Russia and the Ukraine revisited

[SelfLoadingRifle]

A friend of mine once said.  "Richard, when you return to England, you will find that part of your soul has become Russian."  A wise remark indeed, as I am finding out in unexpected ways.  Recently, I completed a major upgrade of CMBS.  I bought the new battle pack, and then embarked on a major project.  I downloaded and installed almost all of Kieme's mods.

The next thing I did was to explore the  Korsun 2017 map.  Suddenly, I found myself back out there again, so much so that I could even smell it.  It is always the small touches that hit home the hardest.  The skyline (courtesy of Kieme's background) was dominated by a line of giant electricity pylons. Elsewhere, the horizon was broken by a collection of dirty looking factory chimneys.  In yet another direction, an oddly shaped water tower loomed.  These features are ubiquitous, and form a part of virtually every landscape.  

What really brought me back was how accurately the artwork depicted the general decay.  The paintwork of the buildings was faded with cracked and crumbling rendering.  Properties were surrounded by hideous concrete walls formed from prefabricated sections and the soulless 70s vintage apartment blocks were everywhere.  All of this is so, so Slavic and so, so right but you have to have lived in a place like that to truly appreciate it.

One area that Kieme could look at is some of the brickwork.  Many buildings survive that were built by German POWs and the quality of the bricklaying is truly, horrifyingly and jaw-droppingly awful.  It would be a nice touch to see this depicted.  Also, woodland areas should have assorted crisp (chip) packets, coke cans, discarded portable barbeques and empty vodka bottles modded into them to capture that truly Slavic atmosphere.  It might actually be an idea to produce the blackened remains of a bonfire as a feature as these are absolutely everywhere, particularly near tracks which run next to rivers.

I have yet to see a village accurately depicted though.  Villages, particularly those near cities, contain many Dachas.  Dacha is a synonym for country house/man cave.  Most well-off families possess them and at weekends, half of the city drives out to the dacha.  Russian villages, particularly those in dacha-land, are truly ramshackle in a way that you simply wouldn't believe. Prefabricated concrete walls are everywhere.  Corrugated iron (used for all sorts of things including roofs) is an important feature, as is the ubiquitous picket fence.  Sometimes the juxtapositions are truly startling.  Decaying wooden Hansel and Gretel style gingerbread houses rub shoulders with ultra modern swanky mansions.  Some houses are rendered and some are not, consisting of bare cinder blocks.  The architecture is often surprising and sometimes downright alarming.  I have even seen a retro-gothic mini-castle, complete with turrets and battlements, plus a villa roofed with bright blue tiles that was actually painful to look at.  Almost anything goes.  The only thing that should be absent is any sense of planning.

Perhaps I am nit-picking though.  All I can do is what many others on this forum have done before me which is to thank Kieme for his wonderful artwork.

SLR 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2017 by SelfLoadingRifle

[Erwin]

I thought you were describing rural Utah for a bit... 

[borg]

2 hours ago, Erwin said:

I thought you were describing rural Utah for a bit... 

Lol Erwin 

[John Kettler]

Selbstladegewehr,

What an excellent, informative (and in some ways depressing because of the ugly "chrome") post! Seems to me to be the very model of a request for region specific improvements to terrain and building mods. Sounds like they need to institute Earth Day there.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Wicky]

@SelfLoadingRifle You've been to Jaywick as well...

[SelfLoadingRifle]

While I'm still thinking about this, a hockey rink is another must have feature.  They seem to have one of these in almost every residential square, whether in Russia or the Ukraine.  Ditto miniature children's playgrounds.  These are typically a slide, a swing, one of those spinning roundabout things and a climbing frame, all painted in a cheerful rainbow colour scheme  and mounted on black rubber matting to minimise injury.  Also, every town contains a  central square with fountain, small rather garish looking prefabricated clock-tower, plus a large statue of Lenin.   Also, there will be a separate Victory Square consisting of a huge parade ground with (typically) hideous concrete war memorial at the far end complete with eternal flame.   Any depiction of a Slavic townscape would be incomplete without these features. 

Could Kieme, or some kind modder please consider adding these as flavour objects?

SLR 

Edited May 9, 2017 by SelfLoadingRifle

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Do you find the crazy Soviet bus-stops in that part of the former USSR?

 

[cool breeze]

Had to google that to see what you were talking about.  Dang, those commies sure did something right there, those bus stops were sweet! 

[SelfLoadingRifle]

The bus stops were rather boring where I was.  Russia is truly the country of the unexpected though.  It will always have the capacity to surprise!!

SLR

 

[Vanir Ausf B]

1 hour ago, SelfLoadingRifle said:

 Russia is truly the country of the unexpected though.  It will always have the capacity to surprise!!

 

Edited May 9, 2017 by Vanir Ausf B