CitiesXL A new start

[Lancelot1968 0]

Hi there

as a long time fan and player of Sim City I finaly started playing CitiesXL. It is looking great but as I want to build my own city again I have a few questions for you all:

1. How can I make my own map of a city and where do I place it?
2. Are all or some or none buildings from the Stex usable in cities as they where made for Sim City or do we have to wait till more get made for XL?
3. How is the multiplay online world play? I heard somewhere that it got scraped. Is this true?
4. I have the 2009 version as it is known atm. How much better is the 2011 version?
5. Is there more custom play, maps, buildings in the 2011 version?
6. Compared to 2009 is 2011 worth dl-ing/buying or sould I wait till the 2011 version is improved?

Hope you can answer my questions

thanks in advance and cheers

[Lancelot1968 0]

Just to make clear I want to restart my city journal of Amsterdam I started in Sim City4 now that alot of restrictions are gone which makes it possible to build the canals etc like they look! I ofcourse will need a new map of Amsterdam that works in CitiesXL. Either in the 2009 version or the 2011 version.

[soltangris 42]

Lancelot, first of all - good to see another enthusiast about Cities XL! I hope you find the game enjoyable.

I think that none of the stuff made for SC4 is currently usebale in Cities XL - this means mods, buildings, STEX, etc. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. However, there is a whole separate section for Cities XL mods here - check it out, having in mind that most of them don't work with CXL 2011 yet.  
Now to answer your questions more specifically:

1. You can't. All CXL maps are pre-made, you have to use one of them. Although you might want to check for a mod that allows you some changes to maps (I don't use mods currently, so I'm not aware if such exists, but I'm pretty sure a mod was created with additional terraforming tools for pre-existing maps).

2. For the first part of the question, look above, and I'm pretty sure none of the buildings are usable, since CXL is fully 3D, while SC4 was 2D. Focus Home (which currently develops the game) has promised us custom content support, but it's not clear yet when and if they're gonna release anny building creation tools. So, for now, we have to wait.

3. Online play doesn't exist anymore - most people believe that it was exactly the Plannet Offer that bankrupted MC. Now the game is flly solo, with all aspects of online play (trading, Megastructures)  incorporated in the solo mode.

4. That depends on what your expectations are. For me, it's a great improvement, and I did play the Planet Offer, so I was already using all those features. But to list some of the changes: new roads, new metro system, detailed taxes, trading now possible between your own cities, generally improved gameplay, more maps, the Chinatown and the American pack (the last one contains buildings that go in the water, or on the beach!).

5. Look above for answer to this one

6. Again, this is subjective. For me it was more than worth buying, especially with the deal for old customers (50% off, so you get it for around $25). I think the game has enough improvements to warrant you buying it, not to mention that you'll get all stuff that previously was Planet Offer-exclusive.  

[Cob92 360]

Originally posted by: Lancelot1968

Hi there

as a long time fan and player of Sim City I finaly started playing CitiesXL. It is looking great but as I want to build my own city again I have a few questions for you all:

1. How can I make my own map of a city and where do I place it?

2. Are all or some or none buildings from the Stex usable in cities as they where made for Sim City or do we have to wait till more get made for XL?

3. How is the multiplay online world play? I heard somewhere that it got scraped. Is this true?

4. I have the 2009 version as it is known atm. How much better is the 2011 version?

5. Is there more custom play, maps, buildings in the 2011 version?

6. Compared to 2009 is 2011 worth dl-ing/buying or sould I wait till the 2011 version is improved?

Hope you can answer my questions

thanks in advance and cheersquote>

1. AFAIK, the modders haven't figured out how to make new maps for CXL 2011. It IS possible to make new maps for CXL 2009, but from what I've heard it is a pretty difficult process.

2. Buildings and mods made for SC4 can only be used in SC4.

3. Yes, it was disabled because it was not a sustainable business model and ended up bleeding MC dry. On the bright side, it means that CXL2011 is a singleplayer focused game where all features are available without a subscription.

4. 2011 does add many new maps, some performance improvements, new buildings, sound effects, and revamps the trading system completely. I'd say it's a pretty big improvement over '09.

5. Not ATM.

6. It is worth buying, most definitely.

 

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I will just answer numbers 5 and 6 as the others have been answered better than I could.

5. Yes

6. Yes

[Lancelot1968 0]

Just started with 2011 and I must say it's well worth buying. I see some really nice things. In normal mode it does seem easy to build. Making 20k with a 15k city size. Will start making a journal as soon as I have finished trying everything out!

[Lancelot1968 0]

Just a question that may be somewhere but I couldn't find it. How do you make tunnels in 2011 XL?? I am building a city with some small mountains/hills and will in the future want to build tunnels. How do you build them?

[soltangris 42]

Go to Transportation>Bridges, select one, start building, hold SHIFT and move your mouse to change the height of the blueprint. You'll end up making a tunnel. And if you want, do the Tutorials, they explain such things.

