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Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

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Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#51

Post by dm2 »

ineedtosleep wrote: post #36
dm2 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has either of these been 100% confirmed or are they just rumored?

Source: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sim-city-5/1224978p1.html [...] As anyone who's played one knows, one of the simplest pleasures of any SimCity game, dating back to the 1989 original, is the consequence-free "What if?" scenario. The kind where you obliterate your city by triggering an apocalyptic wave of fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and monster attacks, then time-warp it back to pristine condition by loading a save…

Maybe it's not such a bad thing.

Spreading around saved game files and using tools to mess with the games memory to cheat is something that has prevented a true Ranking system and online play in almost all games.

These server-side requirements would mean that the $ is stored server side and it will be harder to cheat.

It was pretty much either have always on connectivity or require punkbuster and disable many online cooperative features.

Fine EA. I'll accept it.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#52

Post by pnathan »

tobylane wrote: post #44
wlesieutre wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just so you're aware about the new SimCity, it requires a constant internet connection to play, and there's no way to save/load previous versions of a city. You can't mess around and experiment without doing irreversible damage, which was a big part of the fun.

Ah EA, creating a 'market' of open source clones, like CorsixTH and surely one of Sim City. This time we're being pushed to the clone before the original is dead.

Is there a city simulation open source game of reasonable complexity?

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#53

Post by wlesieutre »

dm2 wrote: post #51
ineedtosleep wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sim-city-5/1224978p1.html [...] As anyone who's played one knows, one of the simplest pleasures of any SimCity game, dating back to the 1989 original, is the consequence-free "What if?" scenario. The kind where you obliterate your city by triggering an apocalyptic wave of fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and monster attacks, then time-warp it back to pristine condition by loading a save…

Maybe it's not such a bad thing. Spreading around saved game files and using tools to mess with the games memory to cheat is something that has prevented a true Ranking system and online play in almost all games. These server-side requirements would mean that the $ is stored server side and it will be harder to cheat. It was pretty much either have always on connectivity or require punkbuster and disable many online…

Personally speaking, I value being able to have more fun over having worldwide rankings. Does every game need to be competitive?

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#54

Post by digikata »

pnathan wrote: post #52
tobylane wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah EA, creating a 'market' of open source clones, like CorsixTH and surely one of Sim City. This time we're being pushed to the clone before the original is dead.

Is there a city simulation open source game of reasonable complexity?

There are multiple open source options. The Lincity wikipedia link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincity, cross references many of them.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#55

Post by enf »

Yhippa wrote: post #4

FTA: "...including the fact that once I'd built East Didsbury, the strip of shops in Northenden stopped making as much money as they once were, and some were even beginning to close down as my time ran out. Walk along Northenden high street, and you'll know that feeling." This is interesting. Urban planners out there, do these types of simulations occur before an area is zoned?

I was just reading the Environmental Impact Report for rebuilding a Safeway supermarket in Oakland, and it does in fact have a section about predicting whether the store will "blight" any other nearby retail areas by drawing too much business away from them.

(They conclude that it will not have such an effect, even though there are already vacant retail spaces right across the street from the Safeway site.)

But just because the studies are done doesn't mean people will make the decisions that optimize everybody's lives. Every town wants the tax revenue from a new big box store, even if it means destroying the retail economy of the next town over.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#56

Post by jlgreco »

mcphilip wrote: post #46

In the original Sim City my brothers and I eventually figured out the solution to ALL traffic problems was to simply never build roads and only use rail lines. Apparently sims were much happier waiting for hours or even days for a train to finally pass their out of the way residential area.

Subways can be even better, since they leave the surface clean for other things.

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#57

Post by jlgreco »

mauriciob wrote: post #50
ktrgardiner wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was referring more toward not being able to save/load but as I read this awhile ago, the case may have changed.

I don't think that's an option when you have neighboring cities that are played by other people. I believe your city will impact theirs and vice-versa.

Wait, so what happens if I build lots of nuclear plants then let them all melt down? Does that affect neighboring cities that other people are actually playing?

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#58

Post by hdevalence »

dm2 wrote: post #51
ineedtosleep wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Source: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sim-city-5/1224978p1.html [...] As anyone who's played one knows, one of the simplest pleasures of any SimCity game, dating back to the 1989 original, is the consequence-free "What if?" scenario. The kind where you obliterate your city by triggering an apocalyptic wave of fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and monster attacks, then time-warp it back to pristine condition by loading a save…

Maybe it's not such a bad thing. Spreading around saved game files and using tools to mess with the games memory to cheat is something that has prevented a true Ranking system and online play in almost all games. These server-side requirements would mean that the $ is stored server side and it will be harder to cheat. It was pretty much either have always on connectivity or require punkbuster and disable many online…

How does "ranking" work for a sandbox game? The concept wakes no sense. Simcity doesn't have kill/death ratios or something. You can't have a global leaderboard, because there's no winning. It's not clear that "cheating" is even a problem. If you want to play online with your friends with unlimited money, go ahead! Why the hell not?

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#59

Post by tcdent »

jlgreco wrote: post #56
mcphilip wrote: post #46

In the original Sim City my brothers and I eventually figured out the solution to ALL traffic problems was to simply never build roads and only use rail lines. Apparently sims were much happier waiting for hours or even days for a train to finally pass their out of the way residential area.

Subways can be even better, since they leave the surface clean for other things.

Original Sim City didn't have subways, just railways with very sparse commuter trains.

I tried the all-rail town, too. There was a persistent alert to "build more roads".

Re: Using SimCity to diagnose my home town's traffic problem

#60

Post by flomo »

mcphilip wrote: post #46

In the original Sim City my brothers and I eventually figured out the solution to ALL traffic problems was to simply never build roads and only use rail lines. Apparently sims were much happier waiting for hours or even days for a train to finally pass their out of the way residential area.

The train animation didn't reflect the underlying traffic simulator. And yep, that was the trick.
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