Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[threestooges]

I might have been a bit enthusiastic, but it just came together so nicely!

I like your enthusiasm, and it did come together quite well, as have your GIS maps (amazing work). Your adjustments to the mountain really seem to have given it some character and depth. Before it looked like it was just a basic mountain made with the terrain tool (which still looks good with that rock mod you have, is that Orange's?) but now it's a bit craggier and the grass seems more fluid around the base. I like the mine in there too. Is that one of JMyers' works? As I recall he was working on some. Or is it PEG? It looks familiar. Whoever made it, it looks like you're off to a pretty good start here but, as always, I'll be looking forward to more.
-Matt

[Tomas Neto]

Wonderful start of project!!! 
I'm sure there will come a great city at the end of your work!!! 

[JoeST]

Oh wow, yet again you stun me into silence

Going off on a bit of a tangent, I found an awesome little program for viewing (zoom/pan/rotate) SVG's as well as make full-blown slideshows with it (though I havent used this feature yet, having no svg's to slideificate) but yeah, if your maps are svg's and stuff, I am willing to share it with you it uses CouchDB, which is a bit weird, but it works good

Joe

[djvandrake]

Very impressive Battlecat.  This tile is off to a great start and I can't wait to watch it develop. 

[calibanX]

Well Battlecat, I've missed a bit in your journal. I apologize. I'm liking the looks of Jackson Pass. Mountains and some industry, very cool. I have to say that I absolutely love the G-Map idea. That is awesome. I don't have the patience for it but I'm glad you do!

Going back a bit further, I like your residential layouts in Vavenby. They fit nicely with the landscape. That dam is great as well. It came together nicely.

I'll be lurking.

Geoff

[Battlecat]

Greetings everyone!  Before I get on with the replies, I have to appologize for taking so long without explaination on this update!  I was right on schedule for doing my usual gameplay last weekend, but I cleverly forgot that it was also Thanksgiving (well in Canada anyhow), so of course I was booked on my usual gaming day.  Then, the day after Thanksgiving I had to go get so sick that I could barely stand sitting in front of the computer.  Anyhow, such as it is, I'm better and thing should be back on track now! 

Have to say though, the residual effects of my cold made swordfighting classes this past weekend really interesting.  We started the day with a quick introduction to the longsword, which is uses a fairly interesting style of combat.  But the real challenge was when we put on the face masks and gorgets (neck guards) and tried our hands at full speed rapier combat.  Not something I recommend trying when you're still slightly dizzy and out of breath from a cold!  Despite getting seriously schooled by most of my classmates I got a few good hits in, and still had a great time. 

It's a shame I've only got one class left, but I just can't afford the time until I live a bit closer to Vancouver.  Right now it takes me an hour of travel each way to and from class.  On the bright side, I'll be able to keep practicing on my own; I purchased my own training rapier last weekened!  I'll post a shot of it another time, in the meantime, on with the replies and update!

Dreamcat: Yeah, it can be fairly time consuming, but a lot of the complexities that are there mostly allow me to take advantage of the strengths of the software I use.  Autocad is better for data entery, ArcGIS is better for data visualization.  FME just acts as the glue to bind them together! 

Oh, by the way, I checked into that 5% meduim wealth mod for agriculture you mentioned a while back, turns out I have it already, I've just run the demand into the ground already.  I think I'm going to need a pretty big city to start eating into the demand I have for low wealth residential.  Glad you're liking the start of Jackson Pass, thanks for commenting!

Matt (threestooges): Thanks for stopping in and for the 400th comment!  Yeah, that's Orange's texture.  I like how it's got a lot of green in it, it helps a lot when planting trees over the rocky surface in some places.  Despite the amazing power of the Sc4Terraformer which I use for my initial terraforming, I still prefer the in game tools for some of the more specific touch ups. 

The mine is actually a BlaM product by fukuda called the Bistagne Coal Single Pit.  It is available here on the STEX.  He's produced an amazing variety of realistic industrials including a nice batch of mines. 

Tomas Neto: Thanks!  My intent is actually to try to keep the two towns on this map fairly small.  I've got plans for a fair bit of resource based industry in here though!

