So I was recently playing the demo to "Children of the Nile: Enhanced Edition" when it crashed and wiped about five hours of work. What intrigued me the most was that I immediately felt the urge to start it up again and start from scratch, even though it was past midnight.
I figured it would probably be best to leave it alone, and instead play one of the City-building games I actually own tomorrow.
There's one slight hitch with this... All the ones I have use that nutty system where you have service people rigidly following the streets, utterly incapable of choosing their own direction, unless they're hauling a wheelbarrow full of fish or are enrolled in the military.
What I liked about CoTN was that the people could walk around on their own. You didn't even need streets at all, they could just walk between the buildings most of the time (I say most because there were a few times when the pathfinding would freak out and I'd be stuck with a couple royal servants trying to walk through the wall of a shop. They were out there for weeks man...).
Because of this, I was able to build my city using a grid of streets measured out to contain a 6x6 area inside of which I could place whatever I wanted. This not only kept the city organized and uncluttered, it also looked pretty damn sharp and even did an alright job of accommodating temporary construction stockpiles (place a brickyard and a couple bricklayer huts in the middle 2x2 for the duration of the construction, and replace it with a pretty garden afterwards. Or don't). Attempting a grid plan in something like Zeus or Caesar would result in hairbrained civilians wandering around and being useless.
I was wondering if any of you fortress enthusiasts could point me in the direction of a citybuilder that has this kind of free movement, or would otherwise encourage sensible city layouts. Or at least is very elegant about those nutty streetwalkers.
I have certain reservations about anything in the SimCity franchise, but if someone can vouch for an individual's merit I would be game to give it a go. Same goes for similar games.
In conclusion, I would like to dedicate a tiny portion of this post simply to honor the glory of Beasts and Bumpkins, a true gem which could arguably fall into this category. Majesty also receives an honorable mention, but it's not firmly enough entrenched in this genre to get the full wallop. Still a grand game though.