Calidores

[Themistokles]

Another excellent update, with beautiful scenery and lovely autumn colours!

Regarding the odd commuter choices, I have the opposite problem in the most sprawled city (~15k inhabitants) in the region; not a single one goes by car, all take the bus or walk/bike. I'm not the one to complain, though.

[manga rivotra]

It's seem to be a great idea to play with the river pieces as prop offset for the space under the bridge, surely I'll use this trick in the future 

I really like the old village of Tigris, especially with the autumn colors. Very good work again with this update 

[art128]

And with now more than 100 replies, your MD was promoted to the Best sellers, congratulations!

[11241036]

Responsa

art128: Thank you very much! Your idea with the park at the riverside sounds good, so I've placed one there. I've already made a sports park somewhere, so I've decided to make something a little different - more about this in this update. About the traffic issue: I've simply placed some traffic blockers there that don't allow bus and car traffic to pass. Also, BTW, thank you very much for promoting my MD to become bestseller.
belfastsocrates, Themistokles, manga rivotra: Thank you very much, too!

Progressio

Since most likely I won't have time next weekend to write an update, I'll write one now, albeit a little shorter than usual.
In today's update, I'll finish my work on city tile C3 Hadria. As already mentioned, the main work was placing MMP's, especially trees, everywhere, and placing the last apartments. Especially the latter was a pain in the neck, I can say. For the sake of these screenshots, I even had to temporarily plop them - really, this is one of the most frustrating parts in the game, that sometimes the game just doesn't want to grow anything at all, or just grows buildins I don't want to see at a specific location at all.

Let's start with the already mentioned park at the riverside. I placed the Guggensim museum, as well as a library, there, to make it a little "park of arts".


19.01; Click to enlarge


19.02; Click to enlarge

Next, a few screenshots of parts of the rural areas of Hadria.


19.03; Click to enlarge


19.04; Click to enlarge


19.05; Click to enlarge

And a picture I've already shared on the STEX. As already mentioned there, for years I haven't thought that it would be possible to get a diagonal river past a diagonal traffic route. With McDuell's technique of modifying the terrain after creating a traffic route, and my recently developed offset props, I've finally been able to create the next screenshot - a tribute to all the SC4 community members (in this case McDuell and FrankU) that spent much time to find ways to get around in-game limitations.


19.06; Click to enlarge

This is a small picture of the riverside (which took a lot of time to make). During my childhood excursions to wilderness, I frequently found patches of mud close to the riverside. I don't know if it's due to floods, high amounts of rainwater that can't just flow away, or high groundwater level, but that's probably not so important. So I've placed a few patches of marsh along the riverside, mostly being overgrown by birch trees. This is a better screenshot, it's mostly hard to spot the mud elsewhere.


19.07; Click to enlarge

And with that, I'll finish this update by showing two (warning: large!) overviews, the first of the now finshed town of Tigris, capital of Hadria, the second of the entire city tile. (Sorry, I had to turn off shadows, my machine most likely won't allow it.)


19.08; Click to enlarge


19.09; Click to enlarge

That's all for today. Hope you like it.

[manga rivotra]

I love the layout of your rivers, especially the long curve on picture 19.03  .
Great job on the park along the river also. And the overview 19.09 is absolutely perfect! 

[art128]

Honestly shadows aren't important for overviews. I think they even make a distraction.
Once again great update, you did nicely with the waterfront... The park of arts is really well done and doesn't look out of place.

[belfastsocrates]

Image 19.09 is superb, absolutely love the colours and layout, really beautiful. Congratulations on becoming a Best Seller also!

[carlfatal]

Wow, wow, wow! Both last updates are simply stunning. 
And the last picture of the recent update is soo beautiful that I would be able to start loving fall. 

I like the work with the water, your way to create transitions between plos- and game-water is the best I´ve ever seen. And cause I am very interested in your offset props of Gammler´s water, I did write him a PM in the Simforum, where he is active quite more often. I think, he will answer your request soon.

Keep it up! 

[11241036]

Responsa

manga rivotra: Thank you very much! Admittedly, the curve "comes with the map", but since it really looks good, I decide to keep it...
carlfatal: Thank you very much, too! About your last sentence: Thank you for going to this effort and for being interested in the offset RFR plopwater props. Unfortunately, Der_Gammler hasn't answered so far, so I fear it will take a while until I can release them. In case it'll help you: I have an account over at the STEX with the same user name.
art128, belfastsocrates: Thank you both for your comments, too!

