And now for something completely different : Altensimmen in Sims 3 - Update 17

[carlfatal]

Only a small update today!

@romualdillo,
thank you! More pictures of the cloister will come soon!

@catty,
thank you too! I never thought, someone would mention the lost broom. 

@Jmouse,
thanks Joan! I will continue this project until it`ll be finished.
You are right, this grey house isn´t finished yet. It is an example of a fresh renovated building, but the details need to be added sooner or later. 

@sim_link,
thank you!

@deora,
Thank you, Chris! Indeed parts of this school were created from memories of my youth.

@Aaron Graham,
thank You very much! But if you also play Sims, I would be very interested to see pictures of your buildings. I did look into your thread yesterday (after long time, ), and when I saw the stunning picture of this twin house from an angle of view, we never will see in SC4, I really thought, that the difference between these games isn´t as big as some people think. It´s all about town planning and architecture...

@art128
thank you Arthur! I hope You´ll like the soccer field as well.


Sims like all other people need places for sports activities. Here in Gemany most people like to play soccer (not including me), so I had to build this lot for them.
There is a small sports bar and locker rooms, place for kids and the soccer field.
The surrounding poplar trees are made from one model in two sizes. Like in SC4 it is useful to rotate them, also I´ve placed small ones inside some of the bigger ones.
To have more variations of textures here, I painted parts of the ground ingame while building the lot, but all the more transparent textures like on the soccer field or under the playground objects were sprayed using the CAW tool.

But let the pictures speak:



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That was all for today, I hope you like it!

[catty]

Really nice touches with the playing area for the kids, not quite sure it would be safe for them that close to one of the goals, but still a     not to sure about that rubbish bin you have sitting by itself on the first picture

-catty

[romualdillo]

The terrain painting is almost perfect. You are doing a great job!!! 

[deora]

Ahhh,a good old fashioned "Bolzplatz"
Well,Soccer wasn`t really one of my favorite things either (actually i hated it as a kid) but your soccerfield looks great.Love the combination of different terrainpaints to get that used lawn look.
Nowadays a tall chainlink fence would be mandatory for safety reasons,but the people back in the days neither had tall chainlink fences around their open soccerfields nor Airbags,Internet or Slimfast,and they still survived the "medieval" 50s to 80s
After a school and a soccerfield,what`s next?Maybe a large Playground which is visited by the big red "Spielmobil"?

[Fasan]

Carl, you are doing a great Job!

Fasan 

[art128]

Nice football field! Same thought as Catty about the playground. I would have also put a fence to prevent the someone or a ball to get on the train tracks.

[vortext]

Very pleasant pictures once again!   

Though as has been noted already, I too have my doubts about the seesaw next to the soccer field. Anyway, I really liked the abandoned farm from the previous update, great textures patterns!

Looking forward to more of the cloister! 

[noahclem]

Very nice work on the last couple updates    Neat to see you work on different types of areas than before with the school and park. Always a pleasure to visit here 

[carlfatal]

Heya Devoties,

after some time there should come new pictures. I had some issues with the textures, but I´ve got it solved and so...

But first answers:

@catty,
thank you! This rubbish bin always appears on residential lots, together with a mail box. If you see such a thing, then you know, what kind of lot it is.

@romualdillo,
thanks a lot, but to be honest - your work with textures is much better... 

@Fasan,
Thank you! 

@art128,
Thank you, Arthur! This soccer field - I only added the fence at the street side, cause it is a very basic lot. There is no money to invest in needless things, and, as you can see today, the place between the field and the railway is bigger, than one could think after looking to the first pictures.

@vortext,
thanks, - and the same like I mentioned before: we are in a rural small town environment here, no reason to pay for things like fences.

@noahclem,
thank you, and yeah, I am often changing the places, I am working on. Mostly I do this after getting angry about anything, that doesn´t work like I want... 


Okay, then pictures. I overworked the most of the railway line, finished the borders of the forest in the background, and I planted some fields. The textures aren´t really good, the plows should follow the height lines to avoid erosion, but - compromizes... Bounderies with bushes - that looks like agriculture in the early 20th century. But I like the look, I like my little paradise.
Sadly I have no better textures for the railway, they should be darker, more like some used granite gravel.

