Quynneth, a natural growth inspired MD

[armagin]

Nice start for your journal here! I always like to see these natural growth journals take off!

[Shilka]

Battlecat: Thank you, I like to try to have some sort of logic or roleplayed reason for developments, it's a big part of my inspiration.
canyonjumper: Thanks! More small villages in this update 
nedalez: I hope future updates will be just as entertaining to you. By the way, you're quite a storyteller yourself as well, that's a very impressive MD you have!
penguin007: Thanks, future larger mass transit like highways and railroads will prob be a bit less curvy, but I'm trying to stay away from the grid as much as possible!
planetchef: I hope that link answered your question
calibanX: Hehehe, I'll tell them to send you a free lap dance voucher 
armagin: Thank you, I hope posting these developments straight from the start will prove to be interesting enough to follow.






A few years have passed, and there has been quite a bit of new development at Quynneth.
First of all, Gonway Mining co. together with $im National Bank have found a large logging company prepared to settle in the region; Simcoast Lumber co.

Simcoast Lumber co. already owns 5 large sawmills in surrounding regions, and is one of the biggest players on the lumber market. Since Quynneth is a heavy forested area, with large amounts of development predicted, Simcoast Lumber co. has shown heavy interest in building a sawmill in the region.
With $im National Bank offering cheap loans for farmers willing to settle in the region, large patches of land need to be cleared of trees, next to the areas suitable for mining of course. Any additional development only ads to the equation. This promises good profitability for a new sawmill, provided it is built in the right location.

After thorough research by Simcoast Lumber co. a sawmill location has been planned just east of Landing, on the northside of a river. To the north and northeast lots of fertile land is to be found, very suitable for farming, while to the east the mining operations need regular clearing of moderately forested areas.
Logs from the north will be transported directly to the sawmill, while logs from the northeast and east will be dropped into the river at drop off points, enabling the logs to float downstream to the mill, causing a considerable saving on transport costs.




The location for the sawmill needs quite a bit of work. A large section of ground near the riverbed needs lowering for the sawmill to sit as close to the river as possible. The river itself needs widening at the mill location to create a mill pond where logs floating to the mill can be collected and sorted in the water.
Just downstream of the mill a bridge needs to be constructed, which needs a construction below it to prevent any logs from floating past the mill, where they could be a danger to shipping. The bridge will also provide an alternative drop off point for logs that can't be directly delivered at the mill. Plans are soon made and submitted for approval;




The plans are approved, and work started on preparing the sawmill location. Luckily Gonway Mining co. has enough groundmoving equipment to spare to make quick work of the preparations. Within a matter of months the new sawmill is built and operational.




Traditionally constructed out of wood, with the typical red paintjob, and providing hundreds of jobs, the mill has grown to be one of the industrial icons of the region. With thousands of acres of wood ready to be cut, the sawmill provides a huge boost to the regions economy, and quickly is becoming the favored source of employment, even surpassing Gonway Mining co. The sawmill itself even has become a favorite under local artists, as this artistic impression of the sawmill shows;




With logging operations at full strength, developments to the northern fertile regions are now just a matter of time, while the regular deforestation at the mining sites continue as usual. Acre after acre of land is cleared of trees, and the produced lumber is a welcomed and cheap building material in these first stages of Quynneth's development.




However, in this region of miners and loggers, farmers are hard to find. This is why $im National Bank is offering cheap, low interest loans to any farmer willing to set up operations in the region. Together with Gonway Mining co. they have set up a widespread advertising campaign in order to lure farmers to the region. This of course all being part of the grand scheme of lowering costs for Gonway Mining co. and Simcoast Lumber co., since the local production of food will stimulate their workers to settle in the area, instead of the companies having to pay for them to travel to and from the area by ship on a weekly or daily basis.




With the advertising campaign in full motion, fertile lands being precleared and ready for development, and cheap loans for farmers that want to take the big step, it doesn't take long for the area north of Gonway Mines to turn into a serene combo of a river, farmlands and local streams. On the left of this particular picture you can also see one of the log drop off points, allowing logging trucks to unload straight into the river.




With word spreading fast about the 'promised lands' of Quynneth, an even larger area of farms is created north of the sawmill, and soon the need for advertising is diminishing. Farmers are flocking to Quynneth in large numbers.




