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Edit: Available again, after getting the correct controller in place. Thank you for your patience. In honor of the 11th anniversary of SimCity 4's release, the NAM Team is pleased to announce the arrival of the full release of the 32nd edition of the NAM, NAM 32. New features in Version 32--January 14, 2014 NAM 32 is a full package, which improves upon the earlier NAM 31.2 release and NAM 32 Pre-Release. Note that the NAM requires a retail copy (disc or digital) of SimCity 4 Deluxe to run. The NAM Elevated Viaducts for Roads, One-Way Roads, and Avenues are now available in a draggable form, at both Level 1 (7.5 meter) and Level 2 (15 meter) heights, complete with FLEX Height and On-Slope transitions. Overpass situations involving one or more diagonal networks are not yet supported, and will not be available until a future NAM release after Version 32. Elevated Rail-over-Avenue and Elevated Rail-over-NWM Road-4 dual-networking support has been added, complete with a new station supporting both networks. The initial phases of the RealRailway (RRW) system have been added. This feature must be selected as part of a custom install. The RealHighway (RHW) system has been expanded to include the QuickChange interchange system, which blends the RHW's modularity with the ease of Maxis Highway construction techniques for certain situations, which will be expanded in future NAM releases. Additionally, several new types of FLEXRamps are available--please read the instructions in the description text. FLEX Transitions have also been given stability improvements for certain situations. Coupled with the RHW system, the NAM now offers Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) functionality, including stations. Transit station functionality has been further improved, including the beginning of the implementation of the SLURP, which will gradually raise all transit stations to NAM standards. The NAM Controller Compiler has been included with the installer, with which it now communicates, ensuring that only the installed features are incorporated into the NAM Controller, reducing file size and load times. About 50 bugs reported since the start of the NAM 32 Pre-Release have also been squished, including some that had been present since earlier versions of the NAM. It is highly recommended that users update to the latest NAM in order to enjoy a more stable experience. Installing over previous versions: NAM 32 may be installed directly over top of any previous NAM releases. It is a full release, not a patch or a hotfix. All future updates are planned to be in full package form, and there are no plans to issue patches or hotfixes in the future. Please also note that the NAM Team only provides technical support for the most recent version, which, as of this document, is NAM 32. We cannot assist users of the NAM 32 Pre-Release, NAM 31.x-series release, or earlier. Special Thanks: The NAM Team would like to extend its sincere thanks to all the members of the community who helped test the NAM 32 Pre-Release, offering feedback and helping us locate and solve bugs.

A quick sneak peek of the new Turbo Roundabouts for the NAM , fresh from the presses. Here's a proof of concept in-game. Video preview made by NAM Team member Mandelsoft.

It will be very familiar to those who love the genre, but it will also do new things and set its own priorities and focus areas: It will be a single-player game that works completely offline. The goal is to simulate one whole, huge region at once - no need for tiny city lots or artificial city interaction dynamics. It will be affordable and will not rely on DLC. Alpha and Beta versions will be available for a reduced price. Moddability will be a priority, not an afterthought. Read more about Citybound and the technology: http://blog.cityboundsim.com/the-beginning/

There's something of a size mismatch happening here. Colossal Order tells me it can give its players 36 square kilometres of space to build their cities in, 36 square kilometres in which they can expand and enlarge, spread and sprawl. That's enough space for suburbs, commuter towns and even arable land. In contrast, last year's SimCity only provided a couple of square kilometres and, in spite of the efforts of all the pages of team members listed in its credits (a number possibly higher if you consider that credits often only list staff present when a title ships), what happened within those city limits didn't always make sense. Colossal Order is confident it can make a larger, more coherent and more customisable city-building game with, well... nine people. Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-09-04-cities-skyline-is-out-to-satisfy-where-simcity-couldnt

The Sky is no limit! Inhabit a world where you define the rules. Cities: Skylines invites you to create the city of your dreams in a sprawling landscape dominated by cloud hugging structures and jaw dropping architectural marvels. Developed by Colossal Order, Cities: Skylines offers sprawling landscapes and maps with endless sandbox gameplay and new ways to expand your city. Key to progression is the ability to influence your city’s policy by incorporating taxation into districts. All this including the ability to mod the game to suit your play style makes this the definitive city building simulation. You’re only limited by your imagination, so take control and reach for the sky! Main features: City policies: Set policies to guide how the city and districts develop over the course of your playthrough. City districts: Personalize city districts with names of your choice for variety and personality. Road building and zoning Unlock buildings and services Taxation: Fine-tuning the city budget and services and setting tax rates to different residential, commercial and industrial levels and controlling what kind of areas are more likely to spawn in the zoned areas Public transportation: Build transport networks throughout the city with buses and metros Outside connections: Make industry and commercial districts flourish with new customers in the neighboring cities Wonders: the ultimate end-game content that the players strive towards Huge maps: Unlock new map tiles with unique possibilities to expand the city Water flow simulation: Add new challenges to water services. Polished visual style and core gameplay Modding tools: Built in feature designed to encourage creative pursuits.

Banished, a city-building strategy game by Shining Rock Software is released today. What is Banished? Welcome to the world of Banished! In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The objective of the game is to keep the population alive and grow it into a successful culture. Options for feeding the people include hunting and gathering, agriculture, trade, and fishing. However, sustainable practices must be considered to survive in the long term. Gameplay The townspeople of Banished are your primary resource. They are born, grow older, work, have children of their own, and eventually die. Keeping them healthy, happy, and well-fed are essential to making your town grow. Building new homes is not enough—there must be enough people to move in and have families of their own. Banished has no skill trees. Any structure can be built at any time, provided that your people have collected the resources to do so. There is no money. Instead, your hard-earned resources can be bartered away with the arrival of trade vessels. These merchants are the key to adding livestock and annual crops to the townspeople’s diet; however, their lengthy trade route comes with the risk of bringing illnesses from abroad. There are twenty different occupations that the people in the city can perform from farming, hunting, and blacksmithing, to mining, teaching, and healing. No single strategy will succeed for every town. Some resources may be more scarce from one map to the next. The player can choose to replant forests, mine for iron, and quarry for rock, but all these choices require setting aside space into which you cannot expand. The success or failure of a town depends on the appropriate management of risks and resources. Survival Surviving the winters will be among your greatest challenges. Your tailors can make clothing, your people can build houses and burn firewood. But necessities have a price—Cutting down forests reduces the deer population you can hunt. Although your foresters can plant new trees, the cures for many diseases can only be found in forests that have existed for decades. Farming for many seasons in one place will ruin the soil. Taking fish and game faster than they reproduce will lead to extinction, and your starvation. Wandering nomads can join your town to grow the population quickly, but allowing them in increases the chance of illnesses from far off lands!

In a major milestone for Simtropolis, the STEX has now reached a grand total of 100 million downloads! Over the past 12 years, members of this community have shared and continue to share content of dazzling and diverse quality. Join us in celebrating this remarkable achievement! There may be a few surprises in store over the next few weeks (all will be revealed)... Click to view the discussion thread. Click here to read the interviews with BATters.

Simtropolis has grown by over 100k members in the last 10 months! Is a lot of this growth due to SimCity (2013), or perhaps due to a SimCity 4 resurgence post-SimCity (2013)? Perhaps both! I wonder if we'll ever reach a million...

For the first time ever, the NAM Team has decided to surprise people . . . by not surprising them. The 31st Network Addon Mod release will be made available to the public on March 1st, 2013. Mark your calendars, as this will be one you don't want to miss.

Cities: Skylines is a modern take on the classic city simulation. The game introduces new game play elements to realize the thrill and hardships of creating and maintaining a real city whilst expanding on some well-established tropes of the city building experience. From the makers of the Cities in Motion franchise, the game boasts a fully realized transport system. It also includes the ability to mod the game to suit your play style as a fine counter balance to the layered and challenging simulation. You’re only limited by your imagination, so take control and reach for the sky! Main features: Multi-tiered and challenging simulation: Constructing your city from the ground up is easy to learn, but hard to master. Playing as the mayor of your city you’ll be faced with balancing essential requirements such as education, water, electricity, police, fire fighting, healthcare and much more along with your citys real economy system. Citizens within your city react fluidly, with gravitas and with an air of authenticity to a multitude of game play scenarios.Extensive local traffic simulation: Colossal Orders extensive experience developing the Cities in Motion series is fully utilized in fully fleshed out and well-crafted transport systems.Districts and Policies: Be more than just an administrator from city hall. Designating parts of your city as a district results in the application of policies which results in you rising to the status of Mayor for your own city.Extensive modding support: Build or improve on existing maps and structures. You can then import them into the game, share them as well as download the creations of other city builders on the Steam workshop.

