Civitas, a possible alternative to SimCity 2013 on Kickstarter

[Royalkin 11]

Tis a bit strange methinks...

 

In any event, we do need a polished, feature-rich, and "real" city simulation game, if not this, someone else will step up eventually.

[Charizard 284]

Thought that was a bit strange really. And we don't even know who the private funder is. Hopefully it's true and the new website does go up tomorrow.

 

In any case, we need a worthy and polished successor to SimCity 4 that fans have been waiting for for the past 10 years. If not Civitas, then someone else will step up to the plate after seeing all the interest that kickstarter had garnered.

[Gilberreke 1]

Thought that was a bit strange really. And we don't even know who the private funder is. Hopefully it's true and the new website does go up tomorrow.

 

In any case, we need a worthy and polished successor to SimCity 4 that fans have been waiting for for the past 10 years. If not Civitas, then someone else will step up to the plate after seeing all the interest that kickstarter had garnered.

Uhhh, from what I've played, Sim City 2013 is waaay better than the original release-day SC4. Your mileage may vary, but I seriously doubt that Civitas would get even close to half as good as either those games, coming from a studio without a track record.

 

Comparing modded, updated, patched SC4 near the end of its lifecycle to SC2013 is very unfair to me. Comparing SC2013 unfavorably to a game that hasn't started production yet, with only a few screenshots (that look decidedly worse than SC2013) is even more unfair.

[Charizard 284]

Thought that was a bit strange really. And we don't even know who the private funder is. Hopefully it's true and the new website does go up tomorrow.

 

In any case, we need a worthy and polished successor to SimCity 4 that fans have been waiting for for the past 10 years. If not Civitas, then someone else will step up to the plate after seeing all the interest that kickstarter had garnered.

Uhhh, from what I've played, Sim City 2013 is waaay better than the original release-day SC4. Your mileage may vary, but I seriously doubt that Civitas would get even close to half as good as either those games, coming from a studio without a track record.

 

Comparing modded, updated, patched SC4 near the end of its lifecycle to SC2013 is very unfair to me. Comparing SC2013 unfavorably to a game that hasn't started production yet, with only a few screenshots (that look decidedly worse than SC2013) is even more unfair.

It's called an opinion. I have one and I ask you to respect it and in turn I will respect yours. In my opinion the new SimCity is a dumbed down version of SimCities of past. I'm not even going to mention the bugs in SC2013. But no modding, no terraforming, always online DRM, no subways, small cities, and non-contigious cities combined are all a dealbreaker for me. The game is more restrictive and limited than SC4. What people are hoping for in Civitas (or any other kickstarter future city builders for that matter) is a worthy successor with all of the features from SimCity 4 + stunning graphics + mod support + some new features. And I don't think you know exactly what a kickstarter is. The point of a kickstarter is to get funding for an unfinished project, so of course the present early alpha stage screenshots will look bad. Personally I thought they should have used concept art instead, but that's just my opinion. Anyway if these guys don't deliver on their game then I can patiently wait and hope for another studio to make a worthy city builder that the fans have been waiting for all this time. In the meantime I am having fun playing SC4 with the mods as well as Cities XL Platinum, even though the latter gets annoying with the memory leak problem and the wierd zoning system.

[Write 9]

So did the people who donated get their money back or is Brandon Smith rolling in it right now and laughing?

[Charizard 284]

So did the people who donated get their money back or is Brandon Smith rolling in it right now and laughing?

 

Kickstarters don't get any money unless the funding goal (in this case $250,000) is reached. Your credit card doesn't get charged until the funding goal is reached.

[Gilberreke 1]

t's called an opinion. I have one and I ask you to respect it and in turn I will respect yours. In my opinion the new SimCity is a dumbed down version of SimCities of past. I'm not even going to mention the bugs in SC2013. But no modding, no terraforming, always online DRM, no subways, small cities, and non-contigious cities combined are all a dealbreaker for me. The game is more restrictive and limited than SC4. What people are hoping for in Civitas (or any other kickstarter future city builders for that matter) is a worthy successor with all of the features from SimCity 4 + stunning graphics + mod support + some new features. And I don't think you know exactly what a kickstarter is. The point of a kickstarter is to get funding for an unfinished project, so of course the present early alpha stage screenshots will look bad. Personally I thought they should have used concept art instead, but that's just my opinion. Anyway if these guys don't deliver on their game then I can patiently wait and hope for another studio to make a worthy city builder that the fans have been waiting for all this time. In the meantime I am having fun playing SC4 with the mods as well as Cities XL Platinum, even though the latter gets annoying with the memory leak problem and the wierd zoning system.

