WEST END

[sebes]

It's a lovely rural area Paul, a joy to look at. I agree with Joan above me, it looks so simple to make, but I never ever had a rural area that even came close to Cavendish. So, you did an excellent job there my friend! 

[bat]

Wonderful overview of that city. Looks beautiful! And great work on the farms. Also nice pictures of the city...

[bokrif]

Thanks.
I like those rural curvy roads.

[thundercrack83]

Cavendish looks great, my friend! The town looks fantastic, and I love all the farms and the windy roads. Excellent job! I'll be looking forward to seeing more!

[suplado!]

cool pics!! the overview looks so realistic, nice town and great attention to details

[nedalezz]

Wow, monster update! I cant tell you how gorgeous Cavendish and Lane are; just spectacular. Your ploppable river is so realistic, and the river beds lined with trees are as well. I especially adored shots 14.03 and 14.16!

[paroch]

REPLIES:

Joan:  I hope you had a great Christmas and that all of your plans paid off.  Thanks for your nice comments (as always!).  I really enjoyed creating Cavendish and was pleased with the result, so I'm glad you appreciated it.  I have played around with Lot Editor (see below) and found a track in there, so watch this space.  As for Snake Pass - I have no plans to put anything beside the road, but you know me, always open to suggestions

Sebes:  Hi, I hope you're well.  And hey, thanks for the comment, it's nice to hear things like that - maybe with these compliments I should stick to the rural stuff!

Bat:  Thanks as always.  I know you've had a busy month with Capporth being in OSITM, so I'm impressed you still have time to visit so many MDs so regularly.

BoKriF:  Good to see you here again, thanks.

Thundercrack:  Hey, long time, no see&smrt!  I hope you're doing well.  Thanks for your comments, I'll make sure there are more rural updates to come.

Suplado!:  Thanks for your comment, I'm glad you liked the overview pic.

Nedalezz:  You know I'm a big fan of what you've produced in Qumma, so comments like that from you make me very 



UPDATE 15:   My first forays into Lot Editor

OK guys, a slightly different update from me this time........Following Capo's Lot Editor Tutorial in his MD, plus Joan's suggestion that I could find what I wanted, I finally had a go.  So here are some pics of what I've produced.  You'll see them being introduced to West End over the coming updates.

Your comments are always welcomed - suggestions you guys have given me have always helped me produce something better......

15.01  Tennis Courts:

So simple really.  It bugged me that I could not find a single court with a fence.  Yeah, sure, there's PEG's brilliant tennis park (two courts) and there's one that has four courts, but I wanted one on its own, that I could combine if I wanted to.  So here it is.  I used Jestarr's chainlink fence.


15.02  Fences:

It also bugged me that whenever I built parks, other than the BSC Park Wall, I struggled to fence them in. Now, I like the BSC Park Wall, but I wanted a bit of variety.  The two park sets I use the most are BSC and SFBT, so I created straight and corner fences for each....The pic shows the BSC Grass texture with Jestarr's Park Fence, A wooden fence (I think it is Maxis), Jestarr's Chainlink Fence and Jestarr's Security Fence.
I added the BSC alignment arrows to make them easy to plop.


15.03  Changing Rooms and Hot Dogs:

Another thing that I wanted in my parks, were changing rooms for the footie players.  You often see nice parks and pitches in MDs, but where do the players get changed?  Well here's the answer.  They are portable classrooms (I think from Deadwoods).  Set up in two configurations.  One with dugouts for the coach and subs and one with benches for the mums and dads to sit with the bags whilst their kids get changed.
And I also wanted somewhere to buy a hot dog, or an ice cream.  I wanted an ice cream van (does anyone else outside of England have ice cream vans??) but couldn't find one.


15.04  Changing Rooms in Action:

And here they are in situ.  I wouldn't usually use both sets - just wanted to see what they looked like.


