SimCity: Wishlists

[memotron 0]

Because... Trade is the foundation of the city, and great cities are founded upon trade

1. Functional seaport for bulk goods exports (grain, potash) that requires freight rail connection from harbor out of SimCIty. Requires a freight train yard somewhere in the city. This should be available early on.

2. Functional seaport for imported oil that requires refinery somewhere within SimCity territory. Pipelines could connect seaport to refinery. Refinery needs to require freight train access, and a freight yard. Optional

3. Functional seaport for intermodal containers that also requires freight rail connection from harbor out of SimCity. This should be a bonus, because cities with international ports (LA,SF Bay Area, Seattle) have significantly higher commercial standings than other cities that don't have this kind of intermodal port access. Intermodal container port also requires rail access and a connecting freight yard in the city.

4. Freight yards for freight trains. Every decent city should have at least one on the map, with a bonus for two. (Most real cities have at least 2 or more) Warehouses should locate themselves by these yards.

5 Intermodal yards to make rail freight available throughout the city. This should be a bonus to improve mfg throughout the city, and commercial indirectly.

6. Rail lines next to residential areas should negatively affect the desireability of the nearby area for residential use, unless they are directly adjacent to a commuter station. Adjacent rail should have a neutral impact on commercial and light industry, but should be virtually mandated for heavy industry.

7. A decent sized city should have at least 1 functional intercity passenger line leading outside the map. This is in addition to the commuter rail and light rail within the confines of the map.

8. Functional rail terminals and commuter stations

9. Functional airports

[newyorka 26]

What I would like is...

1. Easy to make it to hi rise mode

2. Create a lot in game

3. More buildings

4. In car mode in U drive it

5. Play as a sim and actually live in the city (control where he/she goes, go in buildings, have friends etc...)

6. convert stuff from the sims in game, convert buildings from sim city to the sims

7. Money(make it easier to gain money)

8. more roads(boulevards, parkways, curves in roads etc...)

9. More cars

10. Real life buildings and cars

11. Make timeline like human timeline(you unlock things as time goes on like when something is invented you get it)

12.More cheats(cheats to gain more money,cheats to unlock things, place lot anywhere etc...)

13. More maps and city sizes(more real life cities, make cities the shape they are in real life)

14. Style of buildings to differ depending where you are in certain maps(if your in Manhattan in new York map you get high rises, mid rises new york style buildings etc... if your in queens you get queens style colonials, etc...)

15. If your talking to a sim make them have accents depending where they are(lol)

16. seasons(seasons change depeding what the date is on the game (like in the 2008 sim city)

etc...

[heraldiii 13]

I'm sure it's been said a thousand times already, but I would like to see a simple feature whereby you can choose exactly what buildings you want to see in the game, including bats. Just go downt the list of installed buildings and check or uncheck them. Additionally, if you could assign your own building sets to different cities or regions think about how much easier life would be. Why this hasn't been made available already in SC4 is beyond me. I beleive even the casual gamer would enjoy having this tool. Maybe there's just one buidling you simply hate to see. >Poof< you uncheck it and it never shows up again.

[DavidB_ 83]

I'm sure it's been said a thousand times already, but I would like to see a simple feature whereby you can choose exactly what buildings you want to see in the game, including bats. Just go downt the list of installed buildings and check or uncheck them. Additionally, if you could assign your own building sets to different cities or regions think about how much easier life would be. Why this hasn't been made available already in SC4 is beyond me. I beleive even the casual gamer would enjoy having this tool. Maybe there's just one buidling you simply hate to see. >Poof< you uncheck it and it never shows up again.

Combined with query and plopping tools, as well as angry Sims is you forcefully evict them!

[VeritaScientia 150]

A couple days ago was the first time I actually built a tunnel in Sim City 4. and one thing I'd like to see in the next one is to have a much easier way of building tunnels.

I'd also like to see bridges and tunnels able to be used for multiple modes of transport, as well as hub stations in various sizes that can handle multiple mass transit systems.

[Mark Waybill 242]

Transit interchanges would be nice if the modules/zones were smart and could wrap around each other organically without appearing too clunky and unrelated.

[simmydown 0]

someone should design a mod to make a maglev train, that would be friggin awsome!

[LivingInThePast 364]

Rail lines next to residential areas should negatively affect the desireability of the nearby area for residential use, unless they are directly adjacent to a commuter station. Adjacent rail should have a neutral impact on commercial and light industry, but should be virtually mandated for heavy industry.

