Port St Claire (#36)

[metarvo]

 

Oh, Willy!  You scared the daylights out of me with the update title and the first pic, until I realized what they were about. ( )

It's not always how long it takes to build something that counts.  The shores look very good even if it took you no time at all.    The old-timey flavor of this update, with its horses and buggies, is quite pleasing in a game that is perhaps better known for skyscraper forests.  The dirt roads and the inclusion of plenty of diagonals creates a more natural feel, too.  What really makes this area stand out to me, though, are the umbrellas houses.  I haven't gotten a chance to use these homes much yet, but they look so much better in this type of setting than the Maxis ones.

Good job! 

[sunv123]

Don't you go around scaring us like that.

Same here. When I saw that title I was like "what.... " Eh, but it was okay when I saw the SC2013 pop-up. Moving on.

Wonderful idea you had with the VIP rocks, beats being scared to over-click when making clusters of pebbles. Just for that reason do I use nbvc's rock clusters a little more. (the small rocks, of course.) And also a very neat idea with re-sizing the bushes. I may as well re-size a few MMPs myself....(with your tutorial. )

Yes, those umbrellas... I took a look at a 19th century one and seems like there are strands of some thread (silk?) coming off the edges. Other than that, they are a lot smaller than the ones in those LOTs. And the purple one doesn't seem that bad concerning the fact that many things were a purple/maroon color.

Still a very nice job Willy! I'm glad that you added trees.

Now, those rocks look nice. I think you should release them. Not too many mossy rock clusters out there. (take your time, of course.)

(Whoa that was big...)

[Schulmanator]

Naughty! It's too early for April Fool's!!!


Now that I have recovered... another round of fine pix. SC4>SC2013!

[MTT9]

Well that was scary! After so many great CJs and MDs gone, i was already getting sad... but the joke's on EA for not listening to the players

Your update is great as usual. The whole MMP's thing is still a mistery to me, but you have already mastered it

And those comments are just thanks to the many great updates (I think i missed one though...). Keep'em coming!

[vortext]

Hehe, classy opening there Willy.

Though I do feel kinda sorry for the Maxis' devs with the negative press attention upon release. Then again, it's not like this wasn't predictable and I've to admit feeling a little schadenfreude as well. Let's just hope in about a decade from now, when EA has released an offline patch and there're some modding tools available, it'll be a decent game after all. . 

For now, well, I guess your MD just goes to show why SC4 still is the flagship title and probably will be for some time to come! 

Instead of making a ton of exemplars with "empty" spaces to alternate with the occupied ones, I made a couple prop families for those carts with a large number of blank props in them. So actually, almost every tile has a T21 prop on it, but they're mostly blank

Another trick to add to your arsenal; convert to RKT4, add 'prop time of day' (value 0,24) and then add 'prop random chance' to the examplers. This allows greater control over the rate of occurrence for each individual prop and it completely eliminates the need for blank examplers. 

[Shroud]

I LOVE those shorelines! They're very well done.

[art128]

Nice idea to resize Girafe's bushes and cattails. The result is impressive.

Honestly, if you didn't mentioned the umbrella, i would have never seen them.

[RickD]

Hey, I like those umbr... oh, never mind. 

[noahclem]

Lovely pictures Willy    As I know first hand, your model-tweaking works wonders and I very much enjoy the resized bushes and cattails. The lot MMPing gives a unique and excellent character as well as I'm sure I've said before.

Oh, and good one on pic 1 

[rambuckel]

As my heart just sank into my boots when I read the headline, I was really relieved to see your new brilliant Tom-Sawyer-revival-creations! 

[Simcoug]

Beautiful pictures, and great early April fools joke.  Poor EA 

[w_swietwoot]

I really like how you perfected this theme  . Maybe I'm a bit late with saying this, but that main street picture looks really great.

[Terring7]

Cool pictures man
Your comment for the new Simcity is awesome

[Jmouse]

Train Man, you are in a heap of trouble for scaring me like that. I was chatting with vester when I first saw it, and he can tell you I just about lost it until I realized  what was going on.

I would be very interested in trying out those rocks if I ever have enough time to even open the game. Mmmm...carnival-colored bumbershoots. I continue to be fascinated by the old-fashioned atmosphere you create. Every detail is perfectly crafted, and everything compliments the rest of the elements. I don't have a favorite photo this time because I like all of them, albeit for somewhat different reasons. And I'm not sure if I've asked you before, but what water mod are you using? Also, what shadow setting are you using?

Another great update – it seems like you've thought of everything, including a clothesline. Electric clothes dryers were scarcely heard of in the late 19th century...
-Joan

[eclipticalstorm]

I love the forced perspective along man street!  The church is framed really well by the W2W buildings and their lack of setback.  Personally, I would have placed the church on a higher plane to really reinforce the "looking up to God" feeling.  I really admire your work and those MMP's are to die for!!!

