The Winding River Project

[KoV Liberty]

Nice little catch-up update. My game cannot get off of rendering with Software instead of Hardware (jeez) so im gonna have to re-install mine. The only way I see in solving your city tile problem is to try to enter it gain or possibly rename the tile for a short amount of time. Either that, or move the tile to another, unused, region and try to open it. Then move it back to the original spot and try again. Just my input.

Alex

[mrbisonm]

Nice little catch-up update. My game cannot get off of rendering with Software instead of Hardware (jeez) so im gonna have to re-install mine. The only way I see in solving your city tile problem is to try to enter it gain or possibly rename the tile for a short amount of time. Either that, or move the tile to another, unused, region and try to open it. Then move it back to the original spot and try again. Just my input.

Alex

Hm...some logical advice there, have to try it out. Thanks Alex.

[MattyFo]

Nice update Fred.  Access sure has grown over the past year.

[mightygoose]

nice update and comparison.

[mrbisonm]

Nice little catch-up update. My game cannot get off of rendering with Software instead of Hardware (jeez) so im gonna have to re-install mine. The only way I see in solving your city tile problem is to try to enter it gain or possibly rename the tile for a short amount of time. Either that, or move the tile to another, unused, region and try to open it. Then move it back to the original spot and try again. Just my input.

Alex

I tried all the above, I also tried playing around with my Plugins folder, nothing worked, I suppose the file is corrupt again.......reminds me why I love that game sooo much....lol. Geeez, now I will have to rebuild the freaking citytile all over again, oh my....

[nedalezz]

Seems like Johnny B Badd needs to come up with a new gameplan if he wants to stay out jail and keep making his money

Its great to see you back and it was a fantastic update. I especially loved the before and after shot

[mrbisonm]

Update 57     Thursday, November 10th, 1965

                                   today's anniversaries:
                                             - 1775 – The United States Marine Corps is founded
                                             - 1942 – WW II: Germany invades Vichy France
                                             - 1989 – Fall of the communist regime in Bulgaria. 


The  television press conference was sceduled for 10 Am on Wednesday, but Colonel Neil Myers from the SL Army only arrived on 10:30 AM, which left a lot of people frustrated already at his arrival. The direct television diffusion was coming from the Access Center Museum (in the Valmore part of Access) for the first time from the River Region and was planned to bring an update on the gas leaking situation in West River and also explain in details why the army seems to be installed for the good there.
Over 500 residents from Access, Valmore, Phlox and Grasslake were present, so were others from Sandom and even far places such as Frampton and Beecherfalls. This is a nation-wide diffusion.

The museum hall was overfilled and some people did not gain access at all. John Gabber, Mike Allheimer, T.S.Slye, Guy Racsan, Jordan Meaden, Alex Puto, Charles M. Johnson, Steve Gibson and Henry Gabber were present and sitting right up front of the seatrows. Jordan and Charles are new to the group and all are anxious to hear what the Colonel has to say about the West River subject.

Tapping on the micro three times, the Colonel wanted to make sure that he was heard. ««" Ladies and Gentlemen"»» he started, then introducing himself and exlpaining where he was from, what he is responsable of and a lot of useless bla bla bla.
The briefing lasted almost an hour during which he explained the presence of the army in West River, the situation of the gasleak and showed some pictures of the base and area. Then he suddenly stopped and pointed to the public while saying :«« "Now, if you have any questions, please raise your hand and I will do whatever I can to answer them all." Dozen of hands raised all at once, making it impossible for the Colonel to choose the first one up. He pointed to Mike Allheimer, who was sitting right in the frontrow with his gang. "You Sir", Mike stood up and said, "Last summer's incident with the presumed invaders of the military base, has it been resolved? We havn't heart anything about this ever since."
"Yes" the Colonel answered, "some young fellows were arrested earlier this year and have been warned to stay out the nex time. The army did not want to mention any names or make it public for reasons that the teenagers stay anonymous."»»
Wow, that really cut off the speech of Mike, he look at John and all the others with eyes wide open, knowing that this statement was completely and totally false. It was them you invaded the base and not any teenagers as the Colonel stated. John pulled Mike down back to the seat, just to make sure that he shuts up and not reveil anything by error.
The Colonel continued answering questions. Many subjects were brought to daylight and many answers did not seem right to our curious characters. Charles M.Johnson, the new journalist from the Access Tribune got up and asked at his turn,
««"Sir, you said that the army will have a permanent base in West River, so I figure that the gaz leaking is totally under control now, right? But why did the army choose West River and that specific location for its base anyways, and please what happened to the rockskulls that were found there in the beginning?"
Colonel Myers:"Well, as the General said *While we are here, we might as well stay*. The location is perfect to settle down, we needed a base in this region anyways and we simply chose the West River site as perfectly suitable.", he then continued,  "About the gaz leakage, yes it is under control, it has been ever since the beginning anyways. There are scientific experiments done with that gas and that is why you see some people dressed in white around the base. The gas is known to be a slow burning element that could be quite useful in the futur as an important energy producer. Laboratories in Lakestead are working on how to refine it without the danger of the poisonous effect. Now concerning the skull huts, they were transported to a scientific laboratory in Lakestead where they are historically studied. That is not of our division anymore."»»


