Verdant Sound

[nerdly_dood]

I like how you're starting this off as a well-structured beginning of a community, and also you've done a bit of minor photoshopping here and there (such as car's lights) that make it just that much better. Great job!

I do have two questions:
- Have you modified [someone]'s U-Haul trucks to operate as in-game moving trucks? (They normally operate as low-wealth sims' cars i think)
- Have I seen new vehicles other than those by MikeSeith that I haven't seen in your development thread such as your CRV? I think I've seen a late-model Honda Civic in there but I can't be sure. (Later than MikeSeith's automata)

[Ryan B.]

Wow, Jan!  I wish I had known sooner about Verdant Sound! 

I'm curious - how did you choose the name?

[Battlecat]

Looking good!  Sorry it took so long to drop in again.  I like your use of the new wide angle street curves on that gravel road, they look great. 

[Swamper77]

@Alex: Nice to see the highway king visiting this rural region. Thanks for the comments on the MD. I probably won't ever get to the point of building multi-lane RHWs, but your efforts on the RHW2 are much appreciated. RHW2 will probably be the only highways I will be building on this island due to space limitations.

@Nerdly: The U-Hauls came with the U-Haul Storage Center from the STEX. I've modified them to behave like the normal moving trucks and to add the missing chassis and shadow planes. I also have a couple of German moving trucks that I have altered from the original STEX releases to be additional moving trucks instead of replacements. Because I have modified these vehicles, I can't release these modified files to the public.

I also have various European and American cars from Mike Seith in my Plugins. Among them is a Honda S2000, which you might be mistaking for a later model Honda Civic. If you point out the picture, I might be able to tell you what the car(s) is/are. The CRV is yet to be released as I am still trying to get icons made from screenshots of them from the game. They don't show up very often except for that one that is replacing the Mayor's Limo.

As for the photoshopping of the pictures, the lights on the cars are the most noticeable indications that I have altered the images. There are other subtle changes in some of the pictures. You will have to look closer to see them, particularly in the night shots.

@Ryan: For the name of the region, I dug through a thesaurus looking for words that mean green. Green is my favorite color. CycleDogg made it easier to make this region green by providing his Olympic Terrain Mod and Olympic Coastal Tree Controller.

@Battlecat: Don't worry about how long it took you to drop in again. There were probably better looking MDs that had your attention.

Sorry for not posting in a long while. I haven't had much time to play the game lately. Free time is a bit of a rarity sometimes. I played the game for a bit more tonight to make a fuller update than I was going to. Several pictures can make the difference between a small update and a good one.

When we left last time, we had watched the neighborhood of Spruce Slopes develop in an old clearcut section of forest land. Today, we will see how the rest of the township has been developing....


Southeast of Spruce Slopes and the tunnel, another neighborhood has been built on a hillside near the coast. Called Douglas Bluffs, it is draped across the hillside from the coastal bluffs towards the mountain. While building the road out to this area, the construction crew uncovered green gemstones. After being sent to the local geologist team, the gemstones were determined to be jades. Some further investigation around the mountain revealed more surface deposits. The mountain has been named Jade Mountain after the gemstones. The tunnel has been name Jade Tunnel after these new discoveries.


An overview of the Douglas Bluffs neighborhood. The substation is the end of the line for the transmission lines coming in from Independence. From there, the power lines have been run under the roads and connect to the houses.


Alongside the road to Douglas Bluffs, a small commercial development called "The Village" has been started. A local substation pulls power from the transmission lines and routes it to The Village. The gravel road is just an access road for the utility company to reach the substation. Half of the available commercial plots have been developed already. A general store and a small family restaurant are the current businesses.


Overview of Coastal Heights at this point. You can see how the power lines cross the landscape from Spruce Slopes to Douglas Bluffs. You can also see the smooth curves of the road as it cuts through the forest to Douglas Bluffs.


Recently, a new road has been run south through the woods past Douglas Bluffs. It will provide access to farms along the coast. The buffer of trees between it and Douglas Bluffs is to help cut down the noise from the freight trucks that will be using this road. As it is a rural road and will have light traffic, it is a gravel road along its entire length. Gravel roads are more firmer than dirt roads so they hold together better and trucks are less likely to get stuck when it rains.


