Province of Clontarf - Update 10 - Elsmere

[pipishere]

A Fine update indeed....i see your planned metropolis site and it looks like it's gonna be quite impressive! I like the little parks you've created here and there...nice touch!

[tooheys]

Replies

Jmouse: First of all, thanks for the heads up. There were a few missing images which I have replaced.

I have only been in my present home for a few years. I had previously spent my entire life in the suburbs of Sydney
but I now live about 80kms to the north in an area known as the central coast. To the east I have a 10min walk to
the beach and to the west it's only a few hundred metres to a large salt water lake, surrounded by bike trails and
parks. Generalising a little, our coastline is usally either white sandy beaches or large sea cliffs, makes for some
magnificent scenery.

Thanks for your comments and vigilence. As a reward there are some more traffic graphs as part of this update.

pipishere: Thank's pipishere. Probably another week or so before the metropolis get's off the ground. Good to
see you dropping by again.

Riverwood revisited


Population. R: 36,556 C: 8,039 I: 18798

Last time we were here Riverwood was purely an industrial area. But across the river those sims have been busy and
built quite a reasonable town.









Around the shoreline runs a walking and bike track. Unfortunately, it has been hijacked
by fitness groups. Not entirely welcomed by the locals due to their early morning runs,
they are organized by a retired army drillmaster, who likes nothing better than the
sound of a good cadence in the morning.

When my granny was ninety-one
She did PT just for fun
When my granny was ninety-seven
She up and died and went to heaven

She met St. Peter at the pearly gates
She said "St. Peter, I hope I'm not late"
St. Peter said with a big, wide grin
"Get down Granny, and knock out ten"

Count off, 1 2, 1 2 ..3 4.



And just around the corner, the local marina.

"Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave ......."

Now for anyone who is brave enough to admit that they know this theme song word for word,
I will arrange for you a free sunset cruise from this marina. Luckily, the boat is not called the Minnow.







This is the new country club. Somewhat out of sorts in a majority low wealth area, it was built
here for one reason, the land was cheap. As you can see the developers are encroaching
and this should soon be one classy area.



If anything, this region has quiet a few modern libraries. This one houses all the great literary
works such as Biggles, The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

Traffic



Well not too bad. The road network is holding up OK although a few roads may need to
be upgraded. The red line across the river is the railway and govt may need to invest in
an additional line.





That's one more update under the belt. It's great to be moved into the
"Ones To Watch" and a big thanks to all that have dropped by since day 1.

Next update in a few days.

Cheers

Dave

[Jmouse]

Dave, you are so bad! Poor old Granny!
Nice update as always. Looks like you're in for a road network upgrade pretty soon. I was especially interested in the railroad exchange. I tried something along the same lines, but it was much bulkier and I ended up getting rid of it. Anyway, are you using the rail for passenger transport? Once again, I'm a bit surprised to see so much congestion in a city of under 40M.
As for the rest of the update, you've created some really nice photos which showcase Balnavia's colorful personality. I'll have to visit that library and dig out some dusty old Nancy Drew books. Loved the beaches, too.
Until next time...

Joan

[tooheys]

Replies:

Jmouse: Hi Joan. Most of the congestion, especially the rail, is caused by commuters
travelling from adjoining tiles, as at the time of the update, this was one of the few industrial areas
in Balnavia. Appreciate the comments as always.

Bundeena

R: 858



Bundeena is a small village bordering the 1st National Park established in the region.





The park is available to campers, however there are also cabins for those who prefer
a little more comfort.

Visitors are reminded to watch there step if they leave the trails and walk into the woods,
as bears really do! (#%@! in the woods that is)





What's going on here? OMG, avert your eyes, skinnydippers .



Doing their thing for the environment, the townfolk obtain power from the local
windfarm. It's also a great place to collect firewood, as some fool decided this was a great
place to plant some trees. Just keep your head down.



A couple of small updates will follow over the next day or so as a few other small tiles
have been developed. Also the planned Metroplis know has a name - Newcastle and I will include
a pic now and again to show how things are progressing.

Cheers

Dave

[pipishere]

OMG i wish i could update as often as you do lol!! Both updates are great and i do believe that railway bridge may need to be upgraded! The National Park looks great!!

