aldara6166

Darmok, Wow! I can't believe you said you have no imagination You so do, and if you don't believe me just re-read your own CJ! Gotta say I just feel so sorry for the old guys...having to move and all that. But, so is the progression of commerce...SO LONG SUCKERS!! On the serious side, this CJ is just totally great. I like the update, especially the mayor keeping some solitude for himself...nice touch. Can't wait for the next update!! aldara (Jason)

Well, quite a response. I see we are developing quite a following here in the Tarrytowne River Valley. So, time for some personnal messages to my fans. Date: 5/3/2005 2:13:11 PM Author: sloppet great update! nice pics! very interesting! As always, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate the support. Date: 5/3/2005 2:16:35 PM Author: aleking THis is a great CJ haven't been here in a while but really great work, especially the presentation gave me some interesting ideas. ALeking Welcome back. You'll have to stop in more often, I'm really starting to pick up steam...especially now that I'm on page 5 and over 2300 views. Date: 5/3/2005 2:40:57 PM Author: jeronij Great great. I do really like the way you build your parks !!!. Very creative . Keep updating !!! OH MY GOD!! Jeronij, creator of the awesome tarmac trails set, likes how I use his stuff to build parks!! WOO-HOO!! Glad to see ya like what I do jeronij. In the near future, I'm going to be doing a HUGE park in one of my areas that is identical to the city park in my area. It will feature your trail sets along with PEG's stream and pond kits quite extensively. Glad to see we have picked up another follow. Be sure to come back often. Date: 5/3/2005 4:21:16 PM Author: dhoppeii Great Job aldara - More closeups of the RDK walls (love em).  Smithfield National Links looks fantastic....Great Job there.  I also love the way you laid out the area around the St. Francis Mission. As always, great Job..... dhop, as always thanks for stopping by dear friend. I'll have to see how much time I have in the near future to play. That will depend on how many other close-ups I can get. I have an interview at work for a potential promotion, plus on my upcoming days off I have a HUGE honey-do list, plus have to work at my part-time job, plus everything else from real life. RLS!!! But, with that said thanks for dropping in as always. Can't wait for your next update over in LaPlassance County. Date: 5/3/2005 8:23:58 PM Author: Darmok Hey Aldara, Just finish reading. What an imagination... Though...... just wondering...... you have any italian 'family'??? Seriously I really like your CJ! I saw a lot of nice touches, like the pole bean Coke ! The Crop duster I just love that one . The campus is a great realisation, lots of work! The idea of using peg lots as city walls is VERY original! NEVER saw that before. And usign the subteranean mall near those walls, give it a better illusion of depth! Very well tought! The cathedral and the adjoining park! Very good too! The story line! Man! (you sure that... you know... italian familly) NAHHHH ! I'm sure not. Anyway I wont tell promise! So.. to sum it up, really good work, and we also can see when reading the 4 pages in a row, the amelioration in your terraforming technique! All right all right I'm finshed now! Take care! EDIT : WELCOME TO PAGE 5 And Darmok, glad to see ya finally got through all my pages (not that I have as many as you do in your CJ, but I'm getting there. ) Gee, so many points to cover...let me see...oh yes, guess I'll start with the heritage question. I actually DO have some Italian in my blood. Something like 1/8 or 1/4 Italian...or something close to that. As for the PEG lots, the walls, the mall and all that. I was actually just messing around in another area one time and put a wall piece on land accidentally. I liked how it looked so I actually kept that idea in the back of my head. As for the feeling of depth that you get when you look at the sub-mall and the walls...that is actually the idea I was going for. Glad to see you picked up on that. Now, when you put in the paragraph towards the end with the word amelioration in it I actually had to go look that one up!! It is too close to finals to try to put on my thinking cap and figure out what your were trying to say, so ole www.webster.com got the call!! So, I finally figured out what you were trying to say...amelioration = to improve. I would like to think that I have improved somewhat on my terraforming, after all practice does make perfect, right?? Well, I appreciate the support. I'm following your CJ with great expectations. Hopefully, with you following mine now I won't let down your expectations. For all those not mentioned, thanks for tagging along. If you haven't posted before, please feel free to do so. Even the simple comments of support help. And for those of you who liked my college campus so much...I have decided to keep it. I may do some alterations, add some more buildings, trails, water, etc. but I will keep pretty much the general feel of the campus. I would like to add some more Phys Ed buildings since I don't think the campus has enough with just that little gym beside the stadium. I might add on some of the other lots I've downloaded...maybe something like the outdoor ice rink, the roller skating rink, etc. Phew. Lots to write today. I am going to my interview in a few hours, so I'm gonna cut it off for now so I can get a little time in to play! Thanks for stopping by everyone. Come back soon.

