SimCity V: Coming March 5!

[G.T.Ace]

 

[Joey D]

That's fine, but it should not dictate how the entire game develops.

The inability to save to a HDD & other complained about issues seem to be the result of the silly decision that the game needs to be online. This game should have been shipped like every other SimCity instead of trying to be so heavily multiplayer focused.

It will dictate it though. Constant online is the future of gaming whether gamers want it or not and so is cloud based storage of saves. I think it will get better once companies figure out how to properly build a server that will handle the load, but who knows how long that will take.

I agree, SimCity 5 should have been like the past SimCity games, but it's not and my choice was either not to play it or just accept this is what the gaming industry is to become and just buy it. EA could have botched SimCity 5 much worse than they did and they've said they will allow modding, so the fan community will fix the game the best they can.

Like every review on Amazon, they're mostly written by people that never bothered to read what the product was about before buying it. You'd have to live under a rock not to know what SimCity's shortcomings would be prior to buying it.

===

In gaming related news, it looks like EA has fixed the servers, or at least stabilized them a bit. I just played for about 2 hours with no disconnects and I was finally able to join a buddy of mine's region and start a city there.

 

[McLaren]

It will dictate it though. Constant online is the future of gaming whether gamers want it or not and so is cloud based storage of saves. I think it will get better once companies figure out how to properly build a server that will handle the load, but who knows how long that will take.

I agree, SimCity 5 should have been like the past SimCity games, but it's not and my choice was either not to play it or just accept this is what the gaming industry is to become and just buy it. EA could have botched SimCity 5 much worse than they did and they've said they will allow modding, so the fan community will fix the game the best they can.

Until it gets to that point where it can be done right, it need not be done at all. This game so far, has flopped & the online decision is the reason; all the issues I'm reading stem from it. Paying $60 for a game you may not be able to play because of server queue? Ridiculous.

As far as a server that will handle the load, EA has it. Their servers are run by the same company that runs Netflix's & other company's. This is EA being EA & not being prepared better.

 

[Joey D]

Until it gets to that point where it can be done right, it need not be done at all. This game so far, has flopped & the online decision is the reason; all the issues I'm reading stem from it. Paying $60 for a game you may not be able to play because of server queue? Ridiculous.

As far as a server that will handle the load, EA has it. Their servers are run by the same company that runs Netflix's & other company's. This is EA being EA & not being prepared better.

I don't disagree that it shouldn't be done, but it is.

What I don't understand is why people are surprised by anything that is happening. It's been clear since last November that SimCity would be constantly online and anyone who's ever played online games know the servers are going to be crap at the game's launch. If anyone bought the game expecting it to work flawlessly right away is living in some sort of dream world. And no one is forcing anyone to pay $60 on a game they may or may not be able to play, if people really hated that fact they wouldn't have bought the game in the first place.

 

[Doog]

So after being left with a somewhat sour taste after playing last night, I promptly got on and played today for two hours hoping that I'd have a better time, and I did. Getting used to the controls, though the camera is still clunky and vague, and the cities seem easy enough to run, though no matter what I do I can't seem to appease a constant demand for medium-wealth shoppers. Thankfully there were no crashes, though after I got off the servers went down and I haven't been able to get on since. My Origin is Dooglers8 if you want to invite me to the GTP Mayors Club.

 

[Joey D]

So after being left with a somewhat sour taste after playing last night, I promptly got on and played today for two hours hoping that I'd have a better time, and I did. Getting used to the controls, though the camera is still clunky and vague, and the cities seem easy enough to run, though no matter what I do I can't seem to appease a constant demand for medium-wealth shoppers. Thankfully there were no crashes, though after I got off the servers went down and I haven't been able to get on since. My Origin is Dooglers8 if you want to invite me to the GTP Mayors Club.

For medium wealth shoppers you need to put medium wealth parks (§§) near the residential and commercial zones, with medium density roads and they will start to develop. It took me a bit to figure out that's what it wanted.

 

[Doog]

For medium wealth shoppers you need to put medium wealth parks (§§) near the residential and commercial zones, with medium density roads and they will start to develop. It took me a bit to figure out that's what it wanted.

