rhenry

nothing strange about a limited trial version. Nothing unexpected, either. A trial is intended to give you a taste of the product so you'll buy it. I have bought music software that will allow you to do everything but won't let you save it. Disappointing? Yes but it's FREE so you really don't have much to stand on in the complaint dept. It's a trial version. that's the way it goes.

not sure if there is an answer to this. Will acquired content packs be lost if you unsubscribe to PO?

Originally posted by: mks24 Originally posted by: 0wn3d Originally posted by: Androv Modern cities (or neighbourhoods) have underline power lines anyway, I don't think it's necessary.quote> Basically this. Go to NYC and try to find a power line... quote> While urbanized areas might have powerlines underground, it's extremely rare to find that in the suburbs. Due to the cost it's often suburban communities where you'll find powerlines above ground, either alongside roads or through backyards. Speaking of powerlines, here's the New York City neighborhood of Astoria, Queens quote> It's not suburbs XL, though, is it?

Originally posted by: MINIggy03 what's the point in paying $6 a month anyway when you're going to have to pay extra for the new content? It's a $40 game, on top of $6 a month, on top of whatever they decide to charge for GEM's and mini expansion updates. I say everyone wait until the game is worth the admission. Otherwise you're just throwing your money away on promises.quote> I don't know where you guys are playing at but I paid $10

Originally posted by: Rakeesh Originally posted by: Kittani I was all ready to sign up, but then I read the post that all the good cities are taken and only the slag hard-to-build-on ones are left... cinches it for me... it'll be like villas in AC... you either have to buy one someone's selling on e-bay or wait till someone quits to get a descent one. 5 planets? they must not be expecting many people to play this game... a few hundred players maybey? It's ok I was irritated with the tutorials not even working right and crashing my computer hard-core. I got a descent graphics card and an i7... runs like garbage. Oh well... maybey in a few years when they release Cities XXL or something...quote> This isn't true. The most commonly unused maps tend to actually be the easier maps to work with. Like High Lands, Mountain, Beach, etc. It's harder to find full star maps on crowded planets, but that's why we have plenty of planets. And as they don't plan to delete cities until 6 months of inactivity, it's a solid bet they'll open more planets as time goes by and people will have the opportunity to pick and chose once again. There's actually 2 planets per region/language right now. So still plenty of choice for those who hunt for their favourite map. quote> I can't speak for this other person but for me the mountain and beach maps are the worst. "Best" maps to me doesn't have that much to do with the resources. I like one that's interesting where I can follow a nice shore line with a road and have it be attractive. I think mountains and hills are just ridiculous because you're buildings look horrible on them. I like the wetlands maps but they are always taken because I am sure I must be in the norm with my preference for them. Beach maps just don't look good to me. Another thing that would actually be cool is if you could actually visit the map and preview it before claiming it. I hate how you have to create the city before seeing it. The descriptions are never helpful. The map is never what I am expecting from the description. As for there being lots of planets. Are we sure about this? When I signed on I got the impression that different planets were being offered to different parts of the world. I was offered 2 planets. One that was 75% full and one that was over half full and neither had any good maps left. I wanted to build on some new maps. Some different ones that single player mode but the only decent one I could find (I am sure I could spend hours creating and deleting cities if I really want to scrape up a good map but I have to pay attention to my dog now and then.) was the same one I have on single player mode. I'll check back in later this month or next week but I am not convinced. I'll probably cancel until they get buses.

