does the same thing.  (And actually, US-20/OR-99W do the same thing over the Mary's River just south of downtown).  It's kind of the thing to do when crossing the Willamette, I suppose.

Vincenzo (vinlabsc3k): Thanks for the warm welcome back, and I'm glad you enjoyed the update.  I had considered that approach a little, but there were some structures and parks that I was trying to avoid demolishing on the east side, and as I noted in my reply to Willy, there's actually a huge precedent for OWR couplet bridges in RL places after which Chemeketa is somewhat modeled.

Gugu3: Thanks, and I'm definitely still enjoying it.  It's nice to get a bit of a change of pace after grinding the RUL files for the NAM 31.x-series releases.

Ryan (Haljackey): Thanks--and the "Dr." part is finally starting to sink in now that the last post-defense paperwork is out of the way.  Still feels a bit odd, though.

Durfsurn: Thanks--I'm glad you enjoyed it!  The slope mod/Bridge Height Mod interaction is a large part of the reason why there's currently a sharp jog.  I would like to revisit that one a bit in time, once I've hit upon the right slope interactions that I can actually do it.



First off, here's a map of the central city tile of New Argentum.  The "dashed line" bits are involved in the first construction project we'll examine.  You'll notice some familiar road names from Old Argentum on here, including a few "honorees" from earlier in Tarkusian Cities.  (Click to view larger)



Now, I'm going to show an image of something I've never shown before--how I actually start off a town (facing east).  Usually, I lay out a small downtown-ish area and build out basic arterial roadways from it.



Here it is at a later stage in development, more or less filled in (facing east).



This is the intersection of Caldera Drive and Argentum Boulevard (facing north).  As you can imagine, this is a major intersection that basically serves as the "gateway" into central New Argentum from the south.



This is where Argentum Boulevard intersects Isthmus Avenue, a major east-west route (facing north).  It's clearly quite congested.



Same vicinity, a little farther north (facing north).



A farther out view of the Argentum/Caldera intersection (facing north).



This is along Caldera Drive as it heads diagonally along the shores of Emerson Lake (facing north).  As you can see here, seawalls have been built to keep Emerson Lake from spilling its banks during unseasonably wet weather.  The Stone Caldera, a mini crater lake in the midst of Argentum's downtown (and where Caldera Drive and Crater Street get their name) is also pictured.



And here's where Caldera Drive intersects both Vista Street and Centum Avenue (facing north).  Some building construction is also occurring.



In order to alleviate the congestion along Argentum Boulevard, and at its intersection with Caldera Drive, the city is undertaking a project to convert Crater Street and Argentum Boulevard into a one-way couplet, between Lake Drive and a bit north of Isthmus Avenue.  Caldera and Lake will also become a couplet for a few short blocks.  Construction on the south end of this project has begun, as you can see here (facing north).



This is at the north end of the project (facing east).



These two images show the connector roadway between Argentum Boulevard and Crater Street, north of Isthmus, being constructed, forming the northern split into the Argentum/Crater couplet (facing east).





The finished result of this project will be shown next update which, astonishingly enough, will be Update 100 of Tarkusian Cities.  Hope you enjoyed this one, and we'll be back to New Argentum for some more construction shortly.

-Alex

[sebes]

What a birthday present this is: an update AND as bonus a pic of the good old drunk engineer intersection plus a major road named after me (again ha) . How cool is that     Thanks my Oregonian friend!  Its funny you mention that Portland bridge - when I was there a few years ago I crossed it twice before I figured out how to take the turn right there!

Thanks for showing how you start off a new Argentum - interesting to see. I wonder now though what was first: the roadmap or the roads in the citytile? This because i see quite some roads there that are not yet shown on pics. But maybe the drawing was made later?  Anyhow - gorgeous to see how you do this, and looking forward to see more soon!

[APSMS]

Another great update. I really like the roadgeek aspect as well as the maps. I'm looking into doing some for my own regions, but the work involved is a little daunting. Incidentally, the style of your maps remind me of the old Thomas Bros. Maps that used to come in large book form (I find them still more practical than a phone for navigation--what good is one when there's no internet?). Google Maps' coloring scheme is nifty, but I think the Thomas Bros. scheme tells you a little bit more about the situation with less need to label everything.

Hoping to see more now that school's done (although I suppose there is the new problem of finding a job and really starting on life...). If you don't mind me asking, what are you a Doctor of? (I guess you can always not answer this question; fine by me--I'm just curious).

[Swordmaster]

Interesting update, Alex, and at 99 an incredible number.

The Western US is certainly omnipresent in your MD, particularly in the prevalence of fused-like grids over more Midwestern/Eastern rectangular grids (or probably more correctly, the distinction newer/older suburbs, with the West having more and larger new suburbs).

Nice touch to include the empty grid. Always good to go back to Argentum (except it misses rail - maybe 2.0 is an opportunity? ).


Cheers
Willy

[Gugu3]

Nice one Alex!like this town