CitiesXL First Impressions talk

[gml_josea 2]

After this, I'm totally sold on the game. I will be keeping those $50 bucks hidden somewhere until this is released =D

Thanks dirk.

[BurroDiablo 222]

The Bus system is certainly a welcome change. Hopefully when the time comes to implement the Railways, MC could also give us some small rail-top Stations too for suburban and rural areas, as opposed to having larger stations everywhere. Theres so much Maxis and custom stuff in SC4 that you'd love to see in CitiesXL its just not possible to list them all, or even ask if you seen them. Judging from what you we're saying, it seems like you only got to sit on the tip of the Iceberg, the retail version will have lots, lots more to it.

I have no questions though, nothing off the top of my head anyway. I was hoping by the time you got the play it they'd have some kind of semi-beta Terraforming tool integrated for you to muck around with. But I can't imagine them implementing a Region Terraforming tool and not letting you able to terraform at City Level... that seems a bit backwards, heheh.

I am a little concerned about the future of custom content though... surely there is a way for MC to give us the ability to create content and customise at our lesuire, and at the same time, have a cheat free online environment? If online play starts taking priority over the ability to customise then it could be quite damaging to the games longevity.

[MrCinatit 30]

I have been sold on the game for quite some time...I guess I am even more sold.

While I am a bit disappointed at the initial possibility there will be limited terraforming, there is so much more that gives me a lot of hope. One is that MC seems quite open to expansion - which means terraforming could be available later on.

And while you might decry your city-building skills, Dirk, your first city is actually a bit realistic - disjointed, somewhat hastily put together and not completely free-flowing...there really are quite a few cities which are built just like that.

I am quite excited about this game.

[+Guest]

Is the game here yet?

Brilliant 'review' mate. Was looking forward to it and you didn't dissapoint!

[Milju Delem 0]

nice overview Dirk,

some very interesting news here!

about zoning, I'm a little concerned by the minim size of the residential zones though,

will we be able to have smaller residential zones than in citylife? It would be important for build some dense historic centers, or small villages...

[gabry85 2]

Hope you enjoyed your trip to Paris, dirk! Gotta say you summed it up quite well and I love the highway picture. I thank you for your straight-to-the-point preview.

Though I'm still concerned about Region Play in Single Player. 10x10km maps are fine for me too, but if we can link up our city-tiles together, we can build realistically big cities in less time compared to SC4. How about the other questions I PM'd you earlier?

[toxicpiano 125]

Sounds great.

I thing I could think about for questions is whether there will be left hand drive.

[ilikehotdogsalot 311]

Wasn't there left hand drive in the first teaser shots of the game? I think that'll be possible.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Thanks to Monte Cristo for inviting Dirk, and thanks to Dirk for doing so. Your test of the game has relieved any substantial fears that I had about CXL. My probability of buying it has increased dramatically. I'm glad that it is going to be a rather pure city-building game. That is what I wanted (and what we wanted) and that is what we are going to get. The snapshots have also interested me a lot.

Again, thanks. I'm think it is most likely that CXL will be the successor to Simcity 4, not in name, but in spirit -- the de facto Simcity 5.

[mentarman 14]

Awesome! Just the screenshots answer a ton of questions the community didn't know the answers to, and overall there was a lot revealed. Further, some of my concerns have been alleviated. It sounds like MC is going the right route here and I'm really excited for this game now.

[per28 0]

Hi Dirk,

thank you very much to you and Monte Cristo!

I have a few question though, how did one choose terrain/site for the city in single player mode?

I am also interested in how close cities can be geographically and how they interact in single player mode,

could you explain anything about this? For instance can two or more cities be places next

to each other (like in Simcity 4 regional play) on a map? Because that would make this work

almost like regions in Simcity 4.

Thank you!

/ Per

[srr2 1]

This looks like a winner - hopefully it will sell.

[Dirktator 2,327]

Hey guys, I'll try to answer what I can, I have sent a request for additional information to Monte Cristo as well and will report back when I know more, unless they pop in here themselves

The SimCity 4 portion of this community will always be alive as long as we keep it alive, so no worries there.

Building repetition, yes I did see building repetition, but for the most part I found it fairly acceptable, again, my city was not very large, so I'm not sure how it scales when cities become massive. I did make a comment about repetition as I played when a go cart centre (leisure) opened up right next to a go cart centre. That bugged me a little bit, and I pointed it out, so we'll see.

Shopping centres, towers/antennas, seaports, etc... Yes to shopping centres, did not see any towers or seaports yet. I think if my city got large enough I would have had access to more transport options.

Region style play, as I understand it, you can create many cities and connect them to each other using intra-city tranport options such as highways, airports, seaports, and have cities produce resources to trade with other cities, thereby allowing you to specialize your cities as you need.

