Nice "city planning" game

[Brady Gunner]

90% of the "gameplay" consists of you just being AFK and not even playing the game, waiting for the money to build up so you can afford to expand without stupid loans.

Honestly this game encourages you to stay below 440 population and make as much moneg as possible so you don't have to worry about garbage, hospitals and the other stuff later on.

First you need to build a treasury of like a million bucks

[Mr.D]

There's a mod for that

[Espio]

Na Mate,stop whinging. look in the menu under mods, you can switch on unlimited money so that you never worry about money again.

[bear]

I've never played this game in that way and have been successful. Yes, you can easily over-extend, but it's not too hard to grow a decent city steadily.

[Brady Gunner]

I know there's a mod for it but that's not the true experience. What I'm saying is that the base game without mods and cheats encourages you to literally not play the game by forcing you to stay afk most of the gameplay.

[MaxFX]

You don't need mods. You just have to grow your city further, and play through.

In the beginning the difference between your income and costs is very small. So yes, it can take a while before you've gathered enough money to buy that service building you so gladly want to build.

But then you're not playing the game as it should. When you reach a milestone, certain buildings get unlocked. But this doesn't mean you have to build them all at once, or even for a while. Especially considering they even reduce your income further.

Instead focus on building roads, creating more zoneable space, and grow your city further. Your income will increase because there are more taxpayers, and eventually the need for the next service building is presented. By that time your income should have grown enough to easily buy and manage this service building.

As your city grows, the difference between your income and costs (if you play it right, and keep a close eye on your budget) gets bigger, resulting in incomes of several thousands per week. Especially when you can build specialized industries, that generate more income.

So in short: Yes, in the beginning it takes quite a while before you've gathered enough money for a service building, but eventually things start to speed up.

Here a link to the games wiki page. It contains some very helpfull tips: https://skylines.paradoxwikis.com/Beginner%27s_guide

[OneJasonBradly]

I have never played by waiting or as you state, "90% of the "gameplay" consists of you just being AFK and not even playing the game, waiting for the money to build up". I never go AFK without pausing the game first. Starting a city can be challenging but its not as you say unless you are not paying attention to the budget panel. Budget back or down on services when the city is small. No need to fund police 100% for a tiny town. Same for fire, health, water, power and even schools, though I do fund education above 100% but after I have a steady tax base. Same with roads, don't go six lanes or four lanes until you learn how to get traffic to use the other lanes firstly. If traffic is getting congested or thick improve/upgrade the intersection, not the whole road length.
In fact whenever I get a city needing help or checked out I often revert it back from the "Infinite funds" mod and get the treasury in the positive + before handing the game file back. Even there I don't go AFK to do this transition or wait for funds to arrive.
EDIT: I as well play at 35% of normal play speed too.

[Jimmy]

That is not my experience at all. I did have that problem in sim city 2013 but in this game once you get say an hour in the money just starts pouring in and you cant spend it fast enough. my current city of 150K sits at 2% tax and still makes 10k a week.

I actually consider it a flaw, the economy is unbalanced but in completely the opposite way of what you describe.

[Streeto]

It only takes a few hours to break through the low population woes for me, the start is always the hardest. After 2-3k pop. you can relax a little.

[Brady Gunner]

Originally posted by chimeran_dragon:

Just rob Paradox and Colossal Order if you need money. It's not robbery if they sold you a defective and deceptive game.

I would if I could but they'd still call me a robber

[Brady Gunner]

Originally posted by Streeto:

It only takes a few hours to break through the low population woes for me, the start is always the hardest. After 2-3k pop. you can relax a little.

The start is the easiest lol. I got like 20k pop and that's when the problems really started kicking in lol

[LeonardMT]

Originally posted by Brady Gunner:

Originally posted by Streeto:

It only takes a few hours to break through the low population woes for me, the start is always the hardest. After 2-3k pop. you can relax a little.

The start is the easiest lol. I got like 20k pop and that's when the problems really started kicking in lol

Maybe you're just bad at the game

[John]

Just quit building cities and stick with Industrial Centers. You can always add a small 600k - 700k support city later on if you like.

[Brady Gunner]

Originally posted by doc mod:

Just quit building cities and stick with Industrial Centers. You can always add a small 600k - 700k support city later on if you like.

I genuinely don't understand what you even mean

[YoongZY]

I won't go AFK if i don't turn off random natural disasters.

[ECV]

If I want a "perfect city" right from the start, I actually did the milestone money afk thingy for quite a while.
I discovered that organically changing and growing my city works better for me. Much more involved, and no afk time needed.
Once industry kicks in, money isn't the problem anymore. Traffic and logistics will be, at least without mods :)
Just my opinion based on my experience of course