Simtropolians Guide To the Virual World

[cowcorn 11]

Chapter XV

Expansion

 

2 months latter…

 

Wayne was cleaning up his e-mail box when he saw one message he totally forgot about. It was the one in which Garry had sent a link to the latest article he had done for the Guide.

 

Speaking of Garry he was gone. He was assigned to do field research in another virtual world. Which one we don’t know but at least we know why he didn’t bother Wayne with reading his article over the last two months.

 

Wayne had some free time and opened the article.

 

Kenzieland to push for mass colinization in Newenham

 

Centre Port, Newenham

Real world date January 10^th 2007.

 

The Kenzieland minister of colonization announced today the new plans for the continuing expansion of Newenham. It was obvious to everyone that it would include an expansion of the transit network of the actual area just to keep it expanding. In the last years, the expansion around Centre Port has lead to strain the actual network, threatening any more expansion. The best example of this is the new town of St-Célestin (4 pictures below) just north of East Port. It was founded has a new agriculture town but the land on the hillside and the building of the new military base has triggered fast growth which also makes the new town a suburb of the colony’s main city.

 

 

The main road leading to Centre Port is known has commuter’s inferno and the expansion of Newenham's highways has become critical.

  

 

Also important is the fact that the actual regional network is insufficient in moving goods fast and securely.

  

 

This is why the new plan includes two main highways one leading to Vezina Valley and beyond and one that should reach the Duck Bay area via Iron hill.

 

The new highway plans however do not make the approval of all local elected officials. In an interview at Newenham radio Mayor Neville Farmer of Vezina Valley reacted strongly about the projected path of the new highway since it will eat a lot of farmland and newly built real estate in his town. “This is a fraud to all Valley citizens” he said to the stations listeners.

   

 

The biggest surprise, although some rumours were circulating, was the announcement of mass colonization on the North Coast of Newenham. This marks up a strong change in Kenzieland colonization policies. Up to now colonization was a small priority, especially when compared to other countries with much more imperialistic views of the world. Today’s plan calls for the establishment of a new urban area on the North Coast predicted to house has much has 1,000,000 new citizens in the next 10 years.

 

Other countries' appetite for land is probably the main reason why Kenzieland has decided to push colonization. In the last few years, Kenzieland sovereignty in Newenham has been threatened more than once. Moreover, studies published recently by the Kenzieland office of statistics underlines that the actual national demography might soon outgrow the economy. 

 

 

The expected cost of this new plan is not included in today’s announcement but analysts expect it to be higher than any project in the history of Kenzialand.

Garry Longhorns
Associated Simtropolian Reporters

Comments

This is the fist update in a long time but I wasn't completly inactive. All the expansion on the curent area is done and I will show it in the next updates. Also this update is my first photoshop attempt so comments and tips are much appreciated.

asturainu: I think you can see how much mountains there is now.

[Schulmanator 5,812]

Nice frosty update! The region pic looks great with all that snow. Glad to see you back in action!

[collgab 10]

oooh, pwetty

[cowcorn 11]

Replies:

Schulmanator and collgab: Thanks a lot for commenting, it's very appreciated.

Coming in the next update later this week: Highways, highways, highways...

[homeandaway 1]

OMFG, that totally rocks my friend, im certainly gonna view this fantastic CJ again!.

Take care

~Alex~

[hamsterTK 93]

I wonder if they have put any thought into organized, transit-oriented high density development for this colonization

I suppose the cost must be the issue

[soldyne 111]

excellent road tour earlier. it makes the whole region seem alive and realistic; going from inner city to rural. as always a wonderful mixture of story and eye candy!  the snow is just fantastic, well done.  and the cat is quite amusing, I have three here myself

[cowcorn 11]

Ni everyone!

The following update is more or less a "Hey I'm still there update" to show you that something has actualy been done. I should update whenever I get the time in between final exams and semester papers.

Chapter XVI

Progress is power

(title freely theft from Chocolatemax285's Gold Depra...)

We now jump 2 years in time in the history of this world. The real world date, however, hasn’t change that much. Wayne is now 20 years old and finally finishing his pre-university diploma. We will get to him in the next chapter. We are off to see how fast some things have progressed for the virtual world of Newenham.

 

In the last 2 years the first phase of the expansion went fully in action. Most of it is the expansion around the already existing towns in preparation to the more massive phase 2 on the north coast. One very important feature of phase 1 was the expansion of the rail and highway to provide fast links to every part of the region. There is now 2 main highways: Cape highway (10) linking the Port cities to Duck Bay and Pioneer’s highway (20) a thruway in Centre Port going to Vézina Valley and beyond to the future development on the north coast. The new infrastructure were so effective in getting towns closer that many newcomers now do commute several cities apart.

