Darley Island

[Connor]

I've spent a lot of time over the past year or so reading and lurking both here and over at ST, though I have been trying to start posting more recently. The majority of my time at SC4D is spent reading tutorials and the huge number of fantastic mayor diaries on offer.

And so over the last few months or so, I've found myself increasingly wanting to start my own MD, and as you should have gathered by now, that is exactly what I have done.

The older MDs tended to start with the author saying a little bit about themselves and then say a little bit of background on the region. This seems to be fading away a little these days, but I'm going to do it anyways. I guess I'm a little traditional.

So, let's begin.

Hello all, my name (and hence my username) is Connor, I am a student and I reside in England, in a town not too far from London. Infact the journey from my house to central London can be done in little more than an hour on a good day and is less than an hour by train. I am a student, and I have always had a keen interest in geography, and I suppose that is what attracted me to SC3K and then onto SC4.

I would love to know how many cities I have started building and never finished. About six months ago I finally started a region and actually stuck with it, but then my computer crashed, my hard drive got wiped and I never saw it ever again. I now know that I must always back up important files... Unfortunately like most people, I learnt that the hard way.

Moving on, after the 'trauma' of losing my region after endless hours of work, I had no choice but to make a fresh start. And that fresh start is Darley Island...

...It's a very small region, only 2x3 large tiles, but I'm not exactly the fastest of builders. A picture speaks a thousand words apparently, and I can't be bothered to type that many, so I will indeed show you a picture of the region rather than drone on for a thousand words describing it for you.

So, here's the image that Region Census produced:



As you can see, it's a fairly irregular shape, with flat smooth coastlines and whilst the majority of the island is flat, there is some hilly areas and a small lake inland. This hilly area will be forested and undeveloped apart from a few roads, parking lots, rest areas, camping sites etc, and the rest of the island will be made up of towns and agriculture.

I know it's not a particularly good region, but its my first proper attempt at terraforming my own region rather than downloading one, and so my terraforming skills are rather lacking at the moment. And although its not good - it its the right shape and size that i wanted and has all the features i wanted, so i'm gonna stick with it.

All undeveloped as of yet, but of course that will all change in the near future. Connor.

[pete3d]

hi conner,

nice start.
i´m also working on a small map like this, but it´s a lot of work to do for me...

i also know the "everything is away" feeling.

brown things happen sometimes.

so i check this know regular to see what´s comming...

pete

[Battlecat]

Welcome aboard!  That's an interesting looking little island!  I'm looking forward to seeing what you're going to do with it. 

[Nanami]

Hello.
You have nice small region in my opinion. I would like to see what will you do with it.

[Connor]

Replies:

pete3d, battlecat, 976: Thanks for the replies, guys. Hope you stick around for what's to come in the future.

---

Moving on...

Something that is often said at the beginning of MDs by various people, is something along the lines of... 'I'm looking forward to see what you're going to do with it' just as 976 and Battlecat posted above.

So, that does rather beg the question... What am I going to do with it?

Hmmm.....

Well, that's exactly what the next update (to be posted tomorrow) will show you.

Enough about tomorrow, what's happening today?

Today, I'm going to show a few things that I did yesterday after posting the intro post.

Firstly, here's a little map I made. Its basically just the region overview with a few labels rather than an actual map, but it was just a quick thing I decided to do and only took a couple of minutes.



Generally, before I start building a city I lay out the basic infrastructure first. I often used to build big downtown areas and I used to start by laying out the highways, avenues, rails etc then build. I've always done this, it just seems logical to me.

And so that's what I spent yesterday doing. Darley Island is much too small to have its own railway system or highways or even avenues really. But it will have a few major roads, so that the various towns are all linked together.

Due to the island's size and relatively small population there will only be a few major(ish) roads on the island and the rest will be what SC4 calls 'streets'.

Here's the basic road layout for the island, showing major roads only.



This is my first ever attempt at any kind of mapping, so its pretty poor quality at the moment, but I'm still learning how to even use my photo editing software, and so my mapping ability will (hopefully) grow as this MD progresses.

