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Showing results for tags 'beta'.
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CoriBoom 2nd Beta - All 3 City Halls Fixes + 1 for ModPacc Zero
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SC4 Modding - Open Discussion
All Three City Halls + 1 (for ModPacc Zero ) With New Data Summary Panel Background As many of you know, Maxis shipped the game with Model files, Lots and Building exemplars, some LText, and some Lua code for a total of three City Halls with each building progressively larger than the previous. However, the Lua code to trigger the Phase 2 and Phase 3 versions was commented out when they decided to have them upgrade in place. The code for the latter was never completed by Maxis. Next came @MrTruesage's All 3 CityHalls Modd Reward fix in December, 2004 to allow all three City Halls to be plopped in the game. This was accomplished by reactivating Maxis's code, creating some new LText files, and additionally tweaking some of the properties in the building exemplars. It was later in August, 2005 that @Andreas Roth created the City Hall Fix to deal with the custom trees that would sometimes appear on the Phase 1 lot. Then in October, 2016 @simmaster07 created Real Upgradeable City Halls which has a DLL and Lua code to finally implement Maxis's intention of the upgrade in place. Considerations For ModPacc Zero, CB re-lotted all three City Halls to improve their appearance so that props no longer intrude on other nearby elements and also preventing the tree oddities. (The original Maxis Phase 2 and Phase 3 were rather scant and boring so he's improved upon that too.) The mod by MrTruesage has several tweaks such that the population and mayor rating requirements are greater than Maxis defined along with adding CAP relief, spreading the available jobs across all three wealth levels, and changing the lots to Do Construction after plopping. With this being the de facto standard for anyone who wants all three City Halls, we have made the ModPacc Zero versions conform to the same alterations for better compatibility. However, we have also corrected minor mistakes in the Demand Created property and written new Lua code so that entire Lua entries do not need to be overwritten. (This latter part uses techniques which were apparently unknown back in 2004.) Re-Lotted Versions by Cyclone Boom Phase 1: Phase 2: Phase 3: And introducing a new Phase 0 (Village Hall) by CB which can be plopped any time in a newly established city: ^ This allows immediate access to all the data in his new UI query. (Note: All 4 lots use Maxis props, and as such require no dependencies.) Village Hall Background The Village Hall was the first brick duplex built in a small hamlet founded by Silas Woodthorpe and was dedicated to the community as a place for meetings and other local government business. Ever since, it has become the design favored by Mayors across the land when they need their first source of useful information. (Lotted by @Cyclone Boom) Building Exemplar Properties The tweaks MrTruesage made to Demand Created have been updated to Maxis Standards. In each case of Jobs Created they also need a corresponding entry for Amenities and we have added those. The changes they made to Wealth, Demand Satisfied (CAP Relief), Landmark Effects, and Water Consumed are maintained for backward compatibility. Lua Code The Lua code is where the game checks if the criteria for a reward lot has been achieved and then makes them available in the Reward Menu. It also handles the reward earned popup advisor messages and the fluff news messages. MrTruesage's mod copies those Lua entries in their entirety and while this was the only known method at the time, it's not a good idea because that precludes any other mod from making changes to code in the same sections. For ModPacc Zero, I've completely rewritten the Lua code as a standalone package. This allows surgical edits which will not interfere with Lua code of any other mod. It is highly advised to remove MrTruesage's mod from your plugins and use the MZ version instead. Reward Triggers The Maxis code for the first City Hall (Phase 1) is set to 12,500+ population and 20+ for mayor rating. MrTruesage's mod increases this to 15,500+ population and 40+ mayor rating. This can cause a discrepancy for players who have cities they created under the Maxis criteria, but then install the mod. Let me illustrate what I mean. This city tile was originally played without the All 3 City Halls fix: Playing later with MrTruesage's mod installed, I decided I wanted to move the City Hall because I'd randomly plopped it when it became available under the vanilla rule of 12,500 population. So, I bulldoze it: But now I don't meet the new requirements! I created some special Lua code to check for this exact situation. If a Phase 1 City Hall exists in a city tile and it does not meet the increased requirements, I set them back to 12,500 population and 20 mayor rating (as originally set by Maxis) so that the City Hall can be bulldozed and re-plopped wherever I want. With the new code after bulldozing: Note: If you bulldoze the vanilla City Hall, save, then exit the city tile it will revert to the 15,500 and 40 mayor rating requirement the next time you load it. The idea is that my tweak only applies to previously plopped City Halls that are in the gap between the original 12,500 threshold and the new 15,500 and which are to be moved in the same play session. In the same play session I can go re-plop the City Hall because it meets the old requirements: And it'll grow: Availability and Menu Placement The Maxis code (which was commented out) and re-implemented by MrTruesage has the requirement that the prior City Hall must be plopped before the next one becomes available (along with the population and mayor rating requirements). In a city which meets the population and mayor rating requirements where one wants to place only the Phase 3 City Hall, that means one has to jump thru several