Principality Of Tantico Entry 36: The Rubic Incident: Nearing A Verdict!

[89James89]

Replies:


Benedict: Thanks, I hope you continue to check in and enjoy the updates.

Schulmanator: True, though there are some cheaper alternatives in the CBD that are still of a nice quality.




Entry 24: Industrial Heart


Well this will be the final one of our focus on Tantico mini series. We've had residential and commercial so that leaves us with the industrial heart of the small nation to explore.

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Now it should be no small suprise that industrial jobs make up most of the jobs on Tantico, what with its heavy emphasis on farming and exporting. True, more and more people have begun seeking employment in the many businesses and offices around the towns and Tantico City as they continue to grow but at the moment its mostly industry that employs the Tanticoans.

As for the actual employers nearly all of them are small scale factories and farms owners with only three major employers in the region. These are the Tensea Power Distribution Company who own the large natural gas power plants that provide power to Tantico City as well as a small number of the wind turbines dotted around the region. Then there's the Salem Mining Company. Headed by Prince Gregory, Prince Olivers brother, this company owns nearly all the factories and mines in both Salem and Riverbend (as well as Salem Coal Power Plant) and is the biggest employer in the region. Finally of the big three we have the quickly emerging Sustainable Forestry Inc who are quickly purchasing land to enlarge their plantations. All of the three will be seen in the update along with the rest of the industrial might of Tantico so lets begin.

Starting small as ever we take a look at some of the smaller holdings and one of the trial plantation, not of the usual Blue Fir but instead a small Oak with favourable properties, around the recently settled village of Jepin (probably the smallest village in the region) and Farwill . As you can see in the previous updates many small farms like these dot the countryside around the region, usually owned by small families.





Moving on we can see farming on the other end of the spectrum with these huge farms around the Heltan Cross junction. These large farms aren't as prolific as the smaller ones at the moment but are slowly increasing in number as the rural spread develops. Another note for the agriculture in that we mainly produce food stuffs for ourselves, relying a lot on home grown produce rather than imports. Favoured among the farmers is corn and cattle along with the usual wheat and apples. Unusually though is the few native llama farms where the llama's native to Tantico are reared to provide the Tantico delicacies of Llama pate and llama pizuers (basically a Llama steak in a folded pizza) without hurting the native population.



Moving on from agriculture we take a look at Salen Mines and the SMC's holdings. Currently the mines are still gorwing and now have seven open shafts rather than the original three. Unseen in the image below is also the continued growth of the compnaies processing area and power plant both of which are also set to grow int he comin years.



the other side of the company can be found here in Riverbend. Consisting of one of the three harbours in Tantico (here, the city harbour and a small harbour to the east of hte city) as well as the only freight line in the region. This port is a fairly busy one, shipping the coal not being used to Tantico Harbour to be exported.



Now we take a look at the one of the regions many industrial estate. This one in particular is the Chilton Industrial Estate. Originally situated on some farmland outside of Tantico City, this former manufacturing estate has seen growth both around it and in it over the last few years as more and more advanced indutries have redeveloped the previous plots to become Tantico's leading High Tech Industrial Estate. Beside this one most of the others concetrate on manufacturing .



Finally no update regarding Tantico's Industry would be complete without a look at the regions major eyesore and governmental headache, Tantico Harbour.  A huge mess of individual docks, factories, pollution and the Tensea Power Distributions largest power plant, this area has been the biggest industrial concentration since the regions settlement. However plans are being finalised too clean this area up and add proper docks for ships to use and maybe even government owned freight lines. All this is at the top of the governments priorities list so will probably be addressed very soon. For now though it'll continue to provide the headache it is.



That however is all for now. Join me next time for a slightly different type of update.

Till then

Jay Goodrick

[vortext]

Good couple of updates and nice mosaics, too! Curious what the next update will bring!

[89James89]

Replies:[/u]

votrext: Thanks I'm glad you like the mosaic's. They take a while but are worth it and here's the next update so wonder no more!



Entry 25: 25th Special


Welcome everyone to what will be Tantico's most eccentric and diverse update yet. To celebrate the journal reaching 25 entries (OOC: Quite good considering I've only ever got about 5 updates in till now) I've got a number of different things for you so without further ado let's begin.

