SimLabs Seminar: Alpine National Park



*thepokemaniac: *now ready

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/b22rian claps/

*thepokemaniac: *ok

soccerderek joined the room.

*thepokemaniac: *thank you for coming once again

*thepokemaniac: *now lets start our city by downloading a few things

*thepokemaniac: *one of my favorite terrain mods is the columbus terrain
mod, it can be found on the STEX

*thepokemaniac: *you may use any tree pack that you wish,

*thepokemaniac: *now once you have both those things,

*thepokemaniac: *open a nice flat large city tile

*thepokemaniac *that mod has depdencies

*pagenotfound: *i advise any CP mod

*b22rian: *really i can never find columbus

*thepokemaniac *i know

*thepokemaniac: *remember, the mod has dependencies

*thepokemaniac: *so make sure you download those, or else it is a

disaster

*b22rian: *i finally found it on some other web site

*thepokemaniac: *now once your city tile has loaded,

*thepokemaniac: *start playing around with the mountain terraforming

tool

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6755/edwardsnationalparkfeb2.png
<http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6755/edwardsnationalparkfeb2.png>

*thepokemaniac: *here is an example

*thepokemaniac: *remember, if you want a nice mountain,

*thepokemaniac: *make it a large and broad area

un1 joined the room.

*pagenotfound: *you can hold shift if you want to make it really large

*meister1235: *or ctrl to make it small

*thepokemaniac: *now once you have a nice mountain base,

*thepokemaniac: *well first off let me say,

*thepokemaniac: *think of mountains as a cake

*thepokemaniac: *you need to have layers

*thepokemaniac: *layer your mountains and divide them into sections to
make them look nice

*yoshiisland: *by layers do you mean many varying elevations or
different "bumps" in the mountainside?

soccerderek left the room. (Going to Social Lobby)

*thepokemaniac: *now everyone just wait a second, technical

difficulties...

*thepokemaniac: *yoshiisland: yes that is exactly what i mean :D

*pagenotfound: *like steps

*thepokemaniac: *once you have some nice bases,

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3483/edwardsnationalparkapr1.png
<http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3483/edwardsnationalparkapr1.png>

*thepokemaniac: *it can look like this

*thepokemaniac: *just add layers and layers on top of them

*b22rian: *:O

*thepokemaniac: *make sure they are not very symmetrical

*thepokemaniac: *it helps to add realism

*pagenotfound: *assymetrical is more natural

*yoshiisland: *the rugged edges tool looks like your friend there lol

*b22rian: *thepokemaniac: hmm is that snow on top or just white rock ?

*thepokemaniac: *that is snow

*shadow_assassin: *just a question - is this for building a ski resort
or just a national park with nice mountains?

*thepokemaniac: *part of the terrain mod :D

*thepokemaniac: *shadow_assassin: just a national park

*philscafe: *pagenotfound: do you have some tips about the "shape" of
mountain ranges... being a future geologist and all?

*b22rian: *thepokemaniac: ok that was my next question if it was part of
the terrain mod, the snow part

*pagenotfound: *most CP mods have snow at high elevation

*yoshiisland: *yeah you can download snow mods from the STEX or SC4D
LEX, and set them up to have the snow appear at certain elevations

*thepokemaniac: *now lets start learning about mountain passes

*thepokemaniac: *they are a common site in most mountain ranges

*shadow_assassin: *you can even modify the snow cap level yourself
though this is for another day :P

*thepokemaniac: *as i showed in the last picture,

*thepokemaniac: *i have 2 large mountains, and a line of smaller ones in
the center

*pagenotfound: *try to make mountains steepest toward the peak and lower
slopes toward the flanks

*thepokemaniac: *lets manipulate those to make them navigable ;)

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7389/edwardsnationalparkapr2.png
<http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7389/edwardsnationalparkapr2.png>

*thepokemaniac: *go to the area where you want your pass

*thepokemaniac: *and then in the "lower terrain" terraforming options,

*thepokemaniac: *select steep valley

*thepokemaniac: *then once you have a nice small depression between

ridges,

*pagenotfound: *remember to not go overboard

*thepokemaniac: *make it a bit jagged with the mountain OR steep hill

option

*thepokemaniac: *but remember, just use those a little bit

*pagenotfound: *you can adjust the size and strength

*thepokemaniac: *now in one corner of the map,

*b22rian: *adjust with control and shift again ?

