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P.R. Crastina's Travels

Started by evarburg, October 06, 2018, 07:09:50 PM

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evarburg

For young P. R. , walking around Canalia residential or commercial streets was a trip into a past much older than the one she was used to, either in her natal Queenbee or in the North-American cities she had already visited. It left a lasting impression on her. Some of the lovingly maintained buildings were three or four centuries old, some even older, and the city and region history went even farther into the past. She was told some people's genetic testing showed that their ancestors had lived in that same place for thousands of years. How did it affect people living there, such a long memory, such a wealth and weight of heritage ?










St.Magdalena Church :


The Lutheran Church




There is a small public golf course :






Sometimes, despite looming modernity, life along the canals seemed timeless in Canalia...






mattb325

I love the tour around canalia. It's great to see so many old-skool favourite buildings from the good old days of sc4  ;D

evarburg

Quote from: mattb325 on December 16, 2018, 11:15:43 PM
I love the tour around canalia. It's great to see so many old-skool favourite buildings from the good old days of sc4  ;D

Yes, those first CJs of mine are mostly a loving flash-from-the-past. Canalia is about the last one. After that I began fishing in earnest for New Custom Stuff. But it's really great to see how much of the old stuff still looks good. Some of it just needs some TLC re-lotting, but the bones are usually solid. (Which is why I'm into relotting now ! :-) )

eggman121

Very nice evarburg

The blurred images actually give a nice touch. Like looking at travel book with pictures  :thumbsup:

-eggman121

evarburg

Quote from: eggman121 on December 17, 2018, 12:31:59 PM
Very nice evarburg
The blurred images actually give a nice touch. Like looking at travel book with pictures  :thumbsup:
-eggman121

I did think so when writing the story accompanying them : old pictures in an album. It was actually my less than masterfull use of photoshop at the time (not that it is masterful now, just... less bad) ; but, yes, please, do feel free to interpret and see them like that, and thank you for it! :D

evarburg

A few years back, my companion challenged me with a big 3x3 region map of his own making, which he called Eden Bay. Challenge accepted! So P. R. Crastina spent six months as writer-in-residence there, touring through all eight cities. Yes, eight :  the ninth was never finished since the region suffered a catastrophic CTD as it was almost finished. I had pictures only for three of the nine tiles. Aaaargh and all that, I'd spent almost two years labouring on that map... But 'it happens.

The map, early on :



And the (almost) finished region :




And now let's go to the first town.

......

The Eden Bay region is a subduction zone along the north-western seaboard, with big folds of land rolling parallel to the sea. It was settled with enthusiasm as the soil was fertile. The region was quickly "civilized", i.e. deforested.



The various towns have slowly extended their limits towards one another to finally form one big "amalgamated" agglomeration of about 1.500 000 hb ; it took the name of its main port (after a heated referendum as to which town would give its name to the amalgamated city) ; all the "neighborhoods" retained their initial names, however.

Villeray ["Smallville" at first on the region map, upper left corner] is still unhappy about it, as it was the first established town in the region and lobbied hard to win the referendum.



It is a logging town, as they almost all were in the beginning. The geography may explain why : the first settlers came from the north-west to Mount Loden, discovering the vast panorama leading to the sea from there. They tried to find a passage across the Coyla River, that meanders around the whole region from the north-east to the sea (not on the whole map, though...).





It is a deep and fast running river, and they were not equiped to cross it at first. So they quite happily settled at first on Mount Loden, nestled in one of the many curves of the Coyla. There is not much left from the original town. Everything has been steadily replaced by logging, as the settlers finally crossed the river and began clearing and cultivating the relatively flatter lands beyond.




1. Villeray Logging  : Hey-Ho Hey-Ho, And Off to Work We Go

The first settlers made do with what they had : in the flatter part of Mount Loden, there was a smallish stream and a swampy lake. The stream they couldn't do much about but it was usable; the lake they dredged as they could, and enlarged.



They are still at it on Mount Loden – mostly for local consumption. They had a conservationist streak from the start : after the original clear cutting, the forest has been replanted at least twice since the early days.




































PaPa-J

This is a very nice thread.  You do good work with the mmp's.
Lighten up, just enjoy life,
smile more, laugh more,
and don't get so worked up
about things.

evarburg

2. Villeray Rivers and canals

When the settlers finally crossed the Coyla and pushed east and south, they encountered another meandering stream, the Aurat River, but that one was much easier to tame. The problem was that it flooded rather regularly in certain places.  It didn't bother the first settlers, who kept away from the flood zones. But as the town grew into a city, it became a yearly problem.







