Millstone

homeandaway · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 3927 Location: Northampton, UK

^^Look at that lady (or man) strooling down the side of the dirt road knowing that she is in paradise! Mr. Green

Another brilliant update mate! It really is! I can feel being right in the centre of your lovely town!

PS : I noticed that there is millions of signs of the 5th picture down!

apeguy · Posted: Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:55 pm Post subject:

nice! Ilike the tudor homes, has a very midlle-aged British feel to it! also, I definately agree with what Alex said. Very Happy

Angie · Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 118 Location: Ontario

Looks great. Smile

needgames · Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 48 Location: The Netherlands

Thanks, homeandaway, if it makes you feel like you're in the middle of it, then my goal is accomplished Very Happy

(my goals being to make the reader feel how the city develops and how the sims live in it). I think it is a lady strolling down the road, and she is in paradise. Think of it: just a little crime, no pollution, she's rich and she has never to be insecure about anything, since religion tells her exactly what is good and what is wrong. Mr. Green

And well, about the signs. Some people are bothered by them, me personally I do not care very much. The signs appear on all crossroads with three ways to go, so if one creates a square with something like a sculpture in the middle, like I've done here, lots of them appear. Razz

Thanks, apeguy, I'm glad you like the tudors. Very Happy

Personally I placed them in Germany, but that's probably because I live close to that country. Nevertheless it makes Millstone rather international, since to me the homesteads look like they should be in France. Mr. Green

Thanks, Angie, I'm glad you like it so much. Very Happy

The two towns of Millstone and Millington have been co-operating ever since they were founded. Despite their differences in religion and lifestyle they have never been vindictive towards each other. Tangible evidence of this friendship is the recently founded farm co-op, which is basically just a big farm that has been built on the border between the two towns. Because half of the workers of the co-op are citizens of Millstone a few new farm houses have been constructed in Millstone, making its population rise from 1356 to1450 inhabitants, and the number of workers from 152 to 160. In the next pic the farm co-op can be seen, with the town of Millington in the distance.

A bit to the south of Millington the lands turn much drier. The change in climate and soil composition in this direction allows for two sugar cane fields to be operated by the town. The building with the red roof in the next pic is one of them. Sugar cane production is very labor intensive, but it makes good money, so lots of hacienda’s are to be found in the area. Also the vegetation here is a bit different with some savannah trees that have grown here.

The sims that work in a sugar cane field have a hard life. They work seven days a week and therefore have little time to visit venues and relax. Luckily their bosses go easy on them. I tracked one worker for several days. One night after work he drove into town and got drunk, so he walked home. Since the sugar cane fields are quite far away from the town it took him till twelve pm the next day to get there. Luckily he only needed like ten minutes of sleep, after which he was not drunk anymore and he had no hang-over. So he got to his work at about two, worked till five and didn’t get fired. This little adventure then had made him so happy that he could go at least two more days without doing anything but working. Luckily the workers of the sugar cane fields do not have to go into town every time they need to visit a venue, since lots of altars have been constructed in the area.

The town of Millington counts 931 souls 28 days after it has been founded. Of those inhabitants 147 are workers, of which no one is unemployed. The economy is doing really well with a daily tax income of 21,000 simoleons. This shows the prosperity of Millington over that of Millstone, since more money is generated with fewer inhabitants. The next pic shows present day Millington. In the front the new commercial district can be seen, with the flea market in the middle of the square. The small building to the right of it with the lights on inside is the corner deli, where delicious food of dubious quality is being served. Sims can get ill from eating it.

The next pic shows the flea market in close-up. It sells cargo pants, used clothing and toys. The small building across the road to the left is the butcher. Here the sims buy the meat for their regular barbecues, but one has to take care to buy it as fresh as possible or one might get sick from it. To the right of it is the dive bar, an obscure place where local criminals mix in with the regular folk. Everyone leaving this locale is always drunk and runs a high risk of getting ill. Because of all this the members of the temperance union in Millstone always try to close it. Up till now they have succeeded in that once. The local sims were not really happy about it, so the bar opened its doors again after some time. Maybe they have some inside connections in the adjacent town hall that allow them to continue to have a bad influence on the sims of Millington.

Religion and economy go hand in hand in Millington. Alongside the square with the public sculpture a bank and a parochial school lay peacefully side by side. The homesteads that originally were here have been torn down to make place for the new town hall.

Also alongside the square lays one of the two tract mansions in Millington. In these homes the very rich live a very happy live, paying taxes in concurrence with their income. All this economic growth got the region the bronze prosperity medal awarded, for having more than 150 prosperity points. In the next pic one can also see a tourist wandering around town.

