The University of Clayhurst

[JBSimio]

Jackfrost:  Thank you!  I've been tinkering with the football stadium (in secret) for quite a long time now and, to be honest, it's the one that I'm most worried about.  I have high hopes for it and just hope I can live up to them. 

Jack:  Thanks for your thoughts!  It is a long list, especially considering how slowly I've moved lately.    I'm currently leaning towards EP2 including the athletic facilities and a selections from the alumni rewards and campus asthetics categories.  As for the hospital building, I wouldn't read too much into that just yet.  I was mainly experimenting with a number of different ideas all in one place.  The tower is certianly built around a "central core" concept in regards to elevators and stairwells.  Ultimately, there will need to be a fairly significant roof access level to allow access to the helicopter pad.  The ambulance drive through is actually a dead end at this point... which makes no sense at all, but I just wanted to see how it might look in this setting.

Simdad:  Thank you!  It feels good to be back!    I have come to the conclusion that I will indeed make a medical school and  a different hospital building.  Whether I include the option to "connect" the two or not remains to be seen.  I still like the idea of having that option, but much of it will depend on how the two buildings come out in the end.  Loved that quote, by the way!   

Zach:  Thank you for the links!  I never turn down reference material and ideas are always a huge help.  The major problem I see in creating "expansions" for the original buildings is that they just weren't designed or lotted in ways which lend themselves to the idea.  While it would be nice, I think it would be very difficult to do well.  The only other alternative would be to resurrect the old models, create "additions," and release the building again with the option to bulldoze and replop.  All of which strikes me as a hassle many people might not want to deal with.  But I could easily be proven wrong on that guess.    The DeBussy building included with EP1 is meant to be an engineering school with increased I-HT demand as the benefit.

Guillaume:  Thank you!  It was a very nice Christmas, even with very few gifts.    I recieved your PM and I plan to respond soon.  Sorry for the delay.

Cedric:  Thank you so much for your kind words.  I find myself constantly thinking about this project.  I have many moments when I see somthing and immediately think, "That's what the university set needs!"    If anything, my problem seems to be having too many ideas and not enough time to work with them all.

CabraBruitre:  Glad you like it!

PrestonCo:  Thank you!

Just a quick hello today.  I don't have any nifty pictures to share at this point, but I didn't want people to begin thinking I'd disappeared again!   I've been playing with a few main entry signs and sketching some bell tower ideas, but nothing worth looking at just yet.  The main problem I'm having with the signs is that they wind up being unreadable.  I may have to break down and finally opt for the trendy HD renders (which I've never done yet) to see if that helps.  We'll see.

In the meantime, EP1 has been shipped to Germany (ironically by way of the internet, where shipping rates are excellent I might add) and Andreas will be working some of his helpful magic for the time being.  After that, RippleJet and I will need to have some lengthy discussions followed by even longer tutoring sessions (in which he patiently and repeatedly explains things that I frankly should have learned last time).  These will inevitably disintigrate into a few ugly arguments, complete with name calling and verbal abuse, with the occasional tirade thrown in for good measure.*  After all that, he'll work his magic when he is able and things will come together in their own timely fashion.  All of this blabber is just an extremely long way of letting you, the faithful fans of this set, know that things are progressing behind the scenes even as I waste your time by writing all of the aforementioned (good word, doesn't get used often enough) blabber.

More to come!
JB

*It is worth noting that I made that entire sentence up for no real reason beyond my own personal sense of humor... I don't think Tage and I have ever argued about anything!

[Jack_wilds]

... anticipating the developments

EP1 sounds promising, looking forward to getting to play with it  so how did your Michigan Christmas go?

thanks for the shout-out 

Jack

[Sciurus]

Okok, no problem, don't worry

Guillaume

[JBSimio]

Jack:  Christmas went very well, thank you!  It was a bit colder than I like, but I guess that's why I moved...

Guillaume:  I just didn't want you to feel left out of the replies section...

Had groups to feed over the weekend, but I did manage to play with a few main entry type of signs.  They're both pretty simple and basic, but here's a look anyway:



The larger view is what the upper right would look like if it was readable.  I'm still debating the HD idea... it would probably help, but then again, maybe people don't want to be stuck with my words.  I know a lot of MD's and such use names which suit the author's story, so perhaps it's better if the sign can't be read?  I don't know.   

I've also begun toying with the first bell tower, but it's not far enough along to be seen just yet.  Just wanted to stop by and prove that I have been doing something!   

