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Well, here we are, ten years of Simtropolis -- and we're only a scant few months away from the next version of SimCity. Long-standing members -- thanks for sticking around, or for at least popping back every once in a while. And greets to all members old and new. This place is going to be hopping in March...! Can't wait! Happy Holidays, everyone... And Happy 10th Anniversary! The Trixies will start in January this year, and we're going to do something a little extra special for our 10th this time around. We're going to try to make it worth your while to nominate, and nominate often. More details in a few weeks... Have a great one! Free bunnies for the rest of the month... :bunny: :bunny:

View Album " Life is so short, and the craft takes so long to learn " (Chaucer) Entering the city from the west... Passing through the old core which is being rebuilt at a fast pace... Giving way to modern apartments... Looping around some hitech compounds... Turning into the city center parks... The new city core... Night time impressions... * Extra large overviews (2000x1400, day and night) here and here Hope you enjoyed!

The developers of the latest SimCity learned a valuable lesson Friday during a Reddit AMA, one that will hopefully be passed on to other developers: people -- you know, the downstream consumers you're hoping will purchase your software? They hatehatehatehatehatehatehateHATE DRM. The first answer back, from Kip Katsarelis (Senior Producer) was far from comforting: Sorry, I replied to it below. Not avoiding. Here was the reply... "I actually just ran over to our online engineering team to get the latest info. We do handle "short" internet outages gracefully. Meaning, if your internet goes out while you're logged in and playing the game, we can can recover gracefully. You shouldn't notice a thing. "Short" is still being defined." At least Katsarelis somewhat acknowledges that the term "short" is woefully undefined. And whether or not players "notice a thing" isn't really the sort of issue that should be getting sorted during an informal Q&A. While that answer was less than satisfactory, Kip's followup was downright laughable. We will allow you to play for as long as we can preserve your game state. This will most likely be minutes. The response to that bit of "online imagineering" was full of win, however. My computer happens to have a hard drive that's suitable for preserving game state. Should I consider buying your game, or is it crippled to online-only?

According to Maxis the city sizes are due to performance issues and better simulation. They also said making city sizes too big made players "repeat parts of their cities". For the 16 city limit per region, Maxis said it was due to performance issues on the client (not computers) and budget.

Update 26 Fall 1873 The results of the railroad poll were in, and as expected, New SorGun came out on top, followed closely by Porthaven. The official announcement on the whereabouts of the terminus station had yet to arrive, but folks in the region were more confident than ever that New SorGun would get the nod. The citizens of New SorGun were jubilant, and the town was alive with excitement. Property values were rising by the day, and the influx of newcomers over the spring and summer meant neighborhoods were filling out… And new blocks of houses were being built as fast as they could be sold. (click for full size) Neighboring towns to the south were benefiting from the population boom as well. As new pioneers from Oregon and California made their way north, Junction once again regained life as traveling crossroads. (click for full size) Arrow Ridge had also grown as it rode New SorGun’s coattails. In less than 5 years, Arrow Ridge had nearly doubled in size. But there was no doubt where the majority of the growth was occurring. As the terminus station of the Northern Pacific rail line, the possibilities for business growth in New SorGun was limitless. (Massive mosaic – Click for full size) Even the Fox family got into that act. The coal business was proving steady, but with the possibility of a terminus station ending in New SorGun, the Fox’s felt it was perfect opportunity to open a hotel that would rival those found in San Francisco. But old Farmer Ben was unimpressed with all the hoo-ha. When a crowd was going one way, Ben was the type to walk the other. Ben learned early on that success was earned through hard work, not finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And that was why he was up early that fall morning feeding his prized fowl. In fact, it reminded him of a proverb his grandfather used to tell him… Replies to Northern Pacific Railroad Official Poll: Luiz P. Romanini, dubaidude303, raynev1, Ying Blanc, Mastof, Efkin, Schulmanator, ggamgus, wcraig, Hazani Pratama, Jeroentje, katherman111, Bluthlucidity, Aaron Graham, Purfer, Paulobergonci, SteveMSim, hahei, ba zing ze, and Vlasky: Thank you for your comments and vote! Fox: After seeing those pictures .. wow.. to all locations, but I've got to vote for New SorGun, culture and population .. should make it popular as a destination and the wealth factor will help make it happen and perhaps even a casino and a few hotels are on the drawing plans for later on. And it appears the majority of voters agreed with your assessment ROFLyoshi: Why not have the main terminus at New SorGun and a freight branch line to Porthaven? That is definitely a possibility, and I’m sure the railroad will consider branch lines for future connections around the region once the terminus city is decided on. westy177: I vote for Porthaven although I got an error 310 when trying to vote. I picture Porthaven becoming the New York city of New Sorgun. It also has features that promote rail use such as industry and port its self explanatory as a rail baron I'd choose it. I hope to see the 2-8-0 consolidations rolling soon. Thanks for your vote – Porthaven was a close second in the poll, but don’t count this town out yet. daTSchikinhed: I'll say the same thing I said on the forums. Voted porthaven. I still stand by what I said earlier. I think the rail linkup will bring an economic boom to both the Northern Pacific railway and the local area. Once more money is made, the railroad could veer south, and head towards california, bringing in even more money and people, this way everyone benefits in the long run. Everyone's thinking short-term. Yeah, Materberg or New Sorgun might be better now, but what happens when Porthaven builds a port? Then they have access to sea trade, and with the railroad connection in the mountain, they have direct access to natural resources... Northern Pacific HAS to be smart enough to choose Porthaven. None of the 3 towns will have a chance of withering away. They'll be interdependent (Materberg with it's agriculture, New Sorgun with it's port and population, and Porthaven with the rail connection (which industry and the military need to connect to the rest of the nation) Now you are thinking like a railroad boss. We’ll see if they agree with you. NMUSpidey: Every time I see the name Materburg I think of the movie "Cars." It's possible that these three towns are going to explode once the rail is built. Then we might be seeing talks of consolidation as their borders bump up against each other, so long term they all end up with the rail line. Yes, my three year old had a hand in that name. It’s true that the future development could include rail connections to each town, but whichever town lands the terminus station will a have a head start on growth and development that could make the difference between a megalopolis or a ghost town. Time will tell. jason leo: Industries around Porthaven should be profitable and higher number of populatin in New SorGun is profitable as well. It's hard to decide, but I think freight could become a more profitable source for a train company, I vote Porthaven. Thank you for voting – you were not alone in your thinking, but New SorGun was able to eek out a majority of the vote. Mithrik: New Sorgun is the way to go, mainly because Porthaven's industry centers around a single product: wood. And the logging industry is quite fragile, from one year to another, the prices can crash for X reason, and then it may not end up quite well. Plus, New Sorgun is where most of the wealth of the region is located, so is a boost. New SorGun has definitely been able to diversify it’s economy, and that may well be the difference that tips the railroad in it’s favor. Benedict: Congratulations - you're also number one in the CJ section BTT! That’s a welcome surprise, thanks Ben!

