Future of SimCity Official Discussion Thread

[Jasoncw 11,949]

New Players:
I think it might be hard for someone who thinks of games as what they see, not the engine behind the game. I didn't really get great cities untill I understood how the game worked, and then I could manipulate everything to get what I wanted, but I think this is the way that these sorts of games are, and there isn't much to do about it becuase it's impossible to program every logical action into a city. A new player who has no experiences in how past sim cities worked would have trouble, but appearantly there is a new code or something and SC5 will be new to everyone.

Growable Civic Buildings:
There would be zones for: Health, Education, and Safety. You would zone it, and then a hospital or whatever you zoned for would grow. Once the capacity would overflow, it would build an expansion on itself somewhere else on the lot. These zones also have the options available that I mentioned in my previous post, so you could control what style and how big and all that the hospital got.

Preferences and settings:
The game would be overwhelming if you had to micromanage things, so there would be alot of preferences and settings so that you don't need to. These would work like a mayor telling a city person what to do in case of something, instead of the mayor doing it directly. A whole bunch of checkboxes are radio buttons for alot of the gameplay. It might seem like too much, but if you wanted to, you could play the entire game without clicking click for more options and it would work fine. This would please everyone who wanted more options as well as everyone who wants it simpler becuase the default settings help to run things automaticly. Putting that in SC4 terms, the hospital would automaticly adjust it's funding to exactly what it needs so that there are never strikes, but if you got sick of that and wanted to control that aspect, you could change it to manual, or whatever other options there could be.



Just a visual. This would be arranged in tabs. One tab for Information (like the query we have now), one tab for the zoning (zone type through medical) and another tab for physical stuff (dimensions through position). At first most of the options are hidden, but if you select a zone type (educational for example) then the options for the educational buildings would be displayed. Once you decide something there, maybe there are more options. If you want to make a boarding school, then you could check educational and residential (and then the residental settings would come up). However, some uses cannot be combined, like seaport and a school, so if you picked one, you could not pick the other (if custom content was made that fit both categories then the game would allow it becuase there would be somethere to grow there). The list that I made is very rough and more options would be added and some would be dropped or changed. I was just making a quick visual so it makes a little more sense.

Economy:
I think there should be alot of stuff with the economy (so far sim city hasn't had any economic related gameplay) and other stuff. I think the game should include something about where the money goes with some kind of simple economic structure. Money is generated by industry using natural resources selling products. If the raw materials are imported the industry generates less money for the city becuase some of the money went to shipping the materials. Commercial (either from the city, or another city) buys the products. If a buisiness from outside the city buys the products, then your city as a whole accumulated wealth. If a buisiness inside your city buy it then it prevents them from needing to buy it from another city. Citizens make money from working at both commercial and industry, but they spend it at commerical. If they spend their money inside the city then the city has retained some of it's wealth, if not, the city as a whole has lost wealth. If someone from another city works in your factories, then they are taking money out of the city.

This would be done automaticly and you wouldn't be able to control it. You could influence it with the city planning, ordinances and taxes, but you couldn't control it (unless there were different types of government you could play as). I'm not too knowledgable about economics, but from my understanding this is part of how it works.

Zoning:
There would also be the sim city playing we're used to (RCI balancing), except that zones wouldn't be so limited. Instead of being 3 types with 3 densities, there would be 3 default preset types, with three default densities, and a bunch of default settings. By altering the settings you could decide the range of how tall the building is, how close it is to the street, what architectural styles it is, what wealth it is, what density it is, what it's floor space is, what functions the building has (several types and mixes of the 3 zones and maybe more). I don't think this would be too tough to program since you'd just have each building have a set of tags that define what the buildings characteristics are.

Construction Approval
There could also be settings for approval of projects done by private companies (basicly, the growables). Each construction would need to get approved by you, except you have alot of options on what is automaticly approved and what you need to approve. Maybe you want to approve if an entire city block is demolished, and then a skycraper is built in it's place, but maybe you don't want to be bothered if if a house get's built.

