Hi everyone,

you are invited to participate in discussion about the new Midistland project, which I would like to organize over the course of this summer. I have started a forum thread and compiled all my personal opinions and ideas in this document.

See you in the forum! For East Uletha, this has been Eklas.

Hello, OGF community (and new mappers in particular),

I’d like to inform you that from July 1st, 2021, the territory of Midistland will be closed for editing by new users. The status of the territory will change from blue (public) to purple (collaborative). Users that have already been working on the territory will be allowed to continue doing so, but are advised not to start new projects.

The reason for this change is that I would like to start some kind of discussion about potential better use for the territory: Midistland is in an important location, it is the “gateway to East Uletha”, yet its current state leaves a lot to be wished for. I would like the discussion to take place on the OGF forum; in the following days I will try to gather some opinions and ideas that I have and form them into a proper announcement. Anyone that would be interested to take part in the reconstruction of the territory is welcome to do the same – I’m hoping we can open the discussion at the end of June / very beginning of July, and maybe even get to work later in the summer.

For East Uletha, this has been Eklas. Have a nice day!

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ATTENTION NEW USERS! AS THE WIKI REMAINS INACCESSIBLE, ALL RULES AND INFORMATION ARE LISTED HERE IN THE OGF BLUE BOOK.

Hello, mappers! The year is coming to an end and needless to explain, we all need a break. Personally I’ve been living the same day over and over again for the past several months, and while I recognize the luxury and privilege of being able to stay home, sometimes I also feel like losing my mind because of it. These days it can be quite easy to feel burnt out and directionless, and to lose interest even in things you’ve enjoyed for a long time – like geofiction.

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Hello, East Ulethan mappers,

over the course of the next week (starting Monday, April 27th), administrative changes are going into effect in the region. Countries in East Uletha will be grouped into 16 sectors based on similarities in geography and culture, a division that will also be used for coordination of future development. Each territory will receive a new ID, as shown on the scheme below (e. g. Midistland, now UL031, becomes UL26a).

The changes require no work on your behalf – they will be carried out by me. Vegetation zones serve mostly as a recommendation to new users and nobody is forced to change their existing work. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Eklas

right-click and open in new tab for full resolution

Based on the success of the February City Sprint, I’m proposing a new challenge for the months of March, April and May: the Spring Cleanup.

Do you know people obsessively vacuum every corner of the house, change the sheets and wash the windows every spring season? Imagine something like that, but on the OGF wiki. The main objective is to go through your contributions and decide - are these pages and files necessary or can they be deleted? The side task would then be to organize the content you would like to keep into categories.

More information in related forum post.

Embedded image for attention.

Community question.

I’ve been on and about thinking how I could improve my country, Drabantia, to be more realistic, especially in terms of geography and climate.

First of all, I’m still sort of confused as to what the climate could actually be. The hypothetical maps on the Talk:World climate page didn’t really help: one says steppe, the other says Winnipeg. So I settled for somewhere in between for now. And then it kind of hit me: The lake surrounding my country has no output. There has to be saltwater.

Or does it? The lake, which lies on the same latitude as Edmonton, Copenhagen or Moscow, probably doesn’t dry up as much as the Caspian Sea does, for example. Meaning that with no output, the water level would just keep on rising and the salinity would remain the same.

Even if the area was dry, I still don’t think the temperature and other aspects of the climate allow the lake to have no output at all. There’s large rivers: Bráh and Lorava, draining all Litvania; Borava, draining 80% of Drabantia; Banuj, draining the remaining 20% + some of Escadia and possibly UL100h too; and finally Helm and Gilson.

TL;DR So, my bold proposal: Is it possible to connect the lake to the Great Rift Sound? I imagine it similar to the Saint Lawrence River connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

There’s many pros:

• There’s wetlands (that until recently were lakes) in Suria, where the river would flow- no radical changes required.

• Several proposals on the OGF:Plate tectonics page see the area as a mid-continental rift.

• The benefits for the countries around the lake would be immense. In addition to opening them to intl. shipping lines, it would make for a better connection with the rest of Uletha and more importance.

So, what does everyone (namely the admin team) think? I know edits and changes in grey territories are usually frowned upon, but I feel like this is a really important issue.

The lake as it is now

Hi again!

Odrava

As you may have noticed, my country Drabantia has undergone some serious changes during the past month. Perhaps one of the biggest changes was that the country now has a completely different, new capital city, Odrava.

