The New Official Next Generation Sim City Wish List

[xyrrus 0]

Better Intergration of Custom Content:

For me, there's one reason why I still play and that's all the user generated content. I'd like to see the next installment designed with the expectation of the *average* use having hundreds of custom, user generated buildings installed. All the game systems should be exposed via a user modifiable script (python or lua).

The game itself should have an in-game mechanism for loading and unloading of buildings, lots and mods. Want to create a mag lev train system? Create a cable TV utility? Define it via a script, package it as a plugin. If your plugin has dependencies, when you activate it, you'll be prompted to download it.

The UI needs to be built from the ground up to handle all this new content. I've got *way* too much stuff that I couldn't live without in the "Misc Transit" category. So the UI should be moddable as well. You create that "mag lev" system? Create a menu for it and assign your items to appear under that menu.

Honestly, there are a billion little things that I'd request, but if the next version was built ground up for user creatable content as a *central* feature, I'd be a happy camper.

In terms of my personal wants (others have discussed these plenty):

- Remove the grid

- Seamless or "better" region play. Honestly the concept is great, the implementation needs work.

[panthersimcity4 162]

I want an easier way to make buildings Cause I suck at 3dsmax.

[Resender 18]

To start off

*same grafics engine or improved from scs

*improved regional play

=> regional goverment

=> regional capital

=>regional bonuses

=>regional highway & high speed train sytem

=> regional disasters

*new types of industries

besides agriculture, medium, heavy & high tech

*new types of commercial activity

tourism

*improved path finder (making it impossible for sims not to find work as long as their is work available)

*import - export (creating bonuses for the economy)

*themed sets (North American, European, Asian ...)

to mention a few

[TheJackalope 0]

I posted this originally on the SCS forum, and as a new member hear I wanted to share.  I've played every Simcity game religiously, I never had the time(or the dedication) to get into modding but I think my early days playing this game encouraged me to learn about planning and I see it as the major reason why I came back to my hometown and went into redevelopment professionally, helped start a downtown group, and became a planning commisioner.  So here are my thoughts:

I would have taken SC4 and done the following:

1. Allow players to select the size of individual cities as part of a larger region. Basically let the individual city map size be determined by the player as they build the region.

2. Increase numbers of buildings with varying types and give them very small different culture value points. Points would be accumulated and spent like cash(you can't get them refunded)

3. Institute district overlays(on top of base zoning) like Arts, Entertainment, Tech Corridor, Tourist, Historic, Government, Financial, Export(Foreign Trade Zone), Rural. These districts would lower the taxes generated by the buildings but in exchange would alter streets and skins and would greatly increase the production of culture points by the similar building types in the zone(an art gallery in an arts district for example). The zones would also increase the likelihood of buildings of that overlay type spawning in the zone.  Some would have other special features or restrictions(Historic can't be torn down, Government consumes taxes.

4. Points could be spent for either expanding the corresponding zones(the points represent political will or private financial resources) or to construct special buildings that can be placed inside the zone. Districts like Rural gets festival farmers market, Tourist gets visitor centers and major attractions.

5. Point reward buildings could have a variety of effects by increasing point production, lowering costs, or serving a direct purpose. They could be area of effect, city wide or region wide. For example a grain terminal in your Heavy Industrial zone of your port city could improve agriculture in cities connected by rail all over your region.

6. Increase the cost of bulldozing(so it basically is the price of buying and tearing the building down). 

Added now that I've thought a little more:

7. Remove different tax levels for different wealth zones and institute ordinance exemptions to reduce taxes and improve RCI for specific building types.  Like Residential Homestead exemptions or freezes, or industrial incentives, or sales tax holidays.

8. Institute sales taxes for commercial services buildings.

9. The coverage rings for government services are weird and discourage rural and suburban building styles.  Have them pay base upkeep costs but then cover based on population with a lower effect the farther away you get.  (Maybe total squares adjusted for density?)

[doodlea21 31]

There's an idea I had about cargo transport for a while because the freight system in SC4 is so bad.  What I'm thinking is that instead of having to take freight to the border of a city tile freight from factories there should be three different options for transporting freight. All three of these should be used in varying amounts to support the economy of your city.

