Zargrim

Are you crazy? This entire game should be structured for online. See Age of Empires Online and Settlers Online as perfect examples of both models. The real problem is not getting people to play online. It's what platform will the game be available on at release. If it's Origin only you can bet the game will see dismal results at first. Nobody wants to use that software. If it ships on STEAM and Impulse and basically everywhere then you might see an explosion of players online. Assuming the software is developed with multiplayer from the ground up. Cities XL was a good idea it just failed to deliver on so many levels. Looking at some of the newer games and using a simular approach albeit a bit different, Sim City 5 could potentially be an amazing online game that you could even play itself when your offline. I'm really enjoying Settlers online. It's not Sim City but the way it's designed and the time it takes to build stuff and produce resources and population is just perfect. Log in every day maybe a few times and play for 10-15 minutes or sit there for hours redesigning everything. To be honest the free to play or free to pay model actually works wonders for this genre just don't give EA too many ideas or we'll end up with an extra year in development as they retool and try and catch up to the rest of the industry =) Anyways I hope it's good and yes I will be playing online entirely if given the chance. I want to trade resources with cities and broker deals with other players for goods and services. Of course I also want to visit your cities. Perhaps you need more police for that Stanley Cup hockey game? =) If anything I want to just be able to trade resources to build stuff. Again I hope the Sim City developers are paying attention to the games out there now and getting some newer ideas and not just rehashing the old ones. In real life it takes resources to build stuff just like it should in the game. Building things should take time so that the value for the time and effort is higher. In Settlers Online I'm now level 20 and all my road technology has upgraded allowing me to construct nice brick curbs and stone roads instead of Medeival cobble. It also gives the Mayor rpg elements and progression system that can tie into adventures for 1 or more player. All kinds of stuff has been extrapolated for free to play and it's incredibly addicting. If Sim City 5 was simular but included the tradition Sim City elements it would be just amazing. Especially all rolled into one seemless multiplayer online/oflline experience. BTW anyone who thinks City Building games are not for online just hasn't played a good one yet. One word...Persistent... When I log out of Settlers Online my city keeps working. When I log back in things have changed. It's such a brilliant concept and nobody but a free to play game is doing it. Being an online game doesn't just imply you will have someone on your region building or getting in your way. You might not be connected to any players in any way at all yet can still facilitate the need for trade with players via resources and building limtations based on time and resources. Being able to visit someones city could be as easy as adding them to your friends list. You don't need a massive world map with people all connected via regions or anything like that. Sure you could offer that as an option or game mode but being online doesnt just mean playing with someone in your region. It could be as simple as DRM itself with friends list and persistent cities, the ability to trade with other players, and or visit their cities. I don't want Sim City 4 with better graphics. To be honest I want the depth and complexity but in a much better package and layout. I for one did not like region play. I never liked the maps I was building on and the way it showed the entire world with different regions connected just didn't do anything for me. I dont mind connecting cities so much but using one for dity industry and another for tech etc was kind of lame in some ways. I prefered the old school single map with more realistic balanced cities. I would like to see that again only built into a server inostrcture with persistence and resources etc. I remember playign Settlers Online for the first time and being mad I could not cancel an action I made. I dropped a building down that took resources to build but I put it in the wrong spot. I could cancel it but I would still lose resources. There is no undo button in that sense. You have to plan careful and if you make a mistake you have to work with it for a while to correct it. So eventually I tore the building down and replaced it when I had stockpiles of extra resources. Most buildings build fairly quickly once you have the resources. However lets say building a 100 story sky scraper... Well in Settlers Online that would probably take a few days realtime. When you think about it, it really should since it's such a long process in reality and the end result is you apreciate your city MUCH more. You grow it and shape it continuously with resources you sometimes have to just sit back and wait for. So I really hope we get something a bit different for Sim City 5 but still with all the good stuff. Hopefully travel times will be much more realistic.. Hell people drive 3 hours to work and back these days. I hope the simulation is as good as the design.

Originally posted by: MINIggy03 Originally posted by: CZAR ALEKSANDER and now have some magazine for this site and not one bloody word on cities xl nothing but simcity4 and that is not very fair for the people who play cities xlquote> well, to their defense, this is a simcity 4 fansite I just figured since Monte Cristo is using Simtropolis as their unofficial message boards, that there would be occasional features showcasing CitiesXL, like the busses update.quote> Maybe Monte Cristo could actually do something right for a change and use some of that subscription money to run their own forum. Christ and they call it an MMO and it doesnt even have a forum. Seriously I can see how much time people have wasted on that game up until this point and it's clear to me why this site or any other doesnt provide more information or updates about Cities XL.

I have been waiting for this game for a long time now. Then I find out that the single player component is only a fraction of the full game and I need to subscribe to get access to all the features. Are you people at Monte Cristo that stupid or am I dreaming right now? Not only am I not planning on buying the game but I have lost all interest for it completely. Last Monte Cristo game I played had unresolved sound issues with FMOD license. If you guys even survive this brutal release you might want to change your company name because I will certainly not be buying anything with your name on it or anything associated with it. Good day.