Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[ShultzCity]

Very nice 

I like the STR service lines, I don't think they look out of place at all 

[dsrwhat316]

Dude, you are a machine! So many updates you have posted lately, you put all of us (especially me  ) to shame. I enjoyed reading your re-tooling of the highway/rail line overpass. Good luck with your current industrial project; if it's anything like your previous updates, it'll be a good one!

~ Dan

[canyonjumper]

Nice STR Line! And you did very good with the lot editor !

              -Jordan

[djvandrake]

Great railyard and don't apologize about the size of your update! It's fine. The lot editor eats a LOT of my time too and I know all too well how that impacts in game time.   

[kwakelaar]

Nice work on your rail yards, and I am looking forward to see how you will develop this industrial area. As I have said before I find making something approaching realistic looking industry is the most difficult thing in Simcity.

[daryl7478]

Nice railyard Battlecat! I have a ploppable nature question. How do you get the ploppable water to work? I have installed ploppable water but when I am putting it in my game, it just appears as a bunch of boxes.

[Stray Cat]

Sometimes the small updates are the best.  Thanks for showing off some more Lot Editor mastery...love the new lot.  I too am a big fan of the STR!

Great update.  Thank you.

Cheers!

Scott

[Rady]

Nice update! It's interesting to see how you're planning an area - there's very much "thinking forward" in your planning!

[sumwonyuno]

Reffering to the Feb. 17th update, the game does a terrible job at real world scaling (e.g 15 meter tall overpasses!).  The orthogonal bird-eye view also skews our height perception. 

[Battlecat]

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much for your kind words!

Cyclone1001: Adding the RRP grass and shrubs as props to the lots has improved their appearance a huge amount!  It's still not perfect, but one works with what's available.  Thanks, I'm glad you like the results!  I'm hoping the rest of my lots turn out. 

Jacob (ShultzCity): Thanks!  Glad to hear the service line worked out.  One can never be entirely sure some times.  I've still got a lot more mixed up rail to add to this area!

Dan (dsrwhat316): I certainly don't mean to put anyone to shame, everyone's got different amounts of time.  While you might not have time to post often, your work is always superb!  Over the last year Adara and Simcity 4 has really developed into a major hobby for me.  I tend to find the game quite relaxing lately.  I'm glad you're enjoying your visits; hope to see you around again soon!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks!  There's a bit more work with the lot editor coming soon; glad you enjoyed this attempt. 

djvandrake: Thanks very much!  It's a shame the lot editor isn't a bit more stable, but I'm really enjoying creating custom lots to fill in the empty spaces and create more realism. 

Gjermund (kwakelaar): Industry can be very challenging to make realistic in this game.  The major problem with most industrial lots is that there isn't sufficient pavement and open space among the buildings.  The maxis lots are the worst offenders for that.  I'll be playing with the industrial areas a bunch in update 93.  Thanks very much for stopping by!

Daryl (daryl7478): Thanks for stopping in!  I hope the discussion we had via PM over the weekend helped you sort out the problem with your plopable water! 

Scott (Stray Cat): Thanks, glad you enjoyed the update.  I'm never entirely sure about how well I'm doing with the lot editor so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the results. 

Rady: The planning ahead can be a fairly big challenge for this approach.  In some cases I'm setting stuff up that won't come to fruition for many weeks or even months in the case of some of the cross border detailing!   Glad you're enjoying the planning! 

sumwonyuno: Yeah, I've noticed the flaw in real world scaling.  We more or less just have to work around it!  Fortunately, the visual perception of a carefully engineered slope helps a lot.  Thanks for your thoughts on the matter.

Update 92
Ellison Flats – Suburban Diversion

Here goes another update!  Today I'm going to get a big chunk of urban-rural interface in place along with a wide variety of other things.  I'll be jumping all over the map today.

It's also kind of cool to note that there are only 51 posts left until 1000 for Adara!  Thanks very much as always for your ongoing support everyone!

92-1: To get things started, I decided there was room for one more farm in here.  I want to really provide the feel of active expansion here, so a little intermixing between the farms and urban area will help there.


92-2: This will be the first major block of residential.  There is a mixture of 2x2 and 1x2 lots here.  Rather than developing this now, I'm going to lay out more of the urban area first.


92-3: First of all a suburban style commercial development.  A nice variety of stores plopped here already, we'll see what comes from the zoned blocks later.


92-4: on the slope near the railyard a large area has been flattened out and a large industrial complex is under construction.  When I hit play it will be revealed.  I've also extended the railway and connected the two branches that separated before the railyard.


92-5: Above the large industrial site, a few small box stores have be placed near the highway. 


92-6: Another detail to take care of is this intersection.  Jason (Albus of Garaway) kindly reminded me that there are some plopable intersection pieces in the rural roads mod that will eliminate the turn lanes and traffic lights. 


92-7: That's much better.  It would be even better with stop signs, but this will do for now.  These farms are going to be feeling the pressure from the urban development.  Now it's time to fire up the simulator.


92-8: There are just so many details to take care of.  There are too many culvert based crossing on this river.  And I really don't need a connection across here anyhow.


92-9: An old covered bridge provides a foot connection across so students don't have too far to walk to school.  Hmmm, there isn't a school on this tile yet. . .


92-10: I'd better fix that up.  Here's a nice little trick with schools that have those handy bus loops at the front.  Instead of facing them the obvious way towards the main road, turn it 90 degrees like this. 


92-11: It's safer to have the school facing a side road anyhow, but this way you can add some parking lots and plants at the front of the school while still providing street access off the main road.  In this way I could use the same school on two separate tiles and make them look pretty different from one another.


92-12: Still with the planning here.  Next up is the GLR.  I put in the lowland tunnel, but forgot to put the access point in up here.


92-13: A short segment of GLR in road works here, transitioning through a station and then to subway where it does connect up down below the highway.  The GLR will run into a historic district and to a maintenance yard from here.


92-14: Just laying out another batch of streets here.  Couple ideas were percolating so I thought I'd take care of it first.  Hmmm, what's that you say?  Ahhh, maybe I should actually start the simulation and see what grows!


92-15: One of the first things to pop up is a huge warehouse at that industrial site I've been teasing you with.  I modded this fantastic lot which is normally a landmark to provide some jobs.  I'll be detailing around it at a later date once I spend some time focusing in on the rest of the industrial site.


92-16: Here's a quick sample of the finished residential area.  I did the whole process of making the first batch historical and then infilling the gaps quite quickly.  I didn't want to bore you all too much with stuff you've seen before! 


92-17: One last stop before the day is done.  Here's an overview of the suburb that has developed.  You can already see the strain the traffic is beginning to put on those farms.  I'll see what I can do to relieve that a bit in the future.  There's also a bit more infill left to do in the suburbs, but I'll polish that up and show you the results when I come back to detail in the stream.  If you look carefully, you might also notice in the bottom right corner that the industrial area has developed as well!  We'll be looking at that area much closer next time. 


That's all for today!  Next time I'll finally pull the custom industrial lot out for you all to look at.  I'll be interested to hear any and all suggestions you might have to improve it!  Then later in the week it'll be a diverse update ending with another round of shoreline work!  See you in a couple of days!

[mightygoose]

the school is sweet, and the residential areas are well done. (i don't like the blue roofed house though)

the industrial lot looks like it needs a fence XD

[djvandrake]

Looking good! 

[ShultzCity]

Love it! 

The farms turned out superb, as did the transpsortation network and residential area.  In the picture 92-16,  it would be great if you could use a filler fence lot (with diagonals) to put around the edges of the houses - that would be great! Who knows, I might try it one day (if I get time - have been a little slack with Riverholm lately  )

I can't wait till you finish the shoreline - this area will become perfect!

[Cyclone1001]

Great update, you're so close to having 1,000 replies. I hope the suburbs look good!

[canyonjumper]

Looking great, Battlecat! Very nice suburb!

            -Jordan

[ecoba]

The suburban areas of Ellison Flats are starting to fill in nicely. I really like the variety between the Medium and Low wealth homes. I'm seeing a good variety, and I also am still liking the dense style.

I am also really liking the variety of industrial BATs. That large warehouse by the SMP team is really nice, and I'm glad you found a place for it in Adara. Also, seeing some of Deadwood's lovely Aussie stores (which are actually commercial buildings. I use them in a lot of my towns) actually fit in nicely. I also caught some of Jess (jestarr)'s work popping up at the end.

Ethan

[penguin007]

Very pretty suburbs and farmland there and its really good to see how its all done as well. Can't wait for more

Will

[Stray Cat]

 

Another masterful update, thank you BattleCat.  I love how you think things through so well.  I also love the treatments that you give to your schools..great work.

Cheers!

Scott

[kimcar]

Take a lot of vision for doing such a city like that . A thing that i don`t have  . Great update

[Tomas Neto]

Great work once again, nice update!!!