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Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

Started by Battlecat, February 10, 2009, 06:39:50 PM

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Framly

WoW! Great Mosaics &apls

Congratulations on being selected for OSITM! :)

-klick-1st Anniversary Video-klick-
Part of SFBT and RFR Team

Battlecat



bat: Thanks very much!

Arthur (art128): Hrm, you're right.  Not quite sure what I was thinking there.  Also you gave me a great idea for fixing the bridge that I put together last night.  I just have to finish writing the update now.  Thanks very much for the feedback and suggestion, as a result I'll do a quick revisit with Deroche for Update 168 tomorrow.   

Funny enough, I used the bridge solution you mentioned in today's update for a different reason.  My intent was to have ferries able to travel under it; your solution allowed me to pick a much nicer bridge. 

Robin (rooker1): I know how you feel about the composite.  File sizes get out of hand very quickly with those images sadly!  I also agree on the ramps, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what I was thinking there. 

Cyclone1001: Glad to hear it, I like putting them together!

metarvo: Thanks, two updates and this one will make three!  I really like the zoom 1 composite as well.  It almost feels like working with aerial imagery. 

Framly: Thanks very much!  I'll be doing a lot of work on those this month!

Update 167
North Delta – Railway Crossover

Welcome to day 3 of rapid region growth!  Today we're moving south again from Deroche to a tile I've chosen to call North Delta.  It's not a particularly imaginative name, but it is appropriate.  Before you ask, there will be a tile called "Delta City" but there won't be a South Delta.  I don't want things to get too complicated!  :-)

In addition to the regular work today, I'll also be introducing a new-old piece of technology that I managed to snag to help work around a challenging bit of terrain.

166-1: To start, I spent a bit of time touching up the terraforming.  I've added another sandbar area similar to the one on the Greenwood tile.  That'll be fun to detail later!


166-2: The first very important detail on this tile is the presence of the main railway bridge across the river.  Based on past feedback from Bernhard I spent some extra time on this area. 


166-3: I spend about 15-20 minutes arguing with the slope on either side of the bridge.  The bridge had to be tall enough to allow the passage of ferries and large ship so any future port developments upstream are viable.  I really hope I got the slope right or at least close!


166-4: Here's the slope on the other side of the river.  This one was a bit easier to do.  The curve in 166-3 was a serious pain! 


166-5: The bridge is a branching line from the main line on the east side of the river.  This triangle is a rail interchange to access the mainline from either direction.  The STR transitions add an appropriate look.  I plan to retro fit this if the DTR -> STR track Y-separation junction is ever released. 


166-6: The rest of the area is pretty straight forward.  The elevated RHW4 makes an excellent overpass over the railway. 


166-7: The placement of the railway makes the construction of interchanges challenging.  I realized that the constrained space would mean building a road overpass across the railway would make sense.  Especially since this road will lead into Delta City.


166-8: The railway on the island is important but it is a complication.  The area around the railway is going to be a major industrial area and a port.  And it's going to be built sooner rather than later.  One big problem I've had in the region is residential demand, particularly medium wealth.  The agricultural zones just don't support a large medium wealth population, even with the modded job levels. 

So a large industrial port area is the first important feature of this island area.  The second will be revealed later.  Either way, it means that the area has to be accessible by road.  That means taking a road under the railway tracks.  Fortunately, buddybud created a set of fantastic ground level underpass lots similar to the FLUPS many years ago.  I just acquired them and I've used one of them here. 


166-9: Here's the tile composite.  As you can see here, I've added the RHW6S on the island area.  I still have to add an interchange to access it here but that will be done later.  I've got to figure out some other complications on this island first.


166-10: Wrapping up the day with an expanded region composite.


166-11: And an expanded reference composite so you can find the latest tile on the map.


Another update done, but I'm already working on yet another!  Tomorrow we make a detour back to Deroche and then after that we're moving further south to one of the region edges! 

bat

Great work on the railway!!! Nice pictures of the region again, too... :thumbsup:

art128

Excellent update, nice development of the road network. Seems like you did well with the picture 166-3 slope, I really like how it is now.

Ps, remember to use the FAR pieces of the RHW 4 to make more realistic region view, i'm talking about the area at the left of the red steel bridge, you can see that you used various 45 degrees curves, where a simple FAR section would have been rather nice. ;)

I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

rooker1

Arthur is full of great ideas and I have to agree here.  Your 45s look to perfect.
Otherwise I am loving this rapid growth.

Robin
Call me Robin, please.

Cyclone1001

Another great update, and more room for growth. It seems to me like you are getting closer to a large city, so I'm expecting to see more highways and infrastructure.
All guesses, but I'm sure whatever you do will be spectacular.

canyonjumper

Congrats on OSITM! Great to have you back! It's always nice to read over your updates and I'm sure we're in for a real treat this month.

