New screens at 1up

[jasonc84]

I just noticed 5 new screens of SimCity Society at 1up. Check them out here (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3160082&sec=IMAGES)! :) In addition, they added a new article (http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3160151&sec=PREVIEWS), explaining a few of the game's new elements.

[Azeem]

Hey great, they're including Asian buildings too. :D Also, for a pre-Beta pic, that zoomed out shot looks nice. :)

[the Monkeys Uncle]

Um. Is it just me, or are all these cities GRIDS? What??? I thought the big idea of 3D was to free up the 8-direction transportation system of past simcities. But here, I see we're now limited to only 4 directions? *incredulous*

[Azeem]

This probably has little relation, but Caesar IV allowed for diagonal roads and diagonal placements. Same with CotN.

I think we'll be seeing diagonal roads or wierd-shaped Los Angeles roads in later screenshots. ;)

[BarbulaM1]

Well we won't have pipes to lay or power grids to maintain either, nor advisers to us. Hope we will at least have parks, power plants, water facilites, and tress. And thus far from the pictures, it is extreamly griddy (grid-based for those not acustom to our language in SimCity), there is also an extream lack of fauna, as well as shape. Everything is square, and everything is flat (by that I mean the landscape). Also a lack of transportation options, there doesn't seem to be anything but roads, no buses, no rail, no subway, no highways, no variation in road size (Transportation is the backbone of any SimCity, fans are very into it, check on NAM if ya don't believe me). I also hope that we will be able to mod out "culture" features. Though I will admit, they are better than that previous picture, but they still look and sound an a lot like City Life.

[FomarTHain]

Where are the walls and towers! What if your city gets invaded!

Security: 0

^_^

[Poetic]

WOW these are great!!!! :eek: Hopefully this will shut some of the neysayers (sp?) up a little. As a long time fan of SC I can safely say I love these pics :) One question - what does the stop sign say... must be in sim language ;)

[Azeem]

Where are the walls and towers! What if your city gets invaded!

Security: 0

^_^

Didn't you know? You can bribe enemy invaders. Or you can just let Praefects do all the work. They're stronger than the fiercest Barbarians. :eek:

[Jasoncw]

I was actually halfway optimistic about the new game, but from what the article says, it really is a City Life clone.

Who would want to clone City Life? :(

[King Faticus]

Didn't you know? You can bribe enemy invaders. Or you can just let Praefects do all the work. They're stronger than the fiercest Barbarians. :eek:

lol but watch out for the common pleb when pissed :eek:

[the Monkeys Uncle]

WOW these are great!!!! :eek: Hopefully this will shut some of the neysayers (sp?) up a little. As a long time fan of SC I can safely say I love these pics :) One question - what does the stop sign say... must be in sim language ;)
You've got to be kidding me. If you think the pics look good, go read the article. You might change your mind.


Man, my emotions have been going for a rollercoaster ride the last day or so...

first reaction: WOOHOO SIMCITY ANNOUNCED

yesterday: omg, that screenshot looks like crap

earlier today: hmm, it's only one screenshot, I'll give them a chance

right now: oh wow. It really is going to be as bad as I thought...

[BarbulaM1]

You've got to be kidding me. If you think the pics look good, go read the article. You might change your mind.


Man, my emotions have been going for a rollercoaster ride the last day or so...

first reaction: WOOHOO SIMCITY ANNOUNCED

yesterday: omg, that screenshot looks like crap

earlier today: hmm, it's only one screenshot, I'll give them a chance

right now: oh wow. It really is going to be as bad as I thought...

Agreed from what I just read, no zones, no power grid, no pipes. It is just going to be a plop and watch game. Extreamly similar to the Citybuilder series, but not SimCity. I am sorry for my discontent, but we do not want a Caesar IV with a new graphics set. I imagine we will need to build a plop pre-determined house sizes and watch them grow with what we give them? Zoneing is one of the very things of Sim City that keep it real.
I will abstain from playing this game, and will continue to play SimCity 4. If I wanted a game like what is described I would play City Life or take out my Civ City Rome or my Great Empires set of Citybuilding games.

[Jasoncw]

And who is this Jasonc84!?

There's only room for one Jason in this town! :)


And my instant messenger screen name is Jasoncw87! No one get confused! :)

[King Faticus]

lol try to plop down zones-buildings and watch time pass in caesar iv;)

[jasonc84]

And who is this Jasonc84!?

There's only room for one Jason in this town! :)


And my instant messenger screen name is Jasoncw87! No one get confused! :)

sc42003 on Simtropolis, but my monkier is usually jasonc or jasonc84 elsewhere. And I see that you're from Michigan too, huh? ;)

Slightly more on-topic - I see turning lanes on the avenues in picture #4 (the above-head shot). Good stuff.

[the Monkeys Uncle]

Sorry, but SimCity is not about plopping buildings.

If this is how it is, I will not buy the game, simple as that.

[Jasoncw]

You live in Michigan too? In that case we must join forces against the non-Jasons.

[Poetic]

You've got to be kidding me. If you think the pics look good, go read the article. You might change your mind.


I will admit that reading the part about six cultures that have different buildings from each other has reminded me of the dreadful City life... but I will try to be optimistic. The screens of SCS have a lot of potential in them. Hopefully the cultural buildings won't be too different from each other... that was my biggest problem w/ City life - parts of the city, in City life, looked radically different from each other... which looked awful.

Edit: Heh, I'm from Michigan too, Metro-Detroit. Weird coincidence. Although my name's not Jason :-P

[King Faticus]

maybe it is a city wide thing for all your buildings...

<<< has never played city life...

[Teederman]

Hooray, it's a City Life clone. Remind me not to buy this turd.

[King Faticus]

alright .. don't buy it, it is not like anybody is forcing you to;)

[Jasoncw]

Cool Poetic! Michigan is well represented! Anyone else? :)

[the Monkeys Uncle]

alright .. don't buy it, it is not like anybody is forcing you to;)
true, true. But wouldn't it be a better idea to make a game that lots and lots of people like, and that's incredibly successful? That's what past SimCity's have been like. City Life, on the other hand... well, we won't mention that...

[north country dude]

Hooray, it's a City Life clone. Remind me not to buy this turd.

Okay, with that said, and reviewing the posted links in the first message, I'm outa here.

I thought the fans could offer some sort of input here, but with quotes like, "...previous SimCity games had become too complex for most."(umm,...over 15,000 fans of SC4 didn't think so.) and "focusing on scaling back the complexity and micromanagement" (we aren't bright enough to handle it?), and "no pipes to lay, no power grids, no manual emergency-response funds to disperse, no individual building-funding. The series' hardcore fans shouldn't worry that the game will no longer be recognizable or too easy." (umm,..actually you guys did make it too easy.)

Like I said, I thought we could offer some input on the design here, but it's beginning to look like this is an insult to the 15,000+ fans who thought that SC4 didn't go far enough. Dumbing it down and asking us to try it, is like being promoted from college to kindergarten.

Sorry guys, but after reading the latest press releases and screenshots, I am sooo gone.

[Fukuda3]

Seems that no one here has ever played City Life, It's not similar at all, you're not combininig social classes here, if you misread the article just go and re-read it ;)

Btw, I love CityLife, and I don't see any reason to demonise it :)

[the Monkeys Uncle]

I thought the fans could offer some sort of input here, but with quotes like, "...previous SimCity games had become too complex for most."(umm,...over 15,000 fans of SC4 didn't think so.)

Make that closer to 200,000 people who have registered at the various SC communities around the web (and many more who haven't even discovered these communities). Almost all of these people love SimCity not because any 10 year old can play it, but because it challenges them, and allows them to exercise their creativity in ways no other game has allowed.

[King Faticus]

Almost all of these people love SimCity not because any 10 year old can play it, but because it challenges them
forgive me for saying this but I have never felt challanged while playing Simcity... infact that is part of the reason I liked it.
and allows them to exercise their creativity in ways no other game has allowed.
this is true but in different ways any proper citybuilder does that aswell.

Sorry guys, but after reading the latest press releases and screenshots, I am sooo gone.
don't get discouraged too easily, that is all i can say:)
also those new screenshots were likely taken at the same time as the last one;) so .. I don't understand how they make such a differnece, how can they "change" things so fast?

[the Monkeys Uncle]

forgive me for saying this but I have never felt challenged while playing Simcity... infact that is part of the reason I liked it.
In that sense yes. But unlike City Life, for example, you are challenged to either build a good city, with infrastructure, roads, etc etc. Then, you must wait for your citizens to decide to move in and build homes and businesses. If they don't like your city, they move out and things are abandoned and grow derelict.

This is how any city in the real world works. I don't know of any (democratic) city in the world that builds every one of its buildings unilaterally, and then waits for its citizens to buy the building and live in it.

[King Faticus]

ahhh that sounds terrible, I can tell you if people left just because a city lacks a certain service or doesn't run how they think it should.. my city in RL would be a ghost town...

[north country dude]

Seems that no one here has ever played City Life, It's not similar at all, you're not combininig social classes here, if you misread the article just go and re-read it ;)

Btw, I love CityLife, and I don't see any reason to demonise it :)

Good for you! I have played City Life, and promptly returned it to the store for credit.

I'm not saying Sim City Societies is a clone of City Life. I did read the article, several times in fact. It's what's in the article that bothers me. The article states that it is "scaling back the complexity". In other words, "dumbing it down" for the average 10 year old.

That's what has turned me off from what ever comes out of that philosophy.

Sorry about the 15,000 vs 200,000 thing TMU. But let's go a little farther with that. 200,000 times, lets say $49.95 = $9.9 million!

Okay, I'll give it a chance, and let the consumers decide. No need for me to demonize it at all. Just stating what I don't like about it so far.

