soltangris

I think it's very rude to criticize Globex's work like this. He's a single man, not a developing company! You can't expect him to make a mod by himself, without charging anything, and then make it compatible with all mods that exist out there! He also has neither the resources, nor the time to attend to all requests and even if he did, you have absolutely no right to expect him to do it! Nobody's paying him anything for this work, he's doing it out of love for this game and its fans! I strongly suggest that you people stop criticizing and/or rephrase your complaints. I guess it's OK to point out faults, bugs and so on, but you can't make it sound like critics and you absolutely can't demand anything of him. And by the way this is not an official position of any kind, it's simple human common sense. If anybody doesn't like it, feel free to contact me in a PM.

Defakto, believe me, it's a bug! It's simply impossible for such messages to appear for every sinlge city you have in your planet, regardless of if you're currently trading this token with it or not! Although it only appears for me if I have trading problems, that is if the resources I'm currently trading are on the verge of zero demand/offer balance. You need to overproduce (push the dot to the right, offer section) in order to be able to trade. Check if the resources you're trading are close to zero and try to produce more, you should be able to evade the messages.

No, I think this is indeed a bug. I've had it several times, during BP construction. It lists the message for all resources used in the current stage of the BP (and always those resources and none others), once per all cities you have. This can't be anything normal.

The Oil Pollution is BS in this game (just like the ship dock). These days, oil extraction is very clean, environmentally safe, and highly regulated. I hate to point out the recent incident with BP's platform in the Mexican Gulf..... But of course, at the time of your post that hadn't happened yet, so you may have had some reasons to think so. Anyway, this is an old thread, I think the polution dynamics changed a bit in CXL 2011. Still, according to my experience, air polution doesn't depend on terrain, but on sources. The more poluting buildings - the bigger the overal polution, and the reder the local polution on top of them. As for noise polution, it seems to have been bumped up a great deal in CXL 2011?. For starters, it now takes part in the 'Quality of life' factor that governs offices, high tech and hotels. Furthermore, traffic now produces noise polution, which means that busy boulevards are not the best place for those Solar Panel Factories and Multiantional Headquarters ... On the other hand, Landmarks now work wonders to counter polution. I manage to maintain a serviceable high density office district in my dirty city thanks to several BPs and Landmarks strategically placed around them. Also note that Cultural leisure has Landmark effect too!

And, easier of all, build industries They all pay very good taxes.

Lancelot, you'll just have to be patient. Yeah, we all know that the cars stop at roundabouts and highway intersections, that they go one lane at a time..... We also know that you need to really plan ahead your road network - if not building it from the start, than at least leaving plenty of space for later upgrades.

I bought the game yesterday, i have to say that the game is a huge disappointment for me. Its nothing like Simcity 4. Of course it's nothing like Sim City! It was never meant to be, and frankly, I'm starting to get a little jumpy on the fact that when people hear 'city builder game' they expect to find a Sim City copy with better graphics..... (cooling off) A word of advise: If you really want to enjoy this game, don't expect it to resemble Sim City. CXL is a game that's built on completely different grounds, although it is still a city-builder. Many people that have overcome what I call 'The Sim City expectations' have come to enjoy CXL.

Morris, this is not a bug apparently. When you trade between your cities you only switch the resources themselves, without spending cash (which makes sense, actually - after all it's your own cash always), you only need a positive cashflow, as was in the PO. However, you're also able to switch cash tokens between your cities, effectively distributing your total income amongst them. If you want, you could establish some sort of self-controlled trade, where you give one city a resource, and then get back some cash.

I haven't noticed that Omni offers different 'deals' (prices) for different products..... According to my experience, they buy and sell everything for the same price.

OK, sorry if my answer seemed unhelpfull, but the truth is that I can't help you indeed. Still: a) The Blueprints are now part of the full game - no unlocking or patching necessary to have them. So, you should indeed contact them and let them know of this problem. b) I haven't seen anybody else complain of the exact same problem.... I very much think that this is indeed a bug, either a general one (due to installation, or generall issues), or specifically with the Ferris whieel. All the BPs I've built so far work great, I hadn't problems building them, and once completed they did the job they're supposed to do. On the other hand, I'm not very sure, but think the Ferris wheel is the only animated BP - maybe it has something to do with that..... At any rate, contact Focus Home.

