You spoke, we listened! All of us here at Maxis value you, the community, and to show our thanks, we solicited all your burning SimCity questions last week on our blog. Now it’s time for us to give back our love in the form of answers. Lots (and lots) of answers. We combed through your comments and picked out some of the best questions for Creative Director Ocean Quigley, Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis, and Lead Designer Stone Librande to tackle. We got so many great questions, in fact, that we’re going to split up the answers into two parts.
Before we get to it, we just wanted to thank everyone who took the time to comment! If your question doesn’t get answered below, don’t worry, the second part of our Community Q&A will be coming soon. In the meantime, you can follow me, Michael Donahoe, the new SimCity Community Manager @Maxis_MD on Twitter to learn about all the fun and wacky stuff that goes down at the Maxis office. I love hearing what you have to say, so don’t be shy, OK?
Now for the main event: Your questions!
MamaLuigiST: Many people also feel that the textures look like "plastic" and are too clean and imperfect. Will this change before the release?
Creative Director Ocean Quigley: The textures are still being finalized. A lot of what we’re you seeing is a work in progress. We’re working hard on the building materials, so that glass looks like glass and metal looks like metal – the final buildings will have their own distinctive look and shouldn’t all look like they’re made out of cardboard or plastic. We’d like to point out that the buildings have a UI job to do as well. Buildings need to tell you how they’re doing, and if we make them look too noisy, then their simulation states are harder to see.
Romaq: What possible compelling benefit is there to "forced online play" even between regions where the players are in 'solo online play' that makes this a core required "feature?"
OQ: Your cities live on the cloud, and you can play them from any PC you like. If your PC is unplugged, your cities are safe, you can go over to your friend’s laptop and start playing. We don’t care where you install SimCity. Since your cities are on the cloud, we can give you rich online data visualizations, showing you the vitals of your city and how it compares to and relates to other cities in the SimCity world.
More prosaically, from its inception, we built this SimCity to be online and multiplayer. We’ve built servers to handle the simulation of regions and communication between cities in a region. We built servers to connect cities to global trade and commodity markets. A decent chunk of the simulation happens in the cloud.
And finally, the relationships between different cities and between different mayors are a big deal, and we think it’s one of the ways that we’re bringing new life to SimCity.
We have a lengthier response about this topic from a previous blog post I wrote. You’ll find more information here, SimCity: The Connection Between You and the World.
(German Community): Is it possible to customize something in the game like street names, signposts, hot spots for tourists etc. similar to SimCity 4 or The Sims?
Lead Producer Kip Katsarelis: We know customization is important to our fans and we’ve given players many ways to customize their cities. I can’t get into specifics at this time about what you’ll be able to name in SimCity, aside from City and Region names. However, every Ploppable building in the game is loaded with modules for players to unlock and use to customize their city. Choose from signs, flags, plants, fountains and more to give each of your Ploppables a personal touch. Our goal is to give players the control and the art to build unique pockets of their cities. You won’t have to read a name in a text box, you’ll be able to see it in world!
James A. (Facebook): What kind of resource industry will we see farming, coal mining, maybe fishing?
KK: Resources are an important part of SimCity and will feed many of the industries. These industries are meant to be the economic centers of your city. Some of the industries that you can build around harvesting resources include large scale mining operations and oil drilling. Other industries depend on these resources to make metals, alloys, and fuel. One thing to note, resources are finite, so make sure you have a backup plan for your city when those oil reserves run out!
hype_emperor: Is parking simulated in the new SimCity? Or, where do the cars go after arriving at their respective destinations?
KK: Good question. Parking is something we’ve toyed around with a lot in SimCity. Since our simulation is so detailed and we’re tracking all of our Sims and their vehicles, we found that we could easily create a Parking Lot Tycoon game if we weren’t careful. All buildings have parking and we represent some number of the cars at the building with surface parking. Additional cars are hidden in “underground” parking. There are a few Ploppables where parking is an important part of their game mechanic. The Stadiums for example have Parking Lot modules that players can add to increase their parking capacity.
Mkareha: How will solo region play work? From the trailers, it looks like the regions are composed of a bunch of isolated cities, separated by an automatic flat expressway that connects the cities. The way it looks in the trailers is not realistic at all. Will we have full control in the creation of highways, neighbor connects, modular road systems, etc.?
Lead Designer Stone Librande: Each city is connected to other cities in the region through a combination of roads and railroad tracks. Some centrally located cities may have access to many different connections, while cities located on the fringes of the region may have only one. Players do not have control of placing roads and rail in the region, but they have complete control over the road and rail networks within their city boundary.
