The Mystic County Project

[Ramona Brie 121]

Very nice, natural style. This competes with Green Depra for "greenest" region.

[kant01 5]

The First Settlement, Part III

Welcome to page 3!

Just a few shots for you going into the weekend...

Zoomed out view of Warwick...

Farming in Warick...

Some cabins...

More farming in Warwick...

And more...

Some residences...

Zone view...

And traffic view...

That's all for now!

[sloppet 3]

Fantastic update there mate!

[GMT 389]

looks good what I've seen so far.

keep it up

[Battlecat 14]

Nice update!  The low density city spread looks superb.

[Ringo 0]

very beautiful looking farm town-i like it

[jacqulina 162]

excellent work beautifull work with pegs things love those waterfalls,nice work with the stream,fantastic rural very nice and green region,beatifull pics too

[kant01 5]

Satellite photo of Warden’s Wilderness Preserve taken by the Chancellor’s Ministry of Information:

Thanks for the comments, everyone! It’s great to get such positive feedback!

MayorTim – Such a beautiful comment – thank you so much! Just beware, it may not stay rural for long

Yoman3 – Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the comment!

sloppet – As always, thanks for reading and thanks for the kind words.

Battlecat – Thanks! I worked quite a while on the waterfall and stream trying to get it to look natural and also so that I could have future development around it. As for the farmland, we’ll have to see how long they survive. Thanks again!

Tracker – You’re too generous.  I admit that chocolatemax is one of my greatest inspirations so I really appreciate the comment.

sloppet (again) – Hey there, you are practically a resident – really glad you keep stopping by and thanks for the comment!

GMT – Glad you like it – many thanks!

Battlecat (again) – Thanks for the comment and thanks for stopping by again!

Ringo - Hey, Ringo, thanks for the comment! Farm towns are my favorite, at least for now, so there will be many more before…well, before there are not!

jacqulina – Wow, such a nice comment! I do love all of Pegs so many wonderful lots/BATs. Peg makes it easy to create looking great cities and regions. He’s one of the real superstars in my book. Thanks as always for stopping by!

Well, folks, that’s all for now…

[GMT 389]

nice sattelite

[Darmok 34]

Kant, a ride in your CJ is a refreshing experience!

Simple, beautiful pics, natureI particularly liked Brush Neck Delta!

Keep it up

[soldyne 111]

this is a wonderful CJ. simple, rural, original lots. It is all very nice. I actually like all the fences, I think it is much more realistic. very pleasing to see.

[kant01 5]

The First Settlement, Part IV

Excerpt from Theodore Reichmann’s book, A People’s History of Mystic County, Vol. 1:

...Other than the development of the mining cooperative at Warwick, the second most important event in the early years of Mystic County was the founding of the Warwick Assembly. The mining cooperative was certainly successful as was the budding fishing cooperative headed up by Dale Shipman and his best friend Rufus Delacroix, but with the increased population and the increasing social complexity, more organization was needed to keep operations running smoothly. Decisions had to be made about infrastructure, distribution lines, storage facilities, and of course fundamentals like water and sanitation. Everyone agreed that a local assembly would the fairest means for decision making - a place where their complaints could be heard and discussed by all and where a vote could be taken.

Among fledgling socialist democracies, Warwick is a prime example of cooperative, decentralized decision making. In the absence of an aristocracy or industrial class, all residents were able to share in both the work of the community and its rewards. Wealth and property were not protected as the highest standard, but rather equality. The production of goods did not create a class of citizens unable to share in those goods, but the products of their labor were enjoyed by all.

Some might say that Warwick was a true utopia...

...Shortly after the new Assembly Hall was erected, the very first vote taken by the community regarded the construction of a new irrigation system. As the homesteads and farms stood on the edge of East Mystic Bay their closest source of fresh water was much further inland. It was thus decided that water for both drinking and farming needed to be brought closer to the settlement.

Dale Shipman’s father left the operation of the mining cooperative in good hands and immediately began directing his energies towards the construction of the irrigation canals. But no sooner had construction begun then the local residents quickly decided that the operation and management of the canal could take place much more efficiently if every decision didn’t need to be made at the local Assembly. “Questions like, “Should we go left or right at the Marley farm?” made the Assembly cumbersome and slow, particularly as the population continued to grow. It was thus decided that some of the Assembly’s decision making power could be handed over to a Planning Council. This council of 7 members - 3 men, 3 women, and a chair - was to be voted on each year by the Assembly. The Planning Council would then hold responsibility for making construction decisions once plans like the irrigation canal had already been approved. It was hoped that by transferring some of the Assembly’s power to the smaller group that the efficiency of the community would increase over all.

