Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[Tomas Neto]

Very nice update again my friend!!!

[canyonjumper]

Battlecat, you've made another amazing update! The shoreline is mindblowing! I especially like 99-17! Keep up the awesome work!

               Your friend,
                              Jordan

[threestooges]

99-19 doesn't look too bad, though with the short distance from the shore to the residences, it looks like there is a great potential for flooding.
99-20 It looks good, but my only critique would be the rectangular peninsula area. Not sure if you mentioned if it was man-made, but it seems too angular to be natural. I like the gravel pile in 99-10, but the large on in 99-11 seems a bit large considering the tower that it's next to. The residents of that building seem like they'd have the money and time where they'd be able to complain about it. Then again, this may be just after the area's been developed, so I guess it wouldn't hurt for the short term. I still think they'd be up in arms about it though. Also on the topic of 99-11, it seems like an interesting shot of an area in motion: either it's an abandoned tram line that Best Buy built next to, or it's about to be an exercise in emminent domain. the roundhouse is a nice touch for the area, well, given that I like trains, it'd be a nice touch for any area, with all the residences surrounding it, perhaps it'll be slated to become a museum, or a mall. Congratulations on 99 updates. I'll be curious to see what's in store for the 100th.
-Matt

[djvandrake]

Teriffic!  Very good looking urban area and your shorelines are awesome. 

[scott1964]

Nice shoreline 

[BuildingUp]

99-15 is so excellent. This whole update was brilliant friend! Can't wait to see more! 

[nedalezz]

99-17 seems to be a favorite, and it certainly is mine. The rocks, the grass, how they blend into the ploppable water, you have done a great job.

99-14 and 99-15, I mean seriously, that is cross border work? You cant tell the difference. Ridiculous, thats just amazing what you've done there.

I love the bonus shot, its beautiful I think. The water and shoreline look stunning. Great update overall!

[Toichus Maximus]

Loving the flora on that industrial waterfront! Brilliant!

[Nanami]

Beautiful updates!

[Battlecat]

Ethan (ecoba): I'd have to say that Ellison Flats represents the most elaborate urban-rural interface that I've ever built.  I'm pretty pleased with how the whole tile is coming together as well!  I really wish I had something special for today's update, but real life has conspired to block pretty much everything but the game play I managed to squeeze in over the last two days.  At least I managed to put together an interesting OSTIM bonus!  Thanks for stopping by!

Thomas (turtle): No worries, I appreciate it when you do find the time to stop by!  Glad to hear you're still keeping an eye on things!  Thanks for your thoughts on that waterfront, I honestly have to admit that I'm not entirely happy with how it came out either.  Some of the original seawall design has persisted and is probably responsible for the square feel of the shore.  You've got some good ideas in there and excellent points and I'm going to see what I can do about it before I wrap up Ellison Flats.

kimcar: Thanks very much!  Glad you like how it came out!

Connor: Thanks!  It takes a fair bit of time to ensure the borders match up, but it's getting easier with every tile! 

Jacob (ShultzCity): Good point from your perspective.  It never ceases to amaze me how much our perception of details is influenced by where we come from!  Glad you like the grassy shoreline.  I'm mostly keeping it as is, but I'm going to tweak it a bit to make the shore a little less square in the next couple updates.  I really wish I had something amazing for today's update, but time has not been on my side this week!  On the other hand, the OSITM bonus is going to be a bit quirky today, so that might make up for it!

Cyclone1001: Thanks very much! 

TiFlo: Glad you like it, I went kind of nuts with the flora brushes in there!

Tomas Neto: Thanks!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks!  I'm particularly happy with how that shoreline turned out near the industrial area.     

Matt (threestooges): It's had to see in 99-19, but there's actually a fairly significant slope between the water and the buildings which should help mitigate the flooding issues!  I'm not entirely happy with that rectangular peninsula either.  I'm adding some of the docks back and modifying the shoreline to tweak the area a bit.  I hope that helps.  I expect those gravel piles are short term, I just don't have the patience to try and get an appropriate building to grow in that area.  The simulator is being stubborn again! 

Good point about the possibility of the tram line there actually being a future planned expansion.  I suspect the Best Buy would only loose some parking and the tram would swing onto the road.  That actually makes more sense than my original idea.  Especially since my efforts to find or make a good looking maintenance yard that fits in that space has been a dismal failure!  There is actually some logic to putting the tram maintenance yard up in the highland tiles where land would be cheaper and less desirable for residential development as would be the case with the waterfront location!  Thanks for your thoughts and feedback! 

djvandrake: Thanks for your kind words!

Scott1964: Thanks!

BuildingUp: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

nedalezz: You're right that shot does seem to be a universal favorite!  I'm really excited about how well that area came out.  Glad you like the cross border shots as well.  The terrain query tool makes lining things up incredibly easy.  It takes two or three tries on average to get the plopable features lined up, but I can double check things with terrain query without leaving the game.  It also helps that plopable water is very forgiving!  Thanks very much for stopping in, glad you're enjoying your visits!

Toichus Maximus: Thanks for your kind words!

976: Thanks very much!

Update 100
Ellison Flats – Staying the Course

Yet another major milestone in the last while, this is the 100th update since I started Adara a little over a year ago! 

I wish I had more time to put this update together, but at least I have something interesting for you!  It figures that my gaming time last night got interrupted so I didn't manage to finish Ellison Flats for today's update!  Ah well, real life has to come first, I've still got some interesting stuff for today's update. 

