innominate
06-12-2007, 01:31 AM
I am quite sure it is way to late in the development to add something like this but id like to share and idea i had for simcity. Mabey it'll be in #6. I'm also not sure that computers would be powerful enough to handle this kind of thing at the time, but it has been a couple years since SC4 so by mores law we should be several times as powerful. Also i have not played SC4 in a while so sorry if i make any mistakes in my current recollection.
In simcity 4 you have regions these are nice in that you can make multiple cities and having them interact and my suggestion is another way of implementing this. The main problems I have with the current implementation are:
1. Time stops in one city while you go to work on the other.
2. You have to go save one city go back to your regions map then go back into the other city to actually change anything
3. Cant really see the other city from a neighboring city even though a building may be 3 feet away.
4. Every thing is always a city there is no "in between land" so if i wanted just a highway in one of my regions i could do that but that region was still a city and well theres not really any way for a city like that to prosper.
5. You do not really do anything at the region level you just choose a city to edit.
So here my ideas:
When the user starts up the application they create/randomly generate a very large area of land, i will call this the "state". Next the user can zone/create cities by drawing lines (to make polygons) that represent the city limits. These cities can later be resized. It is in these cities that you do all the building, that is the standard "sim city". This is the main concept the rest of my ideas are fairly unorganized and i will present it in bullet points:
-Separate funds for each city, also separate funds for the state
-City level and State level laws (ordinances) (each city different laws)
-City and state level taxes (each city different taxes)
-In the state you can still build such things as highways, rails, ect to connect two cities. Also things like state parks could be build outside of cities on the state level.
-I think its best to keep all residents living in a city. No zoning of buildings at the state level.
-This is pushing it but: AI controlled cities. When you create a city have the option to allow the computer to build up this city.
-Have the start up money for a city come from the state?
-of course allow sims to commute to work in different cities
-pollutions flows out of cities into surrounding areas in the state
-property values flow out of cities into surrounding areas in the state
-really all kinds of things should travel from city to city example convicts could flee one city into another.
-State able to help out in funding of cities, ex. a real small community may not be able to fund a good education program the state could help out by giving funding to the cities schools. Also mabey the state is in charge of fully funding something like a university that resides in a city.
-State can have crime (highway motercycle gangs) and fires forest fires so state police and fireman could reside in an actual city but be funded by the state.
-For the control system scrolling from a city to the state and into another city would transfer you from city mode to state mode back to city mode. while looking at one city you will see its mayor rating, funds, happiness, ect.
-Also ability to view stats about all cities side by side.
-Warnings displayed in a warnings ticker should still show for all your cities no matter where you are, so if something real bad is going down in one city while you are working on another you are not unaware.
-Have the game come with pre-made states that already have well developed cities that make good profit. A beginner could use these cities to give them help starting up a city by providing funds to that states which the state gives to the city or by selling power/water/ect real cheap.
-Have a mode where the user and the computer each have a city in the same state and the two cities compete for something (population mabey). The state would be controlled by another AI and the state could allow/deny requests for expansion and do other things like impose state laws that may harm you city. This gives a nice game aspect to it with competition instead of just a simulator. Of course this relies on some fancy AI
-So when i was first think about AI controlled cities i was thinking about you being able to go in and see the city the computer was building. But mabey to make it more fesiable it could just be like SC3 where you just knew some info about the city. And where that city is in your state is just kind of a blank area with some stats shown. This of course would make the competition mode described above less fun.
-Make it so you can go down into your city in first person mode and steal cars and shoot at people like GTA (Just kidding:) )
Anyways those were just some ideas i had, feel free to expand or tell me what you think.
-Nate
Edit: Fixed some grammar stuff
In simcity 4 you have regions these are nice in that you can make multiple cities and having them interact and my suggestion is another way of implementing this. The main problems I have with the current implementation are:
1. Time stops in one city while you go to work on the other.
2. You have to go save one city go back to your regions map then go back into the other city to actually change anything
3. Cant really see the other city from a neighboring city even though a building may be 3 feet away.
4. Every thing is always a city there is no "in between land" so if i wanted just a highway in one of my regions i could do that but that region was still a city and well theres not really any way for a city like that to prosper.
5. You do not really do anything at the region level you just choose a city to edit.
So here my ideas:
When the user starts up the application they create/randomly generate a very large area of land, i will call this the "state". Next the user can zone/create cities by drawing lines (to make polygons) that represent the city limits. These cities can later be resized. It is in these cities that you do all the building, that is the standard "sim city". This is the main concept the rest of my ideas are fairly unorganized and i will present it in bullet points:
-Separate funds for each city, also separate funds for the state
-City level and State level laws (ordinances) (each city different laws)
-City and state level taxes (each city different taxes)
-In the state you can still build such things as highways, rails, ect to connect two cities. Also things like state parks could be build outside of cities on the state level.
-I think its best to keep all residents living in a city. No zoning of buildings at the state level.
-This is pushing it but: AI controlled cities. When you create a city have the option to allow the computer to build up this city.
-Have the start up money for a city come from the state?
-of course allow sims to commute to work in different cities
-pollutions flows out of cities into surrounding areas in the state
-property values flow out of cities into surrounding areas in the state
-really all kinds of things should travel from city to city example convicts could flee one city into another.
-State able to help out in funding of cities, ex. a real small community may not be able to fund a good education program the state could help out by giving funding to the cities schools. Also mabey the state is in charge of fully funding something like a university that resides in a city.
-State can have crime (highway motercycle gangs) and fires forest fires so state police and fireman could reside in an actual city but be funded by the state.
-For the control system scrolling from a city to the state and into another city would transfer you from city mode to state mode back to city mode. while looking at one city you will see its mayor rating, funds, happiness, ect.
-Also ability to view stats about all cities side by side.
-Warnings displayed in a warnings ticker should still show for all your cities no matter where you are, so if something real bad is going down in one city while you are working on another you are not unaware.
-Have the game come with pre-made states that already have well developed cities that make good profit. A beginner could use these cities to give them help starting up a city by providing funds to that states which the state gives to the city or by selling power/water/ect real cheap.
-Have a mode where the user and the computer each have a city in the same state and the two cities compete for something (population mabey). The state would be controlled by another AI and the state could allow/deny requests for expansion and do other things like impose state laws that may harm you city. This gives a nice game aspect to it with competition instead of just a simulator. Of course this relies on some fancy AI
-So when i was first think about AI controlled cities i was thinking about you being able to go in and see the city the computer was building. But mabey to make it more fesiable it could just be like SC3 where you just knew some info about the city. And where that city is in your state is just kind of a blank area with some stats shown. This of course would make the competition mode described above less fun.
-Make it so you can go down into your city in first person mode and steal cars and shoot at people like GTA (Just kidding:) )
Anyways those were just some ideas i had, feel free to expand or tell me what you think.
-Nate
Edit: Fixed some grammar stuff