Offline Mode Coming Soon

[SirChick 184]

 

So offline mode does this provide the option for online connectivity with friends where one PC is the host or even LAN?

If so that would be perfect.

 

Isn't that what multiplayer is for?

 

 

 

No that would rely on EA too much and also their server connectivity is slow as hell.

[LivingInThePast 364]

I think the offline mode will be the first step in eliminating online play entirely and opening it up to modding. Unfortunately, I also have a feeling that modding will be limited and the system still very buggy.

[SirChick 184]

I think the offline mode will be the first step in eliminating online play entirely and opening it up to modding. Unfortunately, I also have a feeling that modding will be limited and the system still very buggy.

 

I agree i don't think they will open it enough to allow mods to alter some of our major concerns. But to be fair to Maxis they did allow alot of alterations to SC4 eventually over time they will care less and less. 

 

If they allow modders to make the entire region be one city rather than a small tile, they would sell more for sure.

[Noobi-Wan 22]

I don't think you will see them get rid of the multiplayer aspect of the game. They have invested too much time and effort into it to just turn it off!

But as this is the one mode of the game that will be "strictly" mod free I would suspect that over time there will be a maxis approved seepage of popular mods from the single player game to the multiplayer, so long as it doesn't break the game.

Building skins and the like are unlikely to create an issue and after an approval process different road laying tools may be allowed in.

Ultimately time will tell but the multiplayer game will need to evolve to stay relevant next to a mod filled single player game.

[Hamish 1,370]

 

Like you and others, I sincerely hope that an offline mode will allow us to modify the game in the ways we want; I just want clarification from Maxis/EA that offline mode will allow us to do that.

 

 

I think its safe to assume that, but I would really like some clarification on how to play the game with mods, would they only run while offline, or do you need to take them out of their respective folders before starting an online region etc.

[fhreire 3]

This offline mode is taking more time than I thought it would

[SoftcoreGamer 352]

So finally, news of an offline solo game. Am I surprised? Am I excited yet? Time to celebrate and gloat? Nope nope and nope.

 

From 18 months ago, all we needed was common sense to see what's coming, no genius required. Every possible train wreck the core fan protestors foresaw and laid out in detailed analysis had already happened - server fiascos, mass outrage, glut and demise of casual city games, denial, firing, restructuring, recoding, even projected first year 2 mil sales figure which underperformed investor expectations. All of which will of course prompt the myopic visionaries to activate Plan B - bring back the classic, solo, single-player, offline, as in = ORIGINAL, HARD CORE aspects of SimCity.

 

So why the muted response - in spite of game mags jumping up and down about the "great" news?

 

Short answer... Too many times bitten. By EA? Maxis? Acti-thesda-zynga-wawa? Doesn't matter. Manufacturers can label a bottle of chemicals as real orange juice, but if consumers can't find what they want on its ingredient list, if consumers felt cheated, money go elsewhere.

 

To me, SC2013+expansions are not SimCity games but derivatives pretending to be the real thing. Pointless purchase. Potential clutter on my clean machine. So ignored.

 

I also ignored the hacked offline version. Simply because? Compromised moddability. Why waste time on half a game.

 

Modding freedom is the ultimate missing ingredient. Reality is we live in post-SC4 post-Simtropolis era. So offer these "Creative Freedoms" or bleed another $10 mil on damage control.

 

The Return of True SimCity should include SC4-level modding, terraforming, sharing freedom. Until I see these in solid terms, latest great news is just more EA/Maxis sales dept noise.

 

And since I ignored all derivative subprime products thus far I am less concerned if and how the new offline/solo version would gel with the online/multiplayer version. The latter should defer to the former, as typically-unstable derivative should peg to the real deal. Plan B should be Plan A from the start. So restart. Take all the time. By all means. Snowcrash ambition can wait, 2020, maybe.

 

Fix the core game, keep to the fundamentals, this baby could still fly.

[Herdervriend 46]

Think a lot of players will now go to Banished and won't even try to download the 10th patch....

[Intrepid 20]

For me it is too little too late. I am among those people who are not buying EA games because of the insistence that customers use the origin client, something that really annoyed me when I bought Mass Effect 3.

 

If the offline version of SC2013 were to be origin free, larger city tiles, including terraforming and highly moddable I would consider making a purchase, until then I will continue with SC4 which despite its limitations is for me the best city simulation game I have played.

[Jack_wilds 550]

I am looking forward to it... hope its great and does live up to promises far better... and then, what do they mean 'free', I must still buy it the 2013 version to get the free or ? as I have SC4deluxe

[huskerman007 26]

The thing I am most excited about for offline mode is having the ability to mod the game so I can have larger cities. Right now my biggest issue with the online mode is the city sizes are too small.

[CapTon 592]

The thing I am most excited about for offline mode is having the ability to mod the game so I can have larger cities. Right now my biggest issue with the online mode is the city sizes are too small.

