Entry no.41 - Rosco Valley
Talk about a complete one-eighty. When last we left Pretoria, I showed you the massive industrial monolith known as the Apotex Refinery. This time however we'll be looking exclusively at a natural landscape - the Rosco Valley.
It's been a very long time since I made an entry where the main focus was nature. The last time mmp work was one of the main feature(s) of an update was back in The Ring of Steel(entry 21) and the last time it was the exclusive feature was for Gravenhurst Mosaics(entry 12). That was also the last time I made a large scale water mmp scene. Needless to say it's been far too long. Truth be told, I've been avoiding creating (mmp)river scenes. You may or may not have noticed, but there's been a distinct lack of them in my journal so far, aside from waterfront scenes with in-game water. For one I've always been more focused on creating urban, transportation and industrial scenes. But the other reason is that I simply didn't have the confidence to realistically pull off such scenes.
The last time I created an mmp river was around 3 to 4 years ago and it looked a little something like this;
I was actually kind of proud of myself for being able to create that scene, especially since I hadn't been on any of the SC4 sites for a while at the time. It was the most elaborate mmp scene I had created to that date. Heck I didn't even know the meaning of 'mmp' then.
When I finally got around to being more active on this site and started my own CJ towards the end of 2014 I took a long look at what others had created and needless to say I was blown away. It was then I decided to simply stick to what I was good at. But like any true SC4 enthusiast one can't help but try out new things. I surprised myself a lot with what I've been able to create. Dresden(rebuilding it) was a revelation for me both with how much better I had gotten at city building and with the community response. I can't beleive I actually thought I couldn't improve my city building(urban areas) when I first started the CJ 
To be fair it had been a decade since I started playing the game by that point. I now believe the exact opposite, there is no such thing as reaching a 'peak' and there is always room for improvement no matter how good someone is. Following Dresden my focus was two-fold, I would further refine my specializations(transportation, industry) and I was going to tackle the things that I was avoiding both in-game i.e. river scenes, the airport(eventually) and 'out'-game i.e. plugin management, lot editing, realistic photoshoping. Whelps, I finally came around to creating that river scene and today I'll show you the results.
To note there has been no photoshopping of any the images. That's not to say that there's anything wrong with photoshopping, in fact my second to last entry featured nothing but photoshopped images. Through the use of image editing, players can create incredibly realistic scenes indeed almost photo realistic and those who can do it well should certainly be commended for their accomplishments and abilities. But at the same time while the end result looks fantastic I can't help but feel like the creator is no longer playing SC4 but rather some other game entirely. This is not meant to be a criticism of those who photoshop but simply describes a feeling I sometimes get when looking at them. Anyhow for my first mmp river scene I wanted to show exactly what can be done using only what is available to everyone in the game itself.
Also I've decided to take things one step further yet. In the process of trying to make the best scene possible I experimented with different terrain/rock mods. But what I ended up noticing most was that there was barely any difference at all. Once the 'mmp saturation' reaches a certain point, it practically doesn't matter what terrain mod(urban scenes are another matter) or rock mod you use. So I decided to go 'vanilla maxis' with this one, that is no terrain mods of any kind. Anyhow I think that's enough with the suspense and explanations, on with the show we go.
The Rosco Valley is located in Providence National Park, near the geographical center of the mid sized city of Baycole. At the base of this valley is Scribosilyn river which you guess it, is named after a certain member of this site who's recent entries on creating river scenes motivated me to create my own river scenes and serves as a great resource and for those looking to make their own hand crafted rivers. Plus it's just a kick-ass name 
Here the Scribosilyn river emerges from the thick brush of Providence NP (i.e the edge of the map 
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Mcbride trail is a nature trail that runs along the northern/eastern bank of the river in this area.
I left a few spots unfilled around there so that you can see the vanilla maxis rock texture underneath and the brownish/dirt-like hue it creates in places.
The river bank quickly becomes more rocky as it enters into Rosco Valley.
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Here the Mcbride trail crosses over to the south bank of the Scribosilyn river over a small pedestrian suspension bridge.
The bridge is a popular recreational spot for locals.
Just east of the bridge is a series of rapids as the river slowly drops in elevation.
A couple different angles for your viewing pleasure 
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The terrain is much steeper on the north side and large boulders occasion fall down towards the river which is why the trail continues on the south side.
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Next we move into a relatively calm area of the river.
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The river then starts to drop some more in elevation leading to another series of rapids. Large rocks have fallen into the river careening off this steep cliffs which rises over 650ft/200m above the valley floor.
This is probably my favorite area of the river.
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Mcbride trail more or less ends at Miller St. which leads to the residential areas of Baycole.
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This part of the river is a popular spot for fishing.
Just don't fall into the river because just beyond this spot is Aizen fall's. The height of falls is 155ft/47m, nothing too spectacular but more than enough to be fatal to anyone unfortunate enough to go over the edge.
A short stub trail leads to a lookout over-looking the falls and the area below.
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Edit* Bonus terraformation pic added
From here the river continues until it reaches Cisco Bay, that part of the city and plenty of other landscape scenes will be shown in the next entry. As always comments or suggestions are always appreciated, thanks for stopping by.
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