Looks like my city a month and a half ago. Haven't really played since, as it happened to my most successful city and I haven't tried again really.
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SimCity |OT| It's not the simulation or city that matter, it's <parameter: string>
- Thread starter Cjdamon042
- Start date
Ethical Hedonism
Banned
Happened in my city also, stopped playing a month ago because of it. There was nothing I could do since there's no way of building more highway accesses to the city.
Yeah this is still a big problem with people trying to get into your city from the region and traffic exponentially backs up making deliveries impossible.
The only 'fix' to the coal/oil power plant situation seems to be to build a trade depot. Build only coal/oil modules on it and set them to import so your city builds a surplus of what you need for your power plant. That way if delivery trucks are stuck and can't make it, your power plant still receives resources from within the city.
Personally I think it is dumb that power plants drop to 50% output when their resources are low. Where the power decides to 'brownout' is just random and if it's a major building (like water/sewer/fire/etc.) you are screwed. I'd rather just have them put out 100% and then cut power to the whole city if they run out. The effect is the same either way.
Had a situation with my coal power plant in my last city where every other day it would enter brownout mode for an hour even though it still had lots of coal. Within that hour a delivery truck would drop off more coal. Then the plant would take another hour to repower unpowered buildings. It was so frustrating. I wish that the devs had programmed it so that you could micromanage that at the very least. Either let it run at 100% till it's out of coal, or only drop out put to your desired percentage like 80% or something when it reaches x% of resources left.
Anyway like I said the only 'fix' was to waste money installing a trade depot to build a surplus of coal so it would stop happening.
AnotherNils
Member
Oh, wow. So have the devs addressed it in either way? Do they acknowledge there's a problem? Do they try to blame it on players? I feel like I've been watching the situation closely enough that I'd have caught wind of it before.
I'm not sure if they have specifically addressed regional traffic issues or not. I know they have tried working on making city traffic smarter; but the results have not been astounding.
The problem is cities where there is this bottleneck into the city. The region only has 1 road to enter most cities and any delay there will cause regional traffic to back up like in the above pictures. What will make this back-up even worse is that traffic within your city only has 1 way to exit to the region as well. So you'll have just this one intersection where traffic starts getting backed up from both ways.
Because of this I normally play cities that have the regional road running through a corner of the city, that way I can give multiple access points. Other than that, these bottleneck cities my only advice is to not put a 4 way stop there. Four way stops anywhere in the city are bad but especially at the entrance they need to be avoided.
In the screenshot above you can see he's got a 4 way stop at the entrance to the city. So some cars are going to want to be going straight, some left, some right. And honestly I don't think the regional traffic makes up it's mind where it wants to go till it is INSIDE your city's boundaries. So in that short space when a car enters the city to where the 4 way stop is, it suddenly decides; 'Oh, I have to turn left'. If it's in another lane from where it wants to be, it has to merge - causing more back-up. Watch a city and you will see how many cars suddenly merge into different lanes in this one area.
That is why eliminating a 4 way stop works is that it cuts their number of choices down = less merging = less back up.
But even still the problem is bad.
That's what I do. Before hand, at the intersection at the start of the city, vehicles could either turn left or right, even with only 2 options it still caused a massive backlog of traffic coming from either other cities or my great works Arcology. The traffic was that bad that you can see the sims literally lose their jobs, click on one car a great distance away from the city and it would say something like heading to my low paying job, then when the same sim gets closer to the city, the message will change to something like, got fired.
So I eliminated all options and cars can only turn left, if they want to get to the right hand side of the city they have to travel all the way around but at least my traffic flows pretty much continuously in and out of the city now due to no traffic lights.
jacob armitage
Banned
Thank you kindly for the info. Shame really, would anyone be able to help me out w/ a code? I'd be happy to buy you a game on steam or gog for the equivalent value + hassle? (sub $10 sound worth it?) Let me know!
EDIT: Sorted! Thank you kindly Koomaster!
Yeah if traffic gets bad enough it's basically just a string of cars who have gotten fired. Car A gets fired, so the region sends Car B to replace him. Car B gets fired, so the region sends Car C to replace him. Car C gets fired.... etc. Meanwhile Cars A, B, C, etc. are still sitting on the highway waiting to enter your city.
I'm going to Walmart later today, so I will look to see if they have any left. No need to buy me a game, the toothpaste you need to buy is only like $2.
Between the toothpaste I already had, the one I bought for me, the one I bought for my friend, and the one I'm buying for you; I'm going to have like a year's worth of toothpaste stocked up.
*searches internet for additional uses for toothpaste*
AnotherNils
Member
Yeah, I won't pretend my traffic layout is perfect, which is probably the only thing keeping me from tweeting this to devs, since it's their crutch dismissal.
