Shaping Invermere Valley - Update 42 1/11/08

[meinhosen]

There is an amazing amount of detail in the MD!  I love your rural areas, but your urban landscape is far and away the best.  The city is so open and green... reminds me of some of the screenshots that Dusktrooper uploaded of his mega-city a long time ago.

[serenity086]

This last update has to be my most favorite yet. Everything looks amazing. You did a great job placing the sunken highway throughout the city.  

[jimmymac]

patfirefghtr (Pat): I do love that roundabout filler, when I saw it over at ST i just knew i would find a use for it, and now I have.

tooheys (Dave): Stark is going to become something of a special place for me, as given that rate that it is currently growing, i think it will very quickly grow to astounding levels. That and the fact that it will be my first truely CAM city.

bat: As always, glad you like the area.

jplumbley: Those sidewalks are indeed just the normal Jeronij medium wealth sidewalks from the last release of his sidewalk pack.

meinhosen: Firstly let me welcome you to Invermere Valley. I'm glad you like the updates thusfar, I'm honored to be compared to Dusktrooper with my city layout. I don't remember his megacity pictures as I was never around ST very much until a few months ago.

Serenity086 (Amanda): Glad you like it all, I had to do a great honor to Stark, given the place that I got the name from 

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Update 30 - It Doesn't Look Very Stark Around Here To Me


Club Globe is the in nightclub in Stark, everyone who is anyone flocks to the Globe every weekend. There does seem to be a few issues with the police having to rescue drunks from the nearby canal however.


Ironman Stadium, the home of the immortal Stark Ironmen. The residential towers around here have a waiting list as long as your arm, as people always want to see the Ironmen play.


The towers are built as close to the highway as possible in order to maximize space in Stark. However they must still follow the goverment initiative of ensuring that for each tower that is built, an equal sized park is built within 500 meters of the building.


The central elevated rail station is one of the busiest areas in Stark and sits right on the side of Goverment Drive.


Uh oh, looks like something is going down near Ironman Stadium. Maybe they are looking for the person who tried to break in and steal some of the bats from the clubhouse.


Central Stark is a daunting sight indeed. Anyone who chooses to take the walking tour of Stark will be gifted by views of some of the largest and most expensive buildings they might ever see.


Every morning the people squeeze themselves into the elevated rail cars and make the journey into the business district.


The buildings around Worlds Park are always changing as the city keeps growing and due to the lack of space the only place to grow in Stark is upward.


A new mixed commerce and residential sector is being built by SAM industries using the new street system.


The SAM project is almost finished after a couple of months.


And in true Stark fashion, onwards and upwards is the call of the day as the towers reach skyward.

So ends update 30 and another visit to Stark. I will return again in a week with another update featuring Stark and the government buildings. Until then, have a good week and I hope you enjoyed this update.

[bat]

Fantastic looking new pictures of the downtown! Great work!

[serenity086]

  Stark continues to look better and better. the high rise buildings look awesome. Also, i wouldnt mind having a view of the Ironmen Stadium from my window hehe. 

[rooker1]

   Wow.....super update.  The city is coming along very nicely and I loved how it's all laid out.  Great choice of custom content, it all fits together very well.  I see you have used Buddybud's highway walls.  I love them myself.  I use them very often in my own cities.  Maybe you could show us some pics of your highways, so I could see how you have used them.



Robin   

[Madeira aka Constantina]

its wonderful, although you can try and join two photos together for high-rise towers.

[dragonshardz]

where did you get the arabian canals from? i can't seem to find them...

[jimmymac]

bat: Keep watching, as we are going to be getting high today lol, pun intended.

Serenity086 (Amanda): If I could afford the rent in one of the residential blocks i'd get us one, but sadly I think the best I could afford for us would be a store cupboard on the ground floor.

rooker1 (Robin): Stark is truely turning into an eye-turner for my region, every time i turn on the game to play it the region shot makes me smile; so many buildings reaching for the sky. I will try to include some more pictures of the highway in the next update, if not the next one then the update after and that is a promise.

