Disasters in SimCity (2013)

[The_City_Builder 299]

Is anyone else wondering what the simulation of disasters in SimCity (2013) will be like? If so, what?

For me, I'm hoping that disasters have a proper simulation. In SimCity 4, the only natural occuring disaster were Fire's (I don't remember if tornadoes were natural) and most of the time it only occured in industrial zones.

I'm hoping that specifically, Tornado's, Fire's, earthquakes, and volcanoes will have a more realistic appreance and occurance. Like being able to see the actual stage of destruction on a building or on the terrain, and so forth.

I'm also hoping that new disasters are featured, like flooding and cyclones.

  Edited March 13, 2012 by 1701adguru  

[-JD- 41]

I want pretty much all of them, especially the tsunami's, floods, and hurricanes!!

[Fornix 4]

Any sort of more realistic disaster is something I'd enjoy seeing in my cities. Including non-natural disasters such as political unrest and civilian war.

[Mark Waybill 242]

If water is simulated more realistically then floods could become something quite impressive. I think possibly riots and other social 'disasters' (not war naturally as that would cause problems) could be had too. Hurricanes

would depend on how good weather simulation is. Lightning could maybe occur. Hail... Or building up of sediments at river estuaries... Train derailments and car accidents etc could arise from lack of funding for infrastructure but to a realistic extent. Plane crashes... Terrorism might be a bit too war like for this genre but a mad axeman or something...

As to unrealistic fantasy disasters we know we're getting some kind of heroes/villains thing, I don't personally care much for that sort of fantastic disaster.

[nashville nelson 51]

SimCity did just twitter about disasters:

simcity Well..You never know when a giant lizard might come to destroy your city RT @tvboc: Any hints you can give on what disasters are available?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

Water resource maps are realistic in that they deplete from usage and increase from rain. Water Pollution causes sickness instead of decreased production. This means that floods could potentially cause temporary water pollution and could damage treatment plants.

Volcanoes have been in SimCity for a while and they could realistically be part of a geothermal energy map. Geysers would be another source. So building your city by an active volcano could be a good thing. Volcanoes could cause earthquakes and earthquakes can cause tsunamis.

Autosaurus Rex can be an entertainment source or a disaster.

OK, Godzilla will return. I wonder if he arises from pollution? The original Micropolis...

[jacksunny 741]

I could live without Godzilla and aliens.

[squeaky024 14]

If there is a tsunami it better not be a ridiculous wave or excessively high sea level, it should be what it is, a surge of water that floods inland a little bit based on elevation. (would be EXTREMELY unfortunate for any below sea level city that's held up by levees or dams )

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Disasters are fine, as long as they can be turned off.

[meowza 230]

Zombie Apocalypse!

[logintime 93]

Zombie Apocalypse!

Something along those lines had better be in the works!

  Edited March 14, 2012 by logintime  

[meowza 230]

Zombie Apocalypse!

Something along those lines had better be in the works!

This will be a new headline for the health world.

[Terribletown USA 18]

A flock of seagulls

[JcCali1214 34]

Yes, someone else was thinking (and said) Zombie Apocalypse! Hell yeah!

But really, since some of the disasters (volcanoes, tornadoes, meteors, even fires) were solid in SImcity 4, I feel like the devs are naturally gonna improve upon them.

As for these new water proposed disasters, oh baby, it is time! Floods that flood, a tsunami, like someone said, that is a surge of water, etc., hurricanes, droughts (on the flip side), and how are we forgetting bout the whirlpool! Oh please, lets let the devs know that this is what we what them to focus on!

Water is back baby!!!

[Cockatoo 2,256]

Well it seems like we want all of them... no surprises there really.

The standout exception seems to be Godzilla, which is the one Maxis has talked about the most so far.

[hittwice99 618]

I think disasters should have three settings: automatic, manual and off. You would be required to choose an option at the creation of each city.

• The automatic setting would allow disasters to naturally occur.
• The manual setting would allow you to commence disasters yourself.
• The off setting would completely disable disasters.

For the automatic option, the types of disasters that occur should be based on a game realism setting that lets you disable supernatural disasters. Then you could prevent UFO's or Godzilla from entering and ruining your city, while still allowing realistic disasters to naturally occur.

The probability of disasters could be influenced by certain factors, such as the location of your city. For example, if your city is situated on a fault line, there would be an increased chance of earthquakes. Seasons could determine the likelihood of droughts - increasing flammability and leading to possible fires, or storms and hurricanes - possibly creating tornadoes or floods.

City planning could reduce the effects of a disaster on your city. For example, the more funding you invest in disaster awareness, the quicker your Sims would be able to evacuate or take measures to be safe. This would add another element of strategy to the game. If you choose not to invest in disaster planning, you would save monthly costs, but your city (and Sims) could suffer the consequences in the event of a disaster.

[squeaky024 14]

I think it would be interesting to have tornado/ tsunami evacuation planning. Maybe have set routes or early warning devices (the typical air-raid style sirens used in tornado areas of the middle US) possibly have freeways open on both sides for traffic leaving the city to double capacity for evacuees, shelters, etc. I have to agree though that I too would like these disasters to be optional, as I may not want to have a massive seawall or breakwater for all my coastal cities or levee networks all the time. It should be left up to the player to decide, as it has always been an optional thing to do (except fires, they happen no matter what I think it is acceptable).

[tSlater 134]

Water resource maps are realistic in that they deplete from usage and increase from rain. Water Pollution causes sickness instead of decreased production. This means that floods could potentially cause temporary water pollution and could damage treatment plants.

This makes me wonder if there will be a somewhat non-disaster drainage strategy in the future. Low-lying areas repeatedly getting minor flooding during rains and needing culverts and drainage basins. Ooooh. And whn you neglect to do so, exactly the above happens.. flooding occurs, people get sick, and land value plummets.

