MountainView

[Paeng]

How big is your region, if station has that much users 

Well, I'm experimenting here ;-) The main city has about 200.000, with RES and COM, but all IND is in 4 adjacent cities (east, south and west). To the south is another city with RES $ and $$ only, about 75.000 ... and the best connection for all is via rail (with good bus/subway connections and plenty parking to trainstations).
Use of car is discouraged by corresponding ordinances, maut and long routes to work. Not so realistic, but I wanted to see if a station with a cap of 120.000 can be maxed out ;o)

[Fenestraria]

Do you have a ready plan when starting to build a city or do you design while building and improvise while building? I'm asking because your cities seem very well thought out 

[Korot]

I do have on for the main city I'm currently working on, and includes a total of 4 large city tiles. However, I want to try to avoid that in any other city I'll build in the region.
Oh wait, that question wasn't asked to me, it was asked to paeng, oops. Ah well, here is my answer anyway.

Regards,
Korot

[Paeng]

Do you have a ready plan when starting to build a city

To be quite honest - no. Usually I just decide - depending on my mood - if I want rural, urban, industrial, waterfront or what, and what sort of transport I prefer at this moment - usually rail and bus, sometimes subway and very seldom highway. Plus I think about using canals and/or elevated rail, because then my roads must be laid out differently (more free space inbetween).

And I have a few 'houserules' - primarily: avoid Grid-Layouts at all cost. Put some diagonal arteries in the road-network. Build crucial buildings (i.e. trainstations, schools etc.) in such a way that they can be easily replaced by larger (capacity) ones. Put some thoughts into how networks cross each other (over-/underpasses etc.).

One of my 'strategies' is to plop a station in the middle. From there I run rail outwards to every adjacent tile, connecting the routes in some places to also get a ring around the planned city. That leaves you with a sort of spiderweb with lots of irregular shaped sections, which can be the basis for the different city areas, and also keeps you away from the dreaded grid ;-)

Normally I start zoning with medium density. Then I watch a few years how things develop, deciding en route where a change to dense zoning seems promising. Low density is reserved for areas where I don't want high/highest buildings or suburbs ...
That's about it for my planning :-)

Oh wait, that question wasn't asked to me

The more - the merrier ... ;o)

[tamorr]

    Now I definately see why your station is brimming almost..... Sounds like an interesting way to go about it.... I kinda' do the same, well by mood and interest at that moment.... The house rules depend on my mood as well... some cities unfortunately have grid while others .... not so much .... depending on what I base the roads on, whether it be the type of above-ground mass-transit or how I want to devide the city up...

[Becca]

Paeng's Urban Scrapyard has been uploaded to the PLEX.

[Paeng]

PREVIEW

As I mentioned before, I'm working on a large landbased freightyard to complement the waterfront freightyards. I was always dissatisfied with the tiny freight stations, where a 4x3 lot is supposed to supply a whole region, with hardly enough space for small cars to make a turn, much less a fleet of large trucks.

So here is a preview of my layout - there is a fullsize panorama available (ZIP, 600kb), I'd appreciate if you download this image and take a look at the details, and maybe make some comments and/or suggestions before I finalize the lots. Thanks in advance!



From the tiny preview-pic you can see the four mainlots:

1) Freightyard (Train, 6x5) - cap: 3000
2) Freightyard (Truck, 8x5) - cap: 2000
3) Truck Maintenance (3x5) - cap: 500 to boost freightyard capacity
4) Vandy's Trucking Corporation (3x5) - cap: 500 to boost freightyard capacity with a fleet of small to large trucks
[total capacity: 6000]

A) Administration
B) Truck loading bays
C) Dry Storage
D) Train loading platforms
E) Vandy Corp. HQ
F) Truck weighstation
G) Main repairshop

You see that the four main lots fit seamlessly together to form one large freightyard (4|1|2|3, 20x5), but the whole thing is very modular. You can use each piece on its own or combine them in different ways for further seamless combinations, i.e. 4|2|3, 4|1|3, 1|3 or similar. For those who want to place only one lot at any time (or scatter them across their network), there is a 1x5 endpiece with a logical fence-layout (and some props) that can be used on the right end (or left, by turning it 'upside down', though the left side has a 'natural' end in most configurations).

I made extensive use of timed props for vehicles and cargo, so the visuals change very much within a day - everything from jampacked to ghosttown ... well, not quite, there are enough static props as well ;-)

Of course such a large set needs some dependencies, though I'm confident I didn't go overboard - these are the packs I used (just for info, there are no lots yet for DL):

PEG-CDK3_SUPER-PAK_RESOURCE.dat (5.6 Mb) - timed props, vehicles, Vandy building, textures;
BSC MEGA Props - JES Vol01.dat (11 Mb) - perfect for this project, as it contains mainly freightyard gadgets (not too much useless ballast);
PEG_ChainLinkFence_RESOURCE.dat (0.3 Mb) - simply the best :-)

[Krio]

Most amazing freight station what the game has so far seen  skills, you have them

[wynney]

 Very nice paeng   :thumbup:
i for 1 will find this freight station complementing to alot of my cities
will be waiting for the upload
catch ya   

[Paeng]

Thanks, Krio! :-)

@Wynney - yeah, I'll still have to put some finishing touches ... and do the 'paperwork' ;-)

btw, I have one question - that little end-lot (the 1x5), I made that just a plaza, so now that sits in the parks-menu... can I somehow get that into the rails-menu as well, or would that be considered wrong?

[tamorr]

   Well as long as the name matches the set I don't see why not.... Technically one lot can be in as many menus as you want... But that would be rediculous to have in all menus... To have it in the park and Rail menu can be done, I think all you have to do is add the Rail ID after the park ID. My tutorial has the values you need...

[Paeng]

To have it in the park and Rail menu can be done

No, I want it only in the rail menu, together with the rest of the set :-)
Actually I found it can be done with LEProp... ;-)

[clearlypowa]

Hi there,

first impression : nice and beautiful freightyard  :

I would add some suggestions :

- to add a parking area (lots 5x2) in the area 4 (near the street in the left)
- A big lot like this need inside a small police station, to prevent the bug crime in megalot

U have done a really hard and so beautiful work  :clap:.  U deserve my friend a big 10/10 for this amazing project  :clap:  :clap:

Keep going 

[Paeng]

Thanks for your suggestions! :-)
Here my thoughts on those -

to add a parking area (lots 5x2) in the area 4 (near the street in the left)

I thought a lot about adding in parking lots, but decided against it. There are so many variations of readymade parking lots and as many (or more) textures, so I'd rather let the players choose what size, position and texture they prefer. Also I much dislike the standard car-clusters, they are oddly off-size and always have those black pixels around them. I havn't found better (timed) props yet (except some single SUVs).

- A big lot like this need inside a small police station, to prevent the bug crime in megalot

Well, it's not a megalot, they are rather four completely independent lots. I hope 8x5 (the biggest size) is not yet considered a megalot and prone to this bug! So again I'd rather let the players choose their preferred type of stations (police and fire) around the yard... Besides - I would have no clue, how to put a working policestation inside a trainstation *grin*

Now don't get mad :-)) - keep your ideas rolling, I really appreciate it!

[Becca]

I made a set of parking lots for industrial areas (which I need to upload here), currently on the STEX.