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Erastide

Started by Gayowulf, May 19, 2011, 07:27:29 PM

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Gayowulf



Welcome, friends, and a Joyous Erastide to you all!

Question: What the heck is Erastide?

Answer: Ever heard of David Eddings?  He's an author.  He wrote a series of books, The Belgariad, and its sequel series, The Mallorean, which happen to be favorites of mine.  In his world, Erastide is a holiday celebrated in midwinter.  It celebrates the creation of the world by the seven Gods.  Where we might say "Merry Christmas", or "Happy Hanukkah", or whatever tickles your fancy, they say "Joyous Erastide".

The cities in this region will be named after places in the Belgariad and the Mallorean.  Since Eddings doesn't seem to have a specific name for his fantasy world, the name of the holiday commemorating its creation seemed appropriate for a region name.  (No, this isn't a medieval-themed region, I just needed a source for names, because I fail at them.)

Let's jump right in, shall we?



We'll be building on the Kettlewood region by NHP.  Here's a map:



As you can see, it has lots of rivers, flat spaces for building, low hills, mountains, valleys, coastline, and two excellent harbors.  All my favorite features rolled into one!  I'm planning a nice mix of big cities, small towns, suburbs, farms, forests, and wilderness.  And trains.  Lots of trains.

Here's an in-game shot of the bare region in all its Terraformer-color glory, since I haven't gone through the map to load and save every city yet.



And here's what I plan to do with it.  Note that this is a very tentative map - things can and probably will change from here.
RED: Railroad
PURPLE: High-Speed Rail (Monorail)
ORANGE: Highways



FYI about me:

I play SimCity 4... intermittently.  So if I disappear for months at a time, don't despair!  Erastide will return!  My computer game interests go through cycles.  So if you don't hear from me for ages, I've probably temporarily lost interest in SC4 and I'm playing The Sims 2, or Age of Empires II, or Oblivion, or something else.  I'll be back.

As a head's up, I play SC4 on Linux (Ubuntu, specifically), because:
   a) I hate Windows
   b) It runs better
As a side-effect, though, I have a few graphical glitches every now and then. So please pardon the occasional oddities, specifically in automata.  There's really nothing I can do about it, other than go back to playing in Windoze, and I am NOT doing that!

Also, sometimes on the internet I go by the name "The Trippmeister", so that applies to me as well.  The only reason that isn't my username here is because I started playing SC4 only a couple months before I started using that name and discarded "Alafel".  Sigh...

NOTE: You can also read this CJ/MD in the Simtropolis CJ section, if so your heart desires:
http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/journals/2416-erastide



Well, that's enough chit-chat, wouldn't you say?  Join us for the ride... the ride through Erastide.  (Tee-hee!  I made a rhyme!)


I'll leave you with a teaser, which you won't see again for at least a dozen updates:

Goodness me, it's been a while.
Once upon a (very long) time (ago) I was working on Calidore: A Steampunk Experiment... maybe that will happen again someday.

If you're thinking I used to have a different name on here... I did. It still me!

Tomas Neto

Great start, and fantastic region!!!

RickD

The Kettlewood region is a great choice.  :thumbsup:
My name is Raphael.
Visit my MD: Empire Bay (My old MD: Santa Barbara County)

rooker1

 Great start and awesome map and that teaser is teasing!  I can't wait to see how you fill it in.

As for disappearing for a month at a time, be careful because you need to update your MD ever 45 days or less to keep it out of the Inactive section. ;)

I look forward to seeing more.
Robin  :thumbsup:
Call me Robin, please.

Ol.S / Benoit

This is a great region to play with, i'm sure u'll do a fantastic work on it :) Nice teaser  :thumbsup:
Benoit.
MD : Click on picture

Gayowulf



Tomas Neto:
Thanks!  I look forward to seeing you around!

RickD:
Isn't it, though?  I'm really picky about what I want in a region, so it always takes me forever and a half to find a good one.  Kettlewood has it all, though!

Robin:
Thanks, glad you like it!  And as for the disappearing... yeah, I thought of that.  (I almost decided to have this CJ/MD only on Simtropolis for exactly that reason, but changed my mind.)  At the moment I have about a 16-update buffer, so I should be okay for a while.  I'll figure something out.

Benoit:
Glad you like the teaser!  But there won't be anything else that fancy for quite a while, unfortunately...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now, dear readers, without further ado...



Ha!  And you thought I'd be starting down in Riva, didn't you?  Y'know, the biggest city (or what will be) on the map?  Nope.  See, I don't trust either my city building skills or my plugins folder enough yet to tackle Riva, since I want it to be spectacular.  That, and my plan was to work around it first to build up demand.  Although that's kind of a moot point now, since I ended up using the Super Demand Mod. (Erastide is an artistic region, so I'm not much concerned about money or other mundane things like that.  I'm more concerned with making it look nice.)