Joe (JoeST): Not to quiet I hope, thanks for the comments!  The neat thing about the way I manage the map data for this journal is that I can convert it to just about any spatial format in existance.  I'm currently using shapefiles and the data I used for the gmap uploader is a monster .png file, but I could easily produce SVG files as well.  I'm intrigued by your program, so if you feel inclined to post or send a link, I'll see what I can do with it!  Thanks very much!

djvandrake: Glad you like it!  I wish I had more shots for you today, but hopefully things will go better for the next update. 

Geoff (calibanX): No worries about missing the updates, we all get busy on occasion!  Thanks for stopping in again and for your kind words!  I'm actually really enjoying building these maps, it's quite enjoyable for me actually.  Glad you like the dam as well. 

Update 48
Jackson Pass – Initial Townsite

So in addition to the delays I explained above, Simcity 4 decided to be a bit recalcitrant during my playtime this weeked.  I wound up with 2 major crashes while saving before I finally figured out that a new security program I installed recently was the cause.  C'est la vie I suppose, but as a result I wound up building the same basic urban core 2 extra times before the save took, so as a result, I've only got 6 shots for you today. 

48-1: The actual town of Jackson Pass is going to be right near the top of the pass.  On this shot, Delmar Junction and Jackson Lake are on the left side of the image.


48-2: I was feeling a bit whimsicle when I started planning out the town, so I went with a slightly odd planned approach.  I figure this entire town plat was basically built as one project when the resource industry started up here.  I'll be adding more on the other side of the highway in the next update.


48-3: Once the simulator took over, here's the resulting lots!  Only the red hotel is a plopped commercial building, the rest grew naturally. 


48-4: Here's a detailed shot of the school and sports field.  The town water tower is front and center on the main street.


48-5: The commercial developments at the main entrance to town.  A small grocery store and gas station, a fancy old bed and breakfast, and a hotel are visible in the middle of the shot.  The small store by the fire hall is a general store. 


48-6: Finally, tucked out of sight we have the town clinic, in a beautiful little home. 


Sadly, that's a wrap for today.  More to come soon! 

[BarbarossaS]

Glad to see you back! It's been a time and I started to get worried you wouldn't continue this MD.
But RL is sometimes a pain in the butt 

Nice beginning to the town in this update, can't wait to see it develop further. 

-Stijn-

[Tomas Neto]

My friend, is a big joy see your return!!! And that fantastic this update, always with your magic touch, transforming an empty area in a very beautiful rural village!!! Incredible!!! 

[Earth quake]

Splendid Update.
I'm impatient to see the developpement of the village.
Go on your excellent work.

[djvandrake]

Sorry to hear of the crashes, I know that's very frustrating.

I like the area around the school with the sports field and park.  Nicely done. 

[Dreamcat]

Very nice!  I think the town layout looks wonderful.  Glad to see you back!

[Bobbi]

The small town looks very great!

[tooheys]

You've got that road winding nicely through the hills there Battlecat 

The town looks good too. And the B & B building really stands out.

Great to see another update.

Dave

[Battlecat]

Stijn (BarbarossaS): Thanks for your concern!  Things have been going great with the journal despite the headaches with getting the last update off the ground.  Sometimes life eats a bit of time, sometimes it hits you like a freight train.  I should have things back on track now.  Glad you like the start of this town!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much for your kind words!  Glad you like it!

Vivien (Earth quake): Glad you like the start!  Here now I will proceed with growing the town a bit further!

djvandrake: The crashes were my own fault actually.  Since I've never had a crash on save problem ever in the past, I should have looked to see if any new programs that were installed recently could be the culprits.  Oh well, this update went much better.  Glad you like the way the park, school and sports field turned out! 

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

Bobbi: Thanks very much!

Dave (tooheys): Yeah, it did come together nicely, it'll look even better once I get some trees around it.  Thanks for stopping in!

Update 49
Jackson Pass – Terrain Stylings

In addition to getting some more of the town of Jackson Pass put together, I'm also taking my first stab at forestry related details on this map.  As I mentioned way back in Alexandria, I wasn't entirely happy with the results of my first attempt at a clearcut, so I'll be experimenting a great deal with various styles in this area. 

