A list of modern city and global civilization builder games

[nuyokcity 22]

Hello,

I have compiled a list here of the SimCity series and related games, including the more famous ones as well as independent projects and links to various other related games.

Please feel free to mention any relevant games and link this post to other SimCity forums as I will be updating this list over time. Some of the games in the list I found in the forums here. My goal is to make a sort of archive list of any modern city builder games so if you are looking for something older, newer, different, similar, etc you can use this list as a reference. I also recommend checking out the Mobygames database - here is a list of city builder games, merchant/trade builder games and transportation network builder games.

If you are into ancient and medieval city building games I have also posted a similar topic in the Heavengames forums here and a copy of that thread as well as a thread of linked threads in the City Builder Games forums here. The list below will contain games from any modern city building genre, as long as there is some kind of minimal amount of building involved.

There are a bunch of independent modern city builder games so there is a lot of potential for a new SimCity sequel or new type of game, whether done in a classic 2d style or 3d style, either developed by a big company or independently. One promising example of independent development is the ancient military rts game 0AD, which can be interpreted as a remake of Age of Empires but in 3d, more historically realistic and the game will be fully moddable - so it seems there are still ways that the rts and city building game genres can evolve.

Maybe creating a game engine, code, or game that could be custom modded is possible at this point after over a couple decades of various city builders. A game where people could modify the setting to include various modern urban settings such as a pre-Industrial age, early Industrial age, modern age, various post-Industrial age settings, alternate histories, scifi, alien, fantasy and alternate/"what if" past, present, and future settings would be interesting. A recent example of a futuristic scifi/fantasy city-building game is Anno 2070 which is included below.

I have added some games in this list which are not directly related to modern city building. For example the Rise of Nations and Empire Earth series are military rts games, but they feature a modern age setting either in an age-progression or standalone-age game. I also added Spore and related games and programs to this list because they are and expanded version from city to global scale building. So I felt it would be interesting to include it here as it might open up some possibilities for new game finds and ideas. As some know, the final Spore game came out to be different from the 2005 video demo, so there is still untapped potential in the genre of biological simulation and global civilization building games.

Modern city building games:

SimCity (1984, 1993)

Utopia: The Creation of a Nation (1991)

SimCity 2000 (1993)

SimCity 2000 Collection (1993)

SimCity Classic (1994)

SimTown (1995)

Constructor (1997)

Infustry Giant (1998)

Mob Rule (1999)

SimCity 3000 (1999)

SimCity 3000 Unlimited (2000)

Tropico (2001)

Industry Giant 2 (2002)

Atlantis Underwater Tycoon (2003)

Tropico 2: Pirate Cove (2003)

SimCity 4 (2003)

SimCity 4: Rush Hour (2003)

Locomotion (2004)

Geniu$: The Tech Tycoon Game (2005)

Genius: Biology (2005)

City Life (2006)

Deep Sea Tycoon: Diver's Paradise (2006)

Tycoon City: New York (2006)

City Life (2006)

SimCity Societies (2007)

City Life: World Edition (2007)

City Life Edition 2008 (2007)

SimCity Societies: Destinations (2008)

Cities XL (2009)

Tropico 3 (2009)

Eco Tycoon: Project Green (2009)

Plan It Green (2009)

Cities XL 2011 (2010)

Cities In Motion (2011)

Anno 2070 (2011)

Cities XL 2012 (2011)

Tropico 4 (2011)

SimCity (2013)

Cities In Motion 2 (2013)

Banished (2014)

1849 (2014)

Evopollution (2014)

Tropico 5 (2014)

Cities Skylines (2015)

Cities XXL (2015)

The Architect (?)

Factorio (?)

Outer space colony builder games:

Outpost (1994)

Outpost 2 (1997)

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (1999)

Space Colony (2003)

Space Colony HD (2010)

Maia (2013)

Spacebase DF9 (2014)

PeriAreion (2015)

Unclaimed World (2015)

Offworld Trading Company (2015)

Colonisation: Moonbase (?)

Shackleton Crater (Cancelled/?)

Other urban modelling programs:

CityEngine (2008)

CityScape (2008)

IBM CityOne (2010)

Enodo (2010)

ArchTech (2012)

Independent mods and games:

Transport Tycoon (1995)

LinCity (1999)

Simutrans (1999)

Open TTD (2004)

LinCity NG (2005)

ElectroCity(2007)

City Empires (2007)

My Virtual City (2007)

City of Rauma (2007)

MyMiniCity (2007)

Micropolis (2008)

Virtual City (2009)

OpenCity (2009)

VirtuCity (2009)

SimCity Deluxe Gold (2011)

Subversion (2011?, unreleased)

Untitled project by Fritzpoll (?)

Creatopolis (?)

Cities of World (?)

Utopia Unlimited (?)

FreeTrain (?)

SimMars (?)

City Builder (?)

Synekism (?)

Urbs Urbis (?)

Simtropolis 1000 (?)

The Metropolis Project (?)

ProjectCB (?)

(?)

(?)

(?)

(?)

SimCity 5: Boomtown (?)

Main Street MMO: Real Cities in Realtime 3D (?)

Civitas (Cancelled, ?)

(?)

(?)

Citybound (?)

Other related modern age setting games:

Rise of Nations (2003)

Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots (2004)

Empire Earth (2001)

Empire Earth: The Art of Conquest (2002)

Empire Earth 2 (2005)

Empire Earth 2: The Art of Supremacy (2006)

Other city builder and economic game series:

A-Train series

Stronghold series

Anno series

Patrician series

Settlers series

Alien Nations series

Cultures series

Port Royale series

Tropico series

SimCity series

Impressions City Builder series

Tilted Mill City Builder series

Various ancient Roman city builder games

Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand

Various merchant and trade-oriented games

Spore series and other planet management sims:

SimEarth: The Living Planet (1990)

The Game of Life (1992)

SimEverything (1994, unreleased early Spore version)

Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life (1997)

Star Wars: Episode I - The Gungan Frontier (1999)

L.O.L.: Lack of Love (2000)

WorldKit (2003?, unreleased)

Spore (2005, unreleased early version)

Spore (2008)

Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts Pack (2008)

Spore: Creature Creator (2008)

Spore: Galactic Adventures (2009)

Untitled independent Spore-like game (?)

Bowshock (?)

The Universim (?)

Civilization series

Various biological simulation games

Various Spore-like games

Other biological simulation programs:

Avida (1993)

Various digital organism simulators

Various evolution simulation programs

Other virtual globe programs:

Celestia (2001)

Stellarium (2001)

Nasa Worldwind (2004)

Google Earth (2005)

Earthsim (2005)

Earthsim 2 (2010)

3d Planet (2011)

Related websites, forums, game and mod links:

SimCity official website

Simtropolis

SimCity 4 Devotion

SimCity Forever

SimCity Central

SimCity Forum

SimCity Societies Forum at Tilted Mill

SimCity Forum at SkyscraperCity

SimCity at City Data Forum

Timeline of Sim games at Game Informer

City Builder Games Forum

Game Mod Database

Indie Game Database

City Building Games at Wikia

City Building Games at Wikipedia

Chronology of City Building Games at Wikipedia

Mobygames Videogame Database and Forum

List of related rts and city builder projects and discussions:

- 0 AD (2000, ?) - an ancient military rts game, sort of a Age of Empires 3d "remake" but better, is open for game testing and and will have the option for custom modding.

- Glest (2004) - is a game engine for fantasy rts games.

- Zero-K (2010) - is an open source futuristic military rts game.

 

Related thread lists

These game lists have been cross posted on related gaming forums:

A list of ancient city builder games here, here

Also see:

 

A list of fantasy and sci-fi rts and city builder games here, here, here

So some options for new city builder games may be the following:

- mod the existing games in some ways such as the many SimCity 4 mods for something different

- research existing and past attempts at independent games that weren't completed and use some of the data if allowed and/or work on completing them

- create new games independently from scratch which will take time if funds and talent is limited, but is certainly possible

- it's up to gamers to post on various forums, social networks, and game mod websites to generate interest and potential collaborations

- ideally an open source version of a city building game can be made where anyone can go in and mod it to add any historical time periods and civilizations or completely new settings, including ancient, medieval, pre-industrial, modern, post-industrial, alternate history, fantasy, scfi, alien, custom, any specific historical time/culture/location, etc.

[catty-cb 4,413]

Nice list especially with all the links ... thanks for taking the time to do it

[Yelmond 19]

That is an impressive list. I'm definitely bookmarking this thread.

It's also nice (and surprising) to see Synekism on there. Thanks!

[nuyokcity 22]

Your welcome, thanks for checking it out. I added all the independent projects that I could find online though there may be more that I have missed, such as games made in languages other than English. So if anyone can search around for any relevant games in other languages that would help to build awareness of all the different games.

I added the unfinished indie games because even though some weren't completed, they are still a part of gaming history so it's interesting to take a look at all the different versions people have made or tried to complete over the years.

It also shows that similar ideas have come up in different places over time, so imagine if we could combine all the talent in one place and maybe work together on a project after studying why all the other attempts didn't work out.

