After all the dust has settled I have to ask myself if SimCity was worth the 80 bucks I plucked down on it. What makes a game feel like you got your money's worth? Is it building a successful city, or is it re-playability? I am asking myself that question right now. I put about 70 hours into SimCity. Is paying a buck an hour to play mean I got my money out of the game? After not playing it the last two weeks it has already lost its luster to me. I am not sure I will actually play it again so did I get my money's worth? Oh, and I did end up getting Deadspace 3 for free out of it, but so far I only played it for about fifteen minutes.
Showing posts with label sim city. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sim city. Show all posts
Wednesday
Nuclear Meltdown in Sim City
The moral of the story is pretty simple. Don't try to save money by closing down your college while running nuclear power for your city. It was the demise of my city.
I am pretty sure my city is toast. Is it worth trying to save it, or should I just start a new city? I am leaning towards giving up, and just creating a new city.
It is a bit depressing though. I have put a ton of time into all three cities in the region, but trying to recover from this is horrible.
I think possibly this is my easy way out. A few other frustrations were creeping in. My water supply in all three of my cities was basically wiped out. I am sorry, but that is a fatal flaw in the game. The water supply shouldn't diminish so fast. It is just stupid to have to spend all kinds of cash building up your water plant for it to run dry. Starting from scratch somewhere else in your city is just dumb.
Anyways I am kind of pissed off right now. Here is the final doom of my city.
I am pretty sure my city is toast. Is it worth trying to save it, or should I just start a new city? I am leaning towards giving up, and just creating a new city.
It is a bit depressing though. I have put a ton of time into all three cities in the region, but trying to recover from this is horrible.
I think possibly this is my easy way out. A few other frustrations were creeping in. My water supply in all three of my cities was basically wiped out. I am sorry, but that is a fatal flaw in the game. The water supply shouldn't diminish so fast. It is just stupid to have to spend all kinds of cash building up your water plant for it to run dry. Starting from scratch somewhere else in your city is just dumb.
Anyways I am kind of pissed off right now. Here is the final doom of my city.
Monday
60 Hours Of Playing Sim City Since Launch
Tonight I hit the 60 hour mark of playing Sim City. I know initially the game had its problems, but the last few days have been quite uneventful for me. No crashes, lost cities, or nothing. It has been running super smooth which was a bit surprising with it being the weekend.
I hit some milestones with my cities today. My first city which is poorly made somehow has finally reached 300k population. My second city hit 150k, and my third city is barely even growing right now.
I somehow have to figure out in my third city how to make all the things I need for my great works, or my whole region will basically be a bust. I read my prima guide so hopefully I can manage to figure it out.
There are still some unexplained things in the game. I was at around 275k population for hours, and than out of the blue my power bar went from overage to about 200 below. It was almost the doom of my city. I had only one option, and that was to build nuke power.
It really sucked because my whole city was going belly up, and I couldn't make money to build the nuke plant fast enough. Somehow I managed, and got rid of some of my space eating solar power, and wind power plants.
I think the education costs are a little bit excessive. It costs me at least 15k an hour to have a University, High school, and grade school. It has stolen every penny of profit I can make. My previous cities were rolling in the dough, but all three of my cities now can barely make ends meet.
Here are some screenshots of my cities right now.
I hit some milestones with my cities today. My first city which is poorly made somehow has finally reached 300k population. My second city hit 150k, and my third city is barely even growing right now.
I somehow have to figure out in my third city how to make all the things I need for my great works, or my whole region will basically be a bust. I read my prima guide so hopefully I can manage to figure it out.
There are still some unexplained things in the game. I was at around 275k population for hours, and than out of the blue my power bar went from overage to about 200 below. It was almost the doom of my city. I had only one option, and that was to build nuke power.
It really sucked because my whole city was going belly up, and I couldn't make money to build the nuke plant fast enough. Somehow I managed, and got rid of some of my space eating solar power, and wind power plants.
