Twin Rivers Region - a work in progress

[Linoa06 1,374]

How did I miss this thread? The pictures are amazing

[dedgren 830]

So yeah, I'm a tease.  It's taking me longer than I expected to get the main Jessamine map together.  And I keep thinking of new things I can do.  If you're a would-be cartographer like I am, I'm hoping you will be-excited by the result.  Almost every day I see a way that the game's implementation of "water" that "flows downhill" is amazingly important for city-builder superdetailing fans.

So here's some teaser shots of some terrain in Jessamine that I find interesting.

#1

That's a small stream flowing into the Kentucky River Gorge down a cascade about 250 feet/75 meters from top to bottom. The top of the Palisades are 850-900 feet/260-275 meters above sea level.  The river drops in elevation from about 520 feet/160 meters at the southeast (lower right) corner of the quad to about 495 feet at the northwest (upper left) corner.

The length of the Kentucky River flowing through the Jessamine quad is very close to 38 miles/ 61 kilometers.  Having floated that section of the river  45 or so years ago, I can vouch for a very slow current in that stretch, as the river descends about eight inches per mile/0.13 meters per kilometer.  It is deep enough, though, to be navigable by barges.

#2

Here is Cedar Branch flowing through its own small gorge to the Kentucky.  Trees will make a huge difference, as the edges of most all the waterways in Jessamine are heavily forested.  The Southern RR tracks will parallel this small stream south of High Bridge.

#3

US Route 68 is one of two federal highways that cross the quad.  The other is US 27.

We'll talk more about the interesting specifics of these highways and other Jessamine quad routes in later posts, but let me explain that last game pic a bit.  US 68 crosses the Kentucky River at Brooklyn Bridge, which you can see at the lower right edge of the image.  Here's the topo, showing the almost two mile/3.2 kilometer long looping curve up the face of the Palisade south of the bridge.

Here's the highway leaving the top of the Palisade and continuing to climb along an unnamed creek beneath Cog Hill.

#4

I think this is all pretty amazing, and we're just getting started.

#5
One last view for today.  This turned out to be a bit more than just the usual eye candy, but you haven't seen anything... yet.

Later.

 

David

2578/60

  Edited October 25, 2015 by dedgren  
Add views/posts stats

[madtony26 38]

David.. I was following Twin Rivers Region before you switched to the "Jessamine" map, and was completely shocked when I saw that the spot where I grew up was included in your region. I marked the map below with a red star of the former location of my parents house on US 68, across from Cog Hill Lane.

Our back yard backed up to a tree line, and our property beyond that line of trees was wooded and included the palisades all the way down to the river. I know the area between 68 and the river that contains Cog Hill Cemetary is currently known as Shakers Landing. Great job on US 68 on the map above.. it looks spot on!

-Anthony

  Edited November 5, 2015 by madtony26  

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I'm loving all this detail. Following with interest.

[catty-cb 4,411]

I'm loving all this detail. Following with interest.

Ditto  

[Roadman20 601]

Very detailed and creative terrain to be working on.  Populating the Kentucky River valley with trees will blow this map away once development is underway.

[dedgren 830]

We'll continue a great 3RR tradition here at Twin Rivers Region by posting entire updates with no "game" content.  If you want fancy interchanges, flowing streams or night-lit downtowns today, then, you'll have to go elsewhere.  All I have on offer is Rev 1.0 of the Jessamine topo map quadrangle, which we'll use as the basis for a number of things coming up.  Here it is, neatly shrunk to fit your monitor's screen.

For those of you wanting to see it in a more legible size, here's a [linkie].

As I've explained before, the square area in the center is the 5x5 playable gamesquares.  All are unlocked and I have no money constraints as I play Cities: Skylines like I played SC4: in full sandbox mode.  There are no cheats as far as I'm concerned, only helpful shortcuts.

The shaded area are the remaining 56 gamesquares making up the full 9x9 gamesquare quad.  Each gamesquare is two kilometers/.62 miles on a side, the 5x5 area is 10 kilometers/.6.25 miles on a side, and the 9x9 quad is 18 kilometers/11.2 miles on a side.  This works out to each gamesquare representing four square kilometers/.38 square miles and 400 hectares/243 acres, the 5x5 area representing 100 square kilometers/38.6 square miles and 10,000 hectares/24,700 acres, and the the 9x9 area representing 324 square kilometers/125 square miles and 32,400 hectares/80,000 acres.

By comparison, the large Sim City 4 map (tile) was four kilometers/2.5 miles on a side, and thus 16 square kilometers/6 square miles and 1600 hectares and 3,840 acres.  Here's a visual comparison with C:S.

With the ability through mods to place pretty much anything out to the edges of a full 9x9 quad (and potentially expand the playable area to that size with the currently dormant "81 Tile Mod," Cities: Skylines provides an amazing canvas on which to practice your city-builder skills.  My heart will always belong to SC4, but nostalgia only gets you so far.

More coming right up.

 

David

2762/65

  Edited October 28, 2015 by dedgren  
Fix link to map

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I have no doubt the 81 tiles will be back one day. I just hope it's more stable. I can't wait to look at what you will build here and make references to these awesome maps. Feel like I'm at the library.

[Horus_Kol 118]

I'm loving the attention and care you have in planning this city - looking forward to more updates

[Roadman20 601]

I'm a fan of 81 tiles, it's such a big canvas to build on.  I look at the 5x5 and I stare beyond the boundary thinking, "More land... must develop."

[Turjan 1,048]

This looks great. I just hope you are aware of the very strict limits this game has on objects. At least there is a mod to lift the tree limit to about 4 times the original.

[dedgren 830]

Well, here we go.  This is a very long post with no Cities: Skylines content.  Be warned.

We're going to build Jessamine in Cities: Skylines.  I'm starting with the notion that there are no constraints, even though as our friend Turjan has noted, the game has some fixed limits that we will likely sooner or later have to deal with.  My thinking is that there are, over the time that this will take, almost certainly months, barriers that will fall as a result of modding, and possibly even through future upgrades from the developer.  Buildings and other assets that are not available today will get created; hopefully by folks who are interested in this project.  So I'm not worried.  I think that the possibilities that C:S offers are potentially almost infinite.  To mix some metaphors- Damn the torpedoes: never give up, never surrender!  To infinity and beyond!

I need to take a moment, though, to acknowledge a huge debt of gratitude to two of the greatest city journalists of all time.  The first is my longtime friend Jeroni Segui (jeronij), creator of two of the greatest Simtropolis SC4 CJs Sculpting Columbia River and Simtropia. Jeroni was one of the first CJ authors to regularly use his updates to pass along his vast knowledge of the game to the rest of us, and his influence was then and remains today (through his continued administration of the community website SC4 Devotion) unmatched.  The second is John Redmond (Darmok), who became a great personal friend over the past decade and whose unexpected passing last year was heartbreaking.  John authored Anduin Valley Revisited, the greatest CJ of all time.  Anyone who wants to start a city journal, no matter what game it would be based in, should spend some time looking back through AVR and learn from watching a master of the genre at work.  I thus dedicate what we'll do here in Jessamine to John.  I'd like to think that both he and Jeroni would like what they would see here.

^{____________________}oOo^{____________________}

In order to recreate Jessamine in a Cities: Skylines quad, we need to know what the area looks like, both from a natural and built standpoint.  We have already seen that the Terrain Party website provides us with an amazing accurate representation in the game of the landforms involved.  We'll do some minor tweaking, but we are by and large starting with a perfectly scaled model of Jessamine to work with.  What we place on that model will determine whether we succeed or fail in our ambitious endeavor.  I have spent several days researching what those things should be.  I've come up with 12 major points of interest, and have gathered some photos of each one.  Here's our topo annotated with those 12 places.

Here's an index.

1.   Brooklyn Bridge
2.  City of Wilmore
3.  Nicholasville western US 27 bypass
4.  City of Nicholasville
5.  Shaker Village
6.  High Bridge
7.  Kentucky River Palisades
8.  Jessamine Creek
9.  Dix Dam and J.W. Brown Power Plant
10.  Herrington Lake
11.  Loyd Murphy US 27 Bridge
12.  City of Burgin

Here's the photos of each place along with some information and initial thoughts.

#1

This is a Google Map view looking to the northeast centered on Brooklyn Bridge, which carries US 68 over the Kentucky River.  The bridge gets its name from the the area on the north bank of the river immediately to the west at river mile 113.  In the 1800s, it was called "Brooklyn" or, alternatively, "Brooklyn Landing."  Brooklyn is sited on the river's floodplain deep within the Palisades, but was accessible because a small stream, (unnamed on current maps) that emptied into the Kentucky River here provided a gentle way down the cliffs from the north.  US 68 descends down the stream's gorge today.  There is no comparable access upstream on the river from the north until you reach Camp Nelson, which we'll get to in a bit.

#2

The view south across Brooklyn Bridge.

#3

The current bridge is not the first one at this location.  From the "Kentucky River Guidebook" [linkie]:

The first bridge at this site, built in 1871, was a 250 foot long iron truss bridge with wooden planking and was accessed through the first tunnel built for highway traffic in Kentucky.  This bridge was built for 18^th century traffic, not late 20^th century vehicles.  In 1955 a food service delivery truck was going south and one complete span of the bridge collapsed into the river under its weight.  The fall broke the drivers back in three places, but he managed to get out of the truck, thinking it might catch on fire.  He survived, sued the state for its unsafe bridge, and was awarded $50,000 by the judge.  The Governor, having such power at that time, reduced the award to $10,000 saying that no man was worth $50,000.  There was no appeal. 

Those were the days, eh?

#4

Another view of the old bridge.

#5

The dark area at the far end of the old bridge in the picture above was a short tunnel that carried US 68 through the cliff into the stream gorge behind it.  It is known locally as "Daniel Boone's Cave," although it is not a cave and there is nothing in the historical record that indicates that Boone was associated with the Brooklyn area.

#6

The current bridge approach from the north bypasses the tunnel on a roadway graded around the end of the cliff, which likely used to extend to the east bank of the stream, which is just to the left of the guardrail in this picture.  The river end mouth of the tunnel is in the trees to the right and the upper end comes out just about where you see the tip of the shadows across the road touch the base of the cliff on the left.

#7

US 68 climbs out of the Kentucky River Gorge to the north along the stream.  Here you enter Jessamine County which, according to its Wikipedia article [linkie], was named for the daughter of an early settler.

#8

Brooklyn Bridge has a pleasing curvilinear structure, which in my experience is not common in bridges built in the 1950s.  The curves at each end are needed to acommodate the tightness of the gorge. 

#9

Another pic of the north end.  It's a nice bridge.

#10

This view looks under the bridge across the river to the south.  The structure looks surprisingly modern for a 60 year old bridge, but it is classed as functionally obsolete and, while I am aware of no current plans to replace it, I am sure that its days are numbered. 

A few last pics.

#11

Downstream (west) of the bridge.

#12

And upstream.

#13

Looking north across the bridge.  US 68 climbs out of the gorge from here to the south on a long looping curve carved into the face of the river's south Palisade.

I'm confident that we'll be able to recreate Brooklyn Bridge and the surrounding area with a high degree of accuracy in Jessamine.

Wilmore is a small city sited a couple of miles/kilometers north of the Kentucky River at the south edge of the state's famed Bluegrass region.  It had a population in the 2010 census of 3,686 inhabitants, which is just a couple of hundred more than in 1970 when I was attending college at the University of Kentucky,  It is likely within the next couple of decades that the remaining farmlands between it and the City of Nicholasville, which lies a few miles/kilometers to the east-northeast, will be developed for residential use and Wilmore will lose much of its separate identity.

#1

For now, though, the land around Wilmore is still under cultivation or used as pasturage.  The gorge of Jessamine Creek, which is to the immediate east of the city, is a barrier to development in that direction, although that area has become attractive to the large lot "McMansion" crowd.

#2

Downtown Wilmore is not particularly charming.  It is a hodge-podge of a few older brick buildings from the early 20th century and cinder block and sheet metal construction from 50 or so years later.  Kentucky State Route 29 is the Main Street, running from northeast to southwest.

#3

Still, however, the city has a degree of rural appeal.  I am hoping that Cities: Skylines will have some fairly generic shall commercial structures that will allow us to develop Wilmore more or less like it looks today.

#4

The city's website [linkie] boasts a small historic district.  Those street trees don't hardly look old enough to qualify.

#5

The grounds of two small institutions of higher learning, Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary, are across Highway 29 from each other on the north side of Wilmore.

#6

The Norfolk Southern Railway- Southern Railway when I was in college- mainline between Cincinnati and points south passes through Wilmore and there is an old station there, although the passenger days are long gone.

The Nicholasville Bypass, built in the 1980s, carries US Highway 27 around the rapidly growing city of Nicholasville, which lies on the northeast (top right) edge of the Jessamine quad.  A short stretch of it is Jessamine's only true limited access freeway, and we will be replicating the one interchange on it, a diamond, with SR 29 on the western fringe of Nicholasville.

#1


The SR 29 interchange can be seen here.  Note the subdivision development that is now leapfrogging the bypass and heading towards Wilmore to the west-southwest.  There is also some shopping center and business park/light industrial development along the bypass.

