SimCity’s Online Features Further Detailed

Announced at GamesCom were more of the online features of the upcoming SimCity. Dubbed SimCity World, the feature covers various aspects of the game. The friends area shows your friends and what they are up to, including updates on new leaderboard rankings, new goals reached, or open invites to play along with someone.

You can also see global commodity markets to make sure your neighbors aren’t ripping you off. Maxis can see these trends, too, and issue challenges accordingly. Destructoid said it best in their feature:

For example, imagine if Maxis saw that there was a high unemployment rate for the entire SimCity world. They could issue a challenge that would have everyone working together to solve the unemployment problem, and award all participants with an achievement. Or, say that the worldwide population was down. A challenge might have regions competing to see which could reach 1 million people in the fastest time.

Resources like ore, metals, coal and more are tracked in real-time, allowing you to make minute changes to your strategy over time. So if the market for oil suddenly plummets due to widespread catastrophes, you can change your economy, produce more oil, and capitalize on the situation.

Of course the game will ship with leaderboards which rank each city in a multitude of ways including: Healthiest, Greenest, Sickness, Crime, and Tourism.

Stay tuned for more details as we approach the game’s launch in February.