[Lancelot1968 0]

yeah i managed to make a tunnel. I figured it had to do with bridges

[Lancelot1968 0]

BTW i like the blueprint stuff, but I do have a question. I assigned 2 excecutives and 2 offices to a giant wheel blueprint but how do I go any progress is made. It seems to stay on 0%, or do I have to use way more resources?

[Lancelot1968 0]

BTW i like the blueprint stuff, but I do have a question. I assigned 2 excecutives and 2 offices to a giant wheel blueprint but how do I go any progress is made. It seems to stay on 0%, or do I have to use way more resources?

[Lancelot1968 0]

ok NVM I got it working. Need tons of resources to get the blueprint finished.

[Lancelot1968 0]

Ok I got my city to 500K and got the highway option. Now I am trying to make an elevated highway to go through the city and make the roads go under it like in the real world. However when I try to make these elevated highways (hold shift) for some length it drops to ground level. How do I make a long elevated highway without using bridges (they look really stupid over land)????

[CarloTheCurious 3]

If you mean the bridge suspension towers, you can avoid them by building your bridge in short sections (confirming after each one).

[Jesse Swiss 6]

You cant and You should usually use a 4x4 highway( actually a small Avenue ) to make it real nice use the small avenue, put it at a reasonable height, and you wont have any thing like the expressway and highway and others.

Check this video out will most likely help you, I incorporated it into my city and looks very natural, a little bit of work but is a great turnout in the end ! :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_066m5yJI-M&translated=1

[Lancelot1968 0]

thanks both of you, I wanted to avoid the tons of extra work but I guess there is no way around haveing to do the extra work to get elevated highways.

[Lancelot1968 0]

I managed to update all my big avenue lanes and get the elevated highway but am very disappointed. I distructed a small number of buildings doing the upgrade and lost 150k people in my city. I'm also disappointed how my roads look. The cars just seem to stop at roundabouts for avenues and for highways. This looks very stupid when playing. Oh well time to make a new city and plan alittle better ahead.

[soltangris 42]

Lancelot, you'll just have to be patient. Yeah, we all know that the cars stop at roundabouts and highway intersections, that they go one lane at a time..... We also know that you need to really plan ahead your road network - if not building it from the start, than at least leaving plenty of space for later upgrades.

[Lancelot1968 0]

Well as I just played for 3 days it wasn't to bad but its getting time to stop trying things out and really start making a multimap and possibly a journal aswell.. Time for some serious gameplay!

[Cob92 360]

Yeah, if you don't like your roads turning out messy and chaotic, you need to have a general plan of what you want your roads to look like before you build them. To avoid doing too many demolitions, leave a bit of space around roads so that you can widen them later on, and leave extra space on blocks so that buildings can be rebuilt when the road expansion is complete.

[Lancelot1968 0]

Yeah am doing that. Found a really nice map to re-start some serious game play. Just a pitty I can't make those large avenue go out of the city side by side. I was making them one way trafic as suggested (looks nice) but can't make 1 go in and 1 go out of the city next to each other. Would have been perfect for my city.

[Lancelot1968 0]

btw nice city Cobhris wish I could visit it like I see on tons of youtube films. Pitty the online game is gone before I even had the chance to play it.

[CarloTheCurious 3]

You can get roads closer to each other by starting at 90 degrees to one and turning parallel (an example).

[Lancelot1968 0]

haha that was really funny but I do like the star roads in the 2nd photo. I will be making my version in my city. As soon as I have played enough I will post my city "journal".

[Lancelot1968 0]

btw i saw a movie/film button next to the make picture buton. Doed this work and if so where does it leave the movie/film?

[CarloTheCurious 3]

I think you mean the 'postcard' or 'satellite' view buttons - they just change your viewing angle.

[Lancelot1968 0]

yeah i guess i tried it out and did nothing in some city but now I see how it works

[Jesse Swiss 6]

Originally posted by: Lancelot1968

Yeah am doing that. Found a really nice map to re-start some serious game play. Just a pitty I can't make those large avenue go out of the city side by side. I was making them one way trafic as suggested (looks nice) but can't make 1 go in and 1 go out of the city next to each other. Would have been perfect for my city.quote>

To make it go side-by-side you have to pause the game and then link the two roads next to each other, the game wont notice and it will look natural again !

[Lancelot1968 0]

I found an error/glitchin citiesXL 2011. When placing a blueprint and then not being satisfied the only way to get rid of it is returning to an earlier saved game. However when i do that the placed blueprint is not available anymore to place in your city.

btw a quick question where are your cities saved to? I want to do a fresh install of windows and would like to save my cities (backup) to somewhere safe but I can't seem to find the saved cities.

[CarloTheCurious 3]

You should be able to delete BPs by selecting them and using the Delete key.

Saves are in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Focus Home Interactive\Cities XL 2011\live\offline\solo