WEST END

[MandelSoft]

Charing Cross looks lovely! Nicely done Paul 

[CasperVg]

Looks really good, I think you should demolish both towers, since they indeed don't really go with the rural feel of the city.

[paroch]

REPLIES:

Simpson - Thanks for your kind words.  Hopefully you like this update too,

Joan - Yes, the church on the island strikes me as a peaceful and relaxing place to just chill out.  I kinda imagine that there will be street vendors trying to sell you pictures of the church and so called "original" artefacts.  But tell them "no", politely and firmly and they'll leave you alone!  And Senna Park was made using the SFBT park pieces instead of the more widely used BSC parks.
As for the towers - see below.

Paul - Good to see you here once more.  Thank you for your support my friend.

Bat - You're welcome, I am glad you enjoyed Devo 08.

Maarten - Thanks for the comment.  You're becoming a West End regular.

Casper - Good to see you here in West End - Welcome.  I think this is your first comment here - feel free to drop in any time for some West End hospitality.  And see below for the towers.


UPDATE 52 - 6th July 2008

First up - I asked for some comments and suggestions on the towers in pic 51.18.  Well Joan said - keep them and build around them.  Casper said knock 'em down.  On the basis that once they are gone, they are gone, I have built around them to see how it looks.  If I like the result I will keep them, if not - they go.  Hopefully that way at least one of you get your wish!  Development has not grown enough yet for me to make a final decision.

This week, I wanted to show you the suburban residential districts of Charing Cross.  I think building suburbs is my favourite aspect of SC4.  Maybe it's because I live in a suburban town myself - but whatever the reason I enjoy trying to create a different look and feel in each city's suburbs.  Somtimes this can be achieved through Bat choice, other times through the road layout, the use of parks and green spaces, or just by the size of building plots.  Charing Cross has some pretty large low density residential areas - suburbs!  I tried to slect a few pics to show them off, but decided that a mosaic or two would be the best way.  My mosaic skills are not as good as some others you'll find on this site, but hopefully good enought to give you an idea of Charing Cross.

Let's re-familiarise ourselves with the location and lay out.......

52.01  Region view:

Charing Cross is really a residential city that serves it's larger neighbours, Kingly and Great Portland.  It straddles the River Dinnium.


Charing Cross has been growing nicely and had just hit 90,000 residents.  This was the limit of what I wanted, so I was just adding the finishing touches to the tile before wrapping it up.  I was spending a lot of time on a beach area, plus some ploppable farms (I-Ag demand had dried up).  I was concentrating so hard on those two things that I didn't notice that there were two big problems in the city.

52.02  Problems hit in Year 100:

For some reason commute times went through the roof in Year 100.  I really do not know why - I did not touch the transport system at all.  One day it was working and overnight - BANG, as you can see on the graph.  The impact of this was that for many buildings commute times were so high that the buildings were abandoned.
At the same time, the water system hit a problem as well.  Old towers and pumps stopped working - which was not a disaster - but the coverage of the pipes fell to just three tiles wide.  This meant that for a few game years, many buildings did not have any water supply - so again many building became abandoned.  I built new pumps, but it was too late, the damage was done.


52.03  Thistle Park - Abandoned:

The combined impact can be clearly seen.  I have rebuilt much of it, but the population has now peaked at 77,000.


52.04  Charing Cross Overview:

Let's now zoom in a little bit more.....


52.05  Suburbs:

And today, we're looking at the three main suburban areas of Charing Cross - Villiers, Umber Park and Lander.


52.06  Lander:
Lander is a mix of high and medium wealth family homes.  We start here at the Charing Cross College building and then head south through Lander.  You can see in this pic, the effects of the traffic and water problems.








52.07  Villiers into Umber Park:
We start out on the boulevard that borders the Charing Country Park.  We then move down onto the memorial park by GeoffHaw, into the heart of Villiers where you can see a few empty building plots on the road.  These gaps were caused by the traffic/water problems.  The across the Commercial Boulevard which marks the border between Villiers and Umber Park, past the Collins Commemerative Cricket Ground, over the railway and stop at the edge of the farm land.











