SimCity: Wishlists

[Mark Waybill 242]

While on the subject of specialisation, IRL most cities don't specialise in just one area. Take the Illawarra for instance, where coal and steel were formerly of great importance. Also many neighbourhoods or suburbs specialise in minor ways, so, for instance, in one neighbourhood there might be a cinema district, or food district, or museum district etc. I'd like to see 'smart' development which reflects the local patterns and trends. So, for instance, if a trendy successful cafe opens on X Street, another might open to compete, rather than an unrelated business like a pet store or hardware shop.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

So, for instance, if a trendy successful cafe opens on X Street, another might open to compete, rather than an unrelated business like a pet store or hardware shop.

Heh... SC4 has that... ever get a whole row of Depissies Diners?

[Highrise99 1]

I'd like SimCity 5 to be roughly similar to the cities XL series as far as not being confined to the grid and a free camera, but still maintain most of the SimCity 4 aspects.

This could include:

• Not confined to the grid, but possibly having an option to turn it on for guidance
  
• A free camera
  
• An open, customizable, transportation system (Similar to both the NAM mods and CXL, allowing the NAM's features to be placed as normal roads)
  
• Realistic building construction (Not just the animation, but also functionality)
  
• Trade (Very similar to CXL)
  
• Planets (Similar to CXL)
  
• Although I have no idea how it would work, Multiplayer
  

Things NOT to have:

• Different residential zone types (Unskilled Workers, Skilled Workers, Executives, Elites) It's a completely unrealistic aspect of CXL that I wish didn't exist.
  

Should all industry except for offices be one zone type?

• Tons of city maintained buildings (i.e. Leisure buildings would be run by companies) In what country does the government run leisure?
  

  Edited May 22, 2012 by Highrise99  

[Sophia Katt 2]

Offline mode is my number one, no negotiations wish. Without that all the other wishes are academic.

[Aoumd 1]

So this is one of my first posts here at SimTropolis (it says I posted one years ago but I don't remember...) but I've been playing the various SimCities (SNES, 2000, 3000, 4) since I was a kid and am eagerly awaiting the 2013 version!

Some things I am hoping for are:

1. As many others hope for from what I've read, tweak rail transit options to allow any grade level for any type of rail, like:

• Metro (subway, elevated, or grade level)
  
• Light Rail or Tram (subway, elevated, grade level or street running, the last one taking from road capacity, and very steep grades for bridges/tunnels)
  
• Commuter/freight rail (elevated, grade level, or underpass/tunnel, with much gentler grades and thus larger footprints leading up to bridges/tunnels)
  

2. Re: the wishes many have for High Speed Rail, if it is included, it should be a means of alleviating airport capacity not local transit capacity...while I know other gamers may wish for HSR to be something to use in their cities I feel like this is more realistic given the transportation role HSR serves worldwide.

3. Using the tile-free landscape to enable more realistic senses of scale for buildings, etc...a large hospital is going to take up a bigger footprint than 4 times the width of a residential side street (4 tiles x 4 vs. 1-tile wide road). Perhaps a scale based on feet/meters, in place of the tiles.

4. Improve bus stops, as these are realistically the best transit option for many smaller cities if one is trying to be most realistic. Make sure they can be overlaid onto sidewalks/streets rather than requiring their own off-street footprint, and perhaps make them so the gamer can just click a road intersection to install bus stops at all the appropriate corners of the intersection, as most bus stops are on at least two sides of the road, and where major urban streets meet, often are on all four (with transfer capability).

4b. When a bus stop maxes out on capacity, allow a larger bus shelter to be built still on the sidewalk/road existing footprint. This is what happens with most bus stops that outgrow a standard bus shelter in most cities I've been to. The threshold for an off-street bus stop taking up positive space from another land use is pretty high.

5. An indoor arena (like Madison Square Garden) as a stadium option, not just outdoor stadium options.

6. Pedestrian overpasses and underpasses as a way to ease congestion in the urban core. I've walked through Times Square enough times in my life...

7. Cruise ship terminals, especially for places where the main industry is tourism. With pedestrian, taxi, tour bus etc. traffic to/fro, incentives to place near markets and other attractions, etc. Would love to have Oasis of the Seas roll into my harbor!

Hope I haven't bored you all to tears!

  Edited May 27, 2012 by Aoumd  

[Mark Waybill 242]

2. Re: the wishes many have for High Speed Rail, if it is included, it should be a means of alleviating airport capacity not local transit capacity...while I know other gamers may wish for HSR to be something to use in their cities I feel like this is more realistic given the transportation role HSR serves worldwide.

