The Mass Transit Discussion Thread

[gabry85 2]

Originally posted by: deanco

BTW, RegisteringSucks, I have totally stolen your sig, and I encourage anyone else who signs to do the same.quote>

[morriswalters 16]

Limit the roads which connect to the main drag.  Use feeder roads that run beside the main road to collect traffic and then take it to the main drag in 1 intersection.  Doing this reduces the number of intersections.  Control who can go where by limiting access to roads in certain areas.  Then create multiple paths.  Two paralell highways each not connected to the other serving different sides of the map.  Cross these with bridges.  Good luck.

[Darmok 34]

Only want to say this...

I was waiting impatiently for this game to come out, I'm very disappointed about the mass transit, issue, for me this is a deal breaker.

In fact I was on my way to buy the game when I had the fancy to read some of the thread in the Cities XL forum, after reading about this blatant lack of respect for the single player I decided to postpone...

I never was an online player and I don't expect to become one... not in my nature I guess, I prefer to sit quietly, and slowly develop my cities alone, not that I don't like interacting with people, but I prefer to do that through my CJ. Playing time is for me kind of a retreat from the hectic days at work and I want to keep it as simple as possible, I do not need, and certainly don't WANT to connect to a server to play.

So, no Mass transit in the single player game...  then I don't buy it.

I'll stick to SC4 which fullfil my needs on that topic.

I'll certainly be watching the Cities XL Forum, but as long as the single player will be treated as a second class citizen, I'm keeping my money.

-John

[sparky66 0]

i think this game, especially solo mode, is being held back by the PO offer. if MC just released expansion packs for solo mode (no subscription needed) and sorted out solo trading (allow you to trade with your own cities, not just omnicorp) this game could be alot better.

also, about the mass transit. i don't know anywhere near where i live (south of england) that doesn't have some sort of mass transit, no matter how small. the village where i live has a regular bus service as well as a train station. in the countryside there are even request bus stops for single cottages in the middle of nowhere! also, i know of a request train station that only serves a single pub, but you have to walk across two muddy fields to get there!

people saying mass transit is not important are, in my opinion, wrong. i used to love planning mass transit in SC4, and was looking forward to doing the same in CXL. However it seems only PO subscribers will get the privelage of mass transit. i would gladly buy a solo mode mass transit expansion (like SC4 Rush Hour) if MC released it.

alos, has anyone noticed that in the picture of a bus in the second post on this page, it shows a New York bus next to a London Transport bus stop? i hope that can be changed, i would love some red routemaster double deckers!

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

   Talk about mass transit people. 

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Originally posted by: sparky66

i think this game, especially solo mode, is being held back by the PO offer. if MC just released expansion packs for solo mode (no subscription needed) and sorted out solo trading (allow you to trade with your own cities, not just omnicorp) this game could be alot better.

also, about the mass transit. i don't know anywhere near where i live (south of england) that doesn't have some sort of mass transit, no matter how small. the village where i live has a regular bus service as well as a train station. in the countryside there are even request bus stops for single cottages in the middle of nowhere! also, i know of a request train station that only serves a single pub, but you have to walk across two muddy fields to get there!

people saying mass transit is not important are, in my opinion, wrong. i used to love planning mass transit in SC4, and was looking forward to doing the same in CXL. However it seems only PO subscribers will get the privelage of mass transit. i would gladly buy a solo mode mass transit expansion (like SC4 Rush Hour) if MC released it.

alos, has anyone noticed that in the picture of a bus in the second post on this page, it shows a New York bus next to a London Transport bus stop? i hope that can be changed, i would love some red routemaster double deckers!quote>

Here in the Netherlands, mass transit is all around. Small villages have at least one bus stop and it looks like cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants have at least one train station. The largest cities in the Netherlands have beside the busses and train other kinds of transport (trams and metros in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, trams in the Hague, extra-long busses in Utrecht). To make a long story short: we can't miss such a basic feature as mass-transit. This is the main reason that I don't bought the game yet.

Best,

Maarten

[stevio88 0]

i think i continue to play sim city 4 for al my life...sorry i have just buy the limited version of xl...if i was more patient i not do it!