52.08  Slice through Villiers and Central:
We start off a bit further to the east than the last pic.  Take a slice through a higher wealth area, catch the edge of the City Centre with the Bingo Hall.  See that very typically English old church.  You can then see the Central station and two of the Charing Cross schools, before ending up in a part of town that some say is Lander whilst others say is Umber Park.













52.09  Western Suburbs - Umber Park
We start here in the Commercial Park at the edge of Villiers.  We then move down and cross the boulevard into Umber Park with its tightly packed streets.  Umber Park station is busy with commuters in the morning and evening.  And we end up in the southern edge of Umber Park.








Well that was the suburbs - I hope you enjoyed them.  Please feel free to compare them to your own suburbs in both SC4 and RL - post pics if you want here, I don't mind.  I am interested to add some new suburban techniques to my armoury.

Next time I'll show you the redevelopment of North Senna's towers.  From elsewhere in Charing Cross, I have some rural and farm stuff to show you, some waterfronts and parks and then the city centre and that will be it.  Probably two or three more updates in total.

IPON UPDATE:
Charing Cross will be hosting the 4th IPON Summit over at the GooberGen Convention centre starting next week.  Leaders and Ministers from the various IPON members will be here to discuss a full agenda of items that effect the Union as a whole and our future.  IPON is the Independent Pact Of Nations.  So I'll try and feed some of that into the pages here and if you have an MD that has a bit of a storyline to it and you'd like to interact with other MD nations, IPON may be of interest to you.  New members are always welcomed.  Have a look at the IPON Forum.



'til next time..........

[MandelSoft]

Nice update, Paul! I especially like those long composition pictures. I've one question: Did you ever considered to place some rail catenaries? That could improve the realism of your cities.

[sebes]

Your suburbs look wonderful Paul - they realy have a nice feeling. Your style of building them is very unique I must say, and I am not sure what is doing that. 

Going back the previous update, I too think that the 2 New Towers do not fit at all in North Senna. I am curious to find out what you build arround them in an attempt to have it matching the area. Two towers there, at the start (or end) of the pedestrian high street could look prety OK, if they just were build in a different style, with some space in  between.

You want to see my suburbs he... well, I played all day in Rhenen in attempt to get them how I want - but did not really succeed... I will try again later and if lucky, post it in my MD... 

[Diggis]

Wow, you got nailed at 100 years.  Hope you find the cause.  No new stuff installed?

Great mosaics. Perfect setting for Daves cricket ground.  I struggle with large suburban parks, but it fits really well.

[Yoman]

It takes a very long time to get through 34 pages of an MD, even if you are going very fast

I'm surprised I haven't stopped in before. I've seen it, just never clicked the link, and that was a mistake. Not clicking links can sometimes cause you to miss out on some awesome stuff. You've got a great MD going on here, excellent farms and in particular suburbs, I also enjoyed the part that was modeled after Amsterdam, as well as the extensive GLR network (I hate working with it myself ).

I look forward to returning, and hopefully participating in thatn IPON summit.

[threestooges]

Great work with the suburbs. You do a great job at controlling the style of development in each of them which reminds me of a number of subdivisions around here in CA and yet in a few pics there were enough differences in buildings to keep them from looking like 'cookie cutter' homes. I'm sorry to hear about the water/traffic issues, especially since they required demolition. The area looked great before, but I'm sure you'll have things back up to normal (or close enough) soon. Interesting layout for the grounds of the schools in the 3rd mosaic. Looks like you spent some time in the LE. The tennis courts look great as do the fields where you've changed the base texture (good idea... must remember to 'borrow' it). I'm curious about the IPON Summit, but I'll take a look at that link you provided. Out of curoiusity, how much time does it take you to put together an update? I'm thinking of taking that step into the MD arena, but I want to make sure I have the time necessary to dedicate to it. As for those two towers fromt eh earlier update, I would say leave them. Little things like that are always around in towns, and it gives a good story to tell. From the overview pic you showed of the area too, they don't look too bad. Good work as always.
-Matt

[bat]

A very nice new update there, paroch! Some wonderful pictures and beautiful mosaics! Great work!

