Diary Entries in English

Recent diary entries

Posted by PColumbus73 on 16 April 2015 in English.

PORT ARLINGTON SUPERPROJECT OFFICIALLY COMPLETE-

ARLINGTON- The President along with many government officials attended the ribbon cutting for the multi-billion dollar overhaul of the nation’s largest port. The massive project includes 4 islands, 12 bridges, and the largest movement of earth in the country’s history. The new harbor can park 36 large ships at one time. The redesign of the port also allows ships to enter and exit swiftly and efficiently.

To offset the costs of this project, all the piers at Port Arlington are open for lease by international shipping companies. Once a pier is claimed by a company, they are free to add buildings that they need. The Port Authority may allow the companies to claim more than one pier.

Posted by joschi81 on 15 April 2015 in English.

Hi all,

it’s already one and a half weeks ago since I decided with Luciano to make a major change in Commonia. As there was a quite populated area right next to the equator, which is unrealistic, we moved the Thompson/Darsons (formerly Thompson/Lincoln) area from here

old position of Thompson/Darsons area

to here

new position of Thompson/Darsons area

and Luciano put a large rainforest around the equator, which is a realistic feature at this latitude.

Also, the moved area had to be turned approx. 150 degress counterclockwise to make it fit to the new location within the north of Commonia.

I will continue drawing some details within Darsons. (By the way: I developed this city for two young US novelists who needed a college town for their books. They called it Lincoln, but I renamed it to Darsons, which is the original name I gave to it.) And we had the idea of making Thompson the Commonian capital.

I changed the distance between Darsons and Thompson, because I think the two cities were too close to each other. In my opinion, when starting new large cities, even in a “free” territory like Commonia, users should leave enough rural area around existing cities, leaving them their “own life”. I think that 150km/200km distance is good. If users want to create a polycentric, multi-city urbanized region, they should discuss it before with users who started the first city within the region.

That said, I want to say that I hope you’re all ok with the changes we made. Let’s leave the equator area a bit “untouched” or very low populated and stick to the northern part of Commonia for larger cities/urbanized regions. And let’s make Thompson a nice capital. (@the founder of Thompson - who is ist, btw?: Are you ok with this?)

Best regards joschi81

Posted by Pawl on 13 April 2015 in English.

Hi all! I joined OGF a few weeks ago and started creating Pedwatir and its sister countries in territory AR056 in southern Archanta. My preferred choice of territory would have been somewhere in western Uletha, but none was available at the time. Recently, UL149 (Reinuva) has become free, and I have been allowed to re-establish my countries there, leaving AR056 free for someone else. Fortunately, I haven’t yet done much detailed mapping, so a move is feasable without losing massive amounts of work.

UL149 is a better fit for the Cambric (Welsh)-speaking country I envisage, geographically and historically, partly because Uletha was already identified as the source of the Cambric language before I joined, so my new location can be the ancient homeland of the Cambric peoples.

The transition of Rienuva has begun, and I expect AR056 to become “free” very soon. I apologize for the inconvenience to the two or three people who have already mentioned Archantian Pedwatir and Cadwynyg in their Wiki pages.

Posted by clik on 12 April 2015 in English.

Hello, I know that Thilo is actually working on it, and I think it would be a good idea to talk about new continents with users.

“It’s only a first draft, and must be expected to change quite a bit. The policy is that the continents are “reserved for future use”. The rough idea is as follows:

with the new continents, we have the chance to create something more coherent with regard to climate, vegetation zones, language groups, large-scale geographic features etc. Once the final shape has been determined, we should probably create one or more wiki pages where proposals for all those issues can be submitted and discussed.

the ownership model is also not yet determined. With these continents, the shape of our world will be mostly finalized; especially there won’t be room for further expansion, so we need an ownership model that can accommodate new users forever without having add new land areas.

Also, the continents don’t have names yet. That’s something that I haven’t even thought about, so suggestions are welcome.”

Not talking about the future way countries will be drawn and given to users, but about the shape and climate and relief of continents. Will users choose the relief and climate of their countries, following a few rules to make things coherent ? Or will they choose their country where everything is already set ?

Posted by Voytek on 11 April 2015 in English.

I created new infobox which works good enough for it’s purpose. Probably it can be improved but I don’t have experience with such things ;)

So, every World Cup has it’s page on wiki since today. Owners of host countries should fill some data:

If you have any questions, ask in comments! :)

Posted by PColumbus73 on 9 April 2015 in English.

As Port Arlington goes deeper into Phase 2, the construction of port facilities are taking shape.

Currently, Piers 1A-1F and Piers 2A-2D are open and are available for lease by private shipping companies and more piers are planned to open soon.

