SimCity: Gameplay

[aereus 106]

I get the feeling that the regions vs cities aren't meant to be to scale. That is, regional transport is more of an abstract display of how things are connected. The detailed transport displayed in correct ways (curving tram turns etc) are for inside cities themselves.

I do think that road and rail regional transport not being available to all city plots is a mistake. Sure, not all cities IRL have rail that go through them; but if they are going to make rail such a huge supplier of tourists, we should be able to extend regional transport to them. Even if it ends up being an extra cost to the city later on in its life.

It seems like there are certain plots that would just rarely get used then in a Region. And rather than take an inferior city tile, people would just start a new Region to get prime city tiles.

  Edited October 4, 2012 by aereus  

[neil5280 31]

I think this game looks awesome, it's nothing like SC4 and quite frankly I could care less.

How much less could you care?

[ferryv 94]

So Maxis finely showed a movie with some gameplay (http://www.simcity.c...imCity-gameplay) Thanks for that Maxis

There were a couple of things new to me like the casino and the trainstation. Also the graphics looked better than the alpha demo version that i played ()

But after watching it closely i notice a couple of things i didnt like so much. Still the map size is very small. It looked even smaller than the alpha version that i played. So i took a couple of screenshots and put them together. The result:

It only took 14 buildings to cover half of the map! The trainstation is smaller than the trains that are comming in! and the connection to the region train tracks was 90 degrees!

So i really hope to see some bigger maps soon (hint to Maxis_MD )

Anyway, im still a fan of the new game and still gonna buy it. But my expectations are lower than i want it to be.

Greetings,

FerryV

Ps. read the tekst in the picture

  Edited October 4, 2012 by ferryv  

[flyer2359 92]

I like how the city seems "alive" but we seriously need some larger maps. With them being that small, you'd be able to complete a whole region by yourself in the matter of a few hours.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I think these gameplay videos are promising. Some of the things look good, some look disappointing but all in all, the most recent video looks wonderful. If and when they offer the game at a sizable discount, I will purchase it.

--Ocram

[NCGAIO 562]

There's still more stuff in development, my tweetversation with Mr. Pierre at Maxis Revealed That the far-right two buttons (the ones with arrows) are still under development but That They Were "exciting" ..... Could this mean some sort of highway? ....

I suspect you've forgotten that these can be just viaducts because does not make sense to have Highways in the small space of the Towns. Neither matches what already shown,

The rail network does not exactly meet at a 90-degree angle if you look Closely, this, like the Lack of regional highway interchanges, may still be in the works, though I too would prefer to see it impossible for the 90-degree junction on the rail network, since the train I know of can handle the sharp curve That.

Yes maybe not to 90 but to 81 it make difference ?. Apparently everything is still in the works because the trams are treated equally.

Neither will extend over here but for those who have curiosity my sugestion to download the video and run it more slowly. Pause it to understand what has been simplified to make the game easier and have fun especially in the final part of the train station with the casino.... incredible things!

  Edited October 5, 2012 by NCGAIO  

[VeritaScientia 150]

My suspicion of why the city size seems smaller than the demo is because this is possibly a non-release internal-test version, they don't need big maps if they're testing certain features, and larger maps would be overly cumbersome to test smaller features.

[Haljackey 17,398]

I remain cautiously optimistic. Looking for more realism which the game seems to be lacking at this point.

[pagenotfound 53]

Those railroads look horrible.

[CaptCity 4,914]

A few gameplay threads merged here, so some redundancy or sequence issues may have resulted. We don't need several topics on the same video.

[Greyflame 54]

These are the tweets I sent to Maxis after seeing the video:

@Simcity Gameplay video was alright, but not going to lie, it was also a bit disappointing. Why so many 4/6-lane roads in a town of ... 358?

@Simcity And how can trains turn at 90 degree angles? In a game that allows curvy roads, I'd think trains would have more realistic switches

@Simcity How does a city of 358 support such large commercial offices? Those are bigger than the downtown offices in my home city of 90,000.

@Simcity Where are those 358 people living anyways? I counted about 25 houses. That's like 14 people per ... trailer house.

@Simcity Don't get me wrong, the glassbox engine looks superb. But the scaling has me horrified. Giant roads and offices in a remote hamlet?

I feel ... dirty. I've been defending this game since my first post. But I'm feeling disillusioned. The simulation itself seems great to me; cool traffic management, resources, etc. But ... it feels like they're abusing its potential with really janky design. The engine doesn't create any of these problems, the design choices do. I'm sad :C

[Pandemic 32]

It looks pretty great, the agent system with the water, electricity and sewerage traveling underground is a pretty cool system, hopefully this is the beginning of more gameplay!

[Wiimeiser 452]

Taking another look at the video:

1. There is a town across the water but not where he hovered the cursor;

2. The three rightmost road options, two seem to be upgrades and the other resembles the highways seen in the region void, but I could be mistaken.

EDIT: The way he zoomed in resembles TS3, and it looks like he had already selected it and was just returning to it. So I assume it'll be like TS3.