Let’s take a quick look at the societal values. Millington produces 16 productivity, 138 prosperity, 3 creativity, 84 spirituality, 17 authority and 5 knowledge. Apparently things have gone out of control a bit and over time the sims of Millington have come to appreciate the good life over a strong belief. Besides that they are hard workers. They appreciate the production of goods just for the benefit of having things, unlike the sims of Millstone who only produce what they really need and for the spiritual rewards it gives. With very low production of creativity, authority and knowledge Millington seems to be a really capitalist society that values the free market and people get rewarded only if they work hard. Still the spirituality production is substantial, so the community is strongly regulated by a common belief system that tells the sims what is acceptable to do and what not. This prevents it from falling apart.

The next pic shows the other tract mansion of Millington and the back side of its bed & breakfast.

Pollution in Millington is very light with only a few cars riding along the roads. The next pic shows an old-fashioned one. The realtors to the left are making lots of money and the bed & breakfast beyond it puts tourists up for the night, attracting criminals to Millington as well. Crime is considered to be high, but it is very erratic. On many days no crimes or just two are reported, but occasionally the number might jump up to as high as nine. But the sheriff is doing a fine job, cause every criminal will be arrested in the end.

Health is considered to be excellent. Over time only four sims have fallen ill, but they got cured cause of a fine healthcare system. The midwife makes her contribution to this. The little blue house in the next pic is her home.

In the next pic between the hacienda and the homestead the town’s tool shed can be seen. Here tools for repairing town property are stored. On the road a delivery truck is on its way, bringing fresh vegetables and meat to where it is needed.

Let’s end this update with a night view of the commercial district of Millington. The building to the right of the pawn shop is the local pub. It is open till twelve am and it is a perfectly respectable place to go. Not everybody leaving it is drunk and the beer is of good quality.

apeguy · Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:28 pm Post subject:

cool update! I really like the flea market & the farm co-op, both Millstone & Millington seem to be doing really well! Crush

homeandaway · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 3927 Location: Northampton, UK

Hi mate!
Another lovely update you have shown us! A town that is growing by the coast! Very Happy

Are you showing this CJ at SimTropolis with different pictures? Neutral

Or is that Millington?

Angie · Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 118 Location: Ontario

Very cool! Crush

4th pic's got a great view.

needgames · Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 48 Location: The Netherlands

Thanks, apeguy, things are really well in both villages, indeed. Nevertheless some sims are dissatisfied, as you will see in today's update. Mr. Green

Hello, homeandaway, I'm glad you like it so much. Very Happy

I can understand you're confused when you've been over to Simtropolis. The New Millington cj currently running there is a sequel to this Millstone cj, and as such I will post it in due time here on SimCity Central. Mr. Green

Thanks, Angie, that pic is indeed really nice. Cool

So let's go with the eighth update:

Again some sims in Millstone got dissatisfied with the way things were done in the town. They thought that deepening ones faith should come, not just from adhering to the ways as described in the holy books, but from thinking and debating about the meaning of it all. Undoubtedly the abundance of bookstores in the town has been a major cause of this shift in the way of thinking. These freethinkers could also not agree with the ways of the sims in Millington, since their ways of gathering material possessions were considered to be abject and unreligious. So they founded the new village of Mildarville to the east of Millstone where they could practice their way of religious experience in freedom, without the council of elders trying to force them to stick to the old ways.

The first pic of this update shows the village 5 days after it has been founded. Clearly the stone church and the communal garden can be seen, which are both important aspects of religious life. To the left an ice cream shoppe can be seen (with the striped awning), and at the crossroads a florist is located (with the green awning). These both are expressions of the idea that religion should be fun and re-interpreted every day of ones life, since these buildings are based on the societal value of creativity.

Mildarville’s income of 5,000 simoleons a day comes from the one tulip nursery and the three honey farms that can be found in this rural area. In the next pic a honey farm can be seen in the front, the tulip nursery is located just beyond it. Ofcourse the tulip nursery supplies the florist with the necessary tulips.

The sims of Mildarville like the cute things in life, so most of them live in cottages. One is shown in the next pic.

Mildarville at the moment counts 108 souls, of which 18 are workers. No one is unemployed. Their moods vary from elated to ecstatic.

In the next pic the center of Mildarville is shown with the sight of beautiful Millstone in the distance. When sims want to travel between the two towns they have to pass through the spooky area in between. Ghosts scare travelers off whenever they can.

To the south of Mildarville, across the river, lies the town of Millington. In the next pic it lies quietly in the light of the setting sun.

At night the roads of Mildarville lie peacefully in the light of the sparkling stars. Probably some sims can’t fall asleep since they have stomach ache from eating too much ice cream.

