# Sim City



## ayaotd (Mar 5, 2013)

Did anyone else pick up the new Sim City?


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## Xaios (Mar 5, 2013)

I'm waiting for the reviews. While I'm a HUGE fan of the old Sim City games, some of the details on the new one have given me pause. The "must be connected to the internet" and "must use Origin" thing don't really bother me. It's more the mechanics of the city building itself that I'm following with interest.


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## ayaotd (Mar 5, 2013)

Servers are all full right now. I can't really get a game going. I read about it before so kind of expected it. Oh well. Hopefully they work stuff out soon :S


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## Mexi (Mar 6, 2013)

Just got it as well, haven't had much time to play it due to servers being overloaded. So far it's pretty good, with Maxis back at the helm it seems a kind of return to form for the franchise, though certain mechanics have been streamlined for better accessibility. "accessible" is obviously another word for easier, but it allows you to focus more on the city-building and less on the mechanics and the economy. to that end, I recently started playing Anno 1404 before I got Sim City, and man what a difference in terms of micro managing (but looks oh so beautiful) Either way, I think the game will appeal to old fans of the game and new fans alike, it's just a matter of adapting your playstyle to the new mechanics.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 6, 2013)

ITS OUT?!

Eh... I'll wait. $60-80 :/


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## axxessdenied (Mar 6, 2013)

had gift cards... bought it


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## ayaotd (Mar 6, 2013)

Lets start a sevenstring.org region


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## axxessdenied (Mar 6, 2013)

Yeah, once the servers stabilize


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## ayaotd (Mar 6, 2013)

Deal  It seems like working with others within a region would be the most fun/productive way to play.


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## Korbain (Mar 7, 2013)

Read great reviews so far, too bad about all the issues getting to play it lol


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## troyguitar (Mar 7, 2013)

I remember enjoying Sim City 2000 back in school, might have to look into this. I haven't tried any other version besides 2000.


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## leandroab (Mar 7, 2013)

YES SS.ORG REGION!

Yeah this server bullshit is pissing me off. Once it gets sorted out we should build a region together.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 7, 2013)

Yeah... Haven't been able to play yet


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## Mexi (Mar 7, 2013)

very reminiscent of all the server BS when Diablo 3 came out. you'd think companies would put more emphasis on customer service when online connectivity is necessary for both single and multiplayer gaming


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## ayaotd (Mar 7, 2013)

Yeah. It is hard to take the whole "We we're not prepared for this server traffic blah blah" It is easier to understand if it is a small company, but it's EA. Did they not forecast the game to be popular?


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## axxessdenied (Mar 7, 2013)

ayaotd said:


> Yeah. It is hard to take the whole "We we're not prepared for this server traffic blah blah" It is easier to understand if it is a small company, but it's EA. Did they not forecast the game to be popular?



That excuse might have worked the first 100 times.... It's getting fucking redundant and extremely annoying.


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## Mexi (Mar 7, 2013)

in related news

EA adding more SimCity servers over next two days | Joystiq
'Non-critical' SimCity features disabled to improve server issues | Joystiq


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## ayaotd (Mar 7, 2013)

I was able to play on Europe West server today :O
We should play tonight, it seems to be more stable now!


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## axxessdenied (Mar 7, 2013)

ayaotd said:


> I was able to play on Europe West server today :O
> We should play tonight, it seems to be more stable now!



Hope so! Tried before work and still had no luck launching a game. Hopefully will work! We should start up a SSO region and make it private or something?


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## axxessdenied (Mar 7, 2013)

Lets friend up on Origin!

mine is axxessdenied 

Still no luck. I'll try a euro-server. 


Managed to get on and started the tutorial. Game looks great graphic wise


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## Xaios (Mar 7, 2013)

Definitely glad I didn't pick it up at launch. Dan Stapleton @ IGN (he used to be Gamespy's chief editor, and is one of the better computer game editorialists out there) has stated in no uncertain terms "don't buy this game until they've fixed these issues."


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## metal_sam14 (Mar 7, 2013)

I would love to join an SSO region once EA stop doing the full fucking retard.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 7, 2013)

Xaios said:


> Definitely glad I didn't pick it up at launch. Dan Stapleton @ IGN (he used to be Gamespy's chief editor, and is one of the better computer game editorialists out there) has stated in no uncertain terms "don't buy this game until they've fixed these issues."



Makes me glad I used gift cards


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## ayaotd (Mar 7, 2013)

My origin name is bannabop . What server did you guys all want to play on?


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## habicore_5150 (Mar 7, 2013)

In other Sim City news:
EA is Threatening to Ban People Who Want a Refund Over Sim City
SimCity Removed From Amazon Over DRM Issues


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## Chickenhawk (Mar 7, 2013)

ITT: People bitching about EA doing what EA always does.


Related note: I'm interested in the new Sim City, but I'm glad I've decided to wait awhile.


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## Volteau (Mar 7, 2013)

Played yesterday for about 4 hours (after the gf bought it for me as a susprise on the 5th). After that I couldn't get in anymore. Servers are always down. Guess this guy was full of it:


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## Xaios (Mar 7, 2013)

Gamespot laid the smack down.

SimCity Review - GameSpot.com



Chickenhawk said:


> ITT: People bitching about EA doing what EA always does.



Yes, but again, it didn't have to be like this. I've been playing Simcity since 3000 (the original). It's the most ardent fans of the series that are going to have the biggest axe to grind because of all this, and who will in turn do the most to turn people away. So even though failure was virtually assured from the onset, that doesn't mean we can't still give EA the grilling they so richly deserve.


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## Sofos (Mar 8, 2013)

i grew up on SimCity, but right now, Tomb Raider>SimCity.


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## ayaotd (Mar 8, 2013)

I'm in Europe West 2 playing in a region called Tempting Time if anyone is on lol


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## axxessdenied (Mar 8, 2013)

I was playing no problem on one of the newer euro-west servers. Neat game so far... but, plots are a little small for the cities. I guess that means there will be lots of reconstruction going on through the lifespan of a city. Make things a bit more interesting / challenging to grow once you fill up your land.

I made a couple private games and made a couple random cities just to get the hang of the game. I like how the game feeds you data. Makes it pretty easy to figure out what's going on and what it needed. 
Runs without a hiccup on my machine with crossfire and everything maxed out.

I work a lot on the weekend but I can install SimCity on my laptop and just pause it when I'm afk at work 

Maybe we shall start up a region this weekend? Lets see how the servers are acting today and then decide on a server to make our region.

Looking forward to exploring specialized cities and greatworks!


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## Xaios (Mar 8, 2013)

I'd be totally down to play, once they fix this server bullshit. By all accounts it's supposed to be a really fun game, tiny city size notwithstanding.

EDIT: Bwahaha, newest Penny Arcade:


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## ayaotd (Mar 8, 2013)

If it is stable tonight I will be playing around midnight!


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## fwd0120 (Mar 8, 2013)

I have a question!!!! Is *all*the game play on line, or is there something like a 'single player' mode for those with a less fortunate circumstance. Not an issue signing in each time, as long as the update system is like the Sims 3 (you can download updates online).

TL;DR Is there a single player mode option, even if you still have to log in?


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## F0rte (Mar 8, 2013)

Extremely disappointing.


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## Xaios (Mar 8, 2013)

fwd0120 said:


> I have a question!!!! Is *all*the game play on line, or is there something like a 'single player' mode for those with a less fortunate circumstance. Not an issue signing in each time, as long as the update system is like the Sims 3 (you can download updates online).
> 
> TL;DR Is there a single player mode option, even if you still have to log in?



There are single-player modes, but even they require always-on connectivity.


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## leandroab (Mar 8, 2013)

I installed and got into a server no problem. Couldn't join any regions. I made one and played, first time. I could join sentences with "but" and "and", but I won't.


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## fwd0120 (Mar 8, 2013)

Xaios said:


> There are single-player modes, but even they require always-on connectivity.



Thanks! Do they require any big update downloads to install (like a lot of steam stuff)? And on that not, _is_ it on steam, or something different?


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## habicore_5150 (Mar 9, 2013)

in other Sim City news (probably gonna piss off plenty of people, from what I'm seeing)

SimCity & Amazon: Site Temporarily Suspends Sales Of Game, Posts Warning About Server Issues


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

habicore_5150 said:


> in other Sim City news (probably gonna piss off plenty of people, from what I'm seeing)
> 
> SimCity & Amazon: Site Temporarily Suspends Sales Of Game, Posts Warning About Server Issues



Already been posted. I'm playing no problem the last couple nights. Game is really good.


I've made a bunch of cities and am getting my start game down pretty well. I think the major thing to control will be traffic. I noticed it can get out of hand pretty quick.

I've just been doing some private regions to get the hang of the games basic mechanics. I noticed at first I was trying to develop my towns too fast and it just led to things not going how I wanted design-wise.

Lots of neat little features in this iteration of Sim City. I like how a lot of buildings can be "upgraded / expanded" to increase their capabilities as your town grows. Be sure to leave room for expansion or you will find yourself bulldozing around those buildings!

Can't wait to get to the point where I see skyscrapers ! 

My current game I'm taking it nice and easy. Developing my residential area nicely while slowly filling in commercial and industrial needs. I've got two regions going working together with a third one about to go up which will be more my "downtown" area with more commercial / high-land value businesses. Money is coming in REAL nice now that I'm going a bit slower and I find I can keep up a lot easier with my cities demands!

Definitely a fun sim! Sad that it's launch was mired by such a shitty release.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

fwd0120 said:


> Thanks! Do they require any big update downloads to install (like a lot of steam stuff)? And on that not, _is_ it on steam, or something different?



You won't ever see the game on Steam since EA is trying to compete with it's own digital distribution service, Origin... which, you will need to have installed in order to play Sim City. There are updates already but nothing huge.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

Free game for Sim City owners who have already activated their copy, details will be emailed.

Blog Article


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## Semichastny (Mar 9, 2013)

I remember cliff bleszinski going on some pretentious rant about how pissed he was that there is a "scumbag ea" meme and they didn't deserve the reputation. I guess it could pay to think a little more critically...


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## ayaotd (Mar 9, 2013)

I have thoroughly enjoyed the game so far. We really need to get this region going.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

Same! I'm having a blast but would definitely like to play with some other people so I can just focus on one town! 

Should we do it as a private region?

We'll need to friend up on Origin. I think I sent you a friend request but dunno if it came though.


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## fwd0120 (Mar 9, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> You won't ever see the game on Steam since EA is trying to compete with it's own digital distribution service, Origin... which, you will need to have installed in order to play Sim City. There are updates already but nothing huge.



Good to know!! So, by "always on" does that mean if I lose my internet connection for a sec, I get kicked from the game, to the lobby or desktop? I've got netzero (not because I want it ), and it kicks me off about once an hour or so.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

fwd0120 said:


> Good to know!! So, by "always on" does that mean if I lose my internet connection for a sec, I get kicked from the game, to the lobby or desktop? I've got netzero (not because I want it ), and it kicks me off about once an hour or so.



Nah, you won't get kicked out as long as you don't try to do something in the Region view like try to view a different city. It will attempt to re-establish connection while you are still building up your city!


