Sprø Diamant Islands

[Moshi]

Welcome To Sprø Diamant Islands

Latest update: Ashtabula Full Update #2 by Moshi

Sprø Diamant Archipelago is a fairly rural cluster of volcanic islands located in the northern Atlantic. Humans settled the five main islands, each of them home to a new nation that could be seen across the waves on a sunny day. Travel visas are required these days, however, one only needs to fill out a simple form to recieve the Sprø Visitor's Pass that grants free access to all islands.


Originally the first multiplayer regional cj on ST, the participants are me (Moshi), Mjig_Dudy, Soapy, Krio, and <hiring>. Each of us will post updates on their own territories in this thread.

Soapy:


Mjig:


Moshi:

[mjig_dudy]

I'll post my first 2 updates from simtropolis as one post here:

Mjig: Naval Base

The old Soviet Naval Base stands on the south eastern shore of the Main islands. It was abandoned rapidly in 1981 two years before the collapse of the USSR. Some of the smaller warships still remain at the base. Last year one was sunk during heavy storms, and the others are in a bad state.


A Bridge was built by the Soviets when constructing the Navy base, This bridge connected the main island to a small island just of the coast. Although there is a fishing village on the  small island, the locals are not permitted to use the bridge because it was deemed unsafe, due to the poor quality concrete used in the construction. The road has been cut off and the villagers have to use the twice daily ferry to reach the mainland.


At the time when the base was operational, it was home to two Soviet nuclear submarines, These were kept in the condition, by a then state-of-the-art maintenance facility. It now stands rusting, and the nuclear Submarines were returned to Russia when the base was abandoned.

Mjig: Government and Politics.

Hawk islands has 3 main political parties:


The socialist Labour party, current hold the majority in a coalition government with the liberals.


The centre-left Liberal party, holds the minority in a coalition government with the Labour party.


The right wing Conservative party, currently in opposition.


There are also other several smaller political parties, of which the largest is Communist Party

The following pie chart shows the current distribution of government seats.

Labour and the Liberals forming a coalition government, with an overall percentage of 65%

Now some pictures of the government area:

The main offices of the government civil service, by the waterfront.


The parliament building. Built in 1959 to replace the old building which was by then far too small for its purpose, as there had been many re-workings of government constituencies, resulting in a large increase in members of parliament. This was the winning design of many entries. The design was chosen by a committee appointed by the Socialist government, and some people claim that these red windows were chosen to represent the red of socialism, however members of government from the time deny that this was the case.


More pictures:

[Moshi]

Updates1-3 Remastered

The nation of Orofino includes the southwestern large island and surrounding areas, ruled by none other than Chancellor Moshi.







Labor refugees from Great Britain, who overthrew the leader of the colony of New Leeds, established the nation of Orofino in the late 18th century. The leaders over in London decided to ignore this minor loss, as the colony was extremely unproductive and things were not going well over in the new world. The 200 citizens of the newly-formed country started the world's first nation based on communist ideals. Our flag was and still is this:

The blue stands for the sea, the green for the wildlife, and the brown for the land. Albeit having been founded around 200 years before silent spring, the founding fathers were focused on preserving the abundant and exotic nature that surrounded them.
Although the country was at peace for more than 150 years, political pressure from European nations and a disastrous spending frenzy made it join Germany in the final days of the Great War. Orofino surrendered in a record 35 minutes after the only aircraft was shot down before takeoff by 3 full British RAF squadrons.

Let's skip history for the moment and get down into the fun stuff... present day Esque! Esque is a smallish city located on the southeastern peninsula of Orofino. Currently capital, it was the second settlement founded in Orofino in 1781.


This is the area around Esque central station, the center of the city. The country's largest department store, SOGOESQUE, is located on the intersection of the avenues.

Although this is a plain office block, it is famous for being the tallest one in the nation.



The Phaidon Building houses almost all of the nation's government, from the supreme court to the president's residence. Also the tallest building in the country, it overlooks the historical district.


Esque Plaza Hotel is a high-end hotel (with an up high-view) built in the sixties.


West Esque Overview. As you can see, the above buildings dominate the skyline when seen from above.


Esque was built on top of a gently rolling hill, and when the choice was made to flatten the land, these semi-embankments were built to prevent soil from being washed away.


This large railyard houses the trains of the Orofino national railroad company "ex-west" (often mispronounced "Esquest"). You can see part of a mountain on the top left corner.


Esque's ferry terminal.


The Esque Town Hall. Est.1800 and still in service.


This is the oldest part of the city, some of the buildings go back two centuries.


Life on the streets: not too shabby, eh?


The clean trash incinerator. Apartments on the hillside house workers.


The port. All imports/exports of this nation go through it, as well as intercontinental ferries.


If you're feeling bored, go to DISCOTHEQUE! THE disco place in Esque.


Don't forget the National Oceanographic Institute, where you can feed dolphins every weekends! (free, reservation required)

[bat]

That's a great start! Wonderful pictures, mjig_dudy and Moshi! Fantastic work!

[rooker1]

Very interesting island.  I see some really cool stuff.  The rural highway looks great and the third last picture, I like the way you did the wall by the road.  Very good chioce of custom content, what I can see fits together very well.  I can't wai to see more.

Robin   

[Ennedi]

It's very interesting! 

I really like your idea to make a multiplayer region on separate islands  , I also there is a better chance of real cooperation if there is only a few players in such region.

There is some really cool details here, I especially like Mjig's pictures - but all of them are very good!

[Krio]

Krioan State

Ok. It's my turn to give update. Now I don't any other pictures than flag, but I shall beat my comrades with history! Moshi, owned. Mjig, owned.

