Hello and thank you for bothering to click.
Im not much of a forum guy, more of a lurker / silent player but I think I accidentially figured out how to adress the "no challenge" issue (if there is any for real) in addition to making a really cool expansion and I just had to share.
Before I posted I figured that you get a lot of these, better or worse ideas and that not many get into developement and thats your choice ofc. I only ask to take an honest look at this.
The idea is to simulate investment mechanism through:
Doing so would simulate area corresponding to significant part of a city major's tasks.
Doing so would create a beautiful, gamechanging and challenging (if balanced right) layer of gameplay to the (!)vanilla(!) game: to not overinvest at any stage (not only start) and balance growth speed with investment costs and investment return period.
Let me introduce the idea by first by saying: (1) what is added in terms of assets then (2) changes regarding code and (3) how that together could be used.
________________________________________________________________
1:
New resource:
New industry chain:
New assets for the new industry chain:
New asset for the oil industry chain:
New products:
New service chain:
New district options in menu:
New policies:
New banking options:
________________________________________________________________
2:
All the buildings (both growables and ploppables) as well as networks (and maybe other assets too) get:
Assets and networks would be "assigned to be build" as they are built now. Investment costs are then too assigned. But those "assigned" assets and networks can be demolished at a loss of 0, with construction costs of 0 and operating costs of 0 until construction starts. When the construction starts, investment money is actually spent (means no more demolition at 0 cost) and construction costs come into play. When the construction is finished then operating costs come into play and game plays like as of now.
A network segment (the part between nodes) could be considered a piece of road that is built at a time. These segments could be built linelarily as in only the next segment is built until all segments are done. Dirt roads would be plopped without construction.
For a building it could even work like this:
turning off functionality until finished,
switching animation from default to construction during construction,
adding an openable during construction only construction menu showing progress bar and resources,
returning to default animation post construction.
For a network it could get a construction animation while placed for all the segments and then when the car with a team of workers drives into it, spends some animation time, then the road changes its visuals to normal and becomes usable.
________________________________________________________________
(3)
So I wrote a lot of stuff so far but the "what for?" might be unclear to some still. As of now we just plop stuff, it starts costing right away and earns us some money shortly after. As long as the income is higher as the outcome its good. But in reality a lot of stuff happens in between those two moments, and it could be great to bring it to CS.
I live on 12th floor and they are making a highway tunnel under a big chunk of the city and a normal 3 lane road is going to go exactly over it. As of now there is a junction with a road that is perpendicular to it. 2 lines merge into 1 cos of construction. Every morning i can see a traffic thats like 800m long. It lasts for 2 years now. The construction time is extended, problems arose, money is spent all the time from the begining of the investment, and until that highway is going to bring revenue the city had to have a lot in the bank.
Now coming again to CS if you have the initial money youre more or less good to spend it. But what if you had to accumulate enough money before you invest to carry construction costs over a period of time? Like a few in game months. That naturally encourages playing in live mode, adding more and more as you grow instead of building a lot at one time, or not making investments that dont pay for themselves. Like going trains and skipping busses. See this would somewhat bring an RTS aspect to it, increase difficulty, completely change the gameplay, and even educate as you would possibly have to do some proper math to play it well.
New assets increase traffic around construction site that you have to manage, although temporary it too limits the growth speed if you overinvest. That combined with the new cash mechanics and combined with natural disasters mechanics make the game live-mode-challenge, which could be a new experience to CS players.
________________________________________________________________
So to wrap up:
Whole this idea started with question "what if the building werent built instantly?" and thats what I came up with shortly after. But doing that could give a real "start small, grow big" experience and a risk to lose the game at any time if you overinvest! Balancing the numbers would be the key to make it work as in how much should these things cost to raise and how much each of them increases the citys revenue. This could really work and be game changing, especially that the IT architecture is like almost there. The only challenge would be in balancing the numbers.
I mean the idea is very simple (look at the assets needed to make it work) yet game changing. Might only be challenging on the code side with tracking all the money though.
That could be a DLC expansion or turn on and off mode (just like hard mode) that deploys code for non instant construction time to buildings. Or in reverse sets it to 0 everywhere.
Anyway so thank you for reading and if any of you get the idea and have that vision that I had: An investment game in CS world then do not hestiate to participate and develop this further.
Im not much of a forum guy, more of a lurker / silent player but I think I accidentially figured out how to adress the "no challenge" issue (if there is any for real) in addition to making a really cool expansion and I just had to share.
Before I posted I figured that you get a lot of these, better or worse ideas and that not many get into developement and thats your choice ofc. I only ask to take an honest look at this.
The idea is to simulate investment mechanism through:
- non instant construction,
- focus on cashflow during developement time,
- focus on temporary traffic during developement time,
- decision making whether to suspend the construction project to cut the costs if its too high for the citys budget.
Doing so would simulate area corresponding to significant part of a city major's tasks.
Doing so would create a beautiful, gamechanging and challenging (if balanced right) layer of gameplay to the (!)vanilla(!) game: to not overinvest at any stage (not only start) and balance growth speed with investment costs and investment return period.
Let me introduce the idea by first by saying: (1) what is added in terms of assets then (2) changes regarding code and (3) how that together could be used.
