Cities Unlimited

[yoshikoroyimara 5]

CU, here I come!

[Nevets13 27]

Man, it better have terraforming in it

[zane900 1]

          And this is just the beginning! I can't wait to see the final product of this game. Hopefully additional screenshots will be released soon. I hope progress on the website is going well, Phillipe - I can't wait to see it!

[edmonton_stinks 5]

Whoa, those are some pretty great screenshots. So long, SCS! Hope they sell this game in Canada right away.

[dasilva 3]

Originally posted by: le_pirate

SIMphoni Exclusive! Veil Slowly Lifts on Cities Unlimited

http://www.simphoni.net/2007/09/cities-unlimited-even-more-revealed/#more-180

quote>

Well, I see that the news go fast between the overall city builder fan community websites

We're happy to see that it pleases you. We are working hard on Cities Unlimited and its official website but we thought that we could probably share some game development status information with the community before the website goes live.

[Re 0]

Thanks, Philippe! I was just about to post these pics here myself, and you beat me to it by just about a minute. lol. The shots at the Simphoni article page, at the top of Philippe's post includes links to the full-sized screenies.

These are absolutely amazing! But, what I am even happier to see is that, in addition to near-photo-quality graphics, you're stressing that realistic gameplay - economic and transportation models - are at the core of the work you're doing.

[dasilva 3]

Originally posted by: Re§er Thanks, Philippe! I was just about to post these pics here myself, and you beat me to it by just about a minute. lol.quote>

Well, Rexer, I actually just quote another member post in the previous thread page to give a quick reply

[Nardo69 51]

Philippe, I do appreciate that you / MonteChristo goes towards the community at such an early stage.

Honestly I played CityLife just 15 minutes some days ago until I went bankrupt. CL was getting cobered by dusk on my shelf as it  wasn't working with my old Geforce2 that I changed to a newer one lately.

What I read and saw so far from CU looks really promising - if I dare to compare the CU and SC:S Screenshots you could think it was CU that is going to be released at th end of this year.

Please correct me if I am wrong but as far as I understand by now your focus is set to a decent simulation engine for the economic and infrastructural aspects of a city which is IMHO the best way for a city building game.

Take the time you need for doing a decent work on CU. Actually I don't care any more for SC:S but I am looking forward to CU. In the meantime I offer you the little assistance I may offer you as a long time SC4 player and experienced CJer and real-life traffic engineer.

Bernhard

[dasilva 3]

Hi Nardo,

Thanks for your support. Most of the team is reading this thread and they really appreciate to hear such enthusiasm on their work.

Regarding our focus, I can't say much about it by now but I can tell you there is a reason we have such a big team (58 so far): the entire team is divided in different groups with different scopes, tasks and objectives. One of them is working solely on the simulation side of the game. We can't show anything yet about their work now but I have to say that when I walk by one of their desks and spy over their shoulder what they are doing, I see great stuff especially on transports...

I take this opportunity to remind everyone in here that the reason why we are at such an early stage talking with you about Cities Unlimited is mainly because we want to get from you the feedback of city builder fans. I became a member of Simtropolis a long time ago as a Simcity 4 player (using a different nickname) and I read a lot of real clever topics. We are confident that our approach will allow us to merge our game development knowledge with your game experience and potentially deliver a funny and highly replayable game. ;-)

Cheers,

[meowza 230]

Damn, I can't wait to see an in-game video.

I guess by now, most ppl are worried about their hardware... Those screens look so amazing. So amazing that it might it kill our PC. Better start upgrading.

[Creathir 3]

Philippe,

From what I have seen so far, I will give you my initial impressions.

(Mind you I have been an AVID SimCity fan since SimCity first came out... and still play this game (SC4:RH of course) on a DAILY basis even today.)

When I first heard about SimCity Societies, my heart skipped a beat. FINALLY I was going to get an update to this beloved series. Finally a worthy city simulation game was coming out. (Don't get me wrong, CityLife was great... just not my cup of tea... too much social engineering and not enough city planning.)

Fast forward to the initial screenshots...

