The Tropics of Haalu

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

Darmok - Glad you like it, we'll be seeing more of it in future updates.

GaBoR - I love making airports, I can't wait to start it myself.

jackel.22 - I'm planning out a totally new way to do updates, that as far as I know hasn't been done before, or not much anyways. It'll give a much better sense of direction of where everything is.

ruhlcore - I haven't seen the trailer, but the game looks pretty cool. I kinda hopped out of the RTS genre around Red Alert 2 and WC3. Still waiting on a good game to get me back into it.

bat - Thanks

jasperdeman.nl - Haha, glad you liked it! Yes, the trees do add a lot of colour to the landscape.

yoder7652 - Still going to be a little while til I get on the other side of the river, as I've still got alot of downtown to work on.

cityhawk - Takes alot of time, but the effect is worth it. Glad you liked the maps!

Oh Wow! Page 8 already! Welcome everybody

[Battlecat 14]

Nice update!  I like how you put the spider vehicles from Supreme Commander into you shot there!  Looks great.  

Every time I turn around you come up with some incredible image from photoshop.  How did you combine the Satellite and Transportation maps?  That looks fantastic!

[Darmok 34]

That mini-Armageddon was fun!

Now let's see what you'll do september 9, 2009! 

[sloppet 3]

holy moly!! Those are some really great updates there!

[GMT 389]

wow, the latest updates blew it off once more!

You're amazing!

Thanks for the tutorial on the trails. very useful!

can't wait for more

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

Battlecat - Thanks, glad you liked the mech update. As for the hybrid map, it was really quite simple. Its a matter of lining the transportation and satelite map up perfectly, and setting one of them to a 50% opacity so that you can see both equally.

Darmok - Thats a little far away, so don't have to start planning just yet

sloppet - Thanks

GMT - Thanks and you welcome for the trails tutorial.

[mightygoose 92]

never been herebefore but definately coming back now this is awesome

[jackel.22 3]

interesting, i cant wait to see what this new style will look like.

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

A First Step Towards a Road Map

So I finally decided to tackle the challenge of making a road map. This small map I'm about to show is the product of about 3 hours (yes 3 hours!) worth of work experimenting in photoshop. I got browsing around looking at different CJ maps, and everyone of them was different. I found a tutorial in one CJ, but I just wasn't able to use it as effectively as I hoped. It did give me a very good framework though, but I decided to try some different ways for my own personalized map.

Haalu is more of a region map. Heck, I'd like to think of Haalu as a country, or at least a province / state. Therefore I needed a map that could somehow mimic one. It didn't have to be fancy, but it had to be effective. After fooling around for a while with a few techniques I got one that made me able to make the map quickly and easily.

Before I go on with it, I'd like to hear some opinions. Personally, I think that the streets may be a little too light, so I might darken them up. Though I do like the faded look they have, they're not meant to stand out by any means.

Since there's no legend, grey is streets (also under the "streets heading" is roads as well that aren't a significant travel route, just a better paved area within the town limits), yellow is highways (roads that are major travel routes between cities and towns, might be changing this to a more orang-ish colour), red is interstates (6 lane highways), and black is railway.

After putting this up, I realise it should have a border of some sort, oh well.

The plan is to map out the entire island (an ongoing process) and by the time it is done, it should resemble a roadmap for a province/state. It will have national parks in green, airports will be marked accordingly, all water will be named, counties marked off, etc.

Let me know what you think, like I said, this is a test run map.

[GaBoR 7]

Looks very good, you made it in photoshop right?, maybe the streets indeed are a little too bright, but looks pretty good, even like those in that map software, congrats, maybe you too can shows how to do it... I'm shure you`ll cut time in the future once you have mastered the technique

[BubbaGump 0]

Haha...alien invasions, chyeah right...*looks outside window* 

Uh oh.

[yoder7652 21]

I think it looks good...but 3 hours, oh my! How long will it take to do the whole country?

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

GaBoR - Thanks. I agree that they are quite bright. I'm thinking of making the white a more neutral gray or tan colour and darkening the roads(streets, highways, interstates).

I didn't use any vector software for it. I just went over all the roads with a brush on a seperate layer, then when they were all traced, I covered the map below in white and blue. Pretty simple stuff. I'll throw up a really quick tutorial maybe sometime.

BubbaGump - hehe thanks for the comment!

yoder7652 - The map itself didn't take 3 hours. I spent 3 hours messing around in photoshop until I got a technique down lol. I could replicate that map in about 10-15mins now probably. So a full fledged map wouldn't take too long.

I'm going to hold off on the map for now though, until I get more of the region developed.

[cityhawk 12]

Hey, I-10 runs through my city (Mobile, AL). If you could relate Haalu to any city or town in the U.S. along I-10, where would it be? Anyway, a border around the map would probably look better, but otherwise your doing a great job!

