GamingShogun was lucky enough to ask Monte Cristo’s Project Director Patrick Marchal some questions on Cities Unl…erm…XL . The name still takes some getting used to.

On a question regarding what we would consider region play Patrick responds:

It’s still slightly too early to give you precise details about the inter-player/city interactions. However, we can already tell you that players won’t be confined into their city’s economy and will, if they wish, be able to participate in a global exchange. Import- export, specialization of cities … these are clearly areas where we think the genre can see big improvement.

On system specs:

The minimum and recommend system specs are not yet defined. However, we know our audience doesn’t necessarily own the latest PC machine. We are aiming to run the game smoothly on older computers - of course, in that case, you won’t have the shiny effects you may see in the screenshots but player cities will definitively still be better looking than in current city builder titles.

We will keep you to that MC!

Following the news earlier this week that MC has renamed Cities Unlimited to Cities XL, they have now moved the entire website to a new address: http://www.citiesxl.com. This event is announced in a new blog by dasilva, which also gives us some glimpses into future game mechanics and yes: new screenshots! Dasilva gives the following description of the game:

The game’s online features and services will allow players to create interconnected cities on virtual and persistent planets. Mayors can share and trade with one another, specialize their economy and team up with befriended cities to create sprawling metropolises. Life on the planet will be punctuated by events and competitions - a concert held in one town may, for example, be attended by visitors from other areas who can also enjoy a walk around the city to admire the urban creations of multiple players. By combining a fantastic single-player game with the social and multiplayer aspects of an MMO, CITIES XL™ will shape the future of the genre by offering more variety, bigger cities and multiple gameplay layers.

The screens provided are exciting as well: check them out in the forums. One person who will remain nameless had only one comment after seeing the new shots:

*drool*

Monte Cristo have just announced that they Cities Unlimited will be renamed to Cities XL™. An important distinction between the Cities Unlimited and Cities XL names is that the latter has a ™ tacked to the back. Although no official explanation is given by MC, this may be an clue to the reasons behind the name change. Cities Unlimited is (as some of you may have found) also the name of a network hosting city guides to all cities in the US, and owner of the domain name www.citiesunlimited.com.

MC will make the name change official through a press release next week, but Simphoni will go ahead and rename its official Cities Unlimited forum to reflect the change to Cities XL. Hop on in, and let us know how you feel about the name change.  

A new blog has been posted on the official Cities Unlimited site. This one deals with the modelling of economics in the game.

…a company will set up shop in the city if it believes that it can generate income. Alternatively, it will leave (declare bankruptcy) when it has sustained losses over a significant period of time. A resident, in turn, will move to a city if he believes it will bring him adequate satisfaction, and leave when this is no longer the case.

Developer David goes on to explain how residents act both as workers and consumers, and companies act both as employers and outlets for goods and services. It appears the players will have several options for balancing their budgets, including what Monte Cristo calls “Foreign Trade”. Whether this means region play as in SC4, or trade with “imaginary” neighbours as in SC2000 is still unclear to this reader.

Check out the article and tell us what you think!

So far, the level of contribution to the Unofficial CU Surveys has been unexpectedly high, with over 80 voters in the first survey, and over 40 voters in each of the second and third surveys.

I’d now like to inform you all that the fourth survey in English is now online, this time regarding Transportation!

Get over to the Unofficial CU Surveys website now, and cast your votes! Or at least when you have a moment to spare

Unofficial CU Surveys homepage

Cities Unlimited is the latest city-building game, currently being developed by Monte Cristo Games. The company has been listening closely to discussions within the official site’s forums at CU Planet and making great progress with their development. At this stage, most of the key decisions for the general direction of the game will have been made, and many of the game’s features are starting to take shape, as displayed by their blog updates.

