Siilijoki

[catty]

...As about my reward (what a honour ), I'll let you choice for me. I like surprises

A surprise sounds good, love the night-shots ... I always think of cities coming alive at night, it seems easier somehow to image the residents and their lives   

[RickD]

Oh wow, so many prizes. 

I'd love to have a residence in Siilijoki. I would prefer a nice and modern downtown apartment. Something with a nice view and some nice bars and restaurants nearby.

As for the place name, hmm, I don't know. Mayber a bridge, a park or a mountain named after me? I'd appreciate some suggestions. 

BTW, I was thinking about the character Hugo from Lost when I suggested the name. He is one of my favourite TV characters.

[Skimbo]

Darn... As usual I've got nothing more to say than: Great work! 

[rambuckel]

  I know what my Hugo-Support-Award will be 

But first of all and most important I have to comment your beautiful pictures ...

I thought "Lunchbreak!  Perfect occasion to take a little trip to Siilijoki" ... So I parked my car and took the tram to do some shopping at H&M. Best thing to do after a morning like this one!

Perhaps I should have visited the Bank of Moscow =)

Finally it was time to travel back to my desk and that's where I sit right now I cannot pick any picture to be the best, the most beautiful or the most charmig one. They are all very beautiful and inspiring ... 

I forgot a little detail. Wandering around in Siilijoki I walked through that area where there are thosehouses in London style. I guess the architect is called Mattb325. I just stood there watching these beautiful houses when a man came telling me that the avenue had no name yet. I thought it could be named "Alba Avenue" =)

Thanks for the great pictures
Theresa

[Framly]

Great Update! i really like your nightshots!

Its always a pleasure to visit your Siilijoki

PS: i prefer 1024

[bat]

Great new update there.
And wonderful night shots of that city.

[noahclem]

Some decent Aurorae turned up tonight so I ended up staying up late enough to finish putting this together. First a couple more Z6 pics with the recently-voted-for 1024-ish resolution:







This should finally catch me up on any missing replies! Sorry I've been so busy lately 

All other contestants who nominated will be entitled to one of the three awards as well! This includes Matt

(threestooges) with Willie, Joan (jmouse) with Clarence,  Arthur (art128) with Tomothee, and Elias (Terring) with Artemis.

Pssst, it's Timothée, not Tomothee.
Nice update, Noah! Both night and day pictures are all looking great. The zoom 6 one near the hotel and the river, with a train passing by the bridge is really charming.
I also liked the mosaic, nice combination of buildings, and the tram lines running through the city are wonderfully placed.

I voted for 1024pix picture size. In my opinion, I judge the smaller one... too small, it'll not let us see the details as much as we can.

take care,

-Arthur.

Thanks Arthur! Sorry for the mis-print--I tried to fix it right away but then spelled it "Tomothée" but it's right now   

I really liked the picture you mentioned too! I'm always glad when I can make a close-zoom urban picture look good and in that one I particularly like the way the hotel's ground textures matched with that RHW-6 that ends up not looking like an RHW. Glad you liked the trams and the rest too 

Be sure to consider your award as well 

Another fine update, I love the night pic.

Thank you much, SC4 is always fun at night 

Hugo? From Hugo Gernsback?
What's the white building in 25.6? It looks interesting
As about my reward (what a honour ), I'll let you choice for me. I like surprises

Hehe, nice link    Raphael said his inspiration was actually from the show "Lost". The name of the building is "Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka" and it's from one of the Japanese sites. I'll send you a PM when I get a chance to track down the link.

And I'll try come up with a great surprise for your reward 

I've never made a secret of my dislike for urbanization, but you do a good job of making it more than tolerable. 25.1 with a tram pulling into the station is an excellent composition. As always, I prefer the softness of the colors and trees in 25.2 over city streets, though.

You know what a sucker I am for night shots, and yours are stunning. 25.5 is just an out and out pretty picture, and once again, I like those trees in 25.6. Who created them? I'm starting a new plugin folder for my region, and I'd like to have those in it.

25.7 is about as alive and vibrant as any in-game pic I've ever seen. The colors definitely light up the night, and once again, you've created a good composition. You could have chosen any area, but my guess is, you chose the best one. Somehow you captured a tram or two or three, the bright city lights and a boat going under the bridge.

Good work...
-Joan

Thanks so much Joan! I'm glad my urban scenes can interest someone with more of an interest for the rural--and as mentioned before, I need someone to give me an extra kick to move more toward the rural side of things anyway.

