New Screenshots

[DmainEvent 195]

 

Then you're playing sim district. I don't think the simulation between cities in a region (in either game) is nearly as good as you think it is.

Also, the plural of focus is foci. It's Greek or Latin or something.

 

What?  Did you even read my post?  The idea was to have appropriate simulation levels for each foci (thanks for the help with my Greek) so as to have a seamless simulation of large Metropolises with minimal system requirements.  As with most problems you need to break down the important areas of concern and focus on one thing at a time.  

The idea was to smoothly move between all focus levels and program the simulation to work within that context.  Think of the region concept in simcity 4, but with a more even and alive simulation.

 

 

This is getting off topic in regards to Screenshots but I find it facinating all the same and an interesting concept; I once made a post about the levels of simulation to basically 'devolve' as the city grew.

 

Basically suggesting that in a small town the game has such attention to detail (moval vans, garbage trucks, Sims hobbies etc...) but in a large city this very same level of detail is exactly what prevents your town from ever becoming a city.  If you hold a connection to every Sim living in your city, you'll always maintain a town community feel to it.

 

So in a way...the simulation aspect of SC2013 is preventing it from becoming a city simulation.

 

 

Right.  So in my concept, the district level would essentially inform a statistical simulation when viewing your city at a more high level "focus".

[Cottoncandy Cyanide 145]

Repetition of several models makes a city look quite unrealistic and in severe cases, horrendously ugly. I've been lately trying to convince myself this would be a nice game and probably spending $80 on it won't be that much of a bad thing( I'm more of a European style fan than the classic American city style. Really, skyscrapers just don't look nice in small squares with limited space ) but...

 

Like Catchin22 said, this game is a more $15-$20 for me. Or in fact, maybe most of us :v

[yuriwild 4]

Here's several screenshots (the more interesting ones at least) from imgur, via Ocean's Twitter:

 

 

I like how easy (so it seems at least) this looks.

[JaceTwice 115]

Still not seeing the point. I suppose the two references to ANONYMOUS in the game are the Devs trying to get us all to start hacking government and commercial websites too right? And the old simCity 2000 music that plays in in some of the shops is EA's bit at trying to get everyone over to GoG.com to pick up a copy of that as well.

 

It's just a reference people.

[The_City_Builder 299]

Placing curved roads is very, very easy. If only Cities XL had the same system.

 

Also, the guides can be turned off, so don't think you're restricted to following the dotted lines.

[JaceTwice 115]

Some fun screenshots from the beta.

 

[The_City_Builder 299]

There was a way to do elevated roads in the beta?!

[JaceTwice 115]

If the new blog post is to be believed, you could probably get it to happen if you tried to build a road over the little stretch of water in the corner.

[Guibanez_ 177]

From Facebook.

[wokisan 9]

If the new blog post is to be believed, you could probably get it to happen if you tried to build a road over the little stretch of water in the corner.

 

Yeah, in the beta you could definitely do that.

 

I could never get a bridge quite as high as that section on the far right but I was able to build a elevated portion over the water area.

[Wiimeiser 444]

Yeah how dare maxis reference one of their own games in a screenshot. Especially when it comes from the same lineage.

 

Can this even be considered a real complaint? Is The Sims that terrible of a game?

 

The first two iterations of The SIMs, namely SIMs 1 and SIMs 2, were great games. It is this current iteration, SIMs 3, that is not so good.

New CAS Project Vampire shirt can be worn by children where it totally b0rk$ the model? Sure, why not! Updating door code to prohibit their use by horses renders Tuatha's Garden unwinnable? You shouldn't have put that archway or dive well there.

[Wiimeiser 444]

Midcost Co. isn't such a terrible brand name imitation. If they have to keep one of the placeholder names, then make it that one (out of the ones seen so far)

[Sunfighter 186]

Midcost Co. isn't such a terrible brand name imitation. If they have to keep one of the placeholder names, then make it that one (out of the ones seen so far)

 

Doesnt sound right to me. Its like they are advertising that they are medicore in prices. We arnt the cheapest! We arnt the most expensive! We are midcost Co!

[Guibanez_ 177]

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume/status/299606156261863425

[Urban Cartographer 601]

It is almost a Pokeball city (I bet that the person who designed this city did not extend the right road through two more ring roads).

[Sunfighter 186]

Be curious to see how the AI would handle the circle network transit wise.

[nhgriffith 179]

Also, the guides can be turned off, so don't think you're restricted to following the dotted lines.

You're not. The guides are there to help you determine optimal placing of roads with regards to zoning. A lot of players during the beta complained about not being sure how far apart to space their roads in order to allow their zones to grow into bigger buildings (or even hold a building at all) and I believe it was Ocean Quigly that tweeted back to him that clarification of the guide lines.

They do also help you maintain an equal distance from any other road you've placed near by, so if you want "parallel" curves or something like that.

[nhgriffith 179]

Be curious to see how the AI would handle the circle network transit wise.

If I had to guess, it's probably done in some manner similar to how you'd get turn-by-turn directions in Google maps. Except rather than "shortest distance," the Sims would be calculating "shortest time" to get to their destination.

Didn't one of the programmers state that if a Sim were travelling down a road and came to a major traffic jam, they might choose to turn down a side street and alter their path to their destination? Essentially, the Sim's are constantly calculating and recalculating their transit. So with that said, the Sim's all know what roads connect to what, they know absolutely every possible way to calculating the route to their destination, and at every instant, they're recalculating looking for a quicker way to get there.

[SirChick 184]

Be curious to see how the AI would handle the circle network transit wise.

 

If the path finder is done correctly theres no reason why it couldn't be seen as a straight road for calculating paths.

[Superbacon 380]

I wouldn't be able to stand living in a circular city like that.

[Hoipus 292]

Be curious to see how the AI would handle the circle network transit wise.

During the beta, It seemed to me that cities with larger curves in their roads seemed to have smoother traffic. It could have been because I used less intersections, or that the curves allowed cars to drive further than on 90 degree turns because the game seemed to turn 90 degree turns, even on corners, into intersections.

[Ma8thew 77]

Worst airport ever.

Edit: Not even Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world doesn't even have three runways! And being sat next to each other looks absolutely ridiculous, and no runway for a proper airport (not an airstrip) in the world is 500-ish metres long. I honestly think they should scrap in-city airports and just have the regional one, until the city size is reasonable (even then, it would be a very small airport). This is absolutely atrocious, Maxis.

Ocean Quigley confirmed on Twitter that the runways are plopables, and you can place them however you want. I'm struggling to find the tweet right now.

[dysonraf 37]

Problem is with the current small tiles will you end up having to place runways like this to maximise space. On the subject of size I am encouraged by the recent comments on twitter...

[nhgriffith 179]

Btw for reference purely regarding the number of runways in that image...

Atlanta, the busiest airport in the u.s. (and world?) has 4 runways. Chicago o'hare, the 2nd busiest, has 6 runways.

Atlanta's runways also all 4 run in the same direction. But they're obviously not mushed together like that screenshot...they're also int'l airports...

I don't know about any regional or municipal airports with that many runways.

[StoNe220022 159]

Problem is with the current small tiles will you end up having to place runways like this to maximise space. On the subject of size I am encouraged by the recent comments on twitter...

 

Which comments...?  You mean the ones that start with "We won't make any promises but..."

 

 

Yeah well, I won't make any promises but I'd like to send out $100 to every user on this forum.  Mate their "We'd like larger city tiles too..." tweets means absolutly nothing.

[GE90-115 3]

From the look of this airport it is clearly not of international standard. I would assume it is a regional airport due to the size of aircraft pictured and the limited infrastructure (terminal and hangers). The runway layout is very strange too.

 

[dysonraf 37]

Problem is with the current small tiles will you end up having to place runways like this to maximise space. On the subject of size I am encouraged by the recent comments on twitter...

 

Which comments...?  You mean the ones that start with "We won't make any promises but..."

 

 

Yeah well, I won't make any promises but I'd like to send out $100 to every user on this forum.  Mate their "We'd like larger city tiles too..." tweets means absolutly nothing.

I disagree.  For a developer to come out and say (numerous times) that the tile size is not acceptable and then not do anything about it; well thats like suicide for a reputation.  Don't get me wrong its all vague language being used but if it was never gonna get sorted they would never bother mentioning it.

[Ma8thew 77]

Btw for reference purely regarding the number of runways in that image...

Atlanta, the busiest airport in the u.s. (and world?) has 4 runways. Chicago o'hare, the 2nd busiest, has 6 runways.

Atlanta's runways also all 4 run in the same direction. But they're obviously not mushed together like that screenshot...they're also int'l airports...

I don't know about any regional or municipal airports with that many runways.

You don't have to have 4 runways. You can place as many as you want.

[nhgriffith 179]

I know. Someone made the comment that 4 is too many because LHR doesn't have that many, so I was giving examples of airports that have that many or more.

[The_City_Builder 299]

https://twitter.com/MaxisGuillaume/status/299606156261863425

 

Are the power lines new? I don't remember seeing them before.