Future of SimCity Official Discussion Thread

[rewright 804]

Originally posted by: jfksc12

One thing SC5 could have though is on the edge of the regions have like 5 or 10 tiles of non-playable terrain that shows what the borders of hte cities around you have.  Not only will that help with terraforming but now your cities can truely be synced up togther and get a better overall viewquote>

Yes, I agree. I've often thought that would be of great help in creating the impression of a seamless city.

[Uandwhosearmy 0]

Historic "Campaign mode"
This is to me a very exciting prospect to SC5. For example:

You start out with a small town during the time of european industrialization/ urbanization. The initial demand for industry and low cost housing will be immense as the populace moves from the countryside to the cities and towns.

As time moves you from early industrial to mass-production your city and its citizens will have to adapt in certain ways. Later on when much industry goes through the structural changes that move manufacturing industry out from urban centres to more rural and low-cost areas, at the same time as demand in the commercial service sector booms, you and your city will have to adapt.

I'm aware of the fact that much of this is partially included in Simcity, but a richer historical setting would make the game even more interesting. You could also include more detailed city planning issues such as maximum building height in certain areas, preservation of historically important buildings, options to renovate/reconstruct, build additions to or destroy buildings to enable new/more businesses or residents moving in. This could make it possible to build true historical cities that have "old towns" and "renaissance quarters" and the like.

I don't know about you, but I like the idea...

[rocketoink 3]

What I'd like for SIMCITY 5[some of this may have been suggested by others]; --1. Brushable terrain textures like the ones in Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. --2.National Park zoning. --3.FOUR types of zoning for each zone, as,this;Low d,med d, high d, and MEGA d[also applies for landfill]. --4.Growable landmarks. --5.Supervolcano zoning. --6.No zoning size limits. --7. Everything growable. --8.Disasters that randomly happen. --9.Place naming without mayor mode. --10.Caves in god mode. --11.Mayor mode zoneable trees. --12.God mode type tree placing in Mayor mode. --13. More real life disasters. --14.Ploppable bombs. --15.Oil rigs. --16. Drawable city boundaries. --17. More real life landmarks. --18. More trees. --19. Crystal blue water. --20. SC4 Mod compatibility. --21. In the volcanic disaster, having pyroclastic flows and ash clouds. --22. Typeable disaster size. --23. All stuff from the STEX built in game. --24. Realistic sunsets. --25. Everyone elses suggestions. --26.Regional god mode,mayor mode and my sim mode. --27.Ploppable,big, boulders. --28.Game stores. --29.Fish,sharks,etc,anything that can swim. --30.Gradual city erosion. Okay now, that's the list I'd like. Now, will someone attract someone from MAXIS and see if they are going to include everything here?

[storms991 0]

thats rubbish rocketoint, the game just needs some extra tweaking and better transportation methods and all is fine.

the zoning limits is so your pc doesnt get fried when sc4 has to put all the crap in that allows all the buildings to load.

why caves, what significance do they have... or do you want a game where you start out in the stone age....

you can use god mode in mayor mode when you click shft-ctrl-alt together and click on god mode

disasters are not the main part of the game... its building the city.

why play this game if you want bombs, get c&c generals

you can download an ol rig on the stex by somy

why add the work of drawing city boundries

you can download more than 100 landmarks on the stex, different kinds of trees, different water textures.

why game stores, i think you even download them.........................

there is a particks rock by daddio on the stex, it has no values, and is plopable with no purpose

how will we be able to view sunsets?? we are in the sky?!

[dulcimer man 0]

Since lots of ground has been covered already I'll only say this:
I really liked the in-game humor of the previous installments way more than in SC4.

[storms991 0]

off course, the great brocolli and fluffy the wonder cat, love it, its great.

[pepsi38 46]

what would solve almsot everything..........a smaller scale....say right now your firehouse is 2X2 boxs.....take the same building and put it on a smaller scale of boxes and its the same building, the same size, but its now a 4x4.   this would help the most in the way of making odd # lane rds...like 1 lane rd, 3, or 5 lane rds.

[locolobo85 0]

I'm new to sc4 and just recently installed the deluxe version and started building and playing the u-drive minigames. 

It seems to me that it is just a matter of time before the SC franchise gets matched up with one of the action adventure franchises.  This may never happen, it may not be logical or possible, but it seems like a logical progression for players to be able to create their own cities, create missions and go into that city and play those missions in full 3D mode.  Something along the lines of Grand Theft Auto (or the likes) meets SimCity.  It would take free roam gaming to another level with a never ending array of cities and missions. 