*POW*

Blow number one... the game looked like SimCoaster. It even had a farris wheel! In the middle of downtown! (Granted, this could have been a state fair or something, but it looked cartoonish, only making things even worse)

I stepped back... re-evaluated, and decided I would give them another chance.

*OOF*

More screen shots came out... this time they were more realistic...-ish... but something was missing... transportation network!

OH MY GOSH! What on earth did they do?!? Can this be right?! Couldn't possibly be right... they would not remove the most beloved part of the game... the transportation system. Sure it has grown complex, but it is complex in the real world... This is the part of the game I adore. I love it... they could not possibly be considering scrapping it?!? I will give them one more shot...

*BANG*

The Games For Windows article arrives in my mailbox (a magazine I SUBSCRIBED TO in order to view this single article... go ahead... call me crazy... I told you I was an avid fan.)

Once again, a letdown... they are considering restructuring the game... making it simpler. Okay... great... and apparently the Games For Windows guy does not like laying water pipes. (something that never was any difficulty for me... my hardest learning curve was going from SC to SC 2000.) I am getting VERY nervous at this point... the game looks interesting, but does not appear to be shaping up to be a worthy successor to SimCity. Maybe an offshoot, but not the next generation. (as it was billed in the article)

*The Final Straw*

I waited for 3 days for Dirk to post his review of the game. The lucky guy actually got invited to the game studios to try out an alpha build. Of all people, Dirk will lay it down straight. He said it was fun, but he confirmed what I feared most... what made me sour to the entire game... Dirt roads and 4 lane streets... That was it. I could build a city the size of Chicago, but they could only take streets to get around. I'm sure there are a few mass transit options that did not get covered... but this was just unacceptable in my honest opinion. City life at least had SOME variants on the road network (though the highway seems slightly unreal as homes and businesses can connect directly to this road network.

Where is Cities Unlimited in this same process?

I saw the first screen... oh man... how amazing is that?! Downtown London, and it looks awesome. Just comparing it to the first screen shot of SCS and it blows SCS out of the water.

Then you guys have taken a pro-active approach to the community. You are engaging us, bouncing ideas off of us, taking requests. What a class act.

And now even more screen shots. Wow. Just amazing is all I can say. I really am genuinely EXCITED about your creation. Granted, you guys might just be bedazzling us with graphics and no solid game play like we all enjoy, but I have a feeling this is not the case. Your team is quite large for a simulation style game, which means you probably have quite a majority working on 3D models and what not, but you also are dedicating people to game play mechanics and simulation systems of the game. This is exactly how SC3000 and SC4 were created... I know because I was VERY active in the boards on both the prelaunch sites for those games. The developers would drop in and give updates (pre-blogging days of course) and it was always quite interesting to see how they went about the game creation process.

In the end, both times, I ended up with games that have provided hour upon hour of enjoyment for myself. I really am looking forward to seeing what you guys are putting together, as it looks like it could be the replacement for my beloved SimCity.

What I love most about what you guys are doing, is you are taking the exact opposite approach to the city simulation genre as EA is. They seem to feel they need to compete with CityLife, (SCS really sounds like it plays like CityLife) while you guys are going for the gold with this one. I am sure a large market exists for the society simulation, but I really feel that in order to achieve this, it needs to be its own game, or something tacked on top of a solid city simulation. Just ditching the city simulation and forcing the users to adopt an entirely new genre is something that will not sit well with long time fans. Can you take a basketball game, and during halftime switch out the teams for soccer players, and the second half resumes as a soccer game? No way! People would be REALLY upset. They wanted more basketball. They would have gone to a soccer game had they wanted that. Hopefully, with the competition it appears you guys are gearing up for, EA will step up to the challenge and realize the error in their ways. Either that, or SCS will be the end to the SimCity franchise. If Cities Unlimited plays half as good as it looks, I really do not think I would be that sad if SCS were the last SimCity, especially if EA continues in the direction they appear to be going.

Thanks for your time, and keep up the good work Monte Cristo!

