SimDragon

Nice pics to get things rolling. Rules on this forum are that picture are no larger than 800x600 so you might want to resize before they disappear. I see they still have the benches in the median of 4 lane roads. Not very realistic.

There are different types of hotels. First check your businesses and make sure you are putting down the right hotel. Next hotels must be on a road connected to a city link and the road must have a strong trade route on it. Its been awhile since I played the beta so I don't remember the exact term.

Originally posted by: moaku @Urbangamer1: Technically, you're still under NDA, but you can speak freely about everything in demo/final release, you just can't talk about what happened on/with the beta and it's forums nor publish screenshots / vids / informations / other content from the beta/forums... That's precisely why I'm not commenting over cheuk18me94's last post in this thread (I can almost hear Nilo laughting when reading this, cuz he knows what I mean )quote> Sorry to tell you but once the game is officially relased the NDA is null and void. They can't stop you from saying anything especially if you paid for the product. I played the beta and there is nothing in the NDA that says you can't discuss the beta after release. No need to scare people.

People can't team up and work on one city. Everyone gets their own city. You can play online without any interaction with another city or person and still make a giant city in less than a week. You do not need any cooperation from other players or cities to work on a blueprint but it does help. Yes I feel the PO is pointless. It's just single player with some extra bells and whistles with a chat channel and you can take your Avatard and walk around other peoples cities. And I doubt you will find anyone else to agree that this is Sim City 5. If it is I have been transported to a new galaxy.

Originally posted by: sparky66 When i (and i am sure many other people) pre-ordered the game there was the promise of a comprehensive bus system, to be released free to everyone, even non-PO subscribers, after the game has been released. now it seems that, after reading the interview with MC that we won't be getting that. below is a quote from that interview: "Mass transportation (including buses) will be part of the future features and, as such, will only be part of the Planet Offer." but wait a minuite. MC knew buses wern't going to be ready for the games release, thats why they said we would all be getting them free after the game was released. so how can they just change their mind like that? we were promised buses, the official website said so, and then they just decide that, for no good reason, we can't have them. isn't that false advertising? so they are basically saying that important game features weren't ready when the game was released, so you will have to pay a subscription to get them, and if you stop paying you will loose them! how can they treat customers like that? just another broken promise by MC.quote> MC does not expect (or want) anyone to really play single player. They want the online revenue stream that's why they have left out so much from single player. They put Single player in there so people can use it to get familiar with the game before jumping online and to use it as a sand box to test things for online. They don't really expect anyone to play single player for very long. So in their eyes they are not breaking promises.

Originally posted by: michael63000 So I will have to be online to play it no matter what right? quote> Bottom Line is if you create a city online in the Planet Offer you always have to be online to play that particular city. Whether or not you pay your monthly fee you will be able to play any single player offline cities with limitied options. You won't be abel to play your online city in offline mode.

Originally posted by: remixedcat am I the only one who thinks the curvy roads was just one big gimmick? With square lots quote> I admit I thought "wow true curvy roads, how cool is that"? But after playing the beta I agree it is just a gimmick because you can't build on them to save your life. You have so much unused space that you can only fill in with the hideous parks they give you if your lucky. The one size fits all square lots really ruin the game in my opinion, especially for the curved roads. Edited quoted language

I love your graphic abcvs. Most of these comments are hype to generate excitement for the game. You see this with all games. MC feeds these sites and mags info to generate the hype for the release, its called marketing. What will be interesting is to watch if the comments change after the game is released. My guess is most of these sites won't even comment on the game after release. Why do I keep seeing that our expectations are to high? Simcity came out in 1989. I started playing in 1990. I have been playing many different types of CB games over that 19 years and I expect games to get better. Currently the latest CB games bore me, I lose interest rather quickly. Does this mean that my expectations are to high? I don't agree. High expectations drive companies to make things better, if high expectations are not voiced then things might not get better. It's called supply and demand. Right now I demand a better game than what MC looks like it is going to deliver so I will not spend my hard earned money on what MC is supplying. If enough people feel this way then MC has to change its gaming model to meet demand or risk failure. If not then they have a successful game and I am in the minority. I am fine with being in the minority as long as I realize it. This way I will not consider playing CB games anymore. I am not a philanthropist, investor or venture capitalist so I will not fund a company to experiment on my entertainment especially if I don't think it has any chance of meeting my expectations. I played the beta and have a pretty good feeling of them game and feel it will not meet my expectations in its current state. The only voice we really have these days is how we spend our money. So please stop telling me my expectations are to high and that nobody can meet them. That implies I am better than others, gaming developers aren't smart enough to design a game I want or I am too old to play these games anymore and should move on to other forms of entertainment. Instead I will save my money for the next game that I feel will give me my money's worth.

Why are we as a community attacking each other over different view points about a game. The point of being part of a community is being able to discuss things freely, not bash each other because we see things in a different light. Well you can't say we are not a passionate group. One thing I think most people are missing in this whole discussion of CXL vs SC4 is when ever you go to purchase something new to replace something old the something old is your benchmark. We really are judging against the benchmark to determine if we are getting our money's worth out of the something new rather than just holding onto the something old. Yes SC4 was released in January of 2003. Is it fair to compare CXL coming out in 2009 to a game in 2003? Maybe not, but doesn't it speak volumes about these games. Doesn't it speak volumes like it or not that we are comparing it to SC4 no matter how hard we try not to? Many City Builders have come out since SC4 and many of us have played them. But we all go back to the benchmark of SC4. Yes you may have enjoyed some of the other city builder games but who hasn't reinstalled SC4 or gone back to it after playing them? Why because it was more fun and it became the benchmark. Plus we have a fan base and awesome communities like Simtropolis that keep it alive. What I think is happening is people are getting to the point of why bother with the new game if its not going to be more fun than SC4? Another difference is the city builder core players are very unique and have been playing for so many years we are very particular on what we want. This could actually be the death of the genre because nobody is filling the niche and the benchmark is not changing. Maybe if you think it differently we can be more understanding. When you buy a new car you do the same thing if you are trying to just upgrade the same model. You own a 2002 Camaro and it cost you 25K fully loaded. (hypothetical numbers) They stopped making the Camaro after 2002. Why because only the diehard Camaro lovers were buying them and the rest of the sports car fans found the Camaro past its time and lacking in features that everyone wanted. The 2010 Camaro comes back on the market. You decide to upgrade your 2002 for a 2010. You now have your 2002 as your benchmark. You test drive the 2010 Camaro which costs 35K. Well you find out Chevy decides nobody needs CD players anymore so your radio does not have a CD player. Oh you can't get an RS version with a spoiler and fancy rims because Chevy thinks the new style looks better than anything else out there so you don't need them. It doesn't handle better than my 2002 and the acceleration is not like my 2002. It's upgraded looks are very appealing and it does 200 mph and my 2002 only does 140 mph. My 2002 gets 20 mpg and the 2010 gets 21 mpg. (again all hypothetical) So you decide based on your benchmark. It looks cool but I can't get a CD player, fancy rims, a spoiler, I only get 1 mpg more 8 years later and its costs me 10K more. Your either going to decide to keep your benchmark because its not worth the money for the new Camaro that's missing features you really want and your benchmark 2002 is still fun to drive and runs well or your going to go test drive other sports cars to get what you want and maybe buy another car instead. Same thing is happening here folks. Its called exercising your right to spend you dollar where you want. I played the beta and made my benchmark comparison and I can say hands down SC4 is more enjoyable in the long run and I went back to playing SC4. I will save my dollar for a possible future replacement. Seriously, I thought many things about CXL sounded good and I gave the it a shot in the beta but it did not wow me. Curved roads are cool in the game but you can't build against them because all the lots are square. After trying to shoe horn buildings in around a curve it makes things look hideous. The Avatar makes no sense to me and is a waste of code because it serves no purpose. Dancing in somebody elses city and making emotes loses its appeal after the first time. The big disappointment for me was the actual lack of city to city interaction. You are playing all alone with a chat window and you can trade some items if you want to but you don't have to. There is more city to city interaction in region play in SC4. I know its been mentioned at nausea but mass transit killed it for me. In SC4 I am planning my mass transit from the moment I plop my first power plant. I think that's why I was so bored in CXL because I did not have that to guide me in my city layout. You can't even plan for it because you don't even know how much space any of it will take up. You really can't compare the money side of it. The fact is if the game seemed enjoyable and it had all the must have features and the online play and the GEMs made it so much more enjoyable you would spend the money if you could.

Originally posted by: hanskamp Originally posted by: baertooth And then what happens when MC pulls the plugs on the servers? Then you have half the game you bought and that's ok? No game is worth that. And I won't, will not, and absolutely refuse to ride on that sinking ferry to nowhere.quote> And will they pull the plug? The same can happen to World of Warcraft that works in the same way. It was launched in 2004 in the US, and in 2005 in Europe, but Blizzard never pulled the blug, so WoW still exist. The same to Cities XL. There is no reason to assume, MC will pull the plug. quote> You leave out one impotant fact my friend. WoW has more than 11 million players world wide. Why would they pull the plug on the cash cow and the fan base is awaiting to fork out money for the next expansion. Will MC be able to say this even on a smaller scale? We shall see. I played the beta and got very bored. I never intended to play the "MMO" part of the game but after hearing what will not be in the single player mode I will not buy the game. It does not have promising longevity in my opinion. Just because its pretty and 3D does not make it worth it in my book if it bores me. The suggestion about playing the demo and deciding what you want out of the game is going to be your best barameter whether to buy the game or not.

Ahh the good old days when Maxis was having fun and I was importing all of my SC2000 cities into SimCopter. I hope Will is going to go mad and bring out the best game ever. Maybe Sim Universe and build your own Star Fleet to defend you galaxy.

Don't forget the one in the Calender. "Enchilada-haiku " That's where I finally found mine. Thanks again for the fun Dirk!

Got one. Thanks for the treasure hunt Dirk! If you're up late reading this post do you know what day it is? :-)

My knee jerk reaction is, What were they trying to accomplish with such a lame picture and really no description of game play? The logic behind this baffles me for a franchise as big as SimCity and the huge fan base world wide that has lasted for so many years. I hope they plan to really dazzle us come the holidays. Why would you want to disappoint your potential fan base 6 months before release? Maybe by posting such a generic pic they were looking to see how hungry the fans are? Then again after reading their forum maybe they are scared about releasing a bomb.

Date: 8/29/2004 1:01:22 AM Author: SimDragon I saw a couple people post they would look at your AMA building overgrowth problem. Has anybody looked at it? Fixed it? I would love to see this building in my cities. I hope somebody fixes it soon. quote> Why do I feel like I'm being ignored? If your not going to fix it, at least tell me so I will stop looking for an updated version.