A Mighty Fine Game - I - Prevent Boredom Now

 Whats up, Metropolis Project?
A few other members have posted their thoughts on what the Metropolis Project should be as it evolves from a dream on into a finalized product purchasable by the masses.  I am going to let you guys, who are a sight better than I at doing so, manage the hard sell aspects of the game.  The zoning, the mechanics, the features.  You guys have a love and a passion for the game as a means of creative expression through a system of rules.  These rules do not hinder play, nor do they ruin the gaming experience; they are a framework that supports the City Sim experience.  They are so much more technical and vast than I have the capacity to envision, that I will just stand by and let you guys have at it.
What I intend to share are the things that prevent the game from boring us.  City Planning, Civil Engineering, Construction, Demolition, City Politics and Business Management can certainly have their moments when a person wishes they were in no other profession.  However, these are things a person does as a job.  My point being, there are only so many hours in us to spend laying streets, designing building rules and wrangling topography.  What the game must possess are things to do when we tire of the pursuit of the perfect city.
- First Person Exploration
This is a must in my book and the community will decide if the game will have it.  Cities XL attempted to take a stab at this but failed miserably in their application of it in game.  What Metropolis could use First Person Mode for would be to appreciate the city you have built from within it's dynamic and living population.  I mean rubbing elbows with your citizens, strolling down your avenues and walking through your parks.  If there is a building you've built recently that has a great view of the rest of the city, you should be able to walk up to it, go inside and take either the elevator or the stairs up to the roof and take a look for yourself.  You should be able to sit on your park benches and people watch.  You should be able to go up to your food services industries and order a burger or a latte and just hang out in your creation.  Obviously, alpha version won't have as much functionality as all of this, but the hope lingers for such activities in the final release.
- Driving/Commuting at Street Level
I can't have been the only person who was desperately disappointed in the introduction of the Rush Hour expansion for Sim City 4.  The isometric perspective is no way to drive a car, much less the MODed buses and light rail systems introduced later by coders and MODers.  The vehicles will not be highly realistic nor will they react with vivid physics and crash simulation, but they should certainly emulate the sensation of driving across your bridges and through your tunnels with some degree of efficiency.  Imagine having finished a walk along your waterfront or down an extended trail through a nature preserve you've recently made.  You get to the end and don't fancy walking back to city center.  There's no reason to switch modes to scroll and re-place yourself, why not hail a taxi?  Of course there is a bus stop down the way that you've placed to help people reach this spot and enjoy it without increasing city pollution so, why not take the bus?  The addition of being able to either drive yourself to a location or ride transport you've provided to that place already means enjoying the very infrastructure your city needs to survive.  As a bonus, it would also help you have a realistic impression of what citizens experience as they move about the city, helping to evaluate their commute times and community concerns.
- Flying
This should come as no surprise.  We could fly in Sim City 4 but again, it was from that cursed Isometric view.  Helicopters, planes, maybe a Hot air Balloon or Dirigible would be available from start and again are simply coded to provide a rudimentary experience without making this an Aircraft Sim.  Taking pictures from a stunt plane or a nice leisurely ride in a Hot Air Balloon can create adequate distraction from the grueling task of city management.  Plus the possible addition of bonus games (a poke at Rush Hour) could add another level of fun and frivolity.  Point being, if this is a truly 3D experience, why not enjoy it in all axis and only sometimes at 300Mph?
- Building Interiors
This is posted hesitantly.  Obviously, this game is very much about a city as a place and not necessarily as 3D enclosed space.  Permit me to ask this: Have you ever walked by a house or a business and suddenly gotten the desire to go inside?  Just to see what it looked like?  This is a vexing desire for me on many occasions.  I once dabbled in drafting as a major but could not hack the math (or the politics).  I have an appreciation for architecture as a fan but not a fancier.  The real problem of reality is that site based security, office personnel and the general public frown on just walking into a business or a home to see what people living and working there have done with the place.  With procedural building generation a feature of the game, having interiors could be managed if the draw distance for the elements were tightened such that they are only visible when entering the building or when within a certain number of 3D units.  As mentioned above, riding the elevator to the top of a sky scraper would be neat enough a reason to have a basic interior or entry, but being able to get off on a floor and wander a cube farm would be a fine distraction.  Perhaps for a later module, of course.
These are just a few things that I would find to be the ultimate draw/appeal to a City Sim.  I can play the game for a few hours building out a City Scape that looks good and functions within fairly realistic demands and standards of design.  But if you let me relieve steam by enjoying what I have created thus far, I will not stop playing the game, period.