First, thank you Maxis and EA for having us down there, our host and hostess were awesome. We had a great time, there just wasn't enough of it! We appreciate the opportunity to connect with you! Fellow Simtropolians, these impressions are for you (this is not a review). Sorry for the posting this a couple days later than intended, got distracted with some server stuff, and I also wanted to give it some more thought. If there's a topic I didn't cover, please feel free to ask and I'll try to get an answer for you. Do keep in mind, these are really early impressions, and I'm sure lots of things are going to change. Please share your thoughts, let me know where I'm wrong, or what you disagree with. ---- Oct 2012 Maxis Studios Visit, Thoughts and impressions In the hands of Maxis SimCity is back in the hands of Maxis. And last week, we were invited to visit their studio in Emeryville with an opportunity to interact with the team and to to get a detailed inside view of the development of the new game. I have a few thoughts and impressions to share with you guys, but I want to make it very clear that while we enjoyed lots of candid, insightful conversation, we simply did not have enough time to fit in an extended play session with the actual game. So it made writing this difficult because I wanted to be honest with what I saw, informative for you guys, but fair to Maxis, knowing that I didn’t really get a full experience with the game. What I did get was a brief exposure to a limited tutorial, and while I tried to take in as much as I could given the constraints, I just couldn’t get enough out of it without time to play freely. Again, this was just the unfortunate result of scheduling not conspiracy (I think). Anyway, even though our time there was condensed, it was packed with plenty of information, lots of demos were shown and plenty of discussion. I’ll share what I thought was interesting, but I’m not going into specific gameplay stuff that has already been shown or talked about. Before moving on, one caveat: given that what we saw was all based on early software, some behaviour we discussed was undemonstrated, and what in-game art we saw is not final, I may totally change my mind on any of these things as new information arises. The very limited tutorial I went through amounted to little more than click here, drag down this road, put down a zone and that’s about it. It’s a serviceable tutorial for a new player, but I didn’t get much out of it. I got a chance to draw a couple of roads; yes, it feels pretty good and intuitive. Painting down zones feels just as you might expect. I like how buildings sort of swing around as you drag them across the terrain before placing them. Yes, all pretty superficial. Sorry to disappoint, but if I get another chance to actually sink my teeth into the actual game, I’ll tell you something more meaningful. City sizes, repetition, and why Glassbox could play really differently But we did get to some talking about city-building, and city sizes. Yes, it’s 2x2, sorry, no change right now. I brought up the issue of building repetition. So from what I understand, to help mitigate this a little bit, the idea is that each building will have some slight variation, I’m assuming texture, colour, props, so that even a row of similar looking houses, should at least have a little variety between them. That’s good news. When I asked if it extended any further than just cosmetics, for example, will the simulator be able to recognize that 4 car washes are growing next to each other and, maybe, you know, not do that? The answer was no. It will still be possible to still get a bunch of similar stuff bunched together, like 4 gas stations all on the same street. It’s a small gripe for me, but maybe not for you. As long as the underlying simulator is fun, I can overlook that. About the simulator, I think Glassbox, based on the demos we saw, will really make the new game feel and play very differently form its predecessor. You already all about it, but I like the idea that every car, vehicle or sim is an agent with goals, that they will use whatever infrastructure you’ve laid down, to attempt to get to their destination. And if for some reason they can’t, you will see where things screwed up naturally as a result of your own boneheaded networks. I like that. It gives your city a sense of real physicality because you will see sims physically using your transportation network, and you will be able to see exactly what isn’t working and understand why. In SimCity 4 the simulator was purely statistical so trying to get the current state of your city meant staring at windows with rows of numbers, and looking at a value like “47%” and then trying to figure out what that means, what affected that, and what you should do to move that number up or down. There’s usually a lot of guessing, and then you just stop guessing, and just spam bus stops (or whatever) everywhere and moved on. For me, playing SC4 sometimes felt like balancing a spreadsheet. So with Glassbox, I like how the data is presented like a real-time animated info-graphic style, allowing you to see what’s going on right now. It’s nice to not have to comb through rows of data while playing the game to understand a situation. I do see some value for having charts though, perhaps more like a summary, or annual report, where you can see a nicely plotted graph of trends in crime, pollution, population, what improved, what’s declining, that sort of thing. It’s info fluff for sure, but it would give the city a growth history. The complexity of buildings, and modding As we walked around the studio, nearly every wall it seemed was covered with large format print-outs of concept artwork. I was impressed with the attention to detail that went into the design of every building. This stuff makes a SimCity geek happy. And looking at them, I started to appreciate just how much more there is to consider for each building now that they are in 3d, animated, and can be expandable with modules. That’s going to take modding and custom content to a new level. There are still a lot of questions with modding and custom content support. I can tell you that Maxis is very keen to support modding, but don’t expect any tools until well after launch. Right now, they just don’t have any solid answers or solutions on how modding could work in a persistent world with these online regions. How does a modded building affect that global economy? Would it? Should it? What about other players in your region? Maybe if you play with modded or custom content, you play in your own region, and you affect nothing else, including the global economy. But should you get to access the global economy? Does that not just isolate you, you know, just as if you were playing a single-player offline game? The other thing to consider is the leap in technology and tools just needed to create a building. In SimCity 4 the buildings were essentially static sprites. Buildings in the new SimCity are fully 3d objects. And I’m assuming with the Glassbox simulator there’s even more to account for: Building have animations to indicate their state, such as doors opening, or conveyor belts moving. Lighting is now volumetric, no longer simply baked onto the texture as in SC4. Buildings that provide services can be upgraded and expanded with snap-on modules; those snap-on areas must be considered in the over all design. All buildings require road access, so the artist must plan where road connections on the lot would be ideally placed. I’m certain there’s more that goes into creating a building. Additionally, all models are now built in Maya (along with some proprietary tools and palettes that Maxis developed to work in Maya for the project). So if all the above requirements are true for Maxis-made buildings, it seems reasonable to expect that custom content makers must follow the same standard. It’s a lot to consider, but I know it’s on their minds. When the time comes, content creators can expect a big leap in both complexity and creativity. While Maxis doesn’t have all the answers to modding yet, they are open to a dialogue with the community and to hear your feedback. Road geeks win with 3d The other great benefit of everything in true 3d, is roads. Because roads are now full 3d paths, Road Geeks will literally have a whole other dimension to play within. Ocean Quigley gave us a demo of the road tool and it was pretty sweet to see just how easy he was able to create a three level overpass by using the free-form tool and dragging out an elevated road, dragged another one beneath it, and one on top. Elevated roads create their own support pylons, and if there’s sufficient space beneath, you can run another road or rail under it. The road tool is smart enough to try to solve bumpy or hilly terrain for you. At times it will suggest a bridge as a solution to span a gap, other times it might draw a road down one incline and up another. But if you want finer control, you can still create your own solution by inching the road tool along and clicking to commit as you go along. There seemed to be endless possibilities, and unlike previous titles, making these complex configurations looked pretty effortless. Also, I loved the fact that as you draw your road, you’ll see a dotted line hinting the optimal space required for zoning. So if you wanted to carve a winding road down a hill, the zone hinting line will make sure you leave enough space to zone your hillside houses. Zoning, changes and omissions On the topic of zoning, you no longer specify density for your zones. The density of the building that will grow there will depend on the type of road its adjacent to. Busy roads with lots of traffic will result in high density, but low volume roads will create low density buildings. There will no longer be an agricultural zone. No farms. When asked, the team felt that farm zones offered no real gameplay value. Well, two things to say about that: they may not add much to gameplay, but it did allow players to design a city with that distinct agricultural look so it’s a shame it’s gone, we lose variety. Second thing, what about actually adding a gameplay element to farms? Make farms produce goods that would be sold on the global market. Now people have a choice to specialize even further if they want to export grown goods for income. There’s a built-in trade-off since farms take up a lot of space and there are risks such as pollution, disasters, drought. If you get a good yield one year, you might make a lot of money selling high wine (or whatever) sold to rich sims everywhere. But you may not always get a profitable year, so it's risk versus reward. It’s also a challenge to operate a purely agricultural based city; you’d need to support it with neighbouring cities and deals to ensure your other needs are met. If anything it’s just more interesting choices for the player. In other words, turn agriculture into a challenge. People might enjoy the challenge of trying to sustain a profitable agricultural city. It could add another dynamic to both the global market and multiplayer regions. Anyway, just an idea. Speaking of multiplayer, when I first heard that the new SimCity will be an “online multiplayer SimCity”, I probably had the same reaction as some of you. Honestly, the term “multiplayer SimCity” must, to a core fan, confuse as much as it offends. Multiplayer and always-online So far, we have no real idea how online multiplayer, global markets and global economies will play out. I’m guessing the Beta is where we’re going to discover all that. My initial resistance was based on the fear that I would be forced to play in a region with other people and I had no choice. For me, leaderboards and group challenges hold almost no appeal whatsoever, other players might dig that. I hope the online component offers some surprising dynamic that we haven't already seen before and that serve to engage more than to annoy. So we know now that you can still play an entire region by yourself - though you still have to be online. So that brings us to a burning point of contention which has been debated all over the forums here and abroad. I don’t think I can add much more to the conversation, but I did bring up the topic with Maxis at dinner the one night: “Ok, so hey, let’s say I had a long day at work, and I just want to go home, relax and load up SimCity. In fact, I can’t wait to get home and work on my city. I’ve been thinking about it all day. So I get home, I load it up, and the servers are down. I can’t play… so… now what?” The only answer I got was about the only answer I deserved for such a loaded question. Kip shrugged his shoulders and offered a “c’est la vie” face. Really, what else could he say? We are told that online play is asynchronous, so temporary outages will not disrupt your game. And yes, occasionally Origin servers may be down for maintenance, and you won’t be able to login or you may be kicked out of the game, but we can be assured that plenty of notice will always be given. While not new, I still reject the idea of “always online” but I am accepting that it will be the way many games will go. Still at the risk of being obnoxious on the topic, I wanted to press the point another way: “Ok, so you look at SimCity 4 released 10 years ago, and I can still load it up today and play it. I can load it up five years from now and still play it. I don’t need to sign in, I don’t need a server, I just load it up and play. How can this always online requirement be able to assure me that I can still play my game, say, a year or 10 from now just as I can with SimCity 4?” As an answer, Kip hunched over and waved his fingers: “Hmmm… let me look into my crystal ball…” There was laughter, it was kinda funny. And really, what did I expect? Still, however glib Kip’s response, within it contained about as much truth and assurance as I could have hoped to extract on the matter. The honest answer of course is that no one really knows for sure, and there really are no promises. There was no answer that could have satisfied. Not to paint Kip as completely glib and dismissive (he’s actually very patient, great to talk to and good humoured) he did address my concern as best as he was able to: Maxis values SimCity greatly, it’s one of their flagship titles, and that we have every good intention of making sure it has a long life. Something along that line. So there you go, that’s the best answer they can possibly give us, whether that affects your buying decision is up to you. Final musings Some final thoughts, I have noticed that the SimCity coming out in February has a disconcerting lack of version suffix. We’ve just been calling it the New SimCity. Is it possible that this is the Final SimCity? From what I’ve seen, and I have not seen it all, the concepts and the intents behind the ideas all support a distinct possibility for a great game. While I am mostly, cautiously, optimistic by what I have seen so far, and despite a few points on which I disagree with -- if I have any meaningful reservations to share with you it would be the overall visual style. I’m not warming to it yet. It could be that I just haven’t played the game enough, and that I’ve only really seen very early builds and demos, but the truth is right now, I’m not connecting with the visual style which feels to me overtly cute, bright and cartoony. SimCity 4 had a clean stylized realism to it that felt right, at least for me. In the new SimCity, there’s something about the scale of the city in general, the look of the buildings, the awkward spaces between buildings (ugh), the way all the cities we’ve seen look and feel sparse. I’m not looking for realistic, just believable. So for what it’s worth, there’s my big disconnect right now, perhaps real gameplay may cure that at some point. Overall, Maxis is doing a lot to move the game forward. And I believe them when they say that having a deep simulator is important, we’ll wait and see how deep it is, but it’s looking promising. It feels like they want to make SimCity more connected, socially engaging, encouraging you to partner up to build “great works” and complete challenges. There’s lots of evidence that Maxis wants to make the game more appealing and more accessible to bring in new players without, hopefully, alienating the dedicated fans (too much). I can see this effort in some of the design choices, super friendly interface, the way data is rendered in a more friendly way, the new music is friendly and relatable (unlike the electronic, abstract mix of SC4), and mostly in the art direction; the brighter palette, the sense of scale. The tilt-shift style makes it all look miniature, like a toy … like a doll-house city, maybe? At the Maxis Live broadcast event, one thing about the presentation format did not escape me. The SimCity portion of the live event was bracketed by two major The Sims 3 announcements. I mean even the “promotional” mystery box for SimCity, required owning some Sims 3 expansions. Now there’s nothing wrong with this. It was just an observation and I’m not suggesting anything more nefarious than just savvy marketing and PR. Whatever the intention, I think it was a good thing. Maxis is known for The Sims and SimCity (what’s Spore?). The difference, is that The Sims 3 has approximately nine thousand expansions. SimCity 4, has one. If there’s any hope for the title to be a commercial success (and more than just fan service) -- which means continued support, more expansions, servers remaining online -- it’s got to appeal to more players than just us core fans. So, core fans, in February what we’ll see will be the next generation of SimCity. I for one hope that the game has enough in it for me so I can include myself in this next generation, too. That’s all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading. Dirktator