Nicholasville is growing so fast that an eastern bypass, which will create a ring road around the city, is slated to begin construction in 2016.

#2

The Kentucky SR 29 overpass.

#3

The Norfolk Southern Railway viaduct.

#4

South of the SR 29 interchange, the bypass reverts to a non-grade separated divided higfhway.  Note the directional arrow in the southbound left-hand turn lane.  We'll surely get that right!

We only wind up with part of the City of Nicholasville in the Jessamine quad, and that part is in the non-playable area.  I am assuming that, after the road layout is created, everything else will be ploppables- houses, stores, office parks, and the like.

Nicholasville, the county seat of Jessamine County, is a fast growing metropolis, with a 2010 Census population of 28,015.  That's about five times the population of when I was living nearby attending the University of Kentucky in the early 1970s.  A significant portion of that growth and the development associated with it is to the west along Kentucky SR 29 out towards, as we have noted, Wilmore.

#1

So just a basic map for now, and we'll cross that bridge in detail when we get to it.  Oh, for the 81 gamesquare (tile) mod [linkie] to be revived.

 

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, known to the locals as "Shakertown," is a gem of a restored religious community that was founded in the mid-1800s.  The Shakers believed in hard work and the physical separation of men and women, not necessarily in that order.  They thus relied on taking in new adherents and orphaned children to keep the sect going, and has pretty much all died out by the early 1900s.  The village sat abandoned and crumbling until the 1960s, when a large number of people, including some descendants of the original residents (!) began restoration efforts.

#1

Today, the restored village rivals places like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia for historic value, but it, while operated as a profit-making enterprise, has avoided any sense of becoming a theme park.  It is, simply put, a place that allows one to step back in time 100 years or more during a visit.  Everything there is a work of craft and is meticulously cared for.  There is lodging and dining available, and the village's website [linkie] is well worth a look.

#2

I am suspecting that the village's buildings, which lie within the playable area of the quad, will be among the most difficult assets to replicate.  Anyone interested in working with me to create these beautiful structures, please let me know.  As I admitted during my SC4 days, I can't BAT for poop.

#3

It is one of the most, IMHO, beautiful built places in the United States, and has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

#4

Except for the asphalt on the lane, this bucolic scene could be from the 19th century.

#5

Unique but simple structures abound.  I am really hoping that someone will wish to collaborate with me on creating this stuff.

#6

I know that most city journal fans are looking for big cities and busy streetlife.  I believe that it is just as much of a rewarding challenge, though, to work on a recreation in a city building game of a place like Shaker Village.  Thanks for bearing with me on my take on Cities: Skylines.

Almost exactly a mile/1.6 kilometers due east of Shaker Village there is another 19th century marvel, this time one of engineering and ironworking craft.  This is the High Bridge of the Norfolk Southern Railway line across the gorge of the Kentucky River in the heart of its Palisades. 

#1

A railroad bridge at this site was planeed as early as the 1850s.  John Roebling of Brooklyn Bridge fame (the other Brooklyn Bridge) conceived a single track suspension bridge design.  The clifftop towers, which are visible in a couple of the old pictures that follow, were actually built.  The outbreak of the Civil War put an end to those plans.

#2

The bridge was finally completed as a more conventional cantilever iron truss design in 1877 for what was then the Cincinnati Southern Railroad.  The bridge deck was 275 feet/84 meters above the normal level of the Kentucky River and spanned 1,125 feet/343 meters between its abutments atop the Palisades at each end.

#3

The bridge took on its modern appearance in a 1911 reconstruction and was widened to accomodate two tracks in 1929.  Roebling's pillars at each end were torn down when the bridge was widened.

#4

High Bridge is just downstream from the emptying of the Dix River, about which we'll hear more in a bit, into the Kentucky.  This image was the view of that location from the bridge deck about 100 years ago.

#5

For such a behemoth, High Bridge looks surprisingly gracefully from the river.  This shot is taken just downstream of the bridge.

#6

To me, it looks like it belongs there.

#7

Up close, though, there is no question that the bridge is massive.  This photo is at the north abutment.

#8

Only cretins would mar such a thing of beauty with graffiti.

#9

My guess is that trusswork is taller than six of those diesel engines stacked on top of one another.  They just don't build them like they used to.

Can we come reasonably close to duplicating this in C:S?  Amazing stuff like our friend boformer's Pillar Changer mod [linkie] give me hope.

#10

Jessamine County has created a nice little park commemorating the bridge at its northern end.  Another opportunity to create an asset, eh?  For the road modders out there, we also need a narrow two-way asphalt road with no lines.  Thanks in advance.

#11

A last look, for now, at the iron and steel heart of Jessamine quad.  This view is from the northwest looking to the southeast.

 

The Kentucky River flows in gigantic looping curls through a gorge carved in the limestone rock of the surrounding plains region for over 100 miles/160 kilometers, stretching in a long shallow arc across the central portion of Kentucky from the edge of the Appalachian Mountains to the east to north of the state capital city Frankfort in the west.  About 40 miles/65 kilometers of the Kentucky River Palisades lie within the Jessamine quad, and it is here that they are at their most dramatic, with sometimes vertical limestone cliffs dropping 250-300 feet/75-90 meters to the river bed below.

#1

Numerous streams flow into the Kentucky River in this area from the surrounding plain, dropping through steep narrow gorges and over waterfalls.  The plains are largely cleared as a result of being farmed or used as pasture for coming up on 200 years, but the gorges remain heavily forested.  The Wikipedia article on the Kentucky River Palisades [linkie] says:

The steep cliffs surrounding the Kentucky River harbor the largest concentration of forest within the Inner Bluegrass, which is otherwise developed or cleared. Blue ash (Fraxinus quadrangulata), chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) and sugar maple (Acer sacharum) are abundant on the steep limestone slopes, along with less common trees like rock elm (Ulmus thomasi), yellowwood (Cladrastis lutea) and yellow buckeye (Aesculus octandra). Sites on old sandy river terraces and bluff-top ridges have more acid or infertile soils and harbor beech (Fagus) and tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) trees more common in Appalachian Kentucky. Other uncommon woody species found in the Palisades include Paxistima, Chokecherry, and various types of Viburnums.

A large amount of additional information on the physical geography and natural features of the Palisades can be found here [linkie].

#2

A series of locks on the Kentucky River makes it navigable by barge up through most of the length of the Palisades.  All but less than a half mile/.8 kilometer, of the river lies below Lock No. 8, and the pool level is right around 500 feet/150 meters above sea level.  The current, as I have noted, is very slow.

#3

A small stream enters the river through a gorge cut into the side of the Palisades.

