edcase2k4-thugangel1983

i really wish it was possible to make a real menu management modification, that provides a simple out-of-game UI for changing menu item orders without editing individual files manually, creating entirely new sub-menus within the lowest heirarchy of the menus that Maxis created, and grouping menu items into those sub-menus. a pipe dream that will never happen though. but if it could - i would find SC4's playability increase tenfold, and probably find time to play again because i tend to spend more time looking for what i want than placing what i want! if it required modifying the hardcode of the game i'd happily pay EA to do it... meh!

wooooooooooooooooooooooah! wish i could still play SC4...

i wonder if the third-party publisher will continue much further with this game, or the whole "Cities XL 2011" proposal. CXL's on-going failure certainly won't have a good effect on the confidence any other developers who may consider deliving into the city-building genre. SC4 lives on though... but sad to see Monte Cristo leave, especially after much enjoyment and great discussion on their early forums with Philippe and the other forum members. good luck to the former employess of MC. clearly they did have many talented programmers and graphic designers on-board and i'm sure you will all find stable jobs for the future. Edited for content. --Liv

well, it also makes the product sound outdated less soon. if you release something called "Product 2010" in july of that year... that only gives it 5-6 months before it sounds like it's not the latest product. whereas if it was named "Product 2011" it gives the product a year and half before it sounds as old. it's just marketing and a name anyway. the product itself matters more to the more discerning consumer.

Originally posted by: mentarman Sounds like either the original poster misunderstood the response he got, or you have someone at MC who isn't on the same page when he is answering questions...quote> nothing new there.

a new beginning? beginning of the end? hmm... maybe it's actually a new end.

brilliant post Tarkus! eveything you said is so true. on the note on a "multiplayer" style of city-builder. i was one of the initial poposers of such an experience, on the citiesunlimited.com (citiesxl.com) forums, along with Bountytaker, Romaq, and some others. there wasn't a huge amount of support or interest in the idea but i was certainly one who could see how there could be something in it. from my point of view aswell, MMO was certainly not the way to do it, and when the MMO aspect of CXL was made public, i was disappointed and sceptical from the start. to me, a multiplayer aspect of a city-building game would work best in the same way you mentioned (look at collaborative regions and CJ efforts, and the CJ unions, put together from a much smaller and organised posse of players who are all 'in the same place' with their intentions and such. an MMO as a fund-raising way to keep developing the game is what i saw MC's approach as and as such, had huge concern about its success always. i would have loved if their multiplayer aspect of the game had been more along the lines of what I and others had suggested from the start of their development, but this was never to be the case it seems - and much to MC's downfall aswell. your description of how multiplayer city-builder could be done was pretty much in-line with was i had envisaged. but it still would not be for everyone because city-builders do appear to be a predomoninately "solitary" genre of game - a lot like with enthusiasts of tangible model and miniature-model sets. multiplayer would always be more of a 'novelty' feature for a few who can enjoy the game in that way - and i struggle to see working as such an integral and fund-raising part of the game if the rest of it is still to appeal to the masses. MC clearly misjudged this, amongst the many other things you mentioned which are also spot-on...

Originally posted by: Asheroo Do you think it's possible to go back into the site cache to find my Micro Management Article? How about my super duper incredible amazing thread Airport Management? quote> sorry Ash but google's cache of pages on the CXL forums is long-gone now. there are a few sites which keep 'permanent' copies of cached pages from some websites for historical reasons, so i could have a look on there but i wouldn't hold your breath. the only other hope is if anyone nabbed a copy of them before the site went down, or while google still had cached copies? seeing as i'm not the only one who saved some things...

not wanting to create an echo-chamber but really if one way to help redeem and boost sales for CXL is to engage the existing city-building game fans then yes, what MC really needs to do is implement the things that SC4 already provided but what CXL failed to provide. no point focusing on massive wishlists and innovative desires with new transportation features and customisation, zoning customisation, because the fundamental core mechanics of the game are lacking in quite a few departments... and as far as i can tell - it is that which is always the biggest put-off for me and many other potential players. the fact is that CXL actually did innovate and provide new features in some areas (3D graphics, free rotation for content placement, different climates, and amongst other things). if they could bring the rest, that is to say - the core mechanics - up to scratch in order to match SC4, and make some of its features more user-friendly, then the game would become a lot more appealing to the wealth of the city-building players who were disappointed in CXL like myself and still rate even the unmodified SC4 as a better game. i'm not gonna bother listing what things they are which need to be improved because its all been said before. i will say this though - i think that fixing these things will definitely warm more of the countless existing SC4 players to purchasing CXL. would that creatae enough sales to help MC though? i dunno... something tells me, not.

