Acorn Creek Region - An American Story

[jacqulina 162]

awesome work as allways,fantastic details,wonderfull maps and pics,my pc crashed so i have to start all over which i dont mind it will be fun its just all the plugings thats going to take time but i did back up from october last year so i have only to catch up from that date really,and i had the regions that i liked backed up so that was great but now i have to install it all.that is going to be tedious  

[PhilsCafe 8]

PERSONAL REPLIES

Fabiocb: Thanks a lot for the compliments and encouragement.

vidioman: Welcome to Acorn Creek. Good to hear that you like my journal. I don't like these overcrowded CBDs either . Thanks for stopping by.

jacqulina: Thanks for those wonderful compliments. I'm glad you like it that much. Sorry to hear about your region. Sometimes it is quite refreshing to start from scratch, isn't it? Take care.

Thank you everyone for your great support and patience.

ANOTHER MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR

I have promised to post an update on Monday... about one month ago. I'm sorry that I've disappointed you guys. You're great and I shouldn't do such things...

I have played another region the last couple of weeks and it's coming along very nicely and that's the reason why I let A.C. down a little. I'm taking this as a inspirational break and I actually can't wait to go back and work on Acorn Creek again. I just don't know when.

I can assure you, everything's all right. Acorn Creek is safe and sound on my backup CD. I know you're all very patient when it comes to my CJ and I hate to say it, but I have to ask you for a little more patience. Thank you in advance.

Take care everybody.

- Phil

PS: I now have made my CJ ST5.0 compatible. All the pictures should show up now and the formatting is now simple and stupid. If something souldn't work properly, please let me know.

EDIT: If you can't wait and like to see some of my latest work, then check out my latest update in Inter-Nations: Pakkusena

[dedgren 830]

Phil:  First time I've seen your CJ- it's exceptional.  So many great ideas and themes.  I plan to review it in detail in the coming days (not that I would steal any of your ideas, mind you, but for...inspiration...inspiration...yeah! that's the ticket!).

Did you use any particular software to make the map on your "One Year Anniversary" update?  Enquiring minds want to know.

[Darmok 34]

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Hey Phil
Don't worry, and take the time you need.
- John

[jacqulina 162]

thankyou i do agree it is refreshing to start again new ideas and new things to build

[rewright 804]

Phil - I think a break is good for the creative juices. Sometimes I find I am working on momentum and I begin to run out of new ideas. Waiting to enjoy your next offering. - Dick

[Zelgadis 638]

Oo, I'm getting my first real look at this CJ. And it's very nice! But don't ask me to comment on any of the latest updates. I'm still on the first couple of pages.

ISF

[slann 0]

Hey - Phil *grin*

How is it going? Looking forward to updates mate *grin*

Was really out of touch lately - been travelling - can't wait to see Acorn Creek again - and oh - brilliant work at Pakkusena thus far (have been lurking )

Cheers!

[PhilsCafe 8]

PERSONAL REPLIES

dedgren: Welcome to Acorn Creek. Thanks a lot for visiting David. About the inspiration, I do hope that A.C. can be some sort of inspiration for you . For the map, I used Photoshop. It took me ages though. Maybe there are better programs for that, but if you like to know exactly how I did it, I could post a manual how to do it. Thanks again for posting and don't be a stranger .

Darmok: Hey John. Thanks for your kind words my friend. It took me longer than I've expected though. I hope you like the new update. Au revoir.

jacqulina: How's your region coming along? Any new updates soon? Thanks for your constant support. It's always great to hear from you .

rewright: Hi Dick. Yeah, I know what you mean. But after the break I had so many new ideas, it's hard to make the right decisions after that... Thanks a lot for visting, I hope you enjoy this one.

zelgadis: Hey, welcome to Acorn Creek. Thanks a lot for commenting. And take your time with going through the updates. There are some fun details in them .

slann: Hey mate. Well, I guess you haven't missed much here . Thanks a lot for the compliment on my work at Pakkusena. That was one of the reasons for the hiatus in this CJ. I hope to have you back here soon. Take care.

