SimCity V: EU, USA? Nope, Antarctica! - Games

Here's how EA can fix this current pile of shit. -> Offline the fucking game -> Increase city sizes -> Fix population calculations -> Fix the traffic logic -> Fix the sim agent logic, actually make people live somewhere and work somewhere -> Stop lying Finally, release mod tools once the game is as it should be. These ideas are not out of the question given the huge resource, monetary and talent pool EA possesses.

Considering the first three were done in less than a week by a modder and the final two are basic programming changes that were in previous games that are over 10 years old I'd say no they aren't out of the question.

[QUOTE=Brandy92;39909607]Here's how EA can fix this current pile of shit. -> Offline the fucking game -> Increase city sizes -> Fix population calculations -> Fix the traffic logic -> Fix the sim agent logic, actually make people live somewhere and work somewhere -> Stop lying Finally, release mod tools once the game is as it should be. These ideas are not out of the question given the huge resource, monetary and talent pool EA possesses.[/QUOTE] As people who have no knowledge on how to actually make a computer game, we have a bad habit of trivializing the work that goes into them. We assume that it's just easy to add features because we want them. A reddit post makes a good point: [quote]Not when you have to consider the leaderboards stuff and screwing someone out of being able to rank because they have a laptop. I mean, wasn't the first challenge coming up for reaching a region population of 2.5m? Yeap, just get the largest plot sizes in a region with the most cities and zone all residential. So much for those with lower end computers. It's not necessarily a lowest common denominator, just a common denominator for gameplay balance. And there's more to the engine than just the graphics. You still have to process all the agents in the city (regardless of how stupid they are as we've seen). And as we saw with some other videos, certain road and building placements could cause a power or water agent to never reach the far side. Now imagine if the city was twice the size? Even with the Solar Farm, since the power comes in from the highway, what if a particular road layout resulted in all the buildings sapping the agent's power bucket by the time it reached the furthest spot from the entrance (even with how huge it is)? Yes, yes, I know, you want your solo, offline huge city play, but this game was designed for the coop region play. Again, I don't like it either, but I understand.[/quote]

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909640]As people who have no knowledge on how to actually make a computer game, we have a bad habit of trivializing the work that goes into them. We assume that it's just easy to add features because we want them. A reddit post makes a good point:[/QUOTE] [quote]certain road and building placements could cause a power or water agent to never reach the far side. Now imagine if the city was twice the size?[/quote] then let us manage that too?

& this, please.. soon.. [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Lighting-effect-is-poorly-optimized/m-p/756404#U756404[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Lighting-in-Simcity-a-quot-motion-blur-quot-problem/m-p/708642#U708642[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Lighting-Setting/m-p/728994#U728994[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Massive-FPS-drop-when-adjusting-lighting/m-p/680532#U680532[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Question-for-EA-Lighting-issues-for-everyone/m-p/730782#U730782[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Please-oh-please-fix-the-lighting/m-p/727210#U727210[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/ATI-graphics-problem-with-lighting/m-p/637772#U637772[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Changing-lighting-from-Min-to-Low-significantly-decreases-FPS/m-p/719056#U719056[/url] [url]http://answers.ea.com/t5/Graphic-Issues/Lighting-Graphics/m-p/691210#U691210[/url] Starting to stack up a little.

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909640]As people who have no knowledge on how to actually make a computer game, we have a bad habit of trivializing the work that goes into them. We assume that it's just easy to add features because we want them. A reddit post makes a good point:[/QUOTE] The problem is that a modder has already made the game playable offline, made it so you can build outside the little box you are given and fixed the population count. This is in one week.

The hardest thing on the list is increasing city sizes. Actually maybe not seeing as the game's been hacked to build outside city bounds. The city limits barrier is just enforced by the game. Offlining has been done already by a hack. There's just no public crack. Fixing population calculations is just removing the 'Population Fudger' code. Traffic logic is a bit harder and part of the agent system, this is very doable though. Agents, see above.