On the same theme of ruralness, the answer to your question about the trees in 25.6 is Girafe. The dominating trees are his Norwegian Maples but all the other MMPs, from trees to cattails in that picture are his. They're also all seasonal and HD. I can't recommend his flora highly enough and if I were starting a new plugin folder I'd use all the flora he has (maybe not his earliest stuff that isn't modded for seasonality and isn't quite as advanced, though I still occasionally use it anyway).

Really glad you liked the mosaic so much too! Capturing the trams and such wasn't so hard--since it's a mosaic of 5 pictures, all with tram lines, I could easily have put in 5 trams--though it would've looked a bit ridiculous   

Also, the boat in the picture is a static landmark.

Great night images and the river with trees looks nice too.

Thanks nbvc    Glad you liked the images!

Very nice update!

I recognize the main features I like most of Sillijoki: the tram system, the vegetation so close to the river, the magnificent bridges and pleasant nighttime images.

Thanks for the very nice comment! Those are all certainly things I enjoy being part of Siilijoki 

Noah, your pics are splendid as ever and thanks for the funny game.
I voted for 1024px too.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the game, your reward is on the way, and it's looking like 1024px is going to return to Siilijoki regularly 

Very nice update, I really like that first ingame pic of the rail bridge over the river.
I voted for 1024 as well, but I have often posted my pics at 800 and would never go any smaller.

Robin

Thanks Robin, I really like the area in that pic too and it's the only one this time featuring fall colors. 1024 seems to be the main way to go moving forward, though I'll keep the poll open a bit longer. I just get nervous that people will miss what's on the right side of my pictures. I'll just have to emphasize proper viewing techniques 

...As about my reward (what a honour ), I'll let you choice for me. I like surprises

A surprise sounds good, love the night-shots ... I always think of cities coming alive at night, it seems easier somehow to image the residents and their lives   

And a surprise you will have! Perhaps the night shots seem more alive because some of the details that would be hard to look right in the game wouldn't be visible in the dark anyway. In any case I'm a big fan of SC4 at night....

Oh wow, so many prizes. 

I'd love to have a residence in Siilijoki. I would prefer a nice and modern downtown apartment. Something with a nice view and some nice bars and restaurants nearby.

As for the place name, hmm, I don't know. Mayber a bridge, a park or a mountain named after me? I'd appreciate some suggestions. 

BTW, I was thinking about the character Hugo from Lost when I suggested the name. He is one of my favourite TV characters.

Thanks Raphael! I'm thinking of somewhere in central Siilijoki for your residence. A lot of work has been done around there lately but it will still be a little bit before your place is ready. Perhaps I can put you up in a hotel for the meantime   

As far as bridges, mountains, and parks, I've got some ideas and I'll PM you my suggestions in the next couple days. I have to check about who that Hugo is, I'm notoriously bad at knowing TV characters 

Thanks again, and I look forward to continuing your rewards 

Darn... As usual I've got nothing more to say than: Great work! 

As usual I'm grateful! Thanks for the praise Skimbo 

I know what my Hugo-Support-Award will be 

But first of all and most important I have to comment your beautiful pictures ...

I thought "Lunchbreak!  Perfect occasion to take a little trip to Siilijoki" ... So I parked my car and took the tram to do some shopping at H&M. Best thing to do after a morning like this one! Perhaps I should have visited the Bank of Moscow =)

Finally it was time to travel back to my desk and that's where I sit right now I cannot pick any picture to be the best, the most beautiful or the most charmig one. They are all very beautiful and inspiring ... 

I forgot a little detail. Wandering around in Siilijoki I walked through that area where there are those houses in London style. I guess the architect is called Mattb325. I just stood there watching these beautiful houses when a man came telling me that the avenue had no name yet. I thought it could be named "Alba Avenue" =)

Thanks for the great pictures
Theresa

Thanks for the awesome reply Theresa! The next mini-update here will be the answer this comment deserves (with pictures of course). But the short answer is "yes"

Great Update! i really like your nightshots!

Its always a pleasure to visit your Siilijoki

PS: i prefer 1024

Thanks Framly glad you liked everything! It's looking like 1024 is the way of the future here    And congrats again on the photo contest, great pic and good luck this round 

Great new update there.
And wonderful night shots of that city.

Thanks very much Bat    As you know from Capporth City, SC4 is a lot of fun at night!


[size=12]And some old replies that got missed in my rush to deal with the crazy season of work and the end of OSITM at the same time....[/i][/size]

Sorry it took so long :/

Great couple of pictures, I like the roads and highways through the buildings and the city, great job as always my friend.

