Recently, I have realized that many OSM features are ignored by the standard map layer. For example, Offices and Pipelines show up in JOSM, but they are completely invisible on openstreetmap.org itself. This makes sense in OSM because these features are insignificant, and most people don’t want to see them.

However, OGF is a different case. It doesn’t have “insignificant” features. Every node, line, and area is intentionally placed by the map creator, for aesthetics and realism.

Perhaps we should edit the Mapnik rendering rules in order to allow more features to be displayed? (A quick Google search makes it sound like it wouldn’t be too hard of a task, but I haven’t done it myself, so I apologize if I am wrong.)

Particularly, it would be nice if features like Offices were displayed, since they can make up a large portion of city buildings.

Like clockwork, on July first, the monsoon began here in the Korean Peninsula. It has rained for two days straight.

Regarding the June challenge: I didn’t do great, but I will consider that I did the best I could. You can read my updates at my “bliki.”

I’d love to see results of other people’s work on this challenge - post a comment, a diary entry, or get creative in the wiki to show your progress.

Luciano’s Mapper’s Challenge #4 - July, 2016 - LET’S DO SOMETHING BLUE

This challenge is based on a suggestion from Ūdilugbulgidħū.

Some of our “blue,” free-to-map, community territories are doing pretty well. Gobrassanya is an excellent example. On the other hand, many of the “blue” territories are depressingly messed up.

It would be great to see some focused effort on the part of LOTS OF COMPETENT USERS to add something to a community territory, or to help clean up badly conceived objects or “newbie-messes.” This can take many forms. Some suggestions:

• adding some new administrative division, town or neighborhood
• cleaning up some specific feature across a broader area (rivers, roads, railroads, admin divisions, natural landcovers, etc.)
• setting up wiki articles or wiki Talk: pages to help the community more easily collaborate on community territories - the Gobras City collaboration page is an excellent example of a “blue” territory collaboration page.

The mapper’s challenge:

• Easy - spend 25% of your July OGF time in somewhere “blue”
• Medium - spend 50% of your July OGF time in somewhere “blue”
• Hard - spend 100% of your July OGF time in somewhere “blue”

… See full entry

I have been experimenting with an extension to the wiki for about a month now, and I’m ready to present some results.

This extension makes it possible to show tabular information in the wiki which is sourced DIRECTLY from the OGF database. If you set things up correctly, you don’t ever have to maintain a seperate wiki table of objects in the OGF database - you can add objects on the map, “enroll” them in the correct collection, then they will simply “appear” in the table in the wiki.

If you set up the “collection” relation (discussed HERE), and copy the manner of enrolling locations in the collection, with appropriate tags on the locations, you can list locations of any business, organization or agency you want.

It’s quite complicated, and not really for beginners. However, if you’re feeling brave, I welcome people to try it out. I present Ardisphere’s international discount retailing chain Martímart as a working example, HERE.

You can open the wiki page for edit and study the wikicode. You can download a few of the Martímart locations and study them. Please try not to break anything - just look at how it’s put together, but don’t edit them until you’re sure you understand. But then you can copy the way it is all set up and make your own.

One note: for it to work properly, no tags included in the table list are optional - thus in the Martímart example, in order for my “ldata:note” to work and show up in the table, I have to provide a value for each tag for each location. Hence “¡Discuentos impossibles!” as a note at each location.

Oh, and by the way… If you want to add Martímart locations to your country, PLEASE DO - NO PERMISSION NEEDED. Let’s see if we can watch the chain grow without ever having to edit the wiki.

Happy mapping.

Hi! I’ve been working recently on countryside surrounding the city of Laski. I’d like to see your opinion on what I’ve done there, even if it’s still not ready (got nearly half of the area, Jeżyki and Laski don’t have all of their roads still). Is it alright? After i finish putting all the borders, roads and terrain stuff (forests/fields/grasslands) I’m planning to get some details into these cities, at the moment only marked buildings are a church in Graniczki, and in Laski some 80’s/90’s-style blocks of flats and market of the (made-up) “Brutto” brand (a small reference to real world French market brand “Netto”). What is your opinion? I’m looking forward to change some things if i made them wrong.

In the wiki it says that most realistic cities are made by making topography first. I tried mapping the city of Waltburg that way. I am quite satisfied with how I did it, although I’m not sure if the scale is good.

I’d like to hear your suggestions and advices.

Regards

Cleared entry.

