SimCity 5 Wish List

[Ingsoc]

This is my first post in what seems to be a relatively quiet forum. Admittedly I mostly spend my time in the Half-Life forums, but I thought I'd have a peek in here, considering that I've been a SimCity fan for years now (and I still play SC3K Unlimited regularly, even in the face of completely new games).

For ages, I've been wishing to see a genuine SimCity 5. Maybe I'm being too purist here, but for me, SimCity Socities was not where I thought the series should go. Not being developed by Maxis probably didn't help much, either. So I tend to consider SimCity 4 to be the last "true" SimCity title.

This essentially means that we haven't seen a new "true" SimCity game in many years now, despite having seen a couple of notable games within the same genre (i.e. SimCity Socities and the Cities XL games).

In some ways, I think that the genre has missed a whole lot of potential evolution. I did play Cities XL, and although I generally thought that it wasn't as satisfying as it could be, that game definitely offers some innovations and technological improvements that future SimCity titles should incorporate.

So this leads me to thinking about the future. What would you guys want to see in a "genuine", Maxis-developed SimCity 5?

Here's just the start of my wish list. No doubt I'll add to this as we go.

Highly Flexible Construction/Development

I have to really tip my hat to Cities XL here, and suggest that Maxis shouldn't be shy in mimicking (and expanding upon) the construction aspects of Cities XL.

The fact that you can easily modify 3D terrain, that you can "draw" roads which seamlessly lock together, and the fact that the game tends to naturally morph around your choices (i.e. you aren't constantly destroying objects due to mis-placed roads and such), are all very good elements. I think they are almost critical to any future intuitive city design.

Events Management

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think it could work really well.

When you think about cities in the real world, what are the big, one-off things that can dramatically affect a city's development?

One of these things is undoubtedly major events; stuff like the World Cup, the Summer Olympic Games, the Grand Prix, etc...

I would love to see a full events management system built into SimCity 5. And I mean a full system.

It should include a bidding process - the need to actually qualify to some sort of international selection committee before you are even awarded the contract.

And when you win the contract? It would be like a quest, with multiple mandatory and optional achievements to reach.

For the World Cup, for example, you'd need to build a certain number of sporting venues with the appropriate capacities. You'd need to build specialised event transport systems. You might need to set up traffic redirections during the event period. You may also need to properly allocate police/security, even.

Furthermore, you could also set up advertising campaigns for such events. And, if run well, they might bring substantial economic benefits to your city.

Potentially, major events could be a running set of goals and I think they could play a big part of the game. The best thing is though, they'd be optional - they could deliver huge benefits, but they would also vary in terms of difficulty and expensiveness to establish and run well.

VIP Visits

This is something that has happened in some simulation games, but I think it's never really been done terribly well, despite having huge potential.

I'm thinking specifically of things like visits from foreign dignitaries - or even, perhaps, mayors from your trading partners!

What if you could choose which hotel they stay in, so that they get the best city views? What if you could direct their itinerary so that they get the best traffic and the most scenic tour of the city?

I'm not fleshing this out much admittedly, but I imagine there could be lots of interesting ways to expand the role of VIP visitors to your city.

Improved Transport Features

I think that SimCity 4: Rush Hour addressed this quite well, but games like Cities XL have gone even further.

There's really not much to say here, except "more and better". I would love to retain a multitude of public transport types, including ferries, monorails, various kinds of trains, buses, etc...

But I would also like the added control and flexibility present in Cities XL. For micromanagers, the ability to actually control bus routes is a big plus. I'd like to see that kind of system used across all transport systems, including trains and ferries.

I'd also like to have a lot more specific control over airports. Specifically, things like airport services, airport-to-city connections, and specific detail about passenger numbers divided by domestic and international (I'd love to know how many visitors I receive from foreign countries!)

Technology/Graphics

This tends to be my last area of concern, but I'd just say, I think Cities XL has set the bar on this. If SimCity 5 were to marry up that kind of graphics technology with SimCity-style gameplay, I'd be very pleased. The ability to investigate your city from street level is really valuable, too.

Better & More Nuanced Metrics

This one is a bit tough to describe and I think opinions will vary a lot.

In, say, SimCity 3000 (my favourite SC game), you kind of had a really great macro game and a pretty average micro game. That is to say, you had a great "big picture" control, but a lot of individual decisions were largely irrelevant - the game put emphasis on macro/bulk impacts and very rough geographical measures.

Also, the scale seemed unrealistic. You could have a city that is physically denser and larger than New York City, but still only barely reach 1 million citizens. It didn't make sense - high density buildings shouldn't even develop without the population to support them.

On the other side, SimCity 4 I think went to far in terms of worrying about unnecessary detail (and the more annoying aspects in some sense). The move to "neighbourhoods" made the game feel (to me) a lot more parochial and smaller-scale in nature. I missed the grandeur of SC3K.

I also didn't particularly like the focus on different income levels. Managing that just annoyed me. I would rather spend my time on city infrastructure and services, honestly. I don't mind micro-management (clearly, haha), but I want it to be fun.

So, that's how I'd start. What do you guys want to see?

[icharus5559]

About the bit with world events, yes, I am in favor of that. But only if they are local. I don't want any online features in what is, and always has, been a single player game.

I do hope the graphics remain in isometric. It is the best for building games like this. Rollercoaster tycoon, simcity.. That, and when I'm given the ability to rotate the camera, I never do. :\

I would also like to see regions... well, BIGGER regions, with smaller neighborhoods, or "area zones" that you can set. Say you can zone an area as "rich people", they would prefer to live there, rather then somewhere else. Again, just specifying where they should go. If you zone your entire city (which, should be as large as some of the HUGE SC4 regions), they won't move in less there is demand.
Think of cities in a region, but less square.


And add some variety to the public buildings. All hospitals/fire/police dpts shouldn't look the same. In a high tech industry area, make them look... well, high tech. In a suburb area with small houses, it should be smaller, look like a small town building..
Hospitals should be more dynamic. I don't know any real city that has a large hospital every 8 miles. There is a neighborhood in my town with TWO hospitals, right next door, and in an are with no large buildings. Less focus on area of influence, more focus on transit to/from and population demand on the hospital... So that you can't put 5-10 in the corner of your map. They need to be both NEAR your cities, and attached to a good line of transportation


Also if it doesn't have Jazz, I'm going to be sad. Very sad. Hell, just reuse the SC3k soundtrack. I listen to it afterall when I do play sc4!

[icharus5559]

I have another suggestion!

Let there be more animated news reports. In sc3k, you have a new ticker. you click it, and there is a small, funny picture of who is supposed to be talking to you.
Added CHARACTER to the game. A lot of it. The advisers had a little own distinct voice in my head.

sc4.. didn't. You almost never saw the advisers, and the news reports were pretty much all copypasta. Open it, skim, look underlined links, ok.

Maybe.. even add voiceovers. But no 3d advisers. No no no. It can be done

"The downtown subway station is getting too crowded! You can't get on your train without sticking to someone else's jacket!"
Subway would zoom you to which subway is congested.

[Ingsoc]

Honestly, animated news doesn't bother me too much. It would be nice to have a more fully-featured news system that directly interacts with the game in more detail, yes. But if Maxis were to sacrifice that for greater detail in other areas? Sure thing.

So it's a "nice to have", but definitely not a "must have" for me.

[MeltedGeneral]

Zoning as them mentioning plopping down buildings scare me greatly.

Everything from Rush Hour and EVERYTHING that the Network Addon Mod provided (I'm looking at you GLR). Also, the transit planning that Cities in Motion provides but even more control.

[Ingsoc]

Originally Posted by MeltedGeneral

Zoning as them mentioning plopping down buildings scare me greatly.

It scares you? Why's that?

[MeltedGeneral]

Originally Posted by Ingsoc

It scares you? Why's that?

I played SimCity Societies and there was no zoning. It did not feel right at all. Thankfully Maxis said zoning will return and because there's curved roads, Zoning is no longer confined to the grid.

[Radical_Danny]

I want super in depth micro management across ALL aspects, but you should be able to let large parts of it go on "automatic".

I would also like you could choose your own advisor's, perhaps each with their own personality. =3

[TrippleD]

Able to move up/down/left/right/spin etc using the mouse. (Free Roam)

[Ingsoc]

Originally Posted by MeltedGeneral

I played SimCity Societies and there was no zoning. It did not feel right at all. Thankfully Maxis said zoning will return and because there's curved roads, Zoning is no longer confined to the grid.

Oh, I see. I never played Societies - I just had no interest in it whatsoever.

For me, zoning itself (based on the three very general delineations) is not a problem, but if I had to place every single structure in a big city...yeah, that's just tedious and annoying.

I'd have to add one other suggestion to all this, too.

In SC3K (still my favourite SC game), you had landmarks, but they were largely just cosmetic and didn't do anything. I can't remember if they did anything in SC4, in terms of having a tangible effect on the game (that is, I think that gifts/rewards have an effect but landmarks don't).

I would love to see a much larger variety of landmarks that actually do something. If you can afford to build the Eiffel Tower, it should have a real impact on your city - it should boost tourism, improve land value, and so on. Perhaps landmarks could even have some negative consequences too (that is, positive and negative attributes that you have to balance).

It annoyed me that in previous games you'd use up valuable land space to build a landmark that is essentially just there to look pretty for the player, but in effect, the citizens in your city basically don't know it exists. Or at least, they are really indifferent to it.

So it would be good to have citizens who are generally more "aware" of the environment you've constructed, including having particular responses to landmarks.

Perhaps if landmarks have very strong positive effects, the counter-weight could be that they are very expensive. Perhaps some of them might also carry a substantial maintenance cost or something too. This would potentially mean that the decision to build a landmark is a big one, and one that can significantly change gameplay.

Originally Posted by TrippleD

Able to move up/down/left/right/spin etc using the mouse. (Free Roam)

I'm pretty sure they are adding this, aren't they? At least, my understanding is that they are allowing camera movement/rotation as well as "street view". Is that what you mean?

[TrippleD]

Yes. They have it in Sim Soceities.

[POGEfest]

Originally Posted by Ingsoc

In SC3K (still my favourite SC game), you had landmarks, but they were largely just cosmetic and didn't do anything. I can't remember if they did anything in SC4, in terms of having a tangible effect on the game (that is, I think that gifts/rewards have an effect but landmarks don't).

I have the SC4 instruction book in front of me, and here's a direct quote under the "Build Landmarks" heading: "They also happen to greatly increase desirability for high end commercial businesses."

So while landmarks didn't do all the things you want, they certainly have an effect. I, too, would like other things besides business desirability to be affected by them.

[chappa'ai]

For me, I just hope the game isn't an Origin exclusive, have always-online DRM, and NOT be a casual game

[SapphireBullets]

I'll just say one thing that really bugged me about SC4 was having to micromanage spending for hospitals, schools and such. A "Maintain A+ Standard" checkbox or something would be awesome.

[chappa'ai]

Micromanagement wasn't really necessary. You could just put them down and fund them at full, and they will be over-efficient, but you wouldn't have to micro manage them with city size; just put more down