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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


James (jimbo_jj): Welcome to Adara!  I really do enjoy camping a lot so there will be a fair number of them around my region!  Thanks for your kind words!

Matt (threestooges): Thanks for your thoughts!  I have been greatly inspired by Darmok's work in Anduin Valley Revisited.  I'm a huge fan of his methodical approach!  Your point about the power lines is a good one; I mostly just did it to break up the grid a bit more.  Also there are few invisible restrictions in the placement of power lines due to the wide radius curves that I was trying to avoid as well.  I'll see if there are any alternative options. 

io_bg: Thanks very much for your kind words! 

Dan (dsrwhat316): Welcome to Adara!  I've certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of your tutorials on adding props to existing lots and on wide radius curves!  The power poles are actually just a retexture of the standar maxis poles done by Pegasus.  It can be found here.

metarvo: Thanks very much!  Here in BC our power transmission corporation is extremely aggressive in keeping the trees and foliage under power lines down.  I'm not sure how they manage it but I guess once the trees are chopped down you've got a fair amount of time before the next crop becomes a serious problem. 

peter007: Thanks!

Stijn (BarbarossaS): Actually it's suprising how few places actually do swordfighting lessons.  It's easy enough to find modern fencing but renaissance style combat is a lot rarer.  These updates do seem to be taking up more and more time!  I guess I'm just being more careful about the way I develop towns and cities in this game now.  Thanks very much!

Tomas Neto: Thanks for stopping in again and for you kind words!

djvandrake: Thank you very much!

Bernhard (Nardo69): The tulips have been a challenge, but I think the custom lots help a lot with them!  You've got a good point about the power lines, although I don't think I've ever seen a road running parallel to high tension power lines right underneath them.  Usually the road is adjacent if anything. 

Anyhow, the issue I'm looking at is actually having the farm right underneath the power lines.  It's something I'll be dealing with today in the easiest manner I'm aware of.  Often in the real world, the legal right of ways for high tension power lines cuts right across farm fields to take the most direct route.  However, the nature of the power lines is that farming can occur under them right up to the pole base.  I'm looking at ways to recreate that effect.  Thanks for your thoughts!

hooha47: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks very much for your kind words.  I've found patience to be the biggest challenge to creating these nice areas.  I started back in February, and I've just about finished my third large city tile!  It's been an interesting journey trying to integrate all the brilliant creations around the SC4 community. 

Dreamcat: Welcome to Adara!  I'm certainly glad I could help you track down those tree controllers.  Thanks very much for your support and enthusiasim!

Lora (ldvger): Thanks!  Glad you like the modifications to those tulip fields, I'm glad you suggested it!  You know, I hadn't even noticed the name of that car dealership!  I'm certainly at the mercy of the people who made some of the custom content.  I think I'll keep it because even if the play on words is a bit rude, the lot does look good!

Driftmaster07: Thanks very much!

Geoff (calibanX): One of the main reasons I'm developing the lots this way is to prevent the simulator from creating dozens of those little filler lots!  It tends to prefer making lots of little lots over a few nice looking big ones.  The fillers work great for filling the gaps, but larger buildings make a better visual anchor for the neighborhood.  Thanks for stopping in! 

kbieniu7: Glad you like it!

FrankU: I'll have to look into them.  Although windmills actually don't seem to be that common here in BC where I live, they would add a nice bit of additional detail to the lots I'm working on.  Thanks for the suggestion and for stopping in!   

Bobbi: Thanks very much! 

Update 43
Vavenby – Housing For All

I was planning on finishing up the entire valley south of Vavenby today.  I managed to finish most of it right about the time the computer crashed and ate 45 minutes of work.   I managed to stretch my time a bit but it's still not quite done.  The only detail left in the valley is the river itself which I'll do in update 44.  After those river details are done, the last main project for the Vavenby tile will be the edges of Williston Lake behind the dam. 

43-1: Here's the area that still needs development for residential.  This valley through to Highway 45 needs attention.  It's deceptively steep though so it'll need some terracing. 


43-2: Here's the main road down to Highway 45.  The terraces aren't very visible without gridlines, but they are present. 


43-3: Of course, in my enthusiasm I forgot to take a full set of work in progress shots.  This valley up behind the new library was the last to be created.


