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Impressions from My Region E Pluribus Unum

Started by N1_2888, October 15, 2022, 04:17:24 PM

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N1_2888

This topic is intended to be a seamless continuation of my mayor's diary at simforum.de.

In short: About 15 years ago I started a region with a very, well, geometric and symmetric design: E Pluribus Unum. Though the region consists of 121 cities, I soon concentrated my efforts on two cities called Lutetia Nova Sinistra (LNS) and Lutetia Nova Dextra (LND). As their names imply, the style of these cities is heavily influenced by Paris. But, as I wrote elsewhere at SC4D sometime ago, with even more uniformity than Baron Haussmann could have ever imagined. :D And of course my Lutetias are much smaller than the original (about 90.000 inhabitants respectively).

You should know, I'm a very exact mayor. And when I write exact, I mean exact. ::)  When I open a modding tool and see prop coordinates like 80CCD, this makes me really uncomfortable. Exactly this happened when I just wanted to replace some props of uroncha's TE bus stops. Thus the revision took a bit longer than expected. But the result was worth it:


It's all so laborious and time-consuming. :( When I used to have my former part-time job, things were easier.

Anyway, my last update was about redesigning the Sacré-Cœur site in LND. I also redesigned the corresponding site in LNS, but didn't show that because LNS is (more or less) the mirrored version of LND. The adjacent residential building development still looked unsatisfying in – how could it be otherwise – both cases.

Therefore I created a new BAT and some new inner courtyard lots. This it what it looks like in LNS:

The building at the bottom of the image shows JB Simio's town hall. In LND these are replaced by my two mairies. The flowers in the left suggest that the region is called République française, the title of this topic in turn E Pluribus Unum, but, to be exact, the region is called Neu-EPU (New E Pluribus Unum). Just to let you know this. By the way: Most of the images can be enlarged by right-click – new tab.

Back to topic: In the northwest of LNS there is a corresponding third residental block, that I want you to show in detail now:








That was the first part of my update. The second is about three 4x8 sites, two of them in the immediate vicinity. I was struggling to fill them for years, with each result being unsatisfactory. On the other hand there was a really nice BAT, vnaoned's FNAC store, I haven't known where to plop for the longest time. Why? Well, it has right two main facades. Then I suddenly had an idea: What about treating one as city-side and the other as garden facade? &idea

The next challenge: finding a purpose of use. ::)  I didn't want to use it as department store and already have stock exchange buildings (the FNAC store used to be the Bourse of Nantes) in LNS/LND. Dropping the idea of creating a chamber of commerce and chamber of labour respectively I finally decided to make the parlamentary system of (Neu-) EPU a bicameral one. There can never be enough neat civic buildings in a city. :D

The Region Senate building:

This used to be the two adjacent 8x4 sites mentioned before.

Years ago someone asked me, if there is commuter traffic in my cities. Nicely expressed, isn't it? ::) No, my residential buildings ARE NOT PLOPPED, to put it in this clear way:


What about playing around with one of that new AI image upscaling tools for in-between?

"I want a hot dog and I want it NOW!"
"No, you've already got a yummy carrot. That will have to do."


Hard to find, these Sims, aren't they? Well, nowadays' AI can't work wonders. :D The bus stop at the bottom is a non-modified one by uroncha. The initial image was an older one and, moreover, I haven't replaced all bus stops yet. Otherwise the lot would of course feature a phone booth by Porkie.

View to the west, ...


... and south:


One more AI stuff:

"The statue on the left represents ..."
"Boooring!"

(Two adults and kids respectively at the bottom left.)

View to the east:


I could leave it at that today (better: tonight), but I'm still going to go through with it.

The Province Senate building:

Due to less importance, the Province Senate site is much smaller. Nevermind, the senators say, but we have more parking spaces. :P

View to the south, ...

(the flanking residential courtyards still feature old lots, please be indulgent)

... east, ...


... and north:


That's it, I have already shot all my powder. Next new stuff in some years or so. :D

Meine Region E Pluribus Unum

N1_2888

#1
Okay, as I see at least some interest, I bring the next update forward. ;) Thanks for the three likes and the 123 views!

The Sacré-Cœur parks as shown in the second picture of the post above are seasonal. In order to create a fall version I had – amongst other things – to paint Maxis' "quarterbushes" brown:

Fun fact: I know the original ID of these bushes by heart: 0x28330000. Freaky, isn't it? :D For the winter version, which I am not going to show, I diverted a model by Girafe because I just can't BAT organic forms. &ops These lots are the very last seasonal ones I created as my spare time is fairly limited.

The following improvement may look as a minor one, but I've spent most of my free weekend for it. In LNS (of course as well as in LND) there is a square being flanked by right two Notre-Dame cathedrals. The real Place the la Concorde in Paris is not even close to the one and only original cathedral. Anyway, I wasn't content with the overlay texturing of the fountain lots as you see below.
Before:


After:

Now the overlay textures follow the round shape of the fountains, which I think really looks much better than before. I incidentally had to "bend" the original BSC textures by using the polar transformation tool of a graphical software.

This is what it looks like in zoom 3:

At simforum.de people saw my two-cathedral arrangement somewhat critically. ::)

The three other perspectives:






I relotted and remodded the Place de la Concorde building by Debussyman in order to reflect the different use of the two original buildings. The left one (or rather the one at the bottom of the last pic) works as resort hotel, the right one as university.


Meine Region E Pluribus Unum