The SimCity 5 Thread (Formerly "Is SimCity 5 Ever Coming Out?").

[Rury 37]

Actually guys, I don't think EA will really publish another game like SC4. If I remember correctly, the original makers of SimCity (willright mainly) always dreamt of basically a giant mmo where everyone controlled one person. With many people playing together at once, people would indirectly sort of build a city... kind of like a virtual reality of real life. But the problem was when they started developing games, computers weren't powerful enough to make a complex game like that, so they made SimCity instead.

Now fast-forward today where computers are much faster than they were in 1989...

What game sounds like their original intention?

The Sims...

And The Sims still doesn't entirely represent what they dream of, so...

  Edited November 30, 2011 by Rury  

[pablo94sc 0]

Hi all, first post. So I literally found out about SC4 a few weeks ago and picked it up. To say I was excited is an understatement, but after install and a couple weeks of playing I found the level of realism a little disappointing. The tiles, as I understand it, are roughly 50ft/sq, and that's a bit ridiculous. I'm sure others have voiced similar opinions, but I don't have time to search the forums and read all of the posts to find them. Anyway, if EA/Maxis were to make SC5, I would like to see significant changes to the transportation system and tile sizes brought to a more realistic levels. Below are my thoughts*.

Tiles / Zoning

1. Tiles become ~26ft/sq, or 7.9m/sq. 4x4 grid would be roughly 1/4-acre, while an 8x8 would be roughly 1-acre. This is easier for those of us in real estate and urban development to plan around.

2. Integrations of trailer parks and other small homes that can fit on a 1x1 grid.

3. Mixed use commercial/residential. You see these all the time in urban areas, usually a converted brownstone or row house.

4. Larger city grids would be lovely, up to about 50 miles/sq would be great!

5. Have the budget shared across the entire region unless the area currently being built is incorporated as a separate town (think incorporated suburbs), or allow the adjacent areas to be annexed into the main city and share its budget as it grows. This will provide more realism.

Roads

1. Streets are one tile wide. The average street is, at most, 25ft across. Restricted freight traffic. Traffic lights optional only at road+ intersections.

2. Roads are 2 tiles wide and 5-lane (4 with middle turn). Traffic lights optional only at road+ intersections.

3. Avenues are 3 tiles wide, 6 lane roads, small median, again a turn lane(s). Traffic lights standard.

4. Parkways 3 tiles wide, 6 lanes wide with large median and with on/off ramps. Like current highways but with restricted freight traffic. Can be ended at avenues like typical rural highways when they come into a town.

5. Highways are 4 tiles wide and 8 lanes wide.

5. Bus stops and subway entrances/exits are integrated into the sidewalks of roads/avenues (at an increased cost, of course).

6. Transit hubs for buses with a couple varying sizes/capacity. A large inner-city hub may be 100'x300'.

7. More realistic commute times and traffic capacities based on samples of real world cities.

Commuter Rail

1. A one tile wide, 2-rail system is appropriate. Passenger cars vary in length, but a common LIRR size is 85'x10'6".

2. Small commuter stations would be two tiles wide with a bus stop and/or subway entrance built in. Platforms and ticket kiosks aren't very wide, but are long. Sample 12 car LIRR station is about 52'x1020', so a 2x39 station is realistic (using the 26ft/sq tile), but for game play I can see using smaller stations.

3. Larger train stations for transfer of varying sizes/capacity, up to something like Penn Station or Grand Central Station on a huge lot.

4. More realistic capacities as mentioned above.

Just my thoughts, but I'd love to see it happen.

* I know some of these ideas are already available in mods, but I'm still getting used to them and having trouble sorting out the cheat mods and getting all of the dependencies to play nice together.

  Edited December 7, 2011 by pablo94sc  

[Ndragonawa 37]

Firstly, a warm welcome to Pablo94sc. Simtropolis is a great community and I hope you enjoy your time here on the site and on the forums.

