Evergem, The Netherlands

[ejc]

nice old looking city you've got there 

great use of BATs


E

[Ennedi]

It's a real pleasure to visit your MD, capo!

Your story is very interesting and it is written really good - history can be boring for many people, and you described it in a fascinating way. You use simple words and the sense of this story is clearly visible, also for non-English speakers as me - and it's a real feat, all the greater as you are non-English speaker too!
Of course, the most important part of your story are pictures.
Drawings you present at the beginning make an excellent introduction, and your SC4 pictures are fantastic!

All buildings are placed very carefully, and - I suppose - properly from the historical poin of view . Anyway, they look very picturesquely.
These low stone walls look perfect. I like also two other elements:
- the drain canal - I know it smelled really bad , but on your pictures it is another beautiful element! Especially with these little bridges 
- your use of trees and grass - they not only look very natural and harmonize with houses, but you also use them (in a very clever way) to hide almost all edges of various textures, and it's one of main reasons everything look so natural.

And these pictures are a great illustration of your story.
If every teacher would be able to present his knowledge in such an interesting way, going to school would be a great pleasure and playing time for everybody  (unfortunately it isn't true in many cases... )

[jayo]

good stuff  Love the rural feel

[Danthe]

Hello Capo,

it's wodefull MD, I like your stories. Old town is great, feeling ghost of past years it's possible

EDIT: and congrats for Awards

[capo]

REPLIES:

Schulmanator: Well if it's more you want, more thou shall have..Thanks for your enthousiasm for this MD

patfirefghtr: My friend welcome back, I'm glad you like what you see...and I hope you will like this update as well.

emilin: I'm humbled with your kind words. Trust me, it is SC4..however I must admit that everything you see is plopped. The game makes it impossible to grow buildings without the appearing of cars unfortunately. Sometimes it's frustrating to spend many hours plopping and then have to destroy it all again because I jumped forward 500 years

ejc: Thanks for your visit, I'm glad you like what you see

Ennedi: Thanks my friend! Looks like you uncovered my secret  Yes I feel the grass (and the rest of plopable flora) is an excellent way to cover up the edges of textures, it also works great with jrj's plopable water. You can't believe how much a compliment your comment is, you are making me smile. I'm actually considering to start teaching history at an high school, I've been educated to be a primary school teacher so first it's back to school for me! But your comment is a confirmation of my plans, I thank you!

jayo: Thanks for your visit, I'm glad you like it.

Danthe: Some parts of the village are considered to be haunted and when it's a bit foggy, the residents claim to see witte wieven floating. As you might have guessed these are concentrated pieces of fog but back in those days, people thought it to be ghosts. Thanks for your kind words!



UPDATE 3.5: De Polder

Dependencies:
The list of mods/bats has become too large to post. Any question of where to find something specific will be answered with a link, don't worry. With that said....

Welcome back to Biroud and I bring you good news! Biroud has officially received stadsrechten* and can now officially call itself a city. With this title, merchants from all over the region have found their way to Biroud, making the city grow very fast. Unfortunately, as you know, Biroud is located on an island so it's getting harder and harder to feed the growing population. Let's have a look at Biroud and the few farms it has now:

With the booming population the demand for a bigger church has now become to big to ignore, work has started on the design on Biroud's new church! But first.....

At one day, one of Biroud's scientists (De Wijzen**) had an idea that would change the Dutch landscape for good. Biroud legend is that this scientist, named Jannes, was wandering the streets of Biroud when a old wooden house collapsed. He watched the rubble falling in a water pool and he noticed something. The rocks, wood and clay put together with some pressure created a wall where water could not penetrate through. A miniature dyke (levee) you might say, if this can be done on a small scale..why not on a bigger scale? This way they could connect all the small islands surrounding Biroud, if they can pump out the water in between somehow...Biroud can gain huge parts of new fertile land, the soil here is clay...indeed very fertile. Immediately Jannes rushed to his fellow scientists, they have a lot of work ahead of them. Let's jump forward a few decades and let's see what they come up with:

