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ÆRDEN ~ new streets!

Started by vortext, May 31, 2013, 11:31:03 PM

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benedict

Fascinating retrospective, and congratulations on being number 10 for the year on Ben's Top Ten.
Click on the banner to celebrate!

Schulmanator

See the all-new National Capital Region!:http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=15118.0

kelis

I like so much this type of update, we can see how big is the improvement, great work  :)
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vortext

#143


mosaic link

As a OSITM novelty the replies today will feature more old pictures while I reminisce a bit about the good ol' days, brought about by your kinds comments. And some more extras at the end. Enjoy!




Quote from: rambuckel on November 13, 2013, 03:31:31 PM
Fantastic idea and brilliant setting! I love those historic projects. I'm still waiting for the occasion to include something like this in Alba and I'm sure there will be a place somewhere where a historic scenery will fit. I'll surely have your pictures in mind when I come to that point!

Thanks, glad you like it! One of my major annoyances with the vanilla game was it always started in modern times. Imagine my surprise when I found all these fantastic BATs which could convey a sense of history. In case you need some inspiration for BATting here's another quaint little town.  ;)



*click for full size*



Quote from: noahclem on November 14, 2013, 08:43:26 AM
Great to see those old pictures! They seem to do a great job documenting your evolving city style which really shines nicely in the later ones. Also, the "teenager in a liquor store" comment was hilarious  :D  Keep up the great work  :thumbsup:

Thank you Noah. It was really fun for me going through the old pictures so I'm glad you enjoyed them too!


Quote from: epicblunder on November 14, 2013, 08:51:02 AM
Ah the good old days of slathering Heblem's rocks everywhere to avoid that silly shadow   :P

That region shot looks great, btw, despite the fact it's older.   &apls  Was that region hand drawn by you?  I swear i've seen one by either blade or beshku on the STEX that has a similar basic shape, but i've never looked closely at it.

Haha, you know it, darn shadows!   :D

The region was not 'drawn' in the traditional sense. It started with me fooling around in the Terraformer, like so.



Then I exported the greyscale, did a lot of cut 'n paste in Photoshop and even more tweaking in the Terraformer before it arrived at the final shape.


Quote from: art128 on November 14, 2013, 08:59:24 AM
You definitely improved your style!
So your love of MMP dates from some time already...!

Thanks Arthur! Yes, when I came across MMPs I thought it was the best thing ever. Weirdly though, I've actually never used any of the mayor mode trees during the vanilla years. At any rate, more mmp madness!  ;D






Quote from: Simcoug on November 14, 2013, 10:17:31 AM
That was fun!  I think I spotted the HH in it's infancy  ;D

BTW, off the top of your head, where would one find those fishing nets/props by the pier in the last pic?  I like 'em.   :thumbsup:

Thank you! Those docks are CALs Old English Harbor (iirc). The first custom harbor was some time later, like so.

*click for full size*


Admittedly a bit lifeless, then again, it was the first proper w2w city, i.e. with a growable lot set, relotted rewards, matching filler pieces, etc. Shortly there after I tried a stone harbor, of which I don't have a frontal view for some reason.

*click for full size*

Also notice the first seasonal flora making its appereance.


Regarding the fishing props, now, this may seems like my default answer but they're from an Asian site. No really! :D The download is right here. And here the proper site. If you run it through a web translator and look under 'Naval port, seaport' there're more goodies.  ;)

Quote from: benedict on November 17, 2013, 07:04:51 PM
Fascinating retrospective, and congratulations on being number 10 for the year on Ben's Top Ten.

Thanks Benedict! Considering the relative short period this MD has been running I was rather pleased and amazed to see it made it into the top 10!


Quote from: Schulmanator on November 18, 2013, 03:24:15 AM
Impressive and delightful work :)

Thank you!


Quote from: kelis on November 20, 2013, 06:54:44 AM
I like so much this type of update, we can see how big is the improvement, great work  :)

Thanks Jonathan, glad you liked it!




Right, with all this recent activity regarding the tree controllers, remember when I said the following?!

