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Entry 81 -- Pratchit's Top and the village of Kingsley
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 81: Pratchit's Top and the village of Kingsley Welcome back to another entry from the countryside- a rather mountainous one! Featuring mosaics and a few other special things too. This is the last time I use PNG for the pictures- this is due to all the HD flowers which would come out blurry or smudgy if rendered in JPG format. Let's get started! Note: The mosaics, pictures 14 and 24 respectively, where too large to upload in PNG form for Imageshack and Imgur. Thus I uploaded them onto my own Google Photo album, the reason for this is too fully capture the fidelity of the imageshack and the photoshop work, which is somewhat lost when rendered in JPG format. The link to the Google album is right here- https://photos.app.goo.gl/bk3M5MHek883TED88 {---} 1. The mountain being explored today is Pratchit's Top. 2. This is a mid-level mountain which borders the western starting point of Maular Valley. 3. The village of Kingsley at its southern-most point. 4. 5. Night-time and diagonals! 6. 7. 8. Moving up Maular Valley we come to Kingsley, the village which both marks a watershed between two major valleys and also a mountain pass. 9. Starting from Pillar, one of the three tallest mountains in the Cindersville area, we move eastwards towards Kingsley. 10. From the village of Kingsley, Pratchit's Top appears quite small. 12. Though from further away it is a dominant feature of Maular Valley. 13. Starting from the north, from Pratchit's Top and moving southwards until we hit the northern fringes of Cindersville's city centre. 14. Going from south to north. High quality version can be found here- https://photos.app.goo.gl/bk3M5MHek883TED88 15. 16. And now for a closer look at Pratchit's Top. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. This is going from west to east. 24. Going from east to west. High quality version can be found here- https://photos.app.goo.gl/bk3M5MHek883TED88 25. Having a look at the western moorland around Pratchit's Top. 26. 27. The eastern and northern slopes impose themselves upon the vilage of Kingsley. 28. The main road running out of Kingsley and moving on to the northeast. 29. Having a look at western Kingsley. 30. There are several paths which start from the village of Kingsley- in all directions. 31. A picture taken from the slopes north of Kingsley (north of Pratchit's Top). 32. Going from south to north. 33. The furthest western extent of Kingsley. 34. 35. Going from north to south. 36. 37. {---} The entry will be returning back to the city. Until then- stay safe and have a good week.- 12 Comments
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New Year's Entry -- Mount Hefnall
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
New Year's Entry -- Mount Hefnall Welcome to 2021! For this entry I present a combination of old and new pictures from both Hefnall Forest and Mount Hefnall itself. The next entry will be in a different area of Cindersville but I really wanted to show how Mount Hefnall connects to the nearby areas and to Cindersville itself. With that said, goodbye 2020 and hello to some more SC4 goodiness! {---} 1. 2. A square mosaic I cobbled together about two weeks ago. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Mount Hefnall casts it shadow on Cindersville. 8. Mount Hefnall extends westwards thanks to it's L-shaped ridge. 9. From south to north. 10. From west to east. 11. The scree-strewn top of Mount Hefnall 12. 13. Mount Hefnall's eastern slopes. 14. Had to upload this square mosaic on Imgur because Imageshack wouldn't accept it! 15. {---} For the next several months I'll be posting one entry per week due to revising for the last of my accountancy course exams. Sometimes there will be two entries in a week if I have holiday time. Aside from that, have a great year everyone! For the next entry it'll be an end to the scenes of forests and mountains, instead it'll be back to suburbs and roads. Next weekend I'll be showing you Awnsale, the area west of Cindersville's city centre.- 8 Comments
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Entry 76 -- Hefnall Forest East
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 76: Hefnall Forest East Welcome back to some more scenes from Cindersville! Thanks alot for all of your comments- much appreciated! This time the eastern parts of Hefnall Forest will be explored. Also, to reflect the festive scene, I've included at the very end of this entry a special "present" for your SC4 viewing pleasure. Let's get started! {---} 1. 2. During the Spring, Summer and Autumn this dirt car park can become quite full as many drive from Cindersville, park up and walk around either Hefnall Forest or Mount Hefnall. 3. From the eastern slopes of Mount Hefnall we move eastwards (downwards). 4. 5. From north to south. 6. From west to east- follow the paths! 7. Where the ground is drier or even semi-arid I ensured it be devoid of trees. 8. The Sudden Valley terrain mod has some amazing dry textures! 9. 10. 11. Can't have a forest scene without the clouds! 12. 13. 14. A crossing of trails and paths. 15. The southern borders of Hefnall Forest meet up with the area of Hefnall itself (a town within the Cindersville urban city area). 16. 17. 18. 19. A herd of deer in the mist... 20. 21. A super close-up of those horses. 22. East Hefnall Forest folks! {---} Coming this Saturday- THE tour of Mount Hefnall, one of three major mountains dominating the Cindersville skyline. {---} And here's that present! The square mosaic! Link below if you can't on this page expand the image- https://imageshack.com/i/pnNum5Lfj- 11 Comments
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Entry 75 -- Hefnall Forest West