Exordium

There's some special news for you: Tomorrow, I'll start a new education, I've been looking forward for very long for such a great opportunity. Unfortunately, this will keep me more busy for a very long time, which means, I will have less time to play SC4. I guess I won't just stop making updates, but my updates here will surely become more scarce and shorter. Feel free to express your opinion about what you prefer - either regular updates, albeit smaller ones, or larger updates more scarcely.
Also, the last two weeks have plagued me with strange CTD issues occurring every time after loading two of my cities (Vella, which we have already got to know during my OSITM in June, and a new one, which I haven't shown off so far) in Calidores. It took me really one whole week to find out what happened, and how to resolve that issue, and that also means that I couldn't play SC4 for this time because I feared to mess up other cities as well. It turned out quickly that I had a plugin conflict somewhere because after removing a few plugins from my Plugins folder, I could load both cities without CTD's, just with a bunch of brown boxes. Fortunately, I was able to find out the conflicting file and repair it.

Progressio

Do you remember this city?


Click to enlarge

Its name is Lemanticum and it is located in the northwest corner of Calidores, city tile A1, Leptanis. We've seen it in updates 1, 3, 4, and 5. I suddenly felt like trying to create an industrial harbor there, you might have already seen that I've started a land reclamation project there. I didn't want to make an industrial harbor in the bay of Friganium, since that would be the main tourist attraction of Calidores, and I couldn't do it in the large bay of Calidores, because the sea straight is too shallow for cargo ships to enter, and I didn't want the water pollution to spread into an area which is supposed to become a national park later. Therefore, the Calidorian government decided to start a land reclamation project at this location (this is a traffic view of city tile A1):


#20.01

The area with the pink frame is supposed to becoma a harbour, eventually. Please also note the pink arrow; since this is the only road connecting this valley with the eastern parts of Calidores, all freight trucks are coming from there. It turned out quickly that there's a main infrastructural problem there - you might find it out on your own by trying to find a road route leading from the pink arrow to the harbour: It leads through 3 settlements, and the denizens there will surely have good reason to complain about increasing traffic (probably not in-game, but it sounds realistic).
So the next step was to build a route allowing freight trucks to bypass at least the two southern villages. It has been added to the next screenshot as an orange line:


#20.02

It will be necessary to upgrade a farm road to RHW-2 and creating a tunnel through the hills to the west, but this will allow all freight trucks to bypass Portalensis and Mistra.
Firstly, however, let's have a look at this special bridge: It is seriously congested because of the residents only being able to get to the railway station and the industrial section via this one bridge. It needs to be upgraded to an avenue.


#20.03; Click to enlarge

I decided to not merely upgrading the bridge to an avenue, I built an avenue overpass all the way to the hills to the east, and build a few connecting roads. This required demolishing a few factories, but it was worth the effort:


#20.04; Click to enlarge

And after a bit of regrowing lost factories and trees, and some fine-tuning, this area, along with the road through the agricultural zones, looks like this (the tunnel is nearly decorational only, in-game, there are only passengers driving to the harbor, and they can take the railway):


#20.05; Click to enlarge

Let's now continue with the harbor itself. Before I started working with this area, it looked like this:


#20.06; Click to enlarge

Please note that the road along the cliff is supposed to allow travelers from the southeastern village to bypass the harbor, in case they merely want to drive to the next city to the west (which is actually outside of Calidores).
I do need something like a breakwater and extend a part of the land into the water to create a small bay for the harbor; furthermore, I want to place a fishing harbor and a passenger ferry as well. So, here's a picture of the planning stage of the harbor after terraforming the area (the wind turbines aren't purely there because I need electric power, I really want to make use of the space there):

Translations:
I-Hafen (Industriehafen) = industrial seaport
kl. Schloss: small castle (note: I've forfeited on this one for now)


#20.07; Click to enlarge

Unfortunately, I forgot to make a screenshot of the harbor partially finished, it would have probably been interesting. And I'm really no expert at all at building harbors, this is in fact my first time at all in 6 years of playing SC4. But I tried nevertheless, and the (for now) finished result looks like this:


#20.08; Click to enlarge

And some close-ups: First, the railyard, which has its own office. There are some freshwater basins, collecting freshwater to clean ships, as well as a few factories and shops around the passenger railway station.


#20.09; Click to enlarge

Next, the harbor itself. As you can see, containers over containers...


#20.10; Click to enlarge

Compared to the harbor, the fishing harbor by Somy looks rather small, although with its lot size of 21x6, it is surely one of the largest lots in my Plugins folder. There are some factories, especially those processing food, a fish market which we have already seen in Tyrsalis, and a seafood restaurant.


#20.11; Click to enlarge

The fishing harbor in turn utterly dwarves the passenger ferry there. There are also some offices, as well as a rather unique night club and some residential blocks built for the harbor employees. I decided to use the Severnoye and Khrushchova blocks by SFBT because I think that they are better than their reputation: Since they are grey, they can be combined with any combination of trees or other plants without looking odd.


#20.12; Click to enlarge

And with that, this update is almost finished. There's only one thing left: Showing you a small sneak peek of what will (most likely) await you in one of the next updates. This is a picture of city tile C1, Valensis, in its planning state. It will most likely be a farming area with small villages located at the road which runs at the base of the mountains there. It's a fairly old picture, becausee I haven't been working on this city tile for a while. Futural updates of Leptanis itself will most likely only include finishing the MMP work (I didn't have the time to do this).

Hope you liked this update.


Click to enlarge

Edit: Fixed typos, improved writing.

[Themistokles]

Do you remember this city?

Oh, I do -- I think it was the first of your updates that I read, and I've been following closely ever since.

As always you've managed to capture that lovely continental autumn feeling in your city, and your hard work on the offset props has really paid off. Harbour is nice too. And congratulations to your new education. Regarding your question: Large updates are always nice, but I think shorter ones are better for keeping activity up.

[kelis]

Fantastic update. I like to see those before/after pictures. I like the seaport too, specially those windmills 

[carlfatal]

Stunning update! 

I particulary like your railway layout. Sadly you didn´t lead spurlines to the crans but these are modern times, so... 

The pictures make me curious about the town itself! 

[art128]

Great update, the seaport is well made. The SFBT blocks fit perfectly.

[vortext]

Nice harbor, it has a little bit of everything! 

Also great work with the overhanging water fillers! And I might have said this before, but the way you handle various waters transitions is rather excellent. 

btw, did you know there're diagonal SG canal pieces? 

[11241036]

Responsa

Themistokles: Thank you very much! I do also think it would be better to post regularly to keep it interesting and to show that I'm still around.
carlfatal: The fact that there are no tracks leading to the crane itself is due to the lots. There was no other way. I haven't yet found a way to relot them. Anyway, thank you for your comment! About the town itself: Please have a look at Updates 1, 3, 4, and 5. See first post for the links.
vortext: Thank you very much, too! I know that there are diagonal SG canal pieces, and I'm sure that I've installed them. I haven't been able to find them in my game menu; I should probably look into these lots with the Reader. Since the last two weeks have been chaotic to me, I haven't thought about this so far.
kelis, art128: Thank you too for your nice comments.

Progressio

In today's update, we will finally give the finishing touch to city tile A1, Leptanis. This is an aerial overview:


#21.01; Click to enlarge

And a few closer pictures that I like, although the changes haven't been this great: First, a road climbing the hills to the next empire to the north of Calidores.


#21.02; Click to enlarge

Next, a narrow valley at the east of Leptanis, where a small forest path leads to the eastern neighbor (B1 Teragonis).


#21.03; Click to enlarge

You may have noticed that there is a small village located at the northwest of Leptanis. I haven't shown it anytime, and I don't like it very much, but I don't want to ignore it completely. Its name is Tyrantium, by the way.


#21.04; Click to enlarge

And with that, we will now finish another city tile for now.

