How do you feel about the SCS announcement?

[ManagerJosh 0]

Originally posted by: read.andrew I won't buy this game. I enjoyed SC4 because it was complex. I'll wait for SC6 or the next maxis city builder.quote>

Isn't it premature to judge a game that formally hasn't even hit the shelves?

[simwario 95]

I don't think so. It's just that people who have played and enjoyed the Sc series for years are upset and disppointed because the graphics look like the game has been released years ago. And i don't buy by the name, but by quality but since money doesn't grow on trees, spending 40

[Shadow_prophet 91]

Its great to be a pessimist. You're either proven right all the time or pleasently surprised.

Anyways most people have already stated why sim city1-4 is the best. Zoning planning etc. There's something spectacularly amazing about just watching something you put time and effort into grow into something grand. That's what sim city is about. I doubt sim city societies can match up or most likely be hated forever more beyond reasonable beleif, but i do hope to be pleasently surprised (tough i doubt it lol)

[DARKO 3]

The graphics look like their from 4 years ago? Really?? Lol. Man that made me laugh. Funny. I havn't seen any city builder come remotely close to the graphics of this game.

Rude comments deleted. Those graphics are mighty fine. Rude comments deleted

Some of you are just continuing your rant because your taking the unimaginative playing it safe route of what Shadow exactly explained. Good grief, some of you need to open your eyes. The game looks fine and each day more and more details emerge that reinforce this fact. Shoot, if they started showing curved roads and other types of roads I'd say this game was pretty much what I have been looking for. Stop crying over your zones, they would have gone away at some point anyhow. Don't you understand this? In the real world buildings are placed strategically and via the way of market demands/peoples demands. Isn't this what this game brings? Not just "poof" buildings popping from a colored zone randomly. You tell me what is more "realistic"? These individual building will actually carry MEANING to your city instead of just being aesthically labeled such and such. In Sc4 sims didn't know that a supermarket was in their community, they just knew it was a low density commercial area. In this game they will actually see it as a supermarket and interact with it. Can't you guys see the level of detail and intrigue with this. Expand to the whole city and its even more impressive.

Rude comments deleted

Maybe this hasn't sunk in yet.

1. More likely more modifiable than SC4 out of the box.

2. Very god 3d graphics with views we have always dreamed of.

3. Nice array of real storefronts and buildings you would see in a real life city. Where were the bowling alleys, tattoo parlor...etc in the previous games? You know actual buildings a city needs and has. Not just skyscrapers and single family homes.

4. You can completely erase all the silly fantasyland buildings if you really want. Rude comments deleted

In fact the only potential downsides for me at this point are being stuck with the roads we see in the game(would be pretty upset with this) and not knowing the actual map sizes yet. Needs to be bigger than Citylife maps or I'll be a little upset about that as well. Also not sure if I can control how my roads look in different zones. Seems like road surface will be tied to building type, which sucks because it would limit the ability to create any city my way. I'm also still awaiting possible weather or a more detailed terrain surface(I've seen hints of this).

I'm guessing we will get out roads and transportation either through; Modding, Expansion pack, or waiting untill we fully know whats in the game. To me the cars and roads still kinda look like placeholders to me. At least the cars. Those cars if they stay as shown, will be need new skins immedatley IMO.

Lighten up folks, I think this game is going to be better than many of us expect.

DARKO, too bad many of your insights were interspersed with condescending asides to others. -Joesocwork

[tigerakabj 0]

I too will be disappointed if it is just square roads. And you're probably right, expansion packs will probably be added. I was flat out against it for awhile like nearly all of the people here. But you and some others brought up some great points:

1. Sims actually interacting w/the buildings. The sims didn't know the difference between a Piggly Wiggly and a World's Gym. In Simcity4 I put low-density mansions right next to skyscrapers. That's not to terribly realistic.

2. Custon content - if they do have this it would be great. I would have stopped simcity4 a long time ago if it wasn't for this.

3. Pollution - having a residential city right next to a dirty industrial city and no impact? Not realistic.

4. Revive the series - people who play SCS (i.e. kids) will likely buy the other versions of the series.

5. Deleting candyland stuff - and delete it I will. I put that stuff in my theme parks in Roller Coaster tycoon.

Like most people on Simtropolis, I am a hardcore fan of the series; but I am willing to give it a chance. It may actually be good. Based on the new screenshots, it looks like they have power plants. That I was glad to see. I also read they have subway as well.

The option of customizing is what I will base my decision on to play it continually.

[rugar12 0]

I have heard a lot of negative things about Sim City: Societies, but I think I'll spare my judgment until I am able to play it myself.

With that said, I do have some feelings about the game, from a Sim City gamer perspective. It doesn't look promising in regards to what I expected for the next installment of Sim City. I believe that is due to the fact that with Sim City people have certain expectations as to what game play will be like and to what features have been rooted into the Sim City franchise. A game that seems to differ, radically in some people's opinion, from the core expectations will usually be met negatively.

Not looking from a traditional Sim City perspective, Sim City: Societies may be a fine game; wont know until I play it. This controversy involving Tilted Mills has also got me interested in some of their other games that I may have not known about without such controversy drawing my attention.

[Cob92 360]

Here's a better idea: rather than plopping buildings, zones would still exist, but buildings would grow out of them that would be grouped into subfamilies(supermarkets, restaurants, car factories, hotels, etc.) that would also exist with the wealth denomination. Let's say you set set up a ghetto area near a bunch of foundries. If you zoned commercial near there, you would be able to only grow the run down grocery store, the roach motel, and maybe a Burger King. However, if you zoned along a beach, not only would the area become desirable for higher wealth buildings, but also particularly appealing to the hotel subfamily. Therefore, you would be most likely to see luxury hotels growing in that area.

The subfamilies concept would be applied across all zone types. Therefore, when zoning an area, conditions would not only affect the wealth level of the those who move in, but also the types of residents and businesses that show up. Of course, having one subfamily in an area can affect the desirability of that area for the other subfamilies.

[Ryusuke516 1]

da da da da da daaaa... [Rude comments deleted] da da da da da da da....[Rude comments deleted] LOL, sorry, I probably have some deleted myslef, but i also laugh at myself too.

Originally posted by: Cobhris96 Here's a better idea: rather than plopping buildings, zones would still exist, but buildings would grow out of them that would be grouped into subfamilies(supermarkets, restaurants, car factories, hotels, etc.) that would also exist with the wealth denomination. Let's say you set set up a ghetto area near a bunch of foundries. If you zoned commercial near there, you would be able to only grow the run down grocery store, the roach motel, and maybe a Burger King. However, if you zoned along a beach, not only would the area become desirable for higher wealth buildings, but also particularly appealing to the hotel subfamily. Therefore, you would be most likely to see luxury hotels growing in that area.

The subfamilies concept would be applied across all zone types. Therefore, when zoning an area, conditions would not only affect the wealth level of the those who move in, but also the types of residents and businesses that show up. Of course, having one subfamily in an area can affect the desirability of that area for the other subfamilies.quote>

 

Cobhris96, that is a very great idea, there also should be different styles with those subfamilies, like different time periods from different areas.  The styles, for example, areas ilke New York, Los Angeles, East Asian, or Euro architecture from time periods like(ancient for the East Asian and Euro architecture) 1890, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980-2010 contemporary.

[chocolate_city 93]

Personally, I'm going to reserve judgement until the game comes out. I won't spend a dime on it unless i thoroughly enjoy it and you can take that however you want .

[gabry85 2]

What really disappointed me is just that, IMO, TM/EA hadn't listened to the fanbase wishes.  For a very long time, people (in and out this site) expressed themselves with new ideas and intelligent improvements for a new game besides City Journals and custom content. The message was quite clear.

When I played The Sims 2 Pets for the first time I noticed that Maxis's logo gone away and I expected all along that EA was heading in a different direction. Actually, I feared that the whole SimCity series was dead after that day.

For now I watched the events silently and I'm trying to be open-minded, but, honestly, I'm much more interested in playing Cities Unlimited. And we have just 2 screenshots unlike SimCity Societies!

Hope for the best. IMHO I don't want that Societies will be a flop, but simply a parallel series of the franchise along with a 5th installment and beyond. 

Bye.

[Shadow_prophet 91]

I don't think EA is that stupid to not listen to the fanbase, maybe (tough im just guessing) they are actually hiding the good stuff or something else entirely, optimism FTW!! lawl

[rctshack 182]

Originally posted by: Shadow_prophet I don't think EA is that stupid to not listen to the fanbase, maybe (tough im just guessing) they are actually hiding the good stuff or something else entirely, optimism FTW!! lawlquote>

Good luck with that.

