The latest update to SimCity launched yesterday, and promises to change gameplay quite a bit. Unfortunately, there is no increase to the size of cities this time around. There is also no addition of offline mode. The update did bring many changes and additions to the game, however.
Maxis has decided to add a new park for early adopters of the game. This park is called the Launch Park, and is available to "dedicated fans who were early adopters." A new region has also been added to the game. The region is called Edgewater Bay. It is comprised of seven cities that are clustered around a bay, with one great work site.
As for other changes, the current server will now be shown in the options menu. Players will also receive more detailed information when they rollover buildings. Statistics such as happiness received from building a park or shopping building will be displayed. Some features have also been re-enabled with the update. Global Market prices will now change dynamically during gameplay. Leaderboards are now active, including those of EU West 1, Pacific 1, and Pacific 2. Region filters have been enabled on all SimCity servers. This means that you will be able to search for an open game by filtering of Map Name, Sandbox Mode, and Abandoned Cities options.
As for the fixes to the game, Maxis has fixed an issue where certain cities would not have rain clouds to replenish the water table. Fire truck response times have also been improved. The time it takes for a fire signal to reach the fire station has been improved as well. Happiness has been tweaked so that Sims will lose a small portion of happiness if they are without a place to shop.
SimCity is a cooperative PC game that supports up to 16 player online co-op. For a full list of the patch notes, take a look at the list from the official EA forums below:
Update 4.0 Notes
• New: SimCity Launch Park, an exclusive new park just for our dedicated fans who were early adopters.
• New: Region: Edgewater Bay. Seven city sites in one cluster around a beautiful bay with one great work site.
• New: Your current server will now be shown in the options menu.
• New: More detailed rollover information on buildings telling player’s if their Sims received happiness from a park or from shopping. Previous to this fix, this information was generic.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Global Market prices now dynamically change during gameplay.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Leaderboards will be active on EU West 3, Pacific 1 and Pacific 2 at the release. We will enable them on additional servers throughout the day.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Region filters are now enabled on all SimCity servers. Players will be able to search for open games by Map Name, Sandbox Mode, and Abandoned Cities.
• Rain Clouds: Fixed an issue where some cities would not have rain clouds to replenish their water table. If you had a city with this issue, you will start seeing clouds again within a game day.
• Fire: Improved response time of fire trucks to fires. Improved the time it takes for a fire signal to reach a fire station.
• Mission updates: Tuned Metals HQ and Community College missions. These were appearing too early, making them difficult to complete. They now appear later in a city’s development.
• Solar Farm Great Work: Reduced fire risk at the Solar Farm Great work. Local fire engines were spending too much time at the Solar Farm.
• Messaging: Improved pre-requisite messaging for Trade Port, Casinos, Smelting Factory and Oil Refinery. It should be clearer on how to unlock these buildings.
• Graphics: Fix for flickering low wealth buildings on NVIDIA graphics cards.
• Education: Fix for an issue some cities experienced where commuting students did not return from a neighbor’s city. This was causing a problem where students would disappear from a city in some cases.
• Tuning: Sims will lose a small amount of happiness if they don’t have a place to shop. Cities without places to shop will see complaints and feel the effect of unhappy Sims. This will emphasize the importance of commercial zones.
Source: Eurogamer.net