Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[Tomas Neto]

I adore the way that you play SC4, you are a master!!!
Another impressive and fantastic update! 

[metarvo]

Now, these are what I call FARms.    This is the first time I ever remember seeing farm fields that actually come up to the FAR roads.  Of course, the other diagonals are also well done.  Nice work, Battlecat.

[ldvger]

Battlecat-

I forgot to add my suggestions for names of this new town you have built.  If you are tyring to mimic the PNW, which it seems you are, keep in mind the very pragmatic minds of the many early Scandanavian settlers.  The road that went from the farm to the market was Farm To Market Road.  The road that went from the hamlest of Algona to the hamlet of Brier was Algona Brier road.  It's not that there was no imagination involved, it's just that these were very practical (and often dour) folks (I know, I am of half scandanavian descent).  Pre-named landmark features also work well.  The brewery turned museum does seem to be the most distinctive building in town, historical to boot, so I suggest something that reflects that. 

I know you said when you started this MD that you were not much of a storyteller, but really it's not hard to learn how to become one.  You have thousands of stories already lived in your life that you share with others from time to time, being a storyteller is all about being able to take that same ability and go just one step further with it.  This brewery building is a great opportunity to begin.  Answer some of these question and you will have the beginning of a story:

When was the brewery built, and who built it?  Where did the builders come from and why did they build thier brewery here?  Who did they sell thier beer to and what did they name thier beer?  How did they originally transport thier beer to outside markets (or did they only produce for local consumption?  If so, you could build an equally historic tavern nearby, possibly one that doubles as an inn.  What was the name of the tavern/inn and who owned it, where did they come from and how did they end up here?).  What were the circumstances that caused the brewery to go out of business and the building to become a museum (you could get REALLY creative with this one...plutonium in the water, scandal with one of the owners, the possibilities are endless).  How long was the building vacant before someone locally recogonized it's importance to local history (and who was that person, why were they sensitive to the decaying building, perhaps a distant relative of the original owners/builders?) and what was the process to turn the building into a museum?  Funding drives, benefit dances, cake walks, bake sales, paper drives?  How long did the renovations take and who was the contractor who did the work to restore the building?  What is his/her connection to the area? 

If you answer those questions, you have a story.  You love fleshing out details, do the same with the story.  Invent interest and scandal, introduce new characters that you can maybe use again in later stories.  Battlecat, you tell a story every day of your life, whether you know it or not.  It may be a RL experience you share and so something you don't see as a story, but to the folks who hear it, it is a story.  Making up story from scratch is really no different.  You already "live" in Aldara in many ways, why not create a cast of characters to live there with you?  With that brewery building alone, you have all you need for the basis of a full novel (working title "The Brewery"), let alone a very short story to tell the make-believe history of the area.  You don't have to use fancy language or worry about anyone critiqueing your prose here.  We aren't going to grade you so you can't possibly fail.  Give it a try!  Answer the questions and make a story!

My suggestion for naming this town is "Sot's Corner".  It's the only source of alcohol in the entire region so far, so folks would definity gather here in large numbers.  The human condition being always partial to alternative states of reality (such as drunkeness), this would be a very busy trade town with the brewery a focal point.  Lots of grain being grown nearby and I would consider a waterwheel and grain mill near the brewery.  I'd also give serious thought to a sizable (and old-looking) tavern/inn.  Name the tavern something ironic and interesting, "Ale Widow's Tavern and Inn", or "Farmer's Retreat", for example.  Build a dance hall...this should be a party town...or a town that USED to be a party town.  What were the circumstances that lead to it's loss of party town status?  Did things get out of control?  Did religion play a role?  Up to you to determine.

Write a story!  It's easy!  I've given you all the talking points you need to get started...

And if you don't want to, that's fine too, please, I'm not trying to pressure you in any way. 


Lora/LD

[art128]

Hmm, Your farming technique is always awesome my friend, I fall again of my chair when I see it. And that diagonal street looks very pace full and calm, a nice place to live !
Take care,
-Arthur. 

[Nardo69]

Great one Battlecat - as usual as I might say ... 

And I missed FARpatible fences too I must confess. I just don't like that RRP path level crossing with the railway ... possible if there are only two or three trains per day crawling with less than 40 km/h over the tracks but for such low traffic two tracks would be far too overdimensionated. 

With typical Middleeuropean traffic on such a line - at least one (local) passenger train per hour and direction running with 80-160 km/h - I do know some double tracked railway without catenaries that have four passenger trains per hour and directions! - it would be far too dangerous!

You know me ... I had to pick on that ... 


Take care

Bernhard 

[danielcote]

beautiful rural! And that road looks Great!

[calibanX]

Battlecat, I'm very impressed with your solutions to those pesky jagged tiles along diagonal roads. Your Lot editing skills are advancing in a big way. I'm going to have to teach myself that trick. Thanks for the links!

By the way, your farms are beautiful. In order to make them really shine in the game they need to be 'worked on' and enhanced with specialty lots and some custom content. You're the best at it.

Take care.

Geoff

[chasespncr]

i love this this CJ...i dont understand a thing about all the LOT and BAT stuff but i love seeing the end result..keep up the great work!

[Battlecat]

Splime: Thanks very much!  I'm certainly glad you're enjoying the results.  As I mentioned in my PM to you, I'm using the No Rail Dirt Mod by Swamper77 and Pegasus.  With all the wide radius curves and FAR not having any textures, I just prefer not having a patchwork of textured and untextured rails. 

djvandrake: Glad you're enjoying the results.  I've got a lot more playing around to do with this! 

Lora (ldvger): Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to post those!  You're absolutely right about that particular technique, I've seen it used here as well, in addition to just leaving a dirt barrier around the edges.  With a lot of the prop based farms, I'm going to be stuck with the dirt or grassy edge method simply due to the absence of any way to rotate the props to 45 degree angles.  As for the texture based lots, I'll have to see what I can do, I've got some ideas floating around. 

Your comment on the fences is an interesting one, farmers around here seem to use a huge number of fences.  Granted those are mostly barbed wire fences which are really cheap to install, but impossible to render effectively in Simcity 4.  You are absolutely right though, if I can't leave a buffer I'll have to leave the fences off some of the fields.  I figure, I like the look of fences, so I'll probably still use them more than is probably realistic though!  :-)   Thanks for all your ideas! 

citycapitalizer: Thanks for your kind words and for the name suggestions! 

Joe (JoeST): Glad you like it!  Thanks for stopping in!

Tomas Neto: Thanks very much!  Glad you're enjoying this!  Glad you're enjoying this!   

metarvo: Welcome to Adara!  The lack of options to create fields near FAR style roads has frustrated me since I got back.   I've got more ideas floating around to make them look better as well.  Thanks for stopping in!

Lora (ldvger) #2: You are quite right about the stories.  I do occasional pop in small tidbits of story, but it's primarily a time factor for me.  I can either spend my time writing the story, or playing the game to prepare the next update.  I appreciate the suggestion though!  Thanks for the town name suggestion as well!

Arthur (art128):

Bernhard (Nardo69): Now that I think about it, you're right.  I've seen crossings like that for field access, but I doubt a farmer would want to risk his animals that way.  A tractor with a load of hay would be far safer.  The railway there is indeed a mainline, and would be fairly dangerous with the trains descending out of the mountains.  There is a decent solution that I've seen, which I'll implement for you to see in update 38.  Thanks for the suggestions; it always helps to have someone reminding me of the details about rail operations! 

danielcote: Thanks for stopping in again!

Geoff (calibanX): Interestingly enough, a lot of the necessary diagonal textures necessary for the basic farm styles are already available through various other mods.  The real challenge comes from the FAR roads.  The only way to push the farms right up agains the road is through using the filler techniques I mentioned earlier.  Thanks for stopping in, I'm glad you're enjoying this!

chasespncr: Welcome to Adara!  Glad you're enjoying the results!  I'm certainly enjoying getting there. 

Update 37
Vavenby – Detailing the Dam

When I was thinking about the title for today's update, about a dozen awful puns and plays on words ran through my head.  Unfortunately, most of them can also be construed as rude and inappropriate, so I had to forgo the fun.  :-)  As today's title alludes to, I'm finally ready to start work on the dam.  This particular project didn't require as many custom lots as I expected.  But a couple of the lots were not what I expected to need!

The discussions with Lora (ldvger) in her Recreating San Francisco diary regarding the Stafford Lake Dam really helped me finally visualize the approach I wanted to take. 

Before I get started though, here are the names that were suggested for the small town: 
Battinsville (citycapitalizer)
Brewer's Junction (citycapitalizer)
Fieldsview (citycapitalizer)
Sot's Corner (ldvger)

Certainly not an easy decision here, they're all great ideas.  I'm going to go with Brewer's Junction as suggested by citycapitalizer.  Thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

37-1: The plan for this earthen dam was first mentioned in Update 27.  This is more or less what I showed you way back then!  Since then I've been working on it and thinking on it a great deal.  My final decision was to avoid using the BAT for this particular project, that's just not something I'm ready to get into yet.  So I'm going to have to adapt available lots and props for use here. 


37-2: One of the most dramatic structures associated with any dam other than the dam itself is the spillway.  The spillway is the structure that allows the controlled release of large quantities of water from dam before the top of the dam is reached.  There are huge numbers of different designs.  The shot below is a google maps of the Llyn Brianne dam in Wales, which also happens to be the poster shot of a spillway in Wikipedia. 


37-3: One thing about a spillway is it also serves to dampen the energy of the water as it drops rapidly from the dam to the valley below.  Steps, coarse surfaces, a curved lip at the bottom or even just a reinforced barrier for the water to splash against will all serve this purpose.   Whatever the case, except in unusual dam designs, the spillway is only used when a dramatic flood event occurs.  Below is a shot from the top of the Cleveland Dam in Vancouver BC.  The lip is clearly visible below.


37-4: For this dam, I'm going with the simplest type possible, an uncontrolled spillway.  Once the lake reaches the critical height, water flows over the spillway, with no controls.  Some NAM puzzle pieces serve to bridge the gap over the spillway. 


37-5: The water side of the dam needs to be built more carefully to protect the dam from wave erosion.  Jeronij's concrete walls fill this need nicely.  I had to make a custom version of the lower triangle lot without foliage to fill in the gaps that are empty right now. 


37-6: Meanwhile, at the bottom of the spillway, some terraforming is needed to clear space for the bottom.  This one is going to use a solid barrier to dampen the water's power.  I figure this area probably was quarried out to provide some of the rock necessary to build the dam.


37-7: This project just continued to evolve on me as I kept on working on it.  I tracked down a fairly nice concrete texture.  One lot is used to fill the spillway, the other will be extended under the NAM pieces. 


37-8: As I looked at this, I realized that the water would just hit the bottom and hang a sharp right out into the river.  This doesn't quite serve to dampen enough energy. 


37-9: This should work a bit better.  The only other issue I can see, this spillway is too wide.  3 tiles looked good on paper, but seeing it now, I'm going to narrow this by one tile.  I added some security fencing around the quarry area.  It wouldn't do to have some one fall down this slope! 


37-10: Moving along, I've been giving a lot of thought to the dam face.  A variety of options were available, but I finally decided I need to make some custom lots with the dam texture built in.  I used a variety of the maxis rocks to give this some real depth.  It's a bit hard on my CPU when I'm working close by, but if worst comes to worst, I can just bulldoze the lots until I'm finished developing this tile. 


37-11: Here's a close up look at the surface texture.  Underneath there's a simple pebble texture so I didn't have to fill every available space with props.  There are 5 custom lots on the dam surface: 2 1x1 fence lots with different mixtures of rocks, 1 4x4 lot I used to fill in the bulk of the dam and then 2 other 1x1 filler lots to finish the job.  It might seem like a lot but I really wanted to avoid creating a pattern of any sort on the surface. 


