SimCity (PC)

[jaymo76]

This game will be amazing. I am counting down the days. Here is the first gameplay video.:up:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YceL2C4TW4Q&feature=plcp

[jaymo76]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQNagqH6mO4&feature=relmfu

[SmoothPancakes]

I'll be able to play it!!!

I found the system requirements for Sim City.


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

PC
Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+ or better or Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better

Operating System:
Windows XP/Vista/7

RAM:
2GB

Graphics Card:
ATI Radeon HD 2x00 or better*
nVidia 7800 or better*
Intel Series 4 integrated graphics or better*

Broadband Internet:
Minimum 256 kbps download, 64 kbps upload

*Minimum of 256MB of on-board RAM and Shader 3.0 or better support.

Mac
Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor 2.0GHz or better

Operating System:
Snow Leopard 10.6.4

RAM:
2GB

Hard Drive:
10GB HD Space

Graphics Card:
NVIDIA 9400M/ Intel HD3000

Broadband Internet:
Minimum 256 kbps download, 64 kbps upload

[JBHuskers]

Looks like I can too.

[SmoothPancakes]

I was worried, running on a laptop I bought back in May 2009, but I'll make it.

I've got an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, and a nVidia GeForce 9800M GTS graphics card, so I'm good to go.

[morsdraconis]

I'm gonna be able to play it with max settings it looks like. :up:

[jaymo76]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aluNM_2G-cc&list=UUnje_8ilXP7KB2vdssyAWug&index=1

[jaymo76]

Looks like Sim City has now been bumped back to March 5th...:(

[jaymo76]

I am still excited about this game but the one thing that worries me a little is that the scale size for cities seems way off. Apparently you cannot build megalopolis type cities as "medium" seems to be the max size possible. The towers look good but the surrounding areas seem to small to feel realistic.

[jaymo76]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVUO1cklon0

Welcome to a CASINO CITY...

[jaymo76]

After watching that video I am even more impressed than I was before. I love how you can add to existing buildings.

[morsdraconis]

Wow, that's AWESOME looking. If you guys decide to buy this game, let me know as I'm totally buying it too. We gotta fuck around and build TGT City!

[jaymo76]

Wow, that's AWESOME looking. If you guys decide to buy this game, let me know as I'm totally buying it too. We gotta fuck around and build TGT City!

For sure! I think that would be a lot of fun. I need to buy a new cpu before March but then we are good to go.

[JBHuskers]

I think this might be my first PC day one buy ever.

[GatorfanStovy]

Wow that game looks like a lot of fun for a PC game. My current laptop can run it probably on max settings too it looks. What is the price tag for this game , 60 ?

[morsdraconis]

Wow that game looks like a lot of fun for a PC game. My current laptop can run it probably on max settings too it looks. What is the price tag for this game , 60 ?

It's unknown as the doesn't come out until mid-March next year.

[jaymo76]

Very cool! Here is the intro gameplay trailer.


http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tQNagqH6mO4

[morsdraconis]

Yeah. Not a whole lot in that trailer, but I still can't wait to get it. It's gonna be one of the first games I buy day 1 in a while. God I hope they don't force me to use their proprietary bullshit to play the game. I WON'T be happy about that.

[jaymo76]

Yeah. Not a whole lot in that trailer, but I still can't wait to get it. It's gonna be one of the first games I buy day 1 in a while. God I hope they don't force me to use their proprietary bullshit to play the game. I WON'T be happy about that.

Well all I know is that you will have to be ONLINE 100% of the time in order to play the game. I'm not very happy about that...

[morsdraconis]

Well all I know is that you will have to be ONLINE 100% of the time in order to play the game. I'm not very happy about that...

(shrugs) I'm online 100% of the time already, so it really doesn't change anything for me. Also, with the progressive economy, there's no way they'd be able to do it without being online 100% of the time.


Also, unless the boxed version of the game is different, the digital version is only available through EA's shitty service. It's highly unlikely it's going to be any different for the boxed version considering the 100% online setup.

[oweb26]

Also, unless the boxed version of the game is different, the digital version is only available through EA's shitty service. It's highly unlikely it's going to be any different for the boxed version considering the 100% online setup.

I dont see how you didnt know that was more than likely. They didn't create there own service just to put one of there biggest games on steam that honestly doesn't make sense.

[morsdraconis]

I dont see how you didnt know that was more than likely. They didn't create there own service just to put one of there biggest games on steam that honestly doesn't make sense.

I was kinda hoping SimCity broke the cycle because SimCity 4 and the Sims 3 are both on Steam, but it doesn't look like it's going to. Like with Mass Effect 3, I might be SERIOUSLY tempted not to play it now....

[jaymo76]

The one thing I don't like about having to be online for the game is that your game dies when ea turns off the servers. You would own the disk but not be able t play the game. I owned CITIES XL when it released and it was also a 100% online game with the purpose of trading between cities. The whole thing fizzled out within six months and then the game was re-introduced as offline. There were 100's of unexpected problems with the online version. Hopefully EA will be better equipped to deal with these issues.

[JBHuskers]

Amazon says March 5th, so I've updated the release date on the title.

[JBHuskers]

Sign up for the beta here.... (http://www.simcity.com/en_US/beta/info)

[JBHuskers]

Hmmmm, I keep getting an error saying my verification code is correct. Anyone else getting this?

[SmoothPancakes]

I can't even get signed into my Origin account, the website keeps fucking up when I try.

[JBHuskers]

Probably getting hammered. Mass e-mails were sent today to sign up for the beta.

[morsdraconis]

I'd LOVE to be able to do this, but the fuckin' website won't let me reset my password! GAH!

[morsdraconis]

(sigh) Made a new account because their website is trash. God I hate EA's proprietary shit SO much.

[JBHuskers]

What I did was log into the NCAA Football Dynasty page, then go over to the Sim City beta page and it worked for me.

[SmoothPancakes]

Piece of shit still won't work. I click register for the beta, it brings up a window to try and log me in, only to them back out to the main SimCity page. I try again, it goes the error page. Fuck it, I'm tired of pissing away my time on this shit.

[jaymo76]

I signed up a few months back when the registration opened and it took me about six attempts to make it work. I would love to be part of the beta but the odds are stacked. Only being able to play for one hour would be a real challenge.

[JeffHCross]

No SimCity for me.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/01/sim-city-beta-eula-includes-company-wide-ban-for-unreported-bugs/

[JBHuskers]

No SimCity for me.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/01/sim-city-beta-eula-includes-company-wide-ban-for-unreported-bugs/

Ummm yeah pretty sure that's overblown.

Never even heard of that site :dunno:

[JeffHCross]

Never even heard of that site :dunno:You've ... never ... heard of Ars Technica?

Wow.

Depends on what you mean by overblown. Do I think it's likely that they would enforce that policy? Nah. But that language is ridiculous.

[JBHuskers]

You've ... never ... heard of Ars Technica?

Wow.

Depends on what you mean by overblown. Do I think it's likely that they would enforce that policy? Nah. But that language is ridiculous.

Basically it's a threat for those who get in the beta and then cheat in the online game.

[JeffHCross]

Basically it's a threat for those who get in the beta and then cheat in the online game.Yeah, I know. But the language is still ridiculous. You don't have to actually exploit, you just have to not report it. At least you have to "know" -- sounds like they allow for the possibility of simply not knowing something is a bug (some things in NCAA, for example, are unclear if they're bugs, exploits, or design decisions).

But not reporting a bug in SimCity gets you banned from Origin? Okkkkkaaaaayyyyyy. Little much there.

Again, I know it's (most likely) just a threat, but it still makes me uncomfortable.

[morsdraconis]

That language is terrible, but, truthfully, I don't have a problem with it. Considering that this iteration of SimCity is online only, the aspect of taking advantage of any exploit or bug that one might happen to find could be a big deal for their design decision of having shared city setups. Especially if they plan to make it where someone can choose to open their world to anyone else playing the game instead of only friends or something.

[JBHuskers]

People get waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too paranoid nowadays.

[JeffHCross]

If you're talking about the previous discussion, JB, it has nothing to do with paranoia. It's not like I'm going to find an exploit and not report it in any beta anyway. I just find that unacceptable, personally.

[jaymo76]

Well I guess I wasn't chosen for the Beta... too bad but not unexpected.

[morsdraconis]

Yeah. Same here. Oh well. Not entirely sure what to think about the game now. Hopefully there's a demo or something cause I'll be pretty hesitant to just straight up buy it otherwise.

[JBHuskers]

I JUST got the e-mail that I'm in.

[JBHuskers]

I JUST got the e-mail that I'm in.

But can only play for an hour.

[SmoothPancakes]

I JUST got the e-mail that I'm in.


But can only play for an hour.

Turns out I got the email as well at 1:18am. I must have been registered for the beta from sometime in the past, because I sure as hell wasn't able to get registered last week with their shitty website.

And yep, some major limitations on the beta according to the email. Can only play it for one hour, and can only play it between now and 12:01 PST on Monday, January 28th. What an experience this'll be. :D

[jaymo76]

Give some credit to the folks at IGN. I came across this article this afternoon.

http://ca.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Regions?objectid=128952

Basically it provides a breakdown for all of the regions and areas you can build cities. I am already trying to figure out where to start.

[morsdraconis]

For those that are interested and didn't get into the Beta, here is someone with 9 videos worth of beta coverage from his press access to play the game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6DvleqnyDU&list=PLI-IbdYJa4E8t3VfY_d9V8idwpOjCy2_j) (where he's clearly able to play longer than the normal 1 hour worth of time that they limited other people to).

I haven't taken a chance to watch all of them yet, but it's definitely a good view into what the game is going to be like, even if it was a Beta.

[jaymo76]

For those that are interested and didn't get into the Beta, here is someone with 9 videos worth of beta coverage from his press access to play the game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6DvleqnyDU&list=PLI-IbdYJa4E8t3VfY_d9V8idwpOjCy2_j) (where he's clearly able to play longer than the normal 1 hour worth of time that they limited other people to).

I haven't taken a chance to watch all of them yet, but it's definitely a good view into what the game is going to be like, even if it was a Beta.

