(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Febtqc4rd.png&hash=044b5909584550c5025f9573db43c09d1faba0a4)
Table of Contents
This is a map of Calidores, taken with RegionCensus, containing city tile coordinates, province names, and city/village names. I'll try to update it whenever I'm writing an update. It may include settlements, farms, forests, and other development that isn't part of any update; mostly because I don't consider it ready to be shown off in public yet.
Bold: cities (everything else = villages)
Underlined: province capital(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160221%2Frzyib62f.jpg&hash=6cc74d2b9cf0e5e2d859ae3d82e9b0feedc0cb1b)
Click to enlargeAnd this is a table of every update so far, containing links to them.
* The fact that one update may be listed in several cells means simply that this update contains screenshots from more than one city tile.
* The first column lists the city tile coordinates.
* "Virtually finished" means: A city is in a state where it can be considered finished and it may not me updated soon - however, it is entirely possible that I'll make changes to it and write another update.
[tabular type=3]
[row][head colspan=1]
Co
[/head][head colspan=3]
Province Name[/head][head colspan=2]
Inhabitants[/head][head colspan=3]
Updates[/head][head colspan=3]
Current Status[/head][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
A1
[/data][data colspan=3]Leptanis[/data][data colspan=2]32,529[/data][data colspan=3]1 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg490830#msg490830), 3 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg491773#msg491773), 4 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg492165#msg492165), 5 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg493075#msg493075), 20 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg498539#msg498539), 21 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg498948#msg498948)[/data][data colspan=3]Virtually finished[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
B1
[/data][data colspan=3]Teragonis[/data][data colspan=2]15,487[/data][data colspan=3]3 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg491773#msg491773), 8 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg494229#msg494229), 9 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg494591#msg494591)[/data][data colspan=3]Virtually finished[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
C1
[/data][data colspan=3]Valensis[/data][data colspan=2]15,069[/data][data colspan=3]20 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg498539#msg498539), 21 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg498948#msg498948), 22 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg499893#msg499893), 24 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg502959#msg502959)[/data][data colspan=3]Virtually finished[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
D1
[/data][data colspan=3]Melarii Inferiores[/data][data colspan=2]9,500[/data][data colspan=3]26 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg505801#msg505801), 27 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg506567#msg506567)[/data][data colspan=3]Work in progress[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
A2
[/data][data colspan=3]Iramaris[/data][data colspan=2]20,495[/data][data colspan=3]2 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg491229#msg491229), 5 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg493075#msg493075), 18 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg497952#msg497952)[/data][data colspan=3]Virtually finished[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
B2
[/data][data colspan=3]Inistri Laviarum[/data][data colspan=2]uninhabited[/data][data colspan=3]18 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg497952#msg497952)[/data][data colspan=3]Started working on[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
C2
[/data][data colspan=3]Suradis Nova[/data][data colspan=2]0[/data][data colspan=3]Special - see below[/data][data colspan=3]Started working on[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
D2
[/data][data colspan=3]Melarii Superiores[/data][data colspan=2]0[/data][data colspan=3](none)[/data][data colspan=3]Planned[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
A3
[/data][data colspan=3]Friganium[/data][data colspan=2]11,140[/data][data colspan=3]6 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg493544#msg493544), 7 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg493891#msg493891), 8 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg494229#msg494229)[/data][data colspan=3]Virtually finished[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
B3
[/data][data colspan=3]Vella[/data][data colspan=2]54,655[/data][data colspan=3]10 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg494889#msg494889), 11 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg495006#msg495006), 12 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg495120#msg495120), 13 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg495356#msg495356), 14 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg495450#msg495450), 15 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg495882#msg495882), 16 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg496688#msg496688), 25 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg504841#msg504841)[/data][data colspan=3]Nearing completion[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
C3
[/data][data colspan=3]Hadria[/data][data colspan=2]21,934[/data][data colspan=3]13 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg495356#msg495356), 17 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg497350#msg497350), 18 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg497952#msg497952), 19 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg498153#msg498153)[/data][data colspan=3]Virtually finished[/data][/row]
[row][data colspan=1]
D3
[/data][data colspan=3]Iuvarium[/data][data colspan=2]0[/data][data colspan=3](none)[/data][data colspan=3]Planned[/data][/row]
[/tabular]
Suradis Nova Special Updates:* Arrival of the settlers:
- Update 23 - The Dawn of Calidores (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg500772#msg500772)
* First village:
- Update 26 - 15 Years Later (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg505801#msg505801)
__________________________
Translations of some names in other languages:
[tabular type=3]
[row][head colspan=5]
Language[/head][head colspan=5]
Calidores[/head][head colspan=5]
calidorus, -a, -um[/head][head colspan=5]
Suradis Nova[/head][head colspan=5]
Credits[/head][/row]
[row][head colspan=5]English[/head][head colspan=5]Calidoria[/head][head colspan=5]Calidorian[/head][head colspan=5]New Surade[/head][head colspan=5][/head][/row]
[row][head colspan=5]French[/head][head colspan=5]Calidorie[/head][head colspan=5]calidorien/-ne[/head][head colspan=5]Nouvelle Sourade[/head][head colspan=5][/head][/row]
[row][head colspan=5]German[/head][head colspan=5]Kalidorien[/head][head colspan=5]kalidorisch[/head][head colspan=5]Neu-Surad[/head][head colspan=5][/head][/row]
[row][head colspan=5]Greek[/head][head colspan=5]Καλιδωρεισ[/head][head colspan=5][/head][head colspan=5]Νέο Σουραδισ[/head][head colspan=5][/head][/row]
[row][head colspan=5]Japanese[/head][head colspan=5]カリドーレス[/head][head colspan=5]カリドーレスの[/head][head colspan=5]スラーディス・ノーヴァ[/head][head colspan=5][/head][/row]
[row][head colspan=5]Spanish[/head][head colspan=5]Calidora[/head][head colspan=5]calidoro/-a[/head][head colspan=5]Nueva Suradis[/head][head colspan=5][/head][/row]
[row][head colspan=5]Swedish[/head][head colspan=5][/head][head colspan=5][/head][head colspan=5]Nya Suradis[/head][head colspan=5]Themistokles[/head][/row]
[/tabular]
__________________________
Hello together. I'm rather new to this site and most likely currently not the busiest member regarding posting and commenting. Yet I've been playing SC4 for quite a while and I figured my city-building skills could be improved. Therefore, I will now start a Mayor's Diary; you are welcome to post suggestions how to improve it. I'll try to update it regularly, however, I'm only playing occasionally and for fun. English is not my native language, so feel free to ask if you don't understand something.
The city names will look Latin, but they don't mean anything (at least they are not supposed to mean anything). I have learnt Latin in school, but I really can't speak it, and most likely I won't be able to translate Latin text. But I've got to know another PC game using words that looked like they were Latin, and so I figured I could do the same.
So, without further ado, let's welcome you all to Calidores, Valley of the Homeless.
Introduction
Long ago, a group of homeless travelers, having left their hometown because they wanted to escape the war that was about to begin, arrived in a small valley after decades of traveling that led them even to other continents. Their requests of being given a little piece of land in order to build up a new civilization have kindly been granted, and so they could start creating a new home. Time has passed, and we will now see what has become of Calidores.
That's all for now, and so we will proceed with the
Map
This region is, by the way, available on the STEX by the name of Calidore (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/29095-calidore/). I've added an extra "s" to distinguish it from other MD's about the same map that might already be existing. In its, I daresay, raw state, it looks like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150122%2Fpmugry3l.jpg&hash=342934c662652feeda2ff3e986aa35fdf224bf80)
However, first I will do some terraforming changes, such as
* reducing the average elevation, particularly of the mountains: I don't want to have these sharp cliffs, as they won't allow me to plant dense forests there
* transforming the rivers on sea level into land zones, since I will most likely make rivers with ploppable water
* smoothening the mountains to remove some cliffs (not all)
* some other minor terraforming changes, such as
- adding a harbor area (1)
- raise the whole area to make an artifical lake with a dam (2)
- create a delta (3)
- create an artifical island in the center of this river (4)
- widen the lakes, narrow down the river (5)
- raise the terrain to create another dam (yes, I like them somehow, in the part of my country where I live, we do generate a considerable amount of electricity by water power) (6)
- move this island a bit further to the east, it's supposed to be completely in one city tile (7)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150122%2F8m7gy93h.jpg&hash=8cc6de5356fc2bdee98556bdc9f8d7481304dc1d)
Click to enlargeThis is an illustration (as you can see, I've already reduced the height of the mountains). The areas painted in blue will be bodies of water made with ploppable water, with the light blue color meaning that they will be at an elevation of exactly sea level, as I'll try my best to make a smooth transition into the ocean, and as you can see on city tile A2, anything other than this would be impossible, as this would require the water to flow "upwards".
And after some thorough reworking, the map looks like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150122%2Fegpje4tt.jpg&hash=0001df9e83cfefae6f1b4520072fdee07d8c5086)
Click to enlargeThe map may, however, still be subject to terraforming changes, mostly of fine-tuning nature (such as the shores of the rivers).
Last for today, I've made this small map showing you what I'm trying to do with the map. Please forgive the PNG, but the JPEG version of this map looks horrible. As you can see, I don't care much about realism when placing settlements (this map would surely have a high population density). I will also frequently place more than one settlement on a city tile. By the way, these are all large city tiles.
Colors:
Green = forests
Green-blue = swamp-like vegetation
Yellow = farm fields
Blue = bodies of water (rivers, creeks, lakes)
Pink = beaches
Light red = villages
Dark red = cities(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150122%2F2kh2ss5p.png&hash=a72b8c63e19ad55d9e10ea8ebe13469d556b3c2d)
Click to enlarge__________________________
Edit1: Cut down width of the preview images to 800.
Edit2: Fixed typos.
Edit3: Added Table of Contents.
Edit4: Added list of special updates of Suradis Nova.
Edit5: Moved Table of Contents to the beginning of this post.
Edit6: Added table with name translations.
Seems like a promising start!
That is a good region to building a city. Looking forward to the future development on the landscape of the region.
PS - You don't need to re-size the picture to 800px, 1024 is the limit on this website. :)
Looks good!!!! I'm looking forward to your next post!!
Nice presentation and planning! Looking forward to see how things develop! :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150124%2F47te62nc.png&hash=e3e822ae4d7a943201294d6e82aedd3df6a12f88)
Replies
art128: Thank you very much for your comment and your interest. I'm actually only reducing the picture size to avoid having the horizontal scroll bar on my screen whenever there's a picture with a width of 1024 px. If there's some problem with this, I can of course change it.
romualdillo, vortext: Thank you all for your nice comments and your interest. I do also hope Calidores will become a good region.
Development
The first city is always the most difficult one to develop, as there are no adjacent cities to help developing. Therefore, in the first update, I've started developing tile A1 only by
* laying out farmland
* laying out zones in two small villages
* building the first basic infrastructure.
In some of the screenshots, I will show how I'm making plans in a completely empty city. Most likely I won't show screenshots like these anymore in the future, as I don't think that there's much point in doing this.
First, this is a draft of how the rivers and creeks will flow. The tree logs will be the borders of future settlements.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150124%2Fxrfytyyt.jpg&hash=5b7d61e81c9b265682252b6f09e849d88aa3ff77)
#1; click to enlargeNext comes a screenshot of farmland as well as some basic infrastructure.
Railway always comes first with me, because it can't tolerate high slopes and narrow curves, so it's difficult to build when I need to retrofit it. This time, it has been quite a challenge, because I want to connect Lemanticum to areas in both the west (harbor, border of the state), east (next city), and the south (next city) and the terrain made it impossible to drag the railway lines right into the city.
Next step is always laying out farming zones. Since farms don't grow anymore once I'm having enough inhabitants, I'm usually starting to grow only small settlements or suburbs along with farms to make sure I'll have some naturally grown farms. Quite new to me: I'm using SimGoobers irrigation canals; let's see if I can use them in a good way. I've placed ploppable forest lots in the gaps between the farm fields (they are seasonal, so you can't see them yet.)
(The piles of pebble in the far right will be the place where I'll later build a road to the next city.)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150124%2Fbsbqfuff.jpg&hash=a76de084fe4781a8a2bbc0ff7a6e4d028c8fd4e8)
#2; click to enlargeThen we can already start building some small villages (two, to be exact, in this update). They will have the names
Portalensis and
Mistra. This is an example of how I'm laying out zones.
As you can see, I've left some empty spots in residential zones, as I'm hoping to grow 1x2 buildings (I hope to prevent the game from messing up my plans by either splitting up zones or placing 2x2 buildings in two 1x2 zones). In small villages with only a few industrial buildings, I'm forming small zones with the CTRL button to make sure that the industrial buildings don't look too messy. Parks, schools and anything else will be built once my village has grown.
Schule = school (in this case elementary school)
Arzt = doctor
Ortsplatz = basically means village square; I'll place an open square there, made with pedestrian zone tiles, as well as a church(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150124%2Fp6erns77.jpg&hash=f11a02d908a0ef1f89edb44523348b142149b709)
#3; click to enlargeThen, after approx. 2 in-game years, Portalensis looks like this. Let's say, it looks satisfying for now. As already mentioned, it's the first city, and in the next updates, I will focus on developing adjacent city tiles, which should help the growth of Portalensis as well. A larger city by the name of Lemanticum will later be built on this city tile. Portalensis is, by the way, not being located on the map of the introduction post of Calidores. I've added it shortly after making this picture, fortunately, it's only Portalensis missing.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150124%2Flg5afjon.jpg&hash=ac9c51945df66c7e3848860663145c039c734606)
#4; click to enlargeWith Mistra, I seemed to be more lucky:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150124%2F9gdah7lg.jpg&hash=d54fde8acdc1947288adec0070b7ff08cf10c386)
#5; click to enlargeAnd last but not least, an overview from a large height, showing both villages as well as the surrounding farms.
(About the road on the far left: There will be a harbor later, and this road will allow my Sims to bypass it.)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150125%2Fp27w4n6m.jpg&hash=90a061aa3833db5699edb60950561c793d05850e)
#6; click to enlarge
Great update. I like the way you've done the farms. Looking forward to further development of the region.
Really nice update indeed! Refreshing to see the drafts and planning, don't have that 'making of' style MD too often anymore and I really enjoy it. Also looking forward to the reservoir lake! :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Fu6x8icu2.png&hash=dec53876241947ca6494018cf91bf6df38f552ba)
Responsa
(Replies)benedict: Thank you very much.
vortext: Thank you too. I fear that in this update, I forgot to make screenshots of the drafts, but in future updates, I will do it. The reservoir lake will be part of the next update.
Exordium
(Introduction)As you can clearly see, I'm starting to write titles in Latin instead of English, I just like it so much ;D However, everything will of course be translated.
Thanks to the efforts of Calidorian historicians and politicians, more information about Calidores has now become available, such as:
* Calidores is divided into 12 provinces, each one of them being represented by a large city tile. I've already given them names; see the map further below.
* I'm not really frantic about giving my region a distinctive style; however, since I like those Gründerzeit buildings (mostly by Ferox) and Fachwerk buildings very much, they may have a strong German look.
* Several roads (mostly traffic arteriae) have Latin names, named after other villages and cities, fantasy names, or other objects. (In the latter case, they will be translated.)
Let's now see the new and improved
Tabula Geographica
(Map)(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2F93t9r69u.jpg&hash=97709398540d90397a508992abeebd9bb1aab1d9)
#1; Click to enlargeProgressio
(Development)In this update, I will show you my progress on city tile A2,
Iramaris. It will have 3 settlements, two of them are already done,
Lexus and
Castrum Iramaris. As already mentioned, I forgot to make screenshots of most of the drafts, I'm sorry. Please also forgive me for not proceeding with A1, but first I'd like to start developing at least 3 regions (to help all cities growing, due to cap relief).
First, an aerial overview (warning: large picture). I haven't yet filled the entire city tile with trees, because I don't want to slow my PC down too much, and I have other plans than filling everything with forests. Lexus is the large city (approx. 18,000 inhabitants) and Castrum Iramaris the small village at the bottom (less than 1,000 inhabitants).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Fbhc72hza.jpg&hash=d6674bb067622b3502f6306d73b7924109d84533)
#2; Click to enlargeNext, a few close-ups. Let's immediately start with Castrum Iramaris. Its main attraction is, of course, the small tower. In medieval times, it served as sort of an early warning system, to warn the empire in case of foes' ships trying to invade the bay. Nowadays, it doesn't serve this purpose anymore, but it's still an important tourist attraction, so a small village has formed in close proximity. Despite being small, it has everything a village needs: a few shops, a school, a doctor's office, a restaurant, and even a small church.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Fld2pwyrs.jpg&hash=33c56f22cc263a8a6168366b06d5911c29848df9)
#3; Click to enlargeThe next two pictures contain the city center of Lexus, containing the old town center and the small park. This has been my first experiment in trying to mix several old town plugin styles, I hope you like it.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Fximgbdsz.jpg&hash=7e9d1f39e9171c892f2a333c5d48f19da46e915e)
#4; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Fgjbm8abc.jpg&hash=10f445f276e6cb74d51ca0222abb6b3c937e25da)
#5; Click to enlargeHere, we have a series of rowhouses. All except 4 have been grown and made historical. (To fill the gaps the game leaves, I have created ploppable landmarks with a little monthly income of some of the rowhouses in my Plugins folder.) I don't know if I should like it or hate it, because sometimes it looks boring.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2F7ctnzfso.jpg&hash=3924b8c5748d5eca6ae105ce9080eb78086a6933)
#6; Click to enlargeNext, a few suburbs. To the west...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2F7bi2jy68.jpg&hash=5b616a376a5e4ce482d71293dbbe2302f43b1157)
#7; Click to enlarge... to the north-east...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Fn9nudpr6.jpg&hash=a8b7fca95cbfb81628605d43f4762142921c846d)
#8; Click to enlarge... and to the south-east. The blue spot will eventually become a small pond.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Ff7wp3f2m.jpg&hash=409c6cea750bdee1b05ae6e21c67b9f6dd4116a4)
#9; Click to enlargeAn example of the city's road names. I'm using these signs because whenever I have to change something about the roads, the labels placed on the roads are being removed.
Translations:
via = road
vallis = valley
fraxinus = ash tree
vui = obvious pun on Dr. Vu ;D
All other expressions are names of nearby locations.(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150206%2Fi44hlker.jpg&hash=661fe9422403a6e4f100ffbf84fa8641fe557ab3)
#10; Click to enlargeThat's all for today's update. I hope you liked it. Please comment if you like it or have some suggestions how to improve it.
Great work, Lexus city center is very much to my liking! &apls
Minor quibble but you might want to turn on the shadows when taking pictures next time, just looks better imho.
The rowhouses are nicely done, boring maybe but hey that's what rowhouses are meant to be. $%Grinno$%
The mmp-ing is nice as well. Keep at it! :thumbsup:
The city core is beautiful!! :thumbsup: I like the rowhouses too. They look as XIX century expansion, and not a boring one... ;)
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Responsa
vortext: Wow, glad you like it. Thank you for your nice words. Shadows will be turned on for most screenshots (I need to do this sparingly, my old graphic card doesn't like it very much...)
romualdillo: Thank you very much.
Exordium
This time, it took me a while to write an update. For quite a while, I didn't have any idea on how to progress, and so, this time there won't be a finished city for me to show. Furthermore, I've been busy with lotting and with experimenting with various ways how to facilitate rowhouse growing - unfortunately, to no avail (we will see later what I mean). But I don't want to wait longer to write an update, and so, today we will shortly return to A1,
Leptanis, to create the reservoir dam, and later, we will visit B1,
Teragonis.
By the way, the Calidorian Logo "Divitiam - Pacem - Vitam" means, "Wealth, Peace, Life". A traditional Calidorian Blessing to all people, quite the opposite of what war usually brings out.
Progressio
As already mentioned, this is the now completed reservoir lake in
Leptanis, located between Portalensis and Mistra, feeding the entire Vallis Bergamum (Bergamum Valley) with electric power. I realized later that I could actually brush a few cattails at the shores of the lake. This may be added later. I'm, however, not sure if it's realistic to place cattails at the river, as far as I know, they prefer growing in lakes. I've already been told that I could improve the shoreline of my rivers by adding weeds, cattails and so on; however, in the rather mountaineous area I live in, I rarely see anything other than gravel, rocks, and a little driftwood on riversides. Probably because the water level in the rivers in my country is varying extremely during the year, depending on amount of precipitation and on the season. Both snowmelting in spring and heavy rainfall can turn a small creek into a powerful stream that may wash away anything that's alive, so there's no soil for plants to grow.
Long story short...
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#1; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150222%2Fw4ks46fw.jpg&hash=f87d649570ef812a757e39aab97ccb125d25dbb8)
#2; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150222%2Fyo8c7stq.jpg&hash=b2fd1b9593848776053dfc7abda65bd0c11d812f)
#3; Click to enlargeBefore working any further on Leptanis, I traveled to the city tile further east, and that's B1,
Teragonis. I wanted to start developing this city tile to relieve the demand cap (is this the right expression?) in Leptanis. However, I suffered from a lack of ideas of what to do with this area. There will be 2 settlements in Teragonis, a small mountain village named
Veralermum (1,000-2,000 inh.) and a large village with the name
Castrum Teragonis that will later even feature a castle (not sure how many inhabitants it will have).
First, we start with Veralermum, it's nearly done (aside from the MMP work). It wasn't easy to find satisfying housing for an old mountain village, but eventally, I decided to use the following buildings to create this village:
* The gassho-zukuri-styled Japanese Minka dwellings by Glenni
* Some Austrian-styled buildings, I don't know the author anymore
* Selfmade lots with SimGoobers Mountain Cabins
* Selfmade lots with Pegasus' A-Frames that are part of his Mountain Theme Pack.
Admittedly, I've overdone it with the azalea bushes on the lots; they have meanwhile been replaced by hedges. (I couldn't grow the new lots anymore, believe me, it was hard enough to grow what you are seeing here.) I should also probably reconsider using the Austrian homes because of their repetitive look; however, aside from that, they really fit well. Hope you like it, nevertheless.
The first picture will feature the planning phase of Veralermum, the next two are the finished result viewn from different angles.
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#4; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150222%2Frtwuv8zm.jpg&hash=4b7ee606c88773e5fa441dc19f8a1f2fcc7ed213)
#5; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150222%2Fmcv3x3ih.jpg&hash=35eb50bd636e5c91601b3b523c8dad307217934f)
#6; Click to enlargeNext, a few pictures from Castrum Teragonis.
First, an aerial view of the landscape (unfortunately, I got this idea while I was already building, and so there's already a few built areas around). You can see that there's a raised spot (marked with a riprap circle); I'm already considering placing some landmark there, such as a castle or a monastery, probably even an entire castle town. However, the slope is rather steep, so I haven't found a way to make "my dreams true". What's already rather sure is that I'll place the city core (mostly businesses, either modern or a large old town center) below the hills, surrounded by suburbs, a few industrial zones, and low-wealth apartments.
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#7; Click to enlargeUsually, I always plan the farms first, followed by a few suburban homes, a few industrial areas, and very few businesses (mostly to make sure there are enough jobs for my sims).
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#8; Click to enlarge... and the intermediate result. (Sorry, I forgot to remove the city bar.)
Translations:
Stadtzentrum: city center
Nebenstation: basically means "minor railway station"
leer: empty
Vorstadt: suburbs
wenige Apartments: a few apartments
Stromschnellen: river rapids(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150222%2Fgzf6tjus.jpg&hash=eb680943812701ee315e574d2061b561cef88896)
#9; Click to enlargeSince I didn't have any other idea of what to do next, next will come the second suburbs, this time to the west, along with a few apartments. I've been trying to grow the New York Rowhomes there; however, I haven't been this lucky yet. I've literally tried anything to speed up their growth - even going as far as blocking any other residential building (it took me hours to create building blockers for all the residential buildings in my Plugin folder), combined with an insane demand mod - yet after a few New York rowhouses have grown, nearly nothing happened for decades. Doing all this was quite an interesting experience, I can tell - however, it wasn't fruitful.
The city on the drawing board (I like building on slopes most of all...)...
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#10; Click to enlarge... and the intermediate result. I've relocated the city's trash disposal system because it wasn't really prudent to place it next to an area where I want to grow a small high-wealth area $%Grinno$%
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#11; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Sorry, Teragonis is really far from being finished, but, as already mentioned, I didn't want to wait longer with writing an update, and I have the most spare time to do this on weekends. I hope you like it, though. Futural development in this city will most likely include adding a castle, building an old city center below the castle, completing the rivers, and adding hiking trails in the mountains.
I find the handling has what the water with the MMPs.
So what do like me and even the design with the various Trees. &apls
Great work and I look forward to more pictures. :)
You show an interesting work. It's always exciting to watch the other building. Have fun! (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ld-host.de%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2F9e380b9b751b4d8c42b8204b8564ef35.gif&hash=ae59dad6877cfc25035b6d85563a572a4783fac9)
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Responsa
Fasan: Thank you very much. Since I consider your MD to be one of the best ones here so far, it's a great honor to me to receive such a comment from you.
Dantes: Thank you too.
Progressio
Today's update will lead us back to city tile A1, the province of
Leptanis. Unfortunately, I haven't had the time to finish it, but since I won't have time next week to write an update, I'll hereby present you with my work so far. To be exact, I've been developing a large part of the third (the largest) settlement in the Vallis Bergamum (Bergamum Valley),
Lemanticum.
Centuries ago, the first inhabitants decided to settle at the area between the junction of these three rivers. First plans of what to do with the land looked like this: (As you can see, the industrial area has already been developed; I needed some jobs.)
Translations:
Einkaufszentrum: mall
Kirche: church
Vorstadt: suburbs
zu unterird. HBF: (access) to subterranean main station
evt. hier Gewerbezentrum: maybe here commercial center
Altstadt + Gewerbe: old town parts and commercials(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150308%2Fnd5gmpxg.jpg&hash=21fee00c752fae5dd0d4d20967495c89d7261134)
#1; Click to enlargeOlder houses have even been built up the hill; quite a challenge to place them there, but that's what makes the game fun to me :). It was even challenging to find a way to connect this city to the Calidorian railway network; fortunately, Russian engineers solved that problem by designing an underground railway station. Also, quite new, some Finnish immigrants have built their dwellings in their own, unique building style, thereby not only enriching the cityscape, yet also providing handy solutions in how to connect orthogonal and diagonal W2W buildings (credits go to SimCoug from the STEX for pointing me into the right direction). Below two pictures from different angles.
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#2; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150308%2Fhpsol2ac.jpg&hash=31e0115e72b83522ae8adc7136a29ff3cefb31df)
#3; Click to enlargeThe industrial area has also developed quite nice, as well as a small suburban part. Unfortunately, in the Vallis Bergamum, I've run into a unique issue in how to connect Lemanticum to the Calidorian railway network: Lemanticum is located a little further to the north, but there's a railway leading to the east (B1 Teragonis), one to the south (A2 Iramaris) and one to the west (to a future harbor), and the terrain forced me to connect the railway lines exactly at this location.
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#4; Click to enlargeThe population increase required the city to expand further to the west, building some condominiums below at the river (coming soon) and constructing a mall (a nice, brand-new gem found on the STEX) and a strip of commercials along the main road to provide enough jobs (not something I do frequently; I've copied this from a nearby city in my country. But I think I like it).
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#5; Click to enlargeWe'll conclude today's update with an aerial view, as usual. Unfortunately, the city is not finished, as you can clearly see, but mostly I only have time to write updates like these on weekends. Futural updates in Leptanis will most likely include
* finishing Lemanticum (the southwestern parts will most likely be suburban housing and apartments)
* adding a small settlement to the west (~ 1,000 inh.)
* adding a harbor (really, I haven't done this anytime during the last years)
* finally planting forests (that's always the last thing I do, because of the disastrous impact on the game's performance)
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#6; Click to enlarge
Great job!! The old city looks great!! :thumbsup:
City's growing nicely. Good work with the canals and MMP water.
Nice job!
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Responsa
romualdillo, art128, Gugu3: Thank you all very much, glad you liked it.
Exordium
As usual, it takes me very long to write an update - well, this time, I've been sick for a while, and after about sitting at my PC for about an hour, I became dizzy, so I didn't even consider playing SC4. And my main disease, namely, suffering from a lack of ideas, seems to be hard to cure...
Meanwhile, Calidorian railway engineers have prepared a map about the planned railway lines in Calidores:
Magenta: Calidores ring line (will connect several settlements, among them 5 of the 7 cities of Calidores)
White: Other railway line
Grey: not sure if I will really build them(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150329%2F8v8byylg.png&hash=889f83ad06e04ed4c3aa14ec870e152c6b5238ef)
Click to enlargeProgressio
In this update, we will see what has become of
Lemanticum, as well as finishing our first city tile,
A2 Iramaris, to be exact.
First, a shot of Lemanticum's southwestern part. I decided for a mixture between suburbs and a bunch of apartments. Those 6x6 SimGoobers Suburban Townhomes really grew naturally, so, somehow, I decided to keep them there.
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#1; click to enlargeI've also been able to improve this small village (Portalensis, as already seen in Update 1) a bit, particularly the area with the apartments. Portalensis is located on the same city tile (A1) as Lemanticum.
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#2; click to enlargeNext, we will travel to the south, to A2 Iramaris. Two settlements there, Lexus and Castrum Iramaris, have already been grown before, and now it's time to finish the third one, a small village (656 inhabitants) with the name of
Castrum Tullae. Very similarly to Castrum Iramaris, there's an old tower standing there, which watched over the sea straight to the central bay of Calidores. Somehow, however, contrarily to the inhabitants of Castrum Iramaris, the inhabitants of this small village decided to build wooden houses painted in bright colors, with red being the most important color (even the streets are red). Castrum Tullae has its own railway station (at this part, the railway is connected via tunnel to Lexus, a tunnel passing the Iramaris sea straight below the seabed).
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#3; click to enlargeThis is, by the way, an overview of the aforementioned Iramaris sea straight, complete with both towers.
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#4; click to enlargeI've also finished the island where Castrum Iramaris is located, by adding forests and open grasslands, which can be traversed via hiking trails. Unfortunately, I had little ideas of what to do with the terrain other than adding trees, grass, and flower patches; if I'm getting better ideas, I'll update this area. One of the hiking paths leads to a chapel close to the coast, where you can enjoy the view.
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#5; click to enlargeI've also made experiments in making a small pond at the suburbs of Lexus. I've tried to combine gravel and rocks with cattails. My first try to do something like this.
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#6; click to enlargeThat's all for today, we'll conclude this update with an aerial overview of the entire province of Iramaris. Hope you liked it.
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#7; click to enlarge
Haven't been here in a while somehow, nice couple of updates. Lemanticum turned out great! :thumbsup:
Nice update, 11241036! :thumbsup: The building selections in Lemanticum strike just the right balance between single- and multi-family housing, and Castrum Tullae is quite intriguing; the bright red roofs remind me of the metal roofs I'm seeing a lot more on houses near me these days. They do stand out a lot in game, but they stand out a lot on Google Maps as well when I see them in the satellite views, so therefore they actually provide a degree of realism.
Very nice job! &apls
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Responsa
vortext: Glad you like it. Lemanticum was quite a challenge to build, especially because of the river junctions there.
metarvo: Thank you! Indeed, I had my doubts about the Norwegian Homes, they really stick out; to temper this effect, I decided to make an entire village only with these houses, and I've made building blockers for them, so they won't grow in any other city.
Gugu3: Thank you too.
Exordium
Today, we will travel to the south of Iramaris, and that is A3,
Friganium. I'm actually nearly done with this city tile, only a few parts are missing; however, since it is weekend and I won't have much time next week, I will share now what I've done with Friganium the last two weeks.
But first, there's a little extra information on what I will (today, and probably in futural updates) share with you:
One day, according to Calidorian historians, a great and devastating earthquake occurred, wiping out every sign of civilization in the Valley of Calidores, and even relocating some of the rivers, as well as lowering mountains and hils. Fortunately, the brave population of Calidores has been able to rebuild its small "Simperium Calidorum" from scratch, sometimes making the settlements resemble very closely the former settlements. Numerous research attempts have been made to find out how Calidores looked like in earlier days, but to no avail. Yet recently, after finding out that all attempts have only been fruitless because someone forgot to swap the tree controller back, it has for the first time been possible to retrieve old pictures (albeit in black-and-white) of Calidores - at that time still being named Calidore.
In other words: This is not my first attempt in working on this particular region map. About two years ago, I made my first attempt, however, at this time, I didn't know how to use SC4Terraformer, so I eventually quit working on it mostly because of the high cliffs and mountains. However, there are screenshots of this map in my folders, and I do actually think that they sometimes turned out well enough to share them - at least for the purpose of comparing them with how I build my cities now. Even the entire region does still exist (I'm talking about having two similar regions, an old and a new one), and so I returned to make some more screenshots. Unfortunately, it seems I've removed some plugins in the meantime, so there are brown boxes at various places. Hopefully they won't disturb too much. As already mentioned, I've changed the name to Calidores to make sure this MD doesn't conflict with other MD's.Let's now stop blabbering and continue with the...
Progressio
As Friganium is located at a small bay, I figured it would be best to design most settlements there to be tourist attractions and based on recreation. Unfortunately, the variety of old town buildings has decreased somewhat, but this is due to the hilly terrain which very frequently only allows the placement of 1x1 buildings. And I had REALLY bad luck this time with the 1x1 low-density residentials the game grew (mostly Maxis bungalows and SimGoobers Sweet Legacy Homes, although the former ones have been removed whenever they have been spotted; sometimes I really want to think what this game is thinking). First will come the earlier pictures, second the new ones.
The first settlement is
Orantria, located at the very north of the city tile, close to Castrum Tullae, which we saw in the previous update. As you can see, the road system and the residential, industrial, commercial, and old-town-part zones are resembling their old counterparts.
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#1; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fxbydqvko.jpg&hash=d144b169972cf93953a7af98588030d17c503e88)
#2; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fywhdyaop.jpg&hash=ff9a4ab7075a2123a27934602823baa64f580fb2)
#3; Click to enlargeNext settlement, located at the far east:
Inerium. There is a resemblance between the old and the new pictures, however, this is the part where the new village design deviates the most from the old one.
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#4; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fkylevan9.jpg&hash=3d2d36fa84b81edbd4d0dc4715f732eb01c17a8a)
#5; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fr9gnbvdr.jpg&hash=118e7dbe79f958c009e4b3b01b432a19fc303715)
#6; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fwqqfrvin.jpg&hash=175734e0c245061fb9ef3fa71d5ff14a5dab6edc)
#7; Click to enlargeThird settlement (province capital):
Valoriae. As you can see, I've been nearly frantic about copying the road system from earlier days. :D It's the main tourist magnet, so I've spent much time (and money) on creating a beautiful coastline. Among its attractions are the opera house, along with an open-air stage, the House of Innovations, where modern artists from all over Calidores (and hopefully other Simperii) may display their works, and the Guggensim Museum. Several restaurants and parks (unfortunately unfinished) provide relaxation as well. Quite new: the old town parts. Futural updates will also include a marina there - and, of course, a beach. I must admit that compared to the tourist section, the upper part looks like a dozy nest ;D. However, all the peope working in the various buildings there obviously need a place to live, and nowadays, they don't build everything like back in the 19th century.
(Unfortunately, while writing this update, I realized that I forgot to make a larger screenshot of Valoriae. This will be added soon in a futural update. Sorry.)
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#8; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fjvkds78k.jpg&hash=5284ea11868935a95fce79d4fc4e5c4f14b728d0)
#9; Click to enlargeThe final settlement: A small village with the name of
Haerestria, located at the southernmost area of the peninsula here. It has been the most difficult one to build because of the steep slopes (the streets do, according to my calculations, have a maximum grade of 15.625%). I must admit that I miss the mediterranean look of the farms a little, although I'm satisfied with how it turned out. Perhaps I'll change this later.
On the newer screenshots, you might observe that this is the only place where I've started to make a beach. Unfortunately, I haven't really found a way to make it visually pleasing. In particular, I'd like to find some beach accessories (like umbrellas, towels, etc.), and if there was a way to make a beach with other means than texture-based beach lots, I'd also be happy. If someone of you guys and girls knows props, MMP's, lots or whatever you can recommend that would help me creating visually pleasing beaches, I might even be this happy that in return I'll name a road after you:
Via (enter your name here) :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fkbkguqft.jpg&hash=f032913f96b382e2e4fcde0eeab61f8b40f6b4fe)
#10; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fysqj4y2d.jpg&hash=4e26dc089d3346a7b2a80f250ffe624c62ec2a98)
#11; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fkfpacfnb.jpg&hash=377b001d67395cc1c1d70c33ce87a8150034bfdd)
#12; Click to enlargeThe final screenshot will show my new approach in designing agricultural areas: I've been thinking that in my country, as well as several other countries, only a few people (less than 5% of the population) actually live from farming; so therefore, I figured that it would be unrealistic to have a farming house located at literally any field. So I decided to create blockers for all farming buildings I could find in my Plugins folder; since I've installed the SPAM, now only fields grow (basically 1x1 field lots with workers on them, letting field lots grow along them). I'm keeping some spots empty to place farmhouses there, along with barns, silos, herb gardens, greenhouses, and other stuff. Since Friganium contains a few farm fields, I've already made two "farming complexes" there, a third one will be built close to Haerestria. This screenshot shows both of them. You're welcome to tell me your opinion on this, I'm absolutely no expert in agriculture.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150413%2Fgultlydu.jpg&hash=4c3e1d534bc5f417294974985462d997a152aced)
#13; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Hope you enjoyed this update.
Edit: Improved some expressions and explanations, fixed some typos.
Your approach to farming makes a lot of sense to me as I fully agree it's annoying to have a farmhouse on every field. I've actually taken it one step further, not only do I use 1x1 'field only' farm lots but in addition I've lotted the farm buildings as residentials. So now I can make fully operational farm complexes. Of course it's more convenient to do this if the entire region is nothing but farms, as mine is. All this to say the farm complexes look really nice.
The various little towns are shaping up nicely as well, will be interesting to see Valoriae develops. Keep at it! :thumbsup:
All the pictures are great, but number #9 is my favourite !! I love that lighthouse and its location. Fantastic work !!
Agree with the above comments, the farm system you've made is really interested. I like it a lot.
Great pictures as well, I like the town with the large beach.
splendid
Great update and lots of neat stuff in this region &apls
As for your beach question, your lot-based approach seems to be working pretty well but there are other options. The first would be to have your terrain mod show beach textures in the types of areas that your beaches are. It's pretty easy to change the factors that control this yourself by going to your terrain mod controller file and editing "MaxBeachAltitude", whose number signifies meters above sealevel, and "MaxBeachWidth", whose hexidecimal number signifies width of beach in tiles. I wrote a tutorial on how to edit sealevel here[/ur] and to edit the aforementioned values just change them instead of sealevel. The problem with this approach is that beaches will appear in any place that suits the criteria you set, including places you might not want them. It's my preferred method but I combine it with careful beach terraforming and I change the beach values whenever I feel like it to get the look I'm seeking. Another approach for creating beaches would be using the JENX [url=http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=3077]Poseidon Mod (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13185.msg380688#msg380688) which contains lot-based effects that cover the ground within a few tile radius in various beach textures. You could also use MMPs for beach colors but it would be a lot of work and wouldn't look as good so I'd not recommend it.
As for beach MMPs the ones I most often use are VIP and namspopof IIRC but a cursory search didn't locate them. I think they're on ST and TSC respectively.
Hope that helps :thumbsup:
I like the way you design the little cities! A whole world in only a few tiles... :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fik3c76io.png&hash=387c535e9d92cf762f436ab103ddc9fc6e8265f0)
Responsa
vortext: Thank you very much! I'm already considering relotting some farming houses in my Plugins folder to make them residentials, but this will take a while.
kelis, art128, samu64: Thank you very much for your comments and your interest!
noahclem: Thank you very much for your comment and your advise about the beaches, I really appreciate it. At the time you wrote it, I've already finished making the beaches, but I took some time to make some experiments in Friganium with your suggestions. This is what I found out:
* Changing the beach altitude and width with iLive Reader gave results that I didn't always like. As you already mentioned, I had beaches at places where I didn't want them. This was especially troublesome in cities like Valoriae and Orantria, where the beach sits at the same sea level as the city. However, it did solve some problems - particularly by removing the beach all together, I was finally able to get pleasing results at those coastal parts of my city where I didn't want to have any beach at all (because I was designing the coast with MMP's, such as gravel, grass, and trees).
* It seems that your suggestion of careful terraforming works out best, as the beaches look more natural and I won't have the clearly cut borders that appear in water when working with lot-based beaches with base textures. It will probably be very difficult to make them reality in Friganium, because, as already mentioned, the beaches are on the same sea level as the adjacent development. As for now, I think I'll stick with lot-based beaches, but it's entirely possible that I'll switch to another option later.
* I tried out the MMP's from toutsimcities.com you recommended (I don't know their exact name anymore), but I didn't like them. Even though the current parasols and towels I'm using (from some Copacabana set from the STEX) have the usual "square look" (they are lot-based), I like them better.
* I've also tried the beach effects from the Poseidon Mod, but the only thing I got was circular patches of sand that gave a nasty circular look when they overlapped each other. I'll pass on them.
Nevertheless, I've included some pictures of my work and experiments that probably couldn't have been done without your suggestions. By the way, a road starting at the roundabout in Inerium and ending at the roundabout in Haerestria has been named "Via Noahclem" now. :thumbsup: To illustrate it, I've turned on the signposts on the pictures in this update, it's a rather long road.
romualdillo: Wow, thank you very much!
Progressio
In today's update, I'll give the finishing touch to the province of
Friganium on city tile A3.
I was able to track down the missing dependency that gave me all these brown boxes in Update 6. The affected pictures will later be replaced by better ones.
Before we have a look at the beach development, there's tragic news: Some of you may have noticed that in Update 6 at picture #4 there's another settlement at the bottom of the picture. Sadly, it fell prey to the devastating earthquake and it couldn't be rebuilt, mostly because God (aka
Me) decided not to build this many settlements as on the previous region (Calidores already has a population of about 67,000 inhabitants living on 200 km², that equals to more than 300 people/km². And I haven't even started building the capital, my plans are building a city with over 100,000 inhabitants. There are not many countries on the earth with a similarly high population density.). In commemoration of this event, the Calidorian government decided to place a chapel there.
This is a historic picture of the mentioned village (sorry, its name has been lost):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fyu77m2hw.jpg&hash=08d0899b72ad0bed7c7b3047d70d563c87dea6ce)
#1; Click to enlarge... and this is how this area looks today - at least the spring has survived.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fhb6fkfsh.jpg&hash=cfc57496e980f6693acae38350e18f885103c993)
#2; Click to enlargeAs already mentioned in the answer to noahclem, the coastal development in all 4 settlements has been virtually finished.
Orantria:(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fqm4caekb.jpg&hash=51d508059b5385f9ada773e1bdca998ae8ec2178)
#3; Click to enlargeHaerestria:(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2F4o4l3ucl.jpg&hash=5a18c137ab3d6ff431a214e2a6c3e99399b435a5)
#4; Click to enlargeValoriae: As promised, this update will include more close-ups of Valoriae.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fbb9eijz8.jpg&hash=78826cd43fcd58a90b5e092d12c5188777619141)
#5; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Frv5mt5bw.jpg&hash=d99e00345a8d520d9f55b17da96bff228f5b3a2a)
#6; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fq25tg5rf.jpg&hash=af922a3e50a89fe3f10ea904665751125e8317aa)
#7; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fp59ia9nd.jpg&hash=f45c0e972ed79d8fe132a0416a8d9c75b6e4429f)
#8; Click to enlargeAnd the lighthouse:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fiiy8j55i.jpg&hash=169a82e0428422d1c182af683debbe330220987e)
#9; Click to enlargeInerium: Since the beach is located on a lower level than the village (below a seawall), I've included a picture of my experiments there.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Ftlfttaw8.jpg&hash=78e121eb282beca73823298683a92401bda18617)
#10; Click to enlargeThis is how the beach would look like without the beach textures from the beach lots. As already mentioned, I'm currently sticking to the lot based solution, but this picture is really making me reconsider.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Frtccs6me.jpg&hash=52aa2f84fa9185810be34b11e03d26077b97b53c)
#11; Click to enlargeThis is another, more rural, corner in my city that I wanted to show: A way how I'll be designing forests (at least smaller patches) in futural updates. This time made with girafe's beeches, chestnuts, oaks, and norway maples, and VIP's aesculus and fagus trees. Unfortunately, it's harder than it looks, especially because it's time-consuming and tedious to fill very large areas only with MMP's and nearly impossible to place them on small 1x1 gaps because with my preferred tree MMP's (Girafe's trees) I'm getting clusters of trees that are overhanging and sometimes appear to grow on streets or in houses when I'm doing it wrong.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Flbppjcxz.jpg&hash=468bf44204daac5a8b796a5c804ff21dc5db0225)
#12; Click to enlargeWe'll conclude this update with an aerial overview of Friganium, as well as a road map (with the Via Noahclem highlighted in blue). Hope you liked it.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2Fvwp78eor.jpg&hash=180a11c6ddaf9163656190fd4484f80f21fbe382)
Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150427%2F3ecow7nt.jpg&hash=3db375f3ef6dec976898e5540e976beebd37f206)
Click to enlarge
Great update once again! &apls
Nice map and I definitely like the lot-less looks of the beach in pic 11 better. It's a more natural transition to water and a better looking texture as well.
As for the population density issue, I couldn't help but notice in the overview the villages are awfully close together. In fact I didn't even realize they're all on the same tile! As a general rule of thumb I stick to one village per large tile so they're at least ~4km, i.e. an hour walking, apart from one another. This corresponds quite well with historic, real world development. As much as I like your building skills I think four well developed villages hundreds of meters apart is too much of good thing. ;)
Well, that 4km rule may be true in some places but others is not, all depends on the geography from the place, resources, waterways, mountains etc. etc. and if you check, some places may have villages more closed together than 4kms. also, we may want to adjust things to SC4 scale. I use 1x1km a lot for small (1k max people) villages and only go for large (4x4) for cities and had them placed accordingly on map.
i like this so far, keep it coming
The scale used looks good.
You've built a pretty little town.
I like it. (https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ld-host.de%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2Fec5f2347c641efcb7e30adfc88c7e5d4.gif&hash=2b64c5b16b75a7325c389d8433be6d51c4770c55)
Hic sunt multi bonae oppidae! I just couldn't resist using my very scant Latin :P The cities are really well planned. To my mind, and as gn_leugim said, the mountainous geography makes the placement of the villages look good -- I think the small distances and many details gives the peninsula its (in lack of a better word) quaint/cosy/picturesque look. Although it maybe wouldn't be like that in most real world cases, I think it looks really great in SC4!
And the beach texture: Maybe another solution would be to hide the sharp edge between beach and sea-floor with some underwater MMP:ing?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fov53hy3b.png&hash=2a10d07780c5702cfdab3ca595b158b3667769ad)
Responsa
vortext: Actually, in the country I live, it's not at all unusual to have villages even bordering each other... I've probably expressed myself poorly, I actually meant that by building a fifth village, I'd probably go entirely overboard. However, on a region this small and compared to SC4 scale, like mentioned by gn_leugim, I need to place my villages more close together. This will, however, be probably the only case where I'll have 4 villages on the same city tile (it's just because the bay provides 1. fish, 2. a good view to the ocean, and 3. a lot of money from tourism).
I should BTW mention that I do actually like the natural beaches better than the lot-based beaches. More about that in this update.
gn_leugim, Dantes: Thank you both very much, for your comments and your interest!
Themistokles: Tibi gratias ago! About your suggestion: Seems like a good idea. I've made some experiments with placing various MMP's at the borders of the beaches, and it mostly works out very nice. More about that in this update.
Progressio
Unfortunately, the past two weeks, real life really got me, and I had little time to play Sim City. I haven't been entirely idle, and so there are some pictures of the further beach development in
Friganium, as well as a little progress in
Teragonis (city tile B1).
As already mentioned, I've decided to camouflage the border of the beaches with MMP's. After trying out various rock MMP's I had in my Plugins folder, I still liked Pegasus' content best because it contains the best mix of gravel, rocks, and boulders of various sizes. I wasn't satisfied with all the other MMP's because either I didn't like their look or they were too difficult to place (for instance, they didn't allow me to cover the ground entirely, which means that the beach border would remain visible). On 2 of the subsequent screenshots, I've turned on the waves (this wasn't possible in Haerestria because I had to put two pictures together to show the whole beach).
Valoriae:(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Ffn3rdrkf.jpg&hash=1d68c545b0a48adef1fe4bdcc90100a13bc1935e)
#1; Click to enlargeOrantria:(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fwyqqcaji.jpg&hash=cf2760fb774b6713bce3b80c8605cc27a8d7de82)
#2; Click to enlargeHaerestria:(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fs3r7mjpb.jpg&hash=759e7fa972bdd6397df9fa7bb8656eb054cb0e3f)
#3; Click to enlargeI've decided to leave the beach in Inerium in a state without base textures, like in Update 7 picture #11. After all, I do think that it's possible and not necessarily unrealistic or ugly to try to make 2 different solutions reality. Since this beach hasn't changed, I don't include another picture in this update.
By the way, please say hello to the "Via Themistokles" in Orantria:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fwgamgumx.jpg&hash=8686156b699eb82af3041e40b3ebf7b39b3b02a1)
#4; Click to enlargeNow, let's travel to city tile B2,
Teragonis, where development has already started in Update 3 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg491773#msg491773).
This is a screenshot of the village core of
Castrum Teragonis, capital of Teragonis. This time, I wanted to include far more timberframe houses and make it a little looser, so there's less W2W development, aside from the upper levels (I had nearly no other choice because of the diagonal road and I wanted to make it look like an expansion that occurred later in history). I haven't developed it much; I will later mention why. I have also used New York Rowhouses for the appartments to the west of the river; after all, I wanted to give the central parts of the village - aside from the business district - a rather old look.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fpd4cy4bu.jpg&hash=ededcd3a0fe24489a9808d1001b4ac573c639f16)
#5; Click to enlargeThe suburbs have further expanded into a small valley east of the village core. A place where a small forest lake is starting point for many hikers from the surrounding villages. Two pictures, one of summer and one of fall.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fktpa4ubb.jpg&hash=450271e03ea6a5ff36386a8b23e52936f9835055)
#6; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fucbsap4s.jpg&hash=b130d2908ce2430e001d45051e55e8f0d4328c72)
#7; Click to enlargeI've been busy developing the southern parts of this city tile; they are virtually done. These are two pictures of the rural areas of Teragonis. The pros among you may even see two things that make me loathe Maxis because they made farming this difficult in Sim City 4.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fomch2dho.jpg&hash=c24094eab276772f128e78cf6d838142b65d6602)
#8; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fvhqcamzo.jpg&hash=27170dfaa343f4741766961008bcd698078bb682)
#9; Click to enlargeThis hill (being terraformed by the sometimes whimsical God of Calidores) will, in a futural update, be developed further; I haven't decided what to build there exactly. It seems like the perfect place for something like a castle, a monastery, or even an entire castle town. If I am to realize the castle town solution, then I'm not sure if I should build cover the entire hill with houses or just the topmost parts. I've turned on the grid for obvious reasons. The tree logs will most likely be the border for the upper old town parts, the rock clusters the northernmost border for the castle/town/whatever development.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150510%2Fenffg7g6.jpg&hash=14e2bd928554f5beb22163c82af35135c83d4bc6)
#10; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Hope you liked this update despite of its shortness.
Edit1: Sorry, "benign" was really... not appropriate. :-[
Great work!!!! :thumbsup:
I love my road! Thanks, much appreciated :)
You're continuing to do a really nice job with your development. The wooded areas look perfect, and I'm definitely familiar with the problems you mention regarding floating clusters of trees and the like :D The above sea level water and its transitions has been handled really well and I'm enjoying your shorelines too. I hadn't noticed either that the villages were that close together but ultimately that's a matter of taste and to me it doesn't seem to cause problems for you. Looking forward to what's next :thumbsup:
very well detailed, good job! :thumbsup:
Oh, a road -- what a nice surprise! And it passes both the station and the old city centre, even better! Great work as always :thumbsup: I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll do with the castle hill.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2Fbgecmb4o.png&hash=8f74a8e38e846b49cab79b46196cda116ccdd2ca)
Responsa
romualdillo, noahclem, gn_leugim, Themistokles: Wow, thank you all very much for your interest and your nice comments! I'm also glad to hear that noahclem and Themistokles like their roads :)
Progressio
In today's update I'll give the finishing touch to
Teragonis by adding a castle, as already mentioned.
This is now Teragonis Castle, located at the hill directly north of its namesake village. I decided to create a castle using "puzzle pieces" - such as castle walls and ploppable houses and landmarks. That took up much space, even to the point of being overtly unrealistic, but what the hey, you know me... $%Grinno$%
Castrum Teragonis boasts a monastery, the Wernigerode City Hall, and some timberframe houses. If someone finds out that it is missing something, you're welcome to tell me. I've, by the way, started to develop an override for the Cobblestone and Sandstone PedMall tiles. I didn't like their look much, either, so I've replaced them by a texture by Vortext and one found in the BSC Mega Textures Vol1, respectively. It's of course, unfortunately, not difficult to notice the color difference between the lots and the PedMall tiles; I've already opened a thread on the STEX about that topic and will take care about this issue. But for my personal taste, it's an improvement.
There are three screenshots, showing the castle from different zoom levels and angles.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2Fy9jrvyjz.jpg&hash=6d768ae6ad1244ba5394ef9641b9225267e5851a)
#1; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2Fwowfvd3v.jpg&hash=b1601324d1ea90a750ad3038f63a0619efaec735)
#2; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2F8pkrzwez.jpg&hash=3727242b1c37be644dbd9d515c4cd0ea4d95d4e8)
#3; Click to enlargeA few other pictures show the development along the river to the west of the castle, as well as the old town parts.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2Fcn6lehpq.jpg&hash=4e36c11f94ec0859578aeb76505228345293b678)
#4; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2Fgv88u2eb.jpg&hash=86835f839e18bba8f6e9357e0a852593b7ef7a5e)
#5; Click to enlargeAnd this is an overview of the entire village of
Castrum Teragonis.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2Fjgrshcej.jpg&hash=2974a0c5946e261ccaba44af4ea367de8d5026f3)
#6; Click to enlargeFurthermore, this is an attempt of designing the landscape in the mountains. It's really not a picture that I'm proud of, but this time I did not want to use ploppable grass to cover the floor; please do not consider this particular area to be finished. If someone has an idea how to improve this area, please come forth. My plans are actually to create a hiking path up to the mountain peak, as well as a small spring and a cottage, where you can have lunch. Somehow I can't figure out which conifer trees are being used by my tree controller (Cascadia); I don't seem to have corresponding flora items in my Mayor Mode folder to fill the gaps the tree controller usually leaves and clutters with near-invisible flowers and shrubs :'( Well, at least I found a suitable mountain cross.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150524%2Fqip5yyvi.jpg&hash=ed98b35fe134a4a4121ff61c874d89e948c14aba)
#7; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Futural development in this city tile will most likely only include finishing the MMP work along the hiking path in the mountains; aside from that, this city is virtually finished. But that will have to wait, as the next update will lead us to an entirely different city tile. I'm sorry that this time I could not simply make an overview of the entire city. Since I won't develop the northern parts of this city tile further, I'd only cover it with forest, but I won't do this anytime soon because my PC already has trouble handling Teragonis in its present state - I just don't want to know what would happen if I filled the entire city tile with trees.
Edit: Fixed a link to a picture (sorry, I showed the same picture twice)
Castle looks great!
I think the mountain picture is really cute.
Castle is very nice indeed! &apls
Only quibble I have is the walls don't go all the way around but other than that it's quite inspirational. And nice to see my textures in action! ()stsfd()
The overview is great, really like the transition from plop water to canal and back. :thumbsup:
Fantastic work!!! Looking forward to your new update!! :thumbsup:
These are beautiful pictures of your work.
:thumbsup:
This castle with the timber-frame houses, as well as the
Flow design, I love.
The transition from the different types of water you have
well get there.
Do please keep it going! ;)
With a great attention to details while landscaping cities and rural areas, it was just a matter of time before this MD got itself a place under the spotlights. Congratulations, 11241036. Here's to a great month.
(https://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac213/BSCLEX/2015-06-MD-Calidores_zpsdsroefpc.jpg)
Congrats on the OSITM &apls
Your villages, castle, woodlands and agricultural areas all look great, and complement each other well. :satisfied: Also, I like the map you posted a few updates ago.
Congratulations on OSITM!
Some very lovely work here, looking forward to seeing more.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150602%2Fzhk448bq.png&hash=974cbe053ffd2629e5ea42c78c2d54aabdd0ca91)
Responsa
First of all, of course, a big hug and thank you for the OSITM nomination for June 2015 to
art128 :). I'll try to give my best to present you all good pictures during this month, and in regular, shorter intervals. Also glad to hear that you like the mountain picture.
Furthermore, I'd like to thank all of you for your interest; without your comments and suggestions, I would have probably given up :).
vortext: Thank you again very much for your attention. About the castle walls: I had my doubts indeed about this structure, since it facilitates invasion :D. My main thought was: Since there's a walled precipice to the south of the monastery, building the walls all around the castle would not be necessary. I could actually use overhanging wall pieces to fill the gap between the castle walls and the retaining wall. This will, however, be part of the next update.
romualdillo, Fasan, c.p., belfastsocrates: Thank you too for your comments!
Progressio
During June 2015, I will present you mostly my work on one specific (nearly) "virginal" city tile, B3
Vella, as an example how I usually design cities. Along with in-game pictures, I'll also present you drafts made with GIMP and Paint, and, if possible, road maps. Pictures from other cities may occasionally be added, but I'm not really planning this.
Since I had little time last week, today I'll only show a preview of what awaits you.
This is an overview over Calidores, with Vella highlighted:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150602%2Fvt9kmle2.jpg&hash=c24cdc6352fffc553a7182423a6574531b588f64)
#1; Click to enlargeAnd this is a screenshot of how the city currently looks like. As you can see, aside from the railway, I haven't built anything there yet. And the only reason for me for building the railway first was: There are two railway lines leading to the city tile to the west, and I had to find a way to connect them to Vella in a way that they wouldn't end up somewhere at the sea or in the mountains. As you may know, railway trains can't tolerate steep grades, therefore, I had to take care of this first.
The rivers are already there; they are usually the first thing I'm planning, because rivers have in most cases always been there before humankind. (Forests too, but it's easiest to place them at the end of the city development, so they'll have to wait.)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150602%2F3n2vzb83.jpg&hash=0a50570d4bef31fb6d620581c0f701e0d13cbb7f)
#2; Click to enlargeNext comes something that took me a while to think: The placement of settlements. I thought that this time I'll take my time to consider: If I were to found a settlement (in the Medieval, as this was the time where most of the Calidorian cities and villages have been founded), where would I do this? My main reason of doing this was the fact that I frequently like to include old town parts in my cities. Therefore, I need to put myself in the place of the people who built these parts centuries ago.
If I were to decide where to found a settlement, I'd most likely prefer locations
* with enough fresh water,
* with fertile land or any other source of food,
* at intersections between trade routes,
* at the coast,
* probably with access to other resources (such as iron, wood, etc.)
The following screenshot shows the ancient trade routes, as well as the settlements back then.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150602%2Fdx7xgf4o.jpg&hash=a4973584ad746003c4d828f7b5005524b7798c15)
#3; Click to enlargeBack then, there have been 4 settlements:
*
Mithrax: The name is based on Mithrax spinosissimus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithrax_spinosissimus) for no reason other than I liked it ;D. The only fortified city on this city tile, it has been founded due to easy access to the sea and close proximity to farming land.
*
Pons Iriamus: Misspelled in the screenshot as "Pons Iriamum" (I changed my mind...). Just a few houses and a wayside inn for travelers at the intersection between the trade routes.
*
Staricum: A small village, located at the farms along the creek there.
*
Tyrsalis: Again, access to the sea, to seafood, and to wood were the main reasons why Tyrsalis has been founded there.
Nowadays, after centuries of progress, Vella will look like this:
Yellow: Farms
Red: Cities/villages
Brown/orange: Railway
Blue: Bodies of water
White/grey: Roads(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150602%2Fnuf7kbfc.jpg&hash=c9b7eaa18eb762438ebc643774d38b5bb09aee4f)
#4; Click to enlargePlease note:
* Mithrax, the capital of Vella, has taken over Pons Iriamus and Staricum due to continuous growth. But I'll try to reflect the former development when building Mithrax.
* About the two grey roads: I haven't decided yet which one of these I'll build. Most likely the top one, although there will be a small village at the westernmost edge of the city tile to the east that I need to take into account.
* About the different colors of the projected railway lines: The hilly terrain will most likely make the construction of a railway line difficult. In both cases, I'm currently considering two different plans how to construct a railway line. The brown line itself will be a ground railway, whereas the orange line will be built on railway viaducts. As with the grey roads, I haven't decided yet.
* Anything that isn't farms or settlements will be filled with forests and perhaps a few clearings and meadows.
That's all for today. I hope to present you the first pictures as soon as possible. Hope you liked it, despite many words and few pictures.
Great to see some development stage pictures of your work. It certainly is interesting to see how you plan out your cities and the thought you put into them. :)
Looking forward to see the growth of Mithrax.
Congrats on being OSITM! &apls
Nice idea to show development from the start, plans are promising. Looking forward how it pans out! :thumbsup:
Congratulations on the OSITM! Interesting to see the planning. The rivers are looking very good and I'm especially looking forward to seeing the river delta!
The should be interesting to watch develop. :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2F6xxjjzp7.png&hash=01b87f278febd6c7207f52a778389058cb723b33)
Responsa
art128, vortext, Themistokles, c.p.: Thank you all for your interest and your congratulations! Let's hope the city will develop nicely.
Progressio
Today's update, as well as most of the updates in the near future, will lead us to city tile B3,
Vella.
I'm afraid that I couldn't start really building anything so far, because in this update, I will mainly perform three tasks:
* Making notes in our city in-game to look whether my plans made in Paint can actually be carried out in-game,
* Taking care about the two imo most tedious and complicated tasks: Building the railway and laying out farms,
* Building a basic road infrastructure that runs all over the city to make sure that workers will have access to all farms, as well as the city border, and to adapt the viae and the farms to each other in special occasions (such as sloped terrain)
While I'm aware that this may not necessarily be realistic (and it doesn't give screenshots I'm really proud of), I fear I have no other choice since especially building farms and railways always comes first in my cities.
The first step includes: Drawing riverbeds (with Jeronij's ploppable water), labeling unique terrain features (such as the futural harbor and beach), delimiting the city growth (with tree logs), delimiting the old town parts (with riprap), and drawing the old trade routes (with ballast, brown lines). Of course, all planning is anything but accurate. This is an example:
Leuchtturm: lighthouse
Hafen: harbour
Strand: beach(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2Fnwfyq4co.jpg&hash=8c7b73b8d3c98393603d08b8a762e4f7d6bb94f9)
#1; Click to enlargeThe second step includes: Drawing the railway line (grey sand), delimiting the agricultural areas (pebble heaps), and labeling various areas in my futural city according to my plans. With Mithrax, the decision where to build the railway has been surprisingly easy because I couldn't have built a railway line on ground without making sharp railway curves and complicated road overpasses. Therefore, at the area around the river the railway will be raised onto either a dam or a viaduct.
Altstadt: old town
EZ = Einkaufszentrum: mall
Station: (railway) station
Apartments: means the same
Vorstadt: suburbs
IG, I-Gebiet = Industriegebiet: industrial area
Gewerbezone: commercial area
HBF = Hauptbahnhof: main railway station
Staudamm: (river) dam(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2Fmtcls57j.jpg&hash=c8b1cb0bc66a7a1c6db5ec413021feddc060af39)
#2; Click to enlargeIn the case of Tyrsalis, however, making a decision really troubles me somehow. There are two possible solutions for the railway line, as you can see, I haven't decided yet. I even went as far as building both solutions, making a screenshot, and then exiting without saving to visualize them - something I've really never done before, but it's a troublesome location. The road connection encircled with red will BTW moved a little to the south.
Solarkraftwerke: solar power plants(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2Fejwartgd.jpg&hash=d5434a65d99537bd431aa1b22154fcac47da3a7e)
#3; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2Fqu6itfaf.jpg&hash=2a9a0659d48044ebc2bc951abf2219e31bbab01f)
#4; Click to enlargeAfter the planning, we can finally start with the work.
As already mentioned, I will mainly be laying out farms, railways, and a few roads.
Mithrax:
You might wonder why I'm using two roads at the coast to connect this city to the city tile to the east: the southern road will lead to a close village, while the northern road (the "supervia", as I'm calling it, basically an RHW-2 highway) will allow travelers driving from Mithrax to Suradis Nova, capital of Calidores, to bypass the farm fields (that usually mean a lot of slow tractors) and the aforementioned village. Finally an occasion allowing me to try out this nifty little road intersection construction that has been lying around in my plugins folder for quite a while without ever having seen usage.
By the way, most of the roads (save the bridges) won't be there for very long. They're just there for connecting workers with farm fields, not more. For the sake of building the bridges, I've temporarily raised the water level. Gaps between farm fields will later be filled with trees.
BaH = Bauernhof: farm (house)(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2F5j8g439m.jpg&hash=9889d3271669f6a40615ac7633a592fc4d9cd200)
#5; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2Fjwtmp3rb.jpg&hash=09b8a46dd358217cd22ec81e7c73dc40314b0b55)
#6; Click to enlargeTyrsalis:In this case, I've been using FLUP pieces to connect the roads of Tyrsalis with those from Mithrax, in order not to terraform the terrain too much - especially before actually knowing what to do exactly with this area.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2F6jxgerzi.jpg&hash=6e954444ad34b764a7e006e4d590217584ccbc67)
#7; Click to enlargeI've also whipped up a small little picture because I didn't want to let you go without at least one picture that looks more or less complete ;D I won't keep the buildings there, but it took merely 5 minutes to plop them.
This small gem, found here (http://kurier.simcityplaza.de/details.php?file=1186), also sat around idle in my folders for very long, until (after being relotted a little) finally been able to spring into action. It also has its own history: Back in the medievals, it served as a toll booth for the people who have built the bridge - after all, building and maintaining a bridge is expensive, so at least traveling merchants have been charged a fee to be allowed to use this bridge. It also doubled as a wayside inn, providing food, a good night's sleep, and a little hay for the horses. Recently, however, the cobblestone bridge lost its purpose as the main traffic route (it can't carry a large amount of car, bus, and freight truck traffic), but it has been recycled as a pedestrian bridge because it's too dangerous for pedestrians to walk on the avenue bridge. This former toll booth is now a restaurant, being owned by a family of Scottish immigrants, serving Scottish cuisine there.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150606%2F2arb2z8n.jpg&hash=146daa7d51b85131683471fc945df5ac2dfaaa76)
#8With this, we are finally done for today. Hope you liked this update. The next step will be actually developing the farms, as well as the first suburban areas, commercial buildings, and industrial zones.
That is certainly interesting. This is going to be a great month. :)
As for the railway, it all depends what kind of traffic you want. Do you want people from Mithrax to go by train to Tyrsalis, and allowing a train line from the North of the region and the capital to go south through Tyrsalis? If yes, then make the viaduct way along the shore.
But if you want a traffic oriented toward a line from Friganium peninsula going south, then the railway along the mountain is the best idea.
If it were my region, I'd make the railway line from the capital going south through Tyrsalis a reality as it seems more realistic to have that kind of corridor.
Congratulations!! (a bit late, I know) Keep the good work!!! &apls
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150612%2Fwqyphsvc.png&hash=68f41bff09db8e87a4aaa8f947e6788d9c38592f)
Responsa
art128: Thank you very much! I do actually think that you've got a good point there. I want the main traffic to travel from the northeast (via Mithrax) to the southwest, so I guess I'll build a railway viaduct along the coast.
romualdillo: Thank you again for your interest. Late is better than not at all :)
Progressio
As already mentioned, today I'll start developing the farms and the suburbs. However, the first residential development is merely made in order to "provide the farms with workers". Therefore, I'm starting with suburbs, for 1. they are mostly in close proximity to the farm fields, and 2. they mostly contain low-density residentials.
Vella has three areas with a low amount of fields, therefore, I'll create 3 small suburban areas. (Sorry, while writing this update, I realized that I forgot to make a picture to show where the farms are located. I'll show a picture later.)
The first area, called
Staricum (it used to be a small independent village before it has been taken over by Mithrax), already contains a small old village center, this time mostly made with Wallibuk's Slovakian housing. I'm basically skipping some of the possible 1x2 zones to make sure the game doesn't grow 2x2 or larger residentials (you may surely already know that SC4 always finds a way to mess you up); then, when a substantial amount of 1x2 residentials I want to see has been grown, they become historical and I'm laying out the missing zones. If some areas don't develop at all or only give me a large amount of R$ buildings, I'll dezone them and place a park or the like there.
A note on my plans concerning suburban zoning: I usually prefer 1x2 low-density mid-wealth residentials over all other low-density residentials because
* they take up a low amount of space (less than R$$$ villas) while having at least a little garden,
* they are mid-wealth (I need those most),
* I have a large amount of plugins with 1x2 R$$ buildings which allows me to reduce repetitive patterns to a minimum.
Every now and them, however, I'll grow a few R$$$ villas; R$ inhabitants mostly live in apartments or a few scattered low-density houses I either tolerate or forget to remove.
Commercials are usually placed this way:
* Along an important road in the center of a village/town part (usually in low numbers, perhaps about 10 buildings),
* At locations such as road intersections or railway stations (I think of them as small boutiques, food stores etc.; usually only 1 building there),
* In large cities, I sometimes build large commercial zones at the center of the city (usually close to the main railway station) or at the city limits - sometimes pretty close or even adjacent to suburban areas.
This is how Staricum looks like while being planned:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150612%2Frmwfofhb.jpg&hash=ab92e986f7a6f966fc0b6134e1dc71f707607c4c)
#1; Click to enlarge... and after a couple of in-game months:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150612%2Fnkpj93cu.jpg&hash=481a5c195201e4498fe25fb35c715b42735e318b)
#2; Click to enlarge... and even later:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150612%2Fyxcmiz37.jpg&hash=ad524016dfce23ff72b70056388603f4d7a661d0)
#3; Click to enlargeTo the east, we have a suburb with the name of
Lamira. I haven't mentioned this name before, but like Staricum, it has been an independent village until it melted together with Mithrax.
Planning phase:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150612%2Ftyze5zta.jpg&hash=8509d3d7c68e3baea80ef7a94c6535d5f09a8397)
#4; Click to enlarge... and first development:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150612%2Fdmgf958x.jpg&hash=9a35d41659e7da7e498cb6beae151db9887dbac6)
#5; Click to enlargeThere are also some farms around
Tyrsalis, the village at the bay to the southwest. Unfortunately, I had really bad luck with this village and although I've been running the game for at least 1 year and 9 months, nearly no development occured at all, so I only have a picture of the development phase. Since I don't have any plans so far how to design Tyrsalis, the suburbs is located a little farther away from the fields (actually, at the opposite border of the village) - where I have enough space and there's a low risk of me messing up everything.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150612%2Fn8fpink2.jpg&hash=dc9d762d8a214b76c2141974b9f5d09d655a648b)
#6; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Hope you liked it. Usually, after this first steps, I simply build how I want (as the only sensitive aspect is developing the farms) while paying attention to the commercial/residential demand, so no one can tell what awaits you the next time.
Clever use of ploppables in your previous update. That's something I've never seen before.
Looks like your villages are off to a good start :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2Fvjw3lene.png&hash=4c25f779d3d7691ffcaec40935e3ad61a47e96c2)
Responsa
c.p.: Thank you very much! It's in fact easier to plan my city by visualizing content such as rivers, main roads, etc.
Progressio
In this update, I decided to further develop suburban areas. My main reason were in-game restrictions: To develop mid-rise residentals, I first need to let my population grow, and so I expanded the suburbs. This means more low-residentials, but even they help increasing the population a bit until my city reaches a stage where it facilitates growing mid-rises. Anyway, I need to deveop the suburban areas sometime, so - two birds with one stone.
And again, I forgot to make screenshots of the farming area :-[ Someone please remind me to buy a new brain somewhere. New to me, today's pictures have been made during fall.
But first, a picture of
Lamira, the suburbs on the eastern hills. It has been improved a bit by the use of MMP trees.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2Fss5d2khl.jpg&hash=df6f06126b9eaad8de61db121751eb1b28128bb8)
#1; Click to enlargeA little further to the northeast, the first farming area is nearly finished, as well as the "Money Cauldron", as I like to call it - a more modern part of Mithrax, containing an office complex, a mall, and a cinema. The latter is an example of "multi-level commercial areas", as I call them, albeit an easy one. If it weren't for the grid restriction in Sim City 4, I'd nearly only build on slopes, it's much more fun ;D. The former is an example of how I'm dealing with forests: Smaller patches such as the area where the road is splitting are made with MMP's, the small gaps between farm fields (with a width of 1 tile) are being made with ploppabe forests as it is too troublesome for me to use MMP's.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2F5eyurn6c.jpg&hash=d3ef3e71d9b0a863e489e6dc07a9c107221c7e10)
#2; Click to enlargeAnd a close-up (unfortunately a summer picture):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2Fy9do83qz.jpg&hash=0f458f1bfa3f8646a2826c471cf5bdcc5bc3e750)
#3; Click to enlargeThe first industrial area (squeezed in between Lamira and Staricum) is also nearing completion, although I might remove the dirty industrials later. My plans with industrials so far are: Growing manufacturing and high-tech industrials in some of my cities (mainly at the outskirts of the settlements to make sure that the lowest amount of people suffers from the pollution) and restricting dirty industry to a few cities and to areas remote from any settlement.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2Fg7qierey.jpg&hash=95c4c04ecea3f81429b9e3b5edbf1714c323b361)
#4; Click to enlargeNext, I'll finally get to the next suburban area - developed at the southern hillside, where the Via Vellae (the AVE-4 being converted into an AVE-2; I've dragged this road this way to make sure that the traffic doesn't travel right through the suburbs since this via is seeing much traffic) climbs the hills to connect Mithrax with Tyrsalis. At this place, I've tried to grow a little more mid-rises (especially close to the main roads and to the river), but I had little luck. Due to its large size, I had to make 2 screenshots.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2Fpwp6m47f.jpg&hash=5a9afff08cb39b58be75299d9bfba2c50bd3b798)
#5; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2Fzloo94b4.jpg&hash=2e22ef4e152e6c5a1a612f1459c0903ed5979072)
#6; Click to enlargeI should mention that due to the increasing interest of the Calidorian population in religions other than Christianity - in this case Asian religions - , it was only a matter of time until the mayor's office received a request to grant permission to build a temple. Temples like these will most likely be limited to the larger cities only, but I guess Mithrax will become my Simperium's second-largest city. I surely hope I got this temple right.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150618%2Fpzdwzsuk.jpg&hash=ef5b4c3e7774d8d490aabb9b2f939bd921f2f4e3)
#7; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Hope you liked it.
Great updates, I like how the suburbs is developing nicely. The apartments along the main road and the river are excellent, love them!
The new developments look very natural and realistic. I think your bigger cities will look great when finished, just as the smaller ones do! Keep the good work!! :thumbsup:
Nice work so far, I like the planning you're doing in regard to the river and so on.
Nice selection of BATs. There's a diversity of styles, but they work well together, and give your city a unique look. :thumbsup:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Fe2lapssz.png&hash=c8d3934e107ec4c6b8a815336513a8084ee0b0b2)
Responsa
art128: Thank you very much. Glad you like it, I had my doubts because my city is still on a low stage which means that mid-density residentials barely grow at all. Therefore, I don't like the current development yet.
romualdillo, belfastsocrates, c.p.: Thank you very much, too, for your nice comments.
Excursio
Before continuing the work on city tile B3,
Vella, we make a short trip to city tile C3,
Hadria. I figured I might support the development of Vella by starting with a little development of its eastern neighbor. I've already nearly finished a small rural village close to Mithrax, it's got the name
Lithicum. It is located at the aptly named Via Lithici which starts in Mithrax at the road-splitting structure seen in Update 12 Picture #2 (the road to the right). Lithicum is located close to the city border.
As already mentioned, it is a rural village, therefore, I've scattered the residentials a bit. I've seen several screenshots here and on the STEX with small fields growing between small agglomerations of houses, and so I tried the same. Although it's a small village, it contains a small doctor's office, a railway station, a small school, a few shops, and a little industry. Fortunately, the game was nice enough to grow me a bunch of Simgoober's cottages, which look good in a setting like this, but alas, its creativity was gone when it came to growing anything more than SimGoober's Sweet Legacy homes on 1x1 residential zones.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Filmejri8.jpg&hash=eaa4f0129b04b4580fa1a410e4ec806950133aaf)
#1; Click to enlargeAnd a close-up of the center:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Fj8o78rxb.jpg&hash=83923c49e4669c65f01a2ed4a682f17e8d667449)
#2; Click to enlargeProgressio
After this short trip to another city, I will continue my work on Vella.
This time, I've spent nearly all time on developing
Tyrsalis, the western settlement on Vella. Tyrsalis is nearly finished, apart from some empty spots or parts where MMP's are remissing.
Since there are densely forested hills between Mithrax and Tyrsalis, I thought I might resort to housing where wood plays a crucial role. Particularly, I've used timberframe houses (although they are in fact made more of stone than of wood, the houses are being supported by the wooden skeleton), Kwakelaars content (European W2W houses, although I'm sure they don't consist mostly of wood), and two Canadian buildings called Knightsbridge and Halifax boxes (made by spa). Unfortunately, this time the game didn't like me at all, and I had trouble growing the residentials. For the sake of the screenshots in this update, I even had to plop literally all of them despite all of my attempts to let them grow naturally (by, for instance, blocking all other buildings). The same reason, as well as a lack of time, also prevented me from once more growing Glenni's Norwegian houses (they also look like wooden houses).
Long story short: First, there are three screenshots, from the north to the south of Tyrsalis (East ist located at the top of the pictures).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Fsz3q9fzq.jpg&hash=1275a4b270ff1edf5bb032cd42ed9e7e252c80b2)
#3; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2F4bozttzo.jpg&hash=ea1c8472ca81c211995b17beef4d0aa1886e0119)
#4; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Fohcvgfqw.jpg&hash=30563bdd89354266109268dc2acd9fa116aae685)
#5; Click to enlargeAnd now two close-ups that I like: First, the coastal area where the river is flowing into the sea, with the extravagant fish market (Fish Church) and the house on poles that is only accessible during low tides (CSX Barby Haven; I've relotted it a bit).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Ffwo9ozxw.jpg&hash=1104573f80bffbeefe8b3f988dfbe0e17b34a486)
#6; Click to enlargeAnd second, the old town parts (warning: large picture). I've decided to let the railway run all the way along the coast on a viaduct, as art128 already suggested. Time to try out a new plugin I'm developing that allows me to put the space below viaducts to good use by placing parking lots, market stalls, trash containers and more there. I'm already considering to share it; however, before opening a development thread (which somehow implies a promise that I'll one day share them), I wanted to show it somewhere and hear your opinion without being obliged to share it (it's not only far from being shared, most parts are lot-based, which means I can't place them in a row without obstructing railway traffic).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2F565lb659.jpg&hash=a7e36f826aca77c6c5257fb4e2fd4352f2fd5f6c)
#7; Click to enlargeNext, two overviews. One of Tyrsalis and one of the whole city tile. Admittedly, the latter one is not impressive, but I wanted to show the current progress as well as the locations of Tyrsalis (left) and Mithrax (right) in relation to their surrounding.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Fh6ggoqu4.jpg&hash=98ea80617119439a217b709ddb9fad6d70de085d)
#8; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150626%2Ff9thk6r5.jpg&hash=c28a6571c27f8c4c6bec55e19f5968e7feddf040)
#9; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Hope you liked it.
Really nice developments around the center.
But I think you should use another ferry terminal because the maxis one lacks a bit of details. Well it's just my opinion. WMP's is really nice, but massive.
That's a lot of Solar power plants.. :D :D
Congratulations on being OSITM and for being number one on Ben's Top Ten!
Finally caught up on all the great updates! &apls
Really like the way you tackle planning as well, outlining with a mmps is a neat idea. The market stalls and such underneath the rail viaducts are a nice touch. And in general you have a good eye for detail. :thumbsup:
Lovely town!! &apls
You know how to make a realistic town, very nice :thumbsup:
Nice development as always! And that fish market looks very much like the one in my home town -- I had no idea it had been batted.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Fktgaqftf.png&hash=88eb0a6377a9df0ae5741172026be79df8cedf7c)
Responsa
art128: Thank you very much! I do not like the Maxis Terminals very much either. However, I don't like the WMP terminal either, so I'm still searching. About the solar panels: It's true, I'm having more power than I currently need. I relotted Pegasus' Solar Power Plant a bit to get a 1x1 solar panel to fill small 1x1 gaps, and of course tuned down its generated power, so it's not that much more. I was fed up with the empty space there, so I had to do something about it. And it looks like I'll need the electricity in the near future, when my city will grow.
benedict: Thank you. I don't exactly know what that means, but it sounds quite nice.
vortext, romualdillo, manga rivotra, Themistokles: Thank you all very much, too!
Progressio
Just a few days have passed, and it's already time for another update. Unfortunately, it's therefore a shorter update than usual, but as you may have noticed, the last few minutes of my MD being OSITM are here and so I felt I had to write an update.
The only thing missing now is my way of working with MMP's. I need to admit that I've seen much better work than mine in several MD's here and CJ's over at Simtropolis, so I thought I might share pictures of an example how I'm designing a river shore as well as its surrounding forests step by step. If you find anything that I'm doing wrong, or if you have suggestions what to improve, you're very welcome to write me a note. I'm mostly trying to find a good compromise between
- realism
- beauty
- and whatever content is available for download.
We'll start with this nearly virginal area in
Mithrax where a small brook coming from the east (here: the top of the picture) flows into the river Iriamus.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2F3yhzf5jo.jpg&hash=fb5de422eccedb8cdd905f7b3a272be6611bb484)
#1; Click to enlargeFirst, of course, the blue water dots are being removed and replaced by the RFR Plopwater:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2F22rm2klf.jpg&hash=f2e692f3f199ebd96ed8c3ce072bc234782216cf)
#2; Click to enlargeA little further to the south, there's a reservoir lake with a dam. I'm using the Wildbach pieces to depict turbulences 1. wherever I like it ;D, 2. sometimes where I need a transition between two different types of water, and 3. where it makes sense (such as the base of a waterfall and below the dam).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2F5og6qbqj.jpg&hash=8c6b8673c67344268803ad8e05449fd477194bd0)
#3; Click to enlargeNow for the shoreline. I'm using Pegasus' rocks, gravel, etc. from the Pegasus Terrain Kit. Their main advantage is that they complement each other very well.
4a: I'm starting with boulders to place them at special (and sometimes difficult) locations (such as river islands and next to bridges) because they help to cover some parts of the water MMP's that are not so beautiful, or green areas that can't be covered with water MMP's.
4b: Next comes the gravel. I'm mostly forming large areas with it, sometimes even with a width of several tiles. I'm just imagining that the riverbed is very flat and whenever it's raining a little more, the river quickly floods these parts.
4c: The rest will be filled with rock clusters.
4d: With small rocks, I'm covering small green gaps between the other MMP's where the default terrain can still be seen, or parts where I simply want to place them.
I'm barely ever designing the shores of flowing water with anything other than gravel and rocks. I know it from the rivers in my environment.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Fieowzjw2.jpg&hash=cff05d03695a082a72a7037a9749256d5dbf084d)
#4a, 4b, 4c, 4d; Click to enlarge4e: If you are like me and like to take a bath in a river instead of the sea in summer, as well as having a grill party with friends there, then you need to lay out a few dirt paths leading from nearby streets to the riverbed.
4f: Next come the trees, in this case Girafe's trees. Along rivers, I usually place: ash, maple, linden, norway maple, and birch trees. I'm starting with the former three tree types because they usually give tree clusters. Therefore, they quickly cover a large area, but they are difficult to place, because I need to make sure that there are no trees growing on roads or the like.
4g: With norway maple trees, I'm filling gaps in the forest (mostly around its limits). Birch trees are only sporadically placed along the limits of the forests or at unusual locations (such as the canal seen in picture 1).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Ftepy4zho.jpg&hash=bfbfa6e06e493e5548a0e4dd67bbf47cafa41a56)
#4e, 4f, 4g4h, 4i: Close to the limits of the forests, at clearings or in areas without trees, I'm using Green Rye Grass (from RRP Pasture Flora) to cover the ground. At some parts, close to the gravel, I'm placing Girafe's bushes. At various parts, such as in small gaps between the gravel and the retaining wall of the canal, or close to rock clusters, I'm using Girafe's cattails. And the few spots in the forest where you can still see the ground will be filled with something quite common in deciduous forests: fallen leaves (from Pegasus' Terrain Kit). Observe now the final result in fall (4h) and summer (4i):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Fiwywrugz.jpg&hash=88d5e72d37b36da601e3c198d0a4e60f8670dc04)
#4h; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2F2w5iu4kf.jpg&hash=ce887d377fcd114769771de11c1943e0330f4827)
#4i; Click to enlargeOther parts of the river currently only have its shoreline finished, there's no forest to be seen. It didn't look good enough to me to make a screenshot of it.
Other than working on the river, I just couldn't resist to start to design the old town parts of Mithrax, close to the coast to the north, but it's very much a work in progress. I'll be making a walkway along the river, the promenade is part of it.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Fc4fgl3kr.jpg&hash=6d049c2cf4794ceaef2d437288c0053917221998)
#5; Click to enlargeAnd here some close-ups I like: First, the apartment of a famous composer (the building abov the fountain):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Fgec5k488.jpg&hash=075318ff45b08f921fdd8ead82b7bd3e785aa56b)
#6; Click to enlargeNext, the Mithrax City Square, with the town hall, two statues of important personalities that I haven't yet found a name for them, and the "Green House", an embassy (actually just a random ploppable CS$$-building, but whatever):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Foli2owsv.jpg&hash=f9703f771c0b3109910687d97a8491d551b8ad67)
#7; Click to enlargeFinally, the city park. The few remnants of the old city wall are being preserved there because the gate can't handle traffic flowing through it anymore:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150630%2Ft5f4bfrz.jpg&hash=da0e75568ae92f155219ea6196f62495a698be87)
#8; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Hope you liked it, as well as the past month where Calidores has been OSITM. I haven't been able to finish Vella in this month, but it doesn't look like I'll stop working on it tomorrow. Last but not least, I'd like to thank you all for reading and writing comments, because without your continued interest, I'd probably given up.
I'm digging the way this river's turning out. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell that water was even plop water if you hadn't said so and provided the step by step pics — it appears to sparkle and flow like game water. The riverfront with the gravel, brush, and other details is visually stunning. Nice work, 11241036!
:thumbsup:
I know this is way late, but congratulations on making OSITM for June.
Wonderful work once again, it has been a very good OSITM with you here, lots of interesting developments.
That last update gives us a good overview of what's more to come. The work on the river bed is excellent.
I really like the city gate preserved on a small urban park like that, gives you a feel of realness.
Those autumn colours and the old town are absolutely wonderful, it makes me long to the autumn even though it's the height of summer :D But I think you should use some other parking garage than the maxis one behind the city hall (this (http://"http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/26936-ms-w2w-storey-car-park/") one is my personal favourite, but it's rather space consuming though). And thank you for a really pleasurable OSITM!
The river looks great :thumbsup: Chris Adams made some tubers, supposedly for ploppable water, but I don't know if they would work with your particular ploppable water. (I don't have a link, but they're probably on the LEX. If not, and you're interested check his thread here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=2352.0
Oh shame, my first comment! $%Grinno$%
Only thing I can say is, I like it. I like you riverworks, the selection of BATs you are using, the lotting and especially the way you built the last old town center. &apls &apls &apls
Excellent work once again! I especially love the city wall remnants and you're doing really nice work with the W2W areas and ploppable water &apls
I'm agree with Noah, the city wall is really nice !!
&apls &apls
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150713%2F55xidqnl.png&hash=63110bf7b0f9f5bc3ae0f7b32dde8725cdf2ffe3)
Responsa
art128: A special thanks to you for your compliment and featuring my MD OSITM June 2015.
Themistokles: Thank you very much! About the parking garage: It's actually a re-lotted Maxis garage, but you're right, it does sometimes look strange. I've downloaded the parking garage you recommended, but it has been difficult to include it in my MD due to its odd shape. Please see the Old Town picture in this update about how it turned out.
c.p.: Thank you very much! What do you mean with "tubers", exactly? If you refer to the culverts made by
ChrisAdams: I've already installed them, but I haven't found a use for them so far. However, I might use them later, they might come in handy in rural areas or at spots where I can't resort to other means of getting a brook past a road.
metarvo, carlfatal, noahclem, kelis: A great thank you to you, too.
ProgressioLong time no hear from me ;D After the past month, I decided to take a break of a few days from playing SC4. I'm glad that the riverside turned out good for you. I'll try my best to keep up the quality.
In today's update, I'm taking on the challenge to develop the inner city parts of
Mithrax that I've spared so far - they will mostly be made up with mid-density zoning (mostly apartments and condos) and commercials. It hasn't been easy because 1. of the hilly terrain, and 2. with my plugins folder, it's difficult to create a good scene made of mid-density apartments without serious cases of building repetition, or exactly the opposite (in case I
want building repetition).
But first, a screenshot of a brook separating a small suburb from Mithrax (Staricum). It's the same brook that's flowing into the large river in the last update, pictures 4a-4i (Sorry, forgot to turn on the shadows):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150713%2Fsm6hbwjj.jpg&hash=5e5e842471971fea189b97c456502970f9e32cae)
#1; Click to enlargeNext, just north of the brook, I've developed a R$ district with mostly Danchi apartments. To spruce it up a litte, I've included a small pond there:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150713%2Foyn46gxq.jpg&hash=a394576232dec9e72dfe035f8d1c68e43bffff85)
#2; Click to enlargeA little further to the west (here: at the bottom), there's a little rowhouse development around the high school, the church and even a small mosque. I've been actually lucky to grow it, all of these R$$$-Rowhouses have grown naturally.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150713%2F57as3u7m.jpg&hash=b55415b04b33a5c5d5ad7f7e0a97dc31088151fc)
#3; Click to enlargeClose to the river, where it is splitting to form a delta, there's a mostly modern condominium complex.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150713%2F7kpgqoyh.jpg&hash=95cfec1659bec1369be6c1203b8038c729dd53f2)
#4; Click to enlargeUsually, I'm placing the main railway station in the center of a city. At this location, it can easily be accessed from everywhere in the city, and I can make it the center of activity. This time, due to the hilly terrain, I had to place it on the hillside. I've also placed a few shops there, further commercial development is in progress. Unfortunately, I had trouble developing the condos at the hillside.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150713%2Fdhzfz6vy.jpg&hash=0619cf9b434f7e9fc2adc1c8a3d17fac1c697223)
#5; Click to enlargeAnd last, the old town parts have been updated a bit.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150713%2Fpjl5qyrk.jpg&hash=39fff1d452bc35494cc3cb152d4885f6beb54212)
#6; Click to enlargeThat's all for today, I hope you liked this update despite its shortness. Further updates may include
* developing the harbor (ferry terminal and marina),
* finally getting along to develop the delta,
* finishing the reservoir lake and the forests in the south,
* finishing the last parts of the city (especially this probably troublesome part between the diagonal avenue and the diagonal railroad, this has been bugging me for a while because of the slopes there and because it requires a smooth transition to the old town parts).
Quote from: 11241036 on July 12, 2015, 11:05:15 PM
What do you mean with "tubers", exactly?
I mean people floating on the river on inner tubes. (It seemed to fit your river recreation theme in that update.) :)
Your city is progressing along nicely :thumbsup:
Great work!! &apls The city is developing fantastically!!!
Very beautiful development ( specifically with the W2W ) and beautiful use of the MMP for the river &apls
I am impatient to see how you are going to complete the part between the diagonal road and the railroad : a real challenge indeed :)
Once again, thank you for an awesome OSITM. :)
This new update was really nice. I enjoyed quite a bit the danchi area.
Good luck with the diagonal section...
I'm loving seeing how you are developing and progressing. Some really lovely work in this MD. I'm particularly fond of the W2W old town and the river.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fmb9k9ysc.png&hash=4016d52cbb13bf1a7e3c4b159d411d40587f37f7)
Responsa
c.p.: Thank you very much! I appreciate your thought, however, I've never liked kayaks and boats and the like on my rivers, so I'm not sure if I'll include them in this MD.
romualdillo, manga rivotra, art128, belfastsocrates: Thank you very much, too!
Exordium
One day, when the denizens of Calidores woke up, they could barely believe their eyes: By some divine prank, all the grass has changed its color to a more pale green; furthermore, the sea looked much more opaque and dark blue. Fearing that this may cause serious landscape deforming, they prayed to the gods, particularly the one already being infamous for his whimsicalness, aka
ME ;D, to ensure that by whatever means the colors have changed, this may not seriously impact neither their everyday life nor 11241036's MD. It took a while for the gods of Calidores to make this sure, in fact, and so the denizens of Calidores had to wait patiently for being displayed in Update 16.
Now, after all those days, and sorting out the issues the color shift has caused (by simply backuping Calidores and trying around), the Calidorian population hereby want to present you with a few new pictures from Calidores, or, to be more exact, still the province of
B3 Vella.
In other words: I've switched to the Sudden Valley Terrain Mod. However, it has the side effect of raising the entire terrain. Fortunately, I found this out while working on another region. I seriously don't know why and how, and opening a thread on the STEX didn't give me an answer that helped me. So, I hope you are not annoyed with me that this update took a while, because I didn't want this issue to affect Calidores. Fortunately, it does not seem to affect Calidores, but just to be on the safe side, I will backup my region after each time playing SC4. As of now, I think that this terrain raising issue does not affect cities where either a save file exists already (the testing region has simply been given life by clicking on the in-game "Create new Region" button; it had a lot of city tiles but only a few save files), or where the city has already been switched to mayor mode prior to installing the new terrain mod, but I haven't been able to confirm either of these theories. Let's now stop rambling around and continue with the...
Progressio
In this update, I will give the finishing touch to
Mithrax, capital of Vella. This has been bugging me for a while because there were some unfinished corners, mostly where I haven't placed MMP's. So the changes don't look like much because barely anything crucial has changed. Therefore, I will now present you with a few aerial shots of Mithrax and its environment. (In all aerial screenshots, north is located at the bottom.)
A forest river to the southeast of Mithrax, at the road connecting Mithrax with its neighbor village Tyrsalis. Two pictures, one during fall and one during summer:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2F2ldu2bi3.jpg&hash=a0768340b2ace6250586756259db125d6db0b0a9)
#16.1a; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2F7mv9wk3b.jpg&hash=070bea4570c6d8b72f0935be249e3461ff7a04b6)
#16.1b; Click to enlargeThe reservoir lake and the valley to the south of Mithrax:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fqjpl7trj.jpg&hash=e5debdbdbcbdbdf63cf022842000b426415f95aa)
#16.2; Click to enlargeAnd the city itself:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fc7bye5dk.jpg&hash=2db54c130392655522b560bdf29f608c940bc5ec)
#16.3; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fu3rds38g.jpg&hash=c34cb18bc2038606dbe0d5af5b5ba47d2e3155aa)
#16.4; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Faeslabh8.jpg&hash=499238264b039a10735faf2694fe5af5556a2a92)
#16.5; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fmjpo8unc.jpg&hash=e73fe8cbcd7aad5e98ab5c2fcb08108a27ba139d)
#16.6; Click to enlargeAnd now a few close-ups. First, the bay with the marina and the passenger harbor.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fylmt3d43.jpg&hash=84d1beb49c55a0cd82513f2411f05f4937610455)
#16.7; Click to enlargeNext, this is what I did with the diagonal section. Fortunately, after a little relotting, I had enough buildings to place there, but more troublesome than the building part was the fact that there's an elevation difference of 7.5 m between the avenue and the road beneath the railway. So, simply a big lawn and a park there.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Frozqn9mv.jpg&hash=422be2157a5399c3457302ae60b2928b5bb7a411)
#16.8; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2F6q7vavzo.jpg&hash=e93c694616eac4eca4f4f79bde0f937c71738e9d)
#16.9; Click to enlargeI've also built a business section close to the railway station:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2F4x7twnc4.jpg&hash=a875c9f70ca20fa9082746029e26e06b604af900)
#16.10; Click to enlargeFinally, a monastery and a former castle with a park, located on one of the islands of the delta:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fm4u9yki2.jpg&hash=8bd8fbb899196b7453dd41758179ff399b5fbf1f)
#16.11; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. I'm proud to say that Vella is now nearing completion, with only one thing being missing:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150802%2Fg4snfyac.jpg&hash=cb4d3bf90229479e25514746f53467e8040e9099)
#16.12; Click to enlargeThis is really bugging me because I want to make it something special, not the usual river arms. So, this will take a while.
You did a great job with the diagonal part. The use of the corner buildings like that is very cool and ingenious.
Nice work on the port too, I just realized after a second viewing where the passenger harbor is, subtle.
Good luck with the river arms...
I really like the way you builds you city by keeping many greenery even in the central part of your business section ( 16.10 ) and it' s a good way of managing slopes.
Very nice &apls
Great couple of updates, you really have a knack for rivers and marinas! &apls
Looking forward to see what you come up with for the last watery bit. Fingers crossed for another amazing swamp area! :thumbsup:
I love the market place, and the rest of the city looks great!!! Looking forward to the river development!!! :popcorn:
Coming along nicely :thumbsup:
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Responsa
art128: Thank you very much! It's just a shame that the passenger port isn't working. I guess I'll keep it, however, it's not that it is the only possible connection to other cities.
manga rivotra: Thank you very much! It's a honor to hear this from you, as I've always liked the way you are developing the hillsides in your cities :)
vortext: Great to hear from you again :) Making the delta swampy sounds like a good idea, and I'll definitely give it a try in a futural update (I haven't had an idea yet how to make a swamp, I've never done this before and I'm sometimes suffering from a serious lack of patience to make good MMP scenes).
romualdillo, c.p.: Thank you very much, too!
Progressio
It's again time for another update. Like already mentioned to vortext, I had no idea how to make a swamp, so the completion of Vella had to wait. In the meantime, I've started developing a city tile we've already visited before,
C3 Hadria, located to the east of Vella.
Most parts are horribly VIP at the moment, mostly because the MMP work is barely done. I'm sparing this for last mostly because MMP's are sometimes removed when plopping buildings or dragging roads and I don't want to do the same work twice. Sorry for that. Also, I've already noticed that SimGoober's Sweet Legacy houses are flooding my entire city tile; they are literally the only houses that seem to grow on 1x1 low-density residential zones. I guess I'll have to look for a solution.
There are 3 settlements in Hadria: We've already seen the village of
Lithicum in Update 13 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg495356#msg495356), and since nothing has changed, there is no point in sharing a picture of it - other than the northern part (north is at the bottom of this picture), where a small pond has formed close to the highway. I just noticed while making these screenshots that Neko's brooks, the Sudden Valley water textures, and Moonlight's Suburban Canals actually fit very well with each other, I guess we'll see this combination more often in the future.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2F8zrp4l2m.jpg&hash=dde76af016b3d8b241e2de9813b7f471428d2c8b)
#17.01; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2Ff7jgrteu.jpg&hash=9efa9747b37be5a8355103a8d7838aca23fa5a42)
#17.02; Click to enlargeMost screenshots are from the capital of Hadria,
Tigris. Large parts are already done, at least regarding basic design. Surprisingly, this time I seem to have trouble developing the hillside suburbs; I'm either getting low-wealth residentials or nothing at all. Again, getting the brooks past the railway seems to be a challenge of sorts. I should mention by the way that all settlements are surrounded by farmland. It's mostly composed of rectangular fields, separated by rows of trees, and a few farms. It's not really interesting to look at at the current stage of development, and I'll share pictures of it later when I've finished adding MMP's.
We'll start with the industrial section.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2Fvi5arwnn.jpg&hash=63a7a7eeb8ee3e675a2d68c2f1137f18cd2946c0)
#17.03; Click to enlargeSuburbs are mostly done, except for some spots where I couldn't grow buildings so far. This is the northeastern suburb, located at the large river there. It's winding its way through a valley to the southeast of Calidores, hence the name of today's update. The empty spot at the bottom of this picture will later be filled with an office park or the like.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2Foiwmbr6u.jpg&hash=04d37329e6e29ac65fb0c1aecf98f405fdc9462a)
#17.04; Click to enlargeAnd a close-up of the Peace Memorial park of Tigris. I'm developing an own park system plugin, but at its current state, it looks rather spartanic. I just couldn't stand the BSC park system due to all the prop stuff being placed there. I hope I'll find a solution for this soon.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2Fxfnd55oo.jpg&hash=d2c41b947d208ed3b6151a302d810b7534716235)
#17.05; Click to enlargeThe suburbs in the southwestern part of Tigris.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2Fu86cc5z3.jpg&hash=c4ce49e08e2074a04cd2f5f33b1f725464290e96)
#17.06; Click to enlargeAnd the suburbs at the south of Tigris. This picture already shows where I'm going to place the central business section, as well as the old town parts of Tigris.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2Fgmfoiffg.jpg&hash=60c2e794eaf77fa7d0b5076d300a7fcc2bce9575)
#17.07; Click to enlargeA little deeper in the valley, we are quickly encountering the next village,
Vallis Moriae. It has a lower part with the most shops and civic buildings and an upper part with the church and a little housing.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2F2btz4c2v.jpg&hash=40d24094cf51d0c27cd36a2060cdb37fe0318ede)
#17.08; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150816%2Fhubrr98u.jpg&hash=b387b4e5e78cabc2098573402cae2d1db59bd48a)
#17.09; Click to enlargeAnd that's all for today. I hope you liked it. Futural updates for this particular city tile may include:
* Placing MMP trees and plants, especially at the rivers and brooks
* Designing the rivers and brooks
* Doing something about the building repetition, caused by the Sweet Legacy homes
* Creating the old town and the office park of Tigris
* Improving the suburbs and filling the last empty spots there
* Further foresting the mountains to the south
Very nice use of the MMP, specially for your forest. :)
I'm agree with you, neko brooke fit very well with all your MMP work, the sudden valley water and the ground texture too. &apls
To avoid the repetitions of the Simgoober lots, maybe you should download others house fit 1X1 lot, as IDS2 ones on STEX (modern as the ones of Simgoober) or c.p. ones (new england style) ?
I love seeing your progress images and it's nice to be given an insight to how you plan and develop each area. Lovely update as well, I like the work being carried out for the peace park, the bridge and river scene will look superb once completed.
A lot of exciting stuff going on here since I last visited &apls I continue to enjoy your work with water of all kinds and am really looking forward to seeing how the delta and swamp areas turn out. I have very little experience with swamps, which seem quite tricky, but I'm sure I'll pick up some ideas from here ;) Keep up the great work!
I like the MMP work with the river(s), it is going to look pretty amazing once it is finished.
I really should write more often, your MD is wonderful. Although I like your work with water, I´m still totally impressed by the pictures of your towns. &apls
Yes indeed, Neko's brook, moonlight canals and several other water mods blend nicely together.
Nice work on this update too, the industrial park is well done, I like it a lot.
I'm eager to see more of Tigris' peace memorial, seems like a nice place to relax.
The industrial area looks great!! Don't worry too much about repetition in the suburbs, I think it is quite normal in real life!!! ;D
Those parks -- I don't think they look at all spartan, some lamps and maybe benches and I think they are up there among the good park systems! Oftentimes I think less props is better, because then one can add details and make every park unique with mmps. Actually, I hope to see a release of the park set, since you've really made me eager to try it out!
(And, on a side note, with that name I was almost looking for Gandalf and the fellowship trying to open a mysterious door somewhere... :D)
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Responsa
manga rivotra: Thank you very much for your comment and your recommendation! It turned out that I accidentally left a building blocker in my Plugins folder, preventing all Maxis content from growing :-[. After removing it, things "returned to normal". But I'm actually glad about your recommendation, since it can't hurt to improve my building variety in my cities.
Themistokles: Thank you very much too! I've been thinking too that less props would be better because it would facilitate placing MMP's on my own. I'm not entirely sure if I should release this park set because it's in fact really rather simple. I've included screenshots of all lots I've made so far in this update.
belfastsocrates, noahclem, Vizoria, carlfatal, art128, romualdillo: Thank you very much, too, for your comments, I'm always happy to see you again.
Exordium
Unfortunately, the last weeks I've been more busy with lotting than playing SC4. I've made an interesting discovery here on sc4devotion that allowed me to finally solve a lot of MMP problems in my cities, but it took me several days to make experiments with it. I thought it might be interesting to use this update to share with you what I've been doing so far.
You've surely noticed so far that I'm fond of the RFR Plopwater System found on the STEX. It allows creating rivers and creeks with a versatile and realistic look while being intuitive to use. However, MMP's can't be placed below the railway viaducts and the road overpasses from the NAM, and their placement below bridges is also somewhat complicated and limited (see screenshot below).
So I was quite enthusiastic to finally find a solution to these problems (these pictures are not photoshopped):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150822%2F4tx5n65j.png&hash=56efbf9032f2bf9954ac655f88048f92fd4f3bc2)
Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fainpyixp.png&hash=197602900ca5d72d548ae550c8ac3808584ac038)
Credits in this regard go to FrankU who described a way to
make props offset in two tutorials found here:
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13351.0 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=13351.0)
http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9146.msg386022#msg386022 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9146.msg386022#msg386022)
So, to make sure to place the RFR water below the viaduct and the bridge (regarding the bridge, I can't place MMP's close to the pillars), I've turned the MMP's into props, switched from RKT1 to RKT4 and set the x offset to 0x0010000 (= x+1), which means that it'll be offset by 16 m (= 1 tile). As FrankU alredy mentioned, the props move but the shadows won't, but this doesn't bother me with two-dimensional objects that lie on the ground and therefore don't have a shadow, anyway.
I've had to make some experiments, however, because the Lot Editor displays the offset in a wrong way: The prop will always be sidplayed as overhanging to the same side, whereas in-game, the side where the prop will overhang changes in accordance to the prop orientation. To illustrate this (and to find out on my own), I've made this screenshot. I've created 4 lots and placed a water prop with an offset of x = +1, placed with a different orientation on each lot. The lot has been placed with the orientation arrow facing the road. The letters show the prop orientation in the Lot Editor, assuming the road there is under the lot:
L = links (left)
O = oben (up)
R = rechts (right)
U = unten (down)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fkrjohhaf.png&hash=597094e39cb0e8c9554a6903d9744faa63716a1a)
Click to enlargeNeedless to say, I immediately had to create an entire lot set to help me finally getting rid of these annoying empty spaces below railway viaducts and NAM overpasses. This took a few days, you can surely imagine...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fh7lk9jxq.png&hash=c684ac8253e13d2e14d1a6d7d7e32c9d16a5fd5a)
Click to enlargeI'm thinking of sharing this, if enough people are interested, however, I need to make some adjustments and of course English description texts and menu icons. More difficult could be getting permission by Der_Gammler to release them; since I had to turn his MMP's into props, I require his permission. But he hasn't been online on the STEX since January. I'll contact him, however, I'm not sure if I'll get an answer.
Now, as already mentioned to Themistokles, here are some screenshots that display most of the lots I've made for my own park system. (Just to make it clear: The Peace Park of Tigris is composed of several modular lots, not a single one.) In this case, I also need permission of whoever made some of the BSC textures because I used and modified them to make my own overlay textures. By the way, I'm using a default Maxis texture for the grass, it's just adjusting to the Sudden Valley terrain mod.
Pathways (both simple and decorated):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2F6spv7fjp.png&hash=bb4fcbc560273d25bba65ffd3b5a764b99574507)
Grass lots:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2F8ojjh7mj.png&hash=308f8f31b777944fb42ff9c6b976645118418dab)
Lots with hedges:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2F2tevrndf.png&hash=5114702d3901709330c3002cd788f1c62cf28276)
Specials:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fbmu582iz.png&hash=071ddbb6afebc70da0f522a3df587e6031c27592)
Please look for yourselves.
Progressio
Despite all of this, I had some time to make progress with my MD. Today, we will pay a visit to even three city tiles.
My first visit:
A2 Iramaris. I haven't worked on this city tile in a while. After finding out that the Sudden Valley water texture can be well combined with Moonlight's canals, I reworked the water there a bit. This is a picture of Iramaris, as already shown in Update 5 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg493075#msg493075):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150329%2F3noi8oye.jpg&hash=02d64996a3e2072757c94074e66967d9cebd02ba)
Click to enlargeYou may notice that Diggis Pond system water doesn't really match with the in-game sea water. Back at this time, I refrained from creating a sea channel with in-game seawater because the water was rather transparent and I did not like this look. Please note that this is supposed to be ocean water, not tap water, in the channel. However, since the SV water is more opaque, I tried digging out the seabed and making a sea channel with in-game water instead of ploppable water. For this purpose, I've lowered the sea level in the Reader.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fs822edm3.jpg&hash=cab32a3554deddd6331e796a89cb07775b41f124)
18.01; Click to enlargeAt this place, I'll let the river flowing into the sea.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fkdqwrgnt.jpg&hash=1c51cafae14b3f41a266f153321c2253adcb9b57)
18.02; Click to enlargeThe result, however, wasn't pleasant:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fdlrln85s.jpg&hash=2a84df96be5427e04cbe53d95da89a7b8155316f)
18.03; Click to enlargeI tried to remedy this zigzag corner effect by placing MMP's there, but to no avail (sorry forgot to make a screenshot). So, I've instead resorted to Moonlight's Canal water. Unfortunately, it lacked an overhanging 3x3 piece (there's only an overhanging 1x3 piece), but since Mayor 11241036 has recently learned how to make props offset, it was a piece of cake to make one by himself.
The result: Not all I could wish for (especially because of the water ripples), but at least from afar it look much better now.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2F3cxp7x7w.jpg&hash=839ec2c170f82f33ef17078a93bb7c40d52bf9f9)
18.04; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2F2xl8yjvl.jpg&hash=a9a627d03a5126f52775d86840b886c7a25941c8)
18.05; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fbizaopf6.jpg&hash=08cab5dd299baa099d15911e73c541581094fcbe)
18.06; Click to enlargeBut since I was still frustrated with the outcome of this, I decided to build a gravel road to the east of Iramaris (on the island), leading to
B2 Inistri Laviarum, eastern neighbor of Iramaris.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fog4hrdo6.jpg&hash=9d9686d993dbf5411c340f653700cf94b86ad923)
18.07; Click to enlargeA small bay there contains the shortest brook of Calidores, fed mostly by subterranean water which emerges through a small cave not visible on this screenshot just to flow into the sea:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Faffw8d9i.jpg&hash=d7c46a4c9f8503a682083418a3dea177fd378220)
18.08; Click to enlargeI should mention that I recently decided to resort to a mixture of girafe's ashes and norway maple trees, as well as the VIP orange aesculus and fagus trees. This combination has been a product of coincidence, as the Cascadia tree controller I'm using places these trees sometimes. You may notice why I do this by observing this screenshot - the warm fall colors made me nearly fall in love, even though I lost a picture competition over at the STEX with this picture (even 7:1 :'(). Despite this, it really shows how much the work of girafe and whoever made the VIP Orange trees is outstanding compared to Maxis trees:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150826%2Fcf49j2t8.png&hash=bb00a077568395057cf759e70eae7cf46c57d314)
18.09; Click to enlargeInistri Laviarum itself is uninhabited (and will remain it) because the Calidorian government has transformed the entire province into a national park. However, a small research station has been erected to watch the wildlife (connected to Iramaris by the aforementioned gravel road). It contains a headquarter (the Chalet Edelweiss), employee homes (Halifax Boxes), as well as a storage shed, an observation tower and even a small pier for the guard boats. If you think that something is missing, you are welcome to tell me. I need to improve the MMP'ing a bit, so stay tuned for further updates:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150824%2Fkuxdoed2.jpg&hash=68d777a78b5859cfa4f5ad483f7b878c73269d7f)
18.10; Click to enlargeAnd since I'm still not done, we will now travel back to
Hadria. Unfortunately, there's only a few screenshots, I haven't had much time to work on this city. I've improved a few bits here and there, but it doesn't look impressive. However, perhaps you might like my next gravel road, leading all the way through the forest to the western province (Vella), and leading past my newest game experiment: cow pastures and dairies. Since cattle requires much space in real-life, I've only placed 3 pastures there, surrounded by SPAM fences:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fwpio8uhd.jpg&hash=ae595417498be1ddafbf09316444153e4bde66a8)
18.11; Click to enlargeThe Calidorian population at least likes it much enough that the people decided to commute all the way through this out-of-the-way gravel road from Mithrax to Tigris instead of taking the railway which would actually be 1. closer, 2. faster, 3 better for the environment and 4. make more sense (this game... ()what()). The Calidorian government has even received petitions to upgrade this road to RHW-2, but since the cows didn't agree with this plans, the mayor of Tigris decided to issue a driving ban there instead.
Auto = car
Straße = street(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2F4n7xv83h.jpg&hash=d2dac8192d2f159e9fcd057fba6c86ed28d38e58)
18.12; Click to enlargeThe old town of Tigris is also nearing completion. I'm trying more and more to place a few more modern buildings there because it would actually make more sense (if a building is destroyed, it is most likely being replaced by a contemporary building). It's not complete, since I unfortunately had no idea of what to do with the riverside.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fc7urp6xi.jpg&hash=48b3c1e15b2e8bcb9375ac48c91a8ce3147d5f02)
18.13; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150831%2Fjs9dkyuc.jpg&hash=4b7a56dba408133ea2983227786c2923c32ee624)
18.14; Click to enlargeAnd that's all for today. Admittedly, the pictures say little because, as I said, I mostly made minor adjustments which can't be well displayed, and I've been fooling around with offset props. I hope you liked this update, though. Futural updates may include:
Inistri Laviarum:
* Filling everything with MMP's (I want to make something special there, being worthy of my audience and a national park)
Hadria:
* Finishing the tree MMP work
* Finishing the last rivers and creeks
* Foresting the last bits to the south of the city tile
* Giving the finishing touch to the buildings, especially around the old town parts.
Edit: Translations added
Don't mind the sims, they're stupid. :D
I think there is a way to block the road circulation on roads but let trucks/buses through.
As for the riverbed, maybe make a park with sports fields?
Otherwise, excellent update again, love the gravel road along the farms.
Excellent work. I enjoyed the section on lot editor work, the offset seems to be working well and the park pieces look very nice.
Another excellent update, with beautiful scenery and lovely autumn colours! :thumbsup:
Regarding the odd commuter choices, I have the opposite problem in the most sprawled city (~15k inhabitants) in the region; not a single one goes by car, all take the bus or walk/bike. I'm not the one to complain, though.
It's seem to be a great idea to play with the river pieces as prop offset for the space under the bridge, surely I'll use this trick in the future :thumbsup:
I really like the old village of Tigris, especially with the autumn colors. Very good work again with this update ;)
And with now more than 100 replies, your MD was promoted to the Best sellers, congratulations!
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2Fyzrrkyid.png&hash=4e38aa4aa94f3230c650b0e95c542b914d26aef2)
Responsa
art128: Thank you very much! Your idea with the park at the riverside sounds good, so I've placed one there. I've already made a sports park somewhere, so I've decided to make something a little different - more about this in this update. About the traffic issue: I've simply placed some traffic blockers there that don't allow bus and car traffic to pass. Also, BTW, thank you very much for promoting my MD to become bestseller.
belfastsocrates, Themistokles, manga rivotra: Thank you very much, too!
Progressio
Since most likely I won't have time next weekend to write an update, I'll write one now, albeit a little shorter than usual.
In today's update, I'll finish my work on city tile
C3 Hadria. As already mentioned, the main work was placing MMP's, especially trees, everywhere, and placing the last apartments. Especially the latter was a pain in the neck, I can say. For the sake of these screenshots, I even had to temporarily plop them - really, this is one of the most frustrating parts in the game, that sometimes the game just doesn't want to grow anything at all, or just grows buildins I don't want to see at a specific location at all.
Let's start with the already mentioned park at the riverside. I placed the Guggensim museum, as well as a library, there, to make it a little "park of arts".
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2Fowkq8rve.jpg&hash=2bd8aabb77382c5be0d2506ffd32badc46edfc95)
19.01; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2Fcc2icrzh.jpg&hash=1a351e695d19f814d54ccd8a21a7b1b728f203d0)
19.02; Click to enlargeNext, a few screenshots of parts of the rural areas of Hadria.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2Ft6q4lhzu.jpg&hash=359ecd960af39e1c1f8f2b024e4db08871365bca)
19.03; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2Fkvhglpwx.jpg&hash=630b9375a410b39b596909007ab3ec5a7b9abfb2)
19.04; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2Frpimih3o.jpg&hash=5f0f2c012d27c93f884748118a6cdb676c224895)
19.05; Click to enlargeAnd a picture I've already shared on the STEX. As already mentioned there, for years I haven't thought that it would be possible to get a diagonal river past a diagonal traffic route. With McDuell's technique of modifying the terrain after creating a traffic route, and my recently developed offset props, I've finally been able to create the next screenshot - a tribute to all the SC4 community members (in this case McDuell and FrankU) that spent much time to find ways to get around in-game limitations.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150905%2Fegmdzbih.jpg&hash=9c11d8b8e234df747bd36baed453749dae906976)
19.06; Click to enlargeThis is a small picture of the riverside (which took a lot of time to make). During my childhood excursions to wilderness, I frequently found patches of mud close to the riverside. I don't know if it's due to floods, high amounts of rainwater that can't just flow away, or high groundwater level, but that's probably not so important. So I've placed a few patches of marsh along the riverside, mostly being overgrown by birch trees. This is a better screenshot, it's mostly hard to spot the mud elsewhere.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2F3qct9me9.jpg&hash=bc8f425cccc6cf92684d67a5640494e7ee5c596b)
19.07; Click to enlargeAnd with that, I'll finish this update by showing two (warning: large!) overviews, the first of the now finshed town of
Tigris, capital of Hadria, the second of the entire city tile. (Sorry, I had to turn off shadows, my machine most likely won't allow it.)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2F7h2hnhyx.jpg&hash=97ac26c5a9ada38d0eb75324317646b0564b0f88)
19.08; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150906%2F6sthau9f.jpg&hash=a6e02b4349437cbc1a19280312cc7f76dea2b12c)
19.09; Click to enlargeThat's all for today. Hope you like it.
I love the layout of your rivers, especially the long curve on picture 19.03 &apls.
Great job on the park along the river also. And the overview 19.09 is absolutely perfect! :thumbsup:
Honestly shadows aren't important for overviews. I think they even make a distraction.
Once again great update, you did nicely with the waterfront... The park of arts is really well done and doesn't look out of place.
Image 19.09 is superb, absolutely love the colours and layout, really beautiful. Congratulations on becoming a Best Seller also!
Wow, wow, wow! Both last updates are simply stunning. &apls
And the last picture of the recent update is soo beautiful that I would be able to start loving fall. :)
I like the work with the water, your way to create transitions between plos- and game-water is the best I´ve ever seen. And cause I am very interested in your offset props of Gammler´s water, I did write him a PM in the Simforum, where he is active quite more often. I think, he will answer your request soon.
Keep it up! :thumbsup:
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Responsa
manga rivotra: Thank you very much! Admittedly, the curve "comes with the map", but since it really looks good, I decide to keep it...
carlfatal: Thank you very much, too! About your last sentence: Thank you for going to this effort and for being interested in the offset RFR plopwater props. Unfortunately, Der_Gammler hasn't answered so far, so I fear it will take a while until I can release them. In case it'll help you: I have an account over at the STEX with the same user name.
art128, belfastsocrates: Thank you both for your comments, too!
Exordium
There's some special news for you: Tomorrow, I'll start a new education, I've been looking forward for very long for such a great opportunity. Unfortunately, this will keep me more busy for a very long time, which means, I will have less time to play SC4. I guess I won't just stop making updates, but my updates here will surely become more scarce and shorter. Feel free to express your opinion about what you prefer - either regular updates, albeit smaller ones, or larger updates more scarcely.
Also, the last two weeks have plagued me with strange CTD issues occurring every time after loading two of my cities (Vella, which we have already got to know during my OSITM in June, and a new one, which I haven't shown off so far) in Calidores. It took me really one whole week to find out what happened, and how to resolve that issue, and that also means that I couldn't play SC4 for this time because I feared to mess up other cities as well. It turned out quickly that I had a plugin conflict somewhere because after removing a few plugins from my Plugins folder, I could load both cities without CTD's, just with a bunch of brown boxes. Fortunately, I was able to find out the conflicting file and repair it.
Progressio
Do you remember this city?
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150308%2Fyfzxlgx2.jpg&hash=ce82544903d596a681afafcb776e8a0f82de35f5)
Click to enlargeIts name is
Lemanticum and it is located in the northwest corner of Calidores, city tile A1,
Leptanis. We've seen it in updates 1 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg490830#msg490830), 3 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg491773#msg491773), 4 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg492165#msg492165), and 5 (http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=16842.msg493075#msg493075). I suddenly felt like trying to create an industrial harbor there, you might have already seen that I've started a land reclamation project there. I didn't want to make an industrial harbor in the bay of Friganium, since that would be the main tourist attraction of Calidores, and I couldn't do it in the large bay of Calidores, because the sea straight is too shallow for cargo ships to enter, and I didn't want the water pollution to spread into an area which is supposed to become a national park later. Therefore, the Calidorian government decided to start a land reclamation project at this location (this is a traffic view of city tile A1):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2F6nfp2aep.png&hash=e94ad9589375ddb839ae700a4eceabd15499c4a3)
#20.01The area with the pink frame is supposed to becoma a harbour, eventually. Please also note the pink arrow; since this is the only road connecting this valley with the eastern parts of Calidores, all freight trucks are coming from there. It turned out quickly that there's a main infrastructural problem there - you might find it out on your own by trying to find a road route leading from the pink arrow to the harbour: It leads through 3 settlements, and the denizens there will surely have good reason to complain about increasing traffic (probably not in-game, but it sounds realistic).
So the next step was to build a route allowing freight trucks to bypass at least the two southern villages. It has been added to the next screenshot as an orange line:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fx4ws2avq.png&hash=618d3a4e11a5de161efebc67ee39b6d85de7fdb2)
#20.02It will be necessary to upgrade a farm road to RHW-2 and creating a tunnel through the hills to the west, but this will allow all freight trucks to bypass Portalensis and Mistra.
Firstly, however, let's have a look at this special bridge: It is seriously congested because of the residents only being able to get to the railway station and the industrial section via this one bridge. It needs to be upgraded to an avenue.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fdqxqucmk.jpg&hash=43463c0b934d7a19d4485a52007efc811b6f3171)
#20.03; Click to enlargeI decided to not merely upgrading the bridge to an avenue, I built an avenue overpass all the way to the hills to the east, and build a few connecting roads. This required demolishing a few factories, but it was worth the effort:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fbei32qvv.jpg&hash=1c34be1fafb7e79f2d1bec3fd7aa80ba02c7b74b)
#20.04; Click to enlargeAnd after a bit of regrowing lost factories and trees, and some fine-tuning, this area, along with the road through the agricultural zones, looks like this (the tunnel is nearly decorational only, in-game, there are only passengers driving to the harbor, and they can take the railway):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fidrgk5q7.jpg&hash=783c103aff9e8bb0100a194addfd502d4efdb03e)
#20.05; Click to enlargeLet's now continue with the harbor itself. Before I started working with this area, it looked like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2F2yzgs3be.jpg&hash=da0d4aed759d8cd3ef5e8f0eb74973c1d770c7dc)
#20.06; Click to enlargePlease note that the road along the cliff is supposed to allow travelers from the southeastern village to bypass the harbor, in case they merely want to drive to the next city to the west (which is actually outside of Calidores).
I do need something like a breakwater and extend a part of the land into the water to create a small bay for the harbor; furthermore, I want to place a fishing harbor and a passenger ferry as well. So, here's a picture of the planning stage of the harbor after terraforming the area (the wind turbines aren't purely there because I need electric power, I really want to make use of the space there):
Translations:
I-Hafen (Industriehafen) = industrial seaport
kl. Schloss: small castle (note: I've forfeited on this one for now)(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Ffq5fr8zq.jpg&hash=294a41843ca166533a68dcba92490b3ce6fc6590)
#20.07; Click to enlargeUnfortunately, I forgot to make a screenshot of the harbor partially finished, it would have probably been interesting. And I'm really no expert at all at building harbors, this is in fact my first time at all in 6 years of playing SC4. But I tried nevertheless, and the (for now) finished result looks like this:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fda3pvnzz.jpg&hash=6c9642a9745c7d14921a15b77b468ccd16c1e731)
#20.08; Click to enlargeAnd some close-ups: First, the railyard, which has its own office. There are some freshwater basins, collecting freshwater to clean ships, as well as a few factories and shops around the passenger railway station.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fynnmcbgi.jpg&hash=564dc1a40e52e754290e7a8a3941300234d95f22)
#20.09; Click to enlargeNext, the harbor itself. As you can see, containers over containers...
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fgqcr3ojd.jpg&hash=b2069eb2801e04d035cb8c3784c77ddf14a5e8e5)
#20.10; Click to enlargeCompared to the harbor, the fishing harbor by Somy looks rather small, although with its lot size of 21x6, it is surely one of the largest lots in my Plugins folder. There are some factories, especially those processing food, a fish market which we have already seen in Tyrsalis, and a seafood restaurant.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2F65qzc6hw.jpg&hash=219ff15463c8d6c37d73e2a62e3e1ecd166d6d4d)
#20.11; Click to enlargeThe fishing harbor in turn utterly dwarves the passenger ferry there. There are also some offices, as well as a rather unique night club and some residential blocks built for the harbor employees. I decided to use the Severnoye and Khrushchova blocks by SFBT because I think that they are better than their reputation: Since they are grey, they can be combined with any combination of trees or other plants without looking odd.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs1.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Fdcxx9wg8.jpg&hash=f70850ff006bbf9bfc32fe26e9c7d640afd9830f)
#20.12; Click to enlargeAnd with that, this update is almost finished. There's only one thing left: Showing you a small sneak peek of what will (most likely) await you in one of the next updates. This is a picture of city tile
C1, Valensis, in its planning state. It will most likely be a farming area with small villages located at the road which runs at the base of the mountains there. It's a fairly old picture, becausee I haven't been working on this city tile for a while. Futural updates of Leptanis itself will most likely only include finishing the MMP work (I didn't have the time to do this).
Hope you liked this update.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs2.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F150920%2Ff27chcu9.jpg&hash=b077fc23b6a31eaf0c0d610572169231545708df)
Click to enlargeEdit: Fixed typos, improved writing.
Quote from: 11241036 on September 20, 2015, 02:15:41 PM
Do you remember this city?
Oh, I do -- I think it was the first of your updates that I read, and I've been following closely ever since. :)
As always you've managed to capture that lovely continental autumn feeling in your city, and your hard work on the offset props has really paid off. Harbour is nice too. And congratulations to your new education. Regarding your question: Large updates are always nice, but I think shorter ones are better for keeping activity up.
Fantastic update. I like to see those before/after pictures. I like the seaport too, specially those windmills &apls &apls
Stunning update! &apls
I particulary like your railway layout. Sadly you didn´t lead spurlines to the crans but these are modern times, so... :D
The pictures make me curious about the town itself! :thumbsup:
Great update, the seaport is well made. The SFBT blocks fit perfectly. :)
Nice harbor, it has a little bit of everything! :thumbsup:
Also great work with the overhanging water fillers! And I might have said this before, but the way you handle various waters transitions is rather excellent. &apls
btw, did you know there're diagonal SG canal pieces (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2435)? ;)
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2Fduk82nyz.png&hash=853cc06ceb90babfe53eae66695d546e8fb6417d)
Responsa
Themistokles: Thank you very much! I do also think it would be better to post regularly to keep it interesting and to show that I'm still around.
carlfatal: The fact that there are no tracks leading to the crane itself is due to the lots. There was no other way. I haven't yet found a way to relot them. Anyway, thank you for your comment! About the town itself: Please have a look at Updates 1, 3, 4, and 5. See first post for the links.
vortext: Thank you very much, too! I know that there are diagonal SG canal pieces, and I'm sure that I've installed them. I haven't been able to find them in my game menu; I should probably look into these lots with the Reader. Since the last two weeks have been chaotic to me, I haven't thought about this so far.
kelis, art128: Thank you too for your nice comments.
Progressio
In today's update, we will finally give the finishing touch to city tile
A1, Leptanis. This is an aerial overview:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2Fqiyedvzj.jpg&hash=0d42aed8b9f03811572cb04cef15fc168a0ae148)
#21.01; Click to enlargeAnd a few closer pictures that I like, although the changes haven't been this great: First, a road climbing the hills to the next empire to the north of Calidores.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2F4hpgnoa8.jpg&hash=20a5dbeaabcc7133529716a01d3d381263fd9259)
#21.02; Click to enlargeNext, a narrow valley at the east of Leptanis, where a small forest path leads to the eastern neighbor (B1 Teragonis).
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2Fkrdpmkr2.jpg&hash=149466c1ae05a759b89887e6cfc3667a9359178b)
#21.03; Click to enlargeYou may have noticed that there is a small village located at the northwest of Leptanis. I haven't shown it anytime, and I don't like it very much, but I don't want to ignore it completely. Its name is
Tyrantium, by the way.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2F2gi56qr9.jpg&hash=959820fc08261f9fa28931eab75b048e97eb2b7b)
#21.04; Click to enlargeAnd with that, we will now finish another city tile for now.
Our next visit leads us to a city tile 2 tiles to the east -
C1 Valensis. If you have had a look at the first post, you might have noticed already that I've developed a few fields there, but I've never shared an update. I never had an idea of what to do with this city tile, but I finally took the time to develop it. Unfortunately, time was against me, as well as the tendency of the game to only growing nonsense residentials; so, for the sake of making some of the screenshots, some buildings have been plopped, and some pictures are far from being really complete.
Valensis will have 5 settlements, 3 of them very small villages, 1 a little larger and another 1 a little more large. The area in the center is extensively used for farming, and there are numerous small villages located at the mountain base, connected by a road, the aptly named "Via Valensis".
Let's start with
Ardegries, the village to the very southwest.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2Fuqpo5jqm.jpg&hash=aadf323555b9337918f135ce426254aee16f4a45)
#21.05; Click to enlargeNext, there's the "a little larger" village. It's actually split up into two settlements that are simply named "
Talus Bassa" (Lower Talus) and "
Talus Alta", respectively. Both are connected by the via Talus winding its way uphill. Talus is, by the way, located at the northwest of Valensis. Two pictures of Talus Bassa.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2Fp7rlrrpb.jpg&hash=c2c01e211ab09dd1f4ad23a38f144d894af465d2)
#21.06; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2Fa95hjghl.jpg&hash=ee12ce21f505e03c4af1c65aa4ba91f99e0e134b)
#21.07; Click to enlargeTalus Alta is home to a monastery and a lot of wineyards. Unfortunately, I have no idea whatsoever of how to build a wineyard, so - I really don't like how it turned out. Besides, I will surely add some MMP's later.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2F2lgnufr9.jpg&hash=3f1f183a5a59caf2f9d227426f5fad5b6cdcdd4f)
#21.08; Click to enlargeThis is
Vindriae, located a little further to the east.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151004%2Fgmaj2q2q.jpg&hash=b12dd4b99b4a6b844ca7f43f9b627e4322079cf9)
#21.09; Click to enlargeAnd last, but not least, a screenshot of a hill in the center of the fields, where archaeologists have found a strange obelisk-like structure built by unknown people. It could be confirmed that there is no Calidorian origin or influence whatsoever, but it's unknown who built this structure, especially since the Calidorian valley has been uninhabited at the arrival of the Calidorian settlers. Many theories about the purpose of this building have arisen, the most common accepted theory would be that it has been a cenotaph (graveyard to honor somebody without actually containing his/her remains); therefore, this hill has simply been called "Collis Cenotaphi" (Cenotaph Hill). I'll share a close-up when it's really finished.
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That's all for today. Hope you liked it. Futural updates about Valensis may include
* the largest village and capital,
* finishing the MMP work (yes, very much work),
* redesigning the wineyards,
* one more small village,
* probably redesigning many of these villages, I actually wanted to give this area a more poor, older, and rural look.
The overview of Leptanis is great, and I think you made a decent start with the vineyards. :thumbsup:
Also: mystery obelisk!! :popcorn:
Wonderful pictures!
My favorites this time: the second and the last. How beautiful this little hill sits between the plain fields! &apls
Keep it on!
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Responsa
vortext: Thank you! Glad you like it, I really don't have any clue about how to make a vineyard. If anyone has suggestions, please don't hesitate to write them.
carlfatal: Thank you very much, too.
Progressio
For a long time, you haven't heard from me. I haven't forgotten about Calidores, I just had little time to play SC4 during the past month, and I even have been away from my computer during the past two weekends, so I had no opportunity to write an update. Fortunately, I had a little time this weekend, so I guess it's time for another update.
We will again visit the province of
C1 Valensis today. Since I had no idea about how to progress with the settlements of Valensis, I continued with the MMP work.
The Collis Cenotaphi in the center of the province has been improved a little bit. Due to all the visitors to this long forgotten place, the grass has withdrawn and there's a lot of dirt instead. Also, scientists have discovered a ring of stones encircling the Cenotaph there. Its purpose, however, remains unknown.
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# 22.01; Click to enlargeThis is now an almost complete picture of Talus Alta, the village with the monastery and the vineyards. This time, I only have a summer picture, the fall picture looks awkward because of the high amount of conifer trees.
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# 22.02; Click to enlargeThis is the largest village of Valensis, its name is
Tilurium. I haven't had much luck with growing buildings (as usual), and I had little time, so the village is not finished.
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# 22.03; Click to enlargeThe river flowing through Tilurium passes a gorge at the very north of Valensis. A few hiking paths have been dragged there to allow my sims enjoying the view.
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# 22.04; Click to enlargeThis small lake is also fed by water leaving two small natural hot springs. These have already been discovered by owners of a small traditional hotel. Even a small shrine has been built there. Two pictures with different sizes.
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# 22.05; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151101%2Fhp9qxqil.jpg&hash=b68c9c1272f82219eb2ec2d4fb53232869b14437)
# 22.06; Click to enlargeThere's also a small fishing hole at the road between Ardegries and Talus Bassa (at the very west of Valensis).
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# 22.07; Click to enlargeAnd that's all for today. Hope you liked it.
Great pictures!!! &apls
I love your rivers. Keep it up this good work :thumbsup:
Some really nice work with the landscape here, the river is really well done. Though I have the say the waterfall seem a bit square, however I don't have much knowledge on this.
The second picture is wonderfull.
Very good update as always ! I love especially the pic 22.04 with the waterfalls and the gorge, the hiking path are a very nice touch and i love the first pic too with the Cenotaph. :thumbsup:
Hello!
Very nice shots! Usually, the water system is something that isn't much considered by creators of MD (including me most of the time), so I found your small network which is not limited to just one stream ;) Hope to see more of this watershed ;)
And nice monument. Such small touristic spots with details adds something to MD's :)
Nice pictures! I've said it before, but there's a special feeling that you capture so well in your autumn pictures.
Great work on the hiking trail! :thumbsup:
What exactly did you use for those stairs, it's too small to make out what props they are. :D
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Responsa
art128: Thank you very much. Actually, the waterfalls are all "squares" - 1x1 lots with only textures and effects. I've modified some of Pegasus Stream Kit lots to make me some 1x1 waterfall lots to be placed on cliffsides because I barely, if ever, use the Stream Kit. It was the best solution I could find so far to make waterfalls.
vortext: Thank you very much, too. I used SimCoug's stairways, available on the STEX: http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/30425-simcougs-stairways/ (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/30425-simcougs-stairways/) However, since I haven't modified them so far, I haven't found out where to find the props.
romualdillo, feyss, manga rivotra, kbieniu7, Themistokles: Thank you very much, too, great to see you again.
Exordium
Since I'm suffering from a serious lack of time at the moment, this will be a rather short update.
For a long time, I've been thinking of what to do with city tile C2. First of all, a map of Calidores that I've already shown in the first post of this thread, to illustrate its location:
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Click to enlargeIt has been clear to me that this will later be the capital of Calidores, and it should have about 100,000 - 150,000 inhabitants (in SC4 terms). It wouldn't be my first attempt to make a large city, but all of my attempts had something in common: They took me much time. Also, the terrain is annoying me sometimes. It's mostly absolutely flat, with the most parts of the terrain (especially these between the rivers) sitting at a height of 270m (sea level = 250m), which means that I have to find a way to create a meaningful layout of the city for the slope parts that descend down to the coast. (I didn't find a better expression for this in English, believe me.)
Furthermore, I've been impressed by Vortext's various early medieval pictures in his MD Ærden. So I thought, why not try something similar. I'm not sure if I can keep it up to bring historic pictures of Calidores, but I thought it might be interesting to create something deviating from my usual city building style. Long story short, let's now continue with the...
Progressio
It all started at some beautiful fall day somewhere in the valley which will later be known as Calidores, a day that was so beautiful that the only hard thing was to create a transition between the river and the sea :angrymore:.
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#23.01; Click to enlargeExhausted from their long travel over the oceans and past unknown coasts, travelers from a far, faraway country arrived here, sailing on 4 ships, searching for a new country, fleeing because a war was about to start that would later almost wipe out the population of the city they came from.
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#23.02; Click to enlargeFinding this new valley uninhabited, they decided to search for a clearing in the forest to put up a temporary camp. Fortunately, their search wasn't as exhaustive as their voyage, and they quickly found a spot close to fresh water where to settle. Since it would take a while until they could build first houses made from stone, they quickly put up a makeshift camp from whatever materials they could collect. Having come from a civilized country where people already lived in houses made from stones and marble, they found it arduous to now resort to wood and animal skins to live in (especially because winter was about to begin), but at least they could discuss their further fate in the chieftain's longhouse (at the birch trees), improve their health in the sweat lodge (at the rowan tree, thanks Girafe) and find solace in sitting around the campfire together, trying to forget the horrible events that led to their long voyage across the ocean.
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#23.03; Click to enlargeAnd a closer view:
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#23.04; Click to enlargeAnd that's already all for now. Hope you liked it.
Now we know how the story of Calidores began! :) And I think that that transition turned out rather well -- but I do see the problem with the big difference between the textures of the plop and game water.
The pebble beach is perfectly reproduced and fall colors always well mastered ! :thumbsup:
I am excited to see this capital develop over the centuries
Hmmm... this map seems awfully familiar, now where have I seen this before? :P Good to know it's getting some use!
Great-looking MD! I love your agricultural areas, especially the blending of agricultural and residential zones.
great MMP work
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Responsa
First of all, thank you guys for your continued interest. Also great to hear from new visitors as well, and very nice to write me a comment even after some time has passed. December is usually a month bringing me much work, so it took me a while to find time to play SC4 in the first place. Not to mention that I had trouble finding ideas how to proceed with the development of Calidores.
I do also have to include a request for help: I've seen some MD authors sharing pictures with fog on it. As I'd like to do this as well, I'd highly appreciate if somebody could point me to a mod that would include fog effects, preferably viewable from any zoom level (not just 5 or 6, like in the Jupiter mod).
manga rivotra: Thank you very much! I can't promise that I'll share pictures of my capital (or any other city) developing over the centuries (due to lack of appropriate plugins and the immense size of the capital which would take a lot of time), but I plan on introducing at least two or three additional pictures before developing a modern city. Great to hear from you again.
Alafel: Wow, that's a great honor to hear from you, since you've actually created this map :) Hope you are not mad with me for, well, modifying some parts of it...
Themistokles, Unconstantean: Thank you very much, too!
Progressio
In today's update, we will finish the work on city tile
C1, Valensis. Actually, there isn't much left anymore, just a small corner that actually gave me surprisingly much trouble and a high amount of tedious work: The area to the southeast where the river winds its way from the north to the south. You may have already noticed it on one of the past updates, here's a small part of it (Mäander means meander):
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I've been trying for the first time to make something like a swamp or a mire there, with several water puddles and muddy terrain due to very flat terrain and fed by groundwater. Since this is my first attempt to create a swamp, of course it took me a while to consider the necessary steps. I thought about which elements, objects, plants etc. might be found in a swamp, and which of these are available for download, here's an example of what I tried to include:
* Water: I'm using the 50% transparent water MMP's from the RFR plopwater system.
* Mud: RRP Pasture flora has something like this.
* Shrubbery: Girafe's bushes
* Trees (for areas that are not highly humid): Girafe's trees - ashes, maples, norway maples, and most notably birches
* Flowers: Girafe's daisies, sparaxis and narcissus
* Cattails: by Girafe
* Grass: Non-seasonal Cattails by Girafe
* Fallen leaves (for the forest): Pegasus' Terrain Kit
* Rocks: Miscellaneous authors
As usual, I'm providing you with pictures showing the development step by step.
First of all, I created the river, as usual, then I scattered some water puddles, as well as mud surrounding them.
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#24.01; Click to enlargeNext, I've placed some trees there, but only for creating small forests. Single trees will be placed later, when fine-tuning the area.
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#24.02; Click to enlargeNext comes shrubbery and grass, especially at the limits of the forests and the muddy areas.
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#24.03; Click to enlargeDuring the next step, I filled the muddy areas with seasonal cattails, unfortunately, I forgot to make a screenshot of this, but you may of course observe the result in the final picture.
The next step was a little more difficult: Placing flowers. As I wanted to have some areas with wild flowers and grass, I had to consider carefully, because
1. The palette of MMP flowers available for download is limited, and some of them are just a few colorful dots, not more,
2. I wanted to share some fall pictures, but the variety of flowers flourishing in fall is low compared to flowers flourishing in spring or summer
This left me only with one choice: Resorting to Girafe's flowers. I've planted Girafe's daffodils in winter, sparaxis in spring and daisies in summer (they start flourishing after 3 in-game months). And after planting the flowers and a little fine-tuning, the complete swamp area now looks like this:
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#24.04; Click to enlargeAnd now some close-ups. First, there's a pond with dark blue water. This is actually supposed to be a former meander (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meander), having been cut off from the river by erosion and accretion of sediments. The pond is much deeper, compared to the very shallow water puddles in the mire, and is surrounded by forests, which makes it a shady place - hence the dark blue water.
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#24.05; Click to enlargeNext, just a randomly chosen part of the swamp.
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#24.06; Click to enlargeNext, this is Mayor 11241036' favourite spot to relax: A small and very shallow lake. Three pictures, illustrating what I did with the flowers: In spring, the meadow is covered with various white and yellow flowers, mostly daffodils, in summer, a plethora of wild flowers is growing there, and even in fall, the meadows are decorated by the rare and famous Calidorian aster (
aster calidorus).
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#24.07a; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151231%2Fvw3q865q.jpg&hash=33e2dfc217a8295b175db7643319e48928003a7d)
#24.07b; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F151231%2Finpkfiz7.jpg&hash=cc5bf621e1cc3d4cbe2c51dc10dc28cd6a6d52af)
#24.07c; Click to enlargeAside from making the swamp, I've also added an extra small village with the name of
Lumbrae:
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#24.08; Click to enlargeAnd with that, another city tile can be considered finished for now.
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#24.09; Click to enlargeThat's it for today. I hope you liked it.
Swamp looks great! :thumbsup:
As for fog in closer zooms, you'll have to edit it in afterwards. If you have Photoshop search for cloud brushes, there're lots of free to use brushes available. Install a couple of sets to find a good shape and then use it with an off-white color at low opacity and play around a little until you have the desired effect - for extra fun could add layer style (inner/outer glow, drop shadow, etc).
Great work with the river and the swamp!! The last shoot looks fantastic! &apls
Lovely swamp mmp work!
