Subject: ClubOpolis SimCity 2000 Contest #5 ************************************************************************ ClubOpolis SimCity 2000 Contest #5 Official Rules Contest Code Name: 140 Arcos ****** QUESTIONS and ANSWERS ******************************************* What's the goal? Try to get the highest population What do I win? MAXIS has donated 6 prizes and ClubOpolis has 4 prizes When does it start? Now! When does it end? Friday, April 1, 1995 (this is not an April Fools joke) How do I send it in? E-mail it to me. If you don't know how, ask! If you can't E-mail it to me you can snail-mail it. Just ask for my address. See below for more details. New versions allow higher populations. Is that fair? Only the first 140 Arcologies count. Read below for more details. ******* CHEATING ******************************************************* There's no way to cheat in this contest because all cheats are legal! You can use all of the codes (Easter Eggs), you can give yourself 2 billion with a cheat utility, you can hex-edit your cities <*>, you can use the SCURK, you can do whatever you want to get the highest population. The city must have been created by you from start to finish <*>. Cities "can" be based on the 4 startup cities that come with SimCity 2000. They are: LAKELAND, MAXISLND, VOLCANO and HAPPYLND You can only turn in one city. If you turn in more than one city, only the highest population city will count toward this contest. <*> see ADDENDUM at end of file ******* PRIZES ********************************************************* MAXIS has donated 6 prizes. * 2 XL White T-Shirts (SimCity 2000) "Now entering SimCity 2000" on the front "The Ultimate City Simulator" on the back * 2 SimFarm's for Windows (3.5 diskettes only) SimCity's country cousin - Enjoy the joys, trials and tribulations of running a farm - without waking up at 5 in the morning. * 2 Klik & Play games for Windows (CD only) Revolutionary Instant Game Creator - Have you ever played a computer game and thought, "I could design a better game than that!" Well, here's your chance to prove it. ClubOpolis will also throw into the prize pot its' entire library of stuff to 4 more winners. The library includes over 200 of the best cities ever made, The Ultimate Cheat/Strategy/Information Collection and the latest cheat utility plus a lot more! 1st place gets 1st pick of any prize 2nd place gets 2nd pick at remaining prizes 3rd place gets 3rd pick at remaining prizes 4th place gets 4th pick at ... etc. : 10th place gets whatever is left over There will be 10 different winners. One prize per person. ********* 140 ARCOS **************************************************** Why is the code name of this contest "140 Arcos?" Since older versions of SimCity 2000 only count the first 140 Arcologies, only the first 140 Arcologies will count toward your population. You can have more than 140 Arcologies but your cities population will be determined using SimCity 2000 version 1.0 which only counts the "first" 140 Arcologies. ****** JUDGES WANTED *************************************************** Well ... you wouldn't exactly be a "judge" in the strictest definition of the word since you won't be giving your opinion. Your duties would be to examine each city and extract the population from the Neighbor Window. The neighbor window can be brought up by clicking on the 4th button from the bottom of the left side of the toolbar. Why have more than one judge? Because people make mistakes. It's a good idea to have many judges so we make sure we are getting the correct population for each city. I will be one of the judges. Judges can also compete in this contest. If you'd like to be a judge, e-mail me and let me know. ********* HOW TO SEND YOUR CITY **************************************** First of all, make sure you save your cities in "Pause" mode before you send them. Your population changes each month so you need to preserve it for the judges. * Prodigy members will need either Mail Manager or E-Mail Connection. ClubOpolis will send you a copy of either one if you need it. Prodigy will be offering on-line file-transfer soon. You won't need MM or EMC if that becomes available before April 1. * AOL members can e-mail their entries to my AOL id "KidCali2" * CompuServe members can send entries my CompuServe id "74677,3201" * Internet members should send entries to "rmnc12a@prodigy.com" or upload them to an ftp sight and let me know where to get them. If you e-mail them, use UUENCODE to convert them to text. Please use the "-s 450" option to break up your file into smaller files since my