SimCity: Wishlists

[VeritaScientia 150]

I tend to agree Mr. Moose on UDI, though I know some people may like it, it just seems kinda like a waste of programming for a sim game. Maybe do a Streets of Sim City again? God knows that game was epic.

[CommodoreTech 5]

Parking! I want my sims to have a car that they park in the street or in their drive, which I can see drives to work or the shop, is parked in a space, and which doesn't suddenly and miraculously vanish on arrival to somewhere. Parking is a major issue, especially in the often ancient cities and towns of Europe and the UK. Just because in the US there is basically enough space for it to never really be an issue doesn't mean the game should follow that. Parking along streets would be good as well.

I doubt this'll happen, but i'd love it if densification happened automatically, and that I just set a few limits on development. Such as when there's a lot of demand to move into an area, big houses are split into flats, which increases population density, increases demand for public transport because there simply isn't enough room for everyone to have cars, or the existing public transport is used more intensively. And now because there are more people around, offices move into the bigger buildings and areas that are well connected to transport links increase in value because of the help they give to the economy (rather than SC4 where it seemed that only pollution, crime, education, health and aura added to land value). Thus if the economy is going well, there is constant pressure to push upwards and outwards (again rather than SC4 when it depended on how many numbers of things you had) such as in London, where this a great deal of pressure to build loads of skyscrapers because everyone wants to live there, and thus there is constant pressure to improve transport and services because of its inertial attraction. In SC4 once your city was rich enough you didn't really have to bother with anything, you could just leave it once you had a decent R$ population if you wanted to (I created many cities that were just millions of uneducated, unhealthy sims). While there was 'pressure' it didn't amount to more than riots.

Stretched budgets! This would be so much more realistic! I never played with a money tree or the BSC funding ordinance, but still I found it easy to have massive budget surpluses in SC4. I think we all know that never exists in real life! I mean I don't want to be stretched to the limit, or if I am, to have some sort of government funding that will keep me out of debt but won't be endless and will itself be limited. I mean, a major city won't really run out of money (in Europe at least, I know about New York in the 1970s etc) because central government will always bail them out to some extent. Lets say you can overspend, but if you keep doing it the more annoyed they get. If they get beyond a certain limit, cuts to services have to be made and your city suffers. However i'd only want this if, when you play it properly, your budgets are fairly balanced. Any surplus goes to improving existing services or towards a big project. But if you act incompetent or stretch budgets too far (lets say you have a small town but try and build an unnecessary prestige project) then you have to be bailed out. I say this because the whole 'impeachment' thing in SC4 seemed a bit unimaginative and didn't really tell you to get your stuff sorted out, it just put you straight back to where you were.

It'd also be cool if you got central government help to fund you with massive projects, like a major suspension bridge or something.

Basically, I just don't want to have an account balance of billions of unused dollars after a city's fairly 'complete'.

Open-ended services. Perhaps with a global budget modifier saying 'Spend $------" per person on health care, and when you have a bit more money you can increase this, but there's no real limit. The quality of healthcare is determined by how many people are in the hospitals. Maybe you have a massive 10,000 paitent hospital, perhaps, and can spend however much you want on each of their healthcare, but the 10,001st person who isn't in the hospital but who needs care but can't get a decent visit gets a 50% healthcare quality, and so do the next few hundred people. Then if it gets I dunno 10% over capacity, everyone in the hospital's healthcare quality is decreased by 10% and so on as the numbers get larger. The same with schools. It'd be different with crime. But maybe the level of crime in any given area would be dependent on education (not income, because the wealthy can commit fraud etc). Thus in an very educated (and thus likely wealthy) area you only need to provide basic coverage, whereas in a rough area you need tougher police cars, equipment etc. This sounds complicated, but I think it is unrealistic you can only spend like 3,500 (or however much it is) a month on healthcare and other services. I mean, what happened if a new drug came on the market? I don't want a random act like to occur of course, it isn't that sort of game, I just want to have no limits to how much I spend on things. If I make efficiency savings in one department then I want to move them to improve another!