This is the end of the farm road. There is some discussion about extending it to the west (right side of the picture) a bit and building a trail head for a trail that goes out to the coast. I'm still reviewing all the paperwork for the proposals. If approved, this will be the first nature park in Verdant Sound. The trail would head south from the trail head, wrap around the hill, and then go along the coast.

While most of the locals aren't opposed to having such a trail, the coast is a fragile ecosystem which needs to be protected. The trail will most likely be open only to hiking and horses. No camping will be allowed and motor vehicles will most certainly not be allowed on the trail. Bicycles may be allowed, though. Designating the nature park is the first priority with the proposals. Later, the details of how it will be managed and used by the public will be worked out.


The first farms have been developed on the hills above the coastline. Seen here is a wheat farm, a nature preserve farm, and a flower farm. The lattices at the flower farm are to protect the plants from falling tree branches. The nature preserve farm has a special oak species Oakus Vlakhus growing around it. They are an interesting deciduous tree. They have green leaves during spring and summer, but have brown leaves during fall and winter. I find them rather interesting to look at. The trees don't pose a threat to the local ecosystems as they are not an invasive species. The seedlings from them are usually sold to homeowners that have very nice looking homes, such as the middle and upper class folks. These seedlings are one of the current exports from this region.


Nearby, a horse ranch has started operations. The Paladin only has a handful of horses in their stable to prevent overgrazing of the pasture land surrounding the ranch. If the trail system gets approved and built, then The Paladin is a good position to rent horses to the public for riding on the trail.

Uh-oh, it looks like one of their horses got loose again. Even if they get out of the pen, they don't stray very far from the ranch itself. Eventually, the horses return to the stable. The strange thing, The Paladin's owners tell me, is that they never trained the horses to stick close to the ranch.


Next door to The Paladin, a nice lady named April has started a forestry farm. The farm has spruce trees and practices sustainable forestry. April has told main objective of this farm is help prevent excessive clearcutting and to provide a renewable resource for wood products. I hope she will open more such farms across Verdant Sound as it gets developed.


It's getting late, so dinner is on me at the local cafe. It was a general store shortly after construction, but there was a bit of an argument with the existing general store. An agreement was worked out and the new one was converted into a restaurant. It still has the original general store front and lots of room for parking.

See you next time when we revisit Independence and head southward on this island.
-Jan

[Nexis4Jersey]

great update , i love the Country Woods feel to it! 

[Sciurus]

Nice country, but at your place, I wait more devloppment to show us images

Guillaume

[Pat]

Ahh you did update Jan sweetness I just had to get threw a few pages of replies to find ya's!!! March 31st update and April 7th update was also another grand of updates here Jan and I enjoyed them both with the stories....

[nerdly_dood]

About the U-Haul trucks: I was already aware of where to get them because thats where I got them in the first place.

The car that looked like a recent Honda Civic is the tan car with the huge skylight in this picture, and I dont recognize the red SUV (the blue vehicle is certainly from MikeSeith's Japanese vehicles pack). And in this picture I'm not familiar with the orange truck - its shading seems a bit too shiny for it to be one of MikeSeith's vehicles, but IDK.

Apart from the automata that I clearly pay way too much attention to, the development of your town is coming along very nicely, and I like how you've thought up a creative way to conceal the fact that Dedgren isn't quite done with the wide-radius street curves for Maxis textures yet. Great MD overall!

[Swamper77]

@Nexis: I'm glad you like the woodland feel to it. Hopefully, these trees will stay for many generations.

@Sciurus: There isn't much development this time. I hope you won't be too disappointed.

@Pat: I'm glad you're enjoying this MD. I hope to see you around again.

@Nerdly: I've done a little research and was able to identify the cars you mentioned. The tan car is a Renault Twingo, the red SUV is a Toyota Sequoia, the blue vehicle is a Daihatsu that came with Mike's Daihatsu dealership, and the orange pickup truck is a Chevy Silverado pickup truck. I got the Silverados through a private BSC file and can't release them. Sorry

Regarding my MD, I'm glad you like it so far. If I can't have what I want, I make do with what I have and explain it away with a logical story. Creating backstories for stuff that occurs in my MD is one way of explaining why I do things the way that I have. Minor imperfections then have a reason to exist and add to the depth of the MD.

This update doesn't have any story updates, sorry. Instead, it contains some pictures of what I have been doing to add features to my MD. I don't have enough development to continue the story, but what I have done is helping with the future developments.

When I started this MD, I wanted to have some natural features such as streams in my tiles. I tried several times before laying out Independence, but I simply gave up and built the town. Last night, I decided to revisit the idea of having a stream running through a part of this township, down the slopes of Jade Mountain. This is a work in progress, so this is by no means complete.


To layout the stream, I used the Wave3 FreeFlowing Stream Mod made by Qurlix. At first, it flowed straight down the side of Jade Mountain and going up over a hill while doing so. Using the God Mode terrain tools, I reshaped its path so it looked somewhat natural. I bulldozed the trees that were in the path of the stream and raised the roadway a bit to use puzzle pieces to build a bridge over the stream. This was just the preliminary terraforming and design of this water feature.


Using the stream effect as a guide, I placed transparent ploppable water along its path. I used Jeronij's JRJ Transparent Plopable Water for this stream. Some sections still need a little work yet. I'd also like to add a fork heading towards the west (bottom of this image) into that township. I'm still considering widening the stream where the bridge is located. It's too narrow compared to the rest of the stream. It should be at least as wide as the sections on either side of it.


This is the bridge that currently crosses the stream. I used the Rain Tool that was created by Teirusu long ago. There is a slight indent under the bridge from where the rain water used to sit. I had to carve back the slopes a bit on each side to allow the construction of the bridge. 5 tiles is the minimum allowed length of a crossing to build a bridge, apparently. I may be widening this spot soon to make the stream wider to match the wider stream sections on either side of this crossing. I chose this plain bridge model because the RHW2 bridge is the same style. When I upgrade the roadway to RHW2 later, it will be as if the road bridge got resurfaced with the RHW2.

I hope to have the detailing of this stream finished for the next update.

-Jan

[Ryan B.]

That's great work, Jan! 

[Sciurus]

Yes, great work. You know it doesn't matter it's not so developped, but it's better when it is You know, I like the country too, but the european country not the american, however, the american country is nice to

Guillaume

[Swamper77]

@Ryan: Thanks.

@Guillaume: Thanks for the feedback.

To the readers:
If you're expecting to see the townships (city tiles) of my region covered with developments from edge to edge, you will be rather disappointed by this MD. If you are looking for big skyscrapers and wall-to-wall developments, you won't find them here for a long while and probably not until long after I start developing the mainland to the west of the island. This island that I am developing in my region is going to stay rural, meaning developments will be in specific locations and will not cover the tiles completely. At best, the development will be in large blocks like Independence.

While I do enjoy looking at others' MD's of large cities, it is not my style. Having grown up in rural environments for most of my life, I enjoy trying to recreate them. Yes, it's harder than building a big city, but that is why I like the challenge. It's harder to build around natural elements such as streams and lakes instead of just filling them in to build development over them. While I haven't thoroughly read my state's regulations on developments near sensitive areas, I have a basic understanding of them and try my best to follow to them. So buffers of forests and grass between water sources and developments are considered normal for this MD, not exceptions.

Earlier this evening, I finished the detailing of Jade Creek. I've made a mosaic of the lower portion of the creek:


The small shed near the bridge contains a generator to power the street lights on the bridge. It gets foggy occasionally around the bridge, so the street lights were installed for safety. The generator shed is less of an eyesore than having a bunch of high tension lines running across the landscape. If power gets close enough via underground powerlines, then the shed will be removed.


Jade Lake, the start of Jade Creek. Jade Lake is fed by underground spring, somewhere in the middle of the lake. Around the lake, various types of trees are growing near its shores including some temperate rain forest types. The slopes are a little bare in places, but that is how the trees grew on this portion of Jade Mountain. Maybe at a future date, a trail will be built up to the lake from the farmlands below.

Next time, I should have more pictures of the developments in Independence.
-Jan

[Ryan B.]

Jan, this is very good work!  Jade Lake, Creek, and its surrounding areas all look like they're real . . . . right down to the shed.

 

Can't wait for the next update!

[Sciurus]

Very nice, but it's desert

Guillaume

[Ennedi]

Hello Jan,

Your MD is very interesting! I would like to strongly encourage you to continue it, even if you don't have too much comments yet. I'm sure it will change with time 
I like your manner of explaining your actions, your comments are well thought and very instructive. They can be a good source for your readers' imagination.

Very nice nature shots! I like your idea to let the stream flow and then to place ploppable water. I also think that 3Wave freestream forced you to smooth the stream line here and there, so it have a very natural look now 

A little tip about the streamside flora: It is obvious that we can see another plants at the riverside than away from it. But the border beteween riverside and land flora shouldn't be too sharp. It is sometimes good to plop the same flora which was used at the riverside also a bit away, and blend it with another plants typical for land/forest. This way you can achieve smoother transitions between various types of plants.
Sometimes I have (ploppable or growable) lot with some tree props surrounded by forest, and trees on the lot are different from these in the forest. So I try to place some trees identical as on the lot in its surrounding too and this way I can harmonize the lot with its surrounding. This is the same thing.
I will look at your MD development with pleasure!

Adam

[Swamper77]

@Ryan: Thanks. Realism is what I am going for, with a pinch of utopia thrown in for my liking. Real world mayors probably wouldn't be taking as much care as I am with protecting the environment around my towns.

@Guillaume: I assume you mean deserted as there isn't any development around Jade Creek. There won't be any development around Jade Creek except to possibly build a hiking trail along it or the installation of a water monitoring station near the bridge.

@Ennedi: Thanks for the feedback about the flora around Jade Creek. I'm not done with the detailing of it yet. The grass is just to hide the edges of the ploppable water. Later, I will add more plants behind them to soften the transition to the forest.

As promised, we are visiting Independence again to see how it has developed. The presence of Jade Creek has been attracting new residents to the area. The promises of protected wilderness areas and new hiking trails are also factors in the influx of new residents. Let's take a look around Independence at the new developments:


You remember the power lines to "nowhere" that extended from the western edge of the neighborhood? The lines have been run underground to this substation. From here, high tension lines have been run south to the other side of the "highway" that runs across the region. South of here, another area is being set aside for agriculture.

"Highway" is actually a really loose term for the network of roadways that will connect all the townships of the island together. It is currently built of low-speed streets, but there are plans to make it a 2-lane highway system. This is a minimum requirement of the highway system. The majority of the route will just be two lanes with a speed limit of 60-70 mph. Depending on traffic requirements, some sections may be 4 lanes wide (2 lanes each direction). But such a system is still a long ways off. For the time being, local roads will follow the proposed path of the highway system.


The new farms and the southern substation of the new high tension lines. The farm on the top right is a horse ranch with larger stables. The main farm house was built using plans from an old coach house. Coach houses were used in the past on busy stagecoach runs. The coach houses acted like a station for the travelers to switch to different runs and to rest between trips. They have a certain charm with people that run horse ranches.

The other three farms are forestry operations, geared towards sustainable forestry and nature preservation. These forest lands are carefully managed to minimize disruption of the local ecosystem. The trees are non-invasive species so there is no risk of them quickly spreading across the landscape. The bottom left farm has eucalyptus trees which are used for many purposes.


Off to the west and the south of the farms, there is a wide swath of forest and undeveloped land. I've got all sorts of proposed developments from various developers. Some want to build sprawling subdivisions up against Jade Mountain. Others want to create more farms, just south of the existing southern farms. A few proposals are for parks, trails, and other nature areas. I'm strongly considering these ones despite I'm still working with the regional council to get a parks department and a forest service department created.

The Parks Department would oversee the creation and maintenance of parks within developed areas, such as Independence. The Forest Service would oversee the management of parks and wilderness areas outside of the developed areas. The Forest Service would be the ones that create the trails, such as the proposed Jade Creek and Douglas Bluff Trails. The Jade Creek Trail would go up to Jade Lake alongside the canyon of Jade Creek. The Douglas Bluff Trail would go along the coast of Coastal Heights, below the farms and housing that sit on the bluffs themselves. Once these two Departments are created and funded, then the construction of the trails can be started.


This is one of the proposed areas for development. The agriculture and housing developers are hotly contesting over this site. Farm developers want to add some small homestead type farms between the roadways and the western slope. Residential developers want to build a small subdivision instead. Until things cool off between the two groups, I won't be making any decisions on this site.


