First day of playing CitiesXL 2011 - The Trains System is not what I expected

[Boris M 0]

My first day of playing CitiesXl 2011 has been a disappointment, there are no trains just a metro system with stations that operate only underground.

Some playes say they can make their trains run overground but how do you achieve that? I've been trying for hours.

Please help, I can't make my trains show above ground.

Otherwise big improvements on the roads but they should have worked more on the trains and metro systems.

How do you make a train run above ground when the stations are underground only???

Please reply, I am very disappointed.

How can we make trains run on elevated rail, this is not explained in the tutorial?

[philemon1976 0]

 I don't own the game at this very moment, but the metro system should work like the bridge tool. shift will help you ti adjust the height.

[ACEH 0]

This is how to lay onground / elevated subways:

1. Select the station button and place the first station of the line

2. Hold down Shift button and move mouse up until the rail go overground. Keep moving up until you see a bridge showing

3. After the onground / elevated section, bring the subway underground by holding Shift and move mouse down until the next station is showed

4. Place the station

That is in simple steps. There is no special bridge for rails in bridges menu.

[jazyje 1]

Wait, so there are no above-ground metro stations AND there are no passengers or freight trains in CXL 2011????

[soltangris 42]

No. How many times we must repeat this?

[Damastius 5]

@ Jazye please read the other topics / citiesxl.com..

[Stef42 0]

indeed, and we do not know when there will be trains or what so ever...

[City Planner 121]

To me the subway and allowing it to go on ground and above ground is a good start. We all (I think I can speak for most) hope that they will continue to expand on the mass transit systems in the game.

[jazyje 1]

I will still buy teh game since I love city planning, but this DEFINITELY sounds more like a mod of CXL 2009 than a new game, not sure if it's worth the admission price....

[bluespottedhorse 49]

Originally posted by: jazyje

I will still buy teh game since I love city planning, but this DEFINITELY sounds more like a mod of CXL 2009 than a new game, not sure if it's worth the admission price....quote>

It's not a new game, it's a more polished 2009 I've been told from other players.  And no it's not worth wasteing money on at this stage...but I keep hoping for further updates.

[soltangris 42]

Nobody ever said this is a completely new game jazyje. It is a CXL expansion, and if you had CXL you can have 2011 for half-price, which is exactly the price of an expansion pack. If you don't, it's as good as a new game, and so is the price.

Don't keep your hopes up, but the game might continue developing officially. And if not, there will always be mods.

[jazyje 1]

I know it's an expansion, all I'm saying is this should have been a free patch of the original game or a $5-10 mod at most; After I paid $40 for the original, and $20 for this update, at $60 this would be the most expensive game I have ever bought AND it would still feel incomplete/// No wonder I keep going back to playing SC4 lately even though the graphics are a disgrace for 2010....

[veryConfused 1]

Actually that's pretty cheap considering the base game for Sims 3 was $60, and then $30 for each expansion.

[Raceman95 3]

you have almost 3 times the number of city tiles though and trade between your own cities.

I also like it because i switched computers and couldn't get cxl 2009 to work on the new computer. I also had huge graphics problems but the new computer fixed it.

[tankus910 0]

Can some1 please answer me this?

I Played SC4 alot and bought the cities XL game as soon as it first came out.. But didnt want to pay for the online part.. Then i found out due to omni corp being such crap offline cities are impossible to build and grow.. That was it i was fed up i wanted to build large cities offline and so i went bak to SC4 and never looked at XL again threw away the game..

only news i heard was that people hated it and that they eventually cancelled the offline part and were selling the title.. I never expected to see another XL game.

Next thing i know cities XL 2011 is advertised on a web page and i was like what the -Blam!-

So i looked into it and tons of people are saying its a decent game and there is no online at all.

So..

Is it worth buying ive been waiting for a real successor to SC4 for years to install on my PC! I am not expecting that much but a game that functions would be great.. A game that i can build up cities that look and feel good and that are even possible to get to large stages.

Can i trade with the comp now realisticly??

is this another fail or not?

[Bobafett13jw 0]

Would anyone know why it's not available on Steam for download? I bought Citiesxl 09 on steam, so I expect to get the half-price version. 

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I paid $90 for Spore after tax. I also bought all the expansions for Sims 2 so it is not that bad.

I was hoping that there would be on or above ground stations.

[bluespottedhorse 49]

Originally posted by: tankus910

Is it worth buying ive been waiting for a real successor to SC4 for years to install on my PC! I am not expecting that much but a game that functions would be great.. A game that i can build up cities that look and feel good and that are even possible to get to large stages.

Can i trade with the comp now realisticly??

is this another fail or not?quote>

Dear tankus,

If money is not an issue for you then rush out and buy it.  But if it's not up to your expectations then don't blame anyone but yourself.  If your paying attention to the forums and what's being said, then you should be noticing that many people are not happy with 2011.  The rule of thumb I follow is never, NEVER, buy the first production run of anything...cars, iphones, games, etc, etc.  Let the smoke clear and after the lemmings have finished stampeding, then make your move, whatever that may be.

