c.p.'s BAT and Lot Workshop

[manga rivotra]

I loved them both ! 
The single-storey houses are rather rare in the game, and it seems that 246 Keene Street follows a FAR angle ?, which will probably be very useful on large terrain or in a "countryside" environment. Great work ! 

[Simcoug]

I don't think I could ever walk away from SC, I've been playing for too long (it's become an addiction at this point).  Our new house has a larger garage, so I've set up a small wood working shop with the extra space.  My thinking was I could save money by doing most of the home renovations on my own.  It may work out that way in the end, but it seem that every new project requires a new tool (aka toys).   
As a side bennefit, my new woodworking hobby has made me learn 3D modeling using sketchup, so I may be able to translate that into some props in SC4.   
The new houses look sublime.  I especially like the 1 story 246 Keene... it will add some nice house diversity in the game.   

[Jack_wilds]

sure love the sets of residentials of late...   
all very good in keeping with architectural and historical themes... 
all textures are text book best...   

[Baltimore]

      Dang , those houses look fantastic . So when should we see some lotting ? Anytime soon ? When you release these , I'll have to name a city tile after you and make it residential only . Just to fit all of those awesome houses on that you have created . Keep up the good work . 

[c.p.]

Thanks Tyberius, Nick, manga rivotra, Simcoug, Jack_wilds, Baltimore, and korver


Simcoug:
Yeah, my garage serves the same purpose.  I've learned (or at least I'm trying to learn) to undertake only the most necessary woodworking projects.  Otherwise I either have to spend a bunch of time sanding/painting/staining, which I'm never very enthusiastic about, or I accumulate more half-finished projects.  Anyway, I look forward to seeing what you come up with in your 3d modelling, when the time comes.

Baltimore:
I don't know how long the lotting is going to take for the houses I've been posting, but the pics below show some lotting for a set of 50+ houses I released today.


For today's update, here are some screenshots showing the Victorian Medium Wealth Houses I uploaded to the LEX today:

[Jack_wilds]

love the Victorian depictions... 
especially the queen style    ...
well done  ... 
and the neighbor hoods evoke a time period -nostalgically  ,

[noahclem]

Great work on the new residentials    Very nice to see your work on this project continuing 

[Simcoug]

That's it, thanks to you I'm going to have to fire up SC4 again.  I can't let a beautiful set of houses like these just sit in my SC4 folder... it's an injustice of the highest order.  I especially love the detailed Victorian roofs - these will look fantastic dotting my SC4 neighborhoods. 

As for sanding/staining/finishing, yes, I am with you 100%.  Before I really got into woodworking I thought finishing meant splashing on a coat of sealer and calling it done.  Turns out, it's in fact an art form all it's own.  I've been mostly practicing on garage furniture... some results are better than others. 

Allright... back to stalking this thread waiting for the latest update 

[omgitskosc]

A fantastic and massive set of beautiful homes! I really love your free form and off-angle lotting on those multi building lots especially. Awesome!

[bombardiere]

Oh what a joy. My sims of Chicago are thanking you for brining these lovely new dwellings for them. 

50 lots.  What a job. You truly bring us variety.

However one thing. And this is nitpicking. I check your lots in PIMX.Those redwood flora props. I am not sure how the flora functions in the lots, but aren't those big for urban area? I mean, if the would be a storm and one of those would fell, it would cause a quite of damage. All right, I don't know how it is in the US, but to me it looks strange to have such big tree in a city.

[Aaron Graham]

OMG!!!! These houses looks great!!!! :O

[dyoungyn]

They do indeed look GREAT.  Dwnld  and can't wait to see the affect in my cities.

[carlfatal]

Yeah, cool, awsome, wonderful, and I downloaded them right away! 

Thank You so much! 