indeed. it shows quite a different picture to reality, in some areas. i'll do what i can to restore pictures but i don't think i'll be able to get many of them back.

thanks André. you did great work compiling those posts, and i'm glad a few of us salvaged some of the forums content before it was exterminated. where possible, i may be able to link to your copies of posts and edit some of the above content in this thread. of course, that's whenever i can find time though as it's always in short supply for these sorts of things these days...

Miscellaneous & Additional Game Features City Events & Life: *UPDATED* In the recent article posted at French gaming website www.gamekult.com, it was revealed that there would be different events that may take place within our cities: To avoid the fragmentation of the community, the online portion of Cities XL will focus heavily on the centralization of information through an Internet site that will offer many features such as a profile editor, avatar, or communication tools that will manage a network of friends, or create "city newspapers" which are very blog-esque in spirit. Beyond all these gadgets, at the official website we will also be informed in real time on the latest developments, and keep an eye on events taking place in our city or to follow the course of our favourite ones. Monte Cristo bases a lot of hopes on the whole community aspect of Cities XL, and will organize a few events including mass on the occasion of Christmas, or the Olympics, and will distribute awards to cities with certain achievements, such as those being more "green", or the best oil resource magnates, etc. The official blog update Think massive, think online, think CITIES XL also revealed that music concerts may be held within our cities: The game's online features and services will allow players to create interconnected cities on virtual and persistent planets. Mayors can share and trade with one another, specialize their economy and team up with befriended cities to create sprawling metropolises. Life on the planet will be punctuated by events and competitions - a concert held in one town may, for example, be attended by visitors from other areas who can also enjoy a walk around the city to admire the urban creations of multiple players. More Realistic Construction & Deconstruction: *UPDATED* The recent blog entry New screenshots, and upcoming blog entry gave us our first glimpse of building construction in CITIES XL: It is thought that these structures we can see being constructed are known as "blueprints", an exclusive form of Landmarks. Gregory revealed some information about them in this post, quoted here: Gregory wrote: Right now (that might change before the game is released) we have 3 'categories' of building: - 'Regular' buidings; who makes up for 90% of a city - Landmarks; those are nicer buildings, often inspired by real buildings; such as the London town hall. - And finally we have the Blueprints which will give you access to some specific buildings. Those are very specific structures, often bigger, but not always. They will be very expensive, very long to built, and you will need help from online friends to build them. That is why they will be kept for the online game. Unlike other buildings you can't get them right away, they will require some specific steps and a bit of luck to be accessible; but that's another story. We may have a blog entry dedicated to those, and detailing the various categories of buildings. Here, we can also see the real-world EiffelTower landmark at different stages of construction: At present we have only seen landmark structures shown at construction phases, and so it is unclear whether we will see any of the game's regular buildings pass through similar phases as they are built. Customising Graphics Effects: City Life 2008, the predecessor to CITIES XL featured an "Editor" which allowed customisation of some graphical effects in the game. It had options such as customising the terrain, switching the camera between free range and first-person perspective, and customising the day/night cycle and palette. It is hoped that this visual-enhancement feature will return for CITIES XL, and preferrably become more integrated into the game; with new features such as customising nightlighting of buildings and particularly skyscrapers, street lighting effects, season effects, weather effects, pollution effects, automata levels of pedestrians, traffic, wildlife, etc. However, none of this has been confirmed as of yet. High Quality Rendered Screenshot Captures: In the "Screenshot Mode" thread, Philippe stated: We implemented a mode in CITIES XL called the "MegaScreenshot" mode which allows you to take a picture of your city with the rendering settings set to the highest similar to how some 3D modeling software renders a scene. But there's more! We are in the process of redecorating our offices in Paris and we obviously wanted to take some screenshots of the game to put them in the wall. But the resolutions we use on screens did not allow us for good printing quality when quitting the standard sheet paper sizes. So our kind developers worked on the Mega Screenshot feature and gave us an option that allow us to render a view of the game at any resolution: you are just limited by the processing power of your machine. With this, we have made some screenshots that can be printed on boards of 2m by 2m They will fit just great in our offices! Imagine whay you will be able to do with it on your side... Printing a map of your city and get it on your walls... Associated with some features like the ability to see your transport maps, that should bring some cool stuff, shouldn't it? Disasters: *UPDATED* The French article Urban Planning, Management & Land Usage at linternaute.com revealed that disasters will feature in the game: Risk A word about natural disasters, a real fear for this style of game. How many players have pulled their hair after the surprise passage of a tornado on the most beautiful residential neighborhoods? For Monte Cristo, floods, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are not excluded, but the player will be notified if built in areas at risk and have the technical means to limit the extensive damage due to construction adapted. Crimes: *UPDATED* The article Cities XL Preview: Building fans - Here comes the new SimCity! at German gaming website pcgames.de, implies that we may see crimes happening visually within our cities. Thanks to André090904, the information roughly translates to: André090904 wrote: "Your inhabitants are going to follow a dynamic daily-routine. If the crime rate increases, you will see grandmas being mugged."