So, just got the game today... Any room in any FPer's regions for a SCV noob? (not new to SC in general though)

[QUOTE=Pinut;39909660]then let us manage that too?[/QUOTE] At that point you're asking for them to completely remake the game. You can't have everything. Face it, this SimCity was not made to be SimCity 4 but better. It was made to be a coop casual game for people who aren't hardcore gamers. People will hack stuff, sure, and there might be stuff added and fixed because of it to make the game a bit more fun for those who are hardcore. It doesn't remove the fact that the game is built a certain way, and you're asking for it to be completely remade in certain areas. You want complete control over the region, you want bigger cities, you want multiplayer, you want singleplayer, you want offline mode. We want all these things without actually knowing what it will take to make them work. Like I said, this modder simply disabled the disconnect kick. That's it. At this point its sounds like a bunch of backseat game devs who are "idea guys" but have no idea how a game is made. I sure as hell don't. Stop spouting off commands for features that you think will be easy as piss to implement simply because you have this conspiracy theory that EA is lying to everyone and is holding Maxis in their basement making them put lotion on their skin. [editline]14th March 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Scrappa;39909663]The problem is that a modder has already made the game playable offline, made it so you can build outside the little box you are given and fixed the population count. This is in one week.[/QUOTE] It's not as it seems though. The changes only apply to the city they were made in, meaning that all this building outside of the city boundary stuff can only be seen when visiting a city that it was done on. Anyone else will just see the default region outside of their city. And what if they did figure out how to make cities larger? It still wouldn't be easy to make that work with how the game is set up. Larger cities means more computing data on the server. You thought the launch was bad with all the server downtime? And plus, this hasn't even been tested wide scale. Who knows what the impact will be if everyone starts fucking about with the region tools. I know you guys really want these features, and I do to, but you need to come back to reality.

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909701]Face it, this SimCity was not made to be SimCity 4 but better. It was made to be a coop casual game for people who aren't hardcore gamers. [/QUOTE] I am sick of EA doing this to every good franchise.

[QUOTE=Brandy92;39909730]I am sick of EA doing this to every good franchise.[/QUOTE] EA didn't do it, fucking Maxis did. Stop blaming this on EA all the time without evidence. It's a stupid scapegoat and it's lazy. If you want to blame people for your favorite games being bad, blame the right people at least. Especially when they did it in the past and openly admitted it: [url]http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/09/07/will-wright-reacts-to-crtical-spore-reviews/[/url] And you know what, it sucks, but we are the minority. There is more money in the casual, non-hardcore gamer market. And frankly, they're easier to please.

News just in, EA's share price doesn't matter and Maxis has their own free will.

[QUOTE=Brandy92;39909767]News just in, EA's share price doesn't matter and Maxis has their own free will.[/QUOTE] I don't see how its so hard to believe that Maxis actually wanted to reach a broader audience. Are you that much in denial that you have to make yourself believe that EA is literally holding Maxis captive and that's why your game didn't turn out the way you made yourself think? I knew this was going to happen from day one, and literally everyone here rated me dumb and said I was stupid for doubting Maxis.

T2L_Goose, seems your in denial due to the bad game, ive seen it happen many a time.

Not to blame EA further, but it really wouldn't be so hard to believe they would atleast "encourage" such features. Either way, Maxis ultimately dropped the ball.

Guys, what do I push to make screenshots? I really wanna snag a pic of my city.

[QUOTE=cartman;39909823]T2L_Goose, seems your in denial due to the bad game, ive seen it happen many a time.[/QUOTE] It's not a bad game though. It's just not Sim City 4 with multiplayer and 3D graphics, which is what everyone thought they were getting I guess. I wanted all that too, but as soon as they brought out the "More accessible" card in the Reddit AMA, I gave up all hope and started accepting the current game for what it is: a casual city builder with a neat multiplayer. I enjoy it for what it is and I don't expect any more from it.

There is no "Maxis". There is a team inside of EA and EA releases games from that team under the name of "Maxis" And the agent system is dumb. Fixing it does NOT require more computation. Neither do fixed locations . THere is a post from reddit where some guy looked at slideshows from Glassbox presentations and what the game does is basically looking for the nearest "drain" for every "source" at every road intersection and then letting the agents run from the source to the next nearest "not full" drain. And that's retarded. I admit it saves some computational power because the calculations are only done "per intersection" but the hit comes later because then the game has to recalculate for every other agent as soon as one drain is full.

