blade2k5's Real World+Fantasy Maps

[grover_]

hi blade;

been a while since i stopped by and made a reply on your thread which didn't revolve around a problem
before i say anymore i must congratulate you and papab on your excellent maps. im currently using the Bay City map. its one of my favourites so far.

now could that country (which is actually a continent) be Australia by any chance, considering that Australia is the only country that consumes an entire continent.. w00t go Australia  and if i am wrong may you please say so, otherwise i will be quite confused. 
hopefully you do eventually release some maps from Australia, maybe a Gold Coast perhaps, possibly the greatest city in the country 
anyways hopefully you will be able to satisfy my need for maps of this beautiful country with a combination of your map making genius and eye for detail!

Grover_

[blade2k5]

Just in time for X-Mas here are the two new LEX Exclusive releases that got left out of their respective NHP Country Map Paks, Cork Ireland and Kyoto Japan.  These two maps round out the sites papab2000 and I picked for the countries represented and it'll be awhile before re-visit both Ireland and Japan......

However, both papab and myself are working on packing up the eight maps from England, plus the Scotland Pak, which should be available soon, maybe even by New Years.  More details on up-coming projects from papab and myself will be forth-coming soon.

Now onto the brand-spanking new LEX Exclusives

Cork Ireland:
7x7 Large tiles
1793x1793

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast. It is the principal city and administrative center of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster.  The city's name is derived from the Irish word corcach, meaning "marshy place", referring to its situation on the River Lee. Cork has a reputation for rebelliousness dating back to the town's support of the English pretender Perkin Warbeck in 1491 following the Wars of the Roses, and as a result of this Cork County has the nickname of "the Rebel County", and Corkonians often refer to Cork as the "real capital of Ireland" and themselves as "Rebels".

Cork was originally a monastic settlement founded by St. Finbarr in the sixth century.  However, Cork only achieved an urban character between 915 and 922 when Norseman settlers founded a trading port.  It has been proposed that, like Dublin, Cork was an important trading center in the global Scandinavian trade network.

The city's charter was granted by King John in 1185. The title of Mayor of Cork was established by royal charter in 1318, and the title was changed to Lord Mayor in 1900 following the Knighthood of the incumbent Mayor by Queen Victoria on her visit to the City.

In the War of Independence, the center of Cork was gutted by fires started by the British Black and Tans, and the city saw fierce fighting between Irish guerrillas and UK forces. During the Irish Civil War, Cork was for a time held by anti-Treaty forces, until it was retaken by the pro-Treaty National Army in an attack from the sea.

The city was once fully walled, and some wall sections and gates remain today. 

The River Lee flows through the city, an island in the river forming the main part of the city center just before the Lee flows into Lough Mahon and then to Cork Harbour, the world's second largest natural harbor, after Sydney Harbour, Australia. The city is a major Irish seaport — with quays and docks sited along the broad waterway of the Lee on the city's East side. Cork is one of the three constituent cities in the Cork-Limerick-Galway corridor with a population of 1 million people.




Kyoto Japan
9x7 Large tiles
2305x1793

Kyoto is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.   Although archaeological evidence places the first human settlement on the islands of Japan to approximately 10,000 BC, relatively little is known about human activity in the area before the 6th century AD. During the 8th century, when the powerful Buddhist clergy became involved in the affairs of the Imperial government, the Emperor chose to relocate the capital to a region far from the Buddhist influence. Emperor Kammu selected the village of Uda, at the time in the Kadono district of Yamashiro Province, for this honor.

Kyoto is located in a valley, part of the Yamashiro (or Kyoto) Basin, in the eastern part of the mountainous region known as the Tamba highlands. The Yamashiro Basin is surrounded on three sides by mountains known as Higashiyama, Kitayama and Nishiyama, with a height just above 1000 meters above sea level. This interior positioning results in hot summers and cold winters. There are three rivers in the basin, the Ujigawa to the south, the Katsuragawa to the west, and the Kamogawa to the east. Kyoto City takes up 1.9% of the land in the prefecture with an area of 827.9 km².




I hope you enjoyed the new maps.  Thanks for dropping in

[TheTeaCat]

Blade2k5

I am sorry to say that the area you have shown as Cork and its region is not the one you have mapped
In fact the aera you have mapped is the south east section of Ireland and this is a map of the Waterford/ Wexford area.

