Status Report - HERO: Week of 03.02

Takeizumi-machi Shopping District

Work on HERO this week has focused on developing the downtown shopping district. It has been framed out for a while and now it is starting to get fleshed in with more details. The shopping district has four zones. The northeast block is a covered shopping arcade known as a shoutengai. These are common throughout Japan in both cities large and small, hosting local businesses and franchises of large nationwide chains. This Maiwashi Shoutengai [マイワシ 商店街](Sardine Shopping Arcade) hosts more than forty shops including a public bath house, bookstore, post office, several restaurants, and numerous food stalls.

Maiwashi Shoutengai

The southeast block is narrow and comprised of mostly service businesses. Dentistry, photography, banking, and music instruction house themselves here. There are also several fast food places and a police box.

Shops Along the Central Road

The northwest block is split between services on the north street and entertainment on the south. The services include an auto mechanic, carpenter, plumber, and electrician. Takeizumi's entertainment district includes a game arcade, karaoke box, pachinko parlor, and a three theater cinema.

Entertainment District

The southwest block centers around a farmer's market, with several restaurants and a convienence store. The buildings in all four blocks are mostly two story with a few that are one or three. Many of the upper levels contain apartments or homes, primarily for the business owners.

Farmer's Market

This week also saw the beginning of the HERO Base on the Nagareboshi Campus. The hanger for the HERO is underground with two launch tunnels. It can hold up to 192 HERO though right now it is far from filling that capacity. Each bay is large enough for maintainence to be performed, though if larger repairs are needed it may be necessary to move the unit to an assembly chamber.

HERO Hangar

The aboveground structure houses the command center, mission control, and other administrative divisions. It is connected to the school by two underground corridors but can also be entered at grade.

Nagareboshi Command Center

I plan to have these status posts every Sunday. Spotlights and Behind the Scenes will come on a less rigorous schedule. This coming week will see continued improvements on the shopping district and HERO base, and possibly the inclusion of traffic signals and other infrastructure. I would also like to note that The Residuals was planned to be this year's NaNoRenO entry, but that will unfortunately not be happening. It will be coming later in the year instead.

All images are unrendered, raw SketchUp models.

Nick