There will be much better maps in the future, but that's all for now.

As I have mentioned before, Darley Island is British and so you will notice the road types are British. So here's a short explanation for those of you outside of Britain (most of you) what an A Road and what a B Road is:

A Roads – I think the best way to describe A Roads is to call them 'Primary Routes'. They're usually pretty direct and their function is generally to link major settlements together. They can be single carriageway (i.e. one lane of traffic in each direction) or dual carriageway (i.e. two lanes of traffic in each direction).

B Roads – I would then describe B Roads as 'Secondary Routes'. They tend to be cover shorter distances than A Roads and there are more of them. They often link A Roads to other A Roads, or branch off of A Roads and carry traffic to smaller settlements.

I didn't want to leave you oncemore without anything to look at other than a zoomed out picture of the region, so I thought I'd post a few pictures of those roads...

1 – Here's the A398 following the coastline on the east side of the island.


2 – This roundabout is where the A398 and B467 intersect in where the town of Darley will be located.


3 – The B467 running through the town of Kendal beside the Strate River, and just a short walk from the Kendal Lake.


4 – The B467 and B482 intersection in where the town of Stratemouth will be located, and the bridge across the Strate River.


That's all folks.

Next update, we'll be steering away from looking at roads...

(Warning: as this MD progresses, you'll see a lot of pretty bad puns. Sorry in advance).

In all seriousness, tomorrows update will be a preview of what i intend to do with this region, and then after that its time to start developing it.

Connor.

[warconstruct]

great job !

[turtle]

Very nice start. I look forward to see how it develops. looks like we have similar taste in terrain mods 

[Tomas Neto]

Yeah, very nice start in your MD!!! 

[Battlecat]

Very interesting indeed!  Nice job on the mapping, looks like an excellent plan.  I fully approve of your plan to use roads as highways in your region, particularly given the size of it.   

I quite like the way your roads are laid out, you've done a great job with the wide radius curves as well. 

[calibanX]

I very much like how you introduced yourself at the beginning of your MD. A nice personal touch. Your region is well made. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with it. Nice start and welcome aboard.

Geoff

[Nanami]

Nice update!

[emgmod]

Just a coincidence, but I was planning on how to plan out roads on an island like that, except on a larger scale. I might end up using this as an example. It also looks like you have the same terrain mod and a similar water mod as mine. (Olympic, Mas71 Water)

I'm imagining a small town or at least a gas station at the B429-B425 junction. Is anyone else thinking that too?

[ecoba]

This looks like it will be really good, and you've got good pre-planning done forthwith, so I think you'll have a good idea of what you're building where.

Can't wait to see more, it's promising!

Ethan

[Connor]

Replies:

warconstruct, turtle, Tomas Neto, Battlecat, callibanX, 976, ecoba: Thanks very much for the kind comments, its much appreciated.
Emgmod: Thanks, and yeah I'm using the olympic terrain mod, though I'm using PEG's Brigantine water mod, not a Mas71 water mod. As for that junction, you'll have to wait and see.

---

Here is a little phrase I like...

'If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail'

I like the above phrase because it is so simple and logical but also very true and can be applied to pretty much anything in life. So, how have I been applying it to Darley Island? Yesterday, when this update was written, my general plan was to just give a picture of each tile (there are only six) and write a couple of lines to say what that tile will contain.

It's pretty simple stuff really.

The purpose? It helps me prepare because it involves me having to think about what I want to put on the region and where I'm going to put it. And it helps you, the reader, get a feel for the region before I go and start developing it.

To begin with, let's take a look at the region in the game itself rather than on region census...


As you can see, each tile is named in a pretty simple way, from A1 to C2.

Sitting comfortably?

Let's begin, with the western half of the island.

Here is tile A1.

This tile contains the small headland known as Darley Head. This area will contain some of the suburban areas to the west of Darley, which is situated to the easr of this tile on Tile A2.

Here is tile B1.

