SimCity (PC)

[morsdraconis]

I found what looks like a good region for us. Reflection Atoll (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Reflection_Atoll) would be great for us, with 7 cities in the region.

Yeah. That's definitely the best place in my opinion for us to establish the TGT Region.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah. That's definitely the best place in my opinion for us to establish the TGT Region.

Yeah, I've got a private region going there right now, spent the last hour+ building up Petrol Bay and pumping oil like crazy. The oil deposit in Petrol Bay is gigantic. Haven't touched the other cities yet, but it would definitely be great for us. Most cities have access to water, so we would all be able to take care of our own water needs. And it's set up well for the education, gambling, tourism and trading specializations. Drilling and mining will be limited to specific cities just because all the ore, oil and coal are pretty much limited to one city each.

[SmoothPancakes]

Well damn, I think I might have to sit out for a week or two. I think the fans on my laptop are fucked. Just sitting here with only Chrome running (and only 6 tabs open), I'm sitting in the mid 50s to 60s Celsius for both cores on my processor (it was low 40s earlier this afternoon. After playing for only about 15 minutes, the core temps had risen up to 100 degrees Celsius and I started getting an overheat warning from the core temp program I have running, so I had to shut down the game to keep my entire laptop from shutting down.

Until I can get the fans checked out, and if need be, replaced, I'd only be able to play for small chunks of time right now.

[CLW]

well allegedly someone is coming today to replace my d: so hopefully i will be up and running by tonight with sim city

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, I think I might run up to the computer shop here in town today, see if I can get it verified that one of my two fans (I believe it's the CPU fan) has died, and what it would cost to get replaced and how long it'd take. Unfortunately, I probably wouldn't be able to actually get the work done on it until next week, as I need my laptop through at least Saturday for work.

[jaymo76]

I got home last night and put in four hours. I had a blast! The servers worked perfectly. I have two cities going (118,000+ and 41,000+ respectively). However, three areas of constant concern: 1. running out of water 2. traffic 3. crime. I am sharing ALL services between my cities but it's still a challenge. The water is becoming ridiculous. Frankly I think water resources need to be tuned better.

After dinner I hop on and play for another hour. However, at 10:50pm the servers go down. I keep playing for 30 mins and the servers still aren't restored... then black screen and ejected back to the start menu.:( Looks like I lost an entire half hour. Hopefully this will not be a common occurance.

As for space, I have to admit that the maps are too small. In my city of 118,00 there is zero space left. Everything is covered. I built a high school, and a college last night. I wanted to build a university but I can't put it anywhere. I am going to start my third town tonight in the region and build that as a university town.

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright, the laptop got dropped off at a computer shop here in town earlier this morning. The guy said they got slammed with people dropping of computers at the start the week, so I might hear back from them later this afternoon, otherwise tomorrow, on what the problem actually is (still assuming and thinking it's the CPU fan that died) and what it'll cost to fix it. Depending on how fast they get the part there, maybe I'll get lucky and if it back by Saturday, otherwise probably not until early next week. :(

Thankfully I can still hop on here courtesy of Internet Explorer on my 360. Only problem is I can't even do my Tulsa dynasty while not playing SimCity due to not having my dynasty files nor Word to use to type in. So, I guess Halo 4 and my other games will actually get some play time for a change.

[morsdraconis]

I got home last night and put in four hours. I had a blast! The servers worked perfectly. I have two cities going (118,000+ and 41,000+ respectively). However, three areas of constant concern: 1. running out of water 2. traffic 3. crime. I am sharing ALL services between my cities but it's still a challenge. The water is becoming ridiculous. Frankly I think water resources need to be tuned better.

You have to look at the water table bar when you choose the city. If it's all the way full, it's basically unlimited water. If it's even partly empty, there's a finite amount water to be had. I had the same issue with the first city I built in a region because I didn't notice that I chose a place that had a low water table.

Crime isn't actually an issue unless you have people abandoning buildings because of it. The reporting system they use is a little too sensitive to it and basically immediately after having even one issue with crime, it says there's a crime issue.

Traffic is the same thing. You pretty much HAVE to use buses or some other type of public transportation to prevent traffic congestion. Also, you MUST upgrade to high density roads once you get 75k+ people. The other roads just can't handle such a large amount of traffic.


After dinner I hop on and play for another hour. However, at 10:50pm the servers go down. I keep playing for 30 mins and the servers still aren't restored... then black screen and ejected back to the start menu.:( Looks like I lost an entire half hour. Hopefully this will not be a common occurance.

Apparently they took the servers down today to add more once again. It'll even out. Just like with MMOs, give them a week or two to get shit straight and it'll be fine.


As for space, I have to admit that the maps are too small. In my city of 118,00 there is zero space left. Everything is covered. I built a high school, and a college last night. I wanted to build a university but I can't put it anywhere. I am going to start my third town tonight in the region and build that as a university town.

High density is where it's at man. You'll fill up the area pretty easily when you get around 50-75k people in the city. From there, it's just getting the buildings to upgrade to the next density and your populations will skyrocket.

As for making room for other buildings, I have no qualms about removing roads and other buildings to fit in what I'm wanting to put down.

One issue I was running into for some reason though, was I had a University, Community College, High School, and Grade School, but I didn't have enough intelligent workers for the high tech industry I had in my city (I was pushing 200k people around this time). I don't know if I fucked up by putting the Community College there or what, but it was definitely fuckin' me up. I gave up on the city though after the water table ran out though (again, because I chose one of the lowest water table city spots in the game apparently and it was the only city I had going at the time so no extra water to share).

[CLW]

lol i'm almost glad i my D: was out b/c i'd probably be livid if i kept getting booted off the game or couldn't play the game b/c of EA's servers.

[jaymo76]

You have to look at the water table bar when you choose the city. If it's all the way full, it's basically unlimited water. If it's even partly empty, there's a finite amount water to be had. I had the same issue with the first city I built in a region because I didn't notice that I chose a place that had a low water table.

Crime isn't actually an issue unless you have people abandoning buildings because of it. The reporting system they use is a little too sensitive to it and basically immediately after having even one issue with crime, it says there's a crime issue.

Traffic is the same thing. You pretty much HAVE to use buses or some other type of public transportation to prevent traffic congestion. Also, you MUST upgrade to high density roads once you get 75k+ people. The other roads just can't handle such a large amount of traffic.



Apparently they took the servers down today to add more once again. It'll even out. Just like with MMOs, give them a week or two to get shit straight and it'll be fine.



High density is where it's at man. You'll fill up the area pretty easily when you get around 50-75k people in the city. From there, it's just getting the buildings to upgrade to the next density and your populations will skyrocket.

As for making room for other buildings, I have no qualms about removing roads and other buildings to fit in what I'm wanting to put down.

One issue I was running into for some reason though, was I had a University, Community College, High School, and Grade School, but I didn't have enough intelligent workers for the high tech industry I had in my city (I was pushing 200k people around this time). I don't know if I fucked up by putting the Community College there or what, but it was definitely fuckin' me up. I gave up on the city though after the water table ran out though (again, because I chose one of the lowest water table city spots in the game apparently and it was the only city I had going at the time so no extra water to share).

I agree with what you say but the thing is with the public transport is that I have a mini bus station, a full bus station, a streetcar station and two train stations and all of my roads are now high density. All public transport is at full capacity. I am going to build town three tonight and try for some ferry service and see if that helps. I am also tempted to get rid of my small industrial zone and create a recycling centre.

Mors do you have a trade depot? I have one in each town and in my small town it's great but in my big town business is going out of business due to no freight... but I set my trade depot to help hold freight. What am I doing wrong???

[JBHuskers]

I finally got connected and through the tutorial, but couldn't get a city created after I named my region. I'll try that again later.

[jaymo76]

I finally got connected and through the tutorial, but couldn't get a city created after I named my region. I'll try that again later.

If they are updating patches to the servers it may take several hours. I have built all of my cities on NA WEST 1 but I think I will build a few cities on Oceania and maybe one in Europe just so that I will have access to multiple cities when certain servers go down.

[jaymo76]

I will have to check it out later but apparently the last patch has dissabled cheetah speed. I guess it is one of the only ways they can fix server side issues? There are stilla lot of reports about mixed people region play having big issues. We may need to wait a few weeks until all of this settles out.

[SmoothPancakes]

I will have to check it out later but apparently the last patch has dissabled cheetah speed. I guess it is one of the only ways they can fix server side issues? There are stilla lot of reports about mixed people region play having big issues. We may need to wait a few weeks until all of this settles out.

Hell, that'll work for me! :D Give me a chance to actually get my laptop fixed and returned (probably early to middle next week most likely if I'm lucky), and continue working on my Petrol Bay city that I was playing and make sure my methods will work successfully in our TGT region.

[morsdraconis]

Mors do you have a trade depot? I have one in each town and in my small town it's great but in my big town business is going out of business due to no freight... but I set my trade depot to help hold freight. What am I doing wrong???

Yeah I did but I didn't set it up until I had almost nothing but high tech industry going so I had places for plastic, alloys, and processors but I also had a place for normal shipping supplies and it did fill up so I don't know what was up with that. Maybe you have to make sure that you have it setup to sell the freight on the global market or somethin'?

I'm definitely going to test more stuff today as I'll actually have time to do some stuff.

[CLW]

Well the new D: is in and simcity is installed but i'm currently "Processing Large File ... Please Wait" whatever that means.

[morsdraconis]

Well the new D: is in and simcity is installed but i'm currently "Processing Large File ... Please Wait" whatever that means.

It's a download from their servers. It took about half an hour or so for me on Tuesday when the game dropped.

[JBHuskers]

Well the new D: is in and simcity is installed but i'm currently "Processing Large File ... Please Wait" whatever that means.

Think that means you're close to having the patch installed.

