The Iron Coast - Update XV - 04/04/2010

[mightygoose 92]

Hey, well this is a new project from me, but as to what it is, I’m not sure myself. Allow me to explain, earlier on in the year I was really impressed with a city journal by Antimonycat. It was called Endora and is sinking down the archives over at SC4D, regardless it was a really impressive representation of a steampunk environment that I have never seen done before and I don't think had. This really inspired me, although I have had a lot of false starts with cities for public display. Either way I diligently started preparing a region, a story and all that associated gubbins that comes with being part of a city journal. It was at this point I hit a snag.

There just didn’t seem to be the right map out there for me that hadn’t already been snapped up by other journalists. This probably shouldn’t have been an issue but for my ego and pride’s sake it was. I took the decision to create my own. Considering I had done no terraforming whatsoever, this seemed an unnecessarily complicated way of doing things but, what the heck aye? It was at this point I procured some squared paper and started sketching out my map.

A few days later I had not one map but three.Each map consisted of a coastline, mountainous areas scribble shaded, large settlements all marked, along with major motorways and rail links. Also marked were rivers that would have to be done with ploppable water. Again something I have virtually never experimented with. Although I had high hopes for the maps, I doubted my own terraforming ability could match up to these somewhat complex design ideas.



This peninsula had all the craggy, hilly coastlines that I wanted to nestle towns in between, while still allowing for some sizeable settlement on its more planar northern flanks. A large river and small islands provided scope for bridging too. I felt this map gave me all the variety a city builder could ever want.



The second map had a more flowing coastline with a much larger river inlet. That would form some approximation to a mudflat delta with a myriad of islands and sandbars to decorate in game. Along the banks I envisaged a huge sprawling coastal metropolis. Further east in the region there are some uplands and a raised lake. A slighty simpler map to create but not as much fun.



This final map, is mountainous for the most part with mountain lakes and streams aplenty. It also boast two large bays, and a river running up what I’d like to imagine as a glacial valley. This map with its high level of ploppable rivers and mountainous terrain intimidated me a lot but on the other hand was a sizeable project to get my teeth into and really learn the techniques.

I really couldn’t decide which one I liked most, so well I may have made them into one large region. Ok the three image above are actually the modified versions of the three maps, tailored to piece together in a large jigsaw puzzle, but the thematic elements are largely unchanged. This presents itself as a beautiful section of shoreline, known to me as the The Iron Coast. A combination of virtually every type of terrain possible in a swathe of land encompassing a staggering 6720km2, this presents problems in itself.



It was at this stage in April that I got a new job that took up a lot of my time, and as many before this project got pushed to the back burner. Strangely though the region just wouldn’t stop nagging at me, it was something I refused not to finish… so 6 months later I dug out all the files and well started the enormous ball rolling again.And it is the story of me trying to tell this story that presents itself to you. You with me?


EDIT:- It seems that i have to post some form of evidence of results, the cj content guide i the forum says that to merely state ones intention with the first post will alienate potential clients/viewers/knaves so here is a picture from an update somewhere in the future.



Either way i hope this sparks a few interested minds....
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[Benedict 3,119]

Wow, great name for a cj, great idea to make it steampunk, and i am amazed at the detail you went to in planning - thanks for sharing!

[Korot 6]

Ehm, 6720km²? Let's see: 1 large city tile is 4x4km, making for 16km² in surface area. That means that your area of 6720km² compasses 6720/16=420 large city tiles. That is a huge region, 20 x 21 large city tiles. Good luck terraforming that bad boy, and of course loading it. Will you upload to finished map as a SC4M, or greyscale file to the STEX when you're done?

Regards,

Korot

[Schulmanator 5,787]

I am intrigued and will be back (luckily, not alienated or knavified!)

[DCMetro34 576]

Wow! Awesome start! I will be back for more of the Iron Coast!

[Keegan V50 15]

Nice start here goose!,a very nice name choice for your CJ,looking forward to more

all the best

victor

[TmiguelT 10]

This is gonna be one mighty CJ ....

I can't wait for the next update.

[SounderBruce 173]

Impressive start!

[ironicepitome 0]

HOLY CRAP! Thats one huge ass map! Youve got my attention amigo, i will be back for more

[jacqulina 162]

great start my friend cant wait to see more

[Follarch 326]

Each one represents a city tile? Damn that's a LOT of tiles! Good luck with this one.

Great teaser image! 

[b22rian 153]

a very unique start here , goose..

i really love the hand written stuff at the beginning..

I feel it really adds a nice touch to what your trying to do here..

Look forward to the continuation with this..

Brian

[Hawkeye9 0]

Wow really awsome start!!! It looks like you have your work cut out for you!!! Definatly will be staying tuned to see how this CJ turns out!!!

[mightygoose 92]

Replies

Honestly I didn't plan this update, I just had some spare time this evening and decided to throw this in the ring. Hopefully after this you will see where I am coming from.

Benedict, thanks for your comments, i hope you enjoy what I have for you.

