Things Every New(and Old) Mayor Should Know
I know there are other threads addressing this subject, but they are a bit dated, have drifted off topic, or are so many pages in that my ideas would not be seen by many and sometimes I just don’t ag...
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Cool post; thank you!
You are much further ahead than I am. What is your take on entertainment? I have not built that HQ as yet.
I probably have too many schools. I struggle with understanding how to maximize space for building while maintaining fire/police/health/park coverage. I've used the "loop within a loop" outline for my first 3 residential areas, since it's predictable and I can plan on how much to spend on services and how many residences they can support. I guess I figured that after the first 3 I might branch out more. Then again, I never seem to be able to hold onto too much money - busy buying those pricey storage items!
I did buy some sim cash, and will probably buy more when a good deal comes around. I did this primarily to ease the frustration when I can't get that last storage or land expansion item. Even if I end up not using the sim cash, it has a psychological benefit for me.
I do hope you post more thoughts; very interesting and helpful.
Arcadia0426
I thought I might offer some insights on a couple of your other comments in your reply so here goes.
Starting with your difficulties in providing balanced Essential Services(Fire, Police, Health) if you are trying to use advanced buildings to provide these services you will likely continually experience these problems. This is due to the fact that many buildings have the same area of influence yet most maps only provide 1 sweet spot for placing building meaning that since EA does not let us stack buildings 3-dimensionally some buildings will always be less than ideally placed. You said you started using what you called a "loop within a loop" but stopped why? I assume by loop within a loop you meant something like my layout was it exactly like mine notice my "loops" aren't square this is intentional because with careful orientation I cover 12 residences with only 3 basic essential service buildings. By careful orientation, I mean since basic fire and police buildings have rectangular areas of influence it requires that those buildings be turned just right in order to perfectly cover my ring of residences without a single wasted square. My entire city is protected by nothing except basic essential service buildings with 2 exceptions for hospitals needed to cover my back row not seen in the image. I make no apologies for this since there is no benefit to using the larger more costly service buildings and if a design works don't change just for change sake do change if it offers a better solution.
You also mentioned you are not opposed to buying Sim Cash if so I would consider buying a Maxis Manor this provides all 3 services in one building but its biggest benefit is it will let you buy Vu Tokens which have been rare lately.
Lastly you said you think you have too many schools. The answer to that is if you have more than 1 High School you have too many. By the way what level are you? Have you unlocked the Epic Tower yet? If not let me provide a heads up on choosing your Specialty Buildings build mostly 3 Epic pt. buildings and 2 pt buildings when you must but try not to build to build anymore than the minimum required 1pt buildings. You will thank me when you complete your first Gold Epic Tower Upgrade a task that is impossible if you have a large number of 1pt. Buildings. My Education line at one time consisted of 13 Libraries and 1 High School along with the HQ all 1 Epic pt. buildings and my first Epic Project went very very badly achieving only copper level after many many hours of effort. Hey I never said I didn't learn some things the hard way, since then I build only 2 & 3 pt buildings and can complete most Gold level towers in 2-5 hours. I have replaced most of my libraries with Universities while maintaining 100% Education coverage. While you can bulldoze buildings bought with Gold Keys you will get no refund so you are better off saving more and building better options upfront than replacing poor buildings later. Another option for lower grade building is to move them into areas of new expansion while placing stronger buildings in more developed areas to provide more benefit. This will not eliminate the Epic Challenge penalty that theses 1pt. buildings suffer from but does offer an alternative to destruction albeit temporary.
That's a lot of information; thanks for the response.
First, I'm at level 23. I defer leveling up to when it's inevitable in order to complete a contest assignment, so I have no experience with the epic building projects. I'm not familiar with the epic points associated with buildings. I have one HS, one library, one community college, and several elementary schools. How do I know what buildings will be best for future epic projects?
I'm glad for the info about the basic services. I was having a hard time seeing the value of spending more money, and using more space, to get little extra coverage. The Maxis Manor sounds good, but it takes more sim cash than I've been willing to buy. Of course, if I ever won the grand prize in the megalopolis league, well, that's a nice sim cash award! It's also rather unlikely.