#4

Boating is very popular on the river, in many forms.  I float tubed much of the river through the Jessamine quad portion of the Palisades in the early 1970s.

#5

Tourist operations like this come and go, but one thing is sure- people like this stretch of the Kentucky River.

#6

Limestone pillars with fantastic shapes are common in the Palisades.

#7

The less steep sides of the gorge are almost entirely blanketed by a heavy growth of trees, but there are frequent vertical cliffs that catch the eye.

#8

The bottoms along the river flood every so often, and most are forested.  In a few areas, though, such as below High Bridge and around Brooklyn Bridge, some development has occurred, mostly dating back many years as new construction is generally not possible due to the unavailablity of flood insurance.

#9

It will take some careful plopping of C:S trees to duplicate something subtle like this.

#10

The cliffs on the north side of the Kentucky River Palisades are usually a little higher and a little more steep than the ones on the south side.  In any event, the area is a magically scenic place, and my early experiments with creating in Cities:Skylines its topography, hydrology and forested areas show a great deal of promise.

If High Bridge is the built center of Jessamine quad, Jessamine Creek and its beautiful gorge is the quad's cool green natural heart.

#1

The lower portion of the creek as it nears the Kentucky River and the surrounding lands are among the most densely forested areas of the quad.  These woods, along with the very difficult terrain, have kept all but the most dedicated explorers of the area away over the years.

#2

In most places, Jessamine Creek is too shallow and stony to be navigated by kayak or canoe.  The cliffs of its gorge rise im most places straight from the water.  So access into the lower reaches of this stream is very difficult.

#3

A stone arch bridge, built in the 1800s, provides one of two places where Jessamine Creek can be crossed east of Wilmore.

#4

The bridge is not designed for today's traffic.  I'm sure the State DOT has had its eye on it for a long time.  This area cries out for preservation.

#5

The view below the bridge does not do the creek justice.

#6

The other crossing, a bit upstream, is a ford.  It just doesn't get any better than this.

The Dix Dam, named for the river it impounds, is a structure rivaling High Bridge in size.  Constructed between 1923 and 1927 with rock fill across a gorge as large as the Kentucky River Palisades, the top of the dam is 1,087 feet/331 meters across and 287 feet/87 meters above the river outfall below.  Herrington Lake, addressed in the next section of this post, was created by the dam.  Dix Dam was built to provide central Kentucky with hydroelectric power and for flood control.

#1

The Dix River below the dam runs in its natural bed for about two miles/3.2 kilometers before emptying into the Kentucky River just above the site of High Bridge.

#2

The Dix is one of the larger tributaries of the Kentucky.

#3

A postcard issued at the time the dam was built portrays the dam's appearance pretty inaccurately, but it is pretty.

#4

In actuality, the rear of the dam is faced with concrete, while its front is a huge jumble of piled rock.  Someone imagined the little turrets in the postcard, as there is no evidence that they were ever there.

The power station at the base of the dam [linkie] produces 20Mw of electric current.  This output, while sizeable in the early years of the 20th century, is just a drop in the bucket today; equivalent to the power produced by 8-10 average-size wind turbines.  The E.W. Brown generating station, discussed further down, was put into service about 40 years after the dam was built and today has a vastly large generating capacity.

#5

The Dix Dam spillway, immediately to the west of the dam, allows the release of water from Herrington Lake during periods of high water.  When I first imported the heightmap created by the Terrain Party website into the game, the spillway was immediately recognizable.

#6

This Google Earth image gives a good view of the top of the dam and the spillway, along with the dam's rock face.  Remember, that pile of rocks is almost 29 stories high!

#7

Another old postcard, but this one more accurate, shows the top of the dam from the lake side.  You could probably, 50 years ago, walk up to the dam and across it if you felt like it.  Not today.

#8

I like my electric power as much as the next guy, but the E.W. Brown Generation Station [linkie] is a blight on the Jessamine landscape.

#9

It is visible from pretty much any point on the relatively flat plain south of the Palisades in the quad.  The plant, which has coal, fuel oil and gas power generating units, has an immense total capacity- about 100 times that of Dix Dam.  Emissions controls have greatly reduced airborne pollution over the years, but the plant is an eyesore in this beautiful rural landscape.

#10

All that said, it will be a fascinating project to see what we can do with the E.W. Brown Generating Station in Cities: Skylines.

Herrington Lake, as noted, is the impoundment of the Dix River created by the Dix Dam.  The very scenic lake is the deepest in Kentucky. It is about 35 miles/56 kilometers long, up to 1,200 feet/366 meters wide, and covers 2335 acres/933 hectares with 325 miles523 kilometers of shoreline. The deepest area is near the dam where water depth reaches 249 feet/76 meters. The mean depth in the lake is 78 feet/24 meters. Because the lake is so deep it has only frozen over twice - in 1936 and 1978. The estimated capacity of the lake is 175,000,000,000 gallons/662,447062,200 liters.

#1

The lake is crossed in one place by Kentucky State Route 152 on the Kennedy Mill Bridge, locally just called the Kennedy Bridge.

#2

The bridge, constructed in 1924 at the same time as Dix Dam, had had significant issues in recent years and is slated to be replaced commencing in 2016.

#3

Traffic on the bridge is significantly greater than you would expect in this rural area, as the lake has been a popular recreation destination and second home location.

#4

As I said, very scenic.

#4

US Highway 27, which we last saw above bypassing Nicholasville, heads south from there and crosses the Kentucky River at a location known as Camp Nelson, which is named for a Civil War encampment of Black soldiers who fought for the Union.  The cliffs are less steep here, and US 27 wound its way down to the river and crossed this truss bridge, which had replaced a previous covered bridge at the location, until 1971.

#1

In that year a high-level four lane bridge opened.  Google Earth, which doesn't do 3D structures very well, shows its location upstream of the former bridge.  Note the tunnel under the north (top) bridge approach.

#2

The old bridge has been left, apparently, to fall into the river.  Although Google maps thinks otherwise, it is closed to vehicle traffic.

#3

This is looking north over the "new" US 27 bridge, which will be 35 years old next year.  You can see that the cliffs of the Palisades are not near so prominent here.

#4

I have been unable to find out who Loyd Murphy is.  Someone important enough to name a large bridge after, in any event.

#5

The climb off the bridge to the south is really nice.

#6

This view looks downstream from the southbound lanes of the bridge.  The old road on the south bank and old truss bridge, closed to traffic, can be seen.

#7

Burgin is a small city in the southwest corner of the Jessamine quad.  Its population in the 2010 census was 965 inhabitants.

#1

Burgin is centered on the Norfolk and Southern Railway line.  Its population is less than 100 persons more than it was 50 years ago.

#2

Its glory days lie in the past, mostly centered around the railroad.

