Commonwealth of Marathon

[art128]

Welcome to page 7 on your awesome MD Dustin 

Dustin, the terraforming look good my friend 
keep up on this good work !
Arthur

BTW, I can't wait to see more pictures of the urbanization  

[thundercrack83]

Zack (woodb3kmaster): Thanks for the birthday wishes, Zack! And I'm glad that you round the Photoshop tutorial informative. I've seen your map work over in Nyhaven, and it's just superb, my friend. Thanks for coming by!

Pat: Hey, my friend! Thanks for coming back!

Lilojame: Thanks so much! If you want to put together a Table of Contents for Rainbow Falls and need some help, don't hesitate to let me know!

Joan (Jmouse): Thanks for checking the Table of Contents, I actually forgot to do that! I'm glad I got the right links!

Emil (emilin): Hi, my friend! Yes, "Factory" is a great song. Darkness on the Edge of Town is probably Bruce's best album, in my opinion, though my favorite is The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle—but I digress! Thanks for your kind words, as well as the birthday wishes! Take care!

metarvo: I can neither confirm, nor deny whether a sunken highway will be coming up...Oh, wait...yes I can! It'll be coming up! As for a port, well, we'll probably get there at some point, too. When, though, I don't know! Thanks for stopping in!

bat: Thanks, my friend! Though, I have to admit that the "end version" is a little ways off! But stay tuned, we'll get there!

Earth quake: Wow, thank you so much for saying that Marathon's your favorite MD! There's so many great ones to choose from here! Hope to see you back!

Arthur (art128): Hi, Arthur! Thanks for the bump to page seven, and you great comments! And don't fret, my friend, we'll have some urbanization soon, just for you!

UPDATE V
Sunken Highways, A Tutorial
17 November 2008

Remember this from the last teaser?

I thought it would prudent to examine how we got there, with a bit of a sunken highway tutorial. I know that there's no shortage of sunken highway tutorials out there, but I wanted to give my perspective on it for you!

Before we start, a few tools you'll need to make things happen:

• Network AddOn Mod (NAM), by The NAM Team—This may be a given, but I've added this to be thorough. If, by some chance, you're out there and you're not play the game with the NAM, leave here immediately and go get it! It will change your life forever!
• Hole Digging Lots, by smoncrie.

OK, let's begin! We start here:

At the southern (Yes, it's the southern end, I rotated the map!) end of the tile. Time to break out...

The Hole Digger for Sunken Highways, which will burrow a hole at a depth of 15 meters, which is essential for flat and smooth overpasses, but we'll cross that bridge (or overpass!) when we come to it. And, yes, I made that pun, unfortunately!

The results of the hole diggers, as well as a road run next to it to level the second tile needed for the highway.

Next, using the Quick Level Brush tool in God Mode...

...I've made a trench for the diagonal section. Here's a zoomed-out view:

And another with the highway in place—

Now we have to clean things up, and maximize the areas available for development by pushing the wall directly up to the diagonal highway section.

And from there we get...

...our original picture from the teaser! Highway is in place and the terraforming of the trench is complete.

But we're not quite finished. Next step...

I've traced the trench on each side with a service road, that on- and off-ramps will connect to...when we get there.

Right now, we'll move on to overpasses.

We begin with the potential intersection. Here's where the sheer brilliance (well, one instance of it, anyway. There are too many to count!) of the NAM shines through.

In the Road Submenu, go to Avenue Puzzle Pieces, and tab through to "T" Avenue OnSlope Puzzle Piece. To get there quickly, just hit [Shift] + [Tab] four times, and you'll get there. Then we do...

...that! Back to the Avenue Puzzle Pieces menu, and this time, hit [Tab] sixteen times to get to Avenue over GroundHighway Puzzle Piece, and plop...

...accordingly. Now we have an overpass! By using the 15-meter hole digger, we get an overpass with no grade. If you'd like ramps leading to the overpass, I'd recommend using a 10-meter hole digger to achieve this. The 15-meter is my personal preference.

But we're not done, yet! No, sir (or ma'am)!

Exit ramps are now to be added, so go to the Highway Submenu and choose Single-Sided Parallel Ramps. Hit [Tab] once to come to GroundHighway Parallel Ramp - Road.

