Urland - a (mostly) rural Coastline

[Nardo69]

Hello To All!

WOW!!!

It really feels great to be OSITM again - it just means that I haven't become too rusty during my long hiatus ...

As  I let you wait a bit I don't want to waste precious time in too much words but as allways before we start there's something left to do:

Replies and Answers

@mightygoose: Thanks for the compliment! As you'll see I spent a lot of time in the envirnment of the railway - hope you like it, too! 

@sebes: Thanks my friend! Those dikes do have something, don't they? I began working on them because I saw the recently so often along the Rhine and then I thought why not doing them in SC4, too? There's so much coasts but hardly a good river (I remember an excellent Dutch CJ over at ST a long way ago. Unfortunately I forgot its name  )
About the ground: That depends on where you are. AFAIK there's alot of clay in the Netherlands which completely changes its behaviour to the bad when it becomes too wet - regarding that ground you are perfectly right.
However I refer myself more to the upper Rhine valley between Basel and Bingen. Here the ground is mainly sand and gravel in depth up to 5000m. As long as you don't make tunnels or built within the ground water this ground is rather easy to build upon.
As for the underpass, well, it's not impossible. But you need to install rainwater pumps because you are below ground water level to get the rainwater out of time and they are more expensive to built as you need to get the water out of the construction site as well as they need a much higher amount of concrete in order not to be pressed oput of the ground by the ground water.

@art128 (1):  Thanks for the compliment my friend!

@aNdi: Thanks for the compliment my friend! I hope you like my Ploppable Water and use of RRP, too!

@threestooges:  Thanks for the compliment and the advice for the water mod. I was focussed on the ploppable water so bad that I couldn't research it by now.

@dedgren: Thanks for the compliment, Dave! I haven't do those drafts but I haven't forget them - see my notes about speed below ...   

@bat(1): Thanks for the compliment! There's a new "region view" but as you can see it hasn't developed too much since then ... 

@kwakelaar(1): Hello Gjermund! Yes, it took some time and Windows 7 to get SC4 running again ... unfortunately my building speed has slowed down, too ...

@Battlecat(1): So I hope I can go on with inspiring you!
About the dirt roads: I put them as maintenance roads for the power lines as well as a protection against overzoning the power lines itself as I use them as part of my lyout. I got that trick from frogface and saw this several times in Istanbul (within residential areas ...  )

@Nardo69: 

@Battlecat(2): You know it is with a lot of things. Using them isn't too difficult, but if you want to have a not too bad result ... I got used to it but I still needs hours for a small spot by plopping ants ... 
And speakling of inspiration: You'll notice an influence of Adara here!

@thundercrack83: HOWDEE!!!!

@art128(2): Glad you liked the teaser! Hope you'll like the update, too, as it shows a part of its surrounding!

@bat(2): Thanks!  And this time you haven't had to wait too long - at least in speaking of waiting for an Urland update!

@Battlecat(3): Thanks my friend!

@kwakelaar(1): Thanks my friend! Actually while you were posting I was working on the update!

A word: As you already saw I finally started  working with the ploppable water (thanks to dedgren who infected me with the virus) and RRP (thanks to Chris Adams and all of those great MDs who showed me how to use it like e.g. Tales at Tea Time or Adara.
However both together had a major drawback: they changed my speed from asthmatic turtle to rheumatic slug as you can see on the region view ... 

Oh well ..

OK, let's go in medias res:

Update 3: Grafenaubach, Part 1


Let's start with the region view (hasn't grown too much) to make clear where we are.


An overview of the north-eastern part of Grafenaubach (na, not the whole map. There's more to see there, though).
Grafenaubach is a medium-sized village located in a small river valley in a German low mountain range (Mittelgebirge). It is separated into twa halfs by the river "Breitenbach" (= Wide Creek). During the erection of the local railway line some meander had been cut to make place for the railway line and station.


The railway station consists of a main track with a siding and a freight station. The railway line is a small and not very important local railway line.


Here you can see the regulated Breitenbach.
I am not too happy with PW here as the water level is way higher than I intended. Let's just say there's a bit flood here ...


Behind the entry signal the village ends.


One remaining meander. The area is protected because a lot of birds and small animals live there.


On the other side there's a small meadow. Even though it has a lot of decent grass and herbs it can only used some weeks a year because it is a bizt swampy and turns rather fast into a big mud.


