What you HATE about SC4...

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

First off, let me start out by saying that SC4 is the best choice we have today for a city building simulator.....so I have a love/hate relationship with this game.

I hate that bridges do not light up enough at night, dealing with diagonals is a pain when it comes to filling in areas, the erosion issue with terrains and dealing with coast lines(especially when I want to make a beach or any kind of marina or seaport etc.

My biggest gripe is how freakin stupid the Sims are when it comes to traveling.

In one of my cities, I witnessed Sims walking a few tiles up the block to a bus stop to take the bus to a monorail station that was one tile away from the house...............

Now I'm dealing with Sims taking a ferry into a city that have no ferry terminals, neither do I see any trace of them in the city they travel to (I suspect pirate kidnapping activity).

Sims are traveling through 2 1/2 LARGE CITIES when they can just take the highway I provided and a monorail that goes right to their destination in the city next door.

The bottom line is that I spend hours designing a very good transportation plan for them and these ungrateful Sims have the nerve to do stupid moves and cry long commute. This defeats the purpose of the efforts of a city planner's care. I guess the coding for this game is not written  to make any  real sense.

[PiggeeWeiSoon 0]

1st : I hate the news box which comes out if the demand for Commercial services, Industrial, and home are very high, it keep saying crap and it pauses the game until you close that message box <.<...

2nd : Sometimes when doing the U Drive - It mission, I click accept, and the police car landed just RIGHT in front of a industrial lorry, and caused my car to spoil instantly, and made me lost my mayor rating T_T

3rd : I half gave up when I ever try to make a perfect city with everything, because when I put a sim of mine into the city, surely the message of "Commute No Go" "Bermuda Triangle to the Sim" "Lost job" thing will come out, its frustrating T_T

4rd : I hate the speed thing, because unlike The Sims , The Sims 2, you have to use your mouse to click the time T_T I rather have it to the keys 1, 2 and 3 for Turtle, Rhino, and cheetah speed.

[spacecadet77 0]

Originally posted by: PiggeeWeiSoon 1st : I hate the news box which comes out if the demand for Commercial services, Industrial, and home are very high, it keep saying crap and it pauses the game until you close that message box <.<... .quote>

You can stop this happening in the setup options

Originally posted by: PiggeeWeiSoon 2nd : Sometimes when doing the U Drive - It mission, I click accept, and the police car landed just RIGHT in front of a industrial lorry, and caused my car to spoil instantly, and made me lost my mayor rating T_Tquote>

UDrive is generally crap and to be avoided at all costs, just think of it as a "fun" addon to stop the less intelligent gamers getting bored

Originally posted by: PiggeeWeiSoon 3rd : I half gave up when I ever try to make a perfect city with everything, because when I put a sim of mine into the city, surely the message of "Commute No Go" "Bermuda Triangle to the Sim" "Lost job" thing will come out, its frustrating T_Tquote>

The biggest gripe I have with the sims is that they don't stay where you put them, If i plant a sim in a specific building then i want them to stay there so i can find what is bad (or even good) about that area and make it better. Instead the selfish little git goes off, gets an education then gets a flash condo in a nice part of town.

Originally posted by: PiggeeWeiSoon 4rd : I hate the speed thing, because unlike The Sims , The Sims 2, you have to use your mouse to click the time T_T I rather have it to the keys 1, 2 and 3 for Turtle, Rhino, and cheetah speed.quote>

There are shortcuts for most of the functions, check the user manual  

[Harve 0]

The game is my favourite game of all time! There is nothing that really stands as awful but there are a few things:

I have a problem with crashing everytime i zoom out with the scroll wheel. I try to stop but its just a nasty habit, i don't think the "egg timer" cursor works properly.

Its a bit irrational but i hate how the cars go a few plots away and then just dissapear.

[Dandavies87 1]

There are nowhere near enough buildings that actually make money; amusement parks, and so forth. Surely not all the buildings in the game should cost maintenance (why am I paying for the Statue of Liberty every month? surely enough people visit it to make plenty of money). There aren't enough money making ordinances, either. That said, I never seem to have a problem making money.

