Earthworks Tutorial Lucario Boricua's Earthworks Tutorials C-1: Terraforming a Seaport

[Lucario Boricua 7,060]

 

Welcome again to another entry of the Earthworks Tutorials series!

 

Today we begin the C-series, Coastal Challenge, with the construction of a custom seaport.

 

1. What are seaports and why do they matter?

Seaports are a transportation and logistics infrastructure type, they provide an interface in which cargo and people change between land transportation and marine transportation, as well as a place in which freight from different origins is sent, transferred or received. Depending on the needs of a region, and on the geographic characteristics of the seaport site, a multitude of layouts would be possible, such that the site is utilized in the most efficient, comfortable and considerate manner.

Some locations at which seaports benefit from more elaborate terraforming include:

• Smooth coastlines lacking sizable bays, estuaries, inlets or coves.
• Seaports that outgrew their natural bay and require a major expansion into the open water.
• Seaports which must accommodate very large vessels and need to re-size their docking facilities, in particular providing very long and straight wharves.
• Areas in which inclement marine weather necessitates construction of breakwater systems surrounding the outer parts of the seaport.

 

2. What do I need to terraform my own seaport?

 

DISCLAIMER A: This first part focuses on the terraforming of the seaport itself, not on furnishing the seaport with terminals, wharves, docks, cranes, container yards or the like. Later on I will re-visit this post to add a second part in which the furnishing of the seaport is addressed. Note that the more general nature of this tutorial also makes it useful for the construction of land reclamation and artificial island projects.

DISCLAIMER B: The method shown here only applies to new city districts, not to well-established cities. One of the steps requires using the Obliterate City command.

 

For this SimCity 4 project you will need:

• God Terraforming in Mayor Mode
• Your favorite slope mod
• Extra Cheats.dll
• Hole digging lots / terrain raising lots
• Mayor Mode Props (mmp) for rocks, stones or coastal armoring units. There's too many options to choose from, so I'll just show the two I used.
• Sea walls (optional, not shown in this tutorial)

 

In this particular tutorial, I'll be using these:

 

• God Mode in Mayor Mode: this modifies the Mayor Mode landscaping menu to provide access to most God Mode tools, with the exception of the erode, smooth, raise and sink terrain commands. This one is essential to this and all other tutorials I'll be preparing.

 

 

• BigRedFish Tunnel and Slope Mod: one of the strictest out there, there's others with steeper slopes for those who prefer them instead. This one works for those who are up to the challenge of building realistic terrain slopes for transport networks and large embankments.

 

• Extra Cheats Plugin: an essential set of cheats which unlock some very useful tools for advanced gameplay. The commands we'll be using depend on having it installed.

 

• Network Addon Mod: as part of the installation, a set of hole digging and raising lots is included, it isn't the only option available, however.

 

 

• smoncrie's Hole Digging Lots: for the players not using a complete installation of the NAM, this is the hole digging and raising lot set I recommend using.

 

 

• Coastal armoring tetrapods: here are two coastal armoring block MMPs I've used for this tutorial. If trying to build an authentic-looking seaport, these work best at two types of locations: seaports located faraway from large rock formations (no big boulders to extract anywhere nearby) and for places in which a rock boulder rip-rap wouldn't withstand sea currents. 

 

uki-sim's Tetrapods (click on the zip link to get the files):

http://uki-sim.seesaa.net/index-17.html

 

3. Let's get started!!

 

Our starting terrain consists of a peninsula with sandbar isthmuses. The waters are relatively shallow, but not tranquil. Our seaport will be located in the bay covering the lower right quadrant of the city district. Press the Ctrl + X keys to open the in-game command input, type in terrainquery to activate the coordinates of the game. To view coordinates, select any cursor (normal or traffic cursor) and place it over the location at which you want to get the information.

(thanks to @CorinaMarie for reminding me this sub-step!)

 

 

A. We zoom in and try to find a spot of the coastal slope located between 7.5 and 8.0 meters above the game's sea level (257.5-258.0 m). We will use this to define the elevation of our docks and yards.

