Ever since I was a little kid, I loved building things. In preschool I got an award for "Best Architecture" for my creations made out of building blocks. Growing up in Los Angeles I loved driving on the freeways and seeing the construction of the huge interchanges. This deep passion for construction and building things led me to a career in Civil Engineering, where I work for a land development firm. I design sewer, water and storm drain systems as well as road design and grading. My biggest passion at work is modeling sites in 3D, coming up with ways to grade large sites to ensure an earthwork balance. It's this same passion that has fueled my interest in SimCity. As someone who loved video games as a kid, SimCity was the perfect combination of street planning, neighborhood layout and learning how to work with the land to develop a place that people would live, work and play.
I bought the latest version of SimCity several weeks after it came out. I was frustrated to find that there was no good way to see the land before claiming a city. Who in their right mind would want to claim a piece of land without knowing the constraints and the lay of the land? The Engineer in me kicked in and my plans for this website began. I made screen captures of every map and every resources. I got it all organized and put online so that everyone could see what they were getting before claiming a plot of land. I found a really positive, smart SimCity community in the SimNation Guild. As people discussed tips and wrote guides, I thought that it was important to harness all of that great knowledge that was being shared and share it with the rest of the world. With their permission, I've reproduced it here on this site so that all players can learn from Guild's collective experiences.
Oh, and how did I get the name "Uncivil Engineer"? A couple of work buddies of mine use to play Unreal Tournament, which was a precursor to Halo, Call of Duty and the like. We were all Civil Engineers and I thought it would be ironic to be the "Uncivil Engineer" because I'm generally a very quiet, calm, cool, collected person. The name kind of stuck, and I've been using it ever since as a gamertag.
Thanks for visiting. Stick around, check out the tips, I hope you enjoy this site and I hope it helps you enjoy the game more.
-Randy
Great job guys!
ReplyDeleteGreat Site. Nice that you keep it current.
ReplyDeleteLoving this site. Thanks for the tips!
ReplyDeleteYou got a good background. My background is the desire for creation and ideas, unfortunately I'm heavily mus-understood by many, especially schools, where my creation is looked down upon. That's where the Internet & games is handy. I can express my creation and build cities on SimCity without someone moaning.
Thanks for the info! ;)
Beautiful job on the site! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteAlso glad you're enjoying your passion for it in the real world. That's grand.
Wish you the best and thanks for this resource you gave us here.
Randy,
ReplyDeleteGreat job with this site, keeping it current and coming up with new content!
Love the info on installing mods! Makes it very easy for those of us that aren't computer experts!!
Thank You!!
Hey! Just wanted to say, I just found the site and a whole hell of a lot of great info. I appreciate the hard work, I'll put it to good use in my cities! Thank you very much, Randy!
ReplyDeletethanks for a great like this very informative for a casual user, do you have plans to post some save files, like the one above or other great designs.is this possible. hope this be granted. thanks again.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, it's not possible to share save files at this time. That would be a cool feature though if it were possible.
DeleteExcellent site. I only recently bought SC2013. I was influenced by the tsunami of negative reviews and general negative buzz surrounding the game. I love SC4 and continued quite happily in my own SC4 world. I couldn't resist a recent sale and bit the bullet, took the plunge and "went to the dark side". Initially I was disappointed and my early experience appeared to confirm the bad press was not hyped but quickly things began to click and I've become hooked. Unfortunately the majority of people don't like change- they like familiarity & being stuck in their cozy comfort zone. The big problem a lot of fans have is that SC5 is NOT SC4. Simple. It IS a very different game! It has its limitations- just like SC4 and it has its great features too. Maxis seem to have botched the launch and have paid a heavy price with the games reputation severely knocked. With the excellent mods available the game has awesome potential. Still far from perfect but isn't that a reflection on the real world? This site along with Simtropolis and Youtube channels provide great support and inspiration. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this great guide.
ReplyDeleteHi can you make mods
ReplyDeleteHi, I was wondering, it seems like the option to watch an add only shows up at 12am my time. That's also the time when a lot of specialty items shows up by clicking on the bubbles. Is that correct or just random?
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Most of players I know think it's random. I can't say myself because I've never received a single video.
DeleteOops want to be notified... please use this one. I'm assuming you are playing the desktop version. How do these notes and tips translate for the iPad version?
ReplyDeleteThis website was originally made for SimCity(PC). Later I started playing SimCity BuildIt (mobile) and so I added a SC BuildIt section. That can be found in the menu at the top of the page that says "SimCity BuildIt Tips".
DeleteHi Randy, I've been playing SimCity Buildit on my iPad and am at level 34. I ran into your site by finding the Burger Deal. I'm trying to do the Burger Deal to build up my simoleons bank. My question is "Do you only get the burgers by purchasing them on the HQ so there is NOTHING else in storage except burgers? I don't have a lot of coins so I was trying to produce a bunch of them first. I now have 15 in storage. Should I sell off everything that's in my storage now? Will the coins pop up once I do this? I have coins popping up, but not for the burgers.
ReplyDeleteVery appreciate. The information provided by you is very useful.
ReplyDeleteDear Randy,
ReplyDeleteI'm a Simcity 2013 player in Taiwan. Your blog is really helpful when I needed suggestions during layout my street, place RCI area and ... etc. I know many friends in Taiwan and they say: "Simcity 2013 is something suck. We can never solve traffic jam problem!" So, I introduced your blog to them. Sadly, they can't read English. But, I can translate your blog into Chinese, and they can learn from you.
How do you think? Would you agree I translate your blog to PTT (largest Telnet interface in Taiwan)? I'm looking for your agreement.
Thank you so much
Daniel Lin
No thanks. I have a translate button on the left side of the page. That's good enough for me.
DeleteHi, I lost access to all of my SimCity mods. I see that simtropolis is down and skyestorm.com is not available anymore. Can anyone help me out with zip file for all the mods. Thanks
ReplyDelete