These are among many but yeah...

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Please don't forget those that like to play rural / agricultural...

Please don't assume that our rural area will eventually be 'upgraded' to a sky-scraper infested megaopolis!

Also please fix the silly commutes, where a sim will not walk more than a few meters up the road, or if they have to drive more than a couple of km, it is a 'long commute'... people do travel much longer distances to work and don't complain bitterly about it!

[WhereisSC5? 20]

I want to see:

-freely variable elevation for all transportation networks

-different types of road traffic (EG garbage/goods/commuters, etc)

-different types of rail traffic (EG freight/passenger)

-different types of rail network (not Elevated/Monorail/Subway but siding/yard track/service track)

-ordinances for commercializing various services (EG Buses, Hospitals)

-war scenarios as disasters and the ability to deploy a city guard (akin to National Guard in US)

-ability for city to generate own landmarks/special areas and ability of mayor to designate them

-faded view into neighboring regions (as opposed to an immediate cut-off letting you see deep underground)

-a much better region-creating interface/the ability to create entire regions from scratch (which was virtually impossible in SC4 without mods/downloads)

And this is in addition to every thing else suggested.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Can't say I've read through this whole forum, but I don't recall seeing anything about:

The Water Table(s).

Perhaps there was a mild mention in the announcement of water as a resource, but nothing was said about water tables at other than sea level. If we are going to have rivers and streams we need water at higher elevations, and on-screen or not, we need precipitation and the standard water cycle.

The Region Editor (terraformer or whatever you call it) has to be able to allow for this. Once you set up a lake or an underground water resource, the game must maintain it, with or without the cooperation of the player. If you are the Mayor, you have no control of this. If you are a god, then you have control. In any case the simulation can include both floods and droughts. Both can lead to crop failures, and this can be a rather neat disaster with which to cope. Your granaries had better be full.

Location of the Region:

The game needs to be able to play somewhere other than in Silicon Valley. SC4 is SV oriented, and often has inappropriate flora and fauna. When a region is declared, the latitude (at least) and longitude should be declared. This would be easiest to do by displaying a 3D rotatable globe and allowing the creator to pick the center point for his new map. The globe could be some pseudo-M-type planet. This could be extended to other planet types picked from a menu. (If you pick Mars, you might have some interesting Mars-Sims.)

I, personally, would choose my home area of Huronia, complete with Boreal Forests, big lakes, lots of land, and the Niagara Escarpment.

[DavidB_ 83]

My top wishes for SC5 - links are my suggestions for Buggi's "Boomtown" concept:

A much better menu system and interface

App Store-style custom content distribution

Preset and in-game customisable transport networks, timetables and more! No puzzle pieces, starter pieces

"Layer System", based on the Mac "Time Machine" interface, for underground buildings and tunnels on different layers, as well as bridges and elevated networks

Any other ideas, or comments and suggestions, please let me know.

And EA/Maxis, if you are reading these forums, take our advice, we're pros!

[jakehh 52]

Combined use of commercial buildings, Having a subway station in the building, or Elevated rail.

Or shops inside of the airports.

[Terribletown USA 18]

One thing I didn't like about building elevated freeways, rail and monorail was how they followed the terrain instead of staying at or near constant grades (or gentle gradient changes). I imagine that won't change in the new version, but I'd like to see viaducts and elevated transport be more or less level instead of dipping and peaking at every bump in the ground.

Regarding water tables, that would be cool too. I would like to have a reservoir that would have to balance the needs of energy production, water supply/irrigation, leisure, and water transport (e.g. you couldn't generate all day at some dams because you would deplete the reservoir.) Probably too complex to be in the scope of the game, but I can dream.

Kudzu to cover hillsides.

Different sizes/styles of water towers with the ability to put your own text on them.

Spectacular building implosions.

