Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[noahclem]

Really cool curved fields and fields with orthagonal and diagonal sides! Wish I could do that!

[Jayster]

Looking very nice so far. I'm interested in the size of Duster Bend, whether it will be a really small rural village or a larger more developed rural city.

As always, looking forward to more! 

Jayster

[Schulmanator]

Wonderful rural areas! 

[RickD]

Always interesting to see how you build up a new tile. I am especially curious how you will detail the ranch.

[Battlecat]

cubby420: Thanks very much!

mightygoose: Glad you like them!  I'm very close to having the fields polished and ready for release actually.

Tomas Neto: Thanks for your kind words!

turtle: Thanks, I think I'm finally happy with the field textures.  Just have to finish the touch ups on them now. 

Jordan (canyonjumper): Glad to hear it, they've been a long time coming.

marsh: Thanks!

Matt (threestooges): I'm really happy with the start on that road, I certainly hope the final image meets your expectations!  I'd be happy to take a more detailed tour through highway construction next time I start a tile.  More likely, I'll put together a separate tutorial since the next tile I plan on detailing won't have a RHW network.  In the meantime I sent you a PM that might provide some help.  Assuming the wordiness doesn't melt your brain. 

noahclem: Glad you like them!  You should be able to do that yourself shortly.  I expect to be releasing them very soon!

Jayster: I'm pretty curious what Dunster Bend will look like as well.  At this stage, I'm still not sure.  Although I will mention that a golf course is a possibility I am considering.  I'm not sure where it will go yet though. 

Schulmanator: Thanks very much!

RickD: Glad you're enjoying it.  The ranch detailing is coming right up! 

Update 140
Dunster Bend – Finishing Farms

As promised, a third update this week!  I can't promise to keep this pace up forever but I'm still aiming for at least two updates per week!    Today I'm going to put all the finishing touches on the farms I grew in the last update.  On another note, as I've hinted in the replies above, those curved fields are imminent, assuming I can do the final modding and testing this weekend. 

140-1: First off, here is the curved farm all polished up and completed.  It's not perfect but it makes for an interesting looking area. 


140-2: This area is ready for detailing now.  The windmill you see is actually the town power plant so far, neatly disguised as a farm windmill. 


140-3: I just relocated the windmill up one tile and added a whole swath of details.


140-4: This farm is down near the tile border.  I've actually done the tweak to make the street styled border crossing.  But I want to do something else to make this farm stand out a bit.


140-5: How about a line of spruce trees along the fenceline?  I think this worked pretty nicely actually.


140-6: These two RRP farms are the next targets.  The large one at the bottom is first.


140-7: For something different, I went with pigs as the animal of choice here. 


140-8: On the north side, we're looking at the remnants of an old farm.  The fruit farms on either side and the pig farm on the other side of the highway were once all part of this farm.  Now it's just a minor hobby farm with a couple cows and a couple horses.  The elderly owner of the farm lives in the house at the top of the image. 


140-9: Here's a look at the layout so far.  I've got a stream coming down the mountain as indicated by the trees.  I'm thinking about transitioning it to a ditch along the railway track for something different! 


140-10: Last item for today is this farm up at the end of the road. 


140-11: The catch here is that this isn't really the end of the road.  An old gravel road goes through the farm and through a gate on the far side.  It's not actually an active road anymore. 


140-12: The old road goes up into a valley that is visible on this latest composite image.  There willbe a middle aged clearcut or two in the valley just to keep up with the regional theme.  Oh and this is the latest in the growing series of Dunster Bend composites.  Click as always for the full sized version! 


That's all for today.  Next time I'm going to start growing the town of Dunster Bend. 

[io_bg]

Great stuff as always. Love that curved farm!

[rooker1]

 Your ability to make realistic farming communities is making me jealous.

Robin 

[threestooges]

I got your PM, and it certainly wasn't too wordy. I'll look forward to whatever tutorial you put together too, but comparing what you wrote to a few pics from Adara gave me a good start.

That valley farm is shaping up nicely. It's always fun to take that less traveled path to see where it leads especially where it's some narrow road like that that opens to a "hidden" valley or some place you didn't expect. Those nooks and crannies of Adara always seem to provide those, and their done well.
-Matt

[Tomas Neto]

Another great and fantastic rural area!!! Awesome!!! 

[canyonjumper]

Beautiful! It really reminds me of the areas here in BC (which makes sense, seeing as you're from here too ). Excellent job!

                   Your friend,
                                  Jordan

[calibanX]

Excellent Battlecat. I love the curved fields. I've basically abandoned farms in my journal because I'm just not excited about them. I'm curious to experiment with these though. Dunster Bend looks great. Keep up the great work!

Geoff

[nbvc]

Great work with the fields and flora.

[Gringamuyloca]

well.. you blow me away  ... I start composing my reply to one update... and before I know it I'm 3 or 4 behind!   

I love what you are doing/showing.. and envy the fact that you have time to be so consistent (in this day and age)... and yet I find myself hoping that somehow you will find the time to share your treats that you have 'antagonized' the community with.. not complaining..  (there is a lot to be said about ' Due Diligence' these days)

I look forward to where your creativity takes us next!.. and hope to make more 'timely' replies...

t

[penguin007]

Nice pics as usaul that map is coming along nicely can't wait to see the lake finished!!

