Maxis: SimCity launch trouble 'almost behind us'
SimCity has almost scrambled back to its feet following the disastrous launch that left players languishing in queues, thanks to a string of updates and new servers. Maxis claimed over the weekend that the "core problem" of being being unable to play is "almost behind us", and that it has "reduced game crashes by 92% from day one." It also dropped teasing, but slightly contradictory, hints that it may consider adding offline support.
SimCity has almost scrambled back to its feet following the disastrous launch that left players languishing in queues, thanks to a string of updates and new servers. Maxis claimed over the weekend that the "core problem" of being being unable to play is "almost behind us", and that it has "reduced game crashes by 92% from day one." It also dropped teasing, but slightly contradictory, hints that it may consider adding offline support.
"I had hoped to issue an 'All-Clear' tonight, but there are still some elements coming together," Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw wrote yesterday. "Tonight and tomorrow we'll be monitoring each server and gameplay metrics to ensure that the service remains strong and game is playing great. We need a few more days of data before we can assure you that the problem is completely solved and the game is running at 100 percent."
Answering a flood of questions on Twitter, Bradshaw and Maxis hinted at a vague glimmer of hope for an offline mode.
"We have no intention of offlining SimCity any time soon but we'll look into that as part of our earning back your trust efforts," read one tweet on Saturday.
That was made confusing 21 minutes later by another tweet stating, "The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so [offline] is just not possible."
It appears that multiple people had their fingers in the Twitter pie, though, so the message may have got a bit confused. And just because it's not currently possible, that doesn't mean it couldn't be with work.
For now, wait and hope. And play SimCity now that people can, because it's quite good. People affected by the launch woes will receive a free game too.
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replyAlice O'Connor posted a new article, Maxis: SimCity launch trouble 'almost behind us'.
SimCity has almost scrambled back to its feet following the disastrous launch that left players languishing in queues, thanks to a string of updates and new servers. Maxis claimed over the weekend that the "core problem" of being being unable to play is "almost behind us", and that it has "reduced game crashes by 92% from day one." It also dropped teasing, but slightly contradictory, hints that it may consider adding offline support.-
I wish offline play was added but I doubt it. Really good game though, I just wish there wasn't so much bullshit at launch.
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wow seriously no wonder they limited the city size... also I bet that is why performance starts to suffer when my population gets kinda high.
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I don't believe Chod's information is accurate. Regional trades and synching are done server side, but all of the AI and simulation is done locally.
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ahh yah seems just the Region simulation is done server-side. Yah I read the tweet wrong: https://twitter.com/simcity/status/310497022157406209
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I have zero performance issues, and I have everything on high.
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um...ok.
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No, they are limited in space to make a city impossible to be self-sufficient once you reach a certain population. You simply do no have enough space to cover all necessities and reach the top peaks of population without relying on the passive bonuses from neighboring cities.
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That's pretty much bullshit on their part. If you are simulating even just 10,000 concurrent players you would need a massive amount of computing power to handle it. Assuming each instance was dedicating just a single core to each users simulation you would need about 625 (16 core) servers to handle it.
I don't have the game, but if you load an instance and then unplug your network cable does the game drop out immediately or does it run just fine for several minutes before timing out? Pretty sure most of the simulation is done client side despite what EA says.
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No mention of when Cheetah speed returns?
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If it's behind us, then I'm done with this game. The only tolerable speed is the fastest speed.
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Yeah, imagine a realistic flight sim with no "time acceleration" option.
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Sounds unrealistic.
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Yeah, who would ever want to pass up flying in a straight line for hours? Whee!
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That's unpossible.
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false. You can click it, but its the same speed as llama.
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oshii. the people that thought it was working in our game all had wind farms!
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Am I the only one who thinks we're being "catered" to via tweets by some talking head? Shouldn't she already know the capabilities of her companies game, online / offline et al?
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Witness the difference between "the truth" and "the truth as EA allows it to be told".
I assure you, they *could* offline it, they just won't.
I wish EA could understand simple math... if A = People who bought it regardless of shitty DRM and B = people who won't buy with shitty DRM, clearly A + B is greater than A alone. Of course, publishers worry more about C, people who would never have bought it at all, and that is the problem with DRM.-
True that.