Lucy Bradshaw has written a blog on the EA site to respond to the controversy over the Reddit AMAA. There are some interesting bits of information in here.

Part Two of the SimCity Gameplay Strategy series featuring Lead Designer Stone Librande. "...Some time has gone by and Stone's Casino Empire is thriving. How should Stone customize his casino to pull in more tourists and make more Simoleons? By adding a celebrity stage, blackjack tables or more hotel rooms? Watch what happens when his city becomes so big he runs out of power! Casinos attract a lot of crime, but Stone can use the crime data layer to diagnose his crime problem and plop an impressive Police Precinct and Helipad upgrade to increase his coverage. When a disaster strikes, will Stone's neighbor Dan send fire trucks to Casino City to help rescue his Sims? With new multi-city play cities can work together to solve their problems. You can play with friends or control an entire region by yourself!"

This is barely an argument on why subways cannot be included. Most of the constraints and compromises are self - inflicted decisions.They insist on simulating every single SIM you see (including SIMS playing at home, going to the casinos, etc). They also insist on simulating every city on the map in real time. I have nothing against those decisions but it becomes so painfully obvious that their servers cannot handle it and most PCs won't be able to handle all these major simulations without major compromises. I don't even want to write here about how many things they already compromised since there are threads here for that. They are missing the forest for the trees. They even decided to put limits on save slots. They also decided to "ration" how many regions you may own. Good luck with that. That is a clear sign to me that this game will have an inevitably short life span. If they are going to compromise THAT much, they should re - think their strategy. SC (2013): Some steps forward. Many steps backward. I am not trying to be harsh or mean. The developers have many good ideas here and there. Ultimately it is just a question of which ones to prioritize. The developers have taken a lot of time to interact with the community but EA is deaf. Please look at some people's CJ's here or the "Show us Your Region" threads in Simtropolis or sc4devotion.com. Some of the better players have been able to make regions that look like satellite images. Then look at this: https://i.imgur.com/Q74s5.jpg The main difference is really simple. SC4 lets you control ALL the space in your region. SC4 is far from perfect but this allowed people to have 100% freedom to "terraform" and control the look of the whole region and not just the cities [This feature is missing in SC (2013) ]. I can even have tiles with no people or buildings - just snow, mountains, rivers, trees and MMPs. The problem with SC 2013 is that you have a "pre - set" region with all these 2x2 "circles" which are not connected to each other. From afar they look like "bubble cities" connected to each other with "lines" and "webs" (pre - set neighbor connections). There is also no "urban sprawl". Instead, you have empty spaces everywhere. This is why the region scale is not very convincing to the human eye. So what on earth is this "vision" that Maxis has? Don't compare trams and subways. That is like comparing apples and oranges. They have their own functions and limitations. Your only argument against subways (again) is: "WE have to see our SIMS play in their gardens and we need to track all 200,000 people". That's a non sequitur. You are arguing for and against two different things here. I think watching and tracking ALL ~200,000+ Sims is lovely, but it is an UNNECESSARY compromise. That is exactly one of the things that needs a lot of computing power. The game needs to keep track of ALL these people: where they live, their ages, their names, their school/work. Now the game also has to factor in crime, education levels, health, etc. It also needs to collect data for ALL individuals as they grow old, marry, and die. All of these things are changing every second you play. The game has to keep making these calculations every second. I think it sounds great on paper. But the developers sacrificed too much in terms of the overall scope of the game.

