Synekism - A New City Simulation Game

[Lowkee33 5]

You mean Photoshop? We support .png, .jpg, .bmp, and .gif. As long as the image is in one of those formats, located in the Mods folder in the game's program files folder, and is named exactly "UserTerrainTexture", it should work.

I am glad I wont be too far off with this comment.

My modding of SC4 is generally with the nature simulation. Terrain in SC4 is quite dynamic. There are 256 possible terrain textures, most all can be applied to the Terrain Texture Map. This map is a grid of 16 moisture columns and 32 temperature rows. The temperature simulation has been "turned off" so much that the only thing one can say is that it the higher the altitude, the colder it is. The moisture simulation has not been turned off. January is wetter than July, and as such you will see slightly different terrain in Jan than July. Wind also effects moisture, specifically on slopes, and this is why terrain is different on one side of a hill than the other. Wind speed and direction varies through the sim-year.

Other aspects of the nature simulation have been turned off, specifically self-planting tress and rivers. SC4 is very close to having high moisture levels create rivers, which would in turn erode the terrain. Our "god mode" trees still have moisture/temperature levels to decide where they get planted. Self-Planting trees still works.

I know that this is a lot to think about right now, but I think it is important to make a lasting/unique game. City Building games these days have great graphics, but they still lack an answer to "why build a city". I would much rather see a top-down city who's population is dependent upon balancing a limited amount of natural resources than a 3D metropolis.

Edit: For me, an answer to Why build a city is because of natural occurrences (rainfall, food, things that make life fun) and a city simulation should not ignore this.

  Edited May 9, 2011 by Lowkee33  

[EyeofMobius 27]

I hope the best of success with your efforts on this program. I feel that worrying about if the average short attention spanned gamer will dig it is becoming less relevant with trends I am at least seeing where people who enjoy games electronic or tabletop are seeking more complexity and long term engaement.

IIRC in the article here on ST there was mention of paintbrushing down things like roads and textures; I hope that if this comes about then there is also the ability to flood fill base textures in between buildings and park spaces; and maybe a blend fill option for texture transitions.

[Yelmond 19]

Edit: For me, an answer to Why build a city is because of natural occurrences (rainfall, food, things that make life fun) and a city simulation should not ignore this.

Well, this is what we're aiming for:

Of course, it will take us a while but hopefully the steps we take are towards the right direction. Please let us know if we stray away.

[Yelmond 19]

IIRC in the article here on ST there was mention of paintbrushing down things like roads and textures; I hope that if this comes about then there is also the ability to flood fill base textures in between buildings and park spaces; and maybe a blend fill option for texture transitions.

Well, earlier we were only referring to different road/transportation brushes (where a brush would specify things like number of lanes, divider type, elevated or not, etc.) But your idea sounds interesting. We have added it on our grand to-do list.

[Lowkee33 5]

Of course, it will take us a while but hopefully the steps we take are towards the right direction.

Thats a pretty neat video. The river scene was especially inspiring.

The toughest part of nature for SC4 (I think) is dealing with the region. The region is split up into city tiles, and only one city can be worked on at a time. So how does one simulate the river flowing from the other city? The good thing about the region (and SC4 in general) is that the terrain is to scale. With some work one can import DEM data into SC4 and have a map that is real world accurate.

[Sevnur92 3]

here is my synekism gameplay

[Yelmond 19]

here is my synekism gameplay

Lol, buggy much? What kind of sucky game is this?

But really, thanks for the upload. It's pretty cool to see our game on youtube in any light.

[Sevnur92 3]

When is the nest update?

And is the save-bug gonna get fixed?

[Yelmond 19]

When is the nest update?

June 1st, 2011.

And is the save-bug gonna get fixed?

Probably not in the next release. We're trying to get multiplayer working now to get it out already. I promise after this release we'll slow down a but on new features and fix some bugs. Should be fixed by July's release.

[Synekism 19]

This month's release (June 2011) will have to be a "non-stable" one as, though multiplayer has been introduced, it is not really finished. See our site for more details.

[Simtopia23 0]

This month's release (June 2011) will have to be a "non-stable" one as, though multiplayer has been introduced, it is not really finished. See our site for more details.

looks nice, finally we've a multiplayer!

i've started to create a city and in server interface i've written my name simtopia23, now how can other players see and edit my city?