[linamishima 0]

Having just read through all this thread, I've decided to make my own thoughts known.

First, though, a compliment - Having worked over at UO Stratics as the ideas den moderator, I know how rare it is for people to actually stick to sensible, viable and balanced suggestions. I'm now terribly impressed with all of you!

I'm going to leave the "More..." type ideas off the following list, as they're all kind of obvious, and wouldn't significantly effect the simulation or modding communities.

Kill the grid:
Common amongst almost all the posts was the suggestion that the grid based system should be done away with once and for all. Whilst I might be an oldschool gamer, with no issues with grid based games, I'm also a huge fan of pretty I can see removing the grid to have all kinds of wonderfull effects on realism, too.

More but Less Micromanagement:
So there you are, developing your city, when you get a message saying that a school is striking. You fix that, and find yourself forgetting your building plans. Yet those building plans relied on turning down the funing on a large health centre!
Micromanagement is both a blessing and a curse. It lets us do what we want to do, yet also requires that we pay attention to things which are just plain boring. Many games end up in the dire situation were only one type of play (no micromanagement, or heavy micromanagement) is actually practical. Ideally your own choice of playstyle shouldn't effect the end outcome that much when it comes to micromanagement.
One solution would be make the city advisors actually do more. Each one of them can look after all the services that fall under their remit. You can tell the education advisor "Keep school funding at 50 pupil capacity over and above their current usage". You can then set individual schools to not follow this funding scheme if you want to manage them more carefully.
The same applies to services such as water, for which some people like to lay pipes, and others just don't want the hassle. Perhaps, if they really wanted to get technical, the game could see how you like to lay out your roads, water and power systems, and try to replicate it automatically. Maybe then we'd actually use the autoroads more often

Mixed buildings:
In the real world, a lot of buildings serve a mixed purpose. They may well have shops opening up to the street, dentists and doctors on the lower floors, perhaps even a small workshop around back, and whole upper stories filled with homes.
Obviously, this would be a great addition.

Water, water, everywhere:
Real rivers and lakes, that flow downhill. If we're not careful, we might empty them completely, or have servere flooding. Would also bring true roles back for hydro plants and the like.

Chains of industry:
High wealth residents want fancy cars. Fancy cars are sold by car dealerships. They buy the cars from car manufacturing plants. To make fancy cars, car manufacturing plants need microcontrollers, furnishings and shaped metal. Microcontrollers are made by high tech plants and need various rare ores. Furnishings are made by another plant, wanting cotton. Shaped metal is made elsewere, and needs good metal. Good metal results from a dirty industry place that combines two different metals to create an alloy. One of those metals is sourced from another city. The other comes from a smelting plant. The smelting plant needs ore to run, which comes from open pit mining (or perhaps closed, if you've banned them in your city).
All of this should happen automatically without requiring the player to join the dots. Hopefully then the traffic being created would be more logical and predictable.

Enhanced Region Play:
Let's go one step further than most people...
A lot of people are calling for seamless region play, or a greater ability to see other another city's limits to aid in planning.
But I'm suggesting a Nation. You can combine your regions together to influence an entire SimNation together, within SimWorld.

Dynamic Lots:
Currently, once you've created a building, it's entirely down to the designer to lay out the car parks, gardens, etc. Looking though the lots in the lot editor, many of them are the same building in different surroundings. Surely this process could all be simplified, and hence also reducing the need for storage and design at the same time!
I suggest the idea of "feature sets", those small common arrangements on lots, such as car parks, gardens, etc. These "feature sets" then go into "feature families", and buildings themselves have a number of "feature families" assigned to them as their grounds. Then, when the building grows, it will try and find room to fit in a feature set or three.
The reason I suggest it like this is so that all those wonderful lot designers out there still have something to do - rather than designing the entire lot, they can now design the set pieces which can combine to make the end result.

Advanced Ordanances:
"People earning above 50k a year will get paid a significant ammount to use public transport"
"Industry which causes high air polution in areas with low crime rates and high traffic have to pay triple tax"
Let us come up with our own ordanances from the raw data, like the above!

We don't all want to be stuck to our country's policies:
Over in the states, there is no real equivalent to the National Health Services that exist within Europe. Perhaps we want to have free healthcare, or perhaps we want to charge the poor sims horrendous ammounts!

