A UK village

[barnatom 0]

A UK village tour guided by barnatom.




This is not a real CJ. Here I will only show you one village. A small UK village that came to live only for the purpose of testing gascooker's amazing buildings. But what developed there was so interesting to me, that I decided to make this one medium city tile as perfect as I am able to do.

I posted already some images of this village at the 'BSC Gascooker Emporium' and some people there liked them. So I got the idea of putting together a little showcase for the general public.

For the ones that are interested, some information:
The village is the only developed city in its region, it has only connections to the Sim-Nation. I am not using any mod that alters the finances or the demand. Nearly every lot has grown by itself. I am however using the NAM and - like you will see for yourself - cycledoggs terrain mod.

I want to dedicate this thread to gascooker. Without him and his lots the following would not have been possible.





So - lets start the show.

I will take you on a tour through the village, explaining some things on the way.

We enter the comunity at its north border. Heading south we drive through woodlands, little farms can be seen on both sides of the road.


Further south, there are more farms.



We follow the road and reach the first houses of the village.



To the right of the road we see the security walls of a high tech research lab, to which the public has no access.



Staring at this walls and wondering what may be done behind them, we get to a roundabout. A little fire station is located next to it - almost hidden by trees.



In the roundabout we take the exit that will leave us to the town-center. It can't be far away since the building density is already getting high, at least for a rural area like this. We pass an old porcelain manufactory that is still in business. Quite a contrast to the research lab we have just seen.



After some blocks we park our car at the market square, strech our legs after the long ride and admire the beauty and rural flair of this place. Looking around, we notice the old townhall with its clock-tower, a small courthouse and of course pubs at every corner. Knowing that we won't drive anymore today we decide to relax by a cool drink in the Horse and Jockey.



After some pure, oldfashioned draught beers we feel a little sleepy. And since it is already getting late we just cross the street to stay the night at the Yorkshire Grey, an old and respectable inn with a red telephone booth in front of it.



We will sleep very well there. Next day we plan to have a look at other parts of the village.

That's it for today. More comming tomorrow.

Thanks to ert90 for telling me where to find the Peg-plaza seen in the pic above. I like it very much.

Please leave comments -- suggestions are welcome also.

(English isn't my first language. Please excuse any mistakes.)

[dhoppeii 12]

First off, I love farms...and these look great.  I really like the feel of this village.  The factory sitting on just the other side of the fence from some some residential...brilliant.  I would really like to see more...

[oroen 0]

I saw your pictures in Gascooker's thread before and was impressed. The feel of this area is quite excellent. I'll echo the sentiment about the manufacturing plant right on the main road. Also like the high tech area surrounded by the walls and the town hall at the town center (or I guess, since this is a UK town, I should say centre). I don't use many of gascooker's buildings b/c most don't fit the feel I go for in my cities, but from this looks of this he really has done some great work with his buildings.

[hammo 2]

Looking good, but I noticed, especially in your farm pics, that you have the grid lines on. Press g to take them off and you'll have cleaner nicer pics.

[debussyman 1,348]

Very nice, great use of gas cooker's BATs, this really has the feel of a small village but, where's the church?

[Defecto 44]

Amazing detail and brilliant atmosphere

[barnatom 0]

Oh, comments are coming in quicker than expected. Thank you very much dhoppeii, oroen, hammo, debussyman and Defecto.

I like farms too. By the way, the grid is turned off. In the lower left of the first picture you see an open field of grass. There are no grid lines. These lines appear on the farms only. I don't know why. But thanks for giving help.

The church is not far away from the market square. I just didn't post an image of it yet. You will see it tomorrow.

I am glad that you like the village.

[debussyman 1,348]

Date: 8/19/2005 8:51:35 PM
Author: barnatom By the way, the grid is turned off. In the lower left of the first picture you see an open field of grass. There are no grid lines. These lines appear on the farms only.

quote>

That's a strange bug, I can also see the lines in the sidewalks and in every lot, I don't think it's only the farms:

See the Hall and the sidewalk?

