Coldwontrise

I think the way it works is that every building has an effectiveness range. This is intuitive: A highschool wouldnt do much for a bunch of 7 year olds, and an elementary school couldnt help a bunch of brilliant 20-somethings. Once a sim gets into a certain EQ range, another building becomes more effective at increasing the EQ. The specifics Im not sure of (where the turning points are for the highschoo, college, etc) Also, I think the libraries and museums preserve education, which goes hand in hand with life expectancy. If they live long, they need to have brainfood until their dying days.

A few nifty ideas (some have been mentioned, but Im elaborating) All roads should be able to be drawn in any direction. The tool could work like freehand drawing on the 3d terrain, and when the line/curve is done, it rounds the edges. Could also have tools that allow drawing roads to customizable geometric shapes (large roundabouts, etc). There could be an algorithm that creates an intersection based on the roads involved. This would allow unlimited flexiblity in road design (usually a limiting factor in the SimCity series, as remaking existing cities proved frustrating). The next obvious step to this would be to create buildings to orient themselves to the roads. There could be a orientation line springing from the building pointing out to the road, which would be perpendicular to a line tangent to the road. As for the rest of the lot size, it would take the shape as needed, elbow room as it were. You could have a rectangle house in a circlular lot, and have the same house in a triangular lot. Possibly residential yards could take the shape of the terrain (painting lawns/walkways/driveways to the terrain) whereas the house stays level. For this to work, all buildings would need to be 3d. For closeup micromanagement, the buildings could have great crisp 3d detail. For citywide views, the level of detail would diminish so the game doesnt eat your computer, but still maintains the aestetic of a well designed city. Having fares for public transit (micromanagement and city wide) could promote the use of mass transit instead of roads, or could be used to make some nice cash if your system is efficient. This would result in an emergent organization and budget balance and new elaborate strategies. Id also like the return of hydroelectric power (word to 2000). This could be made possible for a new water engine, which would allow you to fill valleys with water at a particular level. One could have a city that cascades down a mountain by a river, deriving clean energy. (a new disaster could be a flood) Ill add more if I think of some stuff.