Then Mayor Zabnis (the Elder) began canalizing the Aurat. It is a major endeavour, still going on and quite costly ; some denizens of Villeray do not approve of the unavoidable tax hikes ; the battle has been fought ever since between them and the city administration. Some people were less at risk of being flooded, so the City began in others neighbourhoods, easier to convince. But some parts of the stream are indeed so low and lazy that transforming them into canals seems just like a pavement fetish gone overboard (so to speak).





Then, in the Seventies, the conservationist movement took off with a vengeance in Villeray and the battle became epic. By now, though, a truce has been reached and some parts of the river have been kept in their original state. Where it is channelized, the engineers often try to respect the meanderings of the river, dear to the citizens' hearts.







At some point, to convince some die-hards opponents to his project, Zabnis the Elder had a park built in the city as a sort of sample (he was getting on in years at the time). At once called "The Mayor's Folly", it was a subject for many satirical pamphlets in the local newspapers. Now, however, people are used to it and even like it.



But the Greens keep a watchful eye on Mayor Zabnis (the Younger, who followed in his father's footsteps in the mid-Nineties). For instance, one part of the unchanneled river was a bird sanctuary. The Greens demanded that the sanctuary be reconstituted. And it was. Sort of.





Many parts of the river, however are still in their pristine state :




Themistokles

I love the style you're building in so much... It is down to earth in some way and creates very nice cityscapes. And I love this picture



especially, because it has such a nice composition with the railway and the little island.
Come join me on a hike to St Edmea!

Latest update: 7

"In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy." - John Sawhill

evarburg

(This is a rather long one...)

3. A City is as a City Does : Agriculture, RCI & Services

Although commerce is now the main activity of the city, there is still a vibrant agriculture, which the slow crawl of housing has sometimes included in the city proper























the modern Agri College (left) testifies to the importance of agriculture in the region :



Therefore, the citizens never forget where their food comes from ; they often buy directly from local producers, and the annual Fair is an occasion for well-attended cook-offs celebrating the local products.



As the town grew by fits and starts, there are no dedicated commercial, residential or even industrial zones : at first they tended to pop up unexpectedly here and there – and the City Fathers noted that it did wonders for traffic. So they began zoning accordingly. In Villeray as in all the region, people mostly live close to work and they walk. A lot









Commerce is doing swell, spawning at least two bona fide skyscrapers, near Tobin Arena :











And tax incentives have encouraged high tech, mostly non-polluting industries to come to Villeray.













evarburg

5. Services & Parks

P. R Crastina arrived in Villeray by rail, but the town also boasts a heliport :



... and now an airport or, for the moment, an airfield, (which is more in keeping with the decidedly green bent of the city !)



Still, the Villeray citizens are very proud of their (future) airport, and of their town in general. Except of course for the occasional tiff about the Coyla Channelling Project, they enjoy its many services and amenities : city hall, hospital, the Teynman College, football... and  a bowling alley.







So, citizens of Villeray are a fit bunch. Their main sport, though, is walking ; Zabnis the Younger in particular is known for his love of walking all around the city (jogging, when he was young). He inaugurated is first mandate by having promenades built along the canals wherever it was possible.



Parks flourished  all over town under his administration.  P. R., who's always loved discovering a city with her feet, and who loves parks, was in heaven. She was a bit surprised, though, as most parks have moody names :
Meditation Park...



Mélancholia Park...


Resolution Park...:



She would learn later the provenance of those names :  most of the city's parks were designed at the end of the XIXth century by the same landscaper-architect, a German immigrant named Ernst Sturmdrang, very much into Romantic stuff. He generally put his parks around or close to the many churches built by the successive waves of settlers, each with their own brand of religion. Villeray is a city of parks and churches !















Zabnis the Younger's daughter Cora, who is being groomed to replace him soon and will certainly win the election hands down, is responsible for the Parks Administration Services and already saw through a project of hers, to public applause : a vast majority of the duly referendumed citizens voted for the name "Cora's Park", thus acknowledgeing her good work.  Symbolically, it links the city to the fields.




pressus

I looked very closely at the plants used, in some parts the compositions look a bit artificial, but my favorite is the airport and its green surroundings, that part of presentation is the best for me, so congratulations  :thumbsup:
Sorry guys, I'll be here next week, so good luck!