#3

Today, trains rumble through the city without stopping.

#4

The level cross in the middle of Burgin 

#5

This has been a long post with no C:S content.  That will change soon.

 

David

2976/70

  Edited November 5, 2015 by dedgren  
Post was made over a couple of days due to length. Fixed typos.

[catty-cb 4,411]

WOW some great pictures in that last update my computer struggled a bit but worth it in the end 

... I think I'm going to have to come back and have another look later ...

[gfvsims 169]

Very interesting! You're really doing your homework with this one. Hope you find someone to work with you on the Shaker buildings - they'd be great for rural areas. Looking forward to the next update!

[dedgren 830]

Well, we've filled another page with your comments [linkie].  Lets take a look at what's in the mailbox.

_____________________________________________________________

Back on September 21st our friend boformer (Steam Workshop) got things started by noting,:

 

There are a few larger rocks available too:

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198086033462/myworkshopfiles/?appid=255710

I would not use the "park rocks". Emergency vehicles can not access it in the riverbed, and you may see flood warnings.

We've come a long way with rocks and boulders in a little over a month.  I'm a big fan of TPB's rocks [linkie] and I'm hoping all you rock makers out there can settle on a common method of creating these important superdetailing assets and getting them into the game.  I think that ones intended to be plopped directly into water should be in the water menu, but that's just my opinion.

_____________________________________________________________

Cathy (catty-cb - Citybuilder's Website) stopped by on the 21st to add:

 

Before I forget if you were ever a fan of xannepan's SC4 plugins, he had a change of name and is now called xave on the C:S sites (including on steam)

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198030872694/myworkshopfiles/?appid=255710&p=1

He's done a few nice trees and shrubs

xannepan/xave has created some great SC4 BATs over the years, and it's good to see old friends migrating their skills over to Cities: Skylines.

_____________________________________________________________

On September 22nd, Dennis (Mr Maison - Steam Workshop) chimed in:

 

That looks awesome!! I have to join in and make my rivers more interesting too. Going rock shopping.....

_____________________________________________________________

Later on the 22nd, talented CJer Atys' (At'ysland) summed up his take on TRR:

 

I like it

Thanks!  I'm following At'ysland and really enjoying it, too.  Please don't be a stranger here.

_____________________________________________________________

An old friend from the SC4 days: Marisa (gfv1974) showed up on September 27th:

 

David!!! I am so happy to see you playing C:S. I've just started to really get into it. I think it has so much potential and there are already some amazing mods (Traffic++, Building Themes, Network Extensions, and Advanced Vehicle Options, to name just a few of my favourites). After Dark added some pretty cool features, too, so I have high hopes for more expansion packs (a farming/rural one would make me so happy).

You mentioned that Heather was in hospital - I hope she's doing ok.

I will be watching this CJ with great interest and can't wait to see what you accomplish!

Marisa!  It is so great to hear from you.  I am glad to see that you found TRR and hope that the accomplishments will be to your liking.  Heather and I both have our ups and downs healthwise, but generally life is good.

You know you'll get your 10 year Simtropolis pin on the 11th of this month.  It's really good to see so many folks still here from a decade ago.

_____________________________________________________________

Also on the 27th TekindusT (Stuff I Think I Have To Show, But Don't Know Where To Post) dropped by and said:

 

I could grab any of your pics and use it as a wallpaper!

High praise coming from you, my friend.  Feel free!

_____________________________________________________________

TRR entered its first full month with Sherrlock commenting on October 1st:

 

Hello David. It’s great to see you back in the game again. C:S doesn’t interest me on a personal level, but the scenes you’ve created are beautiful. I hope to see more of your superb work in the days and weeks to come.

My friend, you have no idea how I agonized about re-entering the CJ/MD corner of the city-builder community playing Cities: Skylines.  I'd say that 3RR is not dead- it's just sleeping very soundly- but I'd be kidding myself.  I think that the handwriting is on the wall for SC4.  I don't want to be perceived as abandoning ship- my heart is still on board.  But C:S, for all its current faults, is the future. 

And, don't worry, there's much more to come.  Three Rivers Region had a five year or so run.  I'm up for that.

_____________________________________________________________

After we rolled out the first Jessamine post on October 7th, Cathy (catty-cb) commented:

 

That map is looking really good I especially like the waterways, I've always liked the bird but then I've never been able to play C:S long enough to get annoyed at it, as for the 81 tile mod there are some alternatives that do work in After Dark

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=520741974

Cathy, we'll be using a number of those "workaround" mods.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed, though.

_____________________________________________________________

The next day, on the 8th, Dennis (Mr. Maison) suggested:

 

Sometimes a fresh start is good. Very nice map you made there.

If you find the daytime is too yellow, get this mod to get back some natural color similar to how it was before After Dark

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=530871278&searchtext=

I've been looking at the various alternative lighting alternatives and will certainly be using one, as I do not care for the post-AD daytime color change.

_____________________________________________________________

Marisa (gfv1974) returned on the 8th to comment:

 

 

On 10/7/2015, 4:27:26, dedgren said:

 

(The damn bird gets it as soon as install my first mod)

Haha! Yes, indeed. I need to install a mod that gets rid of it completely - I've muted it but it's still annoying.

You're doing a lovely job creating a realistic terrain. One of my favourite things about C:S is the way water flows, and I love seeing how you've implemented streams.

Are you going to use a Colour Correction LUT?

Fabulous start - I absolutely can't wait to see more pics!

Chirpy seemed like the one wrong note in Colossal Order's magnificent job in putting the game together.  A Jar-Jar Binks moment.  It's one thing to have fun at this stuff.  It's another thing altogether to infantilize it.  /rant.

I'm, as noted, looking at the whole color correction thing.  I don't care for the yellow-brown cast the vanilla game seems to have taken on since the release of After Dark.

Thanks, Marisa, for saying all those kind things!

_____________________________________________________________

Cathy (catty-cb) dropped back by on the 9th and noted

 

Finally, and this is one of the few rules, please call me David.  As far as I'm concerned (unless you would wish it otherwise) this is the kind of community where we all should be on a first name basis.  If we don't know each other, you are just a friend I haven't had the chance to make yet.

I've been catty for so long I have to consciously think Cathy in RL when I signing something or I'll put catty instead  

But most people should know my RL name by now.

I'm amazed how many first names I recall here from 10 years ago given that I would have a hard time telling you what I had for lunch the day before yesterday.

