Tutorial - Rob's Guide to SimCity 4

[Propfam 2,289]

20 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

No that's simply not right, if you think this, then you can not understand how computers and software works. There is always a reason for everything, being able to work out what it is, sure that's not always simple nor possible. But, there are no ghosts in the machine, computers are in essence a logic engine.

I guarantee you, with enough time and direct access to the machine in question, you could diagnose or fix every such problem. Whereas poorly made software goes wrong because it wasn't coded properly, SC4 simply from everything I know and have seen, does not suffer such issues. Compare that say to 3DS Max, Autodesk get away without fixing bugs that were present in gMax 20 years ago and charging thousands for the privilege.

That's my experience, though. I personally don't experience much crash with SC4. It's quite stable. Each people have different experience, though.

Thanks for info. Sorry for my words.

[rsc204 21,817]

12 hours ago, chfzdn said:

Each people have different experience, though.

No, sorry again, but that doesn't really stack up.

So 1 million cars of a particular model are sold by a motor company. 5 years later 999,999 of them are still working, but the one you bought is not and is beyond repair. Now you may consider this car unreliable, having failed to make it 5 years without breaking, but if you look objectively at the whole, actually it could reasonably be said such a car was reliable. 

Your experience doesn't change the reasons why your experience is what it is, which can only equate to problems with the game itself, if those problems are a direct result of issues within the game's code. If your system, its drivers, other running software or mods are attributable to your problems, that doesn't mean the game itself is the problem. It's like blaming your car for a tyre getting damaged, the car is not likely to be a factor, the wheel simply attaches to it.

So the general point is, we can say with some certainty from the evidence available, SC4 is not predominately faulty code, quite the opposite it's very tight. Almost every reported user problem with stability, comes from their systems, incorrect setup, incompatible hardware/software etc. In other words, factors external to SC4 are behind the majority of such reported issues.

Yes, we can definitively call the PP over TE bug a coding error, but it's the only one that’s directly attributable to the code by Maxis. Even then, try triggering that bug, without using custom content, like the NAM, which typically is blamed for the issue when it's actually a game problem. This is directly relevant here, because many people who simply don't understand the relationships between the different parts at play, just love to blame one thing or another in anger. "Oh the NAM doesn't work", "Oh SC4 isn't stable", it's never, "I can't get it to work", "I don't understand this, please enlighten me".

But, back in the cold, hard, logical world of 0's and 1's, SC4 does exactly what it was designed to do and is an excellent piece of code. That is simply objective reasoning of someone who understands enough of how things work, and has enough experience of all the factors involved to make a fair assessment.

Call me pedantic, but if you think SC4 isn't stable, that just means you don't know how to make it so or aren't willing to put in the effort to make it happen. Or, in some very, very rare cases, there is just an incompatibility that prevents it from being so, but even then, you can't call the game unstable. If you try to run your petrol car on Whiskey, it might work for a while, but it wouldn't be the manufacturers fault when the car broke down as a result.

[Propfam 2,289]

Sorry. I think I need to rest a while. I'm officially accepting your opinion. Sorry for mistakes.

[countermoon 46]

"There is always a reason for everything"

Uh, no. Not even close. I've been using computers since 1980. I've seen all kinds of voodoo.

[ironjaw 54]

I just wanted to thank you Rob for making these videos. I quite enjoyed them.

I used the whole day to watch these but also to work on building my city while watching your videos for practice. I must admit, I was a bit disappointed with the region play. It started really great but you ended it abruptly and I wanted to see you play all the way so I could follow, but never mind. It's been some years that I've played SC4 but most importantly, the reason is that I run a Mac, and it's always been a struggle. Anyway, thanks for the videos and the essential mods and tutorials. Really good.

[Haljackey 17,325]

@rob_mtl and I work together to show how to build a stack interchange

 

 

[Scorbutico 7]

These are a great series of videos for someone who never cracked the game before.  I'm just returning to it and these videos have been a massive help, thank you.

[Corbino 1]

On 8-12-2023 at 11:18 PM, Scorbutico said:

These are a great series of videos for someone who never cracked the game before.  I'm just returning to it and these videos have been a massive help, thank you.

Agreed, I enjoyed these videos very much