I think the education costs are a little bit excessive. It costs me at least 15k an hour to have a University, High school, and grade school. It has stolen every penny of profit I can make. My previous cities were rolling in the dough, but all three of my cities now can barely make ends meet.
Here are some screenshots of my cities right now.
Saturday
Sometimes I Make Myself Laugh
Tonight I tried one last attempt to try to recover my lost city in Sim City. Of course, I failed miserably. I decided to make a new city.
I decided to name my region Sim City Offline Mode just for the hell of it. Oh, but wait I wasn't done having my fun. I named my first city Unable to Load City, and my second city is called Servers Offline. My third city is called Rollback or Abandon.
Anyways my cities are coming along pretty good. I actually built a streetcar road surrounding my whole city. It seems to have helped my traffic issues from my previous cities.
I kept telling myself just one more thing, or let's wait for this part of my city to build up. Once again it is 4am, and I am going to hate my life when my alarm goes off for work.
Oh and the funny thing about naming my region, and cities that I kept seeing it, and I would catch myself so Oh Fudge not again. A few seconds later I would tell myself oh yeah that is just my names of my region, and cities......whew. I survived a whole night with no crashes.
I decided to name my region Sim City Offline Mode just for the hell of it. Oh, but wait I wasn't done having my fun. I named my first city Unable to Load City, and my second city is called Servers Offline. My third city is called Rollback or Abandon.
Anyways my cities are coming along pretty good. I actually built a streetcar road surrounding my whole city. It seems to have helped my traffic issues from my previous cities.
I kept telling myself just one more thing, or let's wait for this part of my city to build up. Once again it is 4am, and I am going to hate my life when my alarm goes off for work.
Oh and the funny thing about naming my region, and cities that I kept seeing it, and I would catch myself so Oh Fudge not again. A few seconds later I would tell myself oh yeah that is just my names of my region, and cities......whew. I survived a whole night with no crashes.
Friday
Sim City Has Really Pissed Me Off Now
39 hours. Yes 39 hours invested in my city is now gone in Sim City. I played tonight, and received an error that my city wasn't processing correctly. It asked me to rollback. I choose rollback. It just sits there rotating through the stupid game tips. I end up ending it by going into task manager.
I go back into the game, and I can see my city, but I get the message that I can't load my city at this time. I try one of my other cities in the region, and it loads perfectly. I can see my city from the region view. I try to access my city that way, and nothing.
I read some forum about abandoning your city, and reclaiming. I abandon, and reclaim, and still unable to load. I decide to go one more step, and restart my machine. I than run Sim City as administrator....still unable to load city.
I am getting impatient. I just want to play. I decide to abandon all my cities in the region to see if it would fix it. Did I say that was a bad idea? Well, my region and everything is now gone on my play screen. I no longer have any regions to load.
I figured okay I will just click join game, and put my region in the search bar. Guess what? There is no search bar. My city is now long gone.
I put in a help/bug ticket to EA/Origin but I don't they will be able to fix it.....so Sim City has really pissed me off now.
I go back into the game, and I can see my city, but I get the message that I can't load my city at this time. I try one of my other cities in the region, and it loads perfectly. I can see my city from the region view. I try to access my city that way, and nothing.
I read some forum about abandoning your city, and reclaiming. I abandon, and reclaim, and still unable to load. I decide to go one more step, and restart my machine. I than run Sim City as administrator....still unable to load city.
I am getting impatient. I just want to play. I decide to abandon all my cities in the region to see if it would fix it. Did I say that was a bad idea? Well, my region and everything is now gone on my play screen. I no longer have any regions to load.
I figured okay I will just click join game, and put my region in the search bar. Guess what? There is no search bar. My city is now long gone.
I put in a help/bug ticket to EA/Origin but I don't they will be able to fix it.....so Sim City has really pissed me off now.
Wednesday
My City Is Self Sustaining in Sim City
Tonight I left off from last night. My city has grown leaps, and bounds. Surprisingly, it has not self destructed. I will share with you some of the things I learned tonight that has made my city successful.
