SimCity: Wishlists

[LivingInThePast 364]

Don't know if they could implement this, but a separate tax for everything could be nice and you could entirely different budgets. For examples, if you place traffic cameras, then that money ONLY goes into improving transportation. My RL city is currently considering pooling revenues from the hotel tax for a new stadium. Who knows if it will happen, but that's just an idea.

[dementyev 2]

My biggest gripe with SC4 is the super picky land-sea lots (seaports, ferries, etc), make it so they can be placed (and functional!) without hours of trial and error terraforming. Simple but stupid issues like that are what I hope they concentrate on addressing before they load up on silly gimmicks.

[Sap59 3]

My biggest gripe with SC4 is the super picky land-sea lots (seaports, ferries, etc), make it so they can be placed (and functional!) without hours of trial and error terraforming. Simple but stupid issues like that are what I hope they concentrate on addressing before they load up on silly gimmicks.

I agree..

[jamesd37 0]

Most things i can think of have already been listed in posts before me so i wont bother repeating, but something i would find interesting is varying game speeds in terms of construction.

To enjoy a really good simulation when building my city i would like it if there was longer construction times for buildings and road networks. Building a long motorway should become a large task and a big investment which requires lots of money and time to build rather then a few seconds.

Obviously it would get annoying if it took literally hours for a new motorway to be finished but some kind of option to adjust speed of construction in the game settings would be appreciated to make things a bit more interesting.

[Silur 3,304]

There are many wishes for SC2013 ...

Only one Year for this - this is an empty speeches ..

I want to see any people in my city..

But ..

We'll get Sims 3 with a Label SC2013 with many Addons

  Edited March 22, 2012 by Silur  

[GillsMan 2]

These are some of my ideas.

1. Transport. Living in London, there's a big commuting culture and I'd like to see this included in the game with some workers happy to consider the following commuting types:

- Pedestrians: I think should be able to cycle or walk to work. Loads of cyclists in London, let's have this in SimCity! And some pedestrians should be happy for a reasonable walk of up to an hour each way, with others not keen on more than a ten minute walk.

- Road users: Cars/motorcycles will make up the majority of commuters, but I'd like to see taxis, as well as buses and coaches, included as options.

- Water: boats and ferries take people across and down rivers. So let's have more water taxis in SimCity please!

- Air: Helicopters, private jets as well as chartered and scheduled flights from municipal and major airports in the game.

- Rail: In London, we have regular rail, subway, the DLR, trams and high speed rail links and I'd like to see these all implemented into the game. Trams can run on roads, and the DLR is a semi-automated rail network that is low capacity, but quick service that runs almost like a monorail in that it rides above the city for the most part.

2. Communication. We live in the communication era, so I think we should be putting up telephone poles, mobile phone masts, high-speed Internet, WiFi hotspots and all that sort of stuff. Postboxes should grow in residential areas by default and we can grow a national postal service with links to air, sea and rail freight,

3. Zone Realism.

Residential: I would like to see five different wealth levels and five different density levels. The lowest wealth level with the lowest density would basically be a caravan. The lowest wealth level with the highest density would be a scummy tower block. The highest wealth level with the lowest density would be a sprawling mansion, whilst the highest wealth level and highest density would be an exclusive apartment block (usually with river views and underground parking). In between, all the different housing types you can think of from detached/semi-detached and terraced houses, to high-rises, to medium apartment blocks housing nine flats each and three stories high, to huge housing projects and so on.

Commercial: I would like to see Commercial split into four different types: Offices, Services, Retail and Entertainment. Zone some low-density services in a low wealth area and expect to see laundromats/laundrettes and the like. Zone some high-density offices in a high wealth area and expect to see a law firm or a media agency. Put some entertainment zoning in a mid-wealth area with good transport links and expect to see nighclubs, bars, cinemas, etc. With retail you can get 99p stores to high class jewellery stores depending on the wealth of the area.

