Siilijoki

[io_bg]

Fantastic set of pics! I'm also wondering which are those walls. Looking forward to more!

[Jmouse]

This is a stunning update, Noah. 16.3 is especially interesting with the trams coming and going. I have many friends who laugh when I tell them I've never seen a train station, a passenger train or a tram in RL. So go ahead and snicker - I'm used to it!

That's a nice mosaic of the bridge, and my first thought when I saw 16.7 was "largeness," and I'm not even sure it's a proper word. Still, that mosaic somehow represents the essence of Siilijoki, at least from my point of view. Love the night shot, and 16.10 is a wonderful way to cap off this excellent update.

I hope this MD never ends...
-Joan

[Battlecat]

Oh wow, I didn't know there were functional GLR in road bridges out there!  Where did you track that one down?  Apparently I'm out of touch with the latest developments in that project! 

Gorgeous work as always on this update!

[threestooges]

Always a treat to come in here and look for inspiration. I always seem to find a new trick in here that I haven't quite seen used before, or one that's executed exceptionally well, like the bridges from 16.7.

Also, I've been out of touch with the actual bridges being made (more just tracking the numbers) but I didn't realize the bridge in 16.2 was a network option yet. Looks great, and I love the street underneath it too. Classic look, executed well.
-Matt

[ricardomiranda]

Great job, I like the bridge of the tram, very beautiful city!

[Dantes]

I love picture 16.6.  The city looks really great and the road network is very realistic. 

[Swordmaster]

Well, I'm finally through it! 

(Heh, that makes it sound like it was a chore... which is far from the truth.)

Read it all... twice... and I have to say, there's a truly great town you've got going here! You might know I'm a railroader, so I've enjoyed that aspect of Siilijoki most, even if the rest of the networks, lots, and flora are awesome! While I'm not totally up to date with the other MDs here, I dare say your setup of housing, trails, and parks is unique. I know from experience that combining an urban area with the available flora is not as easy as it often looks.

Of course my favorite pic is 12.9. I hope there's a vacancy for me with that company!

Also nice to see your advance in mapping through the thread. Keep it up, Noah!


Cheers,
Willy

[noahclem]

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone!


First, a teaser of what's next:

16.11



Recent work on Siilijoki has been focused primarily south and southwest of central Igelstadt, realigning the motorway running south from the "Igelstadt Kreuz" Parclo to accommodate a new (small and unexciting) RHW-6C bridge over a new channel connecting the waterways of the eastern half of the tile with the planned ones of the western half. Construction of the new waterway has given me one of my first chances to really play with all the new HD & seasonal MMPs out there and has been a lot of fun! The scenic areas surrounding the channel will be the subject of my next update, due out in the next couple days, and to keep the variety going I'll likely follow that with some commie-block, industrial, and road-geekey stuff before going back to Igelstadt Island, which was introduced in the previous update.


No tutorial on my recent bridge-building trick yet, as I haven't yet go around to tracking down a file that should make it dramatically easier for users--"strangely" the Diagonal Bridge Enable, which is what I used for my last bridge, works much better for diagonal bridges than orthogonal ones and I had to do a lot of clicking around and awkward dragging to get the results I wanted. Stay tuned.

Replies:

Really nice, noachlem!

You must loose quite a few bridges with the set sea-level option  , but the results look fantastic.

I really like those retaining walls with the solid concrete barrier do you know who made those?

Thanks a lot Matt, great to hear from you! I actually don't lose my bridges and tunnels working underwater because I don't use the set sea-level cheat. Instead I edit the sea level in ilive's reader or temporarily add the Diagonal Bridge Enabler to my plugin folder. For information on editing sea level in reader see the tutorial in my signature--which may be useful because the seawalls you asked about require that water is temporarily removed. They're by Jay Stimson and can be found on the STEX here: http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/files/file/24039-js-seawalls-v2/

Great, I like it =)

Thanks Skimbo!

Superb update, Noah! it's funny because the picture 7 remind me of an area in the suburbs of Lisbon, where there's a bridge just like this one passing over a nice canal near some residences. I also like the overview a lot.