One of the first things is I stopped listening to all the pop up tips. It makes you build stuff, or add services you don't need.
Right now I only have a grade school, and a community college. No real expansions except initially on the grade school. I still don't have a high school, or a University. You need a University later on in the game to get Hazmat, and stuff but I can live without it.
My biggest mistake tonight was building a pro stadium. First it costs about 250k to build, and than another 300k to host an event. Both events I tried were total flops. I ended up losing about 400k between the two events. A huge waste of money. Once I build another city in my region I may reopen it, and try it again. Otherwise I may just end up tearing it down with my bulldozer.
The next waste of money was building a Casino. It just loses money left, and right. No matter what I did it never turned a profit. I closed it for a while, and eventually tore them down when I ran out of space.
I built a ferry, and an airport. I still have mixed feelings on these. It seems like they are working so for now they are staying in my city.
I got tired of my Industrial constantly going out of business with abandoned buildings. It was real annoying. I decided to purely do away with it. My whole city is residential, and commercial only and is flourishing.
I have no streetcars even though it keeps telling me to add them. I just don't see the need to do it.
I have almost 200k population, and I am running with just one hospital with no expansions, a large firestation, and police station. In previous cities I went overboard. No matter how many you have they all fight the same fires, and crimes so it is just a waste to have more than one.
My city is pretty stagnant though right now. It isn't really gaining population, or losing it. My city is making about 10k an hour, and about 500k in the bank. I need one million to build my great works. I just hope it doesn't cause my city to implode.
I think that is it for now. I gotta see if I can get the great works before heading to bed tonight. Here are some screenshots to see some of the progression of my city from where I left off last night to where my city is currently.
One of the first things is I stopped listening to all the pop up tips. It makes you build stuff, or add services you don't need.
Right now I only have a grade school, and a community college. No real expansions except initially on the grade school. I still don't have a high school, or a University. You need a University later on in the game to get Hazmat, and stuff but I can live without it.
My biggest mistake tonight was building a pro stadium. First it costs about 250k to build, and than another 300k to host an event. Both events I tried were total flops. I ended up losing about 400k between the two events. A huge waste of money. Once I build another city in my region I may reopen it, and try it again. Otherwise I may just end up tearing it down with my bulldozer.
The next waste of money was building a Casino. It just loses money left, and right. No matter what I did it never turned a profit. I closed it for a while, and eventually tore them down when I ran out of space.
I built a ferry, and an airport. I still have mixed feelings on these. It seems like they are working so for now they are staying in my city.
I got tired of my Industrial constantly going out of business with abandoned buildings. It was real annoying. I decided to purely do away with it. My whole city is residential, and commercial only and is flourishing.
I have no streetcars even though it keeps telling me to add them. I just don't see the need to do it.
I have almost 200k population, and I am running with just one hospital with no expansions, a large firestation, and police station. In previous cities I went overboard. No matter how many you have they all fight the same fires, and crimes so it is just a waste to have more than one.
My city is pretty stagnant though right now. It isn't really gaining population, or losing it. My city is making about 10k an hour, and about 500k in the bank. I need one million to build my great works. I just hope it doesn't cause my city to implode.
I think that is it for now. I gotta see if I can get the great works before heading to bed tonight. Here are some screenshots to see some of the progression of my city from where I left off last night to where my city is currently.
Monday
I Am Proud Of My Sim City Today
Today I created a new city, and I think I am finally getting the hang of it. My city does seem to be growing much slower than it did the first few days I played. I have also been a little bit more cautious on building stuff so fast.
I have been so far able to sustain a pretty nice city for the last 8-10 hours. I have lost track of time a little bit so I am not exactly sure how long I played.
I am still a little confused why some of my areas the houses, and businesses never grow. They never turn into huge apartment towers, or high rise business towers. I have upgraded most of my roads to high density, but it is all I can upgrade without completely doing my roads over with streetcar roads.
Everything seems to be running smoothly with a water plant, sewage treatment plant, wind power plant, garbage plants, and so on. I am not running short on any services.
