Learning from simcity 4

[simcityfanatic1 0]

I hope the developers of Cities XL learn that duplicate buildings make the game look rubbish and I hate how Simcity 4 randomly crashed during play. These are a couple of things which spoiled my enjoyment of the game

[SimCityFanatic 0]

Oh hey buddy! Im SimCityFanatic

Hehe bet you never thought you would see the guy who took the name you wanted first

I agree with you btw

[simcityfanatic1 0]

lol. That's funny

No, I never thought I would meet you. I suppose great minds think alike

[egod6969 8]

I must agree random crashes are not a feature I want to see in CXL.

[SimAnt 4]

The black overlay on the abandoned buildings look terrible to any simcity 4 building. I hope Cities XL addresses abandonment of buildings better.

[Framling 1]

Actually, I think the overlay, while terrible-looking in the way you don't want that in your city, was actually a very good, realistic-looking solution. Sure it was a bit overdone, but then it's a simulator. I don't want to have to zoom and check for tiny signs of abandonment.

Then again, the whole "abandonment" concept was pretty much abused in SimCity.

The good thing MC could learn from Maxis is the use of props. Props do give a lot of "life" to SC4K lots, especially the randomized ones. For now, MC's buildings look simply "plopped and let stand", there isn't much to integrate them into the surroundings or give more "life" to them.

[Soviet779 1]

Originally posted by: SimAnt The black overlay on the abandoned buildings look terrible to any simcity 4 building. I hope Cities XL addresses abandonment of buildings better.quote>

Agreed, it was horrible. Since when do buildings go from great looking to pretty delapidated just because middle class live in them now and not rich people, its even worse when the building is abandoned, you rarely see brand new shiny tower blocks abandoned these days, older buildings yes but not newer ones.

[Ntq€310 1]

simcity 4 did alot of goodthings, but has many things it needed to improve on. Random crashing was one, the limitations of pathfinding, and traffic in your cities, how abbandoment was handled, mroe of a regional play concept, and even looks, buildings in simcity 4 wearnt really much to scale, and some of them wearnt very realistic, and then transportation wise simcity 4 was limited in so many ways.

the sad thing is once all these are solved olny new ones will form ><

[Glenni 1,444]

Originally posted by: Framling Actually, I think the overlay, while terrible-looking in the way you don't want that in your city, was actually a very good, realistic-looking solution. Sure it was a bit overdone, but then it's a simulator. I don't want to have to zoom and check for tiny signs of abandonment.

Then again, the whole "abandonment" concept was pretty much abused in SimCity.

The good thing MC could learn from Maxis is the use of props. Props do give a lot of "life" to SC4K lots, especially the randomized ones. For now, MC's buildings look simply "plopped and let stand", there isn't much to integrate them into the surroundings or give more "life" to them.quote>

They do in a way use props, all the "lots" in city life for instance had props on them, as well as just the model itself

[Tia-may 0]

In terms of missing content, brown boxes are the most annoying. That has to be taken out in Cities XL.

[ThyGuy 6]

I expect some glitches when the game is first released. Glitches are fine, but these are the things I don't want to see in this game that were never fixed in SimCity 4.

1. Not being able to play a map size, even though my spec requirements are three times higher than game specs required to play, due to faults in the way the game engine operates. This one really gets me angry when I see it in a game. This tells me that the game was rushed, and that the game makes simply didn't give a rats ass about the stability of their product. This should have been the first thing fixed in SimCity 4. This issue tarnishes the game and causes me to daydream about what it would be like to play a large city and not experience severe game lag. I've bashed EA and Maxis over and over again about this issue and received a apology, but it isn't enough. FIX THE DAMN GAME ENGINE AND PUT THE PATCH OUT ASAP! (I understand they will never fix it now, but this is just how incredibly frustrating this was and is to me).

2. Objects that can be upgraded, but cannot be upgraded manually (AIRPORTS). I want to upgrade my airport, even if it doesn't need upgraded. I shouldn't have to sit and watch the ticker screen, praying that the game will pop the expansion message, and that I can get it upgraded before the damn option grays out (I HATE THIS). While we're at it, allow other things to be upgraded as well, like seaports, bus stops, subways, Ferries, etc).

That's about it. If #1 is not a issue in the game; Cities XL will cause me many sleepless nights of gameplay.

[YannickSHE 0]

Originally posted by: ThyGuy I expect some glitches when the game is first released. Glitches are fine, but these are the things I don't want to see in this game that were never fixed in SimCity 4.

1. Not being able to play a map size, even though my spec requirements are three times higher than game specs required to play, due to faults in the way the game engine operates. This one really gets me angry when I see it in a game. This tells me that the game was rushed, and that the game makes simply didn't give a rats ass about the stability of their product. This should have been the first thing fixed in SimCity 4. This issue tarnishes the game and causes me to daydream about what it would be like to play a large city and not experience severe game lag. I've bashed EA and Maxis over and over again about this issue and received a apology, but it isn't enough. FIX THE DAMN GAME ENGINE AND PUT THE PATCH OUT ASAP! (I understand they will never fix it now, but this is just how incredibly frustrating this was and is to me).

