Terketmek

[dedgren 830]

Lurking...lurking...

[pickled_pig 7]

I really liked that rural town that you have since deleted. it had a nice compactness to it that gave it a realistic feeling. The SC4terraformer is such an interesting idea... it's too bad that I am in the same boat as cityhawk and can't use it due to directx problems. Your terrain looks great and it will be interesting to see how you attack such a difficult terrain.

[brtim2 11]

Yeah! We made it to page three, with no problems! So far...

And yes, I'm lurking too. (Very funny Dedgren) I may not have mentioned it so far, but I'm gonna be sporadic with these. I've read the many countless threads that come and go about 'How to Make a Good City Journal' (sometimes followed by a Question Mark) and one of the most important things to do is to update regularly in the begining, keep the CJ to the front of the CJ Section and then once you've hit a few pages and gotten a following then you can be a little less regular as people will be actively looking for your CJ.

Whoops.

But that's alright, because I'm gonna take a few minutes right now and respond to those messages I will receive after this post:

Thanks! I will go at my own pace, but thanks for the encouragement.

There, that's done.

But I do have a reason for this sporadicacy (is that a word? If it isn't, can it be?). I'm more intrigued with terraforming right now.

'But that's alright, brtim2, let's just see some pics of development!'

I would love to. You know I would. But I can't. See, the way I'm building this region is little cities first (it's the opposite of a 'real world' city where the downtown grows out. Because of the simulation I have to build into the downtown so that I don't bypass the lower development stages while trying to build 'innkeeper' cities) and I'm trying to have some realism here by building where cities would be built.

Like next to water. But in order to build next to water, I need a canyon. In order for a canyon I need to terraform

See where this is going?

So while I continue in SC4Terraformer (and I redid the mountains. That was a process in and of itself (is that saying right?)) I'll grab some pictures every now and then.

(Lightbulb moment! I'm thinking of 'cropping the region right now. Everytime I go into and try and terraform I want to build more and more, I've got all these great ideas! But I need to know 'when'. That's one thing Dedgren's tutorial can't teach me. This way I can finish the main canyon into the mountains (through, actually) and start building. This way, when I get bored building I can terraform, and vice versa.

Brilliant! *clink of Guinness Draft bottles* (Which, I might add, are not that good. Guinness from the tap is better, but I can't argue with good marketing.))

So that's the plan of action for right now.

But the more immediate plan of action is pictures.

That's right, pictures. I haven't built anything in Terketmek, but I do have some pictures. How is this possible? I'll tell you.

A former life.

Yep, I was taking a look at some (ok, both) of my STEX items when I read the comments from my Wireless Comm Tower. A person, you might have heard of him, by the name of Dedgren commented like this: This lot (and you, I guess) is one of the true "one hit wonders" of SC4 custom stuff.

And that got me thinking. Cause I know I joked about a previous 'one and done' city journal, but then I remembered today that I had another City Journal that fared much better. It wasn't mine, per se, but it was a collaborative effort, and I like to think I was a big part of our fleeting success at the time in the City Journal section.

And yes, that's a comment on the STEX from 16 months ago commenting on a BAT, but it brought me to this point right here.

So I'd like to thank Dedgren, and you can thank him too, depending on how this next bit goes.

There was a collaborative effort between Kumba, Shadow_Assassin, thatmonkeysim, Utora, Rewright, sirgeoj2, xiziz, Philscafe, jarnomiedema and myself. The jist of it was there was a large region built with different people taking different parts and then seeing how we interacted. For whatever reason, things kind of fell apart. People didn't update, some disapeared without saying anything and there was no, what I would call, central leadership. A brief project hiatus was the last straw for me and I abandoned the project.

I understand it's still sputtering along, but there were such high hopes for it that it dissapoints me to see it as it is now.

I went back through and saw my posts were still there, but alas there are no pictures, so that's what this is about, a resurection to my part of Pakkusena, Teshanistamen. This resurection will only last three updates, as that's all I ever posted, but it should tide you over until I get terraforming done.

---

Teshanistamen, Pakkusena. Located deep in the country, nearly seperated from every other region. This has influenced the development of the region, and it comes as no surprise the only neighbor connections are done by water. All of the major cities, and a variety of minor ones, have grown up on the river. Nalla'awii is one of those cities.

