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First, thank you Maxis and EA for having us down there, our host and hostess were awesome. We had a great time, there just wasn't enough of it! We appreciate the opportunity to connect with you! Fellow Simtropolians, these impressions are for you (this is not a review). Sorry for the posting this a couple days later than intended, got distracted with some server stuff, and I also wanted to give it some more thought. If there's a topic I didn't cover, please feel free to ask and I'll try to get an answer for you. Do keep in mind, these are really early impressions, and I'm sure lots of things are going to change. Please share your thoughts, let me know where I'm wrong, or what you disagree with. ---- Oct 2012 Maxis Studios Visit, Thoughts and impressions In the hands of Maxis SimCity is back in the hands of Maxis. And last week, we were invited to visit their studio in Emeryville with an opportunity to interact with the team and to to get a detailed inside view of the development of the new game. I have a few thoughts and impressions to share with you guys, but I want to make it very clear that while we enjoyed lots of candid, insightful conversation, we simply did not have enough time to fit in an extended play session with the actual game. So it made writing this difficult because I wanted to be honest with what I saw, informative for you guys, but fair to Maxis, knowing that I didn’t really get a full experience with the game. What I did get was a brief exposure to a limited tutorial, and while I tried to take in as much as I could given the constraints, I just couldn’t get enough out of it without time to play freely. Again, this was just the unfortunate result of scheduling not conspiracy (I think). Anyway, even though our time there was condensed, it was packed with plenty of information, lots of demos were shown and plenty of discussion. I’ll share what I thought was interesting, but I’m not going into specific gameplay stuff that has already been shown or talked about. Before moving on, one caveat: given that what we saw was all based on early software, some behaviour we discussed was undemonstrated, and what in-game art we saw is not final, I may totally change my mind on any of these things as new information arises. The very limited tutorial I went through amounted to little more than click here, drag down this road, put down a zone and that’s about it. It’s a serviceable tutorial for a new player, but I didn’t get much out of it. I got a chance to draw a couple of roads; yes, it feels pretty good and intuitive. Painting down zones feels just as you might expect. I like how buildings sort of swing around as you drag them across the terrain before placing them. Yes, all pretty superficial. Sorry to disappoint, but if I get another chance to actually sink my teeth into the actual game, I’ll tell you something more meaningful. City sizes, repetition, and why Glassbox could play really differently But we did get to some talking about city-building, and city sizes. Yes, it’s 2x2, sorry, no change right now. I brought up the issue of building repetition. So from what I understand, to help mitigate this a little bit, the idea is that each building will have some slight variation, I’m assuming texture, colour, props, so that even a row of similar looking houses, should at least have a little variety between them. That’s good news. When I asked if it extended any further than just cosmetics, for example, will the simulator be able to recognize that 4 car washes are growing next to each other and, maybe, you know, not do that? The answer was no. It will still be possible to still get a bunch of similar stuff bunched together, like 4 gas stations all on the same street. It’s a small gripe for me, but maybe not for you. As long as the underlying simulator is fun, I can overlook that. About the simulator, I think Glassbox, based on the demos we saw, will really make the new game feel and play very differently form its predecessor. You already all about it, but I like the idea that every car, vehicle or sim is an agent with goals, that they will use whatever infrastructure you’ve laid down, to attempt to get to their destination. And if for some reason they can’t, you will see where things screwed up naturally as a result of your own boneheaded networks. I like that. It gives your city a sense of real physicality because you will see sims physically using your transportation network, and you will be able to see exactly what isn’t working and understand why. In SimCity 4 the simulator was purely statistical so trying to get the current state of your city meant staring at windows with rows of numbers, and looking at a value like “47%” and then trying to figure out what that means, what affected that, and what you should do to move that number up or down. There’s usually a lot of guessing, and then you just stop guessing, and just spam bus stops (or whatever) everywhere and moved on. For me, playing SC4 sometimes felt like balancing a spreadsheet. So with Glassbox, I like how the data is presented like a real-time animated info-graphic style, allowing you to see what’s going on right now. It’s nice to not have to comb through rows of data while playing the game to understand a situation. I do see some value for having charts though, perhaps more like a summary, or annual report, where you can see a nicely plotted graph of trends in crime, pollution, population, what improved, what’s declining, that sort of thing. It’s info fluff for sure, but it would give the city a growth history. The complexity of buildings, and modding As we walked around the studio, nearly every wall it seemed was covered with large format print-outs of concept artwork. I was impressed with the attention to detail that went into the design of every building. This stuff makes a SimCity geek happy. And looking at them, I started to appreciate just how much more there is to consider for each building now that they are in 3d, animated, and can be expandable with modules. That’s going to take modding and custom content to a new level. There are still a lot of questions with modding and custom content support. I can tell you that Maxis is very keen to support modding, but don’t expect any tools until well after launch. Right now, they just don’t have any solid answers or solutions on how modding could work in a persistent world with these online regions. How does a modded building affect that global economy? Would it? Should it? What about other players in your region? Maybe if you play with modded or custom content, you play in your own region, and you affect nothing else, including the global economy. But should you get to access the global economy? Does that not just isolate you, you know, just as if you were playing a single-player offline game? The other thing to consider is the leap in technology and tools just needed to create a building. In SimCity 4 the buildings were essentially static sprites. Buildings in the new SimCity are fully 3d objects. And I’m assuming with the Glassbox simulator there’s even more to account for: Building have animations to indicate their state, such as doors opening, or conveyor belts moving. Lighting is now volumetric, no longer simply baked onto the texture as in SC4. Buildings that provide services can be upgraded and expanded with snap-on modules; those snap-on areas must be considered in the over all design. All buildings require road access, so the artist must plan where road connections on the lot would be ideally placed. I’m certain there’s more that goes into creating a building. Additionally, all models are now built in Maya (along with some proprietary tools and palettes that Maxis developed to work in Maya for the project). So if all the above requirements are true for Maxis-made buildings, it seems reasonable to expect that custom content makers must follow the same standard. It’s a lot to consider, but I know it’s on their minds. When the time comes, content creators can expect a big leap in both complexity and creativity. While Maxis doesn’t have all the answers to modding yet, they are open to a dialogue with the community and to hear your feedback. Road geeks win with 3d The other great benefit of everything in true 3d, is roads. Because roads are now full 3d paths, Road Geeks will literally have a whole other dimension to play within. Ocean Quigley gave us a demo of the road tool and it was pretty sweet to see just how easy he was able to create a three level overpass by using the free-form tool and dragging out an elevated road, dragged another one beneath it, and one on top. Elevated roads create their own support pylons, and if there’s sufficient space beneath, you can run another road or rail under it. The road tool is smart enough to try to solve bumpy or hilly terrain for you. At times it will suggest a bridge as a solution to span a gap, other times it might draw a road down one incline and up another. But if you want finer control, you can still create your own solution by inching the road tool along and clicking to commit as you go along. There seemed to be endless possibilities, and unlike previous titles, making these complex configurations looked pretty effortless. Also, I loved the fact that as you draw your road, you’ll see a dotted line hinting the optimal space required for zoning. So if you wanted to carve a winding road down a hill, the zone hinting line will make sure you leave enough space to zone your hillside houses. Zoning, changes and omissions On the topic of zoning, you no longer specify density for your zones. The density of the building that will grow there will depend on the type of road its adjacent to. Busy roads with lots of traffic will result in high density, but low volume roads will create low density buildings. There will no longer be an agricultural zone. No farms. When asked, the team felt that farm zones offered no real gameplay value. Well, two things to say about that: they may not add much to gameplay, but it did allow players to design a city with that distinct agricultural look so it’s a shame it’s gone, we lose variety. Second thing, what about actually adding a gameplay element to farms? Make farms produce goods that would be sold on the global market. Now people have a choice to specialize even further if they want to export grown goods for income. There’s a built-in trade-off since farms take up a lot of space and there are risks such as pollution, disasters, drought. If you get a good yield one year, you might make a lot of money selling high wine (or whatever) sold to rich sims everywhere. But you may not always get a profitable year, so it's risk versus reward. It’s also a challenge to operate a purely agricultural based city; you’d need to support it with neighbouring cities and deals to ensure your other needs are met. If anything it’s just more interesting choices for the player. In other words, turn agriculture into a challenge. People might enjoy the challenge of trying to sustain a profitable agricultural city. It could add another dynamic to both the global market and multiplayer regions. Anyway, just an idea. Speaking of multiplayer, when I first heard that the new SimCity will be an “online multiplayer SimCity”, I probably had the same reaction as some of you. Honestly, the term “multiplayer SimCity” must, to a core fan, confuse as much as it offends. Multiplayer and always-online So far, we have no real idea how online multiplayer, global markets and global economies will play out. I’m guessing the Beta is where we’re going to discover all that. My initial resistance was based on the fear that I would be forced to play in a region with other people and I had no choice. For me, leaderboards and group challenges hold almost no appeal whatsoever, other players might dig that. I hope the online component offers some surprising dynamic that we haven't already seen before and that serve to engage more than to annoy. So we know now that you can still play an entire region by yourself - though you still have to be online. So that brings us to a burning point of contention which has been debated all over the forums here and abroad. I don’t think I can add much more to the conversation, but I did bring up the topic with Maxis at dinner the one night: “Ok, so hey, let’s say I had a long day at work, and I just want to go home, relax and load up SimCity. In fact, I can’t wait to get home and work on my city. I’ve been thinking about it all day. So I get home, I load it up, and the servers are down. I can’t play… so… now what?” The only answer I got was about the only answer I deserved for such a loaded question. Kip shrugged his shoulders and offered a “c’est la vie” face. Really, what else could he say? We are told that online play is asynchronous, so temporary outages will not disrupt your game. And yes, occasionally Origin servers may be down for maintenance, and you won’t be able to login or you may be kicked out of the game, but we can be assured that plenty of notice will always be given. While not new, I still reject the idea of “always online” but I am accepting that it will be the way many games will go. Still at the risk of being obnoxious on the topic, I wanted to press the point another way: “Ok, so you look at SimCity 4 released 10 years ago, and I can still load it up today and play it. I can load it up five years from now and still play it. I don’t need to sign in, I don’t need a server, I just load it up and play. How can this always online requirement be able to assure me that I can still play my game, say, a year or 10 from now just as I can with SimCity 4?” As an answer, Kip hunched over and waved his fingers: “Hmmm… let me look into my crystal ball…” There was laughter, it was kinda funny. And really, what did I expect? Still, however glib Kip’s response, within it contained about as much truth and assurance as I could have hoped to extract on the matter. The honest answer of course is that no one really knows for sure, and there really are no promises. There was no answer that could have satisfied. Not to paint Kip as completely glib and dismissive (he’s actually very patient, great to talk to and good humoured) he did address my concern as best as he was able to: Maxis values SimCity greatly, it’s one of their flagship titles, and that we have every good intention of making sure it has a long life. Something along that line. So there you go, that’s the best answer they can possibly give us, whether that affects your buying decision is up to you. Final musings Some final thoughts, I have noticed that the SimCity coming out in February has a disconcerting lack of version suffix. We’ve just been calling it the New SimCity. Is it possible that this is the Final SimCity? From what I’ve seen, and I have not seen it all, the concepts and the intents behind the ideas all support a distinct possibility for a great game. While I am mostly, cautiously, optimistic by what I have seen so far, and despite a few points on which I disagree with -- if I have any meaningful reservations to share with you it would be the overall visual style. I’m not warming to it yet. It could be that I just haven’t played the game enough, and that I’ve only really seen very early builds and demos, but the truth is right now, I’m not connecting with the visual style which feels to me overtly cute, bright and cartoony. SimCity 4 had a clean stylized realism to it that felt right, at least for me. In the new SimCity, there’s something about the scale of the city in general, the look of the buildings, the awkward spaces between buildings (ugh), the way all the cities we’ve seen look and feel sparse. I’m not looking for realistic, just believable. So for what it’s worth, there’s my big disconnect right now, perhaps real gameplay may cure that at some point. Overall, Maxis is doing a lot to move the game forward. And I believe them when they say that having a deep simulator is important, we’ll wait and see how deep it is, but it’s looking promising. It feels like they want to make SimCity more connected, socially engaging, encouraging you to partner up to build “great works” and complete challenges. There’s lots of evidence that Maxis wants to make the game more appealing and more accessible to bring in new players without, hopefully, alienating the dedicated fans (too much). I can see this effort in some of the design choices, super friendly interface, the way data is rendered in a more friendly way, the new music is friendly and relatable (unlike the electronic, abstract mix of SC4), and mostly in the art direction; the brighter palette, the sense of scale. The tilt-shift style makes it all look miniature, like a toy … like a doll-house city, maybe? At the Maxis Live broadcast event, one thing about the presentation format did not escape me. The SimCity portion of the live event was bracketed by two major The Sims 3 announcements. I mean even the “promotional” mystery box for SimCity, required owning some Sims 3 expansions. Now there’s nothing wrong with this. It was just an observation and I’m not suggesting anything more nefarious than just savvy marketing and PR. Whatever the intention, I think it was a good thing. Maxis is known for The Sims and SimCity (what’s Spore?). The difference, is that The Sims 3 has approximately nine thousand expansions. SimCity 4, has one. If there’s any hope for the title to be a commercial success (and more than just fan service) -- which means continued support, more expansions, servers remaining online -- it’s got to appeal to more players than just us core fans. So, core fans, in February what we’ll see will be the next generation of SimCity. I for one hope that the game has enough in it for me so I can include myself in this next generation, too. That’s all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading. Dirktator

Q: Will Sim City (2013) be playable in solo mode without being connected to the internet?

Will we see flowing rivers, streams, waterfalls, rapids, or other bodies of water that are above sea level?

