Drievallestad (Three falls City)

[Hannodb]

For some reason, starting a city with a highway connection off the bat is extremely difficult. After Witsandbaai (white sand bay) https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...a-to-sprawling-metropolis-screenshots.854572/ became unplayable due to mod incompatibilities with the update, it took me a long time start a new city I really enjoyed. These proto-cities allowed me to play with some interesting concepts, but they just didn't do it for me.

In hind-sight, the thing you need to enjoy this game, is the right balance between order and chaos. Too much order, and your city becomes boring. Too much chaos, and it becomes unmanageable. I think I might've struck the golden balance with Drievallestad, so I decided to start a new journal.

The first thing is to get the right map. The same rule apply: You want the terrain to be manageable, but it should also be interesting so as to create problems that would require interesting solutions. I downloaded this map called "peninsula" by Calzetines.

It's a really nice map: Enough flat areas to build on, but not too flat as to become boring. However, I felt his river lacks imagination. So, I decided to do some editing. Behold. Waterfall Bay:

Before the game was released, the dev team released a screenshot of a city near a beautiful waterful. This map is ideal to recreate such an environment.

So, with such a beautiful, picturesque setting, It's time to start my city!

Saved Game 1:
I like to save my city in a different file everyday, so I can go back and see the evolution of my city. The pictures in this journal is based on what was saved in each file.

I like to start with a nice overview.

I like to start my city off with a grid. The inner city is usually the part where the high rises will be, and grids just add to the downtown feel. However, grids can become boring pretty quickly. The way you spice it up a bit, is to have competing grids collide with each other. Where they come together, that's where the interesting and fun stuff happens.

I decided on 15 x 15 tile blocks. This is smaller than my 22 x 22 tile blocks of my previous city, which will create some problems as a lot of buildings will not fit in those grids. But as I said before: That's where the interesting things happen.

As you can see, I used the shoreline of the river as a base for my grid. Where the shoreline makes a slight bend, I followed suit, causing my grid to split in two. (see more below) This is also where I chose to make my city entrance.

Then I also wanted a round-about, where major arteries comes together. You can see a diagonal avenue splitting off from the roundabout, which becomes the base for a 3rd grid. Notice how I deal with diagonal roads running through a grid. To prevent 6 way junctions, or junctions occurring too often, I replace the grid with a 90 degree curved roads. The first curve cross the diagonal road in one direction. The next curve crosses the diagonal road in the opposite direction. The 3rd curve away from the diagonal road, and does not cross it. Then repeat the pattern. I'm not sure if the pattern is so clear in this example, as the diagonal road is very short, so that the pattern occurs only once. But I will employ it multiple times in the future.

The view from behind the third, diagonal grid. This is where my industrial area will be, so I built my power plant and my rubbish dump in this area.

(Look at the beautiful waterfall in the back ground. Note the rock that splits it into 3 sections, hence the name of the city.

Here is where the bend in the river caused my grid to crack in two. And where two grids collide, interesting things happens. I decided that where these two grids come together would be the ideal place for a church square. And note the entrance to the city run straight into it. I love that plaza with the military monument. It's just what any city square needs.

Here, you can better see the colliding grids. The area behind the church makes an ideal place for a central park, with lots of walking trails. You can also see my round-about with the 5 early axes. Unfortunately, my axis collided with my park, and I didn't want either one to be interrupted by the other. Fortunately, a bridge solved that problem.

The main road running next to the river shore, which forms the base of my grids. With such a nice embankment, this road will become a shopping district.

My round-about. The diagonal road will take you right through the middle of the industrial district.

Here, you can better see how the industrial district will be distinct from the rest of the city.

And that's it for today. There are - as of the time of writing - 9 more saved games, and I will post them as I get time. Watch this space, and feel free to comment. When I finished this road layout, I already knew I was on to something. I hope you will enjoy watching how this city unfold as much as I enjoyed building it.

 

[stiiknafuulia]

I see that you're using a beach walkways asset from the Steam WS; may I suggest also using the Ingame Terraform mod so you can make the shoreline look even better? Of course if you don't play with unlimited money, then it might just be that you're waiting until you have the cash to do it (as it's pretty expensive on the mod's default settings).

This map looks interesting for our planned new Succession Game -- although it may have too many flat areas for my taste. And although I can't see it from the screenshot, I think there's quite a bit of water within the buildable area, so it looks like there's a shortage of land overall as well. It might be ok though.

Would you be interested, by any chance, in participating in either our current SG or the upcoming one? I've been meaning to ask people on Reddit, but I might as well ask here too (it's pretty quiet though on these forums). I understand if you want to focus on your current city, or just prefer single player; but if you like water-falls and problems, then our current SG has oodles of both! In fact the problems are so numerous that you can't really run out of them -- and more are cropping up with each turn (even if some are also being alleviated). --By contrast, in our new SG we will have a more focused and planned build style, making the building of the city a more communal effort; so if you find the current game too chaotic, you might want to wait for that (we will start the game sometime in August when I'll return from my trip to Norway).

