willisj

I have enjoyed playing it but I think the "thrill" has worn off. I love the concept of the new game (I wont dignify it by calling it SimCity) but I have found it so restrictive and limited compared to SC4:RH that it quickly becomes boring. As others here have said, I used to spend (far too) many hours on SC4 enjoying every moment of the time but with the new one I just play a bit then stop, quickly becoming bored. With SC4:RH we could play the game as we wanted to, thanks mainly to the efforts of modders/creators on this site, now the new game is "Play EA's way, or get lost". That doesnt sit well with me.

I apologise if I have re-opened a "dead thread" but this is a similar graphics/video problem I'm having with Cities XL 2011. While playing my game, it runs fairly well for a while until my screen goes blank and I get the message "Input Not Supported" and my monitor goes into Stand-by mode. I run my monitor at its native res (1680 x 1050 32bit clr) at a 60Hz locked refresh rate. After I reboot the pc, the res is still the same but the refresh rate has changed to (usually) 59Hz. I was using the no-pollution mod so I removed it and tried again but same thing, game plays for a while then goes blank. It only does this on Cities XL 2011, all other games/programs are working normally. Graphics card is Radeon HD2400 512MB using DVI output. CPU is P4 (2 processor) 3GHz with 2GB RAM. Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit (4096 MB swap file) - all drivers etc updated to latest available. Any suggestions you might have on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated, it's driving me mad to get into a city and have it crash halfway through!!!!!!!!

Have to agree with the others, Soltangris, that was a well considered and fair post! I am one of the SP only players and, yes, I would have liked a bit more but, as you said, MC is the author and developer of CXL and they have the absolute right to release/withhold any content/features they deem appropriate. When all is said and done, we can either accept what we are given or, vote with our wallets and not buy anything from MC again, but constant carping about CXL only annoys everyone (and again I am just as guilty of that too.........) and really serves little purpose. At worst, MC could be considered a little "one-eyed" against SP's but from what I have read, they are not immovable and seem to be coming round a bit. I'm quite happy to adopt a wait and see attitude towards CXl's future. Again, thanks for a great post.

I wrote to MC on recently and received a response within 24 hrs. I originally wrote to MC about my disgust at how solo players were being left out and they wanted me to provide more information. A further 24hrs later I received an email from them with specific answers to my questions. They were very polite and they SEEM interested in what we have to say, and how we feel about the game, but will they LISTEN??? Sadly, I dont think they will.

My 7 day PO expired a few days ago and I wont be renewing it - EVER. I am a solo only player and never had any intention of playing online. I like the game hugely, for what it is, but feel that MC has been very rude and uncaring towards CUSTOMERS like me who only want to play by themselves on their own PCs. I see no value in paying to play a game that I paid $69AUD for only to find that it is a "knobbled" version if you play solo. MC has a hide to release a game and then get you you pay a monthly ransom, or you will get nothing else from them, even EA wasnt that greedy with SC4 (SIMS3 is another matter tho.........). I also dont see why I should be forced to play a game I purchased on, a laggy server instead of on my own, very fast PC, without the distraction of the continuous, mindless babble in the chat window. Very disappointed in Cities XL, Monte Cristo, I will be thinking twice before I purchase any more titles from your company again.

I have enjoyed playing the solo game so far but I am really frustrated with the lack of content that came with the shipped game. There is no region play and the AI wont trade properly in solo mode. The lack of mass transit is the killer for me. I cannot see how MC, or anyone could have released a city builder game without it!!!! I agree with all said in the above message too so I wont repeat it in this one. Cities XL, on the whole is a good game and I think it will improve with time but I think MC has treated solo mode players as lepers of sorts. Not everyone wants to play online games MC!

I am a little disappointed that we English speakers will have to wait a little longer for Cities XL because most of us are climbing the walls to get our hands on it. However, it IS up to the developer to decide how.when & where their product is released etc. I dont care when it comes out in English, I will buy it regardless !! Lets not use what promises to be a spectacular game as a rallying point for cheap, rude shots at the Americans it's very juvenile of you. (No, Im not American, Im Australian) Thanks, MC for all your work in trying to give us, game-starved, Sim City 4 nuts what we are screaming out for, we appreciate it greatly. Well, I'm off now to continue my wall-climbing....................

Hi Fivexthesecond & Liv, Thanks for your replies. We got the house rewired with surge suppressors etc and I have just bought a UPS for the home network. Not gonna get caught out like that again! Just started to re-install everything again and I'm glad you mentioned the patches, I didnt think of them. I'm grateful for the help that everyone on here so freely gives. All the best, Will Happy Valentines Day to All Simtroppers.

G'day All, A while ago, due to a fractious neighbour's tree and our power lines, I lost several HDs. In my rush to get my PC running again, I stupidly forgot to do a proper backup of my SC4 Plugins folder (D'OH!). Read as lost the lot........... Thanks to the generosity and talent of the Simtropolis and it's creators (Thank You All!!), I had a huge collection of files going back to around 2003. My question is what essential files should I re-install? By that I mean are there any files that I MUST re-install to ensure proper working? Big question, I know but I really would appreciate any advice. I loaded my other games but I am really hanging out to play SC4 again, in all it's former glory, it's still my fav!!!!!!!! Many thanks in advance for any suggestions you could offer. Regards, Will

Congratulations to EA! Regardless of what you might think of SCS, EA has pulled off a real coup in even getting this turkey of a game into the charts at all. They must have one heck of a PR firm. Just as well the ratings are made on sales, not satisfaction......... Bring on SC5, EA, you owe it to us!

Thank you all for your thoughts, I'm glad to see that this little glitch annoys other players too. I think Tropod might be right in that it is probably hard coded into the program so there is little can be done. Funny thing is though that it is not consistent throughout the menu structures, not all of my menus close when I select something, some stay open. Anyway thanks for taking the time to answer my dumb question! All the best, Will

Hi all, I hope I have not posted this in the wrong forum. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way or mod that makes the menus remain open until closed by the user? When using, for example, my Landmarks menu, once I select an item, the menu closes and, because of the number of lots etc in the menu, takes forever to re-open. Same with all the other menus, particularly the Rewards menu which goes back to the top when you close it. It seems that half my game time is spent waiting for menus to open!!! I'm probably just being impatient and should learn to wait, but if anyone has any ideas on how to get around this little problem, I would appreciate hearing from you. All the best, Willisj

Societal engergies????? What on Earth has EA been drinking/ingesting/inhaling? Games like City Life, CivCity:Rome and Tycoon City: NY have tried to go down the "Societal energies" track and they all have failed. Sim City 4 only ever dealt with one thing i.e. Building Cities and growing them and, funny thing, SC4 is still one of the most popular games going. Wonder why? Good luck to EA with Societies, but I will stick with SC4. I doubt I would buy it when it is released. I want to to be a city builder not a nursemaid for a bunch of neurotics. Now excuse me, I must go adjust the kharmic resonances and societal tinctures in a neighbouring region's Obedience Aura.