Q: Where does the challenge lie in city building games?
A: Godzilla.

Probably not the answer you were looking for but everyone else seemed so helpful I couldn't resist any longer [grin]

Andy

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Original post by NineYearCycle Q: Where does the challenge lie in city building games? A: Godzilla. Probably not the answer you were looking for but everyone else seemed so helpful I couldn't resist any longer [grin] Andy

Hahahaha - it gave me a chuckle at least. ;)

SimCity 4 keeps getting harder for me, mainly through transport issues. When you build a section of the city that works, then build another section, transport has to be sorted out, either through-traffic will cripple a section or a section will simply have to deal with more traffic (e.g a shopping section's traffic will always increase as there are more customers).

Also, I enjoy trying to make different types of cities and part of the fun of playing the game is taming the map you play on. If you ever do 'tame the map' and make a huge, thriving (or desolate, depending on your inclination) city, (I never have) then you can start a totally new city on a different map. This is just a consideration for the sandbox style of city building game.

I'm a fan of the Caesar/Pharoah/Zeus/ROTMK games but see them as a totally different entity. If SimCity asked me to play a city until I achieved a set of goals (eg population 20000 or maybe some sort of literary quotient) then I'm not sure I would enjoy it.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this but maybe the point I'm trying to make is that its potentially dangerous to get confused between the two different types of game. I'd suggest trying to make one or the other and concentrating efforts into creating challenge within that game genre, rather than trying to link mission-based with sandbox.

Although, having said that I would have loved to have played Caesar in a wider environ, namely, I'd like to have a continent overview map which would give a list of different city locations (with possible resources) and then be able to create each city on different maps and link them together through trade and commerce. For example, a location may be on the border and require a strong military force but it would be up to the player to realise that being able to build a thriving city on the border, they would have to first build a colony that turns ore into bronze and trades that bronze with the border city so that weapons could be created.

I always struggle with the balancing act. You can never get a 0% crime rate, since the police taxes would cripple your economy and you'd have to get rid of park space and recreation licenses. You can't squeeze any more productivity out of your industrial zone, due to pollution concerns, and the area around the airport is a no-man's land of lowproperty value, for the same reason.

Heck, knowing where to put your barracks on a Starcraft map is a similar dilemma, although a simpler manifestation of it in a more sophisticated framework.

You could always avoid the end-game blues by having a framework that demands shifts in design, rather than linear growth. Missions are a good way to do this, as are changing environmental factors. Just when you think you've got it all up and running, there's a solar flare that permanently jams wireless communications, so you've got to rebuild your telecomms infrastructure on the fly. Maybe your wheat is coming in beautifully, and the Emperor sends a messenger demanding that every property deliver five good riding horses, a seaworthy vessel or a month's rations unto Caesar to facilitate the upcoming war.

Don't let the player's city crystallize in "win" mode. Make him juggle it around, using the city and the city-building tools as a means to an end, and interface for playing another, larger game.

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Hi Deyja, does SimCity 4000 revert back to the changes of SC2k, or does it still keep the changes of SC3k?

I never enjoyed SimCity4, and always ended up just playing 3k again. I think because it took a step away from it's sim-game roots to become more like The Sims.

What happened to the Urbz?

Oh and city building games really need to give more control over legislations.
Legislations and WOMD.

"I think because it took a step away from it's sim-game roots to become more like The Sims."

No. SC4 is nothing like the Sims. What are you even talking about.

This is the internet age.
Can't the game be patched regularly for new features,
such as new technologies, buildings, disasters, challenges.

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Original post by natescham This is the internet age. Can't the game be patched regularly for new features, such as new technologies, buildings, disasters and challenges?

I thought it was the information age.

Also, mods don't count.
They could totally change the way game works to make it beyond recognisable of the original product it spawned from. At that point I don't really consider them mods anymore.

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Original post by natescham This is the internet age. Can't the game be patched regularly for new features, such as new technologies, buildings, disasters, challenges.

In theory yes but you have to have a continuous budget for that. Unless it's a freeware labor of love I'd think that the developer would be smarter in concentrating on their next game than on something that's not making them any money any more.

Expansion packs are a different story.