From the City Journal "Aurora, The Bright City"
Hi There again folks! I'm really happy that the redevelopement work of The Bright City is being appreciated! Unfortunately I also noticed that all of the images attached in the previous chapters published three years ago (but not the first two ones, which is quite strange) are no logner available and I'm sorry because no more direct comparison will be possible with how the city was in 2015.
But, and this is the good news, regarding this part of the city I've been able to find some old screenshot saved in my HD, so the comparison there will also be in this chapter even if it will be the last one. For this reason, and also because what has to be shown to you is really much, I dediced to go a bit quick and show you in a single entry what previously was in four (Chapter III, IV, V and VI to be precise). The remastered version differences are really a lot so let's begin, but first of all... @Kingkhufu @wallasey @sunda @VALASatoshi @bobolee @Dead_End @Elenphor @mrsmartman @f3cs Thanks for the likes and comments! Without your support it's not the same! HELLFIRE BAY IN 2015 Hellfire Bay it's the inlet directly facing the the Victoria Harbor Island and that, has such, has a large mercantile traffic within it with numerous cargo ships continously passing through to dock the piers facing the bay (as you've seen in the previous chapter the remastered version of Victoria Harbor also has many piers not facing the bay but the ocean). Before going into details it is worth to take a look at the whole bay as it is now in the morning and, why not, also by evening: HELLFIRE BAY IN 2018 Please let me say that the harbor's loading yards are not empty at all, but by this far there's no way to make the custom props visible! So, it is quite a large bay surrounded by mountains (it is almost the same in the whole city!) that directly faces the estern open sea. There are as many as eight city districts (three of the being islands) that overlooks at it making it the most peculiar by this point of view, but certainly not the largest. Well... then let's see these districts (seven of eight, since one of them - not visible in the pictures above - will be included in another entry) one by one! BRIGHTVALE IN 2015 BRIGHTVALE IN 2018 This is one of the largest districts of Aurora (so much that its notheastern part - on the right in the image above - continue beyond Hellfire Bay) although, by far, not one with the highest population given the low density of its housing, with some exceptions like the area surrounding its living center, with the train station, the town hall and the local high school. The almost peculiar feature of this district is for sure the Victoria Harbor east checkpoint, not on the harbor island itself but located in this district eastern limit and connected to the seaport through a four lanes, one way tunnel. Moving west, we arrive to an important intersection: the largest Brightvale Boulevard on the left brings the traffic directly to the Stonehaven district, while the narrowest Magnolia Avenue leads to the homonymous district. While the first one is served by a bus line and full of parking lots and shops, with also some offices the other one is a narrower quiet street next to the railway. Heavy traffic is banned here. s MAGNOLIA IN 2015 MAGNOLIA IN 2018 In this rather small district is the first important purpose change of the remastered version we encounter: in 2015 it substantially was a large farm the city needed essentially because it was still rather small, but it clashed far too much with what surrounded it. Mostly for this reason this has become a neighborhood that merges perfectly with Brightvale, whose main features are a rather large sports center next to a really exclusive private high school and one the biggest cemetery of the city, together with a train station only used by the local train service that go across Hellfire Bay and, ultimately, a land value even higher than Brightvale due to the large parks nearby that certainly make it a pretty desirable neighborhood as long as you can afford it! STONEHAVEN If you're impressed by the skyline you can see in the last picture... hey that's not downtown! It's just the Hellfire Bay one, the pretty small but busy district of Stonehaven, as in 2015 the neuralgic center of the whole bay: here is its largest train station with intercity trains, a large bus terminal to which all the bay bus lines stops and the connection to the higway (the highways to be precise, since one starts right here) and, most importante of all I guess, the Hellfire Bay General Hospital. Here are large condos, a big interchange parking just next to the station, a ferry terminal with a fast connection to Victoria Harbor and the Literature and Philosophy faculty State University. Its weak point is the lack of commercial areas. LYON HILL Just north of Stonehaven there is a hill ruling the entire bay: this is Lyon Hill, whose name is due precisely to this. It's a very little borough, but pretty exclusive, since it is in a very close position to the main transit hub of the bay, without suffering any traffic congestion since the road leading to the neighborhood is used only by its residents. The distinctive feature of this neighborhood is