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Showing results for tags 'michaelshaven'.
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We are here: Responses: A big thank you again to @justforfun and @Lazarou Monkey Terror, for their continued interest and their nice words, as well as @Dead_End. I'm glad to have caught your interest and getting such nice comments. Contents: In today's entry, we are going to give a particular area of the first city I've shown off, Michaelshaven (entry 1-3), a bit of a "facelift". I've never been very happy with the river dam I've made there to generate electricity, it's a horrible eyesore and probably not very good for the environment. So, to improve that at least a little bit, I've decided to make some changes to this area (as well as a few minor changes to the city). First, let's recall the picture of the aforementioned dam: My goal was to turn at least a part of this area into a waterfall or some sort of river rapids while keeping part of the dam. I'm now going to show you a makeshift sketch of how I was planning to change the area first (in fact, it is one out of 4 sketches), basically to show how I'm laying out plans to make changes to my cities: Red line: Relocation of the federal route B1 Orange line: Relocation of the B7 Yellow lines: Other roads Cyan line: Waterfalls Blue line: Riverbanks Dark blue line: Canal shores for the reservoir and dam Black line: Upper end of the dam Green and dark cyan lines: Dam itself My idea was to split the are in two about equally large parts, to the east (at the botton of the picture), there should be an area with rapids and waterfalls, and to the west, a dam with a small reservoir lake. In order to improve the aesthetic value of this dam, the dam should be covered with earth and decorational plants should be grown on it; there would only be a few water outlets at the botton of the dam. In cases of high water levels, there should also be a spillway, to allow high amounts of water to quickly flow to the ocean. Admittedly, something important is missing - the power lines. I couldn't find a way to implement them without bulldozing half of the city. This is the result: And two close-ups. First, the rapids in all of their glory. Admittedly, the waterfalls look quite boxy, I couldn't find a way to make more irregularly looking waterfalls in a game with an orthogonal grid. A restaurant and a lookout platform have been erected there, to watch the waterfall and the fish jumping when they return to their grounds where they lay their eggs. And the dam itself. On the lower parts, sort of a "lizard garden" has been laid out. Lizards like rocky grounds, they can sunbath there and hide away quickly whenever animals and humans show up. I gut the idea from a flood dam in my country itself, where some rocks have been placed there to create a refuge for lizards. On the upper parts, some azaleas and hydrangeas have been planted. On a side note, I also decided to make some changes to the industrial area close to the dam. I've mainly replaced the GLR by elevated light rail, and added a solar farm there. Also, as already mentioned before, I've relocated the federal route B1, as well as the highway interchange there. Before: After: And, on a side note, I've replaced some apartments I didn't like anymore by other buildings. There are too many minor changes to list them all, but I like how the overview turned out a bit more than before: And that's it for todays entry. It's a bit of a surprise (especially for me) where I'm going to next (aka I don't know it myself). Hope you liked this entry, and I hope to see you again.
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Michaelshaven, 3rd Entry We are here: Replies: Thank you very much, @tomz16 @MissVanleider @RobertLM78, for your nice comments! Hope you'll enjoy this CJ. Contents: Again, let's have a look at Michaelshaven from a bird's eye view: Last time, I forgot to share a picture of probably the largest park I ever made, located at the center of this picture, at the waterfall. It is very hilly terrain, thus, I just left it alone and made a park, with a lot of walkways, a few restaurants, and a lot of meadows for my Sims to lay down with their towels and relax. Let's now continue with the two islands, the large and the small one. We'll now make a tour along this area, entering the large island via the road-tram bridge. The tourist buses already have a parking lot there; in general, it isn't very welcome to drive around here with motorized vehicles. Almost the entire island consists of either extensive parks or old buildings. Its most recognizable landmark is the St. Johannes-Kathedrale (St. John's cathedral), and the Rathaus (city hall, literally named Kölner Rathaus): Along the southern coast, there's the local market hall, the opera, and the former Tribunal: When continuing east, we can have a look at the palace, sort of a secondary residence of the crown prince from before the times of democracy, as well as the Konservatorium (conservatory), where the musical students receive their education: Further to the north of here, this is the Lietzower Schloss (castle), formerly a rich person's residence, now a hospital: The harbor area, with its marinas and restaurants: And last but not least, the small island, with the home of the Family of Stechinelli, which has planted a lot of beautiful trees, among them the Ginkgo tree which isn't seen very often in Maxiland: And an overview: That's it for now. Hope you liked this update. We still have to visit the one small village to the very northeast of this city tile, and I hope to show you some pictures of the adjacent city tiles pretty soon. See you!
