Citybound - a new city building game - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Citybound - a new city building game

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

drunkill posted:

Just wondering how you'll set the game up, being from Germany you'll probably call trams Trams or Light Rail and (hopefully) not streetcars, but will there be an option to have left hand drive cities or roundabouts or even bikelanes as a road/vehicle type?

You might like this website then, allows you to customise a cross-section of a street, add lanes, bike paths, tram tracks and dividers and street furniture.
http://streetmix.net/-/124828
http://blog.streetmix.net/

That picture really needs a second pair of tram tracks. And/or some elevated tracks above it. Tram tracks tend to clog easily if you have enough trams to fit the passengers in my experience.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2014 22:01

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 03:12

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Iunnrais posted:

Question about Agent/Statistical interaction.

Grocery Stores, right now, grow based on the statistical availability of food. What happens when there exists, according to the statistical model, a vast abundance of food... farms as far as the eye can see... but due to major traffic issues, only a tiny fraction of that food can actually reach your downtown area. Abandonment? What would prevent other supermarkets from trying to pop up based on the statistics? Will there be a sea of abandoned supermarkets downtown?

Freight trams? It could work.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 18:43

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

What about tunnels and bridges, will those be buildable anywhere?

# ¿ Apr 25, 2014 21:13

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Best of luck with quitting the job anselm. Just be careful not go down the path of Dwarf Fortress. :v:

I had no idea Japanase railway laws were so much more competent than ours. If only the idiots in charge of ours could learn from them.

Vahakyla posted:

http://www.train-fever.com

This might be the game for you. I have been following train fever and it seems to be bringing a more realistic approach to Transpor Tycoon, where you start with horse carriages and horse trams, transporting goods and people all the way to electric trains.

I does not have a strong city building factor, but being more like intercity/rural Cities in Motion, with wider eras.

It reminds me a bit of Transport Giant, but more promising. Which isn't hard to be honest. Man was that game disappointing. Need to run 5 trains from one place to another? Why yes, 5 separate parallel tracks in a L shape is by far the most realistic and/or fun way to build a train network. Who needs diagonal roads or tracks anyway? And the lousy way they set up truck depots and airfields making more than about 4 parking spaces a complete waste of space and money as they wouldn't and couldn't be used. I'll stop now but I could rage for a long time. Also, gently caress you and your lack of support for games Jowood, I spit on your grave. :argh:

Poil fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Apr 30, 2014

# ¿ Apr 30, 2014 17:03

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Baronjutter posted:

In a huge city do we really want to be micro-managing funding to individual roads or intersections?

Possibly about as much as we want to micro-manage funding to individual clinics and schools. Some people would enjoy it. Maybe it'd be easier to just have heavily trafficked roads require a bit more maintenance instead.

# ¿ May 3, 2014 00:56

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Neat, but cars only being able to turn right after leaving a plot was something that caused a lot of anger over in the sc2013 thread if I remember correctly. :v:

That solution to the time passing is probably the best way to go about it. It reminds me a little of how Europa 1400 The Guild solved it. Way back when that game was made they had day/nigh cycle, seasonal changes and years all combined. It worked like this,
Day 1, spring 1400
Day 2, summer 1401
Day 3, autumn 1402
and so on.

# ¿ May 7, 2014 10:46

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Baronjutter posted:

I know I'm probably in a minority but I've never had any interest in disasters in any of these sort of games. Disabling them is always the first thing I do. They're rarely a challenge, just an interruption and then tedious re-building. To me a good disaster in a city builder is a traffic jam, an economic problem, a pollution problem, basically results of the systems of the game and your choices. Not just "there's an earthquake, now spend 10 min bulldozing and re-doing a bunch of your work".

Yeah, this. I do the same thing. Having fires and stuff is fine though, but if I see one of those awful homing tornadoes again. :argh:

# ¿ May 16, 2014 23:19

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

anselm_eickhoff posted:

Well the problem is that the word alpha has just lost all it's meaning now,
I thought of something more along the lines of

The game at this stage
* is utterly incomplete
* might be boring or terribly frustrating
* might be broken in a million ways
* may even not start at all!

Only buy if you can accept that.

A lot of people accepted simcity5, so apart from the first one it won't be a problem. :v:

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 22:18

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

ToastyPotato posted:

And we also have no idea how long this game will even take to be made and what an average PC is going to look like, power wise, when it is done, so talking about adding limitations now is pretty stupid, especially when the base engine itself is still largely unfinished.

