[thundercrack83]

The Commonwealth of Marathon is a sovereign nation in North America, lying between the State of Maine in the United States, and the Province of New Brunswick in Canada, on the Atlantic Ocean.

[Yoman]

Wooo! Excellent cities here, my only suggestion would be to get some more custom automata, maxis stuff just doesn't compliment the nice city.

[turtle]

I think it look very nice. Wouldn't like to be on that highway que though. I'm always late as it is...
Look forward to proper updates 
Thomas

[metasmurf]

You're off to a great start my friend Great use of green space in the first picture!

[metarvo]

I leave for a few minutes, and I find a pleasant surprise.  This is starting out as a very nice MD, Dustin.  The highlights of this MD for me so far are the sunken highway and the park, although I also like your skyscrapers.

[alan_vzla]

WOW!! for a moment I tought that I was seeing a RL picture!! Good,Perfect, Awesome... Oh I got it!! EXCELLENT

[Pat]

Dustin this is amazing!! WOW, I can't believe it that you started to MD finally!!! wooooooooohooooooooooo!!!!!

[praiodan]

Dustin, these are excellent pictures and I look forward to the first real update. I'm sure it'll be a true hit - not only the update, but the MD itself 

The park infront of the Gare du Nord is wonderful... very good idea. 

[kimcar]

  Yes great start. I `m really happy to see one of your MD. Looking forward for sure.

[phoenix7]

Your city looks great, and your use of custom content makes it unique. I am looking forward to a proper update, especially the downtown, which looks very realistic because of the mix of skyscrapers and smaller office buildings.

[Earth quake]

Nice pic Dustin.

I like your style (american) and your ambiance. 

The parc is fabulous but at the second pic, the Carrfour as not strange ? 

For you, just excellent.

[Lilojame]

I felt this suden and unresitable urge to return the visit. Now I see that it was good that I did so for what you have shown thus far look realy wonderful. I would with sincere pleasure take a walk in the greens of the park that so peacefuly lays between the whites and blues of surownding buildings. The sunken highway looks simply right with the bridge that passes over it...what a view. For now everything looks simply great and shows the work that you put to making those little yet important details. I promise, my friend, that I shall return and walk the roads of your MD.

Excelent work! 

[bob56]

great buildings... i hate where in the maxis version you have 10 of the same building right next to each other. The custom content makes it really realistic

[kbieniu7]

Nice, nice. You made it not too dense, and not too loose. And great park. 
But, I think this intersection would be better if you change it to roundabout 

[art128]

Very nice start on your MD Dustin, a lot of beautiful picture of this very nice town ! The park is looking very fine too ! The "gare du nord" look good in your city my friend ! You do a great banner and the sunken highway look good !
And also , looking forward to more pictures of your great city 
Arthur

[Simpson]

Hi Dustin
It's nice to see you here  . This is a really good start of MD, your city is looking really superb.
I love the first picture with the park who is very good. Fantastic work my friend

And also I'm looking forward to the next update 

[rooker1]

Wow....

And you told me during MSN conversations that you thought you might not be any good.  I'll tell you one thing....those pics are great!
Love the fsix way intersection.  Please show the me the opposite view of the Gare du Nord, I want to see what you did with the back side. 
I hope you'll be entering one of these pics in the SC4 Picture Contest.
I really, really can't wait for a true update.  It's going to blow me away.
Robin 

[thundercrack83]

Yoman: Thanks for breaking the ice here, my friend! Automata, eh? I knew I was overlooking something! If I'm honest, I'm not up to speed on what's out there, so if you (or anyone else, for that matter) have any suggestions on where to look, I'd love to hear them. Hope to see you back here!

turtle: Hello! That's quite the queue, isn't it? Thanks for stopping in!

metasmurf: Hi! Thanks for your kind words!

metarvo: Welcome! I'm a big fan of sunken highways, too. Rest assured, you'll be seeing more of them! Hope you'll return!

alan_vzla: Thanks so much, my friend!

Pat: Hey, there, Pat! Thanks for stopping by, bud!

Lars (praiodan): Danke schön! Your words mean so much to me!

kimcar: Thank you! This is actually my first MD, so you're seeing things from the very beginning!

phoenix7: Thanks! I hope to see you here again!

Earth quake: Hello, my friend, and thank you! I'm not sure what you mean by "Carrfour," though. Take care!

Lilojame: I'm so glad you stopped in! I am a big fan of Rainbow Falls, and I will definitely be returning the favor, my friend!

bob56: I won't lie to you, I've got the whole 10 Maxis building to a block thing going on, outside the pictures! For me, it's another challenge that the game gives us. Thanks for coming by!

kbieniu7: Thank you! I thought about a roundabout there, but I went with the intersection so I could work in on of those great diagonals by prepo. But don't worry, there'll be roundabouts!

Arthur (art128): Hi, Arthur! Thanks so much for your very kind words!

Simpson:  Merci beaucoup! I hope to see you back again!

Robin (rooker1): Hey, Robin! I'm glad you made it, my friend...(though, I still stand by what I said on MSN)...And I'm debating my first Picture Competition entry, as well--provided I don't match up against you!

UPDATE I
We Begin...at the Beginning! (Or, Constructing Marathon Island)
6 November 2008

Since this is the first update here, I feel the need to do a bit of a proper introduction to things.

What do you hope to accomplish with the MD? Well, the main goal with this MD is to give everyone, including myself, a look at me, through an MD. For me, cities, regions, etc., are not merely buildings and roads made of cement (or pixels in our case), but a living and changing thing that has a personality of its own. Marathon will also have it's own personality--mine! Hopefully, if you stick around (and you're probably thinking "Heck, no!" as this paragraph lengthens...) you will not only get a window into how I (attempt to) play the game, but also into who I am.

A word of caution. In response to so many wonderful comments you've all made here thus far, I feel the need to say this up-front in the hopes of quelling any grandiose expectations--my playing skills are mediocre at best, laughable at worst! I will apologize now (first of many, I'm sure) for any lackluster, pedestrian, or otherwise subpar work, and I hope that all of you who have inspired me so much will help push me on the right track! Proceed at your own risk!

With that out of the way, we shall begin--as the title stated (clever, eh?)--at the beginning...

MARATHON ISLAND

The main focus of the infancy of this MD will be on Marathon Island, which I have envisioned as the centerpiece of a major metropolitan area, much like Manhattan Island in New York, or Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong. The island itself originated in my head as this...

The hand-drawn map was tweaked a bit, and the official Commonwealth of Marathon, Department of Transportation Blueprint Map (DOT BWW-807/8647DKE3) was commissioned...

So the goal is to try to replicate the above in the game...

...on a 3x6 medium-sized tile map, one tile at a time.

We begin with a blank slate.

Then, I've found the center of the map...

...and marked it with an avenue intersection. This will allow me to move a certain amount of tiles and line things up a bit easier. Kind of...

...like that!

The construction continues.

Now we have the rough outline.

Time to move on to some terraforming.

I use the traffic view to keep an eye on the aforementioned avenue outline. We get closer...

And now, a bit of detailing.

The flood waters rush in!

Then, I get the bright idea (after the fact) to raise the terrain up.

Don't know why I had the toolbar up on these last two (-1 point for Dustin...).

And the final product!

One tile down...

Following the pattern as used on this tile, the remaining ones come together...

And that's Marathon Island!

Two quick points:

1. There will be more to the region than just this island, I just started here because, well, you have to start somewhere right?
2. The straight-lined border of the island will serve a specific purpose--seawalls!

While I do plan to employ this procedural, step-by-step method for certain aspects and areas, I will also intersperse updates with random pictures from here-and-there to keep things not only interesting, but also from becoming an "exercise," for lack of a better term.

So, that's it! Comments and criticism are more than welcome, friends. I really don't know what I'm doing!

[Pat]

Dustin its my plesure to stop in here so far wow!!! Daaaaaaaaaaang!!!!! What more can I say here but other then that... I love the map and the detailed step on you made the Island... I so cant wait to see more of Marathon!!!

[Earth quake]

Humm, Dustin....

Just what excellent. Really impressionant and great tutorial.  
The region is fabulous.  

The terrain mod is splendid (C.p no ?) and I like the water.  

Excellent work

For the carrefour, you prefer Crossroad ?
I have a really good english, no ?