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Background & Comments; Read first!
Topic Started: Jan 22 2005, 05:57 PM (770 Views)
NewTexas
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Governor
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[align=center] :tx The Texas Mapping Project :tx [/align]

Background

The Texas Mapping Project has been a vision of ours for almost two years. After we saw the maps of our allies, Wysteria and The Heartland, we knew we had to have one too. Their maps can be viewed here: http://wysteria.diamondq.com/home.htm and here http://www.theheartlandregion.com/ . These were truly marvelous maps and nothing short of marvelous was going to do for Texas. We came up with the idea of a three tier map. Tier one would be the entire region of Texas. Since that was a little boring, we decided to break it into "regions" along the lines of the way "real" Texas does it. We came up with the second tier where clicking on any of the "regions" in the first tier would take you to a closer view of that region. On the second tier maps, the national boundaries of Texas nations would be delineated. We thought about going with the county maps, but they were too small and too boring and would not make good "nations". So they were free-handed. On each nation on the second tier, there is an identifier (such as HC01 for Hill Country 01) that is clickable or there is a map if that nation has already been selected. Initially, only 3 maps have been selected, and one map is a sample to give Texans an idea of what can be done. These labels and flags can then be clicked like clicking on the regions on the first tier and a closer view of that nation will be revealed. This third tier will be Texas nation's pages. On each page will be a plethora of information about that nation. The information on the right side of the page is gathered from the NationStates XML feeds and is generated by the game and is only changed by making changes in NationStates. This includes such things as your flag, motto, national prefix, currency and a variety of social and economic indicators. The Additional Information is the custom information you will provide to customize your nation. Additionally, there are links to various non-game, but game-related, links to various information nations or visitors may find interesting about your nation. Furthermore, since these will be "marvelous", we put a guestbook on each page so that you can show your friends neighbors and relatives and they can leave you messages, ask questions or just comment on your nation. And finally, there is a counter on each page, so you can see how much traffic you are getting. To navigate backwards, you can either use your browser's BACK button or if you click on the Texas flag, you will go back to the tier one map, or if you click on your flag, you will go back to the tier two map you were just on.

There are several things that need to be explained about the maps. The first thing one will notice is the presence of Texas Prime. Texas is a very old and very large region. The map of Texas is only so big. To accommodate all the nations of Texas, something had to be done and this was our decision. Also, there are many nations of Texans that may have a countercultural slate and may prefer to live in an "alternative" Texas even though Texas Prime is as key a part of Texas as Texas itself. Also, Texas Prime gives us two of everything. If a nation really, really wanted something around Bexar County, then perhaps if the Non-Prime version is not available, then the Prime version may be available.

Another thing that needs explaining is the presence of all the blue color on the maps. We have decided that The Great Region of Texas located in NationStates is not connected to Mexico, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana or even the United States. Of course it is based on the Texas that is connected in this way, but for purposes of this game, Texas exists in an alternate world where it is not attached. Texas and Texas Prime are both islands. On the tier one map, all the blue is water. There fore all the nations that have blue touching their border on the tier one map have coastline. There are several reasons for that. Many, many nations want a coast and beach. Texas simply does not have enough, even with Texas Prime to accommodate all these requests. This was our way of resolving this. We apologize if this upsets Texas purists, but it was but one decision amongst hundreds that had to be made on this map. Now comes the confusing part. There is blue around all the regions on the second tier map. This blue does not mean that the nation necessarily has a coastline. As mentioned before, if the nation has access to any of the external borders of Texas or Texas Prime, then they have coastal property, if they do not, then they, well, do not. Therefore, only one nation in the Hill Country has coastal access, only the northern border nations of Prairies and Lakes, only the southern and western nations of The Valley have coastal borders in Texas and the opposite in Texas Prime and so forth. We apologize in advance if this is confusing. Once again, there were many difficult decisions that had to be made and this was just one of them. We hope this is not upsetting to Texans.

Finally, we want to give credit to all the nations that have been instrumental in helping this become a reality. The frames were all done by Channelview of The Grays Harbor Design Bureau. They were done in April 2004 and were updated today. We have hoped the map was going to be done a very long time ago. We had hoped the map was going to be done a long time ago. We are envisioning the flags will be clickable at some point, but that is in the future. Thank you Channelview! The tier 1 map was done by Ineptia of the Office of Heartland Cartography as well as the outlines of the tier two maps. These were our biggest stumbling blocks and without Ineptia's help, this project may have never made it off the ground. Thank you Ineptia! We would also line to thank President Yuri of -Texas- for his initial efforts last year that ultimately did not get used. We would also like to thank Even Greater Texas for the push to make this happen with his little colored counties map that kept everybody interested for a while. We also want to thank President Bill of Freibergen for all his constructive criticism when we could not make decisions on our own any more. He provided valuable opinions on many matters. Thank you Freibergen! And last but certainly not least, PAX of PAX HEARTLANDIA. PAX has spent untold hours (easily more than 400 or 500) doing maps redoing maps and borders and coloring and design work and putting up with us and changing things, changing them again and changing them back. His patience, skill and perseverance are unmatched and this whole project would be nowhere without him. We had a vision a long, long time ago and we were somehow able to share it with PAX and get him as excited about it as we were and the whole thing has come together is what you see today. Thanks are simply not enough for all of PAX's hard work, but a big ol' Texas-sized thank you to PAX anyway! Texcellent work Mr. Land Commissioner!

Texas, this is quite possibly our crowning achievement for The Great Region of Texas. It was a labor of love and you just would not believe how much went into making this a reality. We think this possibly ranks above other great Texas milestones such as the opening of the Offsite Forum and the Texas Elections and Constitution. We hope you all like as much as we do.

Further information will be on the The Great Texas Land Grab thread and the Questions, Problems & Suggestions thread.


The Map is here: http://www.texasregion.net/
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PAX HEARTLANDIA
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:bow BigTex you dont seem to have mentioned yourself, without your :whip enthusiasm to get this up and running, it wouldnt have been possible.

Im sure that no matter how many hours I put into them there maps, you must have done more on the coding and behind the scenes stuff that make it all tick.

:clapping :clapping :clapping

3 Cheers for BigTex.
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El Pat
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Free beer to all involved in the project!!! Awesome job!!!
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