Future of SimCity Official Discussion Thread

[the Monkeys Uncle 35]

Like an on-the-fly lot editor? That'd be very cool, but the interface would have to be carefully designed to not be overwhelming. Perhaps combining this with the randomness suggestion above so that the game creates randomly generated models by default, maybe even offering you several suggestions for highway interchanges and such, but then allows you to go into the uber-complicated editor that would basically have to be a 3d modeling program with in-game functions added.quote>

Of course, there would be a good selection of stock interchanges that come with the same, such as the standard cloverleaf, flyovers, etc. But you should be able to change aspects of those as well, to reflect the needs of specific areas in your city.

[ragsdj 2]

Just saw this site and it is tellin that Sim city 5 will release on 6th of November 2007 http://www.tothegame.com/game.asp?id=3082

[rctshack 182]

except that site has that and nothing else. I am almost to the point of believing that they don't care about keeping their fanbase on this game. The least they could do after making us wait 3 years is give us a yes or no on wether the game is even being made or what process they are in. I know a lot of people have lost interest in even caring and I am getting to that point. All i want is conformation about when they plan on working on the next game. I feel like both sides lose out when they keep a secret like this. I understand not telling big features of the game, but if it's being made or not.... come on!

[Juan Rico 0]

I think there's gonna be a new SimCity, but Maxis is currently busy with Spore.

And I think SimCity 5 is in Development hell.

Also, I'd like to add some requests:

Weather!!!

Make it rain sometimes!

[smstevenms 7]

Man It Sucks Waiting On Something New, But Still it great because people are still creating great new content. Which makes the game even more fun to play. If I didn't have such mega memory I don't think I'd had nearly as much fun as I have.

Heres To Still Waiting!

[Tarkus 6,933]

Well, a lot of the stuff that some of you are requesting for SC5 can actually already be done in SC4, and is either already available, being worked on right now, or is otherwise possible through additional modding.

There's already a Post Office by JBSimio set up as a reward which you can download here.

As far as a "headwater" from a mountain, you can use qurlix's Free Flowing Stream mod, which can be found here.

And for those of you wondering about making custom interchanges on the fly, well, you're in luck.  The "Rural" Highway (RHW) project will have a Modular Interchange System (MIS) very soon.  See my signature.  

Hang around the Custom Content forums a little more and you might see what's possible.

SC4 still has a lot of life left in it. 

-Tarkus

[Timmnuv 0]

I'd like to see a more realistic reward system. There could also be a kind of research, e.g. to introduce hydrogen cars and lower pollution. I'd also like if the region could be gradually taken over by a city, to overcome unnatural separation, and smaller towns could also carry the duty of maintaining intercity highways etc. Also, industry products should go to commercial zones, not just disappear out of the city. Sims could drive to parks, airports etc., not just to work. Just a couple ideas

[hawkpride147 1]

when watching my game, not all of my industrial traffic leaves the city...in fact, over half of it does go to my commercial sector...the data views dont show it but watch the automata and congestion...they show it.

[rctshack 182]

i know it sucks waiting on something new but i would feel better knowing they are actually working on it. It's not the fact that it's taking so long, it's the fact that everyone is in the dark of even knowing if a game is going to exist. YES i want them to take as much time needed to make a quality game, but by the sound of it, they aren't working on this game... they don't even speak of it.

Yes spore is the game they are working on, but for some reason, most companies can do more than one game at a time... and I think we could at least here if they have started planning the game out. The first phase of creating a game. If they respond to the fans and say "No" I would feel A LOT better because i could not spend all this time looking around site to see if their is any new word, or wondering when it will come out, I would just know that the game isn't being made at the moment. If they respond "Yes" then I can patiently wait KNOWING the game will be out within the next year or so. But not saying a word just makes me upset, and by the sound of it, almost everyone else out there upset also.

