Tarkusian Cities (Update 107-08/23/2020-West Chemeketa Reconfig, Part 1)

[bakerton]

Alex, What a wonderful update you have for us. I just love getting inspired by your updates and construction. Keep it coming and make sure the traffic is flowing. JKB

[TmiguelT]

Another marvelous update  .

First of all, i would like to say that Jbud has a good point. he shows traffic won't be able to cross the other part of the bridge, because the bridge is too close and the other one is too far.

Secondly, I just realized that it says phase 1, so i would probably expect a change  .

Finally, I'm still waiting for that Kaboom Effect to make its come back  i know you will bring some of us here joy, when we see those magic words on those on impressive pictures so.....

Ka-boom... Post has concluded 

[Tarkus]

Hi everyone-

Well, some unfortunate news here, as you can probably guess by the title.  My hard drive decided to up and quit today.  I'm currently not even able to get into Windows without a Blue Screen of Death.  At least some of the files on my HD seem to be okay, but I don't fully know the extent of the damage, other than that the Boot Sector is completely zorked.

Most of my SC4 custom content was passed on to my fellow NAMites quite recently, so I haven't really lost much there.  However, I'm not really sure how much I'll be able to recover from Tarkusian Cities.  I have some of the content backed up, but the backup is quite old, unfortunately.

That all being said, every cloud has a silver lining (as the saying goes), and I'm planning on taking advantage of this misfortune to begin anew here.  I've learned a lot during my 2 1/2 years of doing Tarkusian Cities, and I think I can build things bigger and better now from a fresh start.  My Plugins had also gotten to be a bit of a mess, so this will also be an opportunity to fine tune them.

I still have to figure out what I will be doing computer-wise in the near future, so it may be a little while before I can get things going here again.

To everyone who has commented and supported me here in this endeavor--I can't thank you all enough!  Hopefully, I'll be back with something completely fresh soon.

Best,
Alex

[metarvo]

Yikes!    Oh, no, that's awful, Alex.  It's bad that this would happen when you have such a great MD going.  I hope for the best in this situation.

[EDGE4194]

alex- sorry to hear about the HD, but you do have the right attitude- a fresh start is always good. Hope to see more from you here soon. Good Luck with the recovery!

[j-dub]

OMG sorry to hear about this. I know when my computer pulled this crap on me, I had some interesting moments at the zoo last summer, saved them to my hard drive, but my stupid computer lost the files when it acted up.

The important thing is we as a community did NOT loose new, unfinished, still in development Tarkus brand road network projects, I guess we got that to be thankful for. So in case anyone that is really hopeful for Alex's new transit network projects, and is thinking, "what about RHW, or the NWM, or TuLEP's!?" You do not have to worry about that, again what Alex said, it has been backed up. Still, inconvenience with computer related tech seems like it always just has to happen to the best of us, no matter who you are, then always happens again to someone else. 

[emgmod]

You can always recover from a massive computer failure. Just don't give up and camp out in the wilderness for the rest of your life.

[Battlecat]

Hard drive failures are always terrible.  My wife had a similar crash on her computer recently.  We managed to recover everything though, there are a number of companies that specialize in recovering data from crashed hard drives.  It only cost us about 60$ but prices seem to vary quite significantly.  At the very least it might save you from having to re-download your entire plugins folder! 

Anyhow, good luck with your decision, I'm looking forward to seeing what you decide to do next! 

[TmiguelT]

sorry to hear that alex  ....

[Ryan B.]

Alex, your hard drive has gone and pulled a Burgess!   

I'm so sorry to hear that, but I know that Tarkusian Cities is like a phoenix - rising from the ashes!

[Tarkus]

Hi everyone-

Well, I'm back in business on this end now.  I have a new hard drive in my laptop (with 300GB more space), a fresh plugins folder of 2.5GB, and the start of a new region, which I'll be showing a glimpse of this update.  I'm also on Vista now, as that's what was on my original backups . . . while I was dreading it, I spent a couple hours tweaking it, disabling some of its "nanny state" features and the extra HP junk once I got everything back up and running, and have managed to make it workable.

Fortunately, I seem to be able to access pretty much the entire contents of my old hard drive via a SATA-to-USB cable.  It appears that just the Boot Sector of the drive was corrupted, so I was able to recover all of the NAM work that hadn't been passed on, and if I ever decide to return to my old regions, that's still an option.  The plugins were best to start over with, as they were a mess, and I plan to get into custom lotting a bit more, so it'll be easier to keep track of which dependency packages I use and perhaps even make it possible for me to release some stuff on that end.  A few things I learned in the hard drive process:

1) Don't buy Seagate hard drives.  My laptop came with one and it got zorked after only 16 months.
2) The best tool for getting laptop hard drives out of tight spaces: a dinner knife.  Yes, really.  It provided enough leverage for me to gently spring the old drive out.