As it can be expected, at the first Assembly meeting Dale Shipman II was elected as the first chair of the Planning Council...

As construction on the irrigation canals continued, a new building was erected to house the offices of the Planning Council. The new building also included space to house classrooms for kids and a small physician’s office to treat minor injuries.

Construction on the canals went smoothly in the first few months. Fresh water was brought to the farms and a public storage tower for drinking water was also built.

The canals dramatically changed the way the settlement at Warwick operated and the Assembly and Planning Council changed the way the people thought about their small community. It was the first steps towards a bureaucracy and the first steps towards separating the decision making from the people whom it affected. These decisions should not be underestimated.

End of "The First Settlement" - Stay tuned for the next chapter in Mystic County!

[Battlecat 14]

Wow!  Your latest update looks incredible!  The rural areas look so realistic.  Those custom fences of yours look so realistic!  Also, I love the style you've used for your irrigation channels!  Sinking Simgoober's canals into trenches was a stroke of genius!  Keep up the great work!

[kant01 5]

From the archives of the Linden Province Historical Society:

An early settler map...

[cityhawk 12]

Hey man, sorry I missed a couple of updates. I loved PEG's water BATs in the last update on the previous page, and I love the sunken irrigation canal idea; it makes me wish to go back and put mine in a ditch rather than on ground level with everything around it. BTW, where did you get those fences around the farms? Anyway, great updates, man! I hope I don't miss the next major update.

[kant01 5]

A few personal replies this morning. But I also want to say a big thank you to everyone, commenters and lurkers, for stopping by and checking out my CJ. I have really been enjoying working on Mystic County and writing the story as well. For those of you reading, I would love some feed back on how the story is progressing.

Personal replies:

GMT – that, of course, is the real banks peninsular in New Zealand. It really does look like such a beautiful place so I hope I am doing it justice. I’ll try to find some more real life pic’s if I can.

Darmok – what a nice comment! Thanks for visiting! There will be more pictures of Brush Neck Delta very soon! Hopefully some of that natural beauty of the region will be preserved, but I already expect that much of it will not be. That, of course, is the eternal battle between human development and the environment.

soldyne – welcome to Mystic County! Glad you like it. I have been experimenting with using those fences; I really like them as well so I appreciate the feedback. Hopefully it will stay realistic looking.

Battlecat – thank you so much for that wonderful comment! I’m really glad you like it! Simgoober’s irrigation canals are really great – I just removed the bottom texture from them so that the natural ground color shows through. I’ll have some more shots in the next update, hopefully an overview shot once the rest of the canal system is finished. I’ll try to get them up this weekend if I am not too busy.

cityhawk – no problem, dude! Thanks for commenting! Glad you liked the waterfall, etc. I had a lot of fun making it, although it was definitely a challenge getting the ground to do what I wanted. I’m also glad you like the canals. They are easy to do but they do take a lot of time and a lot of space. As for thee farm fences, I made those custom lots using different fences from STEX. Some are from Cycledogg’s mega prop set, some are from the Castle prop set, and some are from Peg’s chicken ranch and other rural lots. I just removed the bottom textures so I could place them along the farms and make it look like part of them.

Have a great weekend everyone and I’ll try to get the next update up soon!

[kant01 5]

The Invasion, Part I

The archives of the Imperial Records Division (IRD) have among other things in their inventory the diary of Special Council Victoria Shipman that she kept during the time leading up to the tragedy of Mystic County:

May 29 – The events of the past few years have led me to today in a way that I never expected. My husband and my children have gone because of what I believe and who I work for and today that relationship will change for ever. Even now, imperial guards are crossing the Linden Province on their way to Mystic County. The last few weeks have been a blur of activity as military engineers have constructed a small outpost near Lower Cumberland Falls. I have pushed at every step of the way to prevent this from being a strictly military endeavor but I was overruled time and again by the Defense Council.