Nalla'awii, while not being the largest city in Teshanistamen, has another notable feature. It is built over two seperate counties while bordering a third. This (large) picture shows the location of Nalla'awii and it's surrondings while also giving an overhead view of the entire region.

The city itself is located on the west bank of the Kit'Seepu River, offering the local farmers a convenient location to send their goods for shipment to the rest of Teshanistamen. As the city grew it leaped the bounds of the Pokawackne Creek just to the west. Not only did it manage to overstep the natural bounds of the creek, but it also crossed the political boundary of two counties; thus giving Nalla'awii the distinction of being located in two seperate counties.


Closer view of Nalla'awii. Wosackten county to the left, Lenape county to the right. Across the Kit'Seepu River is Poquewaken County(Not pictured. Seen in larger map.)




Closer view of Main Street in Nalla'awii. Seems to be a very busy place. The bridge to the left traverses Pokawackne Creek

But the area is much, much more than the city. In fact it's mostly woods outside the city limits, but woods are boring. Instead, we'll take a look at some of the farmland. That's the industry Nalla'awii services anyway.

These are the farms north of the city, just south of the mountains. The farms had to be done delicately as not to disturb the natural balance of the mountains and hills.

This is a close-up of one wooded lane to the south of the city. While all farms have roads to thier front doors, almost all have back lanes for their own use. These can be for a seperate entrance to the farm, backroads for the tractors to use to get from field to field, or perhaps old roads the county decommisioned and the farmers have yet to give them up.

Another view of a shaded lane. You can tell these roads are old and not as heavily used as others because the split rail fence is up. Had the farmers really been worried about keeping the animals in they would have replaced these fences with barbed wire.

Both of these paths are back roads leading from farmhouses to this pond. It's a wonder why they just didn't build the farm houses closer.

Or not.

And this is the view of the southern farms. While the farms north of the city were more terrain adapting, these were built on relatively flat land. The individual farms are seperated by a line of trees and brush. Early in the development of Teshanistamen a plant from the Far East was introduced to act as a fence. The briar patch did it's job in keeping livestock in the fields, but it also ran amuck amongst the local forests. This fast growing plant can only be killed by grounding out the roots. Efforts are under way to rid the area of the plant, but it is so invasive workers are having a hard time keeping up with it.

And before ending this first post, I offer you another large picture. This is of Pokawackne Creek from the very north of the tile down to the bend before the bridge. It is a fairly large photo. Actually, it is more than one put together in the form of a mural. While I don't think it is of anything special, it does highlight three different forms of water. There is the Mayor Mode Ploppable Water first started by Jeronij and Dusktrooper that I have continued, the Water Tiles Jay Stimson and I are working on and, of course, the in game water. Again, this is a rather large Picture, I hope you enjoy it.

---

That was my first update. It's a different style than this one as there was a story for everything that I did with that, where as Terketmek (so far) is just me building (eventually).

I'm really glad I did all updates in notepad as that was rather easy to repost since all the links were still there, I just had to make it so this software could read it.

But that's it for me. The second update from Teshanistamen should be up soon and I'll update you on the progress of Terketmek's development

Oh, and S_A, grids, off.

[dedgren 830]

Ribbit.

...

Heh!

[Kwakelaar 92]

Very enjoyable, I like your style both in city building and CJ-ing.

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

I like the randomness style to the weird but enjoyable captions on the pictures. I personally liked the ribbit one, truck vs. ghost (ahh good old time trial races) and the ladder one. Very neat.

[GMT 389]

just took my time to read all you've written...

...

... (again)

[GaBoR 7]

Nice update, you have a great sense of humor, also I like that you comment in the beginning... very true

[Alakazam 3]

You sir, are a genius.

[owenluby 1]

this looks fantastic! you are a very funny man. awesome terraforming great stuff

keep it up!

[dedgren 830]

Whoa, I go away for a few days and everything just goes to h-ll...no new posts in a week.

Wake up, folks- this is the real deal here.  None of those no-challenge, easy-to-digest, hungry-again-in-an-hour CJ paradigms for our brtim2.  Unhh-uh.

And, speaking of the proprieter...

You sir, are a genius.quote>

Hey, Alakazam said it, I didn't...

...not that it's any less so for that, know what I'm sayin'?

