Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[ecoba]

Ah, it's okay that updates haven't been as regular. You update very frequently so we can't complain.

Whoa! Hold on, I didn't comment on update 71!  Ah, well, you know I read it...

Well, firstly I think that the mansion area is looking fantastical. I like the style of the roads looping around down to the lakeshore. Very realistic. I think that converting that stretch of GLR to Tram in Road was a very smart idea, and I think it'll look good to see that interesting neighbourhood all developed, maybe some rowhouses up there? I also feel that your adding of public amenities (lots of them) has really created that larger city feel for Winfield. The pool BAT is cool, is that something by Simgoober? It looks like his work. But, anyway the suburbs grew nicely, and that's a good way to make sure mansions don't grow!

Hope to see an update soon, but, have fun with the family. Happy New Year if you're not back by then.

Ethan

Welcome to page 36, and happy 700th post!

[io_bg]

Great city-planning! I particularly like the suburbs and the use of GLR.
Keep up the great work!

[mightygoose]

great update its good to see you thinking about what your going to build.

[canyonjumper]

Ah, another awesome update! I really like the greenery, and the way it looks like a suburb. Just 2 BAT questions though. Where did you get the Pool and the Medical Research Facility? As always, great update, and can't wait until the next one!

                          -Jordan

[Nanami]

Great update and happy new year.

[JoeST]

Happy New Year battlecat and thanks again for the update

Joe

[kwakelaar]

Well, it is the last day of the holidays here in the Netherlands, and I am catching up on updates by the different authors of MD's. I have been looking at the development of Winfield, and it has been interesting to follow your way of working in something a little larger than your usual towns.
It seems with a lot of patience and planning you are able to put together a varied downtown for this city.
The filling in with smaller lots, parks and footpaths is making everything fit into the larger picture.
It has been a pleasure to visit Adara again.

[Battlecat]

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much! 

Schulmanator: Thanks!  I wish neighborhoods in real life were greener, it would make cities much more pleasant!  Granted, it helps a lot that the simulator makes these parks easy to place since there are always leftover useless spots in a non-grid city!

Fabian (Fabian93): Thanks very much for your support!  Glad you enjoy the step by step style, I'm always worried that I'm boring people with this!  I hope you enjoy this update, it really helps to start putting the finishing touches on Winfield. 

Luke09: Thanks!  I would hope they're in pretty good shape, particularly the students since those stairs lead down pretty close to one of the schools!  It's a good way to encourage walking, and also it's a lot cheaper than a stair climber! 

Ethan (ecoba): Thanks for stopping in, I certainly appreciate how often you stop by to comment!  The mansion area is coming together quite nicely, although the high wealth homes can be a bit stubborn about developing at times.  I've not entirely figured out why, but I'm sure it's just an oddity of the simulator.  The pool is indeed a simgoober lot, I've linked it for canyonjumper a bit further down the page.  The public amenities are pretty critical for a city this big, you're right about them selling the size! 

The technique I'm using for suburbs is one of the few ways I've found to block mansions.  The other two methods are diagonal streets, since mansions won't find a large enough block to develop and leaving an extra tile between houses.  I'm sure there are other ways, but these are the ones I've stumbled on so far. 

io_bg: Thanks for stopping in and for your kind words!  The GLR and all the various addon pieces have been a real pleasure to work with! 

mightygoose: I do put a lot of time into planning, but not so much that I can't throw ideas in spur of the moment.  Good ideas are hard to come by after all!  Thanks for stopping in! 

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed this update!  As I mentioned in the ealier PM, the pool is part of a set by Simgoober, which can be found here on the STEX.  The medical research facility was created by Deadwoods and can be found here on the LEX.

976: Thanks!

Joe (JoeST): Thanks very much!  Glad you enjoyed it!

kwakelaar: Today's my first day back at work in fact, but it was a nice holiday!  Thanks for stopping by, glad you're enjoying the results here.  It's certainly requiring all the patience I have, especially when the wrong building grows 8 times in a row! 

Update 73
Winfield – Water Ways

Welcome to the first update of Adara for 2010!  Hope you all had a great New Years!  Things have gone smoothly over the holiday although I didn't get nearly as much time to make updates as I'd hoped I would.  At least I did managed to get some game time in during a few quite periods.  Today I'll be getting started on some new waterway details now that parts of the Winfield urban core are reaching completion.

73-1: The area I'm specifically working on is the bay which the avenue and GLR have bridges over.  First of all, we'll need some retaining walls.


73-2: I've used different styles to reflect the different installation dates of the various bridges. 


73-3: Here's the approximate outline of the bay.  Rather than doing the whole works progressively, I'm going to complete the details in various areas one by one. 


73-4: Starting with the north side of the avenue bridge.  A nice mix of rocks around the base of the retaining wall act as secondary wave breaks when the lake gets high.


