Cities XL F.A.Q

[jeremy12 0]

 This list is simply alot of questions i see getting asked OVER and OVER with some other Tidbits, if you want to ask a question or add a Question you see a lot just post a reply and i will modify this post. This is a user created and maintained F.A.Q. for the offical MC FAQ see Here

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Tip: To inspect your income/expenses click on the the big C where your money is to open the money window

Tip: To look at unemployment and available jobs click on the person icon next to your population

Tip: There is more chat channels than just galaxy chat http://www.citiesxl.com/content/view/798/134/?lang=en when saying i am posting X for trade do it by typing /planet or /trade first, other planets cannot trade with you, doing this will ensure the proper people see you are trading

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Q. Why do i have to trade i hate it!

A. A large city cannot sustain its self, in real life why should your made up one, small city's can for the most part do it this is why trading does not come into play for a large part until around 100k population

Q. Why can i trade people, people are not items?

A. Think of it as you are a communist country and trading 1 qualified worker tile is like making 200 work Visa's available

Q. How can i trade Offices?

A. think of it as outsourcing call centers.

Q. My offices (or industry) are going bankrupt but they say noting is wrong!

A. More than likely you have a surplus of offices, trade!

Q. MY cities always go bankrupt at X population.

A. check your expenses, maybe you have to make leisure, or hospitals, or schools, or maybe your trades expired do you have all your surplus tiles traded still?

Q. Why can I never make money how can i make more?

A. Trade and/or watch your population needs, try to keep a 1% unemployment

Q. When is mass transport coming?

A. When its ready.

Q. Why is this classified as a MMO?

A. When MC says this is a MMO they mean the reason you pay a subscription is so they can constantly improve the game, and it is meant to be played online. SimCity may of had this and that out of the box but what has been added to the game since release from EA? nothing, that is the difrence from a regular single player game and a MMO, this is will be added to and improved apon constantly, World of Warcraft did not have flying mounts 5 years ago but it does today

Q. Why does Omnicorp trade at a 4 to 1 ratio in single player?

A. multiple reasons, but mainly to make it hard the game manual says he is greedy and trades to his advantage

Q. I don't understand how to trade

A. Read the manual you can download it here http://www.citiesxl.com/content/view/915/133/?lang=en also do the tutorial, and lastly avoid trading in game for now, its buggy and laggy, use the cities xl website its much more responsive, to use the site go to citiesxl.com, login, scroll down and click on your city scroll down and click market place

Q. i don't want to exit the game to trade online!

A. Alt+Tab, trading takes place real time you can trade online go back to the game and its already updated in game

Added 10-20 3:30PM:

Q: Will the avatar mode available in single player?

We do not know yet.

Q: When we'll able to create flora(Trees)?

When it's done. 

Q. What does MMO stand for?

A. MMO\MMOG stands for massively multiplayer online game. Usually defined as a game which contains a persistent gaming world. In this case, it would be the online planets that you build your cities on.

Added 10-21

Q. I am suddenly going bankrupt why?

A. do you have Highway connections? expired trades? bankrupt buildings? if you have stuff going bankrupt and a highway connection bulldoze that connection they are really spendy

Q. Why can i not build bridges?

A. This can be a number of reasons, not proper height, or length, or to steep of a climb, Also as a Tip use the curvy tool and click often as you build the bridge so you know exactly where the issue is, if you are building a short bridge try placing both ends of road the bridge will connect to first then build the bridge, also bridges have a height limit

Q. Who consumes retail? I got a city with over 250k people and people are unhappy that they do not have 'shopping', but commercial zones go bankrupt because retail is red and they don't make a profit (everything else is green). Commercial zones are in the middle of residential zones. 

A. to much retail can be a bad thing, they don't like competition, and offices and residential consume it, place a few here and there no more

Q. Entertainment and education. There is whining that the city is boring and people are retarded, but even though I spend a lot of my budget on various entertainment and schooling structures, the situation doesn't improve. What's the problem here?

