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Growth mechanics for city builder

Erik · 2017-08-02T10:13:08

Hi Im planning a medieval city builder / sim inspired by the stronghold, banished and anno series. For population growth a common mechanics is either you need to maintain positive "happiness" (stronghold series) or you supply more and more goods/services to get higher level inhabitants (anno series). You also need houses but that's basically a given. An idea i have: You have a pop cap initially. To raise it you need to add goods/services but you choose what and in what order. Then the % of the population who has access to these goods/services determines your city's increased pop cap, the info screen for it could look something like: Base pop cap 20 Ale (53 %) +5 cap Religion (21%) +2 cap Pottery (100%) +10 cap Food variety ( 3 types) +6 cap Total pop cap: 43 What do you think? The idea is to let the player have more freedom in how he/she develops the city depending on the map resources and other factors such as climate.

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by suliman July 26, 2017 08:07 AM

10 comments, last by suliman 6 years, 11 months ago

suliman

1,720

Author

August 02, 2017 10:13 AM

There is no harassment as there is no real "opponent" though.

Giving pop cap for "achievements" such as having consumed a certain no of goods is a fun idea, but wouldnt it reward the player for just letting time pass? My suggestion of giving pop cap for % of supplied population rewards the player for having a generally "better" city overall, which seems more intuitive.

The + cap for "wonder" buildings however I like, I already planned giving some bonus for prestige buildings like cathedrals and such.

Thoughts?