43-4: You'd be surprised how steep the slopes are along this road!  Some of the area just isn't suitable for zoning at all. 


43-5: Here's the finished subdivision complete with the necessary forests. 


43-6: And an overview of the town as it looks now.  It's not quite done yet though.


43-7: I decided this block of land was a bit too perfect to leave undeveloped.  After some careful terraforming I created these two terraces to fill in the area. 


43-8: I used diagonal fillers and seasonal trees to finish up the area.  The green block on the other side of the railway is a bit steeper than it looks.  I decided to leave it alone as a small bit of green space.  Not that there's a shortage of greenspace in my cities! 


43-9: The next set of development goes right up to the tile boundary.  On the highway side of the river we have the start of a farm and a small river front subdivision.


43-10: On the other side of the river, a quiet country road approaches the tile edge.  I learned something really interesting this week that'll help with this road.


43-11: But first, I need a few more houses down here.  I decided to extend the street cemetary down to the highway.


43-12: Still lots of green space, but it caps off the city a bit better.  Can't believe I forgot to turn the grid off for this shot! 


43-13: Thanks to metarvo and his brilliant tutorial on creating street neighbour connections, we have a new tool available for hiding tile boundaries.  When I eventually develop the next tile you'll see the results on the other side of the border.
   


43-14: On the east side of the river, I finally had to farm right through the power lines to get the farm style I wanted to appear. 


43-15: The black triangles are a necessary evil while I'm doing the prep work here.  It's starting to take a long time to do a redraw.  Now that the power lines are re-established, I can start running the fences.  This particular farmer owns land right up to the cemetary. I'll have a detailed shot of this when I finish it next time.


43-16: I decided a few more fragments of residential development were necessary here and there.  I'm also considering putting a handfull of small homes along the winding road.  I'll see how it looks for the next update.


43-17: I placed as many trees as possible to fill in down towards the river, This is about where I ran out of time last night. 


43-18 To wrap up for today, here's a close up shot of one of the little developments I added in 43-16.


43-19 And just a quick showcase of the wide raidus curves on the hillside since they always look so good! 


That's all for today!  Next time, river and lake detailing plus a small bit of additional development.  If things go really well, that should wrap up this tile!  Thanks for stopping in!

djvandrake

 &apls  &apls  &apls

A very extensive and wonderful update.  You've done an excellent job of creating that smaller town look in fairly challenging terrain, and the details blend in very nicely.  Great stuff!!!  :thumbsup:

Dreamcat

Another wonderful update, Battlecat!  What impresses me most is probably your residential layouts.  They are very well laid-out, as usual.  I'm also really impressed with all the greenspace and the STR.  The R$$ houses look really nice blended with all the trees.  It's got that small-town charm to it...heck, I wouldn't mind living there myself!


BarbarossaS

Really beautiful update. I like the way Vavenby is turning out. It's a place I'd love to live in myself  ;)
To bad you didn't have time to finish it, and to bad that in the next updates, we'll have to leave this town behind.

-Stijn-

Tomas Neto

Wooowwww my friend!!! Awesome again! Great rural town, with details very well done, and with a realistic atmosphere!!!  &apls &apls &apls

danielcote


joelyboy911

Lovely pictures!

I like the little town, and how the farms are going.
SimCity Aviation Group
I miss you, Adrian

tooheys

Great update Battlecat. Nothing I hate worse than working with sloping terrain, but a necessary evil I'm afraid. Looks like you are doing a good job though.  :thumbsup:

Well done with the use of flora in the last pic's, they highlight your skills very well. And the road looks good too.  :)

The only thing that caught my eye was the rail in 43.2. It probably shouldn't drop steeply into that hollow but the ground built up instead to flatten things out. But remember, I'm an apprentice of Nardo69 so I tend to nag a bit  :D. ALthough not as much as my master  $%Grinno$% (I'm going to pay for that  &ops)

Dave



Battlecat


djvandrake: Thanks very much!  I think the next map tile is going to provide an even more interesting challenge than this one did.  Glad you like the results in Vavenby! 

Dreamcat: Thanks very much!  I've been through a lot of towns, and the nicest ones I've been too are the ones that have spend a bit of extra money on trees and green space.  I'm really happy with how much R$$ housing has developed.  At this point, the overwhelming demand is for R$ with all the farms out there. 

citymax: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks for stopping in!

Stijn (BarbarossaS): Thank for your kind words!  You're right, there's not a huge amount of time left on this town, but there will be a bit more in the neighbourhood before I move on to tile #4! 

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much for your kind words! 

danielcote: Thanks!  It's not specifically in the Rockies, although the terrain is very mountainous.  Vavenby in the real world is located a fair distance west of the Rocky Mountains at the western edge of the Monashee Range in BC.  I took a bit of inspiration from that area, although my version is a bit larger than it is in reality. 

joelyboy911: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks very much! 

Dave (tooheys): Thanks!  Sloping terrain is a big challenge because the game tends to want to level out zoned blocks of land.  Terracing is the only really functional solution I've found so far in the game.  Glad you like the results!   

As for that slope on the railway, I ran into a few problems when placing the wide radius curves.  Most of them pretty much insist on being level, so they sometimes override the slope mod I have installed.  At this point, I've pretty much leveled myself into a corner, so it's just going to have to stand as it is.  I intend to plan my railways a bit better in the future after all the trouble I had here. 

Once I've got the next phase of mapping work finished, I'll calculate out the slope of that segment, just because you've made me curious.   Thanks for your thoughts!

Update 44
Vavenby – The Last Spots

Today, I've got two major jobs left to take care of in Vavenby.  The first is a bunch more stuff at the entrance to Lindeman Valley, including finishing the river details from last time.  I think I'll also tuck a few more homes here and there in the neighbourhood.  The second project is to take care of the edges of Williston Lake.  Without any further ado, let's get start!

44-1: First of all, I'm going to slip a handful more homes onto the map.  I intend to continue this pattern on the other side of the border when I eventually develop the neighbouring tile.


44-2: Nothing fancy, just a few low wealth homes here.


44-3: The main project today is the river.  It's going to be a bit rockier than the valley bottom river. 


44-4: All done, this river came together quite nicely.  Granted, it was my second time doing it though!


44-5: Here's a wider shot of the river just at the edge of the urban part of Vavenby. 


44-6: Now for the last big project, it's time to detail the edges of Williston Lake. 


44-7: First, just up near the border to the next tile, I decided to put a marina in.  Interestingly enough, a fair number of lots from Pegasus' OOW set don't actually need to be on the coast by default.  They work fairly nicely just as they are.


44-8: The big headache has been figuring out how to detail the edge of this lake.  In keeping with what I've seen of most artificial lakes, I'm keeping the shore fairly narrow.  Naturally in mid summer, the level would drop, but for my purposes here, the lake is effectively at the maximum level.  Here you can see some early experiments with Peg's shoreline textures.


44-9: Here's a shot of the finished northern shoreline near the marina. 


44-10: Up the hill on the other side of the highway, I originally considered putting a farm in, but in the end I decided on a low density set of residential.   


44-11: I added a few more lots and then some trees.  This side of the lake is effectively done now. 


44-12: The island in the middle of the lake doesn't have any development on it.  There are a few small beaches that you could boat to though. 


44-13: Finally, we're off to the other side of the lake.  Initially, I was thinking about using a fairly major road up this side.  In the end I decided to downgrade the road to a gravel road. 


44-14: There is a small handfull of homes on this road, again, mostly small cabins.  Here you can see I'm halfway through the addition of trees and foliage along this section.  Don't ask me how I managed to get that text in the upper left corner! 


44-15: Finally, the south shore of the lake is done.  Here, the railway swings down to be parallel to the lake. 


44-16: And another shot of the same area from a different angle. 


44-17: And finally, here's an overview shot of the lake!  This tile is effectively done! 


44-18: To wrap up today's update, here's a composite shot of the entire Vavenby tile.  Click the image to see a full sized shot. 


