So SimCity. Who's getting it

[cichlidfan]

I bought it today... only to find out i can't play it until Friday :joystick:

 

 

Release being later over there is working for me. Every time I connect the NA servers are busy so I have been using the Western Europe server. :D

[EtherealN]

Release being later over there is working for me. Every time I connect the NA servers are busy so I have been using the Western Europe server. :D

 

Wha... it's actually online? Oh god that's salt in the wound... :P

 

(And yeah, I have decided that I will get it. Still considering the question of whether I'll get it now or later, though. I had a long deployment to russia moved up, so I'll have more time than I expected in the coming month, but there are other things I need to get done too... :P )

Edited March 5, 2013 by EtherealN

[agrasyuk]

nickname in origin is "Grassoo" . sent invites to you guys.

who is going to start ED forum invite only region ?:)

Edited March 6, 2013 by agrasyuk

[EtherealN]

Ended up falling for it and ordered it. Still don't know whether I'll be able to play at release, but I should be able to get a few hours in there at least.

[cichlidfan]

@agrasyuk -I'll add you as soon as my Friends list stops hour-glassing.

 

@EtherealN -Good job;) There are currently five servers. East and West NA, East and West Europe and Oceana. I have yet to see an NA server not busy.

[EtherealN]

It'll be like Diablo3 release. This kind of thing always is: they simply cannot afford to have the infrastructure to aptly handle the initial rush (since they'll then stand with a massive overcapacity one week later).

 

Read up a bit about it though, and I agree with TB. The people that think this kind of anti-piracy solution is not effective needs to think again. They're actually doing computation server-side for your specific game. To "crack" that, you're looking at reverse engineering the logic ongoing at those servers... Good luck. :P

 

(Whether one agrees with the measure is separate, and probably a discussion that'll end up in flamewars unfortunately, but facts are facts.)

 

On Origin I have the same name as here - EtherealN.

[cichlidfan]

Btw, they have added a second NA East, already full, and another Europe West server. You're right about Diablo. I remember how that went but it cleared up quickly as well.

[agrasyuk]

so far its been quite rocky road. servers are overloaded. tried to join couple games Tuesday night to no avail. today they suddenly showed in my game list as claimed cities... bugs do exist, builtings inside buildings and such. and for the life of me i can't do anything about traffic no matter the public transport. city pretty much stalled in solid red jams, firefighters, ambulances, garbage trucks can't get through to their destinations resulting in degraded services. it really needs a "rush hour" type of DLC to provide for underground rail transport or something.

 

but some bugs i happen to like . it seems that when i buy power ,water and sewage from the region it forgets to actually charge me for it :)

Edited March 6, 2013 by agrasyuk

[cichlidfan]

I have lost several hours, it total, to CTDs and when it happens I usually can't access the land I was working on until hours later when the server gets it sorted out...and I am playing on a Europe server still.

[cichlidfan]

Manual and keyboard controls in PDF; in case someone might find it useful.

Sim City Controls.pdf

SimCity Manual.pdf

[agrasyuk]

so far it is... well... unbelievably ridiculous

 

 

 

 

 

and better yet

 

 

more pics here. would be very funny if it wasn't that sad

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9339905.page

[Grimes]

I quite liked this one:

 

But yeah, this launch is not going well.

[cichlidfan]

At least it has only eaten beginnings of things when it crashed, thus far. :P

[winz]

I had hoped the gaming industry learned the error 37 lesson. Obviously not :-/

[Grimes]

I actually connected and started a new town for about an hour or so. Eventually a little white box popped up in the top left cornet of my monitor stating I've lost connection to the servers. Sadly my screen at some point went black with a pop-up eventually showing up stating I've lost connection with the server. Tried reconnecting but appears they are trying to do some maintenance, so the fate of my little town is uncertain.

[Ali Fish]

lots of interesting comments about this today. the best being its effectivly an $80 facebook game (i agree). why? because they are trying to apply alot of concepts that are designed within free to play games to their payware games. why? to create a platform similar, a service platform with lots of little payments here and there to keep you serviced.

 

metacritic views of zero. 30 minuite queues. gamers complaining and being threatened with bans for directly asking for a refund.

 

you can trust EA.......... to royally screw it up under some pretence that this is the future of gaming. Many should be ashamed about buying into this future wether it works or not to your advantage or liking. open you eyes and everythhing else but keep your wallets closed and use that as your opinion on matters. too many blinded people with a new title infront of them and to much spare money thats of no consequence to spend on this sillyness. It is runing the industry. not you, but EA`s methods and you`re letting them get away with it whhilst being part of it. Hell !......... all they need is one good game that works like this and the whole industry is paying attention due to there inherant greed.

 

poor juliano and his rogue system kickstarter. a worth while hardcore DCS level space sim. miles off target, he could have rightfully had some cash for the pot. not EA and there tripe. each to there own at the end of the day, you`re the gamer, GET GOOD GAMES to PLAY is all i say. and get what you want, not what they want to give you. its just so important at this stage.

 

i know all the arguments against my thoughts and thats fine, just re think it through when you have had enough of simcity please and work out wether it was worth it. and more importantly remeber the occasion as best you can.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Ali Fish

[cichlidfan]

 

poor juliano and his rogue system kickstarter. a worth while hardcore DCS level space sim. miles off target, he could have rightfully had some cash for the pot. not EA and there tripe. each to there own at the end of the day, you`re the gamer, GET GOOD GAMES to PLAY is all i say. and get what you want, not what they want to give you. its just so important at this stage.

 

 

I am sorry Ali, but at this point you are ranting. As for Rogue Systems, I pledged a three digit figure so I don't think EA kept them from getting my money.

 

Wait until Starcraft comes out next week (its full time on line too!) and you can complain about Activision Blizzard.

 

:doh:

[Ali Fish]

I am sorry Ali, but at this point you are ranting. As for Rogue Systems, I pledged a three digit figure so I don't think EA kept them from getting my money.

 

Wait until Starcraft comes out next week (its full time on line too!) and you can complain about Activision Blizzard.

 

:doh:

ok fair enough. EA should be doing it properly is the only argument i have in comparsion, and that it is all just to dangerous for the games we actually want. im sure nobody wanted what Maxis and EA have delivered at the end of the day. i`ll settle for it could have been different (more traditional?) and more initially succesfull.

 

I know i imagine that new glassbox engine and a game that works to my advantage in terms of it being appealing and an evolution of the actuall Simcity series. im still imagining and will be for a long time i suspect. but that is the city builder i would like to pay for.! lol. its just dissapointment at thhe end of the day, but i still sit with a dream that a true singleplayer city building game with that glassbox engine would be utterly fantastic without the jaded nature of creating new forced multiplayer gameplay out of decisions motivated out-with the realms of the game and its historical known value to its series.

 

now if they had called it simcity online i would have no problems with it at all. and might have never been interested in the first place.

 

Creating 4 cities in 2 hours is not a city builder game as i know it should be based upon what we have always concieved as a city builder. im no sheep and i apologise for my own principles in all of these discussions with relation to those that may not agree. its Just another opinion out there. If i cant have that then it is more your issue and as we are discussing simcity i need say no more.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Ali Fish

[Conure]

Screw EA and all their games - they are completely removing power from the consumer and creating overly simplistic crap. Despite loving some of their franchises (which have consistently degenerated in recent years, anyway) I won't be giving them another penny.

 

There are more than enough PC games on the way that aren't crappy console ports (Arma 3, DCS stuff, Star Citizen) to name a few. EA can go to hell :)

[GeorgeLKMT]

I'm pretty upset about this because the new Simcity is imho great game, but with problems like this, I don't want to spend money on it.

[Cowboy10uk]

Hi thanks for the friend invites guys. I've added you all, should be here tomorrow. Of course with the issues not convinced I will get on. Such a pity such a great game, is getting bad reviews because of a server issue which we all knew was going to happen. Sadly with always online games the first few weeks is always a disaster. Sadly it dosnt matter how many times it happens the powers that be seem to repeat the mistake over and over.

 

On the bright side. Once they get things working correctly it will be fantastic.

 

Cowboy10uk

[cichlidfan]

As EtherealN pointed out earlier, the hardware needed for the initial rush would be overkill down the road. It will get better.

[winz]

As EtherealN pointed out earlier, the hardware needed for the initial rush would be overkill down the road. It will get better.

I would kinda understand that stance if it was a day one issue, but even then it's unacceptable, you are the paying customer, and you're not receiving the service you payed for.

And this is dragging on for too long and is hurting the game big time.

The negative reputation origin received will hurt other EA games. People from other regions are cancelling thier pre-orders, amazon has stopped selling the game. And it's sad, because simcity, the game, looks like a game of the year candidate, but it's butchered by sim city, the service.

 

As to the server count issue, there is no reason why not to have enough servers on launch, other then screwing the players estimate. It's not like severs will rot when not used, or you cannot dedicate them to other purposes (other games beeing launched) once the initial few months have passed. Or you can outsource and rent few servers for 6months. Or you can, I don't know, provide a freaking offline mode for singleplayer.

 

Cutting cost on the customers will allways backfire.

[Splat]

[...] amazon has stopped selling the game. [...]

 

[...] Cutting cost on the customers will allways backfire.

 

I've been watching the SimCity launch with bemused interest, having decided from the first mention of always-on DRM that I would not be playing this title. While it doesn't seem that Amazon has stopped selling it (at least in North America), I was blown away when I checked to verify this: 1.2 stars out of 5 with 1,495 1-star reviews at the moment. Also, I don't put must stock in Metacritic ratings, but over there, SimCity currently has a User Score of 1.6 with 1,007 negative ratings to 122 positive.

 

I could not agree with your latter statement more. For a while it seemed like EA could get away with anything, monolith of games publishing that it is. This time, however, it looks like it's really bitten them in the butts. People are pissed that the launch has been such a disaster thus far. Even more so than Diablo III, it seems!

[Simas]

People are pissed that the launch has been such a disaster thus far. Even more so than Diablo III, it seems!

 

I agree with what you said, but the sad thing is - they will announce (just like Diablo 3) they sold 10 million copies or so.