_____________________________________________________________

On the 9th of October, rsc204 (Lot and Mod Shack) stopped in and left a long, thoughtful comment:

 

On 10/9/2015, 1:38:50, dedgren said:

Thanks.  I think a lot of folks are doing just what you described- I know I was very tempted to.  I'm beginning to figure out, though, that Cities: Skylines has two tracks for those who would play it.  There's a track where there's almost no learning curve to deal with at all, and the game is immensely fun for even a little bit more than the proverbial 15 minutes.  Then there's the road less taken, and the learning curve on that route is huge.  We had a decade and more to learn pretty much everything about SC4 and in the process make the game both amazing and completely ours (take that, EA).  C:S started out mostly amazing, but mastering it right now is like drinking from a firehose.  I'm working on that and will know I'm making progress when you let me know you are scratching that itch.

Well my initial binge was over 200h in two weeks after downloading the game within an hour of launch. So I totally agree with the fun side of the game, I think that's it's big appeal over SC4. Newer, shinier and much more accessible to the average person. If I'm honest, more than anything I enjoyed stalking sims and following trains . But what fun would that be without a pretty city as it's backdrop.

I'm a long time simulation fan, but SC4 just passed me by until I installed it a few years back. Since then I've regretted not trying it sooner and I always feel like I'm playing catch up with the long-timers. But I'm doing things I'd never have dreamed I was able to. Making textures and 3D modelling for example, I'm really more of a technical person, I never have the eye for these things that the more artistically inclined do. On a personal note, thanks for your MMP tutorial, it was one of the most well-explained tutorials I've come across.

After my initial binge with CS came the first game update. I quickly found the game frustrating and limited without mods, despite trying to be careful with the number of them I installed. One of my biggest annoyances with CO/Paradox and Steam is that I can not simply choose to decline a title update. The update without warning killed two saves with 400h of work invested in them, this really is buried in my sub-conscience every time I think about CS. Every other game I've ever played, I'd have uninstalled the update and not started any new projects until I was finished with them. Knowing I could play sans-mods or repeat the same problem again, I decided to put CS to one side at least until all the updates are out of the way. In the meantime I see many things people are doing with CS that do make me feel like starting it up again. But SC4 holds so much promise for me right now, I'm happy just to follow CS's development from the other side of the fence.

I am sure that between 2003 and 2012 or so I spent upwards of 10,000 hours playing SC4 and developing content for the game.  It never lost its appeal over that time.  At the end, though, I became convinced that the community had come close to reaching the limits of what could be done through modding and, without access to the core game engine, was at a dead end.  It was a beautiful dead end, mind you, full of amazing things that we had created.  I said any number of times that we were the real owners of SC4- we had made it ours over the years.  But without a complete change in attitude on the part of EA, the game was doomed by the relentless forward march of technology, mainly in the form of new Windows operating systems.  I believe that the "death" of SC4 is happening as we speak, as Microsoft with Windows 10 seems intent on rendering the game non-functional [linkie].

But what a run SC4 had!  It survived four or five new operating systems over 12 years, it could be played for years while newer games came and went in months.  It allowed amazing things to be done to extend playability through modding.  It was realistic, both in terms of the simulation aspect and in the land and cityscapes you could create with it.  And it caused the coming together of this incredible community.  What a run!

To the extent my opinion means anything, please be patient with Cities: Skylines.  I'm not sure Colossal Order really comprehends what it has unleahed here.  The next year will tell.  If CO remains open to and supportive of an active modding community while continuing to release core game engine improvements and new features, C:S will truly be SCNext.  If updates, though, start breaking major mods regularly and their content seems calculated more to earn a buck than to improve the game, we're screwed.  SC4 will be gone, and the community's last great hope for a successor will be gone with it.

_____________________________________________________________

The next day, the 10th, Dennis (Mr. Maison) joined the conversation:

  On 10/9/2015, 2:53:13, rsc204 said:

  On 10/9/2015, 1:38:50, dedgren said:

Thanks.  I think a lot of folks are doing just what you described- I know I was very tempted to.  I'm beginning to figure out, though, that Cities: Skylines has two tracks for those who would play it.  There's a track where there's almost no learning curve to deal with at all, and the game is immensely fun for even a little bit more than the proverbial 15 minutes.  Then there's the road less taken, and the learning curve on that route is huge.  We had a decade and more to learn pretty much everything about SC4 and in the process make the game both amazing and completely ours (take that, EA).  C:S started out mostly amazing, but mastering it right now is like drinking from a firehose.  I'm working on that and will know I'm making progress when you let me know you are scratching that itch.

Well my initial binge was over 200h in two weeks after downloading the game within an hour of launch. So I totally agree with the fun side of the game, I think that's it's big appeal over SC4. Newer, shinier and much more accessible to the average person. If I'm honest, more than anything I enjoyed stalking sims and following trains . But what fun would that be without a pretty city as it's backdrop.

I'm a long time simulation fan, but SC4 just passed me by until I installed it a few years back. Since then I've regretted not trying it sooner and I always feel like I'm playing catch up with the long-timers. But I'm doing things I'd never have dreamed I was able to. Making textures and 3D modelling for example, I'm really more of a technical person, I never have the eye for these things that the more artistically inclined do. On a personal note, thanks for your MMP tutorial, it was one of the most well-explained tutorials I've come across.

After my initial binge with CS came the first game update. I quickly found the game frustrating and limited without mods, despite trying to be careful with the number of them I installed. One of my biggest annoyances with CO/Paradox and Steam is that I can not simply choose to decline a title update. The update without warning killed two saves with 400h of work invested in them, this really is buried in my sub-conscience every time I think about CS. Every other game I've ever played, I'd have uninstalled the update and not started any new projects until I was finished with them. Knowing I could play sans-mods or repeat the same problem again, I decided to put CS to one side at least until all the updates are out of the way. In the meantime I see many things people are doing with CS that do make me feel like starting it up again. But SC4 holds so much promise for me right now, I'm happy just to follow CS's development from the other side of the fence.

 

I lost my initial saved games when patch 1.2 was launched.....but BloodyPenguin brought his mod to my attention and I have them back. Give this a go to try and get back your 400h of work if you haven't tried it already http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529129546

The update thing is a peeve of mine too. With any software, I like to let the crowd go in while I have some tea and look for any confirmed complaints I can't live with before I dive in. That's why I haven't touched any other city builder since SC4....those last few train wrecks were easy to spot miles before they crashed in the same manner and in the same spot. Since the game is still young and wet behind the ears, it's wise for us to see this like the beginnings of Earth development where things are unstable and cataclysmic events are imminent until things settle down. I only put up with it because I know for the most part that inner core parts are in our hands and we can make it what we want it to be eventually.

