Whitefall, Iridar

Mayor Diary 150px Link SimCity 4 Devotion General Information Author Shadow Assassin Status Active Tags Hall of Fame Awards Hall of Fame Language {{{language}}}

Daniel's MD about things. Formerly Ensenada

Daniels Comments on HoF Status

I started playing SC4 in 2003, about six months after it came out. My first MD, or CJ as they were known back then, was Dynasty, and it was hosted on SimCityCentral.net. I launched it in 2004 and it went on for about a year if I remember correctly.

Then came The Savannah Way in 2005. IMO it was the most successful CJ I’ve ever had and it went through two regions. Unfortunately, both regions had to be terminated, one by one, due to computer issues and the permanent demise of the image host I was using.

Then there was Ensenada, released in October, 2006, and it was quite successful. I only finished Brackenfell before the region started getting too unwieldy for me, but I still have it on my computer.

Savannah Way really did have a story behind it – it was supposed to be about the road rather than the city that developed at one end. Ensenada was a sequel of some sort since it was located at the opposite end of the Way.

Then after a few false starts, I finally launched Whitefall. At the time, my inspiration was boredom! I fired up SC4 one day and voila, a new region! I expected it to be active for at least a year which it was, at least in terms of topic. Unfortunately, real life showed its ugly head, though and here I am without an MD.

I’m thinking of getting back into the MD game, though. Creating an MD has always been fun for me first – I consider showing it to be an incidental bonus.

I don’t do much pre-planning, but originally I was going to create five major city centers in Ensenada. I got sidetracked, though, but hey, most of the fun’s in choosing a nice place and wham, there’s a city. It did have a personality of it’s own but it wasn’t perfect, that’s for sure.

Realism within the SC4 scale has always been a goal of mine, and my strongest points definitely are city design and transport systems. But there were a lot of things I wasn’t satisfied with in the construction of the city. And I had to be careful that I didn’t back myself in a corner with some decisions I made.

There were even times when I felt like giving up on it, but a break for a few weeks or so gave me enough motivation to get back and do it. Besides, I did get a lot of experience in creating a “realistic” city, and I’m one of the “old breed” who made do without stuff like the FAR and whatnot. I think the fans got a lot of inspiration out of it, too. Imitation is, after all, the sincerest form of flattery.

So maybe – just maybe – I’ll make a big comeback one of these days!

-- Shadow Assassin (edited by Template:User)
June 3, 2008