District of Wenzel | Update 116 - (Ouisconsin County) Morgan Town: Rival to the South

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Lovely update, keep it up.

[Pioneer 140]

May I request the dimensions of each neighborhood square?

May I request the dimensions of each neighborhood square?

[packersfan 667]

How do I create a base texture. Everytime I create a texture it just creates an overlay...not a base.

[SparkleMagic91 23]

I like the layout of the subdivision. It reminds me of the one down the street from where I live. BTW, how long does it take you to make the street map?

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments:
SimCoug: That is one great looking subdivision - The top down view could easily be mistaken for a picture taken from google satellite.
Bummer about you CTDs... Switching terrain mods shouldn't cause much many problems, but switching tree controllers mid-stream can really mess things up.  I thought you were just using the vanilla maxis god mode tree brush before?  Since you don't really need to use the tree controller in your older developed cities, I would just keep it out of your plugins when loading those - maybe that will help?

Actually I used CP Columbia Tree Controller before.
 
daTSchikinhed: Yes, that's the exact problem. When I switched from the Columbus to Olympus terrain mod, I had to load the old mod, delete all the trees, then plant new ones. I had CTD's every time I tried to zone/build over them. 
 
 
Other than that, I also notice you didn't have streets with grass (or sidewalks). As seen here, the streets also have a draggable version with textures and sidewalks. In the NAM31 readme there's instructions on how to create them.

I'll have to look into that about the streets with grass and sidewalks. That was an issue I was trying to figure out how to remedy by modding myself. Thankfully, you alerted me to the existence of a way to build these correctly. As for the tree controller, I'm hoping that when I went back into this troubled tile and used the "flora off" cheat and then loaded a new controller, that the problem will be remedied. I realize now what I did wrong...but unfortunately SAVED one tile doing it the wrong way...actually two or three...so hopefully the "flora off" cheat can wipe that away.

Aaron Graham: Lovely update, keep it up.

Thanks, I think this week's update will be a little lovelier. 
 
Pioneer: May I request the dimensions of each neighborhood square?

Approximately 50x50 tiles. 
 
SparkleMagic91: I like the layout of the subdivision. It reminds me of the one down the street from where I live. BTW, how long does it take you to make the street map?

I lived in a subdivision on the southwest side of Milwaukee for a few years. That is what I am aiming for with these subdivisions, not yet full fledged suburban sprawl...just a break from the grid norm. Depends on the size of the city tile I am mapping and how many streets I need to map, etc. Typically I can complete a large tile map in an hour or two. All depends on the complexity of the road network, how organized I am that day, and how well my brain is working at coming up with street names, though a great way to name streets is just to open up Google Maps to a random location or open a wikipedia page with a list of city names, famous people's names, etc. I tend to multi-task when I do anything. So I might get distracted reading articles, watching baseball or football, watching a movie or TV show, working on preparing for teaching, etc. All those things can lengthen the time commitment. Even as I am writing the tome, I have three or four other tabs open with articles ranging from MLB, NFL, Facebook, and MSN.

Always remember, when creating a map, layers are your friend, especially if you want to be able to go back and easily change your map later on. At first, I used to map out my streets and roads on the same layer (but of course they have different colors and I want the roads to be ABOVE the streets). So I would run into problems when I wanted to add new streets because they would then be painted ABOVE the roads and then I would need to REPAINT the roads. Now I just have two separate layers. Of course I need to merge the layers before adding the gray outline...but I must remember to save the working file prior to merging so in the future I can use the two SEPARATE tiles. I've sometimes messed this up and must redo the layers again in the future.

Update 93 - HOHLER: Page Park Subdivision Seasonal Colors
Today is NOT a repeat of last week's update...at least not completely. Same location but new colors! Seasonal trees! And SEASONS...hope you enjoy!

Dorothy Lane and Shadowlawn Lane during summer.



Dorothy Lane and Shadowlawn Lane during autumn.











Page Park during autumn.







Winter buries Page Park.







You are here.

 

You may be wondering what got me so interested in adding seasonal trees. Well of course I discovered the Jupiter Seasonal Mod which adds seasons to SC4...and if there is snow coming down we can't very well have green leaves on the trees, right? Current project: new international aiport and figuring out how to build my highways around it.

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

[SimCoug 5,977]

Awesome neighborhoods, and neat snow scene.  Let us know how the 'flora off' cheat works.  Keep in mind that will also destroy any MMPs that you placed as well.  Good luck!

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments:
SimCoug: Awesome neighborhoods, and neat snow scene.  Let us know how the 'flora off' cheat works.  Keep in mind that will also destroy any MMPs that you placed as well.  Good luck!

The cheat works well, except I am having major difficulties in my existing tile of Hawthorne, large tile, lots of CTDs when I eliminate all flora and then go to work deleting some grass tiles. Just feel the large tiles are really flimsy now in my game...seem the older the tile the more crash prone it is.