Map size limitations my first impression was that a 10km x 10km map size seemed pretty sufficient. Monte Cristo has said that would be the default size for any city, with the possibility of even larger options.

You can follow a car or any vehical by clicking on them, but I didn't see the ability to drive a car yourlself.

I did not hear any music or sound effects because the PC I was playing on didn't have any audio out. I asked about sound design, and they said that it was near complete.

I am trying to get a definitive list of transport options now.

I think their stance on custom content is a reasonable one,they have not closed any doors and have not ruled out anything when I spoke with them about this. The general response was that it was still "up in the air" and that they promised to support where the community wanted to go. I will say that I brought up the topic of custom content no less than 3 times, during my visit, and each time they all looked at each other with that look of "we knew we have to deal with this, but we just don't have a solid answer right now.." and this was the best answer I could swindle out of them for now...

Terra-forming and map-making is a much more complex process than what we know of for SimCity 4. Monte Cristo is utilizing very high resolution height maps and normal maps to create the landmasses, and I understand for the Online Planet, each continent is being hand crafted and finessed to create optimal balance and variety.

[mentarman 14]

I also wanted to say that at first I was sort of "meh" about the online Planet Offer. I've never played any game online really and didn't think I'd have much interest. But it looks interesting for this game and as long as there isn't a huge learning curve (ie, people who haven't played a bunch of MMORPGs or whatever can still figure things out, and the casual person who doesn't log on every second every day can still succeed) then I think it will be really fun.

Furthermore, I am excited by the fact that that will be an ongoing revenue stream for MC. If they can convince enough people like me to pay and keep paying, then that is incentive for them to continue to patch, support and improve the game, instead of just shipping a product and being done with it. For example, with SC4, they made all their money off us with the initial game. To make any more money, they had to sell us something else - Rush Hour. To make any more money, they needed to do another expansion which of course they never did, and the game makers basically moved on to other things. With a constant source of income, this can become more like an ongoing project that will continue to be improved and refined. At least that is my hope. Of course there are GEMs too that are like expansion packs, but the online aspect will be a constant, ongoing revenue stream that will encourage constant, ongoing support and response from the company to players.

[Dark_Jedi06 13]

Thank you for the continuous flow of information, Dirk.

However, as you were discussing map making/terraforming, I was struck with this question: will we be able to import maps much as we have in SC4?

Not only has that ability opened a whole other realm of custom content possibilities, but it has made gameplay itself more intriguing as some try to reconstruct actual cities in game or just take advantage of how the Earth has actually been terraformed. I would certainly like to see this feature carry over.

[Duke87 1,070]

Back when it was just Maxis, they knew what they were doing with SimCity as a small little company and they made a few great games. Then EA came and gobbled them up. The corporate tarnish made itself somewhat evident in SC4, and completely rusted SCS into a worthless pile of, um, rust.

So, the market is ripe for a newer, smaller, upstart company to barge in with their own game... looks like Monte Cristo's making a pretty good bid at that. The game looks great. Two things in particular are very appealing:

1) The ability to turn the camera in all directions as opposed to just having a stuck overhead view that you can rotate 90 degrees.

2) FREE FORM ROADS!!!

...that said, I now find myself in a conundrum. I'd liked to think I'd moved on from the whole city building game thing, The idea of returning to it seems amost like a regression back to childhood. But I can get over that. No, the real issue is my computer. It's going to be four years old this summer, so its specs are rather lacking by today's standards. And hard drive space is a premium. So, no new PC games, Cities XL or otherwise, are getting installed on this computer since I simply can't afford to devote my all too finite resources to it.

The seemingly obvious solution would be to just get a new computer, but there's a couple problems with that. The first being that a new computer isn't cheap, and the computer I have still works and has life left to it, so replacing it would seem premature and wasteful. The other, more important one, is that it would mean getting Vista. Eeew.

Ultimately the only conclusion I can arrive at is this: my current computer isn't going to last forever. Eventually it'll break or I'll run out of hard drive space, and I'll need to get a new one. Then, unable to put it off any longer, I'll have to dig a grave for XP and move on to the newer but inferior generation of Windows.At such time, then I may go get Cities XL and start playing it, if I'm still interested. But before then, I won't be able to.

[KeanoManu 42]

Originally posted by: dirk

Region style play, as I understand it, you can create many cities and connect them to each other using intra-city tranport options such as highways, airports, seaports, and have cities produce resources to trade with other cities, thereby allowing you to specialize your cities as you need.quote>

Is that answer for single player too?

