89James89

Replies: Firstly I'd like to apologise for the rather large gap in entries. Been a bit busy in real life and distracted with a couple of other games but am still plugging away at expanding this region! Now onto the actual replies. hammysonata: Lol thanks, yes I suppose you could say he was a bit of a mogul but, given the education levels in Harrington you could argue that a beaver could make a decent businessman. Glad you like the MMP work, takes a while but well worth it. Takingyouthere: Thanks, glad you like it. The streets can be a bit annoying to work with but I've learnt to just go with it all lol. Entry 17: Busy Bee Business (and Eastbank) So today were back in Harrington with a look at someone who's already been mentioned beforehand , Beekeeper Barry. Living outside of the small settlement of Needle Point, this is an old image of the Beekeeper and his beehives. Well, you might remember that he choose to open his small plot of land up to the citizens of Harrington to give them a look at the exciting world of beekeeping! This, as it happens, was actually pretty well received (mainly because there was nothing else to actually do in the area but there we go). Anyway, over the years Barry's Beekeeping outgrew its small plot and moved to this much bigger meadow nearby to his original clearing. Barry, always happy with his quiet little life outside of Needle Point, then realised that fame comes with a price as more and businesses flocked to take advantage of the beekeepers popularity. So much so that Barry's nice quiet little home soon found itself neighbours too some rather noisy shops and then, as is normally the case people moved in and now Needle Point is much bigger and much louder. Oh well, I suppose you can't have it all! -~-~- Meanwhile, moving on from Barry and the price of fame were back in Eastbank where the mayor has made some not so popular findings. Still struggling to get any sort of industrial appeal and attraction in the growing town, the mayor was about to just give up, having already sold the unused industrial spaces to commercial businesses (which, is actually a pretty profitable place for the businesses given that the ferry link is just down the road from it). Anyway, after a last ditch attempt too actually address the issue it came to the mayors attention that the tax rate for the industry sector was a whole lot higher than everyone else's and that the town's recent financial upturn was thanks in large part, too the hard working industries in the area. Before word of this was made public and afraid of being lynch mobbed (and actually feeling pretty bad about the whole situation), the mayor publically reduced the tax rates and announced that all the money that had been gathered from the unintentionally high tax rate would be used to fund this school. Thankfully this went down rather well with the rest of the town and we'll see next time if it has an affect on the industrial side of things! For now though, we'll finish here with a look at the still growing region! Till next time!

Another lovely looking tile with some really nice MMP work in there. The only thing that I'm not overly fond of is the bottom waterfall. I think it would nicer broken up, like the rest of them! Still it looks really nice!

Its using Pegasus's tree controller (not sure of the direct link but its on the STEX) for the big trees but all the smaller ones and ground brush is all MMP.

Reply: hammysonata: Thanks, glad you like the MMP work and yes it is very contagious lol. So much so that I'm pretty much mmping everything now as I go along and whilst I wait for things to develop. At least things will look nice (hopefully) even if they do take several between entries! As for looking like upstate NY that's pretty heartening to hear seeing as I was going for a Canada/Northern American look to the region. Entry 16: Harrington grows! So, today were going to take a look at some of the growth that's been going on in and around Harrington you see, as the town and its surrounds have grown the pressure on the farmland around the town has become more and more, This coupled with the reduction in yields due to some reason or another (I think it had something to do with soil degradation but honestly, it was pretty boring while they were explaining it to me and I wasn't actuality listening all that much) which, rather luckily is shown on this photo below, means that the farm shown wasn't long for this world. This however, it would seem wasn't all that bad a thing. As it turns out, a particular farmer, by the name of Frank had some smarts about him and realised that he could sell the land for a pretty penny. Fast forward a couple of years and the lovely yellow fields you saw above now look like this! As you ca see its been turned into housing mainly which, surprisingly enough developed by Franks new business venture in construction (Frank Ventures) and meant that he really now wasn't short of money proved rather well by him converting his old farmhouse into a large and modern (at least by Harrignton standards) home. Driven by the whole money thing and how lucrative this seemed to be, Frank then bought up four times as much land as he used to own on one of the ever expanding farming areas outside Harrington and then purchased a redeveloped his neighbours plot in Harrignton. Interestingly enough though, the local school had contacted him during the planning stage and requested that he leave the greenhouse intact as a sort of educational facility. It turns out however that they may have just ran out of room at the actual school house as there appears to be whole classrooms of kids in there all day with there desks and textbooks. However, with Franks daughter being one of the students he didn't really care all that much. ~~.~~ This was however about as far as the growth got around the actual town of Harrington. On the otherside where we have Kinsen however we saw a bit of an explosion with growth, unsurprisingly, due to the amount of land that there was around the town (though you could argue, with the dumps becoming a bit full (trash left in parked bin lorries overnight, full). And therefore the growth is a bit surprising). Surprising or not however the growth is happening and no one can stop it! Also in the above photo, as some of the more astute of you may have noticed there's some development across the river where there was only trees before. This is Diplin. An odd place and founded on the third chunk of land that sits in the same bay as Harington and Kinsen, this was originally population spill over and, much lik Kinsen, is technically a suburb of Harrington rather than its own town. As you may also have noticed though, for a population spill over there's a lot of industrial warehouses and factories in Diplin. You see, with the Eastbank project having failed and having basically become a population hub rather than the port it was meant to be, this has left a lot of investors looking elsewhere to invest. Diplin, it turned out, was a excellent elsewhere as land prices were pretty cheap. However, this does now mean that living here is getting to be as fun as living in Kinsen And this is where we'll leave this entry, with the above image looking at the Harrignton area all filled up and the usual regional view update, showing a bit more growth throughout the area. (OOC: Ignore the black tiles, they were there so I could reconcile edges and not ruin my terraforming) Till next time!

