Surprised this hasn't popped up on here yet...
http://www.simcity.com/en_US
Link to some gameplay/demonstration videos...
http://www.hardwareclips.com/search/?search_id=SIM+CITY+5+INSIDE+THE+GLASSBOX-ENGINE
:w00t:
Can't look yet as I'm at work but I am excited
This will be published by EA, so expect lots and lots and lots of DLC, widely varying pre-order bonuses, DLC obtained through social games and iPad apps etc.
I liked SimCity 2000 the best, not sure why but there was just something addictive about it.
SimCity multiplayer...? :hmm:
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/media/video/SimCity_Trailer_Insiders_Look
The user-created content took SimCIty 4 to a level of excellence; it will be some time before SC5 reaches it. I'll be waiting impatiently, though :cool:
L.
Just to nit-pick - they did NOT say the name was Sim City 5. I don't think they announced the formal name, instead just calling it "the enxt Sim City".
Slow day at gaol?
I'm mildly positive after seeing some movies of the simlatione engine in action and reading the AMA maxis did
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/qmi0w/iama_maxis_development_team_on_simcity_amaa/
but it's still very early
Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 09, 2012, 01:13:33 AM
I liked SimCity 2000 the best, not sure why but there was just something addictive about it.
I actually found it strangely un-addictive. The lack of goals is a fatal flaw for me, there is something about clear and credible goals that really gets me going.
Quote from: DGuller on March 09, 2012, 10:47:27 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 09, 2012, 01:13:33 AM
I liked SimCity 2000 the best, not sure why but there was just something addictive about it.
I actually found it strangely un-addictive. The lack of goals is a fatal flaw for me, there is something about clear and credible goals that really gets me going.
I actually side with Tim on this one. I loved me some SimCity2000 but haven't cared for the series since then.
None of the later games have been better than SC2000.
SC4 is where it's at. Better than SC2K :p
I had the original SimCity on 3.5" diskette. I liked the Godzilla. RaWR.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 09, 2012, 12:48:36 PM
I had the original SimCity on 3.5" diskette. I liked the Godzilla. RaWR.
I had the SimCity graphics set on diskette. I liked the Moon.
Started with the SNES adaption of simcity. Bowser! lol.
but damn, was that adaption pretty!
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on March 09, 2012, 03:03:05 PM
Started with the SNES adaption of simcity. Bowser! lol.
but damn, was that adaption pretty!
Heh. Yeah. That was fun. I remember that rail was better then streets so everything would be connected with rail and there would be no roads. Everyone seemed cool with that. You could also leave the game on overnight and make a reap in taxes if you had a stable city.
The online focus worries me.
Quote from: Razgovory on March 09, 2012, 06:27:21 PM
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on March 09, 2012, 03:03:05 PM
Started with the SNES adaption of simcity. Bowser! lol.
but damn, was that adaption pretty!
Heh. Yeah. That was fun. I remember that rail was better then streets so everything would be connected with rail and there would be no roads. Everyone seemed cool with that. You could also leave the game on overnight and make a reap in taxes if you had a stable city.
haha, yeah. That's so true.
I would love to see a SimEarth remake. Probably won't ever happen though. :(
Quote from: FunkMonk on March 10, 2012, 08:26:27 PM
I would love to see a SimEarth remake. Probably won't ever happen though. :(
I like to see that too! This SC5 graphics look great. Now I want to get back into SC4! Great games.
Quote from: FunkMonk on March 10, 2012, 08:26:27 PM
I would love to see a SimEarth remake. Probably won't ever happen though. :(
Yeah. I suppose Spore was suppose to be kinda like that. Problem was, that I found Spore dreadfully dull.
Quote from: Razgovory on March 10, 2012, 10:08:48 PM
Quote from: FunkMonk on March 10, 2012, 08:26:27 PM
I would love to see a SimEarth remake. Probably won't ever happen though. :(
Yeah. I suppose Spore was suppose to be kinda like that. Problem was, that I found Spore dreadfully dull.
Spore was definitely a failed attempt. A bunch of mini-games does not equal SimEarth.
It's out in the U.S. Gameplay previews from beta testers were encouraging, but it seems marred by technical implementation.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/05/gamers-line-up-to-play-simcity/
QuoteHey, want to play the freshly US-released SimCity? Well, stand in line. As Total Biscuit reveals (video below), there are already 30 minute queues. And this is just for those who've stayed up past midnight to be able to play. In just one country.
I note with some pride that my "oceans" notion for criticising release dates seems to have entered the vernacular. So it is that EA have astonishingly released this DRM-riddled, online-only, server-based game with a three day delay for Europe. Yet keeping the numbers lower doesn't seem to have helped with some of the servers. So why is that a problem? Because despite the game being saved on that oh-so ethereal cloud, your cities are still server-specific. Want to play that city? Sit in the queue for that server.
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.
Reviews are scarce, since thankfully most sites recognised that reviewing either in EA's offices, or via EA's very quiet test server, wouldn't have been at all useful for readers, as the version they'd play wouldn't represent the released version. In the UK we've not even been offered a way to review ahead of launch, nor – impressively – offered access to the US released version. So a review from us will come some time next week, we're afraid.
Here's Total Biscuit getting pretty fed up of waiting in line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RUl_Cj2_KWU
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Origin-Errors-Affect-SimCity-Release-and-Digital-Deluxe-Editions-334343.shtml
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/simcity-impressions-we-waited-ten-years-for-this/
Though most depressing might be this:
http://kotaku.com/5988286/?post=57955552
QuoteI'm still fuming at Mike for destroying his city and therefore ruining mine. It killed the fun I was having with my city and got me worrying that this game, which more or less requires that you cooperate with neighbor cities could be ruined by griefers who pull the plug on your cities to screw you over.
You can't have a great time just running your own city independently. You'll have to set up some connections with other cities. I was depending on Mike for power, as he noted; I was supplying our region with a university, though once he destroyed his city, I lost a ton of revenue from out-of-town students.
One of the EA PR people on this game told me that other players can take over abandoned cities. And you can manually abandon a city pretty easily. I'm more worried about people who let their city crumble and don't fully abandon it.
It could be a drag, especially because you need other players to pitch in when making great works in your region. I'd just started the great work of making an Arcology in a valley between our two cities (we were playing on a map made for three cities), but without Mike pitching in, I couldn't build it, which pretty much put me at my internal population and economic limit. The ideal, I think, would be to have at least three engaged players, with their respective cities helping each other's out. The game is clearly designed for this, as many of the buildings you construct have regional benefits and enable upgrades across the map.