[Pat]

Dave all i have to say is 3 hour tour... a pic from the fan club lol

[tooheys]

Replies

pipishere: Good to see you dropping by again and thanks for the comments.

patfirefghtr: Ok the sunset cruise is yours. Hope to see you back in a few hours. If not, I'll be
looking out for the new TV series, "Pat & The Castaways"

The Region of Balnavia





Balnavia now comprises 14 different towns and cities. A couple of the new ones are highlighted below as well
as a couple of early shots from the planned Metropolis of Newcastle.

Tempe

R:13,469 C:10,851 I:201





The park on the upper right was originally designed with 4 large chess boards. It was soon discovered
that the locals were particularly adept at chess and the games, often ending in stalemate, grew longer
and longer. As a result lunch hours were also getting longer and longer and after many complaints by
business owners to the Chamber of Commerce, the chess pieces were removed and replaced with checkers.







Most of the shoreline is bordered by walkways, a great way to relieve the stress during your
lunch hour. You may also note that there are not too many sudden drops around town. This came
about after the '94 crash when many a businessman deciding to take the final plunge into the sea.
Try it now and at worst you might suffer something akin to carpetburn as you slide down a
retaining wall.

Sydenham

R:17,072 C:1,369







Similar homes, similar jobs, similar income, similar cars. These two neighbours do their
best not to be outdone by the other. They're currently working on similar glutes.





Grumpy old Mr Jones lives in his small home next to the local baseball field. Sick of his home being
peppered with baseballs, he would regularily let fly with a string of expletives clearly audible from the stands.

Gardening in his backyard one Saturday arvo, he would have been pleased to see the latest hit to clear the fence miss his house, had
it not hit him in the back of the head. RIP Mr Jones.

Newcastle



The basic structure of the road and rail network is taking hold, although this will be changed as required
during further development.

The large island in the middle will be home to the CBD with plenty of highrises, both residential
and commercial.



Already well underway is the small port precinct which will be highlighted in later updates.

Cheers

Dave

[Pat]

Dave very gooood i loved it and rotlmbo that was good little pun...  I wish i could have figured out how to
post a video here for that last comment... the vid i found had the opening credits and also the never before
heard opening omg talk about sad... But anyways where did you find that ferry terminal?... Cant wait to sea
the rest of the sea port devolp - pat

[dedgren]

Congratulations!



Balnavia...a place you'd want to live...


The Staff

[thundercrack83]

Well, it looks like I missed a couple of updates here. Sorry about that, my friend. I don't know how it happened! But anyway...

What can I say, though? Everything looks to be in fine shape here. Tempe looks absolutely magnificent (my favorite out of all that I've missed), and your ports in Newcastle seem to be shaping up nicely. I apologize again for my absence, and hope that it won't happen again.

Also, congratulations on being "Of Special Interest This Month!" You deserve it!

[Jmouse]

Congratulations on your well-deserved promotion, Dave. As usual, the scenery (esp. the National Park) is stunning and the layouts are pure genius.
Now for today's question. Tempe, next-to-last photo, left center where the retaining wall ends. The road slopes down and takes a sharp left to follow the bottom of the wall. How did you get that slope so smooth? I really want to learn to work with walls, but I keep beating my head against a brick one instead!
Until next time ...

Joan

[Pat]

Woohoo Congrats Dave for making it to SIotM July

[Nardo69]

Hi Dave!

Had been some time since I've been around here ...   

About the  "Semiconductor Holographioc Intermitting Transceiver": Take only the first letter, forget about the rest and you'll know what I mean ... 

Nice Small Lake in Turella. I also like these rocks at the coast. I just read your comment in Jimmy's MD yet I could find a detail to nag on that avenue bridge - it is just as it shall be ... bad bad woröd ...   

What's that brown-roofed 6x6 (?) industrial on the last pic? looks like a potential candidate to further blow up my pluginfolder ...

Great Overview on Riverwood. It still amazes me after now 4 years that such a small mod like the bridge height mod has such a vast impact when it comes to reality of bridges ... 

Nice Detail of the peninsula with the mayor's statute in tzhe middle of the roundabout. Again these rocks on the coast rock!

*Finally I found something to nag:*
A small datail that I still do the same way as you did from time to time:
Don't plant trees over an underpass like you did in the pic below the marina / ferry harbour. Their roots would destroy the roof of the small tunnel IRL ...