Yeah I watched these videos a few days back. The guy isn't very good at the game but he does show a lot of the features the game has to offer. I hate the online connection but I will still buy this game... I am aiming towards the digital deluxe edition with the European architecture ($79.99).

[JBHuskers]

If you missed out on the first SimCity beta, you'll be pleased to know EA has laid the foundations for a second closed beta, starting February 16. The publisher tells us the second edition features an "enhanced" version of the one hour's worth of city planning featured in the first one.

The beta begins at 9AM ET (6AM PT, 2PM British) on February 16, and runs through 24 hours until February 17. The deadline for sign-ups is 9AM ET on Monday February 11. The game proper launches in North America on March 5, which is when you can get your hands on its Limited Edition, as zanily promoted in the new trailer above.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/08/simcitys-second-beta-assembles-feb-16/

http://www.simcity.com/beta

[jaymo76]

This is a great video that goes over some of the options. The last 3-4 minutes just zooms in on the city and shows what it looks like up close (and unfortunately on cheetah speed...).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1MAeNaW9OU&feature=player_embedded

[morsdraconis]

Unfortunately, the dude doesn't know what he's talkin' about. First comment on the video is about zoning different densities and he says that all zones grow to high density over time (not true) instead of saying that it's based on the road that the zone is next to. There are Low, Medium, and High density roads that determine the density of the zone next to it because, unlike in previous SimCitys, zoning itself is free, it's the roads that cost higher amounts based on the density of the road.

Then, the next comment he's asked about laying down grids and he doesn't know what the hell they're talking about when, clearly, the comment was asking whether or not you can zone in squares like the old SimCity games (to get the most out of your amount of land available), which you can definitely do (and there are even helper lines after you place the first set of roads to help keep everything symmetrical once you do).

First thing I'll be doing (I'm definitely getting this game after watching the 9 videos I linked above) is testing how close of a grid I can make while still getting upgraded buildings since, it's pretty obvious that you have limited room for one city (Maxis's way of pushing you to create suburbs of one giant region instead of creating just one giant expansive city).

Also, from the videos I posted above, the guy tests out circular roads patterns and, I gotta say, it looks fuckin' cool as hell to do that. Just build one giant wagon wheel like design for the central city (high density by the end) of two rings that then propagate out into a box design to gather up the remaining medium and low density needs. So, that's probably my plan once I figure out how to break the game to get the absolute most real estate as possible from one suburb section.

[Oneback]

Someone has already done some testing with different layouts: http://www.tested.com/tech/gaming/453186-simcity-vs-suburban-sprawl/

[jaymo76]

This guy has some enjoyable videos. However, from the beta there are some issues that need to be fixed. This video shows some serious issues with the bus system. The people line up at the bus stop but NEVER get picked up. The guy who filmed the video zooms into the bus stop and it's about 8:50PM. When the video ends it's 12:19AM and the bus still has not arrived. Also, for a busy part of town there is almost zero traffic passing. Based on how glass box works, this should not be happeining. Let's hope it is fixed in retail.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy1gzB-PWCE&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Go to 16:28 in the video and watch to the end to see what I mean.

In addition, I find the grass everywhere in the cities very annoying... just an observation but it's not at all realistic.

[jaymo76]

Another great video from webgamingcentral showing off traffic gridlock and how long it takes a person to commute.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zy1vd55gIg&list=UUWkUAqhI0vDhbSmJqdtWR9w&index=3

Frankly traffic in this game will be a huge challenge...

[jaymo76]

In this video, care of webgamingcentral you can see what a SMALL spread out town looks like. I think this video is king of interesting as the person who created it decided to watch the police respond to a crime and arrest the perp. He also shows how to create high wealth mansions (via ploppong down multiple parks).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQnmAS-pv0I&list=UUWkUAqhI0vDhbSmJqdtWR9w&index=1

[jaymo76]

This last video is definitely an example of how NOT to plan a city. What a disaster!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGdiEBRUelk&list=UUWkUAqhI0vDhbSmJqdtWR9w

[morsdraconis]

This guy has some enjoyable videos. However, from the beta there are some issues that need to be fixed. This video shows some serious issues with the bus system. The people line up at the bus stop but NEVER get picked up. The guy who filmed the video zooms into the bus stop and it's about 8:50PM. When the video ends it's 12:19AM and the bus still has not arrived. Also, for a busy part of town there is almost zero traffic passing. Based on how glass box works, this should not be happeining. Let's hope it is fixed in retail.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy1gzB-PWCE&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Go to 16:28 in the video and watch to the end to see what I mean.

In addition, I find the grass everywhere in the cities very annoying... just an observation but it's not at all realistic.

Not entirely sure whether or not it's the case, but I think his problem with the bus issue is he doesn't have enough bus stops. The videos that I posted above, the dude went, what seemed like apeshit with the number of bus stops on his map (one every block or block and a half or so), but he had ride times down to 60 minutes or so by the end in one of his city layouts. Granted, there is definitely still an issue with them just standing there for as long as they do. Even with his wait time up to 220 minutes or whatever it was, they shouldn't have continued to just stand there after the buses stopped running (which I definitely think was what was happening there - the wait time extended past a point that the buses ran anymore and the just continued to stand there instead of walking home or whatever).

[morsdraconis]

Same thing with the traffic issue in the second video. If you watch the videos I linked earlier, you'll see that the reason why he had so much traffic on that one street was because he built the city where EVERYONE was going down that one street and having to get in ONE lane to turn toward the commercial and industrial area. With just one other direction to get to the industrial area instead of the commercial area, his traffic issues were basically solved.

Traffic is definitely not as big of a deal as what he made there.

[JBHuskers]

Man seeing these videos. I can't wait. I'm going to get lost in this game I think.

[jaymo76]

Same thing with the traffic issue in the second video. If you watch the videos I linked earlier, you'll see that the reason why he had so much traffic on that one street was because he built the city where EVERYONE was going down that one street and having to get in ONE lane to turn toward the commercial and industrial area. With just one other direction to get to the industrial area instead of the commercial area, his traffic issues were basically solved.


Traffic is definitely not as big of a deal as what he made there.

Yeah I agree that the guy has a terrible design. With traffic it is nice to see sims who actually have a destination in mind rather than just driving around in a circle. If you don't think ahead you cn have some real lightmares. I am lookking forward to having street trollies in my own cities.

[jaymo76]

Man seeing these videos. I can't wait. I'm going to get lost in this game I think.

+1

Plus my new cpu will be arriving anytime so when this game drops I will be ready. I think I will preorder once my system arrives and then get to play the one day beta on the 16th. Are you guys going to get the limited edition or the deluxe digital edition with the European city sets? I would like the digital deluxe but $79.99 seems a little on the pricy side for a few attractions.

Also, any thoughts on a tailgate region???

[morsdraconis]

+1

Plus my new cpu will be arriving anytime so when this game drops I will be ready. I think I will preorder once my system arrives and then get to play the one day beta on the 16th. Are you guys going to get the limited edition or the deluxe digital edition with the European city sets? I would like the digital deluxe but $79.99 seems a little on the pricy side for a few attractions.

Also, any thoughts on a tailgate region???

I'd be tempted to get the Deluxe Digital Edition, but, yeah $80 for it is pretty damn high, but the normal game being $60 is pretty harsh as well so :dunno:. I'm gonna try to get it pre-ordered before the next Beta, but, at the same time, I really won't have the money next paycheck to do it I think.

I definitely would be down doing a TGT City region. Don't know a lot about the different options for the regions or anything yet, but I definitely want to do that.

[morsdraconis]

Of course, it being on the 16th is pretty poor timing for me. I'm gonna end up being busy pretty much all that day. :(

[jaymo76]

Of course, it being on the 16th is pretty poor timing for me. I'm gonna end up being busy pretty much all that day. :(

I feel you... it's my youngest son's birthday... "hey son let's have some quality family time, on the cpu...:D

[jaymo76]

This video doesn't really show much but here is a video of what TRAINS look like in the game. It comes from Ocean Quigley and the MAXIS TEAM.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrDHqN9AXiU&feature=player_embedded

With the maps being smaller it will be interesting to see how trains will impact this game.

[morsdraconis]

With the maps being smaller it will be interesting to see how trains will impact this game.

Trains specifically impact business and tourism, if I'm not mistaken. There are a couple of developer videos on EA's channel for SimCity that talk about trains effects on business and tourism. (http://www.youtube.com/user/SimCityEA/videos?view=0)

I'm definitely excited to see the trains integration into their map setup. From the looks of that trailer, it looks like it's going around a pretty large area. So, that may either be an indication that there are larger city areas available in regions or that the train is able to progress through multiple areas without load times (which, from my understanding, isn't possible to be done normally as each area has a pretty significant 2-5 minute load time when switching from one to the other).

[jaymo76]

I saw over on the simcity website that the maual is floating around on the internet. Here is the link for the instruction booklet. Nothing that isn't already well known. As everyone knew, there is a sim city store to buy stuff but everything else is pretty straight forward.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/121736732/Leaked-Simcity-manual

[JBHuskers]

I have no clue how it will work or implement it, but I'd love to have my own city in a TGT region or whatever.

[ryby6969]

I have no clue how it will work or implement it, but I'd love to have my own city in a TGT region or whatever.

I would also be down but my gaming time will be limited until classes end late April. Anyone know what the specs will be for this?

[jaymo76]

I would also be down but my gaming time will be limited until classes end late April. Anyone know what the specs will be for this?

If I understand it correctly, you play whenever you want to and how long you want to. Cities will develop at their own pace all across the region. Trade deals etc. will take into account of different play styles. Apparently there is also a message board to exchange info between neighbouring regions. I am planning on having a closed region of my own BUT I am also willing to spend some time in a shared region for TGT if there is interest.

[ryby6969]

If I understand it correctly, you play whenever you want to and how long you want to. Cities will develop at their own pace all across the region. Trade deals etc. will take into account of different play styles. Apparently there is also a message board to exchange info between neighbouring regions. I am planning on having a closed region of my own BUT I am also willing to spend some time in a shared region for TGT if there is interest.

Yeah, my problem will be playing it and not doing my schoolwork! :D I have limited gaming time between work, school, and kids and I know this would eat all of it up and then some, lol.

