Why Tropico6 and not Cities: Skylines?

[对不起我只会说英语]

I am currently looking for a city builder game to chill but I am conflicted whether or not to get Tropico 6 or Cities: Skylines. It seems to me as if Cities: Skylines is the more popular and well received game, but I also think that Tropico 6 looks very interesting.

So to players who own both, why Tropico 6 and not Cities: Skylines?

[Kunovega]

Tropico isn't a city builder unless you ignore the actual game and only play sandbox, in which case it's a limited city builder with not much to do.

Cities skylines is a citybuilder with more city planning options, but no story or gameplay challenges

Tropico is a dictator sim that happens to let you build cities across a series of missions and challenges, assuming you play the actual game and not just putter around in the sandbox like a fishbowl

[GOLDI MAFIA]

Cities Skyline is more realistic and detailed in building a city. One small example all the different road type options, 1-way, 2-way, highway, ramps etc etc... The missions are fun in both. When you do a mission in Cities again, you feel like it would be a real life situation. I find Tropico 6 easier to jump right into, less complex and comes with a story-line you follow along during the game. Both are excellent value games. One of the things to be prepared for in Cities is the amount of downloadable content$$ which of course is optional.

[rbgaming]

I'll swear by the tropico series though. If you ever find it not challenging enough, there are very difficult strategy levels, including navigating invasions, heavy taxes that only increase, uprisings, and natural disasters, all of which can seriously throw a wrench in your city and economy planning. I've played cities skylines as well, but I found it not to my liking because of the lack of story and personal investment beyond 'making something work'. Tropico 5 and Tropico 6 are really so much fun. I've played the series since the first game, and will continue to enjoy the series for as long as it continues!

[对不起我只会说英语]

To all of the 3 replies above, many thanks! I appreciate the feedback 🙂so it seems to me like I have the wrong impression of Tropico 6 which I thought was a pure city builder, but base on what you guys tell me, it's a bit closer to Frostpunk although less brutal.

Frankly I don't know if I'd prefer some challenges in Tropico 6 (which I think is fun coming from Rimworld) or the "chillness" of Cities: Skylines. But anyway you guys helped in making me understand their difference. Thanks!

[Gustavo]

Tropico is a people manager.
The buildings and building placements are more restricted, but you can still strategize, roleplay, and be very creative with the game.

[UNHALLOWED]

Controller support.

[steveg700]

Honestly, Cities Skylines has no gameplay. It's just sort of an ant farm you sit and watch. You build buildings that make money to buy more buildings that make money. Upkeep won't exceed profits, so you'll never have boom-and-bust phases except at the very early stages of the game. I quickly reached a point where the only puzzle-like aspect of the game was optimizing traffic congestion.

In Tropico, there are political factions both at home and abroad. There are goals to meet, people to keep happy. Unhappy citizens will turn into rebels and attack.

There's also way more planning, with having to appease the eight different happiness conditions and set up buildings within the radius of media and public service buildings.

[Arcade Bumstead]

Oh right. I totally forgot I have that game.
but why not Anno Domini at that point?

[对不起我只会说英语]

Originally posted by steveg700:

Honestly, Cities Skylines has no gameplay. It's just sort of an ant farm you sit and watch. You build buildings that make money to buy more buildings that make money. Upkeep won't exceed profits, so you'll never have boom-and-bust phases except at the very early stages of the game. I quickly reached a point where the only puzzle-like aspect of the game was optimizing traffic congestion.

In Tropico, there are political factions both at home and abroad. There are goals to meet, people to keep happy. Unhappy citizens will turn into rebels and attack.

There's also way more planning, with having to appease the eight different happiness conditions and set up buildings within the radius of media and public service buildings.

I bought Cities because of higher playerbase (so I assumed many people prefer it) and was cheaper. And yeah it does feel like an ant farm after you get everything to work. You just find a way to make your city look pretty afterwards.

But do you think Tropico 6 also has that aspect? Is it visually good and could you see traffic and people go out from their homes or ride cars?