Wouldn't we get banned if we start using mods in the game? I really want to use the debug mod.

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909837]It's not a bad game though. It's just not Sim City 4 with multiplayer and 3D graphics, which is what everyone thought they were getting I guess. I wanted all that too, but as soon as they brought out the "More accessible" card in the Reddit AMA, I gave up all hope and started accepting the current game for what it is: a casual city builder with a neat multiplayer. I enjoy it for what it is and I don't expect any more from it.[/QUOTE] Dude everything you are seeing is tricks and lying. When your advisor says "more commercial" it's not because your people need commercials, it's because the game looks at your forged population count and the forged shoppers count and somehow determines that you need more. All the while the "real" simulted agents are in a shop-till-you-drop apocalypse because you built commercial zones for 10 times the population you could see shopping at any point of the game. Everything in the game is made to blind you, basically counting on the player to be impressed by the cute animations and looks. People were complaining because SC4 was "just statistical simulation and numbers" Well this time it's worse: It's smaller-scale statistical simulation that is inherently broken(streets inbetween towns don't count for distance calculations FFFS) because they tried to cover it up with some simplificated "agent system" paint. What I imagine happening is that they tried to make a real simulation and at some point tooo far in development noticed that it's just not doable at this point. 20k simulated agents(the current REAL number of 200k people cities), ok, any more: clusterfuck and so they introduced the forged numbers to make the cities appear bigger.

[QUOTE=Killuah;39909859]Dude everything you are seeing is tricks and lying. When your advisor says "more commercial" it's not because your people need commercials, it's because the game looks at your forged population count and the forged shoppers count and somehow determines that you need more. All the while the "real" simulted agents are in a shop-till-you-drop apocalypse because you built commercial zones for 10 times the population you could see shopping at any point of the game. Everything in the game is made to blind you, basically counting on the player to be impressed by the cute animations and looks.[/QUOTE] I'm rather sure when the advisor says "build more shops lawl" it's based on the fact that there is RCI demand for commercial stuff. Now, the problem is that the game goes apeshit over the slightest demand, just like how a single criminal prompts your crime advisor to go full "CRIMINALS HAVE THE UPPER HAND ALERT THE ARMY" mode. [editline]14th March 2013[/editline] Also, check out Angel Forge- mining and smelting capital AND tourist destination! [img]http://i.imgur.com/hxvMsD8.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=Killuah;39909846]There is no "Maxis". There is a team inside of EA and EA releases games from that team under the name of "Maxis"[/QUOTE] :tinfoil: [QUOTE=Killuah;39909846]And the agent system is dumb. Fixing it does NOT require more computation. Neither do fixed locations . THere is a post from reddit where some guy looked at slideshows from Glassbox presentations and what the game does is basically looking for the nearest "drain" for every "source" at every road intersection and then letting the agents run from the source to the next nearest "not full" drain. And that's retarded. I admit it saves some computational power because the calculations are only done "per intersection" but the hit comes later because then the game has to recalculate for every other agent as soon as one drain is full.[/QUOTE] Clearly I wasn't talking about the agent system. I was referring to the larger cities demand and the offline mode demand. The agent system needs work given, but I wasn't even talking about that. Either way it doesn't make the game bad. I still have fun with it. You guys, once again, go alarmist over this smallest shit and pretend that you're being lied to because of :tinfoil: Glassbox isn't perfect. Shocker. They're in contact with the community and are trying to fix it. Stop jumping to conclusions.

If you guys are feeling adventurous, you can still get the game for 21.35€/$27.65 Go to [url=http://store.origin.com/store/easa/en_IN/html/pbPage.simcity_TH]here[/url] (Thailand store), put the game in your basket. Then go to [url=http://store.origin.com/store/easa/en_IN/html/pbPage.simcity_IN]here[/url] (India store) and complete the purchase (You'll need to enter an address in India). Keep in mind this is probably illegal and stuff, but it worked for me. [editline].[/editline] Both links stopped working just after I finished my purchase (they redirect me to the DE store now), but maybe it's something with cookies.

