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Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

Started by Battlecat, February 10, 2009, 06:39:50 PM

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Battlecat

Update 16 – Farming for Ideas

Hello!  Welcome back once more to Adara!  In addition to the usual update, I also have a decision that I've decided to hand over to the readers of this journal.  See the last page for details. 

Replies:

Corey (Nexis4Jersey): Thanks!  Glad you found it helpful.

BarbarossaS: Glad you like it!  More or less the feel I'm shooting for. 

darraghf: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks for stopping in!

Guillaume (Sciurus): Thanks!  You're right, that school does look awfully lonely in that second picture.  Not even a road connecting it up to the rest of the area! 

bat: Thank you very much!

io_bg: I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops as well!  Thanks for stopping in!

Robin (rooker1): Glad you like the sprawl!  Plenty more of it to come soon!

Thomas (turtle): Thanks for stopping in again! 

Albus of Garaway: Thanks for you kind words and your comments.  I hadn't noticed the difference between the two street types, but I'll replace a few with the maxis streets in the next update for comparison.  I think part of the problem might be all the low wealth residential in the first picture, but I'll have to poke at it a bit and see what happens!  Thanks for the criticism! 

Here we go then!  As the title indicates, I ran into a bit of difficulty with a couple parts of the urban area.  I decided to go back and do some more work on farmland in the meantime to look for inspiration.  I'll head back to town for the next update. 

16-1: Here is a portion of the area I'm going to develop today.


16-2: First the initial lots in the area. 


16-3: Hmmm, all three farms with the pale green style fields.  I think I'm going to have to tweak this a bit.


16-4: The farms minus all the green stuff. 


16-5: A few fences.  I've put in a couple odd boundaries, but I've seen some very odd stuff on farms. 


16-6: First pass using the green rye grass from the Rural Renewal Project to blend the edges of the farms. 


16-7: Second pass to add the brown rye grass to break up the uniform look of the fields. 


16-8: Finally a splash of white flowers and the darker yellow to represent clover and dandylions.  A few trees break up the monotony. 


16-9: And here's a closeup of the three farms.  I decided against the gravel paths on these farms. 


16-10: On there other side of the river, there's one more large farm tucked in between the railway and the mountains.  Again with the pale green fields, again I'm going to change it. 


16-11: Minus some fields, plus some fences. 


16-12: And then for the texture.  In this one, I decided that the back field has been left to recover, and is just about ready for the cows to come back in.  To give this feeling, I used the heavier grass texture from the Rural Renewal project as well as all the textures mentioned earlier. 


16-13: Finally, just to wrap things up here are the other three farms that developed in this area.  I still need to detail them and let the homes grow, but that will have to wait for a future update since I ran out of gaming time! 


Next time I work on farming again, I'll finish the detail in this area. 

Decision Time!

As I mentioned at the beginning, I have a decision to make regarding the future of this journal.  At some point in here, I'm going to manage to finish up Alexandria.  Once I'm done, there are several map tiles that I could develop next.  At this stage I have ideas for all of them, but I have no preference about which one I develop next. 

So instead, I'm going to open this decision up to all of you! 

16-14: The map below shows the tiles I'm trying to decide between.  There is a brief description of the initial concept of the tile below.   


Obviously there are more than 3 potential options, but these are the only ones I'm considering for the next update. 

Option 1: This tile follows the rural highway south following the ridge that divides this valley.  It will be mostly farmland, probably on one very small community. 

Option 2: This tile will follow the Denara River upstream and southwards from Delmar Junction, there will be a major divide in the valley and in the Denara River here.  A small town will be located at the edge of the river. 

Option 3: Travelling along highway 22 up into the mountains past Jackson Lake leads to a heavily forested area.  Small clusters of homes, logging areas and another camping area or two will be scattered through this area. 

Voting will be open until my first update in May, when I'll anounce the winning tile.  Only one vote will be allowed per person. 

That's all for today!  Thanks for stopping in!  As always your feedback is greatly appreciated! 


turtle

Nice update! Lovely detailling on the farms  :thumbsup:
As for the next update, my vote goes to option 2. But really, I'm loving everything you showed us so far, so anything goes for me.
Thomas
My name is Thomas...