[Simcoug]

However one thing. And this is nitpicking. I check your lots in PIMX.Those redwood flora props. I am not sure how the flora functions in the lots, but aren't those big for urban area? I mean, if the would be a storm and one of those would fell, it would cause a quite of damage. All right, I don't know how it is in the US, but to me it looks strange to have such big tree in a city.

Depends on where you are, I guess.  In Seattle it was quite normal to see giant evergreen trees, even very close to Downtown.  Here's a pic of a neighborhood right near the center of Seattle.

[MushyMushy]

I'm really excited to see some new stuff here - this thread is really a masterpiece. I don't think I've ever seen such a large grouping of similarly-themed BATs. And the custom foundations are really on the highlights of your work... most people don't go that far with it. 
--

However one thing. And this is nitpicking. I check your lots in PIMX.Those redwood flora props. I am not sure how the flora functions in the lots, but aren't those big for urban area? I mean, if the would be a storm and one of those would fell, it would cause a quite of damage. All right, I don't know how it is in the US, but to me it looks strange to have such big tree in a city.

About tall trees in US cities:
Down in the South (technically not where c.p. is representing but the statement seemed more general) where the vast majority of trees are massive hardwood deciduous trees, lots of people have 60-100 foot tall trees on their property. We have a 80 foot magnolia (can reach 100) maybe 20 feet from the back of our house. A neighbor had an dying 115 foot oak cut down. With the exception of shopping centers and downtown, my city looks like a forest from a plane. However... yes, the trees are huge hazards during storms. They crush houses, hit power lines, and block roads.

I suspect cities in the US are like that because density is usually pretty low.

[bombardiere]

Yes, this could be more of US thing, although I am fairly certain that people will find Euro examples. In so called Western Europe urbanisation has spelled the end of dense forestry.

My country, Finland, we had a lot of trees and our cities tend to look forests with few houses and roads. However the trees may not be that tall over here. Ok, from the ground it is hard to estimate how tall the trees are and I am probably wrong, but I would say in my region a tree taller than 50 feet is uncommon and over 100 feet rare.

Besides of my home country, I have lived long periods in the UK and the Netherlands, neither of know of their dense forestry, but heavily urbanised, so these have influence my perspective. 

[Simcoug]

Yeah, it really comes down to region.  I grew up in Washington State so the massive evergreen trees were just normal to me.  Doug fir, ponderosa pine and western red cedar trees all grow over 200 ft and were everywhere.  I've since moved around the Midwest and Southeast US and nothing compares to it.  Many of the deciduous trees can grow very tall (and wide!) but nothing comes close to seeing skyscraper like trees growing in every neighborhood. 

As an example, here is the house I grew up in (a commuter neighborhood just north of the Seattle city limits - still very dense).  The horse chestnut tree to the left of the house is huge by any standard, but it is still dwarfed by all the evergreens. 

[David H]

The Master is back!

Also a lot of smaller older towns do tend to have large trees in the yard, Especially in the Eastern US.

[metarvo]

Nice job on the houses, c.p.!  Keep it up! 

I'm echoing the tree sentiment.    Towns in Texas, particularly east Texas, have trees in abundance, which is good for the shade aspect; it gets hot in the summer.  While some are deciduous, such as oak trees, there are tall pines here too.  The western part of this state doesn't naturally have as many trees, except near creeks and rivers, but trees are planted in towns to make up for it.  Yes, they fall on power lines, as is made painfully obvious when an ice storm hits like it did last winter, but the power companies around here essentially double as tree trimming services.  Simcoug's pic is of a different state and yet it still reminds me of something I could see around here.

[mattb325]

Thanks so much for these wonderful houses, Brian!  I rarely have time to play the game anymore, but when I do, I'll be eagerly awaiting seeing these grow...

As for tall trees in suburbs, well, I think that it is a phenomenon of all mid-latitude (approximately 25°-55°N or S of the equator) cities I've lived in or visited. You absolutely need something to take that intense sting out of the summer sun.

IRL if everyone who has a yard planted at least one tall tree...the planet would thank us for it