Cities Unlimited

[Nevets13 27]

Wow, I just read the preview on here for SCS....and it looks awful. The cities don't even look like anything closely resembling a city. They look like the towns you built in Simfarm, remember those?

The only thing I liked in the preview was that they have different terrains...but with no terraforming, what is the point? Also no region map, ha!

I seriously thought I was going to get this game to get my city building fix, but not after what I have been reading. This game just looks bad. Monte Cristo I think hit the jackpot on this one.

[frdrcklim 139]

The terrain looks great and the trees. Might as well create my own SimForest Societies.

[rctshack 182]

Originally posted by: dasilva Hi all,

Nevets, you probably didn't read my blog nor the Q&A I answered to Dirk a few weeks ago but to answer your first question, I'm currently working on the official Cities Unlimited website which should be online in october of this year. You will get more information about CU at that time. Until then, I can't say much more about it than it has already been said.quote>

Hey dasilva! Thank you so much for coming here and talking to us. I know you can't say much about the game, but I hope you come here often and read the reasons why we feel Sim City Societies is lacking, and even though your game is different, it is still the same genre or fans and it would help improve Cities Unlimited to know what a potential 100,000 fans may want. I know you won't be able to include everything in this new game (although props if you can!!!) but the big things are all being spoken about all around this forum.

Transportation seems to be a huge factor, as well as realism!

[dasilva 3]

Hi all,

rctshack, you can bet we have all ears wide open listening to what you're saying and how it matchs our current game design decisions. And not only here but in most of the community websites around the world. We all are really frustrated today for not being able to talk with you about the game but the game is currently under development and October will be the month you'll hear from us slightly more...

Until then... well, do as always: have fun playing SimCity 4 (and City Life for those who like it ;-P ) and go on putting some great ideas in this thread.

Cheers

P.S.: By the way, you can call me by my first name... Just Philippe ^^

[rctshack 182]

Fast reply Philippe, you're good! Well I can't wait till october and it's nice to hear a game company say "we have all ears wide open listening to what you're saying and how it matchs our current game design decisions". That's refreshing. Can't wait!

[Explodingsims 3]

Well, I read that review and I liked they way things are looking, sounds like it could be worth buying, also, those pictures look good. Not sure if anyone else noticed it, but the car turning was leaning a little bit to the side, like a real car, looks promising!!

[Nevets13 27]

So, when are we going to get a Cities Unlimited forum here?

SCS has one, and I think most of us have come to the conclusion that most the community wont play it.

If CU has terraforming, region map, and zoning I don't see how it wont take the place of sim city in the community. With the way Monte Cristo pays attention to us (much more than tilted mill and EA), I think they deserve their own forum here to come and visited. I think the sooner we embrace CU as the future of the community the better.

[BurroDiablo 222]

If there's enough demand, I don't know why we wouldn't have a CU Forum here... concidering some of the Monte Cristo staff are now part of the Community

Since SimSoc isn't really going to appeal to the majority on this site, we will most definitely be embracing CU come more news

[JayStimson 211]

With EA's move to the Under 13 (age and/or IQ) market, my hopes for the future are with CU.

[dasilva 3]

Nevets and El Burro, the decision on creating a section for Cities Unlimited is up to Dirk and the Simtropolis team and I am in contact with him since the Interview I answered to see how we could move on. You should therefore ask Dirk more about it. :-)

JayStimson, no offense but I disagree with you: I don't think EA or Tilted Mill are now targeting the Under 13 (age and/or IQ) market rather the casual gamers.

It would be quite offensive for the under 13 as they are clever enough to play SimCity 4 anyway (but maybe not aiming the same goals as the hardcore urban planners have), offensive to Maxis and Will Wright who always wanted to build Toys to create worlds and toys are calling our childplay habits. :-)

I'm not talking on behalf of Monte Cristo in the next sentence rather as a player, I think we should pay some attention on not misunderstanding "Complexity" and "Richness". A game can be "rich" in its simulation & economics while being easy to play with. It's up to the game designers to define the challenges met by players and the tools you provide them to reach their objectives.

What seems quite difficult to me regarding realistic city builders is that in SimCity or City Life, players define their own objectives apart the challenges offered by the game. Players want to create "beautiful" cities: and "beautiful" is a real subjective idea where everyone defines a beautiful city differently. Those are reflection paths followed by CU game design.

But you'll know more about it in October ;-)

[rctshack 182]

You may be partially right about SC:S being Complex and Rich, but they have focused that complexity in the wrong areas. They seem to have made a lot of work in the "energies" instead on in the realistic urban development that everyone who plays the game... actually plays the game for.

