Anduin Valley Revisited

[rooker1 4]

Very nice small town feel.  Not too much but just enough.  That's a struggle I have some times.....when to stop adding buildings.  Great job.  Do you find yourself using alot of small cities.  I find when I use a large city my computer gets really slow when the map is about 3/4 of the wat through.  Anyways great work and awesome pics.

[SpecialEddie 3]

THOSE ARE THE GREATEST MOSAICS IN SIMTROP HISTORY. *clicks cap locks button*

[ElmarO 0]

Very nice update. The Hi-Res pic of Tolfalas Island looks absolutely magnificent.

Welcome to page 91

[ThomasAH 0]

Tolfalas Island is now looking amazing! 

Can't wait for the first pics of Bruinen Fjord!

Thomas

[rw0381c 2]

Excellent travail John! Tu fais parraitre ce jeu tellement facile a manipuler.

From www.moncton-wildcats.com

May 13, 2006

Cats get two shots at title on home ice

It's not looking good for the Remparts and Mr. Patrick Roy

A la prochaine!

[Cobb32118 244]

Darmok,

What a monumental journal. I went back and looked at all the pictures I'd missed while I was away. Really impressive! Great use of unique custom stuff, too. I decided to go review the whole thing after hearing about it in the podcast. Awesome job. Can't wait to see what's next.

[Darmok 34]

Will try to post ASAP but Simtrop doesn't seem to accept my full text! 

I'll try regularly in the following hour or so!

Darmok

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Bat

Thanks! The region pic was a lot of work, but now all it needs is to update it each time I finish a city. The original file is a layered Photoshop file of 170MB.

Take care!

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MS (magpieshooter) - Kinata Region

Don't make me blush here! And by looking at AVR in the beginning, and it has become. it's easy to see that over thae last year my style has been influenced by many great CJ's including Kinata, they call that "the migration of ideas"   No seriously I firmly believe that we really are influenced by one another taking one idea here and another there. And that's excellent, look at how the general playing style has evolved since 2003! It's simply incredible... The cities residential sectors are more and more organic looking, the industrial sectors are now so real looking you can almost feel the gritty pavement and smell the acrid fumes!!!

This community is the best thing that happened to SC4.

OK OK! I'll wrap it up!

Thanks for your encouragement mate!

Take care

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Anubis - anubis' cities

Hey Anubis,

Thanks man, As I  said to Bat, the region shot was a lot of work at first, but now it's easier. And It's fun to be able to see the whole thing at a better resolution than the one the game give us. That should be one thing they could add in SC5 (if it ever comes out) the opportunity to generate a high resolution region pic.

The advertisement.... OK, now where's my calculator... the going rate is.... adding the taxes.... not forgetting the shipping and handling (there's always shipping and handling fees, have you noticed?), oh yeah there's an extra for the use of color... minus the rebate.... it all comes down to.... one post!

And you've done two already, so you still have some credit, no problem! 

Seriously, I really like your CJ so I don't see why I wouldn't mention it!

Enjoy the week!

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Mayormommy - Nightmare Islands: Life on all levels

Hi Mayormommy, well to tell you the truth it was not so bad, cause due to the smallness of the area, using the ingame region map, I draw a (very) rough zoning pattern trying to avoid the borders so forest would meld nicely. But I ended up changing a lot of the projected zoning anyways... hehehe... I'm really not a very good planner!

Always good to read you MM!

Take care, and keep those fingers typing in your CJ!

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Sloppet

Hey sloppet, thanks for the visit buddy!   ..... hey what that sly icon is doing here!!!   ah! thats the one I wanted!!

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Pikatchoum - Bluebeach City

Hi Pika, the mosaic was not that hard to do, just a bit of patience and a (small) bit of Photoshoping  "et voila!"

Thanks!

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Battlecat - Terra - An evolving region 

Thanks man, I thought that Tolfalas, albeit small, was spread on four small city tiles and thus cant be appreciated as a whole without a global view, making the mosaic a necessity! (Wow I should write political speeches!!!   )

Take care!

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Szarkoz - The Free Democratic Nation of Caledonia

hey Szarkoz!

Good to know you liked the big region pic, then I know It's worth the time doing it! Everytime I look at it tough, I want to go back and change some things I like less now. But I guess it's good to leave them like they are cause this way we can see the evolution of the style through the year or so it took to build it so far.

Thanks for your kind words!

Take care

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Mightygoose - Vil-valad, a city and its roots

Hey John!

Thanks man, I completely agree with you about the airport, It's the one thing I'd like to redo the most! But instead of doing this, (see Szarkoz answer just above) I think more and more about doing another one that'll take an entire city grid or almost. And even if I'd like to modify things I don't like in Minas Tirith, I'll keep it as a reminder of how I worked last year. Though perhaps I could duplicate the region and just have a try just fun fun!