We'll be able to judge all this better once the game goes live to the public and we can see how well all this networked stuff works.
NOTE: Just to be clear... you CAN run all the cities in one region yourself in a private mode. It's possible, just doesn't seem like the way they intended for you to play. I'm going to give that a shot and see how that goes, too.
Yet another game ruined. :weep:
From the main kotaku article linked above:
Quote[...]Well, that's not technically true. The only time you're really on your own in this latest SimCity is when you create your own Region and set it to private as I did with my Secret Squirrel region. I figured I might have more fun without having to trade and pool resources with other players in the same region. I thought an obligation-free sandbox would be right up my alley.
I was mistaken.
SimCity Won (and Broke) My Heart in Just Three Days
As immediately satisfying as it was to just plop (that's the official term) down Germany's Kölner Dom without having to spend hours developing my tourism industry, ultimately the single-player sandbox I thought I wanted left me feeling empty and unfulfilled. It might be good for folks looking to make movies, but this SimCity is designed to play with other people, and it's a lot less fun without them.
So I hooked up with Kotaku's Stephen Totilo to see if we'd make good neighbors. He did. Me? Not so much.
This sprawling coal-mining town is where I learned the intricacies of city planning. From a small road leading away from the highway I built houses. I placed water towers. I powered them with coal. Soon that single small road became many small roads crisscrossing the land. I painted the roads with zones commercial, residential and industrial, attempting to balance a trio of meters that never seemed satisfied with my choices (except for commercial, which was barely ever in demand).
I discovered (read a preview, Fahey!) that upgrading roads helped maximize building density, and that strategically placing parks attracts more affluent residents.
Totilo's town helped me during those early days, supplying waste management and emergency services as I struggled to balance utilities and facilities with explosive growth. Eventually I returned the favor, letting him tap into my nuclear reactor to power his city. It was a good relationship. We worked well together.
When I destroyed everything I had built in order to start over, the effect on Totilo's town was devastating. Without my nuclear reactor he had no power. Businesses closed. People left town. His city plunged into an economic nosedive he couldn't pull out of. He wound up abandoning the city and moving on to a new region.
So basically, unless you hook up with an active community and have similar goals, you'll miss out one way or the other. Seeing the sprawling Sims community I have no doubt this will happen. Still, if you like to build a city now and then from scratch, this is not the way to go.
Guess it's time to dust off SC4 again and see if I can get it to run properly in Win7.
QuoteIt killed the fun I was having with my city and got me worrying that this game, which more or less requires that you cooperate with neighbor cities could be ruined by griefers who pull the plug on your cities to screw you over.
So, it's
Detroit: The Video Game.
I want to shut Josq's coal mines down. Can I do that?
Why is Syt building labor camps on my side of the map? Is that why my population is dropping?
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 05, 2013, 08:26:09 AM
Why is Syt building labor camps on my side of the map? Is that why my population is dropping?
:P
Yeah these reviews look dreadful.
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 05, 2013, 08:26:09 AM
Why is Syt building labor camps on my side of the map? Is that why my population is dropping?
Disconnect your railways with his and build a huge wall between his side of the city and yours.
Tamas has built a giant beet farm. Where is the commercial zone? Why are all my cars being stolen?
Quote from: FunkMonk on March 05, 2013, 08:28:13 AM
Quote from: CountDeMoney on March 05, 2013, 08:26:09 AM
Why is Syt building labor camps on my side of the map? Is that why my population is dropping?
Disconnect your railways with his and build a huge wall between his side of the city and yours.
He took all my trains. At least all the cattle cars.
SimLanguish would be a hoot. At least until everyone starts griefing each other.
Quote from: FunkMonk on March 05, 2013, 08:32:12 AM
SimLanguish would be a hoot. At least until everyone starts griefing each other.
I'd do that from the very start.
:D
:lol:
Quote from: FunkMonk on March 05, 2013, 08:32:12 AM
SimLanguish would be a hoot. At least until everyone starts griefing each other.
Embargo On! Who run Barter Town? Master Blaster run Barter Town!
My little sim gangs would lynch Mart's SimFags.
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 05, 2013, 08:39:59 AM
My little sim gangs would lynch Mart's SimFags.
Well that's what I was wondering. Would there be some way to weed out women and children?
The thing is, SimCity gained its reputation as single player game. I don't think many people playing/loving the predecessors went, "I wish this had multiplayer!"
The idea of having interconnected cities feeding off of each other is fascinating, but if it means your game enjoyment is at the mercy of the folks you're playing with (who may grief you, or just plain drop from the game for whatever reason) then something feels off.
Unsure how this will develop, but my guess is that a small core group of players will form a community, and that the game will become as much a mainstay of gaming as Spore was. :P
your bathhouse has been firebombed
your bathhouse has been firebombed!
your bathhouse has been firebombed
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 05, 2013, 08:43:56 AM
your bathhouse has been firebombed
your bathhouse has been firebombed!
your bathhouse has been firebombed
Oh don't be silly, sweetie. We don't have to congregate in bathhouses anymore. :P
It was rather 80's of me,wasn't it? :P
The city in front show how much space you have for your cities. The one beyond the river is a different player's city.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.arstechnica.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2Fsc3.png&hash=5468cf1a9386a0107b26335fa4f613169e6e08ee)
Yeah that's dreadful but as you said makes me want to break out SC4. :)
The comment on Arstechnica mostly sums up how I feel about the game from what I've seen so far:
QuoteI find myself wanting curvy roads and bolt-on buildings, but everything else from SC4, with the Rush Hour expansion.
And a better view of how "big" cities are.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.arstechnica.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2Fcity-overview.jpg&hash=f8c8ac097696e72d17869f058d058e2468224c77)
Actually, this is about the size I laid out the nucleus for most of my SC4 or SC2000 cities. :D
Pass. Sounds like another game designed by a committee of marketing tools instead of an actual game designer.
Quote from: Syt on March 05, 2013, 10:34:20 AM
The comment on Arstechnica mostly sums up how I feel about the game from what I've seen so far:
QuoteI find myself wanting curvy roads and bolt-on buildings, but everything else from SC4, with the Rush Hour expansion.
