New Patch Coming

[bluespottedhorse 49]

I sent an email to Focus asking them if they were going to release a patch or modd for the horrendously large square lots in CITIESXL.  Here is their response.

---

Hello,

The game developers are collecting all bugs provided by the players in order to make a patch.

So there is a patch planned for CXL2011 but not this month, it's too early.

Display issues are often linked to the graphics card drivers.

You must update or reinstall your display drivers.

Best Regards,

Technical Support

Focus Home Interactive

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Based on their response, it's sounds like it's just a canned response and they never really read my email.  But siding on the positive side, maybe they are going to address the horribly large lot sizes in the next patch.

[GlobexCo 33]

Solve the problem you're talking about is quite impossibile.

That means redesigning the whole placing system, adding tons of new buildings... Focus just can't do it! 

[bluespottedhorse 49]

Originally posted by: GlobexCo

Solve the problem you're talking about is quite impossibile.

That means redesigning the whole placing system, adding tons of new buildings... Focus just can't do it! quote>

I hope not...Focus is the one responding. 

It's definitely not impossible. I know when we beta tested the 2009 version their was already talk from the developer that they may implement smaller lot sizes when they came out with the game.  Unfortunately, as everyone knows that and many other things never materialized. 

Now whether or not this new game still has that particular code is another question.

[1st4ck 0]

The lots from what i seen have always a fixed size, to make that size smaller is possible but like GlobexCo told its almost impossible due to hard work redesigning everything.

About the Placing system that can be done, from what i have read in cities xl there is mods with extra tools to place buildings.

What Focus could do is make new buildings smaller and keep the bigs, but to give a variety it would need to much design.

[bluespottedhorse 49]

Yes currently the lots are a large fixed square size.

Focus already uses a trick by adding more than 1 building to a lot.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look realistic and as everyone can see when looking at their cities, you can see the large square lots from above and they usually have terraces on all 4 sides...even on fairly level terrain.

[GlobexCo 33]

I really hope it's true!  

[abvex 0]

Their response was also very vague, note they never actually address your question.

[His Divine Hand 244]

I would argue that they never even understood the question. Their answer clearly is regarding graphical issues as opposed to issue with the game structure.

[soltangris 42]

I have to agree with the others that reworking the lots to make them smaller won't happen. What could happen is indeed for them to implement smaller lots along with the larger ones that we currently have. As for the buildings design, they could release finally the buildign tool to modders

Anyway, a patch is comming, keep your hopes up!

[Ocram's Razr 963]

The thing is that the early previews mentioned that there were smaller lot sizes in the Alpha so why do they not just dig those up? There was probably only 1 or 2 buildings for each of these lot sizes for each of these zones but with custom content, it would be fine.

[abvex 0]

I am getting a real bad feeling about Focus and the CitiesXL Developer. I rather have EA buy them and do the next simcity with an optimised version of the citiesxl engine.

I just don't think the current devs are competent enough to truly fix this game...if they haven't done it by now....what will another month do? They'll do some minimal optimization of the code that gives you a little more fps...thats all. No real memory leak fix nor the game actually using multiple cores. Which are the BIGGEST issues by far....then the broken trade and notification system....then we can start taking about road networks and lot sizes then mods.....

[Ocram's Razr 963]

My memory never shot up all that high. I have 8GB RAM and Cities XL never used over 2GB. The problem is that it monopolized a single core.

[Overkast 2]

Originally posted by: abvex

I am getting a real bad feeling about Focus and the CitiesXL Developer. I rather have EA buy them and do the next simcity with an optimised version of the citiesxl engine.

I just don't think the current devs are competent enough to truly fix this game...if they haven't done it by now....what will another month do? They'll do some minimal optimization of the code that gives you a little more fps...thats all. No real memory leak fix nor the game actually using multiple cores. Which are the BIGGEST issues by far....then the broken trade and notification system....then we can start taking about road networks and lot sizes then mods.....quote>

I think that's a natural feeling considering the jaded past of this game, but I'll bet you anything that Focus has some of the previous MC developers on their staff and working on this game for them.