With so many new people settling at Quynneth, there's not only growth of the existing settlements. Several new rural villages have popped up;  'Marish', 'Hammond' and 'Flint'. Next to that a workers village has developed north of the sawmill, appropriately called 'Sawdust'.




With the explosive growth of the past few years, many realize there is some need for guidance other then just CE-O's of large companies deciding on the regions future. After several meetings of the important, the wealthy and the influential amongst the inhabitants of Quynneth, a decision is made about the creation of municipalities.
Each municipality will have some form of self government, while decisions of regional importance will be agreed on by a municipality collective. The current developed areas have been divided into the following municipalities;

• Innit Landing (Landing, Fishenflies, Sawdust, including Innit industrial)
  
• Gonway Mines (The sheds, including Gonway mining co.'s surface mining operations)
  
• Hammond (Hammond, including surrounding farmlands)
  
• Flint (Flint, including surrounding farmlands)
  
• Marish Valley (Marish, including surrounding farmlands)
  

For good measure, Gonway Mining co. has ordered a population survey, which results can be viewed in the following graph;




As you might be able to tell from the graph, there's still quite a few workers that have to come in by ship, so there's still a lot more growth to be expected. And with more people coming in, more shops and businesses are needed, more farmers to feed them, which will need more people yet again.
However, this is still in the future, for now I'll leave you with an overview of the area featured in this update.
I hope you've enjoyed it, see you at the next update!

[catty]

I don't normally post in MD's, but had to stop and say

Well done 

Great details especially with the planning of the sawmill and also the artistic impression of the sawmill is stunning   



Catty

[nedalezz]

Wow, great update! Loads of pictures, loads of details, fantastic roleplaying, it had it all.

I love the overview show, and I like the BAT used for the sawmill. We've got several towns plopping up, its like a country now!

[planetechef]

the story continue, i like your presentation, the map, the drawing, the graph (table  ) and yes, the link was very interesting, it's a great option to play simcity 4 like this, i learn couple things, it's not the way i play, because i always try to do the beautifull shot, manytime i failed  but i will say then the natural growth inspired MD are very, very interesting to watch, so see you often 

[penguin007]

Awesome farming areas there can't wait for more

Will

[Tomas Neto]

Very nice update!!!

[canyonjumper]

Very nice! Eagerly awaiting more

               -Jordan

[Battlecat]

Neat update!  The lumber mill is a great addition.

[nbvc]

Great MD.

[Shilka]

catty: Thank you, glad I was able to lure you into posting here 
nedalez: Thanks, I hope you'll find this update as complete as the previous ones!
planetechef: Cool, I'm happy the natural growth based journals can be interesting for people who prefer eyecandy for their own journals. Glad to be of help with the link
penguin007: I've added a lot more farming areas in the past weeks, but they are not really featured in this specific update. Actually little of the growing itself is showcased, but I hope you'll find this update of intrest anyway!
Tomas Neto: Thank you! I hope to continue the same or even better quality updates
canyonjumper: Hey CJ! As you've noticed, it took me quite a while, but here's finally more! 
Battlecat: Thanks! I'll be introducing more large companies as the region develops.
nbvc: Thank you, I don't get the applause smiley (can you still call it a smiley?) a lot, feeling honored 






John Gonway is a busy man. As owner of Gonway Mining co. he spends most of his waking time on leading his company. He lives mining, he breathes mining, he dreams mining. Despite of his occupation, John Gonway has a family, a wife and daughter. After Gonway Mining started to invest in the Quynneth region John and his wife moved to Fishenflies, so John was close to the major section of his company. Their daughter Melinda stayed at their old home in Emmerton, outside of Quynneth region, in order to finish her study.

After not having seen his daughter for at least 4 months, John decided to invite his daughter over for, of course, a small tour of his mining emporium. Melinda never had been to Quynneth yet, and John figured a tour of the new quarry would make for a nice excuse to invite her over. As a matter of fact he arranged for one of the browncoal barges to give her a ride to Innit industrial.
This only illustrated the poor relationship between John and his daughter. Melinda dreaded the thought of the slow trip overseas, and if it hadn't been for that cute deckhand she would have probably ended up bored out of her mind by the trip alone. Eventually she arrived by barge at Innit Industrial. As you may have noticed it has grown quite considerably since our last visit to the Quynneth region.