 

[Hannodb]

I see that you're using a beach walkways asset from the Steam WS; may I suggest also using the Ingame Terraform mod so you can make the shoreline look even better? Of course if you don't play with unlimited money, then it might just be that you're waiting until you have the cash to do it (as it's pretty expensive on the mod's default settings).

This map looks interesting for our planned new Succession Game -- although it may have too many flat areas for my taste. And although I can't see it from the screenshot, I think there's quite a bit of water within the buildable area, so it looks like there's a shortage of land overall as well. It might be ok though.

Would you be interested, by any chance, in participating in either our current SG or the upcoming one? I've been meaning to ask people on Reddit, but I might as well ask here too (it's pretty quiet though on these forums). I understand if you want to focus on your current city, or just prefer single player; but if you like water-falls and problems, then our current SG has oodles of both! In fact the problems are so numerous that you can't really run out of them -- and more are cropping up with each turn (even if some are also being alleviated). --By contrast, in our new SG we will have a more focused and planned build style, making the building of the city a more communal effort; so if you find the current game too chaotic, you might want to wait for that (we will start the game sometime in August when I'll return from my trip to Norway).

Thanks for the tip, I wasn't aware that such a mod exists, I'll definitely look into it. (although, not being able to edit the ground is precisely what leads to interesting solutions, but if ground modification is expensive, then that might just help prevent me from just flattening everything that gets in my way.
---
Thanks for the invite. Unfortunately, I don't have half as much time as I would like to have playing this game, and sometimes, my creativity just leaves me out in the cold. So, I prefer to play on my own.

I do enjoy watching video's of other people playing, though. Sometimes you pick up some very useful solutions that improve your own gameplay. For instance, later in this blog, I will mention an idea I got from Fluxburgh by Fluxtrance. This is precisely why I create this city journal, because just maybe, someone can use some of my ideas as well.

Thanks for replying though.

 

[Myquandro]

I do enjoy watching video's of other people playing, though. Sometimes you pick up some very useful solutions that improve your own gameplay. For instance, later in this blog, I will mention an idea I got from Fluxburgh by Fluxtrance. This is precisely why I create this city journal, because just maybe, someone can use some of my ideas as well.

That's exactly what I do and try to do with my city journal (which needs some attention soon). I try to get new ideas and share my ideas. By looking at your post I already get a bit more creative, it's not that how you do it seems like a good idea for my own city but because it does (some) things differently then I did it my ideas about how it's done gets broken (in a good way) which opens up the possibility to create new ideas. Fluxburgh is definitely one of those cities and there are a few on this forum. It's not about doing something better in that way, but doing something different.

So, I'm definitely going to get back to your thread in the future.

 

[Hannodb]

That's exactly what I do and try to do with my city journal (which needs some attention soon). I try to get new ideas and share my ideas. By looking at your post I already get a bit more creative, it's not that how you do it seems like a good idea for my own city but because it does (some) things differently then I did it my ideas about how it's done gets broken (in a good way) which opens up the possibility to create new ideas. Fluxburgh is definitely one of those cities and there are a few on this forum. It's not about doing something better in that way, but doing something different.

So, I'm definitely going to get back to your thread in the future.

Exactly. People need other people to help them think out of the boxes which they've created for themselves. Sometimes, people does things that never even occurred to you, and you're like "Why didn't I think of that??" Like the saying goes: two minds work better than one

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 2

As I said, I like to begin with an overview. This way you can compare the progress with the previous saved game. With the infrastructure layed out, and services in place, I could now zone my city. When I lay out my city, I pause the game so I won't be rushed by expenses. Once I'm happy, I put it on fastest, and wait. It will take time to generate enough income to cover all my expenses, but if you zone enough, you'll get through the debt hole eventually.

I've placed commercial next to my main roads. Commercial likes heavy traffic, residential not so much. So, I've created my shopping water front, as well as next to my central park. Industrial goes in the corner, as I mentioned before, and Commercial always makes a nice buffer between industrial and residential.

For reference purposes, consider the river to by directly South of the town.

As you can see, I also expanded the main grid west ward and north ward, enclosing the Industrial area. The main artery going into the round about from the north takes a diagonal turn to the North east, because that is where I plan to build my first suburban neighberhoods. (At this point, I'm still pretty oblivious to the topography and its implications.I'm still planning my city as if everything is flat. Later on, I needed to reconsider some of my design decisions)

Church square, the waterfront, and the round about. I'm not going to say much about these three places, but I plan to show them in each post. This little tradition will be so you can have a feel of how the place develop by comparing the same places in different times.

This is the view from the central park, overlooking church square and the city entrance. It's quite a pretty picture.

I realised pretty soon that I created a potential traffic nightmare. The industrial traffic needs to go through all my main attractions in the heart of my city to get to the industrial zones!!! Fortunately, I recognized the problem and could plan ahead. Right now, the problem is not too big because the town is still small, so that's ok.

