SimCity

[M.Steiner]

Since we're now allowed to post screenshots & video from the beta I thought I'd post this up now and share some of my pics, rather than wait until release like I was gonna do

Anyone else got any to share? Here are a few I took (with more in my sig):










Yeah baby, we're back with the sweet, sweet PC pics. Oh I wish I could have taken some proper ones in Ni No Kuni too....

Lots of you still looking forward to this I hope? has anyone else decided to pre-order it since, or will be getting it at launch? ^^
There's a second beta scheduled for next week if you didn't manage to get into the last one and would like to try it for an hour btw. More details here but I'm sure everyone here who spent some time with it the other week will recommend giving it a try. I spent a stupid amount of time in there for what is essentially a demo. So good

4 weeks to go anyhow. March 8th can't come soon enough!

[esd]

Single player game requiring constant online connection=no sale here.

[M.Steiner]

I take it you won't be joining us in our SSX region then, esd?

Had there not been a big focus on multiplayer and cooperative gameplay in this new SimCity I would have been exactly the same as you. I was a latecomer to the AC franchise due to Ubisoft and their always-on DRM and it wasn't until they relaxed their systems that I started buying those games. I didn't even turn to piracy for them either like I'm sure some people did, just out of principle. For the AC games there was no excuse for it and I wasn't going to pirate and then become part of the problem they were trying to go up against or back down and buy it and be supporting such things with my wallet. So I waited and just didn't play them at all. Thankfully they relaxed their DRM to an acceptable level. Thank god too cos I can't get enough of that series now.
Whilst this is ofc a form of DRM in itself and will be help to stop people from illegally downloading their game, the co-op aspect of SimCity is not just some side extra they've tacked on, it's a big focus of the game this time which the majority of the game is built around. I've been a fan of the SC series for at least 15 years now but in the case of this new entry in the franchise I've only ever seen it as an online game tbh, which requires you to be online just as any other online game out there does. Have never really had an issue with this side of it myself due to that and I know several others here are looking forward to the thought of an SSX region where all of our cities are connected and we can all work together. BD even commented that it'd probably be the co-op side of it he buys it for if he does.

I'll be honest though. If the multiplayer side of this wasn't a big thing like it is and it was really just a single player game like the other games were and yet still required a constant online connection, I would still probably buy it whilst knowing full well I was to become part of the problem. Showing them it's ok. The SimCity series was something I grew up with and we haven't had a proper new game in a decade now, I would imagine it would be nigh on impossible for me to resist the urge not to play a new one regardless of how much I would have disagreed with that. I'd eat that up day 1. Would be like not buying the new Bowie record heh.

So yeah. Shame you won't be joining us but I can understand where you're coming from, even if I don't feel the same in the case of this game

[Anubis]

Single player game requiring constant online connection=no sale here.

Not Sim City specific, but I'd just like to express my support for this sentiment

[M.Steiner]

Just to be clear incase it wasn't in my other post, and not to turn this thread into an anti SimCity/DRM discussion but I do agree with and fully support that sentiment for single player games too btw. As said with Ubi and Assassin's Creed.
Just not with SimCity because that is not the focus they're going for this time. The other SimCity games were always 100% single player but this one has been built to be online and with the focus on multiplayer. The game needs to be online for all of those systems to continue to work properly.

They could have added an offline mode for those who want to play completely by themselves and offline ofc, no denying that and perhaps they will patch something like that in one day?. I dunno. I can see why they won't be launching with this though. The multiplayer is a big focus as I say and something they will have spent a lot of time designing. They'll be wanting to promote that as much as possible and have people play the game with that idea in mind since the game is basically built around being both that and mulit-city, whilst helping to protect against piracy too obviously. I image it will be hard to break a game where your cities are all connected and constantly sending info back and forth, whilst also having cloud saving heh.

back to my original question though!:
Who else is getting this? and is anyone else going to give it a try for an hour next week?
From memory; myself, Ava, SL33PY, QD & Mech have all pre-ordered, with the possibly of BD getting it too. Anyone else?

They announced 16 city regions a month or two ago so we should have plenty of room. The more the merrier ^^

[SL33PY]

mine is so pre-ordered I can smell it comming woot

[M.Steiner]

Beta #2 starts from 2pm GMT today (45minutes from posting this) until 2pm tomorrow btw. I think it is the same build as last time so not sure whether we'll see any of the changes they made from the last one, like the zoning placement tool, though I could be wrong.

If you want to give it a try for an hour (or more if you decide to keep re-creating), pre-order from Amazon.com here and they will send you a beta key pretty much immediately. If you don't like it once you've tried it you can always cancel the order later, or cancel and re-order it from Amazon.co.uk instead if you're a Brit. Whatever. Takes less than 2 minutes to order, redeem, keep or cancel the order and you'll still get a free key for today

I pre-ordered from Zavvi back in March but since they haven't sent me a key for it I just acquired myself one from Amazon.com instead.
If any of you give it a go come and share your thoughts, maybe you'll join us at launch?

