WIP Beta released A new *CITY* map - LOS INJURUS 2023-12-20

So while I haven't gotten that development finished yet (there's about 9 houses in now, all with driveways and basically the lots laid out like they should be - only one has shrubs/foliage on it currently), I am currently uploading the map (but it's pouring rain here, surprise!).
Sorry for not being so on-top of my game and this ended up being many weeks until I got it out!!!
Expect an email via Patreon if you are a supporter in the next 2~3 hours or such.
"Inside ring" / folks who donated models should also get the update, too. So if you haven't gotten an update in a few hours and donated something (models/textures), send me a private message describing said contribution and I will check my files, verify & send.
What happened?
I got a head cold still from 3 weeks ago (the head cold part is gone the last 5~8 days, but the darn ponding/fluid in my lungs hasn't!).
My knee went out, something severe, last week, which cause a lot of pain (I mean like toothache pain, never ever got that bad!).

So trying to sync up / clean up some of the bought models is taking a LOT longer than anticipated - but they'll get in eventually. There's some real beauties there.
Change list (I will copy this over to the Patreon and supporter/contributor message page too).
*I did get some more new textures in though, so the stucco homes look fantastic now, as do some of the restaurants (there's a few texture stretching issues on the facades of a few restaurant models, but they still look way better, and I will fix those).
*More grass is installed on the landscape near downtown now, I've been slowly getting that in.
*The Island airport has grass, is fixed up and you can actually drive to the runway now (the checkpoint is actually guarding something now, how about that?).
*There's a few lots redone by the original spawn point.
*There's a LOT of spawn points, I believe 16 in total or something like that, and they should work.
*AI improved and partially future-proofed, removed some antiquated methods. I spent a few days mucking about with the AI trying to clean it up and improve it.
*The ramps just past the 3-y type interchange when driving from the spawn point now has AI (it's the first exit past where you can get off and go up the mountain).
*The AI on a few other ramps was improved, and at random spots around the map too numerous to name.
*Probably some more changes I forgot.
NO ROAD SIGNS HAVE BEEN ADDED EXCEPT STOP SIGNS IN THE NEW DEVELOPMENT, SORRY, DIDN'T GET THAT FAR.
Will try to make the next two supporter releases in two-week intervals to 'make up' for lost time - one mid-month and one end-of-month.
--That is all!

 

So y'all may have heard about the Tornadoes last night in Tennessee.
I woke up at just before 2am CST hearing distant thunder...
So I get up, knowing full well I'll never fall back asleep, sit down, light a ciggie, read my weather report / see radar, so I know when to shut off the computer.
Click the red circle thinking 'hrmm, another severe storm warning' (these come often, sometimes several times a week).
Oh no, not that, nope. Could we only be so lucky. Nope. Not a tornado watch, either.
A TORNADO WARNING. Yes folks. Oh dear, [expletive] is real now.
I popped the window open an inch, to better hear outside ... they weren't kidding... I stared out the window to constant flashing like a crime scene full of police strobe lights. There were no emergency vehicles nearby, though, it was all in the sky.
The hair stood on the back of my neck, and all my senses went into overdrive. That *NEVER* happens, not even when a gun is pointed at me.
That wasn't the constant rumble of thunder, it was a tornado. Not the same tornado that hit Nashville but it WAS the same storm cell.
Ended up being a half dozen to a dozen miles away at some points (guesstimate), give or take a few miles off that half-dozen.
But you could hear it, not close enough to feel though. Around Martin Luther King day in 2012, we had one you could feel that went less than a mile from us. Memorial day in May 2016 was a bad one too - that was the last time the hair stood on the back of my neck like that, same flashing like strobes and distant rumble of a tornado mixed in the guise of thunder.
It's very real, but fear not folks. Let me do the worrying here and not y'all. We have a storm shelter, and I have a centralized walk-in closet in here that is full of clothes that, frankly, I'm too fat for (yea I put on a few pounds over the last 5 years). So I have two places to hide safe if need be.
Included is a screenshot of what I saw on the weather station at around 2AM.

Always back up your files folks! I was never more happy to have uploaded my map data <24 hours previous to this happening.

 

OK so I finally found the invisible collision plane surrounding the map at 0 height.
Now to move the ENTIRE map up... ugh, that's going to take forever! It has to be done, though.

