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EA has released information. => Users receive this information. => Users think about this information. => Users will have an opinion about this information. => Users will want to exchange their opinion with others via communication channels such as this very forum. That's what a forum is for, by the way Yell "HOLD YOUR OPINION" all you want, it's no use. (It's also funny how you voice an opinion yourself directly before screaming at others not to do so.) Imagine you had booked a beachside holiday resort with sports facilities, and now you get told that the resort is actually far away from the sea and doesn't have any sports facilities, but a spa/sauna. Yes, once you start your holidays there. it might be ok - different, but ok. But you don't need to travel there first to know that it's not what you wanted and what you expressly indicated beforehand. IMO, what's pointless talk is that constant "Oh, it's still 6 months". What exactly do you think will they do in the remaining months? Does anybody here really, sincerely, reckon they will turn the game concept inside out? Make terraforming possible after all? Introduce a full-blown single player mode? Totally change the region concept and the game engine? That would boil down to throwing out the entire game so far and starting from scratch. I guess the community has sensed rather well that we're beyond some points of no return already. The concept stands, the game engine stands, the game mechanics are standing, next steps will probably be general programming to put the concept into practice, artwork, fixing glitches, UI programming and design, testing and balancing, documentation. Don't forget the server back-end, which will require a huge portion of the entire effort, because it's basically a client/server game with heavy bias on the server. I seriously doubt that in 6 months we will be any more able to make a metropolis region out of seamlessly connected city tiles than based on what we know now. The same applies to terraforming, realistic-scale stations, railyards... heck, I don't even want to think about airports! Or sea ports, for that matter. Or even just the possibility to say "I want a highway connection to the neighbour city right here and right this way." If the concept so far is to your liking, then these points of no return don't matter, and the following 6 months can be full of excitement and more interesting details. If it is not to your liking, then... well... I have scarce hope that anything to happen in the following 6 months will make that fundamental change it would take to get you on board. ______________________ Back to topic, I was more skeptical than excited from the get-go, and for the third time now I find myself not really caring at all. If this continues, I guess my reaction to the next so-called SimCity game (or SimCity-style game) will be reduced to shrugging, turning around and forgetting about it immediately. Personally, I feel pretty relaxed. I mean, the cards had been lying on the table for 10 years now, and they were speaking a rather clear language - in this context it's almost amusing to see how one contestant after the other fails to acknowledge what's in plain sight and goofs it up. I must confess that this entertains me to some degree - the usual hullabaloo in the forums explicitly included. EDIT Whoa, I'm slow. Guess you shouldn't interrupt posting for other things. I was picking up the thread from nukeu's post, of course.

Replies @Simcoug : Thanks, growing the row homes wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be, making them all historical was through! I'll try and release more frequent updates this summer @MamaLuigi - You are indeed correct, alot of this content has already been posted in various "show us your.." threads, but I know CJ's and the forums have different audiences. Thank you for your comment @1000000(many many 0's) - Cheers, it should be "back" until late september, then it will probably have to go back into hibernation due to studies. @westy177 - Thank you, I will make the change from maxis highway to RHW, but probably only when the next version is released. You can expect plenty more rail, industry and public housing projects though @ROFLyoshi - Damn, I must have missed that, thought I had fixed it guess I'll have to go back and tinker with it, thanks for pointing that out I like using greenery though I feel I could do with something a bit less nice for certain areas, never the less I feel that everyone deserves some green @Fox - Thanks for the comment, I'm also glad you bring up English areas because thats pretty much exactly what I was going for A mix of victorian terraces and 1960's/70's housing projects such as Trellick Tower (the larger brown towers) and the Aylesbury estate, which is pretty infamous (the lower rise grey blocks). @testuser1234 - Cheers, there will be plenty more factories in this CJ, but that isn't going to be the focus of todays update. @Morrinkt - Thanks Though this entry won't have quite so much in the way of industrial parks and soviet housing projects, I intend to do the updates as a cycle. 1- Housing projects/dirty factories 2- High-Tech industries, leafy suburbs, middle/upper class homes and 3, back to decrepit housing and dirty huge factories. All entries will contain a bit of both however. I have used a lot of mods to get this many factories, but send me a PM and I can give you a list. Almost everything by Jestarr on the LEX would be a good start though. Update The focus for the next 8 or so updates will remain with Spedbury. The intention is to showcase the two halves of the city in a cycle, the previous update focused on the poor neighbourhoods and their workplaces, this update will look at the middle/upper class and how they live and then the next will go back to the public housing projects,dirty industry ect Spedbury is a city of contrasts and massive inequality, while the poorer residents scrape by on minimum wage living in outdated public housing projects the middle and upper class pay thousands for their children to attend private schools, jet around on yachts and either work in the burgeoning research and development area, or more likely - commute to the large offices in the region via rail. Although increasingly companies are setting up offices in the city itself. House prices are between 10-40x higher in the right areas and the average income is above the £100,000 mark. All pictures can be clicked to view at 1680x1050. These large detached properties are worth hundreds of thousands due to their proximity to the coast and the marina. One of the main commuter stations. Offices line the canal, and the bike path has proved a popular addition for the locals, both for getting around and for pleasure. The penthouses in these highrises can command prices of several million. Moving away from the coast, man made waterways snake through the housing. Bicyle paths have made cycling a popular past time. A new office building with a private park area. Part of the R&D zone. Some general pictures. And an overview of the entire area. And to balance all that greenery.. Admittedly, thats quite green as well.. Don't worry though, next time we'll look at more housing projects, urban decay, dirty factories, oil refinerys, petrochemical works and iron smelters! EDIT: I'm a numpty, didn't post all the images I intended to, see below. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this update, please comment, criticise and +1 as you see fit

have to make lots and documentation to continue uploading my older stuff. I really don't like to do that, so is going to be a while before you see older stuff from me on the STEX, but believe me, is going to happen someday, before the new simcity goes public. something new, been working on this one for about 3 months, not much, I know, another box, I know, LOL zoom 6, real size is 1x2 grids, to place either w2w or not.

