city survivial + 100% product reinvention

[choum]

Hello player friends,

I'd take some time to share my tips on hard city survivial with 100% product reinvention, no seaport and many competitors, only semi-product for import companies.
As i'll have not the time to do all this evening i'll add some posts in the next days if needed .

First rules : take care of your money and remember that you need some inhabitants in your city so you must have good QoL to attract them.
The 3 first months there will be no inhabitants, time for public buildings to pump QoL, so don't invest so much in farms&factories
Remember too that there will be very few researchers for R&D. No computer means no digital products for now.


my steps (STOP the TIME) :
1) i identify a 6*6 square in the middle of the map and buy it for my company.
2) on north side i put 2 publics like city hall and police station to bring some costumer traffic
3) on south side i put a big public like hospital for same reasons
4) on east side mayor build 2 appartements and a tennis court
5) on west side mayor build 1 commercial building
6) build the other publics (but not university nor museum for now), about sports tennis court is enough to start
7) setup mayor parameters : 40% rent for appartements and commercials, allow maxium immigrants to speed your city grow.
8) micromanage publics to give them adequate budget, we need to make economies but to pump up QoL. So you'll have to change it 2-3 times a month
9) build a farm (small is safer, big is better for long run, depands of your money supply). (i play often with real world so i start with fishs)
10) build a store to sell your farm product at low price for now. Remember food is very important at the begining. no food = no life
11) as we have import companies here it can make things easier to start a small factory, some food products are unlock by design. but i don't use this trick for now. as money can be a pain. no bank NPC = no money to borrow (but maybe you'll be more lucky than me).
12) restrict buildings aera to only commercials and residentials near your setup (you don't want pollution in town center), specifi factory zone and farm zones on suburbs

=> unpause the game and play il slow speed

1) AI should begin to build some farms or R&D and buy some land (but AI is very shy till you have an average city)
2) no new inhabitants, no sale, no stress
3) after 3 months you'll begin to have some costumers
4) micromanage your store, you can add training in your store and a little in your farm
5) as soon as budget is nearly neutral i build a second farm near the first one to product other foods (no vegetables or fruits as too long to be available, and AI often try them)
6) check city publics budget (you can automate them to keep 80% QoL)
7) once appartements and commercial buildings are full build 1 more (slow scaling)
8) if no AI build a media firm, build one with your mayor as it can be a big money supply for your town
9) if you play a modded game and AI don't spam the farms you can try a 3rd one and improve training to get better/more expensive products.
10) try to R&D easy leather products that need only leather (as you can afford a farm for leather but not a mine). If you can have cheap wood, bed is always a cheap option too.
11) remember to check AI R&D and productions to avoid competition now, you can't afford to lower your prices for now.
12) if you have extra cash build your HQ and organize a global training to improve all your farms quality product in one shot. It can be really rentable (remember to increase your sellign prices then)

(if you have critical cash issue you can sell a part of your start land, but try to avaid it to be able to build cheap commercials later)

next step next time

[Stylesjl]

These are all very interesting strats for Survival Mode, it should be noted though that there are some aspects of the strategy though that makes Survival Mode easier than it could otherwise be.

Some of the things I noticed are:

- You are still importing semi-products.
- There are AI player contributing to the economy.
- You are using the REALWORLD mod which has a much greater variety of products and more products that can derived from the same raw material streams.

--
If you are looking for a more hardcore approach to Survival Mode then removing all imports, the other AI players and using no mods would be a good way to really raise the difficulty.

I use the following script for Survival Mode:

Code: Select all

[HEADER]
Title=Hardcore Survival
Description=Hardcore Survival Mode. No imports, no competition.
Survival Mode=Yes
Reset All Settings=Yes

[ENVIRONMENT]
Number of Cities=1
Your Start-up Capital=Very High
Random Events=Never
Game Starting Year=1950
Technology Disruption=Yes
Stock Market=Yes
Alternative Stock Sim=Yes
Inflation=Inverse
Private Company=Yes
Retail Store Floors=Multiple
Retail Store Type=Many
Number of AI Persons=30 \\Reduce the number of persons so that they don't build too many mansions.