This is the other site. Given the close proximity to the current farms and Jade Creek, I'm considering letting a couple more farms be built in this area. Two would be just behind the two existing southern farms and the other would be across a newly built street and slightly west of Jade Creek. The street would also serve as a route to the proposed Jade Creek Trail parking lot and trail head.


Inside the Independence town limits, there have been various upgrades to accommodate the new and future growth of the town. A new water tower has been constructed and connects to a deep underground aquifer. The tower currently stores 5000 gallons of water and is the first part of a two-phase plan. The second phase will build a second tower behind it, in the shape of a tea cup. Together, they will provide 10,000 gallons to Independence.


With water facilities in place, fire hydrants have been installed across town. In the middle of what will be the downtown core, a fire station has been built. The fire station provides coverage for the entire township. As with all new facilities, I was on site to do the ribbon cutting ceremony. There have been some talks of building a rural airstrip to handle a fire plane, which would reach areas where the fire trucks can't get to. No proposals have been presented to me yet for such an airstrip.


Off the cul-de-sac behind my house, a new medical clinic has opened its doors to the public. They handle everything from bumps and bruises to critical surgeries. Their doors are open 24/7 for all emergencies, which works well for the industries since they have workers at work on 3 different shifts. There have been few emergencies since the clinic opened, but they are there if they occur. Plans are in the works for a slightly bigger facility and to have at least 2 ambulances on duty. The plans and the budget are still being worked out for this proposal.


To handle the growing garbage problem, a new garbage facility has been constructed. Using environmentally friendly chemicals, the garbage is broken down in the central pit. However, the Pit has drawn quite a bit of criticism, so a new facility is being designed to replace it. The new facility will also function as a recycling center which will cut down on the amount of garbage.


With all the new facilities in town, some of the industries are getting replaced by bigger companies and industrial facilities. Simmons Industrials is building a second factory here in Independence. The company works with metals so each of the two factories will work with a specific type. The one over by the Pit specializes in steel and this one will specialize in aluminum.


To accommodate the new residents, a couple of houses were demolished and replaced with a well-kept boarding house. The displaced families got first pick on units in the new boarding house. The boarding house has a rustic charm about it with the log siding and stone chimneys.


Down on Main Street, I approved two more parcels of commercial development. A department store and a bed and breakfast opened up shortly there after. Looks like the architects are coming up with some nice looking buildings instead of having the developers using Maxoid plans. It makes me wonder what other designs will come in the future.


Next door to the clinic, a hexagonal log home has been built. I like the shape of the house and the open yard. It seems that log buildings are the current style as many of the new development proposals are featuring log construction. Jen P. Designs is providing most of the residential log home designs that I've been reviewing.


And her company doesn't do just log houses. Her company also makes nice brick houses. This ranch house was done for a wealthy resident of Independence. This is the first wealthy resident of the town, too. This is next door to the hexagon log home.


Remember the tall stand of trees in the middle of the loop in this corner of the neighborhood? They have been replaced by a small park. Volunteers planned and constructed this park. They are also overseeing the upkeep of it until the Parks Department is created. Even then, the residents will most likely be doing the maintenance work and care of the park. They will just have a group overseeing them and will have a bigger budget.


The kids in Independence are quite energetic. The sun is still rising and they are already playing at the corner playground. This playground is in the corner between 3 rows of houses and the Sanctuary. I hope they will still have energy to stay awake in class later today.

Today's update sponsored by: Wanda's Wiccan Wonders

Wanda's Wiccan Wonders is now hosting classes on various topics, including coven leadership.
Classes are held 7 days a week between 8 am and 8 pm. Come visit us at 333 South Main Street in Independence.

See you next time in Verdant Sound.
-Jan

[dedgren]

Jan- a truly excellent update.  The lengths you've gone to in literally hand-picking what goes where are apparent.

Don't give up on those wide road curves.  Help may be on the way sooner than you think.


David

[Sciurus]

It's excellent, and thanks for your explanation
But I didn't read all the text, I understand nothing

Guillaume

[thundercrack83]

Congratulations, Jan!



