Project Highrise: managed to kickstart my bee-hiveTrump Tower on Hard, finally! Doom and Gloom’s VI, it’s called.
All that it took was:
- taking every loan in sight as long as I was generating enough profit to stay in the black (the starting funds are ridiculous)
- consistently under delivering on every service that was requested, and ignoring the complaints
- cutting every cost-saving corner that made sense
- cutting every cost-saving corner that didn’t, such as deploying wiring cabinets (that have a recurring upkeep cost) in place of laying down more cabling
- confining offices in the basement to save on utility connection costs (cabling again)
- consistently applying the highest rent hikes I could get away with
- and even those I couldn’t as long as it didn’t result in the office leaving, when I couldn’t afford that
- but conveniently ignoring those which would lead to them leaving, because that costs less than evicting (that’s how I plan to make room in the basement, if you’re wondering)
- sign as many contracts as I could, that are feasible, but without actively working towards them (this is something you can get away with at lower difficulties), and letting the money roll in whenever the goal is hit
So for the most part, an accurate simulation of dick-head, penny-pinching, value juice extractorProgressive, Upstanding, Corporatively Socially Responsible Entrepreneur who has the Public Good in mind.
Overall I think we’re in agreement, it’s a number of things that are almost there but not quite, starting from the UI itself, which isn’t outright bad, but has a number of niggles.
The mechanical part of the simulation seems taken from an early SimCity game (I have never played SimTower so I can’t say), replace pollution with noise and smells, should be about there.
In my previous mess of a tower, which I started on the default level (Beginner?), I would just compartmentalize things, so I would have noise/smell generators (services for offices, food serving areas) on one side, and the offices on the other.
In that instance, I made the mistake of trying to put apartments inside the same structure, which I’m NOT going to repeat, assuming I keep playing. I picked an Extra Large Lot so I don’t have space problems (thought picking Hard was enough already).
The game also conveys a weird ‘tension’ to me, like, rushed when I’m actively playing (stay on top of everything that needs micromanaging!) but then there’s this downtimes where I’m mostly staring blankly at the screen and waiting for stuff to reach the point where I can interact with it again (though I suppose these may go away later, when the building is more developed)
Lastly, there are some cheap pieces of DLCs that should at least be doing something to dispel that sense of sameness, which, BTW, reminds me of something: I’m not crazy about the art-style either.
One could think it a minor thing, but while building my bee-hive of creatives, and lawyers, and accountants, etc, I cannot really spot at a glance which is which, the designs lack that immediateness.
I don’t doubt budget has something to do with all the annoyances, but still.
Have you tried Kingdoms and Castles? Seems to get very decent user response, looks very appealing.
I also have Lethis sitting in my wishlist for a long time now (what, 2 years already?). And Clockwork Empires, of course.
At the same time you have this puzzle of conflicting needs and wants that needs untangling; I’m not sure you get to appreciate that in two hours, nevertheless, that’s hardly buckets of fun.