Adara - Update 184 - March 26, 2012

[rooker1]

First off.....fantastic month so far!!
I really like the changes you have made in the update before last.  170-5 is a really nice over view.

Now, when you said, "major ferry terminal" you got me all excited.  I was hoping for a very different and very under used terminal.  Not sure if you have seen marcszar's ferry terminal.  Definately my favourite ferry terminal of all time.  I think it needs to be relotted and I have done this for myself, but it is the best model I have ever seen for a ferry terminal.  Do you have the LEX Disc, if so you'll find it on there.  Can you say exclusive?  If someone were to donate to just get this model, it would be money well spent.

21 more days to go and I will be in here each one of them.
Robin 

[threestooges]

Nice update. I've never thought much about pedestrian-only ferries before, but then, the last time I looked at them was when Rush Hour first came out and they were those massive boats and docks. Having been back up around the northwest part of Washington, and the drive it takes to get there, I can certainly see the use of them in supporting small communities like the ones you're going to be working on here. Nice touch with that.

The one critique I have of the placement though, is 171-5. Not sure which automata would go with it, or what the ferries are meant to look like, but given that the waves are breaking well in advance of the pier, and given the relatively short length of the docking area, it seems like a boat would bottom out. I'd suggest tweaking the terraforming a bit, either making the bottom deeper, making the shore drop off sooner, or both.

I really like the solution you came up with for the ferry terminal traffic. Probably one of the best reasons/excuses (not that you need one) to use those 2/1 NAM pieces. Looking forward to the coming development.
-Matt

[Nanami]

Nice planning you have there!
I wonder how it would be if there're some development there?

[Cyclone1001]

I like the ferries, the whole coastal area is turning out nicely, even without much detailing. I'm excited to see new areas, and I'm sure you have great plans for them. Nothing else to say, great job.

[canyonjumper]

Wow, loving this island stuff PEG's stuff is amazing, and I can't wait to see what you do with it!

            Your friend,
                           Jordan

[metarvo]

I see that you've probably realized by now that the street neighbor connection technique didn't change with the new NAM.  It's easy, effective, and cool.  The ARD-3 you've added in is a nice touch, too.  I wasn't aware of that particular passenger dock.  It really does blend in, much like a fishing pier.  Nice work, BC.

[Battlecat]

SCWTC4: Thanks!  I've always had a habit of planning very far ahead in this region, I even planned things for neighboring regions that may never come into existence. 

bat: Thanks very much!

noahclem: Hey, no worries about the bug, they happen!  The honest truth is, the RHW is an incredible achievement especially considering it's built on an unfinished network from Maxis!  I'm quite content to work around them!  If you need details on the orientation, just let me know!  Congrats on being a NAM associate by the way, I hadn't noticed that little promotion!

Glad you like the islands in the latest update!  I'll be interested to see if your suspicion plays out in today's update.

Arthur (art128): Thanks very much, glad you approve!

Robin (rooker1): Honestly, I haven't see that many good options for Ferry Terminals.  Pegasus' products are the nicest I've worked with to date.  I'm not familiar with the one you've just mentioned so I'll have to look into remedying that soon.  Thanks for the suggestion! 

Matt (threestooges): Thanks, I knew I would be using this one as soon as I saw it in CGSDesigns MD.  It's perfect for tiny little isolated communities.  I did misplace the one you pointed out in 172-5 so I'll fix that using one of your solutions when I revisit the tile at a later date.  Those 2/1 NAM pieces are fantastic, I just look forward to seeing more development on them.  Building that area I came up with about 5 or 6 different puzzle 2/1 network pieces that would be "nice to haves" when working with it!

976: Thanks very much!  We'll find out about the development someday in the distant future, I'm hopeful it will look nice!

Cyclone1001: Thanks, glad you like how it looks.  I'm looking forward to doing more work on this area as well!

