Sim City 4 deluxe edition Review.

[Captain Jorden]

Sim City 4 Deluxe edition

This game is a really fun city building, mind twisting game. Infact to start, i will talk about the first Sim City.

The First SimCity:

This game is a little younger then pac-man, but, it has been around for a long time.


The generations of Sims and sim city:

Sim City Has been out for almost EVERY item.

Theres the DS, wii(Sim City Creater),pc(societies, sims 1-3 maybe 5, Sim city 4, Sim City ect...)


So you get the point. I am about to fall alsleep so i'll stop typing and show some screenshots from Sim City 4 later.

[Dark_Pixie]

Ah, I have that game! It's very good, and the best Sim City game in my opinion. I'm a Sims fan, and I try to get my hands on every Sims game on the planet. :P Just need to get Sims 1 to work, so I can import my sims into Sim City 4...

[Captain Jorden]

Yea, I got my pop. to 61k do you got any tips on trying to get buildings as tall as the twin towers. Ok and maybe I should post some screenshots too. Also this is my favorite game.

Theres also a forum for this Sim City.

It is called SimTropolis.

http://simtropolis.com/

The full complete Story of Sim City:

SimCity 4 (SC4) is a city-building/urban planning simulation computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. It was released on January 14, 2003. It is the fourth installment in the SimCity series. SimCity 4 has a single expansion pack called Rush Hour which adds features to the game. SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition contained the original game and Rush Hour combined as a single product.

The game allows players to create a region of land by terraforming, and then to design and build a settlement which can grow into a city. Players can zone different areas of land as commercial, industrial, or residential development, as well as build and maintain public services, transport and utilities. For the success of a city players must manage its finances, environment, and quality of life for its residents. SimCity 4 introduces night and day cycles and other special effects for the first time in the SimCity series. External tools such as the Building Architect Tool (BAT) allow custom third party buildings and content to be added to the gameplay.

SimCity 4 was praised for being the second game in the SimCity series to primarily use a 3D engine to render its graphics, the first being SimCity 64 for the ill-fated Nintendo 64DD. It received widespread acclaim, won several awards, and was one of the top ten selling PC games of 2003. It was however criticised for the difficulty of gameplay and computer performance.


As with previous SimCity titles, SimCity 4 places players in the role of a mayor (or several mayors), tasked with populating and developing tracts of lands into cities, while fulfilling the needs of fellow Sims that live in the cities. Cities are now located in regions that are divided into segments, each of which can be developed. The player has the option of starting the city in a segment of any of three area sizes, in real measurement the smallest has a length of 1 kilometers on a side, and the largest has a length of 4 kilometers on a side.[dead link][5] The size of a region and its layout of segments can be changed in a bitmap file provided for each region.

Neighbor cities play a larger role than in the previous versions of the game. For example, neighbor deals can be established, where a city can exchange resources such as water, electricity, garbage disposal with other cities for money. Players may develop several inter-dependent cities at the same time, eventually populating the entire region.

Game modes

Upon selecting a specific segment in a region, gameplay is divided into three "modes". Mayor and MySim modes become available after choosing a name for the city. The god mode is available before establishing a city.

God mode

A volcanic eruption destroying a city block
The first is the God Mode, which allows players to design or terraform a selected tract of land where the city will be built. God Mode also allows players to trigger disasters, including tornadoes and earthquakes among several others. Players can select an area where a disaster will occur and even control the direction of certain disasters. Most terraforming tools are disabled after the city is named and founded. The player still has some terraforming tools made available in Mayor Mode, although they become very limited and expensive, and can still trigger disasters at will. However, a cheat (or mod) can be used to enable the terraforming tools lost after founding the city. In addition to these abilities, God Mode also gives the player tools to reconcile the borders of the cities, so as to fix any discrepancies created during the terraforming process, and a day/night cycle adjustment, so that one can make it always day, always night, or alternate between day or night in accordance with the in-universe game clock. Both the ability to reconcile the city edges and the ability to modify the day/night cycle are available even once the city has been established.

Mayor mode

The second of the modes is the Mayor Mode, where the actual city building is conducted. Several advisors may give advice to the player on how to best manage a city. Players can build transportation networks, which include roads, streets, avenues, highways, railways, subway lines, and bus stations.