Madeira Firstly let me welcome you to Invermere Valley. I'm glad you like everything so far. I've been having a few problems with the graphics for a while since I got my new graphics card. Simply put the card is too powerful for the game and I get a lot of graphical glitches all over the screen. So when you see a picture like these without glitches it means that I have had to zoom in and out until I get an image that is clear, then quickly take it. I am going to try and make a mosaic of Stark for a later update, so hopefully people will get a greater idea then.

dragonshardz: The Arabian canals are an early work by KS, they are no longer available on his site, and I feared that they had been lost. However after some searching I found then for you here
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Update 31 - So that's why they call it Stark!


Residential and commerce both interwine in the CBD of Stark as everything clamors for space around the canals. Even the elevated train service is now lost between the towers.


The central station area is another of Starks' masterpieces. The central train station sits over the canal from the central bus station. The canals in the center of the city are sunken lower than those elsewhere, this is because stark was once a thriving canal driven port as it's position on the edge of the river was perfect. Embassy Suites was quick to build a hotel on government boulivard to capitalise on the closeness of the two stations.


Due to the sucess of their first project the President of Invermere Valley hired SAM industries to create more SAM residential areas throughout the city.


An overall of the residential zone, it's intermix into the main commercial district and the canals.


An overall of the lower part of commercial district as it stands so far.


The centerpoint of the city. Stark tower, home to the Stark government and the tallest building in the city and indeed the region. The tower was built by Starks' 4th and current President; Anthony Stark Jr and from the top floors can see all the way to Bedford. Each president is honored throughout government plaza, which is situated in the front of the building, lets go closer and take a look.


The three previous presidents of Stark are each honored by a monument. The first president (James Stark II) is honored by a statue of him sitting at a desk signing the documents to begin the first settlement in the area, yes the city is indeed named after him. The second president (Matthew Stark) is honered with a statue of him behind the carriage of his horses as he was a message runner during the first war.


The final honor is indeed a special one. The third president of the region (Anthony Stark Snr) was a bomber pilot during the second war, in the last days of his life his son, Anthony Stark Jr, located the now deralict bomber in the middle of the desert hundred of miles away from here. In honor of his father he repaired the bomber to it's former glory and gave it pride of place in the plaza. The Stark baseball team is indeed named for this plane, which had the honor of being called Iron Man.


The first ever overall shot of Stark as it currently stands. As you can tell from everything above, the same family has been in power as president of Stark since the city was first founded, they are THAT popular with the citizens. And lets be honest, who could complain, Stark looks perfect...... right? I guess only time will tell.......


Until next week, I hope you enjoyed this update and the look at some of Starks' past. Have a good week everyone.

Stu

[bat]

Another great update of that downtown! I like the using of canals and parks!

[beskhu3epnm]

Stu = King.

Love that river man, awesome... Just awesome.

A region shot next time perhaps? I'm real interested to see.... Especially if you are getting far along in the valley.

[Madeira aka Constantina]

very nice and i think it is very realisitc

[serenity086]

Another awesome update  I like reading about the history of Stark, can't wait to learn more about it.

[dragonshardz]

thanks jimmymac, you're the best.

Another request though, where did you find Stark tower?

And if no one has gotten it yet, the Marvel Comics Hero Iron Man's alter ego is Tony Stark, a very, very rich businessman. Stark is named after Tony Stark, and Iron Man Stadium=Iron Man.

[jplumbley]

Stu = King.

Love that river man, awesome... Just awesome.

A region shot next time perhaps? I'm real interested to see.... Especially if you are getting far along in the valley.

I have to agree with Beskhu3epmn.  A region shot would be awesome!  BTW, thanks for the showing off the SAM in you MD... Your city looks awesome.

[jimmymac]

bat: When I first saw the zero7 sunken canals I knew that I had to use them somewhere, Stark turned out to be the perfect place. However my origional city plan didn't have any canals in it at all. I know I made the correct choice in the end including them.

beskhu3epnm: I've been called a lot of nice things throughout this journal so far so thank you again, I feel like i'm not truely worthy of all the praise people give me, because I feel that my MD pales in comparision to others on this site. As always, ask and ye shall recieve. I've included a region shot at the end of this update

Madeira Glad you liked it, sorry to see that you decided to try and decieve the community again  not cool.