Yeah, I'll have to disagree with you then I guess. 

 

Let's go over your arguments:

- No modding: SC4 didn't have modding either, but SC2013 promises modding soon, unlike SC4, which never promised or delivered it

- No terraforming: I don't see how terraforming could possibly fit SC2013. Difference of opinion, but I agree completely with the devs here

- Always online DRM: I don't see the point of an offline mode for a multiplayer game. Complaining there's no single player mode I could understand. Complaining that the multiplayer mode requires an internet connection? Just lol man.

- No subways: subways would be nice. I don't see how the game is less without it though. There's tons of little extras I'd want, subways being way down in the list. We have street-cars which are actually a lot more interesting to build, while keeping traffic patterns intact (due to stoplighting). Proper streetcar routes are an artform that subways never were in other games. +1 for the devs.

- Non-contiguous cities: I don't think that would work well in a multiplayer environment, but sure, another "cool-to-have" feature for largely visual purposes. I prefer game-play.

 

As for not knowing what a kickstarter is or being able to understand a game concept from screenshots: ex-professional game developer here with a number of back kickstarters behind his belt. What's your story?

 

I'm not disrespecting your opinion. I can understand the fact you don't like SimCity as an MMO and wanting a decent single player mode. Comparing it unfavorably to a mature end-of-cycle, modded game and a kickstarter that pissed a bunch of people off while providing 3 mediocre last-gen looking screenshots is a bit much though.

 

One wonders why you frequent these forums if you don't like the game.

[McFluffy 4]

Its status says canceled, so they do not get the funding.

 

I hope them all the best, and will follow its advances. Not having a track record can be a good thing. They have the hunger to achieve.

[Charizard 284]

t's called an opinion. I have one and I ask you to respect it and in turn I will respect yours. In my opinion the new SimCity is a dumbed down version of SimCities of past. I'm not even going to mention the bugs in SC2013. But no modding, no terraforming, always online DRM, no subways, small cities, and non-contigious cities combined are all a dealbreaker for me. The game is more restrictive and limited than SC4. What people are hoping for in Civitas (or any other kickstarter future city builders for that matter) is a worthy successor with all of the features from SimCity 4 + stunning graphics + mod support + some new features. And I don't think you know exactly what a kickstarter is. The point of a kickstarter is to get funding for an unfinished project, so of course the present early alpha stage screenshots will look bad. Personally I thought they should have used concept art instead, but that's just my opinion. Anyway if these guys don't deliver on their game then I can patiently wait and hope for another studio to make a worthy city builder that the fans have been waiting for all this time. In the meantime I am having fun playing SC4 with the mods as well as Cities XL Platinum, even though the latter gets annoying with the memory leak problem and the wierd zoning system.

Yeah, I'll have to disagree with you then I guess. 

 

Let's go over your arguments:

- No modding: SC4 didn't have modding either, but SC2013 promises modding soon, unlike SC4, which never promised or delivered it -SC4 had it eventually so SC2013 should have it from the start, since it should build on its predecessors.

- No terraforming: I don't see how terraforming could possibly fit SC2013. Difference of opinion, but I agree completely with the devs here - Why not? The debug tools have already been shown to have a terraforming feature which they will probably allow you to unlock through micro DLC, which is a rip-off if you ask me. I want to be able to sculpt the land the way I see fit like I could in SC4, not have the developers force me to use a certain landscape.

- Always online DRM: I don't see the point of an offline mode for a multiplayer game. Complaining there's no single player mode I could understand. Complaining that the multiplayer mode requires an internet connection? Just lol man. - Umm I was obviously referring to the singleplayer mode. Why would I refer to the multiplayer mode if the whole point of a multiplayer mode is to be online?