certainly the great basilica located on the top of the hill, very sought after for weddings and also for the spectacular belvedere right in front of its facade, from which you can get a breaktaking view of the entire bay. FREEMONT Time to go deeper into the bay, coming to a very particular district in terms of shape: Freemont is indeed a very long high density strip that follows the bay profile. It definitely is the commercially best served area of the bay even if, let's say it openly, if you want to have serious shopping you have to take the highway or train and move to other areas of the city! Just about the highway: it's not possible not to speak of the largest intersection of the whole city, known as the "Hellfire Loop" that connects two of the main arteries of the city highways system. IRVINE Where Freemont ends, Hellfire Bay ends. But before moving to this area we have to go west and arrive to Irvine, another mostly low density, high value residential district without particular attractions if not the tranquillity of living here. The most noticeable things probably are that its southernmost part is de facto inside a gorge, its uncommon sunken train station and the small but quite renowned track & field stadium mostly used by juniores. And here we exactly are where we were at the end of the previous chapter, at the junction leading to the Aurora Harbor Bridge located south of Freemont district, and this journal entry (pretty long!) is going to end, even because it is getting dark... HELLFIRE ISLAND But isn't something missing? Yes, and it's rather obvious not to say prominent! Also because it is what gives energy to this whole area and beyond: the Hellfire Island power station, located on the small island connected via bridges to Freemont and Stonehaven. But if you're planning to take this shortcut to avoid the traffic on the highway you'll be very disappointed: access to this island is restricted to authorized personnel only, and anyone must be equipped with an identification card and an authorized license plate to pass unharmed the two militarized checkpoints located at both edges of the island. In essence, here is a big part of what makes the city working and that's why security measures are so high. There are rumors that there are snipers placed at strategic points and that every now and then, to stay trained, they shoot the seagulls! And that's all, for now! But before leaving... I'm pretty sure you might be interested in having a map of this area! So.. here it is at the highest possible resolution I've been able to make it! There's no legend but seems to me it is quite easy to understand (let me know if you think it's not!), let me just say that the black and white lines are the train lines! As usual, let me finish with a last image that previews the next entry! Keep followin' and you'll be surprised!
But, and this is the good news, regarding this part of the city I've been able to find some old screenshot saved in my HD, so the comparison there will also be in this chapter even if it will be the last one. For this reason, and also because what has to be shown to you is really much, I dediced to go a bit quick and show you in a single entry what previously was in four (Chapter III, IV, V and VI to be precise). The remastered version differences are really a lot so let's begin, but first of all... @Kingkhufu @wallasey @sunda @VALASatoshi @bobolee @Dead_End @Elenphor @mrsmartman @f3cs Thanks for the likes and comments! Without your support it's not the same! HELLFIRE BAY IN 2015 Hellfire Bay it's the inlet directly facing the the Victoria Harbor Island and that, has such, has a large mercantile traffic within it with numerous cargo ships continously passing through to dock the piers facing the bay (as you've seen in the previous chapter the remastered version of Victoria Harbor also has many piers not facing the bay but the ocean). Before going into details it is worth to take a look at the whole bay as it is now in the morning and, why not, also by evening: HELLFIRE BAY IN 2018 Please let me say that the harbor's loading yards are not empty at all, but by this far there's no way to make the custom props visible! So, it is quite a large bay surrounded by mountains (it is almost the same in the whole city!) that directly faces the estern open sea. There are as many as eight city districts (three of the being islands) that overlooks at it making it the most peculiar by this point of view, but certainly not the largest. Well... then let's see these districts (seven of eight, since one of them - not visible in the pictures above - will be included in another entry) one by one! BRIGHTVALE IN 2015 BRIGHTVALE IN 2018 This is one of the largest districts of Aurora (so much that its notheastern part - on the right in the image above - continue beyond Hellfire Bay) although, by far, not one with the highest population given the low density of its housing, with some exceptions like the area surrounding its living center, with the train station, the town hall and the local high school. The almost peculiar feature of this district is for sure the Victoria Harbor east checkpoint, not on the harbor island itself but located in this district eastern limit and connected to the seaport through a