Update 94 - New Airport Sneak Peak
I've been working on the new international airport for my region, so not much else to show (though I was trying to get some pictures from Hawthorne). Sadly, the new project seems to be downsizing my region from large city tiles to medium city tiles. The Hawthorne tile seems to have some issues and is a possible candidate for being downsized and restarted as 4 medium tiles. It will be a bummer to lose the great work on that tile, but I can't seem to get any time on the tile as it is before a CTD. I'm also converting many other unpopulated tiles to medium instead of large, so future projects are not lost to poor performance. Oh, well.

 

So at this moment I am rerendering an alternate region with medium tiles to use to plugin to my actual region in places I want to convert. Hopefully, this works out. Hard to restart tiles and replicate the great stuff, but the second time might be better for Hawthorne (though I hold out hope).

Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

[vivapanda 422]

The last few updates I missed are amazing, just as the airport!

[SimCoug 5,977]

Converting large to medium tiles sounds like lots of work - I wish you luck.

[packersfan 667]

Converting large to medium tiles sounds like lots of work - I wish you luck.

 

Well, I've already rendered a whole alternate region with medium tiled cities arranged exactly where large tiled cities used to live and I've already switch over a few large tiles to medium...now to farm them up.  The hard decisions will be in regards to large tiles that contain those beautiful interchanges and/or city.  However, in both cases it is like ripping off a bandaid.  I'm having and have always had greater performance and CTD issues with large tiles, so it makes sense to nip the problem in the bud before I build up a tile with beautiful city only to be unable to finish the entire tile as seems to be the sad problem with my Hawthorne tile.  On the other hand, maybe the game was only struggling and crashing yesterday because I was trying to do too much multitasking on my computer.  I will try it again today to see if the CTDs are less frequent.  Besides swapping terrains and doing the flora off and then swapping tree controllers, I don't know what else could be causing the problem.  At one point brown boxes even appeared on MAXIS playground lots (original versions!)...maybe the computer was just overtaxed.  If the tile is playable I will not replace it, but I will continue replacing other large less developed tiles, so the future is less risky.

[packersfan 667]

Update 95 - HAWTHORNE: Penelope River Seasonal Colors
This was my intended update last week, but the Hawthorne tile was not playing well.  Fixed the issues (hopefully) and updated the flora to seasonal colors.  The is Downtown Hawthorne straddling Penelope River.

 
Overview of the Penelope River winding through Downtown Hawthorne.
 




 

 

 

 




 
You are here.
 

 

 
I downloaded this patch to increase the dedicated RAM for the game and haven't have any issues so far.  I constantly montior the memory usage of the game while playing the large tiles and since installing this patch the memory stays consistent and doesn't explode causing CTDs.  Happiness! ... for now.  
 
Check out the District of Wenzel Street Map to get an idea where we are.

[vivapanda 422]

This update is exactly the way I imagine a city form the Midwest to look like

[Benedict 3,119]

Another great trip to Wenzel, thanks!

[coolwiththecool2 827]

I would live in a neighborhood like that

[nas786 104]

This is such an amazing city.  Your suburbs are perfect.  Your road layouts, building layouts, knowing when to fill tiles and what to fill them with, everything is just perfect down to every last square.  Very inspirational city journal.

 

How do you change the angle of the pictures like how you did in post #738 picture 2 and post #746 picture 7?

[packersfan 667]

Responses to Your Comments

vivapanda: This update is exactly the way I imagine a city form the Midwest to look like

 

Thanks.  I miss playing SimCity, but I don't miss dealing with the stresses it puts on my computer.

 

Benedict: Another great trip to Wenzel, thanks!

 

 

Thank you.  More trips hopefully will occur in the future.  I've been sort of taking a break, relaxing, riding bike, watching baseball, putting together materials for ESL classes.  Hopefully SimCity will work when I return to it.

 

 

TayMay27: I would live in a neighborhood like that

 

 

Amazing how everything can look so beautiful in SC.

 

nas786: This is such an amazing city.  Your suburbs are perfect.  Your road layouts, building layouts, knowing when to fill tiles and what to fill them with, everything is just perfect down to every last square.  Very inspirational city journal.

 

How do you change the angle of the pictures like how you did in post #738 picture 2 and post #746 picture 7?

 

Thanks a lot.  I use the perspective tool in GIMP.

 

Never fear, this journal is not dead, just on a little break.  Right now focusing on preparing better materials for ESL classes and doing long bike rides when I get the chance.  I couldn't just abandon all this work.  Just a little tired of dealing with the hassles of SimCity on the computer.

[packersfan 667]

Finally got back to playing Sim City today.  Excited to hopefully build up this city again!

[packersfan 667]

Sigh, SimCity is not agreeing with me.  CTDs, just not working as well, oh well.  I'll keep trying to play, but it is sad.

