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Almere

A lite assets version with Vanilla Rail, fewer mod requirements and based on the CO Temperate Theme can be downloaded via - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2530905610

This map tries to be a 1:1 representation* of the area around the planned city of Almere, Netherlands – a place that fascinates me as I’m a Town Planner (based in the UK). Almere is the newest city in the Netherlands: the land on which the city sits, the Southern Flevoland polder, was reclaimed from the IJsselmeer from 1959 to 1968. The first house was finished in 1976, and Almere became a municipality in 1984. It has the largest population of the municipalities in Flevoland with 207,904 citizens in 2019 and the 7th largest in the Netherlands. In October 2007, the city council of Almere made agreements with the government to expand the city to 350,000 inhabitants by 2030.

The land reclaimed from the IJsselmeer where Almere is situated is situated BELOW sea level. Embankments surround Almere and the hydrology of the polder is separate from the Ijsselmeer. The map contains many areas of wetlands, including the Oostvaardersplassen to the north east of the map, which was created through rewilding and now part of the Nieuw Land National Park. This hydrology has gameplay implications, as explained below.

1. Subscribe to the Required Items collection. Additional mods are available within the linked Almere Map collection above.
   
2. Subscribe to the 'Advanced Vehicle Options' mod and your choice of boats and trains within the linked collection ‘Vehicles: IJsselmeer and Flevoland’.
   
3. Activate any new Mods.
   
4. Set ‘Unlimited Trees’ to 4 or higher. Make sure that all your assets are active as well.
   
5. Map is now ready for playing.
   
6. Deactivate the spawning of vanilla cargo ships and ocean liners with ‘Advanced Vehicle Options’.
   
7. Unlock tiles (or use the ‘81 Tiles’ Mod) to remove the grass covering of the Network Rivers on any unpurchased squares.

The map is set in coastal Netherlands, a temperate environment. A Theme Mixer 2 mix is available to download. The base theme is Laviante 2.0. The map also looks okay in the CO Temperate Theme.

My Relight and Ultimate Eyecandy settings are included in the screenshots above. These have been refined to reflect the coastal tones. Screenshots also created using Cubemap Replacer (Sunflowers).

‘No Radioactive Desert and More!’ or ‘Hide It’ is required to remove shoreline colour and dead trees.

Heightmap created using data from PDOK. Map created and trees placed using a 10K aerial overlay. You will need to rotate the map on load to replicate the orientation of the maps in the above screenshots. An image overlay will be made available.

Almere has extensive plantations with these tree monocultures recreated extensively throughout the map drawn by overlay. As a result, there are just over 500,000 trees on this map, available via the one-click collection. An Unlimited Trees Mod is a required item. I also recommend a Mod that prevents or reduces the movement of trees. The trees placed include ‘The Green Cathedral’ planted in 1987.

A key feature of Almere is the network of waterways linked to the lakes at Weerwater and Noorderplassen. These are recreated in-detail using the fantastic ‘Network Rivers: Green Valley Pack’ by Macwelshman. Mods are required to lay and amend these networks and are included in the above collection.

You will find recreational beaches and yachting marinas along the shores to the IJsselmeer and Gooimeer.

Almere ‘Floriade 2022’ horticultural expo is set to take place on a square shaped 64-hectare peninsula (adjacent to the Start Square) located along the lake, across from Almere’s existing city centre with a new masterplan for a Green Extension to the city https://aiph.org/green-city/guidelines/case-studies/almere-the-netherlands/ This is ideal for the detailer and provides the ability to use the ‘Green Cities’ assets.

To the south east of the map (outside of the 25 tiles) is the city of Naarden, an example of a star fort, complete with fortified walls and a moat. My layout of the walls and castle is fantasy as a placeholder, please feel free to demolish and build a historic city here (as I will do).

Highways - Mass Transit DLC is required - 4 outside highway connections with the following routes:
- A1 (including the Naarden West Junction with the A6)
- A6 with four carriageways to divert local traffic (Junctions 1-6 and 8).
- A27 Knooppunt Almere to Huizen (the inclusion of the Erasmus Bridge is fantasy)
- N305 Almere-Stad to Almere-Haven
- N701 Oostvaardersdijk

Rural roads from the Vanilla+ collection of vanilla-style roads by Delta 5-1 are used for the embankment roads as these have no streetlights. TM:PE is highly recommended to tame the unintelligent pathfinding AI to maximise capacity of the junctions.

Rail - 4 outside rail connections. Almere currently has six railway station on the national rail route on the Flevolijn which connects Weesp to Lelystad Centrum. The cable stayed bridge over the Gooimeer is fantasy. A shorter rail route exists in the south west of the map to provide an additional connection, if needed. Various train assets are available within the linked collection ‘Vehicles: IJsselmeer and Flevoland’.

Shipping - 3 shipping connections are available in the IJsselmeer and Gooimeer. Vanilla ships look terrible, and they will clip the bridges. I suggest using ‘Advanced Vehicle Options Mod’ and the boats in the linked collection ‘Vehicles: IJsselmeer and Flevoland’.

Air - 2 flightpaths.

Waterflow - The city of Almere is below sea level. This hydology requires the following for gameplay:

• DO NOT touch the Sea Level as the polder will be flooded
  
• DO NOT demolish an embankment road as the polder will be flooded. Harbours can be created in the IJsselmeer through land reclamation.
  
• No water to be drawn from any inland watercourse. A water source and pumping station is provided with access to the starting tile. I recommend water towers are used to increase pumping capacity until you reach the shoreline.
  
• No sewage disposal by drain pipes and outlets to any inland watercourse. An inland sewage treatment works is provided with 480,000m3 / week capacity. If you need more capacity before you reach the shoreline, then Inland Water Treatment Plants (Sunset Harbour DLC) or mods are required.
  
• As the landscape is flat, various water spawn points are placed. Unfortunately this means this is no consistent direction of waterflow. Additional spawn points are placed in the Gooimeer to counter the effects of evaporation.

Power
The map features 36 custom wind turbines generating approximately 330mw. As these are in their real location with no pylons to blight the landscape, you will need the ‘Electric Roads’ mod to access this source of energy.

I'd welcome your feedback.

Thanks to…

- All the creators of the assets used in this map.
- BonBonB and members of his Discord channel.
- Azzolt and Ingenium for their testing of the map and extensive feedback.

Tags: Netherlands, Holland, Dutch, Almere, Naarden, Flevoland, Polder, 1:1 Scale, Realistic, Map

*some variations for fun as this is a game

[discord.gg]