OpenGeofiction
Hello folks! I just happened to realized I created my OGF account 1 year ago today, the time has just flown by.
Below is Patriot City after one year of work. This is a city inspired by Philadelphia and its surrounding area.
I’m working on filling in the entire city before I move on to its suburbs and the rural areas of Jefferson. I do have a lot planned for that. I have not done much work on the wiki yet, I plan to do a lot more in the future.
Demographically, the wealth in the city is concentrated to the south and east, with some exceptions.
Recently I’ve been working on the south side of the city. This is an area along the river, a few miles south of Center City. It is very “old money.”
By contrast, the large north side area is lower middle class, consisting mostly of densely packed single family homes, low density apartment complexes, and a few trailer parks.
Center city was the first area I mapped. I hadn’t used JOSM for very long and as a result, it is not some of my best work. Some day I might decide to redo it, since it is the focal point of the city. But that would take a lot of work.
I’m most proud of how the areas around the perimeter of the city have turned out, for the most part inspired by 1950s suburban development in the US.
Lots of work is being done, much more planned, stay tuned! And thanks for taking the time to read my post.
-Thunderbird
Discussion
Comment from kingfries on 1 November 2016 at 22:55
I already looked around Patriot City and I gotta say I’m both in Awe and Shock by this work. Really does look like an authentic modern American City and (excuse my language) : Holy F… it took you only 1 year to design all this?? Patriot City really deserves an Honoration and should be in the top 10 of OGF cities IMO. Great Work and Keep it up!
Comment from UN1TY on 2 November 2016 at 09:47
Good work, Thunderbird! I especially like the attention to detail on your highways - smooth curves without chamfers. The interchange of Intercounty 6 and 21 is a unique configuration, yet it does remind me of older East Coast parkway interchanges.
Comment from tparigo on 2 November 2016 at 10:25
A nice american city. I am looking forward to see the rest of the country !
Comment from niels20020 on 2 November 2016 at 10:43
I’ve looked at Patriot City multiple times earlier and I have to say it’s an amazing city! I’m curious about what the rest of the country will bring. Continue the good work!
Comment from PColumbus73 on 2 November 2016 at 12:50
That’s a very impressive city. I have a question about the scale, how do you build a city/town/road/airport/etc. to a logical scale, and do it consistently? Obviously every city is different, but one of the challenges I had/have is building an area where city blocks aren’t 1/4 mile across and freeway interchanges that are either miles across or could only accommodate go-karts.
Comment from Easky30 on 2 November 2016 at 18:25
I really admire your discipline by only staying within Patriot City. Every detail looks nice and uniform. I have a bad habit of jumping around from place to place without completing anything. I’m looking forward to watching the city grow
Comment from Thunderbird on 3 November 2016 at 01:33
Thank you for all the positive feedback!
@kingfries Yes, I’ve had a lot of free time this year to map for medical reasons so Patriot City has grown very rapidly :)
@UN1TY Ah, one of my first attempts at a large interchange. I think it came out OK, but you’re right, not as smooth looking as some other interchanges and rather “interesting” ramp routing.
@PColumbus73 Do you use JOSM? The method I use is look at a real world area on OSM, look at the size of the content I want to map, and then use the measurement tools built into JOSM to map at the correct scale. I’ve found the parallel way tool (Shift+P) extremely useful.
@Easky30 I don’t know why I can’t seem to build in another spot, it’s rather obsessive-compulsive of me. I just can’t begin mapping somewhere else without finishing the area I began. But thank you for the nice compliment!
Comment from No Way on 4 November 2016 at 22:15
Impressive work. I haven’t gotten down to the detail of illustrating residential areas in grey with the exception of some apartment complexes and trailer parks. It is uncanny on how many the street names you have used are some of the same I have used. I have even used Combine for a street name as well.
Comment from Thunderbird on 5 November 2016 at 16:08
@No Way: That’s crazy! I always find new names by either looking on OSM for interesting sounding names or coming up with nouns that would sound like a plausible name for a street. I’m sure if we are both getting inspiration from real world places like the US and Canada, we are bound to have some of the same names. This exists in real life as well.
When you try to give each street in a 100 sq. mi city its own name, you can easily go through thousands of names!
Where is your country if I could take a look?
Comment from Mikelatham on 6 November 2016 at 16:37
your city is Impressive and it inspires me to build a new city
Comment from Thunderbird on 7 November 2016 at 02:44
@Mikelatham Thank you. I see you’ve made an urbanized tribute to Connecticut up there in northern Tarephia.
Comment from No Way on 7 November 2016 at 19:53
I have mainly been mapping the pseduo state of Reagan in Northern Commonia.