Urland, a (mostly) rural coastline

[jacqulina 162]

hiya bernhard hows you and your family.your welcome,oh yessss lol that explains it well demand feeding .,sorry i havnt been here lately a lot of RL,thankyou for the tip.

another few awesome updates my friend.the transport system is amazing.excellent planning and layout.what trains would look better with rural.the residential is looking very realistic as do commercial and industry.great use of trees.all in all a very realistic cittie you have.

take care my friend

[Twenty20 28]

Wow ! it's fantastic !! your railway network is awesome, I love too the rural areas, and all is very very realistic.

[Voulpiotis 4]

This is one of the most realistic cj's I've ever seen in ST...! GREAT use of rail!

[dedgren 830]

Bernhard, there's as much enjoyment in one of your mini-updates for the reader as can be found in many entire CJs out there.  You have such a great sense of the completely integrated European rural landscape- it's like a tourguide to a beautiful dream.

David

[Nardo69 51]

Hello to All!

I have some bad news for you:  

On June 6th there' will be the 3rd birthday of Urland. There aren't so much still active CJs/MDs of this age or older around so I planned something big for celebrating the anniversary.

Then this hacker damaged Simtropolis and with Simtropolis all  updates before March 2007 when I began to post here and on Simforum.de (in German), too.

So instead of making a nice birthday party bash here I am busy cleaning up the old updates... 

I will do that birthday party bash but chances are very low that I can do this on time ...   

Anyway based on my last entry on the SC4D Picture Competition (the 9th one ) I made you a nice small Mini-Update for shortening up the waiting time. It is a before-after type of update as the map itself is from 2006 ... 

The winning pic was this one :

But as always before we start:

un1: Thanks for the compliment.

At the moment I don't have a company name as Urland is more or less a fictious Bundesland (county) of Germany

The Big Z: Thanks for the compliment.

ky72x: kyle, anything you said about commenting is so true! But then, I post Urland on three sites (ST, SC4D and the German Simforum.de)  so my posts are a bit distributed

Glad I could meet your high expectations and I really hope I con continue with this!

DougOZ: Thanks for the compliment.

lucky7: Thanks for the compliment / Danke für die Blumen!

I am doing this business now for almost three years and I hope I can go on a bit like this / Daran bastel ich jetzt schon fast drei Jahre, und ich hoffe, dass ich noch ein bisschen mithalten kann

jacqulina: Thanks for the compliment. An update without you isn't just complete. I do hope you can fix your CJ damages as soon as possible!

Twenty20: Thanks for the compliment.

Voulpiotis: Thanks for the compliment.

dedgren: Now you make me blush ... 

THANK YOU  VERY MUCH for you hint to the Google cache - I began the first pages today and saved some of the other pages from Google.

And now, let's go in Medias Res:

Mini Update: RR Station Herbringen - Before and After

Picture 1: The area of the winning picture from all four Angles. Here you can also see the avenue between Porkie's BATs. The road over the bridge stays road until it leaves the map!

Picture 2: A not electrified secondary line splits from an electrified main line in Herbringen. The freight train heads toward the main line (upper tracks), the secondary line passes the old depot on the lower border.

Picture 3: View to the opposite direction. The freight train tracks on the right and the passenger train tracks on the left are separated by a small green area.

Did you recognized the small shunting signals on this and the previous picture?

Picture 4: Before and After I: The other head of the railway station .

Picture 5: Before and After II: Overview.

Needed some work in the LE but I would like to say: the result was worth it.

That's it for today.

Hope you are not too disappointed but the birthbay bash will need some more time due to the hack on Simtropolis...

Have fun anyway!

Bernhard

Fixed - May 30th 2008 - Nardo69

[dedgren 830]

Bernhard- How wonderful to have the opportunity to "bookend" your mini-update.  Urland is a place I visit every time I'm here at ST- if you don't have something new, there's always the previous 29 pages.  I never get tired of going back...

