new "real" Sim City in 2013

[j-dub]

These are supposed SC5 shots?





I'll believe it, when I see it. Although, the last picture, while it looks like SC4, the angle it was taken at, seems to be different.

[Tarkus]

They're not screenshots--just concept art.  Basically, someone drew some mockups of what the game could look like.  They are apparently still working on the graphical engine and aren't ready to show it off yet.  We'll know more when the GDC rolls around.

I'm a lot more convinced this is the real deal than I was 24 hours ago.

-Alex

[wallasey]

Dont like them....look too "plastic". The great thing about SC4 is that despite it's grid, the places we build do look lived in and real imv. Those graphics above do nothing for me personally.

[Haljackey]

Dont like them....look too "plastic". The great thing about SC4 is that despite it's grid, the places we build do look lived in and real imv. Those graphics above do nothing for me personally.

Oh.... There's way more to look forward to this game than good graphics. Stability is the main thing I'm looking forward to.

I am absolutely sick and tired of Simcity 4 crashing, most of the time randomly, and seeing cities I have been working on for years become corrupted, unplayable files. Basic coding was a considerable flaw for SC4, and I'm hoping for drastic changes in Simcity 5.

I also hope the financial system is a little better to keep in balance. If you're playing SC4 out of the box it can be difficult to keep your budget balanced, especially during the first few years of your city.

Custom content-wise, I'm sure they'll study how well it worked for SC4 and ensure SC5 will have it. There may DLC (downloadable content) for a price, but sharing player-made creations should be free.

[Kitsune]

The rumour's suggest macro-economics are going to be introduced. That might get me finally playing with finances (as it is ... I dont use finances and start all cities with 1 billion). And if it indeed does come out in '13, it'll be nicely timed with my 4 year upgrade cycle, it'll be nice to retire my original 920 from late 08 and finally move on to ssd's. Shame ddr4 won't be out yet.

[GMT]

having built a PC around the i7-2600K and a GTX560Ti (2GB version), I think I should be good for a while though. If necessary I could just get a newer GPU once Kepler comes out.

which board do you have? got the same graphics (msi twinfrozr version) and plan on getting the same cpu...

so much for the off topic I can't help but asking 

as for the sc announcement... I am seriously hoping for what they promise, the next "real" sim city.
although I must say the last almost 10 years of griddyness with sc4 (plus the awesome user-created content and customization abilities) I fear there's just no chance to live up to this game, unless it's gonna be frakking epic, which I - tbh - doubt.

I have an Asus P8P67 Deluxe board, but honestly, you'd be better off waiting until Ivy Bridge comes out (April normally) and then grab an i7-3770K (or whatever it'll end up being called) and a Z77 board as well

depends on the money. I'd sure like to get the new flagship into my pc, but I can't spend too much on this mission as I spent quite some cash on my car's performance already and now gotta balance. If the 330 bucks I read a couple days ago are in fact the retail price it's just at the limit together with a new board.

[WC_EEND]

depends on the money. I'd sure like to get the new flagship into my pc, but I can't spend too much on this mission as I spent quite some cash on my car's performance already and now gotta balance. If the 330 bucks I read a couple days ago are in fact the retail price it's just at the limit together with a new board.

I'd go for the Z77 board though regardless of wether you'll go with the 2600K or the 3770K. Those boards will likely have new features the current H61/H67/P67/Z68 boards don't have (PCIe3 springs to mind) and still take all LGA 1155 CPUs.

[mike3775]

I remember seeing "concept" pictures of SC4 and they looked exactly the same as what was posted here.  And what came out in the game was better.

[j-dub]

I remember one of those concept pictures, they had something that looked like a giant elevated Mave 4, of course, we all know they did not finish that. NAM did.

[Lowkee33]

We'll know more when the GDC rolls around.

From the GDC website:

Speaker/s: Ocean Quigley (EA), Andrew Willmott (EA) and Dan Moskowitz (EA)
Day / Time / Location: Wednesday 11:00-12:00 Room 3007, West Hall, 3rd Fl
Track / Duration / Format / Audience Level: Programming / 60-Minute / Sponsored
GDC Vault Recording: No Vault Recording
Description:

Join EA and one of their world class development studios as they give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the GlassBox Simulation Engine, the next-generation technology that is built from the ground up to power the next entry in one of their most beloved franchises.

The second picture J-Dub posted is particularly interesting to me.  There is a grid there, and I hope it stays because cities are much easier to plan when you do have a grid to work with.  I'm trying not to look to far into it, but that terrain does behave in the same way as SC4, note the way the beach texture interacts with the grass.

Edit: That's this Wednesday, btw.

[catty]

I want to believe in this, but I think we will be disappointed, for nine years they haven't done a thing no updates, no patches and made money from the SC4 community efforts, and now that Cities XL is slowly is starting to improve (its not close to being a replacement for SC4 yet) but I think EA can see the writing on the walls ... and suddenly there is talk of an new simcity.

I think we will get SC4 in brand new 3D clothes, maybe a few fixes, stuff that was in development back in 2003 and that will be that ... and according to a translation someone has done from the germany site ... no custom content either.

