-
Announcement
-
Simtropolis Returns! 05/26/2026
See here for details about our site recovery efforts.
-
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'schattenfels'.
Found 2 results
-
We are here: Replies: I'm again happy to see so many comments to my last CJ entry. A general thank you very much thus to @ulisse, @Kuba138, @mitsos, and @Humanunderproject. @tomz16 Wow, that's quite the compliment. Thank you very much! @TheMurderousCricket Thank you again, too. Unfortunately, actually I don't have an elaborate transition to in-game water in Maxiland, currently, as it seems. However, I'm having a few old pictures on my PC, I'll look through them in the next few days. And I'll probably write a special entry on this, anyway, since sooner or later, I will have to face that challenge to make my rivers meet the ocean, and it makes sense to me to try this out in a sandbox region before messing with my CJ region. For now, I'd like to tell you that the most important help to me is using the small turbulence piece from the RFR Plopwater system as a transitional piece between two different water systems - it looks a bit sharp, and occasionally cheap, but it is at least realistic, and some sharp corners can be hidden behind some rocks or a tree. Contents: In this update (a bit shorter than the last one), I'm tying up a few loose ends in Schattenfels. The area it covers is rather small this time, but the MMP work has been really intense, so I think it deserves a separate entry. If we recall this overview image from last entry, we observe that at the top of this picture, there are three traffic routes (a road, a Maxis street route in the center close to the waterfalls, and a SAM 4 gravel street at the pig farm) that lead upwards. We'll continue our exploring of Schattenfels there, now. If one wants to make lettuce salad with pumpkin seed oil, as mentioned in last entry, of course one has to harvest lettuce somewhere. Thus, a bit further uphill, a salad plantation can be found, along with a few sheep and goat pastures (technically only sheep pastures, I couldn't find some ploppable goats anywhere): Among the few industrials in Schattenfels, as already mentioned, was a pottery, and it gets its most important resource, brown clay, from this clay pit, which is located close to the sheep pastures: We also see there that the lake at the bottom left of the former picture filled up the remains of a former clay pit. Clay dams up water pretty easily, thus, clay pits frequently have to be drained with pumps. Nature already started to take back the area close to the lake, thus, it is partly overgrown with grass, shrubs and stuff. Speaking of the lake, here's a picture of it: Next, we are continuing up a small secluded gravel route close to one of the pig farms of Schattenfels. You may be wondering, by the way, why there's a gate in the fence leading into the forest. Well, the local farmers occasionally lead the pigs into the woods where they can eat acorns and whatever stuff they can find there, as part of an improved way of holding pigs. The path quickly gets narrower: ...and continues along the aptly named Höllbach (lit. Hell's creek) into a dead end, at the gazebo. In earlier days, there used to be some sheep pastures there, too, but due to quarrels with the community government, they got abandoned, and the meadow quickly got overgrown with shrubs and stuff. Also, those 11 birch trees have been planted there intentionally: Back in those old days, when Schattenfels has just been founded, two important deities have been worshipped there; the God of Earth, from which all goods would come from, and the God of Water, which occasionally had to be appeased in order to cool down his wrath which would manifest in floods and heavy downpours, something Schattenfels suffered from frequently. Thus, a row of 11 birch trees, considered to be holy trees in Germanic culture at this time, has been planted in a location a bit further to the east (at the bottom of this picture). As already mentioned before, those old rites got mostly extinguished with the spread of Christianity, losing their importance, thus, no one cared about them, anymore. In 1964, a rockslide occurred, relocating the Höllbach a bit and burying the former line of birch trees, but in an attempt to remind the people of these old rites, some gardeners have simply planted a new row of birch trees at the new shore of the creek. And another view from the opposite direction. One can see a bit the location where the rockslide caused the creek to search for a new bed. Also, since the creek bed is rather shallow, occasionally the water overflows it pretty quickly, which results in a small line of reed growing there. And the reason for the name Hell's creek: a natural cave where the creek is flowing out. I really admit, the cave entrance itself is pretty cheap, I just made a plain black texture myself. But I couldn't find another way to make an entrance. This cave really caused the death of some careless people entering it, because after strong rainfall, it can quickly fill up with water, thus, people in general are not allowed to enter it. We conclude this entry with an overview picture of the hillside area of Schattenfels. Next up: As already mentioned, there is still really much MMP work to do - it will probably take me years to fill up this city tile. Also, I'm already having plans of what to do with the city tile between Schattenfels and Erlengrund, and the city tile to the east of Storchenfeld. So you might expect the next update from one of the two locations mentioned last. Hope you liked this update.
