Ping: SimCity 4 players.

[SackAttack]

I finally picked up The SimCity Box after finding it for $20 the other day, and so I'm just now getting into SimCity 4.

The last time I played any game in the franchise on a regular basis was SimCity 3000, back in my high school/college days, so there's a little bit of rust here.

I'm already liking SimCity 4 more than I remember liking SC3000, if only because the level of control over the various types of funding has made it easier than I remember it being in the past to keep a fledgling city from going dangerously into the red.

My question: how do you (or do you?) as a player plan for eventual expansion of your transit system? Do you leave unzoned land for later building for bus stops/subway stations/etc, or do you just wing it?

[illinifan999]

I had to use it for an Urban Politics last semester and he said that I had made the best city in the class although everyone else maybe just sucked at video games. But I pretty much just winged it for the most part, maybe putting minimal thought into where I wanted to my city to head and I would try to leave a couple extra spots for the transit stations. The only thing I really planned for was the train system, but even that would probably be laughed at by anyone with any knowledge of city planning.

[JPhillips]

Sometimes I'll plan for road/rail, but normally it doesn't make that much of a difference. I always found leaving space for rail to be some sort of cheating. I just can't imagine a mayor of a 5000 person city saying the roads have so much green space on either side because we'll eventually need it for urban rail.

[SackAttack]

Sometimes I'll plan for road/rail, but normally it doesn't make that much of a difference. I always found leaving space for rail to be some sort of cheating. I just can't imagine a mayor of a 5000 person city saying the roads have so much green space on either side because we'll eventually need it for urban rail.

That's kind of my thought, too, but I get weird about exercising eminent domain to make room for avenues and rail. Heh.

[Abe Sargent]

I build my blocks with future expansion in mind. For example, I plan my blocks with places for subway stations and bus stations in the future when I need them, but I will go over them then. Same with roads. I build 9x9 blocks initially, and then I put a 3x3 park or somesuch in the middle to help things out, which I can bulldoze later. When it comes time to expand and, I can double the road, add stations, rail, whatever, and still have my city blocks around.

[SackAttack]

I build my blocks with future expansion in mind. For example, I plan my blocks with places for subway stations and bus stations in the future when I need them, but I will go over them then. Same with roads. I build 9x9 blocks initially, and then I put a 3x3 park or somesuch in the middle to help things out, which I can bulldoze later. When it comes time to expand and, I can double the road, add stations, rail, whatever, and still have my city blocks around.

Interesting. I'm now having this mental image inspired by that of 9x9 blocks, but down the middle of the strip, two roads with 1x1 parks in between them. If they get too heavy, bulldoze and replace with an avenue.

Hmm.

[finketr]

anybody got a time delayed version of their cities like that? I pick this up from time to time but i seem to always run into money problems or crime or . . .

-

[Young Drachma]

Sim City 4 - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=39929&highlight=Simcity)

That thread surely has some morsels from back in the day.

Honestly, I use cheats from simtropolis to raise money most of the money. The money making process is fine, but it's very slow, it takes too much time and I don't play because I want to "win" I play because I want to build cities and the best way to do that is money cheats that give you enough to cash to lay everything out as you want to.

If you do it that way, I think the game will be a lot more interesting and you'll be able to do some cool things.

As for transit, I don't generally build subways until the city is so big and congested that it needs it. And then I try to use the maps to tell me where things are cluttered in the residential areas, then I put stops in the industrial areas.

But I don't usually mess with transit until the town is fairly well built up, bulldozing as I need to, to get further.

I don't really use railways for transport and if I do, there's usually one or two major railway lines I create in town, usually around the time I build roads (which I tend to do before I start zoning.)

[Young Drachma]

http://www.mediafire.com/?l1boeoy2kiwk5al

You would extract the contents to your My Documents/SimCity 4/Regions folder in a folder called Neloxia (but it'll still come up Paragon City)

It's the city that I've built several dynasties about - Neloxia - which has about 3.4 million people in it. I think it took me a year of real life time to get it to where it is now. I zipped that up back in March and haven't that file (though a bit with the real life one)

You will lack dependencies that I've downloaded and so, some of the stuff I have in my city might show up as brown boxes in yours. But you should have enough money to raze those things and replace them with whatever you want, should you decide to dork around with it.

