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I believe the new SimCity (2013) may please both new players and old fans of the franchise. The new features of the new game don’t make it impossible to implement what old fans want to the new game. I think there is a fear or a pressure from EA about Maxis to make a game that only pleases the future players, even with the possibility of pleasing both. Moreover, if this was really the right way to success, EA wouldn’t be in financial difficulties, asking to be bought or spreading rumors to value its shares. In the opinion of them (Maxis and EA), old SimCity fans make no difference even knowing that there is possibility to please them without losing the prospect of gaining new fans.

More news about the possible sale of EA Electronic Arts reportedly shopping around for a buyer http://www.techspot....or-a-buyer.html Electronic Arts preparing to lay off at least 500 employees? http://www.techspot....-employees.html

I have my doubts with respect to EA's sale to another company. Perhaps, this news is just rumors to attract more shareholders and valuing their shares. Even so, this indicates that EA is in financial difficulties. If at least EA sells only Maxis for a midsize company that cared about their customer’s satisfaction, I'd be very happy.

It seems that some people think will earn real money in SimCity 2013. Hahahahaha! I still prefer to continue playing in single player mode and not enter this ridiculous contest.

Who thinks only in profit, it forgets what keeps a company alive for many years is customer satisfaction.

I know the good work you are doing, but some points that we consider to be negative in the game has diminished our enthusiasm for the game SimCity (2013). You may have noticed that some features and absence of others aren't pleasing the huge community of SimCity fans. I wish Maxis kindly give a response on those points mentioned in this and other forums that are displeasing to most fans of this wonderful game. I hope you understand that we aren't a small group and we admire all the effort you have done by making this game.

I created this topic in an attempt to concentrate all comments regarding the likely negative features of the future SimCity (2013) according to the opinion of each member of this forum. A single topic to facilitate Maxis knows the characteristics of the new game that does not please the community of SimCity fans of this site. Therefore I would suggest to the moderators that this topic become a pinned topic. Please don't see this topic as a meeting of pessimistic people, but a contribution of this community to further improve the SimCity (2013). We hope that Maxis did not see our criticism as something bad and understand our requests for improvements in the game. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here I present my list of negative points in the new SimCity (2013) until now. - No option 100% offline with single player mode - The presence of empty spaces not editable (useless empty spaces) with automatic road connections. - Absence of terraforming - Absence of farms - Not being able to save your maps on the hard drive - Road connections placed in a fixed and pre-determined location in the map. - Player doesn’t have complete control over the zoning by population density. - Size of the maps is 2km by 2km. Note: Please, before you make any comments, make a list of the negative points of the game according to their point of view. So we have a general idea about the subject. However, these lists may change when the beta version is available.

I cannot give 100% sure about something that is not even in the beta version. It’s only this. Even though unlikely, small changes can occur. I may have even too much emphasis on the word "probable", but as a way to explain presence of it in the title of the topic. I'll remove the word "probable" from the title of this topic to generate no more problems of interpretation or false expectations.

Believing that nothing will change, this is the real pessimism. All criticism is valid if it really intends to improve things. If Maxis really didn’t care about the opinions of SimCity fans, it would not launch a beta version to be tested and evaluated. Simply it would release a final version of the game and ready, so there could be no change. It may be that Maxis doesn’t care about our opinions, but if we don't do our criticism, the possibility of something changing in game development is zero. Hope is what drives us here, accept and let it all happen doesn’t make things happen in this world.

I've read so far, there is only the abstraction of water supply from water tables . Please could you pass information sources confirming that there will be rain in SimCity (2013).

If they can make meteor shower, so why put rain in the game? Even a simple game for cell phone as a City Bloxx has rain, so why the SimCity (2013) cannot have? Of course this will not influence my decision to buy the game or not the game. But it's weird, that is. However, all didn’t pass of speculation, but so far with respect to rainfall and other meteorological events there is nothing confirmed about it, at least, by I've read lately about SimCity (2013).

In this and in other reviews, it wasn't clear whether the capture of water supply in SimCity (2013) will be made exclusively from groundwater or it will have other sources. In the city where I live (São Paulo City, Brazil), drinking water is withdrawn almost exclusively from dams and rivers, very little comes from groundwater. Even because the water supply of cities has various sources such as lakes, dams, rivers, glaciers and even from the desalination of seawater. However, the fact that the water supply only come from groundwater will not make the new SimCity neither better nor worse. But, I also would like to see water being abstracted from rivers and dams.

In Cities XL there are zoning by social classes and professional qualification not present in SimCity. Despite all the defects, Cities XL fits a real aspect of most cities in the world that is the existence of social classes living in different districts and separated. As there is no illusory socialist world, until the former communist countries there was a social division in complexity level much lower, of course. The new SimCity (2013) should reflect the reality of the existence of social classes even if it is present at least in zoning and style of the residences.

Maxis offering the option 100% offline, not only will please a large portion of the fans of SimCity 4 but also attract users of other games that have this option as Cities XL. Moreover, I doubt that most casual gamers buy additional content for SimCity (2013) but EA seems to believe this. Other points also dislike the majority of people here in the community as: - The presence of empty spaces not editable (useless empty spaces) with automatic connections. - Absence of terraforming - Absence of farms - Not being able to save your maps on the hard drive - Automatic road connections placed in a pre-determined location in the map. - Player doesn't have complete control over the zoning by population density. And other things I left to quote this message. I believe some of these negative items that need to be changed by Maxis aren't so difficult to implement already in the new SimCity (2003). I hope Maxis doesn't see criticism as something bad.

What good is creating excellent and advanced features, leaving aside all the good that existed in SimCity 4.

In fact, there are some negative things and others positive in Cities XL. Some things in relation to levels of wealth actually already existed in SimCity 4 and it seems that they will be kept in SimCity (2013). I propose that social classes are more easily identifiable in the game not only in styles and sizes of residences, clicking the right mouse button on it and without having to go to the menu. Furthermore, each type of commerce, service, office or industry be clearly and individually identified as a pole of attraction for certain social class or social classes and level or levels of qualification. Knowing this, we could increase or decrease the number of people of a certain social class or level of qualification according to the specific demand of manpower inside the city. Of course this will be done automatically without having to manually demolish almost nothing, only placing or destroying only a few buildings that influence changes in the level of wealth and also the value of the properties in a specific region. Consequently, this change may promote the change to a certain social class to a new region, for example, a new and elegant suburb of upper middle class, freeing the space to increase the occupied area by another social classe with another level of qualification. Another thing, every building itself which generates wealth and economic activity will require a certain number of employees of different social classes, clearly identifying the necessary amounts of workforce divided by wealth levels and qualification with their respective numbers. Different from the Cities XL there was only a classification by levels demand for labor type (low, medium and high). By the accounts of those who played the pre-alpha version of SimCity (2013) at Gamescom, great deal of what I proposed here in this post has been answered and others are not.

This is my proposal. I'm not proposing a zoning by social class. It is something dynamic that would be influenced by several factors that would value and devalue each property, forming the richest regions and other poorest without being something fixed and predetermined as in Cities XL. Each group of factors determine which social class inhabit that region. In the event that conditions of this region deteriorate, the price of the properties fall automatically and also falling wealth levels this place.

Some think that this new aspect of the game is something annoying and boring. But I personally like, it gives more realism to the game and makes it more challenging. This is good, because we dispense our time a service unnecessary. But I hope that when the water pump is far from a inhabited area that it follows the same pattern of SimCity 4. Something similar like that already happened with electricity in SC4. Decius, please could you give more details on the sewage system. I'm also worried about this automatic function of the fire station services. I hope Maxis improve this feature or that at least there is information in the game indicating why a firefighter responding so slowly to a fire alert. Because this game is a pre-alpha version, should not have even all education levels in the game. I also wanted greater control of city zoning by the player. This almost automatic zoning of population densities, I don't like. Good to know that the feature "levels of wealth" is included in the new SimCity (2013). I don't see this as a negative feature of the game, moreover the zones in which buildings appear automatically will still exist. It's always good to have buildings and landmarks that are beyond the general pattern of the game, visually makes our cities more beautiful. I think it's just a extra content that you can use or not. This is also my biggest worry.

This is good, because now we can define the routes of buses and put the bus stops where we want. However, I hope that has a minimum and maximum distance between stops, otherwise it will turn into a mess. If there is no surprise, these two means of transport will be in SimCity (2013). Regarding the trams, they are present in trailers and images released recently. I hope good news comes. It would be good if the new SimCity (2013) had ports and navigable waterways. If not, some modder can create these items in the future. I also don't like these road connections put in place pre-fixed in the map. Almost everyone would like to create their own connections in place that saw fit. I personally like this idea to include modules on buildings. It would be interesting to see this idea be applied to something bigger such as ports, airports, convention centers, etc. Instead of having a bunch of small service buildings in the city, we can expand the capacity of existing ones.

For some it may seem speculations of pessimist people. However, Maxis will realize that certain aspects of the new game are not pleasing to fans of SimCity and they can change them taking into account the views of most users are SimCity fans' communities. All the positive aspects of the new SimCity (2013) are well seen by the SimCity fans' community, but we must criticize what is bad. I hope that Maxis is reading the suggestions and criticisms on forums and make changes to improve the game in future. Something that almost all expect to happen. Maxis will have much to gain from listening to our opinions about the new SimCity, it will succeed in this version 2013 as well in future versions that will come after. Please, don't look at criticism as something bad.

For those who think that we are being pessimists by accident. Maxis that is saying this about SimCity (2013): - You cannot save your maps on your hard disk. - No offline mode. - Absence of terraforming - Size of the maps is 2km by 2km. - Automatic zoning according to the type of road, without interference from the player Without telling the stories of those who played the pre-alpha version at Gamescom and other things left to quote here. If we don’t criticize negative points now, will be too late for any future change for the better in the game SimCity (2013). Unfortunately, Maxis doesn’t want to hear the fans’ community of SimCity. We don’t want SimCity 4 with 3D graphics as some people think, we want only the positive aspects of SimCity 4 are maintained in the new SimCity (2013). News as the Glassbox Simulation Engine is always welcome since they are to improve the game and not get worse.

My fear is that some hacker invades the EA servers and mess or destroy my city made in SimCity (2013), despite playing in single player mode. The worst is that you will not have a backup file to recover the lost time. Of course, we're talking in an Internet environment that is full of people maliciously.

The citybuilders games has always been a fun solitaire. Who plays a game with these features wants to create your own Small World and not dispute with anyone to see who is the best. It will be boring to see something growing on the side of your town that has nothing to do with his own concept of the city.

In SimCity (2013), even in single player mode there will be required to connect to the EA servers. Maxis itself said that there will be single player. The problem is also the requirement to connect to their servers in single player mode. When they shutdown the servers for SimCity (2013), even the single player mode will become useless.

Not only that, there will be no global terraforming or hard drive saves. Good luck sculpting terrain to look fanciful, it will be extremely expensive. Unleashing disasters will not be enjoyable anymore without the ability to reload previous saves. It's just what I could remember at the time I wrote the post, but certainly has other negative items in the new SimCity (2013).