Half a million, what a milestone! Big congrats to the site staff who keep this site so stable despite the numbers. I wonder how many of that 500k are active?

Banished is a city-building strategy game that charges you with the task of starting a small town, growing population, managing crops. Place buildings to harvest resources and convert them into goods. There is no mass transit, or any kind of transportation network, but the small rural town simulator might appeal to some looking for a change of pace. The game is very near release with a 2013 ship date. More details at the site, and support the developer if you like it. More videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningRockSoftware?feature=watch Welcome to the world of Banished! In this city-building strategy game, you control a group of exiled travelers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They have only the clothes on their backs and a cart filled with supplies from their homeland. The objective of the game is to keep the population alive and grow it into a successful culture. Options for feeding the people include hunting and gathering, agriculture, trade, and fishing. However, sustainable practices must be considered to survive in the long term.

So we have been invited to Maxis' studios at the main EA campus to get some first-hand impressions of the game and to interact with the developers. Up for this trip will be Zelgadis and myself to represent the Simtropolis community. We will be getting some hands-on time with the game itself, and some time to speak with the developers. We will also be attending the Maxis live broadcast the following day, where SimCity will also be a topic of discussion! This is super exciting and we're looking forward to seeing the new game in person and will be getting some chat-time with the development team. I'd love to bring down some of your burning questions to ask in person, so please use this topic to let us know what you want us to try to cover. I can't promise we can get answers for everything, but you know we'll try our best! Both Zelgadis and I will be visiting with Maxis Oct 8 and attending the live broadcast event Oct 9. We'll post frequent updates via the website and twitter, so let us know what you want us to say or keep an eye out for. We'll also give you a full debriefing when we get back, as well as our honest to goodness first-hand feedback of this new version of the greatest city simulation game. EDIT: Thanks for the feedback everyone, we'll take the top most voted questions down with us and try to dig up some answers as best we can!

"Cities: Skylines is a great city builder. I still think my personal favorite is SimCity 2000 but at this point I can confidently say that's more because of nostalgia than because Cities: Skylines doesn't measure up. It does. Gigantic areas. Pretty tilt-shift post-processing. Offline mode. Curved roads. Interesting pollution and water simulations. Steam Workshop support. Plenty of information overlays pertaining to everything from wind to population happiness to noise pollution. And there are some features I haven't even mentioned, like the fact you can create districts in your city and then assign them unique policies like high-rise bans and small-business tax breaks. Is it perfect? No. The end of the game is just as mindless as any other city builder, including SimCity 2000, and certain simulations could be more involved or at least more communicative. I'm still delving into the traffic system for instance and trying to figure out whether certain quirks are actually broken simming or just my own incompetence. But overall this is the city builder I've been waiting for. Time to get back to it—my city's in another window waiting for its mayor to return." At a Glance Cities: Skylines somehow lives up to the unfair expectations heaped upon it, presenting one of the best city builders in years. Pros Massive area to build inEasy to get started, but plenty of depth for those who want to dig into systemsCons End-game is mindless, as you might as well have infinite moneyTraffic simulation can be intimidating to newcomersRead the full review at the source.

Cities: Skylines sells more within 24 hours than any previous game in the Paradox catalogue! STOCKHOLM – March 12, 2015 – Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order, currently gaming’s proudest parents, have today revealed that Cities: Skylines, the critically and commercially acclaimed city simulation game for PC, Mac and Linux, has sold an incredible 250,000 copies, including pre-orders, in its first 24 hours on sale, shattering sales records for every previous game in the Paradox catalogue released within the same period of time. Commenting on the success of Cities: Skylines, CEO of Paradox Interactive Fredrik Wester said, “We would like to offer our deepest and heartfelt thanks to the community for their passionate support and to let them know that we are committed to supporting this wonderful game for years to come, in the same way that we have for our Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis communities. We knew that we had a great game on our hands and so to be able to continue to provide fans of the game with a multitude of new content for it going forward is fantastic.” Wester then went on to talk about their relationship with developer Colossal Order. “Our congratulations and thanks must also go to developer Colossal Order for making what is being widely described as the new benchmark of the city building genre. We have forged a strong partnership with them over a number of years through the release of Cities in Motion and Cities in Motion 2, and I am happy to see such a talented team now being widely applauded for their unmatched passion and skill.” CEO of Colossal Order Mariina Hallikainen commented, "We at Colossal Order are absolutely thrilled to see so many players enjoying Cities: Skylines and that the Steam Workshop is filling up with amazing content from the modders. We are feeling very happy and proud and can't wait to continue working on Cities: Skylines together with the community!" Cities: Skylines is now available for purchase for $29.99, with a deluxe edition available for $39.99 that includes five in-game historical monuments.

In a major milestone for Simtropolis, the STEX has now reached a grand total of 100 million downloads! (As of 17:35 GMT, 13 Feb 2015) Over the past 12 years, members of this community have shared and continue to share content of dazzling and diverse quality. From buildings to mods, the games we play continue to be improved and expanded. 18,848 files later, reaching this figure is really a testament to how strong the member base is, and how influential custom content is for a game’s longevity. Also, special thanks must go to our Dirktator for providing this website -- the foundations which have made this landmark a reality. Join us in celebrating this remarkable achievement! There may be a few surprises in store over the next few weeks (all will be revealed)... Interviews #01: MandelSoft - Transit modder & member of the NAM Team #02: Heblem - Content creator & founder of the LBT Team #03: Glenni - Tower block & ghetto BATter #04: madhatter106 - Commercial building BATter #05: paeng - Lotter & founder of NightOwl Productions #06: mrbisonm - Content creator & founder of Nexis #07: rivit - Transportation & automata modder #08: Aaron Graham - New York apartment BATter & member of the NYBT #09: Seraf - BATter & member of the NYBT #10: Tarkus - Transit modder & member of the NAM Team & NHP #11: T Wrecks - Industrial / residential lotter & modder #12: Sabretooth78 - Buffalo New York building BATter #13: nofunk - Midwest USA BATter & member of mipro (originally the BSP) #14: bixel - Hong Kong BATter & original member of the HKABT #15: Jasoncw - BATter & member of mipro (originally the BSP) Celebration Uploads [View List Here] Thanks to all interview participants, and SimCoug & NMUSpidey for organising them.