[emperordaniel 1,281]

Bring back the riots that can be triggered by simply clicking "riot" in the disasters menu, like in SimCity 2000... for that matter, bring back all the other old ones like airplane crashes (which are rendered to be more likely if there are tall buildings in the flight path), helicopter crashes (just click on the annoying traffic helicopter to send it spiraling into the ground), and the Loch Ness Monster (which occasionally gobbles up a marina boat, and is spawned by plopping the marina down)!

Weather-related disasters from SC2K, such as the Blizzard, would be good as well

[frdrcklim 139]

Zombie Apocalypse!

Why is this not in one of the choices ?!

[Paulobergonci 673]

i would like disasters to act more like in real life. Tornadoes would have categories (F1, F2, etc), Earthquakes would have a magnitude, if it is a strong one we could have tsunamis. Not just a random disaster.

You could chose to build your city near a tectonic fault, or a place able to form tornadoes, for example, a tornado wouldn't be formed on a desert. The same with hurricanes.

That involves a lot of options for your city, we could choose to build a city on a tropical area, or a place with snow, on the coast or inland, near or far from a tectonic plate.

And we would have to deal with the destruction, clean, shelter homeless people, build tornadoes and tsunami syrens.

That would be awesome.

I'm sure that if Maxis want this to be TEH GAME, they will think very well in all the gamer's opinions and wishes. They said the GlassBox engine is a revolution, then make it a revolutionary game with endless options.

[Sonik-hedgehog 2]

Floods and Hurricanes - is the most desirable realistic element for classical SimCity gameplay.

[CommodoreTech 5]

They'll never do plane crashes, because people will mod the Twin Towers and plaster videos of 9/11 re-enactments everywhere, which I doubt EA or Maxis or any of us really want to do.

But I really don't want Godzilla or the fake ones. Meteor is highly unlikely and would be stupid to waste time simulating. It also isn't really the responsibility of a city government to clean it up or deal with it either. A UFO attack is also a bit silly, but I could live with it.

The others I would like to be able to turn them on or off. Some games I might just want to play a city with a possible economic crisis. Some I might not find necessary, I mean, if I want to build a European city i'm not really going to have to consider hurricanes because they only occur once every few centuries in Europe. Earthquakes too, sometimes i'd like to have to deal with a city built in an earthquake zone, but others not. It's the same with most of them really, I really don't want to be forced to deal with them. Riots are unavoidable, Fires not so much. I don't know why Maxis are obsessed with having to force the player to deal with fires. Boris Johnson doesn't have to dispatch every damn truck! (Though it seems they've got rid of this in SC2013). Though still, I'd like to have a complete sandbox game if I want to. I'm sure new players would like this as well. I remember getting frustrated with SC3K when fires and riots used to pop up randomly.

[rweather5 22]

They really need hurricanes or floods. This is the disaster the game has been lacking since S3K. I think there should be magnitudes or categories of disasters, and have the option to turn them on so they occur once in a while in your city. Also, I think buildings need to have stages of destruction. For example, once you put out a fire, it will have no effect on the building. Also, tornadoes do not always completely flatten houses, they may cause only a little damage. You should also get warnings about disasters, and you should be able to issue evacuation orders.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I think if weather simulation is improved to any great extent, disasters or situations like flooding, hail storms, lightning etc would be necessary just for realism's sake.

[Dumanios 35]

I want everything from SimCity3K, plus floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, the Big G, and perhaps put warfare into the game in some way. Airstrike as a disaster?

[lobsterav 91]

I checked them all off, because everyone of those disasters appealed to me. The Natural Disasters make the game realistic and spontanious (plus I love weather), and same with the Economic/Civil Disasters.

Gotta have Godzilla though...just for fun

[emperordaniel 1,281]

They'll never do plane crashes, because people will mod the Twin Towers and plaster videos of 9/11 re-enactments everywhere, which I doubt EA or Maxis or any of us really want to do.

They could make it like SC2K, where the doomed planes always crashed into the terrain (runways counting as terrain), thus avoiding any "airplanes crashing into towers" thing, unless the people resort to photoshop (which can be used to make 9/11 in any SimCity game for that matter - even SC4).

  Edited March 15, 2012 by emperordaniel  

[Catmando 7]

I'm a big fan of disasters in Simcity. The one I probably want the most is floods. I wanted those so badly in SC4 for those days when I was bored of building up my city and would prefer wreaking havoc (which is more often nowadays). The only ones I voted against were droughts and cyclones. I just don't see a way in which a drought could be implemented in a way I would like. I guess it's possible and I wouldn't mind it if a good drought was added in the game, but I'd prefer Maxis just not waste their time on it. When it comes to cyclones, I think a tsunami/flood is sufficient for me. Cyclones would bring unique forms of destruction of their own that tsunamis do not, like wind damage, but I think a tsunami is good enough for me.

I don't like the idea of war or missile strikes or anything of the sort. I'm also pretty reserved about plane crashes. It's all in the interest of realism and fun, I'm sure, but I feel it would be too controversial.

[mattyriddy 12]

I don't think hurricanes and tsunamis are going to work that well if they were used in the game as they effect a much larger area than the proposed 2km x 2km. They would need to be region wide to be more realistic. The same for tornadoes and earthquakes. So maybe a region wide option of how closely each tile effects their neighbors.

Meteors, Godzilla etc should never just happen.

I do like how it looks as if fire engines are automatically dispatched now.

I would also like that if a building is hit/flooded that it doesn't just automatically collapse. Maybe there is a cost associated with paying for the cleanup or you can pay for insurance beforehand.