Quote from: vortext on February 28, 2013, 05:35:09 AM
Too bad there aren't enough flora items yet for a full HD tree controller but who knows, if Girafe can keep the tree-o-matic going. . 

Probably not.  $%Grinno$%

However, the point is our resident Ƒℓoяaℓer™ did in fact keep the tree-o-matic going and has been churning out new flora at a steady pace since. Moreover, the single LE models are invaluable for a smooth functioning controller (fingers crossed for single Oaks) and I reckon there's just about enough HD flora now to make a nicely varied controller. And so I've slowly started to tinker a bit. Very slowly indeed as I've got just two brushes as of yet.


What else to start with than the waterside?! :D


The Lupins are on a different timing and remain brown throughout autumn & winter to turn green in spring and bloom in summer. In fact, the flowers and grass above act in a similar fashion.

Finally a mosaic from the archives I've never shown before because of a fatal flaw. I spotted it right after post-processing of course, so I couldn't correct it anymore and shelved it instead. Now for a little fun: the first person to correctly identify the fault gets to name the very first cathedral in Ærden (and you get to see it being build over time!).

*click for full size*


'till soon, Erik  ;)
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

APSMS

#144
In the final mosaic, is the flaw in-game or in the image processing?

There's a building that's off-kilter towards the top intersection, but since everything else looks ok around it that may not be the problem. There's also the two cherry trees towards the bottom that are in bloom, and I was always under the impression that they only turn pink in the winter, but since I don't really know anything about Sakura trees (or Jacaranda trees, but those don't grow in Europe?), I could be wrong.

That's my best guess, until I can figure out if it's graphical or if it's a problem with the source.

(I'd sort of doubt that two pink trees off to the side would be a fatal flaw, but given the perfection and accuracy the rest of your work shows, who knows?)
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

My Mayor Diary San Diego: A Reinterpretation

vortext

Quote from: APSMS on November 26, 2013, 02:35:57 AM
In the final mosaic, is the flaw in-game or in the image processing?

It's an in-game flaw and the cherry trees nor the building are the problem. ;)
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Gugu3

Amazing stuff vortext!
I really appreciate the job you've done with MMPs flora nad tree controllers!
Keep up this incredibly high quality work

APSMS

Maybe the different sidewalks towards the left of the cherry trees. They don't match the rest? (also a little bit of one in the buildings towards the middle of the picture).

It doesn't seem like much of a deal breaker to me, though. I'll leave it at that and see what others can find. I don't have a very good eye for these things.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

My Mayor Diary San Diego: A Reinterpretation

Simcoug

Besides the different road and sidewalk transitions, the only thing I notice is the varying building scales, but that is just SC4 for ya.  Great pictures  &apls

noahclem

Outstanding work on your OSITM and another great batch of old goodies and pictures of interest  &apls

nbvc


Swordmaster

Is that a car under the cart?

Great work again, of course. Love all the blasts from the pasts. (What's the singular here? :D)


Cheers
Willy

vortext

#152
Quote from: Swordmaster on November 26, 2013, 11:41:17 AM
Is that a car under the cart?

We have a winner here!  &apls

For those who have trouble spotting it: there's a police car driving underneath the wagon in front of Mbear's Central Station.



There's a police station nearby, obviously, so while taking pictures I was fully aware of the automata mindlessly circling the blocks. Yet despite my best efforts to keep it out of frame it still managed to sneak into this one shot thus ending up in the mosaic after all, which seriously pissed me off because I found out too late.   >:(   :D

At any rate, any name suggestions yet Willy? Construction for the cathedral is planned early 2014. Actually the first phase is already complete. It's the rest of the town that's lacking.  ;D

edit, 10.000 views!  &hlp
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Indiana Joe

Even now that it's pointed out, and zoomed in, I still can barely see it.  Your standards are incredible.   :D

Can't wait to see more perfection.   :thumbsup:

vortext

#154


Hi there, while technically it's already the first of December here, I'd like to welcome you to the last OSITM feature for the month of November nonetheless.

