Welcome to Condor Bay

[paroch]

Hi Isaac,

Sorry it's taken me so long to find this update.  I'm trying to do a few things at once today, so this reply won't be so long as the last!

Thanks for the link to the college - downloaded and appreciated.

I really enjoyed this update.  I have to admit that in many MDs, I would never read that much text, just look at the pics, but you make it so interesting and easy to read.  It's great to actually get inside your thought process and understand what you're doing and WHY you're doing it.

Rigel Park is very nice indeed.  Like you I have more parks in my menu than I'll ever use and the raised parks are one set that I rarely use - but seeing your results tells me I should try.  The commercial development around it is very well done.

And as for the Nottingham Tower.  This is a RL building in the City of London (Financial District) and Ill Tonkso has done an incredible job.  I actually went past the RL building today.  It official name is Tower 42 (42 floors!) but it is still generally known as the Nat West Tower - because when the tower first opened it was home the the National Westminster Bank.  But it is now a multi-occupancy building.  Anyway, enough waffle.

The region view is pretty spectacular - very good.

Great work and I look forward to seeing more,

Paul

[Masochist]

Alfred.Jones -
Hello, A.J!  Good to see you around!  Thanks for the comment, I'm glad you like it.  I think I took too many photographs of it, though :-P.  I hope you enjoy this update, it's a bit...different...


bat -
Thanks!  Good to see that you're still supporting Condor Bay .  I'm glad you enjoyed Travis Park; I was really going for something tranquil, instead of a playground-type park.  Also, thanks for your input about the banners!  As it turns out, I think I'll use a different one that was made for me .  Still, thanks for your comment!  Hope you enjoy this update!


Haljackey -
Welcome back !  Although...it's funny that you should make an appearance now, as you very greatly influenced this upcoming update .  In that regard, I really hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for the comment!  It's good to hear that you enjoyed the last update, but I daresay you might find this one a bit more up your alley.  Also, thanks for the input on the banners; as it turns out, I think I'll end up using a different one, but I appreciate the input.  I look forward to reading your comments on this update, as well !


JoeST -
Thanks, Joe!  LOL...glad you enjoy it so far.  Come back soon, eh?


sciurus54 -
Heh heh, thank you for the kind word !  I hope you continue to enjoy it, as well!


threestooges -
Hmmm...nice to see a short comment from you every once in a while .  It was a bit of a relief to watch the team I lost to go on to win the entire thing.  Makes the players feel a bit better .  And my mouse wheel is recovering.  Slowly, but surely .

What's that story?  "The Purloined Letter"?  I do believe that's it...something's written in a letter, and everyone is searching for it, and the person who has it leaves it plainly on his desk for the world to see, but they still can't find it because they check all the enclosed spots in the room (file cabinets and drawers).  Yeah...I can see how that can happen easily in real life.  Suppose that's the secret of getting away with things, eh ....

Banner "A" seems to be the popular choice, though my personal favorite was "B"...but as it turns out, I've decided to go with one that was made for me by Sticksboi05.  I asked him to make a logo for me on ST (he has a CJ Logo-Making group there), and he did...so to help him advertise, I decided to go with that one.  Thanks for the input, though; you'll still see my banners in some places .  Don't worry about not being on TPP too often; I realize that right now it's sort of a bare-bones SC4 site until the real projects can begin.  I hope you enjoyed your vacation away from the SimWorld--Lord knows we could all use one now and then !  And thanks for the congrats on the embassy!  BT did a marvelous job with it; I am really happy with the way it turned out, and I'll post a picture of it in this update .  About her embassy here in CB, she said that she didn't really care which building, "as long as it's prettyful."  I wonder what type of buildings BT thinks are prettyful?  Heh heh...time to go into the depths of both Oscuridad and Claridad for clues, I expect .

But for now, onto the update ...