Also I worked a bit on my station, the pictures show the building in an earlier state, when it was in use as a station. Like the most train stations now it is useless. It will be changed into a normal residential lot. The building next to it is the former toilet. Now it is used as a residential too.

Like always nothing here is finished, but it gives some idea, where it will go.

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That is all for today. I hope, you´ll like it.

Seeya, Carl 

[catty]

I want my real life railway line to look like     it looks great, its just a crying shame we are never going to see a train on it, nice details with the railway station like those little details of pallets stuffed under the station platform, not sure about the flowers under there as well, its not quite right, really like the derelict line and the way you got it overgrown with plants, but in RL our derelict lines are the ones furthest away from the platform.

but its a great update and the scenery along the tracks looks      

[romualdillo]

It looks incredible!!!! Would you like to finish the world I started some time ago? 

[art128]

I love how the bus stop design is the same we have in Paris.

Nice update, I love railways. An update with railways is always awesome. The space between the football field and the railway is better and more safe now.

Would be nice to add some signaling to the railway. Maybe only semaphore signals as they're more common on old unused/ not frequently used rail line.

[Jmouse]

First of all, my apologies for missing an update, but RL is taking a heavy toll which will increase later this week.

So far, my favorite is #2. There's a slight feeling of disarray like one would expect to find in and around a train station. #3 looks great, too, although I have to agree with catty about the flowers. Some tall (unmowed) grasses like those seen in #1 might be more appropriate. The pallets, like the "organized clutter" in #2 bear close study to keep from missing something.

#7 really showcases the wonderfully-detailed foliage at your fingertips. I often wish for underbrush and tall grass in SC4, but I have nothing like what you have. #10 is a lovely scene, and I especially like the little snippet of track in the lower right corner. Is that the shadow of the train on it? If not, it still gives the impression that it is, and that's a priceless detail. #15 appeals to me because of the wooden sheds, barrels and old pickup truck. I'm a great fan of old, gray wood, and once again, your detailing around the tracks is amazing.

I've enjoyed every photo presented here – some a little bit more than others – mostly because you have such an undeniably-great eye for details.

[vortext]

Oh wow, very pleasant pictures! 

#10 & #14 are my favorites, though #18 is rather excellent, too. Must've been a heck of a lot of work 'plopping' all the flora though (or whatever the sim3 jargon is for 'ploppping'  ).

The overgrown tracks are a nice touch btw. In fact all the small little details are nice touches! Keep up the great work! 

[benedict]

Congratulations, your MD was number one on Ben's Top Ten for the week ending 14 August.

[noahclem]

Great update    I really like the railway and in particular all the flora surrounding it--makes me jealous of all the stuff you can do in this program that can't be done in SC4   My one suggestion is that you make the railroad ties wider, extending further beyond the rails.

EDIT: Congrats on being number one in BTT 

[carlfatal]

Heya Devoties!

Like always the replies first:

@catty,
thanks a lot for your compliment! I´ve placed the dandelion there, cause this flowers like to grow nearly everywhere, the other ones grow on the old track in front of the platforms. And the side, where the truck stands is the south side, so this should be enough light for them. 

@romualdillo,
thank you! But instead of finishing your world I hoped, my work would encourage others to try the same... On the other hand - now I am curious about your work in Sims 3. I wouldn´t wonder, if it were such a detail focused stuff like your BAT set. 

@art128,
thanks a lot, Arthur! Indeed the bus station is right our from a Paris set from Around The Sims, and so is the most street furniture like phone cells, trash cans etc. It is the only existing set in Sims 3. And sadly there are no, absolutely no signals or signs for the railway. And as long as I don´t start doing my own 3D models... 

@Jmouse,
thank you first! There is no reason for any apologies, but it´s good to see you nack i Altensimmen! 
An old trainstation indeed should look a little bit used. So you can find pallets, old bricks, dandelions, and some other, particulary scary objects under the old platforms. And yeah, these dandelions are the only plants "under" the platforms, but always placed, where light can reach the ground easily. The other flowers on the tracks - maybe I will remove them again, I am not sure about it.
The pictures with all the grass in the ditch: The point here is, that I really built a dam for the tracks with ditches on both sides. This was one of the most difficult parts of the terraforming, cause I had to care for the tracks, but now this feature is faulty for the "realism". 