four lanes, one way tunnel. Moving west, we arrive to an important intersection: the largest Brightvale Boulevard on the left brings the traffic directly to the Stonehaven district, while the narrowest Magnolia Avenue leads to the homonymous district. While the first one is served by a bus line and full of parking lots and shops, with also some offices the other one is a narrower quiet street next to the railway. Heavy traffic is banned here. s MAGNOLIA IN 2015 MAGNOLIA IN 2018 In this rather small district is the first important purpose change of the remastered version we encounter: in 2015 it substantially was a large farm the city needed essentially because it was still rather small, but it clashed far too much with what surrounded it. Mostly for this reason this has become a neighborhood that merges perfectly with Brightvale, whose main features are a rather large sports center next to a really exclusive private high school and one the biggest cemetery of the city, together with a train station only used by the local train service that go across Hellfire Bay and, ultimately, a land value even higher than Brightvale due to the large parks nearby that certainly make it a pretty desirable neighborhood as long as you can afford it! STONEHAVEN If you're impressed by the skyline you can see in the last picture... hey that's not downtown! It's just the Hellfire Bay one, the pretty small but busy district of Stonehaven, as in 2015 the neuralgic center of the whole bay: here is its largest train station with intercity trains, a large bus terminal to which all the bay bus lines stops and the connection to the higway (the highways to be precise, since one starts right here) and, most importante of all I guess, the Hellfire Bay General Hospital. Here are large condos, a big interchange parking just next to the station, a ferry terminal with a fast connection to Victoria Harbor and the Literature and Philosophy faculty State University. Its weak point is the lack of commercial areas. LYON HILL Just north of Stonehaven there is a hill ruling the entire bay: this is Lyon Hill, whose name is due precisely to this. It's a very little borough, but pretty exclusive, since it is in a very close position to the main transit hub of the bay, without suffering any traffic congestion since the road leading to the neighborhood is used only by its residents. The distinctive feature of this neighborhood is certainly the great basilica located on the top of the hill, very sought after for weddings and also for the spectacular belvedere right in front of its facade, from which you can get a breaktaking view of the entire bay. FREEMONT Time to go deeper into the bay, coming to a very particular district in terms of shape: Freemont is indeed a very long high density strip that follows the bay profile. It definitely is the commercially best served area of the bay even if, let's say it openly, if you want to have serious shopping you have to take the highway or train and move to other areas of the city! Just about the highway: it's not possible not to speak of the largest intersection of the whole city, known as the "Hellfire Loop" that connects two of the main arteries of the city highways system. IRVINE Where Freemont ends, Hellfire Bay ends. But before moving to this area we have to go west and arrive to Irvine, another mostly low density, high value residential district without particular attractions if not the tranquillity of living here. The most noticeable things probably are that its southernmost part is de facto inside a gorge, its uncommon sunken train station and the small but quite renowned track & field stadium mostly used by juniores. And here we exactly are where we were at the end of the previous chapter, at the junction leading to the Aurora Harbor Bridge located south of Freemont district, and this journal entry (pretty long!) is going to end, even because it is getting dark... HELLFIRE ISLAND But isn't something missing? Yes, and it's rather obvious not to say prominent! Also because it is what gives energy to this whole area and beyond: the Hellfire Island power station, located on the small island connected via bridges to Freemont and Stonehaven. But if you're planning to take this shortcut to avoid the traffic on the highway you'll be very disappointed: access to this island is restricted to authorized personnel only, and anyone must be equipped with an identification card and an authorized license plate to pass unharmed the two militarized checkpoints located at both edges of the island. In essence, here is a big part of what makes the city working and that's why security measures are so high. There are rumors that there are snipers placed at strategic points and that every now and then, to stay trained, they shoot the seagulls! And that's all, for now! But before leaving... I'm pretty sure you might be interested in having a map of this area! So.. here it is at the highest possible resolution I've been able to make it! There's no legend but seems to me it is quite easy to understand (let me know if you think it's not!), let me just say that the black and white lines are the train lines! As usual, let me finish with a last image that previews the next entry! Keep followin' and you'll be surprised!
