Simtropolians Guide To the Virual World

[mrbisonm 1,622]

I hope the first pages have not been to painful to load with your connection.

quote>

 

not painful, but long.......lol... it was in between commercials during a tv-movie.

[K1A 0]

eh dude i like how u use the movie "the hitchhiker's guide to the galexy" to great use!!

[cowcorn 11]

Chapter VIII 
A summer in Duck Bay

Right after Wayne and his family came back from Long Mounatain Nationnal Park, Wayne was about to start his last year in the Enosbrug School, secondary five. The school system in Newenham has basically 4 types of schools. Six years elementary school (pre-school not included), 5 years of high school (equivalent to the 7th-11th grade elsewhere) and 2 to three years of intermediate college (12th-13th grade) depending of your program. Then comes university. Wayne's days in Enosburg Falls are soon to end...

Wayne's last year in Enosburg Falls was eventless, as lonely as all others. Now it's over, he has to work this summer to earn money to pay for what his parents won't be able to pay when he will start college in Centre Port in September. Wayne got a job in Duck Bay. It's quite far but the train makes the distance in about 45 minutes.

While Wayne was in Long Mountain last summer a new residential sector has grown. Also the road reached Duck Bay as well as Long Mountain.

This summer, the construction companies are very occupied building another sector expanding the town up in the Iron Hills range.

All this growth was triggered of course by the road and the railway but mostly because of the port's expansion. The Duck Docks is still the only international seaport in Newenham.

The factory at which Wayne is working this summer is the Consoltex textile factory in the brand new section of the harbour. He got affected to the dyeing department. It might sound dirty but actually it isn't because the dyeing process is done enclosed in a cylindrical tank inside which the fabric is dyed at temperatures around the boiling point. Wayne’s job is to load and unload those tanks. The fabrics are fully washed at the end of the cycle and the water in the tank is clear. The harder thing there is to withstand the moist heat of the shop.

The factory runs on 3 shifts 24 hours a day and most of the time Wayne works on the night shift so when he arrives at the rail station 2 corners from the shop it's already night out there.

Having the busiest industrial sector in Newenham meant that Duck Bay would have to deal with a lot of trash, so it was logic to put the trash processing plants in here. This also made Duck Bay a power provider for all Newenham.

When Wayne quits his job at the end of the summer the new sector is already fully occupied. Things are going so fast in Newenham, so many newcomers.

Duck Bay is now 17,000 population young and promising. As to Wayne, he had his first work experience; he is almost 18 years old now, about to move out to Centre Port. A whole new world is soon to open to him. It's about time... Wayne didn't have any news from outside of his very little world.

That's it I hope you like it.

Replies:

mrbisonm: Lol! That's what I tought...
K1A: Hey you noticed it! Great reader. However I relied more on the original books on how to write the story. I realy recommend to read them they are so great, I read all five books in 3 weeks, and english is not my first language.

[wouanagaine 86]

I really like this update !

The mega peg pond should have take you hours to do ( at least it will take me hours to do the same )

I also like the last pic, the general overview is a great way to get the whole picture !

Take care

[Battlecat 14]

Another great update!  That pond and forest looks great.  You've got a really nice variety of buildings in that industrial area. 

[mightygoose 92]

wicked update the forests look stunning, andthe industrial area has so many bats i have never seen, so so good looking, great work

[K1A 0]

Originally posted by: cowcorn

K1A: Hey you noticed it! Great reader. However I relied more on the original books on how to write the story. I realy recommend to read them they are so great, I read all five books in 3 weeks, and english is not my first language.

quote>

o thts cool, i hate to be a $%&^! but is it true tht most europeans are bi or trilingual??? if so wow, im only tryin to learn spanish and almost done with my first year

[cowcorn 11]

wouanagaine: Thanks! The lake took me ages, but I wanted to make a jaw dropper.

Battlecat: Thanks!

mightygoose: Thanks! It's probably the japanese bats. Most of the new part is plopped.

K1A: Your not a $%&^! to ask that but there is a littl problem...I live in Quebec, a french speaking province of Canada. In Quebec, about 70% of the population is somehow bilingual. Most of the people that speak 2 languages or more are immigrants that learned both french and english when comming here. Both english and french are mandatory from 4th grade to Cegep (13th grade), but for most the second language class is insufficient to be realy bilingual.

[Fabiocb 1]

Truly amazing, the firs pic with that swap area, the waterfall and bridges took my breath,  simply awesome.

The harbor is looking very nice as well as the residencial areas.

[K1A 0]

Originally posted by: cowcorn

K1A: Your not a $%&^! to ask that but there is a littl problem...I live in Quebec, a french speaking province of Canada. In Quebec, about 70% of the population is somehow bilingual. Most of the people that speak 2 languages or more are immigrants that learned both french and english when comming here. Both english and french are mandatory from 4th grade to Cegep (13th grade), but for most the second language class is insufficient to be realy bilingual.quote>

eh i appoligize because i thought  you lived in europe , you guys have 13 grades or more?? is the english n french requirement the same across the country  in B.C or Alberta??