I don't buy this argument at all. Generating numbers is easy. And I really doubt there will be that much unpredictability in the market. Unless that's an admission by them they are going to allow the trolls and the trade guilds free reign on the market. Is that what they're saying? When I started to play Simcity 4 my computer couldn't play the large maps. That didn't make me mad, but happy to know the game would expand for me when I got better hardware. And it did. Why not make the small-medium-large map feature of SC4? Small maps for low end machines, medium maps for standard rigs, and large maps for power users and future expansion? I think they did this because they want to make the game run on tablets as well so they sacrificed the PC performance to do that. And having different sized maps means they have to play balance the multiplayer side because small maps can't compete with big maps in terms of resources and I don't think they want to be bothered with that. Fail? No. It doesn't mean that. It does mean though if they want to sell NEW this game on the back of the past game then they should have done a lot more to appease the past customers otherwise why not call it by another name if it isn't because of the existing market they're hoping to tap? That would have prevented all of this. But they chose to use the cred Simcity has earned over the years to sell their NEW game, because lets be honest here, the core game play grind in this "iteration" is drastically different than previous Simcities. I can just see the discussion taking place about calling it _Simcity_, how it seemed so logical to "reboot" the game and use the moniker that it first existed with. And I can totally see them never ever once consider what happened with Simcity Societies or Cities XL at all in any of their discussions. Especially the lesson with SCS and how if you're going to put out a Simcity game, make a Simcity game. We're ready for SC5 and we don't want any more "iterations". Last, but not least, Will Wright and Maxis are wrong about Simcity painting itself into a corner. All they had to do was ship working cities with the game and/or make it possible for those that don't want to take the time to build a massive city to get one from someone whose willing to share theirs. That's all that it would have taken to fix SC4 and it's should have been what made SC5 that much better than SC4. SC4 wasn't too complex (it's actually a really easy game), it was too big for the casual player. Those that have played know what I'm talking about.

now over 1000 views per entry..even though there hasn't been an update since february! thank you all for the continued views -spursrule14 REPLIES ggamgus thank you! yes it is very cold here...likely even unrealistic for such a city to exist here...but what if one did? what if one could? would it be a magical place? NMUSpidey are you talking about the sunken highway? 10000000000000 simcity pictures would be way too boring! emperordaniel something is wrong with your A key haha! Kruness thanks! A CITY IN WINTER THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS The Twelve Days of Christmas have been celebrated for centuries, yet in A City in Winter, they take on an entirely different meaning. Instead of celebrating the days after Christmas, the city celebrates the twelve days before, with different festivals and spirited events each day. Some say Santa lives in the old enclave on Winter Hill. Some say the old boys school in North End is really his workshop. Many come. None forget. *As part of the celebration, a new image will be added to this entry each day starting December 14th and concluding Christmas Day. This entry will be re-published each day when a new image has been added.* MERRY CHRISTMAS! please view full-size! DAY 1 (Merchant Plaza) DAY 2 (Château) DAY 3 (Frederick Village) DAY 4 (King Charles I District & Winter Hill) *look closely and you can see smoke rising from some of the chimneys* DAY 5 (Montferrand District & Angel of the Winter Cross) DAY 6 (St. Andrew's School for Boys/History of Christmas Museum) DAY 7 (Saint Andrew Park) Hello everyone, you may have been wondering why the pictures have been late coming. Well, the world did not end on Friday, and I wasn't abducted by aliens or anything like that lol...I just simply have become creatively exhausted by this. So for my own mental health, I'm ending this here on Day 7. Thank you to everyone who viewed and commented on this entry. I am blown away by the number of views this entry got. I hope that viewing these pictures got you into the Christmas spirit, and transported you into another world where your imagination could run free. I have added a poll now, and please vote, because I'd like to see which ones were the favorites. I will formally reply to all the comments in the next update. For now, I think I'm going to take a little break from SC4 and enjoy Christmas! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas as well. -spursrule14 DAY 8 (Check back December 21) DAY 9 (Check back December 22) DAY 10 (Check back December 23) DAY 11 (Check back Christmas Eve) DAY 12 (Check back Christmas Day) MORE TO COME...

