23rd of October, 18:00cest- - Policies & Services Stream and Q&A

[Goldiva]

First special request for the next broadcast, need to stop unnecessarily jerking the camera around and cause bad taxi driver syndrome as in nausea. The driving in previous broadcast was way better. This one got so bad towards the end I had to stop watching and just listen to the audio. Otherwise it was overall exciting enough intro to new features.

Exciting stuff...

- Policies by District has finally taken form, albeit in alpha. Beautiful already...
- There will be plenty of policies which will have meaning and their effects shown by visual representation. Not 100 policies, but reading between the lines, 20 to 30 "standard" policies at launch. Presumably policies will be moddable. Can't wait.
- Pedestrian-only district policy is being implemented! Non-smoking too. Very yeepee worthy.
- Basic bus line sim nicely done. CXL players into bus line drawing will find that easier as no longer need to terminate at terminal.
- Bus bays are very sexy and "progressive" for genre fans. Never underestimate the fetish power of small things like this.
- Farm size issue being looked into...

Need to tune stuff...

- Camera jerkiness is evident even with good driver.
- Power lines have no reason whatsoever to sway in the wind when camera is at rest. Power line shadows...seriously why. These anti-alias-hungry uglies serve no visual cue function nor eye-candy purposes.
- Need to pay for power water smoke detector per building. Come on flat $5 per 3-room home or com tower? Some cities install these because they make money from selling power and water. Some cities actually charge for installing these. Perhaps need to pay for these for the 2 lowest level RCIs, as upgrade prompt? This is minor though. But the following is big deal.
- Tree Variation, indeed, about time to add a few more. Remember the awe entering FarCry world the first time? It was The Vegetation. Never underestimate the instant beautification power of greenery in open world games. The diverse shapes, or 100 shades of green. CSL tree types so far = one pointy alpine, one roundish maple. Both with cartoon-size leaves that sway too hard. No go. One visual design thing CXL did right was Speed Tree investment.

Since we're onto trees...
- Total trees and Proximity to trees should have meaning to: air-pollution reduction, cim happiness, cim health. This is universal, in real world, and in city sim genre. This includes trees on upgraded/ posher roads or trees added to lots. Pollution-clearing - natural air-scrubber aside, some trees in the real world are so amazing they are planted just to detox highly contaminated grounds.

Again, I continue to be pleasantly surprised by two things, what a 10-pax team has pulled off so far, and game devs sincerely asking for feedback!

Cheers

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

Looking forward to a gawk at this later

 

[TotalyMoo]

Many models are pretty much "placeholders" in the sense that we lack the asset variation we want in the finalized product, meaning the very repeating trees/buildings you see today won't be an issue at launch.

Thanks for all the great feedback so far!

 

[KeanoManu]

An interesting stream. An hour passed by too fast.

Some thoughts after watching:

1. There should be a policy to limit building height to 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 or 15 stories in certain districts.

I really didn't like the apartment buildings that was sometimes built in the low density residential area in the town they built. A low density residential should be single-family homes only.

2. CO should also look into making dedicated corner buildings. As of now, street corners tend to look rather weird when the buildings only face one of the streets.

3. Will the menus be expandable even more? For example, if we click on the education construction button we get an option to build an elementary school, high school or university. Say that two designs of high school are added, either officially or by mod, will we be able to keep the small list of just three types of buildings and when we click on high school we'll get a new list of the different types of high schools available? Or will it be two different high schools in the first menu? I hope menus in general will be easily moded and changed. It was one of the worst things about SC4, when the menus became very clogged with all the mods.

4. Sometimes it felt like the game made weird decisions on where to build within a zone. It could build a building in one place and then another building besides it, but with one tile in-between. Will it be smaller lots that fits 1x4 to fill in that gap?

5. I would like to know more about fillers. What types will be available and how flexible will they be? It was some places in the stream where it was small gaps between buildings where I thougth that "that would be a nice place for a parking lot filler or a very small park with just a bench under a tree". For example in these 1x4 lots that sometimes where left undeveloped or in the uneven places created when straight roads meet diagonal roads.