  Edited March 15, 2012 by Terribletown USA  

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

I am pretty sure that in one of the GDC presentations they talked about underground water resources, or the 'water table'... and that it will not be constant or even across the whole tile. Therefore choosing where to build a well will become more important. Ground water will also be affected by industry / pollution... but we have already seen this to a certain extent in SC4, so it makes sense that they will take this idea and expand on it.

I guess that although this will be a completely new game... it would be nice if there was still at least some 'look and feel' of the old SC4... so the first time you play the game you feel like there are at least some familiar things around you, even though everything is new and shiny, with better game technology.

[croxis 150]

The city area is made up of a bunch of overlapping resource maps with one resource per map. Each map is divided into a bunch of small tiles (think like the grid in past sim cities) and each little block holds its own amount of that resource. The map can have rules which impact how reseoreces are made or moved on the map (they mentioned wind direction for air pollution for example)

[Ocram's Razr 963]

First off, most of what I like about Boomtown has been proven to be in SimCity 2013, only better. However, Tourism and weather have not yet been discussed.

1. I want weather to be linked with utility production and disasters. The weather statistic in SimCity 2000 was wonderful.

2. I want tourism to be similar to Buggi's proposal in Boomtown with a spectrum of "demand, desirability, and profits" with the desirability extreme veing ecotourism and the profit extreme being Entertainment tourism. Consider his proposal refined from SCS:Destibations and Cities XL. Hotels would grow in zones with keystone hotels akin to RCI ploppable. Sims will desire vacations (Cities XL, OTTD, Simutrans experimental) and will travel anywhere they can to go one one. The Wealthy Elite prefer safe, clean, and beautiful (high R$$$ and CS$$$ desirability) cities with top notch hotels, food and entertainment. Blue collar sims like gambling, stadiums, bars, clubs, etc and are willing to stay in a flophouse or anywhere affordable.

Several factors impact your destination rating, including the attractions available, the level of accommodations you have, the mood of the locals, and even the value that Sims can get for their money. Managing your destination rating is tricky business; you want a good variety of buildings to cater to the many diverse tastes of travelers. If you only offer expensive five-star restaurants, working-class vacationers will leave your city feeling ripped off, and your rating will drop. Getting that coveted five-star rating usually requires building (and supporting) a massive resort complex.

Using those 3 examples here is what Buggi proposed:

A) Ecotourism: high natural beauty (low pollution, plenty of trees, AKA R$$$ desirability from trees, especially god mode trees over open grass areas in SimCity 4)

B) Vacation tourism: beaches, landmarks, museums, restaurants, (tourism zone in Cities XL, due to lack of pollution, proximity to landmarks and generally exceptional Quality of Life)

C) Entertainment: capitalist entertainment seen in SCS:D and the Crime and Leisure Mod for Cities XL. This includes stadiums, clubs, bars, and casinos.

The Cities XL equivalent is environment/Quality of Life for A, general satisfaction for B, and leisure satisfaction for D.

[jacksunny 741]

In the game, I would like to see thermal pollution. For those of you who don't know what that is, thermal pollution is basically when factories dump warm water into a river, lake, etc. The water raises the water temp, altering the ecosystem. A common way of dealing with it is through the use of cooling ponds.

The way I see this implemented is as follows:

1. We have a factory

2. The factory creates warm water.

3. Cooling ponds will have a range, similar to hospitals and schools. It will also have a capacity, so a million factories cannot dump their water into 1 tiny pond.

4. If there is no pond within the range of said factory, or it has no space left, the warm water will create thermal pollution.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ The effects of thermal pollution will, of course, be dead fish, algae blooms, etc. Factories should also not be allowed to chemically pollute water either. The rule must be "put it back the way you got it, or better". Most factories these days adhere to that.

The big problem today, which may not be much longer, is collecting stack gases for further use and recycling. One of the greatest offenders in this regard is oil refineries which burn off "waste gas" which mostly becomes carbon dioxide. We really don't pay enough attention to by-products.