[CLW]

Now it says "Checking for Updates" good lord let me play the [CENSORED] game already. :smh:

[CLW]

now could not log you in due to network error after choosing a europe one that was green and "available"? love me some PC "gaming" :nod:

[SmoothPancakes]

Well, I'm definitely out of action for a bit. I just heard back from the local computer place, my CPU fan did indeed die. However, for whatever reason, they can't fix it here, they have to send it to their shop that they also run in the next town over, where the guy there can fix it. So now I've got to wait for them to take it over there and wait for that guy to do his own diagnostics tests, before I can even get the damn quote on how much it'll cost to fix. So, it definitely looks like sometime next week before I'll have it back home. :(

[CLW]

Well, I'm definitely out of action for a bit. I just heard back from the local computer place, my CPU fan did indeed die. However, for whatever reason, they can't fix it here, they have to send it to their shop that they also run in the next town over, where the guy there can fix it. So now I've got to wait for them to take it over there and wait for that guy to do his own diagnostics tests, before I can even get the damn quote on how much it'll cost to fix. So, it definitely looks like sometime next week before I'll have it back home. :(

don't worry NOONE is going to be able to get on the same server with each other for at least 6 months. :smh:

20 minutes and no luck for me all the servers are "busy"

anyone know if i am surfing on chrome and simcity is minimized is it still "trying" to get on or does it not work unless you only have it going?

[morsdraconis]

I agree with what you say but the thing is with the public transport is that I have a mini bus station, a full bus station, a streetcar station and two train stations and all of my roads are now high density. All public transport is at full capacity. I am going to build town three tonight and try for some ferry service and see if that helps. I am also tempted to get rid of my small industrial zone and create a recycling centre.

Mors do you have a trade depot? I have one in each town and in my small town it's great but in my big town business is going out of business due to no freight... but I set my trade depot to help hold freight. What am I doing wrong???

Ok, more testing with the trade depot and I think your issue might be that you didn't have enough trucks to get everything and they were complaining about being full. I went from 1 truck at the depot to 4 and everyone was happy again so I think that's the issue. I still occasionally have them complain about it though so I don't know what's up exactly (more than one trade depot needed maybe?).

[CLW]

Ok, more testing with the trade depot and I think your issue might be that you didn't have enough trucks to get everything and they were complaining about being full. I went from 1 truck at the depot to 4 and everyone was happy again so I think that's the issue. I still occasionally have them complain about it though so I don't know what's up exactly (more than one trade depot needed maybe?).

how in the hell are you playing? i have been "Authenticating with SimCity Servers" for nearly 20 minutes now.

[CLW]

http://youtu.be/y_6mWedOS80

[CLW]

ok i give up for today off to my reliable PS3 to play actual games. if/when this thing is "fixed" i'll try then.

[morsdraconis]

how in the hell are you playing? i have been "Authenticating with SimCity Servers" for nearly 20 minutes now.

I've never had issues with authenticating or having to wait. (shrugs)

[CLW]

I've never had issues with authenticating or having to wait. (shrugs)

lmfao guess its just random. now i try and i cannot even lick the "play" button. this will probably be the last PC game i purchase and if things don't get fixed soon i'll politely ask Amazon for a refund of my credit and return it.

[JBHuskers]

Now it says "Checking for Updates" good lord let me play the [CENSORED] game already. :smh:

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1838884/simcity_checking_for_updates_fix_server_status_upd ate.html

[CLW]

lol now I can get to the game but when it tries to load the tutorial i get some sort of server message. posing from my Origin web browser. oh well i have nice music to listen to while posting at TGT. :nod:

[CLW]

well i finally got all the way to region selecting and when i selected my city to begin play it says it cannot create my city at this time. i tell you what the folks at simcity are making the ncaa folks look like rocket scientist with this launch.

[SmoothPancakes]

don't worry NOONE is going to be able to get on the same server with each other for at least 6 months. :smh:

20 minutes and no luck for me all the servers are "busy"

anyone know if i am surfing on chrome and simcity is minimized is it still "trying" to get on or does it not work unless you only have it going?

Unfortunately for me, other than a short 20 minute "servers are busy" thing yesterday afternoon, I actually had not had any problems getting into Sim City and opening up my city and playing. That's what kills me right now, I could be playing, but won't be able to do a damn thing until probably middle of next week now.

[morsdraconis]

Apparently all the servers are down now.... :(

[CLW]

Apparently all the servers are down now.... :(

well at least i'm not doing something wrong. oh well i have tomb raider; the show and FIFA to keep me busy. if/when this issue gets resolved i'll mess around with the game then. if they don't get the thing fixed by tuesday i'll ask amazon for a refund.

[bdoughty]

Amazon pulls Sim City (Digital) from the store. Even the retail version is pulled by Amazon and they are limiting to other retails, with a warning.

http://www.destructoid.com/amazon-has-pulled-simcity-from-its-store-248072.phtml

There might be a 20 minute queue just to get a refund from Amazon. ;)

[JeffHCross]

Well damn, I think I might have to sit out for a week or two. I think the fans on my laptop are fucked. Just sitting here with only Chrome running (and only 6 tabs open), I'm sitting in the mid 50s to 60s Celsius for both cores on my processor (it was low 40s earlier this afternoon. After playing for only about 15 minutes, the core temps had risen up to 100 degrees Celsius and I started getting an overheat warning from the core temp program I have running, so I had to shut down the game to keep my entire laptop from shutting down.

Until I can get the fans checked out, and if need be, replaced, I'd only be able to play for small chunks of time right now.Download SpeedFan and see if it shows your RPMs. You can also check the BIOS.

[SmoothPancakes]

Download SpeedFan and see if it shows your RPMs. You can also check the BIOS.

I'll have to keep that in mind for the future. My CPU fan did end up dying (got confirmation of that from the computer shop I took my laptop too), so it's now the process of waiting for it to get fixed. Thankfully my GPU fan kept the system cool enough to at least run Chrome and some simple stuff last night and this morning before I took it up.

[JeffHCross]

I always ran SpeedFan anyway. It's worth a look.

[oweb26]

Amazon pulls Sim City (Digital) from the store. Even the retail version is pulled by Amazon and they are limiting to other retails, with a warning.

http://www.destructoid.com/amazon-has-pulled-simcity-from-its-store-248072.phtml

There might be a 20 minute queue just to get a refund from Amazon. ;)

Wow this has to be one of the biggest FUBAR's I have ever witnessed.

[morsdraconis]

I always ran SpeedFan anyway. It's worth a look.

Absolutely. I do too. It's nice to know temperatures and that you aren't fuckin' shit up.

[jaymo76]

I played for about four hours tonight and the servers have been decent. however, no speed other than slow or llama is just brutal. After four hours I have 10,000 people in my new city because it takes so long to get money. Also REGION PLAY SEEMS TO BE BROKEN!!! I cannot actually move resources between cities (power, water, etc. only police and fire). The game is awesome but the servers are a total joke. This game needs an offline mode asap.

[JBHuskers]

I played for about four hours tonight and the servers have been decent. however, no speed other than slow or llama is just brutal. After four hours I have 10,000 people in my new city because it takes so long to get money. Also REGION PLAY SEEMS TO BE BROKEN!!! I cannot actually move resources between cities (power, water, etc. only police and fire). The game is awesome but the servers are a total joke. This game needs an offline mode asap.

Wonder if the region resource exchange is one of the items they took out of the game to improve performance, though they said none of it would affect gameplay, it wouldn't surprise me.

[jaymo76]

Wonder if the region resource exchange is one of the items they took out of the game to improve performance, though they said none of it would affect gameplay, it wouldn't surprise me.

You may be right. I know what they have done is all temporary. I feel bad for the Maxis designers. They have worked hard to create a great game. The always online decision came from EA and if this was not mandatory this game would have had a spectacular release. I hope this doesn't put a nail in the coffin to this series. Waiting ten years for a reboot, SimCity deserves a better fate!

[morsdraconis]

Truthfully, if it didn't have shared regions where I could play with you guys, I probably wouldn't have bought the game. Playing by myself, I'm already bored of it.

Also, there have been reports of region play not working properly. Strangely, yet again, I've had zero issues with shared resources. :dunno:

[CLW]

finally got on this morning and messed around for a few hours got my city up to like 35K. its pretty fun but definitely going to enjoy it more with you guys as the limited space really limits what you can/cant do. i didn't really focus on anything and by the end it showed as i ran out of space.

other issues for me the graphics were very meh i'm sure it was bc of my graphics card but some of the roads didn't appear until i zoomed in. i also need to learn how to upgrade roads and be able to tell/know which roads are which once i put them down. my cities biggest needs were for "middle class" housing and "middle class commercial' and i couldn't seem to get the right touch as everything i did turned low $ or high $ very quickly.

[morsdraconis]

I hate to do it, but I asked for a refund for this pile of shit. The servers are still completely fucked (most of the time) and, truthfully, I'm just not that interested in dealing with them.

[oweb26]

I can't say I blame you I have pretty much convinced myself to hold out for about a month on this one, plus by then it will probably be on sale!

[bdoughty]

I hope MS is paying close attention and they are scratching the "Always On" philosophy. Assuming the rumors are real.

You know the shit has hit the fan when EA is suspending SimCity online marketing.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/ea-suspends-some-simcity-marketing-report-6405070


Oh and that's a promise...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLYLmsEBGug

[CLW]

Yeah you notice his language "as much as we can" its almost like he knew but obviously couldn't say they weren't ready.

I just don't see why a game many enjoy as a single player experience has to be online. You want to do regions with other people obviously that has to be online but why does a person who just wants to do a region by himself/herself they should be able to do so w/o the internet/ea servers.

(1) EA servers obviously are not up to snuff

(2) Rural America doesn't have reliable internet

its definitely a big blunder and if MS really is considering always online requirement they better sure as hell have severs that can handle the load b/c if they go down MS will NEVER be able to make another console again and its game set match to Sony.

this story has gotten huge MSM outlets are covering it not just electronics/gaming sites

[bdoughty]

I hate to do it, but I asked for a refund for this pile of shit. The servers are still completely fucked (most of the time) and, truthfully, I'm just not that interested in dealing with them.

You were the problem, staying online when others could not. (http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9342980.page?ClickID=ayknosaoky5swyrrypoytorp09l9v 9z0ssrn)

What we saw was that players were having such a good time they didn't want to leave the game, which kept our servers packed and made it difficult for new players to join.

Okay I got my $60 worth of enjoyment from SimCity. Only in EA's world could they actually blame the consumer. I promise no more SimCity posts from me.

[oweb26]

I think the game servers are always with the developers not with Microsoft, which is why I dont think MS will have some sort of always online thing, but they could have had a "backdoor handshake" with the developers and said you can have that policy if you want on our system for your game.

[jaymo76]

My understanding is that drm is an ea origin philosophy that was not necessarily wanted by Maxis. To be fair I only had problems the first day. Last night was pretty good. However, the damage has been done from this server fiasco.

[JBHuskers]

That was EA's call, not Maxis.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[jaymo76]

Okay so I was losing my mind over regional trade etc. but it turns out that EA turned OFF regional trading/sharing of resources to help out the stress on the servers. This has really hurt my three cities because now I need to build all services in each town... which essentially defeats the point of regional service. I really hope this can be fixed soon but EA has stopped there marketing campaign entirely which leads me to believe that there are major problems other than the servers.

You have to think that EA will throw the consumer some freebees in the near future to make up for this...???

[SmoothPancakes]

With mors trying to get a refund on the game, I guess there goes the end of a TGT region. :( I was really looking forward to the group region once I got my laptop back whenever the hell I get it back.

[CLW]

With mors trying to get a refund on the game, I guess there goes the end of a TGT region. :( I was really looking forward to the group region once I got my laptop back whenever the hell I get it back.

I'm still down for a TGT region but there is no point starting the game until/unless they get the damn game working. I played several hours today by myself and its pretty solid but if we all cannot get online and chat with each other and help each other there is no point.

I'll give it a few more days and I can setup a private reason and invite anyone that wants to join up (Just need your Origin IDs)

[jaymo76]

I'm still down for a TGT region but there is no point starting the game until/unless they get the damn game working. I played several hours today by myself and its pretty solid but if we all cannot get online and chat with each other and help each other there is no point.

I'll give it a few more days and I can setup a private reason and invite anyone that wants to join up (Just need your Origin IDs)

I'm still in too but until regions can trade again there is no point in starting. Overall the game is very solid IMO. I have played about 15+ hours. If you can sign on to the servers the experience is very enjoyable. Once this game gets the bugs and glitches out, region play will be lots of fun.

[CLW]

I'm still in too but until regions can trade again there is no point in starting. Overall the game is very solid IMO. I have played about 15+ hours. If you can sign on to the servers the experience is very enjoyable. nce this game gets the bugs and glitches out, regio play will be lots of fun.

yep i agree. personally i'm giving the game until tues before calling amazon and asking about a return. if they cannot get it right in a week with all the bad PR it probably will never get there.

[jaymo76]

I (may) stand corrected... the EA reps say that region trade does work it just has extreme lag, in some cases hours. However I'm not so sure. I have played for hours but not seen many services transfer. I will check this out more tonight. I am still concerned about water. It doesn't seem to replenish...

[morsdraconis]

So, check this shit out. Amazon refunded me my money and let me keep the game because it's a digital download. That's crazy town!

[CLW]

So, check this shit out. Amazon refunded me my money and let me keep the game because it's a digital download. That's crazy town!

or that's just Amazon realizing how big of an F up EA did on this one and instead of you getting pissed at them too they score brownie points with you take a loss short term but hopefully you remember that later down the line and continue to shop/purchase from them.

[morsdraconis]

or that's just Amazon realizing how big of an F up EA did on this one and instead of you getting pissed at them too they score brownie points with you take a loss short term but hopefully you remember that later down the line and continue to shop/purchase from them.

Oh, no doubt that's the case.

[JBHuskers]

So, check this shit out. Amazon refunded me my money and let me keep the game because it's a digital download. That's crazy town!

You will lose the download link for future downloads. I did that with Arma II because I was told I could use some discount, then it came back that I was charged full price, so I bitched LOL with digital, all they can do is take away your download link for the future.

[cdj]

I ended up picking this one and am hoping we still do a TGT region. Perhaps by the end of next week things will be back to normal with the game. From a few things I've read, it sounds like things have improved drastically in the last 24 hours. (Though, a lot of damage has been done to the rep of EA and SimCity that won't be repaired anytime soon.)

Perhaps we should have a sub-forum in the TGT Donator Area for our region once we start so this thread can be for generic game discussion.


Also: EA giving free game to SimCity players, hopes to fix launch issues by this weekend (http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/8/4081678/simcity-creators-offer-update-on-server-issues-promise-free-ea-game)

[JBHuskers]

Got some good time with the game tonight. I'm digging it. Got the city up to 2700 right now, had to sell a couple bonds to take care of some immediate needs with the firehouse and the hospital.

[SmoothPancakes]

So it sounds likes there's still hope for the TGT region. :D

I'm still in. It doesn't matter how bad it is for me because I'm 100% out of action with my laptop getting worked on. So EA has all the time it takes to fix it since I can't play regardless. Even then, after I get it back, I'd still keep it and play. I'm huge on Sim City, I've spent hundreds of hours on Sim City 4 over the years, so I'd still end up keeping this, even with all the problems. It's just waiting for the problems to get resolved. It sounds like EA drastically underestimated the rabid fanbase of Sim City and wasn't prepared for the hit to their servers.

[CLW]

I've done 3 cities on my own now and I seem to hit "the wall" around 30-50K people. I always run out of space perhaps eventually it will build up but with no chetah mode its really a grind to keep working on the city when you are out of space to add anything.

[morsdraconis]

I've done 3 cities on my own now and I seem to hit "the wall" around 30-50K people. I always run out of space perhaps eventually it will build up but with no chetah mode its really a grind to keep working on the city when you are out of space to add anything.

Upgrade all of the roads surrounding your residential areas to high density, plop down a couple parks around the area (don't be afraid to take out a few houses, you'll get 4 or 5 times as many people when the others upgrade). But, yeah, without cheetah speed, it's a pain trying to do anything in that game because it takes FOREVER.

[CLW]

Upgrade all of the roads surrounding your residential areas to high density, plop down a couple parks around the area (don't be afraid to take out a few houses, you'll get 4 or 5 times as many people when the others upgrade). But, yeah, without cheetah speed, it's a pain trying to do anything in that game because it takes FOREVER.

yeah i need to learn some of these upgrade nuances. i also messed around with taxes last night and damn near 1/2 my town left when i raised taxes to anything > 12% john galt style. apparently all sims are republicans! :nod:

[jaymo76]

yeah i need to learn some of these upgrade nuances. i also messed around with taxes last night and damn near 1/2 my town left when i raised taxes to anything > 12% john galt style. apparently all sims are republicans! :nod:

CLW, it's all about high density roads and plopping middle wealth parks. Then all of a sudden you will go from 30k to 100k. Right now I have a city of 41k, a city of 42k and my first city is up to 169k. The basic grid pattern yiels the highest results. Since cheetah speed is disabled it takes a lot longer to get big cities.

[jaymo76]

The servers seem to be a lot better today. You can now exchange some stuff in the region. However, until region play is 100% fixed this game will be difficult. On every map I am out of space and I need to share resources. FYI... I am at 25 hours of play this week!!! My oldest son loves watching me play. We have probably followed the garbage trucks around for a good hour or two.

[CLW]

The servers seem to be a lot better today. You can now exchange some stuff in the region. However, until region play is 100% fixed this game will be difficult. On every map I am out of space and I need to share resources. FYI... I am at 25 hours of play this week!!! My oldest son loves watching me play. We have probably followed the garbage trucks around for a good hour or two.

lol good times i haven't really done that yet perhaps i should follow some peeps around a bit once the space is used up.

[JBHuskers]

I love making unique street patterns for different neighborhoods lol. Up to 7k residents and cashing in 4k per hour.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[SmoothPancakes]

Sigh. On the sidelines for probably most of a week longer. I called the computer shop earlier this morning, all the guy who was there could tell me was the guy who is working on my laptop started taking it apart last night, only about halfway through doing so before heading home for the weekend. Even if he gets finished taking it apart on Monday, depending on how long it'd take to order the new fan and then get my laptop fixed (he works on a first come basis and there are 2 or 3 computers being worked on ahead of mine by this guy), I might have my laptop back between Wednesday and Friday, hopefully.

[oweb26]

Well I guess I am in, after much debate and I was willing to sit it out for awhile my wife bought the game for me not knowing anything about the server issues! She bought it because I said I wanted it and I didnt get it yet :D

So I played for about an hour this morning not really knowing what I am doing, so my first city is not really that uniform but I am making about 3k an hour! :D

[jaymo76]

As of last night the region population total I have is 303,000+ people in my three cities. My oil producing city just won't grow as it's stuck at about 60k and there is no space left. Region sharing works in some ways and not in others. It seems that driving is fundamentally broken as cars will not turn left if there is not a street light. Also the water does not seem to replenish so you have to have a water filtration plant next to your sewer system to re-use the water. It is vary difficult to make big cities stay viable because you will go from plus 5000 income on minute to minute 1300 the next minute and no reason is given as to why.

On a side-note, Ea has now doubled the amount of servers so logging in is much easier.

[CLW]

when do you guys want to start the TGT region. i was thinking perhaps next Sunday giving everyone another week and hopefully smooth can get his laptop back.

[jaymo76]

I played a little today with the kids. I created two new cities in the region with only two cities. It looks like the game is functioning 100% effective (I'm on NA west 1). Yes, that includes sharing region resources... finally! Login was not an issue and resources shared immediately (police, fire, ambulance, mayor upgrades, etc. although I didn't try water or power). As of right now, the only major issue I have is that cheetah speed is still disabled.

[jaymo76]

when do you guys want to start the TGT region. i was thinking perhaps next Sunday giving everyone another week and hopefully smooth can get his laptop back.

I'm good to go anytime later in the week. Friday works best. My origin name is jaymo76. Oh, also, what server does everyone want to use??? Right now I have everything on NA west 1.

[SmoothPancakes]

when do you guys want to start the TGT region. i was thinking perhaps next Sunday giving everyone another week and hopefully smooth can get his laptop back.

I should know more by tomorrow. The person I talked to yesterday said the guy working on my laptop was halfway done taking it apart, so hopefully he'll be calling tomorrow with the details, what it'll cost, and to get the go ahead from me to order the part and fix it. If I don't hear from them by 4pm, I'll call them myself and see what's happening. Even with him having a couple other computers to finish up before mine, I'm still hoping to have it back by Friday at the latest, even if I have to make the drive clear over there and pick it up myself from them directly.

[morsdraconis]

I'm still down with doing this if they fix everything that they disabled and actually have functional servers. I was just pissed that I paid $60 for a game that barely worked. But, paying nothing for a game that works fine sounds like fun. ;)

[SmoothPancakes]

Friday, if I'm lucky, maybe next Monday, I'll be back in the game. Just heard back from the guy working on my laptop 30 minutes ago. He got the fan out of the laptop, he said he actually got it spinning again, but it was making noises, so it probably would have died in due time anyways. I gave him the go ahead to order the new fan, it's coming from New York to Ohio, so he said by the end of the week they should have it. At least progress is finally being made on getting it fixed. If I'm lucky and it gets here fast, I could have the laptop back by Friday. Otherwise next Monday or Tuesday I should have it back in my possession.

[jaymo76]

I'm not sure about anyone else's experience but tonight I played for about an hour on NA WEST 1 server and it was just about perfect. I logged on and was into my region within 1 minute. All goods transferred and the game was very smooth. Which server/servers has everyone been using? Since release NA WEST 1 has been pretty stable.

[JBHuskers]

I've been using NA West 4 since Friday with no problems.

[CLW]

Yeah I just played pretty much for the past 6 hours with no issues (other than apparently you run out of H2O) :smh: got my city up to 125K population and now my pumps are running dry no clue what to do really other than start a new city and import water

[CLW]

http://youtu.be/erbPSLHSZHw

[oweb26]

Man I really need to practice on building my roads, subconsciencly I am always building all my roads straight its just a matter of what angle you take :D

[JBHuskers]

So are we going to basically wait for Smooth to get his laptop back to start the region?

[morsdraconis]

So are we going to basically wait for Smooth to get his laptop back to start the region?

Yeah. Once he's all clear, I'll get it setup on NA East 1 unless someone wants it on another server.

[JBHuskers]

Doesn't matter to me. Switching servers and everything else is working pretty well now. I'm almost getting ready to expand my own region to a 2nd city.

[morsdraconis]

I kinda wish they'd fix cheetah speed first, but it's not the end of the world. Just means it'll take longer to develop stuff.

[JBHuskers]

I kinda wish they'd fix cheetah speed first, but it's not the end of the world. Just means it'll take longer to develop stuff.

What's wrong with cheetah speed?

[morsdraconis]

What's wrong with cheetah speed?

According to them, it was part of the issue with the server lag and general congestion, so they disabled it from being used until further notice.

[oweb26]

IF you go up to cheetah speed it goes faster I guess not as fast as you guys would want though.

I have decided I really suck at this game as far as city designing goes for some reason I can't get over the mental hump of making straight damn roads, even when I try circles, squares, etc. I can't just do it because I think it looks silly.

How do you upgrade roads on this game? I have some businesses asking for road updates and frankly I don't know how.

[JBHuskers]

IF you go up to cheetah speed it goes faster I guess not as fast as you guys would want though.

I have decided I really suck at this game as far as city designing goes for some reason I can't get over the mental hump of making straight damn roads, even when I try circles, squares, etc. I can't just do it because I think it looks silly.

How do you upgrade roads on this game? I have some businesses asking for road updates and frankly I don't know how.

Right here.

http://gametipcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/simcity-5-upgrade-roads-1.jpg

[oweb26]

Ahhh dude you are the man JB!

[SmoothPancakes]

I've always found it easiest just to click on the individual roads themselves and upgrade them one at a time. That way I could upgrade them exactly where they needed to be for businesses or to relieve traffic congestion, and keep the costs down.

[JBHuskers]

I've always found it easiest just to click on the individual roads themselves and upgrade them one at a time. That way I could upgrade them exactly where they needed to be for businesses or to relieve traffic congestion, and keep the costs down.

That's how it works. You click that button, and click on a segment of road. You can click a button to go from low to medium and pay some $, then go from medium to high and pay more $. You can also downgrade from high to medium, medium to low for free.

[JBHuskers]

My biggest problem is I think I have set up roads too far apart for maximum growth. I'm about out of room and have 40k. Oh well trial and error :D my next city, I will condense things a lot more.

[oweb26]

Here is another question if I want to start a new city do I hit new game and just say fuck the old one or is there an "destroy this city" kinda deal? As you can tell I don't know shit as of right now.

[SmoothPancakes]

That's how it works. You click that button, and click on a segment of road. You can click a button to go from low to medium and pay some $, then go from medium to high and pay more $. You can also downgrade from high to medium, medium to low for free.

Huh, I've never clicked that button before. I just click on the road itself right in the middle of the game and it brings up the options to upgrade or downgrade the road.

[JBHuskers]

Here is another question if I want to start a new city do I hit new game and just say fuck the old one or is there an "destroy this city" kinda deal? As you can tell I don't know shit as of right now.

Well you can click Region View, and start a new city in the same region and connect the two, or just start a new region from scratch.

Otherwise to destroy your city, I think you can just delete the tile that has the game save after you select your server.

[JBHuskers]

Huh, I've never clicked that button before. I just click on the road itself right in the middle of the game and it brings up the options to upgrade or downgrade the road.

In this SimCity, I'd click the road and wouldn't get those options. I had to hit the button first.

[SmoothPancakes]

In this SimCity, I'd click the road and wouldn't get those options. I had to hit the button first.

Hmm. I must have hit the button at some point without realizing it when I was playing last week.

[JBHuskers]

Hmm. I must have hit the button at some point without realizing it when I was playing last week.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you have to because I was trying to figure it out the other day and just pissed and demolished the whole block and started over :D

Then finally did the smart thing and Googled how to upgrade the roads.

[jaymo76]

I have to give Maxis some credit. After a brutal start the game is playing well. But more than that, the game has gone from 8 servers to 24 servers within a week. Wow!

[SmoothPancakes]

I have to give Maxis some credit. After a brutal start the game is playing well. But more than that, the game has gone from 8 servers to 24 servers within a week. Wow!

That was a big fuck up on their part. They should have had a lot more than just 8 servers for release day.

[JBHuskers]

I have to give Maxis some credit. After a brutal start the game is playing well. But more than that, the game has gone from 8 servers to 24 servers within a week. Wow!


That was a big fuck up on their part. They should have had a lot more than just 8 servers for release day.

Yep. IMO I think Friday was a huge turning point. From pure disaster to working well in three days, I'm not going to hold that against them.

[oweb26]

I played this past weekend and have no problems. I was still getting the servers are down message in the right hand corner but they always reconnected and were smooth so no bitching from me either.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yep. IMO I think Friday was a huge turning point. From pure disaster to working well in three days, I'm not going to hold that against them.


I played this past weekend and have no problems. I was still getting the servers are down message in the right hand corner but they always reconnected and were smooth so no bitching from me either.

Yeah, they started quickly working on it and getting the issues fixed. It was already starting to work pretty good for me last time I played Thursday night, so they were gradually getting there. There were issues, it was to be expected. Did everyone expect them to be that bad? No. But they admitted they fucked up the launch, they worked to get it corrected and it sounds like most everything is getting back to normal (with the exception of achievements, leaderboards and cheetah speed). It'll still end up being well worth the $60 I spent, with the hundreds of hours I'm gonna pour into this game over the coming years.

[JBHuskers]

Plus we are getting a free game from EA too.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[SmoothPancakes]

Plus we are getting a free game from EA too.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

That too. :D

Only question is, is going to be a game that EA picks, or will it be a game that we can pick?

And will there be any conditions on it, like we can only choose a game $20 or less or something?

[JBHuskers]

Word is any EA branded title. So not anything in the Origin store, because they sell 3rd party. More details to come in an e-mail soon from what I heard.

[jaymo76]

Tonight I got a good three hours in and for the first time ALL goods including power, sewage, and water all changed. It takes a few minutes but I was sharing all of my resources between my two cities. It's a real juggling act to keep both cities up and running but I enjoy the challenge.

Sidenote... apparently if you switch to a new server you have to do the tutorials over again???

[JBHuskers]

Sidenote... apparently if you switch to a new server you have to do the tutorials over again???

You can quit out of it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[CLW]

So.... when we starting the TGT region?

[gschwendt]

I've been offline all week... my PC's power supply died last week, my replacement is supposed to arrive today. That said, don't wait on me whatsoever as I probably won't be able to play very much early on.

[morsdraconis]

So.... when we starting the TGT region?

I'll get it setup today.

I need everyone's Origin username so I can add you as a friend. I can't invite you unless you're on my friend's list.

[oweb26]

I will join if you guys fully accept that my region will probably need resources from everywhere! lol

[morsdraconis]

I will join if you guys fully accept that my region will probably need resources from everywhere! lol

No problem. I fully expect this to all fall apart as people start running out of water, power, and pollute the hell out of everything. :)

[SmoothPancakes]

I call Petrol Bay (if we're going with the 7 city region). Hopefully my laptop will be back by Monday, and I'll be able to jump in then.

[JBHuskers]

No problem. I fully expect this to all fall apart as people start running out of water, power, and pollute the hell out of everything. :)

That's when we start over and rape the land all over again.

[morsdraconis]

I call Petrol Bay (if we're going with the 7 city region). Hopefully my laptop will be back by Monday, and I'll be able to jump in then.

Cool.

[oweb26]

No problem. I fully expect this to all fall apart as people start running out of water, power, and pollute the hell out of everything. :)

My orgin name is oweb2(see a recurring theme with all my other gamertags) Guess I will lab it up this weekend and try to learn what I can.

[CLW]

I'll get it setup today.

I need everyone's Origin username so I can add you as a friend. I can't invite you unless you're on my friend's list.

cool. my origin ID = clw22580

[JBHuskers]

JBHuskers

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[morsdraconis]

Wow. This is pretty bullshit considering that the Glassbox engine is the reason why the city spaces are so small:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=WH-CdkSqDSs

[JBHuskers]

Zoomed in animations don't really bother me.

