Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[Glowbal]

that looks impressive. Nicely done. Mostly, im not really a fan of these plopable stone/trail things. But you made it look good! 

[danielcote]

I'd love to stay at that campsite! its lovely.

[ecoba]

Another Update? and another one on the heels?

This isn't a bad thing, but I feel like I'm soon not going to be able to keep up!

Well, now actually to the update: Of course, it was marvelous! Greenspace is definitely wonderful, and you certainly do a perfect job of creating enjoyable greenspace. Jackson Pass is an interesting little city, and the variety of the subjects (I hope you understand this) that you add (In great detail, I may add) just make it even more enjoyable.

Yes, the environments along the West Coast seem to not have much of differentiation (did I use that word right?), but, actually, I live less than 5 hours from the East Coast.  . Althuogh, I have been to the West Coast, (Not as far North as Adara is set,) so, it was of course, a bit different.

I like your usage of the PPonds, and you've done wonders with the flora. National Parks now? Cool. That's quite a nice campsite you've got there, and (even though I don't care for camping) could probably manage a night there.

With of course my, ehm.., adjustments....

Ethan

[woodb3kmaster]

Wow, two quality updates in such a short timespan! You really make rural landscape design look easy, even though I'm sure it takes up plenty of your time to get the right feel to areas like the one you just laid out. The last update is just outstanding, with the trifecta of campground, trail and pond to make the scenery interesting. I could look at those pics for hours and not get bored! Congratulations on another job well done.

Zack

[sumwonyuno]

First, I need to apologize for not coming here any sooner.     All this time you were coming to my mayor diary!  Second, I'm in awe of the quality of your work and your gameplay strategies.   

[Bobbi]

Good campsite.

[djvandrake]

More beautiful landscape.  Looks like a wonderful place. 

[Battlecat]

Tomas Neto: I'm glad you're enjoying the extra details I've been adding in about the steps I take to create my scenes.  Thanks for stopping in!

Vivien (Earth quake): Thanks for your kind words, I'm glad you find the tutorial style interesting! 

Matt (threestooges): Those are some good ideas for continuing to improve the efforts I'm making with rocks.  I'll be playing with the rock options some more in the near future.  One of the headaches I run into is that a lot of the plopable rocks available can't be clustered very tightly, but I've found a few more options I'll mess with in the future. 

Glad you enjoyed the rest of the update.  Those mossy pacific coast trees are pretty specialized and they do play very nicely with the Olympic Terrain style.  Sword fighting is wrapped up for now, it was a very fun class and I intend to continue with it in the future.  Unfortunately, right now it's just a bit further to travel to get to class than I would like but I plan to move closer in the next couple of years (my work is halfway between my home and the sword fighting school.

In the meantime, one of my friends and I have both purchased training rapiers and we plan to keep in practice until we are in a position where we can attend class again!  I keep meaning to post a shot of the rapier; unfortunately, I can't find my digital camera.  Hopefully I can track it down soon!

Dreamcat: Glad you like them!  Yeah, I'm using the mayor mode Olympic tree controller!  I prefer the style of forests produced by that controller for the purposes of the high mountains!  The meadow is a mixture of RRP and the new flora options by Pegasus.  Glad you like it!

Stijn (BarbarossaS): There might be a bit of spoilage involved here, but I hope to keep the pace of updates high, around 2 per week minimum!  Little rockslides like that are so common on lakes around my region, it's hard to believe it's taken me this long to try replicating one!  There will be a lot more features like that coming in the future as I continue playing with various plopable tools!

No worries, at the rate Jackson Pass is coming together, I expect there will be a composite image of the area in another couple of weeks!  I'll stick with the tradition of presenting composites, major mosaics and maps while I get the initial prep done on the next city tile!  Thanks very much for your enthusiasm though!

Glowbal: Thanks very much for your comments!  Those trails are a bit of a challenge to use, but they are quite handy for creating organic trails!  I've been messing around with other applications, but mostly they're pretty specialized. 

danielcote: Glad you like it, thanks for stopping in! 

Ethan (ecoba): This many updates in a row is pretty unusual, but things came together so nicely with this area, I couldn't resist!  Glad you enjoyed the greenspace in the last update!  Actually it's an interesting thing about the west coast, while the forests look pretty much the same from a distance, there's a pretty gradual transition from dryer forests in California, through the rainforests through to the cold forests of Alaska.  They all have subtle differences, but at the scale we use in SC4, it's really not terribly relevant or visible. 

Interesting thing, the National Park is actually already on the map as part of the Delmar Junction update.  I really do enjoy cluttering up my maps with interesting features and borders!  Camping's not for everyone, and this particular site's a bit close to the highway for my personal tastes, but it's fairly realistic regardless.  I would guess you prefer RV camping to tents?    Thanks for all your comments!

Zack (woodbk3master): Thanks for your kind words.  I do usually go through a few drafts, but I'm pretty careful.  Occasionally, I make silly mistakes, like accidently plopping a tree or flowers in the middle of a lake.  Fortunately, with the way plopable features work, I usually only have to bulldoze one tile.  Glad you enjoyed the scenery!   

sumwonyuno: Welcome to Adara!  No apologies necessary, there's such a wealth of talent here, it's easy to miss an MD or two.  I find one I've missed about once every couple of weeks or so!  Glad you enjoyed your first visit, hope to see you drop by again soon!

Bobbi: Thanks very much!

djvandrake: Thanks!  Glad you like it!

Update 53
Jackson Pass – Lower Density Homes

Yes indeed, a third update in one week.  No idea if I'll be able to keep this pace up, but it's been pretty fun!  Today, I'll be wrapping up the rest of the area on this side of Mt Garibaldi.  I've got some more extra low density housing and a bit more experimentation with clear cuts today!

53-1: Here's the layout of the first of two extra low density residential areas in the remaining space. 


53-2: It's tucked between the two hidden streams on a fairly flat chunk of land.  When I'm done here, this subdivision should be pretty much invisible. 


53-3: Here's the initial housing that developed, I expect it'll change a bit more as I continue to run the game. 


53-4: A bit further along the highway towards Delmar Junction, there's room for one more small extra low density area. 


53-5: A plopable gas station and general store fit in quite nicely right next to the highway. 


53-6: The rest of the zoning is now in place, I've added one more street into the original design.


53-7: One last look at the housing before it gets hidden away.  Now you see it . . .


53-8: . . . and now you don't!  The trees really help bring this particular subdivision design together. 


53-9: Here's a closer shot of the small commercial area, now with more trees!


53-10: And a quick shot of the other residential area, now in it's finished format! 


53-11: Zooming out a bit, here are the two subdivisions, showing their close proximity to the pond from the last update.  The developer of this area really pushed up close to the park boundary! 


53-12: From a bit further out you can see how these two residential areas are located relative to the town of Jackson Pass.  The pond and one of my clear cuts earlier update are also visible in this shot. 


53-13: Speaking of that clear cut, a bit more work was necessary with one of the forest service roads from a few updates back.  I decided to extend it to the map border as an older forest service road using a series of dirt tracks.   


53-14: Additionally, I'm going to run you through an attempt at making an extremely old clear cut.  The idea I originally had here was that this would be a clear cut that's pretty much ready to be logged again.


53-15: In all honesty, once I'm done here the effect is going to be pretty subtle.  I've added a large number of aspen groves and some dense groves of cedar trees.  The idea here is that the forest composition isn't quite the same as the surrounding forest.  Similar but different is the goal.


53-16: I filled in the rest of the area with a light brushing of the Olympic controller, plus a slightly larger bias towards the red cedar trees in particular.  It's a subtle effect, but it's still there.  Call this an early experiment; I'll probably mess around with this kind of thing more in the future!


53-17: With that batch of trees in place, I've effectively finished this side of the Mt Garibaldi ridge.  There's still some more trees to go on the mountains themselves, but I'll take care of that once I've gotten a feel for what I'm putting on the other side of the ridge by Willison Lake! 


That's it for today.  Next time, I'll rotate the view around a bit and get started on the Williston Lake side of the ridge!  Have a great weekend!

[Earth quake]

Wonderfull update.
The small villages interspersed in the forest are very splendid.
The picture 53-9 is really beautiful and realistic.
Finaly the last picture is really impressive and the trail is nice.

[ecoba]

Ooh, such a pretty mountainside, Battlecat.

I like those low-density subdivisions, not quite different from the one outside of our town. That's a nice variety of housing in the subdivisions too. Is that the Euro style Maxis along with the Mattb325 houses? It seems like it might be nice to add some brick houses though, 50s style maybe. 

I really like those small commercial buildings, are they by SimGoober by any chance? Or are they from another BATer?

I like this new design of clear cut, much more heavy. No, I would definitely be the RV Camper, if I were to camp at all. I like my nice, dry buildings, although I could probably live in a small country town! 

The new clear-cut is very innovative, I think it's a very good way to represent the almost-ready-to-be-logged cuts very well. Although, I really also like the old style too, and I think that I like the SAM Dirt Streets for logging roads better than those dirt trails, maybe it's because they don't have any wide-radius curves.

Ready for update 54!

Ethan

[Dreamcat]

Man do I love your residential areas.  And I must say that things look 100% better with trees, but that's a given.
Thanks for another great update.

[djvandrake]

Very nice. Those low density neighborhoods just dissapear in the trees. 

[Tomas Neto]

You create reals worlds, while playing SC4!!! Impressive the beauty of your images!!! Awesome update my friend!!! 

[woodb3kmaster]

Those have to be the best exurbs I've seen anyone create in SC4, though I honestly haven't seen very many. Ultra-low-density developments like yours are all to frequently omitted from people's cities, as I know all too well from experience (though, to be fair, I'm rather unfamiliar with exurbs, since Los Angeles doesn't have any on account of the scarcity of water down here). The houses tucked away into the forest look just like I've always imagined that exurbs might look. Great job!

[kwakelaar]

Great to see all the different updates from an area that is essentially a lot of forest. With all the small details you are adding, it is still interesting to follow your development.

[metarvo]

Nice subdivisions, Battlecat.    They remind me of the ones I've seen in RL, sometimes miles away from any cities.

[Fabian93]

Fantastic update
I'm still quite new to this MD, but I try to follow it very closely, since I'm currently working on rural areas myself and you are definitively a huge inspiration

I'm looking forward to more ,
Fabian

[Nanami]

Awesome

[sumwonyuno]

Heh, you're strategy of roads -> zones -> development -> trees is slightly different than my strategy of roads -> trees -> zones -> development.

[Bobbi]

Great update again