SimCity Update 8

behedwin · March 14, 2013

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-update-8

Some good news to read about

Fixing the traffic issues for example.

Catchin22 · March 14, 2013

That's nice and all but no mention on recovering / preventing lost cities. As of now, I can't recommend this game to anyone because of that issue. As much as I love the game I feel no reason to start it up knowing I'll likely lose a city for good after putting 30 hours into it.

flyer2359 · March 14, 2013

That's nice and all but no mention on recovering / preventing lost cities. As of now, I can't recommend this game to anyone because of that issue. As much as I love the game I feel no reason to start it up knowing I'll likely lose a city for good after putting 30 hours into it.

When was the last time you lost a city? I haven't lost one ever since their 1.5 update, before that I lost a lot of them though.

Mr. Flibble · March 14, 2013

I wonder what other "holes" will be quietly patched, such as the permanent offline bit and the ability to edit outside the prescribed borders. The designer is correct that there's no way to test endless permutations of some behaviors, but certainly dumb as a doornail shortest path road networks that have been in the game forever shouldn't fall into that category. They should have easily been able to see the problems there. He also brushes aside the notion that the sims should even have a permanent home and work location, well it seems to me that if they want to model how a city acts that's at least a place to start. An agent should at least return to the same location they leave from even if that location is randomized once per day. That would eliminate the silly looking video of Sim cars neatly (and wildly unrealistically) filing into driveways like putting books on an empty shelf. If they're going to take pains to show that much detail, they ought to model it as well.

Catchin22 · March 14, 2013

That's nice and all but no mention on recovering / preventing lost cities. As of now, I can't recommend this game to anyone because of that issue. As much as I love the game I feel no reason to start it up knowing I'll likely lose a city for good after putting 30 hours into it.

When was the last time you lost a city? I haven't lost one ever since their 1.5 update, before that I lost a lot of them though.

Oddly enough shortly after the update that would "decrease the chance of losing progress after a rollback" What pisses me off more is that they KNOW about the issue but aren't fixing peoples cities. I am paying for a service now, they took on that responsibility. If I report a lost city they should be restoring it within the hour, anything more is not acceptable. A week or a month is definitely not! Not only does it screw ME over but everyone I am playing with on a public region.

I wonder what other "holes" will be quietly patched, such as the permanent offline bit and the ability to edit outside the prescribed borders. The designer is correct that there's no way to test endless permutations of some behaviors, but certainly dumb as a doornail shortest path road networks that have been in the game forever shouldn't fall into that category. They should have easily been able to see the problems there. He also brushes aside the notion that the sims should even have a permanent home and work location, well it seems to me that if they want to model how a city acts that's at least a place to start. An agent should at least return to the same location they leave from even if that location is randomized once per day. That would eliminate the silly looking video of Sim cars neatly (and wildly unrealistically) filing into driveways like putting books on an empty shelf. If they're going to take pains to show that much detail, they ought to model it as well.

Personally I could care less about this. I don't need each sim to go back where they started. I like that the traffic has an actual place to go, jobs are filled and accounted for and so on. There are a centillion other factors that aren't simulated like real world or left out completely, makes no difference.

Miketorngren · March 15, 2013

I must say I am a bit disappointed that the sims don't have a permanent home/job, but its not a deal breaker. It does remove some of the realism. It would be cool if they changed this in the future and maybe even the ability to rename sims and have a way to quickly reference them.

I am not professional coder so I don't know the mechanics but if these sims keep track of happiness, money, and other details, how much harder would it be to keep track of a home or job? If their home/job gets bulldozed THEN they can look for a new one.

BLANKBLANK · March 15, 2013

That's nice and all but no mention on recovering / preventing lost cities. As of now, I can't recommend this game to anyone because of that issue. As much as I love the game I feel no reason to start it up knowing I'll likely lose a city for good after putting 30 hours into it.

Wow! You've changed your tone remarkably from a few days ago!

I'm sorry your good fortune ran out, I've played this game for about 20 hours or so and I only had to rollback one small city and I didn't lose much so there is still major server issues out there. Once there is a single player mode (and from all these developments regarding that modder and all) we'll never have to worry about such things again.

Catchin22 · March 15, 2013

That's nice and all but no mention on recovering / preventing lost cities. As of now, I can't recommend this game to anyone because of that issue. As much as I love the game I feel no reason to start it up knowing I'll likely lose a city for good after putting 30 hours into it.

Wow! You've changed your tone remarkably from a few days ago!

I'm sorry your good fortune ran out, I've played this game for about 20 hours or so and I only had to rollback one small city and I didn't lose much so there is still major server issues out there. Once there is a single player mode (and from all these developments regarding that modder and all) we'll never have to worry about such things again.

I haven't changed my tone at all, I give credit where it's due but I will rip them apart when it's due as well. If this issue was a VERY rare occurrence I wouldn't have much to say about it, but it's not, it's becoming extremely common and nothing is being done to fix these lost cities on a per customer basis. We haven't even been told if they are working to bring them back or just fix the issue.

Toll · March 15, 2013

Look the guy can't go and say, 'EA forced us to release this game before we were ready'. That is not how a games company keeps on the good side of the publishers they need (Thank God for Kickstarter..)

EA had a release date, the game wasn't ready for that. Sure it was ready enough by a publishers standards and that is a very hard sell to a publisher to not release the game because it isn't ready. EA doesn't care that the AI pathing was so basic, they didn't care you can build 100% Residential cities, they cared that they could release it by their release date. That Is All.

Unfortunately Game companies like Maxis can't bite the hand that feeds them, so they will not discuss things that EA has given a solid stance on. DRM/offline mode for instance. Deal with it. Please don't pin the blame on the company doing their best with the ENORMOUS pressure of a mega-publisher constantly pushing them.

I'm sure the pathing was known, however they probably did not have the time to fix it to the way we would have liked from the start. Instead they had to focus on getting the game in a playable state by EA's release time. Don't say their testing was inadequate, you have no idea what they did, where they had to draw compromises, what took priority to make the release date. Add on top of that the Server issues upon release and they simply did not have time to patch in the necessary changes to game logic such as traffic. I'm sure they planned to just that ASAP after release, however the server issues delayed it. The fact they have a plan and testing it now to release soon, probably means they knew about it.

Please, don't blame Maxis for something that was most likely caused by EA.

Board_Marshal · March 15, 2013

I've read the blog several times and I've had a shift in how I view this simulation. This truly is a simulation but not a simulation of people. I'm not a mayor but a Chief Operating Officer in charge of the logistics and supply chain division of a large conglomerate. My task is to set up and refine a system so that my delivery men/women can transport goods between various warehouses and distribution centers efficiently. My company's products are units of education, sickness, pollution, happiness, etc.. My goal is to "grow" the number of units of these products to support the sale of other products which are disposable. I am an executive who never meets the employees, I have no particular interest in the men/women who do the distribution, its not my division, its handled by HR. Instead I'm presented with data and statistics and make decisions which maximize growth and efficiency of unit distribution. Suboptimal growth and distribution means less revenue.

When I think about it this way I don't give a crap that the Sims to persist after the arrive to work or shopping because its not the "Sim" that matters only the products they carry with them to be distributed, stored, and even sold that's important. I only care that units of education and wealth make it from point A to B. I only care that warehouses (factories, shops, residences) are filled with a maximum number of units of the product and that they're redistributed properly and efficiently as the move to their next destination.

Since I'm managing many different products which need to go to multiple warehouses its my job to design a system so that the least amount of negative interaction occurs as they all receive their delivery schedules and head towards their drop off locations. All I need is for somebody to teach the delivery men/women how to effectively navigate the multiple possible routes to their destinations, which again, isn't my department.

When I think about this game in that terms I doesn't bother me at all that none of the Sims actually exist.