Still, you can see from the pics, the roads nearest the entrance are fairly clear.
Yeah, that seems to be their go to response when people complain about traffic. The only issue is that people shouldn't have to be city planning engineers to play your game. The older sim cities would say; 'You have a traffic problem.' So what do you do, build a subway/train or put in bus stops. Problem solved.
This game on the other hand wants you to redesign whole parts of your city to get traffic flowing. But even so, the layout is not your fault. It's the Sims AI which doesn't remember jobs/housing/purpose which clutters up the streets.
It's unacceptable and they probably realize that; but they are probably limited in how they can fix things due to the engine. So the best they can do is tell the player how to play their game. :/
AnotherNils
Member
Well in my short time playing SC4, you could build multiple roads out of the city for freight and commuters.
Honestly, if it weren't for ignorance, I'd probably install the mod that lets you build outside city limits and hook the city up a few more ways. (I don't think that'd solve this particular problem, however. If anything, it'd probably make it worse.)
BigJonsson
Member
One of my cities hit 300k population last night, and the one next door is nearing 250k
Trying to build the arcology but I think the regional traffic issues are making my deliveries very very slow
Trying to build the arcology but I think the regional traffic issues are making my deliveries very very slow
One of my cities hit 300k population last night, and the one next door is nearing 250k
Trying to build the arcology but I think the regional traffic issues are making my deliveries very very slow
If you have regional traffic issues, an arcology seems like a bad idea.
BigJonsson
Member
Can I build another city to alleviate things lol
I hit a button by accident and 1 million simoleons went towards an arcology so I figured I'd go forward with it........I guess I can always scrap that work and build something else
AnotherNils
Member
If you know something I don't tell me howwwwwwwww (Did the same thing with a space center)
BigJonsson
Member
Pretty sure you can't.
AnotherNils
Member
It would make sense to add an "Abandon" option, IMO.
PMed you the instructions and code.
Man my store is about out of these codes. Only noticed they got them in like 2 weeks ago and now they are nearly gone.
BigJonsson
Member
Started a 3rd city in the region
Whenever I check the arcology progress it is constantly going up and down depending which city I have loaded =/ Can't these servers sync things faster? I've been sending alloy and metal for a few days already ffs
Whenever I check the arcology progress it is constantly going up and down depending which city I have loaded =/ Can't these servers sync things faster? I've been sending alloy and metal for a few days already ffs
Yeah you can't really trust what the Great Works project says unless it says a certain thing is finished.
It is probably a server issue. I know the Arcology my friends and I built said we needed lots more things and then suddenly it just finished. I think I was only half-way through delivering alloy to the thing.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
To anyone who has a good understanding of traffic before 2.0 and has played since 2.0:
How did the change to medium density streets turn out? The change where they form stoplights now?
I used to manage traffic fairly decently pre-2.0 by using the "right of way" rules effectively and using the medium density streets as a way to filter out side traffic without making more stop-light intersections.
What's the deal with that now?
How did the change to medium density streets turn out? The change where they form stoplights now?
I used to manage traffic fairly decently pre-2.0 by using the "right of way" rules effectively and using the medium density streets as a way to filter out side traffic without making more stop-light intersections.
What's the deal with that now?
AnotherNils
Member
Another thing that drives me nuts about this game two cities in the same region that can't resource share, commute, gift, etc. but isn't it amazing that all the criminals can ruin my city anyhow. They must swim across the fucking bay.
My first attempt at the Amusement Park...
This thing does get very large. I sort of crammed everything as close together as possible so it doesn't really look nice. But it is just a first attempt.
The amusement park upgrades like other buildings. You have to earn a certain profit/day and you'll be able to add more attractions. At first you can only place 2nd tier attractions (tilt-a-whirl, carousel, pirate ship, etc.). But once you earn $10k/day you can place a 1st tier attraction (Roller Coaster, Ferris Wheel, Go-kart track).
Once you unlock your 4th and final upgrade you can place a train station and track that goes wherever. This is where I just sort of skimped out since I didn't have space for it. I put a small track/train ride instead of having it go around the park. I did find out that the train tracks will go over top of the amusement park paths, but doesn't go over top of city roads.
There are also a bunch of concession stand (food/popcorn/snacks/toys/balloons) you can place along the path of the park. They turn out to be the big money maker with this thing. I earn more from my concessions than I do my 1st tier rides. Anyway, as you upgrade your park you are allowed to place more and more concession stands.
If anyone is thinking of getting it, I got it from Green Man Gaming. You purchase the DLC and they give you a code you put into Origin which unlocks the Amusement Park. Here is a voucher code you can use to get 20% off your purchase so the DLC is only $8 instead of $10. I think this site is US only though.