* International - This can be achieved by taking cargo to an international airport or seaport. Freight ships or planes can be used from there.

* Inter-regional - Cargo-carrying vehicles can cross as many city borders as they want. However they must reach a regional border, AND be allocated to a supplier/distributor in order to secure a freight connection.

* Local - different industries all output different cargo, and these can be exported via local roads to a factory or commercial service that buys the product/material produced by the industry.

For this system there would be many different types of cargo, such as: grain, iron ore, cars, crude oil, etc. This would be affected in international freight transport, for they would be affected by global price changes. Some of these could be resources needed for other factories (crude oil, timber), and others would be finished products to sell to commercial services (packaged food, furniture)

This system would be necessary for both the import and export of cargo, meaning industries and services may need to source exporters of the desired product. Also note that construction sites also require temporary, but very large supplies of bricks, steel, concrete, glass, etc.

For example: An iron and steel works may require 10 units of iron ore, 4 units of coal and 2 units of limestone for import, and produce say 12 units of steel for export. For this reason it would be boost desirability greatly if there was a nearby iron mine (even in the region), and possibly some very large industries may require an important resource to be on their doorstep.This is what it would be like:

Primary industry (e.g iron mine) ----------> secondary industry (e.g. steel works) ----------> another secondary industry (e.g car factory) ----------> Tertiary industry (e.g car dealership)

This also ties in with the supply of natural resources, such as coal, oil, fishing stocks, fertile soils, etc. These will be necessary to build an iron mine as such.

Local freight transport offers benefits to your local economy, and doesn't suffer too much from taxes. It is better for environmental ratings, but it is too hard to secure local freight connections everywhere. Inter-regional and international are much more reliable. Say for instance if your iron mine produces 24 units, and the steel works only requires 10, then it would be the only possible alternative to export the excess via these.

[pagenotfound 53]

I think there should be more options for highways.

Like choosing how many lanes you want, HOV lanes, collector lanes, ect.

You should have the option to make double-decker highways, maybe even underground highways.

More interchange options, like clover-stack (one or two "leafs" of the inter change become fly-overs), or whirl-pool or parclo. Plus the shape of the interchanges should adjust according to terrain and angle at which highways cross. Speaking of angles all draggable networks should be made at any angle you choose. Plus if you draw a road or highway this should happen:

It asks you if you want to go around, under or through an obstacle, like a hill river or canyon.

If the path you drew curves it asks you how smooth the curves should be.

It asks you how many lanes you want.

Once your ready click OK and your road is built. Also roads should age.

If you want to build a bridge this should happen

Draw your roads or rail at any angle toward the edge of the cliff or shorline

Click a bridge icon to open bridge options.

Once it opens you click on the two network ends to draw your bridge crossing, if your network ends are not directly across from each other itll be diagonal path.

If needed or wanted you can designate the bridges curve and height.

You are asked what type of bridge you want, the best options are highlighted. You choose the style and color of the bridge add lights click OK and you have a totally unique bridge. 

There should be weather and realistic diasasters, a custum climate created by you. There should be evactuations and emergancy declarations if you see fit. There should be weather reports, newspapers, progress reports. There should be resources such a precious metals, oil, and diamonds. There should be geologic map showing where these resources are located. And if you or mning companies want to mine you must have a vote. If its passed you get money for it. Same way with landfills parks and dams. 

And finally, you should have more landscape tools. Such as surface water, caves, beaches, sea cliffs. Carve canyons and buttes and messas and natural arches. Even draw fault lines. 

There should be realistic rivers that flow and wetlands and other features. 

Plus get rid of the grid.

 

[SOLDIOR 1]

This topic is basically murdered by Society .....

[tommyvercetti7 0]

i dnt like how in SCS there are hardly any transport options - i want these reinstated in a new game and i think it would be good if you could explore your city, by car and walking or something, and see it like how your sims do

[DocRorlach 25]

I certainly agree with the cargo idea. One thing that would go hand in hand with that would be that all transport systems get equal attention. Currently it is clearly an "American" game, with it over-the-top reliance on roads and highways, whereas Europe tends more towards rail and air cargo. Similarily for passenger movements.

