Urland - a (mostly) rural Coastline

[Nardo69]

Hello to All!

I am bit late today, sorry, but an especially clever exemplar of the tribe which is called Turks thought it would be a good idea to look after our apartment houses main electric line.  As a result of this we had no electricity for hours ... 

Today's Friday, Day 5 of my OSITM 4in1 special week, and after lost of rural pictures we will discover the meaning of "(mostly) rural"!

But before:

@RickD: Thanks for the compliment my friend!
Don't worry, after the weekend you don't need to hurry to comment any more ... 

@rooker1: Thank you my friend! Hope you like my humble efforts to try to do something urban, too ...

@threestooges: Yes, I knew!  The green cars are part of rivit's "German 1950's trains" (which are more 60s/70 style . But both the 023 and 042 ate IMHO the most beautiful European style steam engine / train automata.

@kodlovag: Thanks for the compliment my friend!
Well, you know, after the first special with only trains I thought it's better not to let your eye candy sugar level exploe in your blood  

@art128: Glad you liked them. They were all grown, so no one should say the game is without any sense of humour ... 

Now without further ados:

OSITM Special 5: Highrise! Or: The deeper meaning of "(mostly) rural"!

Sometimes even me need some changes after having plopped some 50 million trees on my rural maps.Then I like to do some (dirty  ) industry or breed out some highrises. In such highrise area my focus is on a working traffic infrastucture with a lot mass transits, more or less all the game + NAM offers me (except monorail, I prefer the (G)HSR ).



Overview. What started as a midrise worker quarter at the lower edge of the map soon developed into a highrise city, the most dense in my region to be exactly.



The other part of Grünwinkel. There's some industry on the other side of the river, too.



I showed this situatiion in "Show us your NAM jigsaw puzzles" - but without the buildings. Again - all grown! 



I was inspired by the Istanbul metro station "Merter" which is situated at such a 45 degree angel to the city highway. The bripizza station don't fit perfectyl to the diagonal avenue but I haven't found a better alternative. That does not mean that I don't like this station it's just the pillar on the avenue.



And as you can see it works fine. 



The overall setup. There are a lot of blind fields next to the Maxis diagonal avenue onramp that hinders me to do the developement I wanted to do on these empty spots ... 



On the other side of the highway I stayed elevated with the tram and used even elRail over road (behind these prentiss towers, there are 11 of them on this map  ) before I crossed the heavy rail and continued elevated untill the river bridge which is partially seen in 5.03.



This time I made even more parks than I usually do ...



But then again it's these situation I like in urban situation when I start puzzling with the NAM... Possible in an urban setup, not suitable at all for a small village ...



And on this map I had a lot of joy developing a working network for pedestrians. While this setup here is pure eyecandy made out of JeroniJs white tarmac trails ...



... I used here marast's footpaths and the NAM pedestrian Plazas to create a real working additional pedestrian network. The standart parks and recreational lot could be easily added to get a nice park there.



And I really was satisfied with the results as you can see!



I sat hours in the LE to create a nice plaza here. In the end I all deleted my LE works and used Khiyana's car park, two marast plazas, a stature plaza and the NAM pedestrian plazas .



I like that shot. And now you know my HSR / Monorail automata skin, too ...



A railway station between highrises. It isn't used too much as the neighbour map is still empty and most internal traffic is GLR traffic.



A closeup.



For the lovers of industrial shots!



And another one.

That's it for today. Please don't be too disappointed, urban developement isn't my main focus and this map is rater young and still kind of a construction site.

Tomorrow we will visit another construction site. Untill then

Have fun! See you tomorrow!

Bernhard 

[Battlecat]

That's a pretty good looking urban area!  Interesting to see a highly developed area from you!

[Girafe]

Nice urban area Nardo 

[Nardo69]

Hello to All!

Day 6 of my OSITM 4in1 Special week. Today I'll show a construction site of my latest project. Rather ambitious, maybe the last reason to eventually master the BAT for me ... oh well ...

But before we start as always:

@battlecat: Well, sometimes a little change may bring you (back) some motivation and inspiration in/to your main area ... Glad you liked it! 