73-5: The south side is similar, I've added a lot of foliage and greenery in here now. 


73-6: The GLR bridge here is actually an on-slope transition to the normal elevated railway.  Interestingly enough, if you're careful you can plop water underneath the areas where there are no supports.  Only the largest blocks of plopable water will work though.  If you look carefully under the last supports right on shore, there's very little greenery right against the supports there. 


73-7: Now that I've focused on some details, I'll zoom out some.  The three trails lead down to the beach area from the high wealth neighborhood.  Rich people like to walk next to the lake too!


73-8: This shot is completely unrelated, but I just decided to fill in the forest around the bike trail here.  In this area, there has been relatively recent logging so much of the forest here is deciduous re-growth instead of coniferous forest.  There will be large patches of coniferous forest in places though, particularly along the escarpment between the upper and lower levels of the city. 


73-9: I went with a wider, grassy shore along the bay here.  You can see there's a larger block of coniferous forest along the lakeshore. 


73-10: Up at the end of the bay, there's an energetic stream that flows out of a narrow canyon.  I've decided to go with transparent plopable water for this river.  Fortunately, the two water types actually interface quite nicely if you're careful. 


73-11: I'm going with a very rocky shoreline for this river.  I'm using a mix of green and white rock to represent the chaotic behavior of this stream.  At the height of the freshet, quite a few of these shoreline rocks would be turned and scoured clean, removing any moss on them.  That behavior is often quite unpredictable though.  Mostly, I just wanted a diversity of rock styles here. 


73-12: At the delta, I had to be careful not to plop the gravel props right on to the Tahoe water.  They tend to look quite odd when adjacent to the transparent water where they're underwater. 


73-13: More foliage and some trees wrap up this section of river bank quite nicely.  I added the large grey stones for additional diversity in the area. 


73-14: Further upstream, there's a small section of rapids.  I've still got a bit more work to do here, but first I've got to add the homes in on either side. 


73-15: Zooming out, here's the area I completed today.  I'm quite please with how this is coming together. 


73-16: Here's the same area from another angle.  If you look carefully you can see some dirt paths leading down from the apartments on the south side of the bay. 


And that's a wrap for today.  But now that I'm done my holiday I've managed to scrounge up some time to play more.  Go figure!  As a result, I've got another update coming in a couple of days.  For this upcoming update I'm going to work on an area I've had planned since I started Winfield.  See you all then! 

[Yan077]

Yeah that's great  , I also enjoy this 'step by step development'   
The river is splendid, and I really admire your work with the tram on slopes, fantastic work

[bat]

That's a fantastic first update for 2010! Great start for the new year!
And the update of your MD of 2009 are also great!
Looking forward to more....

[ecoba]

Wow, I think that the little channel of the lake that comes into Winfield is a really nice addition to the city. Don't worry about me stopping in to Adara so much, I'm considering myself a regular and there are quite a few others here, so no need to point it out really.

Ah, it is Simgoober, I might just have to download that lot later today when I do my pre gameplay download session. (I have one every day pretty much as I am still building my plugins folder.)

Well, I think that the rich people have people who carry them in palenquines along the lakeshore, they're too important to walk.  But, anyway I think that the shore on this inlet turned out very nicely, and so did the stream transition. I like the variety of rocks. Can't wait for the next update!

Ethan

[Cyclone1001]

Very good, alyhough I would just use one plop water set. Or, make them mix by making a waterfall or dam. But anyways, great job.

[clearlypowa]

Very nice update 

[Nanami]

Nice, good, welldone.

976

[Tomas Neto]

Awesome update again, my friend!!! Really great!!! 

[canyonjumper]

And Battlecat brings in the new year by posting an amazing update That is really great work with the ploppable water Keep up the awesome work on this awesome MD!

                                  -Jordan

[sumwonyuno]

The river turned out great!  I really like the flora by the elevated highway.

[calibanX]

I really like how the water and the banks turned out. That river flowing in from the edge is fantastic. You make that plopable water look like fun to play with. I'll have to give it a try. Nice job Battlecat.

Geoff

[Battlecat]

Yan077: Thanks very much!  I'm really happy to hear there's so much support for the step by step method!  Glad you're enjoying the tram and waterways recently. 

bat: Thanks!  I enjoyed starting the year off with a bang!   

Ethan (ecoba): Glad you like the channel!  It's actually been part of the plan the whole time so far, but I prefer to hold off on any plopable features until development is mostly under control in a given area.  Those poor people carrying the palenquines down to the lake shore are going to be pretty exhausted, it's a steep trail!  Hope you enjoy today's work, it's going to be the closest thing to a beach I will have created to date!

