Simcity 3000 Vs Simcity 4
Cities XL's big feature was the online multiplayer, but that has been shut down now. Cities XL's gameplay allows you to build cities that are more varied in appearence than those in Simcity 4, with features such as curved roads and different types of zones (linear - think inner city with houses on edge, freeform, curved (good for suburbs), compared to Simcity 4's grid. Some of these can be replicated manually in Simcity, like the linear zones, while others like the curved and freeform zones can't be.However, Simcity 4 is the more in depth of the two in most aspects with features such as garbage disposal and pre-game terraforming, but there are a few cases where Cities XL has more detail (specific bus routes as opposed to just plopping stations everywhere).For the less casual gameplay then, I'd go with Simcity 4, but Cities XL isn't entirely lacking in depth either. Here's a fairly in-depth comparison between SimCity 4 and Cities XL (follow the link to the page for the “long version”):The short version first:Sim City 4 has been around for ages, and the graphics show it. It still remains a very complex yet fun game. There’s plenty of mass transit available, you can set up ordinances, and for the most part, it was well developed, and is a solid game. Solid that is, until your cities get large and the entire traffic/mass transit system breaks down.
Custom addons/mods are the saving grace for SC4, but there are just too many things to fault with the game for them to fix them all. In some cases, an addon will make the game playable at the expense of removing all sense of realism/challenge in a certain area. You can get a fairly large well-functioning city without addons, but I guarantee you it won’t look anything like a real city.Cities XL on the other hand grants a much better/smoother experience when growing into a large city. That said, the game isn’t quite as developed yet. It still seems like a beta (despite being released earlier this month) – there are bugs everywhere from one of the tutorials to various minor issues in the game itself. That said, the game is still being worked on, and will be constantly improved for the forseeable future.
The graphics are a huge improvement. It both looks better and operates more smoothly than SC4. You’re not in a locked grid system – you can build roads that curve every which way if you’d like, and traffic is handled a lot better. However, Cities XL has more of a subscription/online/multi-player focus to it – we’ll get into more details about that later though.Source:Note that since that comparison was written, the original has been followed by two sequels, Cities XL 2011 and Cities XL 2012.
Also, as mentioned by Macha, the original Cities XL's multiplayer features no longer work as the servers for that have been shut down.
I know this has been done before, but I really want to share to people some OBVIOUS differences. The problem is, many people think SC is better, it has PERKS yes that skylines doesn't have.
SimCity 4 is a much more expansive game, and everything that you can do in SimCity 2013 in an entire region, you can do within a single city in SimCity 4 with a drastically larger amount of space to build cities in, with more places to build cities.
BUT it is far from better. Anyone who has anything to add, please chime in.SC most buildings and parks are upgradeable. DEFINITE perk. BUT the disadvantage is, EVERYTHING costs more than it is worth.Specializations PERK you can specialize in oil and become an oil tycoon, OR Education etcmy personal favourite was OMEGA it brings in the most funding. Disadvantage, no matter how much oil/ore you produce THERE WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH OMEGAso on and so forth.The biggest problems with SC, no matter what you do, you will never keep your people happy enough.
You can have every park within a block of your neighbourhood, evetually they will no longer be able to find parks. They get mad, and leave then go LIVE in the parks as homeless dumbasses. Same applies to shops, and schools. Eventually they will no longer be able to find or get to them, not mattter how you have it set up. THIS is not realistic. MEGA towers, as fun as they are, same thing. You can have one park level, or mall level for each apartment level in the building.
EVENTUALLY they cannot find them, and complain that if they don't get a park or mall, they will leave. You can only have 8 levels, you can even attach a skybridge. They are never satisfied.Great works would be great, if you could complete them. No matter what trade, or imports or factories you run, you never get enough supplies to the great works.Well at least when you are sick of your city, you can dump it, and start ALL OVER with the money you earned. OH wait, you can only do this, if there is a ROAD connection to the new city you want to start.SC 1 1/2 starsSKYLINESMILESTONES right off the hop, in CS are MUCH better. Though SC has them to a degree, CS gives you realistic time to save what you need, so you can continue to grow your city.ROADS basic roads to start, with milestones newer and better roads become available. For any new mayor THIS JUST MAKES SENSE.ALSO, you can adjust roads, toggle traffic lights etc.REALISM, well aside from the fact that BOTH are virtual city builders, with skylines you have budgets you can ACTUALLY adjust.
You have POLICIES you can create for each specific district, so THEY can have their specializations, BUT if you do this wrong you can cost your city MORE money than you make. THIS IS REALISTICPIPELINES what can I say except that in the real world, the only way to get water to your citizens is water pipes. AND skylines does not run out of water.
