Siilijoki

[Terring7]

Brilliant work. I especially enjoyed your railroads

[Battlecat]

Lovely job on this update!  I like what you did with the Photoshop treatments on this update! 

As for water, I've always been partial to Pegs Brigantine as well, it's the only one I've really been happy with.  However, that's partly because it's a perfect texture for a region in the Pacific Northwest.  If you're shooting for a slightly more southern temperate/ or even a mildly tropical feel, the new water would be a decent choice. 

[Skimbo]

Some nice things and some even more nice ones upcomming, good to know =)

[Tomas Neto]

Congratulations on the OSITM my friend!!!   


Both are great pics, but I prefer the image with the diagonal bridge!!!   

[noahclem]

Hello again everyone! I must apologize for the delay in posting here again. My RL has been quite busy of late but the real reason for me not updating sooner has been an unnecessarily high (I think) self-imposed standard for the level of "finished" my work here should be before posting. While there is certainly something to be said for a perfectly-produced and flawless MD entry, at the pace I work at I'd have to spend more time on SC4 than I do at my place of work to put out an update a week. And I literally live in my place of work 

I think in the future I'll spend more time explaining what I'm working on, how, and why. Too late for this update though because before I got to this point I managed to get the area of East Pohjanmaa I'm showcasing in this update up to spec! Thanks again for visiting and I hope you enjoy:


SIILIJOKI OSITM II


REPLIES:


Will (penguin007) - Thanks a lot!

bat - Glad you liked the pictures!

Ciuu96 - Thanks! I agree, the Rivit water I was using there was too blue and didn't really fit Siilijoki. Thanks for the rail mod feedback as well!

Travis (travismking) - Thank for posting again! I suspect I'll end up going with Brigantine in the end but I've continued experimenting with Rivit's options. One I've my pics in this update has a view of my newest experiment.

Arthur (art128) - Thanks a lot, glad you liked the pics!

Jayster - Thank you! I've gone with the Rivit rail mod after feedback here and am very happy with it!

Elias (Terring7) - Thanks a lot! I'll have more rails in this one!

Battlecat - Thank again! I don't want anything overly tropical so I'm going to ditch the last water mod I tried out. We'll see what I end up with in the end....

Skimbo - Thank you very much! I hope this installment doesn't disappoint!

Tomas Neto - Thanks a lot! Glad you liked the pics!


As I've mentioned previously, East Pohjanmaa is generally a newer & blue-collar-er version of West Pohjanmaa which you could see in the last updates is pretty gentrified and de-industrialized. The area featured in this update is the closest to West Pohjanmaa (you may recognize the opposite ends of bridges I featured in the last update of West Pohjanmaa) and thus is a kind of a transition area--a bit grittier than the last stuff but featuring mostly nice neighborhoods with a substantial amount of clean industry, commercial areas, and medium- and high-wealth residences.

First I'll show a bit more detailed view of the railways and sidings from earlier:

5.1


The tracks on the left side of the photo run across the river to West Pohjanmaa while the tunnels at upper right pass under the freeway to the main waterfront on the Siilijoki estuary, which is mostly heavy industry and shipping now. The bottom-right area here isn't fully developed yet  but the lower tracks head to an as-yet-un-named southern suburb while the further right ones continue through East Pohjanmaa. We'll return back to this area soon I hope!


While we're on the topic of rails, here's a closer view of a train heading toward Siilijoki proper from Pohjanmaa's main station.

5.2



The water here is one of several versions of Rivit's water mod I've tried and the one I like the most so far (though I suspect I'll be back to Brigantine in the end). I intend to add another station further east and possibly in West Pohjanmaa and along the Port of East Pohjanmaa.


Nicer residences with shops & curving roads
5.3



This area is seen at top-center of 5.1

Here's an area likely to be featured in more detail soon:
5.4



It's quite late and I need to go to bed. So fittingly:

A view of the area at night
5.5



And a bit more peaceful area
5.6


If there was a "sleepy face" icon it would go here    Thanks everyone and I hope you enjoyed this update!

[peter007]

Pretty nice update. I like the railways running through your cities.

[RickD]

Great work. I am eager to get those new elevated avenues. They look great.
Where did you get the station building in the first pic?

[io_bg]

Very nice pics, I like the overview

[bat]

Great night and day shots of your nice city!

[art128]

Fantastic update; I really enjoyed it. My favorite part was .... the block estates .. 

[Battlecat]

Fantastic update once again, it was certainly worth the wait!  I think the new water is a distinct improvement over your first choice, it feels a lot more appropriate for your region. 

No need to apologize for having a busy life, I certainly know how that feels!

[cubby420]

Good stuff Noah! Yours is a very diverse looking city and I love the layout.

I certainly appreciate the elevated 5 lane avenue, but doesn't an elevated turning lane kinda defeat the point?

[noahclem]

SIILIJOKI OSITM #3

The clock is ticking down on my time in the spotlight but hopefully these last few days will be the best of the month! Development in East Pohjanmaa is proceeding at a pretty decent clip with the most time-consuming and frustrating parts behind me (hopefully). Most of the rails are in, the shorelines are largely in place, and the diagonal buildings and low density residentials have been developed to my satisfaction.

