Elephant Bay

[tkirch]

Elephant Bay

MAP:  Three Rivers Region (FULL).  This is a beautiful map.  I am doing a little terraforming inside as I go along.  Too many flat areas and want to add some slight elevation changes.  This map was designed by dedgren.

Custom Lots and Bats:  I use all custom maps and lots.  There are so many great bats and lots out there and if you see one in a picture and want to know who made it, leave me a message and I will answer as quickly as I can.  I will thank people as I go along the way too.

Mods:  I use a lot of mods.  First I want everyone to know, I play in sandbox mode.  What is sandbox mode?  It is playing the game with monetary cheats.  My goal is not to make a thriving economy but a visually pleasing city.  And to bring to the masses what I like to see.  I hope this appeals to you.

Terrain:The first and biggest mod I use is Cycledoggs terrain mod.  I have looked at all of them from Olympia to Missouri and now Italia.  I love the new Italia Terrain.  Thank you for this cycledogg.  It is amazing.

Water Texture:I use Peg's Clipper water.  I lover this water, it is very realistic looking.  I think the best one out there.

Rock Texture:I use jeronij's Maxis Rock Texture.  I love the way this one looks also.

Other Mods: Wow!  So many from the NAM to Edmonton Water Plop to Graphs and Transportation Map Mods.  Let's say there are alot.  One of the big ones is Dusktroopers block Maxis buildings.  I block Maxis buildings so that I use mor eof the custom contents and have full use of my huge plugin folder.

Now on to my region.

First and foremost, the overall picture of Elephant Bay:

[tkirch]

Elephant Bay

Let's venture into Elephant Bay.  Elephant Bay is made up 256 large squares.  So it is a huge area.  The 256 large squares will be divided into roughly 36 counties.  Within those 36 counties you will find numerous cities, towns, and villages.

Where do we go first?

I looked over the map and decided on a nice soft tranquil spot where the first settlement will be established.

Cherokee County
A Great Place to Live, Work and Play

Cherokee County is north of Elephant Bay.  Nestled along the small Cherokee River.  Cherokee County is well known for it's fishing and hunting, and many other outdoor activities in the numerous small lakes that dot the landscape.  Our first stop in Cherokee County will take us into the heart of Cherokee County.

As you can tell this part of Cherokee County is very rural.  In this square you will find three small communities. They are Waldo, Pike Lake, and Granville.  Two of the communities Waldo and Pike Lake are nestled along US Highway 22.  Waldo is located in the south-east corner.  Granville is in the north-west corner.  While you can find Pike Lake in the center of the map around the large Peg Pond Lake I created. If you look closely at the map you will see Highway 22 run through the middle of the map.  I will be placing a transportation map coming up, but I used the Rural Highway Mod, which uses the ANT.  For some reason this will not show up on a transportation map. 

Here is the transportation map of this part of Cherokee County.

In the transportation map.  Which I grabbed from Region Census.  I will get anothe rone up soon.  But for your notes yellow are roads, black are trains, and white are streets.  This is a rural community, you can see all the farms.  The population right now sits at about 15,000 for this area which is pretty much where I would like it to stay for this area.  So all that needs to go on is some more maturing of the area.

For your knowledge, I plant most of the trees by hand.  I have tried the many Cycledogg tree mods.  I am torn between Olympia and the generic.  I think I may give the new Italia tree mod a chance in the next community.  I use the god mode trees for the more heavily forested areas.  You will notice that on this map i did create a hill in what dedgren originally had a totally flat terrain.  I wanted some hills so there are now hills.  I have also used Pegs Ponds and if you look at the transportation map, the green are Pegs Ponds and Streams.  I have also made a lake using the Edmonton Water Plop.  You will see mor ein detail all of this as we go through the community.  If you have questions go ahead and ask.

The first stop we will make in this community will be Waldo.

[tkirch]

WALDO

Travelling along US Highway 22, your first stop coming in from the south is Waldo.  Waldo was discovered by Solomon Turrents and named the community after his only child, a son named Waldo.  Soloman liked the area for the meandering stream that now bears his last name and the little ponds that dot the landscape of this area.

First we will go through and look at four rotations around Waldo.  One from each direction.

As you can see from the above images, Waldo is nestled amongst a number of farms.  What draws people into Waldo is the large market they have every weekend.  Farmers flock in from all over to sell their produce and wares to people.  You will find people from other counties in Waldo getting the finest farm fresh foods found.

From here we will begin our journey along the streets of Waldo.  Our first stop is when you get off Highway 22 and head east into town.

The pride of Waldo, the smiling Water Tower.  Nestled around the water tower you will find the Cherokee County Sheriff's office.  Right off the expressway is a convenient location for the troopers.  Next to that is the Waldo Volunteer Fire Department.

On the opposite side of the street you will find a small recycling center and town dump.  You will also find a well run local establishment, Blackbeard's Den.  While behind the water tower is the Cherokee County Electric Company which Hardun Industries runs for the county.  Let's look closer at these:

Our next stop in Waldo will be to travel along the main thouroughfare, Main Street.

As you can tell from the above pictures.  Waldo has a nice small town feel to it.  No big offices just small shops and businesses along Main Street.  Yes, Waldo does have some unsightly businesses moving in.  Being off Highway 22, it offers truckers a nice reprieve.  The town is hoping a small motel will move in soon.  There has been talks of a McDonalds going in but the residents are fighting that. 

As you can see one building has no front.  Jake Janner got drunk and drove through the front of that store.  He has now lost his license for ten years, thank goodness no one was hurt.

