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[micropolis] / src / notes / Strategy

From: skaven@carson.u.washington.edu (Willilam Gilliland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Micropolis Strategies for Success
Summary: How to build a better burg.
Date: 24 Oct 92 20:15:41 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle

What follows is the general strategy I use whenever I play 
Micropolis.  With it I have been able to build a self-sustaining
city of 270,000 on Medium without resorting to cheats such as
F-U-N-D or banzai taxation or the 'no disaster' setting.  
This strategy was based on a few ideas given to me by Kevin 
Ames (kja5@po.CWRU.edu) who has had a city last 1000 years,
long enough that two nuclear meltdowns have occured and the
radiation has decayed.  

Note, however, that this strategy will not let you keep 
growth going indefinately.  In about 250 years (at least the 
way I play) the screen is filled and the zones are at 
operating capacity.  While population will fluctuate due to 
the world economy (+/- about 10000 people) it will not grow 
significantly beyond that level.

This strategy is based on two principles in the game.

P1. Zones are affected greatest by the 1-thick row of spaces
surrounding them.

P2. The life or death of a city is based on cash flow.

Therefore, the strategy revolves around maximizing your 
income by affecting the spaces around every zone and at the
same time minimizing your expenses.  To do this you should
follow these guidelines.

1. MAXIMIZE zone contact with parks, forests, and shoreline. 
Since the important contact is the one space around them, to 
maximize your profit you should space zones one space apart, 
leaving a strip of forest between them.  Since I prefer maps 
with a river running down the middle, I will put zones in 
small blocks of 3 or 4 to increase density at the city 
center.  Any empty spaces should be filled with parks.

Since natural forests and shoreline are worth more than parks 
and bulldozed shoreline, you should always strive to preserve 
as much as you can while getting the most use out of them.

2. MINIMIZE the amount of rails, roads and power lines you 
have.  A good way to do this is to have a long straight road 
with zones along both sides of it.  Do NOT surround zones 
with roads like city blocks in real life -- this increases 
expenses for road maintenance, increases pollution, and 
lowers property values by reducing contact with forest/parks.  
Besides, only one contact space is necessary.  Since you can 
send power lines (perpendicularly) over road sections you 
should do this whenever possible, as it increases the space 
available for parks/forests.

Since roads are cheaper to build and maintain than rails you 
should keep them in the low-usage areas and keep the rails 
for the high usage areas.  Another way to reduce your rails 
is to have small 'buds' of zones connected by roads to a main 
rail strip.

An example of a 'long strip' is below.

  #########################################################
  #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#
  -rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr#
  #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#
  ==+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+==+###
  #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#
  #rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr#
  #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#
  #########################################################

#      forest or park        - power line
=      rail                  + power line crossing rail
r      r-zone
c      c-zone

3. MINIMIZE pollution near R and C zones.  The easiest way to 
do this is to bunch all your I-zones together at the 
periphery of the map, to leave the city center for the more 
valuable R and C zones.  You should also leave a 1-wide strip 
of parks between the zones to decrease the severity of the 
pollution.  Remember, roads add to pollution too, so if you 
have a lot of traffic put in rails.

4. MINIMIZE the number of police and fire stations while you 
MAXIMIZE coverage area.  The spacing takes practice to figure 
out, but on my screen the ideal spacing is to have the police 
stations in a triangular pattern that just fits on the 
screen.  In other words, I have two stations in the bottom 
corners of the window and one at the top in the center (or 
vice versa).  Concentrated police coverage is much more 
important than concentrated fire coverage, and I use a wider 
triangular pattern for fire departments.

While there are a number of tips to improve game play, these guidelines
are general patterns that, if followed, will let you build cities that have
a positive cash flow with a low tax level.  And that is all you need to have
cities last indefinately.

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   __                                                                    ____
  |  |                    The Missionary of Montlake                    /    \
  |~~|              Bill Gilliland, skaven@u.washington.edu             |    | 
 /    \                    Expatriate Member, SUDS                      |    |
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 |    |                        IN VINO VERITAS                          |    |
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