Time Synchronization? Is it possible?

[Lomnoir 0]

While I enjoy SimCity 4, there is one thing that I find disconcerting. Since the player controls how each individual city is built and managed in the entire region, why does each individual city have its own date stamp? For example, no matter when you start a particular city, the time always starts on 01/01/2000. This is true even if the first city you started has progressed to, say, 08/19/2046. Is there a patch available that will synchronize the time regionwide?

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello Lomnoir,

Quick answer - no.

By design, each city's time starts at 1/1/00 and procedes from there. Thus you have the regional time-warp features - where the game will guess at what is happening in neighboring cities, and allow you to continue playing the current city that much longer, before you have to switch to one of the neighbors and allow it to catch-up.

In other words - the computer is not actually playing the neighbor cities - while you are playing the current city. So that when you get around to switching to a neighbor city - you can control just how that city develops.

How-some-ever, if you can find a copy of the extracheates.dll - there is a SimDate cheat that will allow you to set the date in a city, if you want to ignore the developmental age of a city and just bring all your dates into alignment. Please note the SimDate cheat code sets the date to one day past what you enter (i.e. "SimDate 12 31 1999" sets date to "01/01/00").

Please enjoy the game,

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanged.

[unityx 1]

Think of the date as more of a birthdate. Its really not useful other than at certain city "ages" certain special gifts and such may be unlocked. But it has no impact on other cities in the region.

[Rymac91 15]

Just to point something out, it's not actually 2000, it's simply 0, as in the beginning of your city. You can actually play past the 100 mark, and it'll show 100 on the year place instead of 00, so it's incorrect to label it as 2000 when it's not.

As for the initial post, it honestly doesn't matter, as the time stamp is mostly useful for logging how the city is growing since it's founding, in whatever date you start mayor mode on after year 0.

[Lomnoir 0]

Think of the date as more of a birthdate. Its really not useful other than at certain city "ages" certain special gifts and such may be unlocked. But it has no impact on other cities in the region.quote>

That I understand. I also understand that the date in each city has no bearing on what rewards are offered. Unlike in Sim City 2000 or Sim City 3000 (where certain services became available once you passed a certain date), the services that the game unlocks comes only when each city in the region meets certain criteria. If I have a city that has a sizable population with plenty of high tech industries, then that city will have the hydrogen power plant available. If a smaller, more rural town in the same region is on the same timeline as the large, high tech city (within two weeks of each other for example), the smaller city will not have the hydrogen plant available as a power source because it has not met the population and technology prerequisites.

Because the date has no bearing on the rewards and services available to each city, why isn't the time constant across the entire region? Time plays less of a factor in what is available in Sim City 4 than in previous versions.

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello - again - Lomnoir,

To re-word what I stated above - the SimDate is more of a clock that shows how much time you have spent developing a particular city than a Regional Calendar.

Rymac91:

Just to point something out, it's not actually 2000, it's simply 0, as in the beginning of your city. You can actually play past the 100 mark, and it'll show 100 on the year place instead of 00, so it's incorrect to label it as 2000 when it's not.quote>

Not entirely correct - as "SimDate 1 1 2000" will set a city's date to "01/02/00" - the year 00 is in some way connected to 2000.

("SimDate 12 31 2099" results in "01/01/100".)

Please enjoy,

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.