So, assuming you're able to get it to work, since there seems to be a lot of bug threads, how do you like Modern Times?

I'm having a fair amount of fun with it so far. I've completed the first two missions and I'm actually finding the conditions fairly challenging.

Haven't got much further than the 1970s though, so I haven't had much chance to play around with the new buildings yet.

I have mixed feelings about it. While I enjoy the fairly good amount of additions and the timeline (especially the events), I'm annoyed by the way many upgrades work. For example, I don't like the fact that I can only build Cabarets ands classical restaurants on the early years of my rule. Theater are nice but the Cabaret has such style that it's a shame we can't build it anymore(and I also always use it as my secret service HQ). As for the boat restaurant... I'm having a hard time getting used to it becoming unavoidable.
One building was strange to me: the urban park. While it's very nice, I would have loved to have variation to it or to have some of those soviet-style concrete monument to put everywhere. Oh and it's bloody HUGE!
Oh, and the side-effect of banning social networks made me really laugh! I want more of these! Well... I want moaaar edicts!

Nevertheless, I don't regret buying it!

I can't help to ask! and I notice this a lot in the video. How do the building compare to the older version of Tropical

Yeah, I really started to miss my little Restaurants quickly. Inexpensive, nice without being too gaudy and something you can slot in a little patch of land between an apartment and roadway.

And I always used them for my secret police HQs. No real stylistic reason, but they're cheap.

I still remember the first Simulation game I use to play , it was warehouse game.. I wished it was still available

I finished the 1st mission toward the end of the 70s, it was pretty fun. Fish farms seem bugged for me though - they're showing 0 wage and upkeep in the info panel.

Construction workers have gotten worse.

Think it sucks that the old buildings are not available. And the new ones feel rushed in the design.

Hmmm. i read somewhere that i could play the old maps but how do i get them into modern times? Anyone know if its possible?

All i wanted to do was to expand the city center of my old island with some new cool structures.

I don't think it's possible, they've said that the modern times functions aren't intended to be used in vanilla game missions, because they can break the balance of it.

I think there's probably also an issue if, say, a mission requires you to build a new FARM and you've already passed the point where you can only build Biofarms.

I haven't played it yet, because the xbox version has got postponed. But am i right in thinking that you have no choice to move into modern times? So it will pass a certain year and suddenly you can't build the original buildings?? Becuase i had previously assumed that you would simply pay to upgrade the blueprints of each building when you choose and move on from there.

Does that make sense?

I find it rather fun. I enjoy the story in the campaign and I've not ran into any bugs that I've noticed. Love the new buildings and such but I don't like the fact that they somewhat forcibly replace the old ones. I really liked the old Restaurant because of it's size. Also the modern apartment buildings have only two variations, which is lame. I seriously hope Kalypso patches the modern variants to be optional, click-to-upgrade instead.
Unrelated to gameplay, I'm a bit put off by what I assume is a new voice actor for Sunny Flowers ( and the russian woman though she doesn't bother me as much ). She is just... extremely bad, no emotion in her voice at all.

(30-03-2012 05:59 PM)SapphireBullets Wrote:  I think there's probably also an issue if, say, a mission requires you to build a new FARM and you've already passed the point where you can only build Biofarms.

Funnily enough this happen to me. One of the mission requests calls for 4 ranches on Llama work mode. Only problem was the ranches were gone and bio-ranches were the only option (which you can't specify work mode). So I built 4 of them and they all counted for the request.

Bio-farms also seem to count as "farms".

(30-03-2012 05:13 PM)hugorune Wrote:  I don't think it's possible, they've said that the modern times functions aren't intended to be used in vanilla game missions, because they can break the balance of it.

this is a horrible excuse for them to not allow modern times to current games, so what, this is a reason to not have modern-times buildings in existing sandbox games?

just disable them for the original campagain.

So far I love the new buildings and edicts. I shelved the game a while back, but this gave it some new life.

My biggest gripe so far is the dialog. I do realize they are going for over-the-top humor stuff. Most of the time I find it really inane, not funny at all, just stooooopid.

Can't have everything I guess, but well worth the price.

(31-03-2012 10:02 AM)cornfuzed Wrote:  So far I love the new buildings and edicts. I shelved the game a while back, but this gave it some new life.

My biggest gripe so far is the dialog. I do realize they are going for over-the-top humor stuff. Most of the time I find it really inane, not funny at all, just stooooopid.

Can't have everything I guess, but well worth the price.

I DO wish that I could simply turn that aspect of the game off. It has got to the point where I find it very very difficult to ignore and it irritates the hell out of me. I never did find it funny. It seems to have got worse with each release, or it could be that it seems to irritate me more these days. In fact I tend to stop playing due to its annoyance.

You can turn down the "Voice" slider on the options menu to eliminate voices. The only voice you'll hear is El Presidente responses to commands.

I use it all the time so I can listen to the radio in the background.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of that simple but effective way to resolve my irritation. Thanks for that

Really enjoy the game so far, but a few things that already have their own topics need to be modified for the game to really shine. The new buildings are a good addition, but shouldn't be forced to you. Increasing the number of buildings over time and adding much better but more expensive versions of buildings later, increases the fun factor in the middle and endgame phases (city building with lots of cash at hand), while still allowing for dictatorships to keep their old run down look if they so desire.