In The Belgariad, Erat is a small town in the nation of Sendaria, midway between Medalia and Darine.  It was once a part of Arendia, but split off to create part of the new kingdom of Sendaria in the Arendish Civil War.  Garion's Aunt Pol sometimes uses the title Duchess of Erat when she needs a disguise.


Map stolen borrowed from the David Eddings Wiki:
http://davideddings.wikia.com/wiki/Sendaria
http://images.wikia.com/davideddings/images/1/17/Sendaria.JPG


Shall we take a look at the bare land?

Click here for a larger image

Wait, that land isn't bare!  It has stuff on it!  Yep, those are the beginnings of the main transportation networks.  And don't worry about the Maxis highway - it will be replaced with RHW as we start developing that area.  It's just there to lay out the network for now.

In our region of Erastide, Erat will be a small, mostly rural town.  The commercial and residential areas will be concentrated along the northern edge, mostly low density but with some medium.  South of the creek will be farmland, but the very southern edge will be just the beginnings of the suburbs for Riva.

That's all for this post, but I'll have the first update for Erat out very soon (just as soon as I finish assembling it) with actual development!  So in the meantime, here's another teaser for you:



Catch you later!
Goodness me, it's been a while.
Once upon a (very long) time (ago) I was working on Calidore: A Steampunk Experiment... maybe that will happen again someday.

If you're thinking I used to have a different name on here... I did. It still me!

Battlecat

Fantastic start!  Great choice for a region name, I love those books. 

Gayowulf



Battlecat:
Thanks!  Adara has become a huge inspiration for me, so it's great to hear encouragement from you!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now, without further ado...



Guess what?  We finally get to see some actual development this update!  Won't be anything too spectacular, but you have to start somewhere, right?  Let's hop right to it!  (Apologies, as this will be a somewhat technical update.)

Here's the general layout for the avenues in northern Erat:



See the circle?  That's where we'll be starting.



Leveling the coastline for development.  This is mainly because I'm OCD and I want my cities to follow certain Rules.  (I expect you'll see plenty of evidence of this throughout the CJ.)  Anyway, these leveler lots by Peg are really handy; you can get 'em HERE if you don't have them.




Another ridiculously useful terraforming lot!  This is the Ground Lifter from smoncrie's Hole Digging Lots.  Plop...




...and POP!

Let's move along before this whole CJ turns into an advertisement, shall we?




Well, that didn't take long, did it?  Time flies when you're having fun!


...


Or when you're reading someone else's CJ and didn't have to plop all those accursed roads yourself. :P

Moving ON!






Well hey!  Some actual zones!  And here you were thinking we'd never get there at this rate!  (Or was that just me?)

But houses alone don't make a city, do they?  So...




Laying out the Eastern Erat downtown area.  I don't expect most of this to grow for a good while, but I'm laying it out now anyway.



And of course, we need power!




Hum... there's something missing here...




AHA!  Walking paths!

...except, these look hideous with my sidewalk mod.  I love the walkways, but they just don't fit here!


Let's try...



Well, it's not perfect, but it'll do.  I guess.  There's nothing better in my plugins folder at the moment.  Anyone have any bright ideas?


Side note: wondering why there's a street patch missing?  That's the result of one of the Linux-related glitches.  Basically I can't fight the auto-facing of lots - even if I rotate 'em, they turn back to the road when I click.  I'm used to it by now, and it's still better than going back to Windoze.  But let me tell you, it sure is a pain when I'm making some intricate transit interchange with dozens of NAM pieces and suddenly realize I have to bulldoze THE WHOLE THING in order to decorate it.

But wouldn't it be more sensible to just plop the decorations first?

Yes.  Yes it would.  And someday I'll learn to actually do it.




Here's the area, ready to grow!  It's that tense moment just before we pop the popcorn...

...

...

Ladies and gentlemen...

I give you...



Voilà!  The first development in Erastide!

(Okay, that lead-up was way more dramatic than it needed to be.  Sorry about that.  I'd promise not to do it again, but I don't like to make promises I won't keep. :P)


Let's wrap up the day with a little overview of the development so far, shall we?



Not much, eh?  But Rome wasn't built in a day, and Erastide won't be either.

Until next time, take care folks!
Goodness me, it's been a while.
Once upon a (very long) time (ago) I was working on Calidore: A Steampunk Experiment... maybe that will happen again someday.

If you're thinking I used to have a different name on here... I did. It still me!

Allein

Hey, it's a nice start ;) :thumbsup:

peter007

Great start.
I'm eager to see more of your work.

-Ernst

Terring7

"The wisest men follow their own direction" Euripides
The Choice is Ours
---
Simtropolis Moderator here. Can I help? Oh, and you can call me Elias (my real name) if you wish.

ldvger

Fantastic region, I may have to download it and play with it a bit myself!  And loving your development so far, I'll have to keep an eye on this!

Gayowulf



IAM:
Thanks!  Hope to see you around!

Ernst (peter007):
And here's a bit more of it! ;)  Thank you for the support!

Elias (Terring7):
Thanks for dropping by!

