Cities XL is NOT an MMO

[PyroMancer 0]

Originally posted by: ddhboy

Perhaps the perfect model for this type of economic gameplay is EVE Online, and its soon to be released counterpart Dust 514. Allow cities to form trade groups or nations, however the developers want to phrase it, let these groups try to sabatoge the economic growth of their rivals by out producing them, sabatoging them, depriving them of vital resources, or lowering their products prices to the point where they can't compete. Then scrap the coin system and replace it with commodities markets (again, like EVE Online) the value of these commodities will fluxuate depending on how much the world is producing, on who is selling and how much they are.

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First off most people interesting in CB games aren't into the who undermining the competition type gameplay. Mainly because that means other people can screw with their city while they are trying to build and manage it. This is NOT an RTS game which is the kind of thing you would expect in that type of game.

Second the formation of groups/nations would have to be manditory. That is pre-assigned other wise there wouldn't be much point to them. Since players can already make deals freely why would they want to join a group what would penalize them for trading with other players not in their group? People tend to do what's in their own best interest and if being part of that group means losing out on other oppertunities then I think they'll choose to be on their own.

Lastly I think the game would need a fundemental change to it's core gameplay mechanics before any of those options would be viable and I don't think it would change the game for the better. Even if it is online it's still a CB game and most people don't like things messing with their city. Heck SC4 the only disaster that is even really left is the Fire. It's because people don't like the random disasters screwing up their cities.

Originally posted by: ddhboy

Also, we could also put back in the disasters from Sim City games but make the more realistic. Say there was a weather system imposed onto Planet Offer. You could have hurricaines, tornados, earthquakes, volcanos, blizzards, etc, which on the city building side of the game could reck parts parts or all of your city depending on how well you're prepared, or at the very least hamper travel and trade. Say there's a city in Cities XL that is a major shipping port, prefered by most major of the surrounding cities due to its low shipping tarrifs. Now a hurricaine comes and knocks out most of the ports the player had established in his city. Now trade from surrounding cities is also hurt because they no longer have this major hub that they could use to sell to the world market. Much like real weather, certain events can only happen in different parts of the world at a certain time of the year, like a far northern city could have its ships docked because the water surrounding the docks is iced up certain times in the winter.

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From what I can tell CXL seems very static. You know I'm begining to wonder if the engine is all it's cracked up to be. I mean there are a limited number of maps meaning that even the terrain is very rigged. Even since the early days of the SC series you could reshape the terrain to however you felt like to establish the landscape you wanted to build your city on. Yet it seems CXL has to wait for PO content updates for new maps since it's listed as one of the updates.

Originally posted by: ddhboy

For an example, lets just say that one day I'm looking for new contracts to sell my oil to, and I notice that the oil prices are quite low. I go to my OPEC group and after some discussion we decide to limit the amount of oil that we produce for the next 30 days. Our plan works well and oil prices jump and we all prosper in the additional revenue. Other cities see this and are deeply affected by the lack of oil comming in. In retaliation these cities impose export tarrifs against me, which really hurts because I needed material to help build that transcontinental railroad that the neighboring cities and I were discussing. Additionally a new competitor arrises and undercuts my oil prices, which floods him with new contracts.

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Most like your plan fails miserably. The economy is CXL is a completely open market which because of real time feedback and respond instantly to changes in supply and demand. As your OPEC group "Limits" production other cities will quickly take notice of the shortage and rush to fill the gaps. While cities that have shortages of their own will become more self sufficient, other cities looking to expand their income will start producing more oil. So soon your little OPEC wannabes will be stuck with a ton of oil they'll have to dump on the market real cheap just to get it to sell because of the surplus. Though that might be a good way to flood the market and cause a crash in an industry.

30 days is a VERY VERY long time in CXL. You can already look at the city ratings and several cities are already over a few million population. And several have many millions in cash on hand. And the game has only been out for 1 week. Who knows how much bigger and more developed things will become given a few more weeks let alone 30 days.

The beta cities they show off on the main site mostly have around a couple million. But the one big city they show also includes a full overhead pic and it has about 16M people and takes up most of the map. So I wonder if this is towards the upper limit of what's possible given the limited space. The city in question also has what looks like mostly high density buildings already so no more verticle growth.

The only reason groups like OPEC can get away with that kind of thing in RL is because of the following reasons.

1) Scarce Resources

2) Delay Production

3) Delay in Resource Gathering

4) Cost of Setting up

In most video games like CXL these aren't really as much of an issue. The first one is quite obvious as it's very easy for new cities to be created that then begin producing and add to the supply so things are not scarce. The second and third are kinda similar and also tie into the first as it takes time to say pump the oil from the ground then it takes time to refine it. But what I also include in this is the delay in setting up for both as even if you have the oil like some countries do. You are still stuck under OPEC because it may take you years to get the facilities built and up and running. And of course the last one is a major issue as the cost of setting up those pumps and refinerarys might be more then the cost paying a little bit extra.

Also in the case of groups like OPEC their cost are spread over a wide group of people. So sure their price hick might mean you have to pay 25% more at the pump but your not gonna go out and setup a rival oil company to counter that. Where as a very large company with a lot of money who uses a lot of oil might not like spending 25% more so they crunch the numbers and figure out it's cheaper for them in the long run to produce their own which they do. Well in the case of CXL you are that very large company(aka city) with a lot of cash at your command and building your own oil production could very well be within your grasp(depending on the map you picked).

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