Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[bat]

Wonderful work on the farms there! They are looking beautiful.

[sumwonyuno]

Those are some colorful farms!   

[Battlecat]

warconstruct: Thanks very much!

Cyclone1001: Glad you enjoyed this update! 

Tomas Neto: Thanks for your kind words!

Ethan (ecoba): Glad you like the farms!  This tile won't be all farmland since I have to round out the southern end of Winfield.  I've certainly enjoyed getting back to the feel of some of the original updates!  In fact, I do plan to have quite an extensive farmed valley in the tiles south of here, although I won't be building that for a while. 

Actually I really don't mind bulldozing the Mediterranean farms as necessary; sometimes they fit a space really nicely.  Having to constantly think about whether a farm fits a space really helps me think critically about the appearance of the area across the board as well.  Glad you like the Aubrac walls as well, they're really cool.  I plan on using those a lot more in the future as well!  Thanks for your thoughts and your visit!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much!  Diagonal fillers really do make all the difference in the world; it's a lot less jarring than the jagged square edges.  Glad you are enjoying the results!

nedalezz: Thanks!  It's actually amazing how little time it took to create these farms. 

Schulmanator: Glad you like the farms, I really enjoy seeing the impact that all the little changes have.  I expect a fridge would be even harder, especially if you need it to remain useable.  Last time I checked, fridges have to stay vertical when being moved around! 

mightygoose: Thanks for stopping in and for your kind words!

djvandrake: Thanks very much!

Rady: Thanks, glad you like it! I think a piano trumps my old freezer both in terms of weight and frustration.  At least we didn't have to worry about breaking the old freezer! 

daryl7478: About the closest I'm going to be able to get to the  Olympics was the Torch relay coming through my town this week, it was a fun event.  Sadly time and money prevent me from actually attending the events.  Mostly time though.  It's still going to be a fun event though.  Thanks for stopping in!

976: Thanks!

Connor: Thanks, glad you liked it!

bat: Thanks very much, glad you like how they turned out!

sumwonyuno: Yeah, they are quite colorful, particularly the flower grower's place.  Glad you like them!

Update 88
Adara One Year Anniversary and
Ellison Flats Shorelines

Well originally this was going to be a simple little update with a few shoreline details.  There's just one small catch that I can see when I look at the first page of Adara:


Today marks exactly one year since I posted the first update for Adara.  It's hard to believe Adara has over 880 posts and over 36 thousand visits!   Thanks very much to you all for your extensive support over the past year!  I couldn't have kept it up without your interest and suggestions!

I spent a fair amount of time over the past week casting around trying to decide what to post to celebrate.  Time wasn't on my side since I didn't realize the anniversary was coming so soon.  So I've got a couple small things just for a fun bonus in addition to my regular update.  Hope you enjoy them! 

88-1: First thing for today, a composite night shot of downtown Winfield.  Click this image to see the full sized image.  It's a bit less than 2 megabytes in size, but I think it turned out quite nicely!


88-2: And secondly, a new composite image of Delmar Junction.  With today being the anniversary, a return to Tile #1 from a new angle seems appropriate.  All the components of this image were taken at zoom 2 instead of zoom 1 so there is far more detail, particularly in terms of the crops since a lot of the props don't render at zoom 1.  Once again, click this image to see the full sized version (1.4 megabytes). 

If reaction to this shot is positive enough, I'm willing to extend this composite to the rest of the region.  It's a lot more work to build though, instead of four shots there are about 16 images to combine together to make one tile.  I think it'll be worth it though but I'll be interested to hear what you all think. 


88-3: That's all for bonuses today.  Now down to business.  I don't have as many pictures as usual since the composites took a while to prep.  My plan is to finish this section of shoreline today. 


88-4: One comment that was made after finishing Winfield was that my shorelines were fairly uniform, despite my best efforts.  So today I'm going to redouble my detailing for shorelines and really start mixing things up.  The farm here pushes right down to the water.


88-5: One idea I've been throwing around is the idea of mud flats and overgrown shallow areas.  The RRP marsh texture will be helpful here.


88-6: This is just a first draft for a large area I'm going to put together today, I quite like the results.


88-7: Another idea I'm working on is some ways to achieve rockier and more barren sections of shoreline.  This also didn't turn out to badly.  Although I must say there is a certain mystery about why the shore looks like this. 


88-8: Most of the area is going to have fairly normal style, but I'm still trying to break the mold here.  Particularly the fine details along the shore, I really want to avoid that uniform feeling.


88-9: Here's the area I've finished so far today.  I hope zooming out like this really helps you see what I'm trying to achieve with the detailing here now.  This shoreline looks far less uniform I think.


88-10: This bay is going to be shallow and marshy.  Again, I'm trying to achieve new effects today, so let's see what happens.


88-11: This will eventually be a small knoll of land that isn't covered in water regularly.  Some trees and bushes have taken hold here.