2. Objects that can be upgraded, but cannot be upgraded manually (AIRPORTS). I want to upgrade my airport, even if it doesn't need upgraded. I shouldn't have to sit and watch the ticker screen, praying that the game will pop the expansion message, and that I can get it upgraded before the damn option grays out (I HATE THIS). While we're at it, allow other things to be upgraded as well, like seaports, bus stops, subways, Ferries, etc).

That's about it. If #1 is not a issue in the game; Cities XL will cause me many sleepless nights of gameplay.

quote>

 

I so agree with you. I sometimes watch my cities, praying that the Airport upgrade comes in! But at the same time, I just let my cities evolve on their own, I zone a bit more commercial, and if I'm close for the upgrade, I'll get it. Then, you demolish couple of commercial blocks if you put too many.

And CitiesXL looks like the dream game. I don't care if I have no life for a year or if my sleep level goes down lol .... I'll just enjoy every part of it, and hoping that the game will be detailed in every aspect (government budget, deals with other cities of other users, transportation & mass transit, etc..) .. I want lots of graphics, statistics and control.

Abandonment will be taken care of, transportation as well (by the videos we've seen).

My only hope is that I don't wanna spend a lot of money on system requirements. I plan to buy a new comp in January, so the timing is good... but I just hope it will play well.

And I hope that the "online playing", by having your cities/regions close to other players, will be well-done, detailed, interesting and lots of deals. I hope they create massive land space, lots of terrains available for all players that are gonna rush to this. Probably many "planets" will exist.

This will be a crazy game. I just cannot wait. Let's just hope that we will be blown away, and hope that the game will be THE one. No more games after that. They just need to release expansion packs, and then focus on how to update it with upcoming technology.

How many cities are we allowed to built on the online version? We'll have to provide serial number of the game, then register on their website? I hope everything's almost ready, because 1st quarter of 2009 is quite close for a game and a website like that.

Any thoughts?

[eangulus 3]

I am really getting cheesed of about those that are winging about not wanting to spend money upgrading to play the game.

Firstly I understand that SC4 was tooooo much. But CXL should be like every other game and be built to the specs of the average computer. ATM I believe that to be a Core2 and 2Gb of RAM. to be on the safe side I would expect it to run on a 2Ghz+ 1GbRAM and 256Mb Video nVidia 7000 series and higher.

But for christs sakes, if the game needs a better video card then buy one and play it or piss off. Its like saying I like the new electric cars but I don't want to have to buy a new car to get it, why can't I just pour electricity in my tank???...

Software will always get bigger and require more grunt. Deal with it.

[xV.I.N.C.E.N.T.x 0]

I agree as well...

However, your cursing is quite inapropriate.

On the flipside. If the programmers gave us exactely what we wanted in SIMcity4, then it would not have lasted as long as it has. It's a never ending game....I think it's brilliant.

[Soviet779 1]

If the game runs poorly turn the settings down, if 640x480 dosent take your fancy its time to ditch that 1998 computer and buy a new one.

[akinkhoo 0]

Simcity4 never crash for me before.

[texico11 3]

They just need to make sure you have the option to reduce game graphics a lot. Companies do not really understand how important that is. If you have the option you play all settings on low as possible for lower end machines, but also be able to adjust them to fantastically realistic, you're increasing your appealing range by a hell of a lot.

Imagine being able to play the game on anything from a pentium 3 with a gig ram all the way up to a core 2 with advanced graphics cards and massive amounts of ram. Alot of games don't have much option for turning down the display, so not everybody can play the game cos they can't afford the hardware to run smoothly. Then, on the flip side, companies make there games cheaper and less graphic, meaning the ones that do have the hardware capabilities are left with something there machine is more than capable of playing with ease.

Whatever, this thing looks amasing. I hope It will run for me.

[Siguy 0]

Originally posted by: Soviet779

Originally posted by: SimAnt The black overlay on the abandoned buildings look terrible to any simcity 4 building. I hope Cities XL addresses abandonment of buildings better.quote>

Agreed, it was horrible. Since when do buildings go from great looking to pretty delapidated just because middle class live in them now and not rich people, its even worse when the building is abandoned, you rarely see brand new shiny tower blocks abandoned these days, older buildings yes but not newer ones.quote>

Do you remember SimCity 3000 at all? Buildings would randomly become abandoned and the whole city always ended up looking freshly nuked since the "abandoned" buildings looked hardly different from the rubble they ended up as.

[aaaaa 1]

I'd like to suggest that CXL will have two distinct mode: Play mode and Photo mode.

In Play mode, relatively low-res texture and less detailed models are used to ease system requirement and to enhance frame rate . More CPU cycles are dedicated to simulation than graphics. Building will be abandoned and rotten. Game should run smoothly well even on modest PC in this mode.

