What advantage does server side processing create for the players over client side processing ? Use cloud saves. That is if you feel server side save states are necessary. So far this global market is the only thing that might justify the server side processing. But what does the global market add over fixed prices for importing and exporting goods ? If anything, both Sim City and Diablo 3 shows that this doesn't negatively impact sales. People still preorder. People still buy while the problems are happening. However, my argument assumes that all the processing is actually being done on the server. An assumption that is now looking wrong. Which means that EA have done this in the stupidest way possible, giving all the disadvantages of server side processing with none of the advantages. They don't even get the anti-piracy benefits, because pirates don't need to duplicate the server side code.
Sim City does not have hardly any server side processing. If you are playing while connected, then lose your connection you can continue to play completely normal with your only side effect being if you quit the game before restoring the server connection you wont have any of your progress saved. The only real thing the server does is keep your save and feed you new data from other cities on the server
New information was leaked. Apparently EA/Maxis lied about offline capabilities, people should be angry. You got sold a terrible product and then got lied to your face.
Yeah, that is probably why your other cities don't progress when you aren't in them. My point there would have been stronger if they did progress alongside one another and I was under the impression they would early on when noticing this game. I'm not convinced when Maxis says they did this out of convenience to the player and think they would have more of a leg to stand on with the always-on system if the region acted as one constant entity rather then adjustable influences on the current city you play that are editable when you go to the influencer city. I would like to know how much is actually limited when the cord is yanked on your internet connection. If things like tourism is effected for example, or your populations interest in another city's schools is effected and how the class size limits work when they travel to a city you aren't in. As I understand it currently, they have the game setup right now to here you start playing singleplayer and then the game you have is able to add other players. If you don't add others, you are still in a "multiplayer mode" with just you as the only person in the room. So yeah, they could do an offline mode, remaking how certain parts of the game work but then I imagine any city you start in that mode you wouldn't be able to add people. Just conjecture of course though, on both our parts. It is funny, when voice chat in gaming comes up in relation to new games and whether or not the feature should be included as news of new titles spreads, it always comes up how people should just use Teamspeak. Teamspeak works better then most game's included voice chat features and causes less conflict within the game itself. Of course this doesn't stop game developers from trying to add voice chat when they see it as a feature the game needs. They know more people will use it if it is part of the game and if it is done right, it becomes a selling point for the game. The same thing applies here with cloud save states. People who want cloud save states for the most part will do it themselves, many who didn't think to bother will use the feature though and think it was good that it was added as a game feature. This is all assuming it works well. I think it is mostly fine in this game. Saving became more accurate as server stability improved. Anyway, it isn't that there aren't alternatives, it is that game developers want to include features in hopes it will make their game stand out. It has mixed success. You toss things at the wall, see what sticks. Personally I'm not a gamer who gets enamored by free markets in games. I just know people like that. I'm not the person to ask, I only know this was something the devs wanted for those types of gamers. Well they didn't try open betas to load the servers, but I agree. If it does impact sales I think it would be minor. People who are hyped for a game enough to preorder will likely buy it anyway even if they beta and decide it isn't as good as they thought within that specific beta. If that is what you are saying, I agree. But I'm not who you have to convince of that. Well of course not. You don't need to do that with other server games like Diablo or most MMOs either. Private servers are out there, but really all you need to do is fake the interaction the client is looking for from the server. At least that is now I understand it. So I guess it is more about knowing what the client is looking for then it is about what the server does. It just makes pirating more difficult which is good enough for EA. Anyway, the article doesn't actually tell us anything new besides there is decent inside the ranks of an EA owned company. Big shock there. Anyone skeptical of Bradshaw's statements should be equally as skeptical of source unknown's statements, if not moreso. As I said earlier, we know the game is fine with letting you play within your small limited city without server connection, we just don't understand what influence your region has on it while offline, if any beyond utility sharing.
people have really been testing the game in how it handles residency and pathing. This is kind of a big deal here. Nothing to really say on it, just thought I'd post it as it may help people figure out how best to lay out their building types. The game does NOT reward separating residency into separate areas (something I've been guilty of simply because I like how it looks), same is likely true for commercial and industry so keeping your areas to their own subsections seems best for traffic. Combined with how AI likes to take the shortest distance regardless of density, thought this might be helpful. also interesting: http://m.ign.com/wikis/simcity/Manual_Overpass_Technique
I have spent like 45 hours with this ... playing with 16 and 7 people regions ... a ton of fun when shit works ... but boy traffic is a bitch ... small city size and servers make it trash and a half
Found this on reddit. He is using a modded game in debug mode. Maxis devs have said via twitter that modding isn't banable so there might be some interesting things on the horizon. The out of bounds roading saves to server, no buildings outside of boundaries yet.
Free games you can pick from. Guess it's Need For Speed for me. Not much of a selection. and plants vs zombies and bejeweled really ...... And I like the nice SimCity 4 up yours in there as well. Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition) Bejeweled 3 Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition) Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition) MOHW (Standard Edition) NFS Most Wanted (Standard Edition) Plants vs. Zombies SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition
Free games are up. Man I can't play racing games for shit any more. Too many slow ass MMOs I got no reaction speed at all.