Just saw simcity at gamescon 2012 press conferance, no community concerns addressed

[Indiana Joe 1,751]

^Well I think they purposefully called it SimCity and not SimCity 5. They didn't make a sequel to SimCity 4; they made a different game based off of the model of an old series. Technically, the hardcore SC4 fans are still waiting for a SimCity 5 (which will never be done now; they've clearly tossed the old series). This game is as much of a SimCity 5 as societies was.

Personally, I don't mind the grid and 2D graphics of SimCity 4. If they would just release the source code I'd be perfectly happy. But in the meantime it's easiest to view this game as the newest alternative to SimCity 4.

  Edited August 14, 2012 by Indiana Joe  

[chimeran 208]

^Well I think they purposefully called it SimCity and not SimCity 5. They didn't make a sequel to SimCity 4; they made a different game based off of the model of an old series. Technically, the hardcore SC4 fans are still waiting for a SimCity 5 (which will never be done now; they've clearly tossed the old series). This game is as much of a SimCity 5 as societies was.

Personally, I don't mind the grid and 2D graphics of SimCity 4. If they would just release the source code I'd be perfectly happy. But in the meantime it's easiest to view this game as the newest alternative to SimCity 4.

i don't mind them either, they are still good and w/batters and modders you have a fairly decent game and here

http://www.donhopkins.com/home/micropolis/

the architecture should be the same as SC4 or maybe not but should give you a reference point.

[SimCity4IE 203]

I find it insulting that so may people disallow freedom of opinion in their posts. I am of the opposite opinion of the fanatics in this thread. I'm severely disappointed about this game. I personally dislike its graphics, its style, its entire function of online connectivity & cloud-storage, and its fanboys. But this is my opinion.

This site isn't 4-Chan, treat others with respect here. I may not have the same opinion of a portion of you, but that doesn't give me the right to flame anyone who disagrees with me.

I don't really know what to think of the latest news. From what I can see; Maxis/EA are too scared to call it SimCity 5 because it doesn't resemble SimCity 4 enough to call it its successor. I don't care about discussing Origin here because its medium for distribution isn't what makes a game fun. But at present we're stuck with a game that lacks the apparently complexity of SimCity 4, requires an always-online connection, owns our storage, and in the foreseeable future; disallows mods and modding. All I have to ask you all is; why are you a member of a SimCity 4 site when you look forward to a game that has tried so many different ways of destroying what made its predecessors so great? I mean, currently we're not even sure whether we can control public transportation. What kind of SimCity disallows that? I would be better off playing SimCity 2000, in which I actually can. A game which came out 19 years ago.

  Edited August 14, 2012 by SimCity4IE  

[nukeu123 307]

to be honest guys, that video actually made me more exited about sc5. my favorite part about it was seeing the sc World, i LOVE the idea of a connected economy.

i feel as though im the only one on this community that has been affected positively by that video

[The_City_Builder 299]

to be honest guys, that video actually m

made me more exited about sc5. my favorite part about it was seeing the sc World, i LOVE the idea of a connected economy.

i feel as though im the only one on this community that has been affected positively by that video

No, I have.

[RoseCityAlive 9]

I'm looking through the video. This picture is strange, it shows an extreme ammount of cars, yet a small population.

This one has a different User Interface than above, although the one above seems much more final. Its on the oil well, but it's strange to see this one with the RCI display and options, while the above doesn't Its very interesting though.

Strange how there are two, maybe more UI's. It may be that you get different information through each building. But i guess we'll see tomorrow- or in the beta just how its gonna work out. Just pointing out some stuff I've seen in the video.

I think in the first shot one of two thing might be happening with the number of cars vs population. First it might be the number or cars that can travel over the road an hour before the road hits max capacity. Two it might be the number or cars in the city. Remember sims can commute from oth cities for work/play.

[cirugo 1,889]

yeah we knewyou can play online. yeah we knew you can collaborate with friends. yeah we knew you can trade resources. Are people seriously trying to tell me that this is new information??

not impressed at all!

[logintime 93]

I wanted so much to feel positively about this game. I really did... but it seems like every piece of news carries a negative with it.

Look, I understand they are taking the game in a new direction. To a degree, I'm fine with that, so long as the new direction is interesting. What I'm not fine with are the sudden limitations on gameplay. Each previous SImcity title expanded on what you could do from the previous game, to the point where in SC4 we could create entire custom regions to our liking and fill every space of it if we wanted. Now we suddenly have a limitation to only one tile size, to no terraforming, to a limited region scope, to empty space between regions, to no build-able highways, to cloud-only gameplay... I mean, how exactly is the community supposed to be doing any modding with this, aside from the occasional house or two?

It honestly feels like they made two decisions- 1) "let's make it an online game", and 2) "let's have the Glassbox Engine simulate everything!"- and ended up having to restrict giant chunks of gameplay that previously existed because of them.

[chimeran 208]

I wanted so much to feel positively about this game. I really did... but it seems like every piece of news carries a negative with it.