Angie · Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 118 Location: Ontario

Wow, great work on Mildarville! Very Happy

Neat little cottages....

apeguy · Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:07 pm Post subject:

I agree with Angie about the cottages, nice little villiage you have there mate! Mr. Green

homeandaway · Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 3927 Location: Northampton, UK

What Alex and Angie have really said! Great little cute cottages Smile

Did you have to download them? Or were they ploppable/growable?

needgames · Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 48 Location: The Netherlands

Thanks, Angie, the cottages are indeed really nice. Very Happy

Thanks, apeguy, I'm glad you like my little village. Very Happy

Thanks, homeandaway. Very Happy

I did not download the cottages, they're just your standard vanilla SCS. And in SCS everything is ploppable, there is no zoning, and no building will ever look worn, it's always occupied and sims do not complain very much when they're unemployed. It's real easy. Mr. Green

I'm in a real hurry, so we've already arrived at the final update of the Millstone journal:

Mildarville has matured to a fully grown town in the past 20 days. It has become even a bigger town than was intended. Recently a tsunami struck the coast of Simnation, not so far away from Mildarville, so many sims that lost their land and homes sought refuge here. The town councils of the three towns first thought that doing nothing would be the best course of action. They thought that without having a home or a job these sims would soon leave again. But they didn’t. They wandered along the roads of the Millstone region, getting more and more angry and wreaking havoc by closing down well producing workplaces. So something had to be done. Temporary houses and jobs were created with the goal to destroy those again when everybody had settled in, in an attempt to force them to move to another city. This also didn’t work. When a sims’ home is destroyed he becomes homeless. This seems to be true also for sims that moved into the city long ago. Apparently it is impossible to kick them out once they’re in. So in the end all three towns contributed to solving this problem by building a couple more savings & loan offices and the necessary homesteads to house all the new workers. In these confusing times the records were not kept very well, so it is quite impossible to give statistics for the towns separately. The first pic shows Mildarville after the great influx of sims with Millington lying in the distance.

So let’s just talk about the Millstone region as a whole in this final update. It is 99 days ago that the first settlers arrived here. The number of inhabitants has grown to a bit more than 3,000 in that time. An exact number is hard to give, since it changes from time to time. There are exactly 458 jobs available and an equal amount of workers. The venue capacity is 423, which seems to be more than enough, since workers feel usually ecstatic, and a few feel happy or elated. Occasionally a worker becomes angry, but this seems to be alcohol related. They return back to happy within one or two days time. The next pic shows the central square of Mildarville with the town common in the middle of it. Clearly the town hall, the evangelical center, the mission, the bank and the temple can be seen. Apparently the sims from Mildarville embrace the religion of Millington, since they have constructed a temple. The town common indicates that these creative minds enjoy the sight of something beautiful.

The next pic shows Mildarville’s stone church, which indicates that they seem to take the better of two worlds, since apparently they haven’t forgotten their religious roots, which lie in Millstone. Next to the church is a fountain. The sound of the water falling really makes a sim connect to the spiritual aspects of life.

The central square of Mildarville is adorned with some of the most magnificent buildings. Economically the Millstone region is doing very well. Its workplaces make some 56,000 simoleons a day in tax income; its treasury has accumulated over 1.5 million of it.

With its very light pollution, which comes only from a few cars that are riding around, the Millstone region is still considered to be a green city. This makes it a pleasant place to live. The next pic shows how well nature is doing here. The fishing hole next to one of the two tract mansions of Mildarville attracts lots of sims who just want to have a quiet afternoon to appreciate everything nature has to offer.

But not everything is fine in paradise. Crime is considered to be high. The highest number of crimes reported in one day has been 29, but there also have been days that crime was virtually absent. However in the past 99 days 200 pockets have been picked. There were 288 crimes in total, but only 236 arrests have been made, so some criminals were allowed to commit a crime more than once. Besides that there have been 161 fights in the three towns. But usually the streets are quiet, as shows the next pic of a square in Mildarville with a medium fountain in the center of it.

The next pic shows another peaceful road in Mildarville. Clearly the only tudor styled home of Mildarville can be seen. So let’s take the time to give a few more statistics. The Millstone region has 4466 meters of road and 500 buildings have been placed. Not all of these have survived though. Some demolishing has been done as well. Over time 4190 special sims have wandered the streets, 45 of them were hippies. Furthermore 5 workplaces have been shut down by rogue sims (those that have become so angry that they go on strike). No fires have occurred in the region.

One very special sim visiting Mildarville has been the movie star Leigh Beckett. She was here to be present at the premiere of her new movie ‘The Dinner Order’ in the later to be shown new movie theater. She can be seen in the next pic standing in front of a cottage on the edge of the town of Mildarville.

Leigh also did a public performance. In the next three pics we can see her dancing in front of an altar.