@Girafe: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

OSITM Constuction Site Report: A de-fortified town

France is rather well known for his fortifications - not only due to its master engineer Vauban who was a master in designing fortifications as well as breaking through them (you may say that one was the reason for the other). He also laid the basics for modern soil mechanics. Quite a lot of them have survived the course of time, even the citadel of Verdun though or because it wasn't involved in the hell of 1916. His most well known would be Neuf-Brisach a planned city within a fortification built by Vauban, regarded as a ideal town of iots time.
If you ever have the chance of going there for a day you really should visit the fortifications. Take some time and wear good comfortably shoes - you'll need both but it's worth it!

The ring of fortification Vauban built at the Frenmch borders kept France in relative piece for a long time. It was Napoleon Bonaparte with his tactic of ignoring the fortifications and battles in the free areas who should decrease the value of this defense ring combined with the vast developement of artillerie in the 19th century but eventually turning useless at the rise of modern warfare.

There are discussions which war was the first "modern war" - The American Civil War 1861-65 or the war between France and Germany 1870/71. Regarding modern infantry and the use of rifles it was the American Civil War. But both Confederated as well as Union troups used old fashioned straight shooting cannons that were completely outdated by the huge ballistic artillerie used in the war of 1870/71. As an example you can take Neuf Brisach: it was shot down by German ballistic artillery within days. The straight shooting artillery of the civil war wouldn't have been able to do this. But then again compared with the Old World there haven't been really strong fortifications in North America at that time.

Not so much well known are the German fortifications. Be it cause or consequence wh knows. But a lot of German towns ans small towns have been fortified - Köln, Koblenz, Mainz, Mannheim, Ulm, Würzburg, Ingolstadt, Landau, Germersheim, Bellheim, Philippsburg, Rastatt (where the German Revolution was beaten down in 1849), Breisach, just to name a few of them. Most of the fortifications have gone, quite some due to the restrictions of the treaty of Versailles, but you can still guess the walls and trenches on the city maps.



My inspirations for the town which beginnings I'll show today are a mixture of Mannheim, Germersheim and Neuf-Brisach. The town is / was limited by a octagonal wall / trench. Inside it is separated in quadrats with a big central plaza (like Neuf Brisach and - much bigger - Mannheim.  The wall itself was strengthened by eight bastions which have partially disappeared but can be still guessed in the road layout.
The central plaza is located where the two main city axis / roads met in the middle  of the octagon. I showd the system in the animation above.



Three bastions that have survived not all - partially (wet trenches) and completely. However: Since I did not modelled the glacis the bastion is too high - the walls are always below ground / wall level in order to be protected against direct cannon hits.



An almost disappeared bastion. Most fortificated exploded right after the fortification walls were given up in the second half of the 19th century. Here you can still see the wet trenches as a kanal surround a park (which is still to be built ...  )



Two bastions. While the bastions in the middle of the sides of the octagon weren't so difficult the bastions at the corners of the octagon are a problem - actually they needed to be designed as FAR + FAC 



Depending on the availability of sufficient water trenches are either dry or (at least temporarily) wet. Strassbourg has wet trenches as the Île runs through them. In Landau and Germersheim the local creek could be ponded to flood the trenches in case of defending the town.
I decided to have wet trenches all the time.



There is / should be / was a gate on the place where you can see the GLR station - something like the Weissenburger Tor in Germersheim. Like other buildings that were necessary for a fortification - magazins, armoury and caserns frtifictaion gates are completely non existent in SC4 based my knowledge ...
(I checked and downloaded Yoder's BATs but they are too representative, not militarily simple enough for my need)



Sometimes you need to be very creative if you want to have  diagonals and trams ...



The overview from the last pic. You can see two bastion - one more or less complete one hidden in the street layout.



I said it before - the kanals used as trenches weren't deep enough for my taste. So I tried out budsybud's highway walls in combination with different kanal sets. Unfortunately there are no real extenders in SG kanal set. So I tried both PEG's CSK2 and the new kanals of CallagrafX.



Lokks rather good bur ...
PEG'S will disappear - no diagonals .



CallagrafX' set has neither extenders nor diagonals but I confess: I fell in love with that water texture.
But either someone does me a favour and creates the missing pieces or ... well, I did see the BAT behind the corner with that diabolical grin meaning "Eventually I will get even Papa Nardo" ... 



D'oh! - of course this is OC 11 ... 
Well, unless I can solve the above probleme I'll have some fun in W2W. BTW: If its not diagonal it's not plopped!  