I am pessimistic regarding 'Maxis', seeing as 1. what they've released about the game recently and 2. the fact that they aren't the same company that made 2000, they have evolved to become a very different company since that time, no matter how much we might like to read about Ocean being a SC veteran and this that and the other, the fact is this company has barely any connection with the company that gave us 2000 or with Mr Wright. Putting aside whether Maxis is really the same 'Maxis' we know and love that gave us the various Sim games, they are now a tool of EA corporation, and while I tend to avoid using over emphasised generalisations like 'the Evil Empire' and so forth, Maxis is certainly a Lord Vader at best, and EA is probably to a large extent to blame. However this is purely speculation. The fact remains however that whoever is in charge, or has the power to influence the course of the game, is either not in control of their own actions entirely, or is ignoring the fans for commercial reasons. I could understand releasing a limited versiuon of the game for starters to appeal to the quick-amuse crowd of Facebook gamers, and they have done that with SCSocial. In future the game could be modded to include further additions and more realism, or a separate version could be released simultaneously for the core crowd, which is what I assumed they were going to do. The recent news appears to show that not only was my hypothesis incorrect, and SCSocial is not the limit of simplified casual gamer targeted play, but that the main game is, in addition to sounding highly simplified and restricted compared with 4, also restricted unecessarily. I do not see any reason why the recent information can be defended on the basis of making the game multiplayer. A SC4 style gridded region could be made multiplayer, by two people using the same region file. Multiplayer compatibility isn't rocket science, Maxis. There is simply no excuse for these 'bubble' cities. Real regions are nothing like that except if each city was an arcology and this was 3000 ad. Also the 2 by 2 km limit means that these bubble cities are not only unexpandable, but very restricted with their space for development. And we can't terraform beyond simple civic terraforming within our bubbles. Great, Maxis. Really well thought out. We're listening to the fans now, sure. Even casual gamers should wonder at these decisions. They can't be performance based. You could have a SC4 style grid array and still have 2 by 2 km limitations on individual lots for development. There is no excuse from a technological perspective. And another wham attack point, Maxis, is this; they speak of higher realism, 'you see what we sim' etc with GlassBox. What is the point of added simulation realism if our regions are composed of bubbles exactly 2 by 2 km connected by pre defined transportation infrastructure? Where is the added realism in that? Strategy games with dragons and princess rescuing gameplay that have more realistic urban development. And to top it all off, they have included 'Heroes and Villains', a completely unecessary addition to the game. A unrealistic and silly scenario pack, and two or three highly stereotypical and predictable tilesets. Great, that was worth the extra dollars, not. So they are definitely not at present listening to their fans, indeed it seems they are listening to Metallica at full volume with earphones and facing their backs to us and humming. They have half a year to rectify this trend, and I, despite really wishing I could trust 'good old Maxis that gave me 2000 etc', have very little hope they will change their course if it means lost time or money, although imho they could have created what we wanted and still reaped in the cash.

Sorry guys I'm really to busy in RL to reply so let's get straight in to the entry. I feel truly bad I don't have time to reply, I will reply to everyone in the comment section including the ones from the last entry. So, on to it. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ A residential area in Bayasa City experiencing a large rain shower: As the rain clears up, we view a little agricultural part of Bayasa city, these types of "Island farms" are dotted all over the Bayasan coast: And finally a view of the downtown area of Bayasa City overlooking some slums: _______________________________________________________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this update please rate, comment and/or +1, Thanks, Escilnavia

I've been reading people's reactions recently and even with the overwhelmingly negative reactions I figured I'd try to find something positive from all this. With all the comments I've read, the main thing I keep thinking to myself is how everyone can talk features without talking about the one most important thing, gameplay. Even though we might forget, SimCity is a game & at the end of the day, gameplay is king (at least to me). We could have every single feature we ever wanted, but if it isn't fun, challenging and most importantly, play like a SimCity game should, then it's not worth playing. I know people might say "well, it's missing feature x,y & z and it's online only so it's not a true SimCity sequel" and that also brings up two other points. Firstly, and I think the biggest, is that absolutely no one here has seen, let alone played the game in person. The only true way to tell if this is worthy of the SimCity title would be if people (hopefully from the community) got their hands on it and gave their impressions. I'm bringing this up now because there are at least 2 upcoming events where someone here should get a chance to see the game for themselves. There's the Gamescom event in Germany in a few weeks and also PAX Prime in Seattle in early september. Both of these events are open to the public. All it would take is one of us to go one of these events and see for ourselves if it's something we will actually want to play. This would also be our best chance to speak to the developers themselves. It's one thing to leave comments on a website or forum about how you feel, but telling them in person will get you much better results. Until someone actually plays the game, saying that this game isn't a true Simcity game, even with the missing features & EA's requirements, just doesn't make sense. Secondly, Maxis has never implied or suggested that this was going to be sequel to SC4. Even if it isn't obvious with the title choice they have also made sure to say that this game was a "re-imagining" or "reboot" of the franchise since the game was announced. Of course, I wish we were getting a straight sequel. But even I knew I had to lower my expectations down to reality when I kept hearing that. I'm sure many other people starting having high expectations when they said this game would be aimed at "core" audience. People have taken this statement to mean that this was going to be a sequel (after all, we all liked SC4 so that would have made sense). They should have instead stated that this was an entirely new game based off the core SimCity formula. At least then we be expecting something totally new. Actually, It seems obvious to me by now that they're currently aiming for at least a SC2K level of complexity. If they can at least pull that off at this point then I would I would be happy. All I want anyone to take from all this is that we should still wait and see what happens. There's still much to know before we'll really know if this game will be worthy of our money. I know some of you may have made up your minds already and I know I can't change that but we should remember something important. Right now, the city-building genre is pretty much dead. SCS was a mess, SC4 was almost 10 years ago & CitiesXL bombed putting the original developer out of commission (I don't expect FHI to develop the game further either). I really believe this game could be the last chance at reviving the genre. Even if this game isn't a 100% sequel to SC4, if it plays like a SimCity game should and is fun, Hopefully it does well enough to show other developers that this genre is still alive. Hopefully they will also be the ones to take city-building to the next level....Then we won't ever need EA again.

