SimCity: Gameplay

[flowmotion 24]

RRT2 and TTD are some of my favorite games of all time, but I'd prefer not to deal with resource/industry management in SimCity any more than is required for the 'city theme'. I think it would greatly distract from the core gameplay.

[Mad- 4]

The gameplay would be cool, but there is one thing that is very bad in the game, zoning is automatic, and if the gameplay is so, I will not play simcity.

I hope they repent, and the game has manual zoning, like in simcity 4

[Saint Andrew 6]

Hi everyone, I haven't played SC4 in years but was really excited that a new SimCity was coming! I tried to read most of the pages in the forum and looked at all Maxis provided up to now and I'm kind of worried about one thing particularly: Regions. Will we be able to connect multiple city tiles to create a mega metro area? It seems even too obvious that we should have that to even have to ask but from what I understand we won't have more than one tile to play with? That has to be a misunderstanding because it doesn't make any sense. I can't believe people would have fun without being able to make huge metropolitan regions that cover tens of different interconnected tiles. Please give me info on this if you have any

Thanks!!

[grugor 60]

Hi everyone, I haven't played SC4 in years but was really excited that a new SimCity was coming! I tried to read most of the pages in the forum and looked at all Maxis provided up to now and I'm kind of worried about one thing particularly: Regions. Will we be able to connect multiple city tiles to create a mega metro area? It seems even too obvious that we should have that to even have to ask but from what I understand we won't have more than one tile to play with? That has to be a misunderstanding because it doesn't make any sense. I can't believe people would have fun without being able to make huge metropolitan regions that cover tens of different interconnected tiles. Please give me info on this if you have any

Thanks!!

You can play on as many tiles as you want, but they wont be beside eachother. they may close as in across a river, but no side by side tiles

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

Ugh~!

Can you believe all those "graphics whores"... forgive the rude sounding term and let me give its meaning...

"Graphics whore" - someone who claim themselves as hard core gamers but actually only care for stunning & "better" graphics, not actual game mechanics.

... who've been commenting on the gameplay video for SIMCity 2013 as well as on people who do "Lets Plays" of SC4, such as this one:

Look for the comment of the guy whose Youtube account name iis "Ghost Ghoslik" or so & read his stupid comment.

Just because this new game is visually better than SC4 he exclaims that SC4 is a joke. The jerk fails to realize that to the "real" die hard SC4 fans of Simtropolis & other SC4 fanbase communities out there the new game IS the laughable game seeing as EA's policies will lead to the game's failure.

  Edited October 17, 2012 by CahosRahneVeloza  

[Saint Andrew 6]

Hi everyone, I haven't played SC4 in years but was really excited that a new SimCity was coming! I tried to read most of the pages in the forum and looked at all Maxis provided up to now and I'm kind of worried about one thing particularly: Regions. Will we be able to connect multiple city tiles to create a mega metro area? It seems even too obvious that we should have that to even have to ask but from what I understand we won't have more than one tile to play with? That has to be a misunderstanding because it doesn't make any sense. I can't believe people would have fun without being able to make huge metropolitan regions that cover tens of different interconnected tiles. Please give me info on this if you have any

Thanks!!

You can play on as many tiles as you want, but they wont be beside eachother. they may close as in across a river, but no side by side tiles

Well that doesn't make sense ! How are we supposed to build a real city ???

[VeritaScientia 150]

Hi everyone, I haven't played SC4 in years but was really excited that a new SimCity was coming! I tried to read most of the pages in the forum and looked at all Maxis provided up to now and I'm kind of worried about one thing particularly: Regions. Will we be able to connect multiple city tiles to create a mega metro area? It seems even too obvious that we should have that to even have to ask but from what I understand we won't have more than one tile to play with? That has to be a misunderstanding because it doesn't make any sense. I can't believe people would have fun without being able to make huge metropolitan regions that cover tens of different interconnected tiles. Please give me info on this if you have any

Thanks!!

You can play on as many tiles as you want, but they wont be beside eachother. they may close as in across a river, but no side by side tiles

Well that doesn't make sense ! How are we supposed to build a real city ???

On SimCity's facebook I have asked them to consider having contiguous city tiles.