-catty

[Tarkus]

That translation was from someone who deliberately omitted a few words--namely "Häuser aus Die Sims"--"houses from The Sims".  The actual sentence in question: "Das importieren eigener Häuser aus Die Sims wäre doch ein Geniestreich, um SimCity noch mehr Spielern schmackhaft zu machen?"

That translates roughly to: "The import of the player's own houses from The Sims would be a stroke of genius to make SimCity more palatable?"

-Alex

[catty]

...That translates roughly to: "The import of the player's own houses from The Sims would be a stroke of genius to make SimCity more palatable?"...

that sounds a lot better, but based on the wish lists people have been doing the last couple of days, I still think there will be a lot of disappointed people at either the announcement or in 2013

[Tarkus]

I think as high as the expectations are for any new game in the city-simulator genre (especially one carrying the "SimCity" name), I have no doubt the most vocal members of the "we want SC5" crowd are going to be bellyaching even if they get more or less everything they want. 

Speaking from the custom content development end, there's only so much we can do.  We can't please everyone--we can only endeavor to please most people.  I'd imagine it's the same for EA/Maxis.  I don't think the bellyachers get that.

-Alex

[WC_EEND]

I understand EA and Maxis won't be able to please everyone, but a semi-open platform (much like what SC4 is) should not be something that is unrealistic to want in my opinion.

[RickD]

EA wants to make money. Free custom content contradicts this. But I am sure there will be some form of modability but this will be very limited even compared to SC4.
I argue that EA abandoning SC4 after Rush Hour was the best thing that could  have happened for us hardcore fans. Imagine what would have happened if there were more addons. The NAM would never exist due to compatibility issues. What if EA had used the dirt road network in another addon?
Sure, EA could have made an addon adressing highways. But this would never have been remotely close to what the NAM achieved. Just look at the ridiculous Maxis buildings. EA does not have the passion / knowledge / dedication that we have.

Let's face it. We are not the target audience for SC5. They can't make enough money with us. If they wanted to make a game that pleases us die-hard fans, they would have contacted us already. Why is there no "community manager" posting here? Because EA does not care what we think because we do not matter to them.

This rant may seem angry and yes, part of me is angry indeed. But I am also realistic (or fatalistic?). Sim City belongs to EA and, objectively, I can't even blame them for trying to make the most profit with it. I just wish the world was different.

[mike3775]

EA wants to make money. Free custom content contradicts this. But I am sure there will be some form of modability but this will be very limited even compared to SC4.
I argue that EA abandoning SC4 after Rush Hour was the best thing that could  have happened for us hardcore fans. Imagine what would have happened if there were more addons. The NAM would never exist due to compatibility issues. What if EA had used the dirt road network in another addon?
Sure, EA could have made an addon adressing highways. But this would never have been remotely close to what the NAM achieved. Just look at the ridiculous Maxis buildings. EA does not have the passion / knowledge / dedication that we have.

Let's face it. We are not the target audience for SC5. They can't make enough money with us. If they wanted to make a game that pleases us die-hard fans, they would have contacted us already. Why is there no "community manager" posting here? Because EA does not care what we think because we do not matter to them.

This rant may seem angry and yes, part of me is angry indeed. But I am also realistic (or fatalistic?). Sim City belongs to EA and, objectively, I can't even blame them for trying to make the most profit with it. I just wish the world was different.

I remember when Command And Conquer Red Alert 2 came out, and at an unofficial fan site, which had some of the game developers on the site, they never posted much because it was exactly as Tarkus stated, they could please everyone and anytime one of them would post, they get a billion posts asking for something else.  They gave up posting. 

Why would anyone from Maxis post here, or at ST, or even Pegs site openly, considering how many act towards members of the NAM, RHW, RMTP, etc teams and bring up things that are not in high demand.  Not to long ago here, someone posted in several NAM threads for something, when shot down from members of that team, they started an unofficial poll to try and get them to change their minds. It crossed a thin line that exists on this site.  I, and hundreds of others understand that these things take time to develop, but for every 100 that understand, there are 1-3 that do not and want it last year for the most part, and always keep asking "when will it be available?"

I am not expecting anything out of this upcoming announcement, and honestly, the only way I would buy a SC5 if it came out, would be if the stuff that many others have unlocked(NWM, RHW, SAM, etc) were included in it, otherwise I would be downgrading

[mattb325]

EA wants to make money.

Absolutely....they can't exist without it. No doubt the EA bean-counters have concluded that the return on investment on a product like SC4 has been exceptional given the fact that SC4 continues to be one of the most successful games ever, albeit over a very long period.

Whether they adopt such a far-sighted model for SC5 remains to be seen. I do certainly hope that custom content creation is part of their business model as it will certainly allow a jump-off from the present SC4 base as well as ensuring the longevity of both games 

[puzzled5543]

EA is smart enough to know that in simulation games, third party custom content actually helps them sell more copies of their game. There is still continued support for custom content in The Sims 3 (actually EA has put out patches and added new areas to their exchange), and I would believe they would be smart enough to do the same here.

[jdenm8]

EA has also broken Custom Content for The Sims 3 several times, the Pets Expansion Pack changed how interaction points worked and EA left no consistent legacy support. Instead of updating the existing points and adding properties to allow pet interaction (and defaulting them to off to prevent interference) like they did in TS2, they made a whole new system and broke the old one.