The hack and the damage that was left was a terrible thing.  Such meanness from anonymous people- it's very, very troubling.  It looks like much destruction was accomplished, but I know that several folks here at ST have been working very hard to set things right.  It still falls on the author, though, to take those last needed steps.

In other words, don't worry about the birthday bash.  We'll be on your doorstep, whatever day you pull off the wraps, and just as eager as always to see what you have for us.

David

[anarchy0029 2]

Wow what a great look at the railroad yard. Excellent touch.

[jacqulina 162]

hiya bernhard,

its a wonderfull pic too i remember voting for it.i think its impossible for me to sort out the pics so i have took the steps to start another pf cj,i love to play this game lol and as my cj was still quite small really its no problem to restart i will enjoy it.excellent mini update my friend very realistic looking citys.take care my friend.

[Nardo69 51]

... some quick info & replies:

I began to repair the old updates just before the last outtake. I think I can backup most but unfortunately not all old updates by my own updates or by Google cache (what I found there is already on my harddisk  )

I will also use this opportunity to make a Table of Contents for your convenience so there is at least one good thing out of the bad thing...

Until I haven't finish my  repairs here you may have a look at Urland over at SC4devotion where I am posting, too, since March 2007. For anything older I am bound to ask for your patience. After everything is restored I will go on posting both here and at SC4D since I  like both sites.

Anyway I would like to use this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all the stuff members for all their work and efforts to bring back ST after the hack!

The last update BTW seems to be affected, too, so I restored it - you should've seen 6 pictures altogether.

@dedgren: David, thanks for your great words!

I have been lurking at 3RR but as you may understand I am bit busy now - but your work on the FAR/FARR is really really great. After restoring I hope to be able  to participate more than I am able to at the moment!

@anarchy0029: Thanks for the compliment!

@jacqulina: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

I can understand your decision, and if I were only posting here this would have been an option for me but I am posting Urland now on three sites (here, on SC4Devotion and in Germon at Simforum.de) so I don't want to stop and start over here and go on on the other sites.

In addition to this I don't want to give these $%&§@ who hacked ST the satisfaction to have destroyed three years of my work!

By the way:

The BBB (Big Birthday Bash) status is at 10% at the moment. .

Have fun!

Bernhard

EDIT:

I just went through the first 16 pages and except from some pics that got lost somehow by imageshack , some minor  formatting problems and some replies that seem to be gone for good now, the updates are working again!

A dozen bunnies for all the stuff here who made this:

In according to this the Table of Contents for these 16 pages is up and working. You'll find the ToC in the very first post for Urland.

I just love good news!

[Nardo69 51]

*Bump*

Huhu ...

I am not dead and I haven't given up Urland, it's just my job is eating me up and in the rare free time there's my little boy and the Euro 08 ...

and the Devo 08 over at SC4devotion in West End and Balnavia where Urland represents the Turkish Team who just made it to semi finals. Unfortunately they are going to play against Germany now (I am German ... )

Anyway due to this reason I just finished my first newspaper!

Have fun!

Bernhard

BBB Status 35%

[Schulmanator 5,812]

Great newspaper! I caught the end of that game on TV and was QUITE surprised once Croatia had scored with just a bit of time left. I like your take on it. Oh, and any surplus baklava can be sent to me. I will happily eat any extra!

[jacqulina 162]

hello bernhard how are you my friend,excellent newspaper there,very nicely layed out.take care

[Nardo69 51]

Hello to All!

It has been almost a year that I posted here - a yeasr for me with a lot of problems and troubles, and almost perpetual hardware problems  in general but especially simcity. The solution of the latter has been Windows 7 Beta, under which Sc4 runs really nice. 

But almost a year means that I got a bit rusty, taht I couldn't use the newer developement which had been so much and so nice - I just say STR and the new NAM. 