I am not suggesting that the game be rabidly green, but some recycling facilities should be available, even if only as later DLC.

[jjbbarbosa 3]

Do you remember the Sim Farm? today it seems very basic, but had thingsquite interesting.

one was a "helping hand" to grab objects and carrying them to anotherlocation.

after years playing SC4, now the target is create cities «perfect» (for mytaste,obviously). But there is the problem of the space/location of thebuildings:«oh! This building is perfect near that other… but, no room isavailable. Build again? Oh no! not again!!!» - I think to myself.

I guess this happened with many other people with this hobby of SimCity, so I share this idea and perhaps some expert in creating tools willinvented the solution ...

I think it would be interesting to move the buildings ... Moreover,even thathappens in real life.

Best regards,

João

[Jahnri 21]

Well I just watched the Glass Box video again and they do indeed state that water tables are depleted from use and recharge with precipitation. They also are impacted by pollution which impacts the quality of the water and that impact cascades outword into the ecology. Nutrition in the soil depletes, people get sick and trees/grass die. Pretty much what I expected from the Agent system being employed.

[Mark Waybill 242]

"but I'd like to see viaducts and elevated transport be more or less level instead of dipping and peaking at every bump in the ground."

^This. A trillion times this. The same would go for rail. IRL railways can only have so much of a gradient to function properly, and are smooth and gradual in nature. Even if SC isn't to be absolutely realistic it is aesthetically unpleasing and just plain silly and an eyesore to have railways go up and down like an outback dirt track

[jacksunny 741]

^That is something I never thought of, and I completely agree.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Two items since my last post here:

"helping hand" a.k.a. copy, cut, paste. Carefully implemented it might be rather nice;

Proper grades and gradients - hard to do when space is tight, but I agree it is necessary. Humpty bump highways and railroads is silly, unaesthetic, and so on. Rail and highway curves should be segments of spirals, too, by the way, to prevent lateral fly-offs. High speed curves need to be banked as well. (Hey, I only took a couple of civil engineering courses fifty years ago, and even I know that.)

[Mark Waybill 242]

As this is the Wishlist thread I might as well mention while we're talking about railroads and highways etc

Firstly my thoughts on good railways. Freight trucks are obviously going to be included and will utilise road infrastructure like normal cars buses etc, whether or not the option to make freight only lanes/roads is included. Freight railways would exist where no passenger stations were built, but freight depots are. Now if parking is simulated realistically, goods transportation should logically be too. This would mean that just because an industrial facility is right next to train tracks wouldn't mean it can just chuck all its products on to passing freight carriages. IRL there are minor branch lines which connect the main railway to such facilities, and also mining railways and so forth. To be realistic there would have to be a proper connection to such facilities. I think however that considering railyards, single/double etc track lines, the variety of station types (single platform, curved platforms, 'Central' style terminal stations will large concourses and restaurant/parking etc facilities, timetables, etc Railways if given enough realism would become a game in and of themselves, so I will limit my essential wishlist to realistic curves and gradients, although I'd appreciate the other possibilities as well

Now as to parking, IRL we of course have parking zones along some sections of streets, as well as actual carpark lots and facilities, including underground carparks at apartment or commercial blocks and driveways. If cars could park along any street once there were too many cars for that street a solution would have to be found. IRL parking is a major and very real issue in many cities. It sounds like commuting and travel in general is going to be much more realistic and logical in this game, so I'd like it if a Sim could for instance have a car, realise that fuel is too expensive to travel 50 km to work in the city, and park and ride using the railway or take a bus.

And speaking of buses I wonder how taxis will be dealt with if at all? Taxis would frequire parking space and of course operate very differently to buses, as they are opportunistic and not based upon a set timetable and route. It would be interesting to see how they would be implemented.

[Catmando 7]

Here's an idea I haven't seen touched on in suggestion threads before: the city should have a workforce of its own.

