The
SimCity Blog has details on a new patch Maxis has released for
SimCity
to update the urban-planning game to version 4.0. This re-enables some of
the features shut down when the game was put on life-support after launch woes
along with new features and new content. Here are
the
patch 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.