Your Questions for Maxis (for March-April 2012)

[Kevin 101]

Hey Everyone,

We may have an opportunity to forward some questions to Maxis in the near future, and this thread is for compiling a list of questions that you'd ask the SimCity development team. We encourage the use of the "rep" button in the corner of each post as a way of voting for that question. In theory, the highest voted questions will be selected and sent to Maxis.

Try to be creative when coming up with these, and refrain from asking anything that has already been answered either in an article or the Reddit AMA.

Cheers!

-Kevin

As for this thread, I think it'd be better if you guys submitted your questions individually.

Say for instance you've got four unrelated questions, why not break them up into four separate posts so that we can vote for them individually? If a single post contained one very important question and three not so important questions, if people were to vote for the post, Maxis could then end up having to answer a whole heap of irrelevant questions just to get to the one people are interested in.

For this reason, I think double posting in this thread shouldn’t be an issue. Just don’t go crazy…

Agree!

Edit: Hey everyone, welcome to my post I agree with the above -Kevin

[Follarch 327]

Question: Will weather effects be added to the game, such as Windstorms, Thunderstorms, Rain, and Snowfall?

Also, Will the game be developed in a way where it's portrayed as Cartoonish or more-so realistic and serious?

Edit: Eh, after going through Reddit, second question was answered, much to my dismay and I think they confirmed there will be Rain, much to my excitement.

  Edited March 27, 2012 by Archean  

[Cockatoo 2,257]

Q: Will Sim City (2013) be playable in solo mode without being connected to the internet?

[Jazzmaster 716]

Q: How involved will the transit networks be? Will there be different widths of road and avenue, light rail versus heavy rail, etc. things of that nature?

[RABicle 9]

Question: Lately EA have become extremely effective at offering premium downloadable content for their games, often with this additional content available from launch day. SimCity is already available for pre-order on Origin with regular and premium content SKUs. However, unlike many EA games, SimCity has a large and active modding community, who give their creations away for free. How will premium DLC distinguish itself from fan made additions and what sort of additional content can we expect post launch?

Cockatoo: Yeah they said you can still develop your own region yourself if you want to.

In this day and age of DRM and online passes, it's possible that SimCity will require an internet connection for solo play.

  Edited March 27, 2012 by RABicle  

[jigsaw 227]

Q1: Maps. will you allow us to manipulate region maps and regions size tiles as easily as SC4? will we still be able to use the greyscale method to make our own maps?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by jigsaw  

[Cockatoo 2,257]

Cockatoo: Yeah they said you can still develop your own region yourself if you want to.

My question's more concerned with whether or not the solo game will actually require an internet connection to play.

They've said previously that even in solo mode, there will be some sort of global resource availability aspect that can be influenced by other players. So it could be assumed that even the solo game will need connectivity to run... I hope that isn't the case.

---

As for this thread, I think it'd be better if you guys submitted your questions individually.

Say for instance you've got four unrelated questions, why not break them up into four separate posts so that we can vote for them individually? If a single post contained one very important question and three not so important questions, if people were to vote for the post, Maxis could then end up having to answer a whole heap of irrelevant questions just to get to the one people are interested in.

For this reason, I think double posting in this thread shouldn’t be an issue. Just don’t go crazy…

[frdrcklim 139]

The makers of Tropico implemented a population cap of 1500 citizens I think in one island in Tropico 4. They reason that higher population will slow the game down significantly for most systems or something to that effect. Not that Simcity 5 will work the same way, but will a population cap be implemented per city in SimCity 5 seeing as 'agents' are individually simulated? My knowledge with these things aren't... vast, but wouldn't the game suffer from simulating agents individually or something like that? Can I, in theory, make a city of 1 million? (The three questions are more or less related .)

  Edited March 27, 2012 by frdrcklim  

[z1 566]

Why won't 4 km by 4 km cities be available? I can see that entry-level hardware for this game wouldn't support them, but I don't see anything that would prevent top-of-the-line machines from playing them. This is especially true considering the order of magnitude performance improvement of D* Lite pathfinding over A* pathfinding. I'm also assuming that you'll be multithreading pathfinding. Why not make the larger cities an option that those of us with quad processors (eight threads on Intel) or more can use?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by z1  

[meowza 230]

Power Play Magazine:

... For her entire life, she will go through this Dark City-esque routine, but she will always be a working class, and always living in small apartments or homes.

Question: Social Mobility. Is it true that citizens won't be able to climb up or down the social ladder? Instead, will they be obviously replaced to accommodate a different type of social class?

(Thanks Kevin for starting this thread!)

[nashville nelson 51]

Q: How big is the region size ? Can we choose the region size in MP or SP ? Can we make our own regions by terraforming or by importing greyscale maps ?

[RABicle 9]

(Split from my earlier question. I kept these grouped because they're related and any answer from maxis should be able to address both in one go.)

