Franklin County - A 1st CJ

[lookinin 2]

Hello again everyone!

Thank you to all - I REALLY appreciate the positive comments on what I've been doing so far. I hope my last update is as close as I ever get to story telling in this CJ - I'm horrible at it!

This is just a quick update till later today!

Some renovation has occured downtown - If not for the sidewalk textures, I'd really like these one-way streets. I'll probably change them - they just don't seem to fit in a rural area very well, but I won't know till more commercial moves in. What do you think??


Franklin's first apartment buildings! (sorry about the grid *kicks self*)


And finally a couple farm closeups for the rural-minded among you:




Things are really moving slowly - sorry for that, but it is being worked on! And doesn't it figure, this city is locking up just about every 15-20 minutes and requiring a reboot. Frustrating. Never happened before this city. But I'll keep at it until I can move over to another part of the region and see what happens.

Comments, suggestions, and criticisms always welcome!

[sloppet 3]

nice updates!! welcome to the next page!!

[lookinin 2]

Thanks sloppet! Good to see you again!

Yet another renovation of the center of town:


Some new industry:


A small village has appeared next to a pond to the west of town:


A new church:


Some additional development on the hill above town:


And lastly, another wide view so you can see the development so far:


Thanks for visiting Franklin! Hope you enjoyed this update - as always, comments & suggestions welcome!

[____----____ 37]

nice looking city you have going on

i'll have to stop back and see what you do next

 

AK

[inuyasha fan 0]

Great CJ, I have been working on a new region called Franklin County so since I had planned on using it as my first CJ it wont work now. But I will change the name without a problem, I was already thinking the name didn't fit the region. Yours looks great I like rural towns. I can't pull off rural towns so your doing pretty good make that awesome looking forward to more updates.

 

[oroen 0]

Nice sporadic developments. I tend to go a little crazy sometimes and zone/build a bunch of buildings directly adjacent to each other without realizing that in real life, there would be space, lots, parking, trees, etc. between these buildings. It shows a bit of patience and self-constraint when you can avoid that over-building.

[aasim45 1]

Wonderful, just wonderful !!

[jacqulina 162]

very pretty great update

[lookinin 2]

aleking, aasim45, jacqulina: Thanks for your praise and comments, I'm happy that you dropped in!

inuyasha fan: As I mentioned in my first post, I did look around to see who was using the name Franklin, and I didn't see anything current. I apologize if I missed something or if I've caused you any trouble! And thanks for your praise, I'm really glad you like what I'm doing so far!

oroen: There are still times when I have to stop myself from putting things too close together. Until I found Simtropolis and saw what others were doing, I always did the standard 6x6 grids. Self-constraint, maybe - patience, well, that's not something I'm known for I get very frustrated with the game (and myself) sometimes when I can't get something just the way I want it - Franklin's downtown is a good example of that - I'm still not happy with it, and it will likely get plowed under again. I am enjoying sharing those images anyway though, so that others can see the improvements as I go along. Thanks for visiting again, I truly appreciate it!

This is a mini-update, since I likely won't have a chance to work much on Franklin again until tomorrow.

I am still working on the West side of town, I thought it needed more farmland and another neighbor connection:


This is probably my favorite image so far - I've added some new industry, and here it seems to happily co-exist with some farmland and residential:


I am itching to do a little urban development so that I can play with NAM a little bit so, in a few days, I may move over to another part of the region and see if I can do something without completely ruining the rural feel of Franklin. I hope you'll enjoy a little contrast from what I've been doing so far!

Thanks again for visiting, until tomorrow!

As always, comments, suggestions, and critiques welcome.

[sloppet 3]

nice start... keep up the good work!

I would like to say that I really liked this Cj .... It is really great and interesting!
I hope it'll become a more great CJ int the future... The previous updates were very nice...
Keep up the great work with this CJ  Good Luck!!
I hope that this will ben not my last post in this Cj... Once again good luck!

Regards,
SloppeT

[inuyasha fan 0]

Hey Lookinin still looking great. You didn't cause me any problem just to lety you know.

[____----____ 37]

this cj is great you create some cool spaces

[jacqulina 162]

excellent coming on great very nice pics

[lookinin 2]

Thank you everyone for you kindness and comments! It's been a couple days since my last update - sorry for that - but I finally got back to it today

Correction of previous update: I referred to the West of town, which is actually the North. I'd been working with that perspective for so long it seemed like West

Starting this update off with a city wide picture. You can see new industrial and farming development at the top (the East ), and new residential toward the North. Sorry for the missing trees:


A closeup of the newest residential area:


Industry moving in above the lake, and some new rail has been built:


Since Franklin's farms are getting bigger and busier, a Bureau of Farm Management was needed, and they picked quite a nice location near the showgrounds and on the river:


Goober's Farm Supply has also moved in, furnishing the farmers with bigger and better equipment:


With the addition of the Bureau of Farm Management, it was decided that a commercial outlet for agriculture was needed. So a Farmer's Market was built, which offers fresh produce, meat, and dairy products to Franklin's population - expect to see additional development here in the future:


I hope you enjoy the slow pace that Franklin is keeping - the population is currently 3243!

