SimCity 2013, a trainwreck of a game, switched to an agent-based simulation to compete with Cities Skylines. It ran horribly, inheriting all of CS’s performance

SimCity 2013, a trainwreck of a game, switched to an agent-based simulation to compete with Cities Skylines. It ran horribly, inheriting all of CS’s performance issues and gaining none of SC4’s benefits. It also added network features (DRM) so EA can notify your Smart Fridge of your compensation copy of Need for Speed after they scammed you $60 for SC2013. Moving on. Here's the real debate: SimCity 4 vs Cities: Skylines. SC4 uses a population-based statistical simulation. Cities: Skylines, stemming from Paradox's Cities In Motion (built with Unity engine [1]) focuses on traffic modeling using an agent-based simulation. CS excels at traffic flows because it’s designed for that purpose. It's the micro-level accuracy of Cities: Skylines "agents" and SC4’s macro-level realism of its "Sims." Instead of creating individual agents for traffic simulation, SC4 runs a pathfinding heuristic to find the fastest route between Sims' homes and jobs. Maxis designed this simulation to run on a 2004 Pentium III 500MHz with 128 MB RAM. Surprisingly, it still holds up today. In CS, agents return to designated homes. In SC4, Sims returns to the nearest vacant home after work. SC4's simplified simulation reveals the optimal path for Sims. This difference might seem immersion-breaking, but perfect pathfinding uncovers the most efficient urban designs that might initially be hidden. Isn't that the whole point of the simulation? SC4 isn’t perfect. Casual players ask: Why no diagonal roads? Why are my buses unused? Why aren't Sims going to work? The Network Addon Mod (NAM) [2], around 2004, has addressed some of these issues. It’s not perfect, but it makes the simulation smarter, so Sims can make decisions closer to agent-based solutions. NAM is the band aid covering the small cut that Cities Skylines makes in its otherwise superior simulation. SimCity 4 still holds its own as a city simulator. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20220716021755/https://unity.com/case-study/cities-skylines https://web.archive.org/web/20220716021755/https://unity.com... [2] https://www.sc4nam.com/docs/feature-guides/the-nam-traffic-simulator/ https://www.sc4nam.com/docs/feature-guides/the-nam-traffic-s...