hoops to accomplish it. Ergo, plop Phase 1, let it grow, see Phase 2 become available, pause the game, bulldoze Phase 1, plop Phase 2 without running time (or it'll disappear from the menu), let that one grow, see Phase 3 become available, pause, bulldoze Phase 2, and then (finally) plop Phase 3. This all seems a bit cumbersome to me so I've made it so that the only requirements are the population and mayor rating thresholds. This gives the player the choice to have each one plopped so 1, 2, or 3 are present in their city. Or just a single City Hall if they like. In this tile created by CB, it meets the requirements for all 3 Halls. We select this area to grow Phase 3: ^ Notice too that I've changed the Item Order property so all 3 are grouped together in the menu. Now we can immediately plop Phase 3 without all the prior plop, grow, bulldoze, plop hassle: Let it grow: And it still has the City Exclusion Group property so you can only have one of each phase: Additionally, I've added Requirements text to the menu items for Phase 2 and 3 instead of using Maxis (and MrTruesage's) code for: return reward_state.HIDDEN The User Interface (UI) aka the Query Window MrTruesage added some additional information to the query: We've greatly expanded that for MZ: CB has also created a separate, optional No City Hall Query Sound v1.0.dat file which makes the query silent. YIMBY not NIMBY The description for MrTruesage's mod states that the Landmark Effect of each Phase is a NIMBY influence. This is incorrect. The Landmark Effect in their mod (and this MZ version) is a YIMBY for Commercial and completely neutral for Residential and Industrial. Fluff News Removal MrTruesage's mod also commented out all the Fluff News (without ever mentioning that was done). While this might be desirable for many peeps, we believe it should not be forced on anyone. We've made a separate, standalone mod that will do the same thing so y'all can make your own decision if you'd like the Fluff News items deleted. (Note: Many other news items are also fluff in nature, but are created in separate Lua code which was not altered.) New Building Names Rather than Small, Medium, and Large we've named them as follows: Town Hall City Hall Metropolis Hall Also, LText is included and assigned for each name, which means if you rename any of them that new name will be saved in the city tile data and persist from one play session to the next. New Building Addition As mentioned above, CB has created a new Village Hall that can be plopped with no requirements so the enhanced data display in our UI can be available even in newly established cities. Compatability With simmmaster07's Mod This MZ version of All 3 City Halls is fully compatible with @simmaster07's Real Upgradeable City Halls mod. Simply refrain from plopping Phase 2 and Phase 3 and if your city has 45,000 population when loading, his advisor popup will allow Phase 1 to upgrade in place to Phase 2 and if your city has 95,000 population when loading, it'll allow the upgrade of either Phase 1 (if you didn't agree to the phase 2 upgrade) or Phase 2 to become Phase 3. Simply install his mod according to the instructions listed in the STEX description. Incompatability With Other Mods @MrTruesage's All 3 CityHalls Modd Reward fix When using our ModPacc Zero City Halls fix, MrTruesage's mod should be completely removed from your plugins. While it was certainly a brilliant addition in 2004, it does not meet current standards for Lua coding alterations. Look for a folder named CityHall Package and delete it and its contents. If you've installed their mod in a different folder than the one contained in the original zip file, look for these individual files: CityHall.dat CityHall_LText.dat ConstantsLUA.dat (Overrides TGI CA63E2A3-4A5E8EF6-FF048A3E) NewsItemsLUA.dat (Overrides TGI CA63E2A3-4A5E8EF6-FFA79144) RewardLUA.dat (Overrides TGI CA63E2A3-4A5E8EF6-FFA8F301) UI.dat Remove all of the above. @Andreas Roth's City Hall Fix Remove CityHall_fix.dat from your plugins when using our ModPacc Zero version. (Or, for this one, just be certain our mod loads last and it will safely override their copy of the LotConfigurations exemplar.) As part of the main MZ release, we will provide a master Cleanitol text file to remove the original mods by file name. Beta Testing Requested As with our other newly created mods for ModPacc Zero, we'd like y'all to beta test this and provide feedback. Ofc, be certain to test safely. It's best to use only copies of your city tiles so you can restore them to their pre-testing versions. We cannot be certain at this time if there will need to be any additional modifications, and as such you'll want backups of any cities where you test. Ofc, please do post feedback and/or pictures to let us know your impression of our new creation. The Files Contained in the .Zip: MZ City Hall Package (Beta v1.0).dat <--- The main file. MZ Fluff News Remover (Beta v1.0).dat <--- Optional file. No City Hall Query Sound v1.0.dat <--- Optional file. The Download File: ModPacc Zero - City Halls (Beta v1.0).zip See new v1.1 updated beta (and better) release to download from our post here. Thanks! -Cori & CB- 62 Replies
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- city hall
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CoriBoom 1st Beta - Opera House Fix for ModPacc Zero
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SC4 Modding - Open Discussion
Comprehensive Opera House Bug Fix (for ModPacc Zero) While the name of the first person to discover the game breaking bug with the Opera House reward has been lost in the sands of time, we do know @toroca created the Opera House Fix mod back in March of 2004. However, that mod alone is insufficient if your city tile's population passes (roughly) the one million mark and, ofc, not using their mod means the trouble can start around 50k population. There are caveats to when the problem occurs (or re-occurs) based on the age demographics, but just know if you are going to create very densely populated cities and use the Opera House, you will need an enhanced version. That's where we come in. (CB and me.) We have strong feelings about what a truly good fix should encompass. It must not require one to bulldoze every single occurrence of the building in every single city tile in every single region where it's been plopped. That's super tedious and it's way too easy to forget one. The penalty for failing this onerous pre-mod-install bulldozing is the Phantom Slider Bug. Our ModPacc Zero Opera House Fix does not require any bulldozing. Now because the method we're using to create the new mod was unknown in ye olden dayes, there has to be two versions to cover everyone. The one with "Override Vanilla" in its name is for anyone who has ever plopped an Opera House without using Toroca's mod or who are building their plugins from the ground up to play new regions. Ofc, knowing a multitude of peeps have been using Toroca's mod for ages, we've made one that can be used in that case as well. Hence the need for two versions. So, let's get started with determining which version of the Opera Houses you might have already in place in your cities. You can search for OperaHouse.dat within your plugins, but this won't help if you have renamed the file or DatPacked your plugins. The other method is to simply ask the building. A vanilla Opera House will look like this for the hover over and query: Whereas the Toroca version will look like this: ^ Note how the names are identical. This is because Toroca's version keeps the Opera House name the same. Once you know which you have, you then install our enhanced ModPacc Zero Opera House Fix. If you need the Toroca version then, ideally, remove OperaHouse.dat from your plugins. If that's not possible, no worries. Just be sure the MZ version loads after the one you have either buried in plugins, renamed to something else, or DatPacked. Now you can load a city which has an Opera House and continue playing with the assurance that if there are more patrons than it can handle, there will be a strike to let you know. ^ We can only use the generic school warning so we'll prolly update the message accordingly at a later time. Let's look at the MZ version now. Assuming you already have an Opera House plopped, it will appear grayed out in the Education Menu. I placed it there since it gives an EQ boost and that just makes way more sense to me than in the Parks menu. Also, I don't display it in the Rewards Menu since that's adding clutter we don't need. We have retained the same increase from 1,200 patrons to 25,000 patrons as Toroca's original mod. Here's how it looks in the menu when there is already an Opera House placed: Then because 25,000 will only handle up to about a million Sims, we've taken @BartonThinks's idea to have a pressure relief auxiliary building, but instead of changing to the different stats of a museum, CB lotted one and set it as the same class as the Opera House. It uses only Maxis content so there are no dependencies. The new Maxis Cultural Theater is in the Education Menu below the Opera House: ^ Note: It shows available because this mod checks for an Opera House whether that's Vanilla, Toroca's, or our new MZ versions. Now, there's no way we can determine whether an existing Opera House is Vanilla or Toroca's so this part is based on each person installing the correct MZ mod. With our mod installed, the Vanilla Opera House will disappear from menus and it'll now look like this in the game: And Toroca's will look like this: It's not necessary to bulldoze the old one unless it's being overwhelmed and goes on strike. At this point you can bulldoze it and immediately plop the new one. The MZ version will be the only one in the Education menu. Or, you can plop as many Maxis Cultural Theaters as you like and handle the overage that way. Edit: To clarify, if a Vanilla Opera House is overwhelmed and goes on strike you can either bulldoze it and plop the new MZ version or plop the Maxis Cultural Theater(s) and adjust their sliders to handle the overflow. If it's a Tororca's that goes on strike you can adjust its slider. Only if there isn't enough capacity (like in a city with a million or more Sims) would you need to use the auxiliary Theater. Ofc, for either Opera House you can safely bulldoze the Vanilla one or Toroca's and then plop the MZ version. (Just be sure you have the correct MZ file in your plugins.) If you've never plopped an Opera House, when the criteria is met, it'll appear in the menu like this: The Maxis Cultural Theater will not be available until you've plopped the Opera House (and run a wee bit of time). This is the ModPacc Zero version. Notice it also shows the Apples Grade on the hover over. After plopping the Opera House and running some time, the advisor will inform you of the auxiliary building: You can accept right then or decline and wait till later to plop it. Once you do plop the Maxis Cultural Theater, it'll look like this: Additionally, the Opera House (and any Maxis Cultural Theaters) will show up in the Master Education Budget. Here we're showing one plop using Toroca's mod, but with MZ overriding: Ofc, we are looking for peeps to put this thru its paces and give us feedback on how it works. As a beta version be sure you have a complete backup of any cities prior to testing, and it's best to not save them for later play after plopping just in case we need to make any updates. The most important part is to use the correct version. If you have plopped any with Toroca's mod installed then use the one for that. Otherwise, use the Vanilla Override one. The Files: ModPacc Zero - Opera House Fixes - Override Vanilla (Beta v1).dat ModPacc Zero - Opera House Fixes - Override Toroca's (Beta v1).dat -Cori & CB- 2 Replies
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- opera house fix
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CoriBoom 3rd Beta - Crime and Police Station Fixes for ModPacc Zero
CorinaMarie posted a topic in SC4 Modding - Open Discussion