[jaymo76]

I dare you to watch this video and not scream. Clearly this guy has not layed the game/series before. Traffic nightmares, building industrial behind your residential, park and rides in industrial only areas, etc. etc. etc. This is why I would not play a region with people I don't know...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwVD03qOUis

[jaymo76]

warning... awful mayor video...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6q8tQFSkJ8&list=UUFynzoXXQRcGAxzgwTgeT_A&index=2

Follow up from above... this is how poor planning works. Worst mayor ever!!!

[jaymo76]

This game is just so beautiful to look at. This video goes through the city slowly. The detail is fantastic. Wathcing these videos I am losing my mind. When will my cpu be delivered?!?! I want in on beta 2!!! :D


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

[morsdraconis]

I dare you to watch this video and not scream. Clearly this guy has not layed the game/series before. Traffic nightmares, building industrial behind your residential, park and rides in industrial only areas, etc. etc. etc. This is why I would not play a region with people I don't know...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwVD03qOUis


:smh:

Good god... "I have major traffic issues and I don't know why?!" Because you have one major road through your entire city without any side roads!!! GAH! :fp:

[CLW]

This looks pretty interesting but not really sure about this "region" thing works.

[morsdraconis]

(sigh)

How is it stupid ass people like this get into the damn Beta but I can't!?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd1I0Vjrt6k

[SmoothPancakes]

:smh:

Good god... "I have major traffic issues and I don't know why?!" Because you have one major road through your entire city without any side roads!!! GAH! :fp:

Seriously. "ahh, I have to add some more side roads, let these guys live by the beach, let these guys listen to the train horn". Yeah, guess what, you can add all those side sections all you want, they're all still tying directly into the same one fucking road as every other damn side road. It'd be the same thing as having one main road in New York City with a thousand dead end side roads. What the fuck did the guy think would happen?

[JBHuskers]

Traffic jams?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flge_rw6RG0

[JBHuskers]

warning... awful mayor video...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6q8tQFSkJ8&list=UUFynzoXXQRcGAxzgwTgeT_A&index=2

Follow up from above... this is how poor planning works. Worst mayor ever!!!

Such an internet tough guy :D "red icon, you're out!"

[SmoothPancakes]

Just watching all these videos does nothing but further cement me doing my own private region, so I don't get stuck in a region with imbeciles like these.

[CLW]

O.K. so if you guys are sure going to get this and we will set up a TGT region I'm in. Is there a particular "version" I need to get. I looked at Amazon and they have a $20 credit + the Heroes & Villains bonus or whatever.

[JBHuskers]

I'll have it the weekend after release probably. Not sure what version I'll get yet.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[SmoothPancakes]

O.K. so if you guys are sure going to get this and we will set up a TGT region I'm in. Is there a particular "version" I need to get. I looked at Amazon and they have a $20 credit + the Heroes & Villains bonus or whatever.

Yeah, I'll probably get the H&V version. I don't really care for all the german, british, etc buildings or whatever the other versions give you.

[JBHuskers]

I am just mad that I didn't make time for round 1 of the beta :D

[morsdraconis]

I am just mad that I didn't make time for round 1 of the beta :D

:smh:

[CLW]

looks like we have 6 or so TGTers interested in a group i smell a "TGT Sim City" sub-forum coming soon. :nod:

[morsdraconis]

Yeah, I'll probably get the H&V version. I don't really care for all the german, british, etc buildings or whatever the other versions give you.

Yeah, same here after I did some research. You basically just plop down one of the European styled wonders (Big Ben and such) and your buildings organically start changing to the new style, but it really doesn't seem all that impressive. Not sure when I'll buy it. Probably gonna pre-order it at the end of the month as I really can't justify spending money on games this paycheck, especially since the main reason would be to play in a Beta that I won't be able to play in because I'll be busy most of the time it's happening.

[morsdraconis]

looks like we have 6 or so TGTers interested in a group i smell a "TGT Sim City" sub-forum coming soon. :nod:

:nod:

Absolutely. Gotta know everyone's plan so I can troll you guys with pollution and dirty Sin City-like crime and sex. ;)

[JBHuskers]

:nod:

Absolutely. Gotta know everyone's plan so I can troll you guys with pollution and dirty Sin City-like crime and sex. ;)

That would be trolling?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[SmoothPancakes]

That would be trolling?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Sounds like a party to me.

[JBHuskers]

Sounds like a party to me.

That's what I was saying. Where's the bad in this? :D

[JBHuskers]

Every good city has a seedy underbelly :nod:

[morsdraconis]

That's what I was saying. Where's the bad in this? :D

The pollution and crime. ;)

[SmoothPancakes]

The pollution and crime. ;)

Yeah, but that's goes hand in hand with the whole seedy underbelly of a city. You can't have the whores, booze, sex and gambling without pollution and crime. Those just add to the atmosphere. :D

[JBHuskers]

The pollution and crime. ;)


Yeah, but that's goes hand in hand with the whole seedy underbelly of a city. You can't have the whores, booze, sex and gambling without pollution and crime. Those just add to the atmosphere. :D

I just gotta raise the taxes. Get my cut from the mafias. Who says I have to play nice?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[jaymo76]

Yeah, same here after I did some research. You basically just plop down one of the European styled wonders (Big Ben and such) and your buildings organically start changing to the new style, but it really doesn't seem all that impressive. Not sure when I'll buy it. Probably gonna pre-order it at the end of the month as I really can't justify spending money on games this paycheck, especially since the main reason would be to play in a Beta that I won't be able to play in because I'll be busy most of the time it's happening.

After thinking about it the last few days I decided to order the LIMITED EDITION download from Origin. I'm okay with $59.99 but $79.99 for the deluxe digital was just too expensive IMO. Seven extra buildings and a few more missions for $20... frankly that seems outrageous! Normally I would be all over the digital deluxe but as I say $20 for seven buildings just makes no sense.

The Origin limited edition gives me the heroes and villians pack (which I will never use) AND Origin will let you download before release and then appaently email the activation code the day of. Since I found out you require ORIGIN on your cpu in order to play, waiting for a hard copy just doens't seem to matter. Plus I am now registered in the beta for Saturday since I pre-ordered directly through Origin before the 13th of February.

[jaymo76]

I think this is a pretty decent review with excellent ZOOM IN examples.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP7aktsSTr4

I agree with most of what this guy says and my biggest two concerns like everyone else are:
1. ALWAYS ONLINE CONNECTION
2. SMALL MAP SIZES

Regardless I feel like a kid at Christmas as I wait for this game to drop...

[JBHuskers]

I don't care about always online like so many others are.

Small map sizes, we'll just have to wait and see once we play.

[morsdraconis]

I don't care about always online like so many others are.

While I'm there with ya JB, I'm worried about server issues just like what's pointed out in the video. That said, I did find a video of someone playing the game while the servers were down during Beta test #1. I don't know if that was a special circumstance (like because they were already in the game, it let them play, but wouldn't have if they weren't) or what, but it definitely looked like it was possible to play the game even when the servers are down. I guess we'll just have to wait and see for sure on that one.


Small map sizes, we'll just have to wait and see once we play.

As I said earlier, I'm fairly confident that, as the video claims, the initial area that was available in the Beta isn't the only size you have available to you in a region. There will be bigger regions to build in, but, even then, you'll have to really cram things in to be able to handle 50,000+ citizens at once.

It'll be interesting to see the growth of the cities as time passes. People have been able to achieve 25,000 or so citizens in just the hour of time that the Beta allowed so I can't see the next 25,000 being that big of an issue as one family houses turn into apartment buildings and then skyrises (which will most definitely happen over time).

[jaymo76]

With regards to population size, apparently there is no limit to how big a city can grow. However, the max for a city is 100,000 agents. Agents are the people you actually see on your streets. So you can have 500,000 people but you will only see 100,00 agents.

There is also talk about bringing back farming at a later date, possibly as dlc.

[jaymo76]

Apparently the next round of beta codes will begin to be emailed out at midnight... fingers crossed.

[morsdraconis]

Holy shit! I'm in the Beta and my business for today was cancelled due to weather! Woot!

What do you guys wanna see tested? I have pretty much all day to do shit now so I'm going to record the hell out of stuff.

[jaymo76]

Holy shit! I'm in the Beta and my business for today was cancelled due to weather! Woot!

What do you guys wanna see tested? I have pretty much all day to do shit now so I'm going to record the hell out of stuff.

Cograts! I pre-ordered and still have not got the beta yet...

[CLW]

Holy shit! I'm in the Beta and my business for today was cancelled due to weather! Woot!

What do you guys wanna see tested? I have pretty much all day to do shit now so I'm going to record the hell out of stuff.

From what I have read traffic congestion issues seem to be difficult to resolve (bus stops "not working" etc...). I'd just mess around with tit and give us your general impressions of the game.

[Paakaa10]

I'm in the beta as well, getting the file installed on my laptop as we speak. Given that this computer is not at all built as a gaming rig, this will be interesting.

[Paakaa10]

I'd just mess around with tit...

New favorite typo. And just all-around good advice.

[jaymo76]

Downloading the beta now. Goodbye cpu virginity... let's see what this new system can do!

[morsdraconis]

So, wait, can you only make a city once and then that's it? I thought you could play as much as you wanted to, but only an hour at a time and each time starting over?

[morsdraconis]

Nevermind. Apparently it's a pretty common bug currently. If it says "Unable to create your city" then just switch servers and switch back again and it'll fix it. Strange bug, but not that big of a deal.

I've played around in the tutorial and a city to get my feet wet. Industrial zones are annoying to zone out correctly. The buildings are fuckin' HUGE.

[jaymo76]

Played the tutorials but I can't get into a town now... server issues maybe??? Either way, great game!!!

[morsdraconis]

Hmm... apparently it's a bug that's affecting anyone that finishes playing their first city. :(

[jaymo76]

Hmm... apparently it's a bug that's affecting anyone that finishes playing their first city. :(

This is my fear of always online... let's hope it can be fixed asap.

[morsdraconis]

Well, for whatever reason, I switched back and forth on the servers again and it fixed it. Played out the hour again, this time trying my idea for a hub city, which worked out quite well considering I messed up and didn't center the hub at the start.

