Wabigbear

Ahhh, thanks JB! The OZ wheel came from the Workshop - The Wheel of Oz by slowly. I first saw it back when we were just starting on this project and knew it just had to make an appearance! Strange, you're like the 4th or 5th person who stated they thought green was the color du jour at the Emerald City...I just don't get it... Chinese sounds good! We had sushi and tempura for lunch...obviously not Chinese but close! There's some Chinese restaurants here, but Japanese is everywhere, and we're just a few blocks from Liberdade neighborhood (Japantown), so we have it often.

As threatened ...er...promised, here's some random night-time screens of The Emerald City. For the full immersive effect add the sounds of snoring and drool on yourself from time-to-time...it will feel like Citytrader is right there in the room with you! And that draws our tour of the Emerald City to a close...thanks to those who stayed awake for it! But wait! There's still more of the Wonderful World of OZ to explore, but luckily it's now Citytrader's turn to lead you through the wonders of Yellow Brick Country - Home of the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion... More To Come!

Already retired, have plenty of time to play the games when I want, we travel a couple times a year back to the States - (last year was Seattle and Los Angeles, this year probably Orlando again)...so I guess my goal is just to make to the end of another year! LOL! Seriously, I do have a couple knee replacement surgeries coming up this year, a goal is to get through them quickly and easily while on my way to becoming a cyborg.

In the mountains of Brazilian states south of us, they can occasionally get a little snow during winter if polar air comes up from Argentina. Mostly just a light dusting or frost. Here in São Paulo the upper class folks often head to Campos do Jordão, a town up in the mountains outside of the city, were it can dip down into the mid-30's and 40's and they can wear their furs and ski parkas. Inside the city itself people break out the mufflers, gloves and heavy coats when it's in the 50's and 60's. I get strange looks being the gringo who wears shorts and sandals at the same time. Only time I wear long pants is when we fly to the States...

I enjoy watching your videos, the attention to details is fantastic.

"Disappoint me"??? LOLOLOL! I have no doubt even a brick wall will look great...

A and B sound kinda silly, C sounds almost too simple, so I was going to guess D: Dabble...but I have a weird hunch it will be the simple C because they were just starting out and hadn't come up with a real name yet...

VERY interesting concept!

That is going to be so cool...can't wait to see what you do with fitting all the treehouses together!

Oh, love that idea of the temple inside the cave!

Well, we're getting near the end of our tour of The Emerald City (thunderous applause and wild cheering breaks out...), but there's still a bit more to share (widespread groaning is heard...), so let's get it over with by climbing the Grand Stairs to the upper levels of the city... (Yes, this is a tweak of the same Art Deco bridge from the Workshop I've used a couple times elsewhere!)... At the top of the stairs the path divides, with one part climbing even higher... We'll take the left branch and stroll through the lush Princess Ozma Gardens... A bronze statue of the Princess herself welcomes you (and reminds you to stay on the path and off the grass!)... Graceful structures serving no known purpose grace the park... Ahead is the entrance to The Marvelous Balloon Ride...some say there's a hidden pun in that name somewhere... And there's the MARVELous Balloons themselves...(hint-hint...)... There's another carousel under this dome...no name, just hidden away for VIPeeps I guess... Now we'll circle back around and head up to the highest part of the city open to park guests. This is above and behind the Odeon Theater... The climb is steep...luckily there's a handy elevator hidden away somewhere...(now if I can only remember where I put it...)... More gardens... Ahead is the entrance to Aerial Adventures Over OZ, a 3D ride that takes you in a Oznian Flying Ship to tour the Land of OZ...well, until the Wicked Witch sends her Flying Monkeys against you! Will you escape in time for the next showing??? The ride theater is accessed by elevator through this unmarked door...spooky ain't it? THIS is where we think we are going...but actually the elevator takes us to a hidden theater (thus why the hidden door I guess!)... Information booth on the long slog down the exit stairs to ground level (if you don't want to take an elevator...personally I've never seen this spot in person...)... The front side of the Emerald City... The back side of the Emerald City... The Emerald City Monorail Station...(a nifty Workshop find! But I had to recolor much of it...)... Numerous bridges lead to the north shore of the Great Oznian River...(a name I just now made up...).... The Emerald Flyer Monorail entering the tunnel leading to the Northern Kingdom... Bunnybury is down below, it's inhabited by civilized bunnies... Along the shore...the view from the Munckinland Tours Boat... The Haunted Forest and Wicked Witches Castle in the far left and Winkie Town on the right... Around the corner from the Monorail Station is the side entrance to the City... Just past the gate are the circus tents of Notta Bit More, the circus clown who was transported to OZ... His tents back up to the Emerald City's walls... That will end our tour for today. Next time we'll just have some random night-time screens, so if you turn off the lights no one will know you've nodded off! Unless you snore...