NAM, and thus SAM, certainly ought to be featured and extended: inter-regional scheduling of transport systems, coupled with the cargo and passenger variety would be a neat addition.

Also agree with the mention of the dastardly UI - it was obviously designed by someone from a mouse manufacturer who gets paid per click! A customizable UI would do the trick. Scripts maybe too much for non-programmers, but it should allow custom content providers to control the menus: one set for original content, two sets for custom content.

Alas, as said by someone here already, I fear that the flop called "Societies" has put paid to he idea of SC5. What a shameful squandering of money and computing talent (the game producers ought to be forced to visit the numerous SC sites for eight hours daily - to learn)!

[Juju 1]

To everything you said (weather, map shaping, more buildings...) , I would add...

1. Don't forget europeans, Japanese, Brazilians and other people in the world play SimCity (I've been playing since 1989 as far as I can remember !). As a European (I'm French) it's sometimes frustating to always see north-american style cities, even with the pseudo-european Maxis buildings and no diagonals or curved roads.

2. More realistic coastlines for cities like PEG'sCDK works. They really add a realistic touch to all my cities, even close to the rivers. Some interesting seawalls on the STEX as well.

3. Add a realistic touch to our cities : ads in the streets, less "perfect" sidewalks like the SC4 ones (I like Porkissimo props for that or the JRJ sidewalk mod), small streets were cars can't go, like in our European cities, with bars and their tables in these streets...

4. Different trees for different heights and differents climates. These trees could be used to create realistic seasonal woods that would have a real nice YIMBY effect on the Sims (try to create a kind of Central Park inside your CBD... SC4 won't give your city the expected YIMBY effect that a Central Park could give).

[Zygar 0]

Originally posted by: SOLDIOR This topic is basically murdered by Society .....quote>

This would be true if Societies didn't, y'know, suck.

[joemcjoebob 2]

Well, I have SCS. It's not too bad. It could use a little work but besides that it is a VERY good game.

[SC4 Addict 0]

i dont think anybody has mentioned the ZOOM mode i like the idea of being able to zoom right out in SC4 and see a quarter of my town in SCS you cant and i find it very anoying...also let the people design building for the game before its relised, image thousands of buildings not hundreds, also what about a plugin optioner has the plug ins available but you choose which ones you want for each city, ie disasters etc...

[Avanine-Commuter 0]

Mixed-use zoning? Have a way to zone residential and commercial together, and when a building develops it can have commercial jobs AND homes.

There are many hotels with condominiums in them so that could be mixed use.

ALSO pick the shape of the city. WHen creating the city, it shouldn't be a square; what TRUE city is a square? on maps it's always irregular. There should be a choice to select the city boundary.

I agree with the district rule; have a historical district, art district, government, business, tech parks, etc. After designating that area, only specific buildings can grow there so you can really create a realistic city with a true Chinatown or Art district without having to plop the hell out of your landmarks menu!

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

I've long wanted something similar to districts, and link them to taxes. Like a low-taxable district for development, the kind of thing US cities often do to rehab blighted areas.

A custom climate designer is another great idea, no need for snow mods or desert sand mods. An array of matching water textures is a no-brainer for this idea.

The ability to view a region while working on a city tile is something I would find useful for transportation planning.

A built-in plugin manager would be a boon to us who have a plugins folder overtaking our hard drive's capacity.

And how about an expanded role for the My Sims that are imported into the game?

[Yeah_Right 2]

I think they should come up with an ingeniously good way to get rid of the grid system.

Maybe further study into vectors or angles will be needed?

Anyway, I think they should make it easier to customise the game, and make it easier to install the custom content. Maybe have a program like the STEX?

[soldyne 111]

Just on the off chance that someone somewhere actually does something with these lists I guess I will put my list out here too.  I also think that repeating things that have been said is a good thing because the more we repeat it the more it means we really want it (kind of like casting votes):

1.  Optional Grid.  I want the ability to place roads, zones and buildings any which way I want, but, have the option to "snap to grid" for when I want to space things out and help things line up.  Black and White 2 has an excellent non-grid city building engine.

2.  water at different elevations.  with this goes a physics engine to allow rivers to flow and water to fall off cliffs.  while we have a physics engine going we can apply it to traffic accidents and disasters.