Another lovely little tile you've got here. Really liking the look of Tricolor park and all the other details you have around everything! Nice job!

Jesus that is a lot of gorgeous and very well done mosaics! Really enjoying the chaotic skyline that Hong Kong has and how you've shown it off in the game, really well done as usual!

Entry 15: Harrington Landscape Files 001 (OOC: So, a bit of a weird title today but it should make a bit of sense in a minute as you continue with this entry. You see, despite being sure that MMP's wouldn't feature heavily in this CJ, I appear to have been bitten by the MMP bug anyway and seeing as I like to see things develop and play at 1 speed a lot of the time, I find myself adding stuff while playing (Got to develop the region up a bit as it would get boring with you guys seeing the same things repeated every single entry). So here we have a look at pretty much nothing but the wild untamed lands of Harrington! I hope you enjoy) Welcome back to Harrington, where, today, we'll take a look at some of the rather more untamed areas of the region in what I assume, will only be the first in many of these entries. There's not a lot to say so I'll just give every photo a small title and give any information when its needed. Forrest glades break the vast forest Harrington is located in. A lot of rivers can be found here, this one backing onto a nearby farm Tiny tidal inlets are very common, this one up against housing in Harrington itself Rocky Slopes line the valleys were slowly exploring Another look at the previously seen Pine Rock Finally, a look at a place recently found by hikers, some small lakes outside the scattered settlement of Rocky Bend (not actually mentioned or seen in the journal yet) So that's the first entry dedicated to looking at the surroundings in Harrington rather than the growth and the people in the region. I hope you guys enjoy the slightly different entry! Till next time!

I really like the look of the tile and how vibrant it is. The MMP work is really well executed and the storyline is entertaining to read. Hell, the rather questionable slopes on some of the roads and tracks don't seem to bother me either which means that everything else must be very eye catching!

Entry 14: Well it kind of worked! So, getting right back into things, and with the agreement document finally having been found, we start off again in Needle Point, where you can see the village has grown a tiny bit since last time. Heading back out of town we now have a small fork where you can head down the new track towards Eastbank, passing by the lovely looking place where apparently you can learn about the bee's in the clearing from an slightly obsessed Bee-keeper! Keeping on track (awful pun intended) we pass through the tiny village of Batterbrook where there's a small stream that we need to ford. Luckily the weather and the time of year is on our side so no issues today! Following the track on the other side of the ford we come across some usual sites here in Harrington with a load of roadside farming. Right before we come up against the first real obstacle for the whole project, this river. Too wide and deep to ford, but not exactly wide enough to install a ferry connection, we decided to build our very first bridge. A pretty simple affair really, just your very basic and uninteresting bridge. It does the job though. Also in the above picture you can see that a small community has built up around the bridge, mainly made up of the people that had been bought in to construct the bridge and who had chosen to never leave, now working on the farms nearby. Which finally brings us to our final destination, Eastbank and the whole point of the project. Below you can see how the connection has helped with the growth of the town, sure it now has a load of people here and the towns funds are all the better for it but the whole point of towns was to becoem a industrial hub and a port and unfortunately, due to how long the palce has stagnated industry wise, it would appear that there isn't any demands for it. Still, at least the town is making money again so its not all bad...... We think........ Oh and nearly forgot! Here's the customary regional view, in which you can see we have some more expansion that we haven't explored yet! Till next time!

Looks really nice especially the train picture. The only thing I'm not such a big fan of is the pink tree models but I still love the picture regardless!

Looks really nice. Love the railway sidings in the middle as well. Really nice job!