Its a superb map but not the one that goes with the description.
I origionally come from that area maybe I can be of assistance.

Your Historical info is bang on the money though.

If you need any additional info just send a PM.
In Fact Heblem made a copy of that area for me (Its wikked ) as a private request

Regards
Derry

[blade2k5]

Blade2k5

I am sorry to say that the area you have shown as Cork and its region is not the one you have mapped
In fact the aera you have mapped is the south east section of Ireland and this is a map of the Waterford/ Wexford area.

Its a superb map but not the one that goes with the description.
I origionally come from that area maybe I can be of assistance.

Your Historical info is bang on the money though.

If you need any additional info just send a PM.
In Fact Heblem made a copy of that area for me (Its wikked ) as a private request

Regards
Derry

Thanks for pointing that out.  When I typed in the lat/lon coordinate numbers at the website where I got the DEM from, that's what it gave me   Anyways, I got the correct data this time and have updated the release   I actually like this map better than the other one anyways

For those of you [30 so far], that have dl'd the file before today may want to re-download to get the correct area of Cork Ireland.  Sorry for any inconveniences this caused

Once again, thanks TeaCat

PS:  I'll be posting the correct pics a little later on.....

[blade2k5]

NHP Louisiana Map Pak 1 is now available on the LEX. 

I received a pm from a fellow Devotee asking for an accurately scaled map of Lake Charles Louisiana.  Took me 6 days to get back to the requester, but at least they get the answer and map all at once.   Since I had another map from the same state, it was decided to upload them together as a map pak to represent Louisiana.

The Lake Charles map took a total of 15 hours to complete, from DEM conversion to rendering [opening all tiles in game to get the regional look.], with most of that time spent painstakingly drawing in all those rivers using SC4 TerraFormer.  A quick run-through of the details of the map creation:

DEM: USGS 1/3 arc digital elevation model.

Elevation Highs/Lows: Low 0M High 22.9M 

NOTE: Since sea level is set in the game at 250M, I had to add the 22.9M to it to achieve the area's highest point of 22.9M above sea level in game.  I believe I drew the rivers and other waterways in set at 225M.  When I was working on it in sc4tf, I added another 100M of height for the compression to better define exactly where the waterways were.  Once finishing the rivers and lakes, I compressed again using the correct height number to get what you see in the images provided.

Map size: 7x7 large tiles, totaling 49 city tiles, or 1793x1793.

The Baton Rouge map was made in the same that Lake Charles was.  Baton Rouge is 5x5 large tiles, totaling 25, or 1281x1281.

Both maps were rendered with Cycledog's Meadowshire terrain mod.

Lake Charles:



Baton Rouge:



Thanks for dropping by and enjoy the new maps.

[Pat]

Hey Troy welcome back from the Holiday's I hope you had good one!!! I see you have been still pretty busy there!!! Looking good on LA man!!!

[un1]

Well great maps Blade! 

The one thing is that someone requested me to make a map of Lake Charles and the day I finished it you released it on the LEX. 

Well great work on it!

-un1

[blade2k5]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same person   I didn't exactly answer the request right away

[coollcguy21]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same person   I didn't exactly answer the request right away

It was...

[blade2k5]

Well, I feel honored that your first post at SC4D is here in my humble map thread   How are you liking the Lake Charles map?  Is it working out for you?

[coollcguy21]

Well, I feel honored that your first post at SC4D is here in my humble map thread   How are you liking the Lake Charles map?  Is it working out for you?

Oh it's working out great! 

I added some trees to each of the maps, cause I got tired of looking at those strange colors. I also made a few changes to some of the waterways, as the interstate highway loop that runs through the city has a curved bridge, which the game doesn't allow, so I built a straight one that's in the approximate location.

The Baton Rouge one looks pretty cool too, and you can see how big the Mississippi really is.

[BigSlark]

Since you've started with my southern neighbor, is there any chance you feel like tackling the below sea level beast of Greater New Orleans?

I love your work, please keep giving the community new places to make the cities of their dreams.

Cheers,
Kevin

[blade2k5]

I tried New Orleans once already.  Didn't work out very well no matter what trick I have up my sleeve I threw at it.  Some places along the Gulf Coast is difficult to do, Miami is another of those difficult maps to do.  So, I'm not able to to do it.

