Calidores

[c.p.]

Nice selection of BATs.  There's a diversity of styles, but they work well together, and give your city a unique look.

[11241036]

Responsa

art128: Thank you very much. Glad you like it, I had my doubts because my city is still on a low stage which means that mid-density residentials barely grow at all. Therefore, I don't like the current development yet.
romualdillo, belfastsocrates, c.p.: Thank you very much, too, for your nice comments.

Excursio

Before continuing the work on city tile B3, Vella, we make a short trip to city tile C3, Hadria. I figured I might support the development of Vella by starting with a little development of its eastern neighbor. I've already nearly finished a small rural village close to Mithrax, it's got the name Lithicum. It is located at the aptly named Via Lithici which starts in Mithrax at the road-splitting structure seen in Update 12 Picture #2 (the road to the right). Lithicum is located close to the city border.
As already mentioned, it is a rural village, therefore, I've scattered the residentials a bit. I've seen several screenshots here and on the STEX with small fields growing between small agglomerations of houses, and so I tried the same. Although it's a small village, it contains a small doctor's office, a railway station, a small school, a few shops, and a little industry. Fortunately, the game was nice enough to grow me a bunch of Simgoober's cottages, which look good in a setting like this, but alas, its creativity was gone when it came to growing anything more than SimGoober's Sweet Legacy homes on 1x1 residential zones.


#1; Click to enlarge

And a close-up of the center:


#2; Click to enlarge

Progressio

After this short trip to another city, I will continue my work on Vella.
This time, I've spent nearly all time on developing Tyrsalis, the western settlement on Vella. Tyrsalis is nearly finished, apart from some empty spots or parts where MMP's are remissing.
Since there are densely forested hills between Mithrax and Tyrsalis, I thought I might resort to housing where wood plays a crucial role. Particularly, I've used timberframe houses (although they are in fact made more of stone than of wood, the houses are being supported by the wooden skeleton), Kwakelaars content (European W2W houses, although I'm sure they don't consist mostly of wood), and two Canadian buildings called Knightsbridge and Halifax boxes (made by spa). Unfortunately, this time the game didn't like me at all, and I had trouble growing the residentials. For the sake of the screenshots in this update, I even had to plop literally all of them despite all of my attempts to let them grow naturally (by, for instance, blocking all other buildings). The same reason, as well as a lack of time, also prevented me from once more growing Glenni's Norwegian houses (they also look like wooden houses).

Long story short: First, there are three screenshots, from the north to the south of Tyrsalis (East ist located at the top of the pictures).


#3; Click to enlarge


#4; Click to enlarge


#5; Click to enlarge

And now two close-ups that I like: First, the coastal area where the river is flowing into the sea, with the extravagant fish market (Fish Church) and the house on poles that is only accessible during low tides (CSX Barby Haven; I've relotted it a bit).


#6; Click to enlarge

And second, the old town parts (warning: large picture). I've decided to let the railway run all the way along the coast on a viaduct, as art128 already suggested. Time to try out a new plugin I'm developing that allows me to put the space below viaducts to good use by placing parking lots, market stalls, trash containers and more there. I'm already considering to share it; however, before opening a development thread (which somehow implies a promise that I'll one day share them), I wanted to show it somewhere and hear your opinion without being obliged to share it (it's not only far from being shared, most parts are lot-based, which means I can't place them in a row without obstructing railway traffic).


#7; Click to enlarge

Next, two overviews. One of Tyrsalis and one of the whole city tile. Admittedly, the latter one is not impressive, but I wanted to show the current progress as well as the locations of Tyrsalis (left) and Mithrax (right) in relation to their surrounding.


#8; Click to enlarge


#9; Click to enlarge

That's all for today. Hope you liked it.

[art128]

Really nice developments around the center.
But I think you should use another ferry terminal because the maxis one lacks a bit of details. Well it's just my opinion.  WMP's is really nice, but massive.

That's a lot of Solar power plants.. 

[benedict]

Congratulations on being OSITM and for being number one on Ben's Top Ten!

[vortext]

Finally caught up on all the great updates! 

Really like the way you tackle planning as well, outlining with a mmps is a neat idea. The market stalls and such underneath the rail viaducts are a nice touch. And in general you have a good eye for detail. 

[romualdillo]

Lovely town!! 

[manga rivotra]

You know how to make a realistic town, very nice

[Themistokles]

Nice development as always! And that fish market looks very much like the one in my home town -- I had no idea it had been batted.

[11241036]

Responsa

art128: Thank you very much! I do not like the Maxis Terminals very much either. However, I don't like the WMP terminal either, so I'm still searching. About the solar panels: It's true, I'm having more power than I currently need. I relotted Pegasus' Solar Power Plant a bit to get a 1x1 solar panel to fill small 1x1 gaps, and of course tuned down its generated power, so it's not that much more. I was fed up with the empty space there, so I had to do something about it. And it looks like I'll need the electricity in the near future, when my city will grow.
benedict: Thank you. I don't exactly know what that means, but it sounds quite nice.
vortext, romualdillo, manga rivotra, Themistokles: Thank you all very much, too!

