Gemini River Ridge - A Rural Development Project

[rklesc 0]

After being away from SC4 for about +3-years, and after having grown tired of MMO’s, I have decided to once again revisit SC4. I discovered in my search for entertainment that what I truly enjoy is the creative building within games. Unfortunately, MMO’s have a nasty way of bringing with them rude and crazed individuals that take pleasure in ruining other people’s experience.

Oh well…. Back to me, myself and I. The three of us have been spending the last couple of weeks rebuilding my library of custom content. I particularly enjoy the creations of Pegasus and Simgoober; and you will see a lot of their stuff in my upcoming CJ.

I grew up in Chicago and spent all my life living in major cities around the world., but I have always had a fondness for rural communities. As a kid I would spend my summers at my uncles place in Cedar Lake, Indiana. It was a summer vacation communities with some permanent residents, like my uncle, on the shores of Cedar Lake.

I enjoyed living there during the summer and spent my days walking around, swimming in the frigid lake and playing sandlot ball with the kids in the community. I also spent many a day traveling to Wisconsin with my family to enjoy the autumn colors and pick apples from the trees. Those were fun times with many fond memories.

I was also into model railroading, both as a child and adult and particularly enjoyed the high mountains of Colorado and the intrepid narrow gauge railroads that ventured in to the mountains to serve the mines. The Durango Silverton Railroad is still operating today for those interested in seeing raw nature from the relative safety of a train.

So that’s my background and interest and I hope to capture rural America in the pages of this CJ…. I hope you will enjoy.

Gemini River Ridge was selected as my region because it is relatively small and do not want to bite off much on my first go. The original map can be found at the BSC Lot Exchange... It is listed as “NHP Land Mini-Map Pack” and can be found here… https://www.sc4devotion.com/?lotGET=1499

Here is the description from the site…

The SC4Devotion community selected the NHP Mini Map Packs during a vote held in the NHP team room. The following maps won in the land edition.

1. Wilmer - beskhu3epnm and Jplumbley  (3x3, 769x769)

2. Gemini River Ridge - beskhu3epnm and Jplumley (2x3, 513x769)

3. Land Map 1 - blade2k5 (4x4, 1025x1025)

The file was uploaded February 2008.

Philosophy:

My approach to SC4 has always been to create interesting yet very believable environments. I enjoy the creative process, as I am an Architect by education but heading a Real esatet Development company in the Middle East (hence I hate to do modern highrise crafting as I do this for a living).

To craft believable environments means downloading a lot of custom lots and plopping to beat the band. Having 6 used car lots next to each other in the center of town is not my idea of believable.

Mods I will be using:

This is not an exhaustive list but highlight the main mods...

1. 6% Slope Mod - makes it tuff on railroads but also makes it very realistic;

2. No riots, no fires, no more teacher's dirty looks (maybe not the last one);

3. Columbus terrain mod with a healthy dose of Peg's trees;

4. NAM, but not the latest Jan release (my download was currpted and haven't gone back to get it);

5. SAM 3.0, but still haven't figured out how best to use it yet (nasty white boxes show up at the start point... HELP!!!);

6. Bridge Heoght mod;

7. Reward unlock, hate waiting for the good stuff;

8. PEG's eroded rock mod;

9. A number of PEG's facelift mods (terrain, trees, MTP and so forth); and finally

10. An assortment of other misc. stuff...

Let's explore Gemini River Ridge...

Gemini River Ridge is essentially a small land locked region that measures 2x3 large cities. The region has a large flat, lush, heavily forested valley floor leading to high plains in the middle and eventually gives way to towering peaks. A major river, the Gemini, runs through the valley and has a small creek, Snake Creek, entering it before opening up to a small lake. The Gemini also splits around a small island. This island could become a focus of high end resort living and entertainment.

The cities have been rendered with the valley floor heavily forested.

The valley makes an excellent place to establish the major towns...

The discovery of a variety of ores in The Escarpment has led prospectors to enter the area in search of riches. The Escarpemnt will become the focus of mining and, without question, will require the railroad to come in a big way...

I always like to run my major transporattion network first. This allows me to establish all the links I need but also establishes some real life constraints on town planning. So the heavy rail network and Interstate Highway systems have been placed.

You will see that the slope mod has effectivly curtailed willy-nilly road and rail locations and I was forced to conform to the geography. This was a major pain and took several hours but the results are stellar...

I selected Twin Rivers for the jump-off point for the creative process... As you can see, the major roads have been laid in and the first settlement location identified...

Now that all of the preliminaries are out of the way, perhaps I should give you a sneak peak...

You want to see the start???

{insert drum roll here}

Turn up your sound card if you can't hear the drum roll...

Ready???

Your suggestions and constructive criticisms would be warmly received and appreciated....

More development pics coming to a theater near you very soon...

[De Ja Vu 117]

Wow! Looks great! Very nice start. Just turn off the UDI icons

[Simbourgeois 139]

"Oh well…. Back to me, myself and I. The three of us..."

Seems you've some problems with your personal integrity

Just as most of us do...  Just love your sense of humour!!!

Good luck with your new CJ!!!

Simbourgeois

Mayor of Belleville

[fabsies55 5]

looks good keep up the good work. maybe a few too many region photos but its cool, nice job.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Hm, it's an interesting beginning you have here, very well thought-out. Looking forward to more.

[lifeless08 1]

Very good beginning, ive always wondered how you turn those things off, so how do u do it De Ja Vu

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull start and intro my friend,fantastic region views,very nice farming.

[Retrodude818 0]

Very pleasing photos, sir. I *love* FM roads, cheers!

[north country dude 207]

Your suggestions and constructive criticisms would be warmly received and appreciated.... quote>

Okay, here goes. A very nice idea and I wish you the best in this endeavor.

Although the first pictures do not seem to reflect it, I need to ask: "Do you have the latest release of the NAM?" Included in it is the Fractional Angled Roads (FAR) and the Fractional Angled Rail Roads (FARR) puzzle pieces. These should help create a more realistic transit network.

Additionally, the new(JAN-09) NAM is plug-in ready for the RAM team's Single Track Rail (STR) puzzle pieces and 'click and drag' single track rail. This will be coming out shortly, by that, I mean within a couple of weeks. If you cannot wait for that, PM one of the beta testers and they might send you a stable version of the beta.

Also, consider the latest version of the SAM,...and the Rural Highways Mod, beta version 3.0, so far, it is the most stable version,...do you have them?,...you did say that you spent some time getting caught up with the latest downloads. If you are caught up in these areas, then the only suggestion I can give you is to get a hold of the STR RAM, visually, it will be worth it.

Currently, I am in the process of creating a more realistic rail texture package for Lot building(to go with the STR), my development thread gives a preview of some of its applications,...bottom, page 6 and page 7,...here:

Of Railyards and Steel Mills,...page 6

I too, have created a rural region to test some of the stuff I'm working on, but not for a City Journal,...again, it is only a test region to make sure that any Lots I make and modify don't skew the game play. So, hopefully, my suggestions have helped.

ncd

[rklesc 0]

First... let's get some replys to those that stopped and added comments:

De Ja Vu: Thanks for the heads up on the UDI's... I hate those little buggers and forgot I could turn them off. They are now history.

Simbourgeois: "... personal integrity..." never, but personal identity... always in chaos. LOL

fabsies55: The region photos was just to set the stage and get a little of my approach out of the way. Region updates will occur from time to time but most photos from this point forward will be the creative good stuff.... I hope.

NMUSpidey: Thanks, hope to see ya back.

lifeless08: Thanks, and the icons can be turned off at the My Sims button.

jacqulina: Thanks for the complements and look forward to you coming back again. I like laying out farms as you will see in the updates.

Retrodude818: FM's have always been a nice driving experience for me... better than the super highways if you have the time.

north country dude: Thanks so much for the tips and heads up on your activities. Don't have the latest NAM as the file I downloaded was carrupt and never got back to downloading a new one. I have SAM 3.0 but haven't figured out how best to use it so far. I keep getting funny white boxes at the starting point. Haven't found the rural highways mod... any link would be appreciated. Your STR is looking good.

Thanks to all of your comments and look forward to many more. And thanks to all of those that took the time to stop by and have a look. I hope that the updates to follow will stimulate more interest and comments.

NOW FOR THE GOOD STUFF.... UPDATE ONE

The first town/village has started up in Twin Rivers. The town of Marblehead was built around the junction of the railroad, FM 121 and FM 2130. The railroad blasted a line through the hills and to serve the marble quarry started by an enterpeising young man named Ralph Sizemore. Here is an ariel photo of the town as it hit 1000 residents...

His quarry, although successful, was abandoned some 40-years ago when Palph fell on bad times and went bankrupt. The quarry has since been reclaimed by nature and water slowly filled its hole. The town elders are now thinking about turning it into a park. Here is a photo of the town center with the abandoned quarry below...

The residential neighborhoods are rural in character but delightful environments. Here are a couple of examples of the quality of life in Marblehead...

and another...

The farming community is doing very well with plenty of workers available and rich soil. 

...and one last photo of the farming life in Marblehead.

That's the progress for Marblehead thus far. I have started another small town and will showcase that in the next update.

As always, thanks for taking the time to stop by and hope you will drop a note. I am always interested in hearing constructive criticism as I ease myself back into SC4. If you know of some inetresting rural lots that could enhance the CJ then please drop me a link.

Till next time... have fun.

[fabsies55 5]

its looking fairly good, not much else to say really, well done.

[DarkEldar 6]

Definitely a great start, the region has great prospect and viable locations to build upon. Neighborhoods are realistic for the area and have that typical smalltown, USA feel. Also the colour of your photos looks kind of washed, it gives it that extra touch. Excellent stuff

I'm sure members here are looking forward to what you can create in this land.

[Simbourgeois 139]

A true countryside idyll!!! Looking great so far
I've noted that you're using lots of rural streets, though none of them is diagonal. In my opinion, it would add nice touch to have some diagonal streets as well

Simbourgeois
Mayor of Belleville

[jacqulina 162]

very nice update my friend,great looking farms,great houses scattered,great looking countryside

[Tomasneto 20]

Great work guy, very good!!!

[rainyday 2]

Hey, Great start

I think I know what you're talking about in your intro regarding the SAM and those ugly white boxes at the start. You actually have to buldoze the white part of the puzzle piece.

[Schulmanator 5,812]

You have me intrigued... I look forward to seeing more of this one.

[north country dude 207]

Rural Highway Mod is on SC4 Devotion: https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=853

Before clicking on the above linkie, make sure you are logged on to the download section, otherwise it will just error out. (ain't tabbed browsing wonderful?)

Also, one of the features in the NAM is the ability to make Streets at 45 degree angles.

dedgren is also working on a "Rural Road plugin",...more info about it is on his 3 Rivers Region project on the Devotion site,...have a look for some great ideas.

Do you have the SFBT Rural Power Lines? Those should be helpful.

So far, I think things are looking very "rural",...keep up the good work!

Btw, what rainyday says is true, just bulldoze the "white sections",...you'll be left with an odd angle section and a section of default Street. Just drag the Street over that and it will revert back to the SAM texture you selected without the "white" sections.

Peace!

[danielcote 9]

This CJ is beautiful I love the Farms the peg trees and the rock mod just adds to my intrest keep it up!

[Ntq€310 1]

wow, this cj looks very nice.

[rklesc 0]

Let's start this update with replys to those adding comments...

fabsies55: Thanks for stopping by again and hope you like the next installment.

DarkElder: Yeppers... I liked the region for the varied geography. Hope it works out. As for the washing of the photos, I am applying a 25% bronze wash to warm them a bit and cut some of the harsher/brighter colors from some of the lots. Glad you like it.

Simbourgeois: "...countryside idyll..." WOW. I do like the feel I am getting. It's been a long time since I have driven through the American countryside... been outside the US for 19-years now. Going from fond memories on this.

jacqulina: Coming from the master of nature and beauty, as you are, I thank you. Sad to say my farms pale in comparison to your master's touch.

Tomasneto: Thanks for the encouragement and hope you stop back.

rainyday: Thanks for the tip. North Country Dude clarified it even further. When I buldozed everything vanished but NCD made it clear now. Thanks.

Schulmanator: Thanks and hope to see ya back... and hope that I continue to deliver.

north country dude: Thanks for the link for the Rural Highway Mod. I downloaded that and the latest NAM... they make a big improvement. I went through Twin Rivers and changed the wide curves where I could. Wish I had this from the start. I have a number of SFBT lots including the power lines. Just haven't used them yet. And lastly, a big thank you for the clarification on those $%#@ white boxes.

danielcote: Thanks for the encouragement. I also love PEG's trees.... a lot.

Ntq$310: Another fighting Illini... cool. 

Many thanks to the more than 300 people that have stopped by since I started this thread. I hope everyone is finding it interesting, or at least not boring.

Since the last update I managed to download the latest version of NAM and went through Twin Rivers and adjusted the rail and road network and reworked some of the 45-degree curves. The wide sweeping curves in the latest NAM is well worth the download. My hat's off to the many dedicated modders that have contributed to NAM's continued improvements. I don't think Maxis ever dreamed that its loyal followers would be able to find so many creative ways to improve game play.

Now for the good stuff... at least I think it is the good stuff, but you be the judge.

UPDATE TWO...

I have been expanding Twin Rivers over the past day or so and added another small town called Pine Bluff. Pine Bluff was founded about 55-years ago by Thomas Snyder when he built his lime kilns along the railroad ROW. The railroad, recognizing a potential customer, built a small freight depot and the town soon followed.

We climbed into a hot air ballon and took it up to 1,000,000 feet, eh... maybe not that high, more like 2,500 feet. We looked around and took this photo showing Marblehead in the distance...

As you can see, the two towns are realtively close to one another, but operate on 2 different rail lines.