Welcome to Holt District! Holt District is my brand-new CJ and is also my second one. In this journal we will follow the Region of Holt District through developments - both good and bad - and the pains on motorists as roads are widened and residents + businesses as utilities are tinkered with the allow for new developments. We will see developments go from the planning phases, through construction all the way to the end process. Likewise, those of you who know of Windemere & Taschereau also know I like road construction. That, too will be part of this CJ as when an area grows, so to do the demands on its road/transit network. Holt District will vary from Windemere & Taschereau in that instead of me adding "new" cities throughout the course of the CJ, the cities I start with are it. Any new cities that come up will be result of new developments, and the bureaucratic mess that goes with it. As mentioned, we will see developments go from a plan to finished product. While this is not true for all developments - that would get boring pretty quick we will see some major developments through the entire process, and on a variety of styles. (Suburban sprawl, urban skyscrapers, business parks, etc.) Holt District has been in development for several months, since about later March/early April. It has been a long road to this point, and those who have been following my Innocent Posts will (hopefully) be excited to be here, just as I am. Now, before I begin today's update (Yay update 1!) I will go into a bit about the CJ website, map and twitter feed. For information about the region of Holt District itself, check out the CJ website! Additional Media: Additional media will play a very large roll in Holt District. Holt District (the CJ) has a website (holtdistrict.weebly.com - link at the bottom of this post) which has some information about the region and general news that you won't generally get in an update. Sometimes a special post will be made to highlight something on the website, with feedback and discussion more than welcome here in the Holt District topic. Generally development proposals will be posted on the site, with discussion about them taking place here. The process of watching it go from plan to finished product will also take place here. It is only the "application", if you will, that is posted on the website. Also, Holt District will have a streetmap. To be located at maps.holtdistrict.host22.com, it will be a streetmap (i.e. the elevated rail lines won't be on it.) This may change in the future as my abilities in this area improve. When this feature launches (it is currently only a welcome page) there will also be a regional transportation view available for more detail in other areas of transit - including EL-RAIL. Lastly, Holt District Has twitter! Twitter will be used to let you know when updates will be coming out, random teasers and general "What I'm working on in the region today is..." So with that... let's get onto the update. Again, welcome - to Holt District! INTRODUCTION + RETAIL 'DILEMMA' 1.1 \ Shorecoast Shopping Centre is at the cross-roads of 2 major arterial roads in Manatee. Having grown over time with 2 additions and several renovations, the mall is now home to Hecht's, Sears, JCPenney and a large multiplex movie theatre. The mall is a major draw for residents of not only Manatee, but the entire region as it is the only enclosed shopping centre in the region. 1.2 \ Over time, the owner of the mall, Centurion Properties, Inc., developed portions of the massive parking lot into large office buildings. Several office building and even a department store exist on what was once pavement. When confronted with these proposals (over time) the city's council easily approved the developments, saying "It helps break up the pavement monster which is the Shorecoast parking lot, all while brining jobs to the area." Indeed, this building alone employs over 2 000 people. 1.3 \ Although the mall has a diverse clientele, and wise base where it draws customers from - its biggest return visitors and spenders are those who live right around the mall. This is one of the older sections of Manatee. 1.4 \ The food court benefits from a high school which is about a 10 minute walk away. The food court suring any of the lunches is packed - if you are a non-high school student you need to pick and choose when you go for lunch or a snack. 1.5 \ However, not all retail is booming. This Kmart store, which has been in this location for 35 years - and expanded several times - has been loosing business to the mall since it has opened. The mid-range department stores in the mall have stolen business away from Kmart, while an out-of-town Walmart has put the nail in the coffin. Rumours of its closing have been swirling for years, though no official confirmation from the company. 1.6 \ The only saving grace for this location is it is across the street from this minor league stadium, home to various local sports teams and the soccer and foorball teams from the highschool just down the street. Often, people will purchase snacks from Kmart, and on cool nights sales of blankets soar. 1.7 \ Another source of customers is the casino resort, Holt Casino & Resort. It is inevitable that travellers forget something, and with Kmart in walking distance several tourists enter the store each week. While this is not a steady source of income for the store, it is better than nothing. 1.8 \ However, Kmart's demise may now be more real than ever. Rumours are swirling that Walmart is in the process of purchasing the property from the land owner. The fact Kmart's lease is up in 11 months is doing nothing to help squash the rumour. Walmart previously tried to enter Manatee, 10 years ago, but their plan was rejected. Since this is already a retail site, chances any changes they make to the building would be approved. When their plan was rejected 10 years ago, they located 2 highway exits to the south in another town. 1.9 \ It is becoming increasingly likely that the residents of the luscious suburbs in and around Kmart could soon be faced with the sound of construction vehicles for months. That is all for today, the first update of Holt District! I hope for those who have been following its development it is everything you have been looking forward to. I am super excited about the prospects of this new CJ, and I hope you will stay for the journey as things develop! Next Update: We will be looking at some more of suburban Manatee and may just venture into its downtown core...

