# Sim City 5



## bi0boy (Aug 7, 2011)

don't get too excited

but when will someone make one? Sim City 4 is over 8 years old

The original developers claimed they'd done all they could with the genre and wouldn't be doing another, but with the advances in graphics and processing surely a new version would be justified even if it doesn't provide any new gameplay. Kind of like remaking an old film.

Are there any intellectual property reasons why no one else can produce a city sim game?


----------



## Stigmata (Aug 7, 2011)

We're overdue a proper sequel, preferably one that lets you build European or Far Eastern style cities.


----------



## bi0boy (Aug 7, 2011)

Really it needs better traffic routing and more variable ordnances


----------



## Crispy (Aug 7, 2011)

freeform road layout please.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Aug 7, 2011)

Has it really been 8 years?? Blimey! Anyway, yeah there's some seriously nice looking stuff they could do now, they could even do some kind of Google map mash up that allows you to build cities based on buildings from your own city...they could make the public opinion stuff far more sophisticated too.


----------



## Epona (Aug 12, 2011)

There's been a serious lack of decent complex city builders/empire builders over the last few years - not good.

I have heard a vague rumour that Tilted Mill (who we all thought were pretty much dead!) have a project in the pipeline - although not Sim City related, this is still possibly good news for those of us who like the empire building Caesar/Pharaoh/Children of the Nile type games - if it's even true.

But definitely a city builder of some sort is well overdue, and I'd be just as excited about a new version of Sim City.


----------



## Blackandyellow (Nov 17, 2011)

8 years?! Really? I keep on holding back on buying Sim City 4. I never realized its been that long. Guess that will be the next game I buy for sure.


----------



## editor (Nov 17, 2011)

I used to love Sim City. I even liked the low res version I used to play on my Palm Treo.


----------



## TitanSound (Nov 17, 2011)

I always got bored of trying to keep that bastard population happy with taxes whilst still maintaining growth.

Cheat codes and fantastical cities for the win


----------



## Crispy (Nov 17, 2011)

Looks amazing. Not very good game deisgn 
http://www.ausgamers.com/games/cities-xl-2012/review/


----------



## Garek (Nov 17, 2011)

Sim City 4 though was less fun that previous encarnations.

I still think Sim City 2 was the best in the series. Actually scrap that, it was one of the best games full stop.


----------



## bi0boy (Mar 8, 2012)

Officially announced for 2013 

http://www.inentertainment.co.uk/20120307/simcity-5-a-modders-delight/


----------



## bi0boy (Mar 8, 2012)

Crispy said:


> freeform road layout please.


 
It's confirmed to have curvy roads.


----------



## bi0boy (Apr 11, 2012)

I'm still excited about this.


----------



## bi0boy (Apr 11, 2012)

The even simulate how the property developers transport parts to the buildings sites.



I just hope they get the mass transit vs road utilisation right.


----------



## Epona (Apr 12, 2012)

I'm not going to be placing a pre-order for this, based on the statement that it's not going to be as complex as previous versions in the series. Since I care more about complexity than graphics, I might as well load up an older, more complex, version and keep playing that - I learned my lesson when I bought CIV5 - shinier isn't always better.


----------



## bi0boy (Apr 29, 2012)

More on the agent modelling approach they are using:


----------



## bi0boy (Apr 29, 2012)

Epona said:


> I'm not going to be placing a pre-order for this, based on the statement that it's not going to be as complex as previous versions in the series.


 
Who said that - it doesn't look that way to me...


----------



## Epona (Apr 29, 2012)

bi0boy said:


> Who said that - it doesn't look that way to me...


 
The developers themselves said it in their press release - I'm busy at the moment but will dig out the quote and link later when I have a minute to do so!


----------



## Crispy (Apr 30, 2012)

Epona - you should watch their latest demonstration videos. The simulation is now at an agent level, rather than statistical. Previously, the traffic "number" went up and then at a certain threshold the "traffic jam" graphical effect was turned on. Now, every worker, vehicle, job etc. is visible in the world. If there are too many cars, then you get a traffic jam and the fire engine can't get to the fire. Should make for much better emergent gameplay, and much more direct feedback for the player.


----------



## Frazzlemac (May 2, 2012)

They should do a remake of Transport Tycoon...Now thats what im talking about!


----------



## Epona (May 3, 2012)

Frazzlemac said:


> They should do a remake of Transport Tycoon...Now thats what im talking about!


 
I don't think I ever played Transport Tycoon, but I loved Railroad Tycoon


----------



## TitanSound (May 3, 2012)

Frazzlemac said:


> They should do a remake of Transport Tycoon...Now thats what im talking about!


 
I spent HOURS on that game. HOURS.


----------



## TitanSound (May 3, 2012)

Damn you Frazzle. I've just spent the last 15 minutes listening to parts of the soundtrack on YouTube. Then I remembered how awesome the SimCity3000 soundtrack was. Cue another 20 minutes hunting around for my fave track from that one.

It's this btw.


----------



## Frazzlemac (May 3, 2012)

TitanSound said:


> Damn you Frazzle. I've just spent the last 15 minutes listening to parts of the soundtrack on YouTube. Then I remembered how awesome the SimCity3000 soundtrack was. Cue another 20 minutes hunting around for my fave track from that one.
> 
> It's this btw.
> 
> Haha ive just been trawling ebay looking for a disc so i can enjoy again - also just put a bid in for a snes console with a copy of Sim City! Amaze!


----------



## Frazzlemac (May 3, 2012)

In my opinion Transport Tycoon music is king


----------



## bi0boy (May 3, 2012)

This is my favourite from Sim City 3000:




I prefer SimCity 4's soundtrack though, less bloody saxophones.


----------



## wemakeyousoundb (May 3, 2012)

Frazzlemac said:


> They should do a remake of Transport Tycoon...Now thats what im talking about!


have you tried openttd?
I've been wasting many hours on this recently


----------



## Frazzlemac (May 4, 2012)

wemakeyousoundb said:


> have you tried openttd?
> I've been wasting many hours on this recently


 
Its great! Thanks for the heads up..Gives me something to do on these dragging friday arvo's at work!


----------



## camouflage (May 8, 2012)

I want a game like SimCity or OpenTTD that has wars. This is because I am boyish and immature. Is there such a game? (not Anno, I'm already giving that a go).


----------



## Epona (May 14, 2012)

camouflage said:


> I want a game like SimCity or OpenTTD that has wars. This is because I am boyish and immature. Is there such a game? (not Anno, I'm already giving that a go).


 
I always enjoyed the Caesar series of games, the first few look dated now though so go for the most recent one (and there are other similar older classic games such as Pharaoh, Rise of the Middle Kingdom, Children of the Nile etc.) which sort of take a middle ground between city builder sandbox games and the more military empire-builder type thing - build cities, trade resources, get invaded. As you can guess by the names though, they are set at various times in the past in different places (Rome, Ancient Egypt, China etc.) rather than being modern. They don't provide a high realism and control over military elements and that side of the game is quite basic, but they are a bit of a halfway house between the sandbox city builder and the military strategy empire builder type games. Lost many hours to that sort of game  Unfortunately though, many of the better developers of that sort of mix of city building + a bit of military type game have gone to the wall and decent quality releases of that sort of thing are thinner on the ground than they used to be.

But yeah ones with a military element tend to have a historical setting. If you wanted more military strategy and less of the city building, there's stuff like Shogun. All these that I mention are older games now, but they are viewed as classics for good reason.


----------



## Stigmata (May 14, 2012)

I love Pharaoh but the military aspect of it is very weak.


----------



## camouflage (May 14, 2012)

Epona said:


> I always enjoyed the Caesar series of games, the first few look dated now though so go for the most recent one (and there are other similar older classic games such as Pharaoh, Rise of the Middle Kingdom, Children of the Nile etc.) which sort of take a middle ground between city builder sandbox games and the more military empire-builder type thing - build cities, trade resources, get invaded. As you can guess by the names though, they are set at various times in the past in different places (Rome, Ancient Egypt, China etc.) rather than being modern. They don't provide a high realism and control over military elements and that side of the game is quite basic, but they are a bit of a halfway house between the sandbox city builder and the military strategy empire builder type games. Lost many hours to that sort of game  Unfortunately though, many of the better developers of that sort of mix of city building + a bit of military type game have gone to the wall and decent quality releases of that sort of thing are thinner on the ground than they used to be.
> 
> But yeah ones with a military element tend to have a historical setting. If you wanted more military strategy and less of the city building, there's stuff like Shogun. All these that I mention are older games now, but they are viewed as classics for good reason.


 
Yup, Shogun was an absolute classic, I was mortified when I discovered a scratch on the DVD prevented a for-old-times-sakes re-install a few years ago. Not bothered to re-aquire it through other means. Rome was similar but tbh Paradox Games have spoiled me for most of this stuff, they're just not grand and intricate enough. :-(


----------



## Epona (May 24, 2012)

Stigmata said:


> I love Pharaoh but the military aspect of it is very weak.


 
Yeah all that type of game (Caesar/Pharaoh/Zeus/Rise of the Middle Kingdom) are empire/city builder with a focus on linking up resources and trading, with a weak military element - but they at least have a military element, hence I view them as sort of a halfway point between resource linking/city builder sandbox games such as Sim City or Railroad Tycoon/A-Train/(and there was a modern setting one but I can't recall the name of the game, it was just trading resources and products, building factories and transport routes etc), and more full on military strategy such as Shogun. They are fantastic games, I like that they are somewhere in the middle, and I am very aggrieved that no-one seems to be making them like that any more  Zeus + Poseidon expansion has recently been made available on GoG though, which is good news - my old disk was in a bit of a state and I never did manage to get hold of the Poseidon expansion - that particular game is a bit more lighthearted though, the gods appear and do weird shit in your cities if you don't have enough temples!


----------



## teahead (May 24, 2012)

TitanSound said:


> Damn you Frazzle. I've just spent the last 15 minutes listening to parts of the soundtrack on YouTube. Then I remembered how awesome the SimCity3000 soundtrack was. Cue another 20 minutes hunting around for my fave track from that one.
> 
> It's this btw.



