Simcity 2013: Big Businesses (City Specialization)

Today we take a deeper look into the “city specialization” feature which allows you to focus on a central role for your city. This comes about through certain buildings you can place around your city under the umbrella term known as “Big Business.”

There are 5 types of “Big Businesses”

  • Electronics
  • Metal
  • Trade
  • Gambling
  • Petroleum

You do not have to focus on just one business type, in fact, you can have multiple businesses per city. However, the developers suggest discussing amongst the mayors in your region over which cities should host a particular business type.

Simcity 2013 Oil Business

Metal

This business extracts coal and ore from the ground. Coal can be traded with other cities to help fuel their power plants while ore can be processed into metal through a smelting plant. As you advance along this path, you can extract larger quantities of these resources.

Petroleum

This business pumps oil from the ground to be used as a resource for power. With a refinery, you can convert this oil and turn it into fuel and plastics.

Simcity Trade HQ building

Electronics

Now here’s where the connection between two specializations becomes apparent. This business type needs metals, alloys, and plastic to create TVs, microprocessors, and computers. You also have the option of collecting these resources through recycling or importing. This business type requires some focus on education and transportation in order to remain stable.

Trade

This sector primarily focuses over the importing and exporting of resources, especially the ones bolded above.  You can trade these resources to other cities or through the global market. Buy low and sell high is the name of the game around here.

Simcity Casinos

Gambling

By building gambling halls and casinos, you can attract a large number of tourists that bring extra revenue to the city. Tourists enter your city through a wide variety of transportation options including airports, bus stations, cruise ships, and trains. Gambling attracts crime, so be sure to have adequate police coverage to support the casino.

Each of these five big businesses come with their own leader-boards where you can compete with other players to see who gained the most profit within a 12 month span.

simcity wiki

Oh, we’d also like to announce we’re working on a Simcity 2013 Wiki. Currently it is private until more articles are written, but we plan to make it as informative as possible.

Simcity Beta: January 25th through January 28th, 2013

nightimeskyline

Yes the wait is over! Maxis announced today that the Simcity bets will start January 25th through January 28th, 2013! If you haven’t already signed up, there’s still some time left.  You have until 2AM January 21st GMT to submit your application. Selected applicants will only have 3 days to play before the servers are shut down.

The purpose of this beta, as described by Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Maxis is to “… help the team improve the live service aspects of SimCity to ensure a smooth and user-friendly experience at launch. I want to thank everyone for signing up – we are excited to share one of our most beloved franchises with our fans.”

The beta will start on Friday January 25th 12:00 Noon EST and will run until Monday at 3:00 AM EST! Maxis will collect feedback from players that will help shape the final version of the game!

  • Note: Beta testers can play a one-hour slice of the game multiple times during the testing period.

Simcity Beta Announcement Soon!

Simcity Beta Announce

Simcity Beta Announcement

Tomorrow morning (Friday, January 18th, 2013), Maxis will announce details about the Simcity Closed Beta. The beta was first announced back in August, and since then, players inquiring about it have been left in the dark with Maxis claiming that it would be released “soon”. We’ll be sure to post details tomorrow as it’s released! Good luck and hopefully we’ll see you there!

Simcity: Bridges over Land and Tunnels

Over the past week, Ocean Quigley has been releasing various screenshots of Simcity. One of particular interest is that you can build bridges over land above existing roads.

In the beauty that is Simcity, Tunnels can go underneath roads as well.
In this new Simcity, tunnels can go underneath roads as well.

You can upgrade these default causeway bridges to a fancier style. Bridges that come with different road types, have different upgrade styles.

 

Exclusive Origin Pre-Order item for Simcity 2013

Plumbob Park - Simcity 2013 Origin Pre-Order
Plumbob Park – Simcity 2013 Origin Pre-Order

If you pre-order the Simcity Digital Deluxe Edition, you will receive the exclusive “Plumbob Park” mystery item. With your pre-order, you will also receive up to $50 in Origin savings.

Simcity: Option to Adjust the Tilt Shift Blur

Simcity Avenue and Roads

We’re back from vacation wrapping up some of the things we’ve missed. This screenshot features a medium density avenue  in the center sandwiched by two high density roads. The center avenue can also be upgraded to include a streetcar track.