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 75: Hefnall Forest West It's been just over five weeks since the last entry, during that time I had another accountancy exam to complete and this was one of the biggest modules of the course. I also had various bits of cleaning and housework to be done, but this week I booked time-off work which is why I'm going back to Cindersville to take further pictures. This entry and the next two explore the north-eastern part of the Cindersville city tile, so expect a lot of greenery, trees and mountains! Thank you for all of your comments too! For the wait I've thrown in some extra mosaics too. {---} 1. As always with Cindersville we start with an overview of the area being explored- there are at least twenty distinct areas. 2. This street is the eastern-most extent of the village of Kingsley. 3. Starting from the western ridge of Mount Hefnall we move downwards (north direction) towards Kingsley and the western fringes of Hefnall Forest. 4. From the top is the western boundary of Hefnall Forest, we sweep eastwards when scrolling downwards. 5. Mount Hefnall, in the top-left, has one prominent ridge which sweeps out westwards. 6. 7. Herds of deer are daily seen in Hefnall Forest. 8. This entry has a lot of mosaics to help gain a close-up perspective of Hefnall Forest. This one covers Mount Hefnall's western mountain ridge, from the top (east) we move downwards in a roughly western direction. This mountain ridge forms the southern boundary of Hefnall Forest. 9. 10. Another sweep from West to East. 11. A sweep from South to North. This one starting directly at the top of Mount Hefnall 12. Trails... Trails everywhere! 13. To the right of this picture are the western parts of Hefnall Forest. 14. The rest of this entry will be a selection from various parts of this forest. 15. After creating the landscape the first thing which came was using the ARDEN Tree Controller to create the core forest. 16. Next was destroying parts of this forest where the terrain was either looking dry or rocky or even muddy. From these gaps I then laid the trails and paths using Heblem's gravel MMPs. 17. The paths helped to divide up the MMP work which had to be extensively performed. For the coniferous areas I used a variety of bushes, desert flora and additional coniferous trees to beef up the woodland areas. 18. In the lower part of the coniferous woodland there are ferns (or bracken), this had to be created based on both terrain height and the preponderance of the bushy, brighter-green trees embedded in the pines. 19. For the upper parts of the coniferous areas this had to include thick shrubs and bushes, rock scree and (when closer to mountain faces) exposed ground (bedrock) with numerous bits of rock strewn over the slopes. 20. On the highest mountains the flora density substantially decreases as do the number of trees. It should be noted that all flora seen in these pictures is based on several flora themes determined by: deciduous/coniferous, height, rockiness, ground dryness and proximity to rock faces, crags and/or cliffs. 21. 22. An overview with the western part of Hefnall Forest to the left and Mount Hefnall dominating the picture. For the Mount Hefnall entry I will be creating a "square" mosaic with a close zoom for everyone's viewing pleasure! {---} Next entry, this Tuesday, will be exploring East Hefnall Forest! Enjoy the weekend!- 12 Comments
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Entry 73 -- Paxton South and East
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 73 -- Paxton (South and East) Thanks a hell of a lot for your replies and comments! The tour of Cindersville is only getting started! In this entry we go to the south-east corner of the city tile to the suburb of Paxton which is built around Paxton Mound. This entry is a mixture of rural suburbs, the countryside and city blocks surrounding unblemished rural tracts. Let's go! {---} 1. The areas being explored today are the east (top) and south (right) parts of Paxton. To the left is Paxton Mound. 2. From east to west. 3. The eastern side of Paxton which starts to merge with another city area known as Hefnall (directly east of the city centre). 4. The lone street higher up on the hill and overlooking Hefnall. 5. Where's there hills there are often cloudy days. 6. This sloping diagonal suburb took about an hour to complete as I had to create a smooth diagonal slope all without the growable residential buildings automatically digging into the ground. HARD. Furthermore it required careful positioning of the diagonal street sections too. 7. From north to south. 8. A mini stretch of pasture land. 9. 10. One of the focal points of Paxton is this junction which is the main arterial road connecting east Paxton with south Paxton. 11. 12. The southern part of Paxton is built upon a rolling hill which rises from the west and reaches it high point as seen in the top of the picture. 13. From south to north. 14. Making use of the "fog" options in the GIMP's render section to create random, atmospheric cloud. 15. From east to west. 16. These were some of the first rural areas to be MMPed and as such a lighter touch is applied here. 17. A black day in the forest. 18. 19. Forest mist. 20. Sudden Valley terrain textures rule! 21. 22. 23. This is one of Mattb325's FAR churches. Cool stuff! 24. I also built MMP church grounds in the city block this church is located upon. 25. 26. Moving into the western part of Paxton. 27. The FA police station is another one of Mattb325's creations! They come in overhanging versions and also orthogonal versions too. 28. 29. A night-time overview of the area. 30. Looking down through a cloudy night. 31. And the final picture... {---} Thank you for viewing! This Monday we're moving into the main valley, Cinders Valley, and to a southern area of Cindersville which is Chumley. This area is an extension of sorts of the city centre as the larger buildings are crammed into an increasingly narrow stretch of flat land. Note also that Chumley borders Paxton upon Paxton's western side so there is a connection to these entries! Coming this Monday- Enjoy the weekend!- 7 Comments