Without high density roads, it's really difficult to test much of anything, unfortunately. I did start out with low density roads (to keep costs down) and slowly worked my way up to medium density roads, but I was still having issues with transportation to and from my industrial zones, so I had to bulldoze the normal medium density road and put in a medium density avenue and it seemed to fix any traffic issues I was having with transportation to and from my industrial area.

Overall, it was fun, but being in a hurry with this type of game makes it pretty unfun since I'm basically forced to play on the fastest speed to get anywhere in the time limit.

[jaymo76]

I have only got to play a city once... and half way through the in-laws swung by. I have not been able to get on since and the worst part is forcing the programme to close in order to get out of it.

[morsdraconis]

4th game - 41,000 people at the end of it. Grid city build with barely ANY traffic issues. Had a bus system with the minimum number of stops that would still be full coverage of the city.

Not sure if it mattered this time or not, but I went with a Gambling specialization and put in one casino with all the available additions to it. Had a little bit of crime, but nothing that a fully decked out police station nearby couldn't handle.



I think the hub design might be better situated to be a 3 hub setup instead of a centralized one hub setup. Basically have one hub for each zoning type with the center section available for Fire, Education, and Health for the various areas. I'm going to test it out next and see if I can figure out what I can get out of it.

[jaymo76]

Finally had a chance to play and I could get in. I played three straight hour long games. Each city was totally unique. When I am not rushed it will be so much better. I have decided to focus on different things. The biggest factor by far which spurs growth and development is ploppable parks. Plop a park then add to it and watch the neighbourhood transform entirely.

I will admit I did have some traffic issues but I didn't create busses. I just wanted to see development occur naturally. Often I would click on a car and follow that person around just to check out my city... awesome experience! The game truly is beautiful to look at.

Highlights so far.

1. Game 3- zombie outbreak in the first 20 mins of the game. Over half of my town was destroyed/abandoned. I had to demolish and rebuild... BUT... then massive fires began to break out in the demolished buildings and I ony had two firetrucks at that point... devastating but fine (ps zombies glow for some reason but are then killed off by the sun...(

2. Game 3- alien abductions. Yes, after the zombies and fires then aliens visited me and abducted some of my sims from their homes. Pretty silly to watch but funny none-the-less.

3. Tutorial- police shoot out. It lasted about one minute and there were six bad guys versus four cops. The cops won!

4. Game 2- I had three major achievements including 20 buildings in my city core.

5. Reading at the simcity forums that you can play the other city area as well, not just clearwater. After dinner I am going to try this out.

Called me impressed! Great job EA and Maxis!!!

[morsdraconis]

Well damn! I'm gonna have to figure out how to take control of the other region because I tried and I couldn't figure out how.

[CLW]

sounds good guys. a couple of questions:

(1) we doing a TGT "region"

(2) if yes i'm looking at Amazon and if I am looking at this correctly there is only a $20 credit if you buy the actual disk instead of the download?

(3) if you buy the disk could you install it on more than one PC? (i.e. my desktop and laptop?)

[morsdraconis]

sounds good guys. a couple of questions:

(1) we doing a TGT "region"

(2) if yes i'm looking at Amazon and if I am looking at this correctly there is only a $20 credit if you buy the actual disk instead of the download?

(3) if you buy the disk could you install it on more than one PC? (i.e. my desktop and laptop?)

Yeah, it would be a TGT Region where everyone (or, as many as we could fit) would have access to one city section in that region as we all build out the area.

Probably just the disk version.

I don't see why not. It's still gonna be through Origin and I don't believe that Origin stops you from installing it and downloading multiple times the games that you've purchased through it/used in it.

[morsdraconis]

Got up to 61,000 in the second city region! How you may ask? Lack of education. Keep your population happy with jobs and cheap low level parks and then expand like a motherfucker. Once I expanded up the hill with residential and commercial, my population skyrocketed from 20,000 to 50,000 in 20 minutes or so. From there, it was just mitigating traffic as much as possible and watching the highrise apartment buildings start to flow in.

[morsdraconis]

Oh yeah, and I didn't do any gambling stuff to get to 61,000 either. Just normal people growth.

[JBHuskers]

Odd that I didn't get an invite this time around. Oh well. The wait isn't long. :)

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[morsdraconis]

Odd that I didn't get an invite this time around. Oh well. The wait isn't long. :)

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Truthfully, besides getting a taste for the game, you aren't going to get much out of the Beta. The limit of things you can do makes it where you really aren't even getting into the meat of the game. It's like playing Bill Walsh College Football for the Genesis and then playing NCAA '13 on the 360. It's the same core ideals, but you're just barely getting your feet wet.

[jaymo76]

Yup the mountain map is a lot more fun than Clearwater. I decided to make as many bridges as possible just to see what it would be like. Traffic is a nightmare on those hills if you don't get busses. I really wish we could upgrade roads as I would love to see the trams.

[jaymo76]

I really like the camera feature within the gameplay. I took a few pics of my last two cities. Some of the views are spectacular. I got in 8 hours with the beta. Outside of map size bieng too small, this game IMO will be phenomenal. I'm totally in for a TGT region (though I'm not sure how we set it up... invite?). I am also going to do my own region and may have a region with my wife. March 5th cannot come quick enough. This really isn't simcity 5, it just like they say is a reboot and I appreciate the new direction.

[SmoothPancakes]

Where are you guys ordering from? I'm tempted to go with Amazon. Get the Limited Edition (that comes with the Heroes & Villians thing) for $59.99. I'd probably go for the physical disc, since it comes with a $20 credit (whereas the PC download comes with only a $5 credit).

[morsdraconis]

Where are you guys ordering from? I'm tempted to go with Amazon. Get the Limited Edition (that comes with the Heroes & Villians thing) for $59.99. I'd probably go for the physical disc, since it comes with a $20 credit (whereas the PC download comes with only a $5 credit).

If I do preorder it, it'll probably just be the PC Download from Amazon.

[JBHuskers]

Where are you guys ordering from? I'm tempted to go with Amazon. Get the Limited Edition (that comes with the Heroes & Villians thing) for $59.99. I'd probably go for the physical disc, since it comes with a $20 credit (whereas the PC download comes with only a $5 credit).

I'm gone the week it comes out, so probably in a store when I get back.

[jaymo76]

Where are you guys ordering from? I'm tempted to go with Amazon. Get the Limited Edition (that comes with the Heroes & Villians thing) for $59.99. I'd probably go for the physical disc, since it comes with a $20 credit (whereas the PC download comes with only a $5 credit).

If you don't want the disc, just pre-order through origin. You can download it in advance and right now they have a $20 off your next purchase deal. Since I ordered on Origin I have the game in my Origin account and I am waiting for when it will be unlocked.

[jaymo76]

Here is a link to some of the regional maps.


http://simcityhall.net/viewtopic.php?pid=194#p194

[morsdraconis]

http://oyster.ignimgs.com/mediawiki/apis.ign.com/simcity/2/27/Cliffside_Vista_Region.png

Looks like this place is going to allow the giant cities that everyone is fretting about not having access to; that is, if I'm understanding their outlining correctly.

[SmoothPancakes]

If you don't want the disc, just pre-order through origin. You can download it in advance and right now they have a $20 off your next purchase deal. Since I ordered on Origin I have the game in my Origin account and I am waiting for when it will be unlocked.

True, but I've never bought something of Origin yet, not sure there's going to be anything in the near future that would make me want to buy and be able to spend that $20 on. At least with Amazon, I'd be able to use the $20 towards NCAA 14 or something. I'm not even sure how immediately soon I'd be able to play it that day, so whether I have it preinstalled and just waiting for it to unlock or waiting for UPS to drop off the disc around 1:30pm that afternoon, isn't really too big of a deal to me.

Just trying to find the best deal that will give me the most credits. If Origin is $20 also, I may just go with the physical copy through Amazon then, and get the $20 to use in future Amazon game purchases, which I at least know there would be some at some point. I have no idea when the next time that I would ever buy a game through Origin would be to even use their $20 off the next purchase deal.

[JBHuskers]

Mors, you saying they're fretting cuz it wasn't available in the beta?

[morsdraconis]

Mors, you saying they're fretting cuz it wasn't available in the beta?

Yeah. All the "hardcore" SimCity fans are losing their shit because they can't create GINORMOUS cities like you could in SimCity 2000, 3, and 4. Because you can't create cities that span the entirety of the map you're given, they're pissed.

[CLW]

Got to thinking and I have no clue if I am going to have a "specs" issue on my desktop to run this (or other games) game at the highest settings:

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6450
Processor: Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz
Ram: 12GB
HDD: over 1TB of free space

[gschwendt]

Got to thinking and I have no clue if I am going to have a "specs" issue on my desktop to run this (or other games) game at the highest settings:

Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6450
Processor: Intel i7-2600 3.4GHz
Ram: 12GB
HDD: over 1TB of free space
You won't be able to run it at it's highest settings but would assume you should be fine to run it at probably medium settings.

It's not there now, but eventually it will be included on CYRI...
http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri

[gschwendt]

Actually, I didn't realize how low the 6450 is... that could definitely hold you back. You should be able to play it at least on the lowest settings.

[morsdraconis]

I had to crank it down to medium to play it at 1900x1080 to get 60 fps, but it still looked amazing.

[CLW]

Actually, I didn't realize how low the 6450 is... that could definitely hold you back. You should be able to play it at least on the lowest settings.

Yeah I figured the graphics card would be the issue. What's a good "gaming" graphics card that hopefully won't hurt the budget to badly? I assume its just a pop in pop out type deal.

[gschwendt]

Yeah I figured the graphics card would be the issue. What's a good "gaming" graphics card that hopefully won't hurt the budget to badly? I assume its just a pop in pop out type deal.
What's your budget? For something that you'll probably want to upgrade in a year or so, you can get one for around $100.

[CLW]

What's your budget? For something that you'll probably want to upgrade in a year or so, you can get one for around $100.

It's likely not something I would do until after my job situation is settled. I have an interview tomorrow so we shall see. But I wouldn't be against spending $100-$200 if it would do the trick for a few years.