I have built grade schools, high schools, community college, and just in the last hour or so added a University. I still can't afford to do any of the research which will let me build a Great Works site.
My gambling center doesn't seem to be very profitable. I must not be doing something right to attract people to it.
My expo center is rocking. It is making me tons of money by scheduling events. Of course that is when I don't forget to schedule a new event after the other one is over.
I have all the upgraded police, and fire stations, and hospitals. My sims are being treated very well.
For the most part I have had a great experience with the game today, but somewhere towards the end I noticed I was no longer connected to the servers. I decided to quit before I ended up losing hours of work. I just hope I didn't lose too much by the time I noticed, and the time I logged off the game.
I am going to try to run some video of my city once I can get back in. If my city is still there I will be showing you around. If it isn't my video will make Francis look like a nice guy, and I will be unleashing alot of rage.
My city was still in one piece, and I created the video. Unfortunately my city bit the dust a few hours later. I just couldn't keep it afloat.
I have been so far able to sustain a pretty nice city for the last 8-10 hours. I have lost track of time a little bit so I am not exactly sure how long I played.
I am still a little confused why some of my areas the houses, and businesses never grow. They never turn into huge apartment towers, or high rise business towers. I have upgraded most of my roads to high density, but it is all I can upgrade without completely doing my roads over with streetcar roads.
Everything seems to be running smoothly with a water plant, sewage treatment plant, wind power plant, garbage plants, and so on. I am not running short on any services.
I have built grade schools, high schools, community college, and just in the last hour or so added a University. I still can't afford to do any of the research which will let me build a Great Works site.
My gambling center doesn't seem to be very profitable. I must not be doing something right to attract people to it.
My expo center is rocking. It is making me tons of money by scheduling events. Of course that is when I don't forget to schedule a new event after the other one is over.
I have all the upgraded police, and fire stations, and hospitals. My sims are being treated very well.
For the most part I have had a great experience with the game today, but somewhere towards the end I noticed I was no longer connected to the servers. I decided to quit before I ended up losing hours of work. I just hope I didn't lose too much by the time I noticed, and the time I logged off the game.
I am going to try to run some video of my city once I can get back in. If my city is still there I will be showing you around. If it isn't my video will make Francis look like a nice guy, and I will be unleashing alot of rage.
My city was still in one piece, and I created the video. Unfortunately my city bit the dust a few hours later. I just couldn't keep it afloat.
Friday
I Played Sim City For Over 8 Hours Tonight
Finally I was able to play Sim City. I played for a little over 8 hours tonight. My city finally came to life, and by the end of the night I pretty much bankrupted my city.
It has been so long since I have played Sim City I am still learning as I go. I still don't think I have everything figured out in the game.
I have figured one thing out though. The cities are way too small. As you progress in the game you realize how much space everything takes. Initially you plop down city hall, and I soon figured out I should have left tons of space around it. You have to be able to add all the department of education, transportation, utilities, and etc to it eventually as your city is upgraded. I wasted a ton of money on stuff because I ended up having to bulldoze it to make room for other stuff.
It continues with the space issues. You may initially plop down a few water towers, but as your water demand grows, and you put in a water plant it takes up an enormous amount of space, Once again you are wasting money building, bulldozing, and rebuilding.
The hospitals are the same way. Eventually you have to add ambulance bays, patient wings, labs, research, and etc. You just run out of room for everything.,
I made the mistake of putting my streets too close together so many areas of my city couldn't grow. Initially I didn't understand how it worked I guess, but once I figured it out it was too late. Most of my houses didn't have enough space to turn into high rise apartment buildings.
The crazy thing is some stuff really takes up a ton of space. I tried to add a pro sports stadium, and it felt like it was taking up 25% of my city. It just doesn't make sense how you can make a functioning city out of each small city plot in a region.
I guess the point is to build up all the cities around you, and each city specializes in one thing. I guess one city is industrial, one commercial, one residential, one tourist stuff, and so on. It is the only way I see it working properly.
Anyways I pretty much run my city to the ground, and I am going to have to start a new city today after I wake up now that it is almost 5am, and I need to get some sleep.
Here is a video of me showing some of the above examples.
It has been so long since I have played Sim City I am still learning as I go. I still don't think I have everything figured out in the game.
I have figured one thing out though. The cities are way too small. As you progress in the game you realize how much space everything takes. Initially you plop down city hall, and I soon figured out I should have left tons of space around it. You have to be able to add all the department of education, transportation, utilities, and etc to it eventually as your city is upgraded. I wasted a ton of money on stuff because I ended up having to bulldoze it to make room for other stuff.
It continues with the space issues. You may initially plop down a few water towers, but as your water demand grows, and you put in a water plant it takes up an enormous amount of space, Once again you are wasting money building, bulldozing, and rebuilding.
The hospitals are the same way. Eventually you have to add ambulance bays, patient wings, labs, research, and etc. You just run out of room for everything.,
I made the mistake of putting my streets too close together so many areas of my city couldn't grow. Initially I didn't understand how it worked I guess, but once I figured it out it was too late. Most of my houses didn't have enough space to turn into high rise apartment buildings.
The crazy thing is some stuff really takes up a ton of space. I tried to add a pro sports stadium, and it felt like it was taking up 25% of my city. It just doesn't make sense how you can make a functioning city out of each small city plot in a region.
I guess the point is to build up all the cities around you, and each city specializes in one thing. I guess one city is industrial, one commercial, one residential, one tourist stuff, and so on. It is the only way I see it working properly.
Anyways I pretty much run my city to the ground, and I am going to have to start a new city today after I wake up now that it is almost 5am, and I need to get some sleep.
Here is a video of me showing some of the above examples.
Thursday
Herding Llamas in Sim City
Today I figured I would try to load the patch, and see if Sim City was working before work. What was I thinking? I slapped myself just to make sure I wasn't dreaming (I mean having nightmares). Unfortunately I was awake.
I got stuck in a forever loop saying my city was loading, and I think I have now seen every loading tip the game has to offer. Anyways after a while I decided to make a video just of the loading tips. I wasn't just going to stop there. I decided to make a Google hangout, and screenshare it while I was at work all day.
Wouldn't you know it that as soon as I started the hangout it actually loaded? I may have to do that every time I play, and maybe it will work. Anyways the sad part was once my city loaded all my work last night was lost. A few hours of work down the drain, and now I have to suffer through the monotony of doing the same things over to just get back where I was last night.
I got stuck in a forever loop saying my city was loading, and I think I have now seen every loading tip the game has to offer. Anyways after a while I decided to make a video just of the loading tips. I wasn't just going to stop there. I decided to make a Google hangout, and screenshare it while I was at work all day.
Wouldn't you know it that as soon as I started the hangout it actually loaded? I may have to do that every time I play, and maybe it will work. Anyways the sad part was once my city loaded all my work last night was lost. A few hours of work down the drain, and now I have to suffer through the monotony of doing the same things over to just get back where I was last night.
Wednesday
I Hate You Sim City
Once again I decided to torture myself tonight, and play Sim City. I spent about 20 minutes in the queue, and actually was able to play after that. I was really getting a ton of stuff accomplished, and than I saw this message in the top left corner of my game.
What did it say? Well. it said something like The Sim City servers are no longer online, and we will try to reconnect you. I thought to myself okay I guess it is still letting me play so all is good. I continue to play for a few hours, and than it finally kicked me to the menu screen.
I try to click play, and it says the servers are offline. I am expecting all my work to be gone from tonight. It is just so frustrating to build your city up, and than have to do it all over again.
I really do just need to step away from the game for a few days, and let these launch issues get fixed before it makes me ragequit for good. I am really starting to hate Sim City for all this. We will see if eventually all is forgiven, or maybe they do offer something for the inconvenience of this launch debacle.
What did it say? Well. it said something like The Sim City servers are no longer online, and we will try to reconnect you. I thought to myself okay I guess it is still letting me play so all is good. I continue to play for a few hours, and than it finally kicked me to the menu screen.
I try to click play, and it says the servers are offline. I am expecting all my work to be gone from tonight. It is just so frustrating to build your city up, and than have to do it all over again.
I really do just need to step away from the game for a few days, and let these launch issues get fixed before it makes me ragequit for good. I am really starting to hate Sim City for all this. We will see if eventually all is forgiven, or maybe they do offer something for the inconvenience of this launch debacle.
 |
| Sim City Server Disconnect Message |
Tuesday
My First Few Hours Playing Sim City
I finally pulled the trigger on a new game. I have been in a gaming slump lately, and I think Sim City may be reviving it. I haven't played Sim City since the original which has to be at least ten years ago, or more. I can't believe how much it has changed.
I sat through the tutorial, and did I mention I hate tutorials? I just wanted to play the game. I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed. I haven't played for so long everything seemed complicated. I picked a region, and a city spot in that region. It seems that now you can play public, and random people can build cities next to you. It seems pretty cool, but no one has joined mine yet.
I really have no idea what I am doing. I started by building some roads, and residential areas. I never have seen so many choices for roads. I just picked low density since it was a housing neighborhood. It seems to work, but we will see.
I threw up a small industrial plot to create some jobs, but I think it was a little too small of an area.
Suddenly I get alerts for power, water, town hall, police, fire, hospitals, and more. I really started to get overwhelmed. I just started plopping them down almost anywhere. I am sure there is a rhyme, and reason to everything but for now I am just trying to get a feel for the game.
I make some commercial areas, but it seems they are small little fast food joints, and stuff. It was a little disappointing since I made the area along one of the shorelines.
I am thinking I am figuring out that as your city progresses houses, and things start to be upgraded, high rises built and etc. At least that is what I am thinking since I don't seem to have any options to start off with them.
I am a little stumped right now because to unlock some things it says I need a safety resource in my city. I have tried to figure it out, and I guess maybe it just happens in time.
Right now I have to say my city is a hot mess. The planning is horrible, and I am still trying to figure everything out. The tutorial barely explained anything in the game at least it feels that way. It looks like I am going to have to buy the Brady guide to help me figure this all out.
Even with all my frustrations I am really enjoying the game. It is always fun playing these types of strategy games.
Here is a video of my current city. As you can see I won't be winning any awards any time soon.
I sat through the tutorial, and did I mention I hate tutorials? I just wanted to play the game. I have to say I was a bit overwhelmed. I haven't played for so long everything seemed complicated. I picked a region, and a city spot in that region. It seems that now you can play public, and random people can build cities next to you. It seems pretty cool, but no one has joined mine yet.
I really have no idea what I am doing. I started by building some roads, and residential areas. I never have seen so many choices for roads. I just picked low density since it was a housing neighborhood. It seems to work, but we will see.
I threw up a small industrial plot to create some jobs, but I think it was a little too small of an area.
Suddenly I get alerts for power, water, town hall, police, fire, hospitals, and more. I really started to get overwhelmed. I just started plopping them down almost anywhere. I am sure there is a rhyme, and reason to everything but for now I am just trying to get a feel for the game.
I make some commercial areas, but it seems they are small little fast food joints, and stuff. It was a little disappointing since I made the area along one of the shorelines.
I am thinking I am figuring out that as your city progresses houses, and things start to be upgraded, high rises built and etc. At least that is what I am thinking since I don't seem to have any options to start off with them.
I am a little stumped right now because to unlock some things it says I need a safety resource in my city. I have tried to figure it out, and I guess maybe it just happens in time.
Right now I have to say my city is a hot mess. The planning is horrible, and I am still trying to figure everything out. The tutorial barely explained anything in the game at least it feels that way. It looks like I am going to have to buy the Brady guide to help me figure this all out.
Even with all my frustrations I am really enjoying the game. It is always fun playing these types of strategy games.
Here is a video of my current city. As you can see I won't be winning any awards any time soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)