Rail lines don't seem to kill desireability too much, unless you live right next to (and I mean right next to) a freight line. Even then, traffic affects it more than the presence. It's a nice house in a good neighborhood. On the other side of the fence is a railroad. Thing is, trains run by less than once a month. Didn't dampen enthusiasm much now, did it?

Stations, conversely, will kill desireability faster than anything.

[Moory 7]

• Underpasses
  
• Different style of railroad crossings
  

[dabadon5 295]

1.Sandbox mode like sc300unlimited.

2.Less annoying Advisors.

3.Better Highway system, bigger freeways and better interchanges.

4.Keep it realistic,yes add crazy cartoony stuff if you want, but keep it real.

5. Make it so that Sims wouldnt mind driving.

6. Dont let EA touch the game, dont even let them smell it.

7.Make Landmarks more useful. Make them with jobs and add more tourism, and make them unlockable after you reach a certain regional population.

8.Make it so that your city can have professional sports teams, that add money,tourism,and overall hapiness to a city.

9.Along with sports teams,Arenas,Staduims must also have a bigger impact when in a city. more jobs,tourism,money,etc.

10.Sims Complain less. IF they live by the beach in a mansion, they should not abadoned it !!!!!!!!!!

11. More variety of buildings, just like everyone else, sick of seeing the same damn building over and over again.

12.Colleges not only increase education,but increase in commerce due to students living,working,traveling in a certain area.

13.IF there is a fire, we do not need to visit every fire, (unless very major) its not a disaster its a fire !!!!!! Mayors do not put out fires

14.Make it so that you can just pay for plumbing and not have to lay down all the pipes yourself.

15. Maxis should do everything they can to make this a great game so that ST does not have to fix it like it did with SC4. ST should only add extra content,Not make it feel like a full game.

[Mr Saturn64 742]

What I want in SC5 is a huge variety of landmarks, styles, and buildings. SC4 and CXL12 were good, but it would be great if we had 1000s of different buildings

[uhcougar31 7]

I haven't read through all the pages so forgive me if this is a repeat:

I'd like to see more realistic rush hours, and other traffic situations.

Rush hour in Sim City 4 was based on one time to go to work, and one time to go home.

Not everyone goes to work/school at the same time. Also what about special events? Sports games, Conventions, Concerts, etc. Each of these will have traffic issues as well. Better rethink that 70,000 seat stadium in the middle of two-lane road Suburbia.

Different types of work typically have different hours (on average):

Manufacturing/industrial/construction are typically in the 6 am - 3 pm range.

Police/Fire/Hospital are 24 hours (as are some industrial, fast food joints, etc. but let's simplify this somewhat)

Business Commercial - 9 am -6 pm

Retail Commercial - 11 am - 9 pm

Schools - 8 am - 3 pm

Special Events - 7 pm - 10 pm

Weekends - Misc.

[VeritaScientia 150]

uhcougar, I think you'll get that from what their Glassbox videos are saying

[uhcougar31 7]

That'd be sweet.....I was taking from it that at 6 am the request to work signals to go out.....maybe that was said just to show the basics of what glassbox can do.

Adding on to that, I'd like to take the time sim. that was in SC4, make it a week long cycle, so as to see the traffic patterns on weekends with less work and more special events.

Adding on to THAT, I'd love to see seasons (throw in weather effects as well, where rain and snow could cause some sims to say, "I'm not going to work/game/shopping today" and then less traffic, but bad conditions for those who are driving in bad weather [that's reaching a bit, maybe]), where maybe two weeks of Sim time equals a season.

  Edited May 10, 2012 by uhcougar31  

[DemonHunter 0]

Well, here's a list of stuff I hope to see with the next SimCity game:

-snip-

I didn't even read this post, but I want all this with NO BUGS yeah!!!!

[Kiiroitori 55]

1. I Think one of major things they would need is to not name each city tile but to name cities in a region view where the name can overlap past city borders and incorporate other city tiles as well.

2. Flexible, Curvy Roads that can curve any angle. (The ones shown in the concept Art screenshot don't look much curvy and look like the NAM curves.)

3. The ability to face a building in any angled direction.

4. A realistic regional time frame (where a whole regions follows a specific time meridian and cities have the same time).

5. Where the day night cycle exists in region as well as City view.

6. More wider spread disasters (Maybe a regional view disaster thingy).

7. Weather

8. Offline Mode (Single Player)

9. The ability to create seawalls that can cover any sea line or seashore shape,size or height.

10. Free Moving Camera's!! Not just only by city tile.. But Actually in Region View as well >< This is probably a must!!)

