Simcity like game, and is this possible?

Hello,

For years now I have been wanting to develop a Simcity / Transport Tycoon style game, and I have been planning and building things for years now.

I first started by making and building the designs for this style of game through our languages, like C++, Basic (Blitz Research), and a friend of mine advised me that I should try using Unity to start working on this being that it provides multiple languages for scripting (C# and Java). I want to know if anyone has attempted to make anything like this with a fully transforming terrain, building placement, and fully city structures (Buildings, Cars, Etc.)

I have been looking over Unity for the last week and before i really get my hands dirty with it, I just wanted to make sure this wouldn't be a lost cause. I know it will require a lot of scripting, which I would be willing to do, but can you transform the provided terrains or do I need to code my own models for this?

What are your thoughts about this?

Thanks,

FBEpyon

 

You can work with terrain at runtime but keep in mind that it is a heightmap. It only tracks elevation for every point. If you need overhangs, you'll have to use an alternative method.

Everything else can be implemented just fine.

 

And.. You can effect the heightmap directly from the script? That is what I have done before in the past, I just felt that I'm limited to map area with trying to program the terrain myself, and having to handle all the additional culling and things which Unity seems to handle for me.

 

Yes. A terrain's data can be manipulated directly from a script.

http://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/TerrainData.html

 

Thank you..

I did notice it doesn't let me completely effect the image itself, which is fine, I will have to play around with this for a while when I get home from work tonight.

I find the Unity interface to bit a mess at times, but that because I used to coding directly into an IDE, and not having to play with GameObjects.

FBEpyon

 

I can relate. It is pretty alienating at first to those of us who were used to simply programming everything instead of working with a visual scene editor. But after a year of messing around with it I like it now. Basically, just use the strengths of Unity and do the rest in your code. Use the Unity Editor to create prefabs, adjust parameters and such for attached scripts (tweaking of params can be done on the fly while game is running) and so forth. The rest you can do in code pretty much as you are used to.

 

No it's not possible at all. /endsarcasm

This "is this possible" bs is getting old.

 

Yes, a game like this is absolutely possible. Check out High Frontier for an example (in progress).

Note, though, your language choices are C# and JavaScript, which is not at all the same as Java. (And Boo, but the less said about that, the better.) C# is much closer to Java than JavaScript is, despite the name.

 

Thanks for all the reply's..

I will just have to put my gloves on and start trying to punch something out. I am looking for the more retro feel so I hope I can level out the terrain like you see in Transport Tycoon

Thanks,

 

I'm fairly certain you can make a city simulation with buildings and everything using Unity, no problem. I think the terrain sculpting might be your biggest challenge. But it's probably doable in one form or another.

I hope you can make this. I loved Transport Tycoon and played it all the time. I remember the "square-ish" shaping of the terrain to place railroad tracks and whatnot. That might be all you can do with Unity's built-in terrain -- not sure though.

If you make a good (more modern) Transport Tycoon, I would definitely buy it, or support it.

Good luck with it

 

I seriously LOVE Simcity and I've wasted quite some time on it. I was working on an asset for this but I'm not sure how many people would want this.



Features:

- Place and remove buildings/roads
- Edit terrain
- Place/remove trees

To answer your question: Can you transform the provided terrains or do I need to code my own models for this?

Answer. It depends. If you want a static terrain (and I bet you don't) you can use your own models without coding. I definitely wanted to be able to edit the terrain and add trees because that's a huge part of the fun for me so I had to code it. What I think is the most difficult is the roads. It's a huge pain in the neck and back to say the least. I kind of solved it by 'cheating', the roads are just modular pieces (which has its advantages) but my ideal is to procedurally generate it.

 

Could I recommend that you start really simple, a lot of the complexity of simcity is in the unseen systems that combine to simulate the city, e.g. electric grid, water, sewerage, garbage, police, fire, hospital, road network so I would recommend starting with a simple grid based system.

Then add the sub systems to run the city, and interfaces to allow the player to build them.

PS Check out some of the Sid Meier's talks on the game, there is a lot going on under the hood of this game.

 

Okay,

So I started working on it a bit, mind you what I have done so far is not even close to perfect, just testing what I can do in Unity..

But here is a screenshot of what I have done so far.



Like I said not the best, but its better than I have gotten in the past with just Raw OpenGL..

 

hey it's a start buddy, better than I could do, and I've been doing this for quite some time, just never attempted to make a Sim Game, which is a whole nother level than FPS and so forth.

So, good job!

 

@FBEpyon - See, you have begun the journey

 

I remember the feeling I got when I finally got my roads down. Good job man. Keep at it there are so many city building projects abandoned on this forum!

 

Thanks all,

I'm trying to decided if I want to get with drawn textured roads, or active meshes.

The goal of the project is basically make a retro 3d remake of Transport Tycoon.

*Edit* Another thing I need to work out is going to be the Pathfinding. I was messing with using a distance search, and testing the adjacent tiles the bus, train, etc. was on and seeing if the tile next to them was road or not, and then looking to see which tile going forward, up, down was going to be the closest distance to the station (target). Anyone else have an idea of what would work better?

Thanks,

 

hey man, still busy with this? if so... that would be great.
im thinking myself about making an medieval variant of a citybuilder crossed with transport tycoon. but sadly enough, im better at modelling than programming games xD if you need help with models just contact me, maybe we could combine our ideas ^^

 

Yes, it's definitely possible and had been done. It's called Cities: Skylines.

 

Just like that comment is possible and has been done. By Aras. 5 months ago...

 

Nice necro post buddy. When you make a citybuilder game, make sure to include the Necro Tower as one of the epic buildings in the game that you can unlock

 

lol. Its only a few months old... not the worst necro.

 

Not as bad as your 5 year necro that one time hey James?

 

I dont know what youre talking about... I dont think I've ever necro'd... lol.

I deny all knowledge of this.

 

noticed it was only a couple of months old after posting that reply xD

 

No worries, just put in the Necro Tower into your game, and all is forgiven