As always, comments, suggestions, and critiques welcome. Think I can improve something? I'm still learning, so just let me know...

[oroen 0]

Some of my favorite pictures in CJ's are when industry, farms, and homes can co-exist. I've done a bit of that myself, but I've seen some really nice one in others' CJ's. That one picture you mentioned looks really nice and a good example of the kind of thing that I really like to see.

[jacqulina 162]

very pretty

[dhoppeii 12]

Great Looking rural community.  I especially like that first pic in this most recent update.  I love global shots like that....

[Bedlam 0]

I love the small town feel to this. Really neat. Keep it up!

[Amryai200 2]

great region, keep it up

[RadioheadFan 1]

Really good work here lookinin. Franklin looks like an excellent place to live, expect to see me in here more often!

RHF

[lookinin 2]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful comments!!

Oroen: Thanks! I'm glad you like that image - it just spoke to me for some reason and it earned a place here

jacqulina: Thank you! I saw some conversation over on SCR where you said you might share some of your work with us - I also would very much love to see your farms and cities, and wondered why I never saw a CJ from you. Consider me a fan in advance

dhoppeii: Thanks very much, good to see you again, and I'm glad you enjoyed that picture... now if I could only get it to look like the satellite images on google maps

Badlam, Amryai200, RHF: Welcome to Franklin! Thank you for paying me a visit, I appreciate it very much!

Nothing major today, just a few images - I am playing around with GIMP a little bit and trying to enhance the look of my images as I've been seeing others do in their CJ's. I will let you decide for me if it's an improvement or not, so please let me know what you think!

Goober's Farm Supply now has some competition from Trev's Tractors:


AnnMarie's Cottage Garden - I think this is one of the most beautiful lots I've ever seen!


A new pond has been dug out near the new residential area:


And yet another downtown renovation - I am having serious brain-fade trying to keep a rural feel, but build up a small commercial district at the same time. Any suggestions?



That's it for now - a little short, but I'm very tired today... Thanks again everyone!

[dhoppeii 12]

Wonderful pics...lookinin.  I like the sun glint on the horse trailers....Nice touch.

That cottage garden is definately a fantastic lot.

 

As far as a comercial development in a rural setting, I do a couple of different things.  If I am looking for office space, I try not to get them too close.  Perhaps, just a few lots grouped together along a main artery, something like a Main Street type deal.  Another thing I like to do is create a small business district by placing resteraunts along a main artery and maybe a pub or two.  I don't really thing that a thriving business district is going to work in a small rural setting.  Anyway, just some of m thoughts.

 

Regards,

 

dhoppe

[sloppet 3]

great pics!! nice update!!

[rooker1 4]

This is a great CJ, I'm really glad I stopped in to look at this one.  You have givin me some ideas.  I love you diagonal roads.  Keep up the great work.  I'll be back.

L8r

[RadioheadFan 1]

Really good work with the new pics, I have to agree with you, the cottage lot is amazing. Keep up the excellent work, friend!

RHF

[amal81 3]

How did u give rounded corners and shadow effects, which software did u use and how did u use it?

 

anyway a good CJ non the less.  i like diag-streets.

[lookinin 2]

No update just now, sorry for that, but I did want to respond to your comments:

dhoppeii: Thank you so much for the advice - after some consideration of your thoughts, I think a main street is exactly what I need here, but I kind of paved myself into a corner with my layout - I will have to consider it and see if I can work it out - I was trying way too hard to force a commercial area on a town that really doesn't call for it (however small I tried to make it). Thank you again, you got my wheels turning again!!

I'm very glad you like the images - I thought the reflection was a little bit much, but wanted to try it anyway

sloppet: Thanks for your comments and regular visits, they are very much appreciated!

rooker1: I'm very glad that I could be some inspiration to you, and thank you for your wonderful comments!

RHF: All of the new BLS lots are quite amazing, but when I saw that one for the first time, my jaw hit the keyboard I think! Thanks for your praise, it means very much to me!

amal81: Thanks! I'm glad you like my effects! Of course the images are not actually dropshadowed, it is a trick of sorts I use a program called GIMP. If you are not familiar with it, it is similar in capability to Photoshop and it is Free/Open Source software. One of the filters is specifically for rounding off the corners and adding a dropshadow, so I set the background to match the ST page color, run the filter, and get what you see above. I also used it to do the sun flare effect in the first image of the last update, and the sharpening and cropping of the images as well. GIMP was originally written in GTK+ for Linux, but awhile back GTK+ for Win32 was released, so GIMP was also released for Windows. Here's a link to the GIMP homepage . Let me know if you need additional information.

Thank you everyone for visiting and commenting! Look for an update later today or Monday...

[humbrol 0]

excellent work so far!

[Cjah 15]

Not bad I really like the rural feeling...I'll have to ask you for tips when I work on Bostalk....

[lookinin 2]

Thank you humbrol!

Cjah: Anytime I can give you a hand with something, please let me know Thanks!

I do not have a big update prepared, nor anything very exciting to show you, but wanted to share another citywide shot. As you can see, the farms continue to grow: