SimCity 5

[Maniacal]

Its too bad that doesn't stop most publishers/developers from overcharging for all of their generally mediocre DLC. Plus waiting 6 months or os for an expansion has its benefits, by that time the game is more patched up and, especially if it is more linear, you will actually be interested in playing it again for longer than 20-120 minutes.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Now that its release is confirmed, should we rename the thread?

 

[KMRblue1027]

Now that its release is confirmed, should we rename the thread?

Does it really matter?

 

[Save_Ferris]

All the other game threads have official titles. I just thought we could redo the OP and title to conform it.

 

[KMRblue1027]

I'm likely to be too lazy to update the OP actively but what do you want me to change the OP/Title to?

 

[Save_Ferris]

"SimCity 5" or "SimCity 5- Game Thread" will do.

 

[Quintillus]

Yeah, it's very in the vogue to Washington and Lincoln people with DLC these days. Look at Civ5, and the DLC costs as much as the base game. And it's not the worst. At least it looks like Maxis might keep it in somewhat large blocks rather than charging $1.25 for a French water tower, 75 cents for a British fire station, etc.

 

[GenMarshall]

Well, I'm hoping that SC5 does not force people to instal Origin.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Well, I'm hoping that SC5 does not force people to instal Origin.

It's EA, of course they will.

Still hoping for a Steam version though.

 

[Maniacal]

Thanks to the mod who changed the title, that was surprisingly quick!

 

[GenMarshall]

It's EA, of course they will.

Still hoping for a Steam version though.

Odds are if EA is doing the works, it's likely they WONT be offering a Steam version. Like they did with Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3.

 

[KMRblue1027]

Thanks to the mod who changed the title, that was surprisingly quick!

I PM'ed one.

 

[Joecoolyo]

Odds are if EA is doing the works, it's likely they WONT be offering a Steam version. Like they did with Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3.

One can dream...

 

[Smellincoffee]

Spotted an interesting tidbit today: apparantly the regional map will contain resources. From the Atlantic Cities:

[...] you might build a small city with a few houses and businesses. Along the way, you come to find out that there’s a large bed of coal underneath the city. As the mayor, you have to decide whether it’s worth the increased revenue to start mining versus potentially polluting your community, not to mention the cities your friends build if you’re playing in multiplayer mode.

"The space you got to explore with SimCity 4 was bounded," says Quigley. "With the new SimCity it essentially is unbounded. In SimCity 4 there were only so many things you could do. In the latest SimCity, the simulation landscape is continually growing, but I won’t say it’s infinite."

Quigley compares the new game to a Lego set. As you add new pieces, new simulation possibilities arise.

“Other SimCities have been built on graph paper. This works for classic, traditional cities, but doesn’t work for more organic cities,” says Quigley. “We want to take SimCity off the graph paper and build cities with curved roads, more European cities and not just gridded cities. We want the city to feel like a place, not a map.”

I wonder about this mention of European cities; does that mean a break from the usual demand and zoning setup? SimCity is dominated by the American obsession with zoning and segregating different building types, so we can't have mixed-used buildings, like a structure with shops on the ground floor and apartments above it. I try to have mixed-used neighborhoods by zoning medium-density residential and commercial lots next to each other in SimCity 3000.

 

[Save_Ferris]

I like the idea of resources. Realism is good for SimCity if not for any other game.

 

[germanicus12]

You mean to tell me that we won't know what is under our city until a town or city is established and not at the beginning of the map before you place you city down?

If this is the case, this is awesome... I always wanted something like that where the future of my citizens rests on my decisions towards recently discovered resources.

 

[croxis]

Yup, some nice videos of resources from the GDC presentation. Everything in the game is a resource: people, money, coal, pollution, sickness, water, etc. Then there are bins which can holdone resource type up to a set capacity. All the stuff in the game, like buildings and maps, have bins. Buildings and maps have their own rules that tells it what to do based on the resources it has. These rules send out agents (which also have their own bins) to pick up/deliver/change its contents.

This simple system powers the entire game from power units going down the power line, water and pollution through pipes, factories sending the "Time for work" message, to people driving to work or to go shopping.

 

[Synobun]

More randomized simulation and resources?

This is sounding too good to be true.

inb4 Spore.

 

[ZeletDude]

sounds.. awesome

 

[Maniacal]

SimCity is dominated by the American obsession with zoning and segregating different building types, so we can't have mixed-used buildings, like a structure with shops on the ground floor and apartments above it.

Odd considering that there are many buildings like that in Canadian and American cities. Although maybe not as I guess those are mostly (though not always) left over from the old city centers.