________________________________________________________________
1:
New resource:
- Minerals.
New industry chain:
- Concrete.
New assets for the new industry chain:
- Anything that finishes with concrete factories.
New asset for the oil industry chain:
- Anything that finishes with asphalt factories.
New products:
- Concrete, Asphalt.
New service chain:
- Building Construction Company Warehouse (new building which stores wood, steel, and concrete from import or production, that spawns cars that deliver these materials to construction sites around the city),
- Building Construction Company Worker's Office (new building where the staff meet and which spawns buses that ride to and from construction sites around the city),
- Developement Supervision Office (new service that spawns cars that ride around the city to open and close a construction site aka visit it twice),
- Road Construction Company Site (new building that stores asphalt from import or production, that spawns cars that deliver it and a team of workers to a road under construction - ploppable next to a road),
- Train Track Construction Company Site (new building that stores wood and steel from import or production that spawns construction train cars that deliver them and a team of workers to a train track under construction - ploppable next to train tracks).
New district options in menu:
- A button to shows info just from this area of: money spent from the begining until now vs money earned from the begining until now with graphs to see break-even point (or how far it is).
New policies:
- Ban non construction traffic (allows only cars spawned by the new buildings),
- Optimised Developement (decreases construction costs by 25%, increases construction time by 25%, more construction stages),
- Quick Developement (increases construction costs by 25%, reduces construction time by 25%, less construction stages),
- Suspended Developement (decreases construction costs by 90%, stops constructing which results in stopping spawning of construction traffic towards buildings and network segments in the area, diminishes timer to a stage, diminishes resources to a stage).
New banking options:
- Anything more than the basic 3 loans to cover for those "oh man!" moments.
________________________________________________________________
2:
All the buildings (both growables and ploppables) as well as networks (and maybe other assets too) get:
- a progress bar and construction time (few stages for buildings, one stage for networks, stages start when materials are delivered and last certain time)
- materials cost (wood, steel, concrete, asphalt),
- construction costs [$/time] (higher than operating costs and applicable during construction time)
- in addition to current investment costs [$] and current operating costs [$/time].
Assets and networks would be "assigned to be build" as they are built now. Investment costs are then too assigned. But those "assigned" assets and networks can be demolished at a loss of 0, with construction costs of 0 and operating costs of 0 until construction starts. When the construction starts, investment money is actually spent (means no more demolition at 0 cost) and construction costs come into play. When the construction is finished then operating costs come into play and game plays like as of now.
A network segment (the part between nodes) could be considered a piece of road that is built at a time. These segments could be built linelarily as in only the next segment is built until all segments are done. Dirt roads would be plopped without construction.
For a building it could even work like this:
turning off functionality until finished,
switching animation from default to construction during construction,
adding an openable during construction only construction menu showing progress bar and resources,
returning to default animation post construction.
For a network it could get a construction animation while placed for all the segments and then when the car with a team of workers drives into it, spends some animation time, then the road changes its visuals to normal and becomes usable.
________________________________________________________________
(3)
So I wrote a lot of stuff so far but the "what for?" might be unclear to some still. As of now we just plop stuff, it starts costing right away and earns us some money shortly after. As long as the income is higher as the outcome its good. But in reality a lot of stuff happens in between those two moments, and it could be great to bring it to CS.
I live on 12th floor and they are making a highway tunnel under a big chunk of the city and a normal 3 lane road is going to go exactly over it. As of now there is a junction with a road that is perpendicular to it. 2 lines merge into 1 cos of construction. Every morning i can see a traffic thats like 800m long. It lasts for 2 years now. The construction time is extended, problems arose, money is spent all the time from the begining of the investment, and until that highway is going to bring revenue the city had to have a lot in the bank.
Now coming again to CS if you have the initial money youre more or less good to spend it. But what if you had to accumulate enough money before you invest to carry construction costs over a period of time? Like a few in game months. That naturally encourages playing in live mode, adding more and more as you grow instead of building a lot at one time, or not making investments that dont pay for themselves. Like going trains and skipping busses. See this would somewhat bring an RTS aspect to it, increase difficulty, completely change the gameplay, and even educate as you would possibly have to do some proper math to play it well.
New assets increase traffic around construction site that you have to manage, although temporary it too limits the growth speed if you overinvest. That combined with the new cash mechanics and combined with natural disasters mechanics make the game live-mode-challenge, which could be a new experience to CS players.
________________________________________________________________
So to wrap up:
Whole this idea started with question "what if the building werent built instantly?" and thats what I came up with shortly after. But doing that could give a real "start small, grow big" experience and a risk to lose the game at any time if you overinvest! Balancing the numbers would be the key to make it work as in how much should these things cost to raise and how much each of them increases the citys revenue. This could really work and be game changing, especially that the IT architecture is like almost there. The only challenge would be in balancing the numbers.
I mean the idea is very simple (look at the assets needed to make it work) yet game changing. Might only be challenging on the code side with tracking all the money though.
That could be a DLC expansion or turn on and off mode (just like hard mode) that deploys code for non instant construction time to buildings. Or in reverse sets it to 0 everywhere.
Anyway so thank you for reading and if any of you get the idea and have that vision that I had: An investment game in CS world then do not hestiate to participate and develop this further.
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