FrankU's Lottery - Space Center update

[mrbisonm]

Ok, MFP are in the making since a week, but I spent only an hour or so each evening sofar. I will show an update of some blgd this weekend in our thread.


Nice set of Private schools, looking really good.

Fred

[Jack_wilds]

like the lots...    just popping to say so...   nothing clever to add 


hoping the farms projects and lots are still a go... 

keep getting well Fred... the farm can't run on a busted cog...    me being cheeky

[FrankU]

Another quick one: the Country Club.

Because I could not find a good Dutch country club BAT I decided to use the Maxis one. It is one of those weird architectural monsters that are produced all over the Western world and I must say with pain in my heart: also in the Netherlands.
But if anyone can point me to a more Dutch project for this reward, I'd gladly change the building.

Anyway, I deleted all Maxis trees and planted CP's trees and shrubs all over the lot. I changed the parking and the entrance. I left the golf courses as they were, including all animations and props by Maxis. Mainly because it is an awful lot of work and secondly because I think there was nothing wrong with them.
I deleted the ugly fences.
What I did not change, because it is another enormous job: the orientation. Why on Earth is the lot not orientated to the street with the entrance? But I cannot rotate the whole lot. As far as I know. Did I overlook some functionality. Maybe? As far as I know I have to move every prop by hand.

And does anyone know how many props and textures are possible on one lot?

Please give me your opinions on:
- the fences
- the entrances and the parking lot
- the entrance to the building, maybe I should make some kind of streetwork?
- the building itself
- should I delete the tennis court?

Here are the images:

[art128]

Nice work remodeling maxis golf course.

The fences are nice. Not too fancy and quite enough for the lot. (however on image2 the fence seems to stop midway on the lot)
Both the parking and the entrance are well made, I like them a lot. Might want to move that pink car blocking the way to the path though.
Tennis court looks nice here.

About the building, I've been searching for a nice building to create a country house/golf course as well but haven't found anything suitable. :/ I think the maxis building looks nice.

[FrankU]

Hi art128,
Thanks for the reply.

I did another search for a building. Not in the residentials, but in several utility like buildings. In the medical section I found something: Nexis Gentlemen's Health Club. This one is perfect for a Golf and Country club. And as the building also has a swimming pool I decided the Club is not only for golfers, so I kept the tennis court.

The fencens and hedges are indeed not completely around the lot. The Club is usually located in a park or forest and I think it is not neccessary to fence it in completely. The shrubs and trees do fence it in a bit. I know a Golf Club around here that has hardly any fences. You can walk over the meadows directly from the forest, but you need to cross grass and shrubs. Nobody does it.

I also enlarged the lot to 14x12 and moved some of the greens (are they called that way, the golf grass areas?), so that there is more space between them and that there is enough room for the quite lare building.

I redesigned the entrance and the parking lots and I took the liberty to move the entrance to the street side of the lot, something that Maxis should have done in the first place.

You like? Have a look.

[Catalyst]

ooh, I like it a lot, nice job with the overlay textures! The 2 darker trees + sunchairs probably come with the building right? But they fit in nicely. Maybe add a charging point for e-cars or a skytran station? Just kidding, looks great to me and I will definitely use it!

[vortext]

Fitting building and good lotting! 

But I cannot rotate the whole lot. As far as I know. Did I overlook some functionality. Maybe? As far as I know I have to move every prop by hand.

Shift + end/home will rotate all selected props as a group, i.e. the spatial relationships they have to one another are maintained. Be careful though because props may end up outside of the lot boundaries. Unfortunately it doesn't work for textures so you'll have to move those by hand still.

[APSMS]

While I agree most country clubs/golf courses lack fences (especially in America/West Coast), the presence of some fences bothers me. Either make the fence surround a defined area (usually the entrance/pool/clubhouse area) or eliminate them altogether, since having a fence suddenly end is a bit weird.

I really like the building you found; reminds me of an Alpine/Mountain Lodge/Chateau, even though fwiw I thought the Maxis building wasn't half bad.

[Jack_wilds]

its the sort of 'country club' I would member up with... like the proposals   

[romualdillo]

Looks great!! 

[Sim.Rico]

Hi FrankU!  Really LOve your work!  The country club looks like something that would definitely satisfy the sims in my cities

[FrankU]

Hello all!
Thanks for the replies.

