Making your own mall

How about making your own mall:

When you put certain commercial-buildings together within a certain range of each other then the collected covering-area increases.

And the revenue should depend on how many different commercial-buildings you put together and maybe the actual number of Citizens who lives inside the collected covering-area.

 

I think, if I understand you, this is a good idea. I do have several areas with three commercials bunched together and applicable houses packed around them as closely as possible (higher Level houses needing more than one kind of commercial). Are you saying that doing this should carry an overall bonus to needs revenues as well as an enhancement to overall coverage? Say maybe add 2x2 coverage to the existing sphere of each commercial for each additional commercial within a 2x2 area around it? So if you have a Holywood Diner, Beer Garden and Bread Basket next to each other, each would gain two 2x2 bonus range for 4x4 extra. Interesting idea, and would help reduce number of overall commercials needed and create more residential space.

 

.... yes, it would be nice if it was implemented without drawbacks - but it could bring a new aspect to city-planning.

 

Love these ideas would make it worth while to put four or five commercial buildings together (as some residences require for fulfillment) with out the penalties. That the space requires for all of the commercials take up.

 

I like the idea of a mall maybe a 4x4 building where you can place 4 or 5 of your commercial buildings inside, thereby freeing up valuable space. As it is with a population of over 24,000 in my city i cant come close to being able to fulfill their needs.

 

Perhaps another bonus could be to have a product extender in the mall: Where the stores in the Mall would get a multiplier to the items for sale they receive. If a Fruit Stand receive 240 Tomatoes the effect would be to count as 360 Tomatoes. This could help with the production issues also.

I believe we should have to pay to build the Mall and it should be significant 1,000,000 cc's let say and matching materials plus the cost and materials needed to build the stores in the mall. But the rewards should be equally beneficial: Coverage area much larger than stand alone stores (50 % more); ability to change the stores at our will (by bulldozing the store and building a different one); additional experience points; etc.

 

.... how about some sort of auto-buy from the market - or rent-a-supplier - where you go to the market and make a request for supplies - and then other players can offer assistens and produce them for you within a certain timeframe and price, and then increase the capacity of the Commercial Building when they are a part of a mall.

.... in this game 1 mill isn't significant - lol - just ask TellusXIV ... I think he would love this price:

 

I was looking for balance we are not all TellusXIV. He worked very hard to earn that amount of cc's. I have to struggle to keep a fair level in my account.


I just wiped out my account to do some upgrades. I just got carried away and also ran out of building materials. Ouch!

 

I am thinking the idea of a 4x4 "mall" where you can install commercial buildings (kind of like Improvements work now) is great. Sure, make us pay 1,000,000 to build it, and let it hold "X" number and maybe upgrade Levels to get it to hold more. The original coverage span should be calculated with a bonus range based on which commercials you have in it. This would indeed free up much needed space for residential buildings and would be entirely realistic with how the real world operates.

 

You are correct

 

I'm definitely more in favor of the single-building approach. It would be more representative of increasing density, would save you space vs. clustering buildings (which is already almost a strip mall), and probably a lot simpler to code. I'm fine with the price being higher, even. Should cost as least as much as upgrading the stadium, given its advantages. Upgrading several commercials can easily cost more. Malls are big projects after all.

Placing commercials into slots is actually pretty interesting but I think I'd rather just be able to choose goods, or have it serve all or most goods. It'd be kinda silly for it to replace a stadium or ski hut. I don't think it's useful to calculate a dynamic coverage. The range should just be fixed as other commercials are, but large, considering its purpose. You can upgrade from smaller arcades to huge malls, with the coverage simply larger than the largest equivalent-level single commercial. Many fall within a similar range so it would be a bonus anyway, especially to the smaller ones without going overboard on the larger so it's more balanced. Capacity will have to be huge to prevent problems. Again, I think that system needs to go and your warehouse be directly depleted.

4x4 seems like a decent size. 3x4 & 4x3 are more appealing for a variety of reasons, but I think it'd be better to have rotation than two configurations for that. You have to think of power and mood too. A lot of power would be needed, but perhaps a bit less than many separate commercials. A bonus to revenue is a neat idea, but I'm not really sure what to think of it; plus it'd be more complicated.

 

Arsuru some nice suggestions.

Some additional thoughts on yout ideas:

1. I like the slotting idea myself I might want to have certain commercials that others might not want. Foot print for the mall I would think 4x4 would be the minimum I would find even a 6x6 acceptable if the effective range was large enough. 1
2. I agree that a dynamic range would be to complicated to design a static but generous area would be great. Pricing it could go either way I envision we pay and construct the mall and then have to build the commercials in the mall also so the price would get there for cc's and materials.
3. I like the leveling up plan: Starter Mall with maybe four commercials and a set area 12x12; level 2 upgrade Local Mall six commercial, area 14x14; levle 3 Regional Mall eight commercial, area 16x16; level 4 Mega Mall twelve commercial area 20x20.
4. Power and mood could be factored as a percentage of the commercial units involved. Take the commercial building and multiply by a factor yielding a figure on the mood and power need, could add additional levels for the mall itself. Great ideas.

What other suggestions you guys have?

Now to get the designers and coders at work.

 

I figure instead of slotting you just choose the goods available via a menu, or if it provides all, then leave some disabled (rather than empty, to keep the empty icon from appearing if they stick with that system). Same effect in the end. The retail space is already part of a mall, so paying to upgrade a commercial building and then installing it seems like too much, not to mention that it'd probably be more complicated to code with no technical benefit.

20x20 is a bit small, since it wouldn't give any benefit to the beer garden, stadium or all gouda and would actually decrease range for the pizza palace, gym, spaetzle town and ski hut. This is why I suggest a range slightly larger than the largest-range-commercial-building at an equivalent level to the mall. Anything larger than 4x4, I'm afraid, will get unwieldy. You have to consider how much space the structure itself takes from the range it provides. 4x4 is already a third of a single plot, and if you want to put multiple or one in the other, smaller fields, it will restrict you quite a bit if it's larger. The idea is to build up to house more shops.

6x6 doesn't seem that bad if I measure it on my spreadsheet though, assuming it can nearly or totally eliminate need for individual commercials and cover a whole field. It would take an incredibly cramped mountain area to need more than one of any mountain commercial, thus limiting the need for one there. I liked a smaller footprint for better manageability of space, potential aesthetics, and simply the amount of commercials needed. 6x6 is a lot if you wouldn't save at least the equivalent space, and thinking in terms of being level one, the range might be poor for the size. Maybe the ideal would just be to offer differing malls.

Incorporating the stadium, ski hut, and maybe the floating market and restaurant might seem odd, but the coastal buildings especially could benefit from not needing a stadium and on-water commercials present and the additional range of the mall over water. On that note, I wonder if the stadium couldn't use a few extra squares of range. With a footprint as big as it has, it takes up a lot of its range with itself. It's a bit tight — especially for the water residences — and building multiple there really wastes land.