De Engelse fansite The Sims Hub meldt dat er een nieuwe SimCity Insider Blog is verschenen, dit keer over een onderwerp waar we nog vrij weinig van af weten. Namelijk, internationale vliegvelden. Wat is er allemaal mogelijk met dit transportmiddel in het spel? Er zit ook een nieuwe screen (met uitleg) bij, klik op de banner om deze te bekijken.
Overigens heeft The Sims Hub ook de mogelijkheid gehad om op de Eurogamer Expo een pre-alpha versie van SimCity te spelen, dit is hoogst waarschijnlijk dezelfde versie als die aanwezig was op de Gamescom. Hierover zullen ze ook snel een preview online zetten.
Hi SimCity Insiders! I’m Daniel Kline (aka MaxisSparks). I’m one of the system designers on SimCity. I work on regional play, including Great Works. Today, we’ll explore Great Works in detail, specifically one of my favorites, the International Airport.
Great Works are new to SimCity. We wanted to build things that were giant, which would break the boundaries of what we’d done in the past. Every great city is defined by great projects. And because SimCity is about multiple cities working together within a region, we wanted to have a building that players built together, maintained together, and shared together. Thus, the Great Works building was born.
When International Airports were first built, they reshaped the globe. For the first time, you could visit someone halfway around the world in a single day. Today, building an International Airport is like a rite of passage for up-and-coming metropolises, and it’s a common feature outside major cities. International Airports disembark curious travelers, deliver packages, and let families visit loved ones from across the world. In SimCity, the International Airport provides nearby cities with two significant benefits. First, passenger jets bring in hordes of tourists, which will head to your city if you have enough attractions (things like landmarks and parks). And second, cargo jets will haul away your industrial freight. Shipping freight keeps industry happy, and an International Airport’s cargo jets will support a heavily industrial city without requiring an investment in commercial. The International Airport deliberately supports very different kinds of cities. Great Works are shared, and we want players to be excited to work together to complete one.
Getting one of the Great Works started is a feat unto itself, but once your International Airport has broken ground you’ll want to gather other cities to help finish it. The core challenge of building a Great Works is getting huge quantities of resources out to the site while keeping your cities functional. The International Airport is one of the easier Great Works to build, but it still requires mammoth amounts of metal, alloy, and oil. Metal is smelted from ore, but alloy requires ore and coal, so you’ll probably want a nearby mining city or a trade city with access to the Global Market. Once your team of cities has assembled the materials, you’ll need to construct the International Airport by sending off a construction crew to start building. This takes cities with workers…lots of workers. These workers will take your materials and begin laying down the foundation for the terminals, runways, and control towers any respectable International Airport needs.
Even when the International Airport is complete, it still needs support to stay open. Running an International Airport isn’t cheap, you know. It can pay for itself (off of runway fees), but it’ll need significant supplies of regional energy and workers to operate. But it’s worth it. The Great Works aren’t just regular buildings. Large jumbo jets will bring in bellyfuls and bellyfuls of tourists. Far more tourists then your (formerly) small city can handle. You can’t let all those poor passengers sit out there with nothing to do, can you? I thought so. You’re going to need something to help get them in and around. Those highways are looking pretty crowded already. And your attractions have gotten awfully crowded. You’re going to need a much bigger city…
And that’s just the International Airport! As you can see, Great Works don’t just represent a big project. They encourage cities to work together. They challenge what a region can do. They provide dramatic opportunities for cities to grow. And, of course, having a huge International Airport with jumbo jets flying over your city is pretty sweet, too.
That’s all for this week! I look forward to sharing more with you about SimCity soon. Till then, may your life have something bigger on the horizon.
