A Journey Through Finland - Region Portrait

[threestooges]

Very nice work so far here. I like the sparseness of the development and the story behind each building we see. It adds an extra level of realism to the area.
-Matt

[Tandini]

A Journey Through Finland



Replies:

Thank you again for your encouraging comments!

@Framly: quote: 'Fantastic Update! I really like the vineyards    looks familiar for me  '/quote - I know ... learned from you ... 
@OSITM commitee: I was surprised to read the pm of your request. Few time before I had no idea how my RP ranged - until I found Ben's Top Ten +10 ...  Thank you for the inclusion of this pretty young RP.
@noahclem: I love building on slopes - but it's a real challenge. As you will notice, I started LOTing my own - to improve building on slopes ...
@Jmouse, Swordmaster, rambuckel, rooker1, Schulmanator, threestokes: Thank you all for welcoming this RP to OSITM and - as above said.
- - - - -
But now - on to the update!
(Remember: Clicking on several of the pics opens HiRes)




Chapter 4: Porto Neshold Revisited

Construction works at Porto Nesholt have been successfully completed. The engaged people and companies were able to stick to the time-frame, although there were adds to the approved plans. The calculated costs of 1.35 M$ were slightly exceeded because of these adds. The final costs amounted to 1.57 M$.
As we attach great importance on sustainability in Finland we are committed to reduce waste by applying the 3 R's principle: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. So the blown and excavated rocks as well as the wood that had to be cut were worked into building material for the retaining walls and the tenements. The buildings are constructed of contaminant-free and environmentally safe materials. They comply to our low energy consumption standards. Residents are happy to live in an ecological environment.

First, have a look on how it looked like before construction works began.
Pic. 4.00: A view of the former Porto Nesholt.




Pic. 4.01: Now, the new face of Porto Nesholt from the same direction of view.




Then some more overviews ...
Pic. 4.02: ... from North




Pic. 4.03: ... from East




Pic. 4.04: ... from South




... and some close-ups:

Pic. 4.05: Here we look down into some backyards that were heavily shadowed by the former rock-wall. Now the residents are very happy to have more light. They look forward to the Green Up of the yards and parts of the retaining walls.




Pic. 4.06: Looking down from the gravel path heading from the East side of the island to the west-gate of the old stronghold. We see the stairs that were added during the construction works, considered as a reasonable shortcut to the upper level homes.




Pic. 4.07: Close-up look down from the east-tower of the ruins.




Pic 4.08: The lower row-homes with rebuilt retaining wall.




Pic. 4.09: This house (in the middle with the parasol) too was added to the approved planing.




Pic. 4.10: A close-up onto the afore mentioned stairs.




Pic. 4.11: In the course of the Porto Nesholt expansion the pier below 'Falling Waters' was enlarged to serve the increased demand.



(Side-note: The last picture shows the changed water. In the next update I will show the postponed overviews of Nesholt with the new game water)

So, have a nice week

[nbvc]

Fantastic town and flora. 

[RickD]

Great update. It is very interesting to see how you deal with the slopes. I like the double retaining wall in the first two pictures, a creative and good looking solution.

[Kergelen]

Nice work with the retaining walls, using xannepan walls. Fits good in the ladscape.

Some time ago I was looking for a good stairs and these you use seems perfect. Where do you found them?

[noahclem]

Beautiful expansion work    Those new walls look awesome, especially the part with the stairs. Are those namspopof props or what did you use to make them? Any plans to upload  ?

[rooker1]

Another awesome update. 
I really like the fence along the edge of that cliff by the look out.  It's the finer details that stand out in the end. 
Great work!

Robin

[metarvo]

I know it's been a few days, but congratulations on OSITM, Tandini! 

What jumps out at me right away about Porto Nesholt is the fact that it's not built on flat land, but it instead has steep cliffs.  It looks like you've dealt with the unique terrain rather well through the use of walls and fences.  Good work! 

[benedict]

Wonderful work. Congratulations on being selected for OSITM - well-deserved.

