Welcome to Condor Bay

[vitorhnn 0]

masochist no trouble with the portuguese i know very much of english and i go see the cj now!

[jacqulina 162]

wow excellent residential and commercial,very nicely done my friend,great roads system too.wonderfull pics.

[vitorhnn 0]

hey masochist you have MS Flight SX too? but i have the aceleration pack

[gabry85 2]

Great update, wonderful neighborhood! Love especially the last picture (obviously...)!

[____----____ 37]

you're very good at adapting to the terrain, i certainly don't have the patience to do that so i can appreciate your efforts, nice work.

[Geronimo 4]

Great developement! Nice road layout and great job on those slopes. The town looks really good, and so does the industrial area. Btw, I wonder what those kids were doin those 6 months outta school. Hope there was no crime involved Looking forward to see those beaches!

[vivydu29 60]

Wow, It's very beautiful, I like a last image.

Where did you find palm trees on the last image?

[Simtastico 0]

i must say that bridge is awesome! you have some good terraforming skills dude!

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

Wow, a lot of pics!  Sorry I've never been here before, you left me a fabulous comment once, so I should do the same(i have the same problem, never having time to visit commenters' journals..)  Buuut anyway.  I love your banners, I don't know why, they just look so cool. 2/04 update: I like the little neighborhood on the mountain.  I can't build on mountains very well, lol, it's challenging!  Your writing reminds me of dedgren's way of writing... been reading much 3RR? 2/10:  Wow,SC3K... I never played any earlier SimCity's but it makes me appreciate SC4 that much more when I see screenies... Such garish colors!! lol. I really love the picture 5.12!  Lovely job with the park there.  Lol, school with an angle...I think that's because they always add onto the buildings and don't bother to try to make it match up with the existing one... 5.21 is great too!!  I can tell you put alot of work into these updates!

[nihonkaranws 88]

Dang, I've been missing out since I first posted... ): WOW this is good. Keep it up, masochist!

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Nice work! The area seems to be developing nicely.

[AceofSpades 1]

Very nice! I love that hillside part of the city. Keep it up it's awesome!

[CarmineHilton 6]

*Woot* I just love the updates, Masochist!!

Good to see that you gave the horizontal mosaic a try  It looks really good!

Great work & a nice transit system...

Loves it!

[nihonkaranws 88]

I'll have to say *WOOT* as well, this is really exceptional!

[cityhawk 12]

Alright, development is coming along nicely, and I'm sure you'll develop your own style soon. As for the bus route, take a close look at that seemingly continuous line and make sure that buses aren't just coming into the station from one direction and going out the same station in the other direction (there will be tiny arrows if that's the case, I do believe). Well, I'm looking forward to more!

[seemurray2 21]

I've missed some awesome updates!  I like how you are showing your SC3K version of the city, for comparison, and all of the developments you are doing look great.  My favorite pic out of all of them is 5.18 - that hillside neighborhood is sweet! 

[masochist 111]

Oh, my...wow !  Heh heh...this might take a while.  Thanks for all these comments, guys !

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Ntq$310 -

Thanks!  Oh, boy...hopefully you'll be satisfied with this update.  I promise you'll get a niiiice look at the beach below

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bbfan02 -

Heh heh, thank you!  Glad you're likin' the layout...good sign, because that's something I really liked about the SC3K version of the city (and one of the reasons I decided to recreate it here).  Hope you're satisfied by this update!

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ky72x -

You bet jestarr's lots are useful!  They do wonders for an industrial area!  I just really wish I knew all the lot sizes, so I could get the best variety.  And you're right...Maxis industrial areas usually look terrible...mainly because of that blue high-tech transformer that pops up EVERYWHERE after a while.  Same thing's starting to happen with that one white smokestack factory, if you notice...but since its not Maxis (and very well made), I think people will forgive it easier.

Thanks for the comment about the commercial area!  I actually don't know why I ended up drawing that road diagonally that far, but it did help to break the grid.  And I like the way that plaza came out, as well.

Hope you enjoy this update!

