Elkisma

[eldaldo]

Replies: 

Swordmaster:  Thanks so much for commenting.  I agree with you that my flora is outdated.  There is a reason for this.  My region is outdated.  I tend to play a sort of natural growth style, where the first thing I do is terraform and plant trees across my whole region, then I slowly build and upgrade my region in as natural a way as possible, and for me the joy in the game comes from the stories and the ability to look back over your region and see how it has grown.  I started this region in 2011, and at the time, the best tree controller (in my opinion) was cycledogg's which I am using.  Now I see the more recent controllers that are being made and almost want to start over.  but after almost two years working on a region . . . I will probably just move forward with my trees as they are and work on making as nice looking updates as I can.  I am trying to do things on a regional scale rather than a close up scale, and therefore I find it time prohibitive to put alot of detail into my cities (since in a few updates I am just going to come back and rebuild stuff anyway).  Port st. Claire develops slowly and has tons of detail, but that's why your journal is one of the best there is.  I hope you continue to follow my diary in spite of my ugly trees!








Alden Forest is the name for two large forests in the middle of the Mandrake Metropolitan area. 





They are separated by South Main St. which is the avenue that connects Waterford and Mandrake.  The forests are named West Alden Forest, and East Alden forest, due to which side of South Main they fall on.  Sometimes they are referred to as either Big Alden or Little Alden, because West Alden Forest is much larger than East Alden forest.





The History behind Alden Forest is interesting.  It started in the early years of Waterford.  When private property started to appear and land started being bought and sold in the young seasons of the Vantas Coast. 





Mandrake was just beginning to emerge with industry.  Waterford was a distant little town with an Elder who owned a fishing fleet that supplied most of the coast's fish to the markets.  His name was Benjamin Stein.  His family had been very early exiles and had become quite the survivalists and woodspeople.  Fishing was actually his second love next to hunting.  Legend has it he once killed a King Wolf with only a bow and arrow, but this is probably not true.  He built his business by training new exiles how to fish and then paying them for part of their catch. 





before long it had become a full time business, and since fishing was the earliest super productive food industry he became one of the richest people in the coast.  He became an elder in Waterford's council, and began to buy land with all of his money deeming this to be a wise investment.  it turned out he was right and his family continues to be extremely wealthy and influential to this day.





At that Time farms were being cleared all along the Mandrake Peninsula and the precious hunting woods that Benjamin loved were being cut down for lumber.   He set aside Alden forest as his own personal woods to hunt in and refused to sell any of the land to anyone.  He also allowed the farmers and families on the outskirts of the wood use it so long as they didn't take more animals than they needed.  It became known as Alden forest because of the little farming community located near the center of it which was called Alden. 





When Benjamin died, His daughter Esther Inherited his fortune and kept the wood intact.  She did allow development of the land that fell directly on either side of Main St. (then Waterford Road).

Each Stein that then inherited the land sold off a little more of the edges of the forest as the towns grew into a city.  Yet, the majority of the forest had been designated as "Park Land"  and therefore closed to development.





Eventually Little Alden was quite separated from Big Alden, and the forests were almost completely surrounded by city.  At this time it became too dangerous to allow hunting in the woods and they transitioned into a sort of nature preserve, where citizens could go on weekends for respite and "fresh air"  which had been deemed good for one's constitution.

Now, years later, Esther's great great grandson Caleb is in charge of the park division of the Stein fortune, and is faced with big decisions.  While Big Alden is still flourishing, little alden is pretty much useless.  It is too small to maintain a thriving fauna population, and is constantly being illegally used for firewood and trapping.  furthermore, it is becoming a meeting place for criminals.  Something needs to be done with it.  and with land value on Mandrake Peninsula skyrocketing, there is alot of pressure to develop it.





These days many things are being called parks.  there are now "industrial parks" and "residential parks."  These definitions technically allow for the land to be developed as "park land."  But Caleb doesn't want to completely let his family tradition down.  he has been considering developing the land into more useable park space, with trails and beautiful public gardens for people to walk through.  In addition there are business interests who have desire to build a large baseball field that would have grandstands so that many people could come watch baseball games be played between regional teams, the men are calling it a "baseball park." 

Yes, there are many options open for caleb to pursue.  One thing is clear, the forest is currently unusable and needs to be developed into something.  the question is . . . What?  Caleb, being of generally good will, has decided to hold a vote in the general city assembly as to what the city would prefer done with the forest.  so what will it be?  what should be done with Little Alden?

[nbvc]

Nice work. Your region overviews look very realistic.
In the forest you can plant some new trees between the existing, there is some free room at some places.

[Swordmaster]

Nice update. That development gif is pretty neat. I should do something like that as well someday.

Thanks for that thorough reply. Long-term development is a good excuse. And don't worry, the trees are not ugly at all, if maybe a bit monotonous. Like nbvc said, you could introduce some variety with a couple MMPs. This isn't as time-consuming as you may think; after a while you'll get the hang of it.


Cheers
Willy

[Mr.Lin]

very nice update ！

[noahclem]

Very nice work    I've really liked the zoomed out views and your networks and planning. Keep it up 

[Aaron Graham]

Looks great, keep it up!!

[Schulmanator]

Nice! Well laid out with plenty of good stuff. 

[Huston_N7]

That region view looks stunning! Well done   

[benedict]

I agree, a beautiful region view.

