Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[Battlecat]

Life Update:

Good grief it's been a long summer.  Sorry for my complete absence here for the past couple months but my life continues to be wonky.  Some plans haven't panned out as quickly as I had hoped which kind of threw the entire summer into disarray.  With any luck they should all be sorted out in the next couple weeks.  It's still going to be at least a couple weeks before I can scrounge up an update but rest assured, Adara is safe and backed up in preparation for my upcoming move. 

Thanks to everyone for stopping in and your comments on the last update. I'll be picking up where I left off as soon as I can.  Take care!

Battlecat

[Skimbo]

RL has to be more important than SC4. Have a nice time, I'm looking forward to the next Adara update in the future =)

[rooker1]

This is one MD that everyone can definitely learn from.  Gordan's (Battlecat's) rural and farming style is absolutely top notch which is why he and his MD have been chosen to join in the celebration of SC4D's 5th anniversary.
This MD will need your favourite beverage and plenty of quiet time.
If you haven't read this MD from the beginning, it it a must.



Congrats from The SC4D Staff!!!

[Battlecat]

noahclem: Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed the update.

Jordan (canyonjumper): Yeah, I'll have to track those down at some point.  Sadly I haven't even had time to figure it out.  Glad you like how it looks!

metarvo: Thanks very much for your kind words.  Sorry for taking so long to post this update!

Alex (Exla357): Thanks very much! 

bat: Thanks!

Skimbo: Thanks very much, glad you like it.  Also, thanks for keeping this from being a double post!

Arthur (art128): Thanks for your kind words!

io_bg: Thanks very much, sorry it took so long!

supremec: Glad you like it! 

Sparrowsraven: Thanks for taking the time to go through it all!  That's no small feat considering the length!  Good luck with your plopable water experiments! 

The map is being slowly terraformed by hand from scratch using the SC4 Terraformer.  I hate to admit, it still isn't finished yet but I might post it someday if I ever finish it up!

Sam (samerton): Glad you found this helpful.  The plopable farm fields are the greatest investment you can make for a rural region!

Une_ame: Thanks very much! 

Robin (rooker1): Thanks very much for your kind words and for the OSITM selection.  Reading the MD from the beginning is a huge task, and I'm going to make it even longer since I'm kicking off a busy month for Adara right away! 

Update 165
Adara – A Long Overdue Update

Well that was a lot longer off the grid than I expected.  I'm very sorry it's taken so long for me to fire this back up again.  Sadly my wife and I still haven't managed to sell our apartment, so things are still way up in the air and I may go off the grid again.  But I'm sort of back and I'll try to keep updating regularly. 

So, this month is the Anniversary of SC4 Devotion.  About 2.5 years ago I stumbled in here and fell back into Simcity 4.  I've been working on Adara pretty much that entire time, except for the last several months.  Last anniversary, I did a high resolution composite tour of the region, which was great fun.  Sadly the map hasn't grown enough to justify that again so I need to do something different.  The anniversary was an excellent incentive, the OSTIM selection only enhanced it. 

For this anniversary, I am going to break some of the rules of old Adara to try and revitalize things.  From there we'll see what happens, but this month will be full of surprises.  First things first today: I'm going to reveal and terraform a large swath of the map.  As a rule, I've always kept undeveloped tiles hidden. 

That rule ends today as I'm going to build up more of the map and lay out some basic networks and waterways.  To keep my interest, I've decided not to limit myself to one tile at a time, instead I'm going to work on expanding the big picture view of the region.  I'll be preparing and launching as many tiles as I can manage this month to give you all a wider view of the future growth of the region.  The zoom 1 composite is going change a lot this month!  Zoom 2 composites are going to remain reserved for completed tiles only. 

So to start things light, let's fire up SC4 Terraformer and get started!

165-1: Centered in the map is the fully terraformed section of Adara.  The first thing that should be readily apparent is that I've still got a long ways to go to finish this up! 


165-2: The first area I'm going to touch up today is the South West Corner.  This area will be the transitional zone to an urban core on a neighboring map. 


