We feel for Sim City gamers that have had all kinds of issues in the past 24 hours. Everything from product keys not being recognised to simply not being able to download the game or stay connected. It’s not gone great for EA and Maxis this week.
The Origin Twitter feed as been constantly updated since launch but should European players be concerned about Friday morning’s launch? According to EA, things will be all good.
“We’re making changes to prevent further issues, and are confident that Origin will be stable for international launches later this week.”
Bold words and we hope they are right, the last thing they need is more players with problems.
Here at IncGamers we know how patient gamers are, so what’s the best way to alleviate an influx of players? Waiting rooms of course. Here’s the word on those from EA.
Hi Mayors — some of you may have noticed we’ve implemented Waiting Rooms on some of our busy servers. If you have any questions about how the waiting room (or our servers) work, this FAQ should help.
Remember, if you are placed in a waiting room, you are always welcome to join a new server that is available. Just note that cities are not shared between servers, so joining a new server will mean building a new city.
Q: I’ve be put in a waiting room? What does that mean? A: In cases of heavy load on a particular server, our systems will automatically trigger a waiting room. The waiting room will prevent anyone not currently logged into that server from joining. Once the timer on the waiting room has counted down completely, it will attempt to log you back in the server. If successful, you will be able to join. If the server is still busy, the time will recommence. The waiting room will remain up until traffic on the server returns to normal levels. Remember, if a waiting room pops up, you can always join and play on a different server.
Q: How will I know if a server is full, or near to full? A: You will see a Server Status Alert on the SimCity launcher. This indicates whether a server is available, full, or busy.
Q: What does it mean if a server is listed as FULL or BUSY? A: If a server is listed as BUSY, this is a notification that there is heavy activity on that particular server. You can still join it if you wish to start a new region or city; or load a pre-existing city. If a server is listed as FULL, you will not be allowed to join that server unless you have an earlier city saved on it. If you already have a city saved on that server, the server will be accessible.
Q: Are servers country or language specific? A: SimCity is Region Free. It doesn’t matter where you live, you can join and play on any server you’d like.
Q: How many servers can I exist on? A: Players will be able to play on multiple servers, with a maximum of 10 regions on each.
Q: Are my cities and regions transferable from server to server? A: Each server is discrete which means that cities and regions are not transferable.
While waiting rooms seem like a sensible option, any form of queue is extremely frustrating. I can’t count how many times I’ve been placed in a queue only to quit out and go play something else. Also note that the servers are not linked so if you end up on the wrong server then you’ll have to switch and start a new city which will probably lead to loads of abandoned cities until these issues get sorted out.
Regarding the stability for the EU launch, we asked EA to comment on their preparations but right now they can not provide us with any additional information other than what has already been posted through their support pages.