Cyclone1001: Yeah, I'm not 100% sure on that transition there.  But it didn't work out too badly all things considered!  I really don't like limiting myself to only one plopable water option, but your point about the waterfalls is a good one.  Maybe next time I'll carry the transition up to that first set of rapids, or even use a set of rapids lots to create a transition.  Thanks for the thoughts and for stopping in!

clearlypowa: Thanks very much!

976: Thanks, glad you like it!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much for your kind words!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks!  I hope to get this city really blasting in the coming month!  I realized recently that I've only managed to fill about half the tile so far.  Granted, there's a lot of rural space north of Westside that should be pretty easy, but it was still a surprise! 

sumwonyuno: Thanks! 

Geoff (calibanX): Thanks very much!  I'm actual kind of looking forward to discussing the extension of that river onto the next tile.  The pre-terraforming I've done there has turned out rather interesting!  Plopable water is just so beautifully flexible, it's really providing me the opportunity to create more realistic terrain than was possible in the past!

Update 74
Winfield – Tourism Area

Finally, I can get to work on a part of Winfield that I've been brainstorming for many weeks.  Winfield as a town is attempted to attract tourist dollars to the area.  One of the early efforts in this direction would have been the re-invention of a section of urban waterfront as a beach.  The lake is pretty nice and it would stay cold during the summer due to its size and depth. 
74-1: This is the area I'm working on today, specifically the reddish road near what will eventually be the waterfront.  One of the first things I put in here is the terminus of the GLR system. 


74-2: One of the first decisions I need to make is about the character of the waterfront.  As this is an artificial lake, it won't have an extensive natural beach.  First thing though, I added that street side parking just for something different.  I think it works fairly nicely here.  Not perfect, but good enough for my purposes.  Over to the left is the first of the major hotels here, this one a combination resort and conference center. 


74-3: After widening this section of trail, I decided to go with a grassy waterfront.  In BC, a number of lakes like this one have very narrow rocky shores.  In places where there is designated swimming, there is usually a large expanse of grass, which is a roll the BSC trail park filler grass lots will fill quite nicely.  Particularly since those lots have active people on them.


74-4: And here's the proof of concept.  A narrow rocky shore, and then plopable grass to fill in the gaps closer to the water. 


74-5: Here's the finished block in context.  I'll be continuing to the right side of this shot first.


74-6: First, a Best Western hotel on the other side of the road.  The water tile and grass tile you see in this shot bring the power across the lake from the high tension lines on the other side.


74-7: This little gem is tucked in with the other BSC trail lots.  It's a small open air restaurant integrated with the trail park system.  Perfect addition for an area trying to attract tourist dollars.


74-8: A mix of trail styles, although straight sections are the major feature.  Partially, I'm just trying to work around the absence of diagonal segments for the BSC trail park system.


74-9: Here's the area with the shoreline detailing extended further. 


74-10: Next I'm working around the edge of the shore here.  A third hotel, and a couple of restaurants, including a Dave and Busters at the top in blue and a Starbucks next to the Best Western hotel. 


74-11: I'm about halfway through the shoreline details at this point, just an intermediate shot for your entertainment.  There's a 1x1, 2x2 and 3x3 filler section.  I've used all three in this shot.  The key with them is to make sure to rotate them when multiple copies are in the same area. 


74-12: Zooming back out, here's the area as it stands now.  Past Dave and Busters is a large swath of undeveloped waterfront.  There's a narrow dirt trail through the area but otherwise, nothing else. 


74-13: And back out a bit further, the entire area in context, now with the water fully filled in. 


74-14: But I'm not quite done for today yet.  At the other end of the water front tourist area near the bridge, another block of Peg's OOW stuff will add some diversity.  I realized after I finished this update that the wharf is blocking access for those boats, so this will be revised next update.


74-15: Here I've started bringing the water and the shoreline up to the docks edge.  These docks cause a problem with plopable features I call the prop problem. 


74-16: Here's the problem illustrated.  Due to the location and quantity of props on these docks, I cannot plop water on any of the areas still left as green here.  It's just the nature of the game to restrict placement of plopable features near lots that have dense props. 


74-17: But there's an easy solution.  A lot with Peg's Tahoe water prop on it will fill in the gaps quite neatly. 


74-18: One last quick detail before the wrap up picture today.  I'm going to quickly do the details under the bridge.  I went with a rocky but not solidly rocky footing for the bridge.  Because the bridge is so high, it won't have any issues with sunlight underneath, so it'll be relatively green. 


74-19: That's a wrap for today.  Here's an overview of the area as it looks now.  You can't see it but the west side of the bridge (left side of the image) hasn't been finished yet.  That'll be a part of a future update when I start putting the final polish on Westside. 


That's all for today.  Next update, I'm going to try to finish up some of the area between the highway and the waterfront.

[bat]

Great work on the Tourism Area! Nice 74th update!!!
And looking forward to "the area between the highway and the waterfront"..........