What do you want to see in Cities Unlimited?

[JohnEZ]

With the official announcement of Cities Unlimited waiting until October, we'd like to drum up some interest in the community: and with this in mind, we'd like to know... if you could insert any features you wanted into Cities Unlimited, what would they be?

Personally I'd love to see a gridless system and more advanced transportation systems.

[Nevets]

-Region map. Similar to the Sim City 4 region map, but much more advanced. The SC4 one was rather bland.
- Landmarks, Landmarks, Landmarks
-The ability to build different kind of cities. What I mean by this is you have the tools to develope cities that aren't just the usual "skyscraper" city. You can build "farming towns" "tourist cities" "industrial complexes" "tropical city"....
-I also wouldn't mind a little focus on environmental factors. I would like to balance the wilderness as much as the city. That dissapointed me with sim city 4, they had a lot of good ideas, but really didn't do much with them....you could put animals and stuff in the wooded areas....but then could do nothing with them.

Yea I know it is "CITIES" unlimited, but their is nothing wrong with more content in games.

[Mirelly]

I'd also like to see a lot less emphasis on radii of service for key buildings. Whoever heard of a people living with sickness because their house is 1 yards outside the nearest hospital's catchment area? Or firemen letting a building burn because it is too far away?

[JohnEZ]

All very good points, and I agree, definitely something to be worked on. Here's hoping they're paying attention to the community.

*notices the people reading this thread who haven't replied yet*

You! Yes, you! What do you want to see in this game? :p

[dasilva]

Hi all, be sure we are looking at all city builder fans communities around ^^

[ManagerJosh]

Great to know! :D

[JohnEZ]

Welcome to the boards, Philippe!

I'd like to extend a warm Worldsims welcome, and would like to say thanks for being so interested in your online community. :D

[dasilva]

Thanks guys, it's always great to be warmly welcomed somewhere: it makes you feel at home :-)

I know there's not that much to say about CU for the time being but that will change shortly... Until then, everyone interested in letting Monte Cristo what they are looking for in a realistic city builder game should share their thoughts, ideas and critics about City Life and Simcity 4 with the rest of the community to make sure we don't miss any cool idea that we didn't already though of ;-)

Cheers

[ManagerJosh]

Would it be possible to post up a vague list of potential ideas that are being considered?

[dasilva]

I'm sorry but right now, I can't really post any of the ideas we have so far... We want them to still be confidential because:
A. We want to validate ideas internally first,
B. We want to be able to show something to accompany their descriptions,
C. We want to first answer the basic city builder fan requirements and potentially get some new cool ideas on top of a well defined city builder game.

[JohnEZ]

I'm sorry but right now, I can't really post any of the ideas we have so far... We want them to still be confidential because:
A. We want to validate ideas internally first,
B. We want to be able to show something to accompany their descriptions,
C. We want to first answer the basic city builder fan requirements and potentially get some new cool ideas on top of a well defined city builder game.

I can understand that--we'll eagerly await your confirmations :)

[Mirelly]

Can I just say that I am suddenly a lot more interested in CU than I was before? :)

[dasilva]

Can I just ask you why? :-D

[Mirelly]

Can I just ask you why? :-D

Sure you can.

I am pleased to see you here, with your nose above above the parapet. I often feel that such forum threads as this are pretty much empty exercises: what we want and what are get are different beasts. Maybe CU is going to break the mould ... ;)

[Nevets]

I never played city life, but I can gather from the screenshots that the citizens were a lot more interesting than those in sim city.

But in cities unlimited to add to the realism of a city I think it would be interesting to have citizens doing different things around different areas....such as

-around a stadium citizens are wearing jerseys and have their face painted and stuff.
-Around zoos and amusement parks citizens have ballons.
-around churches sometimes the occasional wedding or funeral can be seen.

[JohnEZ]

I gotta say, going WAY back to SimCity 3000... there were certain features that I liked and missed when SC4 came along. It was all in the details--like the parades that they'd throw (they were real!), y'know... stuff like that.

Another thing I'd like, because I think it'd make it easier for me... Although it may not necessarily realistic... When it comes to zoning (bearing in mind Zoning may not even exist in Cities Unlimited), I could never seem to make things happen consistently. I could never get $$$ to group together, I would always end up with a group of $ and $$ and $$$ in the same general area. I think it'd be so much easier if I could designate high wealth, medium wealth, and low wealth sections of each zone.

I know that the argument would be made that to implement would just take the fun out of it because then certain factors are eliminated: the circumstances under which high-wealth would normally develop (low traffic, low pollution, good health & education, etc) are replaced by user zoning. But, not really--what I'm trying to say is sort of like how high density zones in SimCity 4 could include low, medium, and high density, so could a high-wealth zone include low, medium, and high wealth at varying stages, and each zone would progress to the next stage when all of the prerequisites are met.

Additionally, this helps balance the economy in that you can control what areas of a city can progress to high wealth. Those high wealth citizens probably aren't going to be running your factories, stocking shelves, and working in pizza parlors, now are they? So in allowing selective $ zoning, you can effectively balance your city's industrial/commercial jobs and residential needs.

