Feeling somewhat disappointed by early looks at Simcity 5

[Dominato3r]

Maxis released some gameplay footage today, and I'm going to be honest, it looks really bland. Like toned down by quite a bit.

• There's just way too much dead space, and no feeling of a dense urban environment.
• There's also no way for you to make connections between regions/cities. The connections are predetermined. So you can't make that highway or train system that spans the whole region. You are limited to what the computer generates.
• The zoning looks no different than plopping a building. Also there seems to be a lack of density zoning, not sure how to feel about that, because it was a PITA sometimes in SC4, but also integral to knowing how the city will build out.
• Arbitrary building limits, like a water tower has to be placed beside a road.

About the only thing that excites me about this game the new simulation engine they have which seems like a major upgrade. Dynamic traffic, which was something I think SC4 lacked, along with new pollution/particle dispersion. But I think overall, this is a step down. I thought the EA curse was bullshit, but I'm starting to become a believer.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

There's just way too much dead space, and no feeling of a dense urban environment.
There's also no way for you to make connections between regions/cities. The connections are predetermined. So you can't make that highway or train system that spans the whole region. You are limited to what the computer generates.

The commentator said that they would be featuring multi-city stuff next time so maybe you'll be able to do that and we just haven't seen it yet.

Arbitrary building limits, like a water tower has to be placed beside a road.

That kinda makes sense considering how else are you going to bring the equipment and materials that you need to build a water tower?

 

[Wyndru]

I hope they change the density zoning back, that was the only way I could mold my cities the way I wanted to in SC4.

Right now, this just sounds like Cities xl

 

[CottonRabbit]

Looks pretty good to me. The video just shows a starting town. I'm sure you'll be able to pack the entire area with skyscrapers as you play. The road requirement for water towers is because pipes automatically go under the roads now.

 

[Kalmah]

I hope they change the density zoning back, that was the only way I could mold my cities the way I wanted to in SC4.

Right now, this just sounds like Cities xl

Cities xl has density zoning. I love that game but it being single threaded killed it. It runs like shit no matter what.

 

[endlessmike]

The simulation engine seems really neat, but it looks like they might have taken away a lot of the control you'll have over a region. Supposedly there's no major terraforming now, and like you said I believe the road and rail connections between cities are already placed.

It seems like the focus has shifted to building a city (or series of cities) within these constraints as opposed to freely building a region from scratch. We'll see how it fares.

 

[paperfist]

The thing that's getting me is if you pre-order you get this:

"Pre-order SimCity and get the Limited Edition Heroes & Villains content including new characters, crime waves, a Super Hero HQ and an Evil Villain Lair. The content will be available in the product packaging. Offer valid when shipped and sold by Amazon.com. This offer will be extended to all existing pre-orders. Amazon reserves the right to change or terminate this promotion at any time."

Seems to not fit the theme of epic city building and brings it back to The Sims level.

The simulation engine seems really neat, but it looks like they might have taken away a lot of the control you'll have over a region. Supposedly there's no major terraforming now, and like you said I believe the road and rail connections between cities are already placed.

It seems like the focus has shifted to building a city (or series of cities) within these constraints as opposed to freely building a region from scratch. We'll see how it fares.

Hopefully not a case of consoleitus

 

[CPA]

The commentator said that they would be featuring multi-city stuff next time so maybe you'll be able to do that and we just haven't seen it yet.



That kinda makes sense considering how else are you going to bring the equipment and materials that you need to build a water tower?

Not only that, but most cities have water towers close to road, especially since septic and water delivery pipes usually run under roadways.

I think there's lot to like here, especially how they handle curved roads and especially the lots at corners and curved roads. They don't leave empty space.

I also like the introduction of septic (water out) system.

It doesn't look like they've taken anything out to appeal to the masses. It looks more true to it's roots.

One thing it looks like they need to refine is traffic management. I saw a lot of u-turns, even in the middle of the road, cars cutting in front of others and once a car exiting his driveway and cut through stopped traffic to get to the lane he wanted.

 

[tdawg]

I can't wait for this to come out.

 

[Dominato3r]

The commentator said that they would be featuring multi-city stuff next time so maybe you'll be able to do that and we just haven't seen it yet.



That kinda makes sense considering how else are you going to bring the equipment and materials that you need to build a water tower?

I guess I should look at this as a completely new game instead of a sequel.

I just feel this is more of a social, connect with your Sims type of Simcity than a civil engineering, build out your utilities type of game.

 

[aaksheytalwar]

Release date? System requirements?

 

[paperfist]

Release date? System requirements?

EA says Feb, Amazon lists it as March. No idea on requirements.