Some more photos of Torquay & Jan Juc

I agree that online component could take a lot of enjoyment away from the game. The other points you mentioned though are features that I believe would make a good SC4 sequel, but not necessarily what makes a SimCity game fun. Look at it this way, there have been 3 real SimCity games prior to SC4. None of these games had any real regional interaction besides simple trading. These games also were actually simpler in many ways to SC4. There were fewer or no densities and small map sizes in old SC & SC2K. These games also had limited transportation options & even more cartoony graphics(I think). My question is would you still consider these games as true, fun SimCity games? I know that someone might argue that the reason for limited features were because of technological constraints, but I'm looking at it purely from an angle of enjoyment & satisfaction. If these older games are just as true and fun as SC4 even with with less features and complexity, why should this new game be considered less valid? Unfortunately I do not have that an answer for this because as I said on my previous post, no one has played this game. Until this game gets into someone's hands outside of the developer we can't really tell how true this game will be, if at all. Of course, I'm not saying EA won't screw it all up and leave us with a terrible game (they definitely have in the past) but I at least want to see what they come up with before I make my decision.

i will form my opinion once its on my hard drive and i played it otherwise i am neither exited nor disappointed for we have until late February of 2013 EDIT also can we end the hopless thinking.... and the pointless forums discussing about opinions of a game no one has played yet. seriusly im sick of typing the same thing over and over. honestly i like the idea of constent internet activity and cloud based data management. HOLD YOUR OPINIONS UNTIL YOU PLAY THE GAME PLEASE!!!!!! ____________________________and_________________________________ QUIT JUDGING A GAME BASED ON CONCEPT ART AND ENGINE DEMONSTRATIONS!!!!!!!! thank you

Im a bit disappointed as well. I was hoping for a realist looking game, but from what I see, it wont be. Hopefully its fun for those who purchase the game, however I think ill still will be playing SC4 for years to come.

BS The game doesn't need a reboot, it needs a continuation from SimCity 4. All they had to do was fix the things that didn't work, improve the graphics and add features. But they're rebooting it from the ground up for no good reason. They are not trying to make the actual game better, just it's revenue. They're basically taking a diarrhea dump all over the game's history. You want to make money off players who played the Sims? Fine, make a Sims game. Stop sucking the life out of my city builder.

Not wasting my time on this game if it relies on a constant connection and cloud based rubbish. This game won't be moddable and will just become a DLC content only affair. Eventually when people get fed up of playing vanilla cities and cancel their subscriptions, the game will go FTP freefall where players will no doubt have to grind or pay for that new building or transit feature or some other rubbish gimmick. Eventually when that fails the game dies with it. To hell with all that when I still have SC4, packed with mods made by people that actually care. Until EA come back with a simcity game that is single player, does not need constant connection to the internet, and moddable (eventually after release), I will use my money for something else.

In the latest interview there were some definite deal breakers for me... and it kinda left me thinking that Ocean and the other Maxis remnants have kinda left us 'holding the bouquet', so to speak. Small cities, no terraforming, saved to a 'cloud'... it seems to me this new SimCity is more about learning / conformity, than it is about being able to simulate a player's 'dream'. We're now 6 months out... are you excited? Holding your breath? Maybe your in my boat... Disappointed.

