Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[Nanami]

Great job with those update (76 and 77)
I suggest you use maxis blocker for low wealth residential.

[tooheys]

Like the way you set out you residential areas. I always shy away from the diagonal most of the time, but you do it very well indeed.

The highlight for me is the river flowing thru the valley. Your use of ploppables (rocks, flora etc) in combination with your rock mod works brilliantly 

[bat]

The river valley looks beautiful!
And also great work on the other parts of that city!!
It is looking fantastic...

[Battlecat]

djvandrake: Thanks very much!

Tomas Neto: Thanks for your kind words!

Cyclone1001: And third indeed, thanks very much for stopping by!

Ethan (ecoba): The airport shuttle lots are effectively large bus stops that also provide an airport effect to a city.  Both versions I built in Winfield are of the set that automatically upgrades as demand increases.  I plan to add a real airport outside of Winfield on a neighbouring tile someday in the future. 

The suburbs are coming along nicely, my big problem is that I've been focusing very hard on residential development lately.  Those towers had a particularly large impact on residential demand.  I just need to switch focuses and find some space for a few more job creating lots.  I'm actually getting close to the suburban edge for this side of Winfield anyhow.  I've picked out a small area near Westside to add a small business park which should help things along.  Thanks for taking the time to write down so many excellent thoughts and comments!

io_bg: Thanks very much!  It helps a lot that the GLR is so visually appealing already.  I really like how that shot turned out as well. 

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much!  I've used demand mods in some past regions.  I'm really not terribly fond of the impact they have on gameplay.  I tend to prefer the extra challenge of balancing the regional demand.  It'll just require a little active planning on my part to ramp demand back up again, that's all!  Thanks for the suggestion though!

mightygoose: Thanks very much, glad you like the improved river!

976: Thanks very much!  Actually I've got some use for the maxis style low wealth residential.  It makes great forest cabins, so I prefer to leave it in.  I have a heavy hand with the bulldozer that helps take care of any buildings I don't like.  :-)

tooheys: Diagonals are fairly challenging, but not nearly as hard as the FAR and wide radius curves.  Those really throw a wrench into residential design!  Glad you enjoyed the river valley, I'm looking forward to extending it further on the next tile some day in the future.  Thanks for stopping in!

bat: Thanks very much for your kind words, I'm glad you've been enjoying your visits so much lately!  Hope you like this update. 

Update 78
Winfield – Building Demand and
Detailing Distractions

As I mentioned last week, residential demand is beginning to lag downwards a bit due to the sheer quantity of residential in the suburbs.  As a result, I need to find a place for some industrial development in the area.  But as always, the details come up and I didn't get quite as much done with industrial growth as I'd planned! 

78-1: To start, there's a walking trail that I need to bring under the bridge and some details to add in the area.  For some reason one block of this bridge isn't drawing properly.  I'd replace it except that's not an option at this stage in growth of Winfield.  The rain tool is quite destructive. 


78-2: It's just something I'll have to live with.  It's hardly noticeable and if it really bothers me I can just doctor in a visual fix for these photos on another occasion.  Getting stuff under this bridge was a bit of a pain, but I think this will do the trick.


78-3: For the bulk of this update, I'm going to be working on this area.  Initially, I just planned on a small industrial park by the highway, but that rapidly evolved in a direction I hadn't considered initially. 


78-4: For access, I decided make a one way road loop around from the avenue.  It'll be fully upgraded to a one way only loop.  Right after I built it, I started asking the question about why this would be such a high capacity road.  The answer is coming!


78-5: First, a number of basic industrial lots.  I'm shooting for a manufacturing and high tech style here, so dirty industrial is getting squelched. 


78-6: I'm actually pretty happy with what popped up here.  A few nice looking lots I haven't seen before, most of which are pretty well set for parking.  I only had to doctor one of them to add in a visual parking area. 


78-7: Originally, I planned to extend the industrial site right along the highway here.  Then I realized there was a nice little hill here, so I put a parking lot on the top that will act as a trailhead for the forested park around the point. 


78-8: So I decided to move the industrial to a second tier down near the water. 


78-9: Again, I'd planned to fill this whole area in, but then I thought about the possibility that Westside has other plans for the area.  What if the industrial has already peaked in this neighbourhood?


78-10: I'm thinking there used to be a major lumber mill here that went out of business many years ago due to the lack of rail access to this area.  A large lumbermill would explain the high capcity road serving this lower tier area. 