Now, in Simcity 4 we did see this a little with jobs at power plants, hospitals, police stations, fire stations, and the like. This didn't go far enough, though. One thing that's bothered me about the game is that it's never explained how the roads are maintained or by whom. Obviously the city throws oodles of money toward transportation, but for what? A continuous supply of asphalt? The city should be able to hire and pay workers of its own in the transportation budget, for all the money it has. Assuming we can tweak how much money to spend on roads and building maintenance and the like, the city should also be hiring more workers proportional to that. Back in Simcity 4 you could push budgets up to 120%. I don't remember what this feature was for—I think I remember reading that it's supposed to make potholes disappear if they appeared due to low funding in the past—but it should also correspond to a larger workforce on the city's road maintenance. This should also apply to construction. A lot of temporary jobs could be created just building new sections of the city, new roads, new rails, and so on.

(Sorry if this has been brought up. I tried to read as much of this thread as I could, but it gets repetitive at times as it is.)

[Mark Waybill 242]

A City Council Works team would indeed be realistic, and I'd be surprised if they didn't have some employment simulation with construction of civic engineering projects.

[Catmando 7]

A City Council Works team would indeed be realistic, and I'd be surprised if they didn't have some employment simulation with construction of civic engineering projects.

It seems to me it's the kind of thing they've already taken into consideration, but if not I think it's worth mentioning here. I wonder, though, can I contract with certain construction companies à la Coal Enterprises and let them build nice pretty HQs in my city, or will it all be city-directed?

[Vetador 3]

I have a big wish and its soo important for me to share it with the game developper of simcity! Before you read this, I am sorry for the mistake I do. I am not familiar with english yet, but I will surely improve it.. XD

In simcity 2000, there was a mod that made the game look futuristic! It would be extremely cool to see everything in a futuristic version mode! But I have a better idea!!! Why not having futuristic building when the city or the region has enaugh high-tech technologie! And these hight-tech residential will reduce the heavy-industrie demand and reduce the garbage production, ect... Anyways, it will have some big impact to the ecology and economies. The hight-tech commercial office would look like some kind of ultra-hight building extremely beautifull but not necessary tall but most of it yes. The more we have hight-tech industries, the more our city will look futuristic. I have read some other ideas that say the cities should be able to connect somehow with other planet. Maybe with a very advanced hight-tech industry, it will be then possible. Why not having some quest with all this? A mission to get 20,000 hight-tech industries, then a mission to deploy a spaceship to the moon.. Later on, on Mars and why not some others further inhabitan planets? It will greatly increase the commercials exchange and favorite the residents, etc... All about the futur..? Well at the start it has very less technologies, soo the city start with some farms and the building will look old. The objective would be to get money with industries but in the same time, trying to solve the pollution problem. Later on, the technologie will solve this problem but other problem should occur. The city will have so many people on it.. Every building will be soo tall that it contain at least three thousand people in it! The ressources will be hard to find. How can this problem may get solved? Hight-tech farming!! Hehehe... These futuristic farms won't be the same at all because all the fruits and vegetable will grow in buildings! They will produce more ressources. Oh! Why not trading with other planet for ressources?

If you think my idea is bad, then to make you enjoy a little bit of my imagination, just think that the futur will be the present someday close from now on and it will surely happen. Why do we allways have to think about the present? For a game to be better, the more imagination it has, the more addictive it will be!

Sorry but I have another idea but its an important factor for the game. I think the regions for the city should not be limited at the beginning. It would be extremely great if we can have bigger regions for larger city. But my idea is to increase the size of the region of the city when the city grow. It will cost money to buy more territory! In the region view, where we can see all the city, I suggest that it do not have the square "city region" everywhere in the region but only where it realy has city. And then again, the region of the city should not be a square but more like in real life.. I don't know how to explain it.. sorry. SO!! So the cities will be able to grow bigger and bigger and there will be a limit (should be large enaugh, larger then in simcity 4).