We don't know that this will be possible to mod. The sizes could be located in the core game files, which we cannot alter (we also can't alter them in SimCity 4).

[heat33330 26]

^You can alter the core game files for some games so it could be possible.

[CapTon 592]

^You can alter the core game files for some games so it could be possible.

It's not the fact that it's impossible, it's the fact that it's not allowed.

[heat33330 26]

Oh. EA doesn't care for TS3. There is a good few core mods that game.

[CapTon 592]

Oh. EA doesn't care for TS3. There is a good few core mods that game.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens

[heat33330 26]

Hope for the best! 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

No news yet.

 

I suspect that they announced it just to make a few more sales (from people who didn't want to buy an online only game, and would buy it now "knowing" an offline mode is "coming") but don't care at all and feel no hurry to release it... seeing how EA acts I would not be surprised.

[SAGGG 47]

I'm aiming for something around the first anniversary on SC2013's release on this newest update...

[cshmech 30]

 

I agree i don't think they will open it enough to allow mods to alter some of our major concerns. But to be fair to Maxis they did allow alot of alterations to SC4 eventually over time they will care less and less. 

 

If they allow modders to make the entire region be one city rather than a small tile, they would sell more for sure.

 

 

If they do that, they got one buyer from me for sure!

[Trylk255 24]

Why should we set up our Own Offline mode while Maxis is coding an Offline mode for us ? Devs know right what they're doing.

[MassDaGod 16]

 

I think the offline mode will be the first step in eliminating online play entirely and opening it up to modding. Unfortunately, I also have a feeling that modding will be limited and the system still very buggy.

 

I agree i don't think they will open it enough to allow mods to alter some of our major concerns. But to be fair to Maxis they did allow alot of alterations to SC4 eventually over time they will care less and less. 

 

If they allow modders to make the entire region be one city rather than a small tile, they would sell more for sure.

 

I think Maxis should do away w/ restrictions people w/ slow and old computers and should care about to people with powerful PC because no one new is going to buy the game anyway.... and with that said, open up the entire region and/or make much bigger map tiles. whoever has a PC that cant handle that, they should just continue to play the game on low settings with small city tiles.

[TheGeekMayor89 7]

This is great news, I will get the SC 2013 soon after this update.

[Bolkmar 2]

I think online mode was the best idea that Maxis can do because now the players can play together in a competitive citie-builder game  . Cities XL online was a GREAT IDEA but unfortunely they fall , all the new SimCity needs is a rescale of 3D models ,keeping the region square areas, to make the feel of big cities in the same region square  .

  Edited March 9, 2014 by Cyclone Boom  
Reason: Language.

[Nicistarful 49]

I think online mode was the best idea that Maxis can do because now the players can play together in a competitive citie-builder game  . Cities XL online was a GREAT IDEA but unfortunely they fall , all the new SimCity needs is a rescale of 3D models ,keeping the region square areas, to make the feel of big cities in the same region square  .

 

But what, if the cities can't play together, because they are leaving after 1 hour, coming never back. And then: You wan't to send money but you have to wait a long time. Even, the multi-city-play doesn't work right. You send wares and they need too long. You wan't to buy power, but maybe he has more energy than you can claim from another cities. If you wan't to play alone, private, have a city and think, while i start another the other is growing. WRONG. The other city is Freezed and only if you enter it, it will continue. That's called asynchronous.

[Bolkmar 2]

 

I think online mode was the best idea that Maxis can do because now the players can play together in a competitive citie-builder game  . Cities XL online was a GREAT IDEA but unfortunely they fall , all the new SimCity needs is a rescale of 3D models ,keeping the region square areas, to make the feel of big cities in the same region square  .

 

But what, if the cities can't play together, because they are leaving after 1 hour, coming never back. And then: You wan't to send money but you have to wait a long time. Even, the multi-city-play doesn't work right. You send wares and they need too long. You wan't to buy power, but maybe he has more energy than you can claim from another cities. If you wan't to play alone, private, have a city and think, while i start another the other is growing. WRONG. The other city is Freezed and only if you enter it, it will continue. That's called asynchronous.

 

 

I think the reason for that asynchronousism that you say is the problem of performance , think about if your computer had to render and process all the whole cities in the region at real time , it would be a very huge amount of data information coming to your pc and it will cause a low performance issuess , for that reason i think they do that they do as simulation because is the best way to keep the good performance at the most pc .

[migamin 38]

What i wanna know is: do they change commuting too?

[Xenocity 343]

What i wanna know is: do they change commuting too?

we don't know yet.

[SAGGG 47]

Finally! Thanks for the update! CapTon should be very pleased like the rest of us!

[CapTon 592]

Finally! Thanks for the update! CapTon should be very pleased like the rest of us!

I am although I would like to mention that the SimCity Twitter page posted that tweet a couple days ago, not today just can't wait for the release. Anticipation.