pic57.1


He then also mentioned that the minister of resources will probably have the area mined in a way to *harvest* the gas. That is one reason also why the river is being diverted. (see pictures below) He answered other questions about the buildings, explaining that most of them belong to the Minister of resources and will be used for exploiting the gas in the near futur, again assuring everyone that there will be no danger to the surroundings nor the public, nor the army. He said that there will be a public tour of the site next summer, so that the people can be assured of the security of the installations.
After another hour of answering questions of the public and explaining the river detour in details, Colonel Myers decided to put an end to the conference and thanked everyone for having come and participated. He left without saying another word.
Mike looked again at John, Alex, Slye and Steve. ««" You know this guy is something else....., he has been lying for the last two hours without even blinking an eye. I don't freakin' believe one thing he said. Maybe there is some gas and that is just the perfect matter so they have a good reason to install themselves there, but why did they go underground? What is the reason behind all of this? And believe me after what I saw,.....they went down for a whole stretch to get all this soil out of there, did you see the freaking gravel mountain they dug out?"
John interupted, "Maybe you're right, I have a funny feeling too that some of his words didn't rhyme  nor make sense to me. There are hundreds of better places, mostly drier and flatter places for the army to establish their base in the region, why choose that specific one? But I also think that the gas could be quite useful, if it exists there. We already know that it burns slow and intensivly, not like other gases, and it never exploses, not even under pressure and high heat. Somehow that can be useful for one thing or another."
Steve Gibson asked in between: "You guys want me to make some more aerial pictures the next time again?" looking curiously at John." Yes, but be careful, don't overdo things and stay on the sides of the base, don't fly right over it like the last time", John said.»»

So the army is trying to divert the West River, making a sort of shortcut so that the long curve can be dried out and filled in. Is it to be able to dig in deeper at the mine and not to worry about the groundwaters? Or is it to create more exterior room to build the armybase as they say?
One way or the other, it will take some time to find out while the mystery of the gas continues. Why did they dig there anyways?

Here are some pictures of the armybase at the moment, of course everything below ground cannot be shown and besides we don't know anything about it.
The first picture shows the generalview of West River so we can see the whole  base and its surroundings. The green line represents the army base's territory.
pic57.2


As we can see the operation river-cut-off has already begun. Once the river canal is build, to connect the shorter detour of the river, the rest of it will then be dried out and filled to even ground. A job the army says will take almost two years. The dark blue bars present where a mighty walls will be, the light blue is where the canal is going through. The rails also will be moving to the west (left on the picture) to make room for the planned airfield and the powerlines probably will stay, if not go underground. This is still not decided. As Colonel Myers mentioned, all this should be ready by the beginning of 1968.

pic57.3


In a closer view of the futur canal you can see where exactly the river will be turned to. Boulders and rocks are being piled on the eastside to be later cemented and hold off the strong current during the rainy season flow-off in that sharp curve. (circled in pink). Once the canal and the wall are done, the work to dam off the river to the natural flowline will begin. A temporary dam will stop the water from entering the older path, while it then can be filled and dried out.

pic57.4


Here are some more pictures that were shown at explained at the press conference. A general view of the actual armybase, showing the barracks, the twintowers that are supposed to be for the mine, what is supposed to be the famous *valve* ,hangars of all kinds....(why so many? And what are these being used for anyways?) the waterpump and tank and some others buildings under construction. The pictures below will speak for themselves.

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I hoped you liked that update. I should be back soon with the follow up of that story, and also we will go back to Phlox to see how things are *growing* there. I heard that Slye bought some more land near his sawmill. Is he again enlargen it?
I started rebuilding Access Center again, now that it became impossible to enter without crashing. It will be a little different, though keeping the major buildings intact. I have an older saved citytile from that tile, but like in 1960. It has changed since then.....
Now I learned my lesson and I will make a safefile of every tile after having played like 2 or 3 times with it, just in case that I can go back when something like this happens again. I hate when the game crashes and citytiles become impossible to enter....Darn!
Thanks for leaving a word or two and keep this MD/ CJ growing and encouraging me to make it more interesting.

Fred

[kwakelaar]

There is certainly some extensive construction going on at the new military site. Nice presentation that indeed caught my eye.

[mightygoose]

still discussions as to what the nature of the work done at West River.... i am still convinced it is gas weaponisation...

[threestooges]

Nah, he's just investing in land so as to attempt to defray the effects of the rumored tax increases, heh heh. Keep the taxes as low as you can. With 11-12.5% taxes, it's no wonder the region around Access is so popular. Nice retrospective update Fred, and the new news around the military base in interesting. Nice work setting up the dredging for the canal. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out.
-Matt

[MattyFo]

Great update Fred.  The Army sure is cooking something up.  They must be spending a small fortune in this area.  Whatever the Army is up to in that area I'm sure it is worth the cost of this huge project.

[kalvar]

very interesting this project is to build a base are well equipped.

I have desire to see it finished. XD

[mrbisonm]

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed the armybase. Only hope you like the story too....

I finally was able to open the Access Center Downtown citytile while playing with every option I had, including the plugins folder, changing the tile into another region, force opening it with notebook, etc and luckily (and don't ask me why and how, 'cause I have no idea) I was able to open it, but.....
I would say about 80 %, if not more of the model and texturefiles seem to have disappeared (never seen this before) Although all the needed files were still in the Plugins folder, ingame they were not present. Only the props on the lots showed. Strange!
Most of the growable lots were without the model and texture and ALL of the ploppables were completely gone, but the *ghostlot* was still there, I had to run the bulldozer over the lot to build anything new on top of it first, although nothing was showing.
So here is what my downtown looked like when I entered, ...

pic1


I had no other choice of bulldozing everything that was missing something and it left me with this below.

Well, too bad, but I have to start all over again. Actually it ain't thaaaat bad because most of the roads rails etc and the general outlay was still intact. The only thing I can do now is to rebuild as close as it was before with the help of pictures that I took before. Of course, it will not be the same at 100% because most of my town were growables and I don't want to start using the plopbuilding cheat for everything, but the most important buildings that we got to see in the previous updates (and those belonging to the characters) will be back on their lot or let's say, very close to it as possible.
I also had to rebuild the RHW, because it was completely gone. So, this is what the town looks like  as of right now, after 1 hr play of bulldozing and repositioning some roads, rhw, rails, etc.

pic2


It will probably take a couple of weeks before I finish, I will then make a copy everytime I play in it. Oh yeah, I learned my lesson now! lol
Of course, updates will be uploaded every week the same, but nothing directly concerning the downtown area will be included, until it is finished for good.
Thanks for understanding this bad luck and hope you'll enjoy the other tiles while I continue to rebuild the downtown of Access.

See you soon with an update of Phlox County, near the big bridge and Slye's sawmill. (btw, Slye bought out all the land that burnt down a couple of years ago, can you imagine what plans he has in mind?

Fred

[mightygoose]

scary but at least it was only one city tile.

[RustyXL]

The update about the army base was great, the story just keeps getting more and more interesting. Sorry to hear about your issues with Downtown Access, hopefully it won't take too long to rebuild it.

[KoV Liberty]

Nice work Fred!  Maybe they are "harvesting" the gas in the giant tank eh? Guess we'll all just have to wait and see. Sorry to hear my suggestions didn't work. But, that's life eh? I have to go back and redo my whole "Alex" folder, I don't look forward to that this weekend. Not to mention re-install my SC4 (again for the ump-teenth time) and FSX.

Alex

[mrbisonm]

Nice work Fred!  Maybe they are "harvesting" the gas in the giant tank eh? Guess we'll all just have to wait and see. Sorry to hear my suggestions didn't work. But, that's life eh? I have to go back and redo my whole "Alex" folder, I don't look forward to that this weekend. Not to mention re-install my SC4 (again for the ump-teenth time) and FSX.

Alex

I just know what you feel like, good luck though
Thanks everyone for dropping in and let me know that you have been here.