It'll deal with Enseade exclusively, my most recent city. Despite best efforts to kill as many darlings as possible, it has become a rather lengthy read I'm afraid. The first part roughly outlines the chronological build, while the second part focuses on civics, landmarks and other places of interest. In other words, there're also plenty of pictures to even it out. :D

A few general remarks about the region: it didn't have much of a back story to begin with. The main gist was to start with some sort of Spanish rule, since Spain has actually ruled parts of Northern Europe for a while (then again, which European country hasn't ruled over another at some point in history?!).
   
In practice, however, it was an excuse to use MBears BATs, which at the time I thought were the best suitable for old European city atmosphere. However, as things progressed I became more and more dissatisfied with the rift between my supposedly Mediterrean style and more northern architecture. Another major source of discontent was the fact I changed city location at the very last moment. To this day I still don't know why, maybe out of rebellion against my own planning, who knows.

At any rate, I don't want to paint a too pessimistic picture as I had a lot of fun building Enseade, during which I learned a lot too. The take home message for me is: use more land! By which I mean: do not cram, think ahead for a bit and reserve land for later usage. And though I may dislike it: transit networks and neighbor connections do in fact require some thought beforehand, if only because of the config lay-out.

With that being said, lets get started! *don't forget: click picture for larger size*


And off to a great start it is!

At the time it seemed like a good idea to encapsulate the in game water with various, water compatible lots to begin with. The concept was to trace the shoreline as accurate as possible. Early on I also decided to leave the city block outlined in red completely untouched in order to grow it into a w2w block. And in general I wanted to demolish as little as possible. However, since I was unfamiliar with the CAN-AM or how to make canal pieces fit in the first place, that principle proved far harder to adhere to than anticipated.



A little later and things start to shape up quite nicely.

The first neighboor connection was established (the canal to the left) and the surrounding area somewhat developed. The sunken canal in the center was removed to help convey a credible chronological development (ignoring the Maxis water tower  ;D ). Anyhow, the bay area was more problematic. Whatever I had in mind, it wasn't going to work, obviously. .   ::)



Out with the plop water then!

So I brought the ingame water back with the intention to place industry at the shores. However, I had come across this church which I liked quite a bit. At least enough to overlook the bright copper textures and before long it was surrounded with a fancy garden, covering the precious shores. Oops.  :D

Also notice the block to the left of the church, it's the same one as outlined in the first picture. By now it had grown into a nice wall-to-wall block, albeit still lacking in height. Of course I could not resist dressing up the courtyard as well.



Traffic trouble

Much to my surprise the CAN-AM connection was at capacity soon after, so I was forced the solve the water ordeal once and for all. The plan was simple: add another neighbor connection and expand the harbor to create more jobs in this tile. And with that things quickly fell into place. However, I was faced with another land arm to develop. And by now the population had almost reached 15k, which was pretty exciting since I'd never grown a city that large (not in this kind of fashion at least).



Notice the small island in the top, it needed to have some kind of landmark.

Anxious to grow larger I kinda rushed these stage 6 lots and didn't give much thought what to do with the rest of the available land. The area to the right of MBears church (covered with tiles) proved especially problematic. I wanted to create another harbor there but nothing seemed to work. 



Nope.

This is just one out of half a dozen trials. With the city block on the left developed, the aforementioned rift in architecture grew more evident. Though I didn't stop me from placing the Santa Croce basilica.  ;)



Notice the small island again. With new developments underway, the city needed some fortification.

A rather large step forward in time, signified by the switch to Gobias' SV terrain. Coincidentally, one of his water mods also quite nicely matches with the canal water.




Before moving on to more functional aspects, I'd like to point out those three little piers are actual ferries (for no other reason than it took forever to get them working. :D ).




No matter how small the town, it needs power first of all and usually I rely on Nexis' sand pile. However, as the city grew bigger, it needed more juice so Xannepan's medieval windmills were put to good use. This is actually in one of the neighbors, where I also started some canal work.




Soon after every city needs water, I found this leaning tower quite fitting.




Tucked away in the corner the waste incinerator by Cogeo, extremely useful imho. Not only does it actually adds functionality, it also comes with a nifty mod which changes the power & waste graph to display more information.