[jaymo76]

I need to give credit where credit is due. ONMYMIND2009 who is a poster on the SimCity forums put together a comprehensive list of answers. He created this list by scouring a number of sites. It's a great read.

1) A cluster of cities in the 16 city region are connected by road, but they can connect by other means of transportation.
2) Police Precinct's detective wing needs a university with a school of law, and a completed research project.
3) After placing a University in a city, high tech industry will show up.
4) When you build a university, you can do research projects to unlock modules on other buildings.
5) Roads connect a cluster of 4 cities, but each cluster can be connected by rail/ferry (if available).
6) Trains travel from city to city.
7) Sims in the region can commute to other city for school.
8] You have a finite amount of resources, so once you run out, that's it.
9) Rail cannot transfer electricity, just roads.
10) It is possible to have an entire city full of industry, but only a certain amount of sims will commute. You can get more sims to commute by adding public transportation.
11) The Expo Center, Pro Stadium and a few others will come with a list of events to choose from. As the sims make their way to the event you will see just how many showed up, and how much you made from the event(s).
12) Multiple servers are in for launch. They are separate from each other for everything, but you can use anyone you want and more than one.
13) Too many henchman equals LOTS of crime.
14) ProTip: If your citizens are educated, definitely go with nuclear power!
15) To effectively send gifts, even money, be sure to have good traffic flow into and out of your cities.
16) Suggestion: Make a loop through your city with a big avenue and keep intersections with it low. Cross streets too!
17) It is NOT possible to destroy a Great Work. Once they are constructed, they are permanent.
18] You cannot control Dr. Vu's machine. The machine will shoot things with lasers and missiles, and Maxis Man will try to fight him off.
19) Each region has different limits on the amount of players. The maximum is 16 players.
20) Trees do help with pollution, but will slowly die if your city is polluted.
21) You can not only add modules to buildings, but you can also remove them too using the bulldozer.
22) You can use the Ctrl key on your keyboard to quickly place zones along the edges of roads.
23) The secret to maximizing city size is road layout.
24) You can bulldoze everything in the city or go to region view and claim other cities to build.
25) If your internet goes down while you're playing, you will still be able to play for a short period of time. No specific time frame has been given!
26) In the final version of the game, you will be able to see spacing requirements for roads to help you build your city.
27) The "rapid" means of transportation are: buses, trains, boats, planes and streetcars.
28] The tutorial that we saw during the beta is the same, but there will be other tutorials in the game to help you.
29) Sims will use transit all over the region, they do not use planes though. Will have to get more information on this!
30) You can mix zones to help maximize sims overall happiness.
31) Lot sizes are automatically generated by the game engine.
32) Radiation turns into ground pollution.
33) There are no glowing ground effects for radiation, you can only see it in the data layer.
34) Ground pollution will slowly heal itself, but it will take a long time.
35) You can limit your building growth by keeping your roads at low capacity.
36) Emergency vehicles will only be stuck in traffic in single lane roads, if a lane is free the vehicles will move out of the way for the emergency.
37) Your cities/regions are only available on the first server you sign up on, but you can sign up on the European server and play there.
38] You, and other mayors will need to be on the same server to play together.
39) Each server has its own global economy, and does not affect economies on other servers.
40) You can upgrade roads to increase building density.
41) You can trade with other cities.
42) You will not be able to change the height of the roads, this feature may present itself at a later time.
43) Cheat codes are available in sandbox mode only.
44) Cheat codes can provide money, toggle fires, disasters, crime, etc.
45) A meltdown is caused by cutting off education.

All of the images from community day: http://imgur.com/a/YRxB0#0

Credit: @Simify @SimCityHall @SimCitizens @Simstropolis

[morsdraconis]

I'm sure most of you missed it, but apparently Maxis is doing a week long thing (each day until the release of the game on Tuesday) called www.letsallbemayor.com (http://www.letsallbemayor.com) where they are live streaming for 4 hours from 12:00pm EST until 4pm EST.

They did their first one, Disaster City, today. You can watch the replay of it here: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2987316/events/1902153 and you'll be able to watch the replay of each of them at the same place shortly after it's finished streaming live (you can also watch the stream live on that page as well).

The next cities in order:

Casino City - How many fancy casinos, luxury hotels and tourist traps can one city take?

Going Green - Can we turn a toxic city into a symbol of environmentalism?

City In The Shape Of - With curved roads, anything is possible.

Burn Some Coal - A limited amount of coal. Endless ways to burn it.

City on the Brink - Can we save a city on the verge of collapse?

4 cities in 4 hours - A metropolitan multitasking extravaganza.

[jaymo76]

I just got the invite to participate in beta 3 tomorrow night from 5pm to 9pm pacific. Does anyone else have one? Apparently it's the full version of the game and they want to see how the servers respond.

[morsdraconis]

Nope. No invite for me. :( Good thing though, I'd only be able to play an hour or two before having to go to bed.

[CLW]

http://youtu.be/_9P_z1iWK_8

[morsdraconis]

FYI, preordered from Amazon (did the digital download, cause, eh, why not?) so I'll be ready to roll at 3:15ish pm EST on Tuesday to play some SimCity with you fellas. :up:

[jaymo76]

Hot damn! I played the full beta tonight. This game is freaking awesome!!! I had a ferry, with a cruise ship terminal, a trolley line, the Lincoln monument, etc. Controlling all the things in the city is tough but when you control multiple cities it is extremely difficult. I controlled two cities and really struggled to stay on top of things. Plus, this beta seemed a lot tougher than the last beta. SEWER is a nightmare. At 34k population I had three sewer pipes and was over capacity. Plus fires and crime are a lot more severe. With a full fire contingency I was having 10 fires a day. I had several regional trade deals between my cities just to keep my big city afloat. TRADE BETWEEN CITIES IS ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS IN THIS GAME!!!

I had another person who joined my region and the guy had no police so I was constantly under assault from criminals. The guys uses my schools but does nothing to help me out. I even gifted him 50k and not so much of even a thank you. DO NOT PLAY THIS GAME WITH STRANGERS!!!

Looking forward to the TGT region. Based on what I learned today ONE of us will need to choose a region, name it, make the region PRIVATE and then send invites to everyone else. Plus, and this is huge, I believe WE ALL NEED TO BE ON THE SAME SERVER in order to find the region. Today I was on West Europe 3. I suggest that everyone plays around with two cities in a private region for a couple hours before we begin a TGT region just to get the feel for this version of the game... as I say, it feels a lot tougher IMO.

Can't wait for next Tuesday...

[morsdraconis]

Well, I'll be starting the TGT region when I get home on Tuesday. I'm going to attempt to get a region that has a lot of different things available so that we can have a wide range of things for people to specialize their cities in or to just do in their city.

Once I get the region started, I'll have an idea of what can be offered where and we'll go from there with it. I'm sure most people have an idea of what type of city they want to build. Me personally, I'm gonna go with heavy industrial to farm out jobs to everyone else so that you guys don't have to worry about industrial issues as much and are free to build whatever you want without having high industrial needs all the time.


It would be nice to know how many people actually plan on playing this with us. I know JB expressed interest (though said he's gone the week it comes out) and CLW did as well (though he was afraid of graphics issues so maybe not). Looks like Smooth might be in on this as well. So it looks like we have at least 5 people currently interested (I know some others expressed interest, but haven't said anything after their initial post), so, I'll make sure we have a region that has, at least, 5 areas to build cities in.

[JBHuskers]

I'm down. Won't have the game til Sunday after.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[CLW]

Yeah I'll give it a whirl. I'm going to order the disc from Amazon to get the $20 credit. I can always upgrade the graphics later and I had a job interview today with a career change that I think went pretty well should know something more concrete in 2 weeks.

BTW -- I ran the check and as suspected I was fine other than the graphics card but I was in between (nearly in the middle) between the minimum and "recommended" settings.

Features: Recommended attributes of your Video Card



Required
You Have


http://d1ylr6sba64qi3.cloudfront.net/cyri/assets/images_/green_checkmark_small.gif
Pixel Shader version
4.0
5.0


http://d1ylr6sba64qi3.cloudfront.net/cyri/assets/images_/green_checkmark_small.gif
Vertex Shader version
4.0
5.0


http://d1ylr6sba64qi3.cloudfront.net/cyri/assets/images_/green_checkmark_small.gif
Dedicated Video RAM
896 MB
1.0 GB






so not really sure what i can/should upgrade with but depending on how it looks i may upgrade later.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, I ordered the disc from Amazon as well to get the $20 credit. Placed my preorder on Tuesday, so it should be here sometime around 1:30pm next Tuesday. I'll get it installed and fire it up then. I'll probably first start a private region by myself to get a feel for the entire game (since all I've had to go on with was one of the very first betas), before I join the TGT region, just so I can have an idea of what I want to do and have that idea based on actual game mechanics rather than planning in my head and not knowing if it would be possible or feasible or not.

[jaymo76]

Well, I'll be starting the TGT region when I get home on Tuesday. I'm going to attempt to get a region that has a lot of different things available so that we can have a wide range of things for people to specialize their cities in or to just do in their city.

Once I get the region started, I'll have an idea of what can be offered where and we'll go from there with it. I'm sure most people have an idea of what type of city they want to build. Me personally, I'm gonna go with heavy industrial to farm out jobs to everyone else so that you guys don't have to worry about industrial issues as much and are free to build whatever you want without having high industrial needs all the time.


It would be nice to know how many people actually plan on playing this with us. I know JB expressed interest (though said he's gone the week it comes out) and CLW did as well (though he was afraid of graphics issues so maybe not). Looks like Smooth might be in on this as well. So it looks like we have at least 5 people currently interested (I know some others expressed interest, but haven't said anything after their initial post), so, I'll make sure we have a region that has, at least, 5 areas to build cities in.

Persoonally I would like to try for a education city.

[morsdraconis]

That'll be excellent. University for our region is most definitely a good thing as it'll allow for high tech industry as well as richer people overall.

[morsdraconis]

I've changed my mind. I'm going to wait to buy this at a later time. Can't really afford to purchase this at the moment cause I have some other things that I need to worry about more at the moment. :(

[CLW]

Well how many do we have that are DEFINITELY getting the game? If noone is 100% getting the game I need to cancel my pre-order a.s.a.p.

