Urland - a (mostly) rural Coastline

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic image Nardo, great work!!! 
I'm so sorry about your problems my friend!!!  And...

... welcome to the classics !!! 

[tooheys]

Bernhard my friend, it's an honour to move your MD into the Classics. A classic it has always been and now Urland is where it belongs.

I really do hope you can get you PC issues sorted, it just wouldn't be same without Urland on the books.

Congratulations mate 

Dave

[RickD]

Congratulations on making it into Classics. It is well deserved.

[Nardo69]

Hello To All!

"Got to write a classic..."

... are the first words of a classic love song from the early eighties, performed by Adrian Gurvitz. Well, seems to be I don't have to write a classic anymore  (just got to continue but that's another problem ...  )

I do have a key to the solution of my problems here but couldn't use it - my short one keeps his daddy busy and in addition to this I try to start and run my own business at the moment ... Anyway - the long awaited update is here (promised at christmas, delivered at easter, oh boy, I do beat myself in bad habits ... )

Update Nr. 14: Hainingen, Part II: Tips & Tricks



A very early shot. So obvious but also so often forgotten: think about what you want to have BEFORE you go into detailing. Not the usual type of a village but there are exceptions to almost all rules.
You can see the old village road running through the village passing the church and how the village grew towards the railway line which also attracted the main employer, the local industry. Small railway lines and factories (I-D or I-M but NOT I-HT!) often formed a kind of symbiosis: one kept the other alive and the death of one way too often caused the death of the other, too.

I-HT in general  is not suitable for such small village industrial areas at the railway lines, they usually have less to transport and most of the time rely to trucks. That's why you find so much of them on the green field not far away from a Autobahn (Highway).


Detailing is almost finished. I like to use the old Gascooker R$ Rowhouses as they are kind of universal.
Please compare the length of the RR station with the length of the village - they are almost the same. Saw this quite some time IRL...


A small green area between industry and farms looks nice and is also a reference to the game mechanics - the fields just don't dilapate so fast. Keep in mind however that each plopped tree is a possible trigger for the change to I-HT so don't forget to mark your I-D resp. I-M historic BEFORE you into detailing.
Using one of Jestarr's plopable factories that work as a freight station isn't a bad idea at all even in rural areas - think about what I said before about the symbiosis!


A closeup to the rails and the industry.
Small factories as they grow when you start a new region / unconnected map look really unrealistic IMHO. But to get the bigger stage 3's you need a little bit of region wide population so never forget to have at least one big(ger) town on your map!
Then start zoning some starter lots with the Ctrl-key (for Industrial Anchor) and around them some free (for Industrial Mech and Out) otherwise you might get a problem that industry doesn't grow even though you have quite some zoned but empty tiles!

Not also the small recycling station nestled in between?

Let's have a look at the level crossing: Before and after it there's a puzzle piece without base texture however the level crossingis a standard Maxis railway pieces WITH textures. Bad? Not at all - the grey road has sidewalks before and after the crossing and a crossing is also suitable for pedestrians ...


Let's go to the signals. This would be a logical setup as trains will enter and leave the staion only on these two tracks - the other sidings are only used for shunting maneuvers. However, with some exceptions in the SW of Germany it is not. Mechanical semaphores have to be placed right or above the track they are assigned to (it is a bit different with the new dayligh signals but since they are not available yet I don't discuss this here!). Collections of signals for all tracks outisde the tracks like they are / have been used in Great Britain are strictly forbidden in Germany since 1937!


Two possible situations. The upper would be for singe track (with the straight track on the left side!) and the lower for double tracked lines. Remember to put them before the level crossing in order to protect it!


Entry signals should be placed not too close to the station itself. A good compromise would be at the end of the long Str->DTR converter puzzle piece as you can see on the (missing) base textures. If you use to of these puzzle pieces at each station head don't forget that their straight track should lead to the same side!
If trains are running through the station frequently entry signals usually have pre exit signs like this one.


One of those drawback in Sc4 are the sawtooths ion diagonals. Even though you made some nice diagonal transparent lots you still have the problem that the puzzle pieces don't have base textures while the standart network pieces do have. Any solution for one kind wouldn't work for the other. Except if you use the STR ...


Unlike other networks - includig DTR! - you can find straight and diagonal puzzle pieces for the STR! So instead of get angry at all these sawtooths just make your STR railway as usual, place your smooth curves etc and afterwards plop the straight / diagonal puzzle pieces over the standard STR network - and voila, no more distracting base structur. It works even on neighbour connections! 
However the transitions is still a bit sharp ...


... bu for things like this we have the RRP!  . Green Rye and Big Yellow Flowers are perfect for such edges!


And with some trees etc. everything looks way better, too.
Quite a lot of railways have a sometimes wide stripe on each side which is now full with (rather young) trees. During the time of the coal-eating steam locos these stripe have to be kept clear of trees etc. because the steam locos could emit sparks that led to fires. After the era of steam has finished no one took care about them so nature claimed its terrain back.


From a different angle.
On these stripe you should change the density of the trees, it just looks better.


BTW the combination of Green Rye and Big Yellow Flowers does work on other field edges, too!


Don't worry about those curvy spaces at the smooth curves, they are the perfect area for small woods to give some live into your landscape!
Underneath these trees are mainly standard farm fields and transparent diagonal filler lots as seen in 14.09-14.11, the rest is done with MM things...


.. which don't have to be flora necessarily! 
I just love that close up!


Keep in mind that some lots do allow to plop MM trees on them. You might have noticed in 14.02. Here I used Simfox's bushes and pine trees to create some kind of hedges with them (regarding the pine trees maybe the only useful function as they are too small, but more about this in a future update).


The same situation from another angle.
See those poplars trees? Ok, the models are a tad old and there are better ones but what I want to show you is how they lined up. Such lines of poplars are eye catchers and markers in the landscape and as such form a characteristic part of it. Usually you find them along dirt roads or (old) roads.

OK, that's it for today. Replies and Answers later, it's already 2:25 am here. Hope you enjoyed my Tips&Tricks sections, again sorry for the delay.



Aunt Edith just reminded me that there is something left to do.
I always wanted to do a mosaic but didn't get there. Still didn't but here is a bigger picture of Hainingen, approximate 2000*2000 pixel, maybe you like it:



It is less than 1 MB so it shouldn't load to long!


Have fun!


Bernhard 

[kwakelaar]

Thanks a lot for this great tutorial, although I get completely lost in the train signal systems you are referring to
I will need to come back and read again when I get into the period of trains and railways.
The village is a very nice creation and the detailing looks excellent.

[penguin007]

Very realistic railway and village from the master!!

Will

[bat]

Welcome to the classics, Nardo69! And the updates before are also great! Nice city...

[Nardo69]

Some late Answers and Replies ...

@penguin007(1): Thanks for the compliment!

@Battlecat: Thanks for the compliment!
Actually one let to the other; if I had been able to turn the tower by 45 degree instead of 90 degree there wouldn't be such a steep wall which directly made me doing that winding grey street ... 

@kwakelaar(1): Well, I have a solution to my problems but my life is really kind of a mess at the moment ... Glad you like the last tower. I think I'll make another update out of it!

@WC_EEND: Well, see it like this: Without Windows 7 beta and RC I wouldn't have been able to resume Urland last year, and Microsoft didn't want money for none of them so there is really no need to complain.
And yes, it's of course a BSOD.
However Hope's not gone, I just need to sort out all the things of my life at the moment ...
PS: You're banned!  

@metarvo: Tried it. I don't know what it is though. Let's see what the future brings - and untill that I have some stuff backed up to show ... especially around that last tower!
PS: You're banned!  

@Andreas: Thanks!

@Yan077: Thanks for the compliment!
And I thinkt there will be one..

@mightygoose: Well, think about what Sc4 Rushhour looked without, how Urland looked almost 4 years ago and how it looks loke at the moment. It's all this great stuff noone would've thought of some years ago that keeps the game alive! 

@Tomas Neto: Thanks for the compliment!
And: Thanks for the final push into the "Classics" 

@tooheys: Digging out an old joke I'd say the master followed finally the apprentice ... 
BTW is it really that long ago that holiday's over?

@RickD: Danke schön!

@Nardo69: Shuddup! :p

@kwakelaar(1): Well,I think I'll have to do a special chapter for the signals anyway ...
Glad yoz like it!

@penguin007(1): Thanks for the compliment!

@bat:: Thank You very much! I need some time, though ... as always ... 

[Battlecat]

Fantastic update there!  Some really cool thoughts on details and dealing with diagonals!  That town is turning out great!

[art128]

A very great update there, Bernhard !

It's always great to see such an attention to details in the railways. Yours (railways) are, I have no doubt, the best I have seen there. Your tips are always very useful. Excellent work with the diagonal STR and its sawtooths. It's a good way of hiding these you found there.

Arthur.