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Having reached both entry 25 and 100k in population, Prince Oliver has announced decreed that the nation needed a flag to proudly fly. As such a number of Tantico's finest art students and artists contributed a number of flag designs for the nation and although all were appreciated, it was this design by Jose Heltin that was chosen, what with Oliver and his ministers feeling it reflected Tantico best, the blue of the important coastline and brown for the important agriculture. The star was also important to the Kerin family line so it fitted perfectly.

As such were proud to present the flag of Tantico.



Also, on the subject of flags, a variant was designed for Tantico CIty, bearing a ships wheel rather than a star represented here.



Also apparently in the pipe line is the redesign of the Kerin family crest to be used by the royalty of Tantico but apparently no design has been agreed on yet.


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Now for the second and smallest part of the update.

Having realised that I hadn't mentioned much about Oliver and his family since his succession, I'm pleased to be able to present the Kerin's family tree (since they settled Tantico). As you can see there's been births that I haven't actually mentioned but this will bring you up to date.


-----------------------

And now the biggest and most exciting part of the update. What with it being update 25 and all we've decided to do something a bit different and have a animated image of the growth of Tantico since entry six via a animated image.

As you can see the region has grown quite a bit since then and this we decided was the best way to show it. Underneath will then be another population list with all the new settlements and areas on it.




Settlement size by population:

Tantico Town
(including Chilton Suburb):
Pop: 32,381  Com: 7,674  Ind: 4,419

Tantico Harbour area
(including Henrick Point, Tepin Point and West Ketin):
Pop: 28,831  Com: 8,454  Ind: 8,661

Ellington:
Pop: 13,105  Com: 3,904  Ind: 2,310

Tantico Southern Seafront (Ketin)
(not including West Ketin):
Pop: 7,204  Com: 2,512  Ind: 1,583

Salen Mines:
(including Ilting, Linham)
Pop: 4,756  Com: 1,021  Ind: 2,971

Clearwater
(including Tepin West, Jepin and Farwill):
Pop: 4,366  Com: 804  Ind: 2,172

Riverbend
(including Gidon)
Pop: 3,999  Com: 1,208  Ind: 1,812

Henrick Bay
(including Olham Hamlet):
Pop: 3,161  Com: 970  Ind: 664

Tantico City Bay:
(including Cty Bay Suburbs and Stredan-on-Sea):
Pop: 2,286  Com: 1,245  Ind: 905

Shoreside
(including Blackrock and Garton):
Pop: 1,878  Com:270  Ind: 303

Heltan Corridor
(including Tinby, Stran, Chelm and Dowling):
Pop: 1,733  Com: 233  Ind: 1,095

Tantico's Marshland's Nature Reserve
(including Marshton and Jenkin):
Pop: 1,319  Com: 482  Ind: 863

Wellridge:
Pop: 221  Com: 40  Ind: 441

Oldwood:
Pop: 187  Com: 9  Ind: 996

Arlingbury Wood's
Pop: 16  Com: 0  Ind:246


Totals
Pop: 105,443  Com: 28,816  Ind: 29,111


---------------------

Now, with the update out of the way its time to announce my retirement. I've enjoyed documenting our small nations growth over the last updates but its now time for me to let someone younger take over the role. As such from the next update onwards your journal author will be my nephew Jamie Felding while I move out to my nice retirement house in Shoreside.

Apparently he's managed to get his hands on he plans for the harbour redevelopment so that should be good to look at.

For the last time

Goodbye from me

Jay Goodrick

[eldaldo]

I like that gif alot.  and the flags are nice.  It's always good to see people develop stories and roleplay their regions because that's mostly why I play sim city.  Keep up the great updates!

[samerton]

This MD shows great creativity, I think it shows that you don't need mods to make your cities look good

[89James89]

Replies:[/u]

eldaldo: Thanks I like adding some character and depth to the nation as well, makes it more realistic and tangible in my opinion and don't worry updates are set to come thick and fast.

samerton: Thanks and I'm glad your enjoying the cities vanilla-ness.



Entry 26: Plans and Exploration

Hi Jamie here for my pleasure of my first blog entry and boy is it a important one. As my predecessor mentioned last time I'd managed to finally get my hands on the long awaited and much needed Harbour Regeneration Plan which I'll show you in a moment. Other than this I've got some images from the activity surrounding the release and announcement of the plans and also of a entirely new and fast growing town.

