Why no real changes? And why not make real improvements?

[gamester101 0]

 

I consider myself a City Builder master. I have just about every one ever made
 since the C= 64 days, including CXL 11 and 12. I never got the 5 dollar upgrade due to theres no difference
between all 3. I mean come on guys. Sheeesh

I think of CXL as a sim with a hell of a lot of potential. The main and most
important change you should have made was highway Under and over passes for
roads. When I make a highway and Don’t want an intersection there, I have to
build a bridge for all the regular roads over the highway. No way to have
either an under or over pass.

Put in an up to date 3d camera view. In 11 I had to download a mod that would do that. And it was not a very good one.

But the last 3 games with NO significant changes?  Why even bother? Accept the obvious of course,
milking the public for profit.

I lost interest in the game equally due to the 3d camera, or lack of, and no
highway overpasses. I didn’t even take advantage of the 5 dollar upgrade. And
that in itself says something.

You guys have the potential of whipping serious ass with this game. It is the best
game of it’s type. Sim City 5 Who knows untill the 5th. Somebody Please get with it. Put
more into the game and less into popping out new versions that should have been
minor upgrades, just for profit.

 

It’s shameful in my opinion.

 

[Ocram's Razr 964]

1. Cities XL 2011 made significant changes vs the original Cities XL. It transformed the game from Planet Offer focused to full-featured offline. It added Buses and Subways and it added new buildings.

2. The camera looks fine to me though the game was made to be easily modified and there is probably a better camera mod by now.

3. "Puzzle Pieces" like in SimCity 4 cannot easily fit in a full 3D environment so overpasses can only done through elevated roads (using shift and drag) or bridges. SimCity 2013 has absolutely no puzzle pieces while Cities XL has 2 or 3.

4. The last two "games" are really just DLC. Completely optional. They also come with more extensive modding tools to further improve Cities XL. SimCity 4 is absolutely horrible (by today's standards) without mods.

5. If you think that the Simtropolis mods are bad, you should try the far superior (and greater variety) mods at XLNation.net

--Ocram

[AnathemaDevice 35]

1. Cities XL 2011 made significant changes vs the original Cities XL. It transformed the game from Planet Offer focused to full-featured offline. It added Buses and Subways and it added new buildings.

2. The camera looks fine to me though the game was made to be easily modified and there is probably a better camera mod by now.

3. "Puzzle Pieces" like in SimCity 4 cannot easily fit in a full 3D environment so overpasses can only done through elevated roads (using shift and drag) or bridges. SimCity 2013 has absolutely no puzzle pieces while Cities XL has 2 or 3.

4. The last two "games" are really just DLC. Completely optional. They also come with more extensive modding tools to further improve Cities XL. SimCity 4 is absolutely horrible (by today's standards) without mods.

5. If you think that the Simtropolis mods are bad, you should try the far superior (and greater variety) mods at XLNation.net

--Ocram

 

+1 for XL Nation mods.

 

I've been playing SC4 since it was released and I still enjoy it even though it does look a little dated now.  I was looking forward to a new up to date Simcity but when it arrived I was very disappointed to see the direction they have taken it in. Due to  all the stuff I don't like about the new Simcity I went looking for alternatives and found Cities XL.

 

I wouldn't have bought Cities XL when it was first released even if I had known about it because it was very different then, the online only and paying monthly part would have been a definite no go for me and from what I've read about the versions I wouldn't have gone for anything before XL 2012 due to the DRM. But now it's ideal for me, no dodgy DRM, nice big cities (not villages/small towns),  it all runs on my computer without the need for and online connection to servers that may or may not be there when I want to play and no spyware snooping around my computer.

 

I would like thank EA & Maxis for disappointing me with regards to Simcity because otherwise I wouldn't have found Cities XL, which is much more like the up to date game I was hoping for. I did install a number of mods from XL Nation from the start so I can't comment on the 'bare' game but with the mods it's fantastic. I have my old enthusiasm for city building back.

 

You don't have to buy every update for it. Why not download some free mods from XL Nation? If you don't want to buy the expansions from Focus you could donate the cost of them  XL Nation site instead, there's far more content available there than you would get in the expansion packs anyway. Some of the mods improve the gameplay as well, rather than just adding new buildings.

[uebs 11]

From the outside it doesn't even look like the game is being actively developed, it seems that FHI just bought the source code and IP and are merely doing minor bug fixes?

 

It didn't seem like FHI came in and bailed out the MC team in order for them to continue with future development.

 

MC had a capital injection of 4.5 million euros 2 years before they filed for bankruptcy...so in 2 years they burnt through all that $...

 

From the outside it looks like FHI came in and bought MC assets in a fire sale and then the MC team was disbanded at this point.

 

SC2013 took 4 years to create? So a real new CXL game and not merely updates will take some time,  MC went bankrupt in May 2010...

 

Too bad FHI picked up the CXL stuff, because FHI based on their previous released titles are meh at best...

 

It's a great opportunity for FHI to actively develop this, because SC2013 is getting bashed hard by the hardcore SC fans...(being loud and vocal on the boards is one thing, but the best way to get EA/Maxis to listen to the base is by not buying the game, vote with your wallet people)

 

CXL is really nice in terms of realism and city building all they really need to do is rework that engine for multicore and make continue the offline play and they can basically go head to head with SC franchise.

 

If FHI doesn't have the resources to do that, I wished they would just release the Source Code (make it open source) so the community can really have a go at it...or the community could just create a open source project from scratch if FHI isn't doing anything with CXL and ea/maxis seem to be going in the wrong direction with SC2013...

 

I'm not sure if the community even has the talent or the interest to do a open source project...Modders are doing great work in terms of mods, but to create a multicore game engine would require real hardcore coders in the community...

[AnathemaDevice 35]

.

If FHI doesn't have the resources to do that, I wished they would just release the Source Code (make it open source) so the community can really have a go at it...or the community could just create a open source project from scratch if FHI isn't doing anything with CXL and ea/maxis seem to be going in the wrong direction with SC2013...

 

I'm not sure if the community even has the talent or the interest to do a open source project...Modders are doing great work in terms of mods, but to create a multicore game engine would require real hardcore coders in the community...

 

You haven't seen the Boomtown project then? 

[uebs 11]

Thanks, just went through some of the posts for Boomtown...

 

It's very interesting and ambitious...and I wish them the best of luck.

 

However my take from the posts for Boomtown project is, they spent nearly two years and have not a whole lot to show for it...MC had 4.5 million and a team of 80 proffessionals working on CXL...

 

BTp talk about sales and investment opportunities for the community and yet they don't even have a simple prototype.  On top of which none of them seem to have any game industry experience either...

 

(It would've been more interesting if it was a open source project and if they didn't focus so much in terms of making sales etc...etc...)

 

Oh well, it's neither here nor there.  Guess I'm left with modding CXL and hoping FHI is secretly working in the background for a REAL release of CXL.

 

Off to play SC2013 in the mean time