Anduin Valley Revisited

[threestooges 0]

Congratulations for the recently arrived residents (mightygoose, battlecat, tracker) and thank you Darmok, for pic 07. It makes me realize the patience necessary to effective create what you want (and also I'm not the only one who'll occasionally slip up. Now that the power plant is there, development can't be far behind, and then the visual magic will begin.

[szarkoz 8]

Hi Darmok!

Well, I will start with "criticism" I don't really like that highway bridge, in my view it just doesn't look good as a highway one... I would use another type of bridge there, but of course this is only my view.

Hehe, I know how horrible sometimes can be building a tunnel. At your current stage of development it is not a real problem because you can easily change it, it is worse if you already have some buildings in that area... That situations often drove me to just turn the SC4 down, and say: I hate that game But after few minutes I always were coming back...

I also like how you edited the last pic, great photoshopping. Nice job.

[Ramona Brie 121]

I am honored to begin page 93 of AVR with a second citizenship! I have already tacked this onto my signature! Even though I'm late to the game, I love this CJ.

[Goin2Chicago 4]

oh my god, after having my computer taken away from me for 2 weeks i'm finaly back and seeing those 4 updates was like christmas! the terraforming your doing is great and you must have unbelievable patients. well thats all i got to say for right now because i have to go check on everything else i missed while i was gone. can't wait for more!

[Rayden 7]

Hi, again, Thx for the nice answer you gave me. I do also get carried away easily when I'm talking/writing about something I like. I like your terraforming technic, and those tunnel problems, I do run ocasionally into them as well. Nice update in here and very helpful as usual.

Cheers

Rayden

[SpecialEddie 3]

I like how you do your terraforming. It almost seems like a tutorial: it's informative, nice looking, to-the-point, and easy to follow. Very cool, Darmok. Now I know what I've been doing wrong with my tunnels (two tiles on both sides?! How would I have known?!)

[GaBoR 7]

Once again thanks for sharing your experience!! this is nice, not every CJ author shares the difficultties they face in the making of their cities... Great City pic, look very promising!!!

[magpieshooter 1]

Great updae, the tech shots are good, as well as the PSing!

Also it seems my reply has disappeared again

[Shadow Assassin 336]

You've done a good job here, Darmok. Enjoying AVR still. Don't worry, I'll bide my time for the eyecandy.

[wouanagaine 86]

Good job Darmok

I really like to see what you will develop here. The landscape look interesting in term of development.

Can't wait to see next update

[Nik-nik 3]

Oh dear I missed an update.....

Should not take holidays on Friday. 

Great updates, Darmok. I am one of those guys who realy appreciate your technical updates as it shows how much work you put into building the landscape around a town. 

Very nice to see those struggles. I learn a lot from it.

I like the way you are struggling with the highway bridge. It gives me some good ideas. The bridge in itself is not what I like as the roads split to the sides which make an easy flow of traffic worse, thus increasing the potential of traffic jams (I live in the Netherlands, believe me I know traffic jams!).

One question is in your experience the Railroad tool better than the highway tool? To smooth out inclines I prefer to use the highway tool. I see you use a lot the rail road tool. Maybe I should use that also.

One final remark in response to your answer to Shadow Assassin of 19th May: "Hi SA, Good question! I think I'll take an SC4 vacation for a while, and then perhaps try my hand at BATTING, not sure though, already tried but... perhaps it's simply something I'm not really good at."

Please, Please, Please do not stop playing (where is that begging smily...rumble....rumble....darn cannot find it).

Take care and keep on enjoying life and SC4.

Nik-Nik

[Nik-nik 3]

Sorry for double posting.

I finally decided to get that great powerplant you use: Electric Power Plant

by jule78 . When I download it from STEX it is empty.

Can you send it to me by PM?

Thanks,

Nik-Nik

[kant01 5]

Love the terraforming, Darmok! You have some amazing skill there with laying out transportation networks. I simply don't have the kind of patience. Looking forward to more!

[pvarcoe 0]

Another beauty Darmok.

A question about picture 8:

I see what you mean about the road being one tile too close to the highway.

But when you bulldozed the "too close" road, leaving a two tile strip adjacent the highway; how did you restore the original slope beside the highway.? It wouldn't have returned to it's original state just by bulldozing the road, would it?

neat stuff as always, looking forward to development too!

[Jerebannus XVI 7]

Hi Darmok.

I have to say I don't comment much here (i'm sorry) But i'm your cj's number 1 lurker. Oh yes I am, lol.

