Sleaborough - Zero7 plays SC:S

[htoeppner 0]

Very nice. Despite all the negative reactions to SCS, I like it and you can get some pretty good results if you apply yourself.

[bokrif 18]

The time has come when the first SCS CJ arrived. I liked the pictures by the way.

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Interesting. I'm really not sure what to think about SCS.

Nice pictures, but it seems like a lot of building repetition. How many different suburban houses are there?

[Zelgadis 638]

Good results indeed. If nothing else, SCS lends itself well to eye candy.

ISF

[zero7 68]

htoeppner, bokrif - Thanks for dropping by - glad you're enjoying the images.

edmonton_stinks - there isn't a huge variety of suburban houses.  From memory there are brownstones, european townhouses, victorian houses, tudor houses, US wooden rowhomes and tract mansions each in 2-3 variations (there's a few more that I can't think of the names of).  There are also a number of midrise apartment blocks.  So maybe slighly worse than vanilla SC4 in terms of variey, but once a BAT arrives that problem will go away.

zelgadis - you're right about the eye candy.  For anyone who builds all plopped cities SCS would be a step forward from SC4 if it wasn't for the fact that TM have totally wrecked the transport side of things.  I'm looking for three things on this front - diagonals or free placement of roads, custom intersections and being able to tie a vehicle to a road type.  If TM can deliver that then the modding can give the land based transport options that everyone wants.

[zero7 68]

Sleaburn Island off the coast from Sleaborough was once a privately owned estate.  When the last of the owning family died and the land was left to the city it was earmarked for special development funding - as a result it is the home to Sleaborough District's first highrise developments.

Sleaburn Island and the bridge that now links it to the rest of Sleaborough

Development money brings highrise and bad art to Sleaburn Island.

Some of Sleaborough's residents like to cycle to work ...

[bbfan02 23]

Great little update! I like the roads. Looking for more.

-bbfan02-

[zero7 68]

Where there's smoke, there's ... er ... pollution.  Sleaborough industry.

Suburbia again.

[crazyarchitect 7]

looking pretty nice

[zero7 68]

The centre of the Sleaburn Island development is empty.  Rumours are that the planned building was cancelled after the developer refused to pay the kickbacks demanded by members of the Sleaborough planning commitee.


Scooter spotted on Sleaburn Island - media declares the place 'officially chic'


If the hustle and bustle of the city is to much for you, there's always the quiet country life as an alternative.




Still from Sleaborough Transport Authority promotional video - residents wonder how they managed to find a day when the Sleaburn bridge wasn't jammed bumper to bumper.

[Cleaner475 150]

i like the bridge and the sunset pics are nice well done - great work Zero7

Richard

[zero7 68]

I've been busy this week, but here's a mini-update to stop people thinking Sleaborough's disappeared.


Police have issued a pickpocket warning for Cathedral Square - for some reason it didn't mention avoiding people in stripey sweaters.


"They're an abomination, I tell you" - leading Sleaborough architect Roger Richards commenting on the mock tudor housing built on Sleaburn Island.


Sleaborough's shame - Amidst the wealth of Sleaburn Island a lone homeless person pushes his belongings through the streets in a shopping trolley.

[bbfan02 23]

Looking great! I like the homeless guy, lol.

-bbfan02-

[crazyarchitect 7]

wow, great job on storytelling

[zero7 68]

crazyarchitect, bbfan02 - Good to see that someone is following this CJ.

I've had to start over with Sleaborough as my modding experiments killed my game and I had to reinstall.

Here's a couple of pics of the reworked Cathedral Square - the cathedral has been joined by a bank, the Town Hall and the Union Hall to give it a more formal feel.

[CasperVg 587]

Looks great!

[zero7 68]

There aren't too many attractions for tourists in Sleaborough yet.  For most it's just a brief stop on the way elsewhere - out with the camera, a shot of the catherdral, one of the town hall and then off to Meltyn Kones the beach resort 10 miles up the coast.

It's probably just as well they don't linger, they might wander into Sleaborough's rougher areas ...

[penguin007 27]

Awesome pics cant wait for more

Will

[zero7 68]

penguin007 - Glad you're enjoying the pictures.  

Here's a bonus update for today.  The first appearance of the Sleaborough Times newspaper.

[crazyarchitect 7]

nice reworked version, and that's alot of traffic for 1am lol

[bbfan02 23]

Great bonus newspaper. Looking for more.

-bbfan02-

[zero7 68]

crazyarchitect - 1am Monday morning!  I don't think sims need much sleep - they're out late partying and up early for work.  

bbfan02 - The newspaper will help push a bit of a storyline, but remember to read between the lines.

