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[Smiley90]

You could specialize cities with Simcity 4 region play also. The point is that it gave you an option to do that, rather than forcing you to do.

Anytime someone says "game intends you to" it's probably an example of terrible game design.

It's not like they purposely ignored that possibility. It was just not possible with respect to allowing most people's PC to run GlassBox/the game with it, which is why it'll come as DLC. I rather have the game now, working for most people, with regional play and bigger cities than DLC, than having to wait another year or 2 until either the engine has been perfected and/or consumer hardware has cought up.

I played beta 1 and I found that it restricted you to specializing your cities. The game encourages this behavior with having a "gambling" or "coal" city. It's pretty much impossible to have a city that is focused on multiple things in this game.

And that's good this way. See paham's response below me.

 

[pahamrick]

You could specialize cities with Simcity 4 region play also. The point is that it gave you an option to do that, rather than forcing you to do.

Anytime someone says "game intends you to" it's probably an example of terrible game design.

Or, in this case, they re-did the entire simulation system from scratch instead of using the same one that had been used for, what, 3 games?

Obviously the smaller cities will irk those who want huge, sprawling metropolis type cities but I think the deeper simulation is a fair trade off.

Those who still want the huge cities can still play SimCity 4, they'll just be missing out on the new simulation system and detail.

 

[SRTtoZ]

Just preordered on Origin, ready for Monday night!

For anyone on Discovery Delta 3, add me on Origin.

Neogaf name: SRTtoZ
Origin name: OblastSRT4

Even if you arent in my zone feel free to add me. Can't wait for this game.

 

[Metalmurphy]

These are the only gaffers who's Origin ID are not on the map:


StevieP
TurboButt
Spazo
Quick
The Wizard
Soi-Fong
sl4yor
spadge
EvB
King_Moc
MrCompletely
klobrille
Raxious
thelegendary
BeekleMatter
Stasis
Georgc
DTKT
KPJZKC
8bit
NJBorn
Xane


Please help me complete it.

 

[misterhektik]

Ceebs posted earlier, oid: LeCeebs

edit
As did fluffydelusions, oid: fluffydelusions

 

[Dead Prince]

FinalBoss / ToyCoffin

 

[evilhomer]

Ceebs posted earlier, oid: LeCeebs

edit
As did fluffydelusions, oid: fluffydelusions

Cool thanks. Updated list, still missing a few.

Discovery Delta #2

Sawyer's Crossing: gaf- Rubixcuba origin- AbicusDarby
Huckleberry Island: gaf- Clovingwestbrook origin- Clovingwestbrook
Thatcher Overlook: gaf- rs4- origin- Rsfour
Harper Plains: gaf- spadge origin- ???
Cottonwood Forest: gaf- EvB origin- ???
Magnolia Wetlands: gaf- suedester origin- 1981suede
Willow Woods: gaf- King_Moc origin- King_Moc
Honeysuckle Marsh: gaf- Eaten By A Grue origin- Riven81
Kazoo Basin: gaf- Sykra origin- Sykrap
Spooner Plains: gaf- FuzzyNorman origin- Absolute22
Washtub Fields: gaf- Relix origin- LordRelix
Jugband Hills: gaf- ricochetguro origin- ricochetguro
Cotton bend: gaf- MrCompletely origin- Dronehouse
Stackolee Ravine: gaf- fluffydelusions origin- fluffydelusions
Rising Sun Valley: gaf- evilhomer origin- evilhomer14
Barleycorn Point: gaf- LyleLanley origin- MelvinVanHorne

 

[Shane86]

Amazon Tony on Reddit

"Hey guys,

I just saw this note and saw this issue (I was at comicon all day).

For 100% transparency here is the mistake that led to this issue. Note this was absolutely a mistake, and orders that were did not use CAGROCKS were cancelled as well.

On Thursday we learned that there would no longer be a pre-load for SimCity. In response I set up a mass mail to go out to every customer who had pre-ordered the game up until we found out there wasn't a pre-load anymore.

When I filed this request, I copy/pasted a previous request for a mass mail, in this previous request the words "also please cancel all of the attached orders" (we had an issue with a product previously that we had to cancel/refund orders on because the product never shipped).

So, when sending the email out, letting customers know there was no pre-load, we also cancelled all the orders.

Again, this was totally my bad.

Cheers, Tony"

"I'm figuring out if we can just re-place the orders for everyone who did not re-order already. I literally just got home so I have very little visibility into what's been worked on so far.

I'll update as soon as I have more information. Thanks for the patience and sorry for the hassle.

