SPAs Urbanist BAT Thread

[Sim shady 12]

I know the feeling nofunk :/ School gonna start and BOOM! ALL of my free time will go down the drain. Plus I get the added stress of SATs this year

[granto93 4]

Grand Bank has a very unique fishermans museum from Expo 67 in Montreal so that is interesting!

i LOVE Marystown!! no much there architecturally but it is a nice area!!

Downtown St.John's has some interesting architecure, some you should check out are

1. The Rooms (hard to miss this one, big triangle building next to the Basillica)

2. St.John's Convention Centre

3. Mile One Stadium

4. Cabot Place (big shiny buildings )

5. Cabot Tower on Signal Hill

6. The Johnson Geo Centre (signal hill)

there are lots of cool buildings downtown that you should check out, also there is the Confederation Building in the middle of town. Hope i helped!!

[asturianu 4]

Oh, I see, now I have to find another way to feel impatient at noght lol. Anyways I am having fun building your BATs in my new CJ, as a Newfoundland CJ (twin CJ of Forteau Bay by Grant) we needed those wooden and colourful Atlantic BATs.

So you are in Newfoundland now? Oh, really nice, you should make some Newfie BATs to your Atlantic BAT series.

Thank you for your BATs as always! You know I will allways be your fan #1 hehe.

take care, my friend

Cristian

[granto93 4]

asturianu: NO!! i am his number one fan

oh and be sure to post your pictures when you get a chance!! i can never find or take good pics of Marystown hehe

[asturianu 4]

No, Grant, I am not joking, I AM THE #1 FAN OF SAM!! Lloyd 50% downtown is made by Sam's BATs, Selkirk, Hawkes Bay, Aokon, Willbrook, Amnisti, Odgenton, all my cities are made 50% or more with Spa's BATs, and I have been downloading them always! I don't usually say what are my favourite things, but this is my fave.

Sam, Sovereign Building looks much better now, those textures are more alive looking. Anyways, this one will fit better in Lloyd, because Hawkes Bay is very small to build it. And Selkirk, well....Selkirk is not very dense, so the lowrises are 1-2-3 floors, but the Sovereign building is more, how can I say? errr.....bigger. This building is incredibly realistic and good looking, but it is too big to my tiny cities. Anyways Lloyd needs something like this!

Good work, Sam!

Are you going to release more Atlantic BAT series ones in the future?

Cristian

[spa 968]

Nofunk: Indeed! As of this evening I have cut my backlog down to just Attica and CBC.... but I kind of also started a new rowhouse set  

Sim Shady: Boo to school. I have just 8 more months and then my weekends and time after 5:00 will actually be my own to do with as I see fit. I can't wait. After 9 years of post-secondary I'm ready for it to be over.

Grantos: Boys boys there is more than enough of me to go around  I actually didn't find Marystown that impressive. Grand Bank was fairly neat and I went off into a few little outports. I started a thread on Devotion to showcase some of the pictures I took. I ended up taking a ton of photos in St. John's so there will be Newfie bats coming eventually. Not much of what you listed grabbed me though except Cabot Place. Mostly I liked the older heritage buildings on Water and Duckworth and of course the old wooden houses. I actually have the beginnings of a Jellybean Row set. Eta unknown. 

Cristian: Indeed you've been around from the start I have checked out yours and Grantos combined CJ. It's a really great idea tieing them together like that. Could allow for all sorts of interesting things. Anyway, if I had to guess my next set of 3 bats will be ready either this weekend or the next. So new buildings for Selkirk and Lloyd!

So I haven't done much batting lately. My time in Newfoundland was pretty filled. I did start an old wooden rowhouse from the city though that likely will be the first in a Jellybean Row set. No eta on that though and nothing really to show yet. I have, however, moved along on the Family Vision Centre. Below is how it has turned out.

I'm thinking Cs$$$ growable on the houston and euro tileset. Should fit in with the small-town set.

[Sim shady 12]

houston sounds about right, although you could make a case for it to go under chicago style. It looks very good btw! The roof texture is stunning. Seriously that has got to be one of the best roof texture jobs i have ever seen.

