Preface:
I want to see day-night cycles, and vehicle and pedestrian traffic that is dynamic over the passage of every in-game day. This was one of the things I appreciated that Simcity 2013 tried to do, which to some extent, they succeeded. If implemented to C:SL, it should also open up a straightforward opportunity to implement seasonal cycles in the future.
There are, however, some drawbacks, besides more work for the devs, of featuring those things. I've thought of some possible solutions to two of the main problems that I believe will arise with the implementation of those features. Feel free to add to the topic, be it more problems or more solutions, and I'll try to add them to my original post where appropriate.
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Problem 1: Traffic Congestion
In Simcity 2013, when it reached a certain time, for example, 8:00am, every single worker and student left their residential buildings at the same time. The roads go from nearly empty, to filled up completely, almost immediately.
Consequences:
- Agents don't get to their destinations on time
- Commercial/Industrial buildings don't get enough workers on time
- Students don't get to school on time
- Chain of events that negatively impact, or ruin, your city
Possible solutions:
- Solution 1: An obvious solution is to make the game time slower. In SC2013, I think 1 game minute = 1 real second: a ratio of 1:60. Reducing that ratio to 1:30 would have probably done wonders for SC2013. If C:SL's agents are significantly smarter than SC2013's, I think a 1:30 real-time:game-time ratio will work very well, even with maps of much larger distances (up to 10km a side instead of 2km).
- Solution 2: Different and flexible working hours and schooling hours. Universities in SC2013 did this to some extent with classes every 3 hours (4 classes a day?). Why not apply this to workers in C:SL too? For example, spread it uniformly between 7:30am, 8:00am, 8:30am, 9:00am. You now have 4 different batches of workers leaving their homes at different times. Traffic congestion is reduced by 4 times. I'd like to see evening and night shifts as well. Emergency workers (police/fire dept/EMT) have to cover shifts throughout 24 hours.
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Problem 2: Passage of (long-term) Time
The twitch stream showed a city in 2033. If we assume starting from 2015, that's 18 years. I've timed 1 day in C:SL to be very close to 9.70 seconds real-time. That makes 1 year (9.7*365) 3540.5 seconds, or 59 minutes and 0.5 seconds.
Let's round that up to 1 year in-game = 1 hour real-time. That 18 year savegame on the twitch stream is about 18 hours time played, if played without pausing and constantly on the slowest speed.
Now, what if we followed a 1:30 real-time:game-time ratio? Every in-game day, in real-time, would be (24 hours/30) 0.8 hours, or 48 minutes.
Consequences:
- 1 year in-game, would take (0.8 hours * 365) 292 hours real-time (without pausing and on the slowest speed).
- In C:SL, Cims progress with age, in education, homes, jobs (career?), marriage, family, etc. You won't get to see this effect noticeably if 1 year takes 292 hours.
Possible solutions:
- Solution 1: In SC2013, 1 day was 24 minutes long (1:60). However, instead of having 365 days in 1 year, 1 day represented 1 month. 12 months made 1 year. This means 12 days made 1 year in SC2013. 1 year in SC2013, in real-time, was therefore (24 minutes * 12) 288 minutes long, or 4 hours and 48 minutes. If C:SL followed that, but with a 1:30 real-time:game-time speed, 1 year would take 9 hours and 36 minutes real-time. Still pretty long, which brings me to Solution 2.
- Solution 2: Let players set up how many days make 1 year in the Game Settings. Personally, I don't mind 1 year taking 9.6 hours real-time. However, others may want it faster, or even slower. Give us some options, for example, from slowest to fastest: 48 days = 1 year (4 days/month), 12 days = 1 year (1 day/month), 4 days = 1 year (1 day/season). With those 3 examples, players have options of 1 year taking 28.8 hours, 9.6 hours, or 2.4 hours. I think that should cater to most of the players' range of preferences. Even better is if this setting can be adjusted with 1 (or more) slider(s).
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What do you, the community, think?
Do these "problems" I brought up matter to you? Would they have an effect on how much you'd enjoy C:SL? Would the inclusion of day-night cycles, dynamic city (vehicular and pedestrian) traffic make C:SL a better game to you? What about the potential for seasonal cycles? Or do you prefer the passage of time as it is in the present build of C:SL, with no dynamic time of day that affect the schedules, behaviour and movement of every Cim?
Once again, do post up what other problems and solutions you have in mind and I'll try to add them to this post. I would also like to hear what the devs think about this. Do they (C:SL devs) not think that SC2013 got this aspect of their game right, at least in concept?
Lastly, does anyone think that CO's foundation for C:SL in this aspect, of passage of time, could be already too firmly planted, that changes as fundamental (and possibly radical) as these, would be too profound to be implemented?