Vector Based Zoning and Transit System:
A vector (uses points and mathmatical equations to draw lines, like in adobe illustrator, flash, or the splines in gmax) based transit creation would be cool. Zones could be made using that too, exept using complete shapes instead of lines. For zoneing there would be premade shapes, like rectangles for simplicity. Also, you can bulldoze any part of the lot and only that part will be demolished. So if a 70x102 meter lot was almost all parking lot, but had a building in the corner, you could demolish the everything in the lot except the building, and then you could rezone around it for new buildings. The buildings would be rotated to fit along side the road. Some buildings would have particular shapes (maybe pie shaped, or triangle shaped) to fit in certain areas.

Automaticly Generated Lots:
Growable lots would be automaticly generated at the time of construction since you couldn't make a premade lot for every single shape possible. In the construction approval system I mentioned earlier, you could have it generate a new lot if you didn't like their old one, and there would be options and preferences that would help make the computer generate a lot you like more.

Planning Mode:
Also, all city zoning and transit making could be done in a special mode. There would be a planning/drawing mode where you build what you want (it shows you how much money it would cost, but you don't pay it untill later). Then there is a simulation phase right after where it runs the city as if the newly planned stuff had been built (not completely accurate, it would be like having an expert analyise your plans), and then a build phase where you say ok and you pay the money and it gets built. You could also just build it while the game is normaly running like you do now.

Because things are planed and approved before you buy or grow them, things can be more realisticly priced. in previous sim citys, things had to be cheaper to take into acount that you would bulldoze it if you didn't like it that way.

Custom Content Developer Mode
Maxis could make a free downloadable extension to the game that adds a custom content developer mode (CCDM). In this mode, you could click on a building while playing the game and edit it's stats. This would allow for real time testing. There would not be a 3-d editor in the game becuase that would be too much, but you could click a refresh type button that would reload all the buildings models. Since this game would have to be in 3-d for the vector zoning and transit, there wouldn't be any pre-game rendering. With the new 3-d editor open, you could change something, save the file, and then go back into sim city and click refresh in the CCDM to see the changes.

Problems:
The only problem that I can see is that the buildings must be in 3-d if they are to align to a vector based road or zone, and 3-d plus an economic system, the sims pathfinding on vector transit, the current RCI math, city services, taxes, and everything else that already makes SC4 slow, the game might not be possible.

So that's what I would personaly want in SC5 (or any game).

[Pixelrage 34]

1- bring back the water tool. Redo water from the ground up (literally). Make water be an important and very customizable part of this game, like it should have been from the get-go. Rivers that move in a specific direction...creeks that branch off of rivers. Lakes that can be a higher water level than the river across the city from it.  Allow the water level itself to be raised and lowered to your heart's content...even in certain areas.

2- area-specific terrain (specified by you), instead of one grass & dirt skin for an entire region

 

3- incorporate the old query tool and how it would give detail on any single tile in the game

 

4- a persistent volcano that erupts at random would be nice

 

5- bring back alternate power sources, like fusion, microwave & hydroelectric

 

6- underground power cables

 

7- more variety in farm fields and structures

 

8- Proficiencies (farming, mining, fishing, textiles, steel, oil pumping, etc). Towns with high levels of certain industries are proficient in specific goods and services, and should be established as so...this would affect region-wide trade and a virtual stock market as well.  Sim City 2000 *vaguely* hinted at something like this - there was a menu where you could see attributes like these and to what level your city was involved in them, but it had no impact on the game.

 

9- undo feature in god-mode

 

10- how about some sort of wall tool, so you don't have to keep creating an incline and painting the texture on the sides?

 

11- I might be alone on this, but I miss airport and seaport zones. I dont like having to plop down one big slab that I didn't create myself.

 

I guess I'll think of more eventually.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I liked the growable airport and seaport zones ALOT better.

I like them so much, that I think it should be applied to other things as well.

Growable Civic Buildings:
There would be zones for: Health, Education, and Safety. You would zone it, and then a hospital or whatever you zoned for would grow. Once the capacity would overflow, it would build an expansion on itself somewhere else on the lot. These zones also have the options available that I mentioned in my previous post, so you could control what style and how big and all that the hospital got.

[omegaschlange 0]

Date: 10/26/2005 3:58:11 PM Author: Pixelrage

1- bring back the water tool. Redo water from the ground up (literally). Make water be an important and very customizable part of this game, like it should have been from the get-go. Rivers that move in a specific direction...creeks that branch off of rivers. Lakes that can be a higher water level than the river across the city from it.  Allow the water level itself to be raised and lowered to your heart's content...even in certain areas.

 

I completely agree with Pixelrage here.  At least SC2K had the plopable water tiles, so you could create pseudo-waterfalls and place hydroelectric plants (how I powered just about all my old 2K cities).  This bounces back to Pixelrage's fifth point and to the point I made about power plants in my previous post.  PEG has a pretty cool hydro-electric dam, and I would like to see something like that in SC5.  If you did build a dam, perhaps that would create a reservoir?  That would require you making sure your terraforming is done extremely well so you don't completely flood the surrounding landscape, however.  Speaking of power cables: I think it would be intersting to have power cables that run over the streets for trolleybuses and trams like in Europe and other places.  This could easily be built in with the various transit options.

 

2- area-specific terrain (specified by you), instead of one grass & dirt skin for an entire region

 

This of course would make for a lot more interesting regions and cities.  Plus this doesn't seem like it would be to difficult to add to the game.

 

4- a persistent volcano that erupts at random would be nice

 

That would be cool.  As much a pain in the ass as random disasters are, I've actually missed them.  Don't quite get a fuzzy feeling out of personally ordering a tornado to rip throug my city.

 

8- Proficiencies (farming, mining, fishing, textiles, steel, oil pumping, etc). Towns with high levels of certain industries are proficient in specific goods and services, and should be 'established' as so...this would affect region-wide trade and a virtual stock market as well.  Sim City 2000 *vaguely* hinted at something like this - there was a menu where you could see attributes like these and to what level your city was involved in them, but it had no impact on the game.

 

This kind of reminds me of resource management like in the good-ol Ceasar games/Pharoah, and a million other games for that matter.  Perhaps we all are morphing SimCity into something more like those games?

 

11- I might be alone on this, but I miss airport and seaport zones. I dont like having to plop down one big slab that I didn't create myself.

 

I second the motion to return this feature for the seaport at least.  I never really liked the complete randomness of how my runways were oriented, but if you could sub-zone the airport by where the terminals could grow, hangars, runways, etc. that would rock.  I do miss building my seaport to match my coastline.  I don't like the SC5 seaport - it looks like sh** and thus looks ridiculous.

 

 

Of course, we demand too much from Maxis/EA for SC5.  I'll be happy with just about anything they put on the market, because I know that it'll be reasonably good at worst, and totally awesome at best.  I don't doubt the transition will be made to 3D, but I hope they leave the option for the same fixed angle hat you view in SC4.  I don't like most truly 3D games - they make me queezy.

 

And lastly, I suppose, I have one last thing: I really loved SimCopter (and it never made me queezy ).  I enjoy the UDI missions, but they don't give the same feeling as SimCopter did  (and Streets of Sims would have had it not made me queezy ). I hope Maxis will include something similar as part of the SimCity experience.

[omegaschlange 0]

Date: 10/26/2005 8:08:08 PM Author: Jasoncw I liked the growable airport and seaport zones ALOT better. I like them so much, that I think it should be applied to other things as well. Growable Civic Buildings: There would be zones for: Health, Education, and Safety.  You would zone it, and then a hospital or whatever you zoned for would grow.  Once the capacity would overflow, it would build an expansion on itself somewhere else on the lot.  These zones also have the options available that I mentioned in my previous post, so you could control what style and how big and all that the hospital got.

That's a pretty good idea.   This makes me think of Boston (where I live):  You have Longwood, the medical area, Government Center (self-explanatory), and so on.  If nothing else, you should at least have the option to upgrade your civic buildings like you can do with the airport.  This idea was mentioned earlier in the thread. 

[davidtothej 1]

along with improved 3d and the techinal such... i would love to see the rush hour expansion pushed even futher.

Im not complaining, i love RH, but i think that they definatly could have done a lot more with it.

Like double decked highways... oh boy i would love to see that

 

the whole elevated rail thing, the whole purpose of elevated rail was so it was elevated over something, and the modders here have done an excellent job working on it. But i would love to see it over avenues, one ways, ect...

 

SEAPORTS! I live in maine, where much of the commerce and lifestyle is built around the docks, wharfs and maritime industries. I was extreamly dissapointed with the in-game seaports and definatly think they could use some work...

