SimCity: Wishlists

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

1. Sandbox / Gameplay option.

2. Turn off disasters option. (We don't always want hours of work destroyed)

3. Autosave function.

4. Undo button.

5. Expandable / Customizable menus... for new custom content.

6. All terraforming tools remain available (ie: no Mayor/God mode terraforming)

7. In-game camera that takes Jpegs (or at least an option to choose format).

8. An inbuilt video recorder for making short video clips for CJs... preferably that records the sound as well.

9. An awesome soundtrack and music.

10. Keep the stupid advisors, but have a button to shut them up!

[jacksunny 741]

10. Keep the stupid advisors, but have a button to shut them up!

Allow the mayor to hire advisors, but give different advisors different knowledge levels. For example, an advisor with a knowledge level 100 would give better advice than a person with a level of only 30, however, it would also cost more to hire that person.

[DarkWarriorXII 3]

1. A plethora of transportation options. In my opinion, this is one of the most intriguing aspects of SimCity. A tool like Monte Cristo had alluded to at one point, where you can choose the # of lanes on the road, if there is a median, sidewalks, etc. If not that, then many more types of roads and alternative transport options, as well as a lot of bridges to choose from.

2. Custom content, plugins, etc.

3. A complex and reasonably realistic economic system, with the ability to micromanage if you choose to (it can be optional, since not everyone likes to micromanage).

4. More control over what types of buildings will show up in your zones. It wasn't very realistic seeing mansions pop up near low-wealth residential areas. So I guess, in addition to density, let us choose the wealth of the zones as well. But as with density, just because we zone for a particular wealth, that doesn't mean the Sims will show up until the conditions warrant their arrival.

5. If it's going to be 3D, don't make it look childish or cartoony. I'm really not a fan of 3D games, but I guess it's inevitable SC will go this route.

6. No more water pipes, or at least the option to have them placed automatically with new zones.

7. Schools, museums, hospitals, etc. should cover the entire city. I can see police and fire having coverage areas, but the other civic buildings should serve the entire city. Also, hosptials shouldn't be required in every city. At least in my area, not every city/town has its own hospital.

[jacksunny 741]

6. No more water pipes, or at least the option to have them placed automatically with new zones.

Personally, I think water should be required for buildings to grow, like electricity is required.

[DarkWarriorXII 3]

6. No more water pipes, or at least the option to have them placed automatically with new zones.

Personally, I think water should be required for buildings to grow, like electricity is required.

I agree it should be required, but I don't think it should be the mayor's job to lay the pipes. I guess my idea is similar to in SC4 how we don't have to place transmission lines for new zones unless they aren't connected to an electrified zone.

[VeritaScientia 150]

7. Schools, museums, hospitals, etc. should cover the entire city. I can see police and fire having coverage areas, but the other civic buildings should serve the entire city. Also, hosptials shouldn't be required in every city. At least in my area, not every city/town has its own hospital.

Schools should have a coverage radius, though like a previous poster said, it should be based on a commute time function.

For healthcare facilities, I agree every city doesn't need a hospital, but every area does need doctors or clinics. Also I'd like to see a hospital that isn't so tall, instead one that's lower in height but spread out more. I'd also like to see a few more options for the healthcare building.

  Edited March 5, 2012 by PTPLauthor  

[hamsterTK 93]

I was just pondering what if the new 3D simulation engine had basic physics like many games. It would be both hysterical and totally unnecessary(but so are disasters) if you could pick up pedestrians, cars, and other things and throw them around. Or build a road that goes off a cliff to launch cars intentionally...

Anyways, for something more serious, I think that most facilities and structures ought to be influenced by problems or positive things and then amplify them. A park in a bad neighborhood becomes a hangout for criminals and only drags things down. Simcity 4 had this, but in the next game there would be a multitude of new effects and influences. Like enough of a randomly grown building(say a cafe) on a street increases a "culture" status effect for other buildings that face the street and you get clusters in a district that either benefits or harms the neighborhood.

8. Mixed-use development, along with partial abandonment if demand is too low for one kind of occupant but high enough for another.

I would like to see that as well.

  Edited March 5, 2012 by hamsterTK  

[lextacy 0]

*WARNING* This wishlist is subject to review by EA and its affiliates responsible for the development of the project. This wishlist could be the big one!