  Edited October 5, 2012 by Wiimeiser  

[Vampirovibrio 43]

Going slightly off topic here but I was wondering given the fact that the 1st gameplay video was released on Thursday, will there be 1) an update in insider blog this week Friday? 2) will the same gameplay video be used on next Tuesday 's session? It would really suck if 2) was true.

[LillySatou 117]

Those railroads look horrible.

i suspect they have a lot of work to still do on them, considering the fact that he made a railroad connection at a 90 degree angle, my guess is that it still has "programmer graphics" and they haven't deviated from its road origins just enough yet to make a judgement on how the rails look.

the demo was a bit uplifting for me as a whole. i can tell they still have a lot to work on.

[grugor 60]

Going slightly off topic here but I was wondering given the fact that the 1st gameplay video was released on Thursday, will there be 1) an update in insider blog this week Friday? 2) will the same gameplay video be used on next Tuesday 's session? It would really suck if 2) was true.

I think its supposed to be Live gameplay tuesday.

I wouldnt worry about the rail connection issue as this is a minor detail that can be easily fixed.

Im not too worried about the size of the cities in the gameplay trailer as maxis have said there will be regions you can enter for a fast game if you desire one.

I dont like the fact that some plots will have better transport connection options to the region than others.

There are 2 roads types that are "exciting" that we dont know about, but no sign of bridges , overpasses or oneway roads which will suck.

I dont like that the road type decides what the density of the buildings will be. In other words you will have to have avenues everywhere if you want a large (highrise) city.

I would love to put my sewer pipe into a river ( if there are rivers) and leave it flow downstream to another guys city. i would hate to be on the receiving end though.

[simtalay 19]

these are from youtube, screen shots taken, this is the offical vid from simcity.com.

For the record I think they are making a great job. Cant wait for release date. looks amazing!

So my view is that most cities/towns will be quite close, there will not be vast areas of land between cities, except where there is forest, water or mountains.

but yes the tile size being so small does suck!

  Edited October 5, 2012 by simtalay  

[GMT 389]

now with the first "real" gameplay footage, I must say I feel a little bit better about the game.

I still don't like the direction they're taking, my favorite would have been to start with SC4 and improve on that somehwere along the direction the modding community takes.

But I must honestly say I really like the graphics and the gameplay sort of holds a certain appeal if I look at it completely neutral.

It seems to take care of a wide variety of stuff to manage for a city without going too much into detail which would scare off the casual gamer, which is about 99% of all gamers out there.

Yet this is what I consider a city building GAME and not a city building SIMULATION like I wished the new real sim city to be...

[simtalay 19]

Into the city, or town, now and first thing he does is connect it up to the region highway.

interface is much cleaner, as others have mentioned, reducing the need to toggle user interface off to get a decent view of city as in SC4.

[simtalay 19]

Ok, he then lays a road,

and

What are those big green arrows for on the last two road types, they are both two lane roads, could these be over passes?

Also notice when he selects the road tool, in this case the avenue no tram tool, a white line appears, which I think represents the border?

[Wiimeiser 452]

That DOES look like the border.

Also considering how it zoomed in this is starting to look like TS3 and that's not a bad thing.

[Frode789 70]

I

These are the tweets I sent to Maxis after seeing the video:

@Simcity Gameplay video was alright, but not going to lie, it was also a bit disappointing. Why so many 4/6-lane roads in a town of ... 358?

@Simcity And how can trains turn at 90 degree angles? In a game that allows curvy roads, I'd think trains would have more realistic switches

@Simcity How does a city of 358 support such large commercial offices? Those are bigger than the downtown offices in my home city of 90,000.

@Simcity Where are those 358 people living anyways? I counted about 25 houses. That's like 14 people per ... trailer house.

@Simcity Don't get me wrong, the glassbox engine looks superb. But the scaling has me horrified. Giant roads and offices in a remote hamlet?

I agree completely! This has always annoyed me in Sim City 4. (scaling) You'd need at least 3000 cars per day on a stretch of road to even consider putting a 4 lane road there. Of course this is a game, but regardless; If you need to have tons of 4-6 lane roads in a tiny city with just a few thousands inhabitants..

And scaling when it comes to people per house. In that trailer house, 14 is indeed overkill.. Is that even possible if you stack then ontop of each other? hehe.. Realistic scaling in terms of people per house please.

[NCGAIO 562]

- City limit? When lying road show?

It seems obvious ... appears on top of the connector road and the same way as all other items in the game, when accessed the corresponding menu. eg: zoning when choosing RCI

- What are these? why the large green arrows?

Maybe viaducts ... since road not drag on the avenue created automatically.

Or bridges ... but only an assumption ... I do not see where to use.

  Edited October 5, 2012 by NCGAIO  

[simtalay 19]

again, there is a border line in th top right.

Now if this is the border then the train line from the region is inside the city tile, therefore we cannot bull doze it away. I guess. as we cannot change region features?

I like this view of the city

Now with those border lines as shown in prevoius pictures, and having a look on the region map, it seems like quite a large city, not really that small. Yes I know I still want MUCH BIGGER cities then what its offering but its not that bad.