[benedict]

As always your meticulous attention to detail is very impressive.

And welcome back to the top slot on BTT this week.

Edit: And congratulations on a 2nd week at number one (March 23)

[Tandini]

Whooo - - - The End . . .   
You don't even think about it - please! 


I really like your rural scenes! Well done shoreline. 


(I too would be very interested in your modded MMP's - would add more variety to my 'paintings'...)

[vester]

Whooo - - - The End . . .   
You don't even think about it - please! 

That was my first reaction as well.
Try to read his post again.


Amazing work as always, Willy. Keep it up.
Still looking forward for some big cityscape. 

[FrankU]

Whooo - - - The End . . .   
You don't even think about it - please! 

You do make backups don't you?

Great work on the umbrellas! sorry, never can resist to make stupid jokes

But maily on the other props, of course. And indeed Vortex's advice on RKT4 is very useful. I have played with it too. Take a look at my upload here for a functional example.

[Swordmaster]

1.6.   Wait a minute. . .

I think I vexed myself playing this joke. Time to get this "the end" off the title, lest you all start thinking it's true. Lesson learnt: don't joke about the end of your MD, it might just happen. (Not really true of course, PSC is immortal, just like me.)

So, what lousy explanation do I have for this overly protacted break? Couple things: I had an exam late last March to keep my licence to drive trains put my feet up in the big man's cab. It briefly felt like high school again, although this one was probably more arbitrarily graded

After that two cheap thugs came around and coerced me into working on the NORO project. Kidding! – they're not cheap at all.

And finally there's a rather interesting project I've been working on periodically. (Hint: it's not the train, and not the terrain either.)



HA! (First rail pic in this MD Willy? On page 17, really?? Oh shut up.)

But this is still PSC, so I'm contractually obliged to show relevant pictures here. And while I haven't spent any time furthering the cause of this great city, I did cobble up this little scene just for today.

Click to see all.

Replies

Oh, Willy!  You scared the daylights out of me with the update title and the first pic, until I realized what they were about. ( )

It's not always how long it takes to build something that counts.  The shores look very good even if it took you no time at all.    The old-timey flavor of this update, with its horses and buggies, is quite pleasing in a game that is perhaps better known for skyscraper forests.  The dirt roads and the inclusion of plenty of diagonals creates a more natural feel, too.  What really makes this area stand out to me, though, are the umbrellas houses.  I haven't gotten a chance to use these homes much yet, but they look so much better in this type of setting than the Maxis ones.

Good job! 

Thanks Metarvo. The skyscraper forests are slated to start appearing from update 3.513 onwards. According to my schedule I'll publish that one a couple days before the sun explodes in the year 715,652.

Glad you liked the various aspects of this update, though

Don't you go around scaring us like that.

Same here. When I saw that title I was like "what.... " Eh, but it was okay when I saw the SC2013 pop-up. Moving on.

Wonderful idea you had with the VIP rocks, beats being scared to over-click when making clusters of pebbles. Just for that reason do I use nbvc's rock clusters a little more. (the small rocks, of course.) And also a very neat idea with re-sizing the bushes. I may as well re-size a few MMPs myself....(with your tutorial. )

Yes, those umbrellas... I took a look at a 19th century one and seems like there are strands of some thread (silk?) coming off the edges. Other than that, they are a lot smaller than the ones in those LOTs. And the purple one doesn't seem that bad concerning the fact that many things were a purple/maroon color.

Still a very nice job Willy! I'm glad that you added trees.

Now, those rocks look nice. I think you should release them. Not too many mossy rock clusters out there. (take your time, of course.)

(Whoa that was big...)

It's my MD, I can scare you however much I want

But I won't do it again, promised. Instead I'll just annoy you with long pauses. Thanks for visiting Victor, and for voicing your ideas. Never too much!

As for the rocks, they're VIP's. I've only modded the MMP brush so that I only get the small ones. Release, maybe one day

Naughty! It's too early for April Fool's!!!


Now that I have recovered... another round of fine pix. SC4>SC2013!

It's never to early for anything Bruce. That said, Merry Christmas and a Happy 2014! Thanks for stopping by

Well that was scary! After so many great CJs and MDs gone, i was already getting sad... but the joke's on EA for not listening to the players

Your update is great as usual. The whole MMP's thing is still a mistery to me, but you have already mastered it

And those comments are just thanks to the many great updates (I think i missed one though...). Keep'em coming!

Thanks Matt. I've been thinking about doing a short video clip about MMPing, but I'm not sure there's any use for that. Anyway, it's mostly a matter of getting your hands dirty and getting used to the brushes.

Hehe, classy opening there Willy.

Though I do feel kinda sorry for the Maxis' devs with the negative press attention upon release. Then again, it's not like this wasn't predictable and I've to admit feeling a little schadenfreude as well. Let's just hope in about a decade from now, when EA has released an offline patch and there're some modding tools available, it'll be a decent game after all. . 