It just occurred to me to share it in the off-chance there's someone out there interested in playing in an established region even if it's just to see how one could be laid out in the flesh.

And yes, you could even do this without cheating, it'll just take a lot longer to do it. (I used to do it that way back when the game came out. Now I just don't have that kind of time...)

[Buccaneer]

That's funny, last month I finally decided to try SimCity 4 again. I read and watched alot but concluded that there is nothing there to grab me. The reason is, after watching three long games on YouTube, is that it can be quite formulaic. You build your roads/rails symmetrically in a pattern and then fill in with one type of landuse. You then go to the next region, build out roads/rails symmetrically in a pattern and then fill in with another type of landuse. Repeat endlessly, making sure you have good connections between the regions and set the import/export (I forgot what's it's called) appropriately. There doesn't seem to be any organic-ness in building a city/metropolis from a small, historical beginnings to a modern city. You start by laying out the modern city and just fill in. This was all from watching the three games made by different simers. I ended up loading my second-favorite game of all time, Pharaoh to give me a good feel for historical city-building.

[Young Drachma]

That's funny, last month I finally decided to try SimCity 4 again. I read and watched alot but concluded that there is nothing there to grab me. The reason is, after watching three long games on YouTube, is that it can be quite formulaic. You build your roads/rails symmetrically in a pattern and then fill in with one type of landuse. You then go to the next region, build out roads/rails symmetrically in a pattern and then fill in with another type of landuse. Repeat endlessly, making sure you have good connections between the regions and set the import/export (I forgot what's it's called) appropriately. There doesn't seem to be any organic-ness in building a city/metropolis from a small, historical beginnings to a modern city. You start by laying out the modern city and just fill in. This was all from watching the three games made by different simers. I ended up loading my second-favorite game of all time, Pharaoh to give me a good feel for historical city-building.

http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/journals/page__type__all

I think the folks at simtropolis would argue otherwise. It's not Civ obviously and the game came out in 2003. But...it's as multifaceted as you make it.

[Buccaneer]

Community City Journal List - Simtropolis Forums (http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/journals/page__type__all)

I think the folks at simtropolis would argue otherwise. It's not Civ obviously and the game came out in 2003. But...it's as multifaceted as you make it.

I cannot get to that link. I guess what I am looking for specifically is an example of building a small, rural city and then retrofiting it to a much larger city and then evolving it to a modern high-tech community. I'm not interested in laying out the pattern for a large city at the beginning, as I have been seeing.

[bhlloy]

Every time DC posts about this game or links to cool stuff at simtropolis I get really excited about firing it back up... for about 15 minutes

I think it's something that if you invested the time it would be a lot of fun, but god it's tedious until then. Plop down residential, industrial and a bit of commercial. Connect them. Rinse, repeat. Oh look, I got a mayors house. Rinse repeat. Put some bus stops in, find out nobody is using them. More zoning and joining with roads. Maybe a park... rage quit.

[EagleFan]

I keep tying this game and then after I get through about 15 minutes, hoping that I will find something different, I ultimately come to the same conclusion... this is it.

After which I unleash all holy hell on the city to crumble it to the ground, exit the game and uninstall.

[Draft Dodger]

yep, this is me as well. except I'm too emotionally attached to unleash the devastation. it just sits there in an empty saved game that I will never, ever re-visit

[Grover]

I still prefer Sim City 3000 to 4, sadly.

[Young Drachma]

I've been editing a custom region that now has 3.7 million people for about two years. I will go away and come back to it every few months or so. But it does take a while "I have lots of time to kill and will play for a good while." But I don't play video games other than the random sports game and text sims don't hold my attention the way they used to...so, SC4 is the only game that holds my attention like that, even if it's less sporadic than it used to be.

[frnk55]

With the possible news of Sim City 5 I got the urge to load up 4. Been a long time since I've played it. Funny thing is it's the only game I've played on cd in a long time. When it gets down to 10 bucks on steam I'll buy it.

[Young Drachma]

With the possible news of Sim City 5 I got the urge to load up 4. Been a long time since I've played it. Funny thing is it's the only game I've played on cd in a long time. When it gets down to 10 bucks on steam I'll buy it.

I doubt it'll get any lower on Steam except during the holidays, but it's worth it on Steam because at least you know you'll never have to fumble with lost CDs ever again. I'd probably bought the game 3 or 4 times at least because I'd lose those CDs over and over again.

You can usually find the SimCity 4 Deluxe (With Rush Hour) box set for less than $20 in most places. Walmart used to always sell it.

It's worth it though, especially if you go to Simtropolis and add some add-ons. Without those, it's less fun but...with them it adds heaps of hours of gameplay.

[I. J. Reilly]

With the possible news of Sim City 5

What's this now?

[frnk55]

Think I read it somewhere on the Gamespot forums. 2013 eta but it's just a rumor. Who knows...

[Mantle2600]

With the possible news of Sim City 5 I got the urge to load up 4. Been a long time since I've played it. Funny thing is it's the only game I've played on cd in a long time. When it gets down to 10 bucks on steam I'll buy it.

I bought simcity 4 deluxe off of amazon a few weeks ago for 5 bucks digital download.

[Buccaneer]

I cannot get to that link. I guess what I am looking for specifically is an example of building a small, rural city and then retrofiting it to a much larger city and then evolving it to a modern high-tech community. I'm not interested in laying out the pattern for a large city at the beginning, as I have been seeing.

I keep thinking about this game and still conclude that the one thing that would attract me into playing would the organicness of an evolving city. I concluded that SimCity4 can only build a modern city and is not a historical city builder. From looking at more examples, it builds a modern city/region very well and can be fun.

[Draft Dodger]

Think I read it somewhere on the Gamespot forums. 2013 eta but it's just a rumor. Who knows...

SimCity sequel to be announced next week at GDC, concept art leaked - TechSpot News (http://www.techspot.com/news/47626-simcity-sequel-to-be-announced-next-week-at-gdc-concept-art-leaked.html)

[Balldog]

What better Sim City 4 or Tropico 4?

I haven't played a Sim City in a long time but recently tried the Tropico 4 demo and enjoyed it quite a bit.

[General Mike]

I prefer Sim City 2000 and the use of cheat codes.

[Bigsmooth]

What better Sim City 4 or Tropico 4?

I haven't played a Sim City in a long time but recently tried the Tropico 4 demo and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I'm really enjoying Tropico 4. Although once I figured out how to rake in the cash with importing/exporting the replay value has kind of gone down for me.

[Young Drachma]

I prefer Sim City 2000 and the use of cheat codes.

SC4 has tons of cheats too. Simtropolis has money cheats that you can use if you just prefer to build without worrying about stuff.

Looking forward to SC5

First Image of SimCity 5!!! | Simprograms (http://www.simprograms.com/39378/first-image-of-simcity-5/)

[bhlloy]

I doubt they would ever be able to pull this off but I would kill for a game that had true commuting between all cities in the region. It would add a lot IMO to create cities that were primarily industrial or all high rise residential and then let people commute from all over your region to find those jobs.

The ICR and just plop down zones as needed is what makes the game really tedious IMO

[General Mike]

SC4 has tons of cheats too. Simtropolis has money cheats that you can use if you just prefer to build without worrying about stuff.

Looking forward to SC5

First Image of SimCity 5!!! | Simprograms (http://www.simprograms.com/39378/first-image-of-simcity-5/)

Ah thanks. May have to try to fire it up again then.

[Buccaneer]

Stumbled across a gameplay video of the new SimCity. It looks like they added some dynamism to the city in the form of finite resources, as well as specialized regions/zones. I still wonder, though, whether a city can truly evolve over time or will we still lay out a modern city and just fill in the areas.

[Coffee Warlord]

I doubt they would ever be able to pull this off but I would kill for a game that had true commuting between all cities in the region. It would add a lot IMO to create cities that were primarily industrial or all high rise residential and then let people commute from all over your region to find those jobs.

The ICR and just plop down zones as needed is what makes the game really tedious IMO

It'd be even better if time actually advanced and cities developed across all active regions. Throw in some zones of your choosing, get some infrastructure, and flip back to whatever city you want. Maybe have a master window where you can set up service deals between any city in a region.