I repeat: lovely work! Good usage of flora and water (river's curvature, wider debris layer on the inner parts of the curves, bushes etc. ), it look so natural. Just one thign, that would improve it even more - since the river flows trough the swamp area, I think, that its banks would grow with some cattails and bushes as well, at least in small amount ;)
And I like the tree and river layouts on the region view! :thumbsup:
The swamp is well done. It looks very natural.
The water line look well :) Great MMP work. The windpower plant very near in the same space. Not efficent &mmm Your landscape is so naturalistic. Well done! &apls &apls &apls
Excellent update, as always !
I love the last pic, you always produce among the best cities overview at SC4D. &apls &apls &apls
Gorgeous valley! That last overview shot took my breath away.
No worries about the map -- I made it for a pretty specific use, and tuned exactly to my play style, so it's to be expected that it would take a little tweaking.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go take a kayak down that lovely winding river you've made... ;)
Excellent work. I love the meandering river! :thumbsup:
The MMPs are pleasing to the eye as is that meandering river, but I think the river banks are a bit too thick and rocky. To be fair though making the river banks merge into the terrain is very tricky. All in all it looks good.
Responsa
vortext: Thank you very much for your explanation, but unfortunately I don't have Photoshop. Unless I'll be able to find another way to add fog to my pictures, I guess there'll be no foggy screenshots by me. BTW, for your efforts in providing me with a long link list in your MD, you have already been reserved a Via named after you in one of my cities - as soon as I can find an appropriate place, I'll show it in my MD :thumbsup:
Dantes: Thank you for your interest, however, I couldn't understand your comment. What do you mean with water line, and why should it be inefficient to place the wind turbines close to it?
kbieniu7: Thank you very much! I actually already thought that I could this time use other MMP's than only rocks and gravel for my shoreline, but I had no idea how to do it exactly until then. Meanwhile, one of the next updates will be about the same, namely, designing a shore in swampy terrain (no more details), and I guess I'll just try around a little.
romualdillo, Nanami, art128, manga rivotra, Alafel, Bipin, Vizoria: Wow, thank you all for your nice comments and your interest.
Provisio
(Preview)
Unfortunately, no update this time, as my work isn't really in a state that I'd like to show it off. However, since the more busy days will be returning tomorrow, I wanted to share some pictures with you, one that I somehow forgot to put into another update, and a preview about what I might do next.
As for the first topic: I've modified the Historic Harbor props a little bit to make a boardwalk placeable on land and allow MMP's beneath it. The main reason for this was to create a wooden boardwalk in
Tyrsalis (one of the settlements on city tile
B3, Vella, the city that was on display during my OSITM last year) instead of a concrete seawall. Warning: Very large picture!
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160106%2F7yq5xnka.jpg&hash=d6119892da92cccdd53da089163a898fe6ee1ab1)
Click to enlargeAs for the second topic: There are some ruins, coincidentally in the same city tile, close to the river delta in Mithrax. For quite a while, no one cared about them and scientists just assumed that they have been built in a pre-Calidorian era, however, according to more recent research, they might have been a result of very early Calidorian settlers presumably wanting to build a village or town here that had to abandon this place for some reason, most likely due to a massive flood.
I've been experimenting a bit with various rock and sand MMP's and Girafe's feather grass, however, I might have overdone it a bit with the sand. It was tricky to do it because I didn't want to let the base terrain show through; however, with this much sand, the area at the ruins looks somehow grotesque and you nearly can't see the feather grass. Therefore, it is likely that this particular place will be changed in the future.
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Click to enlargeAnd that's already all for now. Hope you liked it.
Edit: Improved grammar.
Nice!
Nice x2 ;)
Those wooden "seawalls" looks good, especially with rocks beneath it :) The second picture as well. I don't think it's looking grotesque, for me it's done well :thumbsup:
I like both pics, but the one with the beach is really cool !! Great job with the seawall.
You are definitely on to something with that second picture, those ruins look great. Well done!
Both looks nice! :) the ruin is just to precious to be replaced by something else....
Nice ruin! And I don't think the grass looks at all grotesque, that's how a sand and grass area looks like, isn't it?
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Responsa
Gugu3, kbieniu7, kelis, Vizoria, Nanami, Themistokles: Thank you very much for your interest and your nice comments! Since most of you like the ruins the way they are, they won't change much :) More about that, however, in a futural update.
Progressio
Unfortunately, the title "progress" is a bit of an exaggeration, as I had no time to really do great and much work. However, there's one fact that means I had to write an update today:
As per January 22nd, Calidores celebrated its first birthday. As if my bad luck had known it, I've been sick over the weekend :angrymore: which prevented me from writing an update; it's actually rather unpleasant to sit in front of the PC while your body is shivering due to having chills.
So, there are only a few pictures. I've been considering for months now what to do with that river delta in city tile B3, Vella (the city seen during my OSITM last year). Well, now I just thought, "What the hey, just try around a little, perhaps you might get a good idea while working on it"; so I finally got to it - at least with the very beginning.
The subsequent three pictures show the development step by step. I've only got the river and the shoreline so far, the vegetation will have to wait. I've decided to stick with a rather rocky shoreline at the outer river arms, which are carrying most of the water, while I'll make the shoreline of the inner arms with sand, dirt, and very few rocks (and later some plants, whenever I'm getting to it).
As for the vegetation: I'm actually planning to fill some of the islands with flooded forests, the rest will just be standard forests and perhaps a little mud/swamp like the one in Update 24.
1st picture: Just the water
2nd picture: With Rocks
3rd picture: With sandy shoreline
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2F8utdutbo.jpg&hash=d616e46d4c3da7c8a7787bb654cc91185f881a34)
25.01; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2Figj6urb8.jpg&hash=a61fedc4b4a7459f1748b25489fc48738f499042)
25.02; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2F7e9mttgj.jpg&hash=2c74ece4e2e069c0694c51362fb8f843f73e16bd)
25.03; Click to enlargeAaaaaaand... since it is my MD's first birthday, I thought I'll send you a postcard from every settlement I've made so far (this was the most meaningful way to do something special, since I've already shared several overview pictures, and most of Calidores' provinces are either finished or not developed at all). This is, by the way, a map illustrating all locations of the provinces, with their respective flag:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2Fgz9khcw3.png&hash=28b9143c9b5999c3b1e6c59524a7525989fc9117)
And now the postcards:
Click to enlarge
Small writing: names of the settlements
Bold: cities
Underlined: capitals(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2F7dk6rljf.jpg&hash=f74e8ea1652c8cef2b8d2ad20492772efc662672)
Top row, from left to right: Portalensis, Mistra, Tyrantium
Bottom row: Lemanticum Harbor, Lemanticum City(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2Febgwjwuc.jpg&hash=841dce3276499ae212789c582557422062bf3f8b)
Left column, from top to bottom: Castrum Iramaris, Castrum Tullae
Large picture: Lexus(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2Feoko3wql.jpg&hash=8eb8bee4d92049fc67075c90f717dbdd26ec1cc1)
Top row, from left to right: Orantria, Valoriae
Bottom row: Haerestria, Inerium(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2Fofcmcff9.jpg&hash=d2e2e195aa409db5b92865467d5bf14306665988)
Left column, from top to bottom: Castrum Teragonis Castle, Veralermum
Large picture: Castrum Teragonis City(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2Fe29hconi.jpg&hash=3fdbc22b5cb97d07eb74ef3e88469efa289ae2c9)
Left: Tyrsalis
Right: Mithrax(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2Fprspv6s3.jpg&hash=6106d841cfb8a7ac19f5635c3a6db53958d66103)
Left column, from top to bottom: Lumbrae, Vindriae, Ardegries
Large picture: Tilurium
Right column, from top to bottom: Talus Alta, Talus Bassa(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160125%2F33gxdq7g.jpg&hash=c81c8519b512c58dad3af1962d9d8fd8d05e4c63)
Left column, from top to bottom: Lithicum, Vallis Moriae
Large picture: TigrisThat's all for today. I hope you liked it, even though the update didn't really show something spectacular.
Quote from: 11241036 on January 25, 2016, 02:40:42 PM
That's all for today. I hope you liked it, even though the update didn't really show something spectacular.
How it didn't show, when it did show? ;) That's a really good update, you've presented!
First of all, I would like to congratulate to you of the first anniversary of your region :) Wish another great one! The postcards are great idea, thanks for sharing them with us. That's inspiring. It shows, that Calidores it's not just one city, but a real country ;) Especially, that each of them has its own flag, making it individual! My favourite one is the shot of Lemanticum City in Leptanis, how the old part blends with the forest. I wish I had more time to investigate them really closely. I will come back and take another glance next days :)
The estuary is awesome! You've managed to give it a natural layout, that's one of the things, that are quite hard while imitating nature - to make everything seems organic and... and just natural :)
And, don't worry about your sickness! In fact, don't think about playing a game, if you feel SO bad. We will wait, we would like to hear you have time to cure yourself, nothing in rush. Sit down in an armchair with a cup of tea with raspberry syrup and relax ;)
Take care!
Congratulations on the first anniversary of this MD! Great work so far.
Great exposé! :thumbsup: It's been a wonderful journey over the year and here's to another one! :bnn:
... and I just realised, that Calidores and I share the same birthday :D
Looks fantastic! &apls
Cheers
Willy
Very nice! &apls
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fcp8ukq34.png&hash=6bc24d45b9e5497f8c1be08f866e4dd0b2b8eb6d)
Responsa
kbieniu7: Thank you very much for your really nice words and your interest. I appreciate it. Fortunately, I had time to recover, and I accepted your suggestion to relax :)
Themistokles: Thank you very much, too. And happy birthday to you as well :)
compdude787, Swordmaster, Gugu3: Thank you all very much, too!
Progressio
In today's update, we will see what happened to those homeless settlers a few years after having arrived in the Calidorian valley. Furthermore, I have started developing a new city tile (however, as of now, only the planning is there), and there are a few experimental pictures that I'd like to share with you.
Note: Unfortunately, I've hit my download limit this week :-[ and my connection has been slowed down, so my own pictures are loading very slowly. This means, in case I can't see one of my own pictures, I have no way to tell if it's because of my slow connection or because I forgot to copy&paste a picture link. If I really forgot, please stay tuned, as I will rectify that problem in a few days when my connection is back to full speed.15 ACCACC: ab Calidorem condita = the amount of years since Calidores has been founded
After arriving in the Calidorian valley, the settlers started building up a new empire. The first step was gathering enough building materials and building a village to improve security and having amenities. And so, after 15 years, a small village, surrounded by a stockade, has formed. Please note that it is partially still a WIP, because I do think that placing just a few houses, without anything like a garden or fences, looks a bit poor. I'm thinking about improving everything by placing MMP's there, but I haven't had any idea so far which ones.
Of course, this village also has a name. Since Suradeis, the old hometown of the Calidorians, actually doesn't exist anymore and the people started missing it, naming this village something like "New Suradeis" sounded quite acceptable. Of course, over the years, due to some changes of the typography rules, the name has now changed to
Suradis Novawhich is known in other languages as (trying to gather my knowledge of a few languages; hope I'm getting an acceptable result, if not, please feel free to tell me. My knowledge of French and Spanish is rather limited, and I don't actually speak Japanese and Greek, but I like the characters, so I tried my hands at a transliteration):
German: Neu-Surad
English: New Surade
French: Nouvelle Sourade
Spanish: Nueva Suradis
Japanese: スラーディス・ノーヴァ
Greek: Νέο Σουραδισ
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fdumpi7rf.jpg&hash=cf3a54e4cb6e086c2b329b051e13a6e0b3cf1ade)
#26.01; Click to enlargeAnd a close-up:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fefe2jx44.jpg&hash=87549b692978d4fe7a903ab208f40117efda08f6)
#26.02; Click to enlargeOf course, most people back in these times lived from farming, animal breeding, and fishing. Therefore, I've tried my hands at a few farm fields, pastures, and a ferry harbor at the river. Since Calidores has neighboring empires like most other empires, trading has already started; however, a ferry harbor sounded more logical than a bridge because in these times, bridges were just too expensive to build whenever a ferry harbor would do the same job.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fpl46q9z9.jpg&hash=f1d2c4dd1d2f44ac703ab614571bc6e4cab11be8)
#26.03; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fzrmci6kf.jpg&hash=1b0c89de708e45c4759ad168ffbd662a8500a1e9)
#26.04; Click to enlargeBy the way, for providing me with a really long list of plugin links in his MD, without them I wouldn't have been able to create this village, somebody actually deserves a special honor in accordance with the Calidorian policy (I hope you like it, it took me a while to keep my promise, but I couldn't think of any location that would be more suitable):
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fgigcvhlt.jpg&hash=65875e24429d6a610dbed218f6c94431fcc8f069)
#26.05; Click to enlargeMeanwhile, somewhere else...... and sometime else, Mayor 11241036 has started planning on a new city tile,
D1 Melarii Inferiores, to be exact. First, a picture taken with RegionCensus, to illustrate its landscape:
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Frhzgtzsy.png&hash=3ee2c19fb7fdac9690fb8ce3f260668c618327b3)
#26.06It's somehow difficult to develop, especially with the very steep slopes. My plans are to build a medium-sized village at the base of the mountains, and a very small village in the lowered portion of the hills between the two river valleys. As for the first village, I'll try to keep it a little poorer, and mostly living from dirty industry.
Translations:
Gusslov: that's actually the name of a lot by SFBT: Gießerei Gusslov (an iron furnace)
Steinbruch: quarry
I-Gebiet: industrial area
BaH (short for Bauernhof): farm(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fu6j2mtwl.jpg&hash=b014ff0223599947a0c0ac88a87aceb92456337e)
#26.07; Click to enlargeAs for the second village, I'm planning to place a mine nearby so there's any reason to actually settle somewhere in the mountains. As you can see, the slopes are scary, but actually, I think that this is sort of interesting.
Translations:
Mine: mine
Kirche: church
Quelle: spring (a place where a brook or river emerges)
Wanderwege zu Wasserfall: hiking paths leading to a waterfall (not a literal translation)(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fdk42c2vm.jpg&hash=505986d4b5a5901e5e41560c2ac7f01a4c6696d2)
#26.08; Click to enlargeFinally, I've been thinking of how to complete the river delta we've already seen in the previous update. Only the vegetation along the river needs to be done. I've been thinking that it would be a little too easy to just plant a few trees. I wanted to make a type of partially flooded forest. In German, there's a special name for it (Bruchwald) I couldn't find an appropriate English translation. Since the file size of Vella is already very large, along with the loading time, I had to make some experiments in another city tile. I'd like to share three pictures of my experiments with you; please feel free to share your opinion.
My plans are mostly to combine a limited variety of trees (in this case birch trees, since only a few species of trees can tolerate being flooded) with cattails (to simulate a few raised locations with high grass), water and probably a few rocks. There are 5 experimental forests, 3 with Jeronij's ploppable water (I can't think of its actual name), one with Pegasus' Tahoe Water, and one with the RFR Plopwater system. Personally, I prefer Pegasus' water this time, because of its darker color and the fact that Jeronij's water actually drowns the grass.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2Fzydtladf.jpg&hash=6b952395f1773b9834bc0c30fd8ddda8340fdaed)
#26.09a; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2F5dtqia7x.jpg&hash=12bc8d11fc4966f8714a0177ceb7f3dc08f7f59f)
#26.09b; Click to enlarge(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160210%2F8m57ehdk.jpg&hash=28f25e07172077f2210e75c1b9a346b5c7a21c1c)
#26.09c; Click to enlargeAnd that's all for today. Hope you like it.
Ich hoffe es geht gut, dass ich auf Deutsch schreibe! Ich muss doch mal mein Deutsch üben...
Sehr gutes Arbeit mit dem palisaden-umgeschloßenen Dorf! Besonders gefällt mir den Hafen mit den Schiffen und der hölzernen Pier - die passen ja zu der Szene sehr gut. :thumbsup: Der Buchwald sieht echt gut aus und mir gefällt auch peg's Wassertextur am besten. Betreffend der Dorfname weiß ich nicht ob Du einen Schwedisch-sprachigen Nachbarreich hast, ;D aber der Name wäre irgendwie Nya Suradis.
Good work on that palisaded village! I especially like the port with the ships and the wood pier, they fit the scene very well. The Buchwald looks really good, and I agree with you about peg's water textures. About the village name, I don't know if you have a Swedish-speaking neighbouring empire, but anyway it'd be Nya Suradis.
Quote from: Themistokles on February 11, 2016, 02:53:34 AM
Ich hoffe es geht gut, dass ich auf Deutsch schreibe! Ich muss doch mal mein Deutsch üben...
only some minor mistakes, but I was able to understand you without hestitation. Gut gemacht.
I love the harbor and village. I immediatly get this Anno 1503 feeling!
You're taking on quite a difficult subject, but pulling it off quite nicely! Really love that waterstream with the rapids in pic 04.
Cheers
Willy
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160221%2Fkggydbku.png&hash=d91688053e1180b230073451969c0f36845e3fe7)
Responsa
Themistokles: Thank you very much! Also, good German text, with only minor mistakes, as Seaman already noted. I'll include "Nya Suradis" as soon as possible in the first post :thumbsup:
Seaman, Swordmaster: Thank you both very much, too!
Progressio
Since the more busy days will come back soon, I only have time today to write an update.
I've been developing the new city tile I've shown off in its planning state in last update,
D1 Melarii Inferiores. It took me quite a while, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to give it a poorer look than the other cities. Since there are some undeveloped corners left, I'll share close-ups when I've got them filled.
There'll only be two villages, first the larger one, located at the base of the mountains there, with the name of
Inosetia. Clearly you can see an old village core between the two rivers, large, mostly residential areas south of the river (north is located to the left of the picture) and one of Calidores' more dirty secrets, the metal industry, to the west.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160221%2Fnizxmenn.jpg&hash=a8a494b5203f459b7211c52fc60b094d6803d931)
#27.01; Click to enlargeThis time, I wanted to make some kind of second business district, a little outside of the old village core, mostly due to better economical conditions in the last 20 years, as well as the changes in the main route layout of Calidores, meaning that the main route actually isn't located at the village city core anymore, but rather south of it, in the residential quarter.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160221%2Fg38vlmjg.jpg&hash=24346f46604efac823f8c40f3ea29c84d20cb053)
#27.02; Click to enlargeAnd these are the old village parts. I love building on slopes ;D
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160221%2F4t4gg3aw.jpg&hash=9ac6a429da0aca6ad416aa5e0ff197c56a5a23c4)
#27.03; Click to enlargeAnd a close-up of the hill with the Stiftskirche (diocese church) on it.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160221%2Fukw57q4d.jpg&hash=cce02fabf21de1a2ff5fdefeb61994d3e1d58977)
#27.04; Click to enlargeAnd another close-up, this time of the small bridge at the top of the picture, but rather because I do again want to say how much I love the terraforming technique McDuell discovered ;D
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffs5.directupload.net%2Fimages%2F160221%2Fhoxxhnxi.jpg&hash=ef77ec79fd4e653dc0a6e4e7416e09fe84b77f2c)
#27.05; Click to enlargeSadly, this is all for today. Further development on this city tile may include
* building another village in the mountains, this time mostly with old buildings
* including a few special landmarks in close proximity to said village, most notably a mine, a castle, and a monastery
* filling everything with forests and mountain vegetation
* designing the river shores, especially at the springs and waterfalls
* filling a few gaps in the MMP design of Inosetia
which means, there's still a lot of work ahead.
Hope you liked it.
Nice work! I especially like the way you've put the church up on the hill above the town :thumbsup:
(Es freut mich auch, dass mein Deutsch verständlich war! Danke Dir und Seaman für das Feedback. :) )
Nicely done, I like this town. :)
There are just a couple things you can consider. They're based on my personal tastes but I think they can apply to you as well.
Firstly, I've never been a fan of the Maxis hospital... I don't know for you but I always found it to be severely under-scaled for a large hospital and really commie looking. For your city I think Mickebear's hospital (http://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2144) might look really good.
Secondly, I think you should have a look at Rivit's tunnel mod, imo they'd look good in your cities, rather than the standard maxis tunnels. (IIRC, you'll need to redraw all of them.)
Awesome job, especially the rivers, as always ;)
Had some serious catching up to do here. First of all a belated congratulations on the first year anniversary! &dance The postcards are really well done, and I also really like your flag designs. :thumbsup:
Suradis Nova is nice as well and it couldn't be a more suitable location for Via Vortext indeed. ()stsfd()
As for a more poorer look to the latest city tile, iirc both Feroxx and Glenni have made some pretty run down w2ws which might be suitable. You could also consider incorporating a few of Jestar's industrial buildings, some of which fit in w2w environment, for a more grimy look.
And as per usual great work combining different kinds of waterways into a cohesive whole indeed. &apls