[granto93 4]

oooh, cant wait for the newfie bats........i was hoping you would make the convention centre or stadium but Cabot Place is a nice building.

Marystown is not impressive architecturally but there is water everywhere which is nice....ill check out those pics

[jacqulina 162]

wow thats a very nice building there very nice work

[Frankie_Grove 33]

I like it! Reminds me of some buildings in Charleston's historical district. I think it looks good with that palm tree in the picture too, intentionally put there or not

[spa 968]

Sim Shady: Thanks. I actually wasn't sure about roof texture but everyone seems to like it

Granto93: I actually took photos of the convention centre, but I don't see it really happening. There were a lot of other buildings that I found more interesting.

Jacqulina: Thanks

Frankie: Thanks and I agree. Nice to make bats that are multi-faceted and can be at home in Nova Scotia of South Carolina.

So I haven't done much lately. Been busy with school and I have been busy taking care of Carthagians in Rome Total War. That said I have done a little bit more on Attica. The changes to Attica are minor and amounted to some slight adjustments to the glass and the addition of some decorative stone work at the roof top.

As you can see I adjusted the stone that juts out from the wall to eliminate those strange shadows. I think it works a lot better now. I still need to adjust the glass in places to be a little lighter. The left side door and the first three windows on the top section on the right need to be lightened. Still not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the rest of it. Broadly I have three options; 1. make the whole building stone 2. have just a stone facade 3. some kind of combo of stone and brick. Still time to figure it out.

And the CBC now has an almost complete, but still untextured, roof top. Click the link below for a complete view (too big for the forums)

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/1747/cbclq3.jpg

Need to add the roof junk which will be complicated because there is a lot up there and add some variety to the beige windows. People who know this building will also note the big Barbara Frum Atrium still hasn't made it on. It's coming on the right. Check out this photo of the roof from the CN Tower to see where this one is heading.

Anyway, that's it from me for now. I'm going to Calgary for a wedding next week and have a lot to do before then, but with any luck I'll have Attica finished. We'll have to see though. 

[Sim shady 12]

huh. For some reason i had it in my head that sparky was doing CBC.. 0.o

It looks really good so far

[nofunk 1,933]

Attica and the CBC both look great! It's nice to see some progress, and I definitely understand about being busy!

[spa 968]

Simshady: Nope it's mine. If memory serves Sparky was fairly interested in it because he recognized the building from the show "Puppets Who Kill." Maybe that's where the association came from?

Nofunk: Thanks. I'm liking how Attica is turning out too. I'm just no so certain where I'm going to take it from here (what to do with the sides). I'm fairly determined to finish the CBC in the next few months, busy or not

So I'm in Calgary right now. The girlfriend's brother is getting married so there is a bit of family hoopla. I have some time to myself though which is, of course, nice. School has been a little busy lately, but I have made some more progress on the CBC. Below is a link to where things are at now (too big an image for the forums).

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/997/cbccontinuesoa3.jpg

With the Barbara Frum Atrium complete, the basic roof is now done. The Atrium took a lot of time because of all the angles. It wasn't really hard, just time consuming. I still need to add all the satelite dishes, hvacs, vents and other dodads, but other than that the modelling is coming down the home streatch. I won't have any updates on this one until sometime next week since I'm on the road. However, I do have the laptop with me and I already have another building under way that I'll no doubt showcase when I get back. I'll update again in a few days.

[Silur 3,304]

Hi, SPA for ever ...

I like all Your works - this is real excellent !!!

[spa 968]

Silur: Thanks!

So it has been a while since I updated. Schools been really busy for the last few weeks and I haven't had much time to bat. I do however have a little bit of new progress to show and I know Simdad's going to be thrilled because it's Mel's Tea Room form Sackville, NB. Below is a photo of the real building.

Next door to Mel's on the right side, is a local Sears outlet. Locally run Sears affliates are actually a common thing in small-town Atlantic Canada. This particular one sells appliances. Below is what I have done so far.