That's exactly what I've been doing, spamming parks every couple of housing blocks to keep people happy.
After two or so hours of gameplay the city's already about a third full, which really does raise some concern about the replay value. I'm still not quite keen on the new zoning system and how the individual lot sizes can vary, sometimes leaving an out of place patch of green grass in the midst of a cluster of factories. Wish it'd be more like 4's method where it would fill the entire zone allotted, rather than this sort of guessing game when it comes to planning out the city. I do appreciate how fires can take care of themselves now, rather than the annoying long pause in gameplay and having to babysit the fire while it was being put out.

 

[Ddrizle]

EA refuses to refund user for SimCity, threatens account ban

One user was understandably frustrated with this and tried to ask a refunding citing the official EA press release which said “if you regrettably feel that we left you down, you can of course request a refund for your order.”

The customer service representative acknowledged the press release but then later added “it is also the our discretion to process a refund.”

 

[Omnis]

Be careful when you start getting into high density.... everything. Traffic is a nightmare! The worst part is if you improve the roads to fix it, EVERYTHING will go high-density.

Then you'll have to demo your wind farms and poo-faucets and plan for megalopolis because people will use electricity and start pooping LIKE IT'S GOING OUT OF STYLE.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

You sound surprised that that happened. Didn't you think to plan for any of that in advance?

 

[Tesla]

EA refuses to refund user for SimCity, threatens account ban

Good ol' EA.


I was planning to buy this, but now I've seen gameplay of the full release version, I think I'll pass. When I can create huge cities without having to switch regions or be online, I'll think about it.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

When I can create huge cities without having to switch regions or be online, I'll think about it.

That's unlikely to happen - the limitations of the GlassBox engine demand smaller city sizes.

 

[somebody]

30 mins of install, 2.5 hours of update, ~3 hours of "network error" including 3 deletions of my userdata folder, and I finally played the tutorial.

Nice game, shows promise.

Too bad I can't connect to the server again.

 

[Omnis]

You sound surprised that that happened. Didn't you think to plan for any of that in advance?

Sure did. Did not plan on traffic AI to be so god awful though. My Tropicans were better drivers.

 

[mattythedog]

EA are disabling "non-critical gameplay features" to try and reduce the load on the servers. Basically all the features that they used as an excuse for it being always online DRM. Linky.

 

[Joel]

It's like Diablo 3 all over again.

 

[G.T.Ace]

EDIT: Amazon (.com) stopped selling the digital copy.

The Amazon page for SimCity will no longer allow customers to purchase the game, citing server issues as the reason for pulling it. People all over the Internet are complaining about their inability to play SimCity due to its DRM that forces the player to always be connected to EA's servers.

 

[Omnis]

I'm on NA West 2 Servers now and things are going well. Made sure to make mass transit a focus of my city and so far have avoided all the problems I was having before. Medium aves are your friend. Keep things in check and go nuts with shuttles. Now I have to plan my rail infrastructure.

 

[Tarkata]

I believe the real city building simulator is Sim City 4.
I have seen many videos about SC 5 and i didn`t like the new approach to the game.
I think the more simple and complex game at the same time is SC4. Trying to find this balance is crucial. Ether iam not very inside the SC5 new system or it is far from that.

 

[Omnis]

The thing that's cool about this game is that you have to build your city in phases, especially if you're going for industry. It's almost impossible to play by yourself beyond a certain level.

So, guys, please add me to your origin friends list (MP-Omnis), hop on NA West 2 servers, and join my damned region already.

 

[somebody]

If I manage to get on again this weekend my goal is to see if I can boost my cash quickly like in previous versions. I figure a city of ~1800 people with a 10% tax rate should get me an income of $2000/hour if done right.

x1 wind farm
x1 garbage dump
x1 sewage outflow pipe
zone all R around a town hall/fire station/clinic hub
zone just enough I and C to meet demand but ignore R demand to control population

I trialled it in a test city and managed $1200/hour without planning in advance. If done right I can set it up, fast forward time, and read a book for a couple of hours (I recommend Peter F Hamilton), then come back to it and have enough money to raze the city to the ground and build what I want without worrying about money.