Most importantly though and the part of the update that we'll look at first though is that the Principality has increased in size. What with the population slowly spreading outwards from Tantico City and filling up the initial island our small nation called home we would need more land soon. As such Prince Oliver had several exploration teams head southwards, with a stance towards increasing our coastline . As you can see below they came back reporting several more islands, one of which is probably nearly the same size as our existing nation.

As such Prince Oliver had the lands claimed for the Principality and is at this moment organising trips to several of the islands that were discovered.

I'll have to link you to the governmental website for the image as I don't have a copy myself (OOC: its to large so I'll have to link it). Also as it doesn't mention it the white line marks the national boundary. Now as of yet none of the islands have a name but I sure that is currently being looked into and I'll reveal more information as and when I get it for you.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/1808/zhv5.jpg

----------------------

The second part of the entry will focus on the actual plans for the harbour area.




There's not that much to say regarding it seeing as the image is annotated but I know that most of the business owners are fairly happy that they're carrying out the redevelopment in stages as this will hopefully help drive down the spikes in unemployment as various areas are worked on. Also of note is that the land reclamation, being the most expensive part of the redevelopment, will add around 75% more available space to the rather cramped harbour.

Other than that the most prominent features are the transit ones. Mostly the development of the regions first bridge to link Tepin Point and its suburbs to the rest of the city, alleviating long waiting times for the ferries. Another prominent feature is the lack of a railroad. Having no clear direction as to where the railroad should travel out from the harbour area it was cut from the final product with hopes that increased road networks will help alleviate any problems the increased amount of room will bring.

With phase one set to begin almost immediately and then then sequentially the others over a several year period, it'll be an interesting and hopefully exciting project to follow.

-------------------

Now this part will concentrate on the fallout of the plans initiation. With a number of the businesses needed to be moved out of the city due to the construction and destruction work soon to commence, new factories and in some cases whole new industrial parks ahve been sited and constructed around the region. Shown below are some of the areas currently being built on in light of this.




Interestingly though regarding the factories, is that a lot of them are government owned (by the Tantico Department of Trade (TDT)) and built as multi-purpose buildings to accommodate the displaced businesses in turns, with the building being refitted once the old displaced business has moved back into the harbour to prepare it for the next wave of displaced businesses.

Also shown here is an increase in the size of Riverbend Harbour. Funded by the TDT this will help with some of the displaced shipping from the redevelopment (along with the much smaller Stredan Harbour).

---------------

The final peice of this update is a look at the new town of Alringbury.




Situated in the area known as Alringbury Wood's. What was originally several farmsteads (owned by the Arling and Bury families, hence the woods name), is now one of the fastest growing towns in Tantico. Careful not to ruin feel od the woods around them the town and its agriculture follows the paths of the tree-lines for the most part with as minimal forest clearing as possible. As such if it continues to grow as it is, it may soon be seeing vertical growth rather than ground level spread.

Also of note is that the Sustainable Forestry Inc company have also based themselves here. With the perfect condition to grow trees, the company has set up its sawmill and nurseries here and is set to increase plantations across the nation very soon, with new species trailing in the nurseries. Unlike Salem Mines where the company own most of the town though, here the company was built after the town rather than for it. There';s also currently talks as to joining the sawmill and nurseries to the Salem Mines railroad to make use of the expanding Riverbend Harbour.

---------------------

And that all for this update. As you can see plenty of things have been happening around here lately and they don't look like there about to stop up with several things on the horizon including:

• Tantico Harbour Redevelopment
  National Exploration and settlement
  Continued growth all over the nation

As such join me next time as I document things here as they happen.

See you then

Jamie Felding

[89James89]

Entry 27: Plan's underway


Jamie here with a small update to show you that the plans for the harbour are being acted upon and finally something is being done about it and not just on paper. Luckily I managed to get some pictures of it as it developed to the stage its at now. Stage one is all but finished with the land finally going up for sale and the factory owners displaced looking to move back into the area. Below are the several pictures that I managed to get.

-----------------








As you can see from these images the plan was changed a little bit, what with the lack of the pier at the end of the land reclamation. Apparently their currently in talks about this but for now there happy to leave it as it is.