Industry: I would have four different types: farming, manufacturing (inc construction), technology, and consumables. Consumables would basically be companies making things that are consumed, e.g. food factories, pharmaceuticals, drinks companies, breweries, tobacco companies (probably not appropriate in SC, maybe we could have a "Bubble Ring Factory" or something instead), and so on. Similar concept to before, so high density manufacturing would bring car manufacturers, plane manufacturers and so on, where as low density should be, I dunno, cardboard and zips, and warehouses and stuff. Farming is obvious. Technology is also pretty straight forward, high density is a massive tech organisation, like a Robots Engineering department, low density could be some .com startup.

4. Distinct Areas: Ghettos, projects, whatever you want to call them, I want to see them in SimCity. From "the ghetto" to "Millionnaire's Row", I want to see clusters of people flock together. I want to see Little Italies, Chinatowns, areas full of Irish, Portuguese, African, Eastern European and British in certain areas. The looks could be as simple as putting up different flags in houses, and street decorations. The businesses could be named accordingly "restaurant called Mr Wu's" in Chinatown, "Mario's Pizzaria" in Little Italy, "Seamus O'Connell's Blarney Stone" in the Irish quarter and so on.

Celebs hanging out in the "Millionnaire's Row", and this could tie in with some nice Maxis style humour when a fictional celebrity is spotted in the salubrious part of town.

Those are my ideas for now.

[WhereisSC5? 20]

I want to see the ability to double-zone (put zones on top of other zones). Imagine how cool that would be-if you were to zone residential over commercial, you could get lofts over a strip mall; commercial over industrial would bring you a software programming facility (or possibly a candy shop that makes and sells its own candy); and residential over industrial results in a large factory or mine surrounded by worker's residences. Im not entirely sure how the specifics of this would work, though, so that'd have to be figured out. But I have no doubt that it would be pretty cool

[VeritaScientia 150]

I want to see the ability to double-zone (put zones on top of other zones). Imagine how cool that would be-if you were to zone residential over commercial, you could get lofts over a strip mall; commercial over industrial would bring you a software programming facility (or possibly a candy shop that makes and sells its own candy); and residential over industrial results in a large factory or mine surrounded by worker's residences. Im not entirely sure how the specifics of this would work, though, so that'd have to be figured out. But I have no doubt that it would be pretty cool

Heeey! That'd be a great idea!! Zoning for one then say Control-Click-Drag to zone commercial onto the same lots too, allowing for multi-use. Though it'd have to be restricted so that Residential-Industrial lots are only available for low-wealth sims if at all.

[PeterSweet 5]

This would be a idea with the one of the most power features in SimCity 2013, is the ability to construct almost any kind of edifice from the vast variety of structural pieces in the game; be a castle, palace, mansion, high street, shanty village, wooden houses or skyscraper or anything else almost other things with your own structural buildings like movie studios etc and saving your building to use later scenarios or to trade with other players.

Simple Construction

Open a construction set browser list and click on one of the pieces in the set this cause a greyed-out image of the piece to connect to your pointer. Press Z to turn the piece at 90 increments. Position the piece where you want to place it and click the mouse button. The piece has been placed at ground level. Continue to place pieces in the ground this way until you close browser list.

To place pieces or rooftops above or below the ground-floor level, move the piece to the spot over the ground where you want to place it, and then hold SHIFT and move the pointer up or down. This cause the greyed out piece to slide up and down even below the ground. When your piece is in the desired position, click to place it. This is also useful when you want put up a wall piece next to another but the shape of the land prevents the wall tops from aligning precisely; just hold down SHIFT and move the pointer until the tops align.

You can also hold down CTRL to force the terrain to flatten around the building piece. Hold down ALT to cut the land around the building piece.

Saving and Loading Buildings

Save your building to use later scenarios or to trade with other players. Open the Saved Selections menu and click the Select Objects button. Then drag the mouse button over the ground to mark the area under the building you want to save taking care that the whole base of your structure is highlighted, name the object and click on the Save button.

Load buildings created by others by copying the file to the directory indicated in the Sharing Your Creations section of this menu or sub-menu. The next time you play SimCity 2013, the new building will appear in the list of Saved Building Selections and Create Structural Building.

Depending the Maxis/EA will appear any ideas with this event, but I'm not 100% sure.

