So what is cities xl like these days?

[logan86 1]

Hi guys

I purchased cities xl preorder through steam when it came out. needless to say i was hugely dissapointed but i thought that maybe there would be new content after a little while. anyway i got bored of waiting and moved on to other games i already owned and a few new ones too. i never even tried planet offer because for me a city building game is a single player experience. obviously i was shocked to see a total lack of mass transit etc.

So anyway i was thinking about the game again the other day and i thought i would drop by here to ask how its doing. whats the current situation. are features still divided between single player and planet offer. can i expect mass transit for single player and everything else? has any other real new content come out for the game? has anything changed at all such as the lot size issue and all the other issues? what has kept you guys still playing, if you are still playing at all?

logan

[Asheroo 53]

To all those wanting a better single player experience, I'd say wait some months more yet, but keep in touch and tuned into www.citiesxl.com for news. With all evidence, possibilities and the number of questions in the recent survery about single player regarding new content, MC will probably start releasing content to single player soon, but probably for a fee, but only a small fee. So, stay tuned in to the CXL site news with that. Those on the PO say that the buses are very good (even better than SC4), and it looks really good, so can't wait for that, and of course, there's all the other content to come yet, plenty of it, not to mention not only official content, but custom content.

By the end of this year, CXL should really be something. I'd say by mid year it would be worth buying for those much disappointed, but we'll see.

[pete1061 0]

Aside from the addition of buses, the planet offer really has not been worth it.

New content has been minimal, and bug fixes have been insignificant. To top it off, MC is late on the january content, and no patches since dec 18th.

Really, I haven't even gotten into the buses much. It's an extra expense on the city budget and I can solve most traffic problems by tinkering with the roads. And considering the 5 city limit on PO, you are better off playing solo mode. That way you won't have to delete a city if you want to try out other maps and your quota is full. Also when they release a new map for PO, it gets used up really fast.

After playing this game for a few months, I'm disappointed. City life was better, at least you could mod City Life.

IMHO, MC dropped the ball on this one.

[dolsson 0]

IMO, Cities XL is inferior on every front to SimCity 4, except that 1) Cities are not so tied to 45 and 90 degree angles and 2) the graphics/3D are amazing. That said, those two factors alone have been enough to keep me playing, for now. CXL's graphics/3D allow me to actually get "into" my city and move around in the way that I always wished I could in SC4.

I am hopeful that, eventually, enough talented modders will take a run at this game and bring to it the sort of improvements that they have to SC4. I agree the Monte Cristo has not really made a success of CXL, but there was a lot of griping about EA in the early days of SC4, too. Ultimately, I think it's the fans, not the manufacturer, that make a success or failure of a sim game.

Then again, I know next to nothing about modding and maybe this game is not as "moddable" as SC4. For my part, I'll keep plugging away in solo mode when time allows, and watch for developments on the forums here at Simtropolis.

[Chiverito 11]

Its been a real setback that only recently Monte Cristo has decided to revise planet offer. Most of the most significant features are explained on my Webcast

www.youtube.com/user/toastmachine123#p/a/u/1/58Ys5GpfQKU

[DazzaDazza 29]

That way you won't have to delete a city if you want to try out other maps and your quota is full. Also when they release a new map for PO, it gets used up really fast.

 

That’s how the game is set up though, it’s meant to be like that. You build a city, once you have finished your objectives, yah you delete it and start a new one, I don’t see what the big problem is, do you have every save game and level form every game you have played?  How many saved games cities do you have from SC3000 or even SC2000. It would be a wast of space and money if MC had all these cities that no one every used. It would probably end up making most planets boring and static  

[Tuscan 20]

So the conclusion to this topic "Pretty much the same as it was the last days, but with some buses".

[Mayor of Tempest Lake 34]

>do you have every save game and level form every game you have played?

Yes.I want to be able to say "Yes, I built this city years ago. Oh, I did that? Should have done better." What's the point of building a city if you are going to delete it anyway? A huge waste of my time.

[morriswalters 16]

Tuscan

I would point out that it took God 7 days to make the Heavens and the Earth, MC is a company made up of people  so I wonder if 3 months is enough for any significant changes.

Mayor of Tempest Lake

In terms of save games, assuming that you take the time to figure out how, it's possible to archive all your games.  I would expect it to shake out something like this.  If MC fails I would expect them to unlock the games on the way out and if not I expect that someone else will even  if the games are encrypted.  If on the other hand MC is successful I would anticipate that MC will eventually allow PO saved games to be played in the SP mode.  Once sufficient content has been developed and MC has a handle on controlling the online experience. 

