Romaq

Not to rez a dead topic, but I've just started playing SimCity (2013). There do appear mods that work for online and offline, and it will usually say so in the mod. I'm also using the "Mods Switch" program that deals with mods before I start playing, and it seems to work well. I'm using online so my wife can enjoy the game with me in cooperative play, the only reason I picked SimCity rather than the superior offerings. SimCity also keeps things simple which helps my wife. If you still have questions or would like to chat over SimCity (2013), I would be glad to do that.

After a very long hiatus from Simtropolis, I decided to purchase SimCity with my wife so we could do "co-op". I thought of trying to do it with SC4, but for my wife and I to do "co-op" it seemed we would be looking for trouble, even with a shared hard-drive or using Dropbox. I think what so many of us were looking for... I know what *I* was looking for: SimCity4, only 64 bit, 3d, curved roads. Let us have mods. My wife and I played Civilization for a while. Do you want offline? Sure! How about setting up a quick game online through their servers, picking and choosing what DLCs everyone agrees to? Ok! Would you like to play private LAN? No problem! Civ didn't care. Just have fun! Sweet plumbob... I would so love to have SimCity4 baked in new 64 bit 3d tech with co-op/ competitive modes like Civ or Minecraft offers. Anyway, my wife and I are playing SimCity, and it's "ok". A decent break from our Minecraft server. But I sure wish EA had gotten out of Quigley's way.

I'll miss single-player off-line the most, but mostly I plan to enjoy CitiesXL and SC4. I'll reconsider SimCity:MMO if it gets around the $20 price point and the hinky-dinks of playing SimCity "MMO style" have been worked out. Let those who enjoy their MMO city-building suffer the pain first.

SC4 plateau, SC:MMO plateau, whatever. 1) What control do we have over the interaction of other people in our online region we invited or were invited into, and what control do we have over the interaction with other regions within the world that run counter to our own interests, whatever our interests may be? 2) EA/ Maxis abandoned the SimCity franchise for a decade following Rush Hour. We have EA's history to know both the good and the bad of EA keeping game servers alive. SimTrop has been very good about keeping SimCity 4 a vibrant new 'game' in the decade since the franchise was abandoned by EA/ Maxis. How can we expect this to play out with SimCity:MMO? We can keep talking about how the game might plateau without the benefit of other players, finding other players in ADD ME! spam boards, it is just my opinion they are side tracks from point #1 of controlling negative aspects of forced online play we do not yet have details on. Point #2 is rather serious in my mind also.

Yay! Spam/ ADD ME! threads in forums so you can be 'friends' with a bajillion people you don't know or care about, never talk to, will never hear from again. And you can get to hope like hell they don't screw you over, nor have means to do so. Sure sounds like fun to me!

EA/ Maxis abandoned the franchise after SimCity: Rush Hour. I don't see why they should be any different. EA has been shutting down servers for games people have paid for, in one case in as little as 18 months after release. I don't see why this should be any different. Online games with interaction between people attracts griefers who make it a point to spoil the fun for everyone else in every conceivable way possible. I have no idea why this should be any different.

