Update on citysize?

[khac2956 0]

Has EA given any details on If/When the city size will be increased?

 

(I don't have the game, so i am not up-to-date on their latest anouncements)

 

Thank you :-)

 

Edit: or teraforming.... teraforming is a big thing for me too

 

Edit 2: I have given up on an offline mode :-(

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

Nope.

[macscfan 117]

On the issue of modding/terraforming, my impression from the interviews I've read is that they are way down the list of priorities and not being considered at this time.  It concerns me, but they have a lot bigger things to worry about in the short term, so I can't necessarily fault them in the short term.  Now if we go 6 months without any real word, then I would be worried.

[Indian007 25]

Has EA given any details on If/When the city size will be increased?

 

(I don't have the game, so i am not up-to-date on their latest anouncements)

 

Thank you :-)

 

Edit: or teraforming.... teraforming is a big thing for me too

 

Edit 2: I have given up on an offline mode :-(

no, and I don't think they'll be doing that anytime soon. They don't even know what a simulation is.

 

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Mod Edit: Please mind your choice of language.

[MINIggy03 227]

Please put a question mark in your title, "Update on citysize?" so it's not misleading.    I was expecting something like a twitter response from the Maxis team.  

 

We will likely never, ever get terraforming outside of leveling/flattening.  Larger map sizes will likely come in a new region but I'm not holding my breath for maps THAT much larger than what we have now.  

 

 

no, and I don't think they'll be doing that anytime soon. They don't even know what a simulation is.

 

The pollution is simulated. The water. Sewage. Power. Workers. Shoppers.Tourists. Traffic. The many economic simulations in the game. bla. bla. bla.  I'm not sure you know what a simulation is yourself.

[RnRollie 4]

bigger maps :

  in a DLC for $ 12,-   or  $15,- if you also want  the City Park Maintenance crew/van....

but ONLY if you have the DeLuxe edition. If not then bigger maps DLC will be $ 25,-

[DmainEvent 195]

Now that they sold there 1.6 Million they will say its a success and us long time fans are screwed.

 

No larger maps or contiguous maps, no terraforming.  And always online.  Yippee.  As I get older I get more

and more Jaded about the video game industry.  It's just a bunch of crooks and robbers who get you hooked,

and then make you beg for the goodies.

 

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Mod Edit: Mind your language please.

[infoman96 27]

I wish they'd hold out on the expansion packs and just give us the larger city sizes first so our cities could actually hold the larger expansion packs. What I really hope for, is that Maxis will allow us to annex land in our existing cities once they do making larger city tiles.

[VanGioRobNelli 29]

I wish they'd hold out on the expansion packs and just give us the larger city sizes first so our cities could actually hold the larger expansion packs. What I really hope for, is that Maxis will allow us to annex land in our existing cities once they do making larger city tiles.

You know what would be really cool?  To be able to BUY plots of land... outside of the white box.  It will make use of the millions of simoleons that go unspent.

[KaOra 4]

Now that they sold there 1.6 Million they will say its a success and us long time fans are screwed.

 

No larger maps or contiguous maps, no terraforming.  And always online.  Yippee.  As I get older I get more

and more Jaded about the video game industry.  It's just a bunch of crooks and robbers who get you hooked,

and then make you beg for the goodies.

 

I suspect they have fudged their sales figures just like they fudge city population sizes

[markukone 0]

 

Uhmm why do people complain about the city size 

Look at the bigger picture you now have regions so basically your  City is a spread across a larger area

If you had a large plot of land with river  hills and sea etc  then its the same thing  You would still divide your city into areas

 

Yes its annoying you run out of space but just start a new city  its the same thing

 

[szieker 9]

Why?  Because region play is broken.  Services do not work between cities, so you need to have everything in each city.  (At least from my experience).  

 

If region play worked flawlessly, I would have no issue.  But Education doesn't work, garbage doesn't work, recycling doesn't work, natural resource trading doesn't work, health care doesn't work, fire doesn't work, police doesn't work, power doesn't work very well. 

 

The one part of the game that forces you to have an internet connection to play is the biggest thing that doesnt' work in the game.

 

 

shall I continue?

[champloo08 16]

 

Uhmm why do people complain about the city size 

Look at the bigger picture you now have regions so basically your  City is a spread across a larger area

If you had a large plot of land with river  hills and sea etc  then its the same thing  You would still divide your city into areas

 

Yes its annoying you run out of space but just start a new city  its the same thing

Its not the same thing. The regions are designed poorly and doesn't make up for lost city size.

[potorium 17]

I'd bet my copy of simcity that bigger map sizes are all ready hard coded into the game but just switched off.

 

They will keep going on about how hard it is for them to make bigger maps for a while longer, then suddenly pop them into a dlc for $9.99 claiming it was tons of hard work to bring us them.

 

If i'm proved wrong i loose my copy of sim city - which kind of makes me hope i am wrong!

[GenXisT 127]

 

Uhmm why do people complain about the city size 

Look at the bigger picture you now have regions so basically your  City is a spread across a larger area

If you had a large plot of land with river  hills and sea etc  then its the same thing  You would still divide your city into areas

 

Yes its annoying you run out of space but just start a new city  its the same thing

 

no mate, this was the case in SC4.  you could dedicate entire squares to just farms or even just have a highway run thru it... like a realistic state in the US

then viewing the "region view" showed an actual region.

the SC2013 version is a horrible bastardization of a once perfect scenario.

not to mention the space you do have ends up with so much of it being taken up by disproportionately large roads/aves

[xoxide 377]

From my understanding this is a subject they are discussing nearly 2 times a week and trying to map out.  However its not been giving a time frame or development schedule let alone deployment eta.

 

I know they wish to make them larger, but it is directly tied to a lot more than just a map and graphics.  The data layer that is represented by the actual GRID line of the outline of the city is just that a visual of what is being contained within the region section itself and the playable space maps which are separate from the visual maps.

 

One of the other mod'ers and I ran some tests on the outside of map game play and found that agents were not going more than 3000 4000 even with the external game play.  However the only active agents outside the maps current area were traveling agents or transport agents without a lot of the meat and potato's data that real city increase would require.

 

A guestimate based on what we know and see is that they could (although would require reprogramming and most likely better off giving us just new maps with larger cities on them) could be 2x the current size and most likely work on most machine although would bump the requirement of minimum machines to be more like 4gig ram instead of 2 .. I think it would kill a lot of xp users and 32 bit users more than anyone

 

Jeff

[jeje71 6]

From my understanding this is a subject they are discussing nearly 2 times a week and trying to map out.  However its not been giving a time frame or development schedule let alone deployment eta.

 

I know they wish to make them larger, but it is directly tied to a lot more than just a map and graphics.  The data layer that is represented by the actual GRID line of the outline of the city is just that a visual of what is being contained within the region section itself and the playable space maps which are separate from the visual maps.

 

One of the other mod'ers and I ran some tests on the outside of map game play and found that agents were not going more than 3000 4000 even with the external game play.  However the only active agents outside the maps current area were traveling agents or transport agents without a lot of the meat and potato's data that real city increase would require.

 

A guestimate based on what we know and see is that they could (although would require reprogramming and most likely better off giving us just new maps with larger cities on them) could be 2x the current size and most likely work on most machine although would bump the requirement of minimum machines to be more like 4gig ram instead of 2 .. I think it would kill a lot of xp users and 32 bit users more than anyone

 

Jeff

 

first, the technical problem is due to glassbox design, they are not yet able to make a correct simulation with agents because they have to cut corners to keep the hardware requirement at bay. wether they will be able (or use enough money ) to just upgrade to simulation to a satisfactory level is yet to be determined. so, it would already be very nice if they just had the current parameters working correctly, and it's really expecting some kind of miracle that they would then stretch so far as to allow the city size to be expanded.

 

then, you have a marketing problem: games nowadays, greatly pushed by the consoles successes,  need to reach the widest audience possible for even being considered. so what it means is to avoid extra costs, the games will be restricted to the lowest common denominator, in term of hardware requirement and gameplay. the fact this game is multplayer-only is also a factor because allowing bigger cities for some people and not others because of hardware would be considered an unfair advantage so even if they could, they are kind of stuck just because of the multiplayer aspect.

 

so, about the fact they say they try to see if it's possible to expand the size, i think it's just some elementary PR tactic: you don't say no to people to avoid the rage, and at the same time you commit nothing serious so in the long term you have "plausible deniability" about not having made any hard promises.

in the long term, some people will be really pissed, but by then the massive majority of people will have move on to another game and won't care so much. promising to "look into" expanding city size is just a way to put out the immediate fire and let it die in oblivion, and in no way indicates there is even a slight chance of it happening.

[KaOra 4]

so, about the fact they say they try to see if it's possible to expand the size, i think it's just some elementary PR tactic: you don't say no to people to avoid the rage, and at the same time you commit nothing serious so in the long term you have "plausible deniability" about not having made any hard promises.

in the long term, some people will be really pissed, but by then the massive majority of people will have move on to another game and won't care so much. promising to "look into" expanding city size is just a way to put out the immediate fire and let it die in oblivion, and in no way indicates there is even a slight chance of it happening.

