SimCity 3000 Unlimited (PC, 2000)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-6.5 Story-3.5
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-6 Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
+
Good interface overall (drag and drop with RMB or right click near screen edge to scroll, well sorted and readable, tooltips on icons, various hotkeys (several more than in SC2K), 4 speed settings and you can build while the game is paused, added color coded news reel/ticker in the GUI showing what needs your attention, various different views for over/underground/crime/fire etc. - SC2k, rotatable view - SC2k, etc),
4 city/map size options - can use larger maps than in the prequel
More varied buildings (three tiers of property density here)
Farms and waste management (farms=large light industrial zones in low pollution areas, trash in landfills has to slowly decompose to be removed unless incinerated/recycled/shipped away to another city via seaport (disconnect routes to it to let it happen))
New cosmetic options and details (5 region climate type tilesets (with 5 tree types to go along with it) - Unlimited ver., NA/EU/Asian buildings style or custom buildings (the latter two were added in Unlimited), 5 zoom levels, sidewalks and you can now see citizens if you zoom in, snapshot feature - Unlimited, )
Building architect tool (design buildings in a simple cube-based isometric tool - similar to SCURK (Sim City Urban Renewal Kit) from the updated version of SC2K, Plus version (unlimited): exterior design, wall painting, details like doors and windows, inserting custom props which stand independently)
Pros and cons to some buildings add some strategic depth (consider the longtime benefit of seaports compared to the additional water pollution for example, farms produce food (which can be turned into an additional income) but are very sensitive to pollution, airports are super expensive and pollute a lot+require a lot of water but boost your commercial zones (especially if placed nearby) and your economy in the long run via tourism+more people wanting to move in, casinos, homeless shelters, while you want to be selling power it can be worth it to buy it if the map is small or if you're waiting to build a better power plant and running out of your own supply, etc.)
Aura/happiness or mood stats added to the map displays (rates across the city displayed as more/less opaque colored circular zones - higher opacity/color intensity=higher rate or something) as well as flora/trees stats (still no other vegetation than trees besides the parks)
Can make buildings historical to keep them from changing (can also manually replace their appearance - but not replace an aged building without demolishing the old one)
Added activists/petitioners and businesspeople making demands or offers now and then (plus advise on what they ask for; some advisors are less ethically concerned than others which leads to more interesting considerations for the player as an activist might start complaining), beach tiles and one attraction (marina),
Can make deals with neighboring cities (trash disposal/management on your land (via seaport if placed near a landfill), buy and/or sell power and water, can reject offers to get better ones and bigger cities make better offers, good to sell power to larger neighbors as well as take care of their trash)
More disaster types (4 new ones in Unlimited including locusts and space junk)
More reward buildings and scenarios (more in Unlimited; haunted house for example)
Various pre-made cities based on real-world ones
Res options (up to 1280x1024 w/ widescreen) and 3 separate volume sliders (sfx, ambience and music+3D sound toggle)
Some good visual effects (some disasters though the animation of buildings being destroyed by tornadoes could've been better and the water splash+fire animations have few frames, debris from exploding buildings)
Can plant a higher density of trees on a single tile (also creates higher trees; doesn't seem to help more with pollution though)
More realistic land value effect on building types with more distinct income-based areas and more value near a city's center
Can connect subway rails to standard rails
More efficient railroads here (if used right - hub and spokes)
Advanced scenario editor using MS Access (didn't try it yet)
+/-
Save anywhere (nameable and unlimited slots)
Climate doesn't change dynamically based on the seasons and has no gameplay effect (there is a visual cloud effect however clouds and their shadows are only visible at the first two zoom levels, toxic rain from too much pollution is the only gameplay-related effect)
Basic difficulty options (affects starting money only?)
