I've been thinking alot about a fantasy spin off Cities franchise game.
I wrote my first idea about it here, https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-gameplay-survey.1119889/page-3#post-24666316
But I've been thinking more.
Please read and tell me what you think it needs, or just what you think about it.
The game would basically be Cities Skylines but with a D&D-esque/Fantasy setting.
There are five major points that would define the game and make it different from CS.
1. Guild/Organisations.
Dungeons & Milestones
3. Security, Crime, Prosperity and Alignment
4. Buildings and Props changes.
5. Taxes
General things effecting everything.
-All service buildings, except parks and monuments and etc, all that would reasonably expected to require employees to function, require employees to function the same as businesses. Efficiency decreases if there aren't enough workers and etc, can't put out fires if all the guardhouses are empty.
-I don't know how fantasy races would work. My best idea at the moment is have them as guilds, i.e. assign this guildhouse to the Dwarf Embassy and it'll start generating dwarf educated citizens and dwarf themed buildings? Give this district to the Halfling Community Council and Smials with little round doors will pop up in the district? I don't know.
-There could be a natural disaster that's a dragon attack.
It should be called Cities Guilds as a title because guilds are sort of the core mechanic of the whole pitch but, Dungeons sounds cooler.
Anyway, so that's the concept.
What do you think? Also any ideas to make it better?
Also CO, if you make a game like this that'd be brilliant.
Thank you for reading.
I wrote my first idea about it here, https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-gameplay-survey.1119889/page-3#post-24666316
But I've been thinking more.
Please read and tell me what you think it needs, or just what you think about it.
The game would basically be Cities Skylines but with a D&D-esque/Fantasy setting.
There are five major points that would define the game and make it different from CS.
1. Guild/Organisations.
It would be based primarily around districts. and this mechanic would be the foundation of the whole game.
You build streets and zone private land, that anyone can build one. But without districts and a Guild, all that will develop there is houses and farms. Slums if its not good for farming, or Farms with housing attached. Low population, subsistence living, and they generate the city any income directly.
To remedy this, you designate a district (same as in CS), and build a Guildhouse, this is a 5x4 building with an interface. Once you place it, you select it and pick from a list of available organisations to 'give' it to, as you progress in milestones more organisations will unlock.
Assigning a Guildhouse a Guild changes how it would look and as it grows in power and income it could grow more floors or get granded or etc as well. So your Maritime Traders Guild and your Cobblers Guild would start out a basic two story shed but grow into distinct and impressive headquarters.
The Guildhouse educates citizens and assigns them to its member list (Forever and each citizen can only be on one list). As citizens graduate they establish workshops and businesses in city, priority in the district the guildhouse is in and in proximity to it but with low probability outside of it and no probability at all in districts controlled by other guilds.
The Guild with the most businesses in a district is considered 'in control' of that district.
The Guildhouse generates revenue for the city based on the number of associated businesses in the city. Businesses in the same district as Guildhouse generate full revenue, Businesses in unowned districts generate only 75% revenue and businesses in districts owned by other guilds generates 25% revenue or 50% revenue or something like that. harsh penalty.
+ on top of that a reduced/abstracted rate from every citizen living in the city who is a guild member.
I haven't thought about the exact numbers but say, you get 10 coins for every workshop, then you might get 1 for every member, or every 5 members or something? The basic idea is workshops and businesses would be the main source of revenue but there'd be a lesser trickle headcount income as well.
Maybe you can decide by policy if business are permitted outside their district.
I believe this mechanic would make us of the district system and promoting having many small districts/neighbourhoods instead of just a few giant ones as tends to happen in CS, as well as promoting diversity between neighbourhoods and added an extra layer of strategy to think about.
So you get the Traders district and the Temple district and the Wizard's hill and Weavers row or etc. A city which is patchwork of different district each visibly and economically different from each other.
In Immersion what this represents is, with the example being say, Textiles Guild, people join the guild and learn the craft then on graduating establish a personal workshop, business, studio, etc, supported by the guild so more successful in proximity to it. Portion of profit is paid to the guild as guild fees which in turn is paid to the city as tax.
Non guild businesses, Pubs, service industries, etc misc businesses, spawn in any district that has a guild house and count as 75% revenue business to the owner of the district. So they aren't as profitable as the guilds own businesses but are more profitable than rival guilds businesses. BUT these businesses can spawn without educated citizens to run them.
I haven't decided if guilds should be restricted to only one guildhouse or if there should be penalties for multiple guildhouses of one guild, or you should be free to have a town of ten thousand smiths. What do you think?
I'm caught between they should be like schools and you'd build extra to educate more citizens to be X at once and thinking they should feel more singular, important entities not just a building.
There would be many guilds, so many ways to specialise and diversify districts. Not all the guilds would have to be guilds. Major organisations and etc would also function the same way so I'm calling the mechanic Guild mechanic because that makes sense to me.
General medieval industry and trade guilds, merchants, metalworking, woodworking, candlemakers, dyers, etc. A good list of ten or so craftguilds and maybe four commercy guilds?
Then fantasy guilds, Wizards, Achemists, Enchanters, Bards, etc.
Also in this category, Cults and Churches. I'd say four, one of each corner alignment, LG,CG,LE,CE. And would work the same as Guilds. say you give a Guildhouse to the Dark Cult of the Skeleton Hand rather than the Weavers, uneducated citizens go to get educated and come out Cultists and go and establish shrines and necromancy labratories and whatever, which slowly turn all the buildings in the district cultish and generate income.
I also think an organised crime Theives guild that is unlocked not by milestones but by crime reaching X% in your city or something
And maybe something like, Palace or etc to define a district as nobles, where it would educate nobles and lead to nobility residences and businesses popping up?
I had some ideas about production trees and different guilds requiring different materials and etc, but as Skylines now has a DLC coming that sounds like it's got ideas there I'll leave it as the DLC's will probably be better.
You build streets and zone private land, that anyone can build one. But without districts and a Guild, all that will develop there is houses and farms. Slums if its not good for farming, or Farms with housing attached. Low population, subsistence living, and they generate the city any income directly.
To remedy this, you designate a district (same as in CS), and build a Guildhouse, this is a 5x4 building with an interface. Once you place it, you select it and pick from a list of available organisations to 'give' it to, as you progress in milestones more organisations will unlock.
Assigning a Guildhouse a Guild changes how it would look and as it grows in power and income it could grow more floors or get granded or etc as well. So your Maritime Traders Guild and your Cobblers Guild would start out a basic two story shed but grow into distinct and impressive headquarters.
The Guildhouse educates citizens and assigns them to its member list (Forever and each citizen can only be on one list). As citizens graduate they establish workshops and businesses in city, priority in the district the guildhouse is in and in proximity to it but with low probability outside of it and no probability at all in districts controlled by other guilds.
The Guild with the most businesses in a district is considered 'in control' of that district.
The Guildhouse generates revenue for the city based on the number of associated businesses in the city. Businesses in the same district as Guildhouse generate full revenue, Businesses in unowned districts generate only 75% revenue and businesses in districts owned by other guilds generates 25% revenue or 50% revenue or something like that. harsh penalty.
+ on top of that a reduced/abstracted rate from every citizen living in the city who is a guild member.
I haven't thought about the exact numbers but say, you get 10 coins for every workshop, then you might get 1 for every member, or every 5 members or something? The basic idea is workshops and businesses would be the main source of revenue but there'd be a lesser trickle headcount income as well.
Maybe you can decide by policy if business are permitted outside their district.
I believe this mechanic would make us of the district system and promoting having many small districts/neighbourhoods instead of just a few giant ones as tends to happen in CS, as well as promoting diversity between neighbourhoods and added an extra layer of strategy to think about.
So you get the Traders district and the Temple district and the Wizard's hill and Weavers row or etc. A city which is patchwork of different district each visibly and economically different from each other.
In Immersion what this represents is, with the example being say, Textiles Guild, people join the guild and learn the craft then on graduating establish a personal workshop, business, studio, etc, supported by the guild so more successful in proximity to it. Portion of profit is paid to the guild as guild fees which in turn is paid to the city as tax.
Non guild businesses, Pubs, service industries, etc misc businesses, spawn in any district that has a guild house and count as 75% revenue business to the owner of the district. So they aren't as profitable as the guilds own businesses but are more profitable than rival guilds businesses. BUT these businesses can spawn without educated citizens to run them.
I haven't decided if guilds should be restricted to only one guildhouse or if there should be penalties for multiple guildhouses of one guild, or you should be free to have a town of ten thousand smiths. What do you think?
I'm caught between they should be like schools and you'd build extra to educate more citizens to be X at once and thinking they should feel more singular, important entities not just a building.