[JBHuskers]

I am definitely getting it, just won't be on to play it til Sunday the 10th.

[jaymo76]

For those who are interested, we can wait a few weeks until everyone has a chance to play the game/buy the game/see if they want to do region play etc. Maybe mid March would be a good time to gauge interest?

[morsdraconis]

For those who are interested, we can wait a few weeks until everyone has a chance to play the game/buy the game/see if they want to do region play etc. Maybe mid March would be a good time to gauge interest?

That's not a bad idea.

[CLW]

so.... should i cancel my pre-order and just wait?

[SmoothPancakes]

For those who are interested, we can wait a few weeks until everyone has a chance to play the game/buy the game/see if they want to do region play etc. Maybe mid March would be a good time to gauge interest?

That would work for me. It'd give me a chance to spend a couple weeks in a private region getting fully up to speed on things, as that one early beta is the only experience I've had with the game. I want to make sure I've got a good plan for my city in our group region.

[jaymo76]

so.... should i cancel my pre-order and just wait?

You have to do what you think is best. I'm in for sure and it sounds like JB and Smooth are in. Mors wants to be in and probably will be at some point. The thing is that invites can be sent out at anytime so people can join at pretty much any time. If you want to get the game and join at a later date, that is perfectly fine.

[jaymo76]

That would work for me. It'd give me a chance to spend a couple weeks in a private region getting fully up to speed on things, as that one early beta is the only experience I've had with the game. I want to make sure I've got a good plan for my city in our group region.

I have decided that I am going to start my own personal for fun region with the region used in the beta. Playing beta three with everything unlocked taught me a lot and I want a re-do to redeem myself. Clearwater will be my entertainment and gambling hub while the city to the south will be all industry and the city to the east will be a residential suburb.

[gschwendt]

I'll probably be getting the game. I'm not a huge Sim City guy so I don't want to just jump in but if after a few weeks with it, I may decide to help ruin your region.

[CLW]

allright sounds like several of you are getting it eventually so i'll keep the pre-order and just mess around with it until the TGT region begins.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah, I've still got my preorder through Amazon. Should be shipping out later today.

[morsdraconis]

So, I lied. I preordered anyway. I can't not buy it. :)

Even still, we'll give it a week or two for everyone to get acclimated to how the game works and such before we do the TGT Region play.

[JBHuskers]

I can't wait!

[CLW]

my disc is on the way thanks to the fine folks at Amazon. I think Tuesday will be like Christmas with Tomb Raider; MLB The Show and Sim City all arriving.

[SmoothPancakes]

So, I lied. I preordered anyway. I can't not buy it. :)

Even still, we'll give it a week or two for everyone to get acclimated to how the game works and such before we do the TGT Region play.

That's the spirit! Yeah, I have a feeling I'm gonna end up doing a couple different private regions when I first start playing tomorrow. I have no doubt I'm gonna seriously fuck things up in my first couple regions, until I find a good system.

We should get a roster of who all will join the region and who is going to do exactly what, so we can make sure to have everything covered. I've seen mentions of an industrial city, an education city, etc. Try to get a full picture of what all we're going to do so we can try to cover all bases and make sure our region is in damn good shape.

[SmoothPancakes]

my disc is on the way thanks to the fine folks at Amazon. I think Tuesday will be like Christmas with Tomb Raider; MLB The Show and Sim City all arriving.

Yeah, mine should be on the way shortly. I haven't received the email yet from Amazon, but the money was drawn out of my bank account a little bit ago, so it will be on its way. Every other purchase from Amazon in the past year has arrived from UPS sometime around 1:30pm, so I figure 25 hours from now it should be arriving.

[JBHuskers]

I'll have to see if my laptop can run it. Then maybe I can play some while I'm gone...else I'll play it on Sunday when I get back home.

[JBHuskers]

I'm assuming that I can install this on two computers?

[morsdraconis]

I'm assuming that I can install this on two computers?

I'm assuming that that'll be ok. It's activated through Origin so I don't see why not.

[morsdraconis]

The worst "review" for a game I've ever read. (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/simcity-impressions-we-waited-ten-years-for-this/) And to think, Arstechnica used to be a good place to go to.

That's some fuckin' blog writing skills there. :smh:

[morsdraconis]

Name
Specialization
Main Production


Mors
Electronics
Power/Industrial Jobs


Jay
Education
Knowledge


Smooth
?
?


JB
?
?


CLW
?
?




The 7 specializations are Mining (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Mining), Drilling (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Drilling), Trading (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Trading), Electronics (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Electronics), Culture (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Culture), Gambling (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Gambling), and Education (http://www.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Education).

For the main production, I personally was thinking, if I'm going to go mainly industrial buildings, that I could be the power farm for everyone else as I build up my power generation (obviously going to go nuclear in the end with the high tech industrial jobs that will be provided from Jay's University buildings). With me being able to share power with everyone and allow people to commute to my city for industrial jobs, it makes it where you guys can worry less about needing to build polluting industrial or power plants in your cities (which will, of course, be less and less for my city as I transfer to high tech industrial and clean up the air pollution/ground pollution leftover from my previously polluting factories).

Doing that would, of course, not prevent you guys from going with solar or wind power if you wanted to keep everything running in the green, but it would definitely make it where you wouldn't have to worry about coal power plants or anything polluting your, otherwise, unpolluted cities.

[CLW]

I was thinking Culture and/or Trading being my specialization but who knows I'll mess around with it tomorrow and let you know for sure one way or another.

[SmoothPancakes]

Interesting. I'll have to dive deeper into those specializations and see which way I'd be interested in going. I'll have to check it out later tonight, because I'm gonna try to set up a private region and do a city as how I would build it in the TGT region.

[CLW]

lol well someone has to do gambling too :nod:

[CLW]

http://youtu.be/i9SxJ9Lttp8


http://youtu.be/SRPNLspJAk0


http://youtu.be/31cMLzdUUgY

[JBHuskers]

Dedicated Video RAM 896 MB 512 MB

The only thing that I failed on the recommended. But for bare minimum, my laptop does pass!

[ryby6969]

I actually think my laptop will run this also. Not sure if/when I will pick it up though.

[cdj]

I'm tempted to pick this one up. If the TGT region has an opening down the line, I may be willing join in (if I pick this one up).

[morsdraconis]

I'm tempted to pick this one up. If the TGT region has an opening down the line, I may be willing join in (if I pick this one up).

Absolutely Chris! We'll most likely use one of the regions that supports 8+ cities so that there's room for extra people.

[morsdraconis]

http://youtu.be/i9SxJ9Lttp8

For the love of god guys, PLEASE don't do what he does and start out building high density roads right from the get go. As you can see from the video, he QUICKLY burns through his initial money supply because of it. Build low density streets and the lowest density avenues you can to start out with (I believe they are medium density avenues, though I could be wrong) and use the road upgrade tool to change stuff.

Also, when planning out your city, take into account where you're putting buildings that cost money because, sooner or later, you're going to have to upgrade those non-avenue roads into avenues to accommodate the massive amount of traffic you're sure to have once you hit 100,000+ citizens. Why take into account where you put those cost buildings? Because when you upgrade from roads to avenues, it's going to destroy any building connected to that road because of the size difference.

[jaymo76]

Rumour has it that 9pm PACIFIC downloading in North America (Canada & USA) begins if you ordered the digital copy. I will log in to origin around that time with my fingers crossed.

[SmoothPancakes]

Almost to town. My shipment originated out of Lexington, Kentucky last night and at last update left Columbus at 4:21am. So it should be in town between 7 and 8am, get loaded on a truck and be delivered around 1:30pm. Great timing too as a winter storm is coming plowing its way through this entire region (they're saying possibility of 8-12 inches and higher for counties in the middle of Ohio) later this evening through Wednesday morning, so it'll arrive right before the weather turns to shit.

[morsdraconis]

Rumour has it that 9pm PACIFIC downloading in North America (Canada & USA) begins if you ordered the digital copy. I will log in to origin around that time with my fingers crossed.

Yup. Mine was ready at midnight (got the email from Amazon), but I just finished downloading it (only took 20-30 minutes as I started at 5:00am and when I got out of the shower at 5:25, it was ready to roll). Updating now (apparently there's like a 1gig patch to download or somethin').

[SmoothPancakes]

I'm still trying to decide what I want to do for our region. I'm thinking a combination of mining/drilling, so I can suck you bastards dry of your cash with my coal, oil and gas monopolies. Every region needs that one rich as shit asshole Texan oil tycoon. :D

[oweb26]

I am going to get this sooner or later and would like to jump in when I get it. I have learned the hard way about buying PC games on release day only to see them go on sale three weeks later.

[SmoothPancakes]

I think I may install this on my actual laptop, sitting here thinking about it. I have a dedicated 1 TB external drive that I have shifted my entire Steam library and every other PC game onto to keep space freed up on my laptop. But my laptop gets moved around a lot and the USB cable for the external drive has been becoming a bit of a pain in the ass, losing connection a bunch if moved too much. With as much as I'm going to be playing SimCity once it's installed, I don't really want to deal with all that crap. So I may install it on my laptop instead so I can play it whenever and wherever and not have to put up with that USB cable.

[morsdraconis]

Updated:



Name
Specialization
Main Production


Mors
Electronics
Power/Industrial Jobs


Jay
Education
Knowledge


Smooth
?
?


JB
?
?


CLW
?
?


Oweb
?
?

[morsdraconis]

I'm still trying to decide what I want to do for our region. I'm thinking a combination of mining/drilling, so I can suck you bastards dry of your cash with my coal, oil and gas monopolies. Every region needs that one rich as shit asshole Texan oil tycoon. :D

Sadly, you can only choose one specialization per city so you'd have to choose between the two. I was struggling to decide which direction I was going to go with myself besides a bunch of industrial zones and power plants. In the end, I went with electronics since it made the most sense based on my usage of high tech industrial.

