At any point during the game, across the bottom of your HUD you will find several icons that will launch reports that you can view that give you various pieces of information. Utilizing these reports isn't absolutely necessary, but they can help you determine how effective your efforts are and give you a handle on the direction your city is headed.
Report: Approval Rating
The approval rating gives you a readout of how satisfied your citizenry is about your decisions and provided services. It also gives you an indication of the direction your approval ratings are headed.
Then, you can click on each type of population and see specifically what is making them happy and what is irking them into fleeing your city. This information can be invaluable when making decisions, so if you're ever at a loss for why you can't get a certain part of your city to develop properly, check the approval rating HUD for hints and suggestions straight from the people themselves.
Report: Budget
In my opinion, the budget screen is the most valuable report you have at your disposal in terms of adjusting your strategies on the fly. It gives you a graphic representation of how much you are spending and how much you have coming in. You can instantly see if your hospitals are draining your coffers or if your loan interest is holding you back.
This area is also where you go to take out a bond (loan yourself some money) in an emergency, see what money is changing hands with your neighbors to give or receive services, and adjust your tax rate to increase revenue or the happiness levels of your people.
A good example of how this screen can be useful would be the following: let's say that the crime level in your city is practically non-existent because you have many police stations. If you see that your police force is eating up the majority of your budget (like in the image above), seeing that on the graph should make you reconsider their number and distribution.
Report: Population Overview
The "history" tab on the population menu focuses on a broad look at the population as a whole. It offers no details as to who is poor or not. However, the graph it provides is a great way to quickly glance to see whether your city as a whole is growing or shrinking.
This screen is particularly valuable if you're trying to work on bringing in tourists and workers from other cities. Obviously if you're the only city, these values will always be zero. But if you have the opportunity to attract foreign citizens, you can quickly gauge the effectiveness of your efforts by keeping an eye on this report.
Report: Population Detail
This is the more detailed report that talks about your RCI distribution, who is wealthy, who is not, who commutes in, who commutes out, jobs, shoppers, freight, students, tourists, and who is or is not pretending to be a pigeon while living in your recently-tarnished park.
It's far from complete, but some of the specific numbers on this report can really help you figure out where you're lacking in certain areas. For instance, comparing the total number of eligible students to the total number of students who are not enrolled in school will give you an instant understanding of how comprehensive your education system is.
Report: The Leaderboard
This is it! The reason you are reading this blog. If you are coming to SimCity to have a quaint little fishing village with a little duck pond and one tiny shoe factory just for kicks, then you should stop reading this blog immediately, unfriend us on Facebook, and check your schedule -- it's almost time to eat your bran muffin.
But, if you're sole desire is to turn SimCity into a knock-down, all-out chemical warfare atrocity where your personal self worth is a door hinged solely to the jam of dead bodies you stand upon as you look down the leaderboard from your number one position, then you're in the right place.
I welcome you and the 180-story skyscraper you doodled on the back of a dirty napkin while sucking down a t-bone at lunch earlier today with the note, "Replace low-density house of old lady with this by 5:30!" You, my friend, will be well acquainted with this report.
As will I.
No comments:
Post a Comment