I found the free-build Grand Ages kind of boring, there is a lack of variety and it was pretty easy to get everything maxed out, maybe I just need a more interesting map.
On the other hand, the campaign is really fun. The bonus objectives and just objectives in general are well made.
The game does make me miss pharaoh. I want to build some pyramids.
I've been playing through Grand Ages Rome recently too. Got the complete pack, and it seems the expansion items go into the vanilla campaign? I've used the tax office a few times, when I've had money issues. It has a really elegant game mechanic - once you see how everything connects, it's just a joy to play each mission. Except for the military ones, not to fond of those yet.
Great game though. I recently had a mission where I needed to generate money for Caesar. The mission was given by Marc Anthony, and he said, "ps. please provide more wine".
Which turned out to be an optional objective. Of course I had to give the crazy bastard some wine.
Damn pretty game too.
Not sure why I put the forum next to the slave market! Does it even grant any bonuses? My city planning becomes really stratified, and heavily dependent on slaves. Just like Rome, really.
Just as a suggestion, I use the forum to expand my build range (since building can only be build X distance from other buildings). So I place it in the direction of the seaports or toward needed resources. Then I can build up on the far end of it and have something looking like a large city grow up.
I also tend to place my school, monuments, philosopher's academy and such alongside it. I end up with a pretty bad ass look.
So I just picked up Tropico 3 Gold for $10 at Gamestop (just browsing and found it).
What a damn great game! The 3d engine is gorgeous. It looks like Just Cause 2, except with a bigger view and is a city-builder. The game makes great sense, although there are a LOT of useless buildings, it seems.
Tenements seem pretty worthless. Why build them if I can have apartments and increase the housing quality?
There are a lot of worthless edicts, although if you played a particular angel, I guess that might become useful. I think there are more useful ways to spend your money though.
Do I need any more than the starting building of teamsters? It looks like they can move everything on their own. More construction facilities seems to help construction if they are closer to the work site. It seems each crew (or building) works on one project at a time.
Tenements hold quite a lot of people for really cheap. If you have a severe housing crisis, they're best way to get mass amounts of people out of shacks as quick as possible. There's a couple scenarios where immigrants seem to come in floods, those are good times for tenements. I usually house my uneducated workers in them for the beginning of most maps, unless I'm really trying for happiness.
I don't think I've ever used more than 2 teamster buildings, even on huge industrial islands. It's hard to notice if your goods are getting held up, and thus hard to tell if you need more teamsters. I never really figured it all out, but I made it through okay. Builders you can definitely go crazy on, on particularly lucrative scenarios I've gotten up to 4 out. It also definitely helps to demolish and rebuild construction yards as you develop your island.
Tenements are useful for providing housing for elderly people and students, people on social security basically, until such time when your average wages are high enough that SS pay can afford an apartment.
I saw an article with some art/screens supposedly of Simcity V earlier, I think on Joystiq.
I feel bad that I've never been able to get into a Simcity past the first one...and even then the only version I really liked was the one on the SNES (it was the first game I bought on the Virtual Console ffs) and boy did I love it. But for some reason Simcity 2k didn't do a damn thing for me and I totally ignored 3 and I'll be honest that I don't think I knew there was a 4 until I saw the article about five.
I'd really like to get into city type sim games but any time I try a demo of something it feels like they assume you always play that type of game and it's just too much. Tropico 3 seemed ok but I didn't really care for the setting. I downloaded the demo for Anno 2070 ages ago but never loaded it up. It looks pretty as hell but I'm also guessing it is too "deep" for me.
I don't know what it was about the simplicity of the first Simcity that got me so much that I just haven't been able to find again.
Hmmm I always found SC2000 to be easy enough to play, then again the water/sewer system did become quite annoying.
SimCity 4 is great, specially the expansion, but it is indeed a bit harder to play. CitiesXL is much easier to play, being that the main objective of that game seems to be making a pretty city, where as in SC4 it was more of constructing a functioning economy.
SC3k is the best Sim City. It is basically SC2k with better graphics and good new additions (garbage handling being non-existent in SC2k). The only things it really loses are over-powered hydroplants and end-game arcologies. It side-steps the micromanagement hell of SC4 and doesn't have obscene caps either.
Also, I see something about Grand Ages: Rome being decent. I got it in ...whatever pack got me the Tropicos. I'm pretty sure that's the one I played, but it seemed so difficult and inefficient to get things going and then there was apparently a whole combat mechanic that was intruding in my city building. But maybe I am thinking of the wrong game and should try that (...again...possibly?).
Tropico on the other hand ...Tropico 4 is Tropico 3 is Tropico 1. I wish the military interaction there was actually a bit more in-depth. It's a bit difficult to run a utopian (...for the people that matter) police state when your overpaid soldiers decide they want to go work at the power plant right before the coup starts, leaving you with 3 new recruit guards.
It'd be nice if, at the very least, there was a national reserve mechanic and anyone with military training loyal to El Presidente would lend aid. Like Commando or any 80s/90s action flick "But sir, I retired. I work at the college now." "But the President's in danger from left-wing radicals!" "Alright, I'll do one more mission...to save El Presidente." Be fine if it worked the other way, but that's sort of how rebels already work ...without the military experience part of it.
Posts
On the other hand, the campaign is really fun. The bonus objectives and just objectives in general are well made.
The game does make me miss pharaoh. I want to build some pyramids.
Great game though. I recently had a mission where I needed to generate money for Caesar. The mission was given by Marc Anthony, and he said, "ps. please provide more wine".
Which turned out to be an optional objective. Of course I had to give the crazy bastard some wine.
Damn pretty game too.
Not sure why I put the forum next to the slave market! Does it even grant any bonuses? My city planning becomes really stratified, and heavily dependent on slaves. Just like Rome, really.
I also tend to place my school, monuments, philosopher's academy and such alongside it. I end up with a pretty bad ass look.
What a damn great game! The 3d engine is gorgeous. It looks like Just Cause 2, except with a bigger view and is a city-builder. The game makes great sense, although there are a LOT of useless buildings, it seems.
Tenements seem pretty worthless. Why build them if I can have apartments and increase the housing quality?
There are a lot of worthless edicts, although if you played a particular angel, I guess that might become useful. I think there are more useful ways to spend your money though.
Do I need any more than the starting building of teamsters? It looks like they can move everything on their own. More construction facilities seems to help construction if they are closer to the work site. It seems each crew (or building) works on one project at a time.
Tenements hold quite a lot of people for really cheap. If you have a severe housing crisis, they're best way to get mass amounts of people out of shacks as quick as possible. There's a couple scenarios where immigrants seem to come in floods, those are good times for tenements. I usually house my uneducated workers in them for the beginning of most maps, unless I'm really trying for happiness.
I don't think I've ever used more than 2 teamster buildings, even on huge industrial islands. It's hard to notice if your goods are getting held up, and thus hard to tell if you need more teamsters. I never really figured it all out, but I made it through okay. Builders you can definitely go crazy on, on particularly lucrative scenarios I've gotten up to 4 out. It also definitely helps to demolish and rebuild construction yards as you develop your island.
Am I going insane?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=35585202
I feel bad that I've never been able to get into a Simcity past the first one...and even then the only version I really liked was the one on the SNES (it was the first game I bought on the Virtual Console ffs) and boy did I love it. But for some reason Simcity 2k didn't do a damn thing for me and I totally ignored 3 and I'll be honest that I don't think I knew there was a 4 until I saw the article about five.
I'd really like to get into city type sim games but any time I try a demo of something it feels like they assume you always play that type of game and it's just too much. Tropico 3 seemed ok but I didn't really care for the setting. I downloaded the demo for Anno 2070 ages ago but never loaded it up. It looks pretty as hell but I'm also guessing it is too "deep" for me.
I don't know what it was about the simplicity of the first Simcity that got me so much that I just haven't been able to find again.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
SimCity 4 is great, specially the expansion, but it is indeed a bit harder to play. CitiesXL is much easier to play, being that the main objective of that game seems to be making a pretty city, where as in SC4 it was more of constructing a functioning economy.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
Also, I see something about Grand Ages: Rome being decent. I got it in ...whatever pack got me the Tropicos. I'm pretty sure that's the one I played, but it seemed so difficult and inefficient to get things going and then there was apparently a whole combat mechanic that was intruding in my city building. But maybe I am thinking of the wrong game and should try that (...again...possibly?).
Tropico on the other hand ...Tropico 4 is Tropico 3 is Tropico 1. I wish the military interaction there was actually a bit more in-depth. It's a bit difficult to run a utopian (...for the people that matter) police state when your overpaid soldiers decide they want to go work at the power plant right before the coup starts, leaving you with 3 new recruit guards.
It'd be nice if, at the very least, there was a national reserve mechanic and anyone with military training loyal to El Presidente would lend aid. Like Commando or any 80s/90s action flick "But sir, I retired. I work at the college now." "But the President's in danger from left-wing radicals!" "Alright, I'll do one more mission...to save El Presidente." Be fine if it worked the other way, but that's sort of how rebels already work ...without the military experience part of it.