Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[io_bg]

The last two updates are really outstanding! I love how you're detailing that river! Till now I've been thinking that detailing is necessery only for rural areas... but now you changed my opinion!
Also, add me to the list of those who're waiting for the next update

[Cyclone1001]

Wow, I absotively posilutely LOVE your work. great job

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic work!!! The details are very well done!!! Awesome update again!!! 

[canyonjumper]

Hmm... I seriously need to add more detail to my cities! Nice work Battlecat on Winfield! Looking forward to seeing how it progresses, and "the area between the highway and the waterfront"

              -Jordan

[ecoba]

Wow, I really do like this update, very typical american touristy area. I like it! 

Honestly, it does look very good, the beach detailing is very nice and I think that the trail system is a very nice addition. I also really think that the detailing around the bridge and the rest of the lakeshore is really nice.

Ethan

[Nanami]

Looks wow!

[djvandrake]

Your updates never cease to impress. 

[Battlecat]

bat: Thanks very much!  :-) I just couldn't come up with a better description for that area, but at least it's going to be an interesting update.

io_bg: Thanks!  I'm actually surprised how well this all came together considering it's an urban area!  The key seems to be to make anything grown historical before doing the details.  Surrounding tiles sometimes get cleared when buildings grow.  Glad you found this update inspirational!

Cyclone1001: Thanks very much!

Tomas Neto: Thank you for your kind words!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks!  Funny how the are I'm focusing in on for this update has developed such an odd nickname!  I was within a whisker of making it the title of this update!

Ethan (ecoba): That's pretty much the feel I was shooting for.  The city of Kelowna provided a lot of the inspiration for this area, there's a very similar section of waterfront there.  It's even right next to the main bridge over Okanagan Lake!  Glad you enjoyed it!

976: Thanks!

djvandrake: Thank you for your kind words and support!

Update 75
Winfield – Apartments and Businesses

Welcome to the 75th update of Adara!  In addition to the promised "area between the highway and the waterfront", I've also a got a couple extra things in celebration of the 75th update!  It's been a heck of a run so far, and I wouldn't have made it this far with out everyone's support, suggestions and interest! 

75-1: Here's the latest version of the commenter's chart!  By my count, of the 727 comments on this thread as of this posting, 652 are by visitors now.  Thanks everyone for stopping by and commenting!




75-2: Just one other thing before I get on with the actual construction.  Here's how I've spent my time on Adara to date.  As you can see, the Winfield tile is rapidly heading towards being a large time sink, considering I'm not halfway done this city yet!  I'm going to have to see what I can do about speeding up this process since I'd rather avoid taking more than 20 updates on any one tile. 


75-3: Let's get on with this process.  Since the last update is now on the previous page, to refresh your memory, here's where we left off last time.  As you may recall from earlier updates in Winfield, the area near the highway was acting as a temporary low wealth zone to build up towards some stage caps.  I'll be changing this area dramatically today. 


75-4: First things first, now it should be a lot easier for boats to get out of this dock area.  Except on second glance, apparently I've removed the entrance to the parking lot as well.  Ok then, there will be another revision coming to this again in update 76. 


75-5: Moving on to something slightly more interest, these additional two high wealth towers rapidly popped up in the neighborhood.  It was a piece of cake to join the parking areas up nicely.  These people have a really great view of the lake from here. 


75-6: This empty block went through a few different ideas, including a small university.  Finally I decided on a shopping center, businesses and a small residential area for this block.


75-7: Dropping the shopping center in was easy enough, it's a high wealth oriented store.  I've also added a couple new commercial buildings on this side of the overpass.  The first of the new local residential towers has popped up next to the blue glass buildings.  We're heading into medium wealth tower territory now.


75-8: And we're heading there rapidly!  This area is going under several revisions until I get a mix of buildings I'm happy with.


75-9: At this stage, I'm pretty much there for the rear block.  That small store in the upper left corner isn't going to last though.  For whatever reason, the blank lot in this shot simply refused to develop an appropriate building for the area.  So finally I threw up my hands and made the lot a park. 


75-10: A nice bit of growth here, would you believe that bluish tower is a medium wealth structure?  Neither could I, but it fits the theme of the area perfectly!