Thanks Kelis, glad you liked them!

Wonderful job!I like the way you terraform before creating your highways and rails...just a question...in the previous update it seems to me that you show an RHW 10 bridge model based on MHW bridge???
anyway great work

Thanks!! Yeah, that pre-terraforming is essential. It also frees you from some of the restrictions gentle slope mods can impose (for example on wide-radius RHW curves). Yes the bridge is based on MHW--you can find more information on it in choco's bridge building thread. I hope it can be released before long but I believe there continues to be an IID conflict that would have to be resolved first :/

Brilliant pictures again I love number 23.2 ... very interesting structure of rails That must have been quite a time consuming project.

And as always a beautiful combination of rural and urban areas 

Theresa

It was a time-consuming project!! If I recall right it began a year ago with my first OSITM and it's still not truly "finished"--especially the approaches to it from the undeveloped sides. Glad you liked it and glad to hear from you again!

I'm always fascinated by highway spaghetti bowls in the game (and in many cases real life) but I think this is one of the few times I've seen one done with rails (pic 23.2). I like the look, but are they all part of a single line or the intersection of several? Also, the rain was a good touch and of course I don't mind you using the pic from Greenacre. I'll have to keep an eye one the news to see if anything big happens as a result of the storm. I'd wager that, if nothing else, the creeks will certainlybe swollen. We'll see.
-Matt

I'm also a big spaghetti bowl fan, RL and SC4, and it was very fun to do a rail version in SC4. The intersection is a 4-way one using mostly separate freight and passenger tracks. The passenger tracks are well-used due to their proximity to the city center and location along a relatively major line (planned) and I wanted heavy freight capacity because of East Pohjanmaa's large industrial sector. Glad you don't mind my playing with your image and I loved the storm's affect on Greenacre!

I'm quite partial to pic 8 here, I'm a big fan of tram-on-street, so you figure. Pic 2 is a really cool junction there. Moving along 

Cheers,
Willy

Thanks Willy! I love TOS too but I wish those 1-tile tram networks had wider radius curves when encountering tram-in-avenue. At least on the texturing end that might be something to watch out for....
And glad you liked that rail junction too!

Amazing update, the PS effects are perfectly done, and I really like those RHW-10 bridges.

Keep up the awesome work.

Thanks! Glad you liked the PS and I hope those bridges can be available sooner rather than later

23.2:     

All in all one of your best updates, so far.

Thanks for such an awesome compliment Raphael!

Amazing nice night shot Teaser  Good night 

Thanks man!! Night is good

Noah, this is a superb update. The rainy-day theme is a clever idea to begin with. The lightening strike at night in 23.4 is certainly an eye catcher.  I sat and stared at it for several minutes, soaking up the details and enjoying the composition.

23.6 and 23.9 are both excellent what with the fall colors and the water obviously lapping at the tree

trunks. 23.7 appeals to my fondness for night shots, and the last photo is one of the best I've ever seen in the way of atmosphere. It looks like it belongs in a book about haunted houses, and I assure you, that is a high compliment.

Great work as always...
-Joan

Thanks Joan! The "Rainy Day" idea was part of me and Matt's brainstorming for our February OSITMs and I'm glad all of us have been happy with the results. On that note, your favorite picture was actually created by Matt and later modified by me--fortunately the tutorial I found to learn how to GIMP lightning in forced me to learn how to make clouds too 

As always I love your tram and rail system! Well done.
Also nice is the flats riverside and the raining pictures

And my vote go to Willie

Thanks Kergelen, glad you liked it! And the Willie vote earns you the right to name a place in Siilijoki (road, building, hill, bridge, etc... )

Thanks for the nice answer, but all i can is using some tricks... 

Back to the reindeer´s name: most deers the males are loners whereas the females live in groups the whole year. I´m not sure about reindeers as they aren´t common around here but i think it should be similar. And then on Your pictures i can see a youngster, also a sign for a group of female deers... 

But now to something completely different: these rain pictures are awesome, especially the swollen riverbed and the water flowing between the trees in the former park area. 
And congrats on reaching the classics, it is really well deserved.
Keep up the good work, i´ll stay as a fan.
Greetz, Carl

Sorry for the delay answering, especially after you complimented me on giving a nice answer 

Tricks are perhaps the funnest part of SC4! Sometimes I think my MD is just a series of tricks that I try to combine in a clever way and then present in a way I hope catches people's attention and interests them

On the reindeers I can't say for sure. In the winter when it's hard for them to find food naturally they all live together in pens, males and females, young and old. I had had the impression that my visitors were a family but I never checked that closely so I can't say for sure.