165-3: The tweaks here including fixing up the islands for easier use, dropping the elevation along the waterfront and some basic touchups to the shoreline.  The final details will be taken care of in game using finer scale terraforming tools.  The goal here is to get the large scale cross border details finished.


It's a small update to start, but it'll get busy soon enough!  The two tiles at the bottom of the third image above matches up with Dunster Bend.  Starting tomorrow with the lower left tile in this image (the one half visible) I'm going to lay out the basic transportation networks and watercourses.  These are the last shots you'll be seeing from SC4 Terraformer for a while although I'll be working in it extensively this month.  The next updates will be the tile introductions.  I'll be back tomorrow with a look at the first new tile! 

[mave94]

I love surprises! I'm eager to see more.
Don't hurry, real life always comes first

[art128]

Nice to have you back, and for a OSITM, that's great. Nice terraforming on the shore there. Really liked it. Can't wait to see pictures from these tiles.

[noahclem]

Hmm, where to start? 

First off, glad to have you back! I wish you the best of luck selling your apartment and moving 

Second, congrats on another OSITM, particularly timed with the SC4D 5th birthday! Certainly a well-deserved honor. I may have to take Robin's suggestiong and grab a choice beverage to peruse your earlier updates as I've not yet read them all.

Finally, I'm excited for your plan for the month and look forward to seeing how your work turns out! You've got a nice start so far 

[bat]

Congrats on your third OSITM-award!
And great first update in this special month.
Looking forward to the second...

[Cyclone1001]

Its good to know that you're back. Good luck with your situation IRL, I hope it goes well.
The update looks good, anxious to see what it is.

[TiFlo]

Battlecat! Yay! 

I was beginning to wonder where you had gone. Glad to see you back around.

[rooker1]

Your MD updates have been greatly missed around here. 
Good to see you have some special incentive to share some special surprises with us this month.
And great start to your month in the spot light.

Robin

[Dantes]

Wow, that's 3D.    That's incredible.  Too bad I can be very bad English. I would like to understand it all better.  The cards are really cool. 

[threestooges]

Now this is what I've been waiting for: Adara back on the grid. Glad to see you have some fun stuff indeed planned for the time here. Looking forward to it.
-Matt

[metarvo]

It's good to see you back, BC.  I'm sorry about your RL, but I hope it gets better really soon.  It looks like the future is bright for Adara as you'll be visiting uncharted territories.

[Battlecat]

MrMAvE94: I think you'll enjoy this month then, I plan to post updates as fast as I can create them!  Thanks for stopping in!

Arthur (art128): Thanks!  It'll be a couple days before we get to the really interesting shoreline but there's a few interesting tiles in the interm. 

noahclem: Thanks very much!  Considering the last 6 months I'll need all the luck I can get to sell this place!  Thanks for thinking about having a look at the old updates, it's no small feat to read through the entire thread!

bat: Thanks very much!  So far you haven't had to look too far forward, I'm hoping to keep it up. 

Cyclone1001: Thanks!  The real life situation isn't so much bad as it is depressing and frustrating.  Especially since an offer on our apartment fell apart at the last minute at the end of September.  The anniversary created a really good incentive to get back to work!

TiFlo: I've never been far, I've mostly been professionally lurking lately.  I hope to make up for it this month!  Thanks!

Robin (rooker1): Thanks for your kind words!  I really had to blow the dust of Adara in a hurry when I got word that it was the 5th anniversary, plus being selected for OSITM!  I plan to post updates as rapidly as life allows.  At this point, it's looking pretty good!

Dantes: The 3D is from SC4 Terraformer.  It was created several years ago by wouanagaine and it is my single favorite SC4 utility.  It allows region scale terraforming so I don't have to mess around with the reconcile edges tool.  Considering English isn't your first language, you're doing a fine job!  It's probably better than my attempt at German would be! 