At the harbor her dad had a van waiting to take her to Gonway mines. The trip was fast and rough, with a miner at the wheel. As Melinda looked outside, a bored expression on her face, she saw how they passed Fishenflies. The town looked unattractive to her. A lot of the houses looked like they were in dear need of a new paintjob, and there was lots of rubbish in the untended gardens.

A bit later they passed Dunce farms, which already looked a bit more attractive to her. Though Bill Dunce passed away a while ago, a cousin inherited the estate, and clearly had a good feel for farming. The farmlands had increased in area by a factor 5, and the fields of crops looked lush and well cared for. As the van passed, Melinda caught a glimpse of at least 7 children playing in the garden of the farm estate, and she couldn't help wondering how different her life would have been with so many brothers and sisters living on a farm, instead of being the sole child of a large company owner.

The van continued driving through the forest, and just as she was starting to enjoy the sight of a couple of deer grazing near the roadside she started to notice the smell of burnt browncoal, a smell she was oh so familiar with. Soon the narrow clearing around the road opened up to her fathers emporium. A sight of two large browncoal powered powerplants greeted her from afar. The sky was yellowish brown with soot, and the van turned right alongside a large open browncoalpit, leaving the industrial area behind them.




When they arrived at the mine entrance, she got word that her father couldn't join her for the small tour he had planned, he was engaged otherwise.
Melinda didn't mind at all, perhaps she was even relieved not to be obliged to hear her father boast about his accomplishments while ignoring the lack of accomplishments in his personal life, especially concerning their father - daughter relationship.
A miner showed her around, but she already saw those earth moving machines a million times before, to her this mine looked like any other her father had realized before, there was nothing there that interested her. Luckily for her the miner was quick to notice, and they both opted for drinking a beer in one of the workersheds instead of finishing the tour.
Not much later Melinda was back in the van, making her way through the forest again, heading towards her parents home in Fishenflies to meet up with her mom.




It was nice to see her mom again, though she seemed a bit stressed, and the house and garden looked slightly neglected. In an attempt to ignore the sad state of their family relations, Melinda passed some time with swimming in the shabby pool, wandering around the house, and scavenging for snacks in the kitchen. At dinner she finally saw her father, but as usual there was only mindless meaningless chit chat being exchanged. When she went to bed in the guestroom she couldn't even recall what she'd talked about. The boredom of the day had been exhausting, and the thought of leaving again the next morning was only one more reason to fall asleep quickly.

The next morning her dad was already off to the office. After a silent breakfast with her mom, Melinda was quick to say goodbye, and walked head down to the waiting van again, saddened by the continued lack of love by her parents. The van had the same driver again, and as if it was agreed upon beforehand, they only said goodmorning before the silence resumed and Melinda turned her head towards the side window again, watching Fishenflies glide by her window.

It was only a short drive to Landing, but the road was busy with commuters, and Melinda was actually a bit surprised when she realised that just a few years back this area was nothing but lush forests yet. When the van arrived at the pontoon north of landing, she quickly jumped out, mumbling a quick bye at the driver. Melinda walked up the pontoon to the very end, and welcomed the fresh breeze coming across the river, refreshing her mind like a cool morning shower.




Then suddenly things went very fast. Bystanders looked on as a small speedboat moored at the pontoon, and a large bald man stepped out on the pontoon. He quickly looked around, then decisively walked towards Melinda Gonway. Suddenly he grabbed her arms from the back, and before she realized what was going on he had pushed her into the speedboat, where she fell face first behind the two chairs, her hands slipping on the wet deck. Before she could regain her footing the man put the speedboat's throttle at full, and with a sharp turn they went downriver. The other people at the pontoon watched the tragedy in amazement, and saw the speedboat disappear with the bald man shouting commands at Melinda.

The van driver, who had been rolling a cigarette before planning on driving off again, had seen it all too. He immediately called John Gonway.
When John heard of what had happend to his daughter, he immediately ran to the communication office nextdoor to his own, and radioed out to every browncoal barge on the river and beyond. Though the large browncoal barges were much too slow and cumbersome to manoeuvre to stop the speedboat, they quickly started relaying sightings of where the speedboat was.