D...and that's a guess, I never played it but seems like the most logical need...

Sorry I missed this post from ages ago! But RCTMart was a special place indeed, really good memories of that time!

Also saw this late... Closest we were ever in a park near Christmas was at WDW the first week or so after Halloween a few years ago, we usually go before Halloween. The decorations were up but the crowd levels weren't, so it was a nice time to visit. We didn't attend any of the special events. I really loved the decorations and windows on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. No real favorite Christmas movie. Living in Brazil the selection is far more limited, even with streaming, so it's been years since I've had to wade through the plethora of Hallmark Holiday tearjerkers. Christmas music here includes a few US holiday standards, but just isn't a big thing . The malls have fake snow, trees and some Christmas tunes playing, admittedly I still cant used to seeing those things or hearing lyrics about snow and frosty air when it's in the 90's here. But when I decide to do some holiday baking I'll tune to the Seattle online all-Christmas radio station while pretending the oven heat is coming from a fireplace (the occasional burnt cookies help that illusion...).

Very realistic!

In fact the centerpiece with the giant Wizard face WAS an elegant pipe organ, from the Workshop! The "Grand Organ" by Carnage. I just tweaked it a little... Some of the green marble pieces are Workshop finds, others I made, like the floor/wall tiles. Glad you liked them!

Our appointment time is upon us...time to head towards the Palace of Oz... "An Audience With The Great And Powerful Wizard Of OZ, Ruler Of The Emerald City, Protector Of OZ"... We enter the Great Hall... And are ushered into the presence of the Great and Powerful One himself... "The Great OZ knows why you are here!" "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" We are dismissed from the Great Oz's presence, so we wander to another palace hall where there is the Horse of a Different Color Carousel... Of course you can count on their being food stalls down a side haul...being Great and Powerful ain't cheap you know! There's yet more to see (Hey!I heard that groan...) in the upper levels of the city behind the Palace. We'll explore there next time... "More to come!" NOTE: Apologies for the poor textures on many of the in-game pieces. While most of the TMTK items look fine, the reduced textures on the Frontier items when a park reaches a certain size sadly kick in, even with textures jacked up to max. That's one thing PC2 seems to handle better based on what I've seen so far anyways...

Really interesting concepts! Looking forward to how you create it as you go along!

It really filled out nicely! Those tall planter 'trees' really look nice there too.

Lighting is quite nice, but then that's an area you always excel at. Nice reflections on things in this game too...

Very nice detail! Those look great...

Yep, I prodded and woke citytrader up from his nap from time to time to ask what he thought about this or that because admittedly he knows far more about OZ than I do (being around when it was first written - in fact I think he visits there often during his naps...as well as during his waking hours if truth be told...). He was busy with the Yellow Brick Country bench, which will be shown soon, but limited to times between his work and real-life things popping up that had his attention while I played around on the Emerald City...one of the advantages of retirement for me! I haven't even seen the completed Yellow Brick Country bench myself! But what I've seen so far looks great! The elevated Chicago lines were certainly the inspiration for the Scalawagon line. That, and they were a late addition after I had already laid out the streets and placed many of the buildings, so I decided to run them elevated, which worked out well, even if in the books they ran at street level. The stable was in fact a Workshop find, just repainted and tweaked slightly. There's some fantastic builds in there - I never feel bad about using them rather than trying to make something myself that's not even half as good! The Wizards Palace is another Workshop find - "European Palace Left" and "European Palace Right" by Bob. There's also a center section available that I didn't use. I had to re-color everything green on both blueprints, which was a task, but I loved the curved facade and the domes. I then just filled in a small section in the middle and added a few things. A really nice blueprint, and I'm a sucker for this style anyways, as you can see in a couple other EC buildings. The Emerald City here mixes a lot of different styles, sort of like an actual city would I think. Beaux Arts, some Medieval, Art Nouveau...all were used in illustrations for the Oz books over the years, and of course Art Deco in the '39 film, so there is a link between them all besides in just my imagination...

