Cities XL Evaluation

[simidavid 0]

 You can answer the poll and write your own opinion about how Cities XL has appealed to you.

[jochem100 0]

Do You Like Cities XL's zoning system?

extra answer option should be "yes but it should be improved"

Would You Recommend Cities XL To Other People?

extra answer option should be "only to other city builder fanatics"

[Sainty 0]

What Do You Like Best About Cities XL?

- Other (Please State)

------------

I like the MMO part best. As a city builder game CXL just as good as SC4, maybe even slightly better - but I cant tell since SC4 is my first real love so to speak.

At the same time, I think CXL as an MMO is way way way way under developed at the moment. Hoping for improvement. And hope is keeping me positive about this the future.

[soltangris 42]

What do you hate about Cities XL? -

I hate that they released it unfinished. The missing general control options (like tax control) are driving me crazy sometimes.

What do you think needs improvement?

well, two things: transportation and zoning (more lot forms and sizes). And some micromanagement (see above) . And, of course, everything else MC cares to improve

[Asheroo 53]

My answers:

1. Great - I simply think the game is great, not amazing or fantastic, but just great at the moment.

2. Yes - I have bought it

3. I don't plan to - I don't really want to play online

4. Has fulfilled my expectations - Mine weren't too high, so the game has only just passed my expectations. I admit though that I did lower my expectations throughout the development

5. Equal to SC4 - Though, I really do think for me it is better than SC4, but when I come to look at it, it's about equal

6. No - But then again, I'm not a zoner, I never zone in CXL. I'm a plopper, I prefer my city to be precisely how I would like it to be laid out

7. Spectacular - Well, I could of had said Great, but to me they are a bit more than great

8. 3D - I love the freedom within it, and how flexible the system is for me to really create a realistic city

9. Other - I don't really "hate" anything about the game. But, I do dislike a few things with the economy and transport. I also dislike the lack of terraforming and maps.

10. Transportation - Enough has been said about it.

11. I didn't answer this question, it's too hard for me to answer. I would since I like it, but the problem is there are not many people out there who like city building, and to me, it's just a genre you should really build an interest on before trying it out, but that's just my opinion. I don't really recommend games to anyone, unless it's something easy to recommend. I prefer to let people build an interest and opinion first.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Pinned. 

[pete1061 0]

What do I hate about CXL? What do I think needs improvement?

Where do I start?

For one, the snapping when placing buildings is kinda buggy. Sometimes it neatly places buildings right next to each other. Other times it doesn't snap at all and you have to zoom in and very carefully line up buildings. And then other times, there will be a space the proper size for a building but the snap will refuse to put it there, it will want to snap a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right, but not where it should fit.

Secondly, the game is far too picky when it judges slopes as too steep for a building.

Thirdly, the terraforming tools are inadequate. All we have is 'flatten' in 3 sizes. How about a smooth terrain tool, and raise/ lower terrain? terrain brushes could have adjustable size and falloff.

And the contour overlay doesn't provide enough detailed info. Perhaps a shader applied to the terrain showing a gradient of red-orange-yellow-green red for nearly vertical, green for nearly flat. And maybe a wireframe overlay showing the actual terrain mesh.

It would also be nice to be able to re-texture and paint on the terrain.

4th... leisure should not cost money. It should provide tax revenue like retail. Who ever heard of a government run bowling alley or movie theater?

5th.. the 'suspended contract' warning does not go away when I tell it to. They put a check box there, but it doesn't work!

6th... the game gets so slow once cities get into the millions.

7th... The route finding algorithms are sloppy. Citizens find some really impractical routes, ignoring faster, bigger roads, especially the freeways (fast lanes/highway)

and but bunch of other little things that I can't think of right now. the game really has an incomplete feel (buggy, slow, still waiting for complete public transit) Hopefully in the next year MC can streamline this game and actually listen to our feedback as they claim. Some of us really have no use for the MMO features and only pay for the PO in hopes MC will use the money to improve the core game.

[Cob92 360]

Items for improvement:

-Transport options for solo mode

-Performance; to me it seems that the memory leak that has been around since the beta days has yet to be fixed

-Trade interface is laggy

-Oil derricks produce too much pollution; in real life you can have residential developments, even some pretty high class ones, in the vicinity of oil fields and even refineries to some extent.

-Highway system needs massive overhaul; we need ramps that can be used in urban areas, and a greater variety of overpasses. Graphically, they could do with a few more highway signs and some lighting.

[simidavid 0]

 I too have had a problem with snapping the zones into place. Hopefully MC will look into that. As for the slowing down of the game once you reach the millions, the same kind of happened with SimCity 4, but to a less noticeable extent. Since Cities XL is more graphics-intensive than SimCity 4, the game, in order to keep on running, has to slow down, as available memory gets used up. The best thing to do is go to lower settings once that happens.

