Return to Strategy CVS log

Up to [Micropolis - Activity] / micropolis / src / notes

Annotation of micropolis/src/notes/Strategy, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: From: [email protected] (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 ([email protected]) 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, [email protected]             |    | 
        !           109:  /    \                    Expatriate Member, SUDS                      |    |
        !           110:  |    |                                                                 |    |
        !           111:  |    |                        IN VINO VERITAS                          |    |
        !           112:  |    |                                                                 \    /
        !           113:  |    |                    "In Wine there is Truth"                      |  | 
        !           114:  \____/                                                                  |__|

This archive runs on limited infrastructure. Preserving old code on modern bandwidth. Automated agents are requested to crawl responsibly.