So now that the offline patch is live, are you modders making bigger maps?

[aereus 106]

Has anyone considered, you know, asking the developers whether the map size code is in moddable files or not? They could probably tell you exactly where it is, unless they don't want to.

[migamin 38]

Here is a statement by Maxis.

 

 

Donut200

 

Now I'm just waiting for someone to create a mod for bigger cities.

 

MaxisBazajaytee[S]

If this happens and works I'd be surprised. Pleasantly surprised but surprised all the same

[ImRadek 4]

Sorry now, but I don't understand it. Think about SimCity 4 where we could build Megacities. So why we can't do this in SimCity 2013 ?
Is it because of the complex traffic system etc. ?

 

Ps: Sorry if this question is nooby but I don't understand it.

[gothic0023 18]

IM it was first off because originally it was supposed to be an online game, which Maxis did not think about huge cities such as what could be created in simcity 4. They were focusing on more of an inner city type look. As for why moders can not make bigger maps, from what I gather it is because at moment they can not unzip the core-file of the game which the information on mapping would be held. There are a few debates on this through out different forum sections that you can look around to IMRadek to see what ideas and downfalls have come about in thinking about bigger maps. So for me right now its a matter of files and file access that has clogged up having huge cities even in offline mode.

[aereus 106]

Sorry now, but I don't understand it. Think about SimCity 4 where we could build Megacities. So why we can't do this in SimCity 2013 ?

Is it because of the complex traffic system etc. ?

 

Basically, it's because SC4's simulation was based on fairly rough numbers. AKA the traffic you saw on streets wasn't actually specific Sims, but a canned "heavy traffic here" animation. Power was some raw number, and each building took X amount, and if you were into brownouts, it just like picked random buildings to power down or such.

 

This is actually sorta how I think we could push larger maps though: Return the power/water/sewage to more static spreadsheets instead of agents. Maybe even lower garbage generation to more sane levels, and figure out a way to be able to define static routes for collection.

 

More of a longshot, and something thats probably not possible without access to the core files: Make the agent simulation able to take advantage of full multicore processing for those with the CPU to do it. Yes, there is a lot of the simulation that has to be done on the main thread. But I have to imagine you could spawn off a lot of agent-related stuff to other threads and batch the return data, even if it meant losing a bit of granularity to the simulation.

[ImRadek 4]

Then I can not understand why they just didn't make a SimCity 4 with modern graphics & change the building models, etc..

So we could've built larger cities from the beginning.

[migamin 38]

Because they wanted a new car, not an overhaul

[Xyloxadoria 1,098]

I don't know if anyone has said this, but here is my whole theory on the bigger maps thing:

 

Don't make them. It seems like doing so would not be possible. Instead, we should try making what already works better. 

 

Build Outside City works fine, the stuff thats outside a city just doesn't work as well as what is in one. If we could work to make BOC have better functionality, it would give us more space to build. It wouldn't be a "bigger map" but it would still have the same effect.

 

Just my idea on this whole thing. 

[ImRadek 4]

Yeah, the idea is nice.
 

Ps: Xyloxadoria, nice Origin 'Username' !

[SEZUSC 3]

Already said there is a mod in work

See

http://simcityforum.de/board6-simcity-2013/board126-neuigkeiten/4260-simcity-stadt-grenze-mod-ank%C3%BCndigung/

[ImRadek 4]

Most here said it would be difficult to create bigger maps.

I wouldn't count on this.

[russell612 0]

Does the mod really work?

[prof 1]

When I played the game when I had it (simcity 4) I couldn't even built a city on the smaller plot. I suppose that means I sucked back then.

I used to create small farming communities on the smaller sc4 plots. Where is the agriculture in this sc? what does everyone eat? Coal? Oil?

[NCGAIO 562]

Already said there is a mod in work

See

http://simcityforum....d-ankündigung/ 

 

 

Instead of getting just directing visitors to the site would be more interesting to provide some details of how this is being done. 

 

Really very curious about how it is being run on the game without changing the executable and several other packages!

[AidanA28 17]

I am just gunna say it. Why the heck should we even CARE what maxis says? At this point, I don't think they would give a dang if we violated their rules. Why should we have to do what they say at this point?

 

 

I am not saying we SHOULD disobey the rules, I am just asking WHY we should follow them and who the heck is going to enforce them. I like to follow rules, they are there for a reason, but sometimes you gotta ask, "why the heck should I do this?" Just because I ask, doesn't mean I aim to break the rules.

 

I won't disobey the rules, just to be clear.

Hear Hear!! Yet, if i could mod, I would disobey the rules, lol

Already said there is a mod in work

See

http://simcityforum.de/board6-simcity-2013/board126-neuigkeiten/4260-simcity-stadt-grenze-mod-ank%C3%BCndigung/

Woah! Wait, everyone has deemed this impossible. So, how come all of the sudden some dudes figure it out? This is most likely a trogian horse malware virus. 

[yessoos 0]

 

Sorry now, but I don't understand it. Think about SimCity 4 where we could build Megacities. So why we can't do this in SimCity 2013 ?

Is it because of the complex traffic system etc. ?

 

Basically, it's because SC4's simulation was based on fairly rough numbers. AKA the traffic you saw on streets wasn't actually specific Sims, but a canned "heavy traffic here" animation. Power was some raw number, and each building took X amount, and if you were into brownouts, it just like picked random buildings to power down or such.

 

This is actually sorta how I think we could push larger maps though: Return the power/water/sewage to more static spreadsheets instead of agents. Maybe even lower garbage generation to more sane levels, and figure out a way to be able to define static routes for collection.

 

More of a longshot, and something thats probably not possible without access to the core files: Make the agent simulation able to take advantage of full multicore processing for those with the CPU to do it. Yes, there is a lot of the simulation that has to be done on the main thread. But I have to imagine you could spawn off a lot of agent-related stuff to other threads and batch the return data, even if it meant losing a bit of granularity to the simulation.

 

Too me, Power and Water don't necessarily have to be more static. There is already a system in place that doesn't use agents in SC: CoT. ControlNet is being distributed radially from the source and simply fades away as it provides ControlNel units to buildings. So instead of distributing resources via agent system, make Power Plants and Water facilities 'beep' them out. Buildings placed father away might suffer from Power/Water shortages - yes, but in real life we have water pumps and distribution stations - they don't take much space in real life either. If this could be simulated, then it might free up some computing resources. Imagine now if Nuclear Plant went... Lights would go off radially as well

[SAGGG 47]

Whoa. You don't know that it's a virus, AidanA28. Where's your proof? Yes, I've heard of these sort of viruses, but it seems to me that they wouldn't risk a backlash from the community over this...

[N34rly 1]

 

I am just gunna say it. Why the heck should we even CARE what maxis says? At this point, I don't think they would give a dang if we violated their rules. Why should we have to do what they say at this point?

 

 

I am not saying we SHOULD disobey the rules, I am just asking WHY we should follow them and who the heck is going to enforce them. I like to follow rules, they are there for a reason, but sometimes you gotta ask, "why the heck should I do this?" Just because I ask, doesn't mean I aim to break the rules.

 

I won't disobey the rules, just to be clear.

Hear Hear!! Yet, if i could mod, I would disobey the rules, lol

Already said there is a mod in work

See

http://simcityforum.de/board6-simcity-2013/board126-neuigkeiten/4260-simcity-stadt-grenze-mod-ank%C3%BCndigung/

Woah! Wait, everyone has deemed this impossible. So, how come all of the sudden some dudes figure it out? This is most likely a trogian horse malware virus. 

 

Not realy. Im on this Forum. And if one on these Forum give a News about this Mod, than its a true story. also Its the biggest SimCity forum in germany.  The Programmer from the mod is the Admin of these forum and they writing, He has invested a lot of time with a friend in this project, so i realy dont think ist a fake or something like that.