75-11: A couple more office buildings round out the land near the GLR station. 


75-12: Out at this end of the block, it turns out one of the roads here is redundant.  To reduce the neighborhood traffic, I'm going to close the road but I'll establish some driveways to the parking lots for visual purposes.   


75-13: Moving along, you can see one of the driveways in place.  These two businesses here are crammed right up against the freeway.  There's almost certainly a fence between these parking areas and the freeway, but unfortunately, there's not enough room to slip that in.  No worries, that's a detail I'm willing to ignore for now.


75-14: Time for something really quirky.  One thing I've noticed about municipal government, often odd brainstorms will get partially built and then left incomplete.  In this case, a small block of wall to wall businesses are located at the start of the tourist area.  There were probably plans for a larger neighborhood in this style that never came together.


75-15: For the rest of the neighborhood, a small office building, a restaurants and a large parking lot for beachfront park visitors that will certainly be very busy during the height of summer!


75-16: Here's a fun little before and after picture.  I've just finished putting in the forests on this slope here.  I'm using seasonal trees with a base texture.  The stairs provide direct foot access from the high wealth neighborhood down to the beach area. 


75-17: After I run through to the late spring, the forest has grown into place on the slope. 


75-18: That's most of what I wanted to accomplish today!  Zooming out a bit reveals a nice bit of luck, the blue green high wealth tower grew a twin! 


75-19: And even further out to look at the completed area, another bit of last minute luck!  That nice rounded medium wealth tower has also grown a twin in exactly the right location!  I don't mind duplication of buildings as long as they're appropriately located.  Twin and even triplet buildings adjacent to each other is very common in my area, they're usually part of a larger complex. 


That's it for update 75!  Coming up next, I'm going to finish up the lowland area, near the tile edge and then swing up to the upper terrace if time permits.  See you then!

[bat]

Nice nineteen new pictures there! Great work on this area!
only 11 replies by me here, I should reply here more...
Looking forward to more shots...

[sumwonyuno]

I'm guessing green on the chart represents updates 50 - 74, blue 25 - 49, and yellow 1 - 24?

That beige-blue R$$ building actually is one of the best R$$ buildings I've seen.

[Cyclone1001]

Woohoo! 3 posts! Anyways, great work. Can't wait to see more _{4th post! Yay!}

[canyonjumper]

Woo! Post #8! Nineteen new pics to look at! I thought I recognized the name. Nice stuff here Battlecat. Looking forward to Update 76.

                   -Jordan

EDIT: This post made me a mayor

[turtle]

Hi BC,
It's been a while since I posted here, and things certainly have been moving for Winfield. I love how the tourist area turned out, and the high wealth area you presented today looks great. Not a lot left for coincidences here. I'd love to see a fall or winter shot of it at some point, since you spend time planting seasonal trees.

I hope you had a great christmas and new year. Anyways, super update.

turtle

[ecoba]

23 Posts here Battlecat. But you know I lurked before update 50!

Well, I certainly like that revision, Winfield is turning out to be quite a wealthy city, I like the extensive use of parks in this area. I also find that duplication or tripling of buildings is okay when they grow in complex style.

I can't wait to see the further revisions planned for update 76! Also, congrats, 75 updates really is a milestone.

Ethan

[ShultzCity]

Very nice Battlecat, love the picturesque setting, and the attention to detail on the river. Those parking lots are a nice addition too 

[mightygoose]

great update, even if all your trams look derailed XD

[Nanami]

Great!
Keep up the good work!

[djvandrake]

Congrats on your 75th update!  That's quite a transformation of that area and it turned out very nice.  There's so many nice details that blend together well, and I love all the trees. 

[calibanX]

Excellent work on the details in this update. I like the high wealth area with the sloped stairs and seasonal trees. That area is sporting a nice row of diagonal buildings too. Those are nicely placed and break up the 'grid'. Too bad we don't have more diagonal buildings to build with yet. As always I applaud you on your water 

Geoff

[kwakelaar]

Very nice work on the latest neighbourhood of Winfield. And with your picture at the end of the update we can see that you are keeping a lot of space around your different developments even in this urban area. I think this is helping to give your MD such a natural and realistic look.