all based on squares which were easily divided, easily surveyed and easily checked- roads therefore were placed between the squares and generally aligned north-south-east-west.
That's why almost all US interstate highways are "odd-numbered" if they go north/south, and "even-numbered" if they go east-west. It's not always the case (highway 121 in my home town is "supposed" to be going north/south, but it's actually east/west). I hate this form of organization ... there's something to be said about just "going with the flow." The really noticeable "rolling with the hills" highways for me was heading northing into Oklahoma from Dallas, along I-75. For the most part, it cuts through the hills, much as many of the trains do from New York to California (they blasted way too many mountains/hills back then, just to save a few extra minutes of time). But in a few places, you find yourself going AROUND the hills and lakes, which is a nice scenic tour. Route 66 is probably the best example of this, as there's only a few places where nature takes a 2nd-billing to the commute time. Whenever I get up to OKC, I make a point of diverting from the main interstate just to experience Route 66 in its glory (what little there is left these days).
I know I spoke with Cameni about this in a private email, but my biggest gripe about modernization lately has been in my current home town. When I first moved here, you could see all the closest major planets as well as the Milky Way, in all their glory, with the naked eye (back then, my eyesight was good enough I could make out one or two moons of Jupiter with the naked eye, as well as the rings of Saturn). Since "progress" happened in the last 10-20 years, all that has gone away. I used to have a really crappy refractive telescope years ago, and spent many nights sketching the phases of Venus and the progression of Jupiter's moons (much like Galileo did), as well as sketching the changes in the rings of Saturn throughout the year. When I look through that very same telescope now, what do I see? One moon of Jupiter if I'm lucky. Saturn's rings have turned into a blob on either side of the planet. I see Mars, Jupiter, and sometimes Venus on a good night. Saturn requires midnight without a full moon just to see it. And forget about Mercury, which I managed to capture in a crescent phase only once, back in '95 during the late evening hours.
If Cameni, Angrypig and the rest can add these little easter eggs into Outerra, I'll cry like a newborn baby
.
My draw to Outerra so far is how
virgin the planet is, even if it's not quite perfect yet. Without the influence of man, it allows me to see what things might have been like a few thousand years ago. I asked Cam one time if he'd mind showing me a screen of my current home town, but he said it was relatively flat and uninteresting
. I'm content with that, considering all I see now is the local Walmart and liquor stores dotting the landscape. Can't wait till they get to the point of the demo, when I'll be able to explore this area as it might have looked a century ago.