[barnatom 0]

debussyman:
Yes you are right. I forgot that. But all my cities look like this, since I started to play this game. I always thought this is normal. Don't you get those lines between developed tiles?
I am playing on a Mac, perhaps it is due to that?

[Mikeaut1 261]

WOW! Beautiful work! Love those little umbrellas. They work well. Also the houses are not maxis, which is cool too! Great work!!!

[gurrgkud 2]

wow thats a very VERY nice village . I loove it. Very good

[sirgeoj2 1]

This is looking really nice!  You are putting alot of good little details in and it pays off.  Great start!

[nooneatall 6]

As I said in gascooker's thread, great work!

Seems you've made a few changes... and it keeps looking better! You should consider starting a City Journal, I'm sure you'd have no problem with one, or attracting interest.

A few tips to get it to look even more realistic: tolomar's tileset MOD will help you get rid of the last of those in-game buildings. It comes in useful in situations like this. Here is a link: http://www.simtropolis.c...&sortby=DatePosted&show=12&Str=Tolomar

Also, look into getting the Euro Roads MOD, gets rid of those nasty yellow lines
You can find it here: http://thorvin.free.fr/sc4/index.php

Keep up the good work, and I hope that you've found these links useful!

[barnatom 0]

Wow, this is growing really fast. I never thought of getting so many replies in less than three hours.

Mikeaut1: Great that you like the village. Nearly every house you see in the pictures is gascooker's work. This was the purpose of the village.

gurrgkud: I am glad that you like it too. Thank you for the compliment.

sirgeoj2: It was my intention to get every single tile to be like I wanted it to be. Nice that you see the efort behind the pictures. Thank you.

To everyone out there: hammo brought up this issue about the ugly lines between the game-tiles. As I have said some posts above, I always thought that this behaviour is normal. But debussyman seems to be surprised about it. Question: Is this a bug? Does anyone have this lines, or no one? Could someone tell me the truth about this? That would be very welcomed.
I feel a little bit worried now.

Edit:
nooneatall:
Thank you for your nice words. I already have this tileset mod. ert90 PMed me about it. But I haven't testet it yet. About this euro road mod I already heard. Is it flawless by now? I remember seeing CJs with it which had still yellow lines at some intersections.

[debussyman 1,348]

As far as I know those lines shouldn't appear, I don't have them and I haven't seen them in any CJ. But perhaps the Mac game appears that way.

See:


the farms, the lots and the sidewalks don't have any lines.

*this pictures have been borrowed from a CJ. Hope sirgeoj2 doesn't mind but this were the best examples I found.

[____----____ 37]

i like the style of your city

[Nardo69 51]

Great village! I love the atmosphere.
Though I am German and I never went to GB I love Gascookers houses too. It is just a pity that the houses on the street corners appear ın my cities quite seldom ....

About those lines: If it is flat terrain I normally don't see them on my PC-version ...

hmmm - strange!

Nardo

[jacqulina 162]

very pretty great use of gascookers and pegs things,and everyone elses things too,excellent farms,fantastic pics

[E.J.C 9]

put the G button on the keyboard to cut off the grids

 

 

great village btw

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Ah, this looks great.

Keep the good work up.

As for the mystery of the perpetual grid lines, it's a bug associated with the Mac version of the game. There's nothing we can do about that.

[barnatom 0]

I give thanks to all of you who have commented so kindy. Those of you who have their own CJ will know how encouraging this is.

debussyman:
Thank you for the explanation and the picture. I remember noticing that other people pictures are looking better than what I saw in my game, having no ugly lines. But I thought it was the jpeg compression or the rescaling of them that caused this. Now I know better. I feel very sad. After you and hammo bringing it up, I see those ugly lines in every picture and I imagine how much better they could look without them.

aleking:
Nice comment.

Nardo69:
I am from Germany too. And I also have never seen the rural parts of the UK. I only have been to London.
Thank you for telling me about the (not existing) lines in your PC version.

jaqulina:
Glad that you like it.

