Jump to content
  Help ST with a Donation

  •   Announcement

  • Entries
    114
  • Comments
    482
  • Views
    125,469

About this City Journal

Welcome to Auckland & Greater Region II, all 198 massive tiles of it. My current area of development is "Clevedon Valley" a semi-rural, hilly area to the south-east of Auckland, comprising...

Entries in this City Journal

Craig-Abcvs
Ski Resort Trails Quite some time ago when I first started dabbling in LE, I made myself some narrow MTP Pine Trails... They are a nice enough little set... but they have base textures... which gives that 'lined' look... Recently I have been working on a new set of mountain trails which I have decided to call "Ski Resort Trails", to differentiate between the pine trails... as the primary prop used in these new lots is the ski resort path texture... (Yeah that is my story and I am sticking to it... I...
Craig-Abcvs
Aspen Terrain Detailing I have not been in the Aspen Tile for a while... the interesting thing about this tile is that it has been constructed entirely with the PEG Snow Mod installed. Anyway I noticed there was a section of the river below the lake that had not been detailed... a common problem in my tiles... Well let's get on with it then... The stream is icy but not completely frozen. Zoom out... ayup... looking good... Hmm... what else can I do while I am here....? Heli-skiing anyone? Medical Landing...
Craig-Abcvs
Aspen - Complete! Quote from: terring on Yesterday at 22:29:41I would prefer to make a comment when the project will be 100% ready,... In a rare display of blinding efficiency and mass plantings of pine trees over a whole evening may I present to you the completed Aspen Ski Resort. The upper slopes are accessed by heli-skiing. Lake Aspen is the centre feature of the tile. Top of the tile, heli-skiing drop-off... as you can see the wind is blowing rather stiffly up here. The lower slopes accessed by chair...
Craig-Abcvs
SHK "Tropical" Fire Station Tropical. The label said Tropical... Well... um... yeah... must be a tropical ski resort... SHK Tropical Fire Station *Works just fine without the HBS_FloraPropPackvol.01.dat... you just don't get the palm trees.
Craig-Abcvs
Two County Landfills Now of course for years and years we have all be quite happily tossing our garbage over the side of the tile using the PEG Garbage Chute. But what about the neighbouring tile you ask... doesn't the garbage just get shoved from one tile to the next in some kind of dodgy neighbour deal? Good question... so I decided to test this out. Here are two standard issue rural neighbours... the county line actually bisects the two county landfills down the middle. Both adjoining counties send...
Craig-Abcvs
Falling Water - Four Seasons Well I confess I have been rummaging around in MountainView, and decided to trek off to the LEX and try out the Falling Water lot. I took a slightly different approach to the Lot Master, in that I actually fossicked around and actually found all the dependencies... even trekking off to the official EA site to get Stonehenge, and the Parthenon... wow that is an interesting installation thingy... doesn't tell you where it is installing it... just tells you that it has......
Craig-Abcvs

Redoubt

By Craig-Abcvs,

Redoubt Well must crack on... I have been rather conflicted lately... to play the game or to develop custom content... the problem is further compounded by the fact that every time I attempt to play the game, I think of new ideas to develop... or I go... I really need a F.A.R.M. or a R.U.M.P. or a R.A.V.E... Anyhoo... Redoubt is where I have been trying out all the new goodies that have been coming our way lately, both from my own LoteditorbetamaximserTM and from others. Redoubt is still a young tile......
Craig-Abcvs
I have now finished retro-fitting the lower part of Camp Green Lake, since installing the Free Waters mod. This is the mod that allows you to plant MM ploppables directly to the edge of the original PEG Pond Kit. Before: After: The only part I left with the original shoreline lots was along the top, with the SPAM farms.
Craig-Abcvs
How To Switch From Right To Left Hand Drive Original Author: Etherian | Last Updated 5/3/09 at 11:22 AM There are two major steps. Part one of two Locate and go to the directory where you have installed SC4, usually it is C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe Within this directory, you will see a folder name English, it should contain a file called SimCityLocale, if it does, you are looking at the correct folder. Now rename this folder from English to UKEnglsh (not a typo!) Part two of two From...
Craig-Abcvs

Five Locks Canal

By Craig-Abcvs,

Five Locks Canal Now that Upper Lake Tahoe covers the corners of 4 tiles I thought that it might be cool use the new PPond locks (currently in beta over at Simpeg) to build a canal up to it. Upper Lake Tahoe... down to sea level... ...should be 'straight' forward enough... *Cracks knuckles... Levelling the terraces with single road tiles... the canal pieces need level terrain. Showing the 'step' where the lock will be built. One of the 'terrace' levels. The highest point of the canal. Initially the...
Craig-Abcvs
Messing with grassy bank canals... OK then... this is using only the new PPond terrain stuff and a little bit of the moss from the original PPond, and scrub brush. Started with a basic 8m ditch, and 1/4 Tahoe... ...then layered in the different grasses... and a smattering of Vandy Lions... ...and now with a little RRP pasture stuff... the yellow RRP flowers and the PPond yellow flowers do blend rather nicely methinks. ...and there is some nice spiky grass in the RRP set as well. ...and a bridge...
Craig-Abcvs

