Crap, I'm playing Sim City 4 again.

[Wyndru]

Goodbye free time.

I haven't logged onto WoW in like 2 weeks. This game sucks me in and keeps me for a good 2 years at a pop.

On a side note, if anyone else hasn't played in a while the May 2010 NAM mod makes a ton of great improvements, and now I'm able to send my sims over a large area for jobs (currently making it as far as 4 large tiles to find work via High Speed Rail). I terraformed a HUGE region that will take me a long time to fill, but it will be fun.

I love this game.

 

[BD231]

I order you to go outside

 

[shortylickens]

Make sure you get the latest patch. It fixes performance issues on ALL platforms.

 

[tweakboy]

How dare you that game is for families and little children LOLOL jk jk. gg and tc.

 

[Wyndru]

Make sure you get the latest patch. It fixes performance issues on ALL platforms.

Yeah, I have the deluxe edition and installed the patch. Have it running all high settings and custom resolution so it doesn't look stretched on my widescreen.

The modding community at sc4devotion.com and simtropolis.com are huge and still very active. It's crazy how realistic some of the building replicas are. The NAM makes transportation so realistic now. This game is way better than when it first came out because of these modders. Steam has it available now too so hopefully it will generate some new players and keep the game strong for a few more years.

If you want to see what this game looks like these days, check out this mural on ST. It's pretty amazing. I'd put the pic in, but it is a bunch of pics all stacked on each other.

http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/me...TARTPAGE=35&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear#1749068

 

[sonoma1993]

Make sure you get the latest patch. It fixes performance issues on ALL platforms.

what patch are you refering to for simcity 4? the latest one i see for simcity 4 was relase back in November 2003. Is there some custom patch out for this game? if so would love to get it and play this game again on my computer.

 

[Wyndru]

what patch are you refering to for simcity 4? the latest one i see for simcity 4 was relase back in November 2003. Is there some custom patch out for this game? if so would love to get it and play this game again on my computer.

Which OS do you have? That 2003 patch is the only one I have installed. If you have windows, it runs fine on XP, Vista and I'm now playing it on 7.

For the custom resolution and windowed mode, I just start it with this:

"C: \Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -intro: off -w -CustomResolution:enabled -r1280x800x32

I tried higher res, but I don't know if it supports it, it kept crashing for me.

 

[duragezic]

I actually fired up Simcity 3000 the other night. It's been some time but I never got into SimCity 4. I found 3000 to be be an overall great update to 2000, but that 4 sort of changed a lot of things that I didn't like or get used to.

I forgot a lot of the real useful parts of the game, like grid sizes. I used to do 9x9 but I found that maybe not ideal because zones can go like 4-6 spaces from roads. So I've been working 14x14 grids with a 6x6 unzoned center (parks, police, school, etc) and small parks to make 8 4x4 inside the 14x14. Also water pipes have a radius of 7 tiles so 14x14 blocks means I can lay pipes down roads to cover everything. Also been trying out double wide roads, except a space between the two roads. Otherwise I found even with subway and bus stations, traffic gets too bad. I've not had much luck with rail or highways.

 

[paperfist]

what patch are you refering to for simcity 4? the latest one i see for simcity 4 was relase back in November 2003. Is there some custom patch out for this game? if so would love to get it and play this game again on my computer.

They aren't really called patches but things like the NAM (Network Addon Mod) that duragezic is talking about goes a long way to fix how transportation was suppose to work in SC4 with bug fixes, new modes of transportation and the like. There's a few others like the NAM that fixes gameplay.

The one thing I always hated about the mods is there's so damn many to pick from. I wish those sites could release mod packs that work and compliment each other.

 

[sonoma1993]

They aren't really called patches but things like the NAM (Network Addon Mod) that duragezic is talking about goes a long way to fix how transportation was suppose to work in SC4 with bug fixes, new modes of transportation and the like. There's a few others like the NAM that fixes gameplay.

The one thing I always hated about the mods is there's so damn many to pick from. I wish those sites could release mod packs that work and compliment each other.

ahh thanks for clarifying that for me, much appreciated. Downloading the NAM and some of it plugins for it. Can't wait to try it out

 

[wanderer27]

They aren't really called patches but things like the NAM (Network Addon Mod) that duragezic is talking about goes a long way to fix how transportation was suppose to work in SC4 with bug fixes, new modes of transportation and the like. There's a few others like the NAM that fixes gameplay.