Catchin22 · March 15, 2013

I've read the blog several times and I've had a shift in how I view this simulation. This truly is a simulation but not a simulation of people. I'm not a mayor but a Chief Operating Officer in charge of the logistics and supply chain division of a large conglomerate. My task is to set up and refine a system so that my delivery men/women can transport goods between various warehouses and distribution centers efficiently. My company's products are units of education, sickness, pollution, happiness, etc.. My goal is to "grow" the number of units of these products to support the sale of other products which are disposable. I am an executive who never meets the employees, I have no particular interest in the men/women who do the distribution, its not my division, its handled by HR. Instead I'm presented with data and statistics and make decisions which maximize growth and efficiency of unit distribution. Suboptimal growth and distribution means less revenue.

When I think about it this way I don't give a crap that the Sims to persist after the arrive to work or shopping because its not the "Sim" that matters only the products they carry with them to be distributed, stored, and even sold that's important. I only care that units of education and wealth make it from point A to B. I only care that warehouses (factories, shops, residences) are filled with a maximum number of units of the product and that they're redistributed properly and efficiently as the move to their next destination.

Since I'm managing many different products which need to go to multiple warehouses its my job to design a system so that the least amount of negative interaction occurs as they all receive their delivery schedules and head towards their drop off locations. All I need is for somebody to teach the delivery men/women how to effectively navigate the multiple possible routes to their destinations, which again, isn't my department.

When I think about this game in that terms I doesn't bother me at all that none of the Sims actually exist.

Now you're starting to get this game!

Board_Marshal · March 15, 2013

I've read the blog several times and I've had a shift in how I view this simulation. This truly is a simulation but not a simulation of people. I'm not a mayor but a Chief Operating Officer in charge of the logistics and supply chain division of a large conglomerate. My task is to set up and refine a system so that my delivery men/women can transport goods between various warehouses and distribution centers efficiently. My company's products are units of education, sickness, pollution, happiness, etc.. My goal is to "grow" the number of units of these products to support the sale of other products which are disposable. I am an executive who never meets the employees, I have no particular interest in the men/women who do the distribution, its not my division, its handled by HR. Instead I'm presented with data and statistics and make decisions which maximize growth and efficiency of unit distribution. Suboptimal growth and distribution means less revenue.

When I think about it this way I don't give a crap that the Sims to persist after the arrive to work or shopping because its not the "Sim" that matters only the products they carry with them to be distributed, stored, and even sold that's important. I only care that units of education and wealth make it from point A to B. I only care that warehouses (factories, shops, residences) are filled with a maximum number of units of the product and that they're redistributed properly and efficiently as the move to their next destination.

Since I'm managing many different products which need to go to multiple warehouses its my job to design a system so that the least amount of negative interaction occurs as they all receive their delivery schedules and head towards their drop off locations. All I need is for somebody to teach the delivery men/women how to effectively navigate the multiple possible routes to their destinations, which again, isn't my department.

When I think about this game in that terms I doesn't bother me at all that none of the Sims actually exist.

Now you're starting to get this game!

Lol. But I've stripped away all the humanism, kind of depressing.

Buggi · March 15, 2013

How is the player supposed to plan school zone and coverage if the people are constantly moving around? It's hard to plan a city if that city operates with no plan.

Catchin22 · March 15, 2013

How is the player supposed to plan school zone and coverage if the people are constantly moving around? It's hard to plan a city if that city operates with no plan.

They aren't going to move to an industrial zone... school coverage is the same, bus stops are the same. It doesn't have an effect on that.

JaceTwice · March 15, 2013

If anything I'd think that'd make it it easier to educate your sims throughout your entire city since there's a different chance that less educated ones will be close to a coverage area each day.

I don't think I really want it to work that way though.

Cob92 · March 15, 2013

How is the player supposed to plan school zone and coverage if the people are constantly moving around? It's hard to plan a city if that city operates with no plan.