Let's go... Downtown:
Within cities, there has always been districts. Areas set apart from the rest. Perhaps the Mayor has enacted a tax break in one of them to high-tech companies. There's a chance that a police station's duristriction is closely bound around a block. Let us define certain sub-areas in our cities, and apply things to only those sub-areas we choose.

Hi Fidelity:
Currently, if Mr. Sim Blogs wants to live in a small shed, he has to use up a huge patch of land in doing so. Building scales are all out of wack. The easiest way to fix them is to increase the scale of the simulation.
Likewise, there are more times in the day when people are traveling than morning or evening. Have an actual timer, or perhaps simply hourly simulation. And let us choose to only have a toll on a road between certain times.

Traveling through time, inventions:
Imagine starting a settlement before the industrial revolution, just a few farms and houses for the workers, connected by dirt tracks. Then in moves a blacksmith. A stable then turns up, and you need better tracks. You get your people thinking, and soon, they suggest a communal hall. Then they come up with the idea for a water wheel to help grind corn. A water wheel makes someone invent a textile mill, and the industrial revolution kicks off!
SimCity 4 is always more fun for myself and my partner if we try to mimic real town development, starting off small, enlarging, trying to fit services in. A timeline with work needed towards inventions would help to give this far more meaning.
Imagine if then your entire region acted as one when it came to research! Individual cities would have to meet certain criteria to be the place to come up with an idea or to utilise it, but it's the region's combined EQ that effects the invention process. This, combined with a resource chain, would radically increase the importantance of region play, and bring entirely new meaning to all of it.

Without a doubt, it is that final point, a passage of time, with the mayor's decisions effecting what gets invented, which is what I would most really love to see.

[calm_blue_sea 3]

I'll be honest, I haven't gone through and read all these, so I'm sure I'm repeating a few people, but here's my wish list:

1) The ability to draw out roads etc in freehand at any angle. The way Railroad Tycoon did this with railways would work quite nicely.

2) Having the game form lots that fit my crazy angles from number 1... now that's the tricky part!

3) Having a regional 'federal' government. Federal taxes that are collected from everyone (based on population) and redistributed as you see fit - i.e. you would be able to siphon money from a rich city and give it to a poor one.

4) Climate systems - air pollution would travel downwind, orographic rainfall, etc, Tropico had this! Weather would be cool.

5) I'd love to see the concept of developers/contractors. For example, you sell a large plot of land to a developer and he builds a residential subdivision for you. Likewise you could sell a plot of land to an industry (a car manufacturer for instance). They would build a plant which would grow over time and serve as the lifeblood of the town. You would need to supply a workforce, power, water, rail connections etc. They would give you pollution and jobs and perhaps the occasional hospital wing. Removing them would involve a huge lawsuit and massive unemployment (deal with them carefully).

6) Better traffic simulator. There should be a central business district (cbd) which intrinsically draws traffic. Airport, malls, stadiums, etc should also draw traffic.

7) Multilane custom highways and custom on/off ramps. You should be able to drag and add lanes to a street or highway and to build your own intersections using puzzle pieces.

Cultural/ethnic areas - difficult to implement in a PC fashion, but it would be great to see a Chinatown, Greektown etc pop up and grow of its own accord.

9) Social stats etc. Maybe it's just me, but I want more graphs and charts!

10) Resource based gameplay. Being able to mine mountains or clear-cut a forest would be neat. Imagine watching railway cars carry ore to a steel plant in another city and watching the steel emerge as automobiles at a car manufacturing plant. Watching your Sims transform the land (just as the miners dug pits in Tropico) would be rather neat.

What about a landslide if you oversteepen a slope or install a shoddy retaining wall?

I suspect Maxis/EA will lean towards a more 3D approach (they had originally planned this for Simcity 3 I believe). I imagine incorporating more aspects of the  "The Sims" might also be in the works (a new take on SimVille perhaps). Although I think it would take away from the scope of the game (so that you don't need a super computer), cruising around a city (as per Streets of SimCity) might be a neat idea. I'm sure we will see more integration of The Sims and SimCity next time around.

