Cities XL GEMS+Online Play

[Sandvich 0]

I was a true fan of Maxis' SimCity. I was a very happy user and was always rallying them on. Then the sequel, (or spinoff? )Societies came and disappointed me. Seeking refuge and comfort, I turned to Mone Christos "Cities XL". Everything was going fine till I heard bad news.. 

They are considering adding "GEMS" to the game for 5-15$. I am extremely upset about this as I fear they will purposely take out features that were in CitesXL and package them into these. I am also upset they took the direction of  "Pay-per-feature", a horrible bussiness idea which many  video gamecompanies have resorted to.

This brings me to a question: Will they allow the creation of mods? Or will they figure they will loose money and shut all modding?

I have always played games where delevopers give tools to players so they can enrich the game experience themselves for free. I have also played games where buying the base game was your first and last purchase.  The direction most companies are turning to sickens me, and I sincerely hope Monte Christo doesnt follow this route.

Thank you all for your time, this is one heck of a first post for me.

Then theres Online play, which is rumored to be 5$ per month. I also fear this, the features do not justify the price in my opinion.

I really want to buy CitiesXL, but not if im going to pay 40-50$ first, then 5-15 dollars for addons (which the modding community could do for free), then 5$ a month for online play for a good gameplay experience.

[castironpigeon 1]

Originally posted by: Sandvich

This brings me to a question: Will they allow the creation of mods? Or will they figure they will loose money and shut all modding?

quote>

MC can't answer this right now. If they say they'll allow mods they're shooting themselves in the foot and if they don't they're alienating most of the fan base. Based on the dialogue between fans and MC so far we can guess that MC will allow some form of very limited modding.

[dasilva 3]

We definitivelly want to include custom content makers willing to create new buildings in the game but we want to support this effort and not just give the tools in a fire & forget way.

We will continue to develop the game: adding new features, improving the existing ones with players' feedback as well as giving away new buildings. From the early beginning of this project, we wanted to make it clear to the genre fans that we wanted to bring a new way of handling players relationship and that is the main reason why I spend a lot of time browsing the Simtropolis forums and some others too (the other reason being the fact it is still the main reference to add new buildings/mods to my SC4 )

I hear you Sandvich on your money spending: you are definitivelly in the right mood when looking how you want to spend it.

The only thing I can tell you would be: spend the money you think the game disserves and what you want to do in the game. We built the offer around CITIES XL so that every player could find his own route to the game.

If you are only interested by the Solo game play in CITIES XL, just get the box: unlimited play + you will benefit from the development we will spend on upgrading the game's features.

If you always liked playing a good Tycoon game, you will be able to do so by buying the according GEM which will be a real Tycoon game but in your city for the max half the price of a similar game in retail.

And if you always wanted like we do play in persistent planets with other players, we offer you the option to bring the City builder & any GEM you would get online for a third of what you would pay for a premium MMORPG.

And as I added just above in this post, we are looking forward to create a community of custom content creators and support them after the release of the game (right now, we are focusing in the core game development ) which you, as a player, would get for free avoiding any dependency issues and through minor updates...

I really cannot see what else we could do without putting our business (remember we need to feed a few mouths and maintain all that ) in serious issues?!...

[GMT 389]

I really hope there's a lot of people buying your stuff so the mouths you guys have to feed are happy and productive to enhance our entertainment ;-)

[buddybud 63]

dasilva.....By the coarse of action your company has taken there are two possible out comes. With a successful game you have great approach, however if the game fails to reach it's market's target, without modders there is now no hope they will be able to tweak, expand and/or fix it along with the fact that with a failed target, your online content and world will most likely disappear in a relative short time.... With the way of the economy i personally would say it's foolish to expect people to budget for online content..... but then again what do i know? Lets hope you hit that home run for the sake of those mouths you have to feed

[Sandvich 0]

Well thank you everyone for your replies.

dasilva, your input is very insightful. Thank you for your time. It is enlightening to know a developer is listening to what the community wants. Not only on the official website, but on a community website. Forgive me for my 'sharp' wording and attitude.

[His Divine Hand 244]

I think that something else that needs to be put into perspective is that there is little that can stop modding of a game. Modding is what happens when you get curious and enthralled players looking to customize their games.

After all, not one of the modding tools that the SC4 community use came from Maxis. Tools such as iLive Reader, Datagen, Terraformer, and many others were made by members of the SC4 community who wanted to do new things with the game. All Maxis provided was the Lot editor, the PIM, and the BAT conversion for GMAX, and while these provide much great things, they are not what allow things like the NAM, or the CAM, or many other mods.

So lets remember that it isn't MC's job to make CitiesXL easy to mod or anything, it is their job to make an interesting game that people will want to mod. So frankly, I say relax. If CitiesXL is a fun game, enjoy! If MC could or would not make the game easy to mod, don't worry, as long as it's a good game, somebody will work out how to mod it themselves. I say, let the game come out and then see what it is made of.

