Sim City

nesf

Jernal wrote: »

Right, well, I had Tropicos 3 &4 already (steam sales ftw!:p), so I decided to take the plunge. Nesf! If this Anno game isn't good, bro . . .

It's fun, it's a good idea to watch a few of the "how to play" videos on Youtube, they make the learning curve less steep.

Wonda-Boy

Well all of a sudden (maybe this 1.6 patch is ****ing things up) I cant log into my game. 1st time to have any trouble with it.....better be fixed soon :mad::mad:

Turtwig

I'd imagine that patch is to do with reports of the game allowing hackers to, well, destroy anyone's city they please. (Courtesy of a vulnerability in the always online. Oops!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROy6VE5ZsZw

grizzly

"Incorrect login information. Please check your credentials and try again." Anyone get this? How do you fix it?

nesf

grizzly wrote: »

"Incorrect login information. Please check your credentials and try again." Anyone get this? How do you fix it?

"We have deployed a new solution to our server traffic problems"

degrassinoel

Dcully wrote: »

So you bought it yesterday and already brand it as above ?
I suggest you have barely scratched the surface.
How's much have you played of it ?

Fair enough if you dislike it but such a game needs many hours of gameplay to really see what its about.

Nah man, i tend to know after 20 minutes of playing wether i like something and want to keep playing it or not. If it cant grab me by then it wont grab me at all. I lasted 3 hours with anno 2070.

I also bought Stardrive on steam last night too and tbh that's a crapload harder - i've already pumped in 12 hours worth and i still have no idea wtf i'm doing in it lol

I know what ye mean about giving it a chance and playing for a while but the game just bugged the sh1t out of me. I gave it a chance, and maybe my standards are too high but it's not for me dude lol

nesf

degrassinoel wrote: »

Nah man, i tend to know after 20 minutes of playing wether i like something and want to keep playing it or not. If it cant grab me by then it wont grab me at all. I lasted 3 hours with anno 2070.

I also bought Stardrive on steam last night too and tbh that's a crapload harder - i've already pumped in 12 hours worth and i still have no idea wtf i'm doing in it lol

I know what ye mean about giving it a chance and playing for a while but the game just bugged the sh1t out of me. I gave it a chance, and maybe my standards are too high but it's not for me dude lol

You're judging strategy/simulation games based on 20 minutes? :eek:

degrassinoel

nesf wrote: »

You're judging strategy/simulation games based on 20 minutes? :eek:

No i'm judging every game i've ever played by those 20 minutes.

If a game fails to grab you by then it probably wont ever grab you.
I also said already that i gave anno 3 hours of my time, and i'll never play it again because it's a pisspoor game imo.

nesf

degrassinoel wrote: »

No i'm judging every game i've ever played by those 20 minutes.

If a game fails to grab you by then it probably wont ever grab you.
I also said already that i gave anno 3 hours of my time, and i'll never play it again because it's a pisspoor game imo.

But, um, there are many many strategy games that you won't even have figured out the basics in 20 minutes never mind appreciate the depth the game might have with a better grasp of the game's mechanics.

Yeah, for many genres, 20-30 minutes will give you a good handle on the game but strategy/simulation games? I don't think so really. Some games will grab you instantly (the Dawn of War games have done this for me every time purely because I enjoy the setting quite a bit) but others are worth working at (I'd have walked away from Sim City 4 after 20 minutes when it was first released because the difficulty level was so unforgiving in the launch version if I followed your rule, it just was not fun until you figured out a bit of the mechanics of the game).

I don't know, I just think you'll miss out on a lot of good games in the more complicated genres if you apply something like a 20 minute rule.

degrassinoel

That's just me Nesf. I've very little patience lol

Some strategy games i do enjoy, but anno no. Tropico, civ, c&c games or clones of, yeah great (excluding c&c4, that was just woeful) and loads of others, but that being said there's a bunch of them that i just dont like either. And without fail, i knew within 20 minutes of playing each of them wether i wanted to keep going or not.

Anno just happens to completely uninterest me, whereas say xcom or civ or generals is something i can overindulge myself with for hours and hours.