David- At the fork of the road, I chose the road less taken......I feel like I volunteered on an exciting expedition in uncharted lands we been hearing about for many years. I also got myself into the deeper water by entering the world of "Organic Modeling". Right now I'm contemplating my next move with nature assets because I think the latest update changed the way leaves are displayed on the trees....not very happy the way they look right now but it will get worked out. When I see players like Atys and the way you start this CJ, it makes me want to make more and more nature assets because I feel like I'm helping you make that awesome landscape.

That's what I live for in a CJ- someone surfaces an issue and someone else steps up with a suggested fix.  I hope that TRR will continue that aspect that ran so strongly all the way through 3RR.  Please feel free, folks, to have a larger conversation about Cities: Skylines and */the city builder genre here than about what things I raise in my updates.  As long as that's the general purpose, there is no "off topic" here.

Dennis, I'm looking forward to working with you to make Jessamine a worthy emulation of its beautiful RL counterpart.

_____________________________________________________________

Later in the day on the 10th, Cathy (catty-cb) came back by:

  On 10/9/2015, 1:38:50, dedgren said:

As far as the Discworld is concerned

I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried when I heard the news.....

My Mother has my Birthday and Christmas presents tucked away in her bedroom (she lives with me) and I know I'm getting his last book and the DVD of "Going Postal"

If you use Firefox for a web browser, then you want to install this add-on for it

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/gnu_terry_pratchett/

http://www.gnuterrypratchett.com/

Its a means to remember him

  Quote

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the clacks are a series of semaphore towers loosely based on the concept of the telegraph. Invented by an artificer named Robert Dearheart, the towers could send messages "at the speed of light" using standardized codes. Three of these codes are of particular import:

• G: send the message on
• N: do not log the message
• U: turn the message around at the end of the line and send it back again

When Dearheart's son John died due to an accident while working on a clacks tower, Dearheart inserted John's name into the overhead of the clacks with a "GNU" in front of it as a way to memorialize his son forever (or for at least as long as the clacks are standing.)

So all across the world website owners and administrators are adding his name into our websites html header the Firefox addon allows you to see it, and yes its installed at CB.

There can't be enough reminders out there of our dear departed friend Sir Terry.  I had heard that, but never in such a concise form.

_____________________________________________________________

On the 11th after I had posted about keyboard shortcuts in Cities: Skylines, Marisa (gfv1974) commented:

Interesting stuff! I only use the spacebar shortcut at the moment - I'll have to start using some more now that I know they're available (and customisable).

That's why were here, my friend.

_____________________________________________________________

That same day, the 11th, an old friend, Isaac (masochist), from back in the SC4 days stopped in:

Hello from Texas, David! I cannot express how eager and excited I am to see what you produce in Jessamine...and perhaps even more so, how your work here will ripple throughout Cities:Skylines, as your work in 3RR so profoundly affected SimCity 4. Cheers!

Hey!  Thanks for the kind words, Isaac.  My work here will not be done until all our friends from a decade ago show up.  Don't you be a stranger, hear?

_____________________________________________________________

The 11th was another good day to hear from folks, as just before I posted the second part of the keyboard tutorial Cathy (catty-cb) came back by to say:

I really need to clone myself as one of me can be over here and the other over at CB doing the site upgrade (up to doing the new forums now), anyway David thanks for the post about the keystroke keys even today I don't use the SimCity 4 ones as much as I should and I've been playing that for years, if I ever get a computer that can play C:S I shall make a point of actually using them this time.

I feel ashamed, Cathy, that I'm not spending more time at City Builders [linkie].  When I'm there, I lurk, so that's strike two.  Note to self: Must. Do. Better...

_____________________________________________________________

Our friend rsc204 kicked off the 12th in a really nice way:

 

On 10/10/2015, 12:40:05, Mr_Maison said:

I lost my initial saved games when patch 1.2 was launched.....but BloodyPenguin brought his mod to my attention and I have them back. Give this a go to try and get back your 400h of work if you haven't tried it already http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529129546

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's so nice to be able to play one of my cities again, so far everything appears to work for the first time in months.

 

 

That is really great news.  Thanks, Dennis, for the tip.

_____________________________________________________________

And sooner or later it was bound to happen despite our best efforts (heh!) to operate under the radar here.  Later on the 12th the King of all CJs, the almighty Schulmanator (Bruce, actually - Schulmania) found us and noted:

Awesome to see you back!!!

...I am not worthy...I am not worthy...

_____________________________________________________________

On October 14th mymyjp commented:

Boots...check...lol

Excellent journal so far...Coming back after many months of absence,  it seems that I have forgotten everything! lol

_____________________________________________________________

Cathy (catty-cb) returned on the 19th with some kind words for my wife Heather and a great tip:

  Quote

So I hate to have done this to everyone.  I've had a family member in the hospital, so I've had a lot of time in the last week without access to my computer.

Real life is always more important, hope they are feeling better

  Quote

The inner square is the 5x5 gamesquare area that is currently playable in Cities: Skylines without the return of the "81 Tile Mod" or its equivalent.  It measures 10x10 kilometers, or about 6.25x6.25 miles. 

Have you taken a look at this mod "Cross The Line (Beta)" by BloodyPenguin

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=498386331

  Quote

You need this mod if you want to edit highways, railways, trees, electricity lines and water/sewage lines outside of city limits and/or 25 tile area. This mod also allows you to place buidlings that don't require to be built roadside anywhere on the map.

Heather has been back home for a couple of weeks now.  We're taking things a day at a time.  Thank you again, Cathy.

As for the excellent Cross the Line mod [linkie] we'll be using it extensively to create the built environment outside of the 5x5 core of Jessamine quad.

_____________________________________________________________

The last thing out of the mailbox is another comment by Bruce (Schulmanator) from later in the day on October 19th.  He asks:

Looks like you are working with my corner of the world. Where exactly is this map showing?

To the north and west of you a bit actually, my friend.  Jessamine at the southern edge of the Inner Bluegrass Region [linkie] of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, about (center)15 miles/25 kilometers southwest of the City of Lexington and a little less than 25 miles/40 kilometers south-southest of the State Capital at Frankfort.  Here's the Terrain Party screenie from when I selected the quad.

 

_____________________________________________________________

And that's the mail from page 2 of TRR.  Keep those comments coming, please.

 

David

3206/73

  Edited November 6, 2015 by dedgren  
Long post completed over several days; Typos

[The Big Z 103]

Looks awesome, Dedgren! Some of those pictures make me want to go there. I can't wait to see more!

[raynev1 1,886]

Those pictures make me want to visit as well , nice update .

this is the only C:S CJ i am following . Can't help it , it's just that interesting .

  Edited November 4, 2015 by raynev1  
added more

[catty-cb 4,411]

....Chirpy seemed like the one wrong note in Colossal Order's magnificent job in putting the game together.  A Jar-Jar Binks moment.  It's one thing to have fun at this stuff.  It's another thing altogether to infantilize it....