I bought the game for 1499 rupees from abrasion's (?) sim city post yesterday, despite the horribad DRM/always online jib. It's fun when it works and making it offline would be nice, albeit a little tough since you are limited in scope if you aren't trading resources with other people. Still need to try out the MP aspect of the game. I wonder how that would work out if they patched offline in the game. -
Your "simple math" is incredibly short sighted.
There are a ton of people who will buy it despite it being online only. If that number of people greatly outweighs the cost of providing an offline option, or the amount they project they'd lose by not having DRM or whatever, then they made the right choice.
I assure you if EA thought they would make more money by doing something, they'd do it.-
His idea may be short sighted, but you're not exactly making the right comparison either.
There are two groups whose populations will not change, with or without DRM: people who will (mostly fans of the series) or will not (not fans of this kind of game/can't afford/whatever) buy the game no matter what.
DRM implementation will affect the purchasing decision of two groups of people: ones who will buy because of DRM (who enjoy the online features/PR advertisement), and ones who will buy because of no DRM (out of "principle"/drawn by "good" PR).
It's messy trying to include pirates, because then you'll get into the argument of the number of people who never intend to buy in the first place. Either way, the decision to implement DRM depends on the latter collection of groups, not the former.
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Is it me or did they get a ton of PR mileage out of screwing up? People are sadly drawn to anything that's getting all this news.
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They got Time, the BBC and CNN to cover their massive failure of a launch. That's not as good as one might think as it impacts the shareholders. We won't know until their upcoming fiscal report, but seeing as they have not made any sales announcements, and are instead offering credit, I would say yes they got coverage, but none of it is good.
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Bad PR is better than no PR ...
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What would you all rather be: SimCity or Sly Cooper?
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Haha, poor Sly Cooper. I have no idea why Sony just decided to shit out their last few franchise releases. They did the same thing with All-Stars.
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At least they're doing something with God of War...except that the TV ad doesn't show any gameplay.
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There was an interesting thing I noticed with the major news reporting of this.
While most industry hacks understand that Maxis is EA, the mainstream ones don't. A lot of the stuff was written about how Maxis' game was having problems and EA was providing more servers to help lessen the load. It even read like EA were rescuing them in some articles.
I guess that's one benefit to whoring out development studio names like Bioware, the shit sticks to them rather than the entity that has a stock symbol.
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It's funny that EA is getting PR calls from everyone. This morning on my commute to work in the local rock radio station they talked about Simcity 5 how one of the guys couldn't play it over the weekend. Also discussed what EA is doing and how its better now. I thought it was rather funny because they never talk about video games let alone games like sim city. This fiasco has gotten so much attention even outside of gaming.
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isn't the "core problem" behind the unplayable-ness a "core design feature" that they can't remove? AKA persistent online connection? lol. get rid of that and 95% of the problems would disappear.
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Id you don't buy games that require a constant connection, the publishers will quit adding it.
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Man, I thought this was a boring gegtik post.
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No cash, no jobs, no hope?
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Remember when we used to travel everywhere in horse and buggy and never died in crashes. Man those were the good ol days.
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And no car insurance requirements either. If your horse blew up, then tough luck.
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The game was designed around multiplayer.
Here's the thing. It should not have been. Everyone said that this was a bad idea from its first announcement. -
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OT:
How is Tropico 4? Is it worth the $9.99?
How similar or different is it compared to Sim City. (I've never played a Tropico game before.)-
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Not at all similar to Sim City. Very worth $10 though - it's a great game.
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Tropico is essentially Sim City (the new one) but more based on scenario objectives.
You are almost reliant on an external factor (the international factions) for support which you earn by completing quests or building certain improvements. There is confined set of domestic factions (academics, nationalists, environmentalists, capitalists, communists, etc). These people represent the demand of certain things and the overall happiness of the city.
In many ways, it's easier than Sim City to manage but at the same time there is a lot for you to do. The game however is more balanced for quick scenario solving rather than long persistent living cities. You can keep playing but really there aren't many reasons to keep going after you complete the objectives.
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"The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so [offline] is just not possible."
Most retarded thing ever. I have better multiplayer games. I used to go to SimCity when I wanted to just eat biscuits, drink tea and chill the fuck out and not be hasseled by other people.
Pleased I didn't pre-order and I certainly won't buy it as long as the ONLINE ONLY requirement stays.
Anno 1408/2070 is just as good anyway.
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