I’ve always liked to play SimCity since I was little. I used to play the version for Super Nintendo for hours then and then. That version was really cool. It had 4 seasons (winter, spring, summer and autumn) and many landscapes, scenarios to choose between. That was a really big hit at the time. It was clearly the most popular videogame.
Then SimCity 2000 came out on the market. It was almost like a revolution.
Many new things to use, better graphics, more innovative and the game engine
was more advanced. So it was very good news (except from the fact that the
seasons were gone).
But the follower that came after SC2000, SimCity3000 was real disaster. Well
there were more tools, advisers and a more advanced terrain (witch was crap
because you couldn’t build anything on it) but not anything special. The
graphics was probably the worst part. It was more advanced but everything just
looked as shit. It was a blur hell. I would state that this didn’t feel like an
upgrade more like a retarded downgrade. It was fun in 2 weeks but no more.
And after that flop, a new version was to be released, SimCity 4. This time, the
MAXIS programmers learned had learned a lesson, not to release anything that
isn’t useful. So they did good graphics added fun tools, more effects, more
unique buildings and neighboring cities. This was a small step up from SimCity
2000 but a huge step up from SC3000. This was however not intended to be a
strategy-based city planning game, but more to be like a fun modeling
program (like 3DMax or Maya) and creating wow effects. It was not Hey I’ve
managed to get 1m inhabitants but more like Hey, look what a nice city I built.
The game also required a new high-end computer with more than a GB of RAM,
a high-end graphic card with at least 128MB an Athlon2500XP or a with
Pentium 2,5GHZ to be able to play (but even that was not).
You can clearly see what have happened to one of the best game on the planet.
This is not specific to just SimCity but to the whole gaming industry. The
graphic wow-effect is everything that matters today. Personally, I love good
graphics, but not when I have to buy a better computer to be able to use it,
when I can experience a delay and when the whole game is based around that
wow-effect-subject.
What will happen with SimCity5? There is rumors that they are already building
it but why having expect anything of it. If SC4 was too much for my pretty new
PC than I wonder how SC5 will be like. This will probably be the last version if
they actually build it. Why? It will be a flop. Nobody will be able to use it. People
that already experienced SC4 for will definitely not buy it. It’s kinda joke
already.
The solution
Lets start a new project based on opensource. Lets call it OpenSimcity.
Part two – The project
The idea is based on objective programming, OOP. This should be easy to
made, easy to check bugs and adjusting the code. We will create this game
from the beginning and do it better. And when I say better, I don’t just mean
faster performance or some new features. I mean a whole new structure, a
whole new ground to stand on. This will be unique.
The graphics should be advanced but on the same time not dominate the
game. It should feature a lot of options for peoples that have another kind of
taste. Also, the game will probably take a few years to finish and by that time,
graphics cards will be more powerful then we had ever seen before. GPU
performance grows 40% per year while CPU only grows with 10%. Therefore, all
graphics should be done in OpenGL to unleash power from the CPU. Real-time
zooming should be possible.
Unlimited area. Instead of the idea that the user can have 3 or 4 sizes to choose
between, why not customize it? The user can etc print out X (width) and Y
(height) axis and get a map featuring whatever size he/she chose. The user
should have the ability to change the size (increase or decrease) under the
game.
Ability to choose climate. There should be an option for what year-around
climate you want to have. How cold or warm and how dry or wet and so on.
Also, an option if you want to have floating (changing) climates with seasons or
a static climate.
More default buildings. It should be also be easy to add new buildings or
remove the old ones.
The engine should not be easy, middle, hard or advanced but rather an effect of
the number between 1-1000 you give.
Interface should however be an option between easy, middle, hard and
advanced.
Cost and Assets should be fully customizable.
The game should feature online gaming. Competing with your neighbor cities,
friends or strangers. You could etc choose to compete to X number of citizens
or having as much population as possible in X time. Or it could be played for no
reason, just having fun. You could also have the ability of trading lands with
your neighbors.
Ability to import maps from all SimCity versions.
I can make the list longer, but you get the point. Viva la OpenSimcity.
URL: http:///bolster_rally