*yoshiisland: *I usually don't make a very large/strong radius when
terraforming unless I'm placing trees or leveling terrain

*pagenotfound: *yea thats it

*thepokemaniac: *now in one corner of the map that is still level,

*thepokemaniac: *that is going to be our small valley, or mountain

meadow

*thepokemaniac: *from here, i will show 2 options of what you can do

ther

*thepokemaniac: **there

daso joined the room.

*thepokemaniac: *the first thing: you can put a small town there

*pagenotfound: *is this a hanging valley?

*thepokemaniac: *this is usually what i do

*thepokemaniac: *in the corner of your map,

*thepokemaniac: *it should still look something like this:

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8560/edwardsnationalparkapr4.png
<http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8560/edwardsnationalparkapr4.png>

*thepokemaniac: *flatten out those edges of the mountain with the
"smoothen" tool

*thepokemaniac: *now once you have a nice valley and it is to your

liking,

*pagenotfound: *this will help to make foothills if u so desire

*thepokemaniac: *add some trees, a 2 lane road, and some windmills

*b22rian: *i like the idea of foothills yes

*thepokemaniac: *then some streets and a water tower, along with some

shops

*thepokemaniac: *and you have a small town!

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img694.imageshack.us/i/edwardsnationalparkapr1.png/
<http://img694.imageshack.us/i/edwardsnationalparkapr1.png/>

*thepokemaniac:
**http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3483/edwardsnationalparkapr1.png
<http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/3483/edwardsnationalparkapr1.png>

*thepokemaniac: *sorry, the second image is the correct one

*thepokemaniac: *now for your second option,

*b22rian: *yup ideal for this set up

*thepokemaniac: *you may add a small river

*thepokemaniac: *now since this corner of the map is small, you may have
to scrunch it in

*thepokemaniac: *the 3 tools you need to use are:

*thepokemaniac: *Smooth

*thepokemaniac: *Valley

*thepokemaniac: *and Steep Valley

*pagenotfound: *you can use ploppable water

*pagenotfound: *for rivers

*thepokemaniac: *or use ploppable water, as i sometimes do

*yoshiisland: *I would zoom in to level 4-5 and hold shift whilst making
the river so it's not too big and I don't accidently destroy my

developments

*thepokemaniac: *as pagenotfound said

*pagenotfound: *yes

*thepokemaniac: *now you can make the river however you choose, as wide,
as small, however many tributaries ;)

*thepokemaniac: *rivers are a great way to add some personality to
mountain areas

*thepokemaniac: *then, where there is fresh water,

*b22rian: *agreed :)

*thepokemaniac: *there are trees

*thepokemaniac: *so add a nice variety of trees, a good combo of colors

*thepokemaniac: *different shades of green add some nice realism

*yoshiisland: *there's also some waterfall tools available from pegasus
and jeronij that can really add character to your natural waterways

*thepokemaniac: *http://www.bigskywarriorranch.com/photogallery2/GNP.jpg
<http://www.bigskywarriorranch.com/photogallery2/GNP.jpg>

*thepokemaniac: *as you can see,

*thepokemaniac: *in this picture there are mostly pine trees

*b22rian: *yoshiisland: thanks , afterwards we can maybe pass along
helpful links

*pagenotfound: *as well as ploppable rocks

*thepokemaniac: *but it doesnt hurt to have some deciduous trees

*thepokemaniac: *however,

shadow_assassin left the room. (Going to Social Lobby)

*thepokemaniac: *where you have snow it is not a good idea to have trees

*thepokemaniac: *think of that as your tree line

*thepokemaniac: *trees should go up only a little past that

*b22rian: *thepokemaniac: right

*thepokemaniac: *well, i think its time for a few questions

*thepokemaniac: *maybe a short intermission, 1 minute

*bluelightning: *oh right

This room is no longer being moderated.