There would be many guilds, so many ways to specialise and diversify districts. Not all the guilds would have to be guilds. Major organisations and etc would also function the same way so I'm calling the mechanic Guild mechanic because that makes sense to me.
General medieval industry and trade guilds, merchants, metalworking, woodworking, candlemakers, dyers, etc. A good list of ten or so craftguilds and maybe four commercy guilds?
Then fantasy guilds, Wizards, Achemists, Enchanters, Bards, etc.
Also in this category, Cults and Churches. I'd say four, one of each corner alignment, LG,CG,LE,CE. And would work the same as Guilds. say you give a Guildhouse to the Dark Cult of the Skeleton Hand rather than the Weavers, uneducated citizens go to get educated and come out Cultists and go and establish shrines and necromancy labratories and whatever, which slowly turn all the buildings in the district cultish and generate income.
I also think an organised crime Theives guild that is unlocked not by milestones but by crime reaching X% in your city or something
And maybe something like, Palace or etc to define a district as nobles, where it would educate nobles and lead to nobility residences and businesses popping up?
I had some ideas about production trees and different guilds requiring different materials and etc, but as Skylines now has a DLC coming that sounds like it's got ideas there I'll leave it as the DLC's will probably be better.
Dungeons & Milestones
This is the milestones, but instead of being based on population they are a successful action taken by the player.
In the middle of the map there would be a 'Dungeon', maybe a ancient ruin, abandoned foreboding temple of some dark and forgotten god, cavernous entrance to a world below the earth, collapsing wizard's tower mysteriously frozen mid fall or etc. Probably a 7x7 building/feature or the like. Permanent, you can't move it. It's placed there in the map builder.
This is the Dungeon. It's always in the starting tile, it being placed is probably how the tile is selected as the starting tile even. Presumably it's the reason why your first citizens are settling here.
When you click on it you see the conditions for attempting the next milestone.
The 1st would always be automatic, and you'd need say, 200 citizens and it would be called something like explore the (name of dungeon)'s exterior.
Passing the first milestone would unlock Guilds and Guardhouses.
For all the subsequent milestones, the requirement would be something like population X + Y adventurers in city or Z guards. Guards are police, tax collectors and fire fighters rolled into one. They are also the cities soldiers.
Adventurers are basically tourists, they visit to see your dungeon and spend money in your businesses and pubs.
Attempting to clear the milestone has a chance of succeeding (say 75%) or maybe the success rate is determined on city factors, and a smaller chance of failing.
Succeeding Unlocks the next milestone giving you cash, new service buildings, guild options and policies. Failing kills a random percent of all adventurers or guards in the city depending on which you tried to unlock it with.
Attempting to unlock a milestone would have a name like 'clear the first floor of (dungeon name)' or 'secure the fifth floor' or etc.
Unlocking a milestone also doubles the attraction value of the dungeon building for adventurers. So more will come to your city and more will visit it. Maybe not doubles just, adds an increasing boost to it.
There could be smaller scattered around the map non-milestone mini-dungeons as well. Ruined Watchtower, Troll Cave, etc. That might have a three step unlock, the first to stop it producing crime, the second to open it up for adventurers, the third to increase its adventure tourist rating and bring in more visitors.
This milestone system is thematic to the setting, and by having a risk and being more under the players control should feel more like an accomplishment, not an automatic process.
In the middle of the map there would be a 'Dungeon', maybe a ancient ruin, abandoned foreboding temple of some dark and forgotten god, cavernous entrance to a world below the earth, collapsing wizard's tower mysteriously frozen mid fall or etc. Probably a 7x7 building/feature or the like. Permanent, you can't move it. It's placed there in the map builder.
This is the Dungeon. It's always in the starting tile, it being placed is probably how the tile is selected as the starting tile even. Presumably it's the reason why your first citizens are settling here.
When you click on it you see the conditions for attempting the next milestone.
The 1st would always be automatic, and you'd need say, 200 citizens and it would be called something like explore the (name of dungeon)'s exterior.
Passing the first milestone would unlock Guilds and Guardhouses.
For all the subsequent milestones, the requirement would be something like population X + Y adventurers in city or Z guards. Guards are police, tax collectors and fire fighters rolled into one. They are also the cities soldiers.
Adventurers are basically tourists, they visit to see your dungeon and spend money in your businesses and pubs.
Attempting to clear the milestone has a chance of succeeding (say 75%) or maybe the success rate is determined on city factors, and a smaller chance of failing.
