Simtropolians Guide To the Virual World

[Fischbob 9]

Your pictures are still looking beautiful! The region sort of vaguely reminds me of Atlantic Canada, and the story is starting to get rather intriguing.

You haven't heard the last of me!

[cowcorn 11]

I know it's been two weeks but I'm sorry to announce that I will not update this CJ until around April 7th. I'm currently way over my head with real life right now. I will be back with the answer to the last update's mystery. Oh surprise!

Replies:

cityhawk: Thanks for dropping your comment it's very appreciated. I hope my lack of updates doesn't kill your enthousiasm.

profecy:Thanks for the comment! I must give credit to Flamesrock for the base greyscale on wich I only have to apply my ideas.

[sloppet 3]

Nice to hear.. till 7/04/06 then...

[seemurray2 21]

Awesome terraforming, see you in April!

[cityhawk 12]

Don't worry! My enthusiasm won't be killed. I'll be looking for it around 04/07/06 then.

[cowcorn 11]

Chapter V 
The Creator

Gary was busy on his laptop figuring out the situation. At the same time he was chatting with someone.

-'Have you figured it out yet?' wrote the other person.
-'I'm getting it.' answered Gary.
 The voice of Wayne was heard from the speakers. 'I'm still waiting.'

'Hang on Wayne, here you go!'

Wayne feet started to vanish, then his legs, his abdomen and gradually all his body. Just when he had completely disappeared he started to reappear top to bottom just beside Gary.

'Where am I he said?'
'In my room. You are about to see the one who created you.'
'God?'
'Hum no, though he would be flattered to hear you say that. Come with me. He will all explain you what happened.'

They were in a long corridor with a lot of doors.

They then entered a small messy room.

Everything in that room was at a maximum of two steps from his reach.

In a blue office chair was sitting a 5'8' slightly overweight man dressed with a red shirt and black pants.

-'Here Wayne I present you your creator, Joel.'
-'What! he is my creator. That's nonsense!'
-'If that is nonsense to you then nothing I will say will make any sense to you. You are part of a story I write. Your world is one of hundreds of other virtual worlds created by other people around my world, which is the real one of course.'

Joel pointed Wayne to his computer screen. On it appeared a picture of a gigantic dam made out of rocks.

-This world is one like your's. It's story is one of a newly discovered planet wich is colonized in prediction of the annihilation the home planet. It's called Genesis. There is someone in this world that resembles me. I've asked the creator of this world to be a part of his incredible story. He is a model to me in writing stories. Gary asked me what I asked the creator of Genesis. He is what we call a simtropolian, one who travels between the virtual worlds contained in Simtropolis.

-'I don't believe you!' said Wayne.

-'You don't believe me... then try to pass your left arm trough your right arm.'
-'Do what?'
-'You heard me now do it!'

Wayne was completely stupefied. He could cross his arm and go trough hid entire body like there was nothing there.

-'You are only an hologram in my world. The thing you have at your wrist projects your image. In order to be solid you need to put this in your ear.'

Joel handed Wayne a two inch green worm.

-'What! That's disgusting!'

-'It's a holoworm. Let me do it for you.'

Wayne felt a strange feeling as the worm headed down is ear canal. In fact, he started to... feel plain and simple. The feeling of his own body spread slowly down to his feet. Suddenly he could smell... Uhh foot odour...

-'Now clap your hands. demanded Joel.'

Wayne clapped his hands and felt a little better... let's say more normal.

A word from the guide:

The holoworm is a very special creature. According to the Simtropolians Guide to The Virtual World, a holoworm is an animal that feeds on holographic photons. It digests it and excretes body cells that act as real flesh.

-Now I'm going to tell you why you are here. Your character was beginning to get boring; since you are the centre of my story I needed to do something to spice things up. I tought it would be funny to make you different than everybody around you on every possible aspect. I decided to bring you to life. As a writer I control a lot of what happens around you but I keep much of the characters free. A life that's nothing but happy does not make a good story so sometimes tings may happen to you that you'll want to curse me for. In this case I’d suggest you to call me god... Otherwise you might look silly. Another thing is that you might experience time shifts because sometimes I need to jump in time in order to keep tings interesting. You will be the only one to notice it. I will figure out a way to let you know what happened in the meantime.

Now it's time for you to get back in your world.

Joel clicked on a button on his screen and just as Wayne appeared in Gary's room previously he started to disappear.

-'Do you think he's going to be able to cope with it?' asked Gary.

-'I hope so, I almost lost him once, I don't want it to happen twice.'

When Wayne woke up he was in his bed. He felt like he was waking up from a very weird dream.

He noticed it was all white. Strange, it was fall when he went to sleep.

He decided to take a walk trough the village. He walked only a few blocks before he saw something unexpected. There was a railway and a train station. For as long has he remembered Newenham didn't even have a railway.

Wayne came back home and he was surprised to see something that looked like a portable computer but clearly wasn't. It was an electronic book. He opened it and there was this picture and a date.

Wayne was surprised to see that the date was more than one year after the time he thought he was. He closed the book and examined it. On the back cover there was large blue letters that said 'It's just a game!' On the front cover, in small letters written in the bottom right corner there was these words 'The Simtropolians Guide To the Virtual World'. Wayne suddenly realised he didn't dream at all.

[cowcorn 11]

Since the last update got completely unnoticed I will take the occasion to answer previous comments in a different post (semi-legal bump...). 

sloppet: Thanks for the encouragement, it's nice to see a regular poster.

seemurray2: Thanks!

cityhawk: Thanks for your support. Hope to see you.

Wooo hoooo! 200th post

[bmag_20 61]

Originally posted by: Fischbob The region sort of vaguely reminds me of Atlantic Canadaquote>

I would have to agree. Region looks a lot like the small coastal areas of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

keep it up!

[Fabiocb 1]

great work man, and the story is quite funny hahahaha it that you for real and you room?

[cowcorn 11]

bmag_20: Actualy the map is from Alaska wich explains the sea on the west side. Some towns will keep that aspect. Some like Center Port will become quite large, altough it maybe will sorta look like Halifax. Most of what I've seen as to coastal towns is in atlantic Canada or at least in Gaspesia.

Fabiocb: I'm glad you like the story and... well the guy in the first picture is my neighbour. I'm more like Joel ''the creator'' and the messy room is actualy mine...

[mightygoose 92]

omg lad you should do a terraforming tutorial your countrysides minus the towns are stunning, you really do make a showcase for the seasonal trees, it just looks so real, and rural and amazing. god this work is brilliant

[cowcorn 11]

mightygoose: Thanks! If by teraforming you mean forrest, lake and stream plopping; that I could make a tutorial. As to general teraforming I start from a greyscale which I reshape to my preference. That would be easy to write how I do it... just choose an great map to begin with and it's a lot easier. Oh ... and if my towns aren't stunning then how would qualify them, i'd like to know. Are they bad?

To all: I should come with an update around Sunday as long as I can advance on my term end papers. This time you'll have some new developpement in a more newspaper like story.

[sloppet 3]

cowcorn, you did a really great job on the last update! keep it up!

[patfirefghtr 160]

wow loving the story keep it up and loving the pics

[Battlecat 14]

Very cool city journal!  The story is quite surreal but very intriguing.  The real world photos were a nice touch.  I'm looking forward to the next installment! 

[Micah 16]

Let it snow, let is snow, let is snow... Good song to match with this CJ.

Fantastic job.

The storyline is great and detailed.

The town looks fantastic with those leaveless trees and massive river.

Can't wait for more updates!

[wouanagaine 86]

I've just discovered your CJ, you have a very unique one

Great work

[cowcorn 11]

Chapter VI 
Associated Simtropolis Reporters

An alarm clock beeped trough Wayne's Bedroom. Wayne woke up, got off his bed and reached for his copy of the Simtropolians Guide. One of it's many functions is that it can be used has an alarm clock if needed for whatever might be a simtropolians reason, including to remember the user that he also has a real life. A green light was flashing on the right side of the guide. This usually meant that there was new mail or subscription notice from any news from one of the many virtual worlds. Wayne opened his guide. On the screens wallpaper was a satellite photo of his own world : the colony of Newenham.

