Why I don't think an offline mode will work

[simmerboy 19]

I am excited to see an offline mode is a possibility. With this we would not experience any server connecting issues, no server maintenance downtime and such, however I have a few concerns about this. If an offline mode will work, I highly expect it will be stripped down. Here are my reasons:

 

1) There are just too many agents being processed per second. I don't even think my ASUS 8G i5 core NVidia Geforce GTX 660M(Which, trust me, is 10x better than my ASUS desktop dedicated to gaming, it can run GTA IV on almost max graphics settings without framerate issues but not on my desktop) will be able to handle this processing needs.

 

2) If an Offline mode somehow will work, it will be stripped down. The game is bent on multiplayer. How does Maxis expect a single player offline to work when the game is built MMO-style? They're going to take away multiplayer features if they release an offline mode(of course they would actually if they were releasing an offline mode).

 

3) It will probably take twice as long to load the cities offline as it would be to load the cities online. Why? Maxis' computers that handle the simulation are the best computers in the world, able to handle the simulation, loading and processing for thousands of computers at a single time. How many lines of code does Simcity have? It takes about 30-50 seconds to load my cities online on my laptop. It would probably take 2 minutes - 5 minutes to load offline. There's just way to much simulation going on to have short loading times.

 

4) When you max out your city's space, I wonder what framerate will be like? If your city has 20 sky scrapers, cars driving on the road, nighttime, sirens, I wouldn't be surprised if your computer wouldn't be able to handle the processing power SimCity needs.

 

Believe me, I'm excited to hear about the possibilities of an offline mode, but an offline mode had better have a lot of testing on different computers before I'll consider getting it. Maybe some computers will be able to handle Simcity, I don't know.

 

Your thoughts? Am I wrong? Comments?

[spiritbw 111]

I think your dead wrong and here is why.

 

It's been proven that your computer runs the whole city on it's own without a connection to the servers for 20 minutes and then only shuts down because it can't connect to the servers.  Not because it can't handle it, but because it can't speak to the server and they don't want it to play on it's own.  The nearest anyone can tell about the info it's actually needing is just the numbers on what the other cities in your region are doing, and those are static for the most part. 

 

So really, if your computer can run Simcity 2013 now it probably can run in offline mode.  The big thing they would need to code is to redirect the quires to get info from the servers to a file on your system and to make the game save locally.

[ebalosus 19]

I think your dead wrong and here is why.

 

It's been proven that your computer runs the whole city on it's own without a connection to the servers for 20 minutes and then only shuts down because it can't connect to the servers.  Not because it can't handle it, but because it can't speak to the server and they don't want it to play on it's own.  The nearest anyone can tell about the info it's actually needing is just the numbers on what the other cities in your region are doing, and those are static for the most part. 

 

So really, if your computer can run Simcity 2013 now it probably can run in offline mode.  The big thing they would need to code is to redirect the quires to get info from the servers to a file on your system and to make the game save locally.

 

Seconded, because if you pay close attention to the simulation itself, you will notice that as the population increases, the game starts approximating things more an more...which ironically breaks the simulation.

 

If the online component was desperately needed, then why can you disable it by changing one line of code, with no effect on the simulation?

[APSMS 1,892]

I believe there was a video that demonstrated a player who modded his game so that he could stay offline indefinitely, and only had to reconnect to save the city. The video was around an hour and 15 minutes if I remember correctly (and sped up at certain points, too).

 

This, of course, is why the community has been asking for offline mode the whole time, because we already knew that it was possible.

[spiritbw 111]

Anyhow, that covers pretty much points 1, 2 and 4 of Simmerboy's post. 

 

As to point 3 and loading times, general rule of thumb is that loading from the local hard drive is faster than loading form a server.  So if anything having a offline mode means your game will load faster than when it was having to load from Maxis' server system. 

[Rokugatsu 126]

If you think their servers actually do something more than just trying to keep us online (DRM) then newsflash- they don't. 

Also, SC is not an MMO style game, playing with max 10 people (but only 4 cities are actually connected) doesn't make it MASSIVE multiplayer online game. It's just a single player game with forced multiplayer mode.

[santosh82 7]

"Bigger Cities

City sizes have been a constant point of conversation among our players since we released the game. The game’s original design focused on the density of an intimate urban environment. It was about intercity connectivity and the challenge of managing a region of cities instead of one metropolis in isolation. However, we recognize that many players have expressed the desire to build up one big city rather than manage the interrelationship of multiple smaller cities.

We’ve put months of investigation into making larger city sizes, reworking the terrain maps, changing the routing algorithms of our agent-based system and altering the way that GlassBox processes the data in a larger space.

