Part 1: Overview
Hi there! I recently (quite foolishly) took up a challenge of recreating a real-life location in C:S and went for Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. I say foolishly, because it takes an insane amount of time to research, copy maps, find photos and zoom about in Google Street View.
Why Chernobyl? Well, for one, it's quite an interesting location in itself, so I thought I'd give it a go, and I'm loving it so far! I've also been there twice, so it's slightly easier for me to design, having that picture in my head.
The land is mostly flat around these parts, so I skipped importing the heightmap, and went with a flat map as a starter. I laid over a composite of satellite images spanning 2002-2016 and re-drawn roads where they should be. (I gave myself some creative freedom in parts of the map that are not well documented).I went for a mashup of two alternative dimensions, where the Chernobyl zone is populated (and not a radioactive desert), but at the same time it has that overgrown, slightly abandoned look.
During my work the lack of assets suddenly became an issue - there is a limited number of non-residential Soviet architecture on the workshop, so I had to work with what I had . Apart from that I had to use a mod to limit the dummy traffic to make the area more realistically empty.
This is by no means ready - I'd say I'm somewhere along 15% done with this map. I will keep updating (this post or another) if you find this interesting.
Why Chernobyl? Well, for one, it's quite an interesting location in itself, so I thought I'd give it a go, and I'm loving it so far! I've also been there twice, so it's slightly easier for me to design, having that picture in my head.
The land is mostly flat around these parts, so I skipped importing the heightmap, and went with a flat map as a starter. I laid over a composite of satellite images spanning 2002-2016 and re-drawn roads where they should be. (I gave myself some creative freedom in parts of the map that are not well documented).I went for a mashup of two alternative dimensions, where the Chernobyl zone is populated (and not a radioactive desert), but at the same time it has that overgrown, slightly abandoned look.
During my work the lack of assets suddenly became an issue - there is a limited number of non-residential Soviet architecture on the workshop, so I had to work with what I had . Apart from that I had to use a mod to limit the dummy traffic to make the area more realistically empty.
This is by no means ready - I'd say I'm somewhere along 15% done with this map. I will keep updating (this post or another) if you find this interesting.
Anyways, up here is Chernobyl-2 - or Duga-1 depending how you classify that - it's a radar system designed to detect missiles coming from US. I used multiple Berlin radio towers to get that look. (IRL this thing is just unbelievably fucking massive) The real thing
The power plant consists of an asset of Chernobyl power plant itself, which is nearly perfect scale-wise, but lacks any detail. On top of that I used Ronyx69's Doel Power Plant, which is a wonderful piece of work, so I highly recommend you give it a go. The real thing
Prypiat (not detailed, just buildings laid out in the 1 and 2 microdistricts)
There's a nice collection of Soviet residential buildings that fit the city of Prypiat just perfectly - this is likely due to the USSR cleverly reusing the same designs all over the Soviet Union. The real thing
S75 rocket system - can't say much about it, except it's a much lesser known part of the Zone
Prypiat landfill (the incinerator isn't there IRL - I just couldn't stand the constant "landfill full" popups)
The famous Prypiat sign - this is the thing that pretty much made me decide to go with Chernobyl for my little hobby project - without this asset I feel the build would not be complete.
Bridge to Slavutych (C:S AI doesn't really understand the two-way single train track - I'd have to come up with a new solution, or live with my trains bumping into each other and getting stuck forever). Slavutych-Chernoby is AFAIR one of two active rail connections in the Zone. The real thing
Chernobyl bus station (active still today)
Chernobyl helipad (seems like it's not been used for a good while)
Thanks for checking this out, guys. I'll update soon.
BTW - if there are any asset creators among you that would like to help me out with this project - please get in touch!
Cheers!
Prypiat (not detailed, just buildings laid out in the 1 and 2 microdistricts)
There's a nice collection of Soviet residential buildings that fit the city of Prypiat just perfectly - this is likely due to the USSR cleverly reusing the same designs all over the Soviet Union. The real thing
S75 rocket system - can't say much about it, except it's a much lesser known part of the Zone
Prypiat landfill (the incinerator isn't there IRL - I just couldn't stand the constant "landfill full" popups)
The famous Prypiat sign - this is the thing that pretty much made me decide to go with Chernobyl for my little hobby project - without this asset I feel the build would not be complete.
Bridge to Slavutych (C:S AI doesn't really understand the two-way single train track - I'd have to come up with a new solution, or live with my trains bumping into each other and getting stuck forever). Slavutych-Chernoby is AFAIR one of two active rail connections in the Zone. The real thing
Chernobyl bus station (active still today)
Chernobyl helipad (seems like it's not been used for a good while)
Thanks for checking this out, guys. I'll update soon.
BTW - if there are any asset creators among you that would like to help me out with this project - please get in touch!
Cheers!