Sim City

Grumpypants

Server Euro West 3, in first time. What was all the fuss about

IRL_Sinister

Sent requests to everyone who posted here. Feel free to join the Public Region I set up at any time on EU West 2.

Shiminay

Not 10 minutes after I posted above, I was up and running completely stress free on the Europe West 3 server (which wasn't there about 3 hours ago).

Really enjoying it so far, I think I'm turning Texan with my Oil empire but damn does it make you a metric fk ton of money and fast. Will play some more tomorrow and write a proper review, but I still won't be letting you off the hook for the launch debacle EA.

maticm18

Hey everyone,

where did you buy the game? Iam trying all sources, but everywhere is sold-out or pre-order. WTF?

Thanks

VinLieger

VinLieger wrote: »

Ok ill setup a 16 person region, first come first served
Gonna need to add each other on origin as well so either send me a request my origin names same as here - VinLieger
Or post your origin name on here
Since the majority are probably not able to play till friday those of us who do have access will hold off starting our cities till then as well

Currently 7/16 spots taken
VinLieger
Merger
Kirby
Lockie1983
Newaglish
Youreadthat
Grizzly

Heres everyone ive got listed for the boards.ie region ill invite people when i get home from work this evening IF things are working probably gonna do it on europe east 1, anyone else wants in say so below and give your origin name as well so i can figure out who everyone is

Drexel

VinLieger wrote: »

Heres everyone ive got listed for the boards.ie region ill invite people when i get home from work this evening IF things are working probably gonna do it on europe east 1, anyone else wants in say so below and give your origin name as well so i can figure out who everyone is

Me please Drexel_1 is my origin name

Merger

Awesome sauce! Can't wait to hop on and play! XD

2smiggy

i was looking at greenman gaming , but it was showing up in my basket at €51 , is there a discount code, or a link to the cheaper option that people were getting yesterday ?

Cheers

NotorietyH

I'd be up for the boards region.

Origin ID is NotorietyH

Had a nightmare with servers last night until midnight and it worked fine for the few hours I played it, so hopefully it stays that way.

Dcully

Decent review from GT

http://www.gametrailers.com/reviews/vfnz03/simcity-review

All going well id be interested in a boards region

origin name Cully_IRL

Merger

2smiggy wrote: »

i was looking at greenman gaming , but it was showing up in my basket at €51 , is there a discount code, or a link to the cheaper option that people were getting yesterday ?

Cheers

This is the code!:GMG20-P4DLK-FKYRS

Brings it down to €41.56

Dcully

VinLieger wrote: »

Heres everyone ive got listed for the boards.ie region ill invite people when i get home from work this evening IF things are working probably gonna do it on europe east 1, anyone else wants in say so below and give your origin name as well so i can figure out who everyone is

Good man, one thing though, should we not go with Europe West?

.ak

maticm18 wrote: »

Hey everyone,

where did you buy the game? Iam trying all sources, but everywhere is sold-out or pre-order. WTF?

Thanks

Greenmangaming offers a discount for an online purchase. Very good deal, €41 something for the limited edition pack.

Dcully

OMFG day four of my man flu,feeling sorry for myself but feeling a tad better to be up to sitting at a PC :P this morning ive watched/read a few reviews,read around the net that the EU launch went smooth.
Mad keen to take my first steps into the game and the servers are down
Its amazing how watching the whining of players in the US from a distance doesnt really hit home until you try to play yourself and get that servers down message.

.ak

Dcully wrote: »

OMFG day four of my man flu,feeling sorry for myself but feeling a tad better to be up to sitting at a PC :P this morning ive watched/read a few reviews,read around the net that the EU launch went smooth.
Mad keen to take my first steps into the game and the servers are down
Its amazing how watching the whining of players in the US from a distance doesnt really hit home until you try to play yourself and get that servers down message.

You wrecked it.

Grimebox

What the hell is wrong with developers. This has happened so many times for so many different games. Steam was absolutely awful for this when it first came out. Suddenly you couldn't play counter-strike et al for a week due to server load. How could they not anticipate this? It's as if they made a decision to give themselves a horrible reputation to ensure piracy is stamped out. It really boggles the mind

.ak

Yeah, I have it installed at home but I'm not gonna touch it until Sunday or later if it's still like this.