Question: Trailers, screenshots and interviews have hinted at being able to upgrade utilities such as fire stations with increased functionality. Can we expect all civic or ploppable buildings to act this way and will upgrading them allow them to develop varied appearances?

Question: Continuing with the theme of civic buildings. Budget balancing in SimCity 4 got bogged down in larger cities where you might have to individual alter the funding requirements of each school and hospital to keep them at an optimum level of funding. Since you've stated a wish to move away from some aspects of micromanagement, would you consider the funding of schools and hospitals to be set at an optimum level, going up and down as the population pressures on each individual school change through the cities development? You could even make this a 'gamey' aspect by enabling this by hiring a Sim, ticking an ordinance box or making a small accountancy office an upgradeable element of each building.

[meowza 230]

Power Play Magazine:

"It's a world of temp workers," Ocean Quigley explains. "Every morning you're looking for a new job. Every evening you're looking for a new house. ...

Quesion: Will we be dealing with citizens with nomad-like behavior all through out the game? Can't they settle to one house and job for a longer period at some point?

[jigsaw 227]

Q2: what is the expected long term support for the SC13 game? you created SC4, then a year after a great expansion, then nothing.. do you plan to have a goal of annual or planned periodic game expansion packs?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by jigsaw  

[dare2go 4]

[Damned, moving too much between forums, this should have been in English - SORRY]

I agree with the suggestion that each question should be a separate post!

My main concerns are:

1) ability to play WITHOUT Internet access as a single player (already mentioned)

2) carry over a good and varied traffic network and other mod-enhancements (already metioned too); at least Maxis stated that modding will be possible...

3 and NEW) [related to 2] will Maxis consider to involve some of the best modders in the development of the latest version, either employed or as freelance advisers? After all there's so much talent on this and various other boards, it would be a shame to waste it...

Ich schliesse mich dem Vorschlag an, dass jede Frage einen Extra-Post bekommen sollte!

Mir sind die wichtigsten Punkte:

1) Einzelspiel OHNE Internet möglich (schon genannt)

2) vernünftiges Verkehrnetz und andere MOD-Ergänzungen (auch schon genannt); zumindest will Maxis modden wieder möglich machen...

3 — NEU und im Zusammenhang mit 2) hat Maxis schon erwogen, einige der besten Modders in der Entwicklung einzubinden, entweder als Mitarbeiter, oder als Berater? Soviel gutes Talent hier im Forum, wäre 'ne Schande das zu ignorieren!

  Edited March 27, 2012 by dare2go  

[jigsaw 227]

Q3: how much do you research from our community? How much do you watch, look, read and learn from us? im sure we are all curious to the level of interest Maxis has with the community

[Epilef 57]

First question: How will the modding? Can we create new transportation options, add sewer (if any), implement changes in the gameplay, add functional buildings (municipal services), create new ordinances, change the interface,... or we only be able to add buildings to the game?

Second question: Is there any kind of control? We may add mods on our own (by Simtropolis, for example), or we will be dependent on some form of official store?

[MandelSoft 2,775]

OK, I have a few questions to Maxis, some that may have been asked before by other posters here:

1. Have you considered multiple city tile sizes? With SimCity 4, I personally prefered to play on the 4x4 km large city tiles only, since I could easily focus on a large area for construction. I might dream of even larger city tiles, but then peformance will be a great issue. Therefore, region play is a nifty compromise to this problem to overcome this; you can still build very large cities without so much lag that the game becomes unplayable. Since my playing style is spreading everyone out to a large surface area (1.5 million sims on a 12x12 area), it does not only look more realistic, but I also won't overload the traffic simulator
   
   Now I did hear that in this stage of development, only 2x2 km size cities are available, which is to my opinion, a quite small area to build your city (or even a part of it) on. If you want to recreate a city from Real Life from let's say 100,000 inhabitants, you require dozens of those city tiles, while with 4x4 km city tiles, you only need a few (4 or 5).
   
2. What kind of infrastructure is there planned? Roads (single-lane and multi-lane) are confirmed, but what about freeways, different kinds of rail, air and sea transportation? And how about other kinds of infrastructure, such as water pipes, electric cables, etc.? I have also some sub-questions regarding this subject:
   
   1. 
      
   2. How will freeway interchanges work out? Do you just plop some pre-fab interchanges like the standard freeways in SimCity 4, which is something I don't like; or can you build custom interchanges like the RHW, which I would definitely encourage?
      
   3. Are road layouts preset or can you customize it? Does the game give you a set of pre-set networks or do you have an advanced control of you road's lane setup and such?
      
   4. How does SimCity 2013 handle Airports? Are they pre-fab or customized. A customized setup allows you to use an optimal footprint for the airport.
      

