http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/commen...rom_maxis_amaa/

Quote: At the end of the day, I think you'll find that SimCity is a game for everyone.

Actually I think it will be for no-one, if they are trying to be all things to all people.

They can **** right off if they are having that shitty DRM

Ill probably get it. Nothing I have seen so far worries me

Mox wrote: They can **** right off if they are having that shitty DRM

This, maybe I'll buy it if those naughty pirate develop a work around to the always online bit.

Looking forward to this game. Online capabilities sound great. Not so sure on some of the design desicions, but this glassbox engine looks great for the simulation depth it provides.

void wrote: This, maybe I'll buy it if those naughty pirate develop a work around to the always online bit.

I'd rather not encourage them to be honest. Too many sales and it somehow becomes morally okay to **** your customers with this crap.

Interesting - no subways, max city size of hundreds of thousands and not millions, no direct connections between cities...

Also, about the tax system

Quote: As your city grows you'll be introduced to finer tax controls. Before your city is formally incorporated, by placing a Town Hall, there's no tax controls (because, technically, there's no city government!). Town Hall gives you the option to adjust taxes, but only universally (for RCI and all wealth classes). Once your city grows a little and your Town Hall blossoms into a City Hall you'll be able to control R, C, and I taxes separately. Then, when you add a Dept. of Finance to the City Hall you'll get the ability to tax each zone type and wealth class individually. Sims respond to taxation differently, so it's possible to find a sweet spot where they're grumbling about high taxes but they're not being run out of town yet.

So you can't adjust individual tax rates right off the bat, not sure how I feel about that.

So long as they stick with their (unbeliveably stupid) system where you not only have to be online to play, but your saves are stored online as well, then they can sod off. EA doesn't exactly have the best track record with not shuting off servers for a game once they decide its not making enough money and if they stick with the above that not only renders the multiplayer gone but bricks the entire game.

This is not even mentioning having to use Origin, being subject to any crap they decide to pull, having to put up with downtime and congestion etc... and all of that made so much better with your saves. being. online. only. so if you ever lose connection or have a bad night with congestion (lets face it, its NZ, we will now and then) then no game.

... and if the save are anything like a lot of games these days, its going to be so much fun uploading MB of data just to play solo.

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Allow local saves and an offline mode, even if that makes it Diablo style with closed and open 'cities', but so long as its online save only, no dice.

Christ, this is the first that I'm hearing of no local saves.

F*ck this game, let's stick to SimCity 4 Deluxe and Cities XL 2012.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/24780/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/201760/
Both will likely see nice discounts in the Steam Xmas/New Years sale.

Ha. F**k cloud tbh

I'm not living in the 90s so I'm connected 99.9% of the time to the internet so I don't care.

If the internet goes down I will just go outside/do something else, and my life will continue as it always did.

Reduced useability should come with reduced price.

There is no real good (actual non-bullshit) reason why saves (or anything) HAVE(s) to be clouded. Even the Ubi-Nazi's gave up on always online didnt they?

While you are right and I agree with you - I still really just don't care at the end of the day. (Unless they are doing something with online capability and don't want people to be modifying their save files (cheating), could be a possibility)

Will buy and enjoy regardless.

Guessing there will be a Subway DLC

Privoxy wrote: While you are right and I agree with you - I still really just don't care at the end of the day. (Unless they are doing something with online capability and don't want people to be modifying their save files (cheating), could be a possibility) Will buy and enjoy regardless.

iirc you cant even have cities intereact so other then meaningless achievements...what could be happening?
All this does is open up a new chanel for your game progress to get messed up or kept away from you, which can be incredibly frustrating.


Also wtf no subway?

So how does this online BS bode for modding?

I wish Focus Home Interactive would get off their arses, Cities XL has stagnated.

EvaUnit02 wrote: Christ, this is the first that I'm hearing of no local saves. F*ck this game, let's stick to SimCity 4 Deluxe and Cities XL 2012. http://store.steampowered.com/app/24780/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/201760/ Both will likely see nice discounts in the Steam Xmas/New Years sale.

Just buy it and crack it?

When I first heard about a new SimCity, I was pretty excited. With every additional bit of info, the excitement has certainly waned. I don't think I even care anymore... SC4 with mods will trump this.

Privoxy wrote: While you are right and I agree with you - I still really just don't care at the end of the day. (Unless they are doing something with online capability and don't want people to be modifying their save files (cheating), could be a possibility)

Thing is, cheating was half the fun in Simcity games - in the old days that's what 'accessibility' meant, put in cheat codes for cash to make it easier for newcomers if they make a mistake - shit that's how I learned to play Simcity 3000. Now it looks as if they're trying to dumb it down for everyone.

lolwut?

SimCity2000 was incredibly easy as it was - There was no need for any sort of cheating unless you are just stupid.

Privoxy wrote: lolwut? SimCity2000 was incredibly easy as it was - There was no need for any sort of cheating unless you are just stupid.

To be fair, I was young and I was talking about 3000, not 2000. It was still fun to just build big cities with unlimited cash anyway, especially in SimCity 4 where cash was a bit more difficult to come by. looks like that's not an option in SimCity.

Nakor wrote: iirc you cant even have cities intereact so other then meaningless achievements...what could be happening? All this does is open up a new chanel for your game progress to get messed up or kept away from you, which can be incredibly frustrating. Also wtf no subway?

I doubt the point of the online savecloud thing is drm. They are trying to make Simcity into an online game where multiple people play on the same region: See the latest strategy video:

You say there is no reason for game saves to be clouded, but what about WOW or Starcraft 2 profiles? This is the direction EA are taking their games, will probably be integrated with some facebook shit as well. Not particularly impressed, but will reserve judgement til I try it. It may work out brilliantly, but probably not.

calling it now, 100 different DLC packs

Lord_Montgomery wrote: I doubt the point of the online savecloud thing is drm. They are trying to make Simcity into an online game where multiple people play on the same region: See the latest strategy video:

They managed to do that without a "cloud" with SC2K Network edition...

Lord_Montgomery wrote: I doubt the point of the online savecloud thing is drm. They are trying to make Simcity into an online game where multiple people play on the same region: See the latest strategy video: You say there is no reason for game saves to be clouded, but what about WOW or Starcraft 2 profiles? This is the direction EA are taking their games, will probably be integrated with some facebook shit as well. Not particularly impressed, but will reserve judgement til I try it. It may work out brilliantly, but probably not.

WoW is an MMO. Its an online only game. It has no single player. Likewise with SC2 multiplayer profile, but it still has local saves (see attached for my local SC2 saves folder). My problem here is with the accused always cloud save. Why? If i want to play single player only why do i want to put my save online? *insert normal arguments for not wanting/needing to be online to play here*. I play on a laptop in situations where there is no online access, fairly regularly. Do local and cloud if you must, plenty of steams games do it. If you *want* the function of the cloud for purposes like what you mention, cool. Thats fine, hell it makes sense. It doesnt makes sense to force cloud save.

A Hitman wrote: They managed to do that without a "cloud" with SC2K Network edition...

Also this ^
Hell SCII HotS is having a mulitplayer game save function being added, where one end saves the game locally and the game can be continued by whoever later on by sharing with the other the save (likely to be automatically handled via BNet/SCIIHotS client).

Im not trying to say all cloud saves are bad, but without good context to relevance its like tits on a bull only less sexy. F-bomb the cloud mang.