Lanner Delta

[pierreluc 3]

Good day everyone, after browsing in silence, I have finally decided to post a city journal.  Bear with me since it is my first but I will endeavour to respect all the rules.

I am starting a new region, called the Lanner Delta, which is based on the Katalla map from flamesrock, which I have lenghtened and softened for gameplay.  I loved the Digby CJ and I also am trying to start out with a realistic enough region, based on farming, which I plan to grow very slowly, organically.  For instance, I am not sure where any downtowns will be, the sims will eventually guide me to find it.  

Logistically, I am using few modds, except for the NAM, the Meadowshire mod for terrains and trees (as well as the no palm mods), the bridge height modifier, and the mod whose name escapes me that gives extra cash to start.  Despite this latter mod, I will grow slowly, and in a fiscally responsible manner.

[ Mod note - Please use the edit button to add further updates in a short space of time if there have been no replies made to the CJ. - abcvs]

Thanks abcvs, I did not know I should place several pictures within a single post and notI parse them out for room.  I'll keep all updates of a single region within one post.

[art128 4,618]

Hey pierreluc, I like your region very nice !! I can't wait the first image of the city !

Arthur

[Tia-may 0]

Good idea hoping to see the first image of your city soon.

[jacqulina 162]

great intro my friend,nice looking region there

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Great region, but I'd appreciate if you could post your pictures without links.

[spore415 5]

nice region you have, lots of waterways, which can prove later on to be hectice to build around (with all the bridges and parks and so on). but, i am more than sure that you can handle this! i hope this CJ works out for you!!!!!!!

Best of luck,
Spore415

[pierreluc 3]

Hi Edmonton,

I thought from the CJ rules sticky that we were supposed to host pictures off simtropolis to save bandwidth, hence the imageshaft link.  As a "veteran" you may know something I don't if there is a way to otherwise post images.  Can you share your tip?

[Rictiovarus 1]

If you reply to a topic, you'll see, above the text box, a button for images. It looks like a mountain and a sun. It opens a new screen, where you can enter the url. It will then show up as an image.

Other than that, awesome region.

[pierreluc 3]

Checking to see if I can indeed embed the image rather than refer to a link.  Thanks people for the help.

[edmonton_stinks 5]

There you go! People don't like clicking things and going elsewhere (myself included), so if you don't post your images that way, you stand to lose an audience. It sounds like Rictiovarus has given you a pretty good description of how to, but if you want some more detailed information, try clicking here.

Hmm, the hyperlink seems broken.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=148&threadid=77004&enterthread=y

[Tia-may 0]

Very nice region view. Yes, I have once posted images in PNG but it caused problems in IE6 so now I am in process of updating my CJ to be .jpg only.

[fabsies55 5]

awesome region and btw one of you islands looks like a retarded version of africa lol

but i hope to see some city picks

[nottheboss 1]

Great region

can't wait to see it develop

keep it up

[pierreluc 3]

Our first update looks at the little town of Rainford (pop 5300 by Sim Year 5), in the upper right corner of the region.

Rainford, named after the fact that it long hosted one of the few bridges spanning the Lanner river, has historically been a quiet, largely agricultural town.  Its North side has traditionally seen itself as the nice side: the land is a little more fertile (all the more to grow beans in abundance) and a little more staid.  The South side, up until recently, has lagged behind the North side.

You will note, winding its way down from the North edge, Regional Road 37, which the North Side residents affectionally call Jolliff Road.  RR37 crosses the Lanner through a stone arch bridge before eventually merging into Regional Road 45, its counterpart of the South Shore, and moving out of sight to the SouthWest.

[pierreluc 3]

The North Side's staid comfort was maybe best exemplified by the Jolliff family, which could trace its ancestry back to the first settlers of Rainford, way back when the town spelled its name with a "y".  The Jolliff, timid investors, had finally decided to upgrade the local smithy into a full-fledged smelter.  This showcase of Jolliff inventiveness and entrepreneurship was built right next to the Jolliff mansion, on Jolliff street (which out-of-town land surveyors and mapmakers stubbornly keep referring to as Regional Road 37), just a skip away from the bridge.

[pierreluc 3]

However, the Jolliff pride was short-lived as the industrial revolution swept SimNation, notably through the construction of a network of railways.  While the Lanner Valley remains, even today, a bit of a backwater, city engineers did extend a minor railway line into the valley but, alas, chose to do so on the South Side, where the lay of the land was more favourable and where construction would be less disruptive to farming.  

As a result, industry developed on the South Side of Rainford, in particular around the Baltic Flour Mill (courtesy of Simgoober), where local farmers could separate the wheat from the chaff, and yield quality flour.  Poor, disposable labour consequently settled near this hub of industry, no matter the disturbing colour of the air.

[Follarch 326]

Amazing Delta region! Terraformer? Or ingame? Looks way too complicated for an ingame terraform. Way to go, and I'm lovin' the small farming community. There's a lot of potential in this Delta region to create a sprawling metropolis with harbor after harbor.

Keep it up! I see a lot of custom content in there, which makes it look all the better. Awesome trees, landscapes and buildings. Great work.

MiloArchean~

NFR Prime Minister

[pierreluc 3]

I must not forget to give thanks for comments and tips!  And the resemblance to Africa, which I had never noticed myself, is purely coincidental (I think, unless flamesrock who designed the map hid it in there!).

[DetroitINC 0]

Great Job so far! I like how your growing you city slowly, and with a story line. You have sparked my intrest and i will continue to watch!

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work and pics my friend

[nottheboss 1]

nice development

good combination of maxis and custom

keep it up

[fabsies55 5]

nice suburbs and farms aye.

those farms actually look pretty good.

[sammerhammer747 0]

wow ya i really like that map!! excelant job on the terraforming!! do you have plans for the CBD on one of the islands?

[pierreluc 3]

Thanks everyone for your feedback and patience; often real life interrupts the Simlife!

Today, we travel Southwest along the Northern shore of the Lanner river.  Leaving Rainford, we run across three small farming communities: Blackfield, Gowan and Norbury.  We'll take a closer peak at the latter two.

The tail end of Blackfield is seen at the top right corner, but Thorps road quickly runs past it before curving around Gowan creek, finally angling South again through Norbury.  Gowan, in the center of the picture, consists of but a handful of farms.  Buttercups abound in Gowan (note that Gowan is a local name for these flowers) but they are poisonous to cattle, so their ubiquity in the area hindered most local farmers, who moved to better land.  Still, Gowan can be a charming place, especially every April and May, when it is awash in a sea of gorgeous yellow flowers.  Some say that, oh, maybe a generation ago, a famous impresario came down from the capital and turned the following local ditty into a pop hit:

Buttercup, buttercup,

Butty cuppy, Buttercup

Buttercup!!!

[pierreluc 3]

Next we come to Alweston, where the Lanner river finally opens up towards the sea.  However, rather than expand into a vast bay, the river pours into a shallow delta, filled with islands, reefs and shoals.  The Lanner river, as a result, is virtually closed to navigation, as nothing but the smallest fishing boats can handle its tricky mouth.  Sea traffic, if any, will need to be located further down in the delta, where enough open water enables it.

Right at the mouth lie the Cutters (area 1 on the map), so named for their ability to cut up the hulls of daring ships.  The first sizable island of the delta is Praine Island (area 3), which is so far very sparsely inhabited; only small personal crafts can dock there.  Between Praine Island and the mainland is a narrow channel filled with treacherous shoals, which can only be crossed at high tide, and only by skilled fishermen.  These are called the Blundering Shoals (area 2), as people tend only to end up amongst them by mistake.

[pierreluc 3]

Taking a closer look at Alweston, we see Thorps road coming in from the top, skirting the bridge and angling West to a roundabout.  Alweston, unlike Norbury and the other hamlets around it, has diversified its agragrian economy a little, thanks to the odd manufacturing establishments.  Lying on the North side of the Lanner river, hemmed in by hills, Alweston was not on track to a rail connection to the modern system running on the South shore.  It was simply impossible to economically justify the construction of a rail bridge to a community of only 3000 souls.  

In fact, Alweston did not even have a foot bridge across the river; people either crossed by small boat (not even a ferry service existed) from the pier at the foot of Stoddard street or drove up to Rainford to use its bridge.  A compromise was found when Barnaby Baxter, who owned farmland along Thorps road offered to donate his land for a bridge, for free, with the condition that the bridge would be named after his late wife (or at least what he called her).  The Lady Margaret bridge was thus built.  This southernmost span across the Lanner allows Alweston to truck produce to the main rail line across the river.  Below are closeups of the pier and bridge.

[pierreluc 3]

The pier (credit to Pegasus), with the Loan Shark office next to it (a pure coincidence as sharks are otherwise unheard of in the Lanner river)

[art128 4,618]

nice development !! I like the fields !

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull looking rural there my friend

[pierreluc 3]

Today's short update takes us to the Blyth river, which flows quickly between the hills, westward into the Lanner Bay.  The confluence of the Lanner and Blyth rivers (just off the western edge of the map, by area 1) results in some pretty tricky boating conditions, especially when the tide's effects are felt as far up as their estuaries.  For most of the year, the Blyth is a joyous, if minor, river.  It roars, however, for a couple of weeks every Spring when, all of a sudden, it struggles to carry the melting snows of the surrounding hills.