Mark Waybill

As to wide curves I should think most realistic ones should be doable. My ambitions are a bit higher, like being able to make a replica of the original Zig Zag railroad or something of that quality with smooth gradients and inclining viaducts and tunnels. I should think broad curves will be possible. If they can make a U Drive It similar to Streets of Simcity they might be able to make a Need for Speed or Grand Theft Auto mod/expansion. Who knows. Talking of sports, considering we have Multiplayer Mode and a whole SiomEarth, what about a SimOlympics of SimFootball? Maybe a tad ambitious for the first release, but just an idea, and something that could be defined as a wish of sorts.

I am all for multi-use and re-use for buildings. Of course in a large sprawling city one couldn't adjust every building to ones liking or one would spend as many real years playing that city as a Sim spends sim years living. Which is why the new multiplayer aspect could be useful. If a regional government heirarchy is created so that jobs are more defined and given to more players, then having individual building control authority would make sense. If the game is playing in real time for instance it would be doable. However I'm sure settings will also allow for evolution of a smart nature too. It all depends upon how much control we want, and how much of that power we want/have time to utilise, all of which can be adjusted I should think. Basically the more complex and realistic the game becomes and the more power we have over very deep micromanagement and adjustments, the more time we'll spend on smaller amounts of structures and infrastructure to the point that in MP mode at least I should think the position we once held as Mayor will be replaced by a variety of heirarchical positions like in a real Council. Of course computer simulated smart Councillors could fill in for these people in single player mode.

This is how I plan cities when I wish them to become skyscraper filled metropolises, by using two roads with space in the middle instead of a single road, but of course IRL many cities aren't planned from the start, and certainly very few would have been planned with knowledge of what the future would bring. Real life cities have to deal with these issues. However I would agree with the idea of a 'upgradeable road' that had space set aside either side, the same could go for a railway.

Well I hope that Sims will keep jobs for a realistic period of time, relatively speaking at any rate. It would be dissapointing if every day a Sim worked at a new place... Not to mention it would defeat the whole purpose of GlassBox and the new depth of simulation reality. The same would go for buildings. I imagine buildings will be more concrete than ever before, and should hopefully not constantly be rebuilt.

I'm fine with playing it real time as long as that doesn't mean in fifty years time my city will be fifty years old and I'll still be working on my first SC2013 city.

Certainly this engine looks promising for the future. I shall look forward to reading the further editions of the blog.

It would be nice to have a farm hinterland that makes goods, sends them by rail to a town/city, and sells them at various places. With GlassBox this could be done as IRL, it would be nice to think a Sim buying apples at a market in the city was buying something made across the other side of my region.

I agree with Avalach's sentiments. This is the one big chance to revive Maxis and SimCity, let's not throw all that away for a quicker release. Let's make this a nice good quality comprehensive game. If we are to retain the good old square for our city boundaries for conveniences sake, and certainly I'm not in a position to offer advice on how to go about changing that status quo, then a possible idea would be this. A new region is created, and say we start with one 2 by 2 km city tile. Newburg. Right so, after say five SimYears Newburg has reached a stage of development where it feels a bit claustrophobic in that tiny 2 by 2 km square. So we start a new city, West Newburg, immediately to the left. This city grows also, and after a while we've made a fairly realistic situation by spreading farm hinterland across the region, with some small villages and unimportant towns, relatively speaking, scattered about. The residents of Newburg, which is on a river connected to the sea, begin to become quite industrious fellows, and develop an industrial revolution within the textile manufacturing sector. Soon we have a situation where all these industries need more workers. The hinterland can only supply so many, so new Sims need to move to the region. Hence satellite towns and suburbs spring up about Newburg. Soon there is a conurbation along the river, with West Newburg having it's own cbd and administration, controlling that city and it's vicinity, and Newburg controlling the eastern part of the conurbation. Hinterland politics are handled by each village or small town. But say we wish to create a satellite city at some stage similar to Parramatta in Sydney's west, which becomes an entity of it's own alongside Newburg or West Newburg in nature. It would make sense to have it's own administration. New Parramatta develops its own cbd and administration, controlling the surrounding hinterland as this becomes suburbanised. Now in such a simply realistic scenario the administration based on a regional budget with local authorities to manage expenditures for local needs, the area of authority for each centre after suburbanisation (before this of course Newburg controlled everything with minor power residing in each village for local matters) has expanded to include adjacent tiles, as each centre has expanded also. Now if there was only one level of authority, and each city acted like a sovereign state, only all being under the same region wide budget, then the areas of authority would be each city tile, or those tiles in a centre and those cntaining smaller suburbs or towns. In MP mode thus if their were say three players to simplify things, one would be in charge of Newburg and hinterland, one in charge of West Newburg and hinterland, and one in charge of New Parramatta and hinterland. However, if we are to embrace the concept of more realistic governing, there would be tiers of authority covering various aspects of administration. So Newburg would control the regional budget, and also have its local Council, and the other two centres would just have local authority. So (sorry if this has rambled a bit off topic into Multiplayer) in such a scenario while cities could join neighbouring cities to form larger tiles, at the outset they could all be 2 by 2 km tiles.

