Biggest Failure of CXL?

[hua10 0]

Hey guys

I've read through these forums about people's gripes about CXL but frankly, there hasn't been a thread to gather the most important opinions from people. In my first thread, I'd like to see what people think is the BIGGEST failure of CXL - the main reason why you won't be buying; the lack of something which you loathe, or has turned you off from buying this game for at least the first 3 months after release.

I've played SC4 and CityLife, and I suppose it's whichever you play first that will gain your preference. The main gripe I have about CXL and CityLife is the fact that both of these games want the user to take WAY TOO MUCH CONTROL over the growth of the city. SC4 was fun because you guided the development of your city, and seldomly, when you didn't like how it progressed, you demolished - CityLife is like the moronic secretary who can't handle a single issue without consulting you before proceeding. The jobs/employment, the resources, the credits - theyre all just shackles of useless details that keep you from building a sprawling metropolis (isn't that the point of city builders?). I always looked forward to solving traffic jams and building mass transit in my cities with 5 million people - it's what made city builders fun.

that's the end of my rant, I hope at least some of you agree with me that by forcing you to deal with the small things, it takes away from the point of the game. (for me, at least)

[mr cars 1]

Hi,

Personally, the biggest failure is in the company. What most of us want, is simcity 4, brought in to 2009/2010(it's not long now) Whe want good graphics, updated engines, new transport, and a polished UI, all wrapped up in one CD-ROM. No fancy computer killing graphics, with Hi-def Noses on people. No utterly pointless memory eating features, just a modernized SC4. Monte Cristo want to build a game to take on world of warcraft,and any MMORG, as well as SC4, SCS, Tropico, and any city building game! We've ended up with a Hybrid, which is never good

Ry

[His Divine Hand 244]

Originally posted by: mr cars

Hi,

Personally, the biggest failure is in the company. What most of us want, is simcity 4, brought in to 2009/2010(it's not long now) Whe want good graphics, updated engines, new transport, and a polished UI, all wrapped up in one CD-ROM. No fancy computer killing graphics, with Hi-def Noses on people. No utterly pointless memory eating features, just a modernized SC4. Monte Cristo want to build a game to take on world of warcraft,and any MMORG, as well as SC4, SCS, Tropico, and any city building game! We've ended up with a Hybrid, which is never good

Ryquote>

Yes, how DARE Monte Cristo not violate EA's copyright on SC4 and make their own city builder, not an improved clone of SC4.  How dare them I say!   

[Fee_Nicks 7]

The biggest failure of Cities XL, to me, is not any single aspect, and definitely not because it isn't an even more complex version of SimCity 4. It is the fact that it just promised too much and couldn't possibly follow up on it all.

The whole Planet Offer shenanigans comes a far second in relation to this, and this not being SimCity 4 2 doesn't even register.

[RegisterST2 0]

The biggest disappointment to me is SP mode seems to have been sacrificed for a chat window, trading tokens, and an avatar.

It's not the only disappointment, but it's the biggest one for me.

[TeacherNL 1]

Definitely the avatar and the chatbox. I know those are perhaps small problems to other people but they remind of SCS and Citylife. And the fact that you can't "plop" parks. Furthermore I think the biggest mistake of MC is that they raised the expectations of a game similiar to SC4. CXL isn't SC4. They are completely different, perhaps they should have had better marketing. Perhaps we expected too much.

[citiesxlfan42 27]

The biggest failure was the fact that you need to pay 72 smackaroos a year to have SUBWAYS and RAILWAYS! That is inconcievible. I don't get much allowance, making this NOT an option for me. UGH! MC, get your head out of the toilet and make something similar to SC4, NOT CityLife.

[LordOscar 0]

Lack of fun.

[morriswalters 16]

Originally posted by: LordOscar

Lack of fun.quote>

Amen!

[ajee 5]

Amen to that too! Too consuming, consume our bandwidth, consume our computer resources, and the game is not even fun at all. :mad:

We want a SimCity 5, SimCity 4 with a newer and funnier game engine!

[Asheroo 53]

The failure is the community support. I see people being all like "It's the end of the world" to things we are not even 100% sure yet, such as the stupid mass transit thing. Guys, with that, there is so much evidence pointing to so many ways, but here you've just gone negative, as usual, and declared end of the world.

But really, I still have fears of CXL failing, but to me, the failing is of not only MC's actions, but the community's actions.

[poshbakerloo 186]

I don't like the zoning system. Also CXL don't give you enough info on traffic and road use.

