A little more forgiving

[wolfpost 0]

Once MC finally sent me my e-mail confirming my registration(that took a week and severale-mails/phone calls to accomplish for some reason) I have been loving the game but I have one major complaint. Could the game be a little more forgiving?

After carefully molding my city over several days I reached the 500,000 plateau and Freeways. My cashflow was about 30,000 a month at the time and I had about 300,000 in cash. I had to tare up alot of my roads and some offices to place the Freeway and having never done that before it took alot of trial an error to figure it out. Just when I managed to get the Freeway down my city started hemoraging money and I was quickly in a downward spiral cash flow wise that I was unable to stop. Talk about frustrating. Losing my city because of wasting so much time trying to lay the Freeway.

I just wish that your city didn't hang on such a fine thread of survival that one mistake can nullify several days work.

Also it would be nice if they could tell me what trade was canceled when it happens. And why is it I see cities that want to buy my goods but no plus sign next to them?

Great game though and I am off to start another city.

[SimBurger 0]

Someone commented about this on the chat very accurately. Since they completely omitted any PAUSE button (which ive been begging for) its like doing surgery on a person who is still awake. If you bulldoze a main drag to build a highway, you better expect that all the businesses and residents are going to go bankrupt in the time it takes you to rebuild. Its really crazy. I was pretty pissed at first, but then realized - in real life - they have to provide an "alternate route" while building highways. They dont just bulldoze and cut off transportation.

A pause button would be nice however.

And by the way - if they're going to allow you to right click on a road to "UPGRADE" it .... why dont they actually offer upgrades? That would enable us to make a small road into an avenue without having to bulldoze it and rebuild. For some odd reason all road upgrades do nothing other than make it "ONE WAY". Makes no sense to me, but there's probably some logic im missing.

SB

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Well divided avenues (2 lanes each way) can be turned into 3 lane each way and 5 and possibly 6 lanes one way.

[Cob92 360]

My question is: How did you only have 300k in cash when you reached 500k population? You should have a cash stock going into millions of credits by then so that you can afford such expensive projects. When bulldozing to make way for freeways, avoid destroying anything of value. Try to run freeways through your poorest and least dense neighborhoods if possible, since they can be easily relocated elsewhere. Also keep in mind that whenever you are carrying out long term road construction projects that you need to have some kind of bypass route for commuters to use in the meanwhile.

[gyzzzmo 0]

About roads: Why is it so strange that your cant upgrade a road into a broader road with more capaity? There are buildings around them after all wich are in the way. Only being able to make them one-way makes sense.

At the topic starter: I dont think its the lack of forgivingness is the problem, the problem is that you didnt build any financial buffer before you made a major change like a freeway. You probably had to destroy quite some buildings (wich provide taxes), plus the costs of the freeway, you could have figured out it would have a big impact on your finances

There are a couple of things you can do, i'd advice you reading the Hints and Tips topic about taxes and trade. You can also build another city wich wont take you much time. Try maximizing the income in that city (70k shouldnt be too hard) before investing money in utilities. Then let that city buy 1 token from your troubled city for 70k so you got alot of income in that city for repairing the troubles.

Good luck,

Gyzzzmo

[pipvac 0]

I'm reading these posts nodding in agreement.

The game is quite harsh ( although I remember alot of posts on these very forums saying how easy Cities XL would be...cough! ). Yet, you can mitigate some of the issues, eg. use 'diversions' or temperorary re-routing to placate any transport problems; check your trade contracts on the planet screen before entering your city when logging back on; etc etc.

Little things, but really helpful in creating safe guards to your city.

[kingdiz_55 12]

It seems to me that CXL has many problems.

[gyzzzmo 0]

What for me is currently more a problem, related to 'forgivingness', is that trading tokens has a huge effect on especially large cities. And since contracts get broken easily (due to bugs, to players cancelling themself or to the 5 days limit) you can lose alot of money very quickly. Thats why it is so important not to spent all your money on terraforming etc, have some backup

[zerosugar 0]

forgive me for being the person who disagrees with the "fine thread" theory.

But wouldnt it be wise to double build in bulk somehwere out the way the same amout of stuff that your going to demolish, this way you wont loose anything.  Then you can put back what you need to where you want it and delete the out the way bulk that you built.

Just my two cents cos thats what i do and its never gone wrong yet

[jeremy12 0]

Originally posted by: kingdiz_55

It seems to me that CXL has many problems.quote>

this is not a problem, it is a harder game experiance the higher your population the harder it is to do stuff you can just do stuff on a whim you need to plan and actually think about what your doing, just like a city planer IRL

Edit: something in this game are not realistic then some things (like this) are painfully realistic

[Kciredor 0]

I give a idea, Dayton Ohio, I75, a place called malfunction junction!!!!! I75 was routed right around downtown, because of owners of a......get this.....department store, oh the funny stuff people want, well now they are trying to get rid of the malfunction, if i had pics would show but i will look and see then edit

[ForceInfinity 0]

I know the intersection Kciredor speaks of. Part of the other issue with that junction is that on the northbound side, you got that sudden drop down to 45 mph that bottles up traffic in the northbound side. On the southbound side, you got that left side exit for route 4 and half the time the idiots in that laned moved over and chopped the nose off people in the #2 lane. And to make matters worse, you got that sharp turn into a left side merge with the route 4 traffic before you approach downtown Dayton. This link has an aerial of the junction. Cheers

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=16&X=1852&Y=11015&W=2&qs=%7cDayton%7cOH%7c

[TheJackalope 0]

30k positive cash flow isn't nearly enough to maintain a highway network. Make sure to check the maintenance cost of stuff before you build it or you will sink the whole city. The 500k threshhold is one of the hardest since you have access to many new expensive toys but don't have large numbers of elites and executives paying taxes to afford all of them. I would really suggest not trying to bulldoze a city to put a highway through it. Instead loop it around the exterior and then run it to the edges when you have the cash. Try and build a good road network early without a highway.

