Erastide

[RickD]

It is fun watching you build the town from scratch. Keep it up.

[Gayowulf]

Benoit [Ol.S / Benoit]:
Why, thank you! I've always liked reading MDs that show the process, so of course I want to do the same thing in my own! Glad you like it!

wallasey:
Welcome to Erastide! I'm glad you like the development - looking back on it (these screens are over a year and a half old!) and seeing how much my style has changed, I'm kind of embarassed by them, to be honest.

Elias [Terring7]:
I do love me some terraces! Erat (which is actually almost done at this point!) is almost entirely terraced. Lately I've been experimenting with some other styles, but don't expect the terraces to go away - I love them too much!
Thanks for stopping by!

Raphael [RickD]:
I will! Every town starts from scratch, so why not show it, eh? Thanks for visiting; come back any time!



IT'S ALIIIIVE!

Um. I've been... nonexistant. Sorry about that. Complications arose, ensued, were overcome.
Specifically, these complications:

• I've been insanely busy. I just finished my student teaching (in math and computer science) this semester, so this was my last year at college (I'm gradumacated now!). As you might imagine, it was a little hectic.
• Erat, as a large city tile, was becoming too full for my computer to handle easily so playing just wasn't all that much fun any more. I kind of stopped playing it until I upgraded my computer - which made absolutely no difference whatsoever. (I really wish SC4 was multi-threaded...) Ah well.
• You can tell it's been a while because I had to actually look up the date of the last post... July 2011. Right. During July / August of last year I was going through some personal issues and didn't really do much SC4-ing. Well, that's in the past now! Onward!

Enough of that; let's get to the update!

Now let me think. Back in the dark ages of ancient history when I last posted, what were we up to?  Oh, yes!  We pumped up the jobs count with some heavy industry. Today's job involves trains. And houses. Specifically, here:


Let's get to work!


As usual, terraforming to get a nice flat space to build on.


We've got a bit of (eventually) medium-density residential on the south side, right by the station.

...wait, what station?

...


Why, this one, of course!

An overview of the zoning and pathways before we let it pop:


---

Ready?

---


BAM!

...okay, that was a little overexcited. It's really not that special. Just a typical neighborhood. Boring.

We need something (at least marginally) interesting in this update. And I think I know just the ticket...



...



And what goes here, you ask?


EXPLOSIONS!

...er, wait...


If you guessed "farms", you get a gold star!

Let's let 'em pop, shall we?


Well, here's the first attempt. Some of them are okay, but others... BOOM!


No, too repetitive...


That's better.


This one needs fixing, too.


There we go. But that jagged edge is simply awful!


Better? Ish? Kind of?  At least it's not as obvious. (Disclaimer from the future: I would like to point out that at this time I did not have either the RRP or SPAM installed. I do now, so this type of problem is much less severe these days!)

Well, that's pretty much a wrap for this update. Just an overview left:


Oh, why not. Here's a teaser from something a little more... recent. Ish.


Until next time, then, folks. Which ought to be less of a wait this time. Take care!

[Flatron]

splendid!
I really enjoyed reading the first page!!

[rooker1]

Great to see you back.  Very nice update.

Robin

[Battlecat]

Welcome back!  Lovely work as always.  Looks like you haven't lost your touch. 

[art128]

Great update. Good work with the terraces.

[Gayowulf]

Flatron
Welcome to Erastide! Glad you liked it. See you around!

Robin [rooker1]
Nice to see you! And thanks for rescuing Erastide from the depths of "inactive" for me.

Battlecat
Thanks so much! It's always great to hear from you!

art128
Welcome! Yeah, if you like terraces, this is the place to be... pretty much all of my cities are 100% terraced.



Welcome back, dear friends!  See, I told you it's alive again! On today's agenda, we've got some serious farming action to do.  Old MacDonald had a farm, you know...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xOygQlLqFk

Er. Ahem. Enough of that, on to the citying! Here's where we'll be working today:




Ugh, those Maxis rural sidewalks! I promise that by this point in time I've done something about that!

Also, some things that are not farms. Like houses. And a police station. Those are useful sometimes.




Here's the area, ready to launch:



...and... GO!


Ugh, how I hate the Pedriana Plant. This one's for the bulldozer.


OH, NO YOU DON'T!


THERE we go. Much more cozy!

And here's the progress so far...


...which just leaves us with this little strip to take care of:



...More farms and a museum! Ah, what could be better? So serene. So pastoral. So... blah. Let it grow!


Meh. Bulldozer.


That's better! Also I really like tucking some houses into the fields like this. I think it makes it look more authentic, like an actual family's small plot of land.
Maybe Ol' MacDonald really did have a farm!

We'll finish with an overview of everything we've done today:


See you next time, when we'll tackle that lovely little strip of coastline just to the south of all this. As always, comments, questions, suggestions, etc. are welcome!

Take care!

[art128]

art128
Welcome! Yeah, if you like terraces, this is the place to be... pretty much all of my cities are 100% terraced.

I like terraces when they are well made.  And with this update, I can only confirm that yours are truly among the best!

Beautiful update, every pictures looked really great, and the areas were all well made.

If you don't like those ugly Pedriana plants, you should install This mod that reduce the number of them growing. I know there's one that delete them, but I can't find it right now. I'll try to dig it out of where it hides.

-Arthur 

[sc-4]

Just found your MD , and it's a good one ! 