Reminds me of this (mixed in with a little Simpsons)


----------



## bi0boy (Oct 28, 2012)

Looking good!


----------



## teahead (Oct 28, 2012)

If only my gameplay was as calm and measured as that guy's...


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Oct 28, 2012)

Can't wait!


----------



## Fez909 (Oct 30, 2012)

bi0boy said:


> Looking good!




That looks great.  Love the way when you place zones, you don't have to think about how far from the road it is.  That was always one of my least favourite parts of Sim City: I'd build zones too many squares wide and no one would use them, or have too many roads just to make sure all my zones were accessible.  Also, the water following the roads is a good touch, and the already existing infrastructure to build on, like the road network and train lines.  Basically, I like what they've done with roads 

Would buy this shit out of this if I had a PC capable of running it.


----------



## Garek (Oct 30, 2012)

So. Absolutely tiny playing are, lots of community elements and 'always on' DRM


----------



## Citizen66 (Oct 30, 2012)

I can't get past the first minute of watching that before it decides not to stream any more data. Annoying.


----------



## stuff_it (Oct 30, 2012)

camouflage said:


> I want a game like SimCity or OpenTTD that has wars. This is because I am boyish and immature. Is there such a game? (not Anno, I'm already giving that a go).


So like the bastard child of SimCity, Civilization and Command and Conquer?


----------



## camouflage (Oct 30, 2012)

stuff_it said:


> So like the bastard child of SimCity, Civilization and Command and Conquer?


 
Hell YEah! Sans C&C, Total Annihilation was great tho. Frankly I'd settle for the bastard child of SimCity and Civ.


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 20, 2012)

The Creative Director gives an overview:


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 20, 2012)

It seems to have everything the last game had, doesn't look like they have dumbed it down at all. Except they've got rid of the water pipes which as they didn't interact with any of the other infrastructure were a bit pointless and annoying anyway.

I still haven't seen a screenshot of the budgeting screen though.


----------



## Crispy (Nov 20, 2012)

This version has no save/load function. Your actions are permanent.


----------



## mack (Nov 20, 2012)

I used to fucking cheat all the time anyway.."Call cousin Vinnie"


----------



## Citizen66 (Nov 20, 2012)

Crispy said:


> This version has no save/load function. Your actions are permanent.



I've been thinking about this. So is the game held online rather than locally (a bit like the minecraft server)? And if so, if I'm running at a budget deficit but need to quit out of the game, if someone else on the server logs in I could be bankrupt by the time I log on again? I assume the individual cities must freeze even if they continue to interact with other users logging on.


----------



## Crispy (Nov 20, 2012)

I believe there is no requirement to play *with* people in your region - you can manage all the cities if you like. But it does indeed look like the data is all held on the server.


----------



## Citizen66 (Nov 20, 2012)

I meant if you were playing with other people.


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 20, 2012)

Crispy said:


> This version has no save/load function. Your actions are permanent.


 
You proper messed my day up there Crispy. I popped over to the EA forums for the first time and now I want to kill myself. No subways. Definitely no ordinances.

Someone better come up with an offline load/save mod.


----------



## TitanSound (Nov 27, 2012)

NO SUBWAYS?! WHAT MADNESS IS THAT?!


----------



## Crispy (Nov 27, 2012)

I'm sure they'll come along in a future downloadable content pack (like the European Cities packs) for an additional fee.


----------



## TitanSound (Nov 27, 2012)

Of course. I forgot we were dealing with EA.

On another note, just watched the vid bi0boy posted. How happy is that dude?


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 27, 2012)

Crispy said:


> I'm sure they'll come along in a future downloadable content pack (like the European Cities packs) for an additional fee.


----------



## Garek (Nov 28, 2012)

After seeing the video I am excited again though still with reservations. So long as I can play it on in single player and I don't feel I having an online 'community' shoved down my throat with fucking leader boards and the like then I will be happy. 

Of course always on connection is a travesty but that is part of a wider issue of fuckwittage. 

I've said it before and I will say it again, "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH SINGLE PLAYER".


----------



## Spanky Longhorn (Nov 28, 2012)

I was very excited about this, but I've just had my day ruined - no load/save option, no subway, and no ordinances

I'll wait for the expansion packs


----------



## Citizen66 (Nov 28, 2012)

Look, it's not difficult to understand.

Games are saved in the 'cloud'. The only people who should scream about this are those without an internet connection. Which surely doesn't include those posting on this thread.


----------



## Crispy (Nov 28, 2012)

Yes, but there's no rollback. You can't destroy your city with disasters for fun and then roll back to before


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 28, 2012)

There better be an undo button, something that was lacking previous versions and would now be a requisite if you can't load an autosave.

I was always accidentally things.


----------



## Citizen66 (Nov 28, 2012)

Oh.

So it's a new game then? 

They're always a divided event between those who want to pay for something new and those who want to pay for a more attractive version of what they're already familiar and comfortable with.


----------



## captainmission (Dec 17, 2012)

new video here


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Dec 19, 2012)

Very cool.


----------



## Epona (Dec 21, 2012)

bi0boy said:


> I was always accidentally things.


 
I have 3 cats who clamber across the desk and keyboard trying to get onto my lap - trust me there's a lot of computer-related 'accidentally' going on around here. Undo button is essential in this type of game for gamers with young kids or pets or a life.


----------



## bi0boy (Jan 9, 2013)

Official Trailer just out.


----------



## bi0boy (Jan 9, 2013)

Spanky Longhorn said:


> no subway, and no ordinances


 
I think we just have to pretend we've never experienced the previous games and appreciate the things this one does actually have, which seem pretty cool so far.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Jan 9, 2013)

bi0boy said:


> Official Trailer just out.




Looking bloody good!


----------



## mk12 (Jan 10, 2013)

I love empire/city building games but I have never got into the Sim City series, although I think this is mainly due to my preferences rather than anything to do with the actual games. In Sim City 4 I just ended up putting residential squares on the map, then industrial squares, then pipes etc. Then everything else is automatically generated. I prefer games with more micro-management such as Tropico, AofE and the Paradox games (Crusader King, Victoria). I just got bored playing Sim City.

If they introduced concepts which required more intervention, such as adding a political slant with elections, council votes etc, then I'd be interested.


----------



## editor (Jan 25, 2013)

Oh my Lord, it does look fantastic. 

Review: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/49504/sim-city-hands-on-pc-mac-first-look-review-2013


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Jan 25, 2013)

mk12 said:


> I love empire/city building games but I have never got into the Sim City series, although I think this is mainly due to my preferences rather than anything to do with the actual games. In Sim City 4 I just ended up putting residential squares on the map, then industrial squares, then pipes etc. Then everything else is automatically generated. I prefer games with more micro-management such as Tropico, AofE and the Paradox games (Crusader King, Victoria). I just got bored playing Sim City.
> 
> If they introduced concepts which required more intervention, such as adding a political slant with elections, council votes etc, then I'd be interested.


 
I've loved it for years and this just looks superb!


----------



## bi0boy (Jan 25, 2013)

Not sure about the size-restriction, it sounds too small to me.

I like imagining that my simed cities could be like this:


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Jan 26, 2013)

Heh I quite like the idea of restriction tbh...


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Jan 29, 2013)

This game is getting A LOT of love.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 1, 2013)

I've told my gf to expect a wayward boyfriend for at least a week when this comes out.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 1, 2013)

I'm looking at the last line. And I'm grinning, grimicing, facepalming and ROFL'ing all at the same time.




			
				Mashable said:
			
		

> The SimCity beta was far too short, though a rep from EA said the weekend-long event was useful for collecting data and improving the game before its launch on March 5. On Saturday, many players experienced trouble accessing the beta, but the rep assured us those server stress tests would help improve what the players would experience in the live game.


----------



## bi0boy (Feb 1, 2013)

Tiny 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=DDLmCTs2yyE#t=225s


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 1, 2013)

Wow, that is tiny. What happened to horizon busting metropolis scale?


----------



## bi0boy (Feb 1, 2013)

The worst thing is that because the area to work with is so small you'll be forced to make it end up as a square city.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 1, 2013)

Ah no island in the middle of the water for a mayors house


----------



## bi0boy (Feb 1, 2013)

No hermit house up on the mountains accessible only by a personal circuitous railway.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 1, 2013)

No huge airport surrounded by heavy industry


----------



## bi0boy (Feb 1, 2013)

No massive river through the middle so wide it can only be crossed by car ferry.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 1, 2013)

No schools surrounded by prisons to hopefully avert the youth from a life of crime


----------



## Fez909 (Feb 1, 2013)

Sim Hamlet


----------



## bi0boy (Feb 1, 2013)

It's more like a sim sim city. If someone actually wanted to simulate a city for urban planning purposes rather than for enjoyment, I'm sure they'd do it in a little flat square. So this game is actually simulating them rather than an interesting real-life urban environment.


----------



## bi0boy (Feb 8, 2013)

They've already got limited edition content for pre-orders



> Pre-order now and get the SimCity Heroes and Villains set, only available in the Limited Edition. The Heroes and Villains set changes your gameplay by enabling you to create organized crime in your city and to upgrade your police squad to a superhero! Unlock a criminal mastermind by placing Dr. Vu's Evil Lair in your city. Get rich with high tech development, but then deal with the chaos that Dr. Vu's henchmen create in your city. Defend your city by unlock a supreme superhero. Place Maxis Man's Super Hero HQ and he will fight crime and protect your city.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 12, 2013)

There is another Beta this weekend. You can sign up for it by going to www.simcity.com/beta


----------



## Radar (Feb 12, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> There is another Beta this weekend. You can sign up for it by going to www.simcity.com/beta


closed yesterday, but you should be okay if you were on a previous one.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 12, 2013)

Radar said:


> closed yesterday, but you should be okay if you were on a previous one.


 
Ahhh. I didn't even bother to sign up as I am mega busy this weekend so wouldn't have gotten a chance to play if I'd been granted access.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 15, 2013)

I've been seeing a few more Beta videos drip onto Youtube this week. I'm torturing myself by watching them though. I am really excited about this game.

Also, Multiplayer. Could have an Urb online city


----------



## Garek (Feb 15, 2013)

I have few hopes for this game but I will still buy it. 

