The Noro Cooperative

[noahclem]

Welcome to Noroway timmetje, Pat, and Donician! It's a pleasure to have you all here and a special honor to see first comments so thank you very much.

@ Donician - You wouldn't enjoy a video of me building--very, very slow and methodical and a good amount of bulldozing and redoing   I do hope to make videos at some point but it'd be cars traveling a route or the like, not building. I don't know exactly how the others build but I can tell you my style of commercial district building. I do use quite a bit of plopping (for diagonal areas that's a requirement) but it's necessary to have the appropriate commercial demand (type and quantity) for the buildings being plopped for them and their associated commutes to function properly (even though they won't normally dilapidate or anything if placed when there is not sufficient demand). I usually zone commercial areas and then bulldoze ones I don't think fit their area well and make historical the ones I like. I'm particularly likely to plop corner buildings and larger buildings. Remember that you can plop buildings that aren't in your landmark menu by using the extra cheats. Hope that helps 

Just to let you guys know where I'm at with the NORO project: It's been some time since I've done anything and I'm not sure when I'll be getting back to it. I was busy with my own MD, Siilijoki, for it's November OSITM and the month before preparing the new region from scratch, and RL work's kept me almost completely away from that for the last month. I should have time the next month for SC4 but am not sure if that will be focused building here or in Siilijoki or working on modding stuff.

[david1865]

Hello guys,

Are you still working on that project? I'm interested into joining your team.

Thank you and have a nice evening!

[MandelSoft]

This project has been in hiatus for quite a while, but I'm planning to pick it up again. Spent a few weeks in the USA and Panama and I got quite some fresh ideas from that trip. I think it's time to revive this project again

[compdude787]

This project has been in hiatus for quite a while, but I'm planning to pick it up again. Spent a few weeks in the USA and Panama and I got quite some fresh ideas from that trip. I think it's time to revive this project again

Good, I'm glad your trip to the US has given you some inspiration for this project. Aside from a couple of live streams you did a month ago, there hasn't been much happening in NORO over the past six months. Hopefully things will pick up again soon...

[david1865]

Ok can you tell me how i could join your co-op?

[APSMS]

Ok can you tell me how i could join your co-op?

Umm...perhaps you misunderstand the point of NORO. The project is by invitation only, and there are strict restrictions (logistically speaking) that must be abided by to avoid game syncing errors. Generally it is uncool to ask to join, except in cases where we know you and your work well, and you've shown yourself to be an upstanding member and good "internet friend".

I won't blame your eagerness, but you might want to rethink your approach.

[compdude787]

Ok can you tell me how i could join your co-op?

Umm...perhaps you misunderstand the point of NORO. The project is by invitation only, and there are strict restrictions (logistically speaking) that must be abided by to avoid game syncing errors. Generally it is uncool to ask to join, except in cases where we know you and your work well, and you've shown yourself to be an upstanding member and good "internet friend".

I won't blame your eagerness, but you might want to rethink your approach.

Many of the current members of NORO are seasoned SC4 players with many years' worth of experience with this game. You would have to demonstrate that you have quite a lot of experience with creating cities in SC4 and especially with the RHW. That has a big learning curve and it took me almost 5-6 months to create interchanges that would (maybe) be NORO quality.

[Durfsurn]

Will be great to see some more action on here soon. Ah, if only I could build cities like the masters here, then maybe I could join you guys 

[Sim.Rico]

This sounds like "The United SimNations!"  cool.

[packersfan]

Wow, so great.  Do you use a traffic generator?  Those scenes look so realistic.  I love the trees and natural feel of everything.

[MandelSoft]

People are wondering lately if NORO was still alive after all this time of silence. The answer is that it has progressed slowly, but it's not dead yet. We have quite some plans in store and we are planning to give you some more treats. I won't give any details yet; it will be a surprise 

Today we present something completely new in NORO: a large hub airport, Noropolis-Kerbin International Airport. The airport has 4 runways, realistically dimensioned: they are almost 4 kilometers long (a whole large city tile!) to allow heavy jets like the Airbus A380 or the Boeing 747 to take off. This does challenge the city planning a bit.

First, we had to find a large enough patch of flat landscape. We have found tile Ki to be fitting, since it's one of the flattest tiles in the region. So airport construction started there. Some additional terraforming did level out all the runways completely.

Second, we needed some terminal planning. The terminal shouldn't be too large. It may be an international airport, but it's not that huge. So we created a medium sized terminal that can serve quite a range of jets. Taxiways and parkings were constructed accordingly, as well as road access on the other side of the terminal:

Next up there was some industry and distribution services. Storage facilities and distribution facilities are close to the airport itself, to get the high value goods quickly from the airplanes on the road.

Near the airport, there is a business and hotel district. Business travelers can stay here and some companies host an office here to shorten the trip for business travelers. Most offices in this area are closely connected to the airport. There is even a convention center near the long term parking lots.

The airport connects to the motorway SR-73, which leads directly to the heart of Noropolis. However, that is still about 15 kilometers away from this point. Here you see the connection at the south side with an exit to the business district. SR-73 continues here on the outer roadways: the inner roadways will curve towards the airport departure and arrival terminals.