[cirugo 1,889]

Hi everyone, I haven't played SC4 in years but was really excited that a new SimCity was coming! I tried to read most of the pages in the forum and looked at all Maxis provided up to now and I'm kind of worried about one thing particularly: Regions. Will we be able to connect multiple city tiles to create a mega metro area? It seems even too obvious that we should have that to even have to ask but from what I understand we won't have more than one tile to play with? That has to be a misunderstanding because it doesn't make any sense. I can't believe people would have fun without being able to make huge metropolitan regions that cover tens of different interconnected tiles. Please give me info on this if you have any

Thanks!!

You can play on as many tiles as you want, but they wont be beside eachother. they may close as in across a river, but no side by side tiles

Well that doesn't make sense ! How are we supposed to build a real city ???

Good question! Get in line with the rest of us! (and that's not the only head scratcher...)

[Frode789 70]

Well, you can't.. There will be this stupid space around each tile, so forget trying to build a realistic city..

  Edited October 19, 2012 by Frode789  

[jacksunny 741]

There have been talks of releasing expansion packs/DLC that would fill the empty space with something. Farms, for example.

Personally, I'd like to see it so you can "buy" land next to your city and build in it. This is of course assuming that just letting us have cities side by side isn't going to happen.

[VeritaScientia 150]

There have been talks of releasing expansion packs/DLC that would fill the empty space with something. Farms, for example.

Personally, I'd like to see it so you can "buy" land next to your city and build in it. This is of course assuming that just letting us have cities side by side isn't going to happen.

Asymmetrical city expansion would be a very neat idea, and there shouldn't be any reason why it's not possible.

[cirugo 1,889]

There have been talks of releasing expansion packs/DLC that would fill the empty space with something. Farms, for example.

Personally, I'd like to see it so you can "buy" land next to your city and build in it. This is of course assuming that just letting us have cities side by side isn't going to happen.

Asymmetrical city expansion would be a very neat idea, and there shouldn't be any reason why it's not possible.

There shouldn't be any reason why a lot of big things aren't possible that people aren't happy about...but they're more than happy to answer questions about intersection angles...

[VeritaScientia 150]

There have been talks of releasing expansion packs/DLC that would fill the empty space with something. Farms, for example.

Personally, I'd like to see it so you can "buy" land next to your city and build in it. This is of course assuming that just letting us have cities side by side isn't going to happen.

Asymmetrical city expansion would be a very neat idea, and there shouldn't be any reason why it's not possible.

There shouldn't be any reason why a lot of big things aren't possible that people aren't happy about...but they're more than happy to answer questions about intersection angles...

A lot of the people they're ignoring have already said they're not buying the game, and they're not going to answer questions from people who have already espoused an unwillingness to buy the game before it's even out. Why? Why not? If someone is going to badmouth your hard work and then say they've already decided not to buy it months before you've finished it, would you really care to hear their opinion? Probably not.

There are a lot LOT more people that can and that will buy this game more than the hardcore devotees of the series.

I've gotten a fair amount of answers from Mr. Pierre at Maxis by being polite and courteous (as much as that's possible on twitter.) He's said he's been bringing community concerns directly to the lead developers.

[cirugo 1,889]

There have been talks of releasing expansion packs/DLC that would fill the empty space with something. Farms, for example.

Personally, I'd like to see it so you can "buy" land next to your city and build in it. This is of course assuming that just letting us have cities side by side isn't going to happen.

Asymmetrical city expansion would be a very neat idea, and there shouldn't be any reason why it's not possible.

There shouldn't be any reason why a lot of big things aren't possible that people aren't happy about...but they're more than happy to answer questions about intersection angles...

A lot of the people they're ignoring have already said they're not buying the game, and they're not going to answer questions from people who have already espoused an unwillingness to buy the game before it's even out. Why? Why not? If someone is going to badmouth your hard work and then say they've already decided not to buy it months before you've finished it, would you really care to hear their opinion? Probably not.

There are a lot LOT more people that can and that will buy this game more than the hardcore devotees of the series.

I've gotten a fair amount of answers from Mr. Pierre at Maxis by being polite and courteous (as much as that's possible on twitter.) He's said he's been bringing community concerns directly to the lead developers.

they had ten years of "community concerns" to consider before they took this game in the anti-choice, anti-gamer direction they've taken it. polite pleading isn't going to do anything...failure and potential loss of money is obviously the only thing they're going to listen to.

