Needs Requirement NOT shown in Designer Depot - Residential

I daresay this may be by design, but I think one obvious thing missing when you click on a home to build is that it's needs revenue requirements are not listed. After you have built it, it's either greyed out because you have to master it, or greyed out level wise which is fine, but it would be nice to know at least the initial need revenue to assist in City Planning. The FAQ is of course wonderful in this regard, but that's not the point.

It would easily fit between the "Construction Costs" and the "Construction Steps"

Thoughts ?

 

I never did understand why they won't tell you what commercial buildings a residential requires. I (kind of) understand keeping the ones for upgraded levels hidden, though I don't see how that does anything except make it harder to decide where to place new buildings for best coverage. At minimum, the permit should display the initial needs fulfillment requirement...so I agree.

 

This has always bugged me and I always figured it could go in the same area, so get's my vote.

In a similar vein, I wish needs values updated with RIs/mastery on the building indicator.

 

I agree it would be a nice feature to have a quick and easy reference when deciding when, where and what to build. An alternative would be a link to the correct FAQ section of the forum.

The devils advocate in me would say: There is a limit to the amount of information they can put in a single posting. There I now resign as the devil's advocate on this subject.

 

Devil said to tell you thanks....right before I bopped him on the noggin and tossed him back where he came from I agree the posting space limits what can be added, but don't think the (text) name of the first commercial building used by a building would be too much. This is especially true for the higher Level buildings; after all, if you don't know the lowest Level houses all take veggie stands, then approximately where Hollywood Diners start in, you haven't been paying attention to the game tutorials But once you start in with bread baskets and smoothie bars and beer gardens....

 

Geflin I am glad you sent the devil back where he belongs, he had been doing things to me for resigning as his advocate. The problem becomes at what point is the information shown enough. That is why I suggested a link to the correct FAQ page. Why recreate all of that data again.

 

Ty you billy I agree as it will be one or two of the mods that will probably get that ginormous task

 

Linking to an FAQ isn't reliable as not all of them are made in the same layout between languages, and you often won't even have an anchor to a specific building since one post may have several buildings. It'd be more work to sync all of that than it's worth, while in-game, it's simply a matter of reusing existing information in another place, basically copying it to another menu. The whole hiding-the-needs thing in the building menu is pretty silly already — especially with the FAQs — so they could just show them all there and in the Depo. Making the values in the tooltips when you hover over the commercials reflect current rather than base values shouldn't be too complicated either.

 

Oops, sorry Tassy!

 

I'm personally against any interface overcomplication. If players don't know something you think they should know, it's much better to make IN-GAME help/FAQ system. Why to check forum threads (very uncomfortable way of getting info) if you can just click the interface button?

 

Agreed, hence the suggestion to put that particular info into the designer depot. Not a huge deal for the first levels as the quests teach you about needs revenue and the needs are limited to tomatoes and potatoes. Just an enhancement that could be useful for planning as you level up...

 

Hence the suggestion to put it into HELP section

 

There is help, though it's not obvious. You've got the little ?'s in some windows and almost everything has a tooltip. Making a whole sub-menu to indicate all the buildings' potential information would be nice, but the DD pretty much functions as that already for the most pertinent information, it just misses one important piece of information that is nice to know beforehand: needs.

RC has all it needs to tell you visually. A dedicated help section might be useful for detailed things, or just to consolidate the existing info (which is just the tutorial dialogs anyway), but in general, wouldn't be needed.

 

It's very limited.

What's the difference between a really good game and a mediocre one? Mediocre game give you what you need but nothing more. Really good game has a lot of nice, useful and somewhat funny features to help player get as much pleasure as possible.

<EDIT> (the offline RC ancestor) is a great example.

 

Thank you Arsuru for bringing the thread back on point.

 

@Krassandra Agreed, but I just don't think a built in help for the purpose of what this thread wants is needed, since all the info is there, except material costs for higher levels. The tutorials are limited, but enough for anyone that pays attention. It's not that I think a real help system is unwarranted, it just doesn't seem like it would actually help the player beyond what is there, thus be a waste of resources. RC is pretty simple, straightforward and intuitive. An easier way to access what is there would help though.

Just think of the savings in forum bandwidth! Plus, non-paper manuals still feel a bit weird to me. :x

Didn't see this before the edit, but if it's what I think it is, it's been mentioned before. Everyone here likely knows of it, and it's not the same scope at all, and way more detailed. RC would need a lot to get to that level, but then it wouldn't quite be RC.

 

Although the gameplay is intuitive in general, some unobvious things (like preferable residents for particular house type) definitely aren't.

 

And that's something that will vary for each individual and when they can be online. It's not unreasonable for them to do a bit of math. Still, it seems rather obvious to put certain residents whose revenue you need in homes that give more needs revenue, more often, in general.

I rather dislike hand-holding in games. I agree, a detailed in-game database would be nice and useful, but it'd have to be on the level of the FAQs, which are beyond the scope of 'help', if you ask me. More of a strategy guide.

 

No, they're just the very detailed game database, but why not to include it in the game itself like many other games do?

 

Except most game don't give you all the details from within. Tutorials are not even a given. Digital manuals are going to be the norm now, but all manuals usually do is tell you how the game works, not how you should play. That's what a walkthough is for, and it rare that game ship with those, especially by the makers of the game. Strategy guides often contain such databases. They often have walkthroughs too, but I'm not wanting a walkthrough here as there isn't much need for this kind of game. I wouldn't object to databases in-game, especially if it can tie into your city, it's just a bigger scope.

Simply sticking needs in the big blank spot in the DD on the other hand, gives a lot of helpful information at-a-glance for little effort or complication.