What does Maxis have to gain by not keeping us informed of the progress? We aren't asking for features or secrets, we just want an updated report. I wish they would read this site and see that. It's too frustrating coming to this site for 2 years now wondering if there is any news on the new game, when in fact their quite possibly could be no new game.

[djrules5454 5]

I think it was announced last fall (Northern Hemisphere) that SC5 is in development, just no concrete release date yet.

[rctshack 182]

but then denied it the next day.

[the Monkeys Uncle 35]

What? It said in EA's financial reports that they were working on it, and I did not hear anything about them stopping. They haven't officially announced it, but it's obvious they are doing some work on it. Remember that Maxis/EA is a very big company, and is able to work on more than one large project at once.

[rctshack 182]

financial report? where?

[smstevenms 7]

Lets remember folks, the almighty dollar rules. If this title has steadly sold well it is and will be worked on and delvd. When, well I'd bet on a holiday or just b4. PC games are doing much better than they used to be, and alot of work has to go into them eg; prenventing piracy, viruses, compatibility, and lets not forget designing data that modding friendly . This is something most understand but dont consisder, and if there wasn't all of this user made content mods & all, this game would be sitting on shelf with an inch of dust.

Lets just be patient, and enjoy SC4.

[darkmoon70 0]

I'm not sure if this has been posted yet but this site has release dates for SC5

http://www.tothegame.com/game.asp?id=3082

I dont know if there true but I hope so.

[Sirris 1]

i think it would be soo cool if we actually had high end implosions for individual buildings

[Joe887 0]

The best thing to have would be a Free and Open Source clone of SimCity 4, so we can have all the features we want ;-).  Probably not going to happen unless a lot of software developers join Simtropolis.

• The program should be developed to run on a modern computer.

• The monetary aspect of the simulation should be optional, as many people don't want to bother with this.

• The simulation should be entirely 3D. 

• There should be a top-down "blueprint" view for planning the city and a "Camera" view for taking pictures, etc.

• The blueprint view should allow players to layout the city without making any changes, and only build the improvements when the budget or other constraints allow.

• Players should be able to save and exchange these design elements (for example, a highway intersection).

• Players should be able to define custom transportation networks (number of lanes), zones (commercial/residential), etc.

• Save games, maps, and other data files should be in a documented format.

• Tiles are bad.  The simulation should have a universal coordinate system with a resolution of 1 meter.

• Roads should be placed by connecting a line between two points and dragging it to make approximate curves.  Similarly, zones should be placed by defining the vertices of a polygon.

• Lots should be randomly generated and the buildings orientated with roads, etc.

• The traffic simulator should account for every Sim going to work, the store or the dentist.  The path finding algorithm should be non-crappy.

• Some things, like power distribution or hospitals are generally not within the jurisdiction of municipal governments.  The scope of the simulation should be customizable.

• The camera should be able to fly around anywhere in the simulation.  Naturally, it wouldn't be able to render in real time, and the more of the city is visible the less detail there will be.

• As well, all the obvious things, like school buses going farther than 800m and roads going under bridges, etc.

[jpops 1]

My 2 cents:

1. MORE CONTROL- I'd like the ability to manage all types of city life such as traffic and pollution tolerance. In real life millions if not billions of people live in congested/polluted cities like Manila, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Beijing, Athens, the list goes on... All these cities are still growing (some at astronomical rates). It would be nice to allow more traffic congestion or development around industrial areas. I would love to be able to zone areas by wealth level as well as density and it would be nice if there were more than three wealth levels (such as dirt poor, mega-rich ect.) Even better would be a "sandbox" mode where you could plop any building/terrain where you wanted and it would never deteriorate. Many of us play SCity to build cities for aesthetic purposes and to be able to turn off and on the economic aspects would be great.

2. More building sets-It would be nice to have more variety like rural tile sets, asian or ethnic sets, fantasy, whatever floats your boat. Maxis could even set up a system like Itunes where you could buy only those sets (at a reasonbale price of course) that you wanted. I love this site and all the contributers are wonderful, but it would be nice to have an entire set of buildings (RCI, civic, parks, ect.) dedicated to, say Asian architecture, or a particular city, such as Barcelona, instead of having to collect individual buildings form a variety of sources.

3. Regional options- I would love to see the option of playing an entire region as a city or several cities. You could interconnect as many of the sub-cities as you like and residents could work, go to school/hospitals in any of those interconnected areas. A single power, water, educational, health system could be created. The current system is to limiting.

4. Zoning options: It's a small thing that has always bothered me about SCity: there are no mixed use buildings. In almost every city in the world there's a little phenomenon called the storefront that is completely missing from the game. In my building where I live, there are about 700 residents, a dry cleaner with at least 3 employees, and the building staff of at least 10 employees. In Simcity my building would only have residents. I'd have to get in my car and drive to go get my shirts done. It would be great to have mixed R and C buildings, and I would love to be able to designate bar/nightclub, restaurant, financial districts as well.

5. Small stuff: Where I live (Chicago) bus stops are usually just a sign, I HATE having to hand over real estate for a busstop. Would love it if SC5 dealt with that. Does anyone beside me hate the Tourist trap tile? A terrain generator would be great too (I have little patience or inclination for terraforming).

All in all I love SCity and this is a great site!

[LivingInThePast 364]

An interface sorta like Google Earth, but with real 3D buildings (the top view is best for laying roads, the side view is for UDI and terraforming)

[beachfrontproperty 0]

I think there will be controlable weather, like create a mass of weather and time it to when ti hits the city. ALso I would like to see the cars nto disappearing after 3 seconds, I would like to really follow them to there destination

[spa 970]

Personally, I don't care one bit if Sim City 5 stays in development for years and years. Custom content has already taken SC4 way past what any game studio could release and still make a profit (you can't compete with legions of fans dedicating their own time for nothing). I really can't imagine SC5 comparing. Maybe after it has been out for a year it'll become worth it, but even then, if they dumb it down as they're suggesting, I might still be sticking with SC4.

[Pixelrage 34]

Originally posted by: darkmoon70 I'm not sure if this has been posted yet but this site has release dates for SC5

http://www.tothegame.com/game.asp?id=3082

I dont know if there true but I hope so.quote>

looks like a date they pulled out of their arse.

[dcadn13 0]

I would settle for just a heads up from EA/Maxis on just what the minimum system reqs will be, so I can make plans as to whether I need one or two extra jobs to upgrade/replace my box.

Seriously, though, having ridden this wave since the original, one thing needs to come back. We need that creature described once on NPR as "the EPA's Mob Enforcer". Let the monster wade in and trample our cities of dreams if the pollution gets too high.

I think that the main problem will be what can be run on machines that are a year or two old when the game comes out, cause not all of us can afford a new box for every new group of games. Some of the best things about SC4 was it still runs, even on machines that are several years older than the game. Maybe not well, but it runs.

My BIG FEAR is that they will make it a pay to play online experience only. please let it be LAN and stand alone capable. Not all of us have the willingness to play online all the time. I play SC to relax, not to be competitive.

I will now pull both my feet from out of my mouth, cause I am sure many will percieve I have no right to sound off.

Regardless, I still have an old PCJR, and it has the original SC on it. so SC4 will live, at least on a few machines for those of you mourning its deat.

[Romaq 18]

"Let the monster wade in and trample our cities of dreams..." You mean Hedora (http://watchizu.gsi.go.jp/mapsearch.html)?

I was thinking of how Maxis *started* to do lakes and rivers in God mode, but didn't quite get there. Multi-level water that Flows and makes it's own falls would be a plus. I'm also thinking of 'airless transit' mods. What I have in mind would be a means to put in 'roads' for travel above 'ground' but under water, or for 'airless moon/ mars' travel. It could be 'tube' dedicated monorail. How do you build a city where you plan on the ocean level rising? Or how do we go about building moonbase cities or cities on Mars? I know 'Sim Mars' as such is quasi being worked on, as such, by ST players, but what if SC5 had transit options built-in for under water or vacuum environments? What if you had to build your shoreline village *knowing* that the shoreline is going to rise over time? Do you build cheaply to start and deal with the problem later? Or do you account for those sorts of problems now? How do you build a city on the moon? How realistic is it to build cities on Mars, and will it ever be realistically possible to create a breathable environment? And how do you plan for that?

As a tool for education and long-term city development issues, the SimCity still has a great deal of creative thought to provoke beyond what SC4 is currently capable of. What was it, SC2 that would have flood disasters? Katrina/ New Orleans had lots of things go wrong... SC5 should cover that scenario. SC5 could cover some really loaded 'city' issues... The destruction in New York on 9/11 is an example scenario. Perhaps some of it is too politically charged and emotionally loaded to put into a SimCity game, but I do kinda miss the Scenarios where something 'bad' was going to happen to a pre-done city, and you are responsible to deal with the aftermath. A war wipes out your major city infrastructure. I could spin off a bunch of scenarios, but the main idea is to see those put back in to SimCIty as they were with the prior version, as well as the ability to *build* and share your own scenarios.

[Intrepid 20]

Hi Im a newbie here, be gentle.

A few ideas I would like to see in Sim City 5.

Better camera views.

A problem with SC4 is that when you want to add things into a huge downtown area is that the buildings obsure the view of the area you want to work on, for example placing bus stops, laying roads etc. So instead there could be a customisable option to make the buildings translucent (customise how translucent you want) so you can see behind them.

In addition, the camera should be able to move more freely so that you can see the city you are developing from any angle you want.

Global and local taxations.

Right now in SC4 taxation is global and usually it is quite dificult to have certain wealth sims where you want them, so the solution is for local tax zones. It works a bit like you would when zoning normally, but what you do is you first zone normal resedential sc4 style and then zone over (or select and keep your finger on ctrl to select multiple blocks of tiles that are not adjacent) that resedential area with the local tax zoning tool. Once you have zoned where you want that local tax, a dialog appears where you can name it (useful so that you know which one is for which area in your city, perhaps a marker can be overlayed with that chosen name) and then you can enter how much tax you want to charge.  

Custom civic radius.

When you plop a hospital, fire station etc there is a circle showing the coverage radius. But sometimes you have to reduce it otherwise the coverage is wasted. I think it would be better if you had a quota of tiles that any given civic building can cover and you have a selection tool that allows you to choose exactly which tiles the building will cover. Costs would be calculated according to how many tiles you use of the quota provided by the building and of course you can edit the coverage whenever you want when you query the building.

Freehand network design tool.

Say you want to lay a road that conforms to a landform, perhaps along the edge of a coast or snaking up mountains, or perhaps you want your roads to look more organic and suited to the geography of your region. The standard network tools would be useless so instead you can use the freehand network tool. What you do is lay a piece of road (or whatever, it could be rail or a motorway) on the edges of the road there are draggable “handles” that you can drag about in any direction. As you drag the “handles” the road will adjust its shape. Perhaps you could even expand a road to make it wider or narrower depending on your needs? Something like this could open up an infinate number of possible road configurations.

A more mod friendly approach to plugins and custom content.

One of the strengths of Sim City 4 is its longevity and that is only pasible because of the fantastically talented people in the SC4 community who provide us with such good stuff to keep the game going. Therefore I think these people's lives should be made a bit easier so I would like to see a more improved menu system for SC5, with a few spare custom content menu buttons that are grouped within a “mod menu” button which can be configured in any way modders would like. For example PEG would be able to design his lots to use a “PEGPROD” button on the mod menu and you will find all his stuff there and the same for other people who do a lot of custom content.