The beta testers seemed all in concensus that Focus did fix a large amount of issues from v09 to v11, and with news of an impending patch they at least sound committed to supporting the game for now. It's only been 1 week since it was released, so let's see what happens... Focus at least deserves a fair shot.

I'm trying to stay confident that this game will eventually be opened up to the modders sometime down the road anyway... It's just a matter of time and patience. Though it would be in Focus' best interest to speak up more directly about that to the community, to help influence more sales even on the speculation of turning Cities XL into a legacy title like SimCity 4 became.

[bluespottedhorse 49]

Originally posted by: Ilikeseattle
The thing is that the early previews mentioned that there were smaller lot sizes in the Alpha so why do they not just dig those up? There was probably only 1 or 2 buildings for each of these lot sizes for each of these zones but with custom content, it would be fine.quote>

Yes that's true Seattle.

I did not buy the v09 version and I have not bought the v11 one either.  However, that does not mean that I think the game is a flop, it just simply doesn't meet my expectations in it's current flavour.  I've been jaded because one can do almost anything with SC4 thanks to the talented modding community.  I recently purchased CIV 5 and that game also has many shortcomings and bugs.  I've spoken to a number of friends who work in the gaming industry and they've all said that games are simply released before they are ready and thus have numerous issues and bugs.  This seems to be more apparent today than 10 years ago unfortunately.  I remember when I bought SC4 it also had bugs and eventually they were fixed.

I still believe that this game is a diamond in the rough and has so much potential. Given some time it could turn out to be what we've been looking for.  If after 3 months there are still no substantial changes to the game then I think we have every right to complain, but right now I think it's a bit premature to forecast the end is near.  Let's stay positive.

[soltangris 42]

Yes, look at how long it took for Starcraft 2 to be released. That's how long it should take for most games, and even more for more complicated ones like a city builder.

The problem is that nobody in the industry but Blizzard and EA (and maybe a couple more) can allow themselves to spend all time necessary to really finish the game. They are the only ones that have enough resources (money, people and time) to do this before the game is out and giving revenew. The rest..... they need to take loans, make deals, meet deadlines... all this makes impossible to take a really good care for their product.

But then again, EA has proven that the fact that they have the necessary resources doesn't mean that they have the right motivation, or dedication to produce a truly great product. They've never done anything as complete and mind-numbing as Starcraft, Diablo, or all those older games from the time people didn't need to care for a great graphic engine above all. I strongly suspect that if EA buys CXL, they'll do absolutely the same as Focus did - finish what MC left unfinished (maybe not even that, since they left a mountain of unfinished features), release the game to make some more bucks, and then stick it in the drawer and continue making Sims and other stuff that sells.

I think the right way to go with CXL is indeed to engage the modding cimmunity, producing more details and maybe fixing some bugs, while the devs work on polishing, and new features like the GEMs or the train system. From time to time they could publish something like 'the best of' - community stuff with their final approval and polish. I would buy that for a reasonable price.

[Overkast 2]

I agree with you soltangris on all points made, and I think Blizzard especially is an exception to the norm in software development. They're almost always awesome, and they're the model developer.

I think it's also important to remember that this problem exists beyond just the gaming industry... all software companies release bugs in their software because it is virtually impossible to perfect an application for an industry where the client side is always a variable. Especially now that custom PC-building is so abundant compared to how things used to be, it becomes increasingly harder to satisfy an audience of computer gamers. This is why game developers are leaning more and more towards consoles, because one game plays the same for all.

Also consider the price tag here. Developing software that sells at $40 a pop versus, say Adobe's Creative Suite of applications which amount to thousands of dollars. There's a higher standard to uphold your development to in applications than in games, and when considering all these variables and circumstances, the reality of the situation is that you can't possibly expect games from these small developers to be the holy grail of bug-free implementation.

What's interesting to me is that Focus Home decided to pick up this title from Monte Cristo in the first place. They took a seemingly dead title and somewhat resurrected it, so we could possibly be looking at a true re-birth in the making here for this game. We shall see...