 

Natural resources. Many cities are built around the resources that they are blessed with, Oil, Iron, Lumber, ect.

 

and most of all, throw some weather in there, like snow or rain, and incoperate some of those storms into major disasters.

 

just a couple of ideas...

[Braxton 0]

Even though it took a bit of work to master the skill of micro-managing cities, I think they should take what they have and enchance it.

For instance:

1) Instead of running around the map trying to find each school/college/library/etc., have a menu where you can go to adjust the funding for EACH building in your city. Right now they have a similar option, but it's for the system as a whole. I think having the ability to see all the Education buildings you have an be able to adjust the funding in one window is the best thing to do.

2) Streamline and enhance the menu as a whole. I don't know exactly what it should be like, but I think they can do a better job with making the menu not take up so much space.

3) Throw out the grid system and replace it with something that will allow ALL directions to be used.

4) Overhaul the transportation network. There's a lot of interesting things that can be done with this. They're close with Rush Hour, but need to go further.

5) Graphics need to be overhauled and made to be more realistic. They're close with SC4, but I think they can do a better job with integrating roads and other things better.

6) Improve performance. Yes, with such things as I have suggestions it could be difficult, but I believe it is possible to make the game run smoothly.

That's just some of the things I'd like to see. Sim City 5 would need a powerful system to run on. I think they should wait a couple years before they make a SC5. Allow PCs to get more powerful first.

[vipergts281 0]

I'd just like to see a few things changed.......

Definitely need to have curved roads. The game would look so much more realistic.

Someone else mentioned it.....be able to have a lake higher up than say the river across the city.

Waterfalls in the mountains would be a nice touch as well.

Underground power. I hate those ugly power lines.

Need more options with airports. I'm not a fan of the airports in SC4....not big enough in my opinion. Also, it would be cool to be able to plot our own runways inside the airport zone.

And probably my most favorite thing I would like to see is....one HUGE map. I'm not really liking this region thing with a bunch of different sized cities. I almost feel as if the small cities are worthless. I'd LOVE one big huge city to work with.

[jjbarbosa 0]

Hi! I think the simcity5 must be not a simcity, but a simNation! why? because that's the logical way. First we managed a town (until simcity3000), than we managed a region, so the next step must be sometihng bigger and better. We could manage at same time a city, a region and the nation, with a capital, different regions and metropolitan areas, with different activities (agriculture, forestry, fishery, minning, industries, commerce, services, and public or governamental activities).

[Eastwinn 6]

Date: 11/2/2005 9:27:18 AM Author: jjbarbosa Hi! I think the simcity5 must be not a simcity, but a simNation! why? because that's the logical way. First we managed a town (until simcity3000), than we managed a region, so the next step must be sometihng bigger and better. We could manage at same time a city, a region and the nation, with a capital, different regions and metropolitan areas, with different activities (agriculture, forestry, fishery, minning, industries, commerce, services, and public or governamental activities).

quote>

Man, your already thinking big. I like the idea but think about how slow the game would run. You would need the computers that are on space shuttles times <-- insert big number here -->. By the time SC5 comes out, there will probably be a computer that can handle that so it may happen.

[vizfact 0]

I think that they should add an option for a new type of city where there arent any zoning laws, and another city that would generate itself as a private entity along with the current custom built cities involved , that way a mayor doesnt have to manage 2 cities right next to each other , we all know this is suckish, i think the AI cities should be playable/or intricately reviewable. I would also like to see a more user friendly ingame region generator.

 

It would also be nice to use the overview map to pinpoint all city facilities like busstops, libraries and especially parks.

 

A auto road upgrade would be nice, and EA needs to think about simple things like cul de sacs, and curved blocked and lots and street capabilities

 

, and  integrate all the rail systems ,

 

in sc3 trains could go into the subway, - monorails, L-rails , trains and subways should all be interchangeable, and i would rather let the game generate the best sized transit facility like it does with the buildings based on need and demand as well as value , and more than anything gives US the OPTION to turn this on and off, 

[vizfact 0]

I think that they should add an option for a new type of city where there arent any zoning laws, and another city that would generate itself as a private entity along with the current custom built cities involved , that way a mayor doesnt have to manage 2 cities right next to each other , we all know this is suckish, i think the AI cities should be playable/or intricately reviewable. I would also like to see a more user friendly ingame region generator.