[SmoothPancakes]

I'm gonna give that drilling/mining combination a try in the very first private region I create, see if becoming the J.R. Ewing of our region is a feasible goal. :D

The way I see it, me and mors would be sitting fairly pretty. I become rich as shit by selling boatloads of coal and petroleum to mors for his power plants. Then when he eventually upgrades to nuclear, and I've sucked the land dry of it's resources, switch to gambling and pillage the pockets of your citizens on a daily basis. :D

Mors will also potentially be in great position with everyone else in the region buying power off of him, feeding him with a constant source of income for the entire length of the region, and that source of income will only grow as all our cities grow and expand and our demanded levels of power consumption continue to rise.

[SmoothPancakes]

Sadly, you can only choose one specialization per city so you'd have to choose between the two. I was struggling to decide which direction I was going to go with myself besides a bunch of industrial zones and power plants. In the end, I went with electronics since it made the most sense based on my usage of high tech industrial.

Damn!

In that case, I may go with drilling. I have a feeling you'd need more petroleum for your power production than coal after a while. Coal will be king early on, but oil will eventually take over.

[CLW]

Damn!

In that case, I may go with drilling. I have a feeling you'd need more petroleum for your power production than coal after a while. Coal will be king early on, but oil will eventually take over.

spoken like a true Texan.

[SmoothPancakes]

spoken like a true Texan.

:D I'll definitely take the black gold any day over the black lung.

[CLW]

:D I'll definitely take the black gold any day over the black lung.

just be careful with all the libs here they are likely to setup wind and solar farms on your arse. :nod:

[morsdraconis]

just be careful with all the libs here they are likely to setup wind and solar farms on your arse. :nod:

Sadly, like real life, wind and solar farms just aren't viable energy sources. ;)

Nuclear FTW! ;)

[SmoothPancakes]

Sadly, like real life, wind and solar farms just aren't viable energy sources. ;)

Nuclear FTW! ;)

Well, you can take your sweet ass time reaching nuclear plants. The longer you need my oil, the better. For me at least. :D

[CLW]

Sadly, like real life, wind and solar farms just aren't viable energy sources. ;)

Nuclear FTW! ;)

you are the FIRST lib i've ever seen admit that.

libs generally aren't very friendly to nuclear either due to the what do we do with the waste issue. does sim city not have that "problem" to deal with nuclear energy?

[CLW]

BTW IGN is live streaming 9 straight hours of gameplay of SimCity.

[morsdraconis]

you are the FIRST lib i've ever seen admit that.

libs generally aren't very friendly to nuclear either due to the what do we do with the waste issue. does sim city not have that "problem" to deal with nuclear energy?

As far as I know, there isn't an issue, but I've barely seen any videos of using Nuclear for very long. It takes a while to build up to being able to use it because of the need for intelligent citizens (need University) to even be able to run it without causing a nuclear holocaust.

I may be a liberal when it comes to how things in the country should be ran, but the environment can fuck off for all I care. Nuclear power isn't going to destroy the world in my lifetime so I couldn't care less what happens afterwards.

[morsdraconis]

Well, you can take your sweet ass time reaching nuclear plants. The longer you need my oil, the better. For me at least. :D

Oh no doubt. :D

It'll be SEVERAL hours into play before I'm able to use just Nuclear power, so you'll have PLENTY of time to bleed me dry for oil. ;)

[SmoothPancakes]

Oh no doubt. :D

It'll be SEVERAL hours into play before I'm able to use just Nuclear power, so you'll have PLENTY of time to bleed me dry for oil. ;)

:D Well, like I said in a previous post, we would be in great position to profit in this region. I'd make a ton of profit from constantly selling you oil, and you'd make a ton of profit from selling power to the entire rest of the region. It's win-win for the two of us!

[oweb26]

Well I was about to go ahead and pull the trigger on this (credit on Amazon) but I am a little thrown off now. Are the map sizes really that bad? I don't really care about the online DRM, but what about the lack of a true single player mode is that true at all?

I will take you guys words over either A. People who really need a life or B. Spazzing out 12 year olds.

[SmoothPancakes]

Goddamnit. I can sit there buying anything and everything from Amazon and UPS will drop it off every time by no later than 1:45pm. This time I buy something I really fucking want and really want to arrive as soon as possible, and UPS apparently puts it on one of their fucking late trucks, since it's still not here at 2pm. Talk about a load of shit.

[CLW]

Well I was about to go ahead and pull the trigger on this (credit on Amazon) but I am a little thrown off now. Are the map sizes really that bad? I don't really care about the online DRM, but what about the lack of a true single player mode is that true at all?

I will take you guys words over either A. People who really need a life or B. Spazzing out 12 year olds.

I cannot comment on the map sizes but my understanding is they are smaller than past versions. However, from what I have seen on the IGN stream they look plenty big for me. The game has to be online but you can play by yourself just create a region and don't invite anyone to join.

[oweb26]

I cannot comment on the map sizes but my understanding is they are smaller than past versions. However, from what I have seen on the IGN stream they look plenty big for me. The game has to be online but you can play by yourself just create a region and don't invite anyone to join.

Sounds fair to me...anyone else have an opinion on the map sizes.

[CLW]

Come on UPS hurry the [CENSORED] up I got Tomb Raider; SimCity; and The Show to play! :nod:

[SmoothPancakes]

Come on UPS hurry the [CENSORED] up I got Tomb Raider; SimCity; and The Show to play! :nod:

I'm in the same boat. Every package that I have received via UPS since at least October have always arrived during the 1pm hour. The one package that I absolutely want to arrive the damn fastest it possibly can, and it ends up on a goddamn late truck. There's still an outside hope of it showing up by 3:30, but odds are it won't be here until 4:30 or 5, which is bullshit. I live in a town of only 16,500 people. Even with as packed as they stuff those trucks, there is no reason that since 8 or 9am, whenever the truck itself actually left the UPS facility, that it is taking THIS goddamn long for that truck to get here, when, even accounting for other cars and traffic lights, it takes a maximum of 5 minutes to make my way across town to damn UPS facility itself. They may have a shit ton of packages to deliver here in town, but it should not take over 8 hours for a damn package to arrive in a town of a whopping 16,500 people.

[morsdraconis]

Sounds fair to me...anyone else have an opinion on the map sizes.

They are definitely smaller than other iterations of the game, but it's because of the scope of the simulation that they are putting forth. EVERYTHING in the city is procedurally tracked and generated based on what you do in the city instead of there just being a percentage chance of something happening like previous iterations. Because of that, the lands are smaller, but, something that EVERYONE fails to mention is that even if they are smaller, it's EASY to get 200k+ people in you city in no time (unless you're a complete moron that can't build worth a fuck - aka all the videos we posted earlier in the thread from the first closed beta event). Buildings become giant skyrises. Your city starts to become more and more like New York City or Chicago as you progress.

Mainly, the thing people are bitching about is they can't take one region and make a GINORMOUS sprawling city that takes up as much room as possible. They're bitching that the game isn't as complicated as possible anymore (though, to build a functioning city that operates without all hell breaking loose still takes SERIOUS understanding of how things work in the game). No subways (don't care; I fuckin' HATED them). No way to make multiple connections to the interstate or bring the interstate through the city itself (such a retarded thing to get worry about :smh:).

But, beyond everything else, people are bitching because it's not SimCity 4.2, which, is just fanboys being morons.

[CLW]

I'm in the same boat. Every package that I have received via UPS since at least October have always arrived during the 1pm hour. The one package that I absolutely want to arrive the damn fastest it possibly can, and it ends up on a goddamn late truck. There's still an outside hope of it showing up by 3:30, but odds are it won't be here until 4:30 or 5, which is bullshit. I live in a town of only 16,500 people. Even with as packed as they stuff those trucks, there is no reason that since 8 or 9am, whenever the truck itself actually left the UPS facility, that it is taking THIS goddamn long for that truck to get here, when, even accounting for other cars and traffic lights, it takes a maximum of 5 minutes to make my way across town to damn UPS facility itself. They may have a shit ton of packages to deliver here in town, but it should not take over 8 hours for a damn package to arrive in a town of a whopping 16,500 people.

Yeah honestly not that my Amazon credit is all eaten up (other than $25) I might stop ordering from Amazon. With sales tax now plus no .99 release day delivery and the same price as everywhere else its probably cheaper/easier to just pick the game up from the store.

[morsdraconis]

FYI, don't feel bad about not being able to get your hands on SimCity yet. The servers are down. :fdown:

Normal first day of an online only game - servers are swamped and they're scrambling to fix them. Guess I'll just wait until tomorrow to try to play.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yeah honestly not that my Amazon credit is all eaten up (other than $25) I might stop ordering from Amazon. With sales tax now plus no .99 release day delivery and the same price as everywhere else its probably cheaper/easier to just pick the game up from the store.

Yeah, I'll have to give it some thought. I'm still one of the lucky ones, in that Amazon still doesn't charge sales tax here in Ohio (though it's only a matter of time before the state legislature closes that loophole up, with as many stories as have appeared in various newspapers around here about it over the past few years), and with having Amazon Prime, I still get free two day shipping/release day delivery for everything, so for right now, Amazon is still a better deal, since a brand new game costs exactly $59.99 rather than $64 or whatever I'd pay at a store here in town.

But UPS is the one that, if they keep putting stuff on the late truck when they have had no problems until now delivering stuff by 1:30pm, that I may considering changing.

[SmoothPancakes]

FYI, don't feel bad about not being able to get your hands on SimCity yet. The servers are down. :fdown:

Normal first day of an online only game - servers are swamped and they're scrambling to fix them. Guess I'll just wait until tomorrow to try to play.

Shit. Looks like I won't be playing today either then. It'll be anywhere from another 30-60 minutes before UPS shows up, I'll still have to install everything, and by then, I'm gonna be tired as shit. Dealing with something along the lines of delayed sleep phase disorder or something like that. Just the tiniest change can completely fuck my sleep schedule for a week or longer.

Yesterday I woke up at 1:30am, couldn't fall back asleep no matter what I did. Ended up staying up all day and ended up finally falling asleep around 7:30pm. Well, falling asleep that early fucked me, and I woke up at 1:30am again. So I'm either going to end up falling asleep before 8pm again tonight, or I'm gonna be so damn tired while I fight to stay awake as late as I possibly can to get back on a normal schedule, that I won't want to do a single thing other than lay here on the couch and watch whatever is on TV at the time.

