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Showing results for tags 'tar valon'.
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I hope this is the right forum to post this to, but based on the titles, I think this is where the people with the appropriate skills in modding (making skyscrapers and other "ploppable buildings" hang out). I am currently trying to reproduce the city of Tar Valon, from the Wheel of Time novel series. I have talked about it in several posts to the players forum. This post describes more or less what I am doing: This post describes what I am currently doing for the "White Tower," the main architectural feature of Tar Valon: As can be seen, what I am doing for the white tower is using the Palacio Real from the landmarks menu for the central civic building, then a bunch of copies of Fanneuil Hall for the novice/apprentice/ajah quarters. To make a "real" white tower that looks like the art shown in the above link, I decided I could 1 of several things: Try to find if it had already been done somewhere. I did not find it on the usual places (here, simcity4devotion), and could not even find any other repositories of SC4 mods. Find another castleor building that looks like the white tower, and I found a few castles and tons of skyscrapers, but not really any that looked right. Download a 3d drawing program (gmax or whatever) and give a stab at it myself. Come to the appropriate forum (this one, I hope) and see if I can talk anyone into making one. I decided to try option number 4 (see if somebody that knows how to use GMAX or whatever 3D drawing program is appropriate can do it), before I tried option 3 of doing it myself. I also thought that perhaps someone who is familiar with modding and stuff like that could do a better job of reproducing this fictional city that I could ever hope to, so I guess that is my challenge to anyone who knows this stuff better than I, unless there has already been a "fictional city" challenge already, with results I could take a look at. Brian Christiansen
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I have decided to return to my “Tar Valon” project that I started several months ago. Tar Valon is a city in the fictional continent used in the “Wheel of Time” novels, and the home base of the Aes Sedai who are women that can wield the “one power,” and they use this power to help people, but there are quite a few people who call them “Tar Valon Witches” and believe them to be evil. This is what I need to do, what I have done of this, and how I did it, and the ideas I have if I have not. For most of building this region, I will have the game on pause so it will not really be “playing” the game. I am posting this onto this forum to start, but perhaps this message, or at least parts of it, might be better on the builders forums. Make a map for the “Tar Valon” region. I used a map from a fan page and traced it using either Photoshop Elements or GIMP, then saved it as an appropriately sized greyscale .BMP to use to make a “Tar Valon” SC4 Region. Lay out the streets and bridges. For the streets, I would want some sort of cobblestone or something similar for inside the city, then dirt roads for outside the city. I can not remember if I could do this using the NAM or if I had to download something else, but I have the tools in place to do this. As for putting in the diagonal bridges, I have gotten the tools for doing this as well. Put the walls around the city, with guard towers and what not spaced every so often. I will use wall pieces from a set I got either here or at SC4devotion called “1100 AD Castle Wall Set,” I think. I won’t quite get the smooth curves shown on the fanpage, but I think that is just a limitation of the game and can’t be helped. Put a “White Tower” in the center of town, since that is the main architectural feature of Tar Valon. I was unable to find one or anything that I thought looked right, though I think I did find some castles here and on SC4devotion, but none of them really looked right to me. I think I also found a modern looking skyscraper that I momentarily thought might work, but decided that a modern looking skyscraper would not look quite right. I do not have the tools(3D drawing program)/skills to make my own. I suppose I could post this on one of the builders forums, but that is no guarantee that someone will make one. If no one does, the best I have come up with is to use the Palacio Real from the landmarks menu for the central building (it’s not “tall” like the real white tower, but it is the best option from what I have been able to find so far), surrounded by several Faneuil Halls that serve as the quarters for the ajahs and the novice/accepted quarters (Faneuil Hall is not medieval architecture, but again it is the best I can find) interspersed with flower gardens for decoration. Zone the areas in between the streets as either residential for TarValon itself or farming for the outlying communities, however I cannot just lay down zoning, because that would put in modern looking homes/farms which I do not want. For blocking the modern looking buildings from being built, I downloaded a “maxis blocker” from SC4devotion called “BSC No Maxis,” and it appears to be mods that you put in the plugins folder to prevent various types of buildings from being built, but there does not appear to be any readme file that explains how to just apply it to just the “Tar Valon Region.” For the medieval looking farms, I found a package called “BMD Med Style Farms and fields” at SC4devotion. These do have readme files, but I can’t find anything about how to apply them to just the “Tar Valon region.” It has several depencies, some of which I think I have, and others that I think, or at least hope, are still available. I found something called “JENX Medieval houses” at SC4devotion, but the description says that it is a “prop pack,” which I assume means it is a tool that can be used to make a mod that puts in medieval housing rather than modern housing in residential zoning when used with a Maxis blocker. I suppose I could put a request for such a mod on one of the builders forums, but that is no guarantee anybody will actually make one, though. Make “Dragonmount” to the southwest of Tar Valon using the landscaping tools. Make the countryside outside of the city look a bit more interesting using the landscaping tools. Brian Christiansen
