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 Join #simcity on irc.synirc.net Google Doc Link for Origin Usernames so that we can destroy each other's regions!  A new SimCity has been announced! Yes, actually developed by Maxis. Yes, by quite a few of the same people who made the previous SimCity titles. Yes, a true successor to the games we know and love, not some childish garbage thrown together to turnover a profit quickly. SimCity throws you into a game where you are mayor of a city (non-existent when you start) and you're tasked with building it from the ground up. Create jobs, build a transportation network, lay down neighborhoods for families, and then improve the quality of life for your Sims – the virtual inhabitants of your city – so that they'll continue to keep you in office. On top of this you'll need to balance a budget, find and resell resources to other players, and continue to expand your city's boundaries and improve services offered. simcity is a fun game to play. yay. =) SimCity 4 was released in 2003 and was met with critical acclaim but suffered in sales in the wake of the success that was The Sims. A follow-up title, SimCity Societies (developed by another studio), was released in 2007 but was a commercial flop, and Maxis was restructured and refocused to work almost exclusively on TheSims 2 expansions and TheSims 3 and its later expansions. By 2009, it was believed we may never see another true SimCity title. The final nail in the coffin was Cities Xl which was praised as a successor and then became a disaster (that certainly had some redeeming qualities, but not enough) and was a certain sign that EA would never sign off on another city building simulator because there was no market. But apparently the gears were already at work inside of Maxis, who was developing a new game engine called GlassBox that they anticipated to use to redevelop some of their older titles. Their first project? SimCity. SimCity 5 is going to be called just "SimCity" and is both a successor to SimCity 4 and a reboot of the franchise. The developers have stated that they intend to make a core game that is both accessible to new players and returning veterans. It has a stylized graphical style (not too over the top) but with a strong and very structured simulator running underneath it. Screenshots! (As listed in reverse chronological order from reveal)          Features people are raving about! - There will be curved roads. - Each region is multiplayer, allowing you to build cities and trade resources with your friends. - There is a global market, allowing your cities that specialize in certain resources to distribute those resources to other cities/players for cash. The market is defined by players, much like Eve Online. - Charts/graphs have been replaced in the game with stylized "Infographic" data charts. - Certain special buildings are "modular" and can be expanded upon to affect the areas of the cities they are placed in differently. - Cars/Sims in the game are persistent Agents and will go about their daily lives instead of fading in and out when they reach a destination. Each Sim that you see represents someone in the city, so if they're late for work (stuck in traffic), the building they work in will produce less and can cause it to shut down. - The "Agent" system assigns sims their daily housing and working environment. Agents are sent from buildings to meet requirements from other buildings. - Buildings on-screen will affect the background music to give you an idea a particular area is doing. - There are mass transit options such as busses, trams, trains, and possibly monorails. Features people are raving-mad about! - Forced online connection in order to play the game. - Cities are limited to roughly 2 square kilometers. This is about the same size as a "Medium" city in SimCity 4. - Modding, if supported at all, will likely be limited to only buildings that can be purchased in a store, similar to the TF2 Mann Co. store. - There is no terraforming. - Cities are saved to the server. There are no local saves. You (probably) cannot save, destroy your city with disasters, and then reload from the save. - Buildings zoning density is determined by the size of the road the zone is placed adjecent to. There are no more "low", "medium," and "high" zoning types. - Regions feature lots of "empty" space between cities, which at this time are big grassy plains. There are auto-generated highways that run between the cities that you cannot control. - You have to work with other players to build "wonders" in the empty spaces between cities, such as international airports. - Tilt-shift mode. (I kind of like it.) - Buildings situated along curved roads are not "wall-to-wall". Buildings are not dynamically shaped, leaving some dead-space between buildings. Right now that dead-space is all patchy grass, but fans are hoping there is a Cities XL-style system to plop in plazas, parking lots, etc. Other stuff! - The game is titled "SimCity", not "SimCity 5". - The game is fully-3D, allowing you to view your city at any angle. - There is a day and night cycle. Videos! November 15, 2012: Build some stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hoe-XWNjd8 October 4, 2012: Gameplay video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YceL2C4TW4Q August 14, 2012: SimCity INSIDER http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yle_FUrr-wc  August 14, 2012: SimCity World Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3oFKhftK88 (Mayor of "DoubleDown Town"?) May 1, 2012: Demonstration of the GlassBox Engine, Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SfcDW2yJiM April 3, 2012: Demonstration of the GlassBox Engine, Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxTcm1YFKcU March 19, 2012: Demonstration of the GlassBox Engine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS0qURl_JJY March 8, 2012: Gameplay! Or, at least a tech demoish version... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsjYTTMds9E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9QYdwkXo4Q http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfQsF2Ag63I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhKBorpg0 March 6, 2012: Trailer with developer commentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T70evBJE93s March 6, 2012: Official teaser trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kztNWdhRdnw FAQ  When will SimCity be released? Current release date is unknown. Officially 2013. Don't hold your breath. Links Media and Information http://www.simcity.com/ - SimCity.com, the official website. http://www.facebook.com/SimCity - Official SimCity Facebook page. Fansites http://simtropolis.com/ - Simtropolis [News & Forums] http://www.sc4devotion.com/ - SimCity Devotion [Forums] (this link may change soon so that it's not "SC4") http://www.simphoni.net/ - Simphoni [Forums] http://worldsims.org/ - WorldSims [News & Forums] Sim-esque Games while you wait... http://www.isotower.com/ - Isotower tower simulator (Free beta, goon-made) http://www.synekism.com/ - Synekism city simulator (Free beta) (If you have recommendations, please let me know!) Final Notes Really very little is known, but more is being announced day-by-day. This OP, likewise, could use some help so if there is something you'd like to see added, post and I will try to fit it in. This thread, from here on out, is summed up as such:  PermaEdit: 
ExtraNoise fucked around with this message at Feb 27, 2013 around 23:31 |
| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:21 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 06:12 |
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I thought RCI was still in? From the hardwareclips videos it looks like you still zone and have natural building growth based on demand.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:31 |
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The Yellow Ant posted:I thought RCI was still in? From the hardwareclips videos it looks like you still zone and have natural building growth based on demand. The RCI system has been replaced by the agents, as far as I can tell. Instead of just something saying "you need more houses" it runs the sim and determines that you have a shortage of X product so it needs to make another factory for it. It's still RCI in essence, but it's a lot more detailed.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:33 |
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It looks like you place a Industry building, that calls for workers, then housing to fill in the jobs, then Stores to stock the supplies and allow the workers to eat. I think what is missing is the RCI Graphs, and a bunch of the other graphs. I think announce is too early to worry about graphs, its written in HTML and Java, we can make our own.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:34 |
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The Yellow Ant posted:I thought RCI was still in? From the hardwareclips videos it looks like you still zone and have natural building growth based on demand. The title is tongue-in-cheek about how much people have been freaking out about the tiniest things that haven't even been confirmed added or removed. The alternate title was in regards to how much everyone hates Origin. For the record, I believe RCI is confirmed to still be in the game.  Ninja edit: Nope! Thanks Giggily.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:34 |
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OMFG finally. Why did it take so long for them to get around to this? I remember playing the original simcity and laughing to tears while destroying my creations. 4 was fun but quite dated. Thank GOD this is coming.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:35 |
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I'm glad they're going with a more stylized look for SC5. Sim City 4 felt lifeless and a little sterile after SC3000 with its jazzy soundtrack and caricature drawing advisors and constituents.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:36 |
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GateheaD posted:It looks like you place a Industry building, that calls for workers, then housing to fill in the jobs, then Stores to stock the supplies and allow the workers to eat. Javascript, not Java. Thank Jesus. The only downside that's been confirmed is that the city sizes will only ever be as big as the medium cities from SC4. That's a pretty significant downside for a lot of people.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:36 |
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:Javascript, not Java. Thank Jesus. I've played SC4 for years and years and not once did I ever fill a large city map all the way up. Am I the exception? I actually preferred medium sized maps as "districts" or neighborhoods to a larger city.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:37 |
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I get that the title is a joke, I just think it's misleading. RCI is a measure of demand for residential, commercial, and industrial zones. Just because the underlying simulation is carried out by agents doesn't mean that there is no more demand for zones. I'm sure there will be an RCI infographic. Anyway, carry on. I've got some llamas to tend to.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:38 |
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The art style they're going for is lovely and multiplayer sounds really cool, but the fact that there's already a bunch of day one DLC lined up is loving terrible. 