[Tandini]

A Journey Through Finland


Table of contents:

   
• Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1: Ancestral Home of the Tandini
• Intermezzo: Diving and Playing with Dolphins, Chapter 2: Porto Nesholt
• Chapter 3: A Walk to the Ruins of the Old Stronghold
• Teaser: Porto Nesholt Expands
• Chapter 4: Porto Nesholt Revisited
• Intermezzo: Nesholt Island Overviews

Replies:

Thank you again for your encouraging comments!

@nbvc: Thank you!

@RickD: This is exactly what I want to achieve - creative and good looking solutions for difficult situations.

@Kergelen: Good stairs are indeed rare. So I loted this myselves. I'm working on a set of ' Mediterranean Hillside Plazas and Retaining Walls'

@noahclem: Thanks a lot! The stairs props are 'cnut – Dock stairs short'. And Yes, I plan to release the set. But 'cause I'm a complete newbie in LOTing, it will take some time figuring out all the things to consider...
You may follow my thread "Tandini's Treasure Box"

@rooker1: Thanks Robin, this is were I spend time - giving attention to finer details...

@metarvo: Thanks for the congrats! Although it's a challenge working on slopes - it makes the scenery so much lively and realistic.

@benedict: Thanks Ben! - It's something to constantly make the weekly examination both at SC4D and Simtropolis. I was happy to find "A Journey Trough Finland" on 3^rd place at last week's "Ben's TopTen+10" here at SC4D!





Intermezzo: Nesholt Island Overviews


Here I present to you folks the postponed overviews from the four cardinal directions of Nesholt Island.
You may have a look at the overviews in the outset of this RP in order to notice the changes. As I already wrote, I changed the game water to eliminate the tiling effect. The change had also a slightly positive effect on the gw transparency and the beaches.

As an OSITM-bonus a super-mosaic (3780x2520 – 4MB) of each overview is provided – some stuff to examine ... 



Nesholt Island from North (mosaic):





Nesholt Island from East (mosaic):





Nesholt Island from South (mosaic):





Nesholt Island from West (mosaic):









Official functions demand my leaving Nesholt for some time. My son and I are invited to the 'Biennial Porto Finnere Convention' (BPFC) to share in expert conversations concerning sustainability furtherance.





So, have a nice weekend – see you in Porto Finnere!

[threestooges]

Enjoy the convention. As for this update, I love seeing someone develop a small island. You've managed to fit quite a bit in a condensed space. The water flora looks good, but it seems to taper off too quickly. Almost as though the water is just a blue frame around the picture. The top left of the first picture illustrates what I mean when you compare it to the bottom right. All around, nice work though.
-Matt

[Tandini]

Sorry - no update at the moment -  

When I was preparing for screenshots for the 'Porto Finnere - Update', I realized that something strange happened: All the sidewalks disappeared, the ped-mall base-texture changed while some don't show any texture. New placed ped-malls also don't show any base-texture. The following pic gives you a hint:



When I buldoze ped-malls with changed base-texture, a dirt texture remains, even after buldozing developed buildings or plopped LOT's...
I use Paeng's PedMall Parks and Paeng's TextureMod. I can't remember changing anything else then from CF-2tex to OfA-1tex.
Any idea what's the problem? And - should I post this problem elsewhere as a new thread - and when, where?

Any help very much appreciated!

[threestooges]

So those are non-transit pedmall tiles, where the base texture changed or disappeared? Have you added, removed, or changed anything in your plugins recently? That's the only thing I can think of off-hand. Are you able to re-plop the pieces or does the underlying dirt texture that you see still act like there's a lot there?
-Matt

[Tandini]

Hi Matt, they're these ones (moded to Paeng's PedMall Parks - with full pedmall functionality):



And yes, I'm able to re-plop the pieces as well as to plop whatever else on these tiles. But after buldozing the texture remains...
As I wrote, the only change I did make is with Paeng's TextureMod, where I changed from two wealth to unified look for all wealth types.