• Flexbuild ™ The ability of a building to have various heights using an algorithm that multiplies the floor count in a tower. This is done without mods or user intervention
• An undo button is long overdue
• U-Drive ™ needs to be 3D
• Organic signage system which places exits #, street numbers, direction of travel, lane allowances ,venue, ect on a freeway sign based on the streets you named or how close to a certain venue/district you are(no more signage mods)
• The ability for the game to number the streets for you starting at 1st st.
• Billboard system that points to a folder on your HD of random images of brands. (gone the days of downloading each brand billboard)
• Spline Transportation placement capable of stacks up to 6 high
• A pavement tool that decides weather you want blacktop,asphalt, gravel ect ( no more SAM )
• Elimination of "Ground Highway" There will be freeway which is connected at the seams (no median) and then "standard highway" that is separated
• Everything is given an option for elevated or not
• A ground and raised SPUI
• Pre-Fabbed Turbine and 4 level stacks
• Pre fab interchanges are only available when placing 90 degree increment intersections, if you do a 60/30 split you have to manually build them (RHW interchanges anyone?)
• 20miles on each side map , no more regions tiles
• Grid system gone
• Night time needs to be way darker and you must use good lighting
• Strobes and red lights on skyscrapers
• basic cell phone and radio towers
• 4 types of water towers
• A easy to use modular airport and seaport system
• Housing to include suburban homes and apartments (gone the urban only environment SC4 had)
• Mod capable ....DUH!!
• Every road type except for streets has a sub-menu for lane counts, Freeways can hold up to 10 lanes
• Allowing to pan the map while your city saves (cant build anything)
• Again all roads, highways , avenues , blvds have the ability to have multiple pavement types
• Saving the game triggers nightmode and only for the duration of the save, once game is saved its morning (also allowing you to pan or explore in 3D while it saves)
• Maybe some weather and seasons?
• Contruction of buildings will use Flexbuild ™ to automate the cranes building each floor
• Different types of highschools, ect
• Magic-grid ™ system will place a grid of roads based on a number of x and y squares placed. This will speed up teh road building alot
• Buildings now will align in 360 increments to the road ( no more piece of crap space wasted on jagged tiles)
• You can now assign districts in your city and set permissions on each one
  • This solves the problem of skyscrapers growing in wierd places like next to golf coarse or strip malls
  • Want a retail/restaurant strip? Just assign it to only grow such that
  • The districts you name will be automatically placed on the Freeway signs near the adjacent interchanges!Building are now upgradable, you can annex , raise, remodel , and expand

• Population counts should be more realistic, theres no farking way 11 people fit in a low income cottage with no garage and ONE window
• Building are now upgradable, you can annex , raise, remodel , and expand
• Cities can be saved as a high-res jpeg and used like google maps
• More variety of power such as transformers and substations (no more coal plants that need to run a lil town)
• Coverages of schools , police ect. need to be more realistic!

I guess thats the list for tonight. Let me know what you think! I greatly will appreciate any input!

  Edited March 5, 2012 by lextacy  

[emperordaniel 1,281]

What references to Broccoli?

It would be funny if the newspaper came back. "A Gregarious Llama threw a flaming cube on a stack wood at 233 Lumpers Ave. Fanned by the 65635 MPH winds, the inferno torched two Cassidy's Toy Stores, the Industrial Thingamajig and the Microwave Power Plant. Mayor YOURMOMSBUTT9823LOL will speak at AWESOME CITY city hall tomorrow."

Also magic birthday cakes that disappoint babies by turning into oil filters. We need those.

I guess what I'm getting at here..Simcity has always been a rather serious looking game with realistic art direction and gameplay, but at the same time a very eccentric kind of humor. To really fit into the series it needs to be these things. No "casual" garbage like SCS but it shouldn't take itself too seriously like most flight sims(whadya mean I can't crash the plane in a fiery explosion?) either.

LOL, I remember those hilarious SimCity 2000 Newspaper (not news ticker) reports I also liked how you could choose between several different newspapers to pop up, such as [City] Journal, [City] Tribune, [City] Courier, etc

[tSlater 134]

I loved the Miss Sim advice column. There's one I distinctly remember above all to this day. Quoting out of memory, so not completely accurate and possibly embellished, but that's the way I want to keep it in my head.

"Dear Miss Sim,

The other day I was playing basketball, and it hurt. It's always hurt when I do this. I did it again yesterday, and it hurt. Even this morning I did it again, and it hurt. What should I do?

Signed, It Hurts When I Do This

Dear It,

Don't do that."

[Thetford 22]

Here are some of my ideas:

zoning:

Have Commercial split into 3 types, Services (retail, etc that prefer locales of higher customer traffic, whether by foot or car, though the latter requires car parking to accommodate customers), Offices (prefer areas that can be easily commuted to, do not need a high customer walkbys like Services, but possibly require high communications connectivity such as internet/broadband connection and speeds) and Nightlife (clubs, bars, cinemas etc, popular with Sims especially younger ones, but they do not want to live near any of these lots in a multitude of number), and can be zoned in lots containing one, two or all types of varieties.