"Sim Hamlet" is about right. 

And fuck online only. One of the most stupid, eejitic annoying 'innovations' in computer gaming these days.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 15, 2013)

Aye. But I suspect you will be able to combine all of the "regions" to make one big city. The core map looks like a proper Sim City style map. Just portioned off into the teeny squares. 

As for the Online thing, yep. Very annoying. I've heard rumours the next Xbox will also require a permanent connection. Something that could hurt sales due to people who either have no connection or a capped data rate.


----------



## Garek (Feb 15, 2013)

"But everyone is online these days! And the internet always works all the time. And servers are forever so when you spend £35 on a game you are not really just renting it out for a few years. And of course there is the magic of leader boards. What? Are you some kind of loser that doesn't want to know the stats of all your friends?"

Computer games used to be somewhere I felt I could retreat. With the advent of online I feel like a hermit who has had a motorway built by their hut and whacking great sign saying "Stop by to say hi!" put up over the porch.


----------



## Garek (Feb 15, 2013)

And there's fucking DLC. Is the game you are actually buying to complete game? Or do you have spend more money of top to get the complete game. "Good work lads. Now take this that and the other and we will charge people 99p for it". Like going to buy a car and being told that the optional steering wheel will be an extra £50.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 15, 2013)

See, I don't mind DLC as much as I used to. As long as it's adding to the core game rather than what should have been in at release.

With BF3, the extra £30 for all the DLC packs was well worth it. I've spent over 350 hours playing it and with the cost of the game (£40) that's £70 well spent in my eyes. 

Micro payments. Now that's something I don't really like at all. Seems to be a bigger cash cow than map packs and the like.


----------



## Garek (Feb 15, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> See, I don't mind DLC as much as I used to. *As long as it's adding to the core game rather than what should have been in at release.*
> 
> With BF3, the extra £30 for all the DLC packs was well worth it. I've spent over 350 hours playing it and with the cost of the game (£40) that's £70 well spent in my eyes.
> 
> Micro payments. Now that's something I don't really like at all. Seems to be a bigger cash cow than map packs and the like.


 
Yes and the line between the two is increasingly blurred. Adding to a core game used to be a proper expansion pack. The small stuff was free. I remember downloading new cars for a very early Need For Speed for example. Il2-Sturmovik had a ridiculous amount released for free. Valve also gives away free stuff. I really don't like how EA does it. They treat the consumer like shite and try and suck as much out of you as possible. So yeah I agree with you about micro-transactions.

I especially resent the different options from different retailers. If I buy from Tesco I get better armour, if I buy from Asda I get a better gun. Ultimately it leaves me feeling that the product I am getting is not quite the full thing.

It's all a load of horse armour.


----------



## Edward Kelly (Feb 18, 2013)

Frazzlemac said:


> They should do a remake of Transport Tycoon...Now thats what im talking about!


I've got the original on CD and after downloading and installing a couple of older games the other night found I could play it (TT) ...still might get an emulater for it though, see if it works ok... It was a good game once you got right into the furthest bits... just went on and on.
I liked Rollar Coaster tycoon as well, downloaded it the other night but couldn't get it up and running.
I'll email you a copy of it if you want. Shouldn't be too big a file seen as the CD was made of wood and probly about half a byte or so 
Just had a look at the disk and it's got Theme Park on it as well...it's the original Roller coaster tycoon.
Anyone reccomend a good emulater for these old Dos games?


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 19, 2013)

So the latest Beta allowed region play. Looks like you can "swap" resources and services with the different cities in the region. More than power or water sharing like in the games of old. You can share fire, rubbish, police services etc.

I'd still like to know why they've gone for the multiple, but smaller scale cities.


----------



## Crispy (Feb 19, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> So the latest Beta allowed region play. Looks like you can "swap" resources and services with the different cities in the region. More than power or water sharing like in the games of old. You can share fire, rubbish, police services etc.
> 
> I'd still like to know why they've gone for the multiple, but smaller scale cities.


 
Because the simulation is now fine-grained: individual sims, buildings, cars etc. rather than the statistical models they used to use. It's much more work for your computer. Also, enforced online multiplayer to stop piracy.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 19, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Because the simulation is now fine-grained: individual sims, buildings, cars etc. rather than the statistical models they used to use. It's much more work for your computer. Also, enforced online multiplayer to stop piracy.


 
Hmm, I did think it may be an engine issue. I suppose they have to take into account the lower spec machines also.


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 19, 2013)

Is this out next month?


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Feb 19, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Because the simulation is now fine-grained: individual sims, buildings, cars etc. rather than the statistical models they used to use. It's much more work for your computer. Also, enforced online multiplayer to stop piracy.


 
I thought it was more to do with gameplay than horse power, all that detail would be a challenge to make a fun game out of?


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 20, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Is this out next month?


 
As usual, we're the last to get it. Out on the 5th of March but we don't get it until the 8th.


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 20, 2013)

TitanSound said:
			
		

> As usual, we're the last to get it. Out on the 5th of March but we don't get it until the 8th.



Just in time for the weekend though and not something awkward like a Tuesday.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 20, 2013)

Good point. I may have to tell the gf to make her own plans for that weekend then


----------



## Garek (Feb 20, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> As usual, we're the last to get it. Out on the 5th of March but we don't get it until the 8th.


 
But its tradition! American shops get it on the Tuesday and we get it on the Friday. And of course going to the shops is an important part of buying a new game and it is much nicer to do on a Friday.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Feb 20, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> As usual, we're the last to get it. Out on the 5th of March but we don't get it until the 8th.


 
And the Mac owners will get it sometime in 2015.


----------



## Fez909 (Feb 20, 2013)

Wasn't sure where to put this link, but I think you guys will appreciate it the most.

A fella from Northenden, Manchester got curious about the traffic problem in his town and wondered if there was something inherently wrong with the planning. He recreated it in Sim City 5 and found that the game mirrored reality pretty closely.

It's a good read.


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 20, 2013)

TitanSound said:
			
		

> Good point. I may have to tell the gf to make her own plans for that weekend then



Just explain that you don't like arguments lol.


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 20, 2013)

Garek said:
			
		

> But its tradition! American shops get it on the Tuesday and we get it on the Friday. And of course going to the shops is an important part of buying a new game and it is much nicer to do on a Friday.



Speaking of which, is it going to be available on steam? I know it's not everyone's cuppa but for me I'm lazy and discs get fucked so it suits.


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 20, 2013)

Fez909 said:
			
		

> Wasn't sure where to put this link, but I think you guys will appreciate it the most.
> 
> A fella from Northenden, Manchester got curious about the traffic problem in his town and wondered if there was something inherently wrong with the planning. He recreated it in Sim City 5 and found that the game mirrored reality pretty closely.
> 
> It's a good read.



Yes, I appreciate that. Cheers!


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 20, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Speaking of which, is it going to be available on steam? I know it's not everyone's cuppa but for me I'm lazy and discs get fucked so it suits.


 
You can get it from Origin. EA's version of Steam.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 20, 2013)

Fez909 said:


> Wasn't sure where to put this link, but I think you guys will appreciate it the most.
> 
> A fella from Northenden, Manchester got curious about the traffic problem in his town and wondered if there was something inherently wrong with the planning. He recreated it in Sim City 5 and found that the game mirrored reality pretty closely.
> 
> It's a good read.


 
Great read. Thanks


----------



## Dooby (Feb 20, 2013)

Right, I've only read this page and bear in mind am exhausted, a bit drunk and am confused by acronyms - but is this game NOT something I can buy for my xbox and just play happily by myself? I HATE playing online.
And am still trying to get over the disappointment of the whole Final Fantasy nonsense.


----------



## Fez909 (Feb 20, 2013)

Dooby said:


> Right, I've only read this page and bear in mind am exhausted, a bit drunk and am confused by acronyms - but is this game NOT something I can buy for my xbox and just play happily by myself? I HATE playing online.
> And am still trying to get over the disappointment of the whole Final Fantasy nonsense.


 
Windows and Mac only. Sorry.


----------



## bi0boy (Feb 20, 2013)

Kid_Eternity said:


> And the Mac owners will get it sometime in 2015.


 
Serves them right.


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 20, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> You can get it from Origin. EA's version of Steam.


 
That's quite annoying, actually. I don't want multiple game downloading interfaces sitting on my pc.


----------



## Citizen66 (Feb 20, 2013)

Dooby said:


> Right, I've only read this page and bear in mind am exhausted, a bit drunk and am confused by acronyms - but is this game NOT something I can buy for my xbox and just play happily by myself? I HATE playing online.
> And am still trying to get over the disappointment of the whole Final Fantasy nonsense.


 
Not available on console. And rightly so; games as intricate as the best simulators don't adapt well to consoles and, whenever they try it, the console market only serves to water them down.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Feb 20, 2013)

bi0boy said:


> Serves them right.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 21, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> That's quite annoying, actually. I don't want multiple game downloading interfaces sitting on my pc.


 
You never know, it may be available through Steam.


----------



## Crispy (Feb 21, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> You never know, it may be available through Steam.


EA have stopped releasing their titles on Steam. http://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Electronic Arts?l=english - see for yourself the lack of new releases.


----------



## TitanSound (Feb 21, 2013)

No matter to me, but seems like an obvious step. If you have your own digital store then why make it available on others?


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 1, 2013)

I've pre-ordered the deluxe version.  Only a week to go.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 4, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> I've pre-ordered the deluxe version.  Only a week to go.


 
I'm thinking of taking Friday off. But past experience with games on release day means the servers will probably be hit for shit. And seeing as it's online only play, that could be a disaster. 

Defo up for some multi city play if anyone else is?


----------



## Garek (Mar 4, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> I've pre-ordered the deluxe version.  Only a week to go.


 

£64.99   

I've just ordered the Limited Edition set off Amazon. And I am taking the day of work on Friday (coincidently not deliberately).


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 4, 2013)

Well i'm working Friday then off to the North so it'll be next monday before I manage to get a game.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 4, 2013)

TitanSound said:
			
		

> I'm thinking of taking Friday off. But past experience with games on release day means the servers will probably be hit for shit. And seeing as it's online only play, that could be a disaster.
> 
> Defo up for some multi city play if anyone else is?



