Codicier

I'm thinking of perhaps creating a region for those of us who cant get onto the original server, i'm currently doing single player on EU east 1 but, I'm happy to pick another region if more convenient & means getting more people together. On a side note how's things going at the original thumbstown?

I think I've got at least a partial feel for the the way the tax rates works for business. Business's pay a a Sim gets paid a flat wage. If there is enough demand for what they do a business will keep trying to recruit workers even if the workers keep leaving the business (& Sims will come out of town as long as there are jobs). They are always attempting to expand, & If a business levels up it increases the wage it pays. A Business become abandoned if it cannot make enough money to sustain it wage bill(while still making a profit). ​So what will often happen is a business will be being doing OK at a low level, but when it expands it can potentially bankrupt itself in short order. The trick I've found is to be a absolute bastard Start with a flat rate across all sectors and as soon as you have a good base, Charge those with the least the most and those with the most the least. It seems to help stop business busting themselves as they expand. Of course IF enough of your industry & commercial develops to a high enough level it possible to bump up the rates and not loose any, but while your demographic's are in flux it seems to work. Of course i may be getting this utterly wrong & YMMV.

I did cave in the end, and so far I have enjoyed it so far although the inability to get onto the server where the thumbs region is hosted is annoying. on a side note, this story is kinda worrying: http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/03/bug-on-eas-origin-game-platform-allows-attackers-to-hijack-player-pcs/

It's been constantly full pretty much since i logged on but im keeping a eagle eye on it incase it frees up some space at some point

perhaps we should move to Antarctica! (since I'm fairly certain that's the only continent where the actual population is smaller than the server capacity >_<)

got any room left in thumcity for one late comer? if so i'm thecodicier on origin.

Quickly had a go at your design solitaire with some spare pawns and some graph paper. The bad news is I ran into a game breaking issue in the 1st game. If you rule set above is complete I think your system may be non functional because of your objective mechanic, Just think about the following sequence of events: - A Pawn moves onto a OP - The Pawn stays there for a turn - IF the Pawn is the Spy, Pawn captures the OP Then the game starts to break because: - As far as I can see you game has no rule that actually records that the OP has been taken. Which means players are basically taking the other players word on faith as to whether he has actually captured a OP, and I just don't think the vague nature of human memories (let alone the temptation for players to cheat) make this viable. Coming up with a solution isn't simple either because what ever you pick runs into problem No2 - as soon as any record is made of a OP being captured the spy is immediately revealed (because only spies can capture), and probably taken down in short order by the other player. Part of what made spy party interesting is that it was possible to achieve your objectives without being noticed, this works in SP because the game is silently keeping score, but in your game there does not currently seem to be a covert score keeping system, and without it I just feel the game is broken Now there are solutions to this, but it's not really my place to suggest them since I really don't know the full intent of what your trying to capture here. You might want to take a look at Confusion to see a completely different take on the whole "spy" genre within boardgames, perhaps it can give you some ideas on how some people have dealt with similar problems that comes with games on hidden information. Sorry if I seem a bit harsh but I hope you will take these comments in the constructive way they are intended, and perhaps come back with a interesting take on the problem.

Do any of the small publishers ever make any of their games available as PDF's? (to print & play yourself) because some of the stuff HFDG does looks really interesting & I think "hmm, maybe I could pick a game & try it out with the more war-gaming inclined members of my board game group, the cost is pretty much nothing" but then iI stop & think about it & realise that the time and cost of cross Atlantic postage and I get second thoughts.

OK guys I need either talking into or out of getting this game. Since EA are still giving away a free game away to anyone who registers up until march 18th if I'm going to bite I may as well do so now. I have been sitting on the fence pretty much since launch day looking at the game and thinking "boy it looks really contrived at times, and there's are a lot of flaws to this thing", but at the same time I'm thinking "they seem really interesting flaws, I want to play around with the game and see if I can get it to do weird stuff" I'm not hearing the cries of woe that I used to on twitter so i guess the servers are at least somewhat stable. So gentlemen who have already bought the game, if i go in expecting something flawed but interesting should I be able to enjoy it? (my indecision isn't being helped by the fact Anno 2070 is on sale on steam for 1/4 the cost of Simcity)

mwahahahahhahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahaha this shall be mine! on a more calm note: it's really nice to see a game teaser made of actual game-play footage, instead of a mix of CGI cut scenes & pre rendered bullshots.

I think your choice of the words offline mode is significant, because that's what most people are asking for, not a totally offline game. People can (& do) accept that the multi-player version of a game should operate differently to the single player, they don't have to mirror every feature. Frankly my current line of thinking is: Someone will eventually crack the save function as well. At which point my question is simply, what good reason does someone who has bought the game have not to crack it & run it offline? atm none as far as I can see

@ Tycho I'm not sure if you remember but a few years back there was a bit of a fuss kicked up because FoxNews took a typically cack handed shot at criticising Sim City for being too "Pro- Renewable". http://video.foxnews.com/v/1141465232001/video-games-go-green/ The problem is once people decide on something they don't like to be proved wrong. So people will pick and choose which parts of almost any simulation they like and don't like, it's pretty much unavoidable sadly. The only game I know that has even tried to do both sides of the coin was Fate of the World. Although it did take the view that global warming was real how you dealt with it was pretty much totally up for grabs. Different scenarios were used to gave a different baseline set of assumption (eg: one scenario might model peak oil decline, another near limitless fossil fuel reserves) which the player had to try to use to 'save the world'. One early mission makes you attempt to reducing global warming & increasing the wealth of the worlds poorest at the same time which i failed a good few dozen times before I realised that on that scale my fairly liberal ideals weren't working and I had to be a bit more pragmatic.Even if that meant burning more coal, trying weird experimental weather altering science, and having a really well paid security force suppressing the heck out anyone who got annoyed. I think in general a game that forces me to play against my natural assumptions is better than one that just panders to them.

Not quite up to this standard but There is a 75% off Tropico 4 plus & all it's DLC on Steam atm

My take on the video is that it was basically exactly what you'd expect from the first episode of a ongoing series, giving a broad introduction to the subject not a in-depth razor sharp critical analysis. It's not important to me that this wouldn't stand up as academically rigorous, it feels far more like a attempt to reach out and find a constructive middle ground where the subject can be talked about sensibly without people climbing up on soapboxes on either side. One of the big 'tropes/misunderstanding' about feminism in general that I see among people I know is that if you think feminism is good you must think men/males are bad, and FF does a really good job of trying to tell a story where the audience can empathise with how the characters are treated. By tanking its time and just talking about a couple of games it can give us some understanding of the personality of those characters, so they aren't just 'objects' to be fought over in the in the debate(as they were objects to be fought over in the games).

I feel even eclipse is may be a bit much for a group of people un-familiar with board games, Cosmic Encounter would be my go to game for people who want a good starter strategic space game. One of the smartest choices in the games design it is that every player is involved in every turn, there's no sitting round waiting for your turn to do something. It has quite simple base mechanics, which are modified by a wide selection of alien race cards each of which has a very distinctive personality. It's a game someone can learn quickly but still have a different experience each time they play. Think malkav11's recommendation for Pandemic is a good one for a general starter game, but for someone wanting to scratch that sci-fi itch stick with cosmic encounter. I think there's probably far more Space Alert in Space Team than there is in FTL. Which given how much fun the guys had with it back on episode 87 could mean it might not be a bad recommendation for Chris, Jake & Sean. I think that depends if the "Prince of Persia: Assassins Video which has been lurking on the net for a while now ( & I'm linking bellow) is a fake or not http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqma6i_prince-of-persia-assassins-assassin-s-creed-prototype-128-bits-hd_video games#.UTqW9hyePTo If what I understand to be true is true AC basically evolved out of a desire to do a more grounded PoP game, that's why the wacky animus stuff is there it basically just replaced the Prince's Sands of Time powers. (I'm sure if they could have contrived a way to put actual rewinding in they would have). In short AC started life as a fantasy story, and in many ways it remained one. Well at least it did if like me you agree with Margaret Atwood on all Sci-fi being basically either a type of speculative fiction (anything that could conceivably happen with what we know about the world) or a type of fantasy (anything where it basically has to invent special new rules about the way the universe works).

You know the daft thing is, when I go to the supermarket tonight to do a bit of food shopping I know I'm going to see SimCity on the shelves and despite all this I'm still going to be lucky if my willpower doesn't give in and I end up walking out of there with a copy in hand

From what I remember you did have to be logged on to Battle-net to play and have your progress saved, but that there was a "offline mode" which allowed you to play a bit (Skirmishes v the AI I think). THEre were some problems during (mainly log in que's & servers being down, but nothing of the scale of this).

This all sets up the Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm release next week quite interestingly. If they get it right it's going to make EA look even worse than they already do, and if they get it wrong we may get even more vocal backlash against this. Something I bet execs at Microsoft or Sony are watching very carefully as they think about doing something similar to pc drm to try and eliminated the used games trade in their next gen consoles. A side thought about how much responsibility the Devs have for this I wonder if they were basically told by the corporate side of the business " you must have always on DRM", and started thinking " OK we have to be always online, what can we do with that which is actually positive?". Still in the end i can't help but think next time someone's facing this choice they should just stick a damn offline mode on it. Even if it only has a limited duration, or limited feature set it would still avoid this clusterfuck.

Urk its actually kinda painful to see that, but perhaps its going to take a reaction this bad for companies to finally take a step back from always on DRM. I wish honestly that Polygon & some other outlets had done what QT3 & PC Gamer are both doing & delay the review until they have had time to see how the game operated in a live environment. Sure stick the reviewers thoughts up there as a "review in progress" but don't stick a score on for a game which is selling itself as a service until that service has been tested.

Been playing a lot of Brutal Legend since it's PC release and so far i'm really enjoying the bite sized way its put together. True the battles really require very little in the way of true strategy, but there just enough busy work and moment to moment tactics to keep me busy. The stage battles reminds me of a Dota style arena game in some ways, with the main "trick" being the ability to mix up the stream of mobs being sent to a objective. The ability to basically "sight see" between battles is great too, to just Que up a few tunes and drive around the amazing world for a bit is also great for chilling out. (i know metal isn't necessarily chill out music to everyone, but I find listening to it lets me release a bit of tension)

& as a follow up to that good news we have this story doing the rounds on twitter https://twitter.com/NrFive/status/309583968053895169/photo/1 OK fair enough if your terms & cons say no refund, then no refund, but saying "WE WILL BAN YOU IF YOU ARGUE" hardly seems a civilized way of doing things. That said Sean also highlighted on twitter how Ocean Quigly has put himself out there and tried to do whatever he can to help. It's really sad to see what looks like a really interesting piece of work by a group of individuals who clearly give a damn being ruined by the practices of a corporation that clearly doesn't.

Yeah but its still great

Wait EU servers are up? Had thought launch date wasn't till friday

From what I understand from the drama on twitter, dynamic scoring is a editorial policy. However it feels like doing so is asking for trouble, as Jayel says "what if the servers get better?", or for that matter what if the effect of the DRM on EU or Asian region launch is better/worse? Do we get one score for NA & one for EU? (not to mention that metacritic only ever uses the first score a published). It feels like something done with the best of intentions but could end up leading down a increasingly silly path.

Think you've hit the nail on the head there, when I watched the thumbs stream of the beta a few weeks back it got me very interested in the game. However I've seen enough havoc during MMO launch's to think to myself "ok lets see what happens, after all EU launch isn't until Friday", & boy am I glad I waited now. I also think the criticism Polygon have taken over changing their review is although harsh, both entirely of their own making (by deciding to go for such a early review), and entirely predictable (what game with always on DRM hasn't had a troubled launch?).