Also notice my avenue going North East, here you can clearly see the pattern I use to accommodate diagonal roads in a grid. It work very nicely, and can be extended indefinitely. In a previous city, this was the only interesting feature

I thought it's very appropriate to place my graveyard right next to my central park. It's morbid, I know, but grave yards and parks just go so well together.

Also, as you can see, the space between the diverging grids is getting big enough for me to add another block, and - as I said before - this is where the interesting things happen. Will the bloc align with the grid on the east or the west? Or will I split it between them? Since the grid on te West is already quite large, I decided to add the block to the grid on the East.

Just a couple of pretty screenshots. This is such a beautiful landscape. My city seen from the waterfalls....

...and the waterfalls seen from my city. This is the avenue running NE, and the penny still needs to drop that this is actually on a slope. This oversight cost me dearly later on.

 

[stiiknafuulia]

Exactly. People need other people to help them think out of the boxes which they've created for themselves. Sometimes, people does things that never even occurred to you, and you're like "Why didn't I think of that??" Like the saying goes: two minds work better than one

As our SG city demonstrates, though, in a collaborative effort you also need something to rein in that revitalizing creativity. Like we say of fire in Finland, it's a good servant but a terrible host. Ofc in single-player you can only pick the best and most rational(-seeming) influences, so it's not a concern to the same degree. And if you do make a mistake, correcting it is a bit easier when you don't have to worry about the possible sentimental value of some neighborhood to its original creator.

If you should reconsider joining either SG, the slots will remain open for some time. It's not really that much work, since we have 5 other players in our current SG, and you have a full week to do each turn. While there is a need for a report, it doesn't need to be all that elaborate -- 5 pictures and two short paragraphs of text would be just fine. And as for creativity, I'd argue that what we need is a dose of hard-nosed conservatism instead: making our existing systems work better, instead of constantly tearing up the city to accommodate new ones (although some of these operations have been remarkable successes, and in any case the line between renovation and demolishing is notoriously blurry in our city ). In particular, your fresh perspective could be very useful; since you'd see the city for the first time, you'd immediately spot obvious flaws and oddities that aren't apparent to even our team's most scrutinous eyes. I understand your choice though; and in any case I wish you good luck with this here city!

EDIT:

Aha! From those screenshots, it can be seen that the land is not that flat after all. I'm not sure how I feel about it; I usually like terrains where there's sharp mountains and then flat 'terraces' in between, so that it's easy to build in the areas that can accommodate building. But this kind of territory does break up the grid pattern at least somewhat, and is challenging to build on, so it won't get boring as easily.

As I said, I like to begin with an overview. This way you can compare the progress with the previous saved game. With the infrastructure layed out, and services in place, I could now zone my city. When I lay out my city, I pause the game so I won't be rushed by expenses. Once I'm happy, I put it on fastest, and wait. It will take time to generate enough income to cover all my expenses, but if you zone enough, you'll get through the debt hole eventually.

Make sure to take out the loans that the game offers asap. Imo, the first two are total no-brainers, as the return on the investment of the loaned money far outpaces the meager interest repayments. The third one has an extortionate enough interest rate that I'm not sure how the math checks out; and in any case by that time you usually have enough cash to get by without loans anyways.

EDIT2:

I realised pretty soon that I created a potential traffic nightmare. The industrial traffic needs to go through all my main attractions in the heart of my city to get to the industrial zones!!! Fortunately, I recognized the problem and could plan ahead. Right now, the problem is not too big because the town is still small, so that's ok.

For traffic considerations regarding industry and commerce, this article makes for essential reading: http://www.skylineswiki.com/Supply_chain
I dearly wish that somebody had posted this before we started building our SG city! I hope it serves your city well, in case you weren't already aware of the tips therein.

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 3

Overview:

Quite a lot of new development here.

As promised, here is the Fluxburgh idea implimented in my city: To have a little corner, away from my city, for all the nasty services, like power, rubbish and sewage. The advantages are:
1) Having lots of power plants in my industrial area always gets in the way of further expansion and modification. Not to mentino garbage dumps which you need to empty before you can move them.
2) Not only does the coal trucks no longer need to go through my city, they avoid heavy traffic themselves, thereby ensuring that my power plants never run out of coal.
3) All the disgusting things are nicely packed together, out of the way.
4) I get to build a really cool and unconventional 4 way interchange.
5) Sewage and the water pumps are quite close to the power source, so when power run low, I do not have to deal with water outages as well.
There is one disadvantage, though:
This horrific collection of everything that's wrong with the world, is right next to my city entrance, and across my waterfront and church square. That's too bad. Until I can buy more land, they will just have to suck it up.

PS. Remember: This little district needs its own fire station.

