JimCityBuilder

So if this is all people can get their population numbers to then how exactly can anyone get the achievement of pop. 2,000,000 ? Jim

This type of trolling as well as other tasks you can perform is becoming more commonplace in multiplayer regions, people don't seem to be cooperating with game play and in your case you were playing with someone you know ! Another example is waiting until one of the players in your region builds a high school, then jack up you residents population and place school buses all over your city then sit back and watch as your neighbors city chokes to death on all the excessive buses that appear and drive your students round and round thier city and solving neith your needs for education or their need for reduced traffic. Jim

Let's take Grand Theft Auto as an example for a famous game, this game was started by a few people (DMA Design Ltd) who got together and had fun making the game with no idea what the overall consequences of the game would be, but they went ahead in all innocence and put the game out there with very little money in their pockets and just a dream it might break even. When it was first released it was considered great for its time, however it had all the usual features of games of that period in that you could not save and the driving around with little to no idea where you actually were but it was still fun and could be played through again and again as you learned the maps and challenges. Then before you knew it the politicians around the world were up in arms about the graphic violent content and how a game like this would send the youth of our society out in to the streets on killing sprees, there have also been many court cases where people have blamed the game for the criminal acts they committed and have tried to sue Rockstar Games for the things they had done because they had played the game. But here is a company that continually reinvested in its product and strived to make the content and gameplay even better and the graphics even more spectacular and as a consequence almost every launch of this game GTA had been put back until a finished product was ready for release ever since GTA 3 from GTA Vice City to the present day GTA 5 which was to have a spring release but has been put back to 17th september for here in the UK. My point is that not one of these games Rockstar games has released has ever dissappointed its players in anyway whatsoever; this game has always delivered on its promises and for those of us that have played it it has been a fun ride with great adventures and ever increasing difficultly in overall gameplay but his has not stopped the masses going out and buying this game. If you have been in a shop on launch day you'll even see parents buying this game for their kids even though they are younger that the gameplay age but hat does not stop its sales does it ? Does anyone even know just how much money Rockstar Games and their creators Dan and Sam Houser actually make ? Sim City through Sim City 2000 and beyond and all its spin offs such as the Sims, Sim City Societies, etc had its humble beginnings back in1989 (and incidently I wonder if anyone still has their Nintendo and the game to still play it on ?). This game was started as a side project to another game called Raid on Bungling Bay which I had for my Commodore 64 which I still have the tape for but not a working Commodore 64 and was developed by the creator Will Wright and mostly because he was having fun making the maps and building these little cities. Now the first games we all played where very basic compared to today but they have all given us lots of hours of fun and distraction over many many years; and with the development of Sim City 4 which opened up all those modding options has been keeping this game going and being available for sale for nearly ten years now, and it even prompted Maxis to release further additions to the game such as the Rush Hour package. Yet here we are in 2013 with a successful franchise being brought out and promising even more in depth simulation and game play and by watching all the trailer videos as well as reading all the hype being put out through Twitter and Facebook to name a couple of sources as well as EA/Maxis websites I personally was ready to get my hands on this game install it onto my laptop and forever after have a brilliant Sim game available at my fingertips whenever i can get the free time to play it through. However this was not to be the case; it took me three days before I could even get to play more than one hour of the game and since then there has been nothing but a plethora of bugs glitches and i must say it out load but dissappointing gameplay, graphics, tile size, failed multi-player, hackers, trollers, and an assortment of other problems too many to mention here. The answer from EA/Maxis it seems is that it can fix these problems as it goes along and we should all be quiet and patient while they do so and not to complain either, after all if you read these game producers and designers blogs you'd be lead to believe that there is actually nothing wrong at all with the game and surely it must be just your computer or laptop ! In my opinion they just released this game as soon as they possibly could under the illusion (or is that delusion ?) that as loyal fans we would all rush out and buy it which in all honesty is exactly what we all did ! Their obvious contempt for us their loyal fans as merely just a source of initial revenue is to kick start their need for a financial return on what is beyond doubt an unfinished game is contemptible to say the least, I for one feel cheated by all this yet here I am still hoping beyond hope that the game itself would be redeemable by that wonderful band of modders out there that made SC4 such the success it is, and now we are being informed that any outside interference to the game through modding or otherwise will lead to players being banded from the servers even though you have purchased a product for yourself because of this always online aspect of the game they will be able to do this and quite frankly get away with it as well. Then lo and behold we begin to see the reason why they are doing what they have with the release of the first DLC which is a blatant advertising ploy which will allow EA/Maxis to generate more revenue for themselves and at the same time will not remain a free option for these type of DLC's for long but time will tell how this will play out. At the moment i have purchased Cities In Motion 2 on Steam and having great fun with this game while I am awaiting further developments of SIm City 2013, and to be honest I just don't see how they could not have introduced the simulation from CIM 2 into Sim City 2013's mass transit it certainlt would have made sense to do so ! Anyway, enough from me ... discuss/berate !!! Jim

THIS, EXACTLY!!!! Yes, we all paid for the game... but what do I need a Nissan Leaf station for if the game sucks so bad? I'll say it again, this game should've been delayed. Earliest release should've been Q4. Even better would've been Q2 2014. Must say I do agree with this 1 Jim

You have to shake the charity tin to be able to afford an air ambulance service, at least here in the UK it is like that. Jim

It does seem that placing and using a Vu Towers goes against all the hard work and expense of setting up a education system and does nothing but add criminals and as a consequence more police cars on the streets creating not only more crime and traffic problems but also upsetting all your fussy Sims. As for the population of a city it seems that the fudged numbers that make up the population count at the bottom of the screen has nothing at all to do with the rest of the game mechanics, at least from what I have observed, other than give the impression you have a massive city. Instead by looking at the details tab in the population menu that gives the number of workers shoppers and students is where all the necessary calculations should be taken to plan the future of your growing city. It is from this that care should be taken as to what type of education facility should be chosen for the number of students you have and the tech level you wish to acquire for your city, and remembering that within these stats will also be commuters coming into and out of your city too. Jim

Downloaded my new free DLC, still don't really see a point to it overall though. However, if advertising is going to be the future of providing us all with free DLC content and at the same time Maxis can recoup its production costs to ensure the game will keep going and they have more time to fix all the bugs and problems then I think this is a good thing ... after all who even looks at ads ? Think of it like this in the long run: If more of the mainstream companies jump on this bandwagon this would give us all more control over ploppable shops for our commercial high streets, by that I mean we can select the type of business rather than having 24 game generated petrol stations in a row ! After all who's Sims wouldn't want to work in a brand name shop, and the problem of sufficient employment for low educated Sims can be resolved with a McDonalds or two could it not ? !!! And if your Skilled labour force becomes unemployed then there will always be a place for them at B&Q right ? Also a Tesco an Asda or even a Walmart would provide a better single ploppable for creating more jobs and places for shoppers on a 24hr basis in an overall smaller area than would be needed for the equivalent amount of normal shops, and also be equally good at putting all these other smaller business' out of business and freeing up more space on your city tile, just like they do in the real world, just saying that's all ? Jim

I think he means combining Sim City with CitiesXL as a single game with all the best features of each ... not a bad idea in principle, but let,s all see how Sim City will progress in the near future. Jim

Before carrying out any building or other tasks check to see if the show me button is visible on the advisor of the menu you are looking at, this usually gives a paying mission to complete. The fire station gives 50,000 if less than 5 fires occurs and by that it means 5 building must go up in flames to fail. Another one is the guy who wants to throw a party and needs 250 bins emptied in 24 hrs and you get 25,000 for that one. there are some more but can't think of all the details at the mo. Jim

The guide book says that airports can be used for medium and high wealth commuters and tourists. Airports need to be placed in at least two cities in a region for this to work. Although only a few commuters will use the planes their regular frequency keeps up a steady flow through the day and obviously another means of mass transport is needed from the airport to the commuters final destination. The guide also says that with the addition of a passenger terminal it will significantly increase the capacity of the airport and more runways even more so. Having said all this I can honestly say that I have never personally ever got airports to work effectively, I'm assuming it is another bug that will need an overhaul to fix. Jim

Wouldn't it be a nice feature when playing in a public region with non-cooperative players that ruin your game play that military bases can be installed and you can attack their city and its infrastructure ??? WAR !!! On a Regional Scale !!! That being a feature you can click on in the disasters menu.

24. If you would like to vary the density of buildings in your city on your roads, and even be able to create single isolated apartment blocks on the same roads without the need to de-zone here is a simple little trick: By adding side roads off the road you wish to upgrade you can create small sections of road that can be upgraded between these side roads with the road tool, and then afterwards you can demolish the side roads and you end up with small sections of different density of roads that will remain afterwards. By doing this it is possible to create all sorts of combinations of low rise and high rise on the same road or grid, and for the more adventurous isolated tower block estates. Try it, it's fun. Jim Additional: The junctions that appear along your mixed roads do not create actual stop points along the road however I forgot to mentions that these points do act as turn around points that can significantly reduce the Congo effect from utility and service vehicles by making those not need further down that length of road turning on these points and going back another direction and is some cases speeding up traffic across the city, eg school buses seem more efficient at picking up and dropping off students. Now this is working well for small cities but it remains to be seen how effective this is in larger cities. Please let me and others know if you can see any more advantages/disadvantages to this tip for the roads and their densities ? Jim

You two are both wrong !!! Let me demonstrate so that you do not continue to mislead other players of this game. First of all if you are $%&^! enough to play just sandbox then yes you can go straight ahead and put in Universities and begin to raise your education and tech levels, however this is not the case at all when playing the game in proper mode and without all the cheats enabled, sandbox game mechanics are completely different to the proper game mechanics which is why you are wrong and will always be so when playing only in sandbox mode. Here is why you are wrong: After placing a Dept of Education in your newly upgraded City Hall the other education buildings become available but however they are still locked out from placing them unless you satisfy certain criteria. 1. To Place a University you need to educate 1200 students in one day, but to be able to do that you need to have other school buildings open to do so, Correct ? !!! 2. A High School can educate a maximum of 4800 students per day which is more than enough students to unlock the University, But Wait !!! 3. To unlock the High School it is necessary to educate over 500 students per day to do this. Now where is it that I can do this I ask myself ? Wait again what could the answer to this be ? That's right I can start with a Grade School !!! 4. A Grade School will educate 150 students per day, and by adding extra classrooms I can raise this to 950 students per day in total. This is more than enough to unlock the High School, but it is also sufficient to open up a Community College which requires 800 students educated per day to unlock. So as you can see it is not possible to play a proper game and educate your Sims just using a University as it is required to start with a Grade School to start off the education process and to begin to educate your Sims properly, then as the number of students increase either more Grade Schools are required to educate even more students to unlock all the available buildings in the education menu. In the time it takes to do this your Sims will have already aquired a certain level of education before they can even start University, but in the proper game mode (and not the cheating $%&^! sandbox mode ) the education does not rise only the tech level. I hope now that this better explains how to educate your Sims and create a nice town, city or metropolis free of crime fires health issues and garbage and that your Sims also use less power and water too. You are actually wrong. Once you unlock university/college in one city, it will be unlocked on all cities in the region, so you can build university right away on your second city. Universities alone can and do raise the education level for your population. You do not need the grade school and high school at all. You two are both wrong !!! Let me demonstrate so that you do not continue to mislead other players of this game. First of all if you are $%&^! enough to play just sandbox then yes you can go straight ahead and put in Universities and begin to raise your education and tech levels, however this is not the case at all when playing the game in proper mode and without all the cheats enabled, sandbox game mechanics are completely different to the proper game mechanics which is why you are wrong and will always be so when playing only in sandbox mode. Here is why you are wrong: After placing a Dept of Education in your newly upgraded City Hall the other education buildings become available but however they are still locked out from placing them unless you satisfy certain criteria. 1. To Place a University you need to educate 1200 students in one day, but to be able to do that you need to have other school buildings open to do so, Correct ? !!! 2. A High School can educate a maximum of 4800 students per day which is more than enough students to unlock the University, But Wait !!! 3. To unlock the High School it is necessary to educate over 500 students per day to do this. Now where is it that I can do this I ask myself ? Wait again what could the answer to this be ? That's right I can start with a Grade School !!! 4. A Grade School will educate 150 students per day, and by adding extra classrooms I can raise this to 950 students per day in total. This is more than enough to unlock the High School, but it is also sufficient to open up a Community College which requires 800 students educated per day to unlock. So as you can see it is not possible to play a proper game and educate your Sims just using a University as it is required to start with a Grade School to start off the education process and to begin to educate your Sims properly, then as the number of students increase either more Grade Schools are required to educate even more students to unlock all the available buildings in the education menu. In the time it takes to do this your Sims will have already aquired a certain level of education before they can even start University, but in the proper game mode (and not the cheating $%&^! sandbox mode ) the education does not rise only the tech level. I hope now that this better explains how to educate your Sims and create a nice town, city or metropolis free of crime fires health issues and garbage and that your Sims also use less power and water too. You are actually wrong. Once you unlock university/college in one city, it will be unlocked on all cities in the region, so you can build university right away on your second city. Exactly. JimCityBuilder is wrong. The university etc are unlocked region-wide.You only need one educational facility, not all of them. The university and college raises BOTH education and tech level. And no-one is talking about sandbox mode. You're the one misleading players, JimCityBuilder. If you got to the thread on Grade school or High school ? in the concepts forum threads you will see that i have fully explained the whole principle of setting up and obtaining all the education facilities in Sim City. And as you have both even said yourselves that all buildings are unlocked across the whole region if they are unlocked in one city, but yet again you are overlooking the simple fact that before you can even get to your University which you seem to pride yourself on obtaining so much someone if not yourselves must first start with the other education buildings before your University can become available whether in your city or someone else's in the region. Now that is what must be done if the game is played in proper game mode ... Grade Schools lead to Universities !!! Jim

true dat !

It may also have something to do with commuters coming into the city and then not leaving but also not having anywhere to go either and start to fill up your parks. next thing you know is all the stats seem messed up and everything starts to go wrong ... personally i am still trying to figure out how negative numbers start appearing in the stats ? Jim