[portlandexpos04]

These maps are seriously awesome!  They're perfect for re-creating real world cities in SC4, which is what I like to do.  I know you probably get a lot of requests, but I was wondering if I could "add to the list"?  I've been wanting to re-create some Pacific Northwest cities for quite some time, but have never been able to find properly scaled and good enough terrain for it. I was wondering if you could make maps for:

1. Ashland, OR/Hilt, CA: Basically a map that features parts of Ashland, Oregon and the area immediately south of the Oregon-California state border, including the border itself where Interstate 5 runs;
2. Tacoma, WA (including Fort Lewis, WA);
3. Olympia, WA;
4. Salem, OR;
5. Pendleton, OR
6. Hermiston-Umatilla, OR


Thanks in advance!

[blade2k5]

These maps are seriously awesome!  They're perfect for re-creating real world cities in SC4, which is what I like to do.  I know you probably get a lot of requests, but I was wondering if I could "add to the list"?  I've been wanting to re-create some Pacific Northwest cities for quite some time, but have never been able to find properly scaled and good enough terrain for it. I was wondering if you could make maps for:

1. Ashland, OR/Hilt, CA: Basically a map that features parts of Ashland, Oregon and the area immediately south of the Oregon-California state border, including the border itself where Interstate 5 runs;
2. Tacoma, WA (including Fort Lewis, WA);
3. Olympia, WA;
4. Salem, OR;
5. Pendleton, OR
6. Hermiston-Umatilla, OR


Thanks in advance!

The places I highlighted in bold text are places that are done, or being worked on and will be released within the next couple of months.  The ones highlighted in italics I'll take a look at and see.  As for Tacoma, you may want to look at MallowTheCloud's NHP Seattle map, which can be found on the STEX http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?page=1&Keyword=NHP&view=all and see if that covers the area you requested.  If not, I'll add Tacoma to 'hurry up and get it done so it can be put into one of a few Washington State Paks

Now onto the updates.....

Now available for your downloading pleasure are the two NHP England Map Paks featuring London, Portsmouth-Southampton, Dover and Cardiff-Bristol, and also realeased was the NHP Scotland Map Pak featuring Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.  All three Paks can be found on the STEX.

Now on to the pics......









As a quick note, there are still 2 more England Paks being finished up and should be available soon.  Enjoy the new releases and thanks for dropping by.

[TheTeaCat]

These new maps of England and Scotland are superb

I shall certainly grab myself a copy
I was wondering would you be mapping any more of Ireland?

btw Just how long will it take you to map the planet?


TTC

[portlandexpos04]

As for Tacoma, you may want to look at MallowTheCloud's NHP Seattle map, which can be found on the STEX http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?page=1&Keyword=NHP&view=all and see if that covers the area you requested.  If not, I'll add Tacoma to 'hurry up and get it done so it can be put into one of a few Washington State Paks

I took a look at MallowTheCloud's Seattle map, and it looks like his map ends slightly north of the Tacoma city limits.   I marked up a Google Maps image for reference:

http://img339.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tacomaww6.jpg
(for some reason its not letting me post this picture here, so I will link it instead)

The blue box is the southern boundary of MallowTheCloud's Seattle map, and the green box is more in-line with what I had in mind for my request.

I've never made a map myself, so I'm not sure if the full "green box", as shown, is too big to be feasible, and would understand if parts of it had to be cut out.  However, if you could try to include downtown Tacoma (area near Commencement Bay, I-5/I-705), Fort Lewis/McChord AFB to the South, and the area south of Gig Harbor (along Hwy. 16), that'd be great!


I also grabbed a screenshot of the Ashland-Hilt area that I was talking about in my previous post:

http://img440.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ashlandje4.jpg

Thanks again for considering my requests!

[blade2k5]

These new maps of England and Scotland are superb I shall certainly grab myself a copy

Thanks. and I hope you enjoy them

I was wondering would you be mapping any more of Ireland?

Yes, sometime later this year

btw Just how long will it take you to map the planet?

Not very long.....maybe by the end of the year

[Pat]

Troy looking sweet there with the maps!!! As always great qaulity stuff from ya's and Rich and Emil and the whole NHP Team!!!

[projectadam]

blade2k5,

It has been awhile since I have posted but just wanted to stop in quick and give you a  on your maps and a double  on the Lake Charles map. I keep looking at that one and am amazed at how well it is pulled off.