DeletedUser26046
How about a Rotating Camera so you can see the other side of your City? Often roads & small decorations can be hidden behind tall buildings.
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DeletedUser3679
There is no 'other side.' All the buildings are rendered in 2-D, not 3-D. Nor can they be rotated, for the same reason.
DeletedUser26046
OK Mr Pedadantic. Rotate the City to view it from another angle then . View it from North/South/East/West
DeletedUser3679
LOL. 2-D is 2-D. The drawing that you see is all there is - no sides, no backs. Draw a picture on a piece of paper, and then try to view the edge of it. And what the heck does pedadantic mean? Is there such a word?
DeletedUser27096
No, pedadantic is not a word. I believe the OP meant "pedantic", meaning "To be too concerned with literal accuracy or formality". And yes, I agree that 2D is 2D
!DeletedUser25273
Using the existing images, they could provide a view that is the 180 degree rotation (maybe not exactly, as all the building then effectively rotate 180 degree also. This might help you notice issues with your city.
DeletedUser26965
Clearly the problem was with the wording here. The city and all its building would have to be 3D rendered in order to view what's around them. If you just rotate the camera as it is now it would be just like turning a photo around in your hand. They don't and won't give us the ability to rotate buildings because like they explained in the last Q&A it's always been that way and their artist don't like to work I guess so they're not going to do rotating of the camera either.
DeletedUser
That would quadruple the artwork. Right now they are getting by on 1 dimensional. Plus the cost of programming to allow rotating. Buy more diamonds and when it is deemed profitable I am sure they will. While you are at it ask them if we can rotate buildings to make them fit better. I miss Tetris.
DeletedUser27096
I love when any company gives the reason "because it's always been like that" as a reason for not improving something. Ugh, seriously? So if the designers and artists at Inno hated some long used but outdated function of Adobe CS and complained to Adobe about it and Adobe replied, "too bad, it's always been like that", would they accept that answer? How about if they went to the hospital and the doctor wanted to use ether for an anaesthetic instead of today's modern anaesthesia cocktails, and when they complained, the doctor said, "Too bad, we've always used ether". Technologies improve and change, competition gets stronger by offering better features and consumers want the same functionality that they are used to having in other games. The answer "because it's always been like that" is a BS answer and Inno knows it. An artist's time is relatively cheap (that's why they are called "starving artists"...they don't command big money). As for programming, I'll bet if they hired someone (as an employee or a consultant) who worked on one of the myriad other games out there that have this feature, they would be able to program it fairly easily.
This is the problem with having a young CEO and COO, especially when the only "real company" experience said managers have are from working in their own company....they never learn better practices elsewhere and therefore keep on doing things "the way they've always been done". They need to hire some senior managers and developers who have worked for other successful gaming companies and who understand the importance of giving players what they want, especially when these "wants" are for features already offered in their competitors' games.
For goodness sake, people have been asking for this feature since the game was launched (April 2012) and Inno means to tell us that in 5 years and with the €100MM they are making per year (2015 sales, up 25% from 2014), they can't spend a few hundred thousand (i.e., 0.3% of their annual sales)--if even that much--to add this feature!?? C'mon, we aren't that gullible. They could have had a two person task force work on it for just 2.5 hours a week (half an hour per day) and had it done by now...5 hours per week, 46 weeks per year (yeah, it's Europe...they get 5 or 6 weeks of vacation per year), 230 hours per year X 5 years is 1150 person hours. If we estimate the average cost (salary plus benefits, etc.) of each person to be around €100 per hour (likely a high estimate), the cost to add this feature would only be around €115,000 spread over 5 years! I'll bet Inno spends more than that per year on coffee and drinks for their employees!!
Enough of the pat, glib answers to players' legitimate complaints and requests! Wake up, Inno...you need to stop resting on your laurels and bring the game up to parity with all the other MMO games out there! If you need better management expertise, hire McKinsey or BCG, but for cripes sake, do SOMETHING!
This is the problem with having a young CEO and COO, especially when the only "real company" experience said managers have are from working in their own company....they never learn better practices elsewhere and therefore keep on doing things "the way they've always been done". They need to hire some senior managers and developers who have worked for other successful gaming companies and who understand the importance of giving players what they want, especially when these "wants" are for features already offered in their competitors' games.