Cheers, Tony"

 

[syoaran]

Oh god, TB's life stream is just insanely fun. His wife comes in and hands the law down haha

 

[Jintor]

Christ Tony.

 

[TheD]

It's not like they purposely ignored that possibility. It was just not possible with respect to allowing most people's PC to run GlassBox/the game with it, which is why it'll come as DLC. I rather have the game now, working for most people, with regional play and bigger cities than DLC, than having to wait another year or 2 until either the engine has been perfected and/or consumer hardware has cought up.

If they had bigger cites everyone could still play the game, people with slower systems would just need to stick to the smaller ones!

Having to pay for larger cites at a later date is stupid!

 

[Smiley90]

If they had bigger cites everyone could still play the game, people with slower systems would just need to stick to the smaller ones!

Having to pay for larger cites at a later date is stupid!

So... you think people would be happy if they released the game, but people on weaker/normal systems could only play 50% of the game and for the rest it'd either lag like crazy or they'd get a note saying "Your system is too bad to play this part of the game, please pay 400 dollars to upgrade first"? That'd be an even worse move on EA's part.

 

[thesuperfunk]

One game I always struggled with as a child ... still haven't got the patience for it now, although watching some of the videos on YT it does look awfully nice cranked up!

 

[Megasoum]

LMAO Tony....hahahahaha

 

[Smiley90]

LMAO Tony....hahahahaha

At least he's telling it how it is He's a good guy

 

[TheD]

So... you think people would be happy if they released the game, but people on weaker/normal systems could only play 50% of the game and for the rest it'd either lag like crazy or they'd get a note saying "Your system is too bad to play this part of the game, please pay 400 dollars to upgrade first"? That'd be an even worse move on EA's part.

They lose nothing but people with faster systems gain something!

Simple!

 

[Megasoum]

At least he's telling it how it is He's a good guy

Yeah, I actually miss him around here.


Cheers,
Megasoum

 

[Jintor]

True, true. Still, bad news for all the dudes who won't notice until march 5 their preorder died

 

[RedWaltz79]

These are the only gaffers who's Origin ID are not on the map:


StevieP
TurboButt
Spazo
Quick
The Wizard
Soi-Fong
sl4yor
spadge
EvB
King_Moc
MrCompletely
klobrille
Raxious
thelegendary
BeekleMatter
Stasis
Georgc
DTKT
KPJZKC
8bit
NJBorn
Xane


Please help me complete it.

TurboButt isn't an active GAFer ID. He is in my cluster and I don't know who he is.

 

[Got the Shakes]

So I ordered the digital version on Amazon a few days ago and my order doesn't appear to have been cancelled. Not that I'm complaining, but I'm wondering why it wasn't.

 

[Mengy]

It's not like they purposely ignored that possibility. It was just not possible with respect to allowing most people's PC to run GlassBox/the game with it, which is why it'll come as DLC. I rather have the game now, working for most people, with regional play and bigger cities than DLC, than having to wait another year or 2 until either the engine has been perfected and/or consumer hardware has cought up.

Well, they did kind of ignore it on purpose when they made the game single threaded instead of multi threaded. I'm betting the expansion or DLC that gives us larger city sizes will be coupled with multi core useage. That will most likely be the day I buy the game.

It's not really that current hardware can't support larger cities, they just didn't support current hardware.


I hope all of you who are getting the game next week post up lots of screenshots and impressions. I'm really hyped to hear how the full game plays and to see how the GAF regions develop.

 

[Smiley90]

Well, they did kind of ignore it on purpose when they made the game single threaded instead of multi threaded. I'm betting the expansion or DLC that gives us larger city sizes will be coupled with multi core useage. That will most likely be the day I buy the game.

It's not really that current hardware can't support larger cities, they just didn't support current hardware.


I hope all of you who are getting the game next week post up lots of screenshots and impressions. I'm really hyped to hear how the full game plays and to see how the GAF regions develop.

You seem to misunderstand how hard it is to make a game and engine like this multi-threaded. They realized with the way they were able to build the engine FROM SCRATCH, it was either going to be another year or 2 of development, or making the hardware specs too high for people to play, or releasing smaller cities now and potentially bigger cities later. I'm glad they chose the latter. It's not like smaller cities suddenly makes the game crazy boring and restrictive, it opens up other possibilities, and that's what I intend to do. I'll play the game the devs had in mind, not the game that SimCity 4 was, this isn't CoD where every game is the exact same game as before.

 

[Spl1nter]

Simcity 4 was/is already a technical, laggy mess. The reboot would be torn apart if it had the technical issues that simcity 4 has just so it could have bigger cities.