Businesses and Industry provide jobs on all economic levels, (ratio of course, depending on type) such as having low class sims as cleaners to high class executives.

Commercial buildings themselves aren't the business, but have units inside them that contains the store (which is the part that provides the tax), for example, a basic set of stores have room for 1 - 3 retail units, whereas a shopping arcade or a mall, can have up to 30 or even 50, when customers go down some stores may close down, others replaced by cheaper varieties. So if you have a big megamall, you may not get much tax if only a few of the retail units are rented out (but the big malls do attract more customers than a small set of stores would)

Oh yeah, just remembered, more realistic occupation of residences. I'm mainly talking about single family residences here. While in SC4, you could create some pseudo-Wisteria Lane, you would end up with the streets in front of it more congested than downtown New York. I put it down to this: in a standard suburban house, there would only be one family, of roughly 4.5 people, two would be adults, and maybe only one be the breadwinner, but sometimes both, and have space for two cars, a third if a teenage child is lucky. In SC4 however, that same abode would house about 14 adult sims, each with their own jobs (or requirements thereof), and there own cars, along with 10 other houses on the street, it would be seriously one gridlocked cul-de-sac. In real life we would be calling the authorities and social services. I'd like it a little shuffled.

How about also giving different social classes different abilities, so lower class sims may have less access to cars and are more reliant on public transport (ooh, just thought, maybe the cost of bus and train service maintenance can be effected by oil prices). Meanwhile, not all sims should demand jobs, I'm talking about homemakers, students, artists, self employed, entrepreneurs etc. And perhaps large residences generating a small number of jobs (representing such jobs as maids, nannies, gardeners etc)

Public Relations

The return of the petitioners! Remember when Prunella Penny complained excessively about corporate tax? Malcolm Landgraab wanting more houses? Suzanne Pleasant, that divorcée threatening to make out with every "We love the Mayor" Day? They offered much of the humour in the game, what they had to say, and having their nuances. I'd liked to see a varied populace wanting different things - some of which conflict with other citizens wants, having opinions on such things as tax, education, even liberal/conservatives, represented by interest groups and lobbies, and their representative. Preferably humorous ones. Maybe the Sisterhood of Nagging Pantsuits, a group focused on civil rights, equality and legal protection; The Minivan Moms, representing the gas gussling pushy lower middle class parents; or perhaps the Preservation of Respectable and Uniform Decorum and Etiquette Society (P.R.U.D.E.S) who are against things such as alcohol, night venues, or other things they deem immoral (represented by Mrs Crumplebottom). Basically, no matter how much you try, you can never please everyone. Just like real life.

As well, how about big business lobbies, a CEO of a big railroad company may want a rail connection to a certain neighbourhood or neighbour town, and in return, he may offer some philanthropy in return and may donate to city funds, or donate a public or charitable building such as a museum or opera house. Meanwhile other big companies, let's say ParaSol, wants to build a pharmaceutical lab in your town, it will provide jobs, but brings it's own controversy, such as concerns about disease containment (even the risk of a small outbreak), though building a good relationship with this companies will give a few Golden Hellos to your City Bank Account.

Meanwhile newspapers and TV News Networks can crop up to report news articles - in their own political bias of course.

Well, that's what I've got for now, may as well leave it short, sweet and digestible and add more later.

  Edited March 6, 2012 by Thetford  

[VeritaScientia 150]

Everyone has great ideas, keep em coming, the powers that be at Maxis if they see this, I hope you take the time to look into putting these into the game.

[jigsaw 227]

dont ask/hope for too much, you will build yourselves up for disappointment.

sit back, relax and wait for their announcements. they put stuff into sc4 that surprised us, so let's see what they surprise us with tomorrow.

[alcarcalimo2364 4]

Public Relations

The return of the petitioners! Remember when Prunella Penny complained excessively about corporate tax? Malcolm Landgraab wanting more houses? Suzanne Pleasant, that divorcée threatening to make out with every "We love the Mayor" Day? They offered much of the humour in the game, what they had to say, and having their nuances. I'd liked to see a varied populace wanting different things - some of which conflict with other citizens wants, having opinions on such things as tax, education, even liberal/conservatives, represented by interest groups and lobbies, and their representative. Preferably humorous ones. Maybe the Sisterhood of Nagging Pantsuits, a group focused on civil rights, equality and legal protection; The Minivan Moms, representing the gas gussling pushy lower middle class parents; or perhaps the Preservation of Respectable and Uniform Decorum and Etiquette Society (P.R.U.D.E.S) who are against things such as alcohol, night venues, or other things they deem immoral (represented by Mrs Crumplebottom). Basically, no matter how much you try, you can never please everyone. Just like real life.