[Fabian93]

Fantastic Update, yet again
I really like those diagonal farm field along the railway

Your thoughts about diagonal networks made me think about the possibility of plopable diagonal road/street pieces or even straight road/street pieces.
Thus we could simply plop a transparent Lot next to a road without having the sidewalk come up - that would be great for rural roads

Keep up the fantastic work and welcome to the Classics
Fabian

[Nardo69]

OK.

You must be strong now. Really strong. Hope you have the heart pills and the nitro spray in reach.

Because this is an update, a regular one; no teaser, no construction site report. And all this within a week after the last one.

I hope I haven't shocked you too much. To have a little time to recover, here are the Answers And Replies first:

@Battlecat: Thanks for the compliment! Glad to give you some inspiration back! 

@art128: Thanks for the compliment! I discovered that method by accident (like so much great discoveries ...  ) and it turned out really useful!

@Fabian93 : Thanks for the compliment!
Well, I had the same thoughts after discovering this. I should propose this in the NAM forums I guess.

OK, take a last deep breath of air, relax, here it is:

Update Nr. 15: All Along the Watchtower

is a classic rock song by Jimi Hendrix which was in the charts when Papa Nardo was in the making ...   

OK, we don't have a watchtower here but a radio tower but I just couldn't resist the quote ...   

I think you know this very well, too: You discover this one special BAT on the LEX / SimCityKurier / STEX wherever. Beautifully modelled, no question, very nice, extra ordinary - there's no doubt about that but there's one big question / problem: Where by Jove should you ever find a suitable place for it?

Burg Eltz is one of those, another one is my SFBT comrade ArckenbergJoe's Frohnau Radiotower. Extraordinary RL building, superb modelled and on the right place a great eyecatcher - given you had that special right place! 

Consequentially the tower didn't made its way into my plugin folder. Until recently I had to deal with that ridge:



I was playing around a bit with Pegasus' and Girafe's (from ToutSimcity) pine trees to get a reall looking pine tree forest. Then I wanted to stretch the pine trees to the end of the map, but just planting trees on the ridge would have been to ... boring. I wanted something special there. Knowing Burg Eltz from RL I wouldn't plop it there. I could have built a small castle with Kwakelaar's city walls but didn't wanted to here. (I have another castle in the doing where I stuck without something useful at all on another map) . In addition to this the ridge is crossing the map quite exactly on a 45 degree angle.

So what? Maybe a radio or TV tower? Hmmm. Close to  Grünwettersbach (near Kalrsruhe in Gemany) there is such a tower located in the green; the famous TV Tower of Stuttgart (AFAIK the first made of concrete worldwide) is to be found in a forested area.

But somehow I didn't wanted to have such a concrete monster there. So - what about the other possibilities? Which leads us to the BAT mentioned at the beginning of the update:



Winning five rounds in the Simforum Picture Competition it became my fifth entry at the SFBW Hall Of fame. However it failed in the 3rd round of the SC4D Picture Competion.. Oh well ...

You can see clearly that the less steep slope is used for farming untill its top whereas the steep slope is planted with pine trees - more exactly: with a mixture of c.p. and Girafe pine trees.



The same situation seen from the valley "behind" the ridge. This perspective shows perfect how steep and short the forrested slope really is. And if you ever planted steep slopes befre you know that this can be rather frustrating due to a leck of density.

Around the radio tower I used Pegasus' Pine Tree Cluster. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages.



The radio tower with the retaining wall and the small street winding down the ridge.

If I had been able to turn the lot by 45 degree no retaining walls would have been necesary at all. So I used the corner with the steepo slopes for the road down the ridge.

You can see Pegasus Pine Tree Clusters in the background of the picture. They are very handy to plant a lot of pine trees rather fast on rather big areas. Their disadvantages are that they blend and mix rather bad with other trees and may look a bit uniform - mother nature just has some poers of ten more modells than any Sc4 BATter ...



Another view on the serpentines. In the foreground again Peg's pine tree cluster with a transition to c.p. / Girafe. Did I ever told you that I love larch trees - both IRL and ingame?



This leads us to the pine trees of c.p. and Girafe. I once showd that only with c.p.s different pine trees you cannot achieve a forest with a suitable density (at least not for my taste). Girafe's pine trees are a bit like the Simfox trees: wondeful modells that can be placed rather dense but planted too dense everythings get lost in a mash of pixels.
However the combination of the two of them will lead to the most beautiful pine tree forest at the moment - just have a look at all these shades of green - but is rather time consuming hence not suitable for the very big areas where Peg's are clearly in advantage.