Okay, first of all, I really, really like to thank you all for your great support and your patience. I have resumed to work on Acorn Creek again and have decided to post another update.

A small outline of what I've done lately: I wanted to change some small things in Westside District (e.g. making the railroad a little more realistic) and ended up rebuilding most parts of the city... the pictures in this update are very new. The city is far from finished, there still need to be some fine-tuning done. But I think the pictures have more depth than before already.

Enough said already, enjoy the update.

- Phil

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CITY TOUR: REVISITING WESTSIDE DISTRICT VOL. 2

We interrupt our tour through Portstown District for a small update of Westside District. As you may remember, Mayor Harding has called in a regional planning commission, the MPC, to improve transportation and economy within the metropolitan area. Now let's take a look at some of the results.

That was it for now. I hope I was able to refresh your picture of Acorn Creek a little. Next time I'll post a story update - I'm just not sure yet when this will be though. Remember there still is a startling trial going on. Take care everybody.

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Credits (added on 08/06/2006) : NDEX Parking Lots by Ardecila; BSC Park Set; Jeronij Concrete Wall AddOns by buddybud; Caltex, Esso & Shell Servo Sets by Dadwoods; Bus Station, London Kings Cross Station & Railway Electrification Mod by Frogface; UK Dog and Duck Pub by Gascooker; Mary Hotel by Jasoncw; Diagonal Park Fences by Jeronij; Small Shops Vol 02, Vol 04 & Restaurant Series by JMyers2043; Beijing Olympic Stadium by jtportland; Del Taco, Hard Rock Cafe, McDonald's & Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers by Kevdan25; Embankment by Marrast; Simple Bus Stop, Victorian Style El Rail Station & Embankment Station by Morifari; New York Homes by Odd from Sweden; PEG Scenic Drive Kit, Random Woods & Seasonal Woods; Club Deja Vu Showgirls, Restaurant Row, Embassy Suites Hotel, Barnes Noble Booksellers, Toys R Us, Best Buy & Mills Fleet Farm by SimGoober; Circuit City by urbanlegend. Thank You.

[GaBoR 7]

that's a crazy stadium!!!! I like how you build you train station! Very nifty work!!!

[sloppet 3]

love the pics PhilCafe!!

[oroen 0]

Nice to see some stuff from you. So many of my major rebuildings or even new developments have often come as a result of opening a city just to do one or two minor fixes. Invariably, I always end up fixing things in the vicinity, and then in the vicinity of the vicinity, and on and on etc.

[Fox 1,444]

Very nice City you have here.. I especially love the Washington Park picture.

Ypur water front districts look very good too. I like the train station as well... quite interesting.

I will have to go and view some more of your City journal to see what I have missed.

[bat 6]

Nice update!

bat

[Micah 16]

The football stadium is awesome. The city overall does look like an American city. Great job!

[Darmok 34]

OH boy! Let's savor this!

I like the upgraded station, and are those low density commerce, PEG's replacements for the ingames one?

Embankment drive and plaza are very scenic, good work there my friend!

As for the correcional facility, all you have to do is transform it into wealthy LOFTS, they will sell like cupcakes! I would buy one! And I'd park my Harley (if that could be true!) in the living room!

WOW, I just love Washington park! Great to have included part of a sunken avenue in it!

The staduim setup is well done with lots of parking space.

Nice mosaic to top it off, I like the way you've dig into the embankment to place the bridge!

Agréable de voir des nouvelles images d'Acorn Creek!

Have a great weekend my friend!

- John

[Nardo69 51]

"Was lange währt wird endlich gut ..."

(A Translation could be: A thing that needs a lot of time will become good in the end)

Nice lowrise downtown! Good work on the electrification of the terminal station (is it King's Cross?)! But my favourite pic is the last one: first I love the tranistion from the el-Highway to the NAM el. Avenue to normal ground (even though I don't like the "turning lane" of the T-onslope piece but I then guess this is a price we have to and are able to pay). Then the big hub with frogface's busstation and  morifari's great el:Train Station and the parking garage! Great!

It was worth the waiting!

Bernhard

PS: Isn't the infiniteness of the game that all love about it - more or less?

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Looks great, Phil. I really like the bridge and how you've extended it over the avenue below (last pic, btw).

Washington Park looks nice. Maybe I'd move there.

[rewright 804]

Hi Phil - I like the staion and stadium especially, and you do a great job on the parks. I find parks one of the more difficult things to make well.

[Fabiocb 1]

great work I specially like the transition from EL to underground and stations are very nice placed with the irregular layout of the tracks.

[collgab 10]

u rerally got it going here lol love your CJ keep up the hard work u have put in it all thsi time

[Zelgadis 638]

Very nice!  I haven't gotten a chance to read through everything yet, but I do like your latest update.

BTW, is there any way you could make your words bigger in the pictures?  My eyesight isn't so good and I have to squint at it...  even with the benefit of my glasses.

ISF

[purpledaddy 6]

I really think the stadium is cool. The roof rather resembles a metallic string art!

[p1 1]

Great job (but I'm not really into American Simcity realism)

But good CJ anyway

[ElBarto92 7]

Spectacular work, philscafe! Happy to get another look into my favorite All-American Sim City! Keep up the great work - and hope to see another issue of the Press soon, too!

[sorchin 18]

Hey Phil.

Nice to see your CJ still going strong. It's been too long my friend.

Keep up the great work mate.

Steve..

[Mr. Beer 12]

Hallo, wie gehts?! Deine Stadt seht sch

[jacqulina 162]

glad you have decided to carry on,and what fantastic updates they are too,and wonderfull pics, i have had a bit of trouble with crashing to desktop with the game no errors just crash so i am going to look through my plugins and see if i might have duplicates,i have a couple more pics to post tho which i shall do as soon as possible

[purpledaddy 6]

I'm bumping your journal a bit b/c I've had a chance to read into the earlier pages. I'm realizing how your maps, newspapers (which kind of resemble SCII) and other production values have enhanced it's realism.

[PhilsCafe 8]

PERSONAL REPLIES

GaBoR: Welcome to my humble City Journal GaBoR. The Stadium BAT is the Beijing Olympic Stadium by jtportland, the architecture is indeed crazy. The stadium is under construction for the Summer Olympics 2008 in Beijing. The original model is by Herzog & DeMeron architects. I'm glad you like my setup for the station. Thanks for commenting, until next time...

sloppet: Hi sloppet. Thanks for your kind comment, I'm glad you like them. It doesn't happen very often that I post pics anyway, so thanks a lot for your support.

oroen: Thanks for stopping by. You're absolutely right, it's a never ending story, but that's what makes SC4 fun (sometimes I wish there would be an end though... ). Thanks again and hope to see you again here.

Fox: Welcome to Acorn Creek. Thanks a lot for your feedback, it's very much appreciated. I'm glad you like the station, after all that was the main reason for my rebuilding project. When you're viewing the other updates, you'll probably recognize some SMI influences . Thanks again for commenting. Take care.

bat: Thanks a lot for commenting, it's really appreciated. I'm glad you liked the update.

Micah: Thanks for visiting. About the stadium, see my answer to GaBoR for more information. I'm happy to hear that you think Acorn Creek resembles an American city. That's my main goal and it's a great compliment to hear that from an American. Thanks again for your support Micah.