 

[irishScott]

Maxis released some gameplay footage today, and I'm going to be honest, it looks really bland. Like toned down by quite a bit.

• There's just way too much dead space, and no feeling of a dense urban environment.
• There's also no way for you to make connections between regions/cities. The connections are predetermined. So you can't make that highway or train system that spans the whole region. You are limited to what the computer generates.
• The zoning looks no different than plopping a building. Also there seems to be a lack of density zoning, not sure how to feel about that, because it was a PITA sometimes in SC4, but also integral to knowing how the city will build out.
• Arbitrary building limits, like a water tower has to be placed beside a road.

About the only thing that excites me about this game the new simulation engine they have which seems like a major upgrade. Dynamic traffic, which was something I think SC4 lacked, along with new pollution/particle dispersion. But I think overall, this is a step down. I thought the EA curse was bullshit, but I'm starting to become a believer.

1. It's an early starter town. Wasn't much density in the first few days of my young cities in any of the games.

2. Where are you getting that? Just because some connections are predetermined doesn't mean you can't build new ones.

3. I saw 3 different levels of expense under the residential and commercial zones. I assume these correspond to more expensive/high class housing. Zoning based on property value as opposed to density, which I think is actually kinda cool.

4. That makes sense. How are you going to build a water tower 3 miles away from any buildings int he middle of a forest? I actually like not having to lay my own pipe network and building around power lines. Just tedious and detracted from the older games IMO. Also more realistic.


Overall, I'm not pumped about this, but that footage was encouraging. I am still concerned about the multiplayer "world" and how much we can do with it. Because you know there'll be trolls who build the Sincity equivalent of Camden just to fuck with their neighbors.

 

[Truthslayer]

1. It's an early starter town. Wasn't much density in the first few days of my young cities in any of the games.

2. Where are you getting that? Just because some connections are predetermined doesn't mean you can't build new ones.

3. I saw 3 different levels of expense under the residential and commercial zones. I assume these correspond to more expensive/high class housing. Zoning based on property value as opposed to density, which I think is actually kinda cool.

4. That makes sense. How are you going to build a water tower 3 miles away from any buildings int he middle of a forest? I actually like not having to lay my own pipe network and building around power lines. Just tedious and detracted from the older games IMO. Also more realistic.


Overall, I'm not pumped about this, but that footage was encouraging. I am still concerned about the multiplayer "world" and how much we can do with it. Because you know there'll be trolls who build the Sincity equivalent of Camden just to fuck with their neighbors.

I've been following this from another forum, but it looks like unless they really give an exact definition of the playable area, one would likely expect to have a final size of about 2km x 2km.

Also, I'm pretty sure I read that there's no way to add extra connections after region generation.

Tying everything to the roads smacks of laziness. Why couldn't I just plop a water tower on a hill and run pipes from it like the other games? What if I want a ped/transit-only urban area? It's not possible here.

Also, Airports (and I'm assuming other ports) are now considered Great Works, and require pooling resources with other players to build and maintain. Locations are predetermined, and are always outside of your city zone.

The always-online DRM kills any enthusiasm I had for it, as well as not being able to revert to an earlier save if a disaster gets out of hand (intentionally or not).

 

[CuriousMike]

You can make regions private or public. So if you don't want random people joining your region, they won't.

 

[irishScott]

I've been following this from another forum, but it looks like unless they really give an exact definition of the playable area, one would likely expect to have a final size of about 2km x 2km.

Also, I'm pretty sure I read that there's no way to add extra connections after region generation.

Tying everything to the roads smacks of laziness. Why couldn't I just plop a water tower on a hill and run pipes from it like the other games? What if I want a ped/transit-only urban area? It's not possible here.

Also, Airports (and I'm assuming other ports) are now considered Great Works, and require pooling resources with other players to build and maintain. Locations are predetermined, and are always outside of your city zone.

The always-online DRM kills any enthusiasm I had for it, as well as not being able to revert to an earlier save if a disaster gets out of hand (intentionally or not).

Oh... well that sucks (if true).

 

[CPA]

I've been following this from another forum, but it looks like unless they really give an exact definition of the playable area, one would likely expect to have a final size of about 2km x 2km.

Also, I'm pretty sure I read that there's no way to add extra connections after region generation.

Tying everything to the roads smacks of laziness. Why couldn't I just plop a water tower on a hill and run pipes from it like the other games? What if I want a ped/transit-only urban area? It's not possible here.

Also, Airports (and I'm assuming other ports) are now considered Great Works, and require pooling resources with other players to build and maintain. Locations are predetermined, and are always outside of your city zone.