*pagenotfound: *//4 intermission//4

*meister1235: *pagenotfound: lol

*b22rian: *well on forming the mountains..

*b22rian: *there is a special tool for this ?

*yoshiisland: *yeah trees don't look too good with snow as ground cover
as 90% of trees aren't modeled with snow on them. however there's snow
mods available from pegasus but that'll change EVERYTHING to snow lol

*thepokemaniac: *now one more thing, y'all can stay in intermission

*wrightguy0: *//4 let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby,
let's all go to the lobby and get ourselves some snacks //4

*thepokemaniac: *but if anyone is interested,

*b22rian: *ya i was actually looking into this yesterday, i kinda prefer
i think some of these snow cap mods

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/5602/edwardsnationalparkmar1.png
<http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/5602/edwardsnationalparkmar1.png>

*thepokemaniac: *thats a good example of some foothills

*un1: *I made a mountain, "Alpine" like map, did I do it correctly?
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=20872
<http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=20872>

*yoshiisland: *I wouldn't want all of my cities to have snow year round

*thepokemaniac: *ok, ready to restart?

*b22rian: *thepokemaniac: yup, very nicely done

*thepokemaniac: *ok

*b22rian: *sure..

*thepokemaniac: *ready vince

*un1: *What about my question? :|

*bluelightning: *clear

*yoshiisland: *un1: that's a good one

*thepokemaniac: *un1: yes

*thepokemaniac: *:P

*un1: *thepokemaniac: Thanks :p

*bluelightning: *Stand by

*thepokemaniac: *ok

This room is moderated by bluelightning. All messages are forwarded to
the moderator for review.

*thepokemaniac: *welcome back everyone,

*thepokemaniac: *now to the easy topic of naming your national park

*thepokemaniac: *it can be named after you,

*thepokemaniac: *a nearby city,

*thepokemaniac: *a major mountain in the park,

*thepokemaniac: *or a special person in RL or your SimCity

*thepokemaniac: *in this case, i named mine after a person's last name
in Real Life

*wrightguy0: *what about a unique geological feature?

*thepokemaniac: *wrightguy0: or that

*thepokemaniac: *anything you want

*thepokemaniac: *i usually like to name mine after major mountains

*thepokemaniac: *also, rivers/continental divides work too

*b22rian: *alpine is someone you know ?

*thepokemaniac: *b22rian: no, Edwards :P

*b22rian: *oops :)

*thepokemaniac: *and we will not go into that right now..

*b22rian: *:X

*thepokemaniac: *however, this next part of the seminar is on a more
advanced topic

*thepokemaniac: *if you think you want to stop now,

*thepokemaniac: *feel free to leave :)

un1 left the room. (Going to Social Lobby)

un1 joined the room.

rawr apples joined the room.

*thepokemaniac: *however, if you are up for a challenge, this is a good
thing to know

*b22rian: *carry on..;)

*thepokemaniac: *this is on Mountain Roads

*thepokemaniac: *i tend to like to use the regular Maxis Road for this

*thepokemaniac: *they are easy to use, and if you have NAM,

*thepokemaniac: *you have some nice curves

*pagenotfound: *i have an example pic

*thepokemaniac: *ok sure :)

*yoshiisland: *I might be able to dig some up as well

*pagenotfound: *sometimes the curves dont work well on the craziest

terrain

*pagenotfound: *if thats the case try to at least "simulate" them

*pagenotfound:
*http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/115/barnetjun18021268796933.jpg
<http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/115/barnetjun18021268796933.jpg>

like so

*thepokemaniac: *ill let rob talk while i get the next pic ready

*thepokemaniac: *pagenotfound: ooh, that is VERY nice rob

*b22rian: *well

*thepokemaniac: *reminds me a lot of Guatemala

*b22rian: *how is that simulated exactly ?

