Commonwealth of Marathon

bat · February 28, 2009, 08:27:07 AM

Nice teaser there! And again wonderful pictures of your great LE-work!

art128 · February 28, 2009, 09:55:15 AM

Dustin, this picture is Wow -- The trees used are going perfectly with the others ones.
Great use of fillers lots my friend.
As for the CNIT, It looks very promising !

Arthur.

Battlecat · February 28, 2009, 08:19:32 PM

Looking good! Nice selection of trees you're using!

Pat · February 28, 2009, 08:23:35 PM

Dustin you are sooo soo bad driving Robin to drink lol geeezzs

But the picture wow!!! AMAZING!!! The progress on the cnit is also looking very good...

Jmouse · February 28, 2009, 10:09:31 PM

Excellent pic of the sports area, Dustin. Overall, the plaza is a successful combination of elements that work well together. The trees look really good - natural in both style and placement. As for lot editing, it's still on the "To-Do" list, but I just might take tomorrow off and fire it up!

Later...
Joan

CasperVg · February 28, 2009, 10:17:17 PM

Hello again,

I always get a great feeling when I take a look at Marathon again. I must say I'm delighted seeing those lots, they look great. They seem to be very lively, and yet not crowded, and you have managed to get a nice set of colours together. I'm looking forward to see the culmination of all your work.

Casper

thundercrack83 · February 28, 2009, 11:58:36 PM

metarvo: Thanks, my friend! I'm glad you like the train station, so far. It's starting to come together a bit better, and I'm as of now, I'm quite pleased. As for the sports complex, well, that's coming along, too!

citycapitalizer: Thank you so much!

kimcar: Hi, there! Thank you for your kind words!

bat: Thanks!

Arthur (art128): Thank you, Arthur! Your comments are always appreciated!

Battlecat: Thank you so much!

Pat: Ha! Yes, poor Robin! He was having a great night, though, so I can't blame him! I haven't heard from him at all today, so I hope he didn't have too bad of a hangover! Thanks for stopping by, my friend!

Joan (Jmouse): Thank you, Joan! One forewarning on opening up the LE, though—it's pretty addictive, once you get the hang of it! Good luck!

Casper (caspervg): Hi, Casper! Great to see you again! I'm glad you like the lots, too. Hope all is well with you, and I hope to see you again soon! Take care!

UPDATE XXIV
A Bridge is Only as Strong as its Supports
1 March 2009

Way back on Page 39, our very good friend Matt (threestooges) said...

Quote
I do have one critique of it though. The span design looks like it's too long to effectively support the bridge. If you consolidated a track or two in the middle and allowed for a few pieces with pillars it would help the realism in my opinion.

...when referring to...

...the bridge that allows the L'Anneau de Marathon to cross the rail lines heading to the station.

Well, Matt—your critique is dead-on, my friend, and once again, thanks to you folks here, something that I never even thought about was brought to my attention and we're able to correct it! It's not a hard fix by any means, but I thought I'd document it for posterity.

Our first step...

...is to bulldoze the old set-up!

Then...

...I must flatten...

...the older slopes, since the current grade of the slope is insufficient for our needs. I've used the mountain setting of the NHP Ennedi Slope Mod in order to balance the need for a bit of a steeper grade against the concept of realism.

Now, like the first time...

...we connect the rails to the station, creating the slope, doing so...

...with the rest of the rail lines.

With the first slope in place, we move on to the next slope, but first...

...we extend the level section a bit to accommodate the next slope. And...

...there it is!

But we're no further than we were before we started, we just have the same result with a bit of a steeper grade. So...

...we delete the middle two sections of the track. We then...

...connect the rails coming out of the two tunnels with the adjacent rail lines that head to the station. We do it at the tunnel, as shown above, as well as...

...at the station.

This gets us to the heart of this exercise...

...the avenue bridge! Now, it has support sections in the middle where the two rail lines formerly ran, giving support to the rather lengthy bridge.

Above is the finished bridge. Note that there is a slight tip on the top section of the avenue bridge, since the station-side tile is technically the first tile of the slope. Oh, well—price you pay!

Finally, we...

...add a few rail pillars to spice things up!

Here's a zoomed-out view:

Well, there it is! Now I have to figure out what to do with the strip of land where the rail lines used to be on the slopes, but that's another day, I suppose.