 

[rustyrockets]

Many models are pretty much "placeholders" in the sense that we lack the asset variation we want in the finalized product, meaning the very repeating trees/buildings you see today won't be an issue at launch.

Thanks for all the great feedback so far!

Happy to hear that, I hope palm trees will be present at the desert vegetations.

 

[Natvander]

I know it's alpha, but please please extend the range of services so they can cover the whole map. An ambulance, fire truck, police car etc should be able to travel kilometres to provide their service. A service shouldn't be limited by its radius but by its capacity, with radius serving to extend the time it takes for the service to be provided.

As an example, a crime is committed 10km away from the police station. Police arrive but the criminal likely got away and will be caught after investigation (allowing him/her to commit further crime). The police resource is also committed for a while. On the other hand, a crime committed close to the police station has police arrive quicker, with a higher chance of arrest.

A fire occurs 10km from the fire station. By the time fire trucks arrive the first building is likely destroyed but firefighters prevent further damage. A fire closer to the station is more likely to be extinguished with less damage.

In real life, such services don't have a service radius where the service isn't provided beyond that service. If someone is sick and needs an ambulance, an ambulance is sent even if the patient is many kilometres away, same as police, fire etc.

 

[BadPeanut]

2. CO should also look into making dedicated corner buildings. As of now, street corners tend to look rather weird when the buildings only face one of the streets.

.

Yes! this would add SUCH an aesthetic appeal!

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

I know it's alpha, but please please extend the range of services so they can cover the whole map. An ambulance, fire truck, police car etc should be able to travel kilometres to provide their service. A service shouldn't be limited by its radius but by its capacity, with radius serving to extend the time it takes for the service to be provided.

As an example, a crime is committed 10km away from the police station. Police arrive but the criminal likely got away and will be caught after investigation (allowing him/her to commit further crime). The police resource is also committed for a while. On the other hand, a crime committed close to the police station has police arrive quicker, with a higher chance of arrest.

A fire occurs 10km from the fire station. By the time fire trucks arrive the first building is likely destroyed but firefighters prevent further damage. A fire closer to the station is more likely to be extinguished with less damage.

In real life, such services don't have a service radius where the service isn't provided beyond that service. If someone is sick and needs an ambulance, an ambulance is sent even if the patient is many kilometres away, same as police, fire etc.

Agreed

 

[wakko2k]

I know it's alpha, but please please extend the range of services so they can cover the whole map. An ambulance, fire truck, police car etc should be able to travel kilometres to provide their service. A service shouldn't be limited by its radius but by its capacity, with radius serving to extend the time it takes for the service to be provided.

As an example, a crime is committed 10km away from the police station. Police arrive but the criminal likely got away and will be caught after investigation (allowing him/her to commit further crime). The police resource is also committed for a while. On the other hand, a crime committed close to the police station has police arrive quicker, with a higher chance of arrest.

A fire occurs 10km from the fire station. By the time fire trucks arrive the first building is likely destroyed but firefighters prevent further damage. A fire closer to the station is more likely to be extinguished with less damage.

In real life, such services don't have a service radius where the service isn't provided beyond that service. If someone is sick and needs an ambulance, an ambulance is sent even if the patient is many kilometres away, same as police, fire etc.

+1 for this

 

[WilfriedWebber]

First special request for the next broadcast, need to stop unnecessarily jerking the camera around and cause bad taxi driver syndrome as in nausea. The driving in previous broadcast was way better. This one got so bad towards the end I had to stop watching and just listen to the audio. Otherwise it was overall exciting enough intro to new features.

I'm with Goldiva here; that jerking was extremely annoying, making the video almost impossible to watch.

 

[cybrxkhan]

I know it's alpha, but please please extend the range of services so they can cover the whole map. An ambulance, fire truck, police car etc should be able to travel kilometres to provide their service. A service shouldn't be limited by its radius but by its capacity, with radius serving to extend the time it takes for the service to be provided.

