OpenGeofiction
Hiya!
I want to prosper my city by adding bus routes, particularly around the city centre to start with. Does anyone have any tips for keeping track of all of these routes so that I don’t get them mixed up with each other and can quickly view all the routes?
Thanks
Hello there. Hope the OGF community is doing well.
I appreciate the responses so far for the last challenge. I hope more people will jump in, especially for this challenge, which is particularly interesting.
I have successfully added a few bus routes in Bakdep, but beyond developing the core area, I have not been able to develop other bus routes beyond the core. However, once more areas have been developed, I will create more.
Initially, for this month, I wanted to do Urban Periphery: The transition zone between inner-city areas and the surrounding countryside, as the one who suggested the challenge (Thilo) commented that it is something that “I’ve seen rarely done well in OGF.” However, I feel that will be putting the cart before the horse, so I decided to switch to this challenge on contours.
Contour mapping is not that complicated; you just need at least some basic JOSM skills. A good guide explaining contour mapping can be found here. You can also look at the cycle map in OSM for inspiration.
I encourage you all to do some basic contour mapping around the city or town you are developing at the moment. If you are advanced enough, you can try a mountain range through your country.
For this challenge, I am going to map a few hills around Bakdep and Phong Thinh. Currently, these hills are mere patches of forests, but these will be developed soon enough.
It may take some time to see the results (NOTE: DO NOT upload your contours directly to the database!), so I encourage you all to be patient. If you are more organised, you can do contours in degree squares, like what some experts on this did.
Hello!
As you may have seen, a few weeks ago, I requested submissions from you lot for some changes to Bromley City while I go on a mission to fix some active person’s horrific mapping. I can tell you, fixing all of this has definitely improved my mapping from mapping in squares to mapping in interesting shapes and angles. My country is based off of the UK with very loose ties to Australia and the USA terrainwise.
Take into account that Bromley City is still major WIP and therefore there will still be some horrific mapping which is due to change soon. Some of those that are still present include the following:
-Tight corners and weird shapes of railways -Extremely close proximity of residential roads -Blocks of roads and overly straight roads -Wide distance between major roads such as the A1, A2 and other motorways -Drastic change between urban and rural -Change to roads in Battersea
I think that should cover all the things that are still on the to-do list, it’s a very hard job so please bear with!
The things that I have managed to tick off of the list include:
-Changing place names from various different languages to a specific Bromlavian Ingerlish & Ingerish -Major changes to motorways which were too present and now have mostly become A-roads and trunk roads -Dual carriageways in city centre have been removed due to this not being realistic -Naming boroughs/districts -Change to angles and shapes of roads to represent a British style place instead of American -Road names to suit a British style instead of American -Drastic change of road layout in Princer View -Resize of stadium -Resize of West City Park Estate
So,
Yes… I kinda gave myself an overwhelming project on my end in Mecnya to build a city that is probably not on a realistic scale what so ever, but that’s okay… (Not really)… And of course trying to base it off of the area that I live in, in real life of course to the lack of major highways but smaller roads acting as main through ways for traffic to move in and out of depending on the desired flow.
If you don’t care about the rambling, I started the “Munsterhann Project” in mid-June and now going into early July, and it was supposed to be just a small town along the ‘Transversal’ (T) route in central/Northern Mecnya, supposedly a few blocks and one highway junction. Fast forward to today and now I have two suburbs with just arterial roads (Lviv, and Northside) and an unfinished skeleton of roads that is the rest of the city of Munsterhann. On a side note I did start zoning in residential spaces and city services and office buildings, but it is in a zone of about 3x12 (3 blocks by 12 blocks) in a space that compared to a map is probably the size of Charleston, West Virginia in regards to the sprawl of the city’s area in general.
I also gave myself the task to basically build a semi-unnecessary highway for the sake of the suburbs that doesn’t even effect Munsterhann in the slightest although what can be argued as a 5 mile stretch of this route (T-2) is called “Munsterhann East” as it really should be called “Lviv East” followed by an equally short stretch of highway called “Northside Lviv Freeway” which just caters to Northside. So in hindsight… I would really like some help on finishing off Munsterhann and the zones that is Lviv and Northside before I continue to the west where the large but empty space that I was originally going to call “Emsward” or something sits…
Hi again!
I am now going ahead with the redevelopment of Sky Point. This consists of: -Filling all the empty plots north of Sky Point -Expanding the Sky Point Monorail -Filling up Sky Point itself -Sinking the Sky Point Highway so it does not disturb the development -Creation of new living neighborhoods
However, I would like to get some help, mostly in two things. First, the sinking of the highway, mostly because I don’t have JOSM and it will be much easier for an user who does. Second, filling up SkyPoint. I just suck at drawing roller coasters and stuff. I’ve tried.
If anyone wants to help in any other matter, you are welcome to do so!
Regards, -Puebla.
Today I celebrate 5 years on OGF. My OGF “journey” has been a very odd one. I started out in Commonia as a newbie, where I created my first city, Hybrid Springs, which was terrible. I then claimed the country of Zanyizzix (current UL18b, none of my old mapping remains). It was awful and possibly one of the worst countries in the history of this site, incoherent with its neighbors and with absolutely awful mapping. If any former neighbors of me in Zanyizzix are reading this, I’m sorry. I was literally a child then and didn’t really know any better.
Due to me going on many 3 month hiatuses from OGF, I thankfully lost Zanyizzix, but came back to OGF just a few days before the opening of the FSA and requested the state of Tulpanen (AR120-59). Originally, I mapped terribly in the northern part of Tulpanen. I later would go on to almost lose Tulpanen due to another OGF hiatus, only to return again a better mapper.
My first year of mapping Tulpanen, I didn’t actually do much. I did a lot of work in Commonia instead. Terrible choice, I know. I built terrible, out of scale cities with way too many motorways. I reverted edits rightfully deleting motorways. Later on, I would realize the error of the ways, but the pendulum swung just as hard in the opposite direction, leading to me doing sometimes overaggressive Communion cleanups. Eventually I learned to just stay out of Commonia, sometime in mid-2019.
I traded in Tulpanen for my current state, Fellshire, as well as the area around Lacanier, Ardencia in early April of this year. I’ll take this as an opportunity to share my latest work, the city of Otisport, Fellshire, inspired by Portland, Maine.
I don’t even have a concrete reason for writing this post, just thought I’d share.
What was the motivation for expanding Rhododactylia and was this discussed? Personally I think it’s getting a bit too big, but if that’s what everyone else mapping the country wants, I can adjust.
Hi, what was formerly Commonia has been divided into a few territories to try and get some language consistency. This is ahead of a dedicated English language blue territory as part of the Federal States.
The territory map has been updated. Click on the blue territories to see the theme and language. But the translations were largely on automatic translate results…
So, please check that map, if you know the languages and the icons are wrong - let us know here!
Hello everyone!
I hope you are all doing well. I’ve been planning and re-planning my Ulethan country a lot during this quarantine, but I think I’ve finally found a plan that can stick and serve as a launchpad for the final plan of this nation. I was inspired by this image to plan out my country’s topography, since it plays a significant role in the development of cities, the course of rivers, and a bunch of other things. So, I got to work. I will be the first to admit that I am not the most skilled digital artist, so the sketch I have provided is something I am quite proud of.
The light blue close to the lakes signifies a “sea level” elevation, the adjacent color references 0-100 m in height, the color next to THAT references 100-500m, and every color afterward references its own set of 500m-elevation intervals.
Here is the legend (it’s too big to display on this diary entry so I just linked it lol).
This is one of the hoped-for benefits of my historical mapping approach. I do a screenshot every now and then using the exact same window size and coordinates, and make it into a gif. This gif covers the years 1880-1896. As time passes, it will get longer and more interesting.
Hi everyone, I don’t know if you’ve seen Luciano’s great diary entry about his exposition in Ohunkagan, an evolving/historic city in Makaska, FSA, but I mentioned in the comments that I’ve figured out how to edit the way OGF looks to represent a Dark Mode. here’s the image of Ohunkagan using this dark mode. It’s a very wild idea as it acts like a new layer (like histor’s but dark) but it’s easy to set up and try on your own computer.
Before I tell you how to do this, here are some examples of what I mean by Dark Mode. Dark Mode is a reference to the way OGF and other sites look when the normal white background of websites are turned to black. A lot of the time, this can help at night when we don’t want to look at bright screens, or with people who see white text better than black text. I say white text because, to accommodate the black background, everything else is either color-flipped or altered to look lighter and create better contrast. I’ve talked to OGF members and other friends about whether if this is helpful or disgusting to look at–most say disgusting–but I think it’s an interesting sight. Anyway, here’s some photos:
5 pics of standard layer dark mode 5 pics of Ohunkagan in topomap dark mode 5 pics of Ohunkagan in histor layer dark mode
In my opinion, these photos look incredible, especially in TopoMap dark mode. Now, here’s how to do it yourself. Firstly, get Google Chrome browser. Secondly, press the three dots in the top-right corner, hover over More Tools, and click on Extensions. Once in Extensions, click on the three bars in the top-left corner and then Open Chrome Web Store. Once there, search up ‘Dark Reader’ and add it to Chrome. There might be more configuration to do, but this extension will turn virtually any website into Dark Mode through CSS, HSL, and Dynamic color inversion. In other words, this will turn OGF dark for free!
As part of my historical mapping of Makaska, I have been working on the Ohunkagan 1895 Exposition & World’s Fair. The concept is somewhat modeled on Chicago 1893 or St Louis 1904. Think of it as a turn-of-the-last-century temporary theme park.
The Exposition grounds are mapped on the shores of “Lake Great and Unnamed” (and when will we ever name it?), east of downtown Ohunkagan. The city raced to complete the beginnings of its new elevated electric train network in time for the fair, with two stations accommodating visitors and directly linking to downtown. The grounds also feature a temporary train terminal where VIPs and special excursions from around the FSA can park their charter trains, and an intramural ferry and streetcar for getting around the park.
Here is a map link: https://opengeofiction.net/relation/175412
I have two things for the OGF community.
First - feedback? What’s missing? What do you recommend? Remember this is for the year 1895. The theme is “developing our frontier” and features lots of exhibits on industry, resource extraction (with a focus on Makaska’s primary industries: coal, lumber, wheat, buffalo/cattle, iron ore). What would you like to see me add?
Second - if you own or coordinate a state or country (which is most of us!), which existed in 1895 (maybe not everybody!), then you need an exhibit at the Exposition. The FSA “state exhibits” are in the red circle area in the screenshot below. The international “country exhibits” are in the yellow circle area. You may take over an existing building labelled as “State Exhibit” or “Country Exhibit”, or you may create a new one in an empty spot in those circled areas. No permission needed, just do it. I’m trusting you all to behave yourselves, and I don’t want to be swamped with messages. Worst case, I’ll delete your edits as inappropriate.
My new focus is shifted to Lindenville in Rhododactylia, I made sure there wasn’t a certain culture we had to follow because I saw Asian themed the last area, I also wanted to make sure this was a editable territory to everyone, as I don’t own territories or wish to own one (at least for now). I have a feeling I am doing too many cities since I work on one and abandon the rest, so it would be great if anyone can add to those, and Lindenville.
I am going to do the main roads and highways prior to working on residential areas and roads, and buildings. I also started adding more suburbs as motorways are becoming developed in the area. It would be appreciated if you do help develop the suburbs and/or the city. I am going from motorways to tertiary roads before starting significant development of residential roads, same applies to the suburbs. I am also planning an airport in Lindenville, location will be determined.
I’m starting to develop the main port facilities for my country that will deal with international cargo and I’m wondering whether to add shipping routes to other countries.
As I’m sure you’re aware, OGF has an abundance of shipping/ferry routes (way more than OSM does). Are the lines between countries supposed to be for passenger ferries, like in OSM, or for both passenger and cargo? Because if they are exclusively passenger then I’m not sure why there are so many intercontinental ferry routes. My country is a small island nation so it would not have many long ferry routes, especially seeing as there is an airport instead.
I will continue to develop this area and city, and eventually its suburbs.
One of the biggest projects I ever started is the Great Commonia Highway, if you feel a section of this is impacting your area you can modify the path where it is impacting your project(s).
I am planning to start Garsenon area once Pipe Bay area is done. I am planning to make two malls throughout Pipe County, one in Pipe Bay and the other in suburb Pimall. I have recently turned New Commons Freeway from a trunk road to a motorway as I agreed that a motorway would fit for myself. The route is from Pipe Bay southeast to northern Port Blanton.