And here is why my power plants and rubbishdumps had to move: More Industrial development towards the North West. Just as in my previous journal, I make a big fuss about my external rail connections. 4 separate stations! This ease the flow of trucks and trains alike, and it looks spectacular. However, this is also the first time that I ran into topographical issues. You can see the Western stations (back) is much lower than my Eastern stations (front). Fortunately, there's tunnels. Also, my main artery into the industrial area splits my freight station complex right in half. This is intentional, so as to assist traffic from one side to the other.

As mentioned in my previous post, traffic to the industrial area is a problem, and in this game, I solved it with another entrance to my city. All the trucks now use this entrance, so they don't spoil my main attractions. Notice how I improve traffic flow by minimizing unnecessary junctions. There is basically only three stops, and then they're in the industrial district. In order to improve traffic further, I use the traffic mod to remove traffic lights on small junctions, and give the large road right of way.

Once in the industrial area, the trucks need to disperse, so I widened the road bordering the industrial area. I don't know why I made the main road run diagonally through the industrial area, cutting off the corner in the SE. Maybe I thought the trucks will not take the long route around, but I never felt satisfied with this decision. I would change it later on.

Also, my first high rises appear in this area. The busy truck road is also ideal for dense commercial.

Also, notice a 4th coliding grid entering to the West. Its artery comes together with the waterfront avenue, and what a wonderful excuse for another park. Notice the little pedestrian roads linking the neighberhood with the park. I don't like to overuse pedestrian roads, but I love using them for giving pedestrians useful shortcuts.

Now for the traditional 3 places:

There is one important change here. The area around the round-about is now office area. This will grow into my CBD.

New neighberhoods running up the slope to the North East. Nope, I'm still unaware of the intensity of this slope. The artery running NE becomes the seperator between the eastern and western grids.

I like to follow my roads and see where they end up. I notice that - due to my dynamic around this diagonal avenue, the road running west of my central park now takes you directly into the industrial zones, and it becomes the major truck road! O well, that's what makes it interesting!

Another view of my first high rises.

Again, the view from my NE avenue. (Maybe I should include this view in my regular screenshots? It's such a great vantage point, and I never get tired of seeing that waterfall! You can see how the neighborhood expanded up the hill from the previous post.

And that's if for this edition.

Next edition, I think I started building the public transport system, so then we'll have to look at some info views as well. There is so much to remember when writting these journals, I hope I don't leave anything out.

 

[Hannodb]

Aha! From those screenshots, it can be seen that the land is not that flat after all. I'm not sure how I feel about it; I usually like terrains where there's sharp mountains and then flat 'terraces' in between, so that it's easy to build in the areas that can accommodate building. But this kind of territory does break up the grid pattern at least somewhat, and is challenging to build on, so it won't get boring as easily.

Indeed. When I'm building, I'm mostly looking from the top, and since the slope is shallow enough not to change the color of the grass, it's easy to forget it's there. I often surprise myself when I go down to ground level and realize what I actually build. (This usually comes as a nasty surprise when you want to add rail stations!)

I'm not a big fan of using terraces. It might be easier to build on, but it doesn't look very realistic in the end. I prefer the sloped appearances of the natural terrain. It does force you to think harder about what you're doing and sometimes, you need to demolish the mess you've made, but in the end it is quite rewarding when you get to look back on your work.

There is a topographical mod, though, that shows you ground elevation. This mod is absolutely indispensable when working on a terrain like this.

Make sure to take out the loans that the game offers asap. Imo, the first two are total no-brainers,

I always avoid loans like hell in city builder games, but I've noticed that those two loans are quite useful and harmless in the early game, so yes, that's a good point.

For traffic considerations regarding industry and commerce, this article makes for essential reading: http://www.skylineswiki.com/Supply_chain
I dearly wish that somebody had posted this before we started building our SG city! I hope it serves your city well, in case you weren't already aware of the tips therein.

I haven't seen that before, but it was pointed out in the dev diaries before the game was released. The traffic dynamic added a major drool factor for me about this game. I pretty much gave up hope for this genre after CitiesXL - which was ok, but didn't quite cut it - and the anathema that was Simcity 2013. When I learned about this game by the end of last year, I devoured every last bit of information I could lay my hands on. I couldn't believe how they did everything just right. I couldn't believe there wasn't anything to be disappointed about! I bought a super expensive gaming laptop JUST for this game, and pre-ordered this game, and what a joy it is! I haven't enjoyed a city builder this much since Simcity 4!

Sorry, I digress. But I can't help singing the praizes of this game, and telling EA: "SEE, THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE!!!"

 

[stiiknafuulia]

There is a topographical mod, though, that shows you ground elevation. This mod is absolutely indispensable when working on a terrain like this.

You mean there's lines or numbers that show up on the ground? Mind giving a link to this, as it could be useful both in our new SG and for my personal games?

