My thoughts on SC13

[FourWinds 29]

SimCity is an interesting thing isn't it. Along with a lot of other people I bought the game. I had been on high alert during the development, but having seen videos of the tile size I got 'angry' and didn't buy at launch; I folded after a few weeks, as I just couldn't stand not playing it; so I bought it and played it and became 'angrier' still! Why won't my peeps commute I cried? Why all these people in so many cars? Why can't I play the game as was clearly intended and distribute my resources about the place to make TVs and other groovy stuff? Why oh why oh why...etc..

 

But here's the thing: I'm still playing the 'kin thing! I can't seem to resist it. When I'm playing other games I'm thinking of SimCity...I'm cheating on it with other code candy!!!

 

It's a strange business to be sure. I think I must have been dropped on my head when I was a little person maybe. I draw some green, blue and yellow segments next to roads, and magic things happen! There seems to be fire in my hands; I can evoke a genesis.

 

I'm on leave today, and so I thought I'd annoy you guys with my pointless post. Kisses all xxx. 

  Edited April 3, 2014 by CaptCity  

[Robotica 36]

When I play other games SC is always in the back of my mind. When I play SC I feel like I get bored really quick and turn it off.. But then I start thinking maybe next time it will be different, and so the cycle repeats. City builders are no doubt my cup o tea, I just wish we really wish we had better options for a game that satisfies our needs. 

 

SC13 is great, it has really nice graphics, great 3d camera, curved roads with guides (though they don't necessarily work as they should), co-op support, offline and moddable now, etc. However, for me it's greatest drawback are the tiny maps. You can build an entire city/town in a matter of a few hours, and once everything is developed from corner to corner there really isn't anything left to do other than start a new city. Then it becomes this cycle of rinse and repeat and I just can't bring myself to make these little cities over and over when they are all so identical. Yes we have modding, but apparently there isn't much to choose from not to mention how difficult this game is to mod.

 

Then, we have SC4 which is by far and away more feature rich and customizable. Literally thousands of mods to choose from, and batting your own models and such isn't really too difficult. It has large sprawling maps with amazing terraforming tools. Huge communities of amazing players, and most import is it's incredible array of networking tools. But, it's over 10 years old, has terrible graphics, is a bit too slow to develop in and requires a ton of micro managing. It is however the definition of what most of us want the new SC to be.

 

We also have Cities XL, which basically takes SC13's 3d capabilities and mixes it with the freedom of SC4. Modding is great, average communities, curved roads, tons of buildings, tons of things to build, a really in depth economy with terraforming and all that jazz. However, one of it's most crucial draw backs is that it was built with single core support, written in LUA and because of this has absolutely terrible performance problems. There are giant maps that you can build on, but once you get an even decent sized city the game starts to bog down. You also have to restart once every 30 minutes to an hour or you quickly become inundated with lag. It also has some other issues, but were it not for the performance problems I think it would be my ideal city builder.

 

You also have games like Cities in Motion, A-Train 9, etc  which also have city building mechanics but are not nearly what a city builder should be. Instead they mainly focus on automa networking and the city aspect is merely an after thought. There are also things like Topico, Anno, Settlers, etc, all which have city building aspects but are more or less strategy games focused on trading and collecting resources, not necessarily city building motif's.

 

So my point here is, we need a real city builder game made with todays standards of technology. Imagine how great SC13 could of been had they made it with multicore support, giant maps, better simulation and realistic data... I don't know, I assume that city builders don't really do well like a Halo or Call of Duty game would. So the amount of resources that goes into a city builder are probably much more limited... I just wish there was something out there that really worked and provided the necessary features we all crave for a city builder in todays standards.

[Xenocity 343]

 

So my point here is, we need a real city builder game made with todays standards of technology. Imagine how great SC13 could of been had they made it with multicore support, giant maps, better simulation and realistic data... I don't know, I assume that city builders don't really do well like a Halo or Call of Duty game would. So the amount of resources that goes into a city builder are probably much more limited... I just wish there was something out there that really worked and provided the necessary features we all crave for a city builder in todays standards.

Citybuilders/simulators or any real simulator (even those that aren't games) take a good amount of resources and time to build.

They also cost more than other software to make and are proned to bugginess due to all the variables at be.

 

Even Rockwell Automation's  Arena simulation software, which is highly used in many engineering and mechanical businesses still lacks multicore support even with the latest release that came out in 2012. 

The 2012 version is stilly highly unstable and crashes and locks up at least once an hour. To make it worse there is no automatic saving. 

 

Most Simulation games don't sell enough to breakeven, including Simcity 4.

The only two Simcity games to break 3 million in sales are Simcity 3000 and Simcity 2013 (neither have hit 6 million sales yet).

Gamers and the mainstream consumer really don't enjoy or care to play Simcity (they never really have).

 

Your answer to your sales question is below.

 

In today's market in the West, you have to be a shooter, realistic sports game,  and a GTA style game to sell well (it's been this way for 10 years now).

Occasionally a Japanese game, RPG, new IP, and/or Nintendo game will break in the top 10.

 

Or I'll put it you this way:

Call of Duty yearly installments typically outsell combined sales of every Simcity game to date 2-3 times (depending on the year) in the first week of release and outsells the two best selling Simcity games combined on release day every year.

 

Or

 

Halo 2, 3, 4 and the spin offs have each sold as much as the combined sales of every Simcity game in their first 3 months of release (includes Christmas, Black Friday, and New Year's week)

 

Or

 

GTAV outsold the combined total sales of Simcity games in less than 12 hours on release day.

 

Or

 

Each yearly release of Madden since 1996 typically outsells the combined sales of every Simcity game to date in release week.

etc...

 

 

[Sleeping Politician 32]

SC13 will soon become as great as SC4 was in a few months. Once NAM13 (or whatever NAM for SC13 will be called) and larger maps are made by modders, SC13 will be flying of the shelves and servers of game shops.