Jordan (canyonjumper): Thanks very much!

metarvo: Indeed I did, I can't thank you enough for those tutorials!  They've made all the difference for proper diverse neighbor connections!  Pegasus has a fairly reasonable selection of passenger docks.  I'll probably be revising the one in Delta to a slightly larger capacity dock later on.  Thanks for stopping in, glad you enjoyed the update!

Update 172
Seabird Island – Flight Plan

Welcome to Seabird Island, the tile that will be a major lynchpin in the regional transportation network and also a transitional tile from the mostly rural region I've been working on to date to the neighboring region that will primarily be urban. 

This tile is located directly north of Delta.  Gameplay last night didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd hoped, so I don't actually have something completely knew to show off, but I'll at least lay the groundwork for a future update. 

172-1: This is the main land base of Seabird Island.  What do we build that requires a large swath of flat land with no vertical obstructions?  If you haven't figured it out by now, let me put you out of your misery.  This is the future site of Adara International Airport.  The choice of location is modeled after Vancouver International which is located on an island in the Fraser River in a suburb of Vancouver. 


172-2: This is the other branch of the main river through the region.  It actually splits into three major branches so far, the third will cross the region boundary over to the urban region.  If I ever decide to actually build it that is. 


172-3: I decided to use the FLUPS to cross this river rather than a bridge for the highway, just for diversity and also to leave room for the railway crossing.  Interesting discovery, if you set your data view to water pollution, the game water becomes transparent as shown in this image!   It made building this underwater tunnel a piece of cake.  Before you say anything, I discovered the transparent FLUP pieces shortly after taking this shot. 


172-4: Transparent looks a lot less noisy which is good because these seem to have very bulky props on them.  I can't seem to plop any mayor mode items around them.  Of course, that could also be related to these being transport network.  Eh, I'll just work around it.


172-5: This will be undergoing an extensive set of revisions.  To say that the following construction was frustrating is an understatement.  I just couldn't seem to do anything right last night!  One change is I will be converting the FLUPS to diagonal instead of ortho.


172-6: The tunnel is narrow again, mostly because there aren't any FLUP tunnel portals for the wider networks yet.  These two ramps will be part of an asymmetrical interchange that will lead to an airport works yard I think.  Or maybe not.  I haven't decided yet.


172-7: I added in the railway and somehow failed to take a screenshot of the approach to the bridge.  I managed to raise it high enough again for ferries and container ships but it was a headache to squeeze in because the railway has to go around the airport site.


172-8: Additional problems came with getting the highway over the railway.  I felt an overpass would be ok here because this section is going to line up with the location of the main terminal, not a runway.   


172-9: I'm not sure what this is going to line up with so an overpass seemed more reasonable.  This is the far end of the industrial access avenue that I built on the Deroche tile.   It will all be more clear on the regional view.  At this point several things were going horribly wrong, including trying to squeeze the interchange in with the transition from RHW6C to RHW6S to elevated RHW6S.  I've spotted a location on the 6C highway that should be converted to FAR instead of diagonal, but I'll do that at a later date. 

There were some technical and spacing issues that made converting back to 6S unfortunately necessary at this end.  I was raging so much at the game I forgot to take a short of the finished interchange! 


172-10: Here's a view of the finished tunnel and highway to the edge of the region.  You might notice I haven't connected it up, it's because I need to build one more interchange and I just couldn't face it today.  I'll finish the transport network during a future update of the tile. 


172-11: Time to call it a day, here's the tile overview.


172-12: And an updated regional composite.  The island where the airport will go is starting to take full shape.  It's split between 4 tiles so it will take some careful cross border planning.  I intend to have at least two runways, one north-south and one east-west.  I intend to just ignore the cross border water lighting issue, since I don't know of any way to fix it.


172-13: Last but not least, here is the reference map updated once again. 


