SimCity: Difference between revisions

* ''SimCity 3000'' (1999) was mostly a graphical and feature update. Originally it was going to be in full 3D, but this was abandoned. The graphics stayed isometric but were promoted to high-definition, new variables were added including fire hazard, approval rating, water and garbage pollution, neighbor deals (which were quite unfair), and support for bigger cities that could reach the million inhabitants with a bit of luck. (It also eliminated hydroelectric power plants that lasted forever, so you could no longer leave your city running overnight and come back to a prospering metropolis with a million Simoleons in the bank.) A later expansion, called ''Unlimited / World Edition / UK Edition'', added a scenario editor, a building editor, as well as Oriental and European building sets. This was [[Video Game Remake|remade]] as ''SimCity DS''.

* ''SimCity 4'' (2003) was the second major extension; the buildings are rendered in 3D with high resolution, trimetric bitmaps, but the terrain was now a full 3D mesh, and the assortment of civic buildings was expanded (the schools, for example, were split into elementary schools, high schools and private schools), a maintenance cost was added for all the utility buildings, and the game was designed to allow for third-party mods. However, the greatest new feature was the regional gameplay: instead of playing with isolated cities, you could now play with an entire region divided in cities, you could get all your services from another city at a fair price, your Sims could live in your city but work somewhere else, and the demand in your neighboring cities would affect your own demand. A later expansion, called ''Rush Hour'', added more transportation options, such as ground highways, monorail, elevated rail, one-way streets, toll booths, and there are also many third-party mods, such as the Network Addon Mod, which adds more rail systems, elevated roads, and more traffic crossings. Aside from the in-depth city management options, the player also had the option to design the region from scratch. This extended to the possibility of using real-life satellite imaging to add real world regions in game. So far, due to its many, many hidden depths, this game is considered the best of the series.

* Another game has been announced for release in 2013, simply titled ''[[Recycled Title|SimCity]]''. This installment is being designed by Maxis, who has indicated that this game will be more of a direct sequel to ''SimCity 4'' than ''Societies'' was. It is also set to introduce online multiplayer to the series proper, a game mode that has not been explored since the long-forgotten ''SimCity 2000 Network Edition.''

* ''SimCity Social'' is [http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/18027/report-simcity-social-hitting-facebook an upcoming Facebook game] that will take the concept of both the 2013 remake and ''The Sims Social'' and combining them.

* ''Streets of SimCity'': Actually a major break from the resource simulation genre, instead being a driving sim -- with some combat elements thrown in, no less. Perhaps most notable for two things: you can upload ''SimCity 2000'' maps into it, and it was a rather remarkable forebearer of much later open-ended games like ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' (except that the player is stuck in his car, and it was naturally much more primitive; that said, it even shares many similar themes, if you can believe that) Sadly, it had a number of [[Obvious Beta]] bugs that kept it from gaining a wide audience.

* ''SimCopter'': Another break from resource management simulations into a primitive flight sim; the player's goals were to deliver people to various destinations, drop water on fires, assist police chases and deliver patients to hospitals (many of which were injured by the player if he or she dropped them from his or her helicopter from too great a height). All of the player's craft were based on real-life helicopters, including the unlockable Apache attack copter. Like ''Streets'', ''SimCopter'' also took ''SimCity 2000'' maps as playable settings.

* ''SimHealth'': Manage US healthcare! Based on ''SimCity 2000'', it doesn't appear to have been very good.

=== Tropes present in the series: ===

** This makes the [http://www.dorkly.com/video/17907/dorkly-bits-sim-city-monster Dorkly video seem more accurate].

* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The Super Nintendo version of the game introduced the rewards system. Also, introduced the only recognized mascot of the series, Dr. Wright.

* [[The Cameo]]: In the SNES ''SimCity'', you're able to erect a statue in Mario's honor. There is also a disaster where Bowser rips through the city looking for the portly hero.

* [[Cheat Code]]: Older versions of Sim City 2000 have codes that unlock all perks (including Arcologies) and give you a pile of money. There's also the classic "double fund" code where you buy two municipal bonds via "fund", then one through the city management menu, triggering a [[Good Bad Bug]] where you end up with a loan with a ludicrous ''negative'' interest, meaning you get piles of money you'll probably never run out of every year.

** Also, ''3000'' had a dominant color for each zone type, density and income level. Mid-class apartments, for example, were brick red, rich houses had light green grass, heavy industry was brown, and small businesses had lots of pink esplanades. This remained to some degree on the ''Unlimited'' expansion, where the European building set, for example, had brown historic buildings as light commercial and light gray mid-class apartments.

* [[Command and Conquer Economy]]: averted; you place infrastructure, but the Sims will build structures themselves in properly zoned land.

* [[The Computer Is a Lying Bastard]]

** People demand Fire Departments even when disasters are disabled. No point in building them unless [[Harder Than Hard|Disasters are on]] (and in ''Simcity'', set them to ~1% funding until needed). ''[[SC 4]]'' replaced turning disasters on or off with most disasters only being there for [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]], but some disasters would still happen on their own.

