SimCity: Negative Points

[Netuno 97]

I created this topic in an attempt to concentrate all comments regarding the likely negative features of the future SimCity (2013) according to the opinion of each member of this forum.

A single topic to facilitate Maxis knows the characteristics of the new game that does not please the community of SimCity fans of this site. Therefore I would suggest to the moderators that this topic become a pinned topic.

Please don't see this topic as a meeting of pessimistic people, but a contribution of this community to further improve the SimCity (2013).

We hope that Maxis did not see our criticism as something bad and understand our requests for improvements in the game.

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Here I present my list of negative points in the new SimCity (2013) until now.

- No option 100% offline with single player mode

- The presence of empty spaces not editable (useless empty spaces) with automatic road connections.

- Absence of terraforming

- Absence of farms

- Not being able to save your maps on the hard drive

- Road connections placed in a fixed and pre-determined location in the map.

- Player doesn’t have complete control over the zoning by population density.

- Size of the maps is 2km by 2km.

Note: Please, before you make any comments, make a list of the negative points of the game according to their point of view. So we have a general idea about the subject. However, these lists may change when the beta version is available.

  Edited August 22, 2012 by Netuno  

[VeritaScientia 150]

Good idea netuno, and ill agree that most of those are definite negatives if they become confirmed in the game, the only one I see that's a push is the tile size, especially if there is an option for contiguous cities.

[Evillions 552]

My negatives for the upcoming game:

1. Absence of terraforming

2. Cloud server based saves

3. Fixed road connections

4. The size of the maps.

For point four, I can understand that Maxis has to sell this game to the average PC user. Ideally, reducing map sizes would accommodate the Glassbox engine and 3D graphics. However, Maxis could solve this issue by either rendering cities similar to SC4 (click one city and the surroundings are space) or allowing larger map sizes for PCs that can easily handle the game.

[Superbacon 380]

I thought maps were 1x1km?

[Harden 68]

When I build cities on SC4, one of my favorite things is to recreate cities that I've been around. I absolutely LOVE the "region" feature of SC4, and sims commuting to neighboring cities. I also love all of the mods that have been made for SC4 as it has made me re-interested in the game several times. Anyways, my recreations usually turn out really nice, except for...

DIAGONAL ROADS.

I understand that the new sim city won't have much of a problem with diagonal roads and zones, but something tells me that I won't be able to recreate a sim city based off of a real U.S. city, with the geography, roads, and all of that.

I haven't looked into the new game all that much, and many of you have already stated this, but it frustrates me also;

1. No terraforming, (btw i hate SC4's terraforming.)

2. annoying auto saves

3. small maps

4. no hard drive map saving

5. fixed neighbor connections.

If there isn't a region play on Simcity 2013 like there is on SC4, I'm not buying the game.

[Linoa06 1,374]

1. Bad map size

2. No offline usefulness to the game

That's about it, the rest doesn't matter half as much. (Because you can't have a game that suits you just perfectly, y'know)

[Wiimeiser 452]

The lack of farms and highways is the real killer here. Though to be fair, putting farms in the game would make the title misleading, and highways will end up like either Cities XL or Zork with Anex86 text:

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

  Edited August 22, 2012 by Wiimeiser  

[baertooth 330]

My number one problem is ORIGIN.

I do client confidential work on my computer, not to mention I want to preserve my personal privacy. According to EA's EULA I have to treat that software like spyware and that I have to isolate it so at the very least I preserve my customer's confidentiality. This creates a huge burden to even installing Simcity2013 besides the huge burden it puts on my to run the game. This is major and as it stands it is killing any future business I do with EA if EA continues to rely on ORIGIN as there is no other game EA makes I would consider jumping through the kind of hoops I would have to jump though in order to safely use ORIGIN so I can run Simcity2013.

My second problem is online only.

I don't want to play with others and I don't want to compete. I want to play in my own sand box. Everything I've seen so far concerning online game play in Simcity2013 to me = ok to meh to do no want. Nothing so far looks like must have feature for me. Instead it looks like an attempt to try to hook me into milking me like a cow. But regardless of that, I'm not willing to put in massive hours playing a game that the reason I play in the first place is to create and build on previous effort only to have the Sword of Damocles over my head. Being able to pull the plug on me like that is absolutely unacceptable. Period.

My third problem is bubble regions and terrforming.

Others have spoken of this so I'm only pointing it out cause it's high on my list as well.

My fourth problem is modding and custom buildings.

I don't believe EA will add in modding because either they will have to vet the submissions or heavily control the economy. Either position has all sorts of pitfalls and perils so I see them avoiding it completely. And if the game doesn't sell well enough, I certainly don't see them paying for modding (as modding as a service now becomes an actual expense they have to occur in order to maintain the servers). But without modding and custom buildings, a big chunk of the replayability that I enjoyed in Simcity 4 had will be removed.

