new "real" Sim City in 2013

[RickD]

I will get this game to play around with, but its features are going to determine whether it gets played by me or I sits and collects dust with alot of other games I have bought over the years

Then this would be the same what happend to me with SC4: Bought the game on release day. Played a few weeks. Thought "Meh" and deleted it. Came back two years later, discovered custom content. Addicted. 

[riponite]

Hey Ryan (Hal),
If you find out anything about the interchanges they are planning in the new SimCity, please let us know.  I enjoy SimCity for the roads and all the nifty ways we can get sims from point A to point B.
Thanks,
Carl (Riponite)

[mike3775]

I will get this game to play around with, but its features are going to determine whether it gets played by me or I sits and collects dust with alot of other games I have bought over the years

Then this would be the same what happend to me with SC4: Bought the game on release day. Played a few weeks. Thought "Meh" and deleted it. Came back two years later, discovered custom content. Addicted. 

I actually liked Vanilla when it came out, played it continually for a bit, then found Simtropolis and custom content which made Vanilla better.  Then RH came out which improved the game even more.

This game has potential, I won't lie, it looks interesting, and if there are things that make it different from SC4(like challanges or scenario's to beat) I will play the game for awhile.  Sc4 is great to play, but there is really no real challenge outside of doing whatever you want to do, which leads me to lose interest in the game for a bit.  I have not loaded the game for over 2 weeks now, because I simply do not want to play the game.

[SimNation]

If the game is good ima get it, probably not day one buy though because I do not trust EA. Also im kinda playing a good host of other games atm. Not sure when I will get around to buying it but if its good,and the drm is what I am willing to deal with it shall be mine.

The Glassbox Engine sounds very interesting. I am almost interested more in it then Sim City 5 lol.

[Haljackey]

Hey Ryan (Hal),
If you find out anything about the interchanges they are planning in the new SimCity, please let us know.  I enjoy SimCity for the roads and all the nifty ways we can get sims from point A to point B.
Thanks,
Carl (Riponite)

I have asked them about intersections and interchanges as well.

There are over 2200 posts in their Reddit AMA... Fingers crossed they respond to mine!

EDIT! They are responding to questions 12 and 3 PST today.

View their responses to questions here: http://www.reddit.com/user/maxis

[Tarkus]

I've up-rated yours.  Those are some good questions.

I also posted a rather technical one (I'm Tarkus-OR on there) . . . there's so many questions, I'm not sure they'll get to it, but it's really neat that they're taking the time to answer community questions like this.

-Alex

[Haljackey]

I've up-rated yours.  Those are some good questions.

I also posted a rather technical one (I'm Tarkus-OR on there) . . . there's so many questions, I'm not sure they'll get to it, but it's really neat that they're taking the time to answer community questions like this.

-Alex

Upvoted yours. Good luck! Hopefully at least one question from the active SC4 community gets answered!

[Battlecat]

Have to say, the most promising comment I've seen so far is on that reddit thread: "[Ocean] We're making SimCity, not some dopey casual game."  One can hope I suppose, I'll be interested to hear responses to more of the questions on that thread.

For those who are having trouble with those videos, there's a poor quality version available on youtube now.  At least I think they're the same videos, I haven't managed to get the first set of links working either.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I'm just thankful to see terraforming going on in the demo.  Wouldn't be a proper simcity game without it. 

[riponite]

Thanks Ryan.  I really appreciate it.

As a sidenote, I remember playing the original SimCity on my old 286.  The little red login card with black printing was a pain to read, but really I enjoyed that first game as I used to draw "maps" [which got me labeled as strange in High School.]  2000 was a wonderful step up.  I really hope this new edition lives up to the overall quality of the SC franchise.

Carl

[Girafe]

I am clearly disappointed with these 4 videos.

Looks really childish, terrain and flora are bad and game looks american as always...

Second thing is: to have a real 3D game not allows integration of good custom content and in this sense isometric 3D like SC4 is the best way to have the best details.

Wait & see...

[Fabian93]

I am clearly disappointed with these 4 videos.

Looks really childish, terrain and flora are bad and game looks american as always...

Second thing is: to have a real 3D game not allows integration of good custom content and in this sense isometric 3D like SC4 is the best way to have the best details.

Wait & see...

Thank you, that is exactly what I wanted to say. I wonder wether one will be able to build - good looking - european cities (W2W etc., I don't want to write down all the characteristicas of an european metropolis) or wether we'll be forced to build with on type of buildings as depicted in the videos.
The childish look is something I've mentioned before, too. I'm really curious about the final product; they still have lot's of time... and I am not to optimistic.

[Battlecat]

I'm hopeful that the graphics in those videos are prototypes.  The launch is still at least a year off (assuming it doesn't get delayed) so I hope we'll see some more diversity.