  Edited April 16, 2012 by nuyokcity  

[nuyokcity 22]

I have updated the list with the recently announced SimCity 5 info. I wonder how much research the game developers have or will do into the history of the SimCity series as well as the history of the city-building videogame genre? That and listening to fans experience with previous games and new ideas might help them in making a new game that will be unique and balanced.

The "green" focus of SimCity 5 is remincient of the recent Anno 2070, and it would be great if SimCity 5 gave us full modding and scenario design options so players could construct their own version of what cities could look like. So with modding and editing, you could make a traditional modern industrial city or a more ecologically conscious one, or any combination between and beyond.

It would also be interesting to see cities go through various phases - small beginnings, sprawl, construction booms and then collapse and decay, buildings turning into ruins overgrown by plants with the citizens trying to adjust to a new post-industrial cityscape which could morph into something new and unique.

  Edited April 16, 2012 by nuyokcity  

[nuyokcity 22]

I just recently came across Bowshock, an independent project which you can view on youtube

and read about here. Here's a description of the project by the creator: "As I am also a passionate gamer and Sci-Fi fan I always dreamed of an open world space sim where you would be able to explore an entire galaxy and seamlessly land on planets, asteroids, comets etc."

As this project is in progress it's hard to tell what direction it will take, but it's remincent of the program Earthsim and game Spore, and unlike how Spore turned out it has the potential to be a serious simulation, whether it'll involve building, exploring or both.

  Edited June 8, 2012 by nuyokcity  

[nuyokcity 22]

Updated list with the latest games and links - post or pm if you have any more

[KT08 0]

Thanks you for the post, I'm glad you made the list, it would be great if we update them and this list helps me a lot in finding the crazy games I imagine and crave for all these time
Well, for my ambition, I would love that someday there will be a game where you can
- Start from cells
- Upgrade to an ancient civillization, then thrives through time and to modern
- During the growth, factions appear, they splits into nations and civillizations, we have to deal with them
- With great management system, random alternatives, different outcomes, a lot of science
- Explore to space, great empires, meet alien civillizations, fight and make friends around
- Be a character in the game (which actually can die)
- AoE2's graphic is okay for such big game
- And a lot more crazy features
It would be a combination of Spores, Thrives, Cities, Civillization, Age of Empires, Total War, Universim, Stellaris, Arma, Dynasty Warrior, blah blah blah...well, in short...we make a whole and nearly perfect and realistic simulation of our lives and universe...

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

This is another great list of games that got lost in the depths of the forums. I'm going to Pin it up top with the other one.

[LivingInThePast 364]

There was a game I saw promoted on Simtropolis that was in early alpha--it wasn't a city sim per se but it dealt with industries, like a chart with how raw materials are converted into finished products. This was probably 4-5 years ago, and I can't remember the name of it, or if it was even released.

 

Edit: it was in a city environment, no it wasn't Factorio

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

@LivingInThePast

None of these sound like what you describe, but since they came up in searches I'll list them anyhow:

• TheoTown - A city-building game app for Android
• Ostriv - a new city-building game in development
• Atomic Society: Post Apocalyptic City Builder With Moral Choices (Trailer Inside)
• Eden Isle - Resort Building/Sim Game in Development
• Evolving World
• New city builder game (My Colony)
• Synekism - A New City Simulation Game

Listed in the order I found them based on various search terms.

[IL. 1,043]

On 04/02/2019 at 1:21 AM, CorinaMarie said:

@LivingInThePast

None of these sound like what you describe, but since they came up in searches I'll list them anyhow:

• TheoTown - A city-building game app for Android
• Ostriv - a new city-building game in development
• Atomic Society: Post Apocalyptic City Builder With Moral Choices (Trailer Inside)
• Eden Isle - Resort Building/Sim Game in Development
• Evolving World
• New city builder game (My Colony)
• Synekism - A New City Simulation Game

Listed in the order I found them based on various search terms.

These too: 

Designer City: Empire Edition (Empire City)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spheregamestudios.designercity.empireedition&hl=fr

Designer City

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spheregamestudios.designercity

Designer City 2

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spheregamestudios.designercity2

Designer City: Space Edition (Space City) 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spheregamestudios.spacecity

[Turnstyled 540]

SimCity 4, Cities: Skylines, and NewCity are the only games that click with me right now. To me, SimCity 4 is better at doing everything that SimCity 3000 does. Also, I have all of the content for SimCity (2013). You don't have to use it and it's no longer available for redemption, but the Progressive Insurance Set turns me off so hard. You set an insurance premium for your city and Flo drives around providing insurance to sims who desire it. Flo is an insurance advertising campaign character in the United States.

