New Sim City

[samnwck]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kztNWdhRdnw

I personally loved the franchise as a child and I'm eager to play this newest installment with new graphics and such. Definitely looks cool.

[Kornman00]

"Images not representative of actual gameplay"

Can't wait to see what the actual game will look like.

[Kornman00]

yWLClUwAHGc

[Amit]

Watched that when it was released the other day. It has my attention.

[Timo]

Pretty sweet T intersection for the railroad

[Kornman00]

I preordered the limited edition yesterday. Anyone else getting dis?

[leorimolo]

I preordered the limited edition yesterday. Anyone else getting dis?
I mostly play offline so ill wait for the skidrow edition, best there will be probably..

[Amit]

They'd have their work cut out for them trying to replicate the online system. Then again, I'm not sure how essentially "connected" the game really is. Still, I won't purchase something with the knowledge that my work can be corrupt or deleted at any time because the internet connection takes a hit for a minute or two.

[Btcc22]

I tend to avoid buying DRM junk.

Also, console RTS.

[Amit]

Their reasoning for the always online is that the game's architecture is built around multiplayer persistence. Like WTF? Is this an MMO or is it Sim City? Sim City is one of those games where you play it by yourself. You don't want outside factors affecting your gameplay. I can understand how that would be fun, but only in a separate multiplayer online mode. The online requirement to play SP is ridiculous. It was a flop with Diablo 3 so I'm not sure why EA is pushing this.

Also, expect microtransactions in every EA game from now on: EA planning microtransactions for “all of our games”

(http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/02/27/ea-planning-microtransactions-for-all-of-our-games/)So, finally my EA boycott begins. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd have to boycott and entire publisher. Well, I've already been doing it for Activision games I guess. Don't you just love it when the publishers push out ridiculous schemes and say "this is what the gamers want" when it's actually the complete opposite?

[Kornman00]

Welp, going to gamestop today to cancel my pre-order and get something else

[Cortexian]

Has anyone bothered telling publishers that the bean counters =/= gamers?

Just wondering.

[Tnnaas]

I would imagine people have. Of course, some developers just want force you to (http://i.imgur.com/bY5XsDW.gif)...

[leorimolo]

So did anyone buy this garbage? Please post so we can make fun of you.

[Kornman00]

If they did buy it, chances are they still can't play it http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/04/cant-download-simcity-youre-not-alone/ :realsmug:

[Btcc22]

Sounds like the launch of every single game that's tied to the 'net. Surprised people don't just expect it by now.

It wouldn't surprise me if the service providers know full well that they won't be able to cope with the initial rush but would rather not shell out on upgrading their infrastructure for a once off event.

[Kornman00]

Players have flooded (http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9336971.page) the EA forums (http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9338048.page) and Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/SimCity/comments/19p8ph/til_your_cities_will_randomly_break_and_you_will/?sort=top) with woe-filled tales of not being able to play the game because of overloaded servers or, perhaps worse yet, losing cities due to server issues. Over at Amazon.com, the game's ratings have plummeted to one and a half stars (http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Arts-41018ted-Edition2-SimCity/product-reviews/B007VTVRFA/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1).
Permit denied (http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/ingame/permit-denied-simcity-servers-overloaded-building-gets-under-way-1C8725410)!

[Kornman00]

Also, http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/03/simcity-impressions-we-waited-ten-years-for-this/

[Amit]

Things are not good for EA. They aren't going to distract anyone from the SimCity debacle with this statement: EA backtracks on recent microtransactions comments (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/187939/EA_backtracks_on_microtransactions_in_all_future_g ames.php#.UTfd7TCG2f_)

http://media.pcgamer.com/files/2013/03/Dead-Space-dwi-nm.jpg

[Tnnaas]

http://i.imgur.com/lAnTGEM.jpg

Also, Mods should move this to Games. You know, since it's a game.

[Kornman00]

I already settled on never buying an EA published game again, you don't need to give me anymore reasons mister

(Battlefield 4 can blow a dick)

[Donut]

i am fucking speechless at that chat.

[Btcc22]

Threatening to ban your account is standard protocol over at EA, as we've seen in the past. Then again, Steam makes exactly the same threat (https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=9114-WGHM-0381).



We take fraud very seriously and will permanently ban not only your card from our system but any and all Steam accounts that are tied to the fraudulent activity or disputed transactions.

[Cortexian]

It's not really a threat, if it's against their policy and you file a complaint with your bank and your bank gets the funds back then you've still violated their policy. It's no different that walking into a store, buying something and taking it home and using it, not being satisfied, then going back and stealing your money back. It's literally the same thing.

[=sw=warlord]

It's not really a threat, if it's against their policy and you file a complaint with your bank and your bank gets the funds back then you've still violated their policy. It's no different that walking into a store, buying something and taking it home and using it, not being satisfied, then going back and stealing your money back. It's literally the same thing.Sorry lancer but company policy does not trump consumer law.Also several countries have consumer rights which include "cool off periods" in which yes, if you're not happy with your product you can return it to store within a time period for a refund/exchange.

Oh looky (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21712910):

Ongoing problems with the latest version of SimCity led Amazon to briefly stop selling the game.

[Limited]

Annoyingly I want to play the game, but with all these server troubles etc I dunno whether to hold fire.

My net can be a bit flakey too, random cut outs etc. If my net dies for like a minute and comes back on, would that mean the game quits out etc? I know you need to be online, but does it need to be full on connection all the time?

[Btcc22]

"What we saw was that players were having such a good time they didn't want to leave the game, which kept our servers packed and made it difficult for new players to join"

I can't believe those players had the gall to play.


but does it need to be full on connection all the time?

Quote from a Maxis dev:


We will allow you to play for as long as we can preserve your game state. This will most likely be minutes.

I cannot vouch for its veracity.

[Limited]

Hmm okay. You think I should throw money at it? I've never really been into Sim City, but this one is intriguing and from what I've read EA has apparently said they are nearly done fixing the issues, then again its EA saying that.

Sadly I cant find a place to purchase and download the standard version.

[=sw=warlord]

I wouldn't touch this game with a 10 foot barge pole.
The game requires you to be connected all the time and EA has monumentally messed up the released, even the execs are saying the release was "dumb".

[Zeph]

I wouldn't touch this game with a 10 foot barge pole.
The game requires you to be connected all the time and EA has monumentally messed up the released, even the execs are saying the release was "dumb".

This.

However, it seems that Maxis devs have stepped up and said that the decision for this was their own and EA didn't push them into making that kind of decision. They're looking at making an offline version for typical play, but there's no word on whether they'll be able to afford to do that. If you want to buy the game for full price, you'll get a free game out of the EA catalog if your Sim City is activated by the 18th (I think this is the date). You could enjoy another game in the mean time hoping they fix this in the future. If you've been eying an EA game and haven't bought it yet, now's a good chance.

[Cortexian]

Sorry lancer but company policy does not trump consumer law.Also several countries have consumer rights which include "cool off periods" in which yes, if you're not happy with your product you can return it to store within a time period for a refund/exchange.
Hey can you find me a law that lets me a buy a product, then get all my money back while keeping the product? That would be super helpful, thanks warlord!!

Seriously, the guys walking into a store and wanting to return the game after a failed release like this generally have benefit of the doubt that they didn't copy the game disk at home to keep after returning. The guys asking EA chat support for a refund without offering that EA cancel their key/subscription is completely different.

[Btcc22]

The guys asking EA chat support for a refund without offering that EA cancel their key/subscription is completely different.

I think it's a given that if you get a refund on or dispute payment for an Origin/Steam game that the game is removed from your account. Why would you make an explicit offer for them to remove the key?


It's literally the same thing.

It's literally not.

[Donut]

Hey can you find me a law that lets me a buy a product, then get all my money back while keeping the product? That would be super helpful, thanks warlord!!

