SimCity 4

SimCity 4
Developer(s)	Maxis
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Release date(s)	January 10 2003
Genre	Simulation
Mode(s)	Single player
Rating(s)	ESRB rating: Everyone (E), PEGI rating: 3+
Platform(s)	Windows, Linux under WINE, Apple Macintosh

SimCity 4 (SC4) is the fourth computer game in the SimCity series of games. It was published by Electronic Arts (EA) and developed by series creator Maxis, a wholly-owned subsidiary of EA.

Overview

There are many differences between this game and previous versions, the largest difference being that cities are now located in regions that are divided into segments, each of which can be developed. The regional play concept adds a whole new dimension to this sequel of SimCity.

Neighbor cities played a large role in the previous version of the game, SimCity 3000. For example, neighbor deals could be established, where a city could exchange resources such as water, electricity, or garbage disposal for money. In this version, the player may develop several dependent cities at the same time, eventually populating the entire region. Additionally, the simulated city can now be seen at nighttime as well as during daytime.

SimCity 4 can be used in conjunction with Maxis' popular game The Sims. Sims can be imported into the city where they will report what they think of the area they are living in. SC4 comes with some default sims for those without a copy of the game. Moreover, SC4 does have a control interface very similar to The Sims.

Details

The graphics for SimCity 4 are far advanced over its predecessors, as can be seen with this large, mature city from the game.

After selecting a specific segment in a region, gameplay will be divided into three "modes". The first of which 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 tornados, earthquakes and robot attacks. Terraforming tools are disabled after the city is named and founded.

The second of the modes is the Mayor Mode, the fundamental mode of the game where the actual city building is conducted. The mode allows players to insert necessary structures and facilities, such as roads, civic buildings, zoning and power stations, for the city to attract its intended tenants and grow.

The final mode is the MySim mode which enables players to create MySims and closely assess citizens' needs. The mode primarily involves the deployment of Sims into the present city, where they will reside and provide feedback on the areas surrounding their home, commute and workplace.

Rush Hour

On September 22, 2003, Maxis released an expansion pack for SimCity 4 dubbed Rush Hour (RH). SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition, a bundle of SC4 and the Rush Hour expansion pack, was released on the same day.

Rush Hour provides a number of major transportation additions to the game. These additions include:

• Avenues, with twice the capacity of roads, in both directions.
• One way roads, with twice the capacity and width of standard roads.
• Ground-level highways, which are cheaper to build in the first instance, but are more expensive to run over roads and rails.
• Monorails, above ground train systems.
• Elevated rails, an above ground extension of subways.
• Tollbooths, which are placed on any road or highway to generate income based on the intensity of the traffic.
• Ferries, which are used to transport pedestrians or vehicles across a body of water, and are significantly cheaper to build than bridges.

The expansion also includes a European contemporary building set, minor gameplay tweaks and new, larger service buildings suitable for larger cities.

One of the main features of Rush Hour is U-Drive-It, a mode where players can take control of cars, planes, and many other vehicles and drive them around the city. A set of missions have been included with the game that involve things such as rescuing cats with a fire truck and drawing images in the sky with a skywriting plane. This feature has some similarities to SimCopter and Streets of SimCity.

Another big improvement in Rush Hour is the route query; with it, it is possible to check the routes the sims use to get to their jobs, and it makes the traffic simulator of the game feel a lot more "alive" since one can directly see where the Sims need to go and how they do it. However, the route query does have some flaws: often, the number of Sims reported to be working at a building differs from the number given by standard query; some impossible travel routes can be seen, such as cars "jumping" off highways onto adjacent buildings or going through structures; the data reported by the route query tool are sometimes out-of-date.

Criticism

For the original release, some users complained that the system requirements were prohibitively high, and that the game ran slowly on relatively powerful computers. Also, some users reported that the game had many bugs.

Another common criticism of SimCity 4 is that the pathfinding of the citizens is subpar. User communities have created "pathfinding mods" that modify the simulated citizens' ability to find the best route. These can be found in several fansites (see Fansite links).