[jasonc84]

I can't say I'm terribly keen on the mixing of old and new buildings. I enjoy building cities with structures that I'd see in real life. Just as disasters are a useless feature (IMO) I ignored, I will do the same with historic/futuristic tilesets.

[BarbulaM1]

I think the biggest thing that turned me off in the artical was dropping zones. That is one of the things they vastly improved on in SC4, with the different wealth levels being easily defined. R$ Stage 1, 2,ect... $$R $$$R. I think without zones, and just ploping of buildings, while playing other TiltedMill/Impressions games, I can see where they are going. But I don't like the direction, it would be just another citybuilder game, and not SimCity the vastly popular concept. I don't mean to insult people here when I say this but the reason SimCity is so successful and others arn't (not saying that Caesar IV isn't successful, it just isn't as SimCity) is because of it's game play. There is no need to fix or change something that isn't broken, especialy change it to a model that has proven to only generate just a game, instead of a massively popular franchise.

[AdrianWerner]

Now..those look much better, still below City Life, but they're definitly preety looking.
And the short gameplay description... nice, finally a modern city builder that I could play :)

[DJMoi]

How come almost everyone seems extremely upset over a game that has an expected release date of over 6 months(Jan-15-2008). It seems to me that the game design is in it's infancy yet. A lot can change in 6 months. I am not going to condemn the game just yet. I will definitly keep an eye on it's progress.

[MisterDaVe]

A lot can change in 6 months? If the game was not even 50% done like some said, then they're spending only one year to complete the game.

Maxis has spent the years since 2000 creating Spore, getting closer to completion, and still won't be releasing it for a while longer. What does that say?

Edit: Oh yeah and on the article and screenshots:
- plopping stuff is ridiculous - that's not how you build a city
- I'm still not liking the graphics - looks like my skills with BAT/gmax
- simplicity is too simple to be fun

[NitC]

WOW these are great!!!! :eek: Hopefully this will shut some of the neysayers (sp?) up a little. As a long time fan of SC I can safely say I love these pics :) One question - what does the stop sign say... must be in sim language ;)

Did you get hit on the head or something?:confused:

[simdude]

I just noticed 5 new screens of SimCity Society at 1up. Check them out here (http://www.1up.com/do/media?cId=3160082&sec=IMAGES)! :) In addition, they added a new article (http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3160151&sec=PREVIEWS), explaining a few of the game's new elements.
The article was kinda usefull, especialy the "six social energies" part, because just from the screenshots this was screaming City Life 2 to me.

As far as transportation goes, I can only see streets and cars in the images, something that still worries me. Water department gone, power department gone, transportation department missing, what do we have left to "juggle" with? There must be something to influence those six social energies with.

[sc4ever]

After 1st image I was worried but I thought there could be a solution.

After those new images, definetly SC has dead. Because of some kind of buildings. Buildings in SC were real, very real. There I see futurism constructions.

And that traffic light? Why? WHY!!!??? I really can't understand why spend a single minut designing it.

And all the time the same street, just one variation, the same this time with stones. And, there is not any other way of transport? That worries me a lot!

I bought SC2k, SC3k, SC3k WE, SC4, SC4RH, but I will not buy SCS. You've lost a fan, I am sorry. If you call this game Societies, I would give a change, because I understand it's some kind of new game based on city construction and societies, but don put SimCity on the game's name. I know its not your fault, Tilted Mill, but this forum is the only place I can explain my frustation.

[Marius]

I can't say I'm terribly keen on the mixing of old and new buildings. I enjoy building cities with structures that I'd see in real life. Just as disasters are a useless feature (IMO) I ignored, I will do the same with historic/futuristic tilesets.

Have you ever been to a city more than 50 years old??

Any city with a few centuries to it has a glorious mish-mash of architectural styles, eras, layouts that changed over the ages.

As to the historical/futuristic tilesets... they were a well loved add-on to the classic Sim-City game.

[DonMikimax]

New screenshots are total crap, i am TOTALY dissapointed.
I can bet that new game will have even smaller city maps than that in SC4 [which were even smaller than in SC3], and of course, engine optimization will be done wery bad, just like in CaesarIV.
And this colors in screens, OH MY GOD, where is there realism, WHERE?!
Even SC4 buildings were more textured than this. Main problem is in crappy engine.

I am not buying this crap game, i am staying with SC4:cool:

[Teederman]

There must be something to influence those six social energies with.

Obviously you'll just plop different types of buildings that add to the different "social energies" similar to how you plop buildings of different types in City Life.

So you are trading the social classes with "social energies". Great.

[arcan]

That thing of social classes could have been just great had it been implemented a bit differently, and in a game with less gaps.
I'm sur TM will learn from citylife's mistakes.
Besides, I'm not too bovered about that part. It will just require a little gameplay adjustment. And it could realy add to the game. I just hope it won't be implemented in the stead of other important things.

[sc4ever]

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6228/47025742px2.jpg
Another small image that appear on the magazine web.
Also says there will be videos by 06/18

[Fukuda3]

Cool, we will see how is really the game :)

[Aushun]

Get the knives ready ;)