Urland, a (mostly) rural coastline

[jacqulina 162]

hiya bernhard,awwwww thankyou my friend,i wont stop coming dont worry,i have been very busy lately but still popping in when i can.i havnt had time to do an update in my cj yet,but in a week or so i am going to do one.i hope your family and you are well.take carebtw your cj is beautifull.you have done so well with the countryside.

[Livin in Sim 83]

Hi, Nardo,

Mediocre, eh?  Well, your airport is just about as mediocre as your dam......I say it's a dam fine airport.  I like how you've integrated the railway and the light rail, and the canal is a nice feature, too.  I work with a German lady who hails from Stuttgart, so it's interesting to see it has been inspired by that city.  That's a thought to place them on the edge so they will line up to make a large one.  Has the result of the competition been announced?

The region is filling in nicely, and has good flow from city to city.  I'm going to have to go back and look at your metro areas some more when I have more time to appreciate the details.  And of course the countryside is up to your usual standards of detail.  I like the little farm trail by the highway.  I got very excited when someone mentioned modding a tractor skin for automata, but then I realized later they would be on the highways as well.  Yikes!

Hope this finds you well and enjoying life.  Give my best to the fam.

Bye for now.

--Liv  

[Keegan V50 15]

Superb update there my friend,you have really great skills in making agricultural towns and farms,looking forward to more!

all the best

victor

[Nardo69 51]

Hello To All!

A bit earler then before (yep, sometimes wonders happen to be ) a small update. No airport this time (but also no railway ...)

For those who are interested in the airport competition and maybe even in voting (for the others): 

You can find the pictures here and vote here. The competition ends on Spetmeber 30th. Of couse registration on Simforum.de is required for voting. 

But as allways before we start:

jacqulina:  Thanks for the compliment! 

You know, I doi miss you when I don't see a commen from you but then again RL can be VERY demanding! 

Livin in Sim: Hi Liv! 

Well, airports are not really what I am famous for ... glad you like them. About the competition see above. At the moment I am not even the last one ...! 

The flow of the region is always on my mid. Right after creating a tile I do control how it fits in. It pays off in the long run ! And the automata, well, wouldn't it be nice if we could fine tune all of the automata a bit? 

Victor Valdes: Thanks for the compliment! 

Now let's go into Medias Res and start:

Update Nr. 9: Rammelsbach I

Rammelsbach is both the name of a creek and the name of a small village with some farming and wood (yet to dThe The small map is still under construction. By now my focus laid on Ploppable Water and the river shore.

I chose PW instead of TPW because TPW made the whole creek look like highwater. I chose *cough*cough*'s PPond kit because of the extender pieces; with any kind of PW/TPW I had a gap under the NAM bridge.

The center of the village with the Church St. Ignatz. 

The shores of the creek (that formed a kind of small canyon) have been secured by large rocks.

 The Rammelsbach. 

I used the Jagged edge mod but somehow I couldn't smooth out the edges ... 

The only "Industry" in Rammelsbach is I-Ag. The form of the farm follows the area; in general I prefer rectangular ones (like so often IRL)

From another angle it looks rather OK for me. The empty area will become a forest - later ... 

What I really love is the small tree from Simfox's tree. IMHO it is the best bush modell by far available at the moment! 

The Rammelsbach flows into the Ihner, which I think ...

... I made rather nice here - at least I like it! 

The passenger ferry. I experienced a bit with the different rocks - white above the water surface, green at and below water surface due to algae etc. I am not completely happy though and may redo it.

A mayor road on a dam, to its left farms, to its right some woods and the river - I just like that setup! And with this picture I close this fast and small update (at least for me   

Have fun! 

Bernhard 

[TmiguelT 10]

Holly Simtropolis!! This is one Awesome Update. I love everything on it .. The creek, the farms, the houses on the hill and the road next to the Creek. Full Awesomeness .

Glad to see you back in action

[jacqulina 162]

hiya bernhard,how are you my friend.i see some really awesome work your doing here the detail is amazing.yes RL is a little chaotic at mo,im waiting for some bats to come out for my next update though so soon hopefully i will post it.take care and i think i would miss not popping in here to see your work and to see that ur ok my friend.

[Simbourgeois 139]

Such a scenic update! My favorite pics are the last few ones where the Rammelsbach flows into the Ihner - they look so realistic

And the overview, yes, the overview - what an idyllic rural scenery

Keep up the great work!