Disasters can be toggled but their frequency can't be set
Three starting dates (1900, 1950, 2000) - could've been expanded a bit for Unlimited
Introduces real-world landmark buildings however they are cosmetic only (would've been cooler to have them as rewards or expensive buildings with specific bonuses (or pros and cons) to the city; more of them in Unlimited)
Maps are always square-shaped
The game's menus look like an extension of a Windows 2000 desktop mixed with Windows 7
Auto budget simply means that all of your Budget window settings will remain unchanged and the Budget window will not pop up year after year - as soon as your finances go into the negative it will be turned off
Power plants and other utility buildings have decreasing maximum output over time here
High-tech businesses is tied to education level
Highest level/x density commercial buildings develop much easier after 400k population is reached as that causes commercial demand to go much higher (the game sees the city's economy as self-sustained at this point; before 400k you need to raise land value around a small amount of high density zones to get them) - not mentioned in the manual
Uses comic sans font for some window titles (lol)
There's a money penalty for canceling deals which can't be negotiated
Still no skiing resorts
Can risk a triggered disaster to cash in on a disaster relief but it's a gamble (enact the retro-fitting ordinance and start an earthquake then hit the emergency button - 3-4 buildings will fall if you're lucky)
No need to pause while demolishing power plants to replace them without an explosion here
No replay or restart map functions
Citizens won't complain if you drastically change the tax rate for a shorter period in-between year end and beginning (lets you gain some quick money)
Can't view neighbouring cities in detail (this would spoil some tactics so it's understandable; oddly enough you can rename neighboring cities in the neighbors menu)
Can play for as long as you like but new inventions stop happening after 2050
Can't build powerline or road bridges to neighbors where there's a sea border even if you raise the land up to the border
Roundabouts (creating a 4x4 circle with the road tool) have no gameplay use
Churches only exist as landmarks in this one
Water and power deals are tricky to maintain due to how the game likes to ask for an amount just below your spare capacity (say 12,000 MW when you have 12,500 MW to spare)
-
Some control/interface issues (no undo command (can only use Esc while selecting an action/drawing up a zone to not do it), overly difficult to get certain buildings like farms built and if you want to add another one next to one it can get worse (if the sims start building other industries then the pollution makes your previous farm get unbuilt unless you make it historical) - a farm zone tile would've been better, making buildings historical only works on a per building basis and if the buildings are all a single tile big then it can take a long time (farms for example), no in-game notifications for new inventions such as power plants, no education level stat display for the layer views map window (there is education quotient and level over time info in the charts and graphs menus though), the hotkey system could've been expanded with a hotkey tree like in Starcraft for example (first press a key for the main category, then a key for the next category within it and so on), can't speed up nor pause the news reel in the GUI (and if you pause the game it only displays "game paused"), can't change scroll speed (a bit too fast on modern systems), a few menu icons don't have a tooltip (switching out building styles menu), no hotkey settings in-game, sometimes can't build road/water pipes/power lines on slightly sloping terrain and then have to level several tiles of terrain around the slope instead of just that one tile, can't use the query/examine tool on menu icons, scroll stop at the edge of the map happens a bit too soon and scrolling sometimes gets choppy near edges, some things like zone distance from a road or rail and how to get certain buildings are not mentioned (residential plaza), can't initiate a deal yourself if a neighboring city isn't offering one - costs 2k to open a connection to a neighboring city (also need a mayor's house) and then you just have to wait, can't move a non-zone building elsewhere, no layer views hotkeys, not enough of a notification when new technology is made available, can't use mouse wheel to zoom in/out, no warning if you're about to go over capacity for power leading to power deals being canceled - should've been some leeway here so you could expand your power production or remove some buildings before this happens, no "go to problem area/building" option when getting notified of something, no "reject forever" option for deals, can't skip or speed up the annual street parade animation - speed controls are turned off during it and it lasts for 3+ minutes!, )
No proper in-game tutorial (there is info on various topics you can access via the advisors sub menu but they are text files only - no pictures and no interactivity or connection to your gameplay),
No campaign mode (you just get a folder of scenarios with some set goals to fix a run down/disaster struck city - no story or red thread stringing runs/playthroughs together in any mode)
Can't make and save larger templates with pre-placed road blocks/zoning/other buildings?