@ Catalyst,
Indeed, the two trees and the chairs come with the BAT. One of the main reasons that I decided not to keep the orignal model is that is contains a partial terrace in front of the lot. It is impossible to increase that with one of the available Maxis textures. I really cannot understand why people (and Maxis) add streetwork to their lots. The edges are always visible and always ugly.
Anyway, I started to search and found this one. Nexis/mrbisonm/Fred added a swimmingpool wit its terrace. But this terrace has clear edges. And on the other side there is no base texture. So this BAT can be put into a surrounding seamlessly. That is the way things should be made!

@ vortex,
Thanks for the tip.
And the compliment.

@ APSMS,
I can understand your hesitation. I will reconsider the fences. It's just that I don't want a rigid fenced-in golf course. One of my aims is to resemble a fence that has been broken down partially due to bad maintenance. Another option would be a barbed wire fence, but for that I'd need another dependency pack(SPAM props).

@ Jack_Wilds,
Thanks Jack!

@ romualdillo,
Thank you!

@ Sim.Rico,
Thank you too!

On Simpeg there is some discussion on the crammed appearance of the lot. Doesn't it bother you?
To keep this post short: I am considering several options.
1. Keep the lot as is (with maybe some small changes) with the size 14x12.
2. Increase the size to, say 16x12.
3. Make the lot modular (zzsteven's idea): the Reward will only give you the club house, some adjoining space and maybe three holes. Additionally you can add severel separate lots with golf holes (modded as neutral park lots). This gives the opportunity to make the golf course as large as you like and it does not need to be rectangular. It is beyond my abilities to make these additional lots as following rewards, which might be the finest option. I did not yet find an existing modular golf course set that I like enough to use that as a base, so I probably have to make it myself....

Thank you,
Frank

[belfastsocrates]

Superb work, the new building looks far superior and the overall lotting is fantastic.

In regard to the question you raised in regard to size, I think a modular approach is something to be considered. You could perhaps increase the size and see how that looks but the problem I had with the original in-game country club is the fact that most country club and gold courses are rather large.

I think modular is probably the best way to go but as you said, that would involve a large amount of work.

[vortext]

Make it bigger! Or you could turn it into a 9 hole course (which is played twice per round) which will allow a more spacious design.

[Kergelen]

IMO the third option is the most suitable. I never liked Maxis one because of its rectangularity and the small size.
With the new building you selected (which I think is a great choice) and making it modular will be a nice set!

[Flatron]

You may already know that, but skimbo once made a modular golf course for his CJ dragon islands, which is available on the stex (He used simfox's trees, though, so this might not fit with the trees you chose...)
Of course, your work is outstanding and I really appreciate it

[FrankU]

Hmmm, interesting development.
On Simpeg most repliers choose the 16x12 larger lot.
On this site the modularity is preferred.

I found two modular sets that seem to be nice and useful: Skimbo's and Sim_Idiot's improvement of Joergs set. These sets do not contain a reward lot.
I will do some research first, but at the moment I am considering to do the following:
I will improve my stand alone reward in an increased size of 16x12 for those who do not want too much hassle.
And I make two reward lots with mrbisons Clubhouse, that fit with the above two sets accordingly.
That would mean that you can choose out of three reward lots:
One containing a complete golf course and two that only contain a clubhouse lot, and that can be extended with one of the two sets of golf courses.

What do you think. Nice?

[belfastsocrates]

Yeah I think that would work well and appeals to all. I'm looking forward to using this new modular set.

[FrankU]

It took me some time but I did several things in the meantime.

1. I resized the Maxis replacement lot to 16x12. Look. Better now?


So if you don't want fuss, you drop this one into your plugins and you are set, except for the dependencies of course.

2. I found tree sets with acceptable modular golf courses.
- Skimbo's SC4 Golf Pack
- Sim_Idiot's SC Golf Pack
- JPlumbley's FLOG Golf Holes

For all of these sets I made a Club House Reward lot that replaces the Maxis Country Club Reward. I made these lots with only the dependencies that are needed for the holes sets they belong to.

Of course you may only use one of these four at the same time. But if you want a Dutch modular Golf Course Set you now can choose between these three versions.

Skimbo







Sim_Idiot





JPlumbley







That's it for now.
If you can live with this, it's just a matter of a bit of tweaking here and there, writing the read me and upload. Probably this weekend.

[vortext]

Both the larger Maxis lot and the various additions to existing sets look great.