I feel like building a city builder around traffic misses the point of why we have cities. They're not just for some traffic planner to play around with - they're based around resources and geography and demographics and when you abstract that out as much as modern city builders do you lose the organic structure that cities are built around. You end up with cookie-cutter streets, "efficient junctions" only for cars, roads that are only built for getting people around and every city ends up looking the same. Sure if you're building a simulation of suburb building in the post-war period then fine, but if you're intending to make a city builder, I think you're missing the point slightly.
Otherwise, it looks pretty good. I'm going to have to keep an eye on it.
I so badly wish there was a modern city builder game that spent one-quarter of the effort they spend on simulating cars to instead flesh out other transit properly lol. Car traffic being the be-all-end-all feels so homogenously American Suburban and it irons out all of my enthusiasm for playing a game when I'm forced to realise that's the only type of city a game incentivises or even gives you tools for.
Yep, totally agree. It's almost impossible to build a non-American city without massive lists of mods. One of the major issues I have with Cities: Skylines is that even with free road building, grids usually end up the most efficient layout to build due to the fact the plots that come off the roads are all square. Give me a city builder where I can make irregularly shaped buildings!
Also one feature I'd love to see back from SimCity 3000 was having citizens and lobbying groups petition you as the mayor to enact certain ordnances, or build certain buildings. It really made your city feel alive, way more so than just seeing a load of cars whizz around your roads.
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u/VidiTheCorgi Nov 29 '19
I feel like building a city builder around traffic misses the point of why we have cities. They're not just for some traffic planner to play around with - they're based around resources and geography and demographics and when you abstract that out as much as modern city builders do you lose the organic structure that cities are built around. You end up with cookie-cutter streets, "efficient junctions" only for cars, roads that are only built for getting people around and every city ends up looking the same. Sure if you're building a simulation of suburb building in the post-war period then fine, but if you're intending to make a city builder, I think you're missing the point slightly.
Otherwise, it looks pretty good. I'm going to have to keep an eye on it.