 

[Liger14 0]

A couple of my ideas:

1. More cars and varied traffic  that doesnt disappear as often,same with trucks and buses as well.

2. A closer view into the lives of the sims,maybe a follow a sim mode or something.

3. Interacting regions.

[calm_blue_sea 3]

One other thing. I'd love to be able to add on to my schools, hospitals, etc. as the need arises. This could be done with puzzle pieces - for example you could add a new wing to a hospital. As I alluded to before, an expansion could be paid for by a local business or wealthy resident - there would of course be strings attached.

This has been done to some extend on the STEX - i.e. someone (bless their soul) made school portables.

[Gnargenox 6]

As far as I'm concerned, games are made to sell hardware and not the other way around. In other words, hardware manufactures probably pay game makers to max out the games performance to create a need for the new hardware. If there ever is a simcity 5 i will be sure NOT to purchase it as i hate being forced to upgrade. Ever since my printer broke and i had to upgrade from windows 3.1 to 95 I am a huge opponent of upgrading. Everything i did with my computer could be done with win3.1 and had no need to upgrade (this was for work and all i did was bookkeeping and proposal writing and played a whole bunch of Solitaire). Game makers should make games that are just as fun and enjoyable without the need to shell out even more cash. If you want more eye candy or resource hogging games that's fine too, just don't make me join in with no choice. Oh and the only reason i upgraded to XP from 98 was directly because the Simcity4 install splash screen wouldn't display even thou the game says it will work on 98. I'm still angered by this as XP is a female dog to deal with. I'll just stick with Simcity4 - forever.

p.s. i think most ideas about what people would like to see in a new simcity game can be handled with the same system requirements that this one needs. They could easily make a flight simulator add on that could fly thru these cities, just like they made that drive thru add on for simcity3000. Maxis is just waiting for everyone to upgrade to 4gb ram and 8ghz processors then they will release a bigger game.

[linamishima 0]

Originally posted by: Gnargenox

p.s. i think most ideas about what people would like to see in a new simcity game can be handled with the same system requirements that this one needs. They could easily make a flight simulator add on that could fly thru these cities, just like they made that drive thru add on for simcity3000. Maxis is just waiting for everyone to upgrade to 4gb ram and 8ghz processors then they will release a bigger game. quote>

Unfortunately and very sadly for me (my system is about four years old ), I really doubt that is the case. With some simple maths you can actually show that detailed, per-sim calculations for each hour of a day (which would be nice) would really require at the very least an nice new up-to-date and rather powerful system to be able to run at any sort of decient speed. And RAM requirements also follow suit.

With respect to graphics updates, I believe that the key word here is 'options'. Modern game engines are really approaching a very high level of realism indeed, and I'm a big fan of things looking shiny. But I'm also an oldskool gamer, who often simply prefers to have the needed information without pointless effects. Having options would allow anyone with medium systems to play the game but up the settings for screen shots, and those with older systems to still join in the fun.

[locolobo85 0]

I was one of the diehards. I got by with Win98SE for a LONG time. In the end it was the lure of new games that prompted me to build a new system for XP. SimCity 4 sat on a shelf in my studio for over a year. It was loaded on my 800mhz system and ran almost decent. Almost being the key word. It was way to slow to enjoy. But in the end the new games won out. Sim City was surely one of the reasons but I really have to blame Sid Meier for Pirates and CivIV. I don't know who's driving who. Are the game developers pushing the limits to ensure their game remains viable on the latest PCs for a longer period of time or are the game developers pushing the limits at the request of the hardware makers? I'm not much a conspiracy theorist, therefore, it seems to me that hardware technology is growing with or without the software. It just natural that the programmers would like to make the most of the hardware available and ensure they create a product that will endure the lifecycles of hardware development.

Either way I'm loving my new system and finally realizing that I don't really have enough spare time in my life to enjoy SC4, CivIV and Pirates. It's going to take quite a while. These three games should carry me well into the 1st (maybe the 2nd) price drop for the PS3.

As far as a new SimCity goes, hey, I'm just getting around to this one. What's the rush? :^)

[Badfish301 60]

cities don't grow skyscrapers right after conception.

sim city 5 should have cities grow out for a while by default (this

could be modified by city height ordinances). i don't know why

all simcity games seem to think cities get 10 story buildings right

away.

furthermore, the economic impetus for high-rise development

at such low populations makes cities look, well.. just plain goofy.

realistic cities have relatively small (but disproportionately

important) Central Business District.

a good simcity would demand you had a sprawling metropoitan

of 500,000 or so before you were rewarded your first high-rise.

large cities only have a few very tall skyscrapers, all sim cities

have CBDs which are huge for the land volume of the city.

please make CBD's more constricted in the next version..

market forces and real estate values build skyscrapers, and

location location location matters, not simply the simulator

satisfying it's urge to build ASAP.

that said, simcity rocks, let's keep 'em going!