As an example, a crime is committed 10km away from the police station. Police arrive but the criminal likely got away and will be caught after investigation (allowing him/her to commit further crime). The police resource is also committed for a while. On the other hand, a crime committed close to the police station has police arrive quicker, with a higher chance of arrest.

A fire occurs 10km from the fire station. By the time fire trucks arrive the first building is likely destroyed but firefighters prevent further damage. A fire closer to the station is more likely to be extinguished with less damage.

In real life, such services don't have a service radius where the service isn't provided beyond that service. If someone is sick and needs an ambulance, an ambulance is sent even if the patient is many kilometres away, same as police, fire etc.

Yes please. I really don't want to build fifty hospitals in one city when a few would do in realh life.

 

[Steve B.]

I know it's alpha, but please please extend the range of services so they can cover the whole map. An ambulance, fire truck, police car etc should be able to travel kilometres to provide their service. A service shouldn't be limited by its radius but by its capacity, with radius serving to extend the time it takes for the service to be provided.

As an example, a crime is committed 10km away from the police station. Police arrive but the criminal likely got away and will be caught after investigation (allowing him/her to commit further crime). The police resource is also committed for a while. On the other hand, a crime committed close to the police station has police arrive quicker, with a higher chance of arrest.

A fire occurs 10km from the fire station. By the time fire trucks arrive the first building is likely destroyed but firefighters prevent further damage. A fire closer to the station is more likely to be extinguished with less damage.

In real life, such services don't have a service radius where the service isn't provided beyond that service. If someone is sick and needs an ambulance, an ambulance is sent even if the patient is many kilometres away, same as police, fire etc.

But I'm pretty the one of the devs said there is NO radius ala SC4 (I think it was in the first live stream; I'll search around the forum and if I can find it I'll edit in a link). If you provide proper road connections (place the services on large roads that are well connected to the city) the vehicles will answer any call anywhere, just as you are asking for. Of course, as in RL, it will take them longer to get to places that are farther away and I think that's what the green roads mean; that areas that are green have better connections to the services than areas that are not. But all areas will be served.

Edit: It is at 5:25 in the first live stream.

 

[Natvander]

But I'm pretty the one of the devs said there is NO radius ala SC4 (I think it was in the first live stream; I'll search around the forum and if I can find it I'll edit in a link). If you provide proper road connections (place the services on large roads that are well connected to the city) the vehicles will answer any call anywhere, just as you are asking for. Of course, as in RL, it will take them longer to get to places that are farther away and I think that's what the green roads mean; that areas that are green have better connections to the services than areas that are not. But all areas will be served.

Edit: It is at 5:25 in the first live stream.

This livestream shows (quite small) service coverage when placing a clinic, police station and fire station. The police station was especially small - small enough that I would comfortably walk the distance to go shopping. If, as you say, the road colour only means better connection, it is still a very small area.

 

[TotalyMoo]

I'm with Goldiva here; that jerking was extremely annoying, making the video almost impossible to watch.

Got any specific examples when this is happening, so that I can share with our streaming producer?

 

[WilfriedWebber]

Got any specific examples when this is happening, so that I can share with our streaming producer?

It's the way the camera moves in-game, pretty fast-paced and jerky. Perhaps the key sensitivity is set too high or whatever.
It's the interviewer controlling the game in the video, and you can see these annoying movements every time the 2 CO guys are shown in the lower right corner while the rest of the picture is live in-game footage.

Smoother and slower accelaration would be nice, therefore.

 

[TotalyMoo]

It's the way the camera moves in-game, pretty fast-paced and jerky. Perhaps the key sensitivity is set too high or whatever.
It's the interviewer controlling the game in the video, and you can see these annoying movements every time the 2 CO guys are shown in the lower right corner while the rest of the picture is live in-game footage.

Smoother and slower accelaration would be nice, therefore.

Thank you, will notify him