[morsdraconis]

Ok, so apparently it's not your name in origins, but your name in the game. ><

So, I need you names in the game itself. The server is North America East 1. I can't seem to find any of you in there so I don't know what the fuck to do exactly to get your invited to the damn region...

[morsdraconis]

Zoomed in animations don't really bother me.

The problem is there isn't any 1:1 simulation happening. The cars go to any "empty" house, not the house that they are supposed to be going to. Also, that same person has a 10 minute video that's sped up where he has a city that's NOTHING but residential zones, power, water, and parks and hit 200k in 2 hours with NO REASON to give them industrial or commercial zones because if they happen to move out, more will just come in.

[CLW]

Ok, so apparently it's not your name in origins, but your name in the game. ><

So, I need you names in the game itself. The server is North America East 1. I can't seem to find any of you in there so I don't know what the fuck to do exactly to get your invited to the damn region...

This shizzle is getting silly I too tried to add some of you as friends and I couldn't find any of you. :smh: My in game name is still clw22580 and I'll log into NAE 1 so hopefully that will help.

[JBHuskers]

Are you talking Origin ID's? Are you trying to add from the Origin application, not in-game.

[morsdraconis]

Are you talking Origin ID's? Are you trying to add from the Origin application, not in-game.

In game, I don't see you at all. I search for any of you guys, and it doesn't show up.

[JBHuskers]

In game, I don't see you at all. I search for any of you guys, and it doesn't show up.

Try adding as a friend through the Origin app instead.

[morsdraconis]

Try adding as a friend through the Origin app instead.

I did. It's waiting for all of you to accept the friend request.

Problem is, though, it doesn't work. I have Smooth friended already through Origin but I can't send him an invite to join my game in SimCity. It appears to be completely fucked. :/

[CLW]

I did. It's waiting for all of you to accept the friend request.

Problem is, though, it doesn't work. I have Smooth friended already through Origin but I can't send him an invite to join my game in SimCity. It appears to be completely fucked. :/

Well I got your friend request through Origin and accepted. I'll check SimCity.

UPDATE: No game invites. :smh:

I will NEVER buy a PC game again this is beyond stupid how much crap is broken in this POS excuse for a game.

[CLW]

http://youtu.be/PpFlf5OhRNI

[morsdraconis]

Well, looks like they finally got around to getting rid of my install of SimCity where I got the refund. C'est la vie. Hope you guys are able to figure it out.

[SmoothPancakes]

Well, looks like they finally got around to getting rid of my install of SimCity where I got the refund. C'est la vie. Hope you guys are able to figure it out.

They completely cut off your access to the game? I thought Amazon was just getting rid of the ability for you to download it anymore in the future.

[jaymo76]

I went on NA East one and saw Mors TGT region but since it's private I could not join. CLW I sent you a friend request. I wonder, does someone need to create an open region and then we all get into it and then immediately make it private??? Would that work???

[morsdraconis]

As far as I know, it's got to be private unless you are able to completely fill it to prevent other people from getting into it and there's no way to change it to private once you make it public. The problem with public is there is no way to kick people out of the region without them abandoning the city, so you'd be fucked if you made it public and someone random joined.

[oweb26]

http://youtu.be/PpFlf5OhRNI

I knew it was only a matter of time before someone figured it out. Next up they will figure it out to where u can stay offline and never reconnect.

Sent from my A500 using Tapatalk HD

[morsdraconis]

They completely cut off your access to the game? I thought Amazon was just getting rid of the ability for you to download it anymore in the future.

Yup. Logged into Origin and it was gone from my My Games section.

[SmoothPancakes]

As far as I know, it's got to be private unless you are able to completely fill it to prevent other people from getting into it and there's no way to change it to private once you make it public. The problem with public is there is no way to kick people out of the region without them abandoning the city, so you'd be fucked if you made it public and someone random joined.

And that would be exactly what would happen, because it's basically a pipe dream of mine to have my laptop back tomorrow (assuming the new fan arrived from New York DAMN fast and got in either yesterday or earlier today. Most likely I'm not going to hear anything on my laptop until Monday or Tuesday, which would leave 4 or 5 days for Joe Public to just waltz right in and take my open slot in the region.


Yup. Logged into Origin and it was gone from my My Games section.

Damn, that sucks. :( EA and Amazon must have some system worked out then so that EA knows who got refunds from Amazon and to cut their access.

[jaymo76]

Here is the server site so you can check and see when it's busy.

http://www.simcity.com/en_US/server-status

[jaymo76]

Last night I had my first disconnect when going into region play. I went from one city to another and then the game froze and crashed to my desktop. I went back and could not enter my cities and then I found out that the servers were full. I know a lot of people have reported it but this was my first experience. Generally the servers have been very strong as of late but I really miss not having cheetah speed.

[SmoothPancakes]

Well, I never got the call yesterday (as expected), so I know shift to hoping to get my laptop back either Monday or Tuesday. With mors now out due to Origin cutting off his access to the game due to his Amazon refund, if we still want to try and get this TGT region together, I'll go ahead and set it up when I get my laptop back and give sending out invites a try. Maybe I'll have better luck.

[bdoughty]

Well, looks like they finally got around to getting rid of my install of SimCity where I got the refund. C'est la vie. Hope you guys are able to figure it out.

Could be worse at least you requested the refund. Amazon-bought SimCity games are being "returned" without customer request. (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=524877)

[SmoothPancakes]

Thank god I bought the physical copy of the game, so I don't have to worry about that.

[jaymo76]

Well, I never got the call yesterday (as expected), so I know shift to hoping to get my laptop back either Monday or Tuesday. With mors now out due to Origin cutting off his access to the game due to his Amazon refund, if we still want to try and get this TGT region together, I'll go ahead and set it up when I get my laptop back and give sending out invites a try. Maybe I'll have better luck.

I'm still in if people are interested but I can't figure out how we can all get into a region as some of those functions have been disabled.

[JBHuskers]

I'm definitely down. Haven't played much this week with other shit going on.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[JBHuskers]

As part of its efforts to re-endear customers to the new SimCity, EA is handing out one free Origin game to all players, from a choice of Battlefield 3, Bejeweled 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Plants vs. Zombies and SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition. To be eligible for a free game, players must register their copies of SimCity before March 25 at 11:59 p.m. PDT, and must claim a free game before March 30 at 11:59 PDT.

Underage players will automatically receive a copy of Bejeweled 3 and SimCity 4.

Many players worldwide were unable to connect to Maxis servers following SimCity's launch in early March, locking the game completely since it requires an always-on connection. In the weeks after its release, EA and Maxis dropped "non-critical" features from the game and added servers to allow players to connect, and are now in the process of re-adding these lost features. This fiasco frustrated many players, as did the game itself.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/18/ea-offers-choice-of-mass-effect-3-simcity-4-more-for-simcity-p/

[SmoothPancakes]

Well, the potential return date is now pushed back to tomorrow. I spent all morning up in Toledo, and while driving back home and traveling through Napoleon, called the computer place, unfortunately the guy who is working on my laptop isn't working today, so the wait continues, approaching two weeks this Thursday. :fp:

[jaymo76]

As part of its efforts to re-endear customers to the new SimCity, EA is handing out one free Origin game to all players, from a choice of Battlefield 3, Bejeweled 3, Dead Space 3, Mass Effect 3, Medal of Honor Warfighter, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Plants vs. Zombies and SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition. To be eligible for a free game, players must register their copies of SimCity before March 25 at 11:59 p.m. PDT, and must claim a free game before March 30 at 11:59 PDT.

Underage players will automatically receive a copy of Bejeweled 3 and SimCity 4.

Many players worldwide were unable to connect to Maxis servers following SimCity's launch in early March, locking the game completely since it requires an always-on connection. In the weeks after its release, EA and Maxis dropped "non-critical" features from the game and added servers to allow players to connect, and are now in the process of re-adding these lost features. This fiasco frustrated many players, as did the game itself.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/03/18/ea-offers-choice-of-mass-effect-3-simcity-4-more-for-simcity-p/

While I appreciate the gesture the game choices are a little off. I am a sports and sim guy so first person shooters and car racing games do nothing for me. I also own SimCity 4 and my wife has the other two games on the ipad2. Maybe I will just put the names in a hat???

[CLW]

So.... did anyone ever figure out how to invite all of us to the same region? The game is fun but if we cannot all get together I'll have to decide if my own private region is worth it or if I should try to call Amazon and return the game.

[JBHuskers]

So.... did anyone ever figure out how to invite all of us to the same region? The game is fun but if we cannot all get together I'll have to decide if my own private region is worth it or if I should try to call Amazon and return the game.

I'll try to look into it tonight or tomorrow.

[jaymo76]

So.... did anyone ever figure out how to invite all of us to the same region? The game is fun but if we cannot all get together I'll have to decide if my own private region is worth it or if I should try to call Amazon and return the game.

I can't figure it out either. I think its full functionality is still turned off but I'm not sure.

[SmoothPancakes]

Woo! I'm gonna be back in business tonight. I talked to the computer shop a little bit ago, the new fan actually didn't arrive until yesterday, and the guy was gone half the day on an outside call. He got the fan put in today, it's back together, and it currently on it's way back here from Napoleon. It should be back actually in a few minutes, so I'm about to head up to the shop here in town to pick it up. By 6pm, I should be home, have the laptop unpacked from its case and have it fired up.

[oweb26]

I can't figure it out either. I think its full functionality is still turned off but I'm not sure.

https://help.ea.com/article/friends-in-simcity#4

Maybe this will help...dunno.

[SmoothPancakes]

https://help.ea.com/article/friends-in-simcity#4

Maybe this will help...dunno.

Finally back on my normal laptop. Once I get my settings synched up in Chrome and I get the 800+ emails sitting on the Roadrunner server downloading into my inbox, I'll be firing up SimCity and see what I can find out/do.

[SmoothPancakes]

Your SimCity friend list will only show friends playing on the same server – if you’re on different servers, you won’t show up for each other.

This would be our problem. We probably all haven't started cities on the same servers.

I just created a TGT region in North America East 2. If you guys, next time you're on, want to create a private region for yourselves on NA East 2 so that you're active on that server, and verify what your IDs are (just to be safe, give both Origin and in-game IDs), I'll see if I can send you guys invites later on.

