Building unlocks are not good

[B✪✪tsy]

Well, some building unlocks are not good and makes no sense. A unique building unlock suposed to be a reward/achievement, but some of the unique buildings only get unlocked when you do really bad and totally mess up the city. Such as getting a 50% crime rate to unlock a special building, or having a really filthy city, and like that there are an other few of those unlocks that only unlock when you do really really bad. I want to build up a city, not wreck it!.

Other then that I love this sim! :)

[256MB of SPAM]

Im pretty much the same as yourself in that regard. I have no interest in messing up my city, just to unlock those buildings.

From what i heard, those unlocks are 'universal'; meaning that you can fill the pre-requisites, unlock the building(s) and load up your saved game. They should still be there and your city wont be in tatters.

I havent done that yet, but i plan to.

[B✪✪tsy]

I haven't done that either, but if that works then it's at least a way to get around that, they are still lame and unlogical unlocks though.. So far I am really playing to get the biggest running city as possible. I played almost 50 hours and I am still building up the first city (hence I don't want to wreck it)!

[256MB of SPAM]

Yeah im also on my first city. Spent a while earlier doing just what i said. Managed to unlock pretty much every *negative* one, apart from the one that involves you having to keep your crime rate above 50% for 4 weeks (?). Either its weeks or months. Managed to get to 3, then it dipped below 50% and i was back where i started. This happened twice. Its surprisingly tough trying to maintain such a high crime rate for so long, let alone get it to hit the 50% mark.

After 2 hours of trying ive devised various methods at quickly increasing the crime rate. Managing to stop everyone from exiting the city, so that they can continue to be robbed, seems to be the tricky part.

I was thinking to myself that this was an awful waste of... progression content (for want of a better phrase). Why not introduce those buildings via unlocking positive requirements? Like for instance: "keep unemployment at 3% for 6 months". At least then i can make my city better while striving to unlock something at the same time. Instead its; load up a savegame, ruin a city, load up city again, play.

After spending hours unlocking everything negative, bar the Law Court; i can honestly say i didnt have fun. Its was annoying.

So yeah, those unlocks ARE lame and make very little logical sense, considering the game is incredibly easy to do well at. IMO, its a game design flaw. As in the idea, is flawed.

[B✪✪tsy]

I am personally surpised that we are aparently one of the few that think this way about it. From game design standpoint it indeed absolutely makes no sense to trigger unlocks this way. My guess is that the devs did this to show people you can also wreck your city on purpose as a part of the gameplay, but they should not have used vital unlocks (game components) to tempt people to show the wrecking part of the game. Maybe when I am done with my current city I will go for the unlocks, till then I don't want to ruin my own gameplay.

[Scilly™]

Originally posted by B00tsy:

I am personally surpised that we are aparently one of the few that think this way about it. From game design standpoint it indeed absolutely makes no sense to trigger unlocks this way. My guess is that the devs did this to show people you can also wreck your city on purpose as a part of the gameplay, but they should not have used vital unlocks (game components) to tempt people to show the wrecking part of the game. Maybe when I am done with my current city I will go for the unlocks, till then I don't want to ruin my own gameplay.

Your looking at it in the wrong perspective! The main reason to play this genre is to build big efficent cities, I think they added this way to unlock to make you see your city in a different light. Personally i found it really funny watching my 30k pop city crumble only for me to save it as a seperate save and carry on in my un touched world with all unlocks.

Its kind of like questing in a mmo, no one wants to go kill 8 hob goblin, but if you do you can lvl up! Just enjoy the mayhem trying to get all negative unlocks at once and then keep building your main save :)

[256MB of SPAM]

Its quite difficult to hold 50% crime for concurrent weeks/months, once you have a large city (mine is 45k pop). Meaning, not only must you load up a save and watch your city get demolished (which isnt fun, for some of us anyway); but must also start up a new throw-away city, just to unlock that Law Court.

Also, having to turn all those services off over an over again, before running a full speed simulation, was very tedious. This again, was a large detraction from the fun i was having previously.

Thats why we believe it makes no logical sense. Consider i reached 80k pop and i want to build a monument, but i cant because i havent unlocked a certain building? Thats okay. Something to strive towards, no?

Yeah, but i cant unlock them unless i stop 'playing'. Thats not something i can strive towards in my current play-through.

To use another game comparison as well; Its like Battlefield 4. Imagine that in order to unlock a gun, you must go one full game with no kills and 20 deaths.

Not fun.

As in that example, pretty much all unlocks involve you having to do something positive. Some being a lot more challenging than others.

So i ask myself then, why is it there? What logical sense IS there in having the barrier to monuments the way it is?

The only answer i can come up with is; longevity. Due to the fact that they are universal unlocks, the devs want you to create multiple cities (attempts) which in turn will increase the longevity of the game.

I find thats stretching it a bit. Even though i have no intention of creating a new map/city, i find that i STILL wouldnt get half of them, unless i PURPOSELY played bad. So what im saying is i cant see myself getting some of them, even with multiple playthroughs (different cities).

I would like to point out, im enjoying this game a fair bit and im not attempting to slate it. I just find this choice in game design, a bit odd.

[Tubatic]

I think its a neat way to do things. Its certainly counter intuitive, but I look at it as a fun way to think outside of the box and play with the city builder. I think the one for the observatory is to have lots of abandoned buildings? crazy!

come to think of it, maybe I'll download that GTA V savegame map and wreck that! Might be fun. ;)

[Schobbob]

50% crime unlock is total ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and not fun at all, I hate that I have to spend time purposely trying to ruin a city to unlock things.

[Costarring]

It shows what goes wrong under certain conditions (can be insightfull)
You only have to do each once.
The unlocks are open for each consecutive game.

Yep, a bit silly to do on purpose, IRL. But not something to be upset about.

[256MB of SPAM]

So i poisoned and subjected my population to widespread theft. That led to them abandoning the city in droves. Who would have guessed? It was a very insightful excursion. :)

It'd be nice if there was a mod that addressed this, further down the line. When people have played the game out a bit more and are looking for more challenging progression curve. That'd be worth starting up a new city for. When modders understand the game better, they may be able to provide alternative goals for those building unlocks. Ones that can make the game itself a lot more challenging, in a positive way.

What we're talking about is a waste of progression content. Or rather, suggesting that something better could be done with the assets. No one in this discussion seems overly upset about it (apart from the frustration involved in trying to get the Crime unlock w/ large city) considering we're all enjoying the game regardless.

[Gnejs]

Most of these "negative" unlock are pretty easy to do with any city and once they are done just load a save prior to your "experiment".
The crime one is not really feasible on a large city, much easier to create a new city, just build the zones and usual stuff and skip the police station and school(used smoke and pet ban as well, not sure if it helps), put on max speed and within 15 min or so you should have it done. It is not hard at all.

All unlocks are global so, once unlocked, just go back to your regular city and enjoy the unlocks.

Just think of the unlocks as achievements, doing something out of the ordinary.

[256MB of SPAM]

Yeah unfortunately i did it with my current large city, unaware of how easy it would have been to just start a new one until i had read it in a thread, later. Took me a lot longer than 15 mins i can assure you. ;)

I had read that crime is directly tied to hapiness, which means the smoking and pet ban should help go towards increasing the crime rate, yes.

And i would think of the buildings as achievements, if it wasnt for them being tied to the monuments and that there is really no sense of accomplishment that comes with them.

[Tarot1970]

They encourage you to make more than one city.

I'll take that as a good thing.

[Black Jade]

Originally posted by B00tsy:

Well, some building unlocks are not good and makes no sense. A unique building unlock suposed to be a reward/achievement, but some of the unique buildings only get unlocked when you do really bad and totally mess up the city. Such as getting a 50% crime rate to unlock a special building, or having a really filthy city, and like that there are an other few of those unlocks that only unlock when you do really really bad. I want to build up a city, not wreck it!.

Other then that I love this sim! :)

Well, i view it as a not vital thing. I view it as a part of unlocking a cheat code. I have personally obtained all the monuments myself. Monuments are nothing more than legit cheating in the game, having them in the map makes the game extremely easy. These buildings make most of the service buildings in the game obselete.

I do agree on some parts of what you have said, but only unique buildings that lead to 2 monuments ( eden project and the hospital) requires you to go out of way to get them., IE recking your city.

[B✪✪tsy]

Originally posted by Black Jade:

Originally posted by B00tsy:

Well, some building unlocks are not good and makes no sense. A unique building unlock suposed to be a reward/achievement, but some of the unique buildings only get unlocked when you do really bad and totally mess up the city. Such as getting a 50% crime rate to unlock a special building, or having a really filthy city, and like that there are an other few of those unlocks that only unlock when you do really really bad. I want to build up a city, not wreck it!.

Other then that I love this sim! :)

Well, i view it as a not vital thing. I view it as a part of unlocking a cheat code. I have personally obtained all the monuments myself. Monuments are nothing more than legit cheating in the game, having them in the map makes the game extremely easy. These buildings make most of the service buildings in the game obselete.

I do agree on some parts of what you have said, but only unique buildings that lead to 2 monuments ( eden project and the hospital) requires you to go out of way to get them., IE recking your city.

I simply want all content, if only it's for the city design and visual aspect of it. I would have prefered if those buildings were tied to positive achievements as thats the logical way of gaining rewards in a 'building' game where you 'construct' a city.

It's not game braking or anything, I am having fun non the less. Just saying :>