The new SimCity...*sigh*

[PsychoPere]

Now that a few days have passed, have the server troubles settled down?

Last night I couldn't get a server connection, but I just finished spending a couple of hours in game with no problems. I'm enjoying it so far.

I definitely don't have a clue as to what I'm doing, though. Almost bankrupted my city within the first fifteen minutes.

 

[ATimson]

Always on DRM means my money stays in my wallet, i really cant see why i should pay them £40 for the possibility of playing my game, if my internet is up, and if their side of things are working.

Far too much hassle for a game to be honest, and all the while the supposed reason for this always on DRM, affects only the honest people, while the pirates happily play away at a hacked versions enjoying it without all the hassle.

If this were truly always-on DRM, that would be true. But it's not - this is a multiplayer-only game, like World of WarCraft, which is a whole different ball of wax. The pirates can't just hack away a DRM check; they'd need to (re)develop the server software that EA is running in order to play.

 

[What's his face]

Bought the game. Initial server issues the first day, but things have calmed down.
Loving all the new features, but my only issue is that city size is too small. Hopefully larger cities are allowed in the future.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Always on DRM means my money stays in my wallet, i really cant see why i should pay them £40 for the possibility of playing my game, if my internet is up, and if their side of things are working.

Far too much hassle for a game to be honest, and all the while the supposed reason for this always on DRM, affects only the honest people, while the pirates happily play away at a hacked versions enjoying it without all the hassle.

If this were truly always-on DRM, that would be true. But it's not - this is a multiplayer-only game, like World of WarCraft, which is a whole different ball of wax. The pirates can't just hack away a DRM check; they'd need to (re)develop the server software that EA is running in order to play.

Oh the pirates are smart buggers, i doubt it will be long before this game is playing offline with some lan hack to connect directly to your friends pc and join their game.

Still my ISP is simply to unreliable to gamble £40 on a game that requires me to be constantly connected to play, i have a LTS for Star Trek online and even after 3 years its up and down all over the place, always seems to be down when i have spare time to fire it up, plus add to that the amount of times my ISP goes wonky and its been easy to steer clear of games with this type of DRM.

Possibly in the future when optic fibre is the norm and we all download 100 gig games in 3 mins this type of DRM will work because nobody gets issues, but by the time the UK internet gets to that stage i will have no doubt been disconnected from my life ISP for good.

 

[FPAlpha]

Yeah well.. that's rather an issue with your ISP if he's giving such unreliable service.

Mine here in Germany is topnotch when it comes to reliability.. i can count on one hand the times when the internet was down in something like 10 years i've been with them (starting with 56k modems to DSL and then Broadband).

However a realiable ISP is unimportant when the company itself has technical problems (as it's always the case with game releases.. it seems companies never learn or they simply don't care and weather the storm until it passes). You could have the internet connection from God and it wouldn't do much good if the other side can't listen and respond.

This together with game design options means i'll most likely not buy it.. maybe in a few months if they decided to increase city sizes significantly and the servers run stable but definitely not now.

 

[PsychoPere]

So, has anyone tried to play together yet? I wouldn't mind joining a region.

I'd be interested in a TrekBBS region.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

So, has anyone tried to play together yet? I wouldn't mind joining a region.

I'd be interested in a TrekBBS region.

The problem is that only seven of us could be in a region at a time. and we would need to figure out each other city specialty.

That said, if someone makes one I'd join.

 

[PsychoPere]

Only seven players can be logged into a region at a given time, even if that region includes more than seven cities?

 

[JarodRussell]

So you build your city on a server, and it has 6 neighboring cities created by other players. What if those players never return? Do the neighbor cities simply get replaced by new ones?

 

[ThunderAeroI]

So you build your city on a server, and it has 6 neighboring cities created by other players. What if those players never return? Do the neighbor cities simply get replaced by new ones?

Pretty much, you can choose to abandon a city...honestly though I doubt that if you really left the game to never come back you would abandon the city.

Also, I find the speed control thing odd. Say you and a friend are playing at the same time. He plays at speed 1 and you play at speed 3 and the region shares resources and what speed do the cities share resources at?

