OpenGeofiction
Today is February 15th, meaning we’re now over the hump of the four-week-long City Sprint! I’ve noticed a slump in mapping, and have been feeling a bit wrung out myself lately…yesterday was the first day since Feb 1 that I didn’t map at all. A challenge like this is more fun with friends, so since the User Diaries send updates when replies are added I thought a post here could be a fun way for those of us who’d like a bit of communal cheering-on to get our fix.
Over the second half of the City Sprint, post updates, ideas, questions, etc. related to your City Sprint projects here. The point of this thread is to create an encouraging environment, so please avoid snark, sarcasm, rudeness, abruptness, etc.
I’ll kick things off. My goal was to kick the development of my country’s capital city into warp-speed; it was a completely blank slate at the start of the month, just a name on the map. I’m really excited about the amount of progress I’ve made so far; the central city is pretty much done in terms of the street network, and a number of key buildings are already mapped. Here’s a link where you can check out the progress I’ve made so far on Canan-Yar.
What have you been up to these past two weeks? Any exciting projects completed? New ideas sparked? Share away!
Discussion
Comment from zhenkang on 15 February 2019 at 07:12
I am considering whether it is worth spamming to introduce Kontroga, but I think since this diary entry has been posted, I might as well comment here.
Just to tell you my mapping progress: this first few days progress has been quite slow as I have to celebrate Chinese New Year and did not have much time to map. However, these few days I have been mapping intensively.
I can say Kontroga is about 10% completed in terms of detail, especially around the city centre: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/50.8714/65.1866. I am currently developing the old town centre of Kontroga which has been largely preserved and trying to integrate with the current mapping. The current city centre, established by the current government, is surrounded by a few government offices, the central railway station and much more apartments, which I will do for other areas for Kontroga. I plan for a possible expo as well.
Giving a brief history of Kontroga: it was established by Antigoan King Mark Dagermu, who was visiting Fargaram one day and looking over the Fargaram Lake, asked, “Why not build a city there? It has a much more solid foundation than the muddy Fargaram.” When it was finished by 600 AD, Dagermu was pleased and established his own castle quite further up north so he can stay there while visiting the city and have a nice view of Lake Tronga. Kontroga later grew rapidly since many trading routes cut through it, and many merchants eventually settled there under Inaran and Pretanic rule.
Under Pretanic rule, however, after it appointed corrupted Cuppa leaders to led the shires in the 15th century, the leaders, along with the merchants, decided to make it a centre of prostitution to generate more income. This persisted until 1622 when a great fire destroyed the city (today’s Antigoan historians always propagate this as ‘great divine punishment from the prophets against the foreigners exploiting our land’.) The city became largely ignored, until Suria forces invaded the city and took control. With vast deposits of gold, silver and tin discovered in the north, Kontroga grew again with more mines being opened up (I will build more mines soon). It later returned to Pretanic rule, under which it became the centre of Catholicism in Antigo with more churches built int he city.
During the Antigoan Liberation War, the city is largely destroyed during the intense battle between the Antigoan troops and the Pretanic Guards. The Briarmack administration redeveloped the city and the duchy’s main industry is mining of iron. The city manufactures steel and also some steel products as well.
Comment from TheMayor on 15 February 2019 at 13:22
I’ve added a few neighborhoods to Lake City, but most of the work I’ve done for the city sprint can’t be seen on the map unless you use austinhuang’s delightful Public Transport Viewer. The second half of February I’m focusing on the northeast side of Lake City to build out the Brown and Purple Lines to their respective termini, and I plan on adding more express bus lines and local bus lines in Lake City’s core as well.
Comment from Voivod on 15 February 2019 at 13:44
I have to say that I progressed a lot, not as much as I planned though, but I’m proud of what I’ve done. LW, I like the idea of the Daily Dose of Mapping Mojo, I didn’t use any of those resources yet, but I’m sure they’ll be useful for the rest of the sprint and after that. I’m impressed of what you all have done guys. Btw, TheMayor, I’d like to use that viewer with my public transport system (that is still not complete though). I almost forgot, here you have all my changesets of the month
Comment from Sarepava on 15 February 2019 at 19:24
I’m certainly not lost interest, just had a busy week. Next week is school holiday so I will get a lot more done.
What I have done so far is:
Place the hills and open areas to the north of the city centre. This was important to create a clear picture of the suburbs and placement of transport corridors.
Tidy up the metro network. A ‘circle line’ has been added to serve some districts which were otherwise ‘rail deserts’ and other lines have been reorganised to be more rational. Other improvements have been made to the approach tracks to the central station, and on the metro platforms and detailed stations added. https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/50.9140/111.5799
Flesh out some outer suburbs and revise the motorway and railway alignment to better fit the landscape https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/50.9649/111.5072
Create a large park with ornamental gardens and palaces on Punasaar, as well as buildings, roads and tramways. https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/50.8824/111.5440
Make some good progress filling in residential streets and buildings in some ‘holes’ such as Uuskis and the area around the university.