And a better view of how "big" cities are.
....
Yeah, that's an interesting definition of big.
I vaguely recall SC2000 could be 10 times as big ? :unsure:
So when's the DLC out for lot expansion? :P
Quote from: Caliga on March 05, 2013, 10:36:17 AM
Pass. Sounds like another game designed by a committee of marketing tools instead of an actual game designer.
Agree. Pass here too.
Maxis is beyond saving...hell pretty much anything under EA probably is.
I really want a new sim city though :(
I dunno - I kind of want to get this. :blush:
Theoretically I would be interested, but EA doesn't really make much in the way of games that I would ever want to play. My tolerance for multiplayer and microtransactions is low.
I could have lived with this game despite the small city sizes if not for the fact that cities are saved to EA's servers and will therefore be destroyed en masse by EA's incompetence. And without the ability to save it on my own HDD all that work on Funkville and its surrounding towns would be lost forever.
Yeah, but if you could save things to your hard drive, you might be tempted to pirate the game.
At any rate, expect bad games from EA forever.
Holy Fuck - I've been trying for 20 minutes just to orde the fucking thing.
30 minutes and I'm done.
What a god-awful online store.
fuck 'em. With all the bad reviews this takes the cake.
Something that Arstechnica also pointed out: with old SimCity you could always save reload. At the end of a session I would often save, then raze the city with disasters, but reload the old save game to continue normally. Or sometimes you just want to try something, then go back to a previous save point.
Can't do that with the new one.
Also, like Diablo 3 there's some calculations for the cities going on server side, making this near impossible to pirate, because you'd need to find a way to emulate the server side of things.
Good point. I was wondering what could be so amazing they would need server side calculation- its not that they need that at all, just keeps the pirates at bay.
So...alternatives on the horizon for those who want a new city builder?
Quote from: Tyr on March 06, 2013, 01:05:17 AM
Good point. I was wondering what could be so amazing they would need server side calculation- its not that they need that at all, just keeps the pirates at bay.
So...alternatives on the horizon for those who want a new city builder?
even after I said "fuck you" to SimCity, I still don't blame them for going all DRM.
Yes, they want to stop you from pirating their game. No, I don't blame them.
Anyways, the DRM I could live with (I did with Diablo 3 as well). That they're changing to a Sims3 business model (expansions & microtransactions) - not a big fan, but depends on what they actually add. (Can players with different content actually play together?)
But the city sizes, and the extreme focus on "you have to play together to have fun" is where it dies for me, because with a SimCity game I don't want to be dependent on other players' goodwill/involvement to have fun. As an optional feature it could be cool to play with Languishites. But as the main focus of the game - no thanks. You'd think that after the SimCity Societies disaster and the failed multiplayer focus of Cities XL the designers would have taken note what the city builder demographic wants.
Quote from: Barrister on March 06, 2013, 01:08:38 AM
Quote from: Tyr on March 06, 2013, 01:05:17 AM
Good point. I was wondering what could be so amazing they would need server side calculation- its not that they need that at all, just keeps the pirates at bay.
So...alternatives on the horizon for those who want a new city builder?
even after I said "fuck you" to SimCity, I still don't blame them for going all DRM.
Yes, they want to stop you from pirating their game. No, I don't blame them.
When this is done by making things awkward for paying customers however I totally blame them cheer the pirates on.
Quote from: Syt on March 06, 2013, 01:14:10 AM
But the city sizes, and the extreme focus on "you have to play together to have fun" is where it dies for me, because with a SimCity game I don't want to be dependent on other players' goodwill/involvement to have fun. As an optional feature it could be cool to play with Languishites. But as the main focus of the game - no thanks. You'd think that after the SimCity Societies disaster and the failed multiplayer focus of Cities XL the designers would have taken note what the city builder demographic wants.
As I've understood it you can create and control all the cities in a region yourself.
Yes, but let's say you want to build in a region with three cities. One is going to be manufacturing, one will be education, one will be commerce.
To get the synergy effects between the cities you have to keep switching between them. "Oh, I need more education for my workers." [Switch to college town and build stuff, then return to first city.] "I need more shops!" [Switch to third city, build up more commerce, then return to first city - or second if you now need more education again.]
It's a hassle. And if you're playing with several people at the same time (as seems to be the designers' intentions) you can drop each other notes and adjust on the fly to the regional needs. Again, an interesting concept, but focused too much on that IMO.
Speaking of regions. There seem to be 16 or so maps at the moment, and there's no terraforming of any kind.
Wow, that's devastating. A feature that I had on the original SimCity almost 25 years ago.
And yeah, Origin is the worst online store there is. Requiring it is a sure sign that I won't be buying a particular game for the PC.
Quote from: Syt on March 06, 2013, 01:14:10 AM
Anyways, the DRM I could live with (I did with Diablo 3 as well). That they're changing to a Sims3 business model (expansions & microtransactions) - not a big fan, but depends on what they actually add. (Can players with different content actually play together?)
But the city sizes, and the extreme focus on "you have to play together to have fun" is where it dies for me, because with a SimCity game I don't want to be dependent on other players' goodwill/involvement to have fun. As an optional feature it could be cool to play with Languishites. But as the main focus of the game - no thanks. You'd think that after the SimCity Societies disaster and the failed multiplayer focus of Cities XL the designers would have taken note what the city builder demographic wants.
What the city builder demographic wants isn't particularily relevant to the devs. They know they're going to get some sales based on the name alone, and they know that the microtransactions will make them profitable. What the executives have mandated is very important.
Quote from: Neil on March 06, 2013, 08:41:24 AM
Wow, that's devastating. A feature that I had on the original SimCity almost 25 years ago.
No kidding, right? Save a game, trash the city, and then reload it again? How incredibly 1990.
Playing SimAnything (minus I guess The Sims) is so 90s.
All this talk made me do 2 things
1) Swear to never buy the new game
2) Re-install my copy of SimCity 4 deluxe! :D
It's not DRM in the traditional sense.
It's there to promote microtransactions & offer a platform akin to facebook.
Quote from: Arvoreen on March 06, 2013, 12:29:37 PM
All this talk made me do 2 things
1) Swear to never buy the new game
2) Re-install my copy of SimCity 4 deluxe! :D
:yes:
@gf That might be the way they spin and sell it, but it absolutely is DRM.
You have to log in and get permission to play a game.you.paid for.
Quote from: Grey Fox on March 06, 2013, 12:47:51 PM
It's not DRM in the traditional sense.
It's there to promote microtransactions & offer a platform akin to facebook.
I think then they are making a mistake in mixing up their audiences. I'm not sure the casual facebook gamer is looking to pay for a full box game and its interface.
Quote from: Tyr on March 06, 2013, 01:23:12 AM
Quote from: Barrister on March 06, 2013, 01:08:38 AM
Quote from: Tyr on March 06, 2013, 01:05:17 AM
Good point. I was wondering what could be so amazing they would need server side calculation- its not that they need that at all, just keeps the pirates at bay.
So...alternatives on the horizon for those who want a new city builder?
even after I said "fuck you" to SimCity, I still don't blame them for going all DRM.
Yes, they want to stop you from pirating their game. No, I don't blame them.
When this is done by making things awkward for paying customers however I totally blame them cheer the pirates on.
So when you have to go through scanners outside your local shop, and are stopped by security because the clerk forgot to remove the security tag from something you bought, do you cheer on the shoplifters?
Quote from: Syt on March 06, 2013, 12:52:59 AM
Something that Arstechnica also pointed out: with old SimCity you could always save reload. At the end of a session I would often save, then raze the city with disasters, but reload the old save game to continue normally. Or sometimes you just want to try something, then go back to a previous save point.
Can't do that with the new one.
That is a deal breaker for me.
Quote from: Barrister on March 06, 2013, 02:14:02 PM
Quote from: Tyr on March 06, 2013, 01:23:12 AM
When this is done by making things awkward for paying customers however I totally blame them cheer the pirates on.
So when you have to go through scanners outside your local shop, and are stopped by security because the clerk forgot to remove the security tag from something you bought, do you cheer on the shoplifters?
Not when it's based on an individualized suspicion of guilt triggered by the scanner, no.
However, when a retailer has a general policy of checking all bags at the door against receipts, I (1) refuse to comply; (2) offer to wait for the police if they would like to call them; and (3) cheer on the shoplifters.
The other problem with the clothes store analogy, is that you would have to call the shop and ask them permission every time you wanted to wear those pants, while the shoplifter could od whatever he wanted with the pants with no outside hassle.
At that point I may root for the shoplifter just so everyone would see how absurd the system was.
The netrage over the equivalent of error 37 gives me a certain amount of satisfaction that I didnt buy into this crapfest.
I bought the game (an Amazon gift card was burning a hole in my pocket, and they we offering a $20 credit for buying the game). Yesterday I couldn't actually play the game (it essentially froze when it got to the tutorial, and the game made you play the tutorial before opening up any other options). EA said this was a known "server-side" issue and that they were working to fix it. I checked this morning to see if there were still issues, and I was able to get in and play, but I wasn't able to access the tutorial, so I didn't really know WTF I was doing. On the upside, the game looked pretty good and ran smoothly. Rating so far: clusterfuck.
AS far as the gameplay goes (though I haven't yet been able to really experience any, thanks EA), I don't really mind the MP-focus necessarily, even though I want nothing to do with other players. I think it might be fun to balance symboitic specialist cities within a region. OTOH, I don't think playing like that should be necessary if all I want to do is make some huge self-sufficient city. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be an option with the map sizes currently so small.
When it works, it's not a bad game. Yesterday, I couldn't play at all. <_<
this is a good review
http://www.jonathancresswell.co.uk/2013/03/review-simcity/
:lol:
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on March 07, 2013, 01:30:35 PM
this is a good review
http://www.jonathancresswell.co.uk/2013/03/review-simcity/ (http://www.jonathancresswell.co.uk/2013/03/review-simcity/)
:D
QuoteI still have to recommend that you stay away from SimCity for the time being. The latest word is that "non essential services" are being disabled to lighten the load on servers (I can't imagine the leaderboards and achievements were getting a lot of use anyway when many people can't even play), so we'll see how that shakes out today and tomorrow.
Update: Holy smokes, EA and I have very different definitions of "non-essential services." Even if I could get in right now – which I can't, because I'm stuck in yet another loading queue – I don't think I even want to play without Cheetah Speed, the fastest time acceleration. There's already quite a bit of waiting around before you can gather enough cash to buy something like your first $30,000 police station or a coal mine, but this will tip the balance of the pacing drastically in favor of tedium. It's now basically futile to play. Also, Amazon.com has pulled SimCity from its download store. To any Europeans reading: just stay away. Save yourself the frustration.
Who'd have thought things would get worse before they got better?
:bleeding:
I feel kind of bad for those that got suckered into buying, and long time fans of the series, but I don't remember hoping somthing would crash and burn so badly. :blush:
:lol:
Bought it, but thankfully my urge to play isn't that high.
QuoteIt has been out for three days, and SimCity is broken. Seriously, unplayably broken. As a long-time fan who's been looking forward to this week for many years, this is a huge, frustrating disappointment. The worst part? The main issue isn't with the game itself, but an entirely unnecessary and completely avoidable always-online DRM system that's keeping millions of fans from playing the game they paid for, when they were told they'd be able to play it. If there is one good thing that comes of this disaster, let it be yet another lesson to publishers like EA and Activision/Blizzard, and platform owners Microsoft and Sony, who may be considering always-on DRM in next-gen consoles or PC games: don't even think about it. It's a pipe dream, and to attempt it is to invite an enthusiasm-draining catastrophe with every single game launch.
Here's what the past 10 years of online DRM has taught anybody who's paid the slightest bit of attention: it never works right, at least at first. And while it might be largely successful in stopping piracy (as Diablo III effectively has), it exacts a terrible price: the trust and enthusiasm of the most loyal and enthusiastic gamers. These are the people who are dying to get their hands on new games, the ones who eagerly spend on pricey collectors' editions and DLC – all of it sight-unseen. If treated well, their word of mouth buzz can generate more game sales than a site like IGN ever could. They are also the ones who will always be affected most by the inevitable screwups that always-online DRM will bring.
I'm no network engineer, but it's obvious even to me that the infrastructure required to allow millions of gamers to play at once without issue is extremely complex. That means there are simply too many points along the line where it can break down, and it only takes one to make a game that's dependent on servers completely unplayable. It's also a system that invites technical disaster and locks out gamers who travel frequently or serve in the military. Failure is virtually assured.
