The State of Simcity - EA/Maxis speaks

[Griffon 19]

If you dig through some of my older posts, you will see that I told people to NOT buy the game within 1 month after release. I told them wait until an inevitable price drop, or if you are desperate for preorder bonuses, then preorder. Little did I know that the preorder bonuses would be included in the more expensive version. Of course the $20 price drop made the more expensive version priced the same as the normal version near release.

I eventually bought the game this month. The price had already dropped and won't drop any further for a while, I wanted to play the game, Cities of Tomorrow had been announced, and I learned that offline mode and mods would arrive soon enough. I knew that larger real cities were out of the question from the get-go (if they wanted to keep the minimum requirements reasonable) but I have been hoping to see maps with Regional Minor Works (suburbs, landfills, regional parks, reservoirs, working forests, fishing village, and/or farms).

--Ocram

I did pre-ordered the game cause I wanted the pre-order bonuses and they did give us some free stuff after the launch too (although I don't know if they were worth $20 besides the free game).  I also really like your minor works idea, give every city another area just for them to build up, either free build or build like a great works that benefit only your city.  I like the free build idea better, that way you can visit it and customize it the way you want, but what you build there should be limited (btw I really like the fishing village idea for some reason).

 

And StoNe220022, I do supoort SimCity2013 with my money and by playing it, if you read my earlier posts I think I said something about that, but I will not be buying a SimCity2014 if there is one, I think they will wait at least 1 or 2 years for the next SimCity, but I don't think I'll buy it then either, with the exception that there are larger maps and I hear good reviews from players (mainly on here).

[jaredh 195]

As far as the 60 dollar game goes, be thankful you didn't pay 60 bucks back in 1989 for this version of the game because let me tell you.... game prices have remained the same, and are actually less expensive than they were 20 years ago ($60 in 1989 on a game vs. $60 in 2013).... People need to quit complaining about that.

 

I bought the original Simcity in 1989. It still has the pricetag...Guess how much I paid? 

 

$25 USD.  I'm not sure where you get $60 from, but it wasn't anywhere close to that at Babbages.  I know without any question or doubt I bought it the first week it was out.

[Xenocity 343]

 

As far as the 60 dollar game goes, be thankful you didn't pay 60 bucks back in 1989 for this version of the game because let me tell you.... game prices have remained the same, and are actually less expensive than they were 20 years ago ($60 in 1989 on a game vs. $60 in 2013).... People need to quit complaining about that.

 

I bought the original Simcity in 1989. It still has the pricetag...Guess how much I paid? 

 

$25 USD.  I'm not sure where you get $60 from, but it wasn't anywhere close to that at Babbages.  I know without any question or doubt I bought it the first week it was out.

 

Again Simcity 1 launched in 1987 on the Commodore 64 and was gradually ported to PC/MAC and other systems as I already posted in this thread.

 

By 1989 there were multiple versions of the game available acrossed numerous platforms including PC/MAC.

The price depended on the version of the game you bought.

The monochrome versions (I hated the monochrome versions) were cheaper than the full color versions.

 

Since the PC and Mac ports were two years later, they of course launched for cheaper.

 

But I take it you didn't buy any of the 3 expansion packs (mainly containing new maps and buildings) and/or the terrian editor add on to get all the content?

 

Also the Nintendo developed SNES version launched for $50 in 1991 with different content and the best graphics of the original game.

[reReticulated Spline 69]

 

 

Spline, I am glad that EA sent its best and brightest President of Product Marketing here to reply to my post, I am humbly touched.

You're welcome! And I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids!

Here's the thing: you want to blame the developers for the map size? Sure go ahead. They chose to go with an agent system which couldn't support very large maps. If you feel this is an unacceptable tradeoff, all the power to you and please tell the developers that so they can take this into acount for the next game how important map size is. Same goes for other design choices.