Captain Chaos

Grimebox wrote: »

What the hell is wrong with developers. This has happened so many times for so many different games. Steam was absolutely awful for this when it first came out. Suddenly you couldn't play counter-strike et al for a week due to server load. How could they not anticipate this? It's as if they made a decision to give themselves a horrible reputation to ensure piracy is stamped out. It really boggles the mind

It's not the developers, its the publisher who in this case is EA. They are wrecking every game they have a hand in lately with their business decisions. The sooner they go out of business the better. Wish they were gone and THQ were still on the go.

I feel sorry for Maxis who have to put up with EA's crap. It's costing them for all their hard work.

IRL_Sinister

Cannot connect to the servers. FUFUFUFU

EDIT: Would like to be added to that list, VanLieger. I added you on Origin.

Anyone

Had a quick look this morning before work and did the tutorial. It looks ugly on my pc so looks like i'll have to upgrade my card.

_Puma_

So reviews have started to come in.

I find this line very telling "Just how broken the always-online SimCity is depends on when you're playing, what server you choose, and the sheer luck of the draw. Did it need to be this way? Probably not: the game offers the option to have a fully single-player experience in a closed region of your own creation. Alas, you must sign into SimCity (the service)--as well as Electronic Arts' Origin service--in order to play SimCity (the game)"

So what I have been saying is that there could very easily have been a single player offline element to the game is possible, however there was no will to incorporate this, and this is because always online DRM. As for the sound bite from the PR rep from MAXIS about "Server Side Processing", this is just absurd. The engine is run completely on the client side, passing information to and from a server every 3 minutes is not server side processing, simply data movement, which could be simulated on the client. All the number crunching goes on in the clients system running the engine, it is physically impossible to have a CPU on your own system in Synch with a CPU in a server thousands of miles away, Unless MAXIS and EA have somehow bent the rules of physics.

gizmo

_Puma_ wrote: »

So reviews have started to come in.

I find this line very telling "Just how broken the always-online SimCity is depends on when you're playing, what server you choose, and the sheer luck of the draw. Did it need to be this way? Probably not: the game offers the option to have a fully single-player experience in a closed region of your own creation. Alas, you must sign into SimCity (the service)--as well as Electronic Arts' Origin service--in order to play SimCity (the game)"

So what I have been saying is that there could very easily have been a single player offline element to the game is possible, however there was no will to incorporate this, and this is because always online DRM. As for the sound bite from the PR rep from MAXIS about "Server Side Processing", this is just absurd. The engine is run completely on the client side, passing information to and from a server every 3 minutes is not server side processing, simply data movement, which could be simulated on the client. All the number crunching goes on in the clients system running the engine, it is physically impossible to have a CPU on your own system in Synch with a CPU in a server thousands of miles away, Unless MAXIS and EA have somehow bent the rules of physics.

No, it's an asynchronous connection, if it was synchronous it would drop the second there was an interruption in your connection with the servers which would have been completely unacceptable. On top of that, the data being sent, as explained previously in the thread, doesn't need to be fully in real time, but it still needs to be reasonably up to date. As for the Maxis PR person, this was also confirmed by actual Maxis engineers who took part in a Reddit IAmA awhile ago.

Also, the single player experience outlined above still involves creating your region on the server and having those same simulations carried out server side. The only thing that won't take place is the calculations how your city interacts with others.

Grimebox

Captain Chaos wrote: »

It's not the developers, its the publisher who in this case is EA. They are wrecking every game they have a hand in lately with their business decisions. The sooner they go out of business the better. Wish they were gone and THQ were still on the go.

I feel sorry for Maxis who have to put up with EA's crap. It's costing them for all their hard work.

Maxis/EA, doesn't matter who is to blame. Their end product is unplayable.

Azza

Gamespot wrote:

I find this line very telling "Just how broken the always-online SimCity is depends on when you're playing, what server you choose, and the sheer luck of the draw. Did it need to be this way? Probably not: the game offers the option to have a fully single-player experience in a closed region of your own creation.

The only thing I'll say about this is it sort of indicates it won't be alot of effort for EA to make this game work offline if they ever decide to turn off the servers.

humanji

_Puma_ wrote: »

So reviews have started to come in.