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## ayaotd (Mar 9, 2013)

Let's do this. I'm signing in now.


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## Larcher (Mar 9, 2013)

Just a little friendly announcement for those of you who like the whole city building thing:

Tropico 4 and all of it's DLC are available on steam until march 15th for 9.99$ (includes all dlc) I picked it up last night and just been being a boss at being EL PRESIDENTE


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

ayaotd said:


> Let's do this. I'm signing in now.



Finally got you on Origin! 

Let's do this! What server ?!


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

Larcher said:


> Just a little friendly announcement for those of you who like the whole city building thing:
> 
> Tropico 4 and all of it's DLC are available on steam until march 15th for 9.99$ (includes all dlc) I picked it up last night and just been being a boss at being EL PRESIDENTE



Is it much different from Tropico 3? Great game! Thoroughly enjoyed #3


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

We've started a SSO region on North America East #4!
Add me on Origin and I'll toss you an invite!


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## Xaios (Mar 9, 2013)

Figured at this point I'm safe to give it a try. Downloading now.


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## Larcher (Mar 9, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Is it much different from Tropico 3? Great game! Thoroughly enjoyed #3



I haven't played any of the tropico games since the first one, so far I'm really enjoying it!


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## Bigredjm15 (Mar 9, 2013)

I'm all in for sevenstring.org team. bigredjm15 for my origin!


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## axxessdenied (Mar 9, 2013)

Bigredjm15 said:


> I'm all in for sevenstring.org team. bigredjm15 for my origin!



No luck finding that username. Try adding me? I copied and pasted it.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 10, 2013)

Xaios said:


> Figured at this point I'm safe to give it a try. Downloading now.



Shoot me your Origin info and I'll add you and invite you to the region!


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## Volteau (Mar 10, 2013)

I'm game. My Origin ID is Volteau85. Invitez me plz!


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## axxessdenied (Mar 10, 2013)

Volteau said:


> I'm game. My Origin ID is Volteau85. Invitez me plz!



Request sent!


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## habicore_5150 (Mar 10, 2013)

Even MORE SimCity news:
SimCity DRM Inspires Petition, Dragon Age 3 Boycott


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## Volteau (Mar 10, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Request sent!



Hmm says I have no game invites. You guys still in NA East #4?

Edit: Nevermind . Just got it.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 10, 2013)

Preorders are a big thing they look at. Stop preordering their games and they will take notice. They can do this shit because it's so easy to target an assload of people these days with digital distribution.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 10, 2013)

Volteau said:


> Hmm says I have no game invites. You guys still in NA East #4?
> 
> Edit: Nevermind . Just got it.



I'm at work right now. I'll get you invited to the region as soon as I can!


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## Mexi (Mar 11, 2013)

petitions like that are idiotic and completely ignorant of what the devs wanted. Sim City was _designed_ as a primarily multiplayer game. They want the social aspect of people building cities with each other as a core component of the game's playstyle. Making an "offline" component would contradict their fundamental design philosphy.

That said, the game is stable now and pretty cool. I kind of wish that the spaces to build your cities weren't so limited.



axxessdenied said:


> Is it much different from Tropico 3? Great game! Thoroughly enjoyed #3


Not _too_ different, but it improved on a lot of the functions of Tropico 3, streamlined a lot of the gameplay and made it less frustrating. In fact, I too purchased the Tropico bundle (for the amount of content you get, $10 is a steal) because of how much I enjoyed the game. Next to more challenging city-building games like the Anno series, Tropico 4 really struck a good balance in city building, management of resources/trade and your people's happiness.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 11, 2013)

Mexi said:


> petitions like that are idiotic and completely ignorant of what the devs wanted. Sim City was _designed_ as a primarily multiplayer game. They want the social aspect of people building cities with each other as a core component of the game's playstyle. Making an "offline" component would contradict their fundamental design philosphy.
> 
> That said, the game is stable now and pretty cool. I kind of wish that the spaces to build your cities weren't so limited.
> 
> ...



What's your Origin ID? I'll invite you to the SSO region! My city has around 100k people already and I had to make another town to take care of bringing in poor people to fill jobs and to handle all the sewage and garbage that's being generated 

You really need to focus on having your traffic work smoothly so that your city can function properly. You're not going to be making as much money if delivery trucks are gridlocked and can't make it to their destinations as fast!


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## Xaios (Mar 11, 2013)

Agreed. The first city I made was pretty much a bust. However, the second one I made is fairing quite a bit better, up to about 140k people. I've got the recycling center set up to churn out alloy and plastic, which get sent over to my processor factory to be turned into processors, which in turn I'm trading to the global market for MAD CASH YO.

The first thing I did in my second city was basically lay down all the necessary roads for the whole thing, including the bigger double-wide ones. Even though the new one allows for curved roads, I'm thinking the grid is probably still the most space-efficient arrangement (although in hindsight, I'd make them rectangles and not squares, as squares a) can't always fit the necessary ploppables, and b) restrict density increase if they're too small).

At one point, I had a gridlock happen where I had to destroy and rebuild all the roads around where it happened, because the game couldn't figure out how to solve it, and it just got bigger and bigger. Naturally, ALL of my fire trucks were caught in it, so I lost a couple buildings in the meantime.

A couple other important things to take into account:

1) Before you start building industrial, look at the wind map. The direction of the wind won't change much over the course of the game. You want to build your industrial zones and power generators as far downwind as you can, otherwise the air pollution they create will blow over your commercial and residential space, making people sick. Even having it build up over other industrial space can create health problems. Basically, if your zone is a square and the wind all goes towards one side of the square, you'll want to build your industrial as a line on that edge of the square.