[masochist 111]

Originally posted by: Bobafett13jw

Would anyone know why it's not available on Steam for download? I bought Citiesxl 09 on steam, so I expect to get the half-price version. quote>

You can only get the half-priced version of CXL 2011 from the official website (as far as I know), and only if you have your CXL '09 key.  I imagine they did it this way simply to make sure no one used the same key twice to purchase the game half-off (it'd be a lot harder to manage which keys had been used if they'd used more than one store).  That being said, you can grab your '09 key from your Steam client.

EDIT: Hmmm...according to one of the admins on the official website, you'll be able to get the discount on Steam, as well.

Originally posted by: bluespottedhorse

Dear tankus,

If money is not an issue for you then rush out and buy it.  But if it's not up to your expectations then don't blame anyone but yourself.  If your paying attention to the forums and what's being said, then you should be noticing that many people are not happy with 2011.  The rule of thumb I follow is never, NEVER, buy the first production run of anything...cars, iphones, games, etc, etc.  Let the smoke clear and after the lemmings have finished stampeding, then make your move, whatever that may be.

quote>

See, the vibe I'm getting from the forums is that while 2011 doesn't make any grand changes beyond Subways and atmospheric sights and sounds, the little things it improved or changed together add up to make it worth it, especially at a 50% rate.  Of course...that may just be me.

[Bobafett13jw 0]

Thanks for that Masochist, I just hope they release it soon!  

[Panda_Power 1]

Originally posted by: soltangris

Nobody ever said this is a completely new game jazyje. It is a CXL expansion, and if you had CXL you can have 2011 for half-price, which is exactly the price of an expansion pack. If you don't, it's as good as a new game, and so is the price.

Don't keep your hopes up, but the game might continue developing officially. And if not, there will always be mods.quote>

If it's an expansion does that mean you need to have the original CXL installed or is it a standalone?

Thanks!

[Ocram's Razr 964]

It is standalone but you get a 50% discount if you already own the original.

[Panda_Power 1]

Ok, great, thanks! 

[xopherh 0]

I haven't tried the Metro tool but have a city over 1 Million population and everything seems to be exactly the same at 2009, granted with some obvious monthly cost changes and other minor changes.

the only true bug I've experienced is one of the awards for what I think was holiday trading had the #VACA_ITEM whatever thing instead of the specific text.

overall, it's just what I thought 2009 was going to be.

[Bobafett13jw 0]

 Are the prices for schools and hospitals and things cheaper monthly? 

[bluespottedhorse 49]

See, the vibe I'm getting from the forums is that while 2011 doesn't make any grand changes beyond Subways and atmospheric sights and sounds, the little things it improved or changed together add up to make it worth it, especially at a 50% rate.  Of course...that may just be me.quote>

I agree that the changes are mostly cosmetic but I'm still hopeful that CITIESXL will continue to evolve with additional mods and features that were originally requested. 

[Stef42 0]

Originally posted by: Bobafett13jw

 Are the prices for schools and hospitals and things cheaper monthly? quote>

I know that the hospital/local clinic (the first you build) has been lowered from 5000 to 1000

The range is lowered also, only street. So, place it on a 60/80 capacity road at first to have a nice cover for your citizens.

[xopherh 0]

Originally posted by: Stef42

Originally posted by: Bobafett13jw

 Are the prices for schools and hospitals and things cheaper monthly? quote>

I know that the hospital/local clinic (the first you build) has been lowered from 5000 to 1000

The range is lowered also, only street. So, place it on a 60/80 capacity road at first to have a nice cover for your citizens.

quote>

pretty much all of the city services at the basic level have been reduced to 1000 per month, and for comparison the private school is 10000/month instead of 40000

I will say that new Trade interface is functional and appropriate, maybe the best part about this version.  The ability to form a real-world infrastructure is great, and the added "auto-adjust" with Omnicorp pretty much always keeps you at positive cashflow if you have trade with them setup already.  i.e., you don't have to monitor your trading with Omnicorp.

[Boris M 0]

I saw only two types of metro trains - one based on the Paris metro and the other looks like the NYC metro system.

Anyone tried any other metro trains?

[soltangris 42]

Well, the trains and busses are supposed to look differently according to the road setting you choose on city creation.

And all those 'cosmetic' changes... they were much much needed tweaks that make the game much better balanced and polished. I guess they're not that much, but with them the game finally looses that 'unfinished' feeling.

Still, my cities are still small, I can't judge well everything.

A hint for people with graphic problems: Turning off the item 'Atmospheric display' improves noticeably the performance, while keeping all details. Atmospheric display is the haze that grays out the city when you zoom out - it's not that important.