[GMT 389]

this map looks great so far

looking forward to the final result

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

Comments

cityhawk - I'm not overly familiar with the US, since I'm from Canada. I just like the whole interstate naming convention when dealing with highways in Sim City. Makes it alot easier to identify the major routes from the highways (or roads in Sim City terms).

Haalu is an island out in the tropics (I'm not going to specify a direct spot, yet) so I can't really relate it to anything since it wouldn't be land based. Haalu is a state, but with similarities to cities all around the world. I try to capture a very diverse state, with cities mimicking real world cities. So I can't really relate an entire state to a town / city along the real I-10 .

GMT - Thanks! Me too lol.

Teaser Update

Wow! I'm getting hit with a heavy dose of RLS. Haven't had the time to update for a while, but I have be plugging away at the region in what little time I've had. I haven't been able to develop any more of montacello recently, but I've completed 3 more large tiles of countryside to the north and east.

Anyways, I hope to have a full fledged update tonight, but for now here's a bit of a teaser shot to show I'm still here lol.

[mightygoose 92]

wicked map and amazing teaser. so tropical wow

[cityhawk 12]

Originally posted by: ThePeoplesPerson

Haalu is an island out in the tropics (I'm not going to specify a direct spot, yet) so I can't really relate it to anything since it wouldn't be land based. Haalu is a state, but with similarities to cities all around the world. I try to capture a very diverse state, with cities mimicking real world cities.So I can't really relate an entire state to a town / city along the real I-10 .quote>

That's okay; I understand your concept.

About the teaser: Is that amazing photoshopped advanced ploppable water? Anyway, I look forward to your real update, and good luck with RL!

[Battlecat 14]

Wow!  That teaser update looks glorious!  Love the way your water turned out!

[jackel.22 3]

the plopable water looks brilliant, and the bridge, i like the simplicity of the road map although im sure it wasnt simple to make . great work. this should get an award.

[CHRIS! 1]

An absolutely beautiful region! Good job. You're an expert Photoshopper. That's too bad, because I thought there was a water modd out there that could do something like this!

[GMT 389]

great teaser.

looking forward to the update

[kant01 5]

great teaser! i am so jealous - your screen shots always look amazing! also forgot to mention how much I loved your dirt paths tutorial! you really make the tropical foliage look so inviting - so lush and incredible. also really nice job terraforming the river and taking those bridges across - it looks very realistic.

[collgab 10]

WOAH that water editing still amazes me

can't wait till your next update!!!

[topcliff 1]

TPP, I really can't for this update! I thought this might've died like the NDEX London Eye Project, only faster! You are a truly great CJ maker and this year, you will definitely get my vote for a Trixie! TopCliff

[purpledaddy 6]

I haven't read through all of your journal yet, but I like the map so far. Including the gray, looks realistic.

[Jerebannus XVI 7]

Wow that last pic of Montacello is truly amazing, very pictoresque. This is a wonderful cj.

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

mightygoose - Thanks

cityhawk - I'm still kinda thinking how I want to do the highway naming actually. Yeah the water is the ploppable water from jeronij with some photoshopping added in.

Battlecat - Thanks

jackel.22 - Thanks. I've taken a break from the road map for now, since I don't have the time at the moment to fool around with it some more.

CHRIS! - That would be awesome if there was a mod for it, though maybe there could be a water plop that looks like a reflection (a simple one) made. That might work.

GMT - Thanks

kant01 - Thanks, I'm glad you found the small tutorial useful

collgab - Heheh, thanks

topcliff - Thank you! I've still got big plans for this CJ, so I don't suspect it to die down anytime soon. Unfortunately RL hits every once in a while and you just can't churn out an update every one or two days when it happens.

purpledaddy - Thanks. I'm still going to toy around with the map. Personally I think it looks a little "painty", in other words things like the highways stick out to much (brightness) on a very white background. I think I'm going to go with some more neutral colours.

Jerebannus XVI - Thanks

Ok onto an update!

It's not the same area as where I threw in the teaser, I'll hopefully get to that area soon. Instead, I'm showing some of the smaller towns and surrounding countryside for now.

This first update will showcase the small town of Urosha. Urosha is a very small town of only 700 people, located about 30 minutes outside of Montacello. It is built near Urosha Lake (the town was named after the lake). Urosha is mainly a farming and tourism town. It is budgeting for a large trail system and camping grounds to allow hikers easier access to Urosha lake. Once they get this park set up, they hope to cash in on a lot more tourism revenue.

And a final, more close up shot of the lake. Urosha lake is the result of a number of rivers throughout this area of the region converging in this part of the region.

Thank you for reading this journal and I hope you enjoyed the update!

[JoeMeister 1]

I really like your CJ! the region looks very good and your pics are very bright! I can see you got some pic-editing skills!

[Darmok 34]

So small and cozy!

That small lake created by the confluence of those rivers, is a beauty!

Your CJ is like browsing through a stack of postcards!

Just superb!

Take care