District of Wenzel - Update 116 - 3/17/15

[marsh]

Very nice update. I love all these little towns in the middle of nowhere.

,marsh 

[RickD]

I love roadgeek updates. Your signs are really good. I personally am not a friend of those cutout arrows, though. I think they may be hard to see.
I like the rural highway. Have you considered using the fractional angle pieces instead of the zig-zag?

[Battlecat]

Very nice work indeed!  Hard to believe I've missed this one for so long!  The regional map is stupendous, and extremely realistic! 

[cubby420]

Those regional maps are ridiculous! They look so real 

[packersfan]

Replies to Your Comments

mightygoose: Thanks, glad to be back and regularly updating.  I plan on posting an update every Sunday.  I actually already have this Sunday's and next Sunday's updates ready, but I want to stick to the schedule just in case I get backed up with real world stuff and can't really prepare anything, I already have an update ready for a slated date.  Some of the farms are great, others are just laying there, haha.

Tomas Neto: Thank you, I never thought I would be a rural MD'er, or ever completely lay a whole region of farms before delving into building a metropolis, but it has always been a goal to do so.

kalvar: Thanks.  Yeah, a lot of farms, like I said, never thought I would ever lay a complete region like this, but I guess the seeds were laid in Sessquenna region when I started to try to lay farms all around my expanding city.

nbvc: Eh, it is nothing fancy.  Just the traffic volume view (bus) from SC4 with street labels added.  Thanks, though, glad you like it.

kwakelaar: I really love taking pictures during different times of the day.  I probably won't employ it as much while doing a drive thru on the highways since you can drive from one end of the region to the other within half an hour probably, haha.  Maybe I won't consider it a drive thru in real time but just an overview following a certain road and looking at the signs, with the time of day not being a real factor, haha.

marsh: Thank you.  I tried to make the farms as realistic as I could without spending a lifetime on them.  Glad you find the map useful and good looking.  I'm trying to make those small towns realistic.

Shilka: I'm always blown away by region shots like that, I'm always really blown away when I can pull it off.

Jayster: Thank you, I will try to keep up the good work.  I hope you will find future updates even better!

kodlovag: Thank you thank you.

RickD: Thanks, the cutout arrows are old-school and I put them there to show the times.  Still before current standards, though most of my future updates will have mostly standard signs.  I use the fractional angle pieces sometimes, but they don't always allow the angles I want my highway to go or allow access for farms alongside, etc, but I do use them is some places in my region.

Battlecat: Thank you.   I was going to say that I used your technique to splice two border pictures together in my last update but that actually is in next next Sunday's update.  It isn't perfect and hopefully when you see it you can help me work out the issue but your tutorial really helped out.

cubby420: Thanks, when you say regional maps do you mean the street map or the overhead satellite shot.  Either way thank you!

Thanks to everyone who has stopped in and follow.  It's always nice to get some feedback and know that people are actually looking and liking what they see.

[noahclem]

Wow, what beautifully done rural areas! The farms look just perfect and the small towns are very nice. The thorough style including all road signage is neat too. I would echo RickD's comment on using FAR, but to each his own style. Where did you find that neat grain elevator?

Good job and good luck 

[packersfan]

Update 10 - Driving Down D31 to Hohler
The next three updates will follow D31 south through Hohler, Hawthorne, and St. Paul.  This update we will pick up from where we left off at the intersection of D240 and D31.  This is a night update since the sun had gone down by the end of the last drive, so we will drive a few miles to the Village of Hohler and then rest until morning.

I hope you like the lighting effect I add using GIMP to simulate headlights, since if we were driving at night we wouldn't really be able to see the signs without our headlights on.

I suggest opening in another tab/window the region map of the District of Wenzel, so you can see where exactly we are travelling.

District of Wenzel Street Map

Wenzel District uses various signs to warn drivers that they are driving past farms (Cows, Tractors, Bales of Hay), as if the drivers couldn't recognize the fact.







A couple of attempts at signs from a different perspective.







































My personal favorite as lighting effects go in this update.  I first added the headlights and then the amber glow of a street light at the main intersection in Hohler.  We will turn left on D140 to get to my friend's house to spend the night.





We turn left again on Elder Ave.



My friend's house is circled in red at the end of the block on the corner of Elder Ave and Locust Pl.

I hope you enjoyed that little drive through, not too much to see besides farms, but I think the farms with the fences around Hohler are the best farms I laid in the entire region.  Future updates will look at these really good farms more in-depth...maybe driving on D140.

The next update, we will get up in the morning and continue driving south on D31 through Hawthorne until the limits of St. Mark.

[RickD]

I certainly enjoyed the drive. Nice to have the street map available. And the lighting effects look good to me.