Another interesting character that walked the roads of Millstone was the street preacher who gave sermons to passersby. One can be seen in the next pic walking in front of the garage where Mildarville’s only rock band is rehearsing.

In the front in the next pic Mildarville’s kerosene distillery can be seen. For some reason spiritually oriented sims like to work here. In spite of this dangerous building being so close to so many homes overall health in the Millstone region is considered to be excellent. In total 164 sims have been cured of sickness, 4 have been cured of injury and 166 have become immune to sickness. Furthermore there have been 252 natural deaths, but only 1 illness-related one and only 1 accidental death.

That Millstone’s spiritual life has been flourishing is without doubt. In the next pic to the right the guru trophy can be seen that has been awarded for using more than 275 spirituality points in a city with more than 1250 inhabitants, of which 10 or less have a mood worse than sad. The man on the corner jumps up in the air from happiness, which he should, cause Millstone also has received the gold spirituality medal for having more than 250 spirituality points and the bronze creativity medal for having more than 50 creativity points.

As the sun sets over the Millstone region its light reflects in the water of the river. Soon ships will sail away over it in eastern direction towards the great ocean. Word has spread that a band of explorers has discovered a great continent where heathens live their unholy lives. Millstone’s missions and evangelical centers have decided to work together to colonize this new world and bring the faith to these unlucky sims.

When the moon rises on the eastern horizon the ghosts of the creepy area between Millstone and Mildarville dare to venture outside. As can be seen there are a lot of them now that scare off those that dare to venture into these parts at night. The creepy area has been expanded greatly. There are now four graveyards, three creepy barns, three haunted houses and two shacks, all of them inhabited by ghosts. In the front of the pic the new farming co-op can be seen. This is a joint project of the towns of Millstone and Mildarville. The town of Mildarville can be seen in the distance.

Those that visit the creepy area at night forfeit their life. The shack in the next pic is the home to Mike and Mona, a happily married couple until they died in a horrible way and now spend their empty days as ghosts. To the left of the road Jane can be seen. Until recently she was just an ordinary, happy sim, but Mike and Mona scared her to the point where she became a zombie. This is a special position, though, since up till now only 15 zombies have roamed the streets of Millstone.

Some sims enjoy it a lot to be scared. In the haunted house in the next pic two families of sims live happily. They’re even doing so well that they pay taxes to the town. The red light to the right comes from the inside of the creepy barn. Don’t mind the ghosts, they won’t venture too far from the house.

Lucky are those that stay in Mildarville at night. Live is good here, as can be seen in the next pic of the town common. To the left the lights of the new movie theater beckon unhappy sims to come in and enjoy themselves, although being unhappy is not a prerequisite.

Let’s talk a bit about the societal values of Millstone for the last time. It produces 326 spirituality. This is the value with the highest score, showing that religion is of utmost importance to the sims here. But prosperity with a score of 262 is almost as important to them. So the religious feelings don’t stop them from enjoying worldly things. This ofcourse comes mainly from the wealthy sims in Millington. But it is a good thing, since this will enable them to launch an expedition to the new world, which will, ofcourse, cost a lot of money. Authority is with 80 points not a very important value. As said before, the society of Millstone works because of a shared belief and common values, not from order enforced upon the sims. The next best societal value is creativity with 56 points, thanks to the freethinkers in Mildarville. Knowledge with 29 points and productivity with 12 points bare almost no impact on the region. The sims don’t care much about building a glorious city with impressive buildings and technological achievements. They just stick to the simple life.

So this is the end of this short city journal, with 39 hours of playing time recorded and 321 snapshots taken. Only 93 ended up in this journal. But it is not the end of the story. I have not shown all buildings that fit the contemplative society profile yet, so I will continue with the adventures of the brave sims that are going to colonize the new world in the journal of New Millstone. Hope you all will join me there again. Thanks a lot for reading this and your comments have given me the will to continue.

apeguy · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 11:38 am Post subject:

thanks for the pics, & we're glad we gave you the will to continue. as SCC's first CJ on SCS it's definately an amazing one. Out of interest, will you be making any SCS CJ's on big cities? Razz

Angie · Joined: 24 Dec 2007 Posts: 118 Location: Ontario

Great conclusion. Smile

I'll be waiting to see more of your cities, definitely.

needgames · Joined: 09 Feb 2008 Posts: 48 Location: The Netherlands

Thanks, apeguy, I'm glad you liked this cj so much. Very Happy

I hope the next one will please you as much. Razz

And in answer to your question: yes, I do big cities as well as small towns, I just like to start with small towns before moving on to big cities. Cool

Thanks, Angie, I'm glad you liked the final update. Very Happy

You don't have to wait long for the next cj, it'll be served right now. Razz