Maxis/E.A. has been too quiet

[Gamingbox 2]

Maybe they are working on larger maps. All they need to do is modify the GlassBox engine. 

[SAGGG 47]

THANK you, Gamingbox. EA/Maxis should let US decide if our games would lag with each city size, at least offline. Online, fine. Hurts everyone else. I get that. Offline? Shouldn't matter. If we can't play a large city, then we just won't. Our choice. We'd know our limitations, and just stick with what we can work with. Also, guess what? I have super huge cities in SC4, and they lag, and I STILL play them. What's the difference with SC2013?

[Yayie 311]

THANK you, Gamingbox. EA/Maxis should let US decide if our games would lag with each city size, at least offline. Online, fine. Hurts everyone else. I get that. Offline? Shouldn't matter. If we can't play a large city, then we just won't. Our choice. We'd know our limitations, and just stick with what we can work with. Also, guess what? I have super huge cities in SC4, and they lag, and I STILL play them. What's the difference with SC2013?

 

Difference between SC4 and 2013? Graphic should be a start.

[Noobi-Wan 22]

There would be a number of other problems with an expanded city tile not least of which would be the resources underground. All of those data layers would need to be spread out across the map by whoever created it. I suspect without the correct map editing tools this would be problematic.

One point that I think we miss with the closer city tiles argument is how rubbish the other cities look in the region when the tiles are close together. I actually don't like the graphics scaling on the surrounding cities as they end up looking horrible. A necessary evil I guess.

[Moonraker39 17]

Somthing I have been wondering and maybe someone who knows how it works can explain...

They claim that larger city tiles will lag out our computers. Ok thats fine. Maybe it will. When I made some large population cities I did notice a slowdown on my PC. But... What if we dident zone every square inch of land?  What if we made, lets say a 50k population city and spread it out over a very large tile? Would larger cities work then? I can completely understand our pcs slowing down and crashing if we took a large region and tried to cram 50 million sims in but if we were to be a little conservative with our zoning and keep the population smaller would it work?

[Decius 360]

its stil $39.99 so no ....
once it gets to $19.99 I become slightly intrested.

So stay quiet, work on the enxt gen with bigger maps or something.

[Nico Robin 70]

if have big map , but you forgot the LOD , like city XL big map  = big lag

[CapTon 592]

Things are coming, my friends.... things are coming

[cmdp123789 710]

I like the game, I have to be honest. It is a "regular-good game", and if we have to be honest, they sold the game and made a profit, which is basically the reason why they launched it.

 

Now, lets stablish a difference between the niche to which the game is aimed for:

 

Simcity 4, launched 11 years ago. People were really into it, and the modders and batters of than generation were the ones that started all of that SC4 custom content, making it an unbelievable game. But again, that was 11 years ago, when computers could merely handle what we now call good graphics.. I remember my computer only had 1GB of RAM and I was the "cool kid of the block" lol! My friends had 512MB.. 2GB were almost impossible to have, in fact, having 2GB of RAM was a dream!!

 

11 years later, we find ourselves unwilling to move on, cause we grew with that game, we saw it change with us, we tweaked it, we played it, we made it what we wanted to be for us. But thats it.. We see the NAM release something and become excited about it, ignoring that in simcity 2013 we are capable of doing almost the same thing.

 

I am extremely happy with what the modders (specially NAM team) and batters do for SC4... but that is something that only us, the players from that time understand.. 

 

Simcity 2013.. thats what they had to do in order to sell something updated of their old simulation... bright colors, filters, internet, basically everything that "kids" are born and live with. It is the only way!! They dont care about making a recreation of New York.. they dont care  if they have canals or not... they want skyscrapers, bright colors, and to feel like they "won" the game...

 

Remember, hardcore players like Mandelsoft, Haljackey, Tarkus... (to name a few)... the people we all know.. including myself (I would never choose 2013 over the sc4) we are  not the fan base for this... we are the old school players that want an improved SC4, that in fact, is never gonna be released... just because we care about stuff that people that just want to play for 30 minutes and compete with other people online dont understand.

 

So please guys, if you are here expecting EA to release something that in fact we all know its never gonna happen, dont waste your time and avoid this stupid arguments about graphics and stuff... 2 different games, 2 different "eras", and definetely 2 different kind of players.

[SAGGG 47]

What do you know that we don't, CapTon? I wonder...could it be...?

[AidanA28 17]

I feel like I must be the only one who doesn't mind the small city maps. I tend to make every city some sort of specialization and haven't found a large RCI population necessary at all. I always set up a utilities city and the Great Arcology to provide extra workers when I start a new region. A smaller population makes it easier to keep people happy with services, more room for specialization buildings, less traffic issues and more room for tourists and the fun stuff. There is much more profit to be made with specializations than RCI anyway. Overall, everything just seems to work more smoothly and is less buggy and more stable with less people. More people does not necessarily mean more money, in fact, in my experience it can mean less. I can get 40,000 or so tourists in a city with less than 10,000 residents and all works well, I don't need bigger city maps.

 

I have to agree with the small cities not bugging me, and if the cities got any bigger this heap of bolts would collapse. I also like the challenge of tiny cities, but larger cities would be nice. As for EA's quietiness, I think it means a big thing is coming, possibly one of the last. Yet, my friends have different ideas, One of them says EA wants to take over the world and they are about to unveil their big plan. Anyways, a mayor can dream!

 

Since the botched release of SC4, us long time SC faithful have given EA the keys needed to build a city sim game that EVERYONE would like and would make them massive amounts of money... Instead they went the opposite direction with almost every piece of advice for "future" SimCity games.

We suggested gameplay and customizability over pretty graphics - ignored and they did the opposite

We suggested the ability to set any density next to any road we wanted - ignored and they restricted us further

We suggested at least 6 different transportation types - they gave us 2 initially, then added a few more later.

We suggested custom regions that we could import or build ourselves - ignored.

We suggested multiple city tile sizes that ranged from small to very large, and giving us the option to choose (even if only on custom regions). - ignored AND insulted us with tiny city sizes and spread out regions.

We suggested an offline game, but with an option for online play - ignored, and only added offline as an afterthought

We suggested a map/region creator - ignored

The list goes on and on. These forums alone had hundreds of suggestions and ideas that a massive company like EA could have put together, and been the biggest game they ever released, making them untold millions. Instead they did what THEY wanted ignoring almost every suggestion and they released another dud, where maybe at best they will break even on, maybe a SMALL profit.

What EA fails to understand with simulation games (but Maxis DID understand before they were bought and gutted by EA), we the people want the ability of customizing as much as possible, not be forced to go down the extremely narrow path of what the game makers force. The only reason SC4 was so successful was the 3rd party mods and custom content that started within 2-3 months of initial release. I remember custom modders having highways available before they released Rush Hour. SC3000 expanded on SC2 and gave us more options. SC2 gave us more options from the original SC. It wasn't until EA got their greedy claws into Maxis (shortly before SC3000 was finalized and released) that they took an excellent series and turned it into some franchise cash cow based on what the EA wallet wanted, not the people.

So essentially EA looked at what made SC4 so successful, and did the opposite. They looked at what Monte Cristo did with CXL, and said "we can do what they did but be successful", while completely failing to understand WHY it failed, and then made the exact same mistakes.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Albert Einstein

Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins133991.html#qBPUqEVihvBiIQB3.99

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein

If EA is going to release any more in this series or similar, build on the suggestions of the established fan base and expand from there, not ignore them and go the opposite direction.

 

Bravo, my friend. You bring tears to my eyes.

 

 

SimCity 4 = Old Pixel , graphique dead

SimCity 2013 = Nice Graphique in 3D , have maybe slam map , but i love the gameplay

I agree!

 

 

Seconded!

 

Games should consider a pretty graphics addon pack rather than making it pretty at the git-go. I play games at low-medium graphics. I don't usually have a "gaming" computer.

Yep, so much wasted potential in Simcity 2013. I do still play it though, I just want more versatility.

 

Man, you guys that I quote hit the nail on the head!

 

Honestly, instead of larger maps I'd be agreeable to faster loading times between cities in a region. It's like the game has to relaod the whole game engine to look at another player's city, or switch to another city in the region.

 

Dude, use single player mode, it is a boss on load times, It cuts the load times of multiplayer 4 fold!

 

Things are coming, my friends.... things are coming

 

Yo CapTon, you have no obligation to EA, so spill the beans!

  Edited June 3, 2014 by Cyclone Boom  
Reason: Merged duplicate posts.

[Xenocity 343]

Games should consider a pretty graphics addon pack rather than making it pretty at the git-go.  I play games at low-medium graphics.  I don't usually have a "gaming" computer. 

 

Yep, so much wasted potential in Simcity 2013.  I do still play it though, I just want more versatility.

 

I hate to inform you but market research says high end graphics are more important than gameplay in the West.

If your game has decent or average graphics, consumers will ignore it because it looks bad.

 

Today Shiny graphics = Good game in the eyes of today's consumers.

[Rufus Honker IV 100]

 

Games should consider a pretty graphics addon pack rather than making it pretty at the git-go.  I play games at low-medium graphics.  I don't usually have a "gaming" computer. 

 

Yep, so much wasted potential in Simcity 2013.  I do still play it though, I just want more versatility.

 

I hate to inform you but market research says high end graphics are more important than gameplay in the West.

 

Sadly, I'm well aware of that.

[CapTon 592]

 

Things are coming, my friends.... things are coming

 

Yo CapTon, you have no obligation to EA, so spill the beans!

 

I cannot say anything only hint at things to come.

  Edited June 3, 2014 by Cyclone Boom  
Reason: No need to mention if you've violated the NDA.

[SAGGG 47]

CapTon, you are NOT making it any easier, you know that, right...?

[CapTon 592]

CapTon, you are NOT making it any easier, you know that, right...?

I'm sorry but I just don't want people to think that nothing is coming. But I can't tell you what is coming.

[Xenocity 343]

 

 

Games should consider a pretty graphics addon pack rather than making it pretty at the git-go.  I play games at low-medium graphics.  I don't usually have a "gaming" computer. 

 

Yep, so much wasted potential in Simcity 2013.  I do still play it though, I just want more versatility.

 

I hate to inform you but market research says high end graphics are more important than gameplay in the West.

 

Sadly, I'm well aware of that.

 

Yeah....

Is it worse that gamers today are whining about games being too long?

[CapTon 592]

What do you know that we don't, CapTon? I wonder...could it be...?

Forgot to respond to this post

 

Oh.... a few things

[SAGGG 47]

You. Are. Killing. Me....

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

 

What do you know that we don't, CapTon? I wonder...could it be...?

Forgot to respond to this post

 

Oh.... a few things

 

 

Do you have any idea of this patch/expansion release date? Or is that being kept secret to?

[CapTon 592]

Do you have any idea of this patch/expansion release date? Or is that being kept secret to?

That is being kept secret

[BLANKBLANK 4,414]

That is being kept secret

 

Can you at least tell me if it is a new patch or a new expansion?

[CapTon 592]

Can you at least tell me if it is a new patch or a new expansion?

It's neither (when I say this, I really mean it's neither) you'll see what it is when the time comes.

[SAGGG 47]

CapTon, could you speculate on a time limit, at least? Within a month, or two months?

[cmdp123789 710]

Will we have to pay for it?

[heat33330 26]

It's a new game, isn't it? The AAA project to save Maxis or whatever, isn't it?

[CapTon 592]

CapTon, could you speculate on a time limit, at least? Within a month, or two months?

I don't know when it could be released I have not been made aware of any time limit.

 

 

Will we have to pay for it?

Nope.

 

It's a new game, isn't it? The AAA project to save Maxis or whatever, isn't it?

Nope

[AidanA28 17]

AGGG! Goodness! What is with the secrecy! Is this a mod?

[CapTon 592]

AGGG! Goodness! What is with the secrecy! Is this a mod?

Not everything can be public I'm just attempting to stay in-line and give people hope.

[baertooth 330]

Recently a dev from Maxis said they were helping modders make content and that they hadn't abandoned Simcity2013 when asked if they were doing any more patches etc.  If I had to guess what it is Capton knows, it's probably tools to help modders make 3rd party content.