On the other hand during taht long break I lost a bit the inspiration in Urland. Don't know but after such a long break its developement seems to be so much out of time for me. So I put Urland on hiatus - which doesn't eman you won't see anything of it as I do have plans to modify / rebuild at least parts of it.

The good news is that I started a new region. Hand-terraformed. Slowly-slowly. Recently I only begun three maps - one a bit ago and two recently. Please have a bit mercy - these are finger exercises to get back my old form. 

Le roi est mort - vive le roi. 

So let's begin: 

Roeschwoog is a village on a small map. Some agriculture, some industry, no railway station, nothing special to remember. There are still some empty zones there - mostly commercial as the region is too young and too small for them to develope. 

We'll come back here when the regiosn has developed a bit. Untill then some appetizer: 

The western entrance to Roeschwoog. The creek Roesch (which gave his name to the village) has been canalized a long time ago.

The village center of Roeschwoog with the Christuskirche. Even though there had been generous donations from the local industry and big famers the church had been way too big for little Roeschwoog. Because of this the village has been broke for years.

 

The local industry in Roeschwoog. 

Snapshot 1

Snapshot 2. 

 

The next pictures are Technical shots as my friend Darmok would say. It is the first draft of a smaller railway station along an electrified main line that has a branch of to serve the local industries and it is my first steps with the new STR.

The railway station itself doesn't exist anymore due to some layout problems with the neighbour connection - however I think it can be regarded as a rather universal blueprint: 

An overview. East border is to the left side. 

The eastern railway station head with the exit signs and the road underpass. Note that the exit signs stands next to the switch so that it rules both tracks! 

The following pictures show the same place from the different angles:

The western railway station head. The diverging branch serves only the local industry because of which it is only connected to the freiight terminal. 

The combination of smooth and sharp STR isn't very nice to look at but a first try ... 

That's it for today. I don't have more to say as the region is fresh as a one-week-old baby ... 

 Have fun! 

 Bernhard  

[danielcote 9]

nice towns I like it.

[art128 4,622]

What a comeback Bernhard ! that's looking excellent my friend.

Can't wait the next update,

Arthur.

[JanYpe 17]

Vive le roi.

Good to see you back in here, hope your coming year doesn't see you with as many problems and troubles as the last one.

[PhilsCafe 8]

Hallo Bernhard! Wie geht es Dir? Ich habe leider noch keine Antwort auf Deinen Kommentar gepostet.

I have been very busy recently myself, so I haven't played in a while either... rusty? not at all! Your settings look as amazing as always, even more detailed actually. You definitely are the king of rural (I was already worrying that you'd gonna do an update in French ... not that it would have been a problem for me though ). I wish you all the best for this new project, and RL of course.

As for the canal... the current trend is to renaturalise those. It's considered less damaging in case of floods .

Tschüss!

- Phil

[jacqulina 162]

hiya bernhard how are you my friend,hows the baby or should i say toddler now.long time no see.its great to see you back.and what a comeback.beautifull work and pics ad allways.i cant wait to see your hand terraformed region.take care.

[Benedict 3,119]

Great addition to Urland. And congratulations for making Phat's top 10.

[Twenty20 28]

Great new start, I especially like your work on the transportation network. Hope see more pictures soon.

[Nardo69 51]

Huhu! 

This time it didn't took me almost a year for an update!

But as always before we start:

danielcote: Thanks for the compliment! 

art128: Thanks for the compliment - and this time it didn't take as long as the last one!  

JanYpe: Yes, that was a long bad time ... not the first but let's hope it was the last!  

PhilsCafe: Hi Phil! It is really nice to meet good old friends - and as I can see the 2008 trixie for the best rural CJ went to someone who is worthy to continue what began with dhoppeii and me some time ago! 

French ... uhm ... well .. I do know a little bit of French but forgot most of what I learned in school ... so at the moment no danger by me! 

jacqulina: Jackie! Great to see you here, too! 