15.05  Library, Fire Station and Junior School:

The main thing that drove me to do these was Maxis insistence on putting parking lots at the rear of buildings with no access.  So I just re-jigged a few lots.  With the library I added some trees and benches as a nice place to sit and read.  And with the school I fenced it in but left access to where I'd place the playing field.


15.06  Football Pitches:

All across England you'll find football pitches.  So, I just wanted to create some variety.  These are not stadiums, just pitches for small local teams, both kids and adults.  They'll be empty most of the week, but come Saturday and Sunday they'll have plenty of games going on.  I wanted somewhere to park, plus somewhere to change. 


15.07  More Football:

Just a slightly different configuration.


15.08  More Football:

With or without fences.  These will be used mainly for schools.


15.09  Construction Site:

I've seen plenty of people use construction zones and they do look good, so I though I'd see what I could do.  I couldn't do a tall crane as the tower pieces only seemed to work from one direction!  But this is a start I guess.


So, how do some of these look "in game"?

15.10  High School:

The school was made using props by Deadwoods and RP (zero7).  SFBT park textures surround the school.  Custom lots for the tennis, running and football.


15.11  City Jail

Here is Great Portland City Jail.  Custom lots include the farm fields and the fences. 


And I also played around with a few junction ideas (thanks Pat).......

15.12  Roundabout Junction:

Possibly the most common junction type in the UK (or certainly in Essex!)  Highway raised over a roundabout.  Shame I couldn't make the roundabout rounder!


15.13  Avenue /Double roundabout / Highway Junction:

I never realised that the NAM avenues could have one way roads coming off just one side!  So once I found this, I created this junction.  Remember we're Left Hand Side of the road here!  This junction is really busy and I enjoy just sitting watching the traffic zip about it.  You'll also see I got rid of the Maxis standard train at last.  Red double decker bus in bottom left corner as well.


15.14  Crazy Junction:

Now, this is based on the junction of the M25 and A127, about 8 miles from where I live.  It looked good in my head, but the one-way raised roads did some things I didn't expect which resulted in it looking like a roller coaster!!  I'll re-work it and show you the results.


15.15  "So West End":

I thought I should include at least one picture that is somewhat typically West End.....A Great Portland suburb with brilliant BATs/LOTs from Gascooker, RP (zero7) and MattB.  Those three are true artists as far as I'm concerned, without them West End's suburbs would look so much poorer - THANKYOU.  Apologies if I've missed any other of the house BATters. 


Well, I hope you enjoyed this slightly different update.  I'd be really interested to hear what you think of the LOTs.  Should I show future ones in the MD, or start a thread on the LOT Editor Projects - whaddayaaaall think?

'til next time........

[capo]

I have missed too many updates, I feel ashamed. I'm happy my small tutorial inspired you to use the LE, it's so much better to give your city your own personal touch. Very nice to show us your progress so far and I can't wait to see what you come up with next. I already like what I see, the prison is really well done. The maxis jail doesn't look very realistic, yours does. In the SFBT Essentials there is also a very nice looking fence: SFBT_Maschendrahtzaun, also the red and white pole you see many times at the entrance of a parking lot looks very good: SFBT_Schrankerotweiss. I think you will like them as well!

I like what I see in all the updates I've missed. Keep it up!

[Jmouse]

Great work on the park(s), Paul! You have added some important details I never thought of -- especially the changing rooms and concessions.
The only thing I see missing are bleachers or stands where observers can sit to watch a game or match. I could be wrong about the need this element, though. I am not a sports fan and include facilities in my cities only for the sake of realism. I do know, however, that almost all the attractions in parks I'm familiar with have some kind of seating, even if only for watchful parents.
Hope you'll continue to use the LE because you have some very good ideas. For me, being able to do more than wish for something has been kind of addictive!

Until next time...
Joan

[bat]

These junctions are looking very nice, paroch! And great work with the LE! Also nice high school area there!
Picture 15.15 is looking fantastic! Looking forward to more...