[SmoothPancakes]

Cheetah Speed is back. I'm playing right now on NA East 2 and have Cheetah speed running right now on a newly created city.

[SmoothPancakes]

What a difference this new CPU fan makes. I've been running SimCity for going on four hours now, the hottest my laptop has gotten this entire time is 59 degrees Celsius, mostly hovering between the mid-40s to lower-50s. Been going with a brand new city on a new map, I'm up to 60,000 citizens, pumping out over 11,000 barrels of oil a day, splitting those 11,000 gallons between my oil power plant and selling the rest on the global market for some easy profit.

And it seems most everything is running like it should be. Cheetah speed has been reactivated (made this fledgling city MUCH easier to get rolling), the regional and global trade markets are working fine, I can give police and fire coverage to the rest of the region, and gift money and resources to the other cities. Everything seems to finally be 100% in this game. It is without a doubt going to be sucking the hell out of my free time in the long term future.

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright guys, we're in business! I logged onto NA East 2 server, went through the process of creating a new region, and when I got the option to invite friends, JB showed up as someone I could invite. So we are going to have to decide on what server we're going to use. All of us have to have logged into a single server at least one time so I can invite everyone.

So everyone post your Origin names (I have mors and JB already, and I friend requested oweb and CLW), I'll get you added as friends, and then all need to log on at least once to whatever server we decide to base our region in so that I can set up the region and then invite you all to join.

I would suggest one of the newer servers. NA East/West 1 and 2 were both full earlier tonight when I first got home from picking up my laptop and got online. So I would suggest we go with something like NA East (or West) 4, something that won't necessarily get filled up often.

[morsdraconis]

Alright guys, we're in business! I logged onto NA East 2 server, went through the process of creating a new region, and when I got the option to invite friends, JB showed up as someone I could invite. So we are going to have to decide on what server we're going to use. All of us have to have logged into a single server at least one time so I can invite everyone.

So everyone post your Origin names (I have mors and JB already, and I friend requested oweb and CLW), I'll get you added as friends, and then all need to log on at least once to whatever server we decide to base our region in so that I can set up the region and then invite you all to join.

I would suggest one of the newer servers. NA East/West 1 and 2 were both full earlier tonight when I first got home from picking up my laptop and got online. So I would suggest we go with something like NA East (or West) 4, something that won't necessarily get filled up often.

I won't be playing. Origin revoked my download of it since I got the refund. Truthfully, I got bored of this game without about 3 hours of playing so it's a good thing.

Also, whatever server you guys choose, everyone has to actually make a city on that server before they can be invited to another one. Just a FYI.

[SmoothPancakes]

I won't be playing. Origin revoked my download of it since I got the refund. Truthfully, I got bored of this game without about 3 hours of playing so it's a good thing.

Also, whatever server you guys choose, everyone has to actually make a city on that server before they can be invited to another one. Just a FYI.

I know, I was just using you as an example alongside JB, in regards to already being on my friends list. And I didn't think about actually fully creating a city on the server. Whether it's actually fully necessary or not, may as well go the full 9 yards to be certain.

At least now we can get the TGT region up and running and actually get everyone invited in now. And with Cheetah speed, trading and everything else seemingly now reactivated (they even have the achievements and leaderboards back up and running), everything should be back at 100% in-game, so I can get the region created now and we can finally get things up and running.

With you no longer able to play, I guess I'll go ahead and take over the power supply and industry duties for the region, especially since I'll already be sitting in an oil rich city (Petrol Bay has over 30 months of oil underneath it), so I can just build a couple oil power plants and feed energy to everyone in the region, keeping all the needed oil in-house so I don't have to deal with buying any from other people or on the global market.

[CLW]

O.K. so who's runnin' this show now and what server do I need to setup a city in so I can get an invite to the TGT region?

[gigemaggs99]

I was out of town skiing and didn't have internet access, then saw a commercial on TV for the new SIMCITY...so I'm doing my best to play catch up and read up on it.

One thing that troubles me is I keep reading you MUST be connected to the internet to play. Not a problem as my PC is always connected to the internet, but then I read "what if" EA decides to turn the server off in a few years? Then the game won't be able to be played?

Is this true? Is this just someone trying to freak people out?

I still have Sim City 4 and really enjoy it, it doesn't require the internet and still works great...I'd like to get the newer version but am concerned about paying $60 for a game that may/may not work in the future?

Is this a valid concern?

I'd like to play online with the other TGT users, but if later on no one is playing can I play offline? OR will I always be hoping the servers don't shut off? If you purchase a hard copy of the game like from Walmart or something...can you play it offline?


Am I not reading this heading properly or is this a play on words? The title says EA admits it IS possible to play offline....yet then in the article they admit it is NOT possible to play offline...are they referring to the free games they are giving out as the "offline gameplay options?"

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/447579/20130319/simcity-5-free-games-offline.htm#.UUm2YRdwok8

Looks like the computer savy people have figured a way to play offline....Not sure how complete the offline play is, but it does sound a like an option:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2013/03/14/simcity-modder-appears-to-have-cracked-offline-play/

[SmoothPancakes]

O.K. so who's runnin' this show now and what server do I need to setup a city in so I can get an invite to the TGT region?

With mors out of action due to his refund and EA cutting off access to the game, I guess I'll go ahead and take over running the show. Lets go with NA West 4 for our server. NA East/West 1 and 2 were all full during the evening hours last night, so going one of the higher numbered, newer servers should allow us to regularly get into the server and access our region without any issues.

I'm gonna get on a little bit later and log onto NA West 4, get myself active on that server and get the TGT region set up. JB's already on my friends list on Origin, and I requested CLW and oweb, so that'll be four of us so far. I can't remember who else we had on board for this region, jaymo I think?

So the region will be set up and running by tonight, I'll get started on Petrol Bay so I can get oil drilling and power production going so you guys have power as soon as you start your cities. And then it'll just be a matter of you guys creating a city on the server so you're active on it and then I can invite you all into our region.

[JBHuskers]

Cool. I'll try to get in tonight. Hadn't been on in a week due to many other games taking up my time.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[SmoothPancakes]

Cool. I'll try to get in tonight. Hadn't been on in a week due to many other games taking up my time.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Not a problem. I'm gonna try to get a jump start on my city so I can have plenty of power production going so I can start feeding power to all of you immediately. While I'm planning on having some residential and business zones in my city, I'm going to go mostly industrial zoning in my city since I'll have a bunch of power plants and stuff going, so I'll have plenty of industrial jobs for everyone's residents to come work at.

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright, the TGT region has been created on North America West 4 server. JB is already active on that server so an invite has been sent there. Still waiting on Oweb and CLW to accept my friend requests.

Alright, here was the latest update mors had posted back on March 4th. I updated it to replace mors with myself, since I'll be taking over power and industrial in his absence. I also added in cities so we know who is doing what. I've already started up a city at Petrol Bay. Once I get PB going, I may jump next door and start up a city at Cinder (if no one has claimed it after everyone has all joined) and start up coal production there, giving us even more power production and more industrial jobs for the region.




Name
City
Specialization
Main Production


Smooth
Petrol Bay
Oil Drilling/Electronics
Power/Industrial Jobs


Jay
?
Education
Knowledge


JB
?
?
?


CLW
?
?
?


Oweb
?
?
?

[oweb26]

Well I accepted your invite, I have no clue what production stuff will be!!

[SmoothPancakes]

Shit. I just got obliterated by a meteor shower. :(

[SmoothPancakes]

Well I accepted your invite, I have no clue what production stuff will be!!

Alright, not a problem. We're gonna be pretty much winging it here. :D

When you get a chance, log on to server North America West 4, and create a city (or a private region if you want) so that it'll mark you as active on the region. I'll then be able to invite you in-game to join the TGT region.

[oweb26]

I am on the server

[SmoothPancakes]

I am on the server

Awesome! I just sent invites to both you and JB to join the region. Just waiting on jaymo and CLW now. You can go ahead and claim and start building your city whenever.

I've already got Petrol Bay over 50,000 population. I'll go ahead and take care of police and hospital duties for you guys as well as power, since I've already got a hospital and police precinct built (along with Maxis Manor). A large fire station is next on my list to build.

[oweb26]

Well my city is up and running.......I keep your firefighters working until mine came up to speed. I lost a few buildings but no biggie to me.

[JBHuskers]

Gonna get on quick and join.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[SmoothPancakes]

Sounds good guys. If you need any resources, feel free to buy some from me. I have LOADS of extra power and water to share. I have a bunch of police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, garbage trucks, anything you guys need to help you get going. I've gifted some money to both of you to help you get going.

And if you can, keep the region chat window open (the button in the upper left corner), we can talk on there and make things simply for communication between us while playing.

[JBHuskers]

I've got a good start. I'll work on it more soon.

[JBHuskers]

Okay Tiger 14 servers aren't working now for my launch vids...I'm going to get back on for a few.

[JBHuskers]

I win for best road design :D

[JBHuskers]

CDJ has this and wants in....you guys exchange info or something. :D

[jaymo76]

I have a town on the NA WEST 4 servers now. I sent JB and Smooth friend requests. I guess now I wait for an invite to the region???

[SmoothPancakes]

I have a town on the NA WEST 4 servers now. I sent JB and Smooth friend requests. I guess now I wait for an invite to the region???

I just saw your friend request. I'm sending you an invite to the region right now.

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright jaymo, your invite to the region has been sent. Just need CLW now, and it sounds like possibly CDJ. So we're looking good.

I'll have to do some work on my city tomorrow. It has started to slightly go to crap in the last hour, not long after I got to 100,000 population. I had to shut down some things in my city as I ended up in the red at one point. Shut down a couple parts of my oil power plant (though still am producing enough power to feed power to everyone in the region), had to shut down a couple of fire truck bays on one of my stations, shut down a couple unused jail cells at my police stations and unused patient wings at my hospital. Might have to make some changes and get a little bulldozer happy tomorrow to get things turned around and get my city continuing moving up.

[JBHuskers]

What a shitty mayor :D

[SmoothPancakes]

What a shitty mayor :D

Hey! Lets see how you're doing when you get to 100,000 people in your city. :D

[jaymo76]

Sounds good Smooth. I will try to get on a little tomorrow.

[JBHuskers]

So how do you send services to other towns? Like fire trucks, police, ambulances, etc?

[SmoothPancakes]

So how do you send services to other towns? Like fire trucks, police, ambulances, etc?

You go to region mode, click on their city and then click on the various buttons along the bottom, showing garbage, police, fire, ambulance, an option to gift money or resources, as well as some charts like school children, residents, etc. That'll show you how many emergency and garbage vehicles you have and give you an option to volunteer some to your neighbors.

[oweb26]

You can always sign me up to send some to me. LOL I will need them!

I got myself in a little trouble when I allowed the fire dept to have a fireworks show, I didn't know it would burn down that much stuff luckily they were only level one houses.

[SmoothPancakes]

You can always sign me up to send some to me. LOL I will need them!

I got myself in a little trouble when I allowed the fire dept to have a fireworks show, I didn't know it would burn down that much stuff luckily they were only level one houses.

I thought I sent some to you. I know I sent you some police and stuff. I'll be getting on in a bit and check to see what all I sent you, nothing like watching March Madness on TV while turning my city to shit on the laptop. :D

And yeah, I've constantly clicked "ask me later" whenever I get the fireworks show question. Too much to lose in my city with it, but I do want that $25k eventually.

[Oneback]

I've been holding off on picking this up, are all the issues fixed with SimCity now?

[SmoothPancakes]

I've been holding off on picking this up, are all the issues fixed with SimCity now?

I personally haven't had any problems with it. Servers have been perfectly steady, never have lost connection once. All of the region-based things and trading stuff work fine. Everything seems to be reactivated, Cheetah speed, for example, is back. My only issue, which I agree with the others who have said so, is the small city sizes. I've already got pretty much my entire city built out, the only way I can go now is building "up" through density. Unfortunately going the industrial route, with garbage, power production, oil pumping, water filtration, etc, almost half of my city suffers from ground AND air pollution, making getting better density buildings difficult. I definitely hope they release larger-sized cities in the future, make things a little easier.

[oweb26]

In hindsight i would have let the guy throw the party instead of allowing fireworks. I think u did send me some police also. You are reason it keeps telling me our region is becoming polluted. Lmao.

The servers have been fine for me as well, the city sizes aren't an issue until you look back and are like fuck now i have nothing to do but look at it. Lol

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

[SmoothPancakes]

In hindsight i would have let the guy throw the party instead of allowing fireworks. I think u did send me some police also. You are reason it keeps telling me our region is becoming polluted. Lmao.

The servers have been fine for me as well, the city sizes aren't an issue until you look back and are like fuck now i have nothing to do but look at it. Lol

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

:D

Hey, someone's gotta help provide you all with power, water, police, fire, ambulances, garbage pickup, and industrial jobs. :D

[oweb26]

Doesnt education help clear the air pollution?

[SmoothPancakes]

Doesnt education help clear the air pollution?

Possibly. I don't have the room for a school right now though. I figured I'd let you guys build some schools and I'll bus my kids over to you guys. :D

[morsdraconis]

Doesnt education help clear the air pollution?

It teaches the citizens to pollute less (garbage and such). It doesn't do anything for industrial zones. In fact, it's a bad idea to put schools in your city if you're doing industrial because it'll cause them to no longer have jobs for low income people.

[jaymo76]

I will be on tonight and start to get the ministry of ed for the region. However, I need some help.... GARBAGE PICKUP AND RECYCLING. I was desperate so I built a dump but I want to get rid of it ASAP. Can anyone help??? Also, the wind in this game is killing me. My town is taking in all of JB's air pollution. I need to get a university so JB's industry upgrades to clean. I am buying sewage from Smooth and helping JB with four ambulances. Things are going well after an hour.

[SmoothPancakes]

I will be on tonight and start to get the ministry of ed for the region. However, I need some help.... GARBAGE PICKUP AND RECYCLING. I was desperate so I built a dump but I want to get rid of it ASAP. Can anyone help??? Also, the wind in this game is killing me. My town is taking in all of JB's air pollution. I need to get a university so JB's industry upgrades to clean. I am buying sewage from Smooth and helping JB with four ambulances. Things are going well after an hour.

Don't destroy the dump! It will cause massive ground pollution in the immediate area. I made that mistake.

And I'll send some garbage trucks and stuff over to you when I get on a bit later.

[JBHuskers]

:D :D :D eat my smog!

[jaymo76]

Well after about four hours I am around 65,000 sims. My population should be higher but an arson took out... 17 of my buildings (many were towers...). My next two big projects are to build a short trollley line and then to build a railway connection. Traffic is brutal right now (you should see the line up to get into my city). Once I have enough transit then I will build the university. Any requests for the first faculty??? I suggest policing or medicine.

Govt services I have purchased for the region:
1. Ministry of education
2. Ministry of tourism and culture

Region connectivity:
1. Large bus depot
2. passenger ferry service (currently connected to Smooth)

Services purchased include:
1. sewage
2. power
3. water

Services I am giving out:
1. education (i have an elementary, high school, and a college)
2. ambulances to JB (I would give police also but crime is huge right now!!!)

Areas I am in need:
1. POLICE and FIRE services
2. POWER (I am currently sucking you guys dry)
3. Recycling

I was using water but I had to build a water plant as you guys kept running out***

As of right now the biggest issues our region needs to deal with is POLICE and FIRE. The waves of arson just don't stop. I have a small police force and a small fire department but I think we need two of each of the big ones in the region.

[jaymo76]

Oh one other thing... not that we will get to it for awhile, but are we going to try the arcology or do we want to go for a power plant/airport, etc.???

[JBHuskers]

Yeah I think the plot of land I chose doesn't allow much for growth :D

[oweb26]

mine definitely doesnt have much room, I have a big ass mountain on in the middle of mine that all I can do is build a road through it but not really enough space to build a road on it.

[SmoothPancakes]

Well shit. For some reason I can't access my city right now. NA West 4 isn't cooperating with me. I can access a city/region with no problem on NA East 4, but it won't let me in on NA West 4.

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright fellas, we've got an issue. Something's completely FUBAR with my city. I can't get into my city at all. Yet I can get into a city in my own private region on the same server with no problems whatsoever. So it's something specifically with my city in the TGT region. The only thing I can think of would be to abandon my city, wipe it clean, and start over from scratch, which would cause big issues for you guys.

The only thing I can think of would be to leave Petrol Bay frozen in time so it's at least still providing some resources and safety services to you guys. In the mean time, I'll claim the city of Cinder (right next door to Petrol Bay), and fire up some coal power plants (since Cinder has a massive coal reserve underneath it), water, garbage and other stuff to keep you guys covered, while I rebuild Petrol Bay from the ground up, and then take back over with Petrol Bay as "home base", then abandon Cinder and wipe it clean, so it'll be like nothing ever happened.

[jaymo76]

Smooth, if you claim a city in the region you may be able to enter your original city after the fact. here's another thing though... we may wish to adopt a 16 city region so that we can each have 2-3 cities of our own. I am over 150,000 and space is pretty much gone. I have played this game for 47 hours in total and I am very concerned about replay-ability. Once I finish the university in the TGT region, what is left for me??? I will be out of space. I love the simcity franchise and this game has been a lot of fun but the city size is just too small to play one city long-term. This game reminds me of civilization revolution for ps3. It has a lot of bells and whistles but it's very short in terms of gameplay. Within 10 hours your city will be maxed out. That doesn't mean I don't want to play but it is an issue.

FYI... regardless of the concerns, it has been fun playing the region. You truly are dependent on other players in order to be successful.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, we definitely could do a larger region. I pretty much reached that point in Petrol Bay, where I was around 160,000 people, and I couldn't really do anything. I was out of space, and I could barely keep up with the demands for power, water, garbage, sewage, police, fire and ambulances that all of the rest of you guys had. It was to the point I was losing money every hour unless I shut down half of the stuff in my city and ran bare bones safety buildings to get by.

We'll just have to be very specific on what cities we take over. The issue with 16 city region is they are broken up into clusters. Not all 16 cities can share resources, based on how the highway system is set up in them. Only 4 or 5 cities are able to share things among themselves, while another group of 4 or 5 cities share among themselves, etc. So we'll have to figure out exactly what we're going to do in a 16 city region so someone doesn't end up left out in the cold by themselves in a part of the region.

[SmoothPancakes]

Alright, I went ahead and created a new region in Viridian Woods, a 16 city, 4 great works region. Invites have been sent out to JB, jaymo and oweb (still the only people to add me as a friend and join the NA West 4 server).

The current region can still be played, but unfortunately, I can't get into Petrol Bay. Even after creating and building up Cinder a little bit, it won't let me into Petrol Bay, so the only option would be for me to abandon it, wiping it clean in the process, and then try to rebuild, if it would even let me into the city even then after all that.

So I would be game for moving to a 16 city region, letting the four of us split four cities, one in each of the four sections of the region.

And someone else can take care of power from now on if we make the jump to the 16 city region. :D

[oweb26]

That is fine with me, I am actuallly happy you did this I am out of space already and I only at 30k citizens. That damn mountain in my city is hindering the shit out of me.

[CLW]

So.... how do we get our free game?

EDIT: Nevermind figured it out. Not sure which game to get though. I cannot play FPS so it looks like a racing game; simcity or one of these looks like a 3rd person shooter.

[jaymo76]

So just for clarity, are we abandoning the first region? I now have a university but if everyone is leaving the region then I will probably do the same.

[oweb26]

I think thats the plan.

[JBHuskers]

I am not sure when I'll be on. Might not be til early in the week.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[jaymo76]

Smooth, have you started your city yet? I haven't been on my desktop all day. Are we going to do an anything goes type of region or do we want to specialize and strategize?

[SmoothPancakes]

Smooth, have you started your city yet? I haven't been on my desktop all day. Are we going to do an anything goes type of region or do we want to specialize and strategize?