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Entry 71 -- Progress Update on Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 71 -- Progress Update on Cindersville So I've made a huge push on the north-eastern corner of Cindersville. I can say it is definitely halfway done as I move around the mountain which dominates this area, eventually I will tackle the very top of the mountain itself. Finally, if you're wondering why the teaser picture is taking longer to load up that is because it is a PNG image. I deliberately used PNG to preserve the image quality as the JPEG version caused the flowers to blur. Anyway, here are further pictures from the new areas I've been working on. Have a good weekend! {---} 1. I'm working on the areas around this mountain. 2. I had to extend some areas to flesh out the villages and some outer parts of Cindersville. 3. 4. The first thing I start with is laying down the trails and paths. 5. Then I work on the MMPs within the area defined by each set of paths. 6. One of the major northern routes leading into Cindersville required a lot of work. 7. MMP street... 8. The dark green plants are MMP ferns I use from the VIP Rural Pack. They are slow to place down and this adds time to the whole process. 9. I also had to extend out the meadows as well. While that dry river bed is actually not a dried-up river/stream, instead it is the aftermath of a flash flood which caused severe top soil erosion and a mini landslide. 10. Another PNG picture to showcase the brillance of Girafe's roses. 11. And here is Mattb325's Ben Rose House. And this is why I go crazy on the MMPs because in the end they start to blend with the trees, plants and textures of actual lots. 12. The transition between deciduous and coniferous forest. 13. There are four MMP types: flora, water, rocks and props (sims, cars and the little things like that). I reckon the hardest MMP is rockwork. 14. This picture is pure MMPs! 15. I actually added MMPs, forests and brackon to the bottom half of the mountain as before all this it was simply a sheer rock face which didn't look right. 16. I've had this winding road for almost two years. Only now is the area around it complete! {---} Right, that's it for today. I'll be back in late September as by then Cindersville will be complete and one outstanding project can be crossed off! Enjoy the weekend!- 8 Comments
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Entry 70 -- Potter's Slink and Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 70: Potter's Slink and Cindersville Welcome back! Thank you for your comments for the last entry. Over the past two weeks I've been working hard on Cindersville. In this entry I have one final area from Potter's Slink to show, a rather industrial area, then there are several pictures from Cindersville. {---} 1. In this entry we explore the south-eastern corner of Potter's Slink. 2. 3. 4. The area where I spent the most amount of my focus going diagonal... 5. The "bulky" low density residential homes. 6. With the right fillers completing this diagonal area was rather straightforward. 7. All while keeping the textures seamless. 8. Why have True Night when one can photoshop? 9. The green of the residential suburbs fades away before the omnipresent grey of industrial and commerce! 10. 11. 12. 13. For the small park area I used rsc204's overhanging R$$ triangle grass textures to create a more vibrant look! 14. 15. 16. 17. And the last picture from Potter's Slink. 18. There are six distinctive areas to complete. In green is a tiny area to the south that needs some more undergrowth and rocks. In red the northern and eastern side of the mountain needs to be spruced up. In turquoise there is an area close to the highway that needs some urban MMPs. In yellow, to the northwest will be the next area I'm working to complete. Then it will be the orange area which needs a whole bunch of undergrowth, ferns and possibly meadows. Finally, in purple, will be the final area to complete. I hope to get this all done by the end of August. 19. To the top right is a new kind of rocky floor texture I'm working upon. 20. I also added in some animals in the midst of all this nature. 21. And here's what the product of all this MMPing produces. 22. There's still quite a bit to do! Right then, the next entry will be in early September from Cindersville. See you then!- 7 Comments
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Entry 69 -- Mountain Wonderland in Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Entry 69 -- Mountain Wonderland in Cindersville In the last several days I've been putting in extra work, and using more of my spare time, to get the northern parts of Cindersville finished off. This will be the last teaser from Cindersville, a taste of what the northern areas will look like: forests, cliffs, ferns, meadows, paths, mountains, trails, villages close to the crags... {---} 1. In a few days time I'll be working on the mountains in the bottom of this picture. 2. I've worked out the flora and MMP combinations for the various terrain levels too. 3. Even worked out an MMP system for detailing around the edges of cliffs and rock faces. 4. Which will make these rocky faces, these crags really stand out! 5. Not only am I grid-busting, I'm also doing so on mountainous terrain too! 6. Having some fun with the MMP paths (FrankU's Heblem paths). 