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|Corrupt Civil Executive]]: Your advisors in ''Simcity 3000'' tend to give advice based or factors in their area of interest without any regard for the big picture, meaning they occasionally suggest somethat that's good for, say, public transport but would cripple the city as a whole. The manual [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] this but suggesting they may have an agenda (which only results in paranoia over whether their advice is trustworthy even ''within'' their area of interest).

* [[Cut and Paste Environments]]: Advanced to a large scale standard!

** In 2000 itself, we have Nessie and Maxis man.

** ''SimCopter'' has one of the most famous easter eggs of all time: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Servin one of the development team] was gay, and became offended when asked to program in [[A Winner Is You|a celebration sequence]] with bikini babes... so he added bikini-clad men, forcing a recall when they were discovered. (This programmer would later go on to pull culture-jamming pranks as one of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men The Yes Men].)

* [[Einstein Hair]] / [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|You Gotta Have Green Hair]]: The SNES adapation's Dr. Wright has bright green hair.

* [[Executive Meddling]]: According to Wright, the publisher refused to release the original ''SimCity'' as is, because they felt players would feel the need to have a win condition. Wright appeased them by including winnable scenarios - and of course, the scenarios were the ''least'' popular feature of the game.

* [[Exposition Fairy]]: Dr. Wright in the SNES port.

** [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]]: If you consider what some of these mods contain, you can find some cities with [[Super Mario Bros|Princess Peach's Castle]], [[Pokémon|Pokemon Stadiums]], [[Metal Gear Solid|have metal gears as a disaster]].

*** Also should be noted that in the Super Nintendo version of the game, Dr. Wright would be chased by Bowser, which would indicate that Bowser was attacking your city. Also, you could build a Mario statue in your city after obtaining a population of 500,000 people.

* [[Holiday Mode]]: If you ever played Sim City 4 on Christmas Day (or set your computer's clock to December 25), cities built at higher elevations will have snow blanketing the landscape.

* [[Isometric Projection]]: ''2000'' and ''3000'' and their derivatives.

* [[Karma Meter]]: The driving missions in ''Rush Hour'' can turn your Mayor Rating into one, as it will increase or decrease depending on what missions you perform.

* [[Leitmotif]]: In the SNES version, each city size has its own background music.

* [[Loading Screen]]: ''SimCity 4'' features goofy loading status messages, such as "Deciding what message to display next", "Deunionizing bulldozers", "Retrieving from back store", and the ubiquous "Reticulating splines".

* [[Mundane Fantastic]]

** In ''SimCity 2000'', one of the buildings was styled after the historic Orinda Theatre in Maxis's then-hometown.

** One of the buildings that may appear in a Hi-Tech industrial zone in [[Sim City]] 4 is called [[Command and Conquer|Kane Tiberium]]. Go figure.

** On the other hand, Maxis did send some members of the team to Europe to study the contemporary architecture of England, France, and Germany for the European building set in ''Rush Hour''. To a lesser extent, the European and Asian building sets from the ''SimCity 3000'' expansion are also aversions.

** A raft of [[Game Mod|Game Mods]] for ''SimCity 4'' will also change the vegetation and terrain textures. One adds snow at high altitudes, one that adds mountain forest trees, one that replaces the passenger trains with France's SNCF Corail trains, one simulates the landscapes of northern Mexico -- forest in the mountains, desert in the valleys -- and one that, quoth the mod's own description, "turns the water from light Caribbean blue to dark rest-of-the-world blue".

* [[Ultimate Job Security]]: The only way to get fired is to run your city too far in the red.

** On the other hand, you can't fire any of your advisors. You may wish you could if the Environmental Advisor in ''4'' obtains a Court Order to shut down a water tower or pump because the water quality is bad (forcing you to buy an expensive Water Treatment Plant or demolish the old pump and put a new one elsewhere).

** [[Truth in Television]] to some extent: There's a reason that programs like that tend to get cut when the budget gets tight.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: The very existence of the "disasters" menu -- ''SimCity 4'' even gives players the power to control where disasters hit, ''and'' turned ''off'' most disasters appearing randomly, meaning the ''only'' reason for disasters is this.

** The lack of mixed zoning policies has been [http://www.humantransit.org/2009/06/did-sim-city-make-us-stupid.html remarked] as basically being US urban planning, circa 1960. The tendency to prefer highways to commuter rail, etc. in anything but the largest cities (driven by weak commuter algorithms) is also quite American. The former may have been a product of simplified programming; the concrete-slapping that the latter can induce, however...

* [[Wide Open Sandbox]]: One of the first games in this genre.

** Or if you cut back on transportation funding in [[Sim City]] 2000. See [[Memetic Mutation]] above.

* [[Wretched Hive]]: If you legalize gambling and don't put around any police stations, your town will be on it's way to becoming like this.