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[cartoon_soldier]

This is the best thing that has ever been written about this game. "Long read" but so worth it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1at1yw/the_life_of_a_sim/

Man...that sucks

I held off on buying this game, looks like I will be holding off even more.

I can't believe how everything about the game was about the "simulation", that was the reason for smaller cities too but the simulation we got is so amateur in implementation.

 

[flashburn2012]

The devs said it takes 20 in game years. No I am not joking.

I think they are full of shit. Back when there was cheetah speed I left my city be for 6 years, and it didn't change at all.

 

[Dead Prince]

it happened to me too.
waited days and days and days.
the radiation never reduced.
not even planting trees worked.



lmao. fu maxis.

idk. the spot where the plant was. there's some green where i placed the park LOL.

 

[Kinky John]

New blog: Under the Hood of SimCity's Traffic

 

[Rentahamster]

Speaking of the nuclear radiation thing, and how you can't restart cities, it makes me think of how this game reminds me a lot of Diablo III not in regards to always online, but in regards to game design and gameplay philosophy.

Both games tried to make the game "more accessible", but still good for hardcore players. While this can be done, both games fucked it up so that it wasn't good for either demographic.

 

[Rentahamster]

New blog: Under the Hood of SimCity's Traffic

Did the Harry Potter games have good AI?

http://www.linkedin.com/in/thedarkness

 

[boltz]

New blog: Under the Hood of SimCity's Traffic

Cool, there are some pretty good insights there. I like how they made the traffic lights aware of how much traffic there is for each light at an intersection and change timing based on it, just like most lights in real life.

However, I could've sworn that I saw lights not reacting to traffic like that, but I'll have to test it out next time I play.

I hope that Maxis does more of these blogs on the workings of the game so we can understand various aspects of the game such as how education and the job market work.

 

[Mazdarati]

FUCK! I think I just lost my city:

Got the "rollback" error, clicked OK. Got a message error about sync error (lol)

Now when I log in again, my city has disappeared from the Play menu (also all slots are empty)

Happened to me too. I got another roll back on a different city and just let it sit on slowest speed for 1/2 an hour. Didn't do anything to the city during that time and I didn't get another error message after that so maybe that helped(?)
This game is heartbreaking at times and yet I keep coming back to play it.
Some pics:

 

[Mobius 1]

Nothing more irritating than Godzilla showing up across the map from the garbage dump on a high density, developed city.

 

[Chanser]

Errr one of my cities is running out of water, is there anyway to replenish it than buying neighbours water supply.

 

[Rentahamster]

Errr one of my cities is running out of water, is there anyway to replenish it than buying neighbours water supply.

Look at the water table data layer. Now look at your sewage treatment plant. Look at all the water there. Now put a pump next to it.

 

[Chanser]

Look at the water table data layer. Now look at your sewage treatment plant. Look at all the water there. Now put a pump next to it.

Ah I see.

 

[storybook77]

Oil city I've been working on....

 

[cheesetom]

Did the Harry Potter games have good AI?

http://www.linkedin.com/in/thedarkness

God damn! no mercy lol

I think they are full of shit. Back when there was cheetah speed I left my city be for 6 years, and it didn't change at all.

I recall getting to year 10 and it was still the same. And without cheetah speed? Ugh.
I kind of lost interest in my city after that point.

 

[KKRT00]

New blog: Under the Hood of SimCity's Traffic

Ok, this explains a lot. Now the only problem i would have, is too little space for road planning

 

[Darklord]

The devs said it takes 20 in game years. No I am not joking.

It's fucking stupid how so much of the mechanics conflict with each other. It's like 4 teams who had no communication built a 1/4 each and them slapped it together.

 

[N-Bomb]

Oil city I've been working on....

Man, it just struck me. These cities are so small that they kind of remind me of those stereotypical Old West towns where it's buildingsbuildings until it just STOPS and from there's it's wilderness. The transition is abrupt, and not at all organic.

 

[flashburn2012]

Man, it just struck me. These cities are so small that they kind of remind me of those stereotypical Old West towns where it's buildingsbuildings until it just STOPS and from there's it's wilderness. The transition is abrupt, and not at all organic.

And they are only a few streets wide too. This game needs an "old west" buildings mod, so I can recreate Deadwood. It might not fit though... lol

 

[spirity]

Gonna put the expo centre between the school and library, should bring in a lot of visitors. Concerned about fire, the old fella down the bottom is in between two parks and if they go up my fire dept at the top is going to get snarled in traffic. Police about to arrest the blonde murderer but they haven't spotted the bowler hatted duo breaking a see-saw

 

[CAW]

Hmmmm. :/

 

[flashburn2012]

Hmmmm. :/

Pic 1: Check your worker levels for the different wealths. Perhaps one of them does have a shortage? Also, high tech industrial takes A LOT of workers per building, especially when the density is maxed.

Pic 2: I'm sure Maxis will just say that the advanced Sim AI can be sarcastic at times.

 

[drizzle]

Pic 1: Check your worker levels for the different wealths. Perhaps one of them does have a shortage? Also, high tech industrial takes A LOT of workers per building, especially when the density is maxed.

