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Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

Started by Battlecat, February 10, 2009, 06:39:50 PM

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kwakelaar

Fantastic to be able to have a close look at such large areas in one go. The overviews are really great.

FrankU

This is fantatic work! I am realy jealous about the time you seem to have that you can spend on the game. Mine is sooo limited!
But hte quality is what really matters and that is top notch every time I take a look at your images. Great work, and I will be following your MD.  &apls

Nardo69

Well, kind of my way of beginning a map, too. First railways, then highways (still Maxis in my case  ::)), major roads, etc as they define my map. Usually I have decided then where to put the settlements, fields and forests.

That lake looks interesting. Former swampy? Well, then you can either create a short, artificial shore line with grass until the shore line or a flat shoreline, a bit swampy, with lots of cattails and some bushes / trees in / at the water. Going to be interesting what you do.

Take care my friend and don't forget to make backups!


Bernhard  :thumbsup:


Skimbo

I missed a lot since my last visit, You've shown a huge ammount of great stuff since then. Great work!
The Dragon Island Cities journal at SC4Devotion

For a Dragon Islands video click here

penguin007

Nice development pictures there cant wait to see the lake finished

Will

scott1964


Battlecat



turtle: Thanks for your thoughts!  I might see about smoothing out a couple of the kinks in the railway line.  I was mostly focused on getting it across the map smoothly.  I know I used at least one or two unnecessary S-curves that I could clean up. 

cubby420: Thanks!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much, I'm looking forward to putting it together.  In fact there is a specific inspiration for the lake.  It's based directly off Silvermere Lake, located at the border between Mission and Maple Ridge in the Fraser Valley. 

Jayster: Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed the region view!  You're certainly off to a good start on realistic looking regions with Tepoto! 

Noah (noahclem): That's pretty much what I was thinking.  Also, I was thinking that the flat lands would have a high flood risk from the main river in the region.  Plus as a bonus it gave me an excuse to get the railway out of the way of the town I'm planning. 

bat: Thanks very much!  The latest NAM release in general has been a real pleasure to work with.  So many excellent options!

Gjermund (kwakelaar): Thanks!  Glad you enjoyed the overviews!

FrankU: Thanks very much!  It's funny, I actually wish I had more time.  I usually only get a few hours in on Sunday morning.  I'm going to be trying to scrounge up a few hours during the week in the future though.  It would be nice to finish this tile in less than 6 months. 

Bernhard (Nardo69): Thanks very much for stopping by!  Exactly what I was thinking.  Also it's a lot easier to place the rail first since it has the strictest slope restrictions.  Plus, in North America at least, the rails were built well in advance of any other major transportation network. 

The lake is going to be an interesting challenge.  It's based directly off a semi-artificial lake on my drive to work called Silvermere Lake.  The link leads to a google maps shot of the area.  I'll be doing a lot more development around the lake though and it's going to have its own interesting quirks downstream.

I actually just got a 1 terabyte external hard drive which I'll be making regular backups to.  It'll be great for my peace of mind! 

Skimbo: Good to see you, it's been a far more productive time of late.  Thanks for stopping in!

Will (penguin007): Thanks, it's going to be a little while before I develop the lake fully.  Due to the quirk of plopable stuff disappearing when lots grow nearby, I'll have to wait a bit before finishing the lake.  I'm looking forward to finishing it as well though.

scott1964: Thanks!

Update 138
Dunster Bend – Straight to the Border

Today before anything else happens I'm going to get the border matching done between Alexandria and Dunster Bend.  This is always fairly picky but in this case the border is pretty simple. 

138-1: First let's have a look at what there is to see in Alexandria.  There isn't anything too fancy, just a few farms and some lines of trees. 



138-2: Just one more token picture here to do some mosaic work with later!  This is the point where the highway crosses the border. 


138-3: Straight across the border, I've very quickly laid out the matching set of farms on the far side.  In theory if my counting was right, everything should match up when I assemble this mosaic together with 138-1. 



138-4: So let's see if they match up.  Hey look, I think it worked!  Where oh where has the border gone? 



138-5: As for the highway crossing, on closer examination it works as well as it always has. 