Imo, building all the trash services in the same neighborhood might pose problems later down the road, as it means that eventually the trash trucks will congest the nearby roads. Their mileage will also become terrible as they will have to drive all the way to the other side of the city. I don't really like it, but the recommendation is to spread out the crematories, dumps etc for this reason. Ofc your town is still small enough that this might not be an issue; and I'm sure you're aware of this anyway, since you've been studying the game for so long. FWIW, the Traffic++ mod (iirc) is supposed to add district-based AI to the trash trucks etc soon, making it possible to direct their routes in a more granular manner, thus ensuring better traffic flow if you can engineer the system well enough.

EDIT: It's a nice idea to make screenshots of the same areas for each report; it really drives home how the city's developed. I think I'll use this approach for my reports in our new SG, so thank you for the tip.

 

[Hannodb]

You mean there's lines or numbers that show up on the ground? Mind giving a link to this, as it could be useful both in our new SG and for my personal games?

Here's the screenshots of the mod. The yellow one is not as useful to me as the purple one. The buttons are a bit annoying, though, but it's well worth it.

EDIT: It's a nice idea to make screenshots of the same areas for each report; it really drives home how the city's developed. I think I'll use this approach for my reports in our new SG, so thank you for the tip.

What's the point of building special places in your city if you don't make a fuss about them

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 4

I know what you're thinking: "Nothing changed". But look a bit closer:

PUBLIC TRANSPORT!!!

I basically have a circular bus route going out in all directions from my round about. There's a bus stop at every second block, (with a bus stop every other second block on the way back) At the round about, you can just hop off and on a bus going in the direction you want.

Regarding rail, I like using above ground rail, because it adds complexity to the city. I'm sticking to the same rules of my previous city: I keep my internal and external lines separate, so that external trains don't clog up my system. (Though, I notice that its not as bad as it used to be. I might have to rethink this later on.) Also, I build a bypass rail track at each station. Any train that doesn't stop there will automatically take the bypass. Currently, I don't use this functionality yet, but I build it in right from the start to keep my options open.

Here you kan see an example of my bypass. This way, I can keep the rail traffic moving. I also like to keep my rail tracks elevated in the city, so that road and rail traffic won't interfere with one another. Plus, once this area becomes high rises, it will look really cool. Especially when following a train!

Ahh.. I love watching the trucks converging on this road. Everytime the light turns green, it looks like a dam that burst!

Here, I am confronted with the harsh reality that is "slope"! I was completely unaware that the slope was this steep over here. Creating that rail bypass was a mission! Even getting the avenue connected to the little plaza was impossible. That's why I had to split is up into 2 one way roads, it wouldn't work any other way. (which, in hindsight, I don't regret)

And here you can see the problem (The station is in the corner of the city in the middle of the picture) You can also see how useful this mod is. My intention was to build the rail track right around my city. But it makes no sense to make that rail track go all the way up the hill, only to come down on the same side. Not to mention how difficult it would be to actually build stations next to that track. The solution is clear: I need to adjust my tracks to follow the contours of the landscape. But that would mean I have to cut through existing city blocks, at a very off angle to the grid! That took me some time to get used to.

FUN FACT: There seems to be a bug where people can beam up and down the bridge to the pedestrian walkway below. LOL! "Beam me up, Scotty"

The traditional 4 spots which I include in every post. Speaking of which....

...don't you just love tunnels? Just imagine how hideous it would've been if that rail track had to cross over that avenue. I would've completely spoiled the view on church square as you enter the city!

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 5

And so I'm stuck!

I cannot expand my city until I solved my rail issue. Otherwise, I'n just going to paint myself deeper in the corner.

...and so, If you can't expand horizontally, you expand vertically.

Since not much else has changed since my previous game, I close with my traditional screenshots.

...Oh, it seems there is something I overlooked...

WATER TREATMENT PLANTS!! That improves the scenery at my city's entrance slightly

 

[stiiknafuulia]

Thank you for those mod screenshots; I'm getting that asap.
EDIT: Dear Lord those buttons are awkwardly placed! I guess it's not possible to change that though? Oh well, I can always turn off the mod if they get too annoying.

My thinking on the rail and metro lines is that they should combine the two (since you can now build rail tunnels, what's the real difference?), or at least make it possible to link them to one another. And increase the price of tunnels while they're at it! Right now they're so cheap that you can basically take care of all your traffic problems with them, if you don't set up house rules to deter yourself.

An issue I've found with tunnels is that it's very hard to tell apart rail and metro tunnels from road tunnels in the underground view. I wonder if there's a mod that would make this easier? Could be very useful, although the temptation to lay out more tunnels could also escalate to unacceptable levels with it!

Imo, bus lines are more trouble than they're worth atm. Every time you demolish a stretch of road and rebuild it in another form, all the bus lines that go through it get broken and will have to be remade from scratch to begin working again. Granted that if you're a good planner this isn't as much of a problem; but the abysmal interface where everything turns white when you're laying out the stops isn't helping either! -.- --If you know of a mod that makes it more convenient to lay out bus lines, be my guest, so I can start using bus lines as well! For now, I'm sticking with extensive pedestrian routes; since the cims will walk such huge distances (up to 1 km or more), I figure you don't really need bus lines if you lay out enough pedestrian walkways. They could look a bit nicer though (a cobblestone texture for ped walkways would be bice! I wonder if it already exists on the workshop?).

