What would you like to see in the London DLC?

[MadlockUK]

Landmarks:
1) Tower of London
2) Tower Bridge
3) Westminster Palace

Vehicles:
1) S-Stock
2) New Routemaster
3) B07

I am willing to pay good money for an EXTRA LARGE map of London incorporating everything from Romford to London. I would also like Overground or National Rail trains available as well! If done properly, I'd be willing to pay about £20 easily. London is the dream map for this game!

 

[unmerged(323309)]

Dont forget the most famous landmarks of Mc Donalds, KFC, Burgerking and Pizzahut.:rofl:

London mate - Chicken Cottage would be the most authentic! :rofl:

For the 1967 Stock we'll just change the Brighton Roller 72 a bit. But Sub-Surface stock is necessary. Also, leave some place open for a lot of above ground stations. I want to build the Met Mainline. (and if possible, the Northern Heights). A tube without large above ground sections would be like Paris.

If you're feeling like it, give us Thameslink as a metro line ^^

Definitely agreed here; Thameslink and DLR would nicely cover the overhead sections, obviously the Underground proper would do the underground metro but a lot of people don't realise that only 45% of 'the Underground' is actually under ground!

Please, please, PLEASE more general buildings that can be used in the editor when creating maps. Preferably more ugly council estates and semi-detached houses with more than just one floor, clinic (a smaller hospital), community centre buiding, school (not a college or a university, an elementary school, then?), a separate cafe building in a similar way to the golf club, a PROPER football ground with four stands if possible -- NONE of the top London clubs play at stadiums with running tracks!

Rather more buildings than vehicles. I'm tired of the monotone surroundings of different CIM cities and because of that haven't touched the map editor for months!

Agreed here too - I dipped into the map editor and if those are the buildings that are going to be used in the London map it will not be at all authentic.


I've also had two more ideas - the Underground itself dates from 1863. I realise that CiM as it stands now kind of covers early-1900s to mid 2000s, but wouldn't it be cool to have a scenario building the first lines of the Underground? Don't forget the London fog for the early 1900s scenarios! Could this perhaps even have an effect on the gameplay?

 

[unmerged(425392)]

Landmarks:
1) Tower of London
2) Tower Bridge
3) Westminster Palace

Vehicles:
1) S-Stock
2) New Routemaster
3) B07

I am willing to pay good money for an EXTRA LARGE map of London incorporating everything from Romford to London. I would also like Overground or National Rail trains available as well! If done properly, I'd be willing to pay about £20 easily. London is the dream map for this game!

If National rail was included, the Networker should definitely be included. Built by British Rail in Diesel and electric versions, it was intended to be the standard commuter train for Network Southeast.

Diesel versions, class 165 and 166, took over the commuter trains out of Paddington and Marylebone, and influenced the most successful Diesel train of the privatised era in the uk, the class 170 (and variations of class 170 - classes 168, 171 and 172).

Electric versions exist as dual voltage class 365s which work the commuter trains from Kings Cross towards Cambridge and Kings Lynn, and 3rd rail class 465 and 466 which have dominated the services to Kent from Charing Cross and Cannon Street through London Bridge, and from Victoria.

It was also intended to build many more electrostars. Versions of the train would have been developed to take over Thameslink with the expanded Thameslink 2000 project that was planned, Crossrail, The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (now built as HS1), LTS (now branded C2C) and a long distance version of the train (mainline networker).

The grand plans of Network Southeast were stopped by the decision to privatise the railways, but the privatised companies have effectively continued these plans by the introduction of Electrostars, which were based on the electric version of the Networker, on the LTS line, long distance trains into Kent and the Sussex coast, and the remaining commuter lines into Kent

For further reading see : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Networker_(train)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_341_and_342
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Classes_371,_381_and_471
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Class_471_Main_Line_Networker.PNG

 

[unmerged(323309)]

I am willing to pay good money for an EXTRA LARGE map of London incorporating everything from Romford to London. I would also like Overground or National Rail trains available as well! If done properly, I'd be willing to pay about £20 easily. London is the dream map for this game!

From one East Londoner to another, I wholeheartedly endorse this, and I'd be willing to pay a good chunk of money too. They have to include Hackney, Stratford and the Olympic Park, right?

 

[mediziner]

Landmarks:
Westminster Palace (with Big Ben)
Buckingham Palace (it would be boring Without )
Tower Bridge

But not only Landmarks were important, also typically london residentual buildings with front garden would be nice. I remember those white ore brick houses.