The Chancellor will not tolerate this settlement any longer and I fear that my husband, whom I still love, will become embroiled at the center of the Chancellor’s latest campaign. Of course, in principle, I agree with the Chancellor that if we are to live in peace and without fear that we cannot allow such renegade groups to exist outside the imperial order. The freedom of our people depends upon the strictest of order. But what will happen to my children? What will become of Dale?

If only there was a way for me to intervene and stop this entire nightmare from going forward...

...The Chancellor has not given me a complete time table, but if what I understand from General Swithin is correct, the first battalion will be moving in upon Warwick any day now.

The archives of the Linden Province Historical Society have been known for their vast catalog of small newspapers, underground dailies, and various other periodicals. One of the earliest to circulate in Mystic County was a weekly called "The People’s Press." It was printed and edited at the home of Erwin Delacroix, father of Rufus Delacroix, young Dale Shipman’s best friend. Despite his tender age of 18, Rufus appears to have been a committed activist at an early age and regularly wrote for his father’s paper. Here is an article from one such edition that was printed just before the emperor’s invasion began:

Construction on the Warwick canal system is nearly complete and our goal of bringing fresh water to all the people of Warwick is now in sight. Because we believed in our fundamental human right to take charge of our destiny and to make the decisions for ourselves that most deeply affect our lives we were able to put forth a vision, conceived by our belief in humanity, and to make that vision a reality. Humankind lives in freedom just when they can not only determine for themselves their own ends but when they also have the opportunity to bring to realization those ends. Freedom without opportunity is no kind of freedom at all.

It was because the Empire robbed us of that opportunity, squashed our humanity, and forced upon us its military oppression that we fled the cities and Chancellor’s domain and have established for ourselves the purest form of self-government. We have placed ourselves in charge of our lives and recognized that human freedom is an achievement waiting to be had.

By creating this canal system we have furthered this realization in that water is the very core substance of living things. While the Chancellor had turned water into a commodity, handed it over to corporate control, and sold it to those who could afford it, we have recognized that water belongs to no one and to everyone. We have recognized that water should be available to all, not to those with wealth and power. We have recognized that the sustenance of life should not be controlled by corporations but by the people.

Thus, with this canal system, we inaugurate a new era of human freedom, one in which our lives are now in our own hands. Let the Chancellor come and take that from us if he dares.

The following letter was sent by Dale Shipman, III to his mother on May 30, 59:

Oh mom, you are not going to believe what has happened! Guards from the Chancellor arrived in Warwick today! Dad has been saying for months that it was going to happen but I would not believe him. Just at this time when everything seems to be going well, now that our meetings at the Assembly seem to be in full operation, now that the offices of the Planning Council have been finished, and now that our canal system is almost fully operational, it is just too hard to believe.

This morning, tanks came into town while many of us were still asleep. I heard the rumbling noise and the ground kind of shook. I thought for a moment that we were having an earthquake but then Rufus came and pulled me out of bed and told me what was happening. The tanks stopped at the Assembly hall and all the people came out of their homes and gathered to see what was happening. One of the top officers under General Swithin was there and asked to speak to father! They went inside for over three hours while everyone just stood and waited. No one spoke a word as the guards just stood there with their tanks looking at us like we were the scum of the earth.

   

Oh, mom, how could they have known? How could they have known to look for father?? I fear somehow that we have been betrayed although I guess I should not be surprised. The Chancellor has his spies everywhere, but to think that someone in our own community could have sold us out.

I beg you, mom, to help us. Speak to the Chancellor on our behalf. And I ask you again, please come. We desperately need you now.

[sloppet 3]

very good work there kant01!!

Keep the updates coming!

sloppet

[choco1 4]

Wow, this CJ is stunning! This is a truly amazing City Journal you have here. Your images are fantastic, I just love your custom lots, and those farms are simple beautiful. Those two buildings with the farm in between is one of the best arrangements I've seen in simcity for a long time. And the story you have to back it up is beautiful and even sad, as tanks roll into this beautiful utopia.

I am truly impressed, and I look forward to more.

Choco.

[Darmok 34]

Very good content in your CJ Kant, and not only the pics. The story as well!

Keep it up!

[Yoman3 5]

Those last few updates were great!!!!

The canal system looks great.

