December 20, 21007
SOCIETIES
UPDATES AVAILABLE FRIDAY,
DECEMBER 21 AT SIMCITY.COM
THREE NEW STRATEGIC MODES OF
PLAY – INCREASING CHALLENGE
WHO:
SimCity Societies from The Sims Label, Electronic Arts
WHAT:
Feature updates available for SimCity Societies at SimCity.com including three
new strategic modes of play – Basic, Hardcore
and Nightmare – plus
gameplay enhancements, new modding capabilities and general updates. Details
for the updates are as follows:
-
Strategic
Modes – Basic, Hardcore
and
Nightmare
o
It’s more challenging to keep
Sims happy
o
Buildings carry an ongoing
maintenance cost
o
Recycle gains are reduced,
making shrewd planning critical
o
Work and visit durations are
long – Sims can go to fewer places in a single day, so players must plan wisely
o
Unhappy and Rogue Sims are
more likely to act out, produce negative special Sims, or transform into
negative special Sims
o
Rogue Sims are much less
placated by the act of shutting down a workplace, and will remain unhappy or
even on the verge of becoming rogue again, so beware
o
Achievements and monuments
must be earned separately for each of the modes of play
o
Hardcore and Nightmare Modes
must be unlocked by winning a trophy in the preceding Strategic Mode
-
Gameplay
Enhancements
o
The number of subways and bus
stops in a city has been enhanced – with a limit of 50
o
New base models have been
added to some buildings to address some cases where the terrain would appear
over the base
o
Early rising Sims who arrive
at work before hours no longer disappear
o
When graphics card or drivers
don’t meet the minimum requirements an updated message provides help
o
UI textures can now change
with your society. Modders can use this added functionality to make more
radical changes
-
New
Modding Capabilities
o
Additional additive XMLs
o
All attributes of a building
XML in the mod folder now take priority over the original, so mods can meddle
with all aspects of existing buildings
o
The camera settings XML has
been moved into its own folder so that it can be modded
o
New versions of packages with
the same names as old packages now overwrite the old package when installed
o
Building textures can be
modified directly from the building xml, no more need to use the custom profile
textures
-
General
Updates
o
Streaming textures provide
improved performance and lower memory use-age, particularly in large cities
o
Saving takes much less
additional memory now, which should solve the out-of-memory errors during
autosaves that some users were experiencing
o
Fix for a rare crash which
could happen on removal of a cultural prop
o
General improvements to Sim AI
performance
o
Fix for a lock-up (which could
sometimes lead to a crash) involving pathfinding and public transit
o
Fix for memory overwrites
(which could sometimes lead to a crash) involving Sim and building selection,
building scripts, and the lighting system
o
Fix for a crash on exit
WHERE:
Available for download at
www.SimCity.com
WHEN:
Beginning Friday, December 21