Community Interviews Maxis: Part 2

[Jokurr 175]

Part two of last week's Q&A was released this morning

http://www.simcity.c...ws-Maxis-Part-2

So what are everyone's thoughts?

I think this is the first time we got an official confirmation that terraforming is out. I think we all saw it coming but I guess I was clinging on to the hope that maybe we had misinterpreted prior articles. Dissapointing to say the least. It also seems like Maxis is spending more time telling us what this game is not rather than what the game is. I'm hoping that will change soon as there doesn't seem to be much positive information one can take from this article.

I also found this part amusing:

neil5280: Are you comfortable calling this game SimCity when it's diverging so far from the key play elements that long-time fans have come to expect?

OQ: Yeah, it’s definitely SimCity – you’re drawing out roads, zoning, providing utilities and city services, then growing and nurturing a city. The classic SimCity mechanics are there. We’re always looking to add new ideas and approaches to the game as well.

  Edited July 24, 2012 by Jokurr  

[The Avatar 1,089]

Well, this article confirms what I suspected, and brings more bad news. Let's start off with this:

Yeah, it’s definitely SimCity – you’re drawing out roads, zoning, providing utilities and city services, then growing and nurturing a city. The classic SimCity mechanics are there. We’re always looking to add new ideas and approaches to the game as well.

I don't think so. Just having the ability to draw roads, zone, etc. does not define SimCity; other CBGs have those same features. In my opinion, as I have stated before, the defining principle behind SimCity is the ability and freedom to design and create cities in a very open and unrestrictive way. The player can create a city in whatever way they want to, whether it be a sprawling metropolis or a small farming community. However, with EA/Maxis's focus on multiplayer, I believe our freedom in creating cities is being limited. Because of the pre-determined regional roads and the "no man's land" between the city tiles in a region (all due to multiplayer), we do not have the freedom and creative ability that we had in SC4. In SC(5), each city tile is treated as it's own individual city, separate from other cities. Neighbor connections are determined by the game, and limit where we can place our highways and rail. With the Origin connection requirement, we are also limited in when we can play the game. Eventually, after the game has been out for a while, EA will (almost definitely) shut down the SimCity servers, rendering the game unplayable. SimCity; I think not. Maybe the names SimMultiplayer, SimRegion, SimConnect, or SimCasual are more fitting.

No, all of the terraforming in this SimCity is going to be at the civil engineering scale, and will be the natural consequences of laying out roads, developing zones, and plopping buildings.

Another disappointment. Terraforming was one of the key features in the SimCity series that made the game great. I can see why Terraforming was removed; it would conflict with the resources that are a key feature of SC. Terraforming trees would give one player an advantage, as would terraforming a river or lake. However, I think Maxis could have changed Terraforming to not conflict with key features of SC, rather than remove it completely.

Lead Designer Stone Librande: It depends on how heavily you specialize. Of course, if you cover your entire city in factories, garbage dumps, and coal power plants you are going to get pollution everywhere! But you have complete control over how you zone and where you place your key civic buildings. Crime will tend to grow in areas near casinos and be suppressed in areas near police stations. Injured Sims will be more likely to survive if their injury occurs near a hospital. If you have a large budget you could put police stations and hospitals on every corner, but then you are using up real estate and spending tax revenue that could be used for other buildings, such as schools, water purification plants, and airports. The diversity of the city is in the hands of its Mayor.

This is good news. We can still create a diverse city, with a mix of crime and grime and health and wealth, depending on how we manage the city. Your city is still affected by other cities in the region, and the global economy, though.

Finally,

Sims will travel back and forth between cities throughout the day.

This is unrealistic. In real-life situations, people often travel between cities to get from their home to their job. This is because many large cities are comprised of many cities and communities that are either very close to each other or connected. For instance, people in my hometown, Gilbert, might commute from Gilbert (a city in the Phoenix metro area) to the actual city of Phoenix. This worked in SC4, as cities could be built right next to each other in a region, and city tiles could act as suburbs of a central CBD. However, in SC, with city tiles treated as individual cities, this doesn't work. For instance, not many (if any) people commute from the Phoenix metro area to Flagstaff. That would be a two/three hour commute. However, Maxis hasn't specified the distance between cities in SC. The distance might be the same size as the city tiles 2x2 km, in which case, the commute would be reasonable, but still impractical if Sims can work in the city they live in.