Glassbox is amazingly complex. You have 100 000s of agents all with multiple changing values and its all visible to you. Simcity 4 you never could actually just see what is happening because the visuals were disconnected from the simulation. The traffic you saw wasnt directly related to the simulation.

 

[f0rk]

You seem to misunderstand how hard it is to make a game and engine like this multi-threaded.

Nah man you just turn the other cores on it's simple

 

[sp3000]

So... you think people would be happy if they released the game, but people on weaker/normal systems could only play 50% of the game and for the rest it'd either lag like crazy or they'd get a note saying "Your system is too bad to play this part of the game, please pay 400 dollars to upgrade first"? That'd be an even worse move on EA's part.

This is a stupid exaggeration. How are people only able to see 50 percent of the game if all they experience is a smaller map size while those with better computers have larger maps.

What a proper system would be like Supreme Commander. The largest maps were restricted to those with 2GB or more of RAM.

Tell me how it makes sense to gimp everything for the lowest common denominator, instead of allowing the game to scale up to larger levels based on your system.

 

[Smiley90]

This is a stupid exaggeration.

What a proper system would be like Supreme Commander. The largest maps were restricted to those with 2GB or more of RAM.

Tell me how it makes sense to gimp everything for the lowest common denominator, instead of allowing the game to scale up to larger levels based on your system.

I rather they optimize what they have and come up with new ideas (like regional play) than spend resources on larger maps, more of the same, with in the end nothing properly working.


I, for one, am excited for this game and what it offers. And I won't play it thinking "god I wish this was more like SimCity 4 with a graphics patch".

 

[Shane86]

Tell me how it makes sense to gimp everything for the lowest common denominator, instead of allowing the game to scale up to larger levels based on your system.

Leaderboards

 

[Unhandled Exception]

This is a stupid exaggeration.

What a proper system would be like Supreme Commander. The largest maps were restricted to those with 2GB or more of RAM.

Tell me how it makes sense to gimp everything for the lowest common denominator, instead of allowing the game to scale up to larger levels based on your system.

Global market wouldn't be fair to those with lower specs.

 

[pahamrick]

I rather they optimize what they have and come up with new ideas (like regional play) than spend resources on larger maps, more of the same, with in the end nothing properly working.


I, for one, am excited for this game and what it offers. And I won't play it thinking "god I wish this was more like SimCity 4 with a graphics patch".

And I for one am excited at the prospect at having a simulation engine that can't be duplicated in MS Excel, but that's just me.

 

[Smiley90]

And I for one am excited at the prospect at having a simulation engine that can't be duplicated in MS Excel, but that's just me.

Oh I'm totally on the same boat as you. IMHO the only "big" thing glassbox is missing, is a proper transit system (one-way lanes, bike lanes, non-random bus lines, etc) and corresponding transit data-layers. Devs have said that'll likely/probably/maybe come in the future though, and after Rush Hour, I'm sure it'll come eventually. My first city will be such a transit mess.

 

[TheD]

Simcity 4 was/is already a technical, laggy mess. The reboot would be torn apart if it had the technical issues that simcity 4 has just so it could have bigger cities.

Glassbox is amazingly complex. You have 100 000s of agents all with multiple changing values and its all visible to you. Simcity 4 you never could actually just see what is happening because the visuals were disconnected from the simulation. The traffic you saw wasnt directly related to the simulation.

SimCity 4 was a mess because of the shit rendering engine, not because it has big cites.

 

[DEO3]

Man I can't commit to the purchase. $60 is just too much for day 1.

I've been playing SimCity 4 for what, ten years now? They've certainly earned my money, I'm more than happy to throw $60 their way.

Of course that's easy for me to say,

Spoiler

since I got it for $40.

 

[Smiley90]

Thread needs more data layer gifs


Also:

http://www.twitch.tv/totalbiscuit/new


Watch TB play! For everyone on the fence/needing SOMETHING to survive the wait

 

[sp3000]

Leaderboards

Leaderboards should be based on region, since they are all premade anyway. Some regions should be able to have larger cities, and those will have their own leaderboard.

Global market wouldn't be fair to those with lower specs.

How would it not be fair

I rather they optimize what they have and come up with new ideas (like regional play) than spend resources on larger maps, more of the same, with in the end nothing properly working.


I, for one, am excited for this game and what it offers. And I won't play it thinking "god I wish this was more like SimCity 4 with a graphics patch".

Region play is nothing new. In simcity 4 you could exchange jobs, commuters, power, water, and RCI demand between cities. What is new is the underlying simulation.

