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Blackwater (with Islas Gemas)

Started by emilin, January 25, 2007, 10:56:35 AM

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petercintn

More great stuff from one of my teachers.  I'm watching and learning.  Thanks.
Carolina Tar Heels... National Champs again!

rooker1

I just went through all 9 pages and I am unsure why I haven't been here before.  Anyways, I am now and that's gotta count for something.  You have some very unique ideas.  I really like the desert like scenes, coast line pics and over all this is great.  I'll have to watch this more closely in the future. :thumbsup:
Call me Robin, please.

Cali

wow, 9 pages and still going strong...awesome updates :thumbsup:
"It's not a design flaw, It's my signature"

emilin

#163
Let's just say I'm glad to have two recent picture intensive updates under my belt since this is going to be a lot of text, and none of the pictures are actually from Islas Gemas this time.

Since it seems that the Province of Lazarus has now gone on a prolonged hiatus, and this journal is what I am actually doing any work on, I wanted to continue my project on an in depth sea port tutorial over here instead. I will be posting the first three parts over in the tutorial department (unless the admins protest against such lenghty material?), but I will need to edit them first. Untill then they can be found through the following links:

Part I
Part II
Part III

Only two more parts remain. The first is coming right up, and the next one will be a closeup view of the building of the industrial port of Santiago de Zafiro. It's probably a good idea to check the other parts if you find this stuff as interesting as I do, but you can read all the parts separatly and still have use for them.

Oh, and one more thing: I will not post the entire tour of Port Remington here, since it belongs another region, but it can be found over here.


Personal replies:

krbe: I'm glad you found the BAT:s. On the other issue: it's because we didn't reinvent our language 50 years ago. :)

meinhosen: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.

Bongoswimp: Thanks! I have no idea how a japanese island looks more than what can be seen in movies such as "The Ring" so I sure hope you are right about that.

thundercrack83: Thank you, and I'm very happy you thought the background story could be plausible.

kwakelaar: Thanks! That's the beauty of this game: it's strictly limited from a technical standpoint, but the possibilities are endless when working within that framework.

bat: Thank you so much!

kimcar: Thank you! I don't think much of my farming capabilities so that compliment is very much appriciated.

pvarcoe: Thank you! Maybe I'll show some more nature pics later, but those streams are not very detailed. It's basically just jeronij's waterfalls flowing down the mountainside in their own chosen paths.

joelevan: That has already been addressed, but also: thank you for visiting!

Rayden: Thank you so much, RayDen! I think I'm going to have to be a tad more conservative in the futre, but I still have a few surprises up my sleave.

nova vesfalo: Thank you for your input! I'm not perfectly sure about it myself, but I'm leaning more towards liking it than not at the moment. I guess it comes down to how you view realism. I'm looking more for something that MIGHT be real, than something that really exists. I'm glad you liked the island on its own too.

Badsim: Thank you so much, Badsim. I think the NOB lots are too sensitive to terraforming nearby, but they are basically not harder to work than the old Marrast waterfront (actually I suspect that they are modified Marrast walls with new textures, but I guess only NOB knows that himself). And, by the way, I actually got a response from a japanese member, but he is much too nice.

dedgren: Thanks again, David! And you bring up a point I'm struggling with here too. I like each island to have its own character (much like the real Islas Canarias actually do) but I hope that in the end they will be more than "selfcontained islands". It's supposed to be a region that is connected both culturally and geographically. That will most likely mean that I'm going to have to return to most of the islands a second time and make the connections more obvious (adding more soccerfields and more churches will probably be on the to-do-list) , but I still have a lot of building to do before that becomes an issue.

petercintn: Thank you! I'm learning a great deal from you aswell. Your work with terraces had a huge influence on how I built Puerto Azul.

rooker1: Thanks! The only thing that counts is your nice comment here now. And I hope to see you around again!

Cali: Thanks! Almost hitting 10 pages now. Feels pretty good that this forum has such an active readership.


Thoughts on Ports, part IV

In part IV of my Thoughts on Ports we will have a closer look at Port Remington from the Province of Lazarus, how it correlates to its counterpart in reality, and what was actually used to build it.

Port Remington is a semirealistic building project. It was never meant to be an exact copy of a real port, but I modelled it after the Port of Rotterdam, also known as the Europoort. The real port, however, is much larger (probably about 4-5 times larger) but since it took me nearly two months to finish Port Remington, and I still haven't seen any examples of a bigger SC4 port, you will have to forgive me for scaling it down.

The Europoort is clearly visible from a mindblowing 207 mile altitude shot in Google Earth. As you may notice, the city of Rotterdam is NOT visible from this distance. The port is in fact much bigger than the city itself – it stretches all the way up to Hook of Holland.



When we move in a little closer we can make out the features of the harbours making up the port. This shot is a little blurry, but you can still see it stretching all the way from the left to the far right of the picture. The actual city of Rotterdam is located northeast of the port.



Hmmm... I wasn't really sure about going into details like this but what the heck – let's take a quick tour of the port before we move on.

Below is a picture of the Maasvlakte. This is the newest and deepest part of the port. To the top left (just inside the "crooked arm") is the 8th Petroleum Haven that can handle ships up to 500.000 DWT (there are currently no tankers in service that are bigger than that), and the reddish area just above where Google Earth says "Europort" is the EECV bulk import quay, most famous as one of two possible berths where the worlds largest bulker (the Berge Stahl) can call (actually this isn't completely true, but I learned long ago not get into arguments about facts and figures on the internet so I'll let it stand).



A little further inland we can see the petroleum harbours and refineries along the Caland Canal. This is a heavily dredged waterway for large ships. The difference in watercolour is actually difference in water depth too.



Even further inland we have the older petroleum harbours, and some container facilities, and also some wharfs.



And the really old parts of the port are the most eclectic. A little bit of everything around here. To the north is the city center of Rotterdam, by the way.




Ok, let's move on to how I tried to implement this into SC4. First we have the overview of the entire port (click for larger view):



As you can see I have tried to maintain the main concept of the original port, but I have scaled it down and taken considerably liberties with the placement of different functions. I have also added stuff that isn't really there – mainly the LNG facilities and the sweet water harbour. Instead of eight petroleum harbours I have only three.

To make this port I made tonnes of custom lots, but none of them require any advanced Lot Editor competence. Most of them were just different simple fillers – and if you for some reason don't feel like making your own filler lots I'm sure you can find some to download. For the rest of them it was mostly a question of rearranging and removing stuff from original lots that were to "crowded" for what I wanted.

In the following pictures I have marked out the essential custom content used. I think that most of you will be able to recognize the abbreviations used, but if you don't you can just ask and I'll be happy to explain. Many lots have been customized, but I have marked who the original author of them is.





This has just been a brief introduction on what custom content to use and how to use it. In the next part of the tutorial we will be looking at the building process of an industrial port in more detail.

BlackwaterEmil's inn
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♦ Emilin ♦ Ennedi ♦ Heblem ♦ jplumbley ♦ moganite ♦ M4346 ♦
papab2000 ♦ Shadow Assassin ♦ Tarkus ♦ wouanagaine

HabLeUrG

nice!!!  :thumbsup: &apls you are a master with the ports  ;D

thundercrack83

Absolutely fantastic ports, my friend! HabLeUrG is right, you are the master with ports!

kwakelaar

#166
I think ports are fascinating and the port of Rotterdam always amazes me whenever I drive past any part of it. Especially at night at seems as something completly alien but beautiful.

The tutorial looks good so far and I will wait for your next update.


Badsim

I'm impressed by the larger view showing your planning of these ports on 4 different city tiles ... gigantic !
And so far (d'you intend to post a closer views set ? ) I don't see the usual defect on this kind of scene ; impracticable seaports for ships  $%Grinno$%
Amazing work , you can be proud of it. &apls

Be sure I would consult your tutorial if I find someday enough time to plan a seaport . :thumbsup:


P.S. I've read MAS71's comment ...I'm glad for you : you deserve it . ;)

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bat


NikNik

Great work. Makes me proud of my little country.

Although hardly visible there is an important railway between Europoort and the city center (Home port). I know this as I need to ship cntainers in RL through Rotterdam and sometimes the inland freight (by barge) goes to the waalhaven (city center harbour) and from there on by train to the Europoort harbour.

Great work.Love it.