Oh, by the way, my name is Unwired-Eddie if anybody sees me around either the Oceanic or East Europe 2 servers. I might also try the NA W2 server to see if I can find Omnis.

edit: I should have read some of the posts above. Looks like fast forwarding the game (cheetah speed) is out for now. Otherwise, the system seems to be working. Now to play seriously. Omnis - friend request sent.

 

[bluemoon_19]

Ok guys I need a bit of help. This game is coming out in Europe today and I need to know how well my system will be able to play it. I am not bothered about setting or anything I just want to play the game and not waste £35.


Right before i give my settings the canIrunit websites says this.

my specs are:
CPU: i7 870
RAM: 4GB DDR3 (only about 3GB usable)
GPU: ATI Radeon HD 5450 (killer but it can't be replaced its in the case up against a motherboard heatsink that stuck to the board)
HDD: like 1.5TB free space

So will I be able to play this on low settings without stuttering? I don't care about graphics I play on PS3 and as long as I can clearly see what something is meant to be a don't really care lol.

Also I know about the always online I have a pretty stable line here. I am against it as well but it seems the only way I'm gonna play it is to buy it from EA.

 

[somebody]

Your pass mark is about the same as mine and I run fine on 1920x1080 medium settings.

 

[bluemoon_19]

Thank you so much I was just about to go out now so I will pick it up.

Okay been playing a few hours now and its been fine. City has about 8000 residents, 74% approval rate and currently making about $3.500 an hour.

 

[somebody]

I've managed to pretty well screw up my first serious attempt at a city. I reached 10,000 pop with ease and thought things were going well. Alas, it was not so.

I failed to plan my streets, didn't leave room for police and fire expansions, and tried to expand way too fast. It was around the 150,000 pop mark when everything fell apart. I tried to update my main street to an avenue, bulldozing 2 police stations, a grade school, and a fire station in the process.

It would have been okay if I had somewhere to relocate them but no, it was not to be. Five minutes later I found myself having to bulldoze my city hall to fix what had become SimHell. That's when the disaster hit.

Having a large reptile stomp through a clinic and set fire to my sole remaining police station with his breath was not amusing. About 15 minutes later, while I was still repairing the damage, a tornado took out both of my fire stations. From there it went downhill.

I managed to bulldoze almost a third of my buildings and downgrade a quarter of my roads to low density in an attempt to get on top of it. Everything is now stable, and I am building my money back up hand-over-fist, yet I can see a complete bulldoze and restart in the near future.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Ah, but that's the appeal of Sim City. If you always planned out your cities perfectly from the start, it would get boring quickly.

 

[Wardez]

Well after finally being able to play from yesterday, I've run out room in my first small city.It's to the point where I really can't build anymore because of space. I've added most important modules to fundamental buildings and services and such. I'm just trying to get more people somehow, but it seems like I'm stuck at around 30,000.

You guys can add me if you like, I added Omnis, I'm gonna be looking for his region.

Origin: Kojacked

 

[Gooner SJ]

I don't want to discourage people, but as a massive Sim City 4 fan, I passed on this release, and at this point I am glad I did. Here is a review I just came across on Simtropolis. If those stats are correct about the reviews, then it's pretty staggering.


Link


Wardez, one of the reasons I passed is because of the population cap they put on each city, and city tiles cannot be adjacent in this release. There will be no large metropolises in this release, apparently.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I think the final paragraph is a little undeserved:

Also, a prediction for the future: if you release an expansion or paid DLC to make the extremely small city areas bigger (instead of making it a free fix for one of the game's legitimate mechanical flaws), people are going to be unhappy all over again. We're all expecting it, and none of us are going to appreciate it when it happens.

Maxis has made it pretty clear from the start of development that city sizes were capped because of the limitations of the GlassBox engine. Where previous games simply processed algorithms to produce an accurate approximation of city variables on demand, GlassBox tracks every single variable in real time. If there were any more people in the city, it might be too much for GlassBox to handle.

I do, however, agree that bundling expanded city sizes as an expansion pack of paid DLC is rather poor form. I just think the article is trying to find fault with EA for as much as possible, ignoring the way they already have a hole big enough to fly the Death Star through.

 

[Wardez]

Here's some screens of my (very poorly laid out) city: