Beta 2 Screen Shots

[BurroDiablo 222]

Couldn't disagree more... If you played the 16 region city (which can build all 4 grand works) you'd have to spend significant hours to just start all 16 cities, let alone build them up and have them running efficiently. Given also the more dynamic nature of the game, problems would appear to be more interesting ...

 

That Industrial city, with all the pollution down wind ... Well the wind changed - hah!

That oil city making a motza on the global market ... Well oil just went south and your city is now in the red!

 

Just to name a few ...

I was speaking specifically about individual cities, of course the game is broader than that, you could likely spend days/weeks perfecting your own region and solving all the little problems that come with it. However, it doesn't change the fact that bigger cities would inevitably lead to bigger challenges, making the game much more interesting especially with all the new features. 16 cities isn't much at the current scale, if you can fill 1 tile in 2 hours, then realistically you'll be able to fill the rest of the tiles in 4-5 days... I've lost count of how long I could spend in a SC4 region and not even fill quarter of it, I can count the amount of large city tiles I've filled completely on 1 hand.

Just a small note btw, I enjoyed the beta quite a lot, and I don't expect it to ever achieve SC4 scale for obvious technical reasons, but I can't help but imagine what this game would be like if the map tiles were doubled in size and placed regionally in groups of 4 to create the illusion of single large city. I'd certainly feel like I was building more of a city and less of a caricature. I'm frustrated out of love xD

edit-

Since this is a screenshot thread, have a screenshot or two... first screen was my first city, 2nd is my last where I was testing out some bendy roads, and my first fully upgraded school.

 

 

 

 

Bonus - Port Bawbag twinned with Chelyabinsk... aftermath of a Meteor impact

 

[Towel 76]

Couldn't disagree more... If you played the 16 region city (which can build all 4 grand works) you'd have to spend significant hours to just start all 16 cities, let alone build them up and have them running efficiently. Given also the more dynamic nature of the game, problems would appear to be more interesting ...

 

That Industrial city, with all the pollution down wind ... Well the wind changed - hah!

That oil city making a motza on the global market ... Well oil just went south and your city is now in the red!

 

Just to name a few ...

I was speaking specifically about individual cities, of course the game is broader than that, you could likely spend days/weeks perfecting your own region and solving all the little problems that come with it. However, it doesn't change the fact that bigger cities would inevitably lead to bigger challenges, making the game much more interesting especially with all the new features. 16 cities isn't much at the current scale, if you can fill 1 tile in 2 hours, then realistically you'll be able to fill the rest of the tiles in 4-5 days... I've lost count of how long I could spend in a SC4 region and not even fill quarter of it, I can count the amount of large city tiles I've filled completely on 1 hand.

Just a small note btw, I enjoyed the beta quite a lot, and I don't expect it to ever achieve SC4 scale for obvious technical reasons, but I can't help but imagine what this game would be like if the map tiles were doubled in size and placed regionally in groups of 4 to create the illusion of single large city. I'd certainly feel like I was building more of a city and less of a caricature. I'm frustrated out of love xD

 

 

Yeah all fair really ... Although "filling" the tiles in 1-2 hours doesn't mean you're finished, at least that's my experience in the beta. I felt like I had to really rush and rush hard to fill the entire space in the hour, and even then I had only just started to get some medium density building up... I'd suspect you're going to need a lot of hours to build and encourage high density with an efficient industry and workforce.

[MINIggy03 227]

How dare people like the new SimCity!

 

 

And now for some non "SimCity-Time Attack" pics  

 

Also, a tornado managed to randomly pop up, was pretty cool.  It didn't last very long, went away before taking out the soccer field, along with the players that were completely oblivious to it, haha.  

 

I also played a few games on slow speed, just enjoying the simulation (I think people need to get out of the SC4 mindset).  Did you have any issues creating industry on dirt roads?  I created a small town with about 10 houses (trailers).  The only industry that would build was what looked like moonshine stils lol, which was pretty funny (no one could work there though).  I also created only a few commercial zones.  They built a refrigerator store on the corner and a fortune teller beside it (damn hillbillies).  There was an issue with such a small town, the utility costs were so high, power, water and sewage had me at -500/hr.  This kinda let up when I got a factory going on a small road though.

 

I'm tempted to upload the video to youtube, but it is probably painfully boring to watch for most people.  There were some funny moments with one guy wandering down the dirt road into the woods looking for a good time, and some sims wondering if they were just in some computer simulation.  Most of the video is just me enjoying the game, checking out the different stats etc..

 

Edit:  Just realized you're the one I gave the beta key to, glad you had fun!

 

Thanks again for the beta key!  It was a blast and now that I've gotten a chance to check it out, I'm definitely looking forward to picking it up on release.  I was up until 5am playing it, I think I got about 8 sessions in, haha.  I spent the first few times doing the usual speed runs, trying to build as fast as I could and getting the hang of how everything works.  But then I just wanted to slow down and actually enjoy the game and that's where I really fell in love.  The hour blew by so fast when I just stopped, relaxed and took my time to take everything in.  I knew at that moment that I was going to pour some serious amount of hours into this game on release and I stopped caring about map sizes and just enjoyed the heck out of the gameplay.  It's freakin' good!

[Zukunftstraume 220]

And now for some non "SimCity-Time Attack" pics 

 

Also, a tornado managed to randomly pop up, was pretty cool.  It didn't last very long, went away before taking out the soccer field, along with the players that were completely oblivious to it, haha.  

 

I also played a few games on slow speed, just enjoying the simulation (I think people need to get out of the SC4 mindset).  Did you have any issues creating industry on dirt roads?  I created a small town with about 10 houses (trailers).  The only industry that would build was what looked like moonshine stils lol, which was pretty funny (no one could work there though).  I also created only a few commercial zones.  They built a refrigerator store on the corner and a fortune teller beside it (damn hillbillies).  There was an issue with such a small town, the utility costs were so high, power, water and sewage had me at -500/hr.  This kinda let up when I got a factory going on a small road though.

 

I'm tempted to upload the video to youtube, but it is probably painfully boring to watch for most people.  There were some funny moments with one guy wandering down the dirt road into the woods looking for a good time, and some sims wondering if they were just in some computer simulation.  Most of the video is just me enjoying the game, checking out the different stats etc..

 

Being honest, I would love to see that video!

[cirugo 1,889]

the only way any pictures I have seen, beta or otherwise, look good is zoomed way in close...from certain angles. 

[Zukunftstraume 220]

the only way any pictures I have seen, beta or otherwise, look good is zoomed way in close...from certain angles. 

 

close enough where it's impossible to see the city edges

[Hoipus 292]

And now for some non "SimCity-Time Attack" pics 

 

Also, a tornado managed to randomly pop up, was pretty cool.  It didn't last very long, went away before taking out the soccer field, along with the players that were completely oblivious to it, haha.  

 

I also played a few games on slow speed, just enjoying the simulation (I think people need to get out of the SC4 mindset).  Did you have any issues creating industry on dirt roads?  I created a small town with about 10 houses (trailers).  The only industry that would build was what looked like moonshine stils lol, which was pretty funny (no one could work there though).  I also created only a few commercial zones.  They built a refrigerator store on the corner and a fortune teller beside it (damn hillbillies).  There was an issue with such a small town, the utility costs were so high, power, water and sewage had me at -500/hr.  This kinda let up when I got a factory going on a small road though.

 

I'm tempted to upload the video to youtube, but it is probably painfully boring to watch for most people.  There were some funny moments with one guy wandering down the dirt road into the woods looking for a good time, and some sims wondering if they were just in some computer simulation.  Most of the video is just me enjoying the game, checking out the different stats etc..

 

Edit:  Just realized you're the one I gave the beta key to, glad you had fun!

Right after I built a wind power plant, a sim ran all across the empty space between the residential zone and the power plant just to get it started.

[packersfan 666]

Great screenshots!  Then I see the dreadful screenshots where the city is forced to end in region view...sigh.

[Howitzer Zak 17]

Here are some shots of my hillybilly town.  Also some stats shots.  I've watched a ton of videos on youtube and I have yet to see anyone use these screens.  There is some detailed information here.  I used the Details page all the time to see my employment status, and commercial stats.  I don't think people even know this stuff exists:

 

Here is my town, dirt roads and trailers for everyone!  Plus a BBQ pit, I figure that matches my demographics!

 

 

This is what HillBillys call "Industry"

 

 

If you hover over any of the charts they tell you exact figures, i.e. 6 people living in the house.  You can tell how many students etc... There's a lot of data under the covers.

This screen was the most important screen for me.  I have yet to see ANY youtube video even look at it, yet I was looking at it constantly

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

Yeah the graphs, charts and statistics are really great, I only dabbled with them in the beta but it is true graph porn!!! I really must build some small settlements when I buy the game as they look awesome!

[macbroue 2]

 

 

EDIT: @Howitzer Zak  I'm wondering if these graphs become somehow "unreadable" on a fully developped map ?

 

 

 

[CaptCity 4,753]

As the title of this topic indicates (and as others have pointed out), this is a place for screen shots to be shown and discussed. Several comments not directed toward that particular goal have been removed. Please make comments directed to other various aspects of the game in an appropriate thread - several of which are pinned - or start new topics for new discussion on new ideas. It doesn't take much to drive topics in unintended directions which can be confusing and distracting for people coming into the topic midstream. Thanks...

[Zukunftstraume 220]

 

 

At least the advisors look better than in SC4!

[Howitzer Zak 17]

Here is another screen of another important overlay that I used constantly (Land Value).  I'm not sure people realize entirely how parks and things work.  Parks seem to generate an area of effect that stacks.  So if you have two parks side-by-side, like in my screen shot, the value of that land is increased accordingly.  My baseball field, that has a huge area of effect only increased the land value a little, pushing it into the next tier.  There seems to be a gradient of these values too, not just the static levels we see.

 

(Sorry for the jaggys and black bars, this is one of my first games before I changed the video settings to 1900x1200 and AA.

 

Here is the effect of high land value (This guy was so hard to please, demanded a ton of stuff, and left the city on multiple occasions, had to bulldoze the area like 5 times lol:

 

 

[MINIggy03 227]

 

EDIT: @Howitzer Zak  I'm wondering if these graphs become somehow "unreadable" on a fully developped map ?

 

 

 

 

It gets much better as your population grows.  Those 6 Sim homes with their bars reaching to the sky scale down dramatically(almost to the ground) once higher density populations start moving in.  It's far more readable and you get to see all the color coded Sims clearer (which is actually quite useful). 

 

I had a lot of fun putting the speed on 3 and just watching the population map.  

[mccann76 0]

here are some shots of my city:

 

and my city on the hill:

[Zukunftstraume 220]

here are some shots of my city:

 

and my city on the hill:

 

^Brilliant shots!

 

Particularly love the colors of the top shot. Seriously, everyone who is complaining about the "cartoonish-ness" of the game need to get their priorities straight... That and the fact that there's color filters!

[Towel 76]

here are some shots of my city:

 

I love this shot too!

 

I don't care for the actual layout of the city, but damn the way the light captures the city ... Love it!

[Haljackey 17,304]

Video of the last 10 mins or so of my very first time playing SC13.

 

While this was filmed during the first closed beta, Maxis/EA now confirms that closed beta material is fine to make public.

 

http://youtu.be/Y-bNCQQwWL0

 

 

I'd love to show you guys stuff from the Dev. Beta, but I still can't make that content public. Perhaps I can when it ends or when the game comes out.