OpenGeofiction
Hello folks!
This is my first diary item since I’ve started a few months ago and since I was quiet lately, this seemed like a good thing to start off with.
About 2 months ago – after I’d been playing with some functions and mapping patterns first, I started working on my first real big city: Trevers.
Trevers will be the state capital of Verona, and will also be the second largest city in Paroy. It will be home for over 2 million inhabitants, with a metro area of around 6 million.
The city has many faces, as it is the first city founded by the Ingerish in Paroy, but at the same time is the large lively economic hub with a big focus on tourism and also industry.
The military base in the northwest (Fort Mantess) may seem a little odd in an urban area, but is – together with the Port Melwick harbor, one of the colonial pieces that still remain in the modern city.
It’s not finished at all, only the structures in the city center are there yet. Some parts of the city are already quiet detailed and there are also some random subway lines and a part of a tram network, but it will all expand itself in the coming weeks. At least the “downtown” part of the city looks like a city now and I’m quite proud to share it with you now. The rest of the suburbs are still nodes on the map. These will be built in the coming time.
If you want to take a look, it’s right here –> http://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-16.9524/27.7573
Please let me know what you guys think of it, if you’ve got any suggestions for additions or changes, so I can take the advice in the further construction of Trevers.
Discussion
Comment from histor on 23 December 2015 at 22:52
Looks good your city. I like your metro-net and tram-net with 2 tracks drawn. And disused rails and a well constructed railway-station.
May I suggest some “peanuts”? Can you avoid the level crossings at South Lattimore metro-station? And can you lay the railway at Greeley more straight? And the Ansy river at Natal Springs will here seek the bed for his water (because it is the short way to the sea) and will not flow with the most if its water around the town. Think at ebb and flood.
I will see with pleasure, how your city has grown more in some time.
Comment from Sarepava on 24 December 2015 at 02:24
Histor is right about the Ansy - it would not take such a long path to water, especially if the bay is deep enough to be a port, and if the cut to the city harbour is man-made, the rest would have dried up by now. There are also some odd meanders further up the river around Emison which don’t look natural.
Everything else looks neat and mostly logical. The abandoned station and the track layouts are nice touches.
The metro really ought to serve the main station, as ought the trams. Unless the taxi drivers have a very powerful political lobby, these would be obvious means of onwards transit to the city centre and probably the first lines to get built (the main line south via Crystal City would not be able to achieve metro capacity due to the junctions with other heavy rail lines, and has only one city-centre stop). The station really needs a pickup area for the taxi rank and passengers arriving by car too (I’m assuming by the number of platforms this station handles around 200-300 trains per day).
Any reason why the railway goes straight through Monument Hills? Hills and a protected area are pretty high up the list of things to go around when planning a railway, not least because the populated areas the train could serve are either side of it. There is a case for the metro between Mecator and Triangle Plaza being closed or diverted to Melwick station as it’s doubled by the tram, but actually this arrangement exists in several real-world cities (see Canning Town to Stratford in London, where the Jubilee Line and DLR branch run side-by-side for about five miles) so keep it. A railway spur to the port is highly advisable too. That’s a very tight curve radius north from Travers-Piermont you’ve built.
Careful about naming streets after French cities. France is a fictitious country based on Beudry and Ataraxia that only exists on the internet. And naming a suburb Outlook invites me to assume there’s a fast bus through here called Outlook Express…?
Comment from isleño on 24 December 2015 at 16:27
I like it a lot!
Comment from PortCal on 24 December 2015 at 18:09
Thanks for the feedback, your countries look amazing as well! Love Khaiwoon and Latina! Often use them as reference on how to deal with certain situations.
@histor:
Very good point about the river seeking the shortest route to the sea, actually slipped my mind and it looked all good in my imagination, but I will fix this in the coming days when I find the time for it. Thanks!
The level crossings are actually the idea I got from the Chicago “L”, since this will be an old part of the city all the lines will be elevated, and such complex crossings are seen there too. I will look for a solution if I can find a better one, there are more stations that can be improved.
@Sarepava:
Indeed the river looks a bit weird, but it was drawn as a first sketch and to find some things out, and eventually it will be more detailed when I start working on Emison and the rest of the country. I looked for some examples of rivers in the world and found some meanders that are actually a lot like these, especially if the landscape is very flat.
The subway system is not ready and is currently only “drafted” in the more finished suburbs. That’s why it is not approaching Unity Station yet, and this part was finished not long ago. Since there is not much above Unity Market, it is hard to figure out where to draw the lines. The lines that are already there are just to mark my ideas, so I have an idea about what it could look like. It just gives me an overview with planning since I’m working on multiple subjects at the same time. It will all be more streamlined in the future.
The railway through Monument Hills is a mistake indeed and will soon run through Rockwood to connect with Irvington.
The tramway next to the subway line is indeed a part that is also seen in London with the DLR, but also in my hometown Amsterdam, where a tram actually drives over a subway rail. The tramway is also for making interchanges for passengers on the subway, so they can drive further in to the older suburbs.
The port that is currently there, is not in use as a port anymore. It is the old port that was used around 1800. In those times, there used to be a railway running from Port Melwick to the former Unity Market Station via Melwick and Weston, which were the only places back then: a port, the western suburbs and a market. Part of this railway is the abandoned railway seen above Weston Low Street.
That also explains the tight curve at Piermont Station, because this was built in very early times as an alternative when the old line closed. It is only served by small local trains, can be compared to light rail (may be also be light rail in the future) and is closed for national and international service.
The French cities is a good point indeed, read the rules a few days ago and found out that it’s not desirable, so I will change that to city names from my neighbor Beaudry and Ataraxia.
Outlook is used in more cities as a suburb and simply points to the look it has over the bay and the south side of the city, so it’s looking out on the water. An Outlook Express is probably not included, since Crystal City and Outlook will have new modern buses and a subway that are not, well… outdated ;-) I will certainly work on some things and thanks for the feedback!
Comment from Sarepava on 24 December 2015 at 19:13
I think my joke was lost in translation here - Outlook and Outlook Express are Microsoft email programs…
Comment from Thunderbird on 25 December 2015 at 00:20
Beautiful city! The harbor and inlets look realistic. The railroad also is was very nicely done, the railyard is great. It’ll be nice to see what the suburbs turn out to look like!