The site holds regular polls to gauge opinions on potential aspects and ideas for city-building games, and determine the importance of different features to the fans. Monte Cristo’s approach to the development of Cities Unlimited, has already created a large potential fanbase, before the game has even been fully developed. With the projected release date expected to be towards the end of 2008, there is still time to influence how much attention is paid to the different aspects within the game and further publicise the desires of us, the city-building fans.

Cities Unlimited “Conceptual” articles, or CUC articles, have also been created by myself to coherently bring together the many different ideas posted by a range of members at different city-building fan sites. These ideas were transformed into a range of individual articles with each covering all suggestions for each new proposed feature or improvement.

I have now set up some webpages with online polls/surveys for voting on the importance of general ideas and improvements for the city-building genre. Each survey shouldn’t take more than a few moments for visitors to complete.

The Unofficial Cities Unlimited Online Surveys

All of the questions relate to ideas and improvements to city-building games which were not part of SimCity 4. Help influence Monte Cristo’s decisions through the remainder of the development process, by contributing to the voting on the Unofficial CU Surveys. These polls will also help determine what features should take priority in development of the initial game release, and which ideas that are ranked lower in popularity could be developed for future Expansion Packs. Cities Unlimited is on its way to the forefront of realistic city-building simulation games. Help fuel the process and make your voice heard!

Our member edcaze2k3 pointed out a new blog over on the official Cities Unlimited site that describes how terraforming will be done in CU. It looks like MC will include options for making maps both from height maps (as was possible in SC4) and from scratch. They are relying on tools that are already out on the market: a smart move if one aims to shorten development times. Florent from the CU development team ensures us they will keep on working to make CU run as smoothly as possible:

In closing, I’d like to specify that we are continuing to fine-tune our ideas, development efforts, algorithms and tools, all to ensure that our game’s graphics engine generates a realistic rendering with the least machine calculation time. We want Cities Unlimited to be able to run on older machines, all the while providing gamers with a realistic and enjoyable experience.

For our enjoyment a video is included with the blog that shows the current state of affairs. It looks awesome so check it out!

As a way of thanking people who are helping Monte Cristo by dedicating their time talking about what they would like to see in Cities Unlimited, MC today officially opens the first ever Cities Unlimited Awards.

The way the awards will work is similar to the way we have our local awards here at Simphoni.net. Members of the CU Planet forums can nominate one another for an award in the following categories:

• Best Member Participation Award: Which member participates with quality to the different threads in the forums?
• Most Welcoming Member Award: Which member welcomes the new members in the community or simply shares his/her happiness?
• Most Helpful Member Award: Who is the one that answers other members’ questions or redirects the discussions to other threads when appropriate?

In addition to that there is a special category which is not for CU Planet members but rather for city builder fan sites, called the Best CU Supporter Website Award. We are very pleased that Simphoni.net is one of the nominees for that Award.

Nominations are now open, and will continue until March 14th. Right after, a page will be opened where you’ll be able to vote for the nominees – votes will close at the end of March. The winners will receive an award, which will be displayed on their CU Planet profile. A unique medal will be specially made for the community website winner. Head on over and nominate the people you think are deserving of these awards, and come March 14th: don’t forget to vote!

Earlier today dasilva dropped by in our Shoutbox and left us a gift (click for larger):

A new blog by developer David has been posted on the official Cities Unlimited homepage. The article focuses on “Citizen Profiles”. Those profiles are the way Monte Cristo plans on modelling social interaction between different social groups within the game:

citizens will have a set of objective parameters that express who they are and what kinds of things are important for them

A first,  and according to David, non-definitive set of properties contained in the profiles are:

• Wealth
• Education
• Age
• Sensitivities
• Citizen Care (something that can be interpreted as “Satisfaction”)

 All these properties influence the way of life of citizens, and in turn what they need from you as their mayor. The amount of realism this enables is awesome, although it may take MC some time to get it all just right: in the words of one member here “good luck balancing that”. With the amount of interaction they keep having with the city builder enthusiasts we have no doubt they will get it right!