[COMPETITORS]
Number of Competitors=0
Competence of Local Competitors=Very High

[IMPORTS]
Consumer Goods Seaports=0
Industrial Goods Seaports=0
Import Quality=Low

[SPECIAL RULES]
Unlimited Natural Resources=Yes
Natural Resources Price Premium=Yes
Anti-exploitation Game Rules=Yes

[CITY ECONOMIC SIMULATION DLC]
Developed City=No
First City Cash Level=High
City Initial Cash Level=High
Public Expenses Index=100
Land Price Index=100
City Setup Cost=10000
Random Global Competitiveness Ratings=No
Global Competitiveness Rating Increases=Off
Donations to Rival Political Parties=0

[DIGITAL AGE DLC]
E-Commerce=Yes
AI Acquires Private Companies=Occasionally
Max AI software and Internet companies=None
Max AI software companies=0
Max AI OS companies=0
Max AI Internet companies=0
Disable AI Digital Companies=Yes
Max E-Commerce Share=Very High

[Banking and Finance DLC]
Feature Bank=Yes
Base Loan Interest Rate=Very Low
Feature Bond=Yes
Feature Insurance=Yes
Insurance Claims=Low
Feature Global Stock=Yes
Initial Stock Price Modifier=50
Global Stock Performance=Very Low
Venture Capitalists=0
Realistic Money Supply=Yes
Warehouse Floors=Multiple
Realistic Loan Demand=Yes

[Experimental DLC]
Built-in Advertising Unit=Yes
Farm Extension=Yes
Size of New City=Fixed

[SERVICE INDUSTRY DLC]
Service Firms=Yes
Shopping Mall=Yes
Import Company=No
Export Company=Yes \\If you want an even more difficult challenge, turn this off.
Disable Knowledge Points for Export Company=Yes
Rent-free for Own Stores=No
Apartment and Commercial Buildings Have Retail Space=Yes
General Store=No
Logistics Company=Yes

[GOAL REWARD SETTINGS]
Knowledge Points System = Yes
Initial Knowledge Points = 0
Knowledge Points Rewards Modifier=100
Monetary Reward Modifier=100

My strategy for Survival Mode has many similarities to the above:

1) Buy a big square of land near the centre of the map, where the land is nice and cheap and there is plenty of room to expand on all sides.
2) Put one of each public building around that land. Be careful though and maybe avoid the very expensive buildings like the hospital or university for now.
3) Build one apartment and commercial building, try to keep them close to the public buildings.
4) Make sure that the public services are funded so that they cover the city population (but not any more).
5) Set unemployment benefits to 0 and crank up immigration as high as it will go.
6) Build a farm (medium sized or smaller if possible), sell frozen meat/eggs as the first products in a general store or supermarket that is next to the apartment. Try to have the production facilities as close to the customer as possible to save on freight costs.
7) Build two small factories to create burger patties and parma ham, sell them in the stores as well.
8) Once you have some money coming in try building an export firm to look for opportunities to sell your meat abroad.
9) R&D a Leather Wallet, you only need leather from a farm and a small factory to sell these.
10) As the economy grows and you start attracting more people you can expand into other food products and any other products that only need farms for raw materials. Try to avoid opening expensive mines and be mindful of the city budget. Do NOT bankrupt the city or an AI will take over as mayor and screw the economy up.
11) Try chasing the goals that are auto-set at the start of the game if reasonably possible. For example if you get a cash bonus for selling Cookies, Burger Buns, Leather Handbags or Ice Cream then this is a good time to go for it. Use the knowledge points to expand your farming expertise so that it costs less money to raise the quality.
12) Use the money you are making to open a media firm and start advertising, to boost sales and provide another revenue stream.
13) This may also be a good time to expand into raw materials and the semi-products derived from it. A good place to start is Coal and Iron to make Steel. Steel is great as it goes into so many different products. Try to get an Electronic Components supply chain going.
14) By this point you should now be diversifying the economy. Expand into computers, software, the internet, more media and real estate and logistics. By this point the city will start to become populated at a level comparable to a normal game.

[choum]

I don't import semi-products myself or rarely, it's more to allow AI to do it
The import companies didn't exists in my previous games so it's really possible without.