Good to see lots of fresh faces here eagerly awaiting 2013, a nice counterbalance to the pessimism that seems prevalent regarding some issues with the new game. I'd have to agree with you on this point. Where I live in the Illawarra there is talk at the moment of constructing a second major airport for Sydney northwest of Wollongong at Wilton, which might mean a HSR connection to Sydney or Canberra. At present we have a normal heavy rail service that takes one and a half hours approximately to get to Sydney Terminal from the Gong.

HSR is thus, certainly where I am, a current topic and certainly a feature I would like to see, also for intercity communication like the planned London-Birmingham line, which would actually displace some airport traffic between minor airports, possibly.

3. Using the tile-free landscape to enable more realistic senses of scale for buildings, etc...a large hospital is going to take up a bigger footprint than 4 times the width of a residential side street (4 tiles x 4 vs. 1-tile wide road). Perhaps a scale based on feet/meters, in place of the tiles.

^This, a billion times. I would love to see a more realistic space usage for large developments like hospitals, schools, universities etc, rather than those awful rectangular blocks we had before. I think a zoning tool like 2000 had for seaports and airports would be ideal, with smart modular growth based on conditions and supply/demand factors.

I'd also strongly agree on bus stops being in most small scale cases on the footpath, and pedestrian over/underpasses. But naturally I'd also like bushwalking tracks, bicycle paths, bus lanes etc. I wouldn't mind a smart evolution system for some of that, like how in England you have public rights of way where people walk across fields and countryside areas which become official paths protected by law. If Sims were smart, and there was just a field with stile entrances between them and their workplace, why drive the long way?

[Aoumd 1]

2. Re: the wishes many have for High Speed Rail, if it is included, it should be a means of alleviating airport capacity not local transit capacity...while I know other gamers may wish for HSR to be something to use in their cities I feel like this is more realistic given the transportation role HSR serves worldwide.

Good to see lots of fresh faces here eagerly awaiting 2013, a nice counterbalance to the pessimism that seems prevalent regarding some issues with the new game. I'd have to agree with you on this point. Where I live in the Illawarra there is talk at the moment of constructing a second major airport for Sydney northwest of Wollongong at Wilton, which might mean a HSR connection to Sydney or Canberra. At present we have a normal heavy rail service that takes one and a half hours approximately to get to Sydney Terminal from the Gong.

HSR is thus, certainly where I am, a current topic and certainly a feature I would like to see, also for intercity communication like the planned London-Birmingham line, which would actually displace some airport traffic between minor airports, possibly.

3. Using the tile-free landscape to enable more realistic senses of scale for buildings, etc...a large hospital is going to take up a bigger footprint than 4 times the width of a residential side street (4 tiles x 4 vs. 1-tile wide road). Perhaps a scale based on feet/meters, in place of the tiles.

^This, a billion times. I would love to see a more realistic space usage for large developments like hospitals, schools, universities etc, rather than those awful rectangular blocks we had before. I think a zoning tool like 2000 had for seaports and airports would be ideal, with smart modular growth based on conditions and supply/demand factors.

I'd also strongly agree on bus stops being in most small scale cases on the footpath, and pedestrian over/underpasses. But naturally I'd also like bushwalking tracks, bicycle paths, bus lanes etc. I wouldn't mind a smart evolution system for some of that, like how in England you have public rights of way where people walk across fields and countryside areas which become official paths protected by law. If Sims were smart, and there was just a field with stile entrances between them and their workplace, why drive the long way?

Thanks for the response and the warm welcome!

The reason I say HSR should be an airport, rather than transit supplement is because HSR worldwide handles mostly intercity traffic. Sure, in Japan some people commute one stop on the Shinkansen but most are traveling 300+ km/200+ miles...out of any metropolitan region.

Like the idea about paths. After my previous post I actually went for a walk along the excellent pedestrian/bike path system in my city before coming back to the computer to see your response. I've often thought of what my ideal city (bound not by the confines and algorithms of any game I've played before) would be like, and one item I'd definitely have would be pedestrian paths to go between neighborhoods independent of the street grid...a place bikers from outer neighborhoods could go to get to a central business district without having to interact with the street grid. They sort of have that for some parts of my city, I wonder what it would be like in a bigger town...

  Edited May 28, 2012 by Aoumd  

[Mark Waybill 242]

I think that any city designed in modern times should have a comprehensive bicycle/walking track system, either alongside or offroad. I definitely think the same should be had for bicycle paths as with other transport, i.e tunnels/bridges, over/underpasses etc. It would definitely be interesting to see a real simulation of how people would take a cycle based city.

