Tropic Storm

Hey guys, I've decided to start a map region, but with the STEX's old maps are down and the current selection of maps are in my opinion, way too small for my tastes, well a little lightbulb went on my head and I though "well if you can't find one, make one!" Here my progress... This was done through about a day's worth of trial and error terraforming. The problem is though if you can see those rolling lumps of hills? The thing with the terraformer in my case is it loves to make either circlelish mountains or squareish hills ! From an aerial perspective, it doesn't really look great. Now besides that, the region will be massive, nearing around 3,500km2! In real life proportions, it's bigger than Singapore (700 km2) but half the size of the Shanghai urban (5,000km2). Now I may sound mad making it out of just the terraformer tools but I would love to see this in action. In fact, once it's finished, I plan to release it as a beta on the STEX for all to enjoy and use. Later on, I plan to release possible updates and maybe even expansions to the core region. As I stated before, the terraformer tools aren't behaving on me a instead decide on making me some oh so nice square mountains! I would love some advice from the more experienced terraforming community on tweaking the tools and landscape, as well as ideas from anyone on how to make this region more diverse and exciting . Don't hesitate if you have an idea because I might just add it into the region for all to enjoy!

@ Vandy: Thanks for the tips! Just tried the new valley tool. At first, I thought it was way too slow for terraforming but later on I found it did really well on finely eroding the hilly terrain. @ Cleaner457: Thanks cleaner. BTW Dubai and Qatar and Abu Dhabi!? Now that's a real must see. I gotta know when that's finished. Alright, this is getting better than I though! After about 1 hour with the the new valley tool (tip from Vandy), most of the large easternmost hill have been leveled off. I also decreased the global terrain by about 20 to give the coast less elevation. I still have yet to lower some of the hills to a more leveled 280-300. They're still hovering at around 280-350. Also, I plan to get some of the rivers will be more jagged like the smallest one on the left.

Likewise, the bureaucracy doesn't have to worry about profit either. I’m not talking about total socialism. Companies can be good (look at Google!) but no matter what the industry, private companies care more about their stockholders, and their bottom line. Just imagine when everything in the world has to be justified by price, including a life. Governments deal with matters that are profitably unviable. That’s not exactly the case with the United States, who tend to sitting with the industry more often. As six separate states, they get 12 senators. Each state gets 2. As one state, they would get 2 senators. The number of representatives going to the House would probably be the same since it is based on population. I say "probably" because there might be some rounding differences in there. Yes, I am aware of that, but then, I think you should abolish your senate. We are working on abolishing ours. I too think it could be possible, I don't know the sentiment of what exactly Americans may feel on it. I bet it may be (very) negative. I've read of mergers happening in tradition-strung Japan. In fact they had hundreds of them. Towns and districts joined and merged together to cut down govt. size and to save costs on public utilities. Schools and hospitals sometimes shut down entirely from the shrinking birth rate. Most of the mergers were villages and municipalities though, never really any of the province-like prefectures.

There was a minor stylistic update to the chatbar... could you clear your cache and see if it shows up again? Still absent for me; on two different browsers..... Same for me, cache cleared but nothing happened... Count me in too, but only for Chrome. Even with Adblock and WOT disabled or not it doesn't show up. But when I switched to Firefox it shows up, with all extension on. It's blue with an app, twitter, and friends chat bar. Maybe its the browser versions? In running off a standard 3.6.15 Firefox with the two exts, not the new FF 4. Besides the quirks tho, It's a pretty cool looking bar!

Thanks nathanthemayor!

It’s a compromise nonetheless and the Republicans turned it down. Even the private sector still get full dibs on the market with the national healthcare plan scrapped, just now its with more regulations, and less payout limits. I would love to see how selling insurance across state lines would work. The problem I see though there’s the accountability equation in it. It’s just the private sector competing against the private sector. At first, it sounds great to have more choices. But its one thing to offer affordable healthcare, what’s vital is it has to be comprehensive coverage. Laws on various mandated checkups and so forth differ between states. There’s also the cost of living issue. If I lived in expensive New York, I could pay $50 for an insurance plan from Wyoming and realize I’ve maxed my payout in an accident because healthcare costs are much higher than Wyoming’s. In Wyoming though, my coverage may have been sufficient. Then again, that wouldn’t be the case; even the Democrat’s bill has a provision on selling health plans over state lines. Under the law, insurance providers must honor state law and dispute claims are to be handled in the state the customer bought it. Regulation is done by the NAIC. The Republican bill however doesn’t have either of that. An ulterior motive. The voter is always put aside. Sounds like we need a better government. If it takes a gun to forcibly rotate office and you still can’t get an proper election then something is indeed inheritantly flawed with our system. Even ye olde medieval Westminster system does a better job keeping the most power hungry of leaders on their feet than ours. Just imagine the snickers from our neighbors (or for that matter, our "neighbours").