[jacksunny 741]

2. Communication. We live in the communication era, so I think we should be putting up telephone poles, mobile phone masts, high-speed Internet, WiFi hotspots and all that sort of stuff. Postboxes should grow in residential areas by default and we can grow a national postal service with links to air, sea and rail freight,

I completely agree, this should be a big part of the game. I feel that some of these things should be required for certain building types to grow. Since we don't yet know what the zone densities are going to be, I'll use the SC4 ones as an example:

R$-Would require telephone poles.

R$$-Would require telephone poles and an internet connection.

R$$$-Would require telephone poles, internet and mobile phone towers.

C-S-Would require telephone poles

C-O$$-Would require telephone and internet

C-O$$$-Would require everything

Some of the communication methods would have a certain range. For example, mobile phone masts would have a very big range, they could cover several cities. Another option would be to allow different heights of towers. The higher it is, the bigger the range.

---

Another idea: A favourites bar. Let's say there is a park a player uses a lot, but it is at the very bottom of a parks menu that has many things in it. The player also doesn't know how to edit the building's properties to change its menu location. The player can choose to place the building in the favourites bar. The favourites bar would be located at the top of the screen, like a dock on a desktop.

That's all for now.

[Catmando 7]

2. Communication. We live in the communication era, so I think we should be putting up telephone poles, mobile phone masts, high-speed Internet, WiFi hotspots and all that sort of stuff. Postboxes should grow in residential areas by default and we can grow a national postal service with links to air, sea and rail freight,

I actually like this idea, and I'm surprised it hasn't been suggested before. I have reservations about some of this, though. There's a fine line between micromanaging that's enjoyable and produces a result that's worthy of the time put into it and micromanaging that's simply tedious and distracting. I think if we had to lay down telephone poles for every street in a city manually or something along those lines it would get tiring very quickly. It would be even worse if we had to micromanage which carry which services and whatnot. I think telephone poles should grow up along streets and roads by default (as with your postboxes suggestion) and can be laid alongside, say, country roads or highways where necessary. Mobile phone masts can be built manually throughout the map; according to wikipedia, cell phone towers can be spaced about once every 2-3 km in rural areas, so that covers, what, almost an entire city tile? And in urban areas, they're very close, with more than one per square km. That shouldn't be hard to emulate if the towers have a certain capacity and everything. Now, a quick way to designate which areas of the city get which services would suffice: zoning a certain area of the city to have high-speed internet (perhaps because it is high-wealth) would be all right by me. I don't like the idea of having to manage a national post service, though. I don't want this to become OpenTTD. The micromanaging in that game drove me crazy, and the interface made it impossible to enjoy. I think having to plop a few post office buildings to adequately cover the city would be fine, but I absolutely don't want to sit for hours on end trying to make sure my city's mail trucks aren't getting too old and making sure the seaport is still receiving and exporting mail.

[jacksunny 741]

^On second thought, I agree. Having to lay down telephone poles manually would be extremely inconvenient.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I believe postage and telecommunications should be handled like electricity and water. Lines and services are automatically laid and carried out, but we designate areas to build say a post office or mobile communications tower. We construct the main components and central infrastructure, connections and services are handled automatically.

If a timeline feature was to be had communications between cities could use realistic methods such as stage coaches and telegraph wires etc, and options like cell phone infrastructure would become available later.

Communications would become far more important if the Sims side of the game ever becomes more in depth, or if The Sims and SC were to ever merge, and would naturally become a necessity.

[JcCali1214 34]

I think you guys are on the right track with the communication topic (I like the central infrastructure being in the city's control ^^^^, but not micromanaging) but, I feel the guys are talking bout what I am rooting for:

I want to see the ability to double-zone (put zones on top of other zones). Imagine how cool that would be-if you were to zone residential over commercial, you could get lofts over a strip mall; commercial over industrial would bring you a software programming facility (or possibly a candy shop that makes and sells its own candy); and residential over industrial results in a large factory or mine surrounded by worker's residences. Im not entirely sure how the specifics of this would work, though, so that'd have to be figured out. But I have no doubt that it would be pretty cool

Heeey! That'd be a great idea!! Zoning for one then say Control-Click-Drag to zone commercial onto the same lots too, allowing for multi-use. Though it'd have to be restricted so that Residential-Industrial lots are only available for low-wealth sims if at all.