EDIT: I notice that you've put the commercial zones right next to industrial ones, as is the best practice imo; but why not place offices between commercial and residential zones as well? This has the effect of 'insulating' the residential neighborhoods from the noise that comes from all those cash registers (I guess... It's not really clear to me why shops are so noisy in this game, but it's the case).

I also notice that you haven't made any districts as of yet. Granted that the city is still small, but I like to start naming places from the get-go; gives the city a bit of character. (It would be nice if you could turn off the name tags for screenshots though; so far I haven't found a way to do this.)

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 6

I did not resolve my issue with the rail tracks yet, but none the less, I did something truly amazing in this game, and I was very much looking forward to do this post. But I'm not giving away the surprise just yet, so lets deal with the other issues first. First thing you should notice is the expansion of the office space. I also increased the number of high density Residential blocks.

As you can see, I forced myself to complete the rail track, and it looks horrendous.

Because I'm working against the slope, the rails need an increadibly long distance to switch from the ground to elevated, and in that space, I cannot have road crossings. In these pictures, it is apparent that even 4 blocks barely enough to make my stations work. This is simply not acceptable, as these stations are cutting of important roadways. I'm not satisfied with the solution at all.

On the bright side, my rail loop is complete, which was a prerequisite for further horizontal expansion. You'll also notice a new main avenue coming from the rail station to the left. I'm not quite sure at this stage where I'm going with this, as I'm very unhappy with my rails.

At least the rail track going through the industrial area looks ok.

Here, you can appreciate the densification going on around my my central park.

AND NOW, FOR THE SURPRISE!!! (Or is it really? Surely you should've seen this coming right from the start. I did)

600 MW of power right there, baby! You would not believe how long it took for the dam to fill up. This is also a good example of how you simply cannot go without the topographical mod. Had I build those walls any taller, the water would've spilled out on the side, and the dam would not have worked.

Also. When I feel evil, BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

I can't believe how awesome the water dynamics of this game is.


Now for my traditional shots again:

The dam wall really change the scenery from this angle.

 

[Hannodb]

Thank you for those mod screenshots; I'm getting that asap.
EDIT: Dear **** those buttons are awkwardly placed! I guess it's not possible to change that though? Oh well, I can always turn off the mod if they get too annoying.

Not as far as I'm aware. You get used to them, and the functionality is really worth the annoyance. Maybe not if you're not building on a sloped terrain.

My thinking on the rail and metro lines is that they should combine the two (since you can now build rail tunnels, what's the real difference?), or at least make it possible to link them to one another. And increase the price of tunnels while they're at it! Right now they're so cheap that you can basically take care of all your traffic problems with them, if you don't set up house rules to deter yourself.

An issue I've found with tunnels is that it's very hard to tell apart rail and metro tunnels from road tunnels in the underground view. I wonder if there's a mod that would make this easier? Could be very useful, although the temptation to lay out more tunnels could also escalate to unacceptable levels with it!

Personally, I avoid underground infrastructure as far as possible. We don't have subways in South Africa, so it doesn't even occur to me to make use of them. Also, I don't like the fact that it's hidden from view, it makes your city less transparent. I have a mod where I can follow a cim in first person view, and subways can become very annoying when every cim you follow uses them.

I only build subways when I really can't avoid it any longer.

Imo, bus lines are more trouble than they're worth atm. Every time you demolish a stretch of road and rebuild it in another form, all the bus lines that go through it get broken and will have to be remade from scratch to begin working again. Granted that if you're a good planner this isn't as much of a problem; but the abysmal interface where everything turns white when you're laying out the stops isn't helping either! -.- --If you know of a mod that makes it more convenient to lay out bus lines, be my guest, so I can start using bus lines as well!

Hmm. I really don't experience it all that badly. I find the interface quite sufficient, and I don't really see how it can be improved upon. I also found that the game tries to re-establish bus lines as best it can after I changed the roads, so it's really not necessary to redo them from scratch. When the changes are extensive, the new lines are usually a bit of a mess, but you can just drag and drop the existing bus stations to where you want them. You can also add and remove stops on an existing bus line.

For now, I'm sticking with extensive pedestrian routes; since the cims will walk such huge distances (up to 1 km or more), I figure you don't really need bus lines if you lay out enough pedestrian walkways. They could look a bit nicer though (a cobblestone texture for ped walkways would be bice! I wonder if it already exists on the workshop?).

Like I said, I love using pedestrain roads to provide short cuts for them, but I don't like to over use them: It just does not seem realistic. ... at least in a South African context. I noticed that the cims are willing to walk quite far. They will also only wait so long for a bus before they say "screw this, I'm walking".