- Creathir

[Nevets13 27]

Either that, or SCS will be the end to the SimCity franchise. If Cities Unlimited plays half as good as it looks, I really do not think I would be that sad if SCS were the last SimCity, especially if EA continues in the direction they appear to be going.

quote>

I highly doubt SCS will be the end of the sim city series, even if it is a complete bomb. The only reason they have tilted mill doing it, is because EA is focusing on spore. I really don't think EA intended SCS to be the next great city simulation game, just a little experiment to milk some money from the series. What the genre needed was some real compeition and I think CU will bring that. With Monte Cristo and EA competing to make the best city building game all the fans win.

[Kevin 101]

It all looks great... especially that mountain. Looked like a photograph at first glance!

[SimNation 139]

Philippe, Loved the snow photo with the ski lift and the snow covered roof tops. That in of itself is one hell of a achivement in my book. Ive personally wanted snow in a city builder since sim city 2k came out back in the 90s. Everything ive seen so far seems just about flawless other then the issue where the cars on the road have that (floating on road) look. One thing about your game im curious about is will Cities Unlimited have such a strong emphasis on the "Social Classes" aspect that was in the original city life. I found that to be a interesting point but thought it shoulda been on point of many for the core gameplay. Personally if sc4 woulda had the social aspect in the game it woulda been tons better since social issues are a big part of cities. Just curious if the game will have other areas of conern as well as the social such as infrastructure; you know tranportation,education, & pollution. Thanks and good look to you and the team keep up the great work gfx are amazing SimNation

[toxicpiano 125]

OH... MY... GOD. MEGA MEGA AWESOMENESS!

[dasilva 3]

Originally posted by: meowza Damn, I can't wait to see an in-game video.

I guess by now, most ppl are worried about their hardware... Those screens look so amazing. So amazing that it might it kill our PC. Better start upgrading.quote>

I'll start by the easy one

Hi meowza,

I can't bet on it just yet because we are too soon in the development process; however, I know one of the objectives of the team is to make a game that can at the same time make use of the great hardware power provided by current machines but also accept to run the game smoothly in a smaller configuration.

I really can't tell what would be the minimum configuration to run CU but we are not in the mood of asking players to change their computer to the latest 16 core processor with 5 Gb of RAM and a DirectX 20 compatible video card .

I'm not saying neither that the computer some of you are still using to play Simcity 4 will be able to support CU, but, come on! Maybe it's time to change your Pentium II 450 Mhz to a better one, isn't it?

Originally posted by: Creathir Philippe,

From what I have seen so far, I will give you my initial impressions [...] skipping your great but too long post for a quotequote>

Hopefully, not everyone is posting such comments otherwise, I would spend my time answering them and not working on the official website

Just kidding, I love these posts... they are really interesting.

So, first, Creathir, a big thanks for your support.

No offense but I won't comment on the comparison you are making between SC:S and Cities Unlimited as I'm just too deeply involved in CU to consider myself having an objective position.

Originally posted by: Creathir (Don't get me wrong, CityLife was great... just not my cup of tea... too much social engineering and not enough city planning.)quote>

Come on, no need to justify... We are hungry to know what you liked in City Life and what you disliked or hated. Not that I'm masochist but if presented in a clever and polite manner, it's the only way to build a constructive discussion and get into the right directions.

Originally posted by: CreathirThen you guys have taken a pro-active approach to the community. You are engaging us, bouncing ideas off of us, taking requests. What a class act. quote>

Nothing to do with class, really... It just happen that realistic city builder simulation games are really complicated to develop and I know few genres that have a such experienced community of players that have been playing for a long time.

We would be stupid not asking you what you think of our ideas in the early stages and just wait to see how you would react when the game hits the shelves.

Then, I came with the idea that instead of just asking the most active players in the community from time to time until release, it would be clever to embrace you into the inner discussions we had, the difficulties or achievements we may meet and having you participating on it one way or another... Feed us with your thoughts, talk together about it and then share this information with us... That's the only thing we want: Feedback!

And I thank you all for the ones you're getting us with so far only with some sparse information and a few screenshots. We are all very happy to see we are coming with something that at least appeals you.

[dasilva 3]

Answering the previous post was so long that you got time to post some more entries... So, here is another quick post.