Entry 13: Fittingly Unlucky! So, welcome back to Harrington where we have some interesting developments that might not have gone totally to plan. You see, last time when we were visiting Smallbay, apparently a small group of people in Harrington were discussing the idea of moving their business enterprises to another purpose built area, complete with a new port and all. Anyuway, they had found some suitable land and all so, given that pretty much any land is up for grabs around here if you build on it they quickly did, You see as a bit of a outlay for the plan it was fairly simple. One side of the part of the bay they'd chosen was enticing for the factory owners of the group as it had a lot of flat land and was perfect for a load of factories and a decent sized port for the area. The other side of the bay however didn't have the coastline to support a port and as such would be used for farming and production to process in the factories.And both would be close neough to Harrignton to be viable as a workplace by ways of the local ferries. Sounds likes a plan right? Well apparently, wrong. You see this is how the enterprise looks at the moment. Eastbank with the port and some factories. Westbank with the farmland. As you can see it was a bit of a disaster. The whole thing is, at the moment surviving barely with a break even city balance. Add to that the rampant unemployment in Eastbank, with people arriving to live in the small prefabs that the companies have built, only to find the jobs taken by people from out of town and little to no interest in developing the rest of the industrial space. Meanwhile in Westbank, there just isn't any demand for anything and a unstable power supply means that its prone to rolling blackouts every now and then. Certainly not the roaring success they were hoping for! Now, a luck would have it (after they finished snickering at the failure of the enterprise anyway), the Harrington Town Council had seen the benefits of having an actual port to export the surplus stuff they didn't need and, despite the constant assurances of Mr Goodship, the current owner of the port in Harrington, anyone with half a brain could see that the small port there would become overwhelmed eventually. No, better to get ahead of the game with this one and as such they came up with a plan that would hopefully help in struggling enterprise in the form of a land based road (used in the most liberal of terms as you'll soon see) connection, starting off, of course with a ferry link to the other side of the river Harring. Moving on into the first of Harringtons satelitte settlements, Kinsen, which, although still beholden to the whims of Harrignton Town Council, has its own small council formed of a few influential and slightly questionable people. As such, you'll be able to see below that providing you have the right amount of money, you can build whatever you want pretty much anywhere you want. At least the journey to work is pretty short for the most part! Unfortunately, pretty mych everything else is short as well, including healthcare and education which, is probably not the best thing given that somebody had the brainwave of providing a place for everyone to dispose of their rubbish (for a price of course). Don't you just love the smell of burning plastic in the morning! Other than that there's not that much in Kinsen, with a few farms, giving the still growing and questionable Kinsen a very wide berth, as the planned road winds its way towards The Banks (as we'll refer to East and West bank) having completely lost its credibility as an actual road, shortly after leaving Kinsen. Then going on to completely disappear as it enters the area known as Needle Point where, some bright spark decided that the construction of a lighthouse on the outcrop here was a better use of the towns money and time. Needless to say, promises were made to The Banks that this would only be a small delay and necessary for the safe functioning of the upcoming port. That however was several years ago now and since then, the tiny village of Needle Point, numbering just over 100 people making it significantly smaller than both The Banks and Smallbay, has received more funding than the road link has. Still, there's hope yet, apparently someone has recently found the agreement documents which were being used to prop up a dodgy table leg so we'll have to see what comes of that! Up until that point however, I guess we'll just plod on as usual, much like these fishermen in Smallbay are. Also here's a updated regional view so you can see where the new developments are (and because frankly, I love regional views). Till next time! (OOC: So this was a bit of a weird one, I started Eastbank with the full expectation of a normal town growing up as usual but it didn't happen. Basically all the demand is completely messed up. No idea why as the other tiles are fine but I have a couple of ideas to try and solve it so we'll have to see. At least it makes for a interesting and unexpected twist to the narrative I thought we were going to go with.)

Another really lovely couple of entries to the journal. I'm especially loving the tile that Ingena is located in, the terraforming on it is amazing and the way you've integrated the towns and fortifications are really well done!

Replies: Entry 12: Smallbay So, welcome back and today were going to take a trip out of Harrington, along the bay towards the tiny village of Smallbay., which, although the people of Harrington claim that they're town is, was actually the first settlement in the region. Located about 5 or so Km away from Harrington, we have to take a boat to get there seeing as no roads or tracks exist between the two, still, this lets us see some of the features of the bay such as Pinerock Island, an island plateau of pine trees and birds and not much else past one of the two river mouths we see on the trip. Moving past the second of the river mouths (both of which have yet to actually receive a name) we get a look at the first sign of habitation since the journey began, in this case the old beacon which served as a lighthouse. Or at least it did right up until the point where a ferry nearly ran aground and a much taller lighthouse was decided on. Still this one still sits on the end of one side of the bay and operates at night. Coming around the beacon point we enter the small bay flanked by the much newer and more efficient lighthouse sat on Guidance Rock. You can also see some of the houses that make up the small settlement here as well, before we actually get to the docks. And here we are, arriving at the tiny harbour of Smallbay. As you can see from the look of it, its a pretty simple place with a simple port for small cargo ships and a small landing for the ferries on which the two settlements rely. Its also very evident why this place was used as a stop over for the settlement of Harrington itself, the bay has never been able to support the sips that the town has needed while it grew. The small town feel doesn't stop there though, this is the centre of it all, a far cry from the large church and commercial area of Harrington but the residents of Smallbay don't mind, they like the simple life. As you can see from the overview. The town is very spread out with most of the residents fishing for a living or working on the two farms that exist here, owned by two wealthy landowners who made there mark farming in the initial stages of the two settlements, despite the small sizes of their estates. And here's a aerial view of the place, showing just how small the bay and town are and also the gap leading to the area where Harrington resides. Speaking on which, here's a map of the area which we travelled through to get from Harrington to Smallbay and with it the end of this entry! Till next time!