Author's Column

Update 1: Refreshed Ollingdale Flag

Since I joined the AIN officially, Ollingdale has gone rather quiet, due to my workload at the flailing SimTV growing, as we prepare to re brand as Plumbbob Studios. But I have edited the national flag slightly, and now we can see the refreshed results here! I have also made flags for the biggest 4 islands, ready for the EXPO next month.

Before:
After:

As you can see, the orange tint has changed on the flag and there are also other changes, which are less obvious.
Below are the flags of the Top 4 islands in Ollingdale.

Ollingdale City:

Woking:

Valican Point:

Southport:

Nicely done. The new national flag looks brighter when compared to the old flag.

Thanks Aran!

Yeah Great job Thomas!

Thanks Blakeway!

UPDATE DELETED BY MISTAKE.

Nice!

Look like my kind of a neighborhood, pretty nice.

Thanks guys! I've got Simcity working now, so the first edition will be uploaded soon, once I finish no. 10.

Update 3: Windows 7... I'm a PC, and I hate Simcity 4.


Short update here, but I'm still struggling with Simcity 4. It just keeps crashing before the EA Games screen, and is so frustrating now. It doesn't even say it's crashed, it just freezes. Then I have to bring up the task manager and it says G Driver Software is not responding, with the SC4 logo next to it. I'm on Edition 12, so I can post some more updates until it starts working, but unless it decides to load the EA screen anytime soon, Ollingdale's in a bit of trouble.

did you try running the program in compatibility mode. that works on vista

Yep, I've tried most things. I might just leave it for a while, see if it wants to work again soon.

EDIT: Seems it was an issue with my Super Demand mod. I've removed it, and the game is working again. Touch wood.

Update 4: Eye Candy, Teaser and Schedules

Above is a teaser for the next edition of Ollingdale.
At the moment, I'm trying to work on my eye candy skills - not much of my work gets a lot of "WOW" across, so I'd like to try and add that in to my cities, before I apply for full membership.
I'm also going to scrap my 10-edition ahead system, as I'm already developing skyscrapers when you guys are looking at small villages I took images of over 2 months ago. I'm going to go for this schedule:

Mondays: New Editions.
Wednesdays: 2nd Part of Edition, if necessary.
Thursdays/Fridays: Media Updates/Ollingdale Export Centre Updates
Weekends: Author's Column updates.

Sounds like a plan! And, very nice job!

Nice!

Update 5: Vive le Québec! rurales des îles et plus de contenu sur mesure!



And after my bad translating... The actual update. On Monday we will be looking for the first time at Valican Point, and I will hopefully have a double bill this week, so that the 10-edition lead is cut down to around 2 soon. At the moment I'm working on a massive new military base for Edition 15, and I've downloaded loads more custom content - I'm even looking at banning Maxis from growing in the game - what do you think?
Oh, and the reason it's in French is because I've got loads of Parisian downloads from the LEX, and hopefully Julien and I will be introducing our Lanayan-Ollingdale Role Play that we're working on. That's all to come soon.

Indeed, great news! I absolutly like the title

Yes, maxis blocker I agree. I'll use it too for I-a and I-M.

I use one for farms and Maxis Mansions.
On the topic of Maxis blockers, is there a blocker for all low density residential?

Here's a Maxis blocker for all types of zoning:
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=16393

It has files for each different type of zoning - IR, ID, IHT, R$, R$$. Not for density though.

Update 6: AIN Oil Crisis



Following Lanaya's decision to "create" oil in it's waters, I will now be reviewing Ollingdale's oil storylines. Since a majority of nations have oil, it's very boring to read about all these petroleum nations, so I may look into a crisis of some sort that closes all of Ollingdale's oil drills or restrict the number of barrels under Ollingdale territorial waters to help limit the oil problem.

NO OLLINGDALE OIL FOR HOLIDIA? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I think the Ollingdale-Holidia situation is different because they're so close, diplomatically and geographically.

Update 7: AIN Oil, Dalida and the Catch-Up[u]



I've decided a rethink on the oil situation within Ollingdale and in the AIN will be made in the next couple of weeks, while I talk to Neil about the issue. Dalida, my joint role-play project with Blakeway, is going well and the terraforming is completed, work on the cities in the country will be completed after my upcoming exams, which are only 3 days at the end of the month.
I've done little work on the UIO itself recently, and since the 10-edition problem is still affecting work on the nations, there probably won't be much work done for the next month, until you're suitably caught-up with where the islands are now.
The picture above is of the new Virgin Express trains that will feature in the new mainline route between Woking and Ollingdale City in the upcoming edition.

great updates Thomas!