And while I am really happy with how the city looks so far, it also caused some trouble. Especially for international businesses and airlines that used to serve the old capital, Drahns. However I removed most of the wiki references and stuff, so at this moment, this should be only Litvanka Airlines. I’m sorry for causing trouble.

Speaking of airlines, you’re more than welcome to list Odrava as a destination for your airline company. The most exciting thing is that the city is not on the tip of a peninsula like the previous one was.

Also, siblings are always fun! (I’m an only child.) By which I mean sibling cities are also sought after! Most preferably Ulethan cities, but others too, I don’t discriminate.

I updated the wiki page for Drabantia and Odrava, so you can check them if you wanted to get to know more. I also now have a weekly bliki, where I post even more backstories and thoughts.

PS: Is there anyone who wouldn’t mind helping me with drawing the airport in Odrava? I guess I could do it myself, but it definitely wouldn’t come out as amazingly amazing as some airports by other users.

Drahns: A Yard Sale

…the failure of a city is now broken into pieces, drowning somewhere in a lake.

I didn’t have a very hard time letting go. However I still think at least some parts of Drahns were quality mapping- that’s why I didn’t delete them yet. I was thinking maybe there is a collaborative country the bits could be moved into? They’re very European-looking, so it should probably be Uletha.

So, if anyone is interested in any of the stuff shown here, just leave a comment.

And lastly, thanks everyone for sticking around- some of the things I did earlier were really stupid. I’m sorry about it.

@Litvania and I have been working together and we came up with what I’d say is a pretty decent historical timeline. However, there’s a little something that is crucial to the whole concept we need approval for. Here’s a brief version of the history concept:

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You’ve just witnessed my peak lyrical performance.

Anyways, after finishing the district of Ráj nad Mlžnicí I spent the rest of February mapping in Drabantia’s capital city, Drahns.

I occasionally get angry at myself for placing the city on tip of a peninsula. Especially every time I’m designing public transport connections, road network, etc. and they end up not working. Well, what can I do. Should’ve read the OGF: guides better.

If I had to describe my work in one word, I’d choose ‘chaotic.’ I deleted so much stuff. I started mapping the old town again from scratch. I also discovered drawing your streets as a regular grid might seem easy at first, but causes so much trouble later. I also found out you should probably sketch out the outside connections and other ‘big stuff’ first before going to detail. Again, should’ve read the OGF: guides better, but like hey, whatever. I’m gonna fake it till I make it.

And now for some of the interesting places:

• The old Old Town - it’s the historic city center. Originally founded around year 1300, but most of the present-day buildings are from the 18th century. There’s passages, cozy backyards, ‘authentic’ pubs serving poor quality beer for five times the normal price and kitsch souvenir shops. It’s also a great place for embassies and offices (because no one wants to live there anymore.) If you’re interested in either of these two, just write it in the comments or something.

• The new Old Town - that’s the relevant city center built around 1870. It’s mainly a residential area, but if you’re interested in classicism, neo-renaissance and other architecture styles from late 19th century, you’ll be satisfied too. The controversial neo-gothic cathedral is worth a see, too.

• National Museum and surroundings - this area marks the end of the city center and the start of suburbs. It features a textile factory converted into offices, villas from early 20th century and a dance school.

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So, the (former?) territory of Suria is now marked in grey on the OGF:Territories page.

Please, let’s keep it as it is now. Suria plays an important part in many of the neighboring countries’ history and is one of the most powerful countries in Uletha. Also, some of the area is mapped really well, it would be a shame to see it go to waste.

So, for the past one and a half month I’ve been working on the district of Ráj nad Mlžnicí and now I’m ready to share it with the world. Best enjoyed at zoom level 13.

Below is some info about the region.

Landscape and nature

• Forests. They cover the vast majority of the region.
• Hills and mountains. The area is full of cliffs, tall peaks, wild streams as well as peaceful rivers running through majestic valleys.
• Marshes and swamps. Most of them are under strict protection. They’re home to many endemic animal and plant species.
• Meadows and pastures The soil is not very fertile, which means animal agriculture is prevalent.

Notable places

• Teplá nad Křižvou. A lovely town of five thousand inhabitants, known for its old monastery and mineral water springs.
• Ráj nad Mlžnicí-Šatava. These two times grew into one over time. Ráj is now the capital of the district. Its romantic old town, the Šatava castle and the tall railway bridge attract thousands of tourists each year.
• Kutry. In case you couldn’t tell, it’s one of the most popular ski resorts in Drabantia. And while Drabantian mountains obviously aren’t the tallest in the world, good service and reasonable prices make it a favorite spot of many.
• Razníky mountains. The tallest peak, Velký Razník (1562 m), is also the tallest in the country. One would expect the mountains to be a popular winter holiday destination- but most of the range is nowadays a national park and another big portion serves as a military training area.
• Narrow gauge railway Lotrovice - Šumná na Boravě. The steepest curve on this railway has only about 90 meters in radius. It should have been deconstructed years ago, but thanks to the local train enthusiasts it’s still used for nostalgic steam train rides until today.

