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Orcas Island

Orcas Island is a place I know and love. Named for the orcas, or killer whales, that live in the waters, it's in the San Juan Islands in the northwest corner of Washington State in the U.S., part of an archipelago that includes Canada's Gulf Islands. It's a bucolic mix of vacation homes, farmland, and forest including old growth trees. And there are a lot of trees on this map (low poly, of course), so expect to use the Unlimited Trees mod. The streams on the map are much bigger than in real life, but small streams are very difficult to create in the game.

The San Juan Islands are only served by ferries; there are no bridges. To preserve that look, the highway connections are in tunnels underwater. The tunnel into Orcas Island makes landfall very near its real-life ferry terminal. Major roads on Orcas Island are accurate, but liberties were taken on the nearby islands to make those highway tunnel connections.

Real life Orcas Island is very rural with scattered villages. Following the road from left to right across the map are Deer Harbor, West Sound, Eastsound (the largest at the top of the map), Rosario (side trip down to the start square), Olga, and Doe Bay. I enjoy working within the confines of a highly topographical map without resorting to major terraforming (I love Strictoasters' Nydal). To preserve and play the sparse feel of Orcas Island, I recommend the 81 Tiles mod.

If one wishes to play a little more vanilla, some ground has been leveled in the start square. This can be played on both sides of the bay without building a bridge as they are connected at the top via Eastsound. If one wishes to build a large city, they should bulldoze trees before building on top of them. This is because trees continue to exist in the game under the roads and buildings, and that combined with a large population will hurt your frame rate.

Thanks to BonBonB for the review and pointers: https://youtu.be/5tkj7Z3Pkew


Check out my other maps:

Dry Falls, at https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1885241926

San Mateo, at https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1967427825

Canyonlands: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2170606329

Sebascodegan Island: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2246391897