As well, how about big business lobbies, a CEO of a big railroad company may want a rail connection to a certain neighbourhood or neighbour town, and in return, he may offer some philanthropy in return and may donate to city funds, or donate a public or charitable building such as a museum or opera house. Meanwhile other big companies, let's say ParaSol, wants to build a pharmaceutical lab in your town, it will provide jobs, but brings it's own controversy, such as concerns about disease containment (even the risk of a small outbreak), though building a good relationship with this companies will give a few Golden Hellos to your City Bank Account.

Meanwhile newspapers and TV News Networks can crop up to report news articles - in their own political bias of course.

You may get your wish on this area at least. The Gamestar article indicates that Sims will petition for certain things. Whether it will be implemented like SC3K remains to be seen.

[Dublin Northsider 2]

My biggest wish is : Please do not change too much, SC4 is pretty cool already; it is a success so take that and see where it can be improved.

The graphics are good enough for me, the best buildings come from the community so another big wish is "mod-able"

In general, I'd like to see a deep gameplay (transporting, ordinances, education system etc) rather than fancy graphics

What can be improved from SC4 :

- better access to other cities. Maybe have the regional button in the city screen already to swap between ciies or have the region on the city level (if that does not kill the computer resources)

- better interaction with other cities. Add cities for an accumulated tax income but then also have cities which have a big power plant for the region or the big international airport which serves the entire region

- no "radius" for police, fire service, schools etc. The service quality should be calculated by good access through a road network not just tile distance

- cars should not "disappear", have them go from A to B

- try to implement more politics, also on regional level, let me choose my advisors from a range of citizens

- global demands for certain resources (and you make sure your city produces them)

- have some customised settings in the beginning (climate/weather, tourist magnet, european/US theme)

- optional earlier start date (maybe with 2013 as default with modern buildings which stay the same but optional start date 1900 with old style buildings/cars which develop over the years

- optional : new citizens by immigrations waves or birth only, not just appearing as soon a building is built

- longer lasting buildings and construction times (not just "plop-a-3-mile-long-bridge-within-a-day")

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

The casual gamer seems to be well catered for, with thinks like the kindle version of the game... quick download play it on your phone while commuting on the train kind of thing...

I can see that there definitely is room also to now cater for the more serious player with more in-depth game play.

[VeritaScientia 150]

My biggest worry is that EA is going to try again to make another SimCity title that appeals solely to the casual gamer, not to the hardcore simmers.

I'd suggest having the difficulty levels tied to how realistic the simulation is, or having sliders/radio buttons for some of the other options.

[waybig 35]

I think a cool feature would be the ability to have the game go online (in the background), even in single-player mode, and set a currency for your city, region, world, whatever. You could then have meaningful, real-world numbers for the costs of running and building your city. You could then, for instance, see the prices of steel or coal could reflected in US dollars if you choose, and you could track the effects of varying commodity prices on your city. Perhaps you could see and track the average or median income of your city in your chosen currency, or the average or median price of a home, and how factors such as the school system (5 apple vs 2 apple), distance to the central city (drive 'til you qualify), or any number of variables affect prices.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

For Zoning I hope they can also have extra zones that can work for building like Residential/ Commercial Service & Residential/ Commercial Office Commercial Service. I said this is because in real life world there buildings that are like that in the city and it can help people to great to work faster, just imagine working in the same building you live in or shop in this will help committing and the traffic, way better handled than most suburban cities.

[Cob92 360]

My biggest worry is that EA is going to try again to make another SimCity title that appeals solely to the casual gamer, not to the hardcore simmers.

I'd suggest having the difficulty levels tied to how realistic the simulation is, or having sliders/radio buttons for some of the other options.

From what they said in the interview, it seems like they are making SC5 more complex than SC4 rather than less complex. He said that they'd be simulating things down to the level of individual citizens, yet there would still be regional cooperation and a global economy. AFAIK, the big issue that casuals had with SC4 was going bankrupt and descending into anarchy 5 minutes into the game because they didn't know how to get a city started and stable (the game itself is basically a souped-up SC3K, and SC3K is simple enough that it's been ported to pretty much every electronic device in existence including phones and the DS), so that's probably what Maxis is trying to address in catering to casuals.

[VeritaScientia 150]

For Zoning I hope they can also have extra zones that can work for building like Residential/ Commercial Service & Residential/ Commercial Office Commercial Service. I said this is because in real life world there buildings that are like that in the city and it can help people to great to work faster, just imagine working in the same building you live in or shop in this will help committing and the traffic, way better handled than most suburban cities.

