Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[art128]

Wow !! (and again Wow ! ) The river you made there is very realistic my friend. Also, great work with farms land and villas. The town you shown in the last update is fantastically realistic !
Take care,
-Arthur. 

[Battlecat]

Dustin (thundercrack83): Thanks very much for stopping in and for the kind words!  Glad you found time to stop in considering all the amazing work you're producing over in the Commonwealth of Marathon!

Geoff (calibanX): Welcome to Adara! Thanks very much for all your kind words!  Sadly, you are absolutely right about the cost of the software I use.  Each of the three packages I use (ArcGIS, AutoCad and FME) each run around 1 – 2 thousand dollars.  Fortunately, I have old copies of ArcGIS and Autocad at home (leftover from university) and the FME software I can run at work on my lunch break. 

I mostly use the software since that's what I'm comfortable with.  If you know what you're doing, it's easy to get similar results from any photo editing package!  But then again, you've already discovered that based on the lovely road maps you've started on in your Monument Valley diary.

Arthur (art128): Thanks very much for stopping in!  I'm glad you approve of my latest efforts with surface waterways!  I'm pretty happy with them as well!

Update 25
Alexandria Completed!

Wow, 25 updates and 10 pages of replies.  Thank you all for your support over the past 4 months!  I'm quite pleased with how things have come together here, even if the pace of updates has been a bit slower than I would have liked ideally.  Still, the support and suggestions from this community is greatly appreciated.  So, I'd like to start today with a look at who's been coming and going here!

25-1: A graph showing everyone who's kindly taken the time to drop a comment here!  Thanks again to all of you for supporting me in this project! 

I also want to say thanks to all you lurkers out there as well, after all, there have been more than 8600 individual visits to this diary as well!  It'll be interesting to see how far we'll get in another 25 updates! 

Now then, on with the actual pictures.  Today, I will finish up Alexandria!

25-2: I'm going to start off with the plopable stream here.  I'm still messing around with varying methods for detailing the shore of this particular water style.


25-3: But at least I'm getting happier with the results.  Jeronij's culverts are nice to use because they play well with any type of plopable water. 


25-4: Moving along, this particular field is next to the highway.  Plopable cows are amusing, and this guy has a big herd. 


25-5: Moving along, here's an overview of the rest of the area left to zone and detail. 


25-6: And here we have the initial set of zones I'm going to work with.  Hmmm, that yellow line just slipped in there on me. 


25-7: While I'm waiting for those to develop, I borrowed this shot from the internet.  This is a photo of a typical clearcut, showing a healthy crop of fireweed.  Fireweed is one of the most common initial colonizers of burns and clearcuts here in British Columbia.  And fortunately, we can replicate this in SC4 now.


25-8: So here's a shot of that clearcut I showed in update 24, now with heavy doses of fireweed, grasses and the odd enthusiastic aspen (also good colonizers). 


25-9: Zooming out a bit, the effect is not unlike what you'd see during the summer on an aerial image.  I'm fairly happy with these, although I'm sure I'll be working on the effect more in the future. 


25-10: Back to the farms, here's a detailed shot of two farms bordering the stream.  The farm on the top of the image has chopped right down to the water like many cattle farms in the past. 


25-11: And here, another experiment.  I wanted to give the impression that this field is actively being cut right at the instant this picture was taken.  All in all, I'm fairly happy with the result and I'll certainly be playing with this in the future!


25-12: And another pair of farms, with completed details next to the highway.  Interesting thing I discovered as well, power poles plop quite nicely on some farm lots if you're careful. 


25-13: And zooming out a whole bunch, here you can see the entire area from 25-6, now completed with details and everything.  The more I use those wide angle rural roads, the more I like them!


25-14: Finally, just because I don't want to leave this update off on the same note as most others, here is the composite shot of Alexandria.  To help you get your bearings, the two rivers run more or less east to west (right to left) and the highway is running from north to south (top to bottom).  Click the image to load a larger version of this shot! 


Now, I'll be starting on the next tile soon, but first for update 26, I'm going to bring out the latest maps and a couple of surprises.  See you all then! 

[calibanX]

Alexandria turned out quite nicely. Congratulations Battlecat. I've tried to use those multicolored flowers in my fields and I can't get them to look quite right. You do a fine job with them. You don't have any horticulture training do you I have to say I'm looking forward to those maps you mentioned. Happy mapping!

Geoff

[Earth quake]

Wow, perfect work and rural aera. 

I really love the overview, really splendid.

Vivien.

[BarbarossaS]

Wow, Alexandria completed! You've done a wonderful job on it, I must say! 
The idea you had in 25-11 is great, it really looks like it's being cut 
And the overview is quite magnificent too, thanks a lot for that!

Well, here's to the next 25 updates, can't wait to see what you have in store for us next!

-Stijn-

[FrankU]

Oh, a real good job you have done here. 

The pictures all are so balanced and detailed wonderfully... I hardly can sit still on my chair: I 'd like to run home and fire up a new rural region to try to do this kind of stuff myself. I have gathered some ideas for the last weeks.

One comment though: the experiment on 25-11 is really nice, only I guess that the plopped gras should be more yellow. Now the grass is green and after mowing it suddenly is yellow??
But that is really the only comment.

I'm eager to see more of your work.

[JoeST]

Fantastic shots, especially that harvester, that is AMAZING attention to detail

Joe

[Glowbal]

Absolutly amazing. I just read your entire diary. I just love it.

I got a question though.
being a huge fan of rural areas myself (although I also like huge cities ), I make these myself also.
Though, I always seem to have troubles with my power.
Everything needs to be connected to a power source. How did you solve that? As I can't see that in the picture.

Cheers!

[art128]

Only two comment ?? Ohh, I think I've to stop by there more frequently. As for that last update, really beautiful. The fields are the most realistic I've ever seen in an MD. Also, that village (or is it a little town ?!) looks great to me.
Take care,
-Arthur. 

[threestooges]

Interesting graph. Allow me to bump my total up to 9 by saying that you seem to have gotten those RRP fences down to a science. Not just in this update, but in some of the previous ones too they just look natural by this point. As for the harvesting pic, I'm not sure what to suggest, but it looks like the recently cut areas are too smooth. Not sure what you could use to rough it up without making it look fuzzy again... perhaps some tracks to simulate the combine/harvester having passed through and perhaps a more linear alignment of the hay bales.

I like the fireweed pics too. I haven't quite gotten the hang of those pink flowers yet. They have a bold color that can overhwelm an area visually if you're not careful. You seem to have done a fine job with it though. Makes me wonder though, since you say it springs up after controlled burns and the like, does it get its name from its rapid post-burn growth, or the color (coupled with the speedy growth)?

Congratulations on 25 updates, and I'll keep an eye out for hopefully many more to come.
-Matt

[FrankU]

Absolutly amazing. I just read your entire diary. I just love it.

I got a question though.
being a huge fan of rural areas myself (although I also like huge cities ), I make these myself also.
Though, I always seem to have troubles with my power.
Everything needs to be connected to a power source. How did you solve that? As I can't see that in the picture.

Cheers!

GLowbal,

I also dislike the need of laying powerlines through my forests. For this you need the "UtilityRadius TrafPollution Modd" by RalphaelNinja. This modd raises the radius for power and water to the whole citytile, so no placement of powerlines and laying of pipes anymore.
Take a look at:
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=21352

[Glowbal]

Thank you. =) That is great! no more spending ages laying pipes :p

[danielcote]

I like you're flower fields the pathes just need to be more windy.

[Battlecat]

Geoff (calibanX): Thanks for stopping in again!  I'll admit I do have some horticultural training, mostly as a result of both my parents being quite enthusiastic gardeners.  I've also snagged some inspiration from subalpine meadows I've spent a great deal of time hiking in. 

With respect to the RRP foliage and the multi colored fields I makie, the key seems to be to mix the various types of grasses in with them to create a blended effect.  I'll look into creating a more detailed discussion on creating those fields in the future.  By the way, thanks very much for the inspiration from Monument Valley; one of the maps today emulates the style you're using! 

Vivien (Earth quake): Thanks for stopping in again and for you kind words!  Glad you like it!

Stijn (BarbarossaS): Thanks very much!  Glad you like the effect in that field.  I'm certainly shooting for at least 25 more, thanks for the encouragement!

FrankU: Thanks very much for your kind words!  I would love to have more varieties of plopable grass to work with, it would certainly open up additional options for the fields.  I do agree that the colors I'ves used aren't ideal, but one must work with what one has available. 

Also, thanks for taking the time to answer Glowbal's question! 