User-Interface & Data (Maps / Graphs / Tools / Citizen & City Feedback) Improved Data Maps & Stats: *UPDATED* It has been confirmed by Cities XL First Impressions: Hands-On Preview article at simtropolis.com, that the game will feature: pollution maps/overlays, traffic maps/overlays, (non-intrusive) advisors, population statistics, property occupation rates, immigration rates, job availability statistics, unemployment rates, demand statistics, and budget statistics. We can also see an image here showing some of these stats: It is assumed, but not confirmed, that there will also be maps and statistics for the following: crime rates, education levels, health levels, desirabilitiy, traffic congestion and traffic volumes, zoning, land values, property values, mayor ratings, population ages, etc. There has been no mention of population density, demand, or growth maps in order to show these statistics on a very local basis. Graphic User Interface & Game Menus Customisation/Searching: *UPDATED* We caught a glimpse of some parts of the GUI from CITIES XL, with the article Cities XL First Impressions: Hands-On Preview, as seen in the following two screenshots:

Extra Buildings / Amenities / Landmarks Government & Community Buildings: It has been confirmed that City Hall buildings will feature in Cities XL, when a competition was held. See the Point, Shoot, Win! 2 blog entry for the three winning real-world City Hall entries that will be recreated to feature in the game. However, it is not yet known whether there will be a wider selection of City Halls to choose from, in a greater variety of architectural styles; or whether the City Hall will be the first building we are required to build - as it was with Monte Cristo's previous city-building game: City Life. It would be preferred for us to be able to place City Halls at any point in time, whenever we desire; and also for additional buildings to be included such as smaller Town Halls, a Village Hall, and different types/sizes of Courthouses. Additional Educational Buildings: *UPDATED* The German article Capital Flight at onlinewelten.com implies that there will be Universities in CITIES XL: It seems as if Cities XL has a very good urban-design simulation environment. I build a few houses here, then a small industrial park, a supermarket... magnificent, the city developed slowly. Indeed, already 100 people in ten minutes? Great. How about a small amusement park at this point and then a small farm, so that the low unemployment disappears?... Two hours later... Now my people ask for a university. Well, 56,000 people in the education, I can certainly understand. It has been stated that there may be different sizes of school available (which are to be unlocked), according to the article Cities XL First Impressions: Hands-On Preview: I didn't see any notifications, so I had to go in and check my menus to see what new options became available, for example a bigger school or hospital or higher zoning densities. We do not currently know whether there will be different museums catered to different topics, and private schools; or whether there will be multiple different sizes available of each, with different architectural styles. Sports Event Buildings: *UPDATED* In the official blog update Let there be light!, we were shown and given many details on some of the graphical capabilities of CITIES XL. This update featured a stadium model for the purpose of showing the visual results with screenshots and a video - confirming that stadiums will appear in the game. The stadium can also be seen, used in these cities: In the more recent blog update On your marks... get set... vote!, it was revealed that a series of polls are to be held where visitors to the official website can vote for their favourite stadium from a list, for each type of sport. The blog and the polls so far have mentioned the following sports: soccer, basketball, american football, rugby, and tennis. It was also confirmed that there will be a stadium for baseball in CITIES XL: It is not yet known which other types of sports will be catered for by stadiums and sports arenas in CITIES XL, such as: athletics, badminton, bowls, combat sports, cricket, cycling, field hockey, greyhound racing, gymnastics, ice hockey, ice skating, motorcross, olympics, roller hockey, swimming, and volleyball. For stadiums and sports arenas which are capable of hosting different types of sporting events, it is hoped that we could choose from a list which sport it will be used for when the structure is built ourselves with our own funds (much like when a stadium was built in SimCity 2000), as there wouldn't be any real structural changes to the building model itself, with only the playing field/area layout changing accordingly. However, this has not been confirmed. Currently, there would appear to be no sporting popularity, teams, or leagues systems in place. A good system would be where having many highly-used and well-maintained public sporting facilities/grounds will mean we have local club teams forming competing in minor or unofficial local/regional leagues. If we invest a lot in sporting facilities for a specific sport and they are maintained to a high standard, and see a higher level of usage - it eventually would trigger a stadium or arena reward where a developer wants to invest in the sport talent and popularity brewing in your city. When rewarded (and paid for by the developer), the stadium or arena will automatically be for a sport which is clearly prominent in the city through sporting clubs and public sporting grounds, and it would be