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SimCity |OT| It's not the simulation or city that matter, it's <parameter: string>
- Thread starter Cjdamon042
- Start date
pseudomyxoma
Member
Do we have a topic for trading origin ID's? I have no friends on there at all and would like some before the game comes out Tuesday so I can try out proper multi-player
pseudomyxoma
Member
Oh my bad, I missed that when I skimmed the OP
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I still think that there needs to be more data layers and tools available to the player to manage traffic.
metalmurphy is putting something together for us to organize regions.
bicycle paths!
Im sure the first major dlc/exansion will be transportation based.
Ah, I see. Nice. Can't wait to see it finished.
Cjdamon042
Member
I'll definitely add it to the OT good and proper once everything is sorted out.
My working hours are long and since (from what I can tell) most people are probably from the US I end up missing a lot of what goes on here. Hoping to get back on track soon
I'll definitely add it to the OT good and proper once everything is sorted out.
My working hours are long and since (from what I can tell) most people are probably from the US I end up missing a lot of what goes on here. Hoping to get back on track soon
I'll update my list asap, then we have at least a general list for the OP with Origin ID's going. Then the actual region-signup follows and gets added to the OP when it's done, how does that sound?
Also since we're more than 16, do we wanna limit signups to 1 city per region per person first?
Cjdamon042
Member
Yeah that sounds good!
And I like the idea of 1 city per region per player. We're all pretty much new at this anyway so having multiple cities in the same region doesn't seem worth it when we could get more players in there at a time. Will result in more teamwork too.
What I was wondering: I know the whole utilities/people-sharing only applies to the smaller 4-city-sub-region within an entire 16-city-region, but what about building unlocks from e.g. City Hall/university? Those are listed as region-wide, does that apply?
I still think those of us who end up in the same region and esp sub-region should try and talk about strategy before we start our cities, so we don't all build the same buildings multiple times, because that's a waste of money and space.
I still think those of us who end up in the same region and esp sub-region should try and talk about strategy before we start our cities, so we don't all build the same buildings multiple times, because that's a waste of money and space.
Smiles and Cries
Member
my old macbook pro 2.26 GHz 4 GB GeForce 9400M It seems I should be okay
I guess I'll get this next month
I guess I'll get this next month
timetokill
Banned
I'll definitely be participating. I just need to get EA to merge my different origin accounts, then I can know which one to share with you guys
Metalmurphy
Member
Can't find the city locations for Discovery Delta anywhere -.-
*edit* Scratch that!
*edit* Scratch that!
The people on the livestream just got kicked out of the game because they accidentally went offline... -facepalm- always-online is already so divisive, now it's biting them in the ass on a promotional livestream 20mins before it ends, too :lol
oh shit the livestream. they had to quit sim city due to origin losing connection to the interwebs.
highlariuz
highlariuz
Buy it from another region or on amazon. No one loves australia.
Burgess_101
Member
ahaha hilarious, Ill look forward to watching it later.
EagleBurnn
Banned
I'll definitely be participating. I just need to get EA to merge my different origin accounts, then I can know which one to share with you guys
Do you mean switching linked accounts to another Origin account? If so, they can do this easily but there's a lot of wait time on the phone.
I don't want to support origin. I'll just buy the box.
...You do realize that the box version is just an Origin cd-key with a pre-downloaded build burned on dvd? It's still 100% in Origin.
Burgess_101
Member
You have to use Origin no matter what.
Why? It's a perfectly serviceable program.
No it's not in this case. It's $100 and that's a rip off. I don't want to support them by buying it on their service and giving them more money. I'd rather buy it boxed, even if it uses origin I'm not buying off that.
Your beef is with Australian digital video game pricing, not with Origin itself. Because both the physical and the digital copy are origin.
Different from Simcity 4 for sure (you can't just "do everything" anymore, you have to think in terms of "efficient" now), but IMHO it's a much better, more realistic "simulation" than 4 ever was. Glassbox is really great, although a few more traffic features would be great.
Overall? Good.
Good summary, thanks. I'm leaning toward the pre-order but still on the fence. I probably should have played the closed beta when I had the chance lol.