I'm glad you like that area of high-density res...but it's been desaturated .  There are a lot less tall towers there (though the two repeating Maxis ones are still there.  I couldn't get rid of them ).  Travis Park...I really like it.  I just like the tranquility of it...no playgrounds or anything.  It's a place where someone could easily have a picnic or read a book under a tree, and not have to worry about much else besides the panting of joggers and such.  I really wanted that feeling...but now, I want to do a traditional park soon !  LOL, the Rook University Robins...that's genius !  To be honest, I haven't really given much thought to their mascot.  Knights or Robins would definitely be fitting of the name (if not the slightest bit corny ), but beyond your suggestions I haven't really done much.  Perhaps that's a problem in CB: I myself aren't involved enough in the actual city, only the projects I do.  I guess I'll have to keep that in mind for future updates (and future CJ's/MD's, should there be any   ...).

I want you to know that after reading that "bad joke," I went and watched "The Time Warp" on YouTube...and then went and watched the Whose Line Is It Anyways? version ("The Coffee Grinder").  You can't do things to me like that!  It's not kosher!   Anyways....

For the raised park, that's what I was going for: a place where the White Collars could go during lunch and relax.  It was also CB's first official performance venue; of course, it can't hold too many people, so the biggest thing they can hold there is, perhaps, a specialty play from Rook University.  Oh, well.  As for that Nottingham Tower, that's very fitting advice.  It seemed like every where I put even the smallest amount of commerce, it would pop up.  So finally, I gave it a place of its own, and sure enough, it hasn't been too much of a problem since .  I'll have to keep that tidbit of Jeronij's in mind....

Thanks for the compliment on the picture!  I've recently discovered that there's been a slight lack of heavily edited photos in my CJ since the big Condor Beach update, so I tried to do a few more in that last one.  The pictures in this update also have a fair bit of editing, but they're no where near the main attraction for once .  As for a large multi-tile mosaic...well, I've always thought about perhaps doing something like that, but I need to figure out how to cleanly match up cities.  The only time I've ever done a cross-tile mosaic, the dividing line was clear as day.  I'd have to ask Darmok (or AK) for advice on how they do it before I ever attempted it myself.

I thought that the dividing line was way too obvious, as well (hence the comment at the end of the update).  It's definitely there, trust me.  I think the roads do something to make it more obvious, but no transportation support there for me to zone higher-density buildings; it gets into inner-city low-res housing across that border (also, I think the fact that every other medium tile gets blurred in the region view makes it more obvious, as well).  I wish it weren't like that, but I guess I'll have to live with it.  Perhaps when I develop the flat land along the river, it'll help out the situation.  We'll see... .

Oh, I'd daresay there was a great need for thanks, museum aside!  You give the most in depth comments of anyone who posts either here or at ST (and I get some pretty nice-length comments from the likes of paroch and BT, among others)   I really look foward to what you have to say, no matter if I have to set aside a few hours to read and reply !  I'm really happy to know that you're enjoying the whole thing so far, and I really look forward to what you have to say about this update, as it is without a doubt the most unique update so far .  Anyways, thanks again for the extremely detailed comment!  See you soon!


Simpson -
Thank you!  I'm glad you like it!  I'm happy with the progress I've made so far, and I have a lot more planned ahead.  Good to know that I seem to be doing something right, eh ?  That park took a bit of planning (and way too many pictures ), but I'm satisfied with the way it came out .  Anyways, I hope to see you around sometime...thanks for the comment!


Zane -
You realize that, save for a couple of times on ST at the very beginning of CB, this is the first time that a current admin from TPP has commented on my CJ?  What's up with that ???

Heh heh, I'm kidding of course !  I am glad you decided to stop in, though.  Thanks for the compliments!  Good to see that you enjoy some of my work.  Don't be a stranger, though...feel free to come in any time!


paroch -
Hello, paroch!  No matter how long it takes, it's always good to see a comment from you!  And no problem on the link to the college--I'm happy to spread it to whoever wants it! 

