Project YY phase one

[Grapplehoeker]

My current city project YY is starting to take shape nicely. So nice in fact I thought I'd share a few peeks
The Hexadam, plus...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=637607841
The Inverted Hexadam... equals
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=638536965
19,200MW of power!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=639259393
Both the Hexadam and the Inverted Hexadam are still churning out 19,200MW and I have hooked one of them up to the foundations of my new canal system. I'll continue to develop that while I wait on the new canal content from CO to arrive... maybe I'll finish mine before they release it lol.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=642431283
The first phase of the road layout has also been completed. Both halves of the city are now connected and most of the underground roundabouts and intersections have all been put in. The hexagonal foundation for the road layout was a total pain to be honest. Every single one of them is 20 units per side and 99% of them are accurately measured to 60°/120°!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=642430981
After a much needed break from the roads, I played around with the asset editor because I noticed that the zeppelin asset I wanted to use had no lights, so I fixed that. I'm so happy with the result, that I threw some more zeppelins onto the map lol. They could use some improvement, but this looks very promising I feel
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=642477963
Hope you like the progress and I'll be back after phase 2 - trains, trams, boats and planes

 

[Grapplehoeker]

I couldn't wait any longer for the new canals and quays update and so I went ahead and made my own
I used the foundation for the canal districts as you saw above. I've created two canal districts alongside one of the spokes and now that I've seen the finished result, I will repeat them for the other spokes.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=645368194
The main canal connects up to the canal districts which are at a slightly lower elevation, by a system of locks.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643816736
I'm very pleased with the final appearance
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=644017064
A big thank you to GCVos for his wonderful canalblock assets!

 

[Grapplehoeker]

I had code named this city project YY and as you may have guessed, this is short for Yin Yang.
The Yin Yang symbol is the basis for both the map design and the two cities that will be built on it. I'm trying to incorporate a lot of duality and juxtapositioning of features and building styles to create two distinct halves of one city in order to realise the harmony between the two aspects that the Yin Yang (Taoism) symbolises. This has taken a lot of thought and planning at every point of the build, from the map creation to the placement of resources, the creation of two distinctly different key features (the hexadams) and of course the city structure itself.
I have never gone to such depths of what to consider in my design process before and I have to say, I'm loving this project! It has been both natural and challenging to try and (not try) to work with and inject elements of Taoist doctrines such as Te, Wu Wei and naturalness. It has also been a fascinating research project about the Tao - all of which sprang from the simple idea for using the Yin Yang symbol as a map design.
Sorry, if I'm starting to sound Yuttho-like

Phase two - transport is complete and now the foundation for Yang is done! There is plenty of more work to do, but that will be dealt with in the last tasks including detailing. Next on the to do list is Yin.

Here's Yang...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646670573
I like to use the district tool to name specific terminals as well as city features so that it's easier to locate structures and parts of the city.
Yang north

• major outside connections by sea, air and rail terminal
• two leisure and one tourist district

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646669998
Yang central

• The eight (for the 8 trigrams of the I Ching) east and west Canal Districts are European styled, use buses, trams and are interconnected with metro.
• Rail/metro hub that serves and connects the east/west Canal Districts to Yang central and Yang south
• The Inverted Hexadam and sunken sewage treatment facility

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646670134

Yang south

• Yang West Industrial (YWI) - generic and oil
• Yang East Industrial (YEI) - generic and mineral
• Yang uses the natural resources of the mountain ranges here and likewise, Yin will provide agricultural and lumber from the rolling hills and plains on that part of the map.
• Both industry cargo terminals are independently linked to the cargo hubs in Yang north
• The industry districts are served with buses and rail linked to the rail hub in Yang central

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646670288
Yang International Airport
This is currently inactive and undeveloped. Work on this will be part of the final round up of tasks, once both Yin and Yang are completed. Yin will also have it's own International Airport. I have to give a big thank you to S.Klyte for their Ship and Airplane line tool mods, BloodyPenguin for his More Networks mod and Boformer for his Local Only mod! These have allowed me to optimise my rail links and will allow the 4 planned airports to operate together.