Seriously, the guys walking into a store and wanting to return the game after a failed release like this generally have benefit of the doubt that they didn't copy the game disk at home to keep after returning. The guys asking EA chat support for a refund without offering that EA cancel their key/subscription is completely different.
isnt there also a law that holds a producer to the promises they make about a product? if im not mistaken, this is a case of bait and switch (albeit unintentional). EA shows a video of the game, people buy the game based on the premise that theyre buying what theyre seeing, then they get the game and find out they cant play it at all due to a problem that is no fault of their own. i think when a person buys a product, there is the implied expectation that the product is functional. this product was not.

similarly, i would expect that asking for a refund on a digital product comes with the implication that the product will be removed from your account. i find it a little hard to believe (or insulting, depending on whether EA is actually doing that) that EA would ignore that implication. even if they did, how hard is it for those guys to just say "just to be clear, this game WILL be removed from your account, and you will no longer have access to it"? threatening a rightfully upset user base with losing even more product they paid for (i.e.: an account ban) is sleezy as fuck.

people who actually expect to keep the game and the money though, no. thats no longer in the realm of "consumor justice", so to speak. that is also sleezy as fuck.

[=sw=warlord]

Hey can you find me a law that lets me a buy a product, then get all my money back while keeping the product? That would be super helpful, thanks warlord!!


You make it sound like it's not possible to revoke online purchases?
It is, it's not that hard for EA to add the ability to apply refunds and then revoke access to the games in question.
I never mentioned anything about keeping the product, you just assumed out of ignorance.

Oh...you and ignorance I should have known!

[TeeKup]

Holy shit. This series of debacles from EA is just atrocious.

[Cortexian]

EA doesn't always remove games from your account when they refund them for you.

I got a full refund from them for Battlefield 3, purely because I was extremely disappointed with all of the issues on release. Exact same situation, exact same player complaints (requiring a web-based interface to launch the game). They never removed the game from my Origin list, and I offered that they may do it if they wished.

The chat support reps are literally so dumb/deal with so much shit that they assume players want a refund while keeping access. If you don't tell them to remove the game from your account and refund you they won't give you a refund. I'm assuming I still have BF3 because the support rep was either incredibly dumb or sympathetic to my cause.

I assumed nothing warlord.

[EagerYoungSpaceCadet]

Things are not good for EA. They aren't going to distract anyone from the SimCity debacle with this statement: EA backtracks on recent microtransactions comments (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/187939/EA_backtracks_on_microtransactions_in_all_future_g ames.php#.UTfd7TCG2f_)Speaking of distractions...

_RgEA07lAZI

[Jelly]

i bought it a couple days ago and have really enjoyed it

[Limited]

Hey can you find me a law that lets me a buy a product, then get all my money back while keeping the product? That would be super helpful, thanks warlord!!

Yeah, go look up UK consumer law.


Seriously, the guys walking into a store and wanting to return the game after a failed release like this generally have benefit of the doubt that they didn't copy the game disk at home to keep after returning. The guys asking EA chat support for a refund without offering that EA cancel their key/subscription is completely different.
Thats not what is happening though. Whats happening is; the guy walks into a store and wants to return the game after a failed release. The company then demands he returns every single game he bought from that company, no matter if they are completely unrelated to the failed game in question.

[Donut]

so EA customer reps have an IQ that gives pond scum a run for its money. i dont think you can fault the average user for not knowing you have to explicitly ask them to remove the game from your library during a refund. the implication is there, and a representative not mentioning that only reflects even more poorly on EA.

[Cortexian]

Thats not what is happening though. Whats happening is; the guy walks into a store and wants to return the game after a failed release. The company then demands he returns every single game he bought from that company, no matter if they are completely unrelated to the failed game in question.
No. Banning accounts after people cancel or withhold funds from the transaction via their bank would be equivalent to the following; Walking into a store, demanding a refund, not getting the refund, stealing your money back, then getting banned from the store.


so EA customer reps have an IQ that gives pond scum a run for its money. i dont think you can fault the average user for not knowing you have to explicitly ask them to remove the game from your library during a refund. the implication is there, and a representative not mentioning that only reflects even more poorly on EA.
This.

