A neighborhood with mixed architectural designs in SimCity 4.
Building sets, or tilesets, refer to a function that allows the player to change the appearance from buildings, giving a different flavor to the game. Gameplay is unchanged by the sets.
The purpose of the tilesets are to allow the player to control what kind of buildings grow in their city, and it allows them to plan out the city. This tool lets the player build an ultra-modern metropolis, a 20th century city, an ancient city, or even mix sets, and it is because of these sets that diverse cities are generated.
SimCity[]
The original SimCity had Graphics that could be loaded to change the appearance and text of the city. The game received two add-ons that provided new graphics for the city, SimCity Graphics Set 1: Ancient Cities in 1990 and SimCity Graphics Set 2: Future Cities in 1991. They were later released together as SimCity Graphics. The deluxe version of SimCity also included Future Cities.
| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| Classic Graphics | The default graphics. |
| Ancient Asia | Included in the Ancient Cities set. |
| Medieval Times | Included in the Ancient Cities set. |
| Wild West | Included in the Ancient Cities set. |
| Future Europe | Included in the Future Cities set. |
| Future USA | Included in the Future Cities set. |
| Moon Colony | Included in the Future Cities set. |
SimCity 2000[]
Building sets are present in SimCity 2000 as SimCity 2000 Urban Renewal Kit (SCURK) art (.TIL files). The player can now create custom sets with SCURK and mix sets, and also edit them and copy and paste details from one building to other, ot the whole building if it has the same size. The amount of buildings the default sets have vary, some having a design for all while others have for only one.
| Name | Details |
|---|---|
| ORIGINAL | The default set from the game. |
| FUTURE | All buildings will appear to be from the distant future. |
| 1900 | Many buildings will look like they are from the year 1900. |
| 2050 | Many buildings will look futuristic. The designs are different from the FUTURE set. |
| ARCOLB1 | Changes the Forest Arcology. |
| BARCELON | The Dome and Prison change into the Sagrada Família and Barcelona Cathedral, respectively. |
| BIGBEN | The Plymouth Arcology becomes the Big Ben. |
| CITYHAL | Changes the appearance of the city hall. |
| COLLEGE | Changes the appearance of the college. |
| CONTEST | Changes the appearance of Medium Condominums 3. The name suggests that this building is the winner from a contest. |
| DINOPARK | The Plymouth Arcology becomes a dinosaur park. |
| EIFFLE | Changes the dome into the Eiffel Tower. |
| ELECLINE | Water Pump has the same appearance as Trees 4. |
| FLAGCHOP | Medium Factory changes into a building with a flagpole and a chopper. |
| GOLFGOOD | The zoo becomes a golf field. |
| HYDRO | Changes the hydroelectric power plants. |
| LONDON | Changes arcologies 1 (Plymouth) and 2 (Forest) into the Buckingham Palace and Big Ben (same as BIGBEN), respectively. |
| MCONDO1 | Changes Medium Condominiums 1. |
| MCONDO2 | Changes Medium Condominiums 2. |
| MYRHOUS | Changes the mayor's house to a more detailed version of the ORIGINAL set. |
| PARIS | Changes the dome and prison to the Eiffel Tower (same as EIFFLE) and Arc de Triomphe, respectively. |
| POLICE2 | Changes the police dept. |
| PWRTREE | Changes the chemical storage to several trees. |
| RIO | Dome becomes Christ the Redeemer. |
| ROME | The prison and natural gas power plant becomes the Victor Emmanuel II Monument and Colosseum, respectively. |
| SYDNEY | Changes the dome and natural gas power plant into the Sydney Tower and Sydney Opera House, respectively. |
| THINGIG | Changes the industrial thingamajig. |
| TOKYO | Changes the dome into the Tokyo Tower. |
| TORONTO | Changes the dome and natural gas power plant into the CN Tower and Rogers Centre, respectively. |
| VEGAS | Changes the dome into the MGM Grand Las Vegas. |
| VENICE | Changes the dome into Doge's Palace and St Mark's Basilica. |
SimCity 3000[]
Buildings can be customized with the Building Architect Plus in SimCity 3000 Unlimited.
SimCity 4[]
In SimCity 4, building sets are found under a separate panel which controls the building sets that appear in the game. All buildings in the game are categorized into different styles; Chicago 1890, New York 1940, Houston 1990, and Euro-Contemporary. These categories are called building sets (or tilesets). The buildings that lie in each set reflect the era of the tileset names, for example, glass and steel offices will not appear in the 1890 Chicago tileset (as that was not the common architectural design of the era), but will appear in the modern tilesets, like 1990 Houston and Euro-Contemporary. Conversely, brick and stone buildings will only appear with the Chicago and New York tilesets, and will not be found in the modern building sets.
Rotating sets[]
Although the player is able to choose only one building set, if more than one is selected, then there is a function that allows to set the number of in-game years before the game switches to another tileset. Depending on the number of years choosen, the game will automatically switch between the sets in chronological order.
If a player does not wish for this to happen, the player can set the number of years to zero, or choose the "build all styles at once" option, which will make the game rotate between chosen tilesets every year, the most frequent a rotation can occur.
Trivia[]
- Some buildings, such as the Cute House make an appearance in multiple tilesets, under different names and textures.
- Even though the option says to "build all styles at once", the game does not do that, rather, it rotates every game year, which is as frequent as it can occur.
- Ploppable buildings are not affected by tilesets.