Just for its beauty: view with the radio tower into the valley "behind" the ridge.



Ans as a last picture a dirt road almost disappeared in the flora in a c.p. / Girafe pine tree forest.

That's it for today, Hope that you survived untill here - it was the second regular update within a week at last ...  


Have fun!

Bernhard 

[Battlecat]

Another very cool update.  Nice to have a closer look at that forest it's turned out fantastic!  Those larch trees really are gorgeous as are many of the other trees you're using!

[canyonjumper]

The radio tower really works in that spot! Great work!

         -Jordan

[art128]

Great update there, Bernhard ! That radio mast looks really great there !

That area is very well done and is very realistic like we can see in real life. It's sure if it was possible to turn the lot by 45 degrees, but unfortunately, SC4 is made up from a gird of 90° angles.. 

Arthur. 

[kwakelaar]

Nice work on the tower and the surroundings, you are almost turning me around for the use of both kinds of pine trees as well as Simfox's trees.

[penguin007]

Nice update as usaul I really like your forests at the moment

Will

[RickD]

The radio tower looks great on that hill. I wouldn't have tried this. I had thought it would look odd due to the large flat lot. But you disguised it very well with the trees. I had not thought much about density of the woods before but now I can see the difference and it looks much more realistic than what my treecontroller does.

[Nexis4Jersey]

nice updates , i like tree covered hills and plains.

[Nardo69]

Some people asked me why I still use the funtional farms with their sometimes really huge lots instead of making all farms as eyecandy with the ploppable farm fields and the RRP. The answer is easy: I prefer my maps being functional rather than pure eyecandy, but from time to time ... 

As (mostly) always replies and answers before the update:

@Battlecat: Thanks for the compliment my friend!
The larch tree's different shade of green always add to the overall picture both ingame and IRL, isn't it?

@canyonjumper: Thanks for the compliment!

@art128: Definately. And the art of Sc4 is finding good looking realistic workarounds to let us forget the grid ...

@kwakelaar: Well, this update is a bit older so no Girafe and Pegasus. However I mixed some trees, too today, so the tempting isn't completely over ...  

@penguin007: Thanks! They had been worse before, the last months were really improving their quality  - and even more the required time to plant them ... 

@RickD: Honestly: Before I started doing that ridge I didn't know at all where and how to put that tower ... 
Well, these forest are way more realistic - however way more time consuming, too - as any tree controller.

@Nexis4Jersey:  Thanks for the compliment!


Update Nr. 16: Real Eyecandy


Again a small overview at the beginning. The small canalized creek is the Sittersbach that flows into the qualch on the neighbour map. Sounds familiar for you? Should be - it was my entrant at the Simforum Dorfwettbewerb (village competition) and I presented it here (lower part of the page) to you.

Last time we had been on the right sight of the Sittersbach, this time we go to the other side, in an older area that I laid out before I used Girafe's and Pegasus' Pine trees.


The "real" farm. Grew with green Maxis field that has been spiced up a little bit with the RRP. Unfortunately the lot did have a bad impact on my terraforming so I hid the worst part with some bushes and trees.


A closup that needs some more finetuning at the kanals. These are SimGoobers new Irrigation channels. The new ones feature IMHO better colours and diagonal pieces which enriches and simnplifies a rural layouter's life quite a lot! 


Real farm field and Eyecandy field
Die Übersicht mit dem Übergang zu dem Eyecandy - Feld.
The forest is a mixed forest with deciduous trees and pine trees from c.p., Simfox and JeroniJ; I didn't know Girafe's pinetrees at that time
BTW with the right view you can solve the saw tooth porblem, too ... 


Going a big backward we can enjoy the eyecandy field. Unfortunately the cows are missing in this zoom level ...


... which can bee seen in this Zoom level in all their golry.
The wind power plants are situated in a clearing on top of the hills; as you can see deers and hunters like that clearance, too ... 
When visiting my home last time I saw that single wind power plants are rather rare; instead 2, mostly three of them were combined to groups with the ones on the outside rotated by 30-45 degree. I tried to do this, too, but with only orthogonal lots it's rather hard to do ...


I really love that small shed! You can so easily built it somewhere in your landscape - even at the ede of the map!...


I know some sheds for horses at the edge of the wood that look like this one!
(If I were Battlecat I would have blended in a nice neighbour map - unfortonately ol' Papa Nardo can't do this art....)


That's it for today. Nothing new but some (hopefully) nice pictures from my pool. I hope you liked it anyway.

Have fun!

Bernhard