Hi, everyone. If you recall I asked a while back for some feedback on Freedemia and its progress, and major planned changes. I thought since everyone was so kind to give advice it seemed fitting to give a progress reports of sorts.

Christian Parkway is no more

One thing that had been mentioned was the clash between grid and contour in my street “grid”. A lot of that won’t be fully resolved until I go through and start fixing roads and neighborhoods (which as listed below is on my shortlist of long-term projects), but I did see one road that was a big part of the problem- Christian Parkway. The obnoxious freeway-like road going due north south through the city was not only an eye sore, but not cohesive with the rest of the city’s street grid, and a major part of the problem.

After some advice from Portopolis, I broke the roadway up into much smaller streets where needed, deleted parts, downgraded it to secondary at most from a trunk road, and left the metro mostly the same so that the roadway would still sort of exist but not appear to go against the grid so strongly. The area still needs work, but it already looks way better. http://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-3.3472/-2.4417 It also opened up a lot of opportunities to rethink development in the large “center” of the city.

I’ve been working on the railroad…

All puns and music references aside, one of the main feedback pieces I got was that my railway system is greatly flawed, something that I definitely agree with. It was one of the first things I mapped (a lot of it was even mapped haphazardly on a tablet shudders) and it looks as bad as one might expect. Partially inspired by Myrcia’s recent overhaul of some of the area railways, I decided that while I try to get JOSM fully operational (still giving me some issues getting it to upload stuff) I would go ahead and slowly start working on the railways.

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Is anyone else having trouble loading the Potlatch 2 editor?

I actually was planning on writing a user diary about this- I’ve run into one big issue recently looking at scale and proportion with my cities- while my scale for buildings, exits, etc has actually been somewhat accurate, I actually severely overestimated how big I was drawing my cities on the map. I think I may have forgotten that I was looking at a scale in kilometers instead of miles.

The Idea…

The northwestern coast of Freedemia is supposed to be home to most of the nation’s population. I imagine it as a pretty big megalopolis of sorts, an endless band of metropolis from Ciudad Nature over the border down to the southernmost tip of the Quentinsburgh area.

The area @Portopolis pointed out in a user diary entry a couple days back on urban divisions between Haroldsborough and Fort Elwood is a place I hope to fill in with a very dense “suburb” of sorts, probably an extention of Fort Elwood (I’m thinking maybe a city by the name of Southfort). I’m still filling in density in Haroldsborough, Fort Elwood, and Laneston/Vandover (as well as in Quentinsburgh/Mathersboro) so it may be a while before that comes to fruition. Now, as to @Thunderbird’s point in the comments, It would have to be far more dense than the Jersey side of the shore (I was thinking more like the denser parts of the Brooklyn/Queens side). I do imagine the northwestern Freedemian Coast as a megalopolis, hopefully in some ways including Ciudad Nature of the Autonomous Province of Nature just over the border.

The Problem…

Looking now, Quentinsburgh, a city that is supposed to have a population approaching 5 million, is smaller in size than somewhat sprawled but smalltownish Raleigh, NC, a city with only about 400,000 people. In order to make that work, I’d need an IMMENSE amount of density, probably more than Manhattan, way too much even for my global modern metropolis-megalopolis idea to work well.

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I suppose this is less of a tangible map or wiki issue and more one of practicality. I recently have been spending some time on and off working on Fort Elwood Military base in Freedemia (see here). So far it’s going good, though progress has been slow.

However, I’ve come to face one predicament.

Multiple exits, same street, different destinations…?

As you’ll see on the map, the Freedemia Military Center (aka Fort Elwood) is largely connected by two main roads, Military Parkway (a trunk road through the base and back up to Fort Elwood (city) ) and the Elwood Arthur Jacobs Memorial Expressway, a sort of mini-freeway that connects the M-113, M-13, and the U-4 to the base while also connecting within the base.

However, Military Parkway does a lot of bobbing and weaving, often over or under the Elwood Arthur Jacobs Memorial Expressway. This in itself is fine. It is actually a great thing. It’s a major road and the only real efficient through route in and through the base. Every exit to the highway from the Elwood Arthur Jacobs Memorial Expressway is very important, as each serves a different part of the base, or in the case of the northernmost Military Pkwy exit, areas just off base. Each exit serves a different purpose and is integral for access and traffic flow.

But this leaves me with an odd situation- I have 3 almost back to back exits all labeled Military Parkway. In fact, all of the exits closest to and on base repeat due to the EAJ Mem. Expressway’s loopy shape…

To list out the exits:

*Harris Blvd (hasn’t been mapped yet)

*Unionway 4

*Military Parkway

*Military Parkway

*Naval Parkway

*Naval Parkway

*Military Parkway

*Unionway 4

*Harris Blvd (hasn’t been mapped yet)

*West Blvd, etc (no problems beyond this point)

I’d imagine that without a better system here this would be amazingly confusing for drivers, and I don’t know how to fix this problem. Any ideas?