Lets kick off this adventure with a rail-ish oriented update. Chapter 1 - Hangover "Ugh... what the hell happened last night?" ... "Too many shots of tequila, that's what". A comforting voice hit Leon's ears, for her words paradoxically shrilly struck his aching head. "What time is it?" he groaned in response. "Time for me to get up and go to work." Millie wandered across the room to the blinds and pulled on the draw, much to the dismay of Leon whose bloodshot eyes were stung by the rays. Leon begged "Can't you stay a little longer?" "No, silly." responded Millie with a slight giggle. "You know this internship is important to me and I can't be late again. Now, I'm off to the station. I love you, dearest." Leon watched her walk out the apartment door. Like every noise, the closing of the door also discomforted his ears. At least he got to sleep in. Millie checked her watch. 11 minutes to the next train. She knew if she got this one, she would definitely be at the hospital by noon. Man, she missed Sunday afternoons off. The promenade was beautiful this time of year. Although there was a slight nip in the air as the bay breeze brushed her cheek, she took her time to enjoy the atmosphere before descending to the underground station below. A few minutes later, the train arrived at the Cremorne underground terminus. At least this line was frequent, unlike her home line which featured frequent unreliability. The train stopped at several stations, both underground and surface, to let passengers board and alight... ...but it was once the station reached Central that the most activity happened. People rushed off the train, only to be equaled with a sizable hustle of commuters eager to get the train to Kensington. Millie smirked to herself, "they have a ten minute frequency, why the hurry?" Such was the mentality of the person these days. The announcement read "STOPPING AT ST. LUCIA". A few people got off, presumably to grab lunch at one of the cafes that skirted the water's edge. The line also serves South Wharf, the hub of the city's ferry service. The train stopped off at a few more underground stops in Kensington, serving all parts of the inner city. Millie looked up. The all too familiar anouncement read through the speakers: "STOPPING AT WELLINGTON STREET. CHANGE HERE FOR SOUTH CITY AND ARIZONA BAY SERVICES. THIS TRAIN WILL TERMINATE". Millie checked her watch. 11:42. She had made it with 8 minutes to spare. "I guess no time for coffee, but oh well", she thought to herself. Her mind was now focused on what potential excitement would come barging through the doors of the ER this afternoon. "There's always something." Don't forget to comment or +1 if you enjoyed this update!

I can't really see a comparison here... If you're thinking SC4 has the same features SC13 has you're going to be disappointed. -On the contrary, if you're thinking SC13 has the same features SC4 has you're going to be disappointed. They're two different games. SC13 is a reboot, not a successor to SC4. Also remember 10 years have passed...

Update 10 Feedback Thread - http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/0/10023457.page Offline additional Questions - http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/0/10023459.page Q: How do I play SimCity offline? A: The new Single-Player Mode allows you to play SimCity anytime, anywhere, without the need of an active Internet connection. For the full details please read our blog post here. Q: How do I download the Single-Player Mode for SimCity? A: The Single-Player Mode will be included as part of Update 10 at no additional cost. This will be available to all current and future players on PC and Mac starting March 18, 2014. Q: Will I still require an Internet connection to play? A: An Internet connection is required to download Update 10 when it becomes available on March 18, 2014. You will not require an active Internet connection to play SimCity offline in the Single-Player Mode. Q: Can I still play the game Online? A: Yes, the Online game and all of its features are still intact. This includes Multiplayer, SimCity World and Online Save Games. Q: Will my previous Downloadable Content (DLC) be playable in the Single-Player Mode? A: Yes. All of your previous DLC is available for use in both the Single-Player Mode and Multiplayer Mode. Q: Do I need an Origin Account to play? A: Yes, you use Origin to download and launch SimCity. Once you’ve installed Update 10, you can put Origin into offline mode when you are playing Single-Player Mode. Q: How do I put Origin into Offline Mode? A: To put Origin in Offline mode, log in to the Origin client and select: Origin>Go Offline Q: Do I need to login to Origin online in order to play the Single-Player Mode? A: No. If you do not have an active internet connection, you can put Origin in the offline Mode and play SimCity offline in the Single-Player Mode. Q: What features are available in Single-Player Mode? A: Single-Player Mode allows for a multi-city Single-Player experience without requiring an internet connection. All region maps are available in Single-Player Mode. Since Single-Player Mode does not require a persistent internet connection, Leaderboards, Citylog, Achievements, Friends List, Player Profile, the Region Wall, and region invites are not available in Single-Player Mode. The Global Market will be available in Single-Player Mode, but prices will be fixed. Q: What are the requirements to play in Multiplayer mode? A: The requirements to play Multiplayer have not changed. An Internet connection is required to play Multiplayer mode, Origin must be running in online mode and SimCity must be updated to the latest version. Q: Can I transfer my regions between modes? A: No. Single-Player and Multiplayer are separate modes and regions cannot be transferred between modes. Q: Where are Single-Player regions saved? A: Single-Player regions are saved locally, not on the server. You can find your regions on PC here: \Documents\SimCity\Games\~ID NUMBER~\ You can find your regions on Mac here: Go->Documents->SimCity -> Games -> ~ID NUMBER~ Q: If I uninstall or change machines, can I transfer my Single-Player Mode regions to the new install or Machine? A: If you uninstall SimCity, your saved games will still be available. However if you change machines, you will need to manually move your game files to the games file location on your new machine. Q: Can I move my Single-Player Mode saved game from my PC to Mac and vice versa? A: Yes, you can transfer your Single-Player Mode saved games between PC and Mac. Q: How many regions can I have? A: There is no limit to the number of saved regions a player can have in Single-Player Mode. The file size of your regions will vary depending on density and population of your cities. Q: How do saves work in Single-Player Mode? A: Autosave is on by default and saves your region every ten minutes. Your region is also automatically saved if you quit your region or switch to another city in the region. To disable Autosave, go to the Options menu > Settings > Gameplay tab and uncheck “Enable Autosave in Single-Player Mode”. Disabling Autosave will allow you to save at points you want to save at. If Autosave is disabled, you will be asked if you would like to save your region when you quit or switch to another city in the region. You can manually save your region at any time by pressing “Save Game” from the options menu. Q: How do I rollback my regions? How do I make a copy of my region? A: If Autosave is disabled, you can save your region at a certain point and then experiment with your region. If you wish to go back to a previous save point, you can choose not to save your region when exiting the game. If you load that region from the main menu or resume page, it will load from the last saved point. If you would like to make a copy of your region, press “Save As…” from the options menu. You will be prompted to name the copy of your region. This gives you the control to come up with a naming convention that works for you for your copied version. Once you submit that name, you will load the copy of the region. The original region will remain at the last saved point. You can access the original or the copy from the Main Menu in the Play tab. Q: What cheats are available in Single-Player Mode? A: Existing live cheats are available in Sandbox regions while playing Single-Player Mode. The following cheats are available in Single-Player Mode in non-Sandbox games. Add §10,000 to City budget. Windows: CTRL + ALT + W OS X: CTRL + ALT + W Add §5,000 per hour to City budget. Windows: CTRL + ALT + S OS X: CTRL + ALT + S Add §100,000 per hour to City budget. Windows: ALT + W OS X: ALT + S Disasters are unlocked in Single-Player Mode.

NAM 31.1 is a full package, which improves upon the initial "open beta" that was NAM 31. It fixes about 100 issues that had been reported since the NAM 31 release in March 2013, improving overall stability and performance. Crash-to-desktop (CTD) on save and related performance issues from NAM 31 are largely solved: A number of users, particularly those with newer Intel Core Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs (e.g. i7, etc.) had experienced issues with the game crashing to desktop (CTDing) when trying to save, with NAM 31 in their plugins. This was tied to the much larger NAM Controller build that was contained in NAM 31, which also caused the game to use considerably more memory. The increase in size was largely due an attempt to "ultra-stabilize" some NAM override networks, including some RealHighway widths/heights and the Street Addon Mod variants (SAM ultra-stability had been in place in NAM 30). The code on these override networks has been whittled down for this release, eliminating stability for situations that users were much less likely to build. In order to address a wide variety of scenarios, the NAM Team is now providing two different controller packages--the smaller "standard" (or "s-series") package, and the larger "extreme" (or "e-series"). The difference between the s-series and e-series is that the s-series disables SAM ultra-stability, and the higher elevated RealHighway networks (Level 3/22.5m and Level 4/30m). The s-series is installed by default. Users who desire the larger e-series controller can select the option from the installer, using the Custom Installation option. It is recommended that if you are using the e-series controller on one of the crash-prone processors, such as a Sandy Bridge Core i7, and especially if you have a large plugins folder (at least 3GB), that you should patch your SimCity 4.exe file to be Large Address Aware. A suitable Large Access Aware patch can be found here. You should have more than 4GB of RAM if using Large Access Aware modde. Road Turning Lanes: As with NAM 31, the Road Turning Lanes are no longer automatically generated when a Road x Road intersection is built. The auto-build functionality was causing considerable complications with the functionality of the Network Widening Mod and new Draggable Fractional Angle Roads, and as the NWM and Draggable FAR have a greater impact on game functionality (adding capacity and new build angles, as opposed to mere eyecandy), the Road Turning Lanes Plugin has been redesigned to function in an "optional" manner, which doesn't interfere with other features and allows the user more freedom in turn lane placement, without resorting to Turn Lane Extension Pieces (TuLEPs). To add turn lanes to a Road x Road intersection, simply click the intersection with the Rail tool. As with all previous releases, the Road Turning Lanes only apply to Road x Road intersections. If you desire turning lanes on Road x Avenue intersections, you will need to use Turn Lane Extension Pieces (TuLEPs). New Street network functionality: Some new draggable wide-radius curves, and intersections along wide-radius curves, are now possible with the Street network. Credit for this new feature goes to Swordmaster from the NAM Team. Transit stations: After the first release of transit stations in NAM 31, a number of bug reports were received about these stations. As a result, all of the stations included with the NAM have gone through extensive retesting, and have been modified when necessary. Many of the modifications fix major bugs, while some of them simply improve the performance of the station. For PC users, any stations plopped in your cities from NAM 31 will automatically be upgraded when you install NAM 31.1.For Mac users, the replacement set of basic Maxis stations had to be modified, along with the Modern El Train Station by Brenda Xne. These fixes were necessary due to a bug in the Mac version of SC4. If you're a Mac user and you plopped any of these stations from the NAM using version 31, you will have to bulldoze them and replop them once you have installed NAM 31.1.NAM 31.1 also includes a number of new stations, which have gone through the same extensive testing as the stations listed above. Most of the new stations are optional, meaning that they are not automatically installed with the Complete Standard Installation; instead, you must select the Custom Installation and select these new stations on the Components page. RealHighway Filler Pieces: The RHW Fillers have been, at long last, restored and expanded for NAM 31.1. They were previously in such a broken state, that they had been disabled for NAM 31. Mac users: The separate NAM for Mac OS package has been discontinued as of NAM 31. It is recommended that you access a Windows machine or Windows installation (or use WINE), run the installer, and transfer the two installation directories (Plugins\Network Addon Mod and Plugins\z___NAM) to your Mac system. Alternatively, use Keka (http://www.kekaosx.com) to open the executable like a .zip file. If you are planning on using cosmetic additions, like the Euro Textures or the Maxis Highway Override (AKA "Project Symphony"), they are contained in the "$[65]" folder, which you should rename to "z____NAM" upon extraction. Please also note that the NAM--and most other Plugins--have compatibility issues with OS 10.7 (Lion) and later, due to the removal of Rosetta and the requirement to use the Aspyr Universal Binary patch to play SimCity 4 Deluxe in those OSes, which make the game prone to crashing. Installing over previous versions: NAM 31.1 may be installed directly over top of any previous NAM releases. It is a full release, not a patch or a hotfix. All future updates are planned to be in full package form, and there are no plans to issue patches or hotfixes in the future. Please also note that the NAM Team only provides technical support for the most recent version, which, as of this document, is NAM 31.1. We cannot assist users of the original NAM 31 release, or NAM 30 (or earlier). Special Thanks: The NAM Team would like to thank the following members of the community, who have tested the penultimate build of the NAM 31.1 controller and given their feedback on its stability, and/or assisted with other controller-related tests after the NAM 31 release, in an effort to nail down the game stability issues: A Nonny Moose, dyoungyn, Joe 90, mgarcia, mneonnew, shanghai kid, spot, and txrailcat74. Also, special thanks are in order to Haljackey and the Dirktator, for their efforts on getting this file onto the STEX. The file is also mirrored at SimCity 4 Devotion's LEX and ModDB.

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As promised in my last post a couple of weeks ago, I've been working really hard to get my new BAT ready to show you. I still have a bit of work to do, I've only made one of the statues and there's a couple of bits to fix up on the model, but its pretty close. No idea why I made this one though... maybe just jumping on the British bandwagon . Anyway, here's a sneak preview of my model of: St Paul's Cathedral, London

Back! If one follows the Cremorne Highway along the coast, they come to this junction. Continuing straight along the highway approaches the Ellraine Bridge, where turning left wraps you around into Scarborough. We will take the bridge for now. You can get some great views of the harbour from the bridge. The northern approach of the bridge cuts through a part of Canterbury known as Bridgemarket. A closer look at the apartments and terrace houses... The other bridge across the straits takes you more directly to the northern part of Scarborough. It is much older than the Ellraine Bridge Downtown Canterbury. They have spacious parks too! Thats it for now! Hopefully you enjoyed! Don't forget to +1 or comment if you enjoyed it!

You: SimCity… Network… Not this again! What are EA up to n– Wait. SimCity 4? Network Addon Mod? Me: The latest SimCity might have been hamstrung by infrastructural problems, but there’s no reason your love affair with Maxis’ fair city-builder need end there. SimCity 4 has enormous cities. SimCity 4 had no internet requirement. SimCity 4 had… all the same traffic problems as the more recent release. But! It also had a vibrant modding community that’s still working on fixing problems and making the game better today. This pre-release (i.e. alpha release) of version 32 of the Network Addon Mod is testament to that. NAM improves the game’s pathfinding, fixes bugs in the base game, and adds “a myriad of new transport network items, ranging from ground light rail, to fractional-angle roads, to roundabouts, and much more” Roundabouts! Here’s an expanded list of features from the ModDB site, because it’s the nerdy detail of it all that excites me so much. And so on. NAM isn’t the only SimCity 4 mod worth installing, nor the only mod still under development. The SimCity 4 Devotion website and forums reveal a community still humming away with activity, and there’s a lot that’s worth looking at. That includes downloadable saved games, new buildings to turn your city into Tokyo or some other real world hotspot, and expansive mods and total conversions. Despite its age, SimCity 4′s high-resolution sprites still look fantastic. Time has even been kind, as today’s faster computers have a better time rendering all those hundreds of sprites than my machine did when the game was first released. If you’re looking for a spot of management and city-building this Christmas, you could do worse than dig out your old copy. Because no matter how hard they try, there’s hardly a single game developer that can match the ouput and commitment of their community. The Network Addon Mod is available from ModDB, and the SC4D Lot Exchange contains plenty more to browse.

The Maxis Highway get a great overhaul with Project Symphony! The NAM Team officialy reveals this piece of technology for the upcoming NAM 31 release and shows what it can do. Part 1 of 2 is a presentation of the basic functionality of Project Symphony. For more information about the NAM, check SimTropolis or SC4Devotion,com and stay tuned for more NAM developments! Stay tuned for Part 2, where we going to build some basic interchanges! NAM 31: Coming to you on March 1st! (NAM Team is the best pony ) Best, Maarten/MandelSoft

I been watching this development for a while now. The game is finished and due to be released February 18th. I just thought this game release deserves some front page shine here as a new member of the city building genre made by one dedicated developer. Looks very interesting.

Dear Friends; It is with great sadness that we inform you of the permanent loss of the simpeg website. Pegasus has confirmed that the site has been critically damaged beyond the point of recovery. This is a huge blow for the simcity4 community as the vast majority of the simpeg knowledge-base and documentation has been lost as well. Many of you have expressed concerns over what happens to the content that was hosted on the PLEX. The good news is that Pegasus was never a believer in exclusivity and simultaneously released his content to both the PLEX and STEX as a failsafe, and the simpeg staff has followed this model over the years. This means the vast majority of simpeg content is already here on simtropolis and has been preserved. With Pegasus' blessing and Dirktator's kind help we will be creating a PLEX Legacy section here on the STEX, re-uploading and updating content as needed, as well as organizing it all into an more structured and easy to navigate whole to mirror the PLEX of old. This will be a long and tedious process, but we anticipate that 99% of the content that was on the PLEX will be maintained. We will also be attempting to update the omnibus here with what articles we've managed to save from the simposium. However, that is currently only a bare handful of what was lost. The greatest loss of all, though, is one that can not simply be re-uploaded. For many of us the Simpeg community was our electronic home. It was a tight-knit group whose interests and discussions transcended a simple game to encompass many aspects of our lives. Simpeg was a special place, not because of mere content and knowledge, but because of the people who made it greater than the sum of it's parts. So while we thank Pegasus for giving us a house all these years, it is with deep appreciation that we thank each and every one of you members of simpeg for making that house a home. What we had will well and truly be missed. It is our sincere wish that you will all find a new home, either here in the rest of the simcity community or elsewhere, and that it brings you happiness. Once again, thank YOU for making simpeg the place it was. Best Wishes, The Simpeg Staff