11. plopping buildings in region view.

12. A ease of, convenient access to switch between city tiles.

13. More variety of multiculturalism in buildings (Not just based on American cities)

  Edited May 19, 2012 by Kimchii  

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

I haven't read through all the pages so forgive me if this is a repeat

Repeats are fine in this thread... hopefully the more that people say they want the same things, Maxis might actually include it!

[johnwinston 3]

Hello everyone,

here is my modest wishlist, I'll try to make it as clear as possible. Since english is not my mothertongue, it's not easy to think and write in a different language. So please forgive any mistakes, lack of accuracy, etc...

a) I see that many here have different expectations concerning resources or micro-management and I believe that a simple way to satisfy most of us is to make optional as many features as possible. I always deactivate disasters and, as a mayor, I don't want to dig oil or coal. It's not a mayor's job, there are private companies for that so I would prefer not to choose this option. So please, Maxis, give us freedom, and freedom is choice.

b) I would appreciate if it was possible to generate a map randomly, as in SC2000.

c) This is my most important point. I have read many of you wish to have an undo button and I agree with this but I think it is not enough. I would find most helpful to have a kind of project mode.

Let me try to explain :

- I want to develop an area of the map.

- I go to the project mode and spend time to nicely design the area, laying roads, zoning, placing landmarks, etc...

- at anytime I can save my project for later, go back and change it and when I am ready I validate it and it gets built in the city.

I assume this doesn't go without a little improvement of the tools.The grid is necessary but would be much more useful with graduated axis, just like in MS Excel basically. Also, though it is very easy to lay parallel and perpendicular roads, it's a little harder when it comes to angles other than 90 or 45 degrees. I would appreciate if the system would give the value of an angle of a road crossing. If I want my roads to meet at a 59° angle, I don't want it to be 58 or 61. Same goes with curve roads. If I have the value, I can easily lay roads exactly the way that I want. Last but not least, a copy/paste tool would be msot helpul for designing urban areas.

d) It would be great if I can choose the buildings I want to see in my city. I may want some street with only brick row homes, or a community of the same concrete blocks, etc.

e) I'd like the game to be more "average city oriented". I mean, it's fun to build a world city like NYC with lots of landmarks and skyscrapers but I like smaller cities of 150-700k.

f) The possibility to define any area from the map instead of a simple square.

I guess it's enough for the moment. Thanks to everyone who reads this. Any comments or questions are welcome.

  Edited May 15, 2012 by johnwinston  

[Mark Waybill 242]

Repeats are fine in this thread... hopefully the more that people say they want the same things, Maxis might actually include it!

Does that include oneself repeating ones wishes? Because as we learn more about the game over time, our wishes may change, be granted, denied, etc, and a wishlist from the initial announcement period might be dated. If it is alright to post afresh after a while and new information that would be nice, as it would be nice to have a general 'speculation and wish' thread where we could discuss our wants and what we think they may give us.

b) I would appreciate if it was possible to generate a map randomly, as in SC2000.

c) This is my most important point. I have read many of you wish to have an undo button and I agree with this but I think it is not enough. I would find most helpful to have a kind of project mode.

f) The possibility to define any area from the map instead of a simple square.

I wholeheartedly concur with you on point b. I'd like to see a realistic random map generator. While it can be nice to design a region down to intricate details and make a work of art out of it, real cities are often 'colonised' and not 'designed' as they grow, and the terrain is very rarely designed, with exceptional cases like Dubai where large scale works are affordable. Terrain/climate types would be nice too, so I could say, select 'hilly-river plain', 'subtropical-grassland', 'max height 200 metres asl' etc etc.

The project mode/planning tool idea has got to be one of the wishes that many have that I would put up there with a full 3d camera, (Which incidentally we now, of course, are getting) which are necessary to create the ideal SimCity game and make a true game worthy of '5'. I'd like to be able to do 'great works' on a smaller scale, so, for instance, if I wish to construct a railway pass in a mountain range, I could design it in the planning mode and then execute it, but by myself.

As long as we are stuck with squares we are stuck in a rut of limitation, so I also agree with this wish. I don't know how they would do it, but an idea I have had for some time is to 'zone' a municipal boundary area by drawing it with a administrative district designation tool. Also in real life there are heirarchies of administration, and I would also like the ability to have levels of management, with simulated or real councillors and governors. But then again I'd enjoy a video game where one makes debates in parliament about the width of bicycle paths...