7. The woodland in the mountains will be thicker, the trails will have limited numbers of people on them and the highest parts of the terrain will have a moorland MMP flora style- what you would see in the Pennines (in England). 8. There will also be occasional meadows too. Not everywhere, but in a few special places! 9. Villages against the cliffs and crags. 10. A lot of focus is going to be spent on this main road which is rural from the north (top of picture) and joins Cindersville at a point rather close to the city centre. There is still much MMPing and trail work to be done. 11. Breaking out all the grid-busting, MMPing and rock-laying stops here. 12. Up close the meadow areas will look like this. 13. And this is why I'm putting in so many hours getting the landscaping right. The mountain in the bottom, the woodland and grassland below the bridge need to be complete- but you get the idea! {---} Thank you for your previous comments in the last entry. As for next entry- it will be one final one from Potter's Slink. This will be posted on Saturday. The rest of the days, since I have holiday booked up, will be spent getting Cindersville complete and finally laying this project to rest! Have a good week!- 11 Comments
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Replies: dédale: Thank you! Simcityer: I use the industrial roads found in Bipin's Industrial Essentials mod. Tso Tsengkun: Thanks! And to answer your question- I use the lot plop cheat to place in the residential buildings I want. I let the residential zones grow and about a quarter to a third of the buildings are what I want, the rest I plop over to get a consistent theme! {---} Entry 65: Paths and Trails I've coming back to Cindersville and I am finishing off the remaining areas of the city tile which need to be completed, spruced up and MMPed: the south-west corner and then the northern third. All these pictures are from the south-west corner. So enjoy! The next entry is in two weeks time when I've made some substantive progress on the northern third of the city tile! So relax and let nature put your mind at ease. {---} 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
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Entry 64: Developing Travis City
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Silur: Thank you! Success and health to you too! reg: Thanks! I know all the tricks to fill each type of area and make it blend together. I'm getting at spacing out buildings too... bladeberkman: Thank you! I clicked the transparent textures option for RRW in Rivit's RRW mod. JulioC: The trick is texture themes and unification. It has taken more than six years to master but the grassy textures and concrete textures merge better, while the contrast between them is sharper. It also helps to have most of the grass textures themed to the terrain mod. ChristineReaddon: I've been posting City Journal entries for more than six years now! So it just comes with experience: better pictures, better cities and a better idea of how to create realistic areas. With each year I pick up some new skills and new techniques. {---} Entry 64: Developing Travis City So I intend for Travis City to be a source of CJ pictures for the next two and a half months as I work on finish on some longstanding projects: Cindersville, The Big Mango and others in the works... This Sunday I'll whip my lazy ass into shape and continue on work with Cindersville and to finally finish off the rural areas. But for today I have new things to show, new techniques and new experiments! {---} 1. The core of Travis City has been complete. I need to complete the south-western suburbs and a lightly developed north-western suburb beyond the railway line and around the power lines. 2. The concrete is greyer and the grass is greener... 3. One of the beautiful things about Bipin's grungy roads is how they blend in with other concrete and tarmac textures, thus making the green grass textures stand out some more. 4. Making use of C.P.'s medium density R$ residential! 5. These BATs and LOTs are more than a decade old I believe but still hold up amazingly well! 6. And these low-wealth W2W tenements work well placed close to industrial areas. 7. 8. This isn't the first time I've placed a power station within a city. 9. But building the suburbs and areas around the electricity pylons is slightly different. 10. God bless rsc204's texture extenders... 11. A rural ring road around a hill... Roads often circumambulate around hills by using valleys and gently sloping areas. 12. The outskirts were an excuse to splurge out on diagonal rows! 13. 14. Who needs MMPs when I have a tree controller that do the job <like that>? 15. The first rural village I built. This will be the larger one as I plan to build two more. 16. 17. Exploring FA RHW-2... 18. And seeing how well it works on slopes. 19. {---} Well that's it for today! My next entry will be a week this Sunday (on the 26th of April) which will give me some time to work on Cindersville. Have a great weekend and stay safe!- 3 Comments