In case if anyone’s interested, I have found a tool (based on Wikipedia), that would let you create a parliament/party diagram online - just like one would do in creating a flag online.

If this have been share before, I apologize.

I just thought I share this with the OGF community for anyone wanting to do government/political input in their countries.

Here’s the link: Parliament Diagram Tool.

Hope it helps,

Cheers.

JBStad1

I don’t currently have reliable access to a computer at the moment, so this is more of a plan than a project at the moment. But one of the next plans I have for Quentinsburgh (and eventually Fort Elwood and Fort Franklin as well) is to try and improve Arthur Read Military Base and other military bases in Freedemia. While it’s obviously a pacifist country, I still imagine it having a small, yet advanced military, primarily for defense if needed.

The main base, Arthur Read Military Base, is here: http://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/-3.3857/-2.3645

I plan to eliminate the runway and make it attached to a special taxiway like many airport-side bases in real life.

As it started off as an air force base, and since its next to the airport, my plan is greatly inspired by this small base in Charlotte, North Carolina.

My biggest problem right now is the fact that unlike that base picture, my bases all have streets running through them. I suppose I can elevate private minor streets over the major streets and gate off the major entrances, but any ideas would be helpful.

Other bases I want to fix up:

Fort Elwood, the naval force headquarters and the one with perhaps the most potential: http://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-3.0080/-2.4681

Fort Franklin Military Base (I plan to make a bypass on SR-979 along the north side of the base, maybe make some public access points/gated entrances to many of the private roads): http://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-3.5115/-2.2155

I’m still working on Sean Bond International Airport, so Arthur Read Military Base is the first place I want to start.

The Wiki on the Gann Republic Road Network and numbering can be found:

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

I am not spammer, but I woul like to share here one link about some “different” places. Wpuld be possible edit something like these pictures in OGF?? hehehe

The sixth picture I consider so much interesting, and maybe I will try something like that to show relief in some area of my countries.

The seventh is interesting too, but I dont see a way to create “underwater allotments” in OGF, hehehe

The 18th is interesting to me too, but I dont have the intention to do something like this in OGF.

Best regards to all!

Bruno Moreira

Do you think a blog for articles we all can contribute in could be a good idea? I think articles like “The 10 best cities on OGF” don’t have a place in the World News blog but we would like to have them.

Could you please translate Vinnmark to your countries’ languages? http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/List_of_country_names_in_various_languages

So I’ve noticed mappers in Rhododactylia have been using real world store/company names as opposed to fictitious equivalents. The rules don’t clearly address this, and maybe they should. My rationale in favor of fictitious store/company names has two main points:

1. Legal (trademark) issues. Walmart (for example) has to protect their trademark from all sources of possible infringement. Yes, it would be a real jerk move for them to bother a hobbyist project such as OpenGeoFiction, but the trademark lawyers do not see it that way.
2. Creativity. I am fine with having a conglomerate, national/multinational retailer with a presence in many countries. However, the very least we can do is call it something that doesn’t exist in the real world. Re-using real world company names is, at least to me, incredibly bland. I can see there being the occasional overlap between, say, city names in the real world and OGF, but there are myriad other names to select for stores/companies.

Thoughts?

昌袅山脉将禾本一分为二，形成东部盆地，盆地内为禾本主要经济、人口的所在地，盆地外的内陆西部则较为落后，属于欠发达水平。 虽然西部经济落后，但穿越这些山脉，可以感受到不同人土风情，综合起来利大于弊。

Durante estos días he estado trabajando en Puerto Elisabeth, la capital de Pohenicia, y me gustaria publicarlo por aquí para recibir algo de crítica constructiva de la comunidad de OGF.

Entre los cambios que he hecho se encuentra la Plaza Castellana, donde he ubicado la estacion central de ferrocarril de la ciudad, la Estación de Sta. Mónica.

Originalmente estaba inspirada en la Gare Montparnasse (París, Francia), pero finalmente encaminé su creación hacia una estación estilo Atocha (Madrid, España).

El complejo cuenta con dos estaciones: una mayor, destinada al ferrocaril y con conexión con el LAV y metro; y otra más pequeña, destinada al tranvía de la ciudad.

Aún no he desarrollado mucho su historia, pero como inicio marcaría su construcción hacia los años 40 o 50.

¿Que os parece? ¿Alguna propuesta/sugerencia de mejora?

Intro

Hi, everyone. As you probably know by now, Quentinsburgh, Freedemia will be hosting the 2016 Summer Geolympiad . I’ve sort of been unofficially put in charge of the event since I’m hosting, and I wanted to kind of get a figure of different countries and different sports.

However, unlike simpler ones like the OGFIFA World Cup and the International Foosball World Cup, there are a LOT of different events that need to be considered, and some will likely have more demand than others. Some countries will be passionate about some events and not about others.

Hence, this form.

So, to sort of simplify things, I made this Google FORM that it would be very helpful for everyone with a country that will be participating to fill out. It simply asks the name of your country, sports your country would be interested in, any top 3 sports you want to do well in (BESIDES SOCCER, there’s way too much demand for that and we aren’t opening that can of worms again XD), and your OGF username so that I know what username is associated with what country.

So, here’s the FORM! Please fill it out, it should only take 5-7 minutes or so.

I ask that each user fill out an entry for each country that’s participating. For example, I’ll be filling it out once for Freedemia and once for Woolonia.

If any the admins would like me to share the “responses” part of the form with them, I will gladly do so! Any constructive criticism would help a lot.

Your fellow mapper, Ernestpcosby

Hi mappers,

For my may mappers challenge, i decided to detail central Troie. Mapping speaking, i am still in may. Here

I focused on the old city and a northern/central district and some parks.

I wanted this city to have

*a complex geography and topography. I didn’t want to make a “flat city” with a linear coast.

*a not rationnal city and not perfect city,

*a rich historical and cultural background. I hope a part of the city history can be read on the map.

As a port, Troie has many foreigners communities. So if you want to open a consulate and/or a cultural center in Troie, just contact me. If you want to include a community from your country in the history of Troie, contact me, we’ll define a neighborhood and some historical background.

Happy mapping !

I haven’t had time to edit my country and I’ve lost quite a lot of traction. I would like to have some feedback (as harsh as it needs to be) in order to improve the situation the territory is in. I will accept any comment, including the ones about erasing city zones or whole cities.

Thank you in advance!

Link to the area: http://opengeofiction.net/#map=9/18.9427/31.7010

Hey guys, I am starting to think I am going to have to bite the bullet for this one and have the Pretanic Faction State uprising spread throughout all of Pretany, mutinize the Pretanic military sometime in the early 1940’s and execute the royal family and crown, and then start a massive invasion of neighboring countries. it would be A sweep of a new Rusk Empire that takes over Suria, Galicia, Estensia, and threatens Kalm and Garlis but due to the Egyt Mountains makes it difficult to complete a full scale invasion. Rusk Empire theb become a major threat to Tircambry, Wesmandy, and use ground forces to invade large sections of Mazan and Sathria, as far south as Castellan. The Naval threat extends far into the northern countries through the Great Rift Sound, and then becomes the catalyst for creating the Mid-Pretanic Canal to invade Much of Kalm and possibly the rest of Sathria during a later date through the Barsas River. This eventually puts countries in the southern hemisphere at risk with control of the Sathrian Navy.

… See full entry

This diary entry started as comment on Yuanls’s recent Commonia diary entry, but I decided to give it its own diary spot, to see what kind of comments it attracts. I think the conversation on that diary entry is very productive and valuable, but I wanted to approach the issues raised there in a slightly different way.

The point of entry for this discussion is: how can we better support new users in a way that leads to higher-quality mapping and less inadvertent vandalism? Just this morning, I had to send admin messages to two new users who clearly did not understand where it is OK to start mapping.

Anyway, I think the thing we need to remember is that not all new users are the same. Some have a vision clear in their minds, and the blank spaces in Commonia are what they need - a place to try to realize their vision. With time, they can learn the tools and do a great job creating a new place out of whole cloth, while a place like Gobrassanya feels restrictive. Other new mappers, however, clearly prefer or need a more detailed framework.

When I arrived at OGF, the blue territories existed but there was no waiting period for a new territory. Thus my first mapping was in my first territory. If forced to, I would have contribued first not to Gobrassanya but in trying to build a completely new town in a “blank” place such as Commonia.

I have frequently thought that returning to a “no waiting period” system might actually work out better. The reason the waiting period was adopted was because it was a lot of work for for admin to assign territories to users who by and large would map a few motorways-to-nowhere and then promptly disappear. But… if we could develop an automated system for assigning free territories… OK, I’m just daydreaming. But I’d like to encourage thinking “out of the box” about what I think of as the “newbie problem.”

… See full entry