Dev. Tester Here....

[bokrif 18]

Well apart from the major issues:

1. Bring back the earlier zoning tool (it was showed in one of the developer's videos). I don't like that I can't see how deep is the actual zoning.

2. The parks' grass is so much different in color than the base grass color. I know it is party intentional, but it's awkwardly green.

3. I can't recall but were there an age map mode? I guess age is important regarding the health services.

4. In my beta there were no basic tree tool.

5. I think there is a need for an advanced tab in the graphics settings menu. For example if I set the lighting to high, the game uses that blurring stuff which I find annoying. It is important to have switches and sliders for different settings.

[Haljackey 17,325]

1.  Yes changes to the zoning tool are being worked on. I can't comment on what currently exists in the Dev. Beta however.

 

2.  It really depends on the park. Only a few parks were included in the closed beta from what I recall.

 

3. Population age graph? I think that's been replaced with a 'germs' map to indicate health.

 

4. No, there wasn't.

 

5. I've asked for more graphics option as well. One thing I see the game is lacking in addition to your comments is a windowed fullscreen mode.

[mapboy 106]

1.  Yes changes to the zoning tool are being worked on. I can't comment on what currently exists in the Dev. Beta however.

 

2.  It really depends on the park. Only a few parks were included in the closed beta from what I recall.

 

3. Population age graph? I think that's been replaced with a 'germs' map to indicate health.

 

4. No, there wasn't.

 

5. I've asked for more graphics option as well. One thing I see the game is lacking in addition to your comments is a windowed fullscreen mode.

Regards 4, I thought there was a tree tool in the parks menu.

And regards 5, there was a windowed mode in the options...

(This is based off the beta a few weeks ago)

[Haljackey 17,325]

There is a difference between windowed mode and windowed fullscreen mode.

 

More info: http://en.sfml-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=9839.0

 

It's insanely useful for people who have dual monitors (or more), as you can use one (full) screen for the game and the other for another application. Windowed mode doesn't give you a whole monitor's resolution, and in fullscreen mode you have to minimize (alt-tab/windows button) the game to do something else. This feature is found in many modern PC games like Starcraft II.

[wokisan 9]

1.  Yes changes to the zoning tool are being worked on. I can't comment on what currently exists in the Dev. Beta however.

 

2.  It really depends on the park. Only a few parks were included in the closed beta from what I recall.

 

3. Population age graph? I think that's been replaced with a 'germs' map to indicate health.

 

4. No, there wasn't.

 

5. I've asked for more graphics option as well. One thing I see the game is lacking in addition to your comments is a windowed fullscreen mode.

Regards 4, I thought there was a tree tool in the parks menu.

And regards 5, there was a windowed mode in the options...

(This is based off the beta a few weeks ago)

Yeah, it was the last option in the 'Nature Parks' menu. You could plop trees pretty much anywhere.

[Haljackey 17,325]

Yeah, it was the last option in the 'Nature Parks' menu. You could plop trees pretty much anywhere.

 

That's just it... You have to plop trees. Perhaps I have my terminology mixed up. I'm thinking more on the lines of the tree tool in SC4. In God Mode you can create huge clusters of forests and in mayor mode you can add single trees wherever you wanted. You don't need to plop them like a park.

[mapboy 106]

Yeah, it was the last option in the 'Nature Parks' menu. You could plop trees pretty much anywhere.

 

That's just it... You have to plop trees. Perhaps I have my terminology mixed up. I'm thinking more on the lines of the tree tool in SC4. In God Mode you can create huge clusters of forests and in mayor mode you can add single trees wherever you wanted. You don't need to plop them like a park.

But it wasn't plopping like a park, it was similar to the god mode tree tool in SC4, just at a smaller scale (as if you had it on Ctrl-1 setting). It wasn't anything like plopping a park.

[Haljackey 17,325]

All right guys,

 

As you're playing the last closed beta today take a few moments to consider what last min improvements you want to see. This is pretty much the last possible moment that any fixes can get done in time for release.

 

Also, use any knowledge you've gained to contribute to the wiki! http://wiki.simtropolis.com/

[Goatboy 0]

I realise it's not a bug fix I'm asking for but can I suggest some minor improvements?