Yours sincerely,

Simbourgeois

Mayor of Belleville

[threeswept 12]

Yes, keep up the great work. It's always a pleasure to drop in...a great pleasure.

[Nardo69 51]

Hello To All!

I hope you are not too terrified but - your eyes don't lie, I am not ill but this is just my second update within a week. Seems to be that sometimes wonder really happen

But as allways before we start: 

TmiguelT:  Glad you like it.

You know I never really stopped playing the game,  I just sometimes need to put it on hiatus and most of the time I am a slow  player ...

jacqulina:  I would love to say these times pass by but unfortunately mine didnt pass by now ...

With the BATs that's okay - sometimes you really need something special for a special place! 

Simbourgeois: Thanks for the compliment, my old friend! I hope you like the new overview, too! 

threeswept: Glad you like it.

Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen, here is:

Update 10: Rammelsbach II

An Addition to the last update: 

I just modded the culvert so that it can be plopped on water - the base texture itself stayed transparent. The creek behind the street is a tad higher that the ingame water surface. Such small slopes aren't unrealistic.

Then I layed out some pebble stone textures and plants and ... eh voila!

I wasn't finished with the map last time. Today we are going to plant a forrest on that hill - more precise: a middle-european style mixed forrest.

Between the road / the houses and the forrest there's a HV line that needs to be kept clear off high trees etc. Here I just finished the primer.

I didn't want to have a forrest between road and HV line. Because of that I planted only some trees and bushes there. I began with this pine mono forrest but didn't like it so I continued with the mix treen. I didn't blast the pines to show the contrast.

From another angle. IMHO the most important part of a good forrest are the borders of a wood with their most of time different flora. No good border = no good forres ...

Right now the leaves of most trees have the same greyish green (they will begin to change colour in some days I think). But in May and June all trees show a different green and this is what I was trying to achieve so I used almost all trees from my plugins ...

BTW from that angle the jagged edge of the creek doesn't look too ugly ...

Another angle. The free area under the HV lines is covered by the trees. Love that shot!

The last bend before the border of the map. I couldn't do anything underneath the NAM bridge that's why it is so empty there.

This is what we did today ...

... and this is the overview of the map. Love those different greens - just like a mixed forrest in June ... 

That's it for today. Next time I'll finish this little map - and if you want to I'll do a small tutorial ... 

Until then:

Have fun!

Bernhard

[jacqulina 162]

hiya bernhard,hows you and the family.i am loving the first pic my friend very much,beautifull scene there.all your work is fantastic but that pic sure caught my eye.awesome as allways.

[Kryptowhite 9]

I love those little streams you make, very scenic. anyways, what is this inspired by? It seems somewhat german looking to me but I can't tell. Good job none-the-less.

[Mikeaut1 261]

Wow beautiful river and sweet rolling hills. Great work with everything.

[Nardo69 51]

Quite some has passed since my last update. I had been busy with the village competition over at simforum.de but now I am back with a small tutorial. There will be another final update of Rammelsbach before we move on.

BTW: I built the village for the compettion exclusively for the competion. After the competition will have been finished this weekend I am eventually going to show the village here, too! 

As always before we start: 

jacqulina:  Hi Jacky!  The small one is doing fine, at the moment he is sleeping like a little angel (but if he's angry he can be a small little devil, too! ) Glad you like the update, maybe you can use today's small tutorial, too!

Kryptowhite: Glad you like it!  With Germany you aren't wrong as I grew up in SW Germany at the northern border of the Black Forest. Hope you like my small tutorial, too! 

Mikeaut1: Thanks for the compliment!  It's always nice to see "old" posters come back!

But now for the tutorial: 

Nardo's way of a temperate deciduous forest

My home is Germany, or more exactly South Germany with a lot of dense temperate deciduous forests. I like the different tree mods but they have one thing in common: compared to the woods I love they aren't by far dense enough.

I tried then with SimFox's great tree models but if I placed them in the desired density structures get lost in an indefinable greyish green. Soi I developed my very own way to create the variety of green in the desired density:

That's the area I want to plant trees. The forrest roads are already laid out include a watchtower from kwakelaar's great city wall set as some nice eyecandy.

The basic skeletton of my woods mainly consists of two of SimFox's trees - the first is the "Big Round Tree" which is also VERY suitable for any kind of solitaire trees on fields etc.!

I plant them not too dense. Pls don't make my mistake and rotate the map frequently while planting or any kind of trees will look a bit ... uniform at the end!

