To be honest, I hate DLC in general. In my opinion, we already spend so much on one game as it is, having to spend more money for extra content that usually has been purposely left out is a bit of a cheek
The problem with that statement is that too many people blindly believe that anything that comes out as DLC could have been included in the full game, and that the game isnt complete without it. Both assumptions are quite wrong, at least with this 'DLC' included with the deluxe version, cos thats the only non-standard content announced for SC5.
All content has to be paid for, and creating DLC gives developers a separate budget in which to work with, because its aftermarket content not stock, and because theres a cost to purchasing it its self-funding.
If the content takes 10 people 20hrs to create it, people are expecting that to be thrown into the budget for the launch product, and for that to happen you're either asking the developer to go over budget in order to make additional content for you, or you're asking them to cut something else out of the game in order to remove that cost from production to pay someone else.
The only 'DLC' (assuming it'll be purchasable to ppl who buy the vanilla game) available so far is one that makes all the stock buildings themed to a choice of 3 EU countries. Its a purely cosmetic DLC, so thats neither making the stock game incomplete, or something thats going to benefit anyone unfairly. However its probably taken their art team a considerable number of hours to theme the majority of buildings.
So if thats considered a cheek to not include that for all versions, what is everyone willing to sacrifice, users and EA, in order to pay for that work to be done??
The fact is, any developer or publisher who knows what they're doing knows that launch DLC works, and it influences customers, retailers know this and thats why they pay for these exclusive deals.
There is always going to be incentives to encourage people to pay more, and thats exactly what you're seeing here. A purely cosmetic DLC, and they want £20 on top of their overpriced £45 price, close to twice what most people SHOULD be paying for the game from another non-RRP enforced retailer.
Despite this, people are upset that they're not getting cosmetic DLC... this forum is full of people moaning about the injustice... because you want it, EA know you'll want it, and far too many people are stupid enough to pay the £65 for it too.
I think a lot of people need to take a moment and ask themselves why they're so upset that they wont get a purely cosmetic DLC, unless they pay a stupid price. It says more about us as customers than it does about the developers creating it, because they know how stupid we can be when it comes to this junk, so many of us want it, and many go and buy it.
I was reading an early preview of the game today and read that the type of buildings/industry you get is more determined by the types of roads your using now, rather than zoning for a particular type. Any truth to this?
The buildings are limited by the type of roads they're connected to, yes.
As you know, in the past you had 3 grades of zone, and you just planted it down and that was that. With SC5 its more dynamic, and the road is something which can restrict growth because it wont be seen as a suitable location to put a prime property.
So if you put a row of commercial zoning on an avenue then they'll eventually grow to a 3rd tier property providing everything in its operating radius helps. So the surroundings will determine what sort of buildings you'll see is my understanding, and you can look at the properties of a building and see how far it is from being able to upgrade to the next tier.
It seems a far more organic method, it does make planning a little more complicated because early on the buildings will occupy a small plot, but they'll expand and fill some of the gaps which look a little odd early on, but you'll want them to allow some expansion.