Looking forward to the next...

[Jmouse]

Paul, I really like the way you're presenting recent updates! Can't imagine what would make commute times spike so sharply and suddenly, but I've fallen into the "dry well" trap lots of times. There's a lot going on in an established city, and it's easy to miss a non-visible water shortage before it's too late!

I like Thistle Park and hate to see it abandoned, but a bit of dozing ought to fix things up again. Is it zoned for medium or high density BTW? Overall, the city looks none the worse for wear - seems like there are always periods of abandonment between the good times!

You've done an excellent job on the mosaics - no lines that I can see. And I think displaying the neighborhoods in that way was a good choice. I can't imagine any single shot doing those great expanses justice. And an aside - are those pinkish-lavender flowers in 52.07 and 52.08 a part of the terrain or did you plant them?

Either way, the 'burbs in Charing Cross are lovely, each with its own charming personality. There just aren't enough blue houses to be seen!

Looking forward to finding out more about IPON in the week or so to come...
Joan

[paroch]

REPLIES:

Maarten:  I have thought of using the cattaneries but have not yet done so.  In fact I have not downloaded them yet.  Is there more than one set available?  Does anybody have suggestions on the best set to use, as I do think that they would add some realism.  And where can I find them?

Sebes:  Thanks for the comment  .  And yes, the North Senna Towers, I hope you like the result.    And I'm glad you got into Rhenen and played some.  Look forward to seeing the update.

Shaun:  No new stuff installed, so not sure what caused it.  I tend now to set up a city specific plug ins file and keep it til I move on.  So any newstuff downloaded has to wait in a holding area before being merged in.  And I'm glad you liked the mosaics.

Yoman:  Wow, youl looked through all 34 pages, I am impressed  .  Anyway a BIG WELCOME to you here in West End.  I hope it's not another 34 pages before I see you again  !  Thanks for the kind words, and yes Welcome to IPON as well.  PSSO is IPON's 11th member.

Matt:  Thanks for the great and detailed comment.  We've PM'd about the MD, so I won't say anymore here.  As for the schools, yes I do enjoy putting them together.  There are some great schools out there (particularly JBSimio's) so I hope that the grounds I put them in do them justice.  As for the Custom LE work, yes there is some in both schools, mainly around the football pitches.  I created quite a few different lots to do with football pitches, changing facilities, snack bars and fences.  Some with the BSC park grass texture and in the picture you referred to it is SFBT park grass texture.  As for the towers......see below.

Bat:  Thank you my friend.

Joan:  Thanks for your support, as always.  Thistle Point is a mix of High and Low density and has re-grown to some degree, but certainly not as grand as it once was.  As for those pink/lavendar flowers.  I downloaded some new trees as part of the dependencies for the Italia Terrain Mod.  This is one of the "forest sets" available unde mayor mode trees by Jeronij/Cycledogg.  I cannot recall the name now - but next time I am in-game I'll write it down and PM you.  And the IPON Summit IV is going well so far thanks.  Pop on over sometime and say hi to the IPON members.


UPDATE 53 - 12th July 2008
Not a massive update today, but I just wanted to bring you up to date on two areas.....Thistle Point and those North Senna towers.

53.01  Thistle Point before:

This is what Thistle Point looked like before its problems.


53.02  Thistle Point after:

And now, still some towers, but not as many as before.  It's also not as colourful.


53.03  Closer View:



53.04  View from the north:



And what about North Senna?
53.05  North Senna Towers before:

I asked for your opinions and it was pretty split as to whether to knock them down or build around them.  So I decided to build around them and came up with:


53.06  North Senna Towers Development:

A third high wealth tower was developed, with them being built around a park area.  The borough council insisted on a lower wealth block being built to house key workers in the area who were being priced out of the market.


53.07  View from the South:

You get a better view of the park from here, and can also see the large parking area set aside for the residents of the towers.


53.08  Wild Zebra:

And with the extra development, a new nightclub, the Wild Zebra has opened for business in the pedestrianised shopping zone.


