Siilijoki

[io_bg]

Congrats on the OSITM! Can't wait till the next update!

[noahclem]

Siilijoki OSITM #1

I'm very excited to present the first installment of Siilijoki's OSITM! I'd sincerely like to thank everyone who's visited here, whether you've commented or not (just knowing your poking around here is nice  ). Without all of you I might as well be explaining my city to a brick wall and it's really been neat getting feedback and encouragement here. It's a whole different way to play SimCity really.


Particular thanks this time go out to:

Ninevah - You're welcome! I'm sure you'll put those parks to good use!

Tomas Neto - Glad you liked the night shots, I always enjoy making them

Jmouse - I think there's a possibility I could show said beach in the light of day   I've been amazed at what batters have been able to do with SC4's nights as well! I never used to play "at night" until I realized how beautiful people have made the game in the dark! The building you're referring to is Matt325B's boutiques.

nbvc - Thanks a lot, I hope I have more interesting stuff for you 

sumwonyuno - Thanks so much for the great compliment! I've done my best to incorporate water and flora alongside a variety of urban densities.

Skimbo - Thank you! I'm happy to have inspiration from your MD for my upcoming transport updates!

Battlecat - I really appreciate the compliments!! I'll have some nice views of that beach and other shorelines in the near future

Bill_Chen - Thank you, I'm glad to see you visiting here! I should be pretty active the next few weeks....

bat - Thanks a lot! Hope you enjoy the rest of the month!

Battlecat(2) - Thank you very much!

rooker1 & jmouse(2) - I'm very excited for my month in the spotlight! Thanks for choosing Siilijoki and I hope you enjoy my material for February!

Yan077 - Thanks a lot, hope you enjoy the month!

Ciuu96 - Thank you and glad to see you back here!

io_bg - Thanks, hope you enjoy this one!


My work has continued to focus on my newer tile of Pohjanmaa over the last few weeks and I've got the borough of West Pohjanmaa largely completed to my satisfaction! As promised in my previous teaser I'll fill you in on the progress made here now.

Pohjanmaa has historically been a predominately industrial area but West Pohjanmaa has transitioned from its dirtier past into one of Siilijoki's cultural cores. Many old workshops and factories have been converted into studios, cafes, art galleries, and boutique shops while other old industrial sites have been demolished, decontaminated, and replaced by modern hotels, apartments, and other commercial and civic facilities. It's relatively dense, though there are very few buildings taller than several stories, and easy to get around by walking or taking the trams. In short it's one of those perfect neighborhoods that tend to get taken over by yuppies who push the artists and young people out by driving up the price of rent until the area is devoid of the people that made it cool in the first place.

But Siilijoki's mayor doesn't intend to let that happen here. And that's not just the statement of a politician trying to sound culture-friendly! Having been a long-time and current resident of the area he has a vested interest 

4.1 - An overview of West Pohjanmaa




In addition to its cultural and shopping opportunities, West Pohjanmaa's beaches have been a unique feature of the area. Though relatively small they are very close to much of Siilijoki's population and are among the few nice freshwater swimming areas around (the Siilijoki [river] is brackish)

4.2


4.3


4.4 - The lights from the hotels, condos, shops, and bars light the waterfront





4.5 - A glance at my neighborhood


Sometime soon I'll take you through a day in the life of the mayor in West Pohjanmaa

4.6 - Among things to be shown this month are the railways of East Pohjanmaa, the more modern and industrial district of the tile


I hope you enjoyed the update and sorry for the wait 

[travismking]

absolutely stunning. What mod do you use to get your avenue overpasses to look like TLA-5?

[bat]

West Pohjanmaa is a beautiful city!
Great looking views of that city!

[io_bg]

Fantastic update! I love the way the elevated rail cuts through the city. Gotta try to build something similar in Pirgos as well The bridges look great as well! Looking forward to more!

[penguin007]

Congratulations as well on OSITM my friend!! 

Great update there I love the railway on the viaduct looks really nice and so does the coastline

Will

[Jmouse]

Working in the beaches the way you did in 4.1 is a great idea, Noah. I like the overview of West Pohjanmaa - you've done a great job of laying out the city and putting everything pretty much where it needs to be. BTW, where did you find those piers on the beach in 4.1 and 4.3?

The jury is still out on 4.2 - I'm not sure about putting a big power tower on the beach (there's a proper name for the towers, but it slips my mind at the moment). I guess they have to go somewhere, though. The night shot - 4.4 - is a beauty! I'm a bit surprised the bridge has no night lights, but the lights from the buildings look great.

I like your neighborhood pictured in 4.5, too. I'm not normally a fan on those w2w apartments (?) simply because we don't have that style of architecture in the southeast U.S. But in this case, I'll suspend that notion and say you've laid them out in a pleasing way, and the addition of trees adds some much-needed softness to the scene.