Now I'm looking forward to start work on Yin

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=646209435

 

[Mottoth]

This in not at all my approach of the game but I have to say that this is some really impressive work. If you manage to make it functionnal with this road layout then congratz ! Are they any hidden/underground expressways ?

 

[Grapplehoeker]

This in not at all my approach of the game but I have to say that this is some really impressive work. If you manage to make it functionnal with this road layout then congratz ! Are they any hidden/underground expressways ?

Good question!
This project has involved more usage of highways than any city I've built. The visible ones as you can see are quite unorthodox in layout. I've departed from mostly straight parallel highways by splitting them to run around the circumference of the two spheres in opposing circular directions as well as through the spheres in opposing elliptical directions and this has worked surprisingly well. At 100k plus pop now, I have zero problems at any of the entrances to the city from the outside. I have relatively no serious issues internally either. There are naturally hotspots of heavy traffic but no undesirable congestion.
The internal logistical challenge of 4 separate generic industries and 4 separate specialised industries working together to feed approximately 5 commercial districts 2 leisure districts and 1 tourist district per sphere has been extremely fun to work on.

Yin traffic overlay

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=648763447

Yang traffic overlay

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=648763300

So yes, in answer to your question. There is an extensive amount of underground highway routing as well as trains and metros!
I'm planning on linking the Yin innercity cargo network to the Yang innercity cargo network to improve cargo delivery from the 2 specialised industries in Yin to the generic industries in Yang and vice versa, once I've finished with growing Yin.
That leaves just one hidden connection and this is the invisible highway that I first used in my city, La Motta. I've used it again here to connect the high levels of Yin and Yang. (The low level city areas of each sphere are connected by the visible overground S shaped parallel highways.)

The invisible highway is only visible by using this traffic overlay and lies in a direct line from the Yin high level city area to the Yang high level city area. It is not underground - hidden indeed

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=648763864

Getting these screenshots to encompass everything was a little tricky, but while I'm at it I'll leave you with the panoramic view.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=648762892


Yin Yang City is about 70% complete now, still waiting on Yin to grow some more before working on the next phase.

 

[Grapplehoeker]

So... update 1.4 arrived and at first glance it was very welcome. The new canals, quays and floodwalls were all quite nice, although not quite as nice as the canal works I had already built in Yang as you can see from the shots above. Still they did allow me to create an alternative, albeit purely decorative, canal features over in Yin as a contrast to Yang.
However... I soon became aware of some disturbing problems with the way the new terrain had been configured. For want of a better description, the terrain has become 'sticky' and adheres to structures within the terrain such as tunnels. This caused me a major problem with my invisible highway that connects the plateaus of Yin and Yang completely unseen as you can 'see' in the previous screenshot above.

The invisible highway is invisible no more

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=651540003

I have to say I was pretty pissed about this, since it not only meant this feature was no longer possible, it also means that I can no longer use this as a feature in my older city La Motta either! But I'm pragmatic and after some thought and a dog walk later, I came up with an alternative... the Super Span Bridge - the world's longest parallel unsupported non suspension bridge

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=651981405
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=651980999


Both Yin and Yang have been developed further and I'm now working on the detailing.
It has turned out to be a stunning city to view from any angle and I'll be working on making a flyby video as soon as the detailing is done. I'll leave you with some examples of this lovely city.

Yin Yang City, just before dawn

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=689854334

Yin West

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659547282

Yin East

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659547463

Entry to Yin

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659547739

Entry to Yang

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659548406

I have to say I'm very pleased with the whole project. I think I have managed to accomplish my goal of creating two distinct styles for Yin and Yang, while maintaining a common theme. The more rugged and flatter Yang contrasts well with the cleaner cut and soaring Yin.

Yang by day

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659548988

Yin by day

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=659548790

Mustn't forget the new Mangrove coastline made possible by Mr Maison's new Mangrove tree asset, thanks again!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=653851831

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=653851718

 

[Grapplehoeker]

Update: I finally got around to removing all of the dead image links to Photobucket, who removed their free image hosting services long ago.
I've replaced all of them with their corresponding screenshot links on the Steam Workshop.
I'm sorry it took so long
Enjoy!