I signed up for planet offer yesterday and then I logged on and chose a location from all the crappy ones that were left (I like good and flat with a nice body of water for bridges and such and then at least one start of the good resources but there were none of these available from what I could figure out) and then I made my stupid avatar which was wildly disappointing in it's limitations. Then I went to my city and I hated it so I deleted it and found another that was better but was really a map from single player and not one of my favorites to play one. Then I started building and I just wasn't feeling it. I was watching that chat box and for the life of me couldn't figure out what the heck I would have to say on there, ever and then I realized I had just wasted 10 dollars on nothing. I went to visit one person's city and it was ugly. Just a gigantic grid of skyscrapers which I am just not sure why you would find it fun to just throw down an etire map of grids but there is was and there I was and I was most irritated by the fact that it was on my favorite Single Player map which I was not able to find (how do you get a better map?) and was going to waste by being misused by this person. then I logged off and thought, how stupid. I couldn't even trade because there was something wrong where I would click on the icon to buy or sell and nothing would happen. and I don't even know if I'll ever go back. I'm just glad I didn't buy 3 months worth. Unless they improve it drastically I just cannot imagine it being worthwhile. I actually played SIms 3 all weekend and found it a lot more fun. I felt silly being a grown man playing SIms 3 but it's entertaining none the less.

So last night I got a city up to 90,000 people and I had really been busting it to get a good cash flow going because I had built a highway bridge which was eating up my cash. So I get up to a monthly surplus of like 25,000 with the bridge in place and I ran into this issue of not being able to actually connect a highway to the bridge. So I destroyed the bridge. My cash flow surplus went up to like 40,000 after that and I tinkered away for just a few more seconds. I'd had like 6 million in reserve and was looking pretty good. I look up and completely out of nowhere my cashflow per month has dropped to -72,000. Out of nowhere and for no reason. I'm clicking on everything, nothing is bankrupt, everything is profiting, there is little unemployment, I even have excess resources to sell. I checked everything, traffic flow, leisure, the whole nine yards and nothing had changed, everything was green. Then I checked to see if I had someone disconnected an artery somewhere between the housing and the industry, etc. but then if I had done that we'd be going bankrupt, if people can't get to work. So what the hell was that? I'm stuck sitting there and there is absolutely nothing I can do as my city goes completely under for no reason. The whole time everyone is turning a profit but Mayor ME. Then I thought, in a mild panic, that maybe my traffic was clogged somewhere and if I build a new artery connecting the burbs to the city it might open it back up. I had to take a loan by now because I was -400,000. I took out the loan and I built an expressway from the burbs to the city and I went into -150,000 cash flow and just plummeted at the most ridiculous rate, beyond all hope. Within a few rounds I was negative like 2,000,000. Have you had this I think it was somehow because of the highway bridge. Don't ask me why but that's the only thing I could think of. It had to be a bug. I even rebooted the game thinking it could be a glitch. nope.