built in the location we choose. However, when we build a stadium/arena by ourselves at any time we choose - without meeting a requirement for it to be rewarded (and is therefore paid for by the player), then we would be able to choose which sport(s) will be played ourselves. Once we have built stadiums and arenas, any local but prominent club teams will have the facilities available to move-up and compete in the bigger and official national/international leagues. It is hoped that Monte Cristo may implement a system along those lines, but currently we have no indication of this whatsoever. Additionally, the article Cities XL Preview at French gaming website jeuxvideo.com has revealed that Olympics will feature in the game as a "blueprint" - a type of Landmark available in the online multiplayer ('Planet Offer') side of the game. It is presumed that this is referring to a type of Olympic Park: This official website will also provide "blueprints" of the plans offered at random, that will allow construction of unique buildings directly from the real world. The construction of these will be take place in several phases, each one requiring that the player reaches a high quota of population and generated resources. As a result, there will be a clear bonus for the city where this type of building is constructed. For example, if you build an Eiffel Tower in your city, you can expect to see the arrival of cars full of tourists. Logic... Some of these features (such as Cape Canaveral) will require the construction of other infrastructure, e.g. laboratory research facilities... The idea will be pushed even further in the case of the Olympic Games released as several separate "blueprints". For this project, it will require more players to join. Zoos / Theme Parks: *UPDATED* In the official blog entry Crisis? What Crisis?, we are given an idea of what may feature in future "Game Extension Modules" (GEMs) expansion add-on packs that are released, such as micromanaging zoos and theme parks: While most of the following elements appear in the original version of CITIES XL, the GEMs will offer you more detailed management options for these fields. For example, Agricultural, mining, and oil companies Leisure companies: amusement parks, zoos, theme parks This should indicate that both zoos and theme parks will feature in the game. However, it is unclear whether they will be pre-made ploppable features, or whether we will have to purchase the GEMs in order to design and "lay out" them using modular content. Indoors & Outdoors Performance Arenas: In the CITIES XL blog update Think massive, think online, think CITIES XL here at the official website, it was revealed that music concerts may be held within our cities. This would imply that outdoors or indoors performance arenas may feature as one of the extra amenities available with the shipped game: The game's online features and services will allow players to create interconnected cities on virtual and persistent planets. Mayors can share and trade with one another, specialize their economy and team up with befriended cities to create sprawling metropolises. Life on the planet will be punctuated by events and competitions - a concert held in one town may, for example, be attended by visitors from other areas who can also enjoy a walk around the city to admire the urban creations of multiple players. Monuments & Statues: *UPDATED* In the following screenshots, we can see two different monuments/statues that will feature in the game: So far, we have seen no evidence of smaller statues - such as those in parks, plazas, or at memorials. Ski Resorts: *UPDATED* It has been confirmed that ski resorts will be one of the extra amenities/features we can create in CITIES XL: More information was provided about this in wired.com's preview Be a Massively Multiplayer Mayor in Cities XL: You'll be able to design a vacation resort from the ground up to complement your city, map out ski slopes with varying trail difficulties to sate the desires of novice and expert skiers, construct lifts and, of course, offer amenities and gift shops to help your patrons part with their hard-earned dollars. If you'd like to see how you're doing with your resort, just click on a patron and you'll get a dossier of their experience. You can find out what socioeconomic group they belong to, how much spending money they've brought along with them on their vacation (making adjustments to their quality of living back in the city as necessary), what they thought of a particular set of slopes (too difficult? Not as difficult as they'd like?), how many days they've been on vacation and how much money they spent on a particular day. Further information has been released about the Ski Resorts in CITIES XL, which can be seen in the official blog entry here: Mountain tops, snowflakes and winter fun!. This blog also featured three new screenshots: Motor Racing Circuits: *UPDATED* The article Cities XL Excels at pcformat.co.uk revealed that there may be a Racing Track GEM (Game Extension Module add-on pack) released for CITIES XL in the future, according to Monte Cristo's International Product Manager, Alexandre Zambeaux: If that's not enough, there are also "GEMs", which incorporate sub-management games into your city. If your city is near some mountains, you can purchase a "Ski GEM" and build a ski resort. It's a bit like Theme Park, but it impacts on your city's economy, as well as other cities close by. Zambeaux has grand plans for "GEMs" in addition to the ski resort one, suggesting theme parks, sports arenas and racing tracks.