That's all for today!  I'm caught up on my updates so the best I can guarantee is the next update will certainly be posted on Monday.  I might update sooner if I can get some gaming time tomorrow but I don't know exactly what lies ahead for this long weekend.  I haven't decided on the next destination, so I'll see what appeals to me.  Feel free to make a request, just say north, south, east or west of an existing tile from the reference map sometime today and I might be able to fill that request!  For reference, Greenwood is the furthest north.  See you all soon!

[art128]

Looks like a good place for an airport, Gordon! I think you have choose the best place actually. Can't wait to see more of this area, and of you need help regarding the airport, feel free to ask!

[bat]

Fantastic work on this new update!

[threestooges]

Quite the pace you've set for yourself here this month. Certainly impressive to watch though, and this update in particular presented a good look at the technical approaches to building networks. I've worked with the FLUPs before, and I like the little concrete bits for lining things up on the transparent pieces too, but admittedly they are a little difficult to properly mask when plopped. I know how frustrating it can get when the game doesn't seem to want to cooperate, but you wouldn't know it looking at the update today. Take it easy, and I'll be looking forward to what's next.
-Matt

[RickD]

I just caught up reading the latest updates. Great work.

I am looking forward to the airport. But I am not sure about the tunnel solution for crossing the river. I think a bridge would have been more realistic.  But let's see what it looks like when the airport is there.

[Dantes]

I'm very excited about the airport you want to build.  This is very interesting in this area. 

[Cyclone1001]

You doing an airport?
This. Will. Be. Awesome.

[sumwonyuno]

Where are the seabirds?     Oh, planes.   

[Kergelen]

Really fantastic region shot and development scenes 

[Battlecat]

Arthur (art128): Thanks, glad you think it's a good spot, it's pretty much been intended as an airport location since I started the project.  While it's undergone some revisions in shape, this island and delta complex has been in mind, if not on the map for several years now! 

I'm certainly going to take you up on that offer if I run into trouble.  It wouldn't surprise me at all if this becomes the first tile I actually have to use a money cheat on!

bat: Thanks very much!

Matt (threestooges): It's a hard pace, but in a funny way it's not too bad since it's really very basic groundwork that I'm laying out.  The heavy duty detailing and city building is a little hard to put together at a high rate of speed since I like to linger a bit, but these initial updates usually only take an hour or two per. 

The FLUPS are absolutely a joy to work with, they were the easy part of that last update!  They're easy, stable and reasonably unobtrusive.  Honestly, I think the inability to add textures on top is a small price to pay and I'll just work around it or ignore it!  As for the rest of it, I was trying to do something a bit silly in its complexity and I certainly paid for it.  Today went much better.  Thanks for stopping in, glad you're enjoying!

Raphael (RickD): Thanks very much for you thoughts.  I'm a little torn on the tunnel solution as well, but I was going for the feel of the Richmond area of BC which happens to feature the scariest tunnel I've ever had to drive through.  It goes right under the mouth of the Fraser River and makes me very nervous!  But I'm going to keep thinking on it, it's certainly not written in stone yet.  Thanks for your thoughts and for stopping in!

Dantes: I'm looking forward to it as well, but it's going to be a little while before I start breaking ground on that one!

Cyclone1001: I certainly hope it's going to be awesome!  And I've already got a large bundle of the airport packs downloaded and installed.  Decoding them so I don't make absurdly short runways is going to be a fun exercise!  It might be a little while though, I want to get more tiles prepared for development first.  But I think it's one of the first areas on my list when I pick up normal development again. 

sumwonyuno: Really Really big birds!  Bring a Kevlar umbrella!  Seriously though, in this case I suspect the name predates the airport!  Thanks for stopping in!

Kergelen: Thanks very much!

Update 173
Riverside – Complicated Simplicity

Riverside is a quirky location.  It doesn't really have any particularly important features since it's the last of the four tiles containing Seabird Island.  There's no major highway, no railway, nothing of excitement at all.  But there is one thing, an opportunity to try out and discuss a new feature in the NAM!  A new feature that takes something as simple as bridge a river with a road and makes it a incredibly complex and rewarding undertaking!