[IonWind 3]

As a sidenote to ajee, the CXL consumes actually very little bandwidth. It isn't connected to all relevant players real-time like most of the mmorpg's, it just syncs once in a while with the rest of the world.

Ok, so I have been playing the CXL demo for a couple of days and I can say that there there definitely is something missing, I just can't get the grip of it.

Demo version isn't the final product but everyone can see the general features that this game will have. What makes me really disappointed is that the game is back at "square" one: if not counting some special buildings, all the buildings are on same-sized, square lots. Simcity 4 was more advanced on this area since the buildings' lots were squares and rectangles of different sizes, even on same-looking buildings.

But the most disappointing thing is still the slope-building issue. In Simcity 4 some of the lots conformed to the rolling ground but there's no hope of that in CXL. In CXL the game tries to level the ground for the building, and if that doesn't work then it just adds the retaining walls. The city looks good when looked at the distance but as soon as you zoom closer you'll see all the retaining walls here and there.

Also building the rural areas is an issue, at least on the demo. You can't control what kind of buildings will appear on which lot or area. If I want to make a rural area with randomly scattered houses I might get a couple of ruralish houses but then there will be a lots of buildings that look like they belong in the downtown area. If I plop low density I don't expect to have downtown apartment buildings.

Speaking of rural areas, the concept of zoning farms also bothers me. I would more like to just zone the farm fields without drawing roads on each side. Having road just on one side should be enough.

Those were the most negative things I had in mind for now. To mention something positive, I'll have to say that at least the road-building features are finally what they should be at this time. I just wonder what good is to have grid-free roads if all the buildings are still based on square lots. Also the terrains seem nice, but they are somehow too cartoonish. I also miss some kind of an accurate height map and guide lines. The contours that the game offers are rather useless.

The retail version should better give more infrastructure variety and reasonable mass transit. Otherwise the plain plopping of buildings won't entertain for long. So far I have been unable to decide that should I move to CXL or just dig up my SC4/RH discs somewhere.

[USA_Pride 49]

The main issue I won't buy the game is because future updates will be tied to a monthly subscription. I refuse to be an open wallet, and I'm going to let them know by not buying the game.

[RegisterST2 0]

Originally posted by: ASheroo

The failure is the community support. I see people being all like "It's the end of the world" to things we are not even 100% sure yet, such as the stupid mass transit thing. Guys, with that, there is so much evidence pointing to so many ways, but here you've just gone negative, as usual, and declared end of the world.

But really, I still have fears of CXL failing, but to me, the failing is of not only MC's actions, but the community's actions.quote>

Asheroo, I know you're young, and you've invested a lot of yourself into this project over the last two years,but I think you might need to step back and take a fresh look.  You will probably still love the game, and that's great, but to say things like Matthew was wrong, and Matthew was lying to test the NDA just to prove you still support MC and have hope makes no sense.

If Matthew was wrong about mass transit he would have posted a correction immediately.  The enormous backlash on the beta forums would have made him check if he even thought he was mistaken.  If he was mistaken, a huge correction would have been posted as soon as it could have been.  No company, no matter how inept, would let something that was incorrectly posted go on this long and poison their intended market.

To blame the community which spent two years trying to help MC make the best city builder game it could is just strange.  It's just another sign I think that you might need to take a small step back.

There is only one side of the equation that had any control over anything.  Only one side could make decisions that affected what was actually created.  If they chose to ignore all the suggestions and advice from two years worth of posts, they have no one to blame but themselves, and definitely not the community that spent an enormous amount of effort trying to help them.

[MaStAdJ 0]

Whats making me hesitant by canceling my preorder is that there is at least room for improvement by updates. The graphics are mind blowing (at least for my system on a gtx 285), but they are missing the very important vibe that sim city gives me. Hard to explain what that is but it I get random frustrations that I know sim city already perfected. Like upgrading a small street to a road to help cope with traffic. You have to blow away the whole development in order to do that. Another frustration is the resources and how hard it is to get water and fuel. I know they want to make this game as real as possible but I have a city that I cant improve on because water is way to expensive and I cannot buy water from other traders (or at least its not allowing me to)

[panthersimcity4 162]

Two words: Planet Offer.

[BigD145 0]

Lack of a Town Hall. Seriously, mine was locked away from me. All I could do was lay and bulldoze roads, which can only be done as long as my money holds out.