Idvger:
Thank you!  Actually, this region has been sitting around on my hard drive for a long time... even though I really like it, I couldn't quite decide what to do with it!  It's finally found a home now, though...


And now, ladies and gentlemen, presenting...



Welcome back to Erastide!  And notice, the pictures are (slightly) fancier now!

Erat is in need of a few more people, so let's attend to that!  The area to the west of downtown looks like a suitable space:



Above is the basic street layout.  As you can see, we're extending the downtown across the avenue.  Because I like walking, there's a walking trail throughout the neighborhood.


Zoning time!  And a nice little pond right in the middle.



But that square needs a little attention, so...


Of course!  What else would we put there but a plaza with fountains and Poseidon!
In retrospect (I'm running about a 20-update buffer here, so this was a while ago), I'm not too pleased with how this turned out.  It bothers me that the texture under old Poseidon doesn't match the sandstone from the sidewalks and small plazas.  What do you all think?  I'm open to suggestions, as always.


However, we can't let a fountain get us down, and there are other areas that need our attention!  Here we have...



...



...a charming little park, complete with playgrounds, a (small) bike loop, and gazebos!


Now let's see, what should we put here?


How about...

...a nice little community library!


...with parking and quiet reading areas, no less!



A final look at today's work before we let it "pop":



BOING!

Next time we'll have a look at that intriguing little plot off to the left...

Catch you later, folks!
Goodness me, it's been a while.
Once upon a (very long) time (ago) I was working on Calidore: A Steampunk Experiment... maybe that will happen again someday.

If you're thinking I used to have a different name on here... I did. It still me!

Terring7

I think I can "steal" some of your ideas to improve my cities ;D :)
Just an idea about the community library. Add some walls to prevent your Sims fall into the cliff :)
"The wisest men follow their own direction" Euripides
The Choice is Ours
---
Simtropolis Moderator here. Can I help? Oh, and you can call me Elias (my real name) if you wish.

bat

Great start on your MD!
And wonderful first updates.
Your region is looking very nice. :thumbsup:

ldvger

I really like this region and would like to play around with it myself, but after days of searching on both SC4D and Simtropolis, I have not been able to find it.  Could you maybe post a link to a download site or upload the region to either site? 

Also, I am liking how you are developing and can't wait to see what you do with that diagonal valley you created!

Lora/LD

Gayowulf

#16


Elias [Terring7]:
Well, gee, I'm honored!  Steal away, my friend!  And as for that library... consider it done.  In this very update, no less!

bat:
Why, thank you!  It's always great to hear encouragement, especially when one is new at this...

Lora [ldvger]:
Well, I tried to get you a link, but Simtropolis appears to be down at the moment.  A Google search turns up this: http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?id=18003, but I can't guarantee that it's right until ST is back up.  Let me know if that's right. EDIT: Yep, that's the one!
Now, as for that diagonal valley, well, we'll just have to see, won't we? :D







Welcome back to Erastide, one and all!  Wowzers, it's been a while!  Sorry about the delay; I recently had a fairly significant project that involved teaching kids that math is actually fun, so my time was a little reduced.  And then lately I've been playing TS2 more than SC4... but hey, that's what my buffer is for, eh?  Let's dive right in!



When we last were gathered, we saw this section off in the corner just waiting for development!


Also, though I didn't mention it last time, we're in need of industrial jobs to jump-start the population.  So guess what's going to go here?  (Hint: it isn't a shopping mall...)

Before we can get down to building, we need to do some terraforming:





And here's the general street layout.  But I don't like the bottom section.  I need that road to stay level instead of going down.

So...


Tada!


For those who were concerned about not having a fence by the reading area; well, there ya go!


Like any industrial park, we need a train station.  I'm trying to engourage train travel over roads as much as possible in this region, so it'll be a much longer route to ship out goods by truck.


Boing!


Almost there... we've got zoning, pipes, and parking...  And some trees to hopefully cut down on the pollution...


POP! Goes the popcorn!

And a final overview to finish off this update!


Still a couple of patches that won't grow, but they'll get there.  Next time we'll add in a passenger train station.  Granted, it won't actually go anywhere yet.  But it will eventually!

Until then; take care, everybody!
Goodness me, it's been a while.
Once upon a (very long) time (ago) I was working on Calidore: A Steampunk Experiment... maybe that will happen again someday.

If you're thinking I used to have a different name on here... I did. It still me!

Ol.S / Benoit

Well i like everything here :)
Great terraforming, sometimes its nice to sea that kine of work !
The development is also good, as the presentation is, really pleasant to follow :)
Yes, I want to see more ! Keep up the good work.
Benoit.
MD : Click on picture

wallasey

I am liking the progression of development you are showing us here; your presentation skills is also top notch!

Terring7

I like those stair-like cities, the result is always very interesting &apls
"The wisest men follow their own direction" Euripides
The Choice is Ours
---
Simtropolis Moderator here. Can I help? Oh, and you can call me Elias (my real name) if you wish.