Ferriere

Fabulous journal and a fantastic city that you created!!!
I have to say that there are some parts that I do not like as much as the rest, but that does not matter in my rating
For example, despite the fact that I love the custom-made train station a lot, it seems a bit unrealistic to me that there is such a slope. Usually, engineers do everything they can to have only small gradients :'D
Also, at parts I would have wished for some more variety concerning your choice of tree plazas. You mostly used just three plazas with trees on, and you hardly mixed them to create some kind of smooth
transition.
Regarding plazas in general, at parts I would have preferred another choice. For example, that huge gray plaza in front of the large train station looks boring and dreary.
Also, at parts I would have wished if you had avoided these red dots and connected the building with a pedestrain path or the like^^
Some critique of mine is that you hardly worked towards the river, you mostly just placed tree plazas alongside, and the small district along the river is placed oddly close to the water, I can't imagine that this part would withstand annual floods due to melting snow. And I still miss one or another more school^^
But as said, just minor points
I love the city! I love how you created the city such that it really looks like it grew from its historic core to its 19th/20th century borders, well done! I have to say that I am impressed that you took your time to construct not only one wall around the city, but two, which was quite common among rich ancient cities. Really nice
I also admire your custom-made buildings and structures. The hospital on the hilltop is amazing, you wisely combined fitting no-collision buildings such that the whole complex really looks like it has been expanded over time! Same for the students' apartments! And of course, the Galleria is a true masterpiece! Fantastic composition of buildings, and I would love to saunter there
I also like your idea of giving us the impression that there is another station below that main train station. I mean, the same has actually been done within certain Italian cities like Torino, Bologna, or Florence!
The general layout looks also hyperrealistic! You did not try for some overly complex highway interchanges, but I think the way it is now is more than convincing to me The road layout of the districts is also fine!
Last but not least, of course, I could not leave without a single comment about your glorious work on the old town. The way you orchestrated lower lying districts with districts on the hills, the way you placed the churches as focal points, that's the work of a master, awesome! And the composition truly pays off, your images look amazing!
Keep it up!

 

Hey

Of course I analyzed the way you built your city I enjoyed that part a lot

Concerning your points, I think I understand most of your decisions, no worries
About the transition part, I generally recommend the journals by Clemech4, he always creates amazing landscapes
For example his competition entry of Tsimarza:

You can see that he used several tree plazas to play with the density, and sometimes used different forest plazas to give us the impression of a mixed forest And especially in the left lower part, you can recognize the transition. Of course, with more patience, it may be done even better, but that's up to everyone

There are some nice school mods around
Civic Services | XLNation - Cities XXL

Oh yeah, Carcasonne of course is the number one masterpiece, and you're right, it's hard to imitate. I was working for hours on terraforming the hill within Arenzano to be able to place the castle the way I wanted, and it is not even half as large as yours, so I totally get your frustration

 

Autumn trees? That's cheating

 

Well, because of the colours they add to the images, it makes everything look idyllic, scenic^^
Which mod are you talking about? Most XL mods work in XXL, if you use the general fix by Monty.

 

Hello,
As promised in my comment, I come back to comment on your city.

Even if I fell in love with your city there are some points to improve.
- To avoid the red squares I invite you to place a path just in front of the red square.


- Regarding parks and gardens, I would have liked to see more diversification in the choice of plazas that you used.


- Concerning certain crossroads and roundabouts:
you can use the bridge routes to avoid too many pedestrian crossings.


- I would have liked a little more variety of building in the construction of the "new city",
I'm talking about German buildings,
you will gain realism by inserting some modern buildings, between the German buildings.
(the old town and the historic center are perfect)

- I guess the banks of the river will be fitted later

- At the moment there are few details on the places, but I suppose that will come later also. Is not it?
Well, not much more to say about it!


Now I'm going to tell you about the more than positive points
- I love your historic center, and especially the choices of church placement or other landmark.
Santa maria cathedral, located below in a more recent historic center is well thought out.

- I love the few maps and maps that you made to present your city!

- The road network is well structured, I like the expressway that goes around the city from the north and continues west of the city.

- the location of landmarks and other important buildings are perfectly balanced, distributed, in the city.

- Your night images are particularly well retouched!

- I love this pic ! obviously it would have even more charm with the banks of the landscaped river


I congratulate you, it's always a pleasure for me, after 10 years of playing, seeing cities like yours!
Now, I look forward to the rest!

 

Nice to see you back again

And I totally get your frustration with the steep banks. I have to admit that I myself hate working on the river shores a lot; but I want everyone else to suffer, too

I mean, on the one hand, a lower grassy area with some pedpaths could serve as some flood protection area, which has always been important. And also for recreational purposes, of course. You could build some small football fields there, for example. Given that the other riverside already has a steep shoreline, that option with the lowered pedpaths may be the better one.

On the other hand, it's a small river and it's still a game. And if you place two embankments/esplanades close by, the you could also use the terrain to build more houses on the same height level.

Maybe other people have better ideas, let's see

 

I think you made the right choices, a mix of the three, seems perfectly suited to the shores of your city!

I particularly like the idea of the pedestrian path bordering the banks, a little as if it were in the bed of the river, with a few benches and a few picnic tables.

The whole surmounted by a masonry dike, so as to stem the flooding of the river ....

Maybe I could create a new dike on 3Dsmax .... If you have any ideas, proposals, photos, don't hesitate, I can try to do that.