Screenshots (Pre-Release)

[manuelandrei 0]

Originally posted by: LordOscar

Do you know you are losing half the online experience of CXL by hiding the chat window à 1:01 ?

quote>

I just did that for the video. Good observation though.

[JakeMD 107]

Wow cool video, thanks for sharing!

[Attila464 2]

Originally posted by: LordOscar

Do you know you are losing half the online experience of CXL by hiding the chat window à 1:01 ?

quote>

Sad isn't it. I watched the video of the transportation options, looks really nice, too bad its 60 dollars a year.

[leorafael 0]

for this game to be the best ever it whould need more transport options and my favourite disaster with the climate like water rise in coastal cities, avalanches in mountains or "dry out" in the desert

ps:this is alredy the best game because it combines a little of sim city 4 and city life 2008 and sry for my english im PT

[Valentino 0]

Hello everybody!!

Really nice video the one left in this forum.

By the way, Please, anyone that have already played beta version, could tell me how do we know the resources that provide every spot? for example, if I want to build up a city in a spot with a large amount of oil (as a resource) how do I know wich spot is containing such resource??

Regarding the disasters... in one of the official videos, montecristo is mentioning climate change or global warming, and therefore, I supose that all the related disasters such as extreme dry, increase of the sea levels and so on should be one of the climate disasters included in the game. In addition, I believe, that "global warming" is gonna be some sort of "common" issue for all the players of a single planet, since they are all playing in the same planet and polluting all together. I think Montecristo is going to potentiate this on line "plot" in order to add emotion and playability to this game. Maybe when the world has reached a total amount of pollution, the climate may change, modifying large part of the resources available in each spot, causing large amount of disasters and so on, and then, or before this cataclysm, players should compromise to keep pollution under certain levels or change it's technology to a cleaner one, fact that may cause trade alterations even boicots to those highly polluting players.

[manuelandrei 0]

Hey Valentino,

If you look at my video again at 0:30s you can see that there is a button highlighted. The button to the right (middle button) is the resource filter button. Once you click on one of the four resources it will highlight an area on the globe. Judging from the demo the resources are tied to different maps. This maps can in turn be scattered all over the planet. Even so if you click on an empty circle somewhere on the globe it will show you what resources are available there. When you select a particular empty spot on the globe it will show you what resources are available. I hope this answers your question.

See the following gallery for pictures on the three different maps in the demo:

picasaweb.google.se/manuel.andrei/CitiesXLDemo

[MandelSoft 2,769]

I once said that there were some errors with the first interchanges they showed us on the CitiesXL forums (but since it's deleted, I cannot prove this). I found a video on YouTube that shows the interchanges in their current state. Seems that MC didn't listen...

Best,

Maarten

[LBII 3]

Not the best and most rationnal design I've seen, but at least they do the job! Also, they take less space this way. Unfortunately, me too I'd like to see a more classical design without as much overpasses and more "on the ground" ramps

[Fresh Prince of Wmbg 44]

Honestly

Also, I thought of something when I was in Algebra this morning...

Why did'nt MC use the same tools ( curved , ------ , ortho) as the roads have for the interchanges? It would give people the chance to create custom interchanges.

[LBII 3]

I've read somewhere that custom interchanges are a future feature like mass transit. Don't know if it's still true...

[DCMetro34 576]

Well, it could be. But keep in mind, it'll require a 'small' fee of like $50 a year.

[LBII 3]

I must say that unlike may people here, I don't mind paying for Planet Offer..! If the game offers a "good" start, I'm willing to pay for updates. Right now I'm waiting for the reviews to come, to make my mind about the game reliability and "basic options".

[soldyne 111]

I call it Tunnel Maddness!  I was experimenting with tunnels and bridges in the Demo and came up with this.  I it is hard to see but I have a double decker tunnel in the upper left.  apparently nothing intersects in the depths of CXL!