Succeeding Unlocks the next milestone giving you cash, new service buildings, guild options and policies. Failing kills a random percent of all adventurers or guards in the city depending on which you tried to unlock it with.
Attempting to unlock a milestone would have a name like 'clear the first floor of (dungeon name)' or 'secure the fifth floor' or etc.
Unlocking a milestone also doubles the attraction value of the dungeon building for adventurers. So more will come to your city and more will visit it. Maybe not doubles just, adds an increasing boost to it.
There could be smaller scattered around the map non-milestone mini-dungeons as well. Ruined Watchtower, Troll Cave, etc. That might have a three step unlock, the first to stop it producing crime, the second to open it up for adventurers, the third to increase its adventure tourist rating and bring in more visitors.
This milestone system is thematic to the setting, and by having a risk and being more under the players control should feel more like an accomplishment, not an automatic process.
3. Security, Crime, Prosperity and Alignment
In CS, everyone is rich and all the city grows prosperous and upgrades. Police travel everywhere eventually and if they don't, citizens just leave.
I would propose for this concept that they would not do that. But instead there would be a crime and prosperity system with wealthy and poverty stricken districts. Some buildings would generate order and others crime, in much the way factories generate pollution and parks land value. Places with a high 'crime value' would attract criminals and drive away other residents, while high 'security values' would send criminals fleeing and attract richer residents.
Crime makes non-criminals lose money, becoming poor, poor buildings/slums etc would generate crime.
So you would get some parts of the city sinking into poverty, crime and degradation and others rise into wealth and stability. Again, diversity, so your city 'naturally' develops differently in different places.
I would also add into this, Alignment. Good and Evil. So some parts of your city would grow good and others evil and you choose which to support and which benefits/modifiers/unlocks or etc to aim for. Maybe policies that can only be enacted in an evil majority district, or buildings and guild options you can only get with a % good overall rating.
So you'd have two spectrums, Good-Evil and Crime-Order going on in your city as well, effecting and shaping and being shaped by and hopefully, making each city you build feel different as it develops.
I'd say guilds and service buildings would all have alignments on one or both scales. So a Guardhouse might generate a small radius/aura of order, while whatevernamethatevilcultearlierhad might generate alot of evil and a small amount of crime from its Guildhouse and small auras from every one of its associated buildings. Another guild might just generate Order and other just Crime.
So having two districts beside each other, one thats pumping out Evil and the other which is pumping out good, would spill alignment pollution into each other and reduce the income of both. (I havent thought about how exactly, some manner of malus to how successful the businesses is).
So you'd want to put a district that doesn't care about good or evil between them, or maybe a nice big park.
Maybe small cosmetic changes as well, streetside props changing to reflect their district. Clean and tidy for order, but a dark and sinister clean and tidy because its an order and an evil district or etc.
Also I'd suggest that each district gives one point to city alignment, and city alignment rather than population demographics % alignment could be how unlocks or policies happen?
I would propose for this concept that they would not do that. But instead there would be a crime and prosperity system with wealthy and poverty stricken districts. Some buildings would generate order and others crime, in much the way factories generate pollution and parks land value. Places with a high 'crime value' would attract criminals and drive away other residents, while high 'security values' would send criminals fleeing and attract richer residents.
Crime makes non-criminals lose money, becoming poor, poor buildings/slums etc would generate crime.
So you would get some parts of the city sinking into poverty, crime and degradation and others rise into wealth and stability. Again, diversity, so your city 'naturally' develops differently in different places.
I would also add into this, Alignment. Good and Evil. So some parts of your city would grow good and others evil and you choose which to support and which benefits/modifiers/unlocks or etc to aim for. Maybe policies that can only be enacted in an evil majority district, or buildings and guild options you can only get with a % good overall rating.
So you'd have two spectrums, Good-Evil and Crime-Order going on in your city as well, effecting and shaping and being shaped by and hopefully, making each city you build feel different as it develops.
I'd say guilds and service buildings would all have alignments on one or both scales. So a Guardhouse might generate a small radius/aura of order, while whatevernamethatevilcultearlierhad might generate alot of evil and a small amount of crime from its Guildhouse and small auras from every one of its associated buildings. Another guild might just generate Order and other just Crime.
So having two districts beside each other, one thats pumping out Evil and the other which is pumping out good, would spill alignment pollution into each other and reduce the income of both. (I havent thought about how exactly, some manner of malus to how successful the businesses is).
