I have been playing with the demo for a bit and there is one thing that I have been finding frustrating. I have messed around with some city building games before, but I'm mostly pretty green at it. When i go to create a building, say a bakery for instance, what is needed in order to make use of the bread? the only way I can see to find out is to actually build the bakery. then when i click on it and gives more info, showing that only an Inn building can make use of the bread. ah, THATS why no ones eating bread yet in my town! well that info should be available without having to actually build the building. when i look at the create building wheel tool, it should tell me there what the building creates, what it consumes, and whats needed to make use of whatever it produces.

I REALLY hope this is something that can be included in the game when it ships. I think it would help to make it allot more accessible to those new to the genre. Of course its possible I'm just missing something and its displayed in another area, so please let me know!

thanks!

Click on the icon of the resource in the lower part of the screen, and you will see which buildings in your city consume or produce it. Point at a building with the mouse to see how much exactly.

Not sure your answers relate to what he was asking for really.. which seems to be a more informative GUI. I can agree to some extent although I don't see it as a big problem considering there aren't really that much trial and error to be done before one knows these things.

The reason I agree is this game will be a "city builder" game whether people call it something else or intended for it to be something else. As a city builder game it breaks off from some traditional systems, which can be confusing for someone who expects it to be a certain way when there's not much information that suggests otherwise.

Anyway... you'll get the general idea soon I'm sure BlueOrange. For instance people don't actually "eat" bread or sausages, nor do they actually consume resources such as marble or wood. Instead it's a system of upkeeps and satisfaction.

For example the main function of the bakery is not to make bread but to output a "food" value, in this case 30, that will add 30 to the food satisfaction of the houses affected. These values are pretty much constant. Even if it shows the "average" satisfaction in the overlay - a house that is affected by the bakery will get 30 food satisfaction and will always have atleast 30. It's an on and off system, if something goes wrong that house won't drop to 20 food satisfaction and become angry, it will lose the entire value and start a riot

The bread that it makes can ofcourse be used by another building, the Inn, to produce another food value and I believe also an entertainment value.

When you build something it doesn't really cost anything (except for money), rather it temporarily uses an amount of resources, i.e. bricks. This mostly affects building several buildings at once. When it's built, however, it will require an upkeep, i.e. 5 wood, that will be deducted from your wood resources until the building is no more.

This system goes for everything really, even trade, and armies.

Aldrian Wrote:Not sure your answers relate to what he was asking for really.. which seems to be a more informative GUI. I can agree to some extent although I don't see it as a big problem considering there aren't really that much trial and error to be done before one knows these things.

The reason I agree is this game will be a "city builder" game whether people call it something else or intended for it to be something else. As a city builder game it breaks off from some traditional systems, which can be confusing for someone who expects it to be a certain way when there's not much information that suggests otherwise. ...

O.K. I missed the point.

#1: I have no idea what a GUI is. I am always confused by acronyms dropped unexpectedly into my train of thought.

#2: GA:R is intended to be a "City Builder" in the generic sense by its developers and publisher. My only point was that not all components of games denominated "City Builders" are learned or not learned by playing other games denominated "City Builders".

#3: For example, lots of people in lots of places call the original Tropico a "City Builder" even though the primary parts of the game play revolve around the economy and politics of the individual citizen units rather than the buildings alone.

But then I never really enjoyed games about buildings which fed bread to other buildings. My bad.

GUI means graphical user interface (you'll often see just UI as well). It's basically the link between the user and the application/hardware. If that link fails it doesn't matter how advanced the system is or what kind of system it is.

Ofcourse what is userfriendly and what is not is highly subjective - but in this case I will have to agree with the OP. This game has fresh ideas, which is great, but imo it fails to fully communicate these ideas to the user. Hardcore fans of these sort of games, such as myself, will endure - but not everyone do. It's always a shame when a good game, or any good product for that matter, risks losing attention due to frustrated end-users who move on to the next option before getting a chance to purchase and enjoy this one (note that he was talking about the demo).

One can never have to much information, and it's so easy to add compared to making tutorials etc. Btw, speaking of confusing: if someone finds this thread confusing now that is due to the fact an earlier post was removed

Hi folks,
thanks for the 'responses' and sorry its taken mm this long to get back here.
I'm glad that people felt moved to respond, even if I was a little unclear how some of the responses related to my initial question/ comments. Yes; I'm sure I would get the hang of it after playing for awhile. Anyway, after playing the demo, I certainly consider this game a city building game. They don't all have to do everything exactly the same in order to be seen as part of the same genre of game. But it also makes sense that after enough games get made, the notion of where one genre ends and a new one starts will shift over time. I see this game was just released in the USA although I haven't seen much mention of it at various game related sites I peek at. Are some of you in other regions or was everyone playing just the demo until just recently?

Anyway, I have actually picked up and been playing Cesar IV and I am having a lot of fun with that game for now.

>For example the main function of the bakery is not to make bread but to output a "food" value, in >this case 30, that will add 30 to the food satisfaction of the houses affected. These values are >pretty much constant.

OK I get that the game works on a resource flow concept which is different from most prior related games. I thought I read something that indicated that only the INN building could make use of the benefit from the baker building. But I may have gotten that wrong as well. I don't remember now cause after playing this demo I went to Cesear IV. Anyway I hope people are enjoying this game and I'll probably pick it up at some point.

thanks again