Hi all!
I think an Australian themed region pack would be a great idea, because Australian (particularly inner-city) architecture is really quite distinct from both US & European, so currently neither of the two themes of North American and European can really capture an Australian city.
There's a bit of a misconception that Australian cities & architecture are much the same as the US. While that's true for the more modern outer-suburban development, the inner-cities and inner-suburbs of Australia which were developed in the Victorian & Edwardian eras have completely different architecture to the equivalent eras in the US, UK & Europe. Eg. Victorian terrace houses in Australia look vastly different from Victorian terrace/row houses in the US & UK.
I think it would need to focus mostly on the heritage (Victorian to Art Deco) era inner-city & inner-suburban architecture as that is what is most distinctively Australian, and most different to what is already in the game.
Here's an example of what I think it could include:
Low Density Residential:
Victorian-era detached cottages, Edwardian/Federation era houses, and inter-war houses (in the bungalow style). Victorian and Edwardian cottages could come in only be 1 square wide (8m) for 'single fronted' or 2 squares wide (16m) for 'double fronted'. Edwardian would come in either 2 or 3 squares wide, and inter-war at least 3 squares (24m) wide.
Medium Density Row Houses:
Victorian-era terrace houses (both 1 storey & 2 storey), 1-storey Edwardian-era terrace houses. These would typically be 2 houses per 1x4 square lot (8m x 32m per lot, or 4m x 32m per house), which is the closest to real life.
Medium Density Residential:
1920s-30s Art Deco blocks of flats, and the ugly 3-storey walkups from the 1950s-60s found all over inner & middle suburbs.
Low Density Commercial:
2-storey wall-to-wall Victorian-era shops, with awnings covering the footpath. Businesses could include milk bars, fish & chip shops, wall-to-wall style cafes & bars with seating on the footpath, newsagents. No parking in any of these assets (street parking only). Could also include a suburban corner milk bar, and a couple of corner pubs!
High Density Commercial:
6-8 storey wall-to-wall Victorian & Art Deco era buildings found on commercial strips in Australian CBDs (aka. Downtowns), similar to what you'd find in Bourke St, Elizabeth St & Swanston St (Melbourne), George St (Sydney) and Queen St (Brisbane). Some of these can house 'flagship' department stores, other might be 'arcades' with main entrances/frontages at both the front & rear.
Mixed-Use Residential/Commercial:
Same as above minus the department stores. Same assets could be reused for both, but in this category the floors above can be residential.
Sports/Parks:
The obvious ones here are Australian Football (AFL), Cricket and Rugby fields, at both local/community sports level and professional/stadium level.
All this could probably be covered in around 40 assets, but when used alongside with the existing North American assets to cover the more modern suburban development and modern skyscrapers, that would be enough to add a lot of variety and add a distinctly Australian flavour to cities. It would not only allow Australian players to recreate something more familiar, but also players from other countries to have some new, different looking assets to play around with too.
Here are some pictures demonstrating the styles I reference above:
1-storey Victorian Terraces (Med Density Row, 2 houses per 1 square in width):
2-storey Victorian terraces (Med Density Row, 2 houses per 1 square in width):
Federation/Edwardian Terraces (Med Density Row, 2 houses per 1 square in width):
Federation/Edwardian Houses (Low density residential):
Art Deco blocks of flats (Med Density Residential):
1950s-60s blocks of flats (Med Density Residential), these are all over the inner & middle suburbs:
Typical inner-suburban shops (Low Density Commercial, probably 2 shops per 1 square width):
All the inner-suburbs within 10-15km of a city centre in Australia pretty much look like the above - which when you're building a city in C:S2 will take up most of the map - but there's very little in the game that even remotely resembles it. The 'row houses' for example are nothing like the terrace houses that dominate inner-suburban Australia, and in particular the low density commercial in the game (detached shops with car parking) looks nothing like Australian shopping strips.
So I think an Australian Region Pack covering the above styles would be really great! Unfortunately I have no idea how to create assets myself, but I believe there are some really talented Australian-based asset creators out there and I'd love for Paradox to commission them to create a pack like this.
