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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
I have been messing around with PEG Mall Canals, and the PEG Canals to see if I can make a credible transition. The concrete culvert makes a useful outlet for the mall canal water. The locks show the change in elevation... because the malls are sunken from ground level the canal water is at the lower level. The upper canal is level with the top of the mall canal lot. Transition from game water to PPond water to the canals. The lock can then be used to take the canal level back down to meet up with the...
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
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

Aspen Ski Resort

By Craig-Abcvs,

Aspen Ski Resort Ski resort or not... the game engine demands that people in those nice lodges go to work... Aspen does not have buses, and very little car traffic... however it does have a secret... The subway system basically allows me to string out a population of around 2000... from one side of a large tile to the other. Yup, those pines do take quite a while to plant, even using clusters. Bean Rock
Craig-Abcvs
Clevedon Valley - Revisited I'm back! Hey it's only been 4 years, and here is my old CJ, still here and ready for me to carry on where I left off! Clevedon Valley was one of my more important tiles, one like many of us, that I had put hours of work into, built a replica of the Raurimu Rail Spiral, and yeah - put - hours - and hours - of work into. To cut a long story short, a few years ago it got prop pox. At the time I quietly deleted the tile, and re-imported a non poxed tile from a back up. ...
Craig-Abcvs
Port Felix - Break Bulk Seaport and Rail Extension While Port Felix has good rail neighbour connections, it only has limited neighbour connections via road, and as we all know the silly Sims would much rather try and transport their industrial goods by road right past a perfectly good freight rail station to use the congested road connection instead. The city planner guy kept moaning about clogged warehouses, so I decided to try a small seaport. It works well and is now taking the pressure of the road...
Craig-Abcvs
Upper Mangatawhiri Reservoir Still under construction... Got to have a railway! This is where the tile joins back to Camp Green Lake. If you are going to have a dam, it may as well earn its pixels and generate some power! I don't like STR... I LOVE STR! The railway winds its way across the tile, follows the shore of the Upper Mangatawhiri Reservoir, and then heads off the edge... (but we all know that it joins to the next tile don't we?) I came to a hard decision regarding Aspen... ...it does not really...
Craig-Abcvs
M.U.L.E. (Mountain UtiLity Extension) The MUPPET's (Mountain Utility Personnel Providers of Extended Technology) have been busy creating a new utility pack for our mountain and rural areas. They have come up with the following five utility lots:Waste to Energy Burn PileDonkey Engine Power GeneratorLongdrop Composting Power Generator (Toxic fumes)Longdrop Composting Power Generator Moonshine Still Water Pump All the lots have varying smoke and 'vapour' effects depending on what the utility is actually...
Craig-Abcvs
Mountain Rail Spiral (Take Two) Well I have been at it again... building my second version of the Raurimu Spiral Railway. I mean why build a boring railway on flat level ground when you can give it a twist or two, and build it up a mountain wrapping though pine trees, around a camping ground, past mountain lodges to then eventually wind its way down the other side to complete an entire return loop around the perimeter of a large SC4 tile! Now that is one cool UDI railway. Once the rail line starts its...
Craig-Abcvs
Ah-Ommmm.... Ah-Ommm... Please excuse the Ah-Ommming... we have been discovering our inner zen and the art of bonsaï-making over at Bean Rock. Ah yes... extenders don't leave home without them... and keep a spare pair in your handbag for emergencies. The extenders cover over the small 'trench' that is needed to use the rain tool, when making the land bridge. Hmm... very nice... not ... bad... dams are pretty cool... I do like the small hydro... but how about... Making a really really big dam! Oooh...
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

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
Zoom 1. Overview of Clevedon Bay Zoom 2. River terrain detailing in progress. Zoom 3. Zoom 4. One of the two small PEG hydro dams. Zoom 5. River fork. Zoom 5. Terrain detailing of the river and banks. From the top looking down over the hydro lake and dams. Early morning sunrise.
Craig-Abcvs
Wairoa Reservoir - Upper Mangatawhiri Reservoir The Hunua Ranges provide a large water catchment and the several water reservoirs are an important part of Auckland's water supply. I have now started a couple of new tiles, to the south east of the Clevedon tiles. Early progress... laying out the base of the reservoir... This terrace, will become a dam. I am now using Epicblunder's method of using pipes to mark the continuation of the lake... to the neighbouring tile. So much better than using road neighbour...
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
Port Felix - Farms and Industry All grand manors require a large farming estate to support them. Schonheit Castle is no exception. Winding up the wooded valley of Port Felix, is a thriving collection of farms and industry. The Lyhoko River winds its way through the maze of farms. The valley supports a number of landing strips... one for the fire plane, one for the air ambulance and another for the cropduster. Pilots need to keep their wits about them as they approach or take off... unless they...
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