I would also like to see an on the fly plug in configuration feature where you can install a new lot into the game, then use the games built-in plugin tester (where is loads a very small part of the game engine and simulates the lot, basically it replaces the need to create test cities) to check it works. The plugin files can designed in such a way that the game lists (from definable parameters set by modders) the dependancies that may be needed if the simulation finds a lot doesn't look right (brown boxes).

Better simulated regions and more realistic geology.

Thanks to the modding community we can now download various mods that can alter the look of the rocks, the water and the terrain. But regions never feel like they are truly living or evolving. When we create volcanoes there is no lava or hot springs about, water only ever flows horizontally and shows up at the right height of the terrain, snow originally is never seen on top of the mountains and there is no weather or seasons. I would like the whole thing to feel like it is living, when you create a Volcano for example using the terraforming tools, I want to be able to tick a box that allows lava to flow and eruptions to happen randomly (configurable, for example so that there is a 5% liklihood of one eruption per 500 sim years or something like that) hot springs to appear and the relevant vegitation for the type of terrain you have created. Or when you create high mountains, rivers and lakes can for.

I'd like to see proper weather and global climate options for the region so that you can create desert regions, or mountainous or artic conditions to spice the game up a bit.

First person UDI mode.

Bit like GTA meets sim city, basically you can walk, drive or use public transport to see what your city is like to be in from a sims point of view, solve various missions or just take photos of your favourite hotspots that you created in your city to share with others.

Other stuff.

In addition to that lot, I'd like to see a sandbox mode so that beginners can learn how to play the game. I'd also like to see a mission based scenarios that when completed can open rewards that can be used in the proper sim mode. Missions could be anything from making a certain amount of cash to managing a huge disaster. Of course modders could do their own scenarios so that their rewards can be triggered too.

I'll stop now cos my heads sore

[D.E. 0]

Okay, I just signed up simply to reply to this thread. You guys have suggested a lot of great things but I have to throw in my own two cents.

First off, I would really like to see a huge jump in Graphics. By the Time SC5 comes out, most people will be rockin' MS Vista and more than likely have a dedicated 3d graphics acceleration card. Maxis, you are very good about this, even games like Sims 2 can be scaled down to work even on the very low end of computers but I think it is time we ditched Sprites in favor for a better realized product. I'd really like to see reflective water textures, more randomized textures of the terrain and roads and other commonplace areas, and city buildings actually casting shadows onto each other.

One thing that has always bothered me also in the game is that some of the Advisers really don't do anything unless you are either doing real good or real bad. Namely the Financial and Environmental lady advisers. But really, the advisers themselves really are very one sided as they only offer suggestions when they are needed. Instead, I'd like to actively persue my environmental adviser and ask her where I can place trees or what I can do to better help her field. I'd also like more help from them such as if I want to make a more successful highway, they should actively show me in my city where it should go for the best effectiveness or where not to put it or not to put it at all if it is unnecessary. I would also like more help in the game where it begins to really start to bite you. What I mean by this of course is the fact that your city seems to be stuck sometimes and will not grow or upgrade, where can I go from here? These are all things the city advisers should help you with and them making active suggestions would really help this part of the game play out because I'm sure that many players still have not even built a sky scraper to this day. I have only made a handful myself....