Watch some of the let's all be mayor streams that are on 3h every day up until launch and soak some of the information in, that's probably your best bet
apart from watching some let's plays on youtube It's EA/origins pricing so yeah, I do blame them. Nearly all games aren't $100 on DD(I can think of one, Blops2) and none are that in stores.
I was honestly turned off by the city size. But those streams showed me two things.
1. The visual data display is awesome! The amount of actual simulation data going on at the same time is really awe inspiring, kinda makes me rub my head on why they've limited the structure (if confirmed to actually not take advantage of multiple cores).
2. The smaller size does force you to actually 'plan out' more than ever before. Yes I know this could be achieved with bigger maps and would still rather have huge landmasses to use, it's just not such a big negative for me anymore.
So yeah pre-ordered from what I saw on the streams. Still think they should have done an open-beta or hour long demo.
1. The visual data display is awesome! The amount of actual simulation data going on at the same time is really awe inspiring, kinda makes me rub my head on why they've limited the structure (if confirmed to actually not take advantage of multiple cores).
2. The smaller size does force you to actually 'plan out' more than ever before. Yes I know this could be achieved with bigger maps and would still rather have huge landmasses to use, it's just not such a big negative for me anymore.
So yeah pre-ordered from what I saw on the streams. Still think they should have done an open-beta or hour long demo.
It's something we'll all have to get used to. I'm sure most of us did/will just start building like we're used to, trying to do everything by ourselves, but I predict we'll be quickly overwhelmed or complain about city size because it's simply not possible to do everything by yourself. Once we get started with thinking region-wise and with specialized city and utility/people-sharing, then we'll love the game even more. It's just a bit of a paradigm-shift.
Pretty much. Can't wait to screw myself over by not actually specializing!
I did that during the beta and.... yeah. I was having massive problems with traffic, sewage, water, fire, health, money... pretty much everything but education.
General consensus is that they'll probably release bigger city-plots over time, either as free updates (unlikely) or paid expansions (more likely), to make sure that the base game didn't have massive hardware demands due to cities being too large for Glassbox to handle properly on a bad PC. Expansions they can easily give higher hardware specs.
Burgess_101
Member
I have a feeling I am going to be awful at this game, I have no idea what I am going to specialise in Ill have to play around first and see what works.
Ill have to play around first and see what works.Watch some of the let's all be mayor streams that are on 3h every day up until launch and soak some of the information in, that's probably your best bet
Those streams on twitch?
for tomorrow: http://letsallbemayor.com/en/event/city-in-the-shape-of
generally it's just "letsallbemayor.com", where you can watch&vote, yes.
Raven77
Member
For someone who's played a lot of this game in the beta's, etc. can you please post really detailed impressions on the following:
Graphics
Immersion level
Ability to create unique cities
Ambience
Control given to player (how much power do I have over the city)
Future potential
Potential issues
Things you dont like / hate
Thanks in advance! Virtual cookies for all who answer.
Graphics
Immersion level
Ability to create unique cities
Ambience
Control given to player (how much power do I have over the city)
Future potential
Potential issues
Things you dont like / hate
Thanks in advance! Virtual cookies for all who answer.
Disclaimer: I played in all 3 of the beta's, incl the full 3.5h yesterday
Probably easy to see from the videos, but the graphics are outstanding. I didn't even play on highest detail levels, and it all looks great. The best (and least used) part is the different filters you can apply, which is great for even more customizing and makes the game look much different again. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLCiFL210yo)
I think this will become deeper once we have the region-play nailed down, but I love Glassbox with regards to this. Every citizen has their path, either they go to work, get stuck in traffic, try to find a detour, then work, then go back, or they go shopping, take a trip to the park on the way, take public transit, etc. Because Glassbox deals with everything, and makes every citizen as realistic as possible, you get a really good feel for the "realism" of the city. My only beef is that traffic doesn't have enough variation and control, and sometimes you're just screwed over. e.g. there's no 1way-streets yet, or specific bus lines, the buses just somehow randomly go all over the city, which is... odd.
I'm not sure how many of us have done this already LOL. But actually, for this, watching the letsallbemayor streams probably gives you the answer you want. 7 days, 7 completely different cities. It's possible to play the game like you played Simcity 4, with trying to do everything in one city, BUT I can guarantee those people who play that way will be the first ones to find complaints about the game, esp about city size. You HAVE to create a unique city, that's the whole purpose of the game. At first it might seem like the buildings provided are a bit lackluster (And I agree, more variety would be good), BUT the customization/expansion feature for buildings is awesome, and once they get the parks system properly done (connecting parks with proper paths, etc), it'll be even better. It's definitely possible and encouraged to create unique cities, and you SHOULD create unique cities, the tools are definitely there.
I'm not sure what exactly you mean, apart from the filters I mentioned before? The soundtrack isn't AS good as earlier games, but maybe it changes for different regions and we've only seen 1... so I withhold everything for here. But I definitely felt sad when I had two zombie-hords ravage through my beta-city
Probably one of the best positive features again: Glassbox. All those data overlays really show you what the city does and apart from traffic, you can definitely see what you need to adress, where you need to adress it, why and how. Most things make sense when you look at the data and you know how to adress it. Really, the only thing that you sometimes get stumped at is traffic, where it seems like you have little control apart from upgrading streets/introducing public transport, but can still run into heavy problems and are not sure what's best to do.
The game is lacking some features for sure, so here's my wishlist/predicted list for expansions
-Modding (already confirmed, probably for non-leaderboard play)
-new Buildings/variety/new specializations (knowing old simcity games, pretty much confirmed)
-proper transit, more transit variety (I'm thinking a Rush Hour-style expansion, so probably likely)
-Expand the expansion-menu (ha), especially for parks (seems like it would be more of a bugfix than an expansion, but who knows)
-Bigger city tiles (I'm 99% sure those will come as either free DLC or paid, probably a mix (e.g. get a free region with 3 large city tiles for free, but can also buy a 4-region pack with more, larger cities). They'll probably be more demanding on Glassbox, so might not run on everyone's PC, and they might need some more work on Glassbox itself, but I'm pretty sure it'll come eventually.
-Region creator! I'm still hopeful it will eventually come, and because Sims 3 did something VERY similar, I'm actually positive it WILL come. For those that don;t know, Sims 3 has both a) free city-expansions, b) paid city-expansions and c) a city-creator that you need to pay for. I can definitely see them putting up a region-creator with which you can create non-leaderboard regions, but we'll probably have to pay for that. Who knows.
Always-online DLC can become a problem when servers go down for more than 10mins, let's hope it doesn't get to that. The beta was pretty stable, but who knows what will happen at launch. There's also been some clipping issues with buildings and roads that I hope will get fixed. Parks, especially park-expansions don't work quite properly yet. Traffic is still sometimes a miracle, and will require some luck AND planning to get working well.
Things I hate? Nothing yet. Things I don't like, see above. I also hope invites to regions work properly once the game comes out. Also not a HUGE fan that even in 16-city-regions, highways/trains only connect the same 4 cities, I was hoping for some more interconnections.... but who knows.
Aaaaand I hope that helps!
Probably easy to see from the videos, but the graphics are outstanding. I didn't even play on highest detail levels, and it all looks great. The best (and least used) part is the different filters you can apply, which is great for even more customizing and makes the game look much different again. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLCiFL210yo)
I think this will become deeper once we have the region-play nailed down, but I love Glassbox with regards to this. Every citizen has their path, either they go to work, get stuck in traffic, try to find a detour, then work, then go back, or they go shopping, take a trip to the park on the way, take public transit, etc. Because Glassbox deals with everything, and makes every citizen as realistic as possible, you get a really good feel for the "realism" of the city. My only beef is that traffic doesn't have enough variation and control, and sometimes you're just screwed over. e.g. there's no 1way-streets yet, or specific bus lines, the buses just somehow randomly go all over the city, which is... odd.
I'm not sure how many of us have done this already LOL. But actually, for this, watching the letsallbemayor streams probably gives you the answer you want. 7 days, 7 completely different cities. It's possible to play the game like you played Simcity 4, with trying to do everything in one city, BUT I can guarantee those people who play that way will be the first ones to find complaints about the game, esp about city size. You HAVE to create a unique city, that's the whole purpose of the game. At first it might seem like the buildings provided are a bit lackluster (And I agree, more variety would be good), BUT the customization/expansion feature for buildings is awesome, and once they get the parks system properly done (connecting parks with proper paths, etc), it'll be even better. It's definitely possible and encouraged to create unique cities, and you SHOULD create unique cities, the tools are definitely there.
I'm not sure what exactly you mean, apart from the filters I mentioned before? The soundtrack isn't AS good as earlier games, but maybe it changes for different regions and we've only seen 1... so I withhold everything for here. But I definitely felt sad when I had two zombie-hords ravage through my beta-city
Probably one of the best positive features again: Glassbox. All those data overlays really show you what the city does and apart from traffic, you can definitely see what you need to adress, where you need to adress it, why and how. Most things make sense when you look at the data and you know how to adress it. Really, the only thing that you sometimes get stumped at is traffic, where it seems like you have little control apart from upgrading streets/introducing public transport, but can still run into heavy problems and are not sure what's best to do.
The game is lacking some features for sure, so here's my wishlist/predicted list for expansions
-Modding (already confirmed, probably for non-leaderboard play)
-new Buildings/variety/new specializations (knowing old simcity games, pretty much confirmed)
-proper transit, more transit variety (I'm thinking a Rush Hour-style expansion, so probably likely)
-Expand the expansion-menu (ha), especially for parks (seems like it would be more of a bugfix than an expansion, but who knows)
-Bigger city tiles (I'm 99% sure those will come as either free DLC or paid, probably a mix (e.g. get a free region with 3 large city tiles for free, but can also buy a 4-region pack with more, larger cities). They'll probably be more demanding on Glassbox, so might not run on everyone's PC, and they might need some more work on Glassbox itself, but I'm pretty sure it'll come eventually.
-Region creator! I'm still hopeful it will eventually come, and because Sims 3 did something VERY similar, I'm actually positive it WILL come. For those that don;t know, Sims 3 has both a) free city-expansions, b) paid city-expansions and c) a city-creator that you need to pay for. I can definitely see them putting up a region-creator with which you can create non-leaderboard regions, but we'll probably have to pay for that. Who knows.
Always-online DLC can become a problem when servers go down for more than 10mins, let's hope it doesn't get to that. The beta was pretty stable, but who knows what will happen at launch. There's also been some clipping issues with buildings and roads that I hope will get fixed. Parks, especially park-expansions don't work quite properly yet. Traffic is still sometimes a miracle, and will require some luck AND planning to get working well.
Things I hate? Nothing yet. Things I don't like, see above. I also hope invites to regions work properly once the game comes out. Also not a HUGE fan that even in 16-city-regions, highways/trains only connect the same 4 cities, I was hoping for some more interconnections.... but who knows.
Aaaaand I hope that helps!
Graphics: I like 'em. Nice, crisp, and clean with enough graphical horsepower to dazzle you at times depending on your hardware and settings, though don't go in expecting something like Crysis.
Immersion level: The previous hour-long betas, and this last four hour long beta were like a first hit of a drug. Leaves you craving more.
Ability to create unique cities: Big time in this department. Even without dipping into city specializations you have the opportunity to create focused cities through your city hall departments. You get to add one new department at certain population thresholds, and each of these departments unlocks new buildings for that city and the region as a whole. Department of Safety unlocks larger hospitals, police stations, and fire stations, each of which can be further upgraded to provide both increased services and unique ones, like a Wellness Clinic which dispatches a large medical truck around town. Citizens who visit this truck become immune to health-related problems for a few days. These larger facilities are fairly pricey to initially build and to maintain, though.
You also have unique city specializations. Gambling, tourism, oil, mining, trade, electronics, and education are what I can recall. These specializations produce commodities you can sell on the global market, give you direct deposits of simoleans, or educate both your own population and the region, unlocking access to high tech industry, new facilities, and generally more responsible sims who cause less fires, commit less crimes, and even provide other benefits like attaching solar panels to the roofs of their houses. I'm not sure if that last bit provides you extra energy itself or simply removes the drain that building would have on the grid.
Ambience: It's SimX game. The buildings are all well-designed or not (if that is the point), with lots of little touches. Traffic and citizens moving about the streets are fully rendered, though most civilians are like small LEGO people.
Control given to player (how much power do I have over the city): A lot. You can freely lay out your roads exactly as you please, with normal lines, squares, circles, arced, and curvy roads available. There are two broad "types" of roads, streets and avenues, with streets having four options and avenues having three. Most non-RCI buildings you place have a robust upgrade system after placing it. A grade school for example starts with room for about 450 students and 1 or 2 school buses. You can add up to four classroom expansion slots with 200 student slots a piece and bays about six more school buses or so. Some expansions are cheap at like a thousand bucks a pop and 100 dollars a hour, while others are pricey. You do need to be mindful of your road placement with this system, as you could potentially place a structure and leave no room to expand it in the future, leading you to have to build a second structure when you could have simply expanded the first.
Future potential: I think there is a lot of potential for growth for the game. It just remains to be seen how much of that is free or reasonably priced, or if it is like The Sims 3 where the game gets a dozen or so 40 dollar expansions. Given that this is a game designed by Maxis proper I hope it is the former and not the latter.
Potential issues: See above. The 2kmx2km city sizes will be a issue for some, but IMO it forces you to maximize every inch of space (in whatever manner you see fit) and if playing alone or with a small group the larger regions allow near seamless transitioning to the many city plots available in some regions.
Things you dont like / hate: The only thing I dislike is that everything you place "snaps" onto a existing road, unless you are building a road. You cannot place, say, a large hospital and then build roads around it. This can lead to some issues. There is also an issue with some modular buildings like garbage dumps. In this last beta I was only ever able to expand a dump with a second dump site to the left of the existing one, forcing me to make multiple dump sites rather than simply expand the one I had. I'm sure there's a way to fix that, but I did not see it in the beta.
If EA's recent moves with games like Mass Effect 3 are any indication, I wouldn't be surprised to see a city size expansion be a part of a free update instead of paid expansion. They want to get you in the game addicted to it, and then use the in-game store to buy things like items, special buildings, and specialized cities instead.
Hopefully that's the route they ultimately go.
Hopefully that's the route they ultimately go.
EagleBurnn
Banned
If the size of the tiles is the largest complaint, then I'm relieved tbh.
Thanks for the detailed analysis, guys!
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
Graphics
Very nice with a decent computer. Looks like ass on minimum. Optional depth of field effects that are cool, plus a lot of neat filters to alter the look.
I like the art style, but others might be turned off by its more "cartoony" appearance.
Immersion level
Pretty immersive, since you can go down to the street level and alter you perspective in the 3D world, unlike previous versions of SimCity. The simulation also simulates each individual living in the city, and if you're prone to that kind of thing, can get lost following your citizens around as they go about their daily lives. I personally don't really care about relating to my citizens in a sim by sim basis. I'm more of a macro kind of guy, but I appreciate the complexity and strategy that the new simulation engine offers.
Ability to create unique cities
You're not restricted to a grid like in other SimCity games, so you can go wild with curvy roads. The ability to specialize in certain industries also gives each city a unique feel and a role to play. Also, the terrain, and intercity connections are different in each city, so that helps to give each plot of land a unique identity. It's also a byproduct of the (unfortunately) small plot size.
Ambience
Ambiance? It's nice, I guess.
Control given to player (how much power do I have over the city)
You can do a great many things and have a lot of influence over what goes on. You can't control terrain anymore (no terraforming), and the small city sizes are a little limiting. Other than that, though, the options available to you have increased over previous SimCities in most areas (with the exception of a few, such as traffic options, city ordinance options, and targeted funding options).
Future potential
This new SimCity has as much potential as the original SimCity Classic. Envision how SimCity classic improved up to SimCity 4. The devs have that goal in mind for the new SimCity.
Potential issues
Always online sucks. You're subject to server lag, and a required connection.
Things you dont like / hate
Always online
Small city size
Limited traffic data tools
Limited traffic/road network solutions, such as subways
Park placement/aesthetics
Region wall is laggy and disorganized
Service and resource sharing is laggy
Coordinating with friends within Origin sucks, partly due to no group chat
Pathing AI can be stupid sometimes
OVERALL: I've already preordered it. Can't get enough of the betas. Hungry for more.
Hype level: Over 9000
Any of you guys see the new Q&A video on Youtube? I was blown away with the design of this city:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lly7iawhd3o#t=106s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lly7iawhd3o#t=106s