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I am attempting to build the city Tar Valon from The Wheel of Time series of books. Instead of describing it again, I will just link to my original message, then describe the changes that I have made since I actually tried starting to build it. Original post: Since I need to build each neighborhood building by building and cannot just zone the area as "residential," my original map was just too big to manage. There would be 100s, if not close to 1000 neighborhoods(in both Tar Valon and the surrounding cities) to place houses/props in, and that is just "too many." Under my new design, there are probably still "too many," but it at least looks manageable. In my original design of the area, the city was approximately the size described in the fan site, about 8 miles long, and about 2 miles wide at the widest point. In my new design, it is about 1.5 miles (2.5K) by .6 miles (1k), and it, the surrounding towns, and Dragonmount all fit in a 4kX4k square. My plan for accomplishing building it is pretty much the same as described in my original post. Here is what my current map looks like. I have laid out the streets and put dragonmount there too. Brian Christiansen
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Custom region: Tar Valon (from "The Wheel of Time" series)
brianc1327 posted a topic in SC4 Showcase
I think this is the correct forum for this. I am attempting to build a custom region based on Tar Valon from the "Wheel of Time" Series. I built a 16kX16K (approx 10miles square) that looks like this: It is based on the map and dimensions given here: http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Tar_Valon For the buildings and roads, I cannot use just the regular zoning because that would put modern looking buildings in the mix (or at least I cannot figure out a way to prevent that). In fact, except for running the program for 1 or 2 game months to get money from an infinite money park, most of the game will be "played" on "pause." Perhaps the architecture of the buildings in "The Wheel of Time" is described somewhere in the books, I really can't remember that specific detail, but it strikes me as "midievel," and I have found the following to put in the appropriate scenery: Buildings: for "mideivel style" buildings, I found the following here on STEX: Castle 1100 ad set, castle walls, and I think another that I can't remember the name of. Faneuil hall is not "mideivel" architecture, but I think it looks cool as a "rich merchants mansion" or "town center" when surrounded by stuff from the "parks" menu (the best I have found is either the medium flower gardens, open grass areas, and the tree fillers from the FLOG country club set). For the walls surrounding the city, I think I can use the stuff from the "castle walls" set. White tower: No one has made a "ploppable" reproduction of the "White Tower," or at least I have been unable to find it if they did, but I think I can make a "Aes Sedai Center" using some of the stuff from the landmarks menu and the parks menu. For the central building, I could use one of the many castles on the STEX (or sc4devotion) or the Palacio Real (I think). Then I could use various of the other buildings from the landmarks for the quarters of the various ajahs and the novice and accepted's quarters. Roads: I think that modern roads or streets would not right, but that within the city, the roads should be cobblestone or red brick, and the streets outside the city should be dirt roads, and I found a mod that can do that (again, can't remember the name). It took me a while to figure out how to actually use it, and I still have not figured out how to make those types of roads angled, so for now I will sort of have to make my roads straigh N-S ir E-W, and can't make them diagonal like in the picture from the fan site. Bridges: I don't think it is possible to make bridges that are angled like in the picture on the fan site, so I will have to make the bridges straight N-S or E-W. The best I have found so far are covered cobblestone bridges, I think. I am not sure, but I think I got those bridges from the add-on that gave me the capability of making the cobblestone roads in the first place, I think. Dragonmount: According to the maps in the books, Dragonmount is a bit to the west of Tar Valon and I will make that using the god mode tools. Farms: I am not sure if any of the countryside surrounding the city is farms, but I would like to put a few there anyway. I am not sure how to do this however. I can't just zone some of the area as agricultural, because that would put modern barns and grain silos and whatever on those farms. If there is some mod that makes the agricultural zoning put only "medievel looking" farms, I have not found it. If there is another way to build them, I am not certain how to do it. For the buildings I can use some of the buildings from the "1100 AD" set, in fact some of them are specifically labeled as barns. For the fields, I have not idea what to do. The best I have figured out so far is to use the open grass area from the parks menu. If I finish this sometime between now and the end of the universe, I will post pictures of it. I also belong to a facebook group that dicussed the Wheel of Time novels, so I might post it there as well. Brian Christiansen
