Some of you may remember my handle from years past; I was mapping the Island of Mallorjhe in southern TA for some time before life… you know, happens (births, deaths, new jobs, all that stuff.) Long story short I have been inactive for about a year and I see no real likelihood of my coming back any time soon, much as I would have it otherwise. Perhaps one day, but not soon.

As ways to waste time with a computer go, OGF is among the best. I’m sorry to leave it, though hopefully I leave it slightly more interesting than when I started? Thats all we can hope for I think. It was fun, it was difficult, and I will miss it. See you around someday, hopefully. Until then-

Good Luck and Happy Mapping, R.S.

Hello, there, I map the Free Kingdom of Sudharka (TA097b, in northern Tarephia). Because I took my inspiration mostly from the kingdom of Sarawak, in Borneo, I decided to make it an asian-like country, using what I think to be asian-like names. But I consider changing this location, and turn it either to a northern-Africa-like country, or to a south-american-like one. I would nonetheless ask there if anybody could tell me what this part of the continent is really supposed to look like. I didn’t find a lot of geographical information on the wiki, and, tough the latitude and longitude corresponds, if I remember well, to somewhere in southern Asia, OGF geography may differ from Earth’s.

I hope someone have information on this subject.

So, yesterday I successfully claimed territory AN150i. I am grateful to be able create a country.

So with that in mind, the city along the newly named Crystal Lake will be all but gutted for the purpose of rebuilding, as it will serve as the capital. For the most part, I did not like how the grid is. Connection to other cities will also be forthcoming for this purpose.

Another thing is to get the name of my country recognized on the OGF map, so I may need help on that department.

And last, but not least (for the time being), I am making the flag and coat of arms for the country.

Effective today, February 27, applications are being accepted for territories in South Archanta. This is one day sooner than initially expected.

See requirements at:

https://wiki.opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/OGF:Admin_regions#South_Archanta

Send request messages to admin, not to Luciano’s private inbox.

Happy mapping

Luciano - for OGF Admin team

Dear colleagues mappers,

I give you a few updates on my progress, and then I’ll ask you a very important question. With the city of Giliarca, I have now entered the final phase of the mapping. I have finished mapping the details of the northern area, and now I only have the southern suburbs, which will be mainly commercial and industrial.

Now, then, I will finally write the Wiki page on Giliarca (which, incidentally, will also be an opportunity to explain the reasons for some particular aspects of the city, such as its particular location or its historic center, but we will talk about this on another occasion).

The final question I have to ask you is another: do you help me to quantify the population of Giliarca? (Consider that the area to be mapped will not be residential, so what you see now already allows you to do so).

That is: in your opinion, when you see the map of the city, what is the most realistic number of inhabitants to attribute to it? (the city, not the country) I will don’t tell you what I think about it, in order not to condition you: tell me your evaluations.

Hey mappers,

It’s not new that people tend to add lots of highways and unrealistically dense cities to blue countries, but it’s become very frustrating for me, and I think I’m not the only one.

Namely, more than a year ago, I started the initative to help Midistland become a more realistic country. Since East Uletha is supposed to resemble Europe and somewhat Asia, Midistland has become a country with mixed German and Spanish influences. Of course, it can’t be perfect, but with combined efforts, we can help it look at least decently realistic. Its capital city, Bend, is supposed to have a million - maximum 2 million inhabitants, and to somewhat resemble Amsterdam (because of its topography). It started out well, we had one outer ring road and one inner partial ring road, but now it looks like [this] (https://opengeofiction.net/#map=10/38.8206/98.5483).

Bend is now full of “freeways”, “parkways” and other unnecessary highways that don’t fit the infrastructure of a European-styled city.

Of course, it’s not an isolated case. There are many more - Breassau, Termápolis, Tengah.

They are not entirely unrealistic on their own - but they do not suit the topography, infrastructure or culture of a country like Midistland.

Unfortunately, many members give up on new countries because of this.

So, my message to all members who map in blue countries: first look where you are mapping, then decide what you are mapping. Some countries - like USA - have gave less mass transit and they need more highways. That’s not unrealistic. But that’s not for Midistland. That belongs in, for example, Federal States of Archanta.

Please, especially new members, have in mind where and why you’re mapping something. I am not the most experienced mapper - I still have a lot to learn - but this is something very important that I learned on OGF.

Do not take this as a form of shaming or call-out - this is just a sincere piece of advice.

Thanks for your attention, and happy mapping.

I am aware that the topic of Religion is rather controversial in OGF, but i was just wanting some thoughts on a potential Vatican-esque site most likely in Western Uletha, or a OGF Holy land, where rivalling cultures collide.

I don’t know if this is a glitch or if someone is making a plot of area with water in it, but please correct it. I have checked my river just to make sure it was not me, and there should not be a problem. Please fix it soon.

Thanks.

I need a change of scenery, as I’ve been mapping literally house to house in Thoole for the past week and it’s getting dreary. I plan to take an island in Commonia and map it to the best of my ability.

For this cartographical ‘holiday’ I choose Lauguar Island because it is a sizeable, defined chunk landmass that is relatively unmapped. I’ve done a large scale sketch of the area here.

I see it as your run of the mill, Commonian island. A very agrarian tropical island, medium living standards, ruled by a National-Bolshevist milita with links to West Commonia, with a small AN observation base in the south. I’m a bit in the dark about language, however, as I am reluctant to map in English for this case but…what other options are there?

Before I begin, does anybody have any advice or objections, or would like to rip me to shreds for attempting to map well in Commonia?

Happy mapping!

Yuanls

Finally, the admin team will be able to handle territory claims again soon. However, we made two decisions about the assignment process.

First, we decided not to work through the backlog of messages received during the recent months, but ask everyone to submit their application again. We will however try to give precedence to older claims as much as possible, using the received messages for verification.

Second, we divided the OGF planet into several regions, each being administered by a different team member. These regions will have different rules, and also might not start accepting territory claims before early March.

Before submitting any territory claim, please read the detailed descriptions about the new assignment process and the different regions.

So, I am currently mapping the area of Babelictown (OGF version of Chinatown) in Xenica. This has required me to move some buildings and start over in a new section of town.

The main architectural component of Babelictown (an area settled in the 1950s-60s by Babelic immigrants from Commonia, possibly Meilanese ones too) is the shophouses. These are somewhat inspired by the row house architecture in Malaysia and Singapore, and indeed when I’ve been mapping this, I’ve been using Singapore’s Chinatown as my base. If you want to imagine what these would look like, they have a narrow front, and usually two floors, with the first floor being a business, and the second floor being a living area (however, many of these in Xenica are no longer inhabited).

So, building row houses requires long rectangular built-up blocks. However, I feel that I have not got the dimensions quite right, or that it is not straight enough / parallel to the road. How would I fix this?

[zoom in to Level 19 to see the architecture]

I am making a city with only french road names i found a cool place to get English or french road names if anyone needs road names

I am also an OSM mapper and I think I am not the only one. As such I use JOSM for both OGF and OSM. I wanted two separate environments for JOSM. I created a script and some instructions to do just that. They are available on Github. Feedback very welcome, I am sure there are other good ways to do this.

Hello everyone,

We have a new (unofficial) channel on the OSM-US Slack for OGF. To join you have to register at https://slack.openstreetmap.us and join the #opengeofiction channel. The Slack is called OSM-US but people from everywhere are welcome, so feel free to join!

Hi all,

This is my first diary post, but it’s more like a question.. I would have posted it on the forum, but I can’t figure out how to log into that. It seems to be connected to a wiki account which I do not have either and am unsure how to get.

In the OSM world I use a tool called ‘whodidit’ which shows you recent edits for an area in a useful and clear grid cell representation. You can even generate an RSS feed so you can set up something to notify you when someone edits in an area easily.

I didn’t find a version of this tool for OGF. Technically it would be easy enough to install but I don’t know if the endpoints required are available in the OGF world. Specifically whodidit queries https://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/changeset/ and https://planet.openstreetmap.org/replication/hour. Does OGF mimic this aspect of OSM infrastructure, allowing tools like this to be adapted to work in the OGF world?

I’ve been working on The Premises in Mecyna for a few months, but I’ve felt that the name feels too unnatural, so I need ideas on the city’s new name. I just deleted the name (although it might not have rendered yet).

Guidelines:

This city is VERY recent. It is a master-planned community constructed from the early to mid 1990s, and it flourished from a modern industry that was rooted there before the city was actually built. The Premises could possibly be the name of the city in the couple or so years before it really began to develop.

The area is very mountainous, and slightly chillier than the tropics of the lower ground, although it rarely snows. There is an area of flat land to the southwest (along route 193) that will consist of mostly farms.

It has few natural resources but is boosted by information technology and similar industries, and has several universities.

If anyone has ideas, please comment! i will appreciate the feedback! Megacity2005Creator

Im making a detailed new and future big city called Narf. The 1st thing I made is the Castle and the city hall. Can you help me with some ideas?

I’m finally back to this again, after me leaving and coming back to finish stuff in my territory.

Decided to take in more inspiration from my neighbors and real life. I have so far made enough highways for one time.

I want to ask for more help mapping like homes and farms and stuff.

I have looked for where to contribute in Opengeofiction, but I do not find anything relevant. Most of the spaces in the blue countries are occupied, countries can not be requested and I do not know what else to do. If someone has any suggestions for me where to edit, I accept their ideas.

Hi,

I got a small county to map in the Federal States of Archanta. Since I can’t write in the wiki and haven’t found any answers there I have to ask my questions here:

• are there common standards how to map motorways/trunk roads and railways, e.g. regarding the distance of lanes or tracks?

• I’d like to draw farms and farmland. What should be the typical size of a farm and farmland in this region?

• how to determine the width of rivers? I know the corresponding explanation in the wiki, but how to deal with rivers coming from/going to other states and don’t possess a reasonable width?

Enjoy your weekend