As for the loop grid, it works well, I just don't want only that. Bear in mind I can't do landmarks yet, which will require some different grid patterns due just to their size (as you point out). In the end, part of the fun is to have a city you like to look at. I fear those glitzy towers that I see in other cities. Are they casino? Tokyo? I think they look cheesy, and they really dominate the cityscape.
@Arcadia0426 wrote:How do I know what buildings will be best for future epic projects?
I fear those glitzy towers that I see in other cities. Are they casino? Tokyo? I think they look cheesy, and they really dominate the cityscape.
Epic projects are best to stick to 3pt structures. You can tell how many points their worth by long pressing on them. See 1st pic. This shows the Pier's Epic Points at 3.
Glitzy Towers: See 2nd pic. If you mean these, they're Tokyo and yes they're an eyesore, but they're needed if you're going to complete the quest bubble for Tokyo Town. You need 10 of them to build Himeji Castle.
Thanks SomeSimGuy , , have been looking for more info on building" epics " before and after " Of each individual building .....
Arcadia, I see SomeSimGuy has answered some of your questions but let me expand upon the Epic Projects.
I believe by now you should have the Epic Tower by now and be somewhat familiar with the Speed Up Tokens it provides. These tokens are essential if you hope to succeed in the Mayor's Contest and to replace the original allotment you most upgrade to Epic Towers which are the results of Epic Challanges. You begin an Epic Challenge my clicking the Mercury Helmet Bubble. You will then see the description of the Tower you can build based on Specialty Line(Education, Transportation, Entertainment, etc.) before you begin a Project make sure the particular line is one that you are well positioned to succeed in, in other words several 3pt. Buildings minimal 1pt. Buildings. If the Line is not one you like you can pay a small fee and change it to another random selection of your unlocked lines.
The reason we stress the 3pt. Buildings is that you will have 24hrs. to accumulate 160 Epic points to achieve Gold(Cheetah) Level, by far the most valuable tokens, although failing this you will still earn Silver(Llama) Level if you earn a minimum of 80pts or Copper(Turtle) Level for 20pts. Here is the kicker, each of your eligible buildings will have a task related to it, these tasks will be along the lines of supplying 4 Cheese or 3 Watermelons etc.. Some of these task can take quite awhile to complete and since the tasks do not very in difficulty based on building point values would you rather earn 3pts for your 4 Cheese or just 1. If you're only earning 1 point at a time you will quickly exhaust your resources and products forcing you to the Trade Market which will quickly drain your bank.
My advise to you would be to prepare for Epic Challenges ASAP by replacing as many 1 pt buildings as possible, increasing your storage to something north of 300, building Semolions and SimCash reserves, start stock piling long production products and raw materials. When you are ready to undertake your first Project clear your storage of nonessential items i.e. Beach & Mountain Tokens, Dozer Parts, quick to produce items like nails. Stockpile items in proportion to time needed to produce in other words the longer it takes to produce the more you want in inventory don't worry about keeping Steel or Wood or anything that can be easily produced.
DO NOT DELAY as you continue to level up it continues to get harder. Imagine needing multiple batches of 4 refrigerators which take over 3hrs to produce and need 2 Electronic Parts which require 7hrs to produce 5 and you can see how getting a few Gold Towers early can be immensely helpful later on
my last point is an Epic Challenge is an all-in commitment you can not possibly achieve this in the midst of a Mayor's Contest or any other side diversion for that matter my typical time for completion is around 6 hours but it may take much longer so plan a full day commitment.
Thanks for the info. I cannot do these projects until I reach level 24. I can't even see the point values for any building at this time; I'm guessing that kicks in at level 24 as well (I see area, boost, and price only).
Even now, however, I have a better sense of what these epic projects might be like. Sounds like a challenge!
On a side note, yes, I am familiar with the speed-up tokens. When I built the Dept. of Epic Projects (whatever that level was) I guess the game awarded some copper and silver tokens. I didn't notice at the time. I'm locked out of gold tokens and epic buildings until I level up. Right now I have a problem ticket in to EA. I won the grand prize this past contest, which included 5 gold tokens, and... I didn't get them! Hopefully, they'll fix that and give them to me.