49-1: Here's the area I'll be filling in today.  Some more city will be on the upper terrace and the first clearcut will be on the lower terrace. 


49-2: A quick layout of residential.  I tried to mirror the feeling of the other side of the highway while still working within the limits of the terrain here.  I prefer to avoid modifying the terrain too much in these little towns unless I have no other choice.  The small towns wouldn't have the financial ability to do large scale terrain modification. 


49-3: As the homes slowly fill in, you may notice a few new house models appearing.  Mattb325 uploaded a huge selection of superb single family homes, which I've added to my rapidly growing plugins folder!


49-4: Let's have a closer look at a few of them!  All the 2x2 lots here are the new models.  The ones with the blue roof really stand out, but they still look great! 


49-5: Here's a look at a couple from another angle.  They are really high quality products, and I'm very happy to be able to added them to my region!


49-6: Moving along from housing, a lumberyard and a sawmill can be found a short distance down the highway from the town of Jackson Pass. 


49-7: And a bit further up the road from the lumbermill, there's an active clearcut.  I've outlined the edges of it with trees.  Neat thing I discovered, if you're really careful, you can transition from one SAM type to another using the various bits in the rural wide radius street curves set. 


49-8: After a lot of playing around, here's the result.  I've made this one a bit greener than my last attempt, mostly for the sake of aesthetics.  Additionally, I've obtained the new set of terrain flora tools from Pegasus' site.  They add a nice variety of additional options beyond the current RRP.  I'll be exploring those tools a lot more in future updates.


49-9: Peg also has a nice variety of logging scene props, including the stumps, fallen trees, lumberjacks and various pieces of heavy equipment.  It gives a pretty nice feel to the whole area. 


49-10: Finally, to wrap up today's update, here's another detailed shot of the clearcut.  The style I'm using here is intended for the recently active clearcuts where not much has had a chance to grow back.  I've added a lot more coarse green grass and a few dead trees to add texture.  If you look carefully, you'll also be able to see the clover, grass and one style of flowers from Peg's new set, just to break up the monotony.  I've already started playing around with another style for older clearcuts, which I'll show to you next time! 


And that's a wrap for today.  But for once I can promise a second update before the week is out.  And that update will be my 50th update since I started this project!  See you then!

[BarbarossaS]

Beautiful update! Thanks to pegasus' new stuff, your work is even more perfect
Just love that clearance you've created with it! It really complements with the RRP.
And you say the next update is the 50th. This calls for celebration   

-Stijn-

[joelyboy911]

Battlecat, you're doing a very good job here in this diary.  I don't check here and comment nearly as often as I ought (especially since it seems you are a faithful follower of mine, shame on me.), but your last updates have been very nice. You've done a very nice job with the mayor mode flora.

[io_bg]

Another great update! Matt's new houses fit really well in that small town! Looking forward to more of your experiments with Peg's new flora

[turtle]

Hi Battlecat,
I've been lurking for too long here in the corners of Adara. I love all the updates and I think your attention to detail really makes it standout in realism. If I were adding a lumbermill I'm not sure I would remember clearcuts closeby. Also your methodological approach and documenting everything makes for an amazing region mosaic and great maps. And congratulations on completing that great dam (ages ago). It does look great!
I also love Matts houses, and it is indeed an impressive batch he send out the last couple of months, and though they stand out a little in your village, they are just too good not to make use of them.

I'm looking forward to the next update.

[Earth quake]

Nice Update my friend.
Your small  suburbs is very pretty.
Finaly the last pictures is really original and beautiful.

[Nardo69]

Nice little town there. But I guess I'm stuck in my rather traditional modified street village layout 

The last update reminded me of Idefix, the small dog of Asterix and Obelix. Seeing the cut trees he wouldn't sop howling unless the druid would spread out some of his magic acorns 

I guess I should try *coughcough*'s new terrain tools , too. And mattb325's housings are waiting to grow in my plugin folder, too. Regarding his BATs we seem to have the same preferences!

Take care my friend


Bernhard