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I still don't understand the appeal of this new SimCity (not saying that it has no appeal, I just don't get it). For me, what was interesting about the old SimCity games (and other similar games) was that you were calling the shots, and slowly building your city according to your wishes and preferences. It was a bit like cooking. Now it seems to me that what EA wants to put six other cooks in my kitchen who get to add spices and ingredients in my pots while I'm cooking, and I don't see how it could be entertaining in any way.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

I still don't understand the appeal of this new SimCity (not saying that it has no appeal, I just don't get it). For me, what was interesting about the old SimCity games (and other similar games) was that you were calling the shots, and slowly building your city according to your wishes and preferences. It was a bit like cooking. Now it seems to me that what EA wants to put six other cooks in my kitchen who get to add spices and ingredients in my pots while I'm cooking, and I don't see how it could be entertaining in any way.

Its not

 

[ALF]

I think we all know the real reasons why they are pushing this always on DRM, because it stops second hand sales, and gives them full control of the game you bought, so in a way your only renting the game, they never loss control of the game.

We have a thread winner!

 

[Emher]

Now that a few days have passed, have the server troubles settled down?

And has cheetah speed been reactivated yet?

I've watched some players streaming on Twitch, and the game itself - once they actually get in - looks like a lot of fun, despite the smaller map sizes. I'm tempted to pick it up, but don't want to deal with server problems or the lack of cheetah speed so will hold off deciding until they're both fixed. Anyone know what the current state is?

Worked great over the weekend for my and my brother. We've built some cities in a region and started interacting them with each other.

It really is a great game. Different then the older ones, but in a good way gameplay-wise and challenging. So much you have to keep an eye on. I really do enjoy the co-op possibilities, it allowed me to bail out my brother out of some issues with his city while he provided education for the region.

 

[Holdfast]

Cool, thanks for the feedback to everyone who replied to my question.

Sounds like server problems are more or less sorted out now, so I just need to wait for them to fix cheetah speed and then I'll probably pick up a copy. Thanks!

 

[Greylock Crescent]

As a lifelong SimCity fan (well, for the life of the franchise, anyway), I was thrilled about the possibilities of SC5. I'd take smaller cities for the challenge of managing a region. It's different, but that'd be a new challenge, one that I could embrace. But the always-online, server-only-save, component just rubs me the wrong way.

I'm glad I have a Mac and didn't rush to purchase this right away. By the time the OSX version is available, perhaps I'll have a clearer picture on the long-term viability of the game. At least I still have my locally-saved, full-sandbox Minecraft game.

 

[TheGodBen]

I still don't understand the appeal of this new SimCity (not saying that it has no appeal, I just don't get it). For me, what was interesting about the old SimCity games (and other similar games) was that you were calling the shots, and slowly building your city according to your wishes and preferences. It was a bit like cooking. Now it seems to me that what EA wants to put six other cooks in my kitchen who get to add spices and ingredients in my pots while I'm cooking, and I don't see how it could be entertaining in any way.

I suppose it's a bit like the appeal of Minecraft multiplayer, it's fun to build with other people sometimes and explore their creations, as well as cooperating on large projects. It's not what I wanted out of the next SimCity game, but I can see why others would enjoy it. If they ever offer an offline mode in the future and I see it on sale, I might pick it up.

For now, I'll probably get Tropico 4 instead as it has cleverly been reduced to 75% off. It may not be a perfect replacement for SimCity, but it does allow me to ban contraception on a whim, or assassinate citizens for holding the wrong political views.

 

[ThunderAeroI]

I also think the fact you cant change for public services to your neighbors quite stupid. So what if i want a city in my region to be a massive landfill, or on that does police. I can sell sewer but not garbage...thats garbage.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

EA offer free PC game to Sim city owner over "Dumb" sim city launch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21741528

Electronics Arts has apologised for the shambolic launch of the latest version of town-planning title SimCity.
Gamers have reported long queues to play, bugs and other glitches since SimCity launched on 5 March.
The company said the way it had set up the launch had been "dumb" and that it "really feels bad" about the way gamers had suffered.
As compensation, all those who bought SimCity will be offered a free Electronics Arts PC game this month.

Oh well, at least your getting a free game out of all the hassle.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

EA offer free PC game to Sim city owner over "Dumb" sim city launch.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21741528

Electronics Arts has apologised for the shambolic launch of the latest version of town-planning title SimCity.
Gamers have reported long queues to play, bugs and other glitches since SimCity launched on 5 March.
The company said the way it had set up the launch had been "dumb" and that it "really feels bad" about the way gamers had suffered.
As compensation, all those who bought SimCity will be offered a free Electronics Arts PC game this month.

Oh well, at least your getting a free game out of all the hassle.

While it's nice they are offering people a free game, could their description of the issues be any more patronizing?