I can't see enough of the track layout in 4.6 to figure out exactly how it works, but that's OK. The looks of it is all that's important, and I really like the way you've used trees as a kind of sound barrier.

I think you have another keeper here...
-Joan

[art128]

Congrats on OSITM, and what a lovely update ! 

[Battlecat]

Great update!  You've got a very nice mix of styles in the shots today.

[Jayster]

Very nice update, looking forward to more!

Jayster

[MandelSoft]

absolutely stunning. What mod do you use to get your avenue overpasses to look like TLA-5?

Well, that would be the new standard of NAM overpasses 

Again, a nice update, Noah! I've been lurking this MD for a while and I like what I see. Keep up the good work!

Best,
Maarten

[Framly]

Congrats on OSITM! Great Pics! i love the way you work with the railway 

[nbvc]

Great work and congrats on OSITM.

[noahclem]

Siilijoki OSITM Replies 12 January 2011

Thanks for your interest everyone! I've been keeping busy with RL in the last week but busy with SC4 as well and have plenty of material essentially ready for publishing. Instead of wrapping up, packaging, and publishing large areas of East Pohjanmaa I've gradually tweaked and perfected the area while focusing more on the area of Siilijoki proper that adjoins West Pohjanmaa. This began simply with the intent to connect the two tiles' rails properly but I got a bit sidetracked--ADD getting the best of me again (face)  Anyway, I hope when my MD returns there it will be as exciting for you as it has been for me to return to the tile after ~6 weeks of hiatus.

REPLIES:

travismking - Thanks so much! As Maarten mentions below your post, those are the new versions of NAM overpasses. Even though I use Euro roads I liked them so much I kept the test files in for the update! Interestingly, they connect really well with ERHW-4....

bat - Thanks a lot, I'm glad you enjoyed West Pohjanmaa!

io_bg - Thank you! I look forward to seeing your interpretation of heavy rail viaducts cutting through a city in Pirgos!

penguin007 - Thanks a lot, it's a good month for both of us!

Jmouse - I never really planned the beaches like that originally but it just kind of showed up when I was terraforming the diagonal waterfront by the first one and I liked the look! The piers are from nbvc found on the STEX here: http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=23230

You might be right about the "power tower" (I also lack any better description ). Lights would look nice on that bridge but their absence should only cause trouble for aesthetic purposes or dangerously low-flying plains as it's for rail only. Glad you liked the night shot in 4.4! The neighborhood in 4.5 is mostly row houses, with some apartments with first-floor businesses thrown in--I like it too so I decided to put my "house" there. More on 4.6 coming soon but I promise the tracks really do make some sense...

art128 - Thanks so much!!

Battlecat - Thanks! Hopefully the different styles work ok together. Variety is the spice of life!

Jayster - Thank you, more to come!

mrtnrln - Glad to see you posting here! Thanks so much for the kind words!

Framly - Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed the rails!

nbvc - Thanks a lot!


A COUPLE THINGS BEFORE NEXT TIME....

My last update was "au naturale"--no manipulation to the images besides cutting, pasting, and assembling. After giving that a try I thought I'd balance things out by throwing in a couple of shamelessly GIMPed images that I kinda like


4.7 The Siilijoki Historical Assocation thought I might be interested in one of the first aerial photos taken in the city:



4.8 The setting was chosen from the site of an earlier impressionist painting of the same site viewed from hot air balloon:



I'd also like to solicit a little feedback from you all. I'm contemplating a switch from my old water mod, PEG's Brigantine, to Rivit's dark blue textures. Here's one of my beaches with the Rivit textures:

4.9


Which do you prefer?

On the topic of Rivit, does anyone recommend or advise against his new rail texture mod?

Finally, can anyone recommend some nice non-midrise R$$/R$$$ buildings that will fit in reasonably well with darknight? I'd love to have more options

Thanks again everyone, more to come soon!

[penguin007]

Great pictures again I love the diagonal bridge!!

Will

[bat]

3 very nice pictures there!
Looking forward to more...

[Ciuu96]

Nice GIMPing!

I prefer PEG's mod more than Rivit's one, in my opinion the texture is way too blue in Rivit's mod. Then again, his railway mod is just awesome, looks really great when all your rails have the same style, insted of many different ones. The texture is also more detailed than in other mods.

[travismking]

I prefer Peg's Brigantine, in fact its the only water mod I have EVER used since i discovered CC for SC4 :p (ofc, i've tried others, but always went back to Brigantine in the end)

[art128]

Nice artictic pictures there, Noah ! I'd prefer Peg's brigantine, too. 

[Jayster]

I decided to download his railway mod and I love it! One of the best SC4 decisions for me!  Lovely photo shopping by the way!

Jayster