Well, here we are, ten years of Simtropolis -- and we're only a scant few months away from the next version of SimCity. Long-standing members -- thanks for sticking around, or for at least popping back every once in a while. And greets to all members old and new. This place is going to be hopping in March...! Can't wait! Happy Holidays, everyone... And Happy 10th Anniversary! The Trixies will start in January this year, and we're going to do something a little extra special for our 10th this time around. We're going to try to make it worth your while to nominate, and nominate often. More details in a few weeks... Have a great one! Free bunnies for the rest of the month... :bunny: :bunny:

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.

Why won't 4 km by 4 km cities be available? I can see that entry-level hardware for this game wouldn't support them, but I don't see anything that would prevent top-of-the-line machines from playing them. This is especially true considering the order of magnitude performance improvement of D* Lite pathfinding over A* pathfinding. I'm also assuming that you'll be multithreading pathfinding. Why not make the larger cities an option that those of us with quad processors (eight threads on Intel) or more can use?

I got to play it today, I have to be honest, I didn't like it. WAY too simple, way too restricting. Copied and pasted from my Work/Uni facebook group. Names and pics of others removed. 34 minutes ago · Daniel R Tonks Firstly, I feel like how die hard C&C fans must have felt. Just to let you know what to expect from this... I opened up the game, the first thing I noticed was that the map was bloody small, I mean seriously small. The game map does not get much larger. If you want to build a sprawling Metropolis (very possible in 4), forget it. I zoned a few buildings, standard SC gameplay right there, no grid which is something the community has wanted for a while. I noticed I was losing money so I clicked on my Power Station to lower its funding. In SC when you have a new city, it's good practice to lower utility funding to provide only what your city needs as otherwise you are just burning money... I was provided with the option to turn the Power Station on or off... no micromanagement in Sim City!? Surely not! Zones overlapped, the things like fire stations and town halls took up too much space. You can't build a dense compact city in this game, you seem limited to US Midwest. The modding community can get around this though. You had the option to add bits to buildings which was a nice touch, credit where credit is due. They added the option to build Tram Tracks on your roads (but only big roads and no off-street running like the community modded into SC4). Whilst limited it was nice to have, though the tram tracks didn't match up visually at junctions, offset by a metre or so. A minor irritation I suppose but sloppy. Overall, I ended up telling people they were wrong to play it. I became 'that' guy. 34 minutes ago · Daniel R Tonks Essentially, EA have taken a massive, in depth game where the community has demonstrated time and time again in the 9 years since Sim City 4's release that they want to build massive, sprawling metropolises and micromanage the $%&^! out of them... then turned it toy town Sims extension. 32 minutes ago · Edited · Daniel R Tonks Now I know many of you are reading this and thinking 'Dan, get a life', but when a game manages to maintain an active community of this magnitude (a community I play a huge role in might I add) 9 years after the games release, I cannot understand how EA can get it so wrong. They have aimed this at The Sims crowd, completely ignoring the crowd which got Maxis where it is in the first place. Total abuse of a franchise to milk as much as they can out of another. This is Sim City, a geeks city builder, not The Sims. Rant over. Skyrim time. 29 minutes ago · How does it honestly play in a non ultra hobbyist way? I'm a casual player and I think societies was painfully $%&^!. Meta-critically, what do you think it would get? 25 minutes ago · "Firstly, I feel like how die hard C&C fans must have felt." YOU'LL NEVER KNOW OUR PAIN!!!!!!!! 24 minutes ago · I've waited for really niche simulators which have been ruined by spastic publishers. 22 minutes ago · Can you still zone, build schools and raise taxes for the poor? Or do you have to place individual buildings and roads? 21 minutes ago · Wait wasn't Sim city going to be a facebook game? 20 minutes ago · That's already out 19 minutes ago · Is it bad to the point where 4 modded is more worthwhile or is this game just a disappointment considering the improvements that could have been made??? 11 minutes ago · Daniel R Tonks You can zone, but it doesn't always work quite right with the curved road system (this will probably be fixed to be fair). The taxes/micromanagement system seemed to be missing/extensively cut down. Sim City with Mods (and a Computer that can cope with that large a plugins folder) is infinitely better if you make sure you don't unbalance it. about a minute ago · Like

Hi there, My name is FerryV and i just came back from GamesCom 2012! The first thing I did was running to hall 6 were half of the hall was build up by EA. And wow what a amazing stands. My favorite: SimCity off course. So I went in line and waited 2 hours. This was the longest I waited for a game at GamesCom. I was amazed how popular SimCity is. In line I watched all the trailers and studied the whole stand with the amazing art. Finely it was my change to experience SimCity and I can tell you the following: Guys and girls. Its going to be a great game!!! We played the alpha version (not beta) with a basic prebuild city. Off course there was a lot wrong with the city (no power, no water, no fire stations, not enough housing etc.) so I had 20min to rebuild the whole city and watched it got destroyed in the end by an meteor shower Because it was an alpha version a lot of building/mass transit etc wasn’t available. This is more than logic but still Maxis gave me a real good feeling were the game is going to. This is what I discovered/experienced in that 20 minutes: - building road (and bus stations) The first thing I had to do is connect my city with the regional highway. I had 2 options to build my connections: Straight road or Curvy road. There was also an 3th option showing but not available. That looked like an zone function. I think it’s going to be the same function as SC4 automatic roads when zoning. I have to be honest that the curvy road system wasn’t flawless. But giving it’s a Alpha version completely logical. But the roads worked pretty good and looked pretty fine. I also build 3 bus stations and upgraded the bus stations with extra capacity. Because I build this more in the end I didn’t had enough time to really explore all the possibility’s (sorry for that one) - Zoning Yes zoning! No plopables! (only government buildings) And I was amazed by it. Here the glassbox revealed itself. If you build a plain road and then go to the option zoning you will get automatic zoning on the road. So even when your roads are curvy and makes no sence the zoning will figure it out. The best part about this was that I didn’t had to figure out exactly how the zoning will fit within the curvy road and I didn’t had any empty space! (like Cities XL) It was such a joy seeing the housing, commercials and smelly industry growing. My residential neighborhood was with a lot of gardens and green. But the houses closer to the commercial zone were more dense and were as my commercial area more of concrete. It was beautiful. Not like you see on the trailer with high skyscrapers and a grass garden around it. Now I must say I didn’t had really skyscrapers yet because the city wasn’t big enough yet. And for the people that want to control their own zoning completely. I could bulldoze everything pretty easy. And not all the zoning possibilities where available. - Popable (with upgrades) This is the best part I think. You can transform all your plopable building and transform them as you dement them to. I build the following: Coal Plant, Windmill Farm, Fire station, Bus station. All of the building had unique add-ons. Some of them you could plant around your building (see also trailer were they build a school and putt dorms around it) In my case I build a fire station, put a bell tower on it. Build an extra garage on the other side of the street and put a nice flag pole next to it J With the windmill I made 2 classic windmills (not the hypermodern you’ve seen on some screenshot from Maxis) and I build a nice sign that it was a windmill park in front of the building. Next I made dirt road from the office to the windmills for the maintenance truck. At this point I realized the game is going to be deep enough for SimCity builders. - Water tower (and groundwater) When I build my water tower I got the water table of the map. I build it on a splash of dark blue water instead of light blue water. This off course the get a higher output of the tower. Right away I seen the water run down the city. Finely not wasting my time on water pipes anymore! J At this stage I got also involved in the next item: - Graphs In the older SimCity I used my graphs a lot in combinations with the famous minimap. In this version Maxis does it different. The whole map interact in what you want to see. So I click on fire risk and seen that one house was burned down and was now rubbish and that there were some warnings at some local factories. Next I switched to density and the whole city went white (buildings) and circle towers in different colors where shooting out of my city. I could see right away were all the people work, sleep, shop etc. It was very clear and much better than before. Than by accident I clicked on a car that was driving over the street. Guess what happened: - Cars, citizens, agents and routes etc. When you click a car it give you information about that car. Who is driving it. Were that person lives and were he is going to! It was so cool to see that the agent system from glassbox really is there. This gives an extra deep dimension to control your city and its transport system (if you want to micromanagement) But luckily the agents found their way also by themselves. So one of the cars that I followed didn’t took the shortest route (through my nice green residential zone) but was driving a bit around it on my bigger avenue. Soon my avenue got some bad traffic jam at the big intersection with the commercial zone. Suddenly I seen some care (not all) sneak around it through my nice neighborhood. I don’t want that off course, so I build even an even bigger avenue (the one with the light rail in the middle) now the traffic was getting this as preferred road.I didn’t figure out a way to upgrade the road, but then again I didn’t put much effort in it (had nice empty space) and I could not work with the light rail because at this point my time was up. I also think that the light rail didn’t work yet in this version. - Graphics OMG it was already beautiful. And I cant wait till the final result. For the first time in SimCity I really love the night time. I build my power plant by accident in the evening and blink blink blink.. all the lights in the city were turned on. It was amazing to see. And because not all are burning and some go off or on it really looks realistic. Well maybe realistic isn’t the right word because as you know SimCity works wilt tilt-shift. My brother found it looks like a bit cartoony because of the tilt-shirt. That its looked a bit more like sims and not like SC4. But still disagree with him. I feld like I could really see every detail in my city and still see everything that’s going on. But then again I love good tilt-shift movies. How suddenly a real life big environment still keeps all its details but looks like you can play with it like Lego. - Disasters (meteor shower) I’m not a big fan of disasters. Why would I destroy a perfect city?! But I guess it’s a part of SimCity and a lot of people like it. Well the meteor shower was a nice ending and it looked pretty amazing. Maxis/Dr Vu destroyed all recently build cities in one click. Maybe it was better this way because I really wanted to take the city home with me. Now it was destroyed it was easier to go outside of the stand. - 20minutes and feedback Because I only had 20 minutes I tried as many things as possible in that period of time. But every SimCity player knows how fast time goes away with that game. The thing I regret the most is also the time shortage I had. I really hope the beta comes out soon and hopefully (fingers crossed, wink to Maxis) I will be selected as a beta user. In this story I described my experience as accurate as possible. If you still have questions for me about my experience please ask. I will try to answer them as good and quick as I can. But remember I only played 20 minutes (way to short Maxis!!) So I only experienced a tip of the iceberg. As last: The computers were SimCity was running on was behind closed doors. Cameras were not allowed and they were made sure nobody was filming anything. I think they did that just to tease everybody that was not there. So im sorry I dont have any nice vids/screens. Also I didn’t talk to anybody from Maxis. So I had no change to ask my questions / give my feedback to them. If maxis still want my feedback they know how to contact me. But for now: Thanks Maxis, you did a really great job. Thanks everybody for reading my story and please give me feedback. Greetings, FerryV (origin/simtropolis accountname) Ps. My native language is not English as you can see and I am dyslectic. So sorry for the mistakes and please read over them. If you don’t understand a part please also leave feedback, Pss. Just reminds me: I did no terraforming / nor did i seen the option Psss. I build one beautiful park out of 4 options i had. I didnt check if that was upgradable

I just felt like voicing my opinion - I hope no one minds! Maxis is doing a new SimCity - that's great! I'm sure we can all agree, regardless of what we personally think of the new game, that we're all excited about it. Some of us have loved what we have seen so far - others, not so much. Personally, I've starting fearing their press releases, screen shots, and new videos. Instead of making me want the game more, its like with every release, we get told what's NOT going to be in the game. Am I the only one that feels like this? My issue is not that they are making a new SimCity game in their vision. Any game developer has a right to do so - they are, afterall, putting their own money up to design a game that reflects their image for it. I have no place to sit here and be mad or angry, simply because its not my money or effort that has been put into it. As an owner of several businesses, I can tell you that while setting them up, in the end, they were finalized in the image I wanted. At the same time, however, my ear was ALWAYS listening to my core client base, because at the end of the day, I am catering to them. Every game, like a business, has a risk of failing. SimCity Societies was an epic failure. It was also a representative of taking the SimCity franchise away from its roots and giving it us a more casual, user friendly (etc.) in hopes of attracting the "casual" fanbase. As we all know, it was a miserable attempt, and accomplished absolutely none of its goals. Having been through that experience, why do I get the feeling that its a slow repeat of what happened the first time around, with every new press release seemingly taking us further and further away from previous SimCity titles? Anyway, again, since its not my money, I can personally be frustrated with the direction they have taken, but I have no place to get mad and shake my fist at Maxis - It is my choice, afterall, to pay or not to pay for the game. No, my issue is this: Why claim, over and over again, in countless interviews, blogs, etc, that you've really "listened to your core fanbase?" This, I have a problem with - I AM your core fan base, and you have NOT listened to me. I wanted more, not less. More freedom, bigger city tiles, more data, a more realistic feel, an intricite (Is that how its spelt?) transportation system, more God-Mode terraforming options. I wanted realistic rivers and waterways, realistic airport construction, different tilesets, more control over my budget. I wanted seaport construction, billboards/advertising ploppables, smoother region terraforming. These are things I, and hundred of thousands of other loyal SimCity players from its "core fanbase" wanted. Multiplayer? Could be a nice touch, but a neccessity - I dont think Ive spoken to anyone who would take that over some of the things I listed above. To me, and I assume to most other players (I could be wrong here), multiplayer could add another dimension to the game, but in no way would I consider it as a core of it. If you listened to your "core fanbase", the very people that will either cause this game to succeed or fail, you would know that. You would know that we don't want to build Cityville type of towns where my downtown area is going to be half my city, surrounded by three cartoony residential neighborhoods with 10 houses in them. I read somewhere that terraforming was a no-go...seriously? If Maxis were paying attention AT ALL, they would realize that quite a few of us spend hours upon hours terraforming and plopping, making the perfect rural/forest areas. I read somewhere that there won't be any modding? Are you kidding me? As its core fanbase will tell you, the only REASON must of us still play this game is because of the modding that has been done by the SimCity community. I personally do not care how many achievements I get to unlock. Again, however, its not my place to tell Maxis how to develop their game. I do take offense, however, when you tell me you're listening to me, but everytime you say something about the game, its to tell me what I won't get to do. As far as I'm concerned, Glassbox can be the greatest innovation ever, but its not going to mean anything if you implement it in a glorified Simcity Societies. You have not listened to me, and dont tell me that you have. Release whatever game you like, in the end, it is Maxis that will feel the reward or failure from it, not me. Just dont rub it in my face, having waited 10 years for this, and tell me this is the game I wanted when it wasnt. As an ending to this incredibly long rant, I hope it does end up being the game we all want. These are all based on first impressions - I want it to succeed. I really do. I want to enjoy it. The release date is still a reasonably long way from now. Here's hoping that the final product will be worth it.

On the 19th I visited Gamescom with a few friends of mine. They wanted to see the StarCraft2 grand finals and I wanted to see SimCity. I figured why not go with them? After a roadtrip of about 3 hours we arrived around 12.00 at the conferance centre in Cologne on a very, VERY hot day. Luckely Gamescom had good airconditioning. After walking in around for an hour in very crouded halls and passing upcomming releases with wait times up to 240 mins(!) I started to wonder weither I still wanted to stand in line that long. When I found the Simcity stand I was relieved, the line was not that long. I immediately noticed the type of croud that was interested in trying the game. Alot of little kids and teens and a few 20+ The line was deceivingly long, I still waited for about 2 hours. After hearing the introduction presentation to the game German over 7 times, it was finally my turn. The demo started with a tutorial which zoomed in on the town hall explaining what can be done there. You are proted by one of your advisers there to learn camera movement. Next up tThere was a need for a road to the highway. Upon connecting the city to it, the next step popped up. I gues you know where this is going so I quickly wanted to dismis the tutorial. It follows the general Simcity gameplay in this, Maxis was not lying about those mechanics. I went to explore as much of the game as I could in the limited 20 minutes time. I used a few shot from trailers to elaborate my points as camera's were not permitted Movement: Somewhat unconventional movement settings compared to other games, leftclick drag, rightclick rotate and of scroll wheel zoom. I'm assuming this will be adjustable eventually Transportation & transit: There is little to explain here to be honest. We have the same options as Cities XL regarding to directions and curving. It works on a click drag principle as opposed to Cities XL though. What I notices was roads, avenues and larger aveneus. Basicly SC4: RH without mods. There was an option for a bus station, this eneded to get unlocked however and I was not able to test it. The menu suggested it works identical to the way Cities Xl stops are placed which I like. I didnt'notices trams and subways as I wanted to explore more. Alot of features where tagged with "under development" which is ofcourse logical. They noted on a podcast that they cannot talk abour harbors yet, I didnt encounter any of these options in the menu either. Judging on cinematics they have plans for this but the statement of the podcast is worrying! Map size & region: As I noted at the start, there was a need to connect to the region. This is where my 1st bad expectation came true. There is indeed 1 connecetion point, even tho you see the highway pass by the map, you cannot interact any other way with it. The way it looks now... we will NOT have own highways!!! I can say this with a sure thought as I come to the next part. As you can see, there is no visible line, but it starts at the simnation sign. You cant build beyond it. The maps we have seen in the trailers seem decent medium city sized. Too smal for most of us, but if you can live with it its fine. What you do not see in the video's however is the little barely visible restriction line to whhere you are able to build. The maps size looks medium. But in thuth the restrition makes it more comparable to a small map tile in SC4. This was a serious dealbreaker that almost made me walk out! But I figured its a playable demo, maybe the true game will have alot bigger size. Further regionplay and menu's like that where a too much of a puzzle to get into with the limited time. Most of the city interation goes throught the town hall. This is pretty much the size of the entire map Building Modules: Depending on the building you can add various modules as we all have seen. The placement of there is completely free for some of the buildings. It can be placed on one of the few green indicators. The same goes for placement which can only be done alongside roads and not standalone. Note the blue positions where placement is possible. Also when looking at the menu the following options are visible: Roads, zones, power, water, sewege, garbage, landmarks, firestation (not sure), healthcare, police, education (not the 2 differant levels) transit, recreation and businesses Town hall: You start with a smal hall which is upgradable. It can be expanded with various modules, each representing a department! I liked this feature as it gives a more logical sense that you need a department for education if you are going to expand in education, it is an unloack requirement for various education buildings for example. From my observation these also funtion as your interaction to information such as graphs concerning that specific branche. I feel this was one of the better features they put in. Utilities: My favorite part in any SC game, the backbone of modern society. They put in all the essentials as expected. From my experiance its possible to turn of these buildings when desired, greatly reducing there costs. There was a usage meter on the building, I'm not sure if the output is adjustable with this. The town started with a coal plant which wasnt running. It needed workers! They took this as inspiration from cities XL I'm sure. It downright anoyed me instantly as it needed educated workers, meaning I got stuck in a cycle right away. It ment I needed a school, residents ... which need power! This ads a new layer of economical complexity which is imo a good thing and makes it more challanging in puzzle sense. Powerplants I've tried out all current plants, some still tagged with under devlopment. Each has about 3 added smokestack/generators for now, al varying in price and pollution output. This enables the player to micro adjust instead of building a new plant. I'm expecting to see more modules as i've seen more in the clips. I've tried out Coal and Oil which basicly lived up to expectation, the windfarm whcih has one main building and X number of plop points for turbines. I could only plop 1 though, suggestingg the placement is location specific and lastly the solar plant, also allowing additional pannels. Water The 1st building I ploped in the demo instictively becuase I noticed a water need symbol symbol in the water menu right of the bat. I noticed the placement is location bound as has been explained that it is a resource. My selection cinsisted of a water tower and a rather large pumping facility which needed to be unlocked. We no longer ened to lay down pipes as in real life most piping runs under the streets. These are here used as paths Sewege This is rather new as old player since water was just sourcing, piping and treatment in one menu. This is basivly what it does though, treat sewege. There was an option for a sewege outlet or treatment Garbage This menu contained only 1 building which held various modules. Additional dump space, recycling centre and an incinerator. I'm not sure if there where any other ecological options but there where about 5 choices to pick from. City Services: Also following the clasic style of Simcity, all the know services are there! Firestation There is no fre dispatch! Atleas I couldnt find it. Its been explained that a fire makes a call to a fire station which sends truck over (just like simcity social..*gulp*). This happened but I panicked as 3 unrelated buildings cought fire (demo scripted) and previous games had you clean it up yourself. Luckely for me I had a fire station with modules. Policestation I've not really gotten into this part as it was pretty much covered in trailers. I had not noticed crimes either of seen a demand pop up for it. Education I noted earlier that you can unlock more with adding modules to your town hall. Education goes wel into this as it has atleast 2 layers of education, primary and high. Each menu containing various buildings on par with its level. Al unlocked unfortunately as the education module just wouldn't plop for some reason. Healthcare As with the police station I didnt play around with this much. I noted a clinic and hospital for sure, but am not sure if there where more buildings about it Parks Too compelled to making a profit at the start and solving the problems at hand I neglected the parks completely. Zoning: They wernt kidding! It really feels like Simcity gamestyle wise but somehow I felt impared freedom wise. As you see in trailers there are squares that can be filled with zones. These exist next to roads only so its no longer possible to just zone a place and draw roads on them. Not a loss imo, This makes the high desity and proper building placement possible. Zomes still have the familiar IRC need bars. The drawback from what I could see was that they are not weath specific. Each bar does contain 3 other bars for each wealth, they are however for the happiness of each wealth. Because of the region play the commercial zones no longer go between industry and residents when starting but directly next to the highway as the tutorial layout suggested. you can see the outlines of posible zone locations. its only possible to zone there Resources & markets: Oil and coal resource was something I wanted to test out, this was still under development unfortunately same goes for the trading that we have seen in the recent trailer. If we have to believe the trialer however, this will take place outside of the city and in a differant game menu Businesses & landmarks: I believe there was a menu for this. Its the specificsmelting plants and skyscrapers you see beeing ploped down in clips. This worries me as it follows the exact mechanics of simcity social where you zone residents, which grow to parks and surroundings accordingly and where have the option to unlock and build production and busines plants. There was a menu for landmarks but filled with under development. I feel this will kill the city aspect completely and make it more economy centered which will have most city features neglected. This looks like menu outside of the actualy gameplay feeding in data of your city. Notice how it is linked to the profile and a setting menu? also notice a conserning button upper right: STORE! Disasters I couldnt spot a menu for this. It seems they happen randomly making it more like the clasic simcity with no off switch and just having to deal with the problem. After the 20 minutes allowed gameplay shooting stars started to cros the screen, more and more meteor showers preceding a large meteorite destroying a block or 2. In conclusion For the 20 minutes allowed I tried to absorb as much of the gameplay feel aswell as the substatial part of the game. ALOT is still under development as I noted so sustatialy it wouldn't be ok to judge it. I can tell from the things in the demo however that the gameplay resebles simcity, though they have snuck in societies in there by adding the plopable businesses and the eventual game might resemble SC: social a little, ofcourse without the click to get resource stuff but more aimed to doing business, I hope atleast! If I had more time I probalby had enjoyed watching the simulation. The city does feel alive overall unlike cities XL! My biggest worry however remains the way we connect to regions, the lack of highways and the tediously small map size! In all honestly it felt like SimVille than city and I believe that if they stick with this small scale concept, it will lose most of the original fanbase. Judging from the croud at Gamescom and the ages of players they put in the trailer of Simcity World, they are aiming for a very young croud with potential busines intrests, which is substantialy larger than those into city planning. The game is more an economy simulator than a city simulator now which can be seen as both good or bad. All we can do is wait till the beta gets here but I dont see much changing to be honest.

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.

Will we be able to zone multiple zone types in one zone? A zone with both commercial and residential for example.

I enjoyed the Trixies, as always, and Element's award triggered something in my brain... Who else indeed! Enjoy. If you spot any errors, please let me know and I will correct them.

Well, I haven't followed the development of SimCity 2013 so closely, so I'll skip the entire part about what will be in the game and what won't. I'd like to raise a different point to throw into the discussion: What if we aren't the core audience? On a global scale, we are nothing but a small bunch of diehard enthusiasts, many of us with a deep interest of architecture, city planning and realism... willing to spend 20 minutes on a highway interchange, and hours terraforming the map, plopping flora, drawing footpaths and placing every single water lily leaf individually if we can... we are extremely picky and difficult to please, we can be extremely vocal (enough so to cause some serious bad vibes - you could also say, a s***storm), and we are spoiled by 9 years of custom content and the possibilities associated with it. On the other hand, you have a world full of people that may remember the name SimCity from many years ago and might be willing to dabble into a new game, but not if it's overly complex - not to mention the more casual gamers as a whole. Maybe that's actually the audience EA is ultimately going for, and all the statements about the game being "not some dopey casual game" and "catering for the core base" are to keep as many of the diehards as possible interested, although these are in fact no longer the core base, but just one customer group they'd like to attract if they can. Just a thought...

With all due respect that is your opinion. If it sounds good to you, then great, buy it, enjoy it. But there will be people (myself among them) that don't really like the direction it's going and so giving it a try regardless is pretty dumb, especially given how expensive it is. Further to that if the game is a success, EA won't build on it with a sequel that is more complex, it will just be more of the same. Publishers milk franchises for all they're worth, particularily EA and Activision.

Question: Will weather effects be added to the game, such as Windstorms, Thunderstorms, Rain, and Snowfall? Also, Will the game be developed in a way where it's portrayed as Cartoonish or more-so realistic and serious? Edit: Eh, after going through Reddit, second question was answered, much to my dismay and I think they confirmed there will be Rain, much to my excitement.

GARDENER CENTER GLASS This entry explains the reflective metal coated glass material I created for Gardener Center. This tutorial touches on some aspects of 3ds Max which might not be common knowledge in the BATing community, and explaining everything from the ground up would need a really long blog entry. So instead of thinking of this as a tutorial, think of it as a springboard for your own investigations. The "Help" feature in 3ds Max explains everything you see in the program, and there's google for what Help doesn't cover. Also, I can't guarantee that everything in this tutorial is theoretically correct, but it got me the results that I wanted. When I made the material I wasn't thinking about making it perfect for a tutorial later on. Anyway, enough disclaimer! (Note from 2017: I emphasize this disclaimer even more-so today) Onto the material! Above is the material in its entirety. It's based on the following three points about glass and that's how I'll organize the tutorial. (Note from 2017: Instead of using an RGB Multiply map, use a Composite map instead. It basically duplicate the layer system (layers, opacitys, blending modes, alpha masks) of Photoshop) Glass is reflective. Glass isn't a perfectly flat surface--it has imperfections, and these imperfections create distortions in the reflections. In order to tell that the glass is reflective, there needs to be something for it to reflect. Glass is reflective The reflectivity of the glass is the simplest part, it's created by changing some of the basic settings of the Arch & Design material. Reflectivity is .75. It could have been 1, but I preferred the result with slightly weaker reflections. Glossiness is 1, because we want perfect mirror reflections and not blurry reflections. The Index of Refractions (IOR) is 35. The metallic coating on the glass is responsible for character of the reflections, not the glass itself, which would have an IOR of 1.5. In the BRDF rollout you can see a chart showing reflectivity vs. angle. If you select By IOR the graph's curve will be determined by the IOR rather than the manual settings to the left of the graph. As you can see from the graph, this material is very reflective from all angles, except when you look perpendicularly at the glass the reflection isn't as strong. I haven't visited any of this kind of glass in real life to know if that is correct or not, but I do know that this it's very reflective from most angles and that metals have high IORs, so I was satisfied with an IOR of 35. Glass isn't a perfectly flat surface Each pane of glass typically has some bulge to it, plus some general waviness. The imperfections of the glass could be modeled, but that would be tedious. Instead, a bump map is used. The bulge and the general waviness will be done separately, but will be combined using a RGB Multiply map, which will multiply two other maps together, like setting a layer to the "Multiply" blending mode would in Photoshop. (Note from 2017: The Composite map is much better than the RGB Multiply map) In each of the slots in the RGB Multiply map, there's a Multi/Sub-Map, which is an easy way of having a variety of maps in one material. To simulate the bulges, there are 4 bitmaps which were made in Photoshop. This Multi/Sub-Map has been set to assign each map based on the Material ID of what the material is applied to, so geometry with a material ID of 1 will get the first map in that list. 4 will get the fourth map in the list. To simulate the general waviness, some simple noise maps are used. But since each individual window is a separate pane of glass, we don't want the waviness from one pane to cross into the next pane. So there are two different noises, so that adjacent panes will frequently have different noises and thus a different waviness. Here, something with a material ID of 1 will get the first map in the list. There is no fourth map in the list for something with a material ID of 4. But the "Repeat" checkbox has been checked, meaning that the first two noise maps are hypothetically repeated down the entire list. So geometry with a material ID of 4 will get the second noise map. Something with a material ID of 5 will get the first noise map. This way, your material IDs and the number of maps don't need to be exactly the same. Above is a portion of the building's glass (it's all one object for convenience), with everything else hidden. One of the polygons is selected, and you can see to the right that this polygon has a material ID of 3. It will get GlassBump-02.psd, and the first noise map. Luckily we don't have to manually change the material ID of each pane of glass on this building. If you search google for "random material ID script" you can find a lot of scripts that will do it for you automatically. The bulge bitmaps need to be fitted to the individual panes of glass. To do this, apply a UVW Map to the glass object, and choose "Face" as the mapping type. This will automatically fit the bitmaps to each individual polygon in the object. Since each bitmap represents one pane of glass, and each polygon represents one pane of glass, the UVW map will fit the bitmaps perfectly. Below is a render showing the bump map. There needs to be something for the glass to reflect The ground plane is the hardest part, since it needs to be generic enough to fit into the game without drawing too much attention, while still looking specific enough that it looks like something when it's being reflected in the glass. The design of the building is an important consideration too, since the character of the glass is best conveyed when you have an actual environment to reflect. The broad sides of the Gardener Center have a plaza and a roof to showcase the reflected environment and draw the eye away from the less flattering areas of glass. Below is a render with the ground plane visible. To make objects in your scene invisible to the camera, right click on them, go to properties, and uncheck "Visible to Camera". (Note from 2017: It's very important that the ground plane is as neutral as possible. Several screenshots from the game jumbled together in Photoshop do the best job (it might look like SC4 patterned confetti). DO NOT try to modify the color of the glass by changing the color of the ground plane. If you want to modify the color of the glass, change the Reflection Color. Doing this will tint the reflections. If I had known about these two points while making Gardener Center it would have turned out much better. Also, do not blur the ground plane. The reflections on the glass should be sharp lines that are curved by the glass bulges. If the reflections are too specific looking, try jumbling the images in the ground plane more.) ORIGINALLY POSTED OCTOBER 9, 2010

Puh-lease. Basses are much cooler than guitars.

I realize recently we've been hotly debating the new SC game, which is understandable (it has been 9 years after all) and in certain amounts and manners completely acceptable. Attacking other users, however, is NOT acceptable. Under no circumstances is anyone here allowed to flame against someone. If someone's post offends or upsets you, walk away. Ignore it. If you absolutely feel the need to correct the person (in the case of fallacious information or the like), then do so in the most respectful and mannerly method possible. Something like... I don't quite think that's right... I thought it was XYZ. Could you explain or provide a source please? My blah blah blah about topic blah blah. Easy, right? We'd like to keep this community a friendly environment. You have the privilege of expressing your opinion, but in a respectful manner. And if you don't act respectfully you might find your privilege revoked (elaboration available upon request). And if you see someone flaming or seems to be inciting or just seems to be too upset, just report the post and we'll look into it. We're not perfect but we try our best. And sometimes you'll even find us fixing something you typo'd or mistranslated, or otherwise doing housekeeping (ie huge quote stacks). Feel free to explain why you feel your way and go about your business. But like everything, do it in moderation. Nobody likes to hear someone who simply rants on about XYZ on the good or bad side: we get your point, you've had your turn and now let someone else have a turn . Thanks for understanding and following the rules!

Here's an economic discovery: voting a post up gives that person 100 simoleons at no cost to you. Do your bit for the wealth of others by liking those posts! It's like charity, except free.

RCI Zoning. It's key to the entire game experience that you cannot choose buildings directly. You can lay out zones and take care of the conditions (transport, pollution, police coverage, etc.) to influence desirabilty, and you can limit the maximum density, but you cannot control which particular building will appear at which precise spot. This makes the growth of a city so rewarding - you can't just plop a skyscraper jungle as soon as you have earnt the money somehow, you actually need to work for it instead of "buying" it. _________ Interactivity. Everything you do has direct and indirect consequences, sometimes hard to foresse. A new office tower grows, generates a huge traffic volume, traffic noise along some roads increases, desirability for residential decreases, wealthy Sims move out of the affected houses and settle elsewhere, which causes further changes - it goes on like this endlessly. This makes your city something alive and dynamic rather than a static collection of buildings. _________ God-like power. SimCity players are often referred to as "mayors", which is nonsense IMO. You don't have to be elected, you don't have to delve into politics, you don't have to conform to any laws and pre-existing city planning guidelines. You build and destroy with the point of a finger, there is no opposition and no negotiation. You can terraform the terrain as you like, raise mountains, create lakes, plant entire forests. You have eternal life. SimCity is more than just a management simulation, it is more about free creation. _________ No fixed goals. You determine for yourself what you would like to build, make your own challenge. No need to achieve a score or fixed goal, no time limit, no end-of-game boss you need to beat. If you want, you can run a region endlessly. _________ Full-blown single player mode. While there had been experimental addons (network edition for SC2000), SimCity games have always been games that you could play for yourself, off-line. These are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

I'd like to ignore 90% of the useless babble in here and go back to the original question: "Is the SimCity Reboot doomed by the fans"? This question alone is misleading and suggestive. It suggests that "the fans" (I'll come to that later) have taken initiative and decided to "doom" the game. (This is actually an accusation in the disguise of a question, much like sensationalist newspaper headlines. Let me pick an imaginary example: "Did Obama force his wife to abort?". You dont have any evidence, but with that little question mark you can still link Obama to such an act and make readers internalise a connection between Obama and that alleged act - and get away with it. If you do it right, even if the facts don't stick in the mind of the reader ("Oh, Obama - you mean that guy who forced his wife to abort") , at least the suspicion or the accusation will stick ("Oh, Obama - you mean the guy who was accused/suspected of forcing his wife to abort"). Mission accomplished, because the actual fact "Oh Obama - the guy who didn't do anything" will be replaced or at least pushed back by the accusation.) "The fans" is, of course, generalised. I suspect there is not "the" fan. There will be many different people with many different degrees of affiliation to the SimCity franchise, different backgrounds and different expectations. I know that generalising can help to simplify complex situations, but in the context of an accusation it is a tool that always leaves a bad taste. Finally and most importantly, you make it sound as if everything was perfectly in order - were it not for those pesky fans, who forget their obligation and instead decided to follow a sinister plot to bring down a game. However, nobody of us is in any way obliged to do anything, and even less so to like or support anything. EA has decided to release a product, EA has outlined the direction they want their project to take, and now EA is showing what they have, and people are reacting in one way or another (or in no way at all). They make an offer, and the potential customer accepts it or not. They are perfectly entitled to make that offer in any legal way, shape or form, and we are perfectly entitled to like it or dislike it and to express our opinion about it in any legal way, shape, or form. Nothing else is happening here. If you wanted to ask a neutral question, you could have asked "Do most hardcore fans here on Simtropolis not like what they have seen so far?". The answer is pretty obvious - so much, in fact, that it renders the question superfluous and redundant. The answer is all over the forums, you get it from hundreds of people without even asking them explicitly. Why not that neutral question? Well, maybe because the question of this thread was not fuelled by a neutral interest for more information, but by an interest. I don't think that you asked that question because you really wanted to know. I think you asked that question because you know perfectly well what the majority here is thinking - and you don't like it. While this is perfectly ok - you are as much entitled to your opinion and point of view as anybody else - I don't think that the way you deal with the situation will lead to any good. Proof of this concept? - This thread so far. Just saying.

1. Will there be a Region-wide terraforming tool/mode? I have more questions btw.

Boggy1's Quick Guide to All Things Custom Content! This is a very simple quickstart guide to custom content downloading. Don't think of it as an ultimate resource; just as something that can answer your basic questions. Make sure to read the whole thing to get the most out of it! Brown Boxes? Nightlights? Dependencies? BATs? Read below to find out how to solve some of the most common problems and question for the game! Before we start; here is a checklist to follow to make custom content work. 1) Make sureyou have Sim City 4 Rush Hour or Sim City 4 Deluxe installed. This is IMPORTANT. For 99% of any downloads to work, you need one of these installed. They will not work on only the original Sim City 4 game. 2) Make sure you have downloaded the EP1 Update (the correct one for your region) and the SC4UpdateBAT, and installed them. Scroll down to the section 'Nightlights and Updates' for links. Note: If you use the Steam version of the game, you will not need the updates. They are already included. 3) Make sure you have downloaded the bldgprop_vol1.dat and bldgprop_vol2.dat files, and that they are placed into "My Documents/Sim City 4/Plugins". Scroll down to the section 'Brown Boxes and Dependencies' for links. 4) Make sure to turn off the game before downloading. When applying new content to the game, it has to be turned off; otherwise things may get corrupted or not work. 5) Make sure your pop-up blocker is disabled or has www.simtropolis.com whitelisted. This is so that when you click the link to download a file it wont be blocked. 6) Make sure to read the online description of the file and the comments so that you know exactly what you are downloading. Both the online description and the comments can give vital information; including stats, dependencies, or problems with the file. 7) Make sure to extract your downloads to the folder My Documents/Sim City 4/Plugins or any folder within that one. DO NOT extract to any other folder, unless it specifically tells you too! Make sure to read the README (if any) and download the dependencies (if any) listed there, and in the online description. Probably one of the most important parts. The README will give you important information, and you need the dependencies for the file to work. Scroll down for some more info. Table of Contents How To Install Buildings How To Install Maps Organization Nightlights and Updates Brown Boxes and Depedencies Terminology and Abbveations Creating Your Own Custom Content Questions Still Not Answered? How To Install Buildings To install custom downloads, except maps, from the Simtropolis Exchange, follow the below instructions. Firstly, you simply download what you want by clicking on the download button. You will most likely be presented with a pop-up, which asks you if you want to save the file, or open/run it. Select save, but remember the directory where you saved it to. Wait for it to download; remember, it may take several minutes to download depending on your connection and the size of the file. Once it has downloaded, browse to where ever you saved the file. I recommend creating a folder in your My Documents, specifically for downloads from simtropolis.com, so that they are all in one place. You will most likely be presented with a .zip file, which looks like a folder with a zipper running across it. We need to extract the file, which is commonly called unzipping or extracting it. To unzip the contents of this file, right click it, select "Extract All", and then unzip the files to the directory: "My Documents/SimCity4/Plugins". If what you downloaded isn't a .zip file, then it could be one of two things: An installer. This is a .exe, which you install by simply double clicking on it and following the instructions. These are more likely for modds and dependency packs. A .rar file. This is another type of compression method, like a .zip file. To extract these, I recommend downloading the free utility 7zip, which can be found here: http://www.7-zip.org/ Remember, that you should always read the README file, and the Online Description on simtropolis.com to check for information and dependancies. Dependancies are extra little downloads, like textures or props, that are required to make the file work properly, that don't come with the main file. They are linked to in the README or Online Description. Make sure you have Sim City 4 Rush Hour or Sim City 4 Deluxe, and make sure you restart the game once you have installed everything; or the file will not work. Where will your new download be located once it has been installed? That entirely depends upon the file itself. If its a police station, it will probably be in the police menu. A new water pump? The water menu. However; the two most common places where generic files will end up is in the Parks or Landmarks menus. How To Install Maps Downloading and installing maps from the Simtropolis Exchange is quite a bit different to downloading and installing a building. Follow this tutorial: http://www.simtropol...ost__p__1135725 Downloading maps can be relatively difficult and time consuming, depending on your technical skills and computer specifications. Make sure to follow the tutorial very closely. Organization It's generally best to organize your Plugins folder so that you can find each thing you download easily, such as sorting files in a directory like this: "My Documents/Sim City 4/Plugins/Name Of Author/Name Of Building/[FILES]". This is so that if anything you download doesn't work or causes a problem, you can simply delete the folder without searching for hours for the correct files. Putting downloades into sub-folders within your Plugins folder will not effect their appearance in the game. Nightlights and Updates Remember: If you use he Steam version, you will not need any of the update patches explained here. Often, you might find that the nightlights on the buildings you downloaded do not show up when you switch to Night Mode in the game. To solve this issue, you need to download the two game updates, so follow the instructions below. If you haven't already, you need to download the EP1 Update for the game. Go here: http://sc4devotion.c...dex.php?page=16 For whatever region you live in, download the specific SKU file. For instance, if you live in North America, only download the file marked "sku 1". Then, you need to download the SC4Update4BAT, which is here: http://www.sc4devoti...4Update4BAT.zip Install the EP1 Update first by double clicking it and following the instructions. Then do the same for the SC4UpdateBAT file. A box will pop-up with "This program will apply changes needed to support the Building Architect Tool. Before you install this update (build 640) please make sure that you have applied SimCity 4 EP1 Update 1 successfully.". You can safely ignore it; just press OK. Then you're done! Remember you need Sim City 4 Rush Hour or Sim City 4 Deluxe for these updates and most downloads to work. To check whether the patches have been correctly applied invloves checking the Properties of the game's executable file usually located in the C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps folder of your computer. This file is named SimCity 4 and should be approximately 8MB in size. If the file Version is 1.1.638.0, then the EP1 patch only has been applied. If the version is 1.1.640.0, then both the EP1 and SC4Update4BAT patches have been applied and the game is fully updated. Note: For the Steam version of the game, the version should read 1.1.641.0. Brown Boxes and Dependencies If brown boxes marked with "simcity.com" appear in your city in place of your download, then you know you are missing certain dependencies. Dependancies are extra little downloads, like textures or props, that are required to make the file work properly, that don't come with the main file. Make sure to always download them, or the custom content you downloaded may not work. Dependencies are usually linked to in the README or Online Description of the thing you downloaded. Install them as you would anything else, by unzipping to My Documents/Sim City 4/Plugins. You will also need to download the Official Maxis Props, bldgprop_vol1.dat and bldgprop_vol2.dat. These can be found here: CityBuilders (registration required) or Screwpile Developments. Look for the two bldgprop files. Save them both to "My Documents/Sim City 4/Plugins" Remember you need Sim City 4 Rush Hour or Sim City 4 Deluxe for most of the downloads to work. Terminology and Abbreviations If you successfully downloaded buildings, but they do not show up in any of the menus, then check to see if the building you downloaded is a GROW or PLOP. A GROW building will grow on it's own; it will not appear in any menus. You need to place down residential/commercial/industrial zoning, and then it will grow itself. A PLOP building is the opposite. It will appear in the menus, and you can plop it down anywhere you like, without waiting for it to grow in a zone. You may also encounter these: A PROP file is just a tiny little element, like a flagpole or pedestrian, which goes onto the lot of a custom building. You only really need to download these if they are linked as a dependency, or if you are a custom content creator. A TEXTURE is a pattern or image, like brick or glass, that is used in custom content creation You only really need to download these if they are linked as a dependency, or if you are a custom content creator. A MESH or a MODEL file is the barebones of a custom creation; before it has been properly imported into the game. You generally don't need to download these unless you are a custom content creator. These are the types of file names you'll probably see when you download custom content. A .zip is a compressed folder, containing your download. You'll need to extract (unzip) it to gain access to the files inside. A .rar is another type of compressed folder. See above. A .exe is a self-installing executable file, containing your download. Double click it to let it install the files by itself. A .txt is a text document, which contains the README or other information. Recommend to keep; but you can delete it safely. A .rtf is another type of text document. See above. A .html is a downloaded webpage, which contains the README or other information. Recommend to keep; but you can delete it safely. A .jpg file is a picture file. Creators generally put it in to show you what you are downloading. You can delete it safely. A .png is another type of picture file. See above. A .dat file is part of the download data. Don't delete it. A .SC4LOT file is part of the download data. Don't delete it. A .SC4MODEL file is part of the download data. Don't delete it. A .SC4DESC file is part of the download data. Don't delete it. The STEX is an abbreviation for the SimTropolis EXchange. The NAM stands for the Network Addon Modification, which is one of the most well known modds in the game. You can get it here: or Mac A BAT file is a custom content, like a building, that is created using the special 3D modelling software gmax or 3ds Max and the Building Architect Tool. They are generally created entirely from scratch by the creator. A LOT file is a custom content that only uses existing elements that are in the game. It uses Maxis' LOT Editor to shuffle around props, textures, and stuff to create new things. A MODD is a programme which changes the game in some way. They are different from other custom content, in that it affects the entire game. Use these carefully; often modds can conflict, and can cause your game to crash. Sometimes you will encounter abbreviations which arn't listed here. Likely these are BAT Groups; a bunch of fans who get together and collaborate to make buildings or modifications. There are literally hundreds of these; some defunct, and others not. Some of commonly seen BAT Team abbreviations are these: NDEX, BSC, BLaM, LBT, BSP, NYBT, HK, SFBT, ATR, SMP, NUTs, NHP, RTMT, SCAG, TD,and TSC. Creating Your Own Custom Content There are two options when it comes to creating custom content. Firstly, you could go the hard route, and use actual 3D modelling software. GMAX and 3ds Max are both 3D modelling software, that allow custom content creators to create buildings and other content from scratch, by individually creating the wireframe body, and applying textures. GMAX is free, and can be found here: http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax 3ds Max on the other hand, costs a lot of money, and can be bought here: http://usa.autodesk....3112&id=5659302 If you do go down this route, you will need to download the Building Architect Tool (BAT for short), which is the Maxis-created tool which allows you to import your models into the game. It can be found here: http://www.sc4devoti..._files_BAT.html Or you could go the easier route, and create custom content using the Lot Editor, which can be found here: http://www.sc4devoti...s_files_LE.html Remember, even if you use GMAX or 3ds Max, you will still need the Lot Editor, as this enables you to place props and other elements on your model. This section only covers the very basics of custom content creation. You can find out more in the Omnibus here: https://www.simtropolis.com/omnibus Questions Still Not Answered? Then you'll want to either... Visit the Chat Room, which will probably have members there ready to help you with an issue (just be nice): (Link) Take a read through the Extensive Forums for a solution: (Link ) Browse the fabled Omnibus Of Knowledge: (Link ) If, after all that, there is still no luck; make a New Topic which clearly defines your issue. Updated links and stuff - 15/07/2012

http://www.vg247.com...tion-to-origin/ So basically this means no purchase for me. Such a shame, the game I've been waiting for years gets announced and it's seems awesome, and yet they manage to screw it up with stuff like this. I could live with the always online requirement (even though it's idiotic and drives people to piracy), but no mods means no purchase. edit: after hearing from you and other EA/Maxis sources, it seems like mod support is on it's way. There's still the issue of the always online requirement. While multiplayer sounds exiting (I for one would love to build regions together with friends), it shouldn't be forced on people, and I'm also a bit concerned about the global economy thing they are implementing into the game. There should always exist the option of playing completely offline, having your own fun without anyone else interfering in your little sphere of city simulation. And frankly, that's what they should be focusing on the most, traditional SimCity gameplay, just updated to be as good as possible in 2013 and the years to come.

A fly on the wall overheard the following conversation at a meeting of EA's top executives... CEO of EA: "Alright, people, we need to make a final decision now. Do we release SimCity 2013 exclusively through Origin with an always-online requirement?" VP Jones: "Well, sir, I think that would be a bad idea. We've been monitoring the forums at Simtropolis and elsewhere, and everything we're getting back says the customer base is STRONGLY opposed to us enforcing DRM in this way. We have estimated that roughly 97% are opposed, and surveys we have conducted tell us they aren't just disinterested in our multi-person play ideas, but they also resent the idea that we can collect so much data from their computers, sell that data to other parties, shut down the servers any time we wish, and that they won't really be in control of the game they've purchased. Some people have even started to figure out that we're not really SELLING the game, but actually just RENTING it to them at a high price." CEO: "Thank you, Jones. Your opinion is so noted. Anyone else have any other thoughts? Cooper...?" VP Cooper: "Yes, sir, I do, actually. Historically, there is no evidence that any of this will have any impact on our sales. I totally agree that 97% claim to be opposed to this form of DRM, but they've complained before about other games, and we've still raked in millions off the games. This is because essentially, sir, people are stupid. These lemmings... I mean 'our respected customers'... moan about using Origin or Steam or other DRM services, but the beauty is, THEY KEEP FORKING OUT THE MONEY. Obviously, if they ever stopped buying the games, we'd have to change our strategy. But only a tiny minority of games consumers actually have the dedication to stand up for what they believe in, but the rest keep giving us their money! Why should we possibly change this strategy, sir?" CEO: "That's a good point, Cooper. And the wealth of data we get to collect from everyone's computers is just added icing on the cake. It's actually amazing that people consent to all of this. But I totally agree with Cooper, the fact is, people don't seem to mind getting screwed both ways. They just invite us to keep coming back to give them more!! So, Jones, what do you say to that?" VP Jones: "I don't know, sir, I must admit that people are stupid, and their actions certainly don't back their words. I still think it would be nice if we did a good thing for gaming..." CEO: "Sorry, Jones, doing a 'good thing for gaming' doesn't help our bottom line. So, if you have nothing else, it's decided then... we go ahead with the online-only strategy through origin." VP Jones: "How do we spin it publicly, sir?" CEO: "I don't know, let's keep building on that 'interactive regional play' that Cooper came up with before. There are actually some people out there who are eating that up..." [The fly on the wall proceeded to become nauseous and needed to leave the room...] Sorry for the indictment, folks. But honestly, Origin and Steam would no longer exist if you didn't keep throwing your money at these folks. As for me, I have not purchased a single computer game in 5 years+. It's killing me, because I love gaming, but I'm doing my part to get back to the days when I can legally buy my games directly from the gamesmakers and TRULY OWN the games I buy!!! I have no sympathy for folks who complain about the way DRM works, but keep buying games...

Many here have expressed doubts about the new direction of the SimCity franchise, and some have expressed blatant hostility for various reasons. Though, if you compare the SimCity series to the Warcraft series, SC13 is akin to World of Warcraft. SimCity has been considered a casual game that appeals to a broad spectrum of players. I have seen on here many people wanting Maxis to cater to the hardcore SimCity player. Maxis acknowledges the hardcore players of SimCity, but giving the hardcore players all the customization they want in the base game will make it harder for the broader demographic of fans to pick up and enjoy the game. The plain fact is, SimCity will not survive without these casual players, casual players will be the overwhelming deciding factor on whether the game lives or dies, because if enough casual players buy the game, EA will decide it is worth expanding on, if the casual player decides against the game, EA will shelve the entire game, and likely shutter Maxis for good. Will Wright himself, the genius responsible for bringing us SimCity 1-4, said in 2004, that the SimCity games were getting too complex and that the game had worked itself into a niche. He acknowledged that they were working on a new direction for SimCity. I'm beginning to think he wasn't meaning Societies by this, that he was meaning the core of the game was flawed, and they needed to rework how they were going to design the simulation so it was a true simulation, and not a statistic-based simulation of a simulation. SimCity 4 was a great game, don't get me wrong, the game will live on for decades. I love playing SimCity 4, and will likely continue to play the game for years to come. The fundamental problem with the game is that it is a statistic-based simulation. With SimCity 4, the graphics were reactive to the statistics. In this game, the Sims themselves are responsible for the simulation. To have a faithful simulation of a city with a true sense of realism, you really need to start at the smallest level, the inhabitants. That the game borrows elements of The Sims and Socities is no mistake, and I think it is a very good start, since a city is the product of the society that built it, to adequately simulate a city, the society that simulated it should also be simulated. SimCity is an online game, which is one of the oft-repeated criticisms of this game. Cities in real life have to deal with a lot of economic factors, to adequately simulate an effective economy for a single-player game, there would have to be a massive amount of program code devoted to artificially creating a supply and demand framework and then creating code to establish a computer-driven economic cycle. That simulation coupled with the individual AI already in the game would cause the game to bog down in simulation, causing it to run slower on the average computer. If the game runs poorly on an average computer, the average casual gamer will not enjoy the game, going back to my point that it will cause the game to fail. The limits on tile size also go back to the casual gamer. With too large a city, the amount of simulation would make the game choppy and unplayable. Again, unplayability for the casual gamer means no chance for the hardcore gamer to get the customization we desire. SimCity (2013) lays the groundwork for an expansive game. If Maxis were to develop everything we wanted, we wouldn't see this game for years. Releasing SC13 when they plan to gives us a taste of the new style of play, allowing us to adapt to the new style of play. The simplistic facade of the game belies what will happen when the game is in the hands of the players. Once the economy of the SimCity World gets established and working, it will create complexity in a whole new way. If this SimCity experiment works well, one day, there may be a way around the issue of having agents. Sims 4 could very well use the SimCity world as the environment for that game, and instead of having simulated Sims, we'd have real people to cater to, enabling a massive amount of possibilities.

But you can contradict this by the fact that SimCity 4 still runs single core. SimCity 2013 can take the benefit of multi-processing as we know today, speeding up gameplay and making this less of an issue. Now, to prove how small 2x2 km actually is, take for example my home city Zoetermeer (the Netherlands). Population is 121,580 (a medium sized city to dutch terms) and it's build in one of the most densest populated countries in Europe. Most people here live in row homes, which makes this city smaller than an American city of the same population size. If you look at the city in Google Maps and you divide the city in squares, you'll get this. - Black = 1x1 km (small city tile) - Red= 2x2 km (medium city tile) - Blue = 4x4 km (large city tile) - Green = 8x8 km ("extra large" city tile) As you can see, even with not a really big city, you have to use 16 medium city tiles to re-create this city! With large city tiles, you only need 4 and the complete city will fit in one 8x8 tile. So what does actually fit in one medium city tile? I've looked further on Google Maps but most cities and towns were bigger than that. The closest I could get is Weesp (Pop. 17,529), but it's not much and it even goes a bit off the map: My opinion is that larger city sizes should be an option. With this schematics, I hope I made my point clear. Best, Maarten

For the Eager, Yet Overwhelmed Newcomer New to SimCity, Simtropolis, or been out of touch for a few years? Wondering what the heck a NAM or a BAT is? And just what the heck is up with those brown boxes?! This article will take you through the basics of registering your game, whether from a hard copy of the disc or from Steam, the essentials of Simtropolis, and a jumpstart into the world of Custom Content, to bring your game to a level beyond what you could imagine is possible. I would like to thank A Nonny Moose for his contributions and influences on the creation of this article. Rush Hours, Deluxe Editions, SimCity Boxes, Oh my! Before starting on registration information, we should make a clarification on just what the differences in these versions are. The short answer is nothing. When Maxis released Rush Hour, the expansion pack to the original SimCity 4 game, they released two versions: one simply the expansion (SimCity 4: Rush Hour); the other, a version that included both the original game and the expansion pack (SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition). It makes absolutely no difference to the game whether you own the Deluxe Edition, or Rush Hour. Now, just what is the SimCity Box? After the release of SimCity Societies in 2008, EA released this version which contains SimCity 4, SimCity 4: Rush Hour, SimCity Societies, SimCity Societies: Destinations, and The Sims Carnival: SnapCity. The story here is the same with Rush Hour and the Deluxe Edition: it makes absolutely no difference. In the event that you happen to be a long time player who does not own Rush Hour or the Deluxe Edition, it should be noted that the expansion pack is required to make use of 99% of the custom content available on this site. I will explain that further later on. Registering and Updating the Game Before playing, you need to pick up the two (2) necessary EA-released patches to your game for it to work correctly. In recent months, it has been noted that the official EA SimCity 4 Deluxe site has been taken down. So as not to leave these players hanging, some mirrors have been set up containing the assorted official updates. Important note: If you purchased your game from an authorized download source, you may not need any further updates. Check the properties of the game's .exe file. If it indicates you have version 1.1.641.0 or if you already have version 1.1.640.0, you will not need further updates. For the standard, PC version updates, check out here: SC4Devotion Own the Mac edition and can't open .exe's? Check out this thread: Bought your copy off Steam? Steam comes pre-patched! Yay! You should apply the two updates to the game in this order: EP1 to fix bugs, and the BATupdate to allow nightlights. When you are finished, you should check to see that the version number of the .exe file for the game in Program files/Maxis/Apps has been updated to 1,1,640,0. This is proof that your updates worked. Optional Upgrades and Tools You may notice on the mirror sites, a number of other downloads available. Among these are new landmarks, new rewards, the Lot Editor, and Building Architect Tool (BAT). These are all optional, and are not necessary for the games function or the addition of but do add content, and functionality. So, just what do these BAT and Lot Editor things do? The Lot Editor allows you to construct new lots, using the buildings, textures, and assorted prop pieces included within the game. The Building Architect Tool (BAT) allows you to construct new 3D models, and is what is used to create new buildings, trees, seawalls, spaceships, and everything inbetween. Using the Lot Editor and the BAT in tandem, the world is yours to create. It should be noted that both these tools have a sizeable learning curve. We do have a number of tutorials here to get you started, the most notable of these being the BAT Essentials Tutorial in the Omnibus. Unleashing the Game At this point, your game is ready to go! The appropriate patches are in place, and the game is as optimized as Maxis and EA could make it. So where to now? Many players are happy to play the game without any custom content, relying simply on what Maxis has provided. It is indeed very possible to create beautiful cities using only what content Maxis provided. But, many would also point out that the game can be so much more. In the 8 years since the release of the game, the amount of custom content available brings the game to an entirely new level. Players can recreate their hometowns with stunning accuracy, watching roads twist and curve, with even the correct corner market in place. Players can build in the desert, in futuristic settings, or on Mars. The custom content community has taken a finite game and given it infinite possibilities. And the question I'm sure you're asking by this point is, where do I begin? There are a number of exchanges available for you to browse. Here on Simtropolis, the STEX is perhaps the largest, and one of the oldest exchanges devoted to SimCity 4. The other primary English exchanges are SC4Devotion LEX and the PLEX (now on the STEX). You could say that SC4Devotiion is the high-tech site, and that Pegasus is the theme site, and you wouldn't be far wrong. Most community exchanges both require free registration in order to download, as Simtropolis does. The SimCity community expands far beyond English speakers, however - other communities include German and Japanese sites. Growable? Ploppable? What? As you browse the exchanges, you'll notice these phrases on assorted files throughout. The answer to this could not be simpler. A growable lot means that it will grow on its own with the appropriate zoning, as if it were any building created by Maxis. Ploppable lots allow you to plop the building as if it were a landmark. Some ploppables retain their commercial/industrial nature and provide jobs as though they were grown. It should be noted that at early points in the exchange, you may run across residential ploppables. These do not work, and will abandon some time after plopping. So, I've Downloaded Some Stuff. Now what? Installation of downloads really is simple. This article by our fearless Dirktator outlines the process of installation. Some downloads now come with .exe installers, which simplifies the process even more - the installer does all the work for you. The next question you may have is where the heck do I find my ploppable items in the game? Some items will be pretty intuitive as to where they are located - Educational facilities are located in the Schools menu, policing facilities in the Police menu, etc. But what about that great skyscraper advertised as a ploppable? Those will generally be located in the Landmarks menu. Nearly everything else (parks, churches, etc.) will be located in either Parks or Rewards. And if you just can't find it anywhere, consult the ReadMe that should have been included with the download. It should state where it is located in the menu system in game. Brown Boxes, Everywhere! Uh oh! This may look tragic, but it doesn't mean your game is wrecked. You just missed downloading some dependencies. Wait, what? Dependewho? Dependencies are separate files that a lot uses to complete itself. If Download A cannot find the appropriate dependency, it reverts to the lovely boxes you can see in the picture above. It may not look like it, but each lot is actually filled with bits and pieces of other files to make the bigger picture. The trees, the benches, the garbage cans, the swimming pools you see on assorted lots are all individual pieces, that come together to create a house, a park, or a shopping complex. All downloads on the SimTropolis EXchange are required to list all dependencies needed to work properly. If you've looked everywhere and just can't find that dependency, or if the dependency package is locked, please make a post here, and one of our friendly members will help you out. You may have further questions in regards to dependencies. As with installation, I would like to refer you to another article that goes into much further detail. The Dependency Debate by north_country_dude goes into great detail about the pros and cons of dependencies, and answers a few of the common questions you may have about them. So what should I download? Building tastes vary from person to person. Personally, I prefer the drab, 1970's concrete buildings, while many prefer the sleek, glass modern skyscrapers. Because of this, I'm not going to recommend any particular buildings - but I can recommend some mods that are considered the best and the greatest. Network Addon Mod, or the NAM. This mod was first conceived with the discovery of an unfinished road network Maxis left in the game. The talented modding community has taken this and turned it into entirely new road networks, gave us roundabouts, and allows us to create true metropolitan cities with roads to match. This can be found here on the STEX, or at SC4Devotion. If you're interested, here is the "official" NAM FAQ Thread with links to the different parts used with NAM & answers to common queries. If any issues come up while using NAM, there's also a support thread here. Various NAM Team members including Tarkus frequent the thread and gladly help out. A terrain and water mod. When you first launch the game, the grass and water seems realistic enough. A bit off perhaps, but hey nothing can be perfect. Not true - modders have been able to create new textures for the terrain and the water, which makes the Maxis textures look like off-coloured drawings. Cycledogg has made a number of varying terrain mods, and there are assorted water textures on the STEX, each varying for the kind of water your city needs. SimMars. Certainly this mod is not for everyone, but this article would be deficient if it weren't mentioned. SimMars transforms SimCity to Mars, complete with textures, buildings, road networks and music to match. The work done on this is exceptional, and it sits with the NAM as the greatest projects to improve the game that SimCity has seen. Everything else listed here. Livin in Sim has created this top ten list of great mod's that should be essential. A few other members have listed their contributions as well, and I would highly recommend them all! From there you could look through the CJ section to get ideas or run through the STEX and other exchanges to see if anything "jumps" out at you. As I mentioned before, if you can't seem to find something, make a post here and someone is bound to help you out. How do I win? SimCity is different from most games, as there is no set end point. Your success is based on goals you set. For many, a balanced budget and proper governance of a successful city without "godly" intervention (ie. cheats) makes a successful game. For many, the accurate recreation of a real life city is the goal, generally with the assistance of assorted budget cheats. For others still, it's simply to create the best city they can. Set your own goals and adjust as you achieve them. For all flavours of player, however, we do have an assortment of tutorials here on Simtropolis to help you on the Omnibus. The sections that will interest you most are SimCity 4 Reference and SimCity 4 Tutorials. Check back from time to time, as we do continue to add articles! Hopefully, this article has helped you get started. If you have any further questions that this article didn't answer, the folk in the forums and the chatroom are always eager to help, and any member of the Simtropolis Help Squad would be more than happy to give you some tips to the right direction.

Yeah we're working on it.

Thanks Dirktator for the info. You were a bit more...diplomatic than I might have been. I disagree (with Dirktator's view of Maxis' reaction to his questions): Shruging your shoulders and making a joke about looking into the future, nor basically ignoring the inquiries that have been going on for several weeks now, is not an appropriate response. An appropriate response would be to explain what the plans are, what conditions would shut the servers down? Why choose the multiplayer ONLY direction if it's going to cause so much heart ache? I'm not saying we should lynch them or anything, but many people are frustrated by the PR games being played, and the lack of dialougue that is happening. I'm cool with Maxis wanting to make a financially sucessful game, and appealing more to a general audience, but it's like they are only trying to appear to 'listen to the fans'. I've harped on this before, but they should be looking to companies like Bungie and 343i for how to run PR, and make overarching game decisions. They have been able to take the narrow FPS genere, and move it into film-making, custom map editing, and ongoing episodic content, all while maintaining the base of what made Halo "Halo". It is now a BILLION dollar franchise, and there is no reason EA and Maxis can't look at some of these lessons to turn SimCity into just as large a franchise. IDK, it just seems everytime Maxis creates or is given an opportunity to make resonable people like me a believer, they just totally blow it and create more frustration.

Will we be able to create metro and bus lines? Can we choose how many vagoons a train will have? I would like to change the color of the trains to the respective line color. The same with the buses, can we choose between microbuses, double deckers, those really long buses (only for bus corridors)? I don't want buses driving everywhere, i would like to tell them the way they have to go through. Please, if my question will be choosen, please, correct my grammar

OK, I have a few questions to Maxis, some that may have been asked before by other posters here: Have you considered multiple city tile sizes? With SimCity 4, I personally prefered to play on the 4x4 km large city tiles only, since I could easily focus on a large area for construction. I might dream of even larger city tiles, but then peformance will be a great issue. Therefore, region play is a nifty compromise to this problem to overcome this; you can still build very large cities without so much lag that the game becomes unplayable. Since my playing style is spreading everyone out to a large surface area (1.5 million sims on a 12x12 area), it does not only look more realistic, but I also won't overload the traffic simulator Now I did hear that in this stage of development, only 2x2 km size cities are available, which is to my opinion, a quite small area to build your city (or even a part of it) on. If you want to recreate a city from Real Life from let's say 100,000 inhabitants, you require dozens of those city tiles, while with 4x4 km city tiles, you only need a few (4 or 5). What kind of infrastructure is there planned? Roads (single-lane and multi-lane) are confirmed, but what about freeways, different kinds of rail, air and sea transportation? And how about other kinds of infrastructure, such as water pipes, electric cables, etc.? I have also some sub-questions regarding this subject: How will freeway interchanges work out? Do you just plop some pre-fab interchanges like the standard freeways in SimCity 4, which is something I don't like; or can you build custom interchanges like the RHW, which I would definitely encourage? Are road layouts preset or can you customize it? Does the game give you a set of pre-set networks or do you have an advanced control of you road's lane setup and such? How does SimCity 2013 handle Airports? Are they pre-fab or customized. A customized setup allows you to use an optimal footprint for the airport. [*]Have you considered a Planning Tool? I've come up with this idea a while ago: [*]Any plans to include more European stuff? I always had the feeling that SimCity was America-oriented, while there's still quite a large public in Europe and even Asia. That's why we have for SimCity 4 the Euro/International Road Textures Mod, a lot of Wall-To-Wall buildings in various old-European styles (Parisian, Polish, Dutch, etc.), typical old-European churches and cathedrals and other elements to give cities a little more European detail. The question is: does Maxis plan a basic variaty of styles in the basic game? [*]What can we all mod? I know that modding is confirmed, but what stuff can we mod or add? These were my elaborate questions Best, Maarten

Q: How involved will the transit networks be? Will there be different widths of road and avenue, light rail versus heavy rail, etc. things of that nature?

Nofunk, that's just brilliant. Well done. --- I'm really sorry to be interrupting even more into this thread, but I also want to give an opinion on the Kendiecasttsoi post. Believe it or not, at some level I agree with what he's saying. Not the part about giving less crit, but the sentiment that too many good BATs go unfinished because of this idea of perfection. Under no circumstances can a designer ever produce a perfect design. No matter how much dedication and time you put towards it, there will always be room for some further improvement. Much in the same way, there will never be a perfect BAT or a perfect upload, you'd be kidding yourself if you thought in any other way. No matter how much refinement you go through, how much nit-picking we do, how many revisions are done, there will always still be room to improve. Award winning architecture is not perfect. Even the Lippo Center BAT is not perfect. The idea of what perfection is can also differ greatly from person to person, especially with ‘creative’ things, making it even more of an impossibility. Jasoncw’s idea of what makes a perfect BAT could be totally different from Mattb325’s. The key here is knowing when to say: enough is enough. I'm satisfied with what I've made and I feel that to the best of my ability, it's finished. That isn't an easy thing to do, but if we didn't do it, we'd all be modelling right down to the level of atoms. And even then we still wouldn't be satisfied. At no point am I advocating that we stop giving each other constructive criticism, in fact I think we should be doing it more! Generally speaking, the more feedback anything can get, the better it will be. At the other end of the scale, people like me need all the constructive criticism they can get because they are sometimes too eager to finish things and if not pushed, may end up settling for second best.The point I'm trying to make is that it's up to the creator to read and understand this criticism, take it on board, make a decision and then act on it. If you feel the suggestion is excessive or unwarranted, you should choose ignore it. Kendiecasttsoi’s correct in his observation that too many high quality works go unreleased. The author gets bogged down in their own doubts about their creation, working on it becomes less and less fun and eventually the author loses their motivation to finish it. Possibly hundreds of hours wasted without a thing to show for it. In the real world, it doesn't work like that. You finish your project no matter how frustrated with it you are. And you finish it on time. Or you're fired. For those of us who are using BATing to assist with the development of a professional portfolio, or most likely the other way round (as Marsh correctly pointed out), learning how to interpret constructive criticism, think for yourself and know when to say enough is enough are skills that are just as important as correct technique and a passion for what you're doing. Tl;dr: You’ve gotta know when you’re finished. If you can’t do this, you’ll never be satisfied with what you make and more importantly, you’ll never be finished.