Well, I think you'll find both of these games are a great alternative to shooters Now, which one to choose is a really difficult question..... - Sim City Deluxe is indeed old and outdated (although many will vehemently deny the second statement). It's 2D, and it looks kinda ugly compared to recent games. Also, it has quite some performance issues, but that's common for all games of this genre. It's big plus, however, is its gameplay depth - there are so many things to learn about that game that you can play for hours and always find something to do in your city. The second plus is actually not in the game itself, but in the mods created for it, which add tons of new buildings, and some really cool content like the NAM and the BAT..... You can find much more info in this side. - Cities XL is a modern game, fully 3D and really beautiful. It has overcome many of Sim City's limitations (like the grid-based maps), it has many cool features as well, which are already integrated in the game. For example, it has a sophisticated bus and metro system which are way better than Sim City. On the other hand, it lacks other features like trains, although developers are supposed to be adding them in the near future. Its gameplay is simply different than Sim City - you won't be swamped in micromanagement, but in MACROmanagement, dealing with your city's production and its trades with other cities. Again, look for more info in this site. Overall, I think it's a matter of taste to choose between both games. But keep in mind that Sim City 4 has run its course (meaning that it has reached the limits of its development), while Cities XL is just starting.

Go to Transportation>Bridges, select one, start building, hold SHIFT and move your mouse to change the height of the blueprint. You'll end up making a tunnel. And if you want, do the Tutorials, they explain such things.

I have experienced some bugs, but nothing serious so far, and for sure I've played other, much more buggy games. I think there are some issues with some specific PC configurations (maybe specific video cards, or Windows XP, I don't know), and also the Steam version still seems to present some problems. But as a general rule, the game runs well enough. A 'positive' balance actually means the absense of surpluses, or deficits. If you have a big enough surplus here, it could turn into a problem - that's why the bar gets red. If you keep all resources close to the middle, then the bar is green.

Theories? aaaam...... a bug?

Lancelot, first of all - good to see another enthusiast about Cities XL! I hope you find the game enjoyable. I think that none of the stuff made for SC4 is currently usebale in Cities XL - this means mods, buildings, STEX, etc. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. However, there is a whole separate section for Cities XL mods here - check it out, having in mind that most of them don't work with CXL 2011 yet. Now to answer your questions more specifically: 1. You can't. All CXL maps are pre-made, you have to use one of them. Although you might want to check for a mod that allows you some changes to maps (I don't use mods currently, so I'm not aware if such exists, but I'm pretty sure a mod was created with additional terraforming tools for pre-existing maps). 2. For the first part of the question, look above, and I'm pretty sure none of the buildings are usable, since CXL is fully 3D, while SC4 was 2D. Focus Home (which currently develops the game) has promised us custom content support, but it's not clear yet when and if they're gonna release anny building creation tools. So, for now, we have to wait. 3. Online play doesn't exist anymore - most people believe that it was exactly the Plannet Offer that bankrupted MC. Now the game is flly solo, with all aspects of online play (trading, Megastructures) incorporated in the solo mode. 4. That depends on what your expectations are. For me, it's a great improvement, and I did play the Planet Offer, so I was already using all those features. But to list some of the changes: new roads, new metro system, detailed taxes, trading now possible between your own cities, generally improved gameplay, more maps, the Chinatown and the American pack (the last one contains buildings that go in the water, or on the beach!). 5. Look above for answer to this one 6. Again, this is subjective. For me it was more than worth buying, especially with the deal for old customers (50% off, so you get it for around $25). I think the game has enough improvements to warrant you buying it, not to mention that you'll get all stuff that previously was Planet Offer-exclusive.

So, they were working on an interchange tool! O hell, how I wanna have this!

????? What do you mean you don't need to build it all at once?????? Or you're actually linking several lines and thing they form a single line?

