(Archive) Advertising District / Port Azure

This is my new solo, work officially started only a month ago but I've been planning this project out already for ages. The map size is 140x140 and there are 4 different areas and all four of the areas are separated by a river which runs through the entire park. The current status of completion is 20%. I will be showing new screens as the park progresses.


This is the entrance area.


The heart of the jungle.

Two things to note, i forgot to change the colors of the monorail and in the second screen i still need to add a fence next to the path.

Feedback is welcome.

Edited by Splash-0, 24 December 2005 - 07:52 AM.

This is so wonderful, man. This is some of the most original archy I've ever seen; every building is different and it all blends together perfectly. No complaints at all, except you might want to change the path type for the screen in the heart of the jungle.

Dude that is awesome...best work I've seen in a long time here. Keep it up!

that second screen is ace, but would look even better with a dirt path.
and i don't think you should add any fences.

This is some of the most original archy I've ever seen;

LOL sorry just had to laugh at that. Anyways looks good but reminds me a little too much of Kevin's park but still has its own little twist.

A couple things I don't like:

Overly square walkways. Put some more angles in there. It'll look better. It took me a long time to believe that, but it really looks better 90% of the time.

Your buildings are very detailed, but mostly rectangular. Every now and then a more unusual building shape would improve the overall look of it.

Thick shrubbery can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. What I don't like about this is that there isn't a lot of shape to the shrubbing. It's too flat which makes it look like you're just trying to fill space. Thin it out a little bit in some places and maybe mix in some landscaping too to make those planter areas more interesting.

That monorail looks kind of thrown in. Which makes it a little less believable. There's a couple things you can do here. For one, establish a more consistent pattern in where and how it crosses walkways. This will show that you've planned out where to put it and that always looks better with transport rides I think. It's not just a transport afterall, it's also a tour of the park and a part of the overall look of the park. You can also mix in some custom support structures which add a lot to the theme of any ride. Not too many, but enough to encorporate the ride into the theme more.

You said you forgot to add a fence in the second screen and that shows. But I wonder if a fence is really the best answer here. It's never good to have long straight sections of path in my opinion because it creates ugly stretches of filler where you just have lots of bushes and fences. Basically what you have here. I try to put lots of diagonal path sections for this reason or at least a couple little sections of walkway that stick out and act as sitting areas. If this makes your walkway look too big, it's always okay to make bigger decorative areas in the middle of the path. A building surround by walkway every now and then looks good too to balance out a section. Then when you're adding in your fences, you can create areas with rocks or bushes that won't need a fence. It's okay to mix fence types together too if you do it intelligently (ie not randomly).

It's be nice to see a mix of textures that are a little less familiar. Using that path texture and those building textures together in that first screen is pretty predictable. Maybe you could mix something up a little to give it a more unique (and therefore more memorable) look.

Those are the things I think you can improve but I'm only making these comments because it looks like your 90% there so comments like these might help you. They're just my suggestions. Overall I like the look of this. You make very detailed buildings which is nice to see. A lot of people do that in RCT2 I guess, but it still looks impressive to me.

I think (as in I, and this is only coming from me) that if you're going to use stairs as stairs, don't use them for roofing on the same building. Besides that, I like the look you have, however, it seems sort of generic to the styles currently being done (look at Kevin's park). I really like the looks of the wooden coaster though. The colors you chose (yes, I know, brown) work very well with the environment, the train colors especially.

Wow, I like this a lot. The first thing (and one of the only things) I notice that I don't like in the first screen is the lack of color. The screen is dominated by four of the most boring colors, brown, tan, peach and forest green. I'd say change the color of the peach shutters to blood red, and the peach parts of the spire to blood red also. Get rid of Toon's pointy bushes, and add some rock landscaping. Add more flowers too. Also, I'd say get rid of the big wooden peach fences and replace them with the rope fence you have on some parts in that screen. Lastly, wherever you use the light brown color in that screen, change it to gold, or golden brown.

Second screen is great also. I agree with Steve about the path though. Nice work.

I like this a lot. The detail is really good.
The second screen kindof reminds me of artist's work (just me prolly)
Good job man!

Yay Splash-0 work!!

I love it. The themes are completely well done and the atmosphere is superb. The only I don't like is how the buildings are so, square. It's not a big annoyance, but maybe something to think about when you continue building.

Marvelous job. I can't wait for more.

I agree that the first screen is a bit bland colorwise and many of Ed's suggestions would boost this to an even higher level but wow. I can't help but be amazed by how well those buildings are put together, but then again you've been building to this since about december and you seem to have adapted to it completely now.

Personally I would like to see the axe taken to most of the fences in the first screen for either nothing at all or the rope fences that Jack suggested. Rather than keeping the colors monotone vary the accent colors (the shutters, roofing, etc) a bit from building. Keep them in the same sort of range, for example you could use the blood red Jacko mentioned on a building, leave on as is and make another have a different pink or red color since red-pink and possibly even orange are all close enough that they won't clash.

The woodie looks nice, really nice even. Sits very nicely in it's environment. I guess the reason I went off about things to change is that I like this so much already which is something I can't say about roughly 3/4 of the things getting attention right now.

ride6

ps (edit)- Tan or the reddish brown dirt footpath for screen #2!

Ed, and folks: how many parks IRL can you think of where a monorail looks like it fits. I believe that the "floating" sensation and out of place-ness of them is what makes them so cool and futur-ery.

I say keep it, and the colors you have.