A. Schools are bugged right now just use elementary schools

Q. Any way of making a sustainable society that doesn't depend on having loads of heavy industry in the town?

A. Trade for it.... Try to make a second city and trade to your self for cheap if you have to...

Q. I want to purchase onlline and download the game can anyone recommend a good site to order from?

A. Steam, steam and um steam

Q. How do you build a GEM? 

A. Not in game yet as far as we know

Q.  when I take in-game screenshots, where are they located on my computer?

A. Your My Pictures or My Documents folder

Q. I get a drop down box from the hotel button on top of the UI, saying i need more construction areas for hotels, i have tried to build more hotels, but the percentage doesn change.

A. Do not worry about hotels to much unless Offices or other things are saying they need them, hotels like retail like to be the only one around, you can go from not enough to to many really fast

Q. Is there a terrain builder? (updated 10-22)

A. Partially yes... because without any type of cheats, it' too expensive.  and there is only a flaten land tool, however When you use the terraforning tools, the curve level map turns on. With this map you can create your realistic terrain (if you have a map of the real terrain) using only the "flat" tool.

Q. When will the ambient sounds be put in the game?

A. They are there just not in use

Q. When will the first the content pack/GEM be released?

A. When its Ready, do you want all the gems now and half of them not work or trickle out and work almost flawlessly, this is the advantage to a MMO based game its constant minor updates that add  lots of value to the game

Q. Does it ever cycle times of day in solo mode

A. Yes if you enable it in you view settings menu

Q. How can i place trees?

A. you cannot yet its been said devs are working on this

Q. Will the bus addon included in the Planet Offer?

A. Yes once it is ready and released

Added 10-22

Q. My internet is down and I want to play solo mode. Is it possible? 

A. Yes - attempt to login and when that fails the game will present a button to play solo mode only., also you can view This Thread on how to create a offline game link

Q. How can i skip the intro?

A. See this thread (note this is not supported my MC)

Q. What is CBD?

A. Central Business District, where all(or most at least) your offices are, this would be your downtown skyscraper area

 

[jeremy12 0]

Added 10-28

Q:  Where are Snapshot photos saved in Windows Vista or Windows 7? 

A:  C:\Users\ \Pictures\Monte Cristo\Cities XL

Q. Is there custom content for Cities XL?

 A. Custom buildings are impossible to do at the moment. However you can take a look at Modding Index

 

Q. Whats the CHEAPEST way to produce power?

Q. How many ____ Power Plants = 1 Token?

Just like in wow you never get a 1 to 1 converstion ratio because of this i am going to look at this from a diffrent view, i want to produce 15 power tokens, 15 tokens is the point where all plants produce a flat level of production

With this we need to first ask a few questions

Where are the points where a single plant will produce a Even token count?

Type	Count of the type	Even Token count	Cost at the even point
Windmill	50	3	25,000
Small	5	3	25,000
Medium	2	3	20,000
Large	4	15	80,000

(How to read this: 50 Windmills = 3 tokens at the cost of 25,000)

What will the cost be where all these meet? Well first we need the even point where all these make the same number of tokens and thats going to be 15 (3*5=15)

Type	Count	Cost
Windmill	250 (5*50)	125,000 (250*500)
Small	25 (5*5)	125,000 (25*5,000)
Medium	10 (5*2)	100,000 (10*10,000)
Large	4	80,000 (4*20,000)

So we can see final price per token and how many to get 1 token from that will be

• Windmill, 1 token costs 8,333, and takes 16.6 windmills (so 17)
• Small, 1 token costs 8,333, and takes 1.6 Small Plants (So 2)
• Medium, 1 token costs 6,666 and takes 0.67 Medium Plants (So 1)
• Large, 1 token costs 5,333 and takes 0.267 Large plants (So 1)

In trade costs Since 100 = 1 cash token....

