I'm Not Inspired

[Propfam 2,305]

Hello,

I'm encountered a problem recently that inhibits me to create an appealing content, lack of inspiration. My cities are just grid and grid. I think aside from American cities, few cities are grid especially with facing Earth's north. Even Manhattan isn't just a one-level street grid anymore. There are some hierarchies in Manhattan street: 1 car + 1 parking lanes streets then 2 lanes streets. In some cases 1 car + 1 bus lanes with 1 additional lanes parking lane on the driver's side (right in this case) streets exist. Sure, Manhattan might be one-level street grid in the past but traffic is forcing them to upgrade their roads. Oh don't forget, they have a carefully designed parks too. I think I don't have such creativity when designing such cities. I have no inspirations to take from. This problem makes me reconsider the current CJ and make another one for myself and even considering myself to exit Simtropolis (or the community in general) or even the game altogether until I have a degree in planning which I hopefully helps me to plan my city professionally. But doing so may makes me losing 4 years worth of time that I can use to enhance my skills to another level. What should I do? Let me know.

Another question: is one-level street hierarchy possible and realistic? I think even Manhattan doesn't have that anymore.

Sorry for my abstract thinking. I feel this is an important issue to me. Thanks.

[armpit43 172]

You can get around it. Have you tried manually laying down roads then zoning gently around them? Dragging the zone slowly enough would stop the in-built streets appearing. If you get gaps between the zones, fill them with trees or community gardens.

[Terring 6,476]

If you feel fed up of the same pattern over and over again, it's time not to give up, but to go creative and even nuts. This is the beauty of SimCity 4, the ability to build however you wish. Who said that a specific type of realistic design, like using real-world Manhattan as your model, is the one and only way to go? There are so many roads to choose, and even build your own one. You can explore, study and experiment any design and idea you wish. This is why I have an experimental region, a laboratory where I can test different layouts and strategies (and have some fun with it  ) and practice myself to new skills and ideas.

Grid is a very simple and easy-to-build pattern, which is also very efficient in traffic and building organization. But you don't have to make all buildings blocks in square shape and have the same size. Give your blocks a variety of shapes and sizes. Make some rectangular blocks too, make bigger and smaller blocks, place them in a beautiful and strategic way, be a Piet Mondriaan of SimCity 4

Here are some examples. Notice the variety of the buildings blocks in my supposedly griddy cities. It's not just square after square. There is a variety even in a pattern as simple as the grid.

Wanna make it even more interesting? Make your cities more flexible and artistic by adding diagonals and smooth curves to the mix. One of the problems with the uniform grids (apart from the fact that small building blocks doesn't offer enough space for bigger constructions, such as power plants and skyscrapers) is that they are unresponsive to the topography of the local landscape, which leads to disregarding environmentally sensitive areas such as small streams and creeks or mature woodlots. Minimize this by making your cities following the topography of your map. Diagonals are your best friends here.

For an even better result, make your curves smooth enough to get a more organic result.

And with some practice, you can even build octagon-shaped cities, and even almost circular ones with NAM

And all the above are just examples of what you can do. With so many historic, modern and proposed cities and urban designs out there, with all the mods we already have, and with the abilities that NAM can provide us...

[rsc204 21,866]

As they say the Devil is in the detail. Gridded cities don’t have to be boring, you just need a diverse range of content and fillers to make them interesting or more realistic. No one can make you interested in something though, either you get something out of it or you don’t. That’s why for me it’s so important that whatever you do with the game, is something that you find enjoyable. If you simply try to please everyone else, then in what sense is this a hobby anymore? Only you can decide what makes you tick and where to invest your time, but everyone needs something to relax. 

[City_Slider 2,716]

It´s not a bad Idear, to grab a real Life Card from a Town and start reverse engineering.

 

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

12 hours ago, chfzdn said:

lack of inspiration

Take a break. This isn't a job, you know.

[Propfam 2,305]

41 minutes ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

Take a break. This isn't a job, you know.

I'm considering that but it would mean that I lose 4 years worth of learning time. That's my problem for now.

Creativity, more specifically creativity in art is a weakness for me. Art is unfortunately subjective. One art isn't always better than the other, depending on the taste of the reader. Despite that, I don't feel my creation is good and appealing enough since the lack of inspiration. Maybe, I should explore in real world or Google Maps. What do you think? Let me know.

Speaking of buildings, when I zone medium density in tiles when the regional population is under/around 100K, the result isn't necessarily consistent. For instance, medium tiles have medium density buildings while small tiles have none. I'm fond of infinity city. Should I zone medium density when the regional population is enough for that density to ensure consistency?

[Haljackey 17,398]

Just ask yourself this one question: are you having fun?

Yes- keep on keeping on

No- what can be done to bump up your enjoyment of the game? If nothing or it seems more trouble than it's worth, move on. There are plenty of other ways to spend your free time than SC4.

[rsc204 21,866]

10 hours ago, chfzdn said:

I'm considering that but it would mean that I lose 4 years worth of learning time. That's my problem for now.

Do you really think if you did something else for 6 months, then decided to return, you'll have forgotten everything? Learning isn't something that rigid, although I do accept not doing something you learned for a long time, can make you rusty of forget some details. But I'm sure it wouldn't be a total waste of your time.

That said, the logic of continuing to do something, simply because you've invested too much time or money in it to stop, has been the downfall of many a person. Huge multi-billion dollar corporations like Kodak, Nokia and RIM (makers of BlackBerry), ended in financial oblivion and irrelevance, precisely because they couldn't accept it was time to move on. Wasting 6 years of your time is worse than wasting 4 years of it at the end of the day, just that you've framed this as a loss, suggests to me you don't consider those 4 years as a positive experience. If that really is the case, I urge you to seriously consider whether you want to keep flogging a dead horse. Not that I'm an advocate for anyone giving up on SimCity 4, but it would be terrible advice to ignore whether or not it was really working out for you.

I often find that you look to others to make your decisions. You need to make this decision ultimately and I'm sure if you objectively ask yourself the right questions, your answer won't be swayed by anything anyone says here.

[Turnstyled 539]

Quote

Just ask yourself this one question: are you having fun?

Yes- keep on keeping on

No- what can be done to bump up your enjoyment of the game? If nothing or it seems more trouble than it's worth, move on. There are plenty of other ways to spend your free time than SC4.

Exactly what Haljackey said. I'm not an artsy person. I don't have the ability to create what people on this site create. The same thing applies to Cities: Skylines and what people make for it that they show on Reddit and YouTube. I'm having fun with SimCity 4, though.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I've started playing Cities: Skylines since Santa brought us a new computer for Xmas, and I've got to say, I really like the grid. As everyone above has said, it really doesn't need to be ugly or boring, you just have to add different things to it to make it work for you. I'm already tire of winding, meandering roads that might look neat when you first lay them down, but don't make much sense once you start building. My second and third cities are better than the first one in the new game, but I'm sure I'll be getting more and more conventional when I move on to my next one.

 

SimCity is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. If you consider it, after 4 years, as a time sink, then do not fall into the sunk cost fallacy and throw more time at it. I've seen your post talking about making a living by putting your play in this game on YouTube, and many members here have given you good advice. This is a pretty niche game for a tiny niche audience. SimCity 4 sold 2 million units. That's it, it's not going to get much higher than that. I'm not sure it's a good idea to try to make a living off of a game that's more than 15 years old, especially if you're here like two weeks after posting your thoughts in your other thread about using this game and YouTube as a career. Maybe it is time for a break, I don't know what your circumstances are, but realistically, this should be a fun thing to do to unwind after work/on the weekend when you get home from your real job that can actually provide you a living. It doesn't sound like you're having fun and it doesn't look like it's providing you a living. So you have some things to consider...

[Turnstyled 539]

3 minutes ago, NMUSpidey said:

If you consider it, after 4 years, as a time sink, then do not fall into the sunk cost fallacy and throw more time at it.

This sentence reminds me of how I had felt when I didn't know more than building PCs. I like building PCs, but it's not my life. Once I got my own place to live two years ago, I started exploring more and finding more that worked for me instead of focusing so hard on one thing that I don't like as much as many other people do. Is there a chance that you don't know things that are out there that you might enjoy? If that's the case, then I'd encourage you to explore!

[Propfam 2,305]

By the way, what is the best layout that accomodate highest number of low density resident at the same time maximize commercial space?

[Propfam 2,305]

I'm uninspired again with SC4. The main problem is the sluggish performance when scrolling the city (still tolerable) and especially when dragging networks and this is annoying and lost of productivity to me. Another concern is the game clock is for some reason refuse to run when I switch the speed. For instance, when I switch from turtle to cheetah, the game refuse to simulate again. When I reload the city, the clock can be switched again. And the most fatal of all is my SC4 always crashes, especially when a huge lag happen. I have 8 crashes since the end of 2020 and 7 of them are happening since 2021. Another issue is my SC4 is quite cluttered. Plugins, regions, you name it, though it's still functional. I have some brown boxes happening especially with Colossus Farming and my cities in my regions don't have consistent terrain, making reconcile edge dialog pops up every time. I want to reset my SC4 again (this time with NAM 40) but my laptop is still slow and I can't afford an SSD for now.

This isn't necessarily a performance issue. But, I'm quite frustrated with dragging multiple tiles (RHW, NWM, etc) especially with the sluggish performance. I can forgive the system (of multitile dragging) if the game doesn't sluggish when doing so. But my game is too slow for that. I can't build large cities for that reason. And, I don't completely know how to make curvy roads and FARs. Should I move to C:S? Let me know. Also, could you help me fix these issues?