Simcity 4 Released?!!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Sometimes, sometimes not. I think in SC4 a good tutorial would be better.

[Adagio]

I haven't tried the SC4 totural yet, but the part I hate most about toturals is, if they only exists as one totural to choose from. The beginning of all toturals are annoying, since they use tons of time to explain how to move around the map... but if the totural is done properly, then there's no need for a manual... and this goes for all types of games...


Btw, back to SC4: Has anyone noticed the zombies and ghosts (I think it's ghosts, but hard to tell) on the cemetary? Zombies are around most of the time, but the ghosts don't come that often...

[Az]

wow. amazing grphx from that screenshot. Now, all I need is a new computer and 50 bucks.

[RGBVideo]

Looks really promising. When I'll get a new PC, I'll check out the big-W,
and may even purchase the game at full price

[FrustratedPoet]

I will probably be getting SimCity 4 today. Looking forward to it very much.

Is there anything I should know? Something that you were confused by when you were playing that would help me?

Is there a patch out yet?

[alva]

Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
I will probably be getting SimCity 4 today. Looking forward to it very much.

Is there anything I should know? Something that you were confused by when you were playing that would help me?

Is there a patch out yet?

That's PTW you're thinking of

[MosesPresley]

Are you able to use your old cities in this version?

[Sarxis]

I highly doubt it. There was nothing in the manual about it, plus the saves are in .sc4 format.

[Adagio]

If you mean old saves from SC3k (or earlier) I really doubt it, since there's so many changes in the game...

[Az]

so, what are the recommended requirements for SC4?

[Grumbold]

Time. Lots of time. And then more time.

I got the game over the weekend and it has absorbed me ever since. Its definitely more micromanagement than ever before. It actually seems to track who lives where. Zone a new residential area and predominantly young families will move in and start having kids. The demand for elementary schooling will skyrocket. Later they'll all want to go to high school and demand for the elementary school will stabilize. All this can mean darting round your city checking the school attendance at every institution individually in order to prune back or increase the budget as appropriate. You can't just toggle a global setting and have the schools adjust appropriately (at least tweaking the global settings doesn't seem to balance the local settings according to their local needs.)

Other than that, trying to get a city to grow is challenging this time around. You can't just plop down some amenities and strips of zoned land and expect skyscrapers overnight. First you'll get individual houses and low-rise apartments. Only when the town begins to boom will there be sufficient pressure for high rises to start to appear in the choicest spots.

I made a complete hash of London but my attempts at growing Berlin have proven more fruitful. There's a definite hurdle around the 6-10k population mark. The sims are demanding everything but their taxes can't cover the cost. Options like prisons, army bases and missile ranges can help but bring their own problems. Once you break out and can afford to zone a second tranche of housing suddenly economies of scale kick in because you can fit them both in the cachement area of a single high school, demand for density starts seeing tower blocks appear etc. I leapt from a budget of 3,800 including all bonus income buildings provinding a mere 100/month surplus to 7,800 with a surplus in excess of 1,000.

Some simmers are sugesting devious strategies to overcome this hurdle, like selling power and water at lucrative rates to a neighbour you create who you never go back to play. Personally I intend to stick to iron man mode, but its going to be a long hard struggle to the metropolis of the future at this rate

[Joseph]

This game is very hard and I'm not having any fun playing it. It's getting to the point where I wished I did not buy it.

[Grumbold]

What sort of problems are you having Joseph?

[MosesPresley]

I just purchased sc4 and I am having a love/hate relationship with it. I absolutely hate the regions implementation and the fact that I can't import my sc2k and sc3k ciites. I just don't have the time or inclination to run over 100 cities. otoh: I love the myriad details.

Does anyone know where you can download some regions? So far I haven't been able to find any.

[Comrade Tribune]

Originally posted by Grumbold
Some simmers are sugesting devious strategies to overcome this hurdle, like selling power and water at lucrative rates to a neighbour you create who you never go back to play. Personally I intend to stick to iron man mode, but its going to be a long hard struggle to the metropolis of the future at this rate

I think I´ll really love this game. (Now all I need do is buy a new computer. )

Even without having the game, I think I have a solution to many difficulties, that is not cheesy:

-Develop 3-5 connected 'Specialist Cities' at the same time. At least one of those is your 'Cash Cow'. Cash Cow gets nothing but dirty industries, power stations, high security prison, military base, toxic waste processing etc...

Cash Cow will deliver cheap energy to your other cities, AND buy expensive water from them. It will also absorb all of everybody´s waste for free, and still produce a surplus.

Free energy and waste disposal and some extra money from Cash Cow should considerably help to get 2-3 neighbouring cities on their way... try this and tell me if I am right or if I am right.