So I load up the game just now, and it works perfectly on basically the highest settings. And I did nothing to my computer. Very strange.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
I think the issue is more that the building occupancy slots for sims aren't tri-state.
Yup, that's kind of what I was getting at when I said allocate (wasn't clear as was more focused on the random distribution part), and I did briefly think of what happens when a house has a sim allocated but that sim never makes it there, tri-state would fix that.
That's why I'm kind of hopeful that these issues can be worked out, these kinds of things are probably pretty easy to put in with all the groundwork that's there.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Trust me, I feel pretty foolish. Although I'm not putting it past this moody little game to go craptacular on me again soon.
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But living an honest life - for that you need the truth. That's the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, leads to liberation and dignity. -Ricky Gervais
That's why I'm kind of hopeful that these issues can be worked out, these kinds of things are probably pretty easy to put in with all the groundwork that's there.
If I understand SCV's underlying architecture, it should be dead simple for them to fix - I believe they have a scripting language (maybe it's just JavaScript with an API?) that drives the Sims and objects in the game? Wouldn't be hard for them to tweak and improve the underlying scripts, assuming they have any money left in the budget for additional QA and maintenance (who knows, really)
What's more troubling to me in all of this isn't EA, the server fiascos, or any of that - it's the very controlled and focused exposition of features by the dev team leading up to the launch that didn't show these kinds of limitations and behaviours. It feels a bit like Aliens:Colonial Marines all over again - especially the way guys like Ocean Quigley talked about the detail and passion, when a lot of it was smoke and mirrors. Just how carefully prepared were those little videos and screenshots and discussion about the underlying engine, and whatnot? Apparently quite.
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And the betas were nothing but a tease so we would all pre-order. By limiting us to an hour of playtime, and blocking access to features like buses and streetcars, they made sure the issues weren't as obvious as they've become now that we've seen the whole picture.
And the betas were nothing but a tease so we would all pre-order. By limiting us to an hour of playtime, and blocking access to features like buses and streetcars, they made sure the issues weren't as obvious as they've become now that we've seen the whole picture.
This is exactly what EA did for SWTOR. Limited amount of Beta weekends so you can't get any characters to max level... find out Ilum (end game PvP) is completely broken at release.
I don't even think EA is using Betas to test games anymore. Just to build the hype.
There is mounting evidence that, despite EA Maxis' claims to the contrary, SimCity is wholly capable of being played offline -- a capability that would have saved buyers a week of hassle and tons of creativity now lost to server issues.
Let's start with what the gamers have discovered. Lately, some modding has led to a fully playable offline debug version. Fancy that!
There's a snag, of course -- this bit of hackery is unable to save or load all your progress, since EA opted to control your data on its end. Still, the game is able to be taken fully offline for an indefinite period of time, putting paid to suggestions that online play was inseparably woven into the experience.
Interestingly, this "debug mode" of the game still syncs with EA Maxis' servers, and can at least save road placements made outside of the normal boundaries of the game.
Plus some neat stuff you can do in said debug mode:
the best thing Maxis could do at this point for their reputation is to remove the online requirement and open the game up to modders. they could fix all the issues with the game in probably half the time it would take Maxis, as well as adding tons of features. of course this would eat into DLC sales, so it won't happen
the best thing Maxis could do at this point for their reputation is to remove the online requirement and open the game up to modders. they could fix all the issues with the game in probably half the time it would take Maxis, as well as adding tons of features. of course this would eat into DLC sales, so it won't happen
As much as I am enjoying the game as is, online or offline, I would love to see it opened up to the modding community.
Considering that EA/DICE were threatening to ban people who modded out the colour filter in Battlefield 3 I expect that you won't see Maxis opening up SimCity to modders.
Whats most troubling, and sclith touched on it nicely, is the deception from EA. Ocean and company claimed they had to give us such small maps because they were simming each sim one by one. Glassbox was being portayed as giving us a fully living and breathing city with each sim going to work each day. We were mislead into believing a sim could wake up, have a cold, take it to work and cause a factory to close down. What we got instead was 80% of the city being a phantom. If thats the case why are we so limited on map size? Why not get it over with and make it 95% simmed and give us the chance to building sprawling metropolises?
Not to mention the whole server business. I say go the whole 9 yards EA. Take it offline, make map sizes 6x bigger (at least) change the code so that 95% of the sims are phantoms, and let modders begin fixing your game for free. People like me will do it for free because we love sim games and want a true city building experience.
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Originally Posted by puckluck2
Well, deal with it. I wasn't cheering for Canada either way. Nothing worse than arrogant Canadian fans. They'd be lucky to finish 4th. Quote me on that. They have a bad team and that is why I won't be cheering for them.
Whats most troubling, and sclith touched on it nicely, is the deception from EA. Ocean and company claimed they had to give us such small maps because they were simming each sim one by one.
Where did they say that? What I understood was that they what they were simming used up enough computing resources that it was limited by that; resources. And that as computing resources grew (and optimizations continued presumably) the size could grow as well.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
Sims don't automatically leave for work in the morning. First industry sends out "help wanted" signals and sims respond to them by leaving to go fill those jobs.
As a result, if you don't have any industry or commercial in your city your sims don't go to work, or complain about being unemployed. People are making 100% residential cities that work perfectly fine.
And I think 100% residential, commercial, industrial or whatever is fine. In SimCity 4, I'd have entire regions of one or another, but the interacted so well with each other. I was hoping for more of that interactivity in this game. when I first started playing, I told my buddy that I had a university, so he didn't need one. But his residents ended up being so stupid that they couldn't work high-tech factories, and so he had to build his own university anyway.
Same with health (although I think health is just straight up broken in general. I had two clinics and a hospital in my city, and the sickest folks were the ones living closest to them. But I digress). I get ambulances from another region, yet my folks are still sick.
I feel like the regional synergies in SC4 were great, and that somehow this new game has taken a step back from that.
Edit: and taking a peek at that video... wth... he just made a new city from scratch and that residential city still worked, didn't it? In SC4, if you didn't have a region of industrial for people to work, a residential region would not build up at all. In this case the game is just completely illogical! Ahhh
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Last edited by Teh_Bandwagoner; 03-14-2013 at 05:28 PM.
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This seems like something that they should have done before release. Maybe I am being too picky though...
I think they need to realize that a beta can't replace paid quality assurance. Particularly when the beta is very limited. Beta players want to play, they don't want to file bug reports.
