Sim City 2000, 3000, and/or 4

2007-01-18 05:57:59 am

Has anyone ever thought about these games? It seems like it would be a viable game for speed run because you can speed time up really fast, get loans, if you do things right get a lot of money through business deals. Plus, who wouldnt want to see someone construct a metropolis within an hour.

The only problem I'd imagine having was how to tell once you've "finished" the run...

Sim City 2000: This one you could actually finish by making a bunch of arcos(In your rewards once your population is huge). Once you get like 40 or somthing, they blast off I bet that could be considered as winning.

Sim City 3000: I dont think this one has arocs or anything but there is a bunch of rewards that you can get, business deals and stuff. I bet you could classify this as finishing by once you get the last of rewards because your population has gotten extremely high.

Sim City 4: This one is by far the most awesome, just the way it looks could keep someone interested for hours... but it has the same problem the 3000 one has and that is it doesnt have an ending.... Once you get to the end of rewards you could say it ends because your population must be uber huge.

It could be very entertaining watching fast mouse actions creating city's. Route planning would get very .. "into it" You would have to go through plently of experiments, but ways could be found....

So what do you guys think and would any of you be willing to try, or work with whoever does actually try and help route optimize?

Thread title:

Has anyone ever thought about these games?  It seems like it would be a viable game for speed run because you can speed time up really fast,  get loans, if you do things right get a lot of money through business deals.  Plus, who wouldnt want to see someone construct a metropolis within an hour.

The only problem I'd imagine having was how to tell once you've "finished" the run...

Sim City 2000:  This one you could actually finish by making a bunch of arcos(In your rewards once your population is huge).  Once you get like 40 or somthing, they blast off I bet that could be considered as winning.

Sim City 3000:  I dont think this one has arocs or anything but there is a bunch of rewards that you can get, business deals and stuff.  I bet you could classify this as finishing by once you get the last of rewards because your population has gotten extremely high.

Sim City 4:  This one is by far the most awesome, just the way it looks could keep someone interested for hours... but it has the same problem the 3000 one has and that is it doesnt have an ending.... Once you get to the end of rewards you could say it ends because your population must be uber huge.

It could be very entertaining watching fast mouse actions creating city's.  Route planning would get very .. "into it"  You would have to go through plently of experiments, but ways could be found....

So what do you guys think and would any of you be willing to try, or work with whoever does actually try and help route optimize?

grndino

2007-01-18 06:21:57 am

I remember SimCity2000 having scenarios that involved a reasonable population or rating goal under a certain time amount. If I had to guess from memory I'd say some were only 20 years to reach the goal, which at the proper speed, would equate to only a couple minutes game time (!).

But, jeez, I haven't had it installed for years; I'll give it a look.

MatrixTN

2007-01-18 06:27:27 am

You got a deletion wish?

SC Classic had scenarios as well, I think those are the only speedable options out there as playing normally doesn't have a definite end point.

sp3ctum

Edit history:

sp3ctum: 2007-01-18 07:24:42 am

2007-01-18 07:23:28 am

I guess you could run them... It would be very original, at least Smiley

I'd watch a run of Sim City, unless it's too long. It has to be made interesting, somehow. Are there ANY glitches in the games? :S I know I never used one.

You'd have to set a definite end point, and kinda do a self-made quest. I don't know if it would be allowed here, but it sounds interesting.
SC2k: I remember the arcos as well. This could be a good end point.
3k: Sounds good as well. An 'all rewards' run.
4: This one I've never played. The end point doesn't sound that appealing to me.

Would shaping the terrain be included to route planning? It's a very important part of building the city.
Also, how much of the events are just random? Like all the disasters, and... Are there any more that could be considered beneficial/dangerous?

