Maxis live broadcast

[Haljackey 17,302]

This discussion is falling apart. Talk about the topic, not each-other.

I almost feel sorry for the mods who have to clean up this mess.

Is it really that hard? The event is over now anyway... no sense beating a dead horse because that's not going to change anything.

[Ocram's Razr 963]

On Topic, the game play video looks pretty neat though I certainly hope our Towns/Garden Cities have something functional between them such as land value raising national parks, working forests, plantations, or farms. The upgrades with the modules look promising. I hope that using some key combination will allow me to choose how big my zones can be as well as height restrictions.

I also lament the fact that I missed the live stream and had to watch the low quality recording. Also, I recognized the disco song the simmers were dancing to. It goes "zabümahü, zabümahü naté" and I put it on my phone back when I played The Sims Complete Collection.

Also, the weather in The Sims 3 Seasons looks cool though I hope there could be a way to have a rainy/frosty/hailstorm winter with extremely low chance of snow, like how it is in Seattle.

--Ocram

  Edited October 11, 2012 by OcramSeattle  

[Motina 77]

I am content, and glad with their terraforming answer, it looks like curvy roads, and zoning can tackle slopes. In SC4 you had to do a lot of tweaking, or it would be a bumpy nightmare.

I want to see what a crowded region looks like

Also, the questions didn't "suck." They were valid, well though out questions. While they might have been about features we already know are in the game, they were still good questions.

.Agreed, but they dodged them. Bridges please and rivers? Ferrys? I guess they have them planned, and do expect them to be there, but, their dead line need to be postponed.

Having said that, I don;t mind there not being subways. Will most likely be a DLC, with expanded region play, Simcity - Suburbs. And then Simcity Rural. I can dream.

  Edited October 10, 2012 by Motina  

[brynhyfryd 222]

What I found most shocking was the exclusion of Subways and Highways. We know subways are out but what about highways? Boats surely can only be used where there is a river and I am really confused about planes. I thought planes were for the great works projects only. How are those cities without transport links expected to function properly as even a casino is severely affected without a rail link so I cant imagine how badly industrial zones will be affected.

Just a hunch, but with the low system requirements, dumbed down game play, small cities etc. I have a feeling that simcity will be coming to consoles soon.

[Catchin22 299]

On the topic of curvy roads, its good but I am not impressed. They look jagged and the edges look like something that would have been made 5-6 years ago, not today.

As far as water/ships/planes/bridges... Where are you going to put these things on a map this small? The maps barely big enough for a small town let alone a city, adding water into the lot itself would severely reduce city size even further, so would airports and bridges. I suspect this is why they dodged the question and said something like "theres always been water in every SC game" yes, there has, and there will be in this one, but off in the distance most likely and not usable.

I would suspect the reason for no subways is similar, the maps aren't big enough to justify it, the traffic works fine without it.

[McSouser 3]

I would suspect the reason for no subways is similar, the maps aren't big enough to justify it, the traffic works fine without it.

The cities can't have subway because they are to small but can have international airport in the Great Works

I don't understand Maxis

[Screwballl 196]

I suspect this will be another fiasco similar to SC4 where they release the main game first, then expect everyone to pay more for "Rush Hour" type of expansion... they are looking to base SC(2013) on the Sims line where they release expansion after expansion.... unfortunately what works for Sims will ultimately fail for anything SimCity related.

Terraforming will be something I will try to get in and mod from day 1....

[Catchin22 299]

I suspect this will be another fiasco similar to SC4 where they release the main game first, then expect everyone to pay more for "Rush Hour" type of expansion... they are looking to base SC(2013) on the Sims line where they release expansion after expansion.... unfortunately what works for Sims will ultimately fail for anything SimCity related.

Terraforming will be something I will try to get in and mod from day 1....

Possibly, but city size will still have its limits and consequently still be silly.

[Screwballl 196]

everything I saw on the interviews pretty much made be believe that city sizes will be the same as SC4... they mentioned something about city or regions size of 2 kilometer square... I will re-watch the video and look for that mention....

edit: the developer said ALL "cities are 2k by 2k which is the size of a medium city in SC4, but because there is so much to do within each city", and also the shared resources and events (good and bad) affect neighboring cities as well.

  Edited October 10, 2012 by Screwballl  

[spicytimothy 7]

The video still isn't available?

[Urban Cartographer 601]

The live broadcast is a major disappointment for me.

It confirmed that there will be more trimming from SC4.

No subways?! No highways in middle of a city?! No large-scale terraforming?! Smallish map sizes?! Skyscrapers next to land that can never be developed?! Worst of all, no 100% offline single player mode?!

I am not buying the game.

[plasticboy 36]

I suspect this will be another fiasco similar to SC4 where they release the main game first, then expect everyone to pay more for "Rush Hour" type of expansion... they are looking to base SC(2013) on the Sims line where they release expansion after expansion.... unfortunately what works for Sims will ultimately fail for anything SimCity related.

Terraforming will be something I will try to get in and mod from day 1....

2 x 2 is a meaningless number as long as we don't know how things scale up. From what I saw in the live demonstration, a small town (4-5 streets) took up almost half of the tile.

[Screwballl 196]

The video still isn't available?

Yes the video is available, it takes a minute or two for it to actually start playing

http://www.origin.com/maxis-live

Once you hit play, the SimCity talk starts around 34:00, the first half is all Sims3 talk.

Once they get past the initial intro and dev video, Ian from ST here starts around 47:00

The live broadcast is a major disappointment for me.

It confirmed that there will be more trimming from SC4.

No subways?! No highways in middle of a city?! No large-scale terraforming?! Smallish map sizes?! Skyscrapers next to land that can never be developed?! Worst of all, no 100% offline single player mode?!

I am not buying the game.

Subways - likely to be added with a Rush Hour type expansion pack

Highways - they are there but whether we can build them, or they are pre-set in the region is still unknown.

No terraforming, which I think REALLY sucks

Map size was stated in the video as "2k by 2k which is about the same as a medium map in Simcity 4" (at 48:30 in the video)

Skyscrapers I am sure will be limited by traffic, power water, etc with the exception of the special or premium buildings.

There is not really an Offline mode, but there will be "Private" mode, where you can keep a region to yourself and not be forced to join another persons region, or have others join your region.

I suspect this will be another fiasco similar to SC4 where they release the main game first, then expect everyone to pay more for "Rush Hour" type of expansion... they are looking to base SC(2013) on the Sims line where they release expansion after expansion.... unfortunately what works for Sims will ultimately fail for anything SimCity related.

Terraforming will be something I will try to get in and mod from day 1....

2 x 2 is a meaningless number as long as we don't know how things scale up. From what I saw in the live demonstration, a small town (4-5 streets) took up almost half of the tile.

Map size was stated in the video as "2k by 2k which is about the same as a medium map in Simcity 4" (at 48:30 in the video). Since the videos are not final release, it is possible they set the city sizes more to 1K x 1K (small) in order to show fast loading times, full speed gameplay, etc.

  Edited October 10, 2012 by Screwballl  

[jacksunny 741]

On the topic of curvy roads, its good but I am not impressed. They look jagged and the edges look like something that would have been made 5-6 years ago, not today.

Remember that the game is still in pre-alpha. Issues like this will likely be fixed before the final release.

As far as water/ships/planes/bridges... Where are you going to put these things on a map this small? The maps barely big enough for a small town let alone a city, adding water into the lot itself would severely reduce city size even further, so would airports and bridges. I suspect this is why they dodged the question and said something like "theres always been water in every SC game" yes, there has, and there will be in this one, but off in the distance most likely and not usable.

Ships are more for regional use, like inter-regional trading. You would likely build a port along a waterway that would ship goods out of the city to other cities. From what I understand, the international airport "Great Work" will attract tourists to the region, thus increasing tourism. I imagine cities will still have rivers running through them, thus the reason for the bridges.

I would suspect the reason for no subways is similar, the maps aren't big enough to justify it, the traffic works fine without it.

The cities can't have subway because they are to small but can have international airport in the Great Works

I don't understand Maxis

The two are completely different. Subways have to be within the city, which is too small for them. Airports, however, are built by everyone in the region, outside the cities. They help everybody in the region.

No highways in middle of a city?!

Highways have been confirmed, although not much has been revealed about them.

  Edited October 10, 2012 by jacksunny  

[Urban Cartographer 601]

I really hate it if subways become paid DLCs. I would rather have them in an expansion pack, though I prefer them to be in the base game (I wish).

  Edited October 10, 2012 by Urban Cartographer  

[CaptCity 4,753]

Folks, the topic here is the Maxis Live broadcast. Most of the off-topic general discussion here has all ready taken place in the appropriate topics that are pinned at the top of this forum. Please reserve this topic for what it was intended and take the other things to the correct place.

[McSouser 3]

On the topic of curvy roads, its good but I am not impressed. They look jagged and the edges look like something that would have been made 5-6 years ago, not today.

Remember that the game is still in pre-alpha. Issues like this will likely be fixed before the final release.

As far as water/ships/planes/bridges... Where are you going to put these things on a map this small? The maps barely big enough for a small town let alone a city, adding water into the lot itself would severely reduce city size even further, so would airports and bridges. I suspect this is why they dodged the question and said something like "theres always been water in every SC game" yes, there has, and there will be in this one, but off in the distance most likely and not usable.

I would suspect the reason for no subways is similar, the maps aren't big enough to justify it, the traffic works fine without it.

The cities can't have subway because they are to small but can have international airport in the Great Works

I don't understand Maxis

The two are completely different. Subways have to be within the city, which is too small for them. Airports, however, are built by everyone in the region, outside the cities. They help everybody in the region.

Of course, I know the game system, but what I mean is that if a city in real life is small and therefore has no subway, rarely has international airport.

[jacksunny 741]

A single small city may not have an international airport, but a bunch of small cities close by each other might. A bunch of small cities probably wouldn't have subway running between them, but heavy rail, which is in the game.

[McSouser 3]

Then we no need subway. It's Ok. Maxis are in the Right way

[jdenm8 362]

Maxis has said since day one that there will be modding in this game.

Not once have they said that.

They've said they've designed it to be moddable, but they have never said that they're going to let us mod it. BF3 is designed to be moddable and what happens when you play on any server remotely official with a modded game? You get banned.

Highways have been confirmed, although not much has been revealed about them.

Source or it didn't happen.

On topic stuff now.

I watched the SimCity segment of the broadcast last night (I have no interest in TS any more) and came off indifferent. Some of the questions had already been answered in various articles around the internet, though some were new. Didn't get any real new information though, the majority of the Answers were irrelevant and they didn't answer Zel's question about Ferries in particular. They said Boats were in, not Ferries and tried their hardest to dance around the question.

  Edited October 10, 2012 by jdenm8  

[jacksunny 741]

Highways have been confirmed, although not much has been revealed about them.

Source or it didn't happen.

A little bird just told me freeways will be included in the game. They're having trouble with on/off ramps though in pre-alpha testing.

More will probably be revealed in Dirk and Zel's write-up later this week.

[Greyflame 54]

I've posted a several scattered commentaries about the MaxisLB on this threat, but I went ahead and tried to consolidate all of my ideas into one giant post over here: http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9036589.page

It was a bit big to just copy past into this thread xD

[jacksunny 741]

^I noticed on the bottom you mentioned that the game has "a new form of advisers." Do you have a source for this? I don't recall hearing about it.

[Dale Kent 28]

I just gotta say, I am pretty disappointed after watching the broadcast.

This is not the SimCity you are looking for. You can go about your business.

[Greyflame 54]

^I noticed on the bottom you mentioned that the game has "a new form of advisers." Do you have a source for this? I don't recall hearing about it.

Yeah. It's a pretty recent Q/A on the simcity forums.

"It won't be these guys in particular, but we'll have a new form of advisers." - http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/165/9034498.page#25360745

[jacksunny 741]

Ah I see. Thanks.

[McSouser 3]

Does anyone know if there will be tunnels for roads.?

[Greyflame 54]

It sounds like there will be based on some of the comments from the Simtropolis trip, but I CAN'T provide any official confirmation for that one, unfortunately. So we'll have to wait to see for sure.

[plasticboy 36]

Does anyone like the fact that we can now share our cities with a friend?

Given the fact that you're never really offline, I wonder if that spells trouble for future custom content (at least in the form that we've come to know and love).

  Edited October 11, 2012 by plasticboy  

[McSouser 3]

Clearly, it will be very interesting to build regions with our friends. This is perhaps the most innovative of SimCity.

I agree that one of the things that limit the user mods will be the multiplayer to not unbalance the game, but we lose an important part of the game