Serenity086 (Amanda): Glad you liked the history lesson. As you well know I have to do great honour to Stark due to the derivation of it's name.

dragonshardz: You're more than welcome. Stark tower is the Al Burj by KS, he never released a final version and the one that I have is a beta (the night lighting is a bit off on one side.) It was lost when his site went down, however if you want to contact me via pm with your email addy I will email you a copy of the files.

I'm glad someone got the tie in with Marvel, I know that Serenity already knew if the tie in and never spoke of it  . I am a huge marvel fan and a big Ironman fan, so Stark just kind of evolved based around the name. In this case the Stark Ironmen were named after Athony Stark Snr. Aircraft, which was nicknamed Ironman due to it's heavy build, but other than that you are spot on 

jplumbley: Thank you for producing the SAM and giving me a chance to display some of the areas in this MD. As I said in my reply to beskh, ask and ye shall recieve.
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Update 32 - Are We Still In Stark? It Looks Very Different Here!

Today we are going to visit the Asian district in Stark. It was one of the origional 3 districts in the city after it was founded but now, due to the cities rapid expansion there are as many "gaikokujin" living and working in the district as there are descendants of the origional Asian settlers.


The picture above shows the main entry point into the Asian district, the viewing tower was built to honor 100 years of the Asian settlers arriving and was a gift from the government to the city.


Apple were very quick to find a prime location in the district in which to build a regional headquarters


The buildings are very closely built here, most buildings occupying the origional sites that the old stores existed on during "the age of the founders"


Most of the area is now completely pedestrianised due to the huge volume of foot traffic that passes through the area daily.


The district is still bustling even in the early hours, it has become a central hub in the city for shopping and nightlife.


The area is famous for it's discount shops and restaurants...


Not to mention the museums and nightclubs that have moved into the area


Only 1 building still exists from the origional settlers, it is a small arcade that is now dwarfed by the buildings around it, still marked by the inflatable invader built alongside it however. Stark's main television buildings relocated to the Asian district around 10 years ago, it's building was the first tower to be built in the area and marked a major change in the building style in the district.


Just above the television buildings we see the arrival point for the elevated rail lines within Stark, everything terminates at the building known simply as "the interchange".


The interchange is one of the busiest hubs in Invermere Valley, it is the central arrival point for both the elevated train and monorail lines and also houses the central bus station. A transit hub for the airport was built alongside it to enable quick trainsit for anyone wish to fly to anywhere in the world.


The Asian district by night is truely a wonder to behold.

Now finally a region shot of the entire area, click the picture for a larger version but be wary it's 4.3 meg in size.



I hope you all enjoyed this weeks update, have a good week and I shall return this time next week with update 33.

Stu

[rooker1]

Wow.. you caught my interest with this update.  Not just the pictures, but when you said you were a huge Marvel and Ironman fan.  Well, let me tell you about me.  I was a huge comic collector back when I was a teenager.  I have the first 350 Ironman comics and Ironman's first appearance.  My comic collection consists of about 3000 plus comics all in very good condition or better.  I can post a picture of it and me if you don't believe me.  I want to figure out what they are worth today as I have touched them in about 15 years.  They are all in Milar in boxes in a dry place, so I'm sure they are still fine.

Anyways, I could talk forever about comics.

Oh and great work on the MD.

Robin   

[jplumbley]

FREAKING AMAZING!

I love that region view!!  Now alteast I have a general feeling where everything is situated.  Before I just couldnt fit it together.  You have definately captured the downtown feeling for Stark that is for darn sure.  Keep up the great work!

[MAS71]

Hi Jimmymac, Nice to meet you !! 
This is Mas'71 from Japan.

Thank you for using my some works !!
Especially, I have never seen a SS that used my "JPN Sunken Parks" up to now. (at No.15)
so I'm very glad, and contributing this post now !!
Thank you very much for used my works Jimmymac !! 

I'm sorry to my too late "Hello" to you.
because, I can not read a lot of thread (English) at a time by my immature reading comprehension. 

I wishes your city to develop in a future too !


All of before,
I'm sorry to my no good English.
Thank you for reading.


- Mas'71

[serenity086]

I can't get over how realistic these pictures look. Your city continues to amaze me everytime