Oh, and staying in the area, more development on the surrounding lots for the train station—

Haven't added any people yet, but I'm feeling better about the area, the more I work on it.

I extend special thanks to Matt (threestooges) for posing the question for this update, as well as Piotr (Sheep49), who asked a similar question. Without these kinds of critiques and ideas, who knows where we'd be, right!

More from Marathon in a bit!

Sheep49 · March 01, 2009, 01:31:06 AM

Hmmm, I've just realised that this station reminds me of something that I would build in another classic game... Transport Tycoon Deluxe, anyone?

Anyways, glad to see that ours (visitors of your MD) comments and propositions are so well received and that they're helpful

Good work with those supports, Dustin. Oh, and also have I just realised those trees at the sides of Station on the second picture. They look really nice, too!

And the lot at the end of the update is no less than totally awesome! If it's that great now, I'm wondering how WOW-astic is it going to be with people!

What more can I say? Keep up the great work!
Piotr

art128 · March 01, 2009, 03:09:20 AM

Hey Dustin, this new version looks excellent my friend, excellent work.
The bridge looks more realistic with those pillars there.
And the CNIT looks promisingly great !

Arthur.

threestooges · March 01, 2009, 03:23:13 AM

Well, if you fancy a go at slope conforming props, I'd say add a few billboards facing the tracks. Seems like an interesting place to advertise. Also, I'm not sure of their slope conforming capabilities, but could David's long parallel switches smooth out the transition? Or, if you wanted to, you could extend the track from the station to the bridge and have it switch in just before the pillars (even just havng the outer ones (facing us) remain. They would essentially 'vault' over and support both roads in theory. Or you could leave it as is, it looks pretty good like that. Been a while since I commented here, but rest assured, I'm usually lurking. Great work as always my friend.
-Matt

bat · March 01, 2009, 06:00:25 AM

Nice work on that railway and the train station looks nice, too!

kimcar · March 01, 2009, 06:35:12 AM

Right Matt had a good point about the bridge, and you fixed very well

. As your layout on the last screen

Excellent look.

Scarton · March 01, 2009, 06:41:39 AM

Nice work! I would never have putted the extra support in the bridge just for realism. Way to go the extra mile!

.
I guess I need to focus more on realism in my cities. (and I thought I was being realistic.)

Thanks for showing me.

Battlecat · March 01, 2009, 07:58:51 AM

Nice touch putting in that extra support for the bridge. It really does improve the appearance.

sim-al2 · March 01, 2009, 08:09:29 AM

Howabout a plaza between the tracks for train-watchers?

BTW, your station lot at the end is the best yet.

dsrwhat316 · March 01, 2009, 08:53:55 AM

I'm pretty amazed at how far your lotting skills have come in such a short time, Dustin. The gardens surrounding the CNIT give the area a very high-wealth feel to it. The only critique I have (sorry!) is that the transition from the tile texture to the cobblestone texture is not gradual enough. A border overlay texture would make the transition a bit easier on the eyes

.

It seems I have been posting here more than my own MD! I think it is time for me to get back to work... $:-\$

~ Dan

deathtopumpkins · March 01, 2009, 12:30:49 PM

That looks much more realistic, Dustin.

Glad you did that, and as for the question of what to do with the strip of land in the middle, I'd just fill it in with plain grass.

And that lot is looking REALLY nice!

Pat · March 01, 2009, 02:43:53 PM

dang Dustin that is way better what you did to give a support to the bridge there!!! Now far as the empty land what about having maybe a park area to match up with the CNIT? Speaking of the CNIT have you thought about having a release?

Haljackey · March 01, 2009, 08:02:39 PM

Looking good! That's a much more realistic overpass with the central support, and that triangle-shaped stadium is looking rad too! Nice work!

Best,
-Haljackey

Jmouse · March 01, 2009, 08:50:34 PM

Hey Dustin, I agree completely with Matt who continues "Bridging the Gap" for us.

The bridge does look 100% better with the extra support. The parting of the rails looks a bit unnatural to me, though, although I hate to even mention it since I'm in no position to propose a better arrangement. But maybe Matt's idea of using a less-abrupt transition would work.

One of the things I like best about Marathon is your ability - and willingness - to accept ideas, add a twist of your own and find workable solutions. So keep on truckin'!

Later...
Joan