Progressio

Just a few days have passed, and it's already time for another update. Unfortunately, it's therefore a shorter update than usual, but as you may have noticed, the last few minutes of my MD being OSITM are here and so I felt I had to write an update.
The only thing missing now is my way of working with MMP's. I need to admit that I've seen much better work than mine in several MD's here and CJ's over at Simtropolis, so I thought I might share pictures of an example how I'm designing a river shore as well as its surrounding forests step by step. If you find anything that I'm doing wrong, or if you have suggestions what to improve, you're very welcome to write me a note. I'm mostly trying to find a good compromise between
- realism
- beauty
- and whatever content is available for download.

We'll start with this nearly virginal area in Mithrax where a small brook coming from the east (here: the top of the picture) flows into the river Iriamus.


#1; Click to enlarge

First, of course, the blue water dots are being removed and replaced by the RFR Plopwater:


#2; Click to enlarge

A little further to the south, there's a reservoir lake with a dam. I'm using the Wildbach pieces to depict turbulences 1. wherever I like it , 2. sometimes where I need a transition between two different types of water, and 3. where it makes sense (such as the base of a waterfall and below the dam).


#3; Click to enlarge

Now for the shoreline. I'm using Pegasus' rocks, gravel, etc. from the Pegasus Terrain Kit. Their main advantage is that they complement each other very well.

4a: I'm starting with boulders to place them at special (and sometimes difficult) locations (such as river islands and next to bridges) because they help to cover some parts of the water MMP's that are not so beautiful, or green areas that can't be covered with water MMP's.
4b: Next comes the gravel. I'm mostly forming large areas with it, sometimes even with a width of several tiles. I'm just imagining that the riverbed is very flat and whenever it's raining a little more, the river quickly floods these parts.
4c: The rest will be filled with rock clusters.
4d: With small rocks, I'm covering small green gaps between the other MMP's where the default terrain can still be seen, or parts where I simply want to place them.

I'm barely ever designing the shores of flowing water with anything other than gravel and rocks. I know it from the rivers in my environment.


#4a, 4b, 4c, 4d; Click to enlarge

4e: If you are like me and like to take a bath in a river instead of the sea in summer, as well as having a grill party with friends there, then you need to lay out a few dirt paths leading from nearby streets to the riverbed.
4f: Next come the trees, in this case Girafe's trees. Along rivers, I usually place: ash, maple, linden, norway maple, and birch trees. I'm starting with the former three tree types because they usually give tree clusters. Therefore, they quickly cover a large area, but they are difficult to place, because I need to make sure that there are no trees growing on roads or the like.
4g: With norway maple trees, I'm filling gaps in the forest (mostly around its limits). Birch trees are only sporadically placed along the limits of the forests or at unusual locations (such as the canal seen in picture 1).


#4e, 4f, 4g

4h, 4i: Close to the limits of the forests, at clearings or in areas without trees, I'm using Green Rye Grass (from RRP Pasture Flora) to cover the ground. At some parts, close to the gravel, I'm placing Girafe's bushes. At various parts, such as in small gaps between the gravel and the retaining wall of the canal, or close to rock clusters, I'm using Girafe's cattails. And the few spots in the forest where you can still see the ground will be filled with something quite common in deciduous forests: fallen leaves (from Pegasus' Terrain Kit). Observe now the final result in fall (4h) and summer (4i):


#4h; Click to enlarge


#4i; Click to enlarge

Other parts of the river currently only have its shoreline finished, there's no forest to be seen. It didn't look good enough to me to make a screenshot of it.

Other than working on the river, I just couldn't resist to start to design the old town parts of Mithrax, close to the coast to the north, but it's very much a work in progress. I'll be making a walkway along the river, the promenade is part of it.


#5; Click to enlarge

And here some close-ups I like: First, the apartment of a famous composer (the building abov the fountain):


#6; Click to enlarge

Next, the Mithrax City Square, with the town hall, two statues of important personalities that I haven't yet found a name for them, and the "Green House", an embassy (actually just a random ploppable CS$$-building, but whatever):


#7; Click to enlarge

Finally, the city park. The few remnants of the old city wall are being preserved there because the gate can't handle traffic flowing through it anymore:


#8; Click to enlarge

That's all for today. Hope you liked it, as well as the past month where Calidores has been OSITM. I haven't been able to finish Vella in this month, but it doesn't look like I'll stop working on it tomorrow. Last but not least, I'd like to thank you all for reading and writing comments, because without your continued interest, I'd probably given up.