2) If at all possible, you also want to keep your water supply as far away from your industrial zone as you can, lest it become polluted. The water table will change over time though, so you'll want to account for the fact that, far into the game, you'll likely have to move your key water facilities to another spot.

3) Parks and things that increase land value are a LOT more important this time around than in the previous version of Simcity, where they really didn't do much. They're pretty much essential, as they increase both happiness and wealth, both of which are required to increase density.

4) A lot of people complained that you couldn't micromanage the budget of your facilities like in previous versions of the game, but the ability to expand your ploppables basically serves the same purpose. You can even deactivate and reactivate various sections of your ploppables as needed.


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## ayaotd (Mar 11, 2013)

Any of you guys on tonight?


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## Xaios (Mar 11, 2013)

I guess it bears mentioning that I was doing mine in Sandbox mode. Time to try a real map.


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## Bigredjm15 (Mar 11, 2013)

Ah my bad, mine is JMunnay15


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## Xaios (Mar 12, 2013)

Well, started my real, non-sandbox, no cheats map. Up to about 145k people, so... doin good!

Origin handle is simply MasterXaios.

Credit where credit is due: now that EA/Maxis have sold the server issues, this game is actually a *lot* of fun.


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## metal_sam14 (Mar 12, 2013)

I caved and bought it on a nice special today, have to wait for it in the post though so give me a few days and I will jump in with you guys


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## leandroab (Mar 12, 2013)

axxessdenied add me!

leandroab


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## axxessdenied (Mar 12, 2013)

Requests off!! I'm going shopping with my fiance. I'll be back on later and invite you guys to our latest region when you guys accept my request 
We started a second region since we are learning the game! 
The big 16 player regions are separated into FOUR separate groups. So, it looks like each city has a max of 4 people working together. 

I've got over 1 million simoleons and tons of services set up to get going and only 50k population so far. Things are going GOOD!  I can lend you guys some start up capital so you don't have to get bonds.

Also, start with DIRT ROADS! It makes your initial development cost much lower and you can lay out more of your city. Low density streets are DOUBLE the price of dirt roads... Once you have a good steady income you can upgrade them as density / traffic calls for it! Property values are not affected by the type of road.


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## Xaios (Mar 12, 2013)

One other thing that bears mentioning is that I love, love *love* the visual aesthetic of this game. Yes, the polygon count is incredibly low (seriously, the vertical portion of every light-pole is a 2D sprite! ), but the color scheme and the tilt-shift camera effect just give it such a charming look.

The scale is actually remarkably good looking too, when you zoom in and start wandering around street level. When you're looking down from an aerial view, the buildings seem smaller than they should be, but when you zoom down low, you actually do feel like you're wandering around a town or a city.


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## leandroab (Mar 12, 2013)

How do I find the ss.org region?


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## axxessdenied (Mar 12, 2013)

leandroab said:


> How do I find the ss.org region?



Private, I'm going to invite you right now


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## axxessdenied (Mar 13, 2013)

Water is interesting... Need to figure out how to not run the water table dry.

My sewage plant seems to be creating a dense water table around it... I might try placing the two side by side and have the pumping station fitted with only filtration pumps.
Ran into some issues trying to get my population past 150k population. Put down too many services and money started to become an issue. Got a good idea of where I went wrong though


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## Xaios (Mar 13, 2013)

I played a little bit last night. My city has hit about 160k people.

^ With regards to the water dilemma, I did read something that said you can turn the brown crap generated by sewage treatment into new water using filter tanks without depleting the table, although I've yet to try it myself. When you think about it, it's really quite an elegant solution.


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## Xaios (Mar 13, 2013)

Hey Axx, how do I access the region?


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## leandroab (Mar 13, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Private, I'm going to invite you right now



Your invite doesn't show. I still can't find the region!

EDIT: Is the name of the region "Do you even djent"? ahahahha


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## Volteau (Mar 14, 2013)

It's Djentropolis. Well, at least for now hehe. Also, if he appears as one of your friends just click on his portrait and it'll take you to the games he has created. Then choose Djentropolis.

Having serious crowd control issues. My pop just passed the 120k and I wish it would stop. Money is tighter than a barbie's ass at this point :S


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## Xaios (Mar 14, 2013)

Amusing screenshot for the evening.

Best parking job... EVER.


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## Volteau (Mar 14, 2013)

Xaios said:


> Amusing screenshot for the evening.
> 
> Best parking job... EVER.



That made me lol pretty hard.


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## leandroab (Mar 14, 2013)

Volteau said:


> It's Djentropolis. Well, at least for now hehe. Also, if he appears as one of your friends just click on his portrait and it'll take you to the games he has created. Then choose Djentropolis.
> 
> Having serious crowd control issues. My pop just passed the 120k and I wish it would stop. Money is tighter than a barbie's ass at this point :S



I can only find that game listed on his profile. I couldn't see him as a friend when I joined the east 4 server. Wtf


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## axxessdenied (Mar 14, 2013)

Xaios said:


> I played a little bit last night. My city has hit about 160k people.
> 
> ^ With regards to the water dilemma, I did read something that said you can turn the brown crap generated by sewage treatment into new water using filter tanks without depleting the table, although I've yet to try it myself. When you think about it, it's really quite an elegant solution.



Yeah my latest city has sewage treatment / water pumping / garbage dump all right beside each other with the pumping station in the middle. We'll see how it works. The sewage treatment plant puts water back into the ground as well.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 14, 2013)

Oh yeah... I fell asleep for a bi while playing last nght 
My city is such a mess now. IT grew from 50k to 100k while i slept and i didnt keep up with services obviously so power and water ran out and my population dropped to 22k LOL!!! Now to fix things...