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Sure, as we learn more about the game, and what it can actually do, our wishlist might very well change.

What we thought a couple of months ago, or what we think today, is also likely to change, with new information.

[johnwinston 3]

@ Mark Waybill

Thank you for your response and additional remarks. You have perfectly understood what I meant.

[Mark Waybill 242]

@ Mark Waybill

Thank you for your response and additional remarks. You have perfectly understood what I meant.

No worries

[VeritaScientia 150]

I'd thought of this a bit over the past few days while researching various hospital and airport layouts around the US:

Hospitals that are older and have expanded to serve a greater population or serve more diverse needs have grown out instead of up. Examples can include the Vanderbilt University Medical Center and University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics for two that I've found recently.

As for airports, few have their runways going all one direction for the simple fact that airplanes take off easier into the wind.

So what I suggest (and it can apply for other building types of course) is have a system whereby one can semi-overlap a lot with another building of the same type and they would form a unique new building with an accordingly larger capacity to what was added on.

With airports, the rotation of the lot to be plopped could determine if any new runways are built (don't have two that are say within 40 degrees of each other for example, would look gaudy and unrealistic) but it would increase the terminal size and capacity somewhat

[Mark Waybill 242]

I would definitely support the idea of modules acting as additional buildings rather than just a 'bell' or extra fire truck.

[jalue2002 1]

1) The ability to have special events in your city. Like music festivals and community festivals that you can actually see on screen. They can increase traffic on city streets, increase revenue for the city, etc.

2) More distinct neighborhoods. Each neighborhood within the city would have it's own look and feel. You can set the parameters for the neighborhood and only certain people and businesses could be located there. Think Greenwich Village or Chinatown. Two completely different areas with their own feel and look.

3) More ordinances. SC4 was kind of low on them. Real cities have tons of them and so should SC5.

4) A little more control over what builds where. Instead of just plopping commercial zones down on a highway and hoping a shopping center pops up, allow the player to pinpoint the area for retail, office, etc.

5)Road construction. Allow road construction to be more realistic. Instead of just building it off the bat, allow it to build over time and have detours for the sims.

[Adjiebrotot 94]

Well, here's a list of stuff I hope to see with the next SimCity game:

.Freecamera, just like in societies, and all 3D

2. U-Drive it

3.No more grid, except for police, fire,etc.

4.Supported by all drives-Vista,7,XP,etc, and no crashing.

5.Cities develop depending on building type selected(E.G:Japan,England,Germany, USA,etc.)

6. Zoneable custom airports WITH jetways and more aircraft then 707's

7.Ploppable HD highway signs, depending on #5

8.Highways be replaced with RHW(E.G:Multiple lane to 1-lane highways)

9.Custom terrian that could be edited

10.Underground highways, roads,etc, with on/off ramps for underground highways.

11.Underground walkways, shopping malls

12.More disasters, such as tsunamis, supervolcanic eruptions, and floods, and weather plugin

13.Passenger/frieght trains,depending on #5, and monorail, subway,GLR,and elevated rail.

14.Rail overpass and underpasses

15.Lot Editor

16. Diagonal bridges/road/rail/highway under bridges.

17.War, peace, etc

18.High-speed rail

19.Life-after-people scene(e.g:in case all power goes out)

20.Economic depressions,etc

21.Canals, both eyecandy and functinal

22.One-way roads and highways

23.Everything from the NAM

24.Installment of tourism(E.g:resort hotels, resort casinos, theme parks,etc)

25.Zones

26.GLR/Rail-in highway

27.Rail yards

28.Seaports with modern day crates,cranes, and ships

29.Language changes on buildings,etc depending on #5

30.Billboards

31.BAT compatable with google sketch-up, all rendering in HD,

32.Landmarks from real life

33.Easier way to transit-enable lots

34.Bridges over certain buidlings

35.Parks, and ponds, lakes, rivers, etc

same with you. i want it,

[zahrul3 471]

- Ability to import gmax/3dsmax models into whatever modeling tool SC5 uses

- Offline mode

- Addon packs, supported by EA

The rest- I don't care, we BATters will complete it. The target audience would probably have difficulty trying to use modular pieces, let alone build NAM-style puzzle pieces.

