Aoumd

I hope the railroad geometry issue gets fixed (and that all modes of transportation use proper geometries, and also proper "footprints" - any mode on elevated structure can have things below it). And I sure hope that we can build places larger than the "town" map shown (maybe that test area is small for testing purposes as was theorized). However, another thought: if a single player can make his or her whole REGION, then I wouldn't be too upset by the small "Town" sizes. The Region becomes your SimCity, and the little "Towns" would be your developments within it. I just hope that budget, etc., items in gameplay would be regional in nature if that's the case.

I like your idea for climates! Growing up I always envisioned a New York-like Climate for the cities I made (growing up with the SNES SimCity may have influenced this), but after visiting Honolulu, I want to be able to make a city with seasons like that and a tourism industry that a sunny place would have! me to

Good to see lots of fresh faces here eagerly awaiting 2013, a nice counterbalance to the pessimism that seems prevalent regarding some issues with the new game. I'd have to agree with you on this point. Where I live in the Illawarra there is talk at the moment of constructing a second major airport for Sydney northwest of Wollongong at Wilton, which might mean a HSR connection to Sydney or Canberra. At present we have a normal heavy rail service that takes one and a half hours approximately to get to Sydney Terminal from the Gong. HSR is thus, certainly where I am, a current topic and certainly a feature I would like to see, also for intercity communication like the planned London-Birmingham line, which would actually displace some airport traffic between minor airports, possibly. ^This, a billion times. I would love to see a more realistic space usage for large developments like hospitals, schools, universities etc, rather than those awful rectangular blocks we had before. I think a zoning tool like 2000 had for seaports and airports would be ideal, with smart modular growth based on conditions and supply/demand factors. I'd also strongly agree on bus stops being in most small scale cases on the footpath, and pedestrian over/underpasses. But naturally I'd also like bushwalking tracks, bicycle paths, bus lanes etc. I wouldn't mind a smart evolution system for some of that, like how in England you have public rights of way where people walk across fields and countryside areas which become official paths protected by law. If Sims were smart, and there was just a field with stile entrances between them and their workplace, why drive the long way? Thanks for the response and the warm welcome! The reason I say HSR should be an airport, rather than transit supplement is because HSR worldwide handles mostly intercity traffic. Sure, in Japan some people commute one stop on the Shinkansen but most are traveling 300+ km/200+ miles...out of any metropolitan region. Like the idea about paths. After my previous post I actually went for a walk along the excellent pedestrian/bike path system in my city before coming back to the computer to see your response. I've often thought of what my ideal city (bound not by the confines and algorithms of any game I've played before) would be like, and one item I'd definitely have would be pedestrian paths to go between neighborhoods independent of the street grid...a place bikers from outer neighborhoods could go to get to a central business district without having to interact with the street grid. They sort of have that for some parts of my city, I wonder what it would be like in a bigger town...

So this is one of my first posts here at SimTropolis (it says I posted one years ago but I don't remember...) but I've been playing the various SimCities (SNES, 2000, 3000, 4) since I was a kid and am eagerly awaiting the 2013 version! Some things I am hoping for are: 1. As many others hope for from what I've read, tweak rail transit options to allow any grade level for any type of rail, like: Metro (subway, elevated, or grade level) Light Rail or Tram (subway, elevated, grade level or street running, the last one taking from road capacity, and very steep grades for bridges/tunnels) Commuter/freight rail (elevated, grade level, or underpass/tunnel, with much gentler grades and thus larger footprints leading up to bridges/tunnels) 2. Re: the wishes many have for High Speed Rail, if it is included, it should be a means of alleviating airport capacity not local transit capacity...while I know other gamers may wish for HSR to be something to use in their cities I feel like this is more realistic given the transportation role HSR serves worldwide. 3. Using the tile-free landscape to enable more realistic senses of scale for buildings, etc...a large hospital is going to take up a bigger footprint than 4 times the width of a residential side street (4 tiles x 4 vs. 1-tile wide road). Perhaps a scale based on feet/meters, in place of the tiles. 4. Improve bus stops, as these are realistically the best transit option for many smaller cities if one is trying to be most realistic. Make sure they can be overlaid onto sidewalks/streets rather than requiring their own off-street footprint, and perhaps make them so the gamer can just click a road intersection to install bus stops at all the appropriate corners of the intersection, as most bus stops are on at least two sides of the road, and where major urban streets meet, often are on all four (with transfer capability). 4b. When a bus stop maxes out on capacity, allow a larger bus shelter to be built still on the sidewalk/road existing footprint. This is what happens with most bus stops that outgrow a standard bus shelter in most cities I've been to. The threshold for an off-street bus stop taking up positive space from another land use is pretty high. 5. An indoor arena (like Madison Square Garden) as a stadium option, not just outdoor stadium options. 6. Pedestrian overpasses and underpasses as a way to ease congestion in the urban core. I've walked through Times Square enough times in my life... 7. Cruise ship terminals, especially for places where the main industry is tourism. With pedestrian, taxi, tour bus etc. traffic to/fro, incentives to place near markets and other attractions, etc. Would love to have Oasis of the Seas roll into my harbor! Hope I haven't bored you all to tears!