EDIT: I notice that you've put the commercial zones right next to industrial ones, as is the best practice imo; but why not place offices between commercial and residential zones as well? This has the effect of 'insulating' the residential neighborhoods from the noise that comes from all those cash registers (I guess... It's not really clear to me why shops are so noisy in this game, but it's the case).

That's because I like to bundle my offices together to make a CBD. Spreading them out will will diminish my CBD. I'm not sure that I'm a big fan of splitting the offices and shops into seperate zone types. Maybe, if the shops always looks like shops it would've been fine, but some of those high density Commersial zones really look more like office towers than shopping malls to me.

While we're on the topic of zones, I really which we have tourist zones which would result in Chalets, guest houses, caravan parks (Low density) and Hotels and Motels (High density)

I also notice that you haven't made any districts as of yet. Granted that the city is still small, but I like to start naming places from the get-go; gives the city a bit of character. (It would be nice if you could turn off the name tags for screenshots though; so far I haven't found a way to do this.)

Yeah, I thought of that too. I used to think they were a great addition to the game, but it turns out that I don't use them that often. As far as naming goes,I find that to be a burden. I'm always stumped when I start a new city, and I realize I need to think of a name. And the policies that you can set for various zones doesn't seem to make that much of a difference, while they cost a fortune to implement. So I'm left with very little motivation to actually use them. I would like to use them more, but I usually never get to it. Industry specialization is about the only reason I ever use districts.

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 7

Still not much progress in the way of visible expansion, because I'm still stuck on that North Eastern corner of my city. I did lay out a couple of additional city blocks, and my office zones expanded into another block, but that's it. However....

I finally did resolve my rail problem. Painful as it is, I re-routed the tracks to follow the contours of the terrain.

As you can see, I also moved the train station away from the where it used to be next to the plaza, and placed it at a very odd angle compared to the grid. This minimized the space I needed for the station, but it also created chaos in my grid. To the left, you can see a new station in my industrial area.

The plaza to the right was suppose to be decoration for the train station there, which I now removed. However, I kept the plaza, because it's so cute. I love how the avenue going towards it split in two. So, even though the station itself, which was the primary feature which everything around it was designed for, is no longer there, the resulting features remains:The plaza and the new avenue. Mistakes are not always bad, they can lead to other cool things which would not have existed had it not been for the original mistake. You should embrace it when your tidy plans does not fit the terrain. When you're forced to compromise, that's when the interesting things happen.

Here is a clear view of the mess the caused by the train station. I would rework this area a couple of times before I'm satisfied.

Some back ground as to how I decide these things: I like to sometimes choose a road, and follow it to see where it'll take me if I just keep going straight with it. With all the curves in my grid, it can become quite a fun activity, because you're sometimes quite surprised where you end up. I regard the longest roads to be most important, and I hate cutting them short. (After all, don't you just love it when you can just go straight and end up where you want to be, rather than taking a lot of turns?) Other important roads are the ones passing important attractions. Now, that one road in the picture, 3rd from the left, going up and making slight bend to the right, ending in the train station. That's the road bordering my central park on the East. The idea that it ends so abruptly in the train station is not acceptable, and I will be looking for ways to make this better. The road to the right of it, also bothers me, because the grid does not line up anymore.

However, this is exactly the type of thing that transform a boring, predictable grid into something unexpected and cool.

This area is also a thorn in my flesh. Imagine you have your toilet and main rubbish bin right next to your front door where you receive your guests. This is pretty much what's going on here. I'm going to have to clear up this area soon.

So, having covered all the changes, it's time to look at my traditional spots again.

The main truck entrance to the industrial area.

The water front.

The Round-about. How about if I show some other angles on the Round-About as well?

Looking from the West to the East. (Towards the central park)

Looking North

From up the hill. You can see the cute plaza I've been talking about to the left. To the right, the Industrial area becomes quite prominent as its being outlined by the high rises around it.

Haven't done this one in a while: Looking down on my central park towards church square.

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 10 (Fast forward from 7)
I'm fast forwarding a bit here, because at this point I had a lot of indecision and design choices to make. In stead of making an entire post for each of the minute changes, I'm simply going to jump to the conclusion, least I bore you to death.

As you can clearly see, there has been some radical changes: A cleaned up entrance, a new busline, and a 5th grid to complicate an already interesting situation.

First, lets look at that new entrance:

I wanted church square to be visible from quite some distance away as you enter the city. Now you can also understand why I had to get rid of all those disgusting installations in this area.

BEFORE

AFTER

The bad news is that without those garbage installations, there is no need for my original complex interchange. I completely destroyed and reworked it.

The good news is, that if you take the entrance road from church square, and you extend it in a straight line, you end up almost on top of this highway interchange. So I get to replace my old complicated interchange with a new one. YAY!

I'm planning to put suburban low residential areas over here.