[sebes]

Paul - that are the best football fields ever! You have made them very realistic.

And it's a great idea to move the parkings without street access to the street side of the Maxis buildings. You convinced me to try to learn lotting myself!


PS: I believe this post makes West End a SC4D Classic! 

[Jmouse]

Congratulations, Paul. It couldn't happen to a better MD!

Until next time...
Joan

[warconstruct]

very beautiful city , the last image is splendid 

[paroch]

First off a big thank you to everyone who has commented and taken part in West End and helped it reach the Classics section.  When I started out I never really envisaged it getting this far, so I'm well chuffed

As for the custom lots, well I have started a thread on the LOT Projects board.  I'll preview them over there and then if they look right they'll make an appearance here.  So feel free to pay it a visit

REPLIES

Capo:  Good to see you here again in West End.  And no need to feel ashamed!  Thanks for the tips re SFBT fences, I will check them out.  Hopefully you'll like some of the other lots I've come up with.

Joan:  Thanks for that and I'm glad you liked them.  I did agonise a bit over seating areas.  In the two big parks in my home town they have plenty of football pitches and none of them have seating areas other than the odd bench.  So I think it's a case of I'll build some with and some without more formal seating.  And yes, I have a few other ideas, mainly recreating bits and pieces I see in daily life!  Trouble is LE can be time consuming, which means less time for actually playing!

Bat:  Good to see you again (and congrats on a great OSITM).  I re-worked the last junction, see below.

Sebes:  Wow, what a compliment, thanks.  And yes, give lotting a go, if I can do it, anyone can!!  I'd be interested to see your results.  And thanks for being the person to put West End in classics - as a "reward" I would like you to name something in West End, I'll PM you for details.

Warconstruct:  Welcome to West End.  Your comment re the last picture prompted me to post it in the picture competition where it won two rounds and was only denied entry to the Hall of Fame by losing the third round 10-9!



UPDATE 16 - 2nd January 2008

Well, West End starts 2008 with a move to Classics.  The region has also just passed 500,000 citizens for the first time.  And I have just reached Forums Mayor status.  So with all of that activity I guessed it must be time for an update!

We're going back to Great Portland today.  The city has grown considerably since our first visit here.  It is now the second largest borough in West End with approx 130,000 sims living here.

16.01  Great Portland Mosaic (Trains, planes and automobiles):







We start at the airport's sole runway, with a WestJet plane waiting for take off.  WestJet are the official airline of West End (and shouldn't be confused with the Canadian regional airline!).

We then move down through Fursan Friendship Park, named after the victorious team in the West End Tournament.  You'll notice the custom changing room lots!

Custom lots also make up the residential six house row development (shame that high wealth property grew!)

Next down, is the market that is held in Rom Place.  The GLR serves Rom Place with its own station.  The trams are often full with shoppers who have stocked up on fresh fruit and veg as well as plenty of other bargains.

We then cross the mainline railway which has been upgraded to four tracks all the way from Oxford to Wardour to accommodate the high volume of passengers.  And I had to wait ages to actually get a train on each of the four tracks (bottom one is just peeking from behind the building).  You can also see the Dominguez Hospital next to the railway.

We then cross the riverside branch of the GLR and finish on Hunter Point which is home to some low wealth high risers with great riverside views.


16.02  Fursan Friendship Park Football Pitches

Here are the four pitches in the park.  Plenty of kids from across Great Portland and the surrounding areas play here in the hope of being spotted by the scouts from FC Portland.


16.03  Fursan Friendship Park Football in Action

And here you can see the pitches in use.


16.04  Fursan Friendship Park Lake

The park is separated by a road, so there are ped bridges linking the two parts together.  The lake is a popular spot where people sit and enjoy the views.  There are also a few different places to buy a bite to eat or a cool refreshing drink.