SC actually does.POWERLINES same rule as pipes. These together are more of a challenge, as they cost money, and need to have a certain amount of coverage to work.EDUCATION people will always find their schoolsPARKS people will always find their parks (but if they don't, they don't move out of their homes, and go live in the parks)SHOPS people will always find shops.while it is true, CS, is much easier to start in the beginning, it might make some people feel it isn't challenging enough. Well it only starts easy. As you expand, it becomes far more complex.CITIES SKYLINES 4 1/2 starsI would have gone for a full 5 but I didn't think that would be fair.:) CHEERS!!P.S. Clearly there are far more differences, these were just to name a few. Overall, SKYLINES is just better.
I have to laugh at alot of these comparison posts.The thing that alot of people miss is that Sim City (2013) was designed from the ground up as more of a 'The Sims - Neiborhood' than a proper City Builder. Its biggest design flaw as a city builder is the core cause of all the complaints people have with the game (map size, city size, inter city syncs, multiplayer sync).The designers of it went with a pure Agent Tracking system for every aspect of the game. Not just the population (where the live, work, what they drive, etc) but even things like Power, Water, Education, etc were set up as individual roaming Agents with the variouns building only being supplied if the agent got to the door.For comparison consider the way Skylines Road Maintanence Trucks work. They randomly roam the city, picking arbitrary directions at each intercention, to boost as many roads as possible. Apply the same concept to EVERY city service. Power, water, fire/police/medical/trash coverage, education, even happiness boosters.
Not only was it possible to have a building unlucky enough to never get visited regularly by every required service but more importantly your computer was being forced to processes & randomize all of that.We don't worn personal super computers:PIn 2014 a modder finally figured out how to unlock the city map restrictions to build out over a larger area. I think even with a 50% increase (3km square instead of 2km square) he couldn't get the game to be stable on what was cutting edge computing at the time.
Just not enough processing power to keep track of that many individual entities.Game had so many neat ideas in it but was flawed from the code because the designers didn't want a sequel to Sim City 4 but rather something that crossed Sim City & The Sims. Originally posted by:For comparison consider the way Skylines Road Maintenance Trucks work. They randomly roam the city, picking arbitrary directions at each intersection, to boost as many roads as possible.
Apply the same concept to EVERY city service. Power, water, fire/police/medical/trash coverage, education, even happiness boosters. Not only was it possible to have a building unlucky enough to never get visited regularly by every required service but more importantly your computer was being forced to processes & randomize all of that.1st, this game does this as well. As you pointed out.2nd, it is much simpler to have one mechanic do it all.
I don't see how you think making multiple AI behaviors more simple than using just 1 system.We don't worn personal super computers:PIronically this computer needs the supercomputer. SC2013 is only single threaded so it runs fine on a single core CPU, while CSL uses 8 threads and needs multi-cores.Ironically, CSL is tapped out at 80K agents at these 8-core. However, SC2013 can handle 120k agents on 1 core.On top of that, this game uses 64-bit vs SC2013 uses 32-bit, so this game has twice the processing power.That means this game has 16 times the resources and still can't keep up with SC2013.But SC2013 needs a supercomputer. LolIn 2014 a modder finally figured out how to unlock the city map restrictions to build out over a larger area. I think even with a 50% increase (3km square instead of 2km square) he couldn't get the game to be stable on what was cutting edge computing at the time. Just not enough processing power to keep track of that many individual entities.You have terrible math.
2km x 2km = 4 sq. Km that is the default of SC20213. The mod gave us 3km x 3km = 9 sq. Or 2.25 times the area to work in. 225% not 50%It was easy to track the agents, it was hard to unlock the map properly as the devs (actually EA) who didn't give access to the map properly so it could be done right. Not to mention the poor relase turn away all of the good modders.Game had so many neat ideas in it but was flawed from the code because the designers didn't want a sequel to Sim City 4 but rather something that crossed Sim City & The Sims.Yes, it had so many great ideas that it influenced this game that used the same agent based simulator and a lot of the same ideas. But it has way more things left out of the game, I mean a lot.
But they made up for it with 81-tiles access and built-in Steam workshop.Its biggest design flaw as a city builder is the core cause of all the complaints people have with the game (map size, city size, inter city syncs, multiplayer sync).The main issue was a single 2km x 2km city size. The rest was mostly debugged already.FYI, This game has the exact same map size as SC2013.Regardless, the two games are significantly different. People just like to complain because they need to justify this game as it wasn't as good as they thought or harder than they thought, then they justify it as it wasn't as bad as sc2023 to make themselves feel better. Because there is no real point in making a post like this. If you are happy with this game, then you play and enjoy it, not focus on sc2013.For the record, my all-time favorite city builder game is SimCity 2013.
But I'm more of a rules lawyer than a city painter. So I found it much more challenging.CSL was designed from the ground up to be a city painter. I'm nott the artistic type, but they at least left in the agent system and added some mechanics along the way through DLC and patches.
So it keeps me playing it. Although I more prefer debugging other people's games anymore.