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:40 |
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Minrad posted:The art style they're going for is lovely and multiplayer sounds really cool, but the fact that there's already a bunch of day one DLC lined up is loving terrible. Yeah, hopefully EA doesn't catch on to the fact that DLC like that is useless for a game where modding is potentially so easy. Why bother downloading the official London building set when there are probably a ton more models for it already in existence for free?
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:42 |
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They could always go the Civ 5 route and super restrict any modding 
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:52 |
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Minrad posted:They could always go the Civ 5 route and super restrict any modding What they've shown of the modding system seems to be the exact opposite of that, though. It seems incredibly flexible and scriptable.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 06:56 |
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Doesn't mean we'll be able to do it freely, though. I mean yeah, what we've seen and read so far is grounds for cautious optimism, but it's still early, and I'm not going to believe in mods until the commercial release allows for them, and not just in a 'come in and register as a modder on our Lot Marketplace or whatever (it's real easy) and EA gets money coming and going' sense.
Sir Unimaginative fucked around with this message at Mar 9, 2012 around 07:08 |
| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:03 |
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RSS feeds? Who would ever want to replace newstickers? I can't wait to start cutting back on funds to see the results this time.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:04 |
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Dear Simcity, please don't suck. fake edit: I should not have watched those videos, because now I'm hype as gently caress.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:11 |
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Is it just me or are the four gameplay videos unloadable at the moment?
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:28 |
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Awesome OP ExtraNoise. Im really excited about this. Day after day the news gets better.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:30 |
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Away all Goats posted:Dear Simcity, please don't suck. Dear Simcity, please don't suck. Just... I couldn't take that hit. I never give this much of a poo poo about video games but Simcity is the only game I've played consistently since release.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:34 |
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Not only are we getting a new SimCity (finally!) but it's probably the best time we could have gotten one. SimCity: Societies? failure. Spore? failure. Cities XL? hahahahahahaha... But. From each of those, Maxis (and hopefully, by extension EA) will have been given a concrete example of the kind of things we don't want. Then we look at what the early indications are showing. A detailed core simulation. Moddable. Curved roads. I'm stoked for this, and you should be too!
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:36 |
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Any mention of doing the zone-like city construction like it was in Sim City 4? As in, having a map of the ground layout of a certain city(such as London) then picking zones(small, medium large x-large etc)? That was the worst part of Sim City 4 for me as I just wanted to create a big city in one zone  Oh and hyped as gently caress as well. I love city building games. Been playing Tropico 4 and Anno 2070 religiously as of these last months. King Zog fucked around with this message at Mar 9, 2012 around 07:54 |
| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:49 |
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I didn't even know Maxis was still around. Reading this story and seeing those shots takes me back to the days of playing Simcity on an Apple IIe.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:51 |
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King Zog posted:Any mention of doing the zone-like city construction like it was in Sim City 4? As in, having a map of the ground layout of a certain city(such as London) then picking zones(small, medium large x-large etc)? That was the worst part of Sim City 4 for me as I just wanted to create a big city in one zone You're referring to regions, and regions are still in. Except regions will be multiplayer supported. You could still just pick the huge city sizes in SC4 and have cities bigger than any SC2k or SC3k cities. Cities in SC5 will unfortunately be limited to approximately the size of a medium city from SC4.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:58 |
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ExtraNoise posted:I've played SC4 for years and years and not once did I ever fill a large city map all the way up. Am I the exception? I actually preferred medium sized maps as "districts" or neighborhoods to a larger city. I generally play on medium sized maps as well.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 07:58 |
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The biggest advantage of Large Sized Maps in Simcity 4 was that you could have decent sized cities whilst still having creative geography. I liked cities on strings of islands and or wrapped around straits and inlets or in mountain passes and such.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 08:12 |