16.05  Ready for take off

Since the decision was taken not to extend the airport, the area to the south of the airport has been developed.  The houses are quite close to the runway, but once the new airport in Carnaby is opened, it is likely that the airport here in Great Portland will close.  The planned International airport in Carnaby is only a few miles away, so there will be little demand for this old facility.  A few different business groups are bidding for the land, with different ideas of how to make use of the existing infrastructure - watch this space.


16.06  Another near miss

I love this picture.  One of those images that the game throws up from time to time.  It shows just how busy the airport has become.  Indeed the Aviation Authority are pressing for the new airport to be constructed as quickly as possible as the current airport is clearly at capacity!


16.07  Airport & West Central districts

A zoomed out shot of the airport and the West and Central districts, including Rom Place.  The far left is the area of the mosaic above in 16.01


16.08  Downtown, Industrial and Old Port districts

Great Portland started life as an industrial town, hence the close proximity of the industrial zones and the old port to the city centre.  The new port is just across the River Dinium.


16.09  North East suburbs (including re-worked junction)

As the city sprawled outward the zoning became less dense, with just a few tall buildings near to the main roads/junctions.  You can also see that many of the borough's schools are in this area.  In the top right of the picture is a re-working of the junction shown in picture 15.14 in the previous update.  This is a much more realistic version of the M25/A127 real life junction (just a shame the roundabout is not round!).


16.10  South Eastern district

Not much to say here, other than one of the plush towers seems to have fallen on to hard times!


16.11  South Western district, including FC Portland

This is where the final of the tournament was held.


16.12  City View

The city is now almost fully developed.  There are no more large scale developments planned - just a bit of tidying up and tree planting.  Farms won't grow, so I may have to build some custom ploppable farm houses to go with the fields.


16.13  Traffic View

And here is an idea of the traffic networks.


Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing an up to date Great Portland.

Seeing as West End has now passed 500,000 citizens I think that it's now grown up enough to be considered an independent nation.  Up until now I have considered it a region of Sim Nation, but now, it's time to declare independence.  I will try to develop some governmental departments and institutions to show you in the next update.

'til next time.........

[sebes]

And this is exactly why I return evey time here : what an images, what a talent you show!

The airports is simple yet amazing, the first mosaic is showing all my favourite residential bats (and in a very natural way), the football fields turned out really nice, and the industrial zone looks great too!

There is only one but: I don't like the waterfronts you use - I'd prefer the conrete ones from Marrast in this setting.

But never-the-less: this is a great show master! Thanks for entertaining 

[Jmouse]

Hey Paul, that's an impressive update you have here.
Good work on the mosaic, and I'm glad to see your LEs in game. I see you have quite a few benches around the pitch fields, and folks can always bring their lawn chairs if they want to.
The Fursan Friendship Park Lake looks really good – I'll have to try my hand at TPW one of these days.
Congratulations on reaching 500,000+ - I'm not quite halfway there, but I'm on my way and enjoying the privilege of walking in some awesome footsteps!
And I was pleased to see your transport system in a nutshell – I'll PM a question I have about textures.
I'm especially interested in watching your government sector come of age. This is an exciting era in WEST END's development.

Until next time...
Joan

[TopCliff]

This is a fantastic journal. If I had four arms, I'd give you four thumbs up. I hope this is good enough.   

[bat]

Fantastic new update there! And that park is looking really nice!!
Wonderful pictures of the airport, too. Also great region overviews!!

[thundercrack83]

Welcome to the Classics, my friend!

With updates like the previous one, you are definitely here where you belong! Great work!

Dustin

[capo]

Congrats on your promotion to the Classics, well deserved.

You know, with each update I see from you I always think one thing: Each update is of higher quality then the previous one. It's real nice to see you 'evolving' into true greatness (don't get me wrong, I always liked what I saw...but your latest work is really amazing) and I must say that with the latest update (and very important: the story that comes with it) I am just struck with awe. Those footballpitches are so nice and remind me so much of a football-park not so far from my home...Great work Paul, please keep it up! I'm longing for more