6 ms·

Sim City should be a recommended game for those taking Geography, especially in HS. When I first started playing, I was reacting to situations - fires, disaste

Sim City should be a recommended game for those taking Geography, especially in HS. When I first started playing, I was reacting to situations - fires, disasters, as they happened, which was already too late. Or I'd build all the fire stations in a nice row, or police stations all in a ordered block of land, then get frustrated when they all jammed each other trying to get out and answer calls. My tactics from Red Alert isn't going to work here. Can't wait for the latest SC!

wlesieutre 14y ago
Just so you're aware about the new SimCity, it requires a constant internet connection to play, and there's no way to save/load previous versions of a city. You can't mess around and experiment without doing irreversible damage, which was a big part of the fun.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  Does this mean you also can't exchange cities? What sort of foolish design decision is that?
  - taintlove 14y ago
    sadly, EA is ruining what looks like an otherwise very promising game with DRM and DLC
    - nicksergeant 14y ago
      I don't think they're ruining it. Some people don't care about DRM / DLC with gaming (like myself). I just want the best possible gaming experience.
      - devcpp 14y ago
        The last two sentences you wrote are incompatible.
      - dontstealmyname 14y ago
        Yeah, until they shutdown the server shortly after the next Sim City is released, making your old game unless. EA has a habit of doing things like that.
        nicksergeant 14y ago
        That's a good point, but by then I probably won't still be playing the game.
      - bmunro 14y ago
        I usually play Sim City by finding the unlimited money cheat and getting a large amount of money before I start. I can then build whatever I want. I enjoy the city design part of the game, not the economic part. I doubt that this way of playing will be possible in the new Sim City.
- dm2 14y ago
  Has either of these been 100% confirmed or are they just rumored?
  - ineedtosleep 14y ago
    Source: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sim-city-5/1224978p1.html http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sim-city-5/1224978p1.html [...] As anyone who's played one knows, one of the simplest pleasures of any SimCity game, dating back to the 1989 original, is the consequence-free "What if?" scenario. The kind where you obliterate your city by triggering an apocalyptic wave of fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and monster attacks, then time-warp it back to pristine condition by loading a saved game. When I asked Lead Producer Kip Katsaelis if the 2013 SimCity would allow that same pleasure in its Glass Box-powered cities, the answer was a simple, disappointing "No." The online connectivity Maxis has built in means that reloading saved games will be impossible, even when no one else has a city in your region.
    - dm2 14y ago
      Maybe it's not such a bad thing. Spreading around saved game files and using tools to mess with the games memory to cheat is something that has prevented a true Ranking system and online play in almost all games. These server-side requirements would mean that the $ is stored server side and it will be harder to cheat. It was pretty much either have always on connectivity or require punkbuster and disable many online cooperative features. Fine EA. I'll accept it.
      - wlesieutre 14y ago
        Personally speaking, I value being able to have more fun over having worldwide rankings. Does every game need to be competitive?
      - hdevalence 14y ago
        How does "ranking" work for a sandbox game? The concept wakes no sense. Simcity doesn't have kill/death ratios or something. You can't have a global leaderboard, because there's no winning. It's not clear that "cheating" is even a problem. If you want to play online with your friends with unlimited money, go ahead! Why the hell not?
- undergroundhero 14y ago
  I was worried about DRM, but the beta convinced me it was worth it. Server-side simulation processing makes the game run lightning fast.
  - crististm 14y ago
    So it's fine to save your game into /dev/null as long as the game is lighting fast? How does that justify DRM?
  - morsch 14y ago
    The simulation was a huge resource drain in SC4. So I can see how offloading it would be a speed up. That said, if it's such a drain on today's insanely powerful desktop computers, they must have an insane backing server infrastructure in place to support it. I've got 50W worth of processing power available for the sim engine (investing half of my CPUs; still far more power than I had for SC4), are they going to put up 50W of processing power while I'm playing? I can't imagine they've really got that. Either GlassBox is simplified, or made more efficient, or important parts of it are run locally. Either way, using it as a reason to have it online-only is a sham. It's just DRM, the same kind as Assassins Creed's online-only protection. I'll buy it anyway. I wouldn't even care about the DRM, it's everything else that I'm hearing that scares me.
    - undergroundhero 14y ago
      I don't know the details about which parts of the simulation are run locally and server-side, but the fact that your cities are "always on" (i.e. other players' cities can trade and visit your city even if you're not playing) tells me that a good portion of the resources/traffic simulation is run on Maxis servers. It may be not be a valid reason for you, but Sim City ran significantly faster than Civilization V on my machine. To me, they both perform a massive number of simultaneous simulations, and Sim City's performance is near instantaneous. That said, there's one huge factor none of the beta players can take into account when judging Sim City's performance: no one has been able to build massive, multiple-city metropolises, as play time was limited to hour-long sessions.
- ktrgardiner 14y ago
  If I recall correctly, this is only the case for the beta version of the game so that people can become familiar with the gameplay but won't be the case for the retail version.
  - specto 14y ago
    It is the case for the retail version as well, always on connection is EA's mantra.
    - ktrgardiner 14y ago
      I was referring more toward not being able to save/load but as I read this awhile ago, the case may have changed.
      - mauriciob 14y ago
        I don't think that's an option when you have neighboring cities that are played by other people. I believe your city will impact theirs and vice-versa.
        jlgreco 14y ago
        Wait, so what happens if I build lots of nuclear plants then let them all melt down? Does that affect neighboring cities that other people are actually playing?
        nicksergeant 14y ago
        I believe it is designed to affect neighboring cities, yes. And this is basically what happens in real life... and then war.
        jlgreco 14y ago
        Any idea how they are going to handle griefers then? I can't imagine they are just going to ban people who habitually don't take care of nuclear plants placed on the map's edge.
- tobylane 14y ago
  Ah EA, creating a 'market' of open source clones, like CorsixTH and surely one of Sim City. This time we're being pushed to the clone before the original is dead.
  - pnathan 14y ago
    Is there a city simulation open source game of reasonable complexity?
    - digikata 14y ago
      There are multiple open source options. The Lincity wikipedia link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincity, cross references many of them.
MetalMASK 14y ago
FWIW, Geography major student do have access to professional traffic simulation software (e.g., TrafficSim, SUMO, .etc) if they are interested in research topics related to traffic. I am not sure what algorithm Sim City uses, but I am assuming they are not as complicated as these professional software. Perhaps that's the point of your suggestion, to lower the entry level to these field, or for a broader audience.
- cmelbye 14y ago
  Well he specifically said he was particularly referring to High School students, not college undergraduates majoring in Geography with access to sophisticated, professional traffic simulation software.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
nekojima 14y ago
A better (and perhaps cheaper) solution would be to use either Cities in Motion which has a good transportation model, or Cities XL (I'd suggest the 2011 version for price and performance over 2012) which has a good balanced play as the cities grow in size. These seem from initial new SC exposure, to be better models for teaching and from a learning perspective. As well the saved games feature (hardly a feature, more a necessity for most of us) is far more valuable for teaching lessons, which the new SC lacks.
- skinnynerd 14y ago
  There is also Mobility (http://www.mobility-online.de/en/informations/generalinformation.html http://www.mobility-online.de/en/informations/generalinforma...). It was designed by a university and auto manufacturer so they put a bit more thought into their traffic algorithms. I feel it is a bit eurocentric because there are a lot of things they do in Europe which we do not do here as far as traffic management goes, but it is an interesting simulation/game to fool around with. Since the German federal government also played some role in its development, you will see more of a bureaucratic approach to the game.