I find this line very telling "Just how broken the always-online SimCity is depends on when you're playing, what server you choose, and the sheer luck of the draw. Did it need to be this way? Probably not: the game offers the option to have a fully single-player experience in a closed region of your own creation. Alas, you must sign into SimCity (the service)--as well as Electronic Arts' Origin service--in order to play SimCity (the game)"

So what I have been saying is that there could very easily have been a single player offline element to the game is possible, however there was no will to incorporate this, and this is because always online DRM. As for the sound bite from the PR rep from MAXIS about "Server Side Processing", this is just absurd. The engine is run completely on the client side, passing information to and from a server every 3 minutes is not server side processing, simply data movement, which could be simulated on the client. All the number crunching goes on in the clients system running the engine, it is physically impossible to have a CPU on your own system in Synch with a CPU in a server thousands of miles away, Unless MAXIS and EA have somehow bent the rules of physics.

As I said before, it's not a singleplayer experience. It's a multiplayer experience where all the other player cities are run by the one person. It's like playing a game of chess against yourself.

_Puma_

But the point I am making is that it could easily be simulated on the Client side. I am not arguing that with the architecture of the game as it is, it is designed to be updated with server for the multilayer elements of the game but why for an enclosed Single player system? What is the benefit? Why cant my "region" not be created on my own Hard drive? I reckon there will be very little will to allocate resources to do this retroactively. There was a conscious decision made to do this, in my opinion, to justify the always online DRM. I very much doubt that it was like this in the beginning of its Development on Dev boxes.

Humanji read it again "fully single-player experience"

nesf

VinLieger wrote: »

Heres everyone ive got listed for the boards.ie region ill invite people when i get home from work this evening IF things are working probably gonna do it on europe east 1, anyone else wants in say so below and give your origin name as well so i can figure out who everyone is

nesf

humanji

_Puma_ wrote: »

But the point I am making is that it could easily be simulated on the Client side. I am not arguing that with the architecture of the game as it is, it is designed to be updated with server for the multilayer elements of the game but why for an enclosed Single player system? What is the benefit? Why cant my "region" not be created on my own Hard drive? I reckon there will be very little will to allocate resources to do this retroactively. There was a conscious decision made to do this, in my opinion, to justify the always online DRM. I very much doubt that it was like this in the beginning of its Development on Dev boxes.

But you don't know for sure. And you don't know that it could be easily set up to run on client computers. It's just an assumption. If the did, they may have to cut back on many of the aspects that they felt they could do in the current set up. We just don't know.

Humanji read it again "fully single-player experience"

And read what I said again. The game doesn't allow you to have one and only one city that is completely self-sufficient. You have to have other cities. It's designed to force you to have other cities. It's designed for multiplayer interaction.

Belfunk

Not sure if this has already been posted.

Ongoing problems with the latest version of SimCity led Amazon to briefly stop selling the game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21712910

gizmo

_Puma_ wrote: »

But the point I am making is that it could easily be simulated on the Client side. I am not arguing that with the architecture of the game as it is, it is designed to be updated with server for the multilayer elements of the game but why for an enclosed Single player system? What is the benefit? Why cant my "region" not be created on my own Hard drive? I reckon there will be very little will to allocate resources to do this retroactively. There was a conscious decision made to do this, in my opinion, to justify the always online DRM. I very much doubt that it was like this in the beginning of its Development on Dev boxes.

The logic, from what I understand, is that the simulations that are being carried out online are quite complex and would preclude the possibility of the game running on lower end machines. Since a considerable portion of the target audience of the game would be non-core gamers, the chances of them having decent machines would be fairly low so this would allow more people to run the game. So there is dual benefit, the game is made more dynamic via the city interactions with the online simulations aiding this by keeping them consistent and hack free and it also allows the game to reach a wider audience.

As for development I'd wager that initial client side development was done with dummy data which just cycled between a bunch of set values while the server side team worked on getting their end up. The online side of things would have been brought in gradually until all systems were tied together with the relevant simulations replacing the dummy data with the correctly calculated ones.

I should point out that all of the above is based on what has been released so far and the engineering implications of this info. It'll be extremely easy to see if they've been lying when more folk get their hands on the game and they start looking at the traffic going to and from the EA servers.