SimiCity developer Maxis is 'focusing' in improving Sim path-finding, according to SimCity lead designer Stone Librande.
Nonsensical traffic jams have been the topic of much debate (and videos) online, and Maxis has clearly been listening in."Now that we're getting close to resolving our server issues, we're putting a lot of attention on improving the simulation based on the community's feedback," said Librande in a lengthy blog post."Our main focus right now is updating the pathing system that the Agents use to get to their Sinks. Running a successful city means keeping the traffic flowing and we are actively working to make this system better," he explained."We understand that when cars always take the shortest route between point A and point B there will be unavoidable (and illogical) traffic jams, so we are retuning these values to make the traffic flow more realistically."To dig a little deeper our roads will have a weighting system based on 25%, 50% and 75% capacity. As a road hits those marks it will become less and less appealing for other cars, increasing the likelihood of them taking an alternate path if one exists."He goes on, "We are working on additional fixes with the pathing of our Agents and these changes will streamline the way that the simulation unfolds in your city. For instance, emergency vehicles will not get blocked in their garages and will move into empty lanes to get around traffic jams. We're also working on preventing service vehicles from clumping up (for instance, only one fire truck will respond to a fire instead of two) and improving the way that Public Transportation operates in the city. We are currently testing a patch internally and hope to have it out to you soon."

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...coming-update/