jpinard
1701
The positive aspect is when looking at our super tiny land sizes we can save space & money. The other positive is the programmers are talking directly to us, not through baloney PR. I agree, I’m disappointed there aren’t sims with age groups like I’d first assumed.
As far as the other comments above, if you read Ocean Quigley’s latest spiel on April 3, you can see he’s doubling down. To address his specific comment nears the end of the post: Despite what he says the reality is you can’t shared goods very well except through the clunky gift system and you can’t just share all 3 utilities at will as the excess is divided by 4. We need to be able to ship goods at a constant rate without having to build 5-10 trading posts to store a decent amount to ship over, with the receiving city having to do the same. Unless Ocean is revealing a vastly expanded Simcity at E3 that fixes game design issues like this I can’t help wondering why he keeps talking the way he does.
But… if we’re all playing wrong because we don’t understand stuff, they need to spell it out. Maybe Quigley doesn’t understand having a region full of 13 other people while you’re stuck with a low population trading port town… is kinda boring.
You do realize that April 3rd post is from 2012, right?
jpinard
1703
I didn’t. Dang, now I’m depressed thinking there was some big expansion being revealed in June.
I know that excess is split depending on number of cities etc. But are you saying some sort of summing is done with ALL 3 utilities and then split?
On a brighter note - 75% off SimCity 4 Deluxe on Steam for this week’s midweek madness.
jpinard
1706
It is split by 4 no matter how many cities are drawing on it. At least that’s what I was led to understand.
I somehow missed Maxis’s official response to whether or not we will be getting larger maps anytime soon. This was posted on Reddit 6 days ago by Maxis:
Can you imagine the complaints if HL2 had a level you could only visit on a high end computer? We give you pretty heavy ‘for your machine’ tuning options, especially for graphics, but we’re not going to make a different gameplay experience or make it so your friend with a lower end computer can’t visit your city.
Yes, no larger maps for you because your friend’s PC sucks. Blame it on your cheap-ass friend.
^ ^ ^
Thanks Maxis…SimCity 5, you are dead to me.
Jab
1709
Well that sucks and I’ve lost count of the number of nails in SC5’s coffin at this point. Wasn’t there a reddit post or something from the lead designer a week before the game came out where he was boasting about adding in larger maps eventually?
A bunch of quotes by Ocean Quigley (Creative Director):
Computers will get more powerful in the future, allowing us to create bigger cities, but getting the simulation right is fundamental. Jan 2013
It would be nice to have larger maps & we’re looking into it, but for release they’re going to be 2k on a side. Jan 2013
We’ll eventually get around to expanding the city size but I can’t make any promises as to when. Mar 2013
robc04
1711
…
Future quote from Ocean Quigley : “Are you still freakin asking me about larger maps? Have you played the game you &^%(*$!? We still haven’t got the simulation right and that should be fundamental.”
Just to nitpick, they actually did do a level for HL2 that was specifically designed for high-end machines. Anyone remember the Lost Coast?
Reldan
1715
I remember that, but as I recall your friends couldn’t log into your level either, so the Maxis person might be right.
I’ll just leave this here. I highly recommend checking out the whole thing.
Senior Maxis Producer Kip Katsarelis:
One of the big issues, and you read this all the time, is comments from the community with regards to city sizes, and it’s a controversial issue. There’s not been any confirmation that city sizes will be increased but have you looked at other ways to help players by creating features such as underpasses or flyovers so that players can try to maximize the space allocated?
First I want to formally acknowledge that it’s the number one complaint from players. Bigger cities is a huge technical undertaking for us and so that was something we had to concede to early on in design but looking at ways to get players to more efficiently pack their cities is something on our radar right now. I can’t be specific on details with regards to what that means but it’s definitely high up on our list.
So you’re not actually looking at solutions to increase the zone size, but what you are looking at are ways to make things more efficient within the space that is currently provided, is that right?
Yes.
KWhit
1717
I read through that interview, and his responses completely demonstrate why the game is such a mess.
A lot of times, what we are finding is there’s a new way to think about SimCity and how it works, and especially with the fans that have been with the franchise for a long time. They have a way in their mind that SimCity works and it sometimes goes against the grain of how this SimCity works.
One thing we are finding out is it’s just misinformation a lot of the time. What are perceived bugs are really just, well that’s the way the system is designed, and what we are trying to do is better communicate the design intentions through developer blogs, release gameplay videos and answer questions on the forums. Inform the community a little bit better.
So what he’s saying there is that it isn’t Maxis’s fault! The gamers just don’t understand the brilliance of their design.
Fuck you, Kip.
One thing we are finding out is it’s just misinformation a lot of the time. What are perceived bugs are really just, well that’s the way the system is designed, and what we are trying to do is better communicate the design intentions through developer blogs, release gameplay videos and answer questions on the forums. Inform the community a little bit better.
Or you know, bad design.
Couldn’t possibly be that.
“The new SimCity is so awesome that players can’t comprehend how it works!”
So the number one complaint (city size) is the number one thing they are ignoring and trying to work around instead of fixing it.
When I get home tonight, I am uninstalling until they put larger cities in. Sadly , that will never happen is the feeling I am getting.
