miércoles, 15 de abril de 2009

Larna, same logic as Nova but in bigger scale


The same logic learned in Nova, consisting in Residential areas mixed with Commercial areas in a uniform way and surrounded by large Industrial areas all around the city, was used in Larna only that in this case Larna makes industrial areas to be placed outside its territory in surrounding cities, leaving by that way all territory only for residential and commercial purposes.

Unlike Nova, where we had 9 residential and 16 commecial areas, in Larna the fracmentation of residential and commercial was higher, we have 64 residential areas and 111 commercial areas, spread in a web surounding residential. this was made to help with short commute distances and thus commute times.

lunes, 9 de marzo de 2009

Nova the experimental city

Nova is a city that has this web of roads and subway, it is more than 800,000 sims and has a budget of 11'000,000 SS, look its budget.

Subway Web

The web of streets is also the web of Subway, that will have a station in each block, so sims wouldn’t have to use car to achieve station. This kind o web is very, very expensive that is why we have to allow all factories to grow freely in the beginning so dirty factories, though very pollutant, will give lots of money, near 6’000,000 with a 13.5% tax..

The web of subway lines looks like the next picture:


This is a 80 subway line web, very expensive but very attractive to sims and commerce.

It was necessary to put those subway stations before zoning to avoid dealing with expensive demolitions. It is necessary to notice that some lots will be blocked to street by subway stations, but, those lots are necessary to put gardens all around to improve land value and to clean air in streats.

New Web of Roads

After learning that increasing infrastructure of freeway, avenues and roads can improve commute time but also increases air pollution that make Sims and commercial offices to go away, I decided to reduce streets to minimum and make public transportation based on subway the main way to move in the city.

I also wanted independent cells, I mean not depending on neighbour's jobs. So the city must have areas for industry, commerce and homes.

The result was a area with a industrial area large enough to provide jobs, and increase commerce demand. In this case the Industry area is in the borders of map a ring in yellow with a whit equivalent to 1/8 of side length. That area will hold Airports, Energy Plants, Garbage Burners, and Heavy Industry.


A ring of trees limits the industrial area and the areas of commerce (blue) and habitation (light green). the hole area is uniformly divided in blocks of 4X4, 4X6, 6X6, 3X4 and 3X6 with only roads, no avenues, no freeways, no railroads. In the picture, we can see that habitation areas are arranged in 8 side groups of blocks, at the center of which hospitals, schools, firefighter stations, police stations, libraries, museums, high schools, colleges, and all public buildings able to fit, will be located. in the center of commerce areas, blue ones, police stations, cemmentaries, large public buildings like central library, and opera etc.

Conmute Time, Headache for SC4 builders

I have been thinking how to increase the population of my regions, I wanted to discover how to increase large-size-city population. At Truna's project, the idea was to provide a web of freeways, avenues and roads, and public transportation of metro and buses, but car remained as the first way of transportation. Conmute time was reduced but air pollution increased dramatically.

Then I realized that Truna's population was very low for the size of region used. with the equivalent of 46 squirt kilometers Truna had a bit more than 1'550,000 sims. it means a bit more of 33,600 sims per/squirt km. I wanted this population to be increased.