Sim City

nesf

Goodshape wrote: »

It's funny because I could have sworn a few pages back people were complaining about education being just a blanket statistic, with no bearing on where you place schools / universities. Seems now people are equally pissed when it does make a difference.

Yeah, my posts and you didn't read them correctly. What was being complained about is the way they modelled education as a single pool of students who will take a place in any education building. These "student sims" have no age, past education or anything and just slot into the nearest free space.

This is a simulation game, it's supposed to present challenges resembling reality. Now obviously some things need to be fudged for it to work as a game. What the killer about the above way of modelling education is that it allows absurdities like having nothing but colleges and universities educating an entire city successfully. Or less extremely just an Elementary School and a Community College and it working with no one getting a High School education.

Nowhere did the placement of schools or universities come into it. While University placement is interesting as a traffic problem, it's not really a big deal.

Yakult

Is this game worth buy? Liked previous games but still unsure on this

Goodshape

nesf wrote: »

Yeah, my posts and you didn't read them correctly. What was being complained about is the way they modelled education as a single pool of students who will take a place in any education building. These "student sims" have no age, past education or anything and just slot into the nearest free space.

Gotcha. Yeah, that is stupid.


I'd like to stop defending this game now . There's plenty wrong with it to the extent that I've pretty much stopped playing until things improve.

Just this one "issue" with the nuclear plant where I think complaints are misplaced.

Slutmonkey57b

Yakult wrote: »

Is this game worth buy? Liked previous games but still unsure on this

If you've read this thread and you're still unsure, then I don't know what to tell you.

The game is totally ****ed, EA are liars, you're getting ripped off, but it looks pretty and if you're prepared to play as though you're just decorating a sim's house with your eyes closed, apparently it's fun.

nesf

Goodshape wrote: »

Gotcha. Yeah, that is stupid.


I'd like to stop defending this game now . There's plenty wrong with it to the extent that I've pretty much stopped playing until things improve.

Just this one "issue" with the nuclear plant where I think complaints are misplaced.

Better to think of the nuclear plant thing as a result of the silly way they implemented worker/sink interaction. Workers are dumb as they don't go towards the nearest suitable work but the nearest work. Sinks (factories/utilities) are dumb as they don't discriminate between workers even when they demand a certain type of worker. You can work around this quite easily once you know this problem is there but you shouldn't have to is the point. The simulation should be smart enough to handle different levels of worker education without going belly up.

IRL_Sinister

Yakult wrote: »

Is this game worth buy? Liked previous games but still unsure on this

Game is great now that all the launch woes are over. If you're into minor details it's not the game for you. on the bright side if you buy it before March 23 you'll get a free game (I just got BF3 and not a SINGLE regret!).

EDIT: I didn't have a single problem at launch, personally, it was just the days after and I had very little problems compared to a lot of others who could only log on at peak hours.

quarryman

Battlefield 3 or Dead Space 3?

Bearing in mind I'll never play the multiplayer...

IRL_Sinister

quarryman wrote: »

Battlefield 3 or Dead Space 3?

Bearing in mind I'll never play the multiplayer...

Never played DS3 but I am LOVING BF Campaign.

Overheal

So they slashed the prices of all of their games on offer .... except Sim City? Way to deflect attention away from your mass of failures, EA. I see the game you fcuked up last year with three whole different colors of explosion is only going for $9.99 today.

Grumpypants

Overheal wrote: »

So the Nuclear Power Plant director is just supposed to hire the first illegal alien that comes in the door with the inability to multiply and divide?

I suppose similarly I could turn it into a tower defense game by putting a bunch of hot dog stands between the nuke plant and the educated workers

Wheres the Sim in this Simulation

Not defending the game but it is something that does happen in real life, a mayor has no impact on who companies hire. Now it would be good if you could train Sims and let them work in the power plant but all you can do as a mayor is have a university and a power plant in the same town an let nature take its course. Then try to clean up the mess

When I play football Manager it is a sim but I don't just buy the best striker and instantly get 30 goals a season out of him. I could buy a player and then he gets home sick and doesn't play well. That is the simulation part.

Again not defending game as there are some issues with it but is that not part of the simulation in the game for Sims to do random daft stuff that you have to figure out how to manage. Wouldn't the game be boring if you just zoned 1/3 of the area in each RCI zone and the sims all worked and shopped in perfect harmony and drove the shortest route so traffic was never an issue and you filled the map in an hour and that was it?

Overheal

Grumpypants wrote: »

Not defending the game but it is something that does happen in real life, a mayor has no impact on who companies hire. Now it would be good if you could train Sims and let them work in the power plant but all you can do as a mayor is have a university and a power plant in the same town an let nature take its course. Then try to clean up the mess

When I play football Manager it is a sim but I don't just buy the best striker and instantly get 30 goals a season out of him. I could buy a player and then he gets home sick and doesn't play well. That is the simulation part.

Again not defending game as there are some issues with it but is that not part of the simulation in the game for Sims to do random daft stuff that you have to figure out how to manage. Wouldn't the game be boring if you just zoned 1/3 of the area in each RCI zone and the sims all worked and shopped in perfect harmony and drove the shortest route so traffic was never an issue and you filled the map in an hour and that was it?

Actually in real life nuclear power plants are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Comission.

Grumpypants

Overheal wrote: »

Actually in real life nuclear power plants are regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Comission.

and no nuclear power plant has ever had an explosion. Banks and Oil companies are also regulated and they have never screwed up?

nesf

Grumpypants wrote: »

Not defending the game but it is something that does happen in real life, a mayor has no impact on who companies hire. Now it would be good if you could train Sims and let them work in the power plant but all you can do as a mayor is have a university and a power plant in the same town an let nature take its course. Then try to clean up the mess

When I play football Manager it is a sim but I don't just buy the best striker and instantly get 30 goals a season out of him. I could buy a player and then he gets home sick and doesn't play well. That is the simulation part.

Again not defending game as there are some issues with it but is that not part of the simulation in the game for Sims to do random daft stuff that you have to figure out how to manage. Wouldn't the game be boring if you just zoned 1/3 of the area in each RCI zone and the sims all worked and shopped in perfect harmony and drove the shortest route so traffic was never an issue and you filled the map in an hour and that was it?

I'd have no problem with a nuclear plant having an emergency because of whatever external reason or a screw up. That would be closer to reality than what we currently have with 100% safe nuclear if you get the mechanics right, and closer to your example from FM. This is kinda different to the lack of discrimination problem with worker sinks though.

Sofiztikated

Goodshape wrote: »

It's not unheard of for a business to make a bad hire. If you surround a business district with residential, it seems likely that those people will apply for jobs in those near-by businesses.

Commercial and industrial employees in SimCity are more choosy but seems to be that the nuclear power plant will hire Homer Simpson if he's first in the door. Up to the player to make sure that doesn't happen!


It's funny because I could have sworn a few pages back people were complaining about education being just a blanket statistic, with no bearing on where you place schools / universities. Seems now people are equally pissed when it does make a difference.

Are you saying that a business could fill it's workforce with bad hires, to the point that it explodes, when there is an availability of educated workers also in the same city? Because they happen to be closer?

Really?

Look, I get it. I play games that whereby I have to stick to a set of rules to make the game work. But that doesn't deflect from the fact that the game is still borked.

I'm not getting Sim City. After the way EA treated, lied, and continued to lie to it's customers. Now that Riccitiello has "retired," I'll look at what way future games are treated. With Probst back in charge, and his being in charge in a time when I did like EA games, I might change my mind.

Goodshape

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Are you saying that a business could fill it's workforce with bad hires, to the point that it explodes, when there is an availability of educated workers also in the same city? Because they happen to be closer?

Yes, that's what I'm saying. As an educated worker I'm more likely to apply for a job close-by than one halfway across town. Particularly with the traffic chaos in these (Sim)Cities :-P, and particularly if I have to travel through the slums everyday to get to that workplace. The nuclear plant just wouldn't have the pool of educated workers to draw upon. Making a bad hire to stay in business is better than simply going out of business. It's bad city planning, though.


Why not concentrate on the games actual problems instead of labelling every unwelcome event as a bug.

neaideabh

Can someone actually give me a proper review of this game? I mean.... Given that the logging on issue is sorted. Whats it like to play... Despite the issues i am reading about such as small space, etc. Is the game still playable and all that? Or are the issues really that bad and making such a negative impact on the game?

the_syco

neaideabh wrote: »

Or are the issues really that bad and making such a negative impact on the game?

4 firestations
20 firestrucks
all stuck at one set of traffic lights
waiting to put out a bungalow fire
the first of 18 fires, 12 of which are high rise buildings

=-=

Don't upgrade your town hall. Upgrading town hall gets you;
asteroids
fire-breathing t-rex

Tails142

neaideabh wrote: »

Can someone actually give me a proper review of this game? I mean.... Given that the logging on issue is sorted. Whats it like to play... Despite the issues i am reading about such as small space, etc. Is the game still playable and all that? Or are the issues really that bad and making such a negative impact on the game?

You can play no problem, but after about 20 hours into the game you probably wont want to.

Game is dissapointing, cities just seem to hit a brick wall where development grinds to a halt and your next option is to start another city in the region, but with the region problems you don't get any change from commuting workers etc so you are basically just building the same city again. I'm bored - the problems are as discussed related to bad worker model, traffic issues, region problems due to server load and lack of cheetah speed.

Newaglish

Goodshape wrote: »

Yes, that's what I'm saying. As an educated worker I'm more likely to apply for a job close-by than one halfway across town. Particularly with the traffic chaos in these (Sim)Cities :-P, and particularly if I have to travel through the slums everyday to get to that workplace. The nuclear plant just wouldn't have the pool of educated workers to draw upon. Making a bad hire to stay in business is better than simply going out of business. It's bad city planning, though.


Why not concentrate on the games actual problems instead of labelling every unwelcome event as a bug.

So if you have a degree in nuclear physics, you'll work in the nearby assembly-line factory because it's closer? Meanwhile, the nuclear power plant will just hire people who have no primary school education? That's not a city planning problem, it's poor game design.

VinLieger

I think it all comes back to the stupid idea of 1 pool of students who can suddenly become nuclear physicists after 1 day in college while never having gone to any other form of education, instead of having to build up an educated workforce through having all 4 types of education in your city.
When i started playing i just assumed the latter was how it worked so all my cities have 2-3 forms of education, couldnt believe it when i read they had dumbed it down that much

.ak

Have to say after a couple of weeks of this I'm fairly bored. Maybe I'm just not very good at it, but I find it hard to deal with the zoning. I've built all my roads/blocks perfectly so they'll fit in the right amount of zoning in each area, and my maps are completely used up, but once I get to 150k residents I can't zone anymore residential, no space, even though I have little to no commercial/industrial zones.

My feeling is the maps aren't big enough. If that's because of the level of detail at the Sim level and not wanting people's machines to crash then they f'd up, the level of detail isn't really needed at all.

Slutmonkey57b

.ak wrote: »

Have to say after a couple of weeks of this I'm fairly bored. Maybe I'm just not very good at it, but I find it hard to deal with the zoning. I've built all my roads/blocks perfectly so they'll fit in the right amount of zoning in each area, and my maps are completely used up, but once I get to 150k residents I can't zone anymore residential, no space, even though I have little to no commercial/industrial zones.

My feeling is the maps aren't big enough. If that's because of the level of detail at the Sim level and not wanting people's machines to crash then they f'd up, the level of detail isn't really needed at all.

There is no meaningful detail at the sim level. The game is just badly coded and designed.

Tom_Cruise

I haven't played a Sim city game is years, is this one worth buying? I am aware of the bugs and problems but have they been sorted out at all yet?

Slutmonkey57b

Goodshape wrote: »

Yes, that's what I'm saying. As an educated worker I'm more likely to apply for a job close-by than one halfway across town. Particularly with the traffic chaos in these (Sim)Cities :-P, and particularly if I have to travel through the slums everyday to get to that workplace. The nuclear plant just wouldn't have the pool of educated workers to draw upon. Making a bad hire to stay in business is better than simply going out of business. It's bad city planning, though.


Why not concentrate on the games actual problems instead of labelling every unwelcome event as a bug.

The bug in this case is actually quite simple. The nuclear plant has a requirement for x number of educated workers. However, it does not actually attempt to meet that criteria. It does not put out a request for educated workers, and it does not refuse uneducated workers. Instead, jobs are filled by the closest workers, regardless, and the "fill job" function doesn't begin at the business level ("send me x workers who meet criteria y,z, or else criteria a,b ..), it begins at the house level ("disgorge x workers and send them to the nearest business")

So the game sets up a scenario which will result in a failure if the player doesn't meet it. That's good, it's what should happen!

However, due to hidden bugs, the game then thwarts the player's attempts to do so. That's the problem.

Maximilian

Tom_Cruise wrote: »

I haven't played a Sim city game is years, is this one worth buying? I am aware of the bugs and problems but have they been sorted out at all yet?

I would honestly say no. I think this is half the game it should be. I can't help feeling that that may be intended but I suspect they may reconsider any DLC plans now.

Tiny city sizes, rubbish transport options, a fairly pointless multiplayer aspect (in my view) and all underpinned by a very poor, simplified simulation. It's really hard to recommend this to anyone. Maybe check back in a few months but avoid for now. The server issues and bugs are almost a side-show.

I'm as big a fan of the series as anyone - I lost a lot of time to the very first sim city - but I find it very hard to understand the apologists in this instance.

VinLieger

Yeah to anyone thinking of buying it now id deffinitely wait a bit, im actually more eager to play my free copy of need for speed than this right now which deffinitely says something

I've lost interest in this and am disappointed.

Will look into picking up free game - probably BF3.

moonlighting

wheres the best website to buy simcity. noticed there looking for 60 euro on main website.

.ak

moonlighting wrote: »

wheres the best website to buy simcity. noticed there looking for 60 euro on main website.

I got mine on green man gaming, but dunno if they're still doing a special on it.

.ak

Slightly off topic, but what did people get as their free game? I already have BF3, I wanna finish Mass Effect on my XBOX with my character, any other recommendations? Dead Space 3 any use? (Haven't finished the 2nd one yet tho)