The second "Skeleton" tree model is SimFox's Large Plane Tree, one of the most versatile tree model available at the moment. Unlike the Big Round Tree clicking frequently on the same place change the tree modell giving a greater variety,

The sekeleton is finished. Don't place these trees to dense or you might have problems to insert other tree models!

Here I added quite some CP trees, namely larches and broad leef trees. Deciduous forrest have a large variety of green (which I do like) especially end of May and in Junde so don't be afraid to mix different modells!

Note however that the larch trees are mainly located at the border of the forest which will lead uis directly to the next step(s)!

Forrests in my homelands mainly consists of two areas: the inner forest and the borders. While the inner forest is mainly dominated by not too much different trees as the big trees consume most of the sunlight the borders have a incrdeible number of different trees - larches, cherry trees, walnut and chestnut trees just to name some. In addition to them you find also a lot of bushes and scrubs in the lower area forming something as a wall between free fields and the wood.

This wall has an important function as trees do get sunburn. The trunks of the trees inside the forest don't stand sun (except for winter sun) and exposing them to sunlight will lead to the death of the tree.

In Simcity the forest border is IMHO the most important area of the forest as it is the area which is mostly not covered by other trees! 

In this example I will plant a lot of Simfox's chestnut trees at the borders.

Another really important tree model from SimFox is the Small Mapple Tree as it is the best model IMHOP for larger bushes and scrubs available - for fences as well as filers on the forrest border!

Not a European tree yet I like to plant some of the Eucalyptus trees in the forest due to its visibal big branches to finish the forest of.

And that's the result after it's done. Before I developed that method I prefered tree lots now I prefer Mayor Model Trees.

What do you think?

Have fun!

Bernhard

[TmiguelT 10]

Awesomeness!! i missed your last update ... Great detail around that culvert and the Hill looks awesome. Now, this tutorial was really useful. I see how you make the hill look more realistic

[Larks2242 251]

Very nice forest you have there Nardo

[Schulmanator 5,812]

Looks great! I love wooded areas and you have done a fabulous job with the details shown here and in the update above. I am impressed with your quality work and dedication.

[Nardo69 51]

 

Hello To All!

This time ol' papa Nardo is a little bit faster - partly because I intended to put last update's tutorial into today's update. But eventually I had to split them due to RL ... 

Anyway as always before we start: 

TmiguelT: Thanks for the compliment my friend! Hope you like the finished product, too! 

Larks2242: Thanks for the compliment! I hope you'll be able to create a similar one after reading the tutorial! 

Schulmanator: Thanks my friend!  But you know these are also the reasons why I will never be the faster CJer ever ...

And now let's go in medias res and begin

Update Nr. 11: Rammelsbach III (and final)

Last time we did the forrest tutorial in Rammelsbach so now we start in the middle of the forrest!



The watchtower on the hill. The RRP paintings are Green Rye and Big yellow flowers. I like them - they remind me of dandelion.



You can hardly see the access road through the trees.



The access road crosses the whole little forest until it reaches its border - defined here by another dirt track.



Another angle shows this nice view on the transitions from wood to fields. You can also spotr some of the older JeroniJ trees here - especially Ulmus and Aesculap add some nice green variation in the middle of the woods!



Another finished corner of the map!   This overview also shows how neat SimFox's "Big Round Tree" looks as a solitary tree!



The other corner of this border of the map is finished, too. I especially like the small country lane that goes up the hill between the two fields:



with some trees and RRP painting it turned out really neat I think!



Another detail with a raised hide. I showed it before. I like it in its very own simplicity ...



The shores of the Ihner reached now a state that can be regared as "finished" even though I am not completely happy with the shore on the right side of the pic.



And here we are: The finished overview!



From another angle. Building this map I developed the idea of the village competition I initiated and run at the simforum.de!

And as a last goody I'll show you a small lot that mostly disappears in its surrounding:



That's it for today!

Have fun!


Bernhard 

[Benedict 3,119]

One word: beautiful

[kingdiz_55 12]

This is a little like McDonalds. I'm lovin' it.

[Sambucy85 1]

Bernhard,

this is breath-taking. Thanks so much for the tutorial, too. Please continue to do such beautiful rural towns !

[Larks2242 251]

Cool a watch tower, what a great idea!