*bluelightning: *pagenotfound: thats like that one peru road :|

*b22rian: *your saying this isnt a functional road right ?

*pagenotfound: *bluelightning: i did say crazy lol

*yoshiisland:
*http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/Tease

r5.jpg
<http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/Tease

r5.jpg>
not the most professional work but in this instance, I had to kind of
zig-zag up the mountain as the terrain was very steep

*philscafe: *actually, the NAM curves look best for mountain roads, IMO

*pagenotfound: *sometimes the ploppable curves are a pain

*bluelightning: *yoshiisland: damn.


*thepokemaniac: *you do NOT ever want to see this,

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/9976/edwardsnationalparkapr1t.png
<http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/9976/edwardsnationalparkapr1t.png>

*thepokemaniac: *see how the road is jagged?

*bluelightning: *thepokemaniac: urgh

*pagenotfound: *ew

*wrightguy0: *:$

*pagenotfound: *slope mod needed

*thepokemaniac: *that can be fixed by using the smooth terrain button :D

*bluelightning: *thats why I use a "smoother network" (a network thats
affected by a slope mod) to plot the course

*thepokemaniac: *or a slope mod :D

*pagenotfound: *coupled with a slope mod

*thepokemaniac:
*http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1885/edwardsnationalparkjul1.png
<http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/1885/edwardsnationalparkjul1.png>

*thepokemaniac: *this is a lot better

*thepokemaniac: *although not perfect :P

thenewteddy left the room. (Going to Social Lobby)

*yoshiisland: *yeah like vince said, I do that with e.g. the RHW

*bluelightning: *thepokemaniac: need moar slope mod :P

*yoshiisland: *sometimes it'll keep acting up though, but if you plop
single tiles of any transit network next to the jagged parts they will
usually smooth out pretty good

*philscafe: *or el-rail...

*thepokemaniac: *bluelightning: yes i do :P

*bluelightning: *Heres an example of cliff hanging an RHW :P

*bluelightning:
*http://www.majhost.com/gallery/vz1234512/SC4-2/aaaaaaaaaaa/Interchanges

/flintwood-_interchange02.jpg
<http://www.majhost.com/gallery/vz1234512/SC4-2/aaaaaaaaaaa/Interchanges

/flintwood-_interchange02.jpg>

*bluelightning: *and a more extreme one
http://www.majhost.com/gallery/vz1234512/SC4-2/aaaaaaaaaaa/Interchanges/

coast_flare-_seacliff_highway_01.jpg
<http://www.majhost.com/gallery/vz1234512/SC4-2/aaaaaaaaaaa/Interchanges

/coast_flare-_seacliff_highway_01.jpg>


*xylοxadοria: *bluelightning: No barriers?

*b22rian: *bluelightning: love it :)

*bluelightning: *xylοxadοria: nope :P

*b22rian: *naw

*b22rian: *no bariers :)

*b22rian: *barriers

daso left the room. (Logged out)

*b22rian: *hmm ok

*bluelightning: *You can apply basically the same concept with any other
network

*b22rian: *lets let adam continue..

*thepokemaniac: *well, just one thing to remember is that you need to
put the roads on level terrain

*yoshiisland:
*http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/83.jp

g

<http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/83.jp

g>
here's why trees over snow terrain does NOT look good lol

*thepokemaniac: *yoshiisland: yes :P

*pagenotfound: *yoshiisland: *secretly opens photoshop*

*thepokemaniac: *well, thats about all i have right now,

*thepokemaniac: *if pagenotfound or anyone else has anything else to

say..

*yoshiisland: *what about bridges? viaducts etc.?

*un1: *It's over?