• Windmill, 1 token costs 83
• Small, 1 token costs 83
• Medium, 1 token costs 66
• Large, 1 token costs 53

Wait How do you know how much each building produces?

Type	Cost	Power Production
Windmill	500	60
Small	5,000	600
Medium	10,000	1,500
Large	20,000	3,750

You can see HERE how much power each building produces, it takes 1,000 power production to = 1 token

Q. How much cash flow = 1 cash token?

A. 1 Cash token = 100 cash flow, so if you have 124 cash tokens in the trading window you have a 12,4XX income the reason for the XX is those 2 digits do not count towards your cash token count 01 is the same as 99

 

Please read Cities XL Hints & Tips as well there are a lot of good tips in there

Revision History:

10-20 - added more Questions and a tip

10-21 - added a lot more questions

10-22 - updated a few questions, posted new ones, and modified first paragraph 

10-28 - Four new questions

[Posts that have been added, to the main list have now been deleted to keep the thread tidy and information easily accessable - Craig -  abcvs]

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Q. Why don't the workers I traded work in any businesses?

A. It is a very complex problem that will take several months to fixed. Monte Cristo is working hard on this issue.

[paulg 0]

I want to make a biiig city. I play solo. I made two extra cities, one with lot of food-industry and one with a lot of fuel and heavy industry, so I can trade with them. But they don't appear on the market !!! What is wrong ? Is this a bug ?

Only Omnicorp appears, and his trading is not enough to make a big city, I think

[ACEH 0]

In solo mode you can trade with Omnicorp only. You cannot trade between you cities

[paulg 0]

oke, thanks !, but when I do everything right in solo mode, can I make the biggest city city possible ?, a full map with most of the availible buildings ? no difference between online and solo ?

[ACEH 0]

Yes of course you can fill the map in solo mode. Difference between solo and online is that when playing online you have things like buses, megastructures, medieval buildings and advanced trade options. It difficult to build big city in both modes

[Winter Dragon 0]

Q. How do I trade between my own cities?

A. You can place sell and buy orders in-game with the trade menu, but for full access to all the trade options you'd need to log into citiesxl.com and do the following:

1. Click on the community button. Run a city search on one of your cities (doesn't matter which, just enter the spelling correctly and it'll take you to the next page which is important.

2. Find a City page. The drop down menu at the top may be blank, please ensure it has the city that needs something selected. Then search for the name of the city that has what you want. Ie. your other city.

3. The search results should display that city, with buttons on the right hand side. Click 'Propose a contract'

4. Drag the desired tokens into the trade area. You can split a stack of tokens by right clicking on the stack and entering how many you want to take off. This creates a new stack instead of taking all of them across.

5. The moment you send the trade you'll get a message in game about a contract. But the contract isn't working yet, there's one last thing you need to do!

6. You proposed a contract, but you haven't confirmed it yet. To confirm it you need to go to the city  which is supplying and look in your proposed contracts tab, clicking the green tick to begin the contract.

Further notes:

* This method allows you to trade cash tokens, have multiple token types and quantities in one contract, while the in-game trade does not.

* You cannot trade between planets. Only between cities on the same planet.

* If the city supplying the tokens gets a deficit of a certain token type, your contract may be suspended. This usually happens when a player continues to work on the city that's supplying the tokens to the other and needs some of the tokens for itself. Either stay out of that city, and/or, ensure that city has at least 1 token surplus on top of what you're trading. Then you shouldn't have any suspended contracts.

[1] See next post by Skimbo.

Post edited, contained missing note.

[Skimbo 304]

@Winter Dragon:

It's possible to trade with your own cities easily via the ingame market. As long as they are on the same planet you can open up the trade menu, place a buy or a sell-offer and accept it with the other city.

First, open the ingame market in the planet view (It must be the planet where you've got your ities)

Than select one of your cities:

Select the product you want to trade: (In my case tourism)

Place the offer (In my case a sell-offer)

Now select the other city:

As you can see, the trade offer of your own city is visible and it can be acceptet:

Now just accept the offer of your other city and the trade is finished:

(Some advice):

You should be fast and try to not have the highest buy offer or the lowest sell offer because other people can accept your offers too.

