What is your mission when playing?

[dkempel 3]

Hello Sim City 4 gamers,

 

I have been wondering, how people play this game since it does not have just one objective? So, what are you aiming to achieve when playing SC4? Aesthetics, functionality, quantity, resemblance? Do you have any rules you follow? No cheats, realistic mass transit, etc?

 

I am both just curious to know and also hoping to get some great inspiration.

 

To start off, currently I am playing with the aim of building dense cities with mass transit (transit oriented development). It is fun to try to nudge the sims out of their cars and onto the trams; I hope to achieve massive density by having high mass transit capacity.

I play the economic aspect too so the cities must be financially viable - which is not that difficult on 'easy' setting but I intend to increase the difficulty as I improve.

I use adjacent tiles as pollution sinks for my main city. Though I don't really like this simulation wise, it seems necessary if I aim to achieve high density.

 

 

What is your mission when playing SC4?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

With an open-ended game such as this, goals will change over the years.  I currently like to build rural regions, often with several settlements on a tile (the single budget makes this a little hairy). 

 

Because I am thinking of the actual small size of even a large tile, I find I don't need all of the toys in the NAM, so I omit RHW and GLR.  I also omit RRW for now, while its development settles down and probably will do so until, say, NAM 34.  I do use the reskinning option to blacktop my highways (not Project Symphony).

 

I have real hopes for RRW because I use rail heavily in my current style.  When it matures, I will most certainly test it.

[dkempel 3]

I use NAM. I considered CAM and Industrial Rev. but so far decided to go without them.

 

GLR is indispensable, especially the tram in street with a one tile tram stop, when building mass transit oriented cities.

 

 

With an open-ended game such as this, goals will change over the years.  I currently like to build rural regions, often with several settlements on a tile

 

Interesting  Why do you like to build rural regions? What do you aim for then, or put otherwise what makes this fun to you?

 

 

My settlements tend to look rather mechanical, so designing some beautiful suburbs and rural areas is on my to-do list.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

<snip>

 

With an open-ended game such as this, goals will change over the years.  I currently like to build rural regions, often with several settlements on a tile

 

Interesting  Why do you like to build rural regions? What do you aim for then, or put otherwise what makes this fun to you?

 

 

My settlements tend to look rather mechanical, so designing some beautiful suburbs and rural areas is on my to-do list.

I tend to model areas like the one I live in.  Close to the boreal forest, but in farming country of southwestern Ontario.  Hensall is a little rail hub in the middle of vast farming country with Goderich, the only port on Lake Huron in Canada, just a few Km. away by road or rail.  Hensall ships a majority of the white beans grown in Canada along with other farm produce, Goderich ships internationally both grain and salt.  There is a large salt mine under Lake Huron at Goderich.

 

Sometimes I create a region of pure fantasy, but not very often.  I currently have 11 active regions to choose from when I decide to play for a few hours.  I like variety.

[Prophet42 1,503]

My goal is to build as realistic region as possible.  I start out with small towns surrounded by large tracts of farmland.  As I grow each town, they eat up the farmland and eventually merge into a metropolitan area.  I also leave some farmland at the edges of the region to create a 'transition' from city to country.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I go for a mix of realism and aesthetics. Aesthetics as in "attention to detail, but always realistic". I treat the entire region as one, trying to obscure city borders in region view. I place much emphasis on a fluent progression from countryside via suburbs and city neighbourhoods to the CBD(s). I try to leave room for nature.

 

On the economic side, I don't use money cheats or any other cheat lots or ordinances, no demand boosters and no pollution reducers. No civics with ridiculous stats, either. I don't plop RCI buildings.

 

Personally, I don't like the utopian settings some players prefer - they lack in character for my taste, and often seem sterile and hollow, like some kind of candy that always looks the same, is super colourful and full of sugar, but lacks actual substance.

 

I don't like "pin cushion" downtowns (a.k.a. skyscraper forests), either.

 

In terms of transportation, I try to adhere to some basic rules: No 90-degree turns for high-speed networks, no steep slopes (such as the NAM viaduct on/offramps) for railroad, no level crossings between main railway lines and roads/streets, or main roads and any kind of railway line. No ridiculous setups only to force Sims to a certain means of transport.

 

While I plan out the basic concept of a city tile - and of the entire region! - beforehand, I also like the challenge of reconstructing areas I don't like after all. I like to imagine it was a real-world reconstruction and try to find a compromise between accommodating new stuff and leaving as many important existing structures in place as possible.

 

I don't go for perfection or best figures. I like some grime, too. An overcrowded station or a polluted industrial area don't bother me that much.

 

On a micro-management level, I sometimes obsess over illogical lot layouts, with parking lots in the back of buildings that would be impossible to reach, or driveways that connect to nothing.

 

Most of all, I'm a hopeless control freak in terms of plugins who keeps telling himself "once I have modded all this stuff, I'll go back to playing again" - only to find more stuff I'm not satisfied with.

[Sabretooth78 808]

I'm with TWrecks, with one exception:  I will use a money cheat to fill out an agricultural-themed large tile.  It's basically impossible to do with the starting §100,000.

