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Let's Reticulate Some Servers [SIM CITY]
Nirya
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So the Sim City beta dropped this weekend. Anyone else get on it?
For those who don't know, Sim City is a city-building simulator developed by Maxis. Pretty simple stuff. The series has been around since 1989, with the last mainline game coming in 2003 (NO SIM CITY SOCIETIES DOES NOT COUNT SHUT YOUR MOUTH).
Here are some of the cool new things that you can do in the new Sim City.
-Curved roads. No seriously, this is way cooler than it sounds.
LOOK AT THAT.
-Regions. Cities exist as part of larger regions. These regions can trade between each other, and can specialize, leading to a diverse global economy. For example, in the tutorial mission, the city next to you has specialized in gambling and commerce, and sends you water and garbage collecting services. In return, your city grows into more of a residential area, and many of your residents commute to the opposite city for work. The money they make is then spent in your town. Regions also free up space in the towns, allowing for separate airports to accommodate a region. Cities in a region can affect each other in different ways, including pollution, crime, and more.
-MULTIPLAYER! The first Sim City game to have true multiplayer, you can play with friends and develop regions cooperatively or by yourself.
There are some downsides I've seen so far. Here's what I've come across.
-Always-online DRM. Similar to Diablo 3 where you have to be online to play the game, whether multiplayer or single player. Maxis and EA have received a ton of flack for this, but have been staunch with their decision.
-City size. Part of the appeal of the older Sim City games was the city sizes, which could grow into the millions. The new Sim City seems to have toned it down. I'm not sure if the beta just has a smaller city plot size just for testing, but the cities don't seem to be that big. Here's a picture showing a rough estimate.
All that said, I'm still enjoying what I've played so far, and I already have ideas for larger regions once the game comes out. So let's talk about the beta (this weekend only, for now) while we can. Full game comes out March 5.
For those who don't know, Sim City is a city-building simulator developed by Maxis. Pretty simple stuff. The series has been around since 1989, with the last mainline game coming in 2003 (NO SIM CITY SOCIETIES DOES NOT COUNT SHUT YOUR MOUTH).
Here are some of the cool new things that you can do in the new Sim City.
-Curved roads. No seriously, this is way cooler than it sounds.
LOOK AT THAT.
-Regions. Cities exist as part of larger regions. These regions can trade between each other, and can specialize, leading to a diverse global economy. For example, in the tutorial mission, the city next to you has specialized in gambling and commerce, and sends you water and garbage collecting services. In return, your city grows into more of a residential area, and many of your residents commute to the opposite city for work. The money they make is then spent in your town. Regions also free up space in the towns, allowing for separate airports to accommodate a region. Cities in a region can affect each other in different ways, including pollution, crime, and more.
-MULTIPLAYER! The first Sim City game to have true multiplayer, you can play with friends and develop regions cooperatively or by yourself.
There are some downsides I've seen so far. Here's what I've come across.
-Always-online DRM. Similar to Diablo 3 where you have to be online to play the game, whether multiplayer or single player. Maxis and EA have received a ton of flack for this, but have been staunch with their decision.
-City size. Part of the appeal of the older Sim City games was the city sizes, which could grow into the millions. The new Sim City seems to have toned it down. I'm not sure if the beta just has a smaller city plot size just for testing, but the cities don't seem to be that big. Here's a picture showing a rough estimate.
All that said, I'm still enjoying what I've played so far, and I already have ideas for larger regions once the game comes out. So let's talk about the beta (this weekend only, for now) while we can. Full game comes out March 5.
3DS: 2981-5304-3227
Nirya on
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Curved. Roads.
There were signups back in August. Right now it's in closed beta, no idea if it will open up.
One other thing I forgot to mention. This game is gorgeous. Like, ridiculously good looking for what it is.
3DS: 2981-5304-3227
someone start streaming so I can watch a city be built and then later destroyed by Godzilla
not sure i ever even got one into the game but if i did i bet it looked like the run-down dumps that pop up when you don't get your zones right
i have this, on amiga
god this is going to own
I guess I just miss the quirky newspaper.
To bad it is rapidly becoming the standard.
like, not everyone loathes it like they maybe oughta
but no one likes it
i feel the need to draw a line in the sand over it
i also swore a blood oath to never install Origin for any reason
but its clearly not enough of a hit for enough to stop paying for that service
also it might simply drive up piracy which the industry is probably ready to write off as simple piracy, not caused by the drm
and you can't actually save your game, each "city" is persistent
and you need to always be online to play at all, even if you never use multiplayer
and it's on Origin
and that's all a shame, because so far, the actual systems look better than any previous SimCity, but this shit taken in aggregate has completely sold me off the game.
people who don't, won't
honestly as far as DRM systems go it's one of the least invasive ones there are, and far better than the vast majority of the ones attempted so far
GM bought the street car system in that city.
My impressions are that you're completely right about the cities being smaller, but there's a much bigger emphasis on building multiple cities
You're meant to have each city in a region specialize in one certain thing, and they'd provide that thing to the rest of the cities in the region
So your city on the coast would specialize in water production and would then provide water to the whole region, you'd have one city dedicated to coal production that provided power, one city dedicated to waste management, etc.
But then you still have to manage those cities normally, keeping people happy and working
It's pretty different from SimCity 4, but I think it's really interesting but also I could be totally wrong and that's not actually how it works
Least invasive?
What would you say is the most invasive that you've seen?
You only get an hour per city. So you can start as many cities as you want, but only get an hour in each.
Also, the servers have been down most of today. I guess this is why you have a beta, but that doesn't bode well for the release of a game with always-online DRM.
3DS: 2981-5304-3227
StarForce
edit: Oh and fucking SecuROM
bzzzt
It cuts to these criminals and shows the police in action.
Turns out the criminals had taken a bank hostage and the police went in and started shooting up the place. It was incredible.
3DS: 2981-5304-3227
Good to know that at least one part of the game is realistic.
I think the choice of building is dynamic. Mine was a biotechnology corporation's building. And yeah it was pretty awesome.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better
bit.ly/2XQM1ke
every city i've made has been horribly messy
but it's probably because i'm not used to it yet
as it stands I keep making blocks that are too big and have giant useless spaces in between houses and shit
i think i'll make a circle city now
my first city was star shaped
Beta my ass
this is a demo masquerading as a beta because betas get people more excited than demos these days
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