Originally posted by: SimNation Philippe, Loved the snow photo with the ski lift and the snow covered roof tops. That in of itself is one hell of a achivement in my book. Ive personally wanted snow in a city builder since sim city 2k came out back in the 90s. Everything ive seen so far seems just about flawless other then the issue where the cars on the road have that (floating on road) look. One thing about your game im curious about is will Cities Unlimited have such a strong emphasis on the "Social Classes" aspect that was in the original city life. I found that to be a interesting point but thought it shoulda been on point of many for the core gameplay. Personally if sc4 woulda had the social aspect in the game it woulda been tons better since social issues are a big part of cities. Just curious if the game will have other areas of conern as well as the social such as infrastructure; you know tranportation,education, & pollution. Thanks and good look to you and the team keep up the great work gfx are amazing SimNationquote>

I wish I could tell you all that but that these features are something we are willing to discuss with you later this year but be assured we'll give you all the details and a chance to tell us what you think about it.

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

that is amazing @.@

[bixel 1,228]

WOW!!! From the looks of the buildings for the game it seems - that hopefully it will support some robust custom content!! Maybe I can do a lower poly version of this building for Cities Unlimited!!!

[chocolate_city 93]

Just show me an DAD BLASTED interchange of any freakin kind for GODS sakes.... just ONE please !!!!!

[zzsim 3]

CU is looking very promising from those screenshots !  I'm excited to hear that you guys are putting  a lot of emphasis on the transportation side of the game.  CL developed a good base for road networks (no grids, easy to construct bridges... etc.) and if you expand that to more road types (highways mainly) I think the transportation system in CU could be very cool.

I do have a few questions, though, concerning the terrain and maps.  From the sound of it the maps will not be region based like in SC4, so that leaves me with the question of just how big they will be.  Will I be able to create a sprawling metropolis, and how much control will I have over editing the terrain to my liking?  

Anyways, great work so far and thanks for keeping the community informed, I really look forward to seeing more information about CU!

[Androv 6]

I'm a bit sick and tired of hearing everyone say how SCS is so awful and CU is so great (the comparison being made on I think 6 or seven screenshots being provided from Monte Cristo, most of which in my opinion look of similar quality to SCS [exception being the mountain one]).

That said, I'm buying both of these games. I was one (of the few?) who enjoyed playing City Life, before Warcraft absorbed my soul.  My rather poor city journals are here.  Going from my experiences there, I have the following questions:

1) Will we still have (nearly) unrestricted road placement? I loved this aspect of the game although it made filling up the empty spaces a little more difficult :-P Assuming we do, can we have something a little bit more green to place in the empty spaces or will the zones fill the area more naturally?

2) Will the same 6 cultures be returning? Will I still have to create SlumVille to house all of the Have-Nots, and if I do can they live in something a little more appealing than a corrugated tin shack (I know people live like this, but I was trying to avoid it in my western-themed city). And will my super-wealthy elite citizens continue to torch the poor sim's little corrugated tin shacks (it was kinda amusing I suppose, kinda like Brad Pitt and Donald Trump turning into arsonists....)

3) Will there still be 'medals' or equivalent in order to unlock certain maps/starting areas. I like the goal-oriented play (although once you received 'gold' in a single city every map was unlocked which kind of removed the 'goal' in building other cities) but I can understand some people don't, maybe this could be an optional setting?

Think that's enough for now

[Nevets13 27]

Originally posted by: zzsim

I do have a few questions, though, concerning the terrain and maps.  From the sound of it the maps will not be region based like in SC4, so that leaves me with the question of just how big they will be.  Will I be able to create a sprawling metropolis, and how much control will I have over editing the terrain to my liking?  

quote>

They haven't really said anything regarding region play, but Monte Cristo knows that region play is either the 1st or 2nd most wanted thing for most fans. And it is still early in developement, so anything is possible.

[rctshack 182]

Wow... i don't show up to this topic for 1 day and look what happens!!! These screens look amazing... and I'm sorry Androv, but are we looking at the same two games??? All of CU's screens look MUCH better than SC:S... and remember that CU is still in the beginning stages, SC:S is about to be released.