Mel's Tea Room will be another for the 1x2 collection.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Looking good!  I like that sign.

[Sim shady 12]

page flip bug?

[spa 968]

Jason: Thanks. It's an interesting storefront to work with.

Sim Shady: Yep. Fact of life around these parts.

So school is still really busy and isn't leaving me with much free time. I have been picking away at Mel's though in the evening when I have a few free moments and it's almost done. Below is how it has shaped up.

Not much to say really. The side door may still go, I'm not sure about leaving it there. Anyway, all that's left to do here is nightlight it and, obviously, produce a roof texture. I may get a render done tomorrow.

[josefmayor 8]

spa you're just way too good at these buildings. I'm so in love with the architectural style and your BAT style. It just looks real. Although this roof texture.... Hah jk.

[jacqulina 162]

looking great so far great details

[nofunk 1,933]

That's a *great* little commercial building, Sam! Can't wait to see it in my game.

[spa 968]

Josef: Thanks! It's a lot easier when you have such a huge library of real world material. After your comment I decided to ditch the old roof texture and try something else Check it out below.
Jacqulina: Thanks
Nofunk: Thanks. It should be released sometime this week along with the Sovereign Building and the Family Vision Centre (I'm having a mini-release party).

So Mel's is all packaged up and ready for release sometime this week along with the Sovereign Building and Family Vision Centre. It's a mini-release party. Below is how Mel's ended up turning out with a roof texture and lighting.

The lighting was kind of fun. Nothing too special. Just enough bright lites on the sign letters to give that neon like effect and some lights on the Sears sign. The roof texture took some fiddling since not a whole lot was cooperating with the dark bricks but I'm pretty happy with this one (5th or 6th version of it). Everyone seemed to like the side door so I kept it. Unless someone spots a showstopper this one is fini since Barby has already made an installer for it. One final shot, below is Mel's on Sim Main Street next to Province House Credit Union, the Clay Cafe and some Maxis shop.


Edit: Oh and Glenni asked for the wooden wall texture to the wall of my Library Pub. Glenni here's the link where you can get it http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/7420/vinylgreen2la1.jpg

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well well, what can I say? I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut for once and marvel at these beautiful creations.

[spa 968]

TWrecks: Thanks. Speachless can be good sometimes too

So I have released my stockpile onto the stex in the last few days. Family Vision Centre, Mel's Tea Room and the Sovereign Building are all up for download. There might also be a surprise waiting over at Devotion sometime this week.... Of course with my other bats all finished up and released I'm back to picking at what's left. I'm down to just CBC, my barely started Jellybean Row set and Attica. This evening and yesterday I picked at Attica and it now is more of a complete shape. Below is where it's heading.

Not much to say right now. I'm going to vary the windows on the back a little bit more (they were just copied from a single front window so the variation isn't there yet). Right now I'm thinking for the back a set of double doors for the centre, a garage/loading door to one side and a window to the other side. I'll update again as this moves along.

[josefmayor 8]

spa, I think you're going to be the BATer with the most BATs on the STEX soon. Lol, I love your buildings man!

Why don't you have a Trixy? You deserve one.

[allez l'om 1]

i like your commercial buildings

[jacqulina 162]

i love these smaller shops great work there

[CDI_spy 5]

Gorgeous stuff, spa.  Your small shops add so much variety (good, detailed variety) to the game's buildings.

[spa 968]

Josefmayor: Thanks but I have a long way to go before cracking into the top bunch. Be another few years to do that if I'm even still batting at that point.

Allez: Thanks

Jacqulina: Thanks

CDI_spy: Thanks. It's why I started batting in the first place. Maxis gave us little to work with when making commercial streets and no w2w buildings.

Just a quick post. I have a surprise in celebration of the first anniversary of devotion. This one is an exclusive and won't be on the stex. Don't worry though, it's not part of a trend. All my future releases will still becoming here and there. This just a celebration exception. 

Anyway, below is the finished Grand Falls Government of Canada Building from Grand Falls, New Brunswick. Head on over to Devotion if you want to download it.