[metarvo]

I'm digging the way this river's turning out.  I honestly wouldn't be able to tell that water was even plop water if you hadn't said so and provided the step by step pics — it appears to sparkle and flow like game water.  The riverfront with the gravel, brush, and other details is visually stunning.  Nice work, 11241036!



I know this is way late, but congratulations on making OSITM for June.

[art128]

Wonderful work once again, it has been a very good OSITM with you here, lots of interesting developments.

That last update gives us a good overview of what's more to come. The work on the river bed is excellent.

I really like the city gate preserved on a small urban park like that, gives you a feel of realness.

[Themistokles]

Those autumn colours and the old town are absolutely wonderful, it makes me long to the autumn even though it's the height of summer But I think you should use some other parking garage than the maxis one behind the city hall (this one is my personal favourite, but it's rather space consuming though). And thank you for a really pleasurable OSITM!

[c.p.]

The river looks great   Chris Adams made some tubers, supposedly for ploppable water, but I don't know if they would work with your particular ploppable water.  (I don't have a link, but they're probably on the LEX.  If not, and you're interested check his thread here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2352.0

[carlfatal]

Oh shame, my first comment! 

Only thing I can say is, I like it. I like you riverworks, the selection of BATs you are using, the lotting and especially the way you built the last old town center. 

[noahclem]

Excellent work once again! I especially love the city wall remnants and you're doing really nice work with the W2W areas and ploppable water 

[kelis]

I'm agree with Noah, the city wall is really nice !!

[11241036]

Responsa

art128: A special thanks to you for your compliment and featuring my MD OSITM June 2015.
Themistokles: Thank you very much! About the parking garage: It's actually a re-lotted Maxis garage, but you're right, it does sometimes look strange. I've downloaded the parking garage you recommended, but it has been difficult to include it in my MD due to its odd shape. Please see the Old Town picture in this update about how it turned out.
c.p.: Thank you very much! What do you mean with "tubers", exactly? If you refer to the culverts made by ChrisAdams: I've already installed them, but I haven't found a use for them so far. However, I might use them later, they might come in handy in rural areas or at spots where I can't resort to other means of getting a brook past a road.
metarvo, carlfatal, noahclem, kelis: A great thank you to you, too.


Progressio


Long time no hear from me After the past month, I decided to take a break of a few days from playing SC4. I'm glad that the riverside turned out good for you. I'll try my best to keep up the quality.
In today's update, I'm taking on the challenge to develop the inner city parts of Mithrax that I've spared so far - they will mostly be made up with mid-density zoning (mostly apartments and condos) and commercials. It hasn't been easy because 1. of the hilly terrain, and 2. with my plugins folder, it's difficult to create a good scene made of mid-density apartments without serious cases of building repetition, or exactly the opposite (in case I want building repetition).
But first, a screenshot of a brook separating a small suburb from Mithrax (Staricum). It's the same brook that's flowing into the large river in the last update, pictures 4a-4i (Sorry, forgot to turn on the shadows):


#1; Click to enlarge

Next, just north of the brook, I've developed a R$ district with mostly Danchi apartments. To spruce it up a litte, I've included a small pond there:


#2; Click to enlarge

A little further to the west (here: at the bottom), there's a little rowhouse development around the high school, the church and even a small mosque. I've been actually lucky to grow it, all of these R$$$-Rowhouses have grown naturally.


#3; Click to enlarge

Close to the river, where it is splitting to form a delta, there's a mostly modern condominium complex.


#4; Click to enlarge

Usually, I'm placing the main railway station in the center of a city. At this location, it can easily be accessed from everywhere in the city, and I can make it the center of activity. This time, due to the hilly terrain, I had to place it on the hillside. I've also placed a few shops there, further commercial development is in progress. Unfortunately, I had trouble developing the condos at the hillside.


#5; Click to enlarge

And last, the old town parts have been updated a bit.


#6; Click to enlarge

That's all for today, I hope you liked this update despite its shortness. Further updates may include
* developing the harbor (ferry terminal and marina),
* finally getting along to develop the delta,
* finishing the reservoir lake and the forests in the south,
* finishing the last parts of the city (especially this probably troublesome part between the diagonal avenue and the diagonal railroad, this has been bugging me for a while because of the slopes there and because it requires a smooth transition to the old town parts).

[c.p.]

What do you mean with "tubers", exactly?

I mean people floating on the river on inner tubes.  (It seemed to fit your river recreation theme in that update.)

Your city is progressing along nicely

[romualdillo]

Great work!! The city is developing fantastically!!!

[manga rivotra]

Very beautiful development ( specifically with the W2W ) and beautiful use of the MMP for the river   
I am impatient to see how you are going to complete the part between the diagonal road and the railroad : a real challenge indeed