 

1. It's WAY too easy to make money, please, please, please bring back demolition costs. It really makes you think early on about building and road placement and will help keep the current state of city funding in check.

 

2. Maybe add a farmers market option to cities, then farms should organically grow around city tiles filling in the gaps in the regions.

 

I realise these are additions, but they'd go a long way to solving a lot of problems

[whizard 45]

One thing I thought was ridiculous was how cheap the hourly cost of some great works were. I think the arcology cost like $350/hr. Really? Adding a shuttle bus cost me $100/hr. Within about 45 minutes of playing the game, and with a population of 19,000+, I was making over $15,000/hr. An arcology is supposed to be a regional effort but the city I built in the beta could support over 45 of them.

[Buggi 684]

The questions I'd have would be ones you couldn't answer.

 

Like what does the Glassbox scripting language look like?

What is their process of generating intersection textures and traffic logic?

What algorithms do they use to generate lots and how do they structure buildings for lots?

Are there articulated vehicles and do they look realistic when turning?

How are sims educated? Sure they go to school, but how is the school choosen, does it have a base effect over time or is the sim magically smarter after each day?

 

It's funny you mention the limitations with Glassbox, especially the fact that cars don't yield from emergency vehicles. Glassbox was supposed to free the simulation but it seems it can shatter when faced with a process all drivers are familar with.

[Haljackey 17,325]

I realise it's not a bug fix I'm asking for but can I suggest some minor improvements?

 

1. It's WAY too easy to make money, please, please, please bring back demolition costs. It really makes you think early on about building and road placement and will help keep the current state of city funding in check.

 

I will agree that early on it is easy to make money. However, once your city grows you will have more and better city services that will eat through your cash. Their hourly operation costs will significantly hurt your bank account as well. If you want a big city able to attract rich, educated sims you will need careful money management.

 

 

The questions I'd have would be ones you couldn't answer.

 

Are there articulated vehicles and do they look realistic when turning?

How are sims educated? Sure they go to school, but how is the school choosen, does it have a base effect over time or is the sim magically smarter after each day?

 

Sorry but I can't answer a lot of these because I either do not know or am not able to based on the EULA. I haven't seen any articulated vehicles. Sims are educated based on the influence zone of schools, which can be expanded with the use of school bus stops. The level of education is based on what facilities you have operating in your city/region. Some require a department of education.

 

Education facilities include:

-Elementary school

-High school

-Library

-College

-University

--School of law, health, business, engineering.

 

I wrote a little more about education in this game on the wiki: http://wiki.simtropolis.com/Education_%28SimCity_2013%29

 

Anyways sorry I can't answer some questions or be more descriptive but hope this helped!

[nhgriffith 179]

Are there no one-way roads? An avenue holds more traffic than a streets of the same density, right? But as I start upgrading my streets, if I want to convert to avenues, it's a lot of demolition and respacing and it can become a major headache. This could be fixed simply by allowing me to upgrade my streets to one-way streets as one of the final street upgrades.

I'd really, really like to see one-way streets.

[donpost 17]

Have they made the tile siz......just kidding

 

My question is, has there been any improvement to the vehicle pathfinding? What I mean by this is that we were told that cars would take routes to avoid traffic, but in beta 1 this didnt appear to happen so you got one long traffic jam on one road, with the surrounding alternative routes empty.

[McGilligan 8]

Upgrading roads section by section is tedious and I've noticed that most of the time I end up missing one tiny 20 yard road because of all the surrounding clutter. Are they thinking of "painting" road upgrades? Or even better highlight an area and let all the roads to get upgraded to the desired level.

[Haljackey 17,325]

Are there no one-way roads? An avenue holds more traffic than a streets of the same density, right? But as I start upgrading my streets, if I want to convert to avenues, it's a lot of demolition and respacing and it can become a major headache. This could be fixed simply by allowing me to upgrade my streets to one-way streets as one of the final street upgrades.

I'd really, really like to see one-way streets.

 

There are two road types:

Streets: Dirt road, low density street, med density street, high density street

Avenues: med density avenue, high density avenue, high density streetcar avenue.

