My SC4 CJ Scrapbook | Important update and news!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Awww... my fillers are being used! That's so great to see! And you're using them in ways I never imagined when I made them - for example in that picture where you have the wall pointing away from the road and use the fillers as a parking lot on the outside of a wall. Very creative! I always thought of the walls as the outside perimeter and of everything else on the lot as stuff on the inside - turns out I was thinking, well, not in a box, but trapped between walls.

 

Your MMP fields look great, just one tiny suggestion: Unlike pastures, crop fields usually show some structure (parallel lines), so ideally you'd apply those MMP brushes in parallel lines to add the impression of plough furrows. You can even draw them diagonally or at fractional angles for an extra bit of gridbusting.

 

Keep up your great work!

[Masacashana 85]

Great Update!!

[UndercoverNinja12 176]

Great work!!

[Dr-Beakman 13]

Well done with the farms and the industrials look great too!

How do you achieve the tree/grass areas beside the streets and roads, in the gap between the curves and zoning? Is it part of NAM, or a street mod? I've seen it around in people's work but not been able to find it to download. if you know and want to share, much appreciation will come to you.

[HunLordNix 0]

do not be afraid to make little hills in this nice rocky part of your city

this is a big opera of urbanisation, nice, so much, sweet to see for my eyes!!!!!! )))

[Ke|is 3,337]

Well done with the farms, I really like how they looks !! Keep up the good work

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Well I have good news and bad news. The bad news...

 

So my computer had a funny kind of crash and was pretty particular in what files were lost or corrupted. The files for my video games and documents were pretty messed up afterwards, and my SC4 plugins folder was about as holey as Swiss cheese. So were the core files, the regions and all of the backups to. So given the extent of the damage I had to remove everything, the whole works. The Zurich region is gone, all the plugins are gone, as are all of the customizations I made.

 

But the good news is that -- after reinstalling the core game -- I can rebuild my plugins folder and streamline it even further. There were some parts in the old, now gone, plugins folder which I wanted to prune; especially the CAM. Already the new plugins folder is quarter the size of the old one, I'm using a new terrain mod and a new downloaded region. So in about two weeks or so I'll have enough content in my plugins to continue on, and to build new cities and publish new entries.

 

The Scrapbook will continue.

 

RIP Tamboria, Cranksville, Grendon, Treblane, Zooropa and the rest of the cities which disappeared into cyber oblivion.

[Compdude787 916]

Why does this always seem to happen with the best CJs? Those people's computers can't seem to handle their awesomeness, I suppose...

This is why it's important for everyone to do backups onto an external hard drive regularly.

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Sorry about that

But you will continue to your awesomeness in only two weeks, that's the most important!

[Benedict 3,119]

Sorry to hear about the computer issue, however your CJ is back at number one, so that's good news!

[47ply 1,100]

I know the feeling Ln X. I hope you get back up and running soon

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Thank you for all the comments!

 

Well my plugins folder is back to half its size and I took the liberty of downloading a different terrain (Appalachian terrain mod) and water mod, and using a new map; Kamchatka Russia, a map made by blunder. While I download more content, I am also working on the city of Grethor. As a finished product one third of Grethor will be heavy industry, a residential/commercial area of reasonable affluence surrounding the industry and finally the remainder of the land will be for farms.

 

Right now I've working on the industrial area and spending time adding stuff around the largest industrial buildings. So this entry is going to be a work in progress, and a week later the next entry will be an update.

 

 

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Update 32: A preview of Grethor's heavy industry

 

 

 

The work I've done so far. Next week most of the city tile will be done.

 

 

 

The oil terminal.

 

 

 

I really love T Wrecks fillers; SO useful!

 

 

 

A section of the large freight station.

 

 

 

The automobile plant; I basically tripled its visual footprint by creating huge carparks and storage bays.

 

 

 

Two of a dozen buildings utilizing the extensive railway networks of Grethor.

 

 

 

Part of Grethor's nuclear power plant.

 

 

 

 

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And that is the small preview! Next Tuesday I'll post the update and there will be far more to show.

[RipRap 4,400]

Awesome! Very busy factory(ies) over there

[suomi2005 52]

Very good start for an industrial city. I like cooling towers and nuclear reactor   -

[NielsC007 499]

Nice work, I like the rail yard!

[simlink 1,098]

Beautiful (and realistic!) as usual. Fantastic work LnX... wish I could make some industrial areas like this one.

[a_muses 39]

Oooh, very nice!

[tankmank 853]

Another great update, I love your industrial areas very realistic  

[Haljackey 17,380]

Amazing work as always! Love the details!

[Ke|is 3,337]

Yes, I really like the details and also the zone where the industry is located, fantastic job !!

[Igo 11]

Ln X you are a Michelangelo of Simcity 4.

