The Planet Offer (Includes POLL)

[cheuk18me94 0]

I want mass transit in single-player mode!

[sadorno 0]

I was initially apprehensive about the online aspect, however, have found it to be quite entertaining with an additional level of depth. I now prefer it to single player.

Kudos to MC for creating the game. I look forward to the evolution of the game over the next year or so. If they listen to the (constructive) critics I believe this can, in time, usurp SC4 as the grand master city builder.

[IntoxiNation 0]

Originally posted by: sadorno

I was initially apprehensive about the online aspect, however, have found it to be quite entertaining with an additional level of depth. I now prefer it to single player.

Kudos to MC for creating the game. I look forward to the evolution of the game over the next year or so. If they listen to the (constructive) critics I believe this can, in time, usurp SC4 as the grand master city builder.

quote>

I agree 110%. I played one day using the trial and liked it so much I went ahead and purchased 3 months. I think the key to enjoying it is looking at it as something new, not as being SimCity 5.

[Toilet.Wand-XTreme 0]

Hello, this is my first post and this has been bothering me as I cannot find any answers

First, If you subscribe to the planet offer for about lets say, three months.

And then you cancel.

Will you be able to keep those updates that came out in your single-player?

Or even if you currently have the planet offer, do you get the updates for single-player as well?. 

Second, If you wait for about three months to subscribe, do you get the updates that previously came out?

What if you miss the month that you wanted a specific update?

Is there a possible way to get the updates that came out when you were not subscribed?

Those two are the two basic ones, I had one more but now I cant remember -_-

Please feel free to ask any questions that aren't already covered in other topics.

Thanks guys.

[el_roy1985 0]

I'm guessing you would get all the updates you missed. It would cause problems and confusion if everyone online was using different updates. That's the way every online game is.

Updates should be available to single player non-subscribers. If they really aren't going to support non-subscribing players, then that is very shady and I don't think I'll be buying the game. Just because they wanted to release an unfinished game, shouldn't mean we must give them more money to obtain updates that will complete/fix the game.

I've wanted an online city builder for a long time. The only problem is, this isn't how I imagined it at all. I'll stick around in hopes that there will be improvements worthy enough to get me to purchase the game. Right now; However, it is lacking most of what I would want in a city builder. Please MC, make me a believer.

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Merged.

[IntoxiNation 0]

Just noticed Cities XL released a list of upcoming content packs for the Planet Offer. Number 3 looks promising:

Third content pack:

• A comprehensive bus system: create your own bus lines and place each bus stop
• A selection of new roads inspired by roads from US, Britain and other European countries
• A selection of different service vehicles from different countries (police , ambulances, fire brigade)

Full list here

[Evillions 552]

Just for the Planet Offer?! This game is definite for a flop. WHY in the world you want to keep changing your minds like every month or two? Why charge for core features, and for custom content which is going to be used for profit one way or another?

PLEASE, don't turn away the Single Player and give us mass-transit and up to date features and such. Giving techincal and improvement updates to the Planet Offer is going to be a slap in the face for everyone.

[Naviss 0]

I'm shure content packs will be online at some point down the line for people to "buy" the packs just as the gems. But then again I could be wrong since it says Bus stations will be in the 3rd? So who knows.

[IntoxiNation 0]

Yeah the wording is kind of odd on their post. It says that these will be "delivered" making me almost believe that they will be included as just part of the PO. I could also see MC going that route as an extra benefit to subscribing to the PO.

Also the PO manual says that you "benefit from regular content updates", so that reaffirms my beliefs that these will be included as part of the PO.

[Palpatine001 57]

Originally posted by: Deep Thought

I will not play for one reason, it costs money.

In fact, I might not have interest in getting CXL at all, since it's seems to be more about managing and economic strategies rather than creating (Which is the reason I like the City planning genre. So in my opinion, CITIES XL IS NOT SIMCITY 5!!!quote>

Seems someone is stuck on only a single aspect of real world city building.

I for one will (once the game arrives soon) dive right into the PO option and give it damn good thrashing in not only just building my city or cities but managing the economics and politics around the city

Hopefully the PO will allow me to do that and give my planning/geography background a good virtual thrash out.

