[pickled_pig]

Frankie - Only core classes?  Does your school offer only one level of stuff or do you at least have honors, advanced, and AP?
My school doesn't have that much for actual electives:  almost everything outside of the core is part of a career path  (photography, cooking, medical technology, business) or IB path (IB Philosophy, TOK, etc...).  Interesting.
Perhaps you're missing urban areas, inner city areas, stuff like that?  I don't know.
Anyway, thanks for the rant (it was enlightening to read!) and good luck with any new MD projects.

Everyone else - As always, thanks for your regular support.


I promised a map last time around...

And here it is.  We'll be working from this map for a while as well as any street detail hand drawn maps that I can manage to make in German class (I started one today while waiting for the rest of the class to finish an assignment involving reading a German newspaper article and using the language we know to get the main ideas and simultaneously holding a conversation about God-knows-what...).

I think there will be far less method to the madness now that we're working from some good source material.  I say nothing on whether updates will be regular, though.

There are a few holes on this map - notably, the route numbers and exit numbers.  We'll be fixing those as we progress in development.

This update will focus on the interchange in the top left of the map - of I-85 with US-174.  It's actually a very interesting one, as it serves a major cigarette research and manufacturing campus (one indicator that you know you're in the South)







I think we still need to look at things within the big picture, though (i.e. annotated region map?).  For now, note that we're about halfway between downtown Graham and downtown Wellington - about seven to ten miles from both.  The Graham Center Mall (see the "best-of" updates on page 1) is two miles northwest.  Oilton (see update 20) is two miles north.

-aaron

[Travis]

Good pics- I like the choice of buildings surrounding that interchange, speaking of which, is very well made. One thing to note though,
your overpass ramps seem to be a bit steep in some spots, particularly the "on-slope" pieces. That's note really your fault; real-life overpasses
almost never have 45 feet of clearance, unless it's a flyover ramp. All in all though, good work. 

PS: I've always like those green caption boxes at the bottom of the picture- mind if I ask how you do that in photoshop? 

[thundercrack83]

Another splendid update, my friend! I've probably mentioned it before, but I love your hand-drawn maps. It's like watching the idea in your head come to life in the game. Keep up the excellent work!

[bat]

Great map and wonderful pictures! Fantastic work!

[pickled_pig]

PS: I've always like those green caption boxes at the bottom of the picture- mind if I ask how you do that in photoshop? 

Ask and ye shall recieve 

The simcity pic, by the way, is from my prior CJ on Simtropolis, Winston County, which was a recreation of a typical Southern New England (specifically Connecticut)/New York area city.

-aaron

[Travis]

Thanks for the tutorial, it will come in handy.  By the way, what version of photoshop do you have? Looks a lot different than mine. 

[pickled_pig]

Travis:  It's Photoshop 6.  I've had it for almost forever...

For this update we're going to be looking at Virgil Parkway on the map.

As some people might notice, these pics have been up on Simtropolis for two days.  I'm trying to get into the habit of  keeping the journal up-to-date on both forums - Travels has been stagnant on ST for too long.











As for next update, we'll be looking at the development where Salisbury road intersects with Newman Parkway on the map - where that interchange between two full-access roads is.  A sort of edge city has blossomed up there that looks like nothing I've seen in the South.

The area we'll be seeing next time reminds me a lot of somewhere on the Southern tip of the BosWash megalopolis; in Delaware or Southern Maryland or Northern Virginia as opposed to somewhere on the I-85 corridor.  Someone commented over on the ST version that Travels looks like "a lot of upstate New York towns".  It's definitely interesting - is there some sort of homesickness for the North seeping in to the CJing/MDing?

-aaron

[bat]

Fantastic update and great area near the lake!

[nova vesfalo]

really "greeny but not Ecologic" urban sprawl love it ( the pond is a nice addition to the suburbs) and love the way the road and route are layout-ed !! (giving inspiration !)

[thundercrack83]

Love the update and the Photoshop tutorial, Aaron! Great work! Your small towns are always a pleasure to view!

[meinhosen]

is there some sort of homesickness for the North seeping in to the CJing/MDing?

Dunno about that.  I've seen enough of the North that getting a little bit of the South is a welcome change of pace... even if that little bit happens to be the SC4 variety.

Great work, Aaron.  Impressive, as always... especially your suburbs. 

[Owen Luby]

Haven't checked up on travels for a while! Looking great! I can't wait to see the region when it is complete...