Entry 10: Erlbronn
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Again, thank you very much, @RobertLM78 and @MissVanleider, for your nice words!
Contents:
In this update, we are further exploring the landscape to the west of Storchenfeld and Weißenfels. Let's recall this picture from last update; we are continuing along the main route shown there:
The route continues its way below the hills to the next village, and it passes two lakes fed from groundwater. When the big lake dried up here in prehistoric times, some puddles have been left; we'll see some of them in this update.
And two close-ups. I should note that I've been experimenting with this one, how to make a realistic shore without always only using rocks and gravel, especially because the water level of this lake changes very little since it has no rivers flowing in and out. Thus, I'm ve been using the Small Shoreline MMP by Pegasus directly at the water (to have something like dirt or gravel directly at the shoreline), and then I've covered the rest with grass and sometimes shrubs. It turned out mostly well, and especially at the one place where there's gravel, the small darker gravel adds more visual depth to the scene. Unfortunately, it's sometimes a bit too large. I hope you like it.
At the second lake, I simply used NBVC's small rocks instead of Pegasus's content. I tend to use this in further updates; on this scene, it was difficult to use because the grass was sometimes overhanging into the water, and I had to use a lot of rocks to cover that. BTW, this small lake is now part of the property of the Benediktinerinnenkloster (monastery of the Sisters of Benedict).
And now, we are continuing to the large village of Erlbronn. First, we see the old village parts to the southeast (north is at the right of the subsequent 3 pictures), between the river Meisse and the creek Farnbach. (I've intentionally left out the grass square in the center of the old village parts, as sort of a community area used for various purposes, such as demonstrations or celebrations, but I couldn't find a way how to design it; so this small part is still WIP. Also, the Farnbach itself is not complete, as you can see at the left of this picture.)
The northern parts are a bit more apartments, along with the industrial area and some newly built offices and stores. The next lake is also being part of a recreational area:
And the southwestern parts. Mostly low-density residentials, having developed along the next main route which leads to a small village in the hills.
And some shots of the river Meisse there, flowing its way from the west to the north, making a bend in the village.
Lumberjacks sometimes have the sad duty to cut trees for other reasons than gaining wood: This little area has been flooded a few months ago when the river's water level was rising dangerously, causing several trees to be flooded. Unfortunately, the trees had to be cut because they have been infected with a dangerous fungus that threatened to spread to all other trees. This leaves an area with a lot of tree stumps, slowly being overgrown with weeds and stuff.
And another shot of the Meisse in the village. I originally wanted to make a dam there, for flood protection, but then I ran into the nasty zigzag diagonals issue. So I couldn't do that, and instead, I turned the river shores into sort of a promenade.
And a close-up of the estuary of the Farnbach.
The Meisse also flows through 2 narrow lakes, which are also remainders of the big lake filling the entire lowlands area millennia ago. First, a general overview of the first of these lakes (the second will be located in another city tile and part of another update):
I already showed these two pictures in the "Show us what you're working on" thread, but I'm repeating them to have them in my CJ. First, a picture of the shore with the reeds; due to the rather flat shoreline, this area is frequently flooded, which results in one of my experiments of a mire-like landscape, with an area transitioning from reeds to marsh, grassland, and forest.
The small lake at the upper right corner of the overview picture is sort of an artifical basin, used to drain surplus water from the adjacent fields. It is connected to the larger lake by a ditch with a gate, to let large amounts of water flow into the lake. The small dam between both lakes has been fortified on one side to prevent erosion, and the entire area is very popular with hikers.
And an overview over the entire area.
That's it for today. I still have to develop the two small villages in the hills, which will finally give me a chance to make my experiments with cow pastures. Also, there are two city tiles close nearby that I don't want to make major changes to, but I still need to wipe them out because of the issues I've caused there. So you might expect the next update to continue uphill from Erlbronn, or somewhere else entirely.
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