Well, the city rolls around to me again. At least this time I get the whole city, and not just the surviving half of the city.
The most immediate problem is that about half of the commercial buildings aren't getting goods. I guess they're calling as many import vehicles as they can because I don't see a traffic jam. I figure we're going to need more generic industrial area, because the mines are clogged with overeducated workers. As an added bonus, expansion will be a little difficult. Someone decided the city should be wonky shaped.
So, I need to get some uneducated workers producing goods. It also happens that in order to build a Medical Center, I'll need to unlock the Court House- that requires a crime rate over 50%. Oh, and I have a fusion power plant, just waiting to be built, but I've heard the citizens are concerned about radiation. These factors all lead to the same solution:
Yes: Dense industrial, tax relief and pets! All for the minor inconvenience of living in an area with extreme ground pollution. With any luck, this will produce enough goods without my having to relax fire safety standards in the forge district as well.
Despite offering radiation-shielded apartments, we aren't finding many takers for housing, but at least the industry is filling in, and using the ore products from the mines.
After several citizens getting run over while trying to jaywalk the six-lane road between the airport and the subway, I've decided to add a footpath.
I've added a few services to our larger office areas, and half the buildings are upgrading already.
WHAT? THIS WILL NOT STAND.
MUCH BETTER.
I'm so glad our city has its very own roller coaster.
Whether it's because of the poor performance in commercial areas, or the lack of adequately educated jobs, population seems to have hit a ceiling. That means nobody's moving into the radioactive slums to cause crimes. Time for some more direct measures.
I've illegalized weed, just so we can arrest people for it and say we have enough crime to build a courthouse. I also shut down every single police station.
The train is super busy! Just look at this line. Also, our census information tells us that the city is about 50% redheads, 30% black-haired people with earpieces, and 10% bald men with red bowties.
For their convenience, I've added a walkway across the station the only way I know how: Inefficiently. Also, I upped the train funds by 25%, because all of the passenger trains were chock full.
Yes... all part of the plan. I'm tempted to go hold up some stores myself, while the police are shut down! People across the city are complaining about a mere crime rate of 20%. They haven't got the mettle it takes to earn a courthouse!
Traffic in the Ultimate Traffic Circle, or whatever, is getting so-so as cars wait to enter the innermost circle or wait to proceed near exits, sometimes apparently without need. I don't have a solution, I just thought I'd document it.
Traffic is also bad on this freeway entrance, where entering cars cut off cars already in the fast lane. Altering it to an on-ramp stopped that problem, but cars stopped and waited to turn in the fast lane just one road section down so I changed it back. Really odd traffic behavior.
There's also this jam, near the forge district. It looks like these vehicles are all jammed up going from the cargo train terminal to commercial buildings, which is part of our goods shortage.
There is a truly never-ending stream of vehicles going in and out of that one freight train station.
I never tire of screenshots like this.
What ends up being effective in the space is this, er, shape. On Thursdays we hold chariot races.
This, uh, I'll have to revisit later. There's a truly nonstop torrent of vehicles exiting the harbor now.
If one train station isn't enough, two must do the job, right? The rest of the roads here might look needlessly complex, but the idea is to give direct arteries to bypass as many intersections in the area as possible. It might be a while before everyone starts pathing to the new stations, though.
The harbor is a little off, if you look up close.
In other news, crime rates are stuck at 22%. Everyone's complaining about high crime, and buildings are being abandoned, but we haven't reached our quota. Time to shut off some elementary schools!
Great! Now that I've gone to the trouble of building a second train station, people aren't using it.
This neighborhood in need of property value has become home to the Servicing Services Center.
It may be time to undergo the task of separating the passenger and freight train lines...
High upon a distant hill, the city's mountain sages: The Grand Library. With it I've unlocked the Hadron Collider, which educates the entire city, but I'm not going to build it yet because I'm trying to create a city of criminals here.
Well, this is going to call for drastic measures: I'm going to cause unemployment by shutting down the docks, freight stations, and forbidding heavy traffic in the forges. Sorry, Karlito. Just kidding, I'm remorseless. It's ironic that I started this session renewing the forge district, and now I'm destroying it again.
My next measure: Blanket 23% taxes. And a smoking ban.
Ahhh, tax complaints.
The darn do-gooders aren't committing any more crimes! And I
may have dropped the population to 30,000. Well, it looks like my experiment was a failure. The best I can do now is turn all the structures back on for Karlito to use next year. Hopefully I can have the city in some sort of array again before my turn ends...
I'm plonking the Hadron Collider down next to the airport, since it's a noisy building that doesn't add land value. We have enough money in the coffers to move it if somebody wants.
Miraculously, with the influx of new residents, a bunch of residential buildings are upgrading to maximum level.
We also have top-level offices appearing. Something about shutting all the services and turning them on again does wonders for leveling up buildings. I wonder if they "forgot" that they already received the benefits of those same services in order to level up last time?
Aside from the ones that are still abandoned (I'm not knocking them down, so they can be re-inhabited) or suffering a shortage of workers, it seems like every building in the city has suddenly increased to maximum level.
SOMEHOW, my deliberate attempts to ruin the city have at once failed to ruin the city in the particular way I wanted it ruined, caused most of the population to flee, and then caused every stagnant district to level up drastically. We still only have about 70,000 citizens and the weekly budget is in the red, but we're recovering rapidly. I'm going to call it a victory.
Still, I didn't get my 50% crime rate! I looked around online, and aside from strategies that involve messing with your city extremely early on to unlock the courthouse, most people (including the developers) claim that you just have to decrease happiness (usually by shutting down services) and there will be crime. Of course, I way overdid it with my tax rate and caused everyone to flee the city like Godzilla was knocking on the door for tax payments. Am I supposed to walk some fine line where citizens are unhappy enough to commit crimes, but not unhappy enough to move out of the city?
THE SAVE
Author
Topic: Cities: Slaves to Armok Succession Game! Players wanted! (Read 13295 times)