Well, here's a list of stuff I hope to see with the next SimCity game:

.Freecamera, just like in societies, and all 3D <- They got that already

2. U-Drive it

3.No more grid, except for police, fire,etc. <- Depends on the glassbox engine

4.Supported by all drives-Vista,7,XP,etc, and no crashing.

5.Cities develop depending on building type selected(E.G:Japan,England,Germany, USA,etc.) <- I agree

6. Zoneable custom airports WITH jetways and more aircraft then 707's <- I think modular sets made by modders and BATters would be better for this

7.Ploppable HD highway signs, depending on #5 <- Unnecessary

8.Highways be replaced with RHW(E.G:Multiple lane to 1-lane highways) <- Too technical, and probably an addon

9.Custom terrainn that could be edited

10.Underground highways, roads,etc, with on/off ramps for underground highways.

11.Underground walkways, shopping malls

12.More disasters, such as tsunamis, super-volcanic eruptions, and floods, and weather plugin

13.Passenger/frieght trains,depending on #5, and monorail, subway,GLR,and elevated rail.

14.Rail overpass and underpasses

15.Lot Editor

16. Diagonal bridges/road/rail/highway under bridges.

17.War, peace, etc <- Not neccessary for most people(dig at Schulmania/Queensferry and you will see how their authors gave an illusion of a war scene)

18.High-speed rail

19.Life-after-people scene(e.g:in case all power goes out) <- ?

20.Economic depressions,etc

21.Canals, both eyecandy and functional <- Not necessary in starter game, should be in the addon pack

22.One-way roads and highways

23.Everything from the NAM <- Should be in the addon pack

24.Installment of tourism(E.g:resort hotels, resort casinos, theme parks,etc)

25.Zones

26.GLR/Rail-in highway <-+road +street +avenue, Goes in addon pack along with NAM

27.Rail yards <- Goes in addon pack

28.Seaports with modern day crates,cranes, and ships

29.Language changes on buildings,etc depending on #5 <- Makes the game harder for Americans trying to make an Asian city or an Asian trying to recreate Paris

30.Billboards

31.BAT compatable with google sketch-up, all rendering in HD, <- Not everyone have awesome graphics and Sketchup is pretty much limited as a tool.(bad textures, etc.)

32.Landmarks from real life

33.Easier way to transit-enable lots <- Depends on glassbox engine

34.Bridges over certain buidlings <- Depends on glassbox engine

35.Parks, and ponds, lakes, rivers, etc

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

Despite what I may or may not have said elsewhere, I do have a few things I would like to see in a future SimCity game.

The ability to create sunken roads, highways, and railways with vertical retaining walls.

Multiple styles and designs of train stations, monorail stations, GLR, etc.

If we're going with geographically diverse building styles, how about a geographically diverse soundtrack? I wish Civ IV was like that, actually.

Hit-a-button-and-magically-generate-terrain terrain editor (a la SC2K, or the inferior SC3K editor would even be acceptable).

Real, honest-to-god expansion packs.

Diagonal bridges

Seasons/climate options

SC4, Civ III, Civ IV, and other games have FAR outlived their contemporaries because they are darn near infinitely moddable, so infinite moddability would be nice.

Many kinds of plaza and park options

It would be interesting to see options pertaining to the privatization of certain sectors of the economy, ie garbage disposal, trains and buses, etc. I understand that you could program in a bias or an agenda, however, so it's understandable if it's not included.

Trees, bushes, flora, rocks, multiple terrain types/options

Being able to STOP REPEATING buildings (there are a handful of evil suspects that quickly spring to mind)

And of course, being able to ignore all of the above in order to play a more streamlined game if that is what one is interested in.

[j-lee 1]

My wishlist is not so much of a list its more of a big wish..

I would like to have more dynamic cities and regions!

I would like cities to be even more connected to each other, that sims in the region are more flexibel.. I would like to build regions with different demografic populations, like university citys with a high amount of young adults, but not many working adults. i would like more types of demografics.

To that i would like to give cities in a region diferent roles. -- One city could have the legislativ power, with the high court and other with other institutions, while another city is the financial center with the stock markets and central state bank, while yet a nother city could be the high tech industry city, university city or maybe a transportatin hub. There should be some kins of special buildings that could be unlocked for a region as a whole. that could only be placed once, in one city - until the capacity is full, then maybe a second stock market could be built. It is unrealistic that every big city has its on stock market, high court and other things that usally is handled on a national basis. This would also force the cities to be more dynamic and more integrated with each other.

Thoughts?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

j-lee, that is something the developers say is possible and wanted