Well, the traffic query said Tram traffic is high ...  I changed it later to tram-on-road though. 



Something I don't see very often are the great smooth curvers of the elevated heavy rail. Why?



Outside the old walls I am going to do a big RR station. Some of its facilities are already plopped.



An overview of the already finished railway facilities.



No, no bastion this time - just a diagonal highway

That's it for today. This one is my most ambitious project, I'm not sure if it will be necessary to blow ip that city to restart or not at the moment. And there's that problem with the BAT ... 

Hopy you liked it. Tomorrow's the last day of my OSITM week. See you then!

Have fun!

Bernhard 

[canyonjumper]

Wow. Amazing. Bernhard, your urban scenes are very well done! I've been able to grab some new ideas for my own cities from these last two updates

                       Your friend,
                                      Jordan

[threestooges]

At first, I thought I was in the wrong MD. When the page loaded, it was in the middle of the update just prior to this one. I was greeted with an image of several high rises. It wasn't until I had looked at the title style of the image I knew I was in the right place. You do high density as well as you do rural it seems. I also like your choices for how you worked in the rails. The tram-in-road picture (CS 12) is a very interesting shot, and possibly a fair explanation of why they seemed to go by the wayside around here several decades ago. As efficient as they may be on their own, they still have to negotiate other traffic (which is partly what they're there to help you avoid). Good shot though. I'm also looking forward toward seeing more of the railyard of CS14. There was only one question I had though. In 5.12, with the station and the passing track, shouldn't the station be on the siding so that trains passing through wouldn't have to slow down for the turn (or was it just an issue of space where this was the better option)? Very nice work in these pas few updates Bernhard.
-Matt

[travismking]

  I think i enjoy your urban development more than the rural, even though your obviously known for rural and railways, your just amazing at everything I think :p

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic urban area, my friend!!! Great work!!!

[Nardo69]

Hello to All!

Today's the last day of my OSITM week. And in the final update we go back to the roots forests so that Matt won't have to worry if he's in the right MD or not ...!

But as always:

@canyonjumper: Thanks for the compliment!

@threestooges: Hehe, I would guess you weren't the only one ...   
Good point with 5.12. The platforms in the main tracks are ok but I could / should have used the smooth curved switches for the siding. Let's see if I can correct his without damaging the concrete valley too much... 

@travismking: Thanks for the compliment!

@Tomas Neto: Thanks for the compliment!

And now without further A-dos:

OSITM Special part 6: Back to the forests!

You might know Emmelshausen already as I showed pictures of it before, one of it made it even into the SFBW Hall of Fame! 



Overview of the northeastern corner of the map. To the left the Mühlbach and the Landesstraße (state road) are leaving to Schwarzritters Mühlem to left a road connecrts to Hochrot.
The ridge isn't completed by now...



... but so you can see how I lay dirt tracks in the woods.



The Mühlbach Valley. To the left you can see an early trials only with c.p. trees. You can see why I didn't continued this on the right!



The village of Emmelshausen. In order to gain height the railway passes the village in a wide 180° degree curve.



The small lake was made after a fire which almost couldn't have been distinguished because of a lack of water. Thanks to this fire water pond this danger was banned. However the now increased ground water level destabilized the hill so that a massive reatining was necessary in order to save the factories between the railway line and the pond. Otherwise the hole area might have gone to the valles ...



The Mühlbach valley above Emmelshausen.  While the railway and the creek are sharing the small valley the road went up the hill and accesses the small hamlet Steinrod.



This is the picture that won 5 rounds in the SFBW (SimForum Picture Competition) and eventually went into the Hall of Fame.
The props at the level crossing are missing due to some harddisk problems. (by now I could restore most of them)



The other side of the level crossing. The props have reappeared as you can see!


So, everything has to come to its end. And to close this weeks I prepared some closeups for you:



The Mühlbach inside Emmelshausen.



As you can see I used quite some stones due to the topography.



I placed church and cemetery at a high point at the edge of the village.



I just loved that view into the Mühlbach valley.



And finally, a small fireworks to celebrate the birthday of SC4Devotion:



That's it. That was my OSITM 4in1 Special week, the next update will be in the "normal rhythm" ... 

