| 1 | From: skaven@carson.u.washington.edu (Willilam Gilliland) |
| 2 | Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games |
| 3 | Subject: Micropolis Strategies for Success |
| 4 | Summary: How to build a better burg. |
| 5 | Date: 24 Oct 92 20:15:41 GMT |
| 6 | Organization: University of Washington, Seattle |
| 7 | |
| 8 | What follows is the general strategy I use whenever I play |
| 9 | Micropolis. With it I have been able to build a self-sustaining |
| 10 | city of 270,000 on Medium without resorting to cheats such as |
| 11 | F-U-N-D or banzai taxation or the 'no disaster' setting. |
| 12 | This strategy was based on a few ideas given to me by Kevin |
| 13 | Ames (kja5@po.CWRU.edu) who has had a city last 1000 years, |
| 14 | long enough that two nuclear meltdowns have occured and the |
| 15 | radiation has decayed. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Note, however, that this strategy will not let you keep |
| 18 | growth going indefinately. In about 250 years (at least the |
| 19 | way I play) the screen is filled and the zones are at |
| 20 | operating capacity. While population will fluctuate due to |
| 21 | the world economy (+/- about 10000 people) it will not grow |
| 22 | significantly beyond that level. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | This strategy is based on two principles in the game. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | P1. Zones are affected greatest by the 1-thick row of spaces |
| 27 | surrounding them. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | P2. The life or death of a city is based on cash flow. |
| 30 | |
| 31 | Therefore, the strategy revolves around maximizing your |
| 32 | income by affecting the spaces around every zone and at the |
| 33 | same time minimizing your expenses. To do this you should |
| 34 | follow these guidelines. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | 1. MAXIMIZE zone contact with parks, forests, and shoreline. |
| 37 | Since the important contact is the one space around them, to |
| 38 | maximize your profit you should space zones one space apart, |
| 39 | leaving a strip of forest between them. Since I prefer maps |
| 40 | with a river running down the middle, I will put zones in |
| 41 | small blocks of 3 or 4 to increase density at the city |
| 42 | center. Any empty spaces should be filled with parks. |
| 43 | |
| 44 | Since natural forests and shoreline are worth more than parks |
| 45 | and bulldozed shoreline, you should always strive to preserve |
| 46 | as much as you can while getting the most use out of them. |
| 47 | |
| 48 | 2. MINIMIZE the amount of rails, roads and power lines you |
| 49 | have. A good way to do this is to have a long straight road |
| 50 | with zones along both sides of it. Do NOT surround zones |
| 51 | with roads like city blocks in real life -- this increases |
| 52 | expenses for road maintenance, increases pollution, and |
| 53 | lowers property values by reducing contact with forest/parks. |
| 54 | Besides, only one contact space is necessary. Since you can |
| 55 | send power lines (perpendicularly) over road sections you |
| 56 | should do this whenever possible, as it increases the space |
| 57 | available for parks/forests. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | Since roads are cheaper to build and maintain than rails you |
| 60 | should keep them in the low-usage areas and keep the rails |
| 61 | for the high usage areas. Another way to reduce your rails |
| 62 | is to have small 'buds' of zones connected by roads to a main |
| 63 | rail strip. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | An example of a 'long strip' is below. |
| 66 | |
| 67 | ######################################################### |
| 68 | #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr# |
| 69 | -rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr# |
| 70 | #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr# |
| 71 | ==+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+===+==+### |
| 72 | #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr# |
| 73 | #rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr#ccc-rrr#rrr-ccc#rrr-rrr# |
| 74 | #rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr#ccc#rrr#rrr# |
| 75 | ######################################################### |
| 76 | |
| 77 | # forest or park - power line |
| 78 | = rail + power line crossing rail |
| 79 | r r-zone |
| 80 | c c-zone |
| 81 | |
| 82 | 3. MINIMIZE pollution near R and C zones. The easiest way to |
| 83 | do this is to bunch all your I-zones together at the |
| 84 | periphery of the map, to leave the city center for the more |
| 85 | valuable R and C zones. You should also leave a 1-wide strip |
| 86 | of parks between the zones to decrease the severity of the |
| 87 | pollution. Remember, roads add to pollution too, so if you |
| 88 | have a lot of traffic put in rails. |
| 89 | |
| 90 | 4. MINIMIZE the number of police and fire stations while you |
| 91 | MAXIMIZE coverage area. The spacing takes practice to figure |
| 92 | out, but on my screen the ideal spacing is to have the police |
| 93 | stations in a triangular pattern that just fits on the |
| 94 | screen. In other words, I have two stations in the bottom |
| 95 | corners of the window and one at the top in the center (or |
| 96 | vice versa). Concentrated police coverage is much more |
| 97 | important than concentrated fire coverage, and I use a wider |
| 98 | triangular pattern for fire departments. |
| 99 | |
| 100 | While there are a number of tips to improve game play, these guidelines |
| 101 | are general patterns that, if followed, will let you build cities that have |
| 102 | a positive cash flow with a low tax level. And that is all you need to have |
| 103 | cities last indefinately. |
| 104 | |
| 105 | =============================================================================== |
| 106 | __ ____ |
| 107 | | | The Missionary of Montlake / \ |
| 108 | |~~| Bill Gilliland, skaven@u.washington.edu | | |
| 109 | / \ Expatriate Member, SUDS | | |
| 110 | | | | | |
| 111 | | | IN VINO VERITAS | | |
| 112 | | | \ / |
| 113 | | | "In Wine there is Truth" | | |
| 114 | \____/ |__| |