BurroDiablo

Well, if Maxis has an new engine which their using for SC5 then it's probably been in the pipeline for well over a year. Cain may started a small ripple of enthusiasm for Sim City with his 9/9/9 thing, but I doubt he is the sole reason. Certainly, EA/Maxis seems to have used it as a spring board to get their new Facebook page up without it looking like their preparing to announce something... and it worked to a degree...

For those saying we can't use SC4 content... yes, you won't be able use the exported and batted lots from SC4, and NAM isn't going to work obviously, but if BAT'ers still have their base 3D models available (that they rendered for SC4) then they may be able to port them quite easily over to SC5. Of course, this time BAT'ers will have to take more into consideration such as poly counts, proper UV mapping and texturing (normals, specular, gloss and occlusion maps) plus an all important attention to detail, nothing an intermediate 3D Artist can't do and a novice can't learn. Still, all we can do right now is speculate, I know there'll be more to it than that (nightlighting, abandonment, weather possibly), we'll have to wait and see.

Also interesting to note the Official Sim City Facebook page was created on the 18 October 2011 (at least, that's the first comment), the day after the Youtube Channel. This is definitely a planned upsurge in Sim City activity from EA/Maxis. By now anybody who isn't convinced SC5 is coming wins this years stubborn skeptic award.

Sorry but there is a mistake. The question is about the possibility to import buildings from the SIMS to get more players to play SC5 which she denied because the games are to different. Phew, I was worried for a second there! Still, it's kind of an odd question... import buildings from the Sims? Oh well. Seriously, Sim City without custom content is like... like... some awesome simile I haven't thought of yet. edit One of my German friends translated the Lucy Bradshaw bit further if anybody is interested... I notice the mention of... multiplayer (reasonable multiplayer). Wonder how that'll turn out

If I came back to SC modding, there is no way I would charge for anything I made. STEX is a great example of how people are willing mod and model for the sake of a better game for everyone, it's free modding that's kept SC4 going for near on a decade. I would pay for DLC if it added a lot of useful stuff, but if it was just a building here or there for £5 then I would rather just leave it.

I'll admit, Maxis' track record in creating Sim City games has been so far... flawless, but it's been 10 years nearly since they last delved into this area. The images may be concepts rather than actual screenshots since they all look quite different, but I don't see anything that should be a cause for concern. I can see elevated rail, monorails, trams, winding roads (taking a leaf out of NAM by the looks of it. w00t), dynamic lots (bigger w00t), awesome looking industry, road-through-buildings, W2W buildings, bridge-over-road, Regions?! (edge of the map visible on image #4)... so it seems in Maxis' mind, all these things are on the cards which is really quite amazing. I hope the game has some great modding capabilities, I'll be jumping right in there

It's sounding great, but I can't help but feel a little sceptical. Graphics and computer power is definitely here and able to handle such a game, and it's nice that they haven't forgotten about the core of the franchise, it's been far too long. However, if it divulges too much from the formula as Societies did, they might as well take the franchise round the back of the barn and put it out it's misery. I'll be watching this develop with baited breath.

Certainly looking forward to more Industry

Wasn't impressed by the Beta so I didn't buy 2009, but I've enjoyed 2011 so far, it's longevity is questionable if Focus Home don't give us modding tools. However, a few things, some have already been mentioned- - English roads look super ugly with every intersection being a Box Junction (yellow criss-cross patterns), they should only really be on high capacity roads, Avenues, Expressways etc. - Camera needs to be more flexible - There needs to be a way to turn snapping OFF, for roads and buildings. Building roads near the edge of the map can get very frustrating. - 'Furniture' needs to NOT appear on roads that aren't built up. Same goes for Lightposts. - Farms Farms Farms Farms... what's still with the perpetual ugly textures? They need a re-vamp. Give us the tools, we'll do it ourselves! That's all I got just now, obviously there's tonnes of stuff I'd/we'd like added, but we shouldn't become too demanding, be glad this was even released at all. It could have all gone down the pan along with MC.

Just opened up Steam for the first time in months to find this. It's a Top Seller too. Thought it was rather odd that they didn't mention moddability in the little blurb they put along with it, they're missing a massive selling point.

7 and a half ***** years I've had this game and never, ever noticed this!

Just got a hold of A-Train 8... its pretty terrible tbh, has less features than the last A-Train game I played, but A-Train 9 looks slightly more promising. Hope it comes out in English sooner or later.

I used to have 'AIV Global: Evolution' on the PSOne, was an awesome game, but had to leave it to run overnight to make any serious money.

A massive shame, I wish the team all the best for the future.

Its certainly got a lot of replay value, I got my hands on the 'Absolute Power' expansion a few days ago and the game has sucked me straight back in. The Absolute Power expansion doesn't exactly add much, the most noteworthy addition is the 'Meglomania' Edicts which include stuff like Printing Money (increasing inflation), Outlawing factions, Privatisation and Shooting Juanito (the Radio DJ... made me laugh). There's also the emergence of an annoying Anarchist called 'Betty Boom', she's a DJ like Juanito but her job is to stubbornly oppose everything you do, she gets really upset when you win landslide victories in elections XD. The Campaign that comes with it is MUCH more difficult than the classic campaign. Yeah, so, I'm back on the Tropico.

"The possibilities are endless!... uh, actually, make that about... Six" ... yeah, EA had the illusion of choice down to a tee.

Definitely worth it. I don't like RPGs at all, I wasn't a fan of TES: Oblivion (Bethesda's other popular game) but Fallout 3 is simply fantastic, one of my all time favourite games.

Awesome, thanks for this.I might get my hands on some Maya 2011, I have 2010 but its a bit of a train-wreck when it comes to rendering which is horrible since it's essential to my Uni course.

Its on the SC4D LEX - www.sc4devotion.com/ Search Creator/Designer for 'Caliban'. [Merged into Can't Find it? Look here!]

Originally posted by: Mithrik You didn't used the Army creation, right?.quote> I can't remember, I recall something a long those lines but I think it was quite limited. I was a little hasty in my assumptions, they may not be stacked units at all, they probably build like that which would be a shame. What I was getting at is being able to build a combined arms group (I.E you can attach a platoon of cavalry to your platoon of rifles in order to increase their strength and resilience against certain types of attack) would be awesome... just have to wait and see I guess.

Bought Civ4 when it was released but never really got into it. I hated the stacking units thing it did, you could only attack with a single unit at a time, end tier games became long and boring stalemates until somebody made a mistake. Looking at the single screenshot, looks like they've solved that problem by allowing you to attack with stacked platoons, whoo!