Farms North of Grasmere () My SC4 MD Scrapbook

[Bipin]

This looks fantastic. Great work! 

[Themistokles]

Gorgeous grungyness! And, you really have an awesome plugins folder. Mind if I ask for

• the bluish diagonal W2W and the reddish orthagonal one in pic. 11,
• the imposing Georgian (?) building on pic. 9,
• the rather dilapidated diagonal gray W2W with the solar panels, right above the Georgian building in the same picture?

I hope I don't bring you too much trouble. It's just that your MD is such a good place to find high-quality plugins!

[feyss]

Great pictures again 

[romualdillo]

As always great pictures, great urban design and great industrial areas!!   

[compdude787]

Wow, nice!!! You really have a lot of dedication; I mean it.

[kbieniu7]

Heh, seems, I've missed a lot of wonderful shots... I'm not able to comment all of them, so I just say, that your shots have some... natural diversity? Sounds weird, but I mean, there is everything there. With each shot one can see the factories, different-looking housing estates, roads with different cross-section, parks, cemeteries, public building, high-rises or blocks with some old w2w insertion, railyards and green open spaces... Literally everything, that melts together and create a natural looking city. 
   

[Vizoria]

Replies:

Bipin: Thank you!

Themistokles: Glenni diagonal awesomeness: http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/22357-transition-from-long-to-short-diagonal-buildings/, http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/24327-longhammervegen-5-orth-to-diag/ and http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/20763-ndex-oscarsgate-14/. And here is that Georgian building- http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2337.

<wipes sweat off brow>

feyss: Thanks!

romualdillo: Thank you very much!

compdude787: I have a good memory for where everything is in the menus, constructing diagonal areas always takes a huge amount of scrolling up and down the landmark menu.

kbieniu7: That's why I'm so pleased with Garforth, it's one hell of a mix!

{---}

Entry 50: A Stream through the Suburbs

This is the final entry from Garforth. After this I am going to take a break from SC4. I will explain why later on in the weekend.

{---}

1.


Another suburban area.


2.


3.


I reckon a lot of these houses are mattb325's creations.


4.


5.


I added more to the school grounds with a sports pitch.


6.


7.


Yet more semi-detached homes.


8.


The 2x3 semi-detached homes only come in two versions.


9.


And here is that stream which cuts through this neighbourhood.


10.


This stream is actually one of Moonlight's canal/stream sets. It can be found on his website- http://blog.livedoor.jp/moonlinght/archives/cat_59226.html. To expedite your search, ctrl+f and put in 農業用水路・放水路 - takes you straight to the canal set.


11.


12.


13.


The magic of FrankU's park set in action.


14.


Now we move closer to an industrial estate.


15.


16.


17.


18.


19.


Sprawling concrete and industrial areas, my favourite thing to create in SC4.


20.


Complemented with grungy W2W American stores.


21.


22.


And now with Japanese warehouses to bring in some more variety.


23.


24.


25.


26.


One last neighbourhood.


27.


And one last picture of Garforth.

{---}

And now I think it is time to put a full stop upon this MD, I had a great three month run and now it is time to take a break.

[carlfatal]

Well, I was very inactive, so I had to reread all the written stuff and looking to all the wonderful pictures. Needless to say, that this wasn´t work but pleasure! 

What I really like is, that you have streets with always the same houses but very different lots. That is superrealistic but very rare to see in SC4.  Overall it looks incredibly real.

And if you need a break from SC4, then I wish you a good time until we meet again. And I really hope to see more of your style in the future. Simply nice to look at but also very inspiring.

[compdude787]

Nice work on those suburbs! Even though a lot of those roads are laid out in a grid, you still manage to make it look unique and interesting.

[kelis]

I like the use of the canals, they looks really good in that residential area 

[Themistokles]

A superb update, as always. The residential area has great character, that makes every part of it stand out in its own right. It's saddening to hear that you're taking a break, but, well, we all need that sometimes. You'll be very welcome back.

And many thanks for all the links!

[kbieniu7]

A run? Dude, I would say, you've just finished a MARATHON while sprinting all the time 

Each time I see more details. Like, for example, the fence along the road in the 6th photo, or... actually everything

Yeah, so, take a break. Hope, you will stay around somewhere at forum

[Vizoria]

Replies:

carlfatal: I can attribute the different lots to the suburb work of the BAT creators or LOT editors. I'm glad you really enjoyed these entries.

compdude787: Thank you, though SC4 is stuck to an orthogonal setting (for the most part), magic can still happen for a game of such age.

kelis: Thanks! That's why I picked those particular canals because they blended in so well with the houses and FrankU's tree fillers from his Dutch park set.

Themistokles: It is not a super long break, only three or four months. Probably less than this really because I will probably start doodling with SC4 in about a month or two's time. But I will be back.

kbieniu7: It has kind of felt like a marathon, and in these last few entries more like a drag. One entry was hair-raisingly scary as I pieced together 50 or so pictures to form a gigantic mosaic of this forest. But I posted so many entries because I knew there was so much detail and diversity.

I will still be commenting in the forum though, I do love seeing other MDs and the other magical pictures in different topics. There is an awful lot of SC4 magic in this site, in fact I would even go so far as to say most of the best SC4 pictures can be found on this site, year in, year out. Take your Kolbrow entry of the forest in early spring, your use of the dry grass from JENX Poseidon's mod was really cool and I will definitely be trying that out to see what happens with different flora.

