The unrealism of Cities xl

[dukee152 0]

    I have been playing cities xl recently. I like the game, I think it is more advanced than sim city. Some problems it has is leisure activities, they cost to much damn money, and why should the city build them? In real world (or at least in America) the cities are not the ones who build the bowling ally, nor do they build the Ferris wheel. Maybe in special occasions when they provide a private company a subsidy they will pay for the construction and not the matenince. Also since when do people really care about how much damn airpollution is there. Since cities XL does not simulate global warming what is the point in caring about it. Also in simcity 4 I was able to cut spending on buildings that have not reached their full capacity, in Cities XL you have to destroy the building. Sometimes I want these buildings to be there so why cant I just cut their budget i'm the damn mayor?

[Winter Dragon 0]

Why does only one lane go at any one time at intersections? Traffic takes 3-4x longer to move through intersections than it does in real life then I get traffic jams, which I really shouldn't get it f these roads were a proper simulation. Why do one way roads cost double the money to maintain than normal roads? I like one ways, but it's actually cheaper to build two normal lane roads than to covert two existing ones into one way.

A lot of things like this annoy me, and I don't understand the logic behind them.

[IntoxiNation 0]

I agree with this. What would be much more realistic is for a company to offer to build the bowling alley, but they want X dollars from the government (either for building expenses, or in tax abatement) . You then can accept or deny that. It wouldn't be that hard to also have both options. Either the leisure is privately owned/run OR you can go with a government owned one. It could also add a new level of challenge. Say your city goes to pot and you have a privately owned bowling alley. If you don't get your city in order, the owners decide to pack up their tent and move out. Now you have the option of trying to sell that alley, leaving your citizens with less leisure, or you can go ahead and take over it. If you decide to leave it as is, then it would take time to sell (ie: your city has to start doing good again) and the longer it sits the longer it takes to open up, plus that could be more a potential buyer wants from the city.

It's little things like this that would add a much better game play experience to the game. From a development stand point you are just looking at some rather simple logic to add in. It's a lot easier than adding new eye candy and would make for a much more challenging game over all.

[dedgren 830]

The fact that CXL was just not very much fun to actually play, whatever else were its faults, was pointed out over and over again in the private beta forums. That situation never improved over time, probably because the majority of MC's effort was directed toward aspects of the Planet Offer- things, in the end, that got the company absolutely nowhere.

David

[IntoxiNation 0]

Originally posted by: dedgren

The fact that CXL was just not very much fun to actually play, whatever else were its faults, was pointed out over and over again in the private beta forums. That situation never improved over time, probably because the majority of MC's effort was directed toward aspects of the Planet Offer- things, in the end, that got the company absolutely nowhere.

Davidquote>

Not only that but it also seems they spent a lot of the budget on "eye candy". Sure it's nice having a pretty game to see on my screen, but much rather have challenging game play.

[dukee152 0]

I hope that they come with something more successful next time. Also the most the government will ever do for a theme park is just provide a subsidy, because they think it will boost the economy of the area. Plus I live in NYC not to far from a factory, and the neighborhood is good it is still high realty prices even with the financial meltdown and no one moves out because there is a factory near by.

[Herdervriend 46]

Cities XL has been a failure since the beta...And this is one of the largest what frustrated me the most, till the sandbox mod came out.

Seriously the system is bugged like crazy and I've never heard a city spend 5000 euro per month to a boling alley or so, NEVER.

But, we need to deal with this crap, till they finally get there brains back and listen to us.

MODS: This is not being mean, so do not ban me! I just point out what everyone thinks so. And I do not shout XL out. I just said how I feel, nothing wrong with that.

[mentarman 14]

Originally posted by: Herdervriend

MODS: This is not being mean, so do not ban me! I just point out what everyone thinks so. And I do not shout XL out. I just said how I feel, nothing wrong with that.quote>

You should probably stick to saying what you feel but not speaking for "everyone."

Originally posted by: dukee152

I have been playing cities xl recently. I like the game, I think it is more advanced than sim city. Some problems it has is leisure activities, they cost to much damn money, and why should the city build them? In real world (or at least in America) the cities are not the ones who build the bowling ally, nor do they build the Ferris wheel. Maybe in special occasions when they provide a private company a subsidy they will pay for the construction and not the matenince. Also since when do people really care about how much damn airpollution is there. Since cities XL does not simulate global warming what is the point in caring about it. Also in simcity 4 I was able to cut spending on buildings that have not reached their full capacity, in Cities XL you have to destroy the building. Sometimes I want these buildings to be there so why cant I just cut their budget i'm the damn mayor? quote>

I use the sandbox mode so the costs don't really bother me. Really I think the problem isn't this so much as the leisure facilities that cities do pay for aren't in the game. They could have more diverse parks and public facilities that cities do pay for. In the meantime I just picture the bowling alley as a rec plex or community center or something like that that a city does often provide. Anyway, if the bowling alley really bothers you so much, just build the ones like the swimming pool, basketball court, tennis facility etc. that a city would provide in many cases.

Air pollution definitely bothers people in real life. Furthermore the localized pollution also reflects that people in general just don't like living next to factories. Air pollution is a whole lot more than global warming. So I don't find this complaint too valid.

The inability to change the budgets or service levels on individual buidlings is a bit annoying, but then again I'm not sure the extent SimCity allows is really realistic either. Just having a building and even a minimal staff is a big cost. Budgets can be tweaked but only to a certain extent. In any case this seemst o be a level of detail and micromanagement they decided not to get into. Personally I found that level of messing with stuff a bit annoying in SimCity, but the alternative is this, high cost for things you can either have or not have with no in-between. Anyway, another case where I'm not too bothered as I use the sandbox mode.

In short, I'd suggest using a money cheat. The alternative is to complain about MC here and meanwhile hope that both a) they are able to overcome their financial problems and b) they decide this is an area of priority to improve (personally there are other things I'd much rather see changed or added.)

Originally posted by: dukee152

I hope that they come with something more successful next time. Also the most the government will ever do for a theme park is just provide a subsidy, because they think it will boost the economy of the area. Plus I live in NYC not to far from a factory, and the neighborhood is good it is still high realty prices even with the financial meltdown and no one moves out because there is a factory near by.quote>

Where are you talking about? What's the factory? Do you think it is really a typical example of how people respond to such things?

[Msprintz 25]

Originally posted by: dukee152

I hope that they come with something more successful next time. Also the most the government will ever do for a theme park is just provide a subsidy, because they think it will boost the economy of the area. Plus I live in NYC not to far from a factory, and the neighborhood is good it is still high realty prices even with the financial meltdown and no one moves out because there is a factory near by.quote>

That depends on what function the factory serves.  Most factories inside the buroughs of New York City, especially around the pricier neighborhoods of say SOHO don't emit abundant pollution ( although they do churn out great art work, clothing and other assortments ).  Jewelry factories are also abundant in the city, my father used to work in that line of business in a managerial role ( pretty knowledable about what went on too ). 

Most of the heavy industry moved west, towards the Great Lakes as an abundance of mineral resources were found nearby to that particular location.  That area has a lost a little luster, even the Iron Range near the UP of MI, MN has lost a lot of it's signifance.  Heavy industry is nothing like it once was here in the United States.  

   

[Arkanes 2]

I had to agree. This is one reason why I stopped playing Cities XL and switched back to SC4. Why would someone be adding in leisures when some can be obtained from civic buildings in SC4? That is just a waste of money.

Cities XL could've loads of potential if MC ever released it later this year instead of November last year. It came out without the public transportation system!

Wish I had more challenge with CXL, but MC just made it a bad city-planning game.

[Aspire 3]

i think that MC and Maxis should work together to make the next-Gen city building game that is both editable and beautiful looking with alot of buildings and more. (i did a whole long paragraph and the page had an error )

P:S: i think we all agree SCS was a slap in the face...

[IntoxiNation 0]

Honestly I think the city building genre can be broken down even further into 2 categories:

City Builders - These are the people who focus more on building amazingly beautiful cities. They want awesome building and graphics, plus a slew of options to when it comes to road placesment, types of buildings, ability to mod new buildings, etc.. The actual simulation side of the game only comes as second nature to them.

City Simulators - These are the people who aren't as interested in the graphic abilities of the game as much as they are in the actual management of a city. They of course want decent graphics, but that comes second to the actual challenge in managing and building the city.

IMHO CXL focused a lot more on the first one than the second one. They did come out with some amazing graphics and abilities. Sure there are more to be done, like the mod ability, but that will all come in due time.

For Cities 2011 they really need to focus their energies on the second item. Increase the challenge to the actual simulation part and give more options to the route future mayors want to take (ie: if they aren't worried about the simulation as much they can do a sandbox type city and worry about building). For MC the hard work is actually done. In the development of this type of game, the biggest challenge is developing a graphics engine that can handle a ton of polys and not run on a middle of the road computer.

Now the second phase should be focusing on the game logic. For a city simulation type game, that logic isn't really all that complex. A lot of it is just adding new properties to different building types and features. This is one place the SC4 really excelled, and was ahead of the time. If CXL can expand upon that, then I think they will see a nice turn around in sales by giving something that both classifications I mention above would really like.

[MontyCXL 0]

City paying for leisure (heliport, bowling, ferris wheel) makes no sense. Other thing that REALLY bothers me is the enviroment thing. The reaction of citizens to enviroment and pollution it's very exagerated. Ok, nobody wants to live next to a garbage dump or an industrial area, thats a reality. But why they overreact to traffic/air polution? Why elites and executives refuse to live near big avenues or downtown center or even when they are far away from an industrial area? Think about a city like New York...Rich don't refuse to live in the fifth avenue just because the traffic and air polution!!!! There are industrial zones in the other side of the river and people just don't care, they live when the land value is high, not where air pollution is low. Air pollution is not directly related to land value -except in extreme cases- Cities like Paris, Tokio, Shanghai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Los Angeles, New York, Berlin,, etc, all have high levels of air pollution, all over the city, and all these cities have high land values, and high density residences for the high class people....Air polution is negative just when it's extreme, and even being extremely high (Shanghai, M

[jeremy12 0]

How about instead of just complaining you offer ideas, dont just say its crap, offer constructive criticism something modders can work with...

How would everyone feel if i looked into making a mod where the leisures cost money to place but pay in taxes.... (you have to pay to zone so since you cannot zone it costs to place....) Who knows we may be able to make it zone able over time

Oh and i just releases a mod to industry produces no pollution next up is traffic (i have not had this issue but my cities never get over 2 million i am to busy trying to make mods (or recently making a mod app)).