Presenting the first completely revised Crime and Police Station Fixes for our upcoming ModPacc Zero. As discovered by @RippleJet and @rsc204, the existing Crime Doesn't Pay mod by @RalphaelNinja solves only part of the crime problem. For the complete fix we need both the updates to the Crime Simulator and adjustments to the Police Station, Dispatch Radius (and to a couple of other police station properties) in order to control crime in larger lots. This new mod includes the exact same revisions of RalphaelNinja's mod (which they specifically state in the ReadMe is not copyrighted, as is true for any exemplar data modifications) along with tweaks to each of the 4 police stations. As explained by Robin, if we simply replace (overwrite) the vanilla stations that will then cause the Phantom Slider bug unless every single station is bulldozed in every single city tile in every singe region one has previously developed. Until now that is the price we've had to pay to truly solve the crime issue. I've created a new method so we can have the best of both. For each of the originals (Police Kiosk, Small Police Station, Large Police Station, and the Deluxe Police Station), I've removed the OccupantsGroup 0x00001500 so they will no longer appear in the Police Menu. Then I've given each a new User Visible Name Key with revised LText that adds the word "Vanilla" to their name. This allows bulldozing any of the old stations at our leisure rather than all before adding the new mod. The hover queries of the "Vanilla" police stations appear in a gray color. Then all 4 are recreated with a new IID and those are the ones which show up in the menu. Now we have the ability to bulldoze old stations whenever we come across them (or even leave them in any city tile) while also being able to plop the fixed versions. There is no conflict and no Phantom Sliders this way. This allows us to update and/or bulldoze any of them whenever we want all while solving the crime problem by plopping the new versions. I've also included new Lua code so that every reward instance for the Deluxe Police Station will utilize the fixed version along with the fluff news and MySim comment recognizes the new one too. Additionally, all Missions that can be triggered when the Deluxe Station is part of the criteria, and all Missions who's reward is the Deluxe Station all work with the fixed one. Any existing stations will show the hover over and names as follows: And the new versions use the standard name we are all accustomed to seeing: These Crime and Police Station Fixes are also fully compatible with our FUN mod (that will be another core component of ModPacc Zero which @Cyclone Boom and I are working on). Ofc, beta testing of this mod is needed before we release it in ModPacc Zero. While I'm certain all will be fine, do back up any city tiles where you test prior to doing so. Important caveat: One likely problem will be for anyone who has already overwritten the original vanilla stations, but that'll likely be for peeps who won't need this specific component of ModPacc Zero anyhow. Do be careful if that is the case for you. Otherwise, the new mod solves both the Crime Problem and removes the need to bulldoze all vanilla plops prior to installing the mod. Do keep in mind the concept of ModPacc Zero is for peeps starting out fresh or who have played, but have not yet installed any custom content. Attachment: ModPacc Zero - Crime and Police Station Fixes (Beta v1.0).dat See new updated beta (and better) releases in our posts below... Beta v1.2 Adds new summary police info, along with further fine-tuning to the game's crime simulation. Beta v1.3 Dynamic numeric formats for compatibility between other languages, and misc panel improvements.- 24 Replies
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Came across this awesome mod that simplifies roundabout creation to a couple of clicks.. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1625704117
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Transit King is looking for Pioneers! Thanks to the courtesy of Dirktator and the rest of Simtropolis people, we're here to enlist! Here's a short description: In this new free-to-play tycoon game Transit King, your job is to take over the transport company of Henry Goodwin III, who’s more into horse polo than hard day-to-day work. The surrounding towns and villages evolve into glimmering cities as you fulfill their requests for food, clothing, goods and mass transit. Transit King offers an approachable yet elaborate take on tycoon games with multi-tiered goods chains and gradual expansion into new areas of transit business. We got big plans for what Transit King can offer with the final release. The current version concentrates on truck traffic, with buses, multiplayer and more to follow. We’re aiming at Fall 2017 release with Summer spent on adding features and polishing them up for the final game. Pioneers with suitable Android devices can hop right in with iOS users to follow soon after. Pioneers are not just glorified beta testers, but front runners whose feedback will help us make Transit King the best it can be! BON Games is a small team from Finland, we're aiming high to bring you a solid laid-back tycoon experience for mobile devices. WHO ARE THE PIONEERS - A group of players ready to test beta builds, give feedback and help Transit King evolve during the summer for the launch WHAT THEY DO - Give feedback/bug reports/suggestions about the game straight to the devs - If they like Transit King, maybe mentioning it to their friends WHAT THEY GET - Early access to the alpha and beta builds - Special in-game title of “Pioneer” with a golden nameplate (once the game's complete) - Premium currency called Transit Notes periodically during development and a big pile on game's launch - And of course, the eternal gratitude of BON Games team! For more info, feel free to post questions and comments here, or send me direct messages through Simtropolis or email (matti.isotalo@bongames.fi).
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- beta
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Well it's here! With only 55 days to go, i thought i would bring a development update. Below is dev update 1. Beta 1 If you want to call it that. All dev updates will go here, and the final release will be in the actual City Journal Menu. (Between STEX and Gallery) Without further ado, SparkleCity Beta 1 In fall of 1995, the population of Prowersville stood at only 32,000. This was already quick growth, since the city was founded as a US territory in 1994. By the kingdom's independence in October 2006, the population reached over 1.5 Million. Eventually, ten years after that, the population stands at 2.4 Million. (2015 Census: 2,476,375) Below are three pics of the major centers of the city. Each dev update will contain three pics. Part of Downtown Prowersville, A lot of companies have built large complexes consisting of the same building. Several buildings are even copy-pasted all over the place. A large high school: Station Square High School located in downtown. It places the highest on the Sparkle Kingdom College Placement Exams (SKCPE) with a 2270/2500 (91%) Average Score on the exams. Most of the highest placing students go to the University of Prowersville. The Miles Prower Mall, located in the Jasmine Falls township. Since it is 10PM, the mall is closed to anyone under the age of 21. (21 is the legal adult age in the SK) The mall contains a massive 374 stores, and is over 20 million square feet. Any minors caught in the mall after 8:30 PM can be sentenced to up to 2 years in the Juvenile detention center. (With hard labor)
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- sparklecity
- simcity 4
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I am having a problem with loading simmars on windows 7 (and yes I uninstalled the update that blocks sc4). Simmars won't start, you can see it in the taskbar for a few seconds then it just closes itself. if it makes a difference i am using the steam version of simcity 4.
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Network Skins Beta Testers needed!
boformer posted a topic in Cities: Skylines Modding - Open Discussion
Network Skins Module 2 is ready for release! But before I release it to the public, I need some testers who test the mod in different environments. To enter the beta test, just add me as a friend on Steam and open this page. Especially interesting to me: Build a large road system with many different Network Skins settings. Let the simulation run for a while. Use mods like No Pillars, Road Anarchy, Network Extensions or Traffic++. Save and load the game, restart the game and load. Are the trees and street lights still in place? It would also be great if someone could try loading a game without Fine Road Heights (unsubscribed, not only disabled). Uninstall the mod and load the save. Is it corrupted? Does it work on Mac/Linux? Before you subscribe to the beta, unsubscribe from the Pillar Changer mod. Network Skins replaces that mod. After the beta test (in about 48 hours), I will upload the mod as an update for Pillar Changer, so you have to subscribe to it again. Please send me the feedback here or on steam! -
EPIC GLITCH!! Titanfall Beta on Intel HD Graphics 4600! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTK-1EvyBQg This is hands down the most epic glitch that I have ever seen in any video game. If you know of one even more epic than this, please enlighten me.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBKjLmo8tPc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YMb-xJ_G5M One word: Wow!
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Version 1.0
12,409 Downloads
DAMN-NAM DAMN is short for Daeley's Advanced Menu Navigator This is a collection of menu's created from the NAM 31.2 installation. This is version 1.0 and includes all NAM 31.2 E-Series controller items with the exception of the following Project Symphony, Canals, Maxis Highways and Hole Diggers (These can be added later if there is a strong demand for them). DAMN-NAM includes menus for the following categories, subcategories and all associated pieces: Avenues El-Rail FLUPs (Flexible Underpasses) GLR (Ground Light Rail) HSR (High Speed Rail) Monorail NWM (Network Widening Mod) One Way Roads Pedestrian Mall Rail RHW (Real Highway) Road Street TuLEPs (Turning Lane Extension Pieces) The only dependency is Daeley's Advanced Menu Navigator or DAMN. There are special instructions for installation for full compatibility with these menu's in the readme.txt file included. **Please note that some of the menu entry's are not functional and will have a placeholder image. To use entries that have placeholder images use another nearby entry and then tab to it from there. This will most likely change in the future when a design change can be made in the NAM that will allow these menu's to be made compatible. **Also if upgrading from an older version please replace your damncontrol.dat with the new file in the zip since it allows the root menu's to function. If you don't do this the root menu's appear but are not clickable. Upgrade instructions are now included in the readme.txt file. Enjoy! -
Video; I take no credit. Uploaded by me but not my gameplay Overpass, underpass tool and better traffic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oy2CSjRhik
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Hi folks, I've been on the beta of SimCity and I'm here to release some feedbacks. First, I would apologize for my poor english even if you'll understand me. I'm fan of SimCity since SimCity2000, including SC3K and SC4. I've spend a lot of my time on those incredible games this is why I'm so happy and thankful about the new SimCity, despite all the negatives facts that have been noted so far. However, I'm not going to focus on what has already been mentioned. (cities tiles size, dead spaces between buildings, lacks of control on building density, lacks of statistics tables, no terraforming, and more...) Unlike some people, I've not forget that is a beta version, and that 3 months are still remaining for developing and adjusting settings. I just hope that the Maxis Dev Team will hear us. Even if the gameplay is absolutly not comparable to SC4, I felt a lot of fun playing this new Simcity. For me, the size of a city tile isn't a big problem as the entire region is interconnected (so interactive). In fact, the biggest problem of this new game is the region system. It works fine, and I'm so hurry to try this on final software, however it's seem not so much realistic. Let me explain. If you want to build a realistic region, forgetting certain things because the game engine, you're forced to make small rural town (and must avoid square cities), otherwise you're going to have "forest of skyscrapers". So I've had a idea (sorry for sorry for those who have had the same ; maybe it already been proposed...). Instead of have big useless space between cities, try to get a conurbation involving all cities of the region. The base concept is the same as in SC4. Because a picture is worth a thousand words (especially when you don't speak too much ), here a map I made. Note that it's inspired by the map of the beta. (warning 1000x1000 pixels) On beta version, we were able to play on the 4th tile. On this map (please remember that is just an draft), if I had to build a large downtown, I would take the 3rd city (or maybe the 1st), I guess. The 4th tile will be a coastal small city, with maybe some casinos on the border of ocean. The 1st tile would be a city for studies, with a large university while the 6th will be a heavy industrial area. Obviously, all this is just an idea, a project and and it's certain that you guys would not make the city like me. So there is two ways to do this. First, bring closer the cities. Then make the region less empty (like adding hills, forests (lot of forests), farms?,...) and finally lay down the transit system. Highways should be draggable, because each player will plan his city differently, and that shouldn't hinder the development of his city. (heavy train are already) Overpasses and Interchanges would be built automatically when crossing with the road tool (like in SC4). Unfortunately, according to game engine, the space between cities can't be changed, I think. It's not much but at the same time it is much more. :kitty: This message for sharing my idea, but also to have an answer : is it technically possible ? Thanks for reading, and hope some answers from the dev team... Yours, Dvergar
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So, here we are. I'm sorry this is going to be a rant. I played Simcity for a couple of times now and to be honest. I feel abandoned. Not by the game but by the Maxis Studio. The past years have been a waste of time. What happened to the smart people in the 80s and 90s? Ok, lets talk about the game; One should think, in 2013 it should be possible to program a better 'bordering' system that grows with city (land purchase or annexation). Nah, its just a square again and this time without bordering cities. One of the things that annoys me the most is the waste of space between lots in the already ridiculous tiny piece of land you get. There is no way you can fill them up with trees or other stuff. If you want trees, ploppable parks are the way to go. The only problem with parks is; yes they need to connect to roads too. And this is a problem. Not only with parks... Water and power goes by road now. How unrealistic is this? Very... This forces parks to be connected to the road because otherwise the lamp posts wont work right? Consequences are: waste of land between buildings. Maxis has put themselves in a corner. Why? Well the decision to go 'agent based' was terrible. In the 2000s they stated that the technology didn't allow full 3d graphics so they created a 2.5D game which looked awesome. Now, in the '10s we have enough graphical power to power full 3d cities. And what did Maxis do? Yes they 'created' a new limitation: Glassbox engine. Praised by it's high level of detail it produces; they forget one thing: It needs calculation power. A LOT of calculation power. So here we are, with a new excuse: The computers today can't handle bigger cities because it would need more processing power. Whaaaaaat? Why do you invent another limitation then? I did not feel any improvement in terms of simulation in comparison with Simcity 4. Let's make a list: I can not decide how big my (zoning) lot's will be. I can not plant trees I can not dig a river (to create a harbor maybe??) I can not fill spaces between roads I can not create unique looking parks (Boomtown lesson: place loose park props anywhere in the woods, do not make park 'lots') Where are the power lines? What about the water and sewerage pipes? This was a great opportunity to improve this system from SC4 Subway? Oh wait, a 10.000 city doesn't need subway Tunnels? Specialization??? WHyyyy? Why always dumb things out.. a city can have more specializations... Tilted what? Why put so many time in developing graphical trash like tilted shift blur. Nature gave me eyes that can focus on parts of the game without the 'help' of a tilted shift blur. What a waste of time. City Ordinances? Where are they? Have you seen that highway intersection? Whahahahahahaha Let;s say the devs made their life very difficult and way to complicated for the future. I mean, all these 'up-gradable buildings' with slots etc. this will take lot's of time to model it the right way. Was this the best solution Maxis could came up with? Just stick with growables and also; combine 'residential' models with custom props/texture sets so you can use the same building for a police/fire station maybe? Upgrading? Why a new 'sub building' slot that eats land? In a big city it is not possible to 'eat' land. Why not make a more efficient version of the model with 2 garage doors instead of one... In short; Making Simcity 4 full 3d and extend and improve the 'bad' things that came with it would give Maxis the jackpot with record sells. we must game look like disneyland. we must not listen to hardcore fans of early version we ignore critics and bend their question into propaganda for new glassbox engine I feel sorry for the hard working programmers in the team because while the game got kicked by people like me.. i know it is a lot of work to make. It's the decisions of the project leaders that ruins the game. No, i won't buy this game. In stead i would like to help Buggi with his Boomtown project.
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SimCity Beta Review from a lifelong SimCity player
landstander248 posted a topic in SimCity (2013) General Discussion
I have a lot of nice things to say about this demo, and some bad, but first, and most importantly... yes, these cities are tiny. My Experience I played the one-hour demo 3 times through, and each playthrough was more successful than the last. My third game, I was able to fill most of the map with medium density buildings, reaching a population of 30,000, an income of $10k/hour and a bank account with half a million simoleons. I had some nice mid-rise commercial buildings, mostly banks, a few large shopping centers and dozens of large apartment complexes. The development of my industrial buildings was less obvious - they all kind of looked the same. Graphics I'm playing on a modern system (Core i5, 8gb RAM) but with an outdated graphics card (Radeon 4870). I was given a warning that my system was below specs and when the game launched the default graphics were at the lowest settings. On these settings, the game looked laughably bad. Slowly, I ramped up the graphics options. I was shocked to discover I could play on a mix of high and medium settings with minimal lag! That 4870 really is an amazing card (as modern bench-marking continues to show). Even at a nice medium-high mix, the graphics were unimpressive. Then, I turned the tilt-shift to high and the game really came alive. I highly recommend using this option, especially if you're running a lower end graphics card. It takes away a lot of the "cartoony" look, makes up for lack of AA, and is overall very impressive. I didn't try to up the AA, which would presumably improve the visual experience significantly. The textures seemed to be lacking, but I'll withhold judgement until I get a new graphics card. Town Building Building works smoothly overall, though zoning is somewhat restricted and I had a hard time creating the look I wanted, particularly with low density residential. It's also difficult to gauge the proper city block size, though I'm sure that gets easier with experience. An option to drag and place zones over multiple blocks is noticeably absent. Road placement is simple enough, as are road upgrades, though upgrading from road to avenue is not a built-in feature and requires some seriously messy bulldozing. You also can't place buildings without having a road first, making it difficult to fit certain buildings in specific places - something you will be very concerned with as you try to build on the edge of these tiny maps. I was hesitant at first about the ploppable components, but overall I like them. You do need to keep extra space available around buildings like schools and police stations for these ploppable pieces, and it will take some experience to learn how much space to save for different buildings. From what I gauge, you'll never need to build two of the same service in one city, instead you'll just upgrade your single fire station or medical clinic, though there are advanced versions of most buildings that presumably replace the smaller versions. Building bus stops for transit and school buses was simple and fun. Building parks is a mixed bag, with many parks coming in unusual shapes and sizes (though the variety is very nice). Building near the water was frustrating and poorly implemented. There's a sub-menu for specialization buildings, though only the casino is available in the demo. The offerings are plentiful and interesting, and you can tell right away that this menu will someday be packed with DLC and, hopefully, mods. Unfortunately, it's hard to imagine fitting many of these buildings in one town. Simulation The first problem I noticed was traffic. Cars don't seem to consider traffic congestion when they choose their route - they appear to take the shortest route in terms of distance. In my first city, I had several roads connecting to an avenue which led to the industrial part of town. Everyone chose to take the same road to the avenue, even though it was completely clogged with traffic, instead of driving an extra block to take a completely empty road to the very same avenue. This could be a serious concern. In subsequent cities, I made sure that different residential areas had separate routes to jobs, which alleviated the worst of my traffic problems but also limited my design options. Other than traffic, everything seemed to run smoothly. The feedback of RDI and the development of density seems to function as one would expect, although I'm not a fan of requiring specific roads to allow for specific density. Many real world cities have old, small roads running through downtown cores - but then again, this is not a game meant for building realistic cities with downtown cores. I also worry that a truly dense city would require a huge number of avenues, which themselves take up a considerable amount of space on these little maps. Region Play There isn't much region play in the demo, but it looks like an interesting and worthwhile part of the game. It will certainly help to create specific types of towns on the small maps, since various services, jobs, etc can be placed in some cities while you focus on residential and commercial in other cities. The Great Works are also a fine idea, especially considering the small map size, though I'm not sure how many great works you'll have space for in different regions. User Interface They really nailed it on the UI. When you click on a different building category, you automatically switch to a real-time info view related to that category. As a result, you're never placing a police station, for example, without simultaneously seeing the safety activity of your town. Same with utilities, parks and so on. The icons for the different building categories also serve as warning indicators, turning orange and then red when that particular service needs attention. There's plenty of depth with additional info-views, but some information seems to be lacking. How many people live in this apartment complex? I'm not sure we get to know. Final Word - City Size SimCity has a lot going for it. It's a well optimized and well designed game that's easy to play and enjoyable to look at. But it's not a city simulator in the traditional sense, instead it's a city "game", where you find yourself more concerned with following the game rules than designing and running your own creation. Part of the problem is that most of the creations we want to build are based on our real-world experience of living in and visiting towns and cities. The small city size will immediately crush your dreams of sprawling suburbs or massive downtowns, and suddenly you realize how few city concepts you have room to try and create at all. Within these limits, I can't create a reasonable model of the large city I live in now or even the small town suburb where I grew up. In the end, I was left with the distinct feeling that I was playing a video game, not building a city, very unlike the sensation I have when playing SimCity 4 or CitiesXL. I think it's obvious that "user experience" is the justification for the small city sizes. Larger cities would require more powerful systems to run properly, and would diminish the game experience of the masses of players who don't have gaming PCs. I understand the reasoning, but I can't support it. Most of the best simulation games - like previous SimCity titles and the Civilization series - struggle mightily in the late-game on large maps, even on systems built many years after the game's release. That's just part of how simulation games work. Some of us will tolerate laggy gameplay and low settings in order to play the biggest maps, others will happily play small maps until they have a new system 2 or 3 years down the road. In this SimCity, we don't have a choice. I will still buy this game and play it for many hours, but unless a version is someday created that allows for large cities, I can't consider this the rightful heir to the city building genre. If I can't recreate my beloved San Francisco, I'm just not satisfied. P.S. If you want to create large, sprawling simulations that resemble real-to-life population centers, I suggest you try latest in the CitiesXL series if you haven't already. I enjoy it much more than a heavily-modded SimCty 4, but both games arguably still share the crown of large scale city simulators. -
I'm working on not having to work this weekend, but if I can't get out of it - can I share / transfer my beta key? It would suck for it to 'go to waste' so to speak. I've checked the FAQ, and did not find any relevant info. Has anyone seen anything covering this circumstance?
