Building Construction Animation

[Stevo Wallis]

I've been watching the video's in the Stream thread. In the Water Mechanics and Happiness video, I noticed at 11:14, the industrial buildings just pop out of the ground like a slow motion version of Cities XL's construction animation. The roof appears out of the ground and then it just pops up.
One of the best things about SimCity 4 for me, was watching a blank zone turn into a building site as construction started on a new building. In new cities, whole blocks would turn into construction sites. Also as land values rose, blocks of low value buildings would turn back into construction sites again, giving me an exciting feeling of my city growing up as bigger, more valuable buildings were constructed in their place. It was one of the most important visual effects that made the game feel alive. The Cities XL pop up version added to that games dead feeling.
I know the video is only alpha, but I hope the Dev's come up with a better construction animation, with maybe cranes for taller buildings in the animation. I'll be very disappointed if they stick with the current pop up version.

 

[charlesnew]

I think they said that they're adding in scaffolding and construction animations closer to release because it isn't really as important. But I'm sure it will definitely be in before launch.

 

[Stevo Wallis]

Sounds great. Even if it's just turns into a dirt patch with some tradesman vehicles parked on it, it will do me.

 

[Philemon1976]

an old wish from my side is that the constrruction of works, which take a lot of time (bridges, highways, Stadiums and so on) would took a little bit longer than that normal drag and plop.
watching evolving a huge structure, letting time pass and have a look on it from time to time would be mindblowing good.

 

[Niclistin]

If you watched and listened to any of the videos, they have said numerous times the animations are incomplete. This is an Alpha.

 

[Stevo Wallis]

If you watched and listened to any of the videos, they have said numerous times the animations are incomplete. This is an Alpha.

And if you read my OP, you'll notice that I have acknowledged that "the video is only alpha". I'm merely making a point that the importance of construction animation is understated as one of the main reasons SimCity 4 felt so alive, and I don't want the Dev's to brush over it thinking it's not really that important. Just because the game is alpha doesn't mean we can't offer feedback about the things we see and want improved.

 

[cd concept]

I would love to see a building go up from the time of excavation to the final touch ups of landscaping. I think that would be a tall order for CO to do. You would need a good CPU and graphics card etc, to catch all the details of development.

 

[Niclistin]

Yes, I'm sure since they have said repeatedly that it's incomplete - they will simply forget about building animations - you know, that team of less than ten people...wouldn't that be something? Well thank goodness you were here to save us all (and the game) from the animation woes which could have destroyed an entire game before it even made it to beta stage.

 

[Stevo Wallis]

an old wish from my side is that the constrruction of works, which take a lot of time (bridges, highways, Stadiums and so on) would took a little bit longer than that normal drag and plop.
watching evolving a huge structure, letting time pass and have a look on it from time to time would be mindblowing good.

I agree. I think SimCity 4 had a good handle on it. Roads were built fast so you could get on with zoning and plopping service buildings. Large projects like the large airport took ages as they should.