Yeah I'll be up for that.


----------



## Chz (Mar 4, 2013)

*sigh*
It's all I feared.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/simcity-impressions-we-waited-ten-years-for-this/


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 4, 2013)

Chz said:


> *sigh*
> It's all I feared.
> http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/simcity-impressions-we-waited-ten-years-for-this/


 
Or they're pissed that it isn't SimCity 4 with curved roads and prettier buildings. How much more annoying would it be if you were just playing the same game as before with better graphics?


----------



## captainmission (Mar 4, 2013)

and alot that article is them whining that they don't understand the interface or know how to make a successful city after 12 hours of play


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 4, 2013)

captainmission said:


> and alot that article is them whining that they don't understand the interface or know how to make a successful city after 12 hours of play


 
I should have stopped reading when they were described as 'veterans'. It's a codeword for those who incessantly harp on about how much better everything was prior to world war one.


----------



## captainmission (Mar 4, 2013)

the sad thing is their professional journalists, presumably getting paid for something that could easily be sourced be going to maxis forums and clicking on any post titled 'it's a Slap from will wright!!111!!' or the like


----------



## Chz (Mar 4, 2013)

It sounds shit either way. Sorry, that's not a city.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 4, 2013)

Chz said:


> It sounds shit either way. Sorry, that's not a city.


 
Ok. You don't like it. We understand. Having not played it you feel well placed to pass judgement. Moan somewhere else though, eh?


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 4, 2013)

In other news, FPS games aren't a real war.


----------



## captainmission (Mar 4, 2013)

On seeing the initial beta videos i was quite disapointed with the city size. But after seeing recent videos from closed beta of well developed cities i'm quite looking forward to the game. Yeah, you basically get a city block to play with rather than a metropolis, but it looks like there's more going on in each block. Considering all i did pervious versions of have a basic layout of zones and services and then repeat that about 20 time to fill the map, it might be a worth while trade off.


----------



## Tankus (Mar 4, 2013)

at £69 thats a big trade


----------



## captainmission (Mar 4, 2013)

or £35 quid on amazon


----------



## Tankus (Mar 4, 2013)

that's not the UK set though !   I suppose order that ...and get the UK set on top for £8 when it comes out ?


----------



## Chz (Mar 5, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> In other news, FPS games aren't a real war.


Bit defensive, eh? I'd be too if I'd pre - ordered it.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 5, 2013)

I'm hoping that some kind of sandbox editor is going come along for it. Either that, or a mod that allows full region play. And Maxis have said mods *will* be supported.

But seeing the second round of Beta videos, it looks like there will be enough to keep me occupied for a while. I'm really keen to play it. It may focus on a smaller area but it seems there is a lot more to do in terms of building up the city.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 5, 2013)

Chz said:
			
		

> Bit defensive, eh? I'd be too if I'd pre - ordered it.



We went through all of this with Civ V. Some people moaned that it wasn't like Civ IV, I was pleased I was getting a new game. Besides, a mate of mine is getting it so it's as much about hanging out with him than being able to build a MASSIVE city.

I think it's fair for the nay sayers to have a voice, but at least play the thing before you review it, yeah?


----------



## Garek (Mar 5, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> I should have stopped reading when they were described as 'veterans'. It's a codeword for those who incessantly harp on about how much better everything was prior to world war one.


 
I'm waiting to see the RPS review. I like their reviews. Makes a difference having no review score.


----------



## Chz (Mar 5, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> We went through all of this with Civ V. Some people moaned that it wasn't like Civ IV, I was pleased I was getting a new game. Besides, a mate of mine is getting it so it's as much about hanging out with him than being able to build a MASSIVE city.
> 
> I think it's fair for the nay sayers to have a voice, but at least play the thing before you review it, yeah?


I've only _watched_ someone play it, to be honest. (He's a real Precious Princess about letting anyone else touch his PC) However, I'd point out that the stuff fluttering about out there is a lot more negative than anything about Civ V. Which I thought was pretty okay, it just lacked... Something. Can't put my finger on it. You were just a bit EA employee-ish about it there (I know you're not) and it ruffled me.

What I saw disappointed me though. I suspect EA will just let you buy what you want out of it in the next few months, since that appears to be their business model now. And I think everyone would let them off the hook if they just increased the size of the damned thing. Even if railways, highways, and subways came in a DLC pack. I'm also struggling with the fact that it's a single threaded game in this day and age, but that's me getting grumpy. 

I'm not even half as negative as the one tester who said "Sim City 5 is to Sim City as Die Hard 5 is to Die Hard".


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 5, 2013)

But the reason why it's smaller, as Crispy explained earlier, is that it now simulates at an agent rather than statistical level. If the 'cities' were bigger current processors might not be able to run the sim. Of course this is speculation as I haven't done the maths. But I'll be able to see how my processor fares once I have the game to see if they're just being big meanies or not. And it'll have to be tested with all the cities in a region filled and talking to each other. I know it's easy to be cynical when it comes to EA but  making cities bigger may genuinely be about current processors' ability to handle both the new depth and cities of that size.

The thing about multi threading is not everyone has multicores, why would they limit their sales? Unfortunately they write to the lowest common denominator ad they can get away with.


----------



## Chz (Mar 5, 2013)

The thing is this: What benefit is there to modelling individual sims, rather than statistically modelling them 100 at a time? Things like emergency vehicles were already modelled individually, and you could "nominate" a small set of sims to be modelled in the Rush Hour pack. You've still got a city of 200,000+ and it seems silly. If they could show us how this way is better, perhaps?

If they'd programmed it in a way to be transparent, it would be awesome. But I don't want, and I would wager a large number of Sim City fans do not want, to sacrifice useful features and scale to the altar of the "let's model every single person" concept. 

As for threading, dual core processors were mainstream affordable 8 years ago. The cheapest available desktop processors have been dual core for 5 years. Not only that, but nothing *requires* more than a single CPU core so long as you're willing to put up with the performance issues. SC4 was a bear to run (it still is, due to not having 3D acceleration) when it came out and sold somewhere just under 10 million copies.


----------



## Garek (Mar 5, 2013)

Garek said:


> But its tradition! American shops get it on the Tuesday and we get it on the Friday. And of course going to the shops is an important part of buying a new game and it is much nicer to do on a Friday.


 
Wow! They are even recreating the joy of queuing for those poor souls who can't get to the the shops! Now you won't have to miss out in the feeling of anticipation as you take the bus into town, stand in a queue and then go home again to install it! This is brilliant!




> Remember how SimCity 2000 was this game you could play on your laptop, or PC, anywhere, any time? Remember how you could just enjoy huge amounts of time with what is surely one of the best games ever made whenever and however you wanted? Not any more! And at this point we’re only just beginning to see the issues arising from this online entangling. *Softpedia say* that it’s taking up to three hours for the game to unlock due to server struggles. *Kotaku are reporting* that neighbouring cities can ruin your game. And *Ars Technica discussing* how many ways the game has let them down.


 
Seriously, fuck modern PC gaming. I'm going to fire up the Witcher 2 when I get home to try and remind myself how good PC gaming could be.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 5, 2013)

Some UK guy on YouTube got his access code this morning and has already uploaded a video to YT.


----------



## Garek (Mar 5, 2013)

I am still excited though. I love Sim City.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 5, 2013)

Garek said:


> I am still excited though. I love Sim City.


 
Same.

I went back to get the links for those YT vids but he's pulled them. Must have gotten paranoid or something


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 5, 2013)

Chz said:
			
		

> The thing is this: What benefit is there to modelling individual sims, rather than statistically modelling them 100 at a time? Things like emergency vehicles were already modelled individually, and you could "nominate" a small set of sims to be modelled in the Rush Hour pack. You've still got a city of 200,000+ and it seems silly. If they could show us how this way is better, perhaps?
> 
> If they'd programmed it in a way to be transparent, it would be awesome. But I don't want, and I would wager a large number of Sim City fans do not want, to sacrifice useful features and scale to the altar of the "let's model every single person" concept.



Well I don't know the benefits as I haven't played it yet! There was many things that pissed me off about CS 4, I don't see it as some hallowed ground. I'll be sure to return once I've had a week or so on it. You never know, I might become a hater too. But unlikely if I find ways in which I can get one over on my mate.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 6, 2013)

Gameplay vids starting to pop up!


----------



## Chz (Mar 6, 2013)

OMFG, EA. No-one's ever going to find out if it's good or not because you've dropped the ball completely on the release! They spent all week promising their servers were up to the task, and now people are waiting hours to play what is essentially a single player game because of network issues.

That's not a complaint about SC5, just EA's impressive skills.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 6, 2013)

Chz said:


> just EA's impressive skills.


 
They never, ever, ever learn. Every single EA multiplayer game has problems at start up.


----------



## Fez909 (Mar 7, 2013)




----------



## TitanSound (Mar 7, 2013)

Ha! Good on them.

So, it's getting a pasting on the review sites.

Metacritic has a reviewer score of 82 out of 100 but a User Score of *2.0*.


----------



## Chz (Mar 7, 2013)

I do rather like Tropico.


----------



## bi0boy (Mar 7, 2013)

So I am reading that your city is only hosted on one server, if you can't find that particular server, or it goes offline, or is full, then you can't play.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 7, 2013)

bi0boy said:


> So I am reading that your city is only hosted on one server, if you can't find that particular server, or it goes offline, or is full, then you can't play.


 
Haven't seen anything along those lines yet. But bonkers if it's the case.


----------



## tommers (Mar 7, 2013)

Oh EA. You are SUCH a bunch of cunts.


----------



## Garek (Mar 7, 2013)

Chz said:


> I do rather like Tropico.


 
Tropico for me that is one of those games that because it was never billed up as THE BEST GAME EVER comes out very well. It's a flawed but loveable game. 

I personally love the Tropico series. I did not know there was a Tropico 4 though  *whips out debit card*


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 7, 2013)

ive only played tropico 3, it passed a bit of time but was a bit boring.


