WEST END

[Diggis]

Wow Paul, great work.  I love what you did with chris's flora.  My favourite has to be the last one.  Looks like a lot of areas back home.

[sebes]

Saybus Rocks.  It is said that these rocks are much older than they look - but whether they have been here for thousands or millions of years is anyones guess.

Well - this picture indeed rocks! 

And you my friend seem to continue to amaze me. Now you're going rural as well, and with a big bang. I don't know what to say because I am real sucker for rural areas - so no Saybus rocks here 
I have no time for a long comment now (PC - internet problems and dinner being served in 5 minutes) but will return later to watch these beauties again.

pssst: my 2000th post - what a great place to post it ! 

[Nardo69]

Hello Paul,

sorry for not showing up lately but RL hasn't been kind to me at all during the last weeks ...

Nice update! I like especially 55.04 with the Avenue running straight through the fields leaving the small seddlement aside. In General I don't like these flower fields too much but there they look rather good!

Your picture from the "wild side" make me really wish I had the time for firing up Sc4 ...

Take care my friend!

Bernhard 

[Schulmanator]

Always a  pleasure to drop in and see your work. 

[mattb325]

Hi Paul

This is brilliant

Of these recent updates - I have to say that shot 55.03 is my favourite - great rural shot with the lone house on the only paved street...

I also really like the way you have used the ploppable water and transitioned the banks with Chris' marshes - it is really effective.

[paroch]

REPLIES:

Bat - thanks for your comment.

Simpson - thank you, good to see you here again.

Derry - it's nice to get supportive words like those - thanks.  I really enjoy the plop water, so am pleased you liked it.  And thanks for the tip re the the ripples.  As for water mod - it's called Brigantine and is by PEG.

Arne - hey, thanks.

Xox - Welcome to West End.  And thanks for your  great comment.

Joan - Thanks for those words.  And the TPW is pretty easy to pick up - I look forward to seeing what you do with it.

Dave - Hey, great to see you back in West End.  And thanks for the compliments.  As for the purple ground cover.....it's part of ChrisAdams Rural Renewal Project.  Check his thread for the most up to date version.
As for the holiday, we had a bit of every weather!!

Shaun - comment 700 earns you a place in the Double Zero Club.  I'll have to think of a suitable award.

Sebes - I'm pleased your 2000th comment was here in West End.  And I'm pleased you like the rural side of West End.  I hope your new PC and internet connection is all good now.

Bernhard - No need to apologies, I know what it's like, I've not been as active on the MDs as I would like myself!  I hope RL is being kinder to you now.  And thanks for the supportive words.

Schulmanator - Welcome to West End, you may lurk here often, but this is your first post here, so thanks for dropping by.  Feel free to drop in any time.

Matt - Good to see you again.  And thanks for the comment.  That house all on its own is one of yours, but I guess you knew that.  I've started work on a couple of other quads and your recent releases are making a great addition to them - thanks.


UPDATE 56:

Today is our final visit to the borough of Charing Cross.  The city has grown to reach a population of 80,000, which makes it the 6th largest borough in West End by population. 

We've seen the stadium area, the villages and the suburbs, plus the farms and the rural areas.  Charing Cross straddles the River Dinium so today we're going to close out with a visit to the waterside areas.

56.01:  Region Overview:

A reminder of where Charing Cross sits in relation to its neighbours.


56.02:  Central Ferry Terminal:

The river is important to the city and many people pass through this terminal each day.  And of course, the boardwalk shopping area is also very popular.


56.03:  Riverside Market & Marina

The passenger ferry is used by people visiting the market.  Of course, the people with boats in the marina don't need to worry about the ferry.


56.04:  Heigham Park and Beach

This corner of Charing Cross is where everyone goes at the weekend and on public holidays.  The beach, showing through the water is a bit annoying - if anyone knows a way round that please let me know.


56.05:  More of the Park



56.06:  And more of the Beach

You can see the beach problem I'm having even more here.


56.07:  Night Shot of the Terraces

A place for a romantic stroll maybe.


56.08:  Whipps Village

A small village next to the river.


56.09:  City Overview East



56.10:  City Overview West



And I promised to take you back to the North Senna Towers to see how they finished off......

56.11:  At last I got a building to grow in the space for the last tower.......

But it was the wrong building.  I waited and waited to see if it would upgrade, but no.
So I decided I had to make a ploppable lot, which is kind of cheating, but needs must!


56.12:  North Senna Towers

And there seemed room to plop in a larger but complimentary building.  And there you have it, the end result.


I hope you enjoyed Charing Cross.  I've since been working on a small quad called Dean, a medium quad called Broadwick and a large quad called Piccadilly.  The small and medium quads are finished, so I hope to show something of those soon.  And watching the Olympics inspired me to create West End's own sports venue.  This is where the annual West End Games are held where the 16 Boroughs (so far) of West End compete in a range of sports.  The city of Piccadilly have even built an Athletes Village in the hope that one day they may host an international sporting event.


56.13:  Piccadilly Sports Park:

Maybe we'll see more of this in future.

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

[bat]

Wonderful looking pictures there in that 56th update, paroch!
Great looking own sports venue! Fantastic work on your update and city!!

Looking forward to update 57!

[Simpson]

Wow your région is superb great work on it
Your city is always so good my friend, I love the Heigham parc it's very réalistic
The générale view of your city is very good 

[Diggis]

Paul, good to see you have used your week off well.     And that 700 was a total accident, didn't even notice.