Always something, consider it done, even if it takes DAYS to do it (and it just might).
--- Post updated ---
OK!
Good news!
Entire map is moved up to 0, before the terrain was at -800 Z height, along with all 17,000 forest objects (THAT TOOK A WHILE!).
Actually, was quicker than I thought, and much less painless. I moved about 16,000 of them in one go, and the other 800~1200 or so of them I had to all click manually and move them. Luckily that only took about two hours.
Bad news!
It didn't break the map, but I will have to re-do all my raised / flyover on/off ramp AI. That's going to take a few hours, but if that's all I have to do, that's great!
So, needless to say, I will be busy tonight or tomorrow night until all that's done.
Anything for my loyal map supporters/fans/contributors. I will do this no matter how monotonous, no matter how repetitive, it doesn't matter.
If it's got to be done, it WILL be done.
Signs are next along with me trying to get that development done, then after I get far enough along, I might start my 'route 1 concept', as I'd like to be able to drive through there sometime soon.

So, Pilots unite, there's no more invisible collision. It's below the ocean now.
@Inertia @silvermanblu @fufsgfen @davidinark You can now fly around to your hearts content, and not smash the plane to kitty-kibbles (and maybe bits) when you least expect it.
Thanks for reporting this pesty bug. I am sorry I didn't do it sooner, but it's done. I just have some AI to touch up (that's putting it lightly, but whatever, will do it by text as you can't click those points when they aren't on land!) 800 meters is a lot of play vertically, and I have absolutely no clue whatever possessed me to have the terrain down that far (of course, this terrain was made in Feb 2016, so there wasn't much content - especially planes - back then).
Now to go eat something as it's been 10.5 hours since I ate anything, ugh. Oops. At-least I didn't get a hunger headache - yet.
--Cheers!

 

shit, that must 'ave been scary but never understood why people live in these tornado zones and keeps coming back when one strikes, why don't people just leave or something?

 

Help! My map is corrupting.
Hi I'm loving the map but I'm having some issues with it. (I didn't update the game so idk why the map is like that) The train rails just lead into the void and this one road is blocked off.
I also found weird road texture but I think that is not a bug that only I have.
Does enyone else have these problems?

 

Nope, that's just the joys of early access.
There's a curb near the spawn that shouldn't be there, it's been there for a few versions and I keep forgetting about it.
The light in the subway is intentional, I'll use it later, I had one extra I didn't get to use so I needed it out of the way for the time being.
Floating curbs are spare bits left over from building nearby but have already been rotated the right ways, just not put into place (I'll use them later, it's hard to get them to line up so I left them in the middle of no where, between the flood control canals and the highway). The small tan jump near the railroad tracks is a marker for a certain jump that will be there later.
The glitched road texture does this, it's an early access thing with the game engine, I would move it around a bit more, but it's going to be replaced soon anyways.
The beginnings of barrier where it does not continue on the on/off ramps near the "Worst Buy" are there because in most spots that use that on/off ramp piece, there ARE rails. There may be some in the future there (haven't decided), I'll address that at a later date.
Your map seems to be fine, provided you don't have any other issues with it. It's early access game + work in progress map project - what could possibly go wrong? I'm still building the city. I'm sure you will enjoy the next repository update that will come in just after the next major game update (whenever that decides to happen).

Well, I could live up north where it's less likely to happen, but the people are so wonderful down here by comparison. It's the people, there's a reason they call this God's country.
So I like it down here a lot better even if once in a while you have to go hide out in the cellar. We have a concrete crawl space here under the house, so I'll likely live, even if I just roll off the bed onto the floor next to the Oak book-case & bed in here.
100% it's the people bud. I have PTSD so being around nice happy-go-lucky people (which I am one of, most times, by default, even with the PTSD), helps a lot, and keeps me from beating down on nasty people (and potentially getting in trouble for it) that I would come across now and then (but not quite 'regularly') up north.
It's so much warmer down here - I have REALLY BAD BAD BAD arthritis (my Chiropractor said if I was 80-something he would say 'I had it bad' but I am only just about 40). Cold makes me hurt WORSE and makes my joints very stiff, and shivering HURTS when you have arthritis in your back. So, the fact that it was 60~65F yesterday when I went out to the bank to get some money in my pocket to pay bills - to which I then drove around for 30 minutes to an hour paying in person - makes me so much happier to be down here. A 70 year old man even offered to help put my cart away at the store because I was limping and going 0.0005mph - but I thanked him anyways for the kind gesture and politely refused (and very slowly limped my empty shopping cart* back up to the store, I don't leave them in the lot unless it's in a cart corral). No one would have helped me up north. You can talk to strangers down here without fear.
*Part of it was, I didn't want him to see how much I needed the shopping cart to lean on while I was talking to him for 5 minutes in the parking lot. If I stand still my knee locks up and the pain is like being shot or stabbed, so I've been using it only as a peg leg and not moving the muscle much if I don't absolutely have to.
So never the less, tornadoes or not, we live down here because it's the wonderful people. Once you live out here, you realize how nice it is. Even down to the small-town living perks like still having a functional old-fashioned main-street theater that still gets used regularly.
Well that and the gun rights are much better, too I know these things as a gun owner. When crime kicked up the other year, they lowered the cost of carry permits and are now tabling removing CCP's altogether. Guess what - lowering the conceal carry permits (CCP's) actually had a positive effect on lowering crime. People don't act up if they know they're going to end up as Swiss cheese.
But it's the lovely people down here that make it worth it. This is the America I was promised growing up but never found until I moved down here.
It is scary - I can't control the weather. The only thing in life that scares me is Hurricanes/Tornadoes, Earthquakes/Volcanoes, and maybe World War 3. I will rely on the old quote saying "I don't know how they'll fight World War 3, but I do know how they'll fight World War 4 - with sticks and stones."