Heh heh...want to know a secret?  I don't really like reading too much in CJ's, either !  The only ones I really read are ones with newspapers, and ones where the author is either showing why the photographed area is special or telling how they made it (so I can take notes).  I suppose that makes me sort of a hypocrite , seeing as how I looooove to type so much in here, but hey, at least one person likes to read it all !  I am really glad to know that you enjoy what I write, because there's a lot of writing involved in this update (though not in the actual update itself ;-) ).

I think you should definitely try the Raised Park set.  It's a really unique set, and can add a lot of character to an area.  I actually first wanted to try it because of a picture Rooker1 took, and it looked so...cosmopolitan...that I had to try it out for myself!  I'm really happy with the results, too ...but I think the commercial towers around have too much of a "box"-feel...like they ring around the park in straight lines.  I wish they were a bit more randomly placed...but oh, well .

Yeah, I knew it was called Tower 42 (though I didn't know about the Nat West name).  If I'm not mistaken, it's currently the second (third?) tallest building in London, isn't it? I simply wanted to rename it because I gave it a special place in the city, and Nottingham seemed to be fitting since it was an English building.  I plan on renaming a lot of things in the city if they have a particular placement .  And thanks for the comment on my region view!  I think its really coming along...before you know it, the city will take up the entire west side of the river !

Anyways, thanks for the comment, Paul!  I hope you enjoy this update, as well...it's slightly different, to say the least ....

UPDATE 11 - Multimedia Extravaganza!
Bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses...

Well, already something out of the ordinary, isn't there?  This logo was created by Sticksboi05 of ST at my request.  In case you don't know, he heads a [CJ Map and Logo Service] there (along with a handful of other users), and I'd say he does good work !  As it is, I've decided to help him advertise his service, so I've truncated the logo down into a signature and will use that as my banner for a while (instead of the three that I asked you guys to vote on last update... ).  You'll also probably see this logo appear in various other places.  BIG thanks to Sticksboi05 for doing this for me!

That opening banner is just a taste of the oddities to come in this update...but first, the new Condor Bay embassy in Tierra de la Oscuridad has been completed!

11.1)

Photo by BlondeTwiggy; click to see more embassies by her!

Doesn't it look great?  I chose the building; BT did everything else.  You can see some of the other embassies she created for people by clicking the above picture; trust me, they're all spectacular !

And thus ends the normalcy of this update .

I've been really busy for the past few weeks/months trying a couple different things to help...enhance the experience of Condor Bay, and to make things a bit more personal for you guys.  So, I have a few things showcase that I think may achieve the desired affect .


"I've got pictures to prove I was there..."

I don't actually have too many pictures of new areas to show, but I do have something slightly special: a Special Picture Showcase (a la Condor Beach) of the Rigel District.  Hope you enjoy it!

11.2)

Residential condo oilified

11.3)

The dead of night...(as seen in the SC4 Picture Contest)

11.4)

An SC4D exclusive!

11.5)

Another odd-perspective photo

11.6)

Nottingham Tower at night

11.7)

Nighttime picture of the Rigel District

PAUSE!

Okay...for some reason, I really like this picture.  I was trying to duplicate the nighttime effect that Cockatoo210893 has in his pictures; you know, that sort of...bronzed nighttime effect that really makes the city lights come alive.  I think I almost got there with this one, but not quite.  The SoftGlow really helps this picture, though, and I'm proud of how it came out.

UNPAUSE!

11.8 )

Shield your eyes...

11.9)

Another odd-angle shot

And that would be the bulk of the pictures this time...but the update is far from over .


YouTube = WIN

You all can thank Haljackey for this section .  There's a thread on ST called [Show Us Your Videos] where people have, predictably, been posting their SC4 videos.  When the topic was made, I wanted to try it...so I did.  I took Haljackey's advice and grabbed the Fraps video capture software to record the game footage, planned out my route, and filmed it.  I edited it with ULead Software, and hosted it on YouTube.  So now, I'd like to present to you "Visions of Fordville" (and I'm embedding it in high-definition, so ignore the little annotation unless you actually go to YouTube to view it):

"Visions of Fordville"
(6:32 at 1.5x speed)

http://www.youtube.com/v/LzoFxTMRdDY&ap=%2526fmt%3D18

[Watch the video on YouTube] if it does not embed properly above (be sure to watch it in high-definition, trust me !)