-
We are here: Replies: @TheMurderousCricket: Thank you very much! Yes, it has been very much work. This time, fortunately, rewarding, it's a bit more difficult with streams and creeks because of space constraints, so I can't promise that I'll keep it up. @RobertLM78, @Bobelboy: Thank you very much, too! @mitsos: Thank you very much, too, it's an honor to hear from you since I've always considered your MMP and city-building work to be very detailed and inspiring. Contents: Since I'm out of ideas of what to do next, and I still want to release some entries here, this entry will now deal with an area a bit further away from all the previous entries: We are seeing some pictures from the village of Schattenfels (lit. shadow rock), located in a remote area, close to a swamp and in somewhat close proximity to the city of Eichenwald at the Eichhörnchensee. This picture shall illustrate its location, in comparison with all other areas featured in this CJ so far; all villages and cities I've showed off so far are outlined in red colors, all others in grey. A good while ago, I already shared some pictures of this area, so you might already recognize some content here; but I want to have this area in my CJ, anyway, and I made some slight improvements. I should mention that many pictures are WIP content - it's not easy to plan a swamp made from MMP's covering an area of half a large city tile, so there's a lot missing. I can only hope I can deal with this somehow... Also, I made this village by literally just wiping out its previous incarnation and rebuilding it. I only made minor changes there, and the only reason for wiping it out was to make sure everything works well gameplay-wise. But first, my usual history blabbering. In the 5th century AD, after the collapse of the first Maxiland Empire, Germanic tribes moved into this area, taking over the structures there and founding new villages. Much of this time remains a mystery, and of course, is part of various urban legends. One of these legends deals with Simhîlt, a warlady whose tribe has settled in the swamp area to the west of Eichenwald. Some legends are praising her for taming this hostile environment, some others accused her of committing crimes against people of other tribes (up to the point where they accused her of killing her husband), which resulted in her being banished into this area. Whatever may be true, a woman named Simhîlt (living app. 446-522 AD) really existed, her husband really met with an untimely death, and her tribe founded the village of Schattenfels at such a hostile location. Despite horribly high rainfall and soil humidity values, as well as rather hilly terrain, it was possible to at least maintain some farming along the most important traffic route into this area, the modern-day federal route B8. Schattenfels is most famous for its vast fields of pumpkins, which are being processed to soup, roasted seeds, pumpkin seed oil (a horribly expensive oil, usually used in Austrian cuisine in lettuce salad, pumpkin soup, and sometimes sweet dishes or vanilla ice cream), and eerie festival decorations. A close-up of the bridge here, as well as the small oil refinery producing aforementioned pumpkin seed oil. Among Schattenfels' many old and famous landmarks is the Black Tower, a location really living up to its namesake, actually having been constructed by the Empire of Maxiland in 1156 AD to house the Empire's worst criminals. It has survived until now and can be visited by tourists. And we arrive in the village. Schattenfels has been founded in 470 AD, and while the buildings from this time surely haven't survived, several insanely old houses still exist (or at least been rebuilt). These are the oldest village parts, along with the Katharinenkirche (church of Catherine). Until about the 18th century AD, Schattenfels was located at a dead-end route, being only connected to Eichenwald. This changed after a new traffic connection to the Empire to the west of Maxiland (Schattenfels is located at the border) had to be established, leading right through Schattenfels. This resulted in a lot of buildings being constructed at this location - interestingly, therefore Schattenfels has two old village cores, which are separated by small farm fields. And a picture of the lower parts of the village (regarding altitude above sea level). It should be noted that due to its rather remote location (the aforementioned trade route wasn't that big of a deal), Schattenfels remained rather underdeveloped, and there are still some farm fields scattered around the village. Also, large parts of this village consist of buildings with dark tones, giving it a rather gloomy appearance. Among the farm fields are some fruit tree plantations, especially cherry and plum trees, which are processed into various products. The upper parts of the village. Not so old like the lower parts, but some buildings there still have an age of centuries. Interestingly, a lot of rich people live in Schattenfels - they enjoy the calmness and remoteness while Eichenwald, the next large city (app. 100,000 inhabitants) is still somewhat nearby. There's also a small spring in the forest with one of four creeks flowing into the swamp to the north of Schattenfels. Some people have set up houses there, and it is a popular vacation spot. And a close-up of another creek with two waterfalls, further illustrating the really low-density residential development of Schattenfels. Schattenfels also has some old landmarks, such as this very old house considered to be the home of Simhîlt herself. In fact, it is really the oldest house in this village, but it is unlikely that it has seen Simhîlt herself (this is most likely a rumor set up by the inhabitants of Schattenfels to attract tourists). Nevertheless, it houses a small museum showing off the history of Schattenfels. This picture shows the marketplace of Schattenfels, as well as its village hall and the former elementary school (to the top left). Also, in the upper center of the picture, the Golden Pumpkin restaurant, serving traditional local food such as pumpkin soup, various dishes with goat cheese, lettuce and pumpkin seed oil, as well as other plants which can grow in this rather difficult environment. In fact, it has been awarded with the golden medal in the category "Best restaurants producing food from local products", thus helping the local economy and actually really reducing the environmental impact by reducing transport time. And the last important landmark, the Pension Sigmunt, (supposedly) named after Simhîlt's husband (whose name is actually unknown). At the western outskirts of the village, there are also some traditional farmers living from breeding pigs and chickens. Some farmers also live from growing spices (such as parsley, mustard, and anis) and berries. In fact, Schattenfels' "berryland" attracts a lot of customers from Eichenwald. Schattenfels also has a few industrial buildings: a distillery, where a good amount of harvested cherries and plums end up, a mustard grinding factory, and a pottery. This picture shows a bit of an overview of all these locations. I shall now end my eternal blabbering with an overview over the entire village. I have blackened out parts of the picture as a bit of a surprise for you (aka it looks horrible now). Next up - who knows. There's another city tile (Sebastianskirch) that requires a wipeout and won't see much change, most likely. Furthermore, I'm considering to start developing parts of the Seeviertel (the southeast of Maxiland), which will have a bit of a mediterranean theme. Also, an entire swamp has to be made in Schattenfels, as well as a few loose ends being tied up. And last but not least, I'm already having ideas of how to make the hillside villages close to Erlbronn. Speaking of which, one last picture, the picture of the village square, the center of festival activity of Erlbronn, as sort of a supplement to my last entry. I already showed it off in the "Show us what you're working on" thread, but I want to have it in my CJ as well. Hope you liked this entry.