[SCaddicted 15]

Would be awesome choose between asian, europe or american based styles, like SC3000 World Ed... I miss the old days =')

EDIT: And the music, must have great songs

  Edited May 31, 2012 by Prefeito  

[chocolate_city 93]

You know, with the game coming out sometime early next year, its really hard to believe that they don't have more going on that what they been showing us... I would imagine they have been working on this for years and are now putting the finishing touches over the next few months until release... Seems to me that all these things that we want out of the game don't really cater to an on line gaming experience and what we have been shown is pretty much all your going to see. All the other things such as transportation network freedom, modding, and anything not in the initial release can be thrown at us in expansion packs or just say it will be there and not have it there because deep down they don't care WHAT we want... What I wish for in this game is that the creators think of the gamer...

[NAR 0]

I wish I can buy my own property and control it on a micro level

  Edited May 31, 2012 by NAR  

[Ocram's Razr 963]

1. Allow for normal maps.

2. Allow for high resolution textures.

3. Height limits.

4. Different zones for industry/factories, agriculture, offices, and shops/leisure/restaurants.

[Danny Muscat 6]

Another idea is better disasters such as, if your close to a large body of water or on the sea shore, an earthquake would then trigger a tsunami. Or maybe even a hurricane that could destroy a large area, instead of those tiny tornadoes. Sandstorms also exist, and so do wars....Imagine if your world idea gets used, you could chose three...two...or even more countries to go to war! Quite fun i'd say.

And as for the volcanoes in sim city 4, they become extinct after one use. I would think that you should have a choice for an extinct, dormant (erupts unexpectedly) or active volcano.

Whatcha think?

[Blink44Airwavez 6]

+1 for the world idea, don't do that resource crap like cities xl but still trade stuff like power, water, trash etc. Also have an option to expand those networks to pass city limits.

Make it like trainz where you can add baseboards to customize the size of a city. Start out with medium sized city squares.

[Mark Waybill 242]

Lol, when I first played Simcity 2000 I called the city tiles baseboards.

I think a disaster triggering another would happen naturally, like how a lightning strike causes a fire or a landslide might cause local flooding.

Depending on how realistically GB handles food as a resource, starvation could become a disaster, and also various economic problems like inflation etc. If food is a resource, and I assume Maxis is intelligent so it is, then it will be tradeable between regions like other commodities. In which case a supply shortage or demand hike could cause economic woes.

Unemployment has to have mayoral solution. If hospital and school funding is locally governed by the Mayor, then why not Jobcentre funding?

[tomfoolery_79 85]

"Undo" button is an absolute must.

[jacksunny 741]

imho, part of the gameplay is making mistakes and having to fix them, not just using an undo button.

It is a good idea for a sandbox mode though, providing there is one.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I definitely support the idea of a sandbox mode of some kind, but my brain jury is out when it comes to an undo or save system with normal gameplay. After all scenarios like 'accidentally mass zone eveything agricultural cos of stupid mouse' will still happen.

[VeritaScientia 150]

Undo buttons are not necessary at all, just do what any sensible Mayor would do, save before doing zoning.

[Traveller 28]

What I would like to see, if the option to make cities that are not so utterly dependant on gas-burning cars. But the 'new' SC despite the inclusion of a green subtext, still seems way too car-focused. Modes that allowed for car-free cities would be excellent

Also, as opposed to something that I would like to see, how about something I dont want to see. The sneak peak talks about every sim has its own 'life as it were'. TMI. I realzie the sims were a bit hit, but I never saw the appeal. I want a city designer, not a SC4\The sims hybrid. If thats all this new release is going to be, offer a massive patch to SC4 to bring it up to date instead, id even pay to DL such a thing. I dont care if every sim needs to eat, go to work, and go to bathroom, its not what made Sc4 so appealing and I think its just going to tie up a lof of CPU cycles for nothing.

If anything how about a switch to disable this feature so the game runs faster doing what I really care about, as opposed to something I do not.

[Mark Waybill 242]

Also, as opposed to something that I would like to see, how about something I dont want to see. The sneak peak talks about every sim has its own 'life as it were'. TMI. I realzie the sims were a bit hit, but I never saw the appeal. I want a city designer, not a SC4\The sims hybrid.

Trust me, you won't be dissapointed. The Sims refresh every day, so they aren't anything like the Sims in the game of that name, which usually live for more than 24 hours.

