Your Questions for Maxis (for March-April 2012)

[Paulobergonci 673]

Will we be able to create metro and bus lines? Can we choose how many vagoons a train will have? I would like to change the color of the trains to the respective line color. The same with the buses, can we choose between microbuses, double deckers, those really long buses (only for bus corridors)? I don't want buses driving everywhere, i would like to tell them the way they have to go through.

Please, if my question will be choosen, please, correct my grammar

  Edited March 27, 2012 by Paulobergonci  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

This is a programming correctness point.

In SC4 the dialog boxes generally require mouse clicks. Will the dialogues in the new program home the cursor to the "first" choice and accept the "enter" key as a left click?

This will greatly facilitate people like myself who are much more keyboard oriented than mouse due to various infirmities. When I was teaching programming I always emphasized to my students that a dialog box with choices always settled on the default, and if it was a button hitting "enter" was the same as a left click. Also, tab keys should be able to move the selection in a sensible order.

  Edited March 27, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[BurroDiablo 222]

Q: In the likely scenario that modding and multiplayer aren't compatible, will SimCity come with an integrated 'mod manager' in which we can activate/disable our installed modifications to make the transfer between modded singleplayer and unmodded multiplayer smoother? (There is an integrated mod manager system used in the 'Men of War' games which does this very well)

[cirrostratus 2]

Q: Will there be strikes in the new game? And will the game include army dispatches and more useful police dispatches?

[tSlater 134]

Will transit networks be able to cut into terrain and/or have retaining walls to avoid the "Cannot flatten terrain" errors frequent with laying complicated networks on slopes in SC4?

[tSlater 134]

Will there be a way to randomly generate the map of a region, perhaps using a few parameters, as there was in Sim City 2000?

[tSlater 134]

Will we see flowing rivers, streams, waterfalls, rapids, or other bodies of water that are above sea level?

[Jahnri 21]

Will it be possible for your citizens to exchange classes if conditions exist within the city where a newjob opens up but there is limited immigration?

By exchange I mean one citizen is erased and a new citizen takes its place with the new traits.

If not, will that mean that all new citizens to your town are from out of town?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by Jahnri  

[jacksunny 741]

Will we be able to zone multiple zone types in one zone? A zone with both commercial and residential for example.

[JcCali1214 34]

^^^ Uh, totally stole my question! But yes, vote it up people! More mult-iuse buildings/multizoned zones!

My question is: Since the devs are/have said (across various articles, discussions, answers, etc.) that your city CAN and HAS THE OPTION to take on different city styles/societies (by the way of accepting lobbyists' proposals apparently) is it possible for a city to take on multiple styles at once? I'm sure it can change as time goes on but, instead of forever changing the city from one style to another, is it possible to build multiple styles simultaneously?

[tSlater 134]

^^^ Uh, totally stole my question! But yes, vote it up people! More mult-iuse buildings/multizoned zones!

My question is: Since the devs are/have said (across various articles, discussions, answers, etc.) that your city CAN and HAS THE OPTION to take on different city styles/societies (by the way of accepting lobbyists' proposals apparently) is it possible for a city to take on multiple styles at once? I'm sure it can change as time goes on but, instead of forever changing the city from one style to another, is it possible to build multiple styles simultaneously?

I don't have a source but I believe it was reported that yes, you can focus on multiple facets at the same time.

[Mark Waybill 242]

2. Will cities be expandable, or will we be able to annex tiles to create larger municipal zones, and will there be a Regional government in Multiplayer Mode to allow for voting, setting of gameplaying rules, etc?

[tSlater 134]

Asking this for a friend who does not have a Simtropolis account:

Will the game run in VMWare?

[Mark Waybill 242]

3. Will telephones and mail be simulated at all, and to what extent?

[Something_started 5]

Will we see flowing rivers, streams, waterfalls, rapids, or other bodies of water that are above sea level?

Yes i was going to ask this same question. so that makes multiple people pondering this question.

will there be any physics for liquid? it would be wonderful if there could be some sort of waterflow. I am being very understanding of how this might increase complexity dramatically. but yet, there could be workarounds that could simplify this. being:

use a tool that could fill valleys with water and then it'll overflow onto whatever. or just have places that automatically fill up when it rains, but that could be extremely complex, so i would understand if yall didn't want to add this. however, any attempts to begin construction on a system would be appreciated. at least something to hand to the modders for when they get a hold of this, giving them something to work with, considering that SC4 gave them nothing to work with in this arena.

EDIT:

something that just sparked inspiration were a few previous posts.

WHAT IF there were multiple layers of Zoning? like, ferrentence, i want to get lazy and dont wanna deal with powerlines, what if I have the option for self building powerlines? or, not JUST powerlines but anything? lets dig deeper,

how about letting us have zones that create rules, like yes we have the standard RGB zones. but what about another Layer of zones? like

-Chinese Buildings

-dirty buildings

-down-town

-various Custom zones (like mars project, or custom buildings in custom folders)

how about-

-parking lot zones? self constructing parking lots that will, as needed, be upgraded according to circumstance?

-self building universities or parks?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by Something_started  

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

What will the graphics look like in the final game? I understand that you guys aren't at that point yet, so how do you plan on them looking?

[Hamish 1,370]

Will sims that don't return to their previous residence and don’t work at their previous occupation everyday impact the simulator negatively?

[cammo2003 20]

Will there be a mechanism to import regional terrains from external data (bitmaps, DEM data, etc.)? I almost exclusively use region maps generated by others, or myself, from real world terrain data. Furthermore, would there be a way to easily specify areas you want wooded from the terrain generation scheme? "treeing" is a tedious (but worthwhile) task in SC4.

[cammo2003 20]

I know you've probably been flooded with questions regarding the online/offline dilemma, but here's a different one. I am forced by personal circumstances to use a 3G internet connection (no physical line to the granny flat I live in, although that particular issue should be fixed within the next 10 years what with our NBN under construction). While it can be reasonably quick, it can also be intolerably slow at times, and is notoriously unreliable at times too. I don't intend to play multiplayer much, but I do like the idea of having my city's economy connected to a global economy, subject to market fluctuations, as real world cities do not exist in a vacuum, and are subject to and affected by such fluctuations (higher oil prices, in the longer term, for example, tend to create a greater shift towards the use of public/mass transportation). How much data is involved in these communications, and how often does the communication occur?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by cammo2003  

[WhereisSC5? 20]

Q: Will development occur as in SC4, with population moving towards urbanization, or will the population spread out a bit more as in real life?

Q: Will time progression start in the present day, like SC4, and only bring about the growth of ones city, or will it start in the past (1800s/1900s) and cause the progression of ones city as well as technology and abilities available to the mayor?

Q: Will transport networks get maintenance facilities and workers?

Q: Will non-road networks be able to be elevated/graded realistically and freely?

Q: How will airports/seaports be handled? Will they be zone-able or ploppable

[Mark Waybill 242]

I gave a point of reputation to WhereisSc5 based on the question "Will time progression start in the present day, like SC4, and only bring about the growth of ones city, or will it start in the past (1800s/1900s) and cause the progression of ones city as well as technology and abilities available to the mayor?"

4. Will there be a My Sim/U Drive It mode, and to what extent will The Sims integrate with SimCity with this release, and if Sims constantly change jobs and houses, does this mean they are not individually simulated?

[WhereisSC5? 20]

Q: Will development occur as in SC4, with population moving towards urbanization, or will the population spread out a bit more as in real life?

Q: Will time progression start in the present day, like SC4, and only bring about the growth of ones city, or will it start in the past (1800s/1900s) and cause the progression of ones city as well as technology and abilities available to the mayor?

Q: Will transport networks get maintenance facilities and workers (EG Snow Plow shed, Roundhouse for railroads)?

Q: Will networks be able to be elevated/graded realistically and freely?

Q: How will airports/seaports be handled? Will they be zone-able or ploppable?

Q: Will some services (hospitals, railroads, buses) be able to be commercialized?

Q: Will we see rail networks increase efficiency with density (more tracks=faster/smoother traffic)?

Q: Will we see a large diversity of transportation methods/networks and an accurate traffic simulator?

Q: Will traffic be variable on certain days (if there's a big game, will we see downtown traffic spike)?

Q: Will we see a large plethora of disasters larger than the disasters of any other Simcity game? Is it possible to include war scenarios and responses as disasters?

Wow. I think I may have overdone all of that.

[Mark Waybill 242]

10. Will therebe a newspaper/ticker?

  Edited March 28, 2012 by Mark Waybill  

[meowza 230]

Just a reminder guys... Read below:

As for this thread, I think it'd be better if you guys submitted your questions individually.

Say for instance you've got four unrelated questions, why not break them up into four separate posts so that we can vote for them individually? If a single post contained one very important question and three not so important questions, if people were to vote for the post, Maxis could then end up having to answer a whole heap of irrelevant questions just to get to the one people are interested in.

For this reason, I think double posting in this thread shouldn’t be an issue. Just don’t go crazy…

[Mark Waybill 242]

11. Will time be able to be sped up in Multiplayer Mode, and will there be a Council of automatic Advisors or a council of players?

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

I know many people get headaches when it comes to micromanaging but I love laying pipes and powerlines. It gives the game more depth and being a simulator I think it makes as much sense as having to lower landing gear in a flight sim. Will we be able to lay pipes and run powerlines as it is in SC4?

Perhaps these could be in "hard" mode.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Question: How will tourism and trade (regional and global) be handled?

Ocean already mentioned pipes and waterlines but he also said that there was an option (maybe default) for these to run under roads.

  Edited March 28, 2012 by OcramSeattle  

[Hamish 1,370]

With multiplayer, will it be a one person per city tile? Or will we be able to edit other city tiles, or be assigned city tiles to play on? And can you have two or more players for a city tile? And can they play at the same time, or only at separate times?

[z1 566]

Will there be fractionally angled roads? I.e., will there be roads at angles other than multiples of 45 and 90 degrees? What about avenues, highways, and streets? And will zones and buildings have orientation options other than the four cardinal directions?

  Edited March 28, 2012 by z1  

[Hamish 1,370]

What’s the meaning behind the name change? Is there something descriptive in leaving out a number off the end of the title?