Desert Ofalla

[Air6]

Hi, thanks for your great comments Badsim, Snaper, sebes, jeronij, flame1396, thundercrack83, wouanagaine, bat, rooker1, emilin, Strechnitz and tooheys 

Another teaser about the refinery (by night ). Still come... the big update... the next week

[Snaper]

  It's incredible ...

It's of a realism, we would be said a true picture 

Bravo mon ami 

[Yoman]

Oh I just love refineries and yours are awesome!

[Manny]

This is exceptional ! 
Bravo à toi mon ami ! 

[thundercrack83]

Those refineries are spectacular, my friend! Simply spectactular.

[emilin]

Awesome stuff! Really cool night time colours on those BAT:s, and - as always - excellent use of dirt tracks.

[bat]

That is looking awesome! Fantastic mosaic at night!

Looking forward to that update!

[rooker1]

Nice little night shot mosaic.  No more teasers, I want a full update............please.
Great work, I just can't get enough.

Robin   

[flame1396]

I'm always in awe... Your city is so fricken well done! 

[Pat]

I loved your last few updates there air and the industrial areas are supperb

[tooheys]

Thats a good looking night shot, especially like the lighting. Great work.

Cheers

Dave

[Air6]

Hi, first thanks for your great comments, but it's the last picture of Desert Ofalla

Today, my game crash and I lost my cities. I tried all the solutions to resolve this problem, but the result is the same.

To the mods, you can move my MD, to the completed MDs section, because Desert Ofalla is dead 

AiR6

[dedgren]

Air6, let me be the first to offer my thoughts as to the demise of this great MD, and a few words about what has happened to the community generally.

Once in a while a MD author's work comes along that is just visually stunning.  Pics from Desert Ofalla stopped me in my tracks the first time I saw them, and I had that sense that Air6 was on to something that would take his work a very long way.  Now Desert Ofalla is gone, but my guess is that it is the author and not the work itself that matters in terms of the future.  The batteries in my crystal ball burned out a long time ago, but to the extent I can predict anything, I would bet real money that our friend will be back, and soon, with something even bigger and better.

We're going to leave Desert Ofalla up among the "Special Interest" MDs for the remainder of its time this month- to honor it, to give its fans a chance to read back through it and make a last comment, and because it belongs here based on what has been done to date in any event.  Congratulations, Air6.  You've enriched everyone's SC4 experience with this great MD- thank you.

* * *

Now for the public service portion of this post.  Folks, think for a minute about what has happened here.  Air6 has lost his MD due to a hard drive failure likely unrelated to the presence of SC4 or this MD there.  Stuff happens, and because we have lives to lead and many things to do that aren't centered around our favorite game or our computers most don't treat their hard drive files as the valuable possessions they actually are.  The number of private computer owners who back up their hard drives on a dedficated basis is probably in the single digit percentage range of the entire group.  That's the way things are, and I know nothing I'm going to say is going to change it on any sort of large-scale basis.

Now, we all know SC4 never crashes or experiences file corruption...

...la, la, la, la, la...

I have a huge volume, probably several hundred gigabyes, of SC4 and 3RR stuff.  Losing it would be a terrible thing, although 90%+ could be recovered even if not backed up through a significant expenditure of time and effort.  These are things such as downloads from the LEX and STEX still in .zip form, copies of pics on ImageShack (for those who don't know or don't recall, third party image banks have in the past vanished without a trace- and they don't send your beloved pics back before they do), copies of tutorials and other info saved off-line, ancillary programs such as SC4TerraFormer and Region Census, and then the user game files (plugins and regions subfolders being the most important) themselves.  It is these latter that are critical, because they do not come from a third-part source.

I do three things to protect the integrity of my SC4 data in the event of a catastrophe.

1.  I purchased and use a significant portion of a Western Digital 500 gigabyte Firewire/USB hard drive to completely mirror all my SC4 files, along with other critical personal and family computer files.  I try to keep this updated as I go along, but at least weekly.

2.  Every so often I burn all my SC4 files onto a DVD, which I keep at work (hey, my house could burn down).

3.  I keep a 2 gigabyte USB flashdrive in the computer and copy my plugins files onto it every time it changes.  I copy my regions files onto a second one.

Now, I take 3RR pretty seriously.  Would it not be worth ones' while, though, as a MD author or just as a dedicated SC4 fan, to make the (US) $100 dollar or so investment to do at least thing 3 above?  Yeah, it's a few bucks.  But the peace of mind, as they say, is priceless...


David

[Badsim]

I couldn't believe this ... and as I couldn't , I went at TSC to read your last comments in french , and have found this : " I don't think that I'll start another city ."

I can feel your pain and I know how you can feel discouraged , my friend . At the same time I'll never understand how experienced players like you are , taking time to release such great contents , don't take the precaution to make a back-up ....having had myself to use it several time , losing Antigone during the "save" process ...

That said , the karma point you've got was giving by me a long time ago with that comment : " Soon here , one of the most skilled SC4 player "

You never failed since to make me think I was right .

So , please don't give up , I know that you have lost some parts of your region ( those already built ), not your plugin folder ... come back to us with a Desert Ofalla 2 .

[thundercrack83]

This is a tragedy! I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of Desert Ofalla, my friend. And then I read what Badsim posted and it further discouraged me. I hope we'll see more of your work in the future because you are truly talented. Don't give up, you'll always have an audience filled with friends here!

[Air6]

I'm touched by your comments.

I'm sure that will not stay without play at SC4, so you'll probably have some news SC4 pics soon

David : I'll follow your three things to protect all my SC4 files and the loss of 3RR will be a tragedy for you but also for the SC4D community.

Badsim : Merci. It's a great pleasure to have got a karma point by a SC4 player like you. Et je te rassure... je ne pourrais pas me passer de SC4. La déception fait parfois dire des choses que l'on ne pense qu'à moitié

thundercrack83 : Thanks my friend. Your feedback it's very appreciated. Thanks


Edit : I have a save of my region when the file was not corrupted. It will be on the STEX (or maybe on the LEX ) soon. I hope you'll like.

[Snaper]

Air6, my friend, you know that I adore your city and your work

I preferred to put a comment in French on TSC as that I know that it is comprehensible 

Amicalement, Loïc 

[emilin]

That's about the sadest news I've heard in a long time. I really hope you will be back with some other project if you can't find a way to recover Desert Ofalla. I would be happy with any kind of SC4 pictures coming from you, so please keep up the good work - in one form or another.

[kimcar]

Too bad what is happened . Hope you don`t give up 

[sebes]

My deepest sympathy with the loss of your city Air6 ...

I'm sure that will not stay without play at SC4, so you'll probably have some news SC4 pics soon

That's the spirit - keep it up