Ilay160: Will there be new kind of parks, like a national park, or areas that people can go and camping?
SL: Yes, there will be parks in the city. Parks will make your Sims happy and increase the nearby land value. Parks also increase the “attraction level” of the city, which is used to determine how many tourists will visit.
German Community: What kind of traffic opportunities do you have and how can you control them?
SL: Traffic flows along the roads you place. The frequency of intersections, number of lanes, road type, and length of the road are used to determine the amount of congestion and how long it takes to get your Sims to their destination. The overall success (or failure) of a city is largely a function of how efficiently you have built your road system. You might not care if a few Sims can’t get to work on time, but you’ll feel the pressure when a fire truck can’t get to the scene of a fire and a key building burns to the ground.
But no matter how carefully you design your road network it will be difficult to keep the traffic flowing smoothly if your city is filled with densely populated skyscrapers. To avoid gridlock try building up your public transportation systems. Trams travel down a dedicated track in the middle of the street and are perfect for quickly shuttling Sims around within your city. Buses and passenger trains can be used to carry Sims to and from neighboring cities. If you happen to have a river running through your city you can build a boat dock to ferry your Sims.
Comments
Many questions/ideas :
Many questions/ideas :
1. Will we be able to customize our city ? For example, it would be cool if we could be able to customize our parks. We could add trees, picnic tables and fences where we want so that nobody copies us.
2. Did you think for something that would fit with shores. In Simcity 4, shores are a big problem. I worked for almost 1 hour to be able to build something near the shore. You could create a brick wall that would easily fit with the shore so that we don't have to use terraforming tools.
3. Will we be able to create our own buildings in Simcity. It could be another way to customize our city.
Hope you will read this comment. If you do, have a good day working at Maxis studio.
Simcity 4ever, Cities XL 4never ! :D
I think that the idea of a
I think that the idea of a "real connected world" is fine and the use of the internet or cloud is good. To make this game even better from what I think it will be, EA should consider giving us, the fans, an offline mode where I could work on my city without help or prejudice anyone. Sounds selfish? I don't think so, it is just a kind of option. Some people like to play with others, some don't. And when you pay for something, I think you must have that option as a right. Shouldn't be "If you like you buy as it, if you don't like, don't buy". Sounds that EA is acting like this with they fans.
Another good point that would be great is if EA give us the full control on trains, subways, monorails, etc.....full control meaning taking control on the time you want the train to leave XX station, express train, local train......yeah, sounds like A train series and yes, this is what I meant, why not a Sim City + A train = Super Nice Sim City. I know it is easy to speak and hard to work for you guys but well, if you want this game to be successful, why not listen to those who already love your games??
Thank you very much!
I think that the idea of a
I think that the idea of a "real connected world" is fine and the use of the internet or cloud is good. To make this game even better from what I think it will be, EA should consider giving us, the fans, an offline mode where I could work on my city without help or prejudice anyone. Sounds selfish? I don't think so, it is just a kind of option. Some people like to play with others, some don't. And when you pay for something, I think you must have that option as a right. Shouldn't be "If you like you buy as it, if you don't like, don't buy". Sounds that EA is acting like this with they fans.
Another good point that would be great is if EA give us the full control on trains, subways, monorails, etc.....full control meaning taking control on the time you want the train to leave XX station, express train, local train......yeah, sounds like A train series and yes, this is what I meant, why not a Sim City + A train = Super Nice Sim City. I know it is easy to speak and hard to work for you guys but well, if you want this game to be successful, why not listen to those who already love your games??
Thank you very much!
and so when is the rest of
and so when is the rest of the bad news a/k/a part two coming?
I think that to complain that
I think that to complain that this game is not SimCity 4 is foolish.
The game is not titled Simcity 5 either, as it is not a sequel, but rather a new beginning for the series. There are numerous new mechanics in effect in this game, so without playing it, it is impossible to tell that deviations from SC4 will be any kind of hindrance in this game.
I myself liked being able to link up 9 cities in a region to create a vast metropolis. I liked having millions of people across the region. I kind of have the feeling that cities in this game could seem insignificant in comparison, but so far we don't know how large we'll be able to make individual cities yet.
Either way, even SC 4 was severely lacking in many ways before Rush Hour came out. If there is anything that people find lacking in the final product, it's only a matter of time before an expansion comes out and adds it.
Personally I would just like to see how the game plays first before I judge it.
