SimCity: Gameplay

[Pygma 24]

Yes Bundesstraße inqueries to State Street. Its like a big intercity street, a smaller version of a highway/autobahn with other streets being able to cross it or buildings having their entrance/exit onto it. No on and offramps needed.

  Edited October 5, 2012 by Pygma  

[GMT 389]

I also find it interesting the highway sign says something like "State street" in German? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think i'm close

it's a pretty weird sign anyway, not following the rules.

In fact, "Bundesstraßen" are signed yellow and are different from "Autobahnen" (highways) as they don't follow the architectural requirements to be an "Autobahn"

Blue signs, in turn, are reserved for "Autobahnen" (highways).

Also, the symbol on the sign is that of an "Autobahn" (the 2 lane road with the bridge crossing which in fact looks like an A... for Autobahn)

[barnacleboy 13]

"Bundesstraßen" are "federal roads" or simply main roads in Germany and Austria. They are usually 2 lane roads in rural areas and avenues in bigger towns and cities. Sometimes they are built like a motorway, but typically they are less important or the precursor or backup of an "Autobahn".

  Edited October 5, 2012 by barnacleboy  

[VeritaScientia 150]

"Bundesstraßen" are "federal roads" or simply main roads in Germany and Austria. They are usually 2 lane roads in rural areas and avenues in bigger towns and cities. Sometimes they are built like a motorway, but typically they are less important or the precursor or backup of an "Autobahn".

Ahh, Danke (and there goes half my german, hand me a beer and you'd hear the other half of the German I know )

Since they're taking cues from European countries, you can't really say they're not staying wholly within America for ideas, too

[Don Bananos 28]

Also, the symbol on the sign is that of an "Autobahn" (the 2 lane road with the bridge crossing which in fact looks like an A... for Autobahn)

Maybe the blue makes it Autobahn, but in Denmark, we have the same sign, just in green for motorway/highway/autobahn, what ever it's called!

http://www.gophoto.it/view.php?i=http://engrospriser.dk/fileadmin/engrospriser/Produkt_billeder/SeriQSign/6-E42.jpg#.UG9E0U0xoms

[Don Bananos 28]

Hey,

im wondering one question regarding the sims jobs. Am i really getting it right that a sim, everyday searches for a new job? So he leaves his house at X in the morning and drives towards the next possible job location. If it is taken meanwhile, he searches for the next open position or returns home.

If yes, doesnt this dramatically increase traffic?

As far as i have understood, the work sites sent out a request for X workers, then it will search for that number of workers along the roads (because the searching is done with agents, as the rest of the simulation):

Then they've stated that it will be possible for sims from one city to work in another city. so i guess that the job-request-agents also follow the railway and "Highway" that connects the different cities within the region.

More and more i believe this sim city is only a base for a good game. Maybe the new Sim City 2/3/4 will do the job.

Exactly my thoughts. This game have a lot of things missing, (big city tiles and so forth) and i really hope that the game will make enough success, that EA will post enough money into Maxis, so a sequel can be made. With bigger tiles, subway and stuff like that!

Now i am just looking forward to enjoying the Glassbox engine, and the way improved graphics (allthough the textures are cartoonish)

Mike

[stp243 8]

We can get an idea as to how big the city's working space actually is from the most recent gameplay video. If you watch the sides/top of the screen you can see a white line appear while the roads are being layed down. It looks to me like the white line is a border telling you where the real border of the city is. The size is not what were used to but its big enough for me.

You have to watch carefully but you can see it at 1:20 (on the left), 4:39 (top left hand corner behind gamespeed and newswire) and 5:14 (top right hand corner).

I still want to know if frieght rail is available but overall everything else looks great and I can't wait to pick it up.

EDIT: Just noticed theres another topic that talks about the border lines. There are pictures to illustrate the point too. Heres the link - https://community.simtropolis.com/topic/51457-some-gameplay-images-from-vid/

  Edited October 5, 2012 by stp243  

[CarrotCake07 3]

This is more of a village building game but anyways.

I think that the zoning of the buildings is really interesting. That the cars of the Sims do not disapear when they're next to a road and now they drive onto the plot. That's is new and refreshing.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

This is no City Builder Game. Cities XL is solidly a City Builder. City Engine is a City Simulator and so is SimCity 4. SimCity 2013 is a Town Simulator. A very rich and complex but simple and easy Software Toy. The video confirms it. I like the video a lot, though.

--Ocram

[Ocram's Razr 963]

I like the video but it proved that SimCity 2013 is a Town Simulator Software Toy and not a City Builder Game. I like how you can just pour out all the sewage at one outflow. I think there should be one that can only be placed on coast lines.

--Ocram

[spicytimothy 7]

From the first picture, it does look like the same setup as SC4... They already said you can play all cities in the same region and not co-op online, so it seems the only difference is that now visually it won't be rectangular cities on a rectangular region...

So in that sense, the connection is no different than the connection we made back in SC4 to connect between cities, (of coz the difference being the connection locations are now fixed and singular...)

The green arrows are most likely upgrades... The 2-lane road said "no room for growth", implying that other road choices DOES have room for growth... green arrows will likely but the upgrade/expand buttons for existing roads.

[City Planner 121]

Not at all pleased with the size of the plots of land for the cities.

I'd like to play SimCity 2013 not SimTown 2013

[Urban Cartographer 601]

Not at all pleased with the size of the plots of land for the cities.

I'd like to play SimCity 2013 not SimTown 2013

I must agree. SimTown 2013 is the more accurate name of the upcoming game. I am going to wait for a true SimCity to come out that has a 100% offline single player mode.

[~Dee~ 215]

Not at all pleased with the size of the plots of land for the cities.

I'd like to play SimCity 2013 not SimTown 2013

I must agree. SimTown 2013 is the more accurate name of the upcoming game. I am going to wait for a true SimCity to come out that has a 100% offline single player mode.

Same here, this could be a fantastic game if they wouldn't insist on the online only concept, what made them take out so many features what made past Sim City titles such fun to play.

Very disappointing ... but Cities in Motion 2 is coming out next year, looking forward to that ... I can play that off-line.

[Urban Cartographer 601]

Not at all pleased with the size of the plots of land for the cities.

I'd like to play SimCity 2013 not SimTown 2013

I must agree. SimTown 2013 is the more accurate name of the upcoming game. I am going to wait for a true SimCity to come out that has a 100% offline single player mode.

Same here, this could be a fantastic game if they wouldn't insist on the online only concept, what made them take out so many features what made past Sim City titles such fun to play.

Very disappointing ... but Cities in Motion 2 is coming out next year, looking forward to that ... I can play that off-line.

I really hope that EA learn about Cities in Motion 2, especially with having players have the freedom to play a 100% offline single player mode, as well as the previous SimCity titles, instead of gutting the upcoming SimCity game.

[Essex 322]

If this wasn't online only and the city maps would've been of decent size and there were no pre selected roads and the regions were actually regions and cities lined up with each other like in SC4.... I would be buying, it looks great.

[cirugo 1,889]

and you can't even chose where in the region to put a town or your great work...as well as what we already knew about having to deal with pre-set transportation connections.

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

Have you guys read most of the comments of people on the gameplay video, especially with regards to possible DLC?

There's this one guy who pointed out his disappointment over the game's lack of Agricultural zoning & the ability of creating farming/rural towns. And although there are those who agree with his gripe along with other peoples' anxieties with regards to no Terraforming, small city tiles, no subways etcetera, there were actually people who said that things like farming could be a DLC they are willing to purchase. Seriously!? 0_o Gamers these days are willing to spend money on something that could have been added all along in the base game as is? The game costs 50+ dollars as is & they're willing to throw away more money for a single item?

[WolfJakeX 0]

As far as I've seen that some cities are closer to the railroad or train tracks is not a big deal. The thing is that some cities are better focused in tourism, production, research, trade which leads to the most isolated one near the mountains which I believe would be ideal for resources and production wouldn't be in need of much tourists so it's less accesible.

The way I see it is giving the little cities something different to specialize in and are giving some perks and disadvantages to keep it balanced, some have more resources(mountain), water supply(near sea), dense forest to manage underground pollution, more ways to acces the city for tourism or commercial(video). It would be brutal if you settle a commercial city in the mountains though.

Besides every town has a way to connect with the outside world, some have the road others by sea transportation or train. and everyone has a chance to make planes, which are different from the international airport.

About the density in the video of a few hundred making skyscrapers its not a problem since is just balancing some numbers and done.

The only part that is bugging me is that there is a limit of how many great works a region can have.

[Greyflame 54]

I did a thing >___>

*feels dirtier*

[Wiimeiser 444]

Paths/networks must still be in a very remedial stage, it's likely that paths are hardcoded to be symmetric and can turn at any point they cross.

[A.Burgess 2]

Paths/networks must still be in a very remedial stage, it's likely that paths are hardcoded to be symmetric and can turn at any point they cross.

Does that mean that I won't be able to have two different rail networks in the same city that don't connect but do cross. (assuming city sizes are bigger)

[Frode789 70]

What annoys me more then the tile size is that it appears that you cannot lay the region connections yourself? Seriously?

[Wiimeiser 444]

Paths/networks must still be in a very remedial stage, it's likely that paths are hardcoded to be symmetric and can turn at any point they cross.

Does that mean that I won't be able to have two different rail networks in the same city that don't connect but do cross. (assuming city sizes are bigger)

If it considers an intersection to be where two paths cross, regardless of elevation, then yes.

[baertooth 330]

I've been watching and I've yet to see one example of a path over another path of the same path type. So far it seems like it won't have over passes in SC2013 but it may be that no example has been shown yet.

[Aoumd 1]

I hope the railroad geometry issue gets fixed (and that all modes of transportation use proper geometries, and also proper "footprints" - any mode on elevated structure can have things below it). And I sure hope that we can build places larger than the "town" map shown (maybe that test area is small for testing purposes as was theorized).

However, another thought: if a single player can make his or her whole REGION, then I wouldn't be too upset by the small "Town" sizes. The Region becomes your SimCity, and the little "Towns" would be your developments within it. I just hope that budget, etc., items in gameplay would be regional in nature if that's the case.

[barnacleboy 13]

It's looks kinda stupid that you only have one major road connection into your city. Any city or even a tiny village has more than one road connection to the rest of the world.

[K-os 30]

Realism isn't the focus anymore, at all. I'm not sure it ever really was in the history of the series. SC4 was the closest they came to that, but Will Wright admitted it became too complex. :| The casuals will lap up this kind of presentation though. A fresh new coat of paint is enough to draw people in and they know it. Because most players will end up creating boring super grid cities with maxed out pop anyways and still love it, and enjoy that they figured out how to win the game. EA will feel their decision to simplify is vindicated when the sales are up and reviews are 9+/10 because only we care to notice enough that the changes suck!

[Netuno 97]

Link to the mentioned video in this topic is this:

  Edited October 6, 2012 by Netuno  

[VeritaScientia 150]

and you can't even chose where in the region to put a town or your great work...as well as what we already knew about having to deal with pre-set transportation connections.

They may just have the sparse tiles for the developer version. That makes sense when you think about it, because it'd take less resources to run the game+the programming and development software.

  Edited October 6, 2012 by CaptCity