For the Eager, Yet Overwhelmed Newcomer New to SimCity, Simtropolis, or been out of touch for a few years? Wondering what the heck a NAM or a BAT is? And just what the heck is up with those brown boxes?! This article will take you through the basics of registering your game, whether from a hard copy of the disc or from Steam, the essentials of Simtropolis, and a jumpstart into the world of Custom Content, to bring your game to a level beyond what you could imagine is possible. I would like to thank A Nonny Moose for his contributions and influences on the creation of this article. Rush Hours, Deluxe Editions, SimCity Boxes, Oh my! Before starting on registration information, we should make a clarification on just what the differences in these versions are. The short answer is nothing. When Maxis released Rush Hour, the expansion pack to the original SimCity 4 game, they released two versions: one simply the expansion (SimCity 4: Rush Hour); the other, a version that included both the original game and the expansion pack (SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition). It makes absolutely no difference to the game whether you own the Deluxe Edition, or Rush Hour. Now, just what is the SimCity Box? After the release of SimCity Societies in 2008, EA released this version which contains SimCity 4, SimCity 4: Rush Hour, SimCity Societies, SimCity Societies: Destinations, and The Sims Carnival: SnapCity. The story here is the same with Rush Hour and the Deluxe Edition: it makes absolutely no difference. In the event that you happen to be a long time player who does not own Rush Hour or the Deluxe Edition, it should be noted that the expansion pack is required to make use of 99% of the custom content available on this site. I will explain that further later on. Registering and Updating the Game Before playing, you need to pick up the two (2) necessary EA-released patches to your game for it to work correctly. In recent months, it has been noted that the official EA SimCity 4 Deluxe site has been taken down. So as not to leave these players hanging, some mirrors have been set up containing the assorted official updates. Important note: If you purchased your game from an authorized download source, you may not need any further updates. Check the properties of the game's .exe file. If it indicates you have version 1.1.641.0 or if you already have version 1.1.640.0, you will not need further updates. For the standard, PC version updates, check out here: SC4Devotion Own the Mac edition and can't open .exe's? Check out this thread: Bought your copy off Steam? Steam comes pre-patched! Yay! You should apply the two updates to the game in this order: EP1 to fix bugs, and the BATupdate to allow nightlights. When you are finished, you should check to see that the version number of the .exe file for the game in Program files/Maxis/Apps has been updated to 1,1,640,0. This is proof that your updates worked. Optional Upgrades and Tools You may notice on the mirror sites, a number of other downloads available. Among these are new landmarks, new rewards, the Lot Editor, and Building Architect Tool (BAT). These are all optional, and are not necessary for the games function or the addition of but do add content, and functionality. So, just what do these BAT and Lot Editor things do? The Lot Editor allows you to construct new lots, using the buildings, textures, and assorted prop pieces included within the game. The Building Architect Tool (BAT) allows you to construct new 3D models, and is what is used to create new buildings, trees, seawalls, spaceships, and everything inbetween. Using the Lot Editor and the BAT in tandem, the world is yours to create. It should be noted that both these tools have a sizeable learning curve. We do have a number of tutorials here to get you started, the most notable of these being the BAT Essentials Tutorial in the Omnibus. Unleashing the Game At this point, your game is ready to go! The appropriate patches are in place, and the game is as optimized as Maxis and EA could make it. So where to now? Many players are happy to play the game without any custom content, relying simply on what Maxis has provided. It is indeed very possible to create beautiful cities using only what content Maxis provided. But, many would also point out that the game can be so much more. In the 8 years since the release of the game, the amount of custom content available brings the game to an entirely new level. Players can recreate their hometowns with stunning accuracy, watching roads twist and curve, with even the correct corner market in place. Players can build in the desert, in futuristic settings, or on Mars. The custom content community has taken a finite game and given it infinite possibilities. And the question I'm sure you're asking by this point is, where do I begin? There are a number of exchanges available for you to browse. Here on Simtropolis, the STEX is perhaps the largest, and one of the oldest exchanges devoted to SimCity 4. The other primary English exchanges are SC4Devotion LEX and the PLEX (now on the STEX). You could say that SC4Devotiion is the high-tech site, and that Pegasus is the theme site, and you wouldn't be far wrong. Most community exchanges both require free registration in order to download, as Simtropolis does. The SimCity community expands far beyond English speakers, however - other communities include German and Japanese sites. Growable? Ploppable? What? As you browse the exchanges, you'll notice these phrases on assorted files throughout. The answer to this could not be simpler. A growable lot means that it will grow on its own with the appropriate zoning, as if it were any building created by Maxis. Ploppable lots allow you to plop the building as if it were a landmark. Some ploppables retain their commercial/industrial nature and provide jobs as though they were grown. It should be noted that at early points in the exchange, you may run across residential ploppables. These do not work, and will abandon some time after plopping. So, I've Downloaded Some Stuff. Now what? Installation of downloads really is simple. This article by our fearless Dirktator outlines the process of installation. Some downloads now come with .exe installers, which simplifies the process even more - the installer does all the work for you. The next question you may have is where the heck do I find my ploppable items in the game? Some items will be pretty intuitive as to where they are located - Educational facilities are located in the Schools menu, policing facilities in the Police menu, etc. But what about that great skyscraper advertised as a ploppable? Those will generally be located in the Landmarks menu. Nearly everything else (parks, churches, etc.) will be located in either Parks or Rewards. And if you just can't find it anywhere, consult the ReadMe that should have been included with the download. It should state where it is located in the menu system in game. Brown Boxes, Everywhere! Uh oh! This may look tragic, but it doesn't mean your game is wrecked. You just missed downloading some dependencies. Wait, what? Dependewho? Dependencies are separate files that a lot uses to complete itself. If Download A cannot find the appropriate dependency, it reverts to the lovely boxes you can see in the picture above. It may not look like it, but each lot is actually filled with bits and pieces of other files to make the bigger picture. The trees, the benches, the garbage cans, the swimming pools you see on assorted lots are all individual pieces, that come together to create a house, a park, or a shopping complex. All downloads on the SimTropolis EXchange are required to list all dependencies needed to work properly. If you've looked everywhere and just can't find that dependency, or if the dependency package is locked, please make a post here, and one of our friendly members will help you out. You may have further questions in regards to dependencies. As with installation, I would like to refer you to another article that goes into much further detail. The Dependency Debate by north_country_dude goes into great detail about the pros and cons of dependencies, and answers a few of the common questions you may have about them. So what should I download? Building tastes vary from person to person. Personally, I prefer the drab, 1970's concrete buildings, while many prefer the sleek, glass modern skyscrapers. Because of this, I'm not going to recommend any particular buildings - but I can recommend some mods that are considered the best and the greatest. Network Addon Mod, or the NAM. This mod was first conceived with the discovery of an unfinished road network Maxis left in the game. The talented modding community has taken this and turned it into entirely new road networks, gave us roundabouts, and allows us to create true metropolitan cities with roads to match. This can be found here on the STEX, or at SC4Devotion. If you're interested, here is the "official" NAM FAQ Thread with links to the different parts used with NAM & answers to common queries. If any issues come up while using NAM, there's also a support thread here. Various NAM Team members including Tarkus frequent the thread and gladly help out. A terrain and water mod. When you first launch the game, the grass and water seems realistic enough. A bit off perhaps, but hey nothing can be perfect. Not true - modders have been able to create new textures for the terrain and the water, which makes the Maxis textures look like off-coloured drawings. Cycledogg has made a number of varying terrain mods, and there are assorted water textures on the STEX, each varying for the kind of water your city needs. SimMars. Certainly this mod is not for everyone, but this article would be deficient if it weren't mentioned. SimMars transforms SimCity to Mars, complete with textures, buildings, road networks and music to match. The work done on this is exceptional, and it sits with the NAM as the greatest projects to improve the game that SimCity has seen. Everything else listed here. Livin in Sim has created this top ten list of great mod's that should be essential. A few other members have listed their contributions as well, and I would highly recommend them all! From there you could look through the CJ section to get ideas or run through the STEX and other exchanges to see if anything "jumps" out at you. As I mentioned before, if you can't seem to find something, make a post here and someone is bound to help you out. How do I win? SimCity is different from most games, as there is no set end point. Your success is based on goals you set. For many, a balanced budget and proper governance of a successful city without "godly" intervention (ie. cheats) makes a successful game. For many, the accurate recreation of a real life city is the goal, generally with the assistance of assorted budget cheats. For others still, it's simply to create the best city they can. Set your own goals and adjust as you achieve them. For all flavours of player, however, we do have an assortment of tutorials here on Simtropolis to help you on the Omnibus. The sections that will interest you most are SimCity 4 Reference and SimCity 4 Tutorials. Check back from time to time, as we do continue to add articles! Hopefully, this article has helped you get started. If you have any further questions that this article didn't answer, the folk in the forums and the chatroom are always eager to help, and any member of the Simtropolis Help Squad would be more than happy to give you some tips to the right direction.

A sneak preview of new features in development for the upcoming Version 32 release of the Network Addon Mod (NAM) reveals a number of new features for the NAM's RealHighway (RHW) plugin, including the new QuickChange system.

The long awaited version of SC4Mapper have been released It now works in XP, Vista, win7 and even in win8 It features a config.bmp editor so you can now tweak a SC4M to your liking

Q: Will Sim City (2013) be playable in solo mode without being connected to the internet?

Any suggestions?

Coming Attractions... FINALLY FINISHED FELINE FIEF... Kiligan is coming!

Update 46 1884 Previously on New SorGun… The system that has kept New SorGun moving forward is hitting a few bumps on the road. Kitty Timworthy has brought together a coalition of various groups with the sole interest of bringing down Eastman T. Finch and the other elites who run the town… While Kitty’s movement was gaining momentum, Finch and his supporters couldn’t seem to catch a break. The recession of 1882 was beginning to be felt in New SorGun. A number of businesses were shutting their doors for good and the current leaderships promises of growth and prosperity began falling on deaf ears. Kitty saw the shifting momentum as a sign that her cause was just, but something happened on November 23, 1883 that even she couldn’t believe. After many previous attempts, the Territorial Legislature finally passed a bill that gave women the right to vote. Only the Wyoming and Utah territories had enacted women’s suffrage prior to the Washington territory. Finally, Kitty and the rest of her sisters would have the same voice in the polling booths as their husbands, brothers and fathers. Almost immediately, Kitty was approached by a number of supporters begging her to run for Mayor in next year’s election. It was no secret that Mayor Walker, now almost 70, was stepping down after almost two decades of service to the little frontier town. In that time, Walker had seen New SorGun grow from a few shops along Main Street, to a lively commercial center. (animation) Until now, folks didn’t give too much thought as to who would replace the well-loved retiring mayor, but with the events of the past few years it became apparent that the future of their town could hinge on the upcoming election. As winter gave way to the spring of 1884, Kitty finally caved to the pressure and announced her candidacy for Mayor as the ‘Peoples Candidate’. (click for full) There was an immediate wave of excitement throughout town. Suddenly, disenchanted groups of citizens finally felt they had a real representative who would fight for their interests. Women, workers, prohibitionists and other groups from across the political spectrum all celebrated the possibility of capturing the highest political position in the region. However, not everyone was leaping on ‘The Peoples’ bandwagon. Some of Kitty’s supporters, including the Knights of Labor held a spiteful reputation for rabble-rousing and causing trouble. Many in town, including business owners, investors, farmers and others feared ‘The Peoples’ ticket and the harm they could do to New SorGun by pursuing their reforms. Despite what many of Kitty’s supports claimed, New SorGun had achieved amazing growth and prosperity under the guidance of the businessmen who made up the current political administration in town. (click for full) After Kitty’s announcement, the business leaders in New SorGun realized they would need to nominate a strong candidate to have any chance of retaining the mayor’s seat. A number of names were batted around, but in the end only one man had the charisma, expertise and popularity to challenge the People’s Ticket. “Mr. Finch, some gentlemen are here to see you…” Eastman T. Finch was reluctant at first. Politics usually made his skin crawl and he always managed to keep his distance from the ‘great circus,’ as he usually called it. But he had seen first had what a savage band of citizens could do, and he was fearful of the ‘People’s Ticket’ and their agenda. When Finch faced a difficult decision, he was in the habit of reaching out to his good friend Anthony S. Myers. Myers always knew that he was more of a sounding board to Finch’s thoughts and rarely had any meaningful sway in his decision making process, but it suited Myers just fine – he actually enjoyed his friends company. On a beautiful spring morning, the two men met by the docks, which was Finch’s favorite place to be in New SorGun. (click for full) Finch sighed as he leaned over to feed the birds, “I've never enjoyed politics… I’d much rather create something with my own to hands than step into that mud pit.” Anthony Myers laughed as he looked out on the harbor, “Your suits are too nice to be soiled in mud. I don’t blame you for staying out of the fray.” Eastman gave a smirk. “Besides, I’ve never seen a politician build anything but their own ego,” Mr. Myers continued. “Unfortunately, my friend, I don’t think we can build our way out of this one,” said Finch sullenly. Myers listened to the gulls circling above docks. “The thought of a free meal sure whips them into a frenzy…” Finch sighed, “Yes, the gulls are similar to people in that respect…” “Perhaps, but some would say birds are more civilized,” replied Myers. Finch watched quietly as the seagulls clashed over the last crumbs of bread. A week later Finch held a gathering of his friends and associates next to the new town hall, which was still under construction. “My friends,” Finch began, “thank you for coming. As we stand here today, we can look across this marvelous patch of land and be proud of our little town. I first stepped foot on Yarahi’s pier nearly twenty years ago – I still remember the day fondly. It was only a few shops and houses then, but New SorGun was bustling with energy, and it electrified me. Today that energy continues to build and together we have erected a shining beacon that illuminates the region.” Finch paused as the gathered crowd nodded and clapped in approval “Now, Most of you know that I have little patience for politics, but I believe we have come to a crossroads,” Finch continued. “There are some who believe our great achievements are not worth the price and everything we have built constitutes a sin against man.” There were grumbles of disapproval from the crowd. “I, however, will not be shamed into exodus,” Finch bellowed. “I hold my head high and look around this great town with pride in my heart. I accept your nomination and on Election Day I hope to humbly stand before you as the next mayor of this exceptional town.” Anthony Myers clapped loudly in approval along with entire crowd. He believed in his friend and his principles, but he couldn’t escape the worrying feeling that had been nagging him since Finch informed him of his intention to run. Anthony knew Finch would be a highly capable Mayor, that much was certain, but Myers understood his friend better than most, and deep down he was worried that a highly public and vicious campaign would break Finch. His friend’s public persona was always steadfast, but behind closed doors Eastman Finch would brood and fret over personal attacks and unflattering gossip. Myers could only hope that Eastman would grow a tougher hide over the coming months, otherwise he feared what would become of his friend. (click for full) I want to send a special ‘thank you’ to C.P. for graciously allowing me use some of his unreleased 19th century models. These will be popping up in New SorGun with more regularity in the future. If you have a second, I would strongly recommend taking a look at his BAT thread over at SC4Devotion – its chock full of amazing SC4 treats. Replies to the last Teaser... Urban Constanta, Mymyjp, SylvioJ: Thank you for the compliments and support! Ln X: How do you plop MMPs on streets? That is actually the result of some excellent T21 modding by vortext. I haven't really looked into T21 modding yet, but he was kind enough to share his work with me. Ultimate727: As always, wow! You are doing this for years and it still doesn't get any close to boring! Thank you for the kind words - I try my best to keep every update fresh and new. Huston: That's quite the crowd! I can only image what'll happen. Thanks - we haven't seen the last of unruly crowds yet ModyMentos: Can't wait for the next update, and its will be the 100 one !!! Hope you enjoyed it - I will try to do something special for the 50th full update nas786: This is amazing. I am learning some american history as I read through these entries lol. Such a great job of not only capturing the era, but also showing the progression. Can't wait to see how these shady railroad guys effect the area. Thanks for stopping by. Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of the railroad barons

Update 43 Fall 1884 Previously on New SorGun… Like so many others, Lee Shao arrived in America with a shirt on his back and determination in his heart. His hard work and perseverance led him to Steamer Bay and a job with the Northern Pacific Railroad. After years of sweat and toil, Lee had earned a sizeable savings, as well as a reputation as an honorable and decent man. But after President Chester A. Arthur signed the Chinese Exclusion Act into law in the spring of 1882, it looked as though Lee Shao’s big dreams could come crumbling down. (click for full size) Kathleen Blake was no stranger to disintegrating dreams. ‘Kitty,’ as her family called her, was born on a farm near Elizabethtown, KY in the spring of 1837, not too far from where the 16th President of the United States first entered this world. Tragedy first struck the Blake family when Kitty’s mother passed away during child birth three years later. (click for full size) Fortunately, Kathleen had two older brothers who treated her like a brother too. She spent much of her childhood traversing the countryside catching frogs, fighting (imaginary) Indians and hunting rabbits. Her father did his best to raise three kids and provide for his family. He remarried when Kitty was 6 years old. Virginia, Her step-mother, was a kind women but after giving birth to Kitty’s step-sister, she never had time to develop a close bond with her step children. Kathleen’s brothers were her real family, and they continued to remain close through adolescence. Years later, President Abraham Lincoln, who was born only miles from where Kitty was raised, watched the country he swore to protect begin to crumble before his very eyes. The American Civil War was erupting across the country, and Kitty’s two brothers found themselves enlisting in the Union army to join the adventure, like thousands of like-minded young men. The brothers would see action across the western theater, but on one ill-fated day in 1862 both siblings fell defending their home state in the Battle of Richmond. (click for full size) The news devastated her father and shook Kitty to the core. The fall and winter months were the darkest she could remember, but one cold night brought a dream so vivid, Ms. Blake knew her life would never be the same. As the spring of 1863 warmed the frozen ground and her epiphany still fresh in her mind, Kitty joined one of many wagon trains heading west. With a new life ahead of her, Kitty felt alive for the first time since she received word of her brothers’ deaths. (click for full size) The journey lasted over 4 months, but in that time Kitty struck up a romance with a tailor by the name of Henry Timworthy. The pair married near the end of their trip, and Kitty followed her new husband up the pacific coast to a frontier town by the name of New SorGun. Mr. Timworthy earned a good living by mending and selling clothes to loggers passing through the area, while Kitty learned the ins and outs of being a homemaker on the edge of civilization. (click for full size) Frontier life suited Kitty, but married life did not. The adventures and challenges of a pioneer was exactly what Kitty yearned for, but Mr. Timworthy made it clear that he expected a prim and proper wife. Acquaintances would note that the pair fit together like oil and water. Mrs. Timworthy, like so many other women of the time, veiled her unhappiness and struggled on. She passed the time throwing herself at any community project that caught her interest, which often times included helping folks who were down on their luck. She enjoyed serving meals at one of the first soup kitchens in New Sorgun. (click for full size) By the summer of 1865, Kitty was well known and respected around New SorGun and she was beginning to feel at home in this new frontier. The Civil War, which took her two precious brothers, was all but over and a feeling of renewal and hope began to fall over the citizens of SorGun. But in a strange twist of fate, Mr. Timworthy fell ill and passed away soon after. As anybody would surely expect, Kitty was devastated. Although the two were not necessarily the closest of married couples, the unexpected death shocked Kitty. Was she destined to be deprived of love and happiness? These thoughts filled Kitty, and as she mourned the death of her husband the only sliver of joy that struck her was when she found herself at the soup kitchen feeding the hungry souls who passed through the door. Suddenly, the dream she so clearly recalled came flooding back, and Kitty realized what she must do. Mr. Timworthy was a frugal man and he left a sizable savings to Kitty when he passed. She could have easily used the money to live the rest of her days in modest comfort, but that life didn’t interest her in the slightest. Instead, Kitty Timworthy opened up a saloon in the up and coming area of New SorGun, right near the Yarahi Mill. Business was booming, and by 1867 Kitty was using much of the profits from the Saloon to offer free meals to the town’s homeless and destitute citizens, fulfilling her philanthropic instincts. (click for full size) As a business owner, Kitty became more involved in the political world of the growing frontier town. As a woman, she was acutely aware of the near monopoly men held on the governing of day to day life in New SorGun (that could be said of the entire world, as well). Naturally, she became interested in anti-establishment philosophies that touted change, including suffrage, socialism, prohibition and others. Kitty was even honored to host a dinner with Susan B. Anthony and Abigail Scott Duniway as they toured the Pacific Northwest in the fall of 1871. A few years later, after the shocking decision of the Northern Pacific Railroad to make the western terminus in Steamer Bay, Mr. Eastman T. Finch was hailed as the savior of New SorGun after he and completed the coal line from Foxton to New SorGun. Like most residents, Kitty was glad New SorGun wasn’t turned into a ghost town, but she became distraught after learning the plight of some of the railroad workers. The pay was paltry and the labor was hard and dangerous. (click for full size) During one town council meeting, Kathleen Timworthy suggested an ordinance to ensure that every worker receive a hot meal each day, and medical attention if necessary. Of course, she was nearly laughed out of the hall by the town’s gentry for suggestion such an absurd notion. Mr. Finch delivered a haughty rebuke of her proposal, which incensed Kitty even further. It became apparent to Kitty that convincing the towns ruling elite to enact change for the good of the people was a losing proposition. Fortunately for Kitty, the winds of change were in the air. I'd like to thank krashspeed for creating all the awesome HH models, including the mind blowing details like the various sims... These future entries wouldn't be half as good without his amazing craftsmanship. Also, thank you all for hanging in there - I know it's been quite a while

SimCity will finally get an offline mode. Maxis has announced, just two months short of the game's first birthday. The news comes after repeated problems with the launch of the most recent release of the city-building game, which required players to be online. Requiring connection to the internet was seen as an attempt to curb piracy, but some users struggled to log in. The new offline version will be available to all players as a free download once testing is completed. SimCity had been a stand-alone game up until March 2013, when a new online-only version was released. The launch was beset by problems, with many gamers reportedly waiting 30 minutes or more before they could start to construct a city. Others said the game was sluggish once they were playing, that it was slow to respond to changes, and it often crashed. 'Polished as possible' Electronics Arts (EA), which owns SimCity creator Maxis, apologised for the problems and said a lot more people had logged on than it had expected. It called the launch "dumb" and offered a free game to those who had been affected. At the time of the reported problems, Lucy Bradshaw, head of Maxis, said an offline, single-player mode did not fit with its "vision" for the urban-planning game and that many people preferred the online multi-player version. But in a blog post this weekend, Patrick Buechner, general manager of Maxis, said: "Let's get right to it. SimCity offline is coming! I've wanted to say those words for quite some time." "When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection." He also said that an offline version would allow users to make modifications to the game and its components without compromising the integrity of the online game. "Modding is a big part of our studio's legacy and we're excited to see what you guys create," he said. Graham Smith, writing on the gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun, said the announcement was good news. "The offline mode is a real boon to the community. If you've got no internet connection or just a shaky one, this is the difference between being able to play the game and not," he said. Mr Buechner said that Maxis was in the late stages of wrapping up development of the offline version and in a nod to the previous launch added that "while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it's as polished as possible before we release it". The offline game will come as a free download with update 10 and will be available to all SimCity players. Source: BBC News

Plopping Fractional Angled curves and roads is now a thing of the past with the new DragFAR! The NAM Team officialy reveals this piece of technology for the upcoming NAM 31 release and shows what it can do! On behalf of the NAM Team, Maarten (NOTE: the plopable curves will still remain available in the next NAM, so don't worry if you can't get used to the new FAR construction method)

STOCKHOLM – April 14, 2015 – Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order, the city building genre’s new ‘It’ couple, have today revealed that Cities: Skylines, the monumentally successful city simulation game for PC, Mac and Linux has smashed through the 1 million sales barrier since its release on March 10. Widely hailed as the new benchmark for the genre, Cities: Skylines has captured the gaming public’s imagination with a staggering 33,000 mods having been created to date and made available via the Steam Workshop, with an average of 21,000 concurrent players continuously online since launch. Commenting on the continued success of the game, CEO of Paradox Interactive Fredrik Wester said, “We continue to be amazed at just how players have embraced Cities: Skylines. The game is still selling at a steady pace, which is remarkable for a game that has been on sale for well over a month. Once again, we want to thank everyone that has supported and continues to support this game.”

Some new interchanges from me, most of them are standard designs. Sorry, no grandes complications today. Normally not really a fan of cloverleaves because of the weaving, I nonetheless like the design of them. So here we go: Not quite as symmetrical as before, but this one is completely de-weaved instead: A 2-quadrant cloverstack with a narrow footprint. Not meant for heavy traffic though: Diagonal Pinavia style: A simple T-interchange that I like for its FARHW branch: While we are at FA: Not a full interchange this time, but a junction with a local network: And last but not least, a windmill:

AUSTIN, Texas—April 10, 2014—Aspyr Media announced today that fan-favorite and best-selling city simulator SimCity™ 4: Deluxe Edition is available now as a digital download. The game has been updated to support OS X 10.8.5 Mountain Lion (and above) and includes bug fixes, performance enhancements, and other updates such as native resolution support. Customers may purchase the game now exclusively through Apple’s Mac App Store, and the game will join Steam and other Mac digital outlets in coming weeks. “We’re so happy to give SimCity fans on the Mac a new chance to play this classic title,” said Aspyr Media’s Vice President of Publishing, Elizabeth Howard. “We took extra time updating the game to offer SimCity 4 players the best possible experience on the Mac, and we think both old and new players alike will come away impressed.” SimCity™ 4: Deluxe Edition includes the best-selling SimCity™ 4 and SimCity™ 4: Rush Hour Expansion Pack and tasks players with building out a city or region of cities while trying to meet the needs and demands of the cities’ residents. Game features include: Full control over the environment and the ability to unleash natural disasters to create (and destroy) a world all your own. Ability to deploy emergency vehicles and join in the action as they battle blazes, mobs, and more. New transportation options, including monorail and ferry system. Interconnectivity with The Sims, allowing players to import their sims into their city. And more!

I grew up with SimCity, and have been playing the games since the early 90s. Every single one of them got better and better until Simcity Societies when either I got to old for a Sim City game, or EA and Maxis decided they needed a new target audience. I played SimCity in order to create my dream cities, the problem is my dream has always been one a bit more grounded in reality. If I play Minecraft for example I build structures that might be able to realistically stand on their own rather than floating lava towers made of diamond. Every bit of who I am as a gamer today was shaped by those initial years of playing SC2K, 3K and 4. I remember calling in sick from school the day SC4 came out and from that point forward I devoted hours of my life to playing it, modding it, making BATs, and playing it some more. All of that love for the series came from the concept of achieving a realistic dream, a dream which could actually exist in the real world, one in which I could base my ideas on reality. Why is it that Maxis is so very afraid of realism? Everything from the costs of buildings and taxes, to the scale and populations are so far gone from reality. I know there is an entire thread dedicated to map size limitations, but seriously maxis don't you freaking understand anything about the idea of a city? My home town of 48,383 people would barely fit onto a 10x10km map..... ok so lets say scale isn't perfect and players tend to add less buffer area between zones and stuff than in reality so maybe we could squeeze that same city into a 5x5km map if we really tried.... NO, Maxis expects me to put 200k people on a freaking 2x2km area! just no. I understand that maybe processing power became a limiting factor because you are forced to calculate the dietary habits of a million sims in a freaking city building game.... I can understand that, but make it a population limit then not a city size limit. Heck I would be fine with a 10x10km area with a max pop of 500k people. Theoretically it shouldn't take anymore processing power to calculate the eating habits of 500k sims on a 100km2 map than a 4km2 map. If its an issue of graphical power then I am going to just laugh and say Maxis needed to rethink its graphics engine of choice then. There are tons of games out there rendering much larger areas with significantly more detail than what SC2013 seems to posses. Heck I wanted bigger cities in SC4, but I was never going to win that argument, at least not with the sloppy coding that made the game such a resource hog (ran nearly the same on my old old althon 1.4ghz with 1Gb of ram as it does on my six core I7 with 16Gbs of ram). Alteast there are regions though right? so that you can choose your own connections between cities and zoom out to region view and see your awesome creation from a single fixed perpective? Nope, seriously why in the world did you guys make connections preset and then add a 10 mile wide buffer between your city and its neighbor city? The question of scale bothers me even further. In SC4 they were moving in the right direction with the addition of suspension bridges that actually looked like they didn't belong in a cartoon caricature of a city. They still had some work to do though, airports for example were so small that even a real life aircraft carrier would have dwarfed them. Now in SC2013 they decided that the bridges needed to go back to looking like cartoon caricatures of the real things, and that airports needed to consume an entire city tile.... Seriously guys? Why can't you get them both right at the same time? its not like this is a guessing game, we have these things called measurements. On the subject of population, I have seen many screenshots showing cities with populations of around 200k, but some even showing 700k. Lets say that most well developed cities in the game would achieve a population of around 240k. That puts the density at 60,000 sims per kilometer. The densest city in the world is Manila, at 40k people per Km... New York city, still a fairly dense city even by european standards has a density of around 14,000 people per square km making it about 1/4 as dense as an average well developed SC 2013 city. Seems like easy math to me. Was the design decision basically that people like big numbers so we should lie a bit and say that 25 sims live in a house? Speaking of numbers, why can't things cost a realistic amount? Sure Ill take 30 schools at $5,000 each Bob! I just don't get it... a school costs a couple million to build. Cities rake in millions in revenue quarterly. We also calculate that revenue quarterly and even yearly in many cases, so why does maxis insist on hourly revenue? Are our attention spans that short that the thought of waiting for more than an hour of game time to balance our budget just makes us loose it? I know this is negative, and I am of a minority that wants extreme realism. However, I would love to see some middle ground here, maybe cities slightly larger with a population cap and the ability to only simulate traffic patterns, job needs, and income levels with 1 in 10 sims simulating everything and then extrapolating that data to the other 9 sims similar to them? That would dramatically simplify the processor load and give us bigger maps. If it is graphics limited then for crying out loud just give us simple lods again at longer view distances, and use that awesome tiltshift shader tech for something useful and just don't render those out of focus elements. Making data values like population and costs realistic is as simple as changing a couple numbers around, and you could even have a realism mode in the game! As for scale, there is just no excuse, if maps were the size they needed to be then you wouldn't be forced to make a suspension bridge 1/10th its normal size and still leave buildings their proper size. If you read this far then sorry for this massive rant, I just miss the game I grew up with, and the idea of being able to do things even somewhat realistically. That is what a SIMulation game is supposed to do right, realistically simulate things?

Update 50: Mosaic Mania Hello again, everyone! Welcome back for update 50. Last week we reclimbed Mt. Fuji. Since my main page submission seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle and the view count was rather low, you might want to go back and look at last week's update before this one if you missed it, since this week is the mosaics to last week. So this week, mosaics to last week. This is one of my most ambitious mosaic attempts: it stretches across parts of 4 tiles. (~reminder: Please Click For Full Resolution) 01. Going up Mt. Fuji. 02. And coming back down. Since this is update 50 (*cough* and i didn't have anything special planned *cough*) I figured I'd keep with the mosaic theme and showcase some mosaics of the pasts. 03. Pine Hill harbor and seaplane port from Crater Lake. 04. From the waaaayback machine we dig into Rip City, Powell cinder cone and hot springs. 05. The Zanarkand - East Crossing Industrial Area. 06. From the far north, the Tundraport Oil Terminals. 07. The slopes of Mt. Rainier. 08. And finally, lovely Cannon Beach. And that's update 50. I don't have any plans for the future, so we're still on a sporadic update schedule and i don't know when the next will be, so i'll respond in the comments below in a week or so. Until next time happy gaming and enjoy the spring sun! @Schulmanator: Thank you sir! Always good to see you around here, too. @Forthwall: Thanks! Aye, that little japanese bus stop in the middle adds so much for such a small lot. @grstudios: Thanks.....then get back to it! @vivapanda: Nature, nature everywhere. @PhatHead: Thanks, hope you get a chance to look around. @terring, ggamus, gugu3: Thanks for all your comments guys .