A small roads leeds to another farm. I recently found out about Simfox's trees and I must say they look gorgeaus ...

That's it for today!

Have fun!


Bernhard 

[Battlecat]

Nice update!  I like how the river there seems to have been forced into a straighter than normal channel by development over the years.  The tension between industrial areas and farmland is quite cool and very realistic. 

Looks to me like you're really getting the hang of the plopable water rivers to me.  The greenspace on the protected meander bend and that little meadow look fantastic!  Keep up the great work,

[sebes]

WOW  WOW  WOW 

What an excellent update again Bernard. And what a great way to start this Of Special Interest This Month episode in Urland's development.

A very well deserved place for a MD like this!

[bat]

That are beautiful pictures! Great start for the OSITM!

[joelyboy911]

These pictures are lovely.

[tooheys]

Bernhard, congratulations my friend, good to see you back in the spotlight

And in typical Nardo69 style you have started off the month with a top quality update.

TPW and the new rail mod, really looking forward to see how you combine the two. No pressure, but I'm sure it will be spectacular.

Cheers

Dave

PS: It was great to see the pic of you and your son on the train. I can just imagine you pointing out the pantographs on the trains going the other way, while your son points at the moo cows out the other window.  By the way, have you started planning his train set, I'm sure it would be the envy of kids and big kids around the world.

[Neofita]

Congratulation for OSITM
   
I see a lot of work in your MD.
I like rural area and your photos.
Great attention to details.

Sory for my english

[antimonycat]

Congrats on the OSITM! I love your use of the ploppable water and foliage along the riverbanks.

[kbieniu7]

Congrats 

I really like your region view, and this small river 

[Earth quake]

Nice update.

The river are just perfect and a really good integration with your city.
And congrulations for your OSITM.

Vivien

[Nardo69]

Hello To All!

Update No. 4: Power to the People ...  (Grafenauberg Part 2)

.... because in Simcity nothing works without power.

There are a lot of power plants available but the cleanest and best one has disappeared since Sc2K: The Hydro Power Plant.

Pegasus once made a hydro plant, a high pressure power plant to be exact with a (rather) large gravity dam. Nice, but Simcity in alpine areas is an art for masters. I don't do alpine and I haven't seen a lot of people who can do alpine in Sc4. Even for low range mountain (which are typical for Germany) that wall is hat to use because valleys in low range mountain are usually not that high but wider.

Edit: Colyn also made a gravity wall - Thanks Gjermund for reminding me. It uses PEG's gravity wall as a dependancy and as hydro power plant type it is also a high pressure power plant with a gravity wall. Because of this I haven't used at all and forgot it - Sorry Colyn ....

Brief: I haven't used that power plant since 2005 ...

Recently Pegasus made a second one - a low pressure - or medium pressure power plant.
Still no classic river hydro plant like Iffezheim but way more common than the gravity wall.

And I thnk if I want to see Iffezheim (German Linkie - English Linkie) in SC4 I'll eventually have to win the battle with gmax ...


Well, even though I am still mad about Pegasus due his behaviour at the Prop Pox Crisis I had to have that Baby. And I must say - with some minor drawbacks - rather useful (but still far away from Iffezheim ...)

So I created a nice river on a nice map for a location of that medium size hydro plant and worked a river with ploppable water around:


Pic 4.01

The power plant is located a bit outside of a small village (which is subject to another update). Upstream is a not too big pond.


Pic 4.02

The ponded river. I would have preferred to use a rather deep PW here but I had only JeroniJs standard 4m PW at hand - well, he couldn't know that a civil engineer wanted to create such a ponded river with differend water depths ...


Pic 4.03

The downstream side of the hydroplant. Here you can see the three drawbacks IMHO of that modell:

1. It is designed for rather steep flanges like in high moountains. If you place it on river shores with "normal" SC4 flanges there's a "whole" on the left and the right. You can see it clearly on the left side at the wall.

2. The power plant is overflown by the water. Normally the water passes below through the turbines, any water that passes like this is wasted energy! This happens only during flood when the flow rate of the river is higher than the maximum throughput of the power plant. With a stable flow rate and rain data analysis this shouldn't happen too often per year ...

3. Ploppable water behind the power plant doesn't show. Dunno why.

But I can live with these drawbacks - I cannot do better and until now Pegasus is the only one I know who ever did a hydro power plant ...


