Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[kimcar]

  &aplsExcellent devellopement that you have done . Look very naturel and realist 

[BuildingUp]

94-18 and 94-19 are my favorites in particular. But regarding the whole thing it's absolutely brilliant. I like how you show the raw stuff as well as the polished stuff. It really adds another level of dimension to this MD.

[nedalezz]

The industrials look great, Battlecat. You really seem to be an expert at placement and recognizing which details to put where, because it all blends together perfectly. You are also a master as the ploppable waters, and the residentials near the river are great

[penguin007]

The streams and suburbs look amazing can't wait for more!!!

Will

[sumwonyuno]

Looks like you've got that in-game contour to be an integral part of your city building!  The stream looks great.  The mayor mode brushes sweet spot is at zoom 4, at least on my configuration.

[Edit]:  Wow, second time?  Very nice!  The work you've done lately is truly deserving of being OSTIM!   

[rooker1]

 Here is a great long time running MD that has always been a pleasure on the eyes, so there is no wonder why this MD will be spending the month in OSITM!



Congratulations from myself and The SC4D Staff on the move as well as this being your second time in OSITM! 

[mightygoose]

congratulations, your continued work is superb, i am beginning to get curious about update 100.

[io_bg]

Congratulations, my friend, on this well-deserved award!

[ecoba]

Congragulations on OSITM, my friend. Second time, too... 

Ethan

[turtle]

Congrats on your second OSITM! It's really well deserved - your eye for detail and thorough implementation, as well as steady updating, have earned you a big group of faithful followers and deserves this recognition.
Excellent work on that industrial area. I really like the giant warehouse and the railyard. I also like how the stream is seperating the suburbs from the industry. As always, you make great shorelines! I look forward to the development you promise

Thomas

[Tomas Neto]

Yeah my friend, congratulations on OSITM!!!  Adara is an excellent MD and always will deserve to be in the OSITM!!! 

[Battlecat]

Geoff (calibanX): I certainly try, the updates have been coming together very easily lately.  This update was easier than most as it involved filling in the remaining details for part of the area!  Thanks for stopping by!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much!

djvandrake: I'd really love to get  my hands on one of those waterfront homes as well!  They turned out very nicely!

io_bg: Thanks, glad you enjoyed this update!

Matt (MattyFo): Welcome to Adara!  Glad you enjoyed the update; I really appreciate your feedback on that industrial shoreline since I'll be continuing that theme for some more of the waterfront! 

Cyclone1001: Odd that 94-16 didn't show up!  It seems to be fine now so I guess imageshack must have been rebooting a server when you stopped in.  Thanks, glad you like the lakefront home!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed this update!

Scott (Stray Cat): Thanks for your enthusiastic response!  I'm always striving to improve the techniques I used to detail areas, I'm glad you found it noticeable! 

Ethan (ecoba): Here in BC, modern homes that close to the water wouldn't even be permitted to have underground crawlspaces let alone full basements!   It's possible they might encounter some flooding, but don't forget this is an artificial lake, so there is some extra care taken in maintain the height of the lake.  Glad you enjoyed all the new details today, I really wasn't sure how it was all going to work out! 

As for the orientation of this tile, I'm working my way up towards the Winfield tile.  Today I was going to show you a cross border shot to help orient you, but that'll have to wait till Wednesday due to unexpected distractions during game time this weekend!  I'm really happy with how the rural-urban transition came together, the ragged edge and especially the farm almost surrounded by suburbs feels quite realistic to me. 

kimcar: Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed your visit!

BuildingUp: Glad you're continuing to enjoying your visits here, especially the raw development prep.  I really enjoy going through all the details as long as it's not boring everyone!  Thanks for stopping in!

nedalezz: Thanks very much for your kind words!  I'm really glad you enjoyed this one so much!   

Will (penguin007): Thanks, glad you enjoyed them!

sumwonyuno: Honestly, I wouldn't be using that contour nearly as much if it hadn't just randomly wound up as the surface of my lake!  It's been incredibly helpful for planning the lake.  I'd have to agree about zoom 4 being the sweet spot for most of the textures, they tend to look a little raw at zoom 5.  I generally build for the larger context anyhow, although I enjoy adding the details in as well.  Thanks for stopping in! 

Robin (rooker1): Thanks very much to you and the SC4D Staff for the second run at OSITM!  Glad you're continuing to enjoy your visits!

mightygoose: Thanks!  I haven't entirely decided what to post for update 100, but I've got a few ideas floating around.  It'll entirely depend on how much time I have to put stuff together! 

io_bg (2): Thanks and congratulations to you for your OSITM as well!

Ethan (ecoba)(2): Thanks very much, and congratulations to your for your OSITM as well!

Thomas (turtle): Thanks very much for your kind words and congratulations!  It's going to be a month of all sorts of achievements I think!  Glad you enjoyed all the additions over the last few updates.  I hope I can keep up the pace!

Tomas Neto (2): Thanks for the congratulations and for your ongoing support! 

Update 95
Ellison Flats – Suburban Blitz I

Welcome to the first day of Adara back in OSITM forums.  I'm really honored to get a second round in this forum!  So first of all, a big thanks to the selection group for this recognition!  For the most part I don't plan to deviate from my normal updating schedule as long as real life allows it.  But this can't go without any note.  To celebrate this month, I'm going to be posting a bonus shot of some sort at the end of each update.  I've got a variety of ideas, but they all depend on how things go. 

That's all for now, now it's time to get rolling with today's update.  Originally this was going to be a cross border mosaic day, but somehow I got sidetracked by development and never got a chance to take the necessary shots from Winfield!  I'll show you some of the prep work, and I'll start dealing with border issues on Wednesday. 

95-1: Here's the area I was originally planning on setting up as a cross border shot today.  So of course, this shot give you a fresh look at the transport network as it stands now.  This is pretty much done except for a few more business access routes.  This image looks north into the Winfield tile.


95-2: What you see here is the easiest configuration for cross border residential.  On the other side of the border this pattern is already built and developed with 1x2 residential lots so all I have to do is match the pattern here. 


95-3: This area is going to have a couple more small residential and commercial towers to put a finishing touch on the high density area. 


95-4: So with all that in mind, I started zoning and plopping buildings. 


95-5: And I kept zoning.  This small block is just to test out 1 tile residential to see what happens. 


95-6: And even more zoning, It was just going so well I had to continue!  This area is going to have a major park running up to the city border.


95-7: At this stage I've zoned well over half the residential lands for this tile.  And I'm still not done!


95-8: One last block before I realized that I'd completely lost track of my original goal for today's update.  Such is life though, I'll just have to change tracks.  At this point the first draft zoning is in place for the entire block of land east of the highway. 


95-9: At this point I don't have any of the parks and trees in place.  It's a lot easier to add those in after I make the first set of buildings historical.  As these buildings started growing I realized I needed to push the city population up to the medium density stage cap before I was going to see any decent apartments or small office towers here.  As a result, I'm not going to be looking up at the tile boundary again today. 


95-10: At least there's a nice stack of medium wealth demand.  I've gotten a nice handful of these medium wealth homes in among the low wealth areas.  Fortunately the two styles mix together very nicely with all the new custom material!


95-11: I've weeded out the worst of repeating buildings in some neighbourhoods and made all the excess buildings historical.  Here's an interesting fact for those of you using the historical buildings method to control the style of your residential neighborhoods.  If you make a building historical and then demolish it, the next building to grow on that lot will already be tagged as historical!  This way you can weed out some excess buildings without loosing control of the neighborhood on the second growth.


95-12: Here I'm just drafting in the park.  It's a nice bit of green space with a fountain.  I'm actually seriously considering making some of my own additions to the BSC parks system.  While I like this fountain, it's not exactly what I was looking for here.  I think I'll replace it if I have time. 


95-13: Now that the second batch of homes are grown, it's time to start filling in all the gaps.  As always, I planned for this city to be very green.  This block here will be another border crossing park.


95-14: Here it is roughly in place.  A lot of the tiles I've placed will be producing seasonal trees later.  We'll look at that more on Wednesday. 


95-15: This is another area that will be getting some attention on Wednesday.  The commercial lands have developed with a temporary no maxis mod.  While it resulted in a nice mix of buildings, there's also some serious repetition that needs some attention.  Hey, do any of you know of some good custom stage 1-3 commercial office buildings?  I don't seem to have enough in my library to handle a no maxis mod. 


OSITM Bonus 1: I'm going to start this month off with a bang by continuing the project that I started for the one year anniversary update.  This is a zoom 2 tile composite of Alexandria!  Just click the image below to see the full sized composite (1.4 mb in size)!


And that's a wrap!  But stay tuned, there's more to come Wednesday!  Thanks for your support everyone, see you soon. 

[penguin007]

Awesome update there I love the suburbs and rural areas. Well done on OSITM also!!

Will

[io_bg]

Great update, I love that suburban layout. Can't wait for more!

[djvandrake]

Congratulations on your second award of OSITM!    Very well deserved. 

A great update.  I really like how your residential neighborhoods are so green and you've created some very interesting zoning patterns.   

[BuildingUp]

Yay!! Congratulations on the OSITM award! You really deserve it man!

Even though it's a small lot where did you get that dollar tree building? Anyways, I really like what you've done in the overview. The greenery is amazing!!
And as last update I really appreciate the raw details. I really like to get to see planning of an area and then watch it grow.. very cool!


95-8 because it's raw, unedited. And 95-12 because I love the way you planned that particular area. As usual I love it all! Great work! 

[calibanX]

A well deserved second showing in the OSITM spotlight Battlecat. You are rock solid in your commitment to this creative project, and that deserves recognition. I'm looking forward to those bonus shots in each update.

I'm an Adara fan!

Geoff

[ShultzCity]

Again, another fantastic update! Congrats on the OSITM, you deserve a whole section to your self IMO. Great work on the burbs, they really do look great

[sumwonyuno]

I've edited my post before rooker1's OSTIM post.  

Wow, I wasn't fully aware of the historical-demolish = new development is automatically historical bug.  I was wondering why there are empty residential zones...    

[Connor]

Great update oncemore, and that last picture is simply stunning! Great work