In Photo mode, highest possible quality texture and complex models are used for taking picture of the city. Frame rate can be awful even on top-notch PC. This mode is not meant to play simulation. But you can take picture of your beautiful city in utmost quality. No rotten/abandoned building in this mode. No user interface except buttons to navigate city and take picture.

Switching between two modes can take time to load different set of texture/model data.

[simcityguy 6]

the thing i liked the best bout simcity4 waz the conected cites. however somtimes i had regions completly covered with cities and the game would crash. another thing is if cities xl followed simcity 4 with rapid transit let the stations be allowed to be plopped onto the sidewalks directly instead of using valuable tiles for bus stops and subway stations

[refriedbussy 7]

i agree with you simcityguy, nicely put

[bobalob81 0]

connected cities are all good, But i would really like to see regional effects for buildings such as universities, airports, seaports. anything which in real life has a wide area of effect.

Who wants to build a university in every city?

[urban_hero 0]

Originally posted by: bobalob81 connected cities are all good, But i would really like to see regional effects for buildings such as universities, airports, seaports. anything which in real life has a wide area of effect.

Who wants to build a university in every city?quote>

 

Couldnt agree more, but i have good hopes citiesXL will have this feature, they should learned so much from SC4.

Watching vids of curved roads/bridges/tunnels, makes me drool

[urban_hero 0]

Originally posted by: bobalob81 connected cities are all good, But i would really like to see regional effects for buildings such as universities, airports, seaports. anything which in real life has a wide area of effect.

Who wants to build a university in every city?quote>

 

Couldnt agree more, but i have good hopes citiesXL will have this feature, they should learned so much from SC4.

Watching vids of curved roads/bridges/tunnels, makes me drool

[mosin33 5]

If they create the game so that you can navigate in 3D and NOT zoom levels or 4 different rotations........It will not be good. If I wrong that would be great because I too am hoping it will be a great game. The reason SC4 was so succesful was because of the varying zoom levels. It allowed for lots of detail in buildings and roads, etc. to the point where you couldnt get close enough for the game to run slow.

So what I am getting at is SC4 allowed for a lot of detail at a distance so to say. If you allow players to freely view everything like a free flying camera you can not have near as much detail and make the buildings realistic. I am quite sure this game will turn out with City Life graphics or rollercoaster tycoon 3 or mabye Tycoon City life.

Why was SC4 so popular for so long and still is compared to these games. Because the other games had free flying cameras with no zoom limit!!

This caused the graphics to suffer and the game to not be as good.

Mabye I am wrong......hahah but If you understand what I am saying.. well then you know what I am getting at! ;D

Thats my opion, do comment

Mosin

[vershner 11]

I really hope they have better land editing tools in CXL. SC4 has the worst mix imaginable. The tools are clumsy and difficult to use, they destroy buildings without warning, AND there is no undo!

It really says something about how bad the tools are when the only way to flatten some land is to build a patchwork pattern of roads.

[nickzou 1]

Originally posted by: vershner I really hope they have better land editing tools in CXL. SC4 has the worst mix imaginable. The tools are clumsy and difficult to use, they destroy buildings without warning, AND there is no undo!

It really says something about how bad the tools are when the only way to flatten some land is to build a patchwork pattern of roads.quote>

Ummm in God mode? Or as the mayor. Yeah as the mayor the terraforming tools were not great but in God mode they were awesome. The terrain looked super realistic, I heard somewhere that the SimCity 4 terraforming tool used 100 gigs of data from NASA geography or something. And yes there was a way to flatten land in God mode. Not sure in mayor mode.

[vershner 11]

Originally posted by: nickzou

Originally posted by: vershner I really hope they have better land editing tools in CXL. SC4 has the worst mix imaginable. The tools are clumsy and difficult to use, they destroy buildings without warning, AND there is no undo!

It really says something about how bad the tools are when the only way to flatten some land is to build a patchwork pattern of roads.quote>

Ummm in God mode? Or as the mayor. Yeah as the mayor the terraforming tools were not great but in God mode they were awesome. The terrain looked super realistic, I heard somewhere that the SimCity 4 terraforming tool used 100 gigs of data from NASA geography or something. And yes there was a way to flatten land in God mode. Not sure in mayor mode.quote>

I was referring to the mayor mode tools. Hence destroying buildings and levelling with roads.

There is a levelling tool in the mayor mode, but it doesn't work in any useful way.

[starrdarcy 4]

Wow, it looks as if this game will be taking over where SimCity left off of, some of these shots look as if they where taken from real life.

-Darcy Cardinal

[Weerty 0]

Something I really miss in SC4 is an option to copypaste city plan so I dont have to spend 1 million years to make roads or to satisfy with square plans. I also miss option to customize schools and hospitals so that cover area doesn,t have to be round. And I also miss more options to budget and some auto functions / yearly budget like older simcities had. Also some random acts could also be nice. Not just more eye candy for people who cheat with money codes. I also would like to add recourses and financial support for industry. Like mining/oil/fishing/ so that nature would determine what type of city is best suitable for area. Like fishing harbor city with nice enviroment next to oilfields where workers come to relax to coast and have their families there...