I want to see day-night cycles, and vehicle and pedestrian traffic that is dynamic over the passage of every in-game day. This was one of the things I appreciated that Simcity 2013 tried to do, which to some extent, they succeeded. If implemented to C:SL, it should also open up a straightforward opportunity to implement seasonal cycles in the future.
There are, however, some drawbacks, besides more work for the devs, of featuring those things. I've thought of some possible solutions to two of the main problems that I believe will arise with the implementation of those features. Feel free to add to the topic, be it more problems or more solutions, and I'll try to add them to my original post where appropriate.
-
Problem 1: Traffic Congestion
In Simcity 2013, when it reached a certain time, for example, 8:00am, every single worker and student left their residential buildings at the same time. The roads go from nearly empty, to filled up completely, almost immediately.
Consequences:
- Agents don't get to their destinations on time
- Commercial/Industrial buildings don't get enough workers on time
- Students don't get to school on time
- Chain of events that negatively impact, or ruin, your city
Possible solutions:
- Solution 1: An obvious solution is to make the game time slower. In SC2013, I think 1 game minute = 1 real second: a ratio of 1:60. Reducing that ratio to 1:30 would have probably done wonders for SC2013. If C:SL's agents are significantly smarter than SC2013's, I think a 1:30 real-time:game-time ratio will work very well, even with maps of much larger distances (up to 10km a side instead of 2km).
- Solution 2: Different and flexible working hours and schooling hours. Universities in SC2013 did this to some extent with classes every 3 hours (4 classes a day?). Why not apply this to workers in C:SL too? For example, spread it uniformly between 7:30am, 8:00am, 8:30am, 9:00am. You now have 4 different batches of workers leaving their homes at different times. Traffic congestion is reduced by 4 times. I'd like to see evening and night shifts as well. Emergency workers (police/fire dept/EMT) have to cover shifts throughout 24 hours.
-
Problem 2: Passage of (long-term) Time
The twitch stream showed a city in 2033. If we assume starting from 2015, that's 18 years. I've timed 1 day in C:SL to be very close to 9.70 seconds real-time. That makes 1 year (9.7*365) 3540.5 seconds, or 59 minutes and 0.5 seconds.
Let's round that up to 1 year in-game = 1 hour real-time. That 18 year savegame on the twitch stream is about 18 hours time played, if played without pausing and constantly on the slowest speed.
Now, what if we followed a 1:30 real-time:game-time ratio? Every in-game day, in real-time, would be (24 hours/30) 0.8 hours, or 48 minutes.
Consequences:
- 1 year in-game, would take (0.8 hours * 365) 292 hours real-time (without pausing and on the slowest speed).
- In C:SL, Cims progress with age, in education, homes, jobs (career?), marriage, family, etc. You won't get to see this effect noticeably if 1 year takes 292 hours.
Possible solutions:
- Solution 1: In SC2013, 1 day was 24 minutes long (1:60). However, instead of having 365 days in 1 year, 1 day represented 1 month. 12 months made 1 year. This means 12 days made 1 year in SC2013. 1 year in SC2013, in real-time, was therefore (24 minutes * 12) 288 minutes long, or 4 hours and 48 minutes. If C:SL followed that, but with a 1:30 real-time:game-time speed, 1 year would take 9 hours and 36 minutes real-time. Still pretty long, which brings me to Solution 2.
- Solution 2: Let players set up how many days make 1 year in the Game Settings. Personally, I don't mind 1 year taking 9.6 hours real-time. However, others may want it faster, or even slower. Give us some options, for example, from slowest to fastest: 48 days = 1 year (4 days/month), 12 days = 1 year (1 day/month), 4 days = 1 year (1 day/season). With those 3 examples, players have options of 1 year taking 28.8 hours, 9.6 hours, or 2.4 hours. I think that should cater to most of the players' range of preferences. Even better is if this setting can be adjusted with 1 (or more) slider(s).
-
What do you, the community, think?
Do these "problems" I brought up matter to you? Would they have an effect on how much you'd enjoy C:SL? Would the inclusion of day-night cycles, dynamic city (vehicular and pedestrian) traffic make C:SL a better game to you? What about the potential for seasonal cycles? Or do you prefer the passage of time as it is in the present build of C:SL, with no dynamic time of day that affect the schedules, behaviour and movement of every Cim?
Once again, do post up what other problems and solutions you have in mind and I'll try to add them to this post. I would also like to hear what the devs think about this. Do they (C:SL devs) not think that SC2013 got this aspect of their game right, at least in concept?
Lastly, does anyone think that CO's foundation for C:SL in this aspect, of passage of time, could be already too firmly planted, that changes as fundamental (and possibly radical) as these, would be too profound to be implemented?
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