Hey, everyone! I’m pretty sure by now most if not all of you have heard of QUARTA, Quentinsburgh, Freedemia’s transit system. You may have also noticed that most of my pictures were handdrawn with the exception of some awesome renderings that Sarepava helped me with a while back.

But, I just took some time to try and make a better bus illustration. Using my amazing editing skills XD (JK, I’m actually pretty terrible at it but hey, for Google Drawings and auto-shapes I think I did a pretty good job) I got the following picture. If any of you had ever wondered what a real QUARTA bus would look like in Downtown Quentinsburgh, here it is!!

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.

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

The final product is not complete, but I’ve finally gotten far enough with the hand drawn fold-out version of the QUARTA QLine Metro Map to post to the wiki page. I’m pleasantly surprised. It actually looks realistic, to me at least. It also includes (while it’s hard to see it) major bus lines, trolley lines, the QCommute system, and major parks and neighborhoods. You can sort of look at it and imagine what the full map would look like based on the overview map.

Just as a reminder, this is what it used to look like when I first posted about it:

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The IFWC has ended. Congratulations to Mariana and Castellán for getting 1st and 2nd respectively.

Most of these were ranked randomly, starting with randomized teaming, then randomly playing against each other. However, teams that had demonstrated a large amount of interest were a bit more likely to progress. I deliberately had Freedemia lose round two so others could progress.

Basically the championship would have been very close, and instead of the normal games where someone won by reaching 10, since you have to win by 2 the score would have been 17 to 15 because it was such a close game.

Most of you have probably heard of QUARTA, Quentinsburgh, Freedemia’s transit system.

One of the nicest things about my city in my opinion is the subway system, as I’ve managed to make a system that seems to make sense and works with the bus system and major corridors as well. I imagine the area to be very transit focused as Freedemia continues to move away from car travel in favor of transit. (slowly. But surely)

One of the hardest things though was the metro map. For the time being I was able to use Google Drawings to create a somewhat visually pleasing map that covers the entire system (just showing basic lines). I’m mostly satisfied with it too. Considering what I used and the lack of stations on the map, it looks pretty good for an overview map. I even made a night service version.

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I had mentioned before that I was struggling to figure out the Woolport subway system. I may have made a little progress.

Here’s the link to the OGF map of Woolport… http://www.opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-30.5957/32.9494

Using Google drawings and trying to trace the subway tracks, understanding the slight influence from New York City, I was able to come up with this:

I don’t think everything is accurate yet, but this is my first attempt. Does it look somewhat accurate to you guys?

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

As most of you (if not all of you) know, Quentinsburgh, Freedemia will be hosting the 2016 Summer Geolympiad/Pancontinental Games.

I had been extremely happy when I had won, knowing the work I’d put into the bid itself; however, there was one thing that kind of bothered me. Out of most of the major cities that I ran against, my venues actually looked worse than my competitors. Looking at the beautiful Olympic Park in Remiville or the venues in Gata, Yury and the skilled mapping of the venues in Old City, Neo Delta, I realized I needed to go back and work on fixing my venues, especially those in the Spectrum Geolympiad Complex.

So in the last few days, I did. I suppose with several venues deleted, improved or moved I’ll have to spend some time fixing the 2016 Summer Geolympiad wiki page. However, I just wanted to show some of the work I’ve done to make the area better.

Here’s an overview of the entire area near the complex:

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=13/-3.3588/-2.3629

And this is the complex itself closer up

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/-3.3554/-2.3513

A close up of the completely redesigned much nicer and more realistic Spectrum Geolympiad Stadium up close, with a view of new parking areas and some artwork of the logo in the front lawn (I worked hard on it! :) )

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/-3.3527/-2.3432

In addition to all that, I added a mall/hotel complex visible in the first link and second link where one of the older venues used to be to help with holding tourists (mainly the high level ones, an increase in motels and smaller hotels for other tourists is happening as well).

I hope to make all of the complex’s subway stations as good as the one for line 7 (and line 13, I need to edit that)

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/-3.3477/-2.3400

But I think it’s starting finally to look like a world class venue.

My state borders in Freedemia stopped rendering with the new map style at the level I had drawn them as; could someone help me make them render again? I can’t find all of them without being able t see all of them and I’m not sure what level is below country but high enough to render. I see most other nations didn’t have this issue. Could someone help me please? (It would also be awesome if someone could help me make state names render as well.) Thanks, Ernestpcosby

In a recent diary entry discussing the possibility of a World War, we started trying to develop ideas to create a more cohesive political/economical history. However when doing that the question came up about community territories. Udi had asked whether in something like the powerblocs being discussed whether blue community territories should stay unalligned or neutral.

In response to this, I looked at the OGF:Territories page to see which nations were blue to come up with my opinion. It was upon seeing it that I realized the nature of blue territories is HUGELY different from nation to nation. I noticed the chaotic nature of Commonia/West Commonia and the organized nature of developed nations like Mecyna, Gobbrassanya and Midistland, even if still under construction, are like day and night. Do you think perhaps Commonia and West Commonia should become the only two nations made for new mappers and the others to be considered more collaborative or to be categorized differently, perhaps as an admin-controlled collaborative nation? to 1) help create a more cohesive political and economical balance within the OGF world and 2) help protect the work and ideas in organized countries like Gobrassanya and Midistland? Commonia seems large enough in itself for new mappers to have plenty of space to use it as a sandbox. Not to mention, an increased density from more new mappers could actually help Commonia look more realistic, even if not very great (a giant somewhat dense anarchist nation even in real life probably wouldn’t look very nice anyhow :P)

What do you think, admin? (And other mappers?) It just seems like some of these blue territories have huge potential to be great admin-controlled community nations (Maybe red territories?) where the collaborative aspect is still there and it’s still open but the admin and community make the history and such work with the rest of the world.

I was just wondering, I know Freedemia is in an area that in general makes it extremely warm and humid, but could something like El Nino create an unusually cold season where temps dip into 30’s (F) or below 0 (C)? Comparing to other extremely humid places I had originally planned for minimum “winter” temperatures to be around 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I was thinking of (if scientifically feasible) making a strangely cold season this year due to El Nino. Is this actually feasible?

I was wondering, noticing the size of the world’s new continents-

Is the OGF world supposed to be bigger than Earth? Or the same size? It feels a tiny bit bigger to me, but now that I think about it these new continents are where the Americas are on real Earth so maybe it just seems bigger due to the number and shape?

For some reason an entire section of beach in Vandover just stopped rendering. It’s still there properly in the editor, but it wont show on the map. Other beaches around it work just fine. Any idea why?

http://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/-2.7951/-2.4772

In response to my last diary entry, I have successfully found a path for the Line 4 branch. To be called Line 12, it will run along line 4’s tracks from downtown Quentinsburgh out to the Eastbrown turn, then it continues straight into Northcross following the BRT route, and eventually merging with line 3 tracks in Northcross itself.

However, it may end up with a unique type of service. Line 12 is being considered as the first ever line that runs fully express from downtown to the branch off from line 4, then running local to the end.

Why? Well, Line 4 is one of the few lines with express service from downtown Quentinsburgh. However, on the section closest to downtown line 4 runs with line 2, both very busy lines running local. If line 12 was added running local, the local tracks would likely be overcrowded in downtown. By allowing line 12 to be express only within most of the urban area, line 4 gets more express service and line 12 doesn’t overcrowd.

This is the biggest change in the QUARTA system since the line 1-line 7 switch.

So far all of the redrawing of the subway lines and retail in Quentinsburgh is going smoothly, as are other projects around the metropolitan area.

As for the QUARTA metro (subway), so far I’ve been able to redraw the tracks for every single line except the eastern portion of Line 5, (as far as I realize) which may end up taking a slightly different route near the Geolympiad Complex anyway (possibly merging with the 4 for a Geolympiad complex station?). Platform work is still in progress. When all is said and done one will be able to tell what trains stop where including express just by looking at the map, and routes like 2 and 3 which originally ended short will have been fully extended.

(On a side note, I made several major freeways toll roads in Quentinsburgh, including most of U-7 within city limits, U-104 and U-204, and there are plans to make a branch of QLine route 4 to go into Northcross, which may become route 12 or route 4B, depending on exact route, and a modification of the BRT to go on Greendale Meadows Rd and Franklin Hill Rd. I will likely make a news article about these improvements soon.)

Retail is a larger project. I discovered that not only was my retail way too big with malls and such- since they were too big, there was still too little retail. I’ve fixed most of the larger malls (Huxtable Towne, Grand Sq, Freeman Sq, Freedemia Sq, Hinespoint, Matherspark Towne, Southtown, Stanley Shop Ctr, etc) except Northcross’ malls, Tortoise Hills Mall and Beaver Point Mall, but it’s going to take longer for me to be able to go in and fix the smaller strip malls, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, gas stations, etc, most of which are still too few and too big. Areas like Capital West/Christian in North Quentinsburgh, the areas around Huxtable Towne and Stanley Shop Ctr and now even Matherspark have seen immense improvement though.

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