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The Jade Bight: 21 Emden 05; The West Basin This week we have yet another -- short -- update on Emden harbor. I'm still getting bits and pieces of the city completed while tending to other, urgent tasks. A massive and ongoing reorganization of my "plugins" folder is occupying almost every free moment I have. I should be "shot at dawn" for my stupidity. If you look at almost any member city, in almost any CJ, you cannot fail to notice the "TLC" and "intensive" attention to detail that has been lavished upon these maps. And yet -- it never crossed my mind that the foundation of such detailed and careful work is in an equally detailed and carefully maintained "plugins" folder! Simply put; If your "plugins" gets fat and sloppy, and congested with useless material -- your game slows down to the point of not working. Meltdown ! And let's not even discuss how "system traumatic" it can be to go into an archaic plugins folder and start trying to make sense of it all. One must wade through the loose "readme" files that say "I made this stuff", and struggle to figure out the proper place for an unidentified and unidentifiable "dat" file -- and, of course, a free-floating Texture file here and there. Let's not even get into the Japanese, Spanish, German, French, and Polish material. Even your above average "bright one" only speaks one or two languages above and beyond their native tongue -- won't go there! And I won't tell you how ridiculously easy it is to delete important material -- or -- after 8 or 9 hours in front of the screen how EVERYTHING looks like it should be deleted !!! And just when you think you're all done -- you open one of your cities for a little test run. OMG !! -- When did the park paths change to red Herringbone brick?? AND -- !! Where did my hand-crafted, lovingly custom MMP detailed river of Tahoe Water go??? And all this grief came down on me because I decided to try my new-found talents and custom downloaded lots in a LARGE map tile. After trying several different approaches in the last 14 cities, I can safely say I have learned a good deal about building realistic cities. I have learned how to landscape and integrate, and I have also learned how to make them function and grow. More importantly, I've learned the difference between what "looks good" and what doesn't work. My sense of scale and space is telling me it's time to move to a large map and try to create a city with room to grow and actually breathe at the same time. From what I have read here and there on the forums, most players experience a serious case of "the slows" when they work on a large map and start racking up big population counts. I know from personal experience that 500k people will NOT fill a large map tile -- but the game will begin to run so slow that paint will actually dry quicker! Rule of thumb: More Sims = more demand on CPU. Natural Law: Every operating system has an upper limit. And that is why you should keep a neat and tidy -- almost spartan -- plugins folder. Reading hundreds of useless files slows your system. And with 500k at stake -- EVERYTHING may be important. I'm still working on that plugins folder. And there will be more tests to run. And I've yet to do a re-install on Nam32 to make sure I'm only running the options I need or want. As has been pointed out to me by a good friend, "RHW" requires MILLIONS of lines of code. If you don't want to use it -- take it out. Use the CPU for more important things. "RHW" sounds a bit like dragging around an elephant on the off chance you might need an ant squashed!! (lol-lol) And -- I've got one more medium map to do (Nuenberg) -- a few more tests to run on that one. And a good deal of planning for it as well. And only then will I try the Large map tile. So, as you can see, there is a great deal of planning and prep before I embark on that one. (NOTE: I have started numbering each picture -- for those of you that have questions or specific comments.) But -- for now -- We go to The West Basin of Emden Harbor. SOMY EXTENDED PIER: #01 #02 Everybody knows what this is -- sort of. It's one of those marvelous lots created by Somy -- right? But does anyone actually know how it's supposed to be deployed? Has anyone actually SEEN a picture by Somy showing how he uses it in a game? I asked around -- and no one seemed to know how to plop this thing. It has the lot base under the extended arm -- the rear of the pier looks like it should rest on the shore -- and the front end has concrete "feet". Well -- I have deployed it (without its' parent unit) the only way it seems to make sense. But I'd like to hear your theory on how to set it up!! What's a horse race without another horse? Right now -- this "thingie" is part of the Mitchell-Brinkman Cement Plant. MITCHELL-BRINKMAN CEMENT COMPLEX: #03 #04 #05 #06 #07 The Mitchell-Brinkman Complex has been on this spot for well over 120 years and has undergone very little modernization in the last 70 years. This plant supplied almost 75% of the raw ingredients that were shipped along the canal to make the concrete for the factories that made the Ruhr one of the world's greatest manufacturing regions. The extended pier feature was added during the early 1960's to increase the loading space during the building boom of that era. CONCRETE BATCHING PLANT: #08 This is a Concrete Batching Plant located next to the Cement Plant. This facility supplies the needs for local "fresh" construction concrete as well as providing stocks of bagged "pre-mix" that can be prepared on-site. Next door is a freight railyard to handle bulk distribution of the raw ingredients to inland sites. DAO CHEMICALS: #09 This is Dao Chemicals, next door to the Mitchell-Brinkman yard. Classic example of a Maxis lot fully detailed with 1x1 and 1x2 filler lots. There are people who say you should not use ANY Maxis content and should focus entirely on "custom lot" downloads. My personal opinion is that some Maxis content is required if you want the game to function properly. Maxis content (industrial) creates employee traffic, freight truck traffic, jobs, and generates freight train traffic. Not all "custom download" content will fulfill these functions and can adversely effect the way your city grows and develops. The custom lots are nice to look at -- but make sure you have a mix to keep the city RCI demands functional. Dao Chemicals is proof that Maxis lots can be mixed with custom content and look every bit as good with a few filler lots added. MITCHELL-BRINKMAN RAIL SIDING: #10 This is a rail yard loading pad for the cement plant. Bulk cargo consisting of sand or gravel is loaded or unloaded here for use at the plant. The entire thing is made up of filler lots from downloaded sets (NBVC's Container Port Set) or custom-made filler lots. Adds a nice touch. OBLIGATORY NIGHT SHOTS: #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 We bring this tour to a close. Comments and feedback are VERY welcome. If you see something you don't understand -- want to know where it came from -- or think it's dumb!! Please say something! Why would anything ever get better if no one says it's bad?? Next Week: Emden 06 -- Car Shopping !!
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