Meanwhile John contacted the pilot of Gonway Mining co's prospecting plane. Unfortunately , the plane was at least half an hour of flying away, and it needed to refuel first before being able to conduct any search. John shouted commands at the pilot as he felt an increasing panic creep down his throat and attempting to occupy his body. The pilot however remained professional and calm, as he hurried to fill up the plane before talking off, heading towards the large bay in Quynneth.


Photo of Piper PA-18-150 "Super Cub" taken by Ansgar Walk.


When the plane finally arrived at Quynneth, John Gonway was able to provide its pilot with a last location and heading of the speedboat, making it relatively easy for the pilot to start searching. Half an hour into the search, the pilot radioed back to John Gonway how he's found the speedboat moored at a hidden settlement. John commanded the pilot to land and investigate, but the pilot calmly refused. The bay was pretty narrow, and the pilot was hesitant to investigate on his own, and managed to convince john that the time had come to inform the authorities.

With no police in Quynneth itself, John Gonway had to seek for aid outside the region. That same day an investigative police force arrived at the hidden settlement, and they were soon to find out that most of it's inhabitants consisted of poachers and fishermen, trying to make a living by selling game and fish to the new inhabitants of Quynneth. At first they found the inhabitants to be far from cooperative, but with a little pressure applied on one of the poachers,  the police managed to identify the house of the bald man early the next day.




With Melinda Gonway's life possibly in danger, authorities decided on flying in a SWAT team for tactical entry of the suspects house. A plan of attack was made, and after nightfall the SWAT team moved in.
After picking the lock of the backdoor and opting for a quiet entry the top floors were quickly cleared and found empty. All was left to search was the basement. When checking out the last door in the basement with a mirror, a professional optical device to check through door openings and around corners, the suspect was spotted in a basement bedroom. After blowing the door open with C4 and further shocking the suspect with a sting grenade, the armed suspect was arrested. In the back of the room a tied up girl was found on a mattress, but it turned out this was not Melinda Gonway, but another missing girl from a neighbouring region.
Then an entrance to an underground tunnel was found, with at the end a room that had Melinda Gonway locked in. Both girls were alive and as later turned out, physically unharmed, but both were suffering from shock of the constant fear they had been in. What plans the suspect had with the girls remains unclear for now.




After receiving medical attention Melinda Gonway was reunited with her parents. For the first time in years Melinda found her father giving her an intense hug, and both cried realizing how much they had missed that level of personal contact, and they spent the whole night talking about the event, and also about the years leading up to it. With a renewed bond with her parents, Melinda left Quynneth region, never to return to it again.

These events didn't leave John Gonway untouched. It effected him deeply, and led him to the realization that you only live once, and things can change forever in a just a heartbeat. As a result, a few weeks later, he took one of the boldest business decisions ever in his life.
Research was done, offers were made, and eventually John Gonway signed a multi million simolean contract.
Six months later the first of many ship convoys entered Quynneth region, bringing in thousands of tons of materials.




For months on end, trucks and special transports hauled all those tons of material from Innit Industrial to Gonway Mines, where all the materials were assembled, tested, adapted, tested further, and finally, it was done. The largest piece of mobile machinery in Simworld had been created.
At the hands of just 5 operators, the large bucket wheel started its motion, scraping away at the mine walls at the same rate as 40,000 men with shovels would. Who'd ever thought the arrival of a bored teen on a barge would lead up to this...

[n_wilson]

...

speechless

...

I can't belive you did this. What an entry! Beautiful photoshop work and a story unrivaled by everything I read so far in CJs. I love your journal!

Two thumbs up!   

[danielcote]

Where are the stores? 

[marsh]

Amazing entry again! 

[nedalezz]

WOW What a story! Rivetting!!

Ofcourse, what would a MD story be without pictures to go along with it, and yours were done masterfully.

Sensational update.

[catty]

Another great update   

I love your attention to details and I was on the edge of my seat with worry when Melinda was taken, good to see her safe and well

[canyonjumper]

Wow! Amazing update! The story was great, best update yet I say!

