Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[kbieniu7]

Awesome!... ehh, I can't find more words to describe my my feelings 
The way, you used FARR is excellent! I don't see the grid results here 

[Xiziz]

Just noticed the last three updates, and your journal for the first time actually, I have to say, wow!
I'll have to spend some time digging through the entire journal now.

Looks great!

[metarvo]

If you hadn't told me that the second mosaic crossed a tile boundary, I would've never been able to guess because the transition is so smooth.  That's a good thing!    All of the diagonal building adds a degree of realism to the rural landscape.  I've also just now noticed the small utility poles that you have lining some roads.  This also adds a nice touch to the region.  Keep up the good work, Battlecat!

[Tomas Neto]

It's amazing the beauty and the number of detail in this last update!!! Awesome mosaics!!! Fantastic work, my friend!!! 

[ldvger]

Battlecat-

Beautifully done, as always.  A couple of questions:

1.)  Are you using the gravel and dirt roads from the SAM?  If so, are you able to get them to plop diagonally?  My experiments with the SAM pieces is that they only plop orthagonally, which really limits thier udefullness, for me anyway.

2.)  Whose pathways/trails are you using? 

Lora/LD

[ldvger]

Battlecat-

Please excuse me for bumping my own post in your MD, but I had to ask: how are your sword-fighting lessons goings so far?  Did you have to buy your own practice sword or did the school/instructor provide you with one?  Is it wood or metal (your practice sword)?

I ask because I have always been interested in learning to become a swordswoman but always figured it would be impossible in this world of modern weapons.  I was inspired by Eowyn, sword maiden of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings trilogy back when I first read the books when I was 14 (1968, to spare the mathophobes).  After I saw the LOTR movies, my desire to learn to use a sword returned and I researched online what my option were and found them to be few and far between, and expensive.  I almost bought a replica of Strider's ranger sword (not Aragorn's Narsil/Anduril) from the movie website soon after I bought a replica of the fellowship's magic elven cloaks, but balked both at the price and it's lack of utility.  Not that I want a sharp sword of weapon grade...heaven forbid!  As much wine as I consume, that would be dangerous to both me, my cats and my roommate!  No, my problem with purchasing the Strider ranger sword was that it was mounted in it's scabbard on a wooden plaque and there was no option for a belt so that it could actually be worn. 

My research into sword fighting schools here in the Seattle area yielded two basic results.  Those that taught fencing with a rapier/epee and those that taught movie stunt sword fighting.  There are a number of martial arts schools that teach the use of the japanese katana, but my interest is in the english broadsword or scottish claymore.  Neither are worn at the hip, both are carried over the shoulder...or so my research leads me to believe. 

Anyway, besides giving us updates on your MD, you should keep us informed as to your progress in sword fighting school, too.  I am sure there are many of us out here that would love the opportunity to learn sword fighting basics, so the fact that you are actually doing it is, I think, of perhaps tremendous interest to your readers. 

And, just in case I am having an extremely senior moment and you are NOT enrolled in a sword-fighting class....please excuse this post.

Lora/LD

[citymax]

awesome !!

[tooheys]

A mosaic over multiple tiles, very impressive indeed. I've been trying to pick the borders but I can't see them. Great work Battlecat 

[hooha47]

Unbelievable!  I've searched that mosaic, trying to find the tile boundary, and I can't find it.  That is absolutely fantastic.  Definitely one of the best mosaics I've ever seen.

[Battlecat]

djvandrake: Thanks very much!  I really enjoy making the mosaics for the perspective you gain on the layout of the region.  I make the maps for much the same reason. 

Yan007: Thanks very much for your kind words! 

Matt (threestooges): I might have been a bit enthusiastic, but it just came together so nicely!  Thanks very much for your comments!  Pegasus did a wonderful job on his latest water pack.  He's also re-released his entire canal set to match it.  Apparently there's more stuff coming, but apparently he injured his hand a few months ago. 

Dreamcat: Consider yourself forgiven!  Far be it from me to criticize when I miss so many updates in other diaries because of my busy schedule!  Thanks very for all your kind words!  Vavenby has really come together beautifully, and I'm really looking forward to getting started on the next tile! 

Good point about the CAM, I hadn't actually realized it was capable of adding R$$ demand to farms.  I'm going to look into it after I make a backup copy of my region just in case it messing things up!