[weixc812]

I love your industry design 
Can't wait to see more

[Gayowulf]

Arthur [art128] -
I'm honored! Thank you so much for all the encouragement!

The two mods you're thinking of are in the same download (just different versions). Actually I found and installed it immediately after this incident! Thanks anyway, though!

sc-4 -
Thanks for your comment, and welcome to Erastide! Enjoy your stay!

weixc812 -
Glad you like it! I think industry is often overlooked, but there's no reason they can't be works of art as well. Hope to see you back!





Howdy, folks, and welcome back to Erastide! On today's agenda: Giving seagulls a place to live! Er, well, installing a waterfront boardwalk, at least.

Here's the freshly terraformed sector:



I wonder what'll go here?


This area caused me a whole lot of agony. I'll spare you the pain, and just show you the final terraforming.


Not perfect, but better than what I had before *shudder*.


All nicely terraformed, and ready to go!



And here's where I thought it'd be a good idea to have a seawall of sorts to block the waves. Clever, no?

No.

But, that didn't turn out exactly as I intended. So far, so good, but...


Still doesn't look too bad from here...


Good gracious heavens, no, no, No, NO, NO!
That's hideous! Deformed! Downright UGLY! And it certainly won't do here in Erastide. Let's see, what can we do to fix this?


Attempt No. 1: Jeronij's seawalls.


Attempt No. 2: Scattered rocks.

Ugh. It still looks awful. At this point, though, it's just going to have to stay that way for a while "until I think of something better to do with it". As of now (remembering how far behind these updates are from where I'm playing) I have lots of rocks & boulders from the Rural Renewal Project, so I'll fix it up later. It'll be part of the last round of detailing when I finally polish off Erat.


And as for the rest of it, what else but PEG's Old Wooden Waterfront and Seaport Village! LINKIE


Continuing the canals from the farms above...


A nice little plaza never goes amiss!

The whole area, ready to grow!


DERP ALERT:
It appears I forgot to take a screenshot of the area after it developed. Mea culpa. Instead, I'm proud to present Erastide's very first mosaic!






Not much to brag about, but it's the best we've got at the moment.

See you next time!

[RickD]

Nice little harbor. Very well done. 

[Gayowulf]

RickD -
Thanks! I'm a little proud of it myself.




Welcome back, dear readers! Today will be a very big update, I'm warning you now! See, we're so far behind in the updates from where I'm actually playing that I want to push through some of these earlier updates (also, there's a noticeable increase in the quality of my city-building skills since I started this, and I want to get to that stuff!) so for the next several updates, expect a faster pace, maybe a little less detail, and way more ground being covered. Let me know what you think of this approach.

Anyway, to get us started, let's take a look at what that little commercial area looks like nowadays:


Ugh, was this really before I got the zebra crossing mod!?

It's getting there! Sooner or later I'm hoping to see some wall-to-wall development here. But, at this time, I don't think I had any in my plugins folder!

And here's where we'll be working today. Looks as though the terraforming crew has already started work for the day!


NEEDS MOAR FLAT SPACES!

So, I had this brilliant plan that I would make some one-way roads connecting to the avenue in a nice, smooth transition. Only one problem:


...It doesn't connect!

Meh. Easily solved.


'Scuse me. Just moving a road here. Nothing to see.


THERE we go!

A small suburb just north of the commercial area will fit the bill nicely:


Take special note of how horribly the blazing white sidewalks clash with... everything.

And a little plaza to fill that otherwise awkward triangle created by the avenue. Notice how awesome it would look if the avenue's sidewalks were actually picking up on the whole "medium and high-density zoning" part.


Yep. Those diagonal jaggies sure are beautiful.

Heading back down toward the water, we need an access road for this side of the harbor.


Terraforming for an AVE-2 down to the coastline.


Connecting it up...


Completely useless parallel route? You betcha!

A little extension of the seaside village from the other side.


Those little houses have a gorgeous view...

See that little bit way over on the right? The blank square with nothing in it? It was giving me... problems. Nowadays, I know how to fix it, but at the time I had no idea how. That'll be another tidbit for finalizing the city tile.


While we were building, a suburb popped up!

Here's a little overview of the area. Seems I missed a little and clipped off that brand-new suburb we just built... oops... you can see it peeking out at the top right.


Hum, still a few bare spots to fill in...


Let's start with a hospital! We need one of those.


A little plaza...


...and a little church!


Slowly but surely, this little area is starting to look almost good...

And to wind out this update, a little teaser...


Catch you later, folks!

[mave94]

I like your MD. I like the style of developing it bit by bit. Those terraces are well done.

-Matthijs

[Flatron]

I'm so impressed
I'm glad it's only SC4, because otherwise I'd have to chose between Erastide and Siilijoki, where to put up my tents

[RickD]

Interesting developments again. If Sim City was real: driving to work, suddenly realising the road has been 16 meters to left the day before. 

[noahclem]

Nice updates    I like your style of thoroughly explaining the developments as they occur in your city and your style of play itself is quite unique. The way you deal with slopes in particular is really cool.

Look forward to more 

[rooker1]

Interesting updates and I love how you show us all your attempts until you get it just right.

Robin

[Terring7]

Brilliant constructions

[vortext]

Hey why haven't I seen your MD up untill now?! It's really neat how you show the construction and fun to read too!