37-12: Now we come to the problem of the powerhouse and the associated facilities.  A small commercial lot serves as the main office, and I've used a modular parking lot to create the entrance.  I downloaded every single power transformer lot I could find, these aren't bad, but they're not quite what I'm looking for. 


37-13: This works much more nicely.  The dirt road around the edge serves to access the foot of the dam and the power transformers.  I added a second power line that goes up the mountain and along the lake behind the dam. 


37-14: I wound up shuffling the powerpoles down the slope a bit so I could put in a security fence the rest of the way around the power plant.  This isn't a huge power facility, so I just grassed in the rest of the area.  The two indentations here are the locations outfalls from the main turbines hidden away inside the dam. 


37-15: A bit more custom lot work to finish that up.  I wound up using the RRP culverts and the lateral flow effect prop created by Pegasus.  I had a bit of trouble with jagged edges here when trying to lay the walls.  It took me until the writing of this update to remember the existence of the Jagged Edges mod.  I've grabbed it now, and I'll fix this annoyance up later. 


37-16: With the addition of some more foliage outside the fence and some river shoreline details, here's the appearance of the dam area. 


37-17: And a look at the area from a bit further out. 


That came together reasonably well, there are few things I might change in the future given enough time though.  Hope you all like it! 

Only 12 more posts to go before 300! 

[chasespncr]

that dam rules...the rocks dont go to well on my eyes either 

[Glowbal]

Everything looks good. Apart from these rocks. You might want to chance them a bit.. It's to white, imo. But I don't know what the real dam looks like.. 

[Scarton]

One of the reasons I follow this CJ is I like how you are innovative. That's the best dam I've seen!  Splendid job!

[Albus of Garaway]

Impressive work! I've never seen a dam created using this process before. Most people just plop PEG's hydro-dam, which of course isn't very creative. I love what you've done!

I do have a question, however. In my opinion, the left side of the dam (As seen in 37-17) seems to jut out too far from the rest of structure. I understand you were trying to use that steep slope as a stopping point, but that little area seems unnecessary for preventing the water from leaving the reservoir above. Would engineers in real life spend the extra time and money to build it?

Maybe you have more insight into that than I do. No matter, the dam looks absolutely wonderful!

[JoeST]

A truly magnificent dam there

Joe

[Une_ame]

Best dam I ever see in SC4 !!!!!!

[nrmn67]

Hi Battlecat!

I really like your MD and I am following it since Day 1. You did a great job with the Dam, the finest I have seen in SC4. But I have some suggestions .

I am missing an entrance to the turbines in the dam. Maybe you could plop kind of turbine house at the bottom of the damn above the outfalls. An earthen dam normally has no caverns inside it AFAIK. The dam near my town has the turbines in rock caverns in the mountain to the side of it and not in the earthen dam itself for example.

Try to get a bit of weeds or dirt into your dam lots to give more varation and also to get it a bit more realistic IMHO.

But all in all a great job and I am looking forward to the area fully developed.

[djvandrake]

Oh wow!  Very elaborate project and it came out nice.    I especially like the channels at the bottom of it.

[CraigKingOfIreland]

Thats quite amazing

[ldvger]

Battlecat-

Thanks for the MD plug!  I returned the favor over on Recreating SF, being as how I am getting ready to start developing my dam, as well. 

My thoughts on your dam:  I agree with some folks here regarding the rock face.  I think it's too white.  Local stone would be used, dontcha think?  So maybe you could find something that matches whatever rock mode you are using?  I also agree with whoever said it's not likely the turbines would be housed inside the dam as they are in concrete dams. 

So, now please share some of the downloads/plugins you used?  Specifically, the rocks on the rock face, the concrete base at the floor or the spillway, the retaining walls lining the sides of the spillway, and the fences/guardrails.  If you could create a list of links, that would be most helpful!

Carry on!

Lora/LD

[Yan077]

Very impressive work, one of the best dam I ever see ! !