[USA_Pride 49]

Originally posted by: panthersimcity4

Two words: Planet Offer.quote>

100% agreement.

[USA_Pride 49]

Originally posted by: MaStAdJI cannot buy water from other traders (or at least its not allowing me to)quote>

I agree with you there.  I've done trading games before, but the trading system seems very broken in CXL.  Funny, how that is supposed to be the big draw for people to pay $9.25 a month.  I think that's one of the reasons they attached mass transit to the Planet Offer, is because otherwise people wouldn't buy it just for the trading.

Which is my main frustration, stripping features that should be in the single player game, and attaching them to a monthly subscription at $9.25 a month.

[edman2012 33]

I think that the system requirments are too high. You needa 8800 gt to run it full! the average person doent have it. i also dont like how it uses online play too much.

[MaStAdJ 0]

Originally posted by: USA_Pride

Originally posted by: MaStAdJI cannot buy water from other traders (or at least its not allowing me to)quote>

Which is my main frustration, stripping features that should be in the single player game, and attaching them to a monthly subscription at $9.25 a month.

quote>

Well, its like the same delima I have with Xbox Live. Do I not pay the 50 a year and get half the game, or pay and get more enjoyment with the investment. I think the GEMS should be the Planit offer and everything as of now, should be in the single player... But obviously they want a profit from this game more and smacked a price tag to everything...

[gspang4207 0]

You know, I asked some questions about CXL before all the demos and I got a lot of nasty, rude responses from people here.  Now that I have played the demo, ha...the laughs on you.  CXL SUCKS!  This site was good before with the focus on SC4, but you know, I am sick and tired of hearing about CXL.

The graphics are ok.  I don't like the online mode.  I don't like the idea of buying planet subscriptions or whatever the hell they call it...no updates...the whole planet concept is a good one, but not thought out well.  I don't care about having an avater or an email box to check on cxl site or any of that crap.  I think they really, really missed the boat on this one.

They got everyone sucked in with flashy graphics and videos and the game is very disappointing.  Its Simcities Societes, but an online version.

So I go back to my original comment...here's another one for the $5 bin at Walmart.

And it's disappointing that this site has lost its SC4 focus and moved to CXL. 

[SimFox 804]

lack of vision, and hence pointless boring monotony...

[zugy 0]

The biggest failure is it's main selling point: the mmo aspect of the game. Supposedly the game has been designed with this as it's core feature, but it feels very tacked-on. It's basically a lower quality SC4 with better graphics and a chat box. Why in the world would I bother subbing when I could just play SC4 and log onto the nearest public vent and get pretty much the same experience, complete with annoying immature people?

[DCMetro34 577]

This bears repeating. Rapid transit. 

[N106 10]

I've decided not to make a final judgement until about a month after CXL is released. I need to wait for the reviews. Also, I couldn't even play the demo because the file had gotten corrupted after 20 minutes of waiting.

If CXL fails, then Simtropolis will probably refocus back on SC4 in a matter of weeks.

And, I've come to a realization. Sim City 4, the game we all love, was a FLUKE!!! The reason EA didn't make a Sim City 5 the way we wanted was because we're not the audience they're aiming for. EA has refocused.

Meanwhile, Monte Cristo was trying to aim for us, but was also looking for groups from other audiences. Not only that, but they had a deadline and aren't a big gaming company. The reason things may seemed tacked-on is because they didn't have enough resources or time.

I've personally accepted that there will be no Sim City 5. We'll probably be using SC4 for a few more years until computers advance to the point that we cannot play it. Then, Simtropolis and other SC4 sites will die. One by one, users will become inactive, as they can no longer play Sim City 4, and are left without a replacement.

By about 2015, the loud voice of SC4 fans wanting a good SC5 will have been silenced.

Yes, I am a major pessimist.

[cirugo 1,889]

Building a game based on an MMO model that the audience you're targetting has repeatedly told you they have very little interest in playing.

[DCMetro34 577]

Building a game with no mass transit is pointless!

[We heard you the first time, there is no need to keep saying the same thing over again. abcvs]

[hua10 0]

Originally posted by: edman2012

I think that the system requirments are too high. You needa 8800 gt to run it full! the average person doent have it. i also dont like how it uses online play too much.quote>

i spent $300 on an 8800gt back when it was released, the updated 9800gt sells for about $100

you're telling me the average person who wants to play a game with this level of graphics is unwilling to spend $100 on upgrades when the high range of cards cost upwards of $800?

try console gaming if you think this is too expensive lol