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Der Luftwaffle posted:I didn't even know Maxis was still around. Reading this story and seeing those shots takes me back to the days of playing Simcity on an Apple IIe. Strictly speaking they've been pretty much dissolved throughout EA as so many other companies that are gobbled up by them (and Will Wright left after Spore), but I guess some of them have been grouped back together for this, which is nice.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 08:46 |
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I was never a hardcore player of SimCity but I was a fan of the style and nature of games made by Maxis. SimTower was my favorite. I really hope SimCity captures that feeling.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 08:51 |
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Dr. Video Games 0031 posted:You're referring to regions, and regions are still in. Except regions will be multiplayer supported. Multiplayer regions? I can't wait to be Garbagetown, come ship all your garbage here and give me your simoleons while I waft all my pollution down the entire coast.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 08:55 |
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Haven't been hyped about a game for years. Looking at what has been confirmed so far, the chances that they could mess it up have been decreasing each time now info comes out. I think the one thing that would ruin it for me is if they didn't have the basic transport options that SC4 had at the start (subway, rail and buses).
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 09:32 |
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I hope they have historical starts again. It may sound minor, but in the first three SC games I loved building my city from 1900, slowly replacing my coal-fired plants with better ones as technology advanced. I never got into SC4 because the earliest you could start was 2000.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 09:34 |
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I hope that it retains that tilt-shift photography look as seen in some of the concept art, I love the way that stuff looks.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 09:42 |
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This reddit AMA was made earlier today. To sift through the internet hate gently caress fest, here's Maxis' replies to each and every post. Here's the big one: http://www.reddit.com/user/maxis/comments/ quote:-Ocean- We’re making SimCity, not some dopey casual game.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 09:59 |
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Really looking forward to this. I could never get into SC 4 and Societies was an abomination (seriously how could you not curve roads are you kidding me). Maxis used to be one of the most talented and innovative developers, so I'm really interested to see what they can accomplish today when they aren't tied down by Sims or Spore.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 10:24 |
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I still say they need to reboot SimCopter along with this and allow importing of cities to fly around in like back in day. 
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 10:34 |
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ExtraNoise posted:This Gamasutra article goes into more depth for what is to be expected and even includes snippits of code. quote:onFail buyMoreMustard I'm a bit hesitant to get exited about this. EA of all things raising an IP called SimCity from the grave in the days of Farmville and its ilk making millions and they themselves milking consumers like crazy with a billon The Sims DLCs... I don't know. I can only see big friendly buttons, gameplay systems easily controllable on a touchpad, and 10 dollars for 2 additional tileset stiles.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 11:02 |
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Oh god I can't believe they're finally doing this. And that it actually looks really good and has everything I and most of the community would hope for in a new Sim City game. All we can do is hope that it doesn't get pushed to release as a half finished mess with DLC tacked on.
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 11:26 |
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Awesome Welles posted:I still say they need to reboot SimCopter along with this and allow importing of cities to fly around in like back in day. Since it's full 3D I'm sure somebody will mod SimCopter in. A helicopter in this context is basically a floating camera with physics rules and some graphics over the top. 
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 11:26 |
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James Polk posted:Since it's full 3D I'm sure somebody will mod SimCopter in. A helicopter in this context is basically a floating camera with physics rules and some graphics over the top. Don't forget bucket and pouring water physics 
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 12:22 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 06:12 |
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While this sounds great, and I'll definitely play it, I'm still more amazed that there's someone named Ocean Quigley. Ocean Quigley. Really?
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| # ? Mar 9, 2012 12:44 |
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