poleposition27

a good point, I'm a bit rusty with the HTML. I'll fix it for the next chapter.

The apocryphal story that surrounds the establishment of the Commonwealth states that George W Baker merely wished to find a place to exploit the resources so that he could recoup his companies’ investment in a failed mining expedition to South Africa. Though he did not live to see his idea succeed, it was the vision of his sons who made possible the last mercantile state ever founded. He wrote in a letter to a friend and shareholder in 1883, “...(M)y belief that the authority of the law and our tireless industry should lay the foundation of our common wealth.” This was the principle that in 1891 was adopted by the 1st Charter Assembly as the basis for formation of the Commonwealth of Baker Park. After his death in 1890, the control of the company he established to settle his new territory, G.W. Baker & Sons passed to his 3 sons–William, Simon, and John. They had established their first settlement in 1888 and called it Belle Haven. The company commissioned Stuart Marshall and Gustav Lynch to take a party to survey the territory and report back on their findings. After 4 years of settlement and exploration, on November 11, 1892, sovereignty was proclaimed after HM Queen Victoria gave the Royal Assent to The Baker Park Charter Act. The provisional government continued until Prince Frederick Wilhelm, 2nd son of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg arrived in January 1893. Frederick had been persuaded by George Baker to become Regent of his new country after extensive negotiations in 1889. Frederick called for the first election for a permanent government and in September 1893, the first meeting of The House of Assembly was called to order. William Baker was chosen as the first Prime Minister. From the beginning, lines between governance and the business of trade were blurred. The Company underwrote many projects to improve everyday living while the work itself was used to build the city. The largest single project prior to the turn of the century was the magnificent St John's Palace, the residence of the Prince Regent, with a commanding view of the river it still maintains today.

don't tell anyone: I had to mock-up these shots on a tutorial city b/c I never took pictures when I was first starting out. From now on, all shots will be of actual cities, unless specifically stated. And my skills with MS Paint are not very good, so refrain from criticism of the shoddy look of the intital settlement.

I think most people who play SimCity start out with the physical city, and then develop the story after. For me, the story is easy--as a kid it was my escape mechanism, I had the whole thing well sorted out. Places, relationships between different cities, the whole thing. Mainly it revolved around sports--I had leagues of teams and worked out rivalries between teams and towns. It was geeky to say the least. But one thing it did was hone my math--inventing reams of stats that I did by pencil and paper tends to make your number awareness really acute. So starting with SimCity 2000 up to SC4, it was like being able to translate the ideas into something concrete. The region this CJ will cover is actually the 2nd one I've done--and it's still in the process of growing. But that one I worked on 3-4 years ago gave me a good understanding of SC4. The newer one benefits from that experience, not to mention the vast amount of material on STEX I've incorporated. And I've been able to smooth out some of the detached parts of the story I never thought about before. So, I hope someone enjoys this; if nothing else it'll be a good story. The narrative begins shortly...

I don't know if I've seen this problem described, and it's something that's just occurred the last day or 2. I insert the disc, start the game, and when the rotating EA logo comes up, it freezes and the game crashes to the desktop. Any ideas if this is system or game? I just read about taking out some downloads, maybe I'll see if that works. But any kind of assistance would be appreciated!

I have to assume the plugins are loaded, as it usally takes about 60 seconds or so to get to the startup screen under normal circumstances. Nothing changed on my system lately.