Future computer hardware is kinda irrelevant unless the program can handle it. Even now some devs are making games that can't utilize 64bit or multicores properly.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2014 21:51

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Have a good trip. Make sure to study the roads and city planning. :v:

# ¿ Sep 23, 2014 23:11

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

I still think Austria is the correct answer. But that wouldn't require a new language, I think. Italy then?

# ¿ Oct 14, 2014 23:16

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

http://satwcomic.com/how-the-north-works :eng101:

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 23:59

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Parking prices get even better when they're controlled by private interests whose only concern is to make as much money as possible from the parking. :shepicide:

But the average car can easily hold 4 people so you could probably halve the parking required for work places.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2014 21:30

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

You do realize that the case is to protect the parts from damage, dust to some extent and of course someone knocking over a glass anywhere near it, right? For gods sake that's an expensive and annoying accident just waiting to happen.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2014 17:10

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Well if the game can utilize 64bit and multiple cores properly you'll get a ton more power to work with. No, I'm certainly not bitter about anything. :argh:

# ¿ Jan 12, 2015 16:26

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Mr. Powers posted:

You did have to put some thought into what to put where so you could find elevator expansion. I wasn't patient so I'd build lots of condos for quick payout and then have no recurring revenue.

Condos were such a trap option. Especially when people started moving out after you had spent the money because your elevators weren't good enough.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 15:54

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

NatasDog posted:

Road repair crews would be really awesome; I don't think any sim has ever done that. Being able to watch as traffic backs up and starts seeking alternative detour routes would be fun to see.

You could fund road repair in towns in Transport Tycoon. It spawned road constructions on random straight road pieces throughout the city, completely blocking traffic for several months. Its only purpose was to gently caress over anyone running buses or trucks.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2015 15:43

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

I would have to be impossible to remove lanes/roads that were undergoing construction or players would just bulldoze and rebuild to avoid dealing with them. Also if road maintenance ends up on a slider, you can't cut back on funding to avoid having construction work messing up traffic without regretting it.

Poil fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Jan 14, 2015

# ¿ Jan 14, 2015 17:40

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

I'd like to see a double roundabout with another double roundabout above it to handle larger volumes of traffic. That'd be fun to see in game (possibly not to drive through). With a bit of clever ramp placement it shouldn't be too difficult.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2015 00:50

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

I've gazed into the abyss of seriously spergy road tools. :stare:

# ¿ Jun 9, 2015 13:25

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Holy poo poo in city planning. :stare:

# ¿ Jun 20, 2015 10:18

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Good of you to move out of that place. Also loving MULTITHREADING! :neckbeard:

# ¿ Aug 9, 2015 11:02

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Personally I'm worried about that overly detailed mechanics will end up tanking performance without giving enough of a gameplay benefit. Something that works great in a hamlet ends up making the game unplayble once you're reaching city size. But I'm sure that's been mentioned, thought about and discussed several times before. :v:

anselm_eickhoff posted:

Let it be known that I keep an eye on my beloved SA thread and that the above-average thoughtfulness that is often displayed here is an important source of inspiration!

You're not the only game dev who gives this place such high praise.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2017 14:22

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Baronjutter posted:

Yeah, it was really annoying in simcity 2000 hunting down and replacing old power plants. Just loving auto-rebuild or bake it into the upkeep costs. If the power plant lasts 50 years and costs 5,000 just let me check a "fund replacement costs" box and have it deduct an extra 100 a year.

If you had disasters turned off and enough money the game would auto rebuild them.

In Sim City 3000 you had to do the same with garbage facilities and water pumps as well. It was awful. But still better than the loving slider micromanagement of Sim City 4.

# ¿ Mar 22, 2017 00:13

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

It would've been so much better if the ticket sliders were percentage based instead. For example they start set at 100% and that auto adjusts with the economy or whatever and you can raise or lower for certain groups or modes of transport. Or just leave it out entirely because it's annoying.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 00:14

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 03:12

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Baronjutter posted:

There was a city builder that had a really cool concept where you built a heaven and a hell, you were managing the afterlives for a whole planet and it had a lot of really cool stuff. It had a horrible major flaw though, every single loving building in the entire game had basically a slider for funding. Depending on your population and a few other factors there was a single objective correct optimal setting for this slider to be and it was horrible busywork. They knew it was awful so they added a simple button you could press at any time and it would auto-set all your sliders. Oh but to press this button cost a ridiculous amount of in-game money. You had to pay to not do pointless busywork. Ruined the game. They could have entirely eliminated the entire mechanic because there was more than enough other stuff to do.

I looked into that game but it just didn't seem very fun to me for some reason, and I didn't know about the sliders thing. The concept seemed cool though.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 00:11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Citybound - a new city building game