wrote: ... I've tried removing the different folders that people have suggested, uninstalling and reinstalling the game, turning off firewalls, and flushing DNS (EA support suggested that, I knew it wouldn't make a difference. I'm a network admin. I know when DNS is acting up). Again, I can go into other cities and see neighbors on the horizon, but my own city shows up blank. Arrrrgh!!!
I'm sorry this has happened, especially right when you're meeting the challenge of cleaning up the radiation. If you locked up during an exit, it's a fair bet that a file was corrupted somewhere. If you're lucky, it's on your end. Unfortunately, if you tried deleting the SimCityUserData file and it still happens, it's a good bet that the corruption is on the server side. Not trying to sound like tech support (flush dns? lol), but just to be sure, I'll list a couple of things to try. You may have already done all these, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try again.
First, a few basics. Set SimCity.exe and Origin.exe to "Run As Administrator". (I know it makes no sense, but I have seen reports where it didn't work when people were opening them directly as admin, but it did work once there was a shortcut on the desktop set to do it automatically. Could have been user error, but for the troubleshooting phase, just set a desktop shortcut to run as administrator and open from there.) If you have BitDefender or MSI's sound program Nahimic II, disable or uninstall them. They are known to block SimCity. The usual general stuff - make sure your PC has the latest sound and graphic drivers. SimCity doesn't play well with 4k or dual monitor settings, so check your graphic settings and adjust to 1080p resolution or lower.
Check your city after each step:
Delete the folder SimCityUserData from \Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity\
Open Origin, right-click the SimCity icon and choose "Repair".
Run \Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity\SimCityRecovery\SimCityRecovery.exe. Be patient, it can run for a while and look like it's not doing anything.
When you first load SimCity, try going into a friend's city instead of your own. Then go to region view and try to load your city from there.
Do a full uninstall of Origin and SimCity, and use CCleaner to get rid of any remaining registry entries and random files. Reinstall
Some people have had limited luck by moving the SLDelta####.mfs file out of the SimCity Games folder. Make sure Origin and SimCity are both closed first. Go to your Documents/SimCity/Games folder. There should be at least one folder in there, and nested in that are folders for each of your regions. Try sorting by modified date to find the right one. If it works, you should be able to get into your city after you move the SLDelta file (don't delete it!), but you lose all the regional progress. It could be a way to move your simoleans out and send resources to another city, but I don't think it's a permanent solution for actually recovering your city.
Since you're playing with friends, can they see your city when they're logged in? If they visit your city, is there anything there, or do they get an error, too? If they can see your city, you might want to try to get one of them to send you a copy of their *.mfs file. afaik, it's not been tried, but it can't hurt to see if the regional stuff is stored in a good copy. There's also a metadata file in the misc folder. I viewed it in notepad, seems to have some regional city info, so maybe a friend's copy of that could be tried, too. I wish I knew more about these files, it's not a "normal person" kind of troubleshooting, but since you're a network admin, you can probably safely play around with some of these config files and see if you can find an answer. That is, if it's worth the trouble to you. If you find anything, reply back - it would be really helpful info for other users with the same issues.