City Journal: London - We Have A Problem

 

I haven't published a City Journal post in several months. After re-zoning several areas from medium to high density zones, allowing high-rise buildings, I took a break from the game for a bit. I have recently picked the game up again, and have been working on south London and have since moved to southeast London. While my city has grown (the population is up to 3.8 million people), nothing substantial has happened to post about. I was planning my next City Journal post to be about the London underground, but that won't be finished in my city until I am finished developing the entire region. I played the game this morning to develop the southeast area of Sidcup when I discovered a problem. 

I was looking to develop a highway extension that would go right through a portion of London city center. When I entered central London, a window appeared stating the city used plugins that were no longer supported. In order to make London appear as real as possible (see above), I have downloaded buildings that don't come with the game from a site called Simtropolis. Sites like the Shard, Westminster Palace, etc. appear in my game because of these plugins. These structures have now been replaced with giant packages in my city (see below).

This is only part of the problem, however. Most of the areas in my city do not use these plugins, and I can deal with the packages or can replace them with other structures. The bigger problem involves another plugin that I use but you can't see. It is a bank plugin that gives me $50,000,000 whenever I want. This plugin is what allows me to develop at such a rapid pace. I can play the game the "correct" way, and develop my cities in such a way that they naturally make money. However, it would take me considerably longer to develop a region as big as London than it already does, and I've been working on this region for a couple of years at this point. Essentially, my funds have dried.

This game is around 20 years old, and this isn't the first time it has broken. There have been times when I couldn't even play the game because of certain updates. The mod community and their plugins have been one of my favorite parts of this game, and one of the reasons why I continue to play it despite its age. I will have to check Simtropolis for an explanation or hopefully an update. I can deal with not being able to place specific buildings in my city. If I can't easily make money, however, it may be game over for Sim City.