So you'd want to put a district that doesn't care about good or evil between them, or maybe a nice big park.
Maybe small cosmetic changes as well, streetside props changing to reflect their district. Clean and tidy for order, but a dark and sinister clean and tidy because its an order and an evil district or etc.
Also I'd suggest that each district gives one point to city alignment, and city alignment rather than population demographics % alignment could be how unlocks or policies happen?
4. Buildings and Props changes.
A very big change would be how buildings work. Almost all workplaces would also be residences but not all residences or even most would be workplaces. Mixed zoning, Actually no zoning at all, just zone buildings are allowed to be built here zoning, one zone for everyone.
A farm grows, the family who work there also live there, it's a big farm? one family live there, the others walk in from their houses.
Workshops? the second floor or backrooms are a house, the same with shops and inns and businesses of all sorts.
Most things would be house for 1 family, work for 5 or something so commuting to work is still an aspect of designing your city and residential-workplace ratios stay good.
Second proposed change to buildings would be that they sometimes stay when people move, but the props change.
Instead of defined props they'd have say, a table marker, sign marker, back garden misc marker or etc. So the same building could be used as a residence, a workshop, a shop or etc and all that would change is the props. more variation with less buildings and the buildings would directly show what they were doing. This isn't as important though. I just think it would be cool and fit mixed zoning better than having all shops from the shop list, as in the real world lots of houses used to be shops and visa-versa.
Rich houses could degenerate into shoddy run down versions rather than go abandoned or scrapped or etc?
The business fails but the family living there stay living there so it just turns into a normal house?
A farm grows, the family who work there also live there, it's a big farm? one family live there, the others walk in from their houses.
Workshops? the second floor or backrooms are a house, the same with shops and inns and businesses of all sorts.
Most things would be house for 1 family, work for 5 or something so commuting to work is still an aspect of designing your city and residential-workplace ratios stay good.
Second proposed change to buildings would be that they sometimes stay when people move, but the props change.
Instead of defined props they'd have say, a table marker, sign marker, back garden misc marker or etc. So the same building could be used as a residence, a workshop, a shop or etc and all that would change is the props. more variation with less buildings and the buildings would directly show what they were doing. This isn't as important though. I just think it would be cool and fit mixed zoning better than having all shops from the shop list, as in the real world lots of houses used to be shops and visa-versa.
Rich houses could degenerate into shoddy run down versions rather than go abandoned or scrapped or etc?
The business fails but the family living there stay living there so it just turns into a normal house?
5. Taxes
The idea is most of your income would come through guilds.
But not all, I think there should also be tolls, tourists/adventures entering the city pay taxes at the gate if you have operational Gatehouses (which would count as guardhouses for total guards in city count), or you could build toll bridges.
Some service buildings could also generate a profit, are your healers and hospitals free? choose between healthier poor citizens or more money and etc.
I think mostly taxes would be for making money off adventurers.
There should also definitely be some mechanic for taxing imports and exports and merchants traveling to and from the city but I haven't thought of a good way for that to work.
But not all, I think there should also be tolls, tourists/adventures entering the city pay taxes at the gate if you have operational Gatehouses (which would count as guardhouses for total guards in city count), or you could build toll bridges.
Some service buildings could also generate a profit, are your healers and hospitals free? choose between healthier poor citizens or more money and etc.
I think mostly taxes would be for making money off adventurers.
There should also definitely be some mechanic for taxing imports and exports and merchants traveling to and from the city but I haven't thought of a good way for that to work.
General things effecting everything.
-All service buildings, except parks and monuments and etc, all that would reasonably expected to require employees to function, require employees to function the same as businesses. Efficiency decreases if there aren't enough workers and etc, can't put out fires if all the guardhouses are empty.
-I don't know how fantasy races would work. My best idea at the moment is have them as guilds, i.e. assign this guildhouse to the Dwarf Embassy and it'll start generating dwarf educated citizens and dwarf themed buildings? Give this district to the Halfling Community Council and Smials with little round doors will pop up in the district? I don't know.
-There could be a natural disaster that's a dragon attack.
It should be called Cities Guilds as a title because guilds are sort of the core mechanic of the whole pitch but, Dungeons sounds cooler.
Anyway, so that's the concept.
What do you think? Also any ideas to make it better?
Also CO, if you make a game like this that'd be brilliant.
Thank you for reading.