On to the update:

It took a few months after the Sleaborough Times started it's campaign on road congestion for the mayor to respond, but when he did his rivals in the other parties were left cursing.  

The mayor scored something of a coup with his private finance negotiations and CyberCorp were given exclusive development rights for an area of waterfront in return for a higher tax rate that will fund the building of a subway network.

After 18 months and with only 6 left to the election the mayor is comfortably ahead in the polls and looking rather pleased with himself.  But if a week is a long time in politics then 6 months is an eternity ... things could be very different come election time.

Office and residential towers now grace the Sleaborough waterfront.  Residents are happy with the new shopping centre, too.  And is that a temple I see between the towers?

It may look like a temple, but it's not.  The building boom brought many immigrant workers to Sleaborough, most stayed for the duration of the build and then returned home to build a better life using the money they'd earned.  Some have settled though and an enterprising group of Thai immigrants have built a meditation centre right in the heart of the skyscraper district - a perfect oasis of calm for stressed out workers.

Meanwhile, Sleaborough has put itself on the map and now has a skyline that ensures that the town gets a mention in any guidebook on the region.  Yes, the mayor and his friends in CyberCorp are very happy people right now.

[penguin007 27]

Awesome bay area I love the rocks

Will

[bbfan02 23]

Great update! The bay is in a good place amongst the mid rise buildings.

-bbfan02-

[crazyarchitect 7]

Wow, the city is looking great, I love the Meditation Centre

[Cleaner475 150]

I love the newspaper and the commercial buildings actually look pretty nice, the water and reflection look great too

Richard

[zero7 68]

Replies

penguin007 - People spend a long time with ploppable rocks in SC4 trying to get that sort of look.  Imagine how great that bay could look with an SC4-style waterfront kit.

bbfan02 - I always prefer a few highrises rising from a mostly mid-rise city.

crazyarchitect - I had to include the meditation centre as I love Thai temple architecture (that's why I BATted one for SC4!)

cleaner475 - Glad you liked the paper.  Everything to do with light, most noticably reflection, is a huge step forward from SC4.

 

Update ...

There's no update from Sleaborough today.  Instead I thought I'd show some of the landscape variations in the game.

First Tropical

Ideal for beachcombing

Next Tundra

This is the landscape I'm currently using for Sleaborough.  I like the muted colours and the scrubby plantlife.

A little bit of Savannah

I want to see lions lazing under the trees, zebra and antelope at the waterhole, and a tourist-filled Land Rover in the foreground.

And finally Desert

... or maybe SimMars 3D ( if you ditch the cactii)

 

[Cleaner475 150]

I like the Savannah one and tropical best, they look pretty cool although I thing Tindra looks a bit plain but desert really does look like mars, thanks for the pics,

Richard

[zero7 68]

OK, time to get back to Sleaborough.

Sleaborough's power comes from this nuclear plant which the locals nickname 'the Ready Brek factory'.  Beyond the power station is a bird sanctuary - no-one wants to build in the shadow of a nuclear plant so it's one of the city's only 'natural' areas.

It's now 90 days to the election ...

In the Town Hall the mayor, George Drake, is reviewing election information with his PA, Pam.

Pam:  OK, George, here's the latest from the campaign team.  You're 8 points clear with Dignity running second and New Vision starting to make ground in third

George:  Dignity are always in the running because of their history, but where are we losing to New Vision?

Pam:  Mostly on crime.  The research is saying that we've average crime, but the perception of most people is that we've high crime.  There's a call for more police and New Vision are telling them what they want to hear. 

George:  OK, 'll see what I do about that.  What's good, what's bad?

Pam:  Good - people like the subway; as the stations come online people are recognising that you made it happen and the drop in traffic has been noticeable.  Bad - the subways; people don't like the fact that you got into bed with ...

George:  With CyberCorp?  You know how careful I was about that.  I know how dangerous CyberCorp are ... I got us a good deal and I haven't let them stitch us up the way Ravensmead was.

Pam:  I know, but it's CyberCorp ...

George:  What else?

Pam:  Nothing from the campaign team - there's no great desire for change and if there's any dirty tricks, no-one's made their move yet.  The only other thing of note is that the evaluation voting machine has been delivered - the IT guys are giving it the once-over.

George:  Thanks Pam.  You may as well go home - there'll be some busy days coming up.

So, that's the situation in Sleaborough - 90 days out from the election and all is relatively calm.  Here's a little excerpt from the newspaper's election supplement to give you an idea of who the parties are and what they want you to think they stand for.

[bbfan02 23]

Great industrial picture! I like the intersection too.

-bbfan02-