Dear mayors, I am glad to welcome you to my city! I'm Brian Bartram, Senior Game Designer for SimCity. Today I will tell you how I managed to build a high-tech city!
True, it was not without problems - while pouring money savings into the education system, I did not notice how the city treasury was empty. After much thought, I found a way to replenish the treasury with Simoleons! You can get money from trash!
Day 1
When I started building Wintermute, I realized that building a city of the future without a clear plan is quite difficult. Without a developed education system, one cannot even think about building high-tech enterprises in the city. The university will fix the situation! With its help you can turn dirty into clean, high-tech.
The university has been built and the results are making themselves felt. The city has been transformed, it is decorated with enterprise buildings of silver, blue and yellow colors with bizarre shapes.
Day 2
Education requires a lot of investment, as a result, the university almost bankrupted me... Fortunately, in SimCity, which is ideal for my urban conditions - these are electronics factories. Their products are sold at high prices, but the raw materials for production are also not cheap...
Day 3
The city streets have begun to become covered with garbage, something needs to be done about it! And then I decided to start recycling waste. And what do you think? The streets have become clean, and at the same time, alloys and plastics that are so necessary for the production of electronics can be obtained from recycled garbage! Killed two birds with one stone!
Day 4
Time passed and my waste recycling center was equipped with modules for the production of plastic and alloys. I entered into contracts with neighboring cities and now garbage trucks bring waste even from there - everyone wins! Soon I will have enough resources and I will be able to sell them on .
Day 5
By collecting garbage, I turn it into raw materials for the manufacture of expensive goods. As a result, my city is very clean and at the same time generates income. Smart, educated Sims live in it - they are happy! I had to work a little hard to achieve success, the main thing is patience and a good plan of action.
Since the release of the previous part SimCity Ten years have passed. George Bush was president. Pluto was a planet. Most likely, a lot of time has passed since the last time you built New Gotham City or New New York.
We recently managed to play a new game online SimCity from EA. After a few hours and failures, the basic principles of the correct construction of a metropolis became clear. Here's what you should know when you start playing SimCity.
1. It's best to start with dirt roads.
 |
| SimCity. The city is quickly growing out of the road network. |
The first thing you will most likely start doing in SimCity, is to try to create a perfect road grid, as was done in previous parts of the game. After all, a well-planned grid was the key to successful city development. In the case of a new SimCity this does not work.
For the most part, buildings will grow in any area if you follow certain rules. Firstly, they need enough space to grow. Sims will quickly outgrow any tiny space you give them. Secondly, they largely depend on the type of roads that are nearby. In fact, traffic control has become an essential element SimCity.
Instead of light, medium and heavy zones, the building type is determined by low, medium or high road density. A dirt road is the best choice as it can be improved at any time. When rich Sims are ready to move in, you can quickly upgrade the infrastructure to support them.
The most successful cities have large areas of high-density housing, as well as several major road arteries to handle large volumes of traffic. As a result, you can admire your city while you take care of it.
2. Regional cooperation is key
 |
| SimCity. Develop relationships with neighboring cities. |
Fans SimCity Maxis' decision to make only online games is rightly criticized. Although there is a strong advantage in a multiplayer game - the joint development of cities.
To begin with, you can instruct a friend to develop a nearby city, and then join forces and create a metropolis. Even if you don't have a cohort of followers building Oakland in your San Francisco, you can start building a suburb yourself and develop it as you see fit. And at some point you will have to do this.
One of the reasons for this is that some areas are not large enough for a large city to develop autonomously. Sooner or later you will have to create a new city in a neighboring area and start outsourcing your goods, services and Sims. In fact, the sooner you realize this, the more successful the development of your city will be.
In general, a better strategy would be to create a suburb early in the game with a minimum number of commercial and industrial structures. Develop commercial structures in the neighboring region and so on. It turns out something similar to the era of metropolitan development, only without the concentric structure of suburbs characteristic of many new cities.
Playing with friends, your task is to develop your area and establish deals with neighboring areas, where ambulances, firefighters, garbage trucks and, ultimately, Sims working in neighboring cities will be sent. This can take a lot of time and patience, especially when you see one part of the city developing while another is stagnating. Asynchronous multiplayer is ideal for this type of game; your friends may not be in the game, but the cities will live their own lives and you will develop your city. It perfectly captures the spirit of the game and the technological advances that have been made in online gaming over the past ten years.
3. Ultimately, you have to specialize.
Many famous cities have their own specialization. For example, tourism or industry. IN SimCity things are exactly the same and specialization is a key factor in the further development of the city.
Let's say you spread throughout the region, take care of traffic and don't poison your drinking water (tip: don't build a sewer near a water station), your population is growing at a tremendous rate. But, at some point, population growth stops and you have to come up with some clever way to increase the population.
Any solutions? Specialize in tourism and build a big stadium. Does it work in Miami after all? Either build a casino or a large university.
Whatever you choose, it will quickly attract a flood of talented people to your region and cause land prices to rise. So while these updates are very expensive (and have notable downsides such as increased crime) they are necessary. And there is no other way.
On the one hand, this is a neat way to introduce differences between cities. On the other hand, the decision to make this more or less mandatory imposes some restrictions. After all, specialization places constraints on the mayor, causing decisions to be driven by the city rather than the other way around.
Of course, there is scale in the game. If you want cities with neon stripes, massive stadiums, then the new SimCity right choice.
SimCity: Future Cities(SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow) - a large, full-fledged add-on to the original game. The new addition will take us decades into the future, allowing us to see what our cities can become in the future. You can follow the path of developing environmentally friendly technologies into a green, beautiful world where human buildings coexist with parks and clean waters, or you can prefer the more aggressive, but more profitable path offered by the “evil” corporation OmegaCo. But it depends only on the mayor himself, that is, on you, what your city will become.
The Future Cities expansion includes new regions, resident specialties, new buildings and technologies, as well as special situations, missions and natural disasters. Among the new disasters and situations, there is something very unusual - an attack by giant robots, which is only possible in technologically advanced regions.
The addon will allow you to seriously change the face of your city, and objects and the environment will change right before your eyes, as soon as you discover a new technology or build a special building that affects everything else. Gradually, the city becomes more and more similar to what we saw in films such as Blade Runner or Star Trek, it represents a kind of synthesis of various futuristic fantasies. Bright neon lights, huge skyscrapers stretching ever higher, suspended roads at great distances above the ground, maglev trains, new types of transport, thermonuclear reactors that supply the entire city with energy. You look at all this as if spellbound, and you really are transported with your thoughts into the future, you feel its atmosphere. The game still has an important quality - it is addictive, and at first the shortcomings are not at all noticeable, you forget about them, captivated by the excellent view and carried away by the process of construction and transformation. But, unfortunately, there are many shortcomings here. And at some point they obsessively ask for your attention.
As mentioned in the early trailers, we got two corporations representing different sides, dissimilar development paths: The Academy and OmegaCo. Each of them, of course, has its own advantages, but even outwardly they are very different. OmegaCo is more concerned with making a net profit and will not look at various sacrifices, air pollution, and uses more cheap labor. In such a city, there are seemingly demonic red lights, there are no trees around, everything is built up with factories, industry is highly developed, and many natural resources are mined. The Academy is much nicer to look at, with its clean, shiny towers, neon signs, and neat parks. Everywhere here trees, air and water are purified; there is a special technology for getting rid of garbage.
You can buy the SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow add-on by going through
The main change in the city concerns high-rise buildings, new skyscrapers, which are many times larger than ordinary ones. The fact is that these towers grow not in width, but in height. And you gradually build new levels, which can be very different. One floor may be occupied by residential premises, another by shops, and the next may have some utilitarian, practical purpose. Level 8 has a special purpose and gives large bonuses to the entire region. These towers are like an independent, small city; at various levels there can be parking, a park, shops, and schools. You can assign each of the towers to one specialization or combine different types of levels depending on the need. In addition, the towers are connected to each other by beautiful, high bridges. New sources of energy are now at your service, including solar, as well as robots, drones, computer-controlled machines that themselves collect garbage, monitor safety, catch criminals, and take care of the health and well-being of the population. Just like in some science fiction novels.