Well, enough hard drive talk . . . I'll get to some replies before showing off the new city.

Patrick (dragonshardz): Thanks, and hope you enjoy what's in store next.

canyonjumper: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it, and I'm happy to hear you like the TuLEPs!  And to answer your question, the incomplete bridge pieces are part of the SFBT Construction Site Set by deejay, which is available over on the STEX.  It's basically the essential download for making construction sites, and I've used it extensively throughout Tarkusian Cities.

David (dedgren):  Thanks, and I owe you a lot of credit--3RR's practically a roadgeek paradise as well with all your maps, and was one of the biggest influences on what I do here!

Joel (joelyboy911): Thanks for the kind words, and the compliments on the tree/flora usage--I've been addicted to cycledogg/c.p's trees since I discovered them, and the RRP flora was a similar revelation.  It's amazing how much having a little flora can add to an SC4 pic.  Glad you enjoyed the construction as well--there will most definitely be more where that came from.

Battlecat:  Thanks--I kind of started playing around with the roundabouts quite a bit with that city.  They really come in handy when roads start intersecting at odd angles.  Curiously, that was actually the first real serious usage of the Avenue Roundabouts in my cities--I probably had them on the brain as they've been building quite a few dual-lane ones here in Oregon over the past year or two.  I had tested them a fair amount when they were in development, though--memo (who's unfortunately been MIA for awhile now) was working on them right at the time I joined the NAM Team in 2007.

TmiguelT: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!  And I did actually have a couple of updates almost prepared on the road upgrades around that area before my hard drive crash.  Since I fortunately still have access to them, I may dig them out down the road.

Earth quake: Thanks for the kind words on the construction!  There will definitely be more of that to come, too!

j-dub: Good eye there . . . I actually caught that as well when I built it, but I didn't really have much of a choice there due to how the bridges on the one-way couplet were aligned.  It would have caused too much disruption to convert a few tiles of the OWR to a two-way road (plus the OWR is under TDOT jurisdiction), and the detour (across the bridge to turn around at Orson Road) wouldn't cause too much inconvenience, so the City of Lenox wasn't too concerned.

nerdly_dood: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it, and you did indeed see correctly.  The OWR thing is basically just a new arrow overlay, thanks to Dave (superhands)--ditto with the Road Cul-De-Sacs.

Corey (Nexis4Jersey):  Thanks--and I'd make sure to see a doctor before the next couple updates, and maybe some sunglasses to prevent eye damage.

Ethan (ecoba): Thanks for the kind words--hope you enjoy what's in store next.

Jon (JBSimio): Thanks, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the update, and that you found the new roadway alignment to be sensible.  And yes, the construction always leads to a few inconveniences . . . but they're usually worth it in the long run once the projects are done.

Dave (superhands): Thanks for the compliments on the map, and the project seems to have done its job so far.  Of course, as a moped/scooter rider myself, I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be in a dual-lane roundabout.   There's one a couple miles from me (the first true one in the state of Oregon, actually) that I haven't yet braved . . . though it had a lot higher speeds than the Seven Islands one, so I think the scooter-types will be pleased.   And I'd certainly feel safer on Seven Islands than trying to go up Brinstar and Maridia.

Jon (bakerton): Thanks, I'm always ecstatic to hear when I've inspired someone.  There will definitely be more to come, too.

TmiguelT: Thanks, and yes, things did get straightened out quite a bit as part of the second phase.  And keep an eye out . . . I'm sure there will be some big time bulldozing before long.

metarvo: Thanks for the support, and fortunately, I've got things mostly straightened out here.  It can only get better from here.

Eric (EDGE4194): Thanks for the kind words, and I'm actually in some ways glad to have an excuse to straighten somethings out with plugins and such.  And thanks for the wishes for a good recovery--it's gone great thus far.

j-dub: Thanks for the support--sorry to hear you've had similar problems, and I know just what you're going through.  Fortunately, all is not lost.

emgmod: Thanks, and for the most part, I've been fortunate this go-around.  And don't worry, I haven't left for the wilderness.   I wouldn't mind moving some place a bit more desert-y right now, though, as damp and dreary as Western Oregon gets this time of year.

