CJ Http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e320/cartokurtis/city%20journal%20fosstul/fosstulacapitolpofosstul

Dont mind me asking, is that the water cube swimming stadium in Beijing? Well if it is.. then I would like to suggest that u may want to look at this version instead?

http://xlnation.net/resources/beijing-national-aquatics-center-water-cube-zhsh1211-version.654/

It has a nicer texture and looks stunning at night and day. only drawback for you would be that its slightly larger than the current one you're using and may not fit in that same place as the former.. Anyway its just a suggestion coz I think you have a good city going on there and i thought this might help..

 

Yup it is and the best part is the plaza is green during the day and turns to a spectacular blue at night. one of my favourite mods I must say

i would definitely suggest u try it. u wont be disappointed.. Just make sure to check the prerequisites if there is any.. have a good day

 

So you indeed think I was just a pretender who has never done any city, never presented some?
Well, that's the difference between you and me... I check things and look for facts rather
than just ramble around, as you did just here...

Okay, let me start my argument:
1) Do you know what a journal is? A journal is a series of articles related to a certain topic
with the author either discussing a different sub-topic each article or partially unveiling facts
about a certain theme; here, the creators of the CJs shall present finished parts of their city
with a little or longer background story. Of course we are not overcritical, we do accept also
unfinished cities... to a certain degree which each of us has to define for himself/herself
with regard to the unfinished city being part of a City Journal...
Now let's take this picture for example:
"The central area of Fosstul. There will be an old town and modern city center. There will be extensive industrial ports along the bay."


Now, tell me, are you serious? You can say a lot about your plannings, but why should I trust you?
That part has maybe 20 roads in it, but you go ahead and already say how it will look like?
One could call this either really brave, or totally naive. Any map contains so many difficulties to face that people
will barely end up with their initial plans, and sometimes you don't even want to. But yeah, you as
master in planning ("But, I am not an expert at building in CitiesXL, I do think I have a good eye for realism." see your
answer to some review) can surely foresee this all...
Coming back to my first point, how could I accept this hardly finished city as the city of a consistent journal?
You had the option to post your photos in the forums http://xlnation.net/forums/city-photos.9/,
that is where you can present your projects before you actually start a CJ.
And well, don't tell me that you did not know about this option, it is somehow part of
common sense to look out for such things...
You even stated in your response to someone's review that this was not the start of the journal,
so why you did not think about to have the city's photos in your personal project thread
before designing a whole CJ when the city was maybe 30% done? It is not even 5% done yet,
there will come so many points in time when you will need to reconsider your initial planning
and totally overwork an area. Ask yourself, would you want to read a CJ when you do NOT
have the slightest hint that the creator will NOT have to rebuilt many parts of the city and hence also
change the whole CJ, too, which will make it certainly uncertain, unstable?

2) Yes, go ahead and call me a pretender, yes, do so, and don't check whether I made some city
before...
Golly Gosh, is there not an option that you click on my avatar, and look for my content?
Maybe look around in the forums, maybe look for my tutorials...
just somewhere, you could have found me easily, within just two or three mouse-clicks.
Then you would have seen that I already made up some projects, and that I already
had a CJ, e.g. here: http://xlnation.net/threads/kipates-projects.1227/
maybe have a look at people's background before you just start to ramble around
calling me a pretender and so on... And well, I had gotten several 5 star reviews,
so maybe my city was not the worst (I don't claim it to be the best either)...

3) Now for my critique, which apparently hurt you emotionally:
First, in your profile you describe yourself to be a 32 years old guy. I personally don't think
that this was the first time that someone more or less directly told you that your achievement
was not amusing him/her at all. And I was fully conscious that me giving you a
terrible rating with not using the "anonymous" option could make you angry;
but nonetheless I did it, so you would have someone to complain to;
but I did really not see that coming, I thought you were a grown adult,
who knows what to do in such situations...
And once again, I was not the only one who gave you such a terrible rating,
so instead of starting to recognize that your city could not satisfy the demands
of at least half of your audience, you just call us all pretenders, very mature...
And for heaven's sake, did you at least try out what I recommended to you?
I see you writing a sentence like this:
"I don't box out squares or try to be exact. I just line up my feeder lanes, get a good area, work from the bottom level up,
and draw out on paper the more complex exchanges."
So you grab yourself enough space for an interchange, but you don't even
want to try to avoid pylons of bridges standing on the roads below?
It is not that this was really difficult when you take enough space,
as you said you have been doing so far...
And on top of that, I would opine that almost anyone else is trying really hard to avoid
pylons of bridges not standing on roads; and btw, even for the most narrow
stretches you can use Monty's 30m wide bridge http://xlnation.net/resources/modern-cable-stayed-bridge.175/
For avoiding common streets that move up or down to have steep ramps, you can use
pharmist's OW Roads first, connect the ends of the streets with a OW Road, then the terrain
will terraform automatically, then delete the OW Road and connect the endings of the street
with the common streets again...
Other then that, I really did not want this city to end up in a more or less probable disaster,
hence I indeed critisized you at this rather early stage, but I also gave you hints what to do next.
What is so totally bad about this?