JB

[psander5]

I wouldn't worry too much about the readability of signs in zooms 1-5.  I don't necessarily think that upping the scale of the lettering would work because it might lead to the signs looking unrealistically scaled compared to the buildings.  I like them the way they are now to be honest.  I can see that there are letters there, and if you already know roughly what the sign is likely to say, you can read it.  Sometimes words on signs can be reduced to a small cluster of pixels that render as nothing more than a splodge of different colour, but yours look ok.

If exported as a prop, this would be an ideal candidate for HD... provided zoom 5 doesn't suffer too much for it.  Personally I hardly ever go down to zoom 6 except to plop some mayor mode flora items, so I don't really value HD... even though I continue to export certain things in it but it's for things like signs that HD was made for in my opinion!

You're right to consider CJers/MDers I think.  I am one myself, and I do enjoy a bit of the generic in custom content... it allows for further customisation within the story, but for a project like this which is fairly generic in its design anyway I don't think it's much of an issue. Just don't BAT any national flags into the models and I think you would have covered that consideration well enough 

I might as well add, since it's my first time posting here, that the rest of your work on this project is also superb

[Sciurus]

Yeah, I see what you mean but I didn't feel that

For the sign, I think (for my opinion) that's better to not be reading, because as you say, mayor who wants to include this university and follow their own story, I don't think they all want that the sign can be read.

Anyway, these are very nice

Guillaume

[crushedcar]

Personally, I don't mind if the sign can't be read. I prefer being able to imagine what a sign says to actually knowing what it says. For something like this, though, I would think that HD might be worth it if only because people might use these for a banner in a CJ/MD update (I know I would) and it would help them if the sign was in focus.

[JBSimio]

Psander5:  Thank you and welcome to the thread!  I appreciate your input and I'm still debating the HD vs standard export.  I tend to agree with the readability being a minor point... even my own MD doesn't call the university by this name!  I'll keep an eye on other thoughts and go from there.

Guillaume:  Thanks!

Crushedcar:  Thank you for your thoughts, as well!

Putting the signs aside for a moment, I thought I'd play with one of the bell towers.  This is based pretty heavily on the bell tower at North Carolina State, although I plan on using some brick in my version.



I still have to finish the very top section which will add some more height... maybe about doube the height of the "clock section" on top of what you see here.  The entire thing will also sit on a base several steps above ground level.  I'm fairly happy with it so far, although I think I'm going to remove the spears (for lack of a better word) being held out by the statues.  In hindsight, it just doesn't work.  Still a fair bit of other tweaking to be done elsewhere too, but we'll see how it tops off first.

I plan on also having a second bell tower with a much more gothic feel, similar to the Fuhrmann Acedemic Center's style.  But that's another day...

More later,
JB

[Jack_wilds]

Hey JB...liking the progress, 

concerning the signs the square one is neat and would be a neat subject for texture differ appearances -using brick, or stucco, or stone or some combination the then the 'low and wide' signs, I can    see 'em placed on a mound of flowers a signature shrub to a side and a signature tree to the back and opposite the shrub...

as for the 'to HD or not to HD' musings... I'd like one of the signs to be legible -whether it needs HD or not, so my sims can know who the campus is and what its about... 

So here I am at the local nieghbor hood wifi coffee shop, breaking in my new laptop and I like it -got from a friend for $250 and its loaded with more and better than told {md7309 w/t4300cpu2.1} and its less than old, barely used... it makes up for the one that was slightly damaged when I got struck by a car day before Thanksgiving...

Like the bell tower its a promising design look, it ought to give any commons presence -it reminds me of an Italian tower I saw pics of however don't know
what or where the tower was...

Jack

[threestooges]

Interesting design for the clock tower. I don't recall seeing many with that taper before. It's a nice change of pace; I know there are a few towers out there already, though not clock-based, which have vertical sides. I like the looks of it already.

As for the signs, I think they look fine in their current forms. Speaking as an MD'er myself, having the versatility of a generic sign with "text" on it seems preferable to Clayhurst and its many satellite campuses. I know in one of those versions you can just make out "Clayhurst" if you look closely enough though, so perhaps what you have there is a good balance. I do know that explaining writing on a building can actually be kind of fun (the 1882 on the academic center for example was fun to work with in Greenacre) but it's probably easier to have generic signs.

If you get the chance, I'd love to see a closeup of how you sculpted the clock and figures atop the tower.
-Matt

[sumatra82]

The clock tower reminds me much of one here in Providence at Brown University:


Sits right on top of College Hill overlooking the campus quad.