I so think one of the strongest reasons people play sim city 4 (on top of just fun urban planning) would be the endless gaming aspect. When a player feels like he has done everything alotted for them to do... it feels like a wall. Sim City 4 had so many user defined options that it seemed new everytime. When you have 10 to 15 different transport options... there are A LOT of ways of mixing them. The same works with buildings and terraforming, the more options, the longer the appeal and more different outcomes can come out. But I think the biggest thing is that zoning helped create a lack of complete control because the computer was choosing what buildings pop up, but you still got to choose which genre of building to create... so in reality, the game was changing on it's own. We as fans liked the unpredictability of our cities, we layed out the basics, but we could watch them evolve and grow... and societies and city life both lacked the growing beyond what the user has created.

The ultimate game it seems would be a game where you had many more options to lay out basic elements. Instead of just residential, commercial, and industrial..... you could also have tourism, city parks, entertainment, and i am sure there are many more fun ones to include. These options would make us feel as if we have more control over our cities, but with the growing zones, the game could grow different and evolving buildings as the game progresses. No game should give complete control to a user because in the end, you have done everything yourself and it becomes more work... then fun. Plus with plopping buildings you never get the surprise factor of seeing new buildings or having arrangements you never thought possible. Zoning is a huge reason why SC:S doesn't appeal to the fanbase.

As you know, transportation is one of the biggest elements of a City Simulator... which shocks everyone to the bone that SC:S would neglect it, even after the fanbase revolted (per se). I think of transportation as the veins of a city simulator because it's the way everything is connected. Without it, cities could not survive. I never throught when playing SC3000 that transportation would be something i would came about so much, but when SC4 came out, i remember thinking there was a lack of something... and low and behold Rush Hour came out and it felt a little more complete... but one thing was still missing... one thing the modders still can't solve... and hopefully your game can implement if possible. A way to control most aspects of a single transportation. One of the biggest things people ask for and want is a way to expand roads. We ould like a super highway through the center of our city with a million people, just like in real life! We ould like 4 or 5 lane one way roads, like new york city. We would like our train tracks to be able to split into two, three, maybe four tracks to enter the grand central station. We would like culdesacs, roundabouts, median options, different intersections, just overall more control of how it works. It seems like a lot to ask, but things like that are what can make cities feel different and keep a player playing the game for years. I know it seems impossible, but maybe have a simple way for users to create transportation options. If you all can't spent the time needed to make a monorail... maybe you can have a simple way for a user to... and maybe every few months have an official update that uses user creations that may be slightly modified by you all (the real programmers) and can be downloaded as a patch or something. It would be nice to have endless options, but an easy way for the community to create all these options and distribute them.

And adding onto the endless options with the community would have to be some sort of BAT. I don't see why a city simulator wouldn't have this? Easy enough for the newest person to jump right in, but advanced enough for the person who wants to create a real life building to be able to simulate it well. Maybe even have areas for expantion onto the BAT... like a section for futuristic type buildings for people who want that, or a place for suburbs, or skyscrapers, and so on. It could make the game endless.

I know I have said a lot and probably names way too many things that can't be done, but the part that's amazing is that even if I know you all thought about these things and said "can we actually do this", makes me happy. You all will never get fan backlash if you do exactly what you have done already because fans should know that everything can't be done, but they want to know the company making the game at least thought about all the options and tried their best. Thank you!

[Nevets13 27]

I wouldn't say I am against everything SCS. I like some of the stuff they have focused on, I like how there are more interactions with the citizens of your city. But this would have been good to add onto everything that already is sim city....to make it its own game was ridiculous. They simplified it so much, and ended up alienating their fan base.

I am not saying sim city didn't need a facelift. I don't think I would have played sim city 4 if it wasn't for seeing all the models on simtropolis. To me when I first saw screenshots, it didn't look all that different from sim city 3000. I was expecting a much greater leap between the two. But once I saw the models it became a must have. What the franchise didn't need was a complete revamp.

I don't know what you think Philippe, but to me the casual gamer is kind of a myth, and developers should pay more attention to their niche. I don't think the "casual" gamer looks for games that are easier to play and catch on too, they look for games that meet their interests, usually by browsing the aisles in stores. I really don't think they go to websites looking for games that are easy to pick up. It is the hardcore gamers that are reading the websites, researching the games. There are some contradictions to this such as halo and wii sports, who really do manage to appeal to the largest amount of people possible (also notice they are the flagships of their system); but I think far more games were ruined trying to appeal to the most people possible, while alienating their base....than were megahits that appealed to all gamers. I don't think the sims fits into this, I think they managed to create their own niche.

Now by no means am I saying games should never try to reach more gamers...oh hell no, there would be no gaming industry than. I think developers can stay true to their base, and at the same time add new features that appeal to more groups (such as keeping the basics of sim city...and then add simsocities features).

Anyway I don't know how all that all sounds...it made sense in my head anyway.

Finally, it is good to know that Monte Cristo knows "beautiful cities" are subjective.

[rctshack 182]

2 Questions. I have windows and Mac, but I prefer using my mac for games. I have never really had any experiance with monte cristo, do you all release mac versions, and how soon.

Secondly, I know you say you will have answers on the website in october, but what can we expect, will it be a lot of information, or the basic gyst? You don't have to give anything away, but will you talk about transportation or having a region?

