GRV II-Challenge No 3

[mrbisonm]

For those who have not yet posted their challenge 2, you will have until Sunday midnight NY-time to do so (April 12th, 2009).
                                                      Last call!
This is Your last chance, after I will post challenge 3 and no other challenge 2 will be accepted and 0 points will be given, sorry. And please don't tell me you didn't have an hour in almost 2 weeks to plop a water and energy plant and create a new road.

Fred

[dedgren]

Fred, you might want to clarify this- in construing things as a lawyer, the specific rules over the more general.  "April 11, 2009," is very specific, and certainly more so than "tomorrow."  So, I'm assuming that folks have a little bit less than six hours today to get their second challenge posted.

Thanks for a great job on this, and for the willingness to be a cat-herder.


David

[BarbyW]

I hope so, David, as I am waiting for Challenge 3.

[mrbisonm]

Fred, you might want to clarify this- in construing things as a lawyer, the specific rules over the more general.  "April 11, 2009," is very specific, and certainly more so than "tomorrow."  So, I'm assuming that folks have a little bit less than six hours today to get their second challenge posted.

Thanks for a great job on this, and for the willingness to be a cat-herder.


David

Sorry, but I corrected the date, thought myself to be on another day. That happens when we're busy seven days/week.

The time limit is Sunday, April 12th, 2009 at midnight NY-time.
Please take note

[BarbyW]

Hmmm, that means 6am CET 13th April so I have to wait until my Monday. I do wish these other players would sort themselves out, Fred.

[mrbisonm]

Hmmm, that means 6am CET 13th April so I have to wait until my Monday. I do wish these other players would sort themselves out, Fred.

This will be one of the last time that we will be soooo tolerant.


Two players pm'ed me asking about the delay for the second challenge's entries. Here is what I answered, you might like to know also.

Hi ****,

The problem is that 5 of the players have pm'ed me to ask a 24 hr delay and as I have mentioned it in the beginning, as long as you pm me you're late, I will give you a certain time after the deadline. First of all we delayed the challenge endline because more than half weren't even in a couple of days ago.
Now. that I changed the last date again to april 12th, is simply because I thought it was friday when I wrote it, but actually it is saturday, my mistake, so it's corrected to sunday april12th to give a little over 24 hrs time for those who are late. Besides I will not be home before midnight on sunday. (family party for easter) Don't worry, there won't be another delay. And this delay is only to those who have pm'ed me, hope that's clear.

There will be an explanation of time delay with the third challenge because....first, it seems to be time for those finals in school and second, this challenge is quite complicated enough and could need not only a lot of gaming time but also time to really understand and get over it. There will be a possibility of two weeks, but we hope you will all make it within 10 days.

There will be only two more times, besides the 3rd challenge, that we will give a prolongation to the players, because there will be other challenges that need time to realize, and for the others it will be ten days, unless you have a good reason to be late and pm me before the deadline.
You have to understand that I cannot post another challenge before the previous are all in because some challenges depend on how you realized the previous one, like this 2nd challenge will be your basic futur for the third.

This time is an exception, the next time we will be stricter. Got that now? Thanks.

Thanks for advising and commenting and....Lynn is on the job judging all afternoon.

Fred

[quackmofro]

Heh, I thought the "****" was supposed to be a curse word when I first read it.

I suppose this delay is all right, since I still need to work on the other two tiles in preparation for the third challenge. But thanks for being pretty lenient on time. It's been a pretty busy couple of weeks here in Arkansas as well, and by the time I get back to the apartment and settled in, it's already almost time for bed! That's why I live for the weekends.

[mrbisonm]

Now that you are familiar with your region and you think you know how to mayor it properly, here is something a little more complicated and interesting so you won't fall asleep with our challenges.


CHALLENGE 3


«« Governor Freddy Bison called all Mayors in an Emergency Meeting to the Capitol City. It is to inform them about the political situation that the region is suffering at the moment.
"Ladies and Gentlemen" as he started the speech with a lowtoned worried voice, " we have a serious political problem in our region of Grand River. Last night a group of heavily armed political Separatists decided to cut off every acces to the opposite side to the Grand River region, cutting our region into two equal halves, the north and south. Since this has become a very fragile international situation, we are heavily watched over on how we handle this matter. For the moment we cannot do anything more than continue to just govern our half of the region only and leaving the rest to our separatists until hopefully things will calm down and negociations will come to a mutual agreement and end this dispute for once and all. Meanwhile let's do the best we can, not only to govern our regionhalf, but also to avoid any unnecessary violent confrontation with the Separatists." Governor Bison sadly announced. »»

ok, you can close your mouths now......Yap, the region is now officially separated and called *Bordertown* from now on. You have lost the power to control the other half. The official Borderline is seen in the picture below, everything above the line belongs to the north and everything below the line belongs to the south from now on.