[Luiz P. Romanini 132]

Aw, man

 

Good luck over there. I wanna see this CJ kicking butts again!!

[Snugies 91]

Absolutely exceptional I wish I could do that. The maps are also exceptional. The suburbs look great and that highway is stunning. Even more stunning your from China I would have thought you were born and raised in suburban America with that kind of sense of the layout of suburbs. Well Done!

Even the names of the streets are all exceptionally done.

[Benedict 3,119]

I'm sad that you are suffering insufferable CTDs.

 

On the positive side, congratulations on gaining over 50k views of your CJ - quite the landmark.

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments:

Luiz P. Romanini: Aw, man 

 

Good luck over there. I wanna see this CJ kicking butts again!!

 

Yeah, I hoping I can work around some of the CTDs...hopefully it isn't a widespread thing.

 

snugies: Absolutely exceptional I wish I could do that. The maps are also exceptional. The suburbs look great and that highway is stunning. Even more stunning your from China I would have thought you were born and raised in suburban America with that kind of sense of the layout of suburbs. Well Done!

Even the names of the streets are all exceptionally done.

 

Well, I am actually from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I just teach in China right now.  Thanks!

 

Benedict: I'm sad that you are suffering insufferable CTDs.

 

On the positive side, congratulations on gaining over 50k views of your CJ - quite the landmark.

 

Yeah, I really hope I can work around these glitches.  I would love to hit some more landmarks and see this city more complete.

[Snugies 91]

What else I am noticing by looking at your map right now is an incredible little detail. Your main avenues have lines of commercial retail on them. And then you have residential in the interior of that retail on the large avenue. You can see that in cities from a plane. Just pointing out another little detail that is making this district of wenzal so realistic.

[coolwiththecool2 827]

What else I am noticing by looking at your map right now is an incredible little detail. Your main avenues have lines of commercial retail on them. And then you have residential in the interior of that retail on the large avenue. You can see that in cities from a plane. Just pointing out another little detail that is making this district of wenzal so realistic.

 

i believe its spelled wenzel and not wenzal

 

and have you tried re-installing it?

[Snugies 91]

Oh I see now you are from Wisconsin and a Packers fan. I'm a football fan too, and I like family guy as well.

[packersfan 667]

Replies to Your Comments

Snugies: What else I am noticing by looking at your map right now is an incredible little detail. Your main avenues have lines of commercial retail on them. And then you have residential in the interior of that retail on the large avenue. You can see that in cities from a plane. Just pointing out another little detail that is making this district of wenzal so realistic.  Oh I see now you are from Wisconsin and a Packers fan. I'm a football fan too, and I like family guy as well.

 

Thanks for noticing.  I have been trying to make this city look as realistic as possible.  I loosely recreate sections of Chicago and Milwaukee within my city to help with my mental blocks!

 

coolwiththecool2: i believe its spelled wenzel and not wenzal 

 

and have you tried re-installing it?

 

Not yet, I haven't tried re-installing it.  I am planning on getting a new computer this next year and will see if the performance issues clear up on that machine or if it is something deep within the bowels of the plugin folder!  I'm feeling a little itch to play again, but I'm feeling very busy working on ESL stuff for school, but damn, those pictures bring back FOND memories.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Glad to see you back; hopefully you get your issues ironed out, and if not I have every confidence that your next city/region would be just as spectacular if not even better.

 

I have to say this is possibly the best CJ I have ever read, especially from a realism standpoint (bar none, and the "Google Map" is just incredible).  I've seen that we have similar playing styles anyway, so as such Wenzel is serving as something as an inspiration for my current region (featured in my CJ).

[Ke|is 3,338]

WOW, I really like the last region view posted here, you did an amazing work building this region !!

[Benedict 3,119]

Great to see you back, even if it is only to do a set of replies.

[packersfan 667]

Wow, time has flied.  I can't believe I stopped really playing SimCity back in April 2013!  Nearly three strong years of DoW with the ups and downs, CTDs, pox, etc.  Keep an eye out.  I might just get back into playing again.  I need something more productive to do during my "free time" instead of just refreshing Facebook, Youtube, and Gmail.  I can't seem to be able to play many other games because I keep getting the 0xc000007b error which has basically rendered my new laptop, bought specifically to help play SC4 and newer games, useless for gaming with a few exceptions....sigh.

Here's to hoping I can get all my files in the right places and start up the region and start slaying again.  Wouldn't it be nice if I could do some Spring (Autumn) cleaning in my plugins folder?  I wish.  Too bad it would probably cause massive problems in my various interconnected tiles.

Maybe I can get to Update 100 before the year is out.  I'll basically have to relearn how to use all my various tools like GIMP for picture editing and hopefully my map is still up on the internet and I can access that site.  Hopefully, I can kick myself into gear.  Miss the community.