Barsalargonia - Update 23 - August 23 2009

Splime · July 28, 2009, 05:10:48 PM

Reply:

blade2k5: Thanks! And there won't be anymore waiting now...

Update 14: The Start of Route 36

First off, we start where we left off. This was one of the farms with yellow crops, but it had a block of darker crops in it. This is caused by low desirability from the traffic on the roads, so there really wasn't much I could do to fix the underlying problem...

...So I covered it up by replacing the old crops with 3RR Ploppable Corn Fields. You can see that they're not quite the same as the growable ones on the right, but they're close enough, and much more versatile.

And now for the meat of the update, the plot of land west of last update and south of the rail line. The major road in this area is Route 36, and east-west route that travels from Route 25 into quad B3.

For this section, I've set up an arrangement of four farms at a crossroads between route 36 and a side street.

A few issues came up with the first development. One of the farms, although really nice-looking on the whole, had a lot foundation rear its ugly head. From this view it's not as visible, but I decided it would have to be fixed somehow. Also, one of the farms didn't seem to want to grow.

To fix the lot foundation issue, I replaced the grown farm building with a ploppable one (using Steamrobin's Rural Set). To fix the farm lot that refused to grow, I made a large cow pen.

Next up is an area a bit further to the west. Route 36 makes a long curve at this point, or at least the best representation of a curve I can make using only the 8 possible angles (horizontal, vertical, 2 diagonals, and 4 FAR directions). It's still much better than if we never had the FAR.

When everything was developed, this was the result. There's a tiny village in this area, with a few commercial buildings.

Here's a closeup of the tiny village. You can also see a bit more of the farming in this image.

There's not too many updates before we move on to the next quad now. I'm leaning towards C2 at the moment, because I want to build a major port in C4, and my non-agricultural industrial demand at the moment is fairly low (it was substantially negative, now it's just a little negative), so I need to build some more R and C. C4 will most likely come after, however.

Thanks for reading!

blade2k5 · July 28, 2009, 05:34:00 PM

A lovely update

after an excruciatingly long wait

I like how you made you own highway markers, never thought of doing it the way you are. I'm also liking how well you develop your rural areas, mine end up looking like suburbia

Nice work, keep the updates coming

What trees are you using by the way? For the life of me, I can't think of what and who's trees those are

I most likely have them [I've dl'd so many tree paks I can't keep track of them all

] but I'm having a complete lapse of memory

djvandrake · July 28, 2009, 05:57:04 PM

Very nice update, and good solutions to your minor problems. I'd say those cows have quite the setup!

just_a_guy · July 28, 2009, 08:48:47 PM

Your farm fields are awesome looking! I wouldn't mind taking a relaxing drive through Route 36. There's a lot to see.

dedgren · July 28, 2009, 09:16:00 PM

Barsalargonia is really starting to come together. Working through the challenges of developing credible, attractive rural areas is one of the game's great challenges, and you're certainly rising to it, my friend.

I enjoyed reading this MD through from the beginning tonight, and hope the updates will just keep on coming.

David

Battlecat · July 28, 2009, 09:38:44 PM

Very odd that that one lot just wouldn't develop. Good choice on a solution there though, looks great!

calibanX · July 28, 2009, 09:39:43 PM

Very nice update Splime. I'm enjoying your development style. Each update shows your challenges and your solutions. That makes for a great MD.

Take care.

Geoff

Scarton · July 28, 2009, 09:44:32 PM

Yet another fantastic update!

I'm glad those obstacles were overcome. Can't wait to see C2!

Splime · July 29, 2009, 10:04:48 AM

blade2k5: An excruciatingly long wait?!?! Looks like someone needs to learn about patience...

The trees are a fairly old set, and I did manage to find them on the STEX. There's a set of tree controllers, and I switch between the Elm, Douglas Fir, and Subalpine Fir controllers when I do mass tree planting (i.e. starting a new quad). Otherwise, I plop those trees by hand. Either way though, it's a combo of elm, douglas fir, ad subalpine fir.

djvandrake: Thanks! Yeah, I realize that the cows have a nice setup, but I think their farms look nice that way.

just_a_guy: Thanks! Soon there will be more to see on Route 36, so keep your eyes peeled.

David: Thanks! It's good to know that the MD is readable from the start to finish. I tried that with 3RR once... let's just say it wasn't the most thorough read of and MD.

Battlecat: Thanks! There was another farm lot that didn't develop, and that was the second cattle farm I made.

Geoff: Thanks! I do try to cover a bit of the building process in each update.

citycapitalizer: Thanks, and you shouldn't have to wait too long for C2 either.