Areas of land in this mode can be zoned as residential, commercial or industrial areas where the city will begin to grow. Agriculture is now a separate industrial zone-type, unlike previous version of SimCity enabling for farms to grow regardless of high land value, so long as there exists demand for agriculture and agricultural zones have been provided. Zones are now automatically aligned towards roads and most buildings must be adjacent to a road in order to function properly; streets are automatically created when zoning on large tracts of land. Buildings are now classified into several wealth levels, zone types, and building size stages, which are affected by the region's population and the city's condition. The game simulates urban decay and gentrification with buildings deteriorating accordingly. Buildings originally constructed for occupation by higher wealth tenants can now support lower wealth tenants in the event surrounding factors forces the current tenants to vacate the building; this allows certain buildings to remain in use despite lacking its initial occupants.[6] Buildings and lots can now be constructed on slopes.



Other activities that players can do in Mayor Mode include building civic buildings that need constant funding to work properly, such as schools, hospitals, parks, police stations, jails, fire stations. These buildings now come in two or more sizes compared to the single, universal types that were used in previous games. Settlements also need public utilities such as electricity with more or less polluting and more or less expensive types of power stations, water pumps, water purification plants, and waste management services. Facilities that had previously provided citywide coverage, such as educational facilities and medical facilities, have now been modified to provide a more limited coverage, as it has been with police stations and fire stations in previous SimCity titles. Funding can now be adjusted for individual buildings rather than having to change the funding to all buildings, allowing users to specify how much money should be spent to supply a service in accordance to the local population. Maintenance expenses for public utility facilities will increase as they age. The maximum output of facilities also decreases as they get older. The rate at which facilities age is dependent on the percentage of its capacity being used and the level of funding being given to it.

MySim mode

My Sim mode

The final mode is the MySim mode which enables players to create user-defined Sims, which will live and work in the city the player has created. When moving a Sim into a city, the player can choose from a selection of characters or import others from The Sims. Sims can be killed by certain disasters or catastrophic events, leave the city if conditions are unfavorable, or die of old age. After they die, their "child" sometimes takes over for them by taking their name, house, and job.

Building designs

Buildings in SimCity 4 borrow heavily from early 20th century architectural styles, particularly Art Deco and Romanesque Revival, while houses can appear in a traditional American Craftsman style. However, there is an additional, more modern, architectural style similar to Houston's architectural style, and a European style that is based on the skyline of Frankfurt, Germany. The construction of new buildings on zoned areas is now animated. There are a number of buildings based on those found in San Francisco, including the Shell Building (appearing as "Wren Insurance"), 450 Sutter Street (appearing as "Vu Financial"), and the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Building also known as 140 New Montgomery Street (as "The Galvin Corp"). The May Company store in Los Angeles, now LACMA West, also appears as "Dennis Department Store."

Bugs

Maxis and Electronic Arts have released a total of three patches that improve or fix issues discovered in the original versions of SC4 and Rush Hour (two for the original SC4 and one for Rush Hour). Among other things, the patches contain performance improvements for larger cities and a variety of minor bug fixes. The two pre-Rush Hour patches each fixed errors in the game code that, while not impeding actual gameplay, were previously preventing nearly a third of the Maxis-designed buildings from ever appearing in the game. The first patch fixed the so-called "Houston Tileset Bug" which was leaving one of the game's three tilesets, a collection of contemporary Houston-inspired buildings, completely out of the rotation, meaning that the only buildings from that tileset ever to appear were several smaller variations shared by all three of the game's original tilesets. With the introduction of that patch, it rapidly became apparent that there was another underlying bug that was preventing approximately two dozen of the game's largest buildings from appearing. This issue was fixed in the second patch.
Although not necessarily a "bug", players often complained about the unrealistic pathfinding mechanism; it would often find the shortest route but not the fastest, which often left mass transit and highways relatively unused. Many players have made mods which have corrected this issue.

An integer overflow bug is also present in the game. Under certain conditions, the Junior Sports Program and Parks and Recreation expense items will be a negative value - thus adding to the end of month balance instead of reducing it.

Awards

SimCity 4 was chosen as one of IGN's "Editors' Choice" games for January 2003. It was also given the Parents' Choice Award by the Parents' Choice Foundation.

