Small update.
I think all the major terrain changes I had to make are done:
- Changed the TerrainHeight setting to make the one hill in this map more prominent.
- Made depressions where the ponds would be and added the water, they don't look very good (water and slopes don't mix very well) so I'll probably come back at them at some point.
- Judging by google maps images, the factory area is flat and doesn't slope downwards like the rest of the terrain, so I did some work with the level tool. I hope it doesn't look too unatural. Like everything else, it probably needs a thorough check and polish with the smooth tool.
- Added earth mounds to the northern side of the railway, to act as sort of natural fences. When I get to undergrowth and overgrowth, I'll be adding bushes and trees along the mounds.
- Ditched the whole bridge-over-railway idea, at least for now. It required to edit a lot of the surrounding terrain and in my opinion was too much work for an area that will be out of bounds anyway. The time I saved on that can be used in other tasks.
I also started work on the splines. I have already added and smoothed the main roads. I'll be doing the smaller roads, dirt paths and the railway in the coming days. I was thinking of having the main roads being made of tarmac and the small ones made of concrete (since that's pretty usual in small towns around the part where I live), but I found out after looking at some photographs (
http://www.notrefamille.com/cartes-postales-1900/pas-de-calais-62/neufchatel-hardelot-62152-69539/la-place-436341.html) that Neuchâtel's roads were made of dirt.
BTW, I know that my in current terrain the factory area doesn't match quite well the aereal photograph (in the image you can see some of the factory buildings sloping down) but I've decided to make the Cement Factory flag much smaller than it really is. The reason is that there aren't a lot of industrial statics (that is, not counting the
very interesting but untextured ones
) in the mod, so if I did it in 1:1 scale it would just be a row of the Totalize factory buildings.
At any rate, I'll have to reconsider or redesing the Cement Factory flag. I though there were cement slab stacks ingame, but apparently I was thinking about the wrong game (those are in STALKER
).