What made me comment today was your outstanding work in the last update, i'm a big fan of transportation systems and your is top of the list for me right now.

Great work and expect me to leave comments more often.

c ya.

[ThePeoplesPerson 3]

This CJ is nothing short of amazing. Very tutorial like. I like how you show the development of an area instead of just showing it.

[pikatchoum 2]

Great updates!!

[dedgren 830]

John:

...stealing, stealing lurking, lurking...

David

[Rayden 7]

Originally posted by: pvarcoe Another beauty Darmok.

A question about picture 8:

I see what you mean about the road being one tile too close to the highway.

But when you bulldozed the "too close" road, leaving a two tile strip adjacent the highway; how did you restore the original slope beside the highway.? It wouldn't have returned to it's original state just by bulldozing the road, would it?

neat stuff as always, looking forward to development too!quote>

 

Look a little more carefully at that picture. See that single street tile just next to the highway? If he plops more street tiles next to that one, the terrain levels to its level, that what it's called the street leveling method. Just try yourself, plop a single street tile anywhere on a slope, and then plop some more next to it, one by one, without draging, and you will see the terrain leveling evently.

[Fabiocb 1]

Awesome terraforming John, I like you separeted the road and rail viaduct, they look even better now, specially with Jeronij walls.

the highway bridge, nice elevation and quite smart way to mka the slope to the tunnel.

Great work man.

[Chris M 406]

   John,

    Well, the end of the 'work' year is drawing nearer and that is always good for many reasons, but most importantly more time to play SC4.  I'm really, really looking forward to that, since the last time I played SC4 was about 2 or 3 months ago.   

About the pics, I know not everyone will like the technical shots, but it helps the newcomers of the game to better understand the aspect of designing and perfecting terraforming.  

I don't think I ever did comment on Dragon Base.  Kinda lacking in time, sorry about that, lol.  I really liked it, it was very original and you did exactly what I wanted and hoped you would do with the lots.

I hope to be more active around the CJ forum ( especially in Palm Point ).

                                               Thanks for another great one, John.

[anubis89 108]

it's greatly planned and it looks nice so far

[jacqulina 162]

hi my freind yes my week was great, and as allways some awesome terraforming,and your building and designing is outstanding,and i just love your pics.

as for mine i seem to be able to get into the game for about an hour and then crash to desktop i get no errors ,so i have a bit of tracking down to sort out the problem,i have checked drivers updates ect,i dont have hardly anything running in the background its a bit of a mystery but hopefully i will sort it out i have a few pics to post though but i am trying to do them of site not having much joy with that, imageshack is the one i am trying, is there an easier one or am i a bit thick lol. have a great week my freind.

congrats on the citizenship mightygoose,battlecat and tracker

[GMT 389]

once more a cool update, tho it only shows you working on it.

anyway, looking forward to more

[PhilsCafe 8]

Salut John.

In these situations (like your tunneling problem) I wish I'd save my game more often... at least in your case the impact on the terrain was minor and, most importantly, repairable. I'm looking forward to watching what you're going to build on the terraformed land.

Anôrien indeed looks very interesting. I like the fact that you're using LE to achieve more variety, I think it's worth the effort... and the wait.

A propos de '1984', je n'sais pas si tu l'a remarqué mais j'ai fait un peut l'optimisation dans l'histoire d' Acorn Creek, alors c'est sûrment possible . (If that didn't make any sense to you, here's the same sentence in English: About 1984, I don't know if you've noticed it but I did some history tweaking in Acorn Creek , so it definitely is possible).

I have a long weekend now, maybe I'll get some playing time... take care.

- Phil

[your_adress_here 11]

Am I a senior citizen by now?

Keep up the great work.

[Darmok 34]

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Yoman3 - United Republic of Ankara

Hey Yoman' thanks!   

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Battlecat - Terra - An evolving region 

The citizenship is just a (very) small token of appreciation.

Yeah the tunnel.... I just wish we had an undo button, but as we don't we often run into what I call (to be polite)  the "OOOPS" factor, if not I would call it (...self censored expression! you can put here your favorite negative expletive....)! But usually we can always repair the damage with a bit of patience an experimentation, and often I found new ways of doing things when forced to try to repair some of these "accidents" so in the end it has a positive outcome...

See you!

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Mightygoose - Vil-valad, a city and its roots

Hi John,

As I said to Battlecat, the citizenship is a small token of appreciation for the support and interest you're showing to AVR.