Those are "mixed-use" zones, and yes those would be epicness.

Expanding on what someone else said, having districts and zone permissions: I'd love designating certain areas as solely wall-to-wall areas, and others as solely skyscraper areas.

From what they said in the interview, it seems like they are making SC5 more complex than SC4 rather than less complex. He said that they'd be simulating things down to the level of individual citizens, yet there would still be regional cooperation and a global economy. AFAIK, the big issue that casuals had with SC4 was going bankrupt and descending into anarchy 5 minutes into the game because they didn't know how to get a city started and stable (the game itself is basically a souped-up SC3K, and SC3K is simple enough that it's been ported to pretty much every electronic device in existence including phones and the DS), so that's probably what Maxis is trying to address in catering to casuals.

I hear what you're saying, I a;ways tended to go over-budget on my cities until I got the hang of the balancing act, and nowadays........well I don't worry about a budget thanks to my Cousin Vinnie.....

  Edited March 7, 2012 by PTPLauthor  

[Liberater444 11]

Most people have hit the points I would like to see in the game. So my contribution:

MOTHER OF GOD PLEASE MAKE IT AVAILABLE ON MAC!!!

Forgive the Caps Lock rant. I've sinned, and now I'll retreat to my hole...

[jakehh 52]

@Liberater444; It is on mac. https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/topic/48235-simcity-5-facts/

[Terring 6,473]

Sea cities like Anno 2070, underground cities and facilities, arcologies, antigravity cities and space colonization. Why expanding the city by the ordinary boring way, when you can do it upwards or downwards?

Option that allows us to select square grid or hexagonal like Civilization 5 or total free from grids.

Functional airports and seaports that not only will help the development of the city, but will also transport the Sims from city to city.

New catastrophes like large solar flares.

C.A.M.-based building stages, from stage 1 underground home to stage 15 spacecrapers and Coruscant towers.

Option between money-based or resources-based economy.

[savagemuppet 0]

I agree with others here -

1. No gimmicky stuff

2. It cannot look cartoony or childish - We had this with Sim City Societies and was the instant turn off.

3. Must have references to Broccoli and other Maxis humour.

4. Basically SC4 should be the base inclusive of all Mods etc

We all have probably wasted away a considerable chunk of our lives with SC4 - If Maxis/EA want to have the same cult following they need to base the game off the one we love but with everything we have tried to create over the last ten years.

If they don't listen to the die hards it will fall over and be on clearance at Stores like Societies was ever so quickly.

I understand they need to make it appeal to new players as well so maybe a complexity option where new players can play a "basic" version and as they gain skill they can play "advanced" with all the features.

I am so excited about this and if need be will be sleeping in the doorway of some gaming store to get my copy. It has been the absolute best news ever!

[Simlock 3]

Id like to see arcology's and tools to design buildings ( that includes giving them property's)

[Charlie_Zane 963]

i want a large variety or buildings that are modelled from real buildings and from scratch.

[jacksunny 741]

I understand they need to make it appeal to new players as well so maybe a complexity option where new players can play a "basic" version and as they gain skill they can play "advanced" with all the features.

I thought the SC4 tutorials were really good, I imagine they would be implemented in SC13 as well.

[gabry85 2]

Just one li'l thing:

- Region Play (at least in Single-player)...

- ...and a cup of coffee, thankyouverymuch!

Sorry to sound like a broken record (I mean, since that old Cities XL biz), but that's one thing I couldn't miss from SimCity 4 IMHO. Most of what I've seen so far already excites me, so I won't bother folks over at Maxis and SimTrop for anything else. Multi-player is OK to me, as long it doesn't crush Single-player's features.

OK, back to lurking. See ya!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Just one li'l thing:

- Region Play (at least in Single-player)...

- ...and a cup of coffee, thankyouverymuch!

Sorry to sound like a broken record (I mean, since that old Cities XL biz), but that's one thing I couldn't miss from SimCity 4 IMHO. Most of what I've seen so far already excites me, so I won't bother folks over at Maxis and SimTrop for anything else. Multi-player is OK to me, as long it doesn't crush Single-player's features.

OK, back to lurking. See ya!

Your coffee will be served at the Moose Factory. Would you like a croissant with that?

Nobody should be coughing up a wish list yet. We really have no good handle on the contents of the game and neither does EA. At 30% completed it sounds like they've been prototyping in order to nail down the specification. So far, I like the open ended approach. Modders will have to learn how to write the Glassbox new (ugh!) language. {Aside: Dammit! There are enough languages around already! :/aside}