Mattb325 plays Shosaloza

[joelevan]

Beautiful scenes!

Joel

[Yoman]

You have a very unique nice style. I like it, might want to get a slope mod though.

[Katten Gustaf]

You have a very nice relaxed style Matt, with those old rowhomes along the coast mixed with greenery and the way your city gradually transition from pristine moutainsides to high density downtown. I also like the forrest stream with the waterfalls, a very vell made forrest area.
There is one thing that bugs me thow, that you have those ugly U-drive-it markers in alot of your pictures. Other than that, a very nice region and good pictures. Thanks for sharing.

[mattb325]

Thanks all for the comments

Glad my rambling, unstructured style appeals visually (and yes I do forget those annoying UDI things from time to time).

UPDATE MOSMAN

I thought I would show some pictures of Mosman on the D2 tile. The region population stands at about 820,000 so there has been some growth since last I posted, despite the fact that RL has severely interrupted my playing time 

I must confess that for quick hits of growth I go into the valley floor (Mona Vale and neighbouring Naremburn) and let Cobb, NDEX and the HK Asia teams battle it out with Maxis stage 7/8 buildings to see which can over-run my cities with their giant apartments ), but when I wish to challenge myself I open one of the hillier tiles and start building.

Mosman is one such hilly tile. The settlers here were attracted to the high Turramurra plateau falling abruptly to the ocean below and the open bracken and heath fields on the southern exposure. It has made for challenging building.

An overview of the tile:



The primary connection to the rest of the region is by rail (here we see the train to Turramurra):



Mosman is split into separate buroughs or villages, each with its own high street. The reason for this is that whilst much of the terrain may appear green and undulating, it is extremely steep, so road and rail connect the villages to each other and to the rest of the region. There is no shortage of employment as Hunters Hill, Galston and Turramurra bound this tile.

This the high street of Strathalbyn village as seen from the peak of the mountain.



On the opposite side is the village of Westmooreland which, with its flatter ground houses some additional industry (it also closest to the industrial city of Galston)

The gas plant:



More industry:



The homes of those whose wealth is dependant on that industry:



And, the high street of Westmooreland village; the mansions which abound are testimony to those who slave in the factories of neighbouring Galston (can you say 'Comrade?')  :



But the largest of all of the villages is that of Forest Lodge, which is halfway down the slope and has dramatic views across the water to headlands of Hunters Hill. Here is the High Street of Forest Lodge:



This quickly spills into general suburbia:





Which, of course turns into bushland (this is how Forest Lodge gets its name)







Further below Forest lodge is the port, but this will be shown in future updates

Thanks for viewing!

[Colyn]

Great ... I love it and I am wondering how much lag you must have with all those trees.

[BarbyW]

Super pics and I love your descriptions.

[sebes]

Man all those different trees make your pictures really cool! The last picture, with the seawater, is just a dream....

[rooker1]

Great pictures, I love the trees, the way they are placed looks very realistic.


Robin   

[kimcar]

   Great pics and your forest is just way too good . Great job. 

[mattb325]

Thanks all for the comments.

Colyn, the lag is noticeable - believe me. I have 950MB of plugins on a 512MB Ram machine. Sometimes it can be around 1+ minute when trying to open the transport menu. I only use so many tree props on tiles that I don't intend to grow beyond 50,000 sims.

However the following has helped immensely:

• Datpacker
• CPs trees as opposed to Pegs trees. Sounds crazy, but when I use predominantly Pegs trees the lag is worse as he programmed his to change at the start of each season, so on Sep 1, March 1, Dec 1, June 1 etc a whole tile of Pegs trees almost grinds to a halt. CP has made his trees change at varying times by botonical model so it spreads the pain

As the population of the region climbs higher the lag on even new tiles is worse, but this could be the NAM trying to calculate journeys between tiles. Unfortunately I don't enough about the mechanics of the game to make that a true assertion.

I last left off promising to show pictures of the port.

Water views are prized in Shosaloza and Mosman abounds in these, but there is also the over-riding need for employment and efficient transportation of products from the industrial centres of Glaston and St Leonards as well as shipping the raw materials from the farmlands of the area. With it's blind, curved bay sheltered on either side of steep hills, Mosmans' Neutral Bay was chosen as the best spot for ships to anchor.

UPDATE MOSMAN II: NEUTRAL BAY

The steep terrain around the bay makes large scale industrial port building almost impossible. In keeping with the mantra of not trashing the existing environment, very delicate terraforming was done to level the area immediately around the bay. Using street tiles, I managed to get the area approximately 5-6 tiles deep in some parts and a minimum of tiles wide in other areas.