wlesieutre 14y ago

Just so you're aware about the new SimCity, it requires a constant internet connection to play, and there's no way to save/load previous versions of a city. You can't mess around and experiment without doing irreversible damage, which was a big part of the fun.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
Does this mean you also can't exchange cities? What sort of foolish design decision is that?
- taintlove 14y ago
  sadly, EA is ruining what looks like an otherwise very promising game with DRM and DLC
  - nicksergeant 14y ago
    I don't think they're ruining it. Some people don't care about DRM / DLC with gaming (like myself). I just want the best possible gaming experience.
    - devcpp 14y ago
      The last two sentences you wrote are incompatible.
    - dontstealmyname 14y ago
      Yeah, until they shutdown the server shortly after the next Sim City is released, making your old game unless. EA has a habit of doing things like that.
      - nicksergeant 14y ago
        That's a good point, but by then I probably won't still be playing the game.
    - bmunro 14y ago
      I usually play Sim City by finding the unlimited money cheat and getting a large amount of money before I start. I can then build whatever I want. I enjoy the city design part of the game, not the economic part. I doubt that this way of playing will be possible in the new Sim City.
dm2 14y ago
Has either of these been 100% confirmed or are they just rumored?
- ineedtosleep 14y ago
  Source: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sim-city-5/1224978p1.html http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/sim-city-5/1224978p1.html [...] As anyone who's played one knows, one of the simplest pleasures of any SimCity game, dating back to the 1989 original, is the consequence-free "What if?" scenario. The kind where you obliterate your city by triggering an apocalyptic wave of fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and monster attacks, then time-warp it back to pristine condition by loading a saved game. When I asked Lead Producer Kip Katsaelis if the 2013 SimCity would allow that same pleasure in its Glass Box-powered cities, the answer was a simple, disappointing "No." The online connectivity Maxis has built in means that reloading saved games will be impossible, even when no one else has a city in your region.
  - dm2 14y ago
    Maybe it's not such a bad thing. Spreading around saved game files and using tools to mess with the games memory to cheat is something that has prevented a true Ranking system and online play in almost all games. These server-side requirements would mean that the $ is stored server side and it will be harder to cheat. It was pretty much either have always on connectivity or require punkbuster and disable many online cooperative features. Fine EA. I'll accept it.
    - wlesieutre 14y ago
      Personally speaking, I value being able to have more fun over having worldwide rankings. Does every game need to be competitive?
    - hdevalence 14y ago
      How does "ranking" work for a sandbox game? The concept wakes no sense. Simcity doesn't have kill/death ratios or something. You can't have a global leaderboard, because there's no winning. It's not clear that "cheating" is even a problem. If you want to play online with your friends with unlimited money, go ahead! Why the hell not?
undergroundhero 14y ago
I was worried about DRM, but the beta convinced me it was worth it. Server-side simulation processing makes the game run lightning fast.
- crististm 14y ago
  So it's fine to save your game into /dev/null as long as the game is lighting fast? How does that justify DRM?
- morsch 14y ago
  The simulation was a huge resource drain in SC4. So I can see how offloading it would be a speed up. That said, if it's such a drain on today's insanely powerful desktop computers, they must have an insane backing server infrastructure in place to support it. I've got 50W worth of processing power available for the sim engine (investing half of my CPUs; still far more power than I had for SC4), are they going to put up 50W of processing power while I'm playing? I can't imagine they've really got that. Either GlassBox is simplified, or made more efficient, or important parts of it are run locally. Either way, using it as a reason to have it online-only is a sham. It's just DRM, the same kind as Assassins Creed's online-only protection. I'll buy it anyway. I wouldn't even care about the DRM, it's everything else that I'm hearing that scares me.
  - undergroundhero 14y ago
    I don't know the details about which parts of the simulation are run locally and server-side, but the fact that your cities are "always on" (i.e. other players' cities can trade and visit your city even if you're not playing) tells me that a good portion of the resources/traffic simulation is run on Maxis servers. It may be not be a valid reason for you, but Sim City ran significantly faster than Civilization V on my machine. To me, they both perform a massive number of simultaneous simulations, and Sim City's performance is near instantaneous. That said, there's one huge factor none of the beta players can take into account when judging Sim City's performance: no one has been able to build massive, multiple-city metropolises, as play time was limited to hour-long sessions.
ktrgardiner 14y ago
If I recall correctly, this is only the case for the beta version of the game so that people can become familiar with the gameplay but won't be the case for the retail version.
- specto 14y ago
  It is the case for the retail version as well, always on connection is EA's mantra.
  - ktrgardiner 14y ago
    I was referring more toward not being able to save/load but as I read this awhile ago, the case may have changed.
    - mauriciob 14y ago
      I don't think that's an option when you have neighboring cities that are played by other people. I believe your city will impact theirs and vice-versa.
      - jlgreco 14y ago
        Wait, so what happens if I build lots of nuclear plants then let them all melt down? Does that affect neighboring cities that other people are actually playing?
        nicksergeant 14y ago
        I believe it is designed to affect neighboring cities, yes. And this is basically what happens in real life... and then war.
        jlgreco 14y ago
        Any idea how they are going to handle griefers then? I can't imagine they are just going to ban people who habitually don't take care of nuclear plants placed on the map's edge.
tobylane 14y ago
Ah EA, creating a 'market' of open source clones, like CorsixTH and surely one of Sim City. This time we're being pushed to the clone before the original is dead.
- pnathan 14y ago
  Is there a city simulation open source game of reasonable complexity?
  - digikata 14y ago
    There are multiple open source options. The Lincity wikipedia link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincity, cross references many of them.

MetalMASK 14y ago

FWIW, Geography major student do have access to professional traffic simulation software (e.g., TrafficSim, SUMO, .etc) if they are interested in research topics related to traffic. I am not sure what algorithm Sim City uses, but I am assuming they are not as complicated as these professional software. Perhaps that's the point of your suggestion, to lower the entry level to these field, or for a broader audience.

cmelbye 14y ago
Well he specifically said he was particularly referring to High School students, not college undergraduates majoring in Geography with access to sophisticated, professional traffic simulation software.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

nekojima 14y ago

A better (and perhaps cheaper) solution would be to use either Cities in Motion which has a good transportation model, or Cities XL (I'd suggest the 2011 version for price and performance over 2012) which has a good balanced play as the cities grow in size. These seem from initial new SC exposure, to be better models for teaching and from a learning perspective. As well the saved games feature (hardly a feature, more a necessity for most of us) is far more valuable for teaching lessons, which the new SC lacks.

skinnynerd 14y ago
There is also Mobility (http://www.mobility-online.de/en/informations/generalinformation.html http://www.mobility-online.de/en/informations/generalinforma...). It was designed by a university and auto manufacturer so they put a bit more thought into their traffic algorithms. I feel it is a bit eurocentric because there are a lot of things they do in Europe which we do not do here as far as traffic management goes, but it is an interesting simulation/game to fool around with. Since the German federal government also played some role in its development, you will see more of a bureaucratic approach to the game.