Career mode and challenges

[Born to Coom]

I've seen that the sandbox is pretty much creative mode.
But I'm curious to know what awaits someone in career mode.

Is it just game with money and research.
Or are there challenge scenarios, objectives and such?

I really enjoyed two point hospital having all the different scenarios to mix up the building of it.

[Born to Coom]

Also curious to know how challenging the game really gets.

[Wenju]

Originally posted by Born to Coom:

I really enjoyed two point hospital having all the different scenarios to mix up the building of it.

Not many scenarios (like 2 point hospital), think more like a steady grown, more like star dew valley.
On hard mode,
Every week, you get a little more students, but you have to balance training, new facilities and commodities. You cant rush it, every week a little better, every week more money. If no earthquake 5.9 sets you back 200k, eventually you cross that hill and start to make a good amount to rush the end game, getting epic teachers and getting all required facilities.
Make sure to keep those grades up.
I loved it, scratches that 1 more day part of the brain.

[vonMoo]

It's like pretty much all management simulations: the challenge at first comes from figuring the basics out, getting systems in place that work, and prioritizing what you develop and build to make good use of resources. After that it's about picking up some of the more subtle stuff that's happening and adapting to it, then optimization of your systems, and finally perfecting things in terms of aesthetics, flows and efficiency in ways that are satisfying for you.

In other words, if you are motivated to understand the game so you can optimize and perfect there's plenty of challenge.

There are objectives: in the short term these are staged goals that pop up occasionally, to build some facility or the other, in the long term there are victory goals that provide end game win states (you can continue playing after reaching these, and can reach more than one with a single school).

Unlike many other management builder games let's school has computer controlled competitors. These are other schools, which compete for students as you expand.

In career mode, the rate at which you progress is constrained by resource income, forcing you to prioritize for optimal expansion.

[Born to Coom]

Originally posted by vonMoo:

It's like pretty much all management simulations: the challenge at first comes from figuring the basics out, getting systems in place that work, and prioritizing what you develop and build to make good use of resources. After that it's about picking up some of the more subtle stuff that's happening and adapting to it, then optimization of your systems, and finally perfecting things in terms of aesthetics, flows and efficiency in ways that are satisfying for you.

In other words, if you are motivated to understand the game so you can optimize and perfect there's plenty of challenge.

There are objectives: in the short term these are staged goals that pop up occasionally, to build some facility or the other, in the long term there are victory goals that provide end game win states (you can continue playing after reaching these, and can reach more than one with a single school).

Unlike many other management builder games let's school has computer controlled competitors. These are other schools, which compete for students as you expand.

In career mode, the rate at which you progress is constrained by resource income, forcing you to prioritize for optimal expansion.

Thank you for the detailed response.

Do you feel the game has enough dynamics/mechanics to keep you on your toes? Even after you have most figured out and things are somewhat smooth does it throw challenges in there like harder exams or such to force you to rethink your approach?

Also I've seen the mention of maps in the game but fail to find how many maps there really are.

[vonMoo]

You're welcome.

There are three maps, two are tropical, one is more alpine. They have different heating and cooling needs over the seasons, but the otherwise differences are mostly thematic. The alpine map is actually slightly easier, as it happens, due to not needing cooling in the summer.


Does the game keep me on my toes... yes and no.

In career mode, the drive to evolve doesn't let up for most of the game, even for some time after getting the first or second victory condition. There's a battle with stability well into the mid game: keeping facilities adequate for a growing and more demanding population, and balancing expansion with earthquake proofing particularly. Even at normal difficulty income is quite limiting for some time. And there isn't a single approach to research and upgrading that's obviously the best.

On the other hand I'm three hundred hours in and know how to avoid problems and grow efficiently, so for me now it's about doing it smoothly while staying consistent with theme I pick for my school.


You mentioned harder exams. As you expand into new school districts, the educational demand increases, so of course you need to keep on top of recruiting better staff, researching more advanced courses, and researching and buying more efficient facilities. But even without expansion, there's the option to develop the districts you already recruit students from: this makes the exams more difficult and in turn provides a higher resource income. It's also quite expensive.