kylewilley

Better still, a Tesla Model S. Better looks, fewer fires...

Really? Correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't this set-up going to cause MEGA traffic backups? Isn't the rule for SC13 AI to have no 4 way intersections and no cul-de-sacs?

I, too, see the leaderboards dying off once larger maps come out. But then I have yet to even look at the leaderboards. I play for my own amusement, not to beat someone else. Who cares? I have said this before, but this is a free-form game. It is played for enjoyment, not to win. I could care less about who is leading in the score. But wherever the larger maps are, I will follow... Oh, and I have yet to play in Sandbox mode as well. While I have typed 'rosebud' or 'fund' or 'weaknesspays' or whatever iteration more times than I care to think about, I truly have not yet needed it for SC2013. I agree with some others that making money and growing cities is a bit dumbed down.

shows how old my twenty something ass is but when i was a teenager even a dos that couldn't be patched was doomed I'd also prefer if games were thoroughly tested before being shipped, but bugs are still inevitable. The problem is how the current gaming industry is using patches to outsource beta testing to the consumers instead of a last resort. Meanwhile,I have no problem with DLC if it makes a game better. I don't think it has something to do with age, I'm also in my twenties. I agree that bugs are going to be inevitable. I also would like to add that, while the concept of a "complete" game is great, we have NEVER been satisfied with a "complete" SimCity. What is the first thing asked by all of us? "Will there be mods?", right? Why are we modding? Because we can all come up with something that could be improved, or changed, or added in, or whatever. SimCity is not, and will never be, a platform game. There is no End of Stage 1. There is no Final Boss to defeat. This is a free-form game that has no end and no specific goal other than what is in your own imagination. We are trying to figure out what is the best way to simulate the city of our own imagining. We each see improvements that are needed differently, so how can this game ever be truly complete? Especially without this modding community. As far as bug-free and poorly developed systems, let's look at a couple of things: 1. Think about the last version of Windows that you bought. Was it bug-free? Did it not need to be updated? OK, fine, how about iOS? Nope, pretty sure it needs updates as well, otherwise you'd still be on iOS 1.0. Android? Same. We could keep going... Secondly, I work in a hospital. We just moved from multiple different computer systems (programs really, since they run on Windows OS) to one all-encompassing program. We were promised that the system could do all of these wonderful, amazing things and that what we needed would just pop up on our screens whenever we needed them. So wrong. It works for some jobs, not so much for others. Those of us collecting data find that the current system is incredibly lacking. But, we are told, there is DLC that would make our lives much easier. At a price. What kind of price? So much so that currently less than 100 hospitals in the country have actually gotten there. C. If these types of systems cannot be available without bugs, fixes, DLC, upgrades, etc., why do we expect so much more from SimCity? I am by no means defending some of the incompetence that we put up with on March 5th. I, for one, tried for 4 days before I got to play the game for the first time. But it is a system more than a simple game. This is not, as I said before, Mario battling the Big Boss before the credits roll. It is a big, complicated game with no way of anticipating exactly how we are all going to go about playing. I guess what I am trying to say here is this: let's let our desires, requests, and demands be heard by Maxis and EA, but also be a little patient. Keep planning on how to improve this game and pressure them into doing it. It's still a little early to toss this one and demand one that is 100% complete and 100% error-free and do it by this weekend. </Soapbox>

There are several videos online about this topic. Try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kceCL2p5GRQor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Tf8-p61yUor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJHCKExd6h8.

If you listened to the video, it explains why the AI takes the shortest route versus the most efficient or fastest route. He said that the worker does not always return to the same house, but takes the first unoccupied house. While that is not how things are done in the real world, can you imagine the computing power it would take to plot 200k routes from a specific location to another remembered specific location? So city planning based on real life is not going to be as good of an option as developing a system that works within the confines of the parameters given. So here is the deal: you can have a city that is based on your idea of how it should function, which will likely fail. Next option: make a city free-form and wish the AI was different, which will likely fail. Next option: Listen to the advice given above (the guy from the video) and create a city that is based on the reality of the game, which will be more successful. Finally, you can take that knowledge and understanding and put it to good use. Plot out your city before you start. Know what you want your city to do and where you want to put things to get the maximum impact. Always think shortest route and how you can funnel everyone into a set of higher capacity roads. Make it pretty based on those ideas, and you will begin to enjoy your city much more.

I think this attitude is naive in the extreme regarding EA. Look at the Sims, it's a game that could have been made even better with community modding but they went with the $$ path and released their own mods and charged for it. They will do the same here. Remember, EA doesn't care about the community or the game, their only concern is the bottom line and what they can give back to the stock holder. If this game folds but they made their investment back after release then it was a win for EA. It all comes down to the bottom line, EA is in financial distress and must do everything to maximize profit which means anything that they can provide as a DLC that entices you to purchase they'll keep to themselves and release it themselves. I can also see EA opening up certain aspects of modding and allow modders to sell the content through their store and take a skim, aka Itunes store. Either way, don't expect EA promote a simcity community out of the goodness of their hearts. If it isn't helping the bottom line or even hurting it (bandwitch, server stroage, etc for free stuff) then they will eliminate or minimize it. We can't all be so naive to think that this won't turn into another micropay system. We just have to hope that we will be able to add our own custom content (like BAT) instead of having to create content and basically sell it to EA so that they can turn around and sell a new highway type for $1.99 to each end user.