53.09  Night Time:

And at long last (with help from Diggis) I finally got my night lighting to work correctly.


53.10  Good Night from North Senna:

And the residents of the new Towers Development seem quite pleased with the result.


I hope you like the redeveloped area - but I did ask for your opinions, so if you think the whole development should be knocked down to make North Senna more rural just say - the majority wins.


Next update I plan to show you the rural and farm areas of Charing Cross.


'til next time...............

[sebes]

Do'nt knock North Senna down - the result is better than I expected! You're a good city-planner Paul.
But - still - I don't like the two towers being so close. I suggest to move the right one to the right corner, and have a parkway between the two (maybe an art sculpture inbetween?)

Thistle point recovered quite OK. It's different, but still a nice area I think. Same happened to me... some of the 50's quarters changed into villa's... despite the fact that I had no schools there and that I made them historic. I am puzzled too what happened...and am no trying to have it all back - but for somereason the wrong appartment buildings keep on returning      

And eh - my update you say? Just follow my signature 

[MandelSoft]

Nice updates on Thistle Point and North Senna. I like the pics a lot. About rail catenaries: the best set available are SFBT's Rail catenaries (can be found on the LEX). I've used them also for a while before I started making my own.

Best,
Maarten

[bat]

These areas are looking very nice now! Great chances there! And looking forward to more of West End...

[Meastro444]

looks very nice!

one thing though, the EuroRoad mod has been updated to include the SAM textures, perhaps use it, it will add the 'finishing touch' .

[thundercrack83]

Hello, Paul!

Sorry for being absent for the past couple updates, I do apologize! Hopefully it won't happen again!

I have to say those mosaics in the last update were absolutely stunning, and your newest update definitely does not disappoint either, my friend!

Keep up the splendid work here!

Dustin

[threestooges]

I like how the North Senna Towers Development turned out, and the parks are a great idea for it. My only thought would be regarding the low wealth tower. I know that lower wealth workers are needed, but it would seem to me that developers would be willing to have a few lower rent apartments/condos in a building like the other ones rather than one the stands out like that. Although Thistle Point is less colorful, I still think it looks good. The road to the ferry could use a bit more density around the roundabout, but that's nothing big. Lastly, I like that the area around NST is developing and getting a nightclub, but hopefully it won't lose too much of that historic feel (congratulations on getting the nightlights working by the way). Also, What is that train stattion in the last mosaci of the last update? I must have missed it last time, but it looks neat. Looking forward to the farm areas.
-Matt

[Jmouse]

Glad to see Thistle Point has grown back, and even though it lacks the variety of its former incarnation, it looks good. I've always liked the park that connects the buildings, but I've already mentioned that a few times, haven't I!

I'm pleased that you decided to experiment with developing North Senna. I saw possibilities there from the beginning, and the finished product looks good except for the brown building which looks out of place. Could you try replacing it with one of the buildings that once occupied Thistle Point? That reddish one to the left in 53.01 or the one behind it and to the right might look good. It's hard to visualize, though, without the advantage of actually seeing the buildings all together. Actually the complex doesn't look bad at all in 53.07 View from the South - I think it's the fire escapes that bother me. They make the building look like a tenement that doesn't belong in an elegant park-like setting.

So maybe it's time to just take a break and relax for a while at the Wild Zebra - especially at night when those fetching lights are glowing!

Later...
Joan

[panthersimcity4]

Haven't posted for a while! Lovely work, paroch! Your MD is one of the reasons I go out of my way to visit the Sc4Dev forums. 

I love the random high-rises mingling with European W2W, and of course that lovely dutch city you made. 

Oh, and w00t for IPON 

[TheTeaCat]

Paul

Sorry haven't been through here for a while but I like what I just had to catch up on

While I liked the original Thistle Point, I think I like the redeveloped area more. I agree with Matt that it needs a bit more commercial development around the ferry point but overall the area has a certain charm to it.

Got your lighting working properly too great - now we'll get to see some nice night shots in the future

All in all Paul a great Update

regards
Derry