Originally posted by: CWLGAMER01 Originally posted by: bluespottedhorse Unless its a european city its not too realistic because there aren't any houses just apartment buildings. In North America most cities are 90% single family homes with a downtown core or highrises and apartments. But it does look good.quote> ...... hmmm interesting -- what city do you live in? Most "major cities" in the US over 100,000 woudl have at least mid rises outside of the downtown corridor. No a city under 75,000 is not going to be dense but certainly as you get larger the density spreads out over miles. Most cities have a mixture of single, mid and high rises. Charlotte for example still has single fmaily homes in center city as well as mid to high rises. We also have mid rises as far out as 10 to 15 miles....... of course Charlotte (city - within city limits) is also over 680,000 making it the 19th largest city in the US....... Mecklenburg County has a population of just over 900,000. One thing you have to watch is "city limits" or incorporated area. Each state classiffies this differentally and it can get confusing. For example in North Carolina cities can annex areas more freely. This means a city may have a larger "footprint" and thus be less dense becuase the population can be spread out. In SC however cities must get voter approval to be annex -- and it requires a lot of legal, government oversight. SC cities tend to be smaller and thus population stats are lower. For example Greenville city is around 50,000 while Greenville (includes the city) is over 200,000. Lets compare the two -- with land area: Name STATE POPULATION LAND AREA (sq miles) DENSITY / SQ MILE CHARLOTTE CITY NC 687,456 242 2837 GREENVILLE CITY SC 56,006 26 2146 MECKLINBURG COUNTY NC 902,803 526 1716 GREENVILLE COUNTY SC 395,357 790 500 The point above is look at how close the density of the cities are yet the population of Charlotte is 12 times that of Greenville....... very interesting......... To show more comparison I am adding Atlanta in the mix and the actual MSA's as well....... Name STATE POPULATION LAND AREA (sq miles) DENSITY / SQ MILE CHARLOTTE CITY NC 687,456 242 2837 GREENVILLE CITY SC 56,006 26 2146 MECKLINBURG COUNTY NC 902,803 526 1716 GREENVILLE COUNTY SC 395,357 790 500 ATLANTA CITY GA 537,985 132 4082 FULTON COUNTY GA 816,006 529 1543 the note above -- is look at Fulton County and Mecklinburg County -- very close in size yet Mecklinburg is more dense -- anyone that has been to both Atlanta and Charlotte however will note Atlanta has more high rises and mis rises...... ATLANTA CHARLOTTE Name STATE POPULATION LAND AREA (sq miles) DENSITY / SQ MILE CHARLOTTE CITY NC 687,456 242 2,837 GREENVILLE CITY SC 56,006 26 2,146 MECKLINBURG COUNTY NC 902,803 526 1,716 GREENVILLE COUNTY SC 395,357 790 500 ATLANTA CITY GA 537,985 132 4,082 FULTON COUNTY GA 816,006 529 1,543 CSA STATE POP RANK IN US Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta CSA GA 5,478,667 10 Charlotte-Gastonia-Salisbury CSA NC 2,574,787 20 Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson CSA SC 1,203,795 35 quote> I love this kind of stuff. I live in St. Louis which has a disproportionately large metro area for it's size. It's an "independant city" which means it cannot grow in land mass because it broke away from St. Louis county in the 1800's so the county has grown and spread to a population of over a million people (not counting the city) while the city has dropped from 900,000 people in 1951 to 350,000 today (all estimated) The way it's set up means there is the city of St. Louis and then there is also a county seat for STL county, which is another skyline with 20-30 swtory buildings, several of them, and lends for a very interesting photo from certain perspectives. It's only about 10 miles from the center of downtown STL. Anyway, we have a good mixture of single family homes as well as flats (2, 4 and 6 family) which all look similar from the outside so there is a continuity to it. Then you get into the county and much of what directly surrounds the city is very urban in it's feel because if the city were not independant it would have annexed all of it decades ago and it would be technically a much larger city. Kansas City is considered a lot larger populationwise but it occupies a much larger land area, as well. If you were take the land area of KC and set it down on top of STL you would have a city MUCH larger in population than KC or even many other cities in the country that are currently considered to be a lot larger. When you come here it feels a lot larger than most cities up to 900,000 people. There is a metro of 3,000,000 here. Anyway, it's interesting how much the city you live in affects your view of what a city should be structured like. We have alleys here and when I moved to NEw Orleans years ago, there were NONE!!! I thought it was ridiculous to see people dragging trash to the curb in the city. That's a suburban thing where I come from. ha ha.

Originally posted by: morriswalters Post screenshots of your budget panel. quote> the city is gone. I don't get that devestated. When a city tanks, I kill it. lol. It went under FAST and there was no saving it. I wanted to build on that map again so I wiped it out.

