Is this game no longer being supported by EA? [ Edited ]

[Maligzar]

I'm new here, is this game no longer being supported by EA?  Being disconnected from your game while playing or "unable to load this city at this time" are errors that should have been fixed when this game was launched.

I'm not really interested in fixing a game in order to play it; I'm more interested in when EA is going to fix it. 

If they aren't going to support the game then they should stop selling DLC.  Chances are I spent $10 on the game that I didn't have to because I was getting some bizarre "you don't have that content" message as well.  

This game is stupid buggy for something that is 5 years old and well over $100 in content.  

[BlackjackWidow]

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@Maligzar wrote:

I'm new here, is this game no longer being supported by EA?  Being disconnected from your game while playing or "unable to load this city at this time" are errors that should have been fixed when this game was launched.

I'm not really interested in fixing a game in order to play it; I'm more interested in when EA is going to fix it. 

If they aren't going to support the game then they should stop selling DLC.  Chances are I spent $10 on the game that I didn't have to because I was getting some bizarre "you don't have that content" message as well.  

This game is stupid buggy for something that is 5 years old and well over $100 in content.  

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Hi Maligzar - This is an older game that is no longer actively under development. Three years ago, EA shut down the Maxis studio responsible for its development. You will still get "limited" support by contacting EA Help Game Advisors, or asking here on the player forum, but they aren't releasing any updates or patches to the game and there is no longer any active developers. Since there are so many advancements in technology since they stopped, particularly high def graphics cards and Windows 10, it can be assumed that, eventually, the game will be unplayable. 

With all that being said, they do still maintain the servers for multiplayer gaming, and there are a couple of times where fairly major problems have been reported here and the information was passed along to developers who will work on the problem. They have taken down the servers for maintenance a couple of times, so the servers are "actively" maintained. The majority of problems one may come across now are typical installation issues that one can encounter with any game, regardless of actively supported or not. If you follow a few fairly common tips and hints, and keep in mind that the game was not developed with your advanced pc configs, you are likely to enjoy and play the game successfully without any significant programming problems. If you have problems or your game stalls for some reason, use the following tips:

• Set Origin.exe and SimCity.exe to "Run As Administrator"
• Make sure both exe's are in your firewall and antivirus programs' exception lists
• If you have BitDefender or MSI's sound program Nahimic 2 installed, disable or uninstall them. Both are known to completely block SimCity.exe
• Set your SimCity.exe to run in compatibility mode for an earlier version of Windows
• Set graphics to run in 1080p or less resolution; 4k and multiple monitors are not supported

If your game hangs after these tweaks, perform a clean boot to continue troubleshooting. If you still encounter problems, post a new thread here with the details and the community can try to help.

[BlackjackWidow]

As far as I'm concerned, the two biggest problems server-side are "unable to load city at this time, please try again later" and not being able to take over a city due to the message that "you don't have all the content used in creating this city". Both of those issues were present from the beginning, and were never really resolved when it was actively supported. The "unable to load" appears to have something to do with a corrupted file on save, and if the corruption is on the server side, you're looking at needing a rollback. The "don't have the right content" error is, to me, poor programming from the beginning. Probably a combination of the promos and regional content that was not available to everyone, and then additional dlc's that are perhaps not checked properly in the scripts.

 

I'm not defending the existence of bugs, although I've noticed that many online games will have ongoing, unfixed bugs that the developers never address for some reason. I've learned to work around the couple "unfixable" bugs for my gameplay style. This may not be how you want to play the game, and that's understandable. I am actually glad that they still offer the game and the dlc's, even though there are a few things I wish they'd make available again. I wrote a post a while back that lists the different promos and country-specific downloads that you might need in order to take over an abandoned city; I don't know if it will help you, but fwiw, here's the post: https://answers.ea.com/t5/SimCity-2013/Request-to-EA-Make-Promo-AddOns-Available/m-p/6652082

[Maligzar]

3 years ago they shut down a game that they launched in 2013??  WHAT IN THE ACTUAL !#@$%!#$???

I will never buy another EA product again.

[Maligzar]

Thanks for your help by the way.  I'm just so angry with EA, a fortune 500 UNREGULATED COMPANY that is actively screwing its employees and consumers.  Personally I hate regulation, but the jerks in charge of EA sure do make a calling for it don't they? I don't see how you get away with launching a product in 2013, making millions even though it never actually worked correctly, and then you shut it down.  Flabbergasting.  It's a great game too with a lot of potential had the developers been given the opportunity.  

[troshalom]

EA is still selling the game via Origin, that's how I purchased the Complete Edition for $15. And an internet search turns up the complete edition being sold on multiple platforms, so some type of support should be there. Just sad no one is updating the game.

It is interesting that Sims 4 was released around the same time and there was a HUGE uproar from players and they fixed quite a bit and have added tons of free stuff to the game to make folks happy. I was a late adopter getting Sims 4 too, so I purchased a game that was fixed, though still plagued with the small worlds/small lots issue that we players just don't like.

I loved SimCity 4 Deluxe and looked forward to the upgrade. So, I'm sad that it is really dead. 

I've been looking at the Cities Skyline on YouTube and it reminds me of SC4 a bit. I think I'll wait until Cities Skyline 2 comes out before I decide to make that my SC replacement. So for now, I play SC and try not to focus too much on what it could be and when I get frustrated with the limitations -- no terraforming tools, small cities -- I'll play SC4.

Cheers