I have heard you loud and clear about the visual presentation of the STEX and I am in total agreement with you. What we're using is basically a "default" template that was part of the new platform. We are still working on the "final" STEX template which will bring it closer in line with how the previous STEX's have been, ie. larger images, detailed listings, etc... -- so please don't panic! I understand your alarm, but we wouldn't totally regress away from how the STEX was presented since ST4, 5 and 6. So, having said that, I want this discussion to focus more on how we can improve the actual STEX listings themselves. A suggestion was made to add some fields such as how buildings or lots affect certain stats in the game, e.g. pollution, jobs, money generation, etc... It's a good suggestion in that it make each item uploaded to the STEX have more detail, and it becomes easier to search for the kind of files you want. We would make these fields optional for the uploader, as not every file would be applicable. What kind of additional fields do you suggest? Another suggestion was to add a field to list Dependencies packs. We could do this as a BB code, too... for example "[stex id=138] Get this file [/stex]" which will generate a link to the stex file automatically. Or we could have a field where the uploader just puts the ID of the file in question. Both would and could work. Let me know your thoughts on how we can improve the way the STEX stores information. Some of the features of the new STEX you may not be aware of: 1. Enhanced versioning system. Authors can now upload a new version, list the details or changes in that version, and the STEX will store a version history for the file (right now it stores only the latest 10 versions) so you could post a new version and call it version 1.02 and people can still download 1.01 or 1.00 if they wish. Or the uploader can simply replace (edit) the current version to make sure the latest is always downloaded and used. 2. STEX "Like" system. When you "Like" a STEX item (or a city journal for that matter) you have the option to be notified when that item is updated, or if new comments are added, etc. 3. Larger images in STEX. I know the thumbnails are small right now, but improved over ST6, authors can now include larger images. When a thumbnail is clicked, the larger image is shown in an overlay. I think this is a pretty good enhancement.

Hello everyone Are you new to BATing? great, this is for you! are you not? also great, it's for you too, you may learn and give to learn on the process! So, first of all, this tutorial or shall I say, set of topics, are not design to teach you how to model, how to apply texture on models, set UWV maps or any kind of modeling done in Gmax/MAX! For that matter, you can find excellent tutorials or you can find more information on the BAT essentials too. Other useful tips on modelling and applying texture on models can be found here: So, what is exactly the point of this topic? To introduce you to Photoshop/GIMP techniques to create good textures for your models. Why create? why not use textures found on texture databases such CGtextures? Because only in very rare circumstances already made textures fits good the game grand scheme! most of them are taken from real places, and they fit those places nicely, but they are not your BAT. also, the game has it own criteria regarding saturation, hue and luminosity, on which most textures need to be worked upon. And on my usual work, I rarely use them, and only as patterns overlay and other stuff, not as base textures! But, lets say that you have a particular texture you want to use and it does not look ok, maybe you may want to take a look at these steps in how to fix textures. Nevertheless , that is why it is commonly said that good textures are not found, are made! And also remember! This are just simple stepped basic demonstrations, Further experimentation and personalization are not recommended, are mandatory! So, what you need? º Photoshop/GIMP to start with. this will be the main tool on usage. º Some tools like brushes and patterns found here. you can however find more and use more! º Some texture/image databases such as http://www.cgtextures.com/, http://www.imageafter.com/ and http://grungetextures.com/ Contents: 1-Wall Basics 1.1- Noise Effect 1.2- Gradient 1.3- Texture 1.4- Overall Variance 1.5- Weathering 1.6 -Colour correction 2-Tile Roof Basics 3-Asphalt/Concrete Roofing 4-Using a Texture as base texture 5-Wealth Basic Specs 6-Grungy and Decaying Paradise 7-High Wealth Details 1- Wall Basics Some of the most important items on your bat are walls! they, together with roofs compose much part of your bat, and the larger and most visible items on a BAT. Therefore, more than other items, textures play a huge role in how a BAT looks, good or bad. In my opinion Walls and roofs are where you are more likely to spend more time making and tuning textures right. So, let's say we want to make a plaster wall texture. First step, is to get a base colour/tone for the texture. We should find one that meets the overall game's colour pallet (will upload mine as soon as I can). So, make a new file and size it so, for each meter on bat, it has 20 pixels (i.e. if the wall is 10m long, the file shall be 200 pixels wide). This is the ratio mts/pxl I use, and it works fine, but you can use others, try it out. it is important, though, you use a consistent ratio there after. Fill it with the colour you have choose: If you apply this texture and look in game, it does not look good does it? No, it looks rather bare, cartoonish and stands out to much! 1.1- Noise Effect Lets get rid of the bare look. we gonna make that colour looking better by adding some variation on the colour. one simple way to archive this is to go to Filter, Noise, Add Noise. Set it to monochromatic, Gaussian and 10%. Then, go again to Filter, Noise, Dust & Scratches, set both parameters to 10 and OK. Save it, and apply it to gmax and see on game: Subtle, but is improves the texture largely. 1.2- Gradient One of the most dramatic effect you must include in any texture is a gradient! It came back to the time of simple sprites for early games and it a major improvement on any texture! So, the easiest way to archive this is to create a new layer (Ctr+$%&^!+N), Select the gradient tool, select the white to black gradient, apply it on the layer. Change the layer setting to Multiply and change the opacity to about 20% And in game looks something like this: Again, a large improvement! 1.3- Texture Now, the texture is still detailess, and we want a plaster looking texture. For that matter we are going to use some filters and layers. First, create a new layer, Go to Edit, Fill, select grey 50%. Select the Layer and make it Clipping Mask (alt+crtl+G) Then, go to Filter, Texture, Texturize. Select Sandstone and fill in the following parameters. Set the layer to Overlay: In game shall look like so: Why make this on a separated layer? and not apply it already on the base layer? well, because this way you have more liberty to change the texture/base colour, without having to remake all over again 1.4- Overall Variance The noise effect is good for having some variation on the colour tone, but you may also want some variation on the luminosity, and on all building sometimes. To do so, do as follow: start by resetting the colours to white and black. Create a new layer set it to Overlay, 25% opacity, go to Filter, Render, Clouds. repeat this (or just press ctrl+F) as many times you wish to archive the result you want. 1.5- Weathering The whole mighty weather takes its toll on any exposed surface. And so it shall not be forgotten when making a texture for a BAT. There are two major events on weathering we should consider: 1- when it rains, ground particles are pick up by falling rain drops and as these splash and scatter, they scatter the particles with them. If the water hits a wall, most likely the ground particles will be attached to the wall. Also, as the bottom part of walls are more likely to be moisten, moss and other stuff may grow on that area. like the following example: 2- water leaking from the top of surfaces. a bit like the above, but this time due to water poring down the walls, from the top. like the following picture shows: In the end usually both take part of any wall. in any wealth set, there should be some weathering visible. more on low wealth, less in the high wealth though. In both pictures you can see that time, and careless have taken it's toll and have changed the appearance of the walls. remember this! So, how to mimic these? Create a new layer. with white color on, load the brushes SS_Driping, that you can find in the site mentioned on the top. now, choose a brush, and apply on the top, once or twice, try not to be repetitive. change brushes a lot, size of them too. then load the SS_Scratchout and apply on the same way, on the bottom. You shall end with something like you find bellow. Select the smudge tool and smooth and personalize out the top drippings: Now lets give it some colour and texture. Double click on the layer, to open the layer style window. select overlay pattern, with a grunge overlay (you can find many on the net and on the sites said above) and set texture too, as seen on the pic below: In game preview: Doesn't it look better? 1.6 -Colour correction Here is where more people fail, IMHO, they just forget to correct their colour settings to match up with the game. It is very common to find oversaturate textures, bright colors, standing out textures, that gives the look of cartoonist BATs. Luckily, there are several tools to help us out. From them, we will use: Curves layer, Brightness/Contrast Layer and Hue/Saturation/Luminosity Layer. First of all, you need to calibrate your Photoshop for gmax, i.e, create a .acv file for your textures. More details can be found on the link, READ IT, DO IT Now, you can apply those curves at the end of the line, when the texture is done, but I find it easier to add it as a Layer on the texture .psd file. For this, and before you create the layer, you have to load the .acv so open the curves map window (crtl+M) and load the file you created. then press cancel. now the file is on the memory and can be loaded at the layer. Click on the circle under the layers, and from the list select Curves... Now double click on it, and you will find a drop menu on the top, open it and select your file from the drop list. REMEMBER, this layer shall be on top of everything, most of the times. To create the other two layer, go back (select layer) and in the adjustment layers (the circle) select the other 2 I talked about. With this two, you can tune (usually) down or up the saturation levels, brightness etc etc, without having to change a thing on the bitmaps. At this point, you should test and test. not just go with the first result you get! This is probably the step I spend more time on, when texturing. open both, PS/GIMP and Gmax/MAX, and keep tuning the texture, saving it, testing it on the gmax and in some screenshots you have from the game. over and over until you are pleased with the result. Here is a picture how the final texture looks like. Notice the 4 top layer, the three adjustment layers I spoke about and a colour one. Some say, the game is pinkish/pearish in colour. truth is, some textures do look better when I: Create a new layer, select a pinksh colour, fill the layer and set it's opacity to 10%. This is not imperative, but it may help, and is easy to test. And, to see the end result, facing the first texture I started with, let me scale up the boxes and put them side to side: 2-Tile Roof Basics In this part of the tutorial we will look opon the tiled ceramic and slated roofs, usualy tilted. for that we will use a simple model, like this one. (base) What most people do is to get a tiling texture and apply it to the roof, ending up like something like this (textb) Although it does not look very bad, it is bland, it stands out and could use some colour and luminosity life. 2.1- From the scratch so, lets start by viewing the model from the top, with all the details it has, and take a screenshot of it. open your image software, create a new file, and paste the shot in it. go to Filters>Stylize>Find Edges (this is for Photoshop, other softwares may have different menu configurations). Then crop the image to fit just the roof and relevant details of the roof and resize it according to your ratio (As stated, I use 20px per meter). Also, select the white and erase it, leaving just the outlines of the model. (ps1) Select from a game's color pallet a roof color of your like. apply it to the background layer. Then apply the same method described in 1.1 (ps2) lets see in game (game1) Not big thing yet, off course, but again, this adds some variety to the texture and make it a bit less monotonous. and gives us a starting point. On the next step, we are making more for that purpose. First, if you look at some maxis buildings, and even to some real life textures, you see that not all tiles look the same. In fact, most of the times, Maxis didn't define well the outlines of the individual tiles, leaving to the differences in hue and albedo to make the job. That's what we are making here today. (Still on the making!)

off topic, but in a nutshell; to Maxis: we want a blank canvas and a palette of paints, not a connect the dots game. Mass Customization vs. Mass Production SC4 reigned supreme because of lots of the little things that were there; bitmaps for region shapes/sizes, greyscale rendering for our own maps, BAT, Lot editor. create tools for us to paint our own pictures... and you will succeed and win. not just glassbox for data, we want exactly the same for world creation, style creation, and to make the game personal.

It's not just that, EA/Maxis has had 9 years to get their act together. After a long wait and the SimCity Societies slump, the players expect no excuses. When a product is developed that doesn't live up to its name it can lead to the demise of a franchise and ultimately, profits for the developer. So it's in mutual interest that the game developer gets it right, and listening to the community can help them figure out what the player wants. Good game = good sales and good reviews/advertising which leads to even more sales. EA hasn't been thinking this way in a long time, and their recent stock/financial losses and reputation reflects this. Time for a change... to bad it may come too late to be the savoir of SimCity (2013). If it sounds like I'm beating a dead horse with these comments I apologize... just wanted to get my point across.