Bobbi: Thanks!  Glad you like it!

kbieniu7: Thanks for commenting!  Both the FAR and FARR really add a new level of flexibility in hiding the grid! 

Xiziz: Xiziz: Welcome to Adara!  Glad you enjoyed the last three updates, hope you enjoy your trip through the rest of the diary! 

metarvo: In all honesty, I know exactly where the interface point should be and I'm hard pressed to find it.  Adding the utility poles really do help remind me that there are all sorts of things that go on the land between the roads and the actual farms in rural areas!  Thanks for all your kind words!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much!

Lora (ldvger): Thanks!  I answers your questions in a PM recently, but I'll cover the basics again here for anyone who has a similar question.

1: There aren't any plopable SAM streets, the only plopable SAM features are the wide radius curves.  What you can do is plop the standard diagonal maxis style diagonal streets.  Once that's done, you just need to plop the appropriate SAM controller and connect it to the diagonal segment.  The texture will propagate through the diagonal in exactly the same way as it does for the orthogonal streets.  The wide radius curve tiles include a one tile diagonal filler piece and a one tile orthogonal filler piece to fill in sections of road that are shorter than the 5 tile requirement for the SAM textures to be stable. 

2: The pathways you are looking at are one of the sets released as part of the RRP by Chrisadams3997.  They are available here on the LEX. 

As for the swordfighting, no worries about the bump, glad to hear you're interested.  I've done some research and at this point in time there really aren't many schools that teach this particular style.  The one I'm going to for the next 5 weeks is called Academie Duello and is found in downtown Vancouver, BC.  They teach Italian Renaissance style rapier, longsword and short sword, as well as some of the hand to hand and knife fighting techniques from the same era.  There's a small online community that links to several similar schools including one in the Seattle area called Academia della Spada.  From my quick look at the site, I think they do some broadsword combat training. 

I don't have a sword of my own but they provide a number of swords for training.  Training is done with real metal swords that have been blunted and have rubber tips for safety.  Even with the blunting, we did have to sign a disclaimer because there is still some risk of injury, as is the case with any martial art.  I haven't managed to injure myself yet, although I've been in quite a bit of pain from working muscles that I haven't used much in many years. 

The courses are 90 minutes long.  The first 30 minutes is usually spent introducing a new concept.  This week was the first we were actually using the swords in a cutting style (swinging).  Up until now we've been focusing on the thrust style attack (poking!).  It's a fairly light weight period.  Then the advanced students join us and we do a 15 – 20 warm up which is quite a bit of exertion plus stretching.  Usually the rest of the class we are paired up with a partner to drill on sword interactions, such as how to protect ourselves from an opponent's attack.

In the past four weeks of classes I've learned enough to realize that 8 classes is only sufficient to scratch the surface of the technique and skill need to fight with a blade.  I only wish I could keep doing the classes, but the 90 minute drive each way is a bit too much for me in the long term.  I'm really considering purchasing another sword.  I own two currently, one is an ornamental longsword, and the other is a fairly functional modern katana style blade.  If I can scrounge up about 350$, I'm going to be torn between rapier and a longsword!  Either way, the weapons are fully functional and beautifully crafted!  Anyhow, there's so much more that I could go on about, but I'll cut it short for now.  I'll drop another update into the mix next week! 

citymax: Thanks!

tooheys: Glad you like the results!  The borders only required a tiny bit of touch up in photoshop to hide!

hooha47: Thanks very much for your kind words!  I've provided a hint about where that boundary is hiding just below the title!

Update 46
Vavenby– Mapping

For those who are interested from the last update, the tile boundary on the second mosaic is located at the third point where the Denara River comes onto the image (the Dam being number 1).  It cuts through the middle of the corn field just down and to the right of the rail yard.

So today is the last update for the Vavenby tile!  I'm going to wrap things up with a bit of mapping and a few region scale shots.  The last thing today will be a first look at the next tile.  Also, in an interesting twist of face, every single picture today is a hyperlink to a larger version of one sort or another! 

46-1: To start off the day today, I've finally finished up the mapping work on the Vavenby tile.  I've updated the style of the maps and I've started marking a few more point features in such as libraries and churches.  As I mentioned above, click for a larger version!