Pine Bluff is a bigger and more thriving town, compared to Marblehead. Pine Bluff is near the Interstate that runs past the twon below the bluff.

The town fathers decided to turn the central park into a farmer's market to encourage their residents to eat more healthy and to help the farmers in the area.

Another view of downtown Pine Bluff...

For the visually astute.... you will note that the Grain Elevator and Lime Kilns have moved. Hmm... I wanted to make room for the liquor store. Every blue collar town needs a BIG liquor store on the wrong side of the tracks (sorry for the mispell in the photo).

In an effort to stimulate their local economy, the town fathers created an industrial zone. They offered tax incentives and cheap land to industries in hopes of creating good paying jobs. Unfortunately, after 20-years, most of the land remains vacant and overgrown.

But the people are still happy and comfortable in their surroundings. They built a new school about 10-years ago and it remains the center of social activities.

One of the residential neighborhoods of Pine Bluff...

Another image of the neighborhood...

But aggriculture still remains the primary industry of the region...

I have been playing with different weeds and grasses for the pasture area. I would like your feedback on what I have so far...

So that's update two... drop a note and let me know what you think. And as always, your constructive comments and suggestions would be warmly received.

Thanks for stopping by...

[jacqulina 162]

hi my friend,thankyou,all that is different between my farms and yours is style we have different styles thats all,your work is beautifull,as i have said no ones is better than anyone just done differently,this update you have done is wonderfull,keep up the great work.

[SirUnger 13]

Wow, awesome pics. All looks so realistic and beatiful. I love this small town and the farm around it. I hope we will see more soon, keep up this fantastic work.

[danielcote 9]

Wow where did you get those farms I love how they're diagnal and so realistic especialy that one with the porch and I also love the Farmers market in the center of town!

[rklesc 0]

Hello all... sorry for the second post today, but I have been experimenting with ground textures a little for forested and "natural" areas in the CJ. Before I went too far I wanted to hear some feedback from the collective whole here at Simtropolis as to whether it is looking good or too heavy handed... 

Your feedback is important to me on this so please give me your constructive criticism...

The following shots zone in closer and closer to give you a feel for the area I have started with some closer images to give you a feel for the texture.

The next 2 images are the same. One with the 25% bronze tint applied like all of my images to date and the second is without touch-up.

...and without the tint...

I have been working on this for a few hours and didn't want to get to far down the path if it was too heavy handed...

Kindly let me know... the good, the bad, or the ugly...

[danielcote 9]

I like the bronze tint better and I think the textures are fine!

[Schulmanator 5,812]

I continue to be impressed and pleased with what I see here. You have a good eye for nice rural areas. Good work... and I look forward to more.

[rklesc 0]

Before I charge off to update 3.0 let me say thank you one and all for stopping by and taking a look. And to those that have dropped a note...

Jacqulina: You are still Mother Nature incarnate! Thanks for the complements and for stopping by.

SirUnger: Glad you like the pics, and thanks for the complements.

danielcote: Glad you like the farms. The farms are actually on the grid, the world is tilted (roads and fence line)... nice illusion. Don't remember what town I was passing though about 30-years ago when I saw this example. The central park was turned into a farmer's market. The only reason I put the two examples up was for people to see the actual texture without the tint. I too like the tint... it warms the image.

Schulmanator: Thanks for the complements. Now, after having been gone for awhile, I feel I am getting my touch back. See the new farms and textures and I like the feel of it all.

Now, without any further... blah, blah, blah...

Here's Update 3.0...

There was a vast rolling plain to the south of Pine Bluff. It seemed ideal for expansion of the farming community. Below is a before shot showing the empty plain to the south. 

After experimenting with the ground textures with the 2.5 update posted earlier, and getting comfortable with the overall direction, the farms have started to expand into the plain...

As you can see... I also added some residential development heading south out of Pine Bluff as well... more on that later in this update.

Here's a closer image of the farms...

I like the way the texture works with the farms in this rustic setting. It seems more realistic... your thoughts would be appreciated.

As we zoom in a little closer you can see how the texture works with the farms and rural atmosphere...

Now for some shots of the new residential neighborhood.

Let's spin the camera a little...

And one more spin...

I hope you like the progress thus far... I know I am a little slow and deliberate, but I am stopping to smell the coffee.

As always, please give me your constructive critisims and hope to post another updat in a day or two.

Have fun...

[jacqulina 162]

im loving the progress here i prefere the natural texture myself but thats me lol i dont experement much in that area i pick one and stay with it,beautifull rural your doing here,very nice details,the pics are wonderfull.keep up the great work.

[GMT 389]

not bad and a very good use of the rural... uhm.... rural... what was it called again?

anyways, the rural mod with all the cool new flowers... gosh I'm so out of touch with sc lately...

waiting for more neat updates!