[zzazzmatazz 3]

Everything in this game is all great...except the music. some of them sound weird, but i listen to my mp3 so i won't listen to it

[FrankU 358]

@Mr_Maison:

Maybe you should read Greyveils transportation tutorial.

The traveling behaviour is indeed terrible. Travelling from city to city is not real: in fact your sims travel only just over the edge of the city your are working on. The connection does not really know what is on the city tile next door. That's why your ferry works even if the other city doesn't have a terminal. The city with the terminal just expects the other cities to have such a terminal.

We just have to live with it.

The transportation net is in fact just eyecandy on your region view.

[outriderdriver 4]

Ive finally figured out the only thing i dislike, I love the effects so I turn them on full. But when Im tearing down a section and rebuilding it i have to wait for the smoke to clear which really pisses me off because it takes forever!!!!!! WHYYYY?! I cant see anything!

[Psycho_Teddy 25]

How about we don't create a thread for the purpose of bashing the game that this wonderful site of over 200,000 members is based upon? It's like going into a pro-gay thread and saying "10 reasons why I hate gay people.", you just wind up looking like an idiot. This thread should be locked, its not productive in any way...

[JanYpe 17]

Since when is SC4 a perfect game that is above criticism?

[wannabe123456789 0]

Most of the things wrong with the game are only trivial. Besides, there are mods to improve the pathfinder. I think should just stop complaining.

[FrankU 358]

No! It's just fun to complain....

Sure, we all like the game a lot, otherwise we wouldn't be fooling around on this site. But there is always something that bothers you. And on this forum you can speak out loud.

I like the complaints. Besides: sometimes someone can help you with a workaround.

And a bit of self-criticism (10 things I dislike on being gay or being Dutch or whatever you are) is always good.

[fofo_trixibell 0]

I can't stand placing water pipes. It's just so boring. I know its important, and I do like some Water Buildings, but placing pipes is incredibly tedious.

[FrankU 358]

Yes! And putting the high tension lines for energy distribution. Of course you need energy and water, but why the stupid work you need to do for it!

Another thing: the micromanagement of educational and health service buildings. Once you have placed them the only choice you have is to fund them with a bit more than they need at the moment. After every growth you need to visit them all to raise fundings! What is the use for this? Int the beginning I thought I could underfund in certain areas of my city as to create a low wealth environment. But everyone on this site knows that the only effect will be a strike. So why not let the game change funding automatically to, let's say, 10% higher than necessary?

And UDI of course!

[Commandoj251 3]

ummm nothing

i love the game

its perfect and with the mods its 15/10

[KEVINB120 0]

I really can't say I hate much of anything.   I think the UDI makes it WAY too easy, as I just got back into this after a few years and you simply build the small airfield and let funds deplete to get the military base.  Every 20 minutes or so you can reselect the secret skywriter message and steal the tank and make 140K in two minutes.  Not to mention the other ones such as get the story(helicopter) and organs for profit(medical heli), steal the train, ect.  I made up three regional cities and have between 15-30k populations and run on a two to one debt to income ratio and can easily maintain cash with those missions.  

The first two regions I had by the time I was at 15k population were all secrets open such as spaceports(even with 5k pop), universities, solar power plants, fire strip(another $70k mission that takes 2 minutes), all news and radio towers, deluxe police centers, private schools, ect.  You can have everything in 2 hours playing by using UDI.    I have full education, build nothing but 80% hi-tech/20% manufacturing and my mayor rating is always within two of the top bars, even after the deductions from the free money missions in approval.   I will have a budget of something like 12k in debt/5k in income and have $300k at any given time without making any effort to jump on the missions constantly.

Simply use only the most profitable UDI missions, you can pull them up in the gift car menu, reject all the non-essential missions and just wait for ones like tank joyride to pop up periodically.  I always put the military base on the edge of the map so often its pointed to the border about 12 tiles away on startup   Its more or less the biggest 'cheat' in the game.   Even running a $15K monthly deficit  its a piece of cake to just keep building and building.

