Farms North of Grasmere () My SC4 MD Scrapbook

[Vizoria]

Replies:

Catalyst: It takes at least ten times as long, but the organic look is well worth it.

Dantes: Thank you very much!

Girafe: Thanks, also I never really thought about that. I will consider it for a later date- submitting some of these pictures to the best picture competition.

Themistokles: Thanks a lot!

kbieniu7: It took a long time but I am very pleased with the results, practice makes perfect with MMPs. The greenhouses are FrankU's- http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27456-franku-dutch-farm-fields/.

FlyHigh: I don't have any plans for recording, I may have plans for publishing a couple of tutorials.

Nanami: Thank you!

manga rivotra: I'm glad you like it! MMP farms are the best, incredibly time-consuming but well worth it.

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Entry 33: WIP of Faverdale

As promised here is the next entry, the first pictures are the most recent ones of Faverdale, the rest are several days older. A few of the pictures you may already have seen, regardless this entry gathers together all the WIP and teaser pictures. Anyway enjoy a variety of countryside, farms and rural scenes!

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Developing Faverdale has been a lot of fun as I try new rural/agricultural toys. Now for this Monday it will be another entry from Annuq: suburbs, stadiums and Stax.

[Framly]

what a nice countryside - looks promissing

[belfastsocrates]

Fantastic, truly a master of MMP

I love the cattle holding area, that's magnificent!

[vortext]

Wish I had the patience to do such extensive mmp-ing. The cattle ranch is pretty awesome indeed but #9 is my favorite pic by far. The allotments, rail overpass and electric poles make it such a charming scene. Great work! 

[kbieniu7]

Yeah, indeed, no 7 and 9 has repeated  Number 2 is my favourite, you've manage to make a nicely looking wide river with those particular MMP water set (I had problems to make a river with them, that is wider than 1 tile)    However, the left bank covered with stone slabs on the first screen looks a bit artificial to me... I'm not sure if it's supposed to be natural or man-made layer?

And thank you for the link 

[kelis]

What an update !! Your skills with MMP...I have no words for that. I love the farm, it looks very realistic, great job !!

[Vizoria]

Replies:

Framley: Thank you.

belfastsocrates: Thanks! The cattle holding area came about because I wanted to break up the never-ending amount of fields.

vortext: I must admit that number 9 is my favourite picture of that entry, it hast to be something about the appearance of those two fields. I'm glad you liked it.

kbieniu7: The trickiest part of creating MMP rivers are the river banks. I went for a very minimal approach and largely eschewed the rocky/marshy approach that many players go for. Now that method works great for small, upper course rivers, but not for ones further downstream. As for the stone slabs they are a natural layer- limestone pavement.

kelis: Cheers! The MMPs take a lot of time, but the final result is always worth it.

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Entry 34: Welcome to Faverdale

The city tile of Faverdale has lots of countryside, a couple of settlements, swathes of farmland, a reservoir and other interesting features to. This entry quickly goes over the highlights before focusing on one particular area. Let's begin.

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Faverdale; everything which lies in the river Faver's catchment area.


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The river Faver runs through the Slomler Valley.


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Bassenthwaite reservoir.


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Bassenthwaite lake. On the east shore is situated the village of Grasmere.


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West of Bassenthwaite reservoir is the village of Embleton.


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About two miles south of Bassenthwaite reservoir is the small town of Threlkeld.


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Esk Pike. The eastern most pike to a chain of mountains which stretches westwards (leftwards).


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The Augill Fortress. Once an important fort many hundreds of years ago, built upon Augill Crag, it became a village and today a tourist attraction.


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Faverdale has many scenic roads. Be that the A66, an important trunk road through Faverdale.


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Or the much lesser used B5289.


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Another section of the B5289.


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There are numerous country lanes for the farmers to access their fields.


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This patchy, narrow rural lane is the only means of road access to get to the Augill Fortress.


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The focus of the entry is upon the east of Threlkeld.


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A grain mill to the centre right.


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Except for the harvest season, the silos are fill of grain, not local to the area, and other feed for livestock. The grain is imported via the railway which runs through Threlkeld.


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A row of housing for farm workers. The housing is full in the harvest season with temporary labour, in other times it may be leased to penny-pinching tourists wishing to stay in Threlkeld and who don't care much for the noisy surroundings.