But I have 2 questions:

1. Where did you get those wooden fences that are on the canal bridge?

2. How did you plop those tanks. It will help me very much in my up-comming story.

Keep up the GREAT work thats going on in this CJ!!!!!!!!!

[Cjah 15]

Nice canals!

[cityhawk 12]

Wow, the story keeps getting better and better! I wish I could write like that, but I can't (not that I know of). Anyway, nice pics and good elements in the story! I'm looking forward to more!

[kant01 5]

Hey guys and gals, thanks for the comments – they are much appreciated! And thanks everyone for reading. It really makes my day.

Some personal replies:

sloppet - thanks, I will try to keep them coming, provided I don’t get any busier than I am now. I am supposed to be writing a dissertation proposal (eek!) and in addition to that I have a part time job and am currently getting ready to interview for some rather hefty full-time jobs so my life is enormously full. On top of that I will have multiple family members coming to visit at different times this summer, from parents, to siblings, to in-laws. But I will keep updating as long as I can

chocolatemax285 - a very lovely comment, indeed. I cannot thank you enough for the kind words. I have really enjoyed trying to create the right feel to the city – which is why it is going to painfully slow – and I have really enjoyed taking some of the SC4 favorites and finding new ways to incorporate them. As for the story, well, things are going to get sadder, but such is life. Thanks as always for visiting!

Darmok - Thanks, it is very much appreciated! Glad you like the story. It has always been fun for me to work out all the nasty details of my cities – the drama, the tragedy, the disaster. I am not sure why, but SC4 really lends itself to tragedy quite well! Hah! In any case, I am really glad you liked it, and thanks for stopping by!

Yoman3 - Thanks, Yoman!!!! As for my custom lots, they are really very simple to make. The fences that I have around the sunken canals are from the castle props, I believe. I just added them to the fantastic Residential and Rural Diagonal Walls Set V1 from jeronij. In other places I just use those fences on a blank lot by themselves that I then removed the base texture from. As for the tanks, that was a simple matter of just placing the relevant props onto a lot and then once again removing the base texture afterwards. Pegasus has a great tutorial on how to do that. I make most of these eye candy lots as parks and then move them into the “health” category so that my parks list does not take a million years to load. I hope that helps. Thanks for the comment and thanks for reading!

Pegasus' Tutorial on Lots w/ Transparent Textures  (At PegProductions support site)

Jeronij's Rural Diagonal Walls Set V1 (On STEX)

Castle Ramparts Prop Collection (At simcity.com - requires login)

Cjah - Hey, thanks for stopping by. I wasn’t sure if you were still around or not. I hope you are enjoying. I am actually getting ready to revise some of my residential lots and I would be very happy to get your feedback. The canals have been a lot of fun to make. I would be lost without Simgoober’s fabulous BATs. I was thinking that maybe as the town grows the rural canals could be upgraded to a more heavy duty urban canal system like the brick canals or something. Not sure yet, but will see. Thanks again, Cjah!

cityhawk - That is very nice of you to say (although I am sure you are being too modest!). The story is just sort of pieced together as I go along. I do know how it begins and how it ends. But that leaves much in the middle. Trying to figure out how to get from A to B is the hard part. I am really glad you liked it. Thanks for the comment and hope you stop by again soon!

Thanks again everyone! More is on its way!

[collgab 10]

wow really nice updates your realism is perfect i love your towns and settlements

can't wait for more!!!

[Battlecat 14]

It's comming along quite nicely!  The canal system looks great, and the story is evolving quite nicely as well. 

[kant01 5]

The Invasion, Part II

From the archives of the Linden Province Historical Society:

June 1

Dear mom,

It seems that things might not be as bad as they first appeared. Like myself, most of the fellow homesteaders feared the worst. While dad was in the Assembly Hall all those hours, the rest of us gathered around while the tanks and guards stood by and watched silently. Rufus was so incredibly angry. It was all I could do to even keep him from picking a fight with one of the soldiers. The entire situation was completely tense. But in the end, it seems as if we worried for nothing. That evening, dad gathered everyone into the Assembly Hall to share what he had learned. As we suspected, the Chancellor has known of our community for some time now. But most surprisingly, the Chancellor and the Empire have no apparent plans for or designs on Mystic County! We are completely free to keep living here as we always have. You could almost here the entire town breathe a collective sigh of relief.