I’ve also drawn a metro map for the region in Inkscape.
Comment from kingfries on 16 February 2019 at 01:12
Haven’t ,,officially’’ declared my participation but I’ll see what I can do. Still reworking my island thingy. Didnt feel like working on OGF in the first week and have been sick in bed this week and only now recovering. Will be moving the airport a bit, and developing the freed up space. And the usual small stuff and trying to think of funny easter eggs to myself and to hide or which streets to name after whatever person. Its hard, I have to be careful to avoid too well known names, but I always make sure they can be found by typing it into google and clicking search. Sooo… happy mapping to you all
Comment from UN1TY on 18 February 2019 at 04:30
I was offline for a few days while the house was being re-wired, but now I’m back to normal.
I’ve been mostly working on the layout of Confluencia’s street grid, but I’ve also started working on some building details in the urban core. Basically, I lay down a matrix of 20 buildings per block, then re-shape the buildings from there.
Comment from louis_walker on 20 February 2019 at 02:20
First things first: I posted a new bliki entry on my work thus far in the City Sprint; seems like nobody comments much on blikis anymore, so I wanted to share the link here, too, since I’d love to get feedback on what I’ve mapped so far, and what people might like to see next, in terms of adding detail (i.e. focusing on buildings vs. placemakers, names, etc).
@TheMayor That public transport viewer is so cool! I dig your mapping of Lake City; I used to live in the Midwest, and it reminds me a lot of that part of the country. I get a sort of Chicago-meets-Minneapolis vibe, is that right?
@Sarapeva Your railways are impressive. Expressways, too—do you trace, or model your interchanges off of real-world examples? I am clueless as to what proper scale and curvature and such things are, as I have no engineering background. I feel like the rest of what I’ve been mapping is quite realistic, so I don’t want to screw it up with goofy looking, out of scale interchanges!
@UN1TY Your “3D” buildings are beautifully precise. Looking forward to seeing more pop up!
Comment from TheMayor on 20 February 2019 at 02:54
@louis_walker I can’t take credit for the public transport viewer; that’s all @austinhuang. I’ve just been adding the proper relations to make it look pretty.
My vision for Minnonigan as a whole is something like an upside-down Illinois (which works since the FSA is in the Southern Hemisphere), with more rolling wooded terrain in the north, flat fertile farmlands in the middle, and a significant urban development along the Great Lakes to the south that spills over just a bit into neighboring states. So yes, Lake City is most certainly has deep inspiration from Chicago. However, I came up with the overall vision for downtown Lake City on my own (although the Loop elevated rail still exists) and Lake City’s other areas draw from Chicago’s tapestry of ethnic neighborhoods which are all aligned on a strict grid but divided by railroads, freeways, and occasional divided streets. (Lake City’s two airports are also heavily influenced by Chicago-O’Hare and Chicago-Midway.)
Comment from zhenkang on 20 February 2019 at 04:21
@LW I have sent you a message about interchanges and my response to your bliki. There is a user who is quote good at making thrm.
Comment from louis_walker on 22 February 2019 at 06:00
There’s just one week left in the sprint! Hard to believe February is almost over already…
@TheMayor The airports were the biggest clues! I should say I lived in Chicago for a few years and used Midway and O’Hare a few times, so I remember the stark contrast between them well. :)
@zhenkang Yes, sorry I haven’t responded yet! I just figured out how to shift-P to create parallel ways (embarrassing) so now I really need to get on those interchanges to polish off the expressway network…
Good luck in the last seven days, everyone!
Comment from Sarepava on 22 February 2019 at 10:42
Well thank you. I mostly copy what interchanges I see in real life, although with a more ‘European’ style (ie enough space for turning lanes and plazas) than in the UK. Something I try to think about is firstly placing the interchanges where they make the most sense in the heirarchy of roads (so a motorway leads to a primary road, then the primary to a secondary, secondary to tertiary or residential) and also to the most logical routes connecting in and out of settlements. Also I aim to avoid the dangerous situation of ‘weaving’ I encounter far too often in the RW - where traffic joining the road is crossing over other traffic leaving it at the next exit.
You might have noticed the elaborate cycleway interchanges too - these are intended to have exactly the same function as free-flowing motorway interchanges, particularly allowing cyclists to get a run at bridges without stopping at the bottom of the slope.
Comment from zhenkang on 22 February 2019 at 13:22
Nothing embarassing to realise the shortcuts; its all part of the learning process too.
Anyway, will there be a v2.0 of the sprint in the future?