I only ever play the Sandbox option because i like free form city building and i think that Modern Times bring fun new elements to the game.

i have had to change my strategies though which i am still struggling with, but, that is what makes this game so addictive.

i wish the mods worked with it...i use the 5,000 no limits mod along with the metropolis mod, since the new DLC came out though the mods do not work.

One thing I really wish was added, is difficulty settings for the campaign.
I had this same issue with the original campaign, it was far too easy to do anything, so I would do the first mission, then just go back to Sandbox Mode.

On Sandbox I play with political stability on the hardest settings, as well as world economy. I have tourism turned down to about a quarter. Starting population 35, and random events maximum. And also rebel yell on.
And I still feel it could be a little more challenging. Though I could always turn off immigration, though that's a little extreme.

If the campaign had difficulty settings to lower values such as world economy and political stability, I might be inclined to play them, because it seems like the story is good.

(31-03-2012 01:18 PM)SapphireBullets Wrote:  You can turn down the "Voice" slider on the options menu to eliminate voices. The only voice you'll hear is El Presidente responses to commands.

Thanks, but I should clarify my "gripe".

These may be considered spoilers, so read no further if you haven't played Modern Times yet.


There have been moments where I thought this game was brilliant. When you issue the fertilize edict and Penultimo humms Ride Of The Valkyries. Or the Shadow thing, the voice acting and dialog was fantastic. Even the zombie level, well the beginning at least. The person(s) responsible for these moments can't possibly be the same as writing the dialog for the mad doctor....whatever his name is.

I cringe every time he pops up, hiccups, gimme a break. Another cringe worthy factor in my opinion, what ten year old did the new Sunny voice? C'mon, at least hire a somewhat decent voice actor to read the lines as lame as they may be.

For me, I have to keep the sound on in the missions. Every time I'm convinced to just quit, they throw me a curve and impress me to no end.

Uggghhh....just stop with the disasters already!

Even worse, the city park is useless. No one uses it. It provides no entertainment. I only build it when Sunny asks me to. And knock the monster down immediately afterwords.

(01-04-2012 08:21 PM)Walther Matthau Wrote:  Even worse, the city park is useless. No one uses it. It provides no entertainment. I only build it when Sunny asks me to. And knock the monster down immediately afterwords.

Actually, it's pretty awesome for local beauty. Use it for your tourist areas and you'll reap higher service quality and higher profits.

(Also I guess you could use it to raise Environmental Happiness for citizens living around it.)

(31-03-2012 12:58 AM)Feeblezak Wrote:  

(30-03-2012 05:13 PM)hugorune Wrote:  I don't think it's possible, they've said that the modern times functions aren't intended to be used in vanilla game missions, because they can break the balance of it.

this is a horrible excuse for them to not allow modern times to current games, so what, this is a reason to not have modern-times buildings in existing sandbox games?

just disable them for the original campagain.

The new buildings aren't balanced?

(30-03-2012 05:13 PM)hugorune Wrote:  I don't think it's possible, they've said that the modern times functions aren't intended to be used in vanilla game missions, because they can break the balance of it.

It has nothing to do with balance of the mission, They would have to go back and physically recode the entire campaign to work with modern times. It was most likely not worth the man hours it would take to check the code and update for every mission which is easily a few hours per mission, then, then send it through Q&A and debug, then repack, just to give the original campaign a modern times update..

Modern times adds many new things that are just not in T4 like the timeline function which all of moderntimes runs around. so updating isnt as simple as just adding some buildings and calling it a day

Pretty much.

What I believe they did is use the DLC flag ("Expansion") to block the use in previous games. The reason for that is you'd have missed checkpoints, OR massive loading lag for the initial "conversion".

While this is possible, it's not important.

I'm yet to play much of it, as I've been too busy to either play or mod, and the time I've had has been spent trying to work out the engine changes

Yeah and aliens killed JFK.

Balance IS the key factor here, a single bio-farm is about the equivalent of two plantations from the second DLC. A plantation is the equivalent of two original farms on steroids.

It ain't rocket science, I could mod an uber-farm for T4, but why? It ruins the game.

Don't even get me started on the bio-ranches, such a small footprint and it produces as much as four ranches in the classic game.

(02-04-2012 03:02 AM)cornfuzed Wrote:  .

Balance IS the key factor here, a single bio-farm is about the equivalent of two plantations from the second DLC. A plantation is the equivalent of two original farms on steroids.

while the balance is something to consiter.. Like i said, it is not the reason why they are not in the orginal campaign, as i said, they would have to deconstruct the entire campaign, then add in all the time line code, and then rescript the each and every mission.

How the whole sandbox works i'm not to sure.. though i got the impression you can set up a sandbox starting at 1950 still, will all buildings, then as time goes on things update.

cause in a way it makes sence. If you build a building in 2012, You can't build the same building you would of in 1950, It just doesnt hold up to all the new building codes.

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(02-04-2012 03:02 AM)cornfuzed Wrote:  Don't even get me started on the bio-ranches, such a small footprint and it produces as much as four ranches in the classic game.

Well that is the way a bio-farm/ranch works... Genetic chicken farms for example produce 10x the amount of chicken in much less space, in half the time as it did in the 50's..

Algee paste is sounding much more appealing as time goes on...