[xave 0]

Thinks that I really dislike

-conceptually flawed trading system (make it alsmost impossible for me to play, as I can only play one every week or every two weeks)

-severe lack of simulation depth and micromanagement options (game gets boring very quickly)

-zoning (unisize lot sizes--> no easy way of creating sharp corner buildings or wall 2 wall)

-highway system (lot based, no flexibility)

-planet offer (I only pay for it for extra content, not because I want to trade tokens with other players etc. Apart from the trading of tokens the community aspects of the PO has nothing to offer)

-the choice of MC to review all custom content, whcih I think is the biggest mistake as it will limit the creation of a free community that has kept SC4 going for so long. (probably this is driven by the need for MC to guarantee that custom content does not to mess up PO economics.)

I'm confident that mass transit, map editor, building packs will be made available (at a price) and will look great. I just hope they will be released as expansion packs also.

[PsychoStorm 0]

Seems like better trading functionality/interface could be used.

[abanded mongoose 0]

Originally posted by: soltangris

What do you hate about Cities XL? -

I hate that they released it unfinished. The missing general control options (like tax control) are driving me crazy sometimes. quote>

There are tax controls in the game, you can control the tax of Residential and Commercial.

[soltangris 42]

There are tax controls in the game, you can control the tax of Residential and Commercial.

 

Yeah, so when you want to stimulate, say, offices, you vring down corporate taxes and you lose tons of money, because you haven't cut taxes only on offices, but also on industry, hotels, and so on.

Same with residents: you cut taxes only to make elites happier, and you end up losing tons of money because ALL classes now pay less.

By tax controls, I mean differentiated control over each sector. By the way, MC said they're working on that. ?

[Baracus250 0]

I really like it and have spent a lot of time with CXL since release.

I was looking for a game like this... creative freedom (visually); long-term goals in the sense that you have to nurture your 'creation' and feel a connection with it, where what you do and the decisions you make do have a direct and noticable impact in your success; strategic (sort of), a bit of trading/cash management and a relaxed slower paced game that isn't stressful or overly objective based/competitive. You can play it that way of course, but you can also play it however you want and at whatever pace you want... and I love that!

I like that you can visit other cities and get ideas from some of the other creative builders out there!

I also like the community side of it, with the whole CJ idea - gives it a nice 2nd depth which I havent really experienced before in other games. I like the idea of the MMO aspect but it's certainly hollow at the moment. I do think they can build on this over time and look forward to moving on with the game as it evolves... hopefully!

The worst aspect for me is the trading - well, not the trading as such more the interface it's done through. This needs to be more fun and easier to use - perhaps using 'drag and drop' somehow rather than all this (laggy) page flipping and typing and calculating unit prices vs Nb.! Although it has made my mental arithmetic better since playing so that's a bonus I suppose! I sometimes load up and just get put off actually going into my cities because I have to balance all my tokens before I can do anything - every time!! I know you can use the website which I'm told is easier, but this functionality should be in the game interface imo. This part is just hard work... not fun for me! We should be able to do token for token swaps at this level, not always for cash. (I know you can on the website).

Anyway, I don't have a problem with paying PO (in fact I am paying for my girlfriends account too, and considering a 2nd account so that I can mess around in some new cities/maps) - really - it's only the price of a pack of cigarettes per month for hours of entertainment... good value in my books. Of course I'd rather it was cheaper but it's not worth missing out on the game for the sake of a few Euros... we are deprived enough of good games these days as it is!

[MasterN 5]

the most apparent thing i like is the economy system (trade and transportation not included).

since i also come from the SC camp (since SC2k) i will make the following comparison: it's very nice for once to see, that the commercial sector actually needs specific industrial goods. in SC4 you can solely survive with high tech industry. in C-XL you can't. i think that this is a good method to give the game some "realism".

the trade (especially single player) is extremely annoying. not being able to sell and buy at the same price is fine, but the price difference is just a bit too high. irrelevant for MP.

i'd like to have at least the option to manipulate that. give the game different difficulties, the manipulation of the npc-prices is by far enough to make the game easy or difficult.

the transportation is less of a problem (... for me right now) but since you need to unlock more efficient items anyway the transportationlimit should be decided by the stage you are in. better roads making the connection: better goods/people transportation.

a complete comparison to SC4 can't be given at the moment. in my eyes C-XL is by far not finished.

the game i bought actually looks like a beta. as previously said by other ppl, there's no map editor, no useful terraforming (regardles of the changes, the groundtextures stay the same), there are still some major bugs that need to be adressed, no detailed graphics settings (for example reducing cpu load by changing the bulding mashes....), undetailed city service (range of schools, hospitals, police.... etc...)... i think there's even more stuff that's not right atm..

right now, the 40$ i spent were a waste, no matter how good the game's potential is. unless the potential is at least almost reached, in my mind it will still be a waste (and if they dare to make me pay for fixes or necessary content they can just ... ).

