Bedevere, a city journal ahead of it's time.

[Artman94 2]

wow those are nice warplanes...very realistic looking, too...It is exactly what I thought I sould do in my CJ! LOL! But, you did it first, so, I'll just not copy you or anything.

Pics are awesome...they are soooo colorful! creative story too, man; keep it up!

[Vanasonic 49]

Artman94: I wouldn't be too angry if you copied. I'd like to see how war planes would be implemented into your CJ. It'd be hard for them to doge the nukes exploding every couple of days in your CJ. Lol.

The replies seem to have dried up lately. But I'll try to push on ahead. Those comments sure do keep a CJ'er enthusiastic.

Update #7 - We're here in Bedevere! (includes animated rain and pictures of the characters) 

It was raining outside. Raining very hard. We could hear the sounds of outside. The sounds of people shouting and cranes lifting.

 

We were at Westpoint, Bedevere. The most cosmopolitan city on the island, if not probably this side of the world.

 

It’s been a long trip over a couple of weeks long; I lost count a while ago. “Okay, you lot,” the Captain ordered, “Take the right exit off the ship and stay put outside… oh, and try to keep yourselves warm, it’s cold outside.”

 

“Cold?” It was freezing, the wind was howling and the rain not just heard but now felt. We huddled, all 400 of us.

 

After what seemed like an hour, an ancient Mercedes rolled up and a bureaucratic man stepped out. “Welcome to Westpoint, Bedevere! I hope you enjoyed your trip.” I kept my emotions inside me but it seemed other had let theirs slip by judging the look of the man’s face.

 

“Get in a line and cross the road following the blue line, you will the board the next train, 40 of you in each container,” the man explained, “Enjoy the trip, I’ll tell you the next part when you get there.” With that the man walked into his Mercedes and drove off.

 

We followed the blue line and it showed us across the road and into a freight station. We waited until the next train came and it didn’t take long. The trip was rather pleasant as the surroundings were exciting. Westpoint has definitely changed from the pictures I held in my hand; a country town into a booming cosmopolitan city.

 

We were there. And the man looked like he was waiting for us there as well. “Wait in the car park,” the man said. He walked inside the black building and came out a couple of minutes after. “Okay, each of you walked in one at a time and fill out the forms, parents should fill out the forms of their children.” I was the second person to walk in; the form was rather easy to fill out, the usual stuff. Just had to get name taken down, age and places I’ve lived at.

---

A little side note: The buidling they are at is the grey building in the entre of the picture if you're wondering. Now back to the story.

---

 

Are you the Jane Grail from Alastair? asked the form taker, “The city that was bombed a month ago?”

 

“Yes,” I said wondering about, “the Jane Grail” part.

 

“Okay,” he said, “Just wait here with citizen #981,998 and we’ll take the picture of both of you, it’ll be faster to put two people into a single photograph.” And with that the form taker walked with the sheets into another room.

 

It turned out citizen #981,988 was Tom. “Hi there,” said Tom.

 

“Shut up,” I whispered angrily, “I can hear my name from the room next door.”

 

“But, we need to keep an eye of her… you know… she kills hope.”

“Shh! be quieter…”

---

I hope you guys enjoy this update. It's a rather big one at 482 words.

[Benedict 3,119]

Great animation of the rain!

[Vanasonic 49]

Benedict: Thanks! It took quite a while to do right. I should be able to make it look even better next time.

Keep the comments coming people. Please?

[jacqulina 162]

great update my friend love the effects fantastic animation with the bad weather

[homeandaway 1]

now..let me tell you - AMAZING! - this is just a nice calm CJ - with loads of imformative pics -

this one - is just so stunning! - could you tell me what you actually did to get it?

hope to see more of your fantastic work soon!

[Schulmanator 5,799]

Animated rain! Now, that's COOL!

[Vanasonic 49]

jacqulina: Thanks for coming in again, I was wondering where you were. Lol.

homeandaway: It is a bit hard but you need another editing program besides MS Paint but it's free! I might post a mini tutorial in the next update.

Schulmanator: Thanks for telling me what's cool. The more things that I now are cool the better and cooler this CJ will be.

Thanks guys. A mini tutorial on making your own animated rain will be included into the next update.

[ky72x 13]

Excellent job on the rain effects there, it really makes you feel like your part of the events occurring! Also I liked the pic of Jane and Tom, it's great to see them for the first time. Keep up the great work!

- Kyle

[Artman94 2]

beautiful rain pics, man, especially the animated one-keep up the good work!

EDIT: creative use with the sims, too!

[Shingure 56]

Omg the rain is mystifing

[Vanasonic 49]

ky72x: Yes, it took me a while before I decided on what Tom and Jane should look like. Although I had always imagined Jane to look like that anxious and mysterious while Tom, more innocent and reserved.

Artman94: You are pretty interested in this CJ arn't you? That's not a bad thing though.

Shingure: Yes, I agree. It's also a bit refreshing, don't you think?

I must include a little tutorial I found and used to make the rain. I didn't write it though and is a little technical, but there are pictures to help. You will need the program Paint.net before you atempt it. Don't worry Paint.net is a free program.

http://paintdotnet.12.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=1288

[needgames 0]

This is just so amazing. Wonderful story and really beautiful pics. Keep up the good work.

[shivsood 5]

I have just read through this cj and I really like it! The photoshopping and story are both excellent. I also like the way how you used the Sims 2 in this as well.

[penguin007 27]

Interesting tutorial there xperian really useful

can't wait for next update

Will

[Zarp 0]

Now I feel bad I never stopped by your CJ! Impressive story, wonder if Al Gore is actually right. =x

Great pictures along with an awesome story, I got surprised when you complained about lack of comments oO

I'll be always checking the new updates, keep up the good work!