I have already expressed my desire for mutli-purpose zoning/building across these forums (especially when buildings in SC4 and the modding/downloading community clearly had the look of it but were forced to choose either resi or comm) and really like the idea(s) proposed here! How genius!

I really WhereisSC5 exemplifies how it would feel in the game and how PTPLauthor gives a technical example of it working in game. Heck, even the way Gillsman breaks down the zones (which, I really like the extra layer of complexity and control when shaping your city) can really illustrate how it could all come together.

As far as it collaborating with the simulation, for example, you have a commercial shop, ground floor, w/ apts. above. The agents could send out the "come work today" signal to the apts. 1st, and then to the rest of the city. I mean, as a developer said in the Reddit answer session, the simulation DEFINETLY supports it - I just am praying they'll include it! I mean, realism, right?

[Mark Waybill 242]

I would like it if buildings could be rezoned or multizoned, certainly. The Powerhouse Museum, a converted power house now a science and design museum, is one of my favourite structures.

If one could, for instance, in a realistic fashion, buy a building from a private owner, and release it or rezone it for a new function, I'd be happy.

[Catmando 7]

Here's something I haven't seen addressed yet: better cemeteries.

Firstly, cemeteries should be merged into the healthcare menu. Secondly, they should also become zoneable. Cemeteries should need to be periodically expanded to accommodate the age and population of one's city, like the city's landfill. There will also be a cremation facility for lowering space issues, akin to the recycling center in Simcity 4 which handled waste so that landfills wouldn't fill so quickly. Cemeteries should also play a larger role in health, as having a preponderance of dead bodies in one's living space increases the likelihood of catching certain diseases. Cemetery costs would be relatively low, as Sims pay for their plots, which covers most of the costs. However, cemeteries would also take up a lot of space, potentially valuable real estate.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I agree cemeteries should be zoneable. Cremation facilities acting like a recycling yard would also be logical. Maybe not a waste to energy incinerator though lol.

My guess is that for obvious reasons religious houses will be 'houses of worship' instead of denomination or religion based churches. However in reality it is of course to be noted that in older villages and towns cemeteries are churchyards. If a timeline feature was had it would be nationally specific however so the issue of bias would cease to exist as each nation would have a timeline.

I think cemeteries (free standing, not church attached property) should be zoneable like parks, and indeed used in a recreational and environmental fashion similarly as public spaces. Ploppable modular elements like fountains and driveways could be had.

Also if they were economically realistic wealthier Sims would have large monuments and tombs whereas those less fortunate chaps would be incinerated I should presume, reflecting a realistic class based disposal system.

  Edited March 25, 2012 by Mark Waybill  

[Catmando 7]

I agree cemeteries should be zoneable. Cremation facilities acting like a recycling yard would also be logical. Maybe not a waste to energy incinerator though lol.

My guess is that for obvious reasons religious houses will be 'houses of worship' instead of denomination or religion based churches. However in reality it is of course to be noted that in older villages and towns cemeteries are churchyards. If a timeline feature was had it would be nationally specific however so the issue of bias would cease to exist as each nation would have a timeline.

I think cemeteries (free standing, not church attached property) should be zoneable like parks, and indeed used in a recreational and environmental fashion similarly as public spaces. Ploppable modular elements like fountains and driveways could be had.

Also if they were economically realistic wealthier Sims would have large monuments and tombs whereas those less fortunate chaps would be incinerated I should presume, reflecting a realistic class based disposal system.

Perhaps houses of worship could petition to build private cemeteries. The private cemeteries would free the city of maintenance costs, but would of course waste just as much land. It would probably be advantageous for a mayor to let houses of worship handle all the cemeteries, although they would have an artificial limit on size imposed, perhaps.

