SimCity 3000 Unlimited Bug Rants

The following is several messages that I posted at SimCity.com, SC3000.com, and alt.games.simcity.3000 concerning the replacement of buildings in SimCity 3000 Unlimited.

First, a little bit of background info...

I am a computer technician and have been repairing PCs and installing software for the past ten years. When I run across a problem with a piece of software, generally I will test in on three or more PCs with various hardware configurations. This is how I eventually come to a conclusion of whether or not a given problem is an isolated instance, or if it's the "norm". Usually I can get most any software to run properly, even with the most obscure hardware configurations.

The purpose of me posting these messages and rants here at my web site is this:

There are MANY bugs and problems in Simcity 3000 Unlimited, and yet not a SINGLE significant upgrade patch has been released for this game. The building replacement bug mentioned below is only one of many.

This game suffers severely from memory problems (i.e. "resource leaks") that cause the game to crash, as well as several gameplay bugs (i.e. the "great depression" problem, the "land value" bug, and the "water deal" bug, just to name a few). There have been numerous message posts all over the Internet refering to these bugs, and in my opinion EA/Maxis has really turned a "blind eye" to these problems.

When calling tech support for the building replacement problem that I was experiencing, they said "it is a known problem". Well I for one think it's one of many problems that should have been patched EONS ago.

There has been a lot of discussion at the sites mentioned above about ideas for new features for SimCity 4000 (if it's actually ever developed), and I would like to submit my own:

With the apparent lack of technical support for SimCity 3000 Unlimited, I for one will NOT be purchasing SimCity 4000 without seeing at least some form of significant upgrade patch to fix the numerous bugs that are in SimCity 3000 Unlimited. After all, if there is no "real" support for SimCity 3000 Unlimited, what would give me reason to think that there would be for SimCity 4000?

Date: 8/18/01 10:18 PM
From: Rich Nagel richnagel@earthlink.net
Subject: Replacing Buildings Aggravation (Part 1)!

I swear, replacing buildings in SC3KU as got to be the biggest PITA that I've ever seen! -:( I had never really used this "feature" of the game before, only using the landmarks that I had downloaded, and creating new landmarks with the Landmark Converter and SC3URK. I figured since that I had downloaded all of the "Best of the Web" collections (and several others) that I'd go ahead and add them to the game as replacement buildings. I've been trying to successfully add them for the past five hours, with nothing but problems -:(

I tried adding them all in one step within the game using the "Building List Editor". Half of the time quite a few of the buildings were missing their props and details showing nothing but gray blocks were they should be. The other half of the time SC3KU crashed, thereby corrupting and zeroing out the BAT.DAT file.

I tried adding small groups of ten at a time within the game (I had a total of 128 buildings that I wanted to add to the list) with the same results.

After reading quite a few posts about this bug and a possible solution to use BAP to add the buildings, I figured I'd try this method.... AACCCKKK!! adding them one at a time. BAP would crash every time, usually after I had wasted my time adding about 40 buildings or so -:(

One time I added 50 buildings in one shot (several of the details were missing after adding them). The resulting filesize of the BAT.DAT file was 12 megs. After replacing the 6 buildings that didn't import correctly, the resulting size of the BAT.DAT file was.... 60 megs! Tell me that there isn't a "memory leak" here somewhere!

I don't even wanna get started on memory leaks, as I have had a hunch long ago that this game suffered severely from them (anyone who has had performance problems and has noticed how gigantic that your swap file can get... just before a crash... knows what I'm referring to).

Anyways, I had to get that off my chest. In the year that I've been playing SC3KU I have never once "bad mouthed" this game. But there are way too many "buglets" that should have been patched and fixed LONG ago -:(

Date: 8/20/01 12:40 AM
From: Rich Nagel richnagel@earthlink.net
Subject: Replacing Buildings Aggravation (Part 2)!

Well... after nine hours and 27 crashes later I was finally able to add all of the 122 buildings that I wanted to SimCity 3000 Unlimited.

My method was to add them one at a time within SC3KU's "Building List Editor", backup the BAT.DAT file, check the added building to ensure all was OK, and then repeat the process.

After adding all 122 buildings, I then went back into the Building List Editor to again ensure that they imported correctly. Eight different buildings that I had added looked *EXACTLY THE SAME* as one of the previous buildings that I had imported (although they had the correct names as the original imported buildings in question). I then re-added the buildings that didn't import properly.

After adding all of the BLD format buildings, I decided to add a few of the SC3URK SJS format "suitcase" files as replacement buildings. The filesize of the BAT.DAT file before adding the SJS files was 23 megs. After adding the first SJS file, the filesize *shrunk* to 13 megs (huh?), although all of the original added buildings seem to be OK. After finishing adding a total of eight SJS files, the resulting filesize of the BAT.DAT file was 15 megs. I don't know what's happening here, but it sure is screwy. Like I said 'tho, all of the added buildings *seem* to be OK, guess I'll see if something else "blows up" somewhere down the line.

This has been a SEVERE PITA, and should have been fixed LONG ago. Needless to say, I probably will NOT be using this "feature" of the game again. Maybe we need a patch (that I'm sure will never come about) just so that we can use the "Best of the Web" collections, or any other downloaded buildings for that matter -:(

Date: 8/20/01 9:26 PM
From: Rich Nagel richnagel@earthlink.net
Subject: Replacing Buildings Aggravation (Part 3)!