For goodness sake, people have been asking for this feature since the game was launched (April 2012) and Inno means to tell us that in 5 years and with the €100MM they are making per year (2015 sales, up 25% from 2014), they can't spend a few hundred thousand (i.e., 0.3% of their annual sales)--if even that much--to add this feature!?? C'mon, we aren't that gullible. They could have had a two person task force work on it for just 2.5 hours a week (half an hour per day) and had it done by now...5 hours per week, 46 weeks per year (yeah, it's Europe...they get 5 or 6 weeks of vacation per year), 230 hours per year X 5 years is 1150 person hours. If we estimate the average cost (salary plus benefits, etc.) of each person to be around €100 per hour (likely a high estimate), the cost to add this feature would only be around €115,000 spread over 5 years! I'll bet Inno spends more than that per year on coffee and drinks for their employees!!
Enough of the pat, glib answers to players' legitimate complaints and requests! Wake up, Inno...you need to stop resting on your laurels and bring the game up to parity with all the other MMO games out there! If you need better management expertise, hire McKinsey or BCG, but for cripes sake, do SOMETHING!
DeletedUser
Wow Daisy, that was awesome...and that is why I left the corporate world.
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DeletedUser28477
I dont want to stir the pot as this issue has been around a long time.
but - The game designers DO NOT need to draw/design 4 pictures of the same building (east/west/south/north view). They just need to re-position the existing pictures. EG:
a 2 x 2 grid, item A is in the 1st square, item B is in the 2nd square, item C is in the 3rd square, item D is in the 4th square.
now - to rotate the grid, you just re-draw the same pictures as :-
item C is in the 1st square, item A is in the 2nd square, item D is in the 3rd square, item B is in the 4th square using the same/existing pictures already in the game design.
i hope this doesnt stir the pot too much - but seems easy to implement. THOUGH the only problem i see - is the background picture / scenery..
Does that need to change ?
EDIT: Ive just thought - if you have a 4x5 building, switching views 90 degrees, it will become a 5x4 building, so maybe SOME buildings need a 2bd picture - but you wont need 4 pictures. Is my thinking right ?
EDIT 2: If this option is accepted, the developers could make it so that you cannot buy or move / destroy anything in these other views - you need to go back to the main / original view to change anything. These totated views can be look-only. easier to programme & less things they need to alter (eg the purchase/destroy screens)
but - The game designers DO NOT need to draw/design 4 pictures of the same building (east/west/south/north view). They just need to re-position the existing pictures. EG:
a 2 x 2 grid, item A is in the 1st square, item B is in the 2nd square, item C is in the 3rd square, item D is in the 4th square.
now - to rotate the grid, you just re-draw the same pictures as :-
item C is in the 1st square, item A is in the 2nd square, item D is in the 3rd square, item B is in the 4th square using the same/existing pictures already in the game design.
i hope this doesnt stir the pot too much - but seems easy to implement. THOUGH the only problem i see - is the background picture / scenery..
Does that need to change ?
EDIT: Ive just thought - if you have a 4x5 building, switching views 90 degrees, it will become a 5x4 building, so maybe SOME buildings need a 2bd picture - but you wont need 4 pictures. Is my thinking right ?
EDIT 2: If this option is accepted, the developers could make it so that you cannot buy or move / destroy anything in these other views - you need to go back to the main / original view to change anything. These totated views can be look-only. easier to programme & less things they need to alter (eg the purchase/destroy screens)
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DeletedUser27096
Lucky you @snake11s! I also despise the corporate world and wish I had the ability to leave. I have met more loathsome, stupid, arrogant people in my 25 year career than I can count, and most of them were senior managers. I'll bet you anything that Inno's junior and mid-level employees would like to make the changes we players want as much as we want them to and it is senior management who is stopping them. They are not willing to spend the money to truly fix things because they very likely earn more by spending on marketing their new games and attracting new players, even though I'd bet the attrition of the new players in much higher than that of existing players. Eventually this strategy will kill them bc the long time players will leave and the pool of new players will become smaller. Then a venture capital company will buy them, install experienced managers and shut the game down completely. Ay yi yi! I used to work for one of the behemoth management consulting firms so I have seen this type of misguided strategy time and again. It never works out well for anyone in the end.
DeletedUser8152
I'm afraid that we require all formal proposals to use a standard format; see the link in my signature for details. That helps ensure that everyone's ideas get a free and full discussion. For now, I'll move this to Forge Hall for further comment.
On the topic, if the main concern is just being able to see you city layout better, there have been some other proposals in the past to either make your buildings transparent, or to switched to a "flattened" mode where you just see the footprint. Seems like either of those would be easier to implement.
DeletedUser
Flattened would be the cheapest option.
DeletedUser3679
Flattened view is available at foemanager.com. And down loading your city to this site is also available.