kiwispanker

sorry guys, the government just issued a press release stating that the lights were caused by routine jetfighter flyovers. *tisk, tisk* isn't that their answer to all ET inquiries? or maybe i've just been watching too much discovery channel.

Originally posted by: gabry85 As you can see, SimCity 4 is slowly dying and falling into oblivion. quote> Well I'm not sure I totally agree here. SC4 has been as constant as hot dogs ~ yes, I compared the two (see the chart below). Sim City 4 has also been fairly stable during the past two or three years. Although if Cities XS does become and extra-large game as we were led to believe, then sure, SC4 could fall into this oblivion you speak of. Comparing Sim City 4 to Hot Dogs Originally posted by: gabry85 As soon as the game was released people were indeed looking forward to getting this game as soon as they could because of the huge hype that surronded this game, but because of their disappointment, they immediately stopped talking about it. Our recent comments are also included in this graph, but most people already moved on. Now CXL is mentioned as much as SC4 today, that alas, is slowly approaching death as well. quote> There's a couple of problems I see here: Games, or most anything, have a lot of hype during their initial launch. On your provided graphs from Google Trends, you can see that both SCS and CXS had large jumps at release and then stabalized. SCS obviously bombed. SC4 can't be compared because the chart doesn't go back before 2004, but I think it'd be fair to assume that SC4 would have followed that same trend. Below is a chart comparing the Sims 3 and COD4 Modern Warfare 2 with Cities tossed in there for some giggles, although it had no effect on the trend results. I chose those two games not to compare them with Cities or Sim City but rather to show that even HUGE money-making games follow this same trend. The two games are also very recent releases. 2009 Big Daddies: Sims 3 and (COD4) Modern Warfare 2 ~~ oh and Cities XL You can see in the chart that both games spiked then receded. Monte Cristo's latest game even shows a little bump in this graph. Also, it should be noted that I searched by "Sims 3" without "The". And the same for Modern Warfare 2; I left out the COD4 main title. Additionally, it's all worldwide traffic. Lastly, I totally agree with PLB82. MC should realize that in order for their game to do as well as SC4, they can't just depend on coming up with glamorous content packs (that takes up a lot of resources - dare I say High Tech tokens). If / when MC opens up the channels to community-made custom content, then the game can prosper, on both sides of the PO fence. MC can still make money in the long-run by offering limited features through its (hopefully not-so-outrageously expensive) planet offer.

*AS A PLANET OFFER SUBSCRIBER, YOU HAVE BENEFITED FROM THE EXCLUSIVE OLD ENGLAND BUILDINGS PACK AND BUS SYSTEM. DO YOU APPRECIATE THESE REGULAR CONTENT AND FEATURE UPDATES? Why would you answer "No"?? "Um...yeah I like the unfinished/broken-promised vanilla version, please don't update it." In a lot of these questions, I can't really choose any one answer. I play the game whenever I want as I've lost interest in it, not "Whenever I can". I wish we could input our own comments.

1. just as ilikeseattle says above. make an eight-way intersection for the center of your circle(s) to start -- don't worry about the middle intersection, you can delete it later and make some monument in the middle, like the in pictures you provided. 2. then, where you want the first outer circle to start, create an small intersection. make short roads/aves run perpendicular into those roads you made in step 1. just make the roads go out, on both sides, a little bit - enough to make the crosswalks appear. 3. next, select your desired road or avenue, or even expressway, and also select the curved road feature. then connect each of those small step-2 roads to each other. the results are pretty good looking "circles" also, for another tip, you're going to need a way to measure the road lengths - otherwise you'll be making ovals or other weird shapes. since CXS doesn't have grids, you'll need to use another way to measure. - you could draw a road and remember "how much" it costs, then when placing the other roads, just make the number/price the same as the first. this could possibly be tricky with unlevel terrain ~ i don't know though. - you could measure by that auto-zoning/road-placer tool and count how many blocks it would take you. - you could make a large outer square so each of those step-2 roads fall just within the boundaries of that large outer box. - lastly, you could just eye-ball it. good luck and post your results!

wow. just heard the nasty news here on simtropolis. i always told myself that i'd get the PO once at least one addition to mass transit was implemented. money is definitely not a problem here on my end - i just think MC is acting completely sketchy (since what...the beginning). if i was an investor for MC, i'd find some way to pull my money out quick. very, very sad news. no PO for me.

i think pete1061 is on the right track. i've never sent a ticket to MC regarding this but i am curious to know if they would like us to provide them with info relating to this problem; or maybe they already know what is causing it and just need to tweak things a bit. my main city, in solo, i got about 1.6 million with lag appearing around 30 minutes (especially in trading with omni). however, my system specs aren't as good as pete's, so i'm not sure what are the main issues causing this leak. hopefully MC could solve this issue soon. my map is only 30% covered and i'm scared growing it out more.

I'm glad that others are seeing they have performance issues after about 20 minutes; I was about to kick my computer. However, exiting and re-entering does fix the issue - it's just annoying. If MC doesn't fix this, then I may just have to build farming villages. Why did I even bother to buy a new computer for this game?

are you saying when people trade on the website that it doesn't change time and dramatically affect your city? i've personally never experimented with those types of cities as i thought they were dead anyways and could get deleted, thus terminating my contracts.

Originally posted by: sthudig Thanks for the update...I see maybe a ray of hope here, and I agree with everything you just posted. I agree a separation of Solo and PO in a more profound way is definitely a good way to go. I am also catching hints that you are re vamping the solo mode entirely, which the game sorely needs. I'll keep a closer eye on whats going on now. Sandbox is good, but I would also like something with an economy that I can adjust in difficulty, yet still have all my buildings unlocked. quote> sthudig: there's a checkbox in the options menu that allows you to unlock all (or at least most) buildings. i agree that a sandbox is needed in solo. on planet mode, i spent a whole day and a bunch of money to develop a highway system that looks quite less than par (*hint at MC for improving the highway system - I know this has been talked about before). experimenting to get a feel for the game is essential when working with a new game, especially one without a grid. i'm also glad that MC has shown that they still care about solo mode. i was just about to shelve this game - well not exactly cuz I don't have a box, but metaphorically speaking.

Originally posted by: SimBurger Yeah, its a joy to have to restructure things without a pause button! Argh.quote> It is can be frustrating, but I think of it as adding realism. Once I had a couple of one way roads going through my "mountainside" to connect some jobs and the airport. Traffic greatly increased and I decided to place a highway in its place. Where the realism comes in is that you must re-route traffic. I built a temporary road nearby and demolished the two one ways. It's quite rare to see a real city pause itself and have a new block or highway just pop up overnight. At least this doesn't happen where I live.

I just got a new gaming rig, windows 7, good graphics card, and an unfinished CXL game. I've been able to play the game fine without much major interruption until the new patch came out. Once I installed it, everything junked out, CXL style. Has anyone else had this problem with the latest update? I doubt MC's support team will reply within the week. Please help.

like attachtatuk mentions, you must use the bridge tool (the pop-up box informs you that you can indeed make both bridges and tunnels with this tool). but more importantly, you don't need to build it "into" a hill. to build a tunnel on flat ground you need to first click on the starting point, then with shift, lower it down as deep as you'd like to go. it'll probably tell you that the slope is too steep. that means that in order to maintain or moderate (not deadly) slope, the length of the road will need to be longer. right...that x/y slope, rise over run business they talked about in math class if you'd like your tunnel to go underneath buildings, then it must go deeper. you can click (once) to "interrupt" the auto tool, and do the shift business once again until you are satisfied with the depth. perhaps none of this makes sense. post again if things need to be clarified. i'm sure with enough palying around you can figure it out. good luck.

yes, but interstates in america are/were funded (mainly) by the federal government to help support interstate commerce, starting in the '50s. some interstates even run through small towns with less than 100 residents. the federal government rarely cares about getting people from the suburbs to their downtown office. even though i agree with your initial point, I think you'd have to provide evidence of municipally funded freeways. personally i can't think of any. even in LA, which appears to be an entire freeway web, all freeways are either federal (interstates and US routes) or state (state routes). i know in Las Vegas they have county built freeways, but they are still supported by federal funds - i'm talking about the beltway (not sure about it's number; 215?). i'm also sure that in most other countries that freeways are federally funded and are built to navigate to and from major cities while only running through minor cities. planning is everything.

The CitiesXL FAQ site mentions that you don't need internet connection to play the game. It doesn't mention anything about launching though. See: http://www.citiesxl.com/content/view/365/130/ <-- the first question/answer. Originally posted by: Cities XL Official Website Is it possible to play the game offline? Yes. The solo mode can be played without being connected to the internet. quote>

i have visited several sites and each one won't let me order! so frustrating. i have an american visa (and address) but i'm currently in s.korea. this is from steam: Your billing address doesn't look like it matches up with your current country. Please contact support for assistance or use a payment method registered to your current address. but under settings, my country is listed as US - obviously my IP is from the ROK. for such multinational corps, they sure seem to deter online purchases for expats. i guess i won't be buying the (half-of-a) game.

the OP's gotta point though, how much money is MC trying to fork in here? I completely understand they're an operating business trying to make a profit, but they make it seem like this 2 year project trying to make city life into cities xl has expenses toppling that of most governments. advertising in games have been for a long time and has proven to be a good source of supplemental income. so why charge for the game, have ads, then make customers pay a monthly subscription fee to get buses! if you haven't seen MC's latest interview with Dirk, go read it...you must be in a seated position first though. Dirk asked some awesome questions; unfortunately MC clarified all of our fears.

no ranting...boo. what kind of a community is this where we can't discuss our feelings about an over-promised, over-hyped game. just check every forum out there about cxl, it's all sadly negative. why do you think they discontinued the forums on the cxl website? did you see them before they shut it down? they were full of rants and complaints. mc isn't listening to what it's game-buyers really want; that is frustrating. @liv, i'm sorry i said the 'bad word for urinate' to express my anger with cxl. i know that simtrop would prefer a friendly pro-cxl environment and become the default custom content arena. @Mr. Cortez: phillipe has already said that users (or at least a select group of people) can model using 3ds max.

i just reinstalled city life and humorously didn't see much difference in cities xl. to the flamers coming, obviously there has been much improvement; but the basic things were the same (e.g. stupid fixed lot sizes, limited mass trans., no terraforming). i may (and it's a big may) buy the game but i won't pay for a subscription that doesn't even give us what MC promised us...and if it did, they won't offer it to offline players. now pardon me while i uninstall all MC software from my computer. Edited to remove swearing, which is a violation of ST Forum Rules. --Liv CXL Forums Moderator

just a little rant: i was seeing if i could pre-order the game internationally, but being an American expat in S. Korea, the site does not accept my US visa or mastercard. anyways, after playing the demo, i'm sure that i WON'T be playing this game.

I downloaded the Demo earlier today; been playing it for a few hours now. I can tell you one thing though, I will be RE-INSTALLING SIM CITY 4. I am not impressed with CitiesXL at all. For those of you interested in the Demo and can't get the filefront to give you the download, try going to http://www.worthdownloading.com/download.php?gid=3400&id=19933 (I believe someone mentioned it before). Click on the Dutch Mirror, and you be prompted to download the zip file (about .98 gigs). The crashing will be fixed when you first run the client (auto-update). If for some reason, the said website stops giving out demos, then I'll think of a way of transferring it to whoever wants it. Just PM me I suppose.

ok. i think i was a bit confused. the OP who asked the question wanted to know how to make overhanging props; what i specifically am curious about is how to make an oversized prop fit onto a single tile. Xyloxadoria did it with the recent Modern Overhanging [Monorail] Station Pack @ https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=21931 ... but it was done using a building (rather than a prop ~ i'm not sure if that matters or not). last week i made a 1x3 prop in hopes it would fit on a 1x1 tile. i moved the model (and LODs) over a half step (like 8 meters on GMAX) and it overhangs nicely. but on the lot editor the BAT will show as a 1x3 prop and thus my lot needs to correspond. i'm sure if i've missing something really simple. either way, could you all help me (and possibly others) out. thank you very much!

question: when you move the LODs, do you mean so they're not "covering" the model? if the model is overhanging outside of the LODs, once rendered, the BAT wouldn't be complete -- meaning only half would be rendered. i may be wrong, but i'm just looking for clarification. i've never created offset props but would be curious as well to know how. could you nosx, or anyone else, provide a bit more detail into this. it would be greatly appreciated.