Sim City 5

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mmntech

mmntech

Lifer
Sep 20, 2007
17,501
12
0
Well now this is interesting. Hackers have already been plodding away at SimCity and found out the game can indeed be played offline. It involves putting the game into some sort of "debug mode". The game is fully playable though it can't save cities or interact with other regions. By the sounds of it, it's a relatively simple process. This fully dispute's EA's claim that online functionality is so deeply interwoven into SimCity that an offline version was impossible. To make an offline, single player version programmers would just have to add local saves. Something that could easily be patched in.

Furthermore, a Maxis insider told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that the servers only handle cloud saves and communication between players. All the computational business happens on the local end of things. He stated he can't understand why EA keeps claiming otherwise. Furthermore, it's been suggested that the servers don't even react to your gameplay in real time. Kotaku found out that the game could run happily offline for 20min before it realized it wasn't connected to the server. This backs up the hackers claims and proves SimCity really isn't an MMO at all, nor does it need the servers to run.

So it seems EA has been caught in a lie over their always-on functionality. The servers do enhance gameplay but are not necessary for it. Yet EA continues to state otherwise. The plot keeps thickening.

http://kotaku.com/5990498/rumor-a-n...h-allegedly-has-almost-unlimited-offline-play
http://www.destructoid.com/simcity-can-be-played-offline-according-to-anyone-but-ea-248656.phtml
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/12/simcity-server-not-necessary/
http://kotaku.com/5990165/my-simcity-city-thrived-offline-for-19-minutes?tag=simcity
 
Wyndru

Wyndru

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2009
7,318
4
76
That is a sloppy design flaw. This gets worse and worse. They are going to be really busy patching (rebuilding?) this game for the next few months, unless they just give up and abandon it.
 
P

Possessed Freak

Diamond Member
Nov 4, 1999
6,045
1
0
Having been burned repeatedly in the past based on hype and wanting to think sequels were going to be great, I decided against being a day 1 purchaser. Dodged a bullet this time.

Eye candy does not replace gameplay.
 
Regs

Regs

Lifer
Aug 9, 2002
16,666
21
81
mmntech said:
Well now this is interesting. Hackers have already been plodding away at SimCity and found out the game can indeed be played offline. It involves putting the game into some sort of "debug mode". The game is fully playable though it can't save cities or interact with other regions. By the sounds of it, it's a relatively simple process. This fully dispute's EA's claim that online functionality is so deeply interwoven into SimCity that an offline version was impossible. To make an offline, single player version programmers would just have to add local saves. Something that could easily be patched in.

Furthermore, a Maxis insider told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that the servers only handle cloud saves and communication between players. All the computational business happens on the local end of things. He stated he can't understand why EA keeps claiming otherwise. Furthermore, it's been suggested that the servers don't even react to your gameplay in real time. Kotaku found out that the game could run happily offline for 20min before it realized it wasn't connected to the server. This backs up the hackers claims and proves SimCity really isn't an MMO at all, nor does it need the servers to run.

So it seems EA has been caught in a lie over their always-on functionality. The servers do enhance gameplay but are not necessary for it. Yet EA continues to state otherwise. The plot keeps thickening.

http://kotaku.com/5990498/rumor-a-n...h-allegedly-has-almost-unlimited-offline-play
http://www.destructoid.com/simcity-can-be-played-offline-according-to-anyone-but-ea-248656.phtml
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/12/simcity-server-not-necessary/
http://kotaku.com/5990165/my-simcity-city-thrived-offline-for-19-minutes?tag=simcity
Click to expand...

Interactivity with other cities that people have built I would say is a nice feature. Though to force the new norm onto people is never taken lightly. I remember everybody up in arms about Steamworks, but now I can't even imagine driving to an Ebgame store to pick up a hard copy. Ok, I will disprove my own point: At least Steam when it disconnects you can still play it, mod it, and let you play at your leisure in offline mode.

Was Sim City ever intended to be a MMO? No - so I wish they could at least change the name of the game and sell off the rights to SimCity who cares for the franchise.
 
W

waterjug

Senior member
Jan 21, 2012
930
0
76
Possessed Freak said:
Having been burned repeatedly in the past based on hype and wanting to think sequels were going to be great, I decided against being a day 1 purchaser. Dodged a bullet this time.

Eye candy does not replace gameplay.
Click to expand...

I know, right? Bought Civ V 1st day, D3 1st day....BF3 (for ps3) first day. All awful purchases on my part. Looks like I finally leanred
 
A

Anteaus

Platinum Member
Oct 28, 2010
2,448
4
81
waterjug said:
I know, right? Bought Civ V 1st day, D3 1st day....BF3 (for ps3) first day. All awful purchases on my part. Looks like I finally leanred
Click to expand...

