Fischbob

I've progressed to East City and am still getting the hang of things in sandbox mode/unlimited funds. I decided to begin with the metro network and then start filling in the other modes district by district. Here's what I've built so far: Good god, this game is a timesink!

Great screenshots everyone! I purchased CiM2 to support the devs, and installed it just to see if it would run on my ancient laptop. To my surprise, it's actually performing better and much more stable than the first Cities in Motion! Below is a shot of my transit network for the tutorial city, mainly just me learning the ropes. I look forward to tackling the bigger cities next!

Have been checking out videos/livestreams of CIM2... I daresay Colossal Order have succeeded at making a better city sim than the new SimCity! My laptop's getting a little long in the tooth so I doubt I'll be able to run the thing, but I may pick it up on Steam anyway as a show of support--at $20, I've already gotten my money's worth just watching other people play it!

So the memory leaks are still present with this one? No technical fixes over CXL 2012? I'd gladly play $20+ for a performance fix that keeps the game from lagging to unplayability after a few minutes. Otherwise, not interested in even a <$5 expansion. Focus should really consider starting work on a 'from-the-ground-up' CXL sequel. A decent, functioning, offline-singleplayer citybuilder in the style of something between CXL and SC4 would likely be of interest to those of us who are a little perturbed with that forthcoming EA title I've forgotten the name of.

If you have any left from yesterday, I'll gladly have a glass of perry after a far-too-long week of schoolwork. Thought I'd drop in and say hi to ST after several years' absence! I'm doing well: currently halfway through an Urban Geography/GIS undergraduate degree in Montreal, so I've still very much got the SC mindset. I intend to go back to New Brunswick when I'm finished and use what I've learned to make my hometown as awesome as possible.

Exciting enough to coax me out of hibernation momentarily! A Maxis-developed citybuilder on the horizon is a reason to celebrate, even if tempered with concerns about our friendly publisher EA. Hopefully they have lots more info for us next week.

Originally posted by: topcliff Anyways, has anyone ever closed a door, walked away, and then see it open again, even though the lock is still locked? Leonardoquote> Not quite, but this story is pretty much the only event I've ever witnessed that I can't explain. I was at a former friend's house helping him move boxes from the upstairs into the garage. We both came down the stairs carrying large boxes, so obviously our hands were full. Well, we got to the door to the garage and discovered it to be closed. Not wanting to put down the boxes, we stood there for a moment before I kicked the door a couple times to see if that would do anything. It didn't: that door was firmly latched shut. My friend started to put down his boxes, but before he got the chance, we heard the door unlatch itself and watched it swing open. Nobody was in the garage, in fact we were the only two people downstairs. Other door opening/closing incidents can be explained by a fairly conspicuous draft, but this door was shut tight and latched, and to this day I can't rationalize what happened.

1. A 2. C 3. 2-3 on average. 4. 77 5. 2 6. A.J.P.

I'm off to school in about a week. Courses are as follows: IB Modern History 111 Canadian Geography 120 World Issues 120 IB/AP French 111 English 111 My first semester is very... arts-oriented.

The new Terminal 1 at Toronto's Pearson International is a marvel of modern transportation. I'm always amazed whenever I fly in or out of there at how modern and efficient everything in the terminal looks and functions, from the road network/parking to check-in to baggage claim. Darn it, I wish I'd had the presence of mind to snap some photos during my latest trip through.

CDI? Alive? It's great to see you BATing again, heck, posting again too. The new iteration of the Richardson is looking great, a very huge improvement over the previous one. Texture tweaking would be my only observation, so I'm looking forward to seeing what you've cooked up on that front. I'm very impressed overall. Have fun on the rest of your holidays, and I'll echo Andi and 1ajs by pestering you to come on MSN more often.

Isn't Ottawa's flagship hotel the Chateau Laurier? Anyway, I visited Ottawa on a school trip a couple years ago (stayed at Carleton U, BTW ), and was really impressed with the city. It's a beautiful setting for Canada's capital, IMO. I just can't stand their NHL team.

I'm starting grade 11 in a couple weeks, so here are some pointers from me. I'm not sure how the school system stacks up elsewhere, so some of these may be New Brunswick-specific (so Brad especially, listen up). First, I'll re-iterate what some have said in that it's very important to be a good student. That means attend classes, complete assignments on time, and strive to do well. Your marks in the first couple years of HS will dictate what levels of courses will be open to you when you start needing to worry about University transcripts. Take good notes and start studying for exams a few weeks in advance so you're well on top of things. Exam week itself can actually be quite fun since you'll have quite a bit of free time when you're not writing. In the transition from middle school, the biggest thing I found was that your level of independence goes way up. You don't have teachers breathing down your back for assignments anymore, they just expect them at the due date and that's that. You're under no obligation to stick to a certain place during breaks/lunch anymore. You can head off-campus to pick up lunch, and even run to a corner store during break if you think you have time. Of course, this means you need to be more responsible, too. I also found that between middle and high school, there's a big difference in the attitudes of other students. I found Middle School, at least my middle school, to be full of intimidation and bullying and the like. In High School though, people generally don't care about your appearance, interests,etc, and those who do are usually those grade 9s who should probably still be in middle school. So if you do get comments, don't take them to heart. If there's any sort of orientation activities in your first few days, you're probably going to have the student council tell you to GET INVOLVED. Actually listen to them. Academics are the main reason we've got school, but it's the extracurricular activities that make the experience worth it. There will be a variety of different sports, clubs, and activities open to students, and they're all great ways to meet new people. I personally got involved in drama, student council, and Reach For the Top (one of the most awesome clubs out there, FYI) and I've made friends who I still spend time with, even though some of them have now graduated. This year, I'm planning on joining choir and ball hockey too. Not only do these involvements let you meet people and give you something productive to do, but they also look very good on scholarship applications. Also, do try and attend the events the student council will promote throughout the year—they put a whole lot of effort into them (and if they don't, well they're not a very good student council). On the topic of friends, you WILL eventually meet new people and make new friends, whether in your classes or through the activities you do (which we've already established you should). I went into high school with a group of middle school friends, and finished my freshman year with them and a few other groups of friends as well. Of course, there were also friends I drifted away from, and hardly hang out with anymore. It's a two-way street that way. I hope this helps you in some way. The most important thing to remember though is to enjoy yourself! Your high school years have the potential to be the some of the best your life has to offer. So work hard, get involved, avoid the more dangerous and unlawful youth activities, and try not to let people get you down. The reward will be great times you'll cherish long after you've graduated.

I prefer Rapid Transit (encompassing El and GLR, as well as subways), seeing as it can be placed completely underground. That makes it perfect for built-up areas. Monorails, on the other hand, take up space, can't be placed at different levels like RT, and can simply be substituted with El Rail to integrate into a broader system. I see monorail as more of a novelty network, suitable for use at airports and in some isolated pockets, but not really that interesting in a more extensive network. That's from my personal building tastes, anyway. Their high speed makes them useful for a more regional-based commuter network (though I use heavy rail for this purpose), and some people have made great monorail networks in their regions—Zel's New Carpathia comes to mind immediately. In summary, Monorail's OK, but RT > Monorail.

I'm really liking that endpiece. That water reflection is top-class. Keep it up, man. I'm following this.