[SimCity4IE 202]

I'm pretty disappointed with the news of the game overall. Instead, I'm ignoring the news until the game comes out. Then I'll just read some reviews and see YouTube videos about it. If it's SCS v2, then I'll save my money; if not, then EA can take my money

I agree with you though, Maxis is telling us what the game isn't. Do they not realise that I just want a basic city builder first, and then they can add whatever they please? I feel cheated.

[Yellow_Watermelon 8]

They should call it SimTown this simple name change can solve all the problems without extra development time and costs.

[Frode789 70]

Overall a quite disappointing read..

[Essex 322]

Can someone please inform me when the GOOD news arrives?

[NCGAIO 562]

Yada yada yada .... as they always do!.

It would be good take answers to questions techniques about the pictures and videos presented, reason to the awards received and maybe justify the game price.

- The development of the game is real 3D Multithreading (For MultiCore)?

- The graphic engine will even offer free camera?

- The TiltShift will be scaled for various screen resolutions?

And more clearly

- The implementation of Multyplayer restricts simgle-player mode or not?

- The online connection is required during the game and also to save him?

- I lose what I paid if i can not log more in ORIGIN. because of E.A. ??

If they do not respond there who knows maybe here ... after all they are listening to the fans is not it??

  Edited July 24, 2012 by NCGAIO  

[iamihop11 19]

Am I just being a grumpy old geezer? Am I clinging to my individual city sim desires just because I'm scared of the inevitable future of gaming? Are we all just being difficult to please?

I want to like this game so much, I keep telling myself "Buck up, young man. At least give it a chance." But this release includes two more major blows - lack of teraforming and small maps.

Have they ever actually seen a city? Did it fit into 4 square kilometers? Even smallish cities like Baltimore or Raleigh or Tuscon are hundreds of sq km. Have they ever heard of suburbs? What if I want to see some white flight/urban renewal cycling?

Goodbye sunken highways? Smoothed seaports? Coastline teraforming for seawalls? If I want to build Denver, am I going to get stuck putting it on a river delta?

I don't want to be disappointed, I honestly don't. But I could really use some help from Maxis and EA!

[William Gates 84]

People knew about the small maps (and no true region play) for some time before this.

But no terraforming... if Simcity 2013 wasn't dead before, it sure as hell is now.

  Edited July 24, 2012 by William Gates  

[Urban Cartographer 601]

To me, there is no more hope for SC2013. I am boycotting SC2013 until the features we want are implemented.

[herob4u 34]

Eventhough I am totally let down, I still do appreciate how those people answered those questions straight forward knowing that some of them are displeasing. For that, they have my respect.

Overall, I am NOT getting this game, EA's plan to gain money is gonna backfire like that.

  Edited July 25, 2012 by Blue Lightning  
Removed piracy discussion

[pyanodon 218]

This is good news. We can still create a diverse city, with a mix of crime and grime and health and wealth, depending on how we manage the city. Your city is still affected by other cities in the region, and the global economy, though.

Try put all that inside 2X2 and you will divide by zero. heheheh

[Flat Raver 59]

Overall, I am NOT getting this game, EA's plan to gain money is gonna backfire like that.

EA will misinterpret your actions which gives them more excuse to add even more DRM bullcrap.

  Edited July 25, 2012 by Blue Lightning  
Reworked to fit the edited quoted post

[jdenm8 362]

Sorry, but I really need this.

VINDICATION!!!

Okay, better now. Now that it's officially not in,I really think that anybody that played even SC2K will be disappointed by EA's latest offering. Being able to alter the terrain is a key element of any city sim. Only SimCity and SimCity Classic haven't allowed us to change the elevation of terrain, and the reason was simple. There were no elevation changes whatsoever.

Ah... One more time.

I told you all so!

[SimCity4IE 202]

I just simply don't understand why all the focus is on tilt-shift, and not on the building of a city. I don't care if the background blurs more than the foreground, I want to be able to define the terrain of the city. I want to be able to play offline with larger maps/regions. I want to be able to play in how I want. EA/Maxis is/are focusing on pleasing the casual gamer; if they want to appeal to all of the fans, then why not just give an option for complexity? This isn't SimCity, this is a disappointment at present. I want a real SimCity!

[alex macnamara 139]

"(German Community): System Specs: Can you run SimCity with 64bit windows 7? "

seriously they had to pick this one to answer? are they that dumb? I bet the question it replaces was about cloud saves or something

[cirugo 1,889]

SimCity Societies 2 with region play and tied to an online server. That's what this game is.