Buses can hold up traffic as they pick up passengers. A solution to this problem could be to place bus stops along the center avenue where they won’t be affected by the local traffic tying up the side roads.

Guillaume also pointed out that they’ve finally added the option for players to adjust the “tilt-shift” effect. This was a common request from players ever since the first screenshots were revealed.

Simcity: Nuclear Power Plant and Ramp Screenshot

Simcity Nuclear Power Plant

Simcity today released a Nuclear Power plant screenshot which is a slight upgrade from what was previously shown in the last Gameplay Strategy video. This shot is supposed to highlight the “instagram” like filters they use on the pictures of ploppable buildings in the menu. The previous nuclear power plant image was a bit foreboding as it appeared to focus on an impending nuclear disaster. This new and improved image gives it a much-needed industrial tone.

 

Simcity Ramp

A few days ago Guillaume posted a screenshot of a curved off-ramp over some railway. Someone questioned how steep the ramp appears to be which Guillaume replied that it’s a bug they are looking into fixing.

Simcity Developers Q.A Session 2: Recap

Simcity Industry

This weekend, Maxis developers answered a large swath of questions from angry long-time Simcity fans.  The main issues focused around the game requiring a constant Internet connection, as well as requiring Origin to play. On this post we will mainly focus on the features planned for this game’s release, but we will discuss the “DRM” and “Online” aspects in another post.

Weather and Seasons:

  • Weather changes throughout the year.
  • In the summer months, the heat evaporates the water table.
  • In winter, the leaves fall off the tree and it’s generally cloudy and rainy.
  • The rain replenishes the water table.
  • Snow is not planned for release.

 

Simcity Region View UI

Regions and Multiplayer

  • You can set up private regions to play by yourself or with friends.
  • Smaller regions can hold 2-3 cities, while bigger regions hold up to 16 cities.
  • Regions are designed by Maxis. Each region invokes different gameplay challenges players can choose to overcome. For example, there could be a river that splits your city in half and you can choose to build a bridge across it or build your city separately.
  • You will automatically share power and water resources , but you only get paid when another city uses it.
  • You can choose who you want to share city your city services with. (Police, Fire, Ambulance, School.)
  • You can send money to other cities. If you go bankrupt, you can ask for loans from up to three banks.
  • While you are bankrupt, you will go into “Budget Crisis” mode which gives you the option of requesting a loan or request help from other cities nearby. It will also help you identify which city services you should shut down.
  • Buying and selling to the Global Market influences the prices of resources.
  • Regions are around 16 kilometers.
  • You can claim cities other players have abandoned.
  • You can send resources to other cities in the region or sell them to the global market where the price fluctuates.
  • Resources you can share among cities include: Workers, Jobs, Shoppers, Freight, Shops, Fire Coverage, Police Coverage, Jail, Garbage and Garbage Capacity, Recycling Services, Ambulance, Sick Sims, Air Pollution, Power, Water, Coal, Oil, Alloys, and Public Transportation.
  • Great Works require multiple cities to share resources in order to build them.

Infrastructure and Transportation

  • Various transportation options include; trains, planes, ferries, buses, light rail, streetcars, and park and rides.
  • Subways are not planned for initial release.
  • Cruise ships can bring medium and high wealth tourists to the city.
  • GlassBox Engine’s pathfinding system will automatically reroute cars to avoid traffic. Commuters will generally try to use the main roads to get through the city and avoid smaller roads.
  • Bridges are automatically created when you drag roads over water.
  • Bridges can span over valleys too.
  • You can make curvy bridges and build roads underneath them provided there’s enough space.
  • You can place roads in any angle you want. Intersections range from 30 to 90 degrees.
  • You can create roundabouts.
  • Sims can travel to other cities for College/University.

Simcity City Hall

Buildings and Landmarks

  • Each city set in the Deluxe Edition gives you landmarks, and new residential, commercial, and ploppable buildings that match that style.
  • Placing a Mining Headquarters changes the signs on factories.
  • Placing a landmark, casino, or stadium will make hotels rise.
  • You can see inside of buildings.
  • Buildings were created from scratch, unlike previous Simcity games, it’s not a simple texture that you wrap around the building. Buildings are animated and rigged.
  • The game’s ordinances are handled a bit differently, instead of ticking checkboxes, you can add specific modules to buildings.
  • The Town Hall enables you to customize taxes universally around RCI and wealth classes.
  • The City Hall enables you to customize RCI taxes separately.
  • Educated Sims will install solar panels on their roofs. Education leads to high-tech industry.
  • Homeless Sims seek out garbage, abandoned buildings, and parks.

