[XiahouDun]

Yesterday while playing with my region for GRVII I was thinking about the need for signs. If you need some done, just send me a list by PM and I could whipe some together on whatever scale you wanted.

[ldvger]

Ok, here I go again, back on the farm rows issue.  Has anyone given thought to creating crop circles?  Not the ones supposedly made by aliens (although those would be fun to plop down here and there, wouldn't they?).  I am talking about the irrigation circles we see in so many of the dryland farming areas of the American West.  Of course, you'd have to create the irrigation sprinklers that roll between the crop rows as well.  And, if you made them for folks who used them in "live" cities, you could animate them to rotate around the fields, complete with little rainbows when the sun shines through the water.  I'm full of great ideas, aren't I, tee hee. 

And, as there are seasonal trees and flora, why not seasonal crops/farmland as well?  Or has someone already thought of that?  Bare ground in winter, tractor out plowing and planting in spring, crops growing during spring and summer, then the harvestor machinery going through in fall and finally the farmers on thier tractors turning the fields over to sleep again for the winter.  I know nothing about how to create custom content for the game, so I have any idea if seasonal (and animated) fields are possible, but it seems to me they could be. 

And...maybe figuring out a way to rotate crops, so that the same crop doesn't grow year after year in the same field?  Because that is the death of good farmland.  Just thinking about all the fun things that could be done with just the farming aspect of the game makes me think maybe a new game is in order..."SimFarm".  Or did EA/Maxis already do that and it flopped? 

Still, David this is a beautiful region and I am hoping to find time to go back to the beginning and learn how it grew to it's current state, not to mention figure out what all the acronyms mean.  I really like the wide radius curves for the roads and railways.  I also like the angled but not diagonal sections of same.  I wish we had road and rail tools that were more like paintbrushes that we could use to "paint" our transportation tools across a landscape rather than being confined by given angles or radii.

But then, that has been my dream for above ground water for a very long time, a paintbrush-like tool that we could use in the God Mode that would allow us to create tiny trickles to raging rivers and stupendous waterfalls.  Just like the other Gode Mode tools that we can randomly paint across our regions, varying the size and intensity of the effort of the "brush" from affecting a tiny area to a large area.  It just can't be that hard to do, or so it seems to this non-coding gamer.

And so long as I am dreaming away for the next SimCity version, while night and day are really cool, having weather would be nice, too, especially if it conformed to the microclimates our regions have.  Snow in the mountains, rain in the flats. 

Off to build highways in Apocrypha...

Lora/LD

[deathtopumpkins]

Well David actually DID make Central Pivot Irrigation fields--they're on the 3RREX! Along with assorted props (including the irrigation sprinklers you mentioned) BATted by Matt (threestooges), although they're not animated.

And most custom farms out there are seasonal. Look back on the LEX & STEX, and David made a few ploppables on the 3RREX.

As for your above-ground water "paintbrush," also check the LEX. Jeronij made some excellent ploppable (with the mayor mode tree tool) water in 3different sizes and colors.

[dedgren]

So, here's a texture-based idea building on Lora's comment.



I tried to capture what tracks a tractor and tiller-cultivator [linkie] might leave as they exited and re-entered the planted furrows.





As best I can tell, the wheelbase of a farm tractor is around six feet/180 cm.  If anyone would like to try her or his hand at this (as my effort was a quick-and-dirty 15 minute one), here's the basic texture to play with.

  Just right-mouse click on it and save it to your graphics program.  I'll be happy to test out and show the results of whatever anyone sends back modified.

* * *

Terrible cold and sinus stuff today.



I don't know if I'll make it to work tomorrow.


David

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[mightygoose]

i would have said 1ft tyre 6 ft gap 1ft tyre.... for uk tractors anyway... i thought lora was implying a diagonal track to farm the excess corners...


awesome stuff though btw....

EDIT-

David, thanks for the credit it would of been impossible with out the help from Jon (warrior) and your self and of course alex, andreas, jan and dirk. and the nam team.

if i recall correctly, i found another dirt tilled texture in one of the sc4 dats. it was much narrower than what we get in game
and i forgot its id 

dave

And... ...VVVV Dave VVVV...... your worse than Kate Winslet at the Oscars [linkie] lol

[superhands]

David, thanks for the credit it would of been impossible with out the help from Jon (warrior) and your self and of course alex, andreas, jan and dirk. and the nam team.

if i recall correctly, i found another dirt tilled texture in one of the sc4 dats. it was much narrower than what we get in game
and i forgot its id 

dave

[girlfromverona]

Sorry to hear you're not feeling well, David! Hope you feel better soon. 