Oops.. My imagination is blowing up! THIRD IDEA. Having the possibility to create/edit buildings within the game! But only if its easy enaugh. Its not fun when we are using some 3D programmation.. If its like in the sims, buildings a building would be soo cool!! Then we say how many residential it has in the building or how many commercial or industrial! Then we can also create electricity building or more... This would be extremely cool!!!

Thank you for reading my ideas!

  Edited March 18, 2012 by Vetador  

[Finkle 14]

Did someone say no more 40 foot high brick walls when the terrain is to steep. I would be nice to move over some of these HD props and buildings...

May I be the first to say, I am getting sick of building the same fantasy region every time a new Simcity comes out. Newnark Version 5.0?

[Catmando 7]

Did someone say no more 40 foot high brick walls when the terrain is to steep.

Terrain/climate and all things related could use an upgrade. Do these suggestions jive with you?

• Alternative grid-based flattening tools, assuming there's a grid at all (because getting nice flat land by putting down single pieces of street in Simcity 4 was annoying to a degree I can't express in words)
• Different climates
• Weather, especially snow
• Better slopes (thank you Nonny Moose for reminding me of this! Long-time gripe of mine)
• Improved handling of foundations and retaining walls.
• More flora variety—probably works well with climates
• Better choice of water color

And I suppose that, so long as these are all sufficiently moddable like in Simcity 4, the community can take care of other concerns, like fine-tuning interaction with slopes and terrain and water colors and stuff.

[Finkle 14]

Can I just say this, through the years on this site and this forum, I've noticed overseas people that live in really poor countries that play Simcity4, and don't feel like a new computer, so if the poorest graphic settings can be like I'm running a machine made a decade or so ago would be nice.

I remember with some of the Sims games, I plug it into the computer and it never had enough of this or that, which really sucked...

What I am not saying is make a another console game, yea those suck... like someone else said "don't gimp it down"

[JcCali1214 34]

"Using those 3 examples here is what Buggi proposed:<br style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252); ">A) Ecotourism: high natural beauty (low pollution, plenty of trees, AKA R$$ desirability from trees, especially god mode trees over open grass areas in SimCity 4)<br style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252); ">B) Vacation tourism: beaches, landmarks, museums, restaurants, (tourism zone in Cities XL, due to lack of pollution, proximity to landmarks and generally exceptional Quality of Life)<br style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252); ">C) Entertainment: capitalist entertainment seen in SCS:D and the Crime and Leisure Mod for Cities XL. This includes stadiums, clubs, bars, and casinos.<br style="color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 251, 252); ">The Cities XL equivalent is environment/Quality of Life for A, general satisfaction for B, and leisure satisfaction for D."

OcramSeattle, I so agree! Though, I feel like you did forget to mention Business Tourism, which would round out this wonderfully developed tourism addition to Simcity!

What I would like to see added that hasn't been mentioned much in this topic yet are (what I view) as four crucial additions:

1. Mixed-Use Building

For some reason I am most passionate about this one. Now, I understand that for many it isn't a concern and as far as game mechanics and its simulation it might be altogether be avioded but, I am sorry, if we are going for more 'realism' or taking the SimCity series to the next level, this is A MUST. It has always frustrated me in Simulation and Strategy games that a building that is big enough/etc. (e.g. shops on the ground floor with 10 stories above) that it only serves ONE purpose. Like, that entire structure is used for that one purpose? Uh - no.

2. Non-Road, etc. Transportation

Now, I know we are all excited for 'curvy roads' and what not but, one thing I did enjoy in SimCity Societies (I'm sorry but I did - and this wasn't the only thing) is the fact that you could have a whole society without roads. I understand it will be a majority of our infrastructure but, PLEASE do not make it so that every building HAS TO BE road dependent. A building should be able to be set back from a sidewalk so as to create a nice plaza area or alleyway for multiple high density housing/or shopping. Think The Promenade in Santa Monica or The Grove at Farmers Market. Even Cities XL in its American pack had something with houseboats connected to the pier (that's an interesting concept/proposal in it's own right).