Korot, thanks for dropping by, unfortunately the region didn't quite end up like that but you will find out why in due course.

Schulmanator, to intrigue one of the most intriguing personalities on this site is a compliment of great esteem, thankyou.

DCMetro34, thanks for the compliment.

Victor Valdes, thanks for your wishes annnd congratulations on your trixie.

TmiguelT, nice pun, intended or otherwise.

ComputerGuy890100, thanks and yours is the only name I had to copypasta.

ironicepitome, thankyou amigo, I look forward to seeing you around.

jacqulina, a pleasure to see you, as always.

Archean, you think the hand drawn maps look scary, you wait for a couple of weeks and see how bad it really gets XD

b22rian, I look forward to hearing your feedback, I hope it's as insightful as I think it would be.

Hawkeye9, thankyou for your compliment.

And now without further ado, is a update written in a couple of hours.

2 - Why the Story of the Story?

I want to talk to you about why I am doing this city journal, and why unlike my previous failed attempts it may in fact succeed, beyond update number ten. City Journalling is something I have always wanted to be good at, however it is always something I have as yet not been able to find the right formula for.

My first ever CJ attempt was on a large fantasy map called Macedon and was done with primarily vanilla stuff. Unfortunately no pictures still exist from this journal, unless they are buried deep in the ST archive. Following this failure I soon realised that I had a fixation with massive cities, it was just finding a project that I could commit enough focus to allow me to get to that stage.

This is a good example of my early work, I was still heavily maxis based but I was starting to add mod’s to my setup. These images were uploaded in October 2006. This is post Macedon, and was my first experiments with no maxis in commercial and residential areas. It was over the next six month’s that I got a taste for alternative histories and decided to get away from maxis as much as I physically could.

My next brainwave was to go mad for custom lotting and make an oriental themed city based entirely on my own produce. This incorporated my own sidewalk mod (my first release on the STEX) and was a pipe dream to the extreme. I quickly moved on. I delved into interchange theory and transit manipulation for a while, and also went through a period of 3D modelling. When beta testing for the CAM came round in August 2007 I jumped back on the bandwagon.

This is a shot of the beta, playing with only maxis structures but modified terrain, an idea I also played around with for a while. I went back to the 3D modelling and started teaching myself some of the more intermediate render techniques, for application in Simcity four. And for another long period I had Journalling aspirations.

New NAM came out along with the SAM, and then the GRV project was started by mrbisonm after the demise of Nexis of Genesis, one of the greatest CJ’s of all time. I decided to take part, and got to about update 8 before I faltered, I was at university and things just kept coming up, although I honed some of my techniques during my time, and it was the first time I played with ploppable nature items, and the first time I ever attempted to deal with coastlines realistically.

I then had a series of stand alone cities that I didn’t journal about but just created eye candy with. This is one such example, back on the no maxis train firmly for good, I was trying to create realistic urban gradients and reduce the steeping of the transition between skyscraper and suburb. This particular picture is from around May 2008. From here on in I felt I was now merely polishing my skills as a Simcity player and that I had mastered most of the basic and intermediate techniques.

Late in 2008 GRV II was launched and I decided to have another go at it. I lasted 5 updates, hah, but to this day that journal attempt still contains some of my best work. My nature work was improving with each passing month, and my appreciation of the subtleties of plugin selection and urban flora was greatly increased. It was at this point that wide radius curves started appearing everywhere.

I wobbled off the scene over Christmas 2008, and reappeared in March with some silly idea about a hand drawn map. Oh and again courtesy of the Journalling code of conduct, another teaser for you. I hope you agree that there is clear progression in my work and that I think there is still room for improvement.

As you were.

[Korot 6]

Large update, well plenty of pictures for sure. It's nice that you have shown us your history in CJ'ing, and it indeed looks like you've improved (practice makes perfect), though I don't like the photoshopping, it looks to grey and some detail gets lost. However, your last picture I do enjoy, it looks somewhat like a RL picture, but also somewhat like a painting. The big tree right of centre needs to go though, it is to big for this area.

A suggestion though: Add a table of contents in your first post. Though this isn't really necessary right now, later on it will be needed, and starting now is better than having to do a lot of work latter on.

Regards,

Korot

[DCMetro34 576]

Terrific update! I like the oriental and the sidewalks a lot. Your custom content choice is excellent, and your landscaping is one of a kind. Everything seems to state-of-the-art. Keep up the stellar work!

[SounderBruce 173]

Wow...your history of CJing is even lengthier and weirder than mine... o_O

P.S. Just call me CG.

[ncvegas 2]

Looks like you've improved your cj's. Looking forward to what the Iron Coast brings.

[ironicepitome 0]

preeeeeeeetty (but old) pictures... good luck with ur uber gigantico map!

[TmiguelT 10]

This is bringing back some good old memories when simcity4 did not have a lot of custom stuff. I didn't know that you have such a long history on the CJing world. Although i'm not an old member here, I will be in every step of this new project . Some of the CJ's that you have mentioned were an inspiration for me to start playing SC4 " the realistic way"

[Follarch 326]

There's so many images showing such progression in skills. Fantastic display.