Code: GMG20-LLASD-D8WBQ
This thing does get very large. I sort of crammed everything as close together as possible so it doesn't really look nice. But it is just a first attempt.
The amusement park upgrades like other buildings. You have to earn a certain profit/day and you'll be able to add more attractions. At first you can only place 2nd tier attractions (tilt-a-whirl, carousel, pirate ship, etc.). But once you earn $10k/day you can place a 1st tier attraction (Roller Coaster, Ferris Wheel, Go-kart track).
Once you unlock your 4th and final upgrade you can place a train station and track that goes wherever. This is where I just sort of skimped out since I didn't have space for it. I put a small track/train ride instead of having it go around the park. I did find out that the train tracks will go over top of the amusement park paths, but doesn't go over top of city roads.
There are also a bunch of concession stand (food/popcorn/snacks/toys/balloons) you can place along the path of the park. They turn out to be the big money maker with this thing. I earn more from my concessions than I do my 1st tier rides. Anyway, as you upgrade your park you are allowed to place more and more concession stands.
If anyone is thinking of getting it, I got it from Green Man Gaming. You purchase the DLC and they give you a code you put into Origin which unlocks the Amusement Park. Here is a voucher code you can use to get 20% off your purchase so the DLC is only $8 instead of $10. I think this site is US only though.
Code: GMG20-LLASD-D8WBQ
AnotherNils
Member
From what I've read of the Amusement Park DLC, it sounds like the Casino mechanic with a different coat of paint slapped on.
Pretty much; no argument there. But I guess it comes down to do you want to look at casinos or do you want to design an amusement park? All about customization and what you want your city to look like.
BigJonsson
Member
Lol, not worth it at all, I may pay for larger cities.... May
I'd only pay for larger cities if it also included a bunch more traffic management options as well. Let us manually create overpasses, let us create more than one entrance/exit to the regional highway, etc.
Otherwise larger cities will just mean even more bottlenecking at the ramps.
The theme park looks cool but it's a hefty price to pay for something that takes up so much usable space and essentially is just for looks.
Otherwise larger cities will just mean even more bottlenecking at the ramps.
The theme park looks cool but it's a hefty price to pay for something that takes up so much usable space and essentially is just for looks.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I'm honestly curious how many Mac users from a generally info-savvy community like Neogaf are going to buy the game.
PotatoeMasher
Member
I bought it on the PC figuring I'd be able to play it through Origin on the Mac. I haven't touched it much beyond the opening week. I'm assuming trackpad works fine—I played originally using the Magic Trackpad on my iMac and it didn't seem awful. Hopefully that's improved since most Macs won't have a mouse connected.
I know lots of people who will probably pick it up for OS X assuming it's marketed decently. If it were on Steam or the Mac App Store it'd be an easier sell, but there's basically no one using Origin on a Mac until SimCity is out (Origin has only been available for a few months).
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
They are soliciting questions for the devs over at the EA forums, if anyone cares.
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9532799.page
http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9532799.page
Mr. Luchador
Member
So even after all these patches it's still not 'fun' or fixed? :\ ... and even Hamster has given up hope?!
BigJonsson
Member
I think it's fun
Mr. Luchador
Member
I can't help but feel that if I reinstall this, I'm going to be disappointed still.
Deaf Spacker
Memb
I've given up after nearly 200 hours, I have hit a brick wall in terms of 'fun' as there is only so much you can do before you start repeating yourself.
This exactly. The game is fun, but you quickly reach the maximum fun you can have in a city fairly quickly. There is not much to do once you fill up your city other than watch the cars and sims run around and watch the money flow in.
Even the perfectly flat cities, the sizes are too small. And if you pick a city with an interesting feature like islands, a mountain or hills, it's even smaller as you have less space to build on.
It's fun, but it's Sim City Lite.
This is what I keep checking this thread for. If they can manage to increase the city sizes, I'll be firing it up straight away.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
PotatoeMasher
Member
I like how they are using major version numbers for point release patches.
jamesinclair
Banned
Hey look, ea doing people a favor.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Dang, no posts for 5 days ; ;
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-pacing
Article about density and population.
Ironically, this article inadvertently points out the flaws of the new zoning system vs. the old zoning system, IMO.
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-pacing
Article about density and population.
Ironically, this article inadvertently points out the flaws of the new zoning system vs. the old zoning system, IMO.
how much is maxis supporting this game at this point? for instance, i know d3 launched with a lot of criticism that lasted for a while but it seems to be getting better and better and blizzard is still really supporting it (at least that's how it seems). is there any hope that a year from now sim city will be a good game due to maxis supporting it until it's good?
Unless they release bigger cities, it doesn't matter what they do.