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/if-you-build-residential-homes-your-friends-will-move-in-SimCity-Social Quote: Let us know what you want to know about the game and we’ll take the best (and yes, some of the hardest questions) and answer them for you ... Leave your questions below, on Facebook or Twitter and stay tuned to see if your questions get answered. I posted the following on the blog, but it's likely to be ignored. People here are welcome to recycle my points below to express their concerns. If there is a solid wall of "WTF Online Required?", EA/ Maxis may still choose to ignore it, but those who review games for a living will certainly see it, and they may choose to pose these issues to the Dev team for the Dev team to continue to ignore them there. Note: #7 is simply a restatement of #1. I believe it is possible to be polite, but firm and insistent on getting some sort of answer. I also want to state, while I am hardly active on SimTrop, it really does chafe my undies that SimTrop has had no direct mention, no direct thanks that I have seen, that everyone else has had the benefit of direct interaction with SimTrop getting everything second-hand after-the-fact. Ocean's quote in my point #2 was like, "Thank you nameless modders for keeping our game selling over the last ten years, we know what you have done and we are happy for it. We are aware of it, we are not idiots. Thanks. Now go ___ yourselves." At least, that's how I see the EA/ Maxis response to a decade of SimTrop. If someone can correct that impression, I would be happy with correction. Right now, I am very unhappy with this mess of SimCity:MMO. Anyway, my 'seven' points concerning the online ball & chain I'd really like EA/ Maxis to address: 1) What possible compelling benefit is there to "forced online play" even between regions where the players are in 'solo online play' that makes this a core required "feature"? How are we to perceive this 'Net requirement as anything other than a ball & chain? How is it that Civ V appears to be able to work just fine with private LAN or 'Net play as an option, but EA/ Maxis can't? 2) It was stated that Mods were considered a vital part of the SimCity Franchise. Per an article on the new SimCity: "It's worth pointing out that the reason people are still playing SimCity 4 today, 10 years after we shipped it, is because the modding community essentially recreated it. They filled it with new content and fixed bugs, and made it as much of a hobby as a game. We're very cognoscente of that -- I mean, we're not idiots." Exactly how do mods work without creating exploits and griefer opportunity in an environment of forced online interaction? If I want a money-tree mod, how could I possibly be allowed to make one where it gives me advantage over anyone else playing? Again, I note that the technically competent staff over at 2kGames/ Firaxes offered mods out-of-the-box, hired a well known modder as a producer for Civ V and set up a system for solo players to enjoy mods fetched off Steam complete with ratings. For LAN and 'Net play, only DLCs are allowed. How could a mod environment thrive, the one Ocean recognizes preserved and bugfixed SimCity 4 possibly exist in a forced online environment? 3) Speaking of the fan community having to step in when EA/ Maxis appears to have abandoned SimCity for a decade since the release of Rush Hour, what assurance do we have of a 'live team' continuing to develop new content and breath fresh life into the game, and most importantly keep the required servers running so SimCity would continue to function in the face of ongoing EA layoffs and shutdowns of online services, including EA Sports MMA essentially shut down 18 months after game release? What is the assurance we have of EA's investment the lifespan of this SimCity release given the server requirement? 4) Given the nightmare of stories surrounding Settlers 7 and the online requirement... the server being down, quirks with the server, total inability to play the solo campaign mode offline, and how UbiSoft patched out the online requirement for many of its other games, even to the point of using an illegal cracked version of Rainbow Six: Vegas2 to patch problems with their legal online players, what steps will EA/ Maxis/ Origin take to make this forced online requirement less onerous to those who do not have a good 'Network connection, particularly to Americans visiting overseas or those in countries such as Egypt where the government can shut down The Internet at whim, or China where The Great Firewall of China can potentially cause issues with gameplay? What consideration is there for fans of the franchise who have metered bandwidth? 5) What is the plan to cover the costs of the server over the lifetime of the game without a subscription fee? If there will be a subscription fee, what is the justification for the comparatively steep price of the preorder for SimCity? 6) Could we have some details on how this forced online interaction is to take place between 'solo play' regions? Could we have details on how to promote SimCity to our friends without spamming them over Facebook? Could we have details on how we will find 'helpers' to assist us on building our regions? Details on 'eviction' of helpers who cause more harm then help within our region? Details on the protection of 'helpers' from 'evil' region controllers who express their gratitude over your work building your city in their region by banning you from your own city you created in their region? Could we have details on what happens to my forced online city when I go on vacation or extended stay away from being online? What harm does this cause my friend who invited me to help develop his region? What happens to my friends helping me on my region when I am the one who goes on extended leave? Are they forced to tolorate the behavior of a rogue member until I can return? 7) Could we please have a compelling arguement as to why this must be a core feature of the game that requires online interaction, even for 'solo' region players, where having this as an option would mitigate the above issues and even more? Please help us understand why forced online play for SimCity is such a compelling arguement in spite of the difficulties, concerns over EA/ Maxis's lack of involvement since SimCity: Rush Hour, EA's shutting down of servers and so on. I really strongly want to understand why this one feature makes all arguements against it simply not matter to EA/ Maxis.

