No random disasters

[Oliwerko 0]

Hi there. I am new here and I want to ask one question. I searched the web for SC4 reviews and in some of them the cons were that you can't turn off random disasters, while in the others, there was mentioned that there are no random disasters. I am encountering the second problem. Even with very high fire hazard, I encountered NO disaster and I am playing this game for long, trust me. Is there a solution, or do I have just to live with it ? I hope somebody will help. Thanks very much in advance.

[xxbydesign 1]

Disasters like the tornado, earthquake, and alien invasion will not happon randomly.  You can only set them loose in God mode.

Fires are the only things taht can happen on thier own, but only if you let them.   Fires can start because of riots and picketing that gets out of hand, or simply by fire hazard.  However, if you have firestations, fires will NEVER start within thier coverage areas.  YOuc an save money on fire protection if you only place a station at the cetner of a city and then when a fire springs up on teh outskirts, race to the scene.  But you won't get blazes if youre a good mayor and cover all your areas.

Welcome to Simtropolis!

[Oliwerko 0]

Well, I might try to build no fire stations and see what will happen. I am a bit dissapointed about the earthquakes/tornados, because it's eating realism from the game when it's not showing on it's own...

[Philadelphia 25]

I think Simcity 4 should bring back the plane crash disaster from Simcity 2000

[Fawah 0]

I've been playing for a while and the destruction part of the game never interested me; don't get me wrong I've unleashed some meteors in my day. I thought though there was a way to turn on random disasters no?

I'll lell you what will happen if you build no fire stations, your ind/comm won't grow as well and you'll have fires burn the city down until you plop a FS.

The idea of of only building one main one is the best idea, you'll still break up the gameplay and if you are on a large map with the firestation in one corner and the fire in another you'll probably even loose a building or two.

[Prophet42 1,500]

There is another diasaster that happens without having to go into God mode.  If you have a nuclear power plant and let the plant either have a fire or run to the end of its life, it will explode in a radioactive mushroom cloud.  It's rather cool.  Of course your city will be messed for a very long, long time. 

[Spinmaster 75]

Fire is really the only disaster you can get automatically without doing something almost deliberately evil. Starting up a new city, trying to save money, most people would say "don't bother putting fire stations until you have a fire." Agreed. If you follow that advice, there's a good chance you will get a fire (particularly in an unwatered ID area), but unless you unluckily stepped away at that moment, usually you can deal with it before any real damage is done; just plop a (your first) station somewhere and dispatch an engine. Usually also by the time your first fire breaks out, you *hopefully* are making enough money to justify keeping it anyway, but if not... bulldoze and repeat later if necessary.

Nuclear power plant explosion - Prophet42 hit that one (or if you're REALLY unlucky, and one of those fires started on your unprotected and unwatered nuclear power plant while you were away.... or if you're evil and set one on purpose ).

Riots - but you have to almost deliberately depress an area - a LOT - just to get a few people mad enough to riot. Set some fires of your own (or don't put out the ones that start). Cut off water, road funding... plop a toxic waste plant between a few tenements. Basically, be deliberately evil (and obviously, no police coverage). Even the slightest hint of mercy is enough to prevent a riot (I think someone had a mod to increase the chances though, if you're really desperate to see one, but they're not particularly impressive anyway imo).

Missile Misfire - if you have that missile test range, occasionally a missile will explode - and rain fire all over your city. An excellent reason not to ever have one (or if you're evil... to have one ).

One time... I swear I did have a freight train crash, complete with a toxic spill. I don't remember, however, if it just "happened" or if I had done it myself via UDI (I am evil, sometimes ). I'm pretty [sure] it can be done via UDI, but I half-recall it just happened on its own once. I remember being surprised anyway. But I haven't seen it since, and it was a long time ago, so I don't remember 100%. Can anyone confidently confirm this?

I don't think there are any other automatic disasters, unless you count Murphy's Law - a game crash right after you finished building something awesome ... but before you saved.

[BIWDC 2,296]

you must have done it in u-drive it as the trains don't crash normally.

[tahill79 13]

can some 1 make a mod for this?  is it possible?