I think an Australian themed region pack would be a great idea, because Australian (particularly inner-city) architecture is really quite distinct from both US & European, so currently neither of the two themes of North American and European can really capture an Australian city.
There's a bit of a misconception that Australian cities & architecture are much the same as the US. While that's true for the more modern outer-suburban development, the inner-cities and inner-suburbs of Australia which were developed in the Victorian & Edwardian eras have completely different architecture to the equivalent eras in the US, UK & Europe. Eg. Victorian terrace houses in Australia look vastly different from Victorian terrace/row houses in the US & UK.
I think it would need to focus mostly on the heritage (Victorian to Art Deco) era inner-city & inner-suburban architecture as that is what is most distinctively Australian, and most different to what is already in the game.
Here's an example of what I think it could include:
Low Density Residential:
Victorian-era detached cottages, Edwardian/Federation era houses, and inter-war houses (in the bungalow style). Victorian and Edwardian cottages could come in only be 1 square wide (8m) for 'single fronted' or 2 squares wide (16m) for 'double fronted'. Edwardian would come in either 2 or 3 squares wide, and inter-war at least 3 squares (24m) wide.
Medium Density Row Houses:
Victorian-era terrace houses (both 1 storey & 2 storey), 1-storey Edwardian-era terrace houses. These would typically be 2 houses per 1x4 square lot (8m x 32m per lot, or 4m x 32m per house), which is the closest to real life.
Medium Density Residential:
1920s-30s Art Deco blocks of flats, and the ugly 3-storey walkups from the 1950s-60s found all over inner & middle suburbs.
Low Density Commercial:
2-storey wall-to-wall Victorian-era shops, with awnings covering the footpath. Businesses could include milk bars, fish & chip shops, wall-to-wall style cafes & bars with seating on the footpath, newsagents. No parking in any of these assets (street parking only). Could also include a suburban corner milk bar, and a couple of corner pubs!
High Density Commercial:
6-8 storey wall-to-wall Victorian & Art Deco era buildings found on commercial strips in Australian CBDs (aka. Downtowns), similar to what you'd find in Bourke St, Elizabeth St & Swanston St (Melbourne), George St (Sydney) and Queen St (Brisbane). Some of these can house 'flagship' department stores, other might be 'arcades' with main entrances/frontages at both the front & rear.
Mixed-Use Residential/Commercial:
Same as above minus the department stores. Same assets could be reused for both, but in this category the floors above can be residential.
Sports/Parks:
The obvious ones here are Australian Football (AFL), Cricket and Rugby fields, at both local/community sports level and professional/stadium level.
All this could probably be covered in around 40 assets, but when used alongside with the existing North American assets to cover the more modern suburban development and modern skyscrapers, that would be enough to add a lot of variety and add a distinctly Australian flavour to cities. It would not only allow Australian players to recreate something more familiar, but also players from other countries to have some new, different looking assets to play around with too.
Here are some pictures demonstrating the styles I reference above:
1-storey Victorian Terraces (Med Density Row, 2 houses per 1 square in width):
2-storey Victorian terraces (Med Density Row, 2 houses per 1 square in width):
Federation/Edwardian Terraces (Med Density Row, 2 houses per 1 square in width):
Federation/Edwardian Houses (Low density residential):
Art Deco blocks of flats (Med Density Residential):
1950s-60s blocks of flats (Med Density Residential), these are all over the inner & middle suburbs:
Typical inner-suburban shops (Low Density Commercial, probably 2 shops per 1 square width):
All the inner-suburbs within 10-15km of a city centre in Australia pretty much look like the above - which when you're building a city in C:S2 will take up most of the map - but there's very little in the game that even remotely resembles it. The 'row houses' for example are nothing like the terrace houses that dominate inner-suburban Australia, and in particular the low density commercial in the game (detached shops with car parking) looks nothing like Australian shopping strips.
So I think an Australian Region Pack covering the above styles would be really great! Unfortunately I have no idea how to create assets myself, but I believe there are some really talented Australian-based asset creators out there and I'd love for Paradox to commission them to create a pack like this.
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