I hope you had as much fun as I had. But now I need to play the game in order to have enough picture for the next update ...

Untill then:

Have fun!

Bernhard 

[mightygoose]

a truly staggering array of updates... it is fantastic to see the variety in your work.

[threestooges]

Now this is the Urland I'm used to: intricate, well-planned transit routes, defined little villages, good use of hills, the ever-present and always pleasing rail, enough varieties of flora to make a horticulturalist swoon, and so many details it's nearly impossible to see them all until they're pointed out to you. The fireworks were a nice touch too. Nice week for OSITM Bernhard. The next guy is going to have his hands full to live up to this one.
-Matt

[rooker1]

 What a very enjoyable week in OSITM with you Bernhard. 
As Matt said above, I thought I might have clicked on the wrong link when the page was loading.  With all those highrises, I was truly surprised with this.  It's really nice to see that you know how to do it all and not just rural.  Great wrok as always.
Now what I really liked was the use og BuddyBud's wall and Cal's canals together, great idea.  I think I may need to use this idea.  I also thought that using BB's walls with the plop water was brilliantly done.
Great week Bernhard, thanks.
Robin 

[art128]

Hi Bernhard !

That old fortification city sounds like a challenge, and I can tell from what i've seen so far that you've done a nice job.

That last update was very nice too, I liked a lot the small castle up on the hill. I found the eighth picture very interesting, the way the river goes around this small cottage is greatly done.

Take care,

-Arthur.

[Battlecat]

It certainly helps!  Especially the latest rural shots and your work with the canals!  It all looks fantastic!

[canyonjumper]

Awesome river Bernhard! What a wonderful week in OSITM! So many things I learned, and am going to steal use in my cities

              Your friend,
                             Jordan

[Nardo69]

Hello to All!

Well, I planned to have a longer break after that OSITM Special week - however ... When I saw Robin's (rooker1) nice night pictures I realized that it must have been ages since I showed the last night shots and immediately decided to steal his idea that time is overdue for a night shot update.

I haven't had enough time last week, so with a short delay how about a regular update with them?

But as always:

@mightygoose: Glad that you liked them!

@threestooges: Hehe, I thought two heavy shocks would be enough so I finished where I started .. Glad you liked it. And that guy who's to follow me this week hasn't had such a bad start.

rooker1: Well, in this case I guess you don't have no problems that I copied your night shot update idea. I just forget to remove the BAT Update ...     

@Posted by: art128: Glad you liked it.
Such small castles can be made with kwakelaars city walls but you should have a clear idea of what you want to do otherwise it's getting too easy too much Disney like. (and it helps that I saw some of them IRL...   )
The defortified town definately is a challenge. So much missing, so much left to do (incl. learning the BAT)... 

@canyonjumper: Glad you liked it my friend!
Hope you are not too disappointed for posting just before the upcoming update ...

[COLOR="Red"][SIZE="4"]Update 25: Under A Maxis Moon ... [/SIZE][/COLOR]

I don't want to write anything concerning the pictures except where I made them. I had some associations while working on them you can find in the captures. Unlike I do usually I used my stone age PiantShopPro 5 to get the Maxis night a bit darker. It's my first try so don't refrain in constructive critics and hints how to make it better.


The first townis Blaubach. I am going to have to rebuilt the major parts of it as I lost some plugins in a harddisk problem and since then the city CTD after loading - inckusive all backups of the last months ... 
Maybe I'll show some more pics. (If you want to ...)







Grünwinkel. Don't become confuse, you're still in the wright MD. As all highrise quarters and towns it has its own beauty during night.













Schwarzritters Mühle. Most picture became too dark, but I did manage to show you some:







And finally, Leimersheim, some pics before the morning comes:







That's it for tonight. Have some nice dreams!

Bernhard 

[metarvo]

Well, this certainly does put the "(mostly)" in the name of the MD.  Good work, Bernhard.    You do urban areas so well, maybe you should try doing them more often.  I especially like 25.04.

[Battlecat]

Those are fantastic urban scenes!  The industrial areas and the scene with the ferry terminal look particularly nice!

[canyonjumper]

Great update Bernhard Seems like I was just replying

Loving the night shots! The lighting in 25.04 is awesome

                     Your friend,
                                    Jordan

[Tomas Neto]

Very nice update, Nardo!!!