----------



## Nine Bob Note (Mar 7, 2013)

I've read too much bad about SC5, so I'm now waiting until it drops below £15.

Loved Tropico (the first one) right mix of buildings/individuals with a healthy dollop of humour.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 7, 2013)

Great review here 

http://www.jonathancresswell.co.uk/2013/03/review-simcity/


----------



## Stigmata (Mar 7, 2013)

Garek said:


> Tropico for me that is one of those games that because it was never billed up as THE BEST GAME EVER comes out very well. It's a flawed but loveable game.
> 
> I personally love the Tropico series. I did not know there was a Tropico 4 though  *whips out debit card*


 
I enjoyed Tropico 3 but based on my (admittedly limited) knowledge of real world politics I don't think it should *quite* that easy to turn your island into a socialist paradise.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Anyone had a game yet then? Mine downloaded overnight but at work atm.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 8, 2013)

Just installing now. It banged down from Origin very quickly. But now I'm stuck at "Processing Large File" since I launched the game. About 15 mins for it to get to 17% so not too hopeful of playing anytime soon


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 8, 2013)

Well, it's finished! But servers not letting me connect and when I go into the tutorial, i cannot do anything. Updating graphics drivers now just in case.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Ive got the deluxe version so they better have a fuckin empty server awaiting my arrival!


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Nine Bob Note said:
			
		

> I've read too much bad about SC5, so I'm now waiting until it drops below £15.



You might have a long wait given The Sims 3 is still £30 four years after its release.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 8, 2013)

Still fucked. Have manged yo get to the create region screen but cannot pick a plot to start on. 4 days after release is shocking form, even for EA.


----------



## captainmission (Mar 8, 2013)

I managed to get on last night for a few hours and again this morning, although in a different region as my first town was inaccessible (whether its permanently gone i don't know). I had quite a pleasant time both times. First on a private region building a little university town , the second time on a mutliuplayer zone building a suburb. On multi-zone play all cities share the RCI demand, so my sims were commuting to other towns and taking the jobs there. It seems joining a public zone could be frustrating if you don't plan or commuticate with other players.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 8, 2013)

Well, two and a half hours of trying has done nothing but comical actions for me.

Tutorial crashed halfway through. I now manage to get into a region but cannot claim any cities. Then when I tried about an hour ago it it said resume game, except I had not started a game. Must of claimed a region and then crashed.

Worst game launch in history according to the Intarwebs.


----------



## fen_boy (Mar 8, 2013)




----------



## tommers (Mar 8, 2013)

How much did you pay for this game? It still doesn't work four days after release. Why are you putting up with it?  You wouldn't at the pictures or if you bought a book or an album, you'd demand a refund.

EA are taking the piss. Why is it multiplayer anyway?  Why can't you even play it by yourself on your own computer if you want?  They're a bunch of fucking wankers and they won't learn while people still buy their shit.  They know people will put up with it.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Well what can we do about it precisely?

I can't get on any of the servers, they're all 'busy'. Who was the genius behind making this online only? He sure set everyone up for a massive fall.


----------



## tommers (Mar 8, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Well what can we do about it precisely?
> 
> I can't get on any of the servers, they're all 'busy'. Who was the genius behind making this online only? He sure set everyone up for a massive fall.



Don't buy it!

It's online only to stop pirates isn't it? It may have multiplayer bits to it but sim city has always been a mainly single player game. You should certainly have that option. This exact same thing happened with diablo too.  If they thought that people would actually stop buying their products then they'd either remove the online requirement or make damn sure it worked.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Diablo works now though doesn't it? So the main headache is that the game doesn't work right now and I have to wait a bit.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Oooh, a new server just appeared with 'available' next to it.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Finally managed to get on without any problems. Boo sucks to the naysayers. 

If anything, my major gripe is it's a bit boring.  Time will tell if it grabs me or not.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2013)

Had a nice little game with no problems once I finally got on there.  It's a lot simpler than before. It's also easier to make money. Build houses shops or industry to get the money coming in then spend it on roads and services. You have a budget screen where you can raise taxes but that's about it. You can't micromanage expenditure like before. A clinic costs what it costs. You can't set levels of staffing etc. But then bankruptcy hasn't been an issue thus far as long as you don't build 3 houses and twelve hospitals or something stupid. Doesn't seem like much of a challenge on that front so far.

Anyway, this is for the haters:


----------



## tommers (Mar 9, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> It's a lot simpler than before. It's also easier to make money.





> You have a budget screen where you can raise taxes but that's about it. You can't micromanage expenditure like before.





> You can't set levels of staffing etc. But then bankruptcy hasn't been an issue thus far





> Doesn't seem like much of a challenge... so far.



You mean... they streamlined it and made it loads easier? There's a surprise.  Glad you managed to actually play it though.



That video was very good by the way. I feel righteous.


----------



## tommers (Mar 9, 2013)

And, not to go on, but this BBC report made me laugh too.

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21712910


----------



## tommers (Mar 9, 2013)

Hey! You're all getting a free game.

http://www.ea.com/news/a-simcity-up...?ClickID=cns7f74pkpqq7skxew4w77ki4alespvwlnka


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

tommers said:
			
		

> And, not to go on, but this BBC report made me laugh too.
> 
> http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21712910



The server problems were caused by people enjoying the game too much.


----------



## tommers (Mar 9, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> The server problems were caused by people enjoying the game too much.



And playing the game in 'unexpected ways'.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

In other words, not EA's fault.


----------



## tommers (Mar 9, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> In other words, not EA's fault.




Nope.  It's your fault for daring to try to play the game. I mean, nobody could have predicted that.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

And playing it for too long and not giving others a chance.  

I wonder if my second attempt at playing will give the same problems. Or whether once you're in it's good to go from then on. Will give it a try now.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

All of the servers bar one have 'available' next to them today and I got straight in.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

Ok it's started to get a bit more challenging now. Without forethought you can soon run into problems with congestion. Which leads to fire engines not reaching buildings that are on fire giving it a chance to spread.

Problem being that the bigger roads cost a fortune and hills sometimes make it difficult to place roads where you want.


----------



## Chz (Mar 9, 2013)

The congestion problems appear to be related to the fact that even though they might simulate at the Sim level, people still have abominably stupid pathfinding. People still prefer shortest direct distance over fastest, so building relief roads doesn't help half as much as it should.


----------



## bi0boy (Mar 9, 2013)

Chz said:


> The congestion problems appear to be related to the fact that even though they might simulate at the Sim level, people still have abominably stupid pathfinding. People still prefer shortest direct distance over fastest, so building relief roads doesn't help half as much as it should.


 
That's the ONE single thing I was hoping they would fix from Sim City 4. Jesus Christ.


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 9, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Ok it's started to get a bit more challenging now. Without forethought you can soon run into problems with congestion. Which leads to fire engines not reaching buildings that are on fire giving it a chance to spread.
> 
> Problem being that the bigger roads cost a fortune and hills sometimes make it difficult to place roads where you want.


 
Ohhhh yes.

I thought it was a bit too easy when I started out. Not any more! It's a real struggle keeping up with residential demand. And without more residents, factories start to close because of a shortage of workers. I've tried upgrading to high density roads around the residential areas and placing the right land value parks, but I still cannot seem to get past small apartment buildings. I managed to get one city specializing in Education, one in Ore mining and one in Industry, but the residential demand is killing me. I think I need to build one purely residential/commercial and see if I can get them to go work in the other cities.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

Chz said:
			
		

> The congestion problems appear to be related to the fact that even though they might simulate at the Sim level, people still have abominably stupid pathfinding. People still prefer shortest direct distance over fastest, so building relief roads doesn't help half as much as it should.



So you have to bear that in mind when planning the 'city'. Like the biggest avenue as a trunk road with smaller streets branching off it.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Mar 9, 2013)

Looks like those laughing at Mac users having to wait have egg on their face. At least when it finally arrives for us you PC owners will have forced EA to sort things out so we can ACTUALLY PLAY THE GAME.


----------



## tommers (Mar 9, 2013)

I think I can hear fate being tempted.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Mar 9, 2013)

tommers said:


> I think I can hear fate being tempted.


----------



## Tankus (Mar 9, 2013)

> So I say to EA, and any other publisher thinking like EA - stop with the “always on” bulls***. Yes, you’re going to lose some sales to piracy, and yes, it sucks. The solution isn’t to [redacted] over the people who actually want to play the game. The solution isn’t to treat the customer like a prisoner you’re graciously offering the opportunity to lease your game. The solution is to make a good game, and then people will tell their friends about it, and then those friends will buy the game and YOU WILL MAKE MASSIVE PILES OF MONEY AND NOT INDUCE RAGE ANEURYSMS IN YOUR CUSTOMER BASE.
> Because believe me, I’m not shy about letting people know when to avoid a game that’s not worth playing. And right now, SimCity 5 is not worth playing.


 
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-kluwes-simcity-5-review-2013-3#ixzz2N4Xt6cN5




> First things first: In order to try and combat slow or totally full servers, EA has released bug fixes include a server patch that disables the fastest simulation speed setting, Cheetah, reports Ars Technica.
> EA’s community manager also announced today that the server hotfix it’s rolling out will disable “a few non-critical gameplay features.”:


 
heh.... simtropolis 2013 site has crashed , seemingly in outrage, too
http://community.simtropolis.com/forum/83-simcity-2013-general-discussion/

Hmmm I do still want ....but not at £65 and issues ..... the price is taking the piss ....plus what happens in a year or two and EA want the serversfor a newer release ..is that it ?.._.game over man_ !........I still occasionally play 4 ...a decade after purchase


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

Tankus said:


> Hmmm I do still want ....but not at £65 and issues ..... the price is taking the piss ....plus what happens in a year or two and EA want the serversfor a newer release ..is that it ?.._.game over man_ !........I still occasionally play 4 ...a decade after purchase


 
It was £65 for Deluxe, not the vanilla game.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 9, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> Not any more! It's a real struggle keeping up with residential demand.


 

Raise taxes.  I find you can get away with 9% perhaps even 10%. They tend to start fucking off when it reaches 12% though like.