[LexusInfernus 908]

they had ten years of "community concerns" to consider before they took this game in the anti-choice, anti-gamer direction they've taken it. polite pleading isn't going to do anything...failure and potential loss of money is obviously the only thing they're going to listen to.

Communities are often extremely conservative when it comes to the thing they have build their community around. If maxis had actually just listened to what the community had asked for, we would have gotten SimCity 4 with better graphics and a few small gameplay tweaks. Thats not making a new game, thats not trying to innovate, trying to create something new. Thats just tweaking something old. Maxis is taking a risk here by trying at the same time keep the essence of SimCity while at the same time doing a whole range of new things which inevitably means certain other things wont make the cut. So yeah, I can understand why Maxis might not act upon all the community concerns.

In any case, Im curious to what it will look like.

[cirugo 1,889]

they had ten years of "community concerns" to consider before they took this game in the anti-choice, anti-gamer direction they've taken it. polite pleading isn't going to do anything...failure and potential loss of money is obviously the only thing they're going to listen to.

Communities are often extremely conservative when it comes to the thing they have build their community around. If maxis had actually just listened to what the community had asked for, we would have gotten SimCity 4 with better graphics and a few small gameplay tweaks. Thats not making a new game, thats not trying to innovate, trying to create something new. Thats just tweaking something old. Maxis is taking a risk here by trying at the same time keep the essence of SimCity while at the same time doing a whole range of new things which inevitably means certain other things wont make the cut. So yeah, I can understand why Maxis might not act upon all the community concerns.

In any case, Im curious to what it will look like.

they didn't take it in a new direction...they took it backwards.

removing features people like in order to shackle players to the internet and give them resource trading and leaderboards...bad deal for SimCity fans.

[LexusInfernus 908]

they didn't take it in a new direction...they took it backwards.

removing features people like in order to shackle players to the internet and give them resource trading and leaderboards...bad deal for SimCity fans.

How are resources a bad thing? I honestly think it gives an interesting twist to the game. I mean, in real life resources arent infinite either. Stuff to build your buildings from doesnt appear out of thin air. Those things come from somewhere, and it gives an interesting economic aspect to the game. Im definitely interested in that. As for the internet, meh, social aspects are almost obligatory in any game these days. I dont care for it really, but I dont mind that its there. Yeah, annoying if the servers are down and I cant play it. But complaining about it wont suddenly make Maxis decide to remove it.

[mapboy 106]

they didn't take it in a new direction...they took it backwards.

removing features people like in order to shackle players to the internet and give them resource trading and leaderboards...bad deal for SimCity fans.

They haven't taken everything backwards. Very little, in my opinion.

But what they have taken forward has been leaped forward so much that I am able to see past any 'backwardsness' quite easily. i.e. Glassbox simulation.

  Edited October 21, 2012 by mapboy  

[cirugo 1,889]

they didn't take it in a new direction...they took it backwards.

removing features people like in order to shackle players to the internet and give them resource trading and leaderboards...bad deal for SimCity fans.

How are resources a bad thing? I honestly think it gives an interesting twist to the game. I mean, in real life resources arent infinite either. Stuff to build your buildings from doesnt appear out of thin air. Those things come from somewhere, and it gives an interesting economic aspect to the game. Im definitely interested in that. As for the internet, meh, social aspects are almost obligatory in any game these days. I dont care for it really, but I dont mind that its there. Yeah, annoying if the servers are down and I cant play it. But complaining about it wont suddenly make Maxis decide to remove it.

who's asking them to remove it? it would've been a nice addition...if they hadn't limited map size, transportation options, ability to zone where and how you want, ability to PLAY when and where you want, ability to terraform your own maps, ability to set your own regional transportation connections etc...

[LexusInfernus 908]

who's asking them to remove it? it would've been a nice addition...if they hadn't limited map size, transportation options, ability to zone where and how you want, ability to PLAY when and where you want, ability to terraform your own maps, ability to set your own regional transportation connections etc...