(maxis please hire me)

[dandysim 0]

I really doubt that there is any sort of collusion between hardware and software manufacturers. Maybe I'm wrong ... I have been before about many things. However, what I really see is the need for game developers to meet the competition with more eye candy, more realism, more, more, more, ad infinitum. This would be primarily in response to the game systems (PS2, XBOX, etc.) that generate a market for the gaming $$$s. It's pure economics, folks. Ergo, the need to be on the "bleeding edge" of technology and "pushing the envelope" to extend the "life" of a product. An example would be, how many regular players are there of the original Atari Asteroids today? It's doubtful if there are very many if any.

The only constant in the world of technology is change itself. New developments, improved performance, bigger, better, cheaper, etc. Anticipation of change allows for meeting these "new" techs with something that gets to market at near release time to capture a market share before anyone else. Pure and simple logic in this strategy is the driver ... not some deep seated conspiracy as proported in some of these posts.

Discussions within this thread presumes the eventual "next generation" of SC. SC has proven to be one of the more lasting products that has a huge following and apparently is still growing as indicated by some of the posts made by noobs. Our diatribes about whether this or whether that outside the context of offering ideas for SC5 should be taken elsewhere. Stay within the context and you contribute. Go outside it and you detract. Be positive and realize that there is going to be a "next generation" of SC at some point in the future. We just don't know how soon.

In the meantime, keep posting ideas, concerns, etc. for all to view and discuss relating to the game's concept, play, etc.

[iDavid 2]

I'd like to see more control on what is built. Not for everything built, but for things like multi story skyscrapers, malls, and other large properties. You should get a proposal and be able to either accept to decline the construction.

[safemining1 0]

One thing About SC5 is it needs to be like other games the flocus on the same area.

SC4 is great, but it 'anit no Civ 4. The Sim City games are like an Empire Building RTS. So Cim City should try to be some Empire Building RTS that does 95% or more right.

From this Starting point, give ideas how SC5 can be as great (or greater than) Civ 4.

[cityhawk 12]

I apologize if any of what's coming has been said before, but I have a few suggestions for the next SimCity:

1. Make ALL types of roads that are known in this world (ex. double-decker highways, 
    boulevards, highways with more than three lanes on each side, etc.)
2. Make ALL types of signs that are known in this world (curve signs, stop sign or stop light 
    ahead, T crossing, + crossing, etc.)
3. Make animated signs and billboards.
4. Integrate good stuff from the STEX (like chain retail stores, services, and restaurants,etc.) into
    the game itself.
5. Improve UDI; make it to where you can have a view from the front seat of the car, the back of 
    the car, etc. and have more realistic and powerful vehicles.

That's all for now.

[A.D. 0]

I'm sure some of these have been mentioned before.

1. The game should include an eminent domain system, it would be so simple to provide say 2 months for someone to leave before demolishing their house to build a road or for redevelopment. When one of My Sims teels me that their house was demolished with them still inside or while they were at work it just sounds so ridiculous and unrealistic.

2. A city shouldn't be able to appear in the middle of nowhere with not so much as a single road leading to anwhere else. How do the people move in? Where do the supplies for building come from? The game should require everything to be connected to at least one road leading out the region.

3.Since when was transportation used solely for commutes? There should be traffic from residences to other residences, city buildings such as schools, shops, and out of the city. Tourism should generate traffic.

4. According to the terraforming tools, Death Valley would be filled with water. Water should be a tool that can be used to fill a valley to make a lake, or a canyon to make a river etc at any elevation that can hold it. Rivers should be able to flow. I know that this would be complicated, but imagine how realistic it would be to have rivers that aren't just canyons filled with still water.

5. There should be some form of weather, wind, rain, snow, seasons, etc. I know that this would be hell for system resources, but by the time Sim City 5 comes out it will probably be 5-10 years from now, computers should be able to handle it.

6. Appearing and dissapearing cars is so weird looking. This is especially apparent in very big cities where cars rapidly appear and disappear. Show them going into parking lots and driveways.

7. On that note, the game should calculate the direction the road is to a zone and place the parking lots accordingly. It's not very aesthetic to have a parking lot with exits going right into the walls of other buildings.