Look, I understand they are taking the game in a new direction. To a degree, I'm fine with that, so long as the new direction is interesting. What I'm not fine with are the sudden limitations on gameplay. Each previous SImcity title expanded on what you could do from the previous game, to the point where in SC4 we could create entire custom regions to our liking and fill every space of it if we wanted. Now we suddenly have a limitation to only one tile size, to no terraforming, to a limited region scope, to empty space between regions, to no build-able highways, to cloud-only gameplay... I mean, how exactly is the community supposed to be doing any modding with this, aside from the occasional house or two?

It honestly feels like they made two decisions- 1) "let's make it an online game", and 2) "let's have the Glassbox Engine simulate everything!"- and ended up having to restrict giant chunks of gameplay that previously existed because of them.

if you read my previous post there will not be any modding from this community or any other for the new simcity and if it does happen it will probably be after the game flops and they hope to regain their core fanbase. the programs needed to mod will be kept from our prying hands to prevent reverse engineering and data mining. not to say anyone here would do that but not everyone has honorable intentions. the only mods will come from maxis and you better believe they'll start out at 99 cents and will only get more expensive from there. it's not going to be a city-builder that we the community have come to love but a bragging competition that the player w/the deepest pockets will be able to win whence the on-line play.

[spiritbw 111]

Well, this game finally came up on a Sims forum I frequent. Lot of folks there are Simcity fans too. For those thinking that the negative comments are just from the core of hardcore fans here? Uh, I got some bad news for you....

[fatbuster 44]

I wanted so much to feel positively about this game. I really did... but it seems like every piece of news carries a negative with it.

Look, I understand they are taking the game in a new direction. To a degree, I'm fine with that, so long as the new direction is interesting. What I'm not fine with are the sudden limitations on gameplay. Each previous SImcity title expanded on what you could do from the previous game, to the point where in SC4 we could create entire custom regions to our liking and fill every space of it if we wanted. Now we suddenly have a limitation to only one tile size, to no terraforming, to a limited region scope, to empty space between regions, to no build-able highways, to cloud-only gameplay... I mean, how exactly is the community supposed to be doing any modding with this, aside from the occasional house or two?

It honestly feels like they made two decisions- 1) "let's make it an online game", and 2) "let's have the Glassbox Engine simulate everything!"- and ended up having to restrict giant chunks of gameplay that previously existed because of them.

if you read my previous post there will not be any modding from this community or any other for the new simcity and if it does happen it will probably be after the game flops and they hope to regain their core fanbase. the programs needed to mod will be kept from our prying hands to prevent reverse engineering and data mining. not to say anyone here would do that but not everyone has honorable intentions. the only mods will come from maxis and you better believe they'll start out at 99 cents and will only get more expensive from there. it's not going to be a city-builder that we the community have come to love but a bragging competition that the player w/the deepest pockets will be able to win whence the on-line play.

Not necessarily, Mods in SC4 (at least ones like NAM) don't touch your or modify your save file. They are stored in a separate location and they only effect simulation behavior. Even though Maxis has been talking up could computing, your city's simulation still seems to take place on your PC. As far as I know the server-side simulation is being limited to economy and possibly regional simulation. This should mean that modding may still be be possible, barring some intervention from EA/Maxis. So far, they haven't stopped any modding effort in any other Maxis game, but we'll see how this play out.

[chimeran 208]

Not necessarily, Mods in SC4 (at least ones like NAM) don't touch your or modify your save file. They are stored in a separate location and they only effect simulation behavior. Even though Maxis has been talking up could computing, your city's simulation still seems to take place on your PC. As far as I know the server-side simulation is being limited to economy and possibly regional simulation. This should mean that modding may still be be possible, barring some intervention from EA/Maxis. So far, they haven't stopped any modding effort in any other Maxis game, but we'll see how this play out.

Romaq: What possible compelling benefit is there to "forced online play" even between regions where the players are in 'solo online play' that makes this a core required "feature?"

OQ: Your cities live on the cloud, and you can play them from any PC you like. If your PC is unplugged, your cities are safe, you can go over to your friend’s laptop and start playing. We don’t care where you install SimCity. Since your cities are on the cloud, we can give you rich online data visualizations, showing you the vitals of your city and how it compares to and relates to other cities in the SimCity world.

(German Community): Is it possible to customize something in the game like street names, signposts, hot spots for tourists etc. similar to SimCity 4 or The Sims?

Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis: We know customization is important to our fans and we’ve given players many ways to customize their cities. I can’t get into specifics at this time about what you’ll be able to name in SimCity, aside from City and Region names. However, every Ploppable building in the game is loaded with modules for players to unlock and use to customize their city. Choose from signs, flags, plants, fountains and more to give each of your Ploppables a personal touch. Our goal is to give players the control and the art to build unique pockets of their cities. You won’t have to read a name in a text box, you’ll be able to see it in world!

source : http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/Community-Interviews-Maxis-Part-1

this isn't me talking but straight from their mouths. does it sound like they are going to give any of us, the core fanbase, modding capability ? you can be an optimist all you want but i can read between the lines. there is still hope that they might do a 180 and listen to the fans but i'm not holding my breath

[Hamish 1,370]

I believe they have designed it to be moddable, however they won't be at the stage to release or show anything about that just yet as modding is usually post-launch projects.

