Mark Waybill

I'd agree that timelines should be region set, but that would require all cities being played at once to make sense unless one only spent a short amount of time playing each city, or I'd be playing one city for 100 years and another for 5 and they would have different tilesets/times. Maybe starting a timeline when one plays ones first city and then any time one is playing a city it adds to the total regional time variable? unless there is an absolute regional/simearth time and this continues playing cities while you aren't playing them, which would be memory intensive surely As to tilesets/timelines one could have an option to create a new timeline and change the default settings and include different tilesets in different eras.

I personally believe the sim height should be the base for all relative heights in the game, which seems to make sense seeing as a city is a settlement built by and for primarily people.

I suppose one might go about defining a 'landmark' as an anomaly, or something containing a certain degree of some variable. For instance take the Illawarra Escarpment hereabouts. What makes it a landmark is it is a raising of the level of the ground making a cliff for some distance in the terrain, and yet if I were to landscape a public park with a scaled down model it wouldn't have quite the same tourism potential. But how exactly one makes a terrain feature into a landmark is difficult to say. Mountain tops of some relative height value would be a possibility, or a rare species of flora or fauna. Most skyscrapers have the potential to be tourism generating landmarks ios positioned appropriately. In a city with few high rises an observation tower would dominate the skyline, and be an obvious choice. But it could just be a building with some historical significance, or where some famous person lived/died/worked etc

But purely aesthetic tilesets like say an art deco inspired one that didn't have to actually be in the 1930s etc

I believe we'll be able to make buildings historic. That shouldn't be too difficult as they've done that in SC4 deluxe anyway

Ideally one could play any country any era with a timeline, or use a tileset like in 2000 without a timeline etc. As for suggestions for tilesets I would suggest an Australian one to add to Europe and America, and also various eras like medieval, roman etc

I designed some websites using html but that was like ten years ago and i've forgotten most of it now. Pointers were what stumped me with C+++ I think. I've seen inside computers and have fixed my own several times (now I have a laptop) but that was mostly just things like replacing the fan and cleaning it out. I like to think I'm logical but long endless lines of code stump me because, I suppose, I am also one who likes to get down to work and not worry about intricate complications. I understand the theory of how programs work and how to write them but the sheer amount of time spent learning and writing just to produce one game... And even then professional programmers work as part of development teams... It's quite mind boggling really. I'm sure one day they'll invent some easy to use smart code that can create whatever we want but by that point most of what we want shall have been created I would think. Virtucity shows my lack of programming experience. That was drag and drop actions mostly with some GML code, and a few codes made by others for specific functions.

I think if weather simulation is improved to any great extent, disasters or situations like flooding, hail storms, lightning etc would be necessary just for realism's sake.

I'd agree with the sentiment that landmarks should arise via tourism and culture, not be plopped ready made. Also with natural features being landmarks, which would also affect real estate prices so for instance homes built in undulating hills with woodlands about are more expensive than those on flat dull terrain.

It would be nice to have proper rather than combined straight pieces at varied angles curves in roads, based on spirals. I think as long as roads can be any shape and have multiple editable lanes of varying types I'll be happy, and complex freeway intersections and curved tunnels can wait. Bicycle/walking paths, cobbled streets, tramlines etc would be great, and curved or diagonal at least bridges. If I could look at my city in a data map and at a street directory (say if I was recreating a real life city from googlemaps or wtvr) I'd like it to be not only recognisable vaguely but look like the real city would in a satellite picture. Very few cities have perfect grid layouts and even those will be connected to neighbourhoods that don't. So curved roads are a must I think. I'd say the same for railways, and being able to choose the type of station/number of tracks etc. But then again maybe my priorities aren't the best, as I'd be turning Simcity into SimModelrailroad

Ordinary user not interested in modding. Ordinary user interested in modding but don't know how. Scripting/programming modding experience (HTML, XML, lua (WoW, CivV), python(CivIV)) Full programming experience (Made own stand alone programs/games) 2D art modding experience (SC2-4) Real time 3D art experience (not the gmax --> SC4) Can build own machine.

I have no experience in programming besides Game Maker and I still was using drag and drop functions for a lot of basic actions although I was beginning to implement GML in things like collision_circle which was the basis for the 'simulation' part of Virtucity. I know MS Word and am learning Excel, can't say I know too many programs although I've been using the Internet since 2000. I have a theoretical understanding of how things are done but when I was learning C or C plus or whatever it was called I realised one had to do a lot of work to make the most basic of programs whereas in GM you could do it in a fraction of the time. I don't think in the future we will have machine level code at all, as I think everything will be designed differently. I think GlassBox is progressive and I for one certainly couldn't become a programmer unless they inserted a chip in my brain somehow and made me like a Cyberman.

If water is simulated more realistically then floods could become something quite impressive. I think possibly riots and other social 'disasters' (not war naturally as that would cause problems) could be had too. Hurricanes would depend on how good weather simulation is. Lightning could maybe occur. Hail... Or building up of sediments at river estuaries... Train derailments and car accidents etc could arise from lack of funding for infrastructure but to a realistic extent. Plane crashes... Terrorism might be a bit too war like for this genre but a mad axeman or something... As to unrealistic fantasy disasters we know we're getting some kind of heroes/villains thing, I don't personally care much for that sort of fantastic disaster.

The only programming language I ever learnt to use was GML, although I did try to learn C but it just seemed so much hard work to achieve what I could with a few clicks in GM. Also when all you have is a long script file it is way more difficult to find your way around, whereas in Game Maker it's all stored in folders and accessible by clicking on a folder/item. What I liked with GM was that you could do simple/obvious actions and commands and then use script to define them more accurately or enhance them. But of course it wasn't designed for 3d games and Virtucity never did go 3d. Might as well mention in this thread, quite a fitting spot really, that VC is now officially dead. I doubt SC will lack user created regions. If we don't have region wide terraforming I will be very dissapointed.

I played CXL 2012 (The first version of that game I bought) and the only really positive thing I can say about it is the graphics are good in that it is full 3d and the terrain is advanced from 4 but... It feels very unfinished and it is slow and there's only subways and no ground rail? It seems unfinished and theres no terraforming either. If it was a 30 percent development project I'd be optimistic and supportive but as it's as someone put it 'zombieware' now, I don't think it will continue successfully, not that it ever had much of a chance. My support is for Maxis and SC now Simcitywannabe Societies and Tufted Mall or wtvr they were called are things of the past.

It seems odd that the 'limited edition' is the lesser version... Then again I guess I'm no game marketing guru?

I think they should have a proper 'tile set' i.e all buildings become european/medieval wtvr

So in theory one could have a mostly agricultural region with good water flow and create a textile based industrial town utilising the water flow for energy. Especially if there was a canal or river to the sea. It is good to know we may one day be able to create cities in such a realistic industry based fashion, reminiscent of the 2000 industrial sector graph

I agree. It'll make the game far more involving.

Like in 4 you could have 'easy', 'medium' and 'hard' but for random region generations with realistic levels of resources, or have a user created terraformed region where you choose to either select resource distribution yourself or allow it to form naturally as you form the region, possibly you could even have realistic terraforming actions with realistic consequences. Then again I'm not suggesting you need to form mountains by millions of years of sedimentary buildup and an earthquake or two

Also if they could be saved as separate files you could upload/download city plans, and integrate this with google maps etc to 'download real cities'

I'd agree with the sentiment that this should have a lower priority for development than other aspects, but if it is ever added to the game in whatever form I would agree with the former comment regarding being able to control sims as well. I think the Heroes/Villains aspect to this version is a precursor to the potential of this game to be connected with other genres, so yes a SC GTA would become possible as an extension of UDI. The potential is huge, as most sorts of first person games could in theory be set in a city built with SC. So even though I agree this is for later development and shouldn't take place above more important features in future I can foresee it's potential being realised to make something that SimCopter can only look up to with jealous fury.

Newcastle, New South Wales which I visited last week. The foreshore has undergone a lot of revitalisation work in the last two decades, but it is still the World's largest coal port. You can see the cathedral atop the hill as well as the tower at the wharf. The city has a lot of art deco architecture, something SC is not a stranger to. A tram in Newcastle in the late forties. They aren't around any more. Trams are something I've wanted in SC for years. Also the architecture of streetscapes like this.

I'd love to see different crop specialisations and their economic effects, which of course would become part of the environmental aspect of the simulation. And I think if anyone can reach the ideal comprpomise between gameplay enjoyability and realism and depth it is Maxis. The idea of what you see is what you get- of Glassbox only showing you and letting you hear what is actually happening in your city, is brilliant imo. I'll be surprised if the game can be released by the time they say it will. If I was in charge of such a project I'd want at least three years hard work on it. But I'm sure their sense of priorities will be well managed. And of course if this generates enough enthusiasm it is unlikely to be a one trick pony of a rennaisance. Food could also have cultural impact. The digital deluxe edition's national flavour packs are something I predicted years ago, and foods of course are very indicative of local conditions and tastes. In future it would be interesting to have various types of food industry based upon local demand. Another aspect to examine would be tourism, for instance in CXL they have food industry lots, and wine growing regions could generate tourist profits. Ecotourism is another interesting area for development potential- If natural features could somehow generate enthusiasm, then a city with towering cliffs or a coastline might benefit more than Flatville USA. The potential of this engine seems incredible.

I third that notion.