First off, I have had no time to play today...so...I will update Update 11 sometime over the next few days with the names of all of the commercial buildings used in the shopping area... Now, for Update 12. With the construction of the commercial shopping district, many jobs came to town. Of course, with additional jobs came the influx of additional residents. With the population explosion happening, Alfred knew there would be a lack of service jobs to accomodate the new population. With this in mind, he set asside two small areas to the south of the commercial district. These areas would be used for commercial office development. Not only would this provide his people with the services they need and desired but it would bring in some additional jobs. Picture S12-1 (West side of roadway) Picture S12-2 (East side of roadway) Alfred was starting to notice around this time that his people were beginning to increase their style of living. He attributed this to the fact that Smithfield's mean household income had risen by some $10,000 over a few years. His people were starting to have some discretionary money and they wanted to use it. A panel was formed to study the available recreation in Smithfield to make sure his wealthier citizens were being accomodated. In short order, the panel found that while there were a fair number of parks available, other forms of recreation such as golf, polo and tennis were desired by the people. So, Alfred started on his first recreational project by constructing a small golf club, Smithfield National Links. Picture S12-3 The dedication ceremony for Smithfield National Links was quite the ceremony. Alfred invited dignitaries and movie stars alike from all over the nation to be the first to walk through his club house and play his course. Although it was a small course, the scenary was beautiful and the service received in the club house was exemplary. Several players from the PGA attended and rated the course a 4 our of 5 stars on the basis of quaintness. Alfred was thrilled. After the ceremony had ended, Alfred and Artimus sat down for a nice cup of coffee in the club house (Irish coffee of course! ) Artimus was beginning to have a rather large problem, and he needed his dear friends help. It seems that with Tarrytowne becoming a regional metropolis seemingly overnight, it was attracting quite a large homeless population. Some people were just indigent, while still others were seeking a new life for themselves. The streets were becoming overcrowded and the churches just couldn't handle that many homeless people. They spoke for hours, well after the bar had closed. Finally Alfred decided that a mission should be built in Smithfield. Smithfield didn't really have a homeless population, but a mission acting in conjunction with the churches in Tarrytowne could certainly provide a large shelter for this population. So, with that the St. Francis Mission was born. The chuch, to ensure that the mission did not detract from the natural beauty of the area built a small park surrounding the mission. Picture S12-4 (St. Francis Mission) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--31--St_Francis_Mission.jpg align=baseline> Picture S12-5 (St. Francis Park) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--32--Park_Shot.jpg align=baseline> There will be more updates coming soon. I will be drawing Smithfield to a close soon, at least for this initial stage of development. When finished, I will post some overall city shots showing the undeveloped areas filled with trees. As always, I appreciate everyone's support and wonderful comments. Until the next update...

Date: 5/2/2005 5:54:54 PM Author: dhoppeii Hey thanks for the closeups aldara.....They look great....I see some of those Japanese walls in there too eh?  You, know I started subscribing to many CJ's, but I found that my inbox was getting just to big to deal with.  Now, I just try to keep a close eye on board.... Great Update Man.... Regards, dhoppe quote> You just have to pick and choose which one's to keep updated on. Sometimes though, lots of emails for lots of posts in the forums equals MEGA TIME AWAY FROM REAL LIFE (and maybe even the wife)!! As for the walls...I know alot of people don't like them because of the repeating pattern. But, that is actually why I do like them. It gives a sense of continuity. There are alot of walls, not exactly like the jap set but kind of like it, in my area. The walls have a repeating pattern and it gives me a sense of home...kind of but not kind of if ya know what I mean.

Cool start dude. I like what I see. Keep up the great work, it really looks interesting so far.

Date: 5/2/2005 3:10:01 PM Author: Darmok aldara Thanks for pointing that out. But my problem is that I'd like to have a ONE tile width waterfall, so as long that there is a left AND right side, that makes it two tiles wide, I've tried using only the middle lot, the look is great in the waterfall itself, but the connecting tiles at top and bottom leaves kind of a 'unnatural' look where it joins with the rest of the pond kit. I guess I'll develop a technique to use it. A big thanks for your concern and help. quote> The PEG stream kit has a 1 tile wide waterfall...all one piece. Here is a pic from my CJ that show's this waterfall in use. Not sure if this will fit your needs or not but it is a 1 tile wide waterfall. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--2--Ponds.jpg align=baseline>

