Sim City 5000 ideas

[Kölner]

pedestrian streets & have the ability to walk through your city, kindda like the GTA series

[redstone]

Height restrictions.

When a new building rises, money is made, meaning land is sold.Ability to build 'commieblocks'.Fines to generate money, so higher crime rate means money coming in.Hospitals, not medical centres.

[redstone]

Also flyovers, underpasses, undersea tunnels, cable car system.Modern City Hall, Courthouse and a Parliament House.

[smartlake]

I have more great (to me) suggestions. #1. I don't think that the monorail system should take up tiles in the game. What I mean is that I think that the lines should be on top of roads, with a station that vaguely resembles Goldiva's avenue pedestrian overpass (go to Simcity.com, and check it out), this would allow out cities, particularly (i can't spell) the downtown to have a more developed mass transit system without it taking up half teh city. If you would like to see what this may look like, Check out Seattle's Monorail system, it runs over the city's roads. #2. All directional interchanges, every large city with two freeways crossing downtown has them, it seems stupid to have those huge clover leaf things, when all-directional interchanges work just as well and take up much less space. #3. If you have ever read any other of my other posts about SimCity, you'ld know that I am obsessed with freeways. Anyway, I think that we need double-decker freeways. TO be honest, I think that they look cool, and the add to the realisticness of the city. Even though they may look ugly, every large city has them. #4. This may not have even crossed any other person's mind, but I think that there should be through traffic in teh city. In SimCity, traffic only enters or exits a city in search of jobs, but what about teh people not looking to stop in the city/region, but are looking to bypass it, this could boost commercial development as well as residential. It would defintely add to the 'customers' aspect of teh development of commercial offices. #5. I don't think that the region's airport needs to be near teh commercial core, I think that it woun't hurt anything to put it in another city nearby. In most cities, the airport takes up much more space, and is 10-20 miles from downtown. Lastly (for 2day) You should be able to set teh ethnic diversity of your city. Maybe you want a highly Asian city (like Vancouver or San Francisco) and this would effect the way your city looks (especially Like Vancouver, it looks like Hong Kong, it is verry cooool). Or perhaps you are looking to create a city like Milwaukee (i cant spell) with a large German population (i think, i may be wrong???) But mainly for me, I want to make a Latin American/Hispanic city, I think that that would be cool (like Miami) where the culture highly effects the architecture of the city. Sorry about teh length, and look for more posts!

[smartlake]

Could someone tell me what CBD means?

[Ashok]

Originally Posted by smartlake

Could someone tell me what CBD means?

Central Business District (CBD) ... i think...

[smartlake]

thanks, and now i know.

[Syd-Hk]

Originally Posted by ILOVEMTL

Central Business District (CBD) ... i think...

Your right!
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Also (many of you will be happy when you see this is on sc4 hahah)

go to simtropolis and download Network Addon Mod , under mods > teh essentials

it does contain:

-overpasses (many of you askde for this...)
-pred malls!
-new highway interchanges (orthagonal, 3 coverleaf , hlaf cloverleaf, 1 cloverleaf interchanges)
-double decker roads (will be included in future updates)

Requires RH

i love this mod personally, we can make avenue highways (2 lanes) and it is easy to use!

[Syd-Hk]

Originally Posted by redstone

Also flyovers, underpasses, undersea tunnels, cable car system.Modern City Hall, Courthouse and a Parliament House.

-flyovers (download network addon mod)
-underwater tunnel (u can make this on sc4 already)

... and the rest (networks) cable car - ask the people on simtropolis in netwrok addon mod thread to request and make this for you.

the rest of the biuldings, you can ask someone to BAT it for you , and at least one of those can be downloaded from simtropolois or simcity.com

[smartlake]

Originally Posted by Syd-Hk

Your right!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Also (many of you will be happy when you see this is on sc4 hahah)

go to simtropolis and download Network Addon Mod , under mods > teh essentials

it does contain:

-overpasses (many of you askde for this...)
-pred malls!
-new highway interchanges (orthagonal, 3 coverleaf , hlaf cloverleaf, 1 cloverleaf interchanges)
-double decker roads (will be included in future updates)

Requires RH

i love this mod personally, we can make avenue highways (2 lanes) and it is easy to use!

Really, you can get all of these things?!? I am so dumb! Thanks!!!!!

[Bobazonski]

What I want: (In order of how much I want it)
-Higher capacity schools and hospitals
-Three- or four-cell-wide avenues, with 6 to 8 lanes
-Increased impact on demand by taxes
-Superhighways
-Expanable and customizable region layouts
-More interaction between subsequent cities
-A little harder to plateau in terms of population--I hate when I spend hours playing only to get from 595,000 to 601,000.
-Commercial+Residential zoning
-A new tourism population--just like R, C, and I, you would get taxes from them and they would reside in certain commercial buildings (like hotels) but you could also build hotels for them. Obviously, less tax from them than the others cause it is typically a smaller industry. This would give use to landmarks.
-Road missions to be easier to see through buildings (right now you can see the cars but not intersections--when do you turn?)
-Roads to have a switchback tool for building one up a mountain
-More highway options and ability to build ramps closer together
-More power plant technologies
-More options as to the area of your city
-Bridges that can go diagnol and have roads pass under them
-Parks with descriptions as to how much they are used as well as people commuting (not necessarily every day) to them
-More control of water level--the ability to place ponds higher and lower
-Ghost of subsequent cities so if you place a connection you don't destroy anything

What I DO NOT want:
-3D!!! (I like the 2.5D lol)
-Lack of gridlock--this isn't exactly necessary and it's difficult to incorporate things into this--if we want Maxis to make a new SimCity we can't make it hard!

I think it would be cool if they created somewhat of a SimCity 4.5--rather than creating a whole new game, they should just fix up the game with what we want, so that people can still play and improve their old SC4 cities and add on to their regions. I like the look of the game in terms of design (architecture), menu layout, color, etc.

[Wheatley]

I agree with most of that above - a 4.5 would be good, as if they renewed it with a full 3d engine as in Cities XL, gameplay would suffer drastically:

No mass transit? Bah!

But most of the things youve mentioned in your post can already be got for Sim City 4, try the STEX at simtropolis.com - is all free

[SaRaJeVo-City]

ok seriously is sim city 5 ever coming out? I wish they can just update it so it can run on widescreen....I dont want something like cities XL, I like the way the graphics look in Sim city 4....plus simtropolis is too huge now to switch to a 3d rendering.....

This I want
-mass transit
-trams
-better textures
-make it easier to place walls on banks

things I want removed
-City tiles, it would be better if you can load the whole region and develop on A WHOLE man, rather then city tiles..

[heavyzakura334]

This gives me hope!

When Will We Get a Real SimCity 5? I Ask Maxis
http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1069
by Nick Breckon Jan 26, 2009 8:50pm CST

Maxis may be entirely focused on pumping out endless Spore and Sims spin-offs these days, but it all started with a blocky grayscale game called SimCity.

SimCity is what hooked me on computer gaming. It was also one of the first games I played that wasn't about killing guys or jumping on platforms. It made "urban simulation" into a fun, addictive obsession--no easy task, when you think about it.

And yet, as I was hunting down player-made patches for a bug-ridden SimCity 4 the other day, it dawned on me: this poor game is showing its age, and there's no sign of a true sequel. Has the core SimCity series been abandoned?

SimCity 4 was released in January 2003. In terms of the delay between releases, this six-year span is the longest drought since the six-year wait for SimCity 2000. By comparison, exactly four years separated each of the following sequels.

What's the hold-up? Recent spin-offs like SimCity Societies and SimCity Creator miss the point. SimCity 3000 ports are fun distractions, but how many more of those can we buy?

When will we see a new version of the franchise that made Maxis? Well, I asked EA Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw, and this is what she said:

Shack: I was playing SimCity 4 last night. It's been a long time. When are we going to see SimCity 5?

Lucy Bradshaw: You know what, honestly, the Sims division owns the SimCity franchise. I did SimCity 4 with the team, and honestly, I love SimCity. It's my favorite game ever. It's what got me into gaming, and I want to see that franchise do well.

Shack: So... would you say that EA is committed to the franchise?

Lucy Bradshaw: Oh, absolutely. In fact, there's a new SimCity version that's out for the iPhone.

Shack: Yeah. It's pretty good.

Lucy Bradshaw: Yeah, and there's lots of different directions... I think, you know, Maxis games have traditionally been something that allows you to take a lot of different avenues and different directions. It's about, where would we reinterpret [SimCity]. When that comes to the fore, and that passion's in the right place, all of a sudden we'll be able to take advantage of it.

And then the interview was ended.

It's not much of a response--but, if anything, the term to focus on here might be "reinterpret."

In my PC gamer mind--which, admittedly, can often become stuck in 1998--the hypothetical SimCity 5 has always been a logical upgrade to SimCity 4. To this point, the series has been predictable in its progression. Curved roads were major bullet-points. Monorails became the stuff of dreams.

But based on Ms. Bradshaw's comments, and the span of time since the last SimCity, it makes sense that a SimCity 5 would be a reinvention of sorts. After all, you can only add so many layers to the existing SimCity model before it becomes more complex than even a typical hardcore gamer wants to deal with.

So what would a reinvention of SimCity look like, other than the rather disappointing twist seen in the recent spin-offs? One option might resemble this:

Well, not exactly this. These screenshots are from Cities XL, an upcoming urban simulator by developer Monte Cristo.

Cities XL will attempt to bring the SimCity formula to an online space. Aiming for a more realistic, high-detail aesthetic, the game will populate planets with interconnected, player-created cities--complete with a global economy and business simulation. It's an incredibly ambitious project, but Cristo supposedly has 80 team members on it, and the company expects to push out a release in 2009. Regardless of a new SimCity, Cities is certainly worth watching.

But while that kind of massive simulation is clearly more complicated than Maxis is willing to stomach, the MMO-style connectivity is reminiscent of Spore's planet pollination, and might serve a SimCity sequel well. This kind of large-scale scenario might simply be a natural extension of the city "regions" seen in SimCity 4.

Another possibility could see elements of The Sims and Spore directly carried over into a new SimCity. SimCity 4's MySims mode was more of an afterthought than an effective franchise-branching feature, and is ripe for improvement with The Sims 3's neighborhood expansion. And the building creation technology of Spore seems like a no-brainer for a SimCity 5. I've always wanted greater control over the look of my cities, but never had the patience to personally create any mods.

Of course, there is a good chance that we'll never see a real "SimCity 5"--that the "reinterpretation" will simply be another disappointing reduction of a once-great brand.

"'SimCity' kind of worked itself into a corner," said Will Wright of the series he created in 2004. "We were still appealing to this core 'SimCity' group. It had gotten a little complicated for people who had never played 'SimCity.' We want to take it back to its roots where somebody who had never heard of 'SimCity' can pick it up and enjoy playing it without thinking it was really, really hard."

Despite my respect for Mr. Wright, and the knowledge that catering to a base of hardcore PC gamers can mean financial suicide, I can't help but feel that this view represents the "easy way out" when it comes to dealing with traditionally complex PC franchises. It's a lot to ask to cast aside financial good sense "for the fans," but I'm not sure there isn't another path.

In the grand scheme of things, World of Warcraft is one of the more complicated titles in history, but Blizzard has managed to hook hundreds of thousands of new gamers on hotbars, item auctions and nightly raids. The Sims may seem simple on the outside, but it's not exactly My Fashion Designer. Captivating, complex games can also be made intuitive and approachable to non-gamers.

As someone that appreciates SimCity, and challenging games in general, I can only hope that Maxis is still open to taking a risk in attempting a SimCity game that services fans of the series without alienating new customers. There must be a way to gracefully streamline a new SimCity without destroying the depth of simulation that defines it. SimCity, as we know it, can't possibly have died in 2003.

Right, Maxis?

What would you want in a SimCity 5? Reticulate some splines in the comments.

[bajanssen]

I hope in the next Simcity it will be easier to get straight seashores aswell as the more natural shapend and that you can work on your landscape in the world overview instead of working on each map seperately. There should be a square and circle options for working on your landscape
There should be a choice for the number of lanes in roads and highways and more options in bridgebuilding: crossing roads and water.
Please loose the arrows on the zones aswell. I hate these things.

[Dallas star]

I hate to kill this thread, but from what I can tell, the SimCity franchise is dead.

[cormiermax]

It's been dead since Societies came out.

[Wheatley]

It really really saddens me to agree, but when the father of complex gaming has dumbed himself down, SimCity will only live on in UserMods of SimCity 4

[Taurus702B]

Transit route making tool for buses. Just drag and drop a bus route on a desired street route and it will automatically put up bus stops for both directions in certain sections instead of placing each one individually.

[Xusein]

The ability to make waterfalls and have hydroelectric power would be nice.

But I don't think there will be a SimCity 5 anyway.