That's all for today!  Before I move on to the next tile, I've got a few extra things to show you all.  Hopefully I'll have those for you soon, in less than a week with any luck!  Thanks for stopping in!

threestooges

Very nice work, though that comes as no surprise. Nice note with the Peg OWW stuff not needing shoreline. The effect you acheieve in 44.7 turned out great. Which water pieces are those? Something from Diggis' canal set? It really makes a realistic large, and seemingly deep, body of water. 44.9 is just an excellent shot. The shoreline is very well done, and I keep waiting for a bear to walk out, or a ski boat to run past, or something. My only critique would be the use of the same log model in both spots. They each look good on their own, but the repetition does seem to stand out a bit there. Nice work with the slopes in 44.10-11, both up the hill and down to the dock. Looks like a quiet spot with all the trees filled in like that (though I would suggest they cut back some of the trees to lower the risk of fire). I also like the island in 44.12. The shoreline looks realistic, as does the water choice. Nicely done. The area shot is a great wasy to cap off the update. Very nicely done. I'm waiting to see what you have in store next.
-Matt

BarbarossaS

Incredible work, how you manage to make it all look this realistic is beyond me  :P
The lake shore really is a beautiful piece of work, and the island in the middle of the lake makes it feel complete.
And of course, the rest of Vavenby turned out nice too. I love those residential zones, completely surrounded by trees!  &apls &apls

Can't wait for those extra things you're going to see us!

-Stijn-

djvandrake

Fantastic!  Outstanding results on your lake shoreline, and I love the island.  &apls &apls

Tomas Neto

The attention to every kind of detail, along with your talent, gives us a nice gift every update!!! Fantastic update!!!  &apls &apls &apls

Battlecat


Matt (threestooges): I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the OOW set didn't need any modifications to work on land.  The shoreline here is all plopable water and flora.  The water is Pegasus' Tahoe style from the PPond Basic Kit.  The shoreline textures the most clearly visible in 44-8 are also from the basic kit.  The log model was a small error I missed; I should have clicked one of those an extra time.

I agree the fire risk is quite high there, but as I've seen on many occasions in RL, people living in forested areas rarely like to cut the trees back from their homes to keep the feel of isolation.  Thanks for all the comments!

Stijn (BarbarossaS): Thanks very much!  Mostly it's just taking a lot of trial and error.  I don't like to think about how many times I bulldoze things before I finish up an area!

djvandrake: Glad you like it!  Thanks for stopping in!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much for your kind words! 

Update 45
Vavenby– Mosaic Day

Today is mosaic day!  I always enjoy this because it's my opportunity to show how all the pieces from various updates fit together.  I've got two of them to show you today. 

45-1: Mosaic number one extends from just near the border between the Vavenby and Delmar Junction tiles across Brewer's Junction through to the urban core of Vavenby.  This particular mosaic crosses the area where most of my custom FAR pieces are located. 









45-2: This is the largest mosaic I've ever built, at least in terms of the area covered.  It extends all the way from the Williston Dam in Vavenby through to the North West corner of Delmar Junction.  Yes indeed, that does mean that this mosaic is crossing the border between multiple tiles!  The river winding its way back and forth across the image is the Denara River.
















Hope you like them!  Next time, I should have some mapping work ready and with any luck a first look at the next tile!

djvandrake

 &apls &apls &apls

Fantastic!  I love mosaics for the perspective gained across the landscape.  You've done an excellent job in making everything look harmonious and in context.

Yan077

the last mosaic is one of the best I ever seen !  :o
Just superb  &apls

threestooges

The Energizer Bunny of mosaics. They just keep going... and going... and, well you get the idea. You have maintained a very nice balance of agricultrual development, towns, and green space. Thank for the information on Peg's water. I guess there is a very good reason your pics reminded me a bit of Lake Tahoe. I may have to give that pack a shot myself. As for the setbacks around the houses there, yeah, I know people tend to let things grow in around there houses, it's just bad if a fire does happen. Nice mosaics, and great little update.
-Matt

Dreamcat

Ah!  Forgive me, dear sir, for missing one of your updates.  Ahem...  Hmm...what can I say?  I know.  How about FANTASTIC?  And maybe INCREDIBLE?  And I might even stick in a JAW-DROPPING!!!  Because Vavenby is absolutely incredible!  Very nice work with the map!  And dare I say I cannot wait for the next masterpiece, er, city.  The mosaics are just wonderful!  You truly are an expert on those!  Also I must say...the dam looks 99% better with the detailing.

You have CAM installed, yes?  You can raise the demand for R$$ if you haven't already by installing the 1% R$$ working on farms.  Toodle-oo!

Bobbi


2010.8.4 - I get on SC4D with PSP. So cool.:D
2010.8.14 - I can get on the Internet at home.:)