For now, well, I guess your MD just goes to show why SC4 still is the flagship title and probably will be for some time to come! 

Instead of making a ton of exemplars with "empty" spaces to alternate with the occupied ones, I made a couple prop families for those carts with a large number of blank props in them. So actually, almost every tile has a T21 prop on it, but they're mostly blank

Another trick to add to your arsenal; convert to RKT4, add 'prop time of day' (value 0,24) and then add 'prop random chance' to the examplers. This allows greater control over the rate of occurrence for each individual prop and it completely eliminates the need for blank examplers. 

Thanks Erik. I know you want to show off all your tricks, but remember that I also have a life. No, I mean, I'll try to do something along those lines, although I like to keep things simple. I'm a dummy, you know

I LOVE those shorelines! They're very well done.

Thanks, and welcome to PSC! Hope to see you back.

Nice idea to resize Girafe's bushes and cattails. The result is impressive.

Honestly, if you didn't mentioned the umbrella, i would have never seen them.

Thanks Arthur. I've always known you had no eye for detail.   *Runs*

Hey, I like those umbr... oh, never mind. 

You are allowed to say it. No one else is! Thanks Raphael

Lovely pictures Willy    As I know first hand, your model-tweaking works wonders and I very much enjoy the resized bushes and cattails. The lot MMPing gives a unique and excellent character as well as I'm sure I've said before.

Oh, and good one on pic 1 

Thanks Noah! Model tweaking is the easiest thing since blowing your nose (and even that was hard for me for a while).

As my heart just sank into my boots when I read the headline, I was really relieved to see your new brilliant Tom-Sawyer-revival-creations! 

Thanks Theresa. I think he's hiding somewhere in the bushes here

Beautiful pictures, and great early April fools joke.  Poor EA 

Thanks Matt! No mercy for EA please. . .

I really like how you perfected this theme  . Maybe I'm a bit late with saying this, but that main street picture looks really great.

Thanks Wouter, and welcome to you as well. It's never too late to say anything here. For instance, Happy 1997!

Cool pictures man
Your comment for the new Simcity is awesome

Thanks Elias!

Train Man, you are in a heap of trouble for scaring me like that. I was chatting with vester when I first saw it, and he can tell you I just about lost it until I realized  what was going on.

I would be very interested in trying out those rocks if I ever have enough time to even open the game. Mmmm...carnival-colored bumbershoots. I continue to be fascinated by the old-fashioned atmosphere you create. Every detail is perfectly crafted, and everything compliments the rest of the elements. I don't have a favorite photo this time because I like all of them, albeit for somewhat different reasons. And I'm not sure if I've asked you before, but what water mod are you using? Also, what shadow setting are you using?

Another great update – it seems like you've thought of everything, including a clothesline. Electric clothes dryers were scarcely heard of in the late 19th century...
-Joan

Sorry mouse girl!   And thanks Arne for taking care of my casualties. I don't know about the shadow setting; I think it's just the highest. And the water mod is, like most everything else here, my custom one. Of course I can send it your way if you want. Or tweak it a bit, and then send it your way. Or make a new one based off it, and send it your way. Or . . . well, at your service, madam. (Like I said, you've got no excuses! None!)

I love the forced perspective along man street!  The church is framed really well by the W2W buildings and their lack of setback.  Personally, I would have placed the church on a higher plane to really reinforce the "looking up to God" feeling.  I really admire your work and those MMP's are to die for!!!

Thanks for posting, and welcome! Good idea about the higher placed church, but there was no hill available   Hope to see you back.

As always your meticulous attention to detail is very impressive.

And welcome back to the top slot on BTT this week.

Edit: And congratulations on a 2nd week at number one (March 23)

Thanks Ben. I hope to become a regular again in the BTT one day, but it might be a while.

Whooo - - - The End . . .   
You don't even think about it - please! 

I really like your rural scenes! Well done shoreline. 

(I too would be very interested in your modded MMP's - would add more variety to my 'paintings'...)

To be honest I didn't think about it at all

Looks like I'll have to get serious with releasing those MMPs, though. Thanks for posting!

That was my first reaction as well.
Try to read his post again.


Amazing work as always, Willy. Keep it up.
Still looking forward for some big cityscape. 

Thanks Arne! The big cityscape will come. . . will come for sure. . . some day next millennium or so . Stay tuned!

You do make backups don't you?

Great work on the umbrellas! sorry, never can resist to make stupid jokes

But maily on the other props, of course. And indeed Vortex's advice on RKT4 is very useful. I have played with it too. Take a look at my upload here for a functional example.

Of course Frank, I have everything backuped back-up'd back-upped backed up, dammit what a word. So, no worries. Thanks for posting!





That'll be it for this time folks. I'll try to post a couple of updates over the summer, but that'll depend on the weather!


Cheers
Willy