Also how long has this game been in production?

[dasilva 3]

Hi rctshack,

I'm currently in a short holidays but still connected from my laptop. I'm actually writing this down from a sunny beach location in the south of Portugal :-P

So, on your first question, I don't think Monte Cristo has ever done any port on Mac of one of its games and I would need to get back to you about it when I'll get back to the office and have a chance to talk with the developers about it.

On your second question, the goal of the website we will put online in october is to materialize the effort and bridge I've been trying to create between Monte Cristo Cities Unlimited game development team and the city builder fans. Therefore, you should get there a lot of detailed information about each feature we will be presenting to you. We won't come up with the entire features list at once but rather pick each feature one by one and discuss about it deeply with you all: we think it's the best way to make sure we have a constructive and well formed discussion.

Last but not least, the game has been in pre production for around 15 months and we started the production of the game a few months back.

I'll leave you all for now as the sea is calling for me... ;-)

Cheers,

[rctshack 182]

I'm so jealous you are in Portugal. I was nearby in Barcelona for 2 weeks ealier this summer, and didn't want to leave.

Thank you for answering the questions. Is making games for mac that hard? It's funny how no company seems to ever want to make them. And the website sounds awesome, can't wait!

[spa 968]

15 months and past pre-production. I'm pleased to hear that this one seems to be getting off the ground and I'll definitely check out the website when it's up. Thanks for the info.

[Nevets13 27]

So that would put CU coming out in mid 2009ish? (I know I know, monte cristo probably hasn't looked at a release date yet), but wow they really are starting the community early. Good to know.

[rctshack 182]

mid 2009??? I was guessing mid to late next year. I have no idea how much time it takes to make a game, but the website will be up in october, and I thought usually games had stuff like that about a year before they release them. I am probly wrong.

[Nevets13 27]

Eh, I have always heard it is a three year cycle. 1 Year preproduction, 2 years developement. This probably changes with independent developers. It may be easier and quicker without having to worry about getting everything approved from the higher ups, but at the same time they can take  as much time as they want on it without being rushed from someone.

[DARKO 3]

For those worried about running the game on a MAC.

Two words.....Boot Camp.

This way you can have the best of both worlds.

[rctshack 182]

Originally posted by: DARKO For those worried about running the game on a MAC.

Two words.....Boot Camp.

This way you can have the best of both worlds.quote>

Yes... any mac person knows. But with boot camp you have to buy windows (which isn't cheap) and then everytime you want to play a game, you have to restart the computer. It's a much bigger hastle than just getting the mac version of the game.

I have my mac with boot camp. I have Windows Vista installed on it and I dread having to use vista because it crashes a lot. On top of that, it's the 64bit version which windows has ignored and not released drivers for. I still can't watch flash movies (youtube) online because there is no driver for it. Thank god I have a mac because I would die without youtube. Anyways, the point is that I have a mac because there are never issues with crashing, drivers, or applications being unstable. Everytime I switch to windows to play my games, I fear stuff like that, everytime I use the mac, it's not even a thought in my head.

With that said, the only thing that sucks with mac is that all game companies ignore mac users. EVEN after switching to intel so that both mac and windows use the same processor... no new games seem to come to mac, or if they do, it's a year later and the expansions never come. The Sims is the only game that seems to quickly come to mac. This is the ONLY reason I use boot camp. Boot Capm is nice, but you still have to pay for windows, which sucks.

[le_pirate 0]

Have you seen last news about Cities Unlimited ?

SIMphoni Exclusive! Veil Slowly Lifts on Cities Unlimited

http://www.simphoni.net/2007/09/cities-unlimited-even-more-revealed/#more-180

Landscape exemple + buildings ...

I want it ... 

[Nevets13 27]

So, why would any one want SCS again?

[joeynymets 19]

OMG those pics are amazing!  I am deffineatly getting Cities Unlimited

[gabry85 2]

Holy cow!!! My jaw dropped!

I must get a new computer!

[City2TheMax 3]

Wow... there goes any thoughts I had of at least trying out SCS. Definitely going for CU.

[guuz 15]

Cities unlimited looks exciting. They clearly are listening to the simcity community. Monte Cristo is looking for realism, solid economy and transport options. O, and you can click the screens in the article to get even higher resolution images. I love the detail in the Paris suburb building, the shops below are brilliant.

[Godzillaman 21]

Originally posted by: le_pirate Have you seen last news about Cities Unlimited ?

SIMphoni Exclusive! Veil Slowly Lifts on Cities Unlimited

I want it ... 

quote>

Really...I wonder why

It looks very promising!

[le_pirate 0]

So good !   

Ski Station : REALITY (in real life)

Ski Station in Cities Unlimited (3D City Builder in virtual world)

I'd like to see this example in movie ...

or better : in playable demo  

[MrCinatit 30]

Yowzer. The mountains the in the background in the first picture are enough for me.

I hope to be able to make mountains like that, as well - some great stuff.