Will

[rhizome21]

WOW

I didn't stop here in a month due tu work commitments and spent nearly one hour this morning to browse through your recent updates. What a busy month it was in Adara ! I really like your recent shorelines, and your swampy areas, and maybe most of all, the kind of thought you put in "advance planning" for a tile that makes Adara looks like a real-world, organic and cohesive place rather than a game experiment...
so, as always, bravo !!!!

[RickD]

The ranch turned out very well. The spruce trees along the fence are only a small detail but it looks wonderful.

[nedalezz]

Spectacular as always! The sideways farms have turned out great, and your work taking care of the minor details (like that farm powerplant and its surroundings) are second to none. 

[Skimbo]

I think you need a custom label: "Simcity Farm Professional"


As usual: great work!

[Battlecat]

io_bg: Thanks, I'm glad it turned out in the end. 

Robin (rooker1): Well I'm glad you like them!  Hopefully when I get the clover fields out you'll be able to put them to good use! 

Matt (threestooges): Nifty, glad to hear it wasn't too overwhelming!  I love putting the little nooks and corners in, they really add depth to the map.  Glad you like them!

Tomas Neto: Thanks!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Glad to hear it, I'm certainly shooting for some familiar scenes from the lower mainland! 

Geoff (calibanX): Hopefully those fields will be available soon, I've got news about them today!  Glad you're interested in giving them a shot!

nbvc: Thanks very much!

Gringamuyloca: Well, it has been a busy week, it's not always easy to get that many updates composed in one week!  Glad you've enjoyed getting caught up!  As for the treats I've been posting, there's some news on the future of the diagonal clover field pack.  I'm hoping it will be available soon!

Will (pengin007): Thanks, I'm looking forward to getting to work on the lake as well!

rhizome21: Yup, busiest month is quite some time!  Glad you enjoyed getting caught up on recent events and that you're enjoying the detail I've been putting in!  Thanks very much for stopping in!

RickD: Thanks!  I wasn't sure on the trees, but they looked really good after placing them!

nedalezz: Thanks very much!  The real world has a centralized power grid, so I prefer to avoid having obvious power plants on every tile. 

Skimbo: Thanks, that could work since I've certainly done a lot of focus on farming.  One of my friends mentioned the phrase "obsessive levels of detail", which I have to admit is also the case.    Glad you enjoyed your latest visit!

Update 141
Dunster Bend – Urban Start and Something Extra

Today I'm getting started on the urban layout for Dunster Bend.  I expect this will undergo several revisions before I'm happy with it, but I really need to get the city's budget balanced soon!  I'm pretty close by the end of today's update.

Today's update is very short because of another task I spent most of my time on the weekend working on.  The curved farm fields are pretty much done.  I've already submitted a version for LEX candidacy.  I prefer to go through the LEX in this case because it's an excellent formalized beta process and the feedback is usually very helpful! 

141-1: Most of today's pictures aren't terribly exciting.  The bulk of the past weekend was used getting the street network in place. 


141-2: It's been really challenging winding it along the lake front like this.  Some of the puzzle pieces are quite finicky!  But they're nice to have. 


141-3: I was about halfway done when I realized that the AVE2 from the Network Widening Mod would be perfect for the main street through this town!


141-4: Unfortunately, that resulted in me having to revise the street network, apparently the version I currently have doesn't do diagonal Street-AVE2 intersections.  No big deal though, it was fixable! 


141-5: Laying out the houses I have a pretty specific plan.  Larger homes are going to be down on the waterfront with regular gaps in between lots to allow for beach access.  Smaller 1x2 lots will be up on the land further from the lake. 


141-6: This is the commercial core of the town after I did several rounds of growth.   I still haven't detailed and it turns out there wasn't time.  I'll be laying out the rest of the lots for the town before I add any details to the area.  I've also downloaded a median mod from the STEX which will be applied next time I play. 


141-7: As it was, I ran out of time right about here.  Still lots more details to go in to the area.  There's a school and church in the middle of town that I'll show you next time. 


141-8: To wrap things up, here's the town in context in the 5th update to the Dunster Bend progressive composites!  Click for a larger version as always! 

Before I wrap things up for today, I have a question to ask the community.  As you all may know, I don't tend to put large high school and universities on all my tiles.  As it stands in the real world, a town like Dunster Bend would bus the high school students up to Alexandria High school.  A college or university like the one in Winfield would serve the entire region.

The problem is, the effects don't translate across tile borders.  So, are there any small lot highschool, college and university lots that could be placed unobtrusively in a small town to provide the effect without breaking the overall composition?  They would still have a cost obviously but they wouldn't take up the visual space of the normal versions.  If there isn't something like that, I'll just create some of my own.  Thanks for your help! 

I'm not sure how much gaming time I'll have this week, but I plan to shoot for at least one more update by Friday.  See you all later! 

[noahclem]

The town's coming together really nice! I like the wide-angle curves everywhere and ave-2. I look forward to seeing how the lakefront turns out.

Glad to here you intend to release those diagonal/orthogonal farm lots soon!

For your small town high school needs I believe Mattb325's Bourke Street public school on the LEX teaches primary and secondary school (and looks nice in a small town environment). I think there might be a similar college lot from him but not sure.