I really do wish the information provided were more granular. For instance: Why doesn't it tell me, for each building, what's the Worker usage? And Welath of workers needed?

I mean per building. Fuck it, I don't care if they fake the numbers (multiply it by 2.5), just give me more information.

 

[Tek]

Everytime I feel the need to buy this game, I go back to this thread and it changes my mind.

 

[acksman]

Everytime I feel the need to buy this game, I go back to this thread and it changes my mind.

Same here no way I'm buying this game in its current state. I have actually been browsing the Sim 4 Mod thread more and thinking about going back to it for a while since I have been wanting to get back into a city builder.

 

[Herpes Reasons]

My industrial keeps closing due to unskilled workers.
yet I have 2 grade schools, high school, college, and university with science, engineering and business schools and not one of them is filled to capacity.
Bug?

 

[drizzle]

My industrial keeps closing due to unskilled workers.
yet I have 2 grade schools, high school, college, and university with science, engineering and business schools and not one of them is filled to capacity.
Bug?

Grade Schools gives skilled workers, High School makes your city have less criminals, Community College gives high tech skilled workers, University is only good if you want to research things (and raise Tech knowledge overall).

Maybe all your workers are commuting out of your city, so your internal industry doesn't have any workers? I usually just destroy any industry that keeps complaining and zone residential instead - my city was prospering and I only had 5 high tech industries for a while - all were bulldozed to make space for Microprocessors and TVs factories instead.

Another thing you could try checking is if the traffic is such that people are not going to school simply because there aren't enough buses/it takes too long for them.

Maybe you just don't have enough workers period (the difference between amount of workers and amount of people in your city is absurd, it's less than 10%). I always have multiple unfilled jobs in any city I make.

 

[Herpes Reasons]

Another thing you could try checking is if the traffic is such that people are not going to school simply because there aren't enough buses/it takes too long for them.

Maybe you just don't have enough workers period (the difference between amount of workers and amount of people in your city is absurd, it's less than 10%). I always have multiple unfilled jobs in any city I make.

Hmmmm..I think you're on to something about traffic congestion.

 

[Veritas_]

Some pics:

Love that NYC vibe.

How are you guys taking in-game screenshots? Fraps?

 

[Cjdamon042]

Love that NYC vibe.

How are you guys taking in-game screenshots? Fraps?

Just press C on your keyboard. It saves them to Documents/SimCity/Pictures. You can also press V to start recording video. There's an option in the settings menu that automatically hides the UI for pictures and videos too.

 

[Rentahamster]

My industrial keeps closing due to unskilled workers.
yet I have 2 grade schools, high school, college, and university with science, engineering and business schools and not one of them is filled to capacity.
Bug?

It could also be that the workers who actually end up going to the factory are of the unskilled kind. It's not like skilled workers automatically go to the high tech industry first. They go to ANY job first. So if your skilled workers' closest job is McDonald's the AI is gonna make them take that job first.

Pause the game when you see sims trying to enter your high tech industry. Then click on them and see where they came from. Chances are, it's dumb building.

However, since you have so much educational stuff, I'd assume that your problem is probably that no workers are going to your factories in the first place.

 

[callhitman]

Gonna start a new map. PM me ur simcity name. I will be in North America West 1

 

[MThanded]

EA spared Mac users.

 

[chubigans]

It could also be that the workers who actually end up going to the factory are of the unskilled kind. It's not like skilled workers automatically go to the high tech industry first. They go to ANY job first. So if your skilled workers' closest job is McDonald's the AI is gonna make them take that job first.

Holy crap, really? Wow.

 

[Herpes Reasons]

It could also be that the workers who actually end up going to the factory are of the unskilled kind. It's not like skilled workers automatically go to the high tech industry first. They go to ANY job first. So if your skilled workers' closest job is McDonald's the AI is gonna make them take that job first.

Pause the game when you see sims trying to enter your high tech industry. Then click on them and see where they came from. Chances are, it's dumb building.

However, since you have so much educational stuff, I'd assume that your problem is probably that no workers are going to your factories in the first place.

well this is stupid of the highest order.
90% of all my industrials are segregated to one area.
do i have to start mixing RCI to fix that issue?

 

[Rentahamster]

Holy crap, really? Wow.

In the morning, a building will send out workers. If that building is green on your education data layer, it'll send out educated workers. However, those workers are just gonna follow the same pathfinding algorithms as everything else, educated and non-educated, and then take the first job that it can get. Or, they'll just get stuck and not find any work. If those workers, for whatever reason, don't end up at a place that needs them (high tech, or nuclear power), then...welp.

 

[Rentahamster]

well this is stupid of the highest order.
90% of all my industrials are segregated to one area.
do i have to start mixing RCI to fix that issue?

Um, it depends on what the actual problem is. Check the population data layer. If your factory worker population bar (light blue) is full, then your problem is that you have workers going there, but they are mostly dumb. The solution would be to somehow get your smart ones there instead.

However, since you have so much educational buildings, I'd assume that your entire population is educated enough, so I'm gonna assume that if you check the layer, you'll find that you have a lack or workers in general. If that's the case, then just zone more residential, or just destroy the industry since you don't really need the jobs that it creates.

 

[eroots]

Gonna put the expo centre between the school and library, should bring in a lot of visitors. Concerned about fire, the old fella down the bottom is in between two parks and if they go up my fire dept at the top is going to get snarled in traffic. Police about to arrest the blonde murderer but they haven't spotted the bowler hatted duo breaking a see-saw

hehe.. nice.

 

[Rentahamster]

So has anyone tried this out? Apparently it's a mod that allows you to toggle cheetah speed again, and speeds even higher than that too.

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1a1j37/speedbooster_increase_speed_beyond_cheetah/

Sounds legit?

 

[Mii]

So has anyone tried this out? Apparently it's a mod that allows you to toggle cheetah speed again, and speeds even higher than that too.

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/1a1j37/speedbooster_increase_speed_beyond_cheetah/

Sounds legit?

I was using it earlier, was amazing to get back to real speeds.

I've gone back to SimCity 4 though. Working game mechanics was kinda important. I keep attempting to zoom in fast and swivel the camera, and then miss the new SimCity. Once they work the kinks out/get an expansion out/modder community runs wild, I'm sure SC will become my default.

 

[Rentahamster]

I was using it earlier, was amazing to get back to real speeds.

I've gone back to SimCity 4 though. Working game mechanics was kinda important. I keep attempting to zoom in fast and swivel the camera, and then miss the new SimCity. Once they work the kinks out/get an expansion out/modder community runs wild, I'm sure SC will become my default.

I hear ya.

I've played SC4 too much already, though, inside and out. Mechanics-wise, there really isn't anything left for me to figure out, so I'd just be relegated to building pretty cities, but since SC5 lets you build prettier cities, I just go with that one. But that's not really why I'm playing SC5. It's precisely because I haven't figured out the ins and outs of the game mechanics is what's keeping me curious.

 

[Rentahamster]

Am I going crazy, or is there no data layer that tells me what wealth level each building is without having to click on each one individually?

 

[Veritas_]

Just press C on your keyboard. It saves them to Documents/SimCity/Pictures. You can also press V to start recording video. There's an option in the settings menu that automatically hides the UI for pictures and videos too.

Awesome, thanks.

 

[suedester]

Am I going crazy, or is there no data layer that tells me what wealth level each building is without having to click on each one individually?

The land value map does :-/

 

[Herpes Reasons]

Um, it depends on what the actual problem is. Check the population data layer. If your factory worker population bar (light blue) is full, then your problem is that you have workers going there, but they are mostly dumb. The solution would be to somehow get your smart ones there instead.

how would i do that?
btw, my education level is at max level.

 

[Rentahamster]

how would i do that?
btw, my education level is at max level.

It would be placing educated residential zones near the high tech, so that they go there first.

But, since your education is max level, that means everyone is educated, so I think your problem is just a case of a worker shortage in general. Not a lack of high skill workers, specifically, since everyone in your city is high skill.

 

[nateeasy]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=br_lf_m_1000821671_grlink_1?ie=UTF8&docId=1000821671


Dont know if this has been posted yet. But you can get Simcity for $20 if you buy $15 worth of Dove Men products on Amazon.

 

[Yoda]

I'm really shocked this game has stability problems weeks after the whipping they got in the PR department. I realize this is entirely my fault for buying this and not "voting with my wallet" but I really think I'll be more concrete on my EA boycott (managed to hold back on ME 3).

 

[Rentahamster]

The land value map does :-/

That's not what I mean.

The land value shows you the land value of the land, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the corresponding wealth class will always build there.

I want to know what class each building is. Sorta like how the density map color codes each tier of density.

 

[TheGreyHulk]

i still can't believe how broken the game still is.

gifting resources takes far too long

cheetah is still off, police & fire trucks still travel in daisy chains and can't seem to work individually on separate crimes, all buses do the same as police & fire and travel in daisy chains instead of traveling in organized routes, traffic remains a nightmare primarily thanks to the idiotic idea of having just one fucking freeway connection with single lane off ramps at that, workers/shoppers/etc all behave idiotically by not going to a specific job/home/shop and just going to any open building... wtf...

the game needs a HEFTY patch and all of these issues has nothing to do with the full server issue. that's gone. i can play the game now, but it's broken. the game needed another 6 months or something because the polish is not there.

what's sad is that the game is still enjoyable for the most part, but it's just frustrating having to design a city based on knowing what's broken instead of just designing a city based on what i want.

 

[Cherubae]

I'm hoping some day that all the problems will be resolved, but by then nobody is going to want to play anymore.

I still have problems with my region neighbors' municipal buses getting stuck at my bus stops. They get stacked on top of each other and then stutter in the same place for several in-game hours, just sitting there making the bus stop noise over and over. Sometimes they unlock and free themselves, and other times I have to bulldoze the bus stop so the backed-up traffic can move.