Disasters in SimCity (2013)

[meowza 230]

Let's not forget that SimCity will be having a physics engine. And that each sim would matter now.

We should have a variety of disasters to choose from on sandbox mode, realistic or otherwise.

I find it intriguing though how disasters will play out in multiplayer mode.

So far I think the game will have... These are just My Assumptions:

1. Autosaurus Wrecks - from the trailer, not exactly a disaster though

2. Giant Lizard - hinted from the GDC intro and AMAA. Also seen on the early Gameplay trailer.

3. UFOs/Alien Invaders - it's not simcity without these. Also, it's on the promotional images at simcity.com. Hinted from gamespy. Also seen on the box cover.

4. Tornadoes - from promotional images at simcity.com. also hinted from gamespy.

5. Fires - GlassBox GDC presentation. Seen almost everywhere!

6. Crime Waves - from the simcity pre-order page

7. Droughts - since the game will be having a depletable water table

8. Floods - since the game will be having rain

9. Nuclear Meltdown - from the trailer's co-op power plant

10. Epidemics/Zombies - sims with "sickness" at the GDC presentation.

11. Economic Crisis - "If you've built up an entire city on the economic basis of extracting a certain resource, when that resource runs out your economy will collapse" Dan Moskowitz, Maxis

12. Earthquakes - according to gamespy

13. Giant Bowling Balls (same as generic spheres?) - according to venturebeat.com; seems like they'll be adding this as an easter egg.

13. Meteors - Shown on the box cover.

Simulator Ideas:

1. Sims with Common Sense - Is there a Giant Lizard which is going to step on you, a zombie who is hungry to take a bite off of you, or maybe a skyscraper is going to fall on you? Then hide or run/drive away as far as you can! Not just stay in a corner or run in circles and wait until you get killed. Optionally, educate them so they know what specifically to do when an earthquake suddenly occurs - lessen the structure damage and casualties.

2. Early Warning - Do I have a Meteorology center? Then let the player know if there is a hurricane approaching. Forget about earthquakes though, those are hard to predict. Give the player various options on how to prepare - send your sims free first aid kits, food and water that can last until the storm subsides.

3. Cinematic Camera Movement (Action Cut Scenes) - I was laying out residential zones for a new suburb that I was making, then all of a sudden I hear the terrorized screams of my sims. In a very fast pace, the camera bullet-time panned to a sim-packed college dormitory in flames!

4. Dynamic Music - Confirmed added.

5. Moddable Disasters - I'd like my hurricane to create a rain of meteors, please. Or maybe a giant lizard that can let out bolts of lightning. I only want a tiny dust devil, not a gigantic tornado.

6. Join the Action - If there's a fire, aside from dispatching fire trucks, the player can alternatively gain control of the fire hose to put out a blaze. Or throw tear gas on specific areas to herd a group rioters. Maybe even aim a rocket launcher onto an invading army of aliens.

7. Evacuation - Optionally direct citizens where to go during an emergency.

8. Unlockable/Rare Disasters - Some disasters can act as rewards, or can only show up in the menu on rare occasions.

Disaster Ideas

1. Buggy Traffic = Collision

2. Airborne Diseases (relative to wind direction)

3. Agriculture Infestations/Diseases - crops, animal, fish die-outs. May sicken sims when consumed, export/import or self-produced.

4. Heat/Cold waves

5. Crazy Easter Eggs

. . - something that grows through consumption... (Katamari!) Which then explodes into hundreds of small ___?___

. . - Giant Lizard vs Maxis Man Robot

. . - Advanced Research Center = tiny massive Blackhole anomaly

. . - Innocent looking, yet deadly monster

. . - Dr. Vu's Mind Control Satellite Beam

. . - Giant foot, obliterate whole cities in one stomp.

I'm just going to keep re-editing this post to avoid the spam, as I have ideas poppin' out of my head once in a while.

  Edited June 9, 2012 by meowza  

[tSlater 134]

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

I agree with all of the above and also, nessie gobbled up boats?! I once built an island city named "Nessie" with about 40 marinas trying to get Nessie to appear. Eventually showed up in a city with only one marina -- but only caught her for a second before she disappeared.

