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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:  \____/                                                                  |__|

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