Blog interview.

[morriswalters 16]

This interview seems to confirm some of the fears of the community.  It may be time to move on.  I don't see any focus on SP at all.  If the game in the box doesn't offer any fuctionality past what I have seen then I not sure what the point is for any single player.  I had assumed that buses would be included, as written that blog interview seems to be definitive in saying no to that.  So what is left to the single player.  Roads certainly are nice.  But where is the long term play value.  The one thing that MC seems to have overlooked in their attempt to generate income for development is that Single Player content drives multiplayer content.  If the players first look out of the box doesn't offer any play value, then why spend your money on the planet offer. 

Sandbox players would seem to be walled out.  Will beachfront development like Simpegs be allowed or will MC protect their online assets by forbidding this kind of custom content?  Will lots to take advantage of the mountain terrain be permitted or will Gem Ski be your only path?  The chasm between modding and Custom Content Creation seems to be getting wider.  It's hard to see how modding would be allowed given Monte Cristo's focus on  their online assets.  Any mod to the traffic system would appear to be blocked.  I see no path there.  What else to mod, no mods of region play, no network mods.  Both of these are forbidden by the EULA.  I can see where certain things would be allowed and even encouraged, interstate interchanges for instance.  But on a 10k by 10k map how many can you use?  Houses and high rises, sure.  But without additional supporting content what is the point?  No shiny toys.

I guess the saddest thing for me is that the online content is so ephemeral.  Since the content is not yours outside of the context of the Planet Offer, you can't start the game a year or two after having not played, and look at your old city and have that moment of clarity about why some detail didn't work, and get fired up again to fix it and make it better. And thats what keeps me playing. I'm not sure that MC or their potential player community realize this. Look at he pride players take in their in their creations.  Movies, pictures, city journals, all these things.  I haven't lost all hope, but I'm keeping my shoes shined and ready in case I find I need to walk away.

[Lukfi 3]

I agree with you, but... single player content drives multiplayer content?What year are you living in? World of Warcraft doesn't have any SP content, yet it does perfectly fine. It is therefore completely safe to assume the same will be true for a city builder...

.

.

.

...NOT.

As for custom content, that's basically a dead end there. If you used custom buildings in your online city, noone else would see them because they wouldn't have it installed on their PC. And that's very, very bad, because custom content made SC4 what it is today, made it grow to a whole new level of both gameplay and eye-candiness. GEMs sound like a good idea, but of course MC will not do it for free. The community, on the other hand, sacrificed hundreds if not thousands of man-hours to creating custom content for SC4, completely free.

That's business I guess.

[geek12 0]

I... i don't know. I felt like it cleared up a lot of things but at the same time confirmed my fears. I would really like to get into this game, i really would. But i'm a poor college kid, i can barley afford the game much less the PO. Now i know it's not a lot of money when you look at from a distance, but if i'm paying for a game i would like to be able to play it and get my moneys worth and i don't know how much time i'll have with school and what not. Thats why a single player mode appeals to me. Also, what if i don't want to mess with other people? What if i don't want to trade with other people? What if i just want to design a city.

[RegisterST2 0]

"Mass transportation (including buses) will be part of the future features and, as such, will only be part of the Planet Offer. We intend to deliver the bus system this side of Christmas and will confirm as soon as we can. "

Did they change their mind again or am I not reading this correctly? Buses will now only be available in PO now?

[LordOscar 0]

They changed their mind.

That's not illogical: everybody wants mass transit. One will have to pay for it.

That's whay I would recommend to wait before buying anything. Even if client advices on resellers sites are strangely over-positive (on amazon.fr there's something like "I've always dreamt trading ressources between cities, MC did it!").

[niloluiz 21]

Originally posted by: Lukfi

I agree with you, but... single player content drives multiplayer content?What year are you living in? World of Warcraft doesn't have any SP content, yet it does perfectly fine. It is therefore completely safe to assume the same will be true for a city builder...quote>

No it's not the same.  WoW is s a genuine MMO game where SP doesn't even make sense.

CXL like any city building game is inherently single-player. What they call "MMO" is just a hack, a chat-window and trade mechanism, none of that essential to the game.

Without SP modding there won't be custom content. If the game doesn't entertain, there won't be subscriptions for the planet offer in the first place, and this game has serious gameplay problems. It's fun for a couple of hours because of the 3D first-person view... than it's over.

[Spinmaster 75]

Actually, in a way there IS a "single player" version of WoW. It was just never called that. Rather, there are countless fantasy RPG "slay the oddly-named monster" games out there, many of which I've enjoyed myself, and even toyed with online from time to time. But I don't usually enjoy playing them online much, even for free, which pre-WoW most such "online experiences" were. I'm not knocking anyone who does enjoy that and feels SP "doesn't even make sense," just stating that, myself... I have no intention of being locked into online-only play to enjoy what I want in a game, free or not.

I'm with geek12, though for different reasons. I'm not poor and college is 16 years behind me. But I'm not a continuous player, either, and I don't care about interacting with other folks while I'm building my city. Nothing against any such folks, I just want to build my game in peace, pause it when I want to, walk away for 5 minutes or 3 hours if I want to, and not really care about trades and projects. I just want to unwind from a long day of work or sop up an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon, and build a city. Heck, sometimes I don't even really build a city, I just spend an hour or so seeing what kind of strange road or transit layouts I can come up with, or slapping a few parks together, or repeatedly blowing up a power plant, whatever mood I'm in. And I want to know I can simply take a break from games altogether, maybe not play at all for months (or maybe even play a different game for a while), and know that, if I do come back to this one, I can still enjoy it, and haven't lost anything... nor paid a subscription fee just to keep it in a coma.

I understand the PO offer. I like the idea of maybe building in coordination with other real people. I like the idea of trading. I like the thought of others visiting my city, and me visiting theirs. And the idea of large projects requiring multiple players to cooperate? Genius!!!! I probably would try that out eventually, maybe even get hooked into paying an ongoing fee for it. But I had not imagined they would basically force me to play online to get content that does make perfect sense for single-player offline.

I would pay for expansion packs. I bought Rush Hour. Had there been more, I'd probably have them all by now. I would've paid for NAM if they could've legally charged for it. And I'd probably end up spending more money in the long run than I would with a "cheap" subscription fee. Even GEMs - I'd pay a reasonable price for each one I wanted, eventually I'd probably get them all (though maybe I'd skip on Barbieworld). But I have to play online for 'em?

I have to play online for mass transit? I have to play online to create multiple interconnected cities? Nevermind that I have to pay a fee, I won't be strong-armed into playing online, not even for free. So ok... I simply won't buy the game, until/unless an expansion pack is released including at least basic mass transit (at least what was in SC4 vanilla) and multi-city for single-player, offline. When MC does this, I'll buy the game. If they never do, then I never will.

[8elhaj 0]

Please, can anyone confirm that buses were taken off??? i dont understand, why?? i preordered the game only after they said buses will be included in Solo Mode. if not, then whats the point of roads? None for me.

I hope its not true, please confirm that you can still use buses in solo mode.

[landstander248 8]

Here is what gets me....

1) They say you can make "cities with multiple millions of inhabitants, where a carefully planned traffic is needed to keep things running".

No, you can't.

No city on Earth manages to function with multiple millions of people and no mass transit system. I don't even want to play a game where I can make a city of millions and it functions without even a simple bus system and freight transport system.

2) I quote: "first packs will be Medieval England Pack"

Um, what? Ugh... nevermind!

Combine this with the lot-size fail, inefficient engine and graphical glitches and I don't think I can make the commitment of time and money to really give this game a shot. Maaaaaybe I will.... but it keeps getting less likely.

[Edited caps]

[Anarcho-X 0]

I don't understand the point of a multiplayer mode for a city-building game.

That's what's appealing to the genre: play at your own rythm with your own rules.

Multiplayer mode means gigher prices and higher bandwidth allocation.

It also means no cheats, no custom content and no fun.

And what about the single player mode?

No mass transit? That's absurd!

No possibility to interconnect multiple cities? That was done is 2003!

SC4EVER!

[Edited lanugage and excessive punctuation]

[Jedimarine 119]

I wonder how long after launch before they realize their mistake and offer a free "patch" with the mass trans stuff.

I also wonder how quickly they could adapt to custom content should people reject their offerings.

I'm sure they must have done market research...did the results really come back saying city builders wanted MMO access to one another...knowing what it would cost to achieve it?

I mean, the value of the community of players here on simtropolis is the vast variety of ways the game is approached...it absolutely amazes!  To see what a basic, flawed game intitially has become by being opened to the players.

I don't need an ingame satelite cam of my neighbor if I can check out a city journal here...and that way, I still get to see the creative side, instead of "variations on a theme" from the same tool set, that the pretenders will rush out and xerox into their metropolis...like the WoW players who all want to look like the level 70 they caught a glimpse of once...

Fact is...they would need an army to build a game to our expectations...

and they could have one, for free...instead, they'll try to profit off this, and good luck to them...heaven knows I'd want my product to be successful.  But I don't think it's going to be profitable from people here.

Business 101...find what the people want, and provide it for them at a fair price.

My fair price is a one time purchase at the regular game prices, providing everything I already have in SC4, and then something I want that SC4 cannot provide.

Not only are the promises to fulfil the gaps of SC4 not being realized...now they can't even match that game's offerings...and they want my money over and over.

what happens when the game tanks and the servers are empty in a year, and the MC developers move on to knew projects...are people suppose to keep right on paying?

SC4...may you serve us well another half decade!

[Edited caps]

[wondergreat 0]

In my very personal opinion, what PO fails to deliver is a truly real-time cooperation with other online players. Without such aspect, PO never qualifies as an MMO. The "real-time cooperation" in other MMOs usually means PVE against some formiddable enemies or PVP. I see nothing parallel in CXL, apparantly they were unable to design anything close to this aspect.

CB fans demand SP mode only, but MC has already successfully offended this community. For MMO fans they will definitely not be pleased by PO due to its non-interactive nature.

[8elhaj 0]

where can i find the blog morriswalters is talking about?

[RegisterST2 0]

Originally posted by: 8elhaj

where can i find the blog morriswalters is talking about?quote>

Front page of the Simtropolis site.

https://www.simtropolis.com/

[crazychickensc12 84]

It did clear up a lot of questions for me, some good answers some not so much but what can you do lol. I do agree though Medieval England....no disrespect to the english but isn't more important/useful things that could come out first?

[Mctittles 0]

Wait..did I read that wrong. It seemed he said that mass transit is not even going to be in the game at launch...not even in PO. "Unfortunately it's not something that we have been able to squeeze in the game for release despite our upmost effort."

[jabezscratch 159]

I look at most of the CXL screenshots and I get really excited b/c, let's be honest, many of them look amazing but then I hear about the gameplay issues and PO fiasco and I cringe. For the love of God, just give us a SC4 w/ updated graphics and a few tweaks re: mass transit, region play, etc. and we'll all be set for another five or six years.

[cirugo 1,889]

Originally posted by: Spinmaster

Actually, in a way there IS a "single player" version of WoW. It was just never called that. Rather, there are countless fantasy RPG "slay the oddly-named monster" games out there, many of which I've enjoyed myself, and even toyed with online from time to time. But I don't usually enjoy playing them online much, even for free, which pre-WoW most such "online experiences" were. I'm not knocking anyone who does enjoy that and feels SP "doesn't even make sense," just stating that, myself... I have no intention of being locked into online-only play to enjoy what I want in a game, free or not.

I'm with geek12, though for different reasons. I'm not poor and college is 16 years behind me. But I'm not a continuous player, either, and I don't care about interacting with other folks while I'm building my city. Nothing against any such folks, I just want to build my game in peace, pause it when I want to, walk away for 5 minutes or 3 hours if I want to, and not really care about trades and projects. I just want to unwind from a long day of work or sop up an otherwise boring Sunday afternoon, and build a city. Heck, sometimes I don't even really build a city, I just spend an hour or so seeing what kind of strange road or transit layouts I can come up with, or slapping a few parks together, or repeatedly blowing up a power plant, whatever mood I'm in. And I want to know I can simply take a break from games altogether, maybe not play at all for months (or maybe even play a different game for a while), and know that, if I do come back to this one, I can still enjoy it, and haven't lost anything... nor paid a subscription fee just to keep it in a coma.

I understand the PO offer. I like the idea of maybe building in coordination with other real people. I like the idea of trading. I like the thought of others visiting my city, and me visiting theirs. And the idea of large projects requiring multiple players to cooperate? Genius!!!! I probably would try that out eventually, maybe even get hooked into paying an ongoing fee for it. But I had not imagined they would basically force me to play online to get content that does make perfect sense for single-player offline.

I would pay for expansion packs. I bought Rush Hour. Had there been more, I'd probably have them all by now. I would've paid for NAM if they could've legally charged for it. And I'd probably end up spending more money in the long run than I would with a "cheap" subscription fee. Even GEMs - I'd pay a reasonable price for each one I wanted, eventually I'd probably get them all (though maybe I'd skip on Barbieworld). But I have to play online for 'em?

I have to play online for mass transit? I have to play online to create multiple interconnected cities? Nevermind that I have to pay a fee, I won't be strong-armed into playing online, not even for free. So ok... I simply won't buy the game, until/unless an expansion pack is released including at least basic mass transit (at least what was in SC4 vanilla) and multi-city for single-player, offline. When MC does this, I'll buy the game. If they never do, then I never will.

quote>

I cannot stress enough how much I agree with this post.

[knightrider 0]

Wow, it just keeps getting worse. It seems like their PR is a nightmare. Retracting things we thought were in the game creates an even worse perception than the decision to leave them out!

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]