I am focusing on the city before its suburbs. This is one of two locations in the urban area where a mall will exist in, the other, again, is Pimall, a suburb of Pipe Bay. I will look for an area within the city limits that is large enough to work on my mall and supposedly surround the mall with residential areas and etc. Carlisle and Pesobrook are both suburbs of Pipe Bay, especially true for Carlisle in Duvar. Another suburb along with Yolkerville will be placed in neighhboring Minn-am-Gabots.
When I begin my focus here, in weeks to months, there will be 8-12 suburbs in 2 counties, with 2 of them in both counties.
It may take months for heavy focus and rapid development to occur in this area from just me, however it is recommended that you guys do add to it so I wouldn’t need to do much work to it after all.
Hi again!
I have already finished the construction of Gobras Sky Mall and started making the Sky Point Concert Hall in this plot.
I will then continue to develop all the empty plots north of Sky Point, as well as extending the Sky Point monorail to encompass all or most of these new developments.
If you have any ideas for the empty plots let me know, so I can build them.
So long!
Hi!
I was thinking of creating a giant mall here near the SkyPoint resort in Gobras City. Main inspiration is Sawgrass Mills near Miami. All I want to know before going on is if Gobras City is free to edit and if anyone else has any ideas to make around the SkyPoint resort.
Thanks for your time!
Hello if you’re reading this!
I’m still getting the grasp of this diary system, I don’t post much in here lol
So then…
I acquired my country, Former Unionist Colony of Bromley in early spring (?) and I wanted an island territory, however they were in demand so I decided to settle for a mainland territory.
The problem is, the country that I got was already mapped in by an inactive user. Therefore, there was a lot of mapping which I did not like:
-The names of the places -The road references -The town layouts -The drastic change between European styled and American styled towns -The landscape
I’ve been on a mission since this time to paint this country in the way that I want it, with it being inspired by a British layout.
Bromley City, the capital, has been a massive challenge. The city is on a peninsula so it’s quite awkward to draw but I prefer it in this place. The only thing I do not like is the road layout that was used. The layout is not creative AT ALL and is just blocks identical to each other. I didn’t mind it at first but now I’m working hard to redraw the entire city.
So why this entry? I’m looking for suggestions for my city, have a look at it (I’ll link it below) and let me know before I draw over it so I have no space to draw important buildings.
I’m wondering whether to widen the city because I think it might actually be too small.
I will also link the wiki article to my country so you can get some context.
Thank you!!!
After one and a half centuries of growth and prosperity the Great Eastern and Stanton Folkstone Railway headquartered in Stanton (Central Av.) had to declare bankruptcy this week.
Especially its very poor track conditions caused many extremely costly derailments.
To make matters worse several hundred kilometers of rails have been stolen during operation.
Hello there.
It has been a year and a half since the last challenge. I’m glad to announce the reinstatement of the Mappers’ Monthly Challenge. First off, I will like to thank Alessa and Luciano for letting me continue this series of challenges.
As of now, new challenges will be launched on every 15th of the month, but this may be subjected to change depending on my schedule. I will continue running the series for the time being.
As with past challenges, the challenges are not strictly obligatory. It is strongly recommended to use JOSM as your default mapping tool when attempting the challenges. Post what you have in the comments below; do not be afraid to provide feedback on submissions also.
This is a great place to learn and have fun. It is my hope that we get a chance to see all the good things that users are doing around OGF and new creative features on the map.
Alright, let’s jump into the challenge:
In OGF, I feel that we have, as a whole, neglected buses in favour of other modes of transportation like subways, rails and trams. Buses are often seen as outdated and less stylish than other rail transport. Besides just putting bus stops as decorations and having a few bus stations scattered around the city, it is a bit difficult to visualise bus routes on the map.
Actually, on the contrary, there is a public transport viewer to visibly see bus routes, such as this one in Gobras City. You can check the various bus routes and see how they are tagged on the map. To create bus route relations, you need to use transport route relations in JOSM.
So for this challenge, develop a basic bus network with the necessary infrastructure for your town/city. You can start a town from scratch and develop it, or use an existing town or city requiring a bus network.