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Completing the Eastern Parts of Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Vigilante1987: I often work two city tiles, though I alternate via weeks. It keeps my interest levels peaked! This week will be focused on Cindersville, next week the focus returns to The Big Mango and Midtown Manhattan. mattb325: Thanks! A good 75% of the buildings are New York, the rest are USA-themed with a few sneaky European sections here and there. I'm also using the BATs of sgt_pepper, darknono35, jasoncw, nofunk, reddonquixote and many others! Ke|is: Cheers! Next week I'm going to make a massive start on Midtown Manhattan and hopefully have it complete within a few days! Belfastsocrates: Thanks! The whole of Manhattan, what's seen on the city tile, should be done by next week. {---} Entry 55: Completing the Eastern Parts of Cindersville Taking a break from the Big Mango, I returned to Cindersville to work on a hill in the southeastern part of the city tile. Here are the results! {---} 1. One of the things I had to was complete the eastern parts of Cindersville. 2. Mattb325's new Parking Garage and London W2W Set were most useful for this! 3. Split two-avenue equals cranking the suburbs to eleven! 4. The southeastern part of Cindersville was tricky to complete. 5. It required a mixture of open areas, wide lots, diagonal buildings and woodland to finish. 6. There is woodland and open areas there are paths! 7. Divided between a road and a street I decided to turn this area into pasture land for the cows. 8. With the suburban areas complete my attention turned to the hill. 9. The terrain textures of the hill were great and I carefully pruned the woodland in places to ensure dry textures had no woodland or vegetation upon them. 10. Heblem's paths (made smaller by FrankU) are, as ever, very useful! 11. The hill completed. 12. I realised this had to be a city park and thus placing the original, pristine Stonehenge (Simmer2's creation) was the centrepiece to this entire area. 13. To complement the coniferous woodland I used a desert flora scrub MMP. 14. For the lower-lying areas, in particular deciduous woodland, I used Weed B (from Chrisadams3997's RRP Pasture Flora) for the dense slopes of bracken. 15. Having found a flora theme it was very easy to finish the woodland. 16. The bracken clusters are inspired by those found in the hills of England! 17. Once I placed Stonehenge I started creating a series of paths. There are entrances from all sides: North, East, South and West. This is the Southern entrance. 18. The dry textures of the Sudden Valley terrain mod area amazing! 19. I still need to plop in some Sim MMPs to complete the scene. 20. But I'm finally happy with how this area turned out because for the longest time it was a big blank in my mind wondering what to do! 21. The cracked earth represents my favourite part of the Sudden Valley terrain mod. 22. All paths lead to Stonehenge... 23. The big picture. 24. The southeast of Cindersville is all one large sprawling, hilly suburb creeping upwards towards the hill on the left. {---} For Saturday it's either going to be update from The Big Mango or another entry from Madison Plains. One of those two!- 4 Comments
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Entry 46 -- Working the Hills of Cindersville
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Garbanzo: Thanks! I still need to add in streams, paths, pasture fields and some villages! Jackspital: The terrain and forests are now done. The next bit is adding streams, paths, additional mini rocks and small flora in the forests, villages and some pasture fields. Evanjs: This is the ARDEN Tree Controller, one created by Vortext. It can be found on the BSC LEX. Simmer2: Actual campsites will be created to! Thanks for your comment! {---} Entry 46: Working the Hills in Cindersville You are in for a treat with this entry: sloping suburbs, diagonals galore, inner-city sights, townhouses, mountains, deciduous forests... It's been at least two months since I worked on Cindersville and in the back of my mind I knew something was wrong: I was using too much of C.P.'s Early 19th Century and Victorian housing. They're great lots and buildings but I needed more substantial-looking houses and ones which had a late 19th / early 20th century look to them. Thankfully Mattb325 had exactly what I was looking for. I have been going around parts of Cindersville (around the outskirts of the city centre and along some of the major roads leading into the centre) rebuilding various suburbs to reflect these beefier-looking houses (see the teaser picture above). Furthermore, I talk about how I managed to achieve God Mode tree, road tree and residential tree harmony. With that- enjoy! {---} 1. This is the western fringes of East Cindersville. 2. Dragging streets up the slopes has been fun because it requires a whole bunch of trees, retaining walls and smooth slopes to create realistic-looking sloping areas and mini-hill passes. 3. That fractionally-angled building is Mattb325's Urban High School- https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3770. Though I should warn you for this is a <hard> building to use and requires a large amount of fillers to bring this incredible building to life. 4. More mini hill passes. 5. The grassy area stumped me because I wasn't sure whether it should be a grazing area, fully-forested or become a public park. Though I did find a solution later! 6. This week I will be finishing off the suburbs which circle around the hill at the bottom left. 7. The mountain looked good but I was not happy with the tree controller- I was using the wrong type of ARDEN Tree Controller (it comes in five different varieties all compatible with each other, but only one can be used at a time). 8. Once the western, south-eastern and eastern areas of Cindersville are complete, that's it. The core city is complete. Then I will work on the south-west corner (bottom right) and the north. 9. Nearly every house/flat/apartment/terrace you see in this picture are Mattb325's buildings. 10. Mattb325 has recently released and remastered some of his old housing BATs on the BSC LEX; right now these are perfect for what I need right now. 11. The reason these houses are great is because they work better with the zone density transitions. They are also deliberately placed just beyond the city centre to reflect traditional patterns of city growth: these houses are those created in the Industrial Age (and very early 20th century). These houses are on the highest level of low density and hence form the perfect transition towards medium density: terraced rows, townhouses and apartments. 