Sim City V

[Brannigans Law]

ah rats I had a large post that got lost by stupid internet.

I think that people are over valuing the glass box engine. Just because you could build a "perfect" city previous Sim Cities doesn't mean you won't be able to do it again in this game. In fact I imagine a "perfect" city and perfect region are inevitable. Everything is based on calculations and man made, so it's all perfectly eligible to be 'gamed'. Randomness algorithms can just as easily be punched into a simulator that sims by building, not by individual sim.

And with glass box being asked to do so much it's really not shocking that traffic is a complete disaster and buses aren't working. and the fact you can't pick your own routes? what? Cities XL, a game made 4 years ago lets you do bus routes. Subways. One way streets. What the hell was EA working on for the last x number of years? This sim engine that can't get traffic right??

[worth]

I got about 3 hours of time in yesterday evening between work and hockey. I can only speak about my own experiences, but they have been positive for the most part.

I haven't had a real problem getting into the NA West Server. Probably because of the time I am playing the game. I had one disconnection error during the game, but you can keep playing on so that is nice. Other than that I haven't really had any issues with origin or the game crashing.

In game i'm doing alright. It does seem tougher than the betas. I've had to take out three bonds I think so far, but now that i've got my gambling place up, I am making more money. I think it's almost a requirement for each city to have a specialization, otherwise you're not going to make any cash. It may not be possible to just have a boring, bland, standard city.

I'm using about 65% of the map right now after 3 hours. I've definitely slowed my pace down from the Beta. I'm trying to find a balance so I can keep as many sims as happy as possible, but it is hard.

I went with green energy, and I hear you guys on how big some of these specialized items are. My Solar plant is getting huge. I have 6 arrays I think and they are taking up a huge spot and i'm not getting a ton of power out of them. I need to build a university to access the better arrays, but man this gets expensive. Just might be a better idea to die from pollution.

Traffic is a bit of a problem for me, even after I thought I carefully planned everything out with dense routes in particular areas. No subways is a big problem, but I am saving up for a tram network, so hopefully that will ease some of the strain.

I don't think I have a huge population at this point. Maybe 20k, but I am concerned that when I get to be larger, I'm going to experience many of the same things you guys have brought up.

I really think that for the cities to work, you have to use the region play. You have to buy and sell services because not one city alone can do it by itself because of the map size.

The learning curve here might be a little steep, but by the time we've built a few cities, we may have a better idea of how to manage traffic flow and other items like that to build bigger and more successful cities.

[Maccalus]

I think the Region play is very important. I was reading through and things such as needing a university to access some things is needed in only one city in the region.

[psicodude]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

I think it just really comes down to the fact that not every city is meant to have everything balanced.

The 3 cities I played fit 3 niches: One was a college town with a focus on commercial sites, one was a bedroom community with more residential than anything, and one was an industrial site with a huge oil sector.

I think 3-4 cities are needed to find a balance, and I'm okay with that.

I think this is the key. It feels like the regions are designed to have 1 resource whore city per 3-4 normal cities. The problem with the CP region is that half of the guys can't even connect, so I only have 1 neighbour right now and we aren't communicating which specialization route we want to go.

[Muffins]

Something tells me after all the connection issues get sorted out and whatnot, we may want to do a reboot of the CP regions. If anything the people who were just figuring it out at first (like me), have somewhat gotten the hang of things and it can run a little more smoothly.

[metallicat]

I'm enjoying it so far, but yeah this game seems to have a lot of limitations. I have no idea how you guys are getting such large populations though.

[Muffins]

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

I'm enjoying it so far, but yeah this game seems to have a lot of limitations. I have no idea how you guys are getting such large populations though.

It's basically a snowball effect. An area in your city will get more dense and areas around it will grow as a result, and so on....

I did notice that my population grew significantly after I started my specialization. My guess is these specializations create a huge amount of jobs.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Muffins

It's basically a snowball effect. An area in your city will get more dense and areas around it will grow as a result, and so on....

I did notice that my population grew significantly after I started my specialization. My guess is these specializations create a huge amount of jobs.

Is there an employment chart where you can see the amount of jobs created in a specific area? I.E. is it more efficient to have more people work in oilfields or in an industrial area.