Haha. I think the morale of the story is not to buy any gme on the first day of release. :)
 
Nintendesert

Nintendesert

Diamond Member
Mar 28, 2010
7,761
5
0
Regs said:
Interactivity with other cities that people have built I would say is a nice feature. Though to force the new norm onto people is never taken lightly. I remember everybody up in arms about Steamworks, but now I can't even imagine driving to an Ebgame store to pick up a hard copy. Ok, I will disprove my own point: At least Steam when it disconnects you can still play it, mod it, and let you play at your leisure in offline mode.

Was Sim City ever intended to be a MMO? No - so I wish they could at least change the name of the game and sell off the rights to SimCity who cares for the franchise.
Click to expand...



Sure, if you went offline mode while you were online. If you didn't you're screwed out of your games. :D
 
D

Dominato3r

Diamond Member
Aug 15, 2008
5,109
1
0
Some more revelations are that the Maxis guys are actually fine with modding?

https://twitter.com/vertexnormal/status/312275013380210689
It's cool to see the fans digging through our source files, the creativity of our mod community has always been the lifeblood of Maxis.
Click to expand...
Maxis = EA. Ocean is on record as saying we are working on exposing parts of the game to modders. Scope as yet undetermined.
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/moskow23/status/312272085894455296
@Raaskaller Yup, our UI is in javascript for a reason, so you can play with it.
Click to expand...

http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/com...o_the_maxis_representatives/c8vsb8e?context=3
Not sure we have any official statement on the recent modding developments yet. (Though I'm personally excited to see it taking off!)
Click to expand...
 
D

dagamer34

Platinum Member
Aug 15, 2005
2,591
0
71
ViRGE said:
Why would an official EA video be posted to what seems to be a random account?
Click to expand...

Some of the comments in that YouTube video are pretty brutal. I mean, I know the game is broken, but it's not like Maxis and EA murdered your mother or something. :eek:
 
KentState

KentState

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2001
8,397
393
126
mmntech said:
Well now this is interesting. Hackers have already been plodding away at SimCity and found out the game can indeed be played offline. It involves putting the game into some sort of "debug mode". The game is fully playable though it can't save cities or interact with other regions. By the sounds of it, it's a relatively simple process. This fully dispute's EA's claim that online functionality is so deeply interwoven into SimCity that an offline version was impossible. To make an offline, single player version programmers would just have to add local saves. Something that could easily be patched in.

Furthermore, a Maxis insider told Rock, Paper, Shotgun that the servers only handle cloud saves and communication between players. All the computational business happens on the local end of things. He stated he can't understand why EA keeps claiming otherwise. Furthermore, it's been suggested that the servers don't even react to your gameplay in real time. Kotaku found out that the game could run happily offline for 20min before it realized it wasn't connected to the server. This backs up the hackers claims and proves SimCity really isn't an MMO at all, nor does it need the servers to run.

So it seems EA has been caught in a lie over their always-on functionality. The servers do enhance gameplay but are not necessary for it. Yet EA continues to state otherwise. The plot keeps thickening.

http://kotaku.com/5990498/rumor-a-n...h-allegedly-has-almost-unlimited-offline-play
http://www.destructoid.com/simcity-can-be-played-offline-according-to-anyone-but-ea-248656.phtml
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/12/simcity-server-not-necessary/
http://kotaku.com/5990165/my-simcity-city-thrived-offline-for-19-minutes?tag=simcity
Click to expand...

I pretty much called this out many posts ago. Glad to see that it's being exposed more publicly. There is no reason why the region management aspects could not also be handled local or giving us large zones.
 
CPA

CPA

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2001
30,322
4
0
BrightCandle

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
4,762
0
76
Always online DRM is evil and wrong and you should avoid buying games with it. Has everyone understood that now? Can we now nod our heads in agreement or are we going to continue to think about but ultimately buy them anyway assuming the next one will be different?
 
Wyndru

Wyndru

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2009
7,318
4
76
CPA said:
Which contradicts someone's post on reddit yesterday that they confirmed with an EA Customer Service rep that accounts will be BANNED if found the game is modded.
Click to expand...

That's what concerns me about them using Origin for this game.

In previous Maxis releases, they encouraged modding and a lot of really nice tools came out to help you basically rebuild the entire game if you wanted to. They didn't mind people reverse engineering any of their code. Now that the game is played on Origin, if they don't like what you are doing, they can ban you.

I really hope they are lenient with the bans, otherwise it will scare people from trying anything. I'd assume anything that affects other player's cities would be off limits, but I hope in private regions you can do whatever you want.
 
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