Another feature they were quick to install and set up was the seaport. Although the area was yet to actually be built on the port has been active since the roads were installed and has meant that the Harbour now has a dedicated port to ship out of rather than a series of separated docks, which greatly pleases the factory managers.

Other than that the area has developed as they said it would and is now surrounded and shored up by a natural looking seawall. Will be interesting to see it with development on it so will have to get some pictures of that for you next time.

------------------

Other than that the region has seen some growth around Tantico City mainly in the East Ketin area as coastal farmland is redeveloped into more and more suburbs (along witht he occasional shopping area). Here's and image of the designated areas being bought and built upon including in the middle, the seaside commercial strip. Interestingly enough there has been talk of some docks and factories being put into this area but being open to the elements nothing has been acted on as of yet.




-------------------

In keeping with the residential theme of the last picture, my final input for today is this random image of some low and mid wealth apartment blocks along Entan Road. Although not necessarily the ghetto this is probably one of the cheapest places to live in the city. I should know I live in one of the rooms in that large building in the middle. Want somewhere bigger but at the moment housing prices are rising too quickly in light of the development going on.



That's all I have for now though. Apparently the cartographers have found a number of sites for new settlements on the newest islands claimed by our small nation and there currently readying materials to start settling towns so I'll be sure ot keep on top of that, along with the continued harbour work.

All in all quite a lot to come.

Cheers

Jamie Felding

[gn_leugim]

That's a great project you ahve there

You should also take care of water pollution, it looks like it's huge

[89James89]

Replies:


gn_leugim: Thanks and yes the water pollution will hopefully be taken care of by the redevelopment plan. If not then I don't know what we'll do.



Entry 28: Stage one done!


Just a small update today looking at the completion of stage one of the redevelopment and a some recent Royal development.

----------------

Starting with the harbour here's how it looks now.




As you can revitalisation was can be considered a success for this part of the project at least given that this stage is now predominantly manufacturing businesses rather than the old dirty ones that were here, and there's even a significant amount of high tech developing towards the end of the land reclamation.

The seaport was a very welcome addition and is now used centrally by most of the factories in the harbour area to ship there freight out from one place. Now lets take a closer look at several key points in the stage.



Firstly the lighthouse at the end of the reclaimed land. Built to help guide ships past the new reclaimed land, this is the first actual lighthouse to be built in Tantico, with the other points still using their old beacons. This point is also the site of several high tech factories that




The other picture I have shows the large factories that have been built around the Tensea Power-plant TH. Several of the ones beside the actual power-plants are also owned by the company but a number the majority are privately owned factories eager to take advantage of the new seaport.


------------------------

Now for the next part of the update which takes a look at the new royal residency of Oldwood. Formerly named Oldwood Royal Castle, this beautiful castle has all the charm of a old building and all the trappings of a modern one.

Oldwood itself is a idyllic location and due to the age of the trees in the wood has become the second of Tantico's Nature Reserves along with the Marshes, thereby preventing any removal of trees from within the woods boundaries and presenting the perfect location for Prince Oliver and his family to build a retreat away from the hustle and bustle of Tantico CIty life.

Also being the single biggest home in the entire nation and also having the largest gardens, parts of this castle and its grounds can be rented for a steep price for weddings or parties, and also during select days you can take a guided tour of the royal families extensive art collection, containing pieces from Tantico as well as other nations on here on Smearth. This is also the planned residency for any state or royal guests, with half of the east wing as dedicated luxurious suites.

Below are several images of the castle during Princess Abigail's 25th birthday.

An aerial of the building from the front.



Looking at the gardens behind the castle, apparently a favourite place of the Princess Emille.




-----------------

That's all for now. Apparently there nearly ready to begin on stage two of the redevelopment and cartography and geology reports are being brought in regarding the other bodies of land in the nation.

Till then

Jamie Felding

[89James89]

Entry 29: Ellingtons Alive!


Welcome back to the our favourite principality. Today, contrary to last entries insinuations we take a break from looking at the Tantico Habour while they get final preparations going for stage two of the project. Today we instead take a trip to Ellington.

What with all the focus on Tantico Harbour you'd have been forgiven for forgetting about Ellington but its still here, plodding along slowly as Tantico City took most of the limelight with all its redevelopment.