Thanks for the kind words Arthur! I thought you might like those block apartments in #7 

Fantastic update.

Thanks a lot nbvc!

Very nice update!!! &aplsHow did you create roads under the tram in road bridge?i'm very interested!
Good job!!

Thanks! The road going under the TIR bridge was made using Kazuki's underbridge lots, found here: http://klex.blog85.fc2.com/blog-entry-11.html   They work by converting traffic to subway but look like regular roads.

Wow! Great job with briges, prepo buildings, and small MMP job on the seawalls.
I like the live I see in the city!
The first images with the tram and the last overwiew are great!
I always enjoy your updates! 

Thanks so much Kergelen! I do love my prepo buildings and Xannepan did such a nice job with the tram bridge. It's great to get such a nice comment from you 

I think it's great, because of the much open space. I also like the bridge with the tram on it.
The textures of the RHW-bridge and the avenue don't match exactly, but that's because of the short transition; just a detail
Good job, noahclem! 

Thanks a lot! The RHW/avenue texture isn't perfect but it allowed me one extra tile of TuLEPs for the next intersection and the appearance of a sidewalk in front of a business so I decided to do it. I had considered making that RHW bridge with avenue viaduct pieces but they couldn't be used with my bridge trick because they are a 2-tile network. OWR viaducts would have worked but then I would have had two sidewalks divided by a barrier right down the middle of my bridge 

Very nice update, I always like looking to your city, it's a real pleasure!

Guillaume

Thanks Guillamme, I really appreciate it!

Fantastic job here... really nice atmosphere.

Glad you like it Benoit, thanks!

Nice update! Those bridges series looks very nice! I like mostly the RHW one.

Thanks 976, glad you liked the bridges 

Fantastic set of pics! I'm also wondering which are those walls. Looking forward to more!

Great to here from you Ioan! The link to the walls is in the first reply.

This is a stunning update, Noah. 16.3 is especially interesting with the trams coming and going. I have many friends who laugh when I tell them I've never seen a train station, a passenger train or a tram in RL. So go ahead and snicker - I'm used to it!

That's a nice mosaic of the bridge, and my first thought when I saw 16.7 was "largeness," and I'm not even sure it's a proper word. Still, that mosaic somehow represents the essence of Siilijoki, at least from my point of view. Love the night shot, and 16.10 is a wonderful way to cap off this excellent update.

I hope this MD never ends...
-Joan

Thanks so much Joan! That does seem crazy to have never seen a passenger train or tram but I'll try not to snicker too hard    I really liked 16.7 as well and I could see what you mean by  capturing the essence of Siilijoki in it. I hope Siilijoki's around for a long time as well! 

Oh wow, I didn't know there were functional GLR in road bridges out there!  Where did you track that one down?  Apparently I'm out of touch with the latest developments in that project! 

Gorgeous work as always on this update!

Thanks a lot Gordon! The bridge is by Xannepan and can be found on the LEX here: http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2613

Always a treat to come in here and look for inspiration. I always seem to find a new trick in here that I haven't quite seen used before, or one that's executed exceptionally well, like the bridges from 16.7.

Also, I've been out of touch with the actual bridges being made (more just tracking the numbers) but I didn't realize the bridge in 16.2 was a network option yet. Looks great, and I love the street underneath it too. Classic look, executed well.
-Matt

Thanks Matt! I'm really glad if I can inspire here and it's certainly fun the share new and/or interesting tricks    That TIR bridge really is beautifully done and sure adds new possibilities to those of us that use trams. You can find the link in the previous reply 

Great job, I like the bridge of the tram, very beautiful city!

Thanks a lot Ricardo!

I love picture 16.6.  The city looks really great and the road network is very realistic. 

Thanks Dantes! Those MMPs on the "seawall" in 16.6 were tricky to get right but I really wanted to have the road right next to the water without a tile in between. I'm happy you liked the result!

Well, I'm finally through it! 

(Heh, that makes it sound like it was a chore... which is far from the truth.)

Read it all... twice... and I have to say, there's a truly great town you've got going here! You might know I'm a railroader, so I've enjoyed that aspect of Siilijoki most, even if the rest of the networks, lots, and flora are awesome! While I'm not totally up to date with the other MDs here, I dare say your setup of housing, trails, and parks is unique. I know from experience that combining an urban area with the available flora is not as easy as it often looks.