The game engine is a bit slow at drawing in trees and buildings when changing zoom levels and/or scrolling around (zooming in or out and back can help and toggling everything in the layers views menu also works)
The music sometimes goes quiet for fairly long periods of time
No arcologies here (so no space colony launch from them though there is a spaceport as a final reward here in 2050)
Can't place larger rounded road tiles (only small roundabouts and diagonals), Can't place zones or buildings diagonally across the grid
No newspaper window here - having only the reel feels lightweight and has less personality compared to the prequel where you could read a full page of a fictional newspaper with articles+you can't tweak the reel to only show what is demanded at the moment (another good thing about the newspaper was that it sometimes reported about your neighbors)
Advisors look and dress the same in 1900 as they do much later on
No real-time rotation or zoom (started being done in isometric games from around 1996 onwards (Dark Savior for example)
Desinalization plants aren't worth it and neither is solar power?
Some trial & error (better to start with light density zoning and re-zone as it gains in value - going for high density first can slow the value gain down a lot, starting industrial zones as farms leads to very high land value as the farms disappear and you replace them with dense zoning, can actually place a single tile of power lines every five tiles (four tiles in between each power line square) because the power still transmits, subways are too expensive until you're well established, the mall (business deal) only shuts down commerce for 4-8 years at most, don't need to put bus stops at both residential and industrial areas to have them go between residential and industrial areas - only the former, placing on-ramps to highways is a bit unintuitive - have to place a road tunnel going through the highway first)
Can't ask the advisors questions like with a MS help tool
No network edition feature (see SC2k - lets you build with up to four other people on the same map)
Can't check the mood or stats of individual citizens (Caesar III, Theme Park)
Can't automatically set aside a certain amount of money each year to save up for something expensive
Not enough inventions in the 21th century (2000s; just two power plants with a 20 and 30 year gap respectively)
Notes:
-Original game is from 1999
-Industrial zones must be within 5 tiles or less of a road to be effective, residential=4 tiles or less, commercial=3 tiles or less; Water pipes have a 7 tile reach
-Road/rail/other connections to elsewhere leads to more commerce
-Farms don't need water but do need to be 8x8-18x18 (9x9 is optimal) tiles and to be some ways away from any pollution to be built (industrial zone), farms only tend to appear on low value land, can't completely surround them with road
-Can save 10% on roads and highways if you enact the tire recycling ordinance when building roads and turn it off when you're done
-Tips & Tricks: https://www.somacon.com/p603.php; more: https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/other-games/, even more: https://web.archive.org/web/20061030041454/http://www.sc3000.com/knowledge/showarticle.cfm?id=0771&openItemID=
-Seaport=2x6 tiles, airport=3x5
-"Using a 14x14 or 14x16 grid. Using a 14x14 grid allows me to build 8 4x4 Dense commercial grids with a nice center in the middle for a train station and value enhancements, like Parks, ponds, playgrounds, fountains, etc. It also keeps a one block distance between all buildings, in order to put in a bus station or subway station between buildings. I like the 16x4 grid for residential areas, as it allows each of the 4x4 residential blocks to only touch one road (meaning, no corner lots)." - simtropolis
-Invention dates: https://simpage.net/simcity3/tips/957272999.shtml
Bugs:
-Airports attract a massive amount of crime due to a bug and there's no patch to fix it?
-Land value bug under certain near utopian conditions: https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/other-games/land-value-calculation-bug-in-simcity-3000-r700/
-Some buildings sometimes get abandoned due to lack of transportation options for seemingly no reason
-Traffic complaints sometimes fluctuate between "bad" to "no problems" over the period of a year without changing anything about the infrastructure
-Bridge building occasionally doesn't work (seems to be some issue with the terrain in certain spots)
-Seems like selling power can sometimes glitch out and require a much larger surplus of power to trigger (should become available when you have 5k+ pop and are producing several thousands of excess MW) - I had to get a surplus of about 7-10k
Level Design-7.5 Frustration-6 Fun-7.5 Originality-6
Overall Score-7.5
+
Good interface overall (drag and drop with RMB or right click near screen edge to scroll, well sorted and readable, tooltips on icons, various hotkeys (several more than in SC2K), 4 speed settings and you can build while the game is paused, added color coded news reel/ticker in the GUI showing what needs your attention, various different views for over/underground/crime/fire etc. - SC2k, rotatable view - SC2k, etc),
4 city/map size options - can use larger maps than in the prequel
More varied buildings (three tiers of property density here)
Farms and waste management (farms=large light industrial zones in low pollution areas, trash in landfills has to slowly decompose to be removed unless incinerated/recycled/shipped away to another city via seaport (disconnect routes to it to let it happen))
New cosmetic options and details (5 region climate type tilesets (with 5 tree types to go along with it) - Unlimited ver., NA/EU/Asian buildings style or custom buildings (the latter two were added in Unlimited), 5 zoom levels, sidewalks and you can now see citizens if you zoom in, snapshot feature - Unlimited, )
Building architect tool (design buildings in a simple cube-based isometric tool - similar to SCURK (Sim City Urban Renewal Kit) from the updated version of SC2K, Plus version (unlimited): exterior design, wall painting, details like doors and windows, inserting custom props which stand independently)
Pros and cons to some buildings add some strategic depth (consider the longtime benefit of seaports compared to the additional water pollution for example, farms produce food (which can be turned into an additional income) but are very sensitive to pollution, airports are super expensive and pollute a lot+require a lot of water but boost your commercial zones (especially if placed nearby) and your economy in the long run via tourism+more people wanting to move in, casinos, homeless shelters, while you want to be selling power it can be worth it to buy it if the map is small or if you're waiting to build a better power plant and running out of your own supply, etc.)
Aura/happiness or mood stats added to the map displays (rates across the city displayed as more/less opaque colored circular zones - higher opacity/color intensity=higher rate or something) as well as flora/trees stats (still no other vegetation than trees besides the parks)
Can make buildings historical to keep them from changing (can also manually replace their appearance - but not replace an aged building without demolishing the old one)
Added activists/petitioners and businesspeople making demands or offers now and then (plus advise on what they ask for; some advisors are less ethically concerned than others which leads to more interesting considerations for the player as an activist might start complaining), beach tiles and one attraction (marina),
Can make deals with neighboring cities (trash disposal/management on your land (via seaport if placed near a landfill), buy and/or sell power and water, can reject offers to get better ones and bigger cities make better offers, good to sell power to larger neighbors as well as take care of their trash)
More disaster types (4 new ones in Unlimited including locusts and space junk)
More reward buildings and scenarios (more in Unlimited; haunted house for example)
Various pre-made cities based on real-world ones
Res options (up to 1280x1024 w/ widescreen) and 3 separate volume sliders (sfx, ambience and music+3D sound toggle)
Some good visual effects (some disasters though the animation of buildings being destroyed by tornadoes could've been better and the water splash+fire animations have few frames, debris from exploding buildings)
Can plant a higher density of trees on a single tile (also creates higher trees; doesn't seem to help more with pollution though)
More realistic land value effect on building types with more distinct income-based areas and more value near a city's center
Can connect subway rails to standard rails
More efficient railroads here (if used right - hub and spokes)
Advanced scenario editor using MS Access (didn't try it yet)
+/-
Save anywhere (nameable and unlimited slots)
Climate doesn't change dynamically based on the seasons and has no gameplay effect (there is a visual cloud effect however clouds and their shadows are only visible at the first two zoom levels, toxic rain from too much pollution is the only gameplay-related effect)
Basic difficulty options (affects starting money only?)