See you!

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Phil (PhilsCafe) - Acorn Creek

Salut Phil!

Well, I must say that without the readers AVR would not have gone far! 

The residential sector: I just wanted to do a small sector where the resident scientists could live in a (semi) isolated environment, so they can (in a certain way) get away from the job. A thing which I didn't put on the island is some recreational facilities, though the mainland being so near, they can take the ferry and have a night on the town!

As I explained to Bat, the main file being a layered photoshop file, I just have update the file by adding a mosaic of the last city, so it's not that hard to do, just a bit of patience.

Hehehe, when I talk about things I like I often get carried away! I'm sure you'll like it, even my mother liked it! And usually she don't like reading books with violence in it. But this one is really different.

And I guess 1984 is a must read, even if it's not a very "uplifting" book. It's a pretty glum view of the future.

Si de ton côté tu a de bonnes suggestions de lectures, n'hésite surtout pas à m'en faire part!

I'm always open to suggestions.

Well, that's about it for now!

Enjoy the week my friend!

-John

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Threestooges

You are very welcome threestooges, and when people appreciate the pics, then the work it takes to do it is well worth it!

See the little How-I-do-it at the end.

Thanks for your regular support and comments! They are appreciated.

Take care

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Jason -(Aldara6166) - Modular Amusement park thread

Hi Jason, How's the family?

Thanks man, as to know how I do it, just look below, I've done a little something about it, and no I didn't find a way to change the zoom factor in the region view, that would be awesome!

Take care my friend and see you later.

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Micah

Hi Micah, really glad to see that you liked the big picture, I know it's massive but you really have a better look at what the global situation is with that kind of overview!

I kept the dirt roads to convey the fact that the island is at an early stage of development. And also for the different look!

Thanks for your kind words!

See you

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S_A_ (Shadow_Assassin) - The Savannah Way

Hey S_A_

90....Yeah who would have believe that over a year ago! Not me! I'm still baffled... (91 now !   )

Even if the big picture was a lot of work originaly, it's really fun to work with it now, when adding a new city, it's like unwrapping a gift!

Thanks mate, take care!

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GaBoR

Hi Gabor, Welcome to Anduin Valley!

Thank you for your good words, and please do come back anytime you want!

See you!

P.S. That is quite a beautiful avatar you have! I really like it!

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Fabiocb - RASEC

Hey Fabio, that's quite a compliment amigo! I'm glad you appreciate the work done in AVR, it's rewarding to know that it's not done in vain.

Take care!

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Benedict

Hi Benedict, Welcome to Anduin Valley!

To tell you the truth, even when taking great care with the terraforming, there's always some small discrepancies at the borders, so there's often the need for a bit of Photoshopping in certain sections of the pic.

Do come back anytime.

See you!

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Capitol1 - Reveska Valley

Hi Capitol, Welcome to Anduin Valley!

Just look down for a small section on how I do those mosaics,a bit of patience is needed, but in the end it's not that hard, just a bit of practice!

As for the Region Census program, I think it's on a german SC4 site..  Region Census

But unfortunately the link doesn't seem to work right now!

But doing further research I found  Sawtooth's Region Census Homepage

Hope this'll help!

See you!

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Rooker1 - Xania a tour of my world

Hey Rooker!

Well.... in this particular case I didn't want a real village, just some residences, so it was easy to do and to keep a lot of the existing greenery.

As for the slowing down, fortunately my PC is quite new so It's not lightning fast, but it's more than acceptable. Nonetheless, it's slower to work with a city like Osgiliath than Tolfalas! I can see the difference!

Hope you had a great weekend my friend!

Take care.

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SpecialEddie

Wow, quite a compliment Eddie!

Thanks! And watch out that caps lock, it may cause you trouble when typing a password!

TAKE CARE! (ooops! that darn caps lock key!)

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ElmarO

Glad that you appreciate it ElmarO and Thanks for the welcoming!

Take care!

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ThomasAH - Zorturia

Thanks Thomas, and here you have the first Bruinen Fjord Pics

Tot ziens!

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Rhéal - rw0381c

Salut Rhéal, well... all right we lost and you won!  Félicitations aux Cats!.... BUT there's still the Memorial cup!

And I hope you'll also like Bruinen Fjord.

Take care

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Cobb32118 - Cobb creation on the STEX

Hey Cobb, Welcome to Anduin Valley!

I didn't know I was on the podcast! I'm downloading it as I type this... can't wait to hear that.

If you reread the whole thing from page one, I'm really impressed and honored as well!!!

Thanks for your great comments and info about the podcast,.

Enjoy the week!

***************************************************

HOW I DO THE CITY MOSAICS

I brewed a little something to explain how I do those images,

The setup - I work at a resolution of 1600X1200 but the procedures applies to all resolutions.