However, despite this, the port is still quite busy. A long shot as seen from the Turramurra border, looking down the mountain across Forest Lodge



Coming down the mountain further and as Forest Lodge blurs into Neutral Bay, one can start to appreciate how steep the grade is:



Terraces and shopping streets follow the road and cliffs and provide abundant workers for the piers:





In the port area itself, manufacturing industries have set up shop (I even had a maxis Kiwi flooring grow)



Various Warehousing:







The main area of the port which juts out from the bay (the most extensively terraformed area):



The control tower ensures that accidents are kept to minimum in the crowded bay:



Zooming out reveals the larger extent of the area:



Obligatory night shot:



Further away from the port is what started it all. In times past, Neutral Bay was a favoured drop off for fishermen. Now days, it is an expensive seafood restaurant:



And lastly, an overview of the Mosman tile:



Just over 40,000 Sims live here and have helped push the Region to 907,000 Sims.

Thanks for viewing 

[Colyn]

Great shots and good stuff on the numbers. 

[sebes]

Interesting photo's! Considering the environment I think you did a VERY good job there .
However I think your roads are too steep though... Imagine trucks with cargo rolling down the mountian... hide!!! 

[tag_one]

wonderfull pictures I really like the way you've build your cities

[BarbyW]

Excellent pics, Matt. You make me very envious of your development skills.

[rooker1]

Very interesting update and nice little port.

Robin   

[mattb325]

Thanks again for the comments. They are great.

Sebes, the Sims are such terrible drivers  - thankfully it's a game and no-one gets hurt....there are some roads which are too steep, but the grade on this tile is very deceiving....I would hate to live in Sim land, believe me!

Now, I am edging ever closer to the MILLION mark. (About 970,000) 

One of the earlier tiles I built on was in the bottom left hand corner - LANE COVE on tile A4 on the grid.

It has a large valley and I had intended to create a large city here, but there were elements I didn't like so I left it alone and  instead focused on Mona Vale, Naremburn and Hunters Hill for the larger developments. I made a mental note that if I was unable to get the population required, I would return to this tile as it had a reasonable valley area (albeit quite elevated and sloping).

Now, with the pressure off to get the huge population growth per tile, I returned to Lane Cove to see what I could do with the remaining space.

One thing my Shosaloza lacks is suburbia.

You know the type - speculative tract housing, box stores, cinemas, grassy parks, schools, ovals, small businesses and churches. Neighbourly hellos and lawn mowers, roses, trimmed hedges, garden gnomes, picket fences, new cars, new 4-wheel drives, starched washing, spare rooms, roast meat and borrowed sugar. The areas that politicians visit when they refer to their constituent heartland. Middle values.

Ugggh 

So, I present this small update for your pleasure.

UPDATE: LANE COVE

OR

"Is that a suburb in your pocket....?"

As I said, I had intended for Lane Cove to be one of the larger city areas:

Here is what I had created - it still serves it's purpose as a dense CBD and transit hub for many neighbouring tiles



But the area behind the city was largely undeveloped, so with my mates CP and SG, we cracked open a few tinnies and let rip with tract housing. It still fairly steep and sloping, but larger areas of flat land allow the desired effect:



Imagine the joy of coming home to one of these many beauties after a grinding day in the box store:



Lost? does this street look the same as the last? Nooooo, never.... 



Imagine the gossip that occurs over these fences:



Or these:



A long shot of the area:



The schools, along with the churches, form the very social fabric of suburban heartland.
Values are passed from one generation to the next, like being a good citizen, a loyal worker, a kind neighbour, and never taking drugs - so god only knows what the kids are burning on the grounds of that school, but that smoke is always going 



But, when all is said and done, suburbia is about the mall and the cinema. Here teenagers can hang, find gainless employment on sub-minimum wages and then spend those sub minimum wages on useless products ensuring a perfect cycle is maintained:



But for those rebellious kids who dream of bigger and better things, there's always the 'big city' - so near, yet so far 



Thanks again for viewing

[Colyn]

Great shot ... I am stuck in my game ... the Sims just dont want to breed as they should

[bat]

Wonderful pictures! Great work!

[sebes]

Magnificent update again. Do I notice some Desperate Housewives in Wysteria Lane  ?

[kwakelaar]

Those were some fantastic updates, love your style of playing the game Matt.