Oh, and

This (large) picture...quote>

"This (large) picture" is one of the nicest things that's graced this CJ forum in a good while...

Next time, DON'T HIDE THE FRICKIN' LIGHT UNDER A BUSHEL!

Just my 2c.  Always a pleasure to stop by.

David

[BlondeTwiggy 43]

wow!  this is great... lol love the little captions in the pics... keep us informed

[kant01 5]

hey brtim2 -

great updates! I still love your region terrain - it looks so beautiful.

Also I love all the little humourous captions!!! You are indeed  very funny.

Also I really like those country fences. Very nice, very realistic, particularly with those dirt roads.

Great job, cannot wait for the next update!

[Zelgadis 638]

From a purely metaphorical standpoint, this CJ is even more out in space than mine is... 

But, that's why I like it. 

ISF

*Edit:  Ribbit. 

[Fabiocb 1]

nice work and what captured my eyes, I mean my hears is the "ribbit"

[collgab 10]

wow, nice update can't wait for more!!!

and the "ribbit, ribbit, ribbitx100,000,000" thing is really cool!

[brtim2 11]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm gonna let you in on some bad news.

I lost my computer.

Well, not literally. I know where it is. It's not like I misplaced it in the house and can't find it (I only do that with my keys). I lost it in the fact that I lost access to it as it won't turn on. Probably something to do with the massive amounts of rain that we had the past few weeks. Well, not the rain perse, but the electrical activity associated with the storms that brought the rain.

Said computer was in a surge protector along with one fan, one light and one radio. Nothing else wouldn't work and the clock never reset so the power never went out, but the computer was off and won't turn on. It's being looked at, hopefully this week. The place I took it was apparently booked for the next week (hmm, maybe the same reason I was there?)

Oh, and the router was hit by the storm too, so there's no internet at the house (not that it matters cause there's no computer to enter the inter-web from). So right now I'm at the local college cause the library here as many more computers with internet than the computers at the local library. But it smells here.

And I finally had to check my mail as I'm moving in a month or so and I still don't have a place to stay. That could be a problem as time marches on, but that's something to worry about in the future.

Oh, and don't worry about some things in Terketmek, I'm pretty sure I backed somethings up. What those things are, I'm not too sure, but there was some backing up of some items, that's for sure. Terketmek isn't dead, it's just, ummm, somewhere else at the moment and as soon as it gets back from vacation I'll be sure and sent it on over to you.

That's all I have at the moment, back to finding a place to stay.

[PhilsCafe 8]

Hi brtim2.

Sorry to hear this... I hope you'll get it running again.

Flipping through dedgren's 3RR CJ I saw a link to Terketmek. I'm now here and I must say, I'm impressed by what you've done. Your terraforming is amazing, great canyon there. Together with your realistic rural building style, it looks simply maginificient. Actually your awesome work here didn't surprise me at all after what I've seen from your Pakkusena updates.

I hope you'll be able to keep it up. It's after all a promising start so far. Take care.

- Phil

[Fred_Ginger 1]

Like PhilsCafe I too was at Dedgren's 3RR (looking to learn about rain modd) and decided to see what you're about. Well, just like Dedgren, you have a wickedly funny sense of humor - I like that! Love the look of Terketmek and am fascinated by the beginning! Do hope you can 'find' your computer soon and good luck with the fining a place to live and subsequent move!

[dedgren 830]

Keepin' hope alive here, my friend.

Hope you're having a better summer than your last post would have indicated.  See you back soon.

[choco1 4]

Hee hee, this is a cute little CJ. The images are creative and pretty, and the humour is just great!

Keep it up!

[GMT 389]

oh... bad news...

and I was so happy having it found again...

you know, it's the same with your pc, I knew where it was... but it wasn't....

anyway, I really hope your pc's up to work again soon... and your new home's up to let you live in...

if not... just move into the web, as I did some time ago...

[Flumes 3]

Wow, that region is incredible!!! Nice Terraforming, Keep it up!!!

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull very nice farms so pretty nicely built and planned and lovely pics

[brtim2 11]

Holy crap. Do I have a lot of 'splainin' to do.

Ok, so here's where we stand. Remember that time I told you all about the time I lost my computer? Well, the computer is still lost. Not literally, of course, but it's still lost in the sense that I can't turn it on. Still.