FIRST OF ALL - This technique may be used ONLY with image editing software that use layers AND transparency, such as Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, PaintShop Pro - The Gimp (freeware), or any other that have those options.

Allright let's go.

The most important thing when doing this is to NEVER use the mouse while moving the city to take the pics, ALWAYS USE the UP - DOWN or LEFT-RIGHT arrow keys to do it. ALWAYS use the keyboard shortcut SHIFT-CTRL-S to take the pics and ONLY use the mouse to click OK on the pic dialog box, that's all, try to limit the movement of your mouse to the STRICT minimum. And don't forget while moving the city to keep an overlappig zone to be able to adjust both pics.

If you're using seasonal trees (either Jeroni's or PEG's) and you want consistency in your overall mosaic, please PAUSE the game while doing this.

1. Always start with a corner, then chose an easily recognizable object as a point of reference (to be left in the overlapping zone), this time as I started in an lower corner, I had to chose it at the top of the pic of course!  (In this case it was an indsutrial lot) Take a picture

2. Then with the appropriate arrow key move up while keeping an eye on the point of reference. When it comes to rest at the bottom of the new pic, stop moving and take a new pic. (I've made a blue scribble on the overlapping zone so you can see it) Look for another reference point and repeat the procedure.

3. When you come to the end of a column if you have a reference point on a horizontal axis then move towards it (if not, for example if you were completely in the water, go down again using the arrow key NOT THE MOUSE, until you reach the sarting point and them move horizontaly towards a point of reference), in this case I had a point of reference in pic 4 which was an easily recognizable tree, so I moved horizontaly towards it, keeping it in the new picture. take a pic.

4. go down and repeat the whole thing again and again.... you get the picture (pun intended!)

I've put the first 3 pics of this example in transparence so you can easily see the overlapping zones,

In the case of the energy sector it took 13 pics

Now, when the pics are taken, all you have to do is to create an new empty file with enough room to accept all files, it does not matter at this point if  it's too big, you can crop it later on. This one, before cropping was about 6000 pixels wide by 4000 pixels high, so now you open each mosaic pics you've made, copy and paste them INTO the new (empty) one you've created, which will give you (in this particular case) 13 layers.

After that it's a matter of aligning them, giving a transparency of 60% (or so) to the one that overlaps the other, then zoom on your reference point and using again the arrow keys to adjust them so they lined up perfectly. When it aligns perfecly, the picture will be in perfect focus When you see that it's ok you put the transparency (or opacity) back to 100% and move to the next one.

The first time is always longer, but with time you do it without even thinking about it! Believe me it's not as complicated to do as it's difficult to explain it.

I'm not sure I'm that good at explaining it I'm afraid!.

Anyhow I hope this can help you, if you want a more detailled tutorial just say it, I'll try to make a more detailled and illustrated one.

************************************************

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Ahhh! the beginning of a new city! It's like a blank page on which we will write the next Pulitzer Prize..... AAAuuuuuughhhh! What will I do???? I have no ideas!!!! I'm a failure!!!! Why did I even begin that CJ!!!! And I wi..... oh! And if..... perhaps I could try of creating the complete transit network right at the beginning! I'll certainly get an idea by the end of that phase...

hum.... so here we go with....

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I don't know what to say to you anymore! The support you're giving AVR is overwhelming!

And you always have good suggestions, I know I don't always follow them immediately, but rest assured that usually I use your suggestion later on in the game to improve my next cities, do remember that what you are seeing is usually 4 to 5 weeks old. And am I glad I have a picture reserve! cause these days I barely have the time to play the game itself! Sometimes just a couple of hours a week!

Anyhow I thank you all for your generous and attentive support, it's really appreciated!

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In the meantime

Take care and enjoy life

Darmok

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Lovely tutorial, Darmok. Though, you can't have roads going under bridges, remember?

The effect can be achieved by simply removing your slope mod and building a fake BAT cover to cover up the tunnel.

But hey, I'm glad to see AVR come such a long way. Wonder what you'll do when you do finally complete Anduin Valley?

[vester_DK 477]

You do some great tutorials. I use a lot of the same techniques in PhotoShop doing the tram skins.

Like that you show the try and error process.

EDIT: How do make arrows within PhotoShop or do you it with another program ?

[anubis89 108]

nice tutorial, i can't wait to see some delopments !

 

and i realized that all the succesful CJ haven't started with many comments on every update, yours for example had just a few comments about the first updates, some of them have no comments at all. but now all your updates have a lot of positive comments like mine !

and the start wasn't so bad i think

which rock mode do you use ?

[bat 6]

Very nice tutorial! Great update!

bat

[Darmok 34]

Sorry to bump the thread everyone but....

Just a quick answer for Shadow_Assassin

Hey mate don't you remember UnderBridgeRoad by nietseb

Here's a small preview of what's to come later on...

You made me blew a scoop there! LOL

Complete answers later!

Take care everyone!

[szarkoz 8]

I'm speechless. LOL. You know I was just going to ask you how do you do the city mosaics? Seriously

But there's another thing I'd like to know. How do you match pics of different cities together? I mean, there are much places when a building, or a tree etc. is "sticking out" of one city... You know, it should cover the pic of another city. So, the question is, how do you do that? Do you cut them so ideally that they cover the pic without any glitches? Or is there a kind of a trick for that?

I really like the tech pics. You can learn much from them, they're great tutorials. The newcomers should see it. Great job

[choco1 4]

How can I say this....

Simply the BEST region I have EVER seen!  Period.

Good gosh, thats just stunning.... I get sucked into that mosaic, and I won't stop staring at it for hours!

Tolfas Island is really nice, so much detail on one beautiful little area.  I love the nabourhood you've created in update 11, PEGs road and those shops are really nice additions.

Very nice mosaic tutorial, I'll have to try that one day, and I just loved the insight into how you design your perfect areas.  An invaluable read!

Anyway, your work is getting more and more outstanding mate!  Cheers.

[mightygoose 92]

darmok man some more great stuff, were similar in that we place the transit layout out before the main city, great work. as far as Harkshow is concerned your moving in tonight mate so keep your eyes peeled lol

[sloppet 3]

It's my last visit here, so I think it could be good to say goodbye... so just stay (sic) Darmok

[Battlecat 14]

Nice!  The tech shots are one of the many reasons I keep following your city journal.  Nice tricks for making good looking bridges.  Can't wait to see more!

[pvarcoe 0]

I love it!. You can't do too many of these tech updates Darmok, they are just great.

There is a ton of great tips in here.

I really like the number 10 pic. The way you leave have your overpass extra wide to allow roads running underneath. It looks realistic, I must use that tip soon.

The land bridge shot in pic 12 shows that the extra effort in terraforming is really worth it when you see the end result. Another tip I gotta start doing.

In terms of Bow River Valley, I keep working on it (have about doubles the region size recently). Just been very lazy at creating cj updates lately, but I will have something soon. Thanks for asking about it.

And, thanks again for this tech update... you're a master.

[Nik-nik 3]

Great tutorial Darmok. Can some one copy it to the tutorial section? (this is a serious question BTW).

You beat me to that answer to Shadow Assassin. Although i have never used it in one of my games, it looks awsome doensn't it?

Keep on playing (even if it is for some minutes each day).

Nik-Nik

[RiverCocytus 0]

nice. This is both a tutorial and a CJ. Do you use the 'zero height for bridges' mod? Or is it regular Maxis-style?

[GMT 389]

great tutorials

can't wait for the next update!

[threestooges 0]

I'm with Nik-nik on this one. I have seen some tutorials try to attain this level of technical advice in a simple manner, but most don't come up to snuff. This on the other hand is amazingly informative and easy to read. The only thing I can see left out is a tutorial on using photoshop (but then that's why the include it with the program). Can't wait to see where this leads.

[Ramona Brie 121]

Darmok, I am surprised. This City Journal could very well surpass Nexis of Genesis in page terms in the next 2 weeks.

By the way, great update with tutorials. Showing the bare bones city makes Anduin Valley better, because when the city is complete, you can compare the original city to the developed one.

Edit: I am also looking to make you a new personal comments banner. Give me a picture and the size, and I will do the rest.

[Fairlane500 8]

Awesome, i just love the beautiful simplicity of all your shots, even just for the tutorial. You obviously put thought into each and every one.

I can't believe I haven't checked this out before, but I'll be certain to return.

[hamsterTK 93]

hmm. seems like making a mosaic could be a ton of work, but it looks like it would be worth it. I might try it. Actually, i will do it, but when my region gets bigger.

[SpecialEddie 3]

Pretty excellent terraforming.Let's see some development!

[GaBoR 7]

I like the avatar too Darmok!!! This Mosaic tutorial it's a blast thanks for sahring this, and all those bridges and rail advices were very helpful!!! I must keep note of all of this!!! See you in your next update, Congratulations for this Great CJ...

[capitol1 1]

the tutorial is helpful but in most of my mosaics i use paint..i use paint for everything

Also i love your patience for a perefectly realistic looking road system, i really liked the eprfection of the first blue rail bridge!

[magpieshooter 1]

Brilliant update. Its good to see how you do things, and good on ya for teachin the noobs!

[Micah 16]

Wow, thanks for the wonderful tutorial. I saved it in Microsoft Word just incase if I need it later on (is that okay?). Yeah, Darmok, you are right. Those are pretty cool too.

Anyways, I was having some difficulty with NAM back then, but I think I'm better understanding how to use it.