I'm excited by the game. I can see the potential, especially if this idea were married to a Minecraft style LAN type multiplayer game instead. And if EA is wise enough to open up enough of the engine for easy modding and uses technology that is easily accessible for the custom building makers, this could be an amazing game with a community of sales reps pumping the product for them. But as it stands I see the game has some severe limitations that are large enough I, as well as many others, could end up passing on this game.

  Edited August 22, 2012 by baertooth  

[brynhyfryd 222]

Here is my list of negatives.

Requires Origin

No offline single player

No terraforming

Poor region implementation. Hate the huge gaps between the bubble cities.

Cannot control region transport layout (region connections)

No local saves

No modding likely due to multiplayer

Small maps

Limited zoning capability

Euro tile sets not included in base game

To much focus on social gaming, such as simcity world

Milked for DLC which should be included in the game. The store is already implemented in simcity world.

Minimum system specs are too low and is holding back the games potential, such as the agent cap. This is 2012 not 2005.

  Edited August 22, 2012 by brynhyfryd  

[herob4u 34]

Though the new Simcity has potentials, there are still some killers that will make this game unbearable and unplayable.

1) My first conflict with this game and ALL games EA are planning for is the association of online connection. They are forcing me to play their way for a product I "bought" that is to say, a product I now can tinker and play with freely and personally. I don't want multiplayer, I don't care, it's a suckish excuse for apply their whole DRM protection thingy. You won't believe how pissed off I was when I see those interviews about games in which developers go like "game's gonna be so exciting with features to play with friends and connect together" "our online feature allows competition and fun gameplay" etc... Well, I have one thing to say, and excuse for what I'm about to say but....FRIENDS MY A**! Who are you to determine my taste of playing?! Who are you to claim that I have people to play with in the first place?!

If you simply told me the truth about forced online being associated with anti-piracy protection, then I'll be satisfied. But I won't bare standing there looking like a fool to believe every word you say about the purpose of this pointless multiplayer. If the Multiplayer isn't for protection reasons, then what's the harm of adding both the options of Offline Single Player and Online Multiplayer Modes separately? Doomsday must be near...I mean C'mon...Multiplayer as a core of a City Building Game?! WTH...

2) Second and most alarming feature, the TILE SIZE. I have just ONE thing to say: What were those developers thinking of!

Are you actually proud of calling this a city building game with such embarrassing tile size? If map sizes were fairly large, it could have compensated with the online issue...but this...this is the fork that punctured my throat! If I don't hear news about something to improve on this, then this game will literary be unplayable. This just looks like a poor quality production. I don't necessarily blame the developers as I know it has something to do with EA. I still can't believe they sacrificed city sizes ( a major aspect of a city builder) with a detailed simulation (eyecandy). I'm not playing the Sims, I am not gonna track every single civilian just for fun am I?

3) Casual. Plain and simple, the game looks so casual, doesn't look like a descent game made for city builder fans...just an eye candy for casual players......

There isn't much to elaborate in this, all what's important is the fact that casual themes don't contribute to a certain genre. Hence, we don't get our realistic and deep city building game. Just a simple kiddy and limited game.

4) The Atmosphere of this game is weird. It kinda relates to the casual issue I went with. The Atmosphere is cartoony and shallow. I still can't talk about the micromanagement of this game and its relation with the atmosphere, so not much more to add. But I can speculate the micromanagement won't be enhanced, and the atmosphere will prove to be, as said above, CASUAL.

Other points are covered pretty well by other posts, I don't need to talk about them. So in summary, rather than reading my elaborations, my Most-Focused Negative Points of this game are:

1) Unnecessary Online/Multiplayer to be forced.

2) Literary tiny and embarrassing city size.

3) A Casual and Shallow Game. (Still unsure)

4) Bland Cartoony and Unrealistic Atmosphere (might change)

I feel bad that I went a bit to the levels of flaming in this post, but I am glad I could spill out my negative and subjective feelings towards this game.

[pyanodon 218]

here my cents:

1- no highways and (until now) no more than cars, bus and trans for public and product transport.

2- no farms

3- cloud saving and no reload.

4- too much focus on social crap.

5- small maps (let´s see).

6- too much green space in the lots (take a look, there´s no wall-to-wall buildings..everything is surrounded by green parks and trees).

7 - of course, no proper single-player mode.

8- competition (leaderboards) in a simulation game (wtf?!)