[SL33PY]

maybe we should start an origin thread... someone named mikeybeye is requesting to be added, i have no clue who that is

[Kon]

I joined in on today's one-day beta and played 3 games. Really had a great time despite my feelings about other city management games. You could say I tried to "power level" my way through the final run, to see how much of the game I could see. Ended up with 18,000 folks and more money than I knew what to do with. Unfortunately the bigger buildings are locked, but my interest is certainly piqued.

At this point I'm strongly considering keeping my preorder in place. Especially because Amazon.com gives you $20 credit on the shipping date, effectively dropping the launch day price to $40. I suspect it won't reach that level again until Christmas.

I'm most interested in the multiplayer and city specializations. With 16 cities, it'd be cool to see what can be achieved as a group.

And I must say, I'm quite impressed with MS' screenshots. None of my attempts ever came close to that Shangri-la!

[M.Steiner]

Good to see you enjoyed it too ^^
Both beta sessions seem to have had that affect on a lot of people going from posts & tweets elsewhere. Reason why I was hoping Anny would give it an hour of his time to try it too and maybe he'd have surprised himself and considered joining us at launch too but alas, I failed once again heh . Shame. With release being less than 3 weeks away now I highly doubt there will be another opportunity to try the game for free, not when they've already given people that chance twice now and it's not like the keys were gold dust and extremely hard to come by. Was only an hour too, didn't have to spend all day on it like some of us lol

The tutorial and 1hr free-play is just the right amount to give you a good taster of what to expect from the full product really, whilst leaving you happily wanting more. The tutorial itself is very well done on its own too. Informative, fun and easily accessible to new players who have never played a SC game before. Have seen a few people say they've never played the series before but the demo convinced them to pre-order a copy of it for release (or to keep their pre-order if they were unsure before). This'll be my brothers first real SimCity game too. He's watched me play it in the past and had an odd try of it himself but never really played them. First hour of playing beta#1 he had me pre-ordering for him hehe. Game is really great. Gonna be a lot of fun when we can properly sink our teeth into everything it has to offer

Not sure what type of city specialization I'll go with to start with yet, will have to think on that one.
The high-tech industry with electronics sounds quite appealing to me but I doubt that'll be an easy task. With the multi-city/player regions it'd be very interesting though. Someone else could perhaps specialize in education and aim towards building up a huge university campus which could then meet the needs of other cities in the region for example. The manufacturing of electronics will require workers with a much higher level of education. Lots of options for stuff like this when you think about the region play and the focus on multi-city/player. Can't wait!

[M.Steiner]

yay. Some of the screenshots I submitted (same as I posted above) have made it onto the SimCity facebook page <3
I don't use fb myself but for those of you that do you can find them here, incase you feel like liking them or something. Lots of other cool pics on there too ofc. They're going to showcase a selection of the best over on the official SC site at some point as well

I expect I'll be taking lots more pics when the game releases in 2 weeks anyway, will be sure to post some of them here if I do!
Just one of those games where I can't help myself heh. Can just sit back and appreciate everything that's happening on my screen. Lots of photo possibilities really, especially when using the filters at appropriate times and scenes.

Did anyone else manage to take any btw? Or just me?
Come share some with us at launch if not. If they're from our SSX region or w/e we can stick them in our gallery

[SL33PY]

I posted five pics on imgur and tweeted them. Dunno if they made it on the page... I was too busy playing the game, screenshots are overrated mmmkay

[Anubis]

Nice, grats on the pics being selected

You need to specifically say which ones though - I can't tell! Lol.

[M.Steiner]

Thankies!. I do like sharing screenshots as I'm sure you've all gathered from previous game threads hehe.
and pics 3,12,13,14,15,19 are mine Anny

[Anubis]

Thankies!. I do like sharing screenshots as I'm sure you've all gathered from previous game threads hehe.
and pics 3,12,13,14,15,19 are mine Anny

Ahh, nice! Some nice comments and "Like counts" on some of those too

Grats man!

[M.Steiner]

Maxis held a live broadcast yesterday in honour of the 10th anniversay of SC4. If any of you are interested in watching it you can find it over here. Really interesting watch

[M.Steiner]

Just 5 days away from the US launch and 8 for those of us in Europe.

There will be three 16 city regions available to play on:
Discovery Delta
Titan Gorge
Viridian Woods

Assuming a few of us get together and start a region together, and assuming all goes well, there's nothing to stop us from making use of all 3 of those regions at some point ofc. That being said, do any of you have a preference for which region you'd like to start with?. Viridian Woods looks quite appealing to me looking at that page, and I may bagsy the Yorkshire Cliffs as my starter city if so hehe.

Any suggestions for a region name too? I know what I'm gonna call my first city but haven't given the region one much thought yet.

Regions can be set to public or private. If set to public any random person can come in and setup home in the region as long as there's a free space. When set to private only the friends you invite can access it.
Oh and there's a sandbox mode too which basically unlocks everything (including some cheats) but will completely disable the competitive features like the achievements, challenges and leaderboards. My choice would be a private SSX region without sandbox mode.

I think the leaderboards and stuff like that are unique to the server your region is on (NA / EU or whatever) but I haven't read anything about US not being able to play on EU or vice versa. I don't suppose it makes a big difference in a game like this, not like an MMO

Looking forward to it anyway. Roll on next week!

[SL33PY]

Region names...

• The SSX Backyard
• Regionella
• Steiner's Domain
• Freespace
• ...

I'm so going to be there, would love to see a private ssx region where we can join forces. I also know how I'm going to name my town.... I'm so exited to get started

[Kon]

I'd agree with the private region with sandbox off. Though it might be nice to bring in some new people, I'm not sure how viable recruiting is for this game, and it seems more likely that a public region would just have random people joining it and not coming onto the forums or IRC.

I notice that in the larger regions, there are the yellow boundaries of "city clusters." Is there any info on whether these have some practical impact on the region?

[M.Steiner]

I notice that in the larger regions, there are the yellow boundaries of "city clusters." Is there any info on whether these have some practical impact on the region?

This has just made me think of something actually..
I'm pretty sure that those yellow boundaries are actually the highway roads and the white ones would be the rail network. Looking at that map, it looks like there are four 4 city clusters on the 16 city regions but the highway doesn't seem to connect throughout the entire region which I assumed it would. Does this mean that all 16 cities wouldn't be connected to each other from the get go? or only 4?. Though perhaps this is where the ferry terminals and airports come into play to extend this? Not sure on this one but I guess we'll find out next week heh.

[edit]
Found this map for Viridian Woods:


and one here for Titan Gorge:


Stats here and here

[Whizbang]

I do like the looks of Titan Gorge. I like the layout and how you have a valley as well as some cliffside. But I'm more than happy starting wherever as long as it means we can interact with each other's city in-game.

[M.Steiner]

That one looks good too, yep. Though like you I'm not too fussy where we start off. Just really excited to get in there and start building stuff

The SSX Backyard

I like this suggestion.

Have been giving some thought as to what specializations I'd like to try out first and I'm torn between 2 atm.
The first one being Culture and focusing on bringing tourists in via the Expo Center and/or Pro Stadium. With these you can manually schedule massive events for Rock concerts and such which sounds really cool, and ofc other cities in the region can attend these too. My transport system and road network will need to be pretty robust for this and it'll be best going as green as possible I think.
The second being the manufacturing of electronics. I'd need to build a University for this so my dirty industry gets educated workers and starts to upgrade itself to high-tech. Recycling would be a must for me too and would probably be able to supply the region too as this recovers some of the materials needed to produce the processors. This city could also go Nuclear power for the region too if it has a Uni, I heard on one of the streams that a full nuclear meltdown is actually a risk you run by having unskilled workers overseeing it

Leaning towards culture and the concerts but I'm in a bit of a music mood atm so that could change by next week, and I expect the electronics will be one of the more challenging specializations so perhaps not one to start with. Will see. I expect my city will be all over the place to start with whilst we get used to everything heh

[M.Steiner]

Just been reading on reddit. According to a user on there and a screenshot they provided, physical copies of SimCity only appear to contain the 2GB client and not the entire game. Looks like even those of us buying and installing from a disc will still have to download the other 10gig or however much there is. Who's stupid decision was that?
I still saved myself a tenner from pre-ordering a boxed edition early so I'm still happy about that. Had I pre-ordered later or gone digital I'd have paid more than I am doing, but what's the point in a physical copy if it still requires a massive download? Seems both silly and wasteful to me.

Still excited to get in and play ofc, just a bit bummed out reading that is all. Wanted to just shove the disc in, install and start playing as soon as I could but it looks like both my brother and I are going to have to download 20gig between us instead. Unless there's a way to only download it once and then put it on the others PC? Copying the entire directory could work I guess but I dunno about SimCity since it'll download the rest of the game via the client.. If any of you US players figure out how to do that or read how to with SimCity please let me know before friday when it releases here in the UK. Would be much appreciated!

[Whizbang]

Quick question: who's going to save my citizens when I employ uneducated workers in my nuclear power plant?

[M.Steiner]

Those of us with physical copies may not have to worry too much about huge client downloads btw, saw this from a later post:

I used a VPN to activate my game and checked when it was installed. Mine is sitting at about 3.5 GB. I have been playing for hours and nothing seems to be missing or screwed up.

So if there is a download required for those of us installing from a disc it should only be a smallish one it seems, not the crazy 10GB that was floating around yesterday. Another user reporting that their folder is under 4 gig too so looks like we may have been worrying about nothing