I-40 Rockslide TN/NC

By Craig-Abcvs,

The road over the Great Smoky Mountains joining East Tennessee to West North Carolina, is normally a pretty one, especially in the fall. However in October 2009 things changed... a massive rock slide closed the road ...it is still being cleared. While this is not strictly Auckland & Greater Region, the tile representing the massive I-40 rock slide on the highway from North Carolina to Tennessee is indeed in the A&GR region. Also the author of this CJ hopes to be able to travel over this road in April...
Craig-Abcvs
Glenbrook Vintage Railway (Photo Update) Well it has been a while since I did a photo update, so here are some images from our trip today on the Glenbrook Vintage Railway. This is my Dad. He is 90... If you are 90 or over you get to ride the train for free! We had a great day!
Craig-Abcvs

SPAM on a Hill

By Craig-Abcvs,

SPAM on a Hill Well it is quite some time since we have been in Orere Hills... (even for me)... so what better place to test out my freshly downloaded copy of the SPAM! There is a steady climb up to the small rail town at the top of the hill, for both road and rail. As we wind our way up the hill, we pass several small-holder SPAM farms. Most of these farms are part of the SPAM abcvs Growable AddOn set... (coming to a PLEX or STEX near you soon) Let's zoom in and take a closer look shall we? The Home Grain...
Craig-Abcvs
SPAM Fire Landing Strip Meanwhile on the other side of town, where the grickle grass grows.... This may look like a regular kind of small town fire station, but it is very special. It is actually a Fire Landing Strip. Yes that's right you heard... ...but where is the runway? Where is the plane? ... over on the other side of the tile, on the SPAM Fire Landing Strip of course! *Because we used the MTP fire station building on the SPAM Fire Landing Strip, (which now has the properties of a MTP rural fire...
Craig-Abcvs

Greenlake Hills

By Craig-Abcvs,

Sometimes you can't really come up with a great name for an update... it just kinda is, whatever it is. Well this update is about what is going on in the hills just above the lower part of Camp Greenlake. So yeah... here is Greenlake Hills. Nothing much more to say really... let's just let the pictures to the talking...
Craig-Abcvs
Honey... I blew up the Dam! Well it is lovely that you all think my dam is well lovely... but I have bad news... ...I blew it up! That's right you heard me... I BLEW IT UP. Well the seawalls anyway... ...but have not fear! Do not cry into your cornflakes! I have re-built it! Bigger! Better! Stronger... Yeah yeah... I got the JS stone seawalls... which I think look better in this more rural setting.
Craig-Abcvs

Free Waters

By Craig-Abcvs,

I have been testing out the new Free Waters mod, that allows you to detail MM flora directly on top of the original pond kit lots. http://www.simpeg.co...a=view;down=611 Paeng you are a genius! Just a very small section of lake fore-shore has been retro-fitted and detailed with MM flora right up to the waters edge. Before: Jaggy lot edges? Let's fix that... After - (two minute retro-fix) After - (just a few more minutes...) Sigh... unfortunately this mod did not come out before the lake was constructed...
Craig-Abcvs
After many years of languishing at the bottom of the PEGPROD production queue, the long awaited, highly anticipated and highly vaunted ABCVS-MTP Education Pack is here! Well by one guy at least anyway… In a rare and blinding display of international trans-pacific US/NZ cooperation and collective brilliance, that has taken the best part of a year, Pegasus and abcvs.. (who?!), have joined together to bring you these pixilated productions of esteemed educational perfection! There comes a time in every MTP...
Craig-Abcvs
I thought it might be useful to make a comparision between my very first attempts at making rivers and waterfalls and my current ones. Let's take a journey over the last couple of years... All the links will open in a new window or tab. 7/27/2007 - First ever river and waterfalls. [More] 11/14/2007 [More] 09/12/2008 [more] Still fairly basic detailing at this stage: 1. Use Mayor valley tool to make riverbed 2. Single road tiles to flatten 3. Plop water 4. Plop waterfalls 5. Big grey rocks 6. Small grey...
Craig-Abcvs

Port Felix - Zoom 4

By Craig-Abcvs,

Port Felix - Zoom 4 As promised... let's zoom in a little to level 4... Same area as seen in the psudeo-moasic above. Weird... these two images are definitely not in the same place but they almost look like they are meant to join... Yeah... I still really like my MTP abcvs Small Landing Strip... one of my first proper re-lotting projects. The stone arch bridge does not always fit, but when it does, I am always pleased to use it. I have several of these small hydro dams on my rivers... the PEG Power...
×

Thank You for the Continued Support!

Simtropolis depends on donations to fund site maintenance costs.
Without your support, we just would not be in our 24th year online!  You really help make this a great community. *:thumb:

But we still need your support to stay online. If you're able to, please consider a donation to help us stay up and running. This helps sustain a platform where we can share our community creations for years to come.

Make a Donation, Get a Gift!

Expand your city with the best from the Simtropolis Exchange.
Make a Donation and get one or all three discs today!

STEX Collections

By way of a "Thank You" gift, we'd like to send you our STEX Collector's DVD. It's some of the best buildings, lots, maps and mods collected for you over the years. Check out the STEX Collections for more info.

Each donation helps keep Simtropolis online, open and free!

Thank you for reading and enjoy the site!

More About STEX Collections