Home Gaming SimCity could get an offline mode after all

SimCity could get an offline mode after all

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SimCity

Consumers don’t like it when you force them to go online just to play your single player games. They like it even less when the servers they have to connect to are down, broken, or just not up to the task. That was just one of the myriad problems faced by the latest incarnation of the famed city-builder, SimCity. And it’s one that could be going away.

"Right now we have a team specifically focused on exploring the possibility of an offline mode," EA Maxi’s Studio head Patrick Buechnel said in a blog post.

"I can’t make any promises on when we will have more information, but we know this is something that many of our players have been asking for. While the server connectivity issues are behind us, we would like to give our players the ability to play even if they choose not to connect. An offline mode would have the additional benefit of providing room to the modding community to experiment without interfering or breaking the multiplayer experience."

It was found, not too long after the game’s release, that a simple configuration edit allowed the game to be played offline with limited functionality – but this would allow much of the missing features to still work. Unfortunately, one of the game’s more serious issues isn’t being addressed.

"After months of testing, I confirm that we will not be providing bigger city sizes," Buechner said. "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.”

As excited as most of us were for SimCity, I don’t think I know anybody who’s still actively playing it – and bigger cities would go a long,long way to changing that.

Last Updated: October 7, 2013

29 Comments

  1. Ultimo_Cleric N7

    October 7, 2013 at 14:47

    A little late, dont you think EA?
    Geez…….

    Reply

    • SaintsRowNigri

      October 7, 2013 at 15:02

      They might be aiming for the budget release market now…

      Reply

    • Lardus-Resident Perve

      October 7, 2013 at 15:38

      Was considering the game before launch. Now? Even look-alikes are off my radar. This IS too late

      Reply

  2. John's better judgement

    October 7, 2013 at 14:48

    Please let this happen. Haven’t played mine in forever because if there’s the slightest dip in connectivity then the game bums out.

    Reply

  3. Admiral Chief of Rivia

    October 7, 2013 at 14:51

    *insert facepalm*

    Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    October 7, 2013 at 14:54

    He admits many of their players has been asking for an offline mode. He probably doesn’t take into account the millions who would have bought the game if it had an offline mode. The best thing is they still won’t admit they made a mistake forcing players online. Simcity has sold only 2 million by July. TBH I think they just ran this classic franchise into the ground. Thanks EA

    Reply

    • John's better judgement

      October 7, 2013 at 14:55

      I absolutely agree. But that’s EA’s thing these days. Bring back a classic and mess it up for everyone who ever loved it.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        October 7, 2013 at 14:56

        The sad thing is they can afford too with FIFA and BF keeping the company in the green.

        Reply

        • John's better judgement

          October 7, 2013 at 14:57

          Yes. Sadly. They can be glad they still have titles such as those, or a lot of people (myself included) wouldn’t support them at all anymore.

          Reply

          • Kromas

            October 7, 2013 at 15:07

            If they mess up Dragon Age I will have to go jihad on them.

          • John's better judgement

            October 7, 2013 at 15:09

            IMHO the Dragon Age II already wasn’t as good as the first.

          • Kromas

            October 7, 2013 at 15:17

            For a game that stressed the importance of choice, its direct sequel had very little. Aka … the game was horribly linear. Story was decent enough but nowhere near the scale and complexity of origins. The only thing that has slightly restored my faith in Bioware was the excellent Citadel DLC for ME3 that showe4d me they can still get there.

          • John's better judgement

            October 7, 2013 at 15:24

            Dead Space 3 with co-op was a blast

          • Brady miaau

            October 7, 2013 at 15:26

            Indeed, was awesome DLC. And big too. Like Shadow Broker in 2

          • Hammersteyn

            October 7, 2013 at 15:18

            It was BORING!

          • John's better judgement

            October 7, 2013 at 15:22

            Thank you!

          • Brady miaau

            October 7, 2013 at 15:26

            In most peoples, I think

  5. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    October 7, 2013 at 14:58

    Bigger maps………………….

    Reply

  6. Matewis Jubilai

    October 7, 2013 at 15:00

    Ok then, now if they only triple, or at least double, the city-dimensions I might actually give it a go. Oh, and the garbage men and firemen have have at least a primary school certificate

    Reply

    • John's better judgement

      October 7, 2013 at 15:02

      Another big problem that they said they fixed, but never did, was the traffic. You could build four big highways and ALL traffic will only take the shortest route, no matter how full of traffic it was.

      Reply

      • SaintsRowNigri

        October 7, 2013 at 15:06

        I’d call that spot on real life simulation right there!

        Reply

        • John's better judgement

          October 7, 2013 at 15:06

          Not in Cape Town

          Reply

      • Matewis Jubilai

        October 7, 2013 at 15:38

        O yeah, I saw videos of that. That would break the game for me

        Reply

  7. Hondsepop

    October 7, 2013 at 15:19

    omg, they killed simcity….you bastads

    Reply

  8. loftie

    October 7, 2013 at 15:29

    Thank-you Maxis I will now consider purchasing SimCity.

    But, “After months of testing, I confirm that we will not be providing bigger
    city sizes,” Buechner said. “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.”

    This makes no sense, even if some players have crappy systems, they can at least still have the option for huge sizes available so players can choose if they want tiny, small, medium, large, huge, etc. I mean hardly anyone could run Crysis 1 when it was first launched but at least the options for super duper graphical mode was available…I remember setting it to max on my old 6600GT just to catch a glimpse of it (dat sandy beach and dem rocks) at those settings even though it played at under 1fps. .fkin logic 101 lol

    Reply

    • John's better judgement

      October 7, 2013 at 15:30

      Ah man. Good old Crysis 1.

      Reply

  9. Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

    October 7, 2013 at 15:46

    urm… why would people not be able to load it? Is the game really that hardware intensive? That sounds like an excuse

    Reply

  10. Wyzak

    October 7, 2013 at 19:07

    The reason they can’t make the maps any bigger is because their AI is so pathetic that the agents will never reach their goals on a map with more branches.

    Reply

  11. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    October 8, 2013 at 12:13

    Far too late for me – I have SimCity 4 and Tropico 4, that’s all I really need. And what’s the point of adding offline mode, if the cities are still going to be so freaking tiny. I don’t want SimTown, I want SIM CITY!

    Banana City is supposed to be a metropolis, not a quaint sea-side resort town.

    Reply

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