100-1: This first list shows ever one of the 106 people who have taken a moment to stop in an comment here in Adara over the last 100 updates!  Thanks for your support and feedback everyone!  This will be the last posting of this particular graph for quite some time; I don't think every 25 updates is really sensible going forward. 











100-2: Here's where we stand with the various updates.  Winfield took over from Vavenby as the slowest city to develop.  I think Ellison Flats will be wrapped up pretty soon here. 


100-3: There were some excellent comments on this section of waterfront, so I'm going to tweak it a bit.


100-4: This spot is finished now that I've smoothed out the sharp corner that was here. 


100-5: I've decided to add in some old docks that are the only preserved relic of the industrial site.  These are Paeng's modification to Peg's wooden wharves.  He created a version that is designed to feel like industrial facilities convered to recreation use.  I quite like them and I think they help solve that issue with the square waterfront.


100-6: Moving along, this valley is the last major undeveloped block of land in Ellison Flats.  There's also still a chunk of shoreline left, but we're getting very close now.


100-7: Here I've finished roughing in the last major access road.  A gravel street should do the job.


100-8: One of the major employers of this area is a small mine that operates at the end of the valley. 


100-9: This is where I got interupted last night.  I'm about halfway through roughing out the exurbs and the clearcuts from the extensive logging activity on this tile.  Detailing in this area and the shoreline will be a major activity for the next update. 

Considering Rock Mods

That's all for the main update  However, I've been poking at rock mods in the last few days, and I'm looking at possibly switching over.  While I reserve the final judgement for myself, I'd love to get your input on the following options.  I've used two spots in the Jackson Pass tile for these samples.   

Option 1: Keep the current mod.  I'm currently using Orange_o_'s aubrac rock texture mod.  One of the reasons I'm hanging on to it at the moment is it works well with trees on top of it.  But I'm thinking that I might be able to switch to something different. 



Option 2: Heblem's Grassy Rock mod.  This one is a bit more towards the traditional rock mod look. 



Option 3: Heblem's Mossy Rock mod.  I'll admit I'm leaning towards this one.  I like the feel of this one. 



Let me know what you think of these options, or if you know of another mod that might work out nicely for Adara.  Rock mods are nice in that they can easily be switch.  Granted, I'll have to rebuild all my tile composites but that's a small price to pay. 

OSITM Bonus 6: Today I've got a monster mosaic for you all to enjoy.  We're going for a bit of a flying tour of Winfield and Westside.  Starting at the top of the mosaic we're flying northwards across Winfield towards the lake.  Once we cross the lake, we turn sharply and fly across Westside.  Once we hit the lake again we turn south to fly across a different section of Winfield (the completed section of Ellison Flats).  The lake's placement made this work rather nicely even if it isn't geographically accurate! 

Warning!  This mosaic is composed of 19 800x600 images.  It may take a bit of time to load!





















And that's a wrap!  Hope you enjoyed the update!  See you all next week for the last updates of Ellison Flats.

[vester]

Great update.

Would love to see some more cars, trains, and buses. There are hardly any.

Maybe you could change the nam automata plug-ins or maybe its the settings ?

[BuildingUp]

Okay, let me just first say the statistics are great, always like to see that type of thing in a MD. (I need to do it myself)

Now as for the pictures the OSITM Bonus 6 is brilliant, just brilliant. I noticed the lack of cars but I don't think it really takes away from the beauty.

100-5 and 100-9 are my favorites but as usual I think it's all fabulous.

And congratulations on update number 100!! 

[ecoba]

I really like the updated detailing of the shoreline, that sharp corner had been bothering me, the whole section looked pretty griddy to begin with and I like the revised product. I also feel that the small section of wharves that were redone by paeng add a really nice effect to the area; are they available on SimPeg?

As for the rock mod, I would really like to keep the Aubrac Rock Mod. It really does suit Adara and I personally don't like the look of Eblem's rock mods, even though they are excellent in other locations.

That final mosaic really is wonderful. It shows the great diversity that is spread out throughout Winfield, Westside and Ellison. You have a great way of getting a nice variety of Residential, Commercial, Heavy Industry, and Agriculture. A great bonus!

Ethan

[ShultzCity]

Woo hoo! 100 updates 

I love the mosaic, just beautiful, and hugely realistic.

I also really like those wharves, it gives the area that little bit of 'character' that makes it different to everything else.

I can't wait till you finish off the logging area, really looking forward to it

As for the rock mod, I think I would stick with the one you've got, however if I had to choose one I would go with the second one you displayed (the one you liked).

[io_bg]

Congratulations on the 100 updates!
And that mosaic is probably the biggest one I've ever seen! It's just awesome!

[kimcar]

  Congrats for your 100th update. Hope to see much more. What a mosaic... very nice one. Great scenery and great pics.In fact love it very much lol

[armagin]

biggest... mosaic EVAR!!!

[djvandrake]

Congrats on 100 updates!!     

I really like what you've done with the waterfront, and those dock conversions are an excellent addition.

For rock mods, I really like option 2.  To me that one looks the most realisitic in terms of color palate and texture.  What terrain mod are you using?  Olympic right? 

And that's an awesome mosaic! 

[calibanX]

Congratulations Battlecat. Your longevity and your devotion to your regular updates is rare. The Hall of Fame isn't as far off as it may seem for you my friend.

You've created a mosaic that the king of mosaics Tomas Neto would be proud of. Great job showcasing Adara during your OSITM.

Geoff

[kwakelaar]

The new wharves do look good, and the mosaic is indeed a monster.
Your set up for the last stretch of land in Ellison Flats seems very promising.
I would say that your current rock mod is the best one, but that could also just be a case of getting used to a new one.