I have figured out and assume everyone who plays has, how to have several cities going on the same map in single player mode, as well as how to rename them. In terms of PO play if I had a city I liked I wouldn't delete it, and if I had to I would archive it.  I could be wrong but that my opinion.

[PsychoStorm 0]

aside from the crahses due to memory leaks it a good game, but I have been sheltered most of my life and have had low expectations, in other words, expect nothing and you wont be disappointed. On the upside, if you wait 6 months, I should plenty of food to sell you at exorbitant prices.

[DazzaDazza 29]

Well it must be me then; I delete my cities all the time, no point in keeping something like that unless you are a gold fish. I may take some picks of the best bits but, really how often are you going to look at all your saved cities, I used to save all my cities in SC2000 and SC3000 on to a floppy discs, I found them late last year I thought WOW that's grate, but then I realized I don't own a floppy drive any more, so I trashed them, and thought to myself ummmm that was a waste of time keeping those. But that's just me I guess

[pete1061 0]

The thing about having 5 cities in the planet offer is that they get economically intertwined with each other. I get a good balance going trading resources. Deleting one would upset that balance.

10-15 would be better. That way I more room to play economically.

That's the primary reason I bought the PO is to trade between my own cities. I don't trade with other players, that's too unpredictable.

And the chat box is useless to me.

[Tuscan 20]

Originally posted by: mrdazza_460

Well it must be me then; I delete my cities all the time, no point in keeping something like that unless you are a gold fish. I may take some picks of the best bits but, really how often are you going to look at all your saved cities, I used to save all my cities in SC2000 and SC3000 on to a floppy discs, I found them late last year I thought WOW that's grate, but then I realized I don't own a floppy drive any more, so I trashed them, and thought to myself ummmm that was a waste of time keeping those. But that's just me I guessquote>

But in SC4 they have this special thing called regions so you can build as many cities/regions as you like and link them all together, this way your old cities never become redundant or "pointless unless you are a gold fish" as mrdazza put it, they will always play a part in regional growth and you can go back and visit/improve them at any time.   

[valhum 23]

Ok, so, reading this thread.

I just got a new PC and was thinking of getting the game. I tried a "copy" from the net and it looks interesting but the "copy" I am trying just seems to have that Planet Mode thingy going on. I was wondering, is Solo mode worth for buying the game?!?!? (btw, that "copy" i got from the net will be basically a demo since I can only play Planet mode and it doesn't have Solo mode, hence my question).

I really would love to try this game, was about to purchase it yesterday but i didn't find any store that had it but after reading how it is basically a "better" game if you play online, etc it has me worried that i might end up spending $40 bucks for a bad Solo experience and call me old school but I also believe that city sims are better alone hehe.

So, in short. Is Cities XL worth for the Solo Mode or should I try something else like i dunno, Tropico 3 hehehe.

Thanks for your reply(ies)

[Chiverito 11]

If I was you I would wait until and see how the GEMs turns out.  The Ski GEM looks promising and comes out later this month...

[mentarman 14]

Well really I'm not sure there's any way for anyone to answer that for you, as that is essentially the question the entire "community" of people interested in this game has been debating since it came out (before really.)

Some of it depends on whether $20-$40 is a lot of money to you or not. Citybuilders interest me a lot, and that isn't a lot of money to me, so I'll be getting the game as soon as I get my new computer assembled.

There are obviously a lot of people on here who are unhappy with the game. There are issues with the game, but some of the problem also lies in the difference between expectations people built up and the reality that was delivered. I can understand the frustration that comes from that, but in judging whether I'm going to have fun with the game, that doesn't matter that much. To me it seems interesting enough that I'm willing to spend the money on it (plus some for PO for a bit), but I think as I said that decision will vary depending on what people want the game to deliver and whether that is a lot of money to them. And obviously I haven't played the game yet, I could be back in a month complaining about it or I could be back praising it or I could not be back because I'm busy playing it.

[valhum 23]

Thanks

I was just playing for 2 hrs in that Planet Mode....of course, I have noooooooo idea what is going on, lol. I think I am kinda going with my SC4 instincts hehe but so far it is fun, i mean, not a LOT of management like SC4 but just straight forward building. Again, I am not sure what some things are and how to really play the game, basically I am just learning as I click but again, it is fun, of course, I will have to upgrade my video card but i can't complain.

I could get the 45dls package from the cities XL site that gives you a 3 month subscription.......I guess I need a manual to know stuff hehehe.