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## axxessdenied (Mar 14, 2013)

Got things under control! Well, aside from that giant hazmat fire that's going on right now. But, I don't want to invest in a large fire station yet. My city needs more workers!





Time to get ready for work 


@leandrob. I've sent you a bunch of invites. Make sure you are on North America East #4.

I'll shoot you message again when Im around and try to invite you again!
There's four of us already going at it, we could use more


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## Xaios (Mar 14, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Yeah my latest city has sewage treatment / water pumping / garbage dump all right beside each other with the pumping station in the middle. We'll see how it works. The sewage treatment plant puts water back into the ground as well.



How did this work out, btw?

Also, how in the heck did you force your density to increase like that? I have about 120k people but I've filled every corner of the map. Oo


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## axxessdenied (Mar 14, 2013)

Xaios said:


> How did this work out, btw?
> 
> Also, how in the heck did you force your density to increase like that? I have about 120k people but I've filled every corner of the map. Oo



Good... like I said, I fell asleep for like 2 hours wihle playing  and chaos erupted in my city. 10% approval rating, all services a mess, red buttons everywhere!! Things were so bad my services coudln't get back online.
I had to lay down a temporary coal mine to produce power to get my basic services back up and running. City was completly dry of water, sewage wasn't functioning. mining production stopped thus no supply for my coal power (which I upgrade to the cleaner burning stacks immediately!). Oh, and I had to demolish about 200 buildings from various issues including some kind of disaster that I slept through 

Glad my city is back on course with an approval rating around 80% 


As for increasing density... what you see is pretty much from 10k population to 100k population wth very minimal additonal residential zoning. You need to be patient and make sure your population is happy. Happy citizens = citizens that want to expand your city.
Right now I need more population to fill in jobs. 
My income is coming in from trading. Which i need to expand to upgrade my Metal HQ. Now that things are under control I can concentrate on that. Just need to fill these jobs before I create more. Ore / Coal mines generate a TON low wealth jobs.

I'm slowly laying the ground work for increasing the tech level in my city to upgrade to nuclear power from coal.

As for the water, it's working great! The sewage treatment plant is slowly increasing the water table in the surrounding area.
My garbage dump filled up while I slept so I just deleted all the dump zones to convert to ground pollution and layed down fresh zones. This is giving my pump a lot of water. The water table got pumped a bit dry because of the chaos that occured but it's regenerating! 

Before I expand further I would like to start setting up street cars in my city to see how it effects traffic. Traffic is going to take a wihle to figure out how to get working efficiently as the population increases. Hopefully I can get this city to 200k and not lose money on it. I'm going to wait longer before I start dropping Large Precincts, Hospital and Fire Stations.
once your zones start to increase to high density, the population really starts to boom! You need to plan far ahead with services and economy to sustain your growth.

Oh, yeah... crime was out of control too since police was down! My cops are slowly cleaning it up. You can see random buildings that are tagged


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## habicore_5150 (Mar 14, 2013)

possibly one of the last bits of SimCity news that I'll post in here:
SimCity modded so it can be played offline indefinitely &bull; News &bull; PC &bull; Eurogamer.net

+1 for the gamers...again


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## axxessdenied (Mar 14, 2013)

habicore_5150 said:


> possibly one of the last bits of SimCity news that I'll post in here:
> SimCity modded so it can be played offline indefinitely &bull; News &bull; PC &bull; Eurogamer.net
> 
> +1 for the gamers...again



The game is designed to be played with others. No, thanks 

People are bitching and whining about no offline mode. But, the system requirements clearly state a broadband connection of minimum 256kbps downstream and 64kbps upstream is required to play the game. People generally don't pay attention to that. I noticed it in Futureshop when I was buy the game because I always check the system requirements before purchasing a game. 
Be glad we don't have to pay monthly fees to be online as maintaining a high traffic server is not cheap.


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## Xaios (Mar 14, 2013)

Indeed. You can certainly build a succesful city on your own, but you won't be getting the full experience. The game is certainly designed around the axiom that "no man is an island unto himself."


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## Electric Wizard (Mar 14, 2013)

You guys have room for one more? I don't have a whole lot of time to play because of school (for urban planning, ironically) but it would be awesome to get in on your SSO region. 

Origin ID: electricwizard8


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## Xaios (Mar 15, 2013)

Powers of awesomeness unlocked.

Once I had about $1.5 million in the bank, I demolished my city and started fresh, going further towards resourced-based economy. It nearly collapsed on myself, as I had overspent and had to move my water facility, only to find _after I had demolished the old one_ that I didn't have enough money for the new one. Things were tight, but I took out a couple bonds and got some timely sales for my materials, and I got back on my feet.

After having mined so much coal and ore, I unlocked the smelter. I make so much money running these things, I basically don't even have to mine my own map anymore. I can just buy coal and ore from the global market, smelt it, and sell it back for massive profit. Even though, according to the financials, I'm losing _$12,000_ an hour in my city, I'm actually making over _$1 million_ per 24 hour cycle.


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## Khaerruhl (Mar 15, 2013)

Sorry if this question has been asked before... Is the game worth it? I've been playing games like Tropico and Anno 2070, and Sim-City looks pretty darn interesting. Just wondering if you guys have had troubles with getting into the server and stuff like that.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 15, 2013)

It's amazing!


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## axxessdenied (Mar 15, 2013)

Electric Wizard said:


> You guys have room for one more? I don't have a whole lot of time to play because of school (for urban planning, ironically) but it would be awesome to get in on your SSO region.
> 
> Origin ID: electricwizard8



Friend request sent


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## Chickenhawk (Mar 15, 2013)

Yup, convinced myself to get this. Just have to wait for the Mac version to be released.


