Clarification on 25 tile modding

[FourWinds]

Posted an official statement. Please read this before continuing any discussion.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...9-Clarification-on-25-tile-modding&p=18934067

I read it. I'll start by saying that for me, just me, 9 tiles is fine, and I don't envisage needing to go beyond that for any reason apart from curiosity.

This 'clarification' though. Man, it tries to suggest that this 'it's so hard to do' was always the position, and I do not believe that to be the case; remember, you did reply to one of my posts in the past (see earlier in this thread for details). This denying of historical communications and rewriting of history reaks of disingenuity; I don't think this is a good look. Just saying.

 

[peteij]

So maybe they should have made it clear to the four English speaking YouTubers before announcing to their audiences and having this happen? I don't think that a language is much of an excuse when you are a company that works with a global audience.

English is a language where a comma can reverse the meaning of a sentence. People will always interpret things differently - you can't prevent it. Particularly when talking to an audience of thousands in an informal environment. CO/Paradox could take a more formal approach to communication, but choosing not to distance themselves sends out a far more powerful message.

As an aside, the Oxford Dictionaries website lists 29 words or phrases as synonyms for 'possible' and 9 for 'option' - none of which take tone into account, which complicates things even more. Miscommunication will happen. It's inevitable.

 

[gsxdsm]

We shouldn't rathole on what was said and what is or isn't happening. CO didn't try to intentionally mislead us. They've tried to keep things reasonable. We're all excited for this game and interpreted things the way that made sense for us. No harm.

I'm sure it's going to be an amazing & fun game with 9 tiles.

But we're still gonna try our best to mod the hell out of it and get those 16 extra tiles ;-)

 

[Atomic_Universe]

I wonder why they just didn't make the maps 3x3 in the first place and then market the game as being able to unlock the whole map through progression....everyone would have been happy! Making it 25 tiles and only give people 9 to play with was asking for trouble!!

 

[OlaHaldor]

I apologize for the confusion. We at CO have been trying to be very clear on the fact that we do not support bigger map size than the 9 that is offered as default. It is possible to unlock more tiles as co_damsku described in Reddit, which sounds like cracking the game to me, but I'm not a programmer. This is however not easy and again, we at Colossal can't help you with this unfortunately. We feel the 9 map tiles is plenty of room to build the city in and going over that causes multiple issues.

It seems that I have failed in the communication. We were asked if unlocking more than 9 map tiles is possible to which we answered that we will not officially support it as it is dangerous in terms of performance and can cause multiple other issues. But indeed, it it possible yet very very difficult. I believe some people picked only the "it is possible" part, which I should have more actively tried to correct, but I didn't take the time. I'm very sorry for that and any false expectations that have risen due to this.

I appreciate your appearance on the forums to be totally transparent on this. All though I'm a tad disappointed about the fact, I have not lost the joy and excitement about the game, simply because you show you care and take the time to reply.

 

[gsxdsm]

I appreciate your appearance on the forums to be totally transparent on this. All though I'm a tad disappointed about the fact, I have not lost the joy and excitement about the game, simply because you show you care and take the time to reply.

Concur

 

[yupog2003]

I wonder why they just didn't make the maps 3x3 in the first place and then market the game as being able to unlock the whole map through progression....everyone would have been happy! Making it 25 tiles and only give people 9 to play with was asking for trouble!!

That is a interesting thinking. Maybe they just want to let players determine the city shape.

 

[TotalyMoo]

Your official FAQ says all I need to do is "mod some files" and "unlock it" with no explanation or inkling of difficulty, so you may want to fix that as well.

Fixed that, bad phrasing, thanks for the heads up

Sorry, i think the meaning of the "easy" is clear enough. I'm not angry at all, but this is pure damage control and nothing more.

I'd love to know where we've said it would be easy, except Shams original post in the 6 month old AMA that has been retracted several times.

(not trying to come off as rude, genuinely interested if we've phrased it that way)

 

[ali.usman]

9 tiles are way more than I would have ever expected from this game and I am super happy about it. It's bigger than any other game in the market and handling 9 tiles will be a challenge.

Having 25 tiles unlocked will be a bad idea (therefore its not supported) although its ok to have a mod to unlock 25 tiles just to test it out (which will open future window) but game, your computer and even yourself will have trouble handling 25 tiles.

 

[TotalyMoo]

I read it. I'll start by saying that for me, just me, 9 tiles is fine, and I don't envisage needing to go beyond that for any reason apart from curiosity.

This 'clarification' though. Man, it tries to suggest that this 'it's so hard to do' was always the position, and I do not believe that to be the case; remember, you did reply to one of my posts in the past (see earlier in this thread for details). This denying of historical communications and rewriting of history reaks of disingenuity; I don't think this is a good look. Just saying.