At this news Rufus was ready to turn and run the tanks out of town. However, dad then surprised everyone even more. According to the officer, the Chancellor was prepared to offer us assistance from the Empire to aid us with infrastructure, sanitation, healthcare, and the like in exchange for being brought officially into the imperial fold. The only other condition of this aid was that we accept permanent imperial oversight in the form of a local magistrate that would be appointed by the Chancellor.

When dad finished it was like pandemonium. People began shouting and yelling at one another. Rufus climbed on top of his chair and proclaimed that this was nothing more than one of the Chancellor’s ploys to take away our autonomy. Dad tried to intervene to keep some order but it was no use. In the end, we could not reach a decision. Many of us like dad and Rufus were adamantly opposed to any imperial oversight. However, there were a few settlers who were not so convinced that the Empire had ill motives or that our little social experiment in the wilderness would actually work. They suggested that if all we really had to do was let a magistrate in to oversee disputes, keep census records, and collect taxes, wouldn’t we gain so much more in the long run? After all, they said, our infrastructure was so limited as it was and we could use the financial aid to build schools and hospitals.

The meeting ended in a stalemate. The tanks pulled out of town, saying we had 30 days to make a decision. But is there really a decision to be made? Didn’t we come here to get away from the Empire? Oh, I wish you were here mom. I know you and dad have your differences, but he needs you now more than ever. We both do.

yours,

Dale

p.s. – Rufus and I finally built our new boat and even built a small fishing pier as well to keep it tied up. I know we will be bringing in tons of fish before you even know it!

June 8

Dear Dale,

I have been looking into the Chancellor’s communications regarding Mystic County and it does indeed seem that he has your best interests at heart. I could try to convince you that being a part of the Empire is important now more than ever if we are to have security and peace and stop those who wish to bring terror and take away our freedom. But I know that we disagree and so I won’t try to persuade you in that regard. However, I will say that, should you all accept, one of the first things the Chancellor plans on building in Warwick is a rail line, one that will connect Mystic County to the rest of the Empire. Should that occur, I will most certainly be able to visit you very soon as it would make the long journey so very quick. Think about how much fun we will be able to have again. We shall be a family. But, I suppose you are all against it, so it will of course never happen. Do continue to keep me informed.

Love,

Mom

From the personal journal of Rufus Delacroix, in June of year 59:

June 15

So it has happened, after all. At our meeting last night the unthinkable occurred. Dale, my best friend in the entire world, stood before the entire Assembly and recommend that we accept the Chancellor’s offer! I was stunned speechless for at least 10 minutes. The entire proceeding nearly got away from me. Dale said that as long as the Empire knew we were here that they would never leave us alone. He said they could just as easily sweep in here and murder us all in our beds whether we accepted their offer or not. The key, he said, was to accept but with our own terms, i.e. some kind of specific list of immediate concerns that we had. Thus the Chancellor would know that we were going to play by our rules, not his. I think Dale’s dad was speechless too. And, horror of all horrors, many of the families were persuaded to his position! I tried to intervene, arguing that this was only a slippery slope to handing away our freedom, but it seemed I was now in the minority. We moved to a vote and in the end, the majority sided with Dale.

It seems that the Empire will now have a home in Mystic County. I am not sure how much longer I will stay.

From the Chancellor’s official provincial report log on Mystic County, kept  by Special Council Victoria Shipman:

Progress on setting up our operation at Warwick is moving more smoothly than anticipated. The local residents seemed willing (albeit reluctantly) to allow our magistrate access to their community. Our engineers immediately set about constructing a facility to house the Provincial Magistrate and that facility is nearly complete.

General Swithin has worried that we might still encounter some reprisal and has thus ordered his guards to keep close watch over the construction.

In exchange for the land, we immediately provided the town with a small horse farm near by per the Chancellor’s wishes.

The magistrate has not yet found a piece of land which he considers suitable for his home, but he has assured the imperial councilors that construction will begin soon enough. If all continues at this pace, the magistrate should be able to occupy his new offices within a fortnight.

The records of the last advisory meeting indicate a general concern among the councilors that the community might attempt to undermine our initial efforts. However, we continue to work closely with and monitor Settler #4289-A1 and all intelligence suggests that he will continue to aid us with the Warwick occupation and alert us to any security concerns.