The last images definitely show professionalism. 

[dfnva 34]

Interesting stuff... I particularily like the hand drawn maps you made.

-Dan

[Larks2242 251]

Really cool update, what is that building in the bottom left of the 2nd picture?

[buildsolid 4]

Wonderful mix of pics, your improvement is visible by the pics, but does not change that even the "older" pics are amazing.

[mightygoose 92]

Replies

Korot - thanks for your input, i'm glad my ast is of interest to people, i am aware of the need for a table of contents but that will come abit later on, i know about the big tree, it was an accident but i thought i'd leave it there for abit of variety XD

DCMetro34 - Thankyou for your kind words.

CG - Thanks.

ncvegas - thankyou for dropping by.

ironicepitome - hopefully thats luck i won't need, but thanks.

TmiguelT - oh yeah its been a long road, and there have been many an inspirational CJ around to guide me on the path to better city building, i only hope i measure up in some manner and do justice to those who have inspired me.

Archean - kind words from a fantastic journaller, very much appreciated.

DFNVA - thankyou for your compliments.

Larks - it is a waste to energy plant, if you look through the apanese bat gallery on either site you are sure to find it, i think it is by atpx.

Buildsolid - thankyou for stopping by .

Now that i have responded to your wonderful comments, i can move on to the meat of the story. This update has been written and rewritten about four times, trying to decide which bits to put in which update. This particular method of mapmaking is as far as i'm aware never been done to the scale at which i have. so while the first of this series of posts gives you a taster, the followers will go into quite some detail. Plus i wanted to sneak another update in before the years end, so here i present to you my third update....

Setting the water

Welcome back, I know a lot of you are probably wondering how I can get on with such a large map. I decided that being that the full map was not a nice rectangle that could be converted easily into a useable region, I would have to play the area as three separate regions in game with the same plugins, and do any mosaic stitching as necessary. Simply because it is my favourite map and it has the most variety the Vagrant Peninsula will be the first of the three maps to get converted.

Now that we have our hand drawn map scanned/photographed nicely into my computer next was to try and translate that into Simcity 4. There is really only one method to convert hand sketches into maps, and it’s essentially tracing. The way I chose to do this is not the simplest. You will need a good photo editing suite such as Photoshop, the mapper, the terraformer, patience and some spare time. Here is a brief rundown of the steps.

You need to know your config.bmp size, you need to multiply these dimensions by 64 then add one to each. This gives you the size of your grayscale canvas. So for me it was:

(40,56)×64+x+y=(2561,3585)

Next I needed to figure out what heights corresponded to which colour grey so I booted up the terraformer, created a gradient from ground level down to the bottom of the sea, and exported it as a grayscale image.

Load this up in Photoshop along with your canvas, which you should fill with 100% black and edit the image type to 16bit grayscale. Paste in your scanned/photographed map as a new layer and resize to exactly fit your canvas to the pixel. Using the lasso tool carefully cut round the majority of your landmass; alternatively use the magic wand tool, dependant on whichever seems to be having the best results. 

Once it is all selected, hide that layer and bucket fill the selection with a grey that you know to be above sea level. Try to use the grey closest to that level to give you more flexibility later. You can flit back and forth between terraformer and photoshop if necessary to get the right heightgray (new word, you all get the meaning right).

Invert the selection and pick a large feathered brush with a lower, darker heightgrey, border your landmass to give some basic shallows. Save this file as your working map, then delete all layers apart from your canvas, save this file as a PNG file, this is your first test region. Boot up the mapper and then create region using this PNG. My result was:

Go back to the working file in Photoshop and select a lighter heightgrey than your land grey, using a large feathered brush gently apply some low hills. Start experimenting after about 120 minutes I had got what was starting to be some semblance of my original map or so I thought.

Next time we will come back to Photoshop where I learnt some hard lessons in how I had bitten off significantly more than I could chew. Although again I haven’t really shown you anything particularly exciting so here is one last shot showing that the terraformer can make beautiful pictures….

Have a happy new year, although shadow assassin & csgdesign are already well into 2010.

[Korot 6]

Are you going to make all cities on small maps/tiles? Also: What do you mean by biting of more than you could chew? Are greyscale maps just not accurate enough, and thus you experience hight jumps? Though I agree that the coast line does need some smoothing out, as these cliffs are a little on the steep side of things. I wonder what the next update will bring.

Regards,

Korot

[ironicepitome 0]

wow, you REALLY must have a bunch of patience.

[SounderBruce 173]

Good work with the peninsula! Can't wait for development!

[TmiguelT 10]

Wow. That's such a beautiful ( yet hard) work to do. You really are planning this city very well !!

This indeed will be a Mighty City Journal that will end up on the Hall of Fame.

[Follarch 326]

My word here comes the behemoth of all regions.

Is ST ready for such a large map? Really nice work you're doing here though, this is cool!