If not, the mod community can always fix the game again.  We didn't have W2W options in SC4 either.

[Buzzit]

i agree with girafe on this one..
im a bit dissapointed...

i'm also a bit confused about the agents system..
it clearly ruins the oppertunity for advanced water and power distribution.
but i assume everything regarding this is still in developement so we will see whats going to happen

if i ever consider buying this game i will once again start a project to upgrade the power systems..
hopefully the modding will be as easy if not easier. and hopefully they will have implimented something for wires 

but there's something i do like. thats the fact that you can customize some of the buildings to your own liking. thats pretty nice to have! adds alot of orginality to your cities and rural areas

[Stray Cat]

Sorry that the original links only worked for some...These are more direct links:

http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7183/Sim-City-5-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-1of4
http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7186/Sim-City-5-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-2of4
http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7187/Sim-City-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-3of4
http://www.hardwareclips.com/video/7188/Sim-City-Inside-the-GlassBoxEngine-gfx-not-final-4of4

Scott

[Shadow Assassin]

I am clearly disappointed with these 4 videos.

Looks really childish, terrain and flora are bad and game looks american as always...

Second thing is: to have a real 3D game not allows integration of good custom content and in this sense isometric 3D like SC4 is the best way to have the best details.

Wait & see...

Thank you, that is exactly what I wanted to say. I wonder wether one will be able to build - good looking - european cities (W2W etc., I don't want to write down all the characteristicas of an european metropolis) or wether we'll be forced to build with on type of buildings as depicted in the videos.
The childish look is something I've mentioned before, too. I'm really curious about the final product; they still have lot's of time... and I am not to optimistic.

And once again, we have people jumping to say "I don't like this game".

For crying out loud, guys, Maxis made it VERY clear from the start of the video that it was prototype graphics, they only wanted to show off the simulator. To expect perfect graphics now is well... expecting too much of them.

It's early days yet, to make an assumption like this is just wrong.

And slightly cartoonish is a lot better in terms of looks - with current tech, we're going to end up in the Uncanny Valley if they tried for all out realism. I don't mind it looking slightly cartoonish and toy-like because let's face it, it's just like working with model train sets in your basement, except it's on your computer. As for limiting to isometric views... there are techniques out there that can be used to really make 3d models look good, even with unlocked cameras... I'm sure people who currently BAT for SC4 can handle working in a completely 3D game world... after all, SC4 is 3d as well, it's just using boxes with billboard images.

[Tarkus]

SA, my thoughts exactly.

Also, did you notice the URL and video title?  See the bit that says "gfx-not-final"?  It's exactly what it means--graphics not final.  If you listened to Andrew and Dan talk, they noted that they purposely stripped the graphical engine down for the presentation and put it in a debug mode so they could show the simulator mechanics.  Besides, what good is a game that just looks nice but has poor mechanics?

-Alex

[Lowkee33]

^^ Me too.

I've seen 3D games look very good with custom content X3 in particular.  Everything in that video is custom.

@Buzzit:  Yeah, I'm not seeing how power polls fit in there.  It seems like utilities are "delivered" via roads (for now?).  Perhaps power can't travel as far as other things, and so you need poles.

I'm pretty optimistic about this.  The best feeling I get is when they say things like "Dirty Industry" and "Chance of Fire".  That they are using terminology from SC4 means they are probably using simulation ideas from it as well.

I haven't been to Reddit, but I aught to check it out.

[Battlecat]

Well the power model in SC4 isn't much more complex with power being transmitted through zoned land.  I would assume that the water and power models were simplified for the demo. 

Although transmission via roads isn't a bad idea since that's how most power and water are delivered at the local level in the real world.  But we shall see. 

[threestooges]

The mechanics underlying the game (as shown in the linked videos (thanks Battlecat) actually seem to be significantly adaptable. In the videos they showed power being "delivered" by agents on the road. Sure, that means that cars could do it there. But by their system design, it seems entirely possible to create a complex system of powerlines and transformers using defined agents.

For example: Have your powerplant producing the power resource: High tension lines to feed it out to substations, which act as a collection point, then through lower cost/lower maintenance lines to other locations which would cap the limit of agents that could be carried (think of the avenues v. streets from the SC4 road model).

In a way it seems a similar (though better illustrated) model of the SC4 system. If they can make it user-friendly to work with (so that one needn't learn hexadecimal to begin to understand it) I think they have the potential for a great product if its released to the community in the way SC4 was.

In a sense, it almost seems like they're making what I think they wanted SC4 to be.

Judgment's reserved to see how things play out, but I'm cautiously optimistic about it.
-Matt

[riponite]

I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but after looking at the videos, the concept seems pretty cool to me. 
I just hope the transportation system is robust.  Let's face it, it would be hard to beat the NAM/RHW in form and function.  i'm spoiled.