It's gonna be a fight like this for the rest of the week, only to end up completely fucked up again because I get up at 2am on Saturdays for work.

[morsdraconis]

Just play on the Europe servers. They're working just fine.

Also, I was wrong. Apparently you can specialize in as many things as you have access to.

[SmoothPancakes]

Looks like either Origin's servers are back up (or at least stabilizing), or those of us who bought the disc are in luck. I was able to start the install process through disc, enter my product code, and am 20% done installing at this moment, not a single problem along the way.


Just play on the Europe servers. They're working just fine.

Also, I was wrong. Apparently you can specialize in as many things as you have access to.

Sweet! In that case, depending on how my first test region goes, I'll definitely be combining mining and drilling. Hello coal and petroleum monopoly for Smooth Pancakes! :nod: :D

[gschwendt]

Apparently if you switch around to different servers, your city doesn't follow you. Your city is tied to a region of servers.

[morsdraconis]

Apparently if you switch around to different servers, your city doesn't follow you. Your city is tied to a region of servers.

Yeah, but meh, I don't really care about that. This is just me fuckin' around with the game anyway tryin' to make a ridiculously high population city. Obviously, when I make the region for TGT, it'll be on a NA server.

To be a Europe server, I'm experiencing zero lag though.

[SmoothPancakes]

About to fire up a region in North America 2.

While I'm thinking about it, what's everyone's Origin names? I'm just simple SmoothPancakes, same as here.

[morsdraconis]

Same as on here: morsdraconis

[morsdraconis]

I can't get past 210k people and I'm slowly falling apart now because I've run out of water sources on my city map.

[jaymo76]

I'm currently on North America 1 (west?). The sever has cut off about 4-6 times in the last hour but it comes back within 1-2 minutes. Still it is a little nerve racking. As for cities I am going broke with my roads! Damn those things are expensive. I need better strategy in this game. Currently I am running two cities and about to start my third... I am trying to get a hand on region play.

[jaymo76]

I LOVE this game... BUT... the always online is brutal. Currently I am waiting 20 minutes to get back online to North America West 1. I can play on Oceania but my city isn't on Oceania!!! High server volume !@#$%& When you pay $60 for a game you should be able to play when you want, not when the servers let you. :(

[jaymo76]

Well after not being able to play for another 20 minutes I switch to Oceania and guess what... unable to make a city at this time. I don't online game so I'm not sure if this is normal but I sure as heck know it ain't right!!!

update... 1.5 hours later... no luck. I am going to bed.

[bdoughty]

Well after not being able to play for another 20 minutes I switch to Oceania and guess what... unable to make a city at this time. I don't online game so I'm not sure if this is normal but I sure as heck know it ain't right!!!

update... 1.5 hours later... no luck. I am going to bed.

I feel for you man. While I loved the old Sim City games, no way in hell I am buying any game that can only be played online. I have seen the "Try back in 30:00 minutes" images being posted and that just sucks. The game itself looks amazing though.

I saw this over at neogaf and had to chuckle a bit.

http://www.pcgamesn.com/simcity/simcity-launch-hobbled-server-strain-ea-offering-refunds

oops

http://www.abload.de/img/untitledokk9q.png

[morsdraconis]

WOW. I have a MAJOR problem with this game now. Turns out, you can only share stuff between IMMEDIATE neighbors when it comes to extra utilities and municipal workers. That's fuckin' ATROCIOUS.

[morsdraconis]

Ok, so I think it might be linked to how many Great Works there are on the map. Looks like we might be stuck using either the 5 city region or the 7 city region for our region though more testing needs to be done in the 7 city region (basically, need to know if cities on far opposite corners of the map can trade utilities too - already tested the two that are across the water from one another and it worked just fine after I provided power and was able to plop down the Town Hall building).

So, if someone wants to test that out, please do (the 7 city 1 great works region is the one with the islands). If not, I'll test it this afternoon when I get home from work.

[oweb26]

WOW the more I read about this game the more I am feeling like I might need to sit it out a little while!!

[CLW]

lmfao so i go down and pick up my package this morning open the disc and pop it into the dvd drive and the damn thing isn't reading it to even install. says please insert a dvd. i also tried D:\AutoRun.exe and it said it couldn't find the file. any suggestions?

[CLW]

:smh: after 2 hours with tech support at Dell apparently I need and am getting a new dvd drive. it reads some discs and some (like simcity) it doesn't.

[CLW]

so..... i checked my laptop and the disc will read on my laptop and i can try to install/play it there but i wanted to check and make 100% sure i could also install it on my desktop later when/if i get my d: issues resolved. has anyone tried installing the disc on more than one computer yet?

[SmoothPancakes]

I believe you can, since it all goes through your Origin account. Let me search and check.

[SmoothPancakes]

so..... i checked my laptop and the disc will read on my laptop and i can try to install/play it there but i wanted to check and make 100% sure i could also install it on my desktop later when/if i get my d: issues resolved. has anyone tried installing the disc on more than one computer yet?

Here's the word directly from Origin's help file itself:


Do I need Origin to play EA games on my PC?

Yes, you need Origin to play PC games you have purchased via Origin. In addition to enabling faster download of EA games, pre-loading, and game patch updates, Origin provides security for your downloadable games. Instead of inserting a disc in the drive, you simply login to Origin periodically to start your game. If you are already logged in to Origin, you won't be prompted to login before starting your game. As an added benefit, Origin's security enables you to install your game on up to three machines, so you can play at work and at home!

So it's pretty much the same as Steam. As long as you have activated the game on your Origin account, you can install it on up to three computers through Origin.

[CLW]

Here's the word directly from Origin's help file itself:



So it's pretty much the same as Steam. As long as you have activated the game on your Origin account, you can install it on up to three computers through Origin.

Thanks man! I'll give this bad boy some burn today but I'm craving some MLB and Tomb Raider right now. :nod:

[SmoothPancakes]

Thanks man! I'll give this bad boy some burn today but I'm craving some MLB and Tomb Raider right now. :nod:

Happy to help! After reading mors' posts, I'll have to test out some of his concerns, see what's what. Looking through the regions, they have a good mix, 3 city, 5 city, 7 city, 8 city, even 16 city regions. So depending on what will happen regarding how power, water, etc works, if somehow 16 people bought this game, we could have a massive region and game with all of us, or if even 8 of us have it.

So we'll have to figure it out. I've got no problem with making some of my own power plants to help feed power to other people in our region, especially if I'm going with drilling and mining for my specializations, which will pretty much force me into being an industrial city with as much pollution as that stuff will be causing.

[CLW]

could we not do 16 and then have all of us do 2 cities so 8 of us get 2 cities each or 4 cities if 4 people etc....?

[SmoothPancakes]

could we not do 16 and then have all of us do 2 cities so 8 of us get 2 cities each or 4 cities if 4 people etc....?

That would definitely be a possibility. Mors has 6 people on the list right now, plus a couple other were mentioning possibly getting the game at some point. So if we each did two cities, that 12 cities for sure right there, with four openings for someone to take on a third city or for new people to join our region. Definitely a lot of options and ways we can go about it.

[morsdraconis]

That's a great idea, but, the only issue with that is, anything past the 7 cities with 1 great work basically only has 4 or 5 cities grouped together for utility and municipal service sharing.

Or, as far as I'm understanding how it works currently, that is the case. Once again, that's some stuff I'm going to test today when I get home from work.

[jaymo76]

I'm at work but I have read that the servers are still acting up and a lot of cities built last night can no longer be accessed. Has anyone played today??? I didn't get on last night after trying for almost two hours but earlier in the day I played and the game just looked and felt amazing... damn you servers!

[morsdraconis]

I'm at work but I have read that the servers are still acting up and a lot of cities built last night can no longer be accessed. Has anyone played today??? I didn't get on last night after trying for almost two hours but earlier in the day I played and the game just looked and felt amazing... damn you servers!

I played this morning before coming to work with no issues at all, but, again, I went directly to the Europe East 1 server and haven't had any save issues.

Truthfully, you're better off to switch servers to one of the Europe servers now until all the morons that bitch and complain about the game leave and stop playing and the server load dies down.

[SmoothPancakes]

I've been doing pretty good on North America East 2. I was playing last night and didn't have any problems with it.

[jaymo76]

Okay maybe I will try another server but as I say, last night I could not create a city on those servers. Truthfully I am okay with using a non-NA server but it's unfortunate that you cannot have your cities display between different servers. Maybe I will get my wife to check for me while I am at work.

[JBHuskers]

Purchased and installed on the laptop!

[morsdraconis]

:fdown:

Game keeps crashing to the desktop for some reason now. :(

Did the normal "making sure the client isn't missing any files or anything" thing and it's still doing it. :(

[SmoothPancakes]

I haven't had that issue. I did have my laptop shut down cold turkey on me twice around 1 and 1:30 after only half an hour of playing, but it appears to have just been due to overheating. Just spent a good hour and a half playing it without problems. Just gonna have to keep an eye on my laptop temperatures, take a break from the game if/when the temps start to climb up there, otherwise should be good.

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.

Petrol Bay has a massive oil deposit, Cinder has a massive coal deposit (there goes my dream of monopolizing the coal and oil markets. :(), Grand Haven, Soiree Sands or Summit Vista would be a good education city, Ingot Landing has a ton of raw ore for mining, etc.

So with our 6 people so far, that would fit perfect for us. After that, it'd either be 11 or 16 city regions, which would force most of us to have to play 2 or more cities at the same time.

[morsdraconis]

Ok, I'm positive that you can't trade between the Great Works cities meaning the most we're going to get is 7 people that are all able to trade with one another or 4 or 5 people that are all able to trade with one another and basically ostracize the other group of cities around the other Great Work/s.

Clearly, it's because of the roads. The regions that have 5 or 7 cities are all connected to the same highway (unlike the 11 or 16 city regions that have 4 or 5 cities connected and that's it).

So, to get the full effects out of the game, we'll either have small groups of 4 that all share together in one big 11 or 16 city region or we'll have to limit it to 5 or 7 people depending on which region we like better.