Disappointed

[Fluclo]

I saw this game, and started to get really excited. The prospects of Traffic Giant having a third iteration with improved playability really got me going...

..and my hopes were dashed as soon as I started trying it. About the only thing going for this is a slightly better looking interface, but other than that - it doesn't deliver. To me, the tasks given were just incoherent and massively lacking a storyline. By all means get us to build a tram route, or a rail line, but just for the sake of it is utterly pointless. Between the tasks, there's nothing going for you, no direction, and no indication of what you should be aiming for.

I tried building an underground line, and that was a nightmare. First, what "level" are you on, what level is the already built infrastructure on? How do you link between levels, how do you know if it has been linked to a few levels. Worst of all, building a station when there's already a rail infrastructure there.

There's incoherent structure to where the traffic demand is, and where some of your customers are coming from. I set one "test" run, and found a passenger got on a stop, took 90% of the route, and then got off at the bus-stop before, they could have walked in half the time, and equally could have used the bus going in the other direction and saved themselves a whole host of issues.

And finally, vehicle selection and availability. Are we really to believe that a tram that appears the way it does in the game could only hold 10 passengers? It's like the 19th century horse drawn, except it looks more 20th century in the game.

I really wish this game could have delivered, it's got so much potential, but drastically let down by the implausibilities instilled in the game. Quite a pity

 

[unmerged(273319)]

What do you mean "third iteration" of Traffic Giant? There was only 1 game in that series.

 

[unmerged(243048)]

OMG, how often shall we discuss the capacities? It's cause the simulation of about 3,5 million agents (which would be the case for Berlin) is just to much for any normal system to handle. It's a game, and not a real world simulation. If you want that, apply for a job in an transportation company, or buy a nice system that can handle 3,5 million agents.

 

[eagleFMJ]

No offense and I would care to read your review, but you haven't registered your copy of Cities in Motion and for all we know you could have pirated the game. If you want to be taken seriously here on the forum I suggest you register your game here http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/mygames.php

 

[unmerged(273319)]

OMG, how often shall we discuss the capacities? It's cause the simulation of about 3,5 million agents (which would be the case for Berlin) is just to much for any normal system to handle. It's a game, and not a real world simulation. If you want that, apply for a job in an transportation company, or buy a nice system that can handle 3,5 million agents.

I'm sick and tired of this excuse. Population density DOES NOT dictate bus capacity. It also does NOT dictate how many people can be at a stop. In my current city of 50,000, our buses still fit 40 or so people. City population AFFECTS NOTHING. By your logic, Bus A in city A with population of 30,000 should fit 10, but Bus A in City B with population of 300,000 should suddenly magically grow to fit 100 people?

The game's capacities are screwed up, plain and simple. This whole population aspect makes 0 sense. Population does not affect how many people wait on stops, and therefore, should not affect the Capacity of vehicles which are set by the MANUFACTURER, and YOU BUY VEHICLES BASED ON YOUR NEEDS, NOT that your vehicles are magically adapted to an estimate of population.

 

[krohn]

The way I look at it is this. Each icon represents 2 or 3 people. The city population is listed at 30,000 or whatever little icons which means 60-90,000 people live there. The capacities are adjusted to carry Y icons which really means 2 x Y or 3 x Y human beings. Now your capacities are correct and you don't have to deal with the graphic lag that comes from have each individual person.
Also, I know I don't have my game registered yet, I'll get that done when I get home. I get to eager to play and forget to register on the forums.

 

[co_martsu]

I'm sorry to hear that the game didn't meet you expectations. The capacities are unrealistic like some other things in the game are also. We hope that it's still an enjoyable gaming experience for many people.

 

[unmerged(224028)]

No offense and I would care to read your review, but you haven't registered your copy of Cities in Motion and for all we know you could have pirated the game. If you want to be taken seriously here on the forum I suggest you register your game here http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/mygames.php

Maybe if the registration wasn't such a PITA he would have done it ? Entering my serial number took me way more time than it would have taken to cut/paste the torrent.

Anyway even if he hasn't bought the game his opinion is relevant.

 

[unmerged(224028)]

I'm sorry to hear that the game didn't meet you expectations. The capacities are unrealistic like some other things in the game are also. We hope that it's still an enjoyable gaming experience for many people.

That's a sad thing to say considering he's comparing CIM to TG which was released 10 years ago. I really appreciate that you took a stab at this genre (and I do mean that, I really love economic simulations) but right now the only departement where you improved on is gfx and music. Which is nice but from a business point of view is useless because your (potential) customer base doesn't care much about those.

Hopefully this will change with patches and/or mods

 

[eagleFMJ]

Maybe if the registration wasn't such a PITA he would have done it ? Entering my serial number took me way more time than it would have taken to cut/paste the torrent.

Anyway even if he hasn't bought the game his opinion is relevant.

Not sure what the deal is with the registration, leave the last letter/number out. Whats so hard about that?

So you are saying pirates opinions are relevant because they stole the game? I thought that's what demo's are for?