Nik-Nik

Cali

awesome ports, and you even took the time to label the creators of those magnificent pieces. hats off to ya &apls
"It's not a design flaw, It's my signature"

sebes

Wooow, fantastic update my friend. My aunt lives in an apartment building, 12th floor, on the edge of The Hague, overlooking the area that you showed in your Google Earth pictures. At night the sights are like a fairytale... sooo beautfull... lights and glow where ever you look!
Check my MD:               
Rhenen,NN

Fred_Ginger

Gosh, I'm sorry I haven't been here for a while and I missed those delicious little Islands!  I particularly liked the Asian feeling one, the rice paddies and the village were great! &apls &apls &apls

I'm not much fond of large ports but yours is nicely laid out and looked good... :thumbsup:
My name is Vicki
Fred and Ginger were my doggies
RIP my babies

Rayden

Well, that's what I call a port! Thanks for all the info on this matter. I'm going to make good use of it, when I go back to my old CJ/MD Little Italy.

Keep up this good work, and I'm looking forward for the rest of this tutorial. :thumbsup:

Heinz

coming from an archipelago(here i am talking about the Philippines again) i appreciate the mini archipelago region you have going. the rural areas are a plus! go go go!!! &apls

emilin

#176
Personal replies:

HabLeUrG: Thank you! You seem to be a master of everything to do with SC4 yourself. ;)

thundercrack83: Thanks so much!

kwakelaar: It is an amazing port. The sheer size of it is just out of this world. Especially when compaired to a fairly medium sized city such as Rotterdam. Hope you will like the continuation aswell.
nova vesfalo: Thank you!

Badsim: Thanks! I wasn't actually going to post closeups since the pics come from another region, but I felt a need to go a little further into the details anyway - and of course considering all the time I spent on this port - I wasn't really that hard to convince. ;D Closeups coming right up!

bat: Thanks!

NikNik: Thank you for your very nice comment. And on that note: I wish there were some bigger barges available for this game. The once that are there are made for canals, not proper river traffic. Anyone feel like batting a series of decent sized waterplop barges? ;D

Cali: Thank you. More labelling coming right up.

sebes: Thanks! I knew this was the right way to impress Dutch people. :) Actually, most people would probably prefer NOT to live next door to a gigantic industrial port, but I have to say I envy your aunt.

Fred_Ginger: Thanks! I guess we all have different tastes. I like scenary and all, but I have a soft spot for dirty industry too.

Rayden: Thanks! If it can be useful in any way I would be very happy.

zniehadajet: Thank you so much! I'll be doing a little more urban development the next few updates, but since the region looks the way it does, I'm sure most of it will be rural in the end.


Thoughts on Ports, part IVb

When I looked at the last update it just didn't feel finished. My original concern was to not overexploit my earlier work (I want Islas Gemas to be new stuff!) but I think some more indepth information on this particular port might be appropriate for this tutorial.

So, I decided to mark up some more of the custom content used on a closer zoom level. This is not a new "part" of the tutorial. It should have been posted in the former update, and when I compile it it will all go under the label "part IV".



























BlackwaterEmil's inn
Berethor ♦ beskhu3epnm ♦ blade2k5 ♦ dmscopio ♦ dedgren
♦ Emilin ♦ Ennedi ♦ Heblem ♦ jplumbley ♦ moganite ♦ M4346 ♦
papab2000 ♦ Shadow Assassin ♦ Tarkus ♦ wouanagaine

NikNik

awe..........
...............
...............

Great port. Great details, I like the ship yard for instance with JRJ empty container ship.

If I may ask, where can one get the ships of National Aviation Club Member, on STEX there is only his Titanic.

Keep this class work up. You're a superb harbour builder.

Nik-Nik

Cali

"It's not a design flaw, It's my signature"

emilin

Quote from: NikNik on March 13, 2007, 07:08:47 AM
If I may ask, where can one get the ships of National Aviation Club Member, on STEX there is only his Titanic.

They are on the STEX, but the upload labels are a bit cryptic. They can be found here and here.

BlackwaterEmil's inn
Berethor ♦ beskhu3epnm ♦ blade2k5 ♦ dmscopio ♦ dedgren
♦ Emilin ♦ Ennedi ♦ Heblem ♦ jplumbley ♦ moganite ♦ M4346 ♦
papab2000 ♦ Shadow Assassin ♦ Tarkus ♦ wouanagaine