^^ Well, the CitiesXL traffic simulator has its quirks too. The game sees no difference between a road and a freeway. If you lay down a road and a freeway right next to each other, but just make the freeway a few meters longer (almost an insignificant difference), people will still choose the road over the freeway That's not true, according to my experience. People will go for the larger roads if they lead to their destination. Proof? Larger avenues/expressways always get times more use then roads. It seems though that the traffic engine doesn't include speed considerations - highway speed is the same as simple road speed, but has much bigger capacity (it could take more cars at a time). That's an explanation why people will take a road over an Expressway, if the road is the shortest route and if it's not congested. ?And since its capacity is much smaller than an Expressway, the road wiill get congested soon, forcing people to the Expressway. To the OP: I like many of your ideas; I was thinking myself along the 'fully customizable' road building tool lines... But I think you're making it a bit too complex, especially when it comes to parking. This is currently missing from the game completely, and its addition will probably cost a great dea lof work, without adding much to the gameplay. I would prefer for the attention to be concentrated on lanes and width control, the addition/exclusion of sidewalks and medians, and those actually having an effect on gameplay: - Sidewalks and medians (with trees or gardens, or something else decorative) should have positive Environmental effect. - You could replace them with lanes, if you wish, but you'll lose the environmental efect. - If you exclude sidewalks, you can't place bus stops. By the way weid, that's why you can't place bus stops on Expressways - they don't have sidewalks, and there's where the stop goes. You should be able to increase width of a stretch of road, if there's space. I guess the current intersection-to-intersection system could do, although the ideal would be if you were able to select (click and drag) a definite stretch of road. But maybe that's kinda hard to program. I definitely agree with the Merge lanes, but also - we should be able to connect two roads without intersections! - First of all, I think the smallest roads (small road and farm roads) shouldn't make any intersection at all (not traffic light, no crosswalk), regardless of what they connect to. Thus cars there will have to wait, and the bigger roads won't get additional congestion points. - Second, we need an on- off-ramp tool! Make two sizes (on lane and two lanes), one-directional, curved by default, able to connect under any angle (including the sharpest merging angles) and without intersection. It should also be able to change height, so you could raise it to connect to elevated roads. You could use it with any road above Large avenue. That's all we need , and then watch those custom interchanges!

I don't think you could use this technique to repair a broken line, Hotshift. The 'circle thingy' is used to automatically calculate the return path of a new line. It works like this: - You start the line, go all the way where you need to go - You then want to return the same way, 'retrace' the same line back to the terminal - To do this just click on a stop you've already placed - I think the game informs you something like this 'The return path was calculated automatically' - Confirm

The token notifications only appear if you have some problem with the trading (that is, if a resource you're exporting is on the verge of negative production, or if you sometimes don't have enough cash tokens for import); if everything's normal, you shouldn't get them at all...... As for the crashing and the performance, I can't help. Only Focus could, probably By the way, did you try to turn off 'Atmospheric display' in the Video options? It seems this one feature swallows many video resources, without adding anything significant (it's the graying effect when you zoom off the city, as if you're looking through a layer of air)....

Aaaaa, what do you mean limited? And when were you able in the past to set prices with Omnicorp? If I'm not mistaken, currently Omni sells each token for 90 and buys for 35.

You're forgetting that there is no separate building of the track - you build the stations already connected to the track. You're also forgetting that the current stations also can't have different depths - only at one depth it is possible to build a station, with the necessary ground connections. Why shouldn't the same be possible with above-ground stations? They'll just set one definite height where the necessary connections with the ground level would be possible - visually, as well as physically. Above-ground tracks already need a line clear of buildings, they just need to work on the connection with the road. I don't think it's impossible.

Why do you say that? Do you mean it's currently impossible, or that they can't make them even if they wanted?

Prometheus, you can only place mtro stations at a certain depth. Going bellow or above that depth prevents placement - this is not a bug, nor a quirk, it's a designer's decision which you have to learn to live with (at least for now). You can change depth as much as you want, and even create above-ground tracks, but whenever you decide to place a station, you have to go down to the necessary depth when the station blueprint will appear.

EAGGE, have you ever noticed how much profit your offices make? If you have enough polution, your offices might be already hanging by a thread from starting to go minus.... The truth is that you could go with light and maybe medium density offices in a dirty city - they don't seem to mind that much the pollution. But large offices, hotels and high-tech factories won't survive even middle levels, not unless you cramp every single Landmark available nearby.