Mark Waybill

I'm fine with the game not having a 1:1 ratio with regards to days and months and years etc. However I'd like it if Sims were individual to the extent that I could follow them around. However I do understand that at present simulating all of them in such a way would be power consuming. Also the mention of specific characters like the arsonist and Maxis Man make me think that there will be in future more development in this area.

Well that video was enlightening. Industry creates jobs and products. Wow. You learn something new every day. Best bandwidth expenditure ever. I think I might just create an educational video about the importance of breathing. On a more serious note I still don't know what level of detail we will get when the game is released. In theory you could have a simple system- i.e a few goods and services, a small array of resources that are used in an obvious way, and then make it more intricate by breaking these down into component parts. Now from what I've read so far it looks like gas stations won't be able to use magical fuel that comes from nowhere any more, but I wonder just how low the level will be as regards intricacy. They haven't shown much agriculture yet, but I would like to think that there will be crop resources that climb the ladder until they are served to customers in a processed form. I hope the burgers in the 50s joint are made from individual ingredients.

I can't wait for that. This past month has gone by pretty slowly I must say. I had a look at the latest GlassBox video. Didn't add much to what I already understood about it but it certainly seems they are prouf of their little brainchild. Let's hope this game meets our expectations and doesn't dissapoint. My main concern is how much it will cost as I have laptop broadband, wireless.

Will we have reservoirs or dams as a way of storing water, and also will sand/rock be mined?

I considered this point quite a bit. The idea of a language based or nation based 'planet' would make sense to a point, but what if you have friends who play the game who live abroad? I think the rational thing to do would be to have several 'planets', depending of course on how many people actually play the game. If this game becomes the new Sc2000 and everyone is playing it, then it might make sense to divide the planet. How it would be done I wouldn't know, but possibly there could be say five to start off with, and once each planet reached a certain population cap a new one would open up? Possibly a stupid idea? Anyway the language based division would make sense, as communication between Mayors would seem to be of some importance, unless a translation automatically happens or something.

On the 'Wealth levels and reasons for abandonment' thread I thought of an idea. Social welfare. Now, this might at first sound like micromanaging, but really, when one thinks about it, there's no more intricacy involved than placing a police station or school. One places DMVs, social welfare offices (Here in Australia we have Centrelink, in the UK Jobcentre Plus etc) and public facilities like hospitals and schools etc, and these would all fall under civic structures. The issue of how much power should we have rests imo upon how much power the founding or principal Mayor of a Region has over his subordinates, if indeed there is to be any heirarchy. Until that issue of Regional governance is resolved it is difficult to speculate regarding how much power we as Mayors will have relative to SimNation (and in a SimWorld, just what will happen to SimNation?) If we can place radio stations and tourist traps, I see no reason why social welfare structures would fall under a different category. Unemployed Sims who risk homelessness should have more choices than striking lucky with a Lotto ticket or becoming a tramp. Not that I'm suggesting we create SimSovietism or anything. After all if you choose not to place such structures then so be it. But they did mention aged care facilities or retirement homes, and if these are included, then why not employment offices and so forth?

There is certainly a possible solution lying in in-game ads for the problem of what happens when the game servers are shut down because of lack of demand after the initial period of activity. Instead of shutting down the servers and saying 'kthanxbye' to us, the game could support itself perpetually with in game ads from real companies, and if the many websites and tv channels that use this method of funding are anhything to go by it should be a success. Especially if the initial release is popular. This is an innovative method which I speculated about as early as playing 4 for the first time back in 2004, and CXL of course has such ads, showing a simple placement method. Both that game and CityVille show the effectiveness of real companies setting up business in your city, and as long as this isn't attached to some crazy quest or mission, but rather the buildings act normally just like any other business, and periodically new buildings become available, this could be a worthwhile addition to the games future. One note, in CityVile certain businesses like my Best Buy store reverted to a standard 'Electronics Shop' after the campaiogn ended. I am unsure about copyright law in this area (I would have assumed advertising of such a harmless and polite manner for a respectable business would be seen as a good thing?) I would hope that if for some reason your MacDonald's has to become something new it could become a Hungry Jacks or a standard SC burger joint, rather than completely rebuild the structure, just change the signage and trademarked features. However I would hope businesses would allow for their buildings to enter the timeless field of SimCity possibility potentially ad infinitum.

If they do it smartly like in CityVille so that real companies can set up in your city, it could be a pretty useful system. Plenty of opportunities. But in game companies would also have to have 'advertisements' too, like the Coal Company etc

I imagine that intracity economy will function until there is a surplus of a commodity, or a need for one, in which case one can advertise commodities on the global market, or buy. I daresay that for small villages starting off the basic needs can be supplied locally, although possibly to kick things off Maxis will create their own cities with surplus production but I should think the economy will arise by itself as more and more players buy and sell. It will be an interesting experiment in itself, to see whether real world situations will arise like recessions etc.

I wonder whether we as Mayors will have the right to construct social security offices for paupers, or would that be a government area in the game. I suppose my main problem with this style of simulation is that they said you see what they sim and all that so I assumed each Sim would be definite and defined definitely, rather than transient and able to evolve or be replaced continuously

Will we have railyards, bus depots, and so forth, so that each 'agent' is housed properly when not in service, and all 'resources' are stored in an actual location? I.E will warehouses actually store resources in packets at a location, and will these data packets have a life from primary to tertiary industry? Will, for instance, food served at a diner originate from a farm? And in future will Sims be constant and have realistic lives, or is this regular regeneration of a Sim to be a permanent feature of the game? In short, is the level of realism (and I'm not saying you can't have too much, you can of course) to be included in the release version the level you are striving for, or is this release to be yet another step towards that goal, or the spine of the skeletal frame to come?

I'm all for inter-regional trade. I've always felt that my cities were too 'The Good Life' about economy and resources, and seemed highly independent, almost like countries in themselves. It will be nice to think that those coal transporting ships leaving my port are headed for further away destinations than the next city. And if what we see is what they sim, then each ship is a real vessel carrying actual coal to a real destination. All very promising.

I'm fine with a world economy. However I would say that a sandbox or disconnected mode should be an option. However if one was to create a very nice city independent of the economy and then wish to connect it with friends cities... Well various issues would naturally arise.

They have them in CXL in a non obstrusive way. I have nothing against ads in and of themselves. I'd rather a mass of billboards and buses featuring real life products to a monthly subscription for playing. And of course as has been said, IRL ads do exist in cities. However having ads for products and companies that don't exist in the game is inconsistent.

I'd like there to be a mixture of styles/genres to reflect different neighbourhoods and cities, but from what I hear about hearing 50s rock outside a diner and so forth that may be a partial solution. I liked the style of earlier releases of the franchise, so hopefully there will be inspiration from that. If Tilton made a new version of the 2000 theme for instance, but 'orchestral' that would be nice. If it was MIDI they could change the instruments to reflect the city's state, but of course I imagine it will be recorded live as Mp3.

I have a 2010 Pavilion dv6 laptop with intel core 17, ati mobility radeon premium graphics and directx11, with windows 7 as shipped. Don't know about cores and so forth but a large city in SC4 plays slowly on fast speed (i.e cheetah speed feels like turtle speed, but turtle speed runs ok) However in my largest city, an almost fully covered large tile called Malpeton which is partially inspired by London in various ways, there is some lag, but not too bad.

Collateral damage lol. Although there's a point in what you say. A lot of g4m3r5 out there who were quite young when 4 came out (I was 13 in 2004 when I purchased 4 and RH) will not know about previous titles, although there are a number of people younger than me like some boys at a mall (who were eventually convinced I was a pervert because I enjoyed talking to them back when I was homeschooled and had no friends) who played 4 but in a very silly 'let's make an industrial nightmare and volcano everything' way. But for a good deal of younger gamers this will be their first taste of the franchise, so I hope that it lives up to expectations. However as that's a tad off topic, back to strategy. If my plan was to create a 'successful' city by the usual definitions of crime free, high education, wealth etc etc I just follow common sense tbh. However most of my cities I try to create something unique but with a vaguely recognisable or inspired vibe. Melbourne in Victoria is quite influential to me, despite the fact I've only been there a handful of times and briefly.

I would agree it should be optional. I believe what they may be doing is- To start game you log into Origin/internet, to play you don't need to be connected in single mode. When you save a city it needs to be saved online.Same for loading cities, hence why you need to connect initially. External economy is optional I would imagine, depending on whether you are playing solo or MP. At least I would assume and hope they are smart enough to do it that way.

Personally I would prefer a fuller integration with The Sims, (and do remember that just because two games become one doesn't mean if it's done gradually either game loses for the sake of the other) but I can understand why Maxis have decided not to with this release. We may have advanced a lot since 2003 but there is still much progress to be done before every Sim can be realistically simulated from cradle to grave.

There could easily be a tourism leaderboard, similar to the reputation in CityVille

Sims regenerated as one day Time Lords, and 200k population cap? Oh great. Just as I was beginning to believe after ten years we'd finally get SC5. Instead it looks like we're going to get a pretty interactive advertisement for GlassBox...

I use various strategies, depending on what sort of city I wish to create, but sometimes I follow the organic approach and just give it a push here or there in the right direction. For instance if I wish to have a city vaguely like Chicago or vaguely like San Francisco then I'll use similar terrain features if not layout, and try to encourage the industries present in those cities.

I don't think a MySim mode would be too difficult, if these agents were treated differently to regular Sims, but whether they'll have it or not, who knows. It would make sense to. Also they mention having characters like Joe Arsonist and so forth who act specially, so why not have MySims.

I pre ordered but I have never owned an I Pod, mind you this is the only video game I play, so for me 99 dollars on one game every ten years isn't that bad. The only thing that would kill me playing the game would be a monthly subscription charge more than it costs to keep my coffee tin full of grounds.

I voted yes because it isn't going to deter me from buying the game, and i've pre ordered anyway. However I would rather if each Sim was considered a constant unit until it reached the average life expectancy and SimDied. I do believe this will affect the realism of the game, and will slow down the integration of the game with the Sims franchise. And while an argument has been given that we'd be wasting our time tracking a few Sims throughout their days if they did implement a better system for simulating their SimLives, I don't see how that would be the case considering we play the game primarily in order to build cities, and MySim mode or whatever is just an element of observing the city at ground level., no different to using the query tool on a building. But I guess having SimFamilies and complex or seemingly complex SimSocial interactions would take up power that could be better spent, but I hope that is the only reason they are simplifying matters.