I’d like to introduce you to a basic feature. Maybe one of the most important features of a city builder.
Building
There are two basic types of buildings:
Zone buildings
This type of building works like the classic “Sim City”.
The player places residential and office zones. Depending on the needs and environmental conditions and the general location of the city, new buildings are created automatically.
Zones cost money and resources such as wood, stone, iron, steel, glass and tools:D
It is possible to improve zones to create larger buildings. Due to the higher population density the player has to worry more and more about traffic management.
Buildings and their inhabitants have needs. In the beginning inhabitants need food. Once the zones are improved, the inhabitants demand more and more luxury goods such as books, wine, jewelry and medical equipment. If the residents are dissatisfied, they leave the city.
If these needs are met, the residents pay more money into the city treasury.
To meet the needs I come to the second group of buildings:):
Industrial Buildings / Service Buildings
This category of buildings is not bound to any zones and can be placed freely, therefore without grid. Almost all buildings need workers to function and have ongoing maintenance costs.
**Service buildings **
offer services within a radius of the building (for example, recreation, education and health care, reduction of crime and fire hazard, … ).
This category also includes “buff buildings” that reinforce surrounding buildings.
**Industrial buildings **
produce resources and goods. Resources can be further processed in production chains.
At the beginning of a game the production chains are quite simple and become more extensive later on.
Example of furniture and wine production:
Industrial buildings have their own local warehouse for resources. A truck transports wood to the furniture factory. The local wood storage of the furniture factory is filled. The finished furniture also has a local warehouse. A truck collects the furniture and delivers it to the carrier. Only then the goods are available for the inhabitants and the mayor.
The following video shows the extensive information of a selected iron smelter:
Some buildings, such as the iron smelter, are available in several sizes.
The larger iron smelter can process much more iron ore into iron.
This is also necessary later in the game. Larger, higher quality buildings require many more building materials.
Some industrial buildings do not work everywhere. For example, a clay pit only works where clay can be mined.
Clay is used to make bricks.
I like the combination of zone buildings and specially planned industrial chains:D.
It’s exciting to have a city builder where money is not the only resource.