Ocean Point

[Chris M 406]

Hey comdude, yay an update, I like the overall view of Crosstown, and downtown crosstown, all the pictures look nice. I especially liked the bay front pictures, and the south oaks district pictures.

-DragonAnime

[RadioheadFan 1]

I can't wait to see what you do with the supposed new areas, rural is my style, so that's really exciting!

RHF

[nooneatall 6]

Great updates, the past few I've looked over are great!

About extending your region:
If you plan on extending it to the west/north, then I would probably NOT use a greyscale, for the sake of your existing cities (terrain not matching right), and if you extend it to those sides, make sure to leave yourself A LOT of room, even leaving quite a few tiles of pink(0,255,255)in the config, as it does not display in the region but lets you change it to actual cities later on, instead of re-importing the cities later on, if you think that you need another expansion.
Trust me, doing it once is a pain... let alone twice...
An expansion further down the cost would be nice too, maybe you could have some casino/resort coastal cities, a little south from the main cities...

But, there's definately potential for country regions in Ocean Point as well, should you choose the western expansion.

Hope you get to read my long-winded post

Looking forward to some progress on this...

EDIT: Welcome to page 28!

[Darmok 34]

Hey comdude,
or should I rename you The King of Diagon Alley
And the King strikes again, man I just love the way you use those diagonals, and I guess that when the diagonal street mod will hit the (street!) You'll be the first in line!

Great update! Those suburbs of yours are just right!
As for suggestions, the only thing I can think of is this, perhaps try to terraform your beach just a bit so to have longer beaches behind thoses houses!

Great work !

Take care.

[comdude21 6]

First, the Page 28 TOC:



DA: Thanks for the compliments, and I'm glad you liked the update.

RHF: Actually, this CJ started out pretty rural (On the first 3 or 4 pages). I'm definatey also excited to do something other than cities and suburban areas for a change.

nooneatall: Thanks for the compliments, and for the great input. The stuff you mentioned will definately be a huge help for me, I'll try it out with some test regions before doing it with Ocean Point (I had a config.bmp disaster and lost a lot of work a while ago, so I have to be careful). And I definately plan on putting some resort towns in the southern expansion, great suggestion.

Darmok: Thanks for the compliments, and The King of Diagon Alley, well that's an honor! Diagonal roads have always been one of my main trademarks. And as for those diagonal streets, when they come out, expect to see some in the region's expansions.

I'm glad you like the update as well. As for the beaches, you have a great point, although there is a reason why they are small. That beach is supposed to be the beach of a back bay, with small waves and small, marshy beaches. It's tough to get that kind of effect in SC4. In Ocean Point, though, the beaches are wide because they are ocean beaches. But that makes me think, maybe I should extend the beaches in other oceanfront areas, like North Beach, Oceanside, etc.

To All: A one-picture update (If you want to call it that) should come tomorrow morning, and it will be a detailed satellite picture of Crosstown and the surrounding area, with town, township, city etc. names superimposed on the picture.

[kingofsimcity 5,739]

Haven't checked in here in a while.

Crosstown looks great and you use of diagonals is amazing!

Regards,

KOSC.

[comdude21 6]

King: Thanks for the compliments, nice to see you back here.

To All: Here is the small update. It only has one picture, but it should be useful. It includes the part of the region I've been focusing on recently, the southwestern part. Sorry if it looks blurry, it was blown up. Here is is:

[RadioheadFan 1]

Looking good comdude! I like how the region flows together as one city, the boundaries between cities are seamless. Keep it up!

RHF

[ephorex_77 0]

I really like the sprawl and the transportation system .

[jacqulina 162]

looking very good

[comdude21 6]

RHF: Thanks for the compliments. Seamlessness is one of my biggest goals for this region, so it's nice to be commented on about that.

ephorex: Thanks for the compliments.

jacqulina: Thanks.

To All: The next update should come rather soon. However, I have a question about the config.bmp extension that I plan on doing. I used a test region, with the same config.bmp file that I am using for Ocean Point. With the goal to extend this region to the west, I did the thing where you put the pink in west of the region, so I could turn that area into city tiles. However, the city that I had incorporated (To see if it would work or not), Landsville, disappeared after I changed the config.bmp file.