Will have to wait and see when the game arrives. (and thank god the exchange rate is reasonable, NZ$1 = E0.50 at the moment

[thegreenbaron 0]

I'm just about to download the last file but from what I'm hearing I think I just wasted £35!! The offline game sounds very limited, I hope I'm proved wrong otherwise I wont be buying another MC game! I wish I'd read the info properly but I still hate it when companies hide away the aspects of the game they must have antisipated a negative response over. They must have known that slashing the solo player game back to a lite version of the game would be unpopular so why do it? If its as bad as people are saying then I hope MC hang there heads in shame!!

I dont have a problem with paying a subsciption but for £35 I should still be able to play a full game even if I decide I dont want to play online.

[gbeats 0]

Hey everyone,

I've come across a problem with the Planet Offer & just wanted to know if anyone else has had the same thing?

I recently subscribed to the PO for 3 months, having played the Solo game for a bit. However, I'm having some problems actually playing a city online. I can enter a city name &, once I press OK, it goes to the blue loading screen. However, this is all I get, as it seems to crash & not actually allow me to play the game.

If I quit the game, then open it up again, I can see my city there, but I cannot get into it to play. I find this strange, as I can visit cities that other players have made & have had no problems playing the Solo game - it's just when I try to access my own PO city.

I have a top of the range laptop, with a good graphics card, so that's not the problem.

Anyone had the same issue?

[gabry85 2]

Originally posted by: thegreenbaron

I'm just about to download the last file but from what I'm hearing I think I just wasted £35!! The offline game sounds very limited, I hope I'm proved wrong otherwise I wont be buying another MC game! I wish I'd read the info properly but I still hate it when companies hide away the aspects of the game they must have antisipated a negative response over. They must have known that slashing the solo player game back to a lite version of the game would be unpopular so why do it? If its as bad as people are saying then I hope MC hang there heads in shame!!

I dont have a problem with paying a subsciption but for £35 I should still be able to play a full game even if I decide I dont want to play online.quote>

Well, I'm sorry, but I had that very experience with City Life and nevertheless I wanted to give MC another shot with Cities XL. Unfortunately, getting facts right and complete information when it comes to them was harder than I expected as they did a very good job on marketing and kept controversial issues at bay all along. Look at any (p)review: do they mention buses, trains, regions, terraforming, technical issues? Do they bother asking the right questions to devs? I didn't see anything so far, so I had to answer all these questions myself. It's no surprise people are disappointed now that they have tried the game.

As for single players, yes, they're definitely neglected. No doubt. Here's what they're gonna do:

Planet Offer brings many benefits to players,quote>

OK, this alone should make you raise an eyebrow if you plan to play the game on your own. If you're the MMO type, I'm sure you should be fine, it depends on what your little voice in your head says...

and not the least of them are content packs which will be delivered on a regular basis to bring new features and content to the game, based on community feedback. For example, many players have pointed out Cities XL mostly allowed cities with a very modern feel to them, which is why we are preparing a series of medieval buildings that will bring more variety to the game and allow the realisation of a small historical downtown.quote>

Not that I'm against medieval buildings (I love them actually) and stuff like that in a modern city building game, but I don't remember many people craving for this particular feature, and surely not at this time. Anybody?

Now that the game is officially released, let’s have a quick first look at what the Planet Offer has in store for the future of your cities…quote>

Again, this clearly confirms that this is NOT what you're gonna get if you play offline. And I remember MC continuously said to relax as they won't abandon solo players. Whatever...

First content pack:

• Medieval pack: 10 residences, a hotel, a shop, a restaurant, a plaza (decoration zone), a church and a 2-lane street.
• The map of Rio de Janeiro featuring the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer.
• Sponsored Content: a Ford dealership producing real Ford cars
• 3 Megastructures: the ‘Glass Gherkin’ from London, the Tokyo Imperial Palace and Alcatraz.
• A new farm model.

Second content pack:

• Chinatown pack 10 residences, a hotel, a shop, a restaurant, a plaza (decoration zone), a temple and a gate.
• A realistic map of Manhattan featuring the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and the road network.
• Blueprints: three new stadiums (football, baseball and American football).
• New maps.
• An animated ferris wheel.

 

Third content pack:

• A comprehensive bus system: create your own bus lines and place each bus stop
• A selection of new roads inspired by roads from US, Britain and other European countries
• A selection of different service vehicles from different countries (police , ambulances, fire brigade)quote>

Well, once again, the mass transit issue strikes back, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. This should be the usual stuff you'd expect in an expansion pack, which I would be happy to pay. Unfortunately, if you want to play a game offline, there shouldn't be any MMO tags sticked to it. Many games have a built-in multiplayer feature, but this doesn't make them MMOs, hence you got a solid offline mode. Here, the 'single-player' thing was just a boobytrap, but let's see who will benefit in the long run.

[Evillions 552]

I'm not going to say anything else. It looks like MC is going for a MMO instead of a single player game which they thought up first. and limiting so much of us and taking out core features which should have been in the game nevertheless. Its confirmed that they abondeon us like no other.

[sparky66 0]

i posted this elsewhere but though that it would be relevant here also.

READ THIS MC!!!

i would gladly pay a one off fee to be able to use PO content in single player. Perhaps if they released PO content to single players every six months, in a expansion pack that contained the last six months PO content (including mass transit). That would mean that PO subscibers still have the advantage of getting extra content first, but solo players would still be happy because they would get the content in the end. like i said, i wouldn't mind paying up to £20 for that, which is about six months PO subscription anyway, but i would get to use the content in solo mode and keep it indefiately.

it could also mean that alot of the people that aren't buying this game because they don't like the PO will buy it. i just don't like the fact that i can pay all that money and as soon as i stop paying i loose all my cities and my extra content.

also, has anyone considered starting a petition to make MC make PO content availiable to solo players (for a one off fee of course, i don't expect anything free).

[gml_josea 2]

I'm not going to pay for buses and trains. In fact, I'm not paying for this game, at all. Pretty graphics, which aren't that pretty compared to other games, and curved roads doesn't cut it.

[gmcausland 0]

MC really needed to make their mind up early on whether this game should be single player OR an MMO.

I used to play WOW a lot so I don't have a problem with MMO games, and I reckon this game could be fun in that context.

But what annoys me is their approach to this whole thing, as others have said.  It looks as if this company is just trying to get as much money out of people by using negative means such as taking away basic things such as the mass transit from the solo game, whilst not putting on enough features for those who enjoy the MMO environment.

If MC had chosen for it to be a totally MMO game in the first place it would have:

a) prevented a lot of confusion, anger and cynicism

b) been a welcome departure from the SimCity series, striking out into a new direction

But as with many things, MC is trying to please everyone, all of the time.  It is an approach which might please no-one and backfire on them.

[bourneid 13]

not to be mean to those of you upset about what the single player part of the game is missing.... but what did you exspect from a "CITY BUILDER MMO" . just so that you arnt confused when you see MMO again in the discription of a future game... here is a link to the wiki entry for its definition... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_role-playing_game

the single player mode is more of a sandbox mode... let you try out some things before to go online for your real city...

[mmmfloorpie 0]

Just to be clear, if you pay for 3 months and get all the updates during those three months, if you stop paying, you will not be able to access this extra content. The upgrades are NOT available in single player, therefore, if you stop buying the Planet Offer, you will not be able to continue using these upgrades.

[rss334 0]

Well appears I'm forced by the mods  to post this question buried in this thread.  Seems that all the negative post get buried or deleted somewhere........ anyway see below and tell me your thoughts.

I'm trying to see the good in this but I need help.   So they have listed 3 content packs.... (first one pasted below).   They are going to include 10 residences, 10 ?   So that means you will have 10 different buildings between 1,2,3,and 4 level housing?  That's 2 1/2 different houses per level.   Won't that be kind of repetitive or worse yet how will it look to see a medieval building ploped down in your suburban neighborhood?    Someone smarter then me explain this please cause I'm having a hard time seeing how this will work or the benefits of 10 residences?  Thanks - by the way not a flame just a question.


"First content pack:

• Medieval pack: 10 residences, a hotel, a shop, a restaurant, a plaza (decoration zone), a church and a 2-lane street.
• The map of Rio de Janeiro featuring the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer.
• Sponsored Content: a Ford dealership producing real Ford cars
• 3 Megastructures: the ‘Glass Gherkin’ from London, the Tokyo Imperial Palace and Alcatraz.
• A new farm model."

[thegreenbaron 0]

Well, I finally downloaded CXL yesterday and played on it for about 6 hours, if I'm honest I think I've already exhausted the limits of the solo player game so unfortunatley for me my initial fears of having just bought a pup have proved to be well founded. MC I hope you are happy counting all your money but you wont get to count any more of mine!!

