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View Full Version : A Suburban/City builder conversion? *long read-big idea*


Pugz
22-06-2007, 10:52
Sorry this is a lot to read, but after playing 1701, I am excited at the dream possibilities it has to be a present day city builder.

There hasn't and probably wont be a really good present day "Simcity" so to speak as Simcity Societies is going down a different path, and City Life just didn't fulfill the potential as well as the fact that 1701 is already a good foundation for a new city game.

Just like Pioneers to Settlers to blablablabla(you get the idea) you can bring the same class system that require new things to advance communities to the next level.

For example, the first phase would be farmers in a rural setting, and you have a few homes where the people in those homes work at the farms(I miss that in 1701, realistically supplying jobs so you know such and such person that lives in house X works at farm X and farms could offer 10 jobs and a house could supply 5 people depending on how many people live in a house or what level that house is at)

And in order to progress past farmers and into the next phase it could require schools and religion just like in 1701. So when they upgrade, the houses upgrade to nicer country homes and so on. They would then want a supply of clothing so you'd end up creating a "Main St." for your communities that would want a clothing store, then a place to dine,

Instead of a warehouse, it could be a small market(that later upgrades to a bigger market, then to grocery stores) and houses would depend on these markets/grocery stores to have food to live and you would need a thirsty supply of farms to fullfill the sims needs. You can also tie in what Suburbanites would need like a big grocery store instead of a farmers market. Later on in the game at higher levels you could be importing your food so you don't have the dependency of farms for such a sprawling city.

And as you progress you would open up new things like businesses that offer jobs for your up and coming population(hipper clothing stores, music stores, large grocery stores, small made up company business') and depending on the levels they could demand movie theatres, clubs, zoos, parks, etc etc

The stages could be:
Farmer (rural setting, lots of farms with trailer homes and little farm houses)
Country Communities(small town, country homes, more "Main st." life)
Blue Collar Suburbia(elementary/highschool, they work in blue collar like jobs so "sales" type of jobs would be available at this level)
Cookie Cutter Suburbia(they are the managers of the business'/stores,
Glitz(Beautiful mansions, the CEO's, would require a neighborhood to have tons of parks, great recreation, etc)
Metropolitan(the "downtown" of suburbia, 5 story apartment buildings/bigger businesses, malls, community colleges)
Metropolis(sky scrapers, museums, "central Park"'s, glitzy art galleries, fancy night clubs and restaurants)

So just like how houses change their look in 1701, you can do the same with this depending on the neighborhoods level. For example, a house would alter from a trailer home, to a small country home, then to a blue collar middle class home, then to the more cookie cutter suburbia with nice lawns and backyards , then small apartment complexes, then to fancy high rises.

And this would apply to the surrounding businesses. A market would turn into a grocery store, a little diner would turn into a family size restaurant, and that way you can have your country homes with little diners, but the same homes and restaurants in a city would be high rises and a fine dining, five star city restaurant.

You could take it to another level and incorporate a more complex system for jobs. For example, in order to have a rich metropolis, you HAVE to have a rich suburbia(blue collar, cookie cutter, glitz) in order to supply the right jobs for that city.

I just think 1701 is a FANTASTIC little game that has so much potential and the graphics are beautiful and every time I look at this gorgeous game, I keep picturing rolling hills with present day farms and homes, then as you move across the map it's more suburbia, and then you have sections where the rich live that would be the CEO/Presidents of the business' in the city. The game engine is just so rich with detail.

Thank you for your time to those who read this!

Dobber
22-06-2007, 14:30
Welcome to the forum, Pugz! :halloha:

Pugz
23-06-2007, 00:06
Thanks Dobber! :cheers:

People's Republic of China
24-06-2007, 21:09
The engine does have potential indeed.

(I didn't like Simcity4)

City Builder
25-06-2007, 12:32
I've been dying for a new SimCity type of game and as pointed out societies is going down a different path (one that I don't care to wander down myself). I could imagine 1701 in the time constraints of modern world, however Im not so sure how profitable it would be for whomever owns sunflowers or 1701 now adays.

What I mean is that, its quite acceptable to have multitudes of the citizens or whatever the different classes are named buildings to look the same, but when you get into the modern age it seems many players want much diversity and don't want to see the same buildings near to each other. So if you're going to try to prevent that in a modern day 1701, then it's likely it would be a different game engine to do it.

I think the folks that created and developed 1701 A.D. would be fine candidates to produce the REAL successor to SimCity 4, and I'd be behind them 100% of the way. Im only saddened that TiltedMills got the contract instead of the developers of 1701 who have shown they really know how to build a great city building style game.

Dobber
25-06-2007, 14:30
I just hope Ubisoft will continue to use Related Designs for the Anno series after the next offering is completed! I wonder what time period it will be st in.
And the expansion to 1701 should be released sometime in the next 90 days!