LinCity 2000?
Posted: 14 Dec 2015, 03:26
Hello.
I'm a big fan of Sim City 2000, and the saga has gone too gimmicky from the games posterior to 4, I didn't start to like 3000 onwards, but they have some good ideas that 2k could have liked. But instead of remaking SC2000, why not to remake an existing FOSS alternative? OpenCity looks dead, similar fate suffered lesser projects, and I'm more of a isometric/at least topdown graphics. That means LinCity is the most similar project I found (Lincity-NG is 3D, but since the main game was topdown, it counts). Althrough I like it, I find it rather lackluster.
My idea is to create a clone of LinCity, written in Pygame, which is the library I'm most used to on a language I like, and add some new design (+) and keeping the good stuff (*):
* The importance of education. Giving it a bigger role than just making your people happy makes it look less gimmicky, similar to other services. Getting new things just by waiting is boring.
* The plain map is good, as something I hate about SimCity is that hilly terrains are an obstacle to the city design. Maybe I'll add an height attribute, but it won't do anything to roads other than preventing them to merge if two of them are together at different height.
+ Zoning system: The actual solid-style residences is too stiff, as the first SimCity Micropolis shows. Composed of:
- Residential, which density depends on how much built space and transport efficiency.
- Commercial, which is much more expensive and less needed in quantity (so a single tile can work as a little shop, in a scale of 1 per ~20 residential tiles.
- Extraction, which includes farms, forests, quarries and mines. The first three require large areas, and the latter just the entrance to the shafts.
- Industry, which requires at least a 2x2 area to build the operative buildings and additional 1x1 warehouses to store items awaiting to be carried to other industries/shops.
- Dumping, where trash is disposed on the dirtiest way.
- (Air/Sea)port, the former serving for tourism, migrants and business, the latter for cargo exchange.
- Parks
+ Revamping the transport system. Nowadays it's a bit confusing and inconsistent, at least as I understand it. In the late game, designing a Metro/Subway system will be crucial for citizens to move around the city.
+ Electric power, as in LinCity its optional but very useful, although it'll be more versatile, with three levels of power, plus a "low voltage" that's run on the streets:
- Middle voltage, which can be run alongside roads, and powers the low voltage network.
- High voltage, which needs free space, but can be run from anywhere in the city.
- Very high voltage, which is only used for the national network, and you can only use it to connect your power plant/substation to the country.
That's everything I have for now, I'll add when I shape my project better.
Bye.
I'm a big fan of Sim City 2000, and the saga has gone too gimmicky from the games posterior to 4, I didn't start to like 3000 onwards, but they have some good ideas that 2k could have liked. But instead of remaking SC2000, why not to remake an existing FOSS alternative? OpenCity looks dead, similar fate suffered lesser projects, and I'm more of a isometric/at least topdown graphics. That means LinCity is the most similar project I found (Lincity-NG is 3D, but since the main game was topdown, it counts). Althrough I like it, I find it rather lackluster.
My idea is to create a clone of LinCity, written in Pygame, which is the library I'm most used to on a language I like, and add some new design (+) and keeping the good stuff (*):
* The importance of education. Giving it a bigger role than just making your people happy makes it look less gimmicky, similar to other services. Getting new things just by waiting is boring.
* The plain map is good, as something I hate about SimCity is that hilly terrains are an obstacle to the city design. Maybe I'll add an height attribute, but it won't do anything to roads other than preventing them to merge if two of them are together at different height.
+ Zoning system: The actual solid-style residences is too stiff, as the first SimCity Micropolis shows. Composed of:
- Residential, which density depends on how much built space and transport efficiency.
- Commercial, which is much more expensive and less needed in quantity (so a single tile can work as a little shop, in a scale of 1 per ~20 residential tiles.
- Extraction, which includes farms, forests, quarries and mines. The first three require large areas, and the latter just the entrance to the shafts.
- Industry, which requires at least a 2x2 area to build the operative buildings and additional 1x1 warehouses to store items awaiting to be carried to other industries/shops.
- Dumping, where trash is disposed on the dirtiest way.
- (Air/Sea)port, the former serving for tourism, migrants and business, the latter for cargo exchange.
- Parks
+ Revamping the transport system. Nowadays it's a bit confusing and inconsistent, at least as I understand it. In the late game, designing a Metro/Subway system will be crucial for citizens to move around the city.
+ Electric power, as in LinCity its optional but very useful, although it'll be more versatile, with three levels of power, plus a "low voltage" that's run on the streets:
- Middle voltage, which can be run alongside roads, and powers the low voltage network.
- High voltage, which needs free space, but can be run from anywhere in the city.
- Very high voltage, which is only used for the national network, and you can only use it to connect your power plant/substation to the country.
That's everything I have for now, I'll add when I shape my project better.
Bye.