Industry / Trade / Business Improving Freight & Goods Simulation: The new article at French gaming website www.gamekult.com outlined details of some improvements we may see in the way transportation of freight and goods is handled by the game. Rather than simply disappearing of the edge of the map as in SimCity 4, it would seem that these products and materials will have actual destinations when being shipped: The exchange of raw materials, finished products, or services is indeed one of the most important aspects of gameplay in Cities XL, and we will obviously have more incentive to settle on a fertile land rich in minerals and near a beach, than in the virtual equivalent of Siberia. Given the importance of import / export with neighbours, it will also give importance to the proximity of our city with the rest of the world, since a desert island in the middle of nowhere is bound to be a little tougher than connecting to a hub located in the heart of the continent. Developing transport for workers will not be our only challenge to be slaughtered for smoother traffic, since we must also take into account the trips of heavy goods vehicles transporting raw materials and finished products to or from adjacent cities. When one knows the heavy usage of these roads is considered a significant nuisance by the citizens of our cities, one imagines we may need to draw some alternative routes away from residential habitation. The placement of warehouses that will store various products and resources from our companies should be the capital of a logistical point of view, much like the installation of a highway network or even the use of trains and cargo vessels for shipping goods. It is currently unclear how this will relate to the single player mode, or whether freight within our own city will also be taken into account as well as freight between cities. Realistic Farming & Fishing Features *UPDATED* The official blog update A day at the farm, more information was released about farms and agricultural content in CITIES XL. In the screenshots, we can see the current look of some of the types of farms that will be available in the game: The blog confirms there will be both crop farms and pastures/meadows for cattle farms, which will contribute positively to both the environment and towards the economy through the resources it provides. At present we do not know what types of animals that will be seen on the cattle farms for livestock grazing, and there has been no confirmation so far of farms with stables and paddocks for horses. It is hoped that the types of crops which can be grown on our farms will be climate and terrain dependant. It is thought that further improvements will be made to the visual apperance of our farms such as the option to add hedges, fences, walls, ditches and irrigation canals surrounding and dividing farm fields, and yards or gardens around farm buildings as opposed to the farm field ground texture also appearing around the farm buildings. Currently it is unclear if farms can be built over uneven and sloping terrain as they can with the default Maxis farms in SimCity 4. Billboards & Advertising Spaces: Although only an early prototype image, this shot shows an advertising space shell on the side of a bus shelter: This also shows a "real" company's advertisement appearing. This prototype may have shown that real advertising will be included within the game to provide extra funding for development/publishing. It is hoped that various types of billboards and other advertising spaces can appear within the game for the sake of realism. However, most players wouldn't mind if the companies and products themselves are fictitious, or even satirical spoofs of real companies/products; and preferrably customisable with our own advert images too. Though indistinguishable, this new screenshot also shows what looks like an advertisement on the bus shelter: According to the French article Games Convention '08: Presentation of Cities XL at jeuxvideopc.com, in the online mode there will be advertising featured which can be set up to raise citizen awareness of your own leisure or other facilities, by setting up deals to advertise within the cities of other players. It also seems to imply that there will be real-world companies and advertisements featuring within realistic locations, such as on bus shelters, or real-world car manufactureres included for automobile showrooms and advertisments, for example. In this newer screenshot, we can also see an advertising board: