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Screenshot Analysis There are many official and unofficial screenshots of SimCity 4 out there on the internet. We gathered a few shots and did an analysis of each part. Click on the red areas of the following screenshots to see a description of what that is or what that is believed to be. 
Sims in Blue: Notice the way the Police Station is positioned. It has the front facing the road, as all buildings do. This means we'll likely be able to see the police cars pulling out of the station, as many reviews said. However, a question is raised. There are a lot of police cars in that station. Does that mean we'll be able to get multiple police dispatches from one statoin? Probably not. They'll probably change the look of the police station so that only one car is visible. Of course, I might be wrong... Back to Screenshot That crazy road: SimCity 4 is very much in the early stages. Notice how the road suddenly becomes very light at that intersection, in comparison to the rest of the road? This could be the early way of showing how much the road has been worn out. The darker the more worn out the road is. This graphical representation will probably be smoothed out by the time the game is released. Back to Screenshot What menu? Once again, SimCity 4 is using graphics from SimCity 3000. That button is exactly the same as the "minimize menu" button in SC3K. However, it looks as though the menu has switched sides, to the left instead of the right. The menu also is a lot smoother, as seen from other screenshots... Back to Screenshot Smokey the bear says: Fire in a building! Look closely at the smoke. It seems to be coming from one of the windows, or at least above the ground. Could this mean fires start in diffrent locations on buildings? Maybe. We can't tell, as that fire is just starting. But looking at the large fires at the bottom of the picture, it looks like all fires are on the roof. However, there is a fire near the enterance of the rightmost building. That could be a sign that more than one fire can be on one building, and fires start at diffrent levels in a building. Who knows? It could happen. Back to Screenshot That Fire Dispatch Pylon: This time, you can see who you're dispatching. Instead of using a bulky, hard-to-position column, you have a sleek, easy-to-identify pylon that shows which fire unit you dispatched (Notice the numbers? The fire stations will probably have their number on them when you query them). These pylons are probably only for positioning the trucks. See below for more information... Back to Screenshot Sim Firefighter: There seems to be yet another dispatch pylon in the game. Afterall, SimCity 4 will give you complete control over your city, and you will have alot more control over the firefighters. This smaller dispatch pylon could be one of two things: a pylon that shows where fire crews should go, or a pylon that shows where they should spray the water. I personally believe it is the former, as opposed to the latter, as you can see in the screenshot that the pylons are position rather far away from the fire. Back to Screenshot The fire truck works this time! Not only are you able to send a dispatch pylon to a fire or riot or whatever, you can actually see the fire truck/police car/mayor's limo going to the location. Not only that, but the vehicles don't work until they get there! So the vehicles weaving through traffic isn't just eye candy, its a measuring stick of how well you made your road system. Back to Screenshot What sidewalk? As we can see, our favorite game turns houses towards the street. From the area around the red rectangle, we can also see a few things. Tiles aren't all that important anymore. We have a road going through the middle of a bunch of tiles, a police station taking up 2 3/4 tiles. On the downside, this extra space probably can't be used for other things. But as we can see from the red rectangle in the lower right hand corner, that space between the buildings and the road could be reserved for a sidewalk. After all, we have a driveway ending in dirt, and the overall look of the area just looks strange. We can expect a sidewalk sometime soon. Back to Screenshot Look at all the types! We are no longer limited to those tacky palm trees or those average-joe type trees that are in one tree set. It seems as though we can mix and match tree types. Not only that, but trees grow all over the place. Look around. On the police station, you can see some strange looking shrubs or trees. Those probably come with the building. But if you look in the left corner, you can see a palm tree growing out of the grass, and that probably isn't part of the tile. Don't believe me? A little bit above the fire and to the right, there are two trees growing out of the parking lot. Back to Screenshot 1 wha? What does that mean? "1 available." What could that mean? Well, lets lookis at the circumstances. We have an appartment building, and there is what appears to be a talk bubble saying "1 available." No one is quite sure what that means. I, however, am willing to bet on a little theory of my own. The screenshot could be a view from the "My Sim" mode, where you can move your own sims into your own city (So that's where they got the name SimCity). Of course, your sims need a place to stay. So that "1 available" could very well be a signal saying there is one available apartment for a family to move into in that building. That, of course, is just a theory. No guarantees as to whether or not it is true. But it just seems logical. Back to Screenshot |
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