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

100 to 146 different sort of birds live in the towns in Europa, Amerika, Asia and Australia. But so many only, if there are grass, shrubs and trees among the stones. To have this diversity, it is necessary, that parks have 10 ha (1/10 km²) or more and that for genetic health there are helpful junctions between the parks as trees along the street or trees on a strip in the middle of the street or avenue. (means Bernhard Kegel in his book “Tiere in der Stadt”/animals in the town)

I won’t take up a lot of room here, but I have posted a technical discussion of JOSM, osmconvert, and “polygon format files” at the wiki:

http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/User:Luciano/Sandbox/Help:Polygon_files

Happy mapping.

Since I had the day off for the Lunar New Year holiday (Year of the Monkey), I decided to complete the creation of Commonia’s 1st level political divisions. Commonia now has 75 “constituent regions” - I conceptualize the country as having a kind of “assymetric federalism” in the style of the Russian Federation.

Since the main map doesn’t update often at low zooms, I made one of my “polygon overlay maps” so people can take a look:

http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/User:Luciano/Sandbox/Polygons/CO-adminlevel4

Since Commonia is a “blue” territory open to all, none of these choices are written in stone. If you don’t like something, you are free to change it. However, please don’t change things “just because” - try to have a well-thought-out reason, or some interest in the territory in question.

Hopefully these relations can be maintained despite newbies working the territory - everyone is invited to help out if you notice something amiss.

I made up almost none of the names. I would surf across the map and choose names from towns or other mapped objects placed by various users, and apply them to the regions. The borders in many areas are completely made up, however - and in several areas I added some major rivers to give some shape and reason territories.

Only in a few areas did I find substantial “legacy” boundaries to work with, but in those cases, I tried very hard to respect them.

Only in some blank areas did I make up names. I tried to give the country a wide cultural diversity. To commemorate the start of the “Year of the Monkey” I named a fairly empty southwestern state “Annosimia” - Latin for “Year of the Monkey.”

Happy mapping!

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

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?

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

Hi, friends!

*There is a thing I can not include in a specific article I am writing currently, but I know it is possible.

I want include more lines inside a column, the righest one, as I do using Paint in the image below:

*Other thing I need understand is, how can I define the lenght of a column.

In wiki article to Cariocas league, I would like the images I uploaded are 100%.

Can someone help me in these questions??

What do i do when a road reaches another country? Do i just leave it or do i build a Border Custom and make it go like 1/10th of a Kiloliter over the border and just stop? Do I ask the other Countrys Owner what to do, and if so what if its unclaimed?

Hello everyone,

We need some countries who would like to participate in the 1942 OGFIFA World Cup. Click [http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/Talk:OGFIFA_World_Cup#Countries_needed_for_1942_edition here] for more information.

Greetings Niels20020

Can geofiction cure cancer? Probably not. But it makes surviving it more enjoyable, maybe.

Two years ago, on this day (Jan 31), I joined Opengeofiction. I had just finished a major cancer treatment a few months before. In surviving my cancer, I am thankful to five main groups of people:

• 1. My friends and family, in their many different countries - for supporting me emotionally
• 1. My colleagues, coworkers and my generous boss - for making it possible for me to undergo treatment without losing my job
• 1. The amazingly efficient Korean healthcare system and the kind doctors and staff at the National Cancer Center - world-class care, and cheap, too
• 1. My students - for keeping me intellectually and socially engaged and demonstrating the promise of humanity
• 1. OGF - for providing an escape from dull hours and discomfort, with its endless distraction in imaginary places

I’m posting this here because of number 5.

In June, 2013, I had been diagnosed with stage three cancer. I had undergone major surgery, a month-long hospitalization, and two months of radiation treatments. I was weak, I had lost 40 kg, and my chances of survival were still only 50%. I had returned to work only part-time, and was unable to be as mobile or as active as I had been before - I didn’t have the same stamina to go hiking every weekend. I had a lot of chronic pain and a lot of time to kill. I needed a new hobby.

OGF rescued me. In my teenage years I spent my time drawing many, many maps, all on paper, of imaginary cities, countries and planets. All sorts of worlds, from fantasy to sci fi to “parallel Earth” styles. I decided to try to “recover” one of these old maps in this new, digital environment.

… See full entry

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

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

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

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

Would a country like to play a friendly match against Mariana this or next week? The match will be played in Estadio Sant-Genis on a later determined date.

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.

Lately, I have seen a lot of people worrying about coastline edits “not showing up on the map.”

Both the “admin” account and my personal account see a few messages every day, lately, asking “where are my coastline edits!?”

So rather than trying to keep answering those messages, I will post a reminder here.

The “render” - the program that makes what you edit show up on the map - is divided into parts. The “coastline render” is a separate part from other parts. As a result, if you make an edit involving the coastline - for example, you build a new little seaside town, on some new islands - the result can be temporarily strange, if the main render and the coastline render run at different times. You will see your new island town, but sitting in the water, because the coastline hasn’t rendered yet.

Recently, the coastline render has been very slow. This is due to the large amount of work the coastline program has to do, and admin’s efforts to make the best use of limited server resources. As a result, the coastline update can take a long time - even several days. Once I waited a week for a coastline edit to show up on the main map.

Also, it can look strange, because each “zoom level” of the map might render at a different time. So you might see your new island at zoom 15, but not at zoom 14, etc., for a while. And it makes our continental “floods” (when someone breaks the coastline) weird (only flooded at some zoom levels, for example) and harder to fix (because the coastline render is delayed, so a “flood” might be the result of some mistake someone made many days ago).

All of this is nobody’s fault - it’s just the situation with the server, right now.

Please be patient.

… See full entry

Hey you guys,

I was planning on expanding the wikipage of the Drull Free State, a page that was partially written by Luciano and partially by me. The Drull Free State is a community territory, but I am trying to create its background story.

The Drull Free State is going to be a third world country (there seem to be very few of those in OGF), that is still struggling with its colonial past en its post-colonial consequences. Two thirds of the country’s population descent from the slaves that were brought to the country during colonial times. Although slavery is a touchy subject, to say the least, I think it will give the OGF-world a more realistic feel. It would also provide “my country” (Forrintia) with some shady parts for its history, and thus would make its history more interesting.

So I have a couple of questions: 1. Do you guys think that we can write about detailed (fictional-OGF) slavery on the wiki (keeping in mind the sensitivities of former real world slavery), or would that be inappropriate?

1. If we can write about this, were would the slaves come from? I guess the easiest thing would be from other community territories, like commonia. (side-question: Do the Dagenlanden still exist? East-Commonia, has dagelandic as its language, which is dutch, the same as my language in Forrintia. So I see possibilities there).

2. Would everybody be okay with me writing about the Drulli people being from other community territories?

3. Can I use one of your countries as one of the sources of the Drulli people (I know that most of you wouldn’t like that, but it would create opportunities for interesting creool languages and historic ties with other countries )? Or maybe as a source of contract laborers after the abolition of slavery, like like India in the 19th century.