The New Frontier - A Realistic, Natural Growth MD

[Swordmaster]

Lovely shot! Are there mosque BATs?

And with that you're authoring a best-selling MD. 


Cheers
Willy

[kelis]

Fantastic pictures ! The update dedicated to Barbara is really nice and very well done.

[Vizoria]

A great church picture set in the dusk!

[art128]

Congrats on hitting the Best Sellers! What a lovely picture it is.

[belfastsocrates]

Looking excellent M! Great to see you back and with fantastic content to boot!

[kbieniu7]

Nice sunset photo Churches and religious builidngs are very often a must-be while creating a realistic town. Especially in Europe it's a central point for many villages. I don't know how does it look like in South Africa, you may tell us a little bit? 

And congrats for entering Best Sellers Sections 

[M4346]

Thank you for all your comments girls and boys, kings and queens, and everything in between! I really appreciate it  It's a huge factor in why I keep on coming back, so, thank you!! 

Also, a HUGE thank you to all of you for being instrumental in my 'upgrade' to a best-seller 

A lot has happened recently (and over the years) that has really made me watch in amazement and with great appreciation the work of and role played by, this community in extending the 'shelf-life' of a game that I'm sure EA expected to die within six months of their last update.

It has been, what, twelve years? And I would not have played the game myself beyond the first year without the contribution and sense of community created by all the amazing people like you!

I mean, let's be honest, the Maxis BATs, Transportation Networks, Terrain Textures and Flora is, at best, an infantile job compared to the excellent contribution made by all of us in the years gone by.

I cannot imagine a game with Maxis content, without the NAM, without the CAM (and now CAM 2.0), the amazing, realistic and detailed BATs of so many of you, the powerful tools that some have created for us, and the amazing flora (especially Giraffe's) and terrain textures (Cycledogg's in particular) that have all gone far beyond the limits of the game to create a sense of realism, a particular (customiseable) aesthetic and a game that I can spend hours on end in.

There are too many to mention directly, but I want to highlight the contribution of our Goddess, of callagrafx, Colyn (CSX), Simgoober, Debussyman, Andreas, Ripplejet, Z, dedgren, ennedi, geoffhaw, dusktrooper, diggis, JBSimio, jestarr, jeronij, Mandelsoft, Mattb325, jen_p, vortext. Vester, the NAM team, wouanagaine, xannepan, sebes, the BSC and NHP teams, and, more recently, Invisichem.

THANK YOU ALL! 

Now, on to today's, I suppose, 'teaser'. I hope to post a full update this weekend, but want to give you a little taste of Georgetown (more about the name later...)



Georgetown is the largest town in the North Coast District and serves as a commercial and manufacturing hub in the predominantly agricultural region.

It's greatest strength is its commercial and manufacturing (secondary and tertiary industry), supported and driven by an overwhelming primary industry, and it's high quality primary and secondary education offering.

At the heart of the town lies Market Square (Mark Plein), which, prior to the industrial revolution, served as a hub for trading agricultural goods and as the centre of the region's cultural and religious life. Market Square is home to the Georgetown City Hall (housing the mayor, executive and legislative representative and the administration of the sub-council), the St George (Protestant, Calvinist specifically) Church and the Market Theatre.

Georgetown is connected to the various settlements in the district, region and province through the R103 (a regional road, with its maintenance the responsibility of the provincial government (compare N1 - a national road; and M1 - a municipal road) and an extensive passenger and freight rail network.

But the greatest asset of the town is its people. And their homes line the banks of the Modderrivier (Mud River, named for the muddy flow in the heavy rainy season).

We'll soon have a look at what makes Georgetown 'tick'. What does Georgetown do or boast that attracts around 12 000 permanent residents in a largely agrarian environment?

Who knows...



Until next time mes amis! 

[compdude787]

Nice town!

[art128]

Georgetown is a wonderful little town.

[kbieniu7]

Pretty neighbourhood. The market squares seems to me like something in between the Old and the New World towns 

PS. Thanks to you I learnt English phrases of primary, secondary and tertiary industry

[Gugu3]

Nice and relaxed town

[Swordmaster]

Nice pictures Marius! Great to see some RRW action


Cheers
Willy

[Bipin]

Beautiful work! 

[c.p.]

Very nice town.  I like how green and leafy it is

Also, I'm very happy to see my recent uploads being put to good use 

[M4346]

Hi again everyone!

I had honestly intended to have a full update ready and uploaded last week already, but, unfortunately, life got in the way, again... 

I've had some trouble in my constituency - violence against and intimidation of our members by the governing party - and the parliamentary year is in full swing again!

This coming week we have the President's annual State of the Nation Address (Thursday evening), and the debate and response to the debate all of next week 

Hopefully I get into the Chamber this year, last year I was, well, arrested beforehand and spent about 10 hours in custody

My lovely view from the back of a police van 

The arrests were politically motivated by an increasingly insecure securocratic governing party desperate to clamp down on the opposition through various means.