Every one of these blogs
Every one of these blogs seems like it's about the coders trying to "spin" this whole forced-online paradigm. It took months to just find out if there'd be any sort of non-MMO mode, and now I discover that even in non-MMO mode the game will be interactive no matter what I want. No matter how positively the coders/designers phrase this awful decision, though, it still boils down to a product that sounds really unpleasant to me. I don't trust or like other gamers enough to let them anywhere near my cities. I don't trust EA's servers to run adequately--they can't even keep the Sims forums running smoothly, and it's worth noting that they no longer support TS1 or SC Societies, so there's no promise that this game's servers will still operate in a few years. I certainly don't like having so many design details like transportation networks taken out of my hands. And I don't like coders smugly telling me that I'll take what they're coding and I'll like it.
I loved SC Societies. I knew what the product was when I bought it, though. I knew it was a sort of My First Barbie of SimCity games. I didn't mind. I actually like it because of that breezy simplicity. But it feels like the designers are being deceptive about the new SC and that bothers me a lot. This new SC feels like it's a Facebook thing for people with lots of social-network friends and a willingness to trust a company's servers to run their games. That isn't me, I'm afraid. After playing SimCity since the original Mac version back in the 90s, I'm going to sit out this title.
There has not been one
There has not been one positive comment on this blog.. Take the hint EA...
(watch them delete the blog to hide the negative feedback)
EA is famous for killing
EA is famous for killing online servers once they feel the game no longer has popularity to justify it. So thats a real killjoy there, eventually we won't be able to play it ( I still play simcity 4)
I am massively disappointed
I am massively disappointed with the forced online play. I don't want to play online. I want to control my own city and do my own thing. Was really excited for this title to be released, but the forced online play crap has completely turned me off. Won't be buying
Maxis, if our regions are
Maxis, if our regions are connected by an automatic bridge enar the boundaries of our region, but what about trains? do they go over the car bridge? or do they go thru a seperate rail bridge? or do they go under the ocean like a subway form london to paris? if the resources are finite, will we be able to keep our city economy alive with solar energy, trash recycling and eco friendly buildings?
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It would be cool if we could
It would be cool if we could customize everthing about roads like how many lanes, were redlights or stop signs should be, add turn lanes, yeilds, add bridges anywhere ect. I think that would be cool and a see through building button so you can build easier.
If this game see's the light
If this game see's the light of day & it's online only then I will make a point to defecate on ever copy i see no matter where it is!! Online Only is the biggest load of crap ever just so that EA can count its minions & dollars. They soured me on tigger woods, madden, & ncaa all of which I bought every year until 2 years ago bc EA can't get enough of my money and won't hook it up with a decent discount for being a consistent loyal paying customer year in & year out. They will be their own demise. It's sad that after waiting 10 years, checking ever month for news about SC5, & then I see this think there is hope. For 10 F'ing years I have been amped for a SC5 so I read every single word on this website & watched every video only to have my dreams crushed by EA yet again. Good luck EA battlefield is horrible, no one buys madden or ncca except rappers, but now you have an opportunity to make a huge profit and most important get some kudos by your customers for revamping a legend in SC5. Make it cloud based online only and see how much money you will loose by developing this game for no one bc your customers are sick of all the money hungry corporate bosses who demanded online only!!!
If this game see's the light
If this game see's the light of day & it's online only then I will make a point to defecate on ever copy i see no matter where it is!! Online Only is the biggest load of crap ever just so that EA can count its minions & dollars. They soured me on tigger woods, madden, & ncaa all of which I bought every year until 2 years ago bc EA can't get enough of my money and won't hook it up with a decent discount for being a consistent loyal paying customer year in & year out. They will be their own demise. It's sad that after waiting 10 years, checking ever month for news about SC5, & then I see this think there is hope. For 10 F'ing years I have been amped for a SC5 so I read every single word on this website & watched every video only to have my dreams crushed by EA yet again. Good luck EA battlefield is horrible, no one buys madden or ncca except rappers, but now you have an opportunity to make a huge profit and most important get some kudos by your customers for revamping a legend in SC5. Make it cloud based online only and see how much money you will loose by developing this game for no one bc your customers are sick of all the money hungry corporate bosses who demanded online only!!!
we'll have to relie on mods
we'll have to relie on mods if we can get them
You watch i bet theirs a fee
You watch i bet theirs a fee for freedom i bet you this is their ideas keep the game restricted if you want your freedom pay for it now cities xl is free of movement and has modding.which looks better Simcity following cities xl mistake
ewed if you dont have a
ewed if you dont have a stable internet connection, or you're travelling, or or or or..... the list goes on why the always on is just a complete fail. Give us an option to rather play off-line and polo hackett
the always on is just a
the always on is just a complete fail. Give us an option to rather play off-line and rather sync to polo hackett
You people have too many
You people have too many problems with this. Personally, I never used subways or monorails. Some of you act like having to be online all the time is like EA stealing your only child.
JFK airport in NYC. If you
JFK airport in NYC. If you would just let us control neighbor connections this wouldn't be a problem, but the way it is now makes this game completely worthless. I don't think you have to worry about p chauffeur applicant
And you're pretty screwed if
And you're pretty screwed if you dont have a stable internet connection, or you're travelling, or or or or..... the list goes on why the always on is just a complete fail. Give us an option to rather play off-line and rather sync to the cloud when we want to.
houston anniversary hummer
And you're pretty screwed if
And you're pretty screwed if you dont have a stable internet connection, or you're travelling, or or or or..... the list goes on why the always on is just a complete fail. Give us an option to rather play off-line and rather sync to the cloud when we want to. houston anniversary hummer
se rethink this. simcity is
se rethink this. simcity is more than a game for many of us, its a hobby. In SC4 I could put my soul into my city through the endless customization. It was truly a blank canvas where I could make anything I wanted http://www.simcity.com/en_US/blog/article/Community-Interviews-Maxis-Part-1
There really is no point in
There really is no point in voicing our dislike for the forced always online DRM then right? No matter how much we say we don't want it - EA doesn't care. GIVE US THE OPTION!!! Cancelled my preorder - this is a game I will not be buying. buddah cufflinks
After watching all the videos
After watching all the videos, this honestly seems really badass. My main concern is with the multiplayer. I want to know how my city or region will fit in with the big picture. I don't want to be brick walled into just one city, but I'm torn whether I want to share a region with a couple friends who might want to play (like a Minecraft server), or just keep it all to myself. And if I keep it all to myself, will a friend who wants to join later be able to play a nearby region?
Another concern is who my other neighbors will be. I've seen many YouTube videos from SimCity4 of people with almost no clue about city planning whatsoever (especially transportation planning): inappropriately sized roads, inconsistent street layout, zoning tiny blocks, zoning massive blocks, skyscraper districts next to undeveloped plains, completely unaesthetic and inefficient layouts, etc. I'm really curious how regional placement will be determined. In any case, I've never been more excited for a game in my life, which is probably why I'm so worried about the details. Can't wait for the release. I hope I get selected for Beta!
I, for one, will say that I'm
I, for one, will say that I'm definitely not against the limitations imposed by pre-prescribed roads, rails, and terraformming. Usually when I play SC4, I incorporate some sort of challenge into my cities right away such as a large mountain or a steep valley. That way, I can play my game around existing geography. Also, I almost always build my roads and rail first, followed by industry, then residential. This seems to be the most organic method. But based on the comments, many people seem to wish that SC5 would just be a free for all where everybody can flatten their square with a neat little river, build a million oversized bridges over it, and develop a big turd of a city with no order or structure whatsoever. Personally, I'm glad Maxis decided to go with the "puzzle" setup. If you can't handle it, then perhaps you're not cut out for city building. May the best mayor win!
"Players do not have control
"Players do not have control of placing roads, rail and waterways; these are predetermined by the region."
This is the biggest mistake. I have been anticipating this release since day 1, almost pre-orded the deluxe version, and then I read the above quote and am speechless...
Maxis, this was the essence of SC4, the endless dreaming and planning I would put into a sprawling Metropolis, an interwoven web of dictinct areas with a central cloud scraper section...and this combined with multiplayer coorelation on boundrie connections..awww, this would truley be perfect.
I can understand the loss of Subways with the data maps being the sims themselves, anything underground would be problematic. Online only play, ok, if I must I can live with that. You can even cancel all customer support, I wouldnt care for the exchange to rethink this direction. All the longterm dedicated fans will indeed fall on thier face day 1 when this is openly presented...indeed the dream of realizing your city in the fashion you want is gone....
please...Maxis.
I have a memory foam mattress
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it was on steep discount at
it was on steep discount at Amazon and though it's a nice set, I just prefer separate cases for each movie. There's a natural wear and tear on these things that's worsened when you have to keep going..., Gallbladder Cancer Symptoms
Well this shows what the
Well this shows what the three would look like but I kind of feel like gameplay might help show a bit more? As well we're still waiting on the 3rd gameplay video. ppi claims
ist all shit! with no working
ist all shit! with no working Servers. i want my Money back
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