For vehicles, there is mostly everything i need for london: busses and fitting tubes.
A new system for suburban trains would be nice. (maybe based on the underground)

 

[Drag0nflamez]

Regents Canal maybe? the ideal spot for waterbuses, beyond River Thames.

 

[Furohman]

Big Ben/Parliament
Tower Bridge
Buckingham Palace

Other things I think can be pretty well covered with existing assets. Harrods just a Department Store, Kings Cross a railway terminal, Stratford shopping centre just a shopping center (Like Potsdamer Platz), Olympic Stadium just a stadium in an area similar to the surrounding park and such. Canary Wharf would work fairly well with just existing skyscrapers. Things like Trafalgar Square handled like similar monuments in previous cities (...Or maybe left out like the war memorial in Berlin :unsure
Keeping in mind it is just an abstraction of the city I think the really well known landmarks are best. Referring to Berlin again since it's the only one of the cities I've both played and been to for any considerable length of time - not everything was there but it worked. Most major landmarks were just represented by similar buildings, and it worked fine. No Television Tower at all for example, but it worked fine and was undoubtedly Berlin.

I'll leave the suggestions for vehicles to people who know what they're talking about.

 

[Drag0nflamez]

Big Ben/Parliament
Tower Bridge
Buckingham Palace

Other things I think can be pretty well covered with existing assets. Harrods just a Department Store, Kings Cross a railway terminal, Stratford shopping centre just a shopping center (Like Potsdamer Platz), Olympic Stadium just a stadium in an area similar to the surrounding park and such. Canary Wharf would work fairly well with just existing skyscrapers. Things like Trafalgar Square handled like similar monuments in previous cities (...Or maybe left out like the war memorial in Berlin :unsure
Keeping in mind it is just an abstraction of the city I think the really well known landmarks are best. Referring to Berlin again since it's the only one of the cities I've both played and been to for any considerable length of time - not everything was there but it worked. Most major landmarks were just represented by similar buildings, and it worked fine. No Television Tower at all for example, but it worked fine and was undoubtedly Berlin.

I'll leave the suggestions for vehicles to people who know what they're talking about.

Please. No existing assets. We don't want London to look like a mixture of Berlin & Britain.

 

[General Baker]

It is very necessary one-way road.

Yes! These are very common (and extremely annoying) in the city

 

[TrueCoppa]

As well as including some of the newer trains like the S and 2009 stocks, you should include some of the older stocks such as the '38 and CO/CP stocks which served London's railways for half a century.

 

[Dreamcaster]

Polite request to developers - please do it properly. I know resources are limited, and to add more costs more, but please make sure a UK DLC properly reflects the UK "feel", and is not just another generic CiM European map with three London landmarks. If it costs more to make then pass the cost on to us... I for one would rather pay extra for a properly resourced UK DLC, than pay less for just a few London landmarks.

General infrastructure:

* Left-sided traffic for road and rail (I know this may not be possible due to this requiring adjustments to the game core...)
* Cricket ground (not to replace the football stadium but to complement it - essential to a UK/Australia/South Africa regional style)
* Modern skyscrapers (some of the generic skyscrapers from the recent US DLC can easily be re-used to reflect UK skyscrapers like those found in the Docklands)



Transport infrastructure:

* Railway terminals in the style of Waterloo station (Cannon Street, Charing Cross and Victoria all started out architecturally similar to Waterloo)
* Ideally large and small terminal stations to reflect the diverse sizes of terminals within London.
* A large through "terminal" (London Bridge)
* Updated passenger trains for rail network - e.g. Mk1 based Class 421 EMU for 50s-80s -- and Mk3 based Class 365/465 EMUs for 80s-present.

On the last point, there are so many UK train textures and meshes out there for the various train simulators that there is no reason why Paradox couldn't licence them at reasonable cost for use in a CiM DLC.



The three must-have vehicles:

* RM371 Routemaster Opentop (Not just exclusive to London, but were/still are found all around the country for sightseeing routes, etc.)
* London Underground C/D Stock
* London Underground 1995/96 Stock



Three must-have London landmarks:

* Houses of Parliament
* Tower Bridge
* Tower of London

(I suppose the various London palaces could be reasonably represented by a new palace model made using existing textures from CiM...)

 

[co_martsu]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

And here to answer some of the requests:
- The traffic will be on the right hand side, like in the base game
- There will be additional UK styled buildings as well as couple of landmarks + selection of the existing assets

We certainly will do our best with London DLC

 

[unmerged(323309)]

Stratford shopping centre just a shopping center (Like Potsdamer Platz)

You mean Westfield or the original Stratford Centre? I'm not sure anything can do the original Stratford Centre... um... justice?

 

[TrueCoppa]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

And here to answer some of the requests:
- The traffic will be on the right hand side, like in the base game
- There will be additional UK styled buildings as well as couple of landmarks + selection of the existing assets

We certainly will do our best with London DLC

Is this due to limitations of the base game? If so, then I understand
If not, then I am rather disappointed. It may seem like a small thing but left handed traffic is one of the things that makes the UK so unique.

 

[slornie]

Is this due to limitations of the base game? If so, then I understand

Apparently its a game engine limitation, hence why Tokyo is also right-side traffic in its DLC (we asked when that was first announced).

 

[MercutioUK]

How big is the map going to be?

I think most people said and explained a lot about what we want to see in a London map. But I major issue is: How big is the map going to be? Are we supposed to expect a whole Greater London map or a smaller version with only the City and Westminster boroughs and some adjacent areas around? I'm asking exactly to understand what is possible to deliver and what should we expect.

Most people chose HoP, Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge (I would include the Tower of London as well). But I don't even think it is possible to imagine a huge London map, from Heathrow to Dagenham, specially to run without any performance issues. I would rather have a smaller, central map, properly designed and with all the landmarks correctly inserted (remember that a smaller map would mean a smaller number of landmarks, but not necessarily mean lacking the most famous ones) and running smoothly.

I also agree with not to use generic buildings. Please take good care of the London map. I believe a few fellow users would agree with me that I could even buy this one as a standalone expansion just to tweak the engine to use the traffic lane on the left. It could also be used to include more cities from the UK (Edimburgh, Manchester, etc...)

 

[unmerged(436056)]

What if they make multiple maps? Say one for central, then one in another scenarion for South London (which itself has good potential for a "replace the rail" style scenario).

 

[RebelClown]

To answer your question first:

Landmarks:
1. London Eye
2. Tower Bridge
3. Big Ben

I think these are globally the most recognised and spell out London the best.

Vehicles:
1. Routemaster
2. Black cabs. I know these won't be player controlled, but you really need to have them.
3. Emirates Air line, an new cable car that will be opened before the Olympics (ahem, hopefully). To be honest, I'm just trying to say something different, but it would be cool to have that.

Oh, and when it comes to London and public transport, the star really is the tube map! It would be absolutely stunning to have the ability to create a map of your lines in the game in the style of the tube map.

As somebody who lives in London, I wholeheartedly agree with the request not to make it a generic Middle European town, that would feel completely wrong. One thing I have never understood about CiM is why all buildings have generic names. I understand the limitation of resources so that not every building can be designed separately, but at least they could all have different names, right? So let's not have Railway Station, Railway Station, Railway Station and Railway Station, but Waterloo Station, King's Cross, Victoria and Clapham Junction.

Some things that could make it feel more like London:

Street furniture:
- red postboxes
- red phoneboxes
- blue police boxes
- Belisha beacons wiki, the lights at zebra crossings
- Boris bikes
- people everywhere
- stands selling Union Jack themed everything
- roadworks

Traffic:
- the afore mentioned black cabs
- tourist coaches
- open top hop on/hop off buses
- white vans (preferably dented)
- Rolls Royce
- expensive sports cars
- Reliant Robin for earlier scenarios

Also, most of the through roads should be classical high streets, so lots of small shops at the ground floor of all the buildings, with apartments on top.

 

[Dreamcaster]

I think most people said and explained a lot about what we want to see in a London map. But I major issue is: How big is the map going to be? Are we supposed to expect a whole Greater London map or a smaller version with only the City and Westminster boroughs and some adjacent areas around? I'm asking exactly to understand what is possible to deliver and what should we expect.

I had a little experimentation with making a London map a while ago and I reckoned that with an XL size map after creating a reasonably to scale Zone 1 "circle" - i.e. the traditional definition of central London as everything being within the circle of the Paddington, Euston/St. Pancras/Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, London Bridge, Waterloo and Victoria terminals, that there would then be enough room left to go up to Zone 4 whilst remaining fairly true to scale, and with a little adjustment of the scale include parts of Zone 5 i.e. both ends of the Northern Line, just about reach Croydon and just fit in Heathrow on the very edge.

How the developers go about it is of course entirely up to their artistic decision making process.

 

[unmerged(436056)]

Realised something that has been overlooked but core to London's transport network. We already have non-player trains going to train stations, what about non-player coaches going to Victoria Coach Station?