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vitorhnn -

All right!  But if you feel like speaking Portuguese, feel free!

2nd comment -

I've got both FSX and Acceleration, as well!  They're both amazing!

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jacqulina -

Thanks!  I'm glad you like it.  Hopefully you like this one, as well...hopefully .  Thanks for stopping by!

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gabry85 -

Heh heh, figured you might!  Hopefully this update will really be your cup of tea, eh?

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aleking -

Hey, AK!  You, not having patience?  I can hardly believe that ...but thanks for the comment!  Building that way on the hill worked for that little neighborhood before, so I though why not try it on a larger scale?

Feel free to stop on by anytime!

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Geronimo -

Thanks!  Glad you like it...I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming along, although there are definitely somethings that could be improved with it.  Still...could be worse

Those kids...well, apparently they were shipped to a different town.  Or maybe they all simultaneously entered the Twilight Zone?  Your guess is as good as mine....  Thanks for the comments!

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vivydu29 -

Thanks!  I've got a lot more where that last one came from in this update here...

The palm trees as you see them came from [this pack]...but they were made by n74704 and put into [this pack] (which is a dependency for the first pack).  You should grab 'em!

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Simtastico -

Heh heh...thank you !  I've still got a bit of work to do on it, but I'm glad you like it!  Hopefully you enjoy what I have to show this time, as well.

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BlondeTwiggy -

Twiggy!  Hey!  I was wondering if you'd stop by my CJ!

Heh heh...yeah, I seem to like packing in as many pictures as possible into each update...I might hold back one day...but definitely not now!  And it's funny you should mention those banners, because this is the update where you find out where they come from ...so I guess it's a good omen that you like 'em?

Usually I have a really hard time building houses on slopes, too...but that time it just seemed to work, for some reason.  As you see in other updates, I take it and run with it!  Ahh...yeah, I suppose it does take after dedgren's style of writing, doesn't it?  I don't even think that it's from 3RR, but from the other interactions we have.  And I've noticed the way I present pictures and updates is similar to Darmok in AVR.  Geez...plagiarism all the way, right ?

You've never played SC3K?  Really?  Wow...I loved the game!  That was what I played all throughout high school.  SC4 came out in 2003, but my mom's computer couldn't run it...so I stuck with good old 3KU.  Bad colors and graphics, but my dreams came true on that game...</melodramatic reminisce>.

LOL...glad my park has your approval !  PEG's fountain plaza is one of my favorite park pieces...it fits in well anywhere or by itself.  And I think you're right about the school.  That's what makes WHS so much natural looking than the other schools...to me, anyways.

Okay...I don't think I've ever given a reply this long yet, LOL.  Oh, well...don't be a stranger next time, eh?  I'll try and stop by your CJ, too--gotta see how Señor Sim comes out in the end .  Thanks for such a loooong comment!

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nihonkaranws -

Thanks!  Yeah, I was wondering if you were going to come back...thanks for the comment!

2nd Comment -

LOL, thank you !

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edmonton_stinks -

Thanks!  I'm glad you think so...although I can tell you that won't be the case after this update ...

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AceofSpades -

Thank you!  That won't be the last time that homes get built on the hillside (it is a rather mountainous region, after all).  Hopefully they all end up like these did...come back soon!

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CarmineHilton -

Heh heh...thanks for the compliment, but I can definitely look at your fireworks mosaic for a lot longer than my suburban one .  Still, I'm glad you enjoyed it!  Hope you come back in!

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cityhawk -

Welcome back!

You touch on a good point: I'm really hoping to get into my own certain groove soon...I don't know if I have yet, all of my work seems to be based off of things I've seen in other people's CJ's.  As for that bus route...I'm not sure if it's one continuous line or not, but I do know that there's at least one Sim that rides all the way through town.  I queried it at the very edge of the city tile, and that route ran across...so there had to be someone who traveled that entire way.  How they got there, I'm not entirely sure...

I hope you like what I show today, I've been waiting for this one for a while!  Don't be a stranger!

