Can't play with a broken region system

[perafilozof 143]

I started a 5 city region. Built a profitable smelting operation, built an education city. Power from solar in city B, water and sewage from city A. 

Then I started city C that was to be a simple dump city, that would be taking away trash from these cities A and B and soon city D. 

Then I started the city D which is going to be a tourist city. 

Problem: City B that has 800 power can't buy more then 200 water from city A that has 850 water. City A can't buy more then 150 power from city B. Cities C and D show the same 200 and 150 limit. Sewage is at 550 at city A and cites B,C,D all see normally 550 sewage. 

Bottom line, I can no longer play, at least not like I have been playing, because for no reason that I can see or even think off, city A is going to stay dark and city B is going to stay dry.

[perafilozof 143]

I had the same bug in a region with my friends.

 

Had a tourist city, was buying power, water and sewage from my first neighbor and it was also stuck on a number that wasn't what that city was producing. It stayed stuck for days, after a week I gave up on it.

[SockoJr53 51]

The utilities are equally divided by the number of cities in the region, even if some cities don't want any. I agree that this is a huge flaw if it was intentionally set up this way. It would be nice to have one big industrial city with a huge power output supply power to all or most of the other cities, but it currently can't be done when your other cities reach medium to larger populations.

[perafilozof 143]

Well why doesn't it work like that for sewage to?

 

And 800 power /4 is 200 not 150. If what your saying is true, then they can't even do simple math.

[Jeron 0]

I completely agree with this.

What bothers me most is that nobody complains about this.

I expected rage spams because this really is a big issue.

Since this game was supposed to be multiplayer.

 

And I'm not sure about the dividing theory because,

when me and my friend where playing I could buy electricity from him just fine.
Until he made a second city (3 cities total) and all of a sudden the maximum

electricity i could buy from his first city was only 9 MW.

He had 85 MW in excess.

 

At the very least this should've been explained in a tutorial or tooltip.

[DHarrisG 1]

Absolutely correct, region play sucks.

 

Plus you get cut off for no reason from supplies of power, water, etc. without sufficient warning.  I'll be playing a city and suddenly I'll be told that city x is no longer supplying water to me, even though I know (as the only player in the region) that they have plenty.  If they gave me enough warning I could build power, water, etc. without any major interruption.  But inevitably, I learn about it so late that, even if I immediately build a power plant or water supply in the city, there is still a blackout or drought for a significant time before the new utilities buildings come on line.  And of course the first buildings to go down for lack of power or water are the most important, such as the production facilities for my specialization.  As mayor, if I could, I would be able to declare that these buildings should continue to get the utilities, and shut down less important buildings.  But of course I am not given that discretion.

 

I'd bring a lawsuit against the city that cut off the power and water if there was a court system in the region.

[MayorQuimbie 13]

Im starting to think the whole idea of region play & talk of global markets was just a massive EA ploy.....

providing a reason for online play... 

 

Nothing about region play or multiplayer works as intended.... 

[perafilozof 143]

Sure it sound like a good idea, but we can't play ideas. We need working gameplay.

[TheCrazyHeadGamer 3]

The big problem i have with region playing right now is the amount of commuters between cities. it's killing me !

 

for example :

 

i have one big educational city with all of the educations buildings, from the region view, I see that 2076 students are traveling from my other city. In the university, i see some students from the region. 

From the second city, i can't see the students traveling, none of them are commuting, which make my Education stand still... 

I have Buses and boat shared between the 2 cities. 

here's the vue from EducationCity : 
http://imageshack.us/a/img607/672/spark20130319190128.png 

and here's the vue from TechCity : 
http://imageshack.us/a/img163/4929/spark20130319190634.png

 

My techCity can't have any high tech industries because of this ! i really hope that's a bug

[DHarrisG 1]

Yes, students from other cities won't come to my university either, despite the fact that I have every possible transportation connection and they desperately want to go to a university.

[Xr3iracer 5]

Yeah its a shame, i jus try and make all my cities self sufficient!

[DHarrisG 1]

Theoretically, you can run all the cities in a region yourself and duplicate what others would do as different mayors.  One person can run a region alone.  The problem is with region play and its current defects.

[perafilozof 143]

Well I have kinda finished by 5 city region. The fifth is simply a playing ground for testing traffic and lots of residential with no C or I in it.

Built a solar power plant great work.

 

City A:

2xOre mines,Coal mine, 2x Smelters all producing alloy. 2 fully upgraded sewage treatment plants, one water plant. Imports sewage from all cities except city C. Exports water to all cities except city C.

 

City B:

3 Processor plants, 2 TV and Computer plants, 2 Universities. Imports water, from cities A and C, exports sewage to cities A and C.

 

City C:

2xCoal mines, Imports garbage and sewage from every city, exports water.

 

City D: Gambling city but not profitable, imports water from cities A and C, exports sewage to them. 

 

City E: Test subject for an R only city with parks, no I or C, also testing traffic and roads.

[Redbacks 0]

Is there any updates on utility sharing in regions? I cannot play the game with the  equal share beween each city formula. I dont want to build a power and/or water plants in every city. Cheers

[perafilozof 143]

Is there any updates on utility sharing in regions? I cannot play the game with the  equal share beween each city formula. I dont want to build a power and/or water plants in every city. Cheers

 

Nah. There hasn't been a pip from Maxis about this. It will most likely stay like this. If you want to keep your need for power, water, sewage down don't build many high density buildings or to many specialized buildings like oil refineries or smelters.

 

And the utilities are the only ones hit by region problem. Check out what happens to university education and recycling: