The Winding River Project

[Cyclone1001]

Ooh, very nice!

[mrbisonm]

Thanks guys.

There will be definitively an update later this weekend. The story must go on.

Meanwhile I am working with gmax on some farm props for my soon to come out Nexis Farmprop-pack Vol1. Working partially together with FrankU for his farmsets, I have decided to create some props that might come in handy to get more variations in farms.
Sofar I have started a little over 25 models and almost finished two(only some minor adjustments needed), which I 've shown below. FrankU might use some of these for his staged farmlots (his thread: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=9146.160 ), but I also will use them in my MD and eventually have some of them uploaded as Nexis lots.

Fred

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[mrbisonm]

Ok now, here are some more models for the Nexis Farmprop pack.
First the drive-in opensky silos in three different versions to add diversity to the lots. One with a black tarp, one with a blue tarp, less filled and one empty one, like in early spring.
These models are or are close to be finished.



And some manure pits. These are the round sets. Four different models and different sizes to add variety to the farms, good to use as families.



For the next part I will create some hayshacks and rectangular manure pits and machinery sheds.
Hope you like them and hopefully that they will be usefull.

All these will be given to FrankU first to create his lots. Then I might do some lots with new farmbats (barns and stables etc)  later. I was thinking about creating Modern Farms that we see here in Northern America often. Dairyfarms, beefcattle farms, chicken and turkey farms, Pig and sheep farms and some horse stables, but nothing that we have seen already and only very modern installations, just like the pictures below. These seem to be missing in the game.
I live in Québec/Canada and the area here contains some of the most modern farms in North America. I will take some pictures of them soon, including my own (beefcattle), which isn't too modern, but only 17 years old, and then show them here. I may create some of them. Example: we have a pigfarm a couple of miles from us which contain some 2000 pigs, quite impressive (over 200 ft long), and the buildings are only three years old. The whole installation cost more than 2 Million Cdn $. Interested?

Fred

[mrbisonm]

Before I start posting as a loner in this thread, we could use some commenters, so many lurkers here (I can tell by the hundreds of views within a week), it would be nice to hear from one or two of them......



Update 72
             


Saturday, June 3rd, 1967
                           Today on this date ... then:


1620 – Construction of the oldest stone church in French North America, Notre-Dame-des-Anges, begins in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
1665 – James Stuart, Duke of York (later to become King James II of England) defeats the Dutch fleet off the coast of Lowestoft.
1889 – The coast to coast Canadian Pacific Railway is completed.
1925 – Born: Tony Curtis, American actor (d. 2010)
2001 – Died: Anthony Quinn, Mexican-born actor (b. 1915)




A still fairly cold morning did not stop the young men from beginning their trip through the Ganoga Wilderness. Charlie Gabber, Diarmuid MacGormain, Patrick Westwood, Cliff Dubold and Jordan Meaden met at the Sterling's gate near the Troy's house at precisely 8 AM this morning, ready to undertake their first journey into the unknown. The private lands of Rundi Sterling were offered to travel through to get closer to the Ganoga wilderness and swamps. Troy, the guardian of these several thousands of acres, waited for them to arrive at the gate and to give them a lift in his truck to the top of the Stoke mountain, where the actual trip for the boys will begin.

72.01


Driving up the gravel road is a charm with this 6-wheeldrive even if the road hasn't been cared for in the last 8 months and damage from rain and water and dead fallen trees could be found everywhere. This road leads to the very top of the Stoke mountain, where Sterling has prepared the terrain to receive his imported castle one day. Now the castle waits in the Frampton harbour in tens of thousands of pieces, only to be delivered by train down to Phlox and from where it will be transported to the mountain by trucks, piece by piece.
From the top of the Stoke mountain, the road continues a few miles downhill into the eastern direction towards the Ganoga wilderness reserve and that is where they are going. There the gang will be dropped off, because the condition of the continuing woodtrail hasn't been checked for over 3 years. They will be able to get to the beaverpond, Troy told the kids while driving over the bumpiness of the hillroad and from there on they will be on their own.

72.02


Troy's old armytruck did the job well, having brought the group to the final destination at around 10 AM. The road stops almost in the beaverpond, making it impossible to continue.
All exited to be at their starting point, they jumped out of the truck and started unloading their equipment. Troy, who is now in his mid-seventies only watched them, while explaining some of the things that they should seriously consider while going through these forests and swamps. George knows the terrain well and made sure that they understood the direction to take to get off the mountain without being forced later to climb back up and detour the steep cliffs that are ahead of them. Also George made sure that they understood not using their radio for the fun and burn down the batteries. Only for emergency he said.
It was understood that the young men would spend their first two nights right here at the end of the road before going downhill and meet the borders of the Ganoga Reserve. Everything they brought along will be thoroughly tested here first.