 

One of the main new job providers is the new industrial sector south of West Port: Grey Beach. This new area will shortly receive the new deep water harbour that is much needed to bring all the material necessary for the construction up north.

 

Now what about our main character? It seems like he has been secondary to this story lately. It may be time to look at this story more closely.

[B]Replies:

homeandaway:

Glad you liked it! Thanks.

hamsterTK: There will defitively be a lot of planning involved and money is a strong issue. Especialy in which's pockets it ends... I might have given too much here...

soldyne: Great! Another cat lover. Thanks for the kind comment, that's exactly what I'm trying to acheive.

[siso43 13]

Great pics cowcorn. Looks fantastic with snow.

[Schulmanator 5,812]

[daniel01 0]

looking really good, keep up the good work

daniel01

[cowcorn 11]

Replies

siso43: Thanks! Great to see new people commenting.

Schulmanator: Thanks for the tought, this is a great picture.

daniel01: Thanks for dropping by, it's always appreciated.

Here is a little teaser update. I tought I should at least show a few changes before I update since I can't show everything and fit in the story at the same time. By the way the main city is now 203,000 residents, more than double the count in the last major update of this city. This is West Port taken looking west.

Take care.

cowcorn

[cowcorn 11]

Double post. Sorry.

[Schulmanator 5,812]

Nice shot. The town is looking good!

[cowcorn 11]

Some more teaser pictures today. This time it's from Vezina Valley 4km west of the Port cities.







Replies:

Schulmanator: Thanks! That way I know I'm not just taking alone.

To everyone: The next 2 updates will be more or less on the already developped part of the region. I should start to show stuff from the new area soon after that. Probably in may once the exam period is behind.

Thanks to everyone who takes a look at this CJ commenting or not.

[cowcorn 11]

Had to double post because of the MPB...

[Schulmanator 5,812]

Some nice shots - a cool combination of things.

[cowcorn 11]

Chapter XVII(A)

In the News

The day is Monday May 7th. The time of the day is noon. The year… well we will have to track that back later. Waynes is at the end of the winter semester at Newenham College. All his exams are behind, which means that he is virtually on vacation or more precisely on summer job search mode.

 

Wayne is at his desk in his room at his parents’ house in Enosburg Falls. He takes sip at his coffee, roles his eyes back and vocally expresses his satisfaction.

 

“Ahhhhhhhhh!” he says.

“That’s the flavour I was looking for.” He then mutters to himself.

 

Following that scene Wayne opens his copy of The Simtropolians Guide to the Virtual World© and checks on the news. He hooks on an article entitled “Yet another road inauguration”. Here is the article in question.

 

St-Celestin, Newenham

Monday May 7, 2007 in real world

ASR Press Agency

 

Today is inauguration day in St-Celestin. The agricultural town/sleeping town is now also a manufacturing power house and Pionner’s Highway (A20) has been expanded in consequence.

The piece of highway inaugurated today by Mayor Arthur Klein of St-Celestin is the new link between A20, Celestin Hills Boulevard and Main Street needed to take out some stress to the also recently built A15. The excess of traffic is mainly caused by the flow of commuters traveling either to Hedford Heights’ malls or to the manufacturing plants at the eastern border of St-Celestin.

At the ceremony Mayor Klein was quick to link the ever climbing prosperity of his town and to link it to the efficiency of his administration. The speaker for Association for Shared Metropolitan Responsibilities (ASMR), a group of citizens in favour merging most cities around Centre Port, was quick to reply. Although he protested that this prosperity was due to “the simple fact that St-Celestin close to a big city” and not because of Mayor Klein’s administration it seems that the citizens of St-Celestin are strongly behind their mayor has confirmed by a local poll.

 

This road inauguration was only the last in a series of great infrastructure projects included in the new colonization plan. New roads are opening every month these days in Newenham and St-Celestin has got a fair share of it. It’s the second highway to be built here in 2 years. The first was the Northern highway (A15 shown below) and was a much needed replacement for the previous single lane highway.

While the section of A20 opened today is only the most eastern point of a highway that should go all the length of the Newenham coast, the A15 should serve has a backbone to future development inland, an area that will most probably be predominantly agricultural.

