Helbore

If I understand the T&Cs of Origin correctly, they go something like this; EA have permission to data mine my computer for personal information that's really none of their business, and then they can use that data to try and sell me more stuff. They also accept no responsibility for the protection of my data once they've copied it all to their servers. Sorry, but even if this new Sim City was the most perfect citybuilder of all time - even if it fulfilled all my wishes for Sim City and then some - I wouldn't buy it if Origin was a requirement. There's NO WAY I'm allowing some massive corporation unrestricted access to my PERSONAL computer. That's just not on, imo. This should be illegal, as far as I'm concerned. Could a corporation get away with adding a condition of purchase that allowed them free access to your home whenever they felt like it?

Glassbox looked amazing, but all these further updates have really soured my expectations for this game. It's sad, as I'd long given up hope on a new Sim City, so was really excited to see it was finally coming back. The reason SC4 has lasted for so long is because of how flexible it was. You could design a whole new region and build vastly different, sprawling cities. Add in how much extra has been provided through modding and you had a game that constantly had new things to do. Its why it can still be played years later. All this limitations like no terraforming and no control of regional transport mean the game will get old REALLY quick. With 2x2km city sizes, we'll have built a city to its limits within a few hours. In SC4, I like the fact that once I run into the city limits, I can just load up the next tile and continue on with more of the same city. Its rewarding to look at a massive region you've created, with this big sprawling city ever-expanding over it. Instead of being shown new features that make us go "wow, I can't wait to try that out," we seem to be getting info telling us why we should be thankful they've removed features we've loved using in the past. That doesn't make me feel confident that I'll end up enjoying this game. I don't want to play "share the resources," in an online game. I've no interest in online gaming. All I want to do is be able to build a whopping great city, in the manner that I want to make it. Heck, I want to make a whopping great region, with a few whopping great, interconnected cities, towns, villages and farmland scattered across it. I can do that with SC4, even if some of the mechanics are fiddly. If I can't do anything close to that with SC13, why would I buy it? They need to drop this online crap and gameplay limitations and allow us to have a fully-flexible, custom-buildable region. Give us an improved terraformer, instead of removing it completely. Give us the ability to choose the size of a city tile by simply typing in a number (so we can choose a size that best suits the power of our computer), instead of forcing us into a single size too small to fit a farm in, let alone a city. Give us a fully-flexible transportation network, not limit us to pre-defined intercity connections. They make us believe that the reason this game is happening is because they've seen how SC4 has survived and flourished due to the online community. But then rather than paying attention to what said community wants, they not only spend all their effort putting in features that nobody asked for, but are actually cutting out existing features that made the game capable of enduring for all these years in the first place! I can only see one good reason for them doing this. They don't want to risk the game lasting as long as SC4. They want the game to lack longevity, so they can keep selling us upgrades and new versions. They're intentionally knobbling the game because they hope it will allow them to more easily milk their customers. I think it will backfire and we'll see another 10 years of SC4 being played to death by its fans.

Let's expand on this even further. Don't just give us one road as a template, give us a half-dozen or so, akin to the ones in Simcity 4: street, road, avenue, highway, etc. Left click to select one and use on the fly, as a lot of casual users might do, or right click to edit the properties, with the option to save as a new type. If a lot of options are available this should probably work hand in hand with the idea of custom-made menus discussed in another thread. I've wanted this in Sim City 4 for years! It makes perfect sense as it gives a complex, flexible tool for the enthusiasts, but allows Maxis to create simple templates to avoid overwhelming the newbies. It also means that it should be straightforward for players to slowly move up to more complex gameplay as they feel comfortable. No changing modes or difficulty settings - just make use of the default templates until you feel ready to dive into the "custom" menu. They could even tailor it further, with the custom menu having a basic view on display by default and an advanced button to bring up even more options. eg. the simple menu would just have number of lanes, lane type, whether there is a median, surface type (eg. dirt track, concrete or asphalt/tarmac) and elevation as its options, whereas the advanced menu would open up additional options for width of lanes, traffic restrictions (carpool lanes, bike lanes, bus lanes, etc), speed limits, width of medians, further surface options (eg. cobblestone), etc. This way you make a complex system with a structure that allows you gradual access to the more complex features. IT means we get all the funky stuff we want and new users don't run away screaming the first time they see the menu!

I really, really want to see the transport system overhauled completely. No more streets, roads, avenues and highways. Instead, we should have a road and that's it. Then we can customize the road to how we want it. Options such as; Number of lanes in each direction from 0 to infinity. Whether there is a median in the road and how large it is. The speed limit of the road. The definition of the lane (eg. walkway, cycle lane, bus lane, all traffic, no HGV lane, car pool lane, etc) Whether it accepts at-grade intersections or on/off ramp interchanges only They are just a few options, but you get the gist. If I decide I want to build a road with 50 lanes in either direction and a speed limit of 200mph, I should be able to do so. It will cost a fortune and no-one will even build a house anywhere near it, but if I want to build it, I should be able to. Similarly, if I want to stick a walkway down the side of this road and put an in-grade intersection across it, I should be able to - and then watch the ensuing carnage that it would cause. Of course, such detailed management would be annoying if we had to do this every time we laid a new road, so we would be able to save layouts as templates. This also gets around the complexity issue for novice gamers. Maxis can simply provide several standard road templates and people need never touch the advance customization menus until they're good and ready (or never, if they don't want to) The same should apply to all network types, with basic templates for rail and added customisation options for advanced users (light, heavy, train types, dual or mono rails, maglev, raised/ground/sub and full interchanging between grades). We should also be able to create proper routes for rail and bus services. None of this "hop on a train and treat a rail line like you're driving a car down a road" stuff. If your destination station isn't on the same line as your starting station, you need to go via a station with line interchanges. Personally, I'm sick of being railroaded (pun intended!) by a limited transportation system. When you get a city to a certain size, the game practically revolves around transportation planning. If my city outgrows a three-lane highway, why should I be stuck with congested traffic forever? My city DESERVES it's four-lane highway! Also - and this one is pretty much a pipe dream - I'd love to have some fully-realised real world cities included in the game. For instance, I live in London, UK and it would be awesome to have an accurate recreation of London (among other cities) bundled with the game. Then, using my new customizable transport system, I could go about trying to actually fix the transport issues that plague the city. See if I can pull of what our real Mayor is incapable of!

First ever post on this forum! I really want to be able to build something like this, preferably involving highways as well as avenues. Something like this roundabout near where I live; http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=billet+roundabout+chingford&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Billet+Rd,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&ll=51.600953,-0.016678&spn=0.002739,0.007113&t=k&z=18 Been trying like mad to get something like this, where a load of local roads converge onto a large roundabout with a highway (in this case the London North Circular Road) running underneath it. Doing the same thing with a highway flyover would be good too. Any chance something like this is possible or in the pipeline from someone? For extra graphical coolness, it would be good to have a "hollow centre" roundabout like the one in the picture, where you can see the highway underpass through the middle of the roundabout. (for those interested, you can also see a bunch of pedestrian footbridges/cycle lanes running under the roundabout and above the highway through the middle, too.) I'd love to have something like this in my city! These things are pretty commonplace for major intersections in the UK and I really want to have something similar. But is it even possible?