Design choice of the "zone brush"

[wakko2k]

So, something I thought was very interesting is that instead of chosing a plot type (residental, industry or commercial) to place at the road, the road automatically get the plots which seems to be maximum of 4 in length, which we get to paint the zone type we want instead.

I dont know about you, but I thought this was rather interesting. Why did they do it this way instead of the traditional sim city way? And also, most importantly, why is the brush a circle? Wouldnt it make more since to make it a square?

Was it orignally a thought to be able to mix the tiles with different kind of zones? Like mixing commercial with industry for example? |ROAD|X X X X

What are your theories?

 

[mntoes]

^^^^

That kind of puzzled me a bit too. Why round? I guess a square brush would look ok on straight roads but might look a bit odd on curved roads.

 

[yurcick]

I think the answer is simpler: there are no square brushes irl, they don't make sense. Imagine you get to copy Malevich's "Black Square". Will you use a square brush for that? No you won't.

 

[SlyEcho]

If you have a square brush then you'd have to orient it the right way all the time because roads can take any angle and even be curved. With a circle, it is much easier.

 

[Jinzor]

There isn't just a circular brush, there are multiple types. You can click and drag an area of the blocks you want with the lasso tool, you can fill in all available squares at once with the fill tool, or you can fill each square manually using the circular brush tool (of which you can adjust the size, the smallest size being about to only fill one square at a time).

 

[TotalyMoo]

Round brush just feels nicer, you can easily paint zones in a "square" fashion with it

 

[Alex_brunius]

If you have a square brush then you'd have to orient it the right way all the time because roads can take any angle and even be curved. With a circle, it is much easier.

Or... The game reorients the square for you depending on closest road?

 

[Eurofighter1200]

Yes i was thinking about this, have higher destiny the same space for Buildings then the small buildings? That makes no sense for me bigger buildings need more space and not only grow in the high i like the way in sc4 you can build properties from 1x to 4 x squares loong so you can have properties with only a house and others have the house an 2 squares of garden behind it or a big parkingplace before the House.

 

[wakko2k]

Well the "most important" brush shape was mostly a joke. But why did they decide on making it a brush instead of the classic sim city style?

 

[Zarine]

Well the "most important" brush shape was mostly a joke. But why did they decide on making it a brush instead of the classic sim city style?

Well, you have the classic square by click and drag like old simcity. You have the fill all linked to the road. You have the brush shape. And I think another one...
Giving more choices is better than only one.