Nevets13

Also forgot restaurants, but I think those can easily fit in with shopping. They kind of go hand in hand. there are specific restaurants for residential, high income, and touristy.

Excellent idea, it would work for any of those things I mentioned.

It would be nice if parks, amusement parks, airports, universities, zoos, and golf courses were customizable. Do I expect it? No, still be cool tho.

How do you think the graphics of cities unlimited will affect the modding community. For me the modding community was the best part of Sim City 4, and it will probably be my favorite part of Cities Unlimited. Only problem I see is the graphics are a lot better in cities unlimited than those of Sim City 4. How much harder do you think it will be to make models since they will be in 3d? Do you think the community will be as constructive?

Hmm, maybe this thread should be moved to the new CU section Up, up and away she goes.. -- beebs

I wouldn't mind a small social aspect in the game. I liked following the lives of certain people, like in SIm City 4. It isn't something I would absolutely need in the game tho Maybe an expansion.

Originally posted by: Inspecter dasilva Will there be famous landmarks like the Empire State building and others?quote>Most definitely, the london eye appeared in one of the first screenshots.

I have a hard time believing that the terrain will be exactly like it is in real life. What is more likely is the terrain/climate is similar to what it is where you want to build your city, but not exactly. That way you are still able to edit the landscape, and saves a lot of programing. Example: If you click on arizona you get desert...switzerland, mountains...Serberia, tundra...Kenya, Savanna......

Hmmm, don't know if anyone has said anything about this yet, but the slogan "virtual cities, real people" sure sounds like it is for an online game. I don't know what to think about that. As long as it has a decent single player where I can build by myself, I will be happy.

Originally posted by: LTParis Funny how in 24 hours I learned about SCS (and so far I am not excitied about it) and then found this thread about CU (and so far I am very excited about it). your initial shots are amazing looking and I know that this community is looking for the realism angle that SCS seems to be lacking. Do you know how much longer it will be before some information is released on some of the features (e.g playability, transportation, etc.)? Are you looking to do a 2008 or 2009 release? Inquiring minds want to know. Kudos on this effort and if the game plays as nice as the screenshots are i think you have won over many hearts and minds!quote> And its not just the screenshots that have me more excited about CU than SCS. It is the developers reading all our threads and wanting our ideas for the game. We will get more information in October when Monte Cristo releases a CU website. There it sounds like the well give us information on features and we critique and add to their ideas. No release date has even been mentionyet. But since they are in about their 15th month of development, I would say some where between late 08 to mid 09 for release. That is just my theory and I could be way off.

I visit Toronto a lot (I live in Detroit). It is be far the nicest and cleanest cities I have ever visited. I was amazed the first time I went there, about how a huge city can be so clean. The most recent time I went there was last summer, and yes there were homeless there, it was hardly noticible compared to cities like Detroit or Washington DC, where you can't throw a rock without hitting a homeless person. Also it was one of the easiest major cities for me to drive around in. I have no problem driving through downtown toronto, you couldn't pay me to drive in downtown Chicago. While I haven't been to any other large canadian cities, it is be far cleanier than any US major city.

Originally posted by: rctshack i hope they don't go the expansions route. I find it wildly annoying and it is one of the main reasons I don't like EA. If it wasn't for the idea behind the games that EA has, no one would sell into the idea of expansions. It's mean.quote> I couldn't agree less. Yes EA is horrible in this department, they make expansions where they add a couple things that a decent modder could do and charge $30. But there are companies out there where expansion extend the replay value of a game exponentially. Most games always seem to be missing something, things most the community wants, a good company will try to please their fan base by adding these things (most the time it is something modders really can't do). The fans win by getting what they want, and the company wins by making money. Also with everything we want in CU it would take them years and years to make it, personally I would rather get a base game relatively soon with a lot of the stuff we want most. and then monte cristo can work on getting the rest of the stuff we wanted. and I hate to break it too you, but Monte Cristo is and expansion company. They came out with world edition already and recently annouced City Life 2008. There will be expansions for Cities Unlimited Not all expansions are bad, a lot of them can add greatly to a richness of a game, It really depends on the company tho. EDIT: also it would be cool if developers went back to making games like sim copter and streets of sim city for the modern city simulation.

Originally posted by: rctshackWould that be plausible?quote> I don't see why it wouldn't be. Like you said, spore is doing something similar and they are doing it with a lot more than just buildings. If its not in the inital release it would make for a good edition for an expansion. Man this gam has so many possibility for expansions....and we really don't even know what is in the initial release yet haha.

Originally posted by: City2TheMax It's something companies, in my experience, don't do very often (correct me if I'm wrong).quote> No, companies do not do this very often, if fact I can't think of any that have gotten so close to the communities so early. Most will try to get close to the community with about 6 monthish before the release. Thats the time when most the development is done, and it mainly finalizing stuff. Most the stuff the communities suggest doesn't make it into the game until the first expansion.

