OpenGeofiction
Me and my friend alb120 joined 2 weeks and 2 days ago respectively. We made this country called Lallemand or (Lallemanya) South of Khaiwoon, north of Ilhas Carrocas, and east of Onnutu Islands and I hope you guys can check it out and give some constructive criticism. You guys are free to add things yourselves on the Southern Islands where my capital Avewood is located. We are both American HS students and the only experience I have in mapping is of mostly simple hand drawn maps of imaginary cities. I however went to Texas State Geography Bee earlier this year. I am from Nigeria and my sentence structure may seem way off as Nigerian Pidgin English mixed with British English was my first language. For example before I moved here I always thought that the word “heard” was pronounced differently from the word “herd” and even today I still say “He-arrd” instead of “Herd” like it is 2 syllables. http://opengeofiction.net/#map=17/13.99531/95.65984 Zoom Out
Discussion
Comment from Sarepava on 16 November 2014 at 00:56
Comment from BMSOUZA on 16 November 2014 at 03:50
Portopolis! Welcome to OGF and to my neighbourhood, I am the “builder” of Cariocas Islands, just south of your country Lallemand.
I was seeing about your islands a month ago, looking for a second territory to me, but I chose the country south of Latina (Gran Luslandia), so I could opine about your country.
In islands this size, like Lallemand or Cariocas, I agree Sarepava, about the size of the cities. Do not create a very very big city. The aglomeration you did is a good size, but you will need to “justify” so many inhabitants, creating some farms to provide food, and industrial areas to provide jobs. A city like HongKong, like Sarepava said, I think is not the case, because Khaiwoon is so close to…
Create some medium cities and towns in other points of the main island, to connect to Avewood by motorways. May be one in center of the island… and some towns close to west coast…
Did you create a 50km bridge? it is not too long??
Why a motorway so close the coastal line? Close to coastal line you could build some touristic cities, with beaches… is nice a touristic city with a motorway, running trucks and buses, so close the coast???
In Cariocas, I like to fill all the surface with meadow, grass, residential and industrial areas… the different “types of green” (meadow, scrub, wood) is like a topografic graph… So you can mark some peak in your lands…
Create some stadium, some museum, anything like this. Do you like soccer? Basketball? Create a sportground. One in each city…
If you need some help, contact me. I can help yout with some edits in Avewood, if you want…
Regards! Bruno
Comment from Portopolis on 16 November 2014 at 05:53
Thanks For the Ideas I was going to build several small islands in The northern part of my country filled with Farms kind of like Polders in the Netherlands. The Rest of my country is going to be mostly mountainous except the Coast Avewood and the surrounding suburbs will be one of the few flat areas. My country is going to have a lot of raw resources to export and use from the mountains also a lot of offshore oil to use and export. The 50km Road Was supposed to link my 2 main islands. It is supposed to be similar to the Florida Keys Highway or the New Orleans Highway. I use Motorways as 2 by 2 lane highways and up to 5 by 5 lane highways in cities. My country is supposed to be culturally 4 major groups of Ingerish, Lower Island Natives and Upper Island Natives and an immigrant group from a nearby country. My country will be kind of one city dominant and have a couple small cities similar to Beaumont, TX or Lafayette,LA in Population but very highly dense due to my country being very mountainous besides Avewood. I guess my one city dominant is based on Nigeria and Nigerian culture from 30-40 years ago where everyone was a small time farmer and had chickens and pigs in their backyards in a high density area and growed small orange, palm nut and other fruit trees. Avewood is going to be like Victoria Island Lagos an island of development in an undeveloped area/country some of my other cities are going to have small areas of heavy development then a bunch of unnamed residential/dirt roads surrounding this area of development. I guess I used a lot of my past in Nigeria to base my country on from Oil to Lagos and extreme diversity between ethnic groups.
Comment from BMSOUZA on 16 November 2014 at 06:50
Its nice, you create Lallemand like your motherland Nigeria… I am buiding Cariocas like the brazilians cities, because I am brazilian, hehehe. The only “bad thing” is, I supose the admins do not permit to create a lot of islands… You need to ask Admin.
In my opinion, Avewood is big enough. Think about this imense urban area… you mentioned industrial areas in the mountains, to export minerals, I supose… May be, the metropolitan area of Avewood reaches Port of Polis, if you want a very dense population in Lallemand. Avewood is going to be bigger than Lagos! It is not so good.
If you permit, I can make some edits in Avewood, making it more realistic. The Airport, coast line, the motorways…
Send me a message if you want.
Regards! Bruno
Comment from isleño on 16 November 2014 at 08:16
I have to applaud you guys for two things. First, I think it’s really smart that you’ve picked a small country. It’s great to see newcomers who focus on a small area, practice their skills and try to make it the best they can, rather than trying to fill up vast expanses of land straight out of the gate. And second, I think it’s really good that you’re asking for feedback; it shows that you want to learn and improve.
Here are three tips for making things more realistic and more interesting:
For maximum realism, build your features in the order they were built in real life. For example, in real life, motorways were not built before mountains. Build (1) mountains first, then (2) rivers/streams flowing down from the mountains, then (3) cities/towns located near the rivers/streams, then (4) transportation to efficiently connect the cities/towns, while avoiding the mountains, etc. See http://opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/OGF:Making_realistic_countries for a “before and after” example.
If you want to create a good looking map, take your time. Don’t try to finish quickly or fill in large areas at once. With everything you draw, take time to think it over, look at real life examples, and craft it carefully. For example, make sure your ferry route is smooth and keeps a safe distance from shore, like a ferry route on a real map. Make sure every motorway funded by your taxpayers is an efficient and cost-effective connection between population centers. Make sure your old city captures the intricate details of a real old city, full of irregular patterns and odd angles and lots of dead ends. Make sure your coastlines imitate the graceful shapes of real life coasts, not just long straight lines with sharp corners. These details all take time, but they are worth it.
To me, these islands would be much more interesting if they expressed more of a Nigerian flavor. I didn’t know there was any African connection, because almost all the names (“Lallemand,” “Avewood,” etc.) sound European to me. When I look at a map of Nigeria, most of the place names are African names, and these beautiful African names make it feel like Africa. As far as I know, our OGF world still has no African style countries. It would be wonderful to see a country here with a real African flavor, expressed throughout its place names. Such a country would be a truly unique and valuable addition to this world.
Anyway have fun! Hope this helps,
isleño
Comment from alb120 on 16 November 2014 at 19:48
Hello, I am alb120, Portopolis’ friend who will be working on the Northern Island of Lallemand. I am grateful for all the advice that has been given to us so far. Clearly the community here is active and very friendly. I will be working on The People’s Republic of Lallemand, a break away province from Lallemand. I have been working on 3 cities so far(Republic City, Novograd, and Port Arenas) and have been wondering if the blocks and building are up to scale. It has been slightly difficult to tell for myself, because I have been working on the cities building by building, and have yet to find another similar setup on the map. If anyone could comment on the size of the buildings, it would be appreciated.
Thank you, alb120.
My most detailed city so far is Port Arenas,located here: http://opengeofiction.net/#map=18/14.92263/96.37511