Please watch the insults.

--Liv

CXL Forums Moderator

[franky_83 8]

The game is very good for the most part. I just find that every single service costs so much for what it actually does. The economy is a bit too complex for my liking. Worrying about too many resources is ruining my gaming experience which is to build cities. However the traffic is a major improvement from SimCity4. People will at least take the large roads first and not the other way 'round. Another thing I like is that unlike SimCity4 (at least on my PC), Cities XL has not crashed once while SC4 did it sometimes two or three times daily.

I definitely think was worth buying the game as I know I will continue to play it.

[zwr100 2]

Cities XL is a good game.

Have you bought CXL? YES.

Have you subscribed to P.O.? YES

CXL Hasn't fulfilled my expectations but I'm optimistic it will eventually.

CXL is better than SC4 I have a love/hate relationship with SC4: IMO it's not even a game since everyone can make their own rules - thus it's more like a paint program.

Do you like zoning? NO Different sized lots (low and medium vs high density) make planning a growing city difficult, and lack of different sized lots makes the end product bland.  More lot sizes and improved zoning tools are needed.

CXL graphics are not so good. The fact that dual core isn't working, and there are bugs means I'm playing on 'very low' graphics settings, which are worse than old games with bad graphics.

What do you like best in CXL? 3D which I believe is directly related to the end of a rigid grid.

What do you hate about CXL? Other trading and other mmo features that need improvement.

What needs improvement? Other see above

Would you recommend CXL? Yes I would but only to people who know they like city builders, and I believe will be able to see past the current bugs and other issues. I guess it's also worth noting that I haven't convinced anyone to give it a try.

[gottago 24]

I received it as a Christmas gift and played it once for 6 hours, and will probably never start it up again.

The UI is clumsy and not intuitive.

The Graphics are mediocre and aside from 3d, SC4 is far more detailed.

All the lots are the same size, and though you can go off the grid, it looks horrible when you do. The end result looks cartoonish and the level of detail and variety is very poor. You end up playing by looking straight down on your city from high above, and you might as well be playing a 2D game in that case.

Roads, roads and nothing but roads. Boring.

Gameplay is tedious and leads you nowhere. Taxes are primitively set up, and the messages are horribly translated into English. You spend all your time just trying to keep the city afloat, zoning a block of this, a block of that to balance the latest problem. Nothing ever takes off, and the whole trade bit is a mess--clumsy to use and purposely set up so that you are obliged to subscribe to the PO to get the $ necessary to get your struggling city off the ground.

I was really surprised how CXL is so far behind SC4 in overall gameplay, given that MC had a 6 year tech advantage and the example of SC4 itself to learn from.

[whiterabbit2015 0]

I bought this game off of Steam when it was discounted over Christmas and it looked cool to start, but ultimately became stale and frustrating. I didn't even bother with the PO, even with the free trial because I wanted to learn the game at my own pace, with pausing and speeding up as necessary. Based on my experience in single player as well as reviews from people on this site and others, I won't even bother with PO until the game is actually complete or even worthwhile. I'm still in college and have bills to pay, and with the economy as it is right now, it is just not economically wise to throw away $10 a month on an unfinished product.

Unfortunately, single player has also been less than pleasurable for me as well. I'm still struggling with the resource management and trade token concept, and this is compounded by the fact that single player trade, as mentioned in several posts, is very unfair and unbalanced. I can't trade with other cities I may create, so that rules out specialization, which means I have to use the outrageous trade system and severely retard city growth or make the each city I create self-sufficient, which is somewhat realistic and tedious.

I had high hopes for this game when I heard about it, and sincerely hope that it will do nothing but improve as we progress, but there is little to no communication between MC and the city building community, either on their website or here on the forums, which leaves me in doubt about the future of this game.

[soltangris 42]

Hm, it seems some people have given up due to the learning curve of the game. Strange... I thought it's actually easier than SC4...

[Xidillon 0]

Its plainly different from SC4. Once you get around the memory leaks the game gets good. Then all the time you put into it is worth it now that youre able to play it. If this was fixed, The PO would have had a better chance. Another game that didnt make it to see its full potential, short of custom content.

[legoman786 1]

I answered Other for What I hate about it, and that is the overall lack of optimization in the engine's code. I understand that the engine needs to be completely rewritten for multicore support, however, they could have done SOMETHING. I hope C2011 has multicore support. I'm pretty sure they got the message.

