new "real" Sim City in 2013

[Lowkee33]

If MAXIS keeps promise and make this as moddable as SC4, I think this community can do wonders with the new game! I am already teaching myself the basics of how to create low poly building models with uvw texture unwraping.

DLC is screwed if they make this moddable  ("Oh, you aren't going to release on time?  Thats okay, our models aren't ready yet either").

[Haljackey]

I've been following all the recent developments at E3 and I remain optimistic.

One thing I've been dying to see is highways and interchanges. We got a glimpse of a 3 lane road with Jersey barriers but that had intersections. I'm fine with not seeing them yet... they're probably taking longer to develop. I say let them take their time and get it right.

If you're looking for a good synopsis of E3's SC-related events, the SimCity 2013 news section on Simtropolis is a good place to look: http://www.simtropolis.com/news/_/simcity-2013/

[jdenm8]

I've just read on one of the outlets that terraforming has been removed. Apparently you won't be able to change the terrain in-game at all.

[xannepan]

Well.. If we can't mod it ~ DLC or an other reason,  we still have a fantastic alternative here :-)

[Shark7]

Well.. If we can't mod it ~ DLC or an other reason,  we still have a fantastic alternative here :-)

Yep, and when EA shuts the SC5 servers down in a couple of years, we'll still be able to play SC4. 

[catty]

Well.. If we can't mod it ~ DLC or an other reason,  we still have a fantastic alternative here :-)

Yep, and when EA shuts the SC5 servers down in a couple of years, we'll still be able to play SC4. 

Which is why I was at my local online store seeing if I could order another copy of SC4 Deluxe, which I can

http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/PC-Games/Sim-City-4-Deluxe-Edition-Game-Classics/1457813/

and noticed they were advertising the new SimCity Limited

SimCity Limited Edition includes:

New Characters— Protector of SimCity MaxisMan vs. The Evil Dr. Vu and his henchman.
Crime Waves—The Evil Dr. Vu is loose and will create havoc in your city. Normal police have their hands full against this Super Villain. The Evil Dr. Vu will solicit Sims to become his henchmen and carry out his dastardly deeds.
Super Hero HQ – Place MaxisMan's he­adquarters in your city to combat crime and keep your Sims safe. Upgrade with the Turbo Machine garage and The Reticulator landing pad.
Evil Villain Lair – Place Dr. Vu's Lair in your city to unleash a crime wave. As The Evil Dr. Vu commits more crimes, upgrade his lair with a special laboratory and a garage for the Evil VuMobile

the full ad

http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/PC-Games/SimCity-Limited-Edition/19759110/

-catty

[mike3775]

In a way, I may get this game just for the scenario's.  I do miss playing the older versions where there were different scenario's to play and they got tougher

[mrbisonm]

What I have seen sofar doesn't impress me at all. The worksand function of the game will be indeed better, I am sure, but those textures, graphics and visuals of the game, they're not to my liking. They look worse than SC4 and somewhat childish and "lego" to me.
The newest games I play lately are Tropico 4 and The Settlers 7, geeez, that is what I call nice graphics!! I hope that Maxis doesn't use those graphics they have shown sofar, because I will most likely not buy it. I am visual.
But I will surely borrow it from one of my friends or sons (if they get it) first, before I decide to buy or just simply forget it like Sim societies.

Another thing I don't like is the thing with the internet connection, I don't have a connection in my weekend home and neither can get it, unfortunelty, it is there I spend most of my freetime.................and have been creating my bats, regions and plays.

But I am sure somewhat else will come up with something nice in the next year to play around with.

Fred

[jigsaw]

i wouldnt stress about graphics that much. look at what the community has done to SC4 since it's release. i dont think we use much of the vanilla content at all anymore. all they have to do is release an engine that works well, and the ability to add mods/bats etc, and the community will do the rest over time.

everyone has to remember that Maxis/EA probably will to compare the new game to SC4RH/SC4 Deleuxe Vanilla, not to a '2012-community-spec-Modded-like-crazy-SC4' version.

as said above, the key to the success of this game is in how much they let us play under the hood, and how much we can add to it with community content.

[mike3775]

as said above, the key to the success of this game is in how much they let us play under the hood, and how much we can add to it with community content.

I don't expect much of that to be allowed, since many game companies now realize that people are willing to pay to download things to make things better.  Look how many recent games all have had that custom download stuff left off the game, but if you buy it at Game Stop, you get it, but buy the game at Best Buy and you don't. 
I have a feeling EA/Maxis is going to go that route with this game as well(in fact it already appears they are since there are two different versions of this game being released, one with all the bells and whistles and the other the plain boring version which any CDL stuff will not apply to since its the generic version and not bells and whistles version)

[NCGAIO]

Which is why I was at my local online store seeing if I could order another copy of SC4 Deluxe, which I can

went to see ... $ 49.99 for a game of 2003 ... will be that much of this is E.A. price ?
(Note that not have discount as in the case of SimCity Societies ... that is more recent.)

And to think that just over one year the Steam selling the same game for $ 4.99. I would say that this is ride the wave to maximize profits!

[z]

Which is why I was at my local online store seeing if I could order another copy of SC4 Deluxe, which I can

went to see ... $ 49.99 for a game of 2003 ... will be that much of this is E.A. price ?

Note that catty's price was for a New Zealand store (where she lives), and also that the New Zealand dollar is currently worth about USD$0.79.