 

 

Elementary for them is just not bothering, Their public communication policies are probably the worst I have ever come across and the general hate/trolls on the EA forum have caused the management to close the doors and say nothing whilst the product engineers still make odd tweets and like about stuff they would like to get sorted the fact that we are still getting fixes means that Simcity's long term game is still on, I doubt the product has hit nowhere near the wanted revenue that EA were looking for. DLC is the way they need to make it and the only way they will get folk to buy decent quantities of DLC is buy improving the current core dynamics of the game.

 

I think we will see some form of tile sizing option which can be adjusted based on hardware specs like the current display options, IMHO the game was released 6 months early.

[William Gates 84]

Even if they do increase city size, to what extent do you think it will be? The majority of the money this game is going to make - through the selling of its copies - has already been made. There is no incentive to make a large change. I don't expect anything outside of a small size increase - say 50%, tops - as a token effort to satisfy the ragers. The playable area would still be pitifully small.

[macscfan 117]

Even if they do increase city size, to what extent do you think it will be? The majority of the money this game is going to make - through the selling of its copies - has already been made. There is no incentive to make a large change. I don't expect anything outside of a small size increase - say 50%, tops - as a token effort to satisfy the ragers. The playable area would still be pitifully small.

 

It depends on the impact the layoffs had (10% of EA) and a few other factors (other city builders being developed by different companies), but I do think they'll eventually increase it, if only to make sure that people buy future visions of SimCity.  They want SimCity to be like the Sims, and in order to do that, they have to give people what they want.  It's just that the limitations of the Glasbox stuff means that it's probably a tough addition, and so it's gotten pushed way down the list of priorities.

 

To put it another way, If they roll out a SimCity 2014 or 2015 and they have not increased city sizes or allowed modding with 2013, then they won't get nearly as many sales as they did with 2013.

 

Whatever else we may say about EA/Maxis these days, I think there are some in positions of power who know that sales of future versions of SimCity hinge on the state that SimCity 2013 is at the end of this year.  And I'd be willing to bet that DLC sales are negatively impacted by the SC 2013 issues as well.  People aren't going to drop $60 on a game and then a lot more on DLC if they are unhappy.  

 

My fear is that they take the SC franchise in a direction more suited for casual gamers who want to play around with city building, rather than hardcore types who want city simulators.  They could easily please both, but as we've seen, it's a lot easier to please the casual types.

[markukone 0]

Appreciate the comments  But look at the wider picture  In the earler games you had 1 large tile so what did you do  Oh I know I will fill the whole area with skyscapers and get a ton of money   Ok suppose they give you a tile area 10 times the area it is now  What are you going to do that you cant really do now  Oh I would put 10 x times more of this their and 10 more of those over their etc   If you look at the Region as your WHOLE CITY  seperated by water rivers and land  then you have basically what you want

 

If they give you a tile now 10 times bigger you would moan and say ohh  I want to have a river in the middle and some islands  and so on

If they made the power and water a seperate issue at the start  whereby you can build all those services if you want or pay a monthly bill  then that would save space in the city area   Gas Oil for Power out in the Sea and River area  Water and Sewage also  just off the coast or river   and that covers the whole of the region  then you have more surface area to play on   Thats more sensible

Its totally boring to start a new city and put those in place every time  Once is enough

 

Then you can have a more realistic  Disaster scenario  whereby your power and services are hit   and not by a stupid childish lizard or Ufos   Also if you could manage the power and services you would then have problems the more cities you added on so you have to uprate them etc   thats more interesting

 

This Sim City is basically a try out and they are doing something new  its not going to be perfect  give it time and next year they will come back with something a whiole lot better  

[snick25 384]

 

Uhmm why do people complain about the city size 

Look at the bigger picture you now have regions so basically your  City is a spread across a larger area

If you had a large plot of land with river  hills and sea etc  then its the same thing  You would still divide your city into areas

 

Yes its annoying you run out of space but just start a new city  its the same thing

 

Wow... just wow... 

[Eriseley 4]

As much as I'd like that stuff, I want things like the regional play that already does exist to work properly, mass transit AI to be more than shuttling around lemmings to random locations to aimlessly wander, and buildings to stop bugging out.

[CaptCity 4,752]

Well, this woke up after a couple months... There's a complete on-going city size topic .