editor only holds 30,000 bytes. * REGARDLESS of which on-line service you use, you may want to use PKZIP to compress your files before sending. Compressing files saves you time and money during upload. If you have any other way you would like to send me your city, let me know and I'll do my best to work with the tools you already have. You can even use the postal service if you want. Let me know and I'll e-mail you my address. ****** A LONG DISCUSSION ON THE SIMCITY 2000 POPULATION MODEL ********** Your population will be determined by examining the Neighbor window. The Graphs window also gives the population (City Size) but it is rounded to the nearest 1000th. If you have Mac 1.1 or Windows 1.0, you can get populations exceeding 10 million. If you have Mac 1.0, Dos 1.0 or Dos 1.1 you will find it really hard to approach that 10 million ceiling. All versions of SimCity 2000 have 150 Microsims. What is a Microsim? Think of it as the two words "micro sims" meaning small simulations. They are localized simulations that track local statistics. They are updated once a year in January and exist for the structures listed below. The information they keep can be accessed by using the query tool. Unique structures like: * the Mayor's House * City Hall * the Statue * the Llama dome Each instance of these buildings: * hospital * police department * fire department * school * stadium * prison * college * zoo * treatment plant * desalinization plant * arcology * power plant There is one microsim for all combined: * wind turbines * hydroelectric plants * bus stations * rail stations * subway stations * parks * museums * libraries * marinas Examples of info gotten from queries: Llama Dome: Weddings, Visitors, Llama Sightings, Complaints, Bungee Jumps Arcology: Design Capacity, Residents, Built in, Conditions Stadium: Capacity, Attendance, Local Team, WLT Record Power Plant: Max Output, Running capacity, Age City Hall: analysis includes Acres and % of city for such things as Transportation, Power, Water and more. Once you reach 150 microsims, the next structure you build will not get a microsim. You can build the structure and it will have a global effect but the simulator won't track or display local statistic. Arcologies are the exception. If you are out of microsims and you build an Arcology, it will steal the microsim from the first structure you built. It won't steal a microsim from the combo-microsims like hydroelectric power, wind turbines, subway stations, rail depots, etc. Those 10 are sacred. That leaves 140 for the Arcos to steal. Once all 140 spare microsims have been stolen by the Arcos, the 141st Arco doesn't get a microsim. You can tell that a building no longer has a microsim when you query it and it displays the generic "Altitude, Land Value, Crime, Pollution, Power, Watered" info. What you are actually getting is info about that tile you clicked on. Another way to tell that a building no longer has a microsim is when you can no longer rename it. Why did MAXIS stop at 150 Microsims? Why not make it have 1000 or 10,000? Because it would take up too much memory. MAXIS wanted to have one simulation model for many different operating systems (Mac, Dos, Windows, Amiga) as well as many different types of machines (386, 486, Pentium, and various Mac hardware platforms) and beyond. The newer versions of SimCity 2000 that allow populations of over 10 million still have only 150 microsims. So then how do they get higher populations? Every Arcology beyond 140 gets the average population of the first 140 Arcologies. ******** RULE ADDENDUM *************************************************** This is new stuff that was added to the rules since the first mailing. The "rules of the contest" are guaranteed not to change but there may be some "rule clarifications" or additional helpful information added. Added Fri 3/10/95 You can turn in someone elses city if you have their permission to do so. Added Fri 3/10/95 Let me know if your using SimCity 2000 on an operating system other than Dos and Windows (like Mac or Amiga for example). We may have some compatibility issues to deal with. Added Sat 3/11/95 Although it is legal to use a hex-editor and cheat utilities, it is illegal to artificially set your population using a hex-editor, cheat utility or by any other "artificial" means. In other words, the simulator must be the only thing determining your population. If this was legal, everyone would give themselves the highest population possible and everyone would tie for first place. **************************************************************************