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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