 

B. Use a road square to start forming the flat area. Make sure to plop it at a location in which the cell edge that remains in place matches the desired elevation. For best results, press the R key to get the road tool activated directly over the cell of interest. Use left-click on the mouse, hold it and check if the terrain shape goes to the desired direction. If it doesn't, press Esc before releasing the left click.

 

 

 

C. Gradually expand the level area by placing road pieces. Once a sufficiently long base line is established, dragging the road parallel to the baseline defined by the clicks will make this task much easier.

 

 

 

D. Drag road segments parallel to the baseline, continue this procedure until as much land as desired has been flattened.

 

 

 

E. The seaport site now looks like this after flattening a sizable chunk of the terrain. If more flattening is desired, that can be addressed later on.

 

 

 

F. Select the Obliterate City command. This step is necessary because it will allow us to prepare the city district for what would otherwise be an imprecise waterbound terraforming.

 

 

 

G. Go to the God Mode menu, specifically to the Global Terrain Editing Tools. Select Raise Terrain Level, each click raises the landmass by 30 meters. For these shallow waters, one click suffices, city districts with more water require more clicks, until all the desired work area is above water.

 

 

 

H. Our work area looks like this after being raised 30 meters above sea level. If satisfied, found the city again, it will begin with the clean budget of a new city:

 

 

 

I. We now begin straightening the perimeter of the port area, using straight lines either in orthogonal (along the compass points) or diagonal form. Players who have the means to build fractional angle seaports can also opt for that additional arrangement. Use the same methods shown to form the initial flat area.

 

 

 

J. Start forming docks, wharves and/or breakwaters, provide sufficient width to fit both the seaport facilities, access networks (road, rail, freeway, avenue...) and/or utility easements (electricity, water, fuel lines...).

 

 

 

K. Wherever these protruding docking areas are located, make sure to provide smooth slopes on the sides where ships will not be anchoring. This is where we will provide coastal armoring. Make sure to do it to the outer-facing parts of the earthen berms, other recommended areas include the terminations of the docks.

 

 

 

L. When building diagonal breakwater areas, make sure to provide smooth sloping for the diagonal portions. Also note that, when building roads along the breakwater embankment, there should be flat terrain on either side of the road, who knows, it might become useful for a road expansion or for other facilities!

 

 

 

M. Demolish any road pieces which are no longer needed.

 

 

 

N. Now go to the gaps between the docks, make sure to flatten the sea floor all the way to the end of the gaps. This is equivalent to dredging the berthing areas.

 

 

 

O. Once done terrraforming the parts that will become underwater, obliterate the city once again.

 

 

 

P. Afterwards, lower the sea level to the original position at the start of the tutorial. In this case, we will lower it with one click of the lower terrain elevation, going down 30 meters:

 

 

 

Q. With the sea level lowered again, we are ready to furnish the breakwater areas!

 

 

 

R. Test out your coastal armoring units, and check which one, or which combination, works best. Here I have a side-by-side comparison between the SM2 tetrapods and the uki-sim tetrapods. One clever way to further enhance the look of the coastal area is to use the SM2 tetrapods for the underwater portion, and barely poking out of the water line, and placing uki-sim's tetrapods on the land portion. This will give a nice contrast between wet and dry.

 

 

 

S. Continue adding the coastal armoring, until covering the relevant areas. Stay tuned for the follow-up of this tutorial, where I'll furnish the seaport! Here's a teaser with the breakwater road and a lighthouse:

 

[CorinaMarie 29,922]

Excellent and well presented.

(Maybe mention in step 3-A how one gets those elevation numbers on the query.)

[Cyclone Boom 17,032]

Wonderful work! This is another really well written and illustrated terraforming related tutorial.