And plop it! Then...plop it...

...again, this time, diagonal from the last plop. Now, go back to Single-Sided Parallel Ramps and hit [Tab] three times to get an identical GroundHighway Parallel Ramp - Road. Use this one...

...the same way as the first, filling in the remaining ramps! Also, you can add in some retaining walls, as I've done, using the Rural Sunken Highway Walls, by buddybud.

So that's the ballgame on making a sunken highway!

One last shot...

Another mosaïc, showing the entire highway all finished up. Boy, that mosaïc would probably look better with some development, eh? Maybe we'll have to look in to that!

I hope this has inspired you to try your hand at a sunken highway or two of your own!

Take care!

[JBSimio]

Hi Dustin,

I must say this is quite a phenomenon you have going here!  I only discovered this within the last day or two and was wondering how I could have missed it for so long.  Then I saw the date of your opening post and realized that I'm not nearly as late as the post count first led me to think.  

I like how you showed us everything from the very beginning.  I don't recall seeing a region created and terraformed quite the way you've shown and it's very interesting to watch.  Your industrial mosaics are great... I really like the look of that whole area.  And of course your competition picture is amazing.  Love that park!  

Frankly, I could keep going for quite a while to get caught up on all the comments I haven't made here yet... topics ranging from the LE to the great mix of buildings... but I think I'll just stop here.  I'll have plenty of time to make up for past ommisions by following more regularly now!  

JB

*EDIT... and now you've gone and posted another update while I was typing!  I'll have to come back to this when I'm not supposed to be at work, I guess! 

[TheTeaCat]

Dustin

Great MD you have here. Nice clear tutorial too, easy to follow

Be back in a bit - kettle's boiling 


TTC

[Jmouse]

Interesting tutorial, Dustin. I wondered how you were going to deal with the ramps, and now I know. I've never seen a RL layout like that, but I guess it would work. Anyway, I'll have a chance to try it out by the weekend with a bit of luck and a lot of help from the techno-gods! Meanwhile, thanks for sharing the info.

Later...
Joan

[Earth quake]

Wow, Dustin. 
I love this tutorial. 
This really a excellent work and more realistic the Buddy suken is really beuatiful and excellent terraforming. 

I'm impatient to see a new update. 

[metarvo]

You have really gotten into MDing, Dustin.   This tutorial is constructed very well, and I look forward to seeing this highway serve its purpose in a future update.

[rooker1]

Hey Dustin,

It's always nice to see other views on how people would do different things.  So you could redo every tutorial out there and it would most likely be different in some way or another and still end up at the same end result.  I enjoyed your tutorial very much. 
I am very curious though about what is going iin this area.  I hope we find out soon.

Robin 

[M4346]

I've been meaning to do some sunken highways myself, you just give me inspiration and reason to! Looking good! Can't wait to see the final outcome!

M

[Simpson]

Hey Dustin
These two updates are really fantastic, this highways is looking very good but maybe you can use the curves of the nam
I'm looking forward to the next update my friend 

[art128]

nice work on that sunken highway Dustin  can't wait to see more 

[bat]

Great work on the highway there!
Nice pictures, looking forward to more...

[paroch]

Dustin, I'm starting to think you must already have a fully developed region and at least another 200 updates under your belt!!!  You're delivering stuff here at a fair rate of knots and it's all high quality stuff as well!  This tutorial on sunken highways is very useful.  I always struggle with the junctions so now you've given me some great tips.

At this rate you'll be in Classics before Christmas!

All the best,

Paul

[Lilojame]

Hi there Dustin! Yes I am back in here, a bit late tho, but you know how time flys when you are up to something. 
This update is again a great one! It is most interesting to watch how you do things and educational at the sime time. I already knew how to make this that you did but neverthless I again stumbled upon the very useful information that will save me loeads of time. Can you guess? I am sure you can.  It is the link to these walls. You just saved me from spending time looking for them and probably after not finding them, asking around. Thank you! And I would most definetly apreciate your help on puling together the table of content. 

Looking foward to see what you have planed for the next update!