3.  on that note, lets add weather: rain, snow, sleet, tornados, hurricanes, floods, avalanches, etc.  with the physics engines and things like rain you can have local flooding and the temporary closing of roadways.  lots of possibilities there.

4.  regional terraforming:  please see SC4 Terraformer for more information!

5.  Simple yet robust customization.  we need an easier Lot Editor mixed with a 3D engine and ILives Reader.  we need the ability to simply load up an existing lot, change its props, change its properties and be done.  but for the more ambitious people out there they can go so far as to create their own 3D designs and upload their own textures.  this tool also needs to be fully supported by the game developers as a fully functional part of the game.

6.  the ability to switch easily between random zoning/organic building and plopping down fully functional buildings.  every RCI lot in the game should be automatically available for both random zoning and plopping.

7.  the ability to customize our in game menus (this is to keep us from going insane with all the mods will be making...)

8.  More zone types.  RCI is the basic set up but we should be able to zone specifically for certain types of industry, CS and CO individually, and different home types like zone specifically for single family homes, apartment complexes, mansions (to keep mansions from popping up next to slums).  the random developers should also be smart and try to build similar architecture next to other buildings that have already grown to help keep architecture styles similar within neighborhoods.

9.  paintable fillers like parking lots, parks, warehouses, storage areas, alley ways, dirt lots, and other stuff you might see between and around major buildings.   also the ability to place down props in order to decorate already grown areas.  perhaps that back alley is not dingy enough and could use another trash can or two, or maybe you just want to put a few cars parked along the side of the road to give the area a more busy look.

10.  use the SCS concept of venues.  yep I went there and brought up SCS.  I like the idea that sims go to work and then they go to play.  I never was satsified with SC4 live and work routine.  why do I have all of these CS areas when no one is using them?

11.  more "puzzle pieces".  we need lots of different kinds of expandable stuff like amusement parks, zoos, airports, sea ports, malls, shopping centers, schools, hospitals, police stations, universities, parks, etc.  to this day there are very few satisfactory ways to build a decent shopping center in SC4, even with BATS.  each piece should add something to set, like there could be different pieces for adding capacity to a hospital while other pieces add administration space for more empolyees and adds efficiency, a research wing could improve city wide health, while a birthing wing could help increase populatio

[pcell61 0]

I would like to see building where you would have storefront on the bottom (street level) and apartments or condos on the 2nd floor on up, this would be perfect for any modern city of today, additional the values should reflect current trends no more 30 dollars a year in parking fines, or 500 a month for a fire station, and tourism dollars should be added if you happen to have any attractions in your city.

[Juju 1]

Hi,

About Rush Hour Transportation mods :

Bike rents (very popular in European cities, especially in France)

I would appreciate non perpendicular roads & streets : curves, curves and curves !!! More realistic.

Some ads (ploppable or growable ?) everywhere in cities => it's part of our nowadays cities.

And of course, mixed buildings, with commerces at the ground floor and dwellings on the upper floors => like Porkissimo's design of realistic Paris buildings.

[Psycho_Teddy 25]

Some of my ideas:

1. Regional Terraforming!

2. No pre-caching of plugins, like WoW does

3. Different levels of government.  City, County, State, Country/Region

4. Truly free-formed roadways, with the option of gridding for city centres.

5. User-defined city boundaries (ie - annexing of land for city use).  Define county and city land.

6. Realistic budgets, no more $100,000 coffers, things should be measured in the hundreds of millions, and cost hundreds of millions.

7. Roundabouts

8. Ability to choose a wider variety of building styles.  The US is not the only place with pretty buildings.  (The Euro set was nice, but too modern)

9. Bring back some of the old disasters, and introduce some new ones (floods, hurricanes, realistic earthquakes, etc, etc.

10. Ability to choose climate.  Weather/terrain responds accordingly.

11. Dynamic weather.  Thunderstorms roll in and mayhem ensues, on occasion.  Also, random disasters.

12. Better pathfinding.  Sims travel mostly by freeway for long commutes, and by roadway for smaller ones. 

13. Snow-capped mountains

[THE_Chris 0]

Definatly no grid.

