Calidores

[art128]

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.

[manga rivotra]

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. 

[kbieniu7]

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

[Themistokles]

Nice pictures! I've said it before, but there's a special feeling that you capture so well in your autumn pictures.

[vortext]

Great work on the hiking trail! 

What exactly did you use for those stairs, it's too small to make out what props they are.

[11241036]

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/ 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:


Click to enlarge

It 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 .


#23.01; Click to enlarge

Exhausted 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.


#23.02; Click to enlarge

Finding 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.


#23.03; Click to enlarge

And a closer view:


#23.04; Click to enlarge

And that's already all for now. Hope you liked it.

[Themistokles]

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.

[manga rivotra]

The pebble beach is perfectly reproduced and fall colors always well mastered ! 
I am excited to see this capital develop over the centuries

[Gayowulf]

Hmmm... this map seems awfully familiar, now where have I seen this before? Good to know it's getting some use!

Great-looking MD! I love your agricultural areas, especially the blending of agricultural and residential zones.

[Unconstantean]

great MMP work

[11241036]

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):



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.


#24.01; Click to enlarge

Next, I've placed some trees there, but only for creating small forests. Single trees will be placed later, when fine-tuning the area.


#24.02; Click to enlarge

Next comes shrubbery and grass, especially at the limits of the forests and the muddy areas.


#24.03; Click to enlarge

During 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:


#24.04; Click to enlarge

And now some close-ups. First, there's a pond with dark blue water. This is actually supposed to be a former 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.


#24.05; Click to enlarge

Next, just a randomly chosen part of the swamp.


#24.06; Click to enlarge

Next, 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).


#24.07a; Click to enlarge


#24.07b; Click to enlarge


#24.07c; Click to enlarge

Aside from making the swamp, I've also added an extra small village with the name of Lumbrae:


#24.08; Click to enlarge

And with that, another city tile can be considered finished for now.


#24.09; Click to enlarge

That's it for today. I hope you liked it.

[vortext]

Swamp looks great! 

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).

[romualdillo]

Great work with the river and the swamp!! The last shoot looks fantastic! 

[Nanami]

Lovely swamp mmp work!

[kbieniu7]

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! 

[art128]

The swamp is well done. It looks very natural.

[Dantes]

The water line look well  Great MMP work. The windpower plant very near in the same space. Not efficent  Your landscape is so naturalistic. Well done! 

[manga rivotra]

Excellent update, as always !
I love the last pic, you always produce among the best cities overview at SC4D. 

[Gayowulf]

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...

[Bipin]

Excellent work. I love the meandering river!