If your company does expand into Drevet, you may edit the buildings within your parcel.

Please Limit 1 Parcel per Country

From what I mentioned last week, here’s the pages where people can enter information about their country’s climate and plants/animals for easier reference.

http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/User:Asparagus/Sandbox/CountryProfiles/Climate

http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/User:Asparagus/Sandbox/CountryProfiles/Flora_%26_Fauna

I will have some more of these lists/charts done when I have some more free time.

Edit away!

Posted by PColumbus73 on 1 April 2015 in English.

PORT ARLINGTON PROJECT BEGINS

ARLINGTON- Officials attended a ceremonial groundbreaking of the Port Arlington Superproject, a multi-billion dollar harbor reconstruction. The project includes creating new shipping channels, and islands. The Superproject also involves massive changes to the infrastructure of the Port Arlington area. The Drevet Port Authority announced that periodic port closures should be expected for the duration of the project. Once the project is complete, the Port Authority announced that international shipping companies may be invited to establish offices in the new harbor.

Meanwhile, a small port in Landrytown has been established to help ease congestion during reconstruction.

PETERSBURGH AIRPORT CONSTRUCTION COMPLETE

PETERSBURGH- The Grand Reopening of Petersburgh International Airport took place yesterday. The new airport features a new terminal building, refueling facility, and a fix to the bottleneck at the entrance to the airport. However, the expanded Airport Cargo Facility has been the highlight of the project. The new facility was moved across the airport from the now-refueling facility. The new cargo facility features two large cargo terminals and parking areas for trucks and containers. Along with the project, PR 33 was realigned to connect to the new cargo facility.

Posted by Leowezy on 31 March 2015 in English. Last updated on 1 April 2015.

Hey there :) So, my first post has been quite a while ago now, and I would like to give a little update on what I’ve done so far regarding the map and the wiki, as well as to get some feedback about these ^^

I’ve been working on my country called “Kojo” and focused especially on the capital, Pyingshum. You can find their respective wiki articles here:

http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/Kojo

http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/Pyingshum

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=7/36.129/118.312

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=11/36.4229/119.3088

I’ll start with the country as a whole; I have the climate laid out roughly for the most part, in accordance to my neighbours, and the geography as well. It has a highway network connecting major cities as well as a secondary network of well maintained express ways (green), which are basically just smaller highways going through the very rural areas.

The major cities are connected via the ICTR (Inter City Transrapid), which is a monorail train network with trains being powered via magnetic levitation that can reach speeds up to 380km/h. Their most distinct feature is their high acceleration rate. Supporting that network there is (but not mapped [yet]) another network of less modern high speed trains, that connect basically all cities over 100k.

You can read more about the country’s demographic and history in the very inclomplete wiki article. Feel free to correct my English or to make it at least a little bit less akward to read, as long as you don’t change any of the information it provides :)

Now to the capital, Pyingshum, on which I focused mostly.

The city has basically 3 cores; -The historic part of town, several centuries old and dating back to the city’s foundation, situated at the river with the castle on top of the hill that is now greenspace, and the historic town at its feet, encircled in the “new” city wall (that is, it is still old, but was built shortly after Pyingshum became capital).

… See full entry

Don’t put Opengeofiction at risk of a lawsuit. Add copyright info to your wiki images.  Even if the actual risk of getting sued might be rather low, it would threaten the very existence of OGF if it happened.

Just a reminder: all images uploaded to the wiki must include information showing that you have permission to use them, including a link to the original image (where relevant). This applies to photographs and artwork, including original artwork.  

For examples, see our new expanded image use guide in the wiki.

In a few days, the admin team will begin deleting all images lacking this information. Please make our job easy by adding this information to your images so that we don’t have to delete them.

If you can’t find copyright info for your images, please replace them with images that are freely usable. They’re not hard to find. For details see the image use guide.

Thanks for doing your part!

Posted by Asparagus on 29 March 2015 in English.

As much as I clearly understand the freedom of creativity in OGF, I know that most of us (I think?) are probably trying to get a sense of realism in their mapping. In the same way, I’m sure a lot of us probably imagine what kind of geography and climate each of our countries have before wondering what the owners of your neighbouring countries were imagining, and that is what we map to. Now that we have a really descriptive wiki, we are able to describe this a lot better, but not necessarily to the extant of what other OGF users were also planning.

What I’m suggesting is perhaps we could come up with a consensus as to what the climate of each of our countries is supposed to be like. I know that some users have created their own climate maps, which were really well done, but don’t necessarily match the intentions of everyone else. I was thinking maybe we could make a list on the wiki that includes every country and territory sorted into different regions, and some spaces that include geography and climate information that each country owner can put in themselves. We could sort this out into different categories such as average precipitation, snowfall, vegetation, average summer and winter temperatures, etc.