[DaveParker 0]

A common issue with the placing of the current fixed-size lots is that a lot looks like it should fit somewhere, but doesn't quite. Sometimes a 2x3 grid of lots will fit somewhere but then you demolish them to build new ones there but in one of the spaces the lot doesn't fit so you end up having to stick a park / plaza there.

One idea could be if the game could detect when the lot will almost but not quite fit there, and then automatically scale the lot in one or both directions to squeeze it in. It'd be limited to just a few percent so it wouldn't look any different to the player, and the scaling shouldn't pose a problem as the graphics are all scalable 3D anyway. I'd be surprised if it ever happens though and I'm not sure what technical issues it may introduce that I've overlooked.

Originally posted by: abvex

I am getting a real bad feeling about Focus and the CitiesXL Developer. I rather have EA buy them and do the next simcity with an optimised version of the citiesxl engine. quote>

Don't really like that idea tbh. I can't remember at what point EA bought Maxis but I thought it was nearing the end of SimCity 4s completion and instead of fixing the issues with commute / random abandonment / pathfinding they added loads of pointless sims integration and U-drive crap. Then brought out SC Societies which was just a huge joke. They've messed up several other games I liked after buying them out as well.

Originally posted by: ilikeseattle

The thing is that the early previews mentioned that there were smaller lot sizes in the Alpha so why do they not just dig those up? There was probably only 1 or 2 buildings for each of these lot sizes for each of these zones but with custom content, it would be fine.quote>

It'd be good if they were introduced. Even if there's not many buildings of that type it'd at least give something to plop in the smaller gaps.

Originally posted by: abvex

I just don't think the current devs are competent enough to truly fix this game...if they haven't done it by now....what will another month do? They'll do some minimal optimization of the code that gives you a little more fps...thats all. No real memory leak fix nor the game actually using multiple cores. Which are the BIGGEST issues by far....then the broken trade and notification system....then we can start taking about road networks and lot sizes then mods.....quote>

I think they've done pretty well so far personally, though I do wonder how much of it was already in place but just not switched on in the last Cities XL (things like trains were in the trailer videos a long time ago). I've never noticed the memory leak myself, but agree if there is one that it should be a priority to fix. I don't think the game is ever likely to utilize multiple cores very much, it'd probably involve rewriting half the game and result in bugs and random crashing a lot more frequently.

[Asheroo 53]

Ok, I'm gonna add my input into this thread.

Firstly, your response from Focus does not say that they are going to make a patch for lot sizes. All it says is that they are planning to make patches for bugs and other problems of the game, so don't get too excited.

However, already are there buildings with no lots you can place on the ground. In the American pack with the harbour buildings, the building icons with a white background (instead of a blue background for water-only buildings) you can place on the ground. They don't have a visual lot, but they do have a very very small invisible around the outskirts of the building, just with tree decorations. Also, there's a trick where when you place them on the slope, it may show it constructed properly on a slope, with no retaining walls, but a building on stilts properly sitting on a slope.

Here's a picture of my city (continuing on from the beta) with what I mean by what I said above...

[ukecko72 1]

lot sizes are fine to me. they don't need to change them at all...

[kingBosko15 1]

I agree with that. first they need to fix the MAJOR bugs like.  multicore support, memory leak fix and other big bugs.

[soltangris 42]

Awesome screenshot Asheroo! God, what difference make some little details like these stilted houses placed correctly That's one think that continues to amaze me in CXL - there are always some little details that come up when you least expect to make your day Like the Oil rig and the Nuclear Plant blueprints. IMO, all the blueprints are awesome for me, can't wait to achieve enough office tokens surplus to start building them

Yesterday I was playing with the metro lines, did you know that if you run two lines together for a while (use two or more stations together), their tracks will snap together in the underground view?

[JuanGG 0]

Well I believe I read something about this bug here before, but I don't remember where...

There is a bug where the color of the buttons of the top bar changes each time you click them... Everything seems ok, all buttons are green. Then, you click one and it turns red, revealing problems.

Then, you click it again and it goes back to green!

Well I can't manage a city like that, when I can't know if there are problems or not!