               Your friend,
                              Jordan :thumbsup:
I'm the one who jumped across the Grand Canyon... and lived.

metarvo

Those tunnels have been in my Plugins folder for several years, and they still get me out of jams to this day.

In addition to the transit system, you might want to consider the power grid in the new sections of Adara.  It already looks like you're laying out some power lines.  Is there going to be a power plant over here, or will power be pulled in from the other side of the region?  It might be a surprise.  ;D

Congratulations on OSITM, and keep up the good work!

:thumbsup:
Find my power line BAT thread here.
Check out the Noro Cooperative.  What are you waiting for?  It even has electricity.
Want more? Try here.  For even more electrical goodies, look here.
Here are some rural power lines.

Battlecat


bat: Thanks very much!

Arthur (art128): You're just a wealth of good ideas this week!  Today's update is based on your last suggestion and there's one next week based on this one as well!  The highway in question is actually a RHW6, not a RHW4 but fortunately there appear to be fractional pieces of that network!  Thanks  very much, hope you like the tweaks today.

Robin (rooker1): Suggestions always make for a better creation in the end.  I can't think of everything and I will admit I'm both a touch rusty and still getting familiar with the deep possibilities of the RHW mod.  I can't believe how much stuff is crammed into that one network!

Cyclone1001: Your assessment is correct, we are heading towards a major city, but most of that major city won't actually be in this region.  I've got a crazy plan for that someday in the future.

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks, it's good to be back!  Rapid fire updates this month and then hopefully back to normal next month!

metarvo: It's actually the first time I've used them, but I think they're going to be seeing a lot of use in the future now that I have them.  They look great as well! 

The power lines on the North Delta Map go to two separate places.  The set coming in from the north are actually a direct connection to the hydro electric facility in Vavenby.  The ones coming from the east head to an as yet placed facility, probably another hydro project.  But this other project likely won't be in this region, it's out there somewhere, just not around here. 

Update 168
Deroche – Revisiting the Interchange

Today is a brief opportunity to catch our breath today as I duck back into Deroche to tweak the interchange and highway bridge based on some excellent suggestions by Arthur.  No updated regional composite today, but I'll add the changes for update 169 in the next couple of days.

168-1: This is the interchange that I'm revisiting today.  Among the items of feedback are the interchange is needlessly large and poorly design.  The bridge also doesn't look all that nice.  As such, I'm going to apply a ruthless bulldozer to this area and start again! 


168-2: First things first, how about a new bridge.  There's this gorgeous cable stayed bridge I stumbled on, I think it's a distinct improvement!


168-3: It looks so nice, it's worth a closer look I think. 


168-4: Now on to the really frustrating challenge, building an interchange.  I kept having trouble with the pieces auto-leveling and messing up the approach to the bridge. 


168-5: Finally I got it right, or so I thought.  Then I just needed one of the transition pieces to the RHW2.  Then I hit tab one extra time and realized that this design was going to be needlessly complicated.


168-6: Now this is an elegant solution I think.  Compact, nice looking and clean without any extraneous lines.  Plus, when this is all done, I won't even have an overpass across the highway which is highly desirable when counted with my long term plans for this island.


168-7: Wide radius RHW2 curves will take the interchange over towards the new underpass.  Incidently, I've used the underpasses again on this tile, which should give you an idea of where I'm taking these.   


168-8: The road transition is hardly noticeable.  Just for an added bit of fun, I decided to use the network widening mod TLA5 instead of a basic avenue here. 


168-9: On the other side of the underpass I'm using the MAVE-4 from the same mod.  There's a lot of development planned for this area.


168-10: One last tweak to wrap up the day.  This intersection looks a bit barren.  Fortunately, there's one other mod floating around that I've not put too much use yet.   


168-11: Turns out some unspeakably clever person made sure the TULEP avenue pieces were compatible with the TLA5!  The transition is flawless and the new intersection looks dramatically better.  If this ever comes out for the MAVE-4, I'll retrofit the other intersection as well!


168-12: Just to wrap things up, here's an overview look at the area now that everything is finished with the retrofit.  Hope you like the results, some of the design choices will make more sense when I come back and start developing this tile! 


That's all for today!  No composite today, I'll put these updates onto the one I create when we visit the next tile which will be either tomorrow or Monday.  Next time we head for the border of the region as we move one more tile south from North Delta.  See you later!

noahclem

Great updates!  &apls &apls

I especially love all the composite pictures! Your most recent work redoing the bridge and interchange is looking very nice as well. The NAM stuff, especially RHW, isn't the easiest thing in the world to get the hang of but it sure is rewarding when you can create an area exactly how you want to! And I know what you mean about the frustrating auto-level with the RHW puzzle pieces  :'(  Anyway, the area looks very promising  :thumbsup:

The only thing I'd really like to see is wide-radius curves on that RHW-6, though to do so you'd have to transition it to RHW-6C and then use the orthogonal-to-FA and FA-to-diagonal pieces.

Looking forward to more!

rooker1

 The overall setup looks much better now and I'm very interested to see what you build up in this area. 
The only problem I see is that bridge.  Unless you plan to have a mid to high rise city on both side of the river in that area, I don't think it fits. 

Just my opinion though.
Robin ;)
Call me Robin, please.

bat

Nice work on the interchange and bridge! And looking forward to the new area... :)

Cyclone1001

That's quite an upgrade, looks much better. Keep it up.

threestooges

Look who you're talking to about getting back to it, heh. You don't seem to have picked up any rust from your time off though.
-Matt

art128

For sure this bridge by Fukuda is wonderful. Maybe one of the most beautiful bridge build in the recent era. (as long as the Vasco Da gamma bridge in Lisbon). Thought, I do agree with Robin that without any further development on each side it will look a bit odd, but that's only because of SC4, as in real life the bridge is passing though an open valley in the out Millau. Plus the bridge seems to have some LOD glitch on the far zooms.

But anyway I liked the latest change you made. Now the highway exit and surrounding area do look much better!
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

Dantes


ricardomiranda


canyonjumper

That looks way better ;D

           Your friend,
                          Jordan :thumbsup:
I'm the one who jumped across the Grand Canyon... and lived.

Battlecat



noahclem: The composites are my greatest pleasure in working with this region, the results are always fantastic.  I'd love to see wide radius curves on the RHW-6 as well, trying to fiddle around to create them using the FAR pieces sounds like more trouble than it's worth though.  Thanks for stopping in!

Robin (rooker1): Thanks, glad you like the revised area.  The funny thing about bridges is that they don't have as much to do with the local area as we instinctually think in SC4.  They have more to do with the number of people moving from A to B through the bridge corridor.  Somewhere out there, there are large cities in Adara.  This bridge corridor just provides a route between them!  I might revisit this bridge in the future though. 

bat: Thanks very much!

Cyclone1001: Thanks!

Matt (threestooges): Glad to hear you think so!  I think part of my problem is that I'm delving into aspects of the RHW mod that I'm not familiar with!  Thanks!

Arthur (art128): I knew it looked familiar, I've seen photos of that bridge before.  I just noticed the LOD glitch when you mentioned it.  I'm going to leave it as is for now, but I might replace it when I come back to the tile in the future.  Glad you like the revisions, I really appreciate the suggestions.  There's another set coming tomorrow!

Dantes: Thanks!

ricardomiranda: Thanks very much!

Jordan (canyonjumper): I thought so as well!  Suggestions and feedback are always appreciated here!

Update 169
Saltery Bay – A Simple Start

As I suspected, weekends are not conducive to easy updated but I did get some gaming time and another tile ready.  Today I'm introducing a relatively simple tile.  There isn't a lot of stuff to build here, so we'll wrap things up quickly.  This tile exists for the terrain more than anything; I had fun crafting this area. 

169-1: Saltery Bay is the southernmost tile in line with Dunster Bend and Alexandria.  Any more tiles from here will require moving to a new region, which I don't plan to do at the moment.  As you can see here the coastline is quite rugged.  The main bay features prominently in the center of this image and will likely be the site of a small fishing village/resort.


169-2: I created a couple mountains here that aren't entirely realistic but the tile was going to be awfully flat if I didn't.  Personally I enjoy adding quirky touches like this one. 


169-3: In terms of traffic, the main highway and railway come through the corner.  I used the FARR just to mix it up a bit.


169-4: The highway isn't quite as exciting but that's partly because I wanted to create something new.


169-5: Here it is, a 100% diagonal RHW interchange.  This was a real challenge and it takes up a touch more space than is probably realistic.  But as a technical achievement I'm very pleased with the results!


169-6: Here is the finished tile composite image.


169-7: And here's an updated composite including the modifications to Deroche I made yesterday.


169-8: Last but not least, here is the reference map. 


And that's a wrap for new tile #3!  Tomorrow I'll be revisiting North Delta one more time to attempt another set of revisions suggested by Arthur.  Then it's on to the South West corner of this region. 

SCWTC4

astonishing work, the level of details is impressive 0.0
do you have any plans to thevelop the tiles just east of Salmo and Winflield in the near future? i mean the ones with the eastern end of the lake, featuring the narrow valley and the old ugly-winding road crossing the mountains, the one that made necessary the existence of the Westside-Winfield highway bridge (you mentioned this plan quite long ago but i've read all your MD during this week-end and i've become a bit curious about this..)
me and my (clever) friend..
f: "everytime i play SC4 riots erupts, they even blow up a bridge"
m: "do you ever consider the possibility of putting around some police stations?" (joking)
f: "you're right..."
m: