Three Rivers Region

[Pat]

David Ive been looking in on this all day today and I still dont know what to say here that Ive said in the past before about something you have done that has caught my attention!!!  Siiiigh I gues I am totaly amazed.....

[GNUCyberKat]

As always, absolutely amazing there David.

Say, how's your local volcano doing these days?  Haven't heard much since it started spewing.

Cheers!

Scott

[sithlrd98]

Trees are looking good! Just one question , are you gonna jump on the Highdef textures and props express?
Just kidding , maybe the next batch of goodness will be in HD (The work you've done already has taken the game to a pretty high level already, nothing like what maxis created 6 years ago!)

Jayson

[dedgren]

This is so interfering with our travel to Helena, Montana, at 6:30 tomorrow morning (AST GMT-9).


Alaska Volcano Observatory [linkie], all rights reserved

I'm sorry for the sporadic posting over the past couple of days.  I made some further progress putting together the Tree Lots, Treelines, Fencelines and Fields (TLTFF) package today, but am beginning to come to grips with its size.  It looks like that will be my "spare time" endeavor in Montana.

If I get there.  I'm sort of bummed about this, as I have a very short opportunity this spring to visit Joshua.

Anyway- later.


David

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[thundercrack83]

Sorry to hear about the interference with your trip to Montana, David. I do hope that you're able to get there to spend some time with Joshua.

As for what's been happening here in 3RR, I have to apologize for not making it in as often. There's no excuse for that, and I hope to not let it happen again! But don't worry, I'm always checking in to see what's happening all the time!

Take care, my friend!

Dustin

[ldvger]

David-

Ok, so now I am on page 26 of 3RR and looking at how you determined the contour intervals in your game map to be 64m.  Problem is, that doesn't seem to be the same in my game maps, as my contours seem to be about 132m apart from each other.  Not only that but, they vary considerably depending on steepness of terrain and zoom level used when one uses the "terrainquery" tool.  In short, the contours seem to be almost completely randomly generated.  It's either that or my game is very buggy.  I would not be so bold as to post images from my region into your MD without your permission, but would do so, with your approval, to demonstrate what I am talking about. 

But there seems to be a second problem associated with this in that it seems I am unable to snap pics of my region or city tiles with both the contours on and the inquiry tool hovering over an elevation point.  When in a particlular city I use the CTRL+Shift+S to activate the snapshot mode, my terrain inquiry tool disappears.  Reading your page 26, I gather you ran into the same issue and you Photoshopped (or Paintshopped) the terrain inquiry tool into your snapshots, with all the relevant data copied faithfully.  I have no issue with this, it's a good work-around for tutorial purposes. 

So my question to you now is, did you ever check the contour interval at steeper terrains?  And if so, did it change from 64m to something greater?  Because ALL of my contour intervals are over 130m...and I am entering the info directly from the terrainquery tooltip into my calculator and only using contour/grid line intersections as measuring points.

I have this sneaking suspicion that the vertical axis of this game is badly skewed when it comes to steep terrain.  You checked your elevations in relatively flat terrain and so got the 64m contour interval.  I think if you had gone to another area of your map and checked interval there, you might have found something quite different. 

I will take take snaps of my region with contours on and tool-tips PS'd in, and post them here, but only with your permission.  At this point in your MD, I doubt it's a matter of importance to you.  It's important to me because I am trying to map my own region and am using you as my guide.  And when I run into rather large discrepancies between my game info and what you find in yours, then I am kinda lost as how to proceed.  Not your problem, I understand.  I'll just keep reading 3RR from the early days and maybe learn if you ran into this yourself and how you resolved it.

Lora/LD, learning

LD Edit:  Ok, I have to learn not to post after 3 glasses of wine and to not try to do anything mathmatical, either.  This morning, over coffee, I loaded up my game and re-checked the whole contours issue.  What I found is that the contours in MY game are at +/- 128m intervals, which makes sense of a sort as that is a multiple of 16m, which seems to be the "magic" number Maxis used for it's default.  I also discovered that the very first contour above sea level appears to be approx. 106-108m.  Why this is so I have no idea, but check it out.  I also checked contour intervals in Terraformer and found the seem to be about 4-5m apart.  I'll have to PM wouganouie (sp?) to see what he/she used as a contour interval and to confirm/unconfirm (is that a word?) my discovery. 

[Pat]

dang it david I knew there was a question I forgot to ask you on Sunday grrrr.... Oooh well maybe next time I will catch you with it if you wouldnt mind  .... BTW you could blame me too for our great conversation on Sunday night 

I do hope you are able to get out and see Joshua soon and that stupid volcano shuts up long enough for you to sneak outta there.... BTW how is Tristen doing??? Again take it easy my friend!!!

[threestooges]

I hope the conditions improve soon. Say "Hi" to Joshua for us when you see him (and Tristen too).
-Matt

[ldvger]

when the white eagle of the north is flying overhead
the browns, reds and golds of autumn lie in the gutter, dead
remember then, that summer birds with wings of fire flaying
came to witness spring's new hope, born of leaves decaying
Just as new life will come from death, love will come at leisure.
love of love, love of life and giving without measure
gives in return a wondrous yearn of a promise almost seen.
live hand-in-hand and together we'll stand...

                                      ...on the threshold of a dream

David, you should have credited the author, Graeme Edge of The Moody Blues, from the album "On The Threshold Of A Dream", Deram, 1969, and included what you call a "linkie"...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Threshold_of_a_Dream

I don't have your skills with creating links, but I share your apparent appreciation of this fine band.  

As a bit of an aside, I spent 3-4 years of my "mid-life crisis" as a "camp follower" of the band during the early 90's, following them all over the US for weeks at a time, bathing myself in the live music experience (this from someone who is crowd-phobic usually), and letting the music guide me back to a place in myself I never knew I had lost, let alone could regain.  I credit this band with, in many ways, saving my life, or at least my sanity.  And lets face it, if one is not sane, what value does life have?  The years I spent on the road behind the band were in and of themselves, to many people who know and care about me, a form of insanity, and I can't help but agree, having come back out the other side.  I lost everything I had...my job, my home, many of my friends.  But I regained my sense of being grounded in this world and I knew that "from the ashes we can rise another day" .  I don't regret a minute of the time I spent being a camp follower or the cost to me in terms of job, family, friends.  I know now I will always have "New Horizons"...

Lora/LD

(ps.  the "LD" is short for LDVGER" which was my custom license plate for many years, while I still cared to own an automobile, and which was derived from Long Distance VoyaGER, tha band's 8th album.  I am a long distance voyager....

EDIT:  Heh, Lora- I credited Mr. Edge in agate type right after my sig.  Half the fun of making reference to something that happened 40 years ago is seeing who gets it.  The Moodies had me at "Tuesday Afternoon," but I really enjoyed "Your Wildest Dreams" in the late 80s, along with the Red Rocks stuff.  They wuz good, as it were.  My top three sixties bands were, in no particular order, The Who, the Moody Blues and the Kinks.  As for the last, "Sunny Afternoon" always makes me smile, and "Waterloo Sunrise" can bring tears.  I wore out multiple copies of "Who's Next" in college playing it over and over again at 11, and that was long before Spinal Tap thought that one up.  With regard to LDVGER, the nic now makes perfect sense.  I had guessed that it was maybe a Star Trek Movie (the first one) reference, to the returning Voyager craft that caused Kirk and the Enterprise so much grief.  Great times, eh? -DE  

LD Edit:  Sorry David, my bad once again.  I saw the credit line this morning, guess I just got so excited to see a MB reference that I failed to scroll down to the bottom of your post.  Good to find another MB fan "out there"!

[bakerton]

Redoubt needs to stop for a few hours so our good David can visit Montana. If not, we all here in #RR will come and shut it up. David, take your sweet dear old time to do your magic. Take care. JKB

[Ryan B.]

This is so interfering with our travel to Helena, Montana, at 6:30 tomorrow morning (AST GMT-9).

Image taken from AfterTheWhistle internet magazine.  No, that's not me.   

The Referee, at his discretion, may assess a major penalty, based on the degree of violence, to a player or goalkeeper guilty of interfering with an opponent.

Mount Redoubt, major penalty, interference.

Oi, Redoubt - quit spouting off for just a little while so that David can get outta Dodge!

I really hope you're able to go and see Joshua.  Safe travels, my friend.

[dedgren]

On for just a minute from Sea-Tac, in Seattle.  We escaped!  I'm a little worried, though, as we're running into folks who have literally been stranded in Seattle for most of the past week trying to get back to Anchorage, and finding their flights cancelled and it very hard to make rebooking arrangements due to the cascading effect.  I am supposed to head back on Sunday, and might wind up flying into Fairbanks if things really look bad.  We'll see.

Keep those fingers crossed for me, folks.

I'll be back on tonight from the Fairfield in Helena- I'm working on a thing or two in-flight.

Later.


David

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[ecoba]

OOH!, I Just noticed That I Actually Have A Quad, Wow!, Ooh, David, maybe You Could PM Pictures, If Possible, Im Kinda new To SC4D, But No Rush, Do Whatever First...Thx!

[just_a_guy]

Ouch! Losing flights because of bad weather I see, I know how irritating that is. Good luck with getting back. Hopefully things will get better!

[threestooges]

If you made it out, you can get back in. Hope the trip goes well in the meantime.
-Matt

[ldvger]

Well, I guess this is a day doomed to frustration.  I posted here around 3:30/4pm PST a discusiion on game scale versus RL and 7 hours later, it's not here.  I also jest spent and hour or so over at the Introduce Yourself thread and then posted a pic of self which did not display in the post.  I hit the Preview button and saw the pic and post just fine, but was unable to return to my post and so lost it (the post, not my temper). 

So I will repost a little bit of what I posted earlier this afternoon.  I am continueing to wend my way through the ST version of 3RR and got to page 35 when that page just *pooft* disappeared.  There is a single post by Gaston welcoming page 35 and that's it.  Looking at the ST TOC, I see that the discussion about scale which I am following closely, continued on page 35 with the discussion titled "Scale-Whither 3RR?".  I'd like to see the rest of page 35 as well, but that is my main post of interest.  I can't call it up here on SC4D because the ST Archives for page 35 show me only little blank boxes with red X's in them. 

This issue of game scale versus RL scale is of deep interest to me and I really want to be able to follow along as David Grappled with this when it came up for him, as it has for me.  I know the topic is 2+ years old and over 300 pages in the past...I am not looking to revive the discussion now, just follow it as it occured THEN.  But missing even a single post on the subject could leave me in the dust. 

David do you have a backup of the "Scale-Whither 3RR" post that you could forward to me?  I don;t want to miss what could be a vital turning point...

Lora/LD

[Bishop Hawke]

Dang David. I wish I knew you where coming. I work at Sea-Tac airport. would have loved to have meet you in person. I am not back on duty till friday morning at 5 am. If you are still stuck  here  stop by the central security check point  and ask for Steve. I Hope you make it home ok though. good luck.

[girlfromverona]

Hope your trip goes well, David, and that you don't have too many problems getting back home! 

[metarvo]

If I know David at all, I know that he's got something good for us in the works.  These plane trips have been quite productive in the past. 

[dedgren]

Back in for the night.  Meetings with docs, therapists and the school folks all day.  Took Josh to see Monsters versus Aliens and then to our favorite Helena Chinese all-you-can-eat place afterwards.  A pretty good day, overall.

Doodled late last night.



I'm building quite a set of miscellaneous road and rail puzzle-pieces while I wait for my muse to return on the TLTFF, which is at about 80 lots and counting.  I'm going to go do some SC4 for a while and see if there's some inspiration there.

* * *

Lora, I have page 35 archived.  I'll dig it out ASAP.  Steve (Bishop Hawke), if Redoubt blows ash on Sunday, you might find me holed up sleeping in a janitor's closet at Sea-Tac.  Heather's former principal (her disability retirement was approved and effective on the 27^th of last month) has been trying to get back into Anchorage for most of a week.  In any event, it's great to know where to find you.

Later.


David

p.s. The next post, as well as being a Double-0 Club qualifier, brings us three-quarters of the way to 10,000.  Thassa 'ho bunch, as they say over yonder.  You folks are always the greatest!

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