What a bundle of joy this was to make .  When it was all done, the best video option was almost 900 MB!  I had to shrink it down somehow, so I had to convert it to AVI format, losing some of the quality in the process (oh, if only you could see the true video).  This is the best it gets, so this is what we'll have to go with now.  It seems I still have quite a bit to learn .  Anyways, the songs I used (in case you can't read the captions on the video) were "Drive," by Blind Iris and "The Streets of America," by Bad Religion.  Hopefully you guys enjoy watching this a lot more than I enjoyed making it !


"And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson..."

To continue the story of the murder case involving Mrs. Robinson, I've decided to take it to the city.  To that end...I've created a radio station called KGOP - The Bastard.  That's right...a radio station .  Or, rather, a radio station MySpace Profile .  This, I think, is what has taken me the longest amount of time to work on for this update.  I had to record a radio show segment, and then put it up on MySpace and fashion a profile around it.  I'm very satisfied with how it came out!

I really hope you'll take the time to explore this profile...but I gather it'll probably take a good amount of time to check out everything there.  I've got the actual radio show (which itself is less than 4:00 long), I've got a few blogs up that should be interesting reads (including one that explains the whole reasoning behind the radio station's existence), and my Top Friends link to interesting profiles (including my own , and a different music profile I manage.  Please, take a bit of time and look over it.  If you have a MySpace, feel free to add KGOP as a friend , and if you want your opinion heard about the situation with Mrs. Robinson, you can find out how to get on the air by reading the blogs.  Here's the logo; click on the banner to get to the profile:

(And now you know why I went to Sticksboi05 to fashion a logo for me...)


Because I Don't Talk Enough Here In Condor Bay...

I'll confess up front: this really doesn't have much to do with Condor Bay specifically, but I thought I'd go ahead and throw in a shameless plug for myself nonetheless...

I'm going to guess most people don't know this, but I've started an SC4-centric blog on Blogger.com.  It's basically my thoughts and random drabbles on the game, the community and the genre in general.  I don't know how often I'll post in it, but I'll try and keep it afloat for as long as possible.  You guys can check it out whenever you want to, and feel free to comment on anything you see (I've allowed anonymous comments, but I hope you let me know who you are) .  Also, if anyone has a blog that has to do with SC4 or urban planning in any way whatsoever, let me know and I'll link you on mine.

Oh, yeah...one more thing.  The blog was originally created as a booster for [The Planning Pages].  It actually started out on TPP as "Mas Y Mas" (Mas and more) which is the name it has now.  "Mas Y Mas" is also the name of the radio show that I put online.  They have no relation other than their name and creator.

[Mas On Blogger]

Thanks for checking all this out!  I really appreciate it!


The Beginning of the End...

Well...that about wraps up this update.  Hopefully that holds you over for the next few weeks, eh?  That's quite a bit to look at...but that was the point .  Anyways, before I officially go, I'd just like to reassure you guys that even with all this other stuff going around, I'm still working on Condor Bay.  Here's a teaser for the next city, which we should be getting into in the next update:

11.10)


Lots of interesting things happen in this city, not least of which is my experimentation with smooth curves (finally!).  Hope I've kept you busy until then!  Thanks for reading !

[deathtopumpkins]

Well Masochist, after seeing on SimPeg what you can do with the Teraformer, I am amazed I have never been in here. I know what I'll be doing the next couple days...  Reading back through this thread!

About this update:

-Wonderful pictures and excellent photoshopping. The weird-angle pics make me feel a little queasy though, except for the mall one. That's cool. I've never been able to get it to grow.

-The video is excellent. It looks very professional, and I can tell you have a knack for multimedia composition.

-The myspace radio station: I'm sending it a friend request (don't be shocked by the myspace, I'm a different person with my friends). I must say you have excellent musical tastes, as many of my favorite bands are featured in there.