Pic 4.04

The view downstreams reveals the height difference. Unless used in Maxis water (which does look ridiculous IMHO) you really should take care that the height difference is visible!


Pic 4.05

What's a Power Plant without substation and power lines? Right - ridiculous!



In this direction upstream the "Breitenbach" from the last update will flow into this river. BTW I haven't give it a name ... should do that ASAP. Suggestions Anyone?



And whith another view of the pond I'll close OSITM update Nr. 2.

Answers and Replies later - it's 3.00 am at the moment, I needed more time for this update than I thought.

Have fun!

Bernhard 

[kwakelaar]

Hello Bernhard
Interesting update with the hydro electric dam, by the way I know Colyn also has made a dam which can be found on the LEX.
I see you enjoy the possibilities with all the new flora, fences etc from Chris Addams. You are certainly putting them to good use. Also the ploppable water from Jeronij is a big improvement in my opinion from Pegasus waterways. Trees from Simfox look good, but the colours are too greyish for my taste. I don't think they mix very well with C.P's flora, but again my personal opinion.
Both your railway station from the last update and the dam in this one is thoroughly done, I always enjoy how you detail your updates both in pictures and text. Your explanations from a technical point of view are very logical. Comes as a second nature I guess

[Nardo69]

Replies and Answers

Update 3 - Grafenaubach Part 1

@Battlecat: Thanks for the compliment! 
Yes, the regulated river really looks great especially from the distance. Without the railway line and the necessary river regulations the river wouldn't be logicl at all. Working out details is one thing and very important but the whole thing istelf must be logical, too ...

sebes: Thank you very much my friend!  I hope you'll like this railway - free update too, haven't done this for a looong time .... 

bat: Thanks for the compliment! I do hope I can go on like this!

joelyboy911: Thanks for the complimet!

tooheys: Hi Dave! Well, no railway in this update - hope you're not too mad with me ..
The small one did enjoy his first train ride. In two weeks he and his mom will hopefully come to Germany for a week - I hate it to be separated to them - let's see how he likes the German trains ..
For his wooden railway set - the one I always wanted but never got - at the moment he's to small but that'll change fast I think ... 

Neofita: Thanks for the compliment and congratulation for your well deserved OSITM! 

antimonycat: Thanks for the compliment!

kbieniu7: Thanks for the compliment!
I must say I do look a bit after the region view - as I said before Detail and Overview should work together!

Earth quake: Thanks for the compliment!
I had to say I invested lots of time in them but the result was worth it!

Update No. 4: Power to the People (Grafenauberg Part 2)

Kwakelaar: Thanks for the compliment my friend!   
Well, with the technical nots, you know I studied civil engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, which was founded by Johann Gottfried Tulla (German Linkie - Englisch Linkie). It's one of the oldest and best places I know for studying civil engineering as you are really thorougly educated in all fields in civil engineering there.
Water, hydrolgy etc. weren't my favourite stuff at that time and I really faught in the exams but now so many years later I like it. Maybe if I had SC4 then instead of SC2K/SC3K ... 
As for Colyn's Hydro Plant: You are right - but it is the same type as Pegasus first one because of this iI never used and completely forgot. Apologies to Colyn.
Maybe I'll fnd a suitable place in the future?

[bat]

Great work on the dam! It's looking really nice! Nice pictures!

[sebes]

Railway-free and YET am drooling over my keyboard. I never downloaded any hydro-dam because frankly I could not imagine they would ever look good in game. But you prove to me that the opposite is true: what a beautiful environment you created.

[rooker1]

Hello Bernhard,
Many apologies, but this has been my first chance to really sit down and have a good look at everything.  Huge congratulations on making it into the OSITM.  A very well deserve move for sure.  Your ability to create these rural cityscapes is truly breath taking and this past update is of no exception.  Your work on the damn area is really good.  The two different levels of plop water must have been very difficult to terraform. 
I can tell already that this is going to be a super month and I'll be following your MD very closely.

Robin 

[Tomas Neto]

Your MD is great! Really you create fantastic rural scenes here!!!

[Battlecat]

Beautiful work with that dam!  Nice job of integrating it into the local area as well, it looks great!

[danielcote]

Nice job very realistic too!   

[Nexis4Jersey]

cool update