On a real-life issues note, I've also successfully installed a new menu and advertising at my bar & cafe though the spring break tourists will definitely be keeping me occupied the next few weeks.

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE FOR VISITING AND COMMENTING!

Especially:

Ernst (peter007) - Thank you, glad you liked the railways! It's a headache to get them the way I want but satisfying to achieve the result I want!

RickD - Thanks! jasoncw's Perry Station is what you're looking forward though I don't have a link at the moment and you'll have to wait for simtropolis to get its house in order.

Ioan (io_bg) - Thanks a lot! I hope you enjoy the overview in this update as well!

bat - Thank you very much!

Arther (art128) - You? Commie blocks? No way  ! I've got a couple more here and there will be some serious apartment blocks in updates to come!

Battlecat - Thanks a lot! I've swapped water again and this time I think it might be here to stay....

Andrew (cubby420) - Thanks you very much! I definitely see your point on the turning lane being a bit pointless on viaducts, but having two sets of sidewalks in a viaduct median is at least as pointless. It'd be great to see MAVE-4 & MAVE-6 viaducts someday. For now here's a pic of an alternate layout for that I've been considering. (Those winter trees have also been removed):
6.0

The new viaducts actually meet up with the ERHW-4 quite well. I've kept the turning lane viaducts for the shorter stretches where the turning lanes could come into play and pedestrian traffic is more important.



This update is unusual both in that it features the content I'd announced that it would and that it comes at the time I had hoped it would. Here's a look at the area along the southern border of East Pohjanmaa along the Iijoki (River). I've decided to call the neighborhood Iikyla ("Ii" being the name of the adjacent river and "kyla" meaning village in the "native language"), as a part of the larger East Pohjanmaa municipality.
6.1


This little area features a nice riverwalk, parks, some old commercial and residential buildings, and some newer ones built long after the area originally developed. Riverfront real estate is fairly pricey but property values decline further inland. The diagonal riverfront, diagonal networks, viaducts, and slopes have made the area something of a challenge to create but have hopefully lent it a bit of character 

Here's a view of the northwestern part of Iikyla, showing some old wall to walls and parks at night:
6.2


A mosaic showing something of an overview of the area:
6.3







Wait a minute, that's not Brigantine water! I think this newest water is going to stay--first to guess it get's a street named after them, or just the satisfaction of guessing correctly, whichever you prefer. Here's another view of it, this view just to the southeast (and smaller) than the last one:
6.4



And it even looks good at night!
6.5


I suppose all water looks good (and pretty much the same) at night 

Here's a closer look:
6.6



And on the eastern edge of Iikyla:
6.7


The finished coast of the area:
6.8






and at night:
6.9



I think I've got one more update in me for the month.... I hope you enjoyed this one and please let me know what you think 

-Noah

[peter007]

Wow very nice update again I like the retaining walls. Height differences in parks are wonderful. They really are.

[bat]

Iikyla looks really nice! It's a great looking village! And the night shots are superb, too!
Looking forward to the next update...

btw, my 7700th comment...

[Reikhardt]

Really good work, very much enjoyed viewing your MD so far!

[Tomas Neto]

Awesome update!!! 
Fantastic work my friend!!!

[Battlecat]

Great update once again!  Love the details, and particularly that complex railway interchange! 

Nice choice of water texture!  I honestly don't have a guess today, but whatever it is looks excellent!

[noahclem]

7.0


Alas, the sun is setting on my moment in the spotlight! But before the curtains close I wanted to sneak in one last OSITM update!


Again, thanks a lot to everyone who's viewed and commented here, especially:


Ernst (peter007) - Thanks a lot for visiting again! It's taken me a lot of work to figure out how to make sloped areas look even halfway good Glad you liked my work on it!

bat - Glad you liked the night shots and the layout of the new neighborhood! I've enjoyed your work a lot too and really appreciate you taking the time to view and comment here!

Reikhardt - I really appreciate your kind words! I'm honored to have the first MD you've commented on and hope you continue to enjoy my work in the future!

Tomas Neto - Thanks so much again! Always a pleasure to have you around here!

Battlecat - Perhaps predictably, it's another one of Rivit's variations   This one is called "overcast" (combined with his yellow sand beaches) and as mentioned I really like it. The color seemed so colorless and gloomy in the preview picture that I would never have tried it except by process of elimination but interestingly I think it has a nice pacific northwest-type look to it. Also really glad you liked the rails and the rest of the update!


Here's a few more views of Pohjanmaa:

A tram making its way to the Pohjanmaa Central Rail Station
7.1


A north-northwest to south-southeast mosaic of East Pohjanmaa
7.2






The middle of East Pohjanmaa at night
7.3






I've decided to name the main north-to-south tram-in-avenue here Adara Avenue with thanks and HOF congratulations to Battlecat! It runs from the edge of the tile just south of here up to the northern waterfront, serving a variety of areas and carrying trams the whole way.
7.4




Hope to see you next time 

[cubby420]

Wonderful update and month Noah! The last picture is especially wonderful and brings so much life to the table. Love it!