Teaser(s) - The Power Plant & Street Map Work

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Entry posted by TakemeThere · February 15, 2015

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Not the only power plant in the region, but the first one that comes to mind when people in the region mention anything about a power plant. Just a small section of it:

Also a little over a month ago I started working on a street map for the region. Many years ago I had originally attempted to make a rail and street map using paint.net Needless to say the result was rather crude...

First attempt at map making after completing the first couple of cities in the region back in 2006/07:

Early Attempt at a rail map:

That sure as heck won't cut it for what I had in mind now, creating a street map like this:

After seeing the result others had gotten from using it I downloaded inkscape which is far more suitable to the task. There's a bit of a learning curve to using it but like all things with time it becomes almost intuitive.

First thing is to take photos of the transportation network for each city and then edit and combine them all into a single image:

Being careful to demolish all unrelated transportation builds/lots prior to taking each photo. Taking photos of each city in zone view is a helpful reference as well. The undeveloped parts of the region will be added to map in the future.

I use the SC4 transportation map to draw out individual layers for each network. First come the avenues & roads. Then what's left are the highways, rail lines and streets. The highways & rail lines are relatively easy to tell apart allowing me to fill in the streets. The original SC4 transportation image can then be easily deleted revealing the underlying street grid (warning before you click on them, large images!):

So far I've completed the individual layers for highways, avenues, roads & major rail lines:

Work is almost done on city boundaries & shoreline and starting on highway interchanges & rail spurs. Yet to start working on subways, street/road/ave names, neighborhood names, elevation(possibly), pedestrian paths(possibly), designating; built-up areas, institutional areas, industrial areas, parks and cemeteries and lastly denoting schools, hospitals, police & fire stations, other services, recreational objects and landmarks.

Hopefully this little tutorial was helpful to anyone considering making a map of their region and if anyone has any additionally tips by all means they would be appreciated.

RE: Your Comments

Kim Sunwoo

Thanks! There's definitely going to be a lot more close ups, but sometimes I like building up interest slowly. ty for the advice as well. Though truth be told I'm a bit of a skyscraper geek :blush: so even though I know its something that's been overplayed in SC4 CJ's its still something that I thoroughly enjoy.