From here I will take you on a tour Waldo's housing in my next post.

[tkirch]

WALDO

Now a tour of the homes in Waldo.  Our first stop is the Maple Pond Subdivision.  Maple Pond is the newest part of Waldo.  It was designed in later years as more people moved into the area.  You won't find any apartment complexes or skyscrapers, you will just find some nice townhomes.  It's not a rich neighborhood but it is not a poor nighborhood either.  Enough babble, lets take a look.

This is where you will find Maple Ponds in Waldo.  Tucked into the corner of the map.

Looks like homecoming week is going on.  Someone put toilet paper on the coaches trees in front of his house.

Our next tour will be the older neighborhoods of Waldo.  Many of these neighborhoods run along Turrents Stream.

[tkirch]

Before we head to Pike Lake and Granville.  LEt's take a look at what makes Cherokee County click ... it's farms.  I will now give you a tour of the many different farms that dot the landscape of Cherokee County between the towns of Waldo, Pike Lake, and Granville.  Farming is a great industry and the many great bats out there make these even more beautiful.  For those that like skyscraper cities you may find this a bore, but me I love the farmlands.  So lets go on the journey.

 





 

 

[jeronij]

This is a great region with a high potential.

You are making a great use of the custom content. I have just started to play with DT's mod, and I havent tested it too much yet but it seems it gives good results.

May I suggest you to turn the grid off (G key)  when taking a picture   ?¿ It makes them look less SC4   !!!

I liked the "character" of the area shown first in the second update. Very homogenous and credible  

[tkirch]

As we continue our tour of the many farms.  Out along the way are some small developments that have sprouted up along the many roads in Cherokee County.  Places where farmers can get the many basic needs from gas, food, and clothes.  You will also see in some of the pictures some retail outlets dedicated strictly to farmers.  Let's look ...

 

 

 

 

 

[tkirch]

Jeronij,

Thank you very much.  It means alot because you have inspired me and many others in the way you design a city.  I am nowhere near your ability but I give it a good try.

And thanks for the tip.  I didn't even think of that and will do that from now on. 

DT's mod works great so far.  I do allow Maxis in CO$$ and IM just because the custom content in those are a little smaller.

[Rayden]

Great start Tkirch, you have a huge task ahead of you. David's map is a hell of a monster and will take you ages and a lot of work and patient to build it up, not to mention all the machine power necessary to have it going.
Looking forward to see a lot more. Keep up your good work so far.

[sebes]

Awesome work. Your communities look so cool!

[tkirch]

Our next stop on our tour of Cherokee County is:

Pike Lake

Pike Lake is the largest lake in Cherokee County.  The fishing and watersports make this a sportsman's paradise.  Pike Lake is on the east side Roosevelt State Forest.  The lake was for a long time a great travel destination for people from all over Elephant Bay.  For those that are looking for the more relaxing waters of inland lake, Pike Lake is for you.  The community is small and revolves around the lake. 

Let's take a look first at the overall pictures of Pike Lake.

Now some views around the city.  Let's take a look at what makes Pike Lake tick, the people and where they live.

The pier where you will find many people on nice days.

After this we will be going into downtown Pike Lake and also a look at the industrial center.  I took these pictures all with grid still on.  But when we get to our next town Granville they will be without it. 

[tkirch]

Pike Lake

We now continue our tour of Pike Lake.  This is a real small community.  Let's look at the downtown area.

 

 


 

 

And a look at the industrial section of Pike Lake.
 




I hope you liked this little tour of Pike Lake.  Our next stop will be the final town in this section Granville.  As you can see from above all the neat little shops around the downtown and all the custom content.  There are so many great bat and lot makers out there I just want to thank every one of them.  This game is nothing without them.

[Alfred.Jones]

I look forward to seeing more mate

[Ajax]

This looks great!  I've been anxious to see some development in 3RR, and it looks like you are off to a good start.  Looking forward to more.

[thundercrack83]

Wow, this looks great! I love the Tractor Supply right next to the porno store. Looking forward to seeing more!

[sam]

This looks a lovely little town. Which lake set are you using?

[bat]

A lot of great work! Fantastic pictures!

[tkirch]

Thank you everyone for the great comments and glad you like it.  Will put up the next shots later today.

As for the lake set I use a number of different ones.

First Pike Lake is made with Peg's Ponds.  The stream running through Waldo was also made with Peg's Stream.

The little pond in Granville and the big lake at the top of the map which I will soon get a close up of was done using the Edmonton Water Plop.  And tehn I use gizmo's water flora to make it more realistic along with both jeronij and cycledoggs mayor mode rocks.

[tkirch]

Jaeger Lake

I now want to show you one of my favorite spots in this corner of Cherokee County.  Jaeger Lake.

Jaeger Lake is named after Carl Jaeger.  Carl Jaeger is considered the greatest athlete in all of Cherokee County.  He lettered in football, basketball, and baseball at Granville High School.  He still holds 5 records.  He went on to attend Elephant Bay University where he won the Heisman Trophy and later got drafted into the NFL.  After football he returned and lives in the county.  To celebrate his achievements, Jaeger Lake was renamed from Long Lake to Jaeger Lake in his honor.

As you can see in the above pictures, Jaeger Lake has some nice vacation homes surrounding the lake.  Two piers go into the lake and you will often find many people fishing on the pier and boats with water skiers on the lake.

[TheTeaCat]

tkirch

Kettle's on for you!

Fantastic detail, pics, info etc.

I am eargerly awaiting more!