Actually it was Mbears central station which acted as a police station. And it also acted as a fire station and a hospital! The modding for such a multipurpose civics lot was taken from from this lot by BarbyW, which is very useful and fun since it's also a reward.




The university. It's such a nice BAT, you can be sure it'll make a re-appearance.  ;)




The census bureau, I like to get a much information as possible. Though I had many many doubts using this BAT because of the roof and its neon blue night lights. . .but in the end those stairs won me over. How I wish for more BATs with large staircases in front.




City hall. Again the stairs in front were the main attraction for me, though the banners are nice too.




An overview of the governmental district. Inspired with Kergelens olive fields, I tried my hand at an apple orchard behind the basilica.




Another house of worship.




I scaled Swi21's bridge down so it fits over the canal. The lot itself is transit enabled for pedestrians.




From the same angle, zoomed out, pretty much one of the last pictures I took.


And finally to wrap it up for today, two panoramas which were meant for further processing but I never got around to it. Hope you enjoyed it!







Quote from: Gugu3 on November 26, 2013, 03:02:16 AM
Amazing stuff vortext!
I really appreciate the job you've done with MMPs flora nad tree controllers!
Keep up this incredibly high quality work

Thank you!


Quote from: APSMS on November 26, 2013, 05:26:56 AM
Maybe the different sidewalks towards the left of the cherry trees. They don't match the rest? (also a little bit of one in the buildings towards the middle of the picture).

It doesn't seem like much of a deal breaker to me, though. I'll leave it at that and see what others can find. I don't have a very good eye for these things.

Ah yes, sidewalks are annoying too. I've learned to live with it.  &sly  :D

Quote from: Simcoug on November 26, 2013, 05:40:24 AM
Besides the different road and sidewalk transitions, the only thing I notice is the varying building scales, but that is just SC4 for ya.  Great pictures  &apls

Thanks! Scales are always out of whack indeed, though due to the selecting of BATs the problem became more pronounced (especially the grey buildings with red/orange roof are off, compared to the rest).

Quote from: noahclem on November 26, 2013, 06:28:50 AM
Outstanding work on your OSITM and another great batch of old goodies and pictures of interest  &apls

Thanks Noah!

Quote from: Swordmaster on November 26, 2013, 11:41:17 AM
Is that a car under the cart?

Great work again, of course. Love all the blasts from the pasts. (What's the singular here? :D)


Cheers
Willy

pastses, pastesses, pasts' ..     $%Grinno$% Thanks Willy!

Quote from: Indiana Joe on November 26, 2013, 02:28:16 PM
Even now that it's pointed out, and zoomed in, I still can barely see it.  Your standards are incredible.   :D

Can't wait to see more perfection.   :thumbsup:

Thanks! Though really, I ought to lower the standards from time to time. . ::)
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

Mr.Lin

wow,what a fantastic town there !
That's amazing !
THE CITY OF DANYARD ! SCCN
THE CITY OF DANYARD ! SC4D (Click on the pictures below)


人们都知道的,是生活;人们不知道的,才是艺术

Schulmanator

Very nice. And your work on relotting sure pays off!
See the all-new National Capital Region!:http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=15118.0

rambuckel

Brilliant updates again! I actually love those different textures for the meadows a really good idea!

Angels can fly because they don't take themselves too serious!


RepublicMaster

Great update, the commentary was very enjoyable. :P

Simcoug

This is really interesting, and helpful too.  I just know I will be running into all sorts of trouble down the road trying to grow my little CJ, so hearing some trials and tribulations from such an expert is very welcome.  The idea of reserving land is a good one, but hard to accomplish because the game fights you on it constantly.  I always find myself laying a few zones here and there, thinking I'm preserving some open spaces, but eventually I look back and everything filled up!  Where did all that space go?  $%Grinno$%

QuoteBefore moving on to more functional aspects, I'd like to point out those three little piers are actual ferries (for no other reason than it took forever to get them working. :D ).
I would be really interested to hear how you managed to mod those ferries... I tried my hand at making some fucntional ferries but it ended in total failure (and frustration!)  Perhaps you would be willing to share the lots too??  ;)

All in all, a great entry!   &apls