Nothing a few patches can't fix.
SimCity's fourth major update has been released and it adds some new content in addition to improving what's already existing. A new region has been unlocked allowing all players to enjoy a new waterside setting. The region is called Edgewater Bay and is divided into seven districts making it an optimal choice for those who enjoy the experience of working together with neighboring players.
Early adopters get exclusive access to the SimCity Launch Park, a new locale for your residents to enjoy. It hasn't been declared who is considered an early adopter, but it seems likely that anyone who was eligible for the free game promotion following release should be included.
More importantly, several features disabled shortly after the game's facepalmingly bad release have been re-enabled.
See the full patch notes below:
- 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.