3. Better Sloped Structures

I see it's starting to be mentioned, which is GREAT because in 4, I was always so scared to build on slopes. It was either flat land or cliff's edge. The way it was handled (was good at the time, I guess) was so unrealistic and annoying. So, yes to better sloped structure management.

4. Mass Transit Opportunisties -----> More Expansive

I am very eager to see the Mass, Rail, Sea, A ir, etc. Transit. When it comes to Mass however, let's make sure we have expanded on what 4/Rush hour brought to the table - Like, for elevated rail and Monorail (which, I know I am in the minority when I say this but, I did prefer this to Rail) can we please utilize the space underneath? I mean, in a city, one big waste of real estate. And even if we don't, let the pavement/etc. conform to the environment it is in. I forgot who did it on the STEX or BSC Excahnge but, they made some really hot ones 4 4 4 the elevated rail, and not the monorail (which made me sad) but, I am hoping that gets turned around in 5. Also, if they could go into/through buildings that would be super cool and even be transformed into something similar to New York's Green Line, making the local real estate attractive, among other such benefits. Also, please do continue to have the transitions from elevated to underground (and if they included a Mono one/one for the Monorail = ) and underground stations in buildings/plazas/etc. Like, just for real.

So, yeah, these are my two cents worth (more like $2 worth) and really hope Maxis'll implement them.

But yeah, please keep this wishlist up! I agree and am intrigued by so many of these suggestions!

[Mark Waybill 242]

I'd like it if somehow railways/tramways etc could be built a single track at a time, and the tool was smart, so for instance if you selected 'railyard' and clicked the end piece of a section of line you could build a yard there rather than drawing each track individually. Also multiple platform stations IRL take on such a variety of shapes and types that some kind of smart mechanism would surely be needed. If for instance one could upgrade a single track line to double track, and affect the stations, crossings etc likewise.

I think like in Simutrans rolling stock/buses etc should be independent of networks. As much as a particular default train type might be best suited to a particular line, if I feel like having steam trains in a modern city I will, so there.

[Disraeli Blue 1]

Most of what I would like to see has already been mentioned above, but I don't think I saw anything about the GUI, as I would like it to be scalable so you could play at a desk as well as on the TV while siting on the sofa.

The best eg. I can give would be minecraft as you can change the scale from 'small - normal - large & auto' , but with games like anno1404 you can only play if your face is pressed up against the screen which can make it unplayable.

oh & a option for 4:3 as well as wide screen.

  Edited March 18, 2012 by Disraeli Blue  

[Catmando 7]

2. Non-Road, etc. Transportation

Now, I know we are all excited for 'curvy roads' and what not but, one thing I did enjoy in SimCity Societies (I'm sorry but I did - and this wasn't the only thing) is the fact that you could have a whole society without roads. I understand it will be a majority of our infrastructure but, PLEASE do not make it so that every building HAS TO BE road dependent. A building should be able to be set back from a sidewalk so as to create a nice plaza area or alleyway for multiple high density housing/or shopping. Think The Promenade in Santa Monica or The Grove at Farmers Market. Even Cities XL in its American pack had something with houseboats connected to the pier (that's an interesting concept/proposal in it's own right).

I think what the NAM did in this respect was great. The Ped malls, that is. With those it became possible to create "streets" out of cobblestone roads, grass paths, and so on. It really added to the aesthetic in some places and made things like Schulmania's roadless cities possible (although if I remember correctly, Schulmanator still used subways for long distance travel due to the game's silly commute length rules). I think this could be go along with the plaza-zoning discussed earlier in another thread. If we could build public squares and stuff around which we could zone businesses or homes or what have you that may congregate around it. I think it goes without saying that transportation in general can be extended a lot, though.