Maxis and Electronic Arts have released patches that improve or fix issues discovered in the original versions of SC4 and Rush Hour, including performance improvements for larger cities, and the so-called "stage 8" problem, which made it very difficult to get higher-density buildings such as skyscrapers.

Add-ons and modifications

Official add-ons

Following SimCity 4's release, several add-ons and development kits were made available in its official site. These include:

• New landmarks, including Rockefeller Center, the Brandenburg Gate, and Stonehenge. Later landmarks were no longer based on real-life buildings and were primarily used to demonstrate the capability of Gmax and the Building Architect Tool (BAT) around the time of the BAT's release.

• The Lot Editor (LE), a lot builder, which allows users to edit or design lots for SC4 using available props. Because it was released several months before the BAT as a stand-alone version, users at the time were only capable of producing lots that consisted of pre-existing props from SC4. The BAT provides users with an updated version of the LE, rendering the original LE utility irrelevant, although it is still made available in the official site.

• The Building Architect Tool, a suite of tools developed for producing custom buildings. The suite consists of three applications: The Building Architect gamepack for Gmax, which enabled users to render Gmax models into SC4 sprites or props to be imported into the LE; an updated version of the LE; and the Plug-in Manager, which enables users to modify simulation properties for the lots. Several modified versions have been released that have, in effect, served as bug fixes for various problems that had not been discovered before the initial release. First released on February 2004, it sparked the formation of many new "BATters", BAT teams and BAT projects in the SC4 community in the following months.

SC4's Building Architect Tool is similar in function to SimCity 3000's Building Architect Tool and SimCity 2000's Urban Renewal Kit; however, previous programs of this kind were created from scratch by Maxis and used completely different interfaces.

Third party add-ons

In addition to official tools, third party programs were released for further accessibility in editing SimCity 4 contents. Such programs have become indispensable as they were essential to the development of mods that were capable of modifying the nature of the game itself.

Since the release of the LE and the BAT, the majority of add-ons in circulation consists of user-created content; most are buildings and lots, while others include mods such as cosmetic changes for terrains, custom vehicles (most notably road vehicles and trains) and modifications in the game's behaviors. 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.

Modd Squad

Main article: Modd Squad (SimCity 4)

The Modd Squad is a name coined for the SimCity 4 modification community, consisting of individual "BATters", modders, BAT teams, and BAT projects, aimed at releasing custom contents and modifications for SC4. The majority of the Modd Squad's public activities are based in a popular SC4 fan site, Simtropolis (see Fansite links), while others are conducted in separate fan sites and message boards.

The Modd Squad has unlocked many of the game's internals to modification, and has created an impressive array of changes to the game. Their work has also permitted the development of more realistic user created plug-ins made with the LE and BAT. Third-party modifications have also been created to solve problems that were not yet fixed in official patches, add functionality to the game, or make the high learning curve slightly lower by modifying environment variables.

City Journals

City Journals are an extremely popular way for SimCity 4 players to showcase the cities and regions that they have built. Also know as "CJs", they include pictures of the author's region. Often, a story is also written by the author to accompany the region's development. These Journals are most often posted at either SimCity Central or Simtropolis forums (see Fansite links). Some notable classics include:

• Aesti Dominici (http://www.simcitycentral.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7105)
• Sculpting Columbia River (http://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=58126)
• Olympia (http://www.simcitycentral.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8260)
• Nexis of Genesis (http://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=45161)
• Edmonton (http://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=37869)

External links

Official sites

• Official SimCity web site (http://simcity.ea.com/)
• Official Rush Hour web site (http://rushhour.ea.com/)

Fansite links

• SimCity Central (http://www.simcitycentral.net/)
• Simtropolis (http://www.simtropolis.com/)
• SimCity 4 Resource Center (http://www.sc4ever.com/)
• SimCity.com Fansite Directory (http://simcity.ea.com/community/fansites/fansites.php)
• SimCitySphere (http://www.simcitysphere.com/)
• SimGlobal (http://www.simglobal.net/)
• DudyConstructor (http://www.dudyconstructor.com)
• Simvision (http://www.simvision.net/)

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