But you say that was a month and a half ago. And I say to you, that you are correct.

A month and afreakin' half ago.

I'll let that sink in.

And still no computer you ask?

Still no computer I respond.

And what's a guy to do? I took it to a computer place that I've never heard anyone complain about, and figured all would be right in the world.

Or not.

They said it would be 5-7 business days to look at it. Then they would call me. I waited 5-7 business days. And then I waited 5-7 more business days. And then I waited some more.

And then I called. And I talked to a girl that from hence forth will be 'That girl from CMC Computers that lied to me and told me they would call me back regarding my computer and they never did. And is also named Jen.'

I don't like Jen.

So I called Jen on a Thursday and waited. This time, I did not wait 5-7 business days, instead I waited 4 business days. Unless they are open on Saturdays. If they are, than I did, in fact, wait 5 business days.

Still no call. Either Jen did not relay this message, or someone was playing a cruel prank on me. Either way I was not happy and

I saddled up my horse/
and I rode it to the city/
I made a lot of noise

Cause I didn't get my computer back. And I need it. Not cause I can't live without it, oh no, I've been doing fine. Check my Facebook page and you can see the cliff diving, beach going, beer drinking activities that have all be captured on film. And then there are the activities that are not captured on film. I'm just having fun outside with friends to end the summer. But I don't need my computer to do it.

But I do need my computer with me when I move. Which, by the way, is coming up within the next, oh 48 or so hours. (It was supposed to be Tuesday morning, but I haven't packed all that I want to and, well, I'm just lazzzzzzy.)

So I saddled into this place and I told them my dilemma. Some rummaging around in the back produced my laptop and case.

My laptop and case that, apparently has not even been looked at since I dropped it off.

Once he handed it to me my first instinct was to swing it upside his head in frustration.

My nerves got the better of me. That and the fact I need my computer when I move and I don't want a stranger's head attached to said computer when it's sitting in my car.

So CMC can't do it for me (or apparently won't) so someplace in Arizona is going to have to do it. That's fine with me. I'll take my business elsewhere, thank you very much.

So that's why Terketmek has apparently died. I don't have a computer to play SC4 and therefore garner pictures to then place on this very webpage you are gandering at at the moment.

But I promise my time here today is not just to vent. Oh no, while I like venting and kicking little puppies (maybe), they do not serve a practical purpose to anyone other than the person venting and/or kicking puppies (theoretically).

Remember how I said not to worry cause I have Terketmek somewhat backed up on an external harddrive. What is backed up, I'm not really sure. But I do have at least one more update backed up.

And that's what follows.

This is the region as it stood at the time I took the picture forever long ago. The littler one to the right is the city tile of the first building I did that no longer exists. The town is dead, remember?

We shall visit this shot again very soon.

And this is the overview of the town. A very small town. In fact, I'm kinda surprised there's absolutely no bridges on this river. Surronded on water on three sides (we shall forget for the moment that you can't be surronded by anything if it's only on three sides) and there's no real connect to the rest of the world.

But, if you remember the region shot, there really is no rest of the world. They are all by themselves.

Suckers.

To tell you the truth, I dont' know why this picture is here.

The only thing I can think of is that I took it to show you another view of the town.

Or maybe I remembered to turn off the grids?

Happy now S_A?

Who knew a desert could be so green?

Stupid bored teenagers. They don't have cows to tip (too hot, they all died of heat stroke. It was sad. Hamburger sales quadrupled that week. Only becuase I don't know what comes after quadrupled and it sounds better than tripled) so they decided to break down the fences. I also just noticed I didn't set the fences at the exact corner of the lot. Oh well. Forgive me.

It's a small town, at least they know the meaning of a good mass transit system.

I think the farmer is sending a subliminal message that she hates sprawl. She has drawn a line in the sand and it's right here. There will be no more building of the town outward towards the barn and her farm.

I do hope it works.

There's also talk she's crazy.

I'm just sayin'.

Also, this windmill must be protected. Don't ask me why, but it must be. So it is surronded by fences on three sides.

I know, I know, forget for another moment.

Also, I took out the base texture after taking this shot. I hope that gets saved. I redid the basetextures on that, some parks and all the oil derricks. I really hope they are saved.

Or someone gets a laptop to the head.