The always-online DRM kills any enthusiasm I had for it, as well as not being able to revert to an earlier save if a disaster gets out of hand (intentionally or not).

Okay, now those aren't good at all.

 

[Wreckem]

I guess I should look at this as a completely new game instead of a sequel.

I just feel this is more of a social, connect with your Sims type of Simcity than a civil engineering, build out your utilities type of game.

Its not a sequel. They have been calling it a series reboot for a while now. That is why it is called SimCity and not SimCity 5.

 

[thelastjuju]

Its going to be a big joke..

Just head over to simtropolis and sc4 devo, download a few GB's of BATS and MODS and create your own little SC 4.5

 

[KaOTiK]

Being online only and so many other things that have been mentioned, I wont be buying this sadly. It looks really cool, but no.

 

[natto fire]

I hope they attract enough facebook gamers to make up for the true sim fans they are alienating with this game. I will wait to make my final judgement, but if even half of the bad things are true I am avoiding this one.

 

[Regs]

Overall, I'm not pumped about this, but that footage was encouraging. I am still concerned about the multiplayer "world" and how much we can do with it. Because you know there'll be trolls who build the Sincity equivalent of Camden just to fuck with their neighbors.

Why does it always have to be Jersey?

 

[SLU Aequitas]

I've been following this from another forum, but it looks like unless they really give an exact definition of the playable area, one would likely expect to have a final size of about 2km x 2km.

Yep, this is my only real worry about the game so far, and while they've only been showing off smaller cities (which makes sense for demo purposes and that they've been focusing on the resource/delivery mechanics), I'm not holding my breath until I see confirmation of larger locations.

Also, I'm pretty sure I read that there's no way to add extra connections after region generation.

Nothing to the contrary either, I've assumed up until the recent trailer that you were provided an initial connection. The already-designed mass transportation (there's a regional highway and rail in the trailer) makes me think otherwise, but they still haven't confirmed either way. It could still just be a starting connection and you can set up additional regional connections afterwards.

Tying everything to the roads smacks of laziness. Why couldn't I just plop a water tower on a hill and run pipes from it like the other games? What if I want a ped/transit-only urban area? It's not possible here.

I consider this a HUGE plus. Besides the much greater complexity (or rather depth) of the simulation engine, I'm not worried about dumbing down features--the road requirement makes sense logically (you'd need a service road anyway), and nearly all utility delivery systems are built along roadways in real life. Completely happy with it.

Also, Airports (and I'm assuming other ports) are now considered Great Works, and require pooling resources with other players to build and maintain. Locations are predetermined, and are always outside of your city zone.

Yes and no. The INTERNATIONAL airport is considered a regional/"Great Work" asset, and requires multiple cities to be built within a feasible amount of time. However, you can do this completely by yourself, with no MP contributions within your own "single player" region, utilizing your own cities. You still can build your own LOCAL airports that will receive bonuses from the international airports. One thing I'm not sure on is whether the international airport is a prerequisite for local or not. I'd assume not, but I don't know.

"In this case, you’ll see the local airport. You can have local airports in your cities, but there’s an international airport that exists outside your city. It exists in the region, and everyone connected to it can benefit from it."

The always-online DRM kills any enthusiasm I had for it, as well as not being able to revert to an earlier save if a disaster gets out of hand (intentionally or not).

Always-on online DRM sucks, but doesn't affect me personally since my connection is always on. I've boycotted most games that have it because I dislike it on principle, but I've also purchased games where I feel my interests outweigh my dislike for the system. In Simcity's case, it will definitely be the latter.

I was HUGELY turned off by the prospect of being forced to have GAMEPLAY revolve around the multiplayer interactions, but we know that's not true now. You can set up your own regions completely free from other players.

"These great works cannot be built if you’re trying to play a single-player game?
Our single-player is still considered multiplayer, because everything you do, you’re still part of that SimCity world. You could play by yourself in a region, but play multiple cities. So it’s really about the number of cities that it takes to achieve something like that"

Most of the information is backed up in the Game Informer Interview.


Overall I'm very excited about Simcity, but that doesn't mean I'm completely happy with it. I still feel the multiplayer portion being played up and having the "always-on" requirement stinks of publishing requirements, but have been reassured by being able to "single-player" sandbox a region when I want (and as long as this holds true, then I consider the MP portions a huge plus as I have additional content there if I *CHOOSE* to make use of it.

 

[Regs]

Boycott? No, you chose not to buy it.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

Boycott? No, you chose not to buy it.

Yes. I did on all Ubisoft games due to their stance. Also, thanks for the derail and the lack of any real response to my post.