On that note, I'm in pain, half-starved, and should probably go eat something for the first time in 8 hours or so.

 

I was wondering why that curb thing was there. I understand now. It's because of early access.

As for the weather thing. I dislike hot weather more then cold weather. I know people dislike the cold and I can understand why. However, I think hot weather sucks because of the sweat. Being hot and sweaty (in my opinion) does not feel good at all. There's also bees, wasps, and other flying insects which I have an extreme phobia of.

Anyways, I'm sorry you have pain. Pain sucks big time. However, I'm glad you have nice people in your life. It's great to have kind people that help you out with thing in life. I've never had a tornado in my life, but I could totally see people getting anxious and stressed out about it. Tornadoes can take out a bunch of things. By the way, speaking of Tennessee. I was riding through it with my family to go to a funeral in Alabama. I remember the roads having potholes in them.

By the way, areas of this map and Roane County remind me of certain types of music. Parts of Roane County remind me of songs off Green Day's 1995 album, Insomniac. I'm glad for all the work you've done on this and Roane County bob.blunderton =)

Also, thanks for sharing detailed information about things =)

Anyways, here's a few questions for you.

1. Do you know anyone with autism?
2. Will you add a Worst Buy, Taco Hell, Burger World, or Bird Murder to the Beverly Hills area you're working on?
3. Will you add traffic lights to the Beverly Hill area?

 

Green Day, that takes me back... long before BLVD of Broken Dreams, I remember when 'Long View' was airing the first time(s) on MTV, I specifically remember them beating up a flanel patterned couch. Yes, MTV (Music TeleVision) used to have music videos on it, not this rubbish reality programming fahl-dee-rahl. They were pretty popular in the 1st half of the 90's I think it was.

1.) Nope, don't know anyone with Autism, though I think a friend of a friend's kid had it pretty bad and used to yell at the wall a lot. Well, maybe some of those corrupt police informants/private investigators I dealt with years back had it, as they had severe spectrum disorder and because they were pretty obsessed and demented with the weird stuff they did to people / subjected people and people's unfortunate kids to. I guess it's that far off-topic I am a bit unprepared to answer it... so sorry if I don't have a better answer.

2.) It's 'Beaverly' Hills, in this map, technically. I won't use real names here to avoid potential issues. I will be lengthening the bypass route that is the main four-lane/five-lane thoroughfare through the area to come out by the 'Taco Hell' at the jug-handle in the 8-lane commercial strip access road. So it'll go through and provide quick(er) access to food stores, shopping, and the like.

3.) There won't be too many traffic lights up on the hill there, but there will be one or two at the on/off ramps there to regulate traffic flow. Don't need them in a residential area unless there's a lot of through-traffic.

 

As for the 'Beaverly Hills' thing. Thanks for sharing information about that. Anyways, I love Green Day. They rock, plus I think Insomniac is extremely underrated.

About the autism thing. I happen to have autism myself. Anyways, here are 3 more questions for you.

1. Have you heard of Lada Rivas? If so, what do you think of them?
2. Have you considering adding car dealerships?
3. Will there be any non-abandoned malls in this map?

 

If it comes off the Fiat 125/127 platforms, and is similar to the 1706/2107 style of cars, yes I've heard of it. I know that and the Niva (which was a very small 4x4 3-door hatchback car with some additional ground clearance).
Car dealerships are planned.
There may be non-abandoned malls in the map later on down the line, not 100% sure, but there 100% will be other malls (and not just strip malls).

There's nothing wrong with having Autism in a sense that you didn't CHOOSE to have it, like you choose a car at a car lot. Some people can focus their disabilities into good ability - so there's always that to think about. Find what you are good at and focus on it, in-stead of focusing on things that bother you as that would hold you back (this holds true for anyone, not just folks with Autism), and you shall find success.

 

Thank you so much for the quick response. For some reason I thought those rails were there before. It's nice to see that imy game is not broken.

 

I have another question.
Are those giant stop signs also just a WIP-thing? I liked the solution of your Tennessee maps better.

 

Well bob, thanks for answering my questions

There is one more question for you though.

Are you going to add stadium arenas to this map for sports, musician concerts, etc?

 

(Moderated - BAD BOB!!! BAD! Don't scare the sheep! For Shame!!! *WHACK* *SLAP* *BIFF* )
ON TOPIC (yay!)
Back on track, I've got signs in the making, those are coming next. So look forward to maybe not getting lost as much or as easily... one would hope.
Signs will only be installed where the highway has already been updated/improved. The older sections that carried over from 'So-Cal' won't get them until I go through and update them as I do nearby areas.
AI is slowly getting redone after moving the map up (was going to do it via text, would have taken forever!), all my raised ramps/flyovers/double decker/curved bridges have to get re-done.
At-least now you'll be able to fly a plane without running into the (invisible!) map edge, and if you fly out of the map in a vehicle without wings, there will be ocean floor around the terrain.
So it had to be done.
--- Post updated ---

There will be a monster truck arena. Not sure if it will be indoors, or outdoors.

 

So, some progress, hooray. WATER IS HIDDEN IN SHOTS, I HAVE IT OFF FOR THE MOMENT.

In other news, you might have seen on the horizon... ignore the bad joints in the shot, it's a texture issue with the renderer, I think I can fix that (it'll be underwater anyways).

So I go and flip my water back on...

Derp. My water broke. Really looks like it, too. That's a new one. Will have to work on that tomorrow, I think I know what's going on. If it's an engine bug I'll work around it, so our water doesn't look like pee.

That'd be the sand color breaking the 2nd last shot. I'll fix it (it may indeed disappear when I re-load the map, that isn't the first time it happened, just thought I'd share). It looks normal above, though, which is where you'll be 98% of the time.
What was the point?
There's no more abrupt terrain edge where you fall endlessly.
There's actually an ocean floor now, and a slope down to it.

Until next time, folks.
Tune in again tomorrow.

 

Okay

 

Adjusted terrain coloring and textures for both of the grasses.

Hope they look better - my opinion is a bit mixed, but altogether it's definitely some direction closer to positive VS negative. The old lawn texture was TOO dark green.
I will be adding a third grass texture that is a hybrid between the two types. So you'll have the coloring of the lighter lawn without all the wild weeds, for use in developments with slightly less than 100% perfect grass.
I still have to do the AI on 'The Stack' interchange, and the double-decker area (and maybe a few other spots where the AI is cranky yet).

EDIT:
The next supporter beta comes out March 15th~17th or so. Leaning towards the 16th right now.

Added some more detail and yet another similar-looking house to the development on the hill.

There's sort-of a jump in the last shot if you go fast enough (it can be troubling to get enough speed) straight over the driveway and up the hill/cliff. If anything you'll drive straight up the hill side and end up on-top of it. But there should never be a road ending without a jump at the end (if at all possible), even if it's not a very good one. You will need a rather speedy vehicle for that one though. A Lada 2107 won't do.

 

I'd say those grass textures look great, it's coming along nicely!

 

Well, thanks for answering my question. Here's another question for you. Are you going to add fire stations or police stations to this map?

 

Already is a police department in the map, and it has it's own spawn point, too. Comes complete with a separate Sally port. It's two exits down from the 'default' spawn point, one exit before the 'Worst Buy' store.
No fire stations are built yet, but that is on the list. There will be more than one.

Thanks, glad folks like these, because I was up in arms to be able to make it any better at that point (which is why I asked opinions on it). I messed with it for an hour or two, fussing about, comparing to pictures on the net, that's about as close as I can get it. Some people likely won't even notice, but it's all for the immersion factor. Not a fan of the 'lime green grass' that's often found in BNG maps.