Oh well, it appears that about two dozen of the buildings that I imported actually don't even show up when I change them within the game. I *TOTALLY* give up. It's really a shame too, with the TONS of really nice looking buildings available for download.

Date: 8/22/01 1:27 AM
From: Rich Nagel richnagel@earthlink.net
Subject: Replacing Buildings Aggravation (Part 4)!

A slight update: I tried a condensed version of the methods that I mentioned previously on three other PCs (with completely different hardware specs) encountering *EXACTLY* the same problems. The PCs in question varied from a P350 with 128 megs of RAM up to a P500 with 512 megs of RAM. I'm quite sure that this is not an isolated problem!

Date: 1/17/06 12:05 AM
From: Rich Nagel richnagel@earthlink.net
Subject: Replacing Buildings Aggravation (Addendum)!

Fast-forward to today (yes, I'm a stickler as well as being severely hard-headed):

I recently became interested in SimCity 3000 Unlimited again after an extremely long absence from playing the game. I decided to try rendering the buildings again using one of the higher-end computers commonly available today. The system specifications were an Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz with 512 megs of DDR RAM, running Windows 98 SE. Yep, you guessed it... the EXACT SAME PROBLEMS! Out of the 247 BLD format building files and 13 SJS format "suitcase" files that I added to the game, approximately 25% of them rendered improperly, missing details as well as props, as well as quite a few of the buildings not being displayed at all when replacing them within the game.

Add to that the aggravation of the frequent CTD crashes that MANY users have experienced while playing this game (myself included), as well as the problems that many folks have had uploading new buildings and cities to the SimCity Exchange throughout the MANY years (caused by that infernal and problematic Maxis "Teleporter" ActiveX web browser plugin required to upload and download buildings and cities to the site), I can safely say that I wish that I had never purchased this piece of crap years ago, but rather should have obtained a pirated version of it in the first place!

Why, you ask (especially with the great amount of enjoyment that I've had playing this game throughout the years)?

What are the advantages of actually purchasing a licensed version of SimCity 3000 Unlimited? To be able to register at the SimCity Exchange, and upload your city and building creations, as well as downloading new buildings created by others to add to the game. The only advantage of registering the game is to access the SimCity Exchange, as well as having access to Maxis/Electronic Arts so-called "technical support" for the game. Of course, ALL of the above (as well as the many slowdowns and connection problems with SimCity.com) hinders any attempt to do so, and their so-called "technical support" is a complete joke, so why waste your money in the first place?!

Maxis/Electronic Arts! Why were these bugs and other problems completely ignored and never fixed with this game throughout all of these years? Who performs your so-called "beta testing", and who exactly consists of your so-called "quality assurance" department? No one at all, I guess!

Anyhow, in a nutshell, I can safely say that I will never purchase another Maxis/Electronic Arts product ever again, but rather will resort to the afore-mentioned game-acquiring "technique". After all of the numerous Maxis/Electronic Arts titles that I've purchased throughout the years (starting with original "SimCity Classic" for PC, and "El-Fish" eons ago) they surely will NOT be receiving any more of my hard-earned money!

Off-topic, but yet another rant:

Maxis/Electronic Arts, why in the world did you disable the "F9" Statistics Feature in SimCity 3000 Unlimited? This extremely handy and informative feature was enabled in the original SimCity 3000 (which I do NOT own) with the BAT Version 1.1 Upgrade, and after hexing through many of the Unlimited edition's files I can see *MANY* traces and remnants of it still in there. Why in the world disable a handy feature such as this, when most of the supporting code is still within the game's files in the first place?!

[RANT MODE=OFF]

Date: 1/18/06 2:34 AM
From: Rich Nagel richnagel@earthlink.net
Subject: "Maxis Error Code 4" when uploading to the SimCity Exchange

I was attempting to upload a building and a city of mine to the SimCity Exchange, but it appears that the following problem *still* hasn't been (or rather, was NEVER) fixed (see the following error messages):

"Maxis SimCity Teleporter encountered the following error: An unexpected error occured while creating temporary graphic files. The operation was cancelled."

"We did not receive all expected files during your upload. Was your transmission interrupted? (Maxis error code 4)."

Same results and error message when trying to upload a building, as well as a city. I ran into this same problem well over a year ago, and finally gave up. I decided (fast-forward to today, well over a year later) to give it a try again, with the *exact* same problem encountered. Using (or have used throughout the years) MSIE version 5.0 and version 6.0, running Windows 98 SE as well as under Windows XP Pro SP2, and with five computers of varying hardware specifications.

All downloads work properly, I'm only having problems with uploads. Quite honestly, the last time I ever remember the SimCity Exchange working properly was back in 2002, using Netscape version 4.73.

A little detail about when I was having the same problem over a year ago: It wasn't just a single instance or two, but rather numerous times over the course of about a month or so (before I finally gave up on it). I tried it over and over, never had any luck (that is, except back in 2002 using Netscape version 4.73).

This is NOT simply an obscure problem that only a few folks are having (search the SimCity Exchange BBS for that graphic error message mentioned above, lots of discussion about it throughout the years). Again, I guess I'll simply give up -:(

Date: 2/1/06 12:00 AM

A few recent highly-detailed message forum threads on the above subjects:

The "SimCity 3000 Unlimited Bugs" message thread over at the SimCity 3000 Resource Center Forums.

The "Maxis Error Code 4" message thread over at the SimCity Exchange BBS.

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