Not much left to do after you hit "Megalopolis"

[Prisoner 76561197992841073]

By the time you hit 75,000 pop (my hometown has 250,000 and would never be considered a megalopolis unless it hit like 30 million peeps like Tokyo or something) , you're pretty much rolling in the cash, have no energy/water problems forever, pollution/traffic is minimal and everything is just perfect.

Then once you build those monuments (cheat buildings), then city building has just become a joke.

[PsyduckPhan]

Well, this game actually simulates the life of each citizen: did they move to the town or born there? How educated are they? How old? How sick? How happy? Do they use public transportation? Etc. I think that this is the reason that the game maxes out at around 80,000 citizens for a megalopolis. Quite frankly, simulating 3 million people is just overkill. My biggest city right now has 90,000 people and it's about as spacious and dense (building-wise) as NYC.

And, there's still plenty to do in the game! Try to improve your city to perfection: can you have a city that requires no taxes!? No sound pollution to any citizen? Try it. Or, just make a new city and try to see how well you can do with different policies or industrial practices, etc.

[grapplehoeker]

Then you build another and another and another. You try to design it differently each time, you use different maps. The city you build on Flatlands 2.5 for example would never be the same as the city you would build on La Riviera. Try Drakedge's 100k challenge maps or make one of your own.
You create your own challenges with this, the only limits are your imagination.

[Burlokk]

you have tons of maps to play on and design different cities.
There is endless amount of replayablity if you are not a square city builder :)

[Tornado_J1]

I agree with the others... There's a lot that can be done in this. I have a second city based on the same map I used originally and the second go around is much different. I even have over 260k people and growing.

Sure the growing pains are gone but there are still maintenance problems and other things that need attention such as trash, and facility maintenance.

[Phoenix C64]

Originally posted by disease:

By the time you hit 75,000 pop (my hometown has 250,000 and would never be considered a megalopolis unless it hit like 30 million peeps like Tokyo or something) , you're pretty much rolling in the cash, have no energy/water problems forever, pollution/traffic is minimal and everything is just perfect.

Then once you build those monuments (cheat buildings), then city building has just become a joke.

try build a new city with hard mode, any of these addons or a combination of all together:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=416577682

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=408706691

[Tsal Vlaxitov]

I think looking at this game as super goal oriented is a mistake. You mod, you get new stuff, you make maps of real areas, you don't build for maximum effiency everytime rather than perhaps something that looks natural, big low density areas, stuff that actually looks the part. Sometimes you don't go for megalopolis at all and go for a nice small town instead. Sometimes you spread megalopolis over a huge area instead of a two tile patch of straight skyscrapers.

Its a city building game, you build cities, winning means building said city the way you wanted to build it.

[Dexter]

I disagree with making the game harder as the solution.

The reason there isn't much to do once you hit megapolis is the game isn't really designed (in terms of mechanics and buildings) to be fun to play after that.

They really need to add modular or upgradeable service buildings, add more buildings to dole out after 75k population, redo how the monuments are unlocked (ie: ditch the stupid achievement-like system of unlocking the pre-requisite buildings) and completely rebalance the monuments.

If for example, monuments Large Hadron Collider or Medical Center doubled capacity and reduced cost of your service buildings, It woudl allow you to increase density and grow more smartly. Right now, those two are way overpowered. While the Space Elevator seems to cost way too much for marginal benefits. Same for the fusion plant.

There also ought to be monuments for Fire and Policing.

Lots of ways they can take this, but I totally agree, after you hit around 100k pop, and build the monuments, the game is much less fun. It's still possible to tweak but it's just not the same.

[Capt.Luke]

try to get to 1.000.000 population on 9 tiles, that the only goal.

[grapplehoeker]

Sometimes you just want to build a city so you can chill out and ride a train around it ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426738505

[76561197991858962]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Sometimes you just want to build a city so you can chill out and ride a train around it ;)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=426738505

THIS. So much this. Also, there's always something to do in the city once you reach the highest rank. For example, I just learned from another player that setting up parks next to industrial areas allows them to level up (generic industry only) and that by minimizing specialty parks and adding perks around them I can finally stop the cycle of abandoned buildings.

There's also new assets to try out from the Workshop, roads in the city that can be upgraded, whole areas that can be de-zoned, ways to reduce or even eliminate ground pollution. A few days ago I spent hours trying to retrofit a surface/elevated metro in my city while eliminating as much noise or without causing negative traffic flow impact. I had to allow two or three surface crossings in busy parts of the city but it worked!

So yeah, there's tons of stuff to do, and thanks to a gamer's willingness to expand/experiment plus the Workshop there's tons of replayability.

[Phoenix C64]

Originally posted by TheLoneWolf:

For example, I just learned from another player that setting up parks next to industrial areas allows them to level up (generic industry only)

this is totally false. maybe it does "help" a little, but is not needed to make parks in industry zones (unless your talking offices!?)

i am playing hard mode and i level my industry to lvl3 just fine without parks

you only need:
1) fire & police & health coverage
2) bus & metro coverage
3) cargo station coverage
4) make sure all above mentioned services have budget at 100% or higher (most people don't know this or forget it)

and your industry WILL level to 3, even more so if you're not playing hardmode

you can learn more about how to level any of your buildings with this addon:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=414469593

[76561197991858962]

Originally posted by Phoenix C64:

Originally posted by TheLoneWolf:

For example, I just learned from another player that setting up parks next to industrial areas allows them to level up (generic industry only)

this is totally false. maybe it does "help" a little, but is not needed to make parks in industry zones (unless your talking offices!?)

i am playing hard mode and i level my industry to lvl3 just fine without parks

you only need:
1) fire & police & health coverage
2) bus & metro coverage
3) cargo station coverage
4) make sure all above mentioned services have budget at 100% or higher (most people don't know this or forget it)

and your industry WILL level to 3, even more so if you're not playing hardmode

you can learn more about how to level any of your buildings with this addon:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=414469593

Thanks for the info - I'll research this when I get a chance. The aforementioned tips only helped up to a certain point.

[mlind1981]

I dont agree with this at all that there's nothing to do.. In reality it comes down to what you want to do with your city.. Im currently working on the map of Rio de Jainero.. and Im still miles away from being done.. I have access to everything yes.. but that most certainly only makes it a lot more complex and fun Imo.. However I really miss a modular airport..

[DidNotFinish]

I've never seen population as the goal of this game. Rather, creating a beautiful city which you enjoy looking at, whether it be a rural dusty town or a capitol city, has been my primary goal.

[Aenarion]

Originally posted by TheLoneWolf:

For example, I just learned from another player that setting up parks next to industrial areas allows them to level up (generic industry only)

It only makes any difference for generic industry? Damn, that's a lot of wasted parks (and time putting them there)...