New to the game, have a question

[Kinja]

Hey, so i don't know if i missed a tutorial message on this or if it's just not well explained but there's something i don't understand. What's the motivation to upgrade towns beyond the ones closest to you? I kind of expected some sort of actual reward for giving them millions of dollars worth of materials for free but all i got was them opening a new shop that has nothing to do with my current industry so i kind of feel like i wasted money, especially in researching wall panels which no one on the map apparently wants to buy anyway.

Awesome game by the way, reminds me a lot of one of my favorite childhood games Trade Empires.

[Alex, Master Penguin]

Welcome to the game!

Towns need to expand to place new shops. It's the only way to sell higher tier stuff. Yes, the RNG didn't choose the shop you wanted, so now you can either help that town grow more, help another town, or change the specialisation to meet the new shop's demands. To get an idea of what shops might spawn, look at the town type. Diners appear more often in rural towns, clothing in light industry, etc. Keep this in mind when placing your HQ

[Kinja]

Originally posted by Alex, Master Penguin:

Welcome to the game!

Towns need to expand to place new shops. It's the only way to sell higher tier stuff. Yes, the RNG didn't choose the shop you wanted, so now you can either help that town grow more, help another town, or change the specialisation to meet the new shop's demands. To get an idea of what shops might spawn, look at the town type. Diners appear more often in rural towns, clothing in light industry, etc. Keep this in mind when placing your HQ

Hey, thanks for the quick reply :)

Is there any way to change a town's starting specialization? I started about 4 games so far but i seem to get shafted by the RNG every time with 4 industrial towns and only one of another type.

[Alex, Master Penguin]

Afraid not. You're an industrialist, not a mayor or a god. You play with the cards you're given. Note: lower chance doesn't mean no chance. Heavy industry towns will spawn diners

[Kinja]

Originally posted by Alex, Master Penguin:

Afraid not. You're an industrialist, not a mayor or a god. You play with the cards you're given. Note: lower chance doesn't mean no chance. Heavy industry towns will spawn diners

Well you could always implement the option to grease the right palms and get what we wanted built in town :)

One last question. Is there anything in particular that influences the frequency of contracts or is it pure RNG?

[Alex, Master Penguin]

Frequency is every 12 to 36 months, per town, so usually every year you should get one. Type is something you researched or very close to a known tech

[DailyDoseOfStress]

I can concur to this. I usually get the exact thing (Contract) or a an event to the vary building I plopped and research option I just got. I have a series going on Cars and Computers right now, going to try and record a few episodes for my series in the next couple of days. Plenty of fun and laughter so far. Let me know as well what I can help you with as I have lots of time invested in Railway Empire as well as this game. Cheers my friend.

[zeitbauer]

it's not really a model of an economy. in fact, even though it was sold to me as this economic sim, as soon as reality showed that it was nothing but a sandbox city builder, the dev's back-tracked and said it was only supposed to be for fun and not in any way a realistic sim at all. in fact, it's only a first-person tile-clicker.

[DailyDoseOfStress]

I disagree

[chris-tier]

Originally posted by zeitbauer:

it's not really a model of an economy. in fact, even though it was sold to me as this economic sim, as soon as reality showed that it was nothing but a sandbox city builder, the dev's back-tracked and said it was only supposed to be for fun and not in any way a realistic sim at all. in fact, it's only a first-person tile-clicker.

Who hurt you?

Cities:Skylines is a city builder. Where does this compare to RoI? You don't build roads, handle city traffic, build houses or shops. All you do is supply materials/products and make money from that. That's kind of the definition of an industrial simulation for me.

[Alex, Master Penguin]

Originally posted by zeitbauer:

it's not really a model of an economy. in fact, even though it was sold to me as this economic sim, as soon as reality showed that it was nothing but a sandbox city builder, the dev's back-tracked and said it was only supposed to be for fun and not in any way a realistic sim at all. in fact, it's only a first-person tile-clicker.

Never said it was an economic simulator. I personally suck at math, so I'd never make one. This is an industrial sim, reminiscing the good old times I had as a kid playing similar games in the early 90s. Would like to know what made you feel that I back-tracked anything

[Cougarific]

So the way I'm viewing this after a few hours with AI competition and other-town-upgrades is that you're in a position to be a bit pickier about what production lines you seek out going forward.

When first placing your HQ your options are pretty limited with only one Tier 2 shop available.

By the time you're in a position to start upgrading other towns you can be like "Okay that region has Coal and Iron Ore so I'm going to roll the dice and upgrade that region's town and hope to get some kind of steel outlet."

Or "this region has Copper and Gas so I'm going to spend my upgrade money here and hope to get a Household Goods store".

It's a little hit-or-miss and I miss the old indicator in the Town panel that told you what outlet the town was going to build when upgrading.

Having ^that info available again would give you more opportunities to really plan ahead and make smart decisions about which town to upgrade (at significant expense).

Good gaming is about making tough, meaningful choices (Sid Meier), and right now the which-town-to-upgrade choices are more about gambling than thinking things through.

(Also, would really like to be able to hide or dismiss the "wants to advance" notifications once I've seen them).

[Alex, Master Penguin]

Completely agree, and this is taken into account for A11. It will be very clear and simple to decide what town(s) to help

[Cougarific]

Excellent, thanks Alex.

[DailyDoseOfStress]

This is great info ... I had no idea honestly, I just thought it was pure RNG

Originally posted by Alex, Master Penguin:

Welcome to the game!

Towns need to expand to place new shops. It's the only way to sell higher tier stuff. Yes, the RNG didn't choose the shop you wanted, so now you can either help that town grow more, help another town, or change the specialisation to meet the new shop's demands. To get an idea of what shops might spawn, look at the town type. Diners appear more often in rural towns, clothing in light industry, etc. Keep this in mind when placing your HQ