This tile has a little bit of everything really. The flat coastal area to the south of the Strate River will be used for agriculture. The flat area to the north of the river will also be used for agriculture, though there is the town of Stratemouth on the coast, and the town of Kendal further inland, which is situated beside the Kendal Lake, which we can see half of in this tile.

Here is tile C1.

The small bay area on this tile is where the town of Southsea will be located. Outside of Southsea there will be agricultural areas and some little hamlets scattered around.

Now let's move on to the eastern half of the island.

Here is tile A2.

This tile is where the town of Darley will be located. Darley is the largest town on the island and the island's largest harbour is on the Darley coastline and connects the island to mainland England via a short ferry journey.

Here is tile B2,

I may place a few small villages on this tile, but it will mainly be agriculture. The hillside will be forested and will provide a perfect place for hikers, campers and dog-walkers alike.

Here is tile C2.

Similarly to B2, there is no town on this tile, though I may choose to put a few villages or hamlets. Other than that, the land will be used for agriculture.

That concludes this little update, though the next update should be up later this week. By that time, things will have moved on a bit and there'll finally be a built up area to look at. 

Connor.

[Battlecat]

Good to plan ahead and know where you're going.  Looks like you've got this well in hand.  It's amazing how much help such a simple organizational system can be. 

[Tomas Neto]

Wow, great work!!! 

[Nanami]

Great update, I like your plan for the region.
Btw, you're using brigantine water mod, aren't you? For an island region I like to use PEG's hawaian holiday mod because it's more suitable in my opinion, but it's just my opinion, maybe diffrent with you.

[sumwonyuno]

Wow!  Very nice region!  I like those waves in the river; it gives it a nice effect and look.

[Connor]

Replies:

Battlecat, Tomas Neto, sumwonyuno: Thanks for nice the replies, guys. Hope you like the update.

976: Thanks for commenting, and I do agree that the Hawaiian Holiday water mod is very good for island regions, though this region is located next to the south coast of England, and so the Hawaiin Holiday mod would look too clean and tropical compared to the sea next to England which is quite dirty and polluted.

---

Today, as promised we'll be looking at some actual development.

We will be looking at the little village of Kimble.

So to begin, where is Kimble on this region?

If we look at the 'in game' region view from last update, I can tell you that it is close to south west corner of B2. It is situated along the B429 (see map in a previous post) and has a tiny population of approximately 1000.



Anyway, before I show any pictures I would like you to know that this is showing how Kimble looks at the moment. There are various improvements I can make; and I  most certainly intend to make them at some point. Plus, this is the first settlement in the MD, so if it's not very good, it can only get better 

Anyway, let's get the ball rolling then shall we?

1 – This is Kimble from the in-game zoom 1.


2 – Let's get a closer look...


3 – Even closer...


4 – And now we are at the in-game zoom 4, where we can see the heart of the village.


5 – So, now we're getting close up and personal at zoom 5, where we can see a few little local shops and a pub (far right – The Victorian Inn) which serve the people of Kimble and the hamlets in the surrounding area. I love these BATs (by rp2005 available on the STEX), and if you are British then you'll see that these buildings are rather realistic and seem to crop up everywhere. Behind, that is Kimble Park.


6 – Kimble Park from a different angle.


7 – This is Kimble Primary School (primary school is the British equivalent of elementary school in the US). It's a very small little school with pupils from Kimble and a few little hamlets. It's another BAT I love but and I think it's by deadwoods. I resized the school field in the lot editor, so that the field could be bigger, making it a little more realistic, though its still very small compared to most school fields in real life.


---

And that's pretty much exhausted everything that Kimble has to offer, but it was nice to finally post some actual content rather than the 'planning posts' I've been showing you.

Will be working on the next update over the weekend.

Connor.

[Battlecat]

Pretty good start!  I guess you must have a maxis blocker, that a pretty large quantity of the same non-maxis homes here!  It's a very nice looking town, with an interesting layout!  Looking forward to your next update!

My only suggestion would be to consider looking into adding some addition housing styles.  Mattb325 has a pretty diverse collection available on the LEX.