[freemunchies 124]

Great work! Sorry to hear about your computer crash, a fresh plugins folder can be frustrating but also nice and lightweight feeling at the same time. From the preview the industrial area already looks incredible, can't wait to see the finished product!

[sejr99999 8,363]

thank you for sharing the results of your meticulous detailing skills very well done

and glad you didn't just quit after your PC disaster

[Sabretooth78 808]

Good luck with the reboot of your plugins.  The loss of the old region is too bad, but it seems you've already started to recover nicely.  My experience with these things tends to be that what rises from the ashes ends up being better anyway.  I'm sure you'll find it worthwhile in the end - anything important non-SC4 (do such things exist!?) you may have lost notwithstanding.

 

For what it's worth, I'm actually in the midst of rebuilding and indexing mine from the inside-out; not provoked by a loss but rather just that I wanted to make things as tight as possible.  For instance say I want to remove "content X", does that free up any dependency files that are no longer needed by any other content?  Can I remove the whole thing or is it a dependency to something else?  That sort of thing.  It's a tedious process but it's worth it.  I suppose the difference in my case is that I've put far too much effort into my current region (the CJ one) to just start over so I'm having to be careful to maintain continuity and document anything I end up removing in the event it messes something up and needs to be reinstated.

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Replies:

 

Tonraq: Thank you! I always like to add MMPs to keep the grunge concrete looking interesting.

 

suomi2005: The BATing for the cooling tower and nuclear reactor is really suburb.

 

NeilsC007: You will see a lot more of it in this update!

 

simlink: The key is fillers, spacing, occasional natural areas and badass industrial BATs.

 

a_muses: Thank you! That was just a preview!

 

tankmank: The devil is in the detail!

 

Haljackey: Thanks! This update is going to be very heavy on the 'details'.

 

kelistmac: I'm glad you like it.

 

Igo: That is the best compliment I've received for CJing; thanks!

 

freemunchies: A computer crash won't stop me!

 

sejr99999: Cheers!

 

Sabretooth78: Thank you for the advice. My plugins folder is about 2/3 of its previous size (just about 3GB), but I have nearly all of the really cool looking mods (and features), I'm just a little underweight on the custom buildings for particular parts of the RCI.

 

 

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Update 33: Grethor: oil port, automobile plant, railyards and mosaics

 

Well Grethor is finally finished! I moved heaven and earth to accomplish this and Grethor is one of the most complicated cities I have ever built in SC4: MMP fields, massive industrial areas, extensive use of diagonal fillers plus T Wrecks industrial fillers, adding fillers to diagonal and FAR infrastructure, MMP forest scenery, car parks, lakes and a lot more.

 

In this detailed tour, for a detailed city, I will show you the northern part of Grethor where the oil port, automobile plant and railyards are located. Let's begin!!!

 

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The finished city!

 

 

 

The automobile plant.

 

 

 

The centre of the oil port/terminal.

 

 

 

A car junkyard.

 

 

 

 

Lately I have been messing around with MMPs to spruce up the woodland floor.

 

 

 

 

An industrial west of the automobile plant.

 

 

 

And now for a closer look...

 

 

 

 

I love pushing T Wrecks industrial fillers to the uttermost limit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going back to the car junkyard. From here we move Eastwards and follow the railway.

 

 

 

I worked out how to use SFBT's elevated highway fillers to fill in the space directly below an elevated curved avenue.

 

 

 

Heading back to the oil terminal now.

 

 

 

 

 

One of SFBT's lighthouses.

 

 

 

We travel along these train tracks until we reach the railyards.

 

 

 

 

 

Along the way to the railyards there are numerous freight stations.

 

 

 

 

Two of three major railyards.

 

 

 

The Rectangle Roundhouse. Best railway BAT out there IMO.

 

 

 

Although the railyard is very amazing to!

 

 

 

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And now for two mosaics.

 

Oil terminal

 

 

 

Railyards

 

 

 

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That's it for today. There is more to follow from Grethor!

 

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

I want your plugins folder.

 

 

 

Ridiculously good, as always.  Oh and you'll be pleased to know that RRW railyards are in the works.  

[47ply 1,100]

awesome as always love the rail road

[Haljackey 17,380]

This is easily my favorite CJ of the year. I won't forget you come trixie time

 

The only thing I would suggest is to convert that 90 degree elevated avenue curve into two 45 degree elevated avenue curves. Looks like you have the room for that.

-I find it hard to critique such quality work, but I guess no one is perfect and we all have our own opinions

[Sabretooth78 808]

This journal ought to be preserved and stickied somewhere.  Maybe even cross-linked into the "Show us Your..." threads.  Excellent work.

[Prophet42 1,503]

Absolutely amazing detail!!  A job well done.

 

For the piping in the Oil terminal, who's lots did you use?