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Building Port Pol Lucia

Started by soulstealer, March 10, 2008, 04:14:44 AM

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soulstealer

Not an MD per se and neither a tutorial. Just I thought I might share my experience and record my progress as I try to build the perfect port.

I just started my 4th region and as always I start with building the first two cities at the same time. The first city is the port city with low wealth residentials, a lot of dirty/mechanic industry and of course the supporting port.
The second is the region's major city with its financial district and the high density high/medium wealth residentials.

This is going to be a lengthy process as I'm usually busier with the LE and the reader than actually playing.

This was my first successful custom port, posted on ST September 2006. Many new port lots and bats have surfaced since I've completed it and I'm also going to do a lot of my own custom lots, some are soon to be released. So let's see how much better can I make it.




First things first, after finding the natural spot in my region for building a major harbor, the constructions begin.

The Krupp bucket wheel excavator was hired for the job. Standing 100 meters tall and 200 meters in length, this baby is the largest land vehicle ever constructed. It weighs 11,000 tons that's about 3500 buses. It is also the slowest land vehicle, moving at 0.6km/h about 10 meters per minute. But once it's on site it can literally move mountains, displacing 240,000 cubic meters of earth per day. It can completely load the Knock Nevis tanker in 3 days

The real:





The SC real:





Next some functional terraforming.




RickD

Great start. The port looks amazing.  :thumbsup:
My name is Raphael.
Visit my MD: Empire Bay (My old MD: Santa Barbara County)

wouanagaine

awesome port  :thumbsup:
And the excavator is well placed

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emilin

This is mighty interesting. :thumbsup:

I remember that first picture from very long ago - and it is still extremly good. Especially the bridge, but the other stuff too.

Can't wait to see what you hve in store for us.

BlackwaterEmil's inn
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bat

That's a wonderful start!
Very great mosaic of that port there!
And the others are also nice!

Looking forward to more...

Earth quake

Wow, excellent start. :thumbsup:
It's really beautiful. :thumbsup:

CasperVg

That's looking like an interesting CJ, looks great.  :thumbsup:
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Yoman

#7
Hmm...maybe I can help you out in your container areas a bit. If you wish I could give you this as a prop, but only for your own personal use please (at least until it is released). Might require a bit of reworking those lots though, the thing is HUGE :P Super Post Panamax if your familiar with the term (it loads / unloads the Emma Maresk  :o).

By the way, excellent start, I just love ports :thumbsup:

Simpson

Oh your port is fantastic
good work &apls
My new city is now here
The région of Kaikoura

Teaser of Lopsas[+ How did I do it?]:Lopsas

soulstealer

wow yoman that would be great!!! I've been using SG freightyard cranes and although they are great and very detailed. They seem to be too small next to JRJ container ships.
Your crane look like the real deal, the size the textures they are simply perfect!

Yoman

Just need someway to transfer it, email?

soulstealer

#11
Thank you everyone for the kind comments. I'm sorry for the slow updates I'm very busy with the LE making new lots, changing some old ones. You will see what I'm up to very soon, but first lets start with preparing the land for the harbour.

I'm going to build a big harbour, it will be about half a big city tile. But it will not be too big as I want to leave room for the industry in the backyard of the port and also some place for low wealth residential, commercials and landfill zone as this city will be the dumpster of the high/medium wealth neighboring cities.

I choose this city as the perfect spot to start my port, it has natural harbor features, a bay with shallow waters and large plains behind it. Quite a logical choice.



My way of terraforming for the harbor is to play with the God mode raise/lower terrain tools. I've allowed myself to barge in on wouanagaine's excellent tutorial and add a few pointers of my own. (Sorry wouanagaine  ::) )

I will not repeat the whole story, you can go and have a look (Bottom of first page).

I just find this way the most precise. SC4 ports, bridges and tunnels building require some precise engineering. well much like in the real world.

