Welcome to Parsimonious SimCity

Here you will find various gameplay articles about SimCity 2013 aka SimCity 5.

You can access articles via the menu above, pick an area of interest to go to the first article in that catagory.

Available articles include help to resolve gameplay issues like:

News: Updates to Guides

February 2016

As part of Parsimonious' current upgrade there are a few small changes to this part of the website.

Aside from cosmetic changes some of the guides have received some minor editing. Some of this reflects issues which have been patched out of the game and some information that is incomplete or out-of-date has been removed.

In place of a seperate article listing you'll find that the complete list of articles appears on every page. Each subsection that has multiple articles now has page numbers. I have also embedded some videos which I felt were useful additions to our guides. I didn't make them so I want to thank the Youtubers who shared their efforts - please go and like their videos to show your support!

News: Cities: Skylines ....

April 2015

Since this site is supposed to be about a city planning game, I really can't skip a mention of the recently released Cities: Skylines.

As to whether it's any good or not, let me put it like this: as I play I envisage a bunch of EA's executives sweating in an office reading the reviews and sales figures for Cities: Skylines and breaking down into tears. Unlike SimCity 5 with it's tiny cities, bizarre agent behavior and hateful traffic management, Cities: Skylines actually feels like the natural successor to SimCity 2000, 3000 and 4. Whilst certainly not perfect, this game created by 9-person team, Colossal Order and published by Paradox, is (in my opinion) the city building stategy game we've all been waiting for. The level of detail encompassed in the game is fabulous and there are many awesome little things you can discover. I also love the fact it's paced at a gentle enough rate that it doesn't require constant juggling; you can tweak and obssess over one specific aspect to your heart's content if you wish without the rest of your city falling into chaos. Or if you like juggling then simply enable the included Hard Mode mod!

The fact that the game is moddable and is set to recieve regular free content updates from the developers as well as the community is definitely a huge win in it's favour over SimCity 5. I mention this not out of personal bias (although I am certainly interested trying to make some custom assets for it), but because this will inevitably improve both the quality and scope of the game over time. As I write this we are eagerly awaiting the addition of tunnels which the developers are giving us in a coming FREE update. Tunnels! Seriously. How great is that?

I haven't the time or space to go into a full review, but if you had even the slightest hint of disappointment with SimCity, or perhaps just curiosity to see what this other city building game is all about, I thoroughly recommend checking it out!

News: And Finally...

March 2015

I am not going to comment on EA's eventual turn-around on the Offline mode problem, surfice to say - EA, next time you inevitabley screw up, don't be such a bunch of dicks about it. Seriously.

What I am going to talk about briefly are site related things. The first is that I have fixed the contact script! I honestly don't know why it was broken, but I can confirm it now does what it is supposed to!

Secondly, in spite of the broken contact form, quite a lot of messages have gotten through to me anyway. A significant number wanted updated articles to reflect the additions and changes made by the Cities of Tomorrow EP. Unfortunately I do not have this pack, nor do I wish to purchase it because I was too disappointed and annoyed with the original, by the time I'd finished writing the articles on this site I genuinely felt like I never wanted to play Simcity ever again (still true).

Another request I've had from several dozen visitors, is for accompanying video tutorials. Unfortunately this would be impossible to provide without playing the game, however I will set aside some time to browse YouTube for existing relevant content to add as relevant links. If you know of some videos that you think are especially well made and helpful then I'd really like to hear about them - please use the newly refurbished Contact form to let me know your recommendations!

News: Where is Offline Mode?!

May 2013

I promise that the articles in this section will not be full of non-stop EA bashing (because that would detract from their usefulness), but I really do feel I must say *something* about the DRM and EULA issues which have been plaguing SimCity since it's disasterous release.

Whilst most server access problems do seemed to have died down now, I feel the greater concern about the lack of an offline mode is that once a few years have gone by EA will no doubt remove server support for this game, leaving anyone who still wants to play it, completely out of luck.

Perhaps this will happen in 10 years and everyone will have moved on? Or perhaps it'll happen in 5 years and a lot of people still want to play? The point is, we don't know, and since the EULA states we have no right to service, it is entirely in EA's hands and I for one, do not feel at all happy about that. EA was slow enough to hand over their credit cards to Amazon to fix the server shortage after release, how long do we imagine they'll keep paying to allow people to play a game once it has ceased to make a big profit?

Will EA turn off SimCity's servers in order to increase sales of SimCity 6 when it is released? The next installment went into production a few months ago and could be released as soon as 2017

Maxis have made various statements about the lack of an offline mode. DRM is a 'necessary evil' according to Lucy Bradshaw - Ok Lucy, if you say so, but treating paying customers like would-be-criminals who will steal given the slighest opportunity is a highly negative and aggressive strategy, and very poor thanks to those of us who have spent serious money on EA's products for many years.

More to the point, when did it become acceptible to sell products in this fashion? If I buy a dress in a store, I don't expect the store manager to follow me home asking me every 10 minutes to show proof of purchase! Nor would it be acceptible for her to show up on a Saturday night and demand the dress back for an unspecified amount of time and for no particular reason, just as I'm about to go out wearing it.

Maxis have also said that the multiplayer aspect is an essential part of their 'vision' for the game and of course, that requires that people play online. Being a flakey artistic type myself I perfectly understand the importance of creative vision, but what I do not understand is why it is an 'either / or' situation? Maxis are quoted as saying that many people asked for an online mode which is why it is there... yes, but now a great number of people have asked for an offline mode... why are we the cretinous morons who should be roundly ignored?