 

[Legolas]

Population density DOES NOT dictate bus capacity.

No. But representation of pop. density does.

It also does NOT dictate how many people can be at a stop. In my current city of 50,000, our buses still fit 40 or so people.

And if your city were put into CiM, it would have ~5000 people living in it. Not 50000. The cities we are talking about have population sizes reduced roughly tenfold, so other numbers should be reduced by similar amounts.

Population does not affect how many people wait on stops

So you're saying that an average bus stop in London is just as busy at any given time as an average bus stop in a town with 10000 inhabitants?

There's a difference between cities having different populations, and city representations in the game being abstracted. You are not supposed to be creating a public transport infrastructure for a mini-Berlin of 300k inhabitants.

---

All that said, I think there are some balancing issues with the numbers of passengers (it's been said before, but I'll repeat: if we apply the same scaling, then it is not unlikely to have a representation of several hundred people waiting at a bus stop, which is unrealistic even for a metropolis like Berlin, AFAIK). But they are not major.

 

[Tamas]

That's a sad thing to say considering he's comparing CIM to TG which was released 10 years ago. I really appreciate that you took a stab at this genre (and I do mean that, I really love economic simulations) but right now the only departement where you improved on is gfx and music. Which is nice but from a business point of view is useless because your (potential) customer base doesn't care much about those.

Hopefully this will change with patches and/or mods

He clearly meant that abstractions are in place by design, not because they could not find the numbers they wanted on the keyboard, so it's not sad, it's a developer showing respect to you despite your criticism, so maybe you should do the same and not be so condescending.

 

[Madpainter]

I really don't get this realism thing people have got going.......
Sim city days last a matter of minutes, civilisation had russians fighting zulus and gran tourismo has cars that go faster then F1 cars. All of these were great games.

Perhaps the game should have a warning on the front cover something along the lines of...........

"Due to the fact that most people don't have access to NASA supercomputers this game will NOT recreate entire cities in your bedroom and is intended for entertainment purposes only."

I'm going to keep out of these conversations in future because I'm actually started to feel quite defensive. Lets just say the game is pretty much what I expected and I like it. I would like the devs to spend time improving the game in the spirit it was created in......NOT waste time making it "realistic"

 

[unmerged(224028)]

Not sure what the deal is with the registration, leave the last letter/number out. Whats so hard about that?

So you are saying pirates opinions are relevant because they stole the game? I thought that's what demo's are for?

Too much typing for no good reason. There should be one big input field to cut/paste your serial number. But that's on paradox

I'm saying any user's opinion is relevant. Whether he paid for the game or not.

He has a very good point about objectives.

 

[Madpainter]

Too much typing for no good reason. There should be one big input field to cut/paste your serial number. But that's on paradox

I'm saying any user's opinion is relevant. Whether he paid for the game or not.

He has a very good point about objectives.

You can cut/paste each number group. Bit of a chore but its no big deal.

About the piracy thing, I think I understand what your saying but be very careful.
PDox forum regulars are kinda like a big family and HATE anything to do with piracy. An Icon is like a badge of honour and someone without one is an outsider. One wrong word and you could upset a lot of people.

 

[Cohnman5]

Piracy is evil, don't do it!

About the piracy thing, I think I understand what your saying but be very careful.
PDox forum regulars are kinda like a big family and HATE anything to do with piracy. An Icon is like a badge of honour and someone without one is an outsider. One wrong word and you could upset a lot of people.[/QUOTE]

Agreed. Piracy is evil and bad! The developers and Paradox deserve to get paid for their efforts and this game is very, very reasonably priced. With a few more patches a good game can be made great. Piracy has no place anywhere in computer gaming, it is immoral and wrong. And frankly, capitalism with a consciousness is a good thing. That is, profits employ people who strive to help those less fortunate--now back to gaming! I would like to see OAP's (Old Age Pensioner's--Senior Citizens in the US) ride the metro, buses, trams and water taxi's for free or at a dramatically reduced rate. Students should also get a discount. How's that for social engineering?

 

[rosseau]

+1

 

[unmerged(272918)]

I have to admit that the game at first was top on my list to get. Looked good, tutorial made me want more. I paid for the pre order.

The fact is that the game play is too UNREALISTIC and OVER RATED. All the Excuses of Scale down Vs traffic vs capacity. Now with that said... The game gets Very Unenjoyable when you can't even make a profit after going so far into the first challange. Some changes are badly needed ! ! ! or this game will fall off the market really fast ! ! !

 

[unmerged(272700)]

^^^ Thin skin.

 

[Atomcreator]

I'm sorry to hear that the game didn't meet you expectations. The capacities are unrealistic like some other things in the game are also. We hope that it's still an enjoyable gaming experience for many people.

Thanks for coming on here adn listening to the buyers of the game.
I would like to suggest that any patch massively decreases the time that vehicles load and unload.
Sitting watching some old person take a whole day to board a bus, with 10 miles of traffic behind is not particularly fun.