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Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

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Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#71

Post by smogcutter »

troutwine wrote: post #32
LeifCarrotson wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is not the horror of mass extinctions and runaway greenhouse gasses might eventually resolve itself on geologic timescales, but that the society that rebuilt might find it impossible to get out of the stone age; much less through an industrial revolution: we've pillaged the highest-yield mines, germs have been developed into antibiotic-resistant superbugs, we've extracted the easiest-to-reach stored hy…

I do wonder how much our extractive technological culture would play to the benefit of a child society that intended to learn from us. There'd be an awful lot of material at the surface that could be recycled or repurposed, if we're talking a reboot on the order of centuries. Idle thought.

Something like this is part of the background of Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun” series, totally wild books that are set in a far future earth. Mineral wealth is totally exhausted, and “mining” just means digging up the detritus of forgotten civilizations.

I’m really tempted to post spoilers by way of example, but part of the fun of the book is putting the pieces together and realizing what’s going unsaid because the narrator either takes it for granted or doesn’t understand it himself. Very strong recommend if you have any interest in sci fi/fantasy.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#72

Post by logicprog »

three_seagrass wrote: post #9

Is this using the SC erasing exploit? There's a bug that lets you delete a building tile but keep the building there in memory, meaning you can build over it but have all the same pops/crime/etc. Lots of megopolis SC maps use this exploit.

He says in the video that he uses no cheats.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#73

Post by chii »

kyuudou wrote: post #48
ghastmaster wrote: post #12

The image reminds me of Guangzhou, China. I recently looked at google earth images of Guangzhou. I then looked at images of New York City. It is incredible to me that we in the U.S. think of New York City as a sprawling metropolis when not far from the city center it is mostly single family homes on plots of land. Whereas Guangzhou has many more high rise buildings for miles and miles. Get the ruler in Google Earth a…

How many of those are actually occupied?

it's a false narrative that these cities are not occupied - i think you'll find that the CCP plans for decades, and the population growth of china will fill those apartments in time.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#74

Post by brailsafe »

grawprog wrote: post #60
protomyth wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do a lot of sales. About four sales let me catch up pretty cheaply. Skip the decor stuff and buy the stuff that actually adds play items. As for mods, really the move it and traffic manager president edition is basically a minimum to not be frustrated.

Honestly, despite my op, the one I would really like is the park management one. The one that lets you designate custom size parks and stuff. I mostly got disheartened and pollutey when I realized I couldn't turn the large forest into a park. So I cut it all down and proceeded to lower the quality of life for all. I was tempted once to grab them all during a sale, it would have been $40 down from like $160 or somethi…

I feel the same way about it being a time suck, and the same way about the parks expansion. I did end up getting the parks expansion for free when they had some event recently, and it's ok. It's ok, but sort of just that. You still have to build entrance gates on flat edges of roads, and you can only place park specific buildings inside, which is just annoying. I like the addition of bike transport though. One of my biggest gripes with the game is that I can't see where a given workforce is living, so I can't really work on bottlenecks in their commute. Otherwise, I've found that uninstalling the game occasionally helps me get out of the Skylines zone for a while, then I reinstall when it's raining and have some fun.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#75

Post by dragonwriter »

chii wrote: post #73
kyuudou wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many of those are actually occupied?

it's a false narrative that these cities are not occupied - i think you'll find that the CCP plans for decades, and the population growth of china will fill those apartments in time.

That explains that there are plans for future occupation, but does not support the claim that it is a false narrative that they are unoccupied.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#76

Post by bluedevil2k »

andrepd wrote: post #68
bluedevil2k wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it's cool and trendy to trash our current society and treat it like it's the worst time to be alive in human history, but in reality there's never been a better time to be alive in the history of our species. Poverty, infant mortality, childhood mortality, crime...all at all time lows. Literacy, income levels, food quantity, public health...all at all time highs.

It's always the same comment. Yeah most things are strictly better than they have been throughout almost the whole of human existence. Good. Guess what. I'm not content: I want them to be even better. And other things aren't that good. Some things are worse, and we should understand why and focus on that. In fact it may not be clear that the world is better today that 20 years ago (again, in some aspects unequivocall…

> Some things are worse

Such as?

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#77

Post by hevelvarik »

bananaface wrote: post #49
bluedevil2k wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mental disorders are at an all-time high Please provide some references that show mental illness is higher now than during the Dark Ages. Or in Egypt among the slaves under the Ptolemy's.

Infinitely more people are being diagnosed now than in the dark ages

That’s probably the underpinning of his correct argument that we have zero clue and no leg to stand on to claim that modernity has more mental illness than any other, much less every other, period in history

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#78

Post by hevelvarik »

Kye wrote: post #42
bluedevil2k wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a perfect example of the trendy "everything's leading to a doomsday" sentiment among some people on this site. "We might get lucky" - humans have overcome every adverse condition in our 2 million years alive, why do you have the hubris to believe that you know we can only survive if we get lucky. "stop the coming disaster" - again, hubris to think that the only possible outcome for humans is a disaster. "coul…

Please soapbox on someone else's comment.

Someone had to do it.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#79

Post by chefandy »

ghastmaster wrote: post #12

The image reminds me of Guangzhou, China. I recently looked at google earth images of Guangzhou. I then looked at images of New York City. It is incredible to me that we in the U.S. think of New York City as a sprawling metropolis when not far from the city center it is mostly single family homes on plots of land. Whereas Guangzhou has many more high rise buildings for miles and miles. Get the ruler in Google Earth a…

Personally, I think Guangzhou or any other tier-1 Chinese city would be a great place to live if China wasn't a police state. I know a lot of people see urbanity as something to be minimized or mitigated, but I think well-designed huge cities with robust public transportation are an absolute delight. Sure it's nice to get out every now and then... but people who live in the country also sometimes like to get out and visit a big city where they have museums and theaters and 12 kinds of ethnic cuisine within 5 blocks walk.

Re: Magnasanti: The Largest and Most Terrifying SimCity (2010)

#80

Post by bduerst »

moritonal wrote: post #41
danbolt wrote: post #6

I think it's important to remember that a "system" in a video game is a work of art just like the game itself. The systems, in a lot of ways, reflect the ideas and thoughts of the authors of that game. Magnasati's highlights and flaws help illustrate that thinking, or what tax rates are best for doing well in the game. An example that comes to mind is Factorio, where solar panels are more tricky to operate than gener…

As an aside, why do you say that in Factorio solar panels are trickier than generators. To me it seems you can stick panels down infinitely and just make more power. Generators require coal trains, nuclear power, steam conversion, water lines and everything else? Or did you mean purely in construction from the start?

Devs made min/maxing solar panels per accumulators is intentionally tricky, as you can't move over them and they don't line up perfectly.

And you can say, "You don't need to play the game that way," and you'd be right, but it is still part of the obsession with the game.

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