138-6: Now I have to make a decision.  I could post all the rest of the stuff from this weekend right now, or I could hold off until later in the week.  I think in the interest of actually getting this MD back to more than one update per week, I'll post the rest of this past weekend's work on Wednesday or Thursday.  In the meantime, here's a quick look at the area I'll be working on in the next update!


See you next time for some farm detailing and a new composite image!

Skimbo

The Dragon Island Cities journal at SC4Devotion

For a Dragon Islands video click here

art128

Good luck developing this area my friend ! &apls
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

Tomas Neto


noahclem

Looks good as always, nice mosaic work :thumbsup:

io_bg

Great work with "hiding" the borders between the city tiles, can't wait to see more! :thumbsup:
Visit my MD, The region of Pirgos!
Last updated: 28 November

Battlecat


Skimbo: Thanks very much!

Arthur (art128): Thanks!

Tomas Neto: Thanks!

noahclem: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

io_bg: Glad you like the hidden borders.  I'm looking forward to getting this tile in context already! 

Update 139
Dunster Bend – Farming First

Welcome to December, hard to believe how quickly this year has flown by!  But in Dunster Bend it must be summer because I'm getting going on the farming!  I like starting with farming on tiles these days because of the quirk when other development will actually reduce the demand for farms.  This area is going to be completed over the next couple updates.  In fact, I'll be posting yet another update on Friday!  Three in one week, when was the last time I managed that? 

139-1: Last time you got a first look at the zoning layout for this area.  Today we'll start with a look at the initial batch of farms.


139-2: As usual, several of these farms aren't going to stay in their current form.  I've dezoned areas that will be getting the RRP treatment.


139-3: In the top of the previous image the road leaves the map.  Here's the last farm on the road, it will be a ranch extending up into the valley.  But I'm not starting my detailing here.


139-4: I'm actually going to get started here.  As usual with the oddly shaped farms, we get oddly shaped zones that think they can't reach the road.  Fortunately, this leaves me an excellent opportunity.


139-5: So I decided to use the curved fields.  Of course then I discovered a couple of glitches in the nearly ready release versions.  I missed converting one tile to transparent and for some reason the main left corner piece is also missing.  Turns out I made a typo when I was setting its location on the menu.  I'll have that remedied for the next update.


139-6: Moving along, this farm is well on its way to completion.  Just some edge detailing left to take care of.


139-7: It's still a bit jagged but you really have to squint to spot it.  It takes a while to redraw to fix the black glitch and I didn't have a lot of time.  It'll be fixed in a future shot of this area once the surrounding farms are done. 


139-8: This one I had a lot of fun with.  It was a hay farm before, now I've just converted it to the in progress version I've used in several places in the past.  I think this is the tidiest one yet though. 


139-9: Here I'm just playing around with ways to end off the diagonal fields with an orthogonal end.  I'm debating whether a proper end piece is needed or whether I should just use grasses to blur the end. 


139-10: That's all for today.  Here's a composite with the latest updates to the map. 


That's a wrap for now.  I fixed up the glitches with the curved field lots last night and I also started adding the proper menu icons to them as well.  Next time I'll wrap up detailing on this swath of farms so we can move on to outlining the town of Dunster Bend itself in Monday's update.  See you Friday! 

cubby420

Dunster Bend is coming along nicely.  :thumbsup:

mightygoose

NAM + CAM + RAM + SAM, that's how I roll....

Tomas Neto

Yeah my friend, fantastic farms!!! Great work!!!

turtle

Nice work on those farms. Those curved fields look great  &apls
Also, from the looks of the last update the tile borders will fit perfectly.

Overall, I gotta say that the way you've setup the tile is very interesting  :thumbsup:
My name is Thomas...

canyonjumper

Loving the curved fields ;D Awesome job Battlecat!

                Your friend,
                               Jordan :thumbsup:
I'm the one who jumped across the Grand Canyon... and lived.

marsh


threestooges

More of the classic Adara beauty. I like the little farm leading up into the valley in 139-3, and the little line of trees leading up along the road to it just adds to what I'm expecting the final image will look like. I'd also like to see how you put together your highways next time you get ready to go through that. I've been trying to get into the RHW, but there are so many features to it. You seem to use everything fairly well, and to good results. Any tips or tricks?
-Matt