Matt (threestooges): Thanks very much, I'm sorry it took so long to get back to it!  It's going to be an interesting month actually putting together more of the region I've envisioned. 

metarvo: Thanks very much for your kind words!  Real life is a pain but it's pretty much a frustrating holding pattern now rather than time consuming.  I hope that changes sometime in the near future though; that will mean I can finally move!  It's going to be an interesting month in uncharted territories!

Update 166
Deroche – Highway Interchanges

Welcome to the first new tile introduction!  Today I'm introducing the Deroche tile, which can be found immediately south of Dunster Bend.  I'm pretty sure I haven't used this town name yet!  This tile is a very important one for the major transport system because this is the first location where the main highway crosses the river.  I'll be making more advanced use of the RHW mod than ever before in Adara today. 

Speaking of the river, I'm open to suggestions for naming the big game water river in this region.  I have yet to come up with one I like.  Throw some at me and if I see one I like I'll use it for the region. 

166-1: The first order of business is checking the cross border items.  This tile borders with Dunster Bend, so it's adjacent to a fully developed tile.  The most complex of those is the point where the marshy stream crosses over.  Here's the view of Dunster Bend


166-2: A quick bit of work with the terrain query tool and I've got the edges lined up.  Actually detailing work will come some day in the future.


166-3: Now for the real fun, bridge building!  It took me a while to get this put together.  As recommended, I used an avenue bridge instead of a maxis highway bridge.  I'm pleased with the results.  The area accessed by this bridge is going to be important for this region tile for several reasons.  But I think I'll save discussing the first of those reasons until tomorrow.   


166-4: A closer look at the interchange reveals that it's RHW6S transitioning down to RHW4 at the bridge.  I've never used the smooth MIS curves before, the results are stunning. 


166-5: An additional complication on this tile is the T junction between three highways.  I've never built one of these in Adara; actually never before.  It took about an hour of fussing around to figure it out.


166-6: This is what I came up with in the end.  I think it looks pretty good, although I shorted myself a bit of space for wide radius curves.  No worries there, such is life. 


166-7: The result of today's work is a simple zoom 1 composite.  As always, click the image to see a full sized version!


166-8: But I'm not going to leave it at that!  I've got two additional composite images I'm going to maintain and update through the course of this month.  The first of course is the zoom 1 regional composite.  I've also inserted the most recent completed map of Lehman Valley. 


166-9: The second is brand new.  I'm calling it the reference composite.  This is just a copy of the zoom 1 composite image with all the towns labeled in bright red.  It exists in case you're new, or if you've lost track of what is where in the region! 

   
That's a wrap for today.  See you next time when I crack open another new tile and get the basics in place. 

[bat]

Beautiful region there! And great work on the highway and river!!!

[art128]

Nice update, Battlecat. I really liked it.

As usual your nature is splendid and the way it blend with the transportation is excellent. Thought, I must say i'm not too fan of your highways this time. Especially when regarding the bridge. I must say this bridge is horrible to be honest, but this isn't your fault. What I recommend you is to use the level tools to raise it up at the extremities and then use a "real" bridge like the steel arched ones.  Also, I must say i'm not an expert of highway or road geekery but the interchanges are great.. But the way you make them is kinda odd. Specially the exit one.. Why not making each ramp the traditional way ? like on this picture:



I think it would look much better that way. But it's just my point of view, and I'm not a professional in this matter. On an other hand, I pretty much like the trumpet interchange and the idea of splitting into one line.

Good work, keep it up!

Arthur.

[rooker1]

Fantastic update. 
I found myself very fustrated when I wanted to zoom in further on that reference composite.
I do very much agree with Arthur on those on and off ramps would look a lot nicer his way.  That's how they are on most of the highways around where I live.
I can see we are in for a treat with you this month.

Robin

[Cyclone1001]

Great update, I'm loving the composites.

[metarvo]

All right, two updates back to back!  It's good to see you exploring the potential of the new RHW update.  The Zoom 1 composite is breathtaking, just like standing on the edge of a mountaintop scenic lookout overlooking the fields below.