[dasilva 3]

Sandvich, that's fine No need to apologize: you just expressed your fears and I just wanted to calm them down

[SimMania2009 0]

True I wouldn't pay for a building game to play online It should be free like the others wich I know there not online though but still that's just wrong .... pear wrong to pay 5 dollars to play online thats my opinion

[spa 968]

Originally posted by: SimMania2009 True I wouldn't pay for a building game to play online It should be free like the others wich I know there not online though but still that's just wrong .... pear wrong to pay 5 dollars to play online thats my opinion quote>

 

What's so wrong about it? You pay for your cable tv, your internet your telephone on a monthly basis. There are many other online games out there that charge monthly fees. Why should the developer have to maintain the server and online world, potentially for years, afterwards simply because you forked over $60 (at the most) once? If the game attracts a dedicated fan-base, then by the end of it, the developer is losing money! The only other way to offset that would be to increase the sticker price, but that's just going to limit the fan base and gouge people who buy and then end up not playing much or who are only interested in single player. Charging a monthly subscription that supports the ongoing cost of running the online world is actually the fairest thing they could do. Essentially, everyone chips in for the development and then those who play the most keep paying to keep the game going.

At the end of the day, if you don't like there is always single player

[Anderson Xeyed 23]

I definitely aggree with Sandvich. I hardly play on line and wouldn't change now. If they do like the "Rush hours" or things then it is Ok. but to pay for each GEM's or somethiing like that is no right, because supposedly you're buying a "Full game" price not part of it. they are following the EA steps, which is dangerous steps

[Anderson Xeyed 23]

If you don't mind Philippe Da Silva, check out on the mods for the Oblivion or Morrowinds games sites just to get an idea... and think about steps your company is taking. The Simcity Socities took the almost same steps and failured hugely.

[830point35 8]

Don't worry about MC. Let them design what they vision as a quality program. If they succeed, yet there's more content that people want, someone will find a way to hack the game to add the custom content. Look at the iPhone. Apple created a wonderful tool, but left off the ability to get some great custom stuff. People created the custom content and put it available on the internet, yet you have to hack your phone to get it. I'm not sure the morality of it, but that's the way free people behave.

[Breeze1965 0]

I am not clear on the Gems piece as this does sound very nice but how big is this game going to be 10 DVD's? I mean if each Gem is in fact another game and we do not need to be online to use it that means to me that we should be getting one hell of a game with about 5 - 10 Gems that Are considered to be a full game in a game? The concept seems utterly awesome to me especially if they do transport gems I mean all of them in one package or individual they could all be great however I don't think airlines would be that great unless it was online. A Bus and Rail gem could be used from the begining of any city. Anyways if there is anyone that can clarify these better I would be appreciative of it. Because it just doesnt seem possible to me to have a Game (Single Palyer) with all of these gems as part of it.

[Silentradar 9]

Clearly some you have never played an MMO or any game which keeps a staff to update, change and develop the game beyond release. Phillipe said it pretty clearly:

If you are only interested by the Solo game play in CITIES XL, just get the box: unlimited play + you will benefit from the development we will spend on upgrading the game's features.

If you always liked playing a good Tycoon game, you will be able to do so by buying the according GEM which will be a real Tycoon game but in your city for the max half the price of a similar game in retail.

And if you always wanted like we do play in persistent planets with other players, we offer you the option to bring the City builder & any GEM you would get online for a third of what you would pay for a premium MMORPG.

No one is putting a gun to your head to pay for anything other then the game.  What MC is trying to do is cater to a number of different peoples playstyles by combining elements of popular gametypes.  Heaven forbid MC try to EXPAND the fanbase of city builder games by drawing in people who enjoy online components or tycoon style mini games. If you want content that is beyond lauch, you are going to have to pay for it, if you don't, MC can't keep people employed to continue to develop it.

There are tens of millions of people who pay for content of games online, this isnt a foreign nor an unsuccessful business model - it has been proven time and time again that if you release quality content POST LAUNCH people WILL pay for it.  If the content maintains consistent over time, people will continue to pay.  If MC fails at producing quality content, their online portion of the game will die, its really that simple.