[Citymaster13 0]

i once got a riot randomly

[mrbisonm 1,620]

I have seen it only once four years ago in one of my cities that had the airforce airport and there was a crash of planes when the sims jumped out of their planes with a parachute. I was so amazed at that time that I didn't think to take a picture of all of this, I know I should have. It didn't happen ever since......... I hope that someone else can confirm this, so I don't show up as a firstclass heel here!

[Frankie_Grove 32]

Originally posted by: Spinmaster

Missile Misfire - if you have that missile test range, occasionally a missile will explode - and rain fire all over your city. An excellent reason not to ever have one (or if you're evil... to have one ).

One time... I swear I did have a freight train crash, complete with a toxic spill. I don't remember, however, if it just "happened" or if I had done it myself via UDI (I am evil, sometimes ). I'm pretty [sure] it can be done via UDI, but I half-recall it just happened on its own once. I remember being surprised anyway. But I haven't seen it since, and it was a long time ago, so I don't remember 100%. Can anyone confidently confirm this?quote>

I too experienced that toxic spill..the disaster auto go to thing happened and all. Train crashes DO happen on their own (especially at congested crossings or busy track, similar to roads).

I have never had a missile misfire though..

[Constantina 5]

I'm quite unhappy about toxic waste dumps just simply burning down. I suppose that they are suppose to explode like the nuclear plant.

I can't get a pipe burst. What do I need to do to get this mini-disaster?

And is the missle misfire a random chance?

[Oliwerko 0]

Oh yes, a few fires catched in my IND area.... But it's a shame that they do't do any damage, they are put out before the trucks arrive... I would liek to see all the "real" (all except robots and ufo) disasters happen randomly and do some damage. Is this possible in any way by modding or by anything else ?

[baertooth 330]

I had a big forest burn down once. And where it burned, there where no buildings or other sim-made things around to start the fire.

mrbisonm: Was the plane you saw a military plane? I think I remember reading someone talking about seeing a military plane crashing and there being a parachute.

Edit: I didn't read your post clearly enough, sorry bout that. I have heard about military planes crashing before so, even tho I've never seen it, I think your correct it happens.

[Spinmaster 75]

Originally posted by: mrbisonm I have seen it only once four years ago in one of my cities that had the airforce airport and there was a crash of planes when the sims jumped out of their planes with a parachute. I was so amazed at that time that I didn't think to take a picture of all of this, I know I should have. It didn't happen ever since......... I hope that someone else can confirm this, so I don't show up as a firstclass heel here!quote>

I don't doubt it at all, sounds quite plausible. It does seem there are at least a few very-rare random disasters. My train crash & toxic spill, your plane crash and parachutes. Makes one wonder what other rare disasters exist but nobody has seen.

Pipe bursts - another "only on purpose" thing  - lower the budget for your water pipes maintenance. You have to do it via the budget menu. Unfortunately it's not impressive. If you're expecting geysers and floods, nope - just no-water zots and unhappy sims (might be another step to getting one of those riots though ). Potholes are similar - road maintenance budget.

There are a lot of little things like that, but they're better described as "consequences of being evil" than a true disaster, and there's nothing random about them - if you don't deliberately bump your water pipe or road maintenance budget down, you'll never see a pipe burst or a pothole. If you do, you will.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

baertooth, yes, these are the military planes that fly around in an order of three or four I think every so often. One plane must have hit either a cliff or a high mountain (or maybe each other, I didn't exactly see the cause in details) but it crashed right after into the sea while leaving a lot of smoke behind, and a parachute with a sim popped out of it landing safely on the ground. That was cool, so cool that I forgot all about taking a picture....lol.

I haven't seen the traincrash but waterpipe bursts I experience quite often, because I never give 100 % funding on the watersystems nor others. Same for the detoriation of the roads.

Fires occur when the budget is too low, the protection too far away or non-existant, or when serious riots have been around for some time. Also a nuclear (or other Powerplant) explosion sometimes can cause a random fire here and there. I have seen a wildfire (forest) before also, but this seems to be very rare though and the cause I don't really know. Maybe it represents the forestfires that are started by lightening like irl. Then there are industrial fires, the most common ones when protection isn't sufficient or non-existant.

I am not sure about traindisasters though, the first time I heard about it is in this thread above. The possibility is there, but I have never seen or heard about it before.

Powerplant explosions are somewhat common when the budgets are too low or the plants gets too old, even for no reason sometimes at all as I have experienced it.

