So how has everyone been doing in our region so far? I'm sorry I haven't been playing for a bit, but the bugs were getting on my nerves and more so than just the server issues.
I had really hoped that this game was a serious simulation of a city management, but really its just a slightly more advanced version of SimCity 4. Much of the problems from previous versions are still there.
Sims aren't smart enough to use the high density roads right next to the lower density roads so unless you use avenues through your entire city, you have traffic problems.
The water pumps are just annoying. In my city, I've had to move my pumps 5 different times because I keep running out of water in a particular area. At this point, I've basically run out of water in my city and surviving based on what I can import from neighboring cities. (Thanks Kasper and Spark!)
The population figures are completely off. In a city of 200,000 pop, I have some 20k workers. What does this mean? You're constantly in a worker shortage and getting a perfect balance, instead of being fun, is a pain in the ass.
Import & Export prices are out of whack and make turning a serious profit through specializations very difficult. I found it easier to make millions without touching the specializations. Even with the high-tech specialization, I was constantly having to deal with massive pollution.
Because of the traffic problems, you have to spend loads on a bus system for your city to keep traffic reasonable. To fight crime, fire and sickness seriously, you need the large Police Station, Fire Station and Hospital, but they're seriously expensive and can quickly cause you to go bankrupt.
Resources are distributed completely randomly. In one city, I had my Nuclear Reactor meltdown because it ran out of water. Why did it run out of water? Both buildings where on opposite sides of the map and the water kept being intercepted by other buildings before getting to the power plant. After awhile, the power plant didn't have enough water and started only producing 50% power, causing city wide brown outs. This caused my water pumps to no longer work. *sigh*
Anyhow, I got my free game (Mass Effect 3) and, against my better judgement, installed it and I've now been playing it some.