 

I made an entry on the wiki for transportation in SimCity (2013). It expands what I said here a bit: http://wiki.simtropolis.com/Transportation_%28SimCity_2013%29

 

 

Have they made the tile siz......just kidding

 

My question is, has there been any improvement to the vehicle pathfinding? What I mean by this is that we were told that cars would take routes to avoid traffic, but in beta 1 this didnt appear to happen so you got one long traffic jam on one road, with the surrounding alternative routes empty.

 

According to updates from Maxis staff members such as Ocean Quigley, improvements to path-finding are being looked at. I too would prefer sims take the most efficient route rather than the most direct route... Something that has made me pull my hair out multiple times in SC4.

 

Upgrading roads section by section is tedious and I've noticed that most of the time I end up missing one tiny 20 yard road because of all the surrounding clutter. Are they thinking of "painting" road upgrades? Or even better highlight an area and let all the roads to get upgraded to the desired level.

 

I've already suggested this to them. It can be quite a tedious task, especially in tight areas.

-Optimally, I would like to see a road network upgraded when you drag a higher capacity network over it, similar to upgrading a street to a road in SC4. Want to upgrade a med. density avenue to a high density avenue? Drag a high density avenue over it.

[Buggi 684]

Whoever was in charge of pathfinding should be let go. I like that their comment when some part of the game is so off is that they're 'looking at it'

 

Really? Pathfinding didn't seem important enough to look at in depth say... a year ago?

Tester: "Hmm... it seems the traffic isn't being evenly distributed on my roads."

Ocean: *rubs mustache* "Hmm... maybe after we get image filters in we can work on it"

One year later:

Customer: "um... pathfinding is fubar"

Ocean: *rubs mustache* "But, check out those image filters! Snazzy!"

[ivore 0]

I played last beta and I notice that in the beginning when you use most of your cash you can not go to negative. Is it possible that you can go little negative.

[CUatTHEFINISH 3]

There is a difference between windowed mode and windowed fullscreen mode.

 

More info: http://en.sfml-dev.org/forums/index.php?topic=9839.0

 

It's insanely useful for people who have dual monitors (or more), as you can use one (full) screen for the game and the other for another application. Windowed mode doesn't give you a whole monitor's resolution, and in fullscreen mode you have to minimize (alt-tab/windows button) the game to do something else. This feature is found in many modern PC games like Starcraft II.

 

I mentioned this in the answers forum on EA, but here's some things I noticed graphics wise as well

 

1) Custom Resolutions

 

I am unable to choose the custom resolutions I have setup in the nvidia control panel. Other games (ex. BF3, CS:GO, etc.) and Windows 8 display and can change to my custom resolutions without issue. I'm not sure if this is driver related or game related.

 

My monitor is 1680x1050 and I have custom resolutions for 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 which I cannot choose in game.

 

I use it as a trick to downsample for better quality. Unfortunatly, the highest I can choose in SimCity is 1680x1050.

 

Also in that same vein. If this is implemented or fixed, is it possible to scale the UI independent of the resolution? Some games are nice in the sense that the UI won't be half the size because of the downsample. Other games have UI sliders to change the scale.

 

2) Editable config file for advanced graphic settings

 

I like to tweak graphics settings to get the best quality image possible while keeping a playable framerate. I know I'm not alone in that school of thought and the current in-game settings leave a lot to be desired.

 

Would it be possible for the game to generate a custom config file that a power user could edit and manually change settings to his/her needs? Force higher AA, Enable/Disable FXAA, Change UI scale, etc.

 

I know some of this can be accomplished by making custom graphics card profiles outside of the game, but yeah. A suggestion.

 

------

 

I mainly ask of these two things because the AA "option" in it's current state drives me crazy. So many jaggies that I want to smooth out. It's almost like it's running FXAA only, a low AA level, or something.

[memedoug85 36]

It's turning out to be a game you can "clock" 

That's what the youngsters want these days isnt it?

[nhgriffith 179]

I played last beta and I notice that in the beginning when you use most of your cash you can not go to negative. Is it possible that you can go little negative.

I actually like that you can't go negative. You can always take out a loan, in which case you technically are negative, but going negative just doesn't make sense. The federal government can do it, because they can just print money and cause ridiculous inflation, but no city government could ever get away with bouncing checks. If the city balance is $0.00, but the city owes the police and firemen their next paycheck, those city employees aren't going to keep working while the city runs deeply in the red (talking about debt here, not deficit). They're going to stop working.

[memedoug85 36]

If you know how Casino's work with tourists etc you'll get into the positive with not much effort at all

[nhgriffith 179]

If you know how Casino's work with tourists etc you'll get into the positive with not much effort at all

You can easily turn a massive profit without the casinos. Casinos can also turn a profit into a deficit very quickly if you don't know what you're doing... but that's not really the point to my post or the post I quoted.

The player wanted to spend all of his money and be allowed to continue funding things (no new spending I'd guess) while in the negative. And that's just not realistic.

[Haljackey 17,325]

I played last beta and I notice that in the beginning when you use most of your cash you can not go to negative. Is it possible that you can go little negative.

 

No, your budget cannot go into the negative. If you're running a deficit and your balance is say $500 and you're losing $1,000 an hour your budget will be $0 at the start of the next hour. The game will then pause and a popup will come telling you that you must solve your budget issues or abandon your city. You are given options to turn off buildings, raise taxes, pass a bond measure, etc.

 

Your approval rating will also fall every time you bankrupt your city. You will not get instantly kicked out of office like you do in SC4 (when you reach a -100k balance).

 

 

 

I mainly ask of these two things because the AA "option" in it's current state drives me crazy. So many jaggies that I want to smooth out. It's almost like it's running FXAA only, a low AA level, or something.

 

 

Ya the AA seems to have some issues, especially with the camerawork. I have no information to share but I hope its fixed for the release build.

 

It's turning out to be a game you can "clock" 

That's what the youngsters want these days isnt it?

 

What do you mean? Clock settings or content?

[nhgriffith 179]

Can you get kicked out of office if your approval rating is too low for too long? What is the consequence of a bad approval rating?

[JaceTwice 115]

About the new way zoning is handled, will the little bar that shows how far a zone goes change it's distance depending of what density of zone has the ability to grow there?

[Haljackey 17,325]

Can you get kicked out of office if your approval rating is too low for too long? What is the consequence of a bad approval rating?

 

This I do not know because it hasn't been answered anywhere to my knowledge. I would assume approval rating has to do with some things like happiness and demand, but it could possibly lead to you being booted out of office.

 

The blur is horrible - you dont actually get blur like that in real life unless taking a photo of something really small like a model. I think that its not there for a cosmetic effect though - if it wasnt blurred like that in the background you would be able to see just how small each 'city' is. With the blur you cant see the details of the background.

 

So my minor suggestion is - change the name to Sim Town

 

You have the ability to change visual effects in the setting menu. The level of tilt-shift can also be turned down.

 

They've decided on the name SimCity for this game for over a year. Changing it now isn't really a minor issue.

[Haljackey 17,325]

 

Come on guys, let's stay on topic here. There are plenty of other threads to rant in.

[CaptCity 4,789]

^^For sure. It is not necessary for the same posters to post the same comments in every thread. That is how they veer off in unintended directions - nice sign, Hal.

 

Off topic and distracting content removed. Let keep this one going in its intended direction.

[Emperor Satonine 0]

Well, may as well give this a go. In beta 2 i did a city in Norwich Hills, where there is a single rise up to the overlooking plateau. I had a heck of a time getting an avenue up that slope without graphical bugs showing the terrain spilling from under the roadway on the wider zoom. When I looked in close, the spilled terrain disappeared. I was amused, because it looked like pictures of Seaside Heights after hurricane Sandy.

 

I wish I had taken screenshots of this, but I eventually found a sweet spot after repeatedly repaving the avenue to avoid the sides of the hill. So, sure, there's a workaround, but this was certainly annoying. Even some basic tools would fix this, but that's not going to happen, we know that. At the core though, I think there's something with the zoom and how terrain is rendered causing the graphical glitch. Has anyone seen this? I've seen no mention of it here or on the official forums. I had this happen to a lesser degree in Clearwater, near the shoreline, but Norwich Hills has much more drastic height levels that make this a repeatable, testable bug, at least on my machine. I do have an older graphics card, an 8800 GTS, but that's well within the required specs.