Well no longer.

Apparently while they appear to have settled down with its population of 14,000 still making it the second largest settlement in the nation they were really saving. Saving for large amounts of developments it turns out and as phase one of the harbour redevelopment plan was finished Ellington Town Council announced its intention to build homes for 4,000 new residents bought in by continued immigration to the small nation.

Interested I set of to find out what they had planned.

----------------------

Fast forward to the end of the development and boy did they finish this fast. The type of housing may have had something to do with at your about to see though.

Firstly we'll take a look at this collage of suburban development, one of the two areas that the council had chosen for residential development. Situated on a strip of farmland on the east side of town this area was mainly cookie cutter housing for low wealth families with a few mid wealth homes mixed in. Also you can see several corner shops and small strip malls were also given the go-ahead to help serve the suburb and provide some more jobs for the growing population.




Now we move into town where most of the residential development has happened. Apparently time was of the essence when these were commissioned and so virtually the same building was chosen to replace most of the town centres two story family homes, you can see in the picture below construction crews hard at work on multiple apartment blocks at once.




This is what the area looks like at the moment. As you can see the same low wealth design was chosen due to its capacity for residents given its footprint. The council has admitted that this may not have been the best approach but it did get the job done. Apparently though talking to some of the residents things aren't all rosy in the packed neighbourhoods but overall residents are happy.

Also in this picture you can see the newly finished Ellington Central Hospital. With a growth of 4,000 citizens, the old clinic was way to overcrowded and plan were made to construct the hospital you see here. You can also see the north side of the town centre and commercial district including the Royal Ellington Theartre which we'll take a closer look at later.





--------------

Before we do take a look at the theartre though I want to show you that development wasn't all residential. In what appears to be a imitation (though on a smaller scale) of Ferryside, Ellington Town Council had some of the money accumulated for the project put into redeveloping a small block of commercial on the edge of the bay into a larger waterside area with hopes of creating a place with an atmosphere similar to Ferryside.




Obviously as you can see in this collage it didn't work perfectly, as a number of less wealthy buildings opened up shop in he newly named Crossbay Point. Still, there are a couple of nice cafes here for a nice light dinner in the evening and a drink and apparently there is a number of more wealthy businesses looking into buying out the ones already there, though whether or not this is true has yet to be announced.



--------------

The final image I've got for you today is the earlier mentioned one of the Royal Ellington Theatre. Owned  by the royal family and run by the Ellington Dramatic Society this theartre is the premier place to see shows in the nation.




Renovated and expanded, the older Ellington Drama House that had been showing productions since Ellingtons early day and had recently unfortunately fallen into disrepair due to the rising costs needed to retain the top theartre status in Tantico, what with new ones opening up in the centre of Tantico City. A favourite place of Prince Oliver when he was younger, he purchased the building upon finding out that it was scheduled for demolition.

Providing funds to enlarge and renovate the theatre as well as purchasing the plot of land across the road and developing it into a space for open air performances, the Prince assured that they continued producing the best shows in Tantico, personally attending every new show they put on and recently awarding it a Royal Seal (this only extends to the actual theatre, not the open air performance area, and means that the building is protected).

As such (and along with the growth in the town and nation) the theatre has flourished and is sure to continue to entertain for generations to come.



---------------

That's all for now though. Next time we will (probably) return to the harbour to see is any work has been done on stage two but till then enjoy these pictures of Ellington.

Jamies Felding

[eldaldo]

I love how frequently you update your region.  I love how you did the royal castle and ellington has a nice vibe.

[89James89]

Replies:


eldaldo: Thanks I hope I can keep up the frequent updates as I enjoy the playing the game lots. Some updates obviously take longer than others though. I'm glad you liked the castle too. I was worried it wouldn't work as well as I hoped but I think it came out nicely and although Ellington is cookie cutter heaven it doesn't look to bad.



Entry 30: This and that.


Welcome back guys and girls and today I have a bit of a random update for you all covering several things across the nation. As such lets dive right in with a response to a reader who was curious as to what shows were on at the Royal Ellington Theatre.

------------

This is a copy of the poster that I've scanned and uploaded for you all showing whats on at the moment at the Royal Ellington Theatre. Apparently its a show called The Wolves Of Ellington. It's received pretty good reviews though I haven't seen it yet.