Update 58  Friday, December 24th, 1965

                                      It was the day before Christmas:
                                                          - 1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas
                                                             Island, is discovered by James Cook.
                                                          - 1941 – World War II: Hong Kong falls to
                                                             the Japanese Imperial Army.
                                                          - 1968 – Apollo Program: The crew of
                                                            Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the
                                                            Moon, becoming the first humans to do
                                                            so.
                                                         


T' was the day before christmas and seven days before the end of the year 1965. Most of the people in Access Center, Grass Lake and Phlox are busy preparing the holiday's week. John Gabber stopped every work on the highway which was about to cross the massive Winding River again. Loggers, roadworkers, heavy machinery operators, architects, Surveyors etc , all got home for christmas.  So did many others, Slye closed down his sawmill for the week, Alex Puto left to Frampton to spend some time with his parents, so did Tom Kohler back to Beecherfalls leaving his bus buissness in the hands of his best friend who is also a driver for the Company and Johnny B.Bad to Reverantville, visiting his parents. Nethaniel Wellington has no time for the holidays relaxation, because his stores are running fulltime at the moment and why spend some lazy days at home when you can have a busy time and make lotsa money? Neth also has too many plans in his head at the moment, plans of largening his buissness. Riichirou Takahaschi went to Japan to spend the holiday season with his family, he took along his sister. Jordan Meaden is on school vacation and will spend his time with his father Jerry back in Vancouver at his Grand parents, maybe do some Bayfishing and skiing in those beautiful mountains. Guys Racsan will be in Grasslake with his father Tony who has become a little sick in the last weeks. His age doesn't help and ever his wife died last spring things are going downward. Michael Arven is in Bluebay for the holidays with his father, brother and his Nanny Lizzy. Harry Wormwood will spend time at home with his wife Maria and his one year old son Aldo, studying also the possibility to open a second little cardealership in evergrowing Phlox. Diarmuid MacGormain, now almost 18 years old is with his parents, Ristead and Finuala and also inviting his best friend, our little Billy (William Gabber), same age. They have in mind to go wander around the untouched nature nearby and do some serious biking. Steve Gibson unfortunetly will be busy transporting folks around the area with his beaverplane and Paul Donovan is again busy running after every girl to his likes he sees playing his playboy character with his 36 years. He always says he has a ball of a life....lol. Being busy with the church and the christmas messes, George and Patrick Westwood are all over the place preparing the churches both in Access and Phlox for the holy season. Michael Truex flew down to Tuscon, Arizona to his family members for the week. He hasn't seen any cactus and oilrigs for a long time. Unfortunetly Gregory Badger is on service at the army base in West River for the next two weeks, while Barby White enjoys the vacation at her Hotel in Access/ Valmore with her so precious guests.
All others are doing something also during this time of the spiritual season and everyone is in a good mood, seldom seen for some of them. (ehem)

In Access Center, the mayor decided to have the airport moved to another site. At the moment it is too close to the ever-growing town and instead of enlargen the airfield for some million of §'s as it was planned, might as well spend that money for a better reason and build a new airport where it will be able to grow with the region. Not a specific location has yet been decided on, but the north-east of the Access County near the Winding River should be a perfect choice. The area was aquainted by Access from Grasslake, now belonging officially to the Access County. Guy Racsan will re-buy the land of the airport that his father sold for peanuts to the municipality many years ago. He will use the land for his futur plans of his buissness expansions and also sell off smaller lots to different Companies who want to come to Access and start an industrial buissness of their own.

pic58.1


pic58.1A


pic58.1B


Just a short jump to Access Lake Valmore, where houses are lately build like cookies baked at the local bakery. Continuing like this there won't be a squarefoot of beach left for the public to access the lake border except for the small public beach near the highway. Everyone new to the region in the last three months is looking for a terrain on or near the lake, eversince the Government decided to unleash the area for residential zoning. And prices of the lots are somewhat ridiculous, only 200 § for half an acre of land. (approx ¼ ha), enough to build two homes on it.

pic58.2


We haven't really been to Phlox in the last year, besides showing the plans that our Riichirou Takahaschi made for the new residential development. Well, eversince a lot of work has been done there, some deforestation has begun, roads were laid, (not yet asphalted) and to our surprise quite a lot of lots have already been sold. Although Phlox has no major commercial center, nor much of industries yet, a lot of folks from the exterior have been buying out the terrains up for sale and some have already started building their homes or even finished and moved into them. Surprisingly about half of the new settlers in Phlox are from Access Center having received an excellent price offer for their homes and terrain back in Access. Access Center has become commercially very interesting for new buissnesses and investors and therefor all kinds of terrains are seeked out wherever commercial or industrial zoning is allowed by the municipality.
This is of course a welcomed opportunity for the folks from Phlox, growing their small village to a town hopefully in a short time and become the second officially town in the Winding River Region. Will there be a competition between the two towns later, we don't know yet and surely Mayor Bartlett is not worrying.