Secondly, I prefer to have smaller tiles than no tiles or no grid. Often times when I played City Life or Cities XL I found that roads I thought were straight, weren't and places where a zone looked like it would fit, didn't. Tiles keep everything exact (no more .003m off) and reducing their size increases reality and creative freedom. Just look at The Sims 3 they reduced the tile size by a fourth and added 45 degree rotation; to the untrained eye it is as if there is no grid.

[pablo94sc 0]

Thanks for the welcome! I too prefer a grid (for ease of game play alone). I just wish SC4 didn't make the tile size 50ft x 50 ft. It makes streets the same width as a 5-lane road. :/

As an addendum to my list of upgrades - a 2D overhead view mode for planning/seeing road and rail layouts when you've got skyscrapers all over the place.

[memedoug85 36]

How's this for an idea: Simcity 5, basicly combining Simcity 4 with the Sims. Make the game have a seperate engine for when you click on a certain building. It would then take you to Sim view where you can then do landscaping, remodeling etc

I think it could be done and its a realistic change. The way that the Sim games are going it seems like a step in the right direction.

Of course you can do all (or none) of the suggestions by every other member of this site but I haven't really heard of my idea before...

What do you think?

[pressure 2]

Thanks for the welcome! I too prefer a grid (for ease of game play alone). I just wish SC4 didn't make the tile size 50ft x 50 ft. It makes streets the same width as a 5-lane road. :/

As an addendum to my list of upgrades - a 2D overhead view mode for planning/seeing road and rail layouts when you've got skyscrapers all over the place.

Welcome dude. I've been here forever and probably have about as many posts as you. =] Everything in SC4 strikes me as conceptual as opposed to photo-real. I like that myself but it does lead to goofyness if you try to compare sc4 to real life.

As for your comment on an overhead planning view, I just turn the "zones" view on when I'm planning and everything that hasn't been plopped goes away. You still don't get the simplicity of a 2d view, but at least all your zoned obstructions are gone.

And to officially re-add my opinion: screw EA, to put it in terms that won't get me banned. I'm not saying that because they make bad games; I'm saying it because they're EA and people need to do things to their mommas that would get me banned for describing.

SC4 is a geek game, in the best sense of the word. EA does NOT do geek. They buy geek game developers and dismantle them (exceptions for biggies like Bioware but EA's fingerprints are still all over the Dragon Age and Mass Effect sequels). What we need for SC5 is a developer from somebody like Paradox. You know, the kind of game developers that actually develop actual games.

[pressure 2]

How's this for an idea: Simcity 5, basicly combining Simcity 4 with the Sims. Make the game have a seperate engine for when you click on a certain building. It would then take you to Sim view where you can then do landscaping, remodeling etc

I think it could be done and its a realistic change. The way that the Sim games are going it seems like a step in the right direction.

Of course you can do all (or none) of the suggestions by every other member of this site but I haven't really heard of my idea before...

What do you think?

I had thought that was the direction they were going in. There was some kind of connectivity between sc4 and The Sims where you could input your sc4 citizen into The Sims, but I don't think it was in your own city so it was basically worthless. What couldn't happen is to have both sims running simultaneously at both the city level and the individual level, which is what would make that idea cool. Just not enough computing power yet.

I really miss SimCopter and what was the other one? SimRacer? Where you could fly and drive through your cities 1st person. Or was it 3rd? It's been a long time. But it let you get inside your creation in a whole different way.

I mean, what would be wrong with letting the SimCity fans play the role of level creator for a whole other set of casual game players that would have fun doing whatever stupid crap inside your city? Like Little Big Planet where the point is to play inside of fun levels somebody else has sweated and toiled over creating? They'd make hardcore and casual happy and make two streams of income off of only one product, or a full stream of income from only half a normal development budget if explaining that way made the suits happier.

Now that I think of it, a damn good idea.

[tomfoolery_79 85]

Oh it burns!

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/topic/43769-the-simcity-5-thread-formerly-is-simcity-5-ever-coming-out/page__view__findpost__p__1008906

[Hamish 1,370]

I think we could probably lock this, there is a whole forum on the new simcity game.