SimCity Hack Allows For Offline Play, Solves Server Issues

EA servers threw a fit when the company brought SimCity online. That hiccup angered millions of fans who had purchased the popular game but were unable to play. The new SimCity requires users to log into an EA server at which time their games data is saved for later retrieval.

Even in single-player mode SimCity users are required to log into an online network. At the time of the server snafu Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw claimed the server connection was needed to perform various “important” in-game calculations.

Now, a modder named UKAzzer has created a demo in which they show that SimCity can in fact be played offline, without all of those “important” calculations.

In a demo posted online UKAzzer shows unlimited offline editing of city highways through use of the debug mode. The modder also claims that the changes made in the game were saved back to the server when they reconnected.

The mod is not perfect, for example, users can’t play across regions while in debug mode and they can’t save games until they connect to a server.

The point of the mod was to show that EA should not require a constant internet connection to play SimCity, but instead use its servers when needed. By freeing up offline play with online save options SimCity could take some of the stress of its servers while allowing players to receive better fluid service.

SimCity’s developers have claimed since release that too much engineering would be required to take any part of SimCity offline and make it playable. SimCity developers claim that company servers must be used to simulate an entire region.

An anonymous Maxis engineer recently claimed that Maxis servers handle almost none of the games legwork.

In the meantime critics continue to point out that the games server requirement is more than likely EA’s attempt to enforce DRM protection, thus preventing piracy.

EA has upgraded its servers in the hopes that the EA SimCity platform will now allow for massive gameplay numbers with no further issues.

[Image via Telegraph]