You lowered your standards.

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909890]They're in contact with the community and are trying to fix it. Stop jumping to conclusions.[/QUOTE] They have gone silent since we found the fake population and started modding. We aren't jumping to conclusions, we're just irked that they promised us a different product than they delivered.

[QUOTE=Killuah;39909912]You lowered your standards.[/QUOTE] I lowered my standards the day they said it was going to be "more accessible". Why you expected more is beyond me and you're the only one to blame for that. [editline]14th March 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Brandy92;39909925]They have gone silent since we found the fake population and started modding. We aren't jumping to conclusions, we're just irked that they promised us a different product than they delivered.[/QUOTE] They've gone silent because they're fucking asleep. It's like 6am right now where they are. And uh no they didn't. You got exactly what you were promised. Now you're just being self entitled. You guys knew what this game was going to be like from the 2 betas that were held, the many AMAs on reddit, the overwhelming amount of gameplay videos, and the fucking game description on Origin. Give it a fucking rest. If you expected the best Sim City since SimCity 4 you must have been living under a rock.

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909701]At that point you're asking for them to completely remake the game. You can't have everything. Face it, this SimCity was not made to be SimCity 4 but better. It was made to be a coop casual game for people who aren't hardcore gamers. People will hack stuff, sure, and there might be stuff added and fixed because of it to make the game a bit more fun for those who are hardcore. It doesn't remove the fact that the game is built a certain way, and you're asking for it to be completely remade in certain areas. You want complete control over the region, you want bigger cities, you want multiplayer, you want singleplayer, you want offline mode. We want all these things without actually knowing what it will take to make them work. Like I said, this modder simply disabled the disconnect kick. That's it. At this point its sounds like a bunch of backseat game devs who are "idea guys" but have no idea how a game is made. I sure as hell don't. Stop spouting off commands for features that you think will be easy as piss to implement simply because you have this conspiracy theory that EA is lying to everyone and is holding Maxis in their basement making them put lotion on their skin. [/QUOTE] Not like I'm asking for the features to be added now. I know that will probably never happen. It's just rather dumb they aren't there in the first place. Being able to manage power, water and sewage paths yourself would add more depth for the player. Heck even make it optional so the 'coop casual' gamers the game is aimed towards don't need to worry. They already did it 10 years ago?

[QUOTE=Pinut;39909947]Not like I'm asking for the features to be added now. I know that will probably never happen. It's just rather dumb they aren't there in the first place. Being able to manage power, water and sewage paths yourself would add more depth for the player. Heck even make it optional so the 'coop casual' gamers the game is aimed towards don't need to worry. They already did it 10 years ago?[/QUOTE] Yeah but from the very beginning they said it wasn't going to be anything like that. So all this really boils down to is "I wish Maxis would make SimCity 4 but better". It's just like me saying "I wish Valve would make Half Life 3". There was no promise or indication that they were going to be adding the features you are asking for. You knew it from the beginning and you bought it anyway, and now you're mad because you were hoping that it would be different.

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909926]You got exactly what you were promised. Now you're just being self entitled. You guys knew what this game was going to be like from the 2 betas that were held, the many AMAs on reddit, the overwhelming amount of gameplay videos, and the fucking game description on Origin. Give it a fucking rest. If you expected the best Sim City since SimCity 4 you must have been living under a rock.[/QUOTE] During the beta tests we were told many times that bigger cities were on the agenda. And population wasn't so inflated either.

[QUOTE=T2L_Goose;39909962]Yeah but from the very beginning they said it wasn't going to be anything like that. So all this really boils down to is "I wish Maxis would make SimCity 4 but better". It's just like me saying "I wish Valve would make Half Life 3". There was no promise or indication that they were going to be adding the features you are asking for. You knew it from the beginning and you bought it anyway, and now you're mad because you were hoping that it would be different.[/QUOTE] It's nothing to do with being mad or buying knowing these weren't there. It's that the AI does a piss poor job of doing it itself when we were doing it ourselves fine years ago.