------------


Now we move onto looking at a data image showing the pollution surrounding the Tantico Harbour. This was taken at the end of stage one and as you can see shows that there is still a lot of work to be done in the area. The good news however is that the area around stage is a lot less polluted than the rest of the harbour so hopefully, continued redevelopment will mean that the pollution levels slowly decline.





-----------

Now we'll take a look at the next stage in our attempt to reduce the pollution. The as of now complete stage two. As with stage one we've got several in progress shots of the harbour starting with this one of showing the area in question to be developed.




As with stage one, the area was then terraformed and land reclamation commenced enlarging the area that existed by a substantial amount.




After this the area had the roads paved and in this case, Harbour Park was also landscaped over several older factories and can be seen as the large square in the middle of the picture. The hope is that this will provide a nice area to eat lunch or just hang out as well as increasing the surrounding land values. You can also see the orange a blue building that marks the headquarters for the Tantico Shipping Company. Another fast growing corporation here in Tantico, based unsurprisingly on shipping out of the new seaport.




Finally after a large amount of hard work businesses moved back into the area.




As you can see its not got rid of all the dirty industry as hoped, but there's definitely an improvement and a greater mix of industrial uses on the land. Now all we need to do is finish the remaining five phases and we'll be set. For now though we move to Arlinbury.

----------------

Now some of you may remember that Arlinbury was a rather landlocked but fast growing town situated in the south of the island. Given all the forests surrounding it and the reluctance of the town council to remove it all in the name of expansion, the town has become a bit short on space as you can see in the photo below.




It does have some nice landscaping though, landscaped and maintained by the locals, the most notable area is the old village green. Now a town though, the area is set to grow in the near future. Add to that the fact that Sustainable Forestry Inc has agreed to allow the town to buy water off it at a cheaper rate than normal, and they themselves have had plans for a railroad extension of Salems Mines line approved means the town is set to be Tanticos smallest settlement to grow upwards (at around 1,500 people before the pipes were laid).


-------------------

As for what it looks like now we'll take a look in the next update or two for now though we'll finish our 30th entry with a look at a national overview. As you can see the main island is continuing to spread outwards though this is still the only body of land claimed by the small nation to be settled. Hopefully though by the next time we show a overview the other bodies of land will start to show habitation.




Hope you enjoyed our 30th and rather random look at our small nation.

Till next time

Jamie Felding

[gn_leugim]

great informative update, and above all, what a lovely region shot!

[89James89]

Replies:

gn_legium: Thanks I'm glad you found it informative and liked the overview. There one of my favourite parts watching that grow.





Entry 31: Politics and Arlinbury


Well toady were taking a look at Arlinbury as mentioned last time to see how its grown but first we have a special announcement.

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Bureau of Feline Affairs

Link to Schulmania CJ on SimTropolis:
http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/24185-schulmania-awards-ceremony-484-prizes-given-out/

Recently we've been receiving diplomatic missions from Schulmania after a small inter dimensional portal was discovered several hundred miles off of the east coast of the island (OOC: rather far fetched granted but hey were on different planets). Under control of the Smearth National Alliance, the leading multi national organisation here on Smearth, this new portal has facilitated cross dimensional relations.

One such diplomatic mission was from the feline ruled nation of Schulmania. A curious nation indeed with their fascination with cats but still a friendly one and as such, a Bureau Of Feline Affairs was set up here in Tantico City to maintain and improve relations.

Below are some images of the actual building and grounds including the Feline Diplomatic Residence for traveling diplomats. As you can see it includes a nice gold fish pond and cat nip bush for the felines as well as a gazebo to sun themselves.




The we have another image below to give you an idea of where the residence and Bureau is located in terms of the rest of the city. Pretty central but not overly busy.




---------

Now for the second part of this small update, this time regarding Arlinbury. As you can see from the following photo's the area has indeed gone upwards, here we'll take a closer look starting with the centre of the town.

As you can see its got a few large retail stores, with the most obvious being the large office block that houses the town council on its top floors and several small stores along the ground floor. As you can see from this image though its definitely one of the greener towns here in Tantico.