So you may notice that I've made a special header for replies. In the left of that banner, you might notice that there's a flag. Here's a better image of that flag:

I do plan to turn Barsalargonia into a country soon, but it definitely isn't developed enough for that yet. I realize it looks a bit like Greenland's flag, but that wasn't the intention. The image was in my head though, so I guess it had some influence.

Luke09 · July 29, 2009, 11:48:20 AM

Hey Splime!Nice updates and,well,that fungus sucks

.Nice Flag at all

Tomas Neto · July 29, 2009, 01:02:51 PM

Hi my friend! Awesome, fantastic update!!! Your MD is great!!!

vester · July 29, 2009, 01:59:37 PM

Some nice updates.

Nice flag. Where did you get the inspiration from ? The flag of Greenland, perhaps ?

Scarton · July 29, 2009, 02:08:17 PM

I think the flag looks good.

blade2k5 · July 29, 2009, 09:32:52 PM

Quoteblade2k5: An excruciatingly long wait?!?! Looks like someone needs to learn about patience... Cheesy The trees are a fairly old set, and I did manage to find them on the STEX. There's a set of tree controllers, and I switch between the Elm, Douglas Fir, and Subalpine Fir controllers when I do mass tree planting (i.e. starting a new quad). Otherwise, I plop those trees by hand. Either way though, it's a combo of elm, douglas fir, ad subalpine fir.

Thanks, I do have those. Now I know why I can't find them

Never used the plant-able trees before, but now I will

And nice flag too

Splime · July 30, 2009, 02:26:31 PM

Luke09: Thanks for your comment!

Tomas Neto: Thanks for the praise!

vester: Thanks! The flag of Greenland did have a bit of an influence on the design, though I wasn't trying to just copy it with different colors. It's a nice design though, simple yet unique.

citycapitalizer: Thanks!

blade2k5: You never used plantable trees before? What kind of trees did you use then?

Update 15: Entering the Finishing Stretch

In the picture above is the only space left in C3 that I will be developing before declaring C3 finished. You can also see quite a few route markers. Don't worry, there will be a map covering all of this soon. (In fact, I'm planning a whole update as an overview of C3 before moving north to C2.) In this update, I'll be focusing mainly on the western half of the remaining area.

First, I'll be making another small town near the railroad, right where a passenger/freight station is. (I had to photoshop (well, GIMP actually) a no road access zot from the station, since I had plopped it a while ago when there was no road there. Can you tell?)

This is the finished product. You can see a newly acquired radio station in the center of the town. C3 now holds almost 15,000 sims in ~16 km² (~4 sq mi). Of course, houses in SC4 tend to hold many more people than they would in real life.

Moving on to the west, this is the next farming area. The largish building in the middle is one of PEG's Corner Stores, but I demolished it once everything developed because it stood about a bit too much.

This is the result of that zoning. The grassy splotch on the cattle farm doesn't look very good at zoom 3, sadly, but it looks fine at zoom 4. It was my attempt at blending the grown building with the open area next to it, and the results were mostly good, I think.

Then I moved to the north of town, and put down some more zones. There's also an archaeological site there, keep an eye on it next update.

After all that zoning, this is the overview of the development done in Update 15.

Here's a closer look at the archaeological site, where a few more facilities will be built next update.

To the west, this is a farming area right near a road junction, where there are two little cottages and a small commercial structure. Somehow the 7 Eleven (directly left of gravel street) and the building to the left of it managed to blend in together, so that the commercial lots blend together. Commercial lots usually have a nasty tendency to not blend in at all, so this was a nice improvement.

Finally, this is a close-up of the town.

Thanks for reading!

blade2k5 · July 30, 2009, 02:34:29 PM

Quote from: Splime on July 30, 2009, 02:26:31 PMblade2k5: You never used plantable trees before? What kind of trees did you use then?

Plopables

io_bg · July 30, 2009, 02:36:12 PM

Great job as always!

Scarton · July 30, 2009, 02:39:26 PM

Great update, as usual.

That blending in of a store with the 7-Eleven is probably my favorite pic. Great job!

Battlecat · July 30, 2009, 02:44:35 PM

Looking excellent! Your small towns look excellent, I'm very impressed by how many residents you've slipped into this one tile while still keeping the rural flavor! Keep up the great work!

woodb3kmaster · July 30, 2009, 02:52:11 PM

Another excellent update! That town looks terrific, and I see you added JBSimio's post office to it - a nice touch. If you don't want to edit out zots in future images, you can always hide them in-game by entering the cheat code 'tastyzots'. It toggles the zots on and off. I've used it a lot in taking my pictures.

Looking forward to more!