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I saw someone asking for keys.... everyone said beta not out yet, but website says it is? What's going on? Is beta out yet? Also where are all these you tube videos coming from, if the beta isn't out yet?
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Hi everyone, I've already pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe version of the new SimCity game and I was watching the broadcast a few minutes ago (which got me even more stoked) and I saw they announced a beta. I would like to ask if I am able to play the beta since I pre-ordered the game. I paid 80 euro's so I guess the answer is 'Yes, you can' but I want to be sure. I can't find the answer on the official site. Thanks, BlueSmiley
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"And for some of you, the wait won’t be long thanks to our first big announcement: beta! Yep, you asked for it - we’ll be running an exclusive beta before SimCity’s launch that will give a generous group of lucky fans an opportunity to not only don their mayor hats early, but also have a chance to provide valuable feedback straight to the team here at Maxis. We’ll be releasing more details on the beta soon, so in the meantime, visit the beta section of SimCity.com to sign up today" And they have also announced that they're coming to the Mac! Link is right here!! http://www.simcity.c...e-from-gamescom
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Version 1.0
7,723 Downloads
SimMars is a mod for SimCity 4 taking the game to Mars. It will bring new buildings, transportation systems, user-interface and music and will replace the Maxis SimCity 4 content as far as possible, giving you the feeling to play a colony on Mars. Beta 3 is another step towards the goal of SimMars. Most main game functions and buildings have been replaced and the mod plays fairly well now. However, it is still a beta and hence unfinished. Not everything is replaced yet or fully functional. SimMars will install and play completely separate from your SimCity 4 installation. ___________________________________________________________________ BETA 3 FILESIZE: 277MB Due to the size, the installer is hosted on an external file hosting site (Mod DB). Clicking the "Download" button will take you to the page where the main package can be found. ___________________________________________________________________ UPDATE: There's been a bug discovered where the Mars Face landmark has no model file. Easy fix: Download the this file and place into /My Documents/SimCity 4/Plugins_SIMMARS/+Landmarks/SM_LM_MarsFace ___________________________________________________________________ Download the SimMars Region Pack here to add 7 new regions to your game. ___________________________________________________________________ This download is for PC users only, a Mac compatible version will be released in the future. SimMars Beta 3 additions since last release: - 180 new BATs (buildings) of all types - new highway, rail, subway, elevated rail, toll booths and spaceport. - SimMars game launcher: Beta 3 launches individually from SimCity 4 (see installation notes below) - new User-Interface graphics - new disaster (Blow-Out, replaces fire) - 5 new music tracks - the first few automata models - new ordinances - transformed news items Main goals for the next release are: - creating and modding new automata models (vehicles) - implementing NAM elements - replacing avenue and one way texture Update: Image links fixed -
Hey guys, look what I've found! Apparently, one of the prominent Maxis art directors, Ocean Quigley, released an early concept video of how the disaster tool for the tornado works for Simcity 4 in beta. That guy is responsible for the design of several buildings in SC3K and several objects for The Sims franchise. Take note of the early cul-de-sac idea they had for the streets in beta back then, the flying cow eye-candy thing (like the ones in SC3K, except they are locusts/UFOs) and the classic buildings. Also check out this post from Ocean's blog: How we trashed buildings in Simcity 4.
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Version 1.0
6,607 Downloads
As stated in a thread by SuperBeber that the NAM lacks a GLR to rail transfer. This lot does it. Please note that this is only a BETA version there will be more better versions to come. Right now this is NOT U-Drive-It enable, and tram or trains do not enter the lot. Although they dont go into the lot the passenger are still transfered from one system to another. Installation: 1) Extract the file into you My Documents/SimCity 4/Plugins folder 2) the file appears in the misc folder Dependencies(is that spelled right?) sorry I cant spell 1) The NAM 2) Thats it only the NAM! If you have any problem in the game please PM me. As always please rate and comment :-)- 46 Comments
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