Some time ago I created a number of maps which were built using just one shape. While these maps looked great in region view they weren’t exactly the best to play – One was very hard and expensive to build on, while the other was so open and easy it got a little boring in the end.

I had an interesting time making Island Nation a more natural map while balancing out some open areas for large cities. I decided I’d like to make another natural looking map but again limit myself to only using one shape to build all areas of the region. I also imposed a few more guidelines upon my design;

- Only circles can be used to make the map.
- – Further: only four sizes of circle at four different shades may be used (smaller > lighter [125px, 60px, 30px, 10px]).

- The map must contain;
- – Two rivers joining.
- – One island.
- – Geological activity (so I can have mountains on low land).

The region is made up of nine large size cities so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting some nice large populations growing. I hope there is just enough landscape variation that it makes things interesting and you get some good ideas for building different types of communities.

I should have some time over the holidays to update you with how my region is going after I’ve started a city in each area. I have still got that Deadly Furry Cute relaunch to finish too…

Download the New Eden Bay Area region now!

New Eden Bay Area terrain map

New Eden Bay Area region preview

In designing Island Nation I’ve gone for an archipelago island chain, with a mixture of large, medium and small city tiles.  The overall map size is still fairly small, being a long strip, but because large tiles are included the regions population can get much higher. Each tiles land mass is surrounded by water, in all cases this is enough for marina to be an option, very helpful in the later game to bust those aforementioned caps.

You’ll also notice I’ve gone a lot more realistic with this map. There are still large areas of flat land in some of the city tiles enabling large-scale city building, but the overall feel is closer to what you’d expect from an actual volcanic island chain. You’ll also find reclaiming land from the sea is sometimes your only option to advance.

Download the Island Chain region now!

Island Nation terrain map

Island Nation region preview

Island Nation examples

Why? Well that’s simple – and I’m sure every SC4 fan will agree – sometimes you want to play SimCity 4 but don’t want to spend time adding to a current large region which will – and it will – zap all your time away.  What we need is something quick and small that will only take a few hours total to play.

This map came to life while researching art deco stained glass for a project.  In short it’s a stained glass window style design consisting of two medium and eight small city zones.  You’ll notice in my haste I set the sea level too low and as such most of the map is water.  At this point my usual course of action would be to jump back in to Photoshop and fix the issue.  As I’d not yet designed an archipelago I thought it would make an interesting challenge to leave as-is. Also note the shallowness of the surrounding water. It should make reclaiming land relatively cheap.

Download the Stain region now!

Stain terrain map

Stain region preview

Today we talk about Sector 1. ‘This is the center piece you’ve been looking for’ said the brain, which continued ‘however I’ve had this thought…’ NO bad brain!

Continuing to use the inspiration for Sector 7 I moved forward eventually creating something far less complex than I had originally envisioned.  Although not what I set out to complete the map fulfills my criteria for a center piece region and I can see how the city layout will unfold as play progresses – I like to have a plan.

I’ll be making a post when I’ve made a good bit of progress, in the mean time if you download and play the map please let me know!

Download the Sector 1 custom map now!

Sector 1 terrain map

Sector 1 region preview

Both Solaris and Triangle Nation were designed around a single large city in the center of the region.  In theory this would allow the smaller outer cities to feed the center large city.  In practice the smaller cities just aren’t enough to boost population in the larger city and region as a whole.  The new theory is still based around centralized large cities – cunning is it not – but this time I’ll use many of them, supported by many more smaller cities around them.

Sector 7 was inspired by Palm Leaves in Dubai.  Initially this region was designed to be the center piece of my ‘theoretical’ planet, where i would try to finally get super skyscrapers.  In truth I was just not happy enough with my work on the region to call it a ‘center piece’.  Not being a center piece is one thing, not being a good map is another.  With the amount of time I’d put into the map I decided to finish it off and make it available.

Download the Sector 7 region now!

Sector 7 terrain

Sector 7 region preview

Because of my own selfish need for perfection I actually haven’t ever played a city on this region.  If you do please let me know!

Solaris Region – Here you’ll note I specifically laid out the map to have a large central city. This city can then be fueled and supplied by the outer smaller cities.

Sol Metro – You’ll notice that while the 4×4 grid system here works I still didn’t include enough open spaces to stop the stagnation process once a city grows up. I’ve put down an airport in this city even though it really is a no-no for a large city – soooo much pollution – but commerce asked for it and even though I had enough links out already I thought I’d throw one down.

Sol Metro Close Up – Just a quick close up of the Residential zones that have built up into medium sized skyscrapers. Again they’re unlikely to build much higher because of the little open spaces available.

The Peaks Community - A good mixture of all zones here. I’ve still not learnt my ‘open spaces = good’ mantra yet.

Sin City – I thought I’d show the zone layout for this city before an actual screen shot of the buildings because it’s a good example of when a Commercial zone pollution buffer works. Open spaces better designed but still not enough.

Sin City – Building view of the above layout showing the pollution barrier of commercial zones.

New New York – This city is a good example of how mixed Residential and Commercial zones can actually work together to build an overall higher wealth city – except those abandoned buildings… ehm.

Because of a few errors I made early on this region was never going to build up enough population for any massive buildings to appear. The fact that the region only has one large city zone will eventually also cause problems and breaking region population caps will be a nightmare.

Time for a new custom zone I think. One with more expansion options and more large city zones.

This time I tried to not think too much about the eventual city/region layout and instead concentrate on producing something very geometric.  In truth the inspiration was some of my wife’s all over fashion prints. Simple shapes can make beautiful patterns and as we’re about to find out, can create interesting challenges to the budding city planner.

So here it is: Triangle Nation.  She’s built solely from triangles, only elevation differentiates one triangle from another.  That might sound simple enough, but with no smoothing or weather erosion to tone down their harshness the mountain sides can get pretty steep!

Download the Triangle Nation region now!

Triangle Nation terrain map

Triangle Nation region preview

I did actually play test this map, cunningly however my computer decided to crash and even more cunningly I forgot to save. Very newb I know – not to be confused with noob.  Since then I’ve not had time to play the map again, I’d love to know if anyone else has!

Not wanting to stray too far from the original premise of manicuring the region to create beautiful and futuristic cities I had to find some inspiration with which to work.  I decided to look outwardly off our humble little planet and to the stars.  Plus I’d just watched Solaris again. Yes the Soderbergh remake.

Download the Solaris region now!

The Solaris region map.

Solaris region preview

What’s the worst thing you can do when starting to play Sim City 4 again?  Questioning the 4×4 grid and forgetting the advantage of doubling up roads that’s what.

OK it’s not actually all that bad to forget those things as it can make for more interesting city layouts than the usually mundane – but highly effective – 4×4 double road – or avenue – grid system.  As this was my first time playing a custom map created by me for me I decided to play with some alternative layouts.

Sunspear Region Overview - You’ll notice I haven’t filled every zone. I usually don’t. Boredom sets in at some point when things don’t go my way OR I find out the map isn’t that great. It’s a recurring theme. Also I usually use comedy names.

Weyland-Yutani Beaches - Commerce and Residential zones like the coast and open spaces but the large number of smaller roads make traffic noise and pollution an issue.

Weyland-Yutani education center – Having a University near both Residential and Commerce zones helps boost demand. That alone though isn’t enough, just check out the empty houses right near the ocean because of – again – busy roads.  Also notice how sometimes a Commercial buffer to Industry can backfire.

ExoGeni the cheat-scape – Yes I used the services cheat here by using this city to power, water and clean up my major city. I don’t use it often but sometimes it speeds up play. Using the cheat will also mean you need the business deals. Ekk radiation!

ExoGeni Center – A lot of the time a ‘cheat’ city like this one can actually have a nice population. I also liked my cunning use of the X road system. (^_^)

Cruciform Center – Not really too much to say with this one other than I had a nice time laying out the roads. One thing I will note about the above and below screen shots is that although elevated rail looks good, it really doesn’t work as well as standard railways.

That’s all I’m going to show you from this play session. I’m never going to show you every city in a region because, well, some are just plain boring. That or they are farm cities and lets face it once you’ve seen one farm city you’ve seen them all.

Few things to note here: Single two way roads cause havoc to a cities traffic once the population rises. Not leaving enough open spaces means cities can only grow to a certain size beacuse they become undesirable. And finally putting down infrastructure you don’t need – railways, parking, hospitals etc – will eat you’re money super quick.

There are five easy steps to installation:

1) Load SimCity 4 and create a new region with any name you choose. Plains or Ocean, does not matter which. Close/Exit the game.

2) Go to your SimCity 4 regions folder – usually My Documents/SimCity 4 – find the name of the region you just created. Unzip the files in to this folder.

3) Restart SimCity 4. Your region should now show a new size and zone layout. If it doesn’t, switch to another region and back again.

4) Press [shift] + [ctrl] + [alt] + r to open the load map window. Navigate again to the files you unzipped and select the map.

* The process of generating the region may take a while depending on it’s size and the speed of your computer.

5) Play the game.

* If you have any problems installing any of these maps please leave me a comment and i’ll see what i can do to help you out.