You decide which side you want to continue to govern, you only choose one side, either the north or the south. It's up to you. Once chosen the other side will be controlled by someone else (yet to define), and it is not the Governor nor his wife who will do so, but.......
Every Player will have an oponent to play remotely in his/her region, meaning the part that you lost control over now is totally under your oponent's and Competitor's power. Everything will be clearly explained in a later announcement.

I can hear the yelling in the room of all the mayors by now, but before we all panic, Silence please......."hammering away on the desk"...Gentlemen......SILENCE!...Please......let's listen to what this is all about first.....and then panic!

You will continue to totally control the part that you have chosen to play in, whether it is the north or the south, and a randomly chosen oponent GRV II player will control the other part of your region by telling you where and how to build certain "challenges" that the future will be asking for.
Now, how exactly that will function will be explained later. Of course you will be the one who still has control over your region and you will plop or grow on both sides, but the side that is controlled by the Separatists will only be done with instructions by that specific other Player that has the control over his/her regionhalf.

For now your challenge is to determine which side (north or south) you choose to continue to fully govern by yourself.

Example: If you have chosen the north to continue to govern, you may do so in tiles A, B, C and K without any restrictions, but in tiles D, E, F and L, you will be limited to the northern part of the river ONLY. (above the official borderline) The other half below will be in the hands of your oponent.....and vice versa.

Depending on which side you have chosen to play and which have or have not the lots (Power and Water) of the previous challenges, you will be asked to build your own Power and Waterstation now, on your side, so your sims are able to continue to function properly. Do not cut any power/water supply to the other side though if the power and water is on your chosen side, the Governor has given permission to continue the use of power and water for peaceful reasons and for a period of time. Let's allow them the time to build their own or build our own.

Plus, to make things a little more complicated, you will build another Route starting somewhere and finishing somewhere else. You can start it from another route or from anyplace of the neighboring region and have it ended anywhere where you want it, whether it is in conjunction of another route, crossing it or connected to the neighboring region or simply ending.....nowhere in a cul-de-sac (end of road). It can be build in either halves (north or south), whether your own part that you will govern or your oponent's part. If so in the oponent's part, it might give you mutual advantages later. Bridges are allowed to be build under the conditions mentioned in part 3 below only. Give it an official number please.

This will be the LAST OFFICIAL ROUTE in your region, all other roads/streets that you will place will not bear any numbers anymore, but names only. These three routes will be under federal/governmental law, meaning that you will not be able to change their directions without permission from the Governor himself. (remember I have a copy of your region picture with these routes on my computer). There will be futur challenges concerning these routes.



To show this week in your third update:

1.   A region picture in transportation mode without city/mayor names and borders showing, and explaining us clearly which side of the region (north or south) you have chosen to continue to govern and with a short description why you chose this part. Plus showing us the third numbered route that you have created and please have all the previous routes identified.

2.   A few pictures (3 minimum and 5 maximum) in any mayorview of what you have been building in your region before and/or after the separation, including at least one picture of your maintown (whether in your half or the oponent's half and if you have a town on each side we want 2 pics, one each) in a view  that we can see the whole municipality in one picture, and explaining us on which lettered citytile it was constructed in, then explain why you chose that geographical area to build the maincity on. Show us your best parts of what you have done sofar, except the other challenges.

3.  All bridges, except for one major Roadbridge only (if possible in your main-town), have to be cut off completely without destroying the actual bridge, but interrupting the connection of the road/rail tiles on the oponents side of the Grand River, and that we can see it in the regional view above (no 1.) No open (connected) rail connection to your oponent's land is allowed neither until things have settled down. This line has to be cut off also. You have to make a gap of minimum 2 road/rail tiles separated from the bridge, and we want to see a close up picture each bridge (mayorview 3,4 or 5 only) of every gaps (every bridge) showing us with a part of the bridge in the same picture. Please create this close to the bridge and on oponent's side. How you will do it, the originality, lots used, will determine the pointage, plus maybe a Bonus point for originality. Let's say show us as if the separatists whether blew up the road, made a gate, a fence, blockage, wall etc on the road, but the actual road and railtiles should not be visible for 2 Gridtiles. Any other lots or textures can replace the road/rail tiles though.
(hint) Maybe the use of some small military or governmental lots might be useful here without building a base of any kind. Or any *parkgroundtextured* lots only in between the connections. This is supposed to be temporary, please remember this when building or destroying.


We know, it is kind of getting complicated now, but this is what we have been talking about before starting the challenge. As we said, it will be different than just plopping things like in GRV I. Now your mayor and leadership techniques and experiences will be put to the total test. Are you an excellent negociator? Or maybe politically strong? Maybe even take the Governor's place one day? .....we'll see!

I hope the loss of one half of your region will not affect your way to govern the other half. Phsychological help can always be asked for in the General Discussion Thread. Hope you will have fun with this surely not expected challenge.......

Again, Bonus points will be given for special projects, ingenious ideas and excellent choice of location and organization. We could give up to 3 Bonus points (for all 3 subjects) for each player in this challenge.

As usual, all questions about this challenge should be asked in this thread below.


You can now use all YOUR region half to build in. The Governor gives you absolute free power over Your part of the region, you can now play in ALL citytiles of the part that you have chosen to govern. You may not touch any part of the Oponents side anymore though except for building the third route, and this time only. The borderlines shown in the picture above will show you EXACTLY what belongs and not belongs to you now. Anything that you touch on the oponents part without his/her demand may be seen as an act of war and penalities will be awarded by the Governor.
Now you can build roads, streets and rails wherever and however you want in your own region part.


The deadline of this challenge will be on Wednesday midnight(NY time) April 29th, 2009, but can be altered if we have more than three Players who will not be able to achieve this challenge within the time limit and with solid good reasons, since this is a big challenge and it needs lots of work and thoughts. But we would like to ask every player to do his/her best to fulfill the challenge before that time limit, so that we don't have to wait for those who waited for the very last minute to post their challenge like the last time. You can do it. Thank you and Good Luck.

Good luck,

Lynn and Fred

[TheTeaCat]

Excellent challenge 

This is going to take some thought 
better put the kettle on then to kick start the brain into gear


TTC

[tooheys]

better put the kettle on then to kick start the brain into gear


TTC

I think I might need something a bit stronger 

Nice one Fred and Lyn, didn't see that coming. 

No time to chat, better get to work 

Dave

[mrbisonm]

Good sign, two comments and two who like it...lol.
Bordertown idea and concept was my idea last fall, but this specific challenge with the oponent players to control one half instead of us, was Lynn's idea. Glad you like it.

Goodnight 
Fred

[threestooges]

Make it a third. I think this is a fun little twist. It'll be interesting to see who gets paired with who, and how the differences between the sides are played out. I think there is a lot to play with here, but ideas are beginning to form... just need to take the time to play with them.
-Matt

[BarbyW]

Excellent challenge, Fred and Lynn. This will really make us think and plan - something most of us rarely do. The pairings will be interesting too.
Thanks for this.

[soulchaser]

great challenge...a lot to think about....I already have some ideas...let's work on it...

[Jmouse]

Count me in - I love it! What a brilliant idea Fred and Lynn!

Later...
Joan

[lynncanox]

 Nice you like the idea. At first I was afraid to get shot with a idea like this, but Fred supported me with my idea and told me that this will be a very good way to keep you interested in  the challenges.
It was something hard to figure out first how we would do it with the exchange and everything, but I think that we found the best way to do so.
Now You will have three jobs, first how to handle somebody else's invasion of your region and how to invade somebody else's region all at the same time and finally how to handle your own half of the region.
I think that this idea will be as much fun making than judging.
Good luck everybody. Bonne chance tout le monde.
                                                 
                                                   Lynn

[Splime]

This should be interesting...

I was wondering, would it be possible to become the separatist governor instead of the original governor? As far as gameplay goes, it would be the same, but in my story, the south is far more likely to separate (since it's empty and I'm planning on having some rebels escape to there), and I'd like to control it.

[MandelSoft]

Now we are talking. This is the point where it really gets interresting 

[Rayden]

Nice you like the idea. At first I was afraid to get shot with a idea like this, but Fred supported me with my idea and told me that this will be a very good way to keep you interested in  the challenges.

This is very ingenious and I love it

As M.Dundee would say, "No worries mate" 

[mightygoose]

sweet... now this is cool