Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[chasespncr]

really nice!  is all the work that you have done in one large city tile?

[Tomas Neto]

Wooow, to follow step by step this update is the same that to have an excellent lesson of as to play Simcity 4! Already it said and I repeat, you are a master in this game! I liked this update absurdly! 

[calibanX]

Again, a great dam. Version 2 looks great. I like the shots of your rapids too. Great effect with the pine trees. And to top it off a very well done map. Fantastic!

Be well.

Geoff

[ldvger]

Battlecat-

The dam looks much better with the new textures, I think.  My only other comment is that there would not likely be plant life in the water immediately in front of the powerhouse outflows due to turbulence and variable flows/water levels.  Water needs to move at a bit of speed to turn those turbines and that would likely prevent plant life from growing in the area, except maybe on the verges.  Also, water exiting the outflows would tear up the stream bed quite a bit, again due to force/turbulence, so I'd consider using a concrete floor there rather than natural terrain.  And, this thought just came to me, perhaps plopping some boulders a bit downstream from the outflows to break up the water's force as it leaves the dam's built area and returns to being a natural stream.  

We're both going to be self-taught dam engineers by the time we're done with our respective dam projects!

Lora/LD

[KoV Liberty]

Completely AMAZING dam!

[Glowbal]

It all looks amazing. 
That rocks on the dam looks way better as before.

[nrmn67]

The new dam texture with a bit of green really looks great. And the power houses really make the dam visually interesting. Good work as always.

[Battlecat]

djvandrake: Glad you like it!  I'm glad I've finally found some places to use those ditches.

chasespncr: Thanks!  Vavenby is the third large city tile I've been working on in the Adara Region.  Delmar Junction and Alexandria are 1 and 2.  Update 27 from when I started the Vavenby tile shows the context of Vavenby relative to the other two tiles I've finished so far.  Everything from update 27 through until now has been on the same tile.   

Tomas Neto: Thanks for your enthusiasim!  Glad you're enjoying your visits.

Geoff (calibanX): Thanks very much!  That map is just a fragment of a larger project I've got on the go! 

Lora (ldvger): Thanks for the feedback!  A few years back I actually got the opportunity to go on a tour of the Bennet Dam, a large earthen dam project in Northern British Columbia.  Inside the power generation facility itself (carved out of bedrock), there is a pair of large internal concrete bunkers that the water flows into from the turbines prior to being released into the natural environment.  The entire purpose of this room is to dampen the flow force and turbulence of the water before it's released into the natural environment specifically so it doesn't have the energy to tear up the terrain downstream. 

Effectively, the way it's designed, the water swirls around inside of it, and is physically unable to leave the room while it is at a high energy state due to the geometry of the room.  Once it drops below a threshold, it flows out at a much more sedate speed.  There are two of these structures so that the dam can continue operating while the other one is being inspected or repaired. 

The foliage is also necessary to hide some odd textures that are showing up because of the steeper retaining walls.  I do appreciate you thoughs on the matter!  You're absolutely right, we're certainly learning a lot from this! 

Driftmaster07: Thanks very much!

Glowbal: Thanks!  I agree, the new look is an improvement! 

nrmn67: Glad you like the improved look!  Thanks for stopping in again!

Update 41
Vavenby – Farming and Camping

Today I'm going to pick up right from where I left off last time.  This tile is getting very close to being finished now! 

41-1: The next farms on the list are this tulip farm and the tomato farm.  I've already got the edge dirt in place on the tulip farm here. 


41-2: A simple dirt road up between the two farms provides easy access and a reasonable surface for the tomato farm vehicles to turn around. 


41-3: Due to a minor accident, the first farm on this lot got destroyed.  After a few revisions, I got one of mrbisonm's Nexis Dairy farms.  I've never had this one develop, and I quite like it.  It's still getting the fencing treatment though! 


41-4: Removing the fields, adding a few fences, an access road and some parking lots.  I was a bit whimsicle with the fencing here, but I like the way it looks!  I've also added the dirt on the tomato farm. 


41-5: A few final details across the street along the edge of the tomato farm.  The grass really helps blur those sharp dirt field edges. 