Joe (JoeST): Thanks!  Glad you like the work I'm doing here!

Glowbal: Welcome to Adara!  Glad you enjoyed your first visit.  The solution FrankU presented to the power transmission problem is one I haven't actually encountered before, but it would work quite well.  I actually mostly fake it, because a lot of really odd things carry power, such as farm fields and the RRP fences. 

Where the gap is too large, I usually use carefully spaced open grass parks from the original game since you can plop trees over them.  They're usually tucked away in my riparian areas or the hillside forests.  That allows me to keep the illusion of power transmission via the plopable power poles. 

Arthur (art128): Life does happen, thanks for taking the time to stop in once again!  Assuming you're refering to that high wealth mansion area, it's an isolated hillside subdivision!  Glad you like it! 

Matt (threestooges): Thanks for stopping in once again!  I agree, I was a bit clumsy with those hay bales; I might have to go back and tweak it in the future.  I'm not entirely sure how I'd put tracks in, but I can see where you're going with it.  I'll have to think on those ideas for a bit and see if I come up with anything. 

As for the fireweed, I think it gets it name a bit from both the color and the place it grows.  Either way, it's a pretty common plant here in BC.  As I mentioned to calibanX earlier, the key thing is to dampen out the color with the grass textures.  By painting in some brown rye grass and the tan reed grass in among the dense pink flowers, it dampens out some of the color, and breaks up the pattern quite a bit.  I'll explore some of my tricks with the RRP textures more in a future update!

danielcote: Welcome!  Thanks for stopping in.  If you're referring to those logging roads in the latest update, I'll have to agree, they certainly could be more windy.  I'll have to see what I can do about that in the future!

Update 26
Mapping Away Once More

As promised, I'm going to show you a few more maps today for you entertainment.  And then as promised, a couple of those suprises I mentioned last time.  So, here we go! 

26-1: To start, here's the topographic map for Alexandria.  As much as I like the colored elevation background, I've been finding it just makes the pictures too busy.  So, I'll just stick with the contour lines in the future!  I'm still working on finding a mapping techniques I like for this particular type of data.




26-2: As I was poking around the various Mayor's diaries, I noticed calibanX's maps in Monument Valley.  I like the simplicity of his terrain maps, they do a nice job of giving the feel of terrain without making the background too terribly complex.  Here's what that mapping style looks like when applied to Alexandria.  I'm going to have to play with it some more, but I have to say, I like the initial effect!




26-3: I do like that style, but I think I'll work with it a bit more, primarily because a lot of the colors I used on my original maps don't play nicely with this style.  Here's the third map, and so far, the result I'm happiest with. 




26-4: Finally, I can make good use of the maps to show you the context of the two large mosaics that I produced today.  The two purple outlines on the map below show the approximate boundary of the following two mosaics. 




26-5: Here's the first mosaic, running from the high wealth area through to the north west corner of the tile.








26-6: And the second mosaic, this one extending from the north west corner of the map, through the urban center to the shopping mall on the west side of Alexandria. 









26-7: Finally, since it appeals to my obsessive nature, here's an expanded composite shot of Delmar Junction and Alexandria together.  As always with these composite images, you can click this one to see a much larger version (522 kb).  Let me know if it the link doesn't work for you!



And that's a wrap for today!  Next time, we'll have a first look at the next map tile, located to the south of Delmar Junction.  See you all then!

[art128]

My ! That is just fantastic, these maps are stunning my friend, excellent work ! Also, the mosaics are nice, too. i really love the villas area in the first one. Great work with the plopable river, in my opinion, I will never use these to make big rivers like that.The general shot is surely great !
take care,
-Arthur. 

[io_bg]

Wonderful update! I really like the ploppable rivers and your detailed farms.

[kwakelaar]

Really like your maps and overviews, Alexandria looks great. And I must say I am impressed by how you manage to make everything look so natural.

[calibanX]

Fantastic mapping! I agree with you, I like the color scheme in 26.3. I love your topo map too. There aren't many people making topographic maps. I think this is only the second one I've seen. I'm hoping to experiment with it at some point. The mosaic is beautiful as well. Awesome update Battlecat. I'm looking forward to seeing your next map tile.

Take care.

Geoff

[bat]

Really great rural areas there! And the map looks also really fantastic!!!!!

[Nexis4Jersey]

whoa, i like those 2 mosaic's