Sunfighter

That's awesome. I bet Ocean Quigley would tweet a link to it if you showed him. How do you hide the UI, I couldn't work it out? Actually he wouldnt due to copywrite on the music. =P

From what I make about it, Zone density maximum is purely based on road size. I suppose that can make some sense. As to the density that does develop, it seems like its purely based on a simple land value + demand type structure. At least thats what it appears to be by what the guy has said and how his city develped. Makes sense for medium and high wealth. Makes little sense for low wealth, as it seems like this system prevents the high density low income housing near industry that youd expect. I guess if you want a major industry type "city", you'll have to develop a residential area on another map not downwind.

Curious with that high demand of residential those single family homes along some of your larger roads didnt develop into larger structures.

What scares me is that map is complete, sure you can increase density maybe do a bit of redesign here and there. But that maps done. I imagine even the biggest region maps are gonna be filled out pretty fast. At that point, what are you to do? Maybe a few tweeks? stare at your traffic?

They will be tweeking with the network on this current demo phase. I would expect it to go down and up a lot.

There are 2 factions in the simcity universe. Those that like watching the ants more than building the ant farm and those that dont give a crap about the ants and spend all their time on crafting the ant farm. This simcity is more for those that like staring at their ants. Not sure its the correct direction to go considering the failure of Simcity:Socities...but i suppose we will see.

Tokyo is 2,188 Sq KM. Just pointing that out.

Well see that stuff is what concerns me, yes its minor polish fix, but its an obvious one. Especially when you consider the size of the maps, its hard to overlook that. So yes, they knew that bug was there, theyve seen it but theyve never had the time to fix it. And this game is already being shipped out. Yes it could very well get a day 1 polish patch (if the networking goes as planned). But the idea this game entered the shipping date before polish just worries the heck out of me, because theyve must of had some serious engine issues to deal with makes me wonder if thats the whole reason for the map sizes. That there is some major flaw with the glassbox engine. The amount some people will read into stuff makes me laugh. It's a beta. You do know that a beta is actually an older version of the game, most likely from months ago right? You're told at the start "this is a beta is does not represent the final version" yet here you are drawing conclusions off it. Regarding the part i put in bold: The game is not out yet =/ BETA is not the game. Its a test to look for major bugs... graphical mistakes are easy to fix and are obviously low priority. Follow their twitter and youll see them still working on the various engine problems still to this very minute. Ocean is still trying to work out how to get the trains and cars to react properly to each other, he made good progress last night. Btw id like to add to your previous comment (btw youre kinda rude). That the game is already in Gold state, I think some of you have been fooled by a cleaver marketing gimmick to increase pre-orders, you havent been beta testing anything. Youre playing a demo thats marketed as a closed beta.. when thats not the intention at all. Its intent is to increase pre-order sales. If they really wanted bug reports they would of given people an opportunity to fill out bug report forms, and they would of never limited gameplay to an hour. It was ment as a teaser, to leave you wanting more. To want to buy it. Nothing more. Once the CDs are being stamped, a game is past its beta stage. Since the CDs have been in the process of being stamped for a week now, its safe to assume the first shipments are already working their way to various outlets. Im sorry, but a game that only lets you play an hour is not a beta test. Its a demo.

Well see that stuff is what concerns me, yes its minor polish fix, but its an obvious one. Especially when you consider the size of the maps, its hard to overlook that. So yes, they knew that bug was there, theyve seen it but theyve never had the time to fix it. And this game is already being shipped out. Yes it could very well get a day 1 polish patch (if the networking goes as planned). But the idea this game entered the shipping date before polish just worries the heck out of me, because theyve must of had some serious engine issues to deal with makes me wonder if thats the whole reason for the map sizes. That there is some major flaw with the glassbox engine.

Focusing on casual markets can burn you in the end. As casuals are very fickle and tend not to play the same games for very long. Something to consider when you want to open a nickle and dime type store within the game. Sorry but its that kind of short term, quick buck thinking that is typical of EA that has destroyed many great gaming franchises for them.

Honestly I believe his red outline is a bit larger than a Simcity map. That or the scales are different, as I dont recall in all the youtube videos people being able to get that many street layers. PC gamers city had 12 grid style streets, this shot can easily hold more than 12 within the box. And that's just a small part of that particular map too.

Its a different focus from the original Simcity games. Im not sure I like the change in focus...but we will see....The previous games focused on the city and the tools to make the city. This iteration seems to focus more on the people living within the city and the goods and services they produce. Previous Simcities were more of a sandbox creative tool. This new simcity feels more like a GAME. That focus on the Sims, their needs and their production has come at the cost of the tools to make your city. Who knows how it will turn out. But the longevity of this game wont be too long unless they find a way to expand maps. There is only so much creativity and fun you can have on a postage stamp.

They dont do beta tests while a game is already Gold. Network tests maybe, but beta...no. They are already stamping the CDs. The game entered gold state before ever getting a polish day. Im sorry but thats very worrying. The "beta" you are seeing upcoming is a network test at best..and a marketing ploy to increase pre-orders at worst. (pre-order today and get access to the beta!!), A game where the CDs are being stamped is no longer in beta stage as much as they want to call it that.

I disagree with you there. Using EA and Maxis past as an example. The Sims3 series my daughter plays to death and back. Ive gotten her pretty much every pack and a few things from the store ( i dont wanna look at the total cost, but im gonna say upwards of 300+ dollars spent). Sims3 as an engine has NOT improved very much since its release, theyve just added more content, but the engine itself is still as clunky as it was on day 1. It still has some of the day 1 bugs or "quirks" as the fanboys call them. And in fact a lot of the expansions introduce new bugs that unless they are game shattering they are ignored because they have a expansion to release in 6 months. To say that buying expansions means you get a great product is total BS. Heck even some of the game shattering bugs theyve ignored. I still remember my daughter crying like all day because I had to wipe everything she made and do a full reinstall due to an issue they introduced with another expansion where the game couldnt connect to the store and online if you used another hard drive other than the one windows was on... Sorry, but I think they are gonna follow the Sims business model for simcity. The engine will never be fixed but they will release a ton of extra content to keep you occupied till the next expansion....yet the bugs, the day 1 issues..will never be wholly addressed. Not only that, but i think tons of expansions and DLC is actually COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE to making a great product, because just like the Sims, EA and maxis will be HIGHLY reluctant to release a NEW game. Think of it like the gaming consoles, The devs wont want to update so soon because they have so much invested in the original infrastructure. It gives you a stale product that outlives its intended date. Not only graphic wise, but engine wise. I mean look at the consoles..they are a decade old now...Whats sims 3 now? 4-5 years old now? had not many of these expansions existed, wed probably have Sims4 by now running on a newer engine (or at least refined and updated, fixed, optimised) with various new elements. Instead we have Sims 3 and its billion expansions running on an outdated engine that chugs along even on new hardware because it has limits on what it can do no matter the hardware. Yes, I believe this will be the same fate as this Simcity.

Its a given that they will have larger map sizes. There is only so much fun you can have on a postage stamp. Only so much you can do before you eventually get bored and stop buying the 99 cent car and building models that im certain they will be nickle and diming people for. Especially when you consider that the VAST majority of the gripes about the game are map size. With the rest being lack of regional control, always online, and the numerous graphical bugs. I will admit im really concerned about that train video. To me the train stopping at intersections with incorrect train signals...shows me that this game never entered the "polish" part of development time before it went gold. Those are easily day 1 polish fixes because theyd be so obvious not only to the dev but to the player so thats something theyd want to fix right away on polish day..the fact the game went gold before that was ironed out...is very concerning. Yes, yes they will have probably fixed that by the day 1 patch...but again..that signals the game didnt enter polish stage at any point in development..which means..we probably have a couple post launch patches of just Network fixes and polish stage needed before theyd even be able to address map size. Then again, they might just push out DLC and say to heck with polish...guess we will see.

He later tweeted: "Ocean Quigley ‏@oceanquigley @Scott65751065 Yeah, that's a bug. We are still working on that." Thats very scary honestly. .... a bug like that shouldnt be in a game thats already in "gold" state. Well that was true 5-10 years ago..now a days it seems the norm. Cant shake the feeling this is a pushed release. Not as terrible as Sword of the stars 2 hopefully. Though I dont think anything could beat that release.

I still cant make up my mind on this game. Ive adopted a total wait and see. Seems like EA and Maxis want to take simcity in a direction that I dont agree with. But hey im just one customer. I bought all the previous simcities for the creative sandbox type experience. Anything to deal with the sims living within my city was just a bonus, and any tools they added to make my ant farm better I welcomed, and any tools they removed, I got angry about their loss. It seems with this reboot theyve decided to focus more so on the sims living within the city, than on the making of the city itself. The trade off of that system and focus seems to have been the loss of most of the tools to make your city and a far greater extent, the limiting of the size of your sandbox to ridiculous levels. To the point where creativity is severely limited, and the cities themselves take on cartoonish levels of density and a unrealistic design aspect should you wish to create something towards a realistic real world type feel. I believe the limit in size also contributed to the cuts in a lot of transportation features as there really is no point in mass transit when you are only talking about a handful of blocks. It is my hope that this version of Simcity is more just a stepping stone to a more complete simcity in the future, but I have my doubts of course. Not only due to the lack of simcities over the past decade, but the fact that EA and maxis seem hell bent on focusing entirely on the sims themselves and not the city. They seem to be focusing more on making Simcity a game and less a sandbox simulator. That said, I obviously will not be pre-ordering, but I will keep my eye on things. At the 20 dollar price point id maybe buy in. Or if they eventually do find a way to bring in features that will give me the freedom and sandbox feel then I will jump aboard. Im just one customer, and im sure Simcity will sell well regardless, but the direction its going, was never the direction I found fascinating about the older simcity games. The game was never about the ants living in the ant farm, but the ant farm itself. I never cared about the individuals scurrying about within my designed and placed buildings, roads and rails and whether they were happy or not. I cared about the city as a whole. Just as I dont care about the individual cells in my body, I care about the whole body itself. The complexity and its ability to function is what is the amazing thing. Not the individuals. The same applies to Simcity. The scale makes that feeling a near impossibility.

I remember those random no job zots that would wipe out entire neighborhoods at random. And the inflated commute times. Then there was some weird bug with the way people use mass transit to go into regional transport. I remember having my train stations with a 2000 person capacity getting 600,000+ riders. Something to do with the train stations being near the edge of the map.

Pre-ordering gets you an auto spot in Beta 2. Honestly sounds more like this second beta is a marketing ploy to increase pre-orders.

Im curious about the decision to change the zoning in the first place? was it a mechnical engine reason or something? If it aint broke dont fix it seems to come to mind to me. Sucks to think that there is wasted DEV time on this not only to change it, but to either revert the change, or to expand on the change to make it resonable again.

Be curious to see how the AI would handle the circle network transit wise.

Doesnt sound right to me. Its like they are advertising that they are medicore in prices. We arnt the cheapest! We arnt the most expensive! We are midcost Co!

The game will still turn an easy profit just based on its namesake alone...people will see the word simcity and buy buy buy... EA is all about the short term profiting at the expense of long term brand reputation. I mean look what theyve done to numerous franchises and companies over the years....

Simcity will be a great game. But a terrible city simulator. Hence the rift in the community. The people that played simcity as more of creative and design tool to create works of art and/or realistic type cities..will be turned off almost immedately. The people that played simcity as a game will probably like it. Warning: Personal opinion incoming : The more they treat Simcity as a game and less of a simulator the worse the series gets. The worse the series gets, the more EA will pressure Devs to make things more "fun" by adding elements that make it more like a "game"....... and down the death spiral simcity goes...

Thats odd. Cause ive always gotten my first stage8 building by about R pop 30,000 in a region. That always makes me go bug eyed..seeing stage 8s appear in new regions so early..but they do.