It would be nice to have various public holidays, both mayormade and real. Also significant milestones in a city's history, like it's fiftieth or hundredth year since incorporation, or so forth should have some sort of parade or holiday. Festivals could boost tourism, like the Surfest in Newcastle or the Viva la Gong here in Wollongong. Even small towns have their days. If Sims were smart enough and it was feasible for them to scan a region for possible holiday locations based upon variables such as their budget, the distance etc then if I had an island in one corner of a region with a ferry port, and a town on a bay on the other side with a ferry port, and the island had some nice hotels and features and attractions, Sims might holiday there. I'm not sure how much regions will be connected to SimEarth, so I wouldn't know whether in MP mode we won't just be trading resources globally but having global holidays and visits from inter regional Sims?

I've considered this too. It was one of my main concerns when I first heard the game was to have multiplayer functionality. I think that it all depends on how they do this MP mode. Personally I'd prefer if time couldn't be sped up in MP mode. One, IRL regions don't have time warps, and if we are to introduce a MP element to the game with Councils of Mayors working together this would wreak havoc. Secondly in MP mode a region would be played at a slow speed anyway, as interactions between cities would require discussion and mutual agreements between Mayors.

I like the idea of a regional budget, which would make competition between cities in MP more fair and realistic, like competition between suburbs in a city for residents.

It was good to see and hear the video clearly this time. It certainly looks promising in what it shows.

I was there last year, so I can safely say that yes, within reason it has excelled pretty nicely. Which of course is another thing, some cities will change over time to become distinctly different places to what they once were. However some gritty industrial towns remain gritty industrial towns.

I agree with T Slater. Parks should initially be zoned, according to some broad category like 'sports recreation' or 'national park/nature preserve' and then modular units added as time goes by and demands are felt by the community. After all in 1900 when theoretical Simsburg begins as a small rural town on the banks of the River Sim, the populace aren't going to demand skateparks and flower gardens and cinemas. A nice area shaded by some trees with a bench or two and a cricket ground will suffice nicely. However some basic templates could still be used, especially for features such as sports grounds that have a basic structure universally.

I think as long as A. Effects of pollution, bad healthcare, climate etc are relatively realistic and do not favor 'eco friendly' 'green' cities more than they would in a rational real situation and B. It is possible to build a Dickensian London with dirty industry and sewage filling the Thames that can be played for more than five minutes without everyone dying and a message reading 'Your city was not eco friendly. You ahve been lynch mobbed. Bye, Loser' I shall be happy. After all this is a simulated planet, it doesn't have to be exactly like ours, as long as things are in perspective relative to one another and make sense. Realism is good to an extent of course, but if it is indeed true that a new ice age is coming I wouldn't want all my hard work swallowed up in a glacier in the year 2500.

Realistic organic growth would be difficult because IRL there are heirarchies, not just Mayors running Cities (note my capitalisation of M and C), and so for instance there might be a State/County Governor/Council, municipal councils and governors, and local MPs within a municipality representing maybe even just a few suburbs. Also real boundaries as I've said before are definitely not square in most cases. Take Sydney for example. The city itself if you were to make a square to border it would also include parts of adjoining areas like South Sydney, North Sydney councils etc. If cities grew organically and could expand in size beyond a set border, then you'd have to deal with all sorts of new issues like how much of a region to activate at once, whether borders would still be linear or organic themselves, what would happen if two cities expanded towards the same point, would they merge or have a division between them agreed upon etc. If an entire region could be activated by an Administrator or High Mayor who could set boundaries, and lesser Mayors controlled and activated individual 'cities' or boroughs within that region and applied to the High Mayor for boundary changes, it might be possible. But certainly all sorts of complexities would arise if they tried to implement organic city boundary growth. Possibly a 'sphere of influence' system? But then border issues would be very problematic.

That's the one thing which worries me, but one can't get in the way of progress and I can see the benefits to server based gaming. I personally would enjoy it if I could found a colony in a new region, make a surplus in some product, trade inter-regionally and have a Council of Members for various purposes, such as a Member for Transport or a Member for the Environment, and after 50 SimYears a fine city has arisen from those humble beginnings. Then again I spent my lunch breaks at school drawing maps of imaginary cities so I'm a tad biased there.

I don't know about computerised cars, which sounds very boring and un Maxis like, but mag lev trains are an idea. They are real, so while common use would be a futuristic thing, I see no reason why we shouldn't have them. I remember first learning about them in Newton Graphic Science Magazine when I was about eight, I was quite fascinated by the concept. They could be on ground, overground or underground. Cost I would agree would be high, although I don't know whether actual operational cost would be as problematic as construction cost.

I second Moose's concept of an election system. The Founding Mayor decides the constitution of the Region, other players join if they wish to build cities in such a region. Or, the FM and his friends decide together, but it would be best to always have one Mayor as the 'President' just in case a stalemate arises. Once the FM or him and his colleagues in the Regional Council have decided upon rules they can build their cities etc. New players adhere to the rules or their cities (in that region) suffer in some way, which could be universally agreed upon by Maxis/Origin/EA or Regionally decided upon. If a troll or a player who has been unfairly punished wishes to recover his city there should be some saving/downloading mechanism so that a city can be downloaded and added to a new region, even if it has been deleted or punished in another region. One exception would be actual cases of trolling for its own sake where obviously the Mayor doesn't care about his city or that aspect of the game. The Founding Mayor or Head Mayor is replaced at regular intervals (either universal or regionally decided upon) with an election. The winner is he who has the most votes. There would be a deadline for voting after which votes wouldn't count, or the election wouldn't be finished until all Mayors voted. The former would make more sense because if a Mayor for any reason stopped playing in that region, the election would never be ended. For this and other reasons the authority of the FM/HM should be maintained until the election is finished, in case during that time a dispute arises. Or the Region could be frozen until all votes are cast. Naturally MP Mode would need a chat mechanism so all Mayors in a Region could talk to one another. This will obviously exist to some extent, however one issue would be trolls if the chat/region was 'open'. Some privacy level adjusting mechanism would be required, so Regions, once full of happy Mayors, could be 'locked' if wanted. Also 'open' Regions should have some method of preventing spam too. It would be nice to think I could travel around a few regions before deciding on a place to build a new city. The MP Mode should be easily navigated. A list of cities/regions in which one is participating, election/pm notices, a quick access to the chat screen, a list of regions where one is FM/Hm etc should all be accessible easily. If the game is being played at the same time I imagine this would be embedded in the game itself rather than as a separate window? Just some thoughts.

They will probably have a tutorial region or a guide or both I should think for most areas of city building. If I had to chooce between simplicity and complexity of transport options I would choose complexity, but a lot of the micromanagement can be done automatically by the Roads Department Advisor's team, or a private company or what have you, with you giving the basic commands.

Depending on how much gameplay performance is affected I would be okay with that city size as long as regional play is easy and loading/saving of cities is handled well. However if effects from one city to another are realistic as we've been led to suspect, I doubt we could still use the old 'place industry in neighbouring city right on border and it won't affect lovely residential city on other side of border' system.

Ah but there are also toll booths, car parks, etc to consider. I think with the modular system it may be possible to do a lot more than just decide how many lanes will exist. Not necessarily micromanaging (I.E not necessarily changing the speed limits in certain areas, which would be done automatically I should think) but for instance the building of railyards etc that would exist in reality should be a necessary option, otherwise the whole Glassbox system would be limited in realism. Trains need a place to be housed and maintained etc.

Another natural disaster would be bushfires, which could be created when conditions are hot and dry and windy enough. These would act like normal fires but mainly appear in bushland, but could also affect outlying areas of a city. Of course this would be more likely in a dry climate.

Well as I said it could be the Founding Mayor, or a group of founding Mayors (i.e like the Founding Fathers). Either way I think there'd have to be some order or heirarchy otherwise unless you were playing only with friends you absolutely trusted and thought alike with... And of course one would expect the Multiplayer Mode to start new friendships as well as maintain present ones. If this game attracts new players there will be lots of newbie Mayors hoping to join regions, and some 'troll' Mayors as well whether we like it or not. But as long as there is a mechanism in place to prevent troll like behaviour I'll be happy.

The community gardens in SC4 were sort of like allotments. But yes I'd agree allotments/community gardens are good ideas and would be easy to build in a modular fashion, although it would only make sense to build areas of ground with paths, or planting boxes, as of course the Sims would have to do the dirty work and plant the vegetables, build sheds there etc. We as Mayors would naturally only be able to allot space for such purposes. Whereas Council maintained parks could be built in the modular fashion and maintained as such, with say a new flower bed being added.