pic58.3


As we see on the picture below which shows a quarter of the Phlox county, much of it is still wild woodland without any roads nor access, but already a lot of the terrain is being put onto the market by the Lakestead Administration. Some exterior and serious investors are already more or less harrassing the farmers to sell their land. Some of them have accepted and others being here only since 4 or 5 years are willing to stand against to protect their property of being invaded by investors. The Simland's economy is at its highest ever seen. Prices of solid lands are rising with every month, especially here in this region where no natural conservation laws have yet been established or ruled for.
Phlox has become somewhat of a strategic location, where Highway 35 to frampton and Beecherfalls and highway 15 to the Capitol City of Lakestead meet. A few folks of Access and Phlox believe in a major population explosion within the next 5 years. An investor from Bluebay even told me secretely that he thinks of Phlox becoming the capitol of the region soon enough and will pass by Access in no time.
Phlox will soon need a mayor also, now still being administrated by Lakestead, but as the federal law states, if a municipality reaches 2000 population, it will automatically become independant.

pic58.4


As we can see here again as the Civil Engineer Riichirou Takahaschi planned, are the residential and commercial areas already given out for zoning. The Lakestead Administration who is still responsable for most of the region (not only for Phlox), is about to figure out where to enlargen already the residential zones and also to plan some industrial zones which have been asked for by several big companies from all over Simland.

pic58.5


In the next picture we see that the futur commercial center is already under construction, not much going on as expected by the engineers and architects, but at least it is a start. Most new commerces are still in hope to find a place to settle down in Access Center before thinking of coming here. Well, kinda natural to think so since Access has reached its 50,000 population mark last month and Phlox is still under 1,000 for the moment.

pic58.6


Finally here is a typical picture to show you that the farms are being invaded by residences in Phlox. Some small commerces and homes are already in use and more locations and lots are being constructed on. *Evolution, evolution is the Sim's futur* an old man on the streets of Access once said and it really looks like it is becoming a reality here in Phlox. It has everything to become a Mega City one day: access to the river, access to rails, flat and even land, a little wet and swampy at times, but that can be controlled, two highways leading to the three biggest cities in Simland and of cause the nature that surrounds the area which is tremendously beautiful and which has been drawing a lot of Sims to come and visit.
We will keep a closer eye on Phlox in the next few years.

pic58.7


Here is a picture of a closer view to see the new development in the Phlox County. All the lots that have been bulldozed and cleared have already been sold and are waiting for the construction. On the left the massive logging has begun and soon there also, lots will be sold.
By the way, there are two of our characters that have bought a terrain here lately, I don't know yet which lots yet but it is confirmed that Alex Puto and Diarmuid MacGormain's parents have bought a place for a home somewhere in this area. Alex loves the place he once said to Gabber and Diarmuid's father will be working in the area as for the Construction expenses and costs for the municipality as a Quantity Surveyor for the next 5 years, so he might as well settle down.
True, the area looks nice and peaceful, but what will it be in a couple of years?

pic58.8


And finally to end this update with some general news of Simland. In the last few weeks our bushpilot Steve Gibson has been quite busy flying around the unreachable part of the region to bring people to different places for surveying the land and the resources, especially such as oil and coal. There is Frampton's big Oil Company (Frampton Oil Ltd) who is intensively interested in the swampy area on the eastside of the region lately. (on the other side of the Stoke mountains. Did they find some oil there?

pic58.9


Regional Map for reference (Warning: detailed large png picture)

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/2638/1965windingrivervalleyn.png

That's it again, thanks for dropping in and leaving a note. I will be back later this week with the continuity of the highway 35 development and we also have a look at some of the properties by the famous and rich Rundi Sterling who seem to own a good part of the Stoke mountains (almost one third of the Phlox County). Then soon after we will go and see Grasslake which has established a new building and development restriction in their county, new to this region anyways.

Fred

[mightygoose]

another fin e update i particularly like the look of the ploppable use.

[canyonjumper]

Awesome updates Fred! The action in the Valley certainly is getting elevated with the military lying.

                         Your friend,
                                        Jordan

[MattyFo]

Love the region shot Fred!  I find that that half the challenge of this game is to create a nice region view, not only nice cities.  I admire how you have taken the time to plant dense forest and detail that huge region.  It truly makes for an astheticly pleasing region.