-I also checked out your blog, and it was an interesting read. It's nice to see one with thoughts on the SC4 community.

-Lastly, that new city looks like it has a nice layout, but I must say that there's something that bugs me about the tree placement in that forest. I just can't put my finger on exactly what though.

Anyway, you now have another dedicated reader, and I will be back for the next update once I've read the rest of the thread.

[Haljackey]

Geesh... Big enough update?  I don't even know how to begin this reply...

I guess I will do a top-down approach.

Banner:  Looks good to me!  I think you made a good decision on that one!   

Embassy: Looking nice!  But TWO traffic Generators?    I guess you want double the congestion! 

Photos:  While the first one struck me as a bit insane and difficult to look at, you came through with other great photos later.  Some of the odd-angled and blurry shots gave me butterflies, but you did a fantastic job with the night photos, succeeding to replicate cockatoo's classics.  My favorite was 11.7.

Video: Are you trying to outdo me?    Seriously, that video was amazing!  It was very smooth and the slight fast-forward helped keep things from being boring.  I gotta get my hands on the editing program you use (I, umm... use windows movie maker ) 
-I see you uploaded the same thing with the wrong aspect ratio.  What is the aspect ratio of your monitor?  (4:3 fullscreen, 16:10 widescreen).  Whatever aspect it is just stick with it when uploading videos... It makes them less distorted.
-Also, you mentioned your video was 900mb, and that you compressed it.  What were you thinking?  Youtube's maxiumum is 1GB, and thus you didn't need to compress it!     (Really, yours was only 900mb?  Sometimes my videos can exceed 8GB!   )

Radio:  Not really sure what you're doing here, but I should check it out sometime.  I don't have a myspace (Very little Canadians do, we all use Facebook!) and thus don't frequent the site very often.

Blog:  After quickly going over it, it seems like an interesting read. 
-I think you might be interested in checking out This Thread.  This would also be great place to share your thoughts more openly to the community about the issue.

Teaser:  Yep, I think that can hold me over for a bit.  You really outdid yourself more than you usually do. 
-The extensive use of curves looks great with the layout.  I can't wait to see it developed!

Anyways, I know that was a long reply, and I hope I kept it organized enough for you to read over. 

Best,
-Haljackey

[bat]

An excellent new update there! With wonderful pictures and a very nice video!
Great work on this stuff!

Looking forward to more...

[JoeST]

* JoeST likes your blog

and the city is looking great

Joe

[Simpson]

This is a very good new update there, some pics are very good, my preferate is 10.4 
The park is looking very good, and the vidéo is very good 

[paroch]

Hi Isaac,

I'm obviously not keeping up with MDs like I used to - it's taken me two weeks to find this one.

I like the banner - nice to see something a bit different.  I recently got hold of Photoshop so have been experimenting myself and have been pleased to find it is relatively easy to create new things.

Your pics are looking good - but I'm obviously a bit old school as I much prefer seeing how your city is laid out than the clever effects 

And speaking of which - I enjoyed your video - gives a good detailed look around the city.  I've put a few videos together using MS Movie Maker and have really enjoyed doing them.  I've not used that capture program you have, so maybe I'll check it out.  Mine are a bit different to your one though - much more stills based.  If you're interested my youtube id name is westendparoch.

I'm not a myspace person, so not sure if I'll get chance to check it out but will certainly have a look at the blog - sc4 content is always of interest to me, so I'm sure it will be interesting.

And the teaser is enough to make me hope you next update is soon and that I'll spot it more quickly this time.