Emergency Services

  • When parts of your city is overrun with crime, you will see criminals roaming about, and graffiti will appear on buildings.
  • Sims will also complain about crime.
  • Arsonists will set buildings on fire.
  • Robbers can cause alarms to go off.
  • Robbers obey red stop lights (a simulation limitation)
  • Police coverage isn’t radial, police cars will now go around the city to suppress crime and catch criminals in the act. If you need more police coverage, just add more cars to the police station.
  • The Community Outreach Van and Detective Wing are modules you can add onto the Police Precinct.

Simcity Fire Data Layer

Data Layers and Graphs

  • Crime, Health, Sickness, Coal, Ore, Oil, Loans, Student Grades and Colleges are covered in Data Layers.
  • They keep track of different Sim types including homeless, shopper, criminal, and tourist Sims.

Interesting Questions:

Q. Why do cities have large spaces between them?

A.  Partially it was graphical limitation – we can’t render the adjacent cities in full resolution. Also simulation fidelity. We can’t afford to fully simulate the adjacent cities. Seemed like pushing them a little further away was the best tradeoff.

Simcity: Seasons and Circular Roads!

Yesterday, Guillaume Pierre showed two new screenshots which revealed seasons are indeed confirmed for Simcity! The leaves will change colors over the year but in the winter when it’s cloudy and rainy, the leaves will simply fall off.

Fall Screenshot in Simcity
Fall Screenshot in Simcity
Circular Roads in Simcity
Circular Roads in Simcity

Simcity 2013: Police, Casino, and Power Building Modules

Today we’ll take a look at the different types of modules you can place around the city. These modules are covered briefly in today’s newest strategy video. There have been several changes to the UI since the last video with a cleaned up interface and a more organized layout.

 

The video highlighted another type of gambling facility called the “Sci-Fi Casino.” This casino tends to attract medium and high-wealth residents. For a nice added touch, when you scroll by, you can hear funky music playing inside.  If you click on the casino you can check out the leaderboards to see how your casino’s net profits compares to other players.

You can expand the functionality of your Casino by placing modules near by.

 

The Casino’s modules include:

  • Poker Parlor: Increases your income per gambler.
  • Celebrity Stage: B and C list celebrity performances attract High-Wealth tourists.
  • Hotel: Creates 100 additional rooms for medium-wealth guests.
  • Penthouse: Creates 30 additional high-wealth rooms.

You can place these modules around the Casino and even stack them on top of each other.

 

 

Police and Emergency Response

Casinos tend to attract lots of crime, so adequate police coverage is necessary. The Crime Data Layer lets you easily visualize areas with high crime rates. You may even see some police activity and graffiti on buildings nearby. If crime gets out of control, criminals from your city may even spread out to affect other cities. Fortunately, with region play, police coverage can spread to multiple cities.

Police Precincts (high-tier) features several modules, including:

  • Police Dispatch Tower: Helps police respond to crime quicker.
  • Police Helipad: Adds a helicopter to patrol your city.

When disaster strikes, based on the situation, firefighters and police are automatically dispatched to that location. Firefighters from another player controlled city will include their avatar above their heads.

 

Power Plants

Coal Power Plants are heavy polluters, it may be wise to place that power plant in another city away from your main one. Power agents will travel along the roads and highways transmitting power to multiple cities. Unlike Simcity 4, your city does not exist in a bubble, pollution can eventually drift and affect other cities nearby.

Coal Power plants have various modules but only one was covered in the video.

  • Dirty Coal Generators: Increases power output by consuming more coal.

Take note that Power Plants need to be staffed in order to be fully operational. Sims from your city will travel along the highway to other cities to work at them. Nuclear Power plants are a special case in that they require staffing of highly educated Sims. Nuclear power plants with unskilled workers will lead to variable amounts of nuclear radiation leaking out of that facility.