By the way, there is the option to "report" something. Moderators and the administrator, IcyHot,
will get informed and check whether my comment was inadequate...

 

First, this is not harassment, I just don't like to be called a pretender when I'm not,
and when someone can easily see I'm not by clicking on my profile, go to "Postings"
and then scroll down and click on "Find all threads by kipate"...
On top of that, you emphasized your anger by shouting "Fuck off",
which raises the level a bit, not?
So pretending? Nope! Belittling? Hmmh, yes, I do not fully disagree to the
statement that I sounded a bit belittling. Well, first of all, you yourself say it is a

Yes, so it is not a fully CJ for me. But as soon as it becomes one, you might not want to have
a 1 star rating there anymore, not? So, as soon as anything is better, I should change my rating,
and I really want to do so! The point why I gave this bad rating at this early stage was
that in a previous discussion, yes the one about the pylons of the bridges standing on roads below,
you stated that you would not want to care about such things. And then I was like "WTF?",
I mean, yes, of course you can build things the way you want, but the more you build,
the more experienced you become, and after a short time,you will most likely agree with me
that avoiding pylons of bridges standing on roads is rather easy. Maybe we will vary in
the degree of easiness, but we will both find it easy.
AND most likely, you will curse yourself that you did not try to avoid such before.
That's the way I've experienced it myself and it is also the way of many others I've spoken to
(not a direct example,but I rather insisted Peter912 to build nice and decorative parks around a mosque in his city;
he finally did and was really happy with it, and later also stated that he might become
addicted to making such parks/plazas).
Now when I see that you started making a journal without apparently having
a medium level of knowledge about the game and all the tricks to enhance realism and beauty,
I was afraid that you might just say "screw it" after a while. And that I think should be avoided.
And hence I reviewed your CJ and gave this, yes, scathing criticism...
It is not that I think you will not become better, it is that I think you will become better
and regret what you did in the past, which will then probably still be part of the then present
with your CJ of Fosstul...
And well, don't know, but the tutorials that I recommended, some by Denco and Discopolis,
are really useful...

 

then this is just my lack of knowledge about the English language;
I meant the noun to the word pretentious, and I somewhat thought
that it was pretender, but it seems to be "phony" or similar...
Why do you not speak of a pretender, this is so confusing,
English language...

 

If I'm correct,I said that I will change my rating as soon as you improved. This is not ordering you to do,
this is just what I meant before, you surely would not want 1 star ratings that refer to old times, do you?
And well, that is a good advice rather than just schooling or forcing you to do so...
And what is pretentious with this? And I did not even recommend you my own tutorials, I clearly said
which ones you could have a look at...
And well, yes, I made an educated guess about your present CXL expertise, and I think I hit it quite good.
And you say I was belittling your CJ, belittling as degrading? Well, belittling to what, I would like to ask?
To other CJs, when almost ALL of them are better than yours? What is belittling with that?
Go and compare your own CJ with others... and some great CJs are not even migrated yet...
Belittling towards your future CXL expertise? No, you will improve, you will be better with every second you play
more...
What I was belittling was your opinion about your own CJ's presence and future...
You are the one who already makes assumptions about the areas you want to build when you seemingly lack
of experience. And not even seemingly, it is a fact, you don't overwork
the terrain, you don't care about pylons of bridges, you don't care about the slope
of bridge ramps. So yes, I am an experienced player who wants you to become better,
and yes, the tone I chose was hard, but the message hence does not become wrong...
SO why would I be pretentious or belittling? I am just experienced, and have some smart
ideas to improve the realism, of which I finally shared some... others may have
other ideas which they can share or not, they may have different ideas about the same topic,
too (e.g. Razox)... and I do care about my city quality and may need a long time until
I can finish just parts of it, what is pretentious with this? GO and ask
someone like Miguel about how long he needed for making Tayra and Linda Bay
work (which are not part of the new XLN yet), or go and ask gbojanic, or nicknick...
And I insist that called you immature, because the way you act is the same
as that of a boy/youth who does not want to reflect his own thoughts...
And the only reason you don't like Social Media seems to be because you
obviously cannot handle critique...
And it was you who just did rumble around, calling me pretentious, and implying that
I had no clue of CXL when asking for the existence of my CJs; and yes, "Fuck off"
is always a nice word to say. So what should I call you?
"stubborn"? "undiscerning"? "reluctant"?