SimCity (time well spent compared to Civ?) - Page 5

tniem · September 24, 2002, 23:57

Quote:

Originally posted by Heresson
Oh, i didn't liek the thing that You couldn't build on slopes.
Eventually it was all ending in a completely flat map for me,
as destroying a half of your city wasn't anything problematic.
I think that if You destroy sth, You should pay for the land again - that would be better.

Well, in the new one coming out later this year (ok now early 2003), you can build things on slope. Sure some items will not be able to but that is the same in the real world. However, you can now build roads and resedential communities on slopes.

tniem · September 24, 2002, 23:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Space05us
wont it miss christmas though? thats not normally something game makers do... maybe its a sign that this will truely be 'THE SIM CITY'

Game makers that are producing games that are assured successes (aka Maxis, Blizzard, and maybe some on consoles) can delay and know that they will still have a market. They then can protect their reputation and have more sales with a great game that they could afford to postpone. Smaller companies struggling to get by have to release early.

Heresson · September 25, 2002, 04:17

Good! In SC3000, I missed water power plants by the way (or were they there?)

Skanky Burns · September 25, 2002, 04:44

It's not so much the market factor, but the "lack of income for another 3 months" factor, while still paying the full wages of all the programmers working on the game. Small companies simply can't afford that, larger ones can. They of course expect to make more money from 'finishing the game off' than they spend.

Adagio · September 26, 2002, 10:35

They have a new video at the official site, I'm downloading it now...

It's worhth downloading...it's nice

Dauphin · September 26, 2002, 11:06

Reading this thread makes me want to play SimCity again. Last time I played it I kept getting bored with it for some reason. Can't quite put my finger on what it lacked to retain my interest.

The latest edition looks very good though.

Adagio · September 26, 2002, 11:11

I installed SC3k a month ago, but got bored after a few days, because all the time, I thought about what SC4 would be like...most of the annoying things from previously SC games, should be changed in the next SC, so there's a lot of annoying things, you notice, when playing old SC...

Heresson · September 26, 2002, 12:31

What do You mean by "annoying things" exactly?

Adagio · September 26, 2002, 13:07

Like houses being torn down, re-built, and then over and over again, so an avarage house ends being re-built 10x within a few years...

Or the fact, that it makes no difference to build 10 schools next to each other far away from the city, or to build the schools in the "right places" in the city...

Heresson · September 26, 2002, 15:25

Well, schools... If You have schoolbuses...

But right, the buildings were being changed too often.
I didn't like the church system in SC2000 (don't recall how it was in 3000).

You know what I dreamt about?
A game such as SC, but from the beginning of times,
with historical events; lets say Alexander the Great comes and You have to decide if You let him in or not and stuff,
You guide your city through all the history, not only a century...

Dauphin · September 26, 2002, 16:45

You mean like Caesar but continued to the modern day?

Heresson · September 26, 2002, 18:01

Yes, mixed Caesar and Sim City, just corrected in some aspects.
I think it would be a great game..I don't expect it to be as detailed as
Caesar for each epoch, but... Ooh ooh ooh

Space05us · September 26, 2002, 22:09

I always played Sim City as a break from Caesar. I would HATE to see them mixed like that.

Heresson · September 26, 2002, 23:58

Look on it in another way; at the end of the game You would be having a break from the first part of it

Anyway; how do You dare to disagree with me?

ixnay · September 27, 2002, 00:22

If done right, that could be really fun. But I think it would be incredibly difficult to pull off.

MattyBoy · September 27, 2002, 00:37

Looks like I have unleashed a hotbed of SimCity people with this thread

Grumbold · September 27, 2002, 06:32

Since its one of the most popular games of all time, are you surprised?

I think one of the reasons that these games do so well is that it is essentially positive in nature, and there are so few quality positive games that emphasise growth rather than destruction. Lately the Tycoon! series has tried to broaden the market but with rare exceptions the games are usually just cynical attempts to milk cash. The only really new success has been the Sims. If only they'd make a truly worthy successor to Transport Tycoon....

Adagio · September 27, 2002, 11:37

They have posted a recent chat-script of SC4 on the official site, but they don't tell much news...If you're interested, you might want to read it, but you don't miss any valuable info if you don't...

MattyBoy · September 29, 2002, 19:50

Quote:

Since its one of the most popular games of all time, are you surprised?

You're right. It is not at all surprising. Actually, I was surprised how little I had seen it mentioned and that was why I finally started the thread.

Adagio · September 30, 2002, 04:48

We have had 2-3 (maybe more, I haven't seen) other threads about SimCity 4...

Grumbold · September 30, 2002, 06:45

Yes its been talked about from time to time. At last we got some awesome screenshots to back up the speculation so this thread is going to run and run ..... particularly now they intend to keep tuning the game into 2003 rather than releasing what they have for the Christmas market.

FrustratedPoet · September 30, 2002, 08:33

/me drools and drools and drools

Heresson · September 30, 2002, 10:02

Quote:

Originally posted by MattyBoy

You're right. It is not at all surprising. Actually, I was surprised how little I had seen it mentioned and that was why I finally started the thread.

Yes, that is quite suprising.

Adagio · October 8, 2002, 07:23

There's 8 new screenshots at http://simcity.ea.com/ and two more articles...nothing special, but worth having a look at

Dauphin · October 8, 2002, 07:39

Quote:

Originally posted by Grumbold
I think one of the reasons that these games do so well is that it is essentially positive in nature, and there are so few quality positive games that emphasise growth rather than destruction.

I played SimCity just to unleash Godzilla, initiate nuclear meltdowns, trigger earthquakes, or incite fires. Much more fun than the zoning up of regions and building infrastructures.

Adagio · October 8, 2002, 09:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
I played SimCity just to unleash Godzilla, initiate nuclear meltdowns, trigger earthquakes, or incite fires. Much more fun than the zoning up of regions and building infrastructures.

In that case, you should go read the new article on the official site, they mention something about the new destruction tools (Yes, they call them 'tools'

)

Grumbold · October 8, 2002, 12:32

The suburbia and farm screenshots are looking good. It really is starting to look as if you can design some truly different places to live in SC4, not just variations on skyscraper city. The only thing I haven't noticed yet is any truly futuristic dwellings.

Space05us · October 8, 2002, 13:27

I cant wait any more!!

oh well, I guess I'll have to wait...

Dauphin · October 8, 2002, 13:48

Quote:

Originally posted by ADG

In that case, you should go read the new article on the official site, they mention something about the new destruction tools (Yes, they call them 'tools'

)

Yeah, I had a look. The volcanoes look fun.

Adagio · October 9, 2002, 08:19

There's even more screenshots on the official site, though not in the screenshot part, you need to "read" the article "is SimCity 4 in 3d?", they have 8-9 new screenshots