[*]Have you considered a Planning Tool? I've come up with this idea a while ago:

For many years, me and my fellow city builders have a need of a way to plan our city developments. Currently, we build everything right away, which is not realistic in the first place, but also there are other fustrating issues surrounding this: mis-clicking (very annoying when you destroy the wrong building or road piece), mis-alignment or not enough budget to complete a project. However, there might be one not too hard to realise solution to this problem: the Planning Tool.

Instead of constructing and demolishing right away, you plan everything. This means you will be laying out everything (or remove things) without actually immediately executing your construction. Planning should be free of charge; the costs will be payed during the actual construction. Here's how the process should work:

1. Set the Planning Toggle to "ON". Some players, especially new players, would like to construct right away. By adding a toggle button you can satisfy both.
   
2. Then you can start planning. You can use the normal building tools lay out infrastructure, zoning and you can plan demolition, except everything will be flagged as planned (in programming terms, this would result in only adding a "Planned"-flag to the items). This will cost you nothing during this stage. Somewhere on the UI you'll see the planned costs when you decide to execute the plan. This will save costs and in this way you're able to correct your mistakes during planning (maybe a Eraser Tool could be handy here to cancel some plans). Planned items obviously don't serve any function (or lose function, in case of demolition) until the plans are executed.
   
3. When you're finished planning you can do three things.
   
   • Cancel all plans. This is if you are not satisfied at all about your plans and you want to start over
     
   • Execute parts of the plan with the "Execute"-tool. This will execute parts of your plan you click on. Remember, demolition will go before construction (if you plan some things through to-be demolished area)..
     
   • Execute all, to execute your complete plan.
     

I've seen one game that had such a tool: Trains & Trucks Tycoon. It's pretty nifty and it does save quite some money and trouble.

[*]Any plans to include more European stuff? I always had the feeling that SimCity was America-oriented, while there's still quite a large public in Europe and even Asia. That's why we have for SimCity 4 the Euro/International Road Textures Mod, a lot of Wall-To-Wall buildings in various old-European styles (Parisian, Polish, Dutch, etc.), typical old-European churches and cathedrals and other elements to give cities a little more European detail. The question is: does Maxis plan a basic variaty of styles in the basic game?

[*]What can we all mod? I know that modding is confirmed, but what stuff can we mod or add?

These were my elaborate questions

Best,

Maarten

  Edited March 27, 2012 by mrtnrln  

[Asheroo 53]

Will solo players who don't want such a big challenge be able to use cheats, such as money cheats like in Sim City 4, to help them build the cities of their dreams?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by Asheroo  

[jigsaw 227]

Q4: final question. SC4 is not just about buildings, it's also about transit networks, geography and nature. in the last few years, the level of detail that the custom community has developed has evolved to a large palette of nature... rocks, grass, trees, canals, ponds, waterfalls etc are now a vital part of our works. will this be catered for? we have seen the city-building side of things, do you have more info on the world/terrain side of things?

**seperated to be individual questions as requested

[Mark Waybill 242]

1. Will there be a Region-wide terraforming tool/mode?

I have more questions btw.

  Edited March 27, 2012 by Mark Waybill  

[The_City_Builder 299]

Q: Will multiplayer be free?

[Pandemic 32]

Will we need to be strategical with getting traffic flow moving effectively throughout the town for emergency responses to things such as fires and robberies, have a much quicker response, otherwise they get stuck in traffic, or does it not matter?

[jacksunny 741]

Q: We realize that modding has been implemented in the game, but in what modes is it being implemented in? Is it just single-player? Is it both? If it is being implemented into multiplayer, how will all players in a region get the mod?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by jacksunny  

[ziroi 14]

Q: Are there any plans to implement a "city-planning" or blueprint layer that allows you to layout future infrastructure or transit plans without accidentally demolishing a row of houses in the process?

EDIT: Woops...I didn't see that Mrtnlrn already posted this question...though... Could you perhaps break up your questions into one post each so that we can vote for them individually? I'll leave my question here for now.

  Edited March 27, 2012 by ziroi  

[mrboo001 12]

Curvy roads are nice, but can lots/buildings be adjusted to the curved roads? I.e. Will there be curvy lots?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Would you please supply a Data Flow Diagram that shows the interaction between the server and the PC?

  Edited March 27, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[meowza 230]

Question: Aside from detailed statistical graphs, is there anything else that Maxis didn't include from SC4? - I'm still hoping for graphs to return though, even as a hidden option.

[meowza 230]

Spore seemed very promising when it was first announced, but it suffered from massive public protests towards the end due to various reasons.

Question: How is Maxis (including EA) preventing this from happening again for the new SimCity?

[Terring 6,476]

Dear Maxis stuff

In the pat you said that you often visit fan made sites with mods, like Simtropolis, and also you're open in the moding community. Are there any mods, like N.A.M. or SimMars, that may inspire you for new contents?