[jdenm8 362]

"(German Community): System Specs: Can you run SimCity with 64bit windows 7? "

seriously they had to pick this one to answer? are they that dumb? I bet the question it replaces was about cloud saves or something

Eh, at lest they haven't done a question about whether Nuclear plants will be in it (They answered that in the video one, that was a farce) and they didn't dance around the issue like they did the Park Types one from the last part of this.

  Edited July 24, 2012 by jdenm8  

[alex macnamara 139]

Appreciate the devs for being honest. As it still stands, ive reached a level 5 of definately not buying. He did say something about experimenting with map size, but what good does that do when we have more serious issues? We still have unaddressed problems such as modding and cloud saves.

The "I told you so" factor is still strong. Whats scary is all of our pessimistic/hunches have actually turned true. Give the game a chance? too late for that now.

"But you dont know what good undisclosed features will be in the game!" It doesnt matter if they include 5000 lots, awesum physics from tornadoes, many bridges, interchanges, and vxf.... it doesnt negate the fact that its all candy and doesnt apply to the core issues.

ill say this from another thread about the whole "rebooting" justification.

You got a game like Call of Duty, and then one called Sim City. Call of Duty is the same old crap every year and nothing new. Sim City has always improved each and every release. Sim City also has a 10 year dev gap unlike COD. Who deserves to be rebooted? Call of Duty needs it! They need to be "re-invented" . Sim City on the other hand need not to mess with it. It never has any problems. You dont re-invent or reboot something that works. Do you reboot you computer right after you had a successfull boot? My point exactly.

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/Skcuhc/Channals/eaisacheapshot.png

Well not only are they adding features that the players dislike, but they are also saying that we are whining. Cheap shot EA, and it definitely won't help you get anymore money.

[fatbuster 44]

As sad as some of these recent blog posts may have made us, I think it was something that needed to be done. I know people have been saying that Maxis could care about us and just want to make a game for casuals, but think about it. Maxis is under no obligation to answer any of our questions. In fact, I'm sure they know that these answers may have cost them sales. If they really didn't care about our thoughts or attention, they could of just pulled a bait and switch and not say anything about terraforming or region structure until either well into beta or even release. Right now there still about 7 months until release (assuming it doesn't get pushed back). This should still give them time to make any appropriate changes if they need to. Hopefully seeing the reactions they have received this early will help them see which direction they should head in.

[DestructionPancake 25]

I've been playing SC4 for six years now, played on SNES, play 2k and 3k.

Being stuck to a single 2x2 tile is a deal breaker.

I wish I had something more positive to say but I have to agree with those who say that this game has lost functionality that SC4 had for no reason other than to add multiplayer which was at the top of no one's list.

I'm far less than optimistic about this one.

[NCGAIO 562]

NOW IS SERIOUS ....

yES - always online ORIGIN, required to play

yES - forced multyplayer if you want progress

yES - Tiles and population reduced

yES - interference outside on its game

yES - Mod only through DLC for now or forever. ETC ..

nO - single-player independent

nO - terraforming

nO - interurban roads

nO - cities as you want construct

nO - regions views. ETC ...

MAYBE A SOLUTION

And since they will not hear even. suggest this topic for those who are disillusioned

Wishing I had not pre-ordered SC 2013

  Edited July 25, 2012 by NCGAIO  

[The Avatar 1,089]

I don't think complaining to Maxis/EA will do anything. For one thing, EA owns Maxis, and has control over what they can do regarding the game. Removing certain aspects of SC, like the required connection to EA's servers, would not be allowed by EA. Also, Maxis is well into development of the game. It wouldn't only be impractical to either add one of the main features we, the fans, want, or change one of the aspects of SC we don't like; Maxis wouldn't do it and EA wouldn't allow it, due to the game's deadline. Unfortunately, I think we will have to either live with the features of SC that we don't like, or just not purchase the game.

I do love that pic, though.

  Edited July 25, 2012 by MamaLuigi945  

[Electricbassguy 1]

I'm still looking forward to the game. Maybe I'm a bit younger (or just a bit more internet addicted) than most of the people here, but I am excited about being able to play together with my friends.

Sim City 4 wasn't really "realistic." I also think a lot of us are used to the mods that have been developed by users for SC4.

I know that it's not going to be quite what I remember about Sim City 1, but I think Maxis will put out something good. They know Societies was a mistake.