Moving southwards we come to one of the largest urban parks in the nation, Arlinbury Green. Built to provide a large place of relaxation for the growing population, in keeping with the green feel the rest of the tree lined town gives. As you can see its a fairly popular place and slowly several of the residences around the green are being bought out by commercial business eager to take advantage of the daily crowds.

As for the large apartments though, this is the what the majority of Arlinbury's 4,300 residences live in. Not exactly the nicest looking buildings but they get the job done cheaply so were favoured by the council, reasoning that the large amount of green in the town would balance the not so nice buildings out.




Final image for now is this one of the growing industrial park outside Arlinbury. What with the large emphasis on green spaces here in Arlinbury, it provides a attractive place for hih tech businesses to set up shop and as such, the road into Arlinbury is lined by a number of high tech factories.




That's all for the images, though apparently the proposed rail-line from Arlinbury to Riverbend via Salem is in the final stages of planning and construction is set to start soon, which we'll be all to eager to cover next time.

Till then

Jamie Felding

[gn_leugim]

what a great news! two of my favourite CJ/MD have come together in peace 

[jmdude1]

nice work. even without plugins, I really enjoy this MD. i've missed a few updates, so I should also mention that I like the redevelopments you've made and how they are showcased.

well done!

[89James89]

Replies:


gn_leugim: Indeed it is great news and there appears to be more diplomatic relations on the horizon.

jmdude1:Thanks I'm glad you like the improvements and how I've showcased them. The harbour is coming along nicely just need to wait until we have the funds for the next stage.



Entry 32: More Politics and Arlinbury


Welcome back and today we'll take a look at the completed rail expansion and the effects its had on both Arlinbury and Salem Mines. First however we have another nation join us in diplomatic endeavors. Please welcome the Kingdom Of Teddyland to our diplomatic folds.


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http://simmania.icyboards.net/showthread.php?tid=506

Located on the planet Earth, this nation is another that we've chanced upon via the wormhole here on Smearth. Warm and friendly to our exploration party good relations sparked up in much the same way as they had with the nation of Schulmania and ended up with another new embassy here in Tantico Town.

Located on what is now known as Embassy Estate, this building may not be as big as the Bureau Of Feline Affairs but its no less important in the good relations it helps maintain between our two nations.





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Moving on we head back to look at the construction of the rail between Arlinbury and Salem Mines starting with the plans.




This rail would be the first rail in Tantico to be majority owned and maintained by the TTD with a small part (namely the freight terminal by its headquarters) being paid for and maintained by the Sustainable Forestry Inc. Designed to help with freight shipping to the port of Riverbend, this rail extension is also a tester to see if it could have wide spread viability for the rest of the nation.

Anyway were focusing on this rail line at the moment not what implications it has for the future so lets move to Arlinbury and see what happened there starting with the detailed plans for the town.



As you can see these plans resolve around redeveloping the farmland next to the industrial park, replacing it with stations for both freight and passengers and then using the enclosed land to develop more residential areas for the growing population. Meanwhile, another freigth station and the train sidings would be located next to the headquarters of Sustainable Forestry Inc.

Fast forward a little bit and the area has been cleared and infrastructure laid out.



Even further along and we have this.



As you can see the line has been finished and people have moved into the area. True its still full of the same apartments that are rife in Arlinbury but its increased the population by over 1k so they do the job.


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Whilst all this was happening on Arlinbury's end, Salem Mines was having to do the same on its end. Below you can see the image of the area before the line was extended.



Now unfortunately, I was unable to get a hold of the plans for the expansion on this side of the line so we'll take a look at the finished work and then talk about it a little bit.



As you can see the line has been expanded through the industrial site and out the other side to continue into the neighbouring area of Wellridge. The rail sidings that did originally exsisted when the line terminated here, have been moved to a branch off line on the far side of the now enlarged industrial area and the old sidings turned into a small green area and another factory. The other affect of this was that the industrial area was expanded southwards creating more much needed jobs.

With the two ends of the lines finished the teams met in the middle of the Wellridge area to complete the track.



As you can see the area has undergone some terrain leveling to allow the trains to travel quickly without derailment risks. In light of this the land that was cut into by the tracks, has been shored up with trees and some surface lattice work to prevent the embankments from sliding onto the tracks.

