The real goal of SimCity 4

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

For the last couple of days, an idea has been running around in my head, and I think it is ready to put on electrons.

The reason most of us play SimCity 4 is challenge.  It is really a vehicle for problem solving, and you get to make your own problems.  You lay out a city or a section of a city, and then you have to service it.  After that, the simulator develops the city, and takes you into various consequences of your choices, all the time using the familiar referents of building a city from the point of view of a mayoral-type city planner, with a lot of the real-life obstacles removed.

The program uses pollution of various types to set you a problem in cleaning up.  It makes you provide water to places that may or may not be geographically difficult to get to and so on for the ordinary stuff.

The real tough stuff is solving the traffic network to keep from going broke.  Going broke is the only way you can involuntarily terminate the game, that is, by losing.  If you've any handle on this program at all, this is hard to do.

Working on traffic problems to keep your traffic in the green (or actually, blue) is the real difficult challenge in the game.  Like all good problem solvers, you can take this challenge into an opportunity to learn more about the game as you solve this problem.  The best information tool for looking at traffic is the traffic volume display, since it shows the roads or whatever other network you set for it in color coded percentages of use.  Anything more towards the red end of the spectrum than teal is probably going to be or already is a problem in your net.

The best part of all of this is that you are responding to opportunities created by your own hands when you start building a new city.  The on-board traffic maven has a hairy fit if the traffic on a given segment runs close to 100%.  In some instances you can ignore the little bounder and get on with something else.

For some of us, the NAM builders for example, there is also the challenge of coping with the program itself and extending it in unplanned but natural directions.  People who do networking modds and such things are the ones with the greatest challenges and therefore the ones with the most opportunity for improvement.  This crew really does us all a great flavour.

I've been running SimCity 4 since 2003 at least, maybe earlier, but I don't remember exactly when I bought it.  Lately I've been concentrating on getting myself into and out of trouble with various networks.  I like the challenge of rail mixed with surface transport bus routes, with a dip into subways when things get to Peter's Pretty Pass on the surface.  Currently, I also have a ferry network between about six different cities, and in the main city, this network is either yellow or red in the volume display.  I am having trouble justifying the number of people on these ferries, and I think there is a loop in there somewhere.

In one of my regions I am trying to use monorail to relieve the passenger stress on my rail.  Surprisingly, it doesn't work everywhere.  Sometimes, although the stations are adjacent, the Sims prefer rail to monorail.  One would expect that monorail would be more comfortable and faster, but I guess there is no accounting for taste when it comes to Sims.  I am currently using Deadwood's monorail shops, which are shops with monorail on the roof.  Works fine, but doesn't seem to attract more customers to the transit system.  Oh, well, live and learn.

I hope this bit of writing on the electrons will give you some food for thought and that you might share them with us.

[joshriddle 29]

Very good post. I play SC4 because at first it looked interesting. You take on city building the way you want, and the game conforms to the choices you make. It is still why I play this game.

Of course the hardest thing for me is abandonment and desirability. I haven't, however, taken too much action to this problem, and I intend on using the provided tools to fix it. Same for traffic.

However custom content makes it more realistic in looks. Nothing wrong with that. It is still a stragety game.

[quicksilver991 37]

Very deep. I like the open endedness of the game. Unlike most games, you don't have to do anything, you can just fool around. You can make an ugly city, you can make a realistic city, you can cause massive conflagrations. In short, there is an infinite number of possibilities.

[Bplax15 2]

I originally bought this game (or my parents did) because I needed something else to do while at my grandparents house for a week. Back then I built with minimal thinking, just laying zones and mass transit wherever I felt, with minimal success. Finally after a few years I discovered modds, and made the game much more enjoyable. Now each town I start I have a specific goal, whether realism, mass transit networks, a metropolis. So my goal is to achieve my goals.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I guess that's also one of my points.  You can circle around doing whatever you please as long as you don't go in the red for too long, and play with all kinds of ideas.  Very satisfying, eh?

[Furian 0]

I play Simcity 4 because I love the feeling of creating something masterful. A buzzing city that runs smoothly. Where every aspect has been polished to perfection.

I have yet to find that perfection, but I'm learning through trial and error and every next city is getting closer one step at a time

[edman2012 33]

Sometimes I try to be realistic, or sometimes just to make a city look cool but not very functional sometimes I just explode my city and make everyone die or leave the city from radiation x_x

[nerdthisname 1]

The goal of SC4 is to achieve the goal that you make. Lol, that is so wide, creating realistic, functional cities, making massive booms with nuclear power plants, let off steam with disasters, etc.

[joshriddle 29]

I still love how the game conforms to your choices.

[x493x 446]

I just play so I can be in awe of my cities and develop them. I don't play how SC4 was designed to be played. I play all plop and on pause.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I play to make a nice looking fantasy city. When I was a little kid, I'd draw maps, and I guess SC4 is a way of doing this.

I believe some cities are art. You can see a 10 million sim city and be in awe, but for me, I'd rather have only 200,000 of those sims in highrises. The other 9 million or so would be in sprawling suburbs. I am aiming for a 5 million sim city, but it must also look good. Not just overall, but in detail it must be good.

Basically, I play SC4 to create 'art'. But I must be able to sustain this 'art', and that means comprehensive, efficient transit networks.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I play to make a nice looking fantasy city. When I was a little kid, I'd draw maps, and I guess SC4 is a way of doing this.

I believe some cities are art. You can see a 10 million sim city and be in awe, but for me, I'd rather have only 200,000 of those sims in highrises. The other 9 million or so would be in sprawling suburbs. I am aiming for a 5 million sim city, but it must also look good. Not just overall, but in detail it must be good.

Basically, I play SC4 to create 'art'. But I must be able to sustain this 'art', and that means comprehensive, efficient transit networks.

[memedoug85 36]

Originally posted by: ROFLyoshi

Basically, I play SC4 to create 'art'. But I must be able to sustain this 'art', and that means comprehensive, efficient transit networks.quote>

This is what I was thinking. I used to draw maps and stuff when I was young as well. Simcity is a bit like colouring-in

[memedoug85 36]

Originally posted by: ROFLyoshi

Basically, I play SC4 to create 'art'. But I must be able to sustain this 'art', and that means comprehensive, efficient transit networks.quote>

This is what I was thinking. I used to draw maps and stuff when I was young as well. Simcity is a bit like colouring-in

[Propheteer 0]

I've just begun studying sustainable urban development and I plan on using this game to fool around and try ideas. It might also help me understand demographic concepts I'm not familiar with.

[Propheteer 0]

I've just begun studying sustainable urban development and I plan on using this game to fool around and try ideas. It might also help me understand demographic concepts I'm not familiar with.

[flpeLyyy 1]

Originally posted by: abracadabraz85

This is what I was thinking. I used to draw maps and stuff when I was young as well. Simcity is a bit like colouring-in

quote>

SimCity feels like made for those who loved to draw maps when young. That's maybe the main reason to play SC4 for me, turning cities on the paper into "real" cities.

[flpeLyyy 1]

Originally posted by: abracadabraz85

This is what I was thinking. I used to draw maps and stuff when I was young as well. Simcity is a bit like colouring-in

quote>

SimCity feels like made for those who loved to draw maps when young. That's maybe the main reason to play SC4 for me, turning cities on the paper into "real" cities.

[kingdiz_55 12]

It's true what you wrote about creating your own problems and the "challenge" that SC4 offers to its players. Great post, BTW.

[kingdiz_55 12]

It's true what you wrote about creating your own problems and the "challenge" that SC4 offers to its players. Great post, BTW.

[x493x 446]

I'm one who liked to draw maps. SC4 brings those maps to life in a great way.

[x493x 446]

I'm one who liked to draw maps. SC4 brings those maps to life in a great way.

[Kingdom of Hispania 4]

i also loved to draw maps and imagine cities, and stories for them and Sim City (with a lot of CC) gives me the chance to create them and mix up what i like most from cities in real life, for me, SC4 is not just a game but a relaxation therapy, i've been playing for 12 years and much more to come!

[Kingdom of Hispania 4]

i also loved to draw maps and imagine cities, and stories for them and Sim City (with a lot of CC) gives me the chance to create them and mix up what i like most from cities in real life, for me, SC4 is not just a game but a relaxation therapy, i've been playing for 12 years and much more to come!

[chocolate_city 93]

I, too, used to draw maps as a kid, huge complex maps that spanned pages... I found some of those maps rummaging through my parents garage and thought that i would try to remake them in Sim City.... but some of the interchanges are too elaborate for the game... I was hoping that Cities XL would help accomplish that, but that ain't gonna happen.... Oh well

[chocolate_city 93]

I, too, used to draw maps as a kid, huge complex maps that spanned pages... I found some of those maps rummaging through my parents garage and thought that i would try to remake them in Sim City.... but some of the interchanges are too elaborate for the game... I was hoping that Cities XL would help accomplish that, but that ain't gonna happen.... Oh well

[jebus22 0]

I play simcity 4 because I've been playing since simcity 2000. I use to play simcity 2000 every single day when I was a kid which is why i bought simcity 4. My goal use to be to get the highest population I could. Now its just to fart around and have fun. I still play simcity 4 even though they stopped making real simcity games. I Think Will wright is full of crap when he says simcity worked itself into a corner. He just got tired of the project.

[jebus22 0]

I play simcity 4 because I've been playing since simcity 2000. I use to play simcity 2000 every single day when I was a kid which is why i bought simcity 4. My goal use to be to get the highest population I could. Now its just to fart around and have fun. I still play simcity 4 even though they stopped making real simcity games. I Think Will wright is full of crap when he says simcity worked itself into a corner. He just got tired of the project.

[Finkle 14]

I've been a simcity fanboy for ever. I have always tryed to create a Fantasy city since you could lay down rivers, with Simcity 4 I could not only do the one city I could do all the surrounding cities as well. I have not played for a while trying to fix a problem, I got three of ever download arrg, I get up off the chair any day and boot up the computer and fixer.

[Finkle 14]

I've been a simcity fanboy for ever. I have always tryed to create a Fantasy city since you could lay down rivers, with Simcity 4 I could not only do the one city I could do all the surrounding cities as well. I have not played for a while trying to fix a problem, I got three of ever download arrg, I get up off the chair any day and boot up the computer and fixer.