41-6: And finally some details and cows on the Nexis Dairy Farm.  I was fortunate to get an open gate here, so I put the cows in to give the impression they are being moved to the next field. 


41-7: Almost finished here, there's only one more detail that I need to wrap up. 


41-8 It really is amazing how much of a difference the details on the rivers edge make.


41-9: Working my way upstream to past the railway bridge.  I really like how this section turned out.  The swampy patch turned out nicely.


41-10: Here's an overview now that the trees are in place.  You can see Brewer's junction in the bottom left corner of the shot.  The border with Delmar Junction is on the left side of this shot. 


41-11: Moving on to another unfinished area, I've had some plans for this hill with the power lines for a while, but it's going to require significant terraforming.


41-12: I wanted to run a road up and give the impression of a small energetic creek flowing down.  That being said, after much cursing and aggravation from trying to lay streets, I finally went with roads for the first half.  You can now see the minor channel the river flows through. 


41-13: At the top of the road, there is a fairly large campground.  This will be surrounded in trees when I'm done.


41-14: Here I've laid out the basic route of the mountain stream using the CP Oak/Elm Forest controller.  There's a trail leading up the mountain to a historic site. 


41-15: This isn't exactly where I'd planned to leave off, but I suddenly ran out of time.  This is an old abandoned mine that is a local tourist attraction.  The above ground facilities are long gone, but the mine is still there.  It's quite safe; a great deal of money was invested to improve the safety of this site. 


I'd love to post more, but I didn't quite finish up a few things for the completed shot.  That'll come for the next update along with some more work on Vavenby itself! 

[Tomas Neto]

Woowww!!! My friend, amazing how you create a virtual world so real!!! Awesome update!!! 

[Nardo69]

Hi Battlecat!

That new "railway crossing" is way better than the first layout. A not too high bridge would have done it perfectly but unfortunately I haven't seen such a bridge for Sc4 by now.

I do like SG's irrigation kanals a lot - I prefer to use them as kanalized creeks, more or less like you did. And about Lora'S (ldgver) comment - she is perfect right. I posted a three part tutorial about the same stuff years ago on ST, justr have a look of Urland there (page 7 or 8 I think). I might - however - put it into my (in)famous thoughts - thread if there is a demand for it.

Really great work on that hydro plant. I'm in them since since some time, too - might copy get inspired by you!

In update 41 I rather would've deleted the tulips instead of the Maxis farm, but well ...

I like the gras as an edge softener, too. A real universal toy ChrisAdams gave us with it!

All in all I like what I saw (as if it had been different ...)

Take care!


Bernhard 

[BarbarossaS]

Wow, absolutely amazing stuff. I've been away to France for a whole month, so I missed a few updates, but now I've read the whole thing through.
You never quite stop to amaze me and your a huge source of inspiration! Thanks for sharing this fantastic MD! 

-Stijn-

[FrankU]

Another great update!
Pity that some of the images seen to have been deleted, because all I get is a small red cross at 41-1, 41-4, 41-11.

Yesterday evening I finally found some time to do farm building myself. But all I could think of is a kind of copy of what you did already before. So at the moment an image would show nothing new. But maybe I'll come up with something. Pity that my time is so scarce.

Just the rail yard looks a bit out of place in my opinion.
But indeed, without Chrisadams' grasses and weeds life would be much less interesting in the rural areas.

[io_bg]

Fantastic work as usual!

[djvandrake]

Very impressive!    Looking forward to seeing how the area around the mine finishes up.  And you're not the only one who gets plenty of cursing and aggravation trying to get the terrain to do what we want.    I can sympathize.

[ldvger]

Battlecat-

Excellent work, as always.  I really like the campground and mine.  Just a few comments about RL tulip and dairy farms:

I lived in the Skagit Valley for 18 years and tulips are a very big crop there.  In fact, the area hosts an annual Tulip Festival which lasts a week and draws hundreds of thousands of tourists to see the tulips in bloom.  However, the tulips are grown for the bulbs (as you probably know), not for thier flowers and in fact sometimes folks are alarmed and dismayed when they see the tractors in the tulip fields cutting all the flower tops off at the peak of thier bloom.  But, one thing you would never, ever see is a field of mixed colors of tulips because once the blooms are removed, there is no way of knowing which bulbs create which color of flower.  So, each field is homogeneous in color, not multi-colored as your tulip farm displays.  It's certainly very pretty when multi-colored, just not very realistic. 

