Canarsie Pol, East New York: Island City – Bedroom Community (NAM36)

Small Scale Aesthetic Shoreline and Water Terraforming

Here's a little piece of aesthetic shoreline and water terraforming I did today, with a little explanation and tips as I go.

This post explains:

1. Terraforming delicate portions of shoreline at the tiny scale, just a single tile at a time.
2. Planning terraforming around fragile items.
3. Spotting the high-tide water line.
4. Creating curves to beat the grid.

Click on the images to zoom in, and then arrow about to compare each of the six steps.

Step 1 - Basic fill with trees

Filling the spare spaces of shoreline with trees, tells you very clearly where the high-tide water line is, below which no trees can be plopped or planted (normally).  That high-tide water line is the SimCity 4 sea level — also known as  y=250.0  if you're using Ctrl+X  TerrainQuery ON .   This initial tree planting step, is also a good opportunity to play with ideas, of areas where you perhaps don't want any trees.  You'll notice the grid had a big impact on where trees can be plopped/planted ... hiding that impact of the grid is part of Step 5 explained below.

In this example, you can see the area I've left clear of trees, is a spot where I want to show the aesthetics of natural stormwater drainage, very important so that rainwater does not collect on either the road curve or inside the road tunnel!    

While a fair few of these tree filled tiles will be bulldozed as I progress, this step allows me to closely review the existing landscape.  Alternatively, I might just fill the high-tide line with an extremely thin band of trees, which is also useful if I'm using specially chosen flora along the high-tide line.

I might play with different types of trees at this stage, too, but it's mostly drafting out.  Many of these trees will be bulldozed and redone, or lost during terraforming steps.

Step 2 - Assess proximity to roads and other fragile structures

That pale green square is actually the Bulldoze tool (B), and  §100  is the cost of bulldozing the curve.  Don't click!  

What is not clear in this screenshot, is that bulldozing just that one green tile will destroy all 4 tiles of curve, and the attached tunnel, as well.  That's why you need to SAVE FREQUENTLY whenever you are doing terraforming around fragile structures.  In this case, both 2x2 90 degree road curve, and OWR-2 road tunnel, are fragile.  When terraforming destroys even just one tile of either of these two structures, it will destroy both.  

 

The green square of the Bulldoze tool (B) identifies the 4 terraforming points (corners) of the tile, shown with red circles.  Single tile terraforming (Shift+1) actually affects only the north-west corner of the tile you click on ... not the entire tile.  That's why I have the yellow arrow pointing out the compass, which is pointing North.  I generally do my fine-tuned single-tile terraforming with the game facing North (PgUp / PgDn), so that all my single-tile terraforming clicks, affects the tile corner directly above where I click.

Step 3 - Identify spots for initial terraforming

This one red circle terraforming point (below) looks like it's far enough from the road curve to be safe, but it isn't.  If you click to terraform in that spot, even at smallest size (Shift+1), it will destroy both 2x2 curve and tunnel, just as surely as clicking on it with the Bulldoze tool.  The reason why, is because that red circle actually affects the corner just above it, which is part of the 2x2 square (outlined orange) occupied by the road curve.

The three cyan circles are safe spots for single tile (Shift+1) terraforming, because they don't affect any corner of the 2x2 orange outlined square.

Step 4 - Use Grid to check placement

Now, I've suddenly completed the terraforming, and decorating.  Sorry, that was quick!  

I use the grid (G), not only to turn the grid on and off, but I also press the G key repeatedly to make it glow.  This glow is very useful in low lighting situations, and when you're working very close to sea level.  While the grid shows single-tile 1x1 squares, the glow shows double-tile 2x2 squares.

Comparing to the previous step, not only have I lowered the terrain slightly (Shift+1) on those cyan circles, I've also lowered the sea bed just where the "storm water" drains into the bay, producing the clearer blue, with the sand bars and mud flats on either side of the deeper blue water.

I use the God-mode Soften tool at small scale (Shift+2 or Shift+3), to smooth out the sand bars and mud flats.  The Soften tool is like a less intense version of the Plains tool.

Step 5 - Final tweaks

You've probably noticed that I've moved the modded feature trees (Ponderosa Pine, Spruce, Elm, Juniper and Logs) ... that's the bulldozing and redoing I was talking about in Step 1.  Natural placement of trees often involves avoiding the grid, and avoiding geometric patterns.

While terraforming the shoreline, I've also extended part of the sandy area out into a small spit and sand bar.  As you'll see in step 6 below, the visual definition of the spit is done using trees, and the sand bar is defined by the underlying terraforming.  If you look closely, you'll see that I've introduced curves into the tree line, to reduce the grid like impression of the almost fully filled trees of Step 1 above.  A curving tree line on the shore-side defines "natural" beaches from harder soil.

Step 6 - Use "Cheetah" mode to check how the area matures

Save before you turn Cheetah mode on!

Running the city for some sim-years, and then exiting without saving, shows you how the area will look with mature trees.  This gives you the opportunity to go back and tweak the planted and plopped flora ... if you want.  I did this several times already.  You can see I could tweak the flora a bit more, but this is good enough for the effect I was wanting.

Here it is in the zoomed out view (zoom level 4), showing the context for my terraforming and tree-planting work, to provide slight natural-looking contrast in a coastline that would otherwise be a (boring) smooth curve.  

If any of the terms I've used here are unclear, I hope to clarify those in my next comment ... soon!