In general, we have already seen a similar division into two opposing corporations, almost according to the same principles, in another economic simulator about the future - (). If we compare, even visually some objects are very similar. But if everything worked flawlessly there almost immediately, then even SimCity itself at the time of the release of this add-on could not get rid of all its problems, although a lot of time had passed since the start of sales. As we remember, users mainly complained about the very limited, small sizes of cities, but they wanted more freedom for imagination and experimentation. Moreover, the constant connection to the Internet and various bugs and freezes associated with this irritated many. But Maxis did not heed the requests of customers, and the addon also requires a constant connection, and as for the restrictions on the size of the city, they remained the same here too. And if in the original you could build specialized cities, using this path only as one of the possible strategies, then here you almost certainly cannot do without division. You will have to plan in advance what each city from which you will take money will do. New buildings will require more energy, which means that power plants, reactors, solar panels and other objects that provide it will need to be built somewhere. People will ask for churches, new jobs, hospitals. And their level of happiness and population growth, the number of visitors, will depend on this. There are also quite original, non-standard tasks. A special role is given to futuristic buildings; the level of “futurization” is monitored separately.
However, it turns out that satisfying the population is not so difficult, even at times too simple. Most of the things here are intuitive, everything is perfectly translated, and the game itself constantly unobtrusively tells you what to do next. For each case, there is a guide explaining what new buildings are for and their types. It’s still just as convenient to plan where to build houses here. Rulers and markings are always at hand. You can see what the building develops into next, there is a choice of different options for roads, avenues, many small details vary. The problems become greater when your buildings grow many stories high. This is where some strange things begin, so familiar from . For some reason, people from one level cannot get to the store on the next one, there are reports that there are no students in schools, although they are completely full, statistics sometimes provide absurd and strange figures that do not correspond to the parameters of the buildings. What is happening inside the tower is an absolute mystery. The school bus behaves incomprehensibly, constantly cutting in circles. People have at least learned to interact with each other, but they can suddenly begin to behave inappropriately. And many other flaws can ruin the fun of the game.
If you've never played SimCity, the first time you start a new game you'll make the classic mistake of rushing to build all the buildings in a row. In less than an hour, your budget will confidently go into the minus, and all the free space on the card will run out. Take your time: first of all, you should understand how you are going to replenish the city treasury. To do this, you need to choose a specialization in advance, on which not only the financial well-being of the city depends, but also its appearance, and build the rest of the infrastructure to support it.
Before founding a city, familiarize yourself with the mineral deposits in this area by turning on the data filters in the lower right corner - if there is nothing on the map, some of the options will immediately disappear. Specializations can and should be combined, but a maximum of two or three at a time - and do not try to combine opposites, for example, mining and tourism. Remember that you can manage several cities: people will work in one, and go on vacation and shopping in another.
Coal and ore mining
Coal and ore bring very good money, but their extraction greatly worsens the environmental situation, so it makes sense to use this specialization as a side specialization in an auxiliary city. Ore is necessary for the development of industry (for example, if you create alloys, it will be much cheaper if you have your own resource), and coal can be used at thermal power plants or sold to other players.
Oil production
Having a deposit of black gold on your site, your people will never be in poverty. In its pure form, however, oil does not bring much, so it is necessary to build oil refineries and produce fuel and plastic - they are very decent on the global market. Well, since this industry employs a large number of citizens, it is more correct to build residential buildings near the industrial zone so that people do not stand in traffic jams for a long time when getting to work.
Electronics
To produce electronics, you need alloys and plastics, and then you can supply your city and the world market with TVs, computers and household appliances. If you produce the resources yourself, losses will be minimized; if not, you will have to import them. Raw materials, however, are not cheap, so it is best to build a waste recycling center and kill not two, but three birds with one stone.
Firstly, you can enter into agreements with neighboring cities - they will give you their garbage and pay money for it. Secondly, you will ensure environmental cleanliness of your city - people will be happy with the complete absence of landfills. Finally, you will receive alloys and plastics needed for electronics production for free. The waste recycling center itself is an expensive pleasure and in most cases completely unprofitable, but when using this scheme it turns into a profitable business.
Trade
The essence of trading is simple - buy cheaper, sell more. For this task, you need to build a trading warehouse where your resources will be stored. The depot also helps to establish commerce with logistics and enter the global market. It is best to have a trade specialization coupled with resource extraction - coal, ore and/or oil - and also if you produce electronics. In addition, it is imperative to pay attention to transport infrastructure and have many freight trains, ships and cars - they will transport goods around the world.
Culture
The essence of this specialization is to attract tourists. If you build a lot of cultural buildings, such as exhibition centers or stadiums, tourists will flock to the city like flies to honey. It is also necessary to have three attractions in the city, such as the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Statue of Liberty - they will be open to tourists 24 hours a day and are an ideal bait. Well, you also need to look after public transport and hotels - tourists need something to ride and somewhere to sleep.