[Breeze1965 0]

I am actually very excited about this it seems to be one of the most thought out games in a long time with mini games interacting with the actual game it just seems to be boundless with possibilites I have always wanted to be more involved with the traffic areas of the city and thought this game was the best for it I cant wait to see what they do with it

[sneakeypete 16]

Originally posted by: Breeze1965

I am not clear on the Gems piece as this does sound very nice but how big is this game going to be 10 DVD's? I mean if each Gem is in fact another game and we do not need to be online to use it that means to me that we should be getting one hell of a game with about 5 - 10 Gems that Are considered to be a full game in a game? The concept seems utterly awesome to me especially if they do transport gems I mean all of them in one package or individual they could all be great however I don't think airlines would be that great unless it was online. A Bus and Rail gem could be used from the begining of any city. Anyways if there is anyone that can clarify these better I would be appreciative of it. Because it just doesnt seem possible to me to have a Game (Single Palyer) with all of these gems as part of it.quote>

Think of it as extra games that use the same game engine as Cities XL, therefore making the downloads/installation/whatever requirements much much smaller than a full new game, while adding in a lot of new functionality, because they reuse a lot of the same content.

[rybolton 135]

Better yet, think of them as extra games that use the same game engine that provide a completely different gaming experience than the original game. They're like mini-expansion packs that, if integrated properly, will allow your city to gain real tangible benefits especially in multiplayer. For example, creating a great ski resort that draws neighboring cities residents to your city to go skiing, thus boosting your tourism. The possibilities are pretty much endless. Think about a golf resort, a theme park, a casino, even an airport or seaport could easily become a GEM. Anything that could include a management aspect similar to a tycoon game could become a GEM. Think about the benefits of owning a GEM, as you improve each individual module you gain different benefits in the city game. I'm sure these benefits will translate over in the multiplayer game as well, where people who own and manage a GEM well will see benefits that their neighbors do not because they either don't own the GEM or aren't managing it as well.

GEM's have the potential to be awesome if enough care and attention is paid to them. I will gladly pay for "Knights of the Nine" quality many times over but will not pay for "Horse Armor" quality content ever. So the value for the price needs to be spot on, but if MC can figure that out and make some compelling GEMs, I think they have a pretty good business model figured out.

[zane900 1]

you hit the nail on the head there, rybo. the possibilities are really endless, so if monte cristo can keep the quality top notch, we're in for the best virtual city building experience of all time.

[dasilva 3]

Hi guys,

I think you got it just right

That's the core idea on how we are looking Cities XL to expand to a game "

[koolkalang 2]

okay, okay, this is already amounting to something awesome, and I think it's amazing you're here, and talking to us about it -

BUUUT--

Would it be moddable enough that players would be able to build something like this:?

(not made by me)

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=96410&STARTPAGE=1&FTVAR_FORUMVIEWTMP=Linear

[awake_78 0]

I will totally agree with silent trader. None is forcing you to do anything. You re always free to choose. MC is a company and they are preparing they product. We should be very grateful to see them around in the website asking fans opinion and sharing their creativity with us. See what happened with societies. EA decided to take their own way and a lot of SC4 fans didn't follow them.

Besides all that everything is value for money. Why I shouldn' t pay for something that trully deserves it...

P.S.: by the way, when the game is finally going to air???

[Silentradar 9]

 did anyone just notice philippe just basically confirmed an airport gem

i did.

[mystikranger 0]

haha, good eye

[Jay Ess 15]

Originally posted by: zane900

you hit the nail on the head there, rybo. the possibilities are really endless, so if monte cristo can keep the quality top notch, we're in for the best virtual city building experience of all time. quote>

We? heh! My computer is too far back in the stone age to play Cities XL

I agree with awake, I am glad and appreciative that a company as large and influential as Monte Cristo is taking their time and listening to their fans. I don't mean to sound pushy about this, but we (ok, you all, stone age), as your fans, would like an easy way to productively make our own custom content. Truely, that is one of the things that makes SimCity so great. I expect great things already with CXL, and I also expect that next year when I buy it (when I have a non-stone age computer and hopefully it is out) that I will be as entertained as I am with SC4. Custom Content that is made by players is one of the key things to that. It's something that makes your creation stand out.

In fact, I have the utmost confidence, however, that if a custom creation tool is to be created, the professionally-made content will be much more detailed and it will be worth the extra money. 

As silent radar said, nobody is sticking a gun to your head. This stuff is all catered in order to accomodate to every players playing style and none of it is actually required by the game. I agree, custom content should be made, but bear in mind, every time you buy this extra content, you're putting a loaf of bread... excuse me... a loaf of baguette on one of these developer's tables (metaphorically speaking).

[ruskinator219 0]

Better yet, is a SDK possible?

Not just design and create your buildings, BUT also roads, freeways, etc...

[Silentradar 9]

 

This image was in a Eurogamer article, it was in the section of the article talking about GEM's  This appears to be the "Car Factory" GEM.

[huzman 445]

This is looking better and butter !!!

huzman

[Silentradar 9]

So it looks like there are 4 GEM's for sure either in the works for post release or with release - Beach, Ski Resort, Airport and Car Factory...very cool

[parrotti 11]

pay three times to play a game never, its all about the money again again