Mr. Luchador
Member
The cynic in me says 'micro-transactions'. Hats for your virtual sims.
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SimCity Officially Announced: [New 9 Minute Strategy Video]
- Thread starter Nirolak
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kurtrussell
Banned
This is EA, not Valve.
exmachina64
Banned
You'll have to purchase farms or play with your FB friends to unlock them.
Definity
Member
I've read a few articles and watched some of the videos and the actual simulation in simcity 4 seems so shallow compared to the new one. I guess that's what I'm most interested in along with building out a city specialization. I never did really build out large regions in the last game but I could see why some folks would miss that.
Little old but interesting,
Maxis: SimCity’s “lonely experience” influenced always-online play[
Speaking to Polygon, Creative Director Ocean Quigley added justifications, saying the decision was spurred by the way real-life cities interact and the “lonely experience” of previous SimCity games.
“If you look back at previous SimCities, they were almost all self-contained,” Quigley said. “Every city wound up doing pretty much everything. That drove all the cities to a certain level of homogeneity, and all the cities sort of converged onto the same sort of thing over the arc of play. That struck me as being a little sad. If you look at real cities, they all clearly do distinct things and have identities based around those things. I wanted to let cities differentiate themselves and let them find some way that wouldn’t automatically make them converge and allow them take on unique identities.”
“SimCity is always kind of a lonely experience; you’re planning your cities all by yourself,” continued Quigley. “One of the ways that things you do take on significance is how they affect other people. The things that you do for other people give meaning to your own life and your own existence. I wanted to make cities more resonant and meaningful, and thought they would have more presence if they were doing things for other cities as well. The cities matter to the people around you, not just to you.”
Maxis: SimCity’s “lonely experience” influenced always-online play[
Speaking to Polygon, Creative Director Ocean Quigley added justifications, saying the decision was spurred by the way real-life cities interact and the “lonely experience” of previous SimCity games.
“If you look back at previous SimCities, they were almost all self-contained,” Quigley said. “Every city wound up doing pretty much everything. That drove all the cities to a certain level of homogeneity, and all the cities sort of converged onto the same sort of thing over the arc of play. That struck me as being a little sad. If you look at real cities, they all clearly do distinct things and have identities based around those things. I wanted to let cities differentiate themselves and let them find some way that wouldn’t automatically make them converge and allow them take on unique identities.”
“SimCity is always kind of a lonely experience; you’re planning your cities all by yourself,” continued Quigley. “One of the ways that things you do take on significance is how they affect other people. The things that you do for other people give meaning to your own life and your own existence. I wanted to make cities more resonant and meaningful, and thought they would have more presence if they were doing things for other cities as well. The cities matter to the people around you, not just to you.”
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
On one hand, Maxis has acknowledged how important the mod scene has been for Sim City 4. But on the other hand, they have stated that Sim City 5 will not have mod support because of the online nature of the game.
Could there be mod support down the road after release? No one knows, but we do know it won't be a feature at launch, nor is it planned with any kind of schedule or date. My hunch is we will never see true freeware mod support, but will instead see some kind of user mod DLC shopping module where EA gets a cut of all sales, or something like that.
I'm fairly sure the offload of processing is strongly due to anti-piracy policy. If the game isn't self contained then it can't be pirated easily, kind of like Diablo III or any MMO.
Could all the processing be done on the owners own PC? Of course, much more efficiently too.
New screens,
Vroom-vroom! Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis is hosting a motocross event in his city.
What kind of events do you want to run in your city?
From Ocean Quigley's blog: One of my favorite things to do in SimCity is to put my Mayors house in the most grandiose spot I can find. Here's a few snapshots of my mayors house, perched on the edge of the canyon.
Beach Town
Cargo train at Trade Port
Smelting Factory with Metal HQ, day
Smelting Factory with Metal HQ, night
Vroom-vroom! Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis is hosting a motocross event in his city.
What kind of events do you want to run in your city?
From Ocean Quigley's blog: One of my favorite things to do in SimCity is to put my Mayors house in the most grandiose spot I can find. Here's a few snapshots of my mayors house, perched on the edge of the canyon.
Beach Town
Cargo train at Trade Port
Smelting Factory with Metal HQ, day
Smelting Factory with Metal HQ, night
BigWeather
Member
I need to stop visiting this thread, it keeps tempting me. I was originally worried about the scale but it looks fine. The always on-line doesn't even bother me that much. But Origin UGH.
exmachina64
Banned
Pandemic's new screenshots give me hope. I've already pre-purchased this, so I'm changing my outlook to cautiously optimistic.
Mr. Luchador
Member
New screenshots are zoomed in. Those that do show the background, show empty hills. So I wouldn't get too excited about larger sprawling cities.
StevePharma
Member
exmachina64
Banned
No, I'm excited about the higher density of the city Pandemic posted. This is the most we've seen of a complex (read: "high" population city), as far as I'm aware. I know the city size didn't get magically larger.