[anjali]

1) Buy a big square of land near the centre of the map, where the land is nice and cheap and there is plenty of room to expand on all sides.

wish i had that much money at the start

2) Put one of each public building around that land. Be careful though and maybe avoid the very expensive buildings like the hospital or university for now.

i would split the public buildings over 2 years ... dont forget you dont want a depression in 3rd year
i.e. i usually take police + all 3 schools + townhall and hospital and 1 of the sport buildings like golf or soccer in 1st year more then enough for a quick QoL raise
and in 2nd year then fire, museum, library, university and at least 1 more sport facility

5) Set unemployment benefits to 0 and crank up immigration as high as it will go.

uh thats a killer on QoL ... i always bumb it up to 100% unemployed benefits to get 200 social security
if you want insane population grow, not a problem turn down the unemployment benefit to 0 after you got the targeted population
it ll fire back most likely with depression in 3rd year if you cant keep up on GDP growth as population gonna drop with no jobs and no unemployment benefit rapidly down to jobs +8%-10% unemployed you not gonna get anymore immigrants till all this issues are fixed.
and with barely any R&D nor factories etc due to 100% product reinvention ... there will be no jobs that sustain more then 5-8k population on a satisfied level

7) Build two small factories to create burger patties and parma ham, sell them in the stores as well.

100% product reinvention ... how can you run factories at start?

14) By this point you should now be diversifying the economy. Expand into computers, software, the internet, more media and real estate and logistics. By this point the city will start to become populated at a level comparable to a normal game.

thats another thing out 10+ years on 100% product invention

you must be loaded with a trillion $ start money to pull that off, i wouldnt call it survival mode if you dont know what to buy up first with this unlimited cash.

its just a question on how this can be survival mode when there seems to be nothing hard on it with endless cash.
its not to criticism you, just my 2 stupid cents i got in my brain when reading this and thought a few things could fire back when done like this and an early depression is bad really bad, as you couldnt make enough money to profit on the depression, unless you got that already in your pocket and want that depression to buy up the AI corps then again its not survival .. its click to win

myself, i play regular game with all DLCs activated and 100% product reinvention incl semi products, a 500k pop starting town to give the AI something they can work with and grow as usually they cant deal with zero pop towns, no import, no seaport, usually with 1-2 million cash but now dys with 10-25million cash, makes no difference really just a year delay max, the game might call it somthing like 350% difficulty but its kinda piss easy even with 1 million start cash but i would call this more a survival mode then yours above

not a chance to buy me anything then some tiny mini farms and rent me stores in a mall to make a few pennies.
without creating in the next 2 years a ton of "Fugazi"-value i wouldnt be able to grow quick but 80-90% of my companies are just "Fugazi" which is riding a wave as long as the music plays all is good. if the music stops playing ... well not the end but a problem.
i.e. in my current game after 2 1/2 years my main company has just $440 million value ($260 million are stocks of other companies)
the remaining $180 million Value +$525 million loans are split to $355 million land and about $350 million is ownership of my 3 subs
those 3 Subs have all together just $1.8 billion but are heavily under valuated as 1 of the sub is PLC and all 3 companies hold shares of each other the holding has only slightly above 75% ownership on the 2bigger ones and 100% on the smaller the remaining 25% are owned by the other subs
if i d merge all together into the main ... i d be sitting on $850 million assets + 260 million in stocks by $820 million loans that leaves me with nothing but $30 million assets + $260 million stocks
so real value would be 30 million, and the stocks which arre hard to evaluate as if sold instantly they arent worth a damn ... the remaining about 2 billion is just Fugaszi and the Best ... my Holding has a Credit Rating of A !!!! but still cant get loans as the AI banks dont grow quick enough thats the only thing that holds me back as with that assets i could have eaily another 1.5 bn loans to make 15 billion out of it

[Stylesjl]

1) Buy a big square of land near the centre of the map, where the land is nice and cheap and there is plenty of room to expand on all sides.

wish i had that much money at the start

2) Put one of each public building around that land. Be careful though and maybe avoid the very expensive buildings like the hospital or university for now.

i would split the public buildings over 2 years ... dont forget you dont want a depression in 3rd year
i.e. i usually take police + all 3 schools + townhall and hospital and 1 of the sport buildings like golf or soccer in 1st year more then enough for a quick QoL raise
and in 2nd year then fire, museum, library, university and at least 1 more sport facility

5) Set unemployment benefits to 0 and crank up immigration as high as it will go.

uh thats a killer on QoL ... i always bumb it up to 100% unemployed benefits to get 200 social security
if you want insane population grow, not a problem turn down the unemployment benefit to 0 after you got the targeted population
it ll fire back most likely with depression in 3rd year if you cant keep up on GDP growth as population gonna drop with no jobs and no unemployment benefit rapidly down to jobs +8%-10% unemployed you not gonna get anymore immigrants till all this issues are fixed.
and with barely any R&D nor factories etc due to 100% product reinvention ... there will be no jobs that sustain more then 5-8k population on a satisfied level

7) Build two small factories to create burger patties and parma ham, sell them in the stores as well.

100% product reinvention ... how can you run factories at start?

14) By this point you should now be diversifying the economy. Expand into computers, software, the internet, more media and real estate and logistics. By this point the city will start to become populated at a level comparable to a normal game.

thats another thing out 10+ years on 100% product invention

you must be loaded with a trillion $ start money to pull that off, i wouldnt call it survival mode if you dont know what to buy up first with this unlimited cash.

its just a question on how this can be survival mode when there seems to be nothing hard on it with endless cash.
its not to criticism you, just my 2 stupid cents i got in my brain when reading this and thought a few things could fire back when done like this and an early depression is bad really bad, as you couldnt make enough money to profit on the depression, unless you got that already in your pocket and want that depression to buy up the AI corps then again its not survival .. its click to win

myself, i play regular game with all DLCs activated and 100% product reinvention incl semi products, a 500k pop starting town to give the AI something they can work with and grow as usually they cant deal with zero pop towns, no import, no seaport, usually with 1-2 million cash but now dys with 10-25million cash, makes no difference really just a year delay max, the game might call it somthing like 350% difficulty but its kinda piss easy even with 1 million start cash but i would call this more a survival mode then yours above

not a chance to buy me anything then some tiny mini farms and rent me stores in a mall to make a few pennies.
without creating in the next 2 years a ton of "Fugazi"-value i wouldnt be able to grow quick but 80-90% of my companies are just "Fugazi" which is riding a wave as long as the music plays all is good. if the music stops playing ... well not the end but a problem.
i.e. in my current game after 2 1/2 years my main company has just $440 million value ($260 million are stocks of other companies)
the remaining $180 million Value +$525 million loans are split to $355 million land and about $350 million is ownership of my 3 subs
those 3 Subs have all together just $1.8 billion but are heavily under valuated as 1 of the sub is PLC and all 3 companies hold shares of each other the holding has only slightly above 75% ownership on the 2bigger ones and 100% on the smaller the remaining 25% are owned by the other subs
if i d merge all together into the main ... i d be sitting on $850 million assets + 260 million in stocks by $820 million loans that leaves me with nothing but $30 million assets + $260 million stocks
so real value would be 30 million, and the stocks which arre hard to evaluate as if sold instantly they arent worth a damn ... the remaining about 2 billion is just Fugaszi and the Best ... my Holding has a Credit Rating of A !!!! but still cant get loans as the AI banks dont grow quick enough thats the only thing that holds me back as with that assets i could have eaily another 1.5 bn loans to make 15 billion out of it

A few things, this assumes that you only have $250 million at the start, not massive amounts of money. If you started with less money then the strategy is harder to pull off as you can run out faster.

Unemployment benefits contribute very little to QoL and they don't contribute to GDP at all (if you look at Social Security it has very little weight in determining the overall QoL). So I just turn it off as the city budget is very tight.

Random product reinvention only applies to non-food items, which is why I mentioned building factories to make ham and patties as they both use up the pork and beef resources.

Also, the first quote says it is from choum - can you please change that to Stylesjl?

[anjali]

Unemployment benefits contribute very little to QoL and they don't contribute to GDP at all (if you look at Social Security it has very little weight in determining the overall QoL). So I just turn it off as the city budget is very tight.

oh they do give an insane social security rating usually i have the rating around 80 after 3 -4 month and social security is a heavy weight on overall QoL
and as theres anyway no point in going over the job limit i am on static 2% unemployment rate... as beyond 8% the ppl gonna run away without benefits
below pic of 4month old city with 100% unemployed benefit and those ppl are already there since a month (5k is my limit currently set as i dont want to pay unemployment benefits lol)