jcarlilesiu

If this game fails, it will be the last Simcity we will ever see. It took EA 10 years to reboot the series on a whim, and try to make it appeal to a larger audience. If this game goes down, I don't think you will ever see another true city builder out of this developer. Its purely business.

Actually, it is probably more accurate simulation this way. A local town really has no control over highways in the real world. Those are owned, operated, and controlled by the state. Same with railroad lines. Certainly the local municipalities can petition the state for desired changes, but local villages cant just make a decision to take out part of an interstate highway.

I agree, those few changes would make my list nearly complete. With a couple of expansion packs... BAM! no complaints from me. Keep it up Maxis!

So you wouldn't have an issue if the game didn't download the items that weren't paid for?

I agree with you about being able to zone different densities. As far as zoning lot depths, I like the old model where you established the plot size and as it developed new bigger buildings take up more lots. I can see how that would be problematic because zoning now follows curves. So I can see why the zone is just established at the street edge. That isn't a big deal to me.

Great post. Me personally, agree with the reboot and the new engine. I think that it allows much more possibility moving into the future and eventually, the perceived limitations will be more easily overcome than sticking with the old model.

Exactly right. Marteen... your list of wants isn't terribly bad, and I think you comprehend the idea of sacrifice in the name of a new type of game engine. This post is more in response to people like Jim. They will be critical of any type of sacrifice. From my point of view, think 10 years from now, what computers will be capable of. When we have that much power, think about how great glassbox will be. Simcity 4 will look like picture #1 in my original post in comparison. Forward thinking causes a little heartburn once in awhile.

Alright. Valid enough. That's your prerogative.

You are being unfair from the prospective that you expect all of those things in the initial release. Ocean said, and he is right, they have to rebuild everything from the ground up. This game shares no programmatic foundation with any of the previous games. These features that you desire could be added in expansion packs, DLC, or subsequent releases. You are right, critical thought is important. Critically thinking... people are being unfair in their expectations. I am just about done dealing with you Jim. If you don't like my tone, don't read my posts, and don't respond to my comments. Not sure who you think you are, but I don't owe you a thing. My tone is in direct relation to your smug arrogant comments. Got it. So you want it "All". As I assumed (and rather conclusively and accurately as it appears)

That isn't why they didn't have subways in the first game. They had trains. The only difference would be a different graphical representation of subways. The reason they didn't have subways in the first game is because they excluded them to save money. Make the game more affordable, and move units. Even in Simcity 4, things were missing. THey could have included the Rush Hour Expansion with the main game. They didn't for the same reason. People on this forum really appear to be wearing rose colored glasses in regard to Simcity 4. Nobody said anything about scaling it to make more money later. What was said, was scaling to keep costs down, and make the main game affordable which sells more units. That means, they receive profit on their initial investment, and it encourages the suits at EA to continue to develop expansion. There appears to be some claim of nefarious action at hand with EA/Maxis on this forum... and the point is. It isn't there. Alright. I don't work for EA/Maxis, not hurting my feelings. Don't buy the game. Ill buy it and then buy the expansion content as well.... JUST LIKE WE DID FOR SIMCITY 4 HA! Too true. My bad.

Ill address the rest of your statements after you clarify yours. You say that you don't have an "all or nothing" mentality. That must then mean that you are willing to compromise on some of your expectations. Above.. you claim that you want Simcity 4, but better, i.e. moving forward. So... please do point out what things you are willing to be without so that we can conclude that your perspective isn't as it seems.

My comments in red.

Because the development of a game doesn't exist in a vacuum. The cost (and possibility) of integrating every last expectation of all members of this community (or the fans elsewhere) would cost an extraordinary amount of money and increase the risk. Risk is prohibitive. Your expectations increase risk, which decreases the possibility of ANY game being developed. The all or nothing attitude of the fans here screams of immaturity and lack of comprehension of how things actually work in the real world. Why not? Because its regional organization isn't exactly what you expect? Give me specific features that prevent this game from being considered a true city builder. If you were making this claim about Sim Socities, I would agree with you. But this is clearly a true city-builder. And Ill be sure to point out that DLC is how we get the base game for $49.99 rather than $129.99. Its funny, because some of you clearly operate outside the realms of reality. WHAT YOU WANT, is for EA and Maxis to develop a game that would cost about $169.99, but you only want to pay a fraction of that. The expectations of the "fans" is what is called to question here, and you have created a perfect example of why those expectations are unreasonable.

Disagree. Schools in Simcity 4, which suddenly supported increased capacity to the tune of 1000%, simply by sliding a scale up was not realistic. Traffic jams on a 4 lane boulevard, when an expressway adjacent to the road sits empty is not realistic. Airports with runways that are about 1/8 the size they should be to accommodate landing a commercial airliner is not realistic. Simcity 4 had a tone of flaws, both graphically, but also in its simulation. The engine was old and I am sure unable to cop with the current and future expectations of reality. YOU might have been satisfied with this unrealistic simulation caused by an outdated engine, but I believe the developers are betting on a better engine that will utilize bigger computer processors and memory to be even more realistic. This type of change though, and the development of this forward thinking engine, takes time. First of all, we are talking about GAME. This is not about exact mathematical models. There is no such PC for such complex tasks like exact simulation of the city. No way. And I think it is not needed to be absolutly realistic. It is about ability to play with something. To play things different, about possibilities. Its about thinking when I want to do something IMO. Those are YOUR priorities. My priority is an accurate (or as close to one as possible) simulation.