[TmiguelT 10]

Simply Beautiful there my friend. On your last picture, i can clearly see what you tried to do. We have a lot of those here in Florida and specially near the everglades .... Keep the awesome work

[Chptrk 86]

Beautiful town there! The farms on the hills look so natural, and the river going through looks great!

[art128 4,622]

Great update, Bernhard ! I like your method of planting trees. Also as usual, nice farmland !

[Keegan V50 15]

Wow thats an awesome rural town there Bernhard!!,it looks very realistic,great work my friend!

all the best

victor

[ironicepitome 0]

is very nice, ja!

[Nardo69 51]

Hello To All!

Some time ago I initiated and moderated the 2nd Thematic Competition over at the German Simforum. With 16 stunning villages in the preliminary round it was more that successful.

Now for the third anniversary of Sc4Devotion a very similar competiton has started there, too: The First Sc4Devotion Thematic Competition. This time I'm organising the competition with some other good fans and well known Sc4 players. To give you an impression what might be possible I'll present you my Simforum competition entrant translated into English.

But as always before we start:

Benedict: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

kingdiz_55: One Big Menu with a Coke and extra large fries, a coffee and ... ooops ..

Sorry, couldn't resist!  Thanks for the compliment my friend!

Sambucy85: Thanks for the compliment and Welcome to Simtropolis! Don't worry, at the moment I don't see no reason to stop, but you might recognize I am not under world fastest CJers ...

Larks2242: Well, you know, sometimes you only need to open your eyes in RL ...! 

TmiguelT: I guess you find them anywhere ...

Chptrk: Thanks for the compliment man and I am curious what you think about today's update ...

art128: The longer I practice the more I like. And with some practice it isn't so slow at all ...

Victor Valdes: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

ironicepitome: Thanks for the compliment my friend!

And now let the games begin:

Update Nr. 12: Leonhardt

The overview with the required building and places. Note that a shopping center wasn't required in the Simforum competition!

The budget. The village does make some money ...

Again the overview, this time a tad closer at the village

The church with the cemetary and the village plaza.

The church had been erected upon the basement of the Thermae of a roman castellum. The walls can partially be seen upon 80 cm above ground!

On the plaza you'll see one of the most important places to be in Leonhardt: Thorsten's Trinkhalle (a kind of refreshment stand that sells beer, beverages, fast food etc.). It's the best place to discuss the latest loss of the local sport club at a beer and a Currywurst ...

In addition to this the local pub "Wilder Mann" opens at 8.00pm and where else could you stay until you get your first beer in the pub?

The sportfield of the TuS 04 Leonhardt. Some say they are the worst team in their league and the only reason they weren't relegated is that they are already loosing playing in the lowest league ...

The townhall, built in not-so-good time. The grey street was the main road until a new road around the old center was built in the fifties.

The new village center. Around the new road a new "CBD" and some villa were built after the war.

In the eighties a supermarket was erected, well, not on the green field but in the middle of the forest - almost ...

Behind the new main road you can find the houses of the "High Society" of Leonhardt

The first seddlement after war had been erected for Sudetendeutsche, Germans, that were forced to leave their homes in today's Czech Republic after WWII. Most moved on to villas or other places but the houses stayed ...

This stair was necessary to guide the workers to the farms and the industry at the RR station. Today it is hardly used at all ...

The local railway line was electrified in the sixties for freight trains. The local freight terminal has been closed and removed years ago, today only commuter trains are stopping once an hour and direction at the flag stop that had been a RR station ...

Most people of Leonhardt were always working at  small industrial area at the railway station. It was the main reason why there had been bombing raids in WWII, too.

The old main road went down through this serpentine to the railway station and the factories. Today it "only" connects the old part of the village to the factories and the railway station.

The old bridge of the river Qualch had been erected in the 17th century. It survived some bombing raids without any remarkable damage but was eventually blasted by SS troups on their retreat on April 19th 1945 ...

After the War it was rebuilt to keep the typical view of the landscape.

The creek Sittersbach (from the left side) flows in the river Qualch.

And that closeup closed my entrant and this update.

Hope you liked. Maybe it encourages and/ or inspires you to take part in the Thematic Competition ...

Have fun!

Bernhard

[Larks2242 251]

Great update Nardo, your city looks really good!

[dfnva 34]

Amazing looking rural areas. .. wow!

-Dan

[jacqulina 162]

hiya bernhard hows you and the family doing,

amazing planning and detail as allways my friend.wonderfull citys and countryside.

take care