12. They thus complete the pattern of city growth. In this picture we see the late 20th and 21st century houses: the townhouses and five floor apartments. This reflects urban renewal in the city centre and suggests old terraces have been knocked down, or perhaps old factories and mini warehouses, or perhaps an old commercial hub which fell into abandonment, decay and decline. At last the great variety of modern city architecture is complete in its own disjointed, fragmented and cyclic process. 13. Having found the means to properly finishing off the core city, I then tackled another problem which was my dissatisfaction with the ARDEN Tree Controller I was using. The picture above reflects the new ARDEN TC I'm using (Coast Extended). 14. Coast Extended means the elevations levels for the deciduous-coniferous-alpine decrease and allow for greater variety with correspondingly smaller changes of elevation. This is how I managed to create this massive deciduous forest which perfectly completes the layout of the south-west corner of the city tile. But I didn't just stop there... 15. The Sudden Valley terrain mod comes alive with slopes and high terrain. At higher altitudes there is a greater amount of drier terrain and grassland which looks almost brown. Thus in terrain areas which were light green, browning, dirt or rocky grass, I did not place any trees and carefully demolished any trees which accidentally spawned on those particular terrain textures. 16. This thus creates a consistent theme and enables portions of grassland to emerge from the forest. 17. The ARDEN Tree Controller is very... eager. Sometimes trees will spawn on rocky textures and ANY non-rocky textures. Thus I had to carefully demolish any flora which rested on rocky/grassy/dry texture areas, and the result? 18. This. 19. This is also a very useful feature of the ARDEN Tree Controllers: there are five of them and you can potentially, one at a time, use all of them in one city tile without any CTDs. 20. And there's an even bigger plus with the arrangement I've devised: the deciduous trees the ARDEN TC spawns are all Cycledogg's trees which C.P., Mattb325 and Simcoug ubiquitously use with their buildings! Thus there is flora harmony because I use those three creators' houses for nearly all of my suburban areas. 21. Before today I have <never> achieved this level of tree/flora continuity/harmony before! 22. With flora harmony now achieved I don't have to go crazy MMPing the God Mode forests for now I let the terrain show the "details". All I have to do now is add some paths, a few rocks and any other small, miscellaneous feature. 23. I will be reforesting the south-east and northern parts of Cindersville- I can't wait to see what happens! As you can see the bottom-right forest (south-west) fits in really great now. 24. The customary eye-popping, visually-packed, it's-so-dense, mouth-drooling end picture. {---} Later on this week the next entries will be wrapping up the last few suburbs I haven't shown from Pololomia; finally there's the city centre to show and one rather special village (the final entry from Pololomia) to wrap up that city.- 12 Comments
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Entry 32 -- Pololoma- The Village of Clotsley
The British Sausage posted a City Journal entry in My SC4 CJ Scrapbook
Replies: Silur: Thanks for the well wishes! Now that I know how to properly apply concrete MMPs, they are going to be cropping up a lot more in new projects... Krasner: I've used xannepan's texture overrides before, but I've never combined the textures together. I'm glad you enjoyed the entry. Tyberius06: I combined all sorts to get that area looking right: mmps, texture overrides, FAR lots, gridbusting and of course Simmer2's fabulous additions to industry and all things grimy and dirty. Entry 32: Pololomia- The Village of Clotsley Pololomia has several small villages dotted around the outskirts. One such village is Clotsley and we will be looking at the village and the areas surrounding it. / 1. To the top right is the village of Clotsley. 2. And another perspective; Clotsley is at the top left. 3. Diggis river extension pieces are a great substitute for MMP rivers. 4. The mosaics make a small return in this entry too. 5. The basic grassy field, but it makes for an excellent filler of blank, empty terrain. 6. Moving westwards (beyond the railway line and towards the top of the picture) there is the village of Stokesley which will be featured in the next entry. 7. 8. The wind blows against the grassy field... 9. Pasture land which has degraded, hence all the dustiness and dirt on the ground. 10. The rural road leading to Clotsley. 11. Another view of the area south of Clotsley (note: Clotsley is to the bottom left of the picture). 12. At the top right of the picture is a carpark which is part of the small horse-racing business- this is in the north-eastern outskirts of Pololomia. 13. This mega mosaic goes from West (top of the picture) to East (bottom of the picture). 14. I use an FA road and zone diagonal housing. I sure wish there was FA housing... 15. Again we just on the north-eastern outskirts of Pololomia. 16. A farmer feeding is cows with hay. 17. A lot of these scenes are almost entirely comprised of MMPs with some lotted: fences, rivers and diagonal fillers. 18. MMPing the sides of the river was tough, I decided to go for moderate MMP saturation so as to let some of the terrain be visible. 19. This area is where cows are taking from the field and walk down walled corridors to a gathering point for livestock collection. 20. It was also a chance to use Simmer2's MMP stone walls. 21. The dirt and dust on the ground is where the cows have milled around, en masse, and scuffed away the grass... 