One thing I missed from SC3K was Objectives and Scenarios. This was very straight forward but fun approach to the game. I really think that they should make a comeback but be more a part of the game itself. What's the goal of SC4? Well, anything, there really isn't a set goal, just a set of possibilities, but for those of us who want a set goal, why not have them instead of make them up ourselves. I can see many possible Objectives and Scenarios added into SC5. These of course could be options that you can add to your city or region. Let's say I want every city in my region to have the "Global Warming" and "Rising Water" objectives. That would be, for example keeping pollution down in every city as well as planting more trees but also ensuring that those who live on the oceanside will not have to abandon their homes due to the rising waters from the ice caps melting. Probably a scary example, but there are countless others. Let's say you have a city, and then want to attempt to sponsor the Sim Olympics! Then you have 10 years to compete against 3 foreign cities and you have to A: Keep pollution down, B: Increase funds!, C: Prepare for the traffic overload, D: Build a stadium, etc. etc. and then say you do win this objective, you then have another scenario on your hands where for 3 months you must handle the whole Olympics Event and ensure that it does not go belly up in disaster. I have countless other ideas for this kind of game play. Suppose you are given $1B by sponsors and rich people to build them a resort/mini city on an active volcano that erupts every three years. Lots of money can be spent, but this sort of thing can easily fall apart. Scenarios and Objectives should really make a comeback, in my opinion. Perhaps maybe we can even make our own like with SC3K.

But one thing I really dislike about Sim City is that it is very unimaginative. It doesn't even go into the Future. Build a city... yay! But what about, after the city is built? Build a region?! That will get boring as it will revolve around mostly the same game play. I want to see Sim City go into the future with Bigger skyscrapers, underground cities, underwater cities, Multi-layered cities, cities out at sea on platforms. This has some serious potential as you can invest in a concept, for instance, taller skyscrapers, and then once the technology becomes available, pitch it to businesses and have them sponsor them. Same can go for other future items like Flying cars, underwater cities, etc. etc. etc.

And for a final project I would like to see, (seeing as this post is getting very long) I would really appreciate an Online Region. Oh yes yes, Online gaming has been explored before-- but why not make a few blank Regions, put them online, give a player $10,000 to do what he wants to a single parcel of land in the region for about 2 years or so, and then take it away and let someone else rent it out. This sounds kind of pointless but imagine it more like a rotation of mayors. Some Mayors will look at the industrial area and think the other guy was an idiot, and instead lay down some railroad tracks and a highway, but oops! Out of money, out of time... the next mayor comes in and tears down the train station and instead surrounds the area with trees to keep the environment score higher. I mean sure, you can't really get attached to the cities this way, but it involved a very creative, and almost group effort to get things done. Hell, maybe even have online 'guilds' like other games. We can have one political party, (represented by a llama, naturally) made by a close group of 10 friends work regularly on the same parcel of land, and then compare and compete it against other guilds or factions or parties or whatever you want to call them. This seems like a huuuuuge money maker and a fun and new way to really play the game with yourself by adopting someone else's online city and cleaning it up or with friends trying to compete against other people's cities to see which group has the cleaner city!

Anyways, what do you guys think?

[salim 0]

An Hidric enery to all region

[LivingInThePast 364]

I think in SimCity 5 you could have the option to fire advisors if they suck. That would be awesome.

[outriderdriver 4]

SimCity 5 is going to bomb. To go back to the roots is like going back in time. Sure the first one is still fun to play but to make a more understandable version would let down current players of the game. We would love to have a more in depth and complicated game to play next. Maybe Wright has done something that will satisfy us but most likely will end up in the garbage for most of us and bring new players into the franchise. Sim City 4 will never die...not here. we can change this game however we want to and play until we die. Its already capable to be everything that simcity could ever be. Most of us are looking forward to the new game but im content with the current game knowing that it does not dissapoint me.

[jefferry 0]

News: SC5 to be released in Q1 2008

Just came across a Chinese SimCity forum today and saw this exciting news, it seems that nobody had post this here.

For those who can read chinese: http://www.simcity.cn/thread-22013-1-1.html

Content (Sorry for the poor translation):

(26 May, 07)

During the Battlefield 2 and C&C 3 Competition today in Taipei,

Product manager of the Taiwanese division of EA reported the releasing plans of new games

"SimCity 5" is listed to be released in the first quarter next year.

This is the first news from EA about SimCity 5, but no details about the game is released.

SPORE, a new creation from Maxis which is due to release also in the first quarter of 08 may probably be delayed.