Zeffy's Diary

Recent diary entries

Let's talk water

Posted by Zeffy on 24 October 2015 in English.

So I took a decent break from OGF to do other things… along the way I got employed, and as I come back home from work, I find myself gradually pulling back towards OGF and my country of HIltonia.

That being said… someone please explain the ins-and-outs of drawing good looking waterways. My waterways make sense geographically generally, but I can’t get them to look right, especially in terms of deltas and things like islands and patterns like the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I don’t know how to really “draw” them in JOSM so that they look natural. It seems like everyone around me knows how to do it right.. but I find myself still unable to do it no matter how many real world examples I use.

Thanks and it’s good to be back here!

Location: AN136c

I need honest criticism here

Posted by Zeffy on 21 March 2015 in English.

Okay, so on another forum that I frequent, there is a thread for OGF maps. I’ve posted mine here and there asking for advice. Unfortunately, it seems that everyone is telling me stuff I already knew - my mountains and rivers don’t make sense whatsoever. I for some reason, despite looking at countless maps, guides, whatever, cannot figure how to lay out geographic features to save my life. I’m a roads and highways guy, but I didn’t think I would be that bad. It’s partially the reason my country has sporadic updates.

So, I would like [brutally] honest criticism here, and any other advice to help me fix my country so it’s realistic. If need be, I would love if people drew natural features in Hiltonia so I didn’t have to, because they all suck anyway.

Here’s the link to my country… http://opengeofiction.net/#map=7/-34.814/21.281

Thanks guys.

Location: AN136b

Formal introduction with some questions

Posted by Zeffy on 18 December 2014 in English.

Hi everybody, I’m sure a few of you may have seen me or know me from other places, but for those who don’t, my name is Matt (people call me Zeffy), and I’m a 20 (nearly 21)-year old who unfortunately is unemployed and spends most of his time in front of a computer screen. One of my favorite (if not my favorite) hobbies is studying roads and highways - specifically creating highway signs, looking at numbering patterns, fantasizing about new highways, making interchanges, looking at old highway photos, etc. I’m also a global moderator on AARoads.com forum, and I help with some internal stuff over there as well. To top it off, creating fictional cities is another one of my favorite hobbies, of course after seeing other people’s creations on here I realize that my versions are absolute crap. Artistic talent was never anything I once had…

Right now my project on OGF is the Republic of Hiltonia. I was introduced to OGF by other members of AARoads, and thought it was a cool idea, since I essentially had the idea of something very much like this site except as a forum community thing - of course I couldn’t figure out how the heck to actually make something like this, so I was quite delighted when I found OGF.

Unfortunately, I have severe AD(H)D, and that means many things in my country are… sporadic and often thought up at a random moment then forgotten. Realizing that my country, in its current form, is quite a mess, I decided to try and reconstruct it using a lot more planning - something that, as you can probably imagine, is very hard for me to stay focused on. With that being said, I would like to ask a few questions for the community here, so that I may ultimately build a better country:

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