I play Sandbox games & I usually plan my islands before I start playing the game proper.

This normally involves deciding where I will place my Power Plant, Industry, Tourist Zone and often relocating the dock (the maps I choose to play often stick it in really stupid places). I also try to develop an idea of my road system.

I know others plan out their islands & I was just wondering what buildings people plan before they start the game.

(14-09-2010 12:02 PM)Sakyamuni Wrote:  I play Sandbox games & I usually plan my islands before I start playing the game proper.

This normally involves deciding where I will place my Power Plant, Industry, Tourist Zone and often relocating the dock (the maps I choose to play often stick it in really stupid places). I also try to develop an idea of my road system.

I know others plan out their islands & I was just wondering what buildings people plan before they start the game.

I very rarely plan out my islands.. I typically just improv where I will place everything.

Often I'll just get my economy running a bit, and then start up another real estate +services zone some distance away from the sludge that is my start point.

i usually make zones of every thing like housing zone and near to this zone there must be a human services zone and agriculture zone, raw meterial zone, industrial zone, entertainment zone etc.

I like some kind of uncontrolled growth. Or just that it looks like wild.

In fact I build the things that are needed one after another in an adequate place at the time they are build. Also I like to build curved roads and to build only T-junctions and just leave a bit space here and there. Also fact: this method spreads traffic, service and other problems so equably over the whole island... so there is no problem after all.
I also think this gives my isles a lot of the alive feeling of something naturally grown.

In conclusion: no preplanning is the best planning for me.

(16-09-2010 09:40 PM)midnightflash Wrote:  In conclusion: no preplanning is the best planning for me.

it work for you???

I put planning in, to an extent.

What my idea of planning is, is when I get started, I will move the farms away from the main populated area of the island so I can set up a food production area elsewhere, usually a bit of distance away so I can build up the central locale without bashing into other sectors. This also lets me re-site near water so I can get some fishing going.

In terms of industry, I usually set that up near, or next to the port, makes sense that we have the exports right next to the place that's gonna take them off the island. But the central area itself, is pretty much for everything else par tourism, which I usually put in last.

And in most cases, I tend to put the tourism area always near the center of my operation, because they seem to like things like the police station and the cabaret than the Tropican's do!

-Elso

(18-09-2010 10:02 AM)mudassar67 Wrote:  

(16-09-2010 09:40 PM)midnightflash Wrote:  In conclusion: no preplanning is the best planning for me.

it work for you???

Yes! It absolutely works for me usually.
F.e. I got 1st place in the last online-scenario I played with my "strategy" instandly.
But I don't go so much for those points and rankings...

I definitely plan out the "big picture". Some islands for instance have large areas close to the docks that will support manufacturing industry and housing for factory workers. Some are different, and call for manufacturing to be dispersed more throughout and close to the materials source. I also always looks for ways to build efficient and flexible transportation corridors. Often that involves spotting areas for future second or third docks, so things do not always have to go from one side of the island, through the palace central district to get to the dock.

There are so many more variables obviously, but I always like to have some big picture idea of where things will start to go. Random growth will always still happen between things. But getting the zoning right always seems to help.

(14-09-2010 12:02 PM)Sakyamuni Wrote:  I play Sandbox games & I usually plan my islands before I start playing the game proper.

This normally involves deciding where I will place my Power Plant, Industry, Tourist Zone and often relocating the dock (the maps I choose to play often stick it in really stupid places). I also try to develop an idea of my road system.

I know others plan out their islands & I was just wondering what buildings people plan before they start the game.

I think planning is one of the most crucial things to do in any ctiy builderish game, especially in Tropico, where traffic jams can become a real big issue.

I don't play sandbox games though, only campaigns. The first thing I do for all islands is to lay out the basic road network I will use and restrict the areas using this network (i.e. housing, industry, tourism). I don't plan for buildings per se, rather I restrict certain areas that are suited for certain things.

I always choose a map then look at it. I decide where I will put my 4 districts, Residential, Government, Tourist, and Industry.

Planning? Yeah, like that's gonna happen...