Blackwater (with Islas Gemas)

[emilin]

Personal replies:

rooker1: Thanks! And I do think that Badsim is to blame for that, yes.

bat: Thank you!

Yoman: Thank you! I guess you are probably right about the congestion on the tracks. It's not a lot of space going southbound out of the city so I couldn't fit in double tracks there (I might look into it though...) but I have made double tracks going north at least. And yes, I do plan to electrify the tracks - but I'm not perfectly happy with the catenaries at the moment (or rather the difference in base texture on the lots - I need to figure out what to do about that, I think...)

sebes: Thanks! I do like the tunnel combination myself - but it's not finished yet. I need to figure out how to cover up the terrain in between the lots there.

pvarcoe: Hehe... thanks a lot! Yup, that is the most efficient way to create flat maps.

Grneyes: Thank you so much!

flame1396: Thanks! Yeah, there is no realism in having powerplants everywhere so you have to cover them up one way or the other.

thundercrack83: Thank you, my most faithful commenter. I wouldn't have come this far without you.

panthersimcity4: Thank you. That was very kind of you.

kimcar: Thanks!


Happy birthday to me (or to my journal anyway)!

A few things that I thought worth mentioning today:

- this journal has now reached #800 comments
- this journal has been view more than #10.000 times
- and today it is one year since the first post was made

I won't do a lenghty birthday speech - and I still have a few days of development before the next proper update - but here are some scenic pictures from around the Blackwater region:

[bat]

Congrats on more than 800 replies and 10 000 views and on 1 year of this fantastic MD!!!!!!
Wonderful new update and pictures there, too!

[kimcar]

  Congrats my friend and happy birthday to your MD. As for your work and pics....... 3 winners to HOF . Super work.

[sebes]

The pictures are wonderful Emilin!  The last one (the ingame picture with sailing boat) looks so astoning realistic....  It must be great to be there, in the Blackwater Area, on your boat (with some liquor of course) and see the deer coming close to have a drink from the water.... 

[rooker1]

bat siad it very well

Congrats on more than 800 replies and 10 000 views and on 1 year of this fantastic MD!!!!!!

Happy anniversary.   

Super update, awesome pics.  But I think the bright green plants in the first SC4 pic have to go.  The second SC4 pic is perfect.  Good catch on getting the train in the pic.  Thrid SC4 pic is doing very well in the SC4 Picture Competition.
This MD is doing very well and heres to another great year ahead of us.


Robin 

[nova vesfalo]

wowing !!!! This new project is awesome, love the map, the planification, the first pic (very clever use of Amsterdam station and Highway.) and this Pond-march pic ; WOWING ! (btw where did you find the red W2W building near Amsterstation at a corner ?)

[iamgoingtoeatyou]

Just excellent, this new project looks very interesting I saw the update earlier but forgot to post a comment I very much like your lot editing, I've gotten into it a bit myself. It adds a little change to your cities! Glad to see you're still going after all these pages, very inspiring Emilin!

[thundercrack83]

Happy anniversary to you and your MD, my very good friend!

It's been a fantastic year here in Islas Gemas, and now Blackwater. Congratulations are also in order for 800 comments and 10,000 views, too! Your work is truly extraordinary, my friend! Truly extraordinary!

Here's to you and Blackwater in year number two!

Dustin

[vester]

me so like......

reminds me of my trip to Åland.


Tillykke med 1 års dagen.

[Yoman]

Looking excellent here, especially that last shot, can just imagine motoring out to the middle of the lake with a case of vodka

[bother_me]

Din region är baserad på Stockholm eller hur?

English: Your region is based on Stockholm, isn't it?

[panthersimcity4]

This is absolutely beautiful. 

[Une_ame]

Emilin, I've just finish to look all your 41 pages, well, only the pictures (I need to sleep ). What can I say ? Nothing. I'm speechless, all your pictures are beautifull, the choice of every places and every buidings is perfect (same thing for the mod : water, earth, flora, etc), all the buidings seems to have been made to fit in your city. I wonder what size could be your plugin ?

I think I'd better forget all I've seen if I want to find any pleasure to build my own town .

[emilin]

Personal replies:

bat: Thanks a bunch, bat!

kimcar: Thank you, but apparantly not (depends on the competition, hehe...)

sebes: Thanks! And I didn't even know deers could swim.

rooker1: Thank you, Robin! I have know changed the bright green plants, by the way. And the train was easy... through the magic of Swamper's Freight train generator.

nova vesfalo: Thanks! I think the building you are asking about is one of Prepo's W2W buildings. The pack can be found on the LEX.

iamgoingtoeatyou: Thank you! I think I probably needed a new project to keep from getting bored - but this one will keep me going for while.

thundercrack83: Thank you so much for those kind words, Dustin!

vester: Thanks! I didn't really have Åland in mind, but I guess it's pretty close in geography to what I'm going for, though maybe not in size.

Yoman: Thanks! That is not a lake though - it's just off the coast so you better watch out for the coast guard if you are going to have a drink.

bother_me: Jo, det stämmer bra. Men jag vill ha lite frihet med hur jag bygger så det blir ingen direkt kopia. (tr. Yes, that's right. But I want some freedom with how I develop it, so it will not be an exact copy.)

panthersimcity4: Thank you, thank you!

Une_ame: Wow, thank you so much! The plugin isn't so bad, about 1,5 G right now (but I have a hunch it will get worse as I go along).


Blackwater: Experimenting with flora and transparent plop water

I'll say right away that this area is not finished. I'm not even sure I want a recreational area in this particular place so I might just bulldoze it later... we'll see. I have been trying to come to terms with jeronij's new transparent plop water, and I must admit that I still find it very hard to work with. The elevation of the lots makes it very difficult to predict what will happen when you switch the view. Also, the downside of having the plopped flora appear under the surface is that the edges are much harder to hide. I have seen Badsim solve this by covering all of the edges with large green boulders, which works fine for streams but looks a bit unnatural for lakes. I have tried to find more variations to this theme, but I am not completely happy just yet.

Enough with the whining you say? Actually, I wouldn't be struggling with this at all if I didn't think that the transparent water was just about the coolest thing I ever saw. I didn't say it was bad, on the contrary it's so good that I HAVE to learn how to use it properly.

As always, any advice is much appriciated!

Oooh... I almost forgot: the first pictures feature a lot that has a pretty nifte solution for not getting sidewalks to appear... maybe you can figure it out?

[rooker1]

Hello Emil,

This is a super update.  Good to hear you got rid of those radioactive water plants.    Just way to bright, at least I thnk so.  The way you laid out the forests look very realistic.  You have left some empty (treeless) fields, which alot of people forget to do, very nicely done.  You have done a really good job on the plop water.  I haven't had the chance to really play with it all that much. 
But when do we get to the city?  Highways, bridges, trains.....I really want to see your imagination go to work there.  Although I do like these pics and style as well.

Robin 

[bat]

That is looking very beautiful, emilin! Fantastic work!
And wonderful pictures of it!!

[Shadow Assassin]

While the lot has transparent base textures, you can't connect a transit-enabled lot directly to a puzzle piece [I've always had that problem for some reason] unless it has been specially TE-d for that purpose... you must've used the agricultural zone trick [using Ctrl to zone around the area and it disappears when you draw it into a road] to prevent the sidewalk from showing.

So, overhanging prop, ag zone trick. No actual TE-ing.


The ploppable water + trees look beaut, I love it all. It looks great... wonder when we'll see a city, and a map to go with it too.

[emilin]

While the lot has transparent base textures, you can't connect a transit-enabled lot directly to a puzzle piece

Lucky for me, I had no idea about this... because it turns out you CAN and it is exactly what I did.

All I did was place the lot first, drag roads out of it by one tile in each direction, then place the puzzle pieces on top of the road stumps. Works just fine.

[metasmurf]

Oj oj oj! Ser ut som norrlands inland där jag kommer ifrån. Ser precis ut som när man kör bil där uppe Skog och sjöar. Du fick till och med en rastplats också 

Eng: Oh my! Looks like the inland of Norrland where I come from. Reminds me of driving on the roads up there. Forests and lakes. You even included a lay-by (picknick area) 

Just to illustrate:



Location: E12 between Storuman and Tärnaby

[thundercrack83]

WOW! I'm speechless...The forests and the ploppable water--incredible, my friend! Absolutely incredible! I can't wait to see what you've got next!

Dustin