Sim City - A Smattering of Impressions

[jomni]

^^Was that oil rig being built or did it just burn up the supplies?

Yes.  Resources are very limited in the game. 

I think the supply is calculated based on how much you actually extract.  Did you upgrade the rig?

[Bison]

The initial supply is calculated based on what is under your rig.  You can extract more/faster with more well heads.  However I think what I am seeing is a bug.  It's just the basic oil rig with no upgrades.  Or the basic coal mine with no upgrades. 

[DeathTouchWilly]

I remember reading that the concept of a "month" in Sim City is distorted or bugged. Someone actually counted the number of days vis-a-vis resources remaining - it didn't add up. I'm right there with you Bison.

Just for laughs I loaded up some of my first cities. WOW what a mess. I pity the sims that have to live there. I am definitely enjoying how rapidly you can improve at this game with each city. And the beauty of it is you jump back to your first shitshows and see all your mistakes. Thinking ahead and planning out your city is definitely something you have to train yourself to think about. It's not all obvious and there's plenty to improve at.

[Bison]

I think it's broken.  I'm actually just going to run the rig no upgrades to see how long it take for it to stop producing oil.

[jomni]

My highly upgraded coal and ore mines are stuck at 3 to 4 months supply.  Not really stuck but the counter slowed down.  It will deplete soon but it looks like longer than 3 months.

[Bison]

What is the actual city hour time scale in the game?  Is an hour, a day, a month, an hour?

[Barthheart]

What is the actual city hour time scale in the game?  Is an hour, a day, a month, an hour?

Just watched to figure this out. One 24 hour time period on the clock at the lower left  = one month of game time. Months change at midnight.
If you hold your mouse over the clock it will show you which month and year you are in.

[Grim.Reaper]

Was in a Target store today and saw already reduced to $39.......was very tempted to pick this up, but in the end walked away:(  To be honest, I am not entirely sure how the game plays out (meaning what do you do to have fun), but thought the screens were very nice looking.  I am certainly aware of the launch issues, but I can only assume that will be figured out with time.

Now I am debating if I should run back up to the store and pick up:)

[Bison]

Well my simcity building is on hold until I can setup my desktop again.

[Grim.Reaper]

Well my simcity building is on hold until I can setup my desktop again.

Bison, if you get a minute, can you describe the fundamentals of the game?  What is the goal?  Build buildings and create an economy?  I am just trying to figure out if I would have fun playing it.  Is it tedious and require a lot of micro management?  Thanks!

[Bison]

I don't think the game is tedious at all.  There is some micro management, but it's over such a long span of game play that it really isn't an issue at all.  And frankly you are really managing systems like power vs. demand, water vs. demand, road vs. usage, so there is a lot to manage but it's not overwhelming in the least.  I'd say the focus is economic system management much more so than building buildings.  While you do build buildings and zone your city the intent is to develop economic structures on your maps and the cities you build to make them sustainable.  I enjoy it (despite the negativity surrounding the game) because its really a nice slow paced relaxing game.

[Grim.Reaper]

Thanks Bison, appreciate you providing more details......might be driving back up to the store by the end of the day:)

[LongBlade]

I've seen both internet ads and a TV ad for the game, so EA is trying to pull in cash new players.

[Bison]

It's the beauty of capitalism.  You can buy a product or not. 

[JudgeDredd]

^ and I still choose not to - at the moment.

No constant connection, bigger cities and bugs fixed would be the requirements for me to buy