Darmok: Bonjour John. I don't think the commercials are PEG's (I haven't installed them as far as I know...). I guess they are a combination of SG's Nimby Collection and Rural Stores as well as JMyers' Small Shops Packs . The lofts are a fantastic idea for the correctional facility. In fact, in my hometown they turned one into a hotel, it's quite popular now. I'll certainly keep that in mind, I need to find another location for a prison first though . I'm glad you liked the update. Thanks for visiting, it's always great to have you here. Have a great week my friend. - Phil

Nardo69: Hallo Bernhard. Thanks for stopping by my friend. It's been a long break indeed, but I'm glad you liked the update... your support makes me come back all the time . You're right, the station is Kings Cross and it was about time that Amtrak has electrified it, otherwise people would still complain about the steam everywhere . Great to see someone has caught that detail with the bridge. It was quite tricky to bypass the game's inability to build roads under bridges... Thanks again for your support and have a great week. - Phil

Shadow_Assassin: Thanks for stopping by again SA. Now I'm happy with that bridge, too. Thanks to the NAM we can bypass a lot of the game's limitations. About Washington Park, I'll see what I can do for you . Take care.

rewright: Thank you very much for stopping by Dick. You're right about the parks, they're really difficult to make well because they have to look natural. There's always something I don't like about them, then I have to start all over again...  Thanks again. Take care.

Fabiocb: Thanks for your kind words Fabio. I'm glad you like the update. About the El-Sub transition, I like to play around with the NAM pieces and then I have such ideas... . Can you imagine that I hesitated to install the NAM in the first place? Take care.

collgab: Welcome to my CJ. Thanks for the feedback , it's really appreciated. I hope to see you here sometimes.

zelgadis: Good to see you in here again. Take all the time you need to read throuho my journal, I haven't read all of Carpathia yet either... And thank you very much for your feedback. I never had complaints about that, but the font certainly is a little small. I'll change that in the future (what about the font size in the newspaper articles, is it okay?). I'm also changing the shades etc. to make the text more legible. Thanks again for your visit.

purpleaddy (1): Thanks a lot for your visit. The stadium is the Beijing Olympic Stadium. See my reply to GaBoR for more information about it. It's quite a prestigious building, I think it's quite difficult to build... but what else would one expect from China.

p1: Thanks for the compliment about my CJ. It's okay, everyone has his preferences... I liked the idea of building something that's rather strange to me (where I live, it looks totally diffrerent), plus SC4 rather encourages to build American style cities. However, I'm glad you have commented anyways.

ElBarto92: Thanks a lot for that great compliment. Favorite all-American sim city? Wow, I'm really glad you like it that much. As for the next Press issue, see below (v). Thank you for commenting.

Sorchin: Hey Steve my good old friend ! It's great to see you back! Well, I guess you haven't missed too much of Acorn Creek, I've been pretty busy too. Thanks for your support, I hope to see you again sometime. Take care buddy. - Phil

Mr. Beer: Mir goht's guet, merci. Es freut mich dass dir mini Stadt gfallt. Well, that was the Luzern accent and it means: I'm fine, thanks. I'm glad you like my city. I couldn't tell for sure if it's your first comment here, but welcome anyways... . Thanks for commenting, see you soon somewhere between Omaha and Acorn Creek . Take care my friend. - Phil

jacqulina: The more plugins there are the more trouble one gets , fortunately I haven't had any big issues yet. Thanks a lot for your continous support, your comments always are appreciated. Take care. - Phil

purpledaddy (2): That's very kind of you, thanks. I try to not only show the city as such but also the life of its citizens, therefore the newspaper is quite a good mean for that. Actually, I liked the newspapers in SC2k , plus I was inspired by some RL newspapers, such as LA Times and SF Chronicle. Thanks again for your support.

You guys are amazing! You've just set a new record in replys for an Acorn Creek update. I don't know what to say, except that I feel really humbled by your overwhelming support. Every single comment of yours is very much appreciated and keep me coming back for another update. Thank you everyone!

- Phil

But now, without further ado, enjoy another small update.

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CITY STORIES: BELLAVISTA ARSON TRIAL PART II

The Sunday issue of the Morning Press has news...

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That was it for now, next time I'll continue the City Tour to show you the "final" touches of Westside District. Have a great week.