Disasters can be toggled but their frequency can't be set
Three starting dates (1900, 1950, 2000) - could've been expanded a bit for Unlimited
Introduces real-world landmark buildings however they are cosmetic only (would've been cooler to have them as rewards or expensive buildings with specific bonuses (or pros and cons) to the city; more of them in Unlimited)
Maps are always square-shaped
The game's menus look like an extension of a Windows 2000 desktop mixed with Windows 7
Auto budget simply means that all of your Budget window settings will remain unchanged and the Budget window will not pop up year after year - as soon as your finances go into the negative it will be turned off
Power plants and other utility buildings have decreasing maximum output over time here
High-tech businesses is tied to education level
Highest level/x density commercial buildings develop much easier after 400k population is reached as that causes commercial demand to go much higher (the game sees the city's economy as self-sustained at this point; before 400k you need to raise land value around a small amount of high density zones to get them) - not mentioned in the manual
Uses comic sans font for some window titles (lol)
There's a money penalty for canceling deals which can't be negotiated
Still no skiing resorts
Can risk a triggered disaster to cash in on a disaster relief but it's a gamble (enact the retro-fitting ordinance and start an earthquake then hit the emergency button - 3-4 buildings will fall if you're lucky)
No need to pause while demolishing power plants to replace them without an explosion here
No replay or restart map functions
Citizens won't complain if you drastically change the tax rate for a shorter period in-between year end and beginning (lets you gain some quick money)
Can't view neighbouring cities in detail (this would spoil some tactics so it's understandable; oddly enough you can rename neighboring cities in the neighbors menu)
Can play for as long as you like but new inventions stop happening after 2050
Can't build powerline or road bridges to neighbors where there's a sea border even if you raise the land up to the border
Roundabouts (creating a 4x4 circle with the road tool) have no gameplay use
Churches only exist as landmarks in this one
Water and power deals are tricky to maintain due to how the game likes to ask for an amount just below your spare capacity (say 12,000 MW when you have 12,500 MW to spare)
-
Some control/interface issues (no undo command (can only use Esc while selecting an action/drawing up a zone to not do it), overly difficult to get certain buildings like farms built and if you want to add another one next to one it can get worse (if the sims start building other industries then the pollution makes your previous farm get unbuilt unless you make it historical) - a farm zone tile would've been better, making buildings historical only works on a per building basis and if the buildings are all a single tile big then it can take a long time (farms for example), no in-game notifications for new inventions such as power plants, no education level stat display for the layer views map window (there is education quotient and level over time info in the charts and graphs menus though), the hotkey system could've been expanded with a hotkey tree like in Starcraft for example (first press a key for the main category, then a key for the next category within it and so on), can't speed up nor pause the news reel in the GUI (and if you pause the game it only displays "game paused"), can't change scroll speed (a bit too fast on modern systems), a few menu icons don't have a tooltip (switching out building styles menu), no hotkey settings in-game, sometimes can't build road/water pipes/power lines on slightly sloping terrain and then have to level several tiles of terrain around the slope instead of just that one tile, can't use the query/examine tool on menu icons, scroll stop at the edge of the map happens a bit too soon and scrolling sometimes gets choppy near edges, some things like zone distance from a road or rail and how to get certain buildings are not mentioned (residential plaza), can't initiate a deal yourself if a neighboring city isn't offering one - costs 2k to open a connection to a neighboring city (also need a mayor's house) and then you just have to wait, can't move a non-zone building elsewhere, no layer views hotkeys, not enough of a notification when new technology is made available, can't use mouse wheel to zoom in/out, no warning if you're about to go over capacity for power leading to power deals being canceled - should've been some leeway here so you could expand your power production or remove some buildings before this happens, no "go to problem area/building" option when getting notified of something, no "reject forever" option for deals, can't skip or speed up the annual street parade animation - speed controls are turned off during it and it lasts for 3+ minutes!, )
No proper in-game tutorial (there is info on various topics you can access via the advisors sub menu but they are text files only - no pictures and no interactivity or connection to your gameplay),
No campaign mode (you just get a folder of scenarios with some set goals to fix a run down/disaster struck city - no story or red thread stringing runs/playthroughs together in any mode)
Can't make and save larger templates with pre-placed road blocks/zoning/other buildings?