72.03


72.04


72.05


Elsewhere in the valley of the Winding River, things have been going smoothly, considering the cold season they're experiencing this year. May and June have been cold so far, unusually colder than in the last ten years. It is only starting to get warmer during the day, while the farmers are impatiently awaiting the summerheat to warm up the soil and encourage their crops to grow. For others it is perfect weather since the cool temperatures will keep the lumber fresh and from spoiling that TS Slye has been piling up at his sawmill. Freshly cut logs will heat up quickly if not cooled with water during the hot days and encourage the rottening of the wood, which will leave unwanted marks in the grain of the planks, besides weakening the solidity of the wood itself. The lumber has to dry off slowly to be of the best quality. Slye is overloaded these days, not knowing where to turn his head. Farmers have been ravaging the forests in the region during the winter to create more cropfields and at a 300 % rate compared to the years before.
With the subsidies the farmers get from the government to encourage farming, the business of land cultivation has become a priority in the valley it seems, and now the sawmill's terrain is packed up to its maximum with lumber from all directions. Although the timbercutting is being done in 3 working-shifts all day and night, logs come in faster than they leave in planks. A trainload full is cut almost every 36 hours.
Slye makes a lot of "bacon" (§) these days and surprisingly he just finished paying off all his debts with Gabber and the bank. Now it's time to make real money, he told his friends.

72.06


Even in Lakestead at the maintrainstation, the wood is being piled up beyond its capacity. Excellent for the economy, some say, more workers are busy and many new ones have been hired in the floor, furniture and construction businesses. Manufacturies have been built in Lakestead and Beecherfalls to meet the needs of the society, which is strongly growing in Simland's Nation. And even Access Center will soon have its first woodindustry soon.  A big furniture manufacturer wants to install itself in Access in the next year, offering another 600 to 700 jobs for the region. Below in the picture at the main trainstation in the Capitol City, we can clearly see that wood is number one production in these days.

72.07


Back in Access Center, the main town in the Winding River Region, almost all of the land lots around the Fingerlake have been sold for residential zones and many have already started building their new homes. Not far from downtown Access, these lots were largely welcomed by many buyers, offering a highly isolated area from the town within a short distance of it and with it, a wonderfull view of the Fingerlake. Only a narrow band of land around the lake will be considered to be conserved for natural habitat, as Mayor Bartlett mentioned, but also because it will be difficult to build anything on these abrupt cliffs.

72.08


Some parts of the steep hills have even been reinforced to be able to build on top and use the most out of the land possible. Boats have also invaded the small lake where the drinking water for the town comes from. What will this look and taste like in the coming 20 years.....some are wondering. But life seems to be wonderful and pollution of any kind is not really a big worry at the moment, as long as everyone gets its share of wealth and the perfect spot to live these days. Bartlett told the public that they will worry about the pollution, once it is evident, not really agreed with by the conservation group.

72.09


All this constant building of course is being critized by parts of the public, slowly awakening to the fact that the town is eating away their heritage of forests, lakes, creeks, hills and wildlife. The group that Robert Yome has founded earlier and which is now officially called WRECS (Winding River Environment Conservation Society), is clearly protesting the diminishing of the forests to make room for these new suburbs, especially around the lake that supplies the town with power and water. It seems to be too late though. The deals were signed and the land is ready to receive the people. Constructions have begun.
Mayor Bartlett has heard them out though, making sure to keep his reputation of a good mayor, and with a small briefing with this group, he explained the facts that there will be no changes to his plans at all and environment will not be harmed by doing so. "A town that does not grow anymore is dying off", he says and development sometimes tosses the environment over a little, which is simply necessary for the economy of the town and its population. Bartlett made sure not to give too much time for the group to explain itself and make their point and the meeting was sweet and short and kept away from the public ears.
From another arial view of the area, we can see the yellow-outlined terrains that are zoned for residential use and Which will leave only quite a small amount to keep the lake natural looking. Maybe this will also have an important impact on the waterquality one day, Robert Yome tried to explain the municipal council, which gave no comment on his remark.

72.10


Another big problem, but of a complete different matter that has arisen for the towncouncil to solve, is the rush-hour traffic in town, which is getting heavier and heavier with each month. The streets between the industrial Park and the town are now being fully "packed" with cars and trucks during certain hours of the day. Some are even starting using the gravelroads as detours to avoid the dense traffic on the mainstreets in the morning and evening.

72.11


The same problem occurs at the town's exit towards Sandom. Cars blocking the streets twice a day at a certain time. The mayor does not really have an instant solution at the moment, but is seriously considering to talk this over with Tom Kohler, the Busline owner, who might have a solution to unblock the streets a little with strategically placed busstations. It might help, if not some more serious planning will have to be asked for to professional Cityplanners of the bigger cities. Maybe a roundabout at this location will ease up the traffic a little?

72.12


Far out of the central town the situation is better though. In the Valmore part of Access, traffic is still acceptable, especially near the refuge that Miss Barby built herself for vacationers. Barby is about to retire from her Biergarten Pub in downtown and will only take care of her Vacation Ressort Hotel on Lake Valmore in the futur. She had enough of the busy times at the Pub and brought the place up for sale. It will be expensive, she says, but it is a busy place that will pay itself off within a short time, knowing quite well that this is a chicken laying golden eggs. True, the location is ideal and on every weekend the pub is overfilled and that all year 'round.
Barby, born in 1912 and now in her mid fifites, wants to take it a "little easier on herself" from now on. Her Vacation Ressort at the lake brings enough revenu for her to live perfectly a quieter life in nature for the rest of her life. Her 20 acres of land that surrounds the hotel that she owns at the lake still have a lot of mature trees on it and she is not planning to cut down anything that is healthy and growing. Her 32 rooms of her Country-Inn are rented out from May 'till September since the last 3 years and last winter was her best yet, keeping more than 60 % of the rooms filled. She also owns the only fully maintained and accessable beach of the lake, which makes it even more interesting to stay at her luxurious Hotel.

72.13


Nice beach, a swimming pool, a tennis court, a fishing pond, excellent individual services, the lake for sailing, boat renting, bathing and fishing and a lot of mature and healthy trees surrounding the hotel makes this a solid 5 star hotel since 3 years, and the only one of its kind in the valley. Barby White has spend her last ten years and all her money from the golden-egg laying chicken in Access on making this the perfect place to spend a wonderful vacation in the Winding River Region for all Sims to enjoy. Now it's time for her to enjoy it also. I wonder who will buy the Biergarten? What do you think?

72.14


That's it, more of the boy's journey through the Ganoga coming soon. Hope you liked the update again.

Fred

[threestooges]

"Bacon is very good indeed." Slye said as he cracked some eggs into the same pan he'd removed the brown strips of fried goodness. He looked out his kitchen window at a towering stack of lumber that had been piled in front of it. "Now I just have to figure out what to do with all this lumber."

Nice to see the yard doing some good business, though I can foresee some slight, potential issues with WRECS down the road.

72.09 is an interesting road placement. I hope the region isn't susceptible to earthquakes, otherwise those houses (and the road) might be that much closer to the shore.

One question with the resort though: if there are 32 rooms and parking for 25, how do the others get there? IS there off-site parking, or how do they help cater to the desires of the 5-star crowd?

It's all looking good Fred, and the camping trip looks like it's off to a decent start too. Nice work.
-Matt

[mrbisonm]

Thanks Matt, glad you liked this update and also glad that Slye likes Bacon....

32 rooms and 25 parkings.....hm ? Sounds quite illogical as you said, but that's all there is for parking at the moment, but.....did you see the limousine parked at the entrance and read that there's a shuttle (bus) service from and to all the busstations in towns, airport and the railstation? Maybe that will help them a bit. But I guess you're right, now Barby will have to clear some land and build a parking nearby.....oh these nice mature trees will have to go after all......


Fred

[threestooges]

It's 1967: the age of the auto. Who takes the bus? Heh heh. I did miss that, but it just didn't seem to mesh with the limo in the driveway. Makes sense though that some folks would have someone to drop them off though. I know where she can get someone to clear those trees for her though *cough cough*.

It the details like the limo and the Access sign at the bottom of 72.12 that really give so much detail to the region.

[rockstar54]

Finally, I got to finish reading 62 pages.  I was an avid fan of NoG back then and I just found out about WRP last week. It's nice to see that your natural growth approach has not changed over the years and your dedication to make custom BATs for your needs is still awesome! Hey, do you still have an opening for new characters? 

-Charles

[jmyers2043]

Hey Fred

It seems that the sudden appearance of a shiny bobbing object in Beaver Pond (just a few feet away from that big submerged oak stump) is generating considerable interest among members of the fish community. Good luck, Charlie.





- Jim

[bat]

Great 72 update there!
And the Fingerlake is looking very nice.
Also nice views of the other areas...
Nice work on the models and dutch barn/stable, too.
Looking forward to more...