Well, most of the transportation options in SC4 came only with the Rush Hour expansion and the NAM, RHW etc. We might see more transport options in future expansions. Map size probably has to do with computer performance, simulating a city beyond a certain size is simply not very feasible on a lot of average computers, so I can understand that. After all, that only makes it more likely that I can actually play the new SimCity without to much performance issues (unlike SC4). While ability to terraform is a nice addition, it never bothered me in SC3000 where you also had to work with computer generated maps. It was already obvious that this SC is not going for the ultra realism, but for a more lighter approach while still retaining a good simulation at its core. And well, regional transportation, while nice, again never bothered me that much. SimCity is a city builder simulation, not a traffic control simulation.

Now, I wouldnt know about the zoning thing you mentioned, and as for the internet. I have internet, Im always connected, so it doesnt bother me. Yes, the servers might be down, or my internet connection might fail me. Sure. The power could also fail me or a fire might burn down my home and destroy my computer and all the games on my shelf. Is the fact that a game requires electricity or is stored on a disk that might melt in a fire a reason to hate on a game? No, so neither is internet by 2013. Everyone has it.

[Saint Andrew 6]

Well I definitely do not have a problem with resources or the zoning or the multiplayer or the always-online aspect, I just don't see why all those innovations keep them from putting in regular city tiles like before..... It's just really dissapointing

  Edited October 21, 2012 by Saint Andrew  

[Ombedor 23]

Well I definitely do not have a problem with resources or the zoning or the multiplayer or the always-online aspect, I just don't see why all those innovations keep them from putting in regular city tiles like before..... It's just really dissapointing

I don't have any special knowledge about the inner workings of the new game, but I do have some experience with developing software that uses some of the same ideas. I suspect that keeping the cities farther apart and limiting the number of direct transit connection between them helps keep minimize the amount of simulation state that needs to cross city boundaries and therefore dramatically reduces problems caused by the asynchronous nature of multi-player online play.

Maybe we can hope for future region layouts that are designed specifically for play by a single person or a smaller number of players where each one gets a small cluster of contiguous tiles.

[MegaCitySim 68]

Yes I really like the idea of contiguous tiles and single person region. Really miss creating big golf courses, zoos and farms in between my cities.

It is amazing how making simcity online changed so many basic things, and most of them are stuff enjoyed by the core fans and casual fans alike...

[Odainsaker 2,137]

We have to accept that this SimCity comes from a radically different game vision from what we have grown used to. We are not meant to try to semi-accurately recreate real-world cities or visualize fantasy cities through minature model building. Instead, we seem meant to "game" our cities, be it cooperatively or competitively.

I once heavily played "Stellar Crisis," a very early browse-based online strategy game based on multiplayer space empires. Players juggled their available resources to build a variety of spaceships with which to discover and colonize neighboring planets, as well as to attack and defend against other players. Most games involved 2 to 16 players, who could battle each other or forge alliances, and interactive diplomacy and group communication and coordination were significant components of the entertainment. The gameplay was akin to chess with the inclusion of randomized map resources, which were strategically managed in order to allow players to build enough warships to win, and while great fun, it was never thought of as an accurate model of spacefaring civilization--visually the "planets" were merely organized as a randomized chessboard, and astronomical scale simply did not exist. Individual games were quick and disposable...the purpose was to interactively rack up player stats rather than to freeze-frame an image of a model empire. Compare Stars! or Galactic Civilizations for the more indepth versions.

The new SimCity seems to lean this way. Rather than scale city modelling, we will play with quick, small city games, where we strategically juggle buildings and resources on an elaborate chessboard with an understanding of the simulation in order to gain our regional or leaderboard edge. Like all such games, the visualization is meant to be colorfully representative rather than scale accurate. We don't craft big homages to Central Park as an experiment in urban planning, instead, we drop in Park game pieces in order to push our game simulation numbers in some strategically beneficial direction, with an eye to what our allies/competitors are doing in the larger region. Actually, it can perhaps be fun, but we must abandon all our notions of using SimCity as a scale model for exacting recreations of our favorite hometowns using specialized mods or BATs on stitched-together contiguous maps, and accept instead a multiplayer strategy game. Indeed, this type of game is exactly what Maxis has said they were making when they said it would be multiplayer from the ground up.