I've also got a few thoughts and recommendations based on my experience with the mod. 

173-1: The key reason for the name of this tile is because the river splits into three major forks here.  All three are heading to the ocean of course, but it should give an idea of the size of the river.  There are a couple fun detailing spots I've added on this shot.


173-2: Just a last bit of terraforming touch up.  The hill needs a bit more definition and the cliffs at the river edge need to be smoothed out.


173-3: I think this is an improvement.


173-4: Onwards with the new feature discussion.  This area is ideal for a road bridge.  I need to bring a minor highway up this side of the river heading in the direction of Poplar Grove on the Greenwood Tile.  But due to the orientation of the river, a diagonal span is more logical than an orthogonal span.  Time to download the new toy.   


173-5: When you install the diagonal bridge enabler, make sure to install the "~Diagonal Bridge Enabler (Temporary Files)" folder to the root level of your plugins folder.  It won't work properly otherwise!  The first interesting change this mod makes is it temporarily overrides the sea level in the game. 


173-6: The more interesting challenge is it makes the transportation networks draw perfectly level regardless of the terrain.  That seems to be the trick that allows a road to be drawn across the river in any odd configuration you might want.  But this is absolutely critical: Make sure you've leveled out the embankments for your road on both sides of the river before adding the mod.  Single Tile road leveling techniques will not work when this mod is enabled!


173-7: The next step is to draw out a road section.  As you can see here, it forces it to be horizontal.  That is not a bridge, that's 100% natural road sections .  The mod also provides some override pieces very similar to the SAM or RHW starter pieces which have to be used to give the section a proper bridge appearance.  Make sure to read the instructions!


173-8: Here we have the bridge altered over to it's final appearance.  Now to get the water back. 


173-9: And naturally, the road is far too close to the water surface to be reasonable.  Make a note when using this mod, you'll want to raise the terrain a large amount above the water surface for a span of this size.  I wound up with about somewhere between 24 and 30 meters for the next attempt.


173-10: This time I had the sense to build the abutments before reloading the mod.  Again, I can re-iterate enough, the two sides work best if they are EXACTLY the same height.  Keep in mind, the roads are utterly incapable of leveling terrain so even a 0.2 meter different in height is enough to make the process a bit twitchy!


173-11: I decided to use a different bridge this time but the rest of the process was absolutely identical to the previous attempt.


173-12: It's still a bit lower than ideal but I think I'm just going to squint and go with it. 


173-13: The bridge models are simple but very effective.  It fits the area very nicely indeed! 


173-14: The final touches for this update involve building the rest of the highway through the tile.  This section goes south to the Seabird Island tile and will eventually hook up to the main highway near the river crossing. 


173-15: This side, just to give it a bit of diversity, has a long section of FAR road.  There's also an overpass I'm still contemplating if I decide to add a railway on to this tile.  That's still up in the air but I'm open to suggestions!


173-16: That's all for now.  Here's the tile composite.


173-17: The updated regional composite shows the entirety of the island where the airport will be located.  It's going to be challenging but I hope I've reserved enough space to do it properly!


173-18: And last but not least, here's the newest reference composite. 


And that's a wrap.  The diagonal bridges are innovative and actually surprisingly easy to build.  I'm looking forward to seeing more development in this area because the results are going to be epic!  Best part is, this system might work as an alternate method for land bridges as well!  Next update on Monday or Tuesday at the latest!  See you later!

[rooker1]

Great work on the diagonal bridge and nice tutorial. 
It might be nice to do a few more diagonal bridges here and there.

Robin 

[Swordmaster]

That's an awesome composite! I've always planned to make such a large regional zoomed-in view myself.

Now I'm off to read from the start!

[SCWTC4]

that's what i call planning perfection...

[Cyclone1001]

Great stuff, I like the diagonal bridges. I've been scared to try it, so its nice to see it work.
The composites are looking better and better, its only a matter of time before the new tiles look as nice and detailed as the rest.