After months of testing, I confirm that we will not be providing bigger city sizes. The system performance challenges we encountered would mean that the vast majority of our players wouldn’t be able to load, much less play with bigger cities. We’ve tried a number of different approaches to bring performance into an acceptable range, but we just couldn’t achieve it within the confines of the engine. We’ve chosen to cease work on bigger city sizes and put that effort into continuing to evolve the core game and explore an offline mode. Some of the experiments we conducted to improve performance on bigger cities will be rolled into future updates to improve overall game performance."

 

They officially killed the franchise

[Xenocity 343]

They officially killed the franchise

That's what people told me about Simcity 2000 (I was really was told that by a few people) over the futuristic buildings and arcos back in the day.

 

I keep being told this with every new Simcity game to date by people (I know a lot of gamers).

 

I also hear Game Freak has ruined Pokemon with the new games coming out this Saturday (yes some fans are already claiming it).

 

 

Though an online aspects have probably kept piracy at bay for Maxis.

The minute Maxis allows the game to be played offline, people will find a way to pirate it to hell and back.

[Mudkest 29]

2) If an Offline mode somehow will work, it will be stripped down. The game is bent on multiplayer. How does Maxis expect a single player offline to work when the game is built MMO-style? They're going to take away multiplayer features if they release an offline mode(of course they would actually if they were releasing an offline mode).

 

What multiplayer is there now? "yay someone is building a city next to mine and we have hardly any more interaction then when I would have build that city myself"

global market? took some time before that was activated, game worked fine without at first(all right it didnt "work fine" at the time but that had nothing to do with the global market)

 

as for the other part, of server handling the simulation, I suggest you read this:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/16/simcity-modder-tells-us-offline-regional-play-easily-done/

[Herdervriend 46]

Isn't it so that loading the game/server you need internet and that's why it takes you so long to load?

 

• Xenocity: Pokémon certainly isn't ruined. Clearly those people who are mentioning this aren't fans. 

[macbroue 2]

Isn't it so that loading the game/server you need internet and that's why it takes you so long to load?

If loading a city takes a lot of time (talking minutes here), it is because your station cannot reach the server to load that city. It times out and than tries to load that city locally saved on your hard drive. Quitting the game will also take lot of time because the Synchronizing city to the server process will timeout also before it saves the game on your hard drive.

So essentially you need internet connection to start the game.. Once started, you can run the game pretty well offline..

[Spinmaster 75]

I agree with the title of this thread but not for the reasons stated. Simply put, my reason for believing an offline mode wouldn't work: it's just too late.

 

I probably would've been foolish enough to buy this game when it was initially released, even the "super primo" edition (don't remember what it was actually called), even as I was skeptical of the gameplay, the city sizes, etc.... I didn't think I'd play it "online" much but was curious to try it. Until I accepted the painful reality that it was going to be ONLY online. I still hadn't written it off completely for that, but yeah - for that reason, I needed to wait and see. Maybe everyone would absolutely love it enough to "put up" with the online-only aspect. I know, some of you specifically like it that way, but most from what I've seen at best simply accept it. So I waited to see if maybe it was just such an amazing experience that I'd just HAVE to accept it, too, and try it.

 

Sadly, no. I don't like the sizes, I don't like the lack of interconnectivity between cities, terraforming, and countless other gripes. I've seen countless videos of it now, and frankly they all look the same to me. Not to denigrate anyone's efforts, but even cities from a few "SimCity masters" just look too much like a formulaic, cartoonish game, than a semi-realistic simulation. I know, it's supposed to be a "game first" but it just seems to me to be too much "game only" and very weak on the simulation aspects (I don't know many people that quit their job every day and find a new one the next morning).

 

I know, some of these things might be improved upon someday, but... "might" ain't worth full price in my book. Now, I really don't care if it suddenly gets an offline mode. One of two things has to happen to even spark my interest now: 1) either it gets some serious improvement - i.e. a "SimCity 2" that really is a robust city simulation game (offline or not, but I'm not holding my breath for it in any case), or b) I find it in a bargain bin.

 

Personally from what I've seen, even with an offline mode, I wouldn't bother with a pirated copy of it.

[ScottyDoesKnow 8]

11 responses and no one realizes this is a joke? Or are all the people that realize trying not to ruin it like I'm doing?

[Fatherted 129]

3. Two answers.

Azure.

DRM.

[SoftcoreGamer 352]

I don't like the sizes, I don't like the lack of interconnectivity between cities, terraforming, and countless other gripes. I've seen countless videos of it now, and frankly they all look the same to me.

 

Personally from what I've seen, even with an offline mode, I wouldn't bother with a pirated copy of it.

 

I knew why I love the classic Simcities, precisely for those basic elements of interconnectivity between cities, terraforming, god-like manipulation. So I knew I would hate what they're attempting to do to this legend. Didn't buy, still won't, still no regret not buying.

 

And I wouldn't bother with a pirated copy. Because I want official support for modding. The amazing SC4 modding community should not have to sneak around to help EA sell more copies.