[Prophet42 1,503]

I'm with TWrecks, with one exception:  I will use a money cheat to fill out an agricultural-themed large tile.  It's basically impossible to do with the starting §100,000.

That's interesting, because I find the opposite is true.  I always start with 100,000 and with large tracks of agriculture.  I'm usually making a profit after about 2 sim years and maybe have spent half my cash.  Now granted, I usually have neighbor deals for power, water and garbage.  And I do have SPAM installed. I usually do have a small town of about 250 - 500 sims.  Maybe that is the difference, the small town in the center of my farmland does help generate a small amount of income.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

On a start up, I begin with low density commercial and 2 x 1 residential with water as well as power.  Adding farms (SPAM) is usually the profit line.

[BaconElemental 8]

I'm more of a "wing it" guy when I play. I don't really draw up plans and just build my city according to what I think is neat for an area. I also pretty much load all my plugins for my main "relaxation and experiments" game and make a new folder in case I have specific CJs in mind.

 

Though I am trying to replicate the concept of cities here in where I live 

[ZeusAV 20]

I pretty much have some fantasy regions and countries that I've drawn years ago on paper (mainly their highways and roads).  In Sim City 4 I'm simply bringing those ideas to life so normally when creating a new region after sculpting the terrain, I lay out the major highways across the region, develop 3-4 of the smaller tiles around the major city, and then finally build up the main city.  Making the first city prosperous and profitable is about the only point where the game is challenging. Afterwards I find every new city I start to be well in the black on money and demand to be strong.  I don't focus too much on details like which building goes where, though I do have a general idea of where I want the downtowns to be.  I'm more interested in the roads and highways being accurate to the maps I've hand drawn.  After the main city is in place I just slowly build on the other tiles and suburbs over time.

[monkeywater 910]

As much high wealth, low traffic efficient city as possible.  Preferably with a dong shaped subway network.

[mpkio2 7]

Like most mentioned here already, I tend to veer towards a "realistic and aesthetic" approach while playing - I llive in the UK so I tend to make my cities look as "British" as possible. I do plan to upload my very own first "City Jourrnal" here on Simtropolis (Been playing the game for years now,), so I hope I impress you all

[SimCoug 5,973]

My current 'mission' is to take a region from the mid 1800's to the present day using a 'natural growth' model, and using period appropriate BATs all along the way.

 

...

 

needless to say.. it's taking longer than I anticipated... but I'm having a heck of a fun time doing it

[Priyon 16]

My playing goal changes depending on what I had in mind before starting to play. But most of the time, I am building Japanese style cities and towns, especially based on Tokyo and anime. Which means modern semi-utopian happy urban areas with excellent health, education and police coverage without much pollution, just like real Japanese cities. Also, they are sprawling, so I have to fill entire region to be close to reality, and I have HUGE regions (there is one 6400 km square region I am building on currently) which take over a year to build up.

 

I use a dedicated plugin folder I have built over years for that. I never use non-Maxis buildings unless I am using that Japanese plugin folder.

 

But as I said, the goals change. Sometimes I build villages and rural areas surrounded by farms, mountains (if I wanted to play a mountain scenario), rivers and so on. Sometimes I want to build small industrial towns. Sometimes I just spend a week planning out a city and then build it to see how it does. Sometimes I want to construct a huge sprawl spanning several cities in the region, sometimes I build eco-friendly cities.

 

And when I am not building planned cities and regions, I frequently just play for fun. Growing cities naturally and then unleashing disasters on them, sometimes playing like Simcity 3000 (building a city and then 4 cities on it's border, and playing just the first one). There are times when I try out cities that look like historical ones, like 19th century style cities or cities based on ancient Roman/Indian/Chinese urban planning.

 

And finally, I build cities just to look at them in non-gamey aesthetic perspective, i.e. just constructing and not 'playing' the game. For example my Tokyo based city is just like that. There are regions that I built up just to see how beautiful they are from the top.

 

Currently I am trying out the concept of Smart Cities in SC4 to see if they can work as well as they do in real life, or not.

 

But whatever I do, I ALWAYS build realistic cities. So no stupid grids unless I need them, no funky and unrealistic looking cities, no gamey city planning and abusing the system, and so on.

[dkempel 3]

Currently I am trying out the concept of Smart Cities in SC4 to see if they can work as well as they do in real life, or not.

 

How do you mean 'smart cities' in the context of SC4?

[Priyon 16]

 

Currently I am trying out the concept of Smart Cities in SC4 to see if they can work as well as they do in real life, or not.

 

How do you mean 'smart cities' in the context of SC4?

 

 

By that, I mean very efficient cities with a good road layout without any jams, availability of services everywhere, eco-friendly planning and minimum pollution, clean and efficient power and water system, recycling and minimum garbage, jobs and workplaces in the right area without polluting much, a well-built transportation system, a well balanced, educated and healthy population, a well balanced budget with enough reserves in case they are needed, all this in a very space-efficient and completely realistic manner. Also using Euro-Contemporary architecture set since that is the closest thing in the game to modern and contemporary architecture.

 

These are basically the smart city features that can be built in SC4. Real world smart cities have much more like high connectivity, electronic and smart government system, a dedicated goal (most smart cities are built for a purpose, such as IT sector for example) and they are sustainable and eco-friendly with buildings not being constructed by traditional materials.

[Mike D 8]

I go for a mix of realism and aesthetics. Aesthetics as in "attention to detail, but always realistic". I treat the entire region as one, trying to obscure city borders in region view. I place much emphasis on a fluent progression from countryside via suburbs and city neighbourhoods to the CBD(s). I try to leave room for nature.

 

On the economic side, I don't use money cheats or any other cheat lots or ordinances, no demand boosters and no pollution reducers. No civics with ridiculous stats, either. I don't plop RCI buildings.

 

Personally, I don't like the utopian settings some players prefer - they lack in character for my taste, and often seem sterile and hollow, like some kind of candy that always looks the same, is super colourful and full of sugar, but lacks actual substance.

 

I don't like "pin cushion" downtowns (a.k.a. skyscraper forests), either.

 

In terms of transportation, I try to adhere to some basic rules: No 90-degree turns for high-speed networks, no steep slopes (such as the NAM viaduct on/offramps) for railroad, no level crossings between main railway lines and roads/streets, or main roads and any kind of railway line. No ridiculous setups only to force Sims to a certain means of transport.

 

While I plan out the basic concept of a city tile - and of the entire region! - beforehand, I also like the challenge of reconstructing areas I don't like after all. I like to imagine it was a real-world reconstruction and try to find a compromise between accommodating new stuff and leaving as many important existing structures in place as possible.

 

I don't go for perfection or best figures. I like some grime, too. An overcrowded station or a polluted industrial area don't bother me that much.

 

On a micro-management level, I sometimes obsess over illogical lot layouts, with parking lots in the back of buildings that would be impossible to reach, or driveways that connect to nothing.

 

Most of all, I'm a hopeless control freak in terms of plugins who keeps telling himself "once I have modded all this stuff, I'll go back to playing again" - only to find more stuff I'm not satisfied with.

 

I agree with this. Except I try to avoid using money cheats, I start off every city tile with the idea in my head "Alright, I'm not gonna use money cheats, we're gonna play for real!" And that works for a little while, before I start losing $1000+ a month and then I take out multiple loans, and screw that up, and before I know it I'm bring up the cheat box and moolahing $99,999,999. Everything else you said though, I do.

I pretty much have some fantasy regions and countries that I've drawn years ago on paper (mainly their highways and roads).  In Sim City 4 I'm simply bringing those ideas to life so normally when creating a new region after sculpting the terrain, I lay out the major highways across the region, develop 3-4 of the smaller tiles around the major city, and then finally build up the main city.  Making the first city prosperous and profitable is about the only point where the game is challenging. Afterwards I find every new city I start to be well in the black on money and demand to be strong.  I don't focus too much on details like which building goes where, though I do have a general idea of where I want the downtowns to be.  I'm more interested in the roads and highways being accurate to the maps I've hand drawn.  After the main city is in place I just slowly build on the other tiles and suburbs over time.

I like that too. I still have a bunch of Thomas Bros. Maps-inspired maps I drew when I was a kid, I'd love to put those to the test in SC4.

[dkempel 3]

Currently I am trying out the concept of Smart Cities in SC4 to see if they can work as well as they do in real life, or not.

 

How do you mean 'smart cities' in the context of SC4?

 

 

By that, I mean very efficient cities with a good road layout without any jams, availability of services everywhere, eco-friendly planning and minimum pollution, clean and efficient power and water system, recycling and minimum garbage, jobs and workplaces in the right area without polluting much, a well-built transportation system, a well balanced, educated and healthy population, a well balanced budget with enough reserves in case they are needed, all this in a very space-efficient and completely realistic manner. Also using Euro-Contemporary architecture set since that is the closest thing in the game to modern and contemporary architecture.

 

These are basically the smart city features that can be built in SC4. Real world smart cities have much more like high connectivity, electronic and smart government system, a dedicated goal (most smart cities are built for a purpose, such as IT sector for example) and they are sustainable and eco-friendly with buildings not being constructed by traditional materials.

 

 

Have these cities turned out different than the non-smart cities you have build? If so, in what way?

 

I like to try to build 'sustainable'/smart cities too, but I am not sure it is even applicable as a concept in SC4. There is an interesting topic here

 

Sure, you can make Sims get on mass transit, you can zone mixed development, and you can avoid slums. But besides the choice of mass transit vs space eating highways, the other design elements mentioned seem to me to be just 'good city planning' and I guess many city builders here will adhere to these without necessarily calling it smart cities.

 

Also, I thought the purpose of cities was for people to live in them

[citycowboy 183]

The goal is to make iconic neighborhoods that work together without repeating anything. I spend way too much time trying to put the buildings in order. I use the HT blank grey concrete space from the parks department the most. That's how I make alleys.

[Titanicbuff 1,262]

I generally have an idea in my mind- residential is typically non grid based, lots of commerce and little industry. I generally have industrial "commuter" cities. My airports must feature a more realistic feel, while I generally place 1 harbor despite being a river based type of city.