AK's Bizarre Urban Menagerie

[penguin007 27]

Wow now you've done it with rural theres not much else you can do except keep on showing us this amazing stuff well done!!

Will

[Rayden 7]

Originally posted by: aleking ...so here are a few more small towns, very mississippi river town-esque, my farm skills just aren't up to snuff, but i'm learning...quote>

You must be kidding us, doesn't look you're on a learning phase at all

Nice to see you again... but I don't come around here that often anymore too.

By the way, snowboarding was great this year, over 2 meters of snow depth, powder, off piste incredible. Andorra was at its best this year, perhaps the best I ever met.

[Livin in Sim 83]

Hi, alek,

I've enjoyed your creations for quite some time now.  I remember a mountainous snowcapped island that you had terraformed.  (It had farms,too.)  You were explaining how to drag the terrain tool out from the mountain peak in several different directions to form more natural looking ridges. 

But, I digress.  I see you have designed some interesting terrain features to form the river valley here, too.  The addition of the plop water and your use of the new flora brushes take it up a notch.  I like the closeups, and you're right, some of the new rural BATs are very good.  It's becoming easier to have decent looking R$ areas.  I think my favorite pics, tho, are the zoomed out ones of the town split by the river.  They really show off the plop water, some nice, snaky residential streets, and your skill at smooth bridge/overpass approaches. 

You can pass the rural "snuff mark" with room to spare in my book.

--Liv

[moniquetoi 0]

Nice CJ. Congratulation on the Trixie.

[____----____ 37]

Originally posted by: Livin in Sim Hi, alek,

I've enjoyed your creations for quite some time now.  I remember a mountainous snowcapped island that you had terraformed.  (It had farms,too.)  You were explaining how to drag the terrain tool out from the mountain peak in several different directions to form more natural looking ridges. 

But, I digress.  I see you have designed some interesting terrain features to form the river valley here, too.  The addition of the plop water and your use of the new flora brushes take it up a notch.  I like the closeups, and you're right, some of the new rural BATs are very good.  It's becoming easier to have decent looking R$ areas.  I think my favorite pics, tho, are the zoomed out ones of the town split by the river.  They really show off the plop water, some nice, snaky residential streets, and your skill at smooth bridge/overpass approaches. 

You can pass the rural "snuff mark" with room to spare in my book.

--Livquote>

 

wow thanks for that great reply.  i had some nice hand terraforming skills, but with the sc4 mapper, amazing realistic regions are very easy now so i don't bother too much anymore, also i find building on slope very hard in the game, but yeah awesome reply.

ANYWAYS, enough of that rural crap i gave a large city tile a go this time, something i haven't done in forever, and it just about killed my computer.

I was going for a classic look, huge dense urban transitioning to sprawl.  The big issue i still have is the lack of enough BATs from one single style to give a cohesive look, i'll just play any mixed styles off for now as ethnic nieghborhoods.

I tried to emphasize the Chicago and NY tile sets and really integrating industrial into multiple parts of the city.

[SounderBruce 173]

Great work, AK!

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

The sprawl is just incredible, wow.

[.soapy 127]

Brilliant city!

[Haljackey 17,385]

Sweet AK! Awesome recreation!

I adore your cunning use of rail. Fantastic!

[Hawkeye9 0]

Amazing work AK, almost every aspect is perfect!!! I especially like your transportation: Your use of rail as well as the elavted rail is great and i really like the road layout!!! I also like the barges and dock areas!!! Overall amazing work and ill be back for even more!!!

[____----____ 37]

Originally posted by: ilikehotdogsalot The sprawl is just incredible, wow.quote>

 

yeah the scale of sprawl compared to the CBD is everything with this city.

[dedgren 830]

Whew, Alek! I think I can see the smoke from your computer from here. Great urban cityscapes, as always. You've nailed that "Chi-town" ambiance.

David

[Darmok 34]

Alek, I've said it before and I'l say it again...

In my book you're the Urban King... no one comes close to that nitty gritty feels...