22. Cows belonging to this herd which has gathered around the farmer and his assistant. 23. The river features heavily in this entry since it snakes and meanders around everywhere! 24. The trick to my MMP work is to use MMP themes: fields have one or two flora MMPs and dirt MMPs, river banks have bushes, limited flowers and occasional crops of woodland, etc. 25. I also have MMP farm field themes too, I probably have at least a dozen different types of MMP fields. I try to keep the selection limited in areas to ensure a reasonably homogeneous look. 26. Going from North to South... 27. This roundabout marks the north-eastern most tip of Pololomia! 28. I suppose the rural/urban divisions/perimeters are inspired by driving into and out of various English cities and towns. 29. We are slowly circling around to the village of Clotsley. 30. One thing I discovered this year was how to lay down convincing, and thick-looking, MMP gravel paths. By merging framley's gravel MMPs (see the darker gray gravel tracks in this picture) with Heblem's MMP paths (the dirt outside of the paths) I created a thicker texture and ensured the paths looked less like MMPs plastered onto the terrain! 31. This strip of trees between fields is a VERY English-looking feature. If you ever go to England you will see this all the time: rows of trees emerging from nowhere which divide fields. 32. And now we return to Clotsley (the village at the bottom of the picture). 33. The design is very simple: use C.P.'s Early 19th Century and Victorian houses, add in Dutch Park textures (FrankU's Dutch Parks + Farms) and woodland around the houses and, finally, throw in either SPAM fences or Chrisadams3997's wooden fences. Job done! 34. A small little feature I add is the fake T-junction from which a gravel track emerges. 35. Links for those curious: FrankU parks and fields (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3212 , https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3068); C.P.'s houses (https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=686, https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3498) and please note that his Victorian houses are a MUST-HAVE filler for low to medium density areas; fences (SPAM- https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/26124-paengs-spam-addon-pack-vol01/, Chrisadams3997- https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1888). Just with these links alone you could probably build an entire city tile just with the content here! 36. The tracks go their separate ways... 37. / Next entry is going to focus on the village of Stokesley- so more farming, rural areas and lots of MMPs!- 3 Comments
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Replies: Haljackey: It's like poetry... They rhyme... nicoliani: Thanks a lot! tonyr: Cheers! dabadon5: Thanks a lot for your kind comment! fighterfungus: Thank you for liking the previous entry! feyss: Thanks! And yeah- they are olive trees. lemonLemon: Thanks for your comment. Though I don't understand your question about the shadow graphics... I mean I photoshop my pictures... ? Entry 23: Pololomia -- Langley Plains (Northeast) Yes it's been a while since the last entry but I've been busy with that teaching and also focusing on story-writing. Anyway here are some more rural pictures. No captions, no comments. Enjoy! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. For the next entry we go to the east part of Pololomia's city centre...
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Replies: kschmidt: Cheers! rathefalcon: Everything I do with these city tiles is to create rural/urban transitions. Prophet42: UrbanConstanta: Did you manage to download those fields? TekindusT: Worth the price of admission! Kim Sunwoo: I call that mosaic the city centre to rural transition. simbasc4: Thank you very much! Entry 14: More Rural Development So this month has been a busy one, but in the last two days I have been working some more on Pololomia and finishing off areas to the north. I reckon finishing every area could take anywhere between a month and six weeks given all the MMPs I am using, but it is slowly coming together. 1. Gridbusting on a MASSIVE scale. 2. I'm experimenting with mixed field/woodland areas. 3. Rural areas in England often have many fields with patches of woodland throw in the middle. 4. While Diggis river extension pieces form great boundaries for the fields. 5. And the river banks are SO MMP-able. 6. Another feature of English farmland is the line of trees bordering fields. 7. The other thing I am developing is a better blending of tracks with the dirt perimeter of fields. 8. And a new MMP farm combo (using Chrisadams3997's RRP MMPs): wild white flowers combined with clover textures. Throw in ionionion's OMCo brown dirt and we have a rich, organic field! 9. And a close-up of that field. 10. Rivers make for the most interesting boundaries... Sometimes the fields will be bordering the river banks and other times there is a clear separation between river banks and fields. 11. By using the wide version of Heblem's gravel MMPs, and placing it in the centre between two lines of gravel MMPs, it gives the tracks a rough boundary- which helps them better blend into the landscape. 12. While the field edges look dirty and as messy as possible, which is just the look I'm going for with plowed fields. 13. Another overview of the area I'm working on. 14. 15. Simmer2's stone paths MMPs are SO good! Plus this is another exercise in varying MMP densities: high to the left, medium by the river and low to the right. 16. Blending the street, river, diagonal fillers and MMPs all together in one cohesive package. 17. Fields must be YUGE! 18. And with that I will end this entry. Next entry- next week? Two weeks from now? See you then.