- The Staff

[Swamper77]

@David: I'm still waiting for the gray wide radius street curves, but I am making do with the asphalt ones in the mean time. As for the placement of things, the growables grew exactly where they did, but I did some selective bulldozing in some cases to get things to grow how I wanted them to. The network layout is done by counting tiles and using single-tile water pipe sections as "dots" on the map.

@Dustin: This was unexpected. Given the lack of replies, I figured it was just going to be me and a handful of people. In other words, nothing worth being noticed. I see the staff thinks otherwise.

Welcome back to Verdant Sound. Today, we will be looking at another new township being started. With the growing demand for housing, businesses, and industries, a new township is being developed to hold them. There isn't much room with Independence's Master Development Plan (MDP) to accommodate any further development. Independence's MDP was designed with rural developments in mind and to avoid suburban sprawl. The only allowable developments are now farms, civic services, and parklands. Until the Parks Service is created, the designation of parklands is on hold.

Let's take a look at the newest township of Misty Plains:


The township of Misty Plains occupies the southwestern quadrant of Jade Mountain. It is bordered by ocean on the west and south edges. To the south, there is a point of land that continues off the southeastern portion of the township. This area of the island has been largely untouched by the loggers and other groups looking for construction materials.


The namesake of this township, the fog. The air is cooler here due to the proximity to the water and the fog banks that roll across it to Stone Valley in the east. The fog has a constant presence in this area and its mist-like appearance is why this township has the name it does. The landscape is a wide plain that wraps around Jade Mountain like a scarf, which allows the fog to roll freely across it.


The southwestern slopes of Jade Mountain. The fog sometimes gets caught in the valley on the right side of this picture. The valley is a hot issue at the moment. Developers want to build houses in it right up to the base of the mountain. The local residents would rather that the valley remains untouched and turned into a wilderness area to protect it from developers. We'll revisit this area later on to see who wins the battle.


Another segment of the Jade Mountain Loop Highway has been routed across Misty Plains. Determining the route took a little more work than the other sections. There were some other suggested routes for this segment. One suggested route ran directly along the coast for a short while before heading east. This route was abandoned after being determined to be too expensive. Most of the expenses were for erosion control to prevent the ocean from washing away the highway. The other suggested route hugged the mountain rater closely. This one was also quite expensive due to the amount of terraforming that would be required to make the route smooth for travelers.
The current route was a compromise of both of the suggested routes. The highway runs near the shore, but avoids damaging the sensitive habitats of the coastline and being washed away. Even if the ocean erodes the coastline, it will be long time before it starts affecting travelers. The highway route also avoids cutting through the hills at the base of Jade Mountain, as such cuts may have caused landslides from the exposed rocks.
The route is fairly smooth with a bit of a hill on the west section as it heads north. All the curves are wide radius curves which make the highway more navigable for longer vehicles. The longer vehicles won't have to slow down quite so much to go around the curves.


The northern border of Misty Plains. The "kink" in the highway will be smoothed out once some money is acquired to realign the roadway slightly. Ideally, this would have been a S-curve, but the only kind that is available is for a wider roadway than what is seen here.


The curve towards the east. Here, the highway goes in a straight diagonal towards where town will be.


It seems the road builders enjoy making these odd jogs through the woods. I guess they want to have as many smooth curves as they can get in the roadway.


The eastern border of Misty Plains. To the east is Stone Valley, which will be another farming community. A new industrial park is being built near this connection for easy access for Stone Valley's future residents. There is no development in Stone Valley yet.


The Misty Plains Industrial Park. A new power station has been constructed here to provide power to Misty Plains and Stone Valley. A few advertisers have erected billboards to help offset the town's initial expenses until Misty Plains starts collecting taxes. Then, the billboards will come down.


The road crews came back out and changed the alignment of the highway through the woods. The highway now makes a straight line between the "coastal" curve and this one. After removing the old alignment, the road crews said they couldn't find where it once ran. They said the forest closed back in over the old alignment's route. One moment they saw the old alignment and then it was replaced by trees as soon as they blinked. I guess Mother Nature wanted her land back and reclaimed it with forest.


Main Street is seen here, crossing the highway. Two substations have been constructed to step the voltages from the power station to what the buildings can use. The residential one has a gravel access road which connects to the residential street grid. The northern section of road is proposed to go further north to future residential developments, if the developers get their way.

On our next visit, we'll see how Misty Plains develops....
-Jan