[packersfan]

Update 11 - Travelling South D31 - Hawthorne and Apostles Twps
Today we will continue south on D31 through the city of Hawthorne to the town limits of St. Mark.  More farms obviously but more practice for my sign arranging skills.

I used a lens flare to simulate the sun.  Obviously the sun is on our left as we set out south in the morning and then slips to our right side as we travel southeast.  What do you think?

I also updated the region map to reflect D31 crossing the Brittany River and label the city of Hawthorne.

I suggest opening in another tab/window the region map of the District of Wenzel, so you can see where exactly we are travelling.

District of Wenzel Street Map

Dawn breaks over the Village of Hohler.



Overview of Hohler.



Remember, we have to get back onto D31 south.



As we leave Hohler, the speed limit jumps back up to the two-lane highway standard of 55 miles per hour.





Using Battlecat's (from scdevotion) technique, I merge pictures from two different city tiles...unfortunately not perfect as you can see by the black line in the brown farmland.





I really love the fences and trees lining the roads.





Speed limit will decrease as we near the outskirts of Hawthorne.

























My attempt at a rail bridge.





Junction with D29.  South D29 will take us to Baylor thirty-seven miles away.











A simple railroad crossing sign, slightly tilted.





Decreased speed zone again as we near St. Mark.

I hope you enjoyed the drive further down D31.

What would you like to see after completing the drive down D31?  The next update will conclude the drive south on D31 through St. Paul.  After that we will probably take a look at the downtown area of Martin.

[kwakelaar]

Nice work and the road signs are good.

[Battlecat]

Great work!  The farms look really nice and the road signs a nice touch!

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic work!!!

[rooker1]

I like to call this MD "Road Geekery to the max".  Great work all around with some very interesting road signs and great transit layouts deserves a place in the spotlight.  I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us during your month in OSITM!!



Congratulations from myself and The SC4D Staff!!!

[RickD]

Congrats on the OSITM.

[Tomas Neto]

Congratulations on the OSITM!!! 

[Battlecat]

Congratulations on your OSITM!   

[calibanX]

Congratulations packersfan. A well deserved OSITM you have here. I've always liked the Maxis farm fields and you have done a great job laying them out. The transitions from field to field are top notch too. Keep up the nice work.

Geoff

[Nardo69]

Congratulations on a well deserved OSITM!

Love your road signs - never made some in Urland because I don't have no program or layouts for German signs 

AND: This is the first time that I see someone using the Maxis bridges for the railway viaducts. I couldn't finish the maps where i used by now, glad someone else did. I had the feeling that the bridges choco made on my wish had been overseen ...

Tale care my friend!


Bernhard 

[packersfan]

Update 12 - South D31 through Apostles Township and St. Paul
We continue south on D31 through the towns of St. Mark, North St. Paul, and St. Paul.

St. Mark, North St. Paul, St. Paul along with St. James, St. Andrew, and St. Peter are little towns in the aptly named Apostles Township.  St. Paul was featured in the fifth update of the journal a couple months ago.  D31 actually bypasses St. Paul, probably not the most realistic path for a highway, and we will only see the outskirts and industrial edge of St. Paul.

It has been a while since I built this area, so it was really enjoyable to move through the area and see the scenic small towns.  I hope you enjoy them and my roadgeekery.  This will be the last major roadgeek update for a while.  The next batch of updates will be full of pictures from the ever expanding Martintown or as it is officially now incorporated as Martin.  As I am writing this, I may just put a sneak preview at the end, we'll see.

I suggest opening in another tab/window the region map of the District of Wenzel, so you can see where exactly we are travelling.

District of Wenzel Street Map

The small hamlet of St. Mark, named after the church at the corner of D31 and Ogden Rd.







North St. Paul is just down the road about a mile.



It features a traffic circle/roundabout as the intersection of three District Highways - D31, D266, and D111.  D111 only exists for a mile.  There really is no explanation for its existence as a District Highway.



Antioch Lutheran Church and cemetery occupies the spit of land between D111 and D31.







Traffic signals at the intersection with Centrailia Road, quite unnecessary at this point in time though as St. Paul development has yet to reach this area.





St. Paul is the second largest community in Martin County behind the county seat and district capital Martin (Martintown).















My attempt to make it appear as if the sun is setting.  After not seeing these pictures for about a week since I prepared them, they actually look pretty good.  What do you think?

That concludes our trip south on D31 through the southern half of Martin County.  I hope you enjoyed the SimCity scenery, farmland, and small towns.  I also hope you find my stab at signage worthy.

The next updates will focus on Martin (Martintown) as the city expands around the Brittany River.  Here is a teaser from what I've been up to.

[marsh]

Awesome. I see we're going back into civilization! 

The purpleish sign picture matches it's SC4 one perfectly. 

On this one though >>> http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/1331/1912120510.jpg
To make it match you should make it more yellowish.(Excuse my horrible words for colors here...  )

,marsh