Read an article here, I have also seen it mentioned elsewhere but I can't remember exactly where. Check Ocean Quigley's twitter, I think he has told a few people that modding will be available.

There will be modding, but not straight away, and don't expect to see much about it before launch.

My guess would be after any possible DLC has been released, makes sense.

[spiritbw 111]

That really does seem to be the standard doesn't it? Where what we mean by single player, modability,etc is not what they mean by those same terms.

[Hamish 1,370]

I drop in part of a conversation Ocean had with a twitter user:

Twitter User: ...also will it be possible to add custom buildings to the game? Or even modding it? (NAM scale?)

Ocean: Yeah, but probably not immediately - remember it took a few years to really open up modding on SC4. It's not trivial to support.

They aren't silly, they know exactly why SC4 is still popular and still selling.

[CaptCity 4,893]

FYI... Some cleanup has been done to keep this thread on topic. Let's keep the discussion related to what was presented so we don't wonder too far astray. Thanks.

[chimeran 208]

I believe they have designed it to be moddable, however they won't be at the stage to release or show anything about that just yet as modding is usually post-launch projects.

Read an article here, I have also seen it mentioned elsewhere but I can't remember exactly where. Check Ocean Quigley's twitter, I think he has told a few people that modding will be available.

There will be modding, but not straight away, and don't expect to see much about it before launch.

My guess would be after any possible DLC has been released, makes sense.

i stand corrected. you can ignore my previous rants. if it's meant to be modded then perhaps i'll buy the game if i can get custom content but i'm still not enthused about the forced on-line play. and it might be similar to the mods that are available for the PC version of skyrim. but in that set-up the mods are sent to your laptop and installed there and kept track by steam. and in sense it would be easier for plugin clean-up since the mods are hosted via steam you simply unsubscribe and they are gone. but there is still the tile issue and this alleged no-man's land that still keeps me away.

[gg_bris 1]

you guys ever played The Sims 3? it supports both a rich online EA shop content & custom models - perhaps we'll see something along those lines with SC. The Sims has a pretty busy online modding community and has from the outset.

Also, Sims 3 requires online connection I believe... or has since Origin was released. The impact on solo play is pretty minimal .

  Edited August 15, 2012 by gg_bris  

[kwetzel345 101]

yeh, with the online connection with the sims 3, it's relly not intrusive at all. I mean, I sometimes forget I am even connected because the game behaves so normal (like a game not connected to the internet)

[Ocram's Razr 964]

1. GamesCon looks pretty cool!

2. GlassBox is designed to allow multiple sized boxes and modification.

3. However, EA has put a limit on that with Origin.

4. The first modding tools, I presume, would be new buildings with default statistics/actions since they would have the smallest effect on the economy.

--Ocram

[spiritbw 111]

you guys ever played The Sims 3? it supports both a rich online EA shop content & custom models - perhaps we'll see something along those lines with SC. The Sims has a pretty busy online modding community and has from the outset.

Also, Sims 3 requires online connection I believe... or has since Origin was released. The impact on solo play is pretty minimal .

Funny, I play Sims 3, have deleted Origins off my system and had the system disconnected form the net and can still play.

  Edited August 15, 2012 by spiritbw  

[chimeran 208]

you guys ever played The Sims 3? it supports both a rich online EA shop content & custom models - perhaps we'll see something along those lines with SC. The Sims has a pretty busy online modding community and has from the outset.

Also, Sims 3 requires online connection I believe... or has since Origin was released. The impact on solo play is pretty minimal .

Funny, I play Sims 3, have deleted Origins off my system and had the system disconnected form the net and can still play.

i have SC4 thru Origin but don't use it but the Impulse version through Gamestop so it doesn't bother me about how the game is delivered

[jigsaw 227]

i wish everyone would remember when they released SC4 Vanilla, then the changes SC4RH expansion released. im suspecting the same approach is going to be used.

stock game > expansion

do we play SC4 Vanilla? no we dont.

[Vampirovibrio 43]

I asked 5 qns during the conference and none were answered. They were not difficult qns

1) what happens when a player stops playing a particular city? Will growth be extrapolated for other cities like in simciy4?

2) can highways be build in individual cities?

3) will there be weather?

4) what type of rail options are there available?

5) what happens when finite resources in.a particular city runs out?

I don't know - but really they aren't difficult qns to answer esp when they are lain hung betas for people to play. Curvy road - done to death..seriously?! How much more are they planning to milk curvy roads. Yes we all knew it curves and yes the buildings will conform to it. What more is there to say?!