Diary Entries in English

Recent diary entries

Today is the first anniversary of me joining OGF. It’s been a fun experience, with some great people, and I thought I’d post an update on my activities:

Nearly all my attention at the moment is going on Wesmandy (map here: http://opengeofiction.net/#map=8/57.760/41.976, wiki here: http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/Wesmandy). I’m trying a historical approach to mapping the country, creating it was it was in about 1400, after which I’ll update the map and the history in tandem until I get to the present day. It’s a big project if I’m going to keep the whole country in step through the centuries, and I can’t say how long it will take. I had hoped to have the medieval “baseline” complete by Easter, but I don’t think that will happen. After that, going through the centuries should be fairly straightforward until industrialization starts, when things will get complicated!

When I started this I dithered about various things such as how much detail to include, but I think I know where I’m going now, unless anybody comes up with any glaring problems or omissions! :-

Throughout Wesmandy, I have mapped the major rivers and lakes, although I am adding more streams as I get down to detail. I have located and named about 530 cities, towns, hamlets and (mostly) villages, but I’m adding more villages and hamlets as I get down to detail. I also mapped the roads between them, designating roads between cities as Trunk, between towns as Primary, between main villages (centres of manors) as Secondary, and everything else as Unclassified. The designations indicate relative importance of the routes, not the quality of the roads - most will be dirt lanes at this time.

… See full entry

Location: Croes y Bont, Nanteira, Cantref Caerarthen, Tircambry
Posted by niels20020 on 19 February 2016 in English.

Hello everyone,

I would like to tell you that there’s now a member list on the wiki-page of the UFA . So, if you have a country in Uletha and football is developed in that country, please add it to the list! You can also add your country on the pages of the Uletha Champions League and Uletha Championship, if you think your country is good enough in football for that. I hope to see a lot of new members :)

Greetings Niels20020

Posted by Sarepava on 19 February 2016 in English.

Hi fellow OGFers,

Having received a great deal of response from my original suggestion, I am now proposing a time for a VOIP chat; this Sunday, 21st February, at 1700GMT (1800CET). This is intended for European residents. Of course, the time is flexible depending on availability.

For various reasons, I would like to use Google Hangouts instead of Skype for this. I think most of us have a Google email so you will already have an account set up. All that is needed is to install a <1mb plugin which you wil be prompted to do so. (If it turns out that we aren’t all on Google we’ll use Skype instead.)

Language will be English. Note that we won’t be making any huge decisions on the running of OGF, just to share ideas and chat about our worldbuilding activities.

Note that in common with most of the free VOIP services, a maximum of ten participants can take part, so we won’t be able to include everyone at once…sorry. Although there’s no reason why it can’t be a rolling conversation, and new users join as other leave.

Everyone will need to add contacts to join. If you are interested in participating, please add yourself below and then send me a private message with your Google contact (just so it’s not loose on the internet).

Posted by Yuanls on 17 February 2016 in English.

I decided to take a detour, away from conventional mapping, to do some historical mapping of Decton, which can be found here (it’s too big for either here or the wiki.

http://imgur.com/pQbi4cD

I plan to extend this series to 1900, and after that, possibly convert it into a gif. This is a followup from the less sucessful Katsnelson gif, which can be found here:

http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/File:321509.gif

The way I made this was simple: I copied Decton on JOSM and started adding and removing sections of it to create the final picture. It would be lovely to hear some feedback!

Thanks

Yuanls

Posted by Sarepava on 12 February 2016 in English.

Hi all,

I had an idea the other day to suggest some kind of video conference via Skype or similar amongst the members of the community. This was mainly after the debate about the football World Cup which has led to a very long talk page, but also just to discuss the community work as a whole, and to see who the real people are behind the countries.

Now the obvious issue with this is that we all live on different sides of the world, so getting everyone together would require some careful timing. My feeling is that the majority of users live in United States (which itself has four time zones…), the next most common is the UK and Western Europe (two adjacent time zones) and then there are people like Luciano who live in Korea. Not aware of any others in the Far East though. Anybody from Australia/NZ?

What do we think?

Sarepava

Posted by Ūdilugbulgidħū on 7 February 2016 in English.

Hello friends. The Intercup has now been established. This is a football competition equivalent to the OGFIFA World Cup but for integrated mixed-sex teams. It has been held every 4 years since the first competition in Freedemia in 1992. There are eligibility requirements for countries to enter and there are also requirements for winners, runner-up teams and hosts.

The main page of the competition is here: http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/Intercup

So far, only the 1992 competitions and 2000 have wiki pages. See http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php?title=1992_All_Peoples_Cup and http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/2000_InterCup . Countries that meet the eligibility requirements (see the talk page for the respective competition) can fill in the spots in the table for these competitions. The requirements to take these spots are deliberately quite hard achieve - countries that take them must have put some effort into both mapping and wiki, especially on football!

Perhaps demand for places in the competitions will be low, but the wikis may also serve as a template as to how spots in the ‘official’ OGFIFA world cups - and other competitions - could be determined in a way that reflects the importance of football in a country, rather than on the ‘first-come, first-served’ basis that has happened until now.

Happy mapping to you all Udi

Posted by skquinn on 6 February 2016 in English.

I was browsing OGF:Coastline_Maintenance earlier this morning and in the process found that relation 10071, for the Uletha coastline, had been deleted some two months prior. Has it been superseded by a newer relation (which I can’t find, if there is one)? If not, how to go about restoring it?

Location: Frogtown Park & Stadium, Frogtown, Surfside, Rhododactylia
Posted by Yuanls on 6 February 2016 in English.

I am running out of ideas for [Decton] (http://opengeofiction.net/#map=15/52.0798/129.2003) very quickly. Help or inspiration would be appreciated, any idea will be taken into consideration. Previous diary entry for Decton’s history can be seen here.

I am very close to finishing Decton (finally!). The only bit that is really left is the [town centre detailing] (http://opengeofiction.net/#map=17/52.08127/129.19720), as a follow up to the (poorly done and unfinished) detailing in [Ellmouth] (http://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/51.8403/129.1798) and partially inspired by [Myrcia] (http://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/56.3332/19.2404)

Thanks

Yuanls

Posted by Bstn on 30 January 2016 in English.

Flag:

I just created a flag for the capital of Gobrassanya - Gobras City. I already added it to the Wiki-Page (Image in full resolution). The background color is the same as of the national flag and I also added the Gobrassanya star but I thought an eagle would be nice to show the “power of the government”. I also added the text line “Thi húeron ontha riwe plevín” which means “The heart at the right site” as the motto of the country to the Gobrassanya wiki page.

Progress in Gobras City:

(I also edited quite a bit of eastern Gobras City area with the help of other builders. –> Luhuo and Chanayétte districts.)

-

I am interested in what you think about the flag and if you have ideas for improvements. Also I am not very sure wheter I should remove the text line on the Gobras City flag or not. What do you think?

Regards,

Bstn

Location: Myliakon, Myliakon-Monor (Ward 34), Gobras City, Capital, Gobrassanya

Hello Community!

I’ve been working on my capital Pyingshum for nearly as long as a year. I think it’s time to go over the project in a bit more detail, and get some overall feedback and comments.

1. History

The history on the wiki article is quite wordy and yet not very detailed regarding the development of the cityscape. So, here is a sketch of ~when each area was (for the most part) developed.

http://imgur.com/mtAXTZ3

Of course the city already had some low density suburbs outside the motorway circle before the 1950’s, but the parts inside of it were mostly developed by then (apart from the blue social housing zones). Also I think I drew the “1950’s” line to close to the centre, just think about it as if the inner city had been more or less developed until the 50’s, then the circular motorway was built and the outer suburbs were forming ;)

2. Suburbs

Of course a city so big often leads to growth in close towns nearby, and most of them now are just another suburb in the big city. Inside of the inner city there are 5 former separate town centres, that now became just another local shopping/entertainment centre. These places were growing maybe as early as the medieval ages, and fused with Pyingshum before the dawn of the 20th century.

Further out there are another 5 local centres; I imagine that they might have existed parallel to the large city and might even have developed independently throughout the times of industrialisation. With the rise of the automobile they then were knit even tighter together with their big neighbour, until at some point the suburbs just merged. Now they are mostly densely built up side-cores, that also serve as little transportation and local supply hubs.

http://imgur.com/QHiUWaY

3. Residential

… See full entry

Location: [Daimond-sparcle]-Pang, Daiamondoshi-Pang, Dosyaeng-Dengshō, Pyingshum-sur, Pyingshum-iki, Kojo
Posted by joschi81 on 27 January 2016 in English. Last updated on 28 January 2016.