I am thinking i might get this hehe

[City Planner 121]

Originally posted by: Asheroo

. With all evidence, possibilities and the number of questions in the recent survery about single player regarding new content, MC will probably start releasing content to single player soon, but probably for a fee, but only a small fee.quote>

The thing of it is though, Why release content to singleplayer when that will take away subscribers?  Let's face it, there is little to no reason to play this online unless you enjoy watching a chat screen scroll by every now and then, other than the content that PO gets that us singleplayer versioners don't get.

Now offer up that content that PO players get to SP players *with a fee*  and you have people in PO scratching their heads and wondering why they even bother to subscribe to PO anymore.  If they don't offer up enough content to the PS players, they still stay away and think they've gotten the short end of the stick for the same base game price as the PO players got, and if you offer too much content to the SP players, then the PO players wonder why they are paying so much more to rent the content rather than just play the SP game.

The way that they build their system seems to be that they were trying to force as many people into the PO offer as they possibly could, by severely limiting the SP part of the game, now start to add the content into the SP game and theres little to no reason to stay with the PO part of the game as you might as well just "buy" the content instead of "rent" it at a substantially higher price (depending on what the prices roll out as obviously).

My 2 cents.

[soltangris 42]

Yeah, true enough City planner. I won't try to defend MC by saying it's a sound policy, I don't like it. But, probably it was the only possible move under the circumstances.

The truth is: they weren't ready to launch the game. A number of factors made them launch, though. And they were forced to withhold content from SP in order to attract people to PO (not that there's sooooo much content to withhold in the first place - only busses, in fact).

If they had prepared some competitions for PO, along with some specialized planets, it would have been different, I think.

[littlesquare.dot 0]

Originally posted by: Asheroo

By the end of this year, CXL should really be something. I'd say by mid year it would be worth buying for those much disappointed, but we'll see.quote>

I haven't given-up on the game, but I stopped playing it altogether almost two months ago..   I'm going to keep an eye on this forum and come back to the game when there have been significant changes. 

I'm hopeful that the game will be much improved for the solo player in a year's time, but I've come to the realization that those strictly solo players who purchased the game at release tried to hop on-board WAY too soon, as the folks at MC still don't seem to have the slightest clue as to what to do with/for us.

[littlesquare.dot 0]

Originally posted by: City Planner

Originally posted by: Asheroo

. With all evidence, possibilities and the number of questions in the recent survery about single player regarding new content, MC will probably start releasing content to single player soon, but probably for a fee, but only a small fee.quote>

The thing of it is though, Why release content to singleplayer when that will take away subscribers?  Let's face it, there is little to no reason to play this online unless you enjoy watching a chat screen scroll by every now and then, other than the content that PO gets that us singleplayer versioners don't get.

Now offer up that content that PO players get to SP players *with a fee*  and you have people in PO scratching their heads and wondering why they even bother to subscribe to PO anymore.  If they don't offer up enough content to the PS players, they still stay away and think they've gotten the short end of the stick for the same base game price as the PO players got, and if you offer too much content to the SP players, then the PO players wonder why they are paying so much more to rent the content rather than just play the SP game.

The way that they build their system seems to be that they were trying to force as many people into the PO offer as they possibly could, by severely limiting the SP part of the game, now start to add the content into the SP game and theres little to no reason to stay with the PO part of the game as you might as well just "buy" the content instead of "rent" it at a substantially higher price (depending on what the prices roll out as obviously).

My 2 cents.

quote>

I've been saying this for ages.  If they wanted to release content for solo players for a one-off fee, they would have done so by now.  It's not rocket science.

They've laid siege to the city builder solo players, knowing that we're both crazy about the genre and essentially without options, and I suspect they're just waiting to see if they can starve us out so we come crawling to PO.

[Asheroo 53]

Originally posted by: littlesquare.dot

I've been saying this for ages.  If they wanted to release content for solo players for a one-off fee, they would have done so by now.  It's not rocket science.

They've laid siege to the city builder solo players, knowing that we're both crazy about the genre and essentially without options, and I suspect they're just waiting to see if they can starve us out so we come crawling to PO. quote>

Well, ok, yeah that's obvious, but how on Earth does that affect the way I like Cities XL? I don't just dislike a game because the company is doing some business model that's not too good, especially if I like the game. Those of us who like the game, like the game, so yeah of course we'll buy it and enjoy it. Forget about the business model behind all this, we like the game and that's that. If people want to subscribe to the PO into MC's so called "trap", then ok then, they like it so they'll subscribe.

