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[Neuromancer]

I love this:

"This includes various improvements and also disables a few non-critical gameplay features (leaderboards, achievements and region filters). Disabling these features will in no way affect your core gameplay experience."

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-07-gamer-anger-grows-as-simcity-debacle-threatens-to-turn-ugly

Guess they gave up on that idea, as not being able to play on cheetah speed absolutely affects your core gameplay experience.

 

[SnakeswithLasers]

It was engineered online only just for drm. There is no reason for a private region with all cities controlled by me to have to me online. No reason at all.

Now they are disabling things like cheetah speed. That will effect the actual gameplay and make it unplayable. Do you have half an hour to wait for more money to come in with the game on ?

Exactly. Sim City 4 had (actually: HAS--since it's not online only, you can still play it!) regions with connections between cities. It's not like this is a novel decision, it's only logical progression. Except that they have made that aspect more robust while stripping away other things that feel essential.

 

[sangreal]

Yep time to get the refund I'm thinking. Do I go through Maxis or EA customer service?

I went through EA and they "transferred" me to Origin eventually. Not sure how to get to origin directly. That said, you're much better off calling 866-543-5435

Apparently there is an option to have them call you, but I dont know if its the same people. The guy I talked to was so much better than the live chat support and got my refund going in a few minutes

 

[greatnorthern]

It's worse than D3's launch

It's hard to believe it was possible, but by god, I think they've done it.

 

[Raticus79]

I love this:


Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-07-gamer-anger-grows-as-simcity-debacle-threatens-to-turn-ugly

Guess they gave up on that idea, as not being able to play on cheetah speed absolutely affects your core gameplay experience.

A bit of Eve online time dilation strategy there. Next up: "New feature: Cities now progress in real time"

I would like to know this as well. I think I just want my money back.

I finally got my refund over the phone with EA support - 1 866 543 5435 - handled very quickly once I got through after an hour on hold. I'd recommend avoiding the chat.

 

[ekim]

Back to the game:
So I set up two cities. One with industrial only and one with residentials and commerce.
Why do my unemployed people not drive to the industrial city?

 

[dmr87]

They're probably receiving a lot of direct customer complaints and returns. Naturally you'd have to remove a non-functional product from sale. This is really going to hurt EA and I'm glad. They need to learn. Gutted for most of the developers though. To see your work go up in flames like this must be devastating. I'm pretty devastated that they could mishandle the launch so badly.

That said, the game will be fixed and will work. I'll be patient because the beta was very enjoyable and seemed to work.

Anyway, I'll report on how the UK launch goes for me at midnight, 4 hours away. I'm expecting not to be able to play, so anything more than that would be a bonus.

I'm not a Brit myself but TB reminds you of this, just FYI.
https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/status/309746015559368705

 

[GlassBox]

What sucks is that the only "heads will roll" (if any do) will be the low level developers in Maxis and not the Origin team.

 

[Herpes Reasons]

i log in and servers go down.

 

[fluffydelusions]

I went through EA and they "transferred" me to Origin eventually. Not sure how to get to origin directly. That said, you're much better off calling 866-543-5435

Apparently there is an option to have them call you, but I dont know if its the same people. The guy I talked to was so much better than the live chat support and got my refund going in a few minutes

I thought they weren't doing refunds

 

[Raticus79]

I thought they weren't doing refunds

Got mine about 20 minutes ago.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Got mine about 20 minutes ago.

You actually played it already and got a refund? Or is this preorder?

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Just checked with Amazon on a refund. I like the game but I feel like I've been a beta tester for all this. Not sure what they can do on a refund as I already redeemed it so we will see how this goes. I should get to keep the game for this rocky start.

 

[sangreal]

You actually played it already and got a refund? Or is this preorder?

They told me no in live chat so I called and got a refund. I already "played" it

 

[RoKKeR]

Well I've managed to have zero issues today, and made some great progress on my city. When it's all working, I have loads of fun with this game.

The launch issues are extremely unfortunate, as they cloud what deep down is a truly fun and engaging game. I can lose some serious hours to this.

 

[Neuromancer]

No longer available for purchase on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VTVRFA/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Someone on Twitter said this and they're probably right, they might just be out of keys.

 

[ekim]

Back to the game:
So I set up two cities. One with industrial only and one with residentials and commerce.
Why do my unemployed people not drive to the industrial city?

I can't even share resources between the cities... did they also deactivate that feature? :roll:

 

[Raticus79]

You actually played it already and got a refund? Or is this preorder?

Played and refunded. I explained it was due to the server issues - in my case talked about losing X hours of game play due to it quitting without syncing and losing my progress. They just asked which server it was and that was it.

 

[ndawgdrake]

How would I get refund if I bought the dd version through Amazon? Do I go through Amazon. would Amazon disable my key? Will EA ban my origin account if I do this?

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I got back in now and am just going to run it on cheetah for about 30 minutes or until I hit a few hundred thousand and then scrap it all and start over. This time for real lol

I hope they let me keep this game as I've had great experiences with CS on Origin but this server thing is a total killer.

 

[storybook77]

I got back in now and am just going to run it on cheetah for about 30 minutes or until I hit a few hundred thousand and then scrap it all and start over. This time for real lol

I hope they let me keep this game as I've had great experiences with CS on Origin but this server thing is a total killer.

So they haven't updated it yet?

 

[ConfusingJazz]

I got back in now and am just going to run it on cheetah for about 30 minutes or until I hit a few hundred thousand and then scrap it all and start over. This time for real lol

I hope they let me keep this game as I've had great experiences with CS on Origin but this server thing is a total killer.

There is no cheetah speed.

 

[Gaming Truth]

So I finally got in today. The stars were in alignment, the apocalypse is nearing, whatever. I actually got past the loader window, into the game itself, and it knew what GAF-VW3 was!

I hop in and fix my city in preparation for its eventual nukage (so I can start my 2nd city on top of it). Things are going good, I'm checking out what kind of damage I'm about to do to my neighbors, and I hop into Rad's city. It's really nice. Very artistic layout (which leads to some traffic nightmares), I took a few screenshots (that I can't find), go home and ...

... never make it. I'm assuming that means I got kicked out. I get greeted with something I've never seen before (add it to the nightmare screenshot pool):

P.S. Today's patch, it secretly throttles the transfer of data from server to client. What normally took ~15'ish seconds to load seems to take ~60 now. I think I've read all of the little loading screen blurbs in one sitting. That's ... sad ...

 

[flashburn2012]

I got back in now and am just going to run it on cheetah for about 30 minutes or until I hit a few hundred thousand and then scrap it all and start over. This time for real lol

I hope they let me keep this game as I've had great experiences with CS on Origin but this server thing is a total killer.

You mean llama speed? lol

 

[x-Lundz-x]

Wow Amazon even has a warning on their webpage saying you might not be able to play the game because of the servers. Yikes lol.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

I got back in now and am just going to run it on cheetah for about 30 minutes or until I hit a few hundred thousand and then scrap it all and start over. This time for real lol

I hope they let me keep this game as I've had great experiences with CS on Origin but this server thing is a total killer.

So they haven't updated it yet?

It's running at cheetah speed for me.

LOOK HERE

 

[Slacker]

Can someone who works on video games make sense of the fact that cheetah speed would be taxing the servers? I'm starting to feel less sympathy for the devs here. This kinda thing coupled with the tiny city plots make me think this game isn't coded efficiently.

 

[Spl1nter]

Back to the game:
So I set up two cities. One with industrial only and one with residentials and commerce.
Why do my unemployed people not drive to the industrial city?

Public transport is very important for commuting. Make sure you have bus and trains set up in both cities.

 

[ekim]

It's running at cheetah speed for me.

LOOK HERE

Cheetah speed == llama speed now

 

[IISANDERII]

You will surely get the cheetah speed.

 

[storybook77]

NM

 

[Metalmurphy]

How were people using proxys for this? Every time I try to use one Origin just stays "offline"

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Cheetah speed == llama speed now

Ok I'm wrong LOL

Well, lets see how far I can go before people start moving out.

 

[sangreal]

Back to the game:
So I set up two cities. One with industrial only and one with residentials and commerce.
Why do my unemployed people not drive to the industrial city?

I couldn't get my two private cities to sync together at all. Might be a server issue

 

[Crawl]

https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/309760264214032385

 

[B-Dex]

Quoting myself from the server down thread:

EA/Maxis really have no excuse. They knew pre-order numbers, they knew how much major retailers ordered. Server loads/capacity shouldn't have been this underestimated.

No sympathy from me. They had 2 servers up on launch day for North America.... 2. And now they are disabling features so their servers stop melting down. Complete joke.

I don't feel bad for the devs either. Flat out lying in interviews and mocking Blizzard over D3. Well, jokes on you guys.

 

[timetokill]

https://twitter.com/PHIL_FISH/status/309760264214032385

Hey, at least EA is patching their game.

 

[Megasoum]

Wait they disabled Cheetah speed!? WTF...

I knew about the leaderboards and social stuff but disabling a speed!?

 

[Dmented]

Don't know why people are getting refunds. Most of you are going to re-buy it anyways. Discounted? Sure. But it still allows EA to pull this shit on people.

 

[Slacker]

I don't plan on seeking a refund, but I think some free DLC for everyone is in order.

 

[Megasoum]

Don't know why people are getting refunds. Most of you are going to re-buy it anyways. Discounted? Sure. But it still allows EA to pull this shit on people.

Bah, since I won't be able to play properly until they discount the game (ok I'm kidding but still...). I would ask for a refund if I could but it's not even worth a try considering I bought it on GMG.

 

[fluffydelusions]

Is it even possible to get a refund from Origin if you ordered from say GMG or Amazon?

 

[RedNumberFive]

I don't plan on seeking a refund, but I think some free DLC for everyone is in order.

Free cheetah speed DLC for your continued patience!

 

[Dmented]

I'm glad I didn't buy this. I had a feeling from the start something stupids going to happen. Either with the DRM or just the typical EA nickle and diming. I really don't want to support these people even if it pains me to not play a new SimCity with multiplayer.

 

[fluffydelusions]

What was the point in removing cheetah speed anyway?

 

[eznark]

Hey, at least EA is patching their game.

Seriously. Funny to see him bitching about a broken game

 

[Gaming Truth]

What was the point in removing cheetah speed anyway?

The game was moving too fast, meaning, you'd have to sync to the EA servers more often, which is a no-no. See my post about what else they did to "alleviate the servers".

 

[Megasoum]

I wonder where are the two PR morons now since they can't stream all day lol.

 

[LiquidSword]

What was the point in removing cheetah speed anyway?

The current theory is that most of the simulation is server side so slowing it down will help relive the servers.

 

[Dr.Palutena]

I'm glad I didn't buy this. I had a feeling from the start something stupids going to happen. Either with the DRM or just the typical EA nickle and diming. I really don't want to support these people even if it pains me to not play a new SimCity with multiplayer.

I really wish I had just cancelled my order , I really like what I've played , but this is all utter bullshit that I feel embarrassed to have supported financially.