The game engine is a bit slow at drawing in trees and buildings when changing zoom levels and/or scrolling around (zooming in or out and back can help and toggling everything in the layers views menu also works)
The music sometimes goes quiet for fairly long periods of time
No arcologies here (so no space colony launch from them though there is a spaceport as a final reward here in 2050)
Can't place larger rounded road tiles (only small roundabouts and diagonals), Can't place zones or buildings diagonally across the grid
No newspaper window here - having only the reel feels lightweight and has less personality compared to the prequel where you could read a full page of a fictional newspaper with articles+you can't tweak the reel to only show what is demanded at the moment (another good thing about the newspaper was that it sometimes reported about your neighbors)
Advisors look and dress the same in 1900 as they do much later on
No real-time rotation or zoom (started being done in isometric games from around 1996 onwards (Dark Savior for example)
Desinalization plants aren't worth it and neither is solar power?
Some trial & error (better to start with light density zoning and re-zone as it gains in value - going for high density first can slow the value gain down a lot, starting industrial zones as farms leads to very high land value as the farms disappear and you replace them with dense zoning, can actually place a single tile of power lines every five tiles (four tiles in between each power line square) because the power still transmits, subways are too expensive until you're well established, the mall (business deal) only shuts down commerce for 4-8 years at most, don't need to put bus stops at both residential and industrial areas to have them go between residential and industrial areas - only the former, placing on-ramps to highways is a bit unintuitive - have to place a road tunnel going through the highway first)
Can't ask the advisors questions like with a MS help tool
No network edition feature (see SC2k - lets you build with up to four other people on the same map)
Can't check the mood or stats of individual citizens (Caesar III, Theme Park)
Can't automatically set aside a certain amount of money each year to save up for something expensive
Not enough inventions in the 21th century (2000s; just two power plants with a 20 and 30 year gap respectively)
Notes:
-Original game is from 1999
-Industrial zones must be within 5 tiles or less of a road to be effective, residential=4 tiles or less, commercial=3 tiles or less; Water pipes have a 7 tile reach
-Road/rail/other connections to elsewhere leads to more commerce
-Farms don't need water but do need to be 8x8-18x18 (9x9 is optimal) tiles and to be some ways away from any pollution to be built (industrial zone), farms only tend to appear on low value land, can't completely surround them with road
-Can save 10% on roads and highways if you enact the tire recycling ordinance when building roads and turn it off when you're done
-Tips & Tricks: https://www.somacon.com/p603.php; more: https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/other-games/, even more: https://web.archive.org/web/20061030041454/http://www.sc3000.com/knowledge/showarticle.cfm?id=0771&openItemID=
-Seaport=2x6 tiles, airport=3x5
-"Using a 14x14 or 14x16 grid. Using a 14x14 grid allows me to build 8 4x4 Dense commercial grids with a nice center in the middle for a train station and value enhancements, like Parks, ponds, playgrounds, fountains, etc. It also keeps a one block distance between all buildings, in order to put in a bus station or subway station between buildings. I like the 16x4 grid for residential areas, as it allows each of the 4x4 residential blocks to only touch one road (meaning, no corner lots)." - simtropolis
-Invention dates: https://simpage.net/simcity3/tips/957272999.shtml
Bugs:
-Airports attract a massive amount of crime due to a bug and there's no patch to fix it?
-Land value bug under certain near utopian conditions: https://community.simtropolis.com/omnibus/other-games/land-value-calculation-bug-in-simcity-3000-r700/
-Some buildings sometimes get abandoned due to lack of transportation options for seemingly no reason
-Traffic complaints sometimes fluctuate between "bad" to "no problems" over the period of a year without changing anything about the infrastructure
-Bridge building occasionally doesn't work (seems to be some issue with the terrain in certain spots)
-Seems like selling power can sometimes glitch out and require a much larger surplus of power to trigger (should become available when you have 5k+ pop and are producing several thousands of excess MW) - I had to get a surplus of about 7-10k