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Well its been a little while since the line was finished and unfortunately, apart from the odd freight train taking wood up to Riverbend, the rail isn't used all that much. Maybe this will change as the area develop but for now the TTD have grown rather wary of further rail additions in the nation so all in all not the best addition.

Anyway, that was the coverage of the rail expansion for you. Not the best results but hey. next time we'll probably be looking at stage three of the redevelopment plan.

Till then I hope you enjoyed the rail update despite the results.

Jamie Felding

[gn_leugim]

great update as usual. keep them coming and welcome Teddyland

[89James89]

Replies:


gn_leugim: Thanks and yes indeed welcome Teddyland.





Entry 33: The Rubic Incident: Part 1


Breaking news!

Well guys I'm back again with some coverage of a nation wide incident that occurred several hours ago.

In the most bizarre series of events we've ever seen here in Tantico and probably here on Smearth it appears that our small nation has been transported to another world.........


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To make any sense of this we need to go back a bit an introduce you to a small black cube we found near the portal. Unsure of what this small cube was, it was handed over to our lead scientific mind Walter Rubic to study.




Unfortunately we soon found out at least one of the abilities of the strange black cube. Apparently one of his assistants reported that Rubic had been rotating the sides of the cube when a loud bang issued form it and the world turned black for a instance.

When his vision had returned he'd said that Rubic was no where to be seen and the former cube was now a smoking lump of black metal on the lab floor. Rubic's disappearance had startled his assistant but was nothing compared to what half of Tantico was feeling.

From what we can work out, it would appear that the black cube was made of the same substance as the portal was and upon finding some sort of key as such, it unlocked the abilities of the cube. Whether it was meant to happen this way no one can say but it appeared to rip the top half of Tantico out of existence and replace it in the same spot it would occupy in another world.

Luckily for us this happened to be a two way affair and the land previously occupying the space we now occupy also switched with us. it would seem however that the device was slightly faulty as instead of a clean switch in the south, it, in a sense tore at the edges and the land had been forced into existence on top of land already existing causing a large ridge to form.

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Amazingly enough though it would appear that there was no fatalities in this incident. A lot of minor injuries and several pile ups but other than that no one was seriously hurt either. It would appear, that nothing had really happened had the view form our windows not changed.

We are a bit worried about one of our coal tankers though, which had been caught in the middle of what appeared to have been the limit of the switch. This casued half of the tanker to be left behind and half brought with us. The crew has apparently managed to get to one of a larger number of small islands that have appeared in our new surroundings and are safe enough. (Luckily no one was half transported during the switch).

It would also appear that we were lucky to switch to the planet known as Earth. With our Teddyland Ambassador assuring us that were on the same planet that hes from, he has been instrumental in assuring that the slightly surprised governments of Earth haven't as of yet, thought to destroy us.

We have however been quarantined. No one in or out of the island until further notice. Not that that bothers us as were just as confused and worried as the governments themselves and are happy to keep ourselves on this small island chain for the time being.

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Speaking of which I should probably show you the island chain, or as much as we've explored so far.

(OOC: Linked due to image size (over 5mb)).
http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/8458/udsl.jpg


From this satellite image you can see that our main island has almost doubled in size. You can also clearly see the ridge that was formed from the switch.

As for our actual place in the world it would appear that we are now situated west of a country called France and there town by the name of Brest. Apparently, if the dormant volcano islands to the north west are anything to go by, were also on a fault line, though small by the looks of it.

The climate is also much like the one we had on Smearth although its a bit warmer here and looking at the local flora much more suited to agriculture which is a bonus. With our lock-down situation and no surrounding trade partners we need to produce even more food for our citizens.

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All this brings you up to current times. At the moment were still in heated talks with the UN regarding our sudden appearance and the strange events surrounding it.

We have been allowed to contact the Kingdom Of Harnat, the original home of Prince Henrick, in regards to the missing half of the coal tanker and a expeditionary party that had been exploring inland of Tantico when the incident occurred.

All this I'll keep you up to date on and informed on as the news come in but until then.

Jamie Felding


(OOC: Bit of a far fetched and obscure update but I wanted to make Tantico and island and then decided while I was at it I may as well move it to Earth too as it'll be easier to incorporate other embassies and such.)

[vortext]

Scary stuff!!!   

Good plot twist though and the island looks great!