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Eh... Don't buy it. At least in SC4 I've found the west coast urban planning style or suburban styles produce highly profitable and $$ or $$$ res/comm/industria

Eh... Don't buy it. At least in SC4 I've found the west coast urban planning style or suburban styles produce highly profitable and $$ or $$$ res/comm/industrial cities that don't fail. SimCity is a fun game but it's really broken for modelling real world stuff.

DoreenMichele 7y ago
SC4 is broken. Try it in SimCity 3000 or 2000. SC4 intentionally made it stupidly easy to make the city work financially and also killed what I thought of as "the game god." It's all ooh, shiny and can be fun in a largely superficial manner. But I don't think it works well as an actual city simulation anymore. (SC4 followed the company acquisition. It has a more polished, corporate feel and it's cool that it has things like recycling centers. But I am not really a fan.) I cannot find an article about it, but one city uploaded it's data to SimCity and got surprisingly solid city modeling results. This was before the joke that is SC4. Edit: Geez, can we not downvote the comment I'm replying to? I left out the fact that I primarily play SimCity 3000. It's a perfectly reasonable reply that prompted me to fill in missing details that I hadn't thought to include in my original comment.
- edejong 7y ago
  Wrt downvoting: I’ve seen some really trigger happy downvoting on other comments as well, even though the argument was cogent. It would be nice to reserve downvoting for clearly stupid comments.
  - samsolomon 7y ago
    It's a reasonable comment, but I think it's being downvoted because many believe SC4 was the most difficult game in the franchise. It's been a long time since I've played any of those games, but I recall a good bit of backlash about the new SimCity being too easy compared to previous games.
    - givehimagun 7y ago
      Wait - I thought downvoting was for the quality of the comment and not the content? Is downvoting for when people disagree? Wouldn't that hide dissension?
      - Retra 7y ago
        You can down-vote for whatever reason you like. You are trusted to justify it only to yourself.
      - DoreenMichele 7y ago
        This has been widely hashed out over the years. You can use downvotes to express disagreement. I have no problem with that generally because I would rather see downvotes than see every single person who disagrees feel compelled to pile on with petty BS. But in this case, the comment called attention to a defect in my earlier comment -- my failure to specify which SimCity -- and allowed me to add the missing information. Since my reply with the additional info has substantial upvotes, I think it's wrong to punish the comment that elicited that reply from me. It has too much of that "you win an argument by making the other guy lose" vibe. I hesitate to say this explicitly, because past experience suggests it will result in a temporary pile-on of everyone and their brother nitpicking the hell out of my comments, but I really don't want to discourage good faith comments that nudge me to address defects or omissions in my comments. I don't think that improves discussion here. I think it makes things worse. "Don't shoot the messenger."
    - opportune 7y ago
      I've been playing it a lot lately. It is the most difficult, so long as you abstain from playing "missions" and don't install mods. But if you play the missions it becomes very easy. And the most popular gameplay mod is a mod to make the transit system easier. Also simcity 4 isn't meant to be a 1:1 mapping from game to real city anyway. Most buildings in simcity4 can hold a multiple of what they would contain in real life; it is a model of a city, not a real city, after all. So it stands to reason that they could just cut out the parking lots for aesthetic purposes.
    - DonHopkins 7y ago
jfoster 7y ago
Could you please present a logical argument to back your claim? For example, logically, if someone is in a high density area and can walk to their workplace which is nearby (since it's a high density area), there is less of an infrastructure burden as they do not need to commute each day. That means they won't be contributing to a traffic jam or packed train. What's the argument for sprawl leading to less infrastructure burden?
- icebraining 7y ago
  What meddlepal is saying is that it works in SimCity (4), not that it works in the real world.
- C1sc0cat 7y ago
  Cost - when I worked in Central London I could not afford to buy a former council flat (Red Lion Square) near work, My Boss , a Director and My Bosses Boss the MD could not afford it either
  - sprafa 7y ago
    London has hugely inflated house prices, particularly in Central but now all over the city due to foreign investment. It's obvious - virtually no one who actually lives in the city can afford it anymore.
    - user5994461 7y ago
      Not entirely true. The various CXO, MD, expensive contractors and middle managers in large companies can afford in some parts of the city. They could afford almost everywhere a couple years ago. There is a lot of money in London, people just can't fathom how much. An income of £100k a year only gets you around the top 10% of workers. Needless to say. The closest you get to the center, the more you are competing against the very top percentile, which is filthy rich.
      - sprafa 7y ago

DoreenMichele 7y ago

SC4 is broken. Try it in SimCity 3000 or 2000. SC4 intentionally made it stupidly easy to make the city work financially and also killed what I thought of as "the game god." It's all ooh, shiny and can be fun in a largely superficial manner. But I don't think it works well as an actual city simulation anymore. (SC4 followed the company acquisition. It has a more polished, corporate feel and it's cool that it has things like recycling centers. But I am not really a fan.) I cannot find an article about it, but one city uploaded it's data to SimCity and got surprisingly solid city modeling results. This was before the joke that is SC4. Edit: Geez, can we not downvote the comment I'm replying to? I left out the fact that I primarily play SimCity 3000. It's a perfectly reasonable reply that prompted me to fill in missing details that I hadn't thought to include in my original comment.

edejong 7y ago
Wrt downvoting: I’ve seen some really trigger happy downvoting on other comments as well, even though the argument was cogent. It would be nice to reserve downvoting for clearly stupid comments.
- samsolomon 7y ago
  It's a reasonable comment, but I think it's being downvoted because many believe SC4 was the most difficult game in the franchise. It's been a long time since I've played any of those games, but I recall a good bit of backlash about the new SimCity being too easy compared to previous games.
  - givehimagun 7y ago
    Wait - I thought downvoting was for the quality of the comment and not the content? Is downvoting for when people disagree? Wouldn't that hide dissension?
    - Retra 7y ago
      You can down-vote for whatever reason you like. You are trusted to justify it only to yourself.
    - DoreenMichele 7y ago
      This has been widely hashed out over the years. You can use downvotes to express disagreement. I have no problem with that generally because I would rather see downvotes than see every single person who disagrees feel compelled to pile on with petty BS. But in this case, the comment called attention to a defect in my earlier comment -- my failure to specify which SimCity -- and allowed me to add the missing information. Since my reply with the additional info has substantial upvotes, I think it's wrong to punish the comment that elicited that reply from me. It has too much of that "you win an argument by making the other guy lose" vibe. I hesitate to say this explicitly, because past experience suggests it will result in a temporary pile-on of everyone and their brother nitpicking the hell out of my comments, but I really don't want to discourage good faith comments that nudge me to address defects or omissions in my comments. I don't think that improves discussion here. I think it makes things worse. "Don't shoot the messenger."
  - opportune 7y ago
    I've been playing it a lot lately. It is the most difficult, so long as you abstain from playing "missions" and don't install mods. But if you play the missions it becomes very easy. And the most popular gameplay mod is a mod to make the transit system easier. Also simcity 4 isn't meant to be a 1:1 mapping from game to real city anyway. Most buildings in simcity4 can hold a multiple of what they would contain in real life; it is a model of a city, not a real city, after all. So it stands to reason that they could just cut out the parking lots for aesthetic purposes.
  - DonHopkins 7y ago

jfoster 7y ago

Could you please present a logical argument to back your claim? For example, logically, if someone is in a high density area and can walk to their workplace which is nearby (since it's a high density area), there is less of an infrastructure burden as they do not need to commute each day. That means they won't be contributing to a traffic jam or packed train. What's the argument for sprawl leading to less infrastructure burden?

icebraining 7y ago
What meddlepal is saying is that it works in SimCity (4), not that it works in the real world.
C1sc0cat 7y ago
Cost - when I worked in Central London I could not afford to buy a former council flat (Red Lion Square) near work, My Boss , a Director and My Bosses Boss the MD could not afford it either
- sprafa 7y ago
  London has hugely inflated house prices, particularly in Central but now all over the city due to foreign investment. It's obvious - virtually no one who actually lives in the city can afford it anymore.
  - user5994461 7y ago
    Not entirely true. The various CXO, MD, expensive contractors and middle managers in large companies can afford in some parts of the city. They could afford almost everywhere a couple years ago. There is a lot of money in London, people just can't fathom how much. An income of £100k a year only gets you around the top 10% of workers. Needless to say. The closest you get to the center, the more you are competing against the very top percentile, which is filthy rich.
    - sprafa 7y ago