The houses don't move. You plan things based on the locations of the buildings; the Sims are supposed to spawn when they're supposed to and do their thing autonomously.

behedwin · March 15, 2013

haha funny how all are upset over the offline and online bit of the game

just stop whining and focus the feedback to maxis and ea about the game instead.

crashx · March 15, 2013

I've read the blog several times and I've had a shift in how I view this simulation. This truly is a simulation but not a simulation of people. I'm not a mayor but a Chief Operating Officer in charge of the logistics and supply chain division of a large conglomerate. My task is to set up and refine a system so that my delivery men/women can transport goods between various warehouses and distribution centers efficiently. My company's products are units of education, sickness, pollution, happiness, etc.. My goal is to "grow" the number of units of these products to support the sale of other products which are disposable. I am an executive who never meets the employees, I have no particular interest in the men/women who do the distribution, its not my division, its handled by HR. Instead I'm presented with data and statistics and make decisions which maximize growth and efficiency of unit distribution. Suboptimal growth and distribution means less revenue.

When I think about it this way I don't give a crap that the Sims to persist after the arrive to work or shopping because its not the "Sim" that matters only the products they carry with them to be distributed, stored, and even sold that's important. I only care that units of education and wealth make it from point A to B. I only care that warehouses (factories, shops, residences) are filled with a maximum number of units of the product and that they're redistributed properly and efficiently as the move to their next destination.

Since I'm managing many different products which need to go to multiple warehouses its my job to design a system so that the least amount of negative interaction occurs as they all receive their delivery schedules and head towards their drop off locations. All I need is for somebody to teach the delivery men/women how to effectively navigate the multiple possible routes to their destinations, which again, isn't my department.

When I think about this game in that terms I doesn't bother me at all that none of the Sims actually exist.

The problem is they pretty much marketed that all of the sims had their own little lives going on.

Had they just not mentioned it I don't think people wouldn't care...but since they made it seem like it mattered...people looked...and people said "Well hey...this isn't working how you said it would work."

GenXisT · March 15, 2013

haha funny how all are upset over the offline and online bit of the game

just stop whining and focus the feedback to maxis and ea about the game instead.

man, it's not whining... it's important. I spent $80. It wasn't YOUR $80, it wasn't EA's $80, it wasn't Maxis' $80. It was MY $80. That I worked to earn and chose to spend on this product.

So why are people upset about this always online thing? What's to stop EA/Maxis from switching off their servers on a whim?

Then how can I play the game? Where has my $80? What value have i gotten from the money? What have I got to show for it?

If I buy a product, then I expect...no, DEMAND to have that product remain in my possession and useful until I decide that it's no longer worth it or necessary or I find a better product.

This is MY decision. That is my right as a consumer. It is MY money. I do not need to have this dictated for me. The only exception to this rule is when I spend money on food/drink... and then my body physically decides when it's no longer necessary for me to possess in the form of a piss or a nice dump.

Whining? No man... it's called getting proper value for money. It's called being able to use my products at my disposal and my discretion. Having to play this game online on servers (which is a bold faced lie anyway) means that my rights to my product have been taken from me and put back in the hands of EA and they're dictating what I can and cannot do with MY property, even though I gave them my money.

What would you do if a car company decided all of a sudden that you can't drive your car that you bought with your money on Sundays or Thursdays, or if it's raining, or if the wind is blowing 6.7 mph East?

It's ridiculous. You'd never accept that as OK, and there's no reason whatsoever to accept it from EA.

Rhadamant5186 · March 15, 2013

haha funny how all are upset over the offline and online bit of the game

just stop whining and focus the feedback to maxis and ea about the game instead.

I couldn't agree more. Maxis is taking strides every patch to make the game more stable and user friendly and all people can focus on is the online only DRM. Rather than complaining about online only DRM (which is not likely to change with SimCity5) just sign this white house petition.

http://wh.gov/7Dv7

TURDxSANDWICH · March 15, 2013

haha funny how all are upset over the offline and online bit of the game
just stop whining and focus the feedback to maxis and ea about the game instead.