SimCity coming back!

[Tarkus]

The problem with the scale-distortion on the default highways is that it's so severely out of whack--not just with any semblance of real world scale, but with the rest of the game.  A 3-lane segment of default Maxis Highway (half of the network) is actually a good bit narrower than a default 2-lane Road.  Some distortion is to be expected--it's a game.  But that's way too much, especially considering that they actually had a fair bit of consistency elsewhere.

Additionally, the larger scale makes the concept of modularity more feasible.  It's extremely hard to make new pre-fab plop interchanges for the default highways--several months of intensely dedicated work just to make one.  99% of all projects to make one cease after about a month when the creator realizes how much work it is and how little functionality is actually being added--no one's even tried in about 3 years, aside from minor retrofits of existing ones.  Quite frankly, if we had continued pushing on with making more interchanges for them instead of going the RHW/modular route, as odd as it may sound, we probably wouldn't still have an active SC4 community.  The insane amount of work required would basically grind the "pipeline" of new custom content on the transit end to a glacial pace.

It's really the matter of slope/terrain that are the RHW's biggest stumbling blocks.

[rickmastfan67]

One thing that I never liked in the default version of SC4 was that you couldn't build roads under the bridges, especially if there was a coast line along a river and the bridge was crossing the valley it was in.  If they allow that to be done in SC5, that will be a major improvement.  Also curves in bridges and allow bridges over water to connect to the next "city".

[vdeane]

I'm guessing that the Maxis highways were modeled after NYC.

[vtk]

One thing that I never liked in the default version of SC4 was that you couldn't build roads under the bridges, especially if there was a coast line along a river and the bridge was crossing the valley it was in. 

I get around that by raising the terrain to make a nice "ground-level" approach grade at bridge height almost to the coastline; then the valley road can tunnel under that approach grade.

[bulldog1979]

Why wouldn't it run on Intel Macs?  Does anyone really write software for PowerPC Macs any more?

SC4 was released before Apple has transitioned to Intel, and it was never re-released as a Universal Binary. They released a "patch" that was supposed to upgrade the program to Universal Binary status, but it's still in beta testing after a few years the last time I checked. Reports have been that it was quite buggy.

Windows isn't an option for me to play the game as I've already paid for the MacOS X version, and the only way I can currently run Windows on my MacBook Pro is through a virtual machine. (My XP installer disc isn't SP2, so I can't use it to dual boot, and I haven't had enough luck trying to "slipstream" SP2 or SP3 onto a disc with it to make an updated installer disc anyway.)

[rickmastfan67]

One thing that I never liked in the default version of SC4 was that you couldn't build roads under the bridges, especially if there was a coast line along a river and the bridge was crossing the valley it was in. 

I get around that by raising the terrain to make a nice "ground-level" approach grade at bridge height almost to the coastline; then the valley road can tunnel under that approach grade.

I've done the same thing sometimes.  Still, it would be nice to have roads under the bridges in SC5.

[vdeane]

Why wouldn't it run on Intel Macs?  Does anyone really write software for PowerPC Macs any more?

SC4 was released before Apple has transitioned to Intel, and it was never re-released as a Universal Binary. They released a "patch" that was supposed to upgrade the program to Universal Binary status, but it's still in beta testing after a few years the last time I checked. Reports have been that it was quite buggy.

Windows isn't an option for me to play the game as I've already paid for the MacOS X version, and the only way I can currently run Windows on my MacBook Pro is through a virtual machine. (My XP installer disc isn't SP2, so I can't use it to dual boot, and I haven't had enough luck trying to "slipstream" SP2 or SP3 onto a disc with it to make an updated installer disc anyway.)

And why would that affect SC5?

One thing that I never liked in the default version of SC4 was that you couldn't build roads under the bridges, especially if there was a coast line along a river and the bridge was crossing the valley it was in. 

I get around that by raising the terrain to make a nice "ground-level" approach grade at bridge height almost to the coastline; then the valley road can tunnel under that approach grade.

I've done the same thing sometimes.  Still, it would be nice to have roads under the bridges in SC5.

I believe one of the screenshots making the rounds shows one.

[rickmastfan67]

Well, I guess SC5 is off my list of games now.  I detest games that require you to be connected to the Internet at all times to play, even in single player mode......  I mean, if you want to play during a 10 hour train trip, you can't because you can't get a connection for your laptop.

Bad move EA, bad move.

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/03/28/simcity-require-constant-connection-order-play

[Duke87]

This sort of bullshit is why I gave up on PC games in general. They don't make them without it anymore.

I honestly feel I'm going into geezer mode on the whole matter. "What is this nonsense you kids today are playing? Why in my day, 8 bits was good enough for all of us and we were lucky to have that much!"

Seriously. Nearly all of the best video games out there were made more than 10 years ago. Recent gems are few and far between.

[agentsteel53]

Seriously. Nearly all of the best video games out there were made more than 10 years ago. Recent gems are few and far between.

indeed, my two favorite games are Minesweeper (1992 or so?) and Tetris (1987)

[Zmapper]

Agreed. The game I play most right now is OpenTTD, which is an ongoing open-source duplicate of Transport Tycoon (1996).

[DeaconG]

Well, I guess SC5 is off my list of games now.  I detest games that require you to be connected to the Internet at all times to play, even in single player mode......  I mean, if you want to play during a 10 hour train trip, you can't because you can't get a connection for your laptop.

Bad move EA, bad move.

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2012/03/28/simcity-require-constant-connection-order-play

Oh, for Sh1te's sake...

Um, hello EA?  Have you looked at what happened to a game called Cities XL that tried to pull the same stunt?
The company that did it, Monte Cristo, WENT BANKRUPT.

And if you don't think the SC diehards don't remember that fiasco, you are dead wrong.  They must be losing it on Simtropolis right now...

[kurumi]

(thread necromancy)

New 9-minute promo video from EA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWLClUwAHGc

- roads no longer have to snap to 45 and 90 degrees
- electricity, water, etc. now flow along roads for simplicity
- roads shown are all surface: 2-lane, 4-lane undivided, 6-lane divided

[NYYPhil777]

I won't be getting the 2013 SimCity either. I still play SimCity 4 and 3000 Unlimited.
It's ironic though how when I got GTA IV, I thought the GTA 3 era games were trash afterwards.
That comparison was made to show irony in how I prefer older technology in one game series, but newer in another. (The latter being a popular game series with its older games, like the former.)

[vdeane]

It's probably because, unless you want an MMO, this new SimCity is mostly a huge step backwards.