Kriosaari (Krio Island) was settled by Finland in the 1920, when they were in brief war against Sweden when they fought who owns the Aland. Finland won and also demanded biggest island from Diamont Archipelago from Swedish. Sweden accepted and later sold two smaller island to Finland. During WWII when Finland was fighting with Axis, Americans occupied the islands and later annexed them when Soviet did same to other islands. Native Krioans disliked the Americans, who were using the island for military purposes only and during Vietnam War Krioans overthrew Krio Territoral Goverment and after hundreds of years, they were free. Americans offered defense against Soviet Union and newborn nation accepted that. In the 1980s when Soviet Union collapsed, Krioan State demanded that Americans leave islands, because newbie states Orofino and Hawk Islands weren't a theart and Krioan State became regional power. Now in new millenium, Krioan State is one of the richest nations in the world and also seeking new territories from sea and space.

Economy of Krioan Island becomes from oil, uranium and fish. Large amounts of oil were discovered in 1938 and with the help of Nazis production started in the middle of WWII. During "American occupation" oil pumps and technology was lifted to meet Texas Standars and after independence Krioan State joined OPEC and now controls worlds' 8 largest oil reserves. Uranium was discovered in the 90's when mining company started to research Northwest Mountains. Uranium later became Krioan State's second most important export good, when China offered a good deal which isn't just money (there are rumours about nuclear weapon program). Fish was important for centuries, but now fish is "only" 4 the largest export material .

Politics and other stuff follows.

Flag of Krioan State:

Colours of the flag comes from Finland's flag. Meaning of white is same, snow, ice and clean nature but blue is for Atlantic Ocean and efficency.


Random shot from the hills of Tammerkoski.


There is sale at local Alko, everyone are there and not in the streets.


Waterfront.

[Pavle]

I like your multi region very much. Good work.
Your cities are detailed and nicely done. I especially like Moshi's forests. Really nice

[szymcar]

Moshi - Your region is extraordinary! Beautiful mountains. Great scenery - trees, rocks. I'm keep on watching your thread.

[thundercrack83]

Magnificent start here, guys! I love the history and the backstory and, of course, the pictures! I'll definitely be following along!

[Ennedi]

Hello Bengt,

I'm sure Krio Island is a great part of this region
I like diagonal buildings and clear look of your pictures 

If you would like to think about flattening these waves on road and diagonal park onfirst picture, it would be even better 

As for your economy - I see you have great possibilities, but I hope you will not pollute the sea by oil 
And maybe you would like to think about uranium, I know China is an interesting partner, but I don't know if you have ever seen uranium mines? They are very deep and have gigantic mine slag heaps around them - I saw them many years ago in Czech Republic when Eastern Europe was a communist region. Workers in these mines had much money (as for communist conditions), their salary was about 10x bigger than average, but their average length of life was about 35 years (!)
One time I had an idea to make in SC4 the biggest and highest (about 3500 m above the sea level) gold mine in the world - Grasberg mine. It is located in mountains of Irianjaya, it is a massive hole in the centre of mountain range. But when i have read about it's catastrophic impact on the environment, I decide to don't build it  There are many ways to make business with China, but you must be aware 

[mjig_dudy]

Mjig: Airport.

Built in 1992 the small airport was built to help revive the islands economy. Previously the only connection to the mainland was with a two day ferry ride to Norway. Now Scandinavian Airlines runs a 2 hour flight from Oslo Airport to the new airport once a day. KLM also runs a 3 Hour flight from Schiphol Airport twice weekly.

Huak Air, which is wholly owned by the Hawk islands Government, runs local flights between the other Sprø islands.


The airport paid off its debts last year, 3 years behind schedule. The airport proved less popular than was initially thought, as people stuck to using the ferry to get to other Sprø Islands, but usage of the airport has steadily increased over the year. In 2003 a new gate was added where larger jets could park, to provide higher capacity flights to oslo.


Finally, an overview:

[iamgoingtoeatyou]

excellent airport! nice update everyone!

[Pavle]

Excellent airport! It's realistic and nicely done. Good work.

[bat]

That airport is looking fantastic, mjig_dudy! Looking forward to more...

[BigSlark]

WOW! This a great MD...I love the city design, photo retouching, and story lines. Keep up the great work and I can't wait to see more.

Cheers,
Kevin

[thundercrack83]

Beautiful airport, mjig_dudy! The terminal looks great. I'd love to see it in a day shot! Keep up the great work, guys!

[mjig_dudy]

I took a day picture just after i posted that update, as an afterthought. However i hadn't done any photoshopping on it, and i didn't get any planes tak off or landing, of i decided not to include it.
But since you ask, here it is anyway  :http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o292/mjig_dudy/zz-23.jpg

[szymcar]

Great job I wanna build that same airport as your. I must view this thread increasingly.

[Soapy]

Soapy: The Nation of Antigonish - Introduction

Antigonish is the North-East Island and the three surrounding Islands


Brief History

The Islands were first discovered by Norwegian fishermen whom used the islands to set up fishing ports, as more people came to Islands, they grew with small fishing communities. Things continued this way until 1938, when the Islands were used during World War II as an Axis supply port, the settlements were later destroyed by Allied Bomber planes near the end of the war. After the war, Norwegian settlers came to the war torn Nation and re-built new towns.

Present day, The Islands still stand as small fishing communities.
This is one of the small towns at dusk on the Islands north end...

A few fishermen's houses along the coast...

One of the homes with the nation's flag raised high...


Next update - History: World War II & the Cold War.
Cheers, Soapy.