Speculation & Discussion

[waybig 35]

SimCity designed to support mods

by Andrew Yoon, Mar 07, 2012 12:30pm PST

Related Topics – SimCity 5, Electronic Arts, PC, Mac, GDC 2012, SimCity Series, Maxis

The new SimCity, due for 2013 on PC and Mac, is powered by a new proprietary engine called GlassBox. It is described as "a new data-driven simulation engine" that is Maxis' "bet for the future." At a panel during Game Developers Conference, the studio detailed how GlassBox will power the upcoming SimCity "reboot" and promised that the modding community will be able to get their hands on their powerful new tools.

"We're huge fans of our modding community," creative director Ocean Quigley told the audience. "We've designed all this stuff to be moddable."

"We know modding is hugely important to our community," Quigley noted. "We know the reason why people are still playing SimCity 4 ten years later is because the modding community has kept it alive. GlassBox is built to be moddable, but beyond that we haven't announced anything"

While coming short of announcing full mod support for SimCity, Maxis did add that "we're using the same package format The Sims and SimCity 4 used," showing Maxis' desire to make it easy for Sim fans to transition to GlassBox tools.

http://www.shacknews..._medium=twitter

[Frode789 70]

Thank god

[Azurespecter 506]

I have no doubt that modding will be available... but the question is to what extent? With the introduction of multiplayer, I tend to think that a lot of restrictions will be placed on modding.

[Cob92 360]

Good to hear that they're behind the modding community. I've got faith that this will be a good successor to SC4; Maxis has yet to fail us.

[Altus 111]

Well, I'm sold. Looks like Maxis is being true to the fans and giving us the tools we need!

[Tarkus 6,932]

I have no doubt that modding will be available... but the question is to what extent? With the introduction of multiplayer, I tend to think that a lot of restrictions will be placed on modding.

We're not dealing with the incompetent types at Monte Cristo with their quixotic "City of Warcraft get-rich-quick scheme". They could have found a way to make modding work within their paradigm, but they bungled it up like everything else, deluding themselves that they were Blizzard. They were apparently on the verge of going under even before CXL, and they basically tried one last desperate gambit to try to get more money out of people--and it failed spectacularly.

The folks at EA/Maxis have been quietly watching ST and SC4D and what we've done with the game for some time now (and have seen CXL's massive failure), and by all appearances, they're favorably inclined.

-Tarkus

  Edited March 7, 2012 by Tarkus  

[Firebird 40]

I have no doubt that modding will be available... but the question is to what extent? With the introduction of multiplayer, I tend to think that a lot of restrictions will be placed on modding.

I definitely agree with you. I remember a Money Tree on the official BAT exchange that gave you around a billion dollars a month. Someone with a building like that could quickly start taking over the leaderboards and screw up whatever simulated economy Maxis may create for the game.

  Edited March 7, 2012 by Firebird  

[Chris_12 1]

Wow!, what a good news!, I knew Maxis wouldn't dissapoint its community and its fans

  Edited March 7, 2012 by Chris_12  

[Bipin 3,402]

By modding I assume they mean BATs too? Is it too soon to start re-working my CURB Sunken Highway set?

[Craig-Abcvs 1,595]

Are we hearing a collective sigh of relief across the custom content community?

Yes... yes, I think we are.

Thank you EA/Maxis!

[CWLGAMER01 39]

I have no doubt that modding will be available... but the question is to what extent? With the introduction of multiplayer, I tend to think that a lot of restrictions will be placed on modding.

I definitely agree with you. I remember a Money Tree on the official BAT exchange that gave you around a billion dollars a month. Someone with a building like that could quickly start taking over the leaderboards and screw up whatever simulated economy Maxis may create for the game.

... I think we will see fully moddable options. Maxis is aware as Tarkus said. The easy fix would be to allow all players who play within the region the same access to the mods. That way if a player uses the "money lot" then the other players are alerted to this via text message or chat feature. Regardless - mods will be made and used - you can count on that! Maxis will come up with a cleaver way to deal with the excellent points you have made.

[meowza 230]

REJOICE! Maxis knows us, they know how complex and detailed we want our mods to be! I have full faith on them!

Now, knowing that Maxis will be giving us modding tools. What more on single player offline sandbox mode?! It's a damn giveaway. But still, we need official confirmation on this one.

Modular Buildings + Modding = WIN!

  Edited March 7, 2012 by meowza  

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

Maxis. I love you. Don't you ever leave me again baby.

[Rokugatsu 126]

This news really made my day

[BurroDiablo 222]

Fantastic news! We have a winner!

[Simlock 3]

The new SimCity, due for 2013 on PC and Mac

Mac also? It's official now??