[zwr100 2]

I feel like SC4 was more about earning money over time and then spending it, while Cities XL is just about keeping a positive cash flow.  Building too quickly is the thing I feel is most important to avoid.  I know it really sucks, but if you can't afford the freeway, maybe you should delete it.  Freeways are notoriously expensive to maintain.

[Kredit 0]

Tip: If the "disaster" struck after the last save, yank out your internet cable it won't save then... exit game, reconnect cable, re-enter game, city should be back to last save

OT: Although I agree there's a few ways you can really screw yourself over, sometimes without noticing, I do like the idea that bad decisions can have really bad consequences Yes, it can potentially cost you a lot, but it also means that what you do, matters. You can't just re-load when you've screwed things up .

[shawnfog 0]

Seriously!? There is NO PAUSE button? I thought you must have been joking. That's absurd. Every Sim City and even City Life had a pause button. It's not as realistic as real life but this is a GAME after all and sometimes things have to be done for the enjoyment of the game. This game seems to get more rediculous the more I hear. I suppose that will be in a future PO update?

[gyzzzmo 0]

Originally posted by: shawnfog

Seriously!? There is NO PAUSE button? I thought you must have been joking. That's absurd. Every Sim City and even City Life had a pause button. It's not as realistic as real life but this is a GAME after all and sometimes things have to be done for the enjoyment of the game. This game seems to get more rediculous the more I hear. I suppose that will be in a future PO update?

quote>

NO PAUSE button???? while theyre on it, they should make some cheats too, and some ways to buy money..... And they should make Don Madalffs prices easier and add roads with unlimited capacity.....

Seriously, its an online game, wich is already not that hard to play. I dont think there really is a reason why there should be a pause button.

[EAGCE 2]

Originally posted by: shawnfog

Seriously!? There is NO PAUSE button? I thought you must have been joking. That's absurd. Every Sim City and even City Life had a pause button. It's not as realistic as real life but this is a GAME after all and sometimes things have to be done for the enjoyment of the game. This game seems to get more rediculous the more I hear. I suppose that will be in a future PO update?

quote>

They were not online games.

Single player mode does have a pause.

[EAGCE 2]

Originally posted by: wolfpost

Once MC finally sent me my e-mail confirming my registration(that took a week and severale-mails/phone calls to accomplish for some reason) I have been loving the game but I have one major complaint. Could the game be a little more forgiving?

After carefully molding my city over several days I reached the 500,000 plateau and Freeways. My cashflow was about 30,000 a month at the time and I had about 300,000 in cash. I had to tare up alot of my roads and some offices to place the Freeway and having never done that before it took alot of trial an error to figure it out. Just when I managed to get the Freeway down my city started hemoraging money and I was quickly in a downward spiral cash flow wise that I was unable to stop. Talk about frustrating. Losing my city because of wasting so much time trying to lay the Freeway.

I just wish that your city didn't hang on such a fine thread of survival that one mistake can nullify several days work.

Also it would be nice if they could tell me what trade was canceled when it happens. And why is it I see cities that want to buy my goods but no plus sign next to them?

Great game though and I am off to start another city.

quote>

If you're losing tons of cash, just bulldoze some city services like education and health.

I had a city 4 million in debt with a -100k cash flow.  I knocked down some schools, hospitals and a bunch of leasure buildings.  It's now about 15 million in the positive with a 40k cash flow. (Before my free trial ended anyway)

[JakeMD 107]

(thread read)

--Liv

[Stef42 0]

A nice thing to remind is to plan ahead and keep a open space so that the freeway can be build very quick, some more cash is always better if some contracts stop.. and the budget is going down..

[IntoxiNation 0]

Originally posted by: ForceInfinity

I know the intersection Kciredor speaks of. Part of the other issue with that junction is that on the northbound side, you got that sudden drop down to 45 mph that bottles up traffic in the northbound side. On the southbound side, you got that left side exit for route 4 and half the time the idiots in that laned moved over and chopped the nose off people in the #2 lane. And to make matters worse, you got that sharp turn into a left side merge with the route 4 traffic before you approach downtown Dayton. This link has an aerial of the junction. Cheers

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=11&Z=16&X=1852&Y=11015&W=2&qs=%7cDayton%7cOH%7c

quote>

That's why I avoid 75 through Dayton like the plague (I live about 20 miles south of Dayton).

I think the "if you make a mistake it can take days to fix" is actually adds to the realism. Actually simple mistakes in running an actual city can take years/decades to fix. Having said that I think that MC could have better set up the planets. Have a easy/learning planet then a normal one and finally an expert planet. The easy planet would be much more forgiving than the others.