And the region shot after building. I think I saved this town, and I might have another round of pictures. But they shall wait till later. Like when I'm in Arizona. And I get a computer that works.

So, enjoy this and savor it for awhile. I'm driving across country soon and I don't know when the next time I'll get to a computer is, nevermind my computer with SC4 on it.

And on that note, off to pack what is left of my stuff. It didn't hit me till yesterday, but I am literally leaving everyone and everything that I've ever known and moving to a place that I've never been, nor ever seen before, to live in a house with people I've never met before.

Oh, and I don't have a job there yet.

Wow. When you actually write it out...

So, if you live in the I-81, I-40 or I-17 corridors in the next week or so, wave to me as I drive by. I'll be the one in the car with Maryland plates filled to the top with all that I could shove in my car.

Take care everyone, I'll check back in when I get to hot as the desert Tempe, Arizona.

[dedgren 830]

Been waiting for you, brtim2.  Is my crystal ball working or what...

See you back soon.quote>

No 'splainin' necessary.  Just have a safe trip out to Tempe...

...that's short for "Tempe-rature?- you don't want to know!"...

We'll hear from you...and Terketmek...when you get there.

btw- another fine update...I'm reading it for the third time and still catching new stuff.

Take care!

David

[PhilsCafe 8]

Hi brtim2.

Very nice update there. I like the small farming villages. It's very detailed work with the fences and all, thanks for showing close-ups. Also that desert texture pack lend a nice touch, great choice.

Good luck with moving, drive safely. I hope you'll get your laptop running again.

- Phil

[threestooges 0]

Quintupled (5x) is after quadrupled, followed by sextupled, septupled, octupled (if that is even remotely spelled right) and if it goes much beyond that... cheer and raise the price. On a slightly more focused line of thought, very well done for not having a computer to work with. That last pic with the windmill is a great farm shot. I hope that town is saved. I would like to see how it would grow/develop. Hope the move goes well, and that all computer problems are resolved quickly.

[owenluby 1]

Nice one! I like that small town in the desert...

Thats very realisitc!

[brtim2 11]

Well well well. Here I am all lonely in Arizona and I come to my own little space of Simtropolis and lo and behold I find out what 5 to 8 times x really is.

And who says lies and treachery are the only things on the internet?

Oh, and I still don't have a computer.

Still.

I am right now using my roommates computer, but I feel bad rummaging through his computer and stuff, so this will be very infrequent.

The best part though? He likes playing SimCity. Strange though, he never heard of Simtropolis. I don't really want to show him this, cause well, he's got school work and a business to run. I don't want to ruin it, that would be bad.

But I came here just to let you all know that I am alive and I did drive 2500 miles safely. I only got pulled over once.

In Texas.

By a Texas  Ranger. 

Walker, Texas Ranger.

Actually it was a highway patrolman. But he still pulled me over. But I only got a warning. And the bad part? I don't even know how fast I was going. Isn't that the reason you get pulled over, to know precisely how fast you are going? That's what I've always thought.

Oh, and Dedgren was right. Tempe is short for temperature. Or so it would seem. It's really hot out here. But it's a dry heat. But I'm still not used to it. So it's hot.

Really hot.

Oh, and the Geek Squad stinks. I'm no longer going to trust my computer to Geeks.

Nerds, maybe. Geeks, no.

But I think that's all the time I have at the moment, I can't really think of much else to say. I was just checking in to make sure everything is alright and to let you know that I am fine and made it.

I'm also gonna say right now, I know I've only been in Tempe for 2 weeks, but I don't really see what the hub-a-lub is all about. I see nothing special about living in a desert that someone tried to make into the East Coast by planting lots of grass and trees. It's the desert, let it look like the desert.

But maybe I'm just being stupid. I've been here not even long enough to really meet people and I already want to go back to the familiarity and the friends that I left behind. I know I need to give it some more time, but I'm impatient. We shall see how this plays out, I've got a 9 month lease and I'm gonna stick it out.

That's not to say, however, that I won't be showing up one day saying I just stole away in the middle of the night, a la the Irsays and the Colts. But the one difference between the myself and Irsay is that I won't be leaving Maryland, I'll be heading back.

Ok, enough 'blog' talk for you all, I'm gonna disappear for a week or so again. So if there's anything important you need to say, well, say it and I'll try and get back to you as soon as possible.

Tally-ho!