Developing Earth Park

The Dolce Valentina islands are formed by a rugged landscape in an early stage of succession from the bare rock of an extinct volcano to -- well, no one knows. That is the wonder of natural development. This process is being aided by the residents with the introduction of trees much earlier than they would have appeared in their own right. One corner in particular is much further along than the rest of the area thanks to extra special attention. The residents call it Earth Park ...

So goes the informal background mythology of the sim that my wife, Angela, has for our stores and our home (SLurl). I find that when I landscape and create infrastructure I have to have a history ... geological, sociological, etc. ... in mind, otherwise I might as well leave everything a flat plane. As mentioned in an earlier post (Web) I used a template of sorts and the pattern formed by the ground textures to create the landforms. It was Angela's idea that all this came from a volcano. Earth Park was her idea, too, but I've been allowed to run with it, for the most part, and I've been slowly developing it. She would like to promote it as a destination for folks to visit and actually handed the marketing job to someone so I thought I might have to get cracking on a texture that shows in About Land and in Landmark panes.

My first idea is based on some art I found to created a gift that will eventually be given to visitors. But it distorted badly when morphed from one image size ratio to another when used as a Profile Pick image, a parcel ID image, and other formats. A shame, as it I think it is a great image, both in it's own right and as a core theme of the Park.

Instead, I decided on the image at the top of this post, using a texture from the Element art I have at the region's landing zone (SLurl). It seems to lack something, though I'm not sure what. It ties in with the idea that the area represents the element Earth (Fire, Water, Wind, Earth) but still ... I dunno. Ideas? Feel free to leave a comment.