You can not claim this city because you do not own some of the content used to create it

And it doesn't even tell you about the free content download that you can do (for a limited time only)

I think you should be able to claim a city just not power on the buildings that are advanced content--that would be so cool--then you could know which packs to buy--or just bulldoze them and then actually use the city that's abandoned and fix it up...become the city janitor--or have a ton of people cooperate on an abandoned region

Right now there are so many versions of sim city that trying to get 2 people with the exact same version is nigh impossible...I know I won't even bother upgrading to deluxe because I won't get the special park and still can't collaborate with my deluxe friends--and I don't care about the french cities, I just want to be able to swap ordinary cities with other folks who have a slightly different of the 52 versions of the game

1. SimCity (SC)
2. SimCity Limited Edition (SC:LE)
3. SimCity Digital Deluxe
4. SimCity + Digital Deluxe Upgrade
5. SC:LE + British
6. SC:LE + German
7. SC:LE + French
8. SC:LE + British & German
9. SC:LE + British & French
10. SC:LE + German & French
11. SC:LE + British & German & French
12. SC + British
13. SC + German
14. SC + French
15. SC + British & German
16. SC + British & French
17. SC + German & French
18. SC + British & German & French
19. SC + HV
20. SC + HV & British
21. SC + HV & German
22. SC + HV & French
23. SC + HV & British & German
24. SC + HV & British & French
25. SC + HV & German & French
26. SC + HV & British & German & French
27. Nissan + SimCity Limited Edition (SC:LE)
28. Nissan +SimCity Digital Deluxe
29. Nissan +SimCity + Digital Deluxe Upgrade
30. Nissan +SC:LE + British
31. Nissan +SC:LE + German
32. Nissan +SC:LE + French
33. Nissan +SC:LE + British & German
34. Nissan +SC:LE + British & French
35. Nissan +SC:LE + German & French
36. Nissan +SC:LE + British & German & French
37. Nissan +SC + British
38. Nissan +SC + German
39. Nissan +SC + French
40. Nissan +SC + British & German
41. Nissan +SC + British & French
42. Nissan +SC + German & French
43. Nissan +SC + British & German & French
44. Nissan +SC + HV
45. Nissan +SC + HV & British
46. Nissan +SC + HV & German
47. Nissan +SC + HV & French
48. Nissan +SC + HV & British & German
49. Nissan +SC + HV & British & French
50. Nissan +SC + HV & German & French
51. Nissan +SC + HV & British & German & French
52. Nissan + Standard

fell in the same error as you all..

here's the link to my topic:

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/9544090.page

The most ridiculous thing about the issue with claiming plots of land. Is if someone who has the Digital Collectors edition - Claims some land, but places NOTHING onto the map and Abandons it. It is still considered Digital Collectors edition only. Where others, unless they have the same DLC'  etc, Cannot actually reclaim plots of land. This is highly abusable if someone joins a Region and just keeps taking plots of land, abandoning and ruining the place for everyone else. Who thought this was a good idea? 

This is something we are working on resolving in a future update and how to handle the city whether that be restarting the city fresh or destroying any of the content not owned by the new owner is still being investgiated at this time.

Thanks for the reply maxisbazajaytee

I've been hoping to see a fix for this soon, and it sounds like it's being investigated!!

I purchased ALL DLC and even have the crest+plumbob park+leaf. I called EA cust support several times and even have a T2 ticket in.

EA support has VERIFIED that I own ALL possible content for SimCity, there is simply NOTHING else I can buy/get.

Origin screenshot:

http://s24.postimg.org/ua9cwvkdx/dlc.jpg

It is rediculous that even though I own ALL content that I still have issues claiming abandoned cities! I have reinstalled, repaired, abandoned and rejoined, joined new servers, etc etc etc. 

This is a GAME BREAKING and UNFAIR bug. I WASTED $40+ on DLC simply to have ALL content to RESOLVE this error, TOTAL waste of MONEY!

EA/Maxis! There are 26 editions as posted above! Quit assigning GUIDs to each edition/city and instead run a check in the engine for DLC assets!

A good solution?

Dev DLC content check instead of GUID per edition. When player attempts claim of city with missing DLC, give option to bulldoze assets in city that the client is missing. Client missing french DLC but french police station in abandoned city? Bulldoze it upon error message when player accepts dialog.

You can not claim this city because you do not own some of the content used to create it, bulldoze buildings with missing content?

Y/N

Yours truely,

An enterprise webapp developer, QA tester and freelance game developer.

PS.

I'm also annoyed that your QA team missed the many DEBUG messages that still exist in the engine. See below for example:

http://s9.postimg.org/soopt1kv3/Spark_2013_07_10_16_27_39.png

Search your strings for "DEBUG need EXPO prerequisite"

Many others, when clicking sims or buildings.

City/Region sync latency, greak works and regional changes, money transfers etc take FAR too long to update on EA/Maxis servers. UPGRADE your transactional database, add some RAM/Solid state caching or simply tweak DB transactions config game client<->server. The initial game launch load is over, beef up your queries.

zorrobyte: a better idea: let anyone claim anything--- I've had enough of EA's stupid bugs and if they haven't been able to fix this basic issue with region play from day one for 4 months then they deserve to hack it to make it work--and the only hack I think they can accomplish is the one that makes any city be claimable no matter what DLC you own--and no matter what DLC it thinks is in the city.

I hate these entirely grayed out regions that I can't claim--makes the whole place feel like a ghost town!!  Kim Jong Il's city centre with no one there and abandoned trains and empty shopping malls.

this is a huge and unassesary barrier to play

they could code the dlc to destruct when abandoning cities and active regions could stay that way.

It's a moneygrab tatic that is so poorly executed that purchasing all content doesn't resolve the barrier to entry. I wanted 35 minutes for a T2 transfer the other day and finally gave up. Moral of the story, don't buy Simcity.

Zorro,

Great post. I hope you get their attention. I bought this game on release day and tried playing for a short period. I quit because of the giant mess they created. I returned yesterday with higher hopes; things seem better, but this disservice to the customers going to make me quit again.

Strategically speaking, forcing users to purchase DLC content by creating incompatibility between "versions" is the kind of idea that will explode in your face. You will destroy the entire long term customer base, the ones continuously providing an annual cash flow.

If EA really wants to move forward with this strategy, they need to make it immediately obvious to the user what content to purchase to reclaim a city; additionally, it should actually work!

Sincerely,

Mitchell Tharp

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mitchell-tharp/15/773/574