[Attila464 2]

I don't even get angry anymore when i see these horrible fails, i just chuckle quietly to myself, and i agree those interchanges look completely unrealistic and rather funny, also for those tunnels seem very realistic, kinda reminds me of my commute in Boston

[Wackee 8]

These Interchanges don't look real, because they are so badly scaled (besides the issues already mentioned). Look up some interchanges in L.A. Some of them have a length/width of over 2 kilometers. Even small Interchanges take up at least one whole kilometer. These pieces in the screenshots are 500m long, at best. For eight-lane highways!

You can see these scaling issues at airports and seaports, too. I wish they had imitated other aspects of Sim City...

[Ocram's Razr 964]

OK Wackee if SC4's scale is better than CitiesXL's then why is a cloverleaf 16 tiles squared. Each tile is 16 meters, that would make SC4-D's cloverleafs 256x258 meters. SC4's cloverleafs make sense but CitiesXL's cloverleafs are not entirely nonsensical. The difference is that CitiesXL's are bigger and the ramps go under the loops instead of around. However, I must say that the T-intersection is weird.

[Wackee 8]

I'm not saying that SC4 did better. I'm just pointing out, that additionally to the bad design, the interchanges are underscaled like they were in SC4. (Although, yes they are bigger in CXL than in SC4, but still...)

[gabry85 2]

Originally posted by: Wackee

These Interchanges don't look real, because they are so badly scaled (besides the issues already mentioned). Look up some interchanges in L.A. Some of them have a length/width of over 2 kilometers. Even small Interchanges take up at least one whole kilometer. These pieces in the screenshots are 500m long, at best. For eight-lane highways!

You can see these scaling issues at airports and seaports, too. I wish they had imitated other aspects of Sim City...quote>

And how do you expect to build a 10x10km city with millions of people if you place realistic interchanges and airports?

[MandelSoft 2,769]

No doubt that the interchanges of Sim City 4 are underscaled, but to me, the design of those interchanges are better than their counterparts from Cities XL. It looks that Maxis spent more time designing their interchanges and using basic Real Life designs. As far as I've seen you also can't build:

- ... motorways wider or more narrow than 8 lanes ...

- ... interchanges like the diamond or partial cloverleaf ...

- ... smooth transistions from motorway to avenues ...

... in Cities XL.  No, I don't think the motorways are not as much fun to build in Cities XL than in Sim City 4. Instead of fitting the interchange in the landscape, in Cities XL you fit the landscape around the interchange. It's like reverse enginering!

Best,

Maarten

^{[Edited "symbol swearing" - abcvs]}

[Wackee 8]

Originally posted by: gabry85

And how do you expect to build a 10x10km city with millions of people if you place realistic interchanges and airports?

quote>

With region play and nonuinform lots, maybe?

Oh, wait...

Well at least realistic interchanges should be possible when they release the multiple lane tool.

I hope MC sees the current state as a temporary solution, only.

[rtil 1]

it should not have let me build this.

[soldyne 111]

This first one I found while scanning through the planet.  WTF?!  how did this person get 28,000 people when the game forces a close at 22,000?

Anyway, I played my final city last night (my demo ends tonight very soon in fact) and I thought the outcome was rather nice looking:

If only I knew of a way to toggle off the UI...

[morriswalters 16]

The road system allows the player to do many things, and a lot of them you shouldn't do.  But it means that you have a lot of freedoom.  Those tunnels, kind of weird, but I bet traffic still goes through them.  In point of fact the player could fly through them.  Ah the cloverleaf.  This is that 3D tech that everybody always wanted.  Unless you make earthworks as part of the model making earth ramps might be pretty hard.  The interchange is a model.  In normal mode roads can't meet at  that sharp an  angle.  Try it.  That interchange is 300 meters by 400 meters.  Moving those ramps out would cost you maybe another 100 meters both ways.  Now 500 meters, thats what, 1/20th of the length of the map.  Basically like SC4 the interchanges are a compromise between what you want and what you can get.

Stupid street trick.  Try this in the demo, start a tunnel, finish it, but don't worry about getting back up.  Delete it. You should have a nice hole dug. Start a bridge finish it halfway.  Delete it. If you did it right you should have a ramp.