I think the best bet for the CU team is to skim through the forums here (which i am sure you all have already) and see what we are saying we like and dislike about SC:S and what are the hot topics of the current Sim City 4. Like people have said a million times, Transportation, Realism, and for most Region Play seem to be the hot topics. The more transport options, the better. The more you can control each transport, the happier the customer. The trick would be to have excellent default settings that work alright for the people who don't like micro-managing, but having a lot of details to change for people who do. Even maybe down to things like bus and subway schedules??? Maybe... if you could make that work. My favorite game for a long time was Transport Giant... and it was so elementary, but so fun and engaging at the same time. And to tell you the truth, it is something you don't technically need, but something that could add hours of enjoyment to someone's city, and would be ever-changing as the city progresses.

The regions to me need to be 10 times better than what sim city 4 offered. I hated that cities in SC4 were on different time scales and they never seemed to line up well and you couldn't pull a bridge from one to the other... and it never seemed like a region. It was just cities next to each other. If there is a way you all could make it truly feel like a region... you have single handedly won everyone who ever played SC4 over. This may make it impossible for people to play all those cities... but I would love it if I only controlled 1 city and the others around it grew up along with mine. No one controls the whole metropolis in the real world... they may control the major city... but not the whole region. Maybe big decisions like highways and train routs and so on could have a special way where we as the game player decide through other cities... i don't know. It's a hard one to figure out.

The realism part seems to already have been accomplished by yall. At least graphically... and it looks amazing. The buildings look stunning and the scenery so far blows me away. Great job. The other half of the realism is the real city aspects... and I have confidence you all will make that work, you seem so excited about the forthcoming announcement of the features, and to me that means you are confident this game will blow a "unnamed competitor" out of the water. I am really excited to hear and see all the new stuff... maybe some more stuff will unexpectedly leak!!! Just sayin.

[metasmurf 705]

Just make realistic rural and urban highways and put in some agriculture and you've made me happy

[Androv 6]

http://forums.worldsims.org/showthread.php?t=13293

vs

the ones above.

Enough said?

Maybe I just like standing up for something when everyone else is trying to put it down (I bought City Life when everyone on this site was saying it was awful, and enjoyed it :-)  ).  I still think we should wait until the final version of SC:S is out before we all start saying how awful it is.  It still has a good shot at being a fun, realistic city simulator.

That said, I'm also still looking forward to Cities Unlimited, although I (and we) don't know a great deal about it (hoping to have my questions answered!!!    )

[Sim shady 12]

Wow! I have to say, CU looks really promising

[Nevets13 27]

Originally posted by: Androv http://forums.worldsims.org/showthread.php?t=13293

vs

the ones above.

quote>

The SCS ones look cartoony and the CU ones look realisitic. City Life looked more realisitic than SCS. And example some one else posted:

SCS:

City Life:

Now I would like to see a CU picture in the same setting to compare it

EDIT:  Also i this screenshot: http://uoem.com/gallery/files/1/07-08-2417-54-38.jpg

If those tall blue buildings were posted here on STEX for SC4, they would be given a very bad rating.

[Wackee 8]

^^^

I must say the SCS shot above looks more real to me. But it's only because you can't see any roads and SCS seems to have a more natural "night blue", too. In day shots CL looks way better than SCS, though.

The terrain in CU looks very impressive. But I really would like to see some realistic looking bridges, since I don't like the wedge-shaped approaches of the bridges in CL... they look so ugly.

[rctshack 182]

Can we not compare SC:S and CityLife... that's like comparing it to the first Sim City... City lifes sequal is what we should be comparing.

Androv i see what you are saying sometimes, but it happens to not be with the buildings, but with the enviornment and how the buildings fit in. All I see when i look at SC:S is blocks with textures to look like buildings that are in this great looking enviornment. But the enviornment is controlling it, not the buildings. All the skyscrapers are litterally blocks... and that's it, no detail. At least with CU it looks like they are adding detail and trying to make it more or what a real building would look like. Once we see buildings and enviornments added together... there will be a better argument I am guessing.

I can tell if you give me a screenshot of SC:S or CU which one is which. SC:S is a cartoon in my opinion. Their landscapes may be outstanding, but when it gets to actually building the city, it looks like a 3 year olds game.

CU team, you truthfully could release your game now and compete well with SC:S... but don't, keep working hard to make this the ultamite game.