The short one is doing fine but he misses his father - I am here in Germany looking for a job while my wife & son are still in Turkey. I can see them only once in 2 or 3 month which is really, really hard ... Next week will be the next visit there and hopefully I can start a new work in May - looks rather good right now! 

Benedict: Thanks for the compliment - and you are right!   Boy, after almost one year ...  

Twenty20: Thanks for the compliment! Well this time I was a little bit faster ... 

Update 2: Ihnersteinberg

My new region is still small and at the beginng so you'll see here more technical shots (with Grid, yes). On the other hand this gives me the opportunity to show you how I work on my cities. 

In the last update I showed you the firstr draft of this update's railway station. The railway line has moved due to region requirements but now some developement can be seen:

Picture 2.01

We are hier basically in a small town next to a river with a railway line and an intersection of two important roads - I'd say a Bundesstraße (national road) and a Landesstraße (state road). The railway line runs parallel to one of the roads separated only by some farm fields (I saw such a layout so often ...) 

On the upper side ofthe picture you can see the only bridge on that medium and the river dike that protects the valley from the yearly high water - something you can see very often along the Rhine and other big rivers in Germany.

Picture 2.02

Now the Simulator has run quite some time. I regard the area between the dike and the railway station as a newer seddlement (after WW II) and zoned it low-density. The area right to the ralwaystation shall become the "historic" center build during industrialisation in the 19th century.

Have a look at the STR: This is not a railway line but just connects an industrial park to the railway line - not more than 3-5 trains per week are expected here. Because of this it even crosses the main road with a level crossing. 

The road that accesses the low density area however has no level crossing but an underpass resp. overpass - too much car traffic for a main line there!

Picture 2.03

The industrial park with the small railway track. It has a side track at the freight station (btw the ingame freight station is not so bad on such situations) AND the track also accesses the coal power plants. 

AFAIK most thermic power plants do have rail connection in Germany, power plant coal is mainly delivered by train and nuclear power plants need railway connection to carry away the nuclear waste!

Picture 2.04

The industrial park from another angle. Even though I later connected the industrial park with a second road there is still no direct access from the residential area as I don't want rat-run trafic here in order to funnel the traffic for my commercials. 

BTW I tried to Ctrl-zoom nice big lots but it didn't work out as I planned - my Region is just too small for that at the moment. 

Picture 2.05

The only bridge on that map - Like in real life I want to limit their number. You can clearly see the highwater dams here, too.

BTW can someone of you recommend a nice water mod to me that goes together with ploppable water? Someday even an oldfashioned old donkey like me begins new things ... 

TEASER:

Any one for railway station layout on a single-track railway line?  

And finally a "region view" - there isn't more in my actual region:

Have fun! 

Bernhard 

[art128 4,622]

looks excellent, once again, great railways system !!

[technicallydead 1]

love the farms...Good Luck and God bless!

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Nice looking updates here! I'm glad to see such a long-lived journal with such great pictures. The single-track rail is well-utilized and the infrastructure looks Google Earth-real. Great!

[jacqulina 162]

awwwwww i bet you cant wait to see them,its hard when you work away from home.take care my friend.

fantastic farming areas there,i allways love your rail layouts they are so realistic,you no its hard to build a good rail system,i do try lol but i keep forgetting to put stations in lol.so my rail has been not working.i will try to remember now lol.

excellent region view.

[Schulmanator 5,812]

The area looks like it is off to a fine start. You capture the feel of it well.

[Petrovar Ambassador 15]

awesome update! That region view is very realistic, keep it up!

[Nardo69 51]

Only a small teaser for the upcoming update(s): 

 

Answers & replies will come later! 

[Raysfan16 5]

Oh wow, that looks beautiful! Is there a file out there that lets you plop those fences? I dunno how the water is that clear next to the polluting industry....

EDIT- Nevermind, I just realized I have the RRP fences in my plugins!

[Benedict 3,119]

Nice teaser to follow that fabulous update... this is one of my favorite cjs because of your attention to detail - definitely an inspiration.