[vortext]

I can't remember changing anything else then from CF-2tex to OfA-1tex.

Could you expand on this? Which textures did you change exactly and in what file were they located?

From what I've gathered Paengs pedmalls can use the sidewalk textures from his sandstone mod. Given there're only four possible sidewalk textures, it seems like you may have accidently broken something. Which would also explain why the sidewalk has gone missing as well.

[Tandini]

First of all, thank you very much for your instant input, vortext and Matt.
Well, Paengs Texture Mods allow besides the three-wealth sidewalks two other variations: the ControlFreak (CF) two-wealth and OneforAll (OfA) options. So I didn't change any textures directly but changed from the CF-option to OfA by replacing the 'zzz_CF-2tex_low-med' folder with the 'zzz_OfA-1tex-med' folder, as described in Paengs readme.
Hour ago - for a test - I reverted to the former state, but nothing changed: still the same behavior...
I also re-downloaded the whole package and re-installed it - to be sure to have the original files.
Additionally I checked the whole plugins folder with the date-changed search function (hopefully one can trust this function - I run a Win7-64Bit system) to ensure for no accidentally changes - couldn't find anything...
The problem seems to be elsewhere 
But now I have to go to sleep - three quarters past midnight  - zzzzz - chrrr - zzzzz - - -
Until this evening...

[Tandini]

A Journey Through Finland


Nothing new on the sidewalk texture problem...
Scanning both plugins folders (games and libraries) left me without any result...
So, I fear, I have to reinstall the whole stuff. But not in the very near future. This procedure I want to plan thoroughly. Do you have any suggestions?


- - - - -


As a conclusion of the OSITM induction of "A Journey Through Finland", I thought to present you a region overview, along with some impressions.
It is the Northwestern part of the SC4 San Francisco standard region.

(Again: Remember, clicking on the pics leads you to HD-res pics - Attention: HD-overview 4,4MB!)





I started with a medium tile (in this overview located in the upper middle) with terraforming the inlet that passes "Olde Port". Opposite to Olde Port is where Finn Tandini set his feet 1195 A.D., this place later named "Finn's Landing". Following the gorge inland, a road and railroad bridge crosses the gorge.

Pic. 5.01: Stone arch bridges across the gorge




"Trästad" is a small rural town, its prosperity mainly based on logging industry

Pic. 5.02: Trästad town



Pic. 5.03: Logging industry, cattle and horse ranches




Next in building followed "Oberndorf" and its surroundings. My aim was to 'paint' realistic looking nature. But these 'paintings' were made just when 'girafe' started creating beautiful flora ...

Pic. 5.04: Oberndorf, dairy farms and a torrent valley




Pic. 5.05: The main dairy "Caseira", a holiday village, the hamlet "Ektos" and a part of "Olde Port"




Pic. 5.06: Digging for ...




Next I started a small tile in the very Northwestern corner of the region, first terraforming the "Toppi Reservoir". The hydroelectric power plant serves more than sufficient for the needs...

Pic 5.07: Toppi Reservoir, fed by cascading torrents




Pic. 5.08: The mountainous landscape above the reservoir




Pic.5.09: Mettnau, a picturesque site with timbered houses ...




Pic. 5.10: ... and missing sidewalk / pedmall textures :-(




- - - - -


So, thank you all for your interrest, that made this RP to April's OSITM.

I think, I will continue with updates - but preferable rural scenes, where missing sidewalks don't matter ... 

Bye for now

[benedict]

Very nice - thanks for a great MOTM.

And if you hadn't pointed it out, I don't think I would have noticed the missing textures...

[threestooges]

I hadn't realized you were using the San Francisco standard Maxis map. It's a complete transformation of the area, and you make it look good. Like benedict said, if you hadn't mentioned the missing textures, I'm not sure I would have noticed either.
-Matt

[solsystem]

Great update!  The region overview looks amazing. You build a wonderfull landscape.