Cities Skylines has its issues, but it also has a lot of potential. So while many might have, in various degrees, given up on the game or the developer I won’t. It’s my belief that with some well-thought out suggestions/discussions on how the various areas of the game could be fixed, Colossal could make the game reach its full potential far quicker.
This thread is about parks. Once you take a look at the statistics, it’s easy to see that the standard parks in CSL could use some balancing work. I’ve outlined the issues in three sections, each with some potential solutions.
Costs
If you look at the wiki page for the parks, you’ll quickly see that the statistics are all over the place. These stats can be divided into two types: costs and rewards. I’ll talk about rewards in the next section. It’s clear from a quick glance that the costs are unbalanced, even if you don’t look at the rewards. Here’s an example:
The plaza is a tiny bit smaller, but that’s about it only advantage. While this is the worst example that I could find, this is an issue that affects all parks. It’s made only worse with the Parks and Rec policy as that adds 25% upkeep to the parks. That makes the small park even more OP.
Fixing it: keep the upkeeps/costs closer together. Look at the size of the park, factor in usefulness of the rewards and come up with a new number for all the parks. If you use the same formula for all of them, you’ll quickly find all the numbers will line up much better in respect to each other and you’ll get rid of OP parks.
Rewards
All the rewards are basically the same for all the parks. Both the entertainment accumulation and range is the same for almost every park. This lack of difference means it’s a waste of space to build the larger versions of parks.
Fixing it: make the small version have more entertainment value, but less radius. The bigger version would have slightly less entertainment value, but has a larger radius. Here’s my thinking behind this:
From a gameplay point of view, it would make players choose between lower quality leisure but full coverage or higher quality leisure in more local islands around their city.
Audience
The problem with the solutions to the two above issues makes it so there’s no reason to choose between plazas, parks and playgrounds other than for aesthetic purposes.
Fixing it: make the three main types of decoration more attractive to some types of Cims than others:
These audiences would mean players have to put some more thought into placing them. They can use the overlays to find what kind of Cims live in a certain place and place the ideal type of decoration. In general you’ll see want to place more playgrounds in low density areas (this is where families prefer to live), plazas in high density areas (where non-families prefer to live).
What do you think? Comments, suggestions of your own?
This thread is about parks. Once you take a look at the statistics, it’s easy to see that the standard parks in CSL could use some balancing work. I’ve outlined the issues in three sections, each with some potential solutions.
Costs
If you look at the wiki page for the parks, you’ll quickly see that the statistics are all over the place. These stats can be divided into two types: costs and rewards. I’ll talk about rewards in the next section. It’s clear from a quick glance that the costs are unbalanced, even if you don’t look at the rewards. Here’s an example:
- A small park costs 8 c in upkeep every week, as well as some electrical costs
- A plaza with picnic tables costs a whopping 120 c in upkeep and has more electrical costs
The plaza is a tiny bit smaller, but that’s about it only advantage. While this is the worst example that I could find, this is an issue that affects all parks. It’s made only worse with the Parks and Rec policy as that adds 25% upkeep to the parks. That makes the small park even more OP.
Fixing it: keep the upkeeps/costs closer together. Look at the size of the park, factor in usefulness of the rewards and come up with a new number for all the parks. If you use the same formula for all of them, you’ll quickly find all the numbers will line up much better in respect to each other and you’ll get rid of OP parks.
Rewards
All the rewards are basically the same for all the parks. Both the entertainment accumulation and range is the same for almost every park. This lack of difference means it’s a waste of space to build the larger versions of parks.
Fixing it: make the small version have more entertainment value, but less radius. The bigger version would have slightly less entertainment value, but has a larger radius. Here’s my thinking behind this:
- People come all over Manhattan to go to Central Park
- But it’s not as cozy or familiar as their local park around the corner
From a gameplay point of view, it would make players choose between lower quality leisure but full coverage or higher quality leisure in more local islands around their city.
Audience
The problem with the solutions to the two above issues makes it so there’s no reason to choose between plazas, parks and playgrounds other than for aesthetic purposes.
Fixing it: make the three main types of decoration more attractive to some types of Cims than others:
- Adults with children and children would prefer playgrounds. The rest would dislike them
- Young adults and teens would prefer to hang out at plazas, gossiping and drinking with friends. The rest would dislike them
- Parks would be most liked by seniors. They are not disliked by the other groups, as everyone loves a park. The fact that the parks are bigger than the other types balances out the more generic appeal of the parks
These audiences would mean players have to put some more thought into placing them. They can use the overlays to find what kind of Cims live in a certain place and place the ideal type of decoration. In general you’ll see want to place more playgrounds in low density areas (this is where families prefer to live), plazas in high density areas (where non-families prefer to live).
What do you think? Comments, suggestions of your own?
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