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A gathering area for livestock. In this case a whole bunch of pigs are rounded up so as to eventually be turned into... pork cutlets.


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All garbage from Threlkeld and other nearby settlements is dumped here at this garbage depot.


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The garbage depot operates seven days of the week but only from 9am to 5pm. It is a noisy process shifting and compacting trash.


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Another picture of the gathering area.


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South of the grain mill there lies more fields.


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One of two petrol stations in Threlkeld.


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The petrol station is of course Bipin's petrol stations- http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/30878-bipins-gas-stations/. God bless Bipin and his grungy creations.


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Another look at those fields south of the grain mill.


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All fields were created with MMPs.


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To the west of the grain mill is the small River Derwent.


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It snakes around and in places travels through tunnels running below Threlkeld.


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The River Derwent is a tributary of the River Faver. Here the Derwent merges with the Faver.


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In the next entry the centre of Faverdale is explored.

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Though time-consuming, I really do enjoy this predominantly MMP approach to creating areas, MMPs really do give the player artistic freedom to create so many unique scenes both rural and urban.

[kbieniu7]

Well, you're doing a very good work with all those fields, forests, flora and rivers, It's really splendind. I swear, it is!
Photo no 8 is my favourite shot. I really looks...real! Good terrain shape - a moderate slope, covered with forest on the top. Even better man-made part - the castle is perfectly located and the paths are well-laid.

The river looks natural, good curves, banks and bed that change in few places - for example layers of mud on inner cornes. All the effects, that can be spotted in real rivers.
What I like too, is the fact, that you're thinking about the catchement - you do not concetrate on only one river, but make tributaries, appropiate terrain shape, a dam and a lake. That's what I try to do in my region and what adds a big kick of realism to SimCity for me 

What can I add - in my opinion you should use more smooth curves ond RHW, roads and streets, to make it even better

[compdude787]

As always, your updates are quite amazing!

[Mikey Knox]

Your Plugin Folder must be exploding 

[Themistokles]

Awesome! You're really good at choosing the right lot for the right place... and those fields are works of art

[Vizoria]

Replies:

kbieniu7: Thank you very much! I put in a lot of effort creating Faverdale, additionally I terraformed the terrain to create the general features I wanted. For the road in the wilderness, the B5289, I used a SAM gravel road and realised I couldn't drag smooth curves. Unfortunately I forgot about the smooth curves which I could have plopped in, this I will remedy, so thanks for pointing that out.

compdude787: Cheers!

Mikey Knox: It is exploding, last I checked my (uncompressed and non-datpacked) plugins folder was 7.7GB.

Themistokles: Thank you! With the MMP fields each one is different, even if I used the same combination of MMPs for some fields they still look subtly different thanks to the organic nature of MMPs. Also I can grid-bust with MMPs so this creates whole new possibilities which I am still exploring.

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Entry 35: Threlkeld

The tour of Threlkeld continues, today I show you the town's centre. This a highly detailed town, despite its small size, and I have packed in a lot!

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The area being toured today.


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About top right, and to the left of the petrol station, is the town hall.


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Threlkeld station.


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The next couple of pictures look at the meandering River Derwent which runs through, and in places under, Threlkeld.


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To the right is the Esper Trust care homes- the large lot with the snaking diagonal roads.


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It is actually a gated community for the elderly.


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A bike manufacturer in the centre right. Also adjacent to this building is a small locally run petrol station. The petrol station is one amazing diagonal filler lot!


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A bicycle training course.


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At the top is the Threlkeld Marsh.


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Though the lake is abundant, due to the marshy areas the name Threlkeld Marsh arose due to the locals calling it so.


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The populus trees look amazing, so I decided to create alternating columns of them.


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The populus trees come from the VIP Rural Pack on Simtropolis.

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Bonus:



A picture taken from Garforth, another city I am working on. This city is a testing ground for all the new mods I downloaded over the last several weeks.

[kbieniu7]

Another portion of birlliant photos! Your MMP is great, especially around water. The poplars looks very well indeed.
I really like, how you think about the function of every facility in this well-laid town 

[vortext]

Your MD is the epitome of putting custom content to good use! The way you blend in that large (Japanese? WMP?) gated community lot is brilliant, and the farm fields. . oh my goodness the farm fields. 

[Vizoria]

Replies:

kbieniu7: Thank you very much! I did pay some thought to the power utilities of Threlkeld. So I built two substations which originate from the hydroelectric dam and end up in the town.

vortext: The more custom content I download the more options I have, that's how I keep this MD fresh. I'm glad you're enjoying it. That gated community is a WMP lot.

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Entry 36: Esk Wood Holiday Camp and West Threlkeld

In this entry we start to venture outside of Threlkeld and a bit to the west. Enjoy more highly detailed and MMP laden goodness!

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The west of Threlkeld.


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A small community garden resides in the centre of the picture.


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Allotments.


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The pedestrian bridge over the railway is part of the WorkingMan Productions allotment set.


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A community vineyard.


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The terraces are council housing.


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The western most extent of Threlkeld contains a small industrial estate.


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Using Bipin's roundabouts.


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I love placing in big factories.


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This T-junction comprises part of the main route from the A66 into Threlkeld.


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Panning westwards now.


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Greenhouses and a petrol station.


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Here are some fields west of the industrial estate.


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The Esk Wood Holiday Camp.


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This holiday camp is placed at the foot of Esk Pike.


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There is a functioning farm and the main building is a small hotel to cater for a limited number of tourists.


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This track commences the start of the southern approach to Esk Pike.


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The entrance to the holiday camp.


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And a mosaic because I am feeling generous today.

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Thank you for the comments, they really keep me going and keep me inspired to try out new things with SC4. As for the next entry I will post it this Thursday.

[kbieniu7]

You'd better slow down a litte, I just need some time for my vocabulary to renew Awesome as well, so detailed town. Crosswalks, parking spaces, bike paths, gardens, small estates... speechless. Your industrial is indeed great-laid. I love the top of the mosaic with this silo and its sourrounding facilities making a one lot placed in the middle of farm fields.

However, is that railline ending right here? I think you should extend it further or at least bulid a station with some railyars. What is more, I don't think, if there would be so traffic to have two track line for such town, even with the industry?

At the end, let me ask, where did you get those paths and tents from screen 26?

[c.p.]

Wow, it looks like you've had a lot of great ideas and have really packed this city with them.  Really impressive 

[Themistokles]

Wonderful, absolutely wonderful! What strikes me most (apart from the splendid micromanagement of course) is how realistically laid out the town and surrounding countryside is. Everything flows logically into each other... and I've seen car manufacturers and car vendors in MD's, but never before a bicycle manufacturer

[Guest]

Great! The vegetation and the fields are really realistic. What are the paths that you often used in fields and meadows?

[Vizoria]

Replies:

kbieniu7: Thanks, I'm glad you are really enjoying these entries. I think you have a point about the two track line being a one track line, but then the warehouse's railway line would not fit in. Although I could do a STR to DTR transition, but that might look a little odd. Now the paths are Heblem paths- http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/29426-franku-heblem-sand-addon/, and the tents are of nbvc's- http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27417-tents/.

c.p.: Cheers! I definitely had new ideas to implement in Faverdale, one thing is for certain I love creating rural areas.

Themistokles:  You can thank paeng for the bicycle manufacturing lots.

000: Thank you! The paths are Heblem paths- see my comment to kbieniu7 for the link.

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Entry 37: The Augill Fortress and the Limestone Quarry

First off I'm going to say that I am not exactly pleased with the final result of the limestone quarry, I was using ionionion's limestone quarry BATs and these are tricky to integrate into the terrain. Still I gave it my best shot.

The 1st half of the entry starts with an abandoned limestone quarry which has suffered numerous landslides after dozens of years of disuse, the 2nd half focuses on the Augill Fortress. Finally there is the mother of all mosaics which covers a rather large area of Augill Forest.

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The Augill Fortress and the limestone quarry reside in the Augill Forest.


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The abandoned limestone quarry has been a tourist attraction for many years.


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The Augill Fortress is built upon a crag which bulges up in the south of the Augill Forest.


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The fortress, turned town, turned honey pot location


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Though the fortress is a tourist attraction an order of Christian monks live here.


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The carpark for the tourists.


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This country dirt track leads to the B5289.


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Like any country road it can be a real squeeze for two cars!

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This monster of a mosaic took me at least an hour to put together. Assembled from 31 pictures, I decided to create this to give a better sense of the paths which wind around the Augill Forest and how the quarry and fortress link up.