Also, I seem to be having trouble placing multiple wind turbines / oil pumps at a site - for example I have found that even though it is says a max of 10 pumps, I max out @ 5 - there simply isn't enough space to place others. I made them in an umpopulated area, so I am really not sure what to do.

[Muffins]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Is there an employment chart where you can see the amount of jobs created in a specific area? I.E. is it more efficient to have more people work in oilfields or in an industrial area.

Also, I seem to be having trouble placing multiple wind turbines / oil pumps at a site - for example I have found that even though it is says a max of 10 pumps, I max out @ 5 - there simply isn't enough space to place others. I made them in an umpopulated area, so I am really not sure what to do.

not sure about the employment chart

Have you been using the dirt roads in the upgrade menu for the turbines/oil pumps? They have to be placed next to those roads. Just extend the road and you can build more.

[worth]

Yeah, you likely need to extend the service road to place down additional pump jacks or wind turbines. Same for garbage dumps and other items of a similar nature.

[HOOT]

Most of the time it won't even let me log in and then when I do it will crash just as I get to a decent point in a game...does it save it? Nope! So far pretty disappointing the first day and it looks like the second day isn't going to be any better. Won't even let me start a region today. YAY!

edit: now I'm getting "Login closed at this time. Try again later" crap. Really wish I put this money towards CitiesXL or something because right now this seems like a waste of time and money.

edit: Got into a game finally, put down 5 roads, crashed.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by psicodude

I think this is the key. It feels like the regions are designed to have 1 resource whore city per 3-4 normal cities. The problem with the CP region is that half of the guys can't even connect, so I only have 1 neighbour right now and we aren't communicating which specialization route we want to go.

problem with this is, who want's to be the guy with only coal mines, oil pumps, and heavy industry in their city? we may have to rethink the CP regions, if everyone had 2 or 3 plots to control then this wouldn't be an issue. but with 16 people all having a single plot and very little communication, no way the region is going to be balanced enough to get sustainable cities going

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

problem with this is, who want's to be the guy with only coal mines, oil pumps, and heavy industry in their city? we may have to rethink the CP regions, if everyone had 2 or 3 plots to control then this wouldn't be an issue. but with 16 people all having a single plot and very little communication, no way the region is going to be balanced enough to get sustainable cities going

I agree. If it's a 15 plot region, limit it to 5 players per.

[Anduril]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

I agree. If it's a 15 plot region, limit it to 5 players per.

I can agree to that. Some combination of 4 to 6 people at most in a region.

[Top Shelf]

Yeah was thinking the same thing. But I also don't think most people (myself included) have figured out how to properly do region play.

[RedMileDJ]

Originally Posted by Muffins

Something tells me after all the connection issues get sorted out and whatnot, we may want to do a reboot of the CP regions. If anything the people who were just figuring it out at first (like me), have somewhat gotten the hang of things and it can run a little more smoothly.

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

I agree. If it's a 15 plot region, limit it to 5 players per.

Originally Posted by Anduril

I can agree to that. Some combination of 4 to 6 people at most in a region.

I like these ideas. Maybe we can get something organized in the next few days, once EA / Maxis / Origin get their stuff together.

BTW: my buddy dropped a bomb on me today. Sounds like he might be canceling the ventrilo server. Says he's using a new thing called "Raidcall." Supposed to be free and easy to use. I have yet to look at it.

Until he does cancel, and I'll let you guys know when, it'll still be up. Sorry.

And yah, I don't feel like paying for a vent if no one is gonna use it. I didn't see too many people logging into it.

[worth]

4-6 people per region would only work if each person takes a city in a different part of the map. If you take 3 cities beside each other, all you will be doing is trading with yourself and you may as well play on a private map.

[metallicat]

This is becoming a cluster-f bomb.

[temple5]

anyone know what you need to do to connect a trade depot to a rail line?

[REDVAN]

I think part of the issues we are all experiencing is that we're expecting it to be like the previous versions.

With regions in the mix, the game has become that much more complex- and no one has quite mastered it yet.

Quick question- can you play "offline" in a region where you can control all the cities? Might be fun if I had a city or two and my fiancee has one.