BarbarossaS

It's always great to come to this MD and discover that it's been updated.  ;D
I really like the way you transformed those farms: from quite ugly fields to very nice looking pastures
to bad you're gaming time ran out, I'd like to see this area finished

As for the next tile to develop: option 3 speaks out most to me, but it's actually all up to you  :P

Sciurus

L'atelier d'architecture
* * * * * Longwy * * * * *

rooker1

Call me Robin, please.

mightygoose

fantastic update, lovely work as always and my pesonal choice would be option two.
NAM + CAM + RAM + SAM, that's how I roll....

threestooges

So much going on since I last posted, I hardly know where to start. Your rural skills are continually impressive and you seem to have gotten Chrisadams' fences down to a science. That cluster of farms in 16-8 just needs a few more structures and it could pass for a small village itself. Great work on it. The school complex in 15-3 looked pretty good, but I like the way it turned out too. The overview in 15-10 is excellently done. the sprawl of the town looks so natural and that is something that can be hard to get to work right. As for the next place to visit, I'm torn between following the train tracks in Option 2 and seeing what you can do with the lumber industry and all in option 3. The rail fan in me votes for option 2 (though if the rail doesn't factor in too heavily, go with 3). Hope all is well, and I'll look forward to what you have in store next.
-Matt

Nardo69

I sometimes get angry with myself that I don't have a closer look on "new" MDs (if a 7 page MD can be considered new...)

And boy, do I like your MDs.

Actually, I hate it.

It shows me how much I missed during one year of forced inactivity ... Your maps, the incredible amount of small ideas coming together so briliantly, the nice railway line, the double-tracked siding at the end of the STR branch (well, it's Nardo69, you know) ...

Now I am curious about your downtown and the railway station ... ;)

Oh, yes, my choice would be option 2, too!

Take care my friend (and don't forget to make backups!)

Bernhard  :thumbsup:

bat

Beautiful work on that nice farms there! And my choice is also option 2.. ;)

Battlecat

Update 17 – An Urban Crop

Greetings everyone.  Today I'm going to zag back to the urban area and continue expanding Alexandria.  First though, here are the current results of the vote for the next tile:

Option 1: 0
Option 2: 5
Option 3: 1

Thanks for voting everyone, remember this closes when I post my first update in May!

Replies:

turtle: Thanks very much! 

BarbarossaS: Glad you liked the update!  Sorry I won't be finishing up the fields today, I had some inspiration on how to handle the urban area which I couldn't pass on this week! 

Guillaume (Sciurus): Thanks for stopping in! 

Robin (rooker1): Glad you like it!  16.9 did turn out particularly nicely!

mightygoose: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks for you kind words.

Matt (threestooges): Glad you had the time to stop in again!  I actually preferred the original layout, except the school gets irritated if it's not beside a road.  You've certainly given me some ideas for those two areas you voted for.  I've put your vote in for option 2, I'll see what I can do about that rail idea! 

Bernhard (Nardo69): Welcome!  Something of a love/hate relationship there I see.  :) Actually I feel much the same way.  I started this diary after a 2.5 year absence from the game, and I'm still discovering all the amazing modifications people have made.  And still every few weeks, something new and cool shows up on the site!  Thanks for stopping in!

bat: Thank you for your kind words!

So as I mentioned earlier, I'm heading back to the urban area.  I finally decided what to do with a portion of the urban core.  In particular, I had to make a decision on how much medium density development there should be here.  So, here we go!

17-1: First though, I've been giving Albus of Garaway's suggestion from update 15 some serious though.  He suggested switching back to the default maxis roads for these suburban residential areas.  I converted one street just to test it, and I really can't decide between the two.  I'll probably convert to one or the other sometime in here, so let me know what you thing about the difference!


17-2: Moving along, here is the area I'm going to expand to.  It's a bit hard to see without the grid here, but there is an escarpment in the lower left corner of this image.  It will be the edge of the urban area; the lower area will be farmland.  As you can see, I've already started creating the first residential. 


17-3: Continuing along with the development.  One funny thing I noticed about the game.  If you don't want high wealth mansions in an area, the diagonal streets are perfect for that.  It's actually impossible for most of the large high wealth lots to develop here!