{---}

News:

I'm taking a break from SC4 and I expect to be back around about June or July, part of it is burnout and the other part is that story writing is more interesting right now. There is one city in the works which is Erinsberg, a large city, and another more experimental city tile that I have in mind. Part of the inspiration was inspecting the St Regis Mohawk Reservation, after I decided to look it up after watching the film Frozen River. The satellite images gave me some inspiration about how part rural part urban areas are laid out and when I do work on this it is going to be one hell of an MMP experiment, and one where I will be pulling out the classic functional-RCI-not-connected-to-a-road trick.

Here is the portion of the map in question which gave me inspiration, I want to emulate (in SC4's orthogonal fashion) this type of area.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/United+States/@44.9789258,-74.6836336,1643m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x54eab584e432360b:0x1c3bb99243deb742!6m1!1e1

[feyss]

Nice way to conclude those 3 months (more like 5 ?); You posted more than me in almost 4 years 

I really like the small canal, it's a great finding. 

[Guest]

Super, rural areas are very pretty!

[belfastsocrates]

Missed a couple of updates here but as always there's so much wonderfulness to take in and enjoy.

The new project sounds rather interesting, really looking forward to seeing that, I'm imagining beautiful landscapes and superb MMP work will feature strongly.

[Vizoria]

Replies:

feyss: Ha ha! Those three months felt like a bit of a marathon.

000: Thank you very much!

belfastsocrates: Thanks! The new project is for the summer, right now I am working on Erinsberg.

{---}

Entry 51: A WIP of Erinsberg

I have been taken my time working on Erinsberg, I have had a spurt of activity in these past three days as I use new content from Simmer2 and Mattb325. Erinsberg is an LA-styled city.

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1.


The totality of my progress.


2.


Expansive office spaces.


3.


FAR industry.


4.


Skyscrapers.


5.


For this city tile I am using blunder's Cascadia tree controller.


6.


The results are impressive- a great mix of deciduous and coniferous trees.


7.


More office spaces. Mattb325's buildings and lots are really useful.


8.


The very centre of Erinsberg. The US Bank Tower is the pinnacle of this LA-themed city.

{---}

It will be a couple of weeks before I post another update, I will be taking my time on Erinsberg.

[compdude787]

Looks nice! But, for it to truly be an LA-styled city, it needs to have really congested freeways, and one called I-405 which is the most congested.

[Themistokles]

Looks great What always surprises me is how you manage to make your cities look so coherent, without using the LE... like how the FAR industry is integrated into its surroundings. It looks like it was meant to be there, all along!

But where are the smooth curves in the sixth image - now that they're draggable and everything?

[Vizoria]

Replies:

compdude787: Thanks! That's why it is an LA themed city only; RHW could not do justice to LA's freeways.

Themistokles: I'm getting better at mixing together buildings with fillers, new content always helps as does new fillers and Erinsberg would not be possible without the recent flurry of content from the past six months. Now, there are smooth curves in the rural areas and even a bit of FAR!

{---}

Entry 52: Erinsberg Update

This past week has been extremely fruitful as I continue to develop Erinsberg. I work city block by city block and wherever inspiration takes me. Here is a selection of completed areas, in particular I am very pleased with the final picture. Enjoy!

{---}

1.


As you can see Erinsberg has doubled in size.


2.


The M20 roundabout. Roundabouts aren't very American but I just had to put a few in!


3.


I realised that city blocks don't always have to be filled with buildings, even the city centre should have space and pretty parks.


4.


FrankU's Dutch Plaza set has been invaluable for infilling city blocks. Additionally I have been using pedmalls to offset some buildings and to ensure they are not abandoned. I have discovered that any plopped building, not residential though, does not become abandoned if it is connected to just one transport tile: street, road and even pedmall. I made this discovery about a year ago when working on the rural area of Ravensworth, now though I am applying it a lot more.


5.


Nothing like some Commie blocks to create a poorer area! Credit must be giving to the SFBT Moscow Housing Blocks http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3302 and other European flats uploaded by Andreas.


6.


The SFBT PreFab Filler Lots (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3301) go hand-in-hand with these housing blocks!


7.


A street winds its way through the outskirts of Erinsberg. I spent an entire evening terraforming the hills just so I could drag a series of roads to cut into the countryside and additionally to create some spots for villages. There will also be other special features in these hills to...


8.


I am really enjoying the Cascadia Tree Controller.


9.


Back to the city.


10.


Creating the small green space to break up city blocks is a method I am now using with greater frequency.


11.


The imposing grey building is Jasoncw's 994 Vargas Avenue, one of the finest W2W buildings in my opinion and one which will fit into just about any city. For those interested- http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/31028-994-vargas-avenue/.


12.


This is a special picture for me. I was going across the hills in Erinsberg when the bushy area in the top left caught my eye. Then I remembered that I had Mattb325's Fallingwater building and I realised this would be the perfect place for it. It blends right in and given the famous nature of the building in real life, I decided to create a small car park for tourists and create a small village next to it. Not sure why but it's one of the rare few SC4 pictures I took which is somewhat mesmerizing to me.

{---}

In future entries I will write more about certain pictures and the story behind them. It's kind of like a guide or let's play via pictures as I continue to explore the possibilities of the plugins folder. I am coming to realise that if more great filler sets such as KingOfSimCity's car parks, or SFBT's prefab filler lots, come along, then I may never have to consider lotting ever again. I am coming to the point where with the right fillers and MMPs I can integrate just about any building or lot I come across to the area it resides in.

Next weekend I will post another update on Erinsberg.