Maybe for ram etc purposes have it so that you can only work (and see) one area of the region, about the size we currently have, but be able to select what part of the region we want to view at a time. Sort of like a single movable square in the region view that we can click and then edit whatever city parts are in that square.

But maybe include an option that shows the entire region as one editable city. Although theres no way todays systems could show that, it would be good in say, 10 years time!!!

A 3d UWalk-It is essential. Where you can be a person in the fully 3d rendered city and walk around. You can get into cars and drive around your ENTIRE REGION, WITHOUT ANY LOAD SCREENS. Sort of like a GTA3 exploration mode. Maybe with missions floating around.

[xmofox 0]

Te be able to zone parks.

[leemarc 0]

Just a few ideas:

1. Pretty much every idea in this thread. (Although there are a few here and there that are unrealistic IMO)

2. Since they are working on The Sims 3, the next true Sim City release should work with Sims3.

2A. Build a city in SC5 and designate a neighborhood and play The Sims 3 in that area of your city. (In other words, play The Sims 3 with the SC5 disc in the drive and vice versa. Although you would still be required to buy both games to do this)

2B. If 2A happens, that means that you could have a database of everyone in your city. IOW, a citizen (sim) directory: where they live, work, go to school, go to church, who they are related to, where relatives are buried, etc ...

3A. I do like the idea in SCS of soceity values. Every structure should affect the city in many ways, positive and negative. But, it shouldn't really be city wide. A church on the corner of a neighborhood should attract religious sims and detract non-religious sims, for example.

3B. Values should be indivdual as well, which can be cataloged in the sim citizen directory. Certain values (patience, for example) would affect whether that sim will travel across the map to go to work or not.

4. Ploppable RCI is fine, but zoning should stay and be expanded as other people have said. If there are plenty of lots to pick from and there are tons of variables (or society values mixed with other factors), it would be neat to see what neighborhoods you create. If you want an educated suburbia, factors such as the school system, city wide (area wide) prosperity, city wide and sim knowledge ... among others would determine if your neighborhood grows as suburbia or slums.

5. Be able to customise a lot in game. For example, paint the house, add landscaping, etc.... Come to think of it, if you own both games (SC5 and The Sims 3), you should be able to change any lot like you can in Sims 2. IOW, go into build mode.

6. 2 lane highways. Other people have mentioned 4 and 5 lane highways. I agree with that. But, the freeway near me is a 2 lane highway from the 1960's when the city was much smaller (though it does need to be expanded).

7. Construction times should be more realistic. It should take months or even years. During construction, you can suggest alternative routes to take or setup temporary roads for such a purpose, roads that are designed to only last a year or so.

8. My vote for the grid would be to keep it as a guide as some people have said. Many cities are grid like, so that should stay around. YOu should have the ability to snap to the grid or stray at will. Lots should confirm to the road ... or maybe not.

I'm sure I have many more ... but I have to go grocery shopping.

Mark

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Soldyne's list is quite good. I'd like to add this:

1. I would like more highway options and to make it as many lanes as I want (2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, etc.).

2. Also, when I merge 2 or 3 highways I'd like for an "interchange designer" to pop up so I can customize it, or select from a list of 'default' options.

3. More tilesets than 4 and the option to put user-created buildings into user-created tilesets.

4. A lane path designator so you can designate at intersections right turning lanes and left turning lanes, etc..

5. An underground road/highway designer such as the Big Dig and realistic tunnels (not just straight)

6. More and better mass transit.

7. Realistic curving (you see an indicator that you can designate angle, curviness of curve)

8. Ancient artifacts and districts.

9. Ability to designate groups of buildings as historical.

10. Keep regions, but include ability to see multiple cities at a time, for better integration.

Also, I'd like a plethora of road types and subtypes arranged in a hierarchial menu, such as:

Roads:

Standard 2-Lane

Standard 2-Lane with Turning Lane

3-Lane Road

4-Lane Boulevard (i.e. Avenues in SC4)

4-Lane Boulevard with Turning Lane

6-Lane Boulevard

*You can designate roads/boulevards as expressways, tollways, or arterial roads.