If that makes sense at all. :p Anyone want to chime in on that?

[dasilva]

Hi JohnEZ,

Not sure if this will be in CU but you can manage wealth attractivity the way you explain in City Life.

Actually, based on the progressive game play which asks you to performs well with low wealth (Alters & Blue colars) before getting higher wealth cultures (Bobos & Elites for instance), you will first need to achieve a certain status on your map (I think there is a cheat code allowing you to remove this however).

In City Life, instead of doing micro management to increase land value on certain zones to get $$$ residents to come over, you place some buildings that the game tells you specifically attracts a certain type of Culture.
As an example, if you want Bobos to populate a certain area, just make sure you satisfy the Bobo "utilities" needs with police station, jobs, electricity and place near your residencial areas (either low, middle, high density or a mix of all of them) a Museum of Art which attracts Bobos in the neighbours...

This is actually one thing I like in City Life when I try to achieve a certain population type in a part of the map.

Once again, I don't know if such mechanics would be part of CU at the end but you raise my interest in asking the devs about it ^^

Cheers

[JonnyAwesome]

I would like to have to work harder to get any sort of tall buildings. Taller buildings are a kind of reward for a job well done as city planner. It felt like simcity3000 and simcity4, as well as citylife just gave you tall buildings way too easily.

I hope more inspiration is drawn from looking at actual aerial views of cities, and noting the huge amount of lowrise buildings, with a very concentrated CBD. As a percentage of a cities total area, CBDs are usually only about 10% of total land area, if that. Airports should grow as they did in SC2000, as should seaports.

I would also like to see the zoning aspect addressed by defining points on a polygon, with a left click adding points on the polygon, and a right click finalizing the polygon shape. This could make zoning an area very simple, and conversely as complicated as one desired. Zones in reality are oftentimes odd shapes.

The main point would be keeping the actual forces which shape a city more realistic, and understanding that more taller buildings initially is actually not what most city builder fans want, instead they want to work to grow a more realistic city, with a defined center (which should also be the focal point of a good transport network).

thank you,

JonnyAwesome

[Nevets]

Cable Cars would be a fun new form of transportation.

[JohnEZ]

True, but they're realistic in only a few locales (i.e. San Francisco), and seem like an awful lot of work. But, we'll see. :)

[Nevets]

True, but they're realistic in only a few locales (i.e. San Francisco), and seem like an awful lot of work. But, we'll see. :)

Oops, I meant more along the lines of the ones in Brazil (gondola is the more specific term I guess):

http://images.travelpod.com/users/thephibbles/rtw-2006.1146649200.cable3.jpg

Or at cedar point:
http://ptreport.thrillnetwork.net/cp03/images/skyride3.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gondola_lift

I remember awhile ago they were talking about building one across the Detroit river between Detroit and Windsor (connecting the US and Canada), making tourism between the two cities easier. But then 9/11 happened and there went that idea.

[JohnEZ]

Ahhh that's interesting. I dunno how useful it'd be though, it's capacity is small and its operating costs would be very high per person. Not to mention, it takes up a lot of space in a city--the only way I could see it as viable is over theme parks.

But that's just me--I could very well be wrong! :D

[Nevets]

Ahhh that's interesting. I dunno how useful it'd be though, it's capacity is small and its operating costs would be very high per person. Not to mention, it takes up a lot of space in a city--the only way I could see it as viable is over theme parks.

But that's just me--I could very well be wrong! :D

The main use for them are in skiing. But there are many other uses, almost all have to do with tourism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gondola_lifts

Most have to do with skyline views of cities, some span harbors, some connect islands, some have to do with scenic views such as over rainforests or through mountains, some in zoos, some in theme parks. I think it would be a good fit in any tourist city. Also I don't think it takes up a lot of space, especially compared to a monrail type system, it is not much difference from the space needed for electrical towers.

[SolidSnake_19]

I'd really like to see a more detailed infrastructure design.

Driving through Seattle again made me wish that the SC design was that detailed, what with the carpool/motorcycle lanes and the way the highways overlap and twist around each other.

In SC 4 the only way you could do something like that was to lower the one highway so the other could pass over it. It'd be nice if the first road could stay above ground and the second would just raise even higher to pass over it, and be able to twist around while going in the same, or similar, direction as the first.

With the carpool lane I wish that the game would have the option of adding the lane to a highway/road so it would help ease traffic a bit during the heavily congested hours. Sure it might not do a whole lot but at least it would be more realistic to a metropolis and be neat.

Also, it'd be nice if you could choose how many lanes you want on the highways. Instead of just a 4-lane you could put an 8-lane, if you want. Naturally it'd take up more room, but it would greatly reduce the gridlock.

I don't know how this one would work... but it'd be kind of neat if you could control what the speed limit on said-highways is. So you could have your people on their own Autobahn highway, versus what some times seems like a dangerous mountain road.

[Nevets]

Wow, apparently someone added them into SC4. I never saw them when I was really into the game:

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/6899/tulasmountains46oq3.jpg

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4854/rateoneimageod9.jpg