Greetings!
First off let me congratulate you on Cities in Motions. I'm a huge traffic and urban planning junkie and concerning the transportation models CiM brings me a lot of fun. Besides, I think I will use CiM over Cities XL or Simcity 4 to conceive my regions and cities from now on - I make lots of such maps for my writings and pics and just for myself and CiM's map editor brings me more than the former games could ever. I also dearly love the European setting, as I was getting annoyed with US methods of development.. CiM is a wonderful game, really, and I wish to thank and congratulate you. You got me to spend money for a game. :>
I nonetheless had a few suggestions concerning the future development of CiM - I don't claim to be superior in terms of developing and city planning, but there are a few things that bug me (and nothing about the scaled-down cities, I think it was actually done perfectly).
Why don't you make an option for bus lanes? I reckon more and more cities are making up BRT lines and in congested areas, it ends up the only way to efficiently run buses. I'm thinking of these cities which run BRT systems - from Paris' sporadic bus lanes to Adelaide's H-Bahn peculiar system. Possibly, bus lanes might only be built on avenues and large roads, though maybe a system to 'broaden' roads with BRTs might exist. Sort of the tramway way.
I'm sure it has been asked quite a lot, but I'd indeed love to be able to have some control on the trains. Oh, nothing about setting up railways, of course - in most cities with an hybrid commuter system, urban trains (eg U-Bahn) are usually, though not always (and in some cities it depends on the line even), managed by a different company than super-urban trains (eg S-Bahn). How about being able to run train lines between railway stations, with the difference that no rail link / station could be built [or maybe with severe restrictions]? It might add a level of realism, though some cities would not really see it work out fine, like Vienna. (BTW, congrats on your depiction of this city. I surprisedly found it quite very accurate)
Something I would love to have control upon, too, are stuff like the price of fines or the type of advertisement. It doesn't have to be intense micro-management, but setting the price of fines would have some impact on reputation (with blue collars and dropouts liking the company less with increasing fines, to keep perfectly stereotypical ^^). For advertisements, it could be the conveyed message [besides from choosing the media], with different penalties and bonuses. For instance, one could advertise "how reliable one's vehicles are", and if too many vehicles break down, the reputation bonus might be altered (and oppositely). There could always be a generic "ride with <player's company> for all your shopping needs" button for the people who don't wish to bother with adverts and rather use them the current way, of course.
Certainly displaying both class residences and workplaces would be helpful. Not too much of course - I'm actually very much happy with the current system, it's not as easy as Simcity, and I enjoy it - though simultaneous display might be appreciated (something with different shades of colors, like 'pensioner residence' , 'shopping', 'leisure', etc). On the same level, maybe upgradable stations might be a plus. For instance I'd really love more subway stations to appear, like two-platforms, four-platform, and interchanged stations. Making the elevated stations less tricky to place might be nice, too (it's a pain sometimes to place them within a huge city) :3 Another thing that I'd love to see are company parkings (there are already, but they are props and can't be built by the player) - park and ride. They'd have a cost, and pay off in time, while letting people park their cars and use a transportation method afterwards. There'd be different parking lots, too, ranging from simple ground-level parks to multilevel complexes, not forgetting underground parkings.
Though it's more a wish-list point, I'd honestly love one or two more vehicles types to appear. Don't give up on the helicopters, I use them quite a lot (mainly to close the gap between isolated locations, golf clubs, and typically richer-class areas) and many RL cities have similar services (New York, etc), though often privatized, I'll admit. A bycycle system would be greatly welcomed, as in hot spots where people rent their bikes and drop them in other places (along with the losses, thefts, and max capacity at stations). Also, and maybe just on the fun side, something like a cable car system (Seilbahn, not trolley lines), like that over the Rhein in Cologne. Why not. ^^
Well, it's pretty much everything I came by, though I do admit they are mainly wish-list suggestions and the game works already wonders as it is. ^^
Congratulations again, you guys have done a wonderful job!
I wish You well,
Amy
First off let me congratulate you on Cities in Motions. I'm a huge traffic and urban planning junkie and concerning the transportation models CiM brings me a lot of fun. Besides, I think I will use CiM over Cities XL or Simcity 4 to conceive my regions and cities from now on - I make lots of such maps for my writings and pics and just for myself and CiM's map editor brings me more than the former games could ever. I also dearly love the European setting, as I was getting annoyed with US methods of development.. CiM is a wonderful game, really, and I wish to thank and congratulate you. You got me to spend money for a game. :>
I nonetheless had a few suggestions concerning the future development of CiM - I don't claim to be superior in terms of developing and city planning, but there are a few things that bug me (and nothing about the scaled-down cities, I think it was actually done perfectly).
Why don't you make an option for bus lanes? I reckon more and more cities are making up BRT lines and in congested areas, it ends up the only way to efficiently run buses. I'm thinking of these cities which run BRT systems - from Paris' sporadic bus lanes to Adelaide's H-Bahn peculiar system. Possibly, bus lanes might only be built on avenues and large roads, though maybe a system to 'broaden' roads with BRTs might exist. Sort of the tramway way.
I'm sure it has been asked quite a lot, but I'd indeed love to be able to have some control on the trains. Oh, nothing about setting up railways, of course - in most cities with an hybrid commuter system, urban trains (eg U-Bahn) are usually, though not always (and in some cities it depends on the line even), managed by a different company than super-urban trains (eg S-Bahn). How about being able to run train lines between railway stations, with the difference that no rail link / station could be built [or maybe with severe restrictions]? It might add a level of realism, though some cities would not really see it work out fine, like Vienna. (BTW, congrats on your depiction of this city. I surprisedly found it quite very accurate)
Something I would love to have control upon, too, are stuff like the price of fines or the type of advertisement. It doesn't have to be intense micro-management, but setting the price of fines would have some impact on reputation (with blue collars and dropouts liking the company less with increasing fines, to keep perfectly stereotypical ^^). For advertisements, it could be the conveyed message [besides from choosing the media], with different penalties and bonuses. For instance, one could advertise "how reliable one's vehicles are", and if too many vehicles break down, the reputation bonus might be altered (and oppositely). There could always be a generic "ride with <player's company> for all your shopping needs" button for the people who don't wish to bother with adverts and rather use them the current way, of course.
Certainly displaying both class residences and workplaces would be helpful. Not too much of course - I'm actually very much happy with the current system, it's not as easy as Simcity, and I enjoy it - though simultaneous display might be appreciated (something with different shades of colors, like 'pensioner residence' , 'shopping', 'leisure', etc). On the same level, maybe upgradable stations might be a plus. For instance I'd really love more subway stations to appear, like two-platforms, four-platform, and interchanged stations. Making the elevated stations less tricky to place might be nice, too (it's a pain sometimes to place them within a huge city) :3 Another thing that I'd love to see are company parkings (there are already, but they are props and can't be built by the player) - park and ride. They'd have a cost, and pay off in time, while letting people park their cars and use a transportation method afterwards. There'd be different parking lots, too, ranging from simple ground-level parks to multilevel complexes, not forgetting underground parkings.
Though it's more a wish-list point, I'd honestly love one or two more vehicles types to appear. Don't give up on the helicopters, I use them quite a lot (mainly to close the gap between isolated locations, golf clubs, and typically richer-class areas) and many RL cities have similar services (New York, etc), though often privatized, I'll admit. A bycycle system would be greatly welcomed, as in hot spots where people rent their bikes and drop them in other places (along with the losses, thefts, and max capacity at stations). Also, and maybe just on the fun side, something like a cable car system (Seilbahn, not trolley lines), like that over the Rhein in Cologne. Why not. ^^
Well, it's pretty much everything I came by, though I do admit they are mainly wish-list suggestions and the game works already wonders as it is. ^^
Congratulations again, you guys have done a wonderful job!
I wish You well,
Amy