It's a pity about the beach, I recall I had the same problem,  changed to a better terrain mod for the beaches I think. 

I'd hate to have to take my boat out of the backside of the marina though.

Also nice job on North Senna Towers, the final complex looks good. 

[Jmouse]

This time I have to start at the end - North Senna Towers looks terrific! It was well worth the wait for a perfect combination, and you couldn't have found a better plop to top it off! You did a superb job on the Piccadilly Sports Park, too - and love the little labels.

The ferry terminal and marina are well designed, and I like that water mod - I'm using it, too. The Marina is especially attractive with the little boats. Putting some of the market stalls in the park was a good idea, and overall, the park looks really good. You work well with the paths and I know it isn't easy to make everything come out even so to speak! The way you've planted the trees is interesting - not too crowded and very park-like.

Too bad about the beaches - wish I could help but I don't use those sand strips. Never could get them to look right. Mine always looked more like a giant Band-Aid than a pretty beach.

Attractive overview, good night shot, lovely photos - all in all a typically well-done update!

Later...
Joan

[MandelSoft]

Fantastic work over there (except about the beaches, but that seems a problem that no-one of us has a solution for that yet). And there's a lot of structure in your city as I can see on the overview pictures. Can't wait to see more!

Best,
Maarten

[sebes]

North Senna Towers is looking marvelous... it's just how I pictured that the area should become. Don't worry about the plopping - Psssstt... I know somebody that plopped almost his entire downtown     The one bonus buidling allong the railtracks is making the area very complete. Well done man.

The beaches look strange - I never had that before, and believe I used the same beaches. Will check next time at home in a Lake Ontario Shore part of Rhenen!

The sportsvenues are also excellent. The blue tennis courts jump out of the picture - but as it's exactly my favorite shade of blue, I love it!

[panthersimcity4]

Nice work, your cities are always very charming, and your last update was no exception! 

One question, would you happen to know where you got the embankments with the neat stairs in that "Beach problem" picture? Thank you 

[Schulmanator]

The waterfront looks great. I have had the same problem with the beach. I have not found a way around it, but sometimesit does seem to, temporarily, fix itself. Nice work! 

[FrankU]

My € 0,02 about the beaches:
Is this problem in some way related to the water graphics bug? I see also some buglike details on other (Marrast?) waterfront lots.
I am quite sure I also used these beaches and they looked good in my cities. In these days I used the unmodded Maxis water. Only in Region view they looked like you showed here. I disliked it so much that I don't use these beaches anymore. Pity, because now I don't have nice beaches as my terrain and water mods are not able to give me nice sandy summerbeaches as I would like to have them.

Post #400! Am I a grown up member now?

[thundercrack83]

Magnificent work, Paul, as per usual, my friend!

I especially love your sports complex, complete with the pictograms for each of the events--very clever!

One question for you, though: The walls that you've used in conjunction with the stairs by your beach, which texture is that? I'm fairly certain those are MAS71 walls, but I haven't been able to locate the texture. Many thanks in advance, my friend!

Can't wait to see more!

Dustin

[nova vesfalo]

The aerial view is amazing ! so does the close up and the Senna Towers ! Just think there's a lil bit too much bridge. But the global view and the downtown-others transitions is great !!!

[Ennedi]

Excellent update as always, Paul!

I especially like city overviews and the Picadilly Sports Park   

Your problem with beaches can be easily solved (unfortunately not on the regional view  ). There are two problems with ploppable beaches:

1. The bug visible on your pictures. It is not visible when you open the city, but it appears when you save the city without exiting. If you see this bug, you need only go to the zone view and back. The beach looks correct again.
2. The ploppable beach is visible throughout the shallow water and sometimes you see it's border. It looks bad, to avoid it you should use additional beach pieces to cover the sea bottom until the border disappears.
Here I used ISAT beach set, it contains both main beach pieces and additional ones (to plop under water). Looking at the first picture you can see where I made the beach longer (on four bottom rows).



But it is wise to look at your beach from each side. On the second picture you can see that the beach is long enough at first two rows, but too short in two next ones (it was not visible on the first picture).



Now I'm saving the city without exiting. And...



But after switching to zone view and back everything is OK again (the picture is unnecessary  )

If you have much shallow water or if you don't like the way how the beach changes the sea bottom, you can solve it too by modifying the Terrain properties exemplar. Please compare these two pictures:





If you would like to use it, Paul, you must tell me wchich terrain mod do you use and I can prepare the zip for you.

(An information for those who like to play with such things: it can be done by decreasing the Water Depth For Max Alpha property to 5 - 10 meters).

I'm very glad some of the best MDs are still active  I'm too busy at the moment, but my MD will be active again too!

Adam

Edit: sorry for cluttering your MD thread by these pictures! At the first moment I was going to send you a PM, but then I decided to describe it here because I suppose it can be helpful for other people too - and I haven't enough time to show it in my MD or another place (in this case it would need more detailed description).

[art128]

waow exellent update here  i like the olympic site  it's realistic 

where did you get the cercle tennis stadium ??

[Pat]

Paul looking real good here and I could have sworn I left a comment already on this update but I guess I havent anyways I would love to see that beach area fixxed other then that I cant wait to see what you have in store with all the simlympic icons in place... oooh Im exspecialy found of those parks of yours, great job!!!