SimCity 3.0 patch promises better traffic, more hotels

One month after the release of SimCity 2.0, Maxis is preparing yet another "significant update."

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One month after the release of SimCity 2.0, Maxis is preparing yet another "significant update." The 3.0 patch, which deploys later this week, continues to introduce new content and tweaks to the online city simulator. (Perhaps it will also fix the bugs introduced by the latest patch?)

In terms of new content, additional hotels have been added "to increase hotel variety." However, of particular note is how traffic is handled. Fans have been critical of the way traffic was implemented in the game and 3.0 will "update routing system to improve traffic." The routing system apparently "now understands more information about u-turns, required vehicle stops, and vehicle behavior on certain road types. This should make traffic smarter."

There are some other minor real world tweaks made to the traffic system. This one, in particular, made me chuckle: "Vehicles can now make right turns on Red. This should improve some cases of traffic.

You can read the full patch notes for yourself, which includes fixes for school buses, trading, pollution, transit, roads, and more. Thankfully, radiation now causes less ground pollution--which should make the residents of my nuclear-wasted town all the happier.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 6, 2013 4:15 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, SimCity 3.0 patch promises better traffic, more hotels.

    One month after the release of SimCity 2.0, Maxis is preparing yet another "significant update."

    • reply
      May 6, 2013 4:33 PM

      From 1.0 to 3.0 in one month. Wow.

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        May 6, 2013 4:39 PM

        lol seriously

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        May 6, 2013 4:41 PM

        OMG VERSION NUMBERS!

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        May 6, 2013 4:41 PM

        Arbitrary version number bumps. Wow

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          May 6, 2013 6:23 PM

          You and I both know that major version number changes are supposed to communicate huge changes, especially when announced ahead of time. To resort to this twice in the four weeks after launch speaks to major issues.

          That said if they never do minor point releases (i.e., 1.1, 1.2) and only ever do major ones (i.e., 13.0, 14.0) then you're right it's arbitrary. And stupid.

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            May 6, 2013 9:29 PM

            They said that X.0 means a scripting change and .X means an update within the existing scripting. So that explains the jump from 2.2 to 3.0

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        May 6, 2013 5:04 PM

        At this rate they'll be catching up to Firefox and Chrome by next quarter.

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          May 6, 2013 6:06 PM

          No, both Firefox and Chrome were functional at launch ;)

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          May 6, 2013 9:11 PM

          I think FF and Chrome have gone exponential at this point.

          Here's to scientific notation for version numbers!

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      May 6, 2013 4:41 PM

      So when they going to increase the city size!!

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        May 6, 2013 4:44 PM

        At the rate their core is functioning I'm going to guess, never.

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        May 6, 2013 9:22 PM

        According to the interview today, never. Instead they will look at increasing the building density again.

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      May 6, 2013 8:57 PM

      Oh hey we might actually reach SimCity 5 at this rate.

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      May 6, 2013 9:17 PM

      Offline mode?

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      May 6, 2013 10:48 PM

      And still the damage has been done and nobody cares is my guess.

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      May 6, 2013 11:18 PM

      SimCity 4.0 Patch Notes:
      • Updated version number to 4.0

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        May 7, 2013 6:58 AM

        More like * Backed out patch 2.0 changes. Game is 60% better!

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        May 7, 2013 7:15 AM

        • Improved in-game Doritos™® rendering

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          May 7, 2013 9:05 AM

          Now these are the kinds of changes I can get behind. Hopefully they add poutineries as low wealth commercial businesses in a future update.

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        May 7, 2013 9:28 AM

        • Hired a junior QA tester from Washington elementary school. Son of Bobby Kotick! now you'll now it's good!

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