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Michaelshaven, 2nd entry First, let's have again a look at the last picture from Entry 1, for explanation purposes: Today, I'm going to work on the still somewhat empty hillside space shown on the bottom right of this picture. We'll start with the upper river area, just above the dam. Agricultural zones are beginning, and this is the most suitable place for utilities, such as a recycling center and water pumps. The area is rather hilly, but still, along the river, some apartments have developed. Further uphill, another area with more modern apartments. A bit more to the north (on the left of the former picture), the rich people are living. I discovered that the Hansaviertel-Buildings by SFBT make really good apartments for such a purpose. And the view downhill is really great. If we continue uphill, we visit the former village of Oberried, which has been swallowed by Michaelshaven. That, however, explains why there's sort of a second old town quarter at this remote location. The old town is located close to the Basilika (the church) which is still one of the most popular locations for weddings and pilgrimages. And a close-up of the Basilika unserer lieben Frau in Not (church of our beloved Lady in need; its actual name is Onze Lieve Vrouwe ter Nood, and it is available on the STEX): If we continue further to the east (at the top of the next picture), we get close to the borders of Michaelshaven. I had serious trouble with the landscape designing. I've been plopping 1x1 grass lots all over the place, mixed with my own forest lots, to create pockets of forest, but this does me no good in large areas or close to cliffs. To compensate, I'm placing MMP's at the edges of the forests. This also results in two different "types" of grass on this picture, the Maxis bright grass and the one from my terrain mod. Somehow, I even like it; I like to think of it in a way that grass in a city is being better cultivated than at the outskirts; although it still looks kind of odd. My main reasons for this are: I need something for transitions between any lot whatsoever and empty grassy areas. This has been the only way I could think of to make such a transition believable. Also, I like to use my ploppable forest lots because they come with a forest floor base texture covering the grass. Grass rarely grows in forests, I need a way to cover the grass, therefore. This is a close-up of the fishing harbor, I already showed it off in the "Show us what you're working on" thread, but this time, the nature is complete: And an overview, complete with the river estuary (north is at the top of the picture). Hope you liked this update. Next up on my list: Completing the section to the very northeast of this city tile, where there's a small village, completing the island with the old town, and starting the work on the city tiles to the north of Michaelshaven. See you soon!
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Michaelshaven Michaelshaven is Maxiland's 3rd largest city, located far in the southwest of Maxiland. It is noteworthy for its difficult landscape - it is very hilly because its lowest elevation is at sea level - its old town, located on an island (more about that in a later update), and its otherwise rather modern view, cosisting mostly of detached apartments. I should note that I've been actually working on Michaelshaven for more than a month now. It has mostly been fun, aside from occasionally waiting very long for certain residentials to finally grow. I'm using the technique described here to make certain residentials grow, but still, it can sometimes take very long, depending on the desirability of an area and the demand. But let's start with a small overview over Michaelshaven before I wiped it out (yes, you read right: I had to wipe out its previous incarnations; more about that in the introduction): I actually didn't bother much wiping it out because of two reasons: I met with a serious case of Phantom Slider Bug in this city, anyway. And I wanted to make some considerable terrain changes (see picture below): The island with the skyscrapers should be removed. Instead, I attached a good chunk of land to the mainland in the very south of this city. In turn, the airport island moved a bit farther to the west. (Pink rectangle) There's now a bit of a hill in the northwest. (Pink line) To compensate for the loss of inhabitants (Michaelshaven had almost 250,000 inhabitants before the wipeout), I planned on adding additional residential areas to the west, south, and north (just opposite the river, and uphill). (Light red areas, purple area) In the center, there's a small river coming from the west (the upper one). I added a bit of a park there. (Light green circle) The coastline should now mostly have conifer forest and look rugged, with some scattered sheep pastures. (Dark green designated area) Instead, the empty area, formerly designated as huge pastures, will just be covered with forest. (Red) The landscape should also be more difficult, with deeper bays and cliffs. (Cyan) There should be a larger industrial area to the north. (Yellow) But long story short: Let's start! We'll start at the airport island and move to the southernmost area of Michaelshaven, an area just recently been built on, with a lot of apartments. Even the rich ones live in apartments, they like the view of the island. Next, there's the central business district with the main square, next to the main railway station. To the north, there's a bit of recreational area along the beach, inviting for a stroll and swimming, as well as parts of the old town, sort of a 19th century expansion. In the 19th century, there have been some factories along the channel here. Today, most of them have been removed, only some lofts remained. But there's still high-tech industry around here, as well as more apartments and some highrises. Farther to the north, the poor people live just below the dam. This picture also shows the highway interchange Michaelshaven Nord. The reason for this unique setup was that it was somewhat difficult to get the interchange to the avenue, so I placed it at the location it is now and just made an extra on-ramp for the traffic coming from the lower elevation levels. As soon as later editions of the NAM will make it possible, I'll make an extra off-ramp for the traffic coming from the highway bridge, but that's impossible now. Let's now continue to the higher elevation levels. Apartments and more apartments, mixing in with low-density residential areas, parks, a few scattered farm fields, and forests. To the west of the highway: Suburban sprawl, albeit also with a lot of apartments. The agricultural areas to the very west are already transitioning into the traditional farming common to the city tile to the west, Dornfeld - with a lot of scattered farmhouses with rather small and diverse farm fields (more about that later). Even the hillsides are inhabited. The small road leads uphill, along mostly low-density zones, to an area where I plan to make some starting points for hiking paths later. This is, by the way, the interchange Michaelshaven Süd, along a diagonal stretch of the highway. Süd: south This is the industrial area at the northwest of Michaelshaven, along with the freight station and the Engineering College. And last, but not least, the castle ruins. Only the church survived, and it is now a popular spot for weddings. Enjoy a good meal at the castle restaurant and bring home some gifts from the gift shop! And an overview of Michaelshaven (view to the west): There's still a lot to do, such as the island with the old town, and the expansion to the east (at the bottom of the picture). See you in the next update!
