Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines

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San Juan Islands
   
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File Size
Posted
Updated
8.409 MB
28 Apr, 2023 @ 2:46pm
19 May, 2023 @ 11:47pm
3 Change Notes ( view )

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San Juan Islands

In 1 collection by PoplarPonderosa
San Juan Islands - Collection
15 items
Description
The crown jewels of the Salish Sea.

Two alternate versions are also available:
Mass Transit map with 2-lane, 2-way highways.
Harbour Start with no outside connections by highway or rail.

Important:
  • The map is Vanilla+ and does not require any DLC, mods, custom themes or LUT; however,
  • It is recommended to use the custom theme mix which and LUT which are linked in the collection above.
  • Unlocking all tiles with the 81 Tiles 2 mod is recommended for the best experience but is not required.

Known Issue:
  • There is an issue where the trees load differently for some players. Some of the trees get swapped from pines, oaks and cottonwoods to palms, jacarandas, etc.
  • The cause of the issue is currently unknown as I only have two reported cases and varying mod lists. (No BOB).
  • The issue may be related to tree anarchy. Turning off tree anarchy has reportedly fixed the issue in one case.
  • Please let me know if you think you know why this is happening. I am looking into how to fix it.

Overview
The San Juan Islands are a historic archipelago nestled in the waters between Washington State and Vancouver Island. This region of the Pacific Northwest is considered to be a temperate rainforest.

The map was created using the base temperate theme. A custom theme mix was created to try and capture the likeness of the real location. The custom theme mix is not required, but is highly recommended.

The map is not 1:1 scale. It is approximately 43% of the size of the real location. The idea was not replicate the region but use its landscape as inspiration. The entire archipelago is too large to fit in the standard 17.28km map. It is highly recommended to use the 81 Tiles 2 mod to unlock all tiles and enjoy all that the map has to offer.

The start tile is the location of Friday Harbor, the largest town on the islands.

History - The Pig War
In 1859, a border dispute over ownership of the islands between the United States of America and the United Kingdom was triggered by the shooting of a Pig. This nearly resulted in a war between the two nations. Thankfully it was resolved without any human casualties and control of the islands was awarded to the United States. If you would like to learn more, check out the first episode of the making of this map.

Details
Train Connections 2/4
Air Connections 4/4
Highway Connections 3/4
Ship Connections 4/4

Trees plopped: 222,000/250,000

Visuals
San Juan Islands Theme Mix
Real Neutral - Relight Vibrant
Also, see the screenshot of the Relight settings in the photos above.

How did you get your screenshots and trailer to look like that?
In addition to the theme and LUT stated above, I applied all of the recommendations in the tutorial for photorealistic graphics by Gaseous Stranger.
You can find it here: https://youtu.be/STsq9qE-w5M
Thanks, Gassy!

How was this map made?
This is my first serious attempt at making a map for the Steam Workshop. I really wanted to make a map inspired by the Pacific Northwest and I like to play on island maps.The foundation of the map was created using a heightmap generator, scaled down by approx. 43%. Many areas on the map were flattened out and terraformed for better gameplay. The ocean floor was drawn by hand to create areas to fish Tuna. I tried to find a happy balance between creating a fun map to play on while capturing the beauty of the region. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I began to make the map in October 2022 and completed in April of 2023.

If you would like to know more about the map creation process, I created a video series documenting the process.
You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUac7Jwz-2cIof29VEw9Du18Jr8r9CzBY

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the members of the CS Map Makers Discord! Special thanks to E6GSY and Steel for testing the map prior to public release!

You were all so supportive throughout this process and were quick to help when I needed it. It is much appreciated!

I also want to thank all of the people that created the mods I used to create this map.

I hope you enjoy playing on this map!
20 Comments
PoplarPonderosa  [author] 24 Jul, 2024 @ 11:35am 
@budaatum Thanks! I'll look into it.
buda atum 12 Jul, 2024 @ 4:13pm 
PoplarPonderosa  [author] 31 Aug, 2023 @ 4:24pm 
@Big C, thanks! Glad you enjoy it.
Big C 2 Aug, 2023 @ 5:24pm 
as someone who lives right across the strait from San Juan this is a really cool recreation!
PoplarPonderosa  [author] 27 Jun, 2023 @ 9:33pm 
@JacksonShark Thanks! I'm glad to hear you learned something new. Happy building!
Jackson_ 24 Jun, 2023 @ 8:39am 
Absolutely amazing! I didn't know what or where the "San Juan Islands" were at first but this map made me search them up. Your replication of them is sooo good and I am so excited to start a city on this map!
PoplarPonderosa  [author] 7 May, 2023 @ 8:03am 
@HistoricalGames Glad you like it!
Krakenite 6 May, 2023 @ 6:26pm 
Love this! Used to visit here all the time in real life!
PoplarPonderosa  [author] 6 May, 2023 @ 8:31am 
@MalePatternBaldness Thank you!
MalePatternBaldness 6 May, 2023 @ 3:24am 
looks amazing