----------



## Tankus (Mar 10, 2013)

How long are Ea going to support this game with servers ?....unless the future intended  financial scenario is an Eve online with a monthly pay as you go SimCity poll tax ...fairly ironic really ...
Probably sell it as taking the simulation to even greater levels of realism ....Maybe even buy extra simoleons on-line via paypal....or materials for wonders  ....

I think they have pushed the price of the basic unit as far as it will go


----------



## bi0boy (Mar 11, 2013)

So is it possible to grab all the cities in a region for yourself and run your own region, dipping in to different cities as and when you need to?


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 11, 2013)

bi0boy said:


> So is it possible to grab all the cities in a region for yourself and run your own region, dipping in to different cities as and when you need to?


 
Yep. You can set a region to private. I currently have one on the go. One city with mining, one with Industry, one with education/water/power and just finishing up a residential/tourism one.


----------



## Kanda (Mar 11, 2013)

Is this a digital download game or does the retail case actually have a Disc in it??

I bought Colonial Marines, retail, boxed the other week and all that was in the box was an activation code. Took me 2 days to download on the pubs shitty internet!!


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 11, 2013)

Kanda said:


> Is this a digital download game or does the retail case actually have a Disc in it??
> 
> I bought Colonial Marines, retail, boxed the other week and all that was in the box was an activation code. Took me 2 days to download on the pubs shitty internet!!


 
I think you can get it either or. Digital from Origin etc and a physical copy in the case.


----------



## bi0boy (Mar 18, 2013)

Now they're bribing people to buy it.


----------



## Pingu (Mar 18, 2013)

email I got re the above:

Our SimCity Mayors are incredibly important to the team at Maxis. We know we messed up and want to sincerely thank you for staying with us. The good news is we have solved all of the major issues and players are really enjoying the game. We’re getting great feedback from our fans and know that many of you are having fun and are exploring this whole new expression of SimCity.

As a small token of our appreciation, we are offering you a free EA PC game download on Origin*. Mayors who have authenticated their copy of SimCity on Origin by 25th March can select a free game through a redemption portal inside the Origin desktop client later this week. We’ll be opening up the redemption portal country-by-country so some of you may see it a little sooner than others. The portal will be live worldwide for everyone to select their game by 22nd March.

We don’t want any of you to miss out your free game, so please note that you must register your copy of SimCity before 26th March 2013 at 06:59am and you must claim your free game by 31st March 2013 at 7:59am. For more information including instructions on how to get your free game and a list of eligible games, please read our FAQ. We’ve included some of the hottest games in the EA portfolio, so pick one and add it to your Origin library on us!


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 28, 2013)

So where's my free game?


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 28, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> So where's my free game?


 
I got a notification on Origin to download it a few days ago.


----------



## Pingu (Mar 28, 2013)

aye I went for MOH.. which it turns out was  a bit of a mistake


----------



## captainmission (Mar 28, 2013)

Found in the code of the game- product placement

_




_

I wonder how much they're charging nissan not to be associated with this shambles


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 28, 2013)

Product placement in an American product is hardly anything to be shocked about though, is it? It's pretty blatant in the mainstream movie industry also.


----------



## teahead (Mar 28, 2013)

This thread has reminded me to start wasting hours happily again with Simcity 4


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 28, 2013)

You'll have more fun. And for less money.


----------



## Epona (Mar 29, 2013)

So is this game as much as a shambles as I've been led to believe? (for reasons that go beyond the inevitable first week server crisis?)



teahead said:


> This thread has reminded me to start wasting hours happily again with Simcity 4


 
I love SimCity 4, and will be re-installing it once I've replaced my hard drive, which will hopefully be next week sometime.


----------



## Stigmata (Mar 29, 2013)

Simcity 4 was great, and had a good community producing new building designs etc. I recall one of the forums where a chap had meticulously recreated most of the fine architectural landmarks of Portsmouth


----------



## Epona (Mar 30, 2013)

Stigmata said:


> Simcity 4 was great, and had a good community producing new building designs etc. I recall one of the forums where a chap had meticulously recreated most of the fine architectural landmarks of Portsmouth


 
Wow - just wow. Have you seen Portsmouth? It's not the first place I would think of in terms of architectural innovation. I do think the Spinnaker Tower is a rather nice recent addition, but I tend to associate Portsmouth with acres of grey concrete. It's the place in the world I'd least like to live, sorry to any Portsmouth residents I may have offended


----------



## The Groke (Mar 30, 2013)

Epona said:


> So is this game as much as a shambles as I've been led to believe? (for reasons that go beyond the inevitable first week server crisis?)


 
Yup. The basic mechanics are inherently broken and though there is still an initial tactile pleasure to be had in the initial building of one's city, once you have gone for a few hours or so, the horrible bugs and complete lack of depth and long-term strategy reveal themselves.

Avoid.

There is the seed of a decent game there - it remains to be seen how many of the problems will be patched out and fixed over the coming months.


----------



## Epona (Mar 30, 2013)

The Groke said:


> Yup. The basic mechanics are inherently broken and though there is still an initial tactile pleasure to be had in the initial building of one's city, once you have gone for a few hours or so, the horrible bugs and complete lack of depth and long-term strategy reveal themselves.
> 
> Avoid.
> 
> There is the seed of a decent game there - it remains to be seen how many of the problems will be patched out and fixed over the coming months.


 
Thanks - that's confirmed what I've heard from various sources.  It's sad to see a good franchise go horribly wrong 

 I do wish EA would realise that not everything needs to be multiplayer (some of us actually enjoy single player games, I tend to play games when I am not feeling particularly sociable, and if I want to be social whilst I game I will deliberately choose to play an MMO), and let some of the developers/studios under their wing develop a great single-player game, but they have given the edict that everything must now be multi-player/social and now it seems some good franchises/series are being wrecked as a result of adherence to this policy.  Very sad state of affairs.


----------



## The Groke (Mar 30, 2013)

Epona said:


> Thanks - that's confirmed what I've heard from various sources. It's sad to see a good franchise go horribly wrong


 
As an example of how broken and meaningless the systems are, Megabumtopia One managed to be a 1.3m pop city (huge by SC5 standards) using just residential, having no power, no water and no sewage.


http://imgur.com/a/gW7F9


----------



## TitanSound (Mar 30, 2013)

The Groke said:


> As an example of how broken and meaningless the systems are, Megabumtopia One managed to be a 1.3m pop city (huge by SC5 standards) using just residential, having no power, no water and no sewage.
> 
> 
> http://imgur.com/a/gW7F9


 
Oh dear!


----------



## The Groke (Mar 30, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> Oh dear!


 
Indeed!

I honestly hope they fix it up - I like the feel of the game and I want a decent City Sim with modern graphics, interface and features (sorry SC4) but this is just sad.


----------



## wiskey (Mar 30, 2013)

The Groke said:


> Yup. The basic mechanics are inherently broken and though there is still an initial tactile pleasure to be had in the initial building of one's city, once you have gone for a few hours or so, the horrible bugs and complete lack of depth and long-term strategy reveal themselves.
> 
> Avoid.


 
well that puts my ponderings to bed, cheers  I shall reinstall 4.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 31, 2013)

I can't believe I pre-ordered the fucking Deluxe version.   

Thing is, I only really pre-order with titles I trust or small developers who need the funds to produce good games. Well, I no longer trust EA/Maxis.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 31, 2013)

Epona said:


> So is this game as much as a shambles as I've been led to believe?


 
You can spend hours designing a city pretty much perfectly (as in real terms of how a city should work) only for the bugs and design faults to let you down. And what is the point in having a city designer sim if the engine doesn't simulate a city?


----------



## The Groke (Mar 31, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> I can't believe I pre-ordered the fucking Deluxe version.
> 
> Thing is, I only really pre-order with titles I trust or small developers who need the funds to produce good games. Well, I no longer trust EA/Maxis.


 
Yeah, you would have thought I would have learned by now...

On the plus side, Bioshock Infinite has been keeping me busy.


----------



## Epona (Mar 31, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> I can't believe I pre-ordered the fucking Deluxe version.
> 
> Thing is, I only really pre-order with titles I trust or small developers who need the funds to produce good games. Well, I no longer trust EA/Maxis.


 
Blimey, that must have felt like a bit of a kick in the teeth!
I tend to only pre-order a select few games just enough in advance to be certain that I can get it downloaded in time to play (what with my internet connection not being 100% reliable!  ) - and it has to look like a really good game in order for me to pay full price and have it on release day.  Most games I wait for user reviews and feedback from members on various forums.


----------



## Citizen66 (Mar 31, 2013)

The complimentary game choices were a bit shit. Either a fps, a racing game or plants vs zombies.  

I went for battlefield 3 as it looked the best of the bunch. Doubt i'll play it though.


----------



## TitanSound (Apr 1, 2013)

I went for NFS: Most Wanted. Purely because I never really play racing games. Would be better on the Xbox!


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 1, 2013)

I already have forza 3 and forza horizons for the xbox. And a steering wheel.  didn't fancy playing a more arcadey racing game, with a mouse.


----------



## The Groke (Apr 1, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> I went for NFS: Most Wanted. Purely because I never really play racing games. Would be better on the Xbox!


 
Me too - purely because I think I had pretty much all the others!


----------



## Pingu (Apr 2, 2013)

The Groke said:


> Yup. The basic mechanics are inherently broken and though there is still an initial tactile pleasure to be had in the initial building of one's city, once you have gone for a few hours or so, the horrible bugs and complete lack of depth and long-term strategy reveal themselves.
> 
> Avoid.
> 
> There is the seed of a decent game there - it remains to be seen how many of the problems will be patched out and fixed over the coming months.


 

this tbh unless you REALLY like building things games.. and even then...


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Apr 10, 2013)

SimCity 5 for Mac coming in June! Very surprised it's that quick, even more surprised that if you own the PC version you can download the Mac version for free! Looks like there's cross platform support too which means I'll be able to join my fellow PC gaming urbanites.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 10, 2013)

Or not, as the case may be.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Apr 10, 2013)

Heh yeah very true. Will check out whether the bloody bugs are fixed or not before buying...


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 10, 2013)

Where would one check to find out that stuff? I'm kind of just relying on someone else doing it and reporting back.  

