The next update for SimCity will be arriving tomorrow which brings new content, fixes and improvements. Remember that the game will be temporarily unavailable when the update is rolled out onto the server you play on.

This update even includes a new region! I’m still hopeful that we’ll get some bigger cities in the future as well.

Update 4.0 Notes

• New: SimCity Launch Park, an exclusive new park just for our dedicated fans who were early adopters.
• New: Region: Edgewater Bay. Seven city sites in one cluster around a beautiful bay with one great work site.
• New: Your current server will now be shown in the options menu.
• New: More detailed rollover information on buildings telling player’s if their Sims received happiness from a park or from shopping. Previous to this fix, this information was generic.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Global Market prices now dynamically change during gameplay.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Leaderboards are will be active on EU West 3, Pacific 1 and Pacific 2 at the release. We will enable them on additional servers throughout the day.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Region filters are now enabled on all SimCity servers. Players will be able to search for open games by Map Name, Sandbox Mode, and Abandoned Cities.
• Rain Clouds: Fixed an issue where some cities would not have rain clouds to replenish their water table. If you had a city with this issue, you will start seeing clouds again within a game day.
• Fire: Improved response time of fire trucks to fires. Improved the time it takes for a fire signal to reach a fire station.
• Mission updates: Tuned Metals HQ and Community College missions. These were appearing too early, making them difficult to complete. They now appear later in a city’s development.
• Solar Farm Great Work: Reduced fire risk at the Solar Farm Great work. Local fire engines were spending too much time at the Solar Farm.
• Messaging: Improved pre-requisite messaging for Trade Port, Casinos, Smelting Factory and Oil Refinery. It should be clearer on how to unlock these buildings.
• Graphics: Fix for flickering low wealth buildings on NVIDIA graphics cards.
• Education: Fix for an issue some cities experienced where commuting students did not return from a neighbor’s city. This was causing a problem where students would disappear from a city in some cases.
• Tuning: Sims will lose a small amount of happiness if they don’t have a place to shop. Cities without places to shop will see complaints and feel the effect of unhappy Sims. This will emphasize the importance of commercial zones.

Earlier this year, GlassLab revealed the beginnings of its groundbreaking digital game for classrooms across America: a standards-aligned educational version of SimCity designed to support teachers and students in the process of formative assessment.

On Wednesday, May 22 from 4-5pm ET, connect with the GlassLab team again as they demo a playable prototype with a first look at the full feature set! Don’t miss this chance to see the prototype in action, from the challenges students work through in game play to the back-end teacher tools that provide insight into complex problem-solving skills and comprehension.

Speakers include: Michael John, Game Director at GlassLab; Stone Librande, Creative Director at Electronic Arts; Liz Kline, Product Manager at GlassLab; and Greg Bliss, 2D Artist at GlassLab

Join the live conversation to find out:

• How GlassLab is using SimCity to demonstrate complex thinking

• The design choices behind the game

• What’s left to do, and when you can expect to see SimCityEDU in your classroom!