10 things that need to be fixed in this game because it's dumb.

[NaughtyWord 3]

I'm not even going into server or technical issues but more gameplay issues that aren't bugs insofar as I can tell.

 

1. More than one road entry into a city must be created.

 

The bottleneck at the entry of a city is unmitagateable as are the subsequent traffic problems it causes.  It is also completely unrealistic that a major city only has 1 off ramp on any given interstate.    This is particularly true for tiles that lack a rail and/or ship connection.  This is frustrating to no end that the entry point of my city is in constant gridlock and it's annoyed me so much that i've bulldozed the road temporarily so I didn't have to look at it for at least a few seconds. 

 

2. Police and Fire trucks.

 

Fire trucks should prioritize things or allow me to deploy them to a specific fire.  I'm tired of seeing highrises burn to the ground because my fire trucks are busy putting out a fire at Joe Schmuck's house.   I've absolutely had it with every police officer in my city patrolling 2 or 3 pockets in quiet neighborhoods where the majority of crime happens in industrial and commercial lots.  The prioritizing on police is also screwed up.

 

3. Utilities

 

Like in SimCity 4, you should have a grace period where you aren't required to build basic services like sewage, water, etc.  With that note, Oil and Gas powerplants are overvalued and wind and solar are undervalued.  Wind is a great option early game but the power it generates on most tiles leaves much more to be desired.

 

4. Taxes

 

I want to be able to tax specific wealths of industry.  It drives me crazy I can't give a tax incentive for high-tech while punishing dirty industry or vise-versa.

 

5. Construction

 

Sometimes buildings won't build and it isn't abundantly clear as to why they aren't building(like a fire next door).  If a building is under construction but construction has halted for some reason, clicking the building should tell you what the issue is.

 

6. Trash

 

On large cities this is a nightmare.  I'm processing trash faster than I can collect it.  With a city of 300k I can't possibly collect trash fast enough without having 3-4 landfills and 2-3 recycling centers JUST FOR THE TRUCKS TO KEEP UP WITH THE COLLECTION RATE.  This is ludecris, either the amount of trucks a dump/recycling center can create should be increased or a the rate in which a building generates trash should be reduced.

 

7. Specialist Cities

 

There are a ton of specializations that I think should be added but I don't want to comment on that just yet but some specializations are far more profitable (and thus feasible) than others.  The guides for most of these are screwed.

 

8. Services through roads.

 

WHile some make sense (sewage, power, water) others I absolutely hated about CitiesXL. Schools, Police, and Fire should go back to a "radius" found in SC4 and off this road range nonsense.

 

9.  Water

 

This is rediculous beyond measure and those with multiple large cities will also likely agree.  Managing water is impossible without some sort of gimmick.  With multiple cities over 300k I have to stop playing because the water table has been sucked dry.  It's like the heat death of the unvierse, except in simcity, that death comes in the form of a lack of water.

 

10. Information

 

Overall, the amount of information about what your sims want, is pretty poor.  When I have sims spending 3 hours (real-life time) protesting 'high' rent in spite of massive residential expansion doesn't help me much. Clicking on the town hall should reveal, at a minimum, the top 5 issues my sims are having with me.  Unemployment should be much clearer than it is as well.

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

You missed the biggest issue of all...ridicuous town like size tiles...this alone is a major issue, and the lack of region control. Ignoring the online issues for a second they made so many bad decisions here, they wasted time and resources so we could talk to each sim....not what this game is about, and they sacrificed the city building for it, very sad. It's sim villiage, they took away a lot of the options and player control we used to have.

[hellmunkey 30]

I havent bought/played the retail version, but I remember in the beta you could adjust taxes.  You had to put addons on your city hall or upgrade it.  I cant really comment on anytihng else.

[NaughtyWord 3]

I havent bought/played the retail version, but I remember in the beta you could adjust taxes.  You had to put addons on your city hall or upgrade it.  I cant really comment on anytihng else.

 

 

You can to some extent with the Department of Reveneu but no where near the depth you could in SC4.

[NaughtyWord 3]

Add terraforming to this list.

 

 

 

I can't connect this ferry to the road because it digs into the earth and a connecting road cannot be connected.

 

It's simple $%&^! like this that makes me want to shoot puppies in the face.

