How does your state rank with Microsoft?

[Guest]

I just finished a marathon tour of all 50 U.S. state capitals (in alphabetical order by state no less). The original intention being to "collect" all 50 state capital buildings. To my great surprise, they're not all there! Basically states fall into one of 3 categories:Group 1. States with custom models of their real capital buildings. These are Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah. Here's an example from Boston.http://home.kc.rr.com/techazoid/massachusetts.JPGGroup 2. States that use one of three "generic" capital buildings. There's a 2 wing building in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconson. This one is from Boise.http://home.kc.rr.com/techazoid/idaho.JPGA 4 wing version is used in Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, and New Jersey. This is Des Moines.http://home.kc.rr.com/techazoid/iowa.JPGA smaller 2 wing is used by New Hampshire and Nevada. Nevada deserves special mention. This screenshot is with all sliders maxed and shows every building in Carson City! There's the capital itself and a generic office building where I assume they keep the interns. :) I guess Nevada blew its entire scenery budget on (or possibly in?) Las Vegas. :-lolhttp://home.kc.rr.com/techazoid/nevada.jpg3. States with no capital building at all. These are Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.The question then, is why do some states get custom models While others are left out completely. What did group 3 do to affend the scenery gods at MS? My first thought was that these were the states still sueing Microsoft, but that turned out to be wrong. :-halo Any theories out there (crackpot or otherwise) as to why the scenery gods would smile upon Arizona, but smite Missouri?

[Guest Lizardo]

Ohio's is in there, it's the "thing" that looks like a bagel on top of a shoe box in downtown Columbus. Yes, it's as ugly as MSN shows it.

[Guest]

The one in Olympia for Washington State is actually pretty accurate.

[Guest]

Hang on..... You started in Alabama, flew up to Alaska, then down to Arizona, then over to Arkansas, then clear across to California, back to Colorado, WAY back to Connecticut, down to Delaware, down the coast to Florida and Georgia, then ALLLLLLLL the way to Hawaii... you get the idea.HOW much time did it take to do this????? Are you still employed? Do your friends and relatives still remember your name? :)--Tony

[Guest]

Actually, the building in Carson City you refer to as "an office building" is the largest building in the city, the Ormsby House Hotel and Casino (currently not open -- it's undergoing renovation and repair under new owners) -- can't remember offhand but it's over ten stories tall.It's not the "only" tall building -- there are several state buildings downtown (like the Blasdal building) that are over four stories, but it's the only one you can probably see from the air reasonably.Since most people (including myself) who live in Carson work for the state there are indeed lots of state buildings, but nothing really distinctive. I think MS did a more than fair job modeling our city.

[Guest]

O.K. I figured I pobably just missed some. I'll go have a look see and update my list.

[Guest]

Great, that's the kind of info I find interesting. I just found it interesting that even a small city like Juneau has dozens of generic buildings with autogen on while Carson City had just the two buildings. How sccurate is the capital? In FS its the exact same model as the one in Concord, New Hampshire.

[Guest]

Actually you did miss Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is fairly accurate in style, however, the color is too light.

[Guest]

Well, it seems like I have only lived in states where there is no capital at all, maybe its my fault, I use a Mac sometimes. :-lol-------------Michael"The one fellow who is really broke in the air is the one who is out of both altitude and airspeed" (Wolfgang Langewieche, Stick and Rudder)

[Guest]

Yeah, that's it! It's actually taken months (like 6 or 7). Unfortunately, I had to rebuild my system in early April and I forgot to save my logbook, so I don't know exactly how many hours. But its been 82.1 (out of a total of 144 logged) since April 7. The longest was Georgia - Hawaii at 10+ hours in a 747.Luckily my boss is also a flightsim freak,:D and after 25 years of marriage, my wife long ago gave up on the idea that I'd grow out of it. :-hah

[tjrush 54]

I made the same trip, but I didn't do it in alphabetic order. I started at my home airport in Teterboro, NJ (KTEB) and then planned a route where almost all of the flights were short. In fact, I only included the lower 48. I hate long flights and for that reason I chose to exclude Alaska and Hawaii. I also wanted to fly non-stop from capital to capital and do the entire trip with the same plane. I used the King Air. I had a lot of fun just planning and flying each leg.

[Guest]

>Great, that's the kind of info I find interesting. I just >found it interesting that even a small city like Juneau has >dozens of generic buildings with autogen on while Carson >City had just the two buildings. How sccurate is the >capital? In FS its the exact same model as the one in >Concord, New Hampshire. With the default landclass Carson is indeed sparse in the extreme. I have the Landclass stuff put out by, oh, I don't know offhand, but it's the group that makes all the current landclass stuff for sale. Rend? Anyway, with that landclass there are *lots* of buildings in Carson and most of them are pretty close to what should be there.As for accuracy -- well, most Capitol buildings *do* look fairly generic. LOL. The one in Carson has a silver dome (we *are* the Silver State, after all) but other than that looks pretty close to the real building. It doesn't offend me much even though I fly out of Carson all the time because when I do get a glimpse of the building (and remember, I have a lot more buildings in Carson with that landclass stuff) I really can't see whether it's gold or silver.I think you accomplished an extremely interesting feat. As for me, I'm just glad MS included us (Carson City is the answer to one of the questions from the original Trivial Pursuit game, namely "What is the capital of Nevada?" It always used to amuse me we were so obscure.)

[CraigC 0]

For Iowa, I would say overall the city is modeled as accurately as I could expect it to be....for Iowa. :) The capital building is correct as far as I know. The upper sections and dome are correct, but I dont drive downtown enough to know if it has the four wings. I love flying Iowa because its easy on frames. :)Craig

[Guest RonB49]

WOW, so it's really true; Iowa and Ohio really are the same state. And I thought some people were just mispronouncing one or the other name. R-

[Guest]

It's funny how everyone made plans to tour the entire U.S. I myself made a flight plan last week that includes the capitals and major cities of all 50 states (113 in total!). The flight path is rather orderly, taking me from Juneau Alaska to Miami Florida and measures a total distance of 21574 nm. Now I just need to find the time to start such an ambitious journey, lol.-Derek