Of course, Cities: Skylines has its problems. I enjoy it, though. Colossal Order is working on a new project with Paradox Interactive. I believe that development of Cities: Skylines has ceased.

The Lone Pine team is working on NewCity. It's discouraging to me that right at the start of in-game development, no cars are visible. That doesn't last long, though. Also, the game would do well to have modeled citizens.

What I'm fantasizing about right now is Planet City by Frontier Developments. It's not something that currently exists, though Frontier had trademarked a bunch of game names when it had trademarked Planet Zoo. One of those names had been Planet City. The other names were Planet Golf, Planet Railway, Planet Soccer, Planet Hospital, Planet Prison, Planet Racing, and Planet Transport.

The planetcity subreddit is currently private. Suspicious! 

[Turnstyled 540]

Listed below is a list of my opinions on various "modern urban" city builders. I posted this on the NewCity Discord server a day ago, though it has some minor edits:

SimCity (2013): I find it to be charming. Of course, having a lack of space to build along with a lack of terraforming options can make things very annoying. It's very frustrating to try to drag a road out of the buildable area. I'm playing with the SkyePack 3.2 modpack.

Cities XXL: I can get past what Focus Home Interactive did. I don't know how the game handles large cities because I just played it for a little bit, but it doesn't seem that bad to me. Of course, SimCity (2013) has better road tools. I downloaded a mod to make citizens look less cartoony.

Cities: Skylines: This is the game that keeps on giving (and I'm not talking about the countless DLCs)! It has its problems, but the community keeps making amazing content for it. Development on it seems to have ceased and we'll see what Colossal Order and Paradox Interactive will have in store for us in the coming years! 

SimCity 4 Deluxe (+ NAM + SPAM + IRM): This game is joy. I'm not able to do transit network rocket surgery, but I sure enjoy it! Just as I love seeing new content for Cities: Skylines on Steam Workshop, I love seeing new content for SimCity 4 on the LEX and the STEX!

SimCity 3000 Unlimited: I LOVE seeing this game in 4K on my 4K display, even if the UI is miniscule. Seriously, I can barely see the UI in 4K. I'm not playing the game in a window at a lower resolution through DxWnd, though. It's too beautiful in 4K. The compatibility patches on the PC Gaming Wiki are a must to play the game on Windows 10. They eliminate lag when the UI is open. I feel that SimCity 4 does everything better than SimCity 3000 does, but I still love SimCity 3000.

SimCity 2000: I created a Windows 98 Second Edition machine in the 86Box emulator to play this game. I can play the Windows 95 edition on Windows 10, but it's not ideal. I'll be buying a Roland Sound Canvas lifetime license from Roland Cloud to emulate the Roland Sound Canvas for this game. I'll switch it up between that and Munt for Roland MT-32 emulation.

SimCity Classic: It's too simplistic for me.

SimCity Societies: It's all plopping. I won't even try getting into it because it won't work out for me. Interestingly enough, Colossal Order was going to do subcultures for its first expansion, but they saw how much people wanted a day/night cycle, so they axed development of the subcultures expansion three months into development of a six-month development cycle to work on After Dark instead.

City Life 2008 Edition: It's weird. Once I realized that it was from 2006, I had a better understanding of why it was weird. It's still too weird for me, though.

NewCity: I haven't yet gotten past the introductory stages and the art style is a little simplistic for me. Lone Pine Games is doing amazing work, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing how things will unfold in the future!

Highrise City: I'll be following its development. I'll certainly buy it when it'll be available.

Thus, the city builders that I have installed are:

SimCity (2013)
Cities XXL
Cities: Skylines
SimCity 4
SimCity 3000 Unlimited
NewCity
SimCity 2000 (in Windows 98 Second Edition within 86Box)

I'm looking forward to AMPS for SimCity 4 and amidst all the criticisms of Cities: Skylines with all the comparisons between SimCity 4 and Cities: Skylines, I play both games the same way. Also, I know what I said just a few days ago regarding SimCity (2013), but I tried it and I was enjoying myself. I had to turn speech and thought bubbles off because so many people wanted Progressive insurance. 

Below is my Windows 98 Second Edition machine in 86Box and SimCity 200 running in it! Thankfully, 86Box supports nearest neighbor integer scaling, so I can have it fullscreen on my 4K display and it looks more than fine to me!

Edit: I bought the Roland Sound Canvas emulator license and after following a tutorial from Phil's Computer Lab on YouTube and some trial and error, I got Sound Canvas emulation working with 86Box! It sounds fantastic! There were multiple Sound Canvas models. I have the emulator set to emulate the Roland SC-55.