You, the publishers, might think that it'll be different when you try it – that you'll get it right where others failed, and the fancy new proprietary always-online DRM technology you've invested in is foolproof. Here's the reality, reinforced by this week's events: you will almost certainly fail, and the payoff of zero piracy isn't worth the cost. In PC gaming, publishing giants Ubisoft, Blizzard (and by extension Activision), and now EA have all attempted it, and all have completely botched the launches of some of their most highly anticipated games. While you might eventually stabilize your servers after the initial spike in demand and get things humming along, constant login queues and downtime have turned many of your greatest allies into your worst enemies. You'll have hamstrung your own momentum.
Yes, MMORPGs and most free-to-play games will always have this problem, because being online is an integral part of their design. It's what the O in MMO stands for, in fact. But games like Diablo III and SimCity are not MMOs. They don't need to be connected to be enjoyed – I know, as I've played both primarily in single-player thus far. In SimCity's case it's especially ridiculous, as you're not even playing with others in real-time. Despite Maxis' insistence that it was built from the ground up to be a multiplayer game, its designers' best efforts couldn't shoehorn essential multiplayer into a game that is inherently single-player. Certainly nothing that's worth not being able to play at all because a server's down. Not to us.
We don't need to add the unfortunate downsides of MMORPGs to games that don't have or need the upsides which come with that necessary evil. Piracy is awful, and most gamers can only imagine how it feels to have to watch as your expensively produced product is stolen with impunity. But this is an overreaction that runs a very serious risk of doing far more harm than good.
But forget about money for a moment. There's also the question of preserving gaming history. As we saw with THQ last month, publishers aren't immortal. They can die, and had THQ implemented always-online DRM in Darksiders II, all copies of that game might've died with it when the rights to the series weren't bought up by another publisher. As bad as it must feel when thousands – or even millions – of people are playing your game without paying for it, surely the idea of everyone who did pay for it losing access to a piece of your work that they love is even more appalling.
I feel terrible for Maxis, who I'm almost certain didn't come up with the idea to make SimCity require an online connection. That development team put in years of their lives on a game that, when it works, is astonishing in a lot of really interesting ways, and watching it sabotaged by DRM has to be absolutely crushing for them. And I feel awful for gamers out there who waited 10 years for a modern successor to a classic PC game, only to find a frustrating technical mess.
Just remember this, publishers and developers: if you choose to go down this road, and there comes a time when you're frantically scrambling to fix your overloaded and failing servers, with hordes of angry customers howling for refunds and swearing off all your future games forever (as Maxis is this very moment, and Blizzard was last year)... it didn't have to be like this.
I've watched a few streams and the game actually looks really fun. Too bad the city sizes are shit and they shoe-horned in all the online components. I might pick this up after a couple expansions (like city sizes lolol).
I just started playing SimCity 2000 again.
I'm Commander Shepherd, and this is my least favorite game in the galaxy
QuoteSimCity has had its fair share of problems since launch. EA knows this, and they have made the decision to temporarily stop actively promoting the city-building game, at least online.
In a memo sent to affiliates (and obtained by IGN), EA asks for active promotion for SimCity to cease. The company has deactivated all links in Origin's LinkShare program, which a lot of companies use to promote EA games.
The full memo can be seen below:
"Hello Affiliates,
EA Origin has requested to pause all SimCity marketing campaigns temporarily, until further notice. We have deactivated all SimCity text links and creative and we ask you to please remove any copy promoting SimCity from your website for the time-being. To be clear we are continuing to payout commissions on all SimCity sales that are referred, however we are requesting that you please stop actively promoting the game. We will notify you as soon as the SimCity marketing campaigns have been resumed and our promotional links are once again live in the Linkshare interface. We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause, and we thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
Origin.com Affiliate Team"
I'm gonna go ahead and blame EA for this one, not Maxis. I picked up University Life for Sims 3, which happens to be the first Sims 3 expansion developed by Maxis, and it's been nothing but good.
Another review:
http://www.destructoid.com/review-simcity-248039.phtml
Excerpt:
QuoteI tried to see how well things worked across cities by trying to run two cities at once, and I found that it wasn't a reliable way to play the game. Things seemed to break. Workers failed to show up at their jobs in the city next door, water flow stopped at times, police didn't show up, and my city's education went downhill as they stopped getting on the bus to travel across the region. This could all be due to the server issues, or the game could actually be broken in this regard. Either way it's flawed.
I felt like I should have been playing with other people, and it's difficult to play with one city alone. A single city is tiny and it can't do a lot. Eventually you run out of space and you can't upgrade any more without depending on resources coming from another city. Things like achievements, leader boards, and friend's lists are pushed to the foreground to try and convince me to play online.
It seems like more of an issue to play alone than with others, and SimCity doesn't really need that. It could be cool, sure, but don't force it on me. I haven't come across anyone that wants this from the series, and the fact that the online portion of the game is broken makes it a complete nightmare.
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-to-offer-free-pc-game-for-simcity-players-248223.phtml
QuoteAfter a disastrous launch week for SimCity, Maxis and Electronic Arts are going to offer a free PC game via download to players as an apology. "On March 18, SimCity players who have activated their game will receive an email telling them how to redeem their free game," wrote general manager Lucy Bradshaw in a blog post.
"I know that's a little contrived -- kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy. But we feel bad about what happened. We're hoping you won't stay mad and that we'll be friends again when SimCity is running at 100 percent."
That may win over some of the affected players, but I don't suspect it'll do a whole lot for people who read blogs such as this one and would've rather just spent the week playing the game they purchased. To some extent, I suppose it depends on the restrictions for this make-good offer. More importantly, Bradshaw says that server capacity has been increased by 120 percent, and that "The number of disrupted experiences has dropped by roughly 80 percent." Shame the number of disruptions couldn't have been zero.
Any hackers planning to attack EA/Maxis?
Look on the bright side: this utter shambles might persuade fewer companies to go down the always-online multiplayer-at-all-costs route.
After seeing this SimCity fiasco and then reading through the HUGOCHAVEZ BADMAN thread I've been inspired to duplicate the great achievements of the Tribune of the People, Hugo Chavez, in a city builder that actually works: Tropico 4.
Steam sale right now too: $7.50 for the base game and $10 for the game plus all the DLC. :cool:
You know you botched a game when it's the 3rd most viewed story in the WashPost Business section today.
QuoteElectronic Arts apologizes for 'SimCity' launch woes; offers free PC game
By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, March 10, 4:23 PM
LOS ANGELES — The creators of "SimCity" are hoping players don't move on after connectivity issues plagued the game's launch last week.
The updated edition of the 24-year-old metropolis-building franchise released last Tuesday requires players to be online — even if they're constructing virtual cities in the single-player mode. Several gamers weren't able to log on after "SimCity" launched, prompting some retailers to stop selling the Electronic Arts Inc. game.
Lucy Bradshaw, general manager at "SimCity" developer Maxis, said Friday more wannabe mayors logged on than they anticipated and that the developers have been increasing server capacity since the snafu.
"More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta," said Bradshaw. "OK, we agree, that was dumb, but we are committed to fixing it. In the last 48 hours, we increased server capacity by 120 percent. It's working — the number of people who have gotten in and built cities has improved dramatically."
Bradshaw said EA would give players a free PC game to compensate for the hassles. Players who registered copies of "SimCity" will receive details on how to download the free game March 18.
"I know that's a little contrived — kind of like buying a present for a friend after you did something crummy," she said. "But we feel bad about what happened. We're hoping you won't stay mad and that we'll be friends again when 'SimCity' is running at 100 percent."
Well, hopefully some good will come of this, shows there's a nice demand for city building games.
http://news.yahoo.com/simcity-pr-nightmare-escalates-150021213.html
QuoteOver the past couple of days, "SimCity" has eclipsed "Pope" in global search volume. Electronic Arts has finally created something that has captivated the world with an intoxicating melange of drama, tragedy and sick humor. Too bad all of these elements emerge from EA's project management, not the game itself. The first stage of the SimCity fiasco stemmed from how EA's servers spectacularly failed to cope with the entirely predictable launch week traffic. But the next stage is potentially even more damaging. On EA's Answer HQ website, one of the most heated discussion threads is now about whether the entire pathfinding and traffic management systems of the game are badly broken.
Several players have noted that the characters in the game don't actually have any permanent jobs or homes. They simply walk to the nearest available open job or a suitable home at certain times, a simplification that creates major headaches in city planning. Sims that start walking don't switch to mass transit if they don't find a job nearby; kids don't get to schools easily; all cops go to a single crime scene even if police stations are carefully spread in different parts of the city. School buses, fire trucks and tourist hordes all seem to have trouble finding obvious routes to their goals. As a result, designing a functional city may mean planning a street grid and placement of different facilities in a deeply counterintuitive way. Players have to design their cities to suit bad algorithms, not realistic goals.
One popular emerging strategy is to construct a city with one long, single street winding back and forth like a snake. This enables players to reduce the problems of having school buses that cannot find students and fire trucks that refuse to go where they are supposed to. One way to avoid suffocating traffic jams is to fill the city with wide avenues, resulting in weird maps where normal streets are used as sparsely as possible.
The lame pathfinding algorithms may explain one of the biggest mysteries surrounding this new SimCity iteration; why is the city size limited so drastically? Many early reviews cited claustrophobia as the number one complaint even before the server problems surfaced, including the exhaustive Ars Technica piece. It now seems likely that the strict size limitation may have been necessary to avoid complete gridlock.
The ambitious goal of having SimCity populated by "real people" may thus be backfiring quite spectacularly — partly because the Sims don't act rationally, but also because of the complications of trying to find the shortest route to nearest job, home or school in the most rudimentary way. This can translate to inability to deal with a traffic jam by opting for a parallel street. It's also backfiring because populating the cities with foolish agents with no memory or permanent roles has capped the city size to a level that deeply annoys most franchise fans.
The SimCity saga is evolving into a mesmerizing example of mismanaging a highly ambitious project in several ways. Forcing consumers to opt for an always-on internet connection; underestimating server loads; insisting on the unnecessary and destructive goal of having "real people" populating the simulation; capping the size of the cities at a level that obviously alienates long-time fans; and deciding to go ahead with the game launch even with clearly inadequate pathfinding algorithms.
There is little doubt that many an MBA program will mine this episode for course material in coming years.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/fans-press-uncover-massive-holes-in-simcitys-ai-server-connection/
QuoteNow that SimCity's initial server problems are almost completely fixed, players and press are taking a deep dive into the game's much-vaunted simulation features and are reporting some major problems with the game as it had been promoted before and after launch.
The controversy started yesterday when Kotaku noticed that its SimCity game managed to run just fine for nearly 20 minutes after the Internet connection was cut, before eventually complaining about a bad connection to the servers and quitting. Markus "Notch" Persson later reported the same offline play. EA and Maxis have claimed that the game's GlassBox engine requires an Internet connection to offload complex calculations to the cloud in order to improve local performance. Such lengthy offline play flies in the face of the main public justification for the game's always-online requirement.
As if that weren't enough, Rock Paper Shotgun managed to snag an anonymous EA employee who they verified "worked directly on the [SimCity] project." That employee confirmed to the site that the SimCity servers don't do anything more than a normal multiplayer server in any other game and don't aid directly in the local simulation within a city. "They are still acting as servers, doing some amount of computation to route messages of various types between both players and cities... but for the game itself? No, they're not doing anything," the source said, in part.
Together, these reports poke quite a few holes in EA's official story that it would take "significant engineering work" to make a single-player version of the new SimCity. It also suggests that the game's forced online requirement may have indeed been driven more by concerns about piracy rather than concerns about gameplay.
Meanwhile, players going over SimCity's low-level simulation with a fine-toothed comb have found some distressing simplifications in the game's much-vaunted "Sim level" simulation. A player in EA's help forums lays out in detail how Sims basically act as memory-free "agents" that will simply travel to the nearest job/home/shopping option as needed, rather than actually acting as individuals with distinct jobs, homes, needs, and desires. If you don't want to wade through all that text, take a look at this short video of commuting Sims filtering into every home on a block one by one as they march down the street.
That's actually not that different from the way EA described the game's simulation nearly a year ago when Lead Designer Stone Librande told Rock Paper Shotgun, "it's not like each Sim has a specific job that's his, and a specific house that's his." That said, residences named after specific families and job sites with specific industries and responsibilities certainly suggest a level of specificity that the simulation itself lacks.