                      -Jordan 

[dedgren]

Fine story.  Great graphics.

Quynneth looks like a real keeper.


David

[Rady]

A nice story, and an amazing way of presenting your MD. 

[Shilka]

n_wilson: Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate your lasting support!
danielcote: I realize there are few stores yet, due to the spread out small scale developments there's hardly any commercial demand yet. I expect more demand in the near future, especially since Innit Industrial, Fishenflies, Landing and Sawdust are on the brink of merging into one big town, and town representatives are about to start talks on a shared central commercial area.
marsh: Thanks marsh I appreciate your feedback on all the different places this is posted.
nedalezz: *blush* , I'm happy you were so impressed, I hope this new update won't be too much of an anti climax, it's more in the style of the first 3 updates.
catty: Thank you, and great to hear you were grabbed by the storyline. I haven't done this style of story like presenting
often, and am glad to see it worked out for those who like a good story.
canyonjumper: Thanks CJ, I value your opinion, keep that  coming!
dedgren: Your short but to the point comment goes appreciated
Rady: Thank you, nice to hear you like the way I presented things.

Special thanks to Rooker1 for moving my MD out of the inactive section 







It has been quite a while since the last big update, but I'm proud to present you a new update for Quynneth!
Events triggered by the kidnapping of Melinda Gonway (see update 4) have led to quite some growth in several areas in the region.

With the arrival of the bucketwheel excavator, Gonway Mining co. has vastly improved their production rate, and in no way were the trucks on the narrow road to Innit Landing able to keep up with the amount of brown coal being mined. It didn't take long for John Gonway to decide on building a railroad track, going west from Gonway Mine, passing the main road at Fishenflies with an overpass.




The newly created railroad ends in the harbor area of Innit Industrial, an industrial area that just keeps expanding, and which is currently only separated from Fishenflies by just a narrow strip of trees. The browncoal is unloaded by cranes and conveyor belt systems onto the brown coal docks, awaiting further transportation by ship.




The capacity of the brown coal docks have more then doubled, but business prognosis shows that a direct rail connection with neighbouring regions might be necessary in the future. For now a continuous stream of brown coal hauling trains runs back and forth from Gonway Mine to Innit Industrial, and John Gonway's business is flourishing like never before.


[size=85]Original photo by Callum Black[/size]



However, it's not only the area around Gonway Mines that is flourishing, well to the west of Innit Landing, the once secret settlement of Poacher Marshes has expanded too. After its discovery the illegal homes have been legalized, and the area has been connected by a long and winding road.




Not only the town itself has expanded, because of the legalisation of the fishing and hunting activities of its original occupants a small harbor has been built too, forming the safe haven of a small fishing fleet.




However, Poacher Marshes was having one major problem. Despite of its road and sea connection to Innit Landing, John Gonway refused to provide the regions most used energy source, brown coal. Because of the history with Melinda Gonway's kidnapping, John Gonway didn't want anything to do with this remote town.

Fortunately, the inhabitants of Poacher Marshes are inventive by nature, and they solved the problem by starting to mine peat in the marshy areas surrounding the settlement. The brown coal fired heaters and generators that were commonly used in the region had no problem burning peat instead, and thanks to the business sense of the early inhabitants, peat even became a reliable source of income for the town, selling off peat for garden ornamentation and soil enrichment on the side.




Soon the peat mining area became very large, and a canal was dug alongside the excavation area to be able to haul the large quantities of peat out by barge. This first large peat excavation area got named 'Whiney Slices', because of the slices cut out of the landscape due to John Gonway's 'whining'.
Later, a smaller second excavation area got created named 'Phat Ducks', after a particularly large type of ducks settling in the area.




The large water features created by the peat mining activities turned out to be a natural surrounding very well suited for many species of waterloving wildlife, especially large amounts of ducks. With their poaching history, a welcomed side effect for the inhabitants of Poacher Marshes, who could add the reapings of the legalized hunt to their income as well. So thanks to the inhabitants inventiveness, and despite (or even also thanks to) John Gonway the area continues to flourish.




This is where I'll end this update. I know it has been a while, but I hope to be able to once again have some more time for my SC4 projects in the near future. I hope you enjoyed it, and I will leave you with this regional overview.