sábado, 25 de agosto de 2012

Message to Maxis

I know the good work you are doing, but some points that we consider to be negative in the game has diminished our enthusiasm for the game SimCity (2013).

You may have noticed that some features and absence of others aren't pleasing the huge community of SimCity fans.

I hope you understand that we aren't a small group and we admire all the effort you have done by making this game.

The negative points of the new SimCity (2013) more mentioned in forums of SimCity fans are:

- No option 100% offline with single player mode.
- Always-on connection to Origin (EA servers).
- Limitations to players in fake single player mode.
- The presence of empty spaces not editable (useless empty spaces) with automatic road connections.
- Absence of terraforming.
- Absence of farms.
- Not being able to save your maps on the hard drive (you will not be able to reload the city to a stage prior to disasters).
- Road connections placed in a fixed and pre-determined location in the map.
- Airport City (the city is only one International Airport, occupying the entire map 2x2km).
- Absence of subway.
- Automatic road connections.
- Player doesn’t have complete control over the zoning by population density (almost automatic zoning).
- Dead space between all the buildings.
- Size of the maps is 2km by 2km (small maps).
- Not being able to control the regional transport.
- Modding restrictions.

I wish Maxis kindly give a response on these points mentioned in several forums that are displeasing to most fans of this wonderful game.

PROOFS

1) No option 100% offline with single player mode.

2) Always-on connection to Origin (EA servers).
http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/48600-simcity-always-on-connection-to-origin.html

3) Limitations to players in fake single player mode. 

Unfortunately, the new SimCity game (2013) is being built to be 100% online with a focus on multiplayer mode.

The single player mode announced by Maxis is not a real single or solo player mode, and it will be only online. This will have limitations that don’t exist in the multiplayer mode. 


Even if you playing alone in the new SimCity (2013), your game will be influenced by other players indirectly through a worldwide network of players in the EA Servers with leaderboards and other external influences. 


You may even be penalized if you want to play alone in the new game or don’t have access to certain features of the game to force you to move to the multiplayer mode.


Member of the Simtropolis forum, SoftcoreGamer says: 

- MULTI-PLAY THE FOCUS; SINGLE PLAYERS WILL BE PENALIZED: play ground and be blocked from "great works" which only multi-players get to build. Great works are large scale projects such as intl airport, which will earn extra in-game rewards for multi-players being obedient Maxis drones. For example, single-play tourist city will suffer tourist inflow stagnation because sorry, international airport is unavailable to single players.
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/simcity/b/pc/archive/2012/07/06/interview-a-new-multiplayer-focus.aspx?PageIndex=1
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/simcity/b/pc/archive/2012/07/06/interview-a-new-multiplayer-focus.aspx?PageIndex=2

4) The presence of empty spaces not editable (useless empty spaces) with automatic road connections.
 

Mkareha: Will there be terraforming in the sense of a "god mode" like there was in SimCity 4?
Creative Director Ocean Quigley: No, all of the terraforming in this SimCity is going to be at the civil engineering scale, and will be the natural consequences of laying out roads, developing zones, and plopping buildings.

6) Absence of farms

There is no information about the existence of farms in SimCity (2013). Maxis said nothing about it and those who played the pre-alpha version didn’t find this item in the new game.

This may indicate there will not be farms in the new SimCity.
 
7) Not being able to save your maps on the hard drive (you will not be able to reload the city to a stage prior to disasters).

8) Road connections placed in a fixed and pre-determined location in the map.

neil5280 wrote:
I was able to play SimCity and speak with Community Manager Michael quite a bit, at PAX.
[...]. The roads issue became frustrating when you play near the freeway that goes between cities. In the pre-alpha software your connection point to the highway is pre-determined, which means if you are planning a city, you can't just put your main arterial anywhere. Additionally, it's quite annoying to be able to build so close to the freeway without being able to make arbitrary connections to it, or run roads under it to develop on the other side. [...]
 
9) Airport City (the city is only one International Airport, occupying the entire map 2x2km).

[...]. For one player, whose city focused on tourism, the new airport would bring in a fresh batch of travelers ready to pour extra cash into his city.
http://www.gamespot.com/simcity-2013/previews/simcity-the-renovations-continue-6380807

10) Absence of Subway 

Latest news about public transport in SimCity (2013) on its official blog has worried fans of the franchise, the lack of news regarding the presence of the subway in the new game.

The possible absence of the subway is absurd, because it is an item that was always present in older editions of the game SimCity.


11) Automatic road connections


12) Player doesn't have complete control over the zoning by population density (almost automatic zoning)

How is the new SimCity different from previous installments?
[…]. In this version, players will have only one zone type for Residential, Commercial, and Industrial. Density will be driven by the types of roads and general traffic around these zones.

Google satellite image below


14) Size of the maps is 2km by 2km (small maps).

When questioned about the size of the tile, Maxis answered:

25) Zakerias: 

Hello Kip, Ocean and Dan,

I have two questions: 1. Could you tell something about the maximum size of a city? Will it be the same scale as a massive city in 3 & 4, or should we expect final cities to be a bit smaller because of the new Glassbox engine? 2. What do you think will be the biggest gameplay improvement over SimCity 4?

Maxis:

[Dan] The size of our new cities are roughly equivalent to the SC4 medium sized city (2 kilometers square).