Obviously the company has now realised their business model is a little to restricting and they have found a better way to make money, content packs for single player for a fee. They didn't realise it at first because they thought their tricks with the PO would work, and they have been quite successful, but not as successful as they want to be.

Overall though, of what has been said above, why should it affect if we like the game or not? We like the game, we'll buy it. We like the PO, we'll subscribe to it. Some of us dislike the business model (including me), oh well just better hope MC will learn better (and they have), but we still like the game and the PO (not me though). And here come these single player content packs for a fee, I like it, I'll buy it (if it's a decent price to me).

[soltangris 42]

We don't have SP content packs for a fee, yet. Don't forget that.

Although you're right, Asheroo, the people that really like the game do so without expecting so much stuff as those that declare that they're waitig for something... Maybe they only expect some more mass transit, that's all. But as for the business model, it's not something unheard of, it's simply MMO. When you tell someone a game is MMO, he knows he'll have to pay to play monthly.

The problem comes from the folks that aren't used to pay to build a city. And, to be honest, I'm one of them. I realise what MC is trying to do, but I also realise that they're not ready with the right features that can turn a city-building game into an interesting MMO experience.

SO, It's those people that MC is trying to attract by changing their PO model. Let's hope they'll come up with something sensible.

[valhum 23]

Well, i just got into this game this week and I must say that I was scared by all the "complains", talks, etc that are in this forum about the game. After a few days of playing i am really liking the game, it is fun to see it grow and the whole PO thingy is not that bad, true it doesn't have anything interesting besides trading and maybe the whole bus thing but that is the reason i got just the online version of the game..........but now that i think about it, i don't wanna spend $120 dls a year to play a game, DAMN!! that is a lot LOL, i guess i will try it for 4 months, to get my $40 bucks as if it was a normal solo version and i will check if i should get the Solo version but damn again, i would've spent $80 instead of $40 LOL..... i am starting to get confused LOL

Ok, so seriously, the Solo version is THAT bad?!?!? I mean, what is missing besides trading and Buses ?!?!?!?!?!?

[nitroglycerine 0]

 I think its more knowing that we never are going to get busses, or any other cool stuff.

[valhum 23]

Oh ok, i get it now....... damn =/

[Asheroo 53]

Originally posted by: nitroglycerine

 I think its more knowing that we never are going to get busses, or any other cool stuff.quote>

Lets not assume here, that's what really destroys reality. For now, it's a maybe, maybe not thing, but just at least look at the possibilities and what we have. MC are changing business models and in the survery did have a number of questions asking single players how much and how frequently would we pay for and buy content packs for single player, so I'd say it's very likely we'll see buses in solo mode. Lets just wait a little while until MC says more about this.

You can't jump to conclusions without the conclusion happening itself, you can predict, but you can never end it until the conclusion occurs.

[littlesquare.dot 0]

Originally posted by: Asheroo

Originally posted by: nitroglycerine

 I think its more knowing that we never are going to get busses, or any other cool stuff.quote>

Lets not assume here, that's what really destroys reality. For now, it's a maybe, maybe not thingquote>

It's been a 'maybe, maybe not thing' for two months, since they declared it a maybe.  

Not a word from them since, and if you look at it logically, it simply doesn't make sense for them to release content to SP as long as PO subscriptions are adequate.

You're right, assumptions can be problematic at the best of times, but with the utter lack of communication, what exactly can we do but assume.

MC has not put the solo players in a fair position.  Just say yay, nay, or even still maybe, but say something.  They shouldn't have left us hanging. 

[Tuscan 20]

Originally posted by: valhum

Ok, so seriously, the Solo version is THAT bad?!?!? I mean, what is missing besides trading and Buses ?!?!?!?!?!?quote>

Well Valhum, the same things that are missing from PO really, except in Single Player your chances of seeing these things fixed/added in the near future are slimmer. Basically as a single player gamer you will be the last to get any new features/content like mass transit and public transport, eventually im sure it will come, but as a single player gamer Monte Cristo will probably charge you for it.

Single Players also get much less options when it comes to choosing maps too.

If you want to play Single Player id suggesting sticking to SC4, it has far more features (which come with the game), it has regions and you can build your own maps, unless you are playing purely for graphics, then go for CitiesXL. 

Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully in a year the CitiesXL single player experience would have improved.

[valhum 23]

So far i decided to pay for a couple of months of PO, kinda liking the game i even upgraded my video card to enjoy it more.....oh and yeah, loves me some SC4, been a fan of the series since 1994, hope they do SC5