[JakeMD 107]

read

[mmmfloorpie 0]

Originally posted by: sparky66

also, about the mass transit. i don't know anywhere near where i live (south of england) that doesn't have some sort of mass transit, no matter how small. the village where i live has a regular bus service as well as a train station. in the countryside there are even request bus stops for single cottages in the middle of nowhere! also, i know of a request train station that only serves a single pub, but you have to walk across two muddy fields to get there!

people saying mass transit is not important are, in my opinion, wrong. i used to love planning mass transit in SC4, and was looking forward to doing the same in CXL. However it seems only PO subscribers will get the privelage of mass transit. i would gladly buy a solo mode mass transit expansion (like SC4 Rush Hour) if MC released it.

quote>

The name of the game is Cities XL... To me, that means you are going to be building an "extra large" city in a game that is "extra loaded" with features and options... To not have mass transit is like having a one dimensional game... Only one transportation option? Really?

How are you going to make a successful city without mass transit? Traffic will build up and cripple your city! 

Honestly, I'd hope that MC wouldn't make us pay extra for mass transit. It's something that should be included in the $39 fee... However, with the current state of affairs, I would pay extra to get EVERY mass transit form in single player. Please don't make us wait for 6 months paying for the Planet Offer just so we can get all the mass trans options... That would get extremely expensive just for mass transit! 

[Sincx 0]

I'll just play the offline game for now....same options as the planet mode so far. Planet mode has just about nothing more then SP at the moment.

When they have finally came up with the Mass transit....and not JUST busses I'll go check the Planet stuff out again.

Stupid game without it to be honest.....guess they ran out of money and had to release hoping they can continue with the income form the release and the few subscribers to the planet stuff.

Hope so for us 2   Else we never gonan see the game as the had visioned it.

[posidonius 0]

Is there any mass transit in the game currently? If there is I haven't seen it. Also...

I'm almost brand new to city-building (I played Sim City for maybe 3 hours last year), and my biggest current problem is traffic. Could anyone offer any advice?

[rhenry 1]

I agree with the above. If they released the game before any kind of mass transit was introduced to it then they must have been out of money. That would actually offer a different explanation for them offering it online only, too, once it comes out.

why? Because they can't afford to produce a tangible DVD for distribution world wide. For MC, once these contents packs are released it's virtually FREE for them to just upload a zip file to their servers and make them available that way.

Maybe it's not the whole reason but it seems like it could be part of it. Of course they would want to keep that under wraps for the simple fact that people will be even MORE resistant to joining the online community if they fear the site may not even make it.

What will happen if their servers should fail? Woo. . . It won't be pretty if everyone online loses their cities and has to start all over.

[rhenry 1]

Originally posted by: posidonius

Is there any mass transit in the game currently? If there is I haven't seen it. Also...

I'm almost brand new to city-building (I played Sim City for maybe 3 hours last year), and my biggest current problem is traffic. Could anyone offer any advice?quote>

There are roads but no busses, only cars. There are airports and there are some water related things but I am not sure any of them are transit, really.

[ddhboy 2]

I think the problem with a lot of the posts is that they were expecting the game to be single player first, MMO second. Well, it was never going to be that way, and it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to be that way from the get go. Cities Xl HAS all that content already. Its in the .EXE and everything. You just can't have it because that stuff is designated for online only because Cities XL above all is an MMO about trade, not a single player city builder. That said, if you plan on playing the game online, then it will be great. If you didn't want to do that, well then don't pick up the game.

[Rocky88 0]

...so can you choose the number of lanes on a freeway as promised? so far on the screenshots i can only see freways with max 8 lanes

[Stef42 0]

in the new video released today, you can see parts of a train and of a elevated railroad like the one's in New York.

You can see the video of course at citiesxl.com

[rhenry 1]

Originally posted by: ddhboy

I think the problem with a lot of the posts is that they were expecting the game to be single player first, MMO second. Well, it was never going to be that way, and it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to be that way from the get go. Cities Xl HAS all that content already. Its in the .EXE and everything. You just can't have it because that stuff is designated for online only because Cities XL above all is an MMO about trade, not a single player city builder. That said, if you plan on playing the game online, then it will be great. If you didn't want to do that, well then don't pick up the game.quote>

But the online version doesn't already have it all. They haven't released the mass transits yet. They may have them ready, appearing in their videos, but they're not available to anyone yet.

[solaharius 0]

Can't wait for the MT to be released !

I think it's a huge missing part in the game, and MC probably knows it. And if they released the game in october without that feature, they must have very good reasons. The problem is : without MT, CXL looks like a non finished game...

I think we just should be patient. Right now, I don't like the game (it really looks non finished), so I won't buy it, so i don't really complain. (People who didn't spend a $/£/E in the game shouldn't complain anyway). I hope people who bought it really made kind of an investment and will enjoy the game in 6 month, when they'll have access to more features.

Sometimes, i wonder if i shouldn't buy it just to support the development of the game . But that would be charity....

For the MT itself, I read somewhere it is will be able to manage the bus lines. It remember me that old "game" http://www.mobility-online.com/en/informations/generalinformation.html developped some years ago by the Weimar Bauhaus University and the traffic research department of DaimlerChrysler AG . If they improved the concept, it might be awesome !!!

[Rikaelus 0]

This doesn't really bother me that much.

Maybe because I come from a fairly large city that until just recently had nothing but roads, avenues, highways, expressways, and a bus system. We have a light rail system now but it's only one line of track.

Will it be nice to have more mass transit options later on? Of course. I look forward to it. But for now I'm basking in the glory that is the many options for road configurations. Since so many wish to compare this to SC4, we now have more road sizes and more options regarding lane flow. Combine that to getting roads off the notorious grid limits of SimCity and there's plenty to play with for now.

However.

I do wish they made it easier to interact with highways. The cloverleaf interchange is fine, but the highway/avenue intersection is incredibly difficult to lay down due to terrain heights and takes an incredible amount of room. Whatever happened to simple on and off ramps? =(

[Androv 6]

It's possible to make an awesome city with the provided tools, mass transit will just add something extra in the future

[Rakeesh 0]

I agree with Androv. You can still build a great city without mass transit, and when they do add them in it'll just your cities all the more fantastic.

And it's most likely that they did push the game out without mass transit because of their timeline. Logically speaking, it just doesn't make sense to withhold the release of a product based on a single gameplay element that is not gamebreaking if it isn't included on launch.

[IronRaptor 0]

The key question is... will Mass Transit be restricted to Planet Offer mode only, or can you use it in Single Player mode.  If not, well... frak that noise I want a refund.

[iankb 0]

Quite simply, no single-user MassTransit, no buy.

Their choice.

[Davir 1]

Or they can do it so we other Soloplay can pay for it

[ddhboy 2]

Eventually someone is going to mod in single player mass transit anyway. They could ban you from the PO for it, but what good would it do them? Obviously they need the cash since they're promising trains and such, which as of now has appeared in two trailers (one released before the game was available). That said I think it will be a better game months from now, but until then I'd just stick to the singleplayer and wait for trains and such to appear or shelve it all together and go back to playing SC4 while begging EA for SC5, at which they'll laugh in your face.

[steelviper266 0]

We were promised mass tranist if we subcribed,  well I did and guess what there is no mass transit in planet or solo mode not even a bus station.  I can't even express the frustration of trying to build a hugh city with only highways,  btw only way to connect to a highway is at the end. You can't make a junction and leaves you with expressways and avenues/small roads. The game dosen't give you time to plan a city cuz once connected to map money starts draining your account/400,000 dosen't last very long also buildings used to raise satisfaction are extremely expensive.

Trade: pure laggggggggggggg!!!!!! and city stats update takes 5/9 min, and yeah I have a state of the art computer

with all the trimmings.

All this = total frustration/disappontment/depression. I will admit cities xl has tremondous potential but for now it's just a waste of time and money.

[smg77 0]

Originally posted by: IronRaptor

The key question is... will Mass Transit be restricted to Planet Offer mode only, or can you use it in Single Player mode.  If not, well... frak that noise I want a refund.

quote>

The have stated quite clearly that mass transit will be for Planet Offer subscribers only.

[Z3phyr 0]

One question though, how good does your internet connection need to be if you want to play the PO? I mean its not Halo 3 or COD4 so it shouldn't be too consuming right?

[littlesquare.dot 0]

Originally posted by: ddhboy

I think the problem with a lot of the posts is that they were expecting the game to be single player first, MMO second. Well, it was never going to be that way, and it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to be that way from the get go. quote>

Actually at the "get go", it was called Cities UNLIMITED, and we were not told that we would have to pay for the online mode in order to receive added content.  We also weren't notified that mass transit would be added content, and one would naturally assume that mass transit would be a core feature.

[nonessentialnoodle 2]

Originally posted by: Rocky88

...so can you choose the number of lanes on a freeway as promised? so far on the screenshots i can only see freways with max 8 lanesquote>

No :  ( All the nice road features they were talking about at the start of development seem to have vanished, infact most of the nice elements from early in development seem to have vanished.

Personally i think this is a joke, a city cant exist on just roads! When would that ever happen in real life! How can they call it 'cities' and not include half the elements that make up a city ¬_¬. Perhaps 'Small TownsXL wouldve been a more appropriate name.

If i had realised all this content was missing i would not have bought it!!