It really feels like a ruse. Some kind of "hey guys over here" to quench other issues with the title. Personally I haven't played since shortly after launch (okay I have loaded it up since but only once or twice and not really a long session). But it seems to me this is just a way to remove attention from something, especially when pretty much everything else gamers want; bigger cities, terraforming etc. Are still been chalked under the rug as "lol technical difficulties prevent us from doing this".
Also don't forget the simple fact gamers want the Glass Box engine to work. Since Sim City was its flagship title, it really isn't showing how impressive the engine is, in fact the oppisate. Especially with the chunks having issues mapping out to its location it needed to go, essentially everything gets stuck in traffic even if its really easy for it to not be. I assume some of the issues with how the simulation have since been fixed, as it was a big deal when the game first came out. But I don't think much progress had happened around launch, so unless its been fixed, theres another nail in the games coffin.
In terms of terraforming that could easily be implemented. Prerendering the maps using a Sim City 2000 style method then allowing some customization if need be, and of course plunking down villages were need be. Plus in game it also isn't that big of an issue once it is limited to a certain plot. Though I guess maybe they are doing us a favour as to much terraforming restricts the land space which is already limited in some ways, if your putting in mountains or something.
In terms of bigger cities, surely they could just if it is true increasing the size causes performance issues just keeping the region concept they have, and expanding that region so its bigger, then making the city essencially the region? As in having predefined chunks in the land space which you can load out of and load into. Sort of a suburb for each loading screen and that sort of steps you down one extra level instead which would allow for bigger cities really.
These are of course just my uneducated opinion on these issues, but even then I've been able to prepose solutions to fix both items which seem to on the surface be something which would work considering they say theirs limitations certain things. But my main concern is if the game can't even support a larger city, how limited is the engine? Does that mean its quite restrictive in terms of how the packages work, which in the end means it was a dud engine they have developed, just said fancy to make it seem like it was a good idea?