[Winter Dragon 0]

Sorry you're right, it is possible. (Post fixed above)

However, with the in-game system you cannot do the following:

- trade cashflow using cash tokens, which aren't even recognized in the game as a tradeable resource

- give tokens free, asking for nothing in return

- give multiple token types in one contract (ie. 10 water, 10 industry, 10 office all in one contract)

These are very helpful to a new city just starting out, or when helping someone in debt who cannot afford anything. I would rather trade using the way you show, but these extra powers are not possible unless you go to the site.

[fx2050 0]

we need more guides

im starting to get an average size city, all starts well good cash then requests elites but wont move in etc

or large retail wont sell etc

[lestanac 0]

I have an question

I placed 30 ST Mary Axe landmark in my city. But it won't even start to build, the progress stands on 0%.

What should I do to start it?

Thanks

[Stef42 0]

Originally posted by: lestanac

I have an question

I placed 30 ST Mary Axe landmark in my city. But it won't even start to build, the progress stands on 0%.

What should I do to start it?

Thanksquote>

These building are not landmark, they are blueprints. Special building which gives a certain increase of satisfaction for your citizens. To start building, assign tokens, who are needed to construct the building. 

The construction takes at least 3 days, it's quite expansive.

[lestanac 0]

OK, thanks! I did that and it worked. But this is another problem. I get through all phases and the building is finished when I click on it. The new window in game shows up, and it says it's " Status Completed, or Finished". But, when I look at the buildings,it doesn't look finished. It still needs something. I did it with "Tokyo tower" and with "Chrysler Building" * I think it's that one.*

Do you know what's the problem?

[hellsbells 0]

Now that the Planet Offer is closed, how do I get blueprints for the special buildings?

[mentarman 14]

That's unknown at this points but hopefully we will know more shortly as the March 8 end of PO is nearly upon us...

[Skimbo 304]

The blueprints will be split on the theme sets MC plans to release when releaseing CXL2011

[mentarman 14]

Originally posted by: Skimbo

The blueprints will be split on the theme sets MC plans to release when releaseing CXL2011quote>

Are you sure about that? I thought they weren't necessarily tied to CXL2011 and might come before that depending on when they put that out.

[slickster79 0]

They might tell us more tomorrow. Blueprints won't be coming our way until Cities XL 2011 according to their website.

[andrea_80 0]

Originally posted by: lestanac

OK, thanks! I did that and it worked. But this is another problem. I get through all phases and the building is finished when I click on it. The new window in game shows up, and it says it's " Status Completed, or Finished". But, when I look at the buildings,it doesn't look finished. It still needs something. I did it with "Tokyo tower" and with "Chrysler Building" * I think it's that one.*

Do you know what's the problem?quote>

I've the same problem, I was able to complete other megastructures such the Great Ferris Wheel, and the football stadium, but with Gherkin and Chrysler I've this problem, if I select the construction it tells me that is completed but still remain the crane and the building is only half way to be completed... 

[blade2k5 1,523]

Is this game available to buy in stores, or this an online purchase only?

[Mootilda 76]

I saw it in the store (Future Shop in Canada) just a couple of days ago. No idea about other stores or countries.

[Jesse Swiss 6]

yes , i got my copy from cities xl, i beleive retailers like best buy and target will have the game in the USA

[blade2k5 1,523]

Originally posted by: Jesse Swiss

yes , i got my copy from cities xl, i beleive retailers like best buy and target will have the game in the USAquote>

Target and Best Buy don't me any good unfortunately as there are none within my area.  Only big retailer around here is WalMart, but the one I went to today didn't have it and of course, there's never any sales clerks around to ask when you have a question.  Oh well, I'll keep looking as I'm starting to warm up to how it looks from looking through the CJ's in this forum.  Thanks for the response.