Mala

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This was not intended to be directed at you Fatha' or anyone in particular. I just needed to point a few things out.

Just to expand on your reply:

This was not supposed to be a canyon. It was inspired by the atmosphere of a canyon and superimposed onto a cliff wall banking a waterfall.
It is fascinating to see a 50 year old pine with giant birds hanging out in it all perched on a portion of a cliffside that looks like it is about to give way and slide into the canyon interior which it will probably do one day. Trust me, trees do grow out of some canyon walls. It is what is unlikely about it that makes it so beautiful to see in real life.

And thanks for the love, Cork.

I don't usually respond to these kinds of criticisms but this is really starting to make me want to puke.
Let me once again explain this screen:


Refer to my earlier post for more clarification if this does not thoroughly explain my intent for this patch of landscaping. In the above screen we have:

1) Red-Orange spires perched on a steep cliffside. The sides are dirt because you cannot color them red-orange. I chose the angles I did to simulate the American Southwest sun beating down on them and creating shadows on their darksides. If this were Bryce Canyon these would have to be much taller but overpowered the landscape too much for Escalante so I chose a shorter height.

2)Eroded crevices and depressions at the base of the spires with sparse vegetation clinging for life in these lower patches.

3)A few lonely pines or spruce trees that managed to survive against all odds on a rocky, sandy cliffside.

4)Although I took artistic liberty to add a waterfall here, I chose to color the rocks around the falls in the darker rock texture to emulate some kind of erosion taking place due to the force of the water and the water itself sloughing off the top layer of strata and revealing a darker sub-strata but most of all giving a darker, water saturated look as there would surely be tons of spray and mist darkening the rocks color along the water's edge.

How is any of this random?

If you think it is ugly, or not my best work, well there is nothing I can do about that. I try different things that yield different results and create different emotions. I achieved what I wanted to here. If I decked it out with tons of trees shrubs and flowers, it would not be "realistic' to what inspired it in the first place.

I don't mean to repeat myself, I just feel like some of you are really not getting my intent. Oh well, you cannot please everyone, and that surely was not my intent here. You surely cannot expect me to start landscaping with some dreaded formula so that everything I do looks the same.

Thank you for listening to me vent.

Ahhh...

The overall size of the map and the amount of attractions plus elevation changes left little room for me to create the atmosphere I needed in Escalante. As I stated earlier, this park was heavily inspired by time I spent in the canyonlands of the U.S. Bryce Canyon in particular. You can see Bryce in pictures and even stand in awe on it's rim, but until you journey down into the heart of it and experience the utter magic of sunrise or sunset, you really are only observing it. The place is truly alive as shadows quickly morph the surroundings all around you. Clusters or families of spires would seem to climb the cliffsides as if all waiting for the show to start in some great godlike amphitheater. I wanted to convey the atmosphere of Bryce where red and orange spires and outcroppings stand eroded and ancient as patches of vegetation cling for life in the crevices and depressions that decorate their bases. Every here and there a hardy pine of some variety would stand proud amongst the outcroppings. As you zoom out with the map, this area in the screen combines with other areas in Escalante creating the overall atmosphere I intended. I was there and I feel it in Escalante. I chose more modest heights for my spires than some of those in Bryce because the sides of the land squares could not be made that brilliant striated red, white and orange and their brown dirt sides just were not selling it for me. Those Wacky Worlds canyon pieces would be fun for me to mess around with I guess. The time I spent in Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon as well as Zion Nat'l Park and Lake Powell was a huge inspiration for the story behind the Mystery of the Giza Connection in the Cydonia City Guide Book. In fact the park itself was situated near the Grand Canyon to take advantage of the somewhat Mars like terrain as well as a steady tourist flow. I had Rift Valley more at the base of the Colorado Rockies. I doubt the links in the guide book are still working but I am sure the images are somewhere on Hoagland's vast site.

It is strange, I never think of this kind of stuff when I am working on a park and I have always told myself that it doesn't matter much to me what everyone else says. I guess I got that way because I have always had peeps who hated my stuff and bitched and moaned about in the forums whenever someone posted something nice. It is a futile effort to try and please everyone. I don't think it can be done. On the other hand, who can deny that even small fame feels great for we are all cursed with an evil ego. I don't think anyone can spend shitloads of time building parks and then nobody sees their creations. How do you move on? Your creation must be born. NE is where we give birth to our creations. I think what we create is meant to be seen and interpreted but not defined. On the other hand, it has been a sweet ride getting all of this recognition lately. It does feel good. Really, really, quite fucking good. So thanks Iris(Corky and Ed too if you guys had a part in this) for raising the bar for me and my career in RCT. I have to literally out do myself in the future. Thanks also to Iris and Toon and Pyro for those 23's and the 22! I am torn with emotion that RCT3 is coming out as I have way more to do with RCT2. However, from the looks of it, I just might be moving on to RCT3 as will many others I'm sure. I am sure you will still see something from me in RCT2 in the not so far off future because I am always working on something.

Mala

Funny.

I really just try to build what I see in my mind. My advice to anyone would be to get out there and see the world. Especially the National Parks in the U.S. It was parks such as Bryce Canyon that were extremely influential in what you saw in Escalante River Falls and even parts of Mountain Beach. I was never a big fan of the jagged rock landscapes. I have yet to see anything in real life that hasn't experienced centuries of erosion. It is all about what you like though and what appeals to you personally. It is funny how everyone keeps trying to define things. I guess it is our nature. I think definition is the death of creativity and imagination. Be yourselves peeps. Everything I do has been influenced by something I have experienced. Draw on your own experiences and if you have none, get out there. You can see some place in a movie, but it is a hell of a lot different to visit that place. Even the dark brick buildings everpresent in Rift Valley were influenced by a complex of mental institution buildings that were near where I grew up. As a child I remember being frightened by just passing by these buildings. When I began construction on Rift Valley, these building emerged from my subconscious.