I realized that I don't need to use Munt if I want to emulate the Roland MT-32 in 86Box because 86Box has Roland MT-32/CM32L emulation built into it through the Munt library.

[catty-cb 4,413]

I still pop in when I remember to the Synekism site to see how its going

http://www.synekism.com/index.php

He's still doing monthly updates thru its been a quite a few years since he did a public release of the "city simulator" and of course the other updates I'm following is Luke Hodorowicz (creator of Banished which is a village builder) posts on creating a new game

http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/

-catty

[Turnstyled 540]

I can set the 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 card in the 86box machine that I've used to run the Windows 95 edition of SimCity 2000 to 1080p. That way, it's widescreen, too. The map in SimCity 2000 "tears" at that resolution. 

However, I reinstalled SimCity 2000 in Windows 10 using the SimCity 2000 installer that someone made. I won't link to it because the page for the installer links to a SimCity 2000 Special Edition download on the Internet Archive. It's easily findable, though. The installer includes a fix for saving cities in Windows 7 and later.

Also, someone recently published SC2KRepainter on GitHub: https://github.com/Guspaz/SC2KRepainter

SC2KRepainter fixes graphical issues on Windows 8 and later.

My real issue was that the music kept cutting before the tracks ended. I don't know if that was while using Munt or while using a soundfont with Coolsoft VirtualMIDISynth...or with both. Nonetheless, it hasn't been an issue using the Roland Sound Canvas emulator that I just purchased.

There's an issue with the area between the vertical and horizontal scrollbars flickering, but I fixed that by setting Compatibility Mode to Windows 8. The PC Gaming Wiki says that "On Windows 10 the right-hand scrollbar may have a margin of black pixels at some resolutions." and that setting Compatibility Mode to Windows 8 fixes that issue.

Finally, I don't know if setting the application to 256-bit color mode is necessary when using SC2KRepainter. Nonetheless, I set it to 256-bit color mode.

  Edited May 29, 2021 by Turnstyled  
Changed "Windows 8 and up" to "Windows 8 and later." It makes more sense.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,153]

I think we also need to add "Dorf Romantik" to the list. Are you familiar with it? This is something @CorinaMarie already plays may find interesting. 

[CorinaMarie 29,934]

1 hour ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

"Dorf Romantik"

First time I've heard of it, but I found a short vid that gives an overview:

 

It does look cute. (I have enough to do atm without another game, but I do like the look of this one.)

[TheMurderousCricket 5,153]

I'm tempted to check it out myself but since it's in a development phase, I think I'll just wait out until something akin to a "final" version is released.

I once tried one of the development versions of BeamNG.drive and by golly... was that a disappointment.  Taught by experience, I wouldn't like to spoil myself a fun of playing something that looks so promising.

[mosonče 75]

Not a city builder game but openTTD ( open source version of original Transport Tycoon from 1996 ) from that list is checkworthy if you were extremely unlucky to miss it when first released.
There is also honourable mention of Railroad Tycoon 2 Platinum Edition in that fashion.

And no , that Skylines game isn't a city builder game but glorified and traffic duct taped version ( because they had a Cities in Motion series ) of "The Sims Build mode".

[City_Borders 19]

OTTd is already on the list above. If you are interested in its gameplay then you may want to check Transport Fever 2 as well. Plays mostly like OTTd, but with 3D graphics and gameplay. Think of it of a baby from OTTd x Cities Skylines. Also allows you to build decent looking cities, especially if mods are used.

On 7/7/2021 at 6:29 PM, mosonče said:

Not a city builder game but openTTD ( open source version of original Transport Tycoon from 1996 ) from that list is checkworthy if you were extremely unlucky to miss it when first released.
There is also honourable mention of Railroad Tycoon 2 Platinum Edition in that fashion.

And no , that Skylines game isn't a city builder game but glorified and traffic duct taped version ( because they had a Cities in Motion series ) of "The Sims Build mode".

Define "city builder". Any game that allows you to build decent looking cities for me meet this criteria. Yes, you are referring to its gameplay, unfortunately the game is very road-centric indeed, but it still a "city manager" first of all, not really much different from SimCity 4 except on the traffic - SC4 is the polar opposite, where road - and public transport - traffic is of little importance, especially with NAM active.

[mosonče 75]

On 12.07.2021 at 12:40 PM, City_Borders said:

OTTd is already on the list above. If you are interested in its gameplay then you may want to check Transport Fever 2 as well. Plays mostly like OTTd, but with 3D graphics and gameplay. Think of it of a baby from OTTd x Cities Skylines. Also allows you to build decent looking cities, especially if mods are used.

Define "city builder". Any game that allows you to build decent looking cities for me meet this criteria. Yes, you are referring to its gameplay, unfortunately the game is very road-centric indeed, but it still a "city manager" first of all, not really much different from SimCity 4 except on the traffic - SC4 is the polar opposite, where road - and public transport - traffic is of little importance, especially with NAM active.

Indeed, it's on the list as I didn't suggest otherwise. And I think it should be apparent that I despise full 3D in these type of games. ( Now may be a good time to remind how awful Railroad Tycoon 3 was with its primitive 3D and bleh-at-best economy model )

I do define city builder as a game genre where you build cities (not plots barely qualify as towns in size while branded as cities) in a realistic enough simulated way where you set the base parameters and infrastructure only to hope shaping city in the way you want. SimCity 4 is the pinnacle of city building games for me and seems will stay that way for a long while.

I am not into full 3D graphics that doesn't even look as perfect as SC4 ones ( for understandable reasons ) and also limiting plot size drastically. Also I don't like DLC oriented gameplay on top of that , I don't find such casual-friendly gameplay enticing at all, this is nothing but "city building game watered down enough so a larger base can play because we invested money in this as we are either Paradox or EA both known to ship half baked games to complete later by DLCs" . 

Still, I am quite optimistic of seeing a proper city building game in my lifetime and it will follow footsteps of SC4 not these monstrosities.

 

PS : Not exactly a game but I can recommend blender ( https://www.blender.org ) if you're mostly into building decent looking cities.

[ghosty20 150]

Just got a look at the new Highrise City game as now listed on Steam and has a demo.. Does look rather interesting as it looks like it adds in a whole lot more..

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1489970/Highrise_City/

[kschmidt 6,256]

Some newcomers like New City, Smart City Plan and City State, wich will  soon go to version 2  !

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1074180/Smart_City_Plan/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1352850/Citystate_II/

Kschmdit

 

[Turnstyled 540]

I may have done something.

City builder games are the only games that truly "mesh" with me. I really pruned all those files and folders that I was hoarding and that I displayed in my Returning after recouping my mental health thread. I got rid of my SimCity Societies files. I don't understand that one.

I know that I posted some time ago in this comment about using official Roland Sound Canvas emulation with SimCity 2000 for Windows 95. Roland SC-55 ROMs were extracted and decrypted. Then, DoomWorld user trevor0402 "converted the entire SC-55 MkII soundbank to a soundfont and carefully tweaked each instrument BY EAR to match his own SC-55 unit." Said soundfont is available at GitHub here: https://github.com/trevor0402/SC55Soundfont

I never did a comparison, but it's supposedly miles better than the Roland SC-55 soundfonts by Patch93 and EmperorGrieferous. I could not tell the difference between the official Sound Canvas emulation and trevor0402's soundfont. Therefore, I believe that trevor0402's soundfont is a better solution to "emulating" the Roland SC-55 than paying Roland and dealing with its DRM. Also, I had to manually select the SC-55 from a number of Sound Canvas devices using the method that I described some time ago.

Additionally, I purchased the Voice Crystal 4 MB GM soundfont from Eye and I, which can be found available for purchase here: http://voicecrystal.com/sf4mgm.htm. It uses the same soundfont that was used with the Gravis Ultrasound, but it's better tuned.

SimCity Classic for DOS received Gravis Ultrasound support, so I just tried it for Windows 95 with that soundfont that I purchased.

I might want to install SimCity 2000 in a Windows 7 virtual machine because the animation errors that happen in Windows 8 and later are really annoying me and SC2KRepainter doesn't fix them as well as I'd like it to.

Oh, and regarding NewCity... Supposedly, the developers have a large visual update for the game in the works, but they've gone silent. 

Edit: So I just created a Windows 7 virtual machine in VMWare workstation. It crashed on startup if I used more than one core. It crashed on shutdown until I fully updated the operating system using the latest Simplix Update Pack. Setting the SC2K executable to 256 colors in Compatibility Settings caused the rest of the Windows desktop to be 256 colors.

Setting the executable to 256 colors in Compatibility Settings, setting Compatibility Mode to Windows 8 to fix issues with and near the scrollbars, and using SC2KPainter within Windows 11 was more pleasant than running the game in a Windows 7 virtual machine. The water pipes were my concern. They only "repaint" when you place more pipe and they don't always "repaint" perfectly.

[City_Borders 19]

On 7/13/2021 at 1:24 PM, mosonče said:

Indeed, it's on the list as I didn't suggest otherwise. And I think it should be apparent that I despise full 3D in these type of games. ( Now may be a good time to remind how awful Railroad Tycoon 3 was with its primitive 3D and bleh-at-best economy model )

I do define city builder as a game genre where you build cities (not plots barely qualify as towns in size while branded as cities) in a realistic enough simulated way where you set the base parameters and infrastructure only to hope shaping city in the way you want. SimCity 4 is the pinnacle of city building games for me and seems will stay that way for a long while.

I am not into full 3D graphics that doesn't even look as perfect as SC4 ones ( for understandable reasons ) and also limiting plot size drastically. Also I don't like DLC oriented gameplay on top of that , I don't find such casual-friendly gameplay enticing at all, this is nothing but "city building game watered down enough so a larger base can play because we invested money in this as we are either Paradox or EA both known to ship half baked games to complete later by DLCs" . 

Still, I am quite optimistic of seeing a proper city building game in my lifetime and it will follow footsteps of SC4 not these monstrosities.

 

PS : Not exactly a game but I can recommend blender ( https://www.blender.org ) if you're mostly into building decent looking cities.

Having grown used with 3D I can say I am the opposite, I cannot really live without it anymore. SC4 has some limited off-grid functionality with NAM, but still no true elevation control.

Likewise with city building and features, we will agree to disagree. No, Blender does not count, lol.

As for SC4, I still like the game, played for literally a decade. Though I do play other city builders now instead. One thing that may make me revisit this would be better public transit management tools. A-Train is a comparable isometrical game with good such transit management tools. Guess I got too used with CS and TpF lol.

 

[kschmidt 6,256]

15 hours ago, City_Borders said:

Having grown used with 3D I can say I am the opposite, I cannot really live without it anymore. SC4 has some limited off-grid functionality with NAM, but still no true elevation control.

Likewise with city building and features, we will agree to disagree. No, Blender does not count, lol.

As for SC4, I still like the game, played for literally a decade. Though I do play other city builders now instead. One thing that may make me revisit this would be better public transit management tools. A-Train is a comparable isometrical game with good such transit management tools. Guess I got too used with CS and TpF lol.

 

City transport simulation, City in Motion 2 might be a good alternative tp A Train ? What I only hate about those new builders the cloud saves. This makes backups allmost impossible as you have no control over your game files. SimCity 4limited as it is, still more secure for now, only draw backto all games, how long will theybbe supported ? City state 2. New City,CSKL 2,....!

[mosonče 75]

On 17.05.2023 at 2:54 AM, City_Borders said:

Having grown used with 3D I can say I am the opposite, I cannot really live without it anymore. SC4 has some limited off-grid functionality with NAM, but still no true elevation control.

Likewise with city building and features, we will agree to disagree. No, Blender does not count, lol.

As for SC4, I still like the game, played for literally a decade. Though I do play other city builders now instead. One thing that may make me revisit this would be better public transit management tools. A-Train is a comparable isometrical game with good such transit management tools. Guess I got too used with CS and TpF lol.

 

Sorry for late reply. I still believe that full 3D isn't well suited and even contradictory for what these games are trying to achieve. Might also add full agent-based simulation as well. They devote precious computing power to features not first class citizen.

And SC4 has own limitations for sure ( SC2013 also had, there are several GDC videos by Maxis where they explain why SC2013 is so SC2013 ) but the main formula of  "simple geometry with fixed orthographic projection on top of full 3D features where it's necessary " is still valid and most feasible way imo.

I just don't like how modern city builder wannabe games have constraints they created and then trying to circumvent it by adding bleh features such as tycoon elements ( it was kinda logical but bleh at "always online and we cooperate because farm size plot" of SC2013 ) 

And A-train was always ice cold for me, I loved Transport Tycoon and Railroad Tycoon II ( Actually I still play RT2 as of now )

[Turnstyled 540]

I took a break from city builder games having overwhelmed myself. I felt as though I needed other hobbies because keeping it to city builder games was too limiting. I tried all kinds of things, but they all didn't work for me. For one thing, I don't handle fictional worlds well. I honestly can't do "stories." I'm not one to keep aquariums or take hikes, either. City builder games are the right balance of everything for me. I tried flight sims, too, but they don't mesh with me like city-builder games do.

Thus, I decided to make a list of what I think of just about all modern city-builder games out there. This was initially going to be a list of which ones I wanted installed and which ones I didn't want installed, but they ended up all appealing to me in some form.