Does anyone think this is a good idea?

Posted by PColumbus73 on 24 March 2015 in English.

PERMIT APPLICATION GOES INTO EFFECT

REBACK- Following the Mahhal Incursion that defaced the much of the country, President Columbus announced policy changes regarding outside developers trying to secure building permits in Drevet. The President stated that the country ‘has and will continue to be open to outside developers’. However, following the incident in Mahhal, a resolution was passed requiring prospective developers to acquire written permission from the Drevet Government (A.K.A.- Me) before beginning work in the country. To request permission, a developer must include the following information:

-Where they wish to build (provide coordinates if clarification is necessary)

-What they plan to build

Large scale developments (large cities) WILL NOT be approved. Other developments like airports and freeways may be approved once the Government is satisfied with a developer’s previous work in Drevet.

If unauthorized developments are discovered, the Drevet Government reserves the right to shut down the project and expel the developer from the country. Further action will be taken against repeat offenders.

PORT ARLINGTON EXPANSION ENTERS PLANNING PHASE

ARLINGTON- The Drevet Port Authority announced that the nation’s only seaport will undergo a massive reconstruction and expansion. In a press conference this afternoon, the agency said that this project will make the harbor suitable for larger cargo ships. The port expansion is essential for the survival of Drevet as neighboring regions are largely uninhabited. Along with the Port Arlington project, the Port Authority will plan a small port for Landrytown.

FUNDING CUT FOR NEW ROANOKE; MOTORWAYS

… See full entry

Posted by Zeffy on 21 March 2015 in English.

Okay, so on another forum that I frequent, there is a thread for OGF maps. I’ve posted mine here and there asking for advice. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone is telling me stuff I already knew - my mountains and rivers don’t make sense whatsoever. I for some reason, despite looking at countless maps, guides, whatever, cannot figure how to lay out geographic features to save my life. I’m a roads and highways guy, but I didn’t think I would be that bad. It’s partially the reason my country has sporadic updates.

So, I would like [brutally] honest criticism here, and any other advice to help me fix my country so it’s realistic. If need be, I would love if people drew natural features in Hiltonia so I didn’t have to, because they all suck anyway.

Here’s the link to my country… http://opengeofiction.net/#map=7/-34.814/21.281

Thanks guys.

Location: AN136b
Posted by Rasmus Rasmusson on 21 March 2015 in English.

I read about the Assembly of Nations on the wiki, including this and other potentially electible items.

What is the procedure for this? As in the case of the Chief Secretary, there are some gaps in the list. Can everyone just add his or her candidate until the list is complete (with: too bad for those who are too late?) or should there be some kind of election for every past Chief Secretary and then every six years for every future CS?

As voting is one of my hobbies (at least when it’s free), I would favour elections. Since OGF has far more participants than any geoficional project in which I ever participated, have such large scale elections been organised before?

Posted by Luciano on 21 March 2015 in English.

I just spent over 2 hours researching and removing dozens of unauthorized edits in my country Mahhal, including 100s of railroads, streets, docks, canals, and other features, by two different users. It seems likely that I will locate other edits or features that were not authorized.

I know that Mahhal looks “stagnant” and not much progress is being made. That is for three reasons:

  • 1) I am trying to build the country “in order” - coastlines -> water features -> contours and mountains -> vegetation -> etc.
  • 2) I have a lot of offline (paper) maps that I’m working from - these tell me where things like roads, rails and canals will eventually be placed
  • 3) I’m currently mostly focused on my other country, Ardisphere, which is a more free-form project which I plan ultimately to open to collaboration

So these unauthorized edits don’t “fit” with the detailed plan for Mahhal. Your improvements are not welcome.

Furthermore, it shows a fundamental disrespect. When you join OGF, you are agreeing to respect other users’ territories. Take a minute and actually READ the ABOUT and FAQ pages, please. Then, ask yourself, is this territory where I am editing a territory I am allowed to edit? Open territories are blue on the overview map. If you have trouble differentiating “blue” from other colors, please see an ophthamologist, or take the time to identify the territories by using the list below the map, where they are labeled “community”.

I have temporarily suspended my own “admin” privilege to prevent myself from banning users and deleting their other work out of anger or frustration.

Moving forward, everyone, please show some respect and some basic intelligence in how and where you edit in our shared world. Commonia and the other community territories are quite large, and I would be happy to provide advice or assistance in deciding where or what to map, to anyone who politely requests.

Thank you.

“Luciano”

Location: Chimakttu