Hello everybody,
Beyond the obvious wishes that most players share (mass transit, map generator/creator, get rid of uni-size zones, adding custom content etc) I want to share a few of my personal dreams and ideas on how I’d like to see CXL evolve in the future. I'm sure not all of my ideas are realistic, especially not for the short term (hey that's what dreams are for :-)) but I hope MC will at least read this post and use it for inspiration. I realize many elements of these ideas may have been brought up by other community members already, but I just wanted to elaborate on my own thoughts here. In the future I will add new ideas to this post. In the mean time feel free to comment, expand upon these ideas or add your own, but please elaborate beyond one- liners.
Advanced Traffic Simulation
1) I propose players can build traffic infrastructure maintenance service. When doing so players get control over an adjustable tax level for traffic infrastructure maintenance (roads for now, later after Mass Transit is introduced also for rail subway etc). This tax level determines overall road degradation rate. At 100% (default) maintenance balances degradation rate and nothing changes with respect to current game play, which will keep novice players happy. Expert players can use the tax to micro manage their city's finances.
2) Road degradation is dependent on this tax level but also on time and especially on actual road usage. That means that road segments with heavy usage degrade faster. There are several (let’s say 3) levels of degradation. The degradation level affects road capacity and speed limit. As a result traffic slowly but continuously re-routs depending on degradation. To improve the liveliness of the game and connection between simulation and game graphics, each degradation level has its own road overlay textures (e.g. the higher the degradation levels the more potholes and cracks appear). Thinking along this line a bit further it may be an idea to increase the incidence of accidents (animations) with degradation level.
3) Repairing degraded roads can be done in two ways. The easy way to do it is to just increase the tax level to more than 100%. The higher the surplus the faster degraded roads are fixed. This will be financed from cash flow. Alternatively, roads can be repaired per segment at a fixed cost (drawn from cash) that depends on degradation level and road type. By clicking on the road segment you get an option to repair the segment (next to the current options to change traffic lanes and one way streets). Repairing road will take certain amount of time depending on degradation level. Additionally, there is a quick repair option at twice the costs of normal repair. To improve liveliness of the game and connection between simulations and graphics again it would be great if there could be some road work graphics and animations.
4) Dreaming on even a bit more; if ever a season expansion pack is released these city traffic maintenance services could also be used to deal with snowfall or other extreme weather conditions that affect traffic.
Advanced Trade System Experience
1) I propose players can only trade after they built a stock exchange or market. I imagine there can be a few different stock exchanges / markers (with different buildings) that would allow access on different types of markets. Trading management options open by clicking on the building (or from the menu). Freight / trading capacity is no longer determined only by the number of road connections. For oil and water players can increase trading capacity by building pipeline connections. For electricity power lines. Again these graphical additions add liveliness and create a strong functional connection to simulation.
2) I propose a difference in trading between resources (fuel, water, food) and services (e.g. workers). For resources I propose that next to the current trading options bulk trading becomes possible for which the city’s cash can be used. This will remove dependency of cash flow only and also will remove the dependency of 5 day contracts and on often “unreliable” players. Food silos get a new function and now can be used to actually store food. Oil and water tankers are introduced to the game for storage of fuel and water. These storage facilities can be used to store resources that are purchased (thereby creating a stock for cities that cannot produce these resources themselves) or to store the overproduction, which otherwise is wasted. As a physicist I have learned that adding a capacity to a system dampens volatile oscillating behaviorJ. I expect it will have the same stabilizing effect on the trading system. I’m not sure yet how to deal with electricity in this perspective, but wouldn’t mind that the
Airport and harbor GEMs
I propose modular airports and harbors/seaports (perhaps as released as GEMs). For airports players can build multiple passenger or freight terminals, freely drag-able runways, connecting roads, service roads, service buildings, bus and rail connection stations, parking, rental-car, taxi services, drag-able fences for delimiters, dedicated airport decoration textures… you name it. For harbors and seaport something similar would apply (the seaport development kits developed by simpeg for sc4 are a great source of inspiration) e.g. building different types of passenger of freight piers and docks, warehouses, container yards, bus railroad connection station, drag-able fences/buoys and dedicated base decoration textures and sea/shore walls for delimiting the area. With such a modular approach players can build these GEMs compliant to their cities needs. For example a city with a huge emphasis on offices can build a large extendable passenger airport, while cities with emphasis on industrial production would be able to go for freight airports. Again I propose a strong connection between simulation and graphics, so that graphics become functional instead of mere eye candy. Also the GEM should be strongly embedded in the city simulation, so the micromanagement inside the GEMs should be connected to city simulation on base-parameters (e.g. impact on city cash flow, freight or storage capacity). As such city needs will drive the type of airport /seaport the player builds.
Personally I ‘d like GEMs like these much more than ski of beach GEMs, which only seem to connect to city tourism.
