ManagerJosh
07-25-2007, 08:38 PM
Tilted Mill Design Developer Jeff Fiske posted over at SimTropolis (http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=367&threadid=90998&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=2#1185063) the reasoning behind not utilizing zoning in SimCity Societies.
Not addressing one vs. the other as being better, just shedding some light on why we felt the need to avoid a 'nurture / zoning' system in SCS to an absolute control system.
(Incase you had not read this already anywhere else- Without stepping away from what RCI intends for you to do, you absolutely will hose yourself if you do not build your larger scale cities without a strong plan for your Homes, Workplaces & venues and how they relate to transportation.)
When you combine the nurture systems with a traditional City building 'domino model' where one failure can cause a collapse, this combination can create a feeling of lack of control(or understanding) that is overly frustrating for gamers new to the genre. While we don't have as punitive a system as most CB games, we have a much wider variety of buildings that affect gameplay in a much more dramatic way, and the risk of changing a building(in SCS) based on 'how your city is evolving' could arguably could be even more damaging to your play.
One 'nurture element' we do have, is the profiling which affects building props, lighting, clipping plane in some cases(pollution), building & road textures, music, etc. BUT it does not affect gameplay. That is where the big difference is, because we did not want to take gameplay control away from you.
Again, in this case, in the case where you have over 350 buildings that can have subtle effects and differences- we felt that you really needed to know exactly what building was going to be and it would remain there- because if it changed to something else- it would really affect gameplay and it would be too difficult to provide meaningful feedback with your city constantly morphing on its own.
So you decide how you want your city to play, during your current play session. Yes, your cities can really look & play differently- and the game does its best to try and make it look even more, like the type of city you are trying to build, by modifying the above mentioned graphics and audio.
Hope this helps explain a few things.
Not addressing one vs. the other as being better, just shedding some light on why we felt the need to avoid a 'nurture / zoning' system in SCS to an absolute control system.
(Incase you had not read this already anywhere else- Without stepping away from what RCI intends for you to do, you absolutely will hose yourself if you do not build your larger scale cities without a strong plan for your Homes, Workplaces & venues and how they relate to transportation.)
When you combine the nurture systems with a traditional City building 'domino model' where one failure can cause a collapse, this combination can create a feeling of lack of control(or understanding) that is overly frustrating for gamers new to the genre. While we don't have as punitive a system as most CB games, we have a much wider variety of buildings that affect gameplay in a much more dramatic way, and the risk of changing a building(in SCS) based on 'how your city is evolving' could arguably could be even more damaging to your play.
One 'nurture element' we do have, is the profiling which affects building props, lighting, clipping plane in some cases(pollution), building & road textures, music, etc. BUT it does not affect gameplay. That is where the big difference is, because we did not want to take gameplay control away from you.
Again, in this case, in the case where you have over 350 buildings that can have subtle effects and differences- we felt that you really needed to know exactly what building was going to be and it would remain there- because if it changed to something else- it would really affect gameplay and it would be too difficult to provide meaningful feedback with your city constantly morphing on its own.
So you decide how you want your city to play, during your current play session. Yes, your cities can really look & play differently- and the game does its best to try and make it look even more, like the type of city you are trying to build, by modifying the above mentioned graphics and audio.
Hope this helps explain a few things.