As for the tractor markings, I'll have a look on Google Earth and see if I can come up with some examples.

EDIT: Not sure if this helps at all, but here are some fields with tractor markings...

[zilfondel]

dedgren - just wanted to say your CJ blog is amazing.  Although I haven't read much of it I think the landscaping is quite amazing and realistic.  I'm getting my degree in architecture, and was fascinated by your focus on the platting system used for the West.

I can't even fathom how much time you've spent on it... I took a break from Simcity about the time you started your blog, and have just now reinstalled the game!  Its quite amazing...

Oh, and judging from your Freddie's chicken topic, I'm guessing you are a fellow Oregonian.  Just gots to say "hi" you know.   


Well keep up the inspirational and breakthrough work...

[Ryan B.]

Hope you feel better, David.  Lots of that going around here, too.

[mayorfabz]

I hope you get well soon, David. I guess it sort of comes with the thaw, almost everybody I know here in Montreal is sick. Me included.
Oh, right, it may be too early to talk about thaw in Alaska...
Sniffy greetings from Montreal
Fabien

[Rayden]

Get well David. There's nothing better for a cold than a good schnaps and a bit of honey. If you drink the whole bottle, even better

[Darmok]

Silvio!  Schnaps.... euuuh!

Scotch! now that's the good medicine! A good 12 year old single malt scotch!
I'm not sure about the blood pressure though!
I guess Heather will know better...

Get well soon my friend.

P.S. Schnaps! Silvio how can you! 

[Rayden]

Silvio!  Schnaps.... euuuh!

Scotch! now that's the good medicine! A good 12 year old single malt scotch!
I'm not sure about the blood pressure though!
I guess Heather will know better...

Get well soon my friend.

P.S. Schnaps! Silvio how can you! 

Apfel Schnaps or our local (Algarve schnaps) called Medronho, perfect, it's like a drain cleaner

[Pat]

Apfel Schnaps or our local (Algarve schnaps) called Medronho, perfect, it's like a drain cleaner

Silvio I dont think David needs his pipes cleaned lol...

David I hope you feel better soon and that new texture is looking good!!!

[metarvo]

 

I hope you get well before too long, David.  It seems like these health issues appear just when things are really going good in 3RR, but I want you to take your time and not work too hard if you don't feel like it.  Have a speedy recovery, David.  Take some medicine if you have to.  We're not going anywhere. 

[ldvger]

David-

I also hope you are feeling better soon.  I had my first cold in over 5 years right after Xmas 08 and it sucked big time.  Took me 6 weeks to recover from.

Back to farm rows, the pics posted here by others showed what I am talking about.  The parallel rows are plowed first and the diagonals are plowed afterwards and lop the tops off of the parallel rows that form empty triangles.  Look closely at the fields the above pics show and you will see what i mean.  The diagonols are all very obviously placed after the parallels.

Also, while a tractor itself is only make 5'-6' wide, that doesn't mean the implement it is dragging behind it is also that narrow.  There are many names for the various names of implements a tractor drags, but most of them nowdays are way wider than the tractor itself.  The implement, whether it be a harrow or a disk or a planter, is usually multi-limbed and usually pneumaticaly driven off the tractor's engine.  At the very least, the implement has 3 times the tractor's width.  There is the main part of the impliment that equals or exceeds the tractor's path, then there are folding arms to either side of the impliment that allow the tractor to triple it's working area with each pass across the field.  When the tractor driver comes to the end of a field row, he folds up the arms of the impliments extenstions, makes his turn, then folds down the arms and continues down the paralles.  Each extension is independently operated from the cab of the tractor, so when making a turn against a diagonal, first one arm of the extenstion is laid down, then when there is room in the field, the second arm of the extension is laid down.  The tractor driver takes into account the width of all arms of the implement when making his/her turn and tries hard to make sure that the furthest arm of the impliment plows new ground or, at least, over laps the last row of the  pass just made beforethe turn. 

Having lived in farm country for many years, I have ridden on tractors while farmer buddies of mine tilled thier fields.  It's not an easy thing to do to keep the rows straight and if you get distracted at the end of the row (say by a pretty girl kissing on you), it's easy to miss your turn correctly and have to spend a lot of time getting the tractor into place to start the next parallel row.  That's when it's time to send the pretty girl packing...and to follow her as she walks down the already plowed rows as she heads back to her car at the edge of the field.

Hahahahahaha.  I have lots of very good memories about living in farm county, not the least of which is how to plow a field.

[dedgren]

So, here's the collaboration quads as of today.  The legend at the bottom shows to whom the numbered quads are assigned.

Map Key
#	Collaborator
1	Albus of Garaway
29	Allan_Kuan_1992
2	bakerton
3	BarbyW
4	bighead99
5	BigSlark
30	CCFC
6	Darmok
7	deathtopumpkins
8	caspervg
9	dedgren
10	ecoba
11	Gaston
12	Heinz
13	girlfromverona
14	io_bg
15	Jmouse
16	meldolion
17	metarvo
18	mightygoose
19	Pat
20	penguin_007
21	pvarcoe
22	Rayden
31	rhizome21
23	running naked in the snow
24	Tarkus
25	threestooges
26	thundercrack83
27	Toichus Maximus
28	unkles27

If you are not on that list and are certain you let me know you wanted to be involved in the first go-round of collaboration, please let me know ASAP- I don't want to miss anyone.  Collaborators, please start looking through 3RR for information on your quad- there will be further announcements posted shortly.

Thanks for everyone's continued interest in this project.


David

264722

[penguin007]

Hi David sorry I havn't been around for awhile. Lately school work has got to me and I've had to do a lot of soul searching but well this week I've started to curb this problem and having lost the passion to do anything I have regained that part of me which has been missing for a while.

Anyway I just want to say that congratulations on all the work you've done lately the STR is great fun and all the rail switches are lovely to use. Also lovely surprise today to see my name on the quad list, I like the look of my quad also a nice river mouth which I can see being a difficult, educational (What I strive as I feel I need to become better on coastal areas) but also rewarding I can't wait!!

btw you maybe interested to know that I met an amazing explorer today: James Hooper the youngest Briton to climb Everest and also the 1st person to go from pole to pole using only man power. What an inspirational guy he was but so little known unfortunately, and I've got a feeling you're very simaliar person to him.

Longest post anywhere I've written for awhile

Will

[mightygoose]

David, you are going to give me a coronary. I knew that Three Rivers Region Collaboration was going to start eventually but I was not expecting it, in much the same way that a condemned prisoner was not expecting to be hanged, [linkie]. Pouring desperately over the amassed information I have a problem.

Having chosen the bottom right quad in Evendim, I know I have two freeway intersections and a road junction within my bounds. I know I have a rail running through my tile. I also know that the northern fringes of Pineshore are within my area and that the majority of the rest of the tile will be farmland. However, the freeway passes directly over the intersection between four tiles and I don’t know what you want me to do there.

Moving on from the graphical, the set plugin list was never finished and the mod list never even compiled. I have no idea how far Pineshore should penetrate into my tile and the only written help on my tile I get is…

Lake Evendim (Lake - SE Quad Evendim Twp - lat. 48° 56' 42" N / lon. 95° 02' 35" W (center) - elev. ___ ft/___ m (highest point).  Map key 5-E)  Lake Evendim is a ___ acre/___ hectare lake that forms a long narrow swell in Ship Creek. It lies in a northwest to southeast orientation and provides a somewhat smaller and more private destination for anglers.

Ship Creek (Stream - SE, SW Quads Evendim Twp, NE Quad Fish Wheel Twp, NW Quad High Twp - lat. 48° 54' 25" N / lon. 94° 59' 14" W (center) Map key 6-F)  Ship Creek is a ___ mile/___ hectare stream which empties into the mouth of Grand River. Fed by Tejeda Spring, it takes a northeastern track before taking a sharp southeasterly path through Lake Evendim.


…and both of those are self referencing. I know we are meant to be creative, but with strict population limits and the idea of sending you a file that is compatible with both our setups, I simply must profess that I do not think we as a group of players are ready to begin collaborating at this time.

[dedgren]

Well, John (mightygoose), that's what all the upcoming announcements and other stuff are for.

Each collaborator will get a complete package of maps, completed Gazetteer entries, a few references that might not be otherwise apparent, along with a couple of paragraphs of backstory guidance and, in some instances, pictures.  The quads will also be sent out a few at a time, with a bit of notice to those with (as yours is) complicated areas to develop.  I've been busy, in other words.

No worries, my friend.  This won't be a race to see who can get done first or be the fastest.  The object is to create, through the efforts of many, 256 homogeneous, yet in their own way unique, quads that come together in the most comprehensively detailed region ever created for SC4.

No worries, in other words.


David

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