Originally posted by: Kevin Ar18 A few things to check: * That everything has a road to the city hall. * Click on each building that is failing and read about the problems. This is actually the easiest way to play the game and know what it going on. The building info will often tell you exactly the problem. Also, click on some other zone types that are not having problems and check their info. * If the first two don't work, check your overlays (passenger service, pollution, etc...) and see if anything stands out. * Check your trade balance window to see if some of your cities token needs are suddenly in the negative. Maybe you lost a key trade? * Look around for buildings that are costing you a high monthly fee and check your budget to see if it reveals anything about sudden high costs. * Check your tax rate and how it affects your city. * Perhaps you temporarily lost your connection to your city hall, causing some businesses to fail, which your citizens relied on, which causes your citizens to move you, which cause your businesses to not have enough workers, etc.... In other words, check if you accidentially got put into an endless spiral downwards. This can happen. One of those should reveal something. The only thing it might not reveal is that oddball building/structure that may be consuming a lot of revenue, but it is hard to find. The highway connection is an example of this; unless you click on everything you may not find that -- of course, you don't have a highway connection, so that is not your problem. quote> Nothing was failing. I wouldn't have posted this if there was any clear indication of what happened. Everything was in the green, not so much as one red dot on the building stats. Everything was connected, nothing was bankrupt. I had been working on the city for two days and the connections to city hall had not changed. The highway bridge I built was not connected to the city. Thanks, though.

Originally posted by: Androv Did you have a highway connection? Those things take up 100,000 / tick. I don't think using highways early on is advisable anyway, they cost too much and aren't necessary until your pop gets to half a million (and they are unlocked)quote> i didn't have a highway connection. I was just tinkering with the bridge. I didn't build any other part of the highway and I had the funds to do it so. . . I had removed the bridge anyway. Even if that was what caused it, it's still a bug because there's no logical reason your economy should tank, especially when it's removed. I had a small avenue as the first connection and when the economy tanked I tried putting in an expressway because one artery was red so I tried aleviating it, which I succeeded at but still nothing.

I've got the same problem and I haven't tried the interchange thing but it sucks if that's the only way. I'm just using expressways for now.

maybe if you place your mouse on something that will vibrate it then it will keep your game from pausing. I actually had an isolated experience where I assumed it would pause and I walked away and it didn't. I came back a couple of hours later to a real mess.

I'm seeing stuff about highways and bridges not working if you build the bridge first but I cannot get them to connect regardless of what order I try them. Am I just SOL if I want to cross a body of water with a highway?

Originally posted by: littlesquare.dot Aside from the obvious issues, no mass transit, no ambient city noise (<-WHAT THE HECK!?), lack of information, etc., my main gripe with the square plots. They're exceedingly annoying.. could they not have made dynamic lawns on the plots to fill the voids on curved roads? Unless your city is comprised solely of boring, right-angled grids, it looks so darn sloppy. Curved roads are great, but without curved plots it's like taking one step forward, then two steps back, because while the roads may look cool, everything else just looks more sloppy. And seriously, what's with the absolute lack of sound!? It's just plain crazy. It's quite difficult to become completely immersed in a silent city. So much potential, but for me it's currently falling flat.quote> I'm replying to this long after but I wanted to say that given the number of possible variations in curviture of roads in CXL, it would have been impossible for them to have included curved plots for them. I think the best they could have done was probably to make the square lots so they would blend in rather than having little fences around everything. That would be cool.

Originally posted by: Androv Of course, the problem with this approach is that my population will never have a chance of reaching the 10,000,000 or so other players have got My main city, Qulara is sitting on 750,000 but with no space left to build on without heading up.quote> There are plenty of awesome cities with populations under even 500,000 (hello New Orleans?) so what's wrong with having one that's smaller? Nothing. I'd much rather visit one with an interesting layout that one that's just huge and square in it's structure. Mine are small, too, and I also prefer the more natural flow with the main road curving through, especially along the river front, and the suburbs spreading out from the central higher density core. I like to look down and see the city "map" flowing naturally with the features of it's location. I live in St. Louis and when you look down on this city from satellite, you see the grids, yes, but you also see the larger arteries curving and twisting through the region, up the river and all, and it just looks more natural. A city is not built from the beginning with a plan for the overall layout. It grows and expands and the people there have to work with what they've already done in the past and, in this sense, even though a city is manmade, it's very much a natural pattern. It's quite accidental. I like that. If a city really was just one giant grid pattern, you'd never be able to find your way around because everyplace would look the same, even on a map, and not only that but it would take forever to get anywhere. It's the larger, curving streets that cut through a city that make traveling more efficient.

Originally posted by: Androv I think that person was suggesting that s/he feels that you can't progress any further with a particular city after a while, and therefore deletes that city and starts afresh. If you want to keep your cities, then I'm sure you'll be able to - it would be like Blizzard deleting your Warcraft character after they reached maximum level quote> If it's a city building game, which it is, then isn't the whole point to build cities? It's not a city observing game. Once you build the city and you're done with it then what? What's left to do with it? I don't think I'd have an issue destroying it and starting over.

whatever amuses you, I suppose. I guess I was trying to make a capital 4. lol.

I found a guy dancing on a balcony this morning, with two women sunbathing near him. I was vaguely amused by it. I don't spend all that much time on street level but I'm starting to now and noticing all the silly things the people are doing in there. I feel like Lisa Simpson when she grew the little civilization in the dish under the bed. Wouldn't it be a cool feature if the people in the city had a religion worshiping us? lol. You could go in there and watch them performing rituals to you and stuff.

you have to have something for the offices to serve like industry or something. Try trading office services with Omnicorp (in single player) or whoever in PO mode.

yeah, it does get boring. I have to admit I didn't touch the game yesterday but it's good because I have been coming home from work every day and sitting right down to it which is bad. I haven't been able to play SC$ either. In fact, I think i might be more depressed than bored with the game. lol.

Originally posted by: waway625 wait, your city expires in CXL..i was thinking of biting the bullet and buying the game but that just a deal breaker for mequote> What does that mean? Like if you don't play it or even if you're keeping it up? How long does it have?

Originally posted by: mrdazza_460 Rhenry wrote : MC is not some huge corporation with tons of money to lose. I would say 100% of companies do go out there to lose there money no matter how much the have, they do that though bad investments, or in this case bad games design. Weather a game company has 100 mill or 20 mill they still should be able to make a decent game, maybe if MC spent more money on designing the core part of the game like zoning and less money on the online part of the game and a crappy trading system, we could be calling it the successor to SC4, but we are not, and is a shame, because after 6 years of playing SC4 at lest 3 to 4 times a week over 50 different regions, I am bored with it, And you are right CXL is 100 times better then that abomination called SCS, we should really be comparing it to city life. quote> I bought a City Life 2008 just a few months back because I wanted to see what it was like after reading about it when searching for alternates to SC. that's actually how I heard about CXL. But I couldn't run it because of my graphics card and I had paid 5 bucks for it on amazon so I was not about to replace a graphics card just to play it. But when CXL came and I couldn't launch it either so I decided to get the card upgrade. Well, the other day I went ahead and I installed City Life again and opened it up and was just stunned at how incredibly AWFUL it was. The characters in there are downright creepy and the graphics are hideous. what a horrid game. And the worst part was that all of the intro artwork and graphics were really cool. Yeah, that was a bad BAD game. I went on line and found there are actually communities of people with CJ's about their City Life cities and when you look at them they're just so ugly. It almost looks like some freeware city builder. lol.

Originally posted by: soundwave27 Here's what I've got after a week of building. Currently around 400k pop. (yeah I build slow) industry is behind the camera and a new development of industry is going up far behind the big mountian to the right. I'm almost to those highrises quote> Patience is a virtue, too. It looks much more natural than most. looks like you don't have a single grid, like you've placed each individual buidling. Nice. I was thinking of trying this and bulldozing each building until one grows that I want there, to try to keep the from repeating so much, or to try and make a neighborhood that's all similar houses. Things are so mixed up but then you'll have 4 of the same highrise all in a row.

I've noticed for a long time in the game when you click on a service it will tell you what it needs, like hotels or fuel or whathave you, but then after a while it stops telling you and only shows you it's lacking in profit. Everything else is green but it's still going bankrupt.