Easy ones are:

-Tank Joyride(military base) $70K the tank doesn't slow down on open terrain so just run for any border.  The other tank missions are WAY too destructive and you can easily kill a powerplant or highly developed building  with one click

-Ignore the fire(fire landing strip) $70K -you don't even have to get all the squares

-Secret skywriter message $70(small landing strip)

-Zombie cropduster(small landing strip) $20K

-Hijack the train(passenger train)$20

-Get the story(news chopper)$20k(usually two short stops)

-Organs for profit(medical heli)$20k(only one short flight)

So every hour or so of game play that's at least $290K if you need it(it actually cycles faster then that)  Most other missions are too much of a headache, once you use them to earn an unlockable, then they are pretty pointless.    Its worth building the most simple oval of monorail with a couple stations just to get the solar plant early.  That and the nuclear free ordinance and you can do just about anything environmentally.  Once you are in the education 'zone' for high tec, have stuff like the disease center and space port, and tweak the taxes against dirty industry, you can even get a boost in your environment bar by simply letting an occasional dirty building develop and just bulldozing it.  If you just build 3x2 or 4x3 MDI zones they will hardly ever be dirty anyway.

I end up being more of a wealthy philanthropist with some strange occasional stunts donating tons of money I have to spare rather then budgeting.  Once it gets big enough you can go to tweaking for profit without staring at farmland for 40 hours.

The worst UDI missions are the tank and heli missions that require destroying buildings(way to much room for error with the controls) and the Trash truck missions(way too easy to get caught and loose $20k).  Try to earn as much as possible very early as missions like Pure Evil

[bbfan02 23]

I really hate how risky it is for the game if you have a lot of lots and modds in your plug-ins folder. It slows up the game and your computer. The game also might crash. I dont like how you have to plop the custom power lines a certain way from each other.

[KEVINB120 0]

Originally posted by: fofo_trixibell I can't stand placing water pipes. It's just so boring. I know its important, and I do like some Water Buildings, but placing pipes is incredibly tedious.quote>

I just throw them down in huge swaths, tiles hook up so easily there's no reason to be neat about it.

[KingTitan 6]

The only think I really dislike about SC4 is the dependencies. I definitely can understand why they are needed. But a lot are needed for certain things, but it also adds, some unwanted work from some not very nice looking props, etc. If only there were a specific Expansion Disc, like the one's offered here of certain Bat creations....

[Yuxi 0]

THE most annoying thing I hate is how the advisers do nothing but complain about education/health funding and can't adjust each school/hospital's funding themselves. Especially in a large city I have to scroll through pages and pages of schools and hospitals and adjust the funding. It gets old after a while.

[outriderdriver 4]

...and another thing! what with this dilapidation? if medium wealth sims move into a high weath tower, is it true that they will not pay for the building to be washed and be so behind in the bills that their power is always off at night? It makes for a really ugly city when you finally have people moving into it. and NO the dilapidation mod doesnt fix this correctly.

[qball194fa 0]

I hate the way the pop-up keeps coming back of the "cop unearthed den of crime" - right in the corner of an airport, with a PD in an adjoining tile! Either fix the den of crime Mr. Officer - - - or stop bothering me about it!!!!

[Tomatoworm 0]

.The U-Drive it is ok

.The music is good but nowhere as good as SC 3000

. The random disasters that added suspense andthe time period change is gone(you have to start at 2000)

. Grid like layout

. No scenarios or scenario makers and very meager cities already built

. My Sims mode is ok but they sometimes complain WAY to much!

.Advisors can get annoying but they fourtnatly don't pop up too much.

.Terra-forming tools seem a tad bit to sensitive at times

.Auto road making zones can make things ugly

Rather than these small gripes, I love every thing else about the game!!

[smstevenms 7]

What I hate, is cheaply made disc. These program disc really need to be made of a stronger material, and the tops need to have a duruable protective layer. If you can't tell what I'm talking about, my disk cracked and there's a scratch on the data side!

