When the new Sim City from EA and Maxis was released, it was an online-only game requiring a connection to EA’s servers to be played, even in single player. Users cried out for an offline mode, only to be told it was nigh impossible. And the modders proved it wasn’t.
Soon afterwards, Maxis admitted as much and even enabled offline play in a patch. That still doesn’t fix the game for may Sim city fans, who largely find the smaller cities a little inhibiting. It’s a pity that increasing the city size is impossible.
“After months of testing, I confirm that we will not be providing bigger city sizes,” Maxis’ Patrick Buechner said of the issue last year. “The system performance challenges we encountered would mean that the vast majority of our players wouldn’t be able to load, much less play with bigger cities. We’ve tried a number of different approaches to bring performance into an acceptable range, but we just couldn’t achieve it within the confines of the engine.”
The engine itself is what’s limiting cities. Rather embarrassingly for Maxis, modders have once again done what Maxisn’t able to; bring larger cities to Sim City.
A new SimCity mod called Project Orion extends the boundaries of sole cities to 3km, about four times the size in the game without the mod. It’s available right now from Simtropolis (via VG247). It’s not perfect, and there are definitely a few issues that need working on – but it most certainly is possible.
Last Updated: August 28, 2014
Dark Overlord Jaybles
August 28, 2014 at 14:33
Header LOL XD “Can I take a Order Preesh!”
Rinceable
August 28, 2014 at 14:41
It’s shit like this that makes me not want anything to do with Simcity. They lie to us, tell us ‘no swimming pools for you’ and then boom, there is a mod, and I don’t mean the ones who fought with rockers in the 70’s.
Sk3tz0
August 28, 2014 at 15:04
Best way to fuck up a franchise it seems is to just add EA Sticker on the Box Cover..
Ryanza
August 28, 2014 at 15:08
http://i.imgur.com/A3b5R4J.jpg
The power of DRM.
Simcity 4, still have it and still play it after all these years. Simcity 5 = all that is wrong with gaming and all that is wrong with EA. Simcity 5 shows that DRM is just plain wrong.
Don’t support DRM
MrChinwag
August 28, 2014 at 15:14
..
Sith JJ
August 28, 2014 at 15:30
I actually played SimCity 4 the other day. Way tougher than the new one.
Rags
August 28, 2014 at 15:39
DRM, the new theory of everything 😉
UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy
August 28, 2014 at 15:17
At least give me the damn option to load bigger maps or make the bigger maps have more system requirements you need to meet!
I have a beast of a PC and they tell me it won’t fucking load the map! BITCH BETTER NOT BE ALL UP IN MY GRILL ABOUT MY PC!
MrChinwag
August 28, 2014 at 15:20
The Small Maps where a pain in latest SimCity. But i got over it and made more Cities Connecting to each other and supply each one with what ever it needed. one buys water other sells it. and so one. was also able to make it that one City became a working city other three just commuted to that one.. easier traffic, and was able to make other cities look so puuurty..
Sith JJ
August 28, 2014 at 15:29
I thought they said it’s impossible. Just like playing offline.
Rags
August 28, 2014 at 15:32
Awesome! 😀
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
August 28, 2014 at 15:42
That EA! Oh so naughty!
HvR - 2 days
August 28, 2014 at 15:56
Damn Mongorians store the lest of the shitty.
Sir Rants A Lot: On Pandora
August 28, 2014 at 17:52
Well of course EA were proved wrong. The only reason they don’t do it is because it would cost them money to fix it. Things like this just make me angry ans make me realise just how incompetent EA actually are. This just further reinforces my resolve not to play Dragon Age when it comes out
Pieter Smal
August 28, 2014 at 20:26
SimCity 5 is a great game – and I love it! But the constraints in map size is a royal pain in the ass. The game has potential for so much more… EA and Maxis: WHY?
RasputinZA
August 29, 2014 at 08:07
God damn mongolians