June 25

Dear mom,

You have probably heard that the new magistrate’s office has been completed ahead of schedule, although Magistrate Baumgartner has apparently not yet found a place to his liking for him to build his home. I already have a strong feeling that he will be very, very annoying.

In other news, the Chancellor seems on track for keeping all of his promises to us. At the top of our priority list was a small, ecumenical worship facility. The edifice was erected much quicker than any of us could have imagined. In fact, it seemed to go up over night.

Father helped build an accompanying cemetery, a morbid plan if you ask me.

The other major concern was our lack of preparation in the case of a fire. The Chancellor’s engineers were more than willing to build the fire tower in the middle of Warwick and the Chancellor agreed to keep one of his men in there at all times in case of an emergency.

I suppose there is not much else to report. Rufus was quite mad at me for a while but I think in the end he will come around. Our fishing co-op has been booming. We now oversee a small fleet of boats. Rufus and I manage the shifts and the maintenance and we have one boat just for the two of us. Since the population has continued to grow there have been more workers and naturally enough more mouths to feed. But the volume of our fish coming in has really been exceeding the amount we need. I have no idea what we will do with all this excess.

Will write more soon.

Love,

Dale

July 12

Dear mom,

Still no word on when the Chancellor will start on the rail line. According to Magistrate Baumgartner, all we need to do is take a vote at the next Assembly meeting on the blue prints from the Planning Council. However, dad says things are a bit more complicated as the Chancellor wants to have final ok on the plans. I suppose it is only a minor dispute but annoying nonetheless. In any case, I hope maybe you will come visit even though it will be a while yet before the rail is finished.

Surprisingly, even more people have moved into the area than before! Rufus thought people would leave once the Chancellor set up his offices. Rufus himself wants nothing more than to get out of town. He had wanted to go over to Brush Neck Delta but we heard last week that they have accepted imperial oversight as well.

With all the new people in town, distribution has become quite a headache. If you want peppers you have to go all the way to the north to farmer Greens. If you want corn you have to go way out to the west to Farmer Quincy. And of course everyone complains about heading all the way out to the edge of the bay to get fish from us. Of course, many of the farmers have set up small stalls close to the Assembly Hall for convenience but then last week the Planning Council agreed that we needed to have a centralized farmers market.

It was actually a tremendous relief to put everything together at last. Naturally enough the Magistrate is still upset that we are using a barter system and that everything is shared by all. I am sure that the Chancellor would prefer that everything was more closely regulated so that he could impose a sales tax. But why should we change? We use no money here in Mystic County. That would only complicate things needlessly.

July 29

Dear mom,

Rufus and I have actually outgrown our little dock and decided to upgrade to a bigger one. Who would have thought that when we began the fishing co-op that it would have grown to such a big operation! Since the Chancellor’s engineers have completed the new bridge out to Wafer Island we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and build a new dock out there closer to the fishing grounds. This gives us more space to keep all the boats securely and we even built a small storage facility for sorting and cleaning the fish.

Dad thought having such a big space was excessive but I just don’t think he sees the big picture. We are providing a tremendous amount of food for the community and once the rail line is complete we will even have the means to transport food to some of the other smaller communities springing up as well.

August 10

Dear mom,

Still no word on the rail line. It feels like it has been forever but I guess in reality it hasn’t. It just feels longer because you are still not here.

The fishing is going well. We have more workers than we know what to do with and the boats are already beginning to crowd us out of the bigger dock.

December 27

Dear mom,

Things have grown cold again. We are not fishing much right now. If we go too far out the waters become blocked with ice. We do what we can.

In any case, I just wanted to share with you the big news. They are getting ready to begin construction on the new rail line this week!

That's all for now! Enjoy!

[Battlecat 14]

Great update!  The detailing of your rural development is superb!  The story is developing nicely as well, glad to see it got resolved at least for the moment! 

[anubis89 108]

wow, awesome shots, very nice style you've got there!

very detailled, the nature shots are amazing

[szarkoz 8]

I'm speechless...

This is the best CJ that has been started in last weeks. You show an amazing work, you've got great skills both in SC4 and storytelling.  I must admit, I'm really jealous when I see how you can edit the lots. I wish I could do that too!

What's more, the story is really well written, I like the way you write it - letters - well, I had a similar idea in my mind some time ago.

Amazing.

I'm looking forward to more.