Really glad you liked the rainy day update and thanks for the congrats on reaching the classics! It took a lot of time and a lot of work and I'm happy to be here now.

Most importantly though, I'm glad to have you as a Siilijoki fan

[bat]

Great two pictures of the tram.

[Jmouse]

Tram + night shot = excellent! I like the daytime shot too, though. That is one of Arne's (vester) train skins, isn't it?

And I'll tell you the same thing I told Matt (threestooges). Get your priorities straight. Play the game, create updates, and if you have any time left over, you can do a little bit of work if you want to.

-Joan

[noahclem]

Thanks bat and Jmouse! Joan, I promise to organize my priorities better in the future    The skin is Arne's and it's a real beauty. I'm thinking about requesting a similar color scheme for Siilijoki's commuter trains from him 

And before I start, here's the first part of the first reward for the Hugo contest:


Thanks Theresa! 



First, an updated region view of Siilijoki's transport. Today's action will be taking place just north of Siilijoki proper, which is outlined.



An overview of phase 2:



The difficulty with this part of the interchange complex is the high elevation of the pass and the low elevation of the areas surrounding it. Junctions, wide-radius curves, etc all make changing elevation difficult and I try to keep a very high standard of realistic slope. I'm running into some real difficulties....

Part of my solution is the local access interchange at the northeastern end of the complex:

These m-tel re-lots work nice (i need to add stone walls to the inner sides apparently). The shadows aren't the best unfortunately....


A bit east of the previous picture you can see that the motorway has failed to descend anywhere near the area's original elevation. I've outlined a potential path for the rail line passing through (tunnel section dashed). I think I'll end up with a different path however....



Back at the opposite (west) end of phase 2, I'm again facing elevation issues. The flyover ramp had to go over, rather than under because of visual and spacial issues but it results in another road that has too high and elevation and needs to find a quick and realistic way down. You can see potential rail paths and slopes outlined in this rough draft picture.



A little trick I was excited about   But why would I be excited?



That's enough of that for now. Here's what's next (or soon  ):

[art128]

Now that's what I call planning an highway. You've put the planning works as the same level as Alex (Tarkus), Good job, Noah!

I'm still speechless on how you manage to put an elegant highway interchange with fantastic realistic slopes in such a limited space. Maybe by far one of the best mountain work I have seen in five years.

[catty]

A surprise sounds good, love the night-shots ... I always think of cities coming alive at night, it seems easier somehow to image the residents and their lives   

And a surprise you will have! Perhaps the night shots seem more alive because some of the details that would be hard to look right in the game wouldn't be visible in the dark anyway. In any case I'm a big fan of SC4 at night....

and a very nice surprise it was ... fitted perfectly as well   

[kelis]

As Arthur I'm still speechless, your highway interchanges looks amazing, they are very very realistics my friend !!

[rambuckel]

WOW ... I love that picture with the red kayak ... that's a real "NOAH"  A huge interchange where propably millions of cars and trucks will drive past each day, but there's at least one inhabitant who does not care at all =) Brilliant scenery!

And by the way ... the rest is impressive as well 

Best wishes Theresa

[Swordmaster]

I have to concur with the above. Brilliant freeways snaking through the landscape.

I'm also getting quite curious as to where you'll be going with this region, size-wise. You seem to be gearing up for quite some capacity on those roads, and it looks like there's enough open space left there.

Cheers,
Willy

[Framly]

Great work Noah!

The Interchange looks fantastic! Hard puzzle work

[apeguy]

That's an incredibly difficult highway you're trying to build there, and I'm amazed at how well you've done winding it through the mountains, especially while trying to accommodate a rail tunnel as well as numerous offramps and onramps. I also like the way you've used marrast's M-TEL peices for some of your ramps, quite ingenious. Well Done.

I'm looking forward to seeing this highway completed.

[SeanSC4]

That is an amazing interchange you're constructing there. Your work with the RHW never ceases to amaze me.

[Yan077]

Hmmm, the interchange is too complicated for me  , however I love the last picture   
Always a pleasure to visit Siilijoki

[Jmouse]

Still watching closely, Noah. This is one complex interchange, all the more so because you're building it on uneven ground. It looks like you have a bit of a tight squeeze for the rail in the fifth photo, so I'm eager to see how you deal with it. Do you plan these things out on paper? Or what?

BTW, at this point, the last photo is a sight for sore eyes...
-Joan