It also seems that SimCity may be taking shortcuts in reporting how many actual Sims it's modeling inside a city. One Reddit poster has laid out a detailed experiment that seems to show EA increasing the density of each house as a city gets larger but failing to add actual simulated citizens for each new member of the population count. A SimCity interface Javascript file (originally posted on Reddit and explained in detail here) purportedly ripped from the game is even more damning, showing how a "GetFudgedPopulation" function appears to deliberately inflate the actual simulated population by up to eight times in reporting a population number to a player.
Other videos posted online show how easily the game's AI can be broken. One timelapse video shows a city thriving with 200,000 residents, despite those people having no places to shop or work in the entire region (at least they have nice parks and low taxes...). Another shows Sims clogging a small street despite having access to a large empty avenue travelling the same route (here's another take on the same problem). Still others show Sims getting caught walking back and forth over a single crosswalk for hours, cities full of recycling trucks that still leave recycling uncollected, and commuters who take ridiculously circuitous routes through their day.
Altogether, these significant gameplay and simulation issues, combined with the early server woes, seem to point to a game that was rushed out to meet an announced release date despite numerous unaddressed problems. We will be updating our initial impressions of the game with a comprehensive review of the post-release version soon.
The pirates will tell.
According to RPS, one guy has managed to run a city offline (and edit roads outside the city limits). However, saving and the inter-city calculations are done serverside, so unless pirates can emulate those . . .
From good to better: EA is offering a free game to everyone buying SimCity before March 25, and one of the choice games is... SimCity 4 :lol:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/a-sorry-tale-ea-offering-simcity-4-to-simcity-5-buyers/#more-146249 (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/a-sorry-tale-ea-offering-simcity-4-to-simcity-5-buyers/#more-146249)
L.
Quote from: Pedrito on March 18, 2013, 12:34:57 PM
From good to better: EA is offering a free game to everyone buying SimCity before March 25, and one of the choice games is... SimCity 4 :lol:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/a-sorry-tale-ea-offering-simcity-4-to-simcity-5-buyers/#more-146249 (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/18/a-sorry-tale-ea-offering-simcity-4-to-simcity-5-buyers/#more-146249)
L.
Also, I guess it's not no surprise that Sim City 4 deluxe is n.6 or 7 top selling game on steam at the moment.
More than a million units sold.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/18/simcity-surpasses-1-million-sales
QuoteMaxis' SimCity has sold 1.1 million copies in its first two weeks, EA has revealed. More than half of those sales stem from Origin and other digital distribution services.
EA also noted some fun facts about SimCity's opening weeks:
• SimCity players have logged more than 15 million hours of online gameplay. • More than 5.7 million original cities have been created since launch. • More than 780 million buildings have been built. • SimCity mayors to date have built enough road and railroad tracks to circle the globe more than 40,000 times.
Not bad for a game that barely functioned in its early days.
Recently, EA awarded SimCity buyers with a free game in apology for the city-building sim's numerous online issues. The publisher claims to have increased server capacity by over 400% since release.
:bleeding:
Suckers
Of course that number is what vindicates the suits at EA. Looking at their bottom line, they've succeeded, a vocal minority on the intertubes notwithstanding.
Maybe. The sales from the micro shop may be a bigger gauge of "success".
Quote from: Syt on March 18, 2013, 11:59:23 PM
More than a million units sold.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/18/simcity-surpasses-1-million-sales
QuoteMaxis' SimCity has sold 1.1 million copies in its first two weeks, EA has revealed. More than half of those sales stem from Origin and other digital distribution services.
EA also noted some fun facts about SimCity's opening weeks:
• SimCity players have logged more than 15 million hours of online gameplay. • More than 5.7 million original cities have been created since launch. • More than 780 million buildings have been built. • SimCity mayors to date have built enough road and railroad tracks to circle the globe more than 40,000 times.
Not bad for a game that barely functioned in its early days.
Recently, EA awarded SimCity buyers with a free game in apology for the city-building sim's numerous online issues. The publisher claims to have increased server capacity by over 400% since release.
:bleeding:
That's a whopping 6 hours per unit sold per week.
For a game like SimCity, where previous iterations have been some of the deepest time-sinks known to man, that's not great.
Quote from: Warspite on March 19, 2013, 09:05:46 AM
That's a whopping 6 hours per unit sold per week.
For a game like SimCity, where previous iterations have been some of the deepest time-sinks known to man, that's not great.
I figured it would be more like a casual game you can play on facebook. Pass.
Finally got SC4 up and running again, but the thought of hunting down those thousands of custom buildings is just too depressing.
Quote from: Maladict on March 19, 2013, 09:20:16 AM
Quote from: Warspite on March 19, 2013, 09:05:46 AM
That's a whopping 6 hours per unit sold per week.
For a game like SimCity, where previous iterations have been some of the deepest time-sinks known to man, that's not great.
I figured it would be more like a casual game you can play on facebook. Pass.
Finally got SC4 up and running again, but the thought of hunting down those thousands of custom buildings is just too depressing.
if you can find the Simtropolis or SC4Devotion DVD's you'll have oodles of custom stuff.
Make sure you have NAM31 though
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:lol:
Such is the way of the modern industry sadly.
That and mobile phone gaming.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/03/maybe-simcitys-balance-breaking-ad-dlc-isnt-all-bad/
QuoteGood news! SimCity's gotten a potentially substantial piece of DLC, and it's totally free. Bad news! It's a gigantic ad for car company Nissan. Worse news! Its in-game functionality seems to make your city planning decisions even less consequential than before, which is quite a feat. Worst news! SimCity isn't a very good game at all, even with its online issues mostly cleared up. Contrary opinion! This is one seemingly asinine move I think we should only partially leap down EA's throat for. So maybe, like, just put in one leg. And do it kind of gently. Avoid the teeth, if you can.
First off, here's how the Nissan Charge Station works:
Quote"Plopping down the Nissan Leaf Charging Station will add happiness to nearby buildings. Adding the Charging Station will not take power, water or workers away from your city. Zoom in to the streets of cities and players will start seeing a percentage of their Sims from all wealth classes driving the electric vehicles. The Charging Station produces no garbage or sewage as well making it pollution free."
That's right: pure happiness with no consequences. Would that green living in the real world was so easy. Or living, for that matter. As is, the latest science calculates that ten puppies are required for every one unit of human happiness. And scientists can't even study the phenomenon without breaching a certain puppy-induced happiness threshold. It's a vicious cycle.