We thought for 5 year now that EA was hiding "good stuff" and was going to show us a great new game... and it backfired... so I vote to not raise hopes again.

The sad part is that it's almost like they purposely went through and added nothing we wanted. Was every single little thing "too complicated" and not going to fit into Societies?

The ONLY silver lining here is that Jeff from TM has stated that there are a lot of things that they can't talk about YET so maybe there will be a few things we asked for. But even if they do... most of the core elements that should make this a sim city game are gone. It would be like adding our wish list into The Sims... that would be nice of them... unfortunately it's not a game we want to play.

[rctshack 182]

Originally posted by: ManagerJosh

Originally posted by: read.andrew I won't buy this game. I enjoyed SC4 because it was complex. I'll wait for SC6 or the next maxis city builder.quote>

Isn't it premature to judge a game that formally hasn't even hit the shelves?quote>

When people say something like this... what is your opinion on what we should do? Should we actually go buy the game, even though we know it doesn't appeal to us and lacks what we want in a game? Then play it for an hour and find out that it's just like that 30 minute video we watched of other people playing the game?

We have received quite a bit of information on the game, definitely enough to judge if this would be a game we would play or not. ManagerJosh, it just seems you haven't made up your mind because you are still hoping for a megafeature to surface that would make you enjoy this game... or maybe you are thoroughly interested, as some people are. But the basic point is that a lot of us have made up our minds and this is just not a sim city game. It's a society simulation merged with the sims a little bit, that deals with a city. I and 90% of the other people in here want a truly realistic urban simulator. One that doesn't turn into a stalin-esk communist regime... or into happy clown town. We want real cities, with real city issues, transportation options, towns that can go above 10,000 people, and a game the slightly resembles the game we have been playing for 15 years.

I get wildly upset when people accuse us (you didn't) of not embracing needed change. Well no... there was no need to make this much of a change, none at all. A change was needed to make the game more streamlined, faster running, and simpler to use (but that doesn't mean dumbing down the game). And in the end they created a game that is almost the opposite of what we all were expecting/wanting. This change is like moving from New York City to Zimbabwe... when all we needed/wanted was to move to california. No one wants to be living in Zimbabwe... well maybe a few people... but most people don't.

And who says we can't judge a game before it hits shelves? We do it with movies, we do it with TV shows, we do it with music, why not games? When you hear a new single on the radio.... and you just hate it... does that mean you want the album, most likely not. When you watch a trailer for a movie and it's just the dumbest plot ever... does that mean you still have to go see the movie? You may still read a review when it finally does come out just to confirm you were right... but you knew when you saw it for the first time there that it was bad. Games are the same way. Overwhelmingly we all knew it looked nothing like the next gen sim city. We have confirmed from TM that a lot of our features we feel that make or break the game are not going to be included, and on top of that... I feel TM/EA have handled this fiasco terribly... and it showed me how much they seem to actually listen or care about us... EA has finally proven it is willing to trample over the real fans who are loyal to their game, just to make a few more bucks.

Is that a good enough reason to not buy it? I have a whole novel worth of reasons that I didn't write... I can write them if you want.

[ManagerJosh 0]

I agree we do judge prematurely. However sometimes our assumptions and judgements are inaccurate. When we see trailers in the movies, it's a sample of what's to come. Sometime it does live up to our expectations. Other time it doesn't. The same applies for anything else in the world.

A person who played a games knows far more than a person who watched someone who played the game. A person who watched someone play knows far more than someone who merely read a preview or review on what the person saw.

[rctshack 182]

Well... i think sometimes you can see a preview of something and fully know it's not what you want. Never have I seen soooooo many people mad at a preview for a new game. That takes work.

[DavidBeebe 0]

Heh

[ManagerJosh 0]

Originally posted by: rctshack Well... i think sometimes you can see a preview of something and fully know it's not what you want. Never have I seen soooooo many people mad at a preview for a new game. That takes work.quote>

I personally attribute that to the fact SimCity has a huge legacy. It's one of the very few games that's entering it's 5th incarnation.

[jabezscratch 159]

Personally, I think that SCS game designers have decided to take the game in a very different direction b/c they came to the sober realization that the online community evolved SC4 to such an advanced degree that they couldn't take it much further beyond where the online community has taken SC4 -- even if the designers applied DX10 graphics and tweaked the game for multicore processors.

[jabezscratch 159]

I would just add that I give Tilted Mill full credit for what they're trying to do -- they probably got their marching orders and are doing what they can within the confines of those orders. I'm going to try to keep an open mind (ummm, but it's getting tough to keep it open -- like a window in winter!).

[castironpigeon 1]

I've taken a break from SC4 for a while now only to come back to...this? Wow...I'll keep any rude thoughts or comments to myself, but this is pretty awful. Then again, it's what I've come to expect from EA. I think it's time that the SC community started coming up with a way to create our own SC5 as a mod to SC4, because EA sure won't be making it anytime soon.

[Moory 7]

For the love of god, please don't use the Sim City name. Who honestly thought this new format was going to impress the Sim City fan base? This is terrible and a huge joke of all time.

I really don't know what to think right now. This is not Sim City at all and a huge kick in the face to Maxis for not continuing expansions. Now a random company comes by and takes a great game and turns it into junk.

If this is seriously what this game is going to turn out, using the Sim City name, you can see me never purchasing this ever. These developers are completely clueless to what they're trying to create and destroying everything Maxis put time and effort into.

Pathetic.

[seaQuest_AMD 0]

Wow, I am extremely disapointed by this abortion of a game, id rather no Sim City than this.

Come on Maxis, the people want a true successor to Sim City 4!

[waway625 72]

Originally posted by: jabezscratch Personally, I think that SCS game designers have decided to take the game in a very different direction b/c they came to the sober realization that the online community evolved SC4 to such an advanced degree that they couldn't take it much further beyond where the online community has taken SC4 -- even if the designers applied DX10 graphics and tweaked the game for multicore processors.

quote>

i was thinking the same thing too

maybe they knew the SC4 community just was too good that their talents cannot match it thus they give us this gingerbread house, 100 resident city of a game (a big joke to us, yes) but i think they creted this game without us in mind but a completely new audience..

maybe they thought, hey we sure dont know how to come up with a sequel that will please the sc4 fans, so lets just not try at all and instead focus on a game for a different audience

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

There are a few things maxis could have done for the simcity 4 community instead of letting the main website rot for 3 years, especially bug patches...

[Salbador 0]

[phenphen 1]

Mark my words. This will be the death of SimCity as we all know and love it. I've resisted the concept of moving on to CityLife for some time now, but now with their new title in the works, It looks like I'll be bidding what was once a glorious title adieu for the next best thing.

[bruinfreeze 0]

It would be interesting to compare the reaction of gamers to the previews of SimCity4 to SCS. I remember when I saw the initial screenshots of SC4 and I couldn't sleep properly until it came out (though when it did come out, it made the problem worse). The SCS shots and the related descriptions of it just made me disappointed. I mean, though it gives the impression that it's a 3D game, EA never said whether it would be functional as a 3d game. And then they said it will be SIMPLER with city management FEATURES TAKEN OUT! Yeesh! Really, how can you feel besides disappointed? How often do you hear that a sequel to a game has less interactivity, less features, and less customization than we have now?

Also, I think the shift of emphasis from city management to social engineering makes this a totally different game, a game different than from we call "Sim City". It is essentially the most expensive expansion pack to Sims 2.

[Drumbum034 0]

The biggest problem for this game or citylife is the fact that they want to go 3d. Pc's don't have the graphical power to generate 3000 unique and fully rendered 3d buildings so you're guaranteed to play a game that is slow and repetitive. this is not what simcity needs.

[suburboy 0]

This is like when that woman who did the voices of Itchy and Scratchy was at a press conference and Homer was poochie. We need homer here. LOL Give the game a chance. Im sure EA wont let Tilted Mill destroy the simcity franchise and if they do someone else will pick up where Simcity 4 left off.

[Robstersfive 0]

Originally posted by: suburboy This is like when that woman who did the voices of Itchy and Scratchy was at a press conference and Homer was poochie. We need homer here. LOL Give the game a chance. Im sure EA wont let Tilted Mill destroy the simcity franchise and if they do someone else will pick up where Simcity 4 left off.quote>

 

LOL! love the simpsons "EA release a press thing saying how SCS was never real and just a bad dream we had" because it do so badly or some emotional speech how we should give titled mill a chance hehe lol

I respect the titled mill team i just think its really bad handling on EA part, thats why i hate them so much, they coulda got this developer on a better project more suited to them and kept Maxis or another team on simcity 5 and not have huge fall out go onto titled mill because thats whats going to happen,

EA are such losers for this i feel sorry for both maxis and titled mill in this mess