PS. When doing onramps from a highway to an overpass, I always prefer to join them in the middle of the bridge, rather than the sides. This reduce the number of interchanges from two to one, which also significantly improves traffic flow. They recently reworked the off ramps on a highway near my area, and I know from first hand experience, this works really well.

Oh, and if you're wondering...

...this is where the new location for the garbage facilities is.Close enough for easy access, far enough not to interfere with expansion. And since we're in the industrial area...

BEFORE

AFTER

The main road reworked in the industrial area. Although a good argument can be made that it was more efficient, crossing diagonally through the industrial area, with fewer cross roads, I couldn't make my peace with it aesthetically. So, I came up with a nice compromise. The main road now goes along the entire border of the industrial district. The diagonal road that was downgraded no longer require fewer interchanges, so I removed those curved road bridges, and placed them back on the ground again. With 4 rather than 2 interchanges, the trucks need to think carefully before using this as a short cut.

Then, in order to improve the traffic flow along the new main road, I removed some of the junctions. You can see the road in the industrial area curving away from the main road on both sides. I also removed the trafic lights where the small roads from the residential areas form a t junction, and gave the main road right of way. (Using the Traffic++ mod.... I think) Then, with the remaining 5 way junctions, I made the two Industrial roads joining the the junctions into one way streets: One coming into the junction, and one going out. So in reality, even though there are 5 roads leading into the junction, it's still only a 4 way junction. If you look at the main entrance for trucks on the left, for instance, The traffic comming into the industrial district need to turn left into the vertical road (I use left hand drive) , while the traffic leaving the industrial are coming from the horizontal road from the right. This prevents the incomming traffic from using that diagonal road as a short cut, and rather use the main road.

I'm much more satisfied with this solution.

(To be continued...)

 

[Hannodb]

Saved Game 10 (Part 2)

Another area that experienced major rework, is this imfamous NE corner of my city. This is because, I previously did not take into account that there is that pile of dirt in the way.

BEFORE

AFTER

The first issue, is that my new avenue coming off from that plaza made an almost 90 degree turn after it crosses the NE bound avenue. The trouble is, this took it right back towards the hills, which makes it rather pointless. For this avenue to be meaningful, I had to change its direction, to make a 135 degree curve at the junction with the NE avenue, so it would run parallel with the hills and go on a long way. And since I have this avenue I decided to make it the base for a new grid to the east of it. A lot of blocks were demolished to make way for the new orientation of this area. (This brings the number of colliding grids in this small city to 5!!!) You'll notice that the roads running up hill in the 3rd row of blocks in this grid is a bit skew. This is to accommodate the slope, which was too steep for a 90 degree angle.

Then, after I did that, I became dissatisfied with my the avenue running N from my round about, which takes a turn to the NE shortly after that. Not only has the way the grid warped around that curve bothered me (Because the only possible straight road from the east to the Industrial area is now disconnected.) But also, that the people coming from the NW will have to take a massive detour to get to my round-about. This is suppose to be a main artery of my city! At first, I wondered about removing the curve to the NE all together, but decided against it. Not only would that cause too much rework, it's also a useful artery for the people who'll live on top of the hill to the round about. So I decided to make the curve a junction instead. Why choose, when you can have both? The result is this triangular junction between the avenues, making it easy, regardless form which way you're coming. The new bridge across this junction now also give the people east of this avenue easy access to the industrial area.

Lets have a closer look at the changes around that awkwardly placed train station:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Rather than having roads stop dead in a t junction, I prefer them to curve away and avoid a dead end. I also wanted to avoid blocks that become too large or too small, as well as junctions too close to one another. I experimented with quite a few combinations and finally came up with this solution that satisfied all my requirements. The road that runs east of the central park still run into a dead end in the train station - that I could not avoid. But if you turn right after the grave yard, the road will turn and continue taking you north, so that's not so bad. You'll notice that this road is at odds with the grid in the immediate area, but is consistent with the grid west of the park. This was a lucky coincidence, which allowed me to join it up with the road that's had to swerve eastward to make way for the railway. The road east of the park has a bridge that avoids an unnecessary junction, and takes you straight to the station. If it must end, then let it end in style. The road east of that makes a curve to the west, and takes you straight to the industrial area, with that bridge crossing the north going avenue.

The confusion caused by all these curving roads created a nice place for city parks.

This is also a place that begs for pedestrian short cuts. Fortunately there is the foot crossing mod, otherwise these pedestrian roads would've been pretty useless:

With the NE sorted out, I can now expand my South Western corner. This little stub of a grid has been neglected for too long:

With the rubbish facilities out of the way, this place really have potential to become very pretty:

Last but not least: The traditional locations:

Again: The Round about, facing North: It looks much more impressive now that is no longer turning NE so quickly.

WOW! That took me longer than expected! The entire Saterday afternoon is gone! I better get back to practicing my Bach choir pieces!

 

[RepublicanIV]

Moarrrrr!