Lambtropolis

It's perfectly ok not to include agriculture in your cities, even at the beginning. Though there will be high demand for ag, your initial citizens will be perfectly content with an adequate supply of heavy dirty industry at first, which will later be replaced/ supplemented with clean industry as your sims gain some wealth, health, etc.

I typically mix my residential and commercial areas together (in urban planning terms this is called "mixed-use development), which greatly cuts down on commute time and provides for a more lively community atmosphere in just about any city. It probably isn't a good idea to mix in heavy dirty industry, but once you get demand for clean high-tech industry, that can be mixed-in as well.

Got it, I just had to set software render instead of hardware. Not sure why this works, but it does!

Yeah, it is set to 32-bit, though I did try 16-bit as well with no difference. Thanks for the idea though.

A few months ago I upgraded my monitor (now a 24" widescreen) and my video card (now 2 nvidea 7900s in SLI). Ever since this upgrade my water has appeared edgy - the transitions from light to dark and not smooth. Below is a pic to illustrate. Anyone have any idea what is causing this or what I might be able to do about it? I've tried different resolutions with no affect and turning clouds/fog on or off makes no difference in the texture. Thanks!

Wow, nice pics. I haven't been this excited about a new city sim game since simcity 4 was announced in 2002.

May I ask what size widescreen monitors you all are using? I'm thinking about getting a 22 or 24-inch widescreen monitor, but I'm afraid SC4 won't be compatible. Thanks

I really see this game as much a The Sims spinoff as a SimCity spinoff - if not more so. They really should have called this game, Sims in the City or something... anything but SimCity X.

Well, bottom line is I guess I'll get some more RAM and then do some vram experimentation. I'll see if it runs better with more or less vram and report back.

Hi, sam. To answer your question, I am currently working in the field of biogeography, but I have a Master's degree in Biology (general). One of my favorite examples of evolution we can observe in action is one that few people think about, yet affects nearly everyone at some point in their life. I am, of course, referring to the evolution of bacteria. Bacteria, being rather simple - compared to say people or sheep - are still very complex and amazing pieces of machinery - just as complex as a modern CPU in a computer. At any rate, they are still "simple" enough that we can decode their DNA rather quickly, and keep track of literally thousands of generations, given that their individual lifespans are extremely short (minutes, in some cases). Their short lifespan and lightning fast population-regeneration times make bacteria ideal for studying the process of evolution. I did a simple experiment in microbiology class, where we took cultures of bacteria, subjected them to various antibiotics, and observed the result. Though most of the bacteria were killed, there were always a few that were somehow resistant that lived on to recontruct the old population within a few days. But each time we subjected the population of bacteria to a new antibiotic, the entire gene pool - or frequency of alleles - changed, and we had ourselves an evolving population of bacteria. And oh yes, this obviously happens in real life, outside of the lab. If bacteria did not evolve, then there wouldn't be this current crisis with drug-resistant (or antibiotic-resistant) strains of bacteria. I realize the above was not a very detailed or in-depth explanation of bacterial evolution, but I simply do not have the time to write more at the moment. If I may, I'd like to refer you all to a website that explains bacterial evolution - and evolution in general - very clearly and completely: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0/bergstrom_01 Evolution is very real - and it has very serious implications for all of us. We can argue to no end whether God planned evolution and/or set it in motion or not, but it is real and - quite honestly - easy enough for almost anyone to understand in great detail. Oh, it's on page 2, I believe, that Dr. Bergstrom starts talking about my bacterial friends.

Is it true, though, that the more virtual memory I allocate, the less the game will run off my RAM? Wouldn't that tend to slow things down a bit? Thanks for your response.

Okay, so I've been thinking about doubling my PC3200 DDR400 RAM from 1 GB to 2 GB, thinking that this will speed up the game. Even with just 1 GB I only notice severe slowdowns on large maps with medium to large sized cities. Even so, I would like to improve performance - can anyone tell me if doing this will work? I'd rather not spend the money if the added RAM is not going to make a noticeable different in performance.

I like the fact that it's the first SimCity attempt at full 3d... even if it looks really bad, I guess it's a start.

For anyone who has a decent educational background in Science knows that the only reasonable options here are: God exists and he created the very first organism capable of undergoing adaptive radiation and evolution through natural selection and other mechanisms - the process by which their ancestors still undergo today? Essentially: "god put things in motion, but did not create everything as it is seen today" - Or - God does not exist and/or he did not create the very first organisms capable of undergoing evolution - they were produced through natural processes. --------------- So why are these the only two real choices? Because evolution - by definition, change in species over time - can actually be observed. Perhaps not as easily as gravity can be observed, but it can be observed. If you'd like some examples, please let me know. I have actually seen many in my time as a scientist (currently working on my doctorate).

According to the EA press release today: "if players are feeling happy, they can build a Fun City filled with Ferris Wheels, Gingerbread Houses and Chocolate Factories!" Oh goody! What a disaster.