Either I'm doing something wrong, or it isn't possible to extend this config.bmp file to the west. I need help with that part, though. Thanks.

The southern extension shouldn't cause any problems with the region, as the location of the current city tiles will not change. I definately plan on working on that in the near future.

[dhoppeii 12]

Yeah, the region looks incredible....As RHF said, very seamless.

[Chris M 406]

Hey, com

The region photo was very nice, and I like the look you have, and I remember talking about this earlier, did you ever get a RAM upgrade, that question just came up on me.

-DragonAnime

[comdude21 6]

dhoppeii: Thanks for the compliments, and like always, it's great to hear that this region is seamless. Seamlessness is one of my main goals.

DA: Thanks for the compliments. I have 1024 MB of RAM, but that is on my new computer. The early pages were from my old computer, which has 512 MB of RAM. I haven't upgraded my RAM other than getting a new computer in a long time, back when I was working on Ocean Cove-Palm Shores, if I'm not mistaken. That was in 2003.

To All: I just couldn't resist. I've been doing a lot with CycleDogg's amazing tree mods. I'm even working with them in Ocean Point, integrating the pines to this region. The Maxis oaks are nice, but having so many of them and no other trees is unrealistic. I've been working with the Shore Pine, which looks very much like the Pitch Pines which make up most of southern New Jersey's Pine Barrens. Considering this region is set in southern New Jersey, along the coast, I've been doing some work with the Shore Pines (Which are incredible, great job CycleDogg!), and I have some pictures of the work that I've done.

I'm not sure if I'm going to make it predominately oaks, predominately pines, a mix of pines and oakss (Which is what I have now, although there are a few more pines then oaks), only oaks, or only pines. All of these possibilites could become a reality.

In southwestern Pinewood County, I've done work on the trees in Pinewood, East Pinewood and North Pinewood.

This is East Pinewood, a bustling town on the outside of the Ocean Point metro area. I used predominately pines in the western, almost undeveloped part of the town, with mostly oaks in the eastern part ot the town.



Here is Pinewood, a small town to the west of East Pinewood:



And by using CycleDogg's great burnt lodgepole pines, I was able to make a fire-devastated area in North Pinewood. In case you were wondering, forest fires are a part of life in the Pine Barrens. Fires are actually very helpful, if not necessary for the forest's growth and survival, if I'm not mistaken.



I need all the feedback I can get on the forest changes (Positive or negative)! Thanks.

[RadioheadFan 1]

Wow, you've really spruced up the Pinewood area with CD's trees! You obviously utilize the trees very well, I especially like how you created the fire-ravaged area. If that was near Marshland, I'd think that the trees were damaged by the tornado.

RHF

P.S. 1500th post!

Wow, I couldn't think of a better place to post it! Go Ocean Point!

[helomoto 28]

Congrats on that RHF,

the low level city looks very realistic.

[comdude21 6]

RHF: Thanks for the compliments. The thing I'm not sure about with the trees is how nice they will look as a whole, especially from the region view. I may make another back-up copy of Ocean Point, just in case the trees go wrong. But I think they will work for realism's sake.

Congrats on the 1500th post. I'm honored that you chose to post it here.

helmoto: Thanks for the compliments. Low-rise areas are my specialty, and realism is my number one goal, so that compliment is much appreciated.

To All: Tonight, I'll do some more work on the trees, maybe enough to show some regional pictures and such.

[Jetty Jockey 186]

Date: 5/3/2005 5:10:07 PM Author: comdude21 ..... However, I have a question about the config.bmp extension that  I plan on doing. I used a test region, with the same config.bmp file that I am using for Ocean Point. With the goal to extend this region to the west, I did the thing where you put the pink in west of the region, so I could turn that area into city tiles. However, the city that I had incorporated (To see if it would work or not), Landsville, disappeared after I changed the config.bmp file. Either I'm doing something wrong, or it isn't possible to extend this config.bmp file to the west. I need help with that part, though. Thanks. The southern extension shouldn't cause any problems with the region, as the location of the current city tiles will not change. I definately plan on working on that in the near future.

quote>

 

I've also been working on expanding my region and have had quite a bit of success expanding it ; one zone each south and west and 3 zones north and east.