And your MD is number one on Ben's Top Ten this week - well done!

[Dantes]

The overview is awsome again 

[IL...]

It's a very big region, I like it very much
It also look very realistic from above.
You're better with the country side and suburbs than with the urban side
Great work.

[MTT9]

Nice region overviews! Keep it up

[rooker1]

Here is an up and coming star.  Help me encourage him and congratulate him on his first appearance in OSITM!  I'm sure we are in for a great month.



Congrats
The SC4D Staff!

[vortext]

Congrats on being OSITM! 

Quite an impressive region you have, though I'd love to see a little more custom content in the cities. 

Anyhow, I'm curious what you have in store for us! 

[Swordmaster]

Congrats!


Cheers
Willy

[Mr.Lin]

Congrats on being OSITM!

[MTT9]

Congrats!

[Kergelen]

Congrats on the OSITM!

Nice development and region pictures.

[eldaldo]

Replies:

I got so many replies from the last entry and OSITM notice that a part of me wants to have a separate entry for them, but I won't.  Just scroll down for Today's entry.

nbvc: thanks, eventually I will do another update to see what happens with Alden forest.

swordmaster:  Thanks!  I am starting to think that perhaps I don't have to have high detail in every city of my region, just the areas where I take pictures.  I will work on making things look nicer because everyone is suggesting it.  However,  I will still lag behind you and the rest of the folks here though because i am quite the beginner/amateur, and I just don't have a ton of time to play.  Large scale regional development is my favorite aspect of the game anyway.

Aaron Graham: Thanks!  I am a huge fan of your BATs, You will probably see many of them as you look through these entries.

benedict: Thanks!  I am honored.

rooker1:  Thanks so much.  I feel like it is undeserved when I compare my diary with the others around here.  I will have to try my best to put forth a good show.

vortext:  Thanks,  as far as custom content, I am continually expanding my plugins folder, hopefully I will get better at using it.

Mr.Lin, noahclem, Schulmanator, Republic, IL..., MTT9, Kergelen:  Thanks so much for your encouraging responses!

___________________________________________________________________








Thanks everyone for supporting this Diary into my first OSITM.  I had an update that followed the story I've been loosely weaving through this diary, but I decided to hold off on that for now and do a couple exposition entries on my region (which I probably should have started out with anyway). 

First off, I would like to just talk about the game a little.  SC4 is my favorite game, as it is with most of you here.  I think that what makes the game so great is that it appeals to many different interests.  It attracts transit enthusiasts like halijackey, architechture enthusiasts like aaron graham, geography and map enthusiasts like dobdriver, the list goes on and on.  some people are artists like battlecat and swordmaster, in fact most of you who post in the diaries section are artists at city building and scene design.  Some people are story tellers like mrbisonm.  The ability of SC4 to fulfill so many disparate interests in one game is the reason that the game has such a huge following and continues to be relevant and active today. 

For me, SC4 is mostly about two things.  World Building, and Natural Growth. 

Ever since I read tolkein at the age of 12 I have been creating worlds in my head.  future worlds, medieval worlds, steampunk worlds, or just alternate realities.  Once I started playing sim city, it has been all about creating my own worlds, filled with people and governments and history. 

However, a couple years ago I came across CSG's Natural Growth Diary and my gameplay was forever changed.  I have always liked growing things.  Gardening and Bonsai are two big hobbies of mine aside from SC4.  I have always loved taking pictures of my plants each year and seeing how much they have grown.  Natural Growth playing style allows me to do that in Sim City. 

Thus, keep in mind when reading my Diary that my focus when playing is the small scale development of each city and how that contributes to the larger regional development.  Also, I will probably be telling alot of stories about various towns cities or people in the region.  Hopefully those will be entertaining enough to make up for the lack of breathtaking scenery and realism that alot of other diaries have.  I honestly kind of like growing cities with non-linear chaotic streets.  And with Natural growth I prefer to use the simulator rather than plopping and custom lotting.  It makes each new building kind of a surprise (except when 5 of the same building grow at one time . . . sigh)  Still, I will occasionally try to take some nice eye candy pictures for you all, and to develop my custom content skills.  Ok,  Enough about my playing style.  Lets get onto the update . . .

Since everyone likes my region views the most I decided to show more of the region than I ever have before.

My region began as paranagua bay which I found on the stex. I have added to it so that it is 18X20 large tiles now.  Alot of the tiles are still being terraformed.  It is so large that it crashes region viewer on my somewhat slower single core computer.  Therefore it is actually pain in the butt to get really large region views because I have to mosaic them.  anyway, I hope you enjoy the views!



The Vantas Coast:

The Vantas Coast is a rugged and cold slice of the world "Regions."  It is located on the northeast tip of the continent of Verdant.  It is very close to and directly west of the Mist.  Thus, it was the first area to be settled by people. 

Below is an aerial image of a large portion of the Vantas Coast. (clicking on it will get you an 11mb full size image)





There are over half a million people living in the Vantas Coast.  It is dominated by the two metropolitan cities of Mandrake and Elkisma.  Below is a labeled map of the various settlements and cities of the Vantas Coast (once again you will need to click on it to get the full res image and be able to read the labels.  warning it may take a while to load!).




Thanks for reading this short update.  The next update will be discussing the natural and geographic aspects of the region.

[Schulmanator]

Great looking map! I really like it.