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seemurray2 -

Good to see you!  I'm glad you're liking the SC3K aspect of it all...it's sort of the backbone of the CJ right now.  I wish I had taken a better picture of the city at that point, but for some reason that little bit seemed to have slipped my mind at the time...oh well.  Glad you liked it, anyways!

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All right, replying to those comments took a bit longer than expected, and this next update is going to be HUGE...so I'll have to do it tomorrow (or actually, later today).  I apologize to all those who have been waiting (assuming, of course, that anyone was actually waiting for me to update...).  Just 14 more hours or so.

In the meantime, here's a couple more teasers:

Stay tuned...

[ky72x 13]

I know for a fact that aleking sure has his industrial areas down... he seems to never have any problems growing a good industrial area! I'm not bad at making them, they are actually one of my strong points. While I do have a mix of Maxis and CC in my districts, it usually takes a while for something good to grow. There's a lot of demolition that takes place, trust me.

Those two pics are stunning... very nice use of the night mod. Too bad there aren't any vehicles traveling along the avenue, but who cares when the surrounding land (and most notably, the median) look that great! Let's see, so you'll be updating around mid afternoon for me, perfect. I'll be back to view the full-fledged update!

- Kyle

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull work and pics i sure do love your night shots my friend

[Geronimo 4]

Fantastic teaser! Cant wait for next update..

[Ntq€310 1]

wow, Awesome, nothing else can describe  it but awesome

[masochist 111]

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ky72x -

Yeah, I know!  His last update made me sick with jealousy!  It's a skill that's often overlooked in SC4, but I can always appreciate a well-made and interesting-looking industrial area, because I can't seem to make a good one !  Some Maxis industrial buildings look all right, but most are too repetitive for me to appreciate anymore.

LOL...thanks!  Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure how many cars will be in any of these pictures.  I was so happy with how it turned out that I don't know if I waited for there to actually be traffic on the roads...maybe I did?  I suppose we'll both see!  Thanks for the comment!  Hope you like this update!

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jacqulina -

Thank you!  I've got a few more to show...and you might like a few of the daytime shots, as well...

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Geronimo -

Thanks!  Don't worry, the wait is over (finally)!

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Ntq$310 -

LOL, thank you !

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PROJECT 2 - Condor Beach

And the origin of the banners....

Finally!!!  You guys have no idea how long I've been waiting for this update to come!  I've wanted to share this part of my city ever since I built it (which, obviously, was before the CJ started). 

I'm going to warn you now: there are a lot of photos in this update...moreso than any prior update.  I had to actually think carefully on how to best present this update to you guys, because I didn't want any updates lost in the fray.  So here's how it will go:  first I'll show how I created the beach, then use a placeholder to show where the "showcase pictures" would go, finish the actual update with a teaser, and then show the showcase pictures.  That way, you either read the update, or skip straight to the "good stuff" .

Now the time has come for me to formally introduce one of Fordville's most famous features and popular attractions, Condor Beach:

6.1)

There it is!  Beautiful, ain't it ?  LOL...yeah, it's just flat land with a line of commerce and a museum at the end (?).  The line of commerce is supposed to represent a boardwalk (Venice Beach-style).  My job was to recreate this in SC4...but I wanted it to be more than just a boardwalk.  This was supposed to be a famous place!  It had to merit that fame...

I had already terraformed the land in a previous update...now we get to develop it.  I actually don't have too many pictures of me trying down different things, but all I was basically doing at first was trying out different resorts/hotels to see what would go together, see what would work.  Here's what I decided on in the end:

6.2)

Nice and plopped.  Plopped, with jobs.  Remember that...keep that in your head.  That little fact comes into play in huge (and probably obvious) way later on.

From South to North (left to right), the buildings are:

-Palm Plaza

-Carlton House

-Embassy Suites

-Ocean's 27 Club

-Marina Resorts (x2)

-Swimian Plaza

-Atlantic Plaza

-Las Arenas Resort

-Miami Palm Complex

-Omni Suites

-Marriott Hotel

I'm still trying to work on the variety a bit...I think it needs more clubs and nightlife activities to really get to where I want it to (although that might end up in the commercial area across the freeway).  And it's missing the museum, which is something I have to take special note since threestooges said he'd be interested in my choices about it.