You can currently get SC4 Deluxe from Amazon.com for $11.56 (free shipping on orders over $25).  It's even cheaper than that on eBay.

[catty]

...Note that catty's price was for a New Zealand store (where she lives), and also that the New Zealand dollar is currently worth about USD$0.79...

Yes, on top of which the price for buying software in New Zealand is quite high, if you complain to the companies the reason they give is we are a small market and in some cases we are also locked out of buying something from overseas because of it.



So from my point of view its not a bad price and as I'm going to cancel my pre-order for SimCity 2013 it works out quite well.

-catty

[Cire360]

They have already stated in an article i read that the game will be more mod able then any simcity that they have released to date, just about every rule, agent, unit and map will be mod able to the fullest extent.  However what they haven't touched base on yet is what tools, format and whatnot it will be, and weather or not they will be releasing any type of tool-sets to ease community development and also didn't touch base on if games are modded to any type of degree what that will do to multiplayer, ect, or even if you will be able to play multiplayer if you have moded content.

What concerns me the most is how easily it seems that things can run amunk as well as using up resources, ie water, trees, ect.  Does this mean that we will be waiting some 40 years for trees to grow so that our cities can continue to grow, can we import these resources, does water replenish itself by rain?  Are there ways of dealing with pollution?  I didn't see any mention of mass transits as well, however I did see trains and airports but these seemed more 'region' oriented.  Hopefully as the release date draws near some of these questions will be answered.

[Silur]

It's a LEGO game for me ... and some terrible PR action by EA Games ...
I heard (from my poor Russian TV) about worst (number FIRST) EA GAMES Co., reputation in USA in Year 2011 - is it true ?   
There are many words about nothing, SC2013 is a poor clone CSXL and others ...
May be we'll get interesting lines and history, but LEGO's pictures kill me ...
May be we'll get another SC2013 sites, but ... never with excellent SC4 BATers and MODers ...
Another games - another times ...
Simple flag in Your hands, SC2013 lovers ...
SC2013 - dead monster for me, I saw RRT game with 3D before it ... with very poor final ... 
If You want bury a game - created 3D version with one ... 

[catty]

My own personal view is multi-player and community modding aren't compatible, as you can't have a region where some people have community mods and others don't, the only way it would work is if the mod was approved and released by EA and I'm guessing paid for by us, much as I wanted a new SimCity I don't think this new version is something I want to play, so I'll be sticking with SimCity and Cities in Motion.

-catty

[[Delta ²k5]]

An other way could be that a multiplayer mode runs only without any modded content but DLCs from ea or something like that.. or it could work like in Flight Simulator: if a model was not found on the other users HDD (or SSD ) the program will replace the missing one by a stock building with the same dimensions and the same type...

there are many work-arounds possible

[Shark7]

If MAXIS keeps promise and make this as moddable as SC4, I think this community can do wonders with the new game! I am already teaching myself the basics of how to create low poly building models with uvw texture unwraping.

DLC is screwed if they make this moddable  ("Oh, you aren't going to release on time?  Thats okay, our models aren't ready yet either").

Nope, I can see a way they'll make money off of the community's work.  Sure you can mod, but all mods have to be uploaded to the Origin server, and you have to pay a fee as an end user to download the mods as DLC.  They'll figure out some way to make it so that only 'official' content can be installed and have the game work.

Alternatively, they make it a subscription service to have unlimited mod download, and same thing, it only works if they make it available.

One thing corporations are good at is figuring out how to squeeze every last cent from their customer base. 

And to think, I'm on optimist. 

[Cire360]

Perhaps its just me but the more I learn about sc2013, the more 'dumb'ed down it looks.

[NCGAIO]

My own personal view is multi-player and community modding aren't compatible, as you can't have a region where some people have community mods and others don't ...

An other way could be that a multiplayer mode runs only without any modded content but DLCs from ea or something like that.. or it could work like in Flight Simulator: if a model was not found on the other users HDD  the program will replace the missing one by a stock building with the same dimensions and the same type...

  As far as I understood the multiplayer mode allows for interactions between the cities that will be played in the same region with a limit of sixteen ... things like buying and selling resources; combination of strategies for growth, etc ...

There is no mention that players can share the same city so what appears on screen in your city will be only with you.

Even why we should not forget that their graphical engine is always subordinate to the simulation which is already limiting what can be displayed. (Limit 2K per tile; 200 K population etc ...)

Now what is not clear what kind of things can be done to interfere in neighboring towns. But now anticipate that if things like that described in the following piece of news bellow... I will not think the slightest grace to laugh

"" shacknews : Besides polluting the region, what are some other things players can do to screw over other players ?""

"" Kip Katsarelis's : [Laughs] There are lots of ways, as we're finding out. The more integrated cities become, the more you can screw with one another. Once you're sharing water, power, things like that, you can always cut those things off, cut off workers, or cut off jobs. Crime's another example of something that one city can create—that casino city created all this crime, and it will start spilling over into neighbors' cities. Pollution in many forms—-air pollution, water pollution, things like that--are a couple of obvious ones.""

( Kip Katsarelis's - SimCity Lead Producer Electronic Arts )

Source : http://www.shacknews.com/article/73061/one-on-one-with-simcitys-mayor - by Jason Wilson


I think that here too there would be many willing to laugh it !