[Btcc22]

No. Banning accounts after people cancel or withhold funds from the transaction via their bank would be equivalent to the following; Walking into a store, demanding a refund, not getting the refund, stealing your money back, then getting banned from the store and having everything you've ever purchased from that store be repossesed.

Corrected. Aside from that, there can be perfectly valid reasons for withholding/blocking/reversing transactions so I'm not sure if I'd equate it with theft so readily.

[Cortexian]

Except this isn't one of those valid reasons. At all.

[Btcc22]

Except this isn't one of those valid reasons. At all.

That's up for debate, especially since they issued a press release stating, "if you regrettably feel that we left you down, you can of course request a refund for your order". Granted, you could request a refund for anything you've ever purchased but the implication here is that they'll honour it in this case; anything less is just more E.A. sleaze.

[PlasbianX]

This.

However, it seems that Maxis devs have stepped up and said that the decision for this was their own and EA didn't push them into making that kind of decision. They're looking at making an offline version for typical play, but there's no word on whether they'll be able to afford to do that. If you want to buy the game for full price, you'll get a free game out of the EA catalog if your Sim City is activated by the 18th (I think this is the date). You could enjoy another game in the mean time hoping they fix this in the future. If you've been eying an EA game and haven't bought it yet, now's a good chance.


I thought they initially said it was next to impossible to play offline? But then again, this just came out yesterday:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/03/12/report-anonymous-maxis-employee-says-simcity-could-easily-be-played-offline.aspx


Through all the trials and tribulations that SimCity has gone through with its required online play, Maxis and Electronic Arts have held firm that taking the game offline would require substantial reprogramming. According to an anonymous employee from Maxis who claims to be familiar with the programming of the game, this is not the case.

According to this anonymous employee who spoke to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the servers that have been required to play the game, are not doing any significant computation. They are doing work like interacting with Origin, holding onto cloud saves, and sending messages to players and between cities, but they aren't doing the heavy lifting that has been implied from assorted Maxis and EA representatives. Apparently, what this means is that taking the game offline wouldn't be the difficult task that Maxis claims it to be.

[DarkHalo003]

RWcHMHz3NoA

:lmao:

[Amit]

Let's shame EA some more, shall we?

Modder proves SimCity can run offline indefinitely (http://www.geek.com/articles/games/modder-proves-simcity-can-run-offline-indefinitely-20130314/)

Bmce9oIxJag

Play offline whole day, reconnect to servers after to save your game. Welp, this guy has it all sorted out.

If EA/Maxis do eventually give in and fix the issues with the game, I just might buy it. I was so hyped for the game and severely let down.

[Kornman00]

Wtf, did he seriously just slap a nuclear power plant next to his water supply?

Did a Seattle roads commissioner mod this game or something? Talk about haphazard roads lol

also:
cVPEJ7QFXTI

[Limited]

:D

Check out my traffic problem before I added park and rides, it was dire.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/42037955/sim-traffic.png

[Donut]

RWcHMHz3NoA

:lmao:
LudiGhthhfk
my personal favorite

[Btcc22]

also:
cVPEJ7QFXTI

Sims just have a sense of humour.

aiwpstK97ME

[Limited]

Figured Id show the result of my park and rides on how I 'fixed' my traffic issue.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42037955/Spark_2013-03-15_22-30-19.png

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/42037955/Spark_2013-03-15_22-31-22.png

[Kornman00]

Great, now you just got to fix your post ;P

[Limited]

Great, now you just got to fix your post ;PClearly my ModacityLinter broke.

http://www.splintyr.com/artdump/irony2.jpg
:D

By the way, this will be out soon apparently
OVkw9mWonNA

[Limited]

I'm guessing this function gets called all the time.

simcity.AgentQueryItems.kAgentQueryStuckInTraffic = { dynamic: !0,
allowNullResults: !0,
bindingType: simcity.cAgentQueryUIHandler.kBindingTypeDestinati on,
localeString: new scrui.cLocaleString("AgentQuery.json", "0x0e41f8d9", "Stuck in traffic"),
color: "red",
queries: function () {
return {
isStuckInTraffic: [simcity.kDataAgent, "stuckInTraffic"]

// Another
simcity.GetFudgedPopulation = function (a) {
a = "undefined" !== typeof a ? a : simcity.gGlobalUIHandler.mLastPopulation;
if (500 >= a) return a;
if (40845 < a) return Math.floor(8.25 * a);
a = Math.pow(a - 500, 1.2) + 500;
return Math.floor(a)
};

// Another
simcity.IsPlayingBoxBroken - Used to check if you are cheating / offline for X period of time.

[ODX]

EA is starting to disable some more critical features (http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57574971-235/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-resigns/) in order to get the game running smoothly.

[Kornman00]

EA is starting to disable some more critical features (http://news.cnet.com/8301-10797_3-57574971-235/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-resigns/) in order to get the game running smoothly.
How is a CEO resigning related to disabling critical features that will get the game running smoothly?

[Btcc22]

How is a CEO resigning related to disabling critical features that will get the game running smoothly?

I think it was an attempt at humour.

[ODX]

You guys are lame I thought I was funny and hilarious.

Boo.

[Kornman00]

What you wrote didn't exactly align with the article (especially since SimCity wasn't mentioned anywhere), so honestly I couldn't tell if you had c&p the wrong link for your post. The article makes it sound like he was resigning on his own, but re-reading the "he will no longer be a member of the game publisher's board of directors" part again gives some evidence that it might have been forced.

edit: here's a better article: http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/18/john-riccitiello-steps-down-as-ea-ceo/

[Limited]

Yeah I thought he had copied wrong link too.



simcity.cNetworkStateManager.prototype.HandleConne ctionError = function (a) {
var b = !1;
if (a.messageType === scrui.cErrorManager.kMsgType_ErrorData) switch (a.code) {
case scrui.kErrorCode_NetworkOffline:
this.ShowNetworkDisconnectError(gErrorManager.mErr orsModalDisplayTimeMap[scrui.kErrorCode_NetworkOnline]);
this.StartForceQuitCountDown();
this.mIsNetworkOnline = !1;
b = !0;
break;
case scrui.kErrorCode_NetworkOnline:
this.ShowNetworkReconnectMessage();
this.StopForceQuitCountDown();
this.mIsNetworkOnline = !0;
break;
case scrui.kErrorCode_NetworkServicesOffline:
this.mIsServerOnline = !1;
this.ShowServerDisconnectError(gErrorManager.mErro rsModalDisplayTimeMap[scrui.kErrorCode_NetworkServicesOnline]);
b = !0;
break;
case scrui.kErrorCode_NetworkServicesOnline:
this.mIsServerOnline = !0, this.ShowServerReconnectMessage()
}
return b
};


Return false at top of function to have unlimited online?

[Kornman00]

WTF is with the !0 and shit? Does their scripting language not have false/true keywords?

also, http://gamasutra.com/blogs/TommyRefenes/20130318/188683/Apathy_and_refunds_are_more_dangerous_than_piracy. php

[Btcc22]

It's Javascript and there's a chance that they ran it through a minifier. Failing that, they just value being lazy over clarity.

[Donut]

You guys are lame I thought I was funny and hilarious.

Boo.
in retrospect, i actually laughed out loud when i read your other post. the presentation was flawless :lol:

[Kornman00]

I thought it was a bastardization of JS with the !0 and 'this'. But then I google'd and sure nuff, 'this' is in the ECMA standard

[Limited]

I thought it was a bastardization of JS with the !0 and 'this'. But then I google'd and sure nuff, 'this' is in the ECMA standard
'Uncompressed' version of the file is 77,000 lines. The compressed straight-out-the-json file is 6,000 lines.

And like you confirmed, its because its minified, !0 evaluates as true, which is shorter than 'true'.