SimCity Expansion Could Add Offline Mode

[Cognimancer]

SimCity Expansion Could Add Offline Mode

A hypothetical SimCity expansion just might turn the game into everything fans wanted it to be.

SimCity players may have opened their inbox this morning to see a survey from EA, asking for input about a theoretical expansion to the game. While no such expansion has formally been announced, the survey seems to indicate that EA is interested in giving gamers all the features that SimCity was bashed for not including. To wit, the potential new features include an offline Classic mode, much bigger cities, cooperative multiplayer city building, a God Mode with wide-scale terraforming, and many more possible additions to the game.

Of the features mentioned, quite a few seem to be direct responses to the heavy criticism SimCity received at launch. Classic Mode would let you "play a single fully functioning city using cheats and unlocks" either on or offline. One survey question mentions doubling the maximum city size, while another proposes "Cities without Boundaries" which might remove limits altogether, opening up "miles and miles" of city space. Some of the more fleshed out features sound like they're already in the works, including a few with a distinctly cyberpunk vibe to them: "Simulate to the Sky" would add SuperScrapers with vertical zoning and multiple levels of transportation, creating dense cities under steel skies.

You can check out the survey in full right here [http://imgur.com/a/n9gy8#0] to see all the options on the table. There were a lot of problems with SimCity, but if even a fraction of these updates are implemented, it could "fix" the game for many disappointed fans.

Source: Penny Arcade [http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/ea-hints-at-for-pay-simcity-offline-play-with-bigger-cities]

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[Nuttydwarf]

too little, too late....

 

[TwoSidesOneCoin]

^ Ninja'ed from the get go! Also, can't you do offline mode already via some tinkering?

 

[njrk97]

Still doesn't change the fact the game is broken by DESIGN and unless they completely overhaul the coding system for traffic the game will never be fixed. So no matter what expansion or offline mode they do it will not help. Fix you game EA then we will talk.

 

[Kargathia]

Of course it won't change a thing about EA flaming being fashionable, but if implemented this certainly would transform SimCity in a pretty good game.

The logical thing here would be to assume that maybe they'd even learn something from it as well, but honestly... I doubt it.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

^ Ninja'ed from the get go! Also, can't you do offline mode already via some tinkering?

Why do that when you can make people pay for offline mode?

You really can't even make this shit up. Assuming access to the offline mode is only available by buying the theoretical expansion.

And so much for being impossible. Even though that hacker proved them wrong months ago.

 

[KeyMaster45]

I think at this point they'd be better off just shit-canning the current version and releasing whatever comes from this survey as an entirely different game. That being said, if they roll some of these features into the base game then I don't think I'd be opposed to putting down the money to finally buy it.

EA is like a dog shitting on the carpet constantly, you're only going to make it stop by rewarding it for making the effort to go outside and do it. Negative reinforcement is only going to make it so scared that it'll start pissing on the carpet as well; lord knows we don't want that happening.

 

[Nazulu]

That would be an amazing fix if all those modes are thrown in as we'll as removing the DRM, I'll actually be impressed. Though it is a bit late, it isn't too late to change their last short sighted dim view and improve all future releases by bringing back everything that worked so well. Now if only every other greedy stupid company could do the same.

 

[trollnystan]

EA games are on my Do Not Buy list. However I'd be tempted to reward them with a sale if they actually did a lot of these, especially the saves-in-the-cloud, always-online bullshit.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Oh man, this is just too delicious. If I have any more of this, I think I may burst.

However, they should be...applauded (it's the closest I'm going to get, but it still doesn't feel right) for finally putting in something for the consumer.

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

I might even buy the game if it had all that stuff.

It's bizarre, it's almost as if EA was looking for Bargain Bin sales on Sims.

 

[Atmos Duality]

EA must be desperate if they're actually accepting consumer input on things.
But they've got a lot of ground to regain, especially after these last few years.

 

[Grabehn]

When these guys said "This is required" I called bullshit. And it was, seeing a pirated version working offline, after a huge amount of people said "that can't be done" was really damn funny.

EA must be desperate if they're actually accepting consumer input on things.
But they've got a lot of ground to regain, especially after these last few years.

Accepting consumer input? Nah, most probably trying to sell this shit to all those that didn't buy their crap before. I bet they had it working even before launch just in case people realized "Always Online because of reasons" was actually bullshit. But there is no work they can do to "regain" ground, they'll probably just keep fucking up, but wanted to achieve a few more sells on this one.

 

[Ayay]

Dont care about this game anymore , they screwed it up in so many ways allready i dont think a patch will fix it. And buying it then would just net them money ,And i am finished giving EA any more of it ...ever. This game is dead and this is just a scream for help so they can shaft us on nr 5 and 6 and so on. Just sad it took them just one moneygrubbing try to tank the series.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Accepting consumer input? Nah, most probably trying to sell this shit to all those that didn't buy their crap before. I bet they had it working even before launch just in case people realized "Always Online because of reasons" was actually bullshit. But there is no work they can do to "regain" ground, they'll probably just keep fucking up, but wanted to achieve a few more sells on this one.

Whether they're sincere or not, this is a change from the usual headstrong "Hype -> Insist -> Deflect -> LIE" pattern.
They've recently gone through some hefty restructuring and change in leadership; they might be trying something new.

If it turns out to be a new brand of bullshit, it wouldn't surprise me; I've watched EA stumble through heavy controversy for much worse than SimCity or ME3. I've watched them rebuild and "change" their company before. Sometimes they've made strides to change, but most often they're just trying to dress their old schemes in a new pelt of wool.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

*facepalm* several of these options shouldn't be limited to an expansion.

They should be downright part of the core game, EA. The fact that now you're trying to part them out as expansions only makes the image around this game even worse.

In the end, this shouldn't be an expansion pack. Everything here in the survey might as well become part of a fucking HUGE patch to the game that serves as a very, very late apology for completely ignoring and betraying the Simcity fanbase. But the damage is done - It's going to take a lot to make people change their minds on Simcity. In fact, you might as well remove the Origin requirement on this game and sell it on Steam to show how "sorry" you are as icing on the cake. Yes, a hard move, but at this point if you plan to make your money back on such a failure it's time for desperate decisions like this.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

Bit late, guys. Someone already did. In fact, that's what plenty of fans have been using since practically launch, and it serves you right for having such arbitrary and inconvenient DRM.