This landscape is really changing, here you see the region's first dykes. It looks that they are almost done with creating the dykes to enclose the land.I'm sorry everybody,  I didn't expect them to work this hard, let's quickly zoom in, I'm hoping we get to see how they actually built these dykes:

The labourers collected pieces of rock from everywhere they could find. They threw all these rocks together in one big pile to create a dyke foundation. Unfortunately if you would leave it like this, the sea would wash away the rocks in time. To enforce the dyke they created mats made of willow branches, they are flexible and strong..and most important: they keep the rocks where they are. To fill the gaps they used a lot of sand and clay. These early dykes with a mixture of wood, stone and clay were pretty strong and they protected everybody from their eternal enemy: the sea. Well this was stage one, they enclosed a portion of land. However it's still filled with water. You can wait until it has dried out however Biroud really can't wait that long. And besides you can compare this polder*** with a giant bath-tub, any big rain shower will fill the tub..destroying the harvest. Let's see what they come up with:

Have a look at the edge of this polder, it's hard to miss the four windmills since I put giant circles around them. Sorry for that, but it's the easiest way to explain this. The windmills with the red circles around them are responsible for pumping away the water in the polder. The people of Biroud created ditches from these windmills towards the sea, however with this you encounter your next problem: how do you get the water over the dykes? The polder is below sea-level (not possible in SC4 so you'll just have to imagine that), so they have to find a way to pump this water up. That's where the windmills in the white circles come in, they are responsible for pumping the water up a level, all of this was done with wind-power alone and judging the size of the white circled windmills, it took quite a lot of power to do this.

Here you see all the water from the polder being transported into the sea, a nice detail is that already farms and a new small community are forming. It seems the agricultural demand was even bigger than anticipated in Biroud.

Wit this new invention, Biroud is developing like it never developed before:

You can see that one polder is already filled with farms with the other one filling up fast, more small communities outside the city walls have been founded, I guess they trust on Biroud's city guard to protect them. Also five extra windmills have been built with long straight ditches to the sea to get rid of excess (ground)water. But please also have a look at the centre of Biroud, I'll zoom in so you can see:

Two new buildings have been added to Biroud's skyline. Ofcourse the new "Vrouwe Maria kerk****" wich stands strong rising above the city walls. It attracts churchgoers from far outside of Biroud. Next to the Vrouwe Maria Kerk you can see "Het Gedachtenhuis*****", it's a gift to Biroud's scientists for giving Biroud fertile farm polders.

*     stadsrechten: please check previous update
**   De Wijzen: The wise ones
*** polder: A polder is a low-lying tract of land .... ......, enclosed by embankments known as dikes (source: wikipedia)
****   Vrouwe Maria Kerk: Lady Mary Church
***** Het Gedachtenhuis: The Thoughthouse


Thanks for your time, I hope you like it.

[sebes]

I hope you like it.

How could we not, capo, how could we not.... 

Amazing, how you are able to recreate the creation of our nation   And you do it so realistic and natural! It's absolutely phenomenous how you teach us all how dykes were built centuries ago. A applaud for that, big !

[douwe]

'T begynt hwat frysk te lyken en ja, hwat hollansk ek. 'Och, Dy mooie moolen'*

you have done an amazing job here  The details are astounding.  Keep up the good work.  Pity there is no "Fryske buorkerij"** for SC4.

*It's starting to look somewhat Frisian, and yes, somewhat Dutch too. 'Oh Those beautiful windmills.'
** Frisian Farm - 



Traditional Frisian Farms have the house at the front connected to the barn behind with the haymow under the roof.

Also kudos for the Award.

Douwe.

[Schulmanator]

Fabulous work! Bring on more more more! 

[Khiyana]

For me it's the most interesting cj ever! You combine beatiful pictures with great lessons of (dutch) history! 

[thundercrack83]

The amount of detail you put into each update is outstanding, my friend! I missed a few of them, but I'm now caught up and I'm ready to continue following along here! Keep up the great work!