Bundeena: hmm ... maybe you had a tad overdone the PEG trails for my personal taste ... Those lakes aee nice but a tad to regular ... but I must confess it is not easy to make such a camp with the game's tile system ...

Newcastle:
Gonna be interesting ... but why don't I see any railway connection to your harbour?

Take care and nake Backups!

Bernhard 




...



*wasn't there something else to do?*


...


Oh, yeah,

Congrats on becoming "Of Special Interest!"     

[Russell]

Always a delight to study your work. And congratulations on the promotion. 

[emilin]

Now, this is why I like the special interest" category. This journal is not one that I had noticed before, but it looks really nice. I have yet to go through the rest of the pages, but several features on this last page really caught my attention. I like the "classic" look of the region a lot. Nice little port too. And very nice use of terrain and water mods.

[tooheys]

Firstly, thankyou to the staff for finding this MD worthy of inclusion in OSITM. I must admit I
am a little overwhelmed and nicely surprised given that I haven't been around for too long. Now
the pressure is on to maintain the standard, and I'm going to have to think of a lot more one liners
to make you all groan.

Replies

patfirefghtr: Pat, 1st it's good to see you made it back to shore, and 2nd I think we should
give this a rest before we embarass ourselves (pretty rich coming fom a guy who has the Hogans
Heroes theme as his mobile ringtone )

The ferry terminal I think you are referring to is part of PEG's CDK3 set available on the STEX & PLEX.

And finally, I appreciate the comments, thanks.

thundercrack83: Dustin, it's good to see you dropping by again, but hey, you've got better
things to do than to be monitoring my MD every day of the week. You've seen I tend to post a few
updates in quick succession and I wouldn't expect anyone to comment on each. I'm just pleased that
when you do drop by you take the time to look at all of which is new since your
last visit rather than just the last update, it is much appreciated.

Jmouse: Thank's Joan, I don't know about that genius part though. As for your Q, to
get a result like that you are referring to, you need to install a slope mod. There are a few available
both here and elsewhere. They make the slopes more realistic compared to the standard maxis ski jumps.
But be warned, some have a more severe effect than others and will effect you're planning. You will
certainly need to do some experimenting.

Nardo69: Hi Bernhard, tree roots, now I have to worry about tree roots!!

Could you let me know if the sims should mow their lawns from north to south,
or east to west

I hope you know, despite my smart*#%@ comments, that I do appreciate your support and guidence.
You really do make me think about what I am doing (but tree roots!!).

You're right about the national park. When I looked back at it, it is somewhat cluttered with trails.
My mistake was trying to link all the campsites with a trail piece, I should have perhaps
placed them around a clearing with one trail access.

The building you're talking about is in fact a mail exchange. I haven't the link at the moment but
will edit this reply when I've tracked it down.

And finally, I'm sure I can see a rail connection there. But just to make sure your looking
at the same pic's as I am I have attached a couple for your perusal.

Thanks Bernhard

Cheers

Russell: Thanks Russell, appreciate the comments and good to see you dropping by again.

emilin: Welcome to Balnavia. If you are going to read this from page one, I apologise for some of the
terrible puns you are about to come across. Thankyou for the comments and hope to see you back.

And now, while I'm here, I might as well show a couple of photos from the port of Newcastle.





The port area has undergone a few changes including a rail connection and a freight station.  Bernhard, I had a
hell of a time trying to work out how to get a rail line in there given the slope mod I'm using. In the end, I
went for the tunnel, I think it looks OK, interested to hear what you think.

To all, thank's again for the support. The next full update at the end of the week.

Cheers

Dave

[Snaper]

Hello Tooheys,

I'm very happy that you receive this promotion ...

... Your city is very beautiful, its American side gives him a certain charm, but I like much his embellishment with the vegetation

Cheer my friend 

[amapper]

Very nice work. You sure do pack a lot into an area with so much great detail and planning. There seems to be something new each time I look at a particular picture. The farms and towns really blend into one another well too. 

[thundercrack83]

The port is looking fantastic, my friend! I know what you mean about trying to get those freight stations to connect to the rail with the slope mods, too. I've had my fair share of incidents with that myself. It looks like you got it figured out, though! Great work!

[Asimov]

Nice port, an interesting Idea putting it entirely on a seperate Island. The Infrastructure looks also very well planned. Looking forward to more.