88-12: A couple more knolls with a variety of trees and shrubs are surrounded by marshes and then clear water.  The calm water in the channels is choked with lily pads as well.


88-13: Zooming out a bit, here's the finished product.  This really helps set the stage for a new style of natural detailing here.  I'll be messing around with this and other ideas a lot more in the future.  I want to start innovating more to see what else can be accomplished with the tools we have.  There are some incredibly inspiring new MD's in the mix now with amazing natural scenes.  They really are inspiring me to be more creative as well.


88-14: Two more shots to wrap up the day, I'm zooming out slowly to give you an overview sample of how this area is coming together.


88-15: Final shot for today.  Everything you see here is completely done except for the tiny corner on the left side of the shot.


That's all for today, I really wanted to post more shots, but sadly I ran out of time.  Life is completely insane this week so I can't promise a Friday update.  If I can sneak some time in I might have something for you all to enjoy though.  There will be an update Monday for sure though! 

[ecoba]

Wow, those composite images are really impressive. I don't think I could ever do something like that. I'm also really liking the new detailing along the shoreline. A short comment today.

Ethan

[mightygoose]

marshland done so well, what a superb concept, and congratulations on your first aniversary 

[Nardo69]

Shorelines are always double edged swords and a pain in your *** . Sometimes you work for hours and it's just &%@§$ what you finally receive sometimes it takes minutes and you are astonished about the result - unless you try to reproduce it... must be the interaction between daily form and your mouse finger ...

Anyway - I like that marshy bay. Never done that before, maybe I'll find a nice spot to steal this idea transprt the inspiration.

And I know what you felt about someone posting everything looks so uniform - had it by my own. Partially it's right, partially it is something called "your very personal style" ...

Take care my friend!


Bernhard  

[Tomas Neto]

Awesome update again!!! Nice work!!!

[canyonjumper]

Great update! I really liked what you did with the extra details!

There are some incredibly inspiring new MD's in the mix now with amazing natural scenes.

I guess you're talking about Jacob's (ShultzCity) MD? It inspired me.

About the torch relay, I saw it in Surrey on Monday (Feb 8). It was pretty cool.

Great stuff, Battlecat!

                -Jordan

[ShultzCity]

I guess you're talking about Jacob's (ShultzCity) MD? It inspired me.

Really great stuff there Battlecat - absolutely wonderful use of PW 

[sumwonyuno]

Congratulations on one year!   

Heh, nice attempt at marshy areas!  The city tile picture is awesome! 

[Connor]

Very nice update, and congratulations on one year! I really like the marshy areas, great work 

[bat]

Congratulations on one year Adara!!
And wonderful update for the celebration!

[metarvo]

Congratulations on one year, Battlecat!     The shorelines look very good, and you have also made some fine flora selections.

[nedalezz]

Congrats! One Year Anniversary celebrated with a fantastic update. The mudflats look absolutely superb.

[djvandrake]

Another great update and congrats on your 1 year anniversary!

[mrbisonm]

Very nice looking farmconception...I'm impressed, they look real. I also like the *swampy* details you made. Good work and well observed.
Keep it up, I will be lurking.....

Fred

[turtle]

Congratulations on your 1st anniversary 

I love your new shoreline detailing technique. The effect shown in your small overview in 88-9 is really amazing.

[Stray Cat]

Hey Battlecat.

First, congrats on your first anniversary...very impressive.

Second, this is my first post in your MD as I have only recently discovered it.

Third...your mudflats are great.  I camp in the mountains near the Alberta-BC border west of Calgary and some of the lakes I camp near contain flat marshy areas that are often muddy, moss-laden and composites of deadwood, dirt(mud), and bits of vegetation.  Your efforts reminded me of them.  The other thing I see from time to time near the shore are little islands...might want to consider including some every now and then to help add interest  Edit - saw the one little island...very nice...I'll see if I have a picture of some lakeshore that I was mentioning.....  It would be great if there was more ploppable wildlife...a plopped bear might make sim-fisherman think twice about using a really nice simfishing area... lol.

Anyways...thanks for your inspiration and thanks for the advice on the farms...they really worked (GNUCyberKat).

May you have gentle winds and clear days.

Scott

Edit:  Here's that photo of what I was talking about:

[daryl7478]

Happy 1 year anniversary Battlecat! I see Adara is mostly a rural region. I just hope you will see the fireworks of the opening ceremony from your town. I will just be watching it from TV. You have such realistic cities. Kinda like thundercrack83's Commonwealth of Marathon, just a little bit more rural. Enjoy!!!

[calibanX]

Congratulations on one year Battlecat. You've created a fantastic project that draws us in and keeps us coming back. Your step-by-step MD'ing style is irresistible.

Also, I love the marsh you're experimenting with. You're really showing how flexible the plop water is. That would be unthinkable with game water. Looks like I'll have to start playing a bit more with the plopable stuff.

Take care.

Geoff