[jabezscratch 159]

I love the game but one thing keeps annoying me to no end: the appearance of "dilapidated" buildings. It makes no sense that if an R$$$ building dips into R$$ status that the building should become "dilapidated" w/ a grungy look and no lights. In the real world, if the economy takes a down turn and, as a result, an apartment attracts more "R$$" tenants than "R$$$" tenants, that apartment doesn't lose electricity and the exterior doesn't get dirty. If someone can make a fix for that, I would be eternally grateful.

[smstevenms 7]

Everything seems bad depending on the speed you play I think.

[City Planner 121]

Just about the only thing that I can think of that I can really say that I hate would be how building doesn't meld into the landscape. It would have been great to see the ground transform itself to accomodate the buildings instead of the buildings transforming (with their ledges and retaining walls) to the landscape. A more natural look would have been great. Rarely have I gone anywhere in the world and seen great huge retaining walls around individual properties, which is not to say that it doesn't happen because it does to some degree, one of my parents houses has a rear retaining wall to keep the hillside from dumping into their living room but the front of their house also on a hillside has a more natural look to the way the house works to the landscape.

I think that's about it really. Other than I'd like even more information on "why" the simmies do what they do, like why did you choose to use that road with your car instead of the road next to it that's virtually empty.

As far as U drive it is concerned, I've tried it once or twice, the controls for it are wonky and uncomfortable.  I didn't find any redeeming qualities about it and felt it was shoved in there just to shove it in there, but I do realize that other people will enjoy it so... Whatever.  For me, it's a pointless little mini game that does nothing for the overall enjoyment of the game that I experience when playing SC4.

But I don't play SC4 to play the U drive it bits, I play it to just create a city, watch it evolve, and change it to my whims.

Oh Wait!  I know what my biggest complaint is...

It's the inability to scroll back when I have some sort of window open on my screen.  For example I click on a clinic and it's window opens for me, I then want to scroll out and see more of the city so that I can see where the other buildings are but can't until I close the clinics information window.  Yes, that one is my biggest gripe and I can deal with the whole natural thing which to me in an irrational sort of way pales in comparison with this system of not being able to zoom in or out when there is another window open in the game.  It just drives me nuts that I have to close the window to zoom.  So I close the window, then zoom out to the distance I want, then can't find the original clinic to click on again because it's so small I can no longer see it.  Yes, this drives me batty and I HATE this.

Other than that, I can live with any little nigglies that I find in the game as it's strange that a 4 or 5 year old game can still hold my interest all these years later which tells me that it's a damn good game.

Originally posted by: KEVINB120

Originally posted by: fofo_trixibell I can't stand placing water pipes. It's just so boring. I know its important, and I do like some Water Buildings, but placing pipes is incredibly tedious.quote>

I just throw them down in huge swaths, tiles hook up so easily there's no reason to be neat about it. quote>

 

I do the same thing, generally speaking in the beginning I just cover about half of a large tile with water pipes so I get the less exciting work out of the way in the very beginning.  It's not like it's really all that expensive when I start on easy and have half a million simoleans to burn through.  I almost always get my budget back in the green long before I run out of cash expanding.  Sure it's not glamerous work digging ditches and laying pipe, but somebody's got to do it.

[The Arrowz 3]

Originally posted by: City Planner it's strange that a 4 or 5 year old game can still hold my interest all these years later which tells me that it's a damn good game.quote>

Completely agree - honestly, this game is still played by so many after so long must mean that it is a great game!

You drive it - impossible in larger cities, usually impossible with trains unless you build roundabouts at every station or corner of the city since it's one way

Too many R$$$ crowding up the city and wasting space (the higher density I don't mind... I'm referring to those large mansions taking up whole city blocks).

Sometimes the landfills 'have no car access' or are overfilled when there are empty lots right next to it.

Having to adjust schools and their budgets every few minutes

And crashes - they suck...

Probably a few other things, but other than that, this game is awesome.

And the music owns. It really does To me at least...

[Zarp 0]

Just the crashing part and limited/unreal terraforming

[Tomatoworm 0]

smstevenms: That really stinks, I'm sorry!

I really wish you could play the game withotu a disk but then it would take to much space, I guess...