We want believable scales. Sim City (2013) does not even have "urban sprawl". If you have a Central Business District with many skyscrapers, why does it end in all that unused green space? (Oh, Online limitations) Although SimCity 4 may be underscaled, it allowed you to do this, something I call the Metropolis Illusion (create one large city with numerous of smaller ones): DISCLAIMER: This is not one of my cities by the way. I do have a sprawl, but not this big. But this picture does show that the size of a city can be virtually endless using this method. The SimCity 4 region were we fell in love with is not some modification: it was something we had back in 2003 at the release of SimCity 4 vanilla, and for me, it's one of the most addictive factors that keep me playing.

I know it's been frustrating, and I do apologize for the ups and downs. No, it's not a 386 hosted in my basement (oh those were the good ole days, eh?) It's in a dedicated server at a datacenter in Washington, DC. We've been dealing with a bot attack the last 36 hours, the server team is working with me. Please be patient, and things will get more stable again. Thanks for understanding!

thanks everyone . Here's another update: I did some work on the base and the roof

Crl - Thanks! Raynev1 - Thank You! NMUSpidey - Danke! Hazani Pratama - Gracias! Fox -Thank you foxy! ggamgus - No...I'm dirty... kj3400 - No wait GG, you're dirty dan - Thanks! dubaidude303 - Thanks! --- Welcome back to Ikushima. We are a bit farther off in the suburb. Trains are very prevalent here. Some apartments spring up. And hospitals are around. -------- Night shots.

Maxis could seriously solve a lot of problems just by letting us have cities adjacent to each other. You have one city that is the central business area, one that is a low rise suburb, an airport in the middle, an industrial area next door... This would even play into the regional dynamics; cities that are neighbors have more shared benefits and problems than cities sitting 100 miles apart. Nothing is accomplished by forcing cities to be scattered, aside from making each city feel like a toy town in a snowglobe.

Hm, building variation looks quite nice. I also like the trams. It's also interesting to see how the roads are all 90° grid although free road configuration was the #1 reason to move away from an isometric grid. And still, despite the grid, there's empty terrain covered with grass and trees around skyscrapers in the CBD. Is it me, or are the sidewalks narrower than those around medium/high-density zones in SC4? Another observation: Could it be that the cars are too big for the street lanes? The streets don't just look busy, they look awfully cramped - as if the Sims were constantly on the verge of hitting each other's door mirrors... that's especially noticeable in the first pic. The last pic features a cool skyline, but also the problem with the tiny city tiles: Where you'd expect the downtown to turn into mid-rise development (with suburban sprawl and/or industry even further away), there's a sudden gap, and in the background you see a square-shaped city. I must confess that I still don't like the textures on the buildings. They are smooth like plastics, and I cannot even tell what materials they are supposed to represent - concrete, steel, brick, limestone, polished marble, ...? It doesn't look like any of these. The skyline ends up looking like a bunch of 2D drawings as you can see them in those diagrams from skyscraperpage.com - check the site, and I'm rather positive you'll see what I mean. Concerning the general colour palette, all I can say is holy radioactive oversaturation! Those trees alone... There may be people who like that overall look, no doubt. However, it's absolutely not my taste.

Wow. It would seem that my updates have become fewer and fewer as time has gone by. From the looks of things, I started the Dominion Public Building almost 2 years ago! Where did that time go! 2011 has been a really full year. My daughter is now almost a year old and is growing like a weed. She can stand on her own (hasn't taken a step yet) and is really surprising us daily with what she understands. It's simple stuff really, like I can now ask her where her turtle is and she crawls off to retrieve her stuffed turtle. She's such a joy. I also spent most of the summer and fall absolutely run off my feet because I ran for city council here in Halifax. It was my first time trying anything like that and it was really a blood and sweat type effort (no slick campaign machine or army of volunteers behind me). My district, Dartmouth Centre, was a really crowded race with 7 candidates including the incumbent councillor, Gloria McCluskey. McCluskey is 81 or 82 and has been either a councillor or mayor in Dartmouth for nearly 30 years so she's quite entrenched. I ran on an urban planning platform of redirecting some of HRM's growth and spending away from the suburbs and back to the urban core. McCluskey ended up running away with it (51% of the vote), but I finished a strong second, well ahead of the rest of the also rans. I picked up 1,700 some odd votes (20%). Michelle and I were really pleased since that meant that more than just our friends and neighbours voted for me and that the campaign and my message really gained traction. This is likely McCluskey's last term so it leaves me well setup for next time in 2016 if I decide to try again. You can see some of my campaign up on my website www.samaustin.ca. The other thing that was floating around this year is I organized a neighbourhood beautification effort on my street, Tulip Street. My neighbours and I formed an association and pitched for funding to whoever had cash to give away. We were successful and a few weeks ago we planted 11,000 tulip bulbs on my 4 block street (tulips on Tulip Street). To sum up, it has been a full rich year, but Sim City really hasn't factored into it. After doing nothing in SC4 for months and months, though, I have finally started to pick away at things again. The Dominion Public Building is once again inching towards the finish line. Here's what it looks like now: I have also textured the side (may need to tone down the glass on this side): I'm hoping that over the next few weeks I'll be able to finish the project. All I have left is the roof, three sides of the tower, the stone on the Lower Water Street side (the angled wall) and lighting. Still a fair number of hours left because the texture creation on this one is really, really time-consuming. Making textures has really taken more time than the modelling did! Once I get the Dominion Public Building finished, I'm going to upload my finished batch of Government of Canada Buildings. It'll be 6 instead of 7 done, but goodness knows how long it will take for me to finish the Saint John POA. Anyway, sorry I have been such a stranger.