Third party content

In addition to official tools, third party programs were released for further accessibility in editing SimCity 4 contents, potentially allowing users to change the nature of the game itself. Since the release of the Lot Editor and the BAT, the majority of add-ons in circulation consists of user-created content; most are buildings and lots, while others include cosmetic changes for terrains, custom vehicles and modifications in the game's behaviors; Some even fundamentally change the behavior of facets of the game. Both the skills of lot building and modding are also integrated at times, producing lots that are capable of affecting a city in a variety of ways.

[Chalupa]

I had one of the older versions of Sim City, probably the first, and I thought that game was pretty good, and I am thinking about getting this one.

[Captain Jorden]

I haven't seen any SimCity threads here lately so i'd thought I'd post one.



Also;

Theres a SimCity Box(you can find it at wal mart, game stop ect...) that has Sim City Societies, Snap City, Sim City 4 Dueluxe edition, and Sim City Societies Destinations.

The Box only cost $19.99 plus tax(In Us).

Edit: Heres my screenshot for here.





And Now presenting: The town of Bartos.


Incase you can't see my writing here is what i put.

The town of Bartos. Pop. 61,402(my recent data). And now here is Bartos.




Now this is a very congested city. It has 0ver 7000 cars going on the highway(Intersate-3). Also it has a Major Airport where on the bottom left corner. In the middle is where all the bussinness are and the commercial services are. The tax rate for those are around 5%. If you look to the right of the airport, you see a Country Club. In the North(well south to the north)you see very tall buildings. That is where the rich live. Close to thousands of people live in there. In the south(you can't see this its below the farms), you will find the Industrial, power plants, ect... but the are also a army base, AND a federal prisin. In the North-East side of the city you will see the minamin wage homes. THese homes get burned very easily so I'm putting out fires(or telling the fire crew) in those locations. THe small business are near the airport and across the river to the right. Next time I post, I will talk about the neighboring city next to it. Also before I go,I will tell you my tax rates:

$ wage income: 7% = $1,204
$$ wage income: 6.5%=$8,212
$$$ wage income: 4.5%= $2,455

Sales tax For:

Small services tax 5%
med. services tax 6%
Large service tax 6.5%

Bussinness tax

Small 4.5%
Large 4%

Industry tax

Argiculture 9%
Dirty Industry 10.5%
Manufracturing 7%
Large industry 6.5%

Well and you know. I'll say something about the head line on the bottom. Half of the city has water(which is some of the poor people but I can't afford it.) Also I need money so I cut expenses instead of raising taxes. And I'll say this; I AM NOT IN DEBT!!! I almost did though. surviving with $14 for a month. It was so close though. Now I'm around 150,00. The highest I've gotten was 750,000 and that was just because my expenses was $5000 and my income was $12000. Now my budget is: Income- $22,000 Expense-19,000. But still its alot for me.

[Captain Jorden]

I just got my second city. A pop. of over 70,000 Bigger then Bartos.


To the left is where the rich people live, also its where Bartos and this city connects. So thousands of people go on the avenues. Further north is where the large businness are, also this city is smaller then Bartos. Infact I will show the whole region in a couple days. The casino is near the airport. Then I got a TV station, and a radio station. The industrial part is at the corner but beware of robbers. Many crimiminals are around there running away from the jail. Cops aren't strong enough to catch all the criminals. In the north is where the poor live. They are so poor that they only get $5,000 a year. Minamin wage is $4.50/hour. Then you got the middle class. They live near the south just below the rich. I'll tell more of as soon as I get my next update to the city. But list some ideas of what I can put.


Tax Everything 9%


Problems/News:

Educaters threatens to drop chalk and walk.
Power Plant is being pushed too hard.
Hot buildings reveal mayors heat.
Bussinness want more commercial area.
Bartos City 2 gets its first highway.
Local Area recieves crimes in the last week.


Thats all the important stuff. See all of you next monday on my next new update!!!




Edit: i have added lots of new things;

Disease Research Center
Stock Exchange
Main Library
The City Zoo
Major Leage Stadiom
Solor Power Plant.
and a court house.

The current pop. is 89,945.

The city has growned more to the east. I will show you a screenshot in about a week, cause I'm going on vacation. Show me your cities when you buy it the game.

[Dark_Pixie]

Excellent! I'd better get that game out and see if I can best you.

[Captain Jorden]

Yes, This is my favorite game. I'm hopping this thread lasts awhile while I'm here. I LOVE Sim City. Yes, of course i like potco but right now. I'm playing Sim City 4 more then potco.

Please comment in what I should add In the next update of my city.