Our next visit leads us to a city tile 2 tiles to the east - C1 Valensis. If you have had a look at the first post, you might have noticed already that I've developed a few fields there, but I've never shared an update. I never had an idea of what to do with this city tile, but I finally took the time to develop it. Unfortunately, time was against me, as well as the tendency of the game to only growing nonsense residentials; so, for the sake of making some of the screenshots, some buildings have been plopped, and some pictures are far from being really complete.
Valensis will have 5 settlements, 3 of them very small villages, 1 a little larger and another 1 a little more large. The area in the center is extensively used for farming, and there are numerous small villages located at the mountain base, connected by a road, the aptly named "Via Valensis".
Let's start with Ardegries, the village to the very southwest.


#21.05; Click to enlarge

Next, there's the "a little larger" village. It's actually split up into two settlements that are simply named "Talus Bassa" (Lower Talus) and "Talus Alta", respectively. Both are connected by the via Talus winding its way uphill. Talus is, by the way, located at the northwest of Valensis. Two pictures of Talus Bassa.


#21.06; Click to enlarge


#21.07; Click to enlarge

Talus Alta is home to a monastery and a lot of wineyards. Unfortunately, I have no idea whatsoever of how to build a wineyard, so - I really don't like how it turned out. Besides, I will surely add some MMP's later.


#21.08; Click to enlarge

This is Vindriae, located a little further to the east.


#21.09; Click to enlarge

And last, but not least, a screenshot of a hill in the center of the fields, where archaeologists have found a strange obelisk-like structure built by unknown people. It could be confirmed that there is no Calidorian origin or influence whatsoever, but it's unknown who built this structure, especially since the Calidorian valley has been uninhabited at the arrival of the Calidorian settlers. Many theories about the purpose of this building have arisen, the most common accepted theory would be that it has been a cenotaph (graveyard to honor somebody without actually containing his/her remains); therefore, this hill has simply been called "Collis Cenotaphi" (Cenotaph Hill). I'll share a close-up when it's really finished.



That's all for today. Hope you liked it. Futural updates about Valensis may include
* the largest village and capital,
* finishing the MMP work (yes, very much work),
* redesigning the wineyards,
* one more small village,
* probably redesigning many of these villages, I actually wanted to give this area a more poor, older, and rural look.

[vortext]

The overview of Leptanis is great, and I think you made a decent start with the vineyards. 

Also: mystery obelisk!! 

[carlfatal]

Wonderful pictures!

My favorites this time: the second and the last. How beautiful this little hill sits between the plain fields! 

Keep it on!

[11241036]

Responsa

vortext: Thank you! Glad you like it, I really don't have any clue about how to make a vineyard. If anyone has suggestions, please don't hesitate to write them.
carlfatal: Thank you very much, too.

Progressio

For a long time, you haven't heard from me. I haven't forgotten about Calidores, I just had little time to play SC4 during the past month, and I even have been away from my computer during the past two weekends, so I had no opportunity to write an update. Fortunately, I had a little time this weekend, so I guess it's time for another update.
We will again visit the province of C1 Valensis today. Since I had no idea about how to progress with the settlements of Valensis, I continued with the MMP work.
The Collis Cenotaphi in the center of the province has been improved a little bit. Due to all the visitors to this long forgotten place, the grass has withdrawn and there's a lot of dirt instead. Also, scientists have discovered a ring of stones encircling the Cenotaph there. Its purpose, however, remains unknown.


# 22.01; Click to enlarge

This is now an almost complete picture of Talus Alta, the village with the monastery and the vineyards. This time, I only have a summer picture, the fall picture looks awkward because of the high amount of conifer trees.


# 22.02; Click to enlarge

This is the largest village of Valensis, its name is Tilurium. I haven't had much luck with growing buildings (as usual), and I had little time, so the village is not finished.


# 22.03; Click to enlarge

The river flowing through Tilurium passes a gorge at the very north of Valensis. A few hiking paths have been dragged there to allow my sims enjoying the view.


# 22.04; Click to enlarge

This small lake is also fed by water leaving two small natural hot springs. These have already been discovered by owners of a small traditional hotel. Even a small shrine has been built there. Two pictures with different sizes.


# 22.05; Click to enlarge


# 22.06; Click to enlarge

There's also a small fishing hole at the road between Ardegries and Talus Bassa (at the very west of Valensis).


# 22.07; Click to enlarge

And that's all for today. Hope you liked it.

[romualdillo]

Great pictures!!! 

[feyss]

I love your rivers. Keep it up this good work