 

 

With the completion of A20 and the Capeland Highway (A10 from West Port to Duck Bay) most of the new infrastructures are now in place in the old part of Newenham and future construction will now focus on the enormous task of building the North Coast.

 

Centre Port, Newenham

Associated Simtropolian Reporters

That it for today. The second part of this update will come tommorrow.

Replies:

Shulmanator: Thanks for your undefective support. Again without your comments I would think I'm talking alone. I mean... are people hating this? Anyway, a lot of the people that commented in the first pages are nowhere to be seen these days. Take care and see you in Schulmania.

[homeandaway 1]

WOW! my friend!, i love the road style very very much! and the storyline is great!, cant wait to see more of your work my friend, be safe and take care

~alex~

[cowcorn 11]

Chapter XVII(B)

In the news yet very late...

At the end of the article there was a link to an information brochure about Hedford Heights. Wayne clicked on it by curiosity as he never went there. He soon discovered that this was more of a publicity to get new residents to buy a home there. It praised how high class living there was while still cheap to buy, how great was the shopping and how close it was from downtown even though away from the city noise. The publicity ended of course with the classic “NEW LOTS AVAILABLE” shot.

 

 

 

Wayne looked at it very fast more for the pictures than anything else. The light on his copy of the Simtropolians Guide to the Virtual World was flickering. Wayne checked what it was: a message from Joel entitled “Something for you”.

 

Hi Wayne!

 

I have sent you something to help you out of boredom. I’m not telling you what though… You have to see for yourself. You’ll have to pick the package at the Colonial Express Distribution Center in the West Port. I’ve sent the delivery papers along with this email.

Have fun with it!

Joel

Wayne had to go to Center Port anyway to visit new apartments the same afternoon so he decided he would pick up the package on the way.

This second part is long overdue but lets just it's RLS' fault again...

Reply:

homeandaway:Thanks for support. I should be more regular for the rest of the summer.

[granto93 4]

looking nice, ill probablt buy one of my many summer homes there

[Schulmanator 5,812]

Long time no see!

Nice update as well. How's everything in Sherbrooke these days?? Glad to see you back.

[homeandaway 1]

hedford looks stunning - i hope to see more!

[Shadow Assassin 336]

Oooh, beautiful work done here!

The highways look awesome.

[cowcorn 11]

Four comments in a day... encouraging. I'ts 4 times that of the previous update. I should be more regular for the rest of the summer as things have settled for me. The next update will be a roadtrip. I'm not sure when I'll post it maybe tomorrow night (late night) or around Thursday.

granto93: Thanks! If you're searching for a summer home I might have something even better for you. What about a peacefull home on the lake... You'll see it soon. BTW I don't like you're avatar... I'm a die hard Habs fan. It's in my genes to hate the Leafs...

Schulmanator: Hey Hi! Yes indeed it's been a long time, I have a lot of catching up to do on my favorites. Thanks! As for what's going on here in Sherbrooke well I have a new summer job (a very dirty one) I was hard to reach by bus so I had to search for a way to move myself which turned out to be a 1983 Honda PA 50 MOPED. And summer in Sherbrooke is always nice, much more comfortable than Montreal which gets very moist and sticky...

homeandaway:  Thanks a lot. You should see more soon. I've played like crazy lately...

Shadow_Assassin: A great comment from an old timer is always very appreciated. (As all comments... but a little more) Thanks!

Come on lurkers! Don't shy up. Ok then I'm off to work (12 hours night shift...). See you soon everyone.

[CocaTertoka 7]

its amazing your realism.

im lovin it...

[football_fever 6]

I was turned off awhile ago (many many months ago) because I couldn't see any pics, but I'm glad I came back (and glad you're back) and I'm glad I can see them.

I love the interchanges, and the organization of the houses. The farms are beautiful, and I really like the colors. I've tried to find those purple trees, but never can. Also, the Hedford Heights pic where it says "the affordable heights of society", when I saw it, it almost looked top-down. Great...just great stuff you have here.

[granto93 4]

HABS!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!? ewwwwwwwww....lol....i do like Michael Ryder though cuz he is from newfoundland if thats any constellation lol

[Mikeaut1 261]

This is excellent, cowcorn! I'm really enjoying this. I got myself all caught up! You really have a knack for creating realism in your city journal. I really like the last update, with the hills and the wealthy homes. Excellent work, continue to keep up the realism and the nice work!

[SimmsCity 22]

I very rarely reply in the CJ section. but I came across yours and really loved what I saw. Your city looks fantastic, the way you've designed it just takes my  breath away. Look forward to more updates.