Yep that "ooops" feeling is something we all experienced when a prized building or something else vanish in a blast when we do a small error with the terraforming or even just missed the right spot with the bulldozer...

The road texture is TarSealedCountryStreets by rivitoz and I'd just love it, if someone could come up with a mod that would prevent it from reverting to the ingame one when we plop something along the edge.

Take care   

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Bat

Hi Bat, thanks for the visit!

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ThomasAH - Zorturia

Well that's the problem when beginning a big project like an airport, (wich BTW is great looking!)

Bruinen Fjord is a meduim city tile, there will be lots of medium density buildings and some low res sector.

And ..... well, let's not tell everything! 

Enjoy your weekend!

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Threestooges

Hi threestooges, hey believe me you're not alone out there! even if I repeat to save often, I'm often, up the proverbial creek, without the very needed paddle! That missing undo button is ading grey hairs to my collection!

In fact, you'll see some buildings and even some zoning, in this update. And the real development will begin in update 5. Hoping the readers will be indulgent and forgive me this technical pictures fit!

Take care

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Szarkoz - The Free Democratic Nation of Caledonia

Hi Szarkoz,

hehehe, "criticism" well taken, don't worry! I agree with you about that bridge, it's one of the things I'd like to correct, who knows maybe....

That's the problem when there's no undo fuction, so we have to deal with it in a civilized manner....we bang on the keyboard and *(?&%?&%#$@$....

Nahhhh... we repair and swear that we will save our game more often....until we get caught again!!!

Thanks for the visit!

Take care.

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Tracker - Graph X Services

well you know what "they" say, "Better late than never", BTW did anoyone ever meet "them", I don't know if "they" have a business somewhere, or are "they" a secret society like "le Prieuré de Sion"!!! Questions..... questions!

Anyhow thanks for the visit Tracker and see you next time!

Take care!

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Going2Chicago

hehehe, I've learned to be patient while playing SC4, but believe me I'm not patient in all things, my impatience is a curse!

Glad to see that you're still likng AVR, and see you next time!

take care

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Rayden - TWICE - New Haven

Hello Rayden,

Well I guess I'm kind of verbose sometimes!... and I guess that everyone have sooner or later blasted things while trying to make tunnels!

Take care!

P.S. Thanks for helping pvarcoe, you'll see that I've given another explanation below, so this way we'll cover all the bases!

(you see I can also be quick!  )

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SpecialEddie

As I said to Rayden, everyone have encountered that problem, I'm sure there are more solution to this but this was how I corrected it. Thing is we have to try and experiment, that's the ticket!

Thanks for your visit!

Take care

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GaBoR

Hi GaBoR,

I've learned so much by reading other CJ's that it's really a pleasure to give back even if it's only a little.

See you next time!

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MS (magpieshooter) - Kinata Region

Hey mate,

So sorry, the answer was there, BUT I've pasted the wrong link over it (all your CJ links are in an Excel sheet (in fact an OpenOffice sheet, I'm partial to open source projects) ) , I've used mightygoose's on your's.... I've edited it since though, I guess sometimes my fingers have a life of their own and they don't click where I want them to click!

Thanks for the visit, and I promise I'll be more careful while doing your replies from now on!

Take care my friend!

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S_A_ (Shadow_Assassin) - The Savannah Way

Hi S_A,

hehehe, glad to know you can curb your impatience, I sympathise with you, cause in the end it was hard to resist the urge of stopping the work on the road network and begin to zone and develop!

Take care!

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wouanagaine - SC4 Terraformer a tool for regional hand-terraforming

Hi wouanagaine,

what in heck are you doing here! you should be hard at work on that great terraforming tool of yours!

hehehe... seriouly, glad to read you again, and as for me I can't wait to see the final version of your great project, I really do believe that it'll revolutionize how we'll create our region from now on!

Take care.....and go back to work! 

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Nik-nik

Hey Nik!

Welllll... I guess I'll have to forgive you

Yes that highway bridge, I tried others and due to the fact that it was kind of high above the water and short in span, I never quite find a way of doing something I liked with it, BUT seeing how many comments on it, I'm beginning to take this as a challenge! So I'll go back there and see what I can do.... (the things you make me do there!!!!)

About the railroad tool question, I honestly don't know Nik, that tool is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a disaster, to give you an example, monday I was working on placing S_A's cycleways, (in fact it was in the very sector you'll see in the Anôrien postcard below), and I eas not satisfied of the slope I had with the road tool... so took the railroad tool and tried..... it was a disaster, it went straight down never curving and scrapped half an hour worth of work... (and of course it was one of those time I didn't save...  ), so I had the choice of trying to redo the terraforming of a whole sector, or to exit and come back and rezone replop the cycleways... wich I did and this time used the road tool (which worked OK that time!!!) So the answer is : both are very good tools, BUT save often my friend!

Though, I still believe that to obtain a smooth and LONG curved convex or concave slope, the railroad tool is good, (all of this depending also on the kind of slope mod you're using).

Don't worry, SC4 is on my hard drive to stay, and Anduin Valley is not finished yet! and as for the future, who knows!

A thing's for sure I really enjoy the interaction of this great community, so I guess I'll never be very far away!

And thanks that's one of the nicest compliment I've had. 

As for your question about the Power plant, I'll PM you about it, (done) we'll find it!

Warmest regards to you and your family my friend,

Take care

Oh, BTW, I saw your post in Jeroni's Simtropia about a problem with a street tunnel, you know that you have a workaround to do them, you create your tunnel with a road tool, then blast the road just near the entrance, then connect a street to it, that's all, the demarcation is barely noticeable, just look at pic 9 and 10 from the last update.

Hope this'll help you.

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Kant01

Hi Kant,

hehehe, patience is a strange concept ain't it... we have it in some instances, and none at all for some others. I know it's that way for me!

See you!    

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Bow River Valley

Hey Phil!

Now that is a very interesting question!

If I remember correctly, (and I think there's a missing pic in that sequence, yep just verified in my pictures folder) if you look closely at pic no 8, you'll notice in the right side under the transparent black window for the text, that the terrain has been leveled, what I did is this: after using the road tool to lay out a new road adjacent to the existing one as to keep the exact (or almost) same slope. I then blasted the previous one, then, began to plop road patches where the terrain was level (at the highest point) coming toward the bridge. Though the results where not as anticipated. So, I kept score of the highest AND lowest point for the descending road, blasted the rest of it, leveled the terrain around the highway (had to use the god mode tool), then plopped back the road, the slope was quasi identical to what it was, save from some quirks, and finished the whole thing with the god mode terraforming tools (VERY CAREFULY) and saving after every one or two turns.

Did I really did it that way?? I must be nuts!

Seriously it was not that difficult, as I often say it's harder to explain it than to do it!

Hoping this can help you!

Take care

P.S. I really like those questions!

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Jerebannus XVI

Hi Jerebannus, Welcome (officially) to Anduin Valley!

Good to know you've been lurking, I also do my fair share of CJ lurking, really unfortunate to only have 24 hours in a day!

Thanks for those kind words, I'm not sure though if my transit network would be that effective in RL, I tend to go more often to the pleasant looking than efficiency itself, but hey! perhaps someday we will discover that both are related! Why not! One can always dream...

Looking forward to reading you again!

Take care

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ThePeoplesPerson - The Tropics of Haalu

Hi TPP, long time no see!

Your new CJ is really good! Loved the work you've done with your water texture with Photoshop, very professional!

As for AVR, glad to read that you like it, what have started as a personal challenge and a small CJ experiment grew into something I would never have believed then! (And still am amazed at times!!!)

I was just nuts about how Jeroni was showing how he did things, so naturally AVR took the same inclination, and I just adapted this way of doing things to my style of playing.

It's always good to know that it's still appreciated and that you don't find this way of presenting it, too repetitive.

See you!

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Pikatchoum - Bluebeach City

Hey Pika thanks man!

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David (dedgren) - Three Rivers Region

Hi David,

David???? ***Curious, I was sure that I saw him a moment ago!!!....***** David???

***Rubbing eyes....time to clean your glasses my friend, you're imagining things***

Well, I guess I'll go make fun of him in TRR! That'll teach him...

---SHOUTING

Hey! If you're here.... take care!

END OF SHOUTING----

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Fabiocb - RASEC

Bonjour Fabio,

sometimes we learn best when we're making mistakes, it forces us to repair them and doing so we learn new tricks!

I agree about Jeroni's walls, and more so since BuddyBud gave us some add-ons.

As for the highway bridge, I may go back and modify it... it's not bad but... mehhh...

Enjoy the week-end my friend!

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Chris - DragonAnime - Palm Point

Hi Chris,

Hey man, long time no see... but I understand about RL.

Glad to see you liked Dragon Base, it was long in the making (most of the time just thinking how to do it...) but I liked doing it, was very different than creating a regular city, and also more frustrating at times .

So. really glad to see you back in Simtrop, can't wait to see more developments in Palm Point.

Take care!

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Anubis - anubis' cities

Hey anubis, thanks for the comments, and the tech shots are almost finished, you'll see some development in this one.

See you

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Jacky (jacqulina) - CJ: "Just wanted to show you my terraforming"

Hey Jacky!

Good, I was a bit worried about you, was seeing less of you in simtrop these days.

Glad to see that all is right.

Last time I had problems with sudden crashes, it was a faulty motherboard, (an ASUS which tends to prove that even good ones goes bad from time to time), but the time before that, what seem to have caused the problem was a lot of duplicate files in the plugin directory, what I did to correct it was to open my plugin directory then do a research for any file that had the .lot extension, then sorted the result by name and I found that I had so much duplicates!!! finally cleaned it (was quite a job believe me! at that time my plugin directory was a real mess!) and after that the game ran flawlessly, that is until my mobo went bad...

As for Image shack, here's a link for a good tutorial http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f19/image-shack-tutorial-6272.html

though I would recommend using the "" kind of link, it's a lot easier to use when you post your updates, the final result in Notepad (I always prepare my updates in Notepad, it's so simple...) looks like this :

Note that if you want a mosaic kind of presentation, that is without gaps between pics, you have to use SHIFT-ENTER at the end of each line, if not, just use the ENTER key.

Anyhow, if any problems, tell me I'll try to make one small tutorial about it!

Hoping this can help you

Enjoy your weekend!

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GMT - Greater Columbia River

Hey Torben, just a bit more patience, the techshots are comming to an end...

Thanks for your support!

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Phil (PhilsCafe) - Acorn Creek

Bonjour Phil,

Yep, the dreaded "Oh shoot! I should have saved!" syndrome, though you should replace the word shoot by any strong expletive of your choice...

I"m really enjoying myself doing Anôrien, lot's of new things to work with, Jeroni's new trees, his new street mod, some new Cycledogs props, some lots I've created, well... I'm having fun!

And for 1984, we only have to listen to any politician speech today, and compare it to what he (or she for that matter) was saying a couple of years ago and very often you'll notice conflicting stories!!! So much for plain truth, politics and ethics are maybe rhyming, but they certainly don't mix! For them truth is a really flexible thing!

OK Down from the soapbox, I shouldn't get carried away on this topic...

Anyhow, enjoy your weekend my friend, and find some free time to play. That is one of the most important thing in life!

Take care

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Your_adress_herel

Hey! YAH! That's a pleasant surprise!

Nice to see you man.... A senior citizen you ask?

I guess so, I'll to build a bingo parlor just for you! LOL

Really good to see you!

Take care!

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An announcement from the Anduin Valley Council

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And now ladies and gents, here's....

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You're very patient to endure all those tech shots, so as to ease the pain of taking that sometimes unsavory medicine, here's a postcard from Anôrien.

This picture was taken after installing Jeroni's new street mod. And I noticed while hosting the pic that it has a TP tree in it... the easy way of getting rid of it is to simply replop one street tile and it changes the trees. But for this one it was too late...

If you want to see it in full resolution (taken at zoom 4) here's the link

Anôrien Postcard - 2.1 MB

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People you are a crazy bunch,    I never had so many answers on one single update...

And I love it!

Thanks to all of you for the incredible support and suggestions.

Always great to read your comments and I'm looking forward for more.

Enjoy the weekend!

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In the meantime

Take care and enjoy life

Darmok

[sloppet 3]

I'm still alive.. but it won't take long...

and the update isn't so good D#1....

[jeronij 13]

Hi John, congrats for this always fantastic CJ !!! I envy all the free time you have to answer all the CJ visitors !!

I wanted to ask you, are you using my Street Side mod togheter with PEG

[jacqulina 162]

sorry to worry you my freind i am ok thankyou,it could be possible about the duplicate files caus i formatted not long ago and put in my files i saved on disk plus downloading new ones which i was probably supposed to take some old ones out for the new i will chech and most probably clean out my base its prob got dust in there by now that doesnt help it would caus overheating,thankyou for your help and yes a little tutorial would be great wen u have time.

 congrats to gmt for the citizenship

awesome updates love your tutorials wonderfull terraformin i love the postcard pic of Anorien its beautifull so scenic excellent work.

have a great weekend