Urland - a (mostly) rural Coastline

[Nardo69]

You might have guessed it:

I AM BACK!!!!


It took some time but eventually I got Sc4 running under winXP on my antique box - and it's even running a bit better than under Win7 RC/beta! 

So what did I do:

• I created a new hardware profile and rebooted the box
  
• After rebooting I disabled all drivers and services in that profile that are not crucial to run sc4 - including network card, 1394 adapter and all netword services incl. AV program and firewall.
  After this I had to re-activate my XP - strange ...
  
• Sound was disabled both in the game and by command line parameter
  

And now it's running again! 

So the very special about the tiny little pic is that the map was one of the last maps I started under Win7 RC - the picture however was made under WinXP!

And because I needed to cheer up a bit after the soccer world cup semi finals I did the one or the other click on that map. Actual results are here, replies and answer will come a bit later!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, may I present you

Construction site report 4: Heimsheim

This village is a bit inspired by the village at the German Autobahn A8 near Stuttgart as well as by other villages that have been cut in two parts by a highway.



It took me hours to get railways and highway the way I wanted and there's still some fine tuning for the railway but for now, it's rather OK I guess ...



The railway station is a small village station where a STR and a DTR meet each other. The STR is a connection line with some freight trains and not much passenger trauns, that's why all its traffic is done over track No. 1, the station itself has no function as a railway knot.



OK, some switches are missing, but with the actual possibility I couldn't get it better ...



The other railway station head.



The highway in the village. I do know some similar situations IRL ...



The village center. Not much to say about it ...



Feasible. Got to get some rust off my mousefinger though.
On the lower edge of the picture you can see the world famous Urland bananas. Thanks to outstanding culture techniques (only very very bad persons assume genetic engineering!) they grow very well in Middle European climate of Urland!



I just like that place!



Well, As I said before, I got a bit dust & rust on my mousefinger ....

That's it for today (or tonite ...)

Have fun!

[ecoba]

Welcome back, Bernhard ! It's very nice to know that you are back, as Urland is just a fantastic MD!

This new village looks up to what we've all come to expect from you, simply great work ! Hoewever this one looks like it will be even better. 

Ethan

[canyonjumper]

Welcome back Bernhard! These are amazing pics!

        -Jordan

[art128]

Nice work with that highway and railway line, Bernhard ! I can't wait to see this tile finished up !

-Arthur.

[Nardo69]

Some quick replies ...

@WC_EEND: Showing just one pic was mean, wasn't it?
Well, I tried the asphalt textures for the Maxis Highway but didn't liked them too much ...
And oh, for banning an old man being happy to be back again!
(must have been )

@threestooges(1): Kind of!  At least you have to say it was a good influence!
Yes, I did stop them and went "back to work" again". Boy, I really missed that!

@TheTeaCat: No problem with missing Urland's anniversary - missed it too ... 
And the special thing about that "work shot" was - no more BSoDs as you can see in the last Construction site report. Boy - I guess you know how good it feels to be "back at work", don't you? 

@threestooges(2): Correct! It was one of the very first screen shots under Xp for more than 1 year ...
Glad you like the highway - it was quite a pain in the ... to get both highway and railway halfway the way I wanted them ...

@travismking: It's dirty industry. As long as you don't overdo I-D it fits with I-Ag rather nice.

ecoba(1): No problem my friend! As I said to Derry - missed it myself ... 

@Nardo69: shuddup!

ecoba(2): Thanks for the compliment! As I said blowing the dust away isn't finished yet!

@canyonjumper: Thanks for the compliment!

@art128 Glad you liked it! Well, some empty spaces want to be filled ..

[TheTeaCat]

Hey Bernhard - fantastic news that you managed to get the game going again. And yes it is good to be going again 

So all of my guesses were wrong  Not to worry I love what you've done with the tile so far.
I'll hazard a guess as to where the missing signals are - under the motorway? There is a way to do that and when I find the link
I'll post it here for you. may be just the thing you need

Personally I don't think your mouse finger is that dusty, not from what I've seen here, loved this update mate,
Dunno which pic is my fav - I guess its all of them  

Looking forward to seeing what you next do here 

regards
Derry

[Tomas Neto]

Very nice village, my friend!!! Really very realistic!!!

[Battlecat]

Fantastic, glad to hear you're back in business!  The latest updates look quite nice indeed!

[Nardo69]

Hello Again!

It took some -again  - but on the one hand I am planting only trees - lamost - and on the other hand RL is ... well ...

Anyway, this is some news for you! royal is redoing his signals in HD and his mechanical signals are almost through. Time for some betatesting by Papa Nardo (and a lot of teasing  )

Basically the new HD signals are replacing the old ones just by installing them but there are some details that will require some fine tuning on existing lots - but the result is worth it!

And since I began already with fine tuning my lots AND because I got some screenies ready - how about a

Construction Site Report 5: Signals and a little bit of Klemmbach

I'll just begin with quoting with some pictures form the last report:




The railway station head of Heimsheim with SD signals ...



... and with HD signals. Is the new shunting signal not a sweat piece of candy?



The back site. Just look at all these fine details! 
Und die Rückseite.



The other head with the signals behind the highway bridge in SD ...



... and now in HD. Sweat! 



In Update 19 I promised to show you some picture of the village of Klemmbach as soon as I could play the game. Here we are.

The last big thing on the ToDo - List was that empty ridge and the green area between road and bridge.



I wanted to have a dense zone between forest and open area and this is a case for simfox's trees!



Forested!  Mixed woods with a slight cp dominance ...



View over the ridge towards the station. I deliberatly designed the area between road and railway line as a green area



The village of Klemmbach. The field in the left lower corner with the retaining wall was most probably the reason why I didn't took any pictures. I am still not really happy with this situation. Well, maybe later ...



Back to the basics, back to railways!  A local train is leaving towards Emmelshausen. You don't know Emmelshausen? Well, you should - otherwise you might look in construction site report 2.
There might be some more stuff from that map in the near future!



Another view and a freight train shows the entry signal with the pre exit signal. An important change is that the pre exit sign is now a separated prop and no more included in the pre signal prop. This means you need to fix all lots with pre signals - but it's worth the effort!

Again a quote from a previous update


The entry signal of Klemmbacg and the pre entry signal of Neurod in SD ...



... and in HD. You can see clearly the pre entry sign as a separated prop. And you can see why it was invented as a standart pre signal in "expect approach" was hard to see IRL.



The exit signal of Neurod with the entry pre signal of Klemmbach. The pre signal with semaphore showing "approach expected" is missing in SD set!



The other exit signal of Neurod. With these signals Zoom level 6 is really fun! And - if you want a teaser of what's to come, have a look at the "Show us your railways" - thread!

Sorry for no replies but it's late here - I'll do them ASAP!

Have fun!

Bernhard 

[RickD]

Great pictures, Bernhard. HD is such an improvement for the signals. But isn't the Vorsignal (whats that in english?) a bit too large?

[Battlecat]

Fantastic!  Love how realistic you're making your railways. 

[mattb325]

I don't comment in here often enough, but I visit often and enjoy everything you do; from choosing quite difficult terrain to work with to (of course) the amazing railway stuff.

I have to say pic 19.5a is absolutely brilliant - the bridge and the tunnel work so well together

[Skimbo]

I really like the correct positions of every signal. The foresting is as usual great, and the only thing to criticise is the road that leads to the city boarder on pic Cs5.04.....

anyway: great update

[samerton]

Great update! I like the HD signals!

[canyonjumper]

Awesome pics Bernhard! Your railways look as realistic as ever

              Your friend,
                             Jordan

[Nardo69]

Some quick replies ...

@TheTeaCat: No Problem about missing the anniversary - missed it, too, shame on me! 
Well, the problem is that it doesn't matter how many puzzle pieces are created for the RAM there will always be some missing ... and it's the challenge for creators to get the maximum out of the existing possibilities.
I just wished it could've been more realistic ... here ... 

@Tomas Neto: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

Battlecat(1): Thanks for the compliment my friend!

@Nardo69: 

@RickD: Well, the presignal is Ok, the problem is the relation between the main signal and the pre signal. However I wouldn't know how to get it work better - the old problem of then non consistent scale of SC4 ...

@Battlecat(2): Thanks for the compliment my friend!

@mattb325: Thanks for the compliment my friend!
I hope you liked the way I used your creations here! As for the terrain, I found out for myself that I need some challenge or there's a danger that the result might get a tad ... boring ... and hey - why should I choose the easy terrain as a pioneer of hilly farming in Sc4?
The tunnel at the bridge cost me quite some time untill I found a suitable solution to cross road & rail there. But the longer I look the more I like it, too!

@Skimbo: Well, it could be a tad less bumpy ... 

@samerton: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

canyonjumper: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

... and a Mini Update: Trees or: A Reason For Being Slow

Well, if you ever asked yourself what Nardo's doing all the time between his puny updates ... well ... I am planting Mayor Mode trees as you may see on this Mini Update's pictures. One by one.







Have fun!


Bernhard 

[Battlecat]

I plant my trees exactly the same way.  Honestly, the results are far nicer than the god mode controllers.  Your forest looks particularly fantastic!

[TiFlo]

Same here as well. Looking through different MDs, it struck me how much better manually planted forest looked close up. Yours is a perfect example. It is quite time consuming though.

[kwakelaar]

Well you need to be a special kind of person to become so poetic about railway signals, and there are lot of them in these last updates.
As always I have enjoyed looking at your work both with the railways and the hand planted forest.

Gjermund/Kwakelaar

[rooker1]

Hello Bernhard,
Another splendid update my friend.
There was a point where I tried to zoom in.....doh.  I hope we can get a few shots a little closer of that area. 

Robin