46-2: Creating maps in the style above can be challenging because it doesn't allow much flexibility when you're actually looking at it after the fact.  More importantly, the bigger my region gets, the harder it is to present a composite map that's still readable.  Fortunately, and excellent solution was revealed by Tarkus in his MD Tarkusian Cities, namely the Gmap Uploader program.  So, I took the same concept and applied it to the larger version of the map below.  Click the picture to access the google map site, which even includes streetnames! 



46-3: Finally, before we move on to the first look at the next tile, here's a composite zoom 5 view of the region to date!  Once again, click the image to view the full size version.  Warning, this file is quite large (7 mb)!


46-4: So now for a first look at the next tile.  For something completely different, I've got a couple of topographic maps of the area for you all to look at today!  I'm tentatively calling this area Jackson Pass.  As you can see, the terrain here is quite rough.  The contour that marks the boundary between dark green and grey is at 300 meters elevation and the contours are 20 meters apart.  The thick ones are at 100 meter intervals.  As you can probably guess, the area is called Jackson Pass because it is a low point in the mountains here and crosses over a drainage divide.  It is located directly east of Delmar Junction.  This is the area right after hitting the save button in SC4Terraformer.  That large prominent mountain is going to be getting some additional attention once I load it up in Simcity.  And yes, you can click this for a larger version.



46-5: After I finished the map above, it occurred to me that it wasn't all that informative.  A map covered in a bunch of contour lines isn't terribly helpful to anyone without a few features marked in.  First of all, I added a new color class for the highest mountains.  The pale grey color starts at 500 m in elevation.  Don't forget, these contours are 20 meter intervals.  Secondly, I've added the waterways and lakes that show up in this area.  Down in the bottom left of this map there is a large lake.  That lake is part of Williston Lake, yes the same one that I just added on the Vavenby Tile.  It looks like this lake is going to play a prominent roll in several of the tiles in this area. 

The small streams I've added in should help clarify the drainage divide that I'm talking about here as well.  Again, the names are tentative, but I don't see any reason to change them at the moment.  Highway 22 is going to be the main route through the valley, and I expect there will be a second highway or even a larger RHW of some sort along the edge of the lake as well.  As with last time, click the image to load a larger version. 



And that's a wrap for today.  Ironically enough, I just didn't have time to open up SC4 in the last few days, so there no preview shot from in game for this tile.  Next time I'll start digging into the actual game play in Jackson Pass  See you then!

[joelyboy911]

Wow! Amazing maps. My internet connection was too slow to look at the 7mb one today, but it will be back in a few days (I exceeded my bandwidth/data allocation). Then I can't wait to look upon it. 

Also, last update,  fantastic as well, great farms. I liked your use of the plop water as well.

[Tomas Neto]

Your updates are very fantastic!!!  The image of the region is phenomenal, wonderful! I adore to follow the growth of your MD!!!!   

[turtle]

Wow, Excellent maps! Amazing detail! 

[JoeST]

Oh my oh my oh my, your maps are awesome, absolutly fantastic use of gmap uploader

Joie

[Dreamcat]

Fantastic work, Battlecat!  Your mapping skills are really quite good!  You make your maps in SC4terraformer, am I correct?  How do you make them so realistic?  Anyway, I cannot wait until you start on Johnson Pass!  I know you will do a wonderful job!

[tooheys]

Great maps Battlecat. You should hire out your services and make some Simoleans on the side  Although not sure what a Simolean is worth these days  .

[djvandrake]

Fantastic update!  Your maps are very detailed, thorough and impressive. 

[Xiziz]

Just finished a slight case of time traveling, 46 updates of majestic Adara in six days. It really is amazing what a few hours in LE and a fantastic use of ploppable flora can do, the first few updates are really nice, and it just keeps getting better as one progresses onward through the pages.

I thoroughly loved the large three tile composite image, and I'm really impressed by your maps!

+1 faithful follower of Adara. 

[Battlecat]

joelyboy911: Glad you like the maps!  Yeah, those large images are starting to become a challenge.  Some of my photo editing software is getting a bit angry at me when I try to create them as well! 

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much!  Glad you're enjoying your visits so much!

turtle: Thanks!  Glad you like the maps!

Joe (JoeST): I'm extremely glad Tarkus pointed the direction to the Gmap uploader!  It's a great service, although I occasionally wonder where all that map data is getting stored!  The nice thing is, it uses simple images for the upload, which means I can put any features I want on the map!  Glad you like it!