evarburg

I'm not sure what you mean by artificial compositions, but I'm glad you like the airport and its surroundings, thank you !  ;)

pressus

Artificial compositions - it means unnatural looking compositions of plants, but it is only my private opinion, who is the author of the plants you use?
Yes airport is very good for me, I generally like the concept of using a large amount of plants  :thumbsup:
Sorry guys, I'll be here next week, so good luck!

evarburg

Quote from: pressus on January 12, 2019, 03:21:26 PM
Artificial compositions - it means unnatural looking compositions of plants, but it is only my private opinion, who is the author of the plants you use?
Yes airport is very good for me, I generally like the concept of using a large amount of plants  :thumbsup:

hey, me too :thumbsup: ; I'm a green freak and tree hugger (My "Trees etc." folder is just all over the place) That region was built quite some time ago -- I think Girafe was not yet in the landscape then, so to speak ! I used CP and Simfox and Jeronij and any trees that were available B. G. (Before Girafe  :))

pressus

Yes, I just noticed a lot of greenery from a lot of eyear ago. I had the same(I think) aesthetic problem related to the arrangement of green areas. There were mainly Jeronij, CP, Simfox, Pegasus, Andres, probably also, and others.
As I wrote, I appreciate your work and the overall effect achieved. A lot of 'green' details  :thumbsup:
I think that the best set is the Girafe offer currently - the green Girafe era, the best for me. It can be perfectly complemented by other non-green elements of the landscape.
Realism and good composition in the game - not concrete configurations only  ;)
Sorry guys, I'll be here next week, so good luck!

evarburg

Quote from: pressus on January 13, 2019, 05:30:25 AM
(...)  not concrete configurations only  ;)

Well, I'm a country girl, and I live in a medium smalltown (!) ; I tend to paint what I see around me. Big cities are a whole other challenge, in SC4. There will be some, at some point in these MDs, but I definitely feel more comfortable downscale :P ! Also, I am somewhat ideologically (!) against SC4's heavy transport infrastructure & big financial cities bias (thank SC4 Gods -- Pegasus and the PEG team-- for SPAM, and giving some continuous role to agriculture !). And there are only so many functional megapolis(es?) one can build, with (too many) CO$$$ highrises popping up everywhere. When you've done the urban canyons once or twice, what challenge is left, when you're not into realistic gameplay ? I totally admire those who are, mind you, but there is only one Korver !  :)

pressus

There are different styles of building cities in the game, it's good, we can be creative and play considering the limitations of the game and our own technical capabilities, ingenuity, sense of aesthetics.
Regions can be very diverse, with large cities, industrial zones, but we have to remember that every city exists in a natural area, all of it can be done very precisely.
I do not like dead, plopped cities that look like mock-ups - nice but empty ...
The best cities seen here have been built in varied terrain in terms of the level difference. It is also a big challenge for the player. Flat are boring and unnatural.
There are a lot of game accessories. Limit - the power of the computer, a large plugin folder can slow down the game.
But we make a choice and decide on the final effect, just like you do it - in a very painterly way  :thumbsup:
Sorry guys, I'll be here next week, so good luck!

evarburg

Quote from: pressus on January 14, 2019, 03:46:35 AM
There are different styles of building cities in the game, it's good, we can be creative and play considering the limitations of the game and our own technical capabilities, ingenuity, sense of aesthetics.
Regions can be very diverse, with large cities, industrial zones, but we have to remember that every city exists in a natural area, all of it can be done very precisely.
I do not like dead, plopped cities that look like mock-ups - nice but empty ...
The best cities seen here have been built in varied terrain in terms of the level difference. It is also a big challenge for the player. Flat are boring and unnatural.
There are a lot of game accessories. Limit - the power of the computer, a large plugin folder can slow down the game.
But we make a choice and decide on the final effect, just like you do it - in a very painterly way  :thumbsup:

Amen to all that. The game has been created in the US, with very North-American biases, and despite the variety of terrains offered with it (San Francisco !), once sandboxes regions were available, flat and griddy and skyscrapery and potentially boring became too tempting. I usually try to terraform my regions myself, but I am also guilty of beginning test plops on a flat tile and letting them runaway from me into a full city :) The enemy then is especially the Grid :). One will never praise the NAM's team enough for giving us the antigrid options we have today, and other ingenious batters for making all the runarounds to fill in those curves !

pressus

Fortunately, this American style of the original game can be perfectly changed.
Terrains, plants, NAM and other mods, lots, bats, MMPs etc.etc., so everything to our imagination, to model our own preferences  ;)
Hmmm ... and free time to play  :)  This is a big problem sometimes   ;)
Sorry guys, I'll be here next week, so good luck!