 

-NW

[PR_GMR 2]

All good points. Off the bat, I say the game needs two things: Terraforming and larger tile sizes. I'm having difficulty fine-tuning roads due to terraforming issues, as NaughtyWord pointed.

[mastorofpuppetz 199]

Add terraforming to this list.

 

 

 

I can't connect this ferry to the road because it digs into the earth and a connecting road cannot be connected.

 

It's simple $%&^! like this that makes me want to shoot puppies in the face.

 

-NW

Spot on, server issues aside, there are a lot of things wrong with the game design, this being one. Tiles sizes need to be at least doubled, 1-2 hours they are full right now.

[Jamonbread 222]

Don't agree with this list because I think way more important things like city size, spaces in regions and terraforming are more important. Oh and road networks... more then two (pretty much) would be nice. 

 

However your point on taxes can be worked around by adding a finance office in one of your cities. I think this was the only thing that pleasantly surprised me in the game... the way you can adhance government functions with modules opens up a great and interesting city specialization that technically maxis forgot which is the capitol city. So I would say that the point of unlocking government functions and the possibility of making a functional and meaningful capitol city is a cool thing about it.

[Ardandy 28]

You can add loads of trucks to a garbage dump. And recycling.

It's region play remember. Cities cannot be big and look after everything, farm stuff out to other cities.

[mrbisonm 1,622]

Oh my!!!! I see a BIG Patch coming up from Maxis......lol. I wonder, do they test the game before putting it on the market? I mean, really test it??

 

mrb

[pkderek 51]

1. You are able to adjust taxes, you need the Commerce addon to the City Hall (or I think just anyone in the region) in order to do it. The City Hall upgrades I think are stupid I mean what is the point of even making one if someone already upgraded everything? But you are able to do it.

 

2. GOD NO DO NOT GO BACK TO RADIUS. The roads are much more manageable and realistic it's just not that well hatched out. The problem with it is the AI is not very smart at all.

I mean let's be honest here, who actually liked the radius? I thought all of us used the expandable radius mods anyway because, you know, one police station IS capable of patrolling a whole city. Unless you get towards the 500ks - millions and beyond.

 

3. Fire Trucks. Do not remind me of this horrendous garbage. They come to a stop ON THE ROAD and block traffic so you are guaranteed a gridlock (apparently nobody can pass him). What's worse is when there's a firetruck STUCK IN THE TRAFFIC TOO TRYING TO GO TO THE HOUSE BURNING RIGHT FW*(#(ING NEXT DOOR. THIS IS THE MOST RAGE INDUCING THING I'VE EVER HAD IN SIM CITY.

 

The rest I can wholeheartedly agree with.

[GoldenShadowGS 0]

Put the water pumps next to the sewage treatment plants.

The treated sewage replenishes the water table around it.

 

Also works with untreated sewage outlets, but creates polution.

[PushIt23 1]

Definitely agree with some of ayour points.

 

1. Traffic bottleneck is absolutely atrocious. PICS attached to further illustrate your points. Pics of traffic jam coming INTO my city.

 

 

2. Definitely don't want to go back to Radius for School, police, fire, etc... The AI just needs to be smarter. I can literally watch some of my school buses/other service vehicles just drive around in circles like a bunch of idiots. The only downside to this new system I can see (aside from crappy AI), is that eventually when your city becomes big enough and your traffic turns to crap (and it will), it hampers the effectiveness of your services (I.E.  Police stuck in a traffic jam and unable to get to the crime scene)

[pkderek 51]

That's an entirely realistic scenario though, traffic hinders the effectiveness of public service just like in real life. However, the AI is just too damn stupid so it makes the effects on your public service far more profound than they should be. I mean, if you have someone dying in your ambulance, and it is deemed safe to do so, I've seen many emergency vehicles, not just ambulances, drive on the other side of the road and through stoplights, etc. to get to where they need to go.

 

In this, a police officer rushing to a murder in progress stops at every damn stop sign... With no traffic in sight...

[shorty2 94]

Oh my!!!! I see a BIG Patch coming up from Maxis......lol. I wonder, do they test the game before putting it on the market? I mean, really test it??

 

mrb

 

I've made this point in another thread, because I get the feeling they don't half the time. There's been numerous games with such appauling errors in them that you can not help think that either they didn't test it, or the people who tested it just didn't care/or were told not to care if they found a problem.

[velve 16]

Oddly enough im sure we remember the case where The EULA stated that if any bugs werent reported during beta testing by a player,that they will be banned from further purchasing EA products.

 

So whats the deal? why do I read about so many bugs 

[Ocram's Razr 964]

1. More than one road entry into a city must be created.

I agree. "Highway congestion" as the warning/advisor popup says is annoying and can easily be fixed by adding more connections.

 

2. Police and Fire trucks.

You should probably get more fire stations in more areas because fires will only be put out if you have fire trucks near to the fires. I also agree that the AI needs to be improved and that sirens that make commuters and shoppers (private cars) pull over shoul be implemented. I hope this happens before a U-Drive-It mode is ever released.

3. Utilities

There is no natural gas power plant in SimCity, coal and crude petroleum are the only fossil fuel power plants. Wind energy in reality is unreliable. Having Wind energy being a low producer but having low initial costs is realistic and fun. Requiring solar power plants to run off battery power at night is realistic and fun. There is a grace period with electricity in SimCity 2013. People will not move out without electricity until sundown. Water and sewage are less needed than electricty but you won't get highrises without them (and highrises in SC4 required water while nothing would build without electricity).

4. Taxes

The module for City Hall, the Department of Finances, allows you to micromanage taxes.

 

5. Construction

I agree that buildings not building is annoying.

 

6. Trash

I agree, there should be an increase in the maximum amount of garbage and recycling trucks allowed to be placed per building.

 

7. Specialist Cities

I agree there should be more city specializations. There should also be more resources, such as paper, food, and office services.

 

 

8. Services through roads.

Radii for services only make sense for parks and helicopters. SimCity is realistic in this respect, marginally moreso than Cities XL, I must admit.

 

9.  Water

I agree that the water feature needs to be improved. Ocean Quigley himself admitted that there is a bug with water pumps next to rivers not providing unlimited water.

 

10. Information

I believe that high rent means that living is not affordable in SimCity. Try to lower taxes on the less wealthy and provide them with better jobs in order to make them satisfied and to prevent them from going homeless.

Hopefully I helped you.

--Ocram

[VikingPea 0]

Of course you can load up the dump and recycling center with trucks. I end up maxing them and yet they can't keep up with demand at all. OH and I would love to farm out work. I'll get on that when maxis lets me see the other cities around me that my friends are all creating. -_-

[TURDxSANDWICH 6]

Most of your issues seem to be simply playing the game.  The game is set up to present you with challenges to overcome.  Its not purely a city builder.  Its a game.  Solving the problems is what playing the game is...

 

 

 

 

1. More than one road entry into a city must be created.

 

Build a bus depot and/or train station.  This relieves congestion coming into the city. 

 

 

2. Police and Fire trucks.

 

Plop more police stations and fire trucks.

 

 

3. Utilities

 

There is a tiny, tiny grace period.  I can usually get 100 people or so and an industry building or two before i get yelled at for no power.

 

 

4. Taxes

 

I know the department of finance upgrade allows to tax residential by wealth.  Not sure about industry.  If it doesn't let you, then I agree with this point. It should be in the game.

 

 

5. Construction

 

Mostly, this is the same issue as point 10.  And i agree, information is not reliable.  But, also when it relates to construction, you need to upgrade your streets to have the zone continue to build upwards.

 

 

6. Trash

 

This is where region play comes in.  You can't expect to have 300k+ citizens in one city along with everything else you need.  Get another city, and devote a large chunk of real estate to garbage dumps.   Also, put a sewage treatment plant, and water filtration pump in this city.  You can handle garbage, sewage, and water for 3 or 4 cities by selling/sharing these resources.

 

 

7. Specialist Cities

 

I's also like to see more.  (but thats what expansion packs are for) I also don't understand why trading is its own specialization when drilling, mining, and technology basically require it.

 

 

8. Services through roads.

 

No use in complaining about this.  Its how the game is built from the ground up.  The game engine relies on streets as the life blood for your city.  If this is a major issue, then this might not be the game for you.

 

 

9.  Water

 

Not sure what gimmick you refer to?  Place water pumps near renewable water sources or a sewage treatment plant.

 

 

10. Information

 

Agreed.