Until that happens, it remains £65 down the bog.


----------



## TitanSound (Apr 10, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Where would one check to find out that stuff? I'm kind of just relying on someone else doing it and reporting back.
> 
> Until that happens, it remains £65 down the bog.


 EA Sim City forum, Updates section. Lists fixes.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 10, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> EA Sim City forum, Updates section. Lists fixes.



Cheers. 

Shouldn't you be in the pub?


----------



## The Groke (Apr 11, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Where would one check to find out that stuff? I'm kind of just relying on someone else doing it and reporting back.
> 
> Until that happens, it remains £65 down the bog.


 

You may find somewhere like http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/ gives you a sharper, less EA censored view on exactly how fixed things are...


----------



## WWWeed (Apr 11, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Where would one check to find out that stuff? I'm kind of just relying on someone else doing it and reporting back.
> 
> Until that happens, it remains £65 down the bog.


The standard version is £39.99 in shops like GAME, The only thing you get with the deluxe pack is some crappy add-ons you wont care about. You can also upgrade at any time but it is a waste of money.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 11, 2013)

WWWeed said:


> The standard version is £39.99 in shops like GAME, The only thing you get with the deluxe pack is some crappy add-ons you wont care about. You can also upgrade at any time but it is a waste of money.



Yeah thanks for that.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 11, 2013)

So have they fixed any of the problems yet? Are they planning on it? What's the low down?


----------



## WWWeed (Apr 11, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> So have they fixed any of the problems yet? Are they planning on it? What's the low down?


What problems in particular are you talking about?

I got a copy of simcity from GAME about a month ago and it has been ok. I've racked up 40+ hours in that time and I have only had the city sync problem two or three times, and always been able to connect to the server with my game saves. They seem to be releasing updates each week, but I'm not sure what they are doing.

I don't think it is as bad as people are making out but it isn't as good as simcity 3 or 4. It still worth a play in my opinion.

Anyway it is the first game I've brought in years. I usually just nick them off the web.


----------



## captainmission (Apr 11, 2013)

WWWeed said:


> Anyway it is the first game I've brought in years. I usually just nick them off the web.


 
So you're the reason they bought in DRM


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 11, 2013)

The Groke wrote a fairly long list of issues including, but not limited to, fire engines all attending the same fire, the agent system generally not working, cars forming jams rather than seeking other routes, false reporting on city requirements (demanding more industry when there's already vacancies etc); it's a pretty broken game if you set out to use it properly.

Someone also designed a residential only city and it didn't fall to pieces because of lack of jobs and shops. Seems it works perfectly well when you try and break it but breaks when you try and properly simulate a working city.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 11, 2013)

Plus they generally told a pack of lies regarding why it HAD to be online only (people have ran it without a connection and it didn't suffer for it).


----------



## The Groke (Apr 11, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> So have they fixed any of the problems yet? Are they planning on it? What's the low down?


 
Still waiting on the much vaunted "Patch 2.0"...

Breath continuing to flow as normal captain.


----------



## TitanSound (Apr 13, 2013)

Big update coming.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9437292.page


----------



## WWWeed (Apr 21, 2013)

The Groke said:


> Still waiting on the much vaunted "Patch 2.0"...
> 
> Breath continuing to flow as normal captain.


They are installing the 2.0 patch on all servers tomorrow at 9PM GMT


----------



## Silva (Apr 22, 2013)

Sometimes, I wish I didn't quit programming. I have a crazy idea of forking the openttd engine (and newgrf) to create something in the lines of Sim City 2K with it

Because this is both ridiculous and hilarious


----------



## mauvais (Apr 23, 2013)

Silva said:


> Sometimes, I wish I didn't quit programming. I have a crazy idea of forking the openttd engine (and newgrf) to create something in the lines of Sim City 2K with it
> 
> Because this is both ridiculous and hilarious


You can modify quite a lot of the fundamentals in SimCity 4.


----------



## Silva (Apr 23, 2013)

mauvais said:


> You can modify quite a lot of the fundamentals in SimCity 4.


Í could never get around creating regions properly. I love the segments idea, but it made creating maps a pain in the arse.


----------



## mauvais (Apr 23, 2013)

Silva said:


> Í could never get around creating regions properly. I love the segments idea, but it made creating maps a pain in the arse.


I'm playing it again now because the whole debacle of SC5 puts me right off paying for it.

What do you mean about regions? It's fairly straightforward, with a bit of secret simplification (e.g. freight is forgotten at the border)


----------



## Silva (Apr 23, 2013)

in SimCity 2K, creating a map was simple: use the terrain height tools, then the water and forest tools. In 4, it was not possible to edit the whole region at once, only each segments, which were randomized and impossible to define where the larger plots would fall.

For instance, I tried to make a a region with a coast, a large river (large enough one of the segments would be an island) finishing on a delta, and a somewhat hilly interior. I couldn't because plots would not fall into a decent pattern, and editing the hills was a major pain. Other than that, I really liked the game, but the cumbersome editor broke the game for me.

E2A: there were third party region editors, but a lot of them crashed or took hours to render a map. Or took hours _and then_ crashed.


----------



## mauvais (Apr 23, 2013)

Oh right, yeah, agreed.

You can produce a contour map graphic for the 'world' and then generate regions from it. There are third party tools to assist with the creation of that. Weirdly, there was always the facility to import them, built into the released game.


----------



## Red Storm (Apr 23, 2013)

I got fed up with SC5 because it kept deleting my city. Asking me to roll back or abandon.

I wasn't overly impressed with it either.


----------



## The Groke (Apr 23, 2013)

SO the patch has been out for 24 hours or so...here is the current bug list from Reddit:

Updating as I discover or people report bugs:

Only titan gorge is showing up in the "Join Game" list. *Where are the filter settings?*
Road textures still fubar/disappearing when you pan/zoom
Leaderboards still show no data
Seeing the "Mayor X has upgraded Y" from a different region than the one being played -Alberto-Balsalm
Phantom sounds. Youtube Example: Trees making siren and honking noises - labombevolante
Game crashes -sp1d3r
Sewage OVERLOAD. 4k population, and sewage outflow pipe is MAXED.
Multiple cities stuck @ loading endlessly. No problem creating new ones.
High Density, Low Wealth Residential building graphic flickering -elitemarine
The railway on Discovery Delta isnt fixed. So Huckleberry Island is stil not connected to the railway.
City sounds 'dead' - lots of sirens, not much else -blitzedjesus
Global trade of Coal does not function. 4 delivery trucks, 15 tons in storage, no movement. -pitbull_lvr
Adding power plants, sewage, anything with agents takes several minutes to 'work' on cheetah -pitbull_lvr
Buildings stuck endlessly in construction -pitbull_lvr
Pollution from the region being magnified. New town, 4k population, 55 people in the clinic. -thehybridfrog
Transit not fixed. Deleted street cars depots and rebuilt it elsewhere and all the street cars disappeared. after the patch, the street cars are still gone.. - user681
Police car conga lines have not improved - fivestarchili
Great works out of sync - link - fivestarchili
Cars still double-backing to the road they came from to take a turn they could've taken earlier. -DerAffenbrotbaum
My cities have all reverted to old saves - bailystevens
Sewage problem with ferry terminal, sewage not been taken. - Moofers
When ANY Culture building is placed, ALL Commercial buildings immediately become Hotels/Motels, no matter how many tourists you have Industrial_Redditor
City FULL OF TAXIS after patch - rshilda
Clicking on a players profile will often bring up a different origin user's profile
...and lots more. Okay, well, not to be disrespectful to EA's potentially hard work, but 2.0 sure feels more like 'snake oil' than proper release. Keep 'em coming, we'll get this list complete and polish it up.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 23, 2013)

Worst £65 I ever spent. Even that gram of dodgy charlie had a bit of speed and caffeine in it.


----------



## The Groke (Apr 23, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Worst £65 I ever spent. Even that gram of dodgy charlie had a bit of speed and caffeine in it.


 
Yikes.

It is cold comfort I bought it on Greenman Gaming for around 35 quid...


----------



## Red Storm (Apr 24, 2013)

Citizen66, did you buy the version with London etc. 

Fucking dear game. I just went for the standard edition.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 24, 2013)

Red Storm said:


> Citizen66, did you buy the version with London etc.
> 
> Fucking dear game. I just went for the standard edition.



Yeah I did.


----------



## TitanSound (Apr 24, 2013)

It's going to take them six months to come up with a proper patch. And even then that will probably only be a stop gap.

After various experiments with just traffic alone, it really doesn't function. To get any kind of logical traffic management in the game, you can only use a small portion of the space in a city. 

Even starting a city in Sandbox mode, with mass transit maxed before I've even zoned anything, the traffic is a fucking nightmare. Cars getting stuck exiting buildings causing massive jams behind it. Cars taking the most stupid routes. All cars seem obsessed with using only one lane to turn right. On a three lane avenue on a junction with a three lane avenue, only cars in the right hand lane will turn. Causes a load of problems. Even on a T-junction. The flow of traffic seems to be borked when lights turn green depending on the junction.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Apr 24, 2013)

Well...that's me put right off this game...


----------



## The Groke (Apr 24, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> It's going to take them six months to come up with a proper patch. And even then that will probably only be a stop gap.


 
I am coming to the opinion that I don't think it will _ever_ be the game we wanted it to be, nor even the game that we were sold.


----------



## TitanSound (Apr 24, 2013)

I agree. A simulation game has been turned into a farce. A shame. Because the idea behind it is cool. It just seems that the simulation agents become a monster en masse. Untamed like Skynet


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Apr 24, 2013)

The Groke said:


> I am coming to the opinion that I don't think it will _ever_ be the game we wanted it to be, nor even the game that we were sold.


 
Was watching a video earlier which showed people walking up a mountain to get to work instead of getting in their cars. They were always late and got fired. And this was 2.0...it was such a great looking game.


----------



## Nine Bob Note (Apr 27, 2013)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Was watching a video earlier which showed people walking up a mountain to get to work instead of getting in their cars. They were always late and got fired. And this was 2.0...it was such a great looking game.


 
Maybe they were just free spirits? Have they no place under your tyrannical mayorship?