Gell-Mann's Totalitarian Principle states: "Everything not forbidden is compulsory." While this statement was created in reference to quantum physics, it applies in a social sense also. If a given behavior is not explicitly forbidden in reference to "screwing over the world economy" in SimCity:MMO, such behavior will be compulsory, and the world economy will necessarily be screwed with. And people are endlessly creative in gaming the rules to run afoul of one another. I really like how Civ V avoids this problem. You can play solo, you can play LAN and you can play over their game server, and *YOU* get to choose. Too bad EA/ Maxis is not competent enough to see how to do that.

Online = 'Stealth DRM'. You can't DRM 'crack' an MMO without creating a back-end server.

So I explained to my wife, "THIS is how you would expect SimCity to look like, so the developers are working to make the game look like THIS. " I'm still... concerned about the "Online only/ Solo a region that is affected by all the other regions/ we won't call it DRM" aspect. Great eye-candy, though.

I'm going to be at the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this Saturday, and I'm not sure if we'll be back home in time. I also need to see if my wife will even consider it. I may just leave the house and go for a walk for the hour. The event will be 8:30pm my local Bellingham, WA time. I simply don't know. But I *do* thank you, Hahei, for bringing this up. I didn't even know about it. If the occasion arises, I'll ask about it at work. I brighten the corner of the world where I am because by doing so, it is good for *me*. I'm not sure what I'll do, but thank you for reminding me to at least consider it.

It does look fascinating, a game I'd really like to play. I just want to know if the game would survive a decade as well as SC4 has.

It still looks like Glassbox is server code that only runs on their server machines. EA has been shutting down servers, including a game that had only been on sale for 14 months. For my wife and I to both have a 'seat' at the game, and for both of us to enjoy the international packs on the pre-purchase, we have to spend $160 USD. Do I go on the basis of how well EA has supported SC4 over the last decade in my decision to trust EA to not bone us over the purchase of SC5 to enjoy for the next decade?

On the Multi-player aspect, I'm interested to know if my wife and I could work on different parts of the city within the same region without having to allow other people to join in. $160 USD is rather steep for two copies of the game, but that is something we are looking for. I'm also annoyed SimTrop is getting all this info second-hand, as if Maxis has to find every OTHER news outlet to talk with first before giving SimTrop the time-of-day. "Gee guys, you've kept this game going nearly 10 years, and we are really grateful for that. As an expression of our gratitude for your passion, let's just talk to everyone ELSE in the world, and y'all can go sit & spin."

EA Games wishes to thank you for supporting SimCity 4, your contributions to extending the game and your passion that keeps us visible and selling on the shelves. The best way we can come up to thank you for your support is by leaking SC5 concept art and in-game screen-shots to every frackin' body damned ELSE and letting you guys sit & spin. Thanks again for your support over the last decade. --- No I SERIOUSLY hope EA/ Maxis isn't that stupid in their treatment of SimTrop. Games come and go. QUICKLY. SimCity Box is STILL on the shelves for $20 USD at both my local Wal-Mart *AND* at BestBuy. I can't possibly see EA wasting space on a nearly 10 year old game nobody's buying anymore. I don't see how they could afford it. I also can't see why anyone would purchase SC:Box for SC: S. I have no idea if any of this is legit or not. But it would really suck bollocks if EA/ Maxis didn't get on the phone and invite Dirktator to PLEASE extend a warm thank you to SimTrop and pass along a few OFFICIAL tid-bits of what is going on. Then again, this is the same EA that produced SC: S, so ... whatever.