Highways/Freeways:

4-Lane Divided Highway (with grass/tree median)

4-Lane Divided Highway with Concrete Median

6-Lane Divided Highway with concrete/grass median

*You can also scale it up to any size you want, designate express/collector lanes, toll roads, road shields/signs and so forth.

If something is missing from all this please post. These are mainly my transit wishes.

Enjoy .

[jdmachogg 0]

My requests, i already agree with almost all the opinions posted so I don't want to repeat too much but I just want to voice my main opinions.

1. You should be able to place the bus stops on the roads instead of having to destroy buildings and ruin zoning space to place them.

2. More options and more features, for example transport systems (pretty much everyone has said this), but they have not mentioned emergency/bus/bike lanes.

3. More buildings.

4. Keep the grid as a guideline only, not a MUST do.

5. My biggest request is have a huge new variety on disasters, and bring back some of the old ones. For example; floods, hurricanes, monsters, volcano, earthquakes, lightning, fire, tsunamis, meteor shower, nuclear meltdown, plane crash, terrorist attack?, etc.... I love building a big city then seeing what happens with different disasters.

I hope the next SimCity is a good one!

[Patricius Maximus 236]

I hope the next SimCity is a good one!quote>

If you mean one developed by EA or Tilted Mill, don't get your hopes up. But -- who knows?

[marshall1167 0]

SC5 should just be more realistic, within reason.....

What city do you know has subway stations on every other corner, and where the subway rails need to be grided closer together than the streets above because of overuse? How about designing subway lines that serve tens of thousands daily, and have a far bigger local impact (and cost more and take longer to build). Plus stations dont take up large squares of land on street level in real life (altho they fixed that in mods). Now you can plan subway (and maybe even bus) routes.

As said before here, need to have more control on zoning, designing districts, etc...

Parks - should be draggable over squares like zoning so they connect. Could build a 1x3 or a 6x6 and it would all fit together. They even have this in monopoly tycoon...

FAR more funding options... a lot of the ordinances could be on sliding scales. Also, more public works projects than a million large parks and soccer fields. I'm sick of having $100M (no cheats) in my bank account with nothing to do with it.

Hospitals/schools/etc should be scalable.. instead of just two options for elementary school size, have many (a 6 floor elementary school would take care of any level of high density in the neighborhood in a big city, and is still realistic, jsut cost a ton to build). Decide the number of floors and footprint, and just adjust costs accordingly (it'll cost more per classroom to build up than out). I hate having to build a huge hospital a block away from another huge hospital because its a high-density area.

More politics, you're a mayor after all. Courting things from conventions to sports franchises to a new landmark supertall skyscraper, fund these as much/little as you want. Part of their decision is based on your attention (financially) and also based on city stats like population pollution crime etc.

[s_olah 87]

I would love to see some weather, to be able to choose just like in Sims 2 Seasons, what type of seasons you want for that region. Also a wider variety of buildings wouldn't be so bad either. And make the tiles smaller...like a tile now is 1x1, that should be 2x2, so the avenue would take up 5 tiles, 2 + 2 for each lane, and 1 for the "park" in the middle, which you could delete, and build whatever you want there, like GLR, which would be included, not like now...Disasters would also be nice (tsunamis, terrorist attacks, plane crashes).

But most of all, WEATHER!!!

[bernardoAZ 0]

There is a huge list of suggestions here.

I have been playing simulation games since Westinghouse's "Logistics Command" and played the first Sim City and the successors.

What it attractive about SimCity is that the game can be enjoyed in different ways. It can be a way to create a utopian "perfect" city. It can be a way to build a city and then unleash disasters on it. It can be a way to deal with economic and transportation issues. It has the flexibility that it can be enjoyed in several ways.

In my view that is what went wrong with SimCitySocieties. They limited the game by forcing everyone to have to use the model of 6 values and have to have mixes of building that produced those values to create the venues so the residents could go to them when they were not working. 

It would be like adding complex weather and then requiring that a large portion of the time was spent in addressing pest and weed control if you had built any farms so you could make money.

That is why for some people the absense of water supply and garbage disposal of SC4 in SCS  may be one of the few things they like about SCS. "At least I don;t have to worry about the water pipes and the candy wrappers." For others they miss that bit of realism.

So in some ways my suggestion is that SCX is a game that has features tthat can be turned on or off. 

A player can play it having to manage the water and garbage systems as in SC4, or not as in SCS. 

They can have to deal with the values of their community as in SCS, or they can have a value-free society as in SC4.  

They can have a society with the educational and health care system represented in a simple manner, or they can have those systems represented in more detail. 

They can have city, county and state government, city, county and state police, or not.  (Some crimes get adressed by different levels of law enforcement).

They can have detaled weather and climate, with dirfferent effects and problems, or not.

To add some specific items:

Water at highr elevations: mountain lakes, streams, waterfalls, flowing to rivers, deltas. 

Soldyne's comments on 2/18 are very good. I agree with his thought on venues from SCS. We work, we sleep at our homes, and we go out and do stuff elsewhere - "venues" for lack of a better term: shop, play, eat, exercise, pray, yada, yaday, yada. I also agree with his comments about different scales of buildings - the need for local and regional airports, universities, etc. and also for more rural structures.

The California bias of the game has always bothered me. Where is the medium and high density mixed commercial and residential zoning that is seen all over the East Coast in the US? My mother lives in an apartment house with a grocery store on the first floor. The next apartment house has a medical clinic on the first floor. Has no one ever been to New York City? pcell61 maid this suggestion, and he is absolutely correct. This has been a critical fault in every version of SimCity.

Yes, it is a very American in the transportation options. No street cars or trams as in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague or many other European cities.  Bike paths.

It is also American in the lack of commercial sex workers. Where are the business establishments with red light bulbs in the windows that you see near train stations?  

[bernardoAZ 0]

There is a huge list of suggestions here.

I have been playing simulation games since Westinghouse's "Logistics Command" and played the first Sim City and the successors.

What it attractive about SimCity is that the game can be enjoyed in different ways. It can be a way to create a utopian "perfect" city. It can be a way to build a city and then unleash disasters on it. It can be a way to deal with economic and transportation issues. It has the flexibility that it can be enjoyed in several ways.

In my view that is what went wrong with SimCitySocieties. They limited the game by forcing everyone to have to use the model of 6 values and have to have mixes of building that produced those values to create the venues so the residents could go to them when they were not working. 

It would be like adding complex weather and then requiring that a large portion of the time was spent in addressing pest and weed control if you had built any farms so you could make money.

That is why for some people the absense of water supply and garbage disposal of SC4 in SCS  may be one of the few things they like about SCS. "At least I don;t have to worry about the water pipes and the candy wrappers." For others they miss that bit of realism.

So in some ways my suggestion is that SCX is a game that has features tthat can be turned on or off. 

A player can play it having to manage the water and garbage systems as in SC4, or not as in SCS. 

They can have to deal with the values of their community as in SCS, or they can have a value-free society as in SC4.  

They can have a society with the educational and health care system represented in a simple manner, or they can have those systems represented in more detail. 

They can have city, county and state government, city, county and state police, or not.  (Some crimes get adressed by different levels of law enforcement).

They can have detaled weather and climate, with dirfferent effects and problems, or not.

To add some specific items:

Water at highr elevations: mountain lakes, streams, waterfalls, flowing to rivers, deltas. 

Soldyne's comments on 2/18 are very good. I agree with his thought on venues from SCS. We work, we sleep at our homes, and we go out and do stuff elsewhere - "venues" for lack of a better term: shop, play, eat, exercise, pray, yada, yaday, yada. I also agree with his comments about different scales of buildings - the need for local and regional airports, universities, etc. and also for more rural structures.

The California bias of the game has always bothered me. Where is the medium and high density mixed commercial and residential zoning that is seen all over the East Coast in the US? My mother lives in an apartment house with a grocery store on the first floor. The next apartment house has a medical clinic on the first floor. Has no one ever been to New York City? pcell61 maid this suggestion, and he is absolutely correct. This has been a critical fault in every version of SimCity.

Yes, it is a very American in the transportation options. No street cars or trams as in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague or many other European cities.  Bike paths.

It is also American in the lack of commercial sex workers. Where are the business establishments with red light bulbs in the windows that you see near train stations?