I own Technicity, but I do not find it to be a city-builder game. It's Minecraft in city form. I am leaving it out. Additionally, I do not yet know enough about Tropico 3, 4, and 5 to know if they offer sandbox modes where rebels do not attack and nations do not invade. I do not like that. I am not in this for "win conditions" or to stress myself out. I own Tropico 5 and it is very off-putting to see people in colonial outfits and zoot suits in "modern times." I am keeping Tropico 3, 4, and 5 off of this list.

Keep in mind that I'm not using DOSBox, old computers kept off the Internet, or emulators such as 86Box to play any of these.

SimCity 4 - What is there to really say? The community has kept it prosperous for 20 years, and it'll continue to do so.

SimCity 3000 - It's what was purchased for me at Staples when I was 9 years old. I skipped out on Unlimited, but that's the version that I keep installed. It's the one on GOG. I like the colors and the overall atmosphere of this one.

SimCity 2013 - It falls apart, but with the mod pack that is on the STEX, I enjoy the overall atmosphere of it.

SimCity Societies - I wasn't around the community when it was first out. It's not anything special....at all. No zoning. All you do is plop with every building providing positive and negative traits. 

SimCity 2000 - It's not quite "before my time" because I was at a friend's house when I was eight years old. He had SimCity 2000. 3000 and 4 are more my style, though. I have my mt32-pi synthesizer device, which I can load various soundfonts onto, or emulate a Roland MT-32/CM-32L, to have the kind of musical experience that I want. 

SimCity Classic - It's so basic and barebones. SimCity 2000 was, indeed, a revolution after the original SimCity. I can also use my mt32-pi with this game.

Cities: Skylines - With a vibrant modding community, much has been done with Cities: Skylines. I have pre-ordered Cities: Skylines II.

Highrise City - I love the niche of this one. It's Anno, but a modern city builder.

Workers & Resources - Soviet Republic - This game is "modern" enough for me; however, I will not play campaigns or for strategy. It's too stressful for me that way. Sandbox with unlimited funds is the way to go for me!

NewCity - This game was abandoned by its developers. The version that I keep installed is the final version on the beta branch.

Smart City Plan - I haven't tried this one too much. It has potential for me as something calm, relaxing, and simple. The developer has looked beyond it, though. Yes, it's a complete game, but with talk of performance issues in Steam and GOG reviews, I feel as though it could've been more. I'm not into the "Hyperloop" and similar in it.

Tropico 6 - This game has a jovial soundtrack, is bright and colorful, and it now has a true sandbox mode! I don't know anything about politics, so I'd rather not play with factions, trade with other countries, and all that.

Tropico 1 - In the first Tropico game, you can set money to unlimited and win conditions to none. Also, I appreciate the minimum political tension setting being described as "Even political scientists can't mess this up." I need to use dxwrapper to play it properly on my Windows 11 PC.

Citystate 2 - Again, I'm not able to process politics as a topic, but you can play as Center if you don't plan to carry out a particular political ideology.

Citystate - It has a no politics, economics only sandbox mode. I like that.

Pocket City - A mobile game ported to Steam. It's very simplistic.

Theotown - More fleshed out than Pocket City. The classical music in it is something that I cannot bear, but I have my SimCity 3000/4 playlist for that!

Epic City Builder 4 - I haven't tried it, though I own it on Steam. It seems to be nothing too special. I'll try it after I purchase a new graphics card later this year.

Cities XXL - Not as bad as people say. I haven't gotten into the late game, so I don't know if it'll become unbearably slow on my current PC.

Urbek City Builder - I haven't played this voxel-based one much at all. People say that it's a puzzle, really. I'm looking forward to trying this one more.

City Life: 2008 Edition - It's a challenge to play it properly on a 4K display. The creator of its soundtrack deserves a medal.

Edit: I just played Tropico 5 in "sandbox" mode and I lost elections very quickly. The post-processing in that game, which can be disabled, is too much. When they say "sandbox," I kind of expect it to be something where you can't "lose." I suspect that Tropico 3 and 4 are similar to all that. I suppose that I'd be able to find the right combination of constitution settings where it would be nearly impossible for me to "lose." Whatever, though. The point of this post is that there are plenty of "modern" city-builder games out there. Not all are gems, but there's enough variety for me!

Edit 2: I forgot about Tycoon City: New York. I saw it on the list in the first post. Sandbox mode is too "void" for me, so to play, I'd have to play the campaign. I own The Architect: Paris...and it's an architecture game. The studio behind it went bankrupt, but I would sure not call it a city-builder game.

[catty-cb 4,413]

It's not a city builder as such, but I notice it's been added to the 1st post and that's Banished and I tried it out back in 2014 when it was released and am still playing it today ... I can't remember the last time I had my sc4 region open as I find if I have any spare playing time then I've usually building a village in Banished