Overkast

Would the moderators here be willing to have one single thread that's pinned at all times, but only open to posting by certain moderators or top contributers, as an ongoing update of performance reviews for SC 2013 as new fixes are released and patch the game? Kind of like a "blog" of new news to some extent? There's tons of information in this forum, but key points about core game issues and patch fix results for those issues are scattered all over the forum like a gumbo, and it's hard to get to the heart of matters without having to sift through tons of other non-relevant post headlines. Basically this thread would be a summary of performance milestones as they occur with patches over time... Thoughts?

I'm excited! Thanks to all who are working on the NEXL modification for CXL... I'm loving the promise statement on the site: "We promise to change forever the way you see CitiesXL."

Fantastic work so far guys. Would be great to leverage that tram track development to create closer double rails on metro tracks. I hate how far apart the tracks are by default. The airplane paths is freakin' sweet!

I'm in 100% agreement here. With the (supposed) full modding capabilities, I am confident that anything this game lacks in it's 2012 release may eventually come to be... but none of that really matters if your game still performs like a bloated pig when you build a big city.

I agree with you soltangris on all points made, and I think Blizzard especially is an exception to the norm in software development. They're almost always awesome, and they're the model developer. I think it's also important to remember that this problem exists beyond just the gaming industry... all software companies release bugs in their software because it is virtually impossible to perfect an application for an industry where the client side is always a variable. Especially now that custom PC-building is so abundant compared to how things used to be, it becomes increasingly harder to satisfy an audience of computer gamers. This is why game developers are leaning more and more towards consoles, because one game plays the same for all. Also consider the price tag here. Developing software that sells at $40 a pop versus, say Adobe's Creative Suite of applications which amount to thousands of dollars. There's a higher standard to uphold your development to in applications than in games, and when considering all these variables and circumstances, the reality of the situation is that you can't possibly expect games from these small developers to be the holy grail of bug-free implementation. What's interesting to me is that Focus Home decided to pick up this title from Monte Cristo in the first place. They took a seemingly dead title and somewhat resurrected it, so we could possibly be looking at a true re-birth in the making here for this game. We shall see...

Originally posted by: abvex I am getting a real bad feeling about Focus and the CitiesXL Developer. I rather have EA buy them and do the next simcity with an optimised version of the citiesxl engine. I just don't think the current devs are competent enough to truly fix this game...if they haven't done it by now....what will another month do? They'll do some minimal optimization of the code that gives you a little more fps...thats all. No real memory leak fix nor the game actually using multiple cores. Which are the BIGGEST issues by far....then the broken trade and notification system....then we can start taking about road networks and lot sizes then mods.....quote> I think that's a natural feeling considering the jaded past of this game, but I'll bet you anything that Focus has some of the previous MC developers on their staff and working on this game for them. The beta testers seemed all in concensus that Focus did fix a large amount of issues from v09 to v11, and with news of an impending patch they at least sound committed to supporting the game for now. It's only been 1 week since it was released, so let's see what happens... Focus at least deserves a fair shot. I'm trying to stay confident that this game will eventually be opened up to the modders sometime down the road anyway... It's just a matter of time and patience. Though it would be in Focus' best interest to speak up more directly about that to the community, to help influence more sales even on the speculation of turning Cities XL into a legacy title like SimCity 4 became.

Yep, there's definitely a memory leak in this game. I only have 10,000 population in my cities but it makes no difference... seems like the longer you keep the game running the worse it gets. Plus couple this memory leak issue with the fantastic "Token Export to other city..." pop-up window glitch and it makes the matter even worse.

After upgrading my computer a year ago in anticipation of Cities XL, but then refusing to buy CXL 2009 due to obvious reasons, I am happy to say I've officially taken the plunge and purchased CXL 2011 off Steam and am downloading it now!!! I've seen enough comments from Beta testers on improvements and seen enough already-released mods from the Modders for version '09 to have a gut feeling about a bright future for this game, and I'm excited to finally put my PC hardware to the test this weekend!!! I will post my initial thoughts after the weekend when I've had some time to play...

Not another Youtube video with 009 Sound System music!!! AACK! For the love of everything holy....

Originally posted by: pressure ...I'm sure everybody remembers the Rush Hour pack and how it completely transformed SC4, both with in-the-box content and material that supported further modding (which is still active today).quote> This is precisely what I was thinking before I read your post... It sounds to me that CXL 2011 has the potential to be a real catalyst for this game... the same type of catalyst that Rush Hour was for SC4. Based on all the good things and positive vibe I'm hearing from the Beta testers, I am finally stating my commitment that I will go out and buy this game when it gets released in October. Focus Home can finally count on getting my dollars which Monte Cristo never did. To the Beta testers... how did the overall game performace seem to you? I'm concerned about graphic requirments and my machine's abiltiy to keep up. Do you feel the stated requirments are accurate or understated? Will FH release a demo for public download so we can try before we buy?

NAM 29 seems to work fine so far for me from a gameplay functionality standpoint, but I'm having on-screen rendering issues when I move across the map, it artifacts and some parts of the map stay in view despite moving away from that area. Any ideas? I've tried both hardware and software video modes to no avail. Sadly, I notice NAM 29 also doesn't support Paeng's parks as they don't render properly (or at all) when placed

NAM 29 seems to work fine so far for me from a gameplay functionality standpoint, but I'm having on-screen rendering issues when I move across the map, it artifacts and some parts of the map stay in view despite moving away from that area. Any ideas? I've tried both hardware and software video modes to no avail. Sadly, I notice NAM 29 also doesn't support Paeng's parks as they don't render properly (or at all) when placed

Originally posted by: nick13 at this point i don't care if there is going to be a sc5 because with all the mods and bats that are released daily i think its better than sc5 could ever be quote> There's no denying what modding has done for SC4 from a longevity standpoint, but I can't deny that I'm a graphics guy and I love the 3D details of a game like CitiesXL. I want both in one package (hence my signature). I would buy SC5 in a heartbeat if it came out w/ the same robustness in functionality of the native SC4 game (even pre-Rush Hour) and the jazz of a modern graphics engine.

I just posted a little jab at EA on their own forums – my hopeless attempt that someone at EA might actually read it, have it sink in and make sense, and spark a reaction which may ultimately lead to development of an SC5. I know, I'm a dreamer... but in the meantime it makes for a good read if I may say so myself... thought you guys might appreciate it: "I work for a software company who develops software for the AEC industry, and we sponsor an annual event where young students use SimCity 4 to design cities of the future. We look at these children as the next generation of professionals for the AEC industry, and infrastructure planning is HUGE business. This is not just children designing cities on a game, it's a testing of knowledge to challenge kids to find solutions for urban development problems – it promotes advancement through stimulation and we recognize the impact such stimulation can have in motivating young kids to pursue careers where they can literally improve the World's future. That said, if "money making" is truly the reason why EA HASN'T yet taken the SimCity 4 model and built upon on it for a better game in "SimCity 5", then I think they need to step back and take another hard look at the total picture. They need to look at what's going on around the entire world and not just confine their visions to the narrow-sightedness of gaming industry trends, because next-generation infrastructure planning is only trending to become more popular as world population grows and cities run out of space to put people. IMO, EA is already losing some serious ground by letting this already-developed and successful game model sit on their shelves and rot. It's only a matter of time before someone snatches up the Cities XL rendering engine and applies it to a game with intricacies and nuances like SimCity 4. EA better start moving on this or they're doomed to lose out on market-share from someone else's big idea."