[kwakelaar]

A really great update, very well presented and I enjoyed reading your story about the origins of the Dutch dykes. I love the pictures with the overview over the island before and after the creation of the polder.

[Shadow Assassin]

I like the history behind the dykes.

The city is indeed developing well. And I wonder how Biroud will look in 500 or so years... I suppose we better wait, hmm?

[paroch]

Capo,

Amazing update you've given us here.  I've been checking all week and when I saw you change your signature pic I knew something special was on its way!

I have to say that as well as
(a) being VERY good to look at,
(b) being amazed by your technical skills, and
(c) wondering where this can go next
I am just finding this so very very interesting.  I used to work for a Dutch company, love Amsterdam and admire Dutch football, so I've always had a soft spot for Holland.  You giving us a free history lesson on the creation of the Netherlands is just adding to the overall experience.  Your MD should go on display in the Groningen town museum!

All the pics are great, with number 6 the city overview being my favourite, just because it gives the sense of what has been achieved for a piece of the North Sea.

Thank you Capo for publishing this MD.

Paul

[bat]

Wonderful work on that island! It looks very nice!

[Serkanner]

Excellent update yet again. Great pictures, fantastic story ... it seems real history stories are perhaps even more interesting then made up stories?    ... for this history buff, it is indeed.

[jayo]

  Great update!More development is gd

[capo]

Thanks for all the wonderfull comments everybody, a full list of personal replies will be added with the next update!


I have one more picture to place, it has Biroud's very first footballpitch in it. The name of the stadium is 'De Stal' (the stable), I guess it's no surprise where this field got it's name from. Even though the modern version of the football game wasn't played in medieval times, I just had to participate in paroch his football tournament in his wonderfull MD <- linkie. However it is known that already in the Middle Ages football was played, many rules were the same however the game was a lot rougher back in those days. Good agreements have been made with the West End Tournament director and we trust all games will be played without spilling too much blood


As you can see the city of Biroud is really growing thanks to the excess of food now available by the polders. Already the city walls cover an area that is too small to protect everybody inside, but with all this extra income selling the excess agricultural products and fish from the small harbour..I'm sure Biroud can expand very soon. In my previous update I already introduced the Vrouwe Maria Kerk and Het Gedachtenhuis. In this picture you see some new important buildings that have been built with Biroud's latest economic boost.

In the centre you see De Handelstoren (the trade tower) standing proud with the Red, White and Blue...the Dutch flag. Originally the Dutch flag was orange-white-blue..but for some reason still unknown the orange changed to red. Biroud legend tells us that the reason of this colour-change lies in Biroud. Legend is that with every football game played at De Stal the people of Biroud would all dress in orange, creating the most insane hats and shirts to support their team. This was considered to be an insult to Biroud's status and Biroud's Noblemen grew ashamed of their hometown. To prevent future orange madness they changed the team colours to green and white and changed the national flag to red, white and blue. Ha! That will prevent future orange madness for sure!!!

In the bottom you find Het Handelshuis (the trade house, the vanderaap building). Inside and in front of this building a market takes place each day. Space is also a problem here, when Biroud expands they should consider placing a real big market place.

Het Gedachtenhuis, de Vrouwe Mara Kerk, De Handelstoren and Het Handelshuis are all important landmarks contributing to Biroud's commercial demand. These buildings are built so strong that I'm sure they will still be around in hundreds of years (hint, hint).



I have no idea yet where the next update will bring us, thanks again everybody for your supporting comments!

[bat]

Looking great that picture (of the "stadium").

[sebes]

Man, your city is the best!!! So this is where the oranjegekte (orange-madness) finds its roots. Nice 

You lay the base of a very strong community here, and I am looking forward to read about the comming centuries. I'll stay tuned for the next 400 years or so   

[Strechnitz]

Aargh I have missed soo much!

These past updates are terrific! your story combined with your choice of buildings is truly phenomenal!


BTW how much does a skybox on the stable cost per season?

Strechnitz.