Things I noticed from the currently released media.

[kyronimus 5]

Hey there, long time simcity player here (started with 2000),

I've been following Simcity 5's development since it was announced and scrutinized every screenshot and video of it. It seems the more I see of simcity the more concerned I get.

First of all, the city tile size. I know this has already been discussed at length, but still:

That's closer to a simcity 4 small tile than a medium tile. Saying it's about the same size as a medium tile is just ridiculous.

Another thing: No buildings on slopes, in fact all of the cities in screenshots and videos were built on completely flat land. I haven't seen anyone mention it but this is a big deal for me.

Sure curved roads are a nice addition, but with city sizes this big they'll be as useless as diagonal roads. They just take up more space. People will end up using straight roads so all cities will look like waffles.

Highways and bridges seem to be exclusive to intercity connections, another thing that bothers me.

Then over here, second picture from the bottom shows dilapidated buildings and they look stupid. Like the buildings suddenly were made out of cardboard crumpling in the rain. Oddly I tried to find the higher resolution version of that picture and it was nowhere to be found.

Don't get me wrong, I think the glassbox is capable of some amazing stuff. It's just that maybe this could've worked better if they made sims ville with it. (I'm actually still kinda sad that game never was finished )

Maybe that's why they choose to reboot the series instead of making a sequel. (Also, if I posted some inaccuracies here please do comment, I'll edit it as soon as possible, dont wanna spread more misinformation)

[The_City_Builder 299]

I don't see any misinformation. I think the city tiles are extremely small. Hopefully there are bigger sizes!

[Azurespecter 506]

I agree that these are valid concerns. But please note the large text in some of these pictures that says "CONCEPT ART"

- The cities are just graphical representations of what in-game cities might look like, I highly doubt they were actually built in the game. Therefore, they aren't good representations of what our cities will end up like.

- Highways probably won't be just for intercity exchanges.

- Assuming we can't build on slopes because the concept art doesn't show it is jumping to a bad conclusion.

- Unless I heard wrong, the SC2013 city tile size is exactly the same size as a SC4 medium tile (yes its still small, but please consider technical limitations)

If you are right, and these concept arts turn out to be accurate representations of gameplay, then I apologize and will be as deeply dismayed as you. Currently, I don't think it's likely that your assumptions are correct.

  Edited June 26, 2012 by Azurespecter  

[The_City_Builder 299]

Those aren't concepts Azure, that's gameplay that was shown to us at E3.

[Azurespecter 506]

The picture posted is gameplay, but the second link is all concept art. Right? or am i missing something.

But even then, the gameplay screenshots were planned ahead of time to show certain things. Did somebody actually play the game and build those cities/regions? Since the game isn't near done, I'm under the impression that the gameplay screenshots are rather limited. This could be why we don't see buildings on slopes, or why highways are only used to connect cities in the region.

[cloudysky234 1]

The tiles are as small as SC4 medium tiles? I only ever play on big tiles on SC4, and even they could be bigger...

[KeanoManu 42]

I personally don't care if the tile itself is small as long as i can just build a new district of my city next to it. From the picture it seems that it would be possible to do much better than in SC4, if i built a new part of my city next to that one i should be able to see both tiles all the time.

What's concerning about the picture is that the airport seem to be located in the middle of two potential city tiles which makes me wonder if there's tiles next to it or if the tile is isolated and the roads are just roads to get to other peoples cities in the global MMO-ish environment. Seems like the crappy MMO-$%&^! that MonteCristo tried to pull off. I hope i'm wrong though.

[Azurespecter 506]

I personally don't care if the tile itself is small as long as i can just build a new district of my city next to it. From the picture it seems that it would be possible to do much better than in SC4, if i built a new part of my city next to that one i should be able to see both tiles all the time.

What's concerning about the picture is that the airport seem to be located in the middle of two potential city tiles which makes me wonder if there's tiles next to it or if the tile is isolated and the roads are just roads to get to other peoples cities in the global MMO-ish environment. Seems like the crappy MMO-$%&^! that MonteCristo tried to pull off. I hope i'm wrong though.

Ya I noticed that too... which makes me wonder if you can actually choose where in the region you want a city tile to be. Rather than it just being a grid. I'd actually like that option.

But I still am of the opinion that those gameplay pictures are really misleading. The cities in that region just don't look like they were really developed. It looks more like a photoshopped scene, thats just trying to make the region look picturesque rather than show-off a fully functional city. The regions they've shown so far seem to be promoting multiplay, because one city will be all industrial and the other will be residential, then the 3rd city usually has like casino's or an arena.

I'm hoping that later in development Maxis will show us a seriously developed city in a region. This would put a lot of fears to rest... if we can just be assured that you can create large cities out of small tiles.

[kyronimus 5]

I'm also not fond of the space between cities as well, that plus the fact that cities seem to have square borders you'll have a pretty weird looking region. Kinda like the megacities from the judge dredd comics, huge skyscrapers in the middle of nowhere. Though the concept art of the casino city contradicts this, as you can actually see an airport located directly next to a city. I secretly hope for maxis to reveal 2 weeks before launch that you can have massive cities the size of a simcity 4 region and these videos were just to mess with us .

  Edited June 26, 2012 by kyronimus  

[mrbisonm 1,622]

kyronimus, I'm with you all the way and I have been following the Simcity development since they announced it also. None of the pictures I have seen sofar were announced to be of official final graphics, so this is what I am still having hope with. If some of them are, then it will be worse than SC4 and I will not be interested in a childish looking game.

I'd rather have better graphics than some of the other things they showed us. The tile sizes bother me a little also and those dilapidated buildings look very baaaaaaaad, I must say. Nothing positive about this.

Honestly, the more it's being showed off, the less I like what I see. But.....(there's always a but until it comes out), there is still some hope that it doesn't end up like simcity societies.

BTW, why don't they sell the SC idea to someone like Ubisoft or Kalypso, they are way more advanced in graphics than what Maxis has presented to us sofar.

I still have some hope, let's wait and see.

mrb

[Treason04 11]

Just want to encourage everyone to relax. We're still 8 months out from the release of this thing and its natural for all of our inquisitive minds to wonder. Thats part of the games intrinsic value. It can go in hundreds of directions. I'm ignoring for the moment the 'tilt shift' graphics; the buildings, the terrain map; even a few bugs that appear. Its all about the engine. For me its all about where players & modders can plug in their preferences. We'll drive ourselves crazy in speculation! Which I guess is part of the fun. Just keep an open mind. The SC4 that we have today is nothing compared to its original release. Thanks to most of you. What kind of engine Maxis delivers and how fast and far they'll let us drive will define it for me.

[MINIggy03 227]

That picture is misleading if those orange borders were photoshopped in. The top and right orange borders are definitely accurate as we see where the roads transition into highways. But the orange border on the left has no transition to signify that it's where the edge of the map is.

On an unrelated note, I love love love how the game looks like SC3000 in 3D.

[cloudysky234 1]

Why is everyone so for regional play? This just makes Maxis think that regional play with many tiles is the way to go. Wouldn't it be better to just have ONE huge tile (as large as a region)?

[The_City_Builder 299]

Um, because regions are what made SC4 so awesome!

[cirugo 1,889]

what I don't like is all the space between the buildings.

[KeanoManu 42]

Why is everyone so for regional play? This just makes Maxis think that regional play with many tiles is the way to go. Wouldn't it be better to just have ONE huge tile (as large as a region)?

Not possible today. We has to be realistic too.

[Wiimeiser 452]

That picture is misleading if those orange borders were photoshopped in. The top and right orange borders are definitely accurate as we see where the roads transition into highways. But the orange border on the left has no transition to signify that it's where the edge of the map is.

If so then the orange might just be for emphasis

[kyronimus 5]

That picture is misleading if those orange borders were photoshopped in. The top and right orange borders are definitely accurate as we see where the roads transition into highways. But the orange border on the left has no transition to signify that it's where the edge of the map is.

On an unrelated note, I love love love how the game looks like SC3000 in 3D.

Sadly it is, the road leading away on the far right at the bottom is a transition to the region. I just happened to make a crappy screenshot of a video I found on youtube. It's from IGN, wouldn't be too hard to look it up.

I agree with the look of the game, it's spot on. Just the scale...

Anyway, I am in going to calm down now *breathes heavily into paper bag* Tomorrow will be another day to get upset about this game, goodnight all

EDIT: Ah! ninja'd. Indeed I used my professional microsoft paint skills to highlight the borders.

  Edited June 26, 2012 by kyronimus  

[I. Lostalim 589]

Those aren't concepts Azure, that's gameplay that was shown to us at E3.

That's in delvopment...

[Kiiroitori 55]

The thing that im still seriously concerned about is the constant internet connection issue... sigh... what happened to those days where you could just install and play a game without the convenience of getting the constant internet connection :/ ,, sure im fine when it comes to installing a game with internet,, but not constant connection. However, the thing im more concerned about the online issue is the possibility of subscription fees in the future.

Also im sorta fine with the tiles, though wish there were at least as big as the large simcity 4 tiles, they better atleast have a way to conveniently switch tiles fast and swiftly.

Im also hoping that the modding capability will be the same or possibly be beyond simcity 4's capability, and with no terraforming I heard that there will be a time where we can incorporate real world maps and recreate cities or areas in the world.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

Why is everyone so for regional play? This just makes Maxis think that regional play with many tiles is the way to go. Wouldn't it be better to just have ONE huge tile (as large as a region)?

Because of the limited computer power we have. If you simulate an entire region at one time, your computer would be very slow or metaphorically fried.