soltangris

I'm starting this topic to make everyone aware that Cities XL is not dead - far from it, in fact. The fact is that nobody bothered to research and list all mods made in the last three months, and besides none of them are hosted here on the STEX (since there is no CXL section). Most, in fact 99% of them are available on XLNation.net. I'm asking a moderator to add this list to the modding index, please. CitiesXL 2012 Mods: Gameplay mods: XL Nation User Interface mod - adds new menu buttons and coding support for many other mods The Crime and Leisure Add-on - adds crime effect and entertainment leisure category, enhances hotels Add extra map slots - adds more map slots on the planet for each map type Increase population slightly Decrease population slightly Lower heavy industry pollution Lower manufacturing pollution Dig area tool - creates a handy tool for lowering ground Transportation mods: NEXL - Trams - adds a fully functional tram network, roads with tram tracks, etc. NEXL - Quad bykes - adds a new Leisure vehicle track system NEXL - Vehicle pack - adds new vehicle types to the roads Realistic highway mod - enhances the highway network, allowing freeform intersections and expansion/contraction of the highway Harbor XL - creates modular harbor, with infinite expansion capacity Maps - unlike previous mods, these won't replace one of the existing maps, they add brand new ones Islands of Omnicorp The mesas Alimar City Map Cologne - Germany Graphics/Decoration - including new building models XLN Promenade Pack - adds several decoration pieces for waterfront creation Urban embelishments pack - adds several ploppable statues, fountains, etc Flags of the world - this mod adds ploppable flags from all countries in the world Castelana 259 - Office tower Flatiron Building of New York Muiderslot - Castle and town walls - adds a medieval castle and the ability to construct medieval walls The Atomium - Brussels Lighthouse Pack - adds several models of lighthouses Hwatin Tower (China Sky tower) Pharmaceutical Laboratories Montjuic Communications tower Seattle Space needle Chateau de Pierrefonds Castle Oriental Pearl tower - Shanghai LeVeque Tower Times Square Pack Madison Square Garden Ploppable greenhouses - a pack of 5 greenhouses to add to your agricultural areas Water decoration areas - adds water-textured areas Grass decoration areas - adds grass-textured areas (no trees) Concrete decoration areas - adds concrete-textured areas Cemetery grounds - adds ploppable tombstones, with which to form a cemetery Unlockers/Unlocked buildings Unlocker Light for CXL 2012 - Unlocks Landmarks and Blueprints, including Sydney opera, Angkor Wat, etc LA Union Metro Station - the same as the one in the Hollywood map, but fully functional as Metro station Ski Pack Expander - unlockes the remaining Ski buildings, ski tracks and roads Bouygues Hospital Complex - unlocks the complex and one additional health building Beach pack roads and bridges - unlocks the Beach roads, fixes the broken stilt road transitions Institute of Technology - unlocks an amazing technology research center University of Applied Sciences - unlocks this Education building Over Water Placement mods - there are a whole lot of these, allowing building over the water of roads, plazas, buildings, etc. With the new XLN UIM mod, all of them can be toggled on/off No Collision box mods - again, a big group, allowing to merge buildings together to form interesting urban neighborhoods, while preserving original building functionality. Again, XLN UIM mod allows to toggle these on and off. Bug fixes mods The Annoying CXL 2012 Bug fix Pack - fixes a N of problems, such as residences not connecting to roads, buildings overlapping others, new special offices not functioning as intended Beach and Ski residences fix - fixes the broken residences from the Ski, Beach and American packs. Note that the same fixes (excluding the American residences) are also found in the CLM mod, and the Ski Expander mod. It's worthwhile noting that the modding activity is continuing - there are more NEXL mods in the pipeline, such as the Waterways (adding Ferry transport and Water Leisure options, as well as Harbor waterways), Rail (finally fixing the Railroad network), Airways; RHM 2, which will make it much easier to construct customizable highways; There is a Health mod almost ready, which will improve the Health simulation.... That's it for now, if I have forgotten a mod, please notify me

Agreed, CXL still seems better on objective count than SC 4/13. Although we have to give it that we still haven´t actually seen SC 13.... I´d really like to withold judgment for now....

Hm, if the patches don't work, than I'm afraid I have no answer for you..... But Ocram is right - for a little more you could upgrade to CXL 2011 which is better in every way, and I bet it won't require registration. By the way, you DO have a valid CDkey, right? Because then you should be entitled to 50% discount on CXL 2011. Hope this helps.

Many buildings in CXL are modelled after real-life buildings, so it's plausible.