[simtalay 19]

no for something I found interesting

these photos show after he lays the residential lots he says

"And the surveyors come in and start the groundwork for the houses"

BUT you actually SEE the surveyors driving in from the region, they are real sims, that drive in and start the work, it takes real sims to start a building off.

SO my question is

If he had not built the link onto the region highway, the surveyor sims could not drive in and houses would never be built. To me this says YOU MUST CONNECT TO THE REGION, at leats initially to get some sims in to start things off, I assume you can then cut off the road link to the region and rely on babies being born for population expansion. And if the link to the region was cut, how could people even leave? would the sims just walk off, down the road in the region?

[Pygma 24]

Hey,

im wondering one question regarding the sims jobs. Am i really getting it right that a sim, everyday searches for a new job? So he leaves his house at X in the morning and drives towards the next possible job location. If it is taken meanwhile, he searches for the next open position or returns home.

If yes, doesnt this dramatically increase traffic?

More and more i believe this sim city is only a base for a good game. Maybe the new Sim City 2/3/4 will do the job. Or hopefully its open for modifications.

I mean, i believe i can never build my functional dream city as i was able in all previous versions. There werent many boundaries to my ideas and imagination these times. (yes technology, market and my ideas evolved) but i dont play this game for fahwking 4 casinos, village-sized megacity, predefined highways and railroads. weeeheeee want to wind roads up a mountain, create a rural and low dense forrest city, many islands, tunnel networks to hide the streets, characteristic downtowns, mountain islands - my god they totally missed my point of playing this. sniff..

What i see in this game is what was fun the first few hours until you got the mechanics. The other Sim Cities seem to have startet where this game ends.

bet you read this stuff a hundred times but as human as we are i had to do my very own whining. thanks for the attention.

I hope im so damn wrong. It would hurt oh so much. Nah, got a little off my first intention and ent up in thoughts. And i know its all too negative, first we'll see what we end up with. And then we still have our own efforts, Simtropolis, Devotion and may some revived siblings.

edit: trying to fix grammar and stuff.

Thanks for reading, rgds,

Pygma

  Edited October 5, 2012 by Pygma  

[NCGAIO 562]

Eureka!! .... the solution .. just cut the ties and all can play alone a single city!

But wait a minute ... since they have to choose a specialization for the town as an energy supplier; fun or services and considering that only links can access to the Great Works Site (eg; Airport) ... I think that without customers or suppliers a city goes dies!

Maybe this does not work !!

- It's kinda obvious that the railway of the region can not be removed, as well as the highway or the other cities would no connection!

  Edited October 5, 2012 by NCGAIO  

[Pygma 24]

There are still games out there designed for the niche market, like Trainz for example, made by a small but dedicated company with a fantastic community and a ton of free content. I've completely made up my mind and have said goodbye to Simcity. EA is never ever gonna get one more dime from me for the reason that they don't answer any niches. If you think about it; they served a niche that was quite frankly gigantic, SC4 is still selling to this day. They will loose, not us.

How many times do people have to say it? The climate of gaming has changed since 2003! EA releases so many titles they could easily write off SimCity, but instead, they're bringing a game to market that can show the Facebook crowd how a city-simulator can be, instead of being hampered by constraints like energy or other things. What isn't in the game at launch can and more than likely easily will beable to mod the game. EA can do without your dollar anyway, Essex, because with the strategy they're trying, there's a good chance there's going to be more people buying this game than have ever bought a game in this series before. It's really funny to me how you are so set against this game before it's even been released, you don't know all the features of the game. Like someone else said, you're just like a Zelda fan, ready to dismiss the game just because its not a clone of the best one. This game is a new game for a new decade.

The Global Market idea that so many people whine about.........heck, that makes it interesting. Whole new challenge each time you get into the game. Would I like a sandbox mode too? Yes. I think they should have a SCURK-like mode. While there will likely be some people who will try to goldfarm and skew the economy, most won't be greatly affected once enough people are involved in the game.

Think of this too: With SimCity online, The Sims 4 might use the SimWorld developed for SimCity, and then EA could revive others, like a new Streets of SimCity, SimCopter, etc.

Oh youre so right. But we shall never ever simply accept whats going wrong. We have to express ourselves. Yes a world has changed, and there are good aspects, but.. Ah i cut it here.. its a too moral thingy.. nothing matters.

  Edited October 6, 2012 by CaptCity  

[VeritaScientia 150]

Eureka!! .... the solution .. just cut the ties and all can play alone a single city!

But wait a minute ... since they have to choose a specialization for the town as an energy supplier; fun or services and considering that only links can access to the Great Works Site (eg; Airport) ... I think that without customers or suppliers a city goes dies!

Maybe this does not work !!

- It's kinda obvious that the railway of the region can not be removed, as well as the highway or the other cities would no connection!

Maxis has said you don't have to specialize your cities.

I also find it interesting the highway sign says something like "State street" in German? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think i'm close

[NCGAIO 562]

Said where?

You read the sign?