First, the trail network needs to be extended.  Another small parking lot is down on the waterfront near the remaining industrial buildings.  These guys probably repurposed a few leftover warehouses from the former lumber mill. 


78-11: Next, to continue to sell the idea of an abandoned industrial site, a few large foundations.  These will eventually just provide a small hint that there was a larger facility here at one time. 


78-12: Now for the shoreline and the other various details.  I'm experimenting with making this shoreline a lot rockier than other areas.  But not with large rocks, I'm shooting for something more along the lines of gravel.  The shore would have been actively in use by the old mill since logs are easier to move on water. 


78-13: Getting the last few details into place, and spreading the water outwards leaves us with this overview of the area.  Due to the impact of the mill, a large area of the slope still only has grass and sparse trees.  It'll be a lot more years before this fully grows back. 


78-14: Hidden in the forest on the hill top is the parking lot.  It probably has some information on the old mill, and some stuff about the natural succession that's gradually occurring on the site.


78-15: Further down the hill, the trail wanders out of the trees and across the old site.  One of the foundations is slowly being reclaimed by nature.


78-16: A few businesses still operate here, but nature is slowly growing in around them.


78-17: And finally one shot of the last industrial business in the area.  Someday, this industry will probably shut down, but the city can't force that to happen.  At the moment, this section of waterfront is in transition. 


And that's a wrap for today.  Next time, I'll finish up a few more industrial blocks in Westside and start closing up the edges of the city.  See you in a couple days! 

[mightygoose]

what ploppable water is it that you use? great work on the shoreline and the paths

[bat]

Fantastic work on Winfield and really great new pictures from this city...

[Connor]

I too am wandering about that ploppable water - which one is it, cos it looks great.

Nice work with the paths, trees, nature etc and i like the idea of the foundations, very creative, great work.

[ecoba]

I like the industrialpart of Westside, is Westside a district of Winfield? I'm having a hard time distinguishing them.

I think the idea of an old mill site is very appropriate for the setting and is definitely a clever idea. Have you thought about maybe actually putting in a mill, I know Brian (c.p.) has a great Victorian mill on the LEX, maybe some creative lotting could make it work nicely for the area.

I think that this industrial area turned out very nicely, I'm hoping to add some nice industrial areas to my next city that is fantasy.

Ethan

[Cyclone1001]

Very creative, I wouldn't have thought to have "nature start to take over" so 

[scott1964]

Update looks great 

[canyonjumper]

Great stuff here Battlecat! The mill idea is great, and the whole natural succesion make the whole thing very real.

                  -Jordan

[TiFlo]

@ mightygoose and Connor

I believe the ploppable water is that of PEG's PPond series. Here at the Plex, or Here at the Stex (a bit of sorting out needed there).

@ Battelcat

Great update as always, thanks!

[Nanami]

Great update with those plopable water!

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic industrial area and realistic development of the all city!!! 

[threestooges]

The curve in the path at the top of 78-15 is quite well done. I know that's an odd thing to compliment, but the angle is such that it seems like a very natural, clean, sweeping curve down the hill wrapping around the trees, which is something that can be tricky with those paths. Not sure what you mean by the rain tool being destructive. Whenever I use it, I just make a small (1x1 dent in the ground, enough to get a small bit of water there, then build the bridge. Aside from what would be scrapped by rebuilding the bridge (no small amount looking at the details you've built up around it) it shouldn't be too destructive.

Nice work with the industrial area. The parking lots do help bring a needed sense of realism to the scene. I've started fiddling with them myself, and I've seen a great improvement. I was wondering how you were going to fit an old lumbmill into the area. I like the foundation idea you've come up with. I was wondering how you were going to blend in the foundations, and the result turned out great. It might be interesting to see a few bits and pieces of old building strewn about on them, but as it is right now, it looks pretty darn good.
-Matt

[warconstruct]

splendid work !!

[Battlecat]

mightygoose: As I mentioned in my PM to you, the water mod I'm using is Tahoe Style water by Pegasus.  The mod includes a number of shoreline textures.  There's also a second pack of textures and a number of lots and canals that use the same water style available here on his site.  Hope this helps answer your question!  Thanks for stopping in, glad you enjoyed you visit today!

bat: Thanks very much!

Connor: First of all, welcome to Adara!  I PM'ed you the answer about the plopable water and you can also find the links in my response to mightygoose above.  Thanks very much for stopping in and for your kind words!

Ethan (ecoba): Sorry for the confusion about the cities.  I always reference the city tile I'm working on by the name of the largest city on the tile, in this case, Winfield.  Westside is a secondary city on the same tile.  In the real world it would be entirely independent, but in game, it's only independent due to my approach to development.  It's kind of like Brewer's Junction on the Vavenby tile.  Hope that helps clear things up. 

I've actually got a couple lumber mills lined up for future use in the area, but not on this tile.  The next tile to the south will have a bit more industrial development, and at least one lumbermill somewhere near the railway.  I'll have to look for this mill by CP, sounds like it could be a nice one!  Thanks for your thoughts! 

Cyclone1001: Thanks very much!  It helps that I'm creating this region as a snap shot in time, rather than through the usual approach of constant growth.  It means there's a good incentive to leave empty areas just for eyecandy! 

scott1964: Thanks! 

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks for your kind words!  Natural succession was exactly the effect I'm shooting for, much as I did with varying the ages of the different cut blocks in Jackson Pass. 

TiFlo: Yup, that's the water I'm using for my current lake.  Thanks for taking the time to answer their question and for stopping in!

976: Thanks very much!

Tomas Neto: Thanks, glad you're enjoying this one! 

Matt (threestooges): Thanks very much.  Actually I go to some effort to make the pathways seem quite organic.  One of the things I'm shooting for is making it feel like it's running around the edge of some terrain or some trees.  Glad you like it!  As for the rain tool, I know that's how it's supposed to work, but for some reason this bridge caused me no end of difficulties using that technique.  Also, I just seem to have really bad luck with the rain tool, which is why I usually make all my land bridges right at the beginning of work on a tile.  I'll have to work on refining my technique since something obviously isn't working the way it's supposed to. 

Glad you like the results of my abandoned industrial area.  I was actually thinking that there might have been plans to redevelop the site that just fell through.  In preparation for the development, the old buildings would have been removed.  The foundations were an easy, quick solution to the style of the area.  I would like to do more abandoned land scenes in the future; there are quite a few fascinating examples around my local area. 

warconstruct: Thanks for your kind words!

Update 79
Winfield – More Industrial Growth in Westside

Today I'm going to put some final polish around Westside, the smaller secondary town on the Winfield tile.  It's mostly going to consist of a few industrial complexes with the intent of building up residential demand. 

79-1: For a simple start, one more block of industrial for the waterfront here.  This is a slightly more active site, being on the main road. 


79-2: I was fortunate to have a fairly large high tech development pop up.  I've added a few extra parking stalls and some small roads to access the site through the adjoining warehouse parcel. 


79-3: Further down the hill to the north of the industrial area, the beginnings of the new face of this part of Westside.  This site is a former industrial area, possibly even a small gravel pit.  It's been redeveloped into a small residential subdivision. 


79-4: Here's a quick overview of the area.  I've ensured that trucks accessing the highway in both directions will have a clear view of the traffic they're merging into.  It's hard to resist the urge to run trees right up to the end of the entrance ramp. 


79-5: Next it's time for some shoreline.  In addition to some retaining walls that drop right to the lake, I'm also going for a patch of rocky shoreline as well.


79-6: Here on the south side of the retaining wall, it ends quite abruptly with a few large boulders at the footings.     


79-7: And over on the north side, a slowly widening strip of land with rocks and gravel gradually giving way to grassy shore. 


79-8: This shore has a few more trees, but not nearly as many as my normal shoreline.  This area saw some impact from the industrial activity here, but not as much as the area from last update. 


79-9: This is a very new development, this area would be the next phase of the waterfront housing project.


79-10: In the case of my journal, it will remain this way forever as a snapshot in time.  The project appears to have been delayed a bit, some grass and weeds are taking over the cleared area. 


79-11: Up the hill from the highway near Westside, the powerlines that will eventually lead to Salmo have been extended.  A secondary transformer facility here supplies power to part of Westside, and steps town the final leg that leads to Salmo. 


79-12: It's also the perfect spot for another small industrial site. 


79-13: A few warehouses and a small factory fit quite nicely here. 


79-14: Here's the finished area, at this zoom only the cleared path for the powerlines is visible. 


That's all for today, next it's time to take care of the border between the Winfield and Jackson Pass tiles.  Should be a fun update, I'll see you on Friday!

[Connor]

Nice update once again, i like the little industrial areas and the residential parts look great too 

[Cyclone1001]

Very good. The "future housing" is a nice touch. Keep it up

[Tomas Neto]

Very nice update again!!! Fantastic work!!!