Date: 5/3/2005 3:05:49 AM Author: vadvaro ryan - look at this lot set https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=1818 quote> Take a look at the top of page 4 in my CJ (link is in my signature.) I downloaded and used that set to create a large university. I also used jeronij's tarmac trail set to tie all of the campus buildings together. Here are just a few of the pics that I took of the campus to give you a feel for that set in use. Please visit my CJ for more pics. I like the university set in the pics above, but from the model posted of the first building in this post I think this set will be much better. The set above just looks like someone combined a bunch of current buildings using the lot editor. I haven't found anything that is purely custom content. Sooooo...until this set is complete I will be forced to use the downloaded set I have. But, once this set is done you can rest assured the mayor and council in my CJ will be doing a MAJOR renovation of campus.

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Update_11--Smithfield.gif align=baseline> Ok folks...just a quick, semi-update for dhop. Here are a few close-ups of the commercial shopping district. I will update with store names and such a little later as time permits. Picture S11-1 (Here you see a small plaza. Ikea is on the lower right) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--44--Commercial_Closeup.jpg align=baseline> Picture S11-2 (Here you see PEG's subterranian malls) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--45--Commercial_Closeup.jpg align=baseline> Picture S11-3 (This is mainly a picture of Wal-Mart) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--46--Commercial_Closeup.jpg align=baseline> Picture S11-4 (Here is mainly a picture of Lowes)

Darmok, Have you checked out/downloaded PEG's newest version/update of the Pond kit. There are now left and right sides as well as middle pieces for the waterfalls, so that you can now make a waterfall as wide as you can imagine it. Hope this helps... aldara6166 (Jason)

kingofsimcity, I just love your CJ. I've been following for some time now. I just love your use of parks and highways. Your zoning (I.e. residential, downtown, commercial, etc.) is cool. I also like your header image. Great CJ. Keep it up...can't wait for a more complete update as the terrain shots look cool.

Darmok, I've been promoting your CJ in my signature for a while now, but I realized I've never really commented...how rude. So, I'll do so now. So, here goes 15 pages worth of replies. First off, I like your picture frames and the headers you use for your updates. I just use a single graphic at the top of my updates with the exception of the memos that you see posted from one city official to another in my CJ. Makes me reconsider my style! I must admit, your initial zoning pic on page 1 gave me much inspiration for Tarrytowne. You may see some similarities if you look. Figured it would be the ultimate compliment to try to recreate much of the zoning with my own style and flare. I like how you terraform and I use that method now myself. Much easier. I like the terraced areas. And I like how you look like you may be starting to incoporate the Jap wall sets in the terraced areas too. I just love those walls. You have a great mix of residential, commercial and industrial zoning. And it all seems to be in close proximity to each other with little affect on the residential areas. And your parks...just love em. Great CJ. I've definitely subscribed to this one!

Date: 5/1/2005 12:53:10 PM Author: dhoppeii aldara - I apologize my friend.  I thought I was caught up with your CJ.  I know I mentioned this over my CJ, but I love the memo....Very creative idea...I just wish I was that creative.  There are many things I liked about the pictorial update....I like how you surrounded the commercial area with PEG's RDK set.  I have never seen it done on land like that....I wouldn't mind seeing some closeups of that area...The pond area looks fantastic.  I really like the little islands in the middle.  It reminds me of many small lakes in my homestate which hold bass BTW.  And the Cathedral looks incredible....I see you too are experimenting with the Japanese wall set.  I like your usage of it in 10-4.  I do like how you used the road entry way from Jeroni's tarmac set to connect to the Academy's parking lot.  The only thing with that lot though, I would suggest, is to find a way to terraform the land so that you don't have the difference in elevation.  I never really cared for how the game adjusts for it. Great Update, as always.... Regards, dhoppe dhop, As always dear friend, thanks for the encouragement. I try to make this realistic, as much so as possible anyway and encouragement helps me keep it going. As for being caught up on my CJ...subscribing with email notification is a wonderful thing!! I thought about terraforming the land to fit the private school. But, the problem I ran in to was because it was close to the corner I either got a private school that was raise WAY above the street making it even with the back side of the church, or it stayed at that level but then raised the surrounding area to be level with it which caused alot of uneven houses. I try to stay away from the foundation look as much as possible since most housing in real life follows the contour of the surrounding terrain and streets. The ponds, well, I really work hard at those and I end up wasting a ton of money making them cause I'm always placing tiles & then deleting them until I get them just right. The memo, well, I've always been a pretty creative writer as you can see. Guess that's why I've always been able to sit down 3 hours before one of my papers is due for college and B.S. my way through it in an hour or two and still get an A!! As for the close-ups of the commercial region, you'll get those later today as requested. Date: 5/1/2005 1:26:43 PM Author: Jetty Jockey The campus at the University is magnificent !  Love the cathedral park as well. Looking forward to more! Jetty Jockey, Thanks for coming on board. I will be posting some additional comments in Cape May shortly. It is starting to shape up as well. As for everyone else, thanks for stopping by. If anyone would care to suggest, I am looking for a line or two that I can put at the end of my CJ to tie up each update. If anyone would like to suggest something, I'll give you some sort of special credit in my CJ somewhere...unless I come up with something first. If anyone needs an idea of what I'm looking for, see dhoppei's CJ...his is pretty close to what I want, I just didn't want to mimic his. Also, I'm looking for some sort of signature graphic for my CJ...if anyone is creative with graphics I would appreciate one please. If one is created, you too will be rewarded within my CJ.