[cowcorn 11]

Fabiocb: Thanks! Always appreciated.

K1A: You don't have to apologise... it's OK there is no problem. I think the requirements are very different depending of the province. Most schools here are french and the requirments for french are has high as they would be for english in the west. The second language english is mandatory from 3rd to 11th grade. The 11th grade is the end of high school but there is an intermediate between high school and university called cegep. It is 2 years if you are in a pre-university program and 3 years for a technical program i.e. a professionnal diploma over the high school job formation like lets say welding. In both case there is one year of english mandatory in cegep and both share a common formation for all program wich include, apart from english, french litterature, gym, philosophy and general optionnal classes. If you are at an english school in Quebec the requirements are the same but you switch the 1st and second language.

[mrbisonm 1,622]

Yapp!! That lake is indeed a jawdropper, no doubt.

Great update again.

Where did you get that red-capped silos from on the fourth picture (right side) and the cimentplant looking like Industrial lot just below thre silos on the lower left with the tall chimney and a red line on top?

Keep it up.

mrbisonm

[cityhawk 12]

Very nice industrial/port areas and residential areas as well. Why did Wayne quit his job? Was it to go to school, or was he just tired of travelng for a long time there and back everyday? Anyhow, great job and can't wait for more!

[K1A 0]

Originally posted by: cowcorn

K1A: You don't have to apologise... it's OK there is no problem. I think the requirements are very different depending of the province. Most schools here are french and the requirments for french are has high as they would be for english in the west. The second language english is mandatory from 3rd to 11th grade. The 11th grade is the end of high school but there is an intermediate between high school and university called cegep. It is 2 years if you are in a pre-university program and 3 years for a technical program i.e. a professionnal diploma over the high school job formation like lets say welding. In both case there is one year of english mandatory in cegep and both share a common formation for all program wich include, apart from english, french litterature, gym, philosophy and general optionnal classes. If you are at an english school in Quebec the requirements are the same but you switch the 1st and second language.quote>

thats very interesting, my modern world history teacher also does a french class and he was in army intel. during the cold war so he speaks russian,french, and possibly other languages!!

[cowcorn 11]

mrbisonm: The silos are japanese bats. I probably got them from the gallery. The other lot is a steel mill found on the STEX. I'll have the links tomorrow.

cityhawk: Thanks for your comment. Your question will be answered at the beginning of the next update. By the way, did everything go well at school?

K1A: Great. If he was intel during the coldwar maybe he speaks german too, you could ask him. There is also mrbisonm here that speaks a few languages.

Everyone: The next update will be late night tuesday or wednesday, as soon as I can do it.

[aleko 0]

Good ! Looks very realistic.

[cityhawk 12]

Originally posted by: cowcorn

cityhawk: By the way, did everything go well at school?quote>

Yes, I got the 100% grade for my research paper and my computer class project! Woot! Now, I've got to take 3 final exams over the next two day. Dangit! Thanks for asking, and I'm looking forward to your next update!

[cowcorn 11]

aleko: Thanks for your comment and welcome to the SGTVW.

cityhawk: Congrats to you!

To all: Sorry for not updating as promised, let's say I needed some time to ponder a few things. Unfortunately you'll have to wait again because I just got a summer job on the evening shift. Although my finances will back okay rapidly this shift really hurts my schedule so you might have to wait until at least sunday for the next update. I'll keep you posted on my progress. I just hope the CJ doesn't fall into oblivion again and that I don't have to rebuild the interest again.

[Battlecat 14]

Well I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for your next update when you get the chance!  Night shifts are seriously painful.  Good luck with that!

[cowcorn 11]

Battlecat: Thanks a lot for your support. Actualy I did night shifts and I didn't have too much problems with it as I'm very nocturnal. The problem with the evning shifts(3:30 PM to midnight) is that iI have no csocial life and that my day is splitted in two instead of having the job strait from the bed and then freetime. I have to go to sleep at 2:00 AM and I don't have that much time free when I get up until I go to work. Anyway the job sucks... big time!

[cowcorn 11]

Bad news...

The city file that contains West Port and Center Port is corrupted. I will have to put this CJ on hold for the time I rebuild this city. I have a backup of the map but there is a lot to rebuild.

Thanks for understanding.

cowcorn

July 4th: I've edited the CJ in chapters. As to the progress around Centre Port, everything is going along nicely with some surprises as to the population. I can't actualy give a date for the next update but I will update this post as the progress goes.

[Rayden 7]

Good to hear that, let's hope the update doesn't take too long And don't forget to backup your sc4 folder once in a while.

[cowcorn 11]

Great news everybody!

The rebuiding is comming along great. I should update on it by next week but in the meantime I will make a special update by friday night.

Rayden: Actualy I never found the problem. I tried everything I could but it seems the problem is only with one city, all the rest is OK. If the entire region would be scrap that would mean the end because there is no way I would replop those trees on the same map. That' why I decided to make a backup of the entire region as it was before I restarted the lost tile. Thanks for your support.

[KyNYC 16]

Wow...I'm astonished at all the details in the pics and the story telling! Great job! I've become more inspired to make my cities/regions a lot more picturesque and real! Thanks!

[gurrgkud 2]

this cj is quite fantastic. i especially love the first pic of the last update... very nice, and quite a nice story too

[sloppet 3]

awesome work has been done here CowCorn! I like those updates, keep up the good work!

[cowcorn 11]

Chapter IX, 
What is the Guide?
Since the beginning, most of our story took place of the land of Newenham, a quiet colony on a northern continent. So why is this story entitled The Simtropolians Guide to the Virtual World and not simply Newenham? Who am I to know? I’m just the narrator; I only read what the master of this world writes. Something tells me that the answer lies in this chapter.

 

 

Newenham is one world out of many virtual worlds created by members of a large community. Its master, as some of you may have guessed, is named Joel or better known in Simtropolis as Cowcorn. Simtropolis? What is it? Well it is one of the communities of creators, readers builders designers passionate by virtual worlds. (I somehow think this last sentence is useless and that its purpose is solely to turn your modest narrator into ridicule.) One branch of this community is dedicated to the sharing and showing of each member’s work. Newenham is only one of them. (And one quite unknown...) There are an awful lot of worlds in Simtropolis, another one of them is Genesus , mastered by Wouanagaine.

 

 

So what is the thing with the Guide doing with all this. Well, the guide is as it says : a guide book. Much like a tourism guide, it tells you where is everything, what to see and some history. In the case of Genesus, it might contain information on its marvellous coastal city.

 

 

What makes the Guide different from any other guide book is that it offers its contributors direct link to their work. So someone reading the Simtropolians Guide to the Virtual World might be tempted to go see what its contributors have for their own. Someone could then access Genesus and see this (next picture) and read a description from this world’s creator saying that Genesus has a beautiful waterfront perfect for a relaxing afternoon of sun, alcohol punch and beach lazyness.

 

 

In each of the creators’ personal space (also called CJs) readers can interact with world masters and comment there work. Some reader might see the next picture and comment the next picture and write a comment saying that Wouanagaine seems to have an obsession for roundabouts.

 

 

As I said, there is a multitude of worlds around Simtropolis and there is also a multitude of approaches one creator can take. All these approaches can loosely be categorised in picture based or story based. There are a lot of shades to this. A memorable discussion took place about this that was entitled ‘’Are story based CJs dying out?’’

Genesus is a picture based CJ. Its creator built a world and shows it to the community. When the world is built and everything has been shown the CJ ends. A great example of a story based CJ would be Nexis of Genesis.

 

 

As you can see Nexis of Genesis also has great cities and beautiful landscape but the center of interest is the story. It may seem a bit unusual for a community based on sharing content and experience but you never know what is the creative push to make an entire virtual world. (See the above mentioned thread for more on the subject)

 

 

The story of Nexis of Genesis is followed by many readers for more than 2 years now. This makes it the 2^nd oldest active CJ in Simtropolis and the oldest running story. The secret of this longevity lies in many reasons. One of them might be that it started out of nothing. In the beginning, Genesis was an untouched land on a inhabited planet.

 

 

Nexis of Genesis features an almost epic story featuring so many characters that its creator mrbisonm sometimes loose tracks of some of them. Every character in this story is relevant to the history of this world. Some were the pioneers of the agriculture industry.

 

 

Some others became incredibly rich by exploiting first the resources of the rich Genesis underground.

 

 

This world developed fast and soon heavy industries came in.

 

 

Of course there are people working in those industries and quiet suburbs appeared.

 

 

Genesis became bigger and bigger and every field of the development rose up…even tourist traps.

 

So many worlds, so many things to see. The Simtropolians Guide to the Virtual World is only one attempt to unite them in all their diversity. Exactly how it is used is the matter of another chapter. (Oh common Joel! This is such a lousy way of ending a chapter. Stop making me read such lines; it’s an insult to my standing. I used to read great novels, not like this piece of crap!)

Comments:

I realy didn't expect comments on a 6 weeks old update but it's always gratifying.

KyNYC: Thanks a lot for your comment. It's the turning wheel of Simtropolis. Some inspire others that in their turn inspire more people.
gurrgkud: Thanks a lot! I still don't know how many good comments I can get with that lake.
sloppet: It's always a pleasure the read your comments. Your CJ is great too.

[Fallon144 1]

I absolutely love this style man, keep it up

[mrbisonm 1,622]

It sounds like an intro ,but on page 5, excellently done. Newenham will be on my list for sure (a Simtropolians guide to the virtual world) .

And hey ....thanks cowcorn for the talking so nice about *NoG* (Nexis of Genesis). I haven't been doing an update there for a short while, but I will as soon as I find the time for it....promissed.

Good Luck Joel and keep it coming!

mrbisonm

[jacqulina 162]

wonderfull updates beautifull work you have done a wonderfull job,awesome pics