 

N N N N N N N N              N - new Tiles  O - tiles from the existing region

N N N N N N N N

N N N N N N N N

N O O O O N N N

N O O O O N N N
N O O O O N N N

N O O O O N N N

N N N N N N N N

 

I began by making a duplicate of the existing region folder, just to be safe. I then created the new region, with a new config.bmp to give me the region shown above.  After that, it just became a simple matter of importing the existing cities into the new region from the duplicate of the old region. After reconciling edges in the new border tiles, I'm ready to begin terraforming in new territory.  Hope this helps.

 

[comdude21 6]

JJ: Thanks for the great input, I'm ready now to extend the region! The importing plan was one that I had been greatly considering and now have decided that I will use, after you showed me what you have done here. It might take a while to import cities such as Ocean Point and North Beach, but it should be worth it.

That is, if I do extend the region to the west. The problem is, I don't know if there is enough stuff out to the west of the region that would be realistic and look nice. It would be the Pine Barrens, so at least some neat natural features would come into effect. However, I do plan on extending the region to the south, possibly before I extend it to the west.

Again, thanks for the input, it certainly will help me out a lot.

To All: Later tonight, I may provide a regional shot showing what the new trees look like. I'm still not completely certain if I'm going to keep it like this. That is why I need as much input on the trees as I can get, to decide what I should do (All information on the trees is in the last update I made, which has the pictures with the pine trees in them). Thanks.

[Mikeaut1 261]

Wow I missed alot! This loosk fantastic, the trees and the political map! Can't wait to see more!

[comdude21 6]

Mikeaut: Thanks for the compliments, and I'm glad you like the trees! I really like them too, and good thing others do too, because I think the change will be permanent.

To All: Here is the first regional picture with the new pines. Only a small portion of the region has been treed so far, but eventually, I plan on treeing the whole region, of course.

[RadioheadFan 1]

Wow, it almost looks like the tiles are non-existant with the dark colour of the trees! Great work!

RHF

[comdude21 6]

RHF: Thanks for the compliments. Your confirmation is all I need to continue with this now, because I like it a lot too. Thanks again.

To All: If anyone was wondering, the new mix of trees for Ocean Point is supposed to replicate the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. The real-life Pine Barrens is a very large coastal plain forest consisiting mainly of Pitch Pines, Oaks and Cedars. There is tons of water stored below the Pine Barrens underground, helping to give the region a very sandy soil. Thus, I am using the Maxis default terrain in this region.

Many thanks to CycleDogg for creating the trees and tree controllers, as they are truly amazing! The Shore Pine is the tree I am using as my pines, and it looks a lot like a Pitch Pine. Thanks again, CycleDogg.

If anyone (Other than me, of course) is familiar with the Pine Barrens or a similar real-world region (Such as Long Island's Pine Barrens, which are similar to New Jersey's), I'd like to know how I'm doing with these trees as far as realism is concerned. Thanks.

[flanig407 0]

I like the way the trees look surrounding that one city.  Gave me some ideas, lol

[jacqulina 162]

pinewood looks very nice

[comdude21 6]

flanig: Thanks, glad you like the trees. They take a while to get like that.

jacqulina: Thanks for the compliments.

To All: There should be some more pictures today, showing the Shore Pines in the region.

[ephorex_77 0]

The burnt pines really make it look more natural.

[godwin1020 1]

pinewood looks great

[sloppet 3]

nice work!! looking forward for more updates!

[comdude21 6]

ephorex: Thanks for the compliments.

godwin: Thanks. Pinewood is one of my favorite towns in the region, glad you like it.

sloppet: Thanks for the compliments also.

To All: There should be another minor update tonight, detaling the progress of the re-forestation of Ocean Point.