I wanted to give the feeling that Sims conqured this bay and dried out the sea.
Here is where I got to after an hour or two or three (lost the time):


I'm planning on having a huge container terminal, oil docks and refinery, some goods docks, dry bulk docks and perhaps a shipyard and passenger terminal.

Some measurements and planning:



Ground levels - Assuming the port's ground height being 0
The port's floor is -24m deep
The wave breaker is +2 meters high

The container terminal about 46*72 tiles - will have its own separate highway access
The refinery 39*20 - will have its own secured and separated road access. Not sure it will be enough.


The wavebreakers:

I really wanted to make my own freehand realistic wave breakers. After some experiments I have found the right method.

Using Shadow Assassin's new digger lots you can raise/lower the terrain to the exact desired height.

I have found that jeronij sea walls and marrast embankment set need a height difference of at least 12 meters between the base of the lot to the bottom of the lot for the walls to show properly. I want to use minimum values so the rocks of the wavebreaker will be part under and part over the water line. As you will see shortly.



I lifted the ports ground (being 0) 10 meters than lowered it 8 to get to the height of 2. Then lowered 1 tile in front of the breaker with the 10 meters digger. Now the difference is 12 meters.



Another small breaker at the mouth of the port:


Now lowering the entire terrain back I can make my own breaker using jeronij walls or marrast or any other for that matter. for the breaker rocks I used jeronij white rocks from his new set (Thanks emilin for pointing me in the right direction  :thumbsup:).



And the diagonal



Not sure what I'll go with. I think marrast walls look better but I need to strip them off their fancy light posts and maybe change the base texture. The Eagle eyes among you can tell I have striped jeronij walls off their props, the numerous people, the tress, the boxes and the fence made it look unrealistic to me. Especially for industrial harbours where the only trees you will ever see are lumber cargo. It was a lot of work and now I see I forgot to rotate the lamp posts  &mmm



Next time a word on water transparency, how to mod it and how to change lots appearances without changing anything else and finally maybe maybe some plopping.

Cheers.


Yoman

Oh, wonderful update, I really like these new lots and may need something like them for my own harbour. Can't wait to see those overlays for the gantry crane, and I've finished it's little brother. Which can move containers around the place now :D

figui

great update!
love your method of terraforming :thumbsup:

the layout of the port is really good looking and both breakwaters look good imo (despite that thing about the fancy lightposts of marrast walls and the base texture)

mauricio.
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warconstruct

wow quite simply brilliant your terraforming  &apls &apls


Excellent update, your port will be worthy of the largest port of the world ! thank you very much for this explanation very succeeded  :thumbsup:

I am impatient to see your next update !
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RickD

Wow, this is getting better and better. I love those CJs where I can see how things are actually built.
I am currently building a big container terminal. Well, actually I stopped building it a few weeks ago because it didn't work out the way I wanted to. But now I'm pretty sure I will get some new ideas and techniques from your CJ.   ;)
My name is Raphael.
Visit my MD: Empire Bay (My old MD: Santa Barbara County)

bat

Great terraforming! Looking forward to more of your wonderful work!

emilin

That was a wonderful update. Very detailed, and a very nifty solution for the breakwater - extra points for creativity. &apls

The breakwater, by the way, is stunning. That is by far the part of the layout I like best so far. :thumbsup:

I was wondering about two things:
1. Rail access for the container terminal - is there room for it? I know it's not 100% necessary, but unless the prot is located on an island or somewhere else where there is no railway, it's likely to have rail access.
2. Liquid bulk terminal in connection to the refinery - are the terminals supposed to be directly on the small island, or somewhere else? It looks a bit tight for larger tankers to fit in there.

I'm not asking to nag - all of your work is excellent - I am just very interested in these subjects myself, and a big fan of your work, and I'd like to know how you are thinking?

BlackwaterEmil's inn
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Pat

wow soulstealer beautiful port here!!! I love the use of the Bucket Wheel!!!

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