[Yelmond 19]

i've started to create a city and in server interface i've written my name simtopia23, now how can other players see and edit my city?

Sorry, it's not that easy yet. The field in the server console is for the name/ip of the server you wish to connect to. If you are the server there is nothing you need to do other than click the server button. For others to join (and that is limited to only one other person for the moment), they will need your computer's IP address. You can find it using a website such as: www.whatismyip.com or through Windows command prompt. There are other requirements, unfortunately, if you are behind a router.

Keep in mind, thought, that multiplayer is seriously limited for the moment. When others connect to your city they will not get a copy of it before they start contributing. Furthermore, any deletions made on either side will not be transmitted; only creations. Finally, the simulator will work separately on each machine giving slightly different looking cities. I suggest you wait for at least the next release before you dive into multiplayer. We really only released to keep with tradition, otherwise we would have delayed.

[knighthawk75 56]

i've started to create a city and in server interface i've written my name simtopia23, now how can other players see and edit my city?

Sorry, it's not that easy yet. The field in the server console is for the name/ip of the server you wish to connect to. If you are the server there is nothing you need to do other than click the server button. For others to join (and that is limited to only one other person for the moment), they will need your computer's IP address. You can find it using a website such as: www.whatismyip.com or through Windows command prompt. There are other requirements, unfortunately, if you are behind a router.

Keep in mind, thought, that multiplayer is seriously limited for the moment. When others connect to your city they will not get a copy of it before they start contributing. Furthermore, any deletions made on either side will not be transmitted; only creations. Finally, the simulator will work separately on each machine giving slightly different looking cities. I suggest you wait for at least the next release before you dive into multiplayer. We really only released to keep with tradition, otherwise we would have delayed.

Thanks for the June drop, will be sure to play around with it. Since it's known to be less then stable release are their particular areas that you would like focus placed on during testing, or a perhaps an area(s) you know is borked that you don't need anyone reporting about yet?

[Yelmond 19]

Well, multiplayer mode is not anywhere near completed but what is in there should be working. So, anything you see odd or any crashes you get please let us know. Synekism has also matured a bit and is now multi-threaded but for now its only using multiple threads while in multiplayer mode so any issues in that regard shouldn't affect most players.

We also significantly changes the road system so there may be some issues there as well.

In general, if you don't see an issue in the "Known issues" part of the release notes please report it.

[Sevnur92 3]

is this a bug?

[Yelmond 19]

is this a bug?

Yes, that is most definitely a bug. Try F2 + R (or try saving and reloading the city) to clear them out. We'll fix this soon, I hope.

  Edited June 9, 2011 by Yelmond  

[Synekism 19]

A Heavy school load made it difficult to get much done on the game this month. What July does bring is some fixes and the removal of the "NOT A STABLE RELEASE" stamp. As usual, see our site for details and download.

[openLumi 0]

First, good luck with project

But I didn't get why it install ACOS6 SDK, is there any smartcard feature I am not aware of?

And although I understand this '3D' , 'flexible', 'smooth' gameplay thing ; is it only me thinking that SC4 style isometric 3D is perfect for the task?

[knighthawk75 56]

A Heavy school load made it difficult to get much done on the game this month. What July does bring is some fixes and the removal of the "NOT A STABLE RELEASE" stamp. As usual, see our site for details and download.

Thanks for the monthly drop.

[Yelmond 19]

But I didn't get why it install ACOS6 SDK, is there any smartcard feature I am not aware of?

The only thing we install is Visual C++ 2010 Runtimes, DirectX Runtimes, and our Synekism.exe. We use GPUZ during installation but we remove it after we're done. I have no idea why you saw it install anything else.

And although I understand this '3D' , 'flexible', 'smooth' gameplay thing ; is it only me thinking that SC4 style isometric 3D is perfect for the task?

Well, it's pretty easy to make a 3D game 'look' isometric so making the game fully 3D (as suppose to just the terrain which is what SC4 does) satisfies both groups of people; those who prefer isometrics, and those who prefer full 3D.

Were you requesting an isometric mode in Synekism or were you just commenting that it would have been easier to go for isometric view and focus more on gameplay?

