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Comment by aresant | Hacker News Reader

A picture's worth a thousand words . . .

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/fch4fp/simcity-gameplay-d...

Surprising that Wired actually wrote close to 1,500 words with a headline about the graphical style of the game, but included one scant screenshot. . .

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Interesting. I hope that this doesn't become Sim Suburbia. The lack of "subway"/"rapid transit" (just "rail" and "streetcar") is worrying. Hopefully larger buildings won't be surrounded by parking lots - streets in the city (besides 14th, 34th, etc.) are narrower than those in suburbs.

I also don't like how the trains just instantly turn around and how T intersections on rails are possible - these are things that were okay in the 90s, but that I would have hoped to be fixed by now.

Ha, that’s exactly what I was thinking. It seems you can only ever build the same kind of boring city in Sim City, one fundamentally built around streets and cars. It seems even worse with this newest incarnation: Streets form the backbone through which everything runs. You can only build along streets, they are (or at least seem to be) the only thing that carries water and energy. It seems you cannot deemphasize the role streets play even if you wanted to.

I want pedestrian only streets and avenues, bike lanes, subways, different kinds of trains, etc.

I can see why they didn’t (making only streets the fundamental building block simplifies the game), but the cities you can apparently build with this Sim City are not very appealing to me.

So, "SimCity Planner"? I like it.

Personally, I'd love a "SimCity Manager" that was ran from a local government perspective, rather than a "God Hand" one. You change zoning, woo potential investors/business, decide if kids can skateboard downtown, build a skate park, or just arrest them, etc.

Master of Orion 3 tried to "SimCity Manager" approach: the result was one of the least enjoyable games of all time.

Which is a shame because Master of Orion 2 was amazing.

That's... Unfortunate. But hey, I'll give it a shot. Maybe I was the person they made it for; thanks!

Hm, no, that honestly sounds boring, too. Basically, all I would want is the same old Sim City approach but with more flexibility. I do think Sim City gets the basics right.

The problem with that is that it complicates the game. Games like Sim City are complicated as is, if you also add fundamentally different ways to build the basic infrastructure (including ways to mix and match) you are in danger of creating a game few will want to play. That’s why streets are the basic building block.

I agree with you; I'd definitely like to no only see SimCity offer a wider variety of basic tools to build upon. But I also think the ability to modify rules (say, in mods) would offer replay value and niches for all. So, let's hope they embrace mods. We all get what we want!

> It seems you can only ever build the same kind of boring city in Sim City, one fundamentally built around streets and cars

Ugh. Well, designed by a American company, so ... :(

I want sim-subways, sim-pedestrian areas, sim-giant-hub-rail-stations, and sim-congestion-pricing....!

SimCity actually has a very liberal design (within technical constraints) and rewards you for replacing all your roads with rail.

Yeah. The first was essentially "Build a California City!" But hey, it was created in California, so, why not?

The actual headline is "Versatile 'GlassBox' Engine Powers New SimCity" and it goes into a lot more detail than just the new graphical approach.

Looks like Tropico.

I personally would like to see simulation games offer "tilt-shift" as another option in their video config.

A picture is worth 1000 pictures!

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