Mc Love

Got sick of simcity already, turned on the game but when your game is ready to play screen came up, I quit and fired up my FM12 save which allows me to play offline - such a pleasure playing a game that actually works

KilOit

Well tried Anno 2070, takes patience to get the hang it, good hour or 2 but wow what a game, just when i thought i'm nearing end game civilization it opens up further, i spent 7 hours on it today and feel i'm only scratching the surface. Game is insanely complex!

delta_bravo

tropico 4 is available for download off game for 4.99 if anyone wants something that actually works.

the_syco

So, after not playing it for a week (SimCity + work night = very little sleep), I sat down, and after 15 minutes, it claims there is something wrong with my profile, and that I must roll it back.



For fcuks sake!

Oh, and in that short game, I don't see the point in adding more fire engines;



Left circle, fire station. Right circle, fire engines, stuck in traffic.

Fire engines, police cars, ambulances, etc, always stuck in traffic. Fail traffic coding!

jill_valentine

Ugh, I've been jonesing for some new Sim City action forever, but always-online just isn't a goer for me even if I wanted to.

I can't tear myself away from this thread. This is torture. TORTURE!

Azza

Yeah, I don't have the game buts its still tempting me so I'm keeping an eye on this thread. Game looks nice and shiney :P. Makes for painful reading though. I think there is still the possibility EA could cave with the online DRM and some of the issues sound like they can be fixed with patches.

Rock Paper Shotgun have been relentless in their coverage of this issue, constantly calling out EA and Maxis PR spin and presenting insider information that contradicts a lot of EA/Maxis statements as well as going back to interviews from over a a year ago where EA contradict what they are saying now. Seems to me EA/Maxis are still hoping this will blow over but if a couple of major game sites along with the angry mob keep the pressure up for anothe while, they may back down.

Not making excuses for EA but I'm surprised more people didn't hold of buying it after the debacle of the American launch gave us a few days heads up over what to expect. Like for all the dislike of DRM, it seems to me if the game is desired enough, people won't stick to their principals (see the Modern Warfare 2 boycott) and simply put up with. I reckon that is what EA was counting on.

eigenboggle

I have been very lucky and have had very little problems for the most part. I've put in about 25 hours. I was enjoying it a lot initially but I was living in fear of loosing my city or of getting stuck in a roll back. But nothing like that has happened.

Until Friday I was keeping things all in the one city and not sharing services in the region or anything that used the server. On Friday I tried to have some fun with specialized cities. I wanted to have a beautiful and very clean tourist spot and then use another city in the region to provide garbage collection and sewerage processing. But alas, the server just doesn't work. Its now more than a day and I still can't get any sewerage pumped between cities and no garbage trucks show up even though I am sharing 20+ trucks.

I am also a little annoyed with some of the AI behavior but I think most of it will get sorted pretty soon in patches. Or at least I hope so. But I was disappointed as I initially thought a sim would live in a house, go work, shop etc. not the reality of "only from point A to B" and sims just going home to the first house with free space.

Maxis/Ea's lies about game features and general carry on has been outrageous. So on principal I would like to discourage others from supporting them. But I think, as a gamer and as a long time sim city fan (although I missed out on SC4) I think it would be worth picking up if you can get it for a fair price and if they iron out the bugs.

I have mixed feelings I suppose.

Slutmonkey57b

RPS blows another massive hole in the good ship SS Maxis Bull****... www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/16/simcity-modder-tells-us-offline-regional-play-easily-done/#more-146044

Updated news: the servers do no calculations, the inter region simulation consists of "I have x power available", and the database setup is a joke.


Wooooo Go Maxis!

Dcully

Ive totally quit playing until there is no fear of my cities vanishing.
Ive played 35-40 hours built about 6 cities,weirdly despite hating the many issues mostly the tiny city size i kept going back, but now whats the point when every city i make just vanishes into thin air? ,totally unacceptable and utterly sickening.

gizmo

Azza wrote: »

Rock Paper Shotgun have been relentless in their coverage of this issue, constantly calling out EA and Maxis PR spin and presenting insider information that contradicts a lot of EA/Maxis statements as well as going back to interviews from over a a year ago where EA contradict what they are saying now. Seems to me EA/Maxis are still hoping this will blow over but if a couple of major game sites along with the angry mob keep the pressure up for anothe while, they may back down.

