Yes! Finally! Maxis is making a new Simcity

[klein]

After 9 years of a massively agonizing wait. Maxis and EA are working on a new SimCity.

http://pc.ign.com/objects/128/128952.html

http://www.simcity.com/en_US

PS. I can't wait to build a virtual Houston.

[brijonmang]

The timing is pretty coincidental... I had just found the old sim city 4 disk set I had and loaded it to my computer this morning. I was feeling all nostalgic.

New game looks pretty sweet, definitely an upgrade. Want to see more.

[houstonartstudent]

Well the release date is sometime is 2013...so be prepared to wait a little longer

My biggest hope is that they create bus/subway stations you can put on the sidewalks and not have to bulldoze a nice tall building just to fit one in

After 9 years of a massively agonizing wait. Maxis and EA are working on a new SimCity.

http://pc.ign.com/ob...128/128952.html

http://www.simcity.com/en_US

PS. I can't wait to build a virtual Houston.

[Simbha]

It's been a LONG time since I've played one of these games. Could someone tell me...

... Can players design the elements (buildings, bridges, etc) and share them with others?

... Is the player in control of all development within the city, or does the AI 'evolve' the city based on the situation and surroundings (too)?

... Is there zoning - maybe as a toggle? Can players place a nuclear power plant next to some residential, or are some actions disallowed?

[TheNiche]

Yes for buildings, but not for bridges because bridges span highly variable lengths of water. But there are numerous bridge designs to chose from.

Initially, the player must provide roads and electricity to areas that have been zoned for development. To obtain high density development, the player must zone for high density and provide water. Landfills must be provided within about a year or trash will pile up on site and make your city very undesirable. To obtain development that is aesthetically pleasing and that contain wealthy citizens, it becomes necessary to provide police, fire, hospitals, schools, parks and other public amenities, but without overtaxing the citizens. To exceed certain population thresholds, the city must have an aggregate number of public amenities and special-use buildings that supports that population. There is a careful balance of demography and budget. A city can get by more easily without its rich than without its poor, but having too many of either--whether the consequence of too few amenities or excessively unequal taxation of different classes of people--will cause the economy to stagnate. Likewise, taxing certain types of businesses out of existence (such as the polluting ones) can also cause stagnation. Some of these effects can be overcome by tying multiple cities within a region together and making them specialize.

There is zoning, and you can't turn it off. No development (even very-low-density agricultural) can happen outside of an area that is zoned. If you zone residential next to a nuclear power plant or a landfill, then it either won't develop or will develop as ugly housing for poor people which will promptly become abandoned due to a lack of demand.

[klein]

It will also be multiplayer.

There is zoning

That might be a problem if someone's going to make a virtual Houston.

My biggest hope is that they create bus/subway stations you can put on the sidewalks and not have to bulldoze a nice tall building just to fit one in

I wouldn't have to worry about that if I do Houston.

[klein]

I was selected for the closed beta. I like it. There was only a few bugs(sims running in the same place and the DRM/Multiplier Servers crashing every minute)

 

 

The city size (only one for the game) was horribly small. Houston would take up multiple regions 

 

My take is to wait for it the drop in price.

[samagon]

do they have more natural disasters? cause you know, the only thing better than cultivating a thriving metropolis is utterly destroying it.

[wxman]

From what I've read about the new Simcity, I already have major issues with the game. First, the obvious: CITY SIZE! It's incredibly small and like the poster above said, it would take many cities to create something to the likes of Houston. Second, there are no subways in the new game. They did away with them. Second, it looks too chartoonish from what I've seen. I like something that is going to look like a city from the air (which your perspective of the city is always from the air). 

 

While I have not played the game, this is what I am hoping to see and perhaps somebody can fill us in:

 

-I want to have full control of what my skyline looks like. Often times, at least for me, it's the focal point of my city. I want to be able to pick and choose real life skyscrapers from any place in the world.

 

-I think the game should have been made to where there are no ''borders'' to the city. It should be made to where your city can stretch in any direction for as far as you want. Also, borders of a city shouldn't always be square. Why can't we have the power to annex and draw in our own boundaries?

 

-I want to be able to lay out my airport the way I see fit. I wanna be able to add runways and configure the layout of those runways in different directions. Why haven't they thought of that?

 

From what I understand, the new game is geared more towards multi-player than it is the individual player. I feel like they really dropped the ball on this game. So far, I think Sim City Rush Hour is the best so far. Just my two cents.

 

Can somebody add anything or correct me on anything? I'm very interested. Thanks in advance!