Gambling business
This specialization is also very attractive to tourists and can be combined with culture. Again, this requires hotels, various entertainment facilities, well-developed public transport (it is advisable to have passenger airliners, railway stations and an airport), and more casinos. And such a city looks very impressive at night, when the noisy casinos light up with neon lights. The only negative is that criminal organizations have an uneasy relationship with the gambling industry, so you need to have a lot of police officers to prevent unrest.
- Do not build factories and other buildings that pollute the air anywhere. The wind can carry smog throughout the city, which will negatively affect the mood of citizens. Therefore, it is worth planning construction relative to the direction of the wind. In addition, pollution in your city can spread to neighboring areas of the region.
- It is useful to have several cities under your control with different specializations. Since the passage of time flows only for the city you are currently occupying, you don’t have to worry that something will happen in another settlement in your absence.
- Provide paid services to neighboring cities as soon as possible. You can collect their trash or help maintain order by sending your police cars.
- Your residents may work in neighboring cities. For this we need public transport - ships, trains, buses. If people have their own cars, they will drive them to work.
- Bandits do not sleep. They come from neighboring cities, cause riots and thefts - don't forget about the police stations.
- Education should be dealt with as soon as possible. Without educated residents, a nuclear power plant can collapse (imagine a staff consisting only of Homer Simpsons), problems with crime begin, and uneducated residents do not even participate in the waste disposal program.
- If it is not possible to dispose of waste, then place the landfill as far as possible from the residential area. People don't like living near a landfill, even if there is no garbage there at all. In the future, when there is too much garbage, you can build waste incinerators.
- Generating electricity costs a lot of money, so keep a close eye on costs. The best option is a solar power plant; it does not pollute the air and requires an average budget. Wind power plants are very expensive, coal power plants heavily pollute the air, and nuclear power plants are expensive to build and require highly qualified personnel.
When planning a new city, the first step is to find out what resources are available in a certain area. Data layers will help you with this. Then you need to decide what type of city you will build. Various natural resources allow you to earn extra Simoleons, and a look at the land value map will show you where people with average and high incomes prefer to live - if, of course, you pay due attention to these areas (we'll talk more about this later). Consider the direction of the wind if you do not want polluted air from factory chimneys to spread throughout the city, adversely affecting the health of residents. Build industrial areas so that the wind carries the smoke away from the city.
When creating roads, make every Simoleon count and try to shorten the distances, especially if this is your first city. Remember: new residents will need water, power and sewer, and you must think ahead about where landfills and treatment systems will be located, as well as the thriving businesses you intend to build. Special buildings (universities, shopping centers, gambling establishments, etc.) also have both positive and negative impacts on surrounding areas. Their construction may require several separate buildings or modules, and when planning, try to choose places for them where they will bring maximum benefit and the harm from them will be minimized. When the general plan of the city is ready, move on to building roads.
No city exists in a vacuum. When creating a new city, it is necessary to connect it with a road to a highway - otherwise where will the townspeople come from? You can use any type of road, but I prefer a medium-density boulevard as the main street of a new city. Buildings can be built on this street, plus it can be improved by adding an additional lane and even a monorail. Such roads are expensive, so for other streets it is better to choose two-lane roads or even country roads to cover a larger area with minimal cost.
Depending on the type of city chosen, you can either build a road to the source of resources, or build a ring road around the city to ensure free movement of citizens. After building a few blocks, you can begin to place different areas so that residents can start working and paying taxes to the budget. A growing city attracts low-income newcomers who dream of making it big in a new city, but if you don't provide for their basic needs, they may seek a better life elsewhere. If you miscalculate your planning, you can take out a loan to cover the costs of basic services. Credit is a great tool if used wisely. But payments for it can become a heavy burden for the budget of a young city, so at first you should carefully consider all expenses and income.
As the city grows, I will have to think about building density and traffic flows. Most likely, some two-lane roads could be torn down to make way for buildings, and others could be improved to make it possible to build apartment buildings. Keep in mind that high-density buildings will sooner or later appear on high streets, and you will have to deal with public transport and a whole range of special services, the need for which will increase sharply. Hopefully you've got a basic understanding of how to plan new cities in SimCity. With a little experimentation, you can create great cities without any problems.