Also, regarding houses of worships and their lack of specificity, I almost always ended up building Catholic churches in my cities. It just so happens that I am Catholic, but I don't build those because I'm biased or anything; it's just that the vast majority of churches I've downloaded online are Catholic, whether explicitly stated in the descriptions or not. Although I did have a region whose national religion was Catholic, though, and I took it to the point that in the center of the capital, just north of the National Palace was a gigantic cross formed by the streets clearly visible from the region view with St. Peter's Basilica (thank you, Debussyman!) and a papal university in it, or so I imagined. I wouldn't mind at all if there were a few religions represented, and Maxis could even skirt around the issues a bit more finely by having, say, a church, a synagogue, and a mosque available. But if all we get are houses of worship I won't complain, I'll just get some more specific ones from the community when they inevitably come out.

EDIT: And before I forget, I remember on the Cities XL forum when someone said that they didn't care how it was done, no matter what, they wanted a Jedi Temple in the game. This resonated my inner Star Wars fan and I wholeheartedly agree and still do. Please, Maxis, let there be Jedi!

  Edited March 25, 2012 by Catmando  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ I think the strangest religious custom lot is my Seminary of Mota. It is one of my very first BAT lots, and I really wanted to do something non-Bauhaus. I even got a golden spiral on the roof instead of a spire (visual pun intended). It is really a college with some tweaks.

Mota is a fictional god from the short novel "The Day After Tomorrow" by John W. Campbell written in the WW II time frame. If you can find a copy, give it a read. It is a bit of a romp, and almost as good as the Doc Smith Skylark series for outrageous science.

[Catmando 7]

^ I think the strangest religious custom lot is my Seminary of Mota.

Strange? Nonsense! After all, it looks to have a dome, and is that... illusionistic painting on the roof? Why, it's practically Baroque! All it needs is a grand staircase or two and it could sit aside Maderno's façade or the Trevi fountain comfortably.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ I think the strangest religious custom lot is my Seminary of Mota.

Strange? Nonsense! After all, it looks to have a dome, and is that... illusionistic painting on the roof? Why, it's practically Baroque! All it needs is a grand staircase or two and it could sit aside Maderno's façade or the Trevi fountain comfortably.

The roof is a tessellation of part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Who said textures have to be plain? I'll take my Michelangelo wherever I can get it.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I amused myself by naming Houses of Worship things like Saint Mayor's Church.

An idea, well possibly a bad one but an idea nonetheless, would be to have a SimGod or gods. So, instead of having real religious factions represented, there is a panel of SimDeities similar to Saints or Martyrs or the heroes of Greece or what have you, and an almighty power SimGod above them all. Of course that idea might be controversial, but it would also be unbiased, as most religions these days only have one deity at the top, and the panel of lesser deities could be thought of like Saints or helpers. Like, for instance, there could be a minor deity for wind, called Blowicus, and one for mountains, Hillikon.

These SimDeities could be part of a universal SimReligion. That way the idea of universal peace between Simcities could be had, but religion and the customs, festivals and churches and so forth that are connected with it could still exist.

[LivingInThePast 364]

I amused myself by naming Houses of Worship things like Saint Mayor's Church.

An idea, well possibly a bad one but an idea nonetheless, would be to have a SimGod or gods. So, instead of having real religious factions represented, there is a panel of SimDeities similar to Saints or Martyrs or the heroes of Greece or what have you, and an almighty power SimGod above them all. Of course that idea might be controversial, but it would also be unbiased, as most religions these days only have one deity at the top, and the panel of lesser deities could be thought of like Saints or helpers. Like, for instance, there could be a minor deity for wind, called Blowicus, and one for mountains, Hillikon.

These SimDeities could be part of a universal SimReligion. That way the idea of universal peace between Simcities could be had, but religion and the customs, festivals and churches and so forth that are connected with it could still exist.

Haha, that all sounds like one of the more off-the-wall ideas from the BBSs for suggestions for the SimCity after 2000 (most of which were never implemented to this day, though some have added later through 4 or the add-ons). Plus "Blowicus" sounds dirty.

[Mark Waybill 242]

Haha, that all sounds like one of the more off-the-wall ideas from the BBSs for suggestions for the SimCity after 2000 (most of which were never implemented to this day, though some have added later through 4 or the add-ons). Plus "Blowicus" sounds dirty.

I couldn't remember what the god of wind was called for the life of me. Now, of course, I suddenly remember a thing called Google that has been around for a while now...