This photo, below, in particular, has been haunting me ever since  It has appeared in the media numerous times in the past year, and it just won't go away  It was even included in the year-in-review piece of a number of national dailies. Indeed, 2015 was a memorable year 

We appeared in court the next day and the prosecuting authority asked for a postponement.

About a month after our first court appearance we were summoned to court again, only to be informed that the State was dropping the charges. They had, as we had insisted from the beginning, no case.

Here I am, with our Shadow Minister of Justice, a free man 

Anyway, enough about me! 

As I mentioned, I had hoped to post a full update. Unfortunately, you'll have to be happy with these few images from Benhurst 2.0.

Also because I want to show off more of c.p.'s work 



As mentioned previously, the New Frontier is still, at this point in time, predominantly an agricultural hub. This is evident from the regional overview of this very much a work in progress 

Most of the towns in these early years evolved around a central square, where farmers could trade their goods and the who's who of the what's what could be seen.

Benhurst is no exception. Here is this little town's square, Church Square (Kerkplein), which also houses the Benhurst Town Hall.

Benhurst has also become home to a number of notable wealthier families. Although how they got their money is still not quite clear...

But, I'm sure we'll find out soon enough 

[belfastsocrates]

On a side note, I've been following news from South Africa, and your Facebook posts ,  and it's incredibly depressing how blatantly corrupt the ANC are and how they are destroying the country.

One hopes the DA can push them from power at some point and deliver progress for modern South Africa



Now back on topic....that's a rather pretty residential area, good to see you're still finding time to play, I know how difficult it gets with each passing year.

[romualdillo]

Normally we don't get many news from South Africa, but it seems there are problems everywhere... 

You've built many beatiful towns. The squares look very nice and cozy. Great work!! 

[Akallan]

Beautiful!

[M4346]

Oooh! Two mini-updates in one day! (Well, two days, it's already Monday morning here... 2:38 to be precise. That's AM, for the non-military time types! )

Beautiful!

As we say in Afrikaans: baie dankie! Thank you! 

Normally we don't get many news from South Africa, but it seems there are problems everywhere... 

You've built many beatiful towns. The squares look very nice and cozy. Great work!! 

Indeed. Problems everywhere. We have some very special problems down here, but I love what I'm doing and there's no problem too big for those who are willing to tirelessly work towards addressing it.

Thanks for the comment, and the highly appreciated compliment 

On a side note, I've been following news from South Africa, and your Facebook posts ,  and it's incredibly depressing how blatantly corrupt the ANC are and how they are destroying the country.

One hopes the DA can push them from power at some point and deliver progress for modern South Africa

Now back on topic....that's a rather pretty residential area, good to see you're still finding time to play, I know how difficult it gets with each passing year.

I'll try and avoid as much political discussion on the Forums (Lest we forget the  ), so I'll just say, "we're working on it!" 

I hope to play this game until I'm one hundred and eleventy! It never gets old, largely because communities like this. Here's to many more years, and many more beautiful towns 

Did I hear someone ask something about mosques? 

___________________________________________________________________

Not all were happy under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire, and some sought a new life of adventure, riches and freedom (particularly religious freedom) like many others who came to the frontier towns like Georgetown.

However, their hopes of freedom were soon dealt a blow.

The New Frontier had been, until recently, inhabited predominantly by Christians, overwhelmingly Protestant, and some rather puritan at that.

The Muslim community, having grown steadily over the years, sought to build their own House of Worship and a private educational institution. This, unfortunately, met with some resistance and opposition. The mainly Christian community objected vehemently to the construction of a Mosque and Madrasa on their doorstep, and many a public consultation was marked by vitriol and fierce opposition.

When the City Council decided, informed by public opinion, to reject the application for the construction of the Mosque, and the provincial education department declined to provide a license to operate an accredited public education institution, the Muslim community turned to the High Court.

The Court, weighing the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the country, declared that the City Council's decision was invalid and a violation of the Muslim community's basic rights and freedoms. It, however, upheld the decision of the provincial education department not to recognise the Madrasa as a public education institution, largely because the option of setting up a private education institution was not considered.

But, the City Council, now forced into approving the construction of the Mosque, had the proverbial last laugh... much to the disappointment of the local Muslim community.

Click for larger version


Click for larger version

Irritated by the High Court ruling forcing its hand, the City Council approved a construction site for the Mosque and Madrasa... on the poorer outskirts of town, and bordering the growing industrial area.

This did not discourage the local Muslim population, and soon the Madrasa boasted 105 students, and the Mosque became a central focus of their vibrant and rich community life.

Click for larger version



Click for larger version

Even in the evenings the Mosque (bottom) and Madrasa (top) bustled with activities, with pupils receiving instruction until 20:00, and their families engaging in various cultural activities.

They hoped that one day the prejudice and bias of their neighbours would be a thing of the past.

[compdude787]

Interesting! I didn't know there were mosques in SC4 because I've never seen anyone use them in their cities.

And I hope the sort of stuff that happened to you by that tyrannical party in power never happens here in America, God forbid.