Anyway, this doesn't exactly seem like the best bandaid for an already broken game, and honestly, it sounds like it could stomp the remaining pieces of Maxis' once-fine series into a fine powder.
I do not, however, like the idea of damning this move completely. Because the fact is, ads (at least, where appropriate in the context of their respective games) could make heftier pieces of DLC completely free. We don't see the idea in practice all that often these days, but it is worth considering – especially in light of the fact that DLC costs money to produce, and not everyone can afford to pull a Valve and drop it on our doorsteps without asking for even a dime. Admittedly, SimCity's is pretty much a textbook example of how not to do this, but ads are not inherently bad.
Further, this type of practice could maybe extricate important chunks of content from the countless, Hydra-like jaws of pre-order schemes, which is something I think would be pretty wonderful. Then again: big, obvious ads or pre-orders. At that point, you're kind of picking your poison.
But then, I suppose that's triple-A gaming these days. Rarely (if ever) do we get to have our cake and eat it too, because the cake can't make back its development costs even if it sells 3.4 million units – er, slices; whatever – in its first few weeks. In a ideal world, we'd get everything upfront with a nice bow and a cake and reassurance that, no, your childhood pet fish didn't die; it really did just up and decide to move to Disneyland. But that's not the world we live in, so concessions are a painful, oftentimes annoying necessity.
:bleeding:
Part of me is beginning to suspect this Sim city 5 business is all a cunning ploy by ea to kill off maxis remaining hopes to do something other than endless Sims expansions.
:lol:
You know, I have to say that I'm a little bit surprised that they would make their DLC into ads. Sure, you get to double-dip on the revenue, but it's a little bit crass, even for them.
Quote from: Neil on April 04, 2013, 08:11:38 AM
You know, I have to say that I'm a little bit surprised that they would make their DLC into ads. Sure, you get to double-dip on the revenue, but it's a little bit crass, even for them.
Why double-dip? That Mazda thing is free for the players.
Quote from: Syt on April 04, 2013, 08:26:22 AM
Quote from: Neil on April 04, 2013, 08:11:38 AM
You know, I have to say that I'm a little bit surprised that they would make their DLC into ads. Sure, you get to double-dip on the revenue, but it's a little bit crass, even for them.
Why double-dip? That Mazda thing is free for the players.
Oh, I hadn't heard that. It's still pretty good, money-wise.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/22/the-power-of-silence-why-the-simcity-story-went-away/
Long article. But the gist:
QuoteSilence is a powerful weapon in the industry. The mad truth is, if you ignore it, it will go away, when it comes to gaming controversies. This article is a small, fairly futile attempt to not let it, and to make sure our readers know that EA and Maxis never spoke to us, never responded to any of our questions, and never sent so much as a statement.
And they got away with it! SimCity sold over a million copies in its first couple of weeks, despite barely working. Many reviews ran before the game had been played properly, giving it huge initial scores, failing to recognise how disastrous its simulations were after the first 10 hours or so. The line about server-side calculations is still being stated as fact by a number of outlets, with some major journalists losing their minds on Twitter with anyone who dared to question it. EA and Maxis are still sticking to their utterly ridiculous claims that the game was built as an "MMO", despite that being patently untrue in every possible interpretation. And incredibly, at GDC last month, they were arguing that their game demonstrated how outdated "DRM" was – as if the always-on weren't the most destructive form of DRM imaginable!
The principle is if you keep saying the same thing over and over, people will start to accept it. And heck, that couldn't be more true. Sites unquestioningly repeating the nonsense from GDC showed it, reinforcing this latest angle that the game is an "MMO", despite it featuring literally none of the identifying features of an MMO, from the "massively" part onward. The reason for this, of course, is because we all accept that an MMO has to be online – of course it does – so if they say "MMO" then they hope that association will be made to their game, despite how comprehensively it's been shown to not need to be running online at all. Their response, perhaps even impressively, was to double-down on the online nonsense. It worked.
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-offline-is-coming
QuoteSIMCITY OFFLINE IS COMING!
I've wanted to say those words for quite some time, so my apologies that I didn't take the time to say Happy New Year first.
Yes, Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players. When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection. We are in the late phases of wrapping up its development and while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it's as polished as possible before we release it. So, until then... testing, testing and more testing. As one of the final steps, we're putting Offline into the hands of some of our most hardcore players, the DevTesters. This group of volunteers is going to put Offline through its paces before we release it.
In Update 10, you can still play solo in Regions on your own, or in Multiplayer with people from around the world. What's new is the Single Player Mode, which allows you to play the game Offline by yourself. And because your saved games in this mode are stored locally, you can save and load to your heart's content. Our team will be delivering a follow-up blog that will outline the full details in the near future so stay tuned.
So what does this mean for the Online game? All of the benefits of being connected will remain including access to Multiplayer, the Global Market and Leaderboards. And all of your pre-existing saved cities and regions will still be accessible should you log-in to the Online game.
Bringing the game Offline means big things for our wonderful community of Modders. They can now make modifications to the game and its components without compromising the integrity of the Online game. Modding is a big part of our studio's legacy and we're excited to see what you guys create. Check out this thread to learn about Oppie85's Central Train Station, which you can put into your game right now, and if you're interested in making your own content take a look at the Modding Policy. To get you started, we will be rolling out a series of tutorials from the studio that surfaces how we've created some of the content that you've seen so far in hopes of inspiring your creativity.
So that's it from me for the time being. Keep an eye out for more information on Offline shortly. We'll be releasing more information on how it all works. And as always, get in touch with me on Twitter @EAGamer, I'm always eager to read your feedback.
From me, and everyone at the studio, thank you again for staying with us. We look forward to getting Offline for SimCity into your hands as soon as possible.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FA3b5R4J.jpg&hash=b9cee107cddd12108ebd31387763ce8d611c6845)
Nope.
Nope?
He doesn't care for the map scale, I am guessing. I agree.
What a funny world we live in these days, where offline mode has become a much-desired feature in a game.
Quote from: Neil on January 13, 2014, 06:28:17 PM
What a funny world we live in these days, where offline mode has become a much-desired feature in a game.
Online can be great, but there's a difference between "the ability to play with other players online when you want" and "always needing to be online in a thinly veiled attempt to track every player at all playtimes."
The big problem is still the scale of the cities. It's a PITA to have to run multiple cities in order to progress any city, but that's what you have to do, because the plots are too small to buildeverything you'll need.