[shivsood 5]

like the others some of these may have been mentioned before:

1. More realistic population (eg like 4 to a low density house instead of 13).

2. Custom highway interchanges

3. Bridges that can change angles in the water or that can change into a tunnel(like the Chesapeake bay one)

4. Many more parks/school options

5. Loads more buildings

6. Customizable menus with subfolders and stuff

7. Realistic coverage of police/fire/hospital etc

8. The ability to be able to take the highway through like 5 cities all the way to downtown

[cityhawk 12]

More suggestions:

1. Actual curved tunnels

2. Ability for your cities to host events (like the Olympics, Super Bowl, etc.)

3. I'm tired of the same building popping up a lot around the city, especially if they're right next to

    or very close to each other. I would like to see that fixed.

4. More choices of building styles

5. Let your advisors actually have a part in running your city instead of them just sitting there and 

    complaining about how strikes are imminent because of low funding and etc.

Maybe more later.

[newyorkstate 6]

Originally posted by: cityhawk More suggestions:

5. Let your advisors actually have a part in running your city instead of them just sitting there and 

    complaining about how strikes are imminent because of low funding and etc.quote>

Good One!

[conch6thuf 0]

I loved the timeline in simcity 2000, I think, that chronicled the history of your city...remember the list of significant events, date...fire broke out, a plane crashed...

I would like to see more disasters

I also read in an earlier post that they should release the source code...I'm a big fan of this idea, though I myself am not a modder nor do I understand it, this type of customizable content has doen wonders for games replay value...Look at games like Rome Total War, there are hundreds of mods and custom games for that title. We'll just have to wait and see. 

Oh god only 14 posts...man it's been a while since talked on this forum...well It's been about a year since I last played it but I'm going through a renewal of interest again.

[Nardo69 51]

Actually my most urgent wishes could have been done by now in another xp for SC4:

- I want the terrain tools from sc2k/sc3k back for mayor mode! I want the query tool telling me the height of a tile and I want to lower or raise a tile to a specific height without the usual try-and-error furstration!

- I want a slope tool that does a nice slope from point A to point B with a determined slope without drawing a road or railway or highway!

- I want a decent traffic simultion that does care about capacity and resistance of roads specific to the type of vehycle. This means for example that a truck is more likely to use a highway than a avenue than a road than a street!

- I want more regional modes! For example I usually have empty prisons in bigger towns when I build one but in all surrounding smaller towns the police stations are full! I don't want to build an airport in every small tile - a BIG regional one with decent connections (highways!) should have the same effect than all those small airports!

- Same with seaports!

- By the above points the game would generate some nice transit traffic ...

- There should be some regional landmarks / rewards than can be build only once and thus determing a regional capital!

and of course:

- customizable sub-submenues in all submenu (without a wheelmouse my seaport/misc Transports/Parks and Plazas is not to be handled at all!)

But I guess EA is too busy to sell the 1.792.678.471 xp for the sims 2...

Bernhard

[petriknl 15]

Why need a new SC like SC5?? We have ST and the STEX that enough for me ...!! I love it here!

[Mickebear 2]

That was a good one, petriknl - I completely agree - and a lot of things are always on development - that is also very exciting rather than having it all packed in by Maxis.

[BBGun06 0]

Some other things we need:

    1) The ability to set up neighbor deals from the region view.  This would allow you to set up regional utilities, and would be much more realistic.  Where I live, the landfills and power plants are miles away from anything, but serve the whole region.  Also, there are a couple of major well fields, and the Hillsborough River for water, and those aren't in every city.

    2) The bus and subway tools are fine. I don't want to set up the exact routes.  That is not what SC is for, that's Railroad Tycoon.  Where I live (Tampa Bay), mass transit is almost non-existent, and I wouldn't know how to set it up.

[Constantina 5]

The game might also need congestion charging, like what Mayor Ken did with his city centre.  It could be a good idea for player who want a city dominated by mass transit usage. The player should be given the option to specify where it applies in the city, or to have it enforced throughout the city. One idea would be to specify the area using a tool which draws the zone boundaries.

Yes, £5 to enter London's streets, but nothing if you go by public transport.

It would be great if the advisors would be one of your Sims from the Sims 2, or even a real world leader. I think another good idea would be to specify the region's nation name, so you could call it Nippon or Hong Kong instead of SimNation.