 

It would also be nice to use the overview map to pinpoint all city facilities like busstops, libraries and especially parks.

 

A auto road upgrade would be nice, and EA needs to think about simple things like cul de sacs, and curved blocked and lots and street capabilities

 

, and  integrate all the rail systems ,

 

in sc3 trains could go into the subway, - monorails, L-rails , trains and subways should all be interchangeable, and i would rather let the game generate the best sized transit facility like it does with the buildings based on need and demand as well as value , and more than anything gives US the OPTION to turn this on and off, 

[kiknos 0]

I've realized a model for the new sc5 menu (without the managing part). I'm sorry if some words aren't in right english and I hope all you will say me what do you thin about it. thank you very much.

 

MODELING________________________________________________________________
                            Setting  
                                    Upgrade ground level  Hill-Mountain-Mesa-Plateau-etc

[AAA 2]

in simcity 5 i would like to see a couple of things;

 

am i the only one who thinks everything in simcity is the worng size?

i mean look at the largest buildings you can get with the game -  4 by 4 squares. thats 4 steets in the game next to each other. imagine 4 streets in real life then imagine a skyskraper that houses thousands of residents... the skyscapers need to be at least 4 time bigger to look anywhere near as realistic.

 

also i think the infrastructure in the game needs to be expanded. i want traffic jams, people piling onto trains not just cars magically appearing out of no-where driving along for an average of 4 tiles then disappearing again, wheres the fun in that? more roads options too with more realistic paths not just vertical, horizontal and diagnol. i also miss the growable docks and shipyards from simcity 3000 they were cool.

 

 

thx,

[jpsilvashy 0]

yea i doubt that it would take them until 2008 to press realese a game like simcity, i am a designer in the game industry and games can be press released months after a desion is made, so dont be suprised if they say soon that sim nation or somthing will be out, btw check out this little web game i have been addicted too. WWW.ENTERTAINMENTANYTIME.COM, it is pretty funny you can smash him into the glass by pressing space, there is a ton you can do.

[Major Jacob66 0]

Here is a few things

1. The sims need to use the bus stops more.

2. Some weather effects.

3. More types of buildings.

4. Maybe a V.S. mode where you can use F-16's and stuff and ruin your opponents city.

5. Maybe first person driving.

 

Those are some ideas but not all of them. I know you can drive a tank and stuff but maybe like have a war with your opponent.

[Major Jacob66 0]

 OOPs doubled post. Sorry.

[Blazerhawk 162]

Let me start at the top of my list

1.Reigional terraforming. By terraforming an entire region no Reconcile edges tool would be needed.

2. New terraforming tools for water. Eliminate the water table by adding tools for rivers, lakes, oceans.

3.New terraforming tools for land. Geysers, swamps, faults.

4.Climate and weather. Add climate which affects weather like in RCT3. Have climate affect growth of plants, animals and of course your city.

5. New rewards. Come on, only baseball and soccer. Add football (American) basketball hockey stadiums. Theme parks, Naval Bases etc. need to be added.

 That's all for now.     

[Jayayess1190 3]

Create your own vehicles program comes with the game

[NSide359 0]

All of these ideas are good, but is EA really gonna notice this? You could send a petition to them to make a new SC. That would be cool.

[Superchan 23]

i was thinking of an advanced road/transit tool that would allow yout to draw your roads and transit lines like you were painting, for better subdivisions, and more realism, this would require some intensive processing, it also should be dual core compatible, divide the game in 2 so it runs faster.

[Voar Tok 4]

Date: 11/18/2005 8:10:36 PM Author: NSide359 All of these ideas are good, but is EA really gonna notice this? You could send a petition to them to make a new SC. That would be cool.

quote>

Yeah, we can send them a list.  They accept general feedback.

 

Anyway, here's my list (so far, there is going to be more coming).

 

GENERAL GAMEPLAY

• Don't make the game simpler along the lines of SC2K. Instead of making everything easier, give the players the option of setting the general difficulty the way they want it.
• Keep the region play, but modify it so that all cities run when the game is running.
• Allow neighbor deals between cities that don't touch each other (and give the cities which the utilities will have to pass through the ability to charge fees for using the infrastructure).
• Create more than just three city tile sizes. SC3K had miniature, small, medium, and large city sizes; and SC5 should have at least that many. (Better yet, give the players the ability to create a city tile any size they want).

TERRAFORMING LAND

• Bring back the old terrain generator that SC3K had (just improve it for SC5).
• Improve the Auto-reconcile feature
• Break up the grid squares into 1 meter by 1 meter sections so that the land can be even smoother

ZONES

• Give us zones for stuff like hospitals, schools, and other civic buildings like they did with seaports and airports in SC3K.
• Fix the problems with the zones that causes No Access zots to appear even though the zone has proper access.

UTILITIES

• Instead of just having above-ground power lines, allow the power lines to be built underground.
• Give up more power plants.
• Require the water pumps to have a visible water source.
• Bring back desalinization plants (this would, of course, mean that salt water would have to be brought back).
• Create more garbage solutions. Create some sort of uber-facility that burns garbage, and releases clean air.
• Introduce sewage to the game (meaning that you will need sewage pipes and processing plants).

CIVIC BUILDINGS

• Create more police and fire stations, hospitals, schools, libraries, museums, and the like.
• Make various size jails.

LANDMARKS

• Include more landmarks.

RECREATION

• Fix the park system so that parks can be custom-sized.
• Make more park varieties.

I'll be adding to that in the future.  I guess, if you all are interested, I could amalgamate the requests into a list that would be sent to EA.  Also, I guess that it could be done monthly with the new requests highlighted to stand out.  What do you guys think?

[GDDan 4]

Heres one of the #1 things i want in the next SimCity:

The ability to export criminals like you do garbage.

 

I can't stand it when i have a beautiful city, mostly low-rise buildings... and i get this message:

 

Crowded Crooks Reported Ready to Riot!

 

i dont want to ugly up my city with that big jail! and besides, only like 60 inmates are put in the @#*! thing!

 

I hope you'll be able to export the crooks to a jail in another city (like in the downtown area of the region.)

[rabanne 0]

What I would really like to see in Simcity 5 (and I know it's not gonna happen, because it's a city simulation)
is a resource based industry model. What i mean by that is
there should be a (automatic) region generator, which also generates (natural) resources.

Most cities in the world *that I know of* were founded at places where there was access to crucial resources.

I would really like to see resources such as coal, oil, clay, wood, iron(ore), wool, grain and quite a few others, play a large role in the developement of your city.

Also, you could think of the importance of fertile soil in the vicinity for your farms.
And ofcourse an even larger role for waterways. Rivers and oceans for trade (crucial for your industries; to get what you dont have and sell what you produce).

This would mean that there is a lot more transportation to arrange. NOt only do you need roads to get your workers to their jobs, but you also have to get your resources to your industry, and finished products to the international markets)

Cities can become gigantic industrial powerhouses, with coal mines and iron ore mines linked to massive steel mills, then taking the steel to car/train/machine -manufacturing plants/ or construction yards.

On the other hand, it should stay possible to create a city without relying on traditional resources, but generating money by trade, banking, hi-tech (trough city improvements/a lot of connections/ good educational system) or trough tourism.(having great beaches nearby would help there and improvements (hotels,casino's,etc)/ the general attractivity)

what do you think about it?

[mtnmouse 0]

Is it true? I just did a search for the phrase Sim City 5, and according to another fan site, it has officially been announced!! I hope this is true. Another fan site has reported that they announced it recently. MSN listed it in their search results as November 18th, 2005. If this is true, I have not seen any confirmation of this anywhere. I went to the Maxis site, and couldn't find anything there, and also the EA site, and didn't see any news there. I will check Gamespy and see if there is any news there, and get back to you. This has me about as excited as the day that SC4 came out. I never will forget the day that I bought that.

 

I however feel that if it was true, that it would be all over the news here on this site, which has kind of got me believing that this may be a hoax. Anyone know the truth? Or can't I handle the truth.

[GREENIE123 0]

I want several things-

-It would be cool to have more building styles, like ancient egypt , an african village, or classic European.

 

-Different road styles to go with those styles, like cobblestone streets for the classic European, or dirt for the african village and egyptian.

 

-Have the transportation mix in with the style, like hose and buggy for classical european, and walking for ancient egyptian.

 

-Have the buildings manually line up with the roads.

 

-Have your city create things and possibly mine stuff to trade with other cities to make a profit.

 

-More transportation networks. I mean, not every building is on a road.

 

-CURVED ROADS! I mean, it would be hard to recreate Brussels with roads going only N,S,E,W,NW,NE,SW,SE.

 

That's all for now.

[Badfish301 60]

Sim City needs to rethink the idea of skyscraper and the way a city develops.

I have seen very few cities which are simply a wall of very tall skyscrapers. Instead, the simulation should calculate a good CBD (central business district) and this would act as the heart of the city. This center of the city could shift slightly, according to changing trends in the commercial market (as a result of population shifts, traffic pattern changes etc) but would always be a critical force where the tallest buildings develop around the center. Tall office buildings develop in large cities even on streets with little traffic believe it or not.

 

The CBD would allow the tallest possible buildings for a city of your size and importance, and would discourage tall buildings in your cities hinterlands. In order to get the tallests talls your CBD would first have to  become large and reputable.

 

Closely attached to this would be the ability to set height caps. There should be a general option where you can set a city ordinance to restrict height to a given level citywide, or on a neighborhood basis. Many real world cities have such ordinances. This would allow you to better sculpt the look of your city (without being restricted to 3 different levels of zone density.)

 

I agree with a comment made earlier that minerals and resources should be taken into account. Ports should definitely be rethought, and container shipments should be incorporated. It would be a much more interesting game if large container vessels pulled in to the new state of the art deep water facility, which would have to be well connected to rail links.

 

The rate at which your city grows should also be linked to how well your industries are connected, where the more interconnected you are, the more competetive your city becomes (expanding on just roads). This would be a nice reward for setting up good transportation networks.

 

Finally, skyscrapers should have varying heights. there should be some more generic skyscrapers, which grown to a height appropriate to their position relative to the CBD. This would help to break the monotany of the simcity 4 skyline.

 

Other things briefly:  3D view, Cloudy Days/ stormy days (where waves get large, winds intense). The ability to turn off distasters! the game runs to slow to deal with fires all the time.  Groweable airports/Ports. Ability to build tunnels underwater easily.  LESS MICRO MANAGEMENT!!! Can't the advisors adjust spending for me??!!!!

 

Most importantly - fix the way a CBD works - a skyscraper, or a building of 10+ stories doesn't usually show up in a city until there are at least 100,000 residents. Tall building should be a reward, not everywhere in a city.

[rctshack 182]

Another thing that should be added is subdevelopments. I used to live in a subburb outside of dallas and a lot of the houses in our town were built in large spanning neighborhoods that weren't really planned out by the city, but by a group of developers. The city helped them by choosing where they could build and providing resources and connecting it to the rest of the city, but the rest of it was done by other people. Now I think that subdevelopers should be able to come to our cities with Large Neighborhoods, Buisiness Parks, Industrial Parks, Apartment Complex's, Condo Complex's and so on. They build there own roads on the inside and just need us the mayor to connect them to everything else. Does this make sense? And It will make developing large areas much faster and bring some diversity and will look good. People can add on to this if they want. Just an idea.

[Compromise 1]

Some very good ideas here.

 

One thing I would like in SimCity 5 is weather to make it a lot more intresting and also a few more realistic disasters would be good.

[alluredbit 0]

Hi All,

I am new to this forum, and the sim-community, but I am playing SC for years. Actually some of my frustrations with the game that led me here, to sign up, and read the posts..

Well, I can't start without first extending a sincere thanks to all the people out there who work on NAM (I just installed it, and I love it!) Of course I am also glad for the Maxis folks for creating the game in the first place, but the NAM team might not do this for a living, might not even getting paid as they should, and I am not sure if the NAM stuff will be in SC5. Nevertheless I archived my old cities, and I started afresh with NAM. Good work people, thanks a bunch!

OK, since this thread asks for user feedback, here is mine.

I love the 'realistic' part of the game.. that is, my worst issues were with what NAM fixed: commute time, path finding, network capacity and civic-buldings effect/cost. The game now feels much more real than before. That's a huge thing for me.

What remains:
Proportions:

Four km is probably a small village size in real life