But yes I know it is a bit out there, but if you think about it, it couldn't really be seen as controversial, because it's not like the SimReligion would be modelled after any particular faith, and so it would be akin to the Jedi faith in Star Wars.

Good is good. Evil is evil. Nowt controversial there, surely?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I amused myself by naming Houses of Worship things like Saint Mayor's Church.

An idea, well possibly a bad one but an idea nonetheless, would be to have a SimGod or gods. So, instead of having real religious factions represented, there is a panel of SimDeities similar to Saints or Martyrs or the heroes of Greece or what have you, and an almighty power SimGod above them all. Of course that idea might be controversial, but it would also be unbiased, as most religions these days only have one deity at the top, and the panel of lesser deities could be thought of like Saints or helpers. Like, for instance, there could be a minor deity for wind, called Blowicus, and one for mountains, Hillikon.

These SimDeities could be part of a universal SimReligion. That way the idea of universal peace between Simcities could be had, but religion and the customs, festivals and churches and so forth that are connected with it could still exist.

When I have a mature city that I am just tweaking, I often rename buildings, custom content new names don't survive but for some reason Maxis ones do. I often create a complete parish by naming the House of Worship something like Shrine of St. Dismas on the Cross, the School St. Dismas Separate School, the nearby cemetery St. Dismas Rest, and so on. I sometimes use mythological names like "Fane of Poseidon" and so forth.

BTW St. Dismas is the thief on the right. He is the patron saint of thieves. Also makes a good saint for corporations, especially multi-national oil companies.

[portlander420 1]

I think everyone has said it all. My wish

1: EA dosent screw it up

Other than that I'm optimistic that this will be a good game.

[Catmando 7]

BTW St. Dismas is the thief on the right. He is the patron saint of thieves. Also makes a good saint for corporations, especially multi-national oil companies.

Hah, I've never thought of that! I'll have to try that next time I build a city.

Also, on the topic of multi-national companies, do you think our cities will all have dealings with the same coal company, kind of like Simland's version of Omnicorp? I kind of hope so, if only to indulge in the pleasure of running Richie Rich and his polluting factories out of town fifteen times in a row.

[MrCinatit 30]

My wish is one: The ability to freely terraform, as we could in SimCity 4. Nothing felt better than taking a completely flat region and turning it into a realistic hills, valleys and rivers region after weeks of hard work. Sometimes, it was a shame to plop a city in there.

If this has already been discussed, please forgive me...I've only been popping in and out.

[Mark Waybill 242]

If environmental and water simulation is done effectively this time, creeks, waterfalls, varied flora and fauna etc should exist. However as they've only a year to make the games initial release my only ask of them is a regional terraforming editor, and none of that edge reconciliation causes armageddon nonsense.

[PeterSweet 5]

Animals

What about the animals names like Acari, Amblypygi, Araneae, Haptopoda, Opiliones, Palpigradi, Phalangiotarbi, Pseudoscorpions, Riniculei, Schizomida, Scorpions, Solifugae, Trigontarbida, Thelyphonida, Lions, Tigers, Horses, and lots of animals from ZOO etc.

Scenario Editor

Create your own scenario like Google Earth on the region design with maps, which you can trade with your friends and other players.

Build Custom Design

Allow you to build a custom designed building using the structural construction toolbox.

Date and Time

The present date and time. Hold the pointer over the date and time to show the day of the month. The date is like Tuesday, March 27th 2012 or 27/03/2012 and the time is look like 15:04PM or setting up with your own hours like 12 hours or 24 hours.

Weather Editor

Create your own weather forecast like everyday and setting up to show your own weather conditions are among other things.

Financial Options Panel

Create a financial with budget problems. Check to set all budget to be free so they may not be adjusted by the player. Fixed Budget Fee is check to set the budget fee to a fixed fee so it may not be adjusted by the player. Loan Interest Rate could be problems with their own loan borrowing fee must be check to set money back as being ignored by the Government. Maximum Loan is click to adjust the highest amount the player may borrow with the Early Budget Warning.

Disaster MixMaster

Create your own disaster with among other things are easily to using the editing with disaster effects like smoke with fires or anything else etc. Loading your own disaster and saving your work with disaster effects and using the player with a new disaster effect like everything else on the game.