First Glimpse at the New New Maximiliania

For the past few nights, I've been working on re-organizing New Maximiliania. Maybe you remember the graphics bugs I kept getting in the old main neighbourhood, with lots/houses overlapping each other, ponds in the roads and so on.

Here is how I have gone about it:

• First, I opened each of the original 'hoods seperately and wrote down the names of each lot (all of them, community lots as well as residential and apartment lots).
• Next, in each of the original hoods, I moved all lots and houses that were placed in their various positions by Maxis into the Lots & Houses bin, so that they would be accessible from New Max. (Because so far, I've always only used the lots and houses that were already in the catalogue, not the ones that were part of each "town" but empty at the start of the game.)
• Then I opened New Max. Starting with the main 'hood, I bulldozed the empty residental lots and all of the community lots, leaving only the inhabited lots in place.
• I repeated this for New Maximiliania's Downtown and Shopping District.
• Next, I created a new Shopping District, using the original Bluewater Village, which is already nicely built up but not completely covered when you start it.
• I evicted the original, untouched families living there (as their New Maximilianian clones have already been played through 6 rounds by me).
• Then I filled up the 'hood with as many lots - community, apartment and residential - as I was able to place - New Maximiliania's new sub-hood is now full to the brim, but has not one single resident yet!

Here are the pictures.
Complete view of Bluewater Village, now New Maximiliania's new sub-hood (Shopping District):

Whereever possible, I have tried to place lots in a somewhat "themed" way. The park at the outskirts of Bluewater was already there; I have surrounded it with houses I think you would typically find in such a part of town.

The "bulk" of Bluewater Village starts with a row of apartment blocks and houses, all somehow fitting the seaview theme (lots by the name of "Ocean View Apartments", for instance, were placed here):

Further inland, there are a few patches where I was unable to place any lot, no matter the size:

At the "top end" of the western main road through Bluewater sits a t-section where I have placed some of the more expensive houses. Brandi Broke's original (very modest) house sits here, too - as her lot has to be placed on a road crossing, and this was the only one where it would fit:

Last but not least, some relatively large houses, some of them farm-style, sit along the long, steep road leading up the mountain pass Sims need to cross when they want to reach another part of New Max. I am not entirely happy with the way these lots look, because of the slope being flattened when placing them, and that makes the road look more like a set of steps than the uphill it is meant to be. But this can't be helped, and at least I have now a fresh sub-hood to put Sims in!

I have been doing the same for Downtown last night, but without creating a new sub-hood. It is almost full now, too, and last but not least, I will place the remaining lots in the old main 'hood of New Maximiliania.
And then, finally, I'll start playing the next round! In preparation, I have already re-read the last chapter about Pauline Aspir, as hers will be the first household to be played.