Skagit Valley also boasts a number of dairys and is in fact the site of the Washington Cheese Company's cheese making factory, which is another tourist attraction.  One of the huge issues facing dairy farmers is cow waste.  Cows create a LOT of waste and barns must be kept extremely clean to keep milk from being contaminated (not to mention keeping the cows themselves healthy), so not only is there a lot of waste to deal with, but there is also a lot of water mixed with the waste.  Most dairy barns are concrete floored, so the little round waste dump your farm shows behind the dairy barn isn't terribly realsitic, either.  First, it's way too small and second it's way to close to the farmer's residence (phew!).  Modern dairy practice is to pump cow waste and waste water into a human-made above ground pond, which is usually very remote from the barn itself.  There's usually a large bor pipe (say, 12" diameter?) that runs from the barn, across the fields, and to the waste pond.  These ponds are quite large and you can smell them from a very long ways away, as you might imagine.  The ponds "ferment" the waste, which is actually an excellent fertilizer.  When pumped out of the barn and into the pond, the waste pipe runs up the side of the berm that encloses the pond and shoots the waste onto the top of the pond, aerating the waste and creating turbulence in the pond to stir up the "soup".  There is almost no solid matter in the pond...everything liquifies to a stinky, watery sludge, which is then pumped out and into containers to be used to spray on food crop field dirt as fertilizer.  You can read about modern dairy farming practices here:

http://www.dairyfarmingtoday.org/DairyFarmingToday

I know you didn't make the farm you used, but I know you like to use the LE to create custom stuff, so maybe you could create some waste ponds and pipe lots?  Might be fun!  Also, you don't live more than an hour away from Mt. Vernon and the Skagit Valley, so you could always run down there some weekend and see for yourself!  It'd be fun...stop by the Conway Tavern and have a burger and a beer.

Lora/LD

[calibanX]

Very nice as usual Battlecat. I'm curious to watch that stream come down next to the mine shaft. It should make for a great effect. You've really gotten the hang of placing those fences around your farms too. They look darn good.

You've created some healthy suspense too by leaving that last update hanging. Very well done!

Geoff

[Albus of Garaway]

Fantastic update! I'm really looking forward to how the area with the power lines develops. By the way, you made that Nexis farm look amazing with those fences. Great work!

[Scarton]

Nice job, and wonderful updates! I've missed the past few (or that is, I've been lurking around)   

[Bobbi]

A beautiful rural area.

Bobbi

[FrankU]

I'd like to add a little to Lora's remarks on tulips and manure.

As probably every foreigner knows, the Netherlands are the country of tulips (even if they are originally Turkisk flowers). Like in Washington they are here also grown for their bulbs and the fields are homogeneously coloured.
That's why I don't use Simgoober's tulip farm, because that's the farm you use. I take the lilly lots from Urocha's ploppable farm fields. Lillies, you say for tulip farms? Well, cheating is allowed here, I thought. We would need at least a zoom 8 in HD to see the difference. But these fields give the chance of uniformly coloured fields in several different colours.

Manure: in the Netherlands the manure of the cows is usually put in tanks next to the farm. These tanks are covered. So there is no smell. Out of these tanks the manure is injected into the ground of meadows around the farm. This is done with special machines that use a tank full of manure and a row of injectors that are stuck into the ground. This is done on special days where there is rain foreseen, or no rain foreseen (I don't know which). This injecting is strictly regulated by European Union rules.

For realistic Dutch farms we weuld need someone who knows a bit of farms and who has time to do some ABTting and some lotting. I'm sorry I do not have that time... Still trying to grow my little own region....

On a regular basis my thoughts go into the direction of lotting some Dutch farms, but so little time!