Looking at those last pics leaves me with an overwhelming sense of awe! Kind of like I had the first time I went to the city I was kind of lost in all that density and madness... (I was eighteen at the time... some, cough cough, years ago...)

Anyhow, I can only imagine the time it took you to create this...

Hats off to you!

-John

[antsel 841]

Of all members of Simtropolis, I must say that you are the best at making a really realistic looking city. Everything about it looks straight out of real life. Your transition from the CBD into the suburbs and from commercial to residential to industrial is absolutely seamless. I don't know how you do it. How long does it take to add that much detail to your cities?

[____----____ 37]

I've decided to kill this CJ in favor of a more cohesive, region based CJ (along the lines of Brastoval Bay) to be started soon, just sounds like more fun right now. For those new to this cj i invite you to go back through the old pages, just about each page contains a different city. Thanks and look for something new.

[SounderBruce 173]

Okay..good luck!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Well, as long as it means more of your spectacular city building, I'm all for it. Really good city to end this on too, the scale is just wonderful.

Looking forward to the new project,

-Todd

[tankmank 853]

Wow now that last city was breathtaking

[packersfan 666]

Nice, here's a question I always have. How do you match up the grass textures between the roads and the open grass?

[____----____ 37]

Originally posted by: packersfan Nice, here's a question I always have. How do you match up the grass textures between the roads and the open grass?quote>

 

good question and glad you asked, i have a lot that is nothing but a 1x1 grass texture that is the same as is created by diagonal roads, i also use the grass rail texture from NOB that is the same, so i can use the 3 in combination to match the base textures, my cities don't have a single tile that isn't covered in something.  This is also the reason i don't use a lot of the cool NAM curves, because the green base textures underneath drive me nuts, the overhanging prop lots that address this issue need to be expanded imo

[packersfan 666]

aleking, that is what I thought...could you send me that lot? But what about when the wealth levels are different? I try to do the same thing, cover all my land with lots and avoid the NAM curves and stuff...but I can't find grass lots that match up and I don't have and can't get lot editor! I love your urban neighborhoods...I really need to get mine to look better in Sessquenna...actually I have a ton of work to do on that front, haha. I also really like your el-rail stations, complete with graffiti and all! Yeah, so if you can share your secrets and that lot, that would be AWESOME...looking forward to your new region!

[pagenotfound 53]

OMG... love this

[Mikeaut1 261]

Wow incredible work AK, I'm loving the sprawl as always. And one thing I noticed about your placement of buildings: everything is so symmetrical. Buildings lean in on each other and are like equally distant from each other. It's amazing how much detail you put into every city you showcase. Excellent work!!

[tepodon 29]

amazing planning, im probably going to utilize some of your city designs in my own cities

[Dargor 17]

Wow, that is amazing!

[GreekMan 246]

oh wow that must be on of the most realistic downtowns i have ever seen on ST! That is just stunning. I can build good crowded downtown but not like yours. I wish i could be able to do that. Where did you get all the port stuff?

[Twenty20 28]

Amazing ! The port is very realistic, and the city really impressive. Keep up the good work, I'm waiting for the next update.

[____----____ 37]

Originally posted by: Mikeaut1 Wow incredible work AK, I'm loving the sprawl as always. And one thing I noticed about your placement of buildings: everything is so symmetrical. Buildings lean in on each other and are like equally distant from each other. It's amazing how much detail you put into every city you showcase. Excellent work!! quote>

 

glad you noticed, believe it or not but every single one of those apartment building has been made historical to prevent it from upgrading to something i didn't want, there has to be close to 1,000 historical buildings in that city.

[hamsterTK 93]

MOAR? show us a region shot?

How many hours did you put into this thing?

[Muck308 55]

Wow. That's a lot of pics. I praised your pics in the various City Building Concepts threads you showed up in... but seeing the whole package blew me away all over agin. This is, in my opinion, perfect. All of it. It's perfect. Best city ever. Did I mention your city's perfection? Just in case I failed to mention it... its perfecto!