The covert marketing of its massive failings adopted for this game really sucks in my opinion (although If I had the intention to tuck up gamers in this way then I wouldn't shout about it either) and for anyone out there who thought like me that you would be buying the next step up from sim city 4 (not a successor but more of a next gen city builder) but who prefers to play these games alone then I would steer well clear if I were you as you are likely to be extremely dissappointed.

I don't suppose MC would consider refunding my money as I am so p~d off with the game so I just have to take the option to never line there pockets again, It really annoys me to think that the people involved have no doubt read some (nobody would have the time to read it all) of the negative feedback from gamers regarding this eagerly awaited game and are most likely sitting there having a good laugh about it, I can imagine plenty of celebratory high five's in there office as every new payment rolls in... another mugs just fell for it...clap!!

Credit where its due though as I can't think of another developer who has managed to upset so many gamers so soon after releasing a game which promised so much and delivered so little...Well done Monte Cristo you must be very proud !!

Monte Cristo, did nobody tell you that gamers are very loyal to those who provide good value for money even if the games is not perfect? Perhaps you should have paid attention the day that lesson was on. Even if you had been more upfront about your true intended market for this game, that would have gone a long way with me.

Oh by the way here are some other bullet points for you:

Graphics are poor

Menu's almost unreadable

Money comes too easy, without even thinking about it I was getting 23000c after about 2 hours of play, I didn't have to do a thing anf the cash poored in

Other than that...great game...not!!

[rss334 0]

Originally posted by: rss334

Well appears I'm forced by the mods  to post this question buried in this thread.  Seems that all the negative post get buried or deleted somewhere........ anyway see below and tell me your thoughts.

I'm trying to see the good in this but I need help.   So they have listed 3 content packs.... (first one pasted below).   They are going to include 10 residences, 10 ?   So that means you will have 10 different buildings between 1,2,3,and 4 level housing?  That's 2 1/2 different houses per level.   Won't that be kind of repetitive or worse yet how will it look to see a medieval building ploped down in your suburban neighborhood?    Someone smarter then me explain this please cause I'm having a hard time seeing how this will work or the benefits of 10 residences?  Thanks - by the way not a flame just a question.

"First content pack:

• Medieval pack: 10 residences, a hotel, a shop, a restaurant, a plaza (decoration zone), a church and a 2-lane street.
• The map of Rio de Janeiro featuring the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer.
• Sponsored Content: a Ford dealership producing real Ford cars
• 3 Megastructures: the ‘Glass Gherkin’ from London, the Tokyo Imperial Palace and Alcatraz.
• A new farm model."

quote>

Anyone?   Surley there is someone that understands this better then me

 

[gnomonite 0]

I have been reading about the PO on many threads and on the official website and can't understand the fact that only PO people will receive extra content!

Non PO people also paid for the game! They did not get it for free!

And if they do release the additional content for Solo players, then it should be priced at exactly the same amount PO subscribers paid to get it.

What they can do is that at the end of each month, MC can allow the single players to buy off the additional content released in that specific month for $ 9.25 regardless of number of extra content released in that month. This might probably end up encourage players to buy 2 or 3 month PO subscriptions (a good thing for MC) cos then they would be getting a bargain by paying $14.95 or $18.95 to get the whole 2 or 3 months extra content and also the ability to trade amongst each other whereas the single players will be paying $18.5 for 2 months and $27.75 for 3 months worth of additional stuff.

This might help steer the single players to get the PO Subscriptions and make MC release buy worthy additional content each month for single players to buy.

[rss334 0]

Simple really, if they release the content single player it will be pirated and MC will lose money.   Thus they will force you to play online if you want the additional content... Comon now it seems MC has your best interests in mind and your wallet too.

[thegreenbaron 0]

Originally posted by: rss334

Simple really, if they release the content single player it will be pirated and MC will lose money.   Thus they will force you to play online if you want the additional content... Comon now it seems MC has your best interests in mind and your wallet too.quote>

do you not think they will make enough money by selling 1/2 a game at £30 - £35, everyone else seems to be able to provide a fully featured game for that price?

 

[rss334 0]

Originally posted by: thegreenbaron

Originally posted by: rss334

Simple really, if they release the content single player it will be pirated and MC will lose money.   Thus they will force you to play online if you want the additional content... Comon now it seems MC has your best interests in mind and your wallet too.quote>

do you not think they will make enough money by selling 1/2 a game at £30 - £35, everyone else seems to be able to provide a fully featured game for that price?

 quote>

It should be obvious already by the costs that MC is in this for the $'s.  They will continue with the Planet Offers only contect if people continue to pay for it.   I personally can't see the value in it, see my post above.... what does having 10 additional residences do for my game.   This board seems dead by the way, no one is posting.

[gnomonite 0]

It might have a value if MC works to produce good content every month. For example, they provide you with new buildings which replaces the existing buildings so that no two of your large hotels look the same or maybe release some nex texture maps for the roads which changes them to little weathered / dirty state depending on the traffic load it carries. So if all that happens, the city o a PO subscriber will look much nicer than the city of the single player person and he will atleast think once to get himself a PO subscription. Atleast I will.

[Mathew_MC 0]

rss334

Well appears I'm forced by the mods to post this question buried in this thread. Seems that all the negative post get buried or deleted somewhere........ anyway see below and tell me your thoughts.

I'm trying to see the good in this but I need help. So they have listed 3 content packs.... (first one pasted below). They are going to include 10 residences, 10 ? So that means you will have 10 different buildings between 1,2,3,and 4 level housing? That's 2 1/2 different houses per level. Won't that be kind of repetitive or worse yet how will it look to see a medieval building ploped down in your suburban neighborhood? Someone smarter then me explain this please cause I'm having a hard time seeing how this will work or the benefits of 10 residences? Thanks - by the way not a flame just a question.quote>

The medieval residences will not plop when placing residential zones. A new option in the construction menu will let you place these buildings individually, as the goal is to allow the building of an historical neighborhood or maybe a small village looking area near the farms. But of course, if a player wishes to place an isolated medieval building somewhere on the map, it is absolutely possible.

Also, these buildings are mostly executive buildings of medium density, they are not dispatched between all housing levels and densities.

We will publish a short article soon with more details of how they work and pictures of the buildings.

[PyroMancer 0]

Originally posted by: Albatross Domain

What they should do is what games such as Runescape that not only allows non-members to play (f2p) but with limited abilities and such, and those that are members, to have access to everything. So if those people should decide they want to go p2p, they will have that choice also. I also understand that bandwidth could also become an issue. however I also agree that as long as the person logs on at least once per 6months, they will be able to keep their account.quote>

I think that is a good idea. Since you have to actually BUY the game to play it and create and online account there is already a sort of limit in place. After all the people did fork over the money to purchase the game. It's not like runescape or those other "pay to upgrade" type web games where you got a ton of people who didn't fork over anything at all.

Here is what I think a good starting point for the limits should be.

Trade: Limit 10 contracts with other players. (Depends on how much they want to limit growth since trade is apparently very important to large cities)

Cities: 1 per account

Special Buildings: Can't Access Blueprints or join group to help other access (Not sure how they work only seen MP Video)

Special Events: Don't have access (Not sure how or what those are but player can't attention or etc.)

Mass Transit: Full (That way at least the player can see what their missing in SP and might encourage them to buy since thier stuck with only ONE city)

Extract Content: None (They won't get new content such as upcoming medieval stuff and so on)

Personally I don't think any of this is unreasonable. After all keep in mind the player has already BOUGHT the game. And from what I hear they only get a SEVEN DAY trial for PO?!?! Most MMOG give a FULL MONTH with purchase of the game.

This is also a much better marketing "scheme" then the one imployed now. Because this will allow people to make friends and contacts with other players they want to continue to hang out with. They will be limited on their cities growth because of trade limit so they will have a desire to increase that so their city can expand. They will be stuck with only the one city and most people who play CB games like to design multiple cities with different layouts.

After all right now it's the SP vs MMO and that's pretty much an easy choice for most people. Either they are going to signup for the MMO or they are not. They simply resign themselves to having the fewer options and move on never to look back. Where as this option by letting them just get a foot in the door and peek around they see others having fun and doing more then they can so they want to unlock those features as well. But if their stuck in SP they aren't going to be talking with subscribers (via chat) about what their missing or hanging out in the City Blogs talking about thier city and viewing others. They have no interest in it cause their playing it by themselves in SP.