Wayne looked at the date marked at the bottom left corner of his screen, June 1st, 975, Colonial Day.

'Hah! Time shift again.' muttered Wayne.

The mail icon on his screen flashed on hi screen. Wayne clicked on it. There was message from Joel, his creator, and a subscription notice from his own world's news. Wayne opened the message.

Hi Wayne!

You may have noticed that there has been a time shift. Your father is no longer working on the docks since almost no shipping is made from Iron hill via the Duck River since the opening of the railway to Dusk Bay. Consequently, he is now working for the Newenham Railway Company has a train driver, he is paid better but he can't get back home every night. You can ask him for a ride since he’s authorised to take one passenger with him, (please say thanks!). The information you need can be found in your the latest newspaper article that should arrive together with this mail.

Have a nice holiday!

Joel

Wayne opened his mail to read the article:

New railway to create economic boom

As the last sleepers are laid today in Long Mountain many say that the new railway will be the starting of a massive growth of Newenham's economy and population. Already in Long Mountain a project to build a hotel to serve the Natural reserve year round is submitted to the town council.

The magnificent reserve is well known for its hiking trails in the summer but in the winter these trails are converted into cross-country ski trails.

The increasing amount of tourism may even trigger an expansion of the park and it's beautiful trails east of the mountain.

Although, the bridge linking Long Mountain to the railway branch going from Iron hill to Duck Bay was completed before the beginning of the winter the railway could not be completed until spring because of the early freeze that occurred in late November. The completion of the railway could not be resumed until the soils dried out in early may from the April defreeze.

The first station to be finished was in St-Armand, the agricultural capital of Newenham.

Here, facilities have been built to ship excess grains to Duck Bay for exportation to the very needing mother nation of Kenzieland.

The town in which the impact of the new railway is he most visible is Vezina Valley. Here the population exploded from 2,000 residents to 14,000 in a single year. It was all part of the immigration plan of Kenzieland. The mother nation currently has a booming demography and the employment growth can't cope with the ever growing amount of workers available, thus creating a growing unemployment problem. The solution seemed to be to canalize the population growth trough emigration to the colony.

The construction of the Newenham railway was the trigger here as it convinced two major employers to install there first business in the colony. A distillery and a large abattoir were built to take advantage of the Newenham agriculture.

In Iron hill the effect of the railway is much less positive. Since Iron hill relied partly on he shipping of the coal to Duck Bay, most of the jobs created by the railway only compensated for the loss of jobs on the docks triggering very little growth.

Since the overall funding was coming short, the decision was made that the tunnel should be made right trough the iron hill. The engineers in charge of the project made sure that there was not iron ore in the path of the tunnel and that the digging in the mine does not endanger the tunnel's stability.

The main purpose of this great project was to connect every town via a solid network to the Duck Bay docks for transoceanic shipping.

Duck Bay still has no road connection to other towns but the building of the railway triggered an increase in the port activity and a new neighbourhood has grown around the town rail station.

In Center Port the new prosperity triggered an increase in the commercial sector. Despite being now second (12,000 pop.) in population behind Vezina Valley it is much richer. The town expanded towards the newly built terminus station. This station as you can see was clearly built in anticipation of major growth. Some of this growth might be caused partially by the Newenham College built at the same time. This college is the first ever to be built in Newenham and will sure open a lot of new opportunities has young Newenhamers will not have to move to the mother country to pursue their ambitions.

The next years of our existence are sure looking very promising and your favourite news will be there to cover it. I will finish this article by showing our readers the newly released transportation map of Newenham.

Gary Longhorns
Associated Simtropolian Reporters

Wayne closed his guide.

'Well, I think I should have a chat with my father then...'