Edit: The reason I'm still trying to be hopeful about this game (and the reason I even pre-purchased it in the first place) is that I purchased it as an anniversary gift for my fiancée. She doesn't have a history with the SimCity franchise and will get much enjoyment out of it. I'm essentially trying to rationalize my purchase because I normally don't purchase PC games at release. Yes, the fact that she will enjoy it should be enough, but since I'll most likely play it also, I'd like to not be upset over the changes EA has made.
You can forget that you will do something like this. I doubt 1mln population will be achievable with amount of space in SimCity5
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
The blur is so intense and jarring that I'm actually beginning to think that it's purpose is to hide those empty spaces along the city borders in the background that you are talking about. Because in many of the pics that are zoomed out enough to show the city borders, there is always a band of empty green in the back of them, but the abrupt city limit isn't so noticeable due to the overdone blurring. Kind of clever of them actually.
It might've been better if it was bokeh and not gaussian blur. It looks so unnatural and smudged.
Spunky Monkey
Member
I hope there is a mod in the future to let you place down your own street lights and furniture. I know thats incredibly micro managing but i love that aspect of Roller Coaster Tycoon, creating different themed areas and lighting.
Got an e-mail reminding me that Jan 31st is the last day to pre-order this game on Origin if you want the $50 in savings (5 $10 vouchers to use on future origin games)
I need to order this game but ugh -__- Can't get over the whole origin thing... what if it somehow comes to Steam in the future and I regret spending my $80 on Origin >.<
Also kind of paranoid that this game is going to DLC and Expansion spam you to death just like The Sims 3 has done. I love new content but it's kind of a bit much.
I need to order this game but ugh -__- Can't get over the whole origin thing... what if it somehow comes to Steam in the future and I regret spending my $80 on Origin >.<
Also kind of paranoid that this game is going to DLC and Expansion spam you to death just like The Sims 3 has done. I love new content but it's kind of a bit much.
LumpOfCole
Member
Amazon typically has very good deals when it comes to digital downloads that use Steam / Origin codes. I prefer to get all of my Origin games (which is a very limited number) from Amazon. I think I remember getting BF3 for ~$20 off retail when it came out just by going with Amazon.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
It is EA after all, so those fears have some merit. I feel likewise, and its why I'm waiting until the game releases. I want to read reviews and hear people's opinions and watch gameplay vids on youtube before I buy it. Some developers, like Blizzard for example, I'm comfortable buying day one. EA is not a developer I trust that well, and with the concerns I have about how this game is turning out, I am certainly waiting to see what the final product is. With the small city sizes, the always online aspect, the extreme blur, and the super focus on social gameplay, I just need to wait. It's not my ideal design philosophy for a Sim City game. Ever since Master of Orion III I always trust my instincts and research every game I buy, and every fiber in my being is telling me to adopt a "wait and see" approach to SC5.
That said, I can't wait for it to finally come out so we can really see what it's like. I truly hope it's as good as Sim City 4 and all the previous ones were.
exmachina64
Banned
That won't happen unless EA dies. Origin exclusivity is here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Shouldn't it be possible to disable the DoF in the INI?
Possibly. Unless that is interpreted by EA servers as you having tampered with the game and as it's EA - ban you from playing the game.
exmachina64
Banned
Actually, don't they ban your whole account and lock you out of every game you've purchased?
Edit: Where are all of these shots coming from, Pandemic?
exmachina64
Banned
Thanks, Pandemic.
Smiles and Cries
Member
the cities buildings still repeat which is unfortunate
like the beach pic with the High School and you have two donut stores that copy looks so off
and the city having so many similar buildings, could they not program it to not have similar structures so close to each other?
like the beach pic with the High School and you have two donut stores that copy looks so off
and the city having so many similar buildings, could they not program it to not have similar structures so close to each other?
blurredvision
Member
Valve offers their games on Steam only, nobody cares. EA offers their games on Origin only, you guys can't shut up about it.
Valve don't offer their games at a minimum of £44.99 and £64.99 if you want all the content on day one. C'mon now, their policies and treatment of consumers is not even comparable.
McDonald's offers their sandwiches with ketchup only, the creepy man in the alley offers his sandwiches with semen only.
thelurkinghorror
Member
latest screenshots looks really really good!
PapaJustify
Member
I love the game, but I specifically hate the TS look. Looks like a little toy city. I hope you can disable it.
Likewise, march can't come soon enough!
Stormwatch
Member
You can adjust the filters and turn off the tilt-shift!
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-image-filters
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-image-filters
Dead Prince
Banned
will use these filters just for screenshots only. but orange and gray is kinda neat.
Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
You can adjust the filters and turn off the tilt-shift!
http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/simcity-image-filters
Oh thank God, that's fantastic news!
Now if we just find out that we can place city zones smack next to each other, with no gap between them at all, that would so make my day !
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