How does having larger maps lead to "nothing properly working". Some people have constructed elaborate excuses for why it shouldn't work, when it really just comes down to lower systems not being able to handle that many agents, and so everyone must contend with it.

 

[pahamrick]

Oh I'm totally on the same boat as you. IMHO the only "big" thing glassbox is missing, is a proper transit system (one-way lanes, bike lanes, non-random bus lines, etc) and corresponding transit data-layers. Devs have said that'll likely/probably/maybe come in the future though, and after Rush Hour, I'm sure it'll come eventually. My first city will be such a transit mess.

I didn't grab SimCity 4 until after Rush Hour was out and they had already bundled it together in SimCity 4 deluxe, but from what I understand there wasn't very many transit options available in vanilla SC4 at launch either.

I think with the proper amount of planning and the ability to use bus and shuttle bus stops as well as rail cars for intercity transportation, then rail and water for inter-region transportation it should help with traffic congestion, but having a full blown transit system with subways, elevated mono-rails, ect would definitely make for some interesting city building even with the smaller land plots.

How would it not be fair

Because those with larger city sizes available would have more resources available to sell on the global market.

 

[Megasoum]

Thread needs more data layer gifs

I didn't play a whole lot of the beta but I have to say that one of th highlight was when you put down the first powerplant in the tutorial and you actually see power moving out to your town. Amazing moment.

 

[Smiley90]

I didn't play a whole lot of the beta but I have to say that one of th highlight was when you put down the first powerplant in the tutorial and you actually see power moving out to your town. Amazing moment.

Definitely. Same goes for water. Or Sewage. Just discovering all the little dots was pretty amazing.

 

[goldsoundz]

Watch TB play! For everyone on the fence/needing SOMETHING to survive the wait

He finally figured out how to build a bridge!

 

[Megasoum]

He finally figured out how to build a bridge!

I'm already screaming at my screen to tell him how to do stuff properly lol...


Nice preview for the Giantbomb quicklook haha.

 

[smr00]

So im hearing you can't pre-load with GMG/Amazon orders, can you pre-order with Origin orders?

 

[Jedi2016]

http://www.twitch.tv/totalbiscuit/new
Watch TB play! For everyone on the fence/needing SOMETHING to survive the wait

I'm loving his play. Did you guys hear it earlier when Gemma came up behind him and started telling him how to play the game? Then she went and made her own city in his region that's already waaaay beyond his.

 

[misterhektik]

So im hearing you can't pre-load with GMG/Amazon orders, can you pre-order with Origin orders?

No pre load at all.

I'm already screaming at my screen to tell him how to do stuff properly lol...

He was playing at turtle speed for like 30 minutes. I kept yelling CHEETAH!

 

[Vilam]

So I just snagged Harper Plains in Discovery Delta (3), that's cool right? Scanned through the thread and don't think I'm missing any obvious rules for registering. The idea of a full 16 player region sounds pretty exciting!

 

[SRTtoZ]

Thread needs more data layer gifs


Also:

http://www.twitch.tv/totalbiscuit/new


Watch TB play! For everyone on the fence/needing SOMETHING to survive the wait

Oh dude, thanks! Ive been scavenging youtube watching beta vids all day to hype me even more. This is wayyyyyyyyyyyyy better. Props to you sir.

 

[Ultimatum]

I'm in the UK, so would I be able to play in the same regions as GAF?

Although I guess the more important question is are there any spots left?

 

[smr00]

No pre load at all.




He was playing at turtle speed for like 30 minutes. I kept yelling CHEETAH!

Are you kidding me? And EA wonders why they get so much shit for Origin.

 

[Megasoum]

Hahaha, he sees some protestors and says "All right, bring the rubber bullets here"

Are you kidding me? And EA wonders why they get so much shit for Origin.

Huh...what? Origin supports pre-load... It doesn't have anything to do with Origin.

 

[goldsoundz]

Are you kidding me? And EA wonders why they get so much shit for Origin.

10 GB too, according to the SimCity Origin store page. Another reason why I ordered the physical version from Amazon with $20 credit.

 

[Lonestar]

went and installed SimCity 4, wasn't hungry for some SimCity.

Then realized, ugh, Windows 7 flicker problem!

Crazy that the fix I found was to limit my CPU to 1 processor.

Now my city is going to be backrupt, as I'm losing 10k a month :lol Prepare for Despair, Titan Gorge #2

 

[Ceebs]

10 GB too, according to the SimCity Origin store page. Another reason why I ordered the physical version from Amazon with $20 credit.

Yeah I will be playing Tomb Raider while I wait it looks like.