How you feel about all this will determine if you will  buy.  I have the money and I'll give the Planet offer a shot.  At the most I'll be out some bucks.  But heck, maybe I will be lucky, you can never tell.

[manuelandrei 0]

Originally posted by: soldyne

If only I knew of a way to toggle off the UI...

quote>

Pressing F11 ingame will take screenshots without the user interface.

From the FAQ on the official website:

How can I take screenshots?

First of all, make sure you have hidden files and folders displayed on your computer:

Windows XP: My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View > Show hidden files and folders

Windows Vista: Control Panel > Folder Options > View > Show hidden files and folders

There are two ways to take a screenshot:

1. Press F11 when you want to take the capture. The picture will appear in the “screenshots” folder.

   Windows XP: Documents and Settings\(your login name)\My Documents\My Pictures\Monte Cristo\Cities XL\screenshots

   Windows Vista: Users\your login name\Pictures\Monte Cristo\Cities XL\screenshots

2. Press the Print/Screen/SysRq button and paste your capture in any suitable picture editing software (Word, Paint, Photoshop etc).

[jabezscratch 159]

Originally posted by: beebs

Originally posted by: niloluiz

The graphics are the strong part of this game....

If in the future they agree to make a proper simulation core to make all this eye-candy really entertaining, than perhaps not everything is lost.quote>

Not everyone needs a simulation core. To provide a SC4 reference, many avid CJers (myself included) don't use the simulation at all.. but rather plop them in the fashion they need for the purpose of their journal.

quote>

Yeah, me too .  That's why I'm more concerned about getting a good, offline sandbox mode in CXL.

[jabezscratch 159]

Originally posted by: soldyne

Anyway, I played my final city last night (my demo ends tonight very soon in fact) and I thought the outcome was rather nice looking:

quote>

Your city looks pretty darn good and realistic.  It could be a photo of a real-life city.  Shots like that instill me w/ more hope for CXL.  Thanks for sharing.

[Kusajika Yachiru 9]

I really am loving this game but hatting the bridges...

To many Golden Gates... and why do they all have to be suspended? It's driving me crazy!

[Ephemeron 17]

I don't like those bridges either. One thing that annoys me about the Golden Gate Bridge (and that no one else pointed out) is that the masts are too close together and too many in number. The real life Golden Gate only has two masts, which are spaced over a kilometre apart. Also curved suspension bridges don't make sense at all, but there's an easy solution to that - don't build curved bridges.

So what if the highway interchanges are bad, I can build a city without highways. I'll just use mass transit instead, aren't there any mass transit options to use instead of highways? Well if not I'll just play the Planet Offer and see what comes up.

*sigh*, I really should stop complaining about the game. If many people buy it and a few enjoy it, then that's good. If it flops, then no one enjoys it for long.

[deanej 2]

For those saying that interchanges in SimCity 4 are underscaled, remember that just about everything in SC4 is underscaled (there's no way you can have a skyscrapter on a 32x32 m lot). At least they looked like actual interchanges. The Cities XL interchanges are the ugliest things ever devised. As an avid highway fan, that may be a dealbreaker for me (depending on how much I like the demo; from what I've read here, I probably won't be buying Cities XL, at least not until some updates are out).

As for RL interchanges taking up a kilometer, all I can say is: they don't in New York. Even cloverleafs only take up 500 m here (usually).

[Wackee 8]

Originally posted by: deanej

For those saying that interchanges in SimCity 4 are underscaled, remember that just about everything in SC4 is underscaled (there's no way you can have a skyscrapter on a 32x32 m lot)quote>

Just to object :

425 5th Avenue (25x32m)

Central Park Place (30x32m)

Some SC4 Buidlings are very well scaled like the Chrysler Building or the Empire State.

Others like the Lincoln Center are way too small.

Again other things are overscaled. (like the 3m sims or the default freight rail station)

So, no, not everything is underscaled