I understand your position, but we're not trying to rewrite history here. I'm really sorry if I've come off as casual about the difficulty. I saw the post you linked and understand it might be interpreted as not hiding = easy.

If you feel we've straight out lied to you, please point me in the right direction and I'll gladly add that to my new thread so people know how we've spoken about it historically.

 

[FourWinds]

I appreciate your appearance on the forums to be totally transparent on this. All though I'm a tad disappointed about the fact, I have not lost the joy and excitement about the game, simply because you show you care and take the time to reply.

I too find myself in this position. But I'm not over the moon about the previous communications; I have a nasty feeling that marketing have been messing with me intentionally. So, CO gets a thumbs up for being straight with me (although lots of you will know that I disagree with some things. grrrr). But Paradox... being an engineer I find that sales and marketing are my natural enemy, and I have stated that on this forum; this opinion has not changed as a result of this experience.

 

[FourWinds]

I understand your position, but we're not trying to rewrite history here. I'm really sorry if I've come off as casual about the difficulty. I saw the post you linked and understand it might be interpreted as not hiding = easy.

If you feel we've straight out lied to you, please point me in the right direction and I'll gladly add that to my new thread so people know how we've spoken about it historically.

Don't worry about it, man. S**t does happen; it's not a big deal. My natural 'high alert' disposition when dealing with you marketing types may mean that I don't give you a fair chance. There are always two sides to every story, right. No stress; I'm sure you've done your best to communicate honestly.

 

[TotalyMoo]

I too find myself in this position. But I'm not over the moon about the previous communications; I have a nasty feeling that marketing have been messing with me intentionally. So, CO gets a thumbs up for being straight with me (although lots of you will know that I disagree with some things. grrrr). But Paradox... being an engineer I find that sales and marketing are my natural enemy, and I have stated that on this forum; this opinion has not changed as a result of this experience.

If you feel it would help your frustrations, feel free to challenge me to a duel in a game of your choice

 

[DrJamesWhite]

So optimistic... Look at map size mods in SimCity 2013. It is possible to "hack" it too, but nobody likes final results.

One thing about simcity 2013 that they have modded it to be bigger but then core features stop working so go beyond the small tiles end up with more issues.

 

[KeanoManu]

Region mode, or something similar, should be a priority after release. A much larger map are obviously something that many feel are important.

It will always be better to have an officially supported region with several city tiles connected than inofficial mods providing extra tiles.

 

[Greygor69]

I too find myself in this position. But I'm not over the moon about the previous communications; I have a nasty feeling that marketing have been messing with me intentionally. So, CO gets a thumbs up for being straight with me (although lots of you will know that I disagree with some things. grrrr). But Paradox... being an engineer I find that sales and marketing are my natural enemy, and I have stated that on this forum; this opinion has not changed as a result of this experience.

If Dilbert has taught me anything then Sales is there to promise things I can't deliver in a time frame I can't meet


On a serious note, I don't see a big issue with this personally. They've made a great attempt to correct any miscommunication, they've made it in advance of the launch. Anyone unhappy can cancel their pre-order and wait to se if what they want appears after launch.

On the communication side, I work for Xerox here in Barcelona, we have around 15 nationalities working here, all using English. And it's really easy to misinterpret what is being said and people who are clear in what they meant not being understood correctly when it's not their native language.


TL;DR I'm happy to cut CO a little slack here, misunderstandings happen.

 

[Sport]

Region mode, or something similar, should be a priority after release. A much larger map are obviously something that many feel are important.

It will always be better to have an officially supported region with several city tiles connected than inofficial mods providing extra tiles.

I like the idea of regions. That would be a great DLC!

 

[Zarine]

* Modding to 25 tiles is possible. It's not easy, it requires skill, but it is possible.

Challenge accepted !

And I guess I'll have to put a big red banner declining all risk and side effects.

 

[Thalkim]

Thanks CO and Moo for clarifying it.

As for me, I'm totally(moo?) fine with 9 tiles. Since we have the 1 million hard cap, I see no use, right now, to unlock new tiles, of course, my opinion can change after release, but for now, I'm good.

 

[TornPr1nc3]

36 square kilometers is still a near unfathomable amount of space to work with. I can cover my hometown, neighboring TWO towns and an interstate that winds between mountains alongside a river in the valley that the towns spring off of. I am more than willing to enjoy taking on that challenge! I'm even excited to take things into the town's past a bit by putting in a working train tracks along the now abandoned path to bring the area back to its roots. To me, that's a personal project that only this game would allow me to create and that's awesome. Yes, it will take me a long time since I'm not an expert here, but maybe with some guidance from real maps and pictures, I'll succeed. If someone figures it out, great!