All the best,

Paul

[art128]

Very nice update i like it as well 

[threestooges]

Isaac,

From your response:
Though I know it may drag up some memories, I was actually thinking of the Drew Cary Show version when I wrote that. I should warn you though that it is not much better than what you have seen from the others, though in different way, so be warned. I had not actually seen the original time warp version (nor the movie as a whole for that matter), so I should thank you (and youtube) for that little excursion. As far as the mascot goes, I'm sure you'll pick something appropriate. I'm not very good at naming things or outlining the details of my cities (though certain tiles are approached with a bit of a theme or a backstory (helps me to decide what's going in there and why), so don't worry about it, and believe me, corny isn't a bad thing, it's what helps make my puns readable. Also, if you don't mind, I'd like to see a nice mosaic of the developed area around the museum (and the pier if you ended up adding one). Lastly, I'm not sure if my comments are in depth or just long winded (oh wait, they can be both!) but I certainly enjoy providing the feedback to someone who appears to find it useful. With that said, on to the update:

You chose a great building for the embassy, and BT put together a fine site for it. 11.4 is a spectacular use of that photoshopping effect and that is a great BAT to do it with. 11.5 looks good too, but 11.4 really makes the most of it. out of curiosity, in 11.6 (Nottingham Tower at night) what are the fountains used by the base? They look great at night. I think, with 11.7, that the effect might be improved if the areas with denser lights (like th building in the center) and the fountains were toned down a bit. The buildings for a continuous look, and the fountains because... well... it just seems strange to see them glowing at night. Also, If you can snag a few cars on the street, you would have an amazing pic with all the headlights etc and, perhaps, if you wanted to get fancy, you could add the effect of an open shutter and cause that 'streaked light' effect with the lights on the cars.

The Visions of Fordville video is really well done (tasteful car you chose, but I was almost expecting the Ferrari) and that overpass around 1:25/1:30 over the highway is really well done. I didn't even realize it was one until you went down the other side and I saw the highway burrow past it. The raised park looks great driving by, which leads me to ask, did you plan that route or did you just take the car for a spin? At 3:48-3:50 the car makes a bit of an odd weave, what caused that? I recall there was some work a while back regarding slip lanes, so I'm wondering if that would be a prototype of them, or am I just seeing things? I also like the turn you made at 4:16 (reminds me of GTA... right turn from the left turn lane). I'm also impressed to see that you appear to have done that whole thing with only one car (as the damage at the end seems to indicate). Good work on that... I usually take the bus (or tank if I have it) as they can take a pounding and I avoid the brake.

KGOP is a great idea and you do the DJ/announcer thing quite well. I thought it got a little off toward the end (a few um's and uh's in contrast to the very strong start) but that's better than some people I've heard to who do it for real at the radio station at my undergrad (but hey, they're just starting so I shouldn't be too hard, and they're probably better at it than me so...). I don't have the proper equipment to offer my voice, though that would be fun. Perhaps I'll look to see if someone has what I need... I can probably borrow some stuff from the film school or something like that. Either way I'll look forward to the next installment, along with the blog. Out of curiosity, what's the significance of the station ID? It's an interesting selection. I'm not a fan of myspace, but I'm glad I checked that out.

The last pic looks like it will offer some very eye catching areas with the roads winding through the hills. I'll look forward to seeing what you come up with. I think this may have been one of my shorter posts here (funny to say that and look back over it...) but this was certainly an excellent and creative update. Looking forward to the next one and to seeing what else you have in store.
-Matt

[Masochist]

Condor Bay is rising from the dead (again...), and will come back in full force very soon.  Until then, here's a couple of teasers:







See you soon ....

[Pat]

OOOO OOOO OOOO Issac you have some teaser and some real good ones at that!!! I like the first teaser the most with the ave by the cliff, very well excuted!!! I cant wait for more!!!!! 

[Haljackey]

Awesome!  I've missed Condor bay for so long!

Amazing teasers!  You and I share the same transport view mod

It was just the other day I was listening to KGOP too, werid...

Best,
-Haljackey

[threestooges]

All right Isaac! Glad to hear Condor Bay is back again. I'm off to bed now, but I'll try to get back later to comment on those teaser shots (or just to say hi and wait for the update). Hope all is well.
-Matt

[art128]

theses pictures look good my friend,  I like how you build on the mountain 

[deathtopumpkins]

Heh, I thought my first-time post in here killed it! 

Nice teasers! And that transport map's really busy...

[rooker1]

Very nice update, the second picture is my favourite. 
I like the mountain side residential look.

Robin