If you want to blame the developers that the game is forcibly online, or that modding wasn't included in the release or the price or such things, you're just going after the wrong people. That's simply not their decision to make. In fact, some of the original developers left saying they thought it was a disgrace how the game was treated by EA. How is blaming their collegues and the people who replaced them over that fair?

But then, I'm just EA's marketing president. What would I care about who's hold responsible for what.

Well I'm buying what your selling! The important part of all of this that none of us really know what the working relationship between EA and Maxis is like.

We are working off speculation and taking a scatter gun approach when assigning blame. In reality I suspect that neither party is entirely blameless but at least someone seems to be working to fix the problems.

What may be worth speculating on is how much this maintenance would be costing. EA have this reputation of being all about the money when it comes to making games but you would have to think that they are eating into their margins by having teams of people dedicated to patches and updates.

Like I say this is speculation so there is no evidence to support the theory but it does indicate that the parties on the other side of the fence feel that this is a good game worth investing more time in.

If I keep this up maybe one day I can get a job in the EA marketing department!

 

 

Indeed, it's a lot of speculation. I mostly don't want to get involved because I don't like to play the blame game. That's apart from the fact that some of these blame-game things in the gaming community have gotten really out of hand. Here's what we do know though:

 

- Developers are in charge of making a game high quality and fun

- Publishers are in charge of budget and pr

(Obviously the distingion not that clear and cut, because if dev's can promise more sells, they get a bigger budget. Also, publishers need to aprove a project before it starts and have some say over it's content.)

 

- During a project games go to a 'quality ensurance' period that lasts untill release. No new content is developed during this time, everything is focused on fixing bugs.

- Certain members of the development team, such as art designers, have no role in 'quality control' so they start working on DLC/Exp at that moment. Therefore the direction for new content already needs to be agreed upon before release. (This is why day 1 DLC can exist)

- Games have a 'service period' included in budgeting, during which the developers stay on the project and can patch bugs. According to an EA report this is 18 months after release for MMO games like ToR.

 

- EA has adopted a strategy where all their games have required online verification

- Lucy Bradshaw was working at EA before it took over Maxis and put in charge of the studio when it was taken over

- SC2013 can be played offline as a modder found out shortly after release

(So based of these three facts, Lucy's statement about how always online was Maxis' idea and not forced by EA sounds VERY unlikely. It sounds much more like shifting blame from herself and her superiors to the dev team. IF that is true, blaming the dev's is not just unfair, it also means you are unwittingly supporting a very nasty business practice by EA. That's why I really dislike putting the blame on the dev's for this point.)

 

 

Other speculation:

Fact: Maxis has tried to get bigger maps to work for the last few months before giving up.

Speculation: They always intended bigger maps, but overestimated what Glassbox could handle and had to scale back as they got closer to release date, believing they could get bigger maps working as an update later.

 

Fact: Ocean Quickly left after the launch of SC2013 saying: ""I was dismayed at the blundered launch of something that I had poured so much love and attention into"

Speculation: Maxis knew the servers wouldn't hold on launch, tried to get a bigger budget but was denied. 

 

Fact: there are still lot's of bugs in SC2013

Speculation: I *think* the developers are usually in charge of determining when to stop adding new content and when to start 'quality ensurance'. Should Maxis have stopped adding more content to the game sooner and start debugging? Would the game have been better with less content and less bugs? You decide. Although EA could override the dev's decision on this, I think the dev's probably had the responsibility on this. (Although it's their manager's job to take responsibility for this.)

Complete speculation: Should SC2013 have had a bigger budget? Was the time the dev's had to create the game not enough to create the content one would expect of the game and get most of the bugs out before release? We have no way of telling. Maybe the dev's made some mistakes that cost of lot of time or maybe they had an impossible deadline from the beginning. How much budget should a game like SC2013 get anyway? Obviously the latest GTA can have a MUCH MUCH higher budget and still be way more profitable. If EA can have the same team of developers develop a different game that makes more money, it's bye bye simcity franchise. Simcity's status as a relative 'niche' doesn't help us when it comes to budget. (God bless the casuals that play Simcity.)

 

Fact: I have NO idea what EA's stance on modding is

Speculation: Blizzard considers a powerful map editor vital to their RTS franchises. Bethesda also considers modding very important to their games although they are willing to release the tools some time after release. Others believe modding competes with DLC and are afraid of it. Maxis' games are know for modding, EA games in general are not.

 

Fact: don't buy always online games during the first week.

If Blizzard (most experienced dev with online games, infinite pile of WoW cash, willingness to delay all the projects unfuriatingly long because it's not 'done' yet) failed D3's launch, everyone can fail. 

 

EDIT:

Fact: EA anounced earlier this year that they are moving away from online DRM.

Speculation: Either the Simcity debacle has put too much heat on them, or they are just lying in order to appease customers. Which one I think is true? Wait, let me flip a coin...

[Trooth 22]

 I have decided I will be forming a game company to build a new city simulator, I'll be running a kickstarter on it by early next year.

 

Good luck with it.  I think many people fail to put the blame where it belongs though.  The glassbox engine is severely flawed.  It can barely path units around an 8x8 block grid correctly, much less to one city exit, to another cities entrance, and then to the final destination.  Increasing that grid, puts makes it that much more difficult for the glassbox engine to work.  This is the true problem, not the usual conspiracy theories that are touted.  The glassbox engine had a lot of promise, I hope it eventually evolves and maybe the next Simcity game will be the one to make everyone happy.  But truthfully, good luck with your endeavor, we are in need of a good city/region builder as that sounds to be your aim over a true simulation.

[ghosty12 13]

 I have decided I will be forming a game company to build a new city simulator, I'll be running a kickstarter on it by early next year.

With your statement here, I see it as a case of I will believe it when I see the finished product.. The one thing is that if you can combine all of the features of the other City Bbuilding/sim games that made them stand out.

 

Will wait and see if you can actually do what you say you are going to do and bring a groundbreaking city building/sim game that is fun to play and doesn't disappear into the development ether like so many other games have done in the past..

[DmainEvent 195]

They can't / wont make them larger because their ONLINE mode, the servers couldn't handle the extra load and they aren't willing to nix it. Not only that but the game is so incredibly boring that people are willing to spend money on DLC in the HOPE it can be better, making large city maps offline would negate most people having to purchase DLC.

 

I no longer have a bit of respect for Maxis. To me they are toast. I have decided I will be forming a game company to build a new city simulator, I'll be running a kickstarter on it by early next year.

 

Bro, I have some good ideas about how to create massive cities.  I can help you work on the engine.  Just shoot me a line.

[Catchin22 299]

 

They can't / wont make them larger because their ONLINE mode, the servers couldn't handle the extra load and they aren't willing to nix it. Not only that but the game is so incredibly boring that people are willing to spend money on DLC in the HOPE it can be better, making large city maps offline would negate most people having to purchase DLC.

 

I no longer have a bit of respect for Maxis. To me they are toast. I have decided I will be forming a game company to build a new city simulator, I'll be running a kickstarter on it by early next year.

 

Bro, I have some good ideas about how to create massive cities.  I can help you work on the engine.  Just shoot me a line.

 

I'm a designer not a programmer. I will be looking for programmers in the future. If you have ideas you can PM me. I already have a lot of framework laid out but there's a lot to do yet.

[Zapf Dingbats 7]

It is true, their servers are completely underpowered to the point where EA gave it its middle finger back in March and never looked back. Why else it has been 2 weeks and my space center hasn't been built yet? EA is still "fighting bureaucracy" and "cutting red tape" on my space center...for more than 2 weeks now.

How much longer do I have to wait to build my space center? 1 month? a year?

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

How much longer do I have to wait to build my space center? 1 month? a year?

 

Over 9000 years. 

 

It is true, their servers are completely underpowered to the point where EA gave it its middle finger back in March and never looked back. 

 

It seems that EA is unwilling to spend the amount of money needed to get servers good enough to be able to handle the resource load for larger cities. They proved that back when SimCity first came out. In order to save money, and not have to buy new servers when SimCity failed, they shut down servers from 3 other games. ( Sims Social, Simcity Social, Pet Society) so that they could reuse those servers for SimCity. 

 

I could be wrong about them reusing the servers, but it seems strangely coincidental that SimCity got lots of new servers the day after all the facebook games were shut down.

[Griffon 19]

 

How much longer do I have to wait to build my space center? 1 month? a year?

 

Over 9000 years. 

are we talking game years or real life years lol

 

Anyways, I've started a great works in one city and it was processing forever, then someone abandoned their city so I took it over and finished the great work there.  When I went back to my first city it was still processing and I even played it for a few real life hours and it still didn't get built.  Apparently the cities that you start the great works in will process forever, but for all the other cities they work fine.  I don't understand it and I've quit playing until either the next update (that fixes this) or for the expansion to come out.  They probably will be at the same time but I thought I read somewhere that they were gonna patch the game at the end of the month.

[ebalosus 19]

 

How much longer do I have to wait to build my space center? 1 month? a year?

 

Over 9000 years. 

 

It is true, their servers are completely underpowered to the point where EA gave it its middle finger back in March and never looked back. 

 

It seems that EA is unwilling to spend the amount of money needed to get servers good enough to be able to handle the resource load for larger cities. They proved that back when SimCity first came out. In order to save money, and not have to buy new servers when SimCity failed, they shut down servers from 3 other games. ( Sims Social, Simcity Social, Pet Society) so that they could reuse those servers for SimCity. 

 

I could be wrong about them reusing the servers, but it seems strangely coincidental that SimCity got lots of new servers the day after all the facebook games were shut down.

 

 

I'd like to believe this...but wouldn't this just make Maxis "We can't increase city sizes because of "technical challenges"™" look even worse? Yes, I know part of the blame lays with EA, but I don't like it when the devs themselves are also lying to the customers.

[ReneXL 16]

I'm very disappointed by the new SimCity. And one has to pay for DLC to get tunnels and bridges..... huh

 

I play Cities XL too (platinum), it has:

- very big maps

- offline

- photorealistic 3D

- curved roads, big selection of roads in general

- bridges and tunnels designed however one wants 

- metro and bus - where you actually design the lines even bus lines

- more public transport methods like tram and ferry available http://xlnation.net, yes you get to design actual tram lines too

- cities are on continents on a planet and can trade resources

 

+++++ a lot more

[eburress 267]

I'm very disappointed by the new SimCity. And one has to pay for DLC to get tunnels and bridges..... huh

 

I play Cities XL too (platinum), it has:

- very big maps

- offline

- photorealistic 3D

- curved roads, big selection of roads in general

- bridges and tunnels designed however one wants 

- metro and bus - where you actually design the lines even bus lines

- more public transport methods like tram and ferry available http://xlnation.net, yes you get to design actual tram lines too

- cities are on continents on a planet and can trade resources

 

+++++ a lot more

 

Yeah, there are some ways in which SimCity's production value is better/greater, but the more I see about SimCity, the more I come to appreciate CitiesXL, which if your goal is to create realistic looking cities, is BY FAR the superior game.

 

(I think SimCity wins for creating realistic looking small towns)

[mikerafc 0]

the best way for axis to listen is to stop playing this game full stop or better still everyone send their copy of the game back to them with a sae and say here's ya game post it back went you fixed it if no1 plays the game maxis will have to sit up and listen

[ghosty12 13]

I'm very disappointed by the new SimCity. And one has to pay for DLC to get tunnels and bridges..... huh

 

I play Cities XL too (platinum), it has:

- very big maps

- offline

- photorealistic 3D

- curved roads, big selection of roads in general

- bridges and tunnels designed however one wants 

- metro and bus - where you actually design the lines even bus lines

- more public transport methods like tram and ferry available http://xlnation.net, yes you get to design actual tram lines too

- cities are on continents on a planet and can trade resources

 

+++++ a lot more

Wonder what gave you the idea you had to pay for the tunnels and bridges in SC2013 it was free with patch 7.5 I think..  And Cities XL was originally an online game but the makers had to do a offline patch when the company went under..

 

Off Topic with the way SC2013, Maxis/EA are getting lambasted, hated, pretty much revialed by everyone..  I doubt we will see anyone want to create a City Sim in the future, EA/Maxis maybe evil people and what not but at least they are not outright censoring criticism of their games (as far as I know)..  But in the end will see what happens if anyone does decide too do so.. And well this could be the death knell of the franchise and that would be a shame but ah well as they say life goes on..

[Zapf Dingbats 7]

The tunnels are still not working with the latest patch. Most of the time, the game is telling me my tunnels are below the water table, how stupid is that. Even when I tried to build a tunnel on a hill, how is that reaching the water table already? A broken patch on a broken game creates a bigger broken game.

 

It has been 3 weeks now and none of the cities in my region can build a Great Work. All of the Great Works are still in approving state. I paid for this game and now I can't even play it. This is so embarrassing.

[specializedguy 193]

The tunnels are still not working with the latest patch. Most of the time, the game is telling me my tunnels are below the water table, how stupid is that. Even when I tried to build a tunnel on a hill, how is that reaching the water table already? A broken patch on a broken game creates a bigger broken game.

 

It depends on where you are trying to build it. I've seen lots of people complain about "bugs" when really its their lack of understanding how to play the game. I'm not saying that's you, I'm simply saying context is key - your complain sounds righteous to the uninformed, but every SimCity has its limitations. In this one, you cannot build tunnels in certain areas. Without a screen shot, its difficult to say.

 

Speaking of tunnels... I think someone mentioned above you have to purchase DLC to get tunnels and overpasses. This is completely false. 

 

It has been 3 weeks now and none of the cities in my region can build a Great Work. All of the Great Works are still in approving state. I paid for this game and now I can't even play it. This is so embarrassing.

 

I think Maxis has owned this one and has never denied problems with the sync. Update 8 fixes this.

[Griffon 19]

The tunnels are still not working with the latest patch. Most of the time, the game is telling me my tunnels are below the water table, how stupid is that. Even when I tried to build a tunnel on a hill, how is that reaching the water table already? A broken patch on a broken game creates a bigger broken game.

I've noticed this happening too.  The water level is the same throughout the map.  You're probably trying to make a tunnel in a city that's close to sea level, if you go to a city that is higher up like in granite lake you can make tunnels without the "below water table" message and make them deeper than in most other maps.  Sometimes when you're building a tunnel up through a hill, it's the beginning of the tunnel that is below sea level not the whole thing.  You should be able to see water over your roads if they are too far down.

 

In real life this doesn't make sense but from a game programmer perspective I can see how this occurs.  Games are built in layers, the water layer covers the entire map and is the same over the entire map.  When you change the height of the land layer you can run into the water layer.  SC4 was the same way, when you terraformed low enough water just appeared.  SC4 just never had tunnels that could change heights like in SC5.

 

In low level cities you're gonna have to be satisfied with overpasses instead of tunnels and with the new patch having 3D RCI the overpasses should be able to be built over buildings (if high enough).

 

I don't think there is a mod for SC4 like the 3D RCI is going to be in SC5. Or is there? If there is I'd really like to add it to my SC4 game.

 

(hope I explained that correctly)

[Cobraroll 138]

Actually, in real life, the water table follows the contours of the terrain pretty closely. Water takes a looooong time to seep through the ground, so as long as it rains somewhat regularly, the groundwater level will always stay a couple metres below the surface no matter how said surface is oriented or elevated.

[ReneXL 16]

In Cities XL one can build under sea tunnels.. Like engineers can build in IRL.

 

SimCity has clearly departed towards Societies and Sims style of game. What I do hope that FHI fills the gap with better and new Cities XL. There's a huge interest and demand for a city builder - simulator with all the goods from SC4 (even SC5) and Cities XL.

 

The way SimCity is going, clearly makes it a hasbeen, though great one, it's golden years were on the 90's and SC4.

[Rokugatsu 128]

 

I'm very disappointed by the new SimCity. And one has to pay for DLC to get tunnels and bridges..... huh

 

I play Cities XL too (platinum), it has:

- very big maps

- offline

- photorealistic 3D

- curved roads, big selection of roads in general

- bridges and tunnels designed however one wants 

- metro and bus - where you actually design the lines even bus lines

- more public transport methods like tram and ferry available http://xlnation.net, yes you get to design actual tram lines too

- cities are on continents on a planet and can trade resources

 

+++++ a lot more

Wonder what gave you the idea you had to pay for the tunnels and bridges in SC2013 it was free with patch 7.5 I think..  And Cities XL was originally an online game but the makers had to do a offline patch when the company went under..

 

 

 

Not to mention that they was releasing a "new" Cities XL game every year for like 3-4 years even though almost nothing changed, it's even worst than DLCs for SimCity. 

 

SimCity is far from perfect, but giving Cities XL as an  example of a good city building game is a joke, there is no simulation, modding is bad, the game doesn't run very well once you have a big city ect... The only good thing about it are big maps.

[Griffon 19]

Not to mention that they was releasing a "new" Cities XL game every year for like 3-4 years even though almost nothing changed, it's even worst than DLCs for SimCity. 

 

 

SimCity is far from perfect, but giving Cities XL as an  example of a good city building game is a joke, there is no simulation, modding is bad, the game doesn't run very well once you have a big city ect... The only good thing about it are big maps.

More like 1 to 2 years and there is not interaction with your city in CitiesXL, I think I said this before, I feel more like a city planner than the mayor with CitiesXL, but at least with the new one if you go to their cite you can buy it for $5 if you already owned the 2011 or 2012 version and I seen that there was an offer where you could get he new CitiesXL for $1.  I think I read there is also a new transportation in the new one.  I think there is also more CitiesXL mods then there are mods for SC4 and I seen a few mods that make your CitiesXL look like what the Cities of Tomorrow SC5 expansion pack will look like.

 

And one more thing, I thought of this during the SC5 video stream, but my chat wouldn't load.  Why can't they make one region with larger maps and put a warning on it saying something like it may or may not run on all machines and let us discover the advantages and disadvantages to having larger maps?

[ReneXL 16]

Yes the depth of simulation in Cities XL is not deep, and there's a clear reason for that: It's give and take. In SimCity the dept of simulation has gone to the max with every little detail having agents running --- and being calculated. The sort of "lack of simulation" in Cities XL didn't cost photorealistic 3D and very big maps, like it dd cost for SC developers: tilted shift graphics and tiny maps.

 

I think that the simulation in Cities XL is good enough, all or most aspects and areas are linked together and decisions made have impact. But of course it's very different than the agents system in SC which costed graphics and city size to be downscaled.

 

SC5 would be a great simulation even though they'd scrap off half of the agents and release 75% bigger maps

[USA_Pride 49]

Yes the depth of simulation in Cities XL is not deep, and there's a clear reason for that: It's give and take. In SimCity the dept of simulation has gone to the max with every little detail having agents running --- and being calculated. The sort of "lack of simulation" in Cities XL didn't cost photorealistic 3D and very big maps, like it dd cost for SC developers: tilted shift graphics and tiny maps.

 

I think that the simulation in Cities XL is good enough, all or most aspects and areas are linked together and decisions made have impact. But of course it's very different than the agents system in SC which costed graphics and city size to be downscaled.

 

SC5 would be a great simulation even though they'd scrap off half of the agents and release 75% bigger maps

 

Totally agree with your last sentence.

 

It's cool that SC5 has all these agents and it simulates at a deeper level, but it doesn't add much benefit to 90% of the game.  Most of the game is spent crafting your city, creating transportation networks, and zoning.  After I do a bunch of building I then go into a data analysis mode where I want to see the results of what I planned.  It would be cool to have SC5 levels of data, but not at the expense of tile size and graphics.

 

I really don't understand what they couldn't figure out a way to have these cpu intensive tasks threaded out on a quad\octo core machine.  The kind of calculations that need to be done would be rather friendly to multi-threading.

 

The big problem for a lot of players out there is that people wanted SimMetropolis, but they got SimTown (minus farms).  It's just not fun to populate these little 2 square mile cities over and over again to see the cities turn into nothingness at their borders.  Who wants to build a dense urban core if it's adjacent to an empty field beyond the city border.

 

At this point, I still think that SimCity 2000 and SimCity 4 are vastly superior and more fun than SimCity 5.  These games let you build sprawling cities.

[Volver 1]

EA has released how many "sequels" to SC4? Despite the company's attempt to catch the MMO crowd with their latest departure, SC4, a dinosaur at least two generations out of date, remains the definitive city simulation game. That testifies to two facts: that game's quality, and the boneheadedness of the suits at EA. Each new "Simcity" is a misguided attempt to mainstream a niche game, one with a devoted following and time-tested formula. Their efforts to win the fickle affections of the kids that drive the video game market alienate the series' long time enthusiasts, who must resign themselves to stretching an increasingly obsolete platform ever further, finding work-arounds for the work-arounds necessitated by the work-arounds stemming from system incompatibilities and the Jenga tower of add-ons keeping SC4 fresh. It has to crash sometime.

In other words, I wish EA would start paying attention to the people on these forums who keep Simcity alive. They don't need to reinvent the damn wheel: it works fine (good luck there with EA's EPIC tech support ><). There's 20 years of originial Simcity to use as a blueprint. Just bring it into the 21st century with modern OS & processor support & updated graphics. No major mechanical overhauls necessary.

[Zapf Dingbats 7]

I agree. I think EA needs to fix this dump SC2013 before developing an xpac. Even with the Updates 8, SC2013 is still broken. I still cannot build great works. My city has 76000 sims but my school has no employee and suddenly when I demolish a high-wealth residential area, my sewage just became abandoned then my entire city got abandoned, 76000 sims and no employees?

Oh and hear this. With the new updates, things are even more screwed up. I have 3000 un-employed sims but at the same time I have no employees in commercial area. And wait, my commercial area actually satisfies my city (zero unsatisfied). What does this suppose to mean?

  Edited November 3, 2013 by Cyclone Boom  
Language please.

[GenXisT 127]

What an absolute joke.

I just got an email from  the Sim City folks talking about an update.

I then read thru the blog posted in this thread.

 

"No larger city sizes"

 

Verdict = FAIL.

 

The moment they headed down this path with this small city size nonsense, and then all the online stuff etc. etc... this game has  been doomed from jump street.

A catastrophic disaster.  It literally isn't even worth opening up and playing anymore.  How on earth does something that has 25 YEARS under its belt fail so spectacularly?

 

This type of thing shouldn't even be possible!

 

R.I.P. SimCiy... been with you since 1987... cannot continue our relationship.

[Xenocity 343]

EA has released how many "sequels" to SC4? Despite the company's attempt to catch the MMO crowd with their latest departure, SC4, a dinosaur at least two generations out of date, remains the definitive city simulation game. That testifies to two facts: that game's quality, and the boneheadedness of the suits at EA. Each new "Simcity" is a misguided attempt to mainstream a niche game, one with a devoted following and time-tested formula. Their efforts to win the fickle affections of the kids that drive the video game market alienate the series' long time enthusiasts, who must resign themselves to stretching an increasingly obsolete platform ever further, finding work-arounds for the work-arounds necessitated by the work-arounds stemming from system incompatibilities and the Jenga tower of add-ons keeping SC4 fresh. It has to crash sometime.

In other words, I wish EA would start paying attention to the people on these forums who keep Simcity alive. They don't need to reinvent the damn wheel: it works fine (good luck there with EA's EPIC tech support ><). There's 20 years of originial Simcity to use as a blueprint. Just bring it into the 21st century with modern OS & processor support & updated graphics. No major mechanical overhauls necessary.

Actually EA only released two new Simcity games for PC/MAC after Simcity 4.

 

Simcity Societies wasn't made by Maxis, but it was made in response to all the feedback EA received regarding how compliciated Simciy 4 was for most users.

Societies did receive an expansion pack.

 

Simcity 2013 according to their July conference call is still selling strong with the majority of the users still playing the game regularly (it was posted on this site).

Simcity 2013 should now be the second best selling Simcity game to date behind Simcity 3000.

 

The reason why EA/Maxis didn't create a direct seqeul to Simcity 4 was due to the low sales coupled with the high development costs.

Maxis was forced to can the other expansion packs they were working on for Simcity 4 due to the low sales of Rush Hour.

 

Remember Simcity 4 launched on January 14th 2003 on Windows for $50

Simcity 4 Deluxe launched on September 22 2003 for $30 on Windows

Rush Hour aslo launched alongside Deluxe for $20 on the same day on Windows

 

Stuff like this only happens when your game/software is selling badly.

[SoftcoreGamer 352]

If Cobraroll is right that GlassEngine just doesn't scale beyond 2048x2048, then forget about the legacy aspects, for the game is fundamentally a fail as a city simulation game. From the start. Everything else just additional crap on the cake.

 

Funny how one of the fundamental laws of building a good city is solid foundation and basic planning. Same for website planning, or scaling aspect of games. Shocking. Smells exactly like Too Big to Fail mentality.

 

Agreeing with the following two members...

 

SC5 Pros
Better Graphics
Building Add-ons
Building on Diagonal Roads
Pollution Realistic
Got rid of water pipes and subways.

CitiesXL and dozens other simulator games have achieved this by 2008. So....
 

SC5 Cons
 
Map Size small.
Unrealistic highways as entrance to city, and city grows too fast, population numbers are not as realistic as SC4.
Sim Agents buggy (Glassbox isn't what they claim it is, they should have not have built it up before the release... they were wrong, SC4's sim agents was way more accurate in my opinion)
RCI zoning is not on tiles
Grass plopping is gone
Terraforming is gone
Great Works doesn't receive shipments properly
Game overall too restrictive, it's a good toy for a kid.... not a fan who grew up and learned their mistakes on the other SimCity's along the way.

Then What Is The Point of Playing this new SimCity, when it is NOT even half of what it used to be?
 

Most of the people complaining about the 'fail game' and small map size...you are actually the contributor towards the amazing success of this game.

As well as the ultimate demise of LEGACY SimCity.
 

Anyone who spent money on this
1) endorsed the current business model
2) supports the DLC that makes the revenue for EA/Maxis
3) supports DRM and online only

4) their only hope for their investment to make sense now hinges on the will power of Those Who Loves SimCity But Still Refuse To Budge

Obviously, our Restrain worked. Obviously, businesses HAS TO care about getting ALL their customers.

 

So Maxis and EA, keep talking Offline Mode and Modding. My ears are opened.

 

And of course, I ignored the expansion pack. Casually so. Acropolises cramped inside 2x2 - in full 3D glory? This is 2013. What a joke.