The one thing I always hated about the mods is there's so damn many to pick from. I wish those sites could release mod packs that work and compliment each other.

It does get confusing when they start to mention dependencies and all, but they do have a fair amount of grouped mod packs here:

http://www.simtropolis.com/

 

[Jeff7]

Do you have the Deluxe Edition, or the Rush Hour expansion pack? (Same thing.)
Also fun: The Prima strategy guide book. It's something like 300 pages of detailed information on the effects of various structures.

I'll have to get some better screencaps of my cities and regions. This is all I've got available right now.

I kind of cheated with pollution and power generation: All dirty industry was housed in separate cities with no residential zones. No residential zones = no health effects from heavy pollution. Also in those cities were coal power plants and trash burning power plants. The trash-burners were set to $0/month, so they'd still burn trash, but wouldn't produce (expensive) power. All water was piped in from the adjacent clean cities.

The clean, residential cities also housed commercial and high-tech industrial zones. Every city block had a park of some sort, and a subway station. One-way streets were everywhere, in place of avenues - they have a slightly lower speed limit, but higher capacity, and are much 60% cheaper than avenues in terms of monthly maintenance. A large highway grid also ran across the entire region.

Terribly efficient, orderly cities. 🙂

 

[RebelMouse]

Ah Sim City 4. I wasted many many hours with that game. Reading this thread has made me nostalgic to play it again. I think I might have to buy it off Steam today.

 

[Homerboy]

What about CitiesXL?
What's the report on that game in place of SC4?

 

[coloumb]

Is this as addicitvely bad as Civ4 [which was addictive at first, but I soon found too repetitive] or other "city building" games? I've recently been addicted to the old Settlers games [heritage of kings and rise of an empire - waiting on Settlers 7 to remove DRM], Anno 1404, 1701 AD.

 

[wanderer27]

What about CitiesXL?
What's the report on that game in place of SC4?

They essentially turned into an MMO with DLC 🙄

Had some good ideas, had some issues, but the monthly subscription fee killed all interest for me.

 

[wanderer27]

Is this as addicitvely bad as Civ4 [which was addictive at first, but I soon found too repetitive] or other "city building" games? I've recently been addicted to the old Settlers games [heritage of kings and rise of an empire - waiting on Settlers 7 to remove DRM], Anno 1404, 1701 AD.

It can be if you're into this type of game.

There's not really a "just one more turn" thing here, as it's constantly running (RTS).

It's a City Simulator / Simulation.


One of my favorite franchises as I still play it.

I'm also into the Civ4 & Settlers games (didn't care much for HoK) - may give a general indication whether this might appeal to you.

 

[lupi]

I also didn't like 4 as much as 3. Didn't feel like building several cities at once to do the trade and such between them.

 

[VorpalBunny]

Also fun: The Prima strategy guide book. It's something like 300 pages of detailed information on the effects of various structures.

I lost my strategy guide to a flood and I can't seem to find a replacement. 🙁 If anyone knows where I can get a copy, please let me know.

I love this game. I still have it installed along with the transportation mod and patches. I always liked placing the missile base next to the airport.

Some of the mods available for download were cheats, but many are actual improvements on the intended operation of the game. The transportation mod for instance really helped out and made the game a bit more realistic. I would like to see a summary of other recommended mods.

 

[GaryJohnson]

This thread convinced me to pick up Sim City 4 on steam. I had some crazy graphic artifacts/glitches which from googling a lot of people seem to attribute to incompatability with Windows 7. Anyhow, what fixed it for me was changing the renderer from hardware to software. Doesn't look as nice, but it's playable.

 

[Wyndru]

This thread convinced me to pick up Sim City 4 on steam. I had some crazy graphic artifacts/glitches which from googling a lot of people seem to attribute to incompatability with Windows 7. Anyhow, what fixed it for me was changing the renderer from hardware to software. Doesn't look as nice, but it's playable.

I had the same issue, it kept crashing unless I went with software, thought it was because I was on custom res, but not the case. Oh well, it's playable.

Here is a pic of a transit hub area I made. My region is a few weeks old and over 1 million, but I'm not going to bother posting a region shot since it doesn't look realistic at all yet.

A ghetto area from an old city I abandoned a few years ago

An old region that got lost when my HDD on my laptop crashed. Again, kind of patchy and not realistic, but I was hoping to fill the whole region and make it better looking by having suburbs leading up to central business districts. Didn't happen unfortunately.


A couple of other great SC4 modding sites if anyone is interested.

http://www.simtropolis.com/ (it's been mentioned a few times above.)
http://sc4devotion.com/
http://www.simpeg.com/forum/index.php (lots of eye candy mods here)

I had a few japanese sites that had amazing stuff on them, but I lost all of those links. If I come across them while browsing forums, I'll post them.

 

[paperfist]

I lost my strategy guide to a flood and I can't seem to find a replacement. 🙁 If anyone knows where I can get a copy, please let me know.

I love this game. I still have it installed along with the transportation mod and patches. I always liked placing the missile base next to the airport.

Some of the mods available for download were cheats, but many are actual improvements on the intended operation of the game. The transportation mod for instance really helped out and made the game a bit more realistic. I would like to see a summary of other recommended mods.

I think I recently threw out my copy of that strategy book 🙁 I'll double check though.

They essentially turned into an MMO with DLC 🙄

Had some good ideas, had some issues, but the monthly subscription fee killed all interest for me.

Actually Cities XL went off line because no one (not many at least) would pay for it and they never released any of those cool looking GEMs they previewed for the game. Not long after that Monte Cristo who made the game went bankrupt. Oh the humanity 🙂

Last I heard they were trying to sell off what remained of Cities XL to any open buyer. Monte Cristo was in the process of putting together Cities XL 2011 (I think it was called) to replace the catastrophe of what the MMO had become. It was going to be a single player of XL with a few additions. That's when they went belly up.

 

[EvilComputer92]

I had the same issue, it kept crashing unless I went with software, thought it was because I was on custom res, but not the case. Oh well, it's playable.

Here is a pic of a transit hub area I made. My region is a few weeks old and over 1 million, but I'm not going to bother posting a region shot since it doesn't look realistic at all yet.


An old region that got lost when my HDD on my laptop crashed. Again, kind of patchy and not realistic, but I was hoping to fill the whole region and make it better looking by having suburbs leading up to central business districts. Didn't happen unfortunately.


A couple of other great SC4 modding sites if anyone is interested.

http://www.simtropolis.com/ (it's been mentioned a few times above.)
http://sc4devotion.com/
http://www.simpeg.com/forum/index.php (lots of eye candy mods here)

I had a few japanese sites that had amazing stuff on them, but I lost all of those links. If I come across them while browsing forums, I'll post them.

How did you manage to get your High Income Commercial skyscrapers in such a small area of land? They only develop for me in large sprawling cities that have expanded to the limits of the map.

 

[Wyndru]

How did you manage to get your High Income Commercial skyscrapers in such a small area of land? They only develop for me in large sprawling cities that have expanded to the limits of the map.

I tax out everything but CO$$$ on a small tile, and that is all I have there. Water, power and garbage are taken care by another tile further away, so I don't get the negative effects. Because there are no sims actually living on that tile, it doesn't need police either, so you can save money there too.

The important thing is that the sims have a lot of fast transportation to get to that tile, I usually use highway or high speed rail, but subway works well too. Once the CO$$$ hits ~50,000, (I think it's actually like 47k) you get the skyscrapers.

All of my tiles have specific roles though, some I tax out industry and commercial and have only residents, some I tax out all but industry, etc. I learned that from the EA's website actually, they have a quick start strategy guide for sc4 there.

 

[wanderer27]

I think I recently threw out my copy of that strategy book 🙁 I'll double check though.



Actually Cities XL went off line because no one (not many at least) would pay for it and they never released any of those cool looking GEMs they previewed for the game. Not long after that Monte Cristo who made the game went bankrupt. Oh the humanity 🙂

Last I heard they were trying to sell off what remained of Cities XL to any open buyer. Monte Cristo was in the process of putting together Cities XL 2011 (I think it was called) to replace the catastrophe of what the MMO had become. It was going to be a single player of XL with a few additions. That's when they went belly up.

I didn't know they went belly up - sounds like their greed killed them.

That's ashamed, now there's no one really around to design a next gen City Sim.


Well, at least SC4 is a pretty good one for now.