Hi Guys. This is my first city journal entry - the Habour city of Port Lantea, and first city of the Eternal Sounds region, Neu Westfalen --- Population: 233,359. SPECIAL THANKS TO RepublicMaster for helping me correct my images (and creating the background story for my ongoing City Journal). I put alot of work into the CBD and Port area in particular so we'll start here. Port Lantea is the Eternal Sound's main Financial Hub and is home to numerous international corporations, many of whom have their global HQs here. Needless to say it is also the largest commercial port in the region, with large container, LNG, Oil and Cruise-liner facilities as well as a Luxury Marina. The port is also home to the nation's largest naval base (at right), but I'll cover that in an upcoming post. The busy container-port... ...operates 24/7 The NWS Westphalia - a decommissioned Battleship that serves as a tourist attraction for citizens and tourists alike. It is kept in servicable condition in the unlikely chance it should ever be needed. The Westphalia is a relic launched in 1941 and served in WWII against Imperial Japan in the Pacific, it was upgraded twice before being removed from service in 1985. The port can accommodate up to 4 cruise liners at a time - an important facility for the entire region's tourism industry. The Spinnaker Tower is the perfect centerpiece for a Marina. Downtown Mall and open, green space near the main Stadium The main highway (sunken) runs straight through the city and right along the CBD to provide efficient, low-congestion transportation. The main Stadium and Convention Centre are located in the CBD, right next to the main HSR terminal & main Highway for easy, efficient access. Large Apartment blocks surround a central park near the CBD Night-shot of the CBD. The Central Sports/Cultural district contains a variety of arenas and venues. Port Lantea's biggest Church. A couple of overviews of the whole city. That's it for now, more coming soon. hope you all like.

Thanks everyone. I've resumed work on the Inland Steel Building. The lobby doors are modeled, and I've also worked a little on the main part of the building's glass. I still need to work more on the lobby's glass (which I think isn't the same as the rest of the glass), and then I have to model the lobby interior, and then put bushes in the flag's planters.

Hello VeritaScientia , We are not the ones misinformed here. The developers themselves have actually been giving us a pretty good picture of what to expect. (I thank them so MUCH for being patient enough to interact with the community.) YOU, however, are giving us YOUR unconfirmed reasons on why the game should be developed as it is. Who said this? It's the opposite. http://www.nowgamer....city_sizes.html First of all, Sim City (2013) is NOT open ended. You are given a limited amount of save slots. Once run out of save slots, you are stuck with what you have. Q: Why are there save slots anyway? A: Because the game is always - online. A lot of limitations this game has are mostly due to the fact that EA insists every game they make should have an online portion. Really? Why is it wrong to have an extra layer for subways? Even SC3K Unlimited had a layer just for subways. It did it even better than Sim City 4 (no roads, zones, etc. when you view the subway). By the way, many custom content underpasses were made possible because of subways. We want believable scales. Sim City (2013) does not even have "urban sprawl". If you have a Central Business District with many skyscrapers, why does it end in all that unused green space? (Oh, Online limitations) Not everyone lives in a place with good internet connection. My internet gets cut every now and then. Why should I be able to play ONLY if I have internet connection? It restricts certain people. ======= I respect the Maxis developers a LOT for interacting with the community and I am sure they put a lot of work into this game so far. But it might be too late.

Ok so this is the first BAT I'll show. it is Central Committee of the Union of Yugoslav Communists (Centralni komitet saveza komunista Jugoslavije - Ck SKJ), in Belgrade, municipality of New Belgrade, Serbia. I opted for its original look. The building was heavily bombed during 1999 year by NATO. Today it is nothing but a glass box. For more info on building check its Wikipedia page. Today it is known by the name Ušće Tower (Confluence Tower).

Look carefully at that third screenshot...you can see where the wall of skyscrapers ends at the extent of the buildable area and the sea of empty green space begins. Ugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmIeIKmWsX0 You all had so many creative ( a little too much some times ... ) and i wasn't able to display them all, but i made the most! so .. i'll post it later on. Now - Yes I am late like - by a week to post this update, but it came eventually. Happy now? Flag: Coat of arms: Location (Within AIN): Map: National FactFile: National Anthem: Our homeland National Motto: "To work hard , and live on" Capital: Zverichevno Official Language(s): Kamchatkian, Russian Population: 5,650,200 (2011 Census) GDP ($ - Per Capita): 12,403

Thanks guys! Vlasky: It's the thin-glass Arch & design template/preset with the color of the glass changed. It can be changed by changing the refraction color, which I made to match the color I found in photos. Some of the other settings are tweaked a little but it's basically the template. darn42: The solid glass is better for glass that has more volume to it, so like glass sculptures or glass chandeliers and stuff like that. This type of windows and at this scale the thickness isn't perceivable so the thin glass is more appropriate. So here's progress on Inland Steel. I've been working on the roofs which I think are pretty much done I think.

Carl - Ty Will - Thanks! Hazani Pratama - Thank you! Simcityplayer15 - Hmn, maybe! Its actually Karakura btw Fox - Thanks Foxy! Raynev - Thanks! Ben - Thank You GG - Thanks! 100+344 - Thank you! Ken - Thanks! NMUSpidey - Thank you! simcityplayer15 - I made a tutorial for that here : http://community.simtropolis.com/journal/2376/entry-17953-tutorial-1-installing-moonlights-street-mod/ ---------------- Welcome to Das'gotn, the largest city in Shushtrepistaz. If you've stuck with me for a while, you'd know I like to redo this city alot, and this time. We are going to enter through Bakudo. The West Industrial district is very light, mainly storage and some processing. A larger plant looms over the freeway. Amazon's main storage center in Central Shudon. A bit south are some wall to wall stores and house complexes as well as this large apartment tower. Some large housing complexes stick out of the wall to walls. These housing complexes are usually middle class and lower rich. A large tower looms over the other buildings. National Route 1 cuts through this area, connecting the port and West Industrial district, and heads to Dras'kon. The Urban area is very dense. As the day continues the freeway gains more traffic. It remains mostly empty besides rush hours and middle day surge. Some road planning had allowed for this building to exist. The city hall in central district is one of the more smaller buildings, but very noticable. Tall offices trump the smaller offices on the otherside of the Grand Plaza. The Grand Plaza contains most of the towers in the city, besides the national boulevourd. Cannon has a regional HQ here. Other towers scatter the south. Larger image! ------ Night Shots! Think of this as a late christmas, early new years day present

3 - Izumo - Ongaku Replies : Arthur : Thank you again for your help Hazani : Thank you ! mystic destiny : Izumoite trains have some problems ... (I hope too ! ) Ying Blanc : Arthur helped me for the sidewalk texture For the stuff, there are a lot of Japanese websites which propose beutiful things ! Forthwall : He is missing something, not someone, it's not a problem Shulmanator : Thanks ! lovemax : Thank you =) raynev : Arigatô ~ Superbacon : Hopefully they aren't ! NMUSpidey : Thank you very much ! =) Efkin : +1 for me, +2 for you Tekindus T : The quickers planes of the world Gugu : Thank you very very much __________________________________________________________________ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dIs_vSG400&feature=fvwp&NR=1 ! Listen viewing the entry ! Ongaku or the city which never sleeps If you liked this uptade, put +1 ! Don't hesitate to comment

Sorry its taken so long since my last post... I started texturing the model and it was pretty much a mess so I started the tower again from scratch.. then I hated the base so I re-did that as well... so here is the latest version - still untextured lol..

OK...these are not misconceptions. They are facts about the game that have been confirmed numerous, numerous times. If you like them and want to give reasons why it's been designed the way it is then that's up to you but no one's misinformed about anything here.

True, but when playing a city in SimCity, it was like a part of the world was taken out and given to you for development. Things happening outside that part of the world was not important. Whatever existed beyond the edge of the map was for you to imagine. You get it! It's the difference between a first person shooter gamer and a simulation gamer; the power of imagination I never cared to have the simulation as deep as SimCity2013 is taking it, I myself had ideas in SC4 on what sim worked where, and what it'd by like living within my creation. Looking at these pictures you are constantly reminded of how small the maps are with the unatural fields of grass that flow beyond the city limits.

I've been away for a while, but always with the nagging thought in the back of my head that there are some of these BATs that need to be finished. So I forced myself to sit down and work on some nightlighting...here's the architecture firm I did a while back... It will be going into the next pack; don't quite know yet what size that one will be, but it will continue to be in the 2x2 vein. I think another forthcoming group will be the larger buildings posted earlier...

A limit was expected, as Origin has a fixed limit of 100 MB per game of cloud save space. What was not quite known was how many cities or regions, or what combination of cities and regions, that 100 MB would allow for the new SimCity game. Actually, that is still not quite known yet, as the Maxis message indicates they are still working out the caps and combinations of regions and cities for the save slots, all of which can be complicated by multiple different accounts running cities in the same region, but we can suspect there will be some optimized formula whereby the more cities we have in a region all run under the same account, the fewer region slots that account will likely be allowed. Who knows, maybe each city only takes 1 MB of cloud save space, and so we could get 100 cities parceled out in a variety of region size combinations before we hit our limit and have to start self-deleting our own older cities in order to progress with filling out newer regions. Still, the idea of making vast urban agglomerations using contiguous city tiles as we do in SimCity 4 seems futile here, as the regions are limited to 16 cities max, making only a 4x4 map possible even if we dropped the non-playable space surround each city. Beyond that, there is the hard 100 MB save game limit per game account, which may also not quite allow us to sprawl larger maps of continguous cities. 100 MB divided over 16 cities, or one full single-player-run region in one save slot, yields 6.25 MB per city. If each account can run two such regions with two save slots, then each city save is only 3.125 MB. At some point, the save game filesize per city must become unreasonably small. Either they have managed heroic efficiency tricks for filesize, say by removing terrain customability or by severly reducing city map size, or some of us are going to have a rude awakening with how many regions and cities to which we will be ultimately limited. However, we are not supposed to be making perfected scale models or pseudo-accurate recreations of cities anymore, and from this viewpoint, trying to make vast cities using contiguous maps or hoping for future scaleability for larger maps is also pointless. Instead, we are gaming cities competitively or cooperatively in a multiplayer arena, with each region actually being an arena for some set number of players (max 16) or player teams all starting from individual bases, much like perhaps a Sid Meier's Civilization multiplayer scenario. Perhaps the arena games will be shorter-term than we are used to in SimCity 4, and so recycling through our save slots won't be such a hassle, as we are moving through old, already-played games rather than perfected detail models. Admittedly, I don't really care to play SimCity this way, and many of us previously had been trying to push the scale model aspect of SimCity 4, but the new SimCity has instead fully opted for the multiplayer arena direction, which is why single-player, map sizes, free-form terraforming, map contiguousness, sandbox modes, and unlimited client-side saves all had to fall by the wayside, as they are not readily compatible with pre-made arenas. In the future, we might expect expansion packs that offer new buildings or transit types which both offer different stats or themes for players to achieve their gaming edge within their cities, much like a Civiliation expansion pack offered new battle units with modified stats or flavors, as these would simply tweak the existing simulation, but I would not quickly expect major changes in map sizes or changes in the way the region framework or saves work, as such changes would radically alter or unbalance the multiplayer arena as well as the Origin online infrastructure.

Yes, CXL is the best game for recreations. SC4 is also good, but for European cities or old American cities like New York, you cannot realistically recreate the road layout. As for SC2013? That's an example.

My new computer finally works correctly, the 56 models are exported, so I can return to my old Kamelia that I intend to finish one day. No major progress. But my system is now fully 64bit (windows7 and 3dsMax). And with 16GB of RAM I can keep going without memory errors at all times. ________________________________________________________ Abelia day render. It's good to be back! I hope that everybody goes well. Sam.

What annoys me to no end is that they think we want to know what each individual Sim is up too!!! I don't want to mouse over one Sim and See what are his thoughts on the Bagel he just purchased. That is way to micro level. And it is in my estimation why the city tiles are so ludacrously small!

About the main color of the brick, what's your preference the picture 1 or the 2 ?

How is this?

Here's about as much as I can do for a couple of days now. I'd say the base is about 80% done now. Things to work on are: Add a row of vent-windows around the top on all sides I think the bright green shrubs need toning down a little bit The roof still needs a bit more stuff on it The pillars by the corner staircase are too thick There's a funny blue line appearing across the bottom of all the glass. I need to do a close-up render to find out what's causing that... I need to find a way to make the glass on those roof structures to be darker. They keep reflecting too much blue. Anyone got anything else they can see let me know

Wow. Two updates in a month. A personal best. I guess some replies first: Hazani: Thanks TWrecks: Thanks. It was a very eventful year, but there life is once again giving me a little bit of time to work on hobbies with. Skyscrapper: Indeed I'm back. I guess it's just a matter of taste. I like slightly indistinct masonry. I think it tends to work better with the game's scale. Jay: Thanks Jay. You're just coming out the other side of the parental adventure then! I'm told that it passes by in the blink of an eye. Aaron: Yep back and picking away at it. Texturing this one is just unending. Too many custom textures on too many little surfaces! SimCoug: 1 and 3! You must be doing well if you still find a few minutes for Sim City. Since I posted at he start of December, my daughter is now mobile. She stills falls on her but a fair bit, but she can fairly consistently do over a dozen steps in a row. Matt: Thanks Matt! I'm pleased with how the election turned out. I have kept all my signs and my list of supporters so I'll be ready for next time if I want to try again. This is likely the incumbents last term. If that happens someday, then I'll truly have no time for Sim City! Sgt Pepper: haha, I need to finish it first! It has been a glacial process! Since I last posted I have made some more progress on the Dominion Public Building. I have been picking away at the tower and it's now textured on both the south and west sides. You can check it out below. Still hoping that I might finish this up in the near future. It won't be by the end of 2012, but maybe in the first month or two of 2013

Here's the three main models put together, base obviously still not started. I don't actually mind how the colour of the tower is looking against the others now... the colours used in first facade I did looks terrible (and ignore the roof that was the old version I just used here to test). So much work to do!

This picture worries me: The cities themselves look great, and the simulation seems to be a very well built one. I'm excited about alot of the new features of the game, however Maxis really shoots themselves in the foot when saying "No city is in a bubble", while making all of these cities bubbles visually. In reality, cities aren't this separated- even in the suburbs. Maxis either needs to: 1. Make the maps bigger, and we wont complain about the gaps in between 2. Find a way to make cities touch, even if this means sacrificing that highway system Like I said, the game play seems to look really good- and the cities look great. I love the idea of specialization, new transit networks, etc. I Like this picture:

No one cares if its Valve or even Facebook spying on people (yes, they do the same as Origin) but if its EA, suddenly its a reason for a boycott. And while being constantly online is annoying, at the other hand, who doesnt have a 24/7 internet connection these days? Also, as that manager explained, they are using the servers to reduce the strain on your computer. Making use of cloud computing power to do a whole lot of calculations that would otherwise be something your own computer has to do. I think its actually a brilliant idea. I keep seeing this argument. It keeps getting refuted, but it keeps getting posted. Some people have spotty connections. Some people like to play while traveling. Some people have a line of work that requires them to take some level of residence in an area that either has a very weak internet connection or no internet connection at all. Some people may live at a university that blocks their internet from using online game services. What are they to do if they wish to play this game?

And why would you boycott a game? You havent even played it, yet youre calling for a boycott because what? You need to be online all the time? Because it doesnt have everything SC4 had? Because you feel the city tiles are to small? Well, boycott it all you want. If the game looks like fun (and from what Ive seen from it, it definitely looks like fun) Ill will get it. I wont let misplaced ideals or anger stand in the way of having fun. I'd really like to like this game, but if it wants to include anti-consumer features such as forcing people to save their cities on EA's servers, even if they wish to play alone, offline, then I'm going to have to pass.

It breaks my heart, but I think not. The new concept looks rather annoying, and I realize that the dream about SC5 is now officially dead. Why don't they love SC4? They appear almost ashamed of it. I really don't get it...

I agree, region play is one of my favorite aspects of SC4 - not only does it give you the ability to create a sprawling metropolis, but also vast farmland dotted with tiny towns, or even colossal mountain ranges with national forests... really, your imagination is the only limiting factor. I've seen many region shots from talented SC4 players that could easily pass for actual satellite photos. Unfortunately, it looks like SC13 will be more like playing a game rather than building a world. Games are fun for a while, but I eventually lose interest. SC4 on the other hand has allowed allowed my imagination to continually create new worlds and it has yet to get old.

My beef isn't so much with the scale, or with the citysize per se, but with the gaps inbetween cities. Imagine a 2x2km CBD, surrounded with stretches of empty land - frankly, that's totally unrealistic. Or in other words, with this new SimCity it's impossible to build a sprawling metropole because of this restriction. I can understand the problems the developers wrestled with, it's just imho they should've tried harder to find a better solution. That seems very unbelievable. The developers clearly take pride in all the different data layers they've incorporated into the game, e.g. the watertable, resource maps, crime maps, etc., etc. In fact, you've got to switch between layers regulary to keep track of what's going on in the city. So what's holding them back to make another layer for the subway? Seriously, most mayor cities have subways, even if it's only one or two lines.

He everyone! Here's a quick update on Aqua: I think the texturing is done, so now it's just a matter of lighting it up!

New "insider" article on how cities are built in the new SimCity.

Here's the textured version... not sure if I've under-saturated the colours now?

I think (hope) I'm done with the day scene on 270 Park Ave because I exported it and it took 36 hours. I'll redo and probably finish the night scene tonight and then hopefully get someone to test it out for me soon. I also had an LOD issue after the export, but fixed it.