Entry no.36 - This, That and The Other Thing
I've never been one to make short entries so rather then making several smaller ones I'll be merging a few different items/topics into one.
First on the agenda is that hydro crossing over Spaghetti Junction, below is the much improved new overhead crossing;
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I forgot to post some night shots in the last entry so here's a few for the road.
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Why only no darknight? Unfortunately even with all that lighting the darknight mod doesn't work so well(imo) for highways and interchanges;
A part of Spaghetti junction extends into the next city over, which brings me to the next topic - Evermore
Evermore itself(pop. 9,640) is little more than a filler/transitional city, there's really not much of note here aside from it's transportation related infrastructure which is the most interesting part of the city. This is the south east quadrant of the city which contains about half of the towns development and the most interesting part of it's transportation network.
The most important thing about building this town was coordinating the highway and rail lines to connect in a cohesive way from a regional perspective. There is only one highway exit/entrance in Evermore, so there isn't any inner city movements on the highway. This is to mantain realistic spacing between interchanges and also the city is too small to justify a second exit that was lightly used. I say 'was' because back when I was using maxis highways there were two highway exits but one of them was barely used at all.
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12 lanes of highway come into Evermore from LC with Lexor Rd. being split in between the highway ramps.
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Chapel Junction is an interchange point between two of the regions major passenger train lines, the L(Loop) & ME(Middle East). Commuter trains do not normally cross over here but rather this junction is used for contingencies. In case of a track shut down or heavy congestion on one of the lines trains can be routed to the other route. The lines serve different stations and follow separate routes but their ultimate destination is the same - downtown Pretoria.
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The single track spur line leads to a layover yard where trains are stored overnight at the end of the day. This way they don't have to run all the way back to the main yard in Central Pretoria and conversely they start from here in the morning as well, which reduces operating costs(fuel, maintenance, wages). Trains are rotated so that they store at a layover yard one night and then at the main terminal the next where there are more extensive repair & maintenance facilities.
Evermore's Fastraxx station is only a stop on the L-line, which serves stations in the inner portion of the region and is lightly used by 336 people per day in the rush hour.
Passengers wishing to get onto the ME line can get on the L line here and then proceed either east(to the Lindin City station) or west(to the Calgon station) where there is a transfer to the ME line.
The other part of Evermore(the south west quadrant) is still a work in progress and will be shown at a latter date. There is one thing of some interest there... 
And on to the final item for this update. I've finally managed to get 3ds max to work for me and I'm in the process of completing several BAT's in addition to re-releasing a couple old ones.
I'd love to hear some feed back on these BATs specifically with their color/texture. I think the faded white & red on the 3ds version of the tower below works best. What I'm not completely sure about is if I should use essentially the same faded colors for the other(red/white) towers. I feel like changing it up from BAT to BAT so they look less simular, but maybe that's not the best approach.
Updated 3ds version on the left, original gmax version on the right.
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Here's a few other color tests. ToS-3
ToS-4
ToS-5
So what do you think? Do any of those other shades of red and white work, or should I just generally stick with the first example which is probably the most realistic.
One other open question I have is about height. I've taken one or two liberties in that respect but for the most part these structures are equal in height to their real world counterparts. I generally have not over scaled the towers which is in contrast with the recommended approach for custom buildings - which is to overscale them by 133%. Though it seems to me that while this is consistently done for floor heights its not quite as common when it comes to overall height. I don't have to worry about the floor height issue here but for those that use these towers do you find them to be under scaled or do they look properly scaled? I do feel like they might be under scaled but on the other hand there are plenty of taller towers in the works(250-350m range) so my gut feeling is not to alter the heights.
I'm open to and would appreciate any comments or suggestions on this matter, thanks in advance.
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