I heard about the toxic spill before, but never had the chance to see it. (too bad)

And I have never seen or heard about toronados, vulcanic eruptions or earthquake disasters happening on their own, neither UFO invasions. One has to start them themselves.

Disasters are fun when they appear. They bring some stimulation into the game as long as they don't happen too often. I miss the indondations of the earlier game (hurricane).

mrb

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I don't understand why anyone would want disasters in a city.  It seems cruel and sadistic.  If you want a disaster, just read the papers or watch the TV news.  They are more entertaining than having to repair one in your city.

[Oliwerko 0]

Actually, it adds some realism to the game when you have to fight fires or rebuild important traffic lines in your city after a tornado or meteor. I like it. I like the disasters to happen on random, however, I don't like them too often. If I remember clearly, in SC2000 it was like I said....

[BIWDC 2,296]

Frankie_Grove wrote:I too experienced that toxic spill..the disaster auto go to 

thing happened and all. Train crashes DO happen on their own (especially at 

congested crossings or busy track, similar to roads).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i don't know how that happened as in my game the cars pass right through the 

trains at the crossings with no wrecks at all unless i am using a car or train in 

u-drive it & i even have trains overlaping right through other trains when the train 

traffic builds up & still no wreck.

[vhx 2]

I too have always wanted random disasters to happen. I mean when you do it yourself you know whats coming. But with the randomness it requires you to think on your toes real quick.

I would love for something like this to be a mod. Would it possible to make a mod like this? I'm not programmer but if it's possible to even bring up disasters then maybe.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Some enterprising programmer could always write a background task that popped up a window on top of the game stating "Cause disaster x now!" using an appropriate random generator.  This could be easily done in VB6 as a nice windows program that kept the form invisible most of the time.

[Oliwerko 0]

Well, it's a good idea, but it is still you that sets off the disasters.

[Constantina 5]

Actually, not all. Riots and Fires happen by itself when conditions allow it. Other visual mini-disasters is yes, train derailments and strikes.

[castironpigeon 1]

I agree that there ought to be an option to loose some nasty disasters on your city randomly for those who like that sort of thing, but I'm quite happy having my carefully planned cities stay intact so I don't have to remember where I put stuff in the first place...like when a hurricane would wipe away half a coastline in SC2k.

[DFire870 2]

Contrary to popular belief, it's not that hard to start a riot. On one of my cities, almost the entire city is a low-wealth/ghetto area. I wanted it to be like that for my CJ, so I just didn't put down any medical or education facilities, and I put down very few fire and police stations. However, I had to put more police because I was getting tired of constant riots (and during that time, my mayor rating was still in the green).

However, it's definitely harder to make riots happen in a city with all 3 wealth levels.

[Oliwerko 0]

I also get riots from time to time but only in high-crime and low-wealth-health-education areas. So is it possible to make a mod to set disasters off randomly liek fires ?

[soccerkicker266 0]

I really wish there was some sort of checklist you could have to have certain disasters randomly happen and maybe a bar to adjust the frequency. I know that there are some of us who really love to have disasters from time to time. Though I don't really care too much for disasters now, back when I played SC2K in elementary school disasters were my favorite things. Something about having disasters hit a city (or setting them on a city) made it much more fun. Kind of off topic but I have to do a little reminiscing back to SC2K. Remember ALL the different disasters you could have? And with the SC2K debug cheat you could have like 20 different disasters at your disposal. I loved the hurricane disaster where you would hopelessly deploy police, fire and National Guard units to block flood waters while the wind and storm surge would destroy your city with the tornado siren sound blaring. Good times. For anyone else who played SC2K a lot, did you get like a superman guy flying around putting out fires and stuff? I also remember seeing a tail of a sea monster once (I guess a very rare event) in a heavily polluted industrial zone in SC2K--anyone see that? Anyways, they should have a HUGE list of disasters in SC that are also random. With such a large number, it would just be constant fires, tornados, earthquakes, etc but a wide variety of smaller disasters that aren't so devastating and not so repetitive. There's my two cents.

Sorry for the long post...

[Philadelphia 25]

this isn't really a disaster but it would be pretty cool if it would just randomly rain and you could see wet roads but that's probably too detailed for Simcity 4