I started one of my cities, I forget the name though. :D In this region, I honestly think we should try to stick with generating our own power. It'll use up some space in our cities, but it's the best route. Honestly, providing power for an entire region is a killer. It was costing my a couple thousand simoleons an hour to provide enough power to you guys, yet I was only making back maybe a couple hundred simoleons an hour between you and JB buying power from me. You guys are able to buy power for $1 per MW used, but it costs at least a couple hundred just to produce a simple 75 MW.

We can still share other stuff, like police, fire, ambulances, maybe water/sewage/garbage. But power is just about impossible unless there's a way to charge more than $1 for 1 MW of power. It was just sucking me dry and that was the problem I ran into in Petrol Bay. Trying to keep enough power flowing, water pumping, trash burning, sewage cleaning and provide enough police/fire/ambulance to you guys while still having enough to cover my own city, it was putting me in the red constantly, to the point I was forced to keep half of my safety stuff shut down, had to shut down my port, etc, just to make even a couple hundred per hour in profits.

[SmoothPancakes]

I'll also be absent for at least all of today. I'm at work right now for my morning show, but then I'm stuck here until at least 1pm for boys state basketball broadcasts. It might be 4 or 5pm if I get stuck having to do the second title game at 1:30pm. And after all that, I'm currently internetless due to the router finally taking it's final and ultimate shit last night, so have to go out and buy a new router sometime today. So who knows when I'll actually be back online.

[jaymo76]

maybe we should all agree to have power and water. These are huge issues and if you plan your city to have them it will make life easier. Then like you say Smooth, we can share everything else. The biggest issues are going to be garbage, police, fire and health.

Personally I want to get some casinos going in one of my cities but that will make crime huge for the region. FYI... I may be able to play tonight... it depends on whether the wife is going to watch Les Mis... if so then I have three hours of gametime.

[oweb26]

I was already trying to do my own power, I learned somethings later in the game like I cam make more windmills instead of building an entire wind factory. I didnt start buying power from smooth until I got something like 30k citizens and I was running low.

[jaymo76]

Alright so I have one city up and running in the new region. I am building a oil well and will soon be creating an oil factory for my power and then a trade depot to hold the resources. Sorry smooth but I am leaching your power until I have enough money to buy the oil plant... it will be soon. People may wish to have oil factories as the resource will be in the region. Also I built the Ministry of Ed and the ministry of transport so the region is well on its way. It would be great if someone could unlock tourism.

[SmoothPancakes]

maybe we should all agree to have power and water. These are huge issues and if you plan your city to have them it will make life easier. Then like you say Smooth, we can share everything else. The biggest issues are going to be garbage, police, fire and health.

Personally I want to get some casinos going in one of my cities but that will make crime huge for the region. FYI... I may be able to play tonight... it depends on whether the wife is going to watch Les Mis... if so then I have three hours of gametime.

Yeah, having our own power and water will make things much easier. Then we can just produce only what we need, instead of having to mass produce a bunch and use up our budget gains. Fire, police, health and garbage shouldn't be a problem. We'll all need to develop those in our own cities, but we'll then be able to share those resources as needed.


I was already trying to do my own power, I learned somethings later in the game like I cam make more windmills instead of building an entire wind factory. I didnt start buying power from smooth until I got something like 30k citizens and I was running low.

Yeah, you can tack on new things to your buildings. That's how I was running power in Petrol Bay, I had an oil power plant, and then I'd just tack on a new generating unit to the original plant to increase my power output. Makes things much easier instead of having to build multiple plants. And you can build your roads a certain way around those buildings when you know what you need and will be doing to add on to them.


Alright so I have one city up and running in the new region. I am building a oil well and will soon be creating an oil factory for my power and then a trade depot to hold the resources. Sorry smooth but I am leaching your power until I have enough money to buy the oil plant... it will be soon. People may wish to have oil factories as the resource will be in the region. Also I built the Ministry of Ed and the ministry of transport so the region is well on its way. It would be great if someone could unlock tourism.

Yeah, it's not a problem. I'm cool with you guys leeching, just don't make it something permanent. :D ;)

And yeah, there is plenty of oil in the region, so oil factories will be the better option to go.

I can't remember, but I want to think I built the Ministry of Safety/etc in my city in my first upgrade, so that should be unlocked for you guys. I'm gonna work on finance next just so I can break open my tax levels into low/medium/high wealth and get specific with stuff. After that, I'll make tourism my next focus for my city hall.

[GatorfanStovy]

How is this game coming along ? As far as the online connection and saving your game etc?

[JBHuskers]

I'm in under Berghausen Hills.

[jaymo76]

I'm in under Berghausen Hills.

Are you on your own side of the island or are you linked with others? I am beside Smooth so I sent him some stuff but apparently Oweb and I don't have a connection so I cannot help him. If you are connected to me and If you want to leach power from me go ahead. I now have my oil power plant up and running and I have a ton of oil in my trade depot. My goal is to remove all of the oil so that I can then demolish the fields and put up tourism, etc. Apparently under one of my two reserves I have 7 months supply.

[CLW]

Watching hoops today but I'll get rolling Monday.

[JBHuskers]

Are you on your own side of the island or are you linked with others? I am beside Smooth so I sent him some stuff but apparently Oweb and I don't have a connection so I cannot help him. If you are connected to me and If you want to leach power from me go ahead. I now have my oil power plant up and running and I have a ton of oil in my trade depot. My goal is to remove all of the oil so that I can then demolish the fields and put up tourism, etc. Apparently under one of my two reserves I have 7 months supply.

I think I'm beside you.

I set up a train station, but there is no action in it :(

[jaymo76]

I think I'm beside you.

I set up a train station, but there is no action in it :(

Ah okay I will build a train depot tonight so we can share tourists. I have a bus depot already so if/when you get busses we will have another means to share. The rgion needs more tranist as my city is total gridlock and I am only at 40k population.

[CLW]

So.... originally my idea was a "culture" theme (sporting events; tourists attractions; etc...) but i've heard the tourists just stop coming eventually for no reason. Anyone know if this issue has been resolved?

[oweb26]

I have no clue what I am going to do at the moment, I stretched myself a little to thin so I am having to recover from that at the moment. I will also do a train station when I get the money but at the moment I am having to do a little scrambling.

[JBHuskers]

I have had trouble making money as fast as I did on the other city so I have 3 bonds out right now :D

[oweb26]

I have two out myself. LOL I will probably pay off one shortly though.

[jaymo76]

I have had trouble making money as fast as I did on the other city so I have 3 bonds out right now :D


I have two out myself. LOL I will probably pay off one shortly though.

Hah! You guys need to be careful. The expense of those things catch up quickly and then the next thing you know you are on the verge of bankruptcy. I try not to take one out because later in the game when your income drops from 5000+ to -1300 in one hour, you can find yourself in real trouble. When your city is big and building automatically upgrade you lose their entire income through the construction phase.

[jaymo76]

So.... originally my idea was a "culture" theme (sporting events; tourists attractions; etc...) but i've heard the tourists just stop coming eventually for no reason. Anyone know if this issue has been resolved?

I haven't seen this myself. I know it was bad for the first few days but literally everyday there is a new patch so I think/hope the issue may have been addressed. I know that the trade depots work now so let's keep our fingers crossed.

[jaymo76]

I have no clue what I am going to do at the moment, I stretched myself a little to thin so I am having to recover from that at the moment. I will also do a train station when I get the money but at the moment I am having to do a little scrambling.

I suggest you get busses first as getting those cars off the road will really help your freight situation.

[CLW]

Well I messed around today and got the population up to 125K however now it says I'm running out of coal? I have the import coal selected and that isn't working so I chose to buy power from you guys and that's not working either. :smh: and I had a nice tourist trap going too. your sims were lovin' my monster truck rallies. :nod:

[jaymo76]

Well I messed around today and got the population up to 125K however now it says I'm running out of coal? I have the import coal selected and that isn't working so I chose to buy power from you guys and that's not working either. :smh: and I had a nice tourist trap going too. your sims were lovin' my monster truck rallies. :nod:

My suggestion...buy a gas power plant and get rid of the coal. There is oil for sale because I am selling it to the global market.

[CLW]

My suggestion...buy a gas power plant and get rid of the coal. There is oil for sale because I am selling it to the global market.

Cool. Freaked me out and it also really F'd my budget up not sure what happened I was rezoning some areas getting rid of all my industrial and boom i have no power and my budget has less time than the U.S. gov't before bankruptcy. :smh:

[CLW]

So... are we allowed to claim another city? I've pretty much maxed out the land right now and I need some education so I was thinking of making an education focused town.

[jaymo76]

So... are we allowed to claim another city? I've pretty much maxed out the land right now and I need some education so I was thinking of making an education focused town.

Yup that was my understanding.

[jaymo76]

I now have a university up and running in my town, I am going to focus on law and medicine. I also have a college and high school so my grads are now producing clean energy industrial.

[CLW]

I now have a university up and running in my town, I am going to focus on law and medicine. I also have a college and high school so my grads are now producing clean energy industrial.

LOL can I send my idiot residents for some schoolin' to your town? Don't know if that is even possible but my residents keep complaining about no education and I have no room for any schools unless i knock out huge commercial/residential buildings.

[JBHuskers]

Sorry I haven't be on lately...but I will get in sometime soon.

[oweb26]

Sorry I haven't be on lately...but I will get in sometime soon.

I havent been on either so you aren't the only one. I will probably get on a little this evenings and some tomorrow.

[jaymo76]

Sorry I haven't be on lately...but I will get in sometime soon.


I havent been on either so you aren't the only one. I will probably get on a little this evenings and some tomorrow.

No worries guys. Your towns are kind of frozen in time when you are not around so it doesn't impact other players. One thing when you guys start playing again... more mass transit to move people. The region is bottlenecked with traffic.

[JBHuskers]

No worries guys. Your towns are kind of frozen in time when you are not around so it doesn't impact other players. One thing when you guys start playing again... more mass transit to move people. The region is bottlenecked with traffic.

You guys have train stations open? I know that was one of the last things I did was set up the train station.

[CLW]

You guys have train stations open? I know that was one of the last things I did was set up the train station.

Yep you need to get your residents to come check out my monster truck rallies; rock concerts; casinos; statute of liberty; etc... good times to be had in Galt's Gulch :nod: