Making of: Three League Island
I thought I'd share a little background information about how Three League Island was created. There were a number of learnings that might be interesting.
Inspiration
I wanted to create a credible looking nuclear power plant (NPP) and looked at many images on the web. I always try to find aerial views as they give you the best sense of how to place the buildings. The first inspiration came from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania. The idea to put an NPP on an island somehow fascinates me. It is like a modern version of a castle and moat.
The other source, which is the Ironbridge power stations in the United Kingdom, inspired the placement of the four cooling towers along a 90° railway curve.
Support Buildings
I did not use random industrial buildings as support buildings. I looked for buildings that would match the colour and style of the more modern of the two NPPs: The grey dome and grey cooling towers and the main buildings with the striking reddish-brown and beige stripes. For the latter I found complementing designs in the rear view of Perry Station, the Golden Dragon Industrial Center (GDIC) with similar stripes and the SFBT Factory Building by Sam Johnson.
The Factory Building by Sam Johnson also comes in a grey variant (below bottom left). The low flat building is Pacific Supply and the long dark grey one near the transformer station is Industrial Building 45, which I used several times on the island.
Industrial support buildings as well as industrial offices are typically simple designs. They have to be cheap and the same design is often built several times. For offices I use the marvellous SimPrague Bata Shoe Factory 24 and 25 and Factory 44. These BATs come with a large number of variations and that adds to the impression of realism, especially when grouped together.
Powerlines
I used two types of powerlines. The smaller poles, which form a part of the transformer stations, can be found in the Power line pack.
The larger ones are the German Themed 220kV high voltage pylons (HD). While these look great as they are more delicate than many others, they can also be somewhat fidgety to use. They need to be placed on the same terrain height so that the cables connect. I recall trying to use them a few years back (with a lot less experience and patience) and I got very frustrated.
It can be very hard to spot if you got it right. I use a trick for seeing if the powerlines connect properly: With the eraser I mark the space underneath the powerlines and the switched colours show me if I got it right. For that reason it is important to place the pylons before anything else. Otherwise you risk destroying your work when using this trick. The images below show the pylons too close (left), on different heights (middle) and properly aligned (right).
The pylon set has different types and there are especially tall ones for crossing rivers. The tricky part here is that the river pylons do not align with all of the other ones. You need to use the special Anchor Pylons to connect to them and those in turn align with the rest.
Like many powerlines and pylons, the ones I used are not fully functional. Their power covers an area of 5x5 tiles, not enough to reach the next pylon. This is not an issue if there are powered lots in between, such as farms or factories. But if not, e.g. when creating farm fields with MMPs, then the gap needs to be bridged. I use A_1P Cable Route Marker and the more visible PEG Underground Conduit as well as the warning buoy from the SM2 Power Pack for the connection on water.
I mentioned in a different post that I did not use any custom lots on Three League Island. But I make heavy use of MMPs and that can be tricky as well with pylons and powerlines. They tend to block larger areas in their vicinity from placing MMPs. What helped here was removing the pylon temporarily, doing the MMP work and then replacing it.
Fences and Checkpoints
It took me a long time to get the right fences and checkpoint buildings. For fences I tried MAXIMUM SECURITY FENCE, SNM Security Fences and SNM Security Fences v2. For the latter I shared an image last year. These are great BATs but I felt that they dominate the landscape too much. I then found a fence in the SC4D LEX Legacy Ultimate Airport Pack. The airport fences are much more delicate and what's more, they come with fractional angle lots which the others do not have. Here is a comparison:
The following image shows the fence even better. The gates are from CT14 Industrial Grunge Fillers.
BTW, do not get discouraged by the scary warning on SC4Evermore for the SC4D LEX Legacy Ultimate Airport Pack which says that this pack is obsolete. I still use it and there is currently no alternative unless you use sc4pac.
The installation is not straight forward either. The fences aren't listed separately. They are part of the Airport Rental Car unit.
For checkpoints I initially tried different toll booths and settled on Mr Snoopys New Toll Stations. But then I also found the Control de seguridad (also here on STEX) which has more details. I use both.
Parking, Parking, Parking
Lastly, I want to turn your attention to the parking lots. The island has many support buildings, a railway station, transformer stations etc.. The workers in those buildings need sufficient parking spaces and the large number I added increase the sense of realism. I use the excellent Scoty Modular Parking. It is a big set and I still have not mastered everything in it (I still shy away from the diagonal parking). But it has such variety and is very versatile, including a wild parking set I like a lot (see below). Three League Island would not work without it.
This is it. To all who liked it and posted such kind comments about Three League Island: Thank you very much! I hope this post inspires you to try things out yourselves. Be bold!
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