OpenGeofiction
I’ve started a new country, not so far from my original country of Wiwaxia. It’s called Østermark. It will be fairly Scandinavian in flavor, although I want to make it much poorer than current Scandinavia - maybe more like the Scandinavia of 100 years ago, with few resources other than fishing and forestry (lumber and paper). It will have a fairly small population of just under 4 million, with only one major city, one minor city and two very large towns.
I’m trying to make it much more realistic than Wiwaxia, starting with the geography and then building cities and towns, rather than the other way round as I mostly did with Wiwaxia. The country is small but with a lot of coast as it’s an island. Since the southern coast has some very big bays and large barrier islands, I want to make it very rugged with tons of small islands and islets. So it’s going to be arduous. And the interior will have a mountain chain running from Northwest to approximately the center, with lots of little lakes and streams, plus seven sizeable rivers that make their way down to the coast.
Unlike most people here, I use Potlatch instead of JOSM. Which I know, I know, is not recommended. I won’t go into why I use it. But I am trying to use it in a better way than I did with Wiwaxia. Starting with the coasts and maritime boundaries, which I’ve created tagging relations in a smarter way. But I realize in creating them and removing the boundary tag from the coasts, I’ve somehow affected how the country name is rendered - or actually the problem is that it’s not rendered - on the big map. What have I done wrong? I suspect it’s because the boundaries I’ve created are not a closed loop, but actually four different ways (the land boundary with Nucia, two different maritime boundaries with Nucia, and the maritime boundary that’s not shared with any other country). Do I need to connect them? But will that screw up how Nucia is rendered and turn it into Østermark?
I’m also contemplating when to start putting things on the wiki, since the map is so underdeveloped still. It’s going to take weeks to get the coasts all done the way I want them, but I guess I can still get my rivers and lakes and streams and forests and woods and marshes in place and start with my roads while I continue to, bit by bit, get the coastline the way I want it.
Discussion
Comment from Leowezy on 6 July 2015 at 18:45
Hey Demuth, all the best for your new country :) I think it’s a really good idea to work more “from the top to the bottom”; I’ve noticed that in Wiwaxia for example, your level of detail is really great, but one still notices the sharp edges in your coastline which appears to have been “refurbished” after many cities were already built along them, etc. I’m currently trying to avoid the same mistake with my coastal cities. As for the wiki, I think that depends on how your creativity works. If many basic concepts and ideas are going to change during your “initial mapping phase”, perhaps it’s better to wait a while. I usually find that for me, that while actually writing the wiki entries, the cities or history or whatever I’m writing about develops, and I end up writing down more than I’ve anticipated.
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to watching as you develop your new country, and btw, I think your next edit is going to be your 2000’st xD Cheers
Comment from Demuth on 6 July 2015 at 19:34
Thanks Leowezy! You have some really great detail yourself, the buildings in Ginjin Onagara and Pamyung Pang in Pyingshum are amazing, among many other great features.
As for me, other than Wiwaxmouthe which I started on almost immediately before anything else, I actually did adjust the coasts with lots of little dips and curves early on before building the cities, but very superficially, as you noticed. I think the worst is my rivers - they’re not wide enough and the mouths are pathetic. And while my cities are very American style, mostly built on a strict north-south and east-west axis, my suburbs are strange and mostly not at all realistic. But I’ll continue to try to improve… I think other than the city proper of Wiwaxmouthe, the best area is up around Kojo, my Cape County, where I’ve put in lots of country roads, and down by the Pasundan-Padjadjaran border. It does take time to get things looking good though! And I like building the cities best, my natural features take much more work, more hit and miss and redoing things to get them to look right.
P.s. After I wrote about waiting on the wiki, I went ahead and put up a first country page for Østermark after all. I think you may be right about the writing helping me create a more realistic country.
Comment from Easky30 on 10 July 2015 at 12:17
It’s always nice to have another neighbor. I have a similar idea for the Auland Islands off the coast of Orinoco to be rugged and isolated with lots of woodland and small fishing communities perhaps they could share a similar ancestry with Østermark.
Comment from Demuth on 10 July 2015 at 12:24
Thanks Easky, sounds very interesting to have your Auland Islands with a connection to Østermark! Or rather, a connection to Scandmark, the origin of the Østermarkers. If you want any suggestions for “Skandisk” names, just ask! And we should build a shipping or ferry line connecting Orinoco and Østermark.
Comment from UnSoiDisantOracle on 12 July 2015 at 19:32
Great coast so far! how do you get so intricate in JOSM? I always have a hard time with the scale, plus you can’t zoom out so far.. happy to watch it develop!
Comment from Demuth on 13 July 2015 at 06:33
Thanks dono87! Actually, I don’t use JOSM, I use the abhorred Potlatch - and you can’t zoom out far there either, so you can’t see the big picture to do the actual editing. But the coasts don’t require the big picture so much (unlike big forests, which were very hit or miss.) I’m still not satisfied with how the coasts look and I want to put more small islands in the big bay and reshape the bigger ones much more irregularly and so that they more accurately reflect a current that runs west to east, with more islands in the northwest of the bay (based on the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia as a kind of model). Mostly it just takes time.
Comment from isleño on 24 July 2015 at 16:47
Name “Østermark” should display now.
The level of detail you’re creating is really awesome! Can’t wait to see how it develops.
isleño
Comment from Demuth on 24 July 2015 at 19:22
Thanks Isleño! I’m still screwing things up a bit though. Had a flooding problem (thank god it only flooded my island, not all of Uletha) but got it fixed, but now have a small bit of the coast near one of my rivers that is funky - the tagging looks correct but the line looks sightly thinner than the rest of the coast in edit mode, and the changes aren’t rendering. Sigh. Always something. Anyway, thanks again for fixing the bigger issue!
Comment from isleño on 24 July 2015 at 21:01
I did notice some overlapping/duplicate coastline ways, so you may want to check for that. If you like I can take a look over the weekend.
Nice currency too, btw!
Comment from Demuth on 25 July 2015 at 06:21
Thanks, I’d appreciate that. It’s just to the east of the big marshy delta. And thanks for the compliment on the currency, it’s thanks to your very helpful tutorial ;-)