Oh wow.... you actually still have CXL 2009????? Well, it's a big world.... Ok, I can offer you two solutions: 1 (preferred, and not because I'm trying to sell the game) - upgrade to CXL 2011, at least. The game is not multiplayer-online anymore, it's single player, has metro and a gazilion mods you coul use at www.xlnation.net. 2. Go to http://forum.citiesxl.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=90 Here you'll find instructions and a download link for the patch that allows you to play CXL 2009 offline.

Guys , good news: XL Nation is BACK! Check it out now!

I read that the problem is with the code, unfortunately. Hyperwolf is trying to optimize it, so the provider would let the site up again. Patience!

Let's keep sarcasm under control please! Mazseex, this is obviously a visual glitch involving the map, and I don't know a way to deal with these. I guess you tried unsuccessfully to reload the map.... The only other thing I could suggest is loading an earlier safe - if you don't have one, then I'm afraid I can't help you. If you want, you could head to xlnation.net - the community there is much more active and chances are you might find better help.

Like I said, that's the very first time I've seen this happening. So, it must be a really rare bug, and I recon it doesn't depend on the map.

I'm afraid it's a nasty bug, although I've never heard of anything like that happening. And indeed, the map data might have been affected - that's why you still see it after reloading the city. The only solution I can think of is you loading an earlier safe (before the appearance of the hole), if you have one, of course.

Hey Dasilva, I'm really happy we're hearing from a former Monte Cristo member! I personally remember some of your appearances in the first days, and I can't tell you how sorry many people are that the whole project couldn't go in the direction we all wanted (for business reasons), and that it didn't get to be developed properly (for the same business reason). By the way, you have noticed already that modding for the game is doing really well now, and maybe if you're interested, you could help with your deeper knowledge of the game? If so, please go to http://xlnation.net/, where all is happening currently - we would all be happy to see you there!

As far as I remember, you could literally browse the cities on your planet (which at the time belonged to many different players, not only you), then choose one and 'enter' it. You appeared as an Avatar in one of the Avatar Parks, and then from Street view you could walk around and even interact with other avatars (if there were any around). BTW, the Avatar mode is still in the code, it's simply disabled for now. You could use it to walk around your own cities, I guess..... although Street view would do the absolutely same thing

I think the fact that Cities XL is currently free to play (for all practical reasons) will keep it alive in the face of the online-only policy for SimCity 2013. Of course, EA hasn't stated yet all details about how it's gonna work, but I won't be surprised at all if they decide ultimately to go for an MMO model, very similar to the CXL Planet Offer. There are only two possible reasons they woudln't do that: 1. They saw the financial disaster CXL's Planet offer was. They don't wanna repeat that. 2. They simply think they won't make enough money to warrant the effort, and will adopt a different business model. Neither one of these reasons unfortunately has anything to do with gameplay, or care for the customer. EA has always been about the money, and milking as much as possible their customers (reference - the Sims, the countless copycat sports games, etc.etc.). So, whatever they decide to do in the end, I'm pretty positive that the new Sim City's playability will be strongly affected by the customer's possibility/will to pay them regularly. Whether in the form of monthly subscription, or in the form of countless DLCs, containing most of the 'cool' features.... At the same time, CXL is still being developed, for free, by the community - the same way as the community developed the hell out of Sim City 4. True that its official publisher has all but abandoned the game... still its code is very, very moddable, and not only on the surface, but also in the simulation part. Mods like CLM, RHM, and others have proven already that CXL can be enriched a lot. Still, of course, if EA decide to develop properly SC 2013, nothing could stand in its way. My concern is that they never really intended to build the ultimate citybuilder game, instead they simply are building A citybuilder game. Which, depending on the circumstances, might develop into a great, on into a mediocre game. We'll see.

Skis, Every building has only one possible point of access to a road; this has to do with the way the game engine works, and is not, I repeat, not, a faulty designer decision. The snap feature usually helps you place your buildings, it doesn't hinder you, especially in the case of curved roads, when the rotation options are limited, but at the same time there is no inherent grid on the map.... Speaking of rotating, you can rotate a building while placing it, by holding SHIFT and moving the mouse. Unfortunately, you can't rotate it smoothly throughout the 360 degrees - it goes on steps. Hence the snapping feature that helps you orient buildings as you wish, simply by building a road first.