[el.lopan 54]

So, right on, let's put the facts on the table about SimCity4: -A game created in 2004 that revolutionized the already acclaimed series -Complex traffic system -Hundreds of different types of buildings -Community CAN create new buildings, and have created dozens of thousands -Very good graphics for the time -Good gameplay Now, CitiesXL, a game created 05 years after the great SC4, we'd think it'd outperform SC in every way, but... -Aside from the "Planetoffer" (which is PAID and now has been shutdown) it offers absolutely nothing revolutionary -Lame traffic system -In a huge city, be prepared: THERE WILL BE dozens of buildings that ARE EXACTLY THE SAME -Community CANNOT create buildings -Lame graphics, buildings sounds like simple blocks covered with low-res textures. Uninspiring architecture. -Lame gameplay. As AVGN would say "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??" Why bother making a lame game that awfully has nothing better than SC4?? Please... I can't understand people.

[Lisen 0]

I love this game but really dislike the pollution problems and that you must have so many road connections to be able to trade.

I would also like more houses, trees and other ithems to decorate more...

Lisen

[mentarman 14]

Hopefully that will come as the PO ends and modders and custom content makers are given more free rein. This was the key to SC4's success in my opinion and I think it can do the same for CXL.

[rismisner 0]

I think that the most succinct way i can describe my review of CXL is to talk about the base jumpers.

Here we have a really cute little feature that the residents of my city like to parachute off the skyscrapers, and I frequently see their little chat bubbles saying "look no hands!" and "weee what a rush!"

but if i try to zoom the camera to an angle where I can watch these base jumpers jumping off the towers, I can never get it into quite the right camera angle and zoom level to see them clearly enough to get the full appreciation out of this feature that it deserves.

So this feature is there... but not quite there... (and a bit overused because I see the little chat bubbles constantly)

Now apply that same style of reasoning and attitude to describe 100% of the rest of the entire game. It is full of really interesting and creative features that draw me into it and motivate me to stay up all night absorbed in my city and having a blast expanding it and managing all the subtleties... but it's also full of buggy limitations that block me from being able to fully appreciate almost every single one of those features, and that endlessly frustrates me as I try and try to get everything out of it that is ... there, but not quite there.

For a list of other examples, just scroll up, read the rest of this thread, the rest of this forum, or play the game, and it'll be obvious.

It's good enough to draw me in and make me love it and keep me up all night playing it, so I have to give it a thumbs up and a good review overall, and I have been recommending it to friends, but it lacks polish, and that makes its short-comings all that much more frustrating because I just ... can't ... quite... get ... everything ... out of it .... that it seems to ALMOST have...

[Mars250 0]

In my opinion Cities xl is not a bad game as such if you understand it fully but the PO was just a waste of money, it's just aswell they got rid of it rather than making people waste their money.

But as i said it is not a bad game but did not live up to my expectations especially the megastructures you should'nt have needed tons of tokens to build them just money and time and i think they should of allowed them into the singleplayer

when they shut down the planet mode, but being MC they did not.

Also i think that the graphics are good from a distance when you get too close it is basically a flat texture.

People cannot create their own custom content and upload it to make the game better.

The way they did the roads is good they are quite realistic the way you can bend them.

Also i would recommend it to somone who is new to city-building games because it think that it is a good game for them to start on because it is not too complicated and is quite easy to play aswell as being quite slow so they can play it at their own pace.

But overall i think this is a good game for the state of MC's finances.

But this is my opinion and not somone elses

[Twentyone 0]

I got this yesterday after quite being meh about trying it for a long time. I have pretty much been drawn into it since then to be honest.

First thing I was extremely happy about was the roads and the way they click together (although abit annoying at times when you cant get it right). It's nice that the neighbourhoods can be dragged out and still look nice as the gaps fill in. I'm enjoying the managing of the city more here than in SC4 even if there are a few annoying things. The bus feature where you can actually set the route it takes is neat and I like the details.

The bad things.. Well, I'll just list them: (some already mentioned!)

- No railways or undergrounds.

- Not so free to sculpt the landscape and you cant see how all the cities look as a whole together.

- Leisure should not cost money to have (so annoying as the keep whinging about it!!)

- The way the building lays out when you are at the top density sometimes is abit tricky if you don't have much space.

- Too many road connections to trade (especially bad if you are on an island)

- Limited where you can set the roads out of the city, or the harbours (which again is tricky as there are only certain places you can put them)

- Pollution is too big of a problem as sometimes on the maps with water its hard to find places for farms

But I really do like it tho! I just wish (even tho it seems like it was not too good) that I could have tried the online bit.

[G007 0]

@Pete1016: Sorry, about point 6: SimCity 4 gets slow @ 140,000, and that is not a problem with my computer. 

[kingBosko15 1]

What Do You Think Needs Improvement?

transportation : like sim city 4 has

and other stuff