[RyanMorgan95 144]

Hmm, after watching the E3 Gameplay video, I'm concerned that buildings can't be positioned very close together - there's was a lot of green space, and this isn't realistic. So, my one real wish would be that the lots are just buildings, not buildings with a grass border around them. Apart from that, I'd also like to see hydroelectric dams (and therefore rivers with a direction) a flooding disaster, epidemics that kill of 90% of your city if you do nothing about it, and dozens of different policies/ordinances which can be enacted, such as smoking bans, fuel duty, road tax etc.

[Mark Waybill 242]

Maybe the green space was just indicative of the zone being lower density? We know from images that there will be curved zones along curved roads.

[toddg 0]

I would like to start the game say before the industrial revolution - include research/development based on taxation and certain buildings, ie Universities etc...

To go with this a complete building set of that era - part of your city, or buildings could be kept for historical looks (tourism aspect) or knocked down.

Would be fun trying to manage a city from a gone-by era as the population grows and the introduction of the motor car etc.

If this is not possible then better economics in terms of resources, supply and demand etc.

[RyanMorgan95 144]

I would like to start the game say before the industrial revolution - include research/development based on taxation and certain buildings, ie Universities etc...

To go with this a complete building set of that era - part of your city, or buildings could be kept for historical looks (tourism aspect) or knocked down.

Sounds similar to the Civilisation series. SimCity really isn't that sort of game.

  Edited June 12, 2012 by RyanMorgan95  

[Traveller 28]

How about makeing agriculture relevant in this release. You would have to insure adequit food is being grown, or your cities\regions etc wont grow, or food riots break out, or other knock on effects takes it toll on growth? In reality, food production is what allows everything else to occur, art, science literature etc, all dependant upon regular food surpluses. it would be nice to see food production incorporated in SC5, even if in a fairly simplified manner.

[toddg 0]

I would like to start the game say before the industrial revolution - include research/development based on taxation and certain buildings, ie Universities etc...

To go with this a complete building set of that era - part of your city, or buildings could be kept for historical looks (tourism aspect) or knocked down.

Sounds similar to the Civilisation series. SimCity really isn't that sort of game.

Yes with all due respect this is a wishlist. I have played all civ versions, all simcity versions, all settler versions and all anno versions, and there was another game which I played the first one but didn't like and cannot recall it's name...and what I would really like is a game that combines all these...that I could happily live alone and play Hopefully the computing power in ten years time might just allow for such a game!

I can dream...

From memory SC3000 started from the year 1900? And I recall you could fix the type of building so that it didn't change...

  Edited June 13, 2012 by toddg  

[Rampagism 0]

Graffiti

Random events (good and bad)

Traffic doesn't use the quickest way to get somewhere (although some do but not as much as the majority)

More detailed city ordinances

Better train stations

[sKir 0]

- implementing a system where we can with ease name Streets and Neighboroughs: we could just select an area and make it a neighborough or pick a road and make it a single street.

After it, the game would user the street/neighboroughs names in the historys and missions that appear, also the statistics could be drilled down to the neighborough so we can check the more poor and more wealthy places in town.

[memotron 0]

How about makeing agriculture relevant in this release. You would have to insure adequit food is being grown, or your cities\regions etc wont grow, or food riots break out, or other knock on effects takes it toll on growth? In reality, food production is what allows everything else to occur, art, science literature etc, all dependant upon regular food surpluses. it would be nice to see food production incorporated in SC5, even if in a fairly simplified manner.

Yes, there should be a farming factor in SC5 in the outlying areas. It would be great to see a breakdown between high-intensity farming in river valleys (orchards, row crop "truck farms," dairies) and lower-intensity ag (rangeland, wheat) in the hills, where the soil isn't as rich or where water isn't as available. Orchards and row crops should employ more sims as farmworkers than the sim cowboys in the rangelands. As the city population increases, it shouldn't be surpising to see more dairies build up in the outlying areas, up until the point when the suburbs butt up against the smelly cows, when the sims start complaining, and land becomes just too valuable for farming.

Should SC5 be self-sustaining regarding food production? No, not at all. Cities serve as collection and distribution points for the outlying areas. Many cities got their start as the place where food products from the sticks either went to market or got on board a boat to reach their eventual place of consumption. This is why a major SC5 city should have a major seaport and well-developed rail and highway links from outside the map.

As a city develops, it would be great to see bakeries, bottling plants and food warehouses start up. Maybe a stockyard. And because of the global element of agriculture, this is why I have previously advocated for a bulk seaport that handles grain.