[coolwiththecool2 827]

this is a huge letdown and more like a spin-off to the SimCity Franchise than a re-boot, and I agree that this isn't simcity, it seems like they are focusing on multiplayer, graphics (do like the free camera ) tilt shift, and other stuff we don't care about, or least care about. They should be focusing more on transportation, city size, PERFORMANCE, which almost every EA and Maxis pc game I played has had performance issues, and realism, like in SimCity4 sims can't commute from one side of the metro/region to another, which people do in many of the biggest metros, including Los Angeles, which I used to live in, and some people I knew had 2 or 3 hour work commutes, because of bus and car, I am waiting till it comes out like I did with Cities XL 2012 to see gameplay videos and other stuff, if its livable, I might just stress myself like I do with simcity4 and play it. And one more thing, they should really put mods in the game fast because I know some people that hated simcity4 when it came out but are playing it now, maybe someone could make a terraforming mod...

[Wiimeiser 444]

I bet you $Something that we won't even have freeways. I honestly don't see any evidence. And freeways will only add complexity. This really needs to be confirmed.

[alex macnamara 139]

hahah, Sim City on facebook is REAL bad.....about 96% of the comments are bashing the game. AND THIS IS ON FACEBOOK. The comments even appear under unrelated wall posts such as "________________is the first sim city game you played" One of the answers was "Sim City w/o an internet connection" WAHAHAHAHAH. The maxis interview #2 is getting real heat. If that doesn't change the direction of the game, im sure it wont change the direction of where my wallet is going.

Look what this tard had to say

Um say that again? WE screwed over Cities XL ? The last time I checked my name wasnt Monte Cristo

  Edited July 25, 2012 by alex macnamara  

[aparrot7 82]

Aren't you guys being a little over- reactive with this game? No game can make you completely satisfied. There are plenty of compromises we have to make in life- and we live with it. I'm sure the game will still be fun and a challenge. Just because the game doesn't include a few features- why does it mean that you will automatically hate the game? Alot of you are just a little bit too closed- minded with all the expectations that have grown on this game for the past few years. I'm just happy that there is another game in the line at all.

Terraforming: Its dissapointing to see this feature go, but I currently play CXL, which doesn't include huge terraforming options, and i live just fine. Without terraforming the game is more realistic and you have to plan your roads around the terrain- just like in real life. I was disappointed with CXL terraforming when i was planning to buy the game, but when i actually started the game, the freedom of curved roads and interesting networks made it alot of fun to build around mountains and roads!

Regions: I see alot of over reaction in this part of the game. Just because the concept art shows disconnected cities, doesn't mean yours will be! You can build to the very edge and so can your neighbor [or you if your playing solo]. So YES, you can plan out suburbs/urban sprawl if you wish- or plan it out with a friend!

The Cloud: Yes, it is an issue if they stop there servers, but otherwise most of us to everything online anyways [like reading this post].

Graphics: Coming from CXL this will be difficult to adjust to, but its not the end of the world. I've seen worse. I'm excited for the simulation side of the game!

  Edited July 26, 2012 by aparrot7  

[William Gates 84]

hahah, Sim City on facebook is REAL bad.....about 96% of the comments are bashing the game. AND THIS IS ON FACEBOOK. The comments even appear under unrelated wall posts such as "________________is the first sim city game you played" One of the answers was "Sim City w/o an internet connection" WAHAHAHAHAH. The maxis interview #2 is getting real heat. If that doesn't change the direction of the game, im sure it wont change the direction of where my wallet is going.

Actually, I think the Facebook page proves we're fighting a losing battle here.

As of now: The # of Facebook responses for the Q&A part 2 article, posted 1 day ago, number 40. The # of Facebook responses for the Q&A part 1 article, posted 7 days ago, number 26. Yet, tons of people are apparently following the SimCity Facebook feed. The # of Facebook responses to the 'which is better: Simcity 2000 or Simcity Societies?' question, posted 1 day ago? 774. The # of Facebook responses to the 'what is the first SimCity game you played?' question, posted merely 7 hours ago? 456.

Why did the article posts receive so few comments when so many people are obviously following the feed? An intuitive answer is that it's because most people following the feed simply don't care enough to respond. They aren't going to put decent time and effort into reading an article and understanding its implications, and then writing up a response of a few sentences. Only people who cared would do that. In other words, most of the Facebook feed consists of what we like to call casuals. (By the way, the comments to each article post are about 95% negative, showing practically everyone who actually does care enough to read an article and post a comment dislikes what is happening).

Why did the two question posts receive so many comments? Because it takes no effort to respond to those kind of posts. It's extremely easy and quick to understand the post itself. The answer requires just one word! Barely any thought is required. Do any of these qualities remind you of the direction the new SimCity game is taking?

  Edited July 26, 2012 by William Gates