I remember years ago struggling with trying to create a realistic seaport and harbour dock area. I never succeeded. There were a few posted guides around at the time which described about using the hole digging lots, but the process didn't appear clear and easy to follow for me. Your tutorial explains the process in a detailed and comprehensible way from start to finish. Also to mention those brilliant breakwater barriers as @Simmer2 has just created and released.

Looking forward to see your follow-up presentation with the end result. It already is very realistic with the lighthouse and transitions there. When I get playing SC4 again, for any harbour themed cities I make and your method here will certainly prove invaluable for what I'd like to explore.

(We've featured your topic for greater visibility around the site.)

By the way, to help others with accessing all your Earthworks Tutorials, people can now click the blue tag to access them all.

As follows:   

(The above is a linked image of the tag.)

Should you wish, we'll keep adding this to new subsequent tutorials you create too.

  Edited August 23, 2019 by Cyclone Boom  
Added info about the tutorial tags.

[Simmer2 23,831]

Great tutorial and presentation!

If a may add, there are other items I made in the past that may help you in this endeavor. Its nice to have more tools at your disposal when making such terraforming. All of them are water compatible of course. @nbvc also made water compatible tools for such projects.

Simmer2 

 

 

[eaglesong 108]

A very timely arrival, as I have just recently ventured into the area of doing my own terraforming! The seaports I've tried to create in the past have always been a bust. Your tutorials have been very clear, concise and easy to follow.

Thank you so much!

[PaPa-J 778]

Very nice tutorial, well laid out.  I agree with @CorinaMarie , how do you get the elevation listings in the query?

[Cyclone Boom 17,032]

22 minutes ago, PaPa-J said:

I agree with @CorinaMarie , how do you get the elevation listings in the query?

Checking the opening post using moderator tools, I see @Lucario Boricua has kindly heeded Cori's thoughtful tip, editing a new part which mentions the use of the TerrainQuery command. Conveniently and this also happens to be a standard option which doesn't even depend on the Extra Cheats DLL being installed.

Then it's a case of using the game's Query function (the little question mark beside the mini map) and hover over anywhere to view the coordinates.

To jump and find this part, try a Ctrl+F in browser for the text: Let's get started!!
It might need pressing Enter once to find that being the first occurrence after I've said it above.

[The British Sausage 5,449]

Brilliant tutorial! That's a very cunning way of smoothing out terrain and creating gradually sloping sea shelf areas!

[TekindusT 3,809]

Excellent tutorial! I like the smoothening approach, never tried using gentle slopes to place my breakwaters... but also never used these tetrapods before, as they're quite new in the STEX. Love to see how you play with the darker and lighter textures of the two different tetrapod sets. Waiting to see how everything evolves!

EDIT: Years ago I learnt how to do my own terraforming using this tutorial at SC4D [link]. I don't know if you knew it before, if not, reading it might give you some ideas for your own tutorial.

[Lucario Boricua 7,060]

@TekindusT

I hadn't found that tutorial before (the time when I decide to venture into the SC4D forums for the first time was like 2 weeks before the site's issues this year), but from the looks of it it has:

* A very detailed introduction with numerous examples from around the world

* A highly detailed furnishing stage, referencing numerous seaport facility sets

* Not much information regarding the terraforming process itself, which my tutorial instead covers in greater detail

I'll definitely use it to get a better understanding of seaport facilities, especially for some of the other regions I have in advanced development, namely the Sinnoh Region, where I have multiple seaport projects pending for when I return to said region.

[Membrillo 56]

On 23/8/2019 at 10:53 AM, Lucario Boricua said:

We zoom in and try to find a spot of the coastal slope located between 7.5 and 8.0 meters above the game's sea level (257.5-258.0 m). We will use this to define the elevation of our docks and yards.

Hola Lucario, first of all thank you for these tutorials. They are great and hopefully you'll find time and energy to continue the series soon. I am curious about the height choice. I'm a total noob regarding coastal develpment but many of the PEG-CDK3 coastal buildings set the height to 250.5 m when plopped. Do you use/recommend other buildings? Or maybe this is all to be explained in the C-2 tutorial?