Also, thank you for making each thread 20% cooler.

[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

I agree with all of the above and also, nessie gobbled up boats?! I once built an island city named "Nessie" with about 40 marinas trying to get Nessie to appear. Eventually showed up in a city with only one marina -- but only caught her for a second before she disappeared.

Also, thank you for making each thread 20% cooler.

According to the SC2K manual, Nessie occasionally gobbled up sailboats (and I caught her in the act a few times myself). It was a very rare event though, so I can see why it was so difficult for you to find her.

A few more disasters I'd like to be carried over from SimCity 2000:

- Earthquakes that damage the entire city and start large and small fires at random (typical response: dispatch firemen to quell the flames)

- Floods that cover all flat land in the city, spawned from riversides and/or lakesides (typical response: dispatch policemen and firemen to sandbag different areas to prevent them from being overtaken by the flood)

- Hurricanes that cause both wind and water damage; similar in some ways to Flood (typical response: same as above, but extra caution should be taken because of the high winds)

- Toxic gas clouds, which are spawned by either an industrial accident which produces low to medium amounts of gas, and is relatively common; a volcanic eruption which produces medium to high amounts of gas, and is extremely rare; or a nuclear disaster which produces very low to very high amounts of gas, and is rare (typical response: dispatch firemen to detoxify the area)

- The robotic alien Monster, who had destructive beams which, depite being fired at random, didn't always provide total destruction; sometimes instead of sending down a fireball, it would send down a water tile, a few trees, or even a wind power plant or two, all of which would take the place of whatever was previously on the tile (typical response: dispatch policemen to shoot the monster down, or whatever it is that they do)

Also, I'd like to see a return of the National Guard, one unit of which would be dispatched to your city in the case of having no police or fire stations, or if they were destroyed right at the beginning of the disaster or something; the National Guard can deal with nearly any disaster, unlike the specialized Police and Fire Departments.

  Edited March 16, 2012 by emperordaniel  

[Charlie_Zane 963]

All the disasters that have been put down there is what the game needs, it would make it a lot more realistic. The disasters just need to be randomly activated which you can turn on and off in the menu. But it would have at least a few minutes of warning before it would happen.

[PeterSweet 5]

I can't wait to come forward on the new SimCity 5 game, with all one of the best in Cyclones, like Tropical Storm and Categories Hurricanes are like a natural to watching at the severe storms with flying missiles like force with hurricanes can do form in a squall line of spawn tornadoes with inland flooding from storm surges in a sea level rise.

[Mark Waybill 242]

Another natural disaster would be bushfires, which could be created when conditions are hot and dry and windy enough. These would act like normal fires but mainly appear in bushland, but could also affect outlying areas of a city. Of course this would be more likely in a dry climate.

[PeterSweet 5]

Another natural disaster would be bushfires, which could be created when conditions are hot and dry and windy enough. These would act like normal fires but mainly appear in bushland, but could also affect outlying areas of a city. Of course this would be more likely in a dry climate.

Yes there would be even a possible bushfires, with created hot, dry and windy enough and it will be one of the best in Natural Disasters even made by Maxis/EA. As you know that major snowstorms could be created when conditions are accompanied by strong winds creating blizzard conditions with blinding wind-driven snow, severe drifting, and dangerous wind chill are combined with wind will cause blinding visibility with blizzard storms.

A tornado is a dark-funnel-shaped cloud made up of violently rotating winds that can reach speeds of up to 320 m.p.h. A tornado can form intensity and damage could be created when conditions are violent wind, funnel clouds with bands of thunderstorms are accompanied by humidity creating sky is getting dark, it is scary knowing there could be a tornado in your own Fujita Scale like F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, or F5.

A cyclone could be created when conditions are accompanied by strong winds creating torrential rain, high winds, flash flood, thunder and storm surge could cause affected by the tropical storm and hurricanes can cause form of spawn tornadoes with inland flooding of squall lines with water. Hurricanes can form of spawn eyewall with different maximum wind speed up to 0-126mph with a normal hurricane wind speed up to 74mph can then be classified as a hurricane. A hurricane wind is 74 mph and the eyewall wind speed up to 6 mph means that 80mph can then be classified as a category one hurricane. That would be great disasters with the one of the best in hurricanes.

[WhereisSC5? 20]

Personally, I'd really like to see war-based disasters. Sure, a tornado could tear through the center of your city, knocking down or damaging a couple buildings. Imagine how devastating a bombing raid would be, though! To prevent such disasters, one would need at least one military base in their region (more would increase the effectiveness) and they could call on military forces when needed. The troops could then automatically fight on their own. The military units could be deployed anywhere near the battle, though, because they would fight according to their AI; this would keep SC5 a city simulation and not an RTS. Additionally, different kinds of military forces would be kept at different bases, and hold off different attacks: a regular base would hold ground forces, which could repel basic land assaults; a naval base would hold ships, which could repel sea-based invasions and air attacks (to a degree); and airstrips could hold aircraft that would repel any attack. Each base would cost taxpayer money, unless it would be offered to be placed in a city (which could be a possibility). Finally, there could be a chance that the enemy defeats the defenders and attacks a random neighboring city; meanwhile, the mayor has to deal with occupation, which could very interesting and varied on its own.

[trar 336]

I personally want to see all of the disasters from all of the previous SimCity games, if at all possible (and it should be these days). That might not happen though (that's a LOT of disasters), but if the modding capability is good enough that may not be the case for long. I hope. Excellent points that I saw in this thread: your citizens actually RUNNING AWAY from the tornado/monster/raging fire (if only so you spawn another one in front of them), and flood/hurricane damage (i would love to see those disasters in particular make it into the game) not simply reducing all affected buildings to rubble.

An idea of my own is disaster relief. It was included in 3000 from SimNation, I see no reason not to let other players in your region voluntarily give relief money in addition to the government. Also, disasters and events that affect more than one city. They could turn out to be major news that shows up in news feeds or something, such as a major hurricane affecting more than one city on a coastline, or an oil spill. It would only have to happen in open public regions though, with an option to toggle it in private/offline regions.

[PeterSweet 5]

What is about the disaster with 'Arachnophobia' like a poisonous spiders? Arachnids are mostly carnivorous feeding on the pre-digested bodies of insects and other small animals like poisonous spiders or non-poisonous spiders for them. Giving them to names the spiders like Brown Recluse, Black Widow, Brazilian Wandering Spider, Funnel-Web Spider, Mouse Spider, Red Back Spider, Wolf Spider, Tarantula, Sac Spider, Hobo Spider etc with your own spider and crawl thing up on the town like SimCity 3000.

[Marko Dash 0]

if there is flooding i'd be cool if it doesn't destroy buildings outright. imagine purposely building a part of your city in a deep vallay then making a stream between the edge and the nearest body of water, to get an area with that 'sunken city' look.

[Paulobergonci 673]

please, the earthquakes in the other games were so unrealistic, the earth don't "jump" like that, those were 30M earthquakes.

Earthquakes start weak, then they increase power, and thats what makes constructions colapse, the structure gets weak with the continuous shaking. Earthquakes can destroy a whole region, not just a destruction line like in SC4.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I would like to add some new thought. There was mention in a thread about the possibility of bringing back 'disaster relief'. It got me thinking about buildings that are abandoned or burnt. In minor cases these buildings should be restorable, but when they need to be demolished, the material is a resource, and I hope with this GlassBox thing they can treat a disaster realistically so that building rubble is recycled, and cleanup operations are undertaken realistically.

[chrsnck 3]

I vote for disease pandemics and of course when I say that I really mean I want a Zombie epidemic that would have to be countered by Military personel.

[jacksunny 741]

No thanks. Let's keep zombies to a separate game.

[Linoa06 1,374]

I totally agree with this.

Simcity would really be 20% cooler.

[KevinBryan 0]

Looking forward for tsunami + city-city conflict.

Or country-country conflict if it's available.

  Edited April 11, 2012 by KevinBryan  

[meowza 230]

^ They already confirmed that there will be no military conflict between cities or regions. Instead, "fighting" can occur at an economic level.

Which in my opinion is a good thing since SC is never meant to be a war game.

  Edited April 11, 2012 by meowza  

[neil5280 31]

This poll gave me a repetitive stress injury. It needs a select all button!

The more types of disasters the better!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

If we must have disasters, I want only natural ones. Alien invasions and other SF stuff are not for city simulations.

Disasters could be random, player caused, or both. I would like the ability to turn off random disasters.

[jacksunny 741]

^Of course though, disasters should reflect the environment. Hurricanes should not be occurring in the middle of a desert.

[JcCali1214 34]

^^^ Unless I want it too.

Lol, I do agree with you if we are talking natural, automatic disasters. But, if the player has the option to initiate disasters, I don't see why he shouldn't have the freedom to have a hurricane blow through his desert metropolis - or have a blizzard cripple his tropical paradise. I say the options should (seem) be limitless.

[Gurning_Chimp 398]

The major disaster I'd like to see are protests/riots, especially if there's more strategy in dealing with them.

For instance if you call the National Guard on a peaceful protest, the city will get angrier and riots will start to break out across the city with armed Sims. But if you just send a couple of beat cops to deal with a massive London poll tax style disturbance, the citizens will see you as a weak mayor and start forming vigilante groups, upping murder/assault rates.

I also think seeing some water cannons and cops on horses trying to break up the riots would be awesome, Possibly having the different types of Sims react differently in a riot would be cool, so for instance a lower wealth, lower IQ sim would just smash up everything, not caring where they are and heading to the nearest commercial building to loot it. whereas a higher wealth, higher IQ sim would be at City Hall with signs, trying to protest peacefully in the midst of the chaos. Again the strategy in quelling the riot could come into massive play here. This could also affect other cities, where copy-cat riots could start (as what happened during the August 2011 looting sprees across England, not riots as such as there was no political motivation, it was just out and out criminality, but a good example).

If this isn't possible, then I understand, but the biggest flaw in SC4 in my opinion was not being able to have LA style riots in my major cities without trashing all my amenities and getting the Lots Of Riots mod.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

^ Your premise is probably not correct. There is no reason to think that anything you know about state/local enforcement like calling out the National Guard has any place in the simulated universe of the game. Your cops will have to handle it. Don't make the mistake of thinking this world-wide game will be domiciled on any planet you know.

[Gurning_Chimp 398]

Yeah I'd be fine with just police, as long as you can give measured responses and stuff.

I'd also like the option to use them as strike breakers.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Yeah I'd be fine with just police, as long as you can give measured responses and stuff.

I'd also like the option to use them as strike breakers.

I am against goon squads, even if they are cops.

[The_City_Builder 299]

I can't believe some people actually want zombies...

If they're are zombies, I really hope they can be triggered and not occur naturally...

[nuyokcity 22]

I read that there will be finite resources which will make the game more realistic, and if you construct an entire city around extracting too much of a certain resource you will face eventual collapse if the game is not properly balanced. So it would be interesting to see realistic disasters such as oil spills, nuclear meltdowns, pollution due to urban sprawl and over-mining of natural resources, depletion of fuel sources, etc.

Also, having to deal with periods of economic contraction, civil unrest and urban decay would be interesting. Parts of the city could become abandoned and overgrown with ruins, maybe more inflicted with crime or slowly recover from pollution and be re-zoned in various ways, or left to crumble. Watching that unfold and learning how to prevent it or deal with it and transition to a new phase of the city's life would be an interesting thing if possible.

[GMT 389]

I would totally love all of the disasters... +bowser... which would end up to be godzilla cuz of legal issues.

also plane crashes would be cool aswell as heavy weather conditions, not just tornadoes and hurricanes, but also severe blizzards, heavy rain or excessive heat.

maybe with a cool interaction-option. think of it as you can, via game settings, select wether a disaster occurs on its own or in correct circumstances, so blizzards can trigger diseases (flu pandemics) or heat waves cause a lot of fires, hurricanes and earthquakes subsequently create floodings or even tsunamis... you get the idea...

[cirugo 1,889]

I turn off disasters.