Belive it or not, it ure decision.

You will see it than

[AidanA28 17]

Ok, yes I know I had no proof and knew about the community backlash, but it just was a bit startling, if this is not a virus, then friend, I must say, bravo!

[AidanA28 17]

 

When I played the game when I had it (simcity 4) I couldn't even built a city on the smaller plot. I suppose that means I sucked back then.

I used to create small farming communities on the smaller sc4 plots. Where is the agriculture in this sc? what does everyone eat? Coal? Oil?

 

As it says in the "where i'm going" tab of a vechial, they aquire food from commercial buildings.

[migamin 38]

 

 

When I played the game when I had it (simcity 4) I couldn't even built a city on the smaller plot. I suppose that means I sucked back then.

I used to create small farming communities on the smaller sc4 plots. Where is the agriculture in this sc? what does everyone eat? Coal? Oil?

 

As it says in the "where i'm going" tab of a vechial, they aquire food from commercial buildings.

 

For a 10 year old person i like your comments. Smarter than some others.

[i0ushephf 1]

I think it would be easier to change the building to need less power or power fewer times per day

[AidanA28 17]

What building? I'm sorry, I don't know what building. There is many a building in Simcity, plus mods, plus upcoming mods.

[__ZyGo__ 5]

Hi all!

 

Does this can help anyone to find the key for bigger maps?

 

I just post this to help. If it doesn't, just tell me, i'll remove it.

[SEZUSC 3]

SimCity bigger maps mod released on

Http://Simcityforum.de

[Nicistarful 49]

Sorry but, it's a April's fool. I am German and registered there, downloaded it and the error code was like "APIRL APRIL, sorry but the team could not resist".

[SEZUSC 3]

Good Job!

[ImRadek 4]

So actually there's no bigger map mod ?

[RRtexasranger 45]

Maxis had a team of about 6 programmers work almost 9 months on extending map sizes and the absolute best result ran at about 2 FPS on their most insane rig.

 

So, sure, map sizes are tweakable, but have fun playing the game at 2 FPS.

Have a source for this, because I'm calling BS?

 

The closest thing I can find to your supposed statement is this:

 

 

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. 

 

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/state-of-simcity

 

That is completely, different than the story you are describing. First of all, the mere act of expanding maps would magically make your computer come to a crawl. What if you just moved each side out 1m? You probably wouldn't even tell the difference. So maps CAN be expanded at little cost to performance, the question is how much?

 

Secondly, he didn't specify "intensive rigs running at 2FPS," he said that it would hamper the "vast majority" of the players. For a med-high end computer could run expanding maps, but seeing as how the minimum requirements for the game is a 2.0Ghz C2D processor and an Nvidia 7800, they don't exactly have much to work with. (Not to mention that it would likely have to run on a lot of laptops too, which would be a huge chunk of PC market.)

 

Quite frankly, I think EA/Maxis should just enable the moddability of map sizes. That way, those that want to compromise game performance at the sake bigger maps, or those that think they have the rig to run it can try it out.

 

I also wouldn't mind seeing a Simcity 4/5 hybrid mod for the sake of making expanded maps more practical. That is, expanded map sizes, but with the agent system removed for just about everything except regular city traffic. (So you'd no longer have to waste processing on the water/power/sewage/ect. agents. It'd be like SC4 where X building costs X power, and Y power plant provides Y power.)

[__ZyGo__ 5]

I totally agree RRtexasRanger!!!

 

I'm sure that plenty of computers can easily increase map size without losing performances.

At least, just let us try!!!!!!! And if it is impossible to play in good conditions, we will understand it, and trust in it. Without that, we're everytime in waiting, and thinking that EA is lying to us...

 

Sorry for my poor english, I'm French, and franchies are veeeeery bad in languages...