17-4: And finally after a lot of nudging, my first couple of apartments sprouted up!  The other three houses on the main road won't last long either.  In this case, I don't mind the slightly ugly apartments, they usually wind up existing somewhere despite the desire of city planners to avoid it. 


17-5: Moving forward in time and slightly down the street, here is the roundabout I pointed out in update 15.  A series of offices have sprouted up here, mostly due to the rising traffic on this road and due to rising demand for office space in my region.  I'm mostly just ignoring the sidewalks. 


17-6: A bit of work to connect up the parking lots between three offices and a bunch of trees really improves the look of the area.  You can see the second set of apartments just starting to sprout up behind the offices.


17-7: I continued with placing trees and developing offices before I noticed this.  Apparently I wasn't very careful when placing the forest lots I'm using.  Specifically, I probably should have rotated a few of those lots to break up the pattern! :-[


17-8: Fortunatly I caught it before posting this update.  I'm going to have to look at diversifying the placement of these more in the future. 


17-9: Finally, the second block of apartments are developed.  I placed parking lots between some of them since these ones didn't come with them as part of the lot.  That is the full extent of medium density residential for this town! 


17-10: Finally, here's a shot of what I've finished up today.  The escarpment edge is a bit more visible here.  There's still a lot of work to do on this town, but it's starting to come togther. 


And that's a wrap.  At this point I don't know if it's going to be farmland or urban development for the next update.  Guess we'll see when I finish up update 18!  See you all around!


BarbarossaS

Quite a nice update, but we've come to expect nothing less from you  :P
I like your city planning, this area comes close to the suburbs I know from around where I live (though they don't
have industry so close to them) As for the streets, I liked the SAM asphalt better then the default maxis texture, but of course that's up to you

Keep up the good work  :thumbsup:

Simpson

Hi !
I'm sorry that I missed all these updates, congratulation for the OSITM-Award, you deserve it  :)
The last updates are looking incredible &apls Your rural areas is magnificent, I love the fields and the river !!
I'm looking forward to the next update, my friend.

Take care,

David
My new city is now here
The région of Kaikoura

Teaser of Lopsas[+ How did I do it?]:Lopsas

bat

That are 17 great pictures there! Nice work on that part of your city! Nice Update, too! :thumbsup:

evanator

Hmm... I haven't had much time recently to stop by, and now I'm regretting it.  Great work on Alexandria, the urban center is really coming along.

Your use of RRP in integrating farms continues to astound me, superb job!

-my opinion on the streets, [not that anyone's asked] is to divide them. Have the 'older' sections of town have gray streets. while the recently developed sections have asphalt. It could give a nice contrast and distinction, and help establish the history of the town.

Nardo69

Cosy little neighbourhoud!

I like how you put the railway in there.

Small hint:

http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=1197

against these ugly sawtooth between diagonal roads and railways. ;)

Bernhard  :thumbsup:

thundercrack83

Hi, there, Battlecat!

Sorry for being away for so long, my friend--I'll try to keep my absences to a minimum from now on. But I must say that I really love what I'm seeing here in Adara!

Keep up the fine work!

Dustin

threestooges

Oh, I always try to stop in when I can, just not usually enough time to leave as detailed a post as this MD merits. Glad to hear there may be some trains in the future and I'll be curious to see how you work it in. I still haven't forgotten about your offer, though time has kept me from getting around to getting the images to you. Nice little community in 17-3. How much traffic is there on the link to the road? It seems like that intersection would bog down duing the morning rush, being the only way in/out from there. The seasonal trees in 17-10 (David's?) are a nice touch. you may have mentioned this, but how much bigger do you expect this area to grow? Looking forward to more.
-Matt

meldolion

 :thumbsup:

I really like your MD!! those pictures are amazing, thanks for sharing :)

FrankU

Yes, nice work in this MD.
And I second Nardo69's advice: the SFBT diagonal fiilers are almost indispensable for me. They have nice diagonals and fences. These fences fit nice together with Chrisadams's fences, so there you go!

io_bg

Visit my MD, The region of Pirgos!
Last updated: 28 November