Welcome to Holt District! Holt District is my brand-new CJ and is also my second one. In this journal we will follow the Region of Holt District through developments - both good and bad - and the pains on motorists as roads are widened and residents + businesses as utilities are tinkered with the allow for new developments. We will see developments go from the planning phases, through construction all the way to the end process. Likewise, those of you who know of Windemere & Taschereau also know I like road construction. That, too will be part of this CJ as when an area grows, so to do the demands on its road/transit network. Holt District will vary from Windemere & Taschereau in that instead of me adding "new" cities throughout the course of the CJ, the cities I start with are it. Any new cities that come up will be result of new developments, and the bureaucratic mess that goes with it. As mentioned, we will see developments go from a plan to finished product. While this is not true for all developments - that would get boring pretty quick we will see some major developments through the entire process, and on a variety of styles. (Suburban sprawl, urban skyscrapers, business parks, etc.) Holt District has been in development for several months, since about later March/early April. It has been a long road to this point, and those who have been following my Innocent Posts will (hopefully) be excited to be here, just as I am. Now, before I begin today's update (Yay update 1!) I will go into a bit about the CJ website, map and twitter feed. For information about the region of Holt District itself, check out the CJ website! Additional Media: Additional media will play a very large roll in Holt District. Holt District (the CJ) has a website (holtdistrict.weebly.com - link at the bottom of this post) which has some information about the region and general news that you won't generally get in an update. Sometimes a special post will be made to highlight something on the website, with feedback and discussion more than welcome here in the Holt District topic. Generally development proposals will be posted on the site, with discussion about them taking place here. The process of watching it go from plan to finished product will also take place here. It is only the "application", if you will, that is posted on the website. Also, Holt District will have a streetmap. To be located at maps.holtdistrict.host22.com, it will be a streetmap (i.e. the elevated rail lines won't be on it.) This may change in the future as my abilities in this area improve. When this feature launches (it is currently only a welcome page) there will also be a regional transportation view available for more detail in other areas of transit - including EL-RAIL. Lastly, Holt District Has twitter! Twitter will be used to let you know when updates will be coming out, random teasers and general "What I'm working on in the region today is..." So with that... let's get onto the update. Again, welcome - to Holt District! INTRODUCTION + RETAIL 'DILEMMA' 1.1 \ Shorecoast Shopping Centre is at the cross-roads of 2 major arterial roads in Manatee. Having grown over time with 2 additions and several renovations, the mall is now home to Hecht's, Sears, JCPenney and a large multiplex movie theatre. The mall is a major draw for residents of not only Manatee, but the entire region as it is the only enclosed shopping centre in the region. 1.2 \ Over time, the owner of the mall, Centurion Properties, Inc., developed portions of the massive parking lot into large office buildings. Several office building and even a department store exist on what was once pavement. When confronted with these proposals (over time) the city's council easily approved the developments, saying "It helps break up the pavement monster which is the Shorecoast parking lot, all while brining jobs to the area." Indeed, this building alone employs over 2 000 people. 1.3 \ Although the mall has a diverse clientele, and wise base where it draws customers from - its biggest return visitors and spenders are those who live right around the mall. This is one of the older sections of Manatee. 1.4 \ The food court benefits from a high school which is about a 10 minute walk away. The food court suring any of the lunches is packed - if you are a non-high school student you need to pick and choose when you go for lunch or a snack. 1.5 \ However, not all retail is booming. This Kmart store, which has been in this location for 35 years - and expanded several times - has been loosing business to the mall since it has opened. The mid-range department stores in the mall have stolen business away from Kmart, while an out-of-town Walmart has put the nail in the coffin. Rumours of its closing have been swirling for years, though no official confirmation from the company. 1.6 \ The only saving grace for this location is it is across the street from this minor league stadium, home to various local sports teams and the soccer and foorball teams from the highschool just down the street. Often, people will purchase snacks from Kmart, and on cool nights sales of blankets soar. 1.7 \ Another source of customers is the casino resort, Holt Casino & Resort. It is inevitable that travellers forget something, and with Kmart in walking distance several tourists enter the store each week. While this is not a steady source of income for the store, it is better than nothing. 1.8 \ However, Kmart's demise may now be more real than ever. Rumours are swirling that Walmart is in the process of purchasing the property from the land owner. The fact Kmart's lease is up in 11 months is doing nothing to help squash the rumour. Walmart previously tried to enter Manatee, 10 years ago, but their plan was rejected. Since this is already a retail site, chances any changes they make to the building would be approved. When their plan was rejected 10 years ago, they located 2 highway exits to the south in another town. 1.9 \ It is becoming increasingly likely that the residents of the luscious suburbs in and around Kmart could soon be faced with the sound of construction vehicles for months. That is all for today, the first update of Holt District! I hope for those who have been following its development it is everything you have been looking forward to. I am super excited about the prospects of this new CJ, and I hope you will stay for the journey as things develop! Next Update: We will be looking at some more of suburban Manatee and may just venture into its downtown core...

It's that time of year again... Record-breaking time! The 2012 Chat Record Breaking Attempt is scheduled for Saturday, September 29th, at 11PM GMT. During this event, we will try to break the current record of the most people in chat at one time, which is 90. For more info, see topic. Thanks to Jack3oh3 for his help!

Replies @Schulmanator: I'm now back from vacation... @dubaidude303: Thanks! @james2016: Actually, it's a lot and not a texture. So, I'm now back from Europe and ready to make more exciting updates on this CJ! Today we look at Essex Point Beach. Although in name, it's a middle-class area, in reality there are a lot of seasonal vacation homes here, as well as tourist buildings. Notice the Essex Point PIRail Station and the Ferry Terminal. There is a public beach(Lower left corner), but it is crowded and you have to park at the P+R lot. So, hope you enjoyed this short update. See you next time.

People keep saying "Oh it's not a seqel to SC4; they never said they'd make one!" as if that somehow makes the game better. Sadly, it does not. The criticism does not stem from some tribal loyalty to SC4, it stems from the simple fact that the game being shown does not look fun. The inability to create cohesive regions does not look fun, the pre-determined transit layout does not look fun, the size constraint does not look fun and the always online compenent definitely does not look fun. We're all fine with change, as long as it's positive change. You say we could have all the features in the world and yet not have fun, and this is true. However, the features of a game form an extremely large component of the gameplay, and important ones being missing severely limits the amount of fun one can have. You also pointed out that city-building is currently unfashionable, which is again true. Unfortunately, it is largely unfashionable because other attempts at city-building games have been almost unmitigated failures. People keep saying "oh EA have to appeal to the casual market or it won't sell, face it, the new generation is awful, back in my day..." and so forth. I don't think that's true at all, and I don't think people should buy into this myth of "Things have to be simplified to sell well" that's put about by marketing departments. The failed city-builder games in recent years all shared this belief, and they all flopped. Meanwhile, the Sims series and Minecraft - both games which use simple mechanics to allow users to create complex creations - maintain their position on the most sold games list, along with SC3K and Sim City 4.

Theyy are in this pack.. Also get the texture add-on for more options

Cheers Here are some more suburbs I have been working on, click for full size

Okay. First we have to always be online, which I was cool with, even though I don't have the sort of money to always be online, but I did accept that as inevitable progress. Then we are informed we can't control intercity infrastructure, and our cities are 2 by 2 km minimunicipalities scattered on a plain of emptiness between them, with a few select spots for airports. Now Maxis has told us we can't even terraform, and so we are playing Cities XL 2013, not SimCity 2013. Listen up, EA/Maxis, this just isn't SimCity. I am tolerant of progress, but this is just limiting unecessarily the player's control. If I wanted to play Cities XL I would.

Appreciate the devs for being honest. As it still stands, ive reached a level 5 of definately not buying. He did say something about experimenting with map size, but what good does that do when we have more serious issues? We still have unaddressed problems such as modding and cloud saves. The "I told you so" factor is still strong. Whats scary is all of our pessimistic/hunches have actually turned true. Give the game a chance? too late for that now. "But you dont know what good undisclosed features will be in the game!" It doesnt matter if they include 5000 lots, awesum physics from tornadoes, many bridges, interchanges, and vxf.... it doesnt negate the fact that its all candy and doesnt apply to the core issues. ill say this from another thread about the whole "rebooting" justification. You got a game like Call of Duty, and then one called Sim City. Call of Duty is the same old crap every year and nothing new. Sim City has always improved each and every release. Sim City also has a 10 year dev gap unlike COD. Who deserves to be rebooted? Call of Duty needs it! They need to be "re-invented" . Sim City on the other hand need not to mess with it. It never has any problems. You dont re-invent or reboot something that works. Do you reboot you computer right after you had a successfull boot? My point exactly.

I am now in the 'negative' camp re: sc2013. Me... the last person to fall into it. But if we can't build our own regional transportation and other infrastructure I simply don't see how this game is anything close to sc5. A backwards step, Maxis.

nothing new here......ill throw in some cents thou. You got a game like Call of Duty, and then one called Sim City. Call of Duty is the same old crap every year and nothing new. Sim City has always improved each and every release. Sim City also has a 10 year dev gap unlike COD. Who deserves to be rebooted? Call of Duty needs it! They need to be "re-invented" . Sim City on the other hand need not to mess with it. It never has any problems. You dont re-invent or reboot something that works. Do you reboot you computer right after you had a successfull boot? My point exactly.

He's just the poor guy who has the unfortunate responsibility of bringing the bad news to the angry mobs. He doesn't really know anything other than what the developers tell him. I believe he also runs the Facebook page. Yes, he's right in that you can apparently have an entire region to yourself but they keep downplaying the fact that your region is still tied to everyone else online to fix resource prices and other things of that nature...so no, it's not really single player.

yes but you have to login their servers and build your city in their server, because everything is cloud based it's like diablo3 single player, everything is server-client based, you are just playing as yourself in whole map (in our case region), whatever you do is saving to cloud and you have to be online in order to play and since this game is just a client rather than a standalone game there is no way to mod game, add custom buildings, your own rules etc. idk how they are going to manage cheating idk who thought this brilliant idea but it will sink like d3, this is a city building game ffs not a mmo, blizzard did same mistake trying to turn a single player arpg to mmo. Why do I need cloud support? With this cloud stupidity I can't even revert my city to previous state. You have to play game as it is. And in order to support this nonsense only multiplayer game, region connections like roads or rail roads are becoming predefined. Because maxis doesn't want you to change other people's region with your own connection to city. Multiplayer is a good idea yes I like it BUT it shouldn't be mandatory it should be an additional feature with LAN support not stupid cloud. This game must aim single player with additional multiplayer support. But yes it's too late now. This game is like a god mod disaster to our beloved SimCity franchise. Thank you EA for destroying another franchise and thank you maxis for following EA. P.S. sorry for my bad english

Well folks... its time for another update from Hokkodo! REPLIES TekindusT - I was thinking about that after I posted. "Is this going to be too long?" "Naw these people like that kind of thing!" MilitantRadical - Yup! Thanks! Mastof - Well were back to sort of not, but still anyway, edited Images today... 111222333444 - Classmate? Thank you? Andresta - Thanks VERY much. well you CJ has a great Asian feel, something I really hoped to have! mystic_destiny - Thanks sir! Schulmanator - thanks. sucram17 - Thanks very much! SimCoug - Naw I used Photobucket! *Although it did take me a long time...* NMUSpidey - Or maybe they could visit Ashiake! Thanks for the comment, as always... keder - Thanks! dabadon5 - Wowzers! Thank you! tastycakes - Well that means I musta done something right! thanks! PS love the Avatar! Oh CL... B.C builder - Thanks! TowerDude - Thanks. I have to say... Kruness - Glad you like! MamaLuigi945 - No problem! Thanks for liking it! Hellken - Thanks! I'm glad I have reached that level! art128 - Thanks. And the whole tree thing is had to avoid, because when you're turned one way the trees are right on top of it. But when you turn the other way the trees are too far! zeldafan - Thanks! Helsinki 2 - Thank you! Topgun232 - Thanks! Cobra_nVidia - Thanks very much! Welcome It is time once again for the War Zone Ashiake... Every year it happens. actually twice a year this happens... What is it overrun by you ask? ... ..... ............ Otaku! Welcome to Ani-Con! Two times a year Ashiake is host to Ani-Con! A huge convention with all sorts of things! from Anime to Manga, Heck even Video Games! But not just any major brand product... Everything is "home made" or self published... That makes everything here ultra rare! Something, after the convention can resell from up to 10 to 20 times the original price! Ani-Con takes place in the long open air arcades that are in downtown Ashiake. There are also concerts on the "last day" where they show all the highest rated Anime from that session. Cosplay is also a favorite among real "Hard Core" fans.. *My Costume this session. don't you like!* Officials suggest that first time attendees come in the afternoon as to not get stuck in morning lines... Some of the morning lines can last up to an hour! And to even get in in the morning can take up to four hours! Some fateful "Idol Encounters" have occurred durring this session. One "Encounter" Included MamaLuigi945, who was seen drinking out of a water fountain. Ani-Con may only last three days, but its average attendance is over 490,000! It is second in size to only Tokyo's Comiket. Thanks for coming to Ani-Con! Please come again next session, maybe you could even visit in the morning hours... Also stay tuned as we visit Ashiake (Non Ani-Con) :ducky: Don't forget to comment, rate, and +1. Hey you could even follow my CJ!