That wasn't the intention

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/04/03/mods-maxis-and-forward-motion-cities-skylines-interview/4/

Another interesting interview with CEO Mariina Hallikainen

http://www.pcgamesn.com/cities-skylines/how-colossal-order-touched-the-clouds-the-making-and-success-of-cities-skylines

Cathy

[tariely 4,496]

Wow. Coming late into the fray (you really going to build THAT ? re-wow.) The CS discussion is quite interesting too. But one bit of it had my hackles raised : "SC4 wil be gone..." No, no, noooo. SC4 CANNOT go. I know i'll keep a computer up and running only to play it, if needs be. The kind of ingenuity is takes to play it, to paint with it in 2D ortho seems so much more  challenging to me than the 3d pseudo-photorealism of CS... Oh, OK, CS needs another kind of ingenuity !:-) But I like both... I like both, I like options. I like Middle-Ages book illuminations, Vermeer, Turner or Klee as much as Cartier-Bresson or Ansel Adams. I Want It All:-)))

[dedgren 830]

Well, if you didn't know it yet, you do now.  Colossal Order has released a new patch for Cities: Skylines- mainly bugfixes, but they also raised the building limit by 50%, along with making a couple of other substantial changes.  Official release notes are here [linkie].  A ST thread about the patch started by boformer is here [linkie].

 

David

n.b.:  Still working through the mail.  I plan to finish that post [linkie] over the next few hours.  All done! -de

 

  Edited November 5, 2015 by dedgren  
Fix links

[gfvsims 169]

....Chirpy seemed like the one wrong note in Colossal Order's magnificent job in putting the game together.  A Jar-Jar Binks moment.  It's one thing to have fun at this stuff.  It's another thing altogether to infantilize it....

That wasn't the intention

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/04/03/mods-maxis-and-forward-motion-cities-skylines-interview/4/

Ok, I don't really HATE Chirper. I feel bad for Mariina, now! 

The thing that annoys me about it is the repetitiveness of the "chirps". I've found a mod (SuperChirper) that filters it, so I only get the necessary ones. I think it's a good solution.

[Tarkus 6,932]

David, it's great to see you back into the city simulation fray again!  I've been kind of lurking a bit in the background here, and thought I'd take the camouflage off the ol' tankadillo.  I did finally manage to pick up C:S at the end of October, when they put it back on sale (and Steam put the normal countdown clock on there, rather than the male bovine excrement they pulled earlier this month), and I've sneaked in a few hours with it.  I don't have anything really worth showing at this point, but it's been a good experience so far.  CO seems to have understood a good bit of what made SC4 tick, and avoided many of the pitfalls that plagued CXL and SC2013, though I'm finding the interface and the road and pipe building mechanics a bit on the clunky side still.  I'm really curious to see where the game goes, and what all you are able to get out of this new frontier after having been along for the ride of your SC4 endeavors. 

I have played a bit of SC4 since C:S (well, testing a NAM 33 RUL fix), and I feel it still holds up well enough graphically and gameplay-wise.  And even with Microsoft trying to screw the retrogaming consumer over big time (a fact which needs to be made a bigger deal), SC4 is still readily available through all the digital distribution platforms (though is overdue for a price reduction--$19.99 isn't going to cut it anymore when C:S is $29.99) and should continue to run decently on the latest systems as a result.  The biggest contributor to its apparent decline right now has been that we've lost a ton of manpower in the modding community--not to C:S (xannepan/xave excepted), but to RL.

-Tarkus

  Edited November 6, 2015 by Tarkus  

[dedgren 830]

Nothing like a good old 4.54 earthquake...

...to get you out of bed early.  This one, about 35 miles/55 kilometres north-northwest of my home, was a real shaker.  OK, fun's over.  Back to work.

 

David

[catty-cb 4,411]

Nothing like a good old 4.54 earthquake....to get you out of bed early.  This one, about 35 miles/55 kilometres north-northwest of my home, was a real shaker.  OK, fun's over.  Back to work....

The morning ones are ok its the ones at night that I don't like as I live on the Wellington Fault line

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Fault

On this bit to be precise

Although no historic earthquake has been recorded for this fault, the potential impact of rupture along the Wellington-Hutt Valley section on the Wellington area makes it one of the greatest natural hazards in New Zealand. The Wellington Fault is also capable of producing earthquakes of up to magnitude-8

so each quake has the potential to be the big one 

As for visiting CB no worries we not going anywhere so call in when you have the time, I've just moved the site over to the hosting company commercial hosting package this week and am still having the odd teething problem with it ... one thing you will notice is we now have a SSL certificate so the site address is now HTTPS its also meant to be faster which so far hasn't proved very noticable.

Cathy

[jesper107 113]

Extremely happy to see this journal being made! I don't have the time to contribute myself, but I'll do what I can as a bystander!

Jesper

[gfvsims 169]

I live on the Wellington Fault line

Hey, me too! Although, I haven't actually felt any earthquakes for a while.

  Edited November 8, 2015 by gfv1974  

[catty-cb 4,411]

I live on the Wellington Fault line

Hey, me too! Although, I haven't actually felt any earthquakes for a while.

All the recent ones seem to be have been quite small, since that one in October 

http://www.geonet.org.nz/

Which reminds me I really need to get my emergency kit updated or at least go thru and check it

[dedgren 830]

Some pics of an area in Jessamine- Lock and Dam #7- that I was fooling around with trying out various trees and other flora along with some of TPB's great ploppable rocks [linkie].

#1

The rocks are a little oversize for the task at hand, but not by much.

#2

The RL river drops about 15 feet/five meters here.

#3

I don't have any way... yet... of creating the lock structure.

#4

I've used the Terrain Texture Replacer mod [linkie] by hyperdrive_engage to create a texture I think goes with the Palisades area.  I can't make the limestone bed horizontally, but you can't have everything, I guess.  I think TPB's rocks match up about perfectly color-wise.

#5

Closing up today with a rather scary pic.  Chirpy is actually giving me helpful information.  I am using the Unlimited Trees Mod mod [linkie] by knighthawkGP and DRen72 to expand the number of available trees to around a million, but that's only a thousand thousand.  Every tree and tree equivalent that I have plopped in Jessamine can be seen here, and I have already used one of those thousands - 999 left.  I guess we'll see what happens.  My guess is that it is the small stuff- little plants and bushes- that are killing me here.  I think each of those rocks counts as a tree as well.  This is why I'm moving along very deliberately.

Later.

 

David

3744/86

  Edited November 8, 2015 by dedgren  
Create links

[The Big Z 103]

Some delicious eye candy!

[art128 4,618]

That looks alright!