Further north, the SR-73 has to cross the runways of the airport. With some clever planning (and clever use of Project Symphony), the motorway crosses the runways here with a tunnel.

There is a little town nearby the airport, Kerbin. The airport is named after this town. It's quite near to the runways and the citizens of this town are not pleased by the noise pollution. There have been proposals to build sound walls next to the runways, but so far, these plans have not been realised. Kerbin recently decided to build a lot of roundabout crossings, something that breaks the trend in the rest of Noroway, which is still slightly reluctant towards roundabouts:

Finally, a complete overview of the tile to get a grasp of the full scale of the airport.

--- MOSAIC - CLICK TO ENLARGE ---

See you next time!

Best,
Maarten

[vester]

Good to see some live in Noro.

Nice update.


PS: You might want to correct the link so it points to the mosaic.

[MandelSoft]

PS: You might want to correct the link so it points to the mosaic.

Good catch! Fixed it

[Pioneer]

Great work, but I recommend using the 4 tile runways on BriPizza's website for more realism 

[compdude787]

Yaaaay, a new NORO update!!!! Well worth the wait!!!!

What a nice looking airport, well thought-out and everything just looks great! I always like how you use mosaics to provide sort of a bigger picture of the area so it's easier for us to see where everything is. One suggestion, in the town of Kerbin, change that double road roundabout to a OWR roundabout; it would look a lot better.

And finally, I just want to say that I think the stuff you've shown here on NORO represents some of the best SC4 creations on this entire site. I've looked through this whole thread countless times because I just can't get enough of all the stuff shown here. The interchanges, road layouts, city designs, plugin choices, and just the terrain of this region all make for a region with awesomeness levels of over 9000. The high standards shown here are always ones that I'm trying to strive towards achieving in my region.

[Gugu3]

Finally Noro is back!!
Excellent update as always guys!

[vortext]

Great to see Noro back in action. Nice airport and Kerbin is very nicely done too. 

[art128]

I'm going to be a bit harsh but honest. I don't like the airport and I'm going to tell you why.

Firstly, you never ever put skyscrapers next to the runway. It's way too hazardous. It's like you're waiting for a plane to crash into them. I know what you're going to say, it's not in the way of the runway etc, but still. Too dangerous to be done.

Same goes for the hangars and the FUEL TANKS right next to the taxiway. It's just waiting for a 747's wings to crash into them.

The terminal shape isn't ideal. The entrance is too small compared to the number of gates. You need to make a bigger entrance to the terminal buildings and a better shape for the satellites/concourses. Don't hesitate to ask your team or even the community for insights, we're here for that. I can help you a lot, I work on an international airport.

Still concerning the terminals, you don't fill all the gates. You need to have some empty and also, put some planes moving around the taxiways. It'll add lots of more realism and life into the airport.

Concerning the life in the airport, you forgot the airport roads. It's essential so that the technical vehicles can move around safely from one point to another. Being the baggage cars, bus, pushback tractors, refueling tanks, waste suction trucks, GPUs ect. Again, ask us, we can help you.

Also, where are the technical areas? You need to have some warehouse/hangars so you can repair the vehicles of the airport etc.

The control tower is a bit small for that kind of airport (32 gates and 4 runways.) (http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/20597-modular-atct-pack-1/ these are my favs)

Now onto the runways. I'll have to give you a good points for making a good markings concerning the 27L/R, 09L/R etc. A lot of people make mistakes here. You take an angle and add 180° to have the other side of the runway.

Though you did make mistakes on the rest of the markings. You need a touchdown zone, more spaced Fixed Distance marks.

And finally, the runway signaling isn't good. You have place the PALS great; but you forgot the ILS(Instrument landing system) glide slope antennas, localizer and PAPI.


Though I can understand the mistakes, not everyone has knowledge on airports. I was in that case before. I didn't know how to do the markins on the ground nor the signaling so I just ended up doing what I thought looked great. By posting in the show us your airports at ST, I was taught a lot of interesting things and because of it I gained some great knowledge about airports.
If you need to know something, or if you are in a dead end, don't hesitate to come and ask us the community about it.

[cmdp123789]

I like the overall of the update.. but I have to agree with art.. there are some parts that need improvement, of course, Im guessing you guys are not airport experts, and you did the best you could based on the limited knowledge we all have..

On the other hand, what grass did you use to fill the runways? I noticed it is the same grass as in some of your farms..

Keep it up, and I cant wait for those surprises!!

[MandelSoft]

<snip>

You can still see I'm a novice at building airports. Let me remind you that this is the last airport I built before this one. The realisim of this airport has improved quite a bit and I had a critical Noah watching over my shoulder. Still, I know things can be better.

Now, I had a hard time getting the access roads right, I had almost no idea how to properly set up a terminal, or taxiways and I can't understand half of what you say about PALS and ALS (this reflects how much I actually know about the subject ).

Still the critique is appreciated. Maybe someone else more knowledgeable than me may want to refit this airport...

Best,
Maarten