Dreamcat: Thanks very much, I'm glad you've enjoyed these maps.  You're partially right, I do all my initial terraforming using SC4Terraformer.  But I don't use that software to create my maps, although it does contribute the data I use to generate the contour lines.  I export the grayscale .png elevation drawing from SC4Terraformer and use the FME software I described in Update 11 to match it to the polygons I drew in Autocad.

So, the contour lines you see on the maps are created as directly as is possible from the actual elevations in SC4.  They are actually created based on the sea level in my game; I went to a great deal of trouble to make sure I had it right.  While I'm working on Jackson Pass, I'm going to figure out a way to create labels for the contours so that it's illustrated a bit more clearly in the future. 

The beauty of the ArcGIS software I used to make the rest of the maps is that everything is based off of pointers.  In other words, the visual themes you see on the maps above are completely independent from the actual lines.  So I can make and discard a dozen different styles of maps very quickly without having to redraw all the lines every time.  It's an odd kind of fun to have, but I find using the FME flowchart and the mapping software very entertaining!  Thanks for the questions!

Dave (tooheys): Thanks for your kind words!  I've occasionally given some thought to offering the service, but a great deal of what I'm doing is very picky and depends a lot on my knowledge of the region.  I could theoretically generate the contour lines to a png image which could be used as a background for other mapping work.  I'm not sure on the value of a simolean either though! 

djvandrake: Thanks very much, glad you like them!

Xiziz: Thanks for your feedback on the trip through Adara, glad you enjoyed the trip!  I certainly appreciate the time you took the look at everything!  I really like the visuals available by create the composite images, I'll be adding more tiles on to that shot as I finish up more tiles! 

Update 47
Jackson Pass – Getting Started

Hello and welcome to the first update of October and the first full update for Jackson Pass!  As with every tile so far, the basics are going to tie up my first full update for Jackson Pass.  Today I've got two major goals to accomplish.  First, there is some final terraforming I've got to sort out.  Secondly, I need to run the basic transportation networks through the area.  Thanks to the layout of Williston Lake, I have to make some careful decisions about exactly how to do this since I have some plans for the tile to the south of here.  Granted, I'm not going to get to that tile for a while, I've got some other places to stop first! 

47-1: Here's a first look at the large mountain which is a core feature of the Jackson Pass tile.  But honestly, I'm really not happy with how this looks.  I can do a lot better.


47-2: This is the result after some serious carving with the terrain tools in game.  I'll come up with a name for it later.


47-3: Highway 22 winds its way up through the mountains.


47-4: Of course, I'm not going to be leaving the roads like this.  It's just nice to occasionally have a before and after when it comes to wide radius curves.


47-5: Every time I place these I have to wonder how we managed without them! 


47-6: The hardest part of this particular map was the connection back to the Delmar Junction Tile.  I left myself with some challenging terrain here. 


47-7: Things are a lot easier over the high point of the pass. 


47-8: In the last update, I labled the streams and lakes on the last map of Jackson Pass.  This small mine is located in valley at the headwaters of Ourman Creek.  I'll have some more shots of this area in the future. 


47-9: Before I wrap things up today, I need to get the highway and lake in place on this side of the mountains.


47-10: Williston Lake just creeps along one corner of this map.  It'll be easier to see what's going on when I develop more tiles in the future. 


47-11: And finally, the highway.  I'm using the RHW2 through most of this tile, just for something different.  It occurred to me that I use frontage roads on highways anyhow, so the issue of not being able to develop residential on the highway isn't an issue for me.  After I took this shot, I did add a section of RHW4, primarily to serve as a passing lane area, which is quite common on highways that are through narrow mountainous terrain.  Saves a lot of money to only have passing lanes in some parts of the route. 


And that's all for today.  This is shaping up to be another really crazy week, so I'm probably not going to have another update for you until next week.  Next step on the list is picking out the sites for the two small urban centers on this tile.  See you all then!

[Dreamcat]

Cheers!  Things are looking good along that road, and the RHW is done very nicely as well.

Sounds like the process you use you make maps is quite time-consuming!  I honestly doubt I'd have the patience for that.  But I can see that your work really pays off!  Your terraforming is great!

Until next time~

EDIT: Post 399~!