Hello fellow mappers,

a few months ago I posted a question here: What is the best mapping strategy when you (unfortunately or luckily?) have selected a territory that requires more than a lifetime to fill it up with a satisfying level of detail? Starting in one or several points (e.g. cities) and draw up to a high level of detail within a few selected places? Or the “other way round”, very sytematically start from a very low zoom level resp. level of detail (rivers, lakes, railways, motorways, main roads, forests resp. mountain ranges) for the whole territoy and then become more detailed step by step?

Well, the general response was: Do it as you like! But the way I did it way unsatisfying for me: Drawing one city in a high level of detail, getting tired of it before it is finished, stepping over to another one, then, in between, trying to fill up some regions with the general features in a nice way… Nothing seemed to be finished.

Now, I have found a good way (for me): Drawing a certain region with even more than just the general features , so that it looks nice up to zoom level 12 approximately. Then, randomly, draw certain places up to a high level of detail. Thus, when browsing my part of the map, you will discover some places with interesting details and some regions with (hopefully nice) general featueres. I’m doing this righ now for my region of Kelmtal-Borgenland.

So, if you wish, have a look at the randomly chosen and (quite) detailed place I have drawn today - Altenwildbad - and then zoom out a bit and have a look at the general layout of the region.

Happy mapping!

joschi81

Location: Altenwildbad, Kelmtal-Borgenland, Kalm
Posted by Thunderbird on 27 January 2016 in English.

Hello everyone,

I’ve been working on a new toll road north of my capital city. It is a turnpike style road, with limited access and toll booths at each end as well as at each exit ramp. I mapped the southern toll plaza here:

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=19/-29.01496/38.04180

It has 6 booths in each direction as well as service ramps for the workers. That was my first attempt at it. Could people give me some feedback as to what I did wrong or if this needs to be improved?

Thanks!

-Thunderbird

Would anyone be interested in making Seisyll (AN132) a collaborative nation? It seems to have already have been somewhat developed. I don’t 100% recognize the language, some looks like Spanish, other parts look like Gaelic?? Considering the fact it’s quite developed in some areas already, it seems like a good place to claim and make collaborative, perhaps with the end goal of being able to fill in some more world history/ international political field? Some parts of the southern area look more developed, and the southernmost province is labeled as a “Provincial Republic”, possibility for internal conflict or political division? I thought it could be a good place to encourage new projects considering some areas are already set up to become better mapped cities and there seems to be a potential for a political history.

If we were, perhaps it would have been “discovered” by a similar colonization trip as the Ingerish mission to Freedemia and Narghana? I just want to see about potential, ideas from other mappers and if admins would approve if there’s enough demand. And if so any ideas for the nation itself? a link to the map is attached below.

http://www.opengeofiction.net/#map=8/-27.980/5.153

Posted by Portopolis on 26 January 2016 in English.

If possible could we get an official count? It seems that every country including mine has a Khaiwoonese diaspora and I think we might eventually need to explain why the Khaiwoonese diaspora is most likely many times larger than the actual population. Is Khaiwoon like Ireland/ England in having very large worldwide diasporas due to movement of people outside of Khaiwoon. Maybe when Khaiwoon was the focal point of trading in this hemisphere many people moved from Khaiwoon too other places.’I can reduce my diaspora but currently my numbers are 50,000 in Hoppon mostly due to Proximity and a similar vague SE Asian culture. 700,000 in Lallemand, this is entirely due to Lallemand being extremely close by and centuries of Khaiwoonese traders getting goods from Lallemand as only Gobrassanya and maybe 1 or 2 other nations are closer to Khaiwoon. Most of the Khaiwoonese here are of mixed heritage and similar to the African Americans were the average AA is 20% European or Japanese Brazilians that have a completely different culture or Japanese Americans were at least 50% of the population is marrying out. Any thoughts? I plan on reducing the population for Lallemand so their should be under half a million Khaiwoonese when I am done. But what about the other dozen natiosn with Khaiwoonese Diasporas how many are they? Do they number more than Khaiwoon? Is there a possible way we could incorporate them into Khaiwoon’s history? Because Khaiwoon is the most or one of the most advanced countries map wise and history wise many nations look to Khaiwoon and so the Khaiwoonese diaspora is worldwide.