[frostwolf]

That's a nice little farm at the beginning of that road. Is there a farmhouse there, or does he just commute in?

Speaking of farms, is Sgt. Badger still around, or has he bitten the dust in some bizzare accident on the military base?

[sumwonyuno]

Great BATs!     Did you use SC4Terraformer on an incorporated city to achieve that vertical wall-road?

BTW, in that same picture, someone doesn't know how to take care of their boat...   

[nedalezz]

I have the same problem with lurkers and comments

Anyway, another great update! The lumber mill is huge, and all that stock of lumber is just waiting to turn into hard cash

[mrbisonm]

Wow, nice to see the readers wake up...... Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

Yes Matt, you're right again, it is the age of the automobile in the late sixties. I guess Barby has to call up the only one she knows to have a wooden area cleared for the parking, it must be Slye. Nice to see someone seeing the "little details".

rockstar54, A fan of NoG? Did you have the same name then? Glad to see here you again. For the opening of a character, yes I still have some room, some others soon will "have a sort of an accident" in the story and probably disappear. Just tell me what you have in mind, but please, not something we already have. If it sounds good, I will accept it and the only conditions are: to leave a comment once in awhile, so I know that you're still around. Let's hear it.

jmyers2043 I don't know what exactly these trouts on the pictures are called, we call them in french *Truite Fardée* (Farded Trout??), but these are a western species species, not found in the Winding River region.....lol. Glad to see you're still having a look at my MD, Jim.

bat, thanks for the positive comments on my BATs, glad someone likes them.

frostwolf, I have shown Troy's home before, but you must have missed it, here it is again, only a few seconds walk from the gate. Badger is still around, working harder and harder on his veggie garden. He'll soon have a big update of both subjects.....the army and his projects for farming. Quite interesting too.....will he reveil something concerning that mystery on the base?

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sumwonyuno, I used a little the ingame flattening terraintool to straighten out (shift+1) the lines of the cliff and then plopped some roads out in the opening of the abyss to achieve this effect. Yeah, the boat....lol....I should've turned it around to look better.

nedalezz, Thanks. BTW, I would like that you PM me with some ideas for Johnny B.Badd, in which direction he wants to invest his money he's about to make so much of.

Thanks again for all the comments, like I said, I'll be back with an update of the journey through the Ganoga Wilderness. The boys have been there for 5 days already and are back in time for a day, they found "something strange" down near the lake, where they got hold back.......

Fred

[jmyers2043]

they found "something strange" down near the lake .......

Little did Charlie know when he left Beaver Pond campsite this morning the wonders he and his companions would uncover. Hidden in the middle of the Ganoga Wilderness was Father Nature.



"It was the most strangest most puzzling place I had ever laid eyes upon." Charlie said, as he looked pensively over his shoulder back into the forest. "I am haunted by those weird eyes and the bark like skin. I know this may sound crazy, but it was almost as if I'd stepped into some kind of <fill in the blank with one of the choices below>"

1. Smokeknoll
2. Murkywater
3. Wasp Mound
4. Willowdune
5. Rainy Slough
6. Noblecairn
7. Vileflower
8. Wraith Crypt
9. Movie Set
10. Bordertown




- Jim

[CabraBuitre]

That's the age-old problem... build up too quickly (before the infrastructure catches up) and you can't get from point A to point B in a timely fashion!

I'm running into that in my own life... I live exactly 4 miles to the east of my job (on the same road) in the suburbs of Chicago.  There's basically one way to get to work... unless I want to drive 8+ miles to get there... and they're widening 2.5 miles from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, right in the middle of my commute.  The town that they're doing this in is self-described as "a rural community in an urban setting"... so there aren't any sidewalks... otherwise I'd ride my bike to work!

It has already taken me a half hour to get to and from work... to go 4 miles!

And, get this... last year, they repaved a large portion of this section... completely down to the road base... and they're going to tear it right back up and widen it this year.  Last year it took as long as 45 minutes to go those 4 miles... I'm not looking forward to breaking that record this summer!

[mrbisonm]

Just to let you all know that I created one more modern barn/stable in two versions for my coming up "farm prop-pack".

fred






Just saw that I have to tweak the rooftexture a little, both sides should have the rusty darker part on the bottom of the roof, which seems not to be the case on the previews. Shouldn't be hard to correct.

There will be only one more barnbuilding and some more silos and stuff.

[frostwolf]

Looking forward to seeing what Badger's up to.

That is one freaky tree, jmyers. Is that some kind of cedar?

[KoV Liberty]

I surely dont know but isn't it mother nature? Hehe. Great last updates!

[Exla357]

I can't believe I haven't been here before!!!!!