I would personally like to see a city builder like Simcity or Cities XL for my capital city. But, it needs to be able to interact with the game world constantly.

That is definately the plan. perhaps not simcity completely, but closer to sim city than Empire . but a bit of both I imagine. I hadn't really considered it to be too close of a clone to Simcity, but that could be nice, to have a bit more feature coverage from there.

Let the things you do in the RTS element influence things like trade and bonuses to certain areas like completing a mission gives you a surplus of industry good which gives a bonus to commercial demand or simple cash rewards that allow you to build more housing developments.

Definitely, I'm planning on the tactical games to tie in to rewards and such, and there are some things you only get by completing battles.

Or directing the wars.

Sounds like an awesome combination. If I had to reiterate, I'd say add the un-expected nature of SimCity and the economic strategy of Cities XL into your City Builder element.

When it comes to city building genre, I believe Simcity 4 set bar extremely high even Simcity 5 can't compete.

But seems you more mention of Impression games type ones like Pharaoh , Caesar , Kleopatra etc.

I just did a review of a bunch of city builder games and what my initial impression of them was. (always seems like a good idea when designing another of the same Genre) Here are some notes. Please feel free to comment on these or add your own reviews as well. If you add a review of a different city builder, please include a video link of possible (trailer of the game or something), but not needed. Of course, this is all still focused around the original question of "What makes a good City Builder?"

[quote name='Reavermyst' timestamp='1357803931' post='5019799']
If I had to reiterate, I'd say add the un-expected nature of SimCity and the economic strategy of Cities XL into your City Builder element.

If you intend to integrate this to RTS (or vice versa) I think you should start with compromises when making a seamless integration.

This is why I think Impression games style is more suited, although the primary reason of why I adore SC4 is micromanagement, you should avoid too much detail imo.

It is manageable in a game solely made for it but if you integrate other genres, it becomes more of burden. I don't know you , but I even can't handle farms in AoE in time when having a noticable fight.

If you intend to integrate this to RTS (or vice versa) I think you should start with compromises when making a seamless integration.

This is why I think Impression games style is more suited, although the primary reason of why I adore SC4 is micromanagement, you should avoid too much detail imo.

It is manageable in a game solely made for it but if you integrate other genres, it becomes more of burden. I don't know you , but I even can't handle farms in AoE in time when having a noticable fight.

I think he means to make the city simulator element more of a meta game that serves a major purpose in the effectiveness of the RTS mechanics. You are right though, the idea of making the City Sim merge seamlessly with the RTS portion is a rather daunting idea. My aspiring goal is to create a game that's high in depth and complexity, but simple enough for a vast majority to pick up. As long as the mechanics are simple enough to understand, the general idea of the game becomes less stressful.

Everything in the realm of possibility is within our grasps. The only question is how far we're going to reach.

I feel that what how a player organizes their transportation network really determines the development of the city in the long run. If the roads are built inefficiently, traffic jams are likely to occur which slows down the economy and to a certain extent, how fast troops can be mobilized which affects the total time taken for the army to reach another planet for combat. In RTS games, every second is important. Your allies in other planet may be trying their best to hold off the enemy troops where they can be down another second. Being late by a bit can have a significant impact on the war.

Also, when building the city, it is imperative to balance the various aspect, economy, happiness of the common folks, R&D and the military since they each have a significant impact on each other. If they raise too large of an army, the economy may be unable to maintain them and thus, may cause the city to go in debt.

Maybe for an MMO city building game, I feel that trading will be rather important, how you can export things to others to earn money, import things to make up for a lack of a certain product and so on.

One of my favourite city building game would be Tropico 3 since it had a really complex economy system and where you construct your buildings really had a major impact on the game. Building too many factories may cause protests by the environmentalist, too little religious building will cause resentment among the religious people. You had to balance all the aspects as much as possible to appeal to the majority.

In terms of traditional city builders I always liked the Ceaser series.

But I'm going to suggested an alternative type of builder game and say what I'd really like to see is a strategy/sim game that uses the mechanics of the grow series of games.

Like:

http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2010/08/grow_valley.html

http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2007/09/grow_island_game.html

http://www.eyezmaze.com/grow/RPG/index.html

http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2005/09/grow_cube.html

In which you place tiles, objects, concepts, on the game world and watch as they evolve and interact with each other.

[quote name='DtCarrot' timestamp='1357872675' post='5020118']
when building the city, it is imperative to balance the various aspect, economy, happiness of the common folks, R&D and the military since they each have a significant impact on each other. If they raise too large of an army, the economy may be unable to maintain them and thus, may cause the city to go in debt.
[/quote]

Agreed. I think the general economics are good. In particular, I'd like more focus on what aspects of these to bring in. Like the debt part you brought up here, but also relating to things like:

Quality of Life: No hospitals, no police force, no schools, high taxes. The QoL would be pretty low, and you would not gain population, and even lose it. Perhaps this could add another variable to troops, IQ. if your system has no schools, perhaps the average troop IQ is 85, and then training times and effectiveness of troops can be affected by this. If you focus a lot on education, perhaps your troops might get up to an average of 115. and then they learn faster, and could be troops who start picking up more without being trained for it. (I.e. just because I was only trained to shoot a gun doesn't mean I can't patch up a wound or operate a hand grenade.

So that gave several stories of how things related, but it tied specifically to IQ. and how that would affect areas.

[quote name='DtCarrot' timestamp='1357872675' post='5020118']
Maybe for an MMO city building game, I feel that trading will be rather important, how you can export things to others to earn money, import things to make up for a lack of a certain product and so on.
[/quote]

Agreed also. and perhaps there is more than can be exported than goods. Perhaps experts... For instance, your city is doing really well in the science industry. Perhaps other cities can pay for brief time with "a city expert for science". Perhaps that means that for 15 minutes, the selling player can't enhance technologies or change technology initiatives, but the paying player will receive a mild percentage boost to Technology improvements.

[quote name='TechnoGoth' timestamp='1357913598' post='5020312']
But I'm going to suggested an alternative type of builder game and say what I'd really like to see is a strategy/sim game that uses the mechanics of the grow series of games.

Like:
http://www.eyezmaze....row_valley.html
http://www.eyezmaze....sland_game.html
http://www.eyezmaze..../RPG/index.html
http://www.eyezmaze..../grow_cube.html

In which you place tiles, objects, concepts, on the game world and watch as they evolve and interact with each other.
[/quote]

interesting concept. so this is like life simulators, where you add and take away blocks, and see how things "naturally" influence each other. Except in this case its about a more complex base of items, like factories and science centers and power stations, etc...