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## Xaios (Mar 15, 2013)

It is supposed to be coming to Mac, but they haven't given an exact release date yet. So far they've only said Q1/Q2, and Q1 is rapidly coming to a close.


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## Chickenhawk (Mar 15, 2013)

Xaios said:


> It is supposed to be coming to Mac, but they haven't given an exact release date yet. So far they've only said Q1/Q2, and Q1 is rapidly coming to a close.



Yea, I noticed that 

They're wanting cross-platform capability, which always seems to cause issues, especially when you consider the server side problems they've already had.

We'll see what happens.


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## revclay (Mar 15, 2013)

Alright, I think I am ready to try playing with others. Axxess, send me a friend request: revclay is my username on Origin as well.


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## revclay (Mar 15, 2013)

Electric Wizard said:


> I don't have a whole lot of time to play because of school (for urban planning, ironically)...



Really? I'm a planning student as well. Where do you go to school? I didn't know there were other planners out there in SS.org-ville, hahaha.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 15, 2013)

revclay said:


> Alright, I think I am ready to try playing with others. Axxess, send me a friend request: revclay is my username on Origin as well.


Request off!


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## revclay (Mar 15, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Request off!



Sweet, thanks. Now if only the server wasn't full...


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## Electric Wizard (Mar 15, 2013)

revclay said:


> Really? I'm a planning student as well. Where do you go to school? I didn't know there were other planners out there in SS.org-ville, hahaha.


Wow, what a surprise! I'm getting my MS at UW-Madison, specializing in transportation. How about you?

Great to meet another planner, go figure it happens in the sim city thread.


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## habicore_5150 (Mar 15, 2013)

SimCity Hack Lets Users Destroy Anyone's Online City Thanks To Always-On DRM

So, anyone else not having any problems with SimCity?


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## revclay (Mar 15, 2013)

habicore_5150 said:


> SimCity Hack Lets Users Destroy Anyone's Online City Thanks To Always-On DRM
> 
> So, anyone else not having any problems with SimCity?



After the first couple of days, Sim City has been fine for me for the most part. The road tool still does weird things from time to time, but it's pretty good for the most part on my end.


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## revclay (Mar 15, 2013)

Electric Wizard said:


> Wow, what a surprise! I'm getting my MS at UW-Madison, specializing in transportation. How about you?
> 
> Great to meet another planner, go figure it happens in the sim city thread.



Haha, I am getting my Masters as well from Cornell. My focus is on community development and energy. That is pretty random and it makes perfect sense that it came in a Sim City thread. When do you graduate?


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## axxessdenied (Mar 15, 2013)

habicore_5150 said:


> SimCity Hack Lets Users Destroy Anyone's Online City Thanks To Always-On DRM
> 
> So, anyone else not having any problems with SimCity?



I'm having a blast and have no regrets buying it. I haven't played any multiplayer games that didn't have their issues at launch. I'm really interested in seeing where Maxis takes this franchise as this is one fanastic sim! Really wish they hadn't done a premature release and insured their servers could handle the capacity. The game itself is very well made.


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## leandroab (Mar 16, 2013)

I just can't see your game man. This is frustrating. I have you as a friend on origin, but I can't see you on my friends list in game!!!


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## Electric Wizard (Mar 16, 2013)

@revclay: Spring 2014, still in my first year.

@leandroab: That's weird, I had the opposite problem. The invite didn't show up in origin, but did in game.

I wish EA could just use steam instead of a half-assed copy.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 16, 2013)

leandroab said:


> I just can't see your game man. This is frustrating. I have you as a friend on origin, but I can't see you on my friends list in game!!!



Weird! Everyone else is having no problems getting in the region. Hmmm....

Hopefully get on at some point today! Havent had a chance to play yesterday!


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## Xaios (Mar 16, 2013)

I'm researching the Solar Farm Great Work, and I could easily afford to build an Arcology. Anyone want me to do it?


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## axxessdenied (Mar 16, 2013)

Do it up! I haven't seen a great work yet


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## Xaios (Mar 16, 2013)

Alright, this is gonna be harder than I thought. This thing needs a TON of metal, alloy and TVs to complete. I don't even know how to make TVs...

Anyway, I tried sending it Alloy, but it didn't seem to accept it...

EDIT: It seems to be accepting it now. Odd...


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## ayaotd (Mar 16, 2013)

My city messed up for some reason. Apparently it's rolling back to a time before it was corrupted :S


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## Xaios (Mar 16, 2013)

Yeah, that happens sometimes. You shouldn't lose more than a few minutes of work.


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## ayaotd (Mar 16, 2013)

Yeah it's not that bad!


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## Xaios (Mar 16, 2013)

Hey leandro, if you join one of the cities 2 cities left in the quadrant with Kazoo Pass and Jugband Hills, I can give you some start-up capital.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 17, 2013)

Played a bit at work tonight.
Got my city population to 232k. Got my wallet up to 10 mil. Making most of my money exporting alloy. My budget is -$16k/Hr but with exports I end up making about $1mil a month


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## Xaios (Mar 17, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Played a bit at work tonight.
> Got my city population to 232k. Got my wallet up to 10 mil. Making most of my money exporting alloy. My budget is -$16k/Hr but with exports I end up making about $1mil a month



Good feeling, isn't it?


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## BornToLooze (Mar 17, 2013)

Well I saw there was a new Sim City and got excited, then saw you had to be online.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 17, 2013)

BornToLooze said:


> Well I saw there was a new Sim City and got excited, then saw you had to be online.



The social aspect makes this game a lot more interesting. Pick it up and come join our SSO region!


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## axxessdenied (Mar 17, 2013)

Xaios said:


> Good feeling, isn't it?