I was able to play SimCity and speak with Community Manager Michael quite a bit, at PAX. Here are some impressions of the game and some information I received from Michael. I played the Pre-Alpha software version of the game twice at PAX. Once on Friday and once on Sunday. On the Friday play, I just followed along with the tutorial and found the game to be pretty enjoyable. For pre-alpha software, the game looks pretty good. A lot of features are ocked down, but you can see some of what they are planning. For instance, when trying to put down a school, I soon found that the schools were locked. There's a check list of things you need to do before a school can be placed, including reaching a population threshold and upgrading the town-hall to a city-hall (or something like that). When I clicked on the town-hall to look for an upgrade button, it wasn't available. When I went back to the schools screen, I noticed (and I think they should make this more obvious) that there were different categories you could select (standard and higher education). When I clicked on higher education, the community college was available, so I went ahead and placed that. Playing with roads was pretty enjoyable. The game lays out snappable line guides to aid in creating straight and curved streets. The roads issue became frustrating when you play near the freeway that goes between cities. In the pre-alpha software your connection point to the highway is pre-determined, which means if you are planning a city, you can't just put your main arterial anywhere. Additionally, it's quite annoying to be able to build so close to the freeway without being able to make arbitrary connections to it, or run roads under it to develop on the other side. In fact, the edge of the city really kept pulling me out of the immersive experience. Unlike in SC 4, where the boundary is clearly defined and your brain doesn't try to do things outside of the zone, in the new SC the boundary is non-obvious (slight coloration change), and you find yourself running into the glass walls. I really found the road system to be simultaneously the most interesting and most frustrating part of the game. I'm sure they'll keep working on it, and I hope they take these notes into consideration. I also noticed, and it was with some releif to see, that the tilt-shift is less pronounced (almost unnoticable) when you zoom all the way out. When you zoom in, it can be quite annoying, and I still hope there's an option to turn that off. Largely, though, I think it won't affect the way I play the game. The game feels very much like playing a SimCity, and while they have UI issues and features that need to be completed, it's definitely SimCity when you're laying out zones and plopping city services. On the Sunday play, I skipped right over the tutorial and started looking around at different options. I asked where the RCI indicator was, and apparently it didn't make it into the Alpha build, but it will be available. I played with the data layers available with a variety of buildings, like water towers, sewage plants, fire departments, police, power, etc. The layers are very satisfying and really just felt like an update of the SC4 data layers. I liked the look and feel of them considerably. I put down a shuttle bus depot, which didn't really seem to do much. I think it was still under development. I tried to grow the city as well, but without an RCI indicator, it was hard to feel very driven to do that, or know what was needed. My main queues were from businesses complaining about a lack of citizens, and citizens complaining their relatives couldn't move in. None of my play time involved resource gathering or sharing on the open market, and so it felt very much like a SimCity game. The Sunday play just confirmed that it can be fun to play and feel like a SimCity game, but it has a long ways to go before it's done. I talked at length with Michael about my concerns; probably monopolizing 45 or more minutes of his time. Michael's a genuine and authentic person who really cares about SimCity and is truly excited about it. He has a lot of energy and will talk your ear off, which helps when your waiting for someone to finish the 20 minute demo so you can have a turn. My main concern was about SimCity being online, and not being able to ever play a single player game the way I want to. The fact that this new release turns the game into SimCity + ResourceTycoon instead of just SimCity, and that I find that unpallatable. My basic scenario is playing a region solo and exhausting the coal supply. At that moment in thier current vision of the game, I'm forced to do one of two things: a) buy from the market, which means my game is no longer uninfluenced by others, or b) switch to another power source. Option a is just attrocious to me, and option b is really a departure for the series. SimCity has never been about limiting your play choices, and here, because of the market, people dedicated to playing on their own will be locked out of a game option once their coal is depleted. Michael didn't really have a solution to this scenario that I found acceptable. It was either maybe you'll enjoy trading with people once you try it, or that running out of coal is a realistic situation. I also brought up my concerns about being reliant on EA servers, especially with their stated policy of shutting down servers when they are at 1% of peak usage. Michaels answer to this was that they are committed to the game and will be around for a long while. That SimCity is the groundwork like the first release of SC4 was groundwork, and they will be adding more and adding mods down the line. The game is going to have support for the forseable future. That's nice to hear, but it's basically just promises, and while I trust and believe in everyone at Maxis, EA is their keeper and if EA decides to shut down the servers, there won't be much Maxis can do about it. My other concern was that I had yet to see a city with a river running through it. Michael confirmed that they were already in the game, as are bridges, and all the things you'd expect with rivers. This led to a conversation about terrain. The guys at Maxis are working really hard to make sure that there will be a ton of variety of terrain available at launch. This is quite satisfactory to me, as I never really used terraforming in SC4. If there's sufficient variability in what's offered out of the gate, it's unlikely I'll miss terraforming at all. At this point my recommendation is, if you don't have concerns about online play or don't feel that resource management is going to detract from your enjoyment of a city builder, then you should get the game. It is SimCity, and it is fun, and I think it will only get better by release. For my part, I just cannot see myself paying full price for the game with the online issues I stated above. I look forward to the Beta, staying open minded, and hoping they can change my mind, but as it stands now, I'll get it on sale at around the 10 dollar price point, whether that's in 6 months or 3 years is of little consequence. I've waited 10 years for the sequel of my dreams, and I may have to wait another 10. Edit: Removed USGS thing entirely. It kept confusing people. There is no terraforming, period.

[deleted, but leaving the reply since it has something useful - BL] People are not stupid and they're not blind either. Forget mods, that word is loaded. What people are seeing is at the very least EA is going to make it hard to implement 3rd party custom buildings because they want to sell DLC that are cheap and easy to produce. Making mods that extend the game require work and have higher costs to produce. Wiping out custom buildings is easy and they see it as 400-500 hours of intern work per DLC = thousands and thousands of DLC sales = massive profit per sale. If the community is making custom buildings then they're relatively very expensive DLC packs suddenly become a whole lot less valuable due to the lack of scarcity. Custom buildings is something that's been around for awhile now, if you've been paying attention. I'm not too happy about going from from the current situation to one where I'm forced to buy their content only. If you weren't there, I'll let you in on a little lesson learned during Simcity Societies. You see, EA said it was going to be the most moddable Simcity ever. They lied. They flat out lied though their teeth. Tilted Mills ended admitting that there was never any plans put into place to open up importing new models into the game for the community. That the license they had for the technology they used NEVER allowed for that in the first place. You could muck thought he XML files, but you couldn't import new buildings. You know why, because had Societies been successful, EA was going to sell expansion packs with buildings and that was the only way new models were going to be allowed into the game. And because the community couldn't make their own models to fix problems and the game didn't sell well so EA never made any expansion packs, aka GEMS, for the game, the game DIED (needlessly too as the game was actually fun when what was available XML wise was modded correctly). Which brings us back to the obvious situation with Simcity2013. So when people go off about mods, they're not dumb. It's easy to see what EA is doing and at that level, it seems so sleazy and greedy it's depressing to see it come from the group that is in charge and in control of Simcity. Doesn't make the future of Simcity seem so great.

I'm sorry, everyone else may buy what you are selling but I'll keep my money. EA and Maxis had a chance and they chose to ignore loyal fans and go in a new direction. That is fine if they want to do that, but they should not call the game Sim City in my opinion. You wrote: "Folks, most people want to see a rocking city..." Maybe most folks do or do not, that is their business and subject to change frequently I'm sure for most of us. One of the great things about Sim City 4 is that it had something for everyone who took an interest in the game. To me bigger tiles, or smaller tiles is irrelevant at this point. SC2013 is more about social matters, both ingame and the players. I don't need EA or anyone directing how or how often I interact or don't interact. The focus should be primarily on zoning and construction. In SC4 the social aspect was there as a sideline and could be indulged in or ignored depending on the whims of the player. Some say those like myself are afraid of change but that is said in ignorance of the facts. I remember when I got my copy of SC3 and got it installed. I marvelled at the changes and how different the game looked and as I played and discovered the inner changes I was even more pleased. The point IS they built upon what had come before and did the same with SC4. The game was recognizable as being the same game but like a baby grows, so did Sim City with each new patch, update, or release. That is until now. Perhaps you forget the online requirement that many of us cannot/will not commit to. That alone is a killer for many. As far as I am concerned SC2013 is not Sim City. It may be a distant cousin, I don't know and I don't care. I don't like its' looks.

One has to consider legacy... The original Sim City set the standard for what a city-building simulation should be. Sim City 2000 trumped the original in so many ways, raising the bar considerably. And, if anyone recalls, they tried multiplayer with SC2000: Network Edition - it was such a failure that they never developed it beyond the Windows version (ie Mac and other platforms). Maxis tried to go full-3d with Sim City 3000, but abandoned it when they couldn't produce quality graphics with reasonable system requirements. EA bought Maxis and released SC3k using a more streamlined version of SC2k's isometric system. Didn't trump SC2k, but still made a lot of improvements and further raised the bar. Sim City 4 added regions play (vs theoretical neighbors) and full customization options (including BAT and LE), trumping all prior incarnations of Sim City. In each and every case, Sim City expanded dramatically while retaining every aspect of the core gameplay. FaceBook City (aka SimCity 2013) has thrown it all out the window in an effort to appeal to the Social Networking Gamer, further forsaking the loyal Sim City fans who have suffered through ten long years of abandonment like concert junkies camped outside the ticket office. And EA is screwing themselves over with a double-whammy: 1 ~ The game they're trying to push has little to no appeal to Sim City fans because it deviates so far from everything they've come to expect from any game bearing the Sim City name (a major factor in why Sim City Societies flopped so hard). 2 ~ The FaceBook Freaks they're pandering to generally aren't the sort who are willing (or able) to drop $60-$80 in one shot on a game. In short: Those who can buy it won't, and those who would buy it can't.

Q: Now that EA has confirmed that to play SimCity you will need a constant internet connection, even in solo play, due to the global economy aspects of the game, I assume this to be a centralized system, what will Maxis do to prevent/deal with the inevitable shutdown of the servers (they recently announced this for 14 games) that will turn this game effectively in a useless plastic disc in a paper box, as is the fate of every game that relies on a central server for activation, DRM checking, online aspects, etc.?

Will transit networks be able to cut into terrain and/or have retaining walls to avoid the "Cannot flatten terrain" errors frequent with laying complicated networks on slopes in SC4?

Q: Will multiplayer be free?

The makers of Tropico implemented a population cap of 1500 citizens I think in one island in Tropico 4. They reason that higher population will slow the game down significantly for most systems or something to that effect. Not that Simcity 5 will work the same way, but will a population cap be implemented per city in SimCity 5 seeing as 'agents' are individually simulated? My knowledge with these things aren't... vast, but wouldn't the game suffer from simulating agents individually or something like that? Can I, in theory, make a city of 1 million? (The three questions are more or less related .)

For those of you who want to add extra value to your textures by making them line up with parts of your model, you can make what is called (or, at least, what I call) a 1:1 texture. Meaning, you don't have a bitmap that tiles over and over or one that you need to stretch with a UVW map top get to the right size, but rather one that is designed for one specific place on a model and fits without tiling. NOTE: To do this properly, you will need an image editor that uses layers. In this tutorial I use Photoshop, but GIMP and other like it are acceptable alternatives. ~~~~~ Lets say you have a little building with some extraordinary roof junk and a nice, but simple roof texture. I call it "The No-Door Bar, Grille, and Dental Supply Emporium LLC." Lets say this is the bitmap you want to use for your roof. Its nice, but nothing special: You put this in your BAT thread and some annoying HoTsim jerk keeps pestering you about better roof textures. You want to get back at this whiny shmuck and make a really nice roof material. So what do you do? First things first. Take a nice big screenshot of the top (orthogonal) view of your model. I'd also turn off the "Show Standard map in viewport" option off or simply use the wire frame for this. Yep, that's The No-Door Bar, Grille, and Dental Supply Emporium LLC in all it's glory. You have a screenshot and thats all well and good, but what now? Post that baby into your roof texture bitmap (you may want to lower the opacity so you can see the texture under it) Then scale it up to fit the size of the bitmap. NOTE: it is very important to hold SHIFT to constrain proportions while you scale. If you don't, then nothing will line up properly. Also, make sure no areas are cut off by the edge of the canvass after you have finish scaling. After that's all said and done, crop the whole thing to the very edges of what is the roof in your model (that is, crop out the walls). You can ignore cut-outs in your model, but they can be handy for identifying the orientation of your model on the texture. At this point you may want to save a version of this texture to check the placement. Back in your model, add a UVWmap to the roof object, but do not change the dimensions. The values generated should be the exact size of the object. If you had a 5x5x5m box and added a UVWmap, the UVW map should start out as 5x5m (5x5x5m when you select "box" within the modifier). You may have to rotate or re-orient the bitmap using the gizmo on the UVWmap, but the size and X,Y,Z location should be correct. I hid the roof junk so I could see how well things lined up. If you look close you can see the faint green lines that were present on the bitmap as well. You are one step closer to showing that BAT troll whats what, congratulations! Now comes the fun. From here, you will want to add a new layer OVER both the base/source bitmap and the screenshot you added, and only paint on that layer (see HERE to look at what order you should have). Using your screenshot as a guide, start painting along edges, around junk, and anything else you want with a good brush with low opacity and flow (so you don't go overboard). Add stains, rust marks, replaced roofing sections, or whatever else you want. You should end up with something like this: Obviously you want to turn off your guide before you save this and apply it to your model. The final bitmap you will use will be like this: Unhide your roof junk and see how it looks! Oh No-Door Bar, Grille, and Dental Supply Emporium LLC., you have never looked better! That will show that 'em! ~~~~~ Obviously my result isn't perfect and, like your attempts, should be refined further. You should, however, get the right idea and be able to try this on your own. You should try several things when trying to achieve effects on the material before calling it a day. Try different layer styles like overlay or try using multiple layers. You never know how something is going to turn out until you hit the preview button. I threw this together in a rush before work, but I hope it is helpful enough to do some good. Cheers!

I am quite skeptical of the game at this point. One of the reasons that there is so much hate is that many of the features being trumpeted by EA are in direct contravention of what the vast majority of SC fans wanted to see. I think Glassbox is a great leap forward but that alone cannot hold up a game when the rest of the game is going in reverse. SC4 is still going strong today because it allows for large regional play and the modds have ameliorated some of the weakest parts of the game (NAM, CAM, etc). Terraforming has been part of the game since SC2K. Each successive SC also expanded the size and scope of the city without throwing out many of the main features that people enjoyed. If they wanted to know what people liked, they could have looked at many of the SC for that exist or even just look at their own website. A better strategy would have been to focus on many of the wishlist items that we wanted to see for years. Show us how you fixed the problems of SC4 in SC2013 if you want to build excitement from the fan base. Instead, they have basically opted to inform us that many of the core featurs no longer exist. It is a strategy that comes off as tone deaf. I don't see cloud storage among any fan's list of priorities. I didn't see a clamoring for a reduction in city size. I also fail to see where there was any real demand for multiplayer, especially in the form being offered. I keep searching but can't seem to find this burning hatred for terraforming. I have yet to hear fans crying out about having too much control over neighbor connections and wanting it done for them. The fact that they have been quiet about the aray of mass transit options leads me to think that those have been seriously curtailed given the other reductions. That is almost a dealbreaker on its own for me. Given the failure of games such as Societies and lackluster titles such as Cities XL, fans are right to be critical of the latest offering. I will be waiting for the game's release and subsequent deconstruction on these forums before I spend any money of this title.