Let me throw my 50 cents here.... First of all, the Sims is a different game. Like others stated already, it's centered on micro simulation - for example the need of the guy to eat, drink, have fun, decorate his house, etc. Sim City is centered on macro simulation - the needs of a whole city, like electricity, water, transport, resource management, etc. The two are interdependend, of course, but only to a degree! Would the city mayor concern himself with the individual needs of every single citizen? Of course not, and in the same time - yes; because he wouldn't be able to hear the needs of every single citizen, even if he wanted to. He thinks, then, in generalizing terms, instead of individualistic terms. For example, Citizen X likes to party, while citizen Y likes quiet life, and these are two opposing styles of life. The mayor's job is to provide places where both citizens would be happy, fitting them into the general plan of the city. Because apart of this, he also has to think of transportation, electricity, city budget, etc. So, to summarize: the name Sims is simply a coincidence, and it shouldn't be taken as a basis of the simulational strategy of a game like Sim City. Second, for me the tile sizes are indeed alarming. I've been in many places around the world on three different continents, and I've never seen a city as small as the ones we're seeing in the screens here. Those would be towns, not cities, and they wouldn't have the scyscrapers they show so proudly here. Where on Earth you have a power plant which is 300 m from the business district???? So, they are basically forcing us to think in matters of neighborhoods, not cities, if we want a reasonable degree of realism. Now, I'm a Cities XL fan (where you have these huge maps), but I really liked the regional concept of SC4 - I wanted that back and enhanced. Unfortunately, the large tiles that we had in SC4 are no longer gonna be available in SC 2013.... So, how am I supposed to develop even one single city the way I want? Obviously, by developing 5 - 6 cities at the same time. and I don't like that a bit. Yes, I'm aware of the hardware requirements that are behind this decision, but indeed, I'd rather this game be a little more generalized in terms of simulation, and allow me to build bigger cities in one tile, then simulating every single citizen and industrial agent at the same time, when they go to work and back. I'm sorry to break it to you, guys, but Cities XL is already doing a decent job with citizen simulation, despite the large maps - satisfaction in many services, transport routes and options that affect satisfaction, job options..... (what they lack is in other areas, like budget options diversity). True, the game lags on slower machines in big cities, but so did SC4 and nobody seemed to mind. So... I hope for Maxis and EA's sakes that they manage to deliver a really stunning degree of simulational depth and realism with SC 2013, otherwise, for me this game is gonna be a bigger disaster than CXL's Planet Offer was.

I think your problems stem from the autosnap feature..... The cursor would snap to the edges of buildings, instead of moving with your hand. That one's a $%&^!, especially when upgrading roads, I know. There IS a mod that reduces the snap, but it isn't that effective, I would recommend you just take some time to exercise and get used to the problem. I've never had any problems, neither with autosave, nor with the manual type.

CXL has future, despite the lack of 'official' development. Modders have been hard at it in the last 6 - 7 months, and they're managing to do much more than add cosmetics and new buildings. There's still lots of room for expansion, if serious people get busy, and they do. More resources, more city simulation, more transport types.... Some incredibly complex (from both gameplay and visual point of view) mods have been made, such as NEXL, CLM, RHM, and more are in the works. So, yeah, CXL still has a future.

Funny, no? You pay money for a game, you spend time and energy learning it, enjoying it, and then POOF I can understand a game including additional online features.... but being online-only? What happens one day with all WOW players if Blizzard simply goes bankrupt? Do you have any idea how much money and time has every one of them invested in this friggin game?

I fear there's more at stake here than just the ability to control the product you bought, it's all a part of a larger, much more serious problem (or rather, a technological trend which we haven't realized yet): - I'm speaking of the fact that more and more products are seizing to be physical and start being 'virtual', that is, a series of 1s and 0s. Whether it's a game, or another piece of software, or it's a music piece, a film, a book, article, etc. Digitalization is quickly taking over the world of information and media, and the industry is being left behind in all this process. Have you ever thought of the moral truth that nowadays when you download anything from the Internet, you don't 'steal' anything from anybody? Any piece of information (a series of 1s and 0s) is being transmitted and copied, as if you get a carbon copy of something, without ever spending any resource for it? The original source of the information doesn't seize to have this information; it's just that now you have it too. We could say that there is the Internet bandwidth as a resource, with all its physical infrastructure, spend to maintain the very connection for the download. But you're already paying the cost of this to your local Internet provider. So, to summarize: what are today's distribution costs for any of the aforementioned products, compared to,say, same costs for a movie from the 80s? 1. This old movie would have to be copied thousands of times in a factory (first on cinematic rolls, then on a video cassette); then all these copies have to be physically distributed to the entire world via road/sea/air transport; they have to be stored somewhere, then redistributed to local users (cinemas, Video Stores, Retail), until finally they get to their end user - you. All this includes lots of physical resources that are used up - resources to make the rolls/video cassettes, then fuel and trucks/ships, then warehouses..... 2. Today's digital distribution means that you make the digital copy of the product, you upload it on a server somewhere, and ....... that's it. Everyone that has access to this server via the Internet could download it, for 'free'. No resources spend for ANYTHING, besides the Internet infrastructure itself, which is already there. So, how would all these companies justify the ever-increasing costs they charge for their products, if in fact their distribution costs have seized to exist? Oh yes, they still make DVD copies that are distributed locally through the old means, but seriously, how long until this practice seizes to exist as well? It's costly, it's unpractical, it's medieval. It will inevitably disappear the way e-mailing is increasingly replacing traditional mail services. Have you thought why media companies are the main sponsors of all SOPA/CISPA etc - style bills? It's exactly because they see the end of the era of physical distribution, and the end of all justification for the exorbitant prices and easy profits they have now. So, they try to ensure in the future they maintain control of the market and their profits, even though all moral reasons for it have already disappeared. I'm not saying that they should sell their products for free, far from it. I'm a musician myself, I produce music and I too want to sell my labor as a product, and not distribute it for free. But you have to be reasonable: once you produce the product, you have no costs whatsoever in order to distribute it. So, you should charge a small sum for each copy, right? I mean, if every movie in your local Internet video store costed 2- 3 dollars, who would bother to look for pirated stuff? The average Joe wouldn't hesitate to purchase it, and there you have literally millions of purchases ensured. Even if only one in every 50 decides to purchase it, you still get upwards of 100 000 000 purchases.... and this would not only cover the cost of the ambitious Hollywood productions, but also net a hefty profit. Well, I guess you could sell for $5 if the movie was sooooooooo expensive to make (Avatar, etc). And the price for a music piece should be under 50 cents - it's so much cheaper and easier to make a music recording.... On the other hand, when it costs $80 and even after you purchase it you still don't have the liberty to use it whenever you want..... The number of people willing to purchase it would drop dramatically. Well, I hope you get my point. This post is starting to turn too long, and I hope it's not judged out of the topic. The battle EA and the gaming industry is waging for the Constantly Online issue is only a chapter in the greater battle for the future of media distribution. And we, the users, have to stand our ground, if we don't want to fall under an even heavier capitalistic slavery in the coming years.

Yes, yes yes, but what colour where her shoes, and did they coordinate with her handbag and glasses? Also were her shoes, handbag and glasses produced locally or at least in the same region... or where they produced in some off-shore, out-sourced, developing Sim-Nation, with 'inferior' labour laws, working conditions, medical entitlements and superannuation? After all we are now all living in a global economy and not some glass box bubble... You people are forgetting they would need to discuss the latest soap opera on the TV channel 5, which could change their political views (because the main character is a mean old Republican), their job needs (because he works at a Chines Multinational), their food habits (he's a vegetarian), their sports preferences (he's a Nickers fan) and finally their general happiness (because the series is generally bad). Oh, and it might affect the woman and the man differently Seriously, the observation about the similarity between Glassbox and Caesar/Pharaoh is spot-on! I remember all these 'agents' running around - engineers to keep the buildings from falling, sentries to keep peace, market sellers to supply access to the markets, jugglers to supply leisure.... It seems this is the absolutely same concept, although taken in the present and distributed via different means, not only people running around. And yeah, I'm really curious to see how this beast would perform.

Yeah, well, fortunately there are some players out there that still keep their eye on quality first, deadlines be damned. Blizzard, Valve.... Of course their game price is usually higher than the market, too And they only deal in specific genres I'd really love to hear that EA is facing bancrupcy Unfortunately, the huge milking cow called The Sims, along with all the FIFA copycats probably won't allow this.....

Yeah, exactly the same idea Monte Cristo had with Cities XL. The game was half-finished, with their intention to finish it via DLCs later, for which to charge :)) EA is gonna pull the absolutely same trick, with the difference that they have the financial resources to keep the game running until it not only pays off, but also give them some profit. Also, the names EA and Maxis call much more attention than Monte Cristo, and there will be more than enough media attention that would attract enough deluded customers to keep the online aspect alive for at least couple of years, no matter the real state of the game.

You could always trade with your other cities

Yeah... For me RHM2 - full works without problems. But then again, I use very few mods, apart of my own And boy, is it an improvement over RHM1! What do you think?

Damit, if we wanted to be so competitive, we would all be in WOW, spending hours on end raiding and then fighting in arenas with poor slobs The whole point of the city-building genre, the main thing that distinguishes it for me from all thousands of game out there, is to let off a bit this endless loop of learn-teh-game-equip-yourself-go-kick-ass-prove-how-awesome you are..... In a city builder we have the perfect mix of a challenge and creativity,. running together to produce an unique outcome with every other city you create. And now EA wants to force us to abandon the creative part and replace it with the same competitiveness that exists everywhere..... I know, I was there, I played Cities XL's Planet Offer for more than 3 months. I remember how a decent idea (this marvelous Global Market Maxis are so excited about) got twisted into unions, speculation, and pure annoyance. You either dedicate your life to it, or you won't be any good. Well, I hope I'm wrong here. I hope somehow maxis will find the golden point..... let's see.