Originally posted by: Androv http://forums.worldsims.org/showthread.php?t=13293 vs the ones above. quote> The SCS ones look cartoony and the CU ones look realisitic. City Life looked more realisitic than SCS. And example some one else posted: SCS: City Life: Now I would like to see a CU picture in the same setting to compare it EDIT: Also i this screenshot: http://uoem.com/gallery/files/1/07-08-2417-54-38.jpg If those tall blue buildings were posted here on STEX for SC4, they would be given a very bad rating.

Originally posted by: zzsim I do have a few questions, though, concerning the terrain and maps. From the sound of it the maps will not be region based like in SC4, so that leaves me with the question of just how big they will be. Will I be able to create a sprawling metropolis, and how much control will I have over editing the terrain to my liking? quote> They haven't really said anything regarding region play, but Monte Cristo knows that region play is either the 1st or 2nd most wanted thing for most fans. And it is still early in developement, so anything is possible.

Either that, or SCS will be the end to the SimCity franchise. If Cities Unlimited plays half as good as it looks, I really do not think I would be that sad if SCS were the last SimCity, especially if EA continues in the direction they appear to be going.quote> I highly doubt SCS will be the end of the sim city series, even if it is a complete bomb. The only reason they have tilted mill doing it, is because EA is focusing on spore. I really don't think EA intended SCS to be the next great city simulation game, just a little experiment to milk some money from the series. What the genre needed was some real compeition and I think CU will bring that. With Monte Cristo and EA competing to make the best city building game all the fans win.

Man, it better have terraforming in it

So, why would any one want SCS again?

Eh, I have always heard it is a three year cycle. 1 Year preproduction, 2 years developement. This probably changes with independent developers. It may be easier and quicker without having to worry about getting everything approved from the higher ups, but at the same time they can take as much time as they want on it without being rushed from someone.

So that would put CU coming out in mid 2009ish? (I know I know, monte cristo probably hasn't looked at a release date yet), but wow they really are starting the community early. Good to know.

I wouldn't say I am against everything SCS. I like some of the stuff they have focused on, I like how there are more interactions with the citizens of your city. But this would have been good to add onto everything that already is sim city....to make it its own game was ridiculous. They simplified it so much, and ended up alienating their fan base. I am not saying sim city didn't need a facelift. I don't think I would have played sim city 4 if it wasn't for seeing all the models on simtropolis. To me when I first saw screenshots, it didn't look all that different from sim city 3000. I was expecting a much greater leap between the two. But once I saw the models it became a must have. What the franchise didn't need was a complete revamp. I don't know what you think Philippe, but to me the casual gamer is kind of a myth, and developers should pay more attention to their niche. I don't think the "casual" gamer looks for games that are easier to play and catch on too, they look for games that meet their interests, usually by browsing the aisles in stores. I really don't think they go to websites looking for games that are easy to pick up. It is the hardcore gamers that are reading the websites, researching the games. There are some contradictions to this such as halo and wii sports, who really do manage to appeal to the largest amount of people possible (also notice they are the flagships of their system); but I think far more games were ruined trying to appeal to the most people possible, while alienating their base....than were megahits that appealed to all gamers. I don't think the sims fits into this, I think they managed to create their own niche. Now by no means am I saying games should never try to reach more gamers...oh hell no, there would be no gaming industry than. I think developers can stay true to their base, and at the same time add new features that appeal to more groups (such as keeping the basics of sim city...and then add simsocities features). Anyway I don't know how all that all sounds...it made sense in my head anyway. Finally, it is good to know that Monte Cristo knows "beautiful cities" are subjective.

So, when are we going to get a Cities Unlimited forum here? SCS has one, and I think most of us have come to the conclusion that most the community wont play it. If CU has terraforming, region map, and zoning I don't see how it wont take the place of sim city in the community. With the way Monte Cristo pays attention to us (much more than tilted mill and EA), I think they deserve their own forum here to come and visited. I think the sooner we embrace CU as the future of the community the better.

Wow, I just read the preview on here for SCS....and it looks awful. The cities don't even look like anything closely resembling a city. They look like the towns you built in Simfarm, remember those? The only thing I liked in the preview was that they have different terrains...but with no terraforming, what is the point? Also no region map, ha! I seriously thought I was going to get this game to get my city building fix, but not after what I have been reading. This game just looks bad. Monte Cristo I think hit the jackpot on this one.

Thanks for the reply! Also it is great that the game is still early in developement (mainly because it gives me lots of time to get a computer together that can play this game like it is meant to be played), because it gives you plenty of time to adjust to what the market wants. Most developers don't seem to care what the community thinks untill the game is a few months from release (Tilted Mill) when the game is being polished up and pretty much finished. Can't wait to hear more in October!....wait no I will be preoccupied with the huge amount of games coming out during the holidays.....ok sometime after the new year I will closely be following this game. EDIT: Also good job guys in turning the SCS wiki page into one about Cities unlimited, classic