Simcity 5 Confirmed, rumored for 2013

[pcgamer2]

Simcity is coming back http://www.simprograms.com/39378/fir...-of-simcity-5/

the rumored gameplay mechanics are here http://www.shacknews.com/article/726...mored-for-2013

supposedly its 30% done so far

[Azeem]

Interesting. It'd be nice if they carried over some of the Sim Specialist concepts from SCS. One of the things that was lacking in the previous games was that there wasn't a whole lot to do once you have a standard format set up.

[CobraA1]

Perhaps, but I'd still like to see it a bit more like the classical SimCity games rather than Societies. I liked zoning and being able to manage utilities.

Interestingly, this is a Maxis project again, rather than Tilted Mill. Which means we may see zoning again, I hope?

While I love Tilted Mill's formula - it's not the same formula as SimCity, and I didn't think that undermining SimCity's basic formula was best for the franchise. I want SimCity back as SimCity, not as a weird society simulator.

[Azeem]

Even if the old system is upheld, there's no reason to avoid the innovations that SCS introduced completely. It doesn't have to be a "weird" society simulator, but it could make use of the specialists to add to the level of depth.

[pcgamer2]

Originally Posted by CobraA1

Perhaps, but I'd still like to see it a bit more like the classical SimCity games rather than Societies. I liked zoning and being able to manage utilities.

Interestingly, this is a Maxis project again, rather than Tilted Mill. Which means we may see zoning again, I hope?

While I love Tilted Mill's formula - it's not the same formula as SimCity, and I didn't think that undermining SimCity's basic formula was best for the franchise. I want SimCity back as SimCity, not as a weird society simulator.

But aren't cities weird societies? If you look at real life, with large scale cities such as San Diego, San Francisco, Paris, Amsterdam, etc., and villages all across the world, you'll find all are of themselves highly distinctive cultures that are not quite like each other. What I love about Sim City Societies is that it allows the realism and expression of our cultures to be a part of its canvas. SimCity, with the exception of SC3000 Unlimited which remotely allowed distinction between cities of American/European/Asian, is a platform of a complex cookie cutter method of city building ran like a banking corporation. Just looking at low variety skyscraper cities that look and act exactly like every other, or even worse, a "right" way to build a city, is dull and repetitive. Government in general isn't a profit organization, it adapts to the society.

I'm with Azeem in that the old system couldn't be hurt by extracting the positives of SCS. It is very much could be compatible. SCS lacked the realism in government bureaucracy as well as the explicit exclusion of highways/trains and power/water grids that simcity maxis prides itself of, but traditional simcity lacks what SCS hit home with. SimCity has a legacy platform structure that it needs to return to, but let’s take everything we learned in over 20 years of SimCity, and progress the best of it and make the best possible rendition.

[CobraA1]

Originally Posted by pcgamer2

But aren't cities weird societies? If you look at real life, with large scale cities such as San Diego, San Francisco, Paris, Amsterdam, etc., and villages all across the world, you'll find all are of themselves highly distinctive cultures that are not quite like each other. What I love about Sim City Societies is that it allows the realism and expression of our cultures to be a part of its canvas.

Well, many of the reviews were bad enough that I never actually bought the game myself. It didn't seem to be worth the money.

But yeah - if there's good stuff in the game, I'm not against including it. But I'm reading a lot of comments on the YouTube videos that a lot of people really didn't like the way Societies did a some things. People don't really want to plop down every building - they want a city to grow by itself, and that's what zoning allowed.

EDIT: Humm, I did actually get it, as a part of the SimCity box, a present (probably from Christmas). Guess what? I'm gonna play both games for a bit (SC4 and SCS) =).

EDIT 2: AAANNNDDD the card with the registration codes has only SimCity 4 and SnapCity, WTF??? Guess it's just SC4 then .

[CobraA1]

*looks online - ah yeah, need to find the manual, that has the key. Not inside the box, grr. May be totally lost .

And oh, look - GlassBox is Tilted Mill's walker system, on steroids . Moving resources individually, who would've guessed? Oh, wait, I was doing that in Caesar III .

That's one thing I really like about Tilted Mill's stuff - the walker system. Took until Caesar IV to get it right, but even in previous games, it was a pretty fun system. Felt realistic, and made city growth very organic.

[Azeem]

Agreed. The walkers can get on your nerves sometimes, but they made a city feel much more alive.

[tobing]

Yes, the walker system is really great. I have re-implemented the walker system for my Villages and Cities game, with more intelligent walkers, that is. No need for road blocks any longer!

[Ocram]

Hello. This is Ocram. Long time no see. I cannot say I lurked here. I only went on this site on a whim to see if there was any activity. Cities XL took all my attention away from here but it looks like SimCity 2013 will combine the best of Cities XL and SimCity Box. I never lurked here, I only went on these forums while I was playing a Tilted Mill game (and I love their historic games and they feel like Anno to a certain extent though I never played Anno). Now that I play Anno 2070, I see how SimCity Societies displayed every society in historic city builders (and Tilted Mill is a historic City Builder company).

So, I would like to catch up because I really must thank you for opening my eyes to historical city builders. The only Anno game I ever bought was 2070 but I might try to dig up an old copy of Ceaser 4 or Children of the Nile (I played Children of the Nile on a friend's computer while I was obsessed with SimCity 4 Rush Hour...)

In the time period from the release of City Life until the release of Cities XL, I was checking out every City Builder out there because I had grown bored of SimCity 4 and could only manage playing it when rotated with other Sim style games. I was also having trouble with managing my mods so I had a ton of errors with SimCity 4 at the time. I also sent most of my complaints to Simtropolis.

Other than The Sims, Cities XL 2011, Anno 2070, all the games I played were 1 dimensional and I could not stand playing them for over a few months at a time. I always focused on the architectural aspects as an enthusiast with no intentions at turning that into a career. I made pixel art and vector art for various SimTower clones that always failed. Now I am a full time college student.

[pcgamer2]

I just recently bought Cities XL 2012 since I saw it on a fire sale ($10) at Amazon, realizing that I cannot keep beating the dead horse [SCS] and expect it to come back to life. 85% of the time it won't start because of a nuisance “game cannot start...please purchase another copy and reinstall" and the 15% of the time it crashes within 5 mins in a recently built city with more than 400 pop (old ones like Cambria don't crash for what reason?) On top of that, i tried reinstalling twice, first time no new results, 2nd time clean slate wipe and now I can't load or create cities with the menus showing up but the rest of the screen in a random color (like blue red pink) crash dialogue shortly follows.

Hate to give it up and so far Cities XL2012 seems to lack the diversity and realism in city culture, but it seems like people like yourself (Ocram) have grown to it, so I’ll give it some time.

[Azeem]

Welcome back, Ocram.