[alex macnamara 139]

It wouldnt be a bad idea for you modders here to start building base 3D models to boot. You can always adjust the poly counts. ect. next year when we learn more about the glassbox tools. Juss saying

[brynhyfryd 222]

Great news. I assume that any modding would be confined to single player. Now Maxis need to confirm single player and all is good.

Its also feasable that any mods for multiplayer would either need to be uploaded to a server or alternatively all players within a group would need to have the same mods to play.

[tSlater 134]

It wouldnt be a bad idea for you modders here to start building base 3D models to boot. You can always adjust the poly counts. ect. next year when we learn more about the glassbox tools. Juss saying

I wouldn't quite say that yet. There's a lot of different modeling programs out there, and a lot of different formats. These formats don't always convert very well (and sometimes have to be converted from one format to another, and then again to another just reach the desired file type.) I'd wait until we have an idea as to what modeling programs / formats it will support.

[jacksunny 741]

As for modding and multiplayer, here are several possible scenarios:

1. Custom Content is made only available for single player mode. Multiplayer mode will have no custom content. This will ensure that people don't cheat, as mentioned in a post above. The problem with getting the mod to everybody also arises.

2. Custom Content is made available everywhere. To get Custom Content in multiplayer mode, the plugin that one player downloads is automatically transferred to all the other players, kind of like Dropbox.

There could also be settings for custom content and multiplayer. The players can decide if they want to allow custom content in their region, and then possibly set limitations. For example, a group of people decides that they only want to allow custom Fire Stations, nothing else. They could set this.

[LivingInThePast 364]

I wonder if DLC would run against this and cripple it?

[Jahnri 21]

Can we feel the LOOOOOVE!? Man today just went from awesome to .. well pretty hard to quantify how happy I am.

First we get resources like I have envisioned it and then we get news of modding. This is a joyous day.

[gbones 0]

Powerful message is powerful.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, there will be a different set of tools, so nobody get too excited as yet.

Now if they are bothering for MAC, why not pick up the same level of market share with Linux? Conditional compiles are easy. I'd like to have a native code version. Linux and MAC OS/X are not that different. And if this is released on DVD, there is no reason that all platforms can't be on the same disk. If it is on-line distribution, it is even easier.

Please, EA, no more Microshaft lock-ins. I hope Glassbox is OpenGL. This would mean that pretty much any decent graphics package can be used for modeling. Blender, for example.

Let the excitement die down. We are giving our server a heart attack, or at least hardening of the arteries. It has gone down twice on me today.

  Edited March 8, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[Techleo 18]

Your about to give me a heart attack from laughing Moose.

You mean native support for Linux right? Not emulation ?

I suppose that could be done if they run the game on Mac.

Would be surprising though if it was planned for at this point.

Linux isnt exactly a gaming OS

[Charlie_Zane 963]

I can't wait to see what people will create! But since it is multiplayer, would the other person be able to see say a modded skyscraper in the other person's city? Or will that person have to have that mod for him to be able to see it?

[jacksunny 741]

Linux isnt exactly a gaming OS

What evidence do you have to support this? I think giving native support for Linux is perfectly reasonable, a lot of people use Linux distros.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Linux isnt exactly a gaming OS

What evidence do you have to support this? I think giving native support for Linux is perfectly reasonable, a lot of people use Linux distros.

Ho, ho! Take a look at the software catalog sometime. Linux is derived from UNIX and pretty much any game you've ever seen on UNIX runs here. There are several thousand available. Not only is the operating system small and fast, but it is also relatively bullet proof. The only reason 'PC games' are not much available is that nobody writes them. Damn fools. The operating system is free.

In a new production such as SimCity 2013, there is no reason not to include the build parameters in the make files for Linux. There is a wide choice of API graphics engines starting with OpenGL and going to GTK+3. It is just a matter of sensible, standard, portable programming and avoiding silly things like DirectX. If you don't make native Linux, it doesn't matter all that much except I'd like to avoid the additional overheads for wine or mono. After all, we are talking about the same hardware (X86-64).

What did you think Linux was used for? Have you even looked?

[croxis 150]

Rock paper shotgun has more details: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/08/back-from-simulation-city-inside-maxis-glass-box/

When asked about mods, they were just a little cagey, and couldn’t reveal any details but said:

We’re huge fans of our modding comunity. If you look at how Sim City 4 is still relveant today, it’s mostly because of the mods. We’ve designed things to be modable, andwWe’re using the same patching system from Sim City 3000 and 4. Glass Box is built to be modable.

[VeritaScientia 150]

I think something like this could work:

Set up an online cloud-based clearinghouse for lots, that way we all don't have to download separate buildings. Oh how I could go to the City-Building forum and ask so many people "Where did you get this building? or this one? and those three? no not the one you took the pictures of, the three in the background"

It'd also solve the problem of viewing people's cities and not having the buildings they have on our computers.