There is no fully 'offline' mode to the game. You need to 'login' so your system checks for updates. You can then play 'locally' by choosing the 'Play Solo Mode'.
(You also need to create your avatar)

This does not cost anything extra. The only thing that costs extra is the 'Planet' Option. But you must remain connected to play in "Local Solo Mode"

Hope this clears it up..


I understand what you are saying, but what i want to know, since I never intend to go online, is it seems everything they are doing is for online. the trans system is for online only. .. they won't let those of us who forked over 40 bucks have a complete game because we don't go online... i understand the update system and all that .. I am an online gamer in another genre. I just want a complete sim for building a city. As an adult gamer I would like to think I could get treated by a game company fairly but maybe i expect too much from our society today. thank you

walter wrote:

I understand what you are saying, but what i want to know, since I never intend to go online, is it seems everything they are doing is for online. the trans system is for online only. .. they won't let those of us who forked over 40 bucks have a complete game because we don't go online... i understand the update system and all that .. I am an online gamer in another genre. I just want a complete sim for building a city. As an adult gamer I would like to think I could get treated by a game company fairly but maybe i expect too much from our society today. thank you

I understand your reasons, but sorry we have no control over how Monte Cristo decide to make their game you should go rant to them about it (via the support centere, I do it all the time, they are pretty sick of me by now), not us , We can't do anything about it. CitiesXL is what it is nothing we can so about this. If you "just want a complete sim for building a city" I would suggest Sim City 4. That seems to be the definitive Stand-Alone Single Player (Solo) game.
Cheers

Well, you have to give M.C. credit, as there is a way to play the game without paying the online fees. That being said, most of the features that make the game unique require online play. And you have to think about this, of course you can not play online and trade online if you don't pay the online fee. You can make tons of single players cities and I think you can trade between your own cities, but ultimately you will end up doing tons of deals with Don Madalff. Now things like the buses and such, I can understand why someone might be upset. It seems as if it is a feature that should be able to work in online and offline, but I assume they are doing that to encourage more people to pay the online fee. And you have to understand this as well, that fee helps pay the developers salary, and so without it, the game wouldn't ever have new content. And ultimately it is only $6 a month if you buy 3 months at a time. That being said, I am not SUPER happy with everything they have done, but I understand why they have done it.

thanks for your answer. I guess before they shut down their forums MC didn't explain this cuz no one really knows if or when they will support their offline version. Again as I stated earlier I understand what is going on with the online version. I understand their little update thing for offline. I am looking for OFF line version info... It is very scarce .. so go ahead and waste everybody's time explaining the obvious for a third time or maybe just say "I don't know" if you don't know. please remove me from this forum. It is useless for off line gamers and I am tired of dozens of emails daily from this site. Thanks for trying. This is a dead game .. I see that from other forums and user groups.

Gamerphate wrote:
And ultimately it is only $6 a month if you buy 3 months at a time. That being said, I am not SUPER happy with everything they have done, but I understand why they have done it.

If you keep up with the news (my site) you will see that MC has dropped the discounted 2 and 3 month plans. Its now 7.99 Euro per month period. (Thats $16NZ, which I think is way to expensive) and the don't plan to do anything about it in the near future.

Cheers

Thanks for the update, so yeah see? It is reasonable as far as MMO costs go.