Date: 4/30/2005 2:03:16 PM Author: sloppet very nice update!! keep up the good work!! quote> Thanks for the encouragement sloppet. I definitely appreciate it. Now, I'm just waiting on my other regular followers to comment on the last two updates.

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Update_11--Smithfield.gif align=baseline> After the dedication of the Garetti School, Mayor Smith was feeling quite run down. He had be running himself ragged, non-stop since the first farm was built in Smithfield. He decided it was time to take a break, a well deserved break at that. So, he decided he would take a tour of the country side and visit a town called Stanton in LaPlaisance County. He went with Artimus, because he felt that Artimus too needed a well deserved vacation. Though the visit only lasted a few days, they both felt totally revived and energetic again. To show their appreciation, Artimus compiled a letter and mailed it to the mayor of LaPlaisance County. Here is that letter... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Mayor_Memo.gif align=baseline> To: Mayor Dhoppeii Re: Recent Visit to LaPlaisance County Dear Mayor Dhoppeii: We would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks to you and your staff. We were recently on an extended tour of the local countryside and came upon your wonderful county. We were very impressed with how you continue to assist your local farmers in every way possible with their way of life. This is truely obvious in the way your farms continue to flourish, despite rising concerns over air and water pollution, as well as acid rain. We were further impressed with the pleasant manner in which your citizens greeted us. We were truely amazed at the level of hospitality your citizens extended to someone not familiar to them. This is certainly a tribute to your managerial and mayorial skills. Should you, at any time wish to visit the Tarrytowne River Valley, please feel free to do so. Do not hessitate to contact either of us personally so that we may arrange for a comfortable stay in one of our resorts or bed and breakfasts. We will personally be contacting you in the near future as well, as we should like to spend a weekend in the near future touring the rest of your wonderful county as it develops. Again, we truely appreciate the quaintness and quietness of your wonderful farming community. Please feel free to contact us at any time. Yours Truely, Mayor Artimus James Tarrytowne, USA Mayor Alfred Smith Smithfield USA

These next few updates are going to be lengthy with pics, so there may not be much to the story aspect of it. We are getting close to the end of the initial building stages of Smithfield. There will be periodic visits to Smithfield once it is complete to show any on-going development and growth. Recently, Mayor Smith went on a long hike in the mountains above his home. He surveyed his town from high atop the mountain water tower. He was happy with what he saw, but there was much lacking from Smithfield. Anyone that wanted to do any kind of shopping at all needed to travel quite some distance to Tarrytowne or another neighboring town such as Stanton (there's your plug dhop!! .) Mayor Smith realized that a commercial shopping district was just what his town needed. He decided that it would be on the western half of town close to the industrial district to minimize impact to the residential areas. Mayor Smith signed lease agreements with several anchor stores including Lowes, Giant Food and Wal-Mart as well as several food chains such as Chi-Chi's and Denny's. Picture S10-1 https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--23--Commercial_Center.jpg align=baseline> Smithfield was also getting a large Catholic population as well. Several of the residents founded a small congregation in rented office space until a permanent home for their chuch could be constructed. This is how Saint John's Cathedral was born. To facilitate the construction of this church, Mayor Smith donated public land to the congregation. In turn, the church built a large park adjacent to the church property which was accessible to the public. The park included a small stream as well as a large and a small pond which were regularly stocked with many different species of fish including bass and other game fish. Picture S10-2 https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--24--St_Johns_Cathedral.jpg align=baseline> Here is a closer view of the park which connects to the back of the church property. Picture S10-3 https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--25--St_Johns_Cathedral_Grounds.jpg align=baseline> Some terraced residential areas begin to develop on the back side of the gated community, going up the side of the mountain. Picture S10-4 https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--26--Terraced_Residential.jpg align=baseline> And finally, to assist in the education of the religious elite in Smithfield, Garetti Christian Academy is built, to the rear of the Garetti Baptist Church. Picture S10-5 https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Smithfield--27--Private_School.jpg align=baseline>

Well, I see that my request in the other thread for a prison gate didn't go unnoticed... Here are a couple of links I found...I usually use http://multimedia.lycos.com to find my pics... http://www.csus.edu/ums/images/CDC-Folsom-Gate_lg.jpg **************************** Here are some pics for prison towers. http://iblp.org/iblp/about/whatwedo/community/prison/tower.jpg http://www.crimelibrary.com/graphics/photos/notorious_murders/women/marybeth_tinning/14-1-Bedford-Hills-Prison.jpg http://www.vcedigitalworks.com/vce/images/prisontower.gif http://www2.una.edu/soccrimjust/prisontowersmall.jpg Sorry...went a little crazy with the links... As for the towers though, someone else created a set of prison walls that had a corner tower...it isn't the same quality as your work but it may give you a starting point for ideas... look here for it https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=BAT&Str=stone%20security%20wall Hope these help...

First off, I would like to thank everyone who stops by here for a visit. I am now over 2,000 views and 100 responses over 4 pages. I never thought I'd be that successful with my CJ. And, it is now labelled as a HOT TOPIC! Thanks go out to you all. Especially dhoppeii, jacqulina and sloppet for their constant comments. This CJ wouldn't be as successfull without your comments and inspiration. With that, I am off for the evening. I just spent several hours playing and building up Smithsfield and taking screen shots. An update will be forthcoming this weekend. Oh, and dhop, make sure you keep an eye on your CJ for my next set of comments...I think you'll like them!!

Looks good so far. Great start. I'll be watching this one as well...

Great start. You may want to look at downloading the BSC farms that Barbyw and her group have been doing. Also, download the No Maxis Farms mod so that only the BSC farms show up. They are much much better than the Maxis provided farms, hand down. Good start though.

Date: 4/27/2005 9:41:18 AM Author: palmgurl nice campus but no palms!?!?!?!!?! how about just one there two there one everywhere!quote> Tell ya what...I'll make sure that the campus decorating committee puts several palms in the lobby of each building to add a somewhat tropical flavor to campus...

Sneak Peak - Closeups Well everyone, as promised here are the closeups of my university with jeronji's trails. I gave each building it's name, but the type of building (business school, medical center, etc.) was designated in the set I downloaded. If you look closely in a few of the pictures, you'll be able to see how I used the GeoThermal power station with the trails to simulate mechanical and maintenance buildings on campus. Picture C1 - Residence Halls (Wicomico Hall is the Upper and Somerset Hall is the lower) Picture C2 - Guerreri Student Center (Top) and Eclias Language Arts Complex (Bottom) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Sneak_Peak3_Student_Center.jpg align=baseline> Picture C3 - Byrd Stadium (With a small athletic complex) and the Richard Henson School of Business https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Sneak_Peak3_Stadium.jpg align=baseline> Picture C4 - The Joford School of Science (both buildings indicated by the white arrow) the Cregar Technical Science Building (bottom) and Singer Physical Science Building (top) https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Sneak_Peak3_Science_Center.jpg align=baseline> Picture C5 - Parker Liberal Arts Center https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Sneak_Peak3_Liberal_Arts.jpg align=baseline> Picture C6 - Springfield University Regional Medical Center https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Sneak_Peak3_Medical_Center.jpg align=baseline> Picture C7 - The Pittsburgh School of Art https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Sneak_Peak3_Art_Center.jpg align=baseline> Picture C8 - An overall view of campus with the buildings labeled to give you a better idea of how all the trails fit together. https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//Sneak_Peak3a.jpg align=baseline>

Date: 4/26/2005 4:10:23 PM Author: dhoppeii You can't bulldoze that. It looks great. I really like how you worked the water into the whole areaquote> dhop, Thanks for the congrats. You really like the university huh...maybe I'll have to reconsider. It actually started as me just messing around with the university set cause I've never used it before...and before I knew it I had a full university. I am thinking of doing a different university that is modelled on the school I went to in Salisbury, Maryland (Salisbury University.) Date: 4/26/2005 4:12:30 PM Author: jeronij Why dont you keep the university area and show us some closer pics ?