[SimNation 139]

Dirk,

Just to make sure I fully understand you. Region play that you talked about......you 100% positive that is the single player portion?. And if so...was the region a globe? Or like how sim city has it where you can play on a certain amount of land masses.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

my first impression was that a 10km x 10km map size seemed pretty sufficient. Monte Cristo has said that would be the default size for any city, with the possibility of even larger options.quote>

The possibility of larger options? Like 20x20 or 30x30? That'll be more than sufficient for me.

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: Duke87

Back when it was just Maxis, they knew what they were doing with SimCity as a small little company and they made a few great games. Then EA came and gobbled them up.

quote>

This is not entirely true. They would have gone bankrupt without EA's buyout. Simcity 3000 (which is my favourite simcity) was developed with their help (they suggested switching to what would have been a 3d version to a 2d version) and probably wouldn't have been released if they hadn't saved Maxis from bankruptcy. What happened afterwards seems to be an EA wide corporate shift around 2001/2 not just affecting Maxis (The shutting down of westwood and bullfrog for example).

There's really nothing wrong with Vista. As long as you have a computer that is sufficient to run it (and it would be hard to find one that couldn't now) it's fine.

[patfirefghtr 160]

Hey Dirk you've heard it enough by now wonderful overview of what you got to see lol... OK I have a question reguarding flora/waterfalls/streams and the such with all the ploppable stuff... Will there be any thing like that the user can create??? I know that is what I love about working with sc4 is that ability..

[Explodingsims 3]

Wow! This game looks awesome.

I love the idea of Free form roads, and building bridges anywhere.

I hope they keep the ability to build underneath the bridges.

So, in short:

WantWantWantWantWantWantWantWantWantWant

[AndreiD 0]

Very nice review, I've been lurking on the simtropolis site for some time now and I love the coverage you guys have on CitiesXL.

It does look like a great game and I really hope it will be so when they finish it.

The fact that they listen to the fans without dumming down the game too much is excellent.

[Cleaner475 150]

^ Same here

I'm really considering getting Cities XL now - if it comes with all the transport option I want and the system requirements are to insane them I'll definetly buy it,

Richard

[Simsimius 1]

I wasn't too keen on CitiesXL before this as I somehow had it in mind that this was some low-level city builder comparable to SCS.

However, this preliminary review has convinced me that this game is SC4 on Steroids.

I'm really excited now, this is, more or less, the "SC5" we all wish for.

I really hope that transportation is as truly flexible as it sounds - I'd love to micromanage transportation, with complex road and lane designs.

[bixel 1,228]

Awesome observation of the current build of the game. I love where Monte Crisco is taking it. I am very intrigued by the online play as well I would love to get together with some of my friends (Paulvomntfort, Skyfire, Simfox, Hongkong etc...) and make some cities with them that would be super fun!

My only question about the online play is...can we browse other people's cities? Seems like that would be a huge transfer of data, but maybe instead there is some sort of 'snapshot' view of friendly cities. So players can take a snapshot and send it to you to show you their new bridge they built or new residencial district they laid down etc...

I hope the online play also has all the normal tools you would expect, chatrooms, links to avatar profiles, achievement awards etc.

[DuskTrooper 316]

Excellent! This game looks like it could easily surpass SC4 in terms of customization and the like.

I certainly hope they can come up with some sort of region play however. 10x10 km is a nice size, but it's only about the size of 4 large SC4 cities placed together; hardly large enough for a metropolitan area.

Excellent review, Dirk! The anticipation is building!

[Dirktator 2,327]

Originally posted by: bixel

My only question about the online play is...can we browse other people's cities? Seems like that would be a huge transfer of data, but maybe instead there is some sort of 'snapshot' view of friendly cities. So players can take a snapshot and send it to you to show you their new bridge they built or new residencial district they laid down etc...quote>

I was told that you can use your avatar and walk through your friends' cities. You can also get together in a city and watch an event, like, say, the space shuttle that you guys worked so hard on building take its launch.

I think this is a pretty neat concept.

[Dirktator 2,327]

Originally posted by: DuskTrooper

Excellent! This game looks like it could easily surpass SC4 in terms of customization and the like.

I certainly hope they can come up with some sort of region play however. 10x10 km is a nice size, but it's only about the size of 4 large SC4 cities placed together; hardly large enough for a metropolitan area.

Excellent review, Dirk! The anticipation is building!quote>

I am almost certain based on what we talked about when I was there, that you can build mutliple cities in single-player and connect them to each other, and trade resources, so, essentially "region play". But I'll get more official info on this.

[Patricius Maximus 236]

Originally posted by: dirk

I am almost certain based on what we talked about when I was there, that you can build mutliple cities in single-player and connect them to each other, and trade resources, so, essentially "region play". But I'll get more official info on this.

quote>

I'm liking what I'm hearing.