E.J.C:
The grid is already turned off as you can see in the very first picture on this page. In the lower left corner there is an area of open grass, there are no grid lines. If I press the 'g' button, I get lines there as well, but the ones on the sidewalks don't disappear.
Thank you for trying to help.

To everyone, and especially to every Mac user out there:
As has been stated in above posts, I am having a problem with grid lines appearing between developed city-tiles although the grid is turned off. Does anyone know what could cause this? I already tried to change every setting in the game to get rid of them. Nothing works. Some PC users have told me that they never have this problem, but since I am playing on a little powerbook I ask for other Mac users to tell me if they have this lines or not.

Edit:
Shadow_Assassin: Thank you so much! Now I know what it is. But nethertheless I am sad, very sad, that it is unfixable. So - I will have to live with it. I am sorry for all the people viewing this.
But I am glad that you like the village.
End Edit.


Any help is very welcomed.



Now back to the tour.



Welcome to the second day of the UK village tour



After having a tasty breakfast at our temporal quarter, we want to visit the church of the village. Leaving the Yorkshire Grey we turn to the left and enter the road that will lead us to the church. (You remember the red telephone booth?)



After only a few steps we pass a Spar Mini Market and reach another square. There it is. The church. A beautiful gothic church.



Behind it is the local bank and a dentist office.



In front of it we stroll through the green grass of the small park and relax a moment in the shadow of the trees opposite of the Spar and the street we have passed by.



Exploring the area around the other side of the church, we discover a small beer garden. It belongs to the White Swan and looks too attractive to not have a drink there.



To get to it we have to enter the pub by its main door. At the walls of the hall leading to the garden there are some pictures of the village that have been taken from an airplane. (Facing to the east.)



And a second one:



There also is a small map showing the principal roads of the municipal district.



The garden with its tables and banks under the tree is so pleasant that we want to have lunch here.





That's it for now. I will show you the afternoon tour to the north east part of the village later this day. I hope you like this update.

And if you can help me to solve the problem with the grid lines, please post something.

Edit:
The mystery has been solved. Shadow_Assassin said it is an issue of the Mac version of the game.

[vester_DK 477]

Really nice cj.

A have a question. This building:


Where did you find it?

[barnatom 0]

vester_DK:
This building you are asking for is the good old independence hall landmark, that has been part of the game since the beginning.

Nice comment, thank you.

[sc4player 1]

cute. and pretty realistic. reminds me of my wonderful time in england.

[mntoes 270]

This is just beautifull! What you need now is the old village school. Keep up with your pictures these are great.

[nooneatall 6]

Yes, the Euro Roads MOD is mostly complete now, there are very few textures that are not done as of now.
And, I get something like the sidewalks bug with some puzzle pieces, but usually not roads. It's wierd, since I am using a PC as well.
I really like the look of the newest update as well!

But, I have one question: where did you find the bank in the third picture from the top of your latest update? It looks like a very well-done BAT. I'd be thankful if you could find me a name/ link.

[ert90 8]

Good stuff, man.

 

Where did that roundabout come from?

[barnatom 0]

Comments so soon again! Thank You!

sc4player:
Welcome here. Thank you for the post.

mntoes:
Thank you for your suggestion. But I was unable to find this old village school you have mentioned. I searched the stex for 'village' and didn't saw it. Searching for 'school' was no succes either. Could you give me a link?

nooneatall:
Nice to see you again. I will look into this Euro Road Mod. Everyone seems to suggest it.
You are asking for the Washington Mutual Corner Bank by don miguel. It is a great BAT - as all the others by him as well.

ert90:
I am glad to see you here too. You know that I like your latest CJ. Thank you for the compliment. This roundabout is part of the latest NAM. To get it you simply have to build a circle with the road tool. You will have to experiment a little bit with it. But it certainly looks good.

[MrVegetable 2]

Wow I love this little village! Living not far from a similar village I'd say this is the most realistic creation I have seen for ages! And with gascooker's buildings too!

[Kwakelaar 92]

Your English village is looking great, very well done.