  Edited August 22, 2012 by pyanodon  

[The_City_Builder 299]

Mine:

1. Small maps

2. No Farms

3. Lot's of forced social play (come on EA, think of the guys that don't have friends D: )

And that's about it for me. I've literally turned my old computer into an EA computer so that I can install Origin without the fear of privacy loss, so that's not an issue for me anyways.

[Urban Cartographer 601]

No large-scale terraforming: confirmed

Must use Origin: confirmed

Must be online at all times: confirmed

Cloud saves: confirmed

Size limit of 2km by 2km: confirmed

Glassbox can support up to 200,000 people in a city: confirmed

Vast spaces of undeveloped land between cities and poor regional integration: confirmed

Resource limitations: confirmed

Paid DLC: confirmed

No 100% offline single player: confirmed

No buildable farms: confirmed

Forced social play: confirmed

Leaderboards for each player's cities: confirmed

Inability to control regional transport: confirmed

No highways in the middle of the city: confirmed

Inability to control zoning density aside from road width: confirmed

Fixed road connections: confirmed

Inability to recreate metropolises: confirmed

Tall skyscrapers next to (unbuildable) pristine farmland: confirmed

Lack of transportation options: confirmed

Modding restrictions: confirmed

All these confirmed details made me vomit over SC5. If EA and Maxis acknowledge, address, and more importantly, fix or improve the significant flaws in the games will I begin to have a more positive view of the game. Regarding the "cartoony" graphics, I enjoy them and prefer them over realism, but I wish there were an option (not paid DLC) to have a more realistic skin for the buildings and terrain as well for those who prefer realism.

Netuno, please add these points to the OP.

  Edited August 22, 2012 by Urban Cartographer  

[Jokurr 175]

Parts of your list seem highly redundant and some are contradictory... It's been confirmed that there will not be any farms... but then sky scrapers will appear next to farmland?! I'd also say that "Vast spaces of undeveloped land between cities and poor regional integration", "Inability to control regional transport" and "Fixed road connections" are all more or less the same point, particularly the last two. Same thing goes for "Must be online at all times" and "No 100% offline single player"... why are these two separate points? there are other ones that I won't bother mentioning. It seems to me that you are trying as hard as you can to make this list as long as possible. I agree with several of the things on your list but this post comes across as being particularly negative, just for the sake of being negative.

[William Gates 84]

I do not understand why you are sticking the word 'probable' in the title. At this time, none of the points you have listed are probable. They have all been 100% confirmed by Maxis to appear in the final game. (And we should not be listing points that have not been confirmed by Maxis). It's pretty misleading to call something probable when it's pretty damn close to certain. It's not like Maxis has said "there's a chance these will appear in the final game." Do you also go around telling people it's "probable" the sun will rise tomorrow?

Unless of course by "probable" you mean that it is "probable" that people will find these points to be negative. But I do not think this thread should be about people listing things that other people will 'probably' find negative. They should be listing things that they themselves certainly find negative.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Where exactly did anyone officially confirm that there would be no farms? What do you mean by pristine farmland?

--Ocram

[fatbuster 44]

Glassbox can support up to 200,000 people in a city: confirmed

SimCity handles around 200K agents, not people.

[Netuno 97]

I do not understand why you are sticking the word 'probable' in the title. At this time, none of the points you have listed are probable. They have all been 100% confirmed by Maxis to appear in the final game. (And we should not be listing points that have not been confirmed by Maxis). It's pretty misleading to call something probable when it's pretty damn close to certain. It's not like Maxis has said "there's a chance these will appear in the final game." Do you also go around telling people it's "probable" the sun will rise tomorrow?

Unless of course by "probable" you mean that it is "probable" that people will find these points to be negative. But I do not think this thread should be about people listing things that other people will 'probably' find negative. They should be listing things that they themselves certainly find negative.

I cannot give 100% sure about something that is not even in the beta version. It’s only this. Even though unlikely, small changes can occur.

I may have even too much emphasis on the word "probable", but as a way to explain presence of it in the title of the topic.

I'll remove the word "probable" from the title of this topic to generate no more problems of interpretation or false expectations.

  Edited August 22, 2012 by Netuno  

[Urban Cartographer 601]

I meant that there are no buildable farms, but what I meant by pristine farms are those that are outside city limits. I have edited my post to reflect the clarification.

  Edited August 22, 2012 by Urban Cartographer  

[CaptCity 4,903]

This topic is going to be closed. We have several other topics that cover most (if not everything) mentioned here. We have those other topics to keep things streamlined into specific areas of discussion, and to keep things from becoming redundant and chaotic. If we just wanted one thread that listed every aspect under discussion, we wouldn't need the others. When the game is released and more specific and exact information is known, we can start another general discussion type topic. Thanks.