No; it wouldn't be possible. The content in SC3k is different than the content in SC4, and both games have different graphics and simulation engines.

Aye. 'Tis SimCity Societies 2.

This looks really good. Go Devils!

100% disappointed. I was actually going to buy the parts to build my first desktop computer in order to run this game, since I'm not usually a gamer and all I currently have is a netbook. But since the latest news, the game is NOWHERE near worth it to spend the 1k to do that. All this game sounds like is some 'meh' game that you play for a couple weeks, get some lukewarm enjoyment out of and then stash away in your closet, never to play or think about again. To me, that's not really even worth the $60 to buy the game itself. So I guess my plan is out the window... shame, really, because it's really fun and interesting learning how to build your own computer.

I think the game looks like the game for me, but others might not say the same about themselves. They've still got 6 months until release, and we haven't seen any gameplay footage yet. I also believe there are many features we have yet to be shown. The game installs to your harddrive. Saves are in the cloud. And I honestly don't see the fuss about it.

Maybe, it is not a growable version that youve downloaded. Check the readme file enclosed on the zip.

On one hand I'm kinda dissappointed, and on the other, it is still 6 months to go.. the fact about the medium sized tiles, mmm, got serious concerns about that... It is waaaay too small, especially since now we found out the tiles won't even be adjacent to eachother.. Empty green spaces between the cities??? No chance to build a nice downtown, expanded with its different neighbourhoods, and further on the suburbs, and further on the farm fields, etc etc So in short, no real region??? (because face it, that's what we all like to create most isn't it? big sprawling regions... not just a little town here and a little town there.. and nothing in between that we cannot control ourselves) No terraforming? mmm, while I always enjoy this very much in SC4 , I could live without it but not with great joy though.. I really hope they change their minds (or most likely it will be an expansion to the game later on, costing again several almighty dollars) and include, even if they're minor, tools for terraforming. So far, we really have seen too little I find about actual gameplay, sure the glassbox engine with its simulations look nice, but at the moment it does not look to me like you can build that city of your dreams.. rather a town, and even then.. It would have been nice if they just would have stuck to the SC4 concept with its regional play, added with Glassbox and 3d.. thrown in a decent traffic (and public transport) simulator - basically, the things on which SC4 needed 'upgrading'.. But as said, we're still 6 months off, and we don't know the whole picture yet.. So I'll be keeping just a little bit of hope and excitement, hoping for the best... Who knows, we might all be pleasantly surprised.. or not...

Thanks for the advice. I think i've got it right now, although i cant seem to get the full town map uploaded. It was pieced together with photos on the third zoom level so the detail is pretty good.

With no terraforming, it's definitely not Simcity 5. That name deserves a little more respect lol. This is Cities XL - Maxis Edition

Tada! This is the real value of always online models, overshadowing even DRM schemes. Forget the old model of a one-time purchase of a complete game on a take-home disk...subscriptions are the gifts that keep on giving through the customers that keep on paying. First, however, they have to capture us into the online model...later, the DLC and monthly pricing schedules will be rolled out. I've played one MMORPG game for 11 years with a monthly subscription averaging over $12. That's over $1,584 invested, and I am not like some heavy addicts who maintain multiple game accounts. Of course, you are not supposed to factor these sorts of costs out...imagine, an $80-per-month, 2-year data contract for a smartphone ultimately costs $1,920, all so that you can watch YouTube videos and send Tweets on the go. For the price of a used car, we consumed a temporary digital service. The subscription marketeers are in seventh heaven.

Half of the gameplay I grew to love is chopped out. I usually spend days and sometimes weeks terraforming. To be honest, I have more respect for Monte Cristo and Tilted Mill now and that's saying a lot. Maxis is supposed to know better. I would feel better about this whole thing if they change the name and the name of their company. Who the heck are they making this thing for? Certainly not the same ones who fell for a very similar game design called CitiesXL. Doubt if those who already have a hole in their pocket will fall for this crap again. Are the developers of SC so arregant as to think they will not suffer the same consequences as MC doing the same thing not even 3 years later? Who hired this lead designer? As i said before, long lives SC4 with its crashes and all

You're right ,why I'll pay 59.99€ if I can't play when I want. SimCity is useless, I'll have plenty other things to do.

To be honest, if they're building some sort of online economy and are mining data from each of our regions, I wouldn't mind server maintenance. If they schedule it the same time each week or month, I can play around it. If the servers are down, I'm sure I'll have plenty other things to do. I think it's very loyal of you to defend EA the way you do, no matter what you'll see something positive in it, and I agree, having EA determine when and where you can play your game makes a lot of sense, why making it possible to play your game offline when they have some server maintenance? Why not let you have your game offline when they decide to take down the server after a couple of years? I mean, they must have gotten all the profit necassary out of it right? Why not all agree to these corporate ideas and let them decide everything in our lives? Oh wait, we're there already, battle has been fought, at least that's what EA and other corporations and their advocates (sorry, finger pointing?) would love to make us believe.

Well, it's official. SimCity to the clouds......to fly away. Looks like SC4 has some more years of life left. Guess that's good news for those who worked hard and are working hard on the new mods and BATs. But I must say if anyone told me Maxis and EA would do this to SC I would not believe it. Just WOW! I been away for a couple months to come back and the more new info I read the worse this gets. I no longer see a train wreck coming, I see a train that will not get far out the yard. The platforms where passengers were crowding are emptying out. EA is going to press the play button and the railroad is going to stay that transparent grey line which indicates very low usage. They should call it something other than Sim City. Buyers beware. What really baffles me is the fact that they bring new updates as though we are going to get all excited and go "oh....ok......I really wanted an online cloudbased Sim City where I have no control of my borders and no game saved to my hard drive.....hoorah!" I mean REALLY?

I have not pre-ordered the game and I will not pre-order the game. In fact, I discourage people from pre-ordering this game until there is a 100% offline single player mode.

I hope so. They've had ten years worth of material to peruse as to what people who made SimCity 4 the most succesful of the series want in a sequel. They ignored all of that and stripped out features to serve their hell-or-high-water online model. I hope it crashes and burns.

I think they're afraid to call it SimCity 5 because they know they're straying far enough away from 4 that it won't really be a SimCity 5. It amazes me how much work they put in to not giving us what we want. We want SimCity 5, the follow-up to SimCity 4. Well, here's SimCity Societies. We want SimCity 5, the follow-up to SimCity 4. We've made a Facebook version of SimCity, check it out. We want SimCity 5, the follow-up to SimCity 4. How about SIMCITY! We're gonna completely re-write it similar to SimCity 4, but we're gonna take away some of your favorite things, like region play and we're gonna make the maps really small. We want SimCity 5, the follow-up to SimCity 4. Here's another way to look at it. SimCity 4 was SO GOOD, why would you NOT want to go with that model for the next game. Stay on the path.

I already have it confused with the existing game called Cities XL. I mean, it's not SimCity. I could slap Halo on the cover of a Call of Duty game, that doesn't change anything.

the single player should have its own game mode , not be bound by the multi-player mechanics...this is why everyone one on ST is angry right now. For a 59$ game this is OWED to us. This is clearly a case of cutting corners and developer lazyness.

The evil EA is not going to do this anytime soon, as they try to have a market in the city-builder genre.

I voted FOR BAT...I voted AGAINST online...although I'm not opposed to online...I just am adamantly opposed to FORCED online and FORCED multiplayer aspects.

REPLIES: emperordaniel: Thanks! I usually strive for realism (with mixed results ) so I'm glad you think that development looks like real-world ones. MamaLuigi945: Why thanks you. packersfan I use a building plop mod. That happens to be one of the areas I used it for. UPDATE 8 "THE HEIGHTS" in Cranborough. Meanwhile, back in Cranborough... development continues. Today we are going to look at "THE HEIGHTS"; a new development that will, by the end, feature a baseball field/stadium, commercial shopping/office district as well as condos and single family homes. And here are the photos of the beginning of the development of the retail area and the baseball field/stadium. And here is the first residential development in "THE HEIGHTS." Many more homes and condos will follow... And as part of NAM day (NAM 30 was released today... ) the Region of Windemere announced the widening of several existing highways, expanding rail lines, widening congested arterial roads and much more. Here is the reconstruction of the highway interchange in Cranborough, part of the announcement. That's all for Cranborough today! Stay tuned as "THE HEIGHTS" sprawls through Windemere and the construction projects all over the region begin!

REPLIES: MamaLuigi945: I'm glad you like the area! I have considered using Mattb325's houses, however I generally prefer lots that are 1x1, 1x2 and 1x3 for housing. However they may appear in later updates. Thanks for the tip. emperordaniel: Thanks! There are a few more in this update. UPDATE 7 Macoe - MYSTERY BUILDING revealed + more development! We have returned to Macoe, today. Last time we visited there was a construction site in the heart of the retail maga-plex, which nothing was known about. Today, we see what now occupies the site. We are also going to take a look at ongoing developments in Macoe. So let's go have a look! Here it is. The construction site that held many secrets. Even as construction progressed, and the buildings took shape, no sim knew what was going in. That is, until the construction was completed. Now a large corporate tower and Super-Target retail store sit on the site. In this next picture we see a recent condo development. This is Phase 1A. Here is the area zoomed out. Phase 1B, the beige-ish, yellow-ish buildings, are visible. Also to be seen is another large corporate office building. It is the headquarters to Windemere Development Corporation, a large developer in Windemere and beyond. In this next photo we see phase 2 of the condo development, a much larger concentration of condos. This part of the development is just down the road from Phase 1 A&B. And here are a few night shots for your viewing enjoyment. That's all for today's update, hope you enjoyed it!