Gothic tower? I am quickly reminded of Yale's Harkness Tower:



Looking great! I am anxiously awaiting EP1... truly an amazing set!

[Andreas]

As for the signs, I think they look fine in their current forms. Speaking as an MD'er myself, having the versatility of a generic sign with "text" on it seems preferable to Clayhurst and its many satellite campuses. I know in one of those versions you can just make out "Clayhurst" if you look closely enough though, so perhaps what you have there is a good balance.

Agreed. If you query any of the lots, the query UI will show the Clayhurst University logo anyway, so there's not really a doubt about what's on the sign. On the other hand, lot designers are able to use the prop for their own purposes if it looks more generic - that's something that most Maxis props have in common after all. If you really want to make even the smallest prop "readable", simply add an LTEXT file for the hover query. Only a handful of BATters make use of this feature, and even less use it for descriptive purposes (maybe even with a small joke added, like Gascooker's truck props or SimGoober's "NIMBY" people).

[Sciurus]

Really nice tower! And you know I'm waiting for your response with impatience

Guillaume

[PrestonCo]

Love the clock tower...or at least the start of it!

I'm happy to hear that the stadium is underway. Can I ask how big (approximately capacity) the stadium will be? Small ivy league style or powerhouse program? I'm a huge college football fan so this is by far the most anticipated item of the expansion packs for me. If you want to build the suspense, no worries!

[JBSimio]

Jack:  Thank you!  I'm glad you like the tower... hopefully you still will!     I will probably make at least one more entry sign, hopefully large enough to be legible.  As for the two I've done, I plan on making mirror images of each so that there will be a "left" and "right" version to flank the entry (if one so desires... or just use one, either way).  Congratulations on the "new to you" laptop!  I think we're supposed to call them notebooks now, but I still don't either! 

Matt:  Thanks!  NC State was always one of my favorite towers just for the simplicity it has... it seemed like the perfect starting point.  In truth, I didn't model the statues myself.  They are actually meshes of people props that SimGoober made available long ago.  (I don't recall if it was publicly somewhere or on the BSC board.)  I just scaled them to fit and retextured them to make them look like statues. 

Sumatra:  Thank you!  Funny that you should mention the Harkness Tower at Yale.  I had already planned to borrow bits and pieces of it! 

Andreas:  Thank you for the thoughts.  I think I've leaned away from the HD idea... it doesn't sound important enough to anyone to be worth the extra bother.  I have used that hover query a couple times, although I usually forget about it.  I think I had some fun with the brown stone set with that parameter.  If I remember right, hovering over the burned out shell model will simply inform you that "It burned, Mayor."   

Guillaume:  Thanks!

PrestonCo:  Thank you!  I don't have a real good idea for the size of the football stadium yet.  I've only gotten as far as ideas right now, so I have no clue where it may end up... sorry.

Well, I think the first bell tower is pretty much wrapped up:



I had hoped to squeeze this on a 1x1 lot, but with the base added it won't quite fit.  If I'm going to keep the paths centered all pretty like, that means it will have to be a 3x3 now.  I think that will be OK though, because it will leave room for some nice landscaping around everything.  I may still tweak the lighting on this just a bit more, but it's pretty close.  I'm also still debating the texture of the bell itself... might be a little too squeaky clean right now.  Any other thoughts?

I'm hoping to get a start on the second tower later today... so we'll see how that goes.

JB

[vester]

Love the tower. It remains me of towers in Italian.

like in Venice:

[jgehrts]

Another thought from the peanut gallery... I'm obviously partial to the Campanile of my alma mater, Iowa State:

[Jack_wilds]

Hey JB,

I like it, its striking in its simple form, balance in height and width... -its over all design sense

the pedestal is in keeping with overall U of Clayhurst look and feel for the its campus...3x3 will make it easier to fit into plazas, commons, and allow for 'fancy' lotting embellishments too 

-then -perhaps, a lot for plaza placement -more pavement, and one for courtyard/commons placement with more grass/ landscaping...  once I get a though it turns into a river of thinking I only hit on what was the better of it    

... will the bells ringing sound effect be included 

I like the 'bubble' ltext idea for certain things... so if making a legible sign is troublesome -that would be a good substitute... then mirroring the signs is a good idea 

Jack

[JayStimson]

Very impressive JB. Glad to see you're still at it. Hope all is well with you and yours. Happy New Year bud.

[Sciurus]

Very nice tower! Well, I've got to answer you now

Guillaume