[openLumi 0]

But I didn't get why it install ACOS6 SDK, is there any smartcard feature I am not aware of?

The only thing we install is Visual C++ 2010 Runtimes, DirectX Runtimes, and our Synekism.exe. We use GPUZ during installation but we remove it after we're done. I have no idea why you saw it install anything else.

And although I understand this '3D' , 'flexible', 'smooth' gameplay thing ; is it only me thinking that SC4 style isometric 3D is perfect for the task?

Well, it's pretty easy to make a 3D game 'look' isometric so making the game fully 3D (as suppose to just the terrain which is what SC4 does) satisfies both groups of people; those who prefer isometrics, and those who prefer full 3D.

Were you requesting an isometric mode in Synekism or were you just commenting that it would have been easier to go for isometric view and focus more on gameplay?

I reinstalled to see if I am wrong. You are right it doesn't install ACOS6 but installs game to <Program Files>\Advanced Card Systems Ltd\ACOS6 SDK , a tiny scripting error

And for fully 3D, you can call me stubborn, old-fashioned but I don't remember any strategy game better in full 3D than it was in isometrics. Or it is me not feeling comfortable

[Yelmond 19]

I reinstalled to see if I am wrong. You are right it doesn't install ACOS6 but installs game to <Program Files>\Advanced Card Systems Ltd\ACOS6 SDK , a tiny scripting error

Ya, we're not sure how the default install path is generated actually. We haven't yet tamed NSIS. Sometimes that path is something very random but once you change it back to Program Files any future installations are fine.

[Synekism 19]

As with the previous month, heavy school load made it difficult to get anything new in the game for the August 2011 release so we just fixed some minor issues.

Now, by September, school will be well over and we should have another major update for you, 0.4. More details will be given later on but essentially the update will finish our still-broken multiplayer feature and introduce a very fancy "screenshot" feature, in addition to other fixes and improvements. That is all I can say for now but basically we wish to do something of significant on Synekism's first birthday.

[knighthawk75 56]

As with the previous month, heavy school load made it difficult to get anything new in the game for the August 2011 release so we just fixed some minor issues.

Now, by September, school will be well over and we should have another major update for you, 0.4. More details will be given later on but essentially the update will finish our still-broken multiplayer feature and introduce a very fancy "screenshot" feature, in addition to other fixes and improvements. That is all I can say for now but basically we wish to do something of significant on Synekism's first birthday.

Thanks for the monthly drop, and good luck with next month of work.

[Nique 291]

I really really REALLY hate it that new sim games force you to use these stupid roads around every building you want to place. It is not realistic.

The way SC4 does it is much more friendly and realistic.

I mean, have you seen these farms in Cities XL.. incredible unrealistic. as if every farm is surrounded by a road (as a fence). Please stop doing this. Let people 'zone' the areas without the force of using roads.

[Yelmond 19]

I really really REALLY hate it that new sim games force you to use these stupid roads around every building you want to place. It is not realistic.

The way SC4 does it is much more friendly and realistic.

I mean, have you seen these farms in Cities XL.. incredible unrealistic. as if every farm is surrounded by a road (as a fence). Please stop doing this. Let people 'zone' the areas without the force of using roads.

I totally agree with you on this. Zoning roads will soon be optional.

We force zoning roads only because it simplifies the gridless zoning problem for us, technically speaking. It was not entirely a game design decision.

[Synekism 19]

It's been one year since our launch in 2010. The game has made respectable progress in this time and today we top it off with a fun little screenshot feature.

See our site for more details as well as some idea of what's to come.

[Synekism 19]

Another monthly update is up. This one moves the simulator to its own thread rendering further work on the simulator harmless to gameplay performance. It also greatly improves the efficiency of the our screenshot feature (the Raytracer).

One minor, non-under-the-hood, change allows dezoning using the bulldozer (while holding down Ctrl).

Finally, the game will no longer pause while the game window is not in focus or minimized.

[XSS 0]

This game is soo promising, I have been fiddling all day since I found out about it this morning.

Keep up the good work and you will be successful!

[knighthawk75 56]

This game is soo promising, I have been fiddling all day since I found out about it this morning.

Keep up the good work and you will be successful!

It is indeed, just grabbed the October update myself looking forward to the progress and changes.