Someone could also run Transport Tycoon Deluxe! Grin

Zanthra

2007-01-18 11:31:10 am

Interesting, I remember playing Sim City 2000 quite extensively, I could build a city so fast that I would have rows of Coal power plants lining the side of the map because there was no nuclear power plant developed yet. I got pretty darn close to launching some Launch Arcos in a non cheat game. If I recall I had some 72 or 80 of them when you need 150, but I basically ran out of space to put them all, otherwize my residential zones would be substantially hampered. That is perhaps the game I was most skilled in, at the time I was even working on a strategy guide for the game, I wonder if I still have a copy of the first few pages.

Anyways, I was posting to comment on Sim City 4. One of the interesting things about this game was the position of your city in the region map mattered. No longer were there just neighboring cities that grew with you, but instead you had to build up the neighboring cities, and they would contribute to the growth of your city. This means that if you were to build a massive metropilas (sp?) on each side of the square you want to build your speedrun city on, then your city would grow insanely quickly because of the very high starting demand on commercial residential and industrial. Ideally if you had big enough cities on each side, you could possibly just zone residential, and people would be moving in like mad (not sure exactly how it works since I have actually not played a lot of Sim City 4). On the other hand if you were to build a city with no surrounding cities as a rule, you would have stunted growth and a much slower development. The third option is of course to build quick small cities on each of the adjacent squares that you want to build your city on in the speedrun itself, and then build your city with a modest demand boost.

I would certainly enjoy watching a speed run of any Sim City game, but I have long since lost my skills at Sim City 2000 (and my install CD), so I don't think I will be doing this any time soon.

Interesting, I remember playing Sim City 2000 quite extensively, I could build a city so fast that I would have rows of Coal power plants lining the side of the map because there was no nuclear power plant developed yet.  I got pretty darn close to launching some Launch Arcos in a non cheat game.  If I recall I had some 72 or 80 of them when you need 150, but I basically ran out of space to put them all, otherwize my residential zones would be substantially hampered.  That is perhaps the game I was most skilled in, at the time I was even working on a strategy guide for the game, I wonder if I still have a copy of the first few pages.

Anyways, I was posting to comment on Sim City 4.  One of the interesting things about this game was the position of your city in the region map mattered.  No longer were there just neighboring cities that grew with you, but instead you had to build up the neighboring cities, and they would contribute to the growth of your city.  This means that if you were to build a massive metropilas (sp?) on each side of the square you want to build your speedrun city on, then your city would grow insanely quickly because of the very high starting demand on commercial residential and industrial.  Ideally if you had big enough cities on each side, you could possibly just zone residential, and people would be moving in like mad (not sure exactly how it works since I have actually not played a lot of Sim City 4).  On the other hand if you were to build a city with no surrounding cities as a rule, you would have stunted growth and a much slower development.  The third option is of course to build quick small cities on each of the adjacent squares that you want to build your city on in the speedrun itself, and then build your city with a modest demand boost.

I would certainly enjoy watching a speed run of any Sim City game, but I have long since lost my skills at Sim City 2000 (and my install CD), so I don't think I will be doing this any time soon.

sp3ctum

2007-01-18 11:54:40 am

I am not saying you should forget about the installation cd and download yourself a copy.

How long did it take you to build that city in Sim City 2000 ?

Zanthra

Edit history:

Zanthra: 2007-01-19 01:19:17 am

2007-01-19 01:18:37 am

Oh, that city, a long time, I was not going for speed. Although if I could drag 8 squares of road without counting, it would take a quarter as long.

Just thinking to myself how I might speed run this game. It has been a very long time since I played, but if I remember all that I knew once, this might work.

Code:

==============================
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
==============================
=CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC=
=CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC=
=CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC=
==============================
=IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII=
=IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII=
=IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII=
==============================

Where:
= Road
R Residential Zone
P Park
S Service, police, fire, hospital, school
C Commercial
I Industrial

Then I would do Residential, Commercial, Indistrial, Commercial, Residential, Commercial, Industrial etc. from the top to the bottom of the map. Highways/Railways could be placed vertically through the Residential areas, crossing with one next to the industrial zones. Parks, and close services keep the land value high, and the commercial acts as buffer for industrial pollution. Power plants can be placed in the corner, and water pumps whererever. Placing a library or a 4x4 structure is a bit tricky, but you can run an unzoned 6x9 through the middle leaving room for mass transit and larger structures.