The political aspect seems interesting to me though apart from the visuals 🙂

[steveg700]

Originally posted by A.:

Originally posted by steveg700:

Honestly, Cities Skylines has no gameplay. It's just sort of an ant farm you sit and watch. You build buildings that make money to buy more buildings that make money. Upkeep won't exceed profits, so you'll never have boom-and-bust phases except at the very early stages of the game. I quickly reached a point where the only puzzle-like aspect of the game was optimizing traffic congestion.

In Tropico, there are political factions both at home and abroad. There are goals to meet, people to keep happy. Unhappy citizens will turn into rebels and attack.

There's also way more planning, with having to appease the eight different happiness conditions and set up buildings within the radius of media and public service buildings.

I bought Cities because of higher playerbase (so I assumed many people prefer it) and was cheaper. And yeah it does feel like an ant farm after you get everything to work. You just find a way to make your city look pretty afterwards.

But do you think Tropico 6 also has that aspect? Is it visually good and could you see traffic and people go out from their homes or ride cars?

The political aspect seems interesting to me though apart from the visuals 🙂

Well, has tat conflict element where you place defenses and use pirates, commandos, and spies to engage in raids and counter-espionage. A rebel attack can handily devastate your tourism industry (I actually think the way it works now is pretty broken though).

Like most games, the normal difficulty is essentially Easy Mode once you get the hang of it, so you'll either wind up paying on harder settings or you'll just have to come up with your own house rules to keep things challenging.

And yes, you can see people as they go about. You can select individuals to see what their current activities and needs are. You can issue an order to arrest or execute them and an officer will go perform the deed. You can also follow teamster trrucks to see what deliveries they;re making. Tropico's scale isn't as massive as Cities, so you're going to more zoomed in.

[clop1000]

I suppose there are more production lines, Tropico close to anno/settlers in a way, that there is a lot of production.

[Dis-member]

Originally posted by A.:

But do you think Tropico 6 also has that aspect? Is it visually good and could you see traffic and people go out from their homes or ride cars?

i feel like most of how tropico works is because of the "people" as someone said earlier. its more of a people manager then a city management game.

If your productivity doesnt work it will litterally be because your citizens aren't in their building working or aren't transporting goods.
Problems are usually solved by finding out why they aren't doing those things and fixing it.

if your aim is to play a game where the core is following people and making a city surounding them/making a city that has to work for them then tropico is litterally perfect imo.

[对不起我只会说英语]

Originally posted by Dis-member:

i feel like most of how tropico works is because of the "people" as someone said earlier. its more of a people manager then a city management game.

If your productivity doesnt work it will litterally be because your citizens aren't in their building working or aren't transporting goods.
Problems are usually solved by finding out why they aren't doing those things and fixing it.

if your aim is to play a game where the core is following people and making a city surounding them/making a city that has to work for them then tropico is litterally perfect imo.

I already got Cities: Skylines so I think I can clearly follow what you're talking about since that game doesn't have politics in it. I still have my eyes on Tropico though. Do you think this game would appeal to a player who lives in a country with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ politics? Lol.

[Oddible]

Yes. I love both games. Tropico is such an amazing balance of challenge and simplicity. I come back to Tropico more than Cities. Cities gets significantly more complex and you will definitely need to do your research to do well. You'll need to watch a LOT of video instructions, particularly around traffic. Tropico needs none of that you can just play.

Since you've bought Cities, definitely watch Biffa's videos, particularly about traffic. His series where people send him cities with terrible problems and he fixes them are awesome.

[对不起我只会说英语]

Originally posted by Oddible:

Yes. I love both games. Tropico is such an amazing balance of challenge and simplicity. I come back to Tropico more than Cities. Cities gets significantly more complex and you will definitely need to do your research to do well. You'll need to watch a LOT of video instructions, particularly around traffic. Tropico needs none of that you can just play.

Since you've bought Cities, definitely watch Biffa's videos, particularly about traffic. His series where people send him cities with terrible problems and he fixes them are awesome.

Lol, traffic is one of my issues. I am bad at managing it since there are so many types of roads and the main starting tends to be congested. But oh well 🤷🏻‍♂️