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Adamskii Land - Teaser 2 "Northern Territory Expansion"
aysk8er posted a City Journal entry in aysk8er's City Journal
The Northern Territory Expansion: As Adamskii Land experienced a booming economy from the recent expansion to agriculture, the need for raw materials increased. This demand for materials, along with the eagerness of the railroads to expand their grasp, led to the massive expansion into northern territory. Some typical scenes found in the Northern Territory. The land is known for meandering rivers and large forests. Lumber and hunting have become the largest industries with farming trying to find its place in the mountainous region. Scottie's Valley is currently the furthest out established town, a frontier type of place. Beyond this little town the river valley narrows and the mountains grow in height. A wild man's paradise full of lakes, animals, canyons and peace. Plattsburg City is the largest city within the Northern Territory. Plattsburg is known for colder temperatures, large trees and recreational actives. Many citizens spend time kayaking the rivers, boating on the bay to finding hidden coves or just riding bicycles around the friendly city. A train ride from Plattsburg to the mountains near Scottie's Valley is always recommended to tourists. -
Adamskii Land - Teaser 1 "Sunday Mountain Drive"
aysk8er posted a City Journal entry in aysk8er's City Journal
A relaxing drive through the mountains of Sodah National Forest. Bring a lunch because there are plenty of places for picnics!- 2 Comments
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Hey yeah, it's me again. Took me a bit longer than I thought it would to find some time for SC4 again, but now that I did, I did some stuff I really wanna share. After some people suggested on my last CJ that i go into detail a bit more, especially concerning the environment, I thought it'd be time to try and do that. I was surprised to find how many awesome tree models I have... So I did some further terraforming, placed some points of interest here and there and treed another tile. And maybe my standards have changed, but I thought this could look a lot better. So about an hour later, I looked at the results: Oh, sweet! I went on a little bit and placed a quaint little village into the area. Took me about two hours, but looking at the pictures right now is a very rewarding feeling. I might just be a bit proud of this. So after this place was finished, I couldn't help but keep on going. The tile directly north of this one was next up to be terraformed, so I started doing that again, here's what it looked like after the geography was done: The little river took me quite a while to get right, I relayed it multiple times until I found it looked nice enough for my taste. Next come basic trees and forests. And clouds. Clouds have to be there when I'm taking screenshots. And next I dragged a road through the tile, added diversity to the forests and some scenery to the river... And then I called it a day! I realize this might be kind of a lackluster amount of detail and effort for many of the more experienced of you out there, just by looking at some of your CJs I guess it would be stupid to assume that mine was in any way outstanding, but for me, spending so much time on the little things is a step into a direction I haven't been in so far. I always kinda assumed that working with the mayor-mode trees and suchlike would be incredibly tedious, and it is sometimes, but the reward you get when looking at the results makes more than up for it. So, until next time. Oh, wait: if there's any suggestions about the look, feel or maybe realism aspects, feel free to hit me, I'm always glad to get some contribution.
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Version v2.08
33,957 Downloads
This is a MTP compliant update to the PEG Random Woods lots which provides a fast & flexible means of adding realistic woodlands to your cities and surrounding rural areas. The Random Woods are ploppable lots, in 1x1 & 2x2 sizes, that blend together to form large, wooded forests. They are fully slope conforming and can be plopped almost anywhere. Their YIMBY effects have also been reduce substantially to avoid blowing out caps. Two versions are included... one with transparent textures which allow the game's natural terrain to show through... and a textured version that uses the new MTP Forest Floor texture and blends well with other MTP lots. The two versions are included in separate files so after installation, you can remove either one if you do not intend to use that style. UPDATING LOTS FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS The transparent texture lots are not affected by this update. However, the textured versions will not show any changes until they are bulldozed and re-plopped. You can do this at any time... even after the files have been updated. The old version remains fully supported and functional so you can replace them at you leisure. ** These lot were originally designed for seamless integration with the PEG Trail Parks and the PEG Stream Kit. Obviously, they can be used by themselves, singularly or in groups, anywhere in your cities where you need a little flourish of flora. ** BE SURE TO REMOVE THE OLDER VERSION FILES WHEN UPGRADING ** Installation: copy/extract the PEGPROD parent folder into your Plugins. If you extracted the ~Documents folder into your plugins, too, it's highly recommended to keep it, but move it out of the Plugins folder. If any earlier version(s) of this file exist, they should be deleted. Dependencies: PEG-MTP MTP SUPER-PACK v1.5 **All Pegasus files are now legacy content and are no longer officially supported - however support from the wider community can be requested Pegasus Productions Support Site This v2.08 update was made by Tyberius06 (on the behalf of Pegasus)