[JaceTwice 115]

The new SimCity seems to lean this way. Rather than scale city modelling, we will play with quick, small city games, where we strategically juggle buildings and resources on an elaborate chessboard with an understanding of the simulation in order to gain our regional or leaderboard edge. Like all such games, the visualization is meant to be colorfully representative rather than scale accurate. We don't craft big homages to Central Park as an experiment in urban planning, instead, we drop in Park game pieces in order to push our game simulation numbers in some strategically beneficial direction, with an eye to what our allies/competitors are doing in the larger region. Actually, it can perhaps be fun, but we must abandon all our notions of using SimCity as a scale model for exacting recreations of our favorite hometowns using specialized mods or BATs on stitched-together contiguous maps, and accept instead a multiplayer strategy game. Indeed, this type of game is exactly what Maxis has said they were making when they said it would be multiplayer from the ground up.

Very well said. This is what I've trying to get at for a while. The new SimCity is much more of an actual game than any of the previous releases. Trading the ability to make what looks like a real city for the ability to make what behaves like a real city. Assuming the glassbox engine works as well is it's advertised.

Personally, I like the shift in priority since making scale models in virtual space always seemed a little hollow. But I'm in the minority on Simtropolis.

I can't certain it'll be as great as the past SimCity's, but more than anything I support actual experimentation and new ideas. SimCity 2013 will be valuable the genre as a whole even if it's just to see what becomes of the new direction Maxis is taking.

  Edited October 30, 2012 by JaceTwice  

[London-b 90]

If that's the case they should rename it to GameTown.

[JaceTwice 115]

If that's the case they should rename it to GameTown.

I get what your saying (I think), but SimCity has always been classified as a game. The gameplay certainly has more in common with titles like Roller Coaster Tycoon and Open TTD than true simulators like Microsoft Flight Simulator and Trainz.

The "virtual model city" is something the modders and community made, not Maxis.

  Edited October 30, 2012 by JaceTwice  

[MegaCitySim 68]

I don't get it. So the modders and community made a very successful virtual model city 'model', what poo poo it I mean it's not some worthless thing, why not expand on it and ride on it? That I don't understand.

The gameplay doesn't look like a city sim more like some action strategy thing with some plopping of buildings and roads so you can watch sims cross the roads. Gone are all the classic stuff...I really don't get why some members are complaining about other members crying about really extreme changes in gameplay. I mean if Skyrim decides to cut out free roaming and no more editor fans will freak right?

[Arangarx 20]

I don't get it. So the modders and community made a very successful virtual model city 'model', what poo poo it I mean it's not some worthless thing, why not expand on it and ride on it? That I don't understand.

The gameplay doesn't look like a city sim more like some action strategy thing with some plopping of buildings and roads so you can watch sims cross the roads. Gone are all the classic stuff...I really don't get why some members are complaining about other members crying about really extreme changes in gameplay. I mean if Skyrim decides to cut out free roaming and no more editor fans will freak right?

What one fan considers "classic" or essential is different that what another fans believes is. Sure if Skyrim cut out certain features that it currently has, people might freak out. We're not talking about cut features, we're talking about features not being added to a new game that fans of old games want.

[JaceTwice 115]

I don't get it. So the modders and community made a very successful virtual model city 'model', what poo poo it I mean it's not some worthless thing, why not expand on it and ride on it? That I don't understand.

Quite simply, It's the game that Maxis wants to make. They've said in the past that they always wanted to make a SImCity game where every sim and every car were actual simulation objects, but the technology wasn't there. So they used a statistical model.

Fast forward to today. The tech is now good enough that Maxis can simulate everything that wanted to. So they're just making that game they've wanted to make for a long time.

No-one is saying that the "virtual model city" worthless. It's just not the direction that Maxis wants to take.

The gameplay doesn't look like a city sim more like some action strategy thing with some plopping of buildings and roads so you can watch sims cross the roads. Gone are all the classic stuff...

What is this classic stuff that's missing? We'll still be laying roads and zoning. Sill balancing RCI and plopping services. Still dealing with traffic jams and planning out mass transit.

I really don't get why some members are complaining about other members crying about really extreme changes in gameplay. I mean if Skyrim decides to cut out free roaming and no more editor fans will freak right?

I have no problems with people wanting a bigger and better SC4. Nor do I have a problem with people not liking the new direction and choosing not to buy for one reason or another. I do have a problem with people outright dismissing and slamming the game because it isn't the exact game they wanted Maxis to make. Especially when there's no-one here that's played a full version for any decent length of time.

  Edited November 1, 2012 by JaceTwice