Hell, yeah! Managed to fill most of my low wealth jobs finally! Need to expand my school services and develop some medium tech so I can put up a processor factory!


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## habicore_5150 (Mar 17, 2013)

EA Admits SimCity Could Have Run Offline - Forbes

If this doesn't convince some of you guys in here, I have no fucking clue what will


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## axxessdenied (Mar 17, 2013)

habicore_5150 said:


> EA Admits SimCity Could Have Run Offline - Forbes
> 
> If this doesn't convince some of you guys in here, I have no fucking clue what will



If you haven't noticed... most of us are thoroughly enjoying the game and really like the online / social aspect. The game requirements *clearly* state a broadband connection is a requirement to play. All these people bitching about no "offline" mode need to remember that it is YOUR responsibility as a consumer to make sure the game you are buying is what you want. This is why there are system requirements listed on the back of boxes. 
If you want to play offline, you're better off playing Sim City 4k as the current iteration of Sim City is designed to a social game. Nothing wrong with a company having a specific vision for their product.

You can take any game and hack it to play by yourself. You can take an MMO, install a custom private server and play by yourself. But, who wants to play a game *intended* to be played with others by themselves? If you actually play a few cities in the new one you soon realize that the game is designed so that you are working together with the people in your region to create a successful city.


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## Xaios (Mar 18, 2013)

habicore_5150 said:


> EA Admits SimCity Could Have Run Offline - Forbes
> 
> If this doesn't convince some of you guys in here, I have no fucking clue what will



We all know that the game _could_ have run offline. I knew it from the very start. But that doesn't change the fact that it's clearly been designed to take advantage of an online dynamic. If you played it, you'd know.

Got my city up to just shy of 260k people tonight. Found the easiest trick to pump your trade earnings in a day. I couldn't seem to make enough alloy in a day to satisfy the $2m upgrade requirement, so what I did instead is I started letting it all collect at my trade port by not exporting. Then at the beginning of the day, I turned exports on again and waited for a shipping boat to come by. BOOM, easy jump in the day's trade numbers, the difference of which to upgrade is far more attainable.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 18, 2013)

Xaios said:


> We all know that the game _could_ have run offline. I knew it from the very start. But that doesn't change the fact that it's clearly been designed to take advantage of an online dynamic. If you played it, you'd know.
> 
> Got my city up to just shy of 260k people tonight. Found the easiest trick to pump your trade earnings in a day. I couldn't seem to make enough alloy in a day to satisfy the $2m upgrade requirement, so what I did instead is I started letting it all collect at my trade port by not exporting. Then at the beginning of the day, I turned exports on again and waited for a shipping boat to come by. BOOM, easy jump in the day's trade numbers, the difference of which to upgrade is far more attainable.



Good idea! I got up to 1.8$ mil or so a day without any trickery! haha.

BTW, anyone that registers Sim City before March 25th on Origin will be eligible for the free game!!


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## Volteau (Mar 18, 2013)

Just got my free game. Chose Mass Effect 3 as I finished one and two and still have those saved games. Don't see myself playing it in a while though.


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## Electric Wizard (Mar 18, 2013)

Wow, I was not expecting them to be offering such big titles. Bejeweled and Plants vs Zombies were more the type of thing I was expecting, not Mass Effect or Battlefield. Somewhat impressed with EA for that.


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## ayaotd (Mar 18, 2013)

My city is doomed right now.


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## BornToLooze (Mar 19, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> The social aspect makes this game a lot more interesting. Pick it up and come join our SSO region!



I would, but you have no idea how bad my internet is.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 19, 2013)

Deciding between Metal of Honor or Need for Speed for my free game. hmmm


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## Xaios (Mar 19, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Deciding between Metal of Honor or Need for Speed for my free game. hmmm



Medal of Honor: Warfighter was apparently a giant steaming pile. If those are your choices, I'd go NFS.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 20, 2013)

Or I could upgrade to the deluxe edition of sim city! hmmm


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## Xaios (Mar 20, 2013)

axxessdenied said:


> Or I could upgrade to the deluxe edition of sim city! hmmm



Uh, that's Sim City 4, not the new one. Sim City 4 is regularly on sale on Steam, so if you really want it, you're probably best to get it there.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 20, 2013)

Oh yeah! haha

I think I'll go with Dead Space 3


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## Volteau (Mar 20, 2013)

Haven't seen you around axxess. Sent you 40 tons of coal.


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## revclay (Mar 21, 2013)

So, I would be playing if my past two cities haven't suffered from the rollback loop. It is beyond frustrating to play a game and then have a choice to either play the same 15 minutes of the game over and over again or abandon the city. I probably won't be playing until that issue gets resolved as I am pretty damned frustrated.


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## Volteau (Mar 21, 2013)

revclay said:


> So, I would be playing if my past two cities haven't suffered from the rollback loop. It is beyond frustrating to play a game and then have a choice to either play the same 15 minutes of the game over and over again or abandon the city. I probably won't be playing until that issue gets resolved as I am pretty damned frustrated.



It is EXTREMELY frustrating and I get you. Usually, I just leave the game for like an hour then come back and find that it doesn't happen anymore, but the fact remains that not being able to play the game whenever you want is BS. I read in a forum that someone had called EA to report the problem after like a week of the game being released and that EA had never even heard of the problem till that moment. Sigh... I wish they'd get their shit together, since the game itself is epic.


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## Xaios (Mar 21, 2013)

Indeed. It's like a Bethesda game, except the bugs aren't ridiculously endearing like dragons that fly backwards or crimefighting chickens.


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## ayaotd (Mar 22, 2013)

Have not played in a few days. I have some time tonight. Would any of you guys be down to start a new one :O or do you have to much invested in your current cities? Mine is so flawed right now :S


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## axxessdenied (Mar 22, 2013)

I'm down to start a new region.


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## ayaotd (Mar 22, 2013)

I'll be on after the basketball


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## Volteau (Mar 23, 2013)

We on for a new region? Would definitely start a new one now that I know a bit more about the game.


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## axxessdenied (Mar 23, 2013)

I don't have my laptop with simcity here at work so if anyone wants to go ahead and make a new region, do it up!!


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## Volteau (Mar 23, 2013)

On it. Region Name: Djentnation (to follow our Djent naming tradition).


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## Volteau (Mar 23, 2013)

Requests sent to Axxess and bannabop. Friend request sent to Leandroab and MasterXios to invite you to the region.


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## ayaotd (Mar 25, 2013)

I'm really enjoying this region. You other guys should get on!


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## axxessdenied (Mar 25, 2013)

Getting on now!


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## Volteau (Apr 21, 2013)

For those of you who are studying city planning, this might prove helpful:

https://www.coursera.org/course/techcity


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## ayaotd (Apr 26, 2013)

Anyone down to get a region going again? I have been wanting to play but it is much more fun with others.


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## Joseph Kimbrell (May 27, 2013)

I wanna play SimCopter or SimTower now...


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## Xaios (Sep 3, 2013)

I decided to create a new region today. Was feeling nostalgic and hadn't played in months. My new city actually ended up working a LOT smoother than any of my previous cities did, even the one I rebuilt from scratch in a hyper-planned manner. In 6 hours of playtime, I've already got $11 million in the bank.

If anyone wants to give it another go, PM me and I'll friend you on Origin and send you the region (or however the heck it works).


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## Xaios (Sep 8, 2013)

After my last post, I demolished my city at that point and replanned it. I worked my way up from smelting to manufacturing processors to manufacturing computers, doing away with smelting entirely and just buying the alloy on the market. Definitely the best way to earn money. Now my city is 350k people and I have nearly $180 million in the bank in just my one city.

Everything was humming along smoothly, so I decided to get rid of anything high-polution and go nuclear power instead. What do I get for my troubles? A tornado, right on top of my nuclear plant. Kaboom. It didn't radiate things too heavily, but apparently fallout gets converted to ground pollution over time, which means that more than half my map is now _completely_ polluted. Thankfully, I've more than enough income to pay for a fully loaded hospital, which has more than enough capacity.


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## Azyiu (Sep 8, 2013)

Just came across to this cool thread... didn't read all the posts... 

Anyway, by chance I dug up a copy of my old *SimCity 3000*, with booklet and all! Surprisingly it still works on a Win7 based 64-bit machine!


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## Xaios (Sep 9, 2013)

Nice find. I think I even still have my old Simcity 3000 Unlimited CD around somewhere, although I got it used so there was never a box or manual. My intro to Simcity was watching my uncle play Simcity 2000 back in the day, then he bought me a copy of Simcity 3000.

I couldn't play Simcity 4 back in the days because, at the time it came out, it required about the best computer money could buy to run smoothly. I picked it up in 2012 though on Steam and started playing it, and it rekindled my love for the franchise.

FWIW, the reason I stopped playing before was because the rollback bug made the game unplayable. Thankfully that issue appears to have been completely resolved, as I haven't run into it a single time since I started playing again.

And yeah, you make MAD CASH manufacturing processors and turning them into computers. Despite my hourly budget being nearly $70k in the red, my net is closer to about +$2.8 million per day.

One bug I have run into is that the train rails in Nugget Plateau (in the Titan Gorge set) are useless, because they don't actually go anywhere except to the local Great Works site (which is also accessible by road) and then off the map.


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## ayaotd (Nov 12, 2013)

Anyone want to play again at somepoint?


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## fwd0120 (Nov 12, 2013)

Hmmm... Nostalgia has broken in here, too.... Gonna dig up my simciy 4, now...


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## Xaios (Jan 13, 2014)

Well, they finally relented:

SimCity Offline Mode is Officially Confirmed - IGN


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## ayaotd (Jan 20, 2014)

I still want to play with people on here again


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## asher (Jan 20, 2014)

Xaios said:


> Well, they finally relented:
> 
> SimCity Offline Mode is Officially Confirmed - IGN




But did they fix the horribly, horribly, game-breakingly broken way they calculated pathing and traffic?

edit: I should say that when it launched, I was really tempted to consider it, but then I looked into how that stuff was being run. I can look past the Offline/Online thing (even if I really think they should have just tossed in an Offline mode _anyway_), but between the way they calculate routes for Sims and the resulting lack of value of their much-touted individual Sim tracking... it would have totally killed it for me.


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## Xaios (Jan 20, 2014)

asher said:


> But did they fix the horribly, horribly, game-breakingly broken way they calculated pathing and traffic?
> 
> edit: I should say that when it launched, I was really tempted to consider it, but then I looked into how that stuff was being run. I can look past the Offline/Online thing (even if I really think they should have just tossed in an Offline mode _anyway_), but between the way they calculate routes for Sims and the resulting lack of value of their much-touted individual Sim tracking... it would have totally killed it for me.



Traffic pathfinding is actually much better than it was at launch. It took a couple tries, but they eventually nailed the algorithm.

In fairness, I haven't played in months. My one city is basically completely self-sustaining at this point (barring disasters), so it got boring running it. The fact is, even though they're introducing offline mode, the game really is more enjoyable when you have multiple people in a region collaborating, espeially towards the end of getting great works projects. Unfortunately, being as hardly anyone plays anymore, it's pointless.


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