Silentradar

On the edge of the river lies the somewhat secluded, high end communities of Cemetary Shores and the University of Opportunity. This amazing little neighborhood has everything you need to live, and thrive in Opportunity. With parks, recreation, the Botanical Gardens and amazing shoreline views from one of the many tall residential buildings - this little community has it all! Opportunity is somewhat known for hosting some of the finest doctors in the world and the University Hospital is no exception. As home to Dr. Robert Wishinghouse, the worlds leading doctor on removing those disgusting blackheads you see in YouTube videos, the University Hospital receives a TON of visitors with huge pimples to pop. The residents of Opportunity LOVE their trees. They have a saying around these parts: "If its not a building, its a tree" and that is a motto they've kept with them for generations. City planners have been militant - if there is no building, a tree should be planted. You will see a LOT of green space in Opportunity!

Well. I know I suggested that this was going to be a nice, clean city; but lets be real for a minute, every city needs a little industry in it. I sat down for my first session and built up a little island with all the basic necessities to get a city up and running. On Industrial Island we have a nuclear power plant. Fenced off and everything. Opportunity may need more power in the future, but this is good enough for now. We have some warehousing and light dirty industry on the island as well. In addition to electricity, the water services are located on Industrial Island as well. The whole island is wrapped in sea walls. It took a LOT of fine tuning with the land to get it looking OK. I'm not sure I am ever going to be as good at this as the pro's are. Props make a TON of difference in this island. The shipping containers, parking lots, fencing, trees and planter boxes - these make a big difference in the appearance of Industrial Island.

Allow me a moment to wax poetic. I've started a million cities, in a million city builders. There is NOTHING better to me (as someone who perpetually cannot finish what he starts in the way he wants to finish it) than the blank slate of an empty map. There is a lot of opportunity here. I am seeing places for people to walk along the river - that's what I might tackle first. I'd love to tackle a great transportation hub as well. I've never been great at road networks, or train networks, but I am trying to improve and this is going to, hopefully, give me the chance to get some feedback. Please send along any and all comments as I go. I would really like to stick with this and I think the community engagement would go a long way to making this a reality for me.

As expected, I had to try pretty hard to resist the temptation to play hard for the first few hours and steamroll through the early stages of the game. I had a lot of fun just watching my city grow though, and thinking about how I would post this entry - trying to tell some of the stories along the way. This entry covers about 2.5 hours of playtime. I love the blank slate the best. I seem to enjoy the thoughts of what I might build as much as the actual act of building something. There is a lot of opportunity here (another great city name) and potential for a pretty nice outskirts of what will eventually be a major city. The first residents of Expectations were pretty excited to move into their new town. The land is beautiful and with the highway not far, Expectations is a town with an amazing amount of potential! It wasn't long before the town was quickly growing and its needs grew. A coal power plant was built because even though wind power is a great idea - its not very practical for a quickly growing city. I've promised the residents to do away with it as soon as it is possible and replace it with cleaner energy. The first basketball nets and schools officially signaled that the town was ready for families. It wasn't long before our 1000th resident moved into Expectations. Honestly, we aren't sure Mr. Wilson knew he was lucky number 1000. When the Expectations Welcoming Committee arrived on his doorstep with balloons and his complimentary bison meat gift pack, he was a little taken aback. After accepting his bison meat and balloons, he promptly told everyone to get off his lawn and went back to his Cheers marathon watching. In the end, Expectations has grown exceptionally well. It is a nice cozy town with all the safety and amenities one needs to live and thrive. Who knows what the future holds, but Expectations are on the rise!

  Thanks for this. I've upped the text size to 14. It looked OK in the editor and I went right to bed after. I didn't see how small it was published.  I think 14 looks a lot better.

I am a long time SimCity and city building game player. I've tried and failed a few times to write city journals in the past. I am a great admirer of those who put their work out there in this community and inspire me and others to take their city building to the next level. With the release of Cities: Skylines, I thought I would give the CJ writing another crack. I feel like it is the only way I can get better. I'd like to introduce to you the community of Expectations. My names for cities have developed over years of the ebb and flow of city building game releases. All my initial cities start out with positive names. If I make more City Journals you will see names like Anticipation, Excitement, Happiness. City building games are my happy place so I love naming the cities to reflect that. As far as feedback goes, I would LOVE feedback as it relates to making a city look more realistic. One of the things I feel awesome city builders do is use the game like a canvas and they are painters. A great city builder is a master-craftsman; spending hours on a small part of their city just to make it perfect. I'd like to be able to do that. This city will be 100% mod-free. I've been playing with plenty of mods so far, including all unlocks and all tiles. This city is going for achievements, which I will post as well in my City Journal as a journey to getting them all. Here is where I stand on the first day of Expectations, As you can see, there is not much there! We have a pretty clean, exciting slate to work with: Expectations will have humble beginnings but as its Mayor, I dream big. As an educator myself, I envision a glorious University of Expectations in the future. I see a robust economy and great buildings with an active and happy populace. But for now, we begin from nothing. Beautiful, but nothing nonetheless. Its like a never ending sea of potential - for greatness or the inevitable restart I suppose! I am going to have to force myself to move slow and steady. I tend to steamroll through my cities but I want to take my time and do things right. Hopefully with some help from you. Lets begin.

Dirk you are evil

If you got a beta key, you will know by tomorrow it looks like. Good luck to all!

Originally posted by: ASheroo What's meant there is that on the Planet Offer (which is separate from the single player mode) you have 5 cities per planet (yeah, from other previews and so, it's 5 cities per planet) which you build there, and only there on the planet/s.quote> Can you link your referance for that please Ash? If this is the case that should be re-worded slightly in the comparison. I also dont understand why a city you pay for should be deleted - I would also be interested in the definition of "inactivity" Just because you are no longer "building" a city does not mean it is no longer contributing to your community or the community at large, or even is a city you may want to come back to later. I sense the answer to this is something to do with their servers, which is not a valid reason IMO - also every MMO now retains characters long after subscriptions have been terminated - you pay for a city, you should determine its existance completely. If the definition of inactivy is 6 months after terminating your planet offer account - I would be fine with that. But under no circumstances should a city of an active account be deleted.

Cities per player Unlimited 5 per account (a city is deleted after 6 months of inactivity) It would be nice to get a clarification on this one. I assume that if you particiapte in the planet offer you still retain the ability to have unlimited single player games. I would be interested in knowing how this sytem works - seperating the cities you wish to play online and the cities you wish to remain in single player mode.

I would think if they are selling this as partially an MMO, the would have to offer some sort of trial period included when you buy the game as other MMO's do. 1 month would seem to make sense - of course like all MMO's they will ask for your payment information up front before dishing out the free month - also common practice.

This teaser site was released today http://www.square-enix.co.jp/mystery/ I was a big fan of FFXI, and look forward to seeing what they are doing.

keep in mind there may be a proprietary coding issue, or some other technical issue which prevents people from directly placing custom content in cities. mc does have the right to protect its coding assets and any other information it uses to construct citiesxl, especially if the game is intended to be persistent and go through ongoing development - they need to have security measures in place to protect themselves from potential competitors.

Originally posted by: dasilva We will obviously try to get Cities XL in as many retail and digital downloads shops as possible but you have to understand how things works in the retail industry: getting a product listed on any shop catalog requires us or our distribution partner to sell them the fact this game will work out pretty well so they are interested enough in getting this box in their shelves. So, the more the game will be awaited by players and the more players will get to their retail shop asking if the shop owner knows when Cities XL is coming to their place, the more chances you will get to see them willing to sell Cities XL It's just the way it works and we already are working on it quote> Ok fair enough. Phillipe can you comment on if you will be selling retail boxes direct, and if so will you be selling them only to EU locations, and if not will you be accepting pre-orders so we receive the shipment on release day? Or confirm any of your current retail partners at all?

I was excited to see a screenshot today of the ski resport that was a little wider lens then previous ones ive seen, it looks pretty large and extensive, almost a little village. im looking forward to seeing all the possible gems.