Hard Mode - still too easy?

[Beric]

So I've been playing with the hard mode mod since release this morning. The game is a lot of fun - no doubt about it. However, the money is still rolling in like crazy- I currently have $2M cash with only 25Kp pop and I haven't been fast-forwarding constantly. Traffic volume in the industry sector is high, but I've got it well under control using mass transit and a good system of one-way roads.
Are these any other mods (or planned mods) to make it harder? I want to struggle every bit of the way growing my city. Also, it really bums me that achievements cannot be obtained in hard mode. Could the difficulty levels be integrated into the game?

 

[XI Vanquish IX]

So I've been playing with the hard mode mod since release this morning. The game is a lot of fun - no doubt about it. However, the money is still rolling in like crazy- I currently have $2M cash with only 25Kp pop and I haven't been fast-forwarding constantly. Traffic volume in the industry sector is high, but I've got it well under control using mass transit and a good system of one-way roads.
Are these any other mods (or planned mods) to make it harder? I want to struggle every bit of the way growing my city. Also, it really bums me that achievements cannot be obtained in hard mode. Could the difficulty levels be integrated into the game?

Next is full simulation mode..

Before every policy, structural, and infrastructural change to the city, you have to get a political commission to vote in favor! And after you make the changes, prepare for referendum mode and post-change
litigation mode!

 

[TingJonKi]

Even with rather poor city planning hard mode is too easy

I blame how easy it is to get education and make citizens 'happy' to where you'll snowball and be rolling in cash

 

[Iki_balam]

Next is full simulation mode..

Before every policy, structural, and infrastructural change to the city, you have to get a political commission to vote in favor! And after you make the changes, prepare for referendum mode and post-change
litigation mode!

when real life simulation crushes the fun

 

[Nague]

i think traffic also needs more impact, make people unhappy if commute is too long.


i think right now it only matter that the driver gets to his job, if that even matters at all, i didnt test it.

 

[ali.usman]

However, the money is still rolling in like crazy-

What else do you expect, you OWN a city and it will make money for you. I think this is awesome.

Why don't you try to ZERO THE TAX --

 

[jcitron]

Next is full simulation mode..

Before every policy, structural, and infrastructural change to the city, you have to get a political commission to vote in favor! And after you make the changes, prepare for referendum mode and post-change
litigation mode!

Oh yeah, just what we need. NIMBYs!

 

[EvilTom]

i think traffic also needs more impact, make people unhappy if commute is too long.


i think right now it only matter that the driver gets to his job, if that even matters at all, i didnt test it.

Commute length doesn't matter AT ALL. If a citizen cannot get to a job then they will just teleport. You can even completely disconnect the residential from the industrial with NO path at all and workers still get to work.

Only freight 'commute' matters really as that doesn't teleport as far as I can tell.

 

[Garensterz]

Ok so i played the game from a friend of mine and after playing the whole day, I find the game too easy also. Don't get me wrong, the game really shows off it's overall creativity such as setting up your own districts, and can even choose huge variation of policies to your city, etc (edit: Oh, and the road builder is just outstanding! thank you for that). However, with these low demands from the citizens the game becomes more of a "zoning map painter" you see what I mean? You just keep expanding and expanding without doing much negative effects on your city. So it kinda gets boring in the long run.

Please Colossal Order, I hope you find the time on looking up to this. Your game is great, but it just lacks challenge.

 

[Dadekster]

I would think this is something a mod could probably do. I'd rather CO take their time to fix any bugs (not that I've found any glaring ones) and improve traffic (the jump in lane early thing). If you find the game so easy create some of your own challenges to overcome such as X pop on a single tile and so forth. There is no real 'win' in something like CK2 either other than what goals you set for yourself, outside of survival.

 

[Mithkabob]

Yep, throw the modding doors wide open. Right now I have 100k people and they are all super happy, no crime, no sick people, no traffic problems, it's such a sickening utopia!

 

[Garensterz]

I would think this is something a mod could probably do. I'd rather CO take their time to fix any bugs (not that I've found any glaring ones) and improve traffic (the jump in lane early thing). If you find the game so easy create some of your own challenges to overcome such as X pop on a single tile and so forth. There is no real 'win' in something like CK2 either other than what goals you set for yourself, outside of survival.

CO already did an official Hard Mode so isn't it better if they made all this changes officially so it will be much more of a use? The game is still early from release though and there is still more room for changes. Also, I find Cities Skylines a very well polished game tbh and I rarely see irritating bugs, sure there's this game crashing I experienced in the early stage of me playing but now It's running smooth.

I just hope the improved "Hardmode" will come out with the next patch.

 

[Skrelk]

Yeah, consequences from bad traffic need to be implemented, etc

 

[Dadekster]

CO already did an official Hard Mode so isn't it better if they made all this changes officially so it will be much more of a use? The game is still early from release though and there is still more room for changes. Also, I find Cities Skylines a very well polished game tbh and I rarely see irritating bugs, sure there's this game crashing I experienced in the early stage of me playing but now It's running smooth.

I just hope the improved "Hardmode" will come out with the next patch.

I hear you but no matter what they do they'll never appease everyone. One person can build a 500k city and run it like clockwork on hard mode the next can't do it with 250k on easy. Different strokes for different folks. That's the wonderful thing about mods, variety!

 

[Co_Karoliina]

I hear you! Making a good hard mode is actually really tricky. It seemed that when ever we made to mode harder, people just became more skilled in managing the challenges. I'm not sure if we are going to touch the hard mode, but there is at least one hard mode mod in the workshop. I have not had the time to try it out myself, but tweaking the values of the hard mode we made is not too tricky, so perhaps you can try to make it harder to suit your needs.

 

[CorkMan]

In SimCity 4 too it was easy enough to to build a big city and make a profit, while giving lots of education and health. Plus plenty of police.

The same in SC2013. I think the challenge in city buildings games is building the cities you envision, trying to make it look like what you want.

 

[neldot]

Perhaps the monthly costs of the services are a bit on the low side. A simple increase of monthly costs in hard mode should do it. As in real life, you can't live in a city with all the highest comforts and services without paying very high taxes.

 

[Beric]

So I started a new city on hard mode. 30K pop and I'm making $15K/week. I have $2M in the bank as well, and have final-tier buildings in all zones. Some traffic issues but nothing major.

 

[Nague]

yeah money wont make this game hard, it must be done by traffic issues and leveling up buildings.


For example add penalties for workers having long or impossible commute times, leveling up requiring higher landvalues, making education more difficult to achieve etc etc

 

[Beric]

yeah money wont make this game hard, it must be done by traffic issues and leveling up buildings.

It's been a while since I played Sim City, but money wasn't unlimited in that game. If you advanced too fast bad things could happen as well. The problem right now is there's really no penalty to just waiting a bit and making a ton of money. I like to struggle for my money, else there's no point and everything might as well be free.