*thepokemaniac: *or are there any questions for me?

*yoshiisland:
*http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/80.jp

g

<http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/80.jp

g>
like so

*bluelightning: *yoshiisland: ooo

*bluelightning: *An example of what NOT to do with a RHW :P

*bluelightning:
*http://www.majhost.com/gallery/vz1234512/SC4-2/aaaaaaaaaaa/Hwyrun/mount

ainpass01.jpg
<http://www.majhost.com/gallery/vz1234512/SC4-2/aaaaaaaaaaa/Hwyrun/mount

ainpass01.jpg>


*b22rian: *well

*thepokemaniac: *well, thank you everyone!

*b22rian: *i had a Q

*b22rian: *is there some special mountain forming tool or ?

*bluelightning: *I believe there is

computerguy890100 joined the room.

*pagenotfound: *ingame tool usually will suffice

paulobergonci left the room. (Going to Help Desk)

*yoshiisland:
*http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/78.jp

g

<http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg57/Yoshiisland12345/Shanton2/78.jp

g>
another bridge further towards the bottom of the mountain...you can see
a little waterfall tool being used there as well

*b22rian: *pagenotfound: ok thats fine

*un1: *Can you create mountain rivers with the rain Mod/Tool?

*b22rian: *its just that it soudned like maybe there was some tool you
could dl

*bluelightning: *yoshiisland: Wow.

*pagenotfound: *it wont save


*xylοxadοria: *un1: Yes but it will not save

*pagenotfound: *however you can build bridges using a technique

involving it

*un1: *xylοxadοria: pagenotfound: Really? oh thanks

swat-medic joined the room.

*bluelightning: *Jake

*pagenotfound: *jake

*un1: *Jake

*xylοxadοria: *there is actually a download that will make flowing water
that will always stay there. But its a weird blue color and it tends to
slow down the game

*swat-medic: *Whats all this!?

*bluelightning: *Another seminar

*bluelightning: *still in moderation)

*b22rian: *swat-medic: seminar 3 4 :)

*b22rian: *# 4

alexgamer03 joined the room.

*yoshiisland: *yeah I was going to mention that too...most waterfall
tools will lag the game quite a bit if you use too many

*bluelightning: *Hmm, speaking of roads, you can just be lazy and tunnel

:P

b22rian left the room. (Logged out)


*xylοxadοria: *If you want the free flowing stream i mentioned earlier
here is a download. http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=14707
<http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=14707> aside from what i
mentioned above its a nice addition to a mountain area.

b22rian joined the room.

*un1: *bluelightning: Or you can do what the crazy Swiss did (sorry
Phil)
http://www.gardenvisit.com/assets/madge/alps_crossing/original/alps_cros

sing_original.jpg
<http://www.gardenvisit.com/assets/madge/alps_crossing/original/alps_cro

ssing_original.jpg>

swat-medic left the room. (Going to Social Lobby)

*bluelightning: *xylοxadοria: that is cool...

thepokemaniac went away.


alexgamer03 left the room. (Going to Help Desk)

*un1: *So is this done?

*b22rian: *yes

*bluelightning: *guess so

*bluelightning: *Anyways, lets applaud tpm here, he did a great job :)

*b22rian: *yes you did great adam !!

*meister1235: *yes he do a very good job :)

/b22rian claps loudy/

*pagenotfound: *mhm

/philscafe applauds!/

*thepokemaniac: *thanks guys :P

/thepokemaniac blushes.../

$tmk$ joined the room.

*thepokemaniac: *Rob really deserves a lot of credit though

*bluelightning: *Sounds good Chris

*bluelightning: *and yes he does

*un1: *So cant we unmoderate this room? :p

*bluelightning: *Oh fune un

*thepokemaniac: *and Chris,

*bluelightning: **fine

*thepokemaniac: *and Ian

*thepokemaniac: *and Un

This room is no longer being moderated.

*pagenotfound: *:D