SimCity Offline Mode Took More Than Six Months To Make

[Grabehn]

"It took us 6 months to change the problem WE CREATED" I haven't cared about "Maxis" since The Sims 2, but every time I read a news about them or EA, all I can see is just more and more BS. "It's IMPOSSIBLE to make it as a Solo game" Yet that's exactly what they're doing, I guess "impossible" means "gives a few months cuz people hated our stupid decision".

 

[RicoADF]

I get your point, any time I've ever had to patch or bug-fix it seems to generate 2 problems for every one solved. However, I still think that, given the evidence, the whole Maxis team, already intimately familiar with the code, should've been able to generate the offline mode with less work than what they're claiming. In my opinion, I believe they're exaggerating the amount of work so they don't have to backtrack on their claims that the always-connected functionality was critical to the game. But of course there is the possibility that there were significant issues.

At this point though, I think the time would have been better spent fixing the ai and pathing issues since those that refused to buy the game on the basis of it being online probably won't bother at this point, just on the principle of it having been always-online in the first place.

I think it's safe to say that they've probably been working on the patch "on the side" as they worked on fixing other areas of the game. So it may have taken that long but only because it wasn't the priority and I doubt many members of the team were involved. Either way it took far longer than it should, after the backlash a smart dev would have put adding offline as a #1 priority after fixing game crashing bugs.

 

[Jack Nief]

Didn't I read somewhere that the Always-Online thing was brought up by players during development? And that when it was contested those players were effectively sacked? Did they honestly expect nothing to come of this?

And didn't they really say that offline capability was "impossible"?

"The game was designed for MP, we sim the entire region on the server so this is just not possible."

Seeing as it turned out to be a legitimate concern, EA could have shoved the release date way the hell back, and worked it from base, making Singleplayer and Multiplayer functionality both available. Hell they could have even announced that this would have been the plan and that the always-online exclusivity was no longer the case, and I guarantee you that they would be showered in praise for intelligent design decision.

Granted the game would still probably break easier than fine china, but it would probably be better to have a gamer go "Wow, this game is atrocious!" rather than "Wow, this game is atrocious and the guys who made it are dicks! Screw this company and its games! I don't care if they fix this, I won't support a company that treats its gamers like statistics!"

At least then those who bought the game would have something better to do than look at the fancy login menu UI.

 

[lacktheknack]

In This Thread: People who have never patched anything in their life saying "How hard could it be?"

I'm not a modder but considering that a modder did manage to make an (admittedly quick-and-dirty) offline mode of Simcity a couple weeks after its release then I think it's safe to say that EA's Maxis team is full of crap about this taking six months.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122702-Modder-Proves-That-SimCity-Works-Offline

This was addressed in the OP. -___-

Yeah, the modder "fixed" it, but doing so disabled a whole whackload of features. With my tree analogy, that's like cutting the damn thing down, sticking the cut-off end in the dirt and expecting it to live.

As I said: Proper implementation of offline mode is harder than you would ever guess. I don't say that lightly, and I say it as someone who's assisted in official (and time-sensitive) patchwork. It's hell.

I get your point, any time I've ever had to patch or bug-fix it seems to generate 2 problems for every one solved. However, I still think that, given the evidence, the whole Maxis team, already intimately familiar with the code, should've been able to generate the offline mode with less work than what they're claiming. In my opinion, I believe they're exaggerating the amount of work so they don't have to backtrack on their claims that the always-connected functionality was critical to the game. But of course there is the possibility that there were significant issues.

At this point though, I think the time would have been better spent fixing the ai and pathing issues since those that refused to buy the game on the basis of it being online probably won't bother at this point, just on the principle of it having been always-online in the first place.

intimate with the code

It's pretty clear that you aren't in software development. Not the normal stuff, anyways.

Anyways, experience makes me believe they're telling the truth. Sometimes, knowing the code really well won't make you fix things faster, it'll just make you drink more. And also, I'm totally considering buying it now out of principal, as are quite a few other people in this thread.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I call BS on it 'being hard', hackers did it in what? 1? 2 weeks? They just didn't want to have an offline mode.