Mogwai1313

If I were going to throw in my two cents, I would say Osaka, Japan has to be up there on the worst planned cities list. Not so much for architectural choices but more for how the transit system is set up around the city. You can definitely tell that the railroad system was put into place before they rebuilt the road system after WWII. Driving anywhere remotely close to Osaka is a nightmare.

I am going to say no until I hear more about the actual game mechanics. Most people replying seem to think that the graphics are making this game and to be honest, I am fine with how Simcity 4 looks. When I hear about the simulation aspects of the game and how it actually plays and how much it will allow for custom content I may change my mind. I am also playing A7 right now and between that and SC4, I have a pretty good combo.

I have always found Putin to be an intriguing person. Though I must say, he reminds me of one of the admirals on the Death Star in Star Wars.

Yeah, it's just a shame though that tax payer money has to go toward housing him until the convicts have their way with them. One 9mm slug is only about $0.25.

Four years??? What the guy should have gotten was a bullet to the head.

Originally posted by: Odd from Sweden Seriously... If a 2003 Toyota would be more popular on the market than a 2007 Toyota, then A LOT of Toyota employees would be fired. I seriously hope that the computer game industry has the same logic.quote> I know a lot of Toyota people who would happily take a 2003 Celica or Matrix over the 2007. The 2003 Toyotas are some of the most modifiable and have more powerful engines than their modern counterparts. Anywho, back to Simcity!

This thread has got me intrigued. I never realized so many people thought this was a hard game. Sure, Maxis always said it had been made too difficult for beginners but I never realized there were this many people within the community that had difficulty playing without cheats. The only thing I found annoying was tunnels and subways but that was more of a graphical thing than a game mechanic thing. Not bragging, but it doesn't take me much work to get a city above 1 million people; now I just want to know what I am doing that other people aren't. This is a good thread, keep it up! Those of you that find the game hard, what parts give you difficulty?

I think I remember an interview where one of the Tilted Mill guys said that if Sim City Societies didn't sell, their next product would be a real Sim City game. I wonder if they are still thinking about that and also, whether or not we should be afraid if they are?

I never found SC4 to be that hard but I have played every version before it so maybe that helped. I also don't use cheats or mods that mess with the economics of the game too much. I use NAM but that is because the game is virtually broken without it when you get into bigger cities. The key to playing without cheats and being successful lays in being patient and not overreaching your budget early in the game. I have also found that you need to balance play time between the cities in your region as to keep all growth on par with neighboring cities, that helps a lot.

Beebs, I have been following this for a while and you have done a great job! One question: How do you make your newspaper so that you can display it in your CJ? What software do you use and what methods to you use to go from that program and then to your CJ? I am curious because I will soon be starting a CJ and the idea of a newspaper is something I have tossed around for a while and I really like your implementation. Keep up the good work!

I downloaded the Three Rivers Region map and loaded it into Simcity 4 Terraformer tool like the installation file said. Once loaded into the Terraformer, I saved it as a .png file and then closed the Terraformer. When I boot up SC4 and go into the region, I can see the bump file is being used due to all of the big city squares but I am not seeing the Three Rivers map. I figured that I may have to render the map like a usual map downloaded from the STEX but when I did the CTRL-SHFT-ALT-R and chose the png file, it would not load it. After I tried a couple more times with the same result, I reasoned that perhaps it was in the color of the png file so I went into Photoshop and changed the png from color to greyscale. I tried loading this new file and it worked but after 40mins of rendering, it messed up the map to the point where it looked nothing like the Three Rivers region and more like an archipelago out of Water World or something. I figure the problem is that the greyscaling was to harsh and it took out the height things were supposed to be or something, it was very strange. Are color png's allowed to be rendered in SC4, maybe I should have left it colored. So what am I doing wrong? I have never used the terraformer before I and I just want to load the region. The only thing outside of the installation instructions that I did was to rename the region and I made sure to do that in the .ini file that came with the map as well. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

I downloaded the Three Rivers Region map and loaded it into Simcity 4 Terraformer tool like the installation file said. Once loaded into the Terraformer, I saved it as a .png file and then closed the Terraformer. When I boot up SC4 and go into the region, I can see the bump file is being used due to all of the big city squares but I am not seeing the Three Rivers map. I figured that I may have to render the map like a usual map downloaded from the STEX but when I did the CTRL-SHFT-ALT-R and chose the png file, it would not load it. After I tried a couple more times with the same result, I reasoned that perhaps it was in the color of the png file so I went into Photoshop and changed the png from color to greyscale. I tried loading this new file and it worked but after 40mins of rendering, it messed up the map to the point where it looked nothing like the Three Rivers region and more like an archipelago out of Water World or something. I figure the problem is that the greyscaling was to harsh and it took out the height things were supposed to be or something, it was very strange. Are color png's allowed to be rendered in SC4, maybe I should have left it colored. So what am I doing wrong? I have never used the terraformer before I and I just want to load the region. The only thing outside of the installation instructions that I did was to rename the region and I made sure to do that in the .ini file that came with the map as well. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks!

There is a building code in Tokyo that states a building can't be over 65 stories I think. I know it is somewhere in there. It has to do with earthquake readiness. All buildings built in Tokyo have to be able to take at least a 7 magnitude earthquake without major structural damage.

Do you know what your RAM timings are? Is it performance RAM like Corsair or anything like that? Usually it doesn't affect things this much but I have heard of RAM upgrades crashing things if the timings are way off. Is one stick of RAM really old? What motherboard do you have? If you could post the exact kind of RAM both sticks are and what kind of motherboard you have, it would be helpful.

That pic with Walmart a few pages back was classic!

I have to admit, yes, I caused Evel Knievel's demise. When he wasn't looking, I tied one of a chain to his wheelchair and the other end to a large rock. It was difficult but I finally got the rock rolled up to the top of the ramp and then gave it a little nudge. The chain and gravity took care of the rest.

I kind of feel bad for his passing. I was born in the town of Twin Falls, Idaho, where he tried to jump the Snake River Canyon. The ramp is actually still there. And no, he didn't make it.

The problem with all of the taser news as of late is that in the beginning, there was some poor judgment used in a couple of incidences involving tasers and these incidences were publicized. Now that the public is aware that tasers can harm you, everyone and their dogs are on the lookout to spot a cop tasing someone. The same was also the case after the Rodney King beating, for months all you saw on the news was a slew of cops smacking around various people for various reasons. People need to realize that cops are authorized to use tasers when the need arises, just like they are authorized to give people a beat down if they deem it necessary. I get tired of hearing about all of this crap because I know that the vast majority of police officers are doing a very good job and these media outbreaks do nothing but raise panic and fear in the very people that are employed to protect them. I am not saying that all cops are great people or great law enforcers but I will say that they deal with situations and are forced to make on the spot decisions that none of us ever have to deal with. Sure, they make goofs every now and again, they are human. But they are humans under a great deal of pressure and scrutiny and I feel for them. Having said all of that, don't resist arrest and odds are pretty good that your not going to get the crap tased out of you or beaten up.

But that still doesn't answer the original question, what is the biggest map on Simtropolis? I am actually curious about this myself.

He may have overdone the rails a tad but if you have ever been to Tokyo, there is literally a train station every two to three minutes. Couple the fact that there are a ton of stations with the fact that there are five or six loop lines that run through Tokyo and you end up with a ton of rails. What he should have done was make 2/3s of the subways because that is what most of the Tokyo ones are with the exception of the Yamanote (green) Line. In his one shot that shows the rails going toward Tokyo Disney and Chiba, he actually hasn't simulated all of the rail lines possible.

Knowing what I know about Societies, there is no way I will get this game. I like Simcity for the simulation aspects, not for the cute social experimentation that Societies wants you to be enthralled by. I honestly have no clue how they think their game will be replayable beyond more than a few hours. Once you learn all of the social types and what the buildings do, it is just a matter of fiddling with combinations and seeing what happens. Since there are not many social types and not very many useful buildings, the fun won't last long.

A big part of SC4's problem was the fact that Will Wright was very unhappy at how difficult the game had become and he feared that people new to the game would have a hard time adjusting to the learning curve. Wright's feelings, coupled with EA's money grubbing attitude pretty much killed the game we all know and love.

Having lived in Japan for the past two years, I can tell you for certain that these watermelons do exist. These melons fall into the category of "gift food". The Japanese love giving gifts and it is customary to give a gift when you visit someone's home for dinner or something along those lines. Fruits make very good gifts in Japan because pretty much everyone likes them and they can be wrapped in fancy and unique ways to show that you were thoughtful enough to bring a well-wrapped gift. In Japan, the gift is not as important as its presentation. The downside to the above watermelons and other gift fruit is their price. Those watermelons are easily over $100USD. I have seen small oranges that are supposed to be the best of the best sell for almost $10,000USD for a case of them. Gift fruit is not cheap. But it is quite cute.

I guess I am an annuarian as well, joined 3/11/05.