Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[Connor]

This post brings Adara onto page 53. So thats now well over 50 pages, surpassed 1000 replies, and nearly 100 updates.

Truly representative of a fantastic MD.

Oh, and great update as always 

[Stray Cat]

Fascinating update BC.  Nice how you used those park structures in the logging town...

Cheers!

Scott

[ShultzCity]

WOW! Best update for a while Battlecat! I love the logging fields, and the camping sites. It's just spectacular. The only small nitpick is that along the shorelines should be a small area of marshy, scrub type bushes to help the transition from water to forest. Brilliant work  

[Cyclone1001]

Very nice, loved the compostite! That bay and bridge still look great. As for the caption to 98-15, I doubt it...

[kimcar]

A lot of work again over here.  i admire the skill people like you to built a real city. Mine when i tried looked like a mess Have fun

[Toichus Maximus]

excellent work!

[TiFlo]

Great update! More logging sites are always a welcome addition. And now I'm curious to see where that winding road up the valley will eventually lead. 

[nedalezz]

  just 

Your detail level is something that I cant even imagine myself attaining.

Those cross border mosaics are truly revolutionary when it comes to CJ/MDs.

You, my friend, are what is called a trend-setter.

[bat]

Great work on that little town there! Wonderful pictures!!!

[threestooges]

So much to comment on, it seems like ages (but certain at least a few updates) since I commented here last. Your suburban development is very natural, and really does a good job of working with the terrain. I'm curious though, as far as mods go, do you use CAM or any type of commute-alteration? How well does the traffic flow around Adara? Seems like the folks in the exurbs would have a bit of a drive, but then where are they actually going?

In 98-6 the retaining walls are exceptionally well done. I think that's some of the best use of Jeronij's walls I've seen in a while. Did you edit them at all? From the looks of the trees, it almost looks like you have a c.p. replacement mod for them or something. The jagged edges are well hidden, for the most part, and they seems to blend right into the terrain. I agree it makes it look like the road and rail were just crammed in there, and it looks good for it.

I like the way you let the rovky shoreline in 98-19 come up to the road. I'm sure you'll try it eventually, but that little bit there reminded me of Lake Tahoe where the road runs right along the lake edge for a bit. Ever thought about letting it get that close more often? Yes, I know it's a flooding issue, but what a view it would be.

The overviews you've shown of the lake in development... it looks like actual water. Bonus 4 this time is a great example of it. You've mentioned a couple times wanting to give some visual diversity to the shoreline. There are parts in the overview that pop out, but by and large it looks consistent, without looking uniform, and without being distracting with too much stuff going on. I think you found a really good balance in that picture. Nicely done.

Looking forward to seeing the lumberyard that you're dreaming up, and the zoom 2 mosaics are a great touch for the month. Would it be a safe assumption that they're sloowly working their way together for a big region shot at the end of the month?

-Matt

[kwakelaar]

Nice work on your planning stages and some great looking details again. I really liked how you did the retaining walls and the curves of both road and railway.

[penguin007]

Awesome detailing I love this hilly region

Will

[Battlecat]

Geoff (calibanX): Thanks, glad you're enjoying the forests!  I love adding these little details around the region!

armagin: Welcome to Adara!  Considering how much of my region is rural or forested, these extra details help break up the pattern, much like the real world!  Glad you liked it, thanks for stopping in!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much!

Ethan (ecoba): Yeah, I've been updating pretty regularly lately!  I'm shooting for three updates per week for the month of March and then I'll probably have to cut back a bit!  Glad you're enjoying the diversity of the recent updates, it's kind of nice to be getting back to some rural style work! Thanks for stopping by! 

djvandrake: Thanks!  Glad you like it!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much, those shoreline shots did turn out nicely!  Can't believe that I'll be posting update 100 this Friday if all goes according to plan. 

Connor: Hard to believe when you put it that way!  It's been a crazy year, thanks as always for your kind words and support!

Scott (Stray Cat): Thanks!  I've been looking forward to trying out the bits of that resort pack for a while now, it turned out quite nicely! 

Jacob (ShultzCity): Thanks for your enthusiasm!  I'm kind of torn between two issues with the shorelines.  On the one hand, you're right about the absence of scrub, which is something I've been trying to remember to add in places.  On the other hand, lakes in BC, particularly man made reservoirs tend to be quite abrupt in their shorelines. 

Actually, one of the best examples I can put my hands on is the shot below from Google Streetview of the Campbell River Reservoir on Vancouver Island, BC:


The narrow straight band of grey is covered by water when the reservoir is completely full.   When the water is low, a barren gravel surface is exposed, much like the narrow band of grey gravel I've been using on Williston Lake.  That band extends all the way around the lake and is a pretty consistent visual characteristic for man made reservoirs.  But on the other hand, there is room for variation and I certainly appreciate the reminder!  Thanks again!

Cyclone1001: Thanks again as always!  Actually, I'm totally serious about 98-15!  I haven't even finished terraforming the tile yet which is the point where I do a lot of brainstorming about what goes into an area.

kimcar: Thanks very much, glad you're enjoying your visits! 

Toichus Maximus: Welcome to Adara!  Thanks very much for stopping by! 

TiFlo: I'm pretty curious where that's going as well since I haven't terraformed that neighbouring tile yet.  I'm going to have to contain my curiosity since I plan to head back to some lowland development near Alexandria next! 

nedalezz: Considering the level of detail and care you obviously put into Nesara, I appreciate the enthusiastic response in your reply today!  I suspect with the careful approach you're taking to your region that you should be able to put some excellent cross border work together when Cedar starts getting large enough!  If you feel inclined, I've got a tutorial here that you might find handy and then feel free to ask if you want some more ideas!  Thanks very much for stopping by, I appreciate you thoughts!

bat: Thanks very much for your kind words!

Matt (threestooges): Wow, lots to say today and fortunately I've got lots of answers!  I'm using the CAM, and I think a traffic mod as well.  People who live on the south west shore of Williston Lake commute to the Vavenby area where the nearest employment currently is.  The commute is rather long, but it doesn't seem to be causing any problems for my current traffic mod which I'm very thankful for.  The rail transfer yard that I just added also provides a few jobs to the area. 

Jeronij's retaining walls there are completely unmodified, out of the box.  The only thing that might affect them is the maxis tree replacement mod I'm using.  I'm pretty sure he didn't use CP's trees in the original mod.  I'm actually really happy with how the jagged edges don't stand out there.  I'm really happy with how that lake shore section turned out.  The only thing I might do differently in the future is to plop texture filler lots in before putting in the flora.  I do plan to have low elevation road sections like that in the future since it turned out so well! 

The lake has been turning out very nicely; the Tahoe style water looks excellent as far as I'm concerned!  Glad you like how the lake has turned out.  Sadly, that lumberyard isn't going to be a feature of Ellison Flats, it'll be down in the lowlands somewhere in the distant future.  I'd say the zoom 2 mosaic is a reasonable bet, assuming I can get my computer to cooperate considering the size of these images!  Anyhow, thanks for your extensive comments!

Gjermund (kwakelaar): Thanks very much!  The retaining walls really put a nice finishing touch on the road and railway there. 

Will (penguin007): Thanks, glad you like it!

Update 99
Ellison Flats – Wrapping Up the Urban Core

Today I'm going to finish off the urban area and the shoreline right through to the border with Winfield.  Once I'm done this, there are only one or two more updates to finish off the Ellison Flats tile!  And of course, I've just spotted an error I won't have time to fix until next update! 

99-1: This is the area that's in the works for today.  As you can see, I've already got a batch of buildings growing.  Of course I'm very picky about styles so this area is going to be revised a huge amount.


99-2: Originally I was considering creating seawalls along the shore here, but I just couldn't find anything that fit the style I was shooting for.  So I'm just going with grassy shorelines once again with a trail network.  The railway roundhouse is a nice finishing bit for the railway.  It's probably more historical site than active industrial facility these days. 


99-3: This is the last block of low density residences I'll be building here.  There are still some exurbs to build on the other side of the lake though.


99-4: Right here we've got a movie theatre.  I need to add some more details to the parking lot though.


99-5: Here we go, one finished parking lot along with the rest of the retaining walls for the access road.


99-6: Some stuff is starting to grow, but a I keep having to put them through the chopping block.  It's getting there though. 


99-7: While I'm waiting for things to grow, this upper area needs some final details.


99-8: In particularly, a back alley is a necessary addition to this area.  I've also filled in a bunch of parks and trees to finish off the upper urban area. 


99-9: This area is finally getting close to finished.  I'm giving up on the empty lots that remain, I've got a better idea for them.


99-10: Some grass, a pile of gravel and voila: a vacant lot waiting for development approvals. 


99-11: A couple more lots like that around the area.  I've always considered this area as being a former industrial site in transition to residential so this works quite nicely.  Also if you look carefully you'll see what I forget in this shot.  The location where the Best Buy store is should have been a tram maintenance yard.  Now the tram ends abruptly at a parking lot.  Oops!


99-12: Next up I need to finish the border with the Winfield tile.  Here are the results of my preliminary work to line up the water and trail.  Looks like I got it on the first try thanks to the terrain query tool. 


99-13: Looking closer, the only difference between the two tiles is a subtly different shade of green to the terrain.  I'm really happy with how this looks already!


99-14: So using 99-12 and 99-13 as reference shots, I can easily match up the detail styles so everything looks good.  Here's the same shot as 99-12 now finished.


99-15: And here's a second look at 99-13.  Matching the trail up really made all the difference in the world! 


99-16: Next up, the industrial waterfront.  I'll be continuing the detailing style I played around with a few updates back. 


99-17: Rocks, scrub and general signs of a disturbed shoreline fit in quite nicely here. I believe the industrial sites here made heavy use of the shoreline in the recent past, but that stopped which is why the area has the disturbed look.  I think this site would have been a major lumber mill prior to the current use. 


99-18: The transition here is slightly abrupt, but it make some sense when you consider that there isn't enough space on this part of the shoreline for useful industrial operations.  So it escaped the cutting and as such it's much greener with trees! 


99-19: For the residential waterfront I'm conducting an experiment.  Remember, this is a former industrial area.  I think the developer who built the residential was required to conduct an extensive clean up of the waterfront.  The shoreline was scrapped clean and a large amount of grass and foliage was planted to green up the shoreline which is why there is very little gravel.  I'll be curious to hear what you all thing about the results here. 


99-20: And with that, I've filled in the entire shoreline along the urban area.  Hope you like it! 


OSITM Bonus 5: Well I don't have any zoom 2 composite images left, so today you'll just have to settle for a large sized composite of a portion of Winfield and Ellison Flats.  Mostly I just wanted to see how the shoreline matched up, and it snowballed from there.  Click the image to see the big version!  In retrospect, it looks like I managed to chop one of the GLR trains in half when I was splicing shots together, but such is life on occasion!  Enjoy!


That's all for today.  Next update I'll fix my little mistake with the GLR and then it's on to the rural valley that's still leftover.  See you then!

[ecoba]

Another great update,Battlecat.

I'm really enjoying the ongoing development of the urban area, there is almost a perfect minority of maxis and the whole area blends nicely together. I like the idea of the scrapped shoreline, it's very new and the industrial transition is great. The park system is really well done, and the idea of the vacant lots is really nice, I do the same thing in my cities when I can't get certain lots to grow.

I find it amazing that we're almost done with another tile. Ellison Flats has been a nice change from the rest of urban or rural Adara. (I know I've said that many times.) The cross border pictures are also looking really good.

Anything special planned for update 100?

Ethan

[turtle]

Very nice indeed, BC!
I've surely been enjoying your last updates, but alas, I'm afraid I'm not so good at replying with each update you give us (and you keep your pace!). I agree with Ethan - Ellison Flats is really adds nicely to what you've already shown us you're able to do in this game. Great work with both commercial and industrial! Your residential areas are in a league of their own!
I like the detailing of the residential waterfront, but it looks too square. It looks like there have been a dock, but it would seem strange to tear that down instead of restoring it to make a nice residential project. Maybe some old wooden waterfront would make a difference? I don't mean to discourage you at all. I like how you developed your water-detailing techniques (especially what you did some updates ago with small break-ups). But, in my opinion, the shape looks unrealistic. Either you should break it up a bit, maybe a bit of land reaching out in the water, or give it a small waterfront. But that's just me.
Anyways, everything looks great as always, and I'm really looking forward to your 100th update - I'm sure it will be a blast!
Thomas

[kimcar]

  Great work .I like that trail , that`s a good touch of realism. Great shorline too. Keep it up 

[Connor]

Really nice update once again, and the cross border mosaics look amazing as always, the accuracy you achieve on the tile borders is incredible.

Looking forward to Update 100! 

[ShultzCity]

Another stupendous update! Good point about the shoreline, generally in Australia the shorelines are less abrupt (partly due to the fact that all our man-made dams are bone dry!). I LOVE the shoreline trail, and I think that the extra grass on the residential shoreline works like gem. My favourite images this time through are the bonus image and 99-14. Great work again, and I can't wait to see what you come up with for update #100!

[Cyclone1001]

That shoreline...

[TiFlo]

The shoreline at 99-17 is mind-blowing. I mean... wow, just wow.