Simcity

[Hauldren Collider]

So it's better to never play the game at all, simply because it might not work in ten years? Huh?

That is an extremely logical reason not to dump 60 dollars on a game when there are other games to be played, yes.

In the meantime everyone should pick up Tomb Raider, it's awesome (Full disclosure: I haven't finished it yet.)

[regexcellent]

Huh, EA has jumped hard on the lack of servers problem. There are more than twice as many servers as they started with now. Australia/New Zealand/Japan has two, North America has seven, Europe has eight. Altogether seventeen servers and apparently more are on the way. That's good. Now if they can just fix the lack of different zone densities.

Re: Tomb Raider. Good game, but like in Crysis, Pacific islands appear to not have invented nails. It's disappointingly not the hot chick snuff sim that it was hyped up to be. (just kidding)

[Wiglaf]

Zone density being tied to street width is a ****ing retarded decision. It is THE source of traffic headaches. Why? Because if you have heavy traffic and you cover up with wider streets, then skyscrapers show up and you get your heavy traffic back. It is IMPOSSIBLE to manage unless you dump huge ****loads of cash on public transit that doesn't affect zone density.

Here are some quotes from the SomethingAwful thread, which I've been following:

These people are simply bad players who do not grasp that they have only indirect control over the sims' behavior.

My city was doing nicely, earning a decent profit and had good service coverage. High density buildings had started sprouting up in my core downtown area after upgrading my roads, but they werent a huge burden to the city and I was handling things. I built a nuclear power plant and, now supplying the region with lots of power, took down my old windmill. The city was well educated and running smoothly.

I decided that downtown could use a little urban renewal, so I built a plaza.

Immediately the new high-wealth skyscrapers started to spring up. It halfed my total population, as everyone who was living in the buildings that were just there were kicked out in the name of new development. But that was where all the smart sims lived!

The nuclear plant immediately started issuing warnings of a lack of educated workers, and that's when things got hairy. The plant melted down. A wave of radiation washed over my city, killing hundreds.

With the power now out, and no money for a backup, the clinics filled up and then shut down. The schools shut down. Police. The fire departments.

Sims, homeless and without jobs because their factories and offices were closed, began turning to crime. Crime led to arsons. And that's when the great fire broke out, consuming what was left of the city that wasn't completely sick and decayed.

In less than a year, the city went from a thriving metropolis to a burned crater, glowing and full of criminals and fires.

All because of a park.

Skyscrapers wouldn't "spring up" unless he had the highest capacity roads in addition to placing his plaza. And the only reason to place a ****ing plaza is to hike the land value. He should not be surprised the place became expensive. Why did he not have a ghetto ready for those evicted residents to move to? Why did no rich, smart people move in to replace them? And why didn't he have commuters from another region? Were all of the region's sims retarded? To me, these are all interesting questions provided by the game.

Without thinking I upgraded the avenue.

Try thinking next time? Seriously, it's not that hard to grasp. You up the land value and the street density, and richer developers move in.

That is an extremely logical reason not to dump 60 dollars on a game when there are other games to be played, yes.

I guess. But for people who want a city manager and not a boob and hair simulator, this is kind of the only ticket around.

[Wiglaf]

Tom Chick has jumped on the Simcity hate bandwagon, writing his whole review in the comments: http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/201...imcity-review/

He's also a Tomb Raider fan and hasn't been laid in 10 years.

[Wiglaf]

This is a serious problem admittedly. The pathing is messed up.

[Wiglaf]

Tom Chick loved Simcity Societies and is reinstalling that and Anno 2070

[Guynemer]

I have having SEX WHEN I SENT THE LAST POST so let me expound on this.

First of all, even if I concede your premise that SC5 iterates on T3/4, there's no way to argue realistically that T3/4 are superior in execution.

I did not claim as such. I simply disputed that this is a revolutionary idea.

The traffic modelling in T3/4 is almost inconsequential - don't you simply plop a garage or two, and one or two roads? I mean, what's the effect of a traffic jam in T3/4, exactly? Is there even one? Do they ever happen? Why?

Yes, they do, due to poor traffic planning, and can completely cripple your economy.

Your sewage pump can affect the output of your water pump which can affect the health of your sims which can affect their productivity which can affect their job security which can lead them to become criminals. Your road placement and building placement can affect sims' happiness, business productivity and traffic pickup and emergency services responsiveness etc.

And all of this is true of SimCity 4, excepting the responsiveness of emergency services.

[Guynemer]

This is a serious problem admittedly. The pathing is messed up.

Well, I see they at least kept something from SimCity 4.

[Sava]

This is a serious problem admittedly. The pathing is messed up.

Wow! Look who is finally acknowledging what most everyone else has known within 5 minutes of playing the game. Better late than never.

[regexcellent]

Well, I see they at least kept something from SimCity 4.

The sad thing is that fixing that shouldn't even be very difficult. They could use whatever pathing algorithm it is like A*, and just calculate the cost differently, based on both distance and the number of cars along the path. If this game were like Civ with all of its AI written in Python I could probably modify it myself in a few hours, if it works the way I think it does.

What we're seeing in that video is that deleting some road capacity would actually improve traffic. Eliminating that road would force people to use the higher capacity highway.

[Guynemer]

The sad thing is that fixing that shouldn't even be very difficult. They could use whatever pathing algorithm it is like A*, and just calculate the cost differently, based on both distance and the number of cars along the path. If this game were like Civ with all of its AI written in Python I could probably modify it myself in a few hours, if it works the way I think it does.

What we're seeing in that video is that deleting some road capacity would actually improve traffic. Eliminating that road would force people to use the higher capacity highway.

Or they could fix it by doing whatever the hell the NAM people did to fix SC4's goofy traffic ten years ago.

[regexcellent]

It seems the game is playable if you never go above medium density. I have a pretty decent oil town going. The main issue I'm having is the lack of multiplayer region play. We should go ahead and set up some TS/mumble thing and get like 4 or 5 people from poly playing this and it would be more interesting.

I have faith in Maxis' ability to fix this in the next few weeks.

[regexcellent]

I now count 20 servers.

4 East North America
4 West North America
6 West Europe
4 East Europe
2 Oceanic

[Wiglaf]

We should do a region. You should be the power whore since you've got a handle on oil.

[regexcellent]

I'm happy to be the polluted ****ville but I was thinking trading would be cooler. OTOH trading seems like it's actually by far the hardest to handle.

Origin handle is Deuscaeli. I'm setting up the region on NA East 4.

Region is called "Apolytonia" on NA East 4 post here for an invite; it's private.

e: **** I just managed to waste 7 grand on a huge road by mistake in the first town gah