The monorail was really a very small detail. I don't think it's that big of a deal. Maybe it's just because I don't like the look of the supports that the game puts in there. And also, nothing else about this park says "future-y". I like a certain amount of realism, but if something isn't Disney this or Six Flags that or whatever, generally the emphasis is more on theme than super realism. And some custom supports of some kind with that tiki-torch or jungle shanty motif you have going would definately help the theme.

I didn't mean it in that way. Sorry. I was just talking about the mistique of monorails in parks. Maybe a bit more general than just this park.

This Park is wonderful man!
the only thing i dont like is the big place in the jungle screen,but i have an idea for you!
if you use the pt bench,i would make something with the little squares which u find in the "roofs" category.
make something like this,of course you have much freedom in "painting" your ways.

then,overlay it with the invisible footpath;-)


very very nice park!

Look out for Splash-O!

Great stuff man. Impecible use of textures. Subtle, yet pleasant use of color. Good foliage choices. Great ride interaction. Decent theming. I could go on, and on. I'll side with Ed here on suggestions, although changing either of those screens would be detrimental imo.

Excellant use of textures. I love the first screen, reminds me a lot of Foozy's work, which is a great thing, as he is awesomified. This is really great work though, i like the monorail colours as they are to be honest.

The foilage in the second screen is perfect, gives a great atmosphere. Good interaction with the wooden-coaster and the queue line too. Excellant work, nice to see some top-quality new stuff back in the advertising district.

-X-

How do people get to the tables in the top of the building in screen 2?

Ah well. Looks pretty good.

(Edit: I misunderstood what you said before, so I posted the wrong thing)

But yeah, even if it's pointless, I still think it looks good, lol.

Thanks you very much guys for the replies, I really appreciate them. I'll respond to every post which needs one. I wasn't at home for the last 2 days so I didn't get the change to respond earlier.

Coasterforce: I've tried changing the footpath and it really looks different, but not necessarily better so I'll be experiencing a bit more to make up my mind.

Steve: I've been playing around with some different types of paths and the result is that the dirt path looks the best from the rest. Thanks for that.

Coaster Ed:
-The square walkways, I'm aware of the fact that it looks better but I've never really paid attention to this aspect in my own parks. From now on I'll try and use this technique but it's too late now to change it in the areas of the screens too.

-The Thick shrubbery, I think that that's directed at the first screen. To be honest I'm not really fond of it either, but the thing is that I don't want to add much landscaping to that area since it's a sort of dry area and the purpose of it was to make it flat and very gentle. But I'll try to fin it out a little as you suggested and will keep it if it looks better to me.

-The monorail, well I didn't just randomly add the monorail as it might look but I admit i haven't planned it careful enough. In the first screen it turns quickly right and left just before it arrives at the station, that might give the impression I threw the monorail in. But the reason why I did that is because just right of the first screen there is a bride over the river and the footpath makes a small elevation. When the monorail would have gone just straight the monorail and the elevation, from 2 views, would both be concentrated almost on the same square and it will look kind of awkward. You can argue I didn't plan it out enough but I made the river first then the footpaths together with the rides so yeah but you couldn't have known that. I might actually change it back though, because I agree on the fact that it looks kind of ˜thrown in". I'll see what I can do
In the second screen the monorail is located next to the footpath and follows it because I felt that something had to be placed on the river bank, and not just theming or buildings. So I'm going to keep it as it is there.
About the custom supports, I thought about that during construction but haven't tried it yet so who knows what happens

-The long straight paths with no fences along in the second screen. Well actually if you just go 2 squares to the right in the first screen there is already a seating area like you suggested, although in general I do not do this so often. So thanks for the tip I'll think about it more in the future.

BchillerR: I see what you mean but from my point of view I think it looks good sometimes. The monorail station is pretty much the only building though which has a roof consistent out of stairs. I always try to be careful with that, cause I don't like the look of it either if stairs are used too often as roofs. I'm not talking about the flat ˜stairs" though because I do like the look of them when they're used as roofs.

Jacko Shanty: I dunno, changing everything like you suggested would change the atmosphere a lot. But I see where you're coming from because it are the˜boring colors" which are used in this screen and the blood red could really make it more interesting if they are used the right way. So I'll surely think about it, and experiment a little.
I'm not going to add flowers and rocky landscaping though as I've explained above.

Ride6: Construction only started about a month ago not in December, you're talking about another park. . About varying the colors, I'm not too sure about that like I said in respond to Jacko but as I said I'll surely give it a try but I don't promise anything.

Elby: Thanks for the tip, it looks nice what you've made. But I don't think it will fit good in my park as it looks a bit fantasy like. It looks kind of˜crazy"and the other thing that gives me second thoughts about it is the colors availability, because rct doesn't have the right colors for a footpath.

Elephant6: They don't. I would have loved to make that, but it's kind of hard. I would either have to make a separate stair case for that or a staircase in the middle of the building. The second possibility would give me an awful lot of work while you're not even able to see it because the roof is in the way and it would give some glitches with the footpath where the benches are. And the first possibility would look ugly and give the building a rather bad shape. You have got to find a certain balance between realism and the way it looks, and that's what I did here. And I like it.

@everybody else: thanks.

Can't make any promises when the next update is but progress is going quite quickly but I'll show a new screen when there's something really new to show.

Edited by Splash-0, 24 December 2005 - 07:58 AM.

I like the second screen alot!
But the monorail ruins it for me in the first one.