[Vanasonic 49]

needgames: I also read your city journal using city life, I love the story. Thanks for commenting too!

shivsood: They'll be a lot more Sims 2 pictures in there. Besides being a Simcity fan, I love the Sims. I just didn't think of using it before to my advantage with this CJ.

penguin007: If you want to pursue the tutorial you will need to get Paint.net it's free and very easy to use. The community around it are very friendly and helpful. http://getpaint.net/index2.html

Zarp: Thanks! Better late than never I always say! As I have said before; Al Gore was right about what the sea level rising in the near future but was completely wrong about what caused it.

Wow, I've got loads of comments lately. Sorry, I couldn't update earlier like I used to but school and my swollen hand have been getting in my way lately. These comments have given me a very warm fuzzy feeling. I'll try to make myself work harder to give you guys the next update.

[DarkEldar 6]

not getting animation for the rain here

[jacqulina 162]

im sorry my friend that i was late im looking forward to more of your fantastic work

[Vanasonic 49]

DarkEldar: The animated rain is only on one of the picture the one with the container ship docked in port.

jacqulina: No problems. As long as you're here it doesn't matter when you come.

My hands almost better and I managed to get another big update for you people. I'm also deciding to join into a union which is exciting for me,

Update #8 – Jobs don’t always come from Newspapers

 

“Hmm,” I thought, “It seemed these people were on to me already.” I was wondering who told them in advance that I used to rob trains. It couldn’t be anyone on board though; I had kept a watchful eye on most of them.

 

And Tom wouldn’t betray me. He wouldn’t have anything to gain except as a reputation as a double crosser and he wouldn’t want that before he got the chance to get a job. The problem wasn’t important at the moment so I let it go.

 

After the form filling was done we were allowed to stay at a temporary centre for three days before the next shipments of people were scheduled to arrive. When the three days were up, we were escorted to the job centre to get jobs based on our past skills. Fortunately I had important contacts here, so I wouldn’t need to take a job; unluckily for Tom and most other on the ship with us they had to get themselves to work. Most people who flock to Bedevere first find work in the farms which were infamous for being labour intensive and low paying. Here’s a graph I found which included the job distribution:

 

Tom looked excited even though he was doomed the months of hard work like most others. His plan to get himself back to normal standard of living was to agree to work in the farms for months until he earned enough to get himself a home and get himself a decent job in Westpoint.

 

As I said before, I had contacts here in Westpoint. And it seemed I would be going to go back to what I do best; train robbing. Let’s see what Bedevere has to offer me.

[penguin007 27]

nice update and farms can't wait for train robbing

will

[jacqulina 162]

nice pic of the tents tempory housing i mean.nice close up shots,great farming too my friend,excellent work and pics

[giorgos69 52]

I like.

Well done.

[Vanasonic 49]

penguin007: Yes, there will be a few robberies.

jacqulina: Thanks for commenting, you're a legend.

giorgos69: Lol, short comment. Short reply.

My CJ has been split up into different parts and I'm glad to say that the first part; the Introduction has been finished. The second part will hopefully contain more action. In the mean time, here's the answer to Bedevere's influence around the world and the food supplies. I'll later edit a few picture in but that won't be untill a few hours when I get back from swimming training.

Update #8.5 – Food Supplies

 

Bedevere is an island. With the sudden rise in sea levels fertile land has become almost a rarity which Bedevere has an unusually high amount of. Despite that this fertile land is usually only accessible at certain types of the year or is too far away to be of any use.

 

The research and development sector have many prototypes of new “Skyfarms.” These skyfarms were first thought of in 1800 and more research went into them during 2007-2010. They were never implemented into society because of the mass anarchy and a skyfarm would be both fragile and valuable. Very easy to capture in battle.

 

These days Bedevere makes most of its money selling foodstuffs to the remaining survivors out there. Food is a very important resource and is used to persuade even the most paranoid of surviving towns to trade with Bedevere.

 

With Bedevere’s ace in the hole being the advantage of dominating the weakened world market with food, survivors around the world are highly encouraged to immigrate to Bedevere and earn an income farming to keep Bedevere increasing its food production even faster. There has been a 15% increase in the amount of people working in the farm industry over the last five years.

[rct3twins 14]

So um, will you continue about the jane grail part? for some reasons, i love female robbers...

[jacqulina 162]

thankyou,great idea with the pegs skyfarms i think they will fit in nicely to what your doing here my friend

[Zarp 0]

wow, so back to out-of-law life? Seems exciting =D looking forward next update

[ky72x 13]

Another excellent job Xperian! Once again I love the rain, it looks great! Also I like how you included the graph with the jobs, that is a very nice touch to the update. Keep up the good work!

- Kyle

[Vanasonic 49]

rct3twins: Yes, I will continue with the Jane Grail part. She and Tom will become a major characters in the plot. And no, Jane isn't attracted to Tom in any way so you wouldn't need to get jealous... ;] I tend to throw in a few little articles about the time in which Jane lives in so you won't get too confused about the plot.

jacqulina: A couple of years ago I thought of skyfarms before they were popular and thought of a society that would've relied on them. The peg skyfarms made me remeber that idea and they fit right into the 2050 style CJ I have.

Zarp: Yes, Jane has a low amount of welath in Bedevere so has to go back to earning money. Lukcily, she has a few contacts to get her back to scratch.

ky72x: I'm going for the "Most raining days in a CJ" award. Lol. I need to find more weather effects that I could do with Pain.net So far I can only do rain, sunny days and fog. I'm happy that people enjoy the rain, it took quite a while to master it.

I just edited in the pictures for Update 8.5 so you can look back at my previous post to see them.

[suplado! 23]

wow nice farms....and you already use the peg sky farm... good looking pics