Picture 10 - yeah, the shadow could come from an engine. Sadly I wasn´t able to make a shot from it. These are the moments I would like to know more about photoshop or gimp. Then I would be able to pretend some activity there.

Thanks again for all the compliments, I try my best here. 

@vortext,
thank you too, Eric! After I´ve seen you implementing gif´s into your MD I thought I should try the same (But it doesn´t seem to work...). I´ve made a gif of my boring work with the hedges...    But we don´t plop things in Sims, as nothing grows like in SC4. So you set down a lot or you place it, objects the same. Plants will be planted, but this should be obvious here. 

@benedict,
thank you! 

@noahclem,
thanks Noah! Indeed the plants were the reason, why I started building in Sims 3, they are incredible realistic, especially as they move with the wind ingame. And you are right with your critics. Sadly I am no BATter, I never tried to create a mesh for a model, and texturing - oh my, here I really would need lot of time and advice before I would be able to create anything worth to be shown. The tracks I use were made by a simmer from switzerland, and still better than the few models EA provides. But although this is a not so nice compromize - it is still better than a town without railway tracks to the world. 



Okay, here I am with new stuff.
I needed some house series, one should be built around 1900, one around 1930. Then I planted hedges and street lights like a maniac, and I built some more houses in the quarter I am working on (okay, the most of them are only structures, dummies, but they will give me some advice, what to do and how). Also I changed an EA festival lot to my likes, this was much less work than doing it by myself. You can see two industrial buildings on some pictures: they are older ones and still not finished. Another never really shown building is the fire departement near the train station. Some pictures of the cloister and the quarter behind it keep record of the current state of developing here.

Something I need to show: There is an old signalman or gatekeeper house near the tracks. First of all I can show here, how I pretend not-rectangular lots. But secondly this super small sized house (only three rooms inside) is currently the one I would choose to live in, if I would live in this small town. It is the type of uglified building I love. When the owner needed more place, he put a second floor on the old construction.

The fence is part of the lie here, only the short part beneath the entrance, where the white flowers are, is ingame fence. Everything else is deco outside of the lot. It was a little bit tricky to change the colours of the on-lot part, so that they match with the rest, but at the end it worked.

I know, that a lot of the pictures are focused around the small part, where "my" house is, but I had to choose from more than 60 pictures, and I like to show parts, where I think, I´ve created something like atmosphere, and not only construction sites. I think, I´ve made over 100 buildings in between, and it is still a lot to do to bring the whole town together, to put all the details in.
So I only can hope, that you like my small house as much as I do.


1. Planting hedges:
here should be a gif. On my computer it works, but here and it don´t want. I really would appreciate any advice... 

2.  a boring job:


3. Fences and hedges done:


4. without grid:


5. and the same view ingame and after finishing the scene:


More pictures of the same spot:
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16. The fire department:


17. A garden, if someone likes to play a homeless challenge, this can make life easier...


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28. The 1930´ houses:


29. A closer view:


And the last one, the current overview with all lots:


Like always I hope, you like it! Seeya, Carl

[catty]

Ok just wow, I'm going to have to come back later and do a proper post as I think I need to go thru the pictures a couple more times before saying anything more

[deora]

Wonderful world builder skills my friend.
The environment doesn`t feel like a small enclave anymore where there are just a few houses under a big glass dome,it seems like you have extended beyond the limits of the game.The overall athmosphere seems like something from a big open world sandbox game.
The idea of dividing the lots with diagonal and ortogonal hedges is great.This gives  the neighborhood a great "off the grid" feeling and the lots look more natural (especially on curvy streets,lots aren`t only rectangle or squared...).
Maybe with clever decorating of outside the lot and inside the lot areas you can even improve this feeling more.

I also love the addition of a 1930s "Neubaugebiet". These small houses remind of similar ones that are scattered all through my neighborhood.Just four walls,a simple pyramid roof and done....
Keep up the good work and your great updates...

[Dantes]

It's great that you show pictures again of your unique SimCity project. I like the scenes shown very much. But I miss cars, trains and pedestrians. I hope you come to also.
An exciting project in which I wish you much fun!