Battlecat: Thanks for the support and the advice--and I'm sorry to hear of your wife's recent computer issues.  This sort of thing is never fun.  Fortunately, I had a SATA and IDE-to-USB cable sitting up at my parents' house, which arrived down here via mail on Wednesday, so I've been able to get access to pretty much the entire drive.  I decided to still go ahead and re-download, as things were a bit of a mess, and it was pretty much a necessity if I ever wanted to get into the Lotting business, which I've been toying with for awhile and am even more keen to try now that wounagaine's long-awaited "X-Tool" has finally been released.

And I hope you enjoy everything in store next!

TmiguelT: Thanks for the sympathy--fortunately, everything seems to have worked out for the best.

Ryan B.: Yeah, I guess it did.  Fortunately, only the boot sector's fried.  Thanks for the kind words and support, and hopefully, my latest efforts here will be successful--maybe I should build on a Phoenix map or call my next city Phoenix.



Well, now it's time to reveal the start of my latest efforts after the crash.  I've started a new region, and have partially built up two large tiles on it.  I decided to try something a little new . . . my fellow NHPer Troy (blade2k5) has released a bunch of RL Oregon maps on the STEX recently, which I've picked up.  I've never tried building on RL terrain that I'm familiar with, and thought it posed a lot of interesting possibilities, so I've started building on the Salem, OR map.  My goal with it has been to do something rather different from the RL Salem rather than a strict recreation (though I'd be curious to try something like that at some point), but because of my familiarity with the area, I couldn't help but take a few cues here and there from it (and other Oregon cities) with the layout.  My "downtown" in "Alternate Universe Salem" (which I haven't given an actual name other than that ) is located in just about the same spot.

Now, for a look at what's in place thus far.

First off, a map of the current progress on the downtown tile:



A look at downtown, near 5th Avenue NE and Progress Street (facing north).  5th Avenue is the east-west "main drag" through downtown.


Near the intersection of 5th and Commerce Street (Highway 215) (facing west).


This is in the large industrial area off to the east, which isn't on the map. (facing south)


This is on the edge of the industrial area . . . probably the most rail you've ever seen in a Tarkusian City. (facing east)


This is where Highway 215 (the Division/Commerce couplet) and Highway 36 meet up. (facing west)


This is a look at some residential areas.  This is near 11th and Ashcroft. (facing north)


And construction has already begun.  Here's the intersection of 5th and Ashcroft.  Both roads will be undergoing widening quite soon. (facing north)


And that does it for this update--thanks for all your kind wishes during my hard drive issues, and I hope you enjoyed this update.

-Alex

[Blue Lightning]

Good to hear you're back in business!

Good luck with building on the new region, probably is going to be as good as or even better than the "old" one
That grimy industrial area looks awesome, and just 4 rails? Pfft, you need to go 6 rails (kidding of course).

Vince

[emgmod]

Look at all those rails! I never seen so many in one place! 
To be honest, I never saw anything wider than 4 tracks in my life.

We also all know that this will be better than the old one because the new one has more awesome NAM stuff (Hopefully).

[Battlecat]

Nice start, glad to hear you managed to recover everything of importance!  Looks to me like there's going to have to be some imaginative ideas implemented if this city gets much bigger.  Looks like the initial city design doesn't leave a lot of room for road widening!

[canyonjumper]

Nice to hear that your hard drive is OK. Mine did that recently but I wasn't so lucky and had to go buy a SATA cable. I was on Vista but took the opportunity to switch to Windows 7, which is much better. Thanks for answering my question.  That set really makes my city just that much more realistic. Hope to see a lot of construction and new NAM stuff !

                                 -Jordan

[JoeST]

Oh god, sorry to hear about the 'loss'

But I'm glad you are up and running again, cant wait to see more awesome creations

Joe

[TmiguelT]

Awesome to see you back in business   

and i'll be on the look out to see that Big bang effect 

[Schulmanator]

I am glad that you are back in action. I look forward to your new and improved updates for us. 

[Battlecat]

Gotta stop in once more!  Congratulations on making it to the Hall of Fame!   

Always looking forward to what else you've got on the way here in the Tarkusian Cities!

[ecoba]

Good to see you back, my friend.

A different style of cities, certainly from what I've seen previously here at Tarkusian Cities! But, I'm sure it will be a good change, as you seem to master all types of environments, Alex. I hope to see more of this city soon, and I see a lot of new NAM content in these pictures as well, new even to T.C.

Ethan