----------



## bi0boy (Apr 27, 2013)

How could they have released something so totally made of fail.


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Apr 29, 2013)

bi0boy said:


> How could they have released something so totally made of fail.


 
They released an unfinished game and decided to let gamers pay the cost of beta testing the build.


----------



## The Groke (Apr 29, 2013)

Kid_Eternity said:


> They released an unfinished game and decided to let gamers pay the cost of beta testing the build.


 
Hm - less "unfinished" and more "fundamentally broken"

Even if all the bugs were fixed, the much mooted "Glass Box" is all smoke and mirrors and the limited city sizes, dull end game and all but non-existent failure states rob the game of any long term strategic challenge.

I don't think they can or will fix it in this version. At its best it will be a diverting toybox -  "SimCity lite"


----------



## bi0boy (Apr 29, 2013)

It's like they never even tried playing it once.


----------



## Epona (Apr 30, 2013)

Crispy said:


> Epona - you should watch their latest demonstration videos. The simulation is now at an agent level, rather than statistical. Previously, the traffic "number" went up and then at a certain threshold the "traffic jam" graphical effect was turned on. Now, every worker, vehicle, job etc. is visible in the world. If there are too many cars, then you get a traffic jam and the fire engine can't get to the fire. Should make for much better emergent gameplay, and much more direct feedback for the player.


 
As a fan of previous iterations of SimCity, I am genuinely sad (quoting a post made a year ago, from page one of this thread, and before the game was released - not your fault Crispy!) that this didn't turn out as shown in the pre-release information/videos. It becomes hard to trust video game PR when they try to sell games pre-release based on things that don't actually work well in the released game. Having read all the stuff since release, I'm glad I was sceptical and didn't rush to pre-order based on their early promotion, instead waiting to see what actually happened/user reviews come release.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 30, 2013)

I agree. A sad state of affairs


----------



## Epona (Apr 30, 2013)

Crispy said:


> I agree. A sad state of affairs


 
Must be more of a let down for you, because you seemed well excited by the possibilities. Not so much for me because I was dubious at an early stage for various reasons. I just want a new good city builder game though, very disappointed that I've had to wait so long.


----------



## Crispy (Apr 30, 2013)

It's okay, I found Dwarf Fortress and now my life is complete


----------



## Epona (Apr 30, 2013)

Crispy said:


> It's okay, I found Dwarf Fortress and now my life is complete


  Just as long as EA don't try to get their grubby mitts on it! (seems highly unlikely, long may you enjoy it)


----------



## tommers (Apr 30, 2013)

Epona said:


> As a fan of previous iterations of SimCity, I am genuinely sad (quoting a post made a year ago, from page one of this thread, and before the game was released - not your fault Crispy!) that this didn't turn out as shown in the pre-release information/videos. It becomes hard to trust video game PR when they try to sell games pre-release based on things that don't actually work well in the released game. Having read all the stuff since release, I'm glad I was sceptical and didn't rush to pre-order based on their early promotion, instead waiting to see what actually happened/user reviews come release.


 

We should make this a sticky and put it at the top of the gaming forum.


----------



## Epona (Apr 30, 2013)

tommers said:


> We should make this a sticky and put it at the top of the gaming forum.


 
Hehe! I don't tend to pre-order many games anyway, I think I've only done it 3 times - once for Dragon Age 2 (felt that I got slightly burned there, I loved Origins, didn't hate DA2 as much as some people did but i might have liked it more if I hadn't paid full price iykwim!), once for The Witcher 2 (loved the first game, and wanted to support the progressive no DRM and free DLC policy, I'm still happy to have paid full price up front for that to support the developer, although why the fuck were there QTEs in the game?) and Skyrim (because it was TES and I wanted to play it day one regardless of the consequences, and I've well and truly had my money's worth even if it's flawed). All of those were only bought a day before release to give me time to download them. But generally I'm not in the habit of preordering, I'm not interested in collectors' editions or anything like that, and for the vast majority of games I will wait until user reviews are out.


----------



## Citizen66 (Apr 30, 2013)

The very first sentence in the very first post is pretty apt in retrospect too.




			
				bi0boy said:
			
		

> don't get too excited


----------



## TitanSound (May 10, 2013)

Patch 3.0 is out. According to a couple of YouTube guys I watch on a regular basis, it's actually improved the game a lot.


----------



## Citizen66 (May 10, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> Patch 3.0 is out. According to a couple of YouTube guys I watch on a regular basis, it's actually improved the game a lot.


 
When did it come out? A mate of mine has started playing it recently (beginning of this week) and he said the main problem with it (besides city size) is that it's too easy. But he may have been on patch 2.0 faik.


----------



## TitanSound (May 10, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> When did it come out? A mate of mine has started playing it recently (beginning of this week) and he said the main problem with it (besides city size) is that it's too easy. But he may have been on patch 2.0 faik.


 
On the 8th! So, Wednesday.


----------



## Tankus (Jul 5, 2013)

So ..has it lost its shine ,or are some still dipping in ?


----------



## The Groke (Jul 5, 2013)

Tankus said:


> So ..has it lost its shine ,or are some still dipping in ?


 

It _has_ been improved through patching, but the game is still fundamentally lacking in depth with a brace of persistant bugs and baffling design choices combining to make it a continued disappointment.

Patch 6 should be inbound soon with some attempts to fix the perplexing lack of logical relationship between the RCI zones whilst EA/Maxis continue to embarrass themselves further by releasing $10 cosmetic DLC in the form of balloons and airships.

I couldn't recommend spending money on it yet.


----------



## Tankus (Jul 5, 2013)

wait for the dump bin, then , although I wonder how long they will keep the servers running ?


----------



## The Groke (Jul 5, 2013)

Tankus said:


> wait for the dump bin, then , although I wonder how long they will keep the servers running ?



Which is a huge concern for many players. People are happily playing modded versions of Sim City IV to this day - something which unless they were to add in an offline version (perfectly feasible as demonstrated by modders already) isn't possible with number five. 

That said I don't think the game sold badly and if they want to make money out of DLC and expansions they will need to continue to fix it


----------



## Silva (Jul 6, 2013)

I'm still waiting for an open source interpretation of SC3K


----------



## bi0boy (Aug 12, 2013)

The next update will introduce....bridges!


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Aug 12, 2013)

Coming to OS X in a couple weeks...can I be bothered with it...?


----------



## The Groke (Aug 12, 2013)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Coming to OS X in a couple weeks...can I be bothered with it...?


 

I wouldn't.

Seriously - don't give them the money - the game is still not worth paying for IMO.


----------



## Red Storm (Aug 13, 2013)

Why didn't they just finish making the game before they sold it


----------



## Crispy (Aug 13, 2013)

Red Storm said:


> Why didn't they just finish making the game before they sold it


 
It's not even that innocent. The whole thing was misconceived in scale and target audience.


----------



## Fez909 (Aug 13, 2013)

Maps still small?

*yawn*


----------



## Kid_Eternity (Aug 13, 2013)

The Groke said:


> I wouldn't.
> 
> Seriously - don't give them the money - the game is still not worth paying for IMO.


 

That's so depressing...


----------



## captainmission (Aug 13, 2013)

Fez909 said:


> Maps still small?
> 
> *yawn*


 

I'd rather they actually put some game play in there rather than a broken game bigger.


----------



## Fez909 (Aug 13, 2013)

captainmission said:


> I'd rather they actually put some game play in there rather than a broken game bigger.


 
Agreed, but I class small maps as 'broken'.


----------



## TattooMaster (Aug 19, 2013)

Fez909 said:


> Maps still small?
> 
> *yawn*


Agreed!


----------



## TitanSound (Aug 19, 2013)

I've been trying to go back and play this recently but the traffic is still such an arse kicker once you population gets above 25,000. I've tried multiple ways of placing commerce & industry so traffic goes in a loop on the same side of the road to avoid u-turns, but it just gets jammed up and wastes so much space.


----------



## The Groke (Aug 19, 2013)

TitanSound said:


> I've been trying to go back and play this recently but the traffic is still such an arse kicker once you population gets above 25,000. I've tried multiple ways of placing commerce & industry so traffic goes in a loop on the same side of the road to avoid u-turns, but it just gets jammed up and wastes so much space.


 

Update 7 out in a week or so I think...allows for manual creation of tunnels and fly-overs with your roads.

Now if they:

1) Allow for creation of one-way streets
2) Improve the path finding and agent dynamics to more accurately reflect the originally promised vision
3) Increase city size
4) squash the rest of the agent/rubbish/money/RCI/informational bugs then...

...it may just, just be worth going back to.


----------



## The Groke (Aug 23, 2013)

So the mutterings seem to be that update 7 is a huge step in the right direction and that as one of the most significant patches to date indicates a point where those who had given up on the game may want to give it another shot...

I might take a look later.


----------



## Citizen66 (Aug 23, 2013)

They fucking ought to have done some work for all that money. Never, ever again will I fork out a premium for a pre-release. Apart from with paradox. Because they have crazy ideas that sometimes take an age to pull off and aren't just a greedy corp. And they make the best games.


----------



## TitanSound (Sep 5, 2013)

I like this update so far. Done a couple of test cities in Sandbox mode and it seems to actually work. Now to push it past a 50,000 population


----------



## Citizen66 (Sep 5, 2013)

Is the traffic (your bugbear iirc) been fixed then?


----------



## TitanSound (Sep 5, 2013)

Citizen66 said:


> Is the traffic (your bugbear iirc) been fixed then?



Well the raising and lowering of the roads has helped with a lot of the issues that I had. Especially seeing as traffic never made use of all routes available. And service and utility vehicles don't seem to be bunching up as much which is useful. 

It'll be interesting to see what happens when the population gets big, but it's looking promising thus far


----------



## Citizen66 (Sep 5, 2013)

Keep us informed. I might give it another bash if they've fixed it.


----------



## bi0boy (Nov 5, 2013)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjC1rRQ-89Y

I like the comments and ratings though


----------



## Tankus (Jan 24, 2014)

down to £19 now .....I quite like the look of "cities of tomorrow" with expansion nearly £40 .....still wait .....


----------