While it's nice to see the media continue to hammer them on the issue (probably the only way they'll introduce an offline mode) I'm still incredibly disappointed they weren't doing it before release. If you look back over the pre-release interviews with Bradshaw, she was repeatedly allowed to avoid the off-line single player question by reverting to the list of benefits derived from the multiplayer region play and the "technology" used to power them. At no point did an interviewer just stop her and ask about the people who didn't want to play with anyone else and wanted to stay offline. At least then there would have been a better chance of us getting a straight answer from a PR mouthpiece.

Azza wrote: »

Not making excuses for EA but I'm surprised more people didn't hold of buying it after the debacle of the American launch gave us a few days heads up over what to expect. Like for all the dislike of DRM, it seems to me if the game is desired enough, people won't stick to their principals (see the Modern Warfare 2 boycott) and simply put up with. I reckon that is what EA was counting on.

So, wana take bets on what happens if EA/Maxis do capitulate on the offline mode thing? :pac:

My guess...

Game sees massive piracy rates as users aim to get one over on EA due to the always online requirement.
EA use massive piracy rates as an excuse for the always online requirement in both Sim City and future high profile titles.
Server and general gameplay issues are eventually fixed.
The majority of gamers go back to playing almost exclusively in online mode since it offers some of the most interesting gameplay possibilities.

Grumpypants

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

RPS blows another massive hole in the good ship SS Maxis Bull****... www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/16/simcity-modder-tells-us-offline-regional-play-easily-done/#more-146044

Updated news: the servers do no calculations, the inter region simulation consists of "I have x power available", and the database setup is a joke.


Wooooo Go Maxis!

I can't wait to play Azzer's city simulation game since it is all so easy to create he will have one knocked up in a few weeks.

nesf

gizmo wrote: »

While it's nice to see the media continue to hammer them on the issue (probably the only way they'll introduce an offline mode) I'm still incredibly disappointed they weren't doing it before release. If you look back over the pre-release interviews with Bradshaw, she was repeatedly allowed to avoid the off-line single player question by reverting to the list of benefits derived from the multiplayer region play and the "technology" used to power them. At no point did an interviewer just stop her and ask about the people who didn't want to play with anyone else and wanted to stay offline. At least then there would have been a better chance of us getting a straight answer from a PR mouthpiece.

I imagine, given the relative weakness of the gaming press, that they wouldn't be getting any follow-up interviews if they pushed too hard on certain topics. I also think RPS might be finding it hard to get EA interviews for a good long while after this and that they are doing this knowing that.

Reekwind

Grumpypants wrote: »

I can't wait to play Azzer's city simulation game since it is all so easy to create he will have one knocked up in a few weeks.

I hear Will Wright had a decent stab at one back in 1989. Apparently its mechanics worked and it didn't even need the internet

gizmo

nesf wrote: »

I imagine, given the relative weakness of the gaming press, that they wouldn't be getting any follow-up interviews if they pushed too hard on certain topics. I also think RPS might be finding it hard to get EA interviews for a good long while after this and that they are doing this knowing that.

But how is the widespread hammering they're giving them now any better? Kotaku have a "SimCity Disaster Watch" series now, Polygon have savaged their score, RPS are constantly going after them following releases yet they were all happy to post or repost the original interviews as they were. I just find the entire affair so odd.

nesf

gizmo wrote: »

But how is the widespread hammering they're giving them now any better? Kotaku have a "SimCity Disaster Watch" series now, Polygon have savaged their score, RPS are constantly going after them following releases yet they were all happy to post or repost the original interviews as they were. I just find the entire affair so odd.

I agree, it's bizarre, I mean it's Sim ****ing City, it's got an obsessed modding community, it's a PC game so it can be hacked apart, network traffic analysed etc. Bull**** about server side calculations (a claim not taken seriously by anyone with any understanding of hardware) and other things just aren't going to last. I don't it. Maybe they mistook the Sim City community for the Sims one?

