I've been playing the game for the last few days with a handful of friends. What I've found is that without the region dynamics, my cities have comparatively st

I've been playing the game for the last few days with a handful of friends. What I've found is that without the region dynamics, my cities have comparatively stunted growth and seem to be deficient in a few areas. Even with regions that I try and manage myself, the time freezing mechanic in unmanned cities makes progress much slower. When my friends are building cities around me, we move really fast and the supply chain and people sharing mechanics can create some truly startling results. It's a very different experience from SC4, and I'll say its only a bad thing if you play alone.