Anyways, here's another look (facing South):

6.3)

Good for going on right now.

That avenue...that's a big part of the beach.  It's an actual split-avenue (as opposed to two one-way roads) except at the intersections of other roads.  In decorating a median like this, there's just no other choice but to use n74708's Palm Trees:

6.4)

All the different colored palms, flanked by the really tall red ones.  They look really good at the ends, don't they?  Well...that's what I thought.  In the median at all the intersections, I put the big palms on either side of the intersecting street, and filled in the gaps in between with whatever pattern I could come up with (not in terms of color, but in terms of space).  Here's the result of my random ploppings:

6.5)

The spaces between the palms were filled with random plazas and such.

Now for the actual beach/boardwalk itself.  Wait...beach/boardwalk?  The choice was easy: gotta be PEG's CDK OWW2 Beach Dev. Kit:

6.6)

Picture by pegasus

Hold on, there...what's this?  Transparent textures?  Most of my beach-land is green, and anyways, I wanted to integrate it with the beach set I downloaded--you know, the one I used to create Royal Beach.  *Sigh*...oh, well.  Just like with that beach, looks like I'll have to head off to the good ol' Lot Editor .

6.7)

Very quick and easy to match it to my needs...just make the lot a bit smaller (5x3 as opposed to the original 7x3), move the props accordingly, and apply the beach sand texture.  I did that for all of the necessary lots.  Took a total of 30 minutes or so.

Anyways, I had what I needed...so I could now start laying out the beach.  I tried a few different layouts for the boardwalk.  Here's an earlier one:

6.

I didn't like the fact that the BDK sections were uneven...so I made them all the same length of tiles.  Then I added a Baywatch-type thing at the south end (the left side), filled in the rest of the beach with beach tiles, and made good use of Goldiva's ploppable palms and rocks.

And finally, finally!, I came out with something I was proud of:

6.9)

Oooh, that picture's sexy ! (Get it?  No?  Ahh...well, maybe it's better that way...)

ANYWAYS...

There it is.  Condor Beach, with all the little extra spaces filled in and everything.  Notice how the back of the resorts area is just green high-wealth grass with random palm trees on it.  I honestly couldn't think of anything to put back there, but I definitely didn't want to leave it blank.  What can go behind a resort on the slope of a hill next to a freeway and look good ?

Here's a look at a cartoon-y representation of it (facing South again):

6.10)

And now for something a bit different....

Remember that diagonal cliff from a few updates ago?  The little piece of the coastline that I left a cliff?  It connects the beach to the marina.  Well...I went and decorated it a bit:

6.11)

Eh...looks all right.  But of course, there's a few things wrong with it (ignoring the weird corner near the marina).  First off, I think, given the color of the Promenade Deck at the lower-left side of the picture as well as the fact that I've already used Marrast's walls, I think that jaystimson's similar walls might work a bit better here.  Secondly, the commercial area right next to the wall...well, I hate it.  I wish it were gone...except I don't know what to put there.  Maybe take another tip from threestooges and throw down just a nice grass area ?  And then I could put the commercial shops on the higher level to replace those random houses....

I could...unless you have a better idea?  Maybe?

Moving on...

6.12)

Here we have callgrafx and BarbyW's awesome seaside hotel.  I really wanted to use it for this beach, but it just didn't fit .  Rest assured, you will see this somewhere in my city.  I don't know where...but somewhere!

Showcase Pictures Would Go Here

...But they'll come later.  Instead, I'll give you your first close-up of a hotel at sunset:

6.13)

Wait...why the heck does that look so familiar?  Hmmm...

6.14)

AHH!  Of course!  That's where the banners come from .

Hmmm...what else can I throw in here?  Oh!  The first vertical mosaic of this CJ (top to bottom = South to North):

6.15)

(Ahh...a little teaser for you at the bottom of that picture, eh ?)

Well...actually, I think that's all I've got as far as the actual update.  The next update is sort of unique, because along with creating the area north of the freeway, I have to deal with one gigantic problem....

Remember what I told you to remember from way up there in the update?  Say it with me: Plopping, with jobs.  Well...here's where my plopping inexperience shows:

6.16)

WHAT THE HECK!?  How did that happen, I plopped things with jobs!  How come I have unemployment?  Well...we'll deal with that next update .

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CONDOR BEACH SHOWCASE

Well, here it is: the Condor Beach Showcase.  Very little of me talking, quite a bit of me showing my pictures off.  I realize that Condor Beach probably doesn't merit this much attention--it wasn't too hard to produce, after all--but there were soooo many good picture opportunities !  I had to take them.  What I would suggest you do is just go about it like a museum: just take a second to glance at all the pictures, and either pick a favorite or two, or vomit on all of them and leave me a gigantic FAIL. picture ...whatever floats your boat.  Hope you brought your SPF-50 !

6.17)

Tilt-Shift revisited (not as good as [the other one])

6.18)

Bright, sun-shiny day

6.19)

The colors of the beach

6.20)

A different view of the night

6.21)

Summer sun off of Atlantic Plaza

6.22)

Miami Palms at dusk

6.23)

Miami Palm Plaza & Clock Tower

6.24)

Bright night lights

6.25)

The Marina Towers

6.26)

AMAZING night-lighting!

6.27)

Marina Towers in the summer sun

6.28)

Same shot at night

6.29)

Palms and Las Arenas

6.30)

Colorful boulevard

6.31)

Red sunset

6.32)

Black night

6.33)

Swimian Plaza at dusk (with my border...)

6.34)

Marriott Hotel in focus

6.35)

Welcome to Paradise

6.37)

Welcome to Cartoon-y Paradise

6.38)

Let's take a stroll...

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Thanks for taking the time to look at all that!  I really appreciate it.  If you have any--and I mean any--suggestions on how to make this beach better, please let me know!  I accept all forms of comments, criticisms and cruelty...as long as it's honest .

Anyways...that's all from here.  Thanks again for reading !

P. S. I don't know when I'll post the next update...I'll have to let this one simmer a bit.  And expect to see this pictures everywhere now that I've finally gotten this update done

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Oh dear God, so many pictures...

Fantastic job on the beach area. I love the sand, the boardwalk, the palm trees, the building selection, well, everything.

Hope you can solve the joblessness problem!

[ky72x 13]

One thing I really notice about Condor Bay is how the SC4 recreations dwarf the SC3K ones. This is really noticeable in Condor Beach, I mean look how small those buildings were in the old one! The large, glitzy resort hotels shine like beacons at night, and with the help of your excellent editing, also look very stunning during the day. Good LE work with the beaches, and also that mosaic is a beauty.

Sorry to hear about the unemployment situation, that's basically the only thing negative in the whole update. I'm sure you'll find a way to remedy it.

- Kyle

[gabry85 2]

Whoooaaa! Stunning update, sorry if I can't say much, I'm just speechless! Excellent effects and colors, love the palmed avenue and the glows! 2 thumbs up!!!

[KingTitan 6]

Well DANG!!! KERPLUNK!!! I missed quite a few updates there friend. You have just been moving right along huh? The night pics are simply outstanding. The details are wonderful. I love your style.. I however do not care for the "graphs" But nontheless. You do great work. Great stuff

[masssc4 3]

OMG I LOVE IT!!!!!

[CarmineHilton 6]

That was a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge update!

But it was great Really good stuff you have there!

I wish I had so much to show... haha =D

[bbfan02 23]

Wow, excellent work! I love the beaches and great nightlighting shots. Gerat mosiac!

-bbfan02-

[Ntq€310 1]

this update is better than awesome, at the least i can say it's perfect because i dont know a word higher than that. 
so you get this

see the faliure sign is pointing away from you, the success is pointing towards you.