Of course my favorite pic is 12.9. I hope there's a vacancy for me with that company!

Also nice to see your advance in mapping through the thread. Keep it up, Noah!


Cheers,
Willy

Great to hear from you Willy! It's great you took the time to read through the whole thread and I'm really glad you enjoyed it    Railroads will always be a central part of Siilijoki and I'm pretty sure we can find work for you   If you liked 12.9 you may want to check out the next update here 

[bat]

That's a beautiful teaser!
Looking forward to the next update...

[Dantes]

Your landscaping is impressive.  I miss only one angler in the TEASER. 

[Terring7]

Hmm...

[noahclem]

The project shown today is some of my first work with all the great new seasonal and HD MMPs, mostly the result of the amazing work of the VIP team. In particular, Giraffe's seasonal maples have to be among the most beautiful and useful things ever created for SC4! A big thanks to all of you!

Today's setting lies just south of the Igelstadt Kreuz, mostly on the west side of the motorway. Here the West Igelstadt Channel provides the tile's only connection between the extensive system of rivers and other channels on the eastern half and the network planned for the western half, which should segue into more dirty industrial waterways.

17.1 Kayaking the channel on a perfect summer day!


Here I've tried to trick pieces meant for ploppable water to work with game water--I'm happy with the results but if you look closely you can see one of the kayakers is taking on water 


17.2 The area's tranquility is disrupted by freight trains, though this can be a plus for train-lovers!


17.3 Here the motorway crosses the channel with a simple RHW-6C "bridge"


Because the water is quite shallow here the only trick needed to place the bridge was a temporary lowering of the sea level.


17.4 A plot of trees and shrubs along the motorway


I cropped the highway out of the picture because it showed too much of the limitations of the Meadowshire Terrain Mod--more of the terrain seen at the bottom right here. Meadowshire is also not HD and gets pixely at zoom 6, but I feel its darker more lush tone of green fits Siilijoki better than my favorite terrain mod--Orange's Pyrrenean.

However, in late summer and early fall I think differently....

17.5 Fishing in Septmember



17.6 A few weeks later the valley is transformed:



17.7 People enjoying boating and sunbathing on one of the last hot days of the autumn



17.8 The beautiful colors make the area a popular fall recreation area





17.9 A larger mosaic covering most of the featured area:







17.10 The changing seasons don't deter the fishermen



Thanks for viewing and don't forget to leave a comment! Advice and constructive criticism is especially appreciated as I am new to creating these types of scenes.

That's a beautiful teaser!
Looking forward to the next update...

Thanks bat! Here's the update!

Your landscaping is impressive.  I miss only one angler in the TEASER. 

Thanks Dantes, more pictures now!

Hmm...

Thanks for the comment Elias!

[kbieniu7]

Love the autumn scenes! 

[Framly]

Great Update! I like how you work with the bridges.

I've small question. Where did you find the bridge in 17.7? Thanks:)

Keep on your great work!

[Terring7]

Awesome pictures, very beautiful scenes
I don't like however the railroad bridge, it's distorting the landscape . If I was you, I would build a tunnel for the trains crossing under the river

[vinlabsc3k]

As ever your mastery is awesome even with rural areas.

A little critique: Make the road bridge plain, in the header, 17.6 and 17.9 pictures it's sloping on the left side

[Swordmaster]

Awesome pictures, very beautiful scenes
I don't like however the railroad bridge, it's distorting the landscape . If I was you, I would build a tunnel for the trains crossing under the river

Most impolite, sir, as if the people driving those trains don't like to enjoy the landscape! 


Very nice update, Noah! Nice trains.

[Sciurus]

Excellent work mate!

Guillaume

[art128]

Ahahah, I laughed at the cars making drifts on the bridge!

Anyway, nice update Noah, that water mod fits very well.

[Skimbo]

Very nice! (as always)

The only thing to criticize are the three pairs of elec. whires on the railbridge while the other parts of the tracks haven't got catenary....