- No subways: subways would be nice. I don't see how the game is less without it though. There's tons of little extras I'd want, subways being way down in the list. We have street-cars which are actually a lot more interesting to build, while keeping traffic patterns intact (due to stoplighting). Proper streetcar routes are an artform that subways never were in other games. +1 for the devs. - Subways are a major transportation option in most if not all metropolitan areas. It's a travesty they haven't included them especially since the previous game had it. Not to mention the fact that many of the traffic issues plaguing this game could be alleviated if you could build subways.

- Non-contiguous cities: I don't think that would work well in a multiplayer environment, but sure, another "cool-to-have" feature for largely visual purposes. I prefer game-play. - It could have worked in the multiplayer mode, if not the singleplayer mode. One of the main features of SimCity 4 was the ability to build a large mult-city metropolis surrounded by farms/suburbs. You can't do that in this game because the city sizes are too small and they aren't next to eachother. Not to mention this game doesn't even have farms. It's a step backwards. Want to build New York or Paris in your game? Too bad. This game is SimTown at best.

 

As for not knowing what a kickstarter is or being able to understand a game concept from screenshots: ex-professional game developer here with a number of back kickstarters behind his belt. What's your story?

 

I'm not disrespecting your opinion. I can understand the fact you don't like SimCity as an MMO and wanting a decent single player mode. Comparing it unfavorably to a mature end-of-cycle, modded game and a kickstarter that pissed a bunch of people off while providing 3 mediocre last-gen looking screenshots is a bit much though. - I wasn't comparing SC4 Deluxe with mods to SC2013. SimCity 4 Deluxe (a 10 year old game) by itself is a superior game to SimCity 2013. Deluxe already had modding capabilities as well as all of the other things I mentioned at the time of release. SC2013 is lacking many core features seen in the previous games.

 

One wonders why you frequent these forums if you don't like the game. - I don't just hang out on the SC2013 forum you know (and this isn't the SC2013 board if you didn't notice). I look through topics in most of the major boards and if something interests me I'll post in it.

 

The point is that they took a franchise that had a long history of being a deeply immersive singleplayer game and made it into a casual, online, and social game. This is not the SimCity game most SimCity 4 fans were looking forward to. I'm not the only one saying this. Just look at the posts around here about how disappointed people are with this game. Of course not only does it have less features than SimCity 4 Deluxe, but it is bug ridden too. Glassbox is a poorly designed engine unfortunately. Add to that the chance that your city might be deleted because of faulty EA servers and you have a disastorous gaming experience. This game (once the bugs are fixed and it has an offline singleplayer mode) is probably a fine game on its own but it is definitely not a worthy successor to SimCity 4 after taking out so many features. That's why hopefully Civitas or another game will be made to quench our city builder thirst.

[Greygor 1]

So did the people who donated get their money back or is Brandon Smith rolling in it right now and laughing?

 

 

I'm still amazed by how many people don't realize you don't actually give money to a KS project until funding is reached at the end of the funding period. Until then you lose nothing to back a project that you think might work.

 

Until the end of the funding period there is absolutely no risk to you.

[LexusInfernus 908]

The point is that they took a franchise that had a long history of being a deeply immersive singleplayer game and made it into a casual, online, and social game. This is not the SimCity game most SimCity 4 fans were looking forward to. I'm not the only one saying this. Just look at the posts around here about how disappointed people are with this game. Of course not only does it have less features than SimCity 4 Deluxe, but it is bug ridden too. Glassbox is a poorly designed engine unfortunately. Add to that the chance that your city might be deleted because of faulty EA servers and you have a disastorous gaming experience. This game (once the bugs are fixed and it has an offline singleplayer mode) is probably a fine game on its own but it is definitely not a worthy successor to SimCity 4 after taking out so many features. That's why hopefully Civitas or another game will be made to quench our city builder thirst.

Yes, how dare the creators and owners of that franchise do something with it that displeases the fans! How dare they trying to innovate and come up with something new! Preposterous! 

 

Really, if you don't like the game, that's cool, to each their own. But there are plenty of people who do like the new SimCity and who could really go without people telling them how much a game they like sucks. Especially since those people have been raging about the same issues over and over again for the past few months. Its getting old.This getting about as dumb as going to the Cities XL forums and telling the players there that Cities XL is an inferior product compared to SimCity 4 or something. 