I'm as reasonable as it gets. Compared to the net outside of ST, I always wondered where's the sanity in life. Anyways, Political parties will always be corrupt and guilty one way or another. But I've never seen the Republicans acts so foolishly as the party of "no". In the healthcare debacle, the Democrats had to strip various sections of the bill, including the public option. Even after those compromises, the Republicans still say "no", along with the words "socialism" and "liberal" twisted even more out of definition. As far as that, the president is just trying anything to get something done rather than nothing. Other provision like the stimulus were outright reckless. Could have thought of better ways to cut that bailout loophole, or was it like that for a reason? Terms limits can lead to unaccountability. The president just have to work for one term in office until (hopefully) they gets reelected. If they do get voted twice, the president just gets a free ride. They don't have to care about popularity or voter opinion, because they can’t campaign another try. That was what happened with Bush and his last years in office. Give the president a little incentive to do a good job. Besides, most govts. including Canada, the UK, and most other developed European countries have unlimited terms, and not all free countries have term limits, even communist China has set limits on their president. About FDR, he did remain incredibly popular with the public in time, in fact he's still considered the most popular president ever. He got a country out of the Great Depression and the the deadliest war in history. Even though his "New Deal" policies ballooned the size of government, they did help revitalize the economy and national morale. Then again for a time like that, Facism spreading like a disease across the west to the east, like our situation today, extreme times with extremist ideologies call for extreme action. What I meant about term limits is why I brought lobbying up. Who should influence the legislation are the people who voted them in. Instead, its either business or stronghold advocacy groups that can call an even louder cry to congress than a vote. In fact, the highest lobbying payers are financial companies and the health industry. Lobbying corrupts politicians too (lobbyists, like people and companies, can provide lucrative campaign money). I remember one conversation I struck up with a friend of mine. They said "They don't need any. If they're a politician, they're rich in the first place!"

thats cool RBZ, thanks. Anyways seeing as there's not any other replies back, I'll just post some updates on the project. This was an edit done last night, I'm planning to make the center as a sort of island separated by rivers. For anyone who would would want it, I would provide a basis for a very good platform for a urban setting. Keep in mind though, It would be a large one too (at least to my estimates some 50 large tiles!). As so, I'd recommend it for a very large metro. I'll see still if those lumps can be resolved.

He would have done a lot more if he hadn't been talking to a brick wall. The opposition is that brick. No compromise = no productivity. Why just one term, make it unlimited terms! If you like the guy who's in power, why not have them forever. If they slip, cast your vote and kick 'em out. Oh yeah, and ban lobbyists.

Howzit Exla and Adoxx! Howzit everyone! I live in Hawaii, currently in college working my way up into Graphics Design (possibly Advertising). I've been a fan of Sim games since SC3000, even got SC4D the day it came out. I've used to post stuff on the STEX before on an old username, but like Exla before me, I've used to be here all for the downloads. Now I've decided to start fresh and really join in the community. Just from being here before years back I think this may be one of the greatest community sites for one of the greatest games in the world. Keep up the good work everyone!

My CJ is still not finished (heck I'm not even done terraforming it yet!), but I've done a rough sketch of one of its many media outlets. Here's a national newspaper for a fictional country called "Shanhaiguan". It may sound communistic, but the country has freedom of the press. Here's a quick sketch of the latest on the Japan quake from the Lianbang Renmin (The Lianbang People)...

Now that's a sweet newspaper. lol I wish I could ever find a newspaper copy for two cents!

With that merger they better fix their awful signal. Honestly, I could care less even if you can even get service in caves, AT&T needs to be RELIABLE. I live in Hawaii and coverage is just decent, not blazing like what ATT claim. Even worse, during the Japanese Earthquake, when just got jumped with that tsunami warning, all one million people here started calling family and friends if they're evacuating or not. Surprisingly, all of Verizon's line was up, T-Mobile's was up too and Sprint as well were all fine. Heck, all my Sprint and T-Mobile friends were facebooking everyone on their cells. My ATT phone?......not a single bar. Even the state emergency crew was let down by them.