Slutmonkey57b

Grumpypants wrote: »

I can't wait to play Azzer's city simulation game since it is all so easy to create he will have one knocked up in a few weeks.

I'll assume you're being sarcastic here, but it's worth noting that in the space of a week a couple of modders with no visibility of the actual code or access to the server setup has been able to:
1. Expose how the multiplayer aspect works.
2. Expose the faked population statistics
3. Expose the faked always online requirement
4. Expose the faked city size limits
5. Expose the faked server-side simulation claims

Normal gamers have been able to prove the game:
1. Doesn't simulate rci interactions
2. Doesn't track Sims lives
3. Doesn't simulate traffic patterns
4. Doesn't simulate inter city relationships
5. Doesn't simulate economic factors
6. Doesn't simulate education
7. Doesn't require an online connection
8. Doesn't save city states
9. Doesn't have functional multiplayer social aspects
10. Doesn't allow access to your game
11. Can't cope with the server load

In short, every claim that Maxis made about what the game can do, what it does, and why it's structured the way it is has been proven to be a lie.

Given that it took modders to fix the problems with sim city 4, I think we're better off relying on them to fix online sim neighborhood than waiting for maxis to do it.

the_syco

Azza wrote: »

Like for all the dislike of DRM, it seems to me if the game is desired enough, people won't stick to their principals (see the Modern Warfare 2 boycott) and simply put up with. I reckon that is what EA was counting on.

Most of us who played SC2000 couldn't really wait any longer, especially as most of us knew EA would fcuk it up regardless even though we hoped they wouldn't.

Eoin247

Spent hours on it last night. I have to say, for all it's problems it's still addicting.

Although I'm getting a weird terrain bug constantly. Trees seem to float high in the air.

Reekwind

gizmo wrote: »

While it's nice to see the media continue to hammer them on the issue (probably the only way they'll introduce an offline mode) I'm still incredibly disappointed they weren't doing it before release

But there's a difference between suspicion and fact. Journalists may have suspected that this was a clusterfeck waiting to happen but you can't mark a game down based on a mere suspicion. Similarly, everyone knew that EA's claims of having an engine so complex that all the work had to be done remotely were bull**** but it's not until the engine was taken apart by modders that this could be proven. RPS in particular have been very consistent with this line - it's not the design decisions themselves they're criticising but the gulf between what we were told and the subsequent reality

It's rare that I praise games journalists but I think they did okay this time round. In general most review sites took care to either delay their reviews or caveat them by stressing that these were pre-release servers. The Diablo III example obviously loomed large here. The main sites took their time in reviewing and were quick to readdress scores as the scale of the fiasco became apparent

Obviously previews are previews and thus absolutely worthless

gizmo

nesf wrote: »

I agree, it's bizarre, I mean it's Sim ****ing City, it's got an obsessed modding community, it's a PC game so it can be hacked apart, network traffic analysed etc. Bull**** about server side calculations (a claim not taken seriously by anyone with any understanding of hardware) and other things just aren't going to last. I don't it. Maybe they mistook the Sim City community for the Sims one?

Well in fairness, they did have the opportunity to do some cool stuff with region play and by that I mean do what they claimed they were going to do (reasonably speaking) but it seems so pared back that it's approaching useless at this stage.

The more I think about it the more confused I am at the direction they took. I mean, if they had drawn a line in the sand between offline and online play then they could have easily just pushed the ever living crap out of the benefits of region play in interviews et al and made the single player side of the things to be the poorer version of the game. The game would still be hit by piracy but it would have been, theoretically at least, reduced somewhat due to the desire of folks to play online with their friends (should everything work). Even then down the line they would be in a far better position to turn things off on the multiplayer side and leave the rest of the game in working order.

Now all they're left with is what appears to be a broken game, overwhelmed back end, monumental amount of bad PR and the possible ruination of future plans to go always-online for more of their games soon due to the mess they made from this one.

I guess we'll find out how they've ultimately been affected in the coming weeks and months as the sales figures come out and EA's second quarter financials are released.