Yours truly,
Karin

[thundercrack83]

Jon (JBSimio): Hello, my friend, and welcome to Marathon! It's so great of you to stop in here! I have to say, though, that I probably owe you royalties for all the uses of your fantastic BATs. Hope to see you again here soon!

Derry (TheTeaCat): Hi, Derry! Thanks for stopping in, my friend! I'm glad you liked the tutorial.

Joan (Jmouse): I'm actually not sure if this method is employed anywhere in real life, at least not to the letter. But, hey—we won't let a pesky thing like "realism" get in our way, will we? Wait...we will? Oh, seems like we will...within reason, of course! Good luck with your computer woes, my friend!

Earth quake: Thank you, Earth quake! I'm happy that you enjoyed the tutorial, and I hope you get some use of it!

metarvo: Thanks! I'm sure we'll come back to this area when development is taking place, just to show what it will look like. Truth be told, I'm not there yet, so it take a bit. But stay tuned!

Robin (rooker1): Thanks so much, Robin! I was on the fence about doing a tutorial because sunken highways have been covered elsewhere, but then I figured that I might as well, since I might touch on something that hasn't been touched on yet.

M (M4346): Hello, my friend! I'm glad I could be some inspiration to you, and I can't wait to see your take on sunken highways over in The Commonwealth of Eleutherian States. Take care!

David (Simpson): NAM curves...I knew there was something I was forgetting! I'll have to play with that! Thanks for the reminder!

Arthur (art128): Thanks, Arthur!

bat: And thank you, too, bat!

Paul (paroch): I wish I could tell you that was true about having a fully developed region and 200 updates, but not even close! I'm shooting from the hip here, for the most part. I have ideas for updates in my head, though, and that's what I've been working from. As for "Classics" by Christmas—that's quite a tall order, but with friends like you and everyone else here, anything's possible!

Lilojame: Hi, my friend! Better late than never! And I'm very happy that you made use of the link to the walls. They're great, aren't they? Have fun with them, and I'll look for your work with them over at Rainbow Falls! Oh, and send me a PM if you want some assistance with your Table of Contents!



Played around some more in the LE this evening.

Thanks to Paul (paroch) and his wonderful tutorial Prop Families in Lot Editor - A NUTs Guide, I played with some prop families.

Here's a bit of what I came up with...

An a close-up of the lot that I made. It's a 4x1—

It's not much, but I think we're getting there—slowly, but surely, as my Dad always says!

Any tips, criticism, or suggestions are more than welcome!

[Pat]

Dustin first off I love that Tut on the sunken Highway there!!! Now a tip I would suggest to also add some life to your lots IE people, cant forget them... Other wise niiiiiiiiice!!!!!

[Lilojame]

Hi again Dustin!
This time I am faster...   Yes, I most definetly agree that those walls are superb work!  
I realy like this new lot you made. The only sugestion that I might have is, that you add some planter boxes under the bushes. IF i am not mistaken (and I most probably am) BSC Mega Prop Pack - CP Vol 1 has them.

LP
 Karin

[Tarkus]

Dustin, sorry for missing a few updates here--I've finally gotten caught up, though.  And what amazing stuff to catch up on.   You're really a natural at this whole MDing thing.    

It seems you've picked up LE quite quickly--just like MDing.  A very nice start on a waterfront walkway, I'd say.  And being able to see all the terraforming you've been doing has been very informative as well, and I've enjoyed all your tutorials.  The sunken highway one is really useful, I must say.  

I can't wait to see what all you do next here--this is amazing stuff!

-Alex

[Jmouse]

Very glad to see you experimenting with LE, Dustin. The scene looks much better now. Still this would make a pleasant noon-hour hangout so you might want to try adding a few benches just for fun. Just a passing thought - it looks great the way you've done it.

There's one little thing I don't believe Paul mentioned in his wonderfully-helpful tutorial (forgive me, Paul, if I missed it!) When you place a prop, you can use the "N" key to scroll through all the props in the family. This was especially helpful to me when working with trees on 1x2 lots, but I always do it anyway just to make sure everything looks OK.

So now I'm anxious to see what develops across the avenue!

Later...
Joan

[art128]

That's look good my friend, great work as always