 

As for civitas, it appears they managed to do a better pitch to a private investor than they did on Kickstarter. I hope for them that they can make the game actually work, but for now I'm going to assume that the private investor just threw 250.000 dollars away. I may change this opinion once the developers show some actual content. 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Could we keep the SC2013 vs. SC4 bickering out of this thread? Last time I checked, this thread was about Civitas. If you are so determined on getting at each other's throats, go to the SC2013 sub-forum. Thank you very much.

[Prens 168]

Whilst the news of private funding is strange, I think this is good news as I was not confident enough to be interested in backing the kickstarter fund. It will be interesting to see how this will turn out.

[Camlon 50]

The point is that they took a franchise that had a long history of being a deeply immersive singleplayer game and made it into a casual, online, and social game. This is not the SimCity game most SimCity 4 fans were looking forward to. I'm not the only one saying this. Just look at the posts around here about how disappointed people are with this game. Of course not only does it have less features than SimCity 4 Deluxe, but it is bug ridden too. Glassbox is a poorly designed engine unfortunately. Add to that the chance that your city might be deleted because of faulty EA servers and you have a disastorous gaming experience. This game (once the bugs are fixed and it has an offline singleplayer mode) is probably a fine game on its own but it is definitely not a worthy successor to SimCity 4 after taking out so many features. That's why hopefully Civitas or another game will be made to quench our city builder thirst.

Yes, how dare the creators and owners of that franchise do something with it that displeases the fans! How dare they trying to innovate and come up with something new! Preposterous! 

How is removing subway innovation? How is forcing users to deal with a weak server innovation? How is smaller maps innovation? How is empty space between cities innovation? How is removal of terraforming innovation? How is making a traffic system that makes no sense innovation. Change does not mean innovation. Innovation is to make something better. 

 

The reason I am willing to pay is this.

$20 dollars is a very low sum to get a proper sim city game. It might fail, but I am willing to take that risk for $20 dollars. In fact I will pay $500 if I can get a proper sim city game. Hence, I don't see the reason to not back them.

[Mr Saturn64 742]

Seems like Cities XL a lot.

[T3beatz 0]

Seems like Cities XL a lot.

 

I'm new to these forums, I had to comment on this.  Are you saying that Civitas seems like Cities XL a lot?  A game that has not even been built and only has a few pics up? lol

 

On another note, I'm looking forward to Civitas and I hope they do a good job on it.  It looks like it may be a pretty good game if they can incorporate most of the stuff that we ask for. 

[Mr. Flibble 134]

I'm just curious what you saw that made you think it might be a good game. I saw three screenshots of random house models sitting next to a ridiculously small road, a heightmap painting video, and some house graphics popping up on a blue square. No UI, no structure, etc. Compare it to the Banished video that was posted here today and notice the difference in presentation and quality.

[moaku 74]

Why still talking about civitas ?

It was obviously a hoax...

The kickstarter funding has been cancelled 5 days ago.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1584821767/civitas-plan-develop-and-manage-the-city-of-your-d

[mmiller_34 0]

Apparently Civitas is still in the works. They put up a nice looking website with a somewhat active forum http://civitasgame.com/
 
There was also a video posted on YouTube by the developer Brandon Smith. The game looks real rough right now but it is only in the Alpha stages. If this game continues to be developed I assume it will follow the same path that Minecraft followed with an open alpha/beta program with updates every month or so.

 

 

I haven't signed up for the forums over there, but I am cautiously optimistic that this could be a decent substitute for SimCity.

[JWL 52]

So yeah, Civitas. Interesting that it got outside funding, I just hope it's not EA that signed the check. What made me excited about the kickstarter was that it specifically stated it was being made by fans of the genre without the influence of publisher funding breathing down their neck. This meant they had they free reign to do what they want and work passionately on something close to them and was the primary factor when deciding to donate to the KS. Now that they've received funding, they've got a safety net should things go awry. This will have a great psychological impact on the development process of the game, I think. The whole "outside funding" thing seems a bit suspicious to me, as they talked up the independent aspect of the game production in the top of the KS.

 

The video above this post is rough, but shows promise. I'll definitely be keeping my eyes on this as it progresses.

 

Also, did anyone notice the ridiculous scale comparison in this picture?

 

 

You could fit that road right through the front door!

[nuyokcity 22]

Anybody know what happened to this project?  There seems to be little actual news online...

[AkemiAzula 280]

It was a scam. The forums have dissapeared.