That was the update, now answering the comments:

sloppet: Thanks a lot for your support.
patfirefghtr: Thanks a lot!
Battlecat: Surreal is the target! Thank you for remarking it.
wouanagaine: Welcome to the SGTVW! I hope you'll like this update.

[cityhawk 12]

Great pics and facts about things that are observed in real life! Ex.

The engineers in charge of the project made sure that there was not iron ore in the path of the tunnel and that the digging in the mine does not endanger the tunnel's stability.quote>

Also, the story element is still good. Keep it up!

[wouanagaine 86]

Ho yes, I like this one even if I'm not fan of winter shots.

I like you show us so much different farm fields. They are even some i have never seen before

BTW : I know why I'm not fan of your winter shots, you should have hide the grid

[Fabiocb 1]

great work man I love those waterfalls, and they sure took a lot of time to be done, but I can tell you it worth it because the effect is great, and the region map of transportation looks great.

[cowcorn 11]

cityhawk: Thanks! Be consious that I may have kept myself an opening here...

wouanagaine: I know about the grid. I've seen it when I was processing the pictures but I really wanted to post the update and I didn't want to open the game just to retake two pictures, especially when the winter mod cuases even more crashes to my game. I decided to keep them because apart from the grid they still looked good for me. Thanks for your comment, it's always appreciated.

Fabiocb: Thanks a lot! Long Mountain along with Enosburg Falls are the two places that needed the most time.

[sloppet 3]

very original! Good work!

[Passmeabuurr 0]

You Terraforming is absolutely amazing!!! I want my regions coasts to look more natural like yours, the caps, and the hight of the cliffs. Id be honored if you gave me some tips. Maybe look at my region and see how I could tweak it to highter terrain along the coasts? Its in the northen Atlantic so. But honestly you are incredible, jus the way the mountains pop up through the trees. And I love how u had it snowing for part of your story and then went back to green. Great job! You should write a Terraforming tutorial dude.

[metasmurf 705]

great update

[cowcorn 11]

sloppet: Hehe! Thanks!

Passmeabuurr: Not sure if I should make a tutorial. To be true I would not be able to recreate this map using only the ingame tools. This map is from the STEX. I mostly work around that map. There is some areas where I did some extensive terraforming (Enosburg Falls) but I mostly do tweaking. Most of the coastline is in fact untouched from the original map. What I think makes my region unique is the lots I used to customize the map. A lot of the skills I needed to create this region relies only in the choice of mods downloads and lot editing I made. Hope this helped. Be sure that I'll drop a comment or two in your CJ.

metasmurf: Well... Thanks!

[purpledaddy 6]

I really like the snow mods. Does the crashing mean that they are temporary and no permanent winter?

[SpecialEddie 3]

I really like the story (I don't usually read other SimTrop CJ stories), but this one got me interested. Really cooool. It's kinda like a Matrix-scenario. Poor Wayne...good thing I'm not him--discovering I'm just a virtual character...

*dissolves*

*realizes I'm a virtual character*

Oh gee. That sucks.

But anyway, I think this is one of the best CJ's on Simtropolis--the PEG trees and the Snow Mod are just spectacular. Everything is spectacular. Weeeeeee 

[cowcorn 11]

purpledaddy: Thanks! There will be winter as the seasons past. The only thing you will be able to notice is that I will not visit some cities in the winter. Winter pictures will mostly be rural features. Also, time skipping might be bigger in the winter. In other words there might be only one winter update for every 3 or for summer or fall updates.

SpecialEddie: I'm glad you liked that aspect. Has to how Wayne will cope with that part you'll see... it might not be that dramatic... 

To all: The next update is scheduled to be posted sunday the 7th, probably in the evening (simtropolis time).

[soldyne 111]

well, well, well. this is quite a fine piece of work you have here. I am awed by your region shots. I liked your idea of making a 6x6 plopable seasonal lot to speed things up. I spend so much time just covering a small map, a large map would take forever. I really like the small town feel too. great terraforming btw.