And we're back...ain't you lucky??? As we descend to the lower level of the Emerald City, we again pass under the Scalawagons as they exit from their tunnel under the city... There's many residences in this part of the City... Skycars to the Wicked Witch of the West's Castle are to the left...as if anyone really wanted to go there! *shutter* Meanwhile to the right we find the Tarts 'n Torts - a lawyerly bakery, and Eureka's Catonic Tea Shop (specializing in Catnip Tea...). Eureka was Dorothy's pet white kitten than accompanied when she returned to OZ...repeatedly for some strange reason... Across the street are Hotz Dawgs and Tater Sticks shops... The Skycars to the Wicked Witches Castle rise overhead...carrying unsuspecting peeps to their doom no doubt... A side gate allows one to walk to the Wicked Witches Castle (if anyone actually wanted to...), or the other direction meets up with the Yellow Brick Road on the way to the Nome King's Lair and Winkie Town...and of course a cart selling green tinted glasses stands ready. At the Emerald City Stables you'll find Betsy Bobbins and her mule Hank... Victor Columbia Edison's Magical Music Store - what else did you expect from an enchanted talking Victrola? Capt. Bill's Fish Feast. The old seafarer brings his fresh catch to the Emerald City... The Jester's Magic Shop... Which brings us back around to the Emerald City Main Gate and The Palace...just in time for our Audience With The Great And Powerful Wizard Of OZ - Ruler Of The Emerald City - Protector Of OZ... Until next time...there's for to come (but we've made it most of the way so you can wake up now...)!

Yeah, I think there's too many issues unresolved in the base game yet to be focused on DLC. I do however, understand the need to pump out DLC for the income, and I also know that all these new rides have been in the development pipeline for quite a while - likely long before the base game was even released. The DLC price doesn't really bother me as much as it does many people, I'll agree there's not a whole lot of new content for that price, so I can understand why some aren't interested in purchasing it right now. I bought it myself but I haven't even really played PC2 much as of yet. I know there's controversy as well between those who complain about missing content that was in PC1 and PZ not being in PC2, and those who point out that content for both the earlier games came out over a long period of time and wasn't part of the original release. I agree, but my feeling is that PC2 was supposed to be a sequel to PC1, building on it with new content and abilities. To me that doesn't mean that you have to wait while content and features dribble out like they did in the first games. Much of the current controversy reminds me of what went on years ago with Atari, where you had people upset at some of the problems in that game while others were vocal fan-boys dismissing anyone with an alternative opinion as just 'whining and complaining' (while sometimes it was...) while they instead somewhat blindly defended Atari. Meanwhile the majority of the community just wanted issues fixed so they could play. Not much has changed over the years I guess... LOL!

LOL! I wish I had... "Pigasus is a flying, winged pig whose riders are magically compelled to speak only in verse until they dismount." It was found in several OZ books, mostly the later ones by Ruth Plumly Thompson who continued the series after Baum. In the 29th OZ book - The Wishing Horse of Oz - it helps Dorothy Gale discover what's happening when all the different rulers and personalities of OZ start to disappear - Ozma, Glinda, even the Wizard. No, I haven't read 29 different OZ books, only one! I came across the name on a list of OZ characters, and then when I remembered the cute pigs someone shared on the Workshop. I just made it some wings to become Pigasus!