Culture

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There’s a website in the Czech Rep, where you can watch what’s happening at the Prague Central and Ústí nad Orlicí stations. The videos are given commentary by the announcement lady with an incredibly tranquilizing voice, as recorded from the station building. I find this really interesting (also it’s snowing so the stations look pretty), so I just wanted to share.

Do you know any other cool webcams? Feel free to share!

Enjoy life and happy mapping! George

I came to the conclusion it’s not the best name for Slavic language family, because it doesn’t sound very Slavic and it’s tough to pronounce.

In Czech (Drabantian), it doesn’t even follow the basic rules of spelling:

• s is followed by y only in certain words with a common root.
• r is a hard consonant, which means it should always be followed by y.
• No double l’s.
• G’s are very sparse.
• I could settle for Sirylankan, but that sounds even worse. (I associate it with baby care items for some reason.)

So, I played around with words a little and I have three possible substitutions:

• Slane (Slanic) (Drab.: Slán; the root slan means something salty.)
• Sleve/Leve (Slevic/Levic) (Drab.: Levan; the root lev means ease or left (direction) in this case, I’m listing both options because Slevan would mean ‘discount man’ in Drabantian.)
• Lave (Lavic) (Drab.: Lavan; the root lev would mean lion in this case.)

So, vote for your favorites! I like Leve/Levic the best.

Also, please note I definitely do not want to force my opinions on anyone and doing this is completely optional.

Drabantia will be serving some serious waterway realness in the following few weeks. Watch.

What railway gauge(s) does your country use? I’m just curious, sorry if this has been discussed before.

Drabantia uses three gauges:

• 1435 mm - vast majority of tracks
• 1000 mm - trams in smaller cities/towns (they’re not mapped yet)
• 760 mm - industrial spurs and railways in mountainous areas (they’re also not mapped yet, heh)

So for the past few weeks I’ve been obsessed with this show called ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race.’ Then it hit me that we only have car drag racing in OGF, not so much for queer drag racing. So welcome the Race with Grace! If anyone wants to create a franchise of the show in their country, feel free to write on the talk page.

Not much of a diary post, but I’m really curious about this. How often does the rendering software get updated? I see OSM has recently changed the allotments and playground texture and also the font spacing and face, so I’m just a little curious as to when we’re going to get it too. It’s not like I’m demanding it or something though.

But seriously though, what in the hell?

Recently it hit me- how come do we not have any (relevant) fictional web pages in OGF yet? Well, I spent the past few days brainstorming intensively and here are some ideas I came up with.

A search engine

There are plenty of them in the real world, but I think we’ll be fine with just one for now. As a test of pronounceability, I always try to use them in the sentence “If you don’t know, just ___ it!”

• Lokker - playing around with “look up”
• Ding - obvious Bing reference. don’t like this one very much because “ding it” sounds like a substitute swear word (like saying “dang it” instead of “damn it”)
• Najdu.db (pronounced “nye-do”) - an all-Drabantian search engine, in translation “I will find.db”

A video site

Look, the office workers in your countries just need to have a website to go to, procrastinating watching endless cat fail compilations.

• Playday - well the videos are so good, you’ll want to watch them all day

Social networks

Before you go like “ugh who even uses facebook in 2016 anymore,” remember there are soccer moms and lorry drivers in the OGF world too.

• Friender - a facebook-ish thing
• Beeper? Chirper (haa who else hated that b** bird in Cities:Skylines)? - a twitter-ish thing
• Snapdat! - yeah this one is not very original, but its teenage users are here for the dog filter and not the name, duhh
• Blurda - “blurter,” a place for anyone to blurt out their feelings and opinions in (real-life tumblr)

And also the most needed:

• Tender. Timber. Tinner. - just whatever

Other

• Pokemon Go. I am not a player or a Pokemon fan so I just have no idea
• Memes.

Write your ideas and suggestions!

Just a small sidenote- huge thanks to Azaz 0913 and Bstn for creating the railway line template. It’s one of my favorite features on Wikipedia and I’m so glad we have it here now. Keep up the good work, gents!