I would have to try it, bit it might be most cost effective to buy up all the bonds you can at the start of the game and zone as much as you can. Don't drop a butload of services, either place parks and replace them once the city starts to build, or leave the space empty. If the goal was simply to get all the rewards I would certainly simply buy up all the bonds and zone enough to get 120,000 population super fast (I think that is what was needed for arcologies).

Also I think my sister might have bought a replacement copy of Sim City 2000, but I think it is a mac version. I don't have a lot of time to spend on it because of collage, but next time I go home I will ask her about it and see if I can install it. Perhaps over the summer I might be able to get a project like this started, but I was involed in discussion of Neverwinter Nights, and sortove just dropped off the radar entirely there, nothing ever came of my participation except perhaps to fuel the discussion that lead to someone else taking the lead. My track record in these kinds of things is very low.

Oh, that city, a long time, I was not going for speed.  Although if I could drag 8 squares of road without counting, it would take a quarter as long.

Just thinking to myself how I might speed run this game.  It has been a very long time since I played, but if I remember all that I knew once, this might work.

[code]

==============================
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=SSS=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=PPP=RRRRRR=
==============================
=CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC=
=CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC=
=CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC=
==============================
=IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII=
=IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII=
=IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII=
==============================

Where:
= Road
R Residential Zone
P Park
S Service, police, fire, hospital, school
C Commercial
I Industrial

[/code]

Then I would do Residential, Commercial, Indistrial, Commercial, Residential, Commercial, Industrial etc. from the top to the bottom of the map.  Highways/Railways could be placed vertically through the Residential areas, crossing with one next to the industrial zones.  Parks, and close services keep the land value high, and the commercial acts as buffer for industrial pollution.  Power plants can be placed in the corner, and water pumps whererever.  Placing a library or a 4x4 structure is a bit tricky, but you can run an unzoned 6x9 through the middle leaving room for mass transit and larger structures.

I would have to try it, bit it might be most cost effective to buy up all the bonds you can at the start of the game and zone as much as you can.  Don't drop a butload of services, either place parks and replace them once the city starts to build, or leave the space empty.  If the goal was simply to get all the rewards I would certainly simply buy up all the bonds and zone enough to get 120,000 population super fast (I think that is what was needed for arcologies).

Also I think my sister might have bought a replacement copy of Sim City 2000, but I think it is a mac version.  I don't have a lot of time to spend on it because of collage, but next time I go home I will ask her about it and see if I can install it.  Perhaps over the summer I might be able to get a project like this started, but I was involed in discussion of Neverwinter Nights, and sortove just dropped off the radar entirely there, nothing ever came of my participation except perhaps to fuel the discussion that lead to someone else taking the lead.  My track record in these kinds of things is very low.

habbis

Edit history:

habbis: 2020-12-01 11:00:27 pm

2020-12-01 10:59:26 pm

Hello,

even though this thread is very old, it is one of the first items that pop up when I search google for "simcity 3000 speedrun". That is why I'm replying here even though I doubt many people will read it. I tried to to get 1 million population as fast as possible. Here is the run:

Unfortunately, speedrun.com doesn't accept the game request as it is "an endless game with arbitrary goals", even though I mentioned there are also the 10 official